Great Spirits
Great Spirits of all who lived before
Take our hands and lead us
Fill our hearts and souls
With all you know
"Keep that spear up!" Kate yelled, wincing as a gigantic red bear knocked Ziva over yet again.
The red bear stopped in mid swing, her snarl transforming into a look of alarm as Ziva rolled perilously close to the edge of the mountain. Kate, still bear cub in form, covered her face with her paws and groaned. Beside her, a little goat loosed a string of frustrated, staccato bleats.
"I do not see how this is helping me control my magic," Ziva complained, pushing herself upright with the butt of her spear. "We have been at this for weeks with no progress to show for it."
"Combat is combat," the red bear said, making a sweeping gesture with her paw. "You've shown you can paint a pretty picture, Ziva. And you've been able to throw a good punch at Ari. Now we spar until you can really fight."
"Jenny is the one that suggested mock-fighting might help you learn combat applications," Kate said. "It sounded like a good idea at the time…"
"You three devise training strategies when I'm not around?" Ziva asked.
"Strategy is a generous term," Kate said.
"And Tali doesn't talk much," Jenny said.
"She gave up her voice when she decided to become a muse," Kate explained. "She creates dreams—not like this, normal dreams. She helps mortal sleepers make sense of things they've seen and done. She also passes along messages through her art."
"Messages from whom?" Ziva asked.
"Only she knows, and she doesn't talk," Kate said. "Doesn't matter anyway. It's not for us to know. The muses do their jobs and we do ours."
"So…what do you do with your afterlife, Jenny?" Ziva asked.
"More or less the same thing that Kate does. I just utilize a different toolset," Jenny explained.
"Which basically means she's more diplomatic than I am," Kate said, humor sparking in her eyes. "Most of the time it works. Small spats, orientation problems, and general tomfoolery can usually be resolved with a few calm words and a steady hand. Jenny handles those problems well enough."
"We call ourselves messengers," Jenny said. "Different from the muses in that we communicate exclusively with other spirits, not the living. Except under extraordinary circumstances."
"Like this," Kate said.
"Kate, Shmuel called you a yiddeoni?" Ziva was familiar with the word, although only vaguely and she was certain that it meant something different in this strange spirit world. "Is that different from a messenger like Jenny?"
"Like Jenny said, it's more or less the same. I'm just more powerful," Kate said, shrugging. "People that make contact with limbo tend to find a spirit like me easier since I have a stronger energy. The fact that I can use magic to manipulate this place is more a byproduct of what I am than a component of an actual job. If that makes any sense. Yiddeoni are more like guides. We reach out to the living, and lead them where they need or want to go when they get here."
"That sometimes involves helping the dying through their final moments," Jenny pointed out.
"Yes…well, that's why I was able to contact you at all," Kate admitted. "I share a connection with the team so it's easy to draw on those memories and make contact. Easier, anyway. Bringing a person I never met here requires a great deal of energy unless—"
"Unless they are already on the way. I understand," Ziva rubbed her neck. Though she had accepted her imminent death, the fact that she lingered so long on the threshold between two planes of existence was making her restless. No, uneasy. As if she feared she might become lost between.
"There are many other kinds of spirits too," Jenny said.
"And many other jobs to do," Kate added. "So it's not like these are your only options if you set up shop in Limbo."
"A guide, a messenger, a muse, and a half-lost dreamer at war with a bitter poltergeist." Ziva laughed. "If it were any less bizarre, I would think I was making all this up."
"Not in your wildest dreams, hmm?" Kate smirked.
"I certainly wouldn't have made up such an elaborate mythology," Ziva said. "It sounds more like something out of Abby's imagination."
"I suppose it does," Kate said.
A boom, loud as cannon fire, rippled through the lower valley. It rushed up the mountain in an inverted avalanche that sent a wall of snow skyward. The plume of snow crashed and dissipated like an ocean wave—thick with foam and stardust—against the fan of wavering, colored lights.
"What was that?" Ziva gasped.
"Someone's here," Kate said, her voice dropping to a whisper.
"Ari?" Ziva asked.
"No," Jenny said. "A dreamer. That's what it looks like when one of you shows up."
Ziva tracked the path of the blast backward, trying to find its origin. It seemed to come from a place beyond her line of sight, at the edge of the illusion she had created. The thought of seeing the team again both thrilled and terrified her. She was no more certain of her abilities than she had been when she had seen them last. How could she protect them from Ari?
Biting her lip, Ziva swung her spear at the lights over the mountain and willed them to wrap around its point. Kate shouted something—encouragement or advice, Ziva wasn't sure, but the lights obeyed her command. The colors fused and wrapped around her, filling her with familiar power.
She might not command raw magic as well as she would have liked, but a different shape was something she could manage. The lights reformed her into a black bear as fierce and strong as the shape Jenny had assumed. And then, the fan of rainbow light was gone. Buried once more inside Ziva herself.
It was time to leave the mountain.
A/N: This section comes from one of the probably lesser known Disney movies: Brother Bear. Just in case you didn't recognize the lyrics. :-)