As Long As There's Christmas
A/N: Ok, prepare for cliffhanging! Next chapter up in about a week (though it's already finished). Holidays are coming!!
poetry-freak: if you don't like Isaac/Mia fics, don't read them. DUH.
Triad Orion: It wasn't Mia hating the weather, it was Megan. Oh well. And thank you for the nice review.
Reviewer that Left no Name: You remind me of someone, but it'd be nice if you emailed or SOMETHING with who you actually are on ff.net. thanks for review.
Alex: nope, sorry, Alex isn't even mentioned. Hope you like it though—Picard's here, after all ;)
The EMPRESS: no whacked snowmen here, thank goodness.
Jupiter Girl: It was different people talking to Ivan. Have fun with this though.
General Failure: You will see *evil cackle*
Chapter Two: Snowballs and Hot Chocolate
A week before Christmas, Isaac and Jenna were at the gates of Vale, awaiting the approach of any of the people they'd invited. They were pleasantly surprised when they saw five figures headed their way.
"Isaac! Jenna!" called one of them, and that particular one ran ahead, waving.
"Mia!" Isaac and Jenna cried at the same time, and at once there was an enthusiastic three-person hug. "It's great to see you again," Isaac continued, blushing a little, but it could have been interpreted as redness from the cold.
"Yeah. Things are boring around here without a world to save," Jenna said sarcastically. Mia laughed and turned around as Megan, Justin, Feizhi and Master Hama caught up to her.
"Welcome to Vale," Isaac said formally. "And if you happen to spot a tall, muscular guy who looks like he needs a serious haircut, send him our way, would ya? We're about to do the tree."
"As long as it isn't a talking tree," Mia said fervently. "I've had my fill of those for the rest of my life," she laughed, and the others laughed with her.
"Hey, what's so funny around here?" asked a familiar voice. Isaac looked past Mia and spotted three more new arrivals.
"Sheba!" "Picard!" "Mia!" "Isaac!" "Jenna!" "Ivan!" yelled a chorus of voices. They practically ran at each other, ending up in one big, laughing pile of Adepts in the snow.
"Yah! Isaac, get off me! Come on, I'm smaller than you!" Ivan yelped as Isaac scooped up snow and dropped it on his head. Sheba giggled, which sent Mia and Jenna into giggling fits as well.
"Would you look at that, Felix," Garet said loudly from where he stood. Felix shook his head disapprovingly. "They're leaving us out of all their fun!"
"Oh yeah?!" Jenna yelled back, standing and holding a snowball behind her back. "Well, you two can eat my snow!" Felix and Garet ducked as a barrage of snowballs came at them.
"Hey! Jenna, I'm family!" Felix gasped, then gave up trying to negotiate and launched a snowball of his own. Feizhi yelped as it hit her in the back of the head, turning and throwing two at once. Soon even Hama, Megan and Justin were in on it.
Picard, grinning devilishly, formed snowballs in his hands using Psynergy and targeted Isaac. About to launch a missile of his own, Isaac yelped in surprise and dropped the snowball as Picard's barrage hit him. The Mercury Adept exploded into laughter—laughter that lasted until he was knocked flat on his face by a similar attack.
"MIA!" Felix yelled, having also been the victim of one of her Psynergy blasts. "It's not fair! You're a Mercury Adept! You can use your Psynergy!"
Mia turned to him with a decidedly evil grin. "I know."
Jenna and Garet had almost immediately split off, firing on each other and occasionally on someone who hit them. "I may despise snow," Garet said, "but I'm going to beat you with it!"
"Not if I beat you first!" Jenna yelled back, and launched herself at Garet, knocking him down. The two of them rolled down the short incline, gathering snow until they stopped. Or rather, until a tree stopped them.
"Well…that was…interesting," Sheba offered, but her mind turned back to the snowball fight as Hama surrounded her with a snowy whirlwind. "Psynergy. My specialty," Sheba said quietly, using a few wind tricks of her own.
Here we are again, Isaac thought with a grin. All of us together, where we belong.
~*~
About an hour later, twelve very cold, tired, and hungry people lay sprawled on the snow. "Can we tell who won, or is it a draw?" Felix asked no one in particular.
"You know, that ice ball I hit him with may have done serious damage," Isaac said sarcastically. "Maybe I should have thrown it at Jenna instead." He immediately regretted this as a veritable mountain of snow was piled on top of him.
"Would you snow-loving Adepts be in any kind of mood for lunch?" Dora asked, having spotted Jenna when she stood.
"LUNCH!" was the resounding yell, and there was a stampede for Isaac's house.
"We don't all fit," Picard noted from the doorway. Isaac came up behind him and gave him a little shove. "What?"
"We'll fit. It's not like we all fit into that cabin on the ship, either," Isaac pointed out. After some sorting out and an incident with Ivan and the table, they found that they did fit, and sat down to enjoy Dora's wonderful cooking and some hot chocolate.
"Come on, Garet, you know I would have beat you," Jenna said, punching him playfully in the arm.
"In your dreams, maybe," Garet retaliated. "My nightmares."
"Look at the little lovebirds," Ivan chirped, and he, Megan and Justin giggled.
"Say it again, Jupiter boy, and you'll be dangling out the window by the back of your shirt," Jenna threatened.
~*~
"The tree?" Mia asked Isaac as they walked back to the Plaza that afternoon.
"The tree. The Christmas tree, you know, with the ornaments and such. It takes all the Venus Adepts in Vale to make it work…oh, you'll see," Isaac said mysteriously, raising an eyebrow and earning a giggle from Mia that gave him a fuzzy warm feeling inside.
"Isaac," Garet whispered, and Isaac looked at him questioningly. "You're blushing," Garet said with an incriminating smirk. Instead of replying, Isaac shoved him into a snowbank.
They had reached the Plaza by then, and a cluster of people was gathered around a pine sapling in the center of the Plaza. Isaac and Felix rushed to join them, taking their places in the small circle.
On some unseen and unspoken cue, each of the Venus Adepts cast their version of Growth on the tree. And grow it did. Straight up, until it towered over every house in Vale. The giant pine was three stories and more tall, and the Adepts stopped their Psynergy.
"Any higher and it would fall over from its own weight," Sheba speculated.
"Or the wind would knock it down," Ivan added.
The Venus Adepts stepped back from the tree then, and there was resounding applause. "We have a Christmas tree," said the Mayor, and silence fell over the crowd. "However, for it to be Christmas, we need some lights!" This last word was yelled, and all at once, multicolored balls of Psynergetic light sprang forth and covered the tree.
Mia and Picard jumped in surprise before adding their own Psynergy lights to the tree. Sheba, Megan and Justin merged all three of theirs into one violet and indigo sphere, and Ivan messed with his a bit until it resembled the basic shape of a Jupiter Djinni. Hama, having known about the tradition from Dora, put a comforting hand on Feizhi's shoulder.
"I know you feel bad, Feizhi," she said, and Feizhi nodded sadly. She was not an Adept, and couldn't take part in this particular celebration.
Her sadness turned to surprise when she found herself lifted off the ground and held in the air. An ornament of some kind was placed in her hands, and she looked down at Garet, obviously using the Carry Psynergy to keep her in the air like this.
"Hang the first ornament," he said with a shrug and a small grin. Feizhi happily obliged. Soon ornaments were flying up from every direction to hang on the tree.
"You put no star at the top?" Sheba asked Jenna, and Jenna smiled.
"We put a sunstar at the top, the morning of Christmas Eve," she said excitedly. "And that night, everyone places their gifts under the tree. Christmas morning we come and get our own gifts, and then there's a big celebration lasting almost the whole night long. It's great."
"It must be nice to have other Adepts around to celebrate with."
"Why do you think we brought you here?! Come on, don't look so depressed. I'm no fan of snow, but Christmas has to by my favorite holiday of all time!" Unable to resist Jenna's cheerful attitude, Sheba smiled.
"Oh no!" Mia cried, and Ivan and Picard turned to look at her. Almost automatically Ivan read her mind, and his own face paled.
"Oh no indeed. Presents, Picard," he said to the obviously confused Mercury Adept. "Christmas presents. For everyone. We have six…no, five days!"
"Then we should get started with our shopping," Mia said determinedly.
"Stand back, Picard, Ivan," Garet advised, coming up behind them. "When girls get in a shopping mood, walls come down."
~*~
The mountain creature's eyes snapped open and it stood for the first time in centuries. It let out a roar that shook the very foundations of its mountain home. Slowly, silently, it unfolded its wings and began to rise upward.
Its time had come.
~*~
Frantic Adepts spent the next week shopping, baking, decorating, cleaning, and in general panicking. There were times when Isaac, put to work as Dora got more and more rushed, thought he would never get it all done.
But when Christmas Eve dawned, bright and clear, Vale practically glowed in Christmas spirit. And Isaac, Garet, Ivan, Mia, Felix, Jenna, Sheba and Picard each took hold of one of the points of the great eight-pointed sunstar and were lifted to the top of the tree by the Psynergy of every person in Vale.
They had made it back to the ground and were milling about, talking to each other and the other residents of Vale, when Isaac quietly pulled Mia aside. Garet saw this and winked, giving his friend the thumbs-up sign. Isaac made a rather obscene sign back, and Garet chuckled.
"So…enjoying Vale's Christmas?" Isaac asked Mia casually.
"Very much. Everything's so…cozy here. Like you're all one big family instead of a bunch of different ones."
"It's always been like that here. Listen, Mia…" Isaac trailed off. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Garet frantically waving at him, but ignored the Mars Adept's actions. What he had to do was more important.
"Yes Isaac?"
"Well…you see…ever since Imil, I've wanted to tell you—LOOK OUT!"
"You have?" Mia asked, perplexed. "But you've already said that to me many times, so I don't know why you'd…Isaac, you look scared…oh come on," she said in an annoyed tone. "You don't really expect me to believe that something's actually…behind…me…" As she said this she turned around, and in slow motion tilted her head back…and back…and back. By this point she was staring into one great, red, glowing eye.
"GREAT GOD OF THE NORTH WINDS!" she shrieked. "What is that thing?!"
"I believe it's called a dragon, Mia," Ivan said sardonically. "We fought one at the top of Venus Lighthouse, remember?"
"Ivan, shut up," Jenna and Garet said at the same time. As one, the entirety of Vale stared up at the monstrous creature.
It was twice as tall as their tree, with scales as black as the deepest darkness, twin horns that spiraled and literally dripped with deadly poison, claws larger than the tallest human, and a wicked spiked tail that could snap head from neck before one knew the other was missing.
And two glowing red orbs that only hinted at the true power of the fires within.
Isaac instantly switched into leader mode, face going, as Felix had described it once, "like a statue with charisma," and assuming a stance that told others he knew what he was doing.
"Everyone," he called, and all sound ceased. "Take shelter in the sanctum. Do not leave, no matter what you hear. Now GO!" Isaac yelled, and as one the citizens of Vale ran for the Sanctum. Dora cast a long look over her shoulder at Isaac, her only son and the only one she had left.
And suddenly they were alone. Isaac, Felix, Garet, Jenna, Ivan, Sheba, Mia and Picard, against the great Dragon of Shadows.
"On three," Isaac said, "we Summon. Straight-out, pure-element Summons, until we find out what can kill this thing. One…" Everyone readied themselves for the sudden rush of power that Summoning would create.
Two sets of eyes glanced back and forth in a flash of a second, and the same thoughts entered the minds of the owners of those eyes. What if I die and never get the chance to tell?
"Two…" In unison, eight hands were thrown skyward, and the words formed in eight minds.
"Three," Isaac said determinedly, but before any more could be said, the Dragon of Shadows opened its mouth wide and launched a ball of liquid flame straight at them all.
~*~*~
Vil: CLIFFHANGERS! I know I'm evil. But I must leave it off here. To prepare you for the next chapter. And I'm getting so excited about this, it'll be hard not to post it all at one time. Four chapters minimum now. So, review please!
No magic arrow this time. I just want to know what everyone thinks. And please remember the thing about reviewing with actual COMMENTS. Thank you.