As Long As There's Christmas
*Vil looks up as the doorbell rings* Now see, they told me not to open the door. Besides, I don't want a pizza.
VOICE AT DOOR: Hey! It's the mailman! Can you sign this?
Vil: Oh, ok, hold on…*opens door to rabid angry ff.net readers* Be aware, before you charge at me and basically wreak havoc, that if I'm not here, the story's never finished.
*rabid angry ff.net readers consider this for a moment, then turn and skulk off*
Vil: Thank God. But, here's the next chapter!! (there IS a chapter to come!)
Ivan: There's a NEW magic arrow this time! But you have to read the fic to get there!
Triad Orion: Hopefully you weren't in that angry mob just then. And this is technically a cliffhanger also.
Griffinkhan: Caught me did you? Actually, there was supposed to be a line describing why the Valeans all left so quickly (basically because of Isaac's commanding attitude), but it got…lost I guess.
Midnight C: *gasps* the almighty author that I've heard so much about has REVIEWED A FIC OF MINE! *parties* But thanks for the review (and the compliments ;) ) and I hope you enjoy this chapter too…
Alex: Tell Akiko that Kaede and Norli have informed me that they found Isaac. *shrugs* whatever that means. And YES PICARD! (Just for fun, now) POW POW PICARD! *giggles madly*
Miss Black Dragon: You wouldn't happen to be related to Mr. Black Dragon that made his way into Vale now, would you?
And the usual to Feonyx, Telperion, Jupiter Girl and YOU WHO DO NOT LEAVE YOUR NAME, TELL ME WHO YOU ARE!!!!!
Chapter Three: Victory and Defeat
The fireball was moving at lightning speed. Somehow, Garet managed to move faster.
"Unleash Flash!" he yelled, and the Mars Djinni appeared, turning into a fiery barrier that surrounded the eight Adepts. It was no match for the dragon's fire, however, which broke apart the barrier and hit Garet head-on. He was thrown backwards and into a cliff face.
"Garet!" yelled Jenna, turning towards him, ready to run. He stood up, though, with a grin and a little wave. Jenna instantly faced the dragon again.
"Wait a second…" she said, and she and Felix locked eyes, each of them coming to the same conclusion. "If we go on like this, one of these fireballs will take Vale with it. Turn the dragon around!"
Isaac, hearing her, began running around the base of the big Christmas tree, the others following close behind. They only stopped when their backs were to the gates of Vale.
The dragon, however, would spare nothing in its rage, and turned quickly, knocking the tree aside with a swipe of one huge claw. It roared, swiping its other claw at Jenna, launching her backwards several feet. She landed hard and there was a sharp snapping sound.
"Mia," Isaac said softly, and the Mercury Adept nodded, sprinting full out towards Jenna. Garet's power surged within him, and he let out a yell that shook nearby plants and rocks.
"Pyroclasm!" he cried, and great waves of Mars Psynergy exploded around the dragon, knocking it in several directions at once. The great black monster, however, seemed not to notice.
"Mother Gaia!" Isaac called, and boulders, not rocks or stones but outright boulders, pelted the dragon from every fathomable angle. And still the thing stood, unfazed. It roared and launched another fireball, this time at Ivan, who took advantage of his Jupiter speed and dove out of the way, coming up in time to Summon before the dragon found him again.
"Powers of Jupiter! I summon Thor!" Ivan yelled, and the sky grew dark. A being as tall as the dragon descended, wielding a mighty hammer and literally crackling with power. The hammer shot an enormous bolt of electricity at the dragon, which reeled back, obviously affected by the charge.
Mia and Jenna had made their way back by this time, and each of them had a Summons of their own.
"Powers of Mercury! I summon Boreas!" A giant cannon-like Summons, Boreas launched a barrage of immense icy missiles upon the dragon. This seemed to have the most effect so far, crippling the beast visibly.
"Powers of Mars! I summon Meteor!" was Jenna's cry. She smiled in grim satisfaction as the flaming stones bombarded the dragon from above. She was not smiling a moment later, when a swipe of the beast's tail launched her, Ivan and Garet into the air. There were three thuds as they landed, but, though they desperately wanted to, none of the remaining Adepts could go to their friends. They were needed where they were.
Picard and Mia, at a silent signal from Isaac, each launched the most powerful Mercury Psynergy they could at the dragon. It staggered back, visibly and greatly weakened.
"It's Mars-aligned," Sheba said. "Isaac, you and Felix will be all but useless if you continue. Do not get angry with me, Isaac. You know what I say is true." Isaac did know it was true, but all who heard Sheba's words also knew that Isaac wouldn't care.
"Garet, Jenna and Ivan may be dead, Sheba," he said evenly, not for a moment losing his iron-hard Venus calm. "If they are, I'm not going down until this thing dies. If they're alive, I'm still not going down until this thing dies."
"So basically," Felix said, almost smiling, "you're not going down until this thing dies."
"Precisely."
"Then can we make it soon? Only, you know, take out the part about you going down."
Instead of replying, Isaac tossed his sword at the dragon with the precise aim that came from years of practice with a sword. This, however, was the Gaia Blade, armed with its own kind of attack.
"Titan Blade!" Isaac cried, and the sword grew to an immense size and became limned in Venus Psynergy. With a flash it struck and embedded itself in the dragon's left eye.
The creature roared in agony, thrashing about wildly. Its tail lashed out blindly, striking Picard with full force and sending him skidding into the trunk of a tree…and then through that trunk and into a deep snowdrift.
Mia fought the instinct to run after him and see if he was alright. I have to stay here, she told herself firmly. But all of them could see that slowly, one by one, they were falling.
Taken my a sudden rage that to anyone who knew her well was quite uncharacteristic of her, Sheba launched herself into the air and called upon every ounce of Jupiter Psynergy she could. And that was a powerful force indeed. The dragon visibly felt each blow, weakening by the moment. Sheba at last dropped to the ground and collapsed in exhaustion.
"It won't take much more," Isaac said, and Felix came to stand beside him and Mia knelt at Sheba's side. Isaac regarded Felix carefully. "Felix. I know you're worried about them. Go." Felix looked at Isaac quizzically, but caught the fire burning in the Venus Adept's eyes and ran off to locate Jenna, Garet and the rest.
Isaac stood with all the poise and prowess of a master, the crisp winds whipping his golden scarf out behind him and blowing through his hair. In that one frozen moment, two turquoise blue eyes were transfixed on that heroic form.
"Creature of darkness and fire," Isaac began, and the dragon fixed him with its one good eye. "You will not take the lives of my friends and family without paying for your actions!" And, power practically glowing in the air around him, Isaac threw both hands skyward.
"Powers of Venus! I summon all of you!"
Venus, glowing golden light in angry attacking fireball form, rained upon the dragon in devastating blows. Ramses, the giant pyramid-like summons with fists of stone, pummeled the dragon with the force of an avalanche. Cybele, the guardian and mother of the earth itself, strangled and entangled the dragon in thorny creeper vines.
And Judgment, the greatest Venus Summons known, brought the giant golden sphere of pure Venus essence and power bearing down on the vile monster, in one final shattering blow.
The dragon collapsed. With its last bit of energy it lifted its head and charged forward, wickedly twisted, venom-riddled horn driving straight for Isaac.
He never had time to move.
The horn ran him through, emerging from his back as the dragon faded into grey, and then nothing. The horn alone remained. Mia let out a cry of disbelief as Isaac gasped softly, then collapsed on the snowy ground.
"Isaac, no!" Mia whispered, falling to her knees beside him. Tears spilled down her cheeks, landing in the snow and freezing into little beads of glassy ice.
~*~
Felix made his way up the snowy cliffs, deciding that Picard, being closer and generally more helpful when it came to healing (Jenna, while capable of it, preferred to spend her time and Psynergy attacking), was the best one to look for first.
Felix found him, sprawled against a large, snow-covered rock. He almost had to turn away at the sight—the way the Lemurian looked would not have been a favorable one for a Hobgoblin.
"Should I argue this out with myself, or just trust it to luck?" he asked aloud, thanking Sol when there was no forthcoming reply from any form of Djinn. He suspected there had been some kind of colossal Summoning, because a fraction of his power was draining even as he thought of it.
"Potent Cure," Felix said, his brain agreeing that it was worth a try. Picard almost instantly looked much more like his human self and less like a pile of discarded cooking utensils. Felix, pondering how one actually could resemble a pile of discarded cooking utensils, was startled when Picard stood and crossed his arms, regarding Felix with calculating gold eyes.
"Yes?" Felix asked, returning the gaze and stance.
"You're here. Alive, I might add. My first assumption is we won. However, no one else is with you. That leads me to believe that my…services…are required." Picard smirked and raised one eyebrow. Felix sighed.
"We have to find Garet, Jenna and Ivan. Remember when they were thrown up there?" Felix asked rhetorically, indicating with a sweep of his arm the cliff face where, amazingly, a small form stood.
With a glance at each other and a flash of memory of a long-ago trek through a jungle on an island, Picard and Felix ran for whoever it was that had stood.
Upon arrival, they found it was Ivan, standing and squinting down at the still-ongoing battle with the Dragon of Shadows. "Isaac looks like he summoned, maybe," he said as Picard and Felix healed Garet and Jenna, respectively.
"Ivan?" all four asked together, and he glanced back over his shoulder and smirked.
"You two," he said in Felix and Picard's respective directions, "always ask the same question. The answer, assuming I have the right version of question, is yes. Now can we…" Ivan trailed off as Judgment's glow manifested itself behind him.
"Sure thing," Garet said, and, Felix leading the way, they hurried back to where Isaac, Mia, Sheba and the dragon were waiting.
Approaching them and seeing no dragon anywhere in sight, Felix's face took on a smile that threatened to break his face.
"Isaac, you wouldn't believe our luck, everyone's…fine…ISAAC!" Felix yelled, beginning to run. Picard, Garet, Ivan and Jenna quickly followed suit. Together the five of them managed to pull the horn out of Isaac, and blood began to turn the snow a dark crimson.
Mercury light surrounding her, Mia pulled power from reserves she'd never known she possessed, throwing it all at once into Isaac and praying to whatever spirit would listen that he would be alright.
Isaac's wound closed completely, no trace of it even visible beneath his torn tunic and shirt. The poison vanished, burned out by the pure energy of Mercury. But the great warrior that Mia held tightly in her arms made no move and drew no breath. And each of the friends were brought to tears as they came to the full realization of the event that had just taken place.
Isaac was dead.
Mia, sobbing, looked up at the sky. The sun burned brightly, and it was not long past noon. Still, everything seemed darker, and the sun provided only uncomfortable heat, not any light that seemed real.
As though she had formed it from her own thought, a shaft of pure and brilliant sunlight descended, hitting a spot directly in front of where Mia knelt.
The light split into five pillars of colored light, one each of green, red, blue, violet and gold. The forms resembled humans somewhat, but were obviously as far from human as it was possible to get and still look like one.
"The statues," Garet whispered. "From Venus Lighthouse. They look like those…statues we had to shove around."
There was a sound like a fanfare chorus of angels singing, and the five forms surrounded Isaac briefly, then disappeared.
Hopefully, almost fearfully, the Adepts looked at Isaac's still form, anticipating any hint or clue that would let them know what had just occurred.
But Isaac did not move, nor did he even breathe. Mia felt the darkness descending again as she looked down at the face of one of her dearest friends. Unable to stand it any longer, she gave in to her grief and wept.
~*~*~
Vil: *sobbing* that…was…so…SAD! *outright cries*
Kaede: Vil, it's your ficcy. You knew it would happen.
Vil: Yes, but…its TERRIBLE! There is another chapter coming though, but you get NO HINTS about what happens. The next chapter should be the last. *wipes eyes* any angry reviews will be forgiven due to the fact that you guys have no clue of what's still to come…*cries again* I'll be crying all through the fourth chapter…
Kaede: Review with COMMENTS, not just one-or-two-worders, please.
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