Jupiter Adept

By: Avaria of the Company

Disclaimer: I don't own much. Vilya owns Salen, Rilion, Zoe, and Torrent (the latter two are from her fic, and are referred to because this fic happens after hers—but I'm not giving anything away). I own the Sol Scepter, however. And my ideas of Ivan's past.

Summary: A story dealing with Ivan's search for his past and where that search takes him. Characters from Vilya's ficcy, As Luck Would Have It, are referred to because this fic takes places two years after that long story ends. Have fun reading!

Chapter One: Departure

            "I'm glad to see you've grown into a strong young man Ivan," Master Hama said, meeting his purple eyes with her own. Then, hastily, she followed Feizhi out the door.

            "Ivan," Garet asked, turning serious eyes to the boy. "Do you and Master Hama…know each other?"

            "Well, no," Ivan said, deep in thought, "but she doesn't feel like a stranger."

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            "Weren't you going to ask Master Hama what she meant before?" Garet asked Ivan later, outside Lama Temple.

            "I was. But…Master Hama hasn't met my eyes since she said those words," he said softly. Almost as though she's hiding something, his mind added. "She'll tell me when our mission's over," he went on, adding softly, "I just have to believe that."

~^~^~^~

            "This is too hard!" Salen yelled, after trying Reveal for what felt like the hundredth time. Her twin brother, Rilion, black hair falling into his face and hiding his bright green eyes, watched from his convenient perch in a tree.

            "Only if you keep thinking that way," Ivan said sagely. Two years ago, he and his friends had succeeded in saving the Elemental Stars. Shortly after the adepts had split ways, he and Sheba had found these two ten-year-olds, one a Jupiter Adept and one a Venus Adept. He still had to write that letter to Isaac, he reminded himself.

            "What's the point of learning an ability that isn't an attack?" Salen went on angrily, and the wind began to swirl around her.

            "Whoa! Calm down, Salen!" Sheba said as she came out of the house the four shared. Almost immediately the winds died down. "Sometimes I wonder if you shouldn't have been a Mars Adept."

            "Only sometimes?" Rilion called, grinning. Salen turned her emerald eyes on her brother and shot bolts of lightning at him, which he blocked with a barrier. "Hey! No need to get all offensive!"

            "I oughta zap him from here to Vale and back," Salen muttered darkly, running a hand through her stark white hair. The twins couldn't be more different, Ivan thought, but they were closer than even Jenna and Felix were, and they were brother and sister also.  

            "And that's a long way," Ivan said calmly, "considering we're in Kalay. Now, Salen, stop going so fast. Take your time. I know you'll do it."

            "How can you know?" she shot back, and Ivan just folded his arms and smiled. "Oh, right. You see the future. Big deal. Doesn't help at all in a battle."

            "You never know."

            "But I know I can't do this!" Salen complained, knowing it wasn't worth it but refusing to give in. "I've tried more times that I can count! I'm sick of this! What's the point?!"

            "The point is to get it to work. Take some of my friend Zoe's* advice."

            "And what would that be?"

            "Try anyway."

            About to come back with an angry reply, Salen remembered how easily her brother had picked up on the few attacks Ivan had been able to describe to him. Determined to beat her brother, Salen closed her eyes and concentrated. For a few moments, nothing happened. Then, it was as though the final pieces of a puzzle had fallen into place, and a power unlike any she had ever known coursed through her.

            "Reveal!" she yelled, and in a flash the world around her turned black and white, along with varying shades of grey. Only Ivan, Sheba, Rilion, and an object lying on the ground showed any color. Bending, Salen picked up the object, a silvery staff with a sharp-pointed sun at its top. "What is it? It's heavy!"

            "A Sol Scepter," Ivan explained as the Reveal wore off. "A gift for you once you figured it out. Nice job."

            "Now, you go inside and do your work! Both of you!" When Sheba was met with loud groans, she simply gazed evenly back at them. "I know you never had parents to tell you this, but for the moment you're stuck with Ivan and me. Any more arguing earns you double work." At those words, the siblings ran inside, Salen half-dragging the Sol Scepter behind her.

            "Never had parents…" Ivan mused, looking out into the wide blue sky. He had never had parents that he could remember. Hammet and his wife had raised him here, in Kalay. To the people of Kalay, his Jupiter Adept powers were unnatural, weird, strange…in other words, something to be avoided, if not shunned altogether. Now he began to wonder, as he had so many times in the past, if he'd ever had a family before Hammet. Before Kalay.

            Almost immediately images of his traveling companions came to his mind. Isaac. Garet. Mia and Zoe, and Jenna, Sheba, Picard and Felix eventually. They were his family after Hammet, he reminded himself. What he was searching for was before. After a few moments of standing perfectly still, eyes closed, voices entered his thoughts.

            "He'll be a Jupiter Adept, like both his parents, you know that."

            "Oh, you stop that! There's no way to tell. I'll just be happy if he's a strong young man like his brother. Oh, my little Ivan…"

            "I have a brother," Ivan whispered. "Or had. Who knows, now? Obviously he was some sort of warrior. And I had parents. At least I think I did. A mother, surely, for she wanted me to be a strong young man…like Master Hama said I was." Suddenly realization hit him. "Master Hama! If anyone has the answers I need, she does!"

            "Ivan, dinner!" Sheba called, and Ivan jumped. "Sorry if I startled you, but with the way those two are eating, there'll be nothing but your element left to eat if you don't hurry."

            "It's your element too!" Ivan said defensively. At that moment what he most wished for were all his friends to be together again. Memories flooded him, of meeting Isaac, Garet and Zoe in Vault, of fighting Saturos alone at the top of Mercury Lighthouse, of being thrown into a wall in Mercury Lighthouse while fighting Sirens, of the look on Isaac's face when he had to go into Jupiter Lighthouse, of hiding the Mars Star in the best place possible…and of saying their goodbyes on the road home, Isaac, Garet, Jenna and Felix heading for Vale, Mia for Imil, Picard for Tolbi, and himself and Sheba for Kalay.

            "Hello? I said dinner," Sheba said, this time walking up to him and shaking him a bit. "Where is your mind today?"

            "Off in the sky, where it usually is," Ivan said, giving his usual reply before practically flying into the house for dinner. Sheba was a magnificent cook, though she didn't seem to think that, and by the time she got back inside the food was almost gone. She took a full plate and ate with them, putting Ivan's distant voice out of her mind.

            "Tonight I write that letter," Ivan said aloud. "I can't teach you anything else, Rilion, and I'm hoping that either Isaac or Felix can. If one of them is willing, I'll have one of Hammet's servants take you to Vale, Rilion."

            "You're going to split us up?!" the twins cried simultaneously. Ivan knew this was coming. For a long time, they had only had each other, despite being opposing elements. Now it seemed they were losing that link.

            "Not forever. And it's possible that Isaac or Felix will come here instead, though it's doubtful. I did have a friend who learned all her Psynergy on her own, but that was because she was different."

            "I don't want to leave Salen," Rilion said defiantly.

            "And I don't want him to!" Salen cried, equally rebellious.

            "We'll see," was all Ivan would say. In truth, he didn't much like the idea of splitting the twins up either, but it was beginning to look like there was no other way.

            "It's late," Sheba remarked. Ivan smiled at her. The two Jupiter Adepts had become fast friends in their travels together, and their attraction for each other was growing steadily. "Bed might be a nice idea."

            "I agree," Salen said, stretching and yawning. Rilion nodded, cleared the table, and followed his sister up to bed. Sheba went upstairs soon after, leaving Ivan alone with his thoughts.

            He had the only downstairs bedroom, which he suddenly entered and grabbed something from under the bed. It was his Zodiac Wand, a powerful weapon and one that had aided him in most of his travels two years ago. Stored in a chest at the foot of his bed was his green cloak and two glittering stones, one of them reddish in color and the other a dull black. "Cloak Ball and Orb of Force," he muttered, and pulled them, the cloak, and a small purple bag out of the trunk. Into the bag went the gems and some food from the kitchen. In there already were a few Herbs, Nuts and some Water of Life. He had once also had the Frost Gem, but couldn't remember where he'd put it.

            Closing what he liked to call his 'magic bag' for its ability to hold just about everything with minimal weight, he put his Silver Circlet on his head, and a pair of Leather Gloves on his hands. His eyes caught sight of a drawing on the table by the bed, and he picked it up. It was a rough sketch, done by Sheba, of the nine adventurers two years ago outside Jupiter Lighthouse. Folding it carefully, he put that into his bag as well. Now sitting in that spot on his table was a round blue stone. "So that's where I put that thing," Ivan muttered, shoving the Frost Gem into the bag.

            After scribbling a note to Sheba and the twins, he silently left the house. Looking back at his home one last time, he turned east and began walking towards the Lamakan Desert. Past there, he could get to Lama Temple, Master Hama's dwelling.

            He only hoped she could answer his questions.

~^~^~^~

            "What? The road is closed?"

            "That's right, boy," said the guard in front of the cave that was the Kalay-side entrance to the Lamakan. "Earthquake brought the cave down. No way through now."

            "Oh great. Now I have to go the long way to Lama Temple," Ivan complained. As much as he hated the heat of the Lamakan, he preferred the one-day trip to the two-week one it would be on the long road.

            "Lama Temple? You mean the one near Altin?" the guard asked, and Ivan nodded absently. Of all things to forget, he chided himself, you forgot a map. "Don't know if it's around anymore," the guard went on, snapping Ivan out of his thoughts.

            "What?"

            "There was a big fire in Altin. They said it took out some building. Only building I know of around there is Lama Temple."

            "NO!" Ivan yelled, and, all idea of maps and deserts completely forgotten, he raced off to the north, meaning to go around the mountains.

            He nearly dropped the Zodiac Wand when an armor-clad rat-beast jumped out at him, followed by two more of its kind.

            "Rat Warriors," he muttered darkly. Raising his Zodiac Wand, he swung at one, creating a metallic clanging sound that made the very air vibrate. "Yah!" Ivan cried, fighting the urge to cover his ears.

            One of the Rat Warriors dove at him, teeth bared. He barely got the staff up in time to block it, and realized his mistake when he felt the searing pain of claws ripping into his exposed left arm. Yanking away, he spun and raised his good arm into the air.

            "Shine Plasma!" he cried, and the powerful Psynergetic attack wiped out two of the three Rat Warriors. The remaining one hissed, backing up a bit. Ivan gasped as three more of the vile creatures emerged from the surrounding terrain. These were impossible odds, Ivan knew. So he did the only thing he could think of at the moment.

            He turned and ran. Headed west now, back towards Kalay, he didn't stop to see if the rats were following him. He didn't need to. He could hear their hissing and the clanking of their armor. Tripping suddenly on a dent in the ground sent him into a forward roll, the Zodiac Wand smashing him in various places and rocks digging into him everywhere else. The ground began to slope and he found himself unable to stop rolling. Eventually he rolled into shallow water, then deeper, until a large rock sticking out of the water brought him to a painful stop.

            "Oh…ooowwww…" he moaned, pulling himself up using the Zodiac Wand. Constant battling and getting into tough scrapes two years ago had taught him never to let go of his weapon. Not seeing the Rat Warriors anymore, he slowly walked back out of the water, limping to shore and half-falling onto the grassy bank.

            "That was stupid," he said to himself, finding that even talking hurt. His clothes were tattered and muddy, and bloody too, he noted with a glance at his left arm. A glance was more than he would have liked, though, with how bad it looked. His mind jumped back to one point on the long trip through Mogall Forest, which he had recounted as 'a giant, spirit-and-monkey-prone thorn bush—though without stairs.' He had come out of that catastrophe in a state similar to this one, only without a Zodiac Wand and with a lot more company.

            The sky was growing dark. Ivan could see the first stars emerging, and he quickly pulled himself up again. Part of him wanted to go back to Kalay, but he knew he couldn't do that. He had to know about his past. He was tired of guessing and trying to remember. He wanted the facts. And he'd waited two years, in his opinion much too long, to get those facts. He wasn't waiting any longer.

            Slowly and painfully he made his way back to the mountains. Along one mountain was a cave, set well back and sheltered from the weather. Stumbling inside, Ivan sat against one of the walls and closed his eyes. Wanting to fall asleep right then and there but knowing he couldn't, he zapped a stick he had picked up with a small shock and held it over his head. It didn't look like anything shared the cave with him at the moment, which was nice, because he could not fight off anything that felt like attacking.

            Half-crawling outside again, he gathered more sticks and some dry grass, bringing them inside and making a fire. Sitting against the wall again, he took stock of his injuries. His left arm was torn and bloody, and he was limping on his right foot. He could barely open one eye, and was pretty sure he'd bruised a rib or two, if not cracking them.

            Knowing he needed to do something, he tried to rise again, but exhaustion claimed him and he fell into sleep. His last thought before darkness claimed him was to wonder if this sleep would be his last.

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Hope you liked it! Jupiter Girl, if you don't show up here, I'll come looking for you! And Kaede sends her apologies for not hurrying—she's in the hospital right now, actually, and is probably going to be there for a while. Sorry. ~Avaria