Sunlight and Shade

A/N: Of course, the title came about before I knew they were keeping Shade as a Djinni name. Ah well. She really has nothing to do with this except as a battle role. Promise.

Triad, Alex, Jupiter Girl, Griffinkhan: Did I give that much away? But yes, Kraden is certainly a troublemaker.

Chapter Four: Striking Display

         "Felix?" Ivan asked, in a very unconcerned, casual, almost conversational way.

         "Yes, Ivan?" Felix replied in the same sort of tone.

         "I believe that thing over there is the owner of not one or even two but three heads."

         "I would tend to agree."

         "You do love that double-meaning kind of sentence, don't you?"

         "How can you be so casual in the face of disaster?" asked a voice. Felix, Ivan and Picard turned around to see Cura standing there, a frightened and rather annoyed look on her face. Felix dimly recalled the expression as a familiar one, though whom it had belonged to he wasn't going to guess at.

         "It is quite simple," Picard began, in the sort of dry, irritated tone that came with losing too much Psynergy and then being faced with what appeared to be a Chimera Mage. "You see, this sort of thing is what keeps us from becoming paranoid with fear."

         "Disaster?" Ivan asked. "I see one fallen building, yes, but it doesn't look like there was anyone inside it. And if there was, Felix will have a second job to do before long."

         "I'll set my Djinn," Felix replied casually. "Come on, let's get rid of this thing before I really do need to use Revive."

         "Preferably, if you do, let it not be on one of us," Picard added. With that, and a nod of agreement from Ivan, they headed across the mostly flat village at a slow but deliberate pace.

         "Alright everyone. It has three heads. There are three of us. This shouldn't be a problem. We've handled these before." From Felix's tone, you wouldn't think that a Chimera Mage about five times larger than its normal size was anything at all to be concerned about. Nor the fact that, instead of being a misleading pastel pinkish-orange, it was a dark brownish-green.

         "Some sort of bird on one head, a form of large feline on the second, and a goat on the third," Ivan commented. Their pace quickened considerably as the huge Chimera Mage lifted its version of a foot and made to stomp on another building.

         "Eagle, lion, and goat, yes," Picard said, not enjoying the flat-out run they had reached. The three Adepts stopped several feet away from the creature, and Ivan calculated the odds mentally.

         "I am distinctly reminded of the climb to the Aerie of Venus Lighthouse," he remarked, not bothering to publicly announce the odds and feeling that this statement was sufficient enough to provide the information that this battle was probably an even fight, considering that Picard was low on Psynergy.

         The beast let out a roar that broke the sound barrier several times over, knocking several villagers to the ground and sending the Adepts staggering back. Balls of something resembling dark fire began to rain down from the grey-black clouds, and where it hit, be it ground or tree or home, it burned like acid with a sickening sizzling noise.

         "Watch out for that," Felix said as Ivan sidestepped a blob of it. "I don't know what it is, but it certainly isn't the normal Chimera Mage barrage."

         "That it is not," Picard agreed. "I thank whoever is listening for the ability to regain Psynergy naturally. Before anything else is destroyed, let's destroy this."

         "I thought you were against violence," Ivan remarked, followed immediately by, "Squall!" The lightning-laced streaking violet form of his Jupiter Djinni launched itself into the giant monster, striking with considerable force but barely seeming to faze the creature.

         "I am, when at all possible. But something this big, literally, is not going to go away on its own, and frankly I have a personal grudge against anything with acid flame as a weapon. Diamond Burg!" A large chunk of ice appeared from nowhere and solidified itself around the mutant Chimera Mage. With surprising speed, Picard drew his sword and leapt upon the frozen beast, slicing and hacking and stabbing too fast for the eye to follow.

         "I still say that's the best attack any of us ever got," Ivan commented to Felix. "It almost makes me wish I was born Mercury."

         "Please, let's not have the 'multiverse' discussion again. I get quite lost contemplating the fact that there are infinite copies of myself running rampant elsewhere in this dimension. Odyssey!" The air around them turned a bright shade of green, and from the sky a giant, glowing sword appeared, made entirely of Psynergy, and impaled the giant monster. Another such blade, this time from the ground, did likewise.

         The third and largest blade seemed to come from Felix himself, and when all three Psynergy swords came together, there was a bright flash and a screeching sound from the giant Chimera Mage. Said sound had Felix on his knees with his hands over his ears, and Picard in a similar pose somewhere behind and to the left of the monster, but Ivan took it calmly, seemingly not hearing it at all.

         "Spark Plasma!" he yelled, taking a short moment to enjoy the rush of power that came with the torrent of violet lightning bolts. "I take back what I said. I like Jupiter power."

         With another glass-shattering cry, the Chimera Mage let loose again its acid-like dark fire. Ivan was quick enough to dodge the raining fire, and Picard called on Shade as a shield against the barrage. Felix, watching the sky, rolled to one side as the monster swiped a paw at him, stopping on his back and barely having time to cry out as a ball of dark acid slammed into his chest.

         Both Picard and Ivan froze in mid-cast at the sound of a very loud, horrified screech. A look at the Chimera Mage confirmed the fact that it was not the source of the noise. From across a good distance the Mercury and Jupiter Adepts looked at each other with nearly identical puzzled and concerned faces. Ivan then realized it was Felix who was screaming in such a way, and the realization must have shown on his face, because Picard's eyes suddenly seemed to be on fire. Ivan shared similar feelings.

         "I summon Thor!" Ivan yelled, his Psynergy powering the forthcoming of the strongest Jupiter summons. A slightly see-through version of the god appeared, wielding a giant hammer from which came bright lightning. "One more should do it!" Ivan yelled as the specter of Thor disappeared.

         "Loud and clear," Picard said, wincing as some of the dark fire broke through Shade's barrier, but ignoring that for the most part and concentrating on the use of whatever Psynergy he had left. "I summon Boreas!"

         "The great Mercury summon of frozen spit," Ivan added quietly. Still, he did enjoy watching the rain of ice chunks as they slammed the giant beast. For a moment, he paused, considering the fact that their Psynergy may have been a greater danger to the village than the Chimera Mage, but his thoughts were shaken by the fact that the beast had yet to fall. Picard, however, was currently preoccupied, running full tilt toward Felix.

         "Guess this one's mine," Ivan said, and would have shrugged if one shoulder hadn't just been clipped by something sharp thrown at an extremely high velocity, headed for the Chimera Mage. "Hey! Who's tossing those shu—Cura?" Ivan looked at her strangely. In her hand was yet another sharp object, this time a dagger.

         "My apologies, Ivan," she said, anger in her voice. Ivan chose, quite wisely, not to comment, instead taking the opportunity to cast Destruct Ray. Finally, after what seemed like years, the giant Chimera Mage fell and disappeared.

         "It always bothered me that there was nothing left over," Ivan mused. "I mean, not even ashen remains. Something as big as that, there should at least be a little dust pile." That said, Ivan headed at a slow walk for Picard and Felix, completely ignoring the stares of the villagers. They might as well get used to it, he thought with a mental grin.

         Outwardly, however, he was wearing a concerned frown. He reached Picard, kneeling on one side of Felix's now-unconscious form, and did likewise on the opposite side. "Picard, sorry if I break your concentration, but I don't like the look on your face."

         "I believe you," Picard said quietly. "He is alive, though. That's always good."

         After a long pause in which Ivan's gaze found focus on various trees, buildings and suddenly interesting rocks, he looked back at Picard again. The Lemurian's eyes were now closed, and his face looked, if anything, frustrated. With himself.

         "Well?" Ivan asked hesitantly. He'd never enjoyed this sort of thing.

         Picard opened his eyes and sighed. "This should not be a problem. I can fix this, easily. At the risk of sounding arrogant, it would not even take much effort."

         "Except?"

         "Except I have no Psynergy. None. As dry as the Sulhalla Desert. And I do not…I do not think we have the time to wait until I get enough back."

         "You have Djinn," Ivan pointed out, keeping the tone of his voice even.

         "Any helpful ones are in recovery from summoning Boreas. How about you?"

         "I never had any that could heal. Sheba did…wait!"

         "We do not have time for that either," Picard said dryly. "If you have a plan, spill it."

         "Ether."

         "What?"

         "Ether the Djinni. She…oh, get on with it!" Ivan said, because the first time he'd spoken her name, Ether had appeared in a flash of purple light. The Jupiter Djinni disappeared equally as quickly, and for a moment Picard glowed violet.

         "Psynergy?" he asked aloud.

         "Ether replenishes Psynergy," Ivan confirmed. "Not all of it, but some."

         "Enough," countered Picard. "Just enough." Holding a hand over Felix and closing his eyes, he quietly said, "Pure Ply." The collective gasp from the villagers brought Ivan back to the real world.

         We have just shown the island rather large and powerful displays of Psynergy, something we aren't supposed to do even with the world no longer needing to be saved, Ivan thought. Not to mention we're still missing Jenna.

         Felix's eyes snapped open, and he sat up quickly, looking around as though expecting something large and heavy to come crashing down onto his head.

         "Felix?" Ivan asked.

         "Yes, Ivan?"

         "You don't know how nice it is to hear you say that."

         "Did we get it?"

         "Felix, my friend, we didn't just 'get' it, we destroyed it."

         "And the village?"

         "Both the Chimera Mage and our Psynergy attacks have taken down buildings," Picard said, looking around at the assembled villagers.

         "The people are all their separate single pieces, though," Ivan offered helpfully. "Even if one of them was tossing sharp objects around," he added with a glance at Cura.

         "Sharp objects?" Felix queried. Ivan touched his gashed shoulder, wincing and gasping sharply. Picard and Felix looked at one another, at al loss.

         "I am sorry, Ivan," Picard said, an apologetic look in his eyes. "I have no more Psynergy."

         "This is odd," Felix said, frowning. "I should have Psynergy, at least a little of it, but I'm getting nothing."

         "That's alright," Ivan said with half a smile. He and Picard stood, together pulling Felix to his feet. "I'll manage. I'll just leave it up to you to explain this to the villagers." Ivan yawned. "You know, it's getting harder and harder to figure out what time it is around here."

         "Well," said the Elder, who had come to stand behind the Adepts somewhere in all the mayhem. "For us it is time for the evening meal, but I suspect that the three of you are exhausted."

         "I agree," Ivan said. Without another word, he headed for Yueivar's version of an Inn. Picard, after a moment's pause, followed.

         "Are you not going to go with them?" Cura asked Felix. He looked at her indecisively.

         "Though I am tired, I'm not exhausted, and I am hungry. Besides, someone needs to explain all that's happened to your villagers. It might as well be me."

         "Are you certain?" the Elder asked.

         "Actually, I wouldn't mind finding out more about this…thing that's keeping the sun from your island. I mean…you mentioned a power of some kind?"

         "Come and have dinner with us," said the Elder, smiling amicably. "I am certain both the villagers and you yourself have many questions."

         "Thank you for your kind offer, but I may just follow Picard and Ivan after all," Felix said, with a very uncharacteristic change of mind. "Tomorrow…uh, morning…if you don't mind, show us where exactly we might find this creature. It may be that we can help you."

+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+

         Finally, with dark clouds obscuring the night sky and a calm sea lapping at the rocky shoreline, Jenna reached land.

         I wonder what those odd blue and green flashes were earlier, she thought. I hope someone on this island can help me get back to the mainland, though. I don't even know where I am. She did know, however, that there were lights in the distance—lights that proved human residence.

         "I suppose now is as good a time as any," she said, picking up her staff and beginning the long walk toward civilization.

+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+

Vil: That said, I'll leave you a magic arrow and let you do what you will. Any comments, questions, whatever, you can review with, and I'll do my best to answer without revealing the plot. Oh—almost forgot.

Disclaimer: The only things I owned in here were those mentioned before and the big monster thing.

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