(Char): Is it over yet?
(Dew): I was hoping that many, many chapters ago.
You two are just so nice to me. What would I do without you?
(Char): Wither up and die, I suppose.
It would be a happy death...
(Dew): Too bad...I always hoped I could give you a...you know, not nice death.
Why, Dew, I think you're actually being sentimental!
(Dew): ...no, I'm not!
^_^ I think you are!
(Dew): I think *SMACK*.
Ow.
(Char): ^_^ I like the way we think alike! *SMACK*
Ow x 2. I should propose that for every time I get hit by these two, I set my next update back a couple of days. Hey, that might work!
(Dew): Doubtful.
(Char): *nodding* We'd just get more time and reason to beat on you.
...Point taken.
(Char): Whatever happened to all that sugar you gave away?
The authors didn't like it. The muses did, but the authors didn't.
(Dew): So what are you going to do about it?
Oh....nothing.
(Char): Hey, what are all these boxes labelled 'Pixie Stix' and 'Vanilla Coke' doing here?
I'll be writing now!!
Review Responses:
Void: I could have left Mia dead, I know, but doesn't everyone like the 'Mia lives' ending more?
Midnight C: MIA's gotten into an unnatural amount of trouble? Hasn't Isaac nearly died twice? (Three times if you count being broken...) Make you a deal: You look after Mia's well being, and I will continue to try and kill Isaac... I mean... uhh...
EchoKazul: Your muse is a scrunchy?! 10 gold points for innovation!
Knightblazer 88: Yes and Yes, respectively.
Akachi: GAH! *bolts door* I just got him out of the house. You keep him!!
Kevin C: Who said Mia was dumb??
Great Saiyaman ...etc.: I'll leave that up to your imagination. I want to leave a little room for creativity...
Isaac says Booga: GET OUT!! *throws Gasp and Zephyr away* I already HAVE TWO MUSES!! WHY do people send their muses at me? I didn't even cliffhang this time!! You people are asking for it...
Dragoon Knight: It's coming...it's coming...It's here!
Lumino: Coming it is!
Disclaimer: 14 Chapters, 14 Disclaimers. I don't own Golden Sun, nor would I want to, simply because then I would be responsible for getting GS3 out, and if the plot of GS3 is anywhere near close to this ((Dew): monstrosity) ...then the other authors would just absolutely murder me for messing with the greatest handheld game in existence. Wow, that's a long disclaimer. I don't think I've ever written...
(Dew): GET ON WITH IT!
I'm going, I'm going....
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Chapter 14
Enter the Lion's Den
Sol was slowly setting over the scarlet-tinted battlefield as the weary group of Adepts made their way to Bilibin. With the injured in tow again, the Adepts were slowly wandering towards the healing station. Some were going a little faster than others. Namely, Isaac and Mia were straggling behind the large group, but then, no one was surprised about that.
"How wonderful," Sheba gushed to Ivan, looking far behind them at Isaac and Mia. "Isn't it great? We could have lost them both by now if they weren't so devoted to the other." Ivan merely smiled and nodded.
"You're a hopeless romantic, aren't you?" he smiled.
"Maybe I am," she said. "Maybe I'm not." Ivan closed his eyes, and a purple light enveloped him.
"Nope," he said. "You definitely are." Sheba simply smiled and leaned against him as they walked.
********************
Meanwhile, Felix and Picard were guiding the whole group from the front of the line. Felix took a look over at the couples that had slowly come out as a result of their years of adventuring, specifically Jenna and Garet, and simply shook his head. Picard noticed.
"What's so bad about that?" Picard asked him. Felix looked ahead and kept walking.
"There are many other things we should be doing right now," he replied. "That includes watching out for the occasional monster or deciding how we're going to stop Saturos. We can't do that if we're so absorbed each other we can't see where we're going," he added, pointing at Garet, who had just tripped over a rock because he was paying too much attention to Jenna.
"There are many other things we can't do without each other," Picard said. "If we didn't have each other here, we wouldn't still have Isaac, or Mia, or even Jenna." Felix flinched. "As much as you hate to admit it, you owe Jenna's life to Garet." Felix shuddered. "Mind you, it's not as if you didn't already know that. I mean, we all know you're secretly quite fond of Garet." Felix blushed. "Really, it's quite..."
"That's enough! Picard..." Felix said, quite louder than necessary.
"Just thinking out loud," the Lemurian smiled, continuing on his way. "But in all seriousness, we couldn't do this without each other, and you know that."
"Maybe so, but..."
"No. No maybes," Picard interrupted him. "We just couldn't do this. It's our friendship with each other, our united strength and our willingness to fight for our common goals, not to mention our power from the closer relations in our group, as evidenced earlier today by Isaac and Mia, that allows us to be who we are, do what we do, and win." Felix looked at him.
"And you said I was starting to sound like Isaac..."
********************
The next morning, the group was just a short distance from Bilibin. They had camped out just beyond the mountain range, and were prepared to move out quite early. As they progressed, dark storm clouds began to gather, and the threat of rain slowly began to rise. Isaac wished all the threats he had faced over the last couple of days were so similar in their severity.
Felix and Picard were the first over the last rise that blocked their view from Bilibin. They were also the first to step backwards at what they saw.
Isaac and Mia quickened their pace from the back of the line, and reached the others within a few moments.
But after what they saw, they wished they hadn't.
The healing station was just as the Adepts remembered it, but as for Bilibin itself, it lay smoldering behind it. The buildings were crushed, rubble decorating the ground. Not a sound came from the city. The populace had either deserted the city, or there was no populace to desert it anymore.
"Sheba," Jenna asked shakily. "Tell me I'm not seeing what I think I'm seeing..."
"I can't do that truthfully," she whispered. Tears began to well up in Jenna's eyes. Garet moved quickly to comfort her. Felix's lip twinged.
"Do you think..." Picard began to ask Isaac, but Isaac didn't need him to finish the sentence.
"Saturos..."
"He can't destroy a whole town by himself!" Picard said.
"You've forgotten, he's learned how to recall creatures, now," Isaac reminded him. Mia trembled.
"What kind of creature is strong enough to destroy a town like this, and yet leave the healing station intact?"
"You know..." Isaac said. "A creature that has power unlike any other. A creature that can destroy and destroy, but knows the importance of safety, which is why the safe haven, the healing station, is still intact. And if it knows the value of safety, that means it knows the value of keeping something safe. A creature that was originally meant to protect something. A keeper, of sorts."
"To...protect something?" Ivan said. "You don't think...?" Isaac nodded.
"He's back," Isaac said softly. "For real this time."
********************
Ivan and Felix lead the injured to the healing station, which, to their relief, was still functioning perfectly, albeit with a huge lack of morale and broken spirits everywhere. Of course, that was to be expected, with a broken city behind them.
Apparently, Saturos as Dodonpa lead a sneak attack consisting of himself and Dullahan to the city the previous morning, the morning after Isaac and company escaped from Lunpa. They razed the city, but Dullahan wouldn't kill the innocent or destroy the healing station. Thankfully, Saturos decided not to either, deciding it was more 'fun' to lay waste to the city. The attack ended as soon as it began, but nobody knew where they went when it was over.
While they were doing that, the other Adepts went to explore whatever remained of Bilibin. A very pungent burning smell entered their nostrils, but the Adepts had dealt with worse on their adventure, so they went farther in.
"This smell is terrible," Garet choked.
"What, are you going to tell me you can't handle a little smell?" Jenna teased him.
"Smell is too polite a word. Stench, maybe. Odour. Maybe, a certain pungency."
"Gotta love that thesaurus, huh, Garet?" Sheba teased him.
"I swear, between you and Ivan..."
They continued to search in the ruins of Bilibin. What they were searching for was a mystery even to Isaac, but he knew that there had to be something hidden in here. A clue, maybe, as to why Bilibin was razed? No, he knew why; there was a war raging and Bilibin was offering support to Kalay's side through the healing station. They had to pay.
"Isaac!" Mia called out. She was looking around the fallen weapons shop. "I think you're going to want to see this..."
Isaac walked over to where she was, and saw something very familiar lying amongst the debris. It was a metal sword with a dark hilt, and the metal was flickering, as though a fire burned inside of it.
"The Bloodlust Katana..." Isaac whispered. "Why, Saturos...?" He reached down to pick it up, but when he closed his hand around it, his hand clasped on empty air. The sword was there, he could see it, but he just couldn't touch it.
"Why would he leave the sword here for us to see if we can't take it?" Sheba wondered, coming up from behind them.
"I don't think it's the sword he wants us to see," Isaac mumbled. He looked closely at the sword, and then looked along the blade. He followed the direction it was pointing, as if it were some great arrow.
He walked along the path it was pointing at, and stopped right when he found a small chunk of mineral on the ground. He picked it up, and the Bloodlust Katana faded out of existence, as if it were never there at all.
"What did you do, Isaac?" Mia asked.
"I found something," he said.
"What do you have?" asked Garet, approaching with Jenna and Picard.
"It looks like a mineral of some sort..."
"A mineral?" Jenna wondered. "But there shouldn't be any minerals here...Bilibin is only interested in lumber from Kolima and things like that."
"Yeah, the closest place that deals with minerals and stuff is..." Garet paused, trying to remember. "...Altin, isn't it?"
"Altin," Isaac said, turned the stone in his hand, and the word in his mind. "That's where Saturos is, isn't it?"
"It makes sense," Picard said. "He leaves us a clue, and we're supposed to follow it and walk right into his annoying trap."
"Yup," Isaac agreed.
"And we're going to follow the clue and walk into his annoying trap, aren't we?" Garet asked.
"Yup," Isaac said.
"Typical."
********************
They gathered Ivan and Felix and set out for Altin. The last time they had visited the mining town, water beasts had flooded the city, making it impossible for the citizens to get on with their lives. This time when they arrived, the city was curiously empty.
"I'm getting really tired of seeing nobody when there should be somebody," Garet complained.
"Better than seeing somebody when there should be nobody," Isaac smiled. Garet paused to consider this. Jenna furrowed her brow.
"Can't we argue the philosophical points after we get this done?" she grumbled.
"I suppose," Isaac said.
"So do we search the city?" Ivan asked. Felix shook his head.
"The clue he left us was that stone," Felix said. "I think that means he's hiding in the mines." Sheba nodded.
"Plus, it's easier to trap somebody in a narrow passage than out in the open," she added.
"My thoughts exactly," Isaac nodded. They approached the entrance and a large bat flew out and took wing to the sky.
"That was unexpected," Picard said.
"Yeah, really," Mia said.
"Oh, enough waiting," Garet said. He pointed to the entrance. "To the bat-cave!" The other seven looked at him with very curious stares.
"Why did that feel so... painful?" Ivan wondered, staring at Garet.
"I... don't know," Sheba said.
********************
The tunnel was dark, damp and cramped. In other words, a perfect place for a Mars Adept to complain, especially a large Mars Adept. Garet was definitely not having the greatest time.
The tunnel took them through many twists and turns, and eventually they ended up at one of the lower mining halls. There were puddles of water left over from the water beasts, some broken and warped pieces of wood and some mine carts and tracks laying around. From the look of everything, though, it hadn't been used in quite some time.
"Okay, this is weird," Jenna said.
"I know," Sheba shivered. "And I thought Kraden was creepy..."
And then, with no lack of finesse, a great puff of smoke went off in the corner of the room, and Saturos appeared again.
"This is the last time, Saturos," Isaac growled menacingly.
"Come now, Isaac, do you really mean me such a harsh greeting?" Saturos said smoothly.
"Yes, he does," Garet said.
"I'm hurt," Saturos said. "Poor little Dullahan and I were so bored, we had hoped for just a nice game of cards. But if you insist..."
"You can't call Dullahan here!" Felix exclaimed. "The tunnels are too small and he's too powerful! If you summon him, the entire mountain will collapse upon us!" Saturos laughed bitterly.
"And lucky old me, I can warp instantly," he said. Suddenly dark rings of fire surrounded him, and he began the ritual they had already seen once before. "Last time, you didn't face Dullahan. You faced a mere Mimic in his guise."
"I knew that much," Isaac said, charging at him, desperate to stop the summon.
"But now," he snickered, "now you will get the rematch you wanted!"
"Who said we wanted a rematch?!" Picard yelled.
"I did!" Saturos exclaimed. With a explosion of smoke, he disappeared.
And like last time, another smokescreen went up and slowly began to dissipate. Great amounts of power began to gather, and the roof of the cave began to buckle, with small bits of rock and dirt falling to the ground.
"I am the shadow..."
The mountain trembled.
"It can't be..." Felix whispered.
"...the keeper of light..."
Mia went to Isaac's side.
"What are we going to do?" Jenna worried.
"Ye who hold the sun's power..."
"This is it, isn't it?" Mia asked softly.
The mountain shook.
"Relinquish it now!!"
"I wanted you to know, Mia..." Isaac said. "I... lo-"
The mountain collapsed!
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(Char): WHAT?!
(Dew): YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS!
Well, I mean, I didn't cliffhang last time. I figured I was saving one up...
(Char): That's just evil beyond all comprehension!
(Dew): That's sick and twisted!
^_^ I know. Well, there are a lot of authors on this site who've indirectly taught this to me.
(Dew): ...great, now they're learning from each other.
(Char): There's got to be some way to stop them.
(Dew/Char): *scheming*
Oh, great. Now I'm scared.
Actually, I'm scared of what you people are going to do to me. So, uh...review! ...Nicely! ...Without pain! ...That includes the muses!
(Dew/Char): *SMACK*
FUUN-gah....
(Dew): ...FUUN?
(Char): ...gah?
^_^;; uh.... hehehe.... Maybe the muses will attack...regardless...Oh, it's gonna be a loooong time until next chapter...