As Luck Would Have It
A/N: Seems I forgot the questions at the end of the last chapter. In fact, I've forgotten what they were. Oh well. If I remember by the end of this chapter, I'll throw them in. If not, oh well.
Ack! Haven't replied to reviews in forever! Ok here goes:
Krystal-chan: I think I put it in our bio, but I'll put it here too. Norli is Venus, Kaede is Mars, Avaria is Jupiter, and I am Mercury. Feonyx, stop laughing at all this irony!
General Failure: You think Zoe is bound with all the elements, do you? An interesting idea. I did remember the questions this time, so answer them, please.
preslyg: No, though thanks for your guess, there is no element 'Sky.'
Jupiter Girl: THANK YOU FOR THE WONDERFUL UPDATE OF YOUR STORY! I very much enjoyed myself reading that. You have made me HYPER. Which is a good thing. And email me—you can find the email in my bio—for I've got an important thing to be telling you.
Chapter Eighteen: The Root of the Problem
By the time he hit the bottom, Isaac had stopped screaming. As he neared the floor, passing through the many levels of Tret Tree, he felt himself slowing, as though the air itself was stopping his fall. He landed lightly on his feet and took a moment to look around.
What he saw made him cry out in amazement. A clump of thorny strangler vines held two forms tightly. Rushing to them, Isaac's eyes went wide as he saw that the forms were Zoe and Mia. The latter was staring at him with growing intensity, unable to cry out with her mouth held shut by the vines. Zoe's eyes were closed and her body was limp—Isaac couldn't even tell if she was alive.
Quickly, he reached out and called on his Venus abilities to pull away the vines. He didn't even notice Garet and Ivan come up behind him, so intent was he on freeing the girls. After a long few minutes, Mia and Zoe were free, Mia falling to her knees, Zoe to the ground, unconscious.
"Mia?" Isaac asked, and she looked up and him. Her own glowing Psynergy blinded him for a moment, and when the light faded she stood beside him again. The four of them looked down at Zoe, and Mia silently shook her head. Zoe would have to wait until their business here was finished.
Garet turned and wordlessly pointed to the opposite wall. On the wall was an identical face to the one on the outside of the tree.
"Tret," Isaac said, and the four Adepts approached the face.
"YOU!" the face roared. "You hoped to find my kindly self?"
"Well, yeah, that would have given some added benefit to the deal," Garet threw in, totally confident in his ability to defeat Venus things.
"FOOLS! You should never have come here, and now, you shall never leave!"
"I don't like the sound of that, guys," Mia mumbled, grabbing her mace and getting ready.
"Your powers protected you in the forest, but now you are in the heart of my power! Here, you will all become trees, and you'll wither with the rest of us!"
"My nightmare," Ivan said, raising the Shaman's Rod. The face of Evil Tret detached itself from the wall and dove at the Adepts, smacking into Isaac.
"Yah! You will pay, Tret!" Isaac yelled. "I summon the spirit of Venus, power of the Earth!" The embodiment of Venus struck Tret, but the face merely laughed and retaliated with a blast of its own.
Ivan took that moment to lunge, striking with a Ray-empowered Shaman's Rod. Tret turned its ugly visage on the boy, and let out a roar, and some kind of sparkling dust covered Ivan.
"I recognize that dust…Ivan no!" Mia yelled, as Ivan felt himself go stiff. He was about to live his nightmare, he realized. He was turning into a tree, and this time his Psynergy could not save him. Nothing could. He resigned himself to his fate as a tree within a tree and whispered a goodbye before he could no longer speak.
"Now you bear witness to the full power of Tret!" roared the head.
"Ivan!" Garet screamed, turning with angry fury on Tret. The tree laughed again and slammed into Garet, throwing him backwards. He slammed headfirst into the opposite wall, landing near Zoe and fighting to remain conscious.
Isaac shot blasts of Venus Psynergy at Tret, knowing it wouldn't do much good but wanting to do something. Mia called on Sleet, who gave Tret a serious case of frostbite, but the tree entity seemed impervious to even these attacks.
"It's not working, Mia," Isaac said, and suddenly a vine caught his ankle. Another one wrapped around his throat and began to squeeze.
"Isaac! Hang on!" Mia cried, working frantically to free him, but nothing she did was any good. If anything, it made the vines squeeze harder the more she pulled.
The world spun around him, but Garet didn't care. He stood again and grasped the Mars fire within him, preparing to fry Tret where he stood. Or floated.
Tret! He thought, catching sight of the tree. And…another Tret? There are two of them now? Oh well, guess I have to fry them both! With an enraged battle cry, he let loose a Volcano, which took down both images of Tret, making them into one and doing some serious damage.
"You will pay dearly for that, fire-wielder!" Tret screamed, slamming into Garet and sending him to the ground, at which point his head knocked into yet another hard surface. Slowly and unceremoniously he stood again, though by now nothing would come into focus for more than a few seconds.
Isaac was busy fighting off the thorny strangler vines that had trapped Mia and Zoe. They were currently trying to pull off the same trick on him. The vines were evenly matched with his Venus Psynergy, though. Or they would have been, had he not been gasping for air that he wasn't getting. He felt the darkness closing in, and wondered bleakly how many times it was possible for one person to die before it was a permanent state of residence.
"Mia…should there be two of you?" Garet asked, wobbling a bit. His head hurt, he realized, and his vision was blurring.
"No, Garet. You dented the wall, by the way. Beautiful job. Want to finish off this beast together?" In truth, Mia would have gladly given all the Psynergy she had for the others, but she knew she would need it if they even hoped to win, and for the moment she was going to have to cast aside her instinctive Mercury concern.
"Amen," Garet said, reaching for his Djinn and telling them to stand by. "Summon time?"
"Summon time," Mia agreed, a rather evil grin forming on her face. "And let's hope we're enough."
"I summon the spirit of Kirin, mythical beast of flame!" Garet yelled. The power of his two Djinn combined and opened a circular portal before him, through which rushed a fiery beast, diving on Tret. "He's nearly finished now."
"I summon the spirit of Nereid, princess of the sea spirits!" Mia cried, and she felt the rush of energy as Sleet and Fizz, combined with a good deal of her Psynergy, became the water princess and threw great waves and blasts of water at Tret, who by now knew he would be defeated.
With a final roar, he let loose flying thorns. Garet held his sword in front of his face like a shield, and Mia dove to the ground, just barely making it under the onslaught of needlelike projectiles. When the attack stopped, Mia stood again, raising her mace high. Garet did the same with his sword.
"Ready, Mars boy?" she asked, and Garet returned her wicked grin and nodded. Together they dove at the floating head, Mia whacking it with her mace and Garet slicing it with his sword simultaneously. The moment the weapons connected, evil Tret faded and disappeared. The vines choking Isaac let go their hold and disintegrated as well, and he fell to his knees, coughing and gasping, thanking whatever spirits would listen for each breath, painful though they were.
A vine appeared in the center of the room, climbing out the hole in the ceiling. At the same time, the face of Tret reappeared again, though this one seemed to be the embodiment of kind Tret.
"What happened to me?" Tret asked. His eyes closed for a moment, then opened again. "Was I…I see…my heart was all but lost in my rage. And you defeated the evil within me?" At this, Garet and Mia nodded, and Isaac gave an assenting grunt. "I thank you. I could not leave this world with so much evil in my heart. I am free now to leave the world without regret. Goodbye, great warriors." Tret closed his eyes again.
"Hey! Wait a minute!" Garet said, his face showing concern and some anger. "We can't let Tret die like this! We still need his help! I mean…look at Ivan! He's still a tree!"
"More tree than human, and that scares me," Mia said. "How can we get him, Zoe and Isaac out of here? That vine holds us all, certainly, but can we carry two people and a small tree up it?"
"I can take Ivan, but not two of anyone. And I doubt you could carry Isaac or Zoe, no offense."
"…What?" Tret said suddenly, and Garet and Mia's attention snapped back to the tree. "Why have you not left me to my dying? Do you need something?"
"Yes," Isaac said hoarsely, coughing as he did so. The vines that had strangled him had done serious damage. "Kolima…the people…they are trees."
"I turned the people of Kolima into trees? I must release them before they die with the forest!"
"While you're at it, release Ivan. Uh, our treelike buddy here, that is," Garet said, motioning to the tree-thing nearby. Tret closed his eyes, the violet light made an appearance, and sparkling power began emitting from his head. Ivan's form slowly became human again, though not entirely, and the now-more-boy-than-tree adept collapsed. But Tret opened his eyes again with a grim frown.
"I can't do it…my power no longer reaches Kolima…people of Kolima…forgive me…" Tret said, and his face before them faded away.
"Tret's too weak!" Garet cried in frustration. "He doesn't have the power to save Kolima. We…we have to heal him, somehow!"
"I know, Garet," Mia said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "We cannot let the people of Kolima die with the forest. Every life in Kolima…and Ivan's life…depends on us."
"For Ivan…we have to restore Tret and save the people of Kolima! But…we still can't get out of here."
"I can make it," Isaac rasped. "Talking's a struggle, but I can get out, and probably carry someone with me. Don't look at me that way, Mia."
"Sorry, I gotta agree with Mia…well, halfway. You take Ivan, Isaac, and I'll take Zoe. And let's get out of this darn tree! I keep wanting to set it on fire…and the edges are going all wavy again."
"Honestly. Am I the only one who can emerge from a fight unhurt?" Mia said, standing at the base of the vine and waiting for Garet and Isaac, with their cargo, to climb it.
"Of course you are," Isaac muttered. "You can heal yourself, after all. Which, by the way, is a nice gift to share with the rest of us."
"When I have some measure of Psynergy back, sure, I'll heal you guys, if I can. For example," Mia continued, dipping into her well of Mercury Adept tricks and pulling up a common one, "I can't do anything about Ivan's condition. That is Tret's job. If in fact we can do anything to help Tret."
"Laurel thought the Hermes' Water might do it, remember?!" Isaac said suddenly as he hauled himself to the top of the vine. Garet, also arriving at the top, nodded vigorously, and Mia grinned.
The three of them climbed down the vine, depositing Ivan and Zoe gently on the ground. Garet sat down instantly, holding his head between both hands and forcing the world to come back into focus and the pounding headache to go away.
He felt a gentle hand touch his forehead, and a now-familiar soft blue light, visible even through his closed eyes, surrounded him. He felt the pain dissipate, but not leave entirely, and he realized Mia was entirely out of Psynergy now.
"Thanks," he said, blinking. "In case you were wondering, you're now a lot closer to being one, single, clearly-defined person, Mia."
"Am I?" she asked, feigning shock. "Well, it's a nice feeling to have, Garet. Sorry I can't do more than that, though."
"No, really, that was enough. It's at least bearable now." Standing again, Garet turned to face Tret, whose face was still in existence here on the outside. "Mia, have you still got that Hermes' Water?"
"Well it didn't go anywhere in the last three minutes," she said with a smile, pulling it from her bag and pouring it at the base of Tret. All around them the rich green of the forest was returning, and Tret's eyes opened again.
"I feel a great power spreading through me," Tret said, his voice strong and happy-sounding. "Hroooom…life flows within me once again."
"Tret!" Laurel cried, opening her eyes as well and looking over at them. "As you have recovered, so has our beautiful forest."
"I am sorry to have worried you so, Laurel."
"Worried her?!" Garet grumbled, eyes riveted on the still-part-tree Ivan and the unconscious Zoe. "How about nearly killing us?!"
"And you young ones," Tret went on, smiling knowingly. "Did you have a favor to ask of me?"
"Yes," Isaac reiterated. "Kolima. People who are trees. And Ivan."
"Yes Tret," Laurel said fervently. "You must turn the people of Kolima, and the companion of these children, into humans again."
"Yes, that's right!" Tret cried with sudden urgency. "I must hurry!" He closed his eyes, and there was a stronger but repeated sequence of sparkling power and purple light. Garet, Mia and Isaac watched Ivan, relieved when he returned completely to normal, despite still being unconscious. "That should do it. The people of Kolima are cursed no more."
"Tret did not always possess this horrible power," Laurel said wistfully.
"It only started when those gemstones fell from the sky," Tret put in.
"Psynergy stones?" Garet and Isaac asked together. "You really think Psynergy Stones caused all of this trouble?" Garet continued, frowning. "Little rocks?"
"I was indeed angry that people had laid waste to my forest. They had even taken their axes to me! Then those gems fell into my branches, and suddenly my fury overwhelmed me, and I was lost in anger!"
"The gem reached me when I was filled with sorrow," Laurel said. "Our actions spoke our hearts' desires, but we had no idea."
"Those gems twisted my anger into a force beyond my control," Tret said grimly. The adepts paused to consider the implications. It was a long pause indeed.
"This same thing could be happening elsewhere," Ivan's voice said, and the three whirled. He was sitting there on the ground, looking as though nothing had happened. "Don't look so surprised. I'll be alright. As soon as I get the feeling of being wood out of my head, anyway."
"You must have fought many monsters on your way here," Laurel inferred, and the adepts nodded.
"Those monsters…" Garet said, realization hitting him like he had hit the wall of Tret. "Maybe they were just animals that were…tainted. They might have been good once. And we've been killing them. And the Psynergy Stones are causing it." At this, Laurel closed her eyes and sent power forth from her mind.
"You were given powers too, Laurel?" Mia asked. "Different from Tret's, of course, but they must come from the same source. But what are you doing, Laurel?"
"What did you see, Laurel?" Tret asked when the light faded.
"It is true," Laurel said sorrowfully. "Even the animals have become monsters. And beyond the river…the river that feeds our forest…an evil force had risen up to the south of the river. Tell me, children, is that your chosen path?"
"Yes," Isaac said, his voice having gained back a measure of its former self. "We seek the Venus Lighthouse. I realize we will face much danger as time passes, and that we must hurry. But I think we finally realized how serious this is. We're a team now, more than ever before, and we can do it."
"I believe you can," Tret said, respect in his voice. "I owe you a great debt. You have saved Kolima, the forest, and me."
"Good," Garet said. "Mind telling us what you did to our other friend, there?"
"A stunning serum in the thorns of the vines. The Child of Mercury fought it with her power, but the other could not. The effect should wear off in a day or so."
"May your roots dig deep and your branches reach high, brave children," Laurel said, and the adepts nodded. Garet bent and lifted Zoe again, feeling the return of his headache coming on.
"Back to Bilibin for the third time, then?" Garet asked, and Isaac nodded. Mia pulled Ivan to his feet, and Isaac reached out to Garet with one hand and Mia with the other.
"Retreat," he whispered, and his Psynergy surrounded them all, taking them to the entrance of the forest.
"That one merits the words 'very nice trick'," Ivan commented.
***************
"Jill, is this the one who saved you?" one of the guards at Bilibin Barricade was asking. The pretty young woman blushed and nodded. "Thank you for what you've done. We have a gift for you." The guard handed a rather large peanut to Isaac, who put it in his bag and smiled. "You'll find the door is open, now that the Kolima problem is solved. You'd do well to get to Bilibin before dark, though."
"We realize," Isaac said. He had already had to use a Sacred Feather, an item used to keep monsters at bay, and he had no idea how long it would be until the effects wore off. Slowly but determinedly the Adepts trudged on, confident now that they could take on anything the twilight had to throw at them. A smile was on every face, and Ivan and Garet kept looking at each other and bursting into laughter. Once again the rush of victory had taken over.
Bilibin loomed ahead of them before too long. Darkness was close at hand, and Garet found it increasingly harder to walk without zigzagging from side to side. Isaac finally gave in to the energy that was still rushing through him and ran the mile to Bilibin, leaving Garet, Ivan and Mia staring after him, each in their own unique form of perplexity. Then with a resigned sigh Ivan followed him, though at half his pace and rather stiffly.
"I cannot
believe I became a tree," he muttered disgustedly as he ran. "I still
feel like I should stop to grow roots and…photosynthesize? Where did that
word come from?! I don't even know words that big!"
"That's one of Breeze's,
actually," Gust said from his shoulder. "Breeze, having lived in a tree, had to
have picked up some knowledge of exactly what it is they do."
"I happen to like trees, actually," Breeze stated from Ivan's head.
"Isn't that a little odd for a Jupiter Djinni?" Ivan asked.
"Ok, here's something to think about. You know how Fever likes to swim? And she's a Mars Djinni? Well, you've got the oddball Jupiter Djinni now. I guess there's one in every…uh…I mean…oh, you know…element?" Gust fumbled for the right word, as 'family' had never really been a Djinn concept.
"Right. And you're saying Zap isn't odd?"
"Zap's…not entirely what he seems," Gust said, and almost on cue she and Breeze flashed out. Ivan groaned and stopped, wanting to know what Gust had meant, but finding he was already at Bilibin, and Isaac was nowhere in sight. Or Ivan didn't think so, but then he saw Isaac coming out of the Inn and giving him a wave.
"Come on! I got us rooms for the night! And for those of us who are awake enough, dinner's on the house!"
"Dinner!" Garet said, coming up behind them. "With the way I see things, I'll be eating twice the food! That would be…" Garet trailed off slowly, glancing to the side without turning his head at first. Then he slowly turned, staring downward with a look of pure fear on his face.
Standing behind him, arms folded, and a glare to rival that of Tret himself on her face, was Mia. She delicately raised one eyebrow, and Garet began to visibly shake. She cleared her throat, and Garet slumped, shaking his head.
"Alright, alright, geez, I'll listen to you. I'll skip dinner for sleep—this time. By Mars, you Mercury Adepts are pushy! Not to mention terrifying!"
"Only terrifying when we need to be, Garet," Mia said sweetly, though the frozen glare was still fixed on her face.
"Ice queen, that one," Garet said. "And would you rather I leave Zoe out here with you, or just set her at an empty table somewhere?" Mia gave him a frosted look again, and he shuddered and kept walking, passing Isaac and heading into the Inn. Isaac chuckled softly, as did Ivan and Mia.
"Did that take practice, or is it an inherited trait?" Isaac asked Mia as they too went into the Inn and sat at a table.
"Oh, I don't know, really. I mean…when you've had to deal with what I've had to deal with…you kind of require a rather potent glare or something along those lines. That's the first time I've gotten the point across without speaking, though. Not to mention it was fun. Listen, Isaac, I've been thinking," Mia continued, and Isaac paused, fork halfway to his mouth. "About what Tret and Laurel were saying about the Psynergy Stones, and how everything was turning…evil as a result. We've been fighting and killing innocent creatures all this time, Isaac, and it wasn't even their fault!"
"Don't go all sentimental on us now," Ivan said, though his own eyes held their measure of sadness. "We have always been attacked first, remember. It's not like we hunted any of these things down for the fun of it. We acted in self defense, and by all means I aim to defend whatever self I have at the time."
"The only enemy I think we have hunted down is Saturos, and even then, he started the fight, not us. Though you might have told us about that staring thing earlier. With the way I've seen it work, we probably could have had Saturos on his knees if you took a step forward!" Isaac laughed, and the image this presented in their minds was indeed very humorous.
"Food!" Flint cried suddenly, appearing in a golden flash right in the middle of Isaac's plate. "Oh yeah! This stuff looks good!"
"Do we need to have this conversation again? Djinn don't eat."
"I'd like to try. I've never seen such good food!"
"Oh, no. I don't want to know the effects of eating food on a Djinni. Now get off my plate!" Flint made an annoyed sound but did so, disappearing in a golden flash, much the way he had shown up. Isaac shook his head and sighed, laughing along with Mia and Ivan, and then returning to his food.
A short while later, all three of them stood. Mia and Ivan turned and headed for the stairs. "Aren't you coming, Isaac?" Mia asked, looking back over her shoulder at him. "Unless you'd rather sleep down here on the floor or something. Though I can't imagine it would be very comfortable."
"I'll be up shortly," Isaac said stoically, and Mia nodded and headed up the rest of the stairs. Isaac waited for a long moment, then quietly went out the door and stepped into the cold night. Winter was fast approaching, if not already there, and he felt the chill even through his shirt and tunic. The slight breeze made his yellow scarf fly out behind him, and for a moment he smiled. This was the way things should be, he decided.
The sky was clear, the stars bright pinpoints of light against the black expanse. Isaac felt his eyes drawn to it, and remembered how he used to sneak out onto the roof at night sometimes in Vale, just to watch the stars and think. Vale, he thought. My home. If I don't succeed…if I can't stop Saturos and Menardi from lighting every Lighthouse, Vale will be destroyed. Along with everyone in it. My mom, Garet's family, Jenna's grandparents…all of them gone. And everywhere I've been…everyone I've met…destroyed because of evil. Isaac sighed audibly and stared into the starry sky.
We're the only thing standing between Angara and total annihilation.
The thought nearly threw Isaac off his feet. Could they really do this, he wondered. Could they really save an entire world, all alone? As the thought hit him, determination set itself on his face.
We will not fail. We will do this, and we'll do it together!
"Watch your backs, Saturos and Menardi. You have the Elemental Stars, and we want them. And, whatever the cost, we'll get them!" he yelled to the night. It was getting colder, though, and he was suddenly very tired. He sighed contentedly and went back inside and up to his waiting bed.
Far away, in the middle of a very hot stretch of sand, two people heard words on the wind. And the words made them shudder.
***************
Vil: The end. Wow. That got serious there. I've been rereading some of my older chapters, and I think they get better as I go along. Which brings me to the questions:
1) Should I take this story all the way through Golden Sun 1, or break off about halfway and start a new one (something along the lines of "As Luck Would Have It Continued") so that there doesn't end up being an overwhelming number of chapters?
2) Anyone have any guesses as to what Zoe's element is? There's at least one clue per chapter, even this one.
3) Who out there wants a Christmas fic about the Adepts, courtesy of the Company?
Which reminds me, this chapter is dedicated to Feonyx and Lea, who not only know Zoe's element (and hopefully will keep their mouths shut about it) but whom I consider very good friends and rather…interesting muse-type people.
And I need 112 reviews (I have passed 100! Hallelujah!) for chapter nineteen. There may be a bigger gap between 18 and 19 than there was between 17 and 18 because of school and stuff that usually happens during the week. And Thanksgiving.
That's all for now. And follow the magic arrow!! ~Vil
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