Home for Christmas
A/N: Short notice, yes, but it's here! A combination of two songs will be in this one: "I'll be Home for Christmas" and "Please Come Home for Christmas." Credit where it's due to Shiro and Alex for giving me the first. So, on we go! There are a few spoilers, and I've altered the end of TLA a bit for this story since it was altered for the last one—this follows ALATC, by the way, so if you want to read that…it'd be nice…but SPOILER WARNING.
Disclaimer: I…uh…well, I own the alterations I made to the game's plot…but that's all. Not the songs or the people or the places or anything at all.
Chapter One: A Fool's Errand
I'll be home for Christmas,
You can count on me.
"Isaac, what the heck are we doing out here?" Garet complained, brushing snow from one sleeve irritably. "It's four days before Christmas! We'll never get back to Vale in time!"
"There's something out here and I've gotta find it," Isaac said determinedly. The two of them were walking towards Vault in what Garet would classify as a blinding blizzard, but was really only a quarter-strength snowstorm. Isaac, despite not being a Mercury Adept and having an aversion to most cold things, was reveling in it, and Garet kept giving him disgusted looks.
In truth, Isaac was lost somewhere in his own mind. He was watching the snowflakes, looking down at some on one of his gloves and studying them. Mia had told him once that no two snowflakes were truly alike, ever, anywhere in the world. While Isaac found that hard to believe, he also rationally compared it to people—there were no two people truly exactly identical, not even twins. And there were a lot of people in this world.
"What are you looking for, then?" Garet asked, rubbing his hands together to try and keep them warm. Isaac considered this. He didn't know what he was looking for, really, just that something was…was calling to him…and he had to find it before there was no more time.
It had been five years since the unleashing of Alchemy. Vale had been rebuilt, better than before, even, and Kraden had moved away shortly after the end of the quest. Isaac recalled that particular part of their lives, finally being rid of Kraden, and laughed.
Four Christmases ago, a black dragon had attacked Vale, and Isaac had died saving everyone else's lives. Somehow, the Elemental Spirits had brought him back, apparently because he had stuff left to do, but every Christmas after that had been filled with both intense sadness and a bit of fear—would something else attack this year? Isaac always wondered.
The sadness came from the memory of his father, Kyle. The specter of Kyle had spoken to Isaac, between the conversation of the Spirits and actually waking up alive again, and had told him that love, the love he and Mia had for one another, was one of the greatest things he'd ever have. Kyle had told him never to lose that love.
But here he was, leaving Vale on some fool's instinct—he was that fool, but he'd readily agree with such an assessment—to go after who knew what, four days before Christmas. For reasons he didn't really understand (though he suspected it had to do with Jenna's Christmas shopping frenzy and the fact that he didn't want Isaac to die alone somewhere in the wilderness) Garet had come along, though for someone who'd volunteered he sure was complaining a lot.
"Well? What are you looking for?" Garet asked again as the lights of Vault came into view.
"I'm not really sure," Isaac said quietly. "But I'll know when I find it."
"Oh great. This is one of those things, isn't it. Like what Ivan used to bother me with, only you're a Venus Adept, you don't have visions. You just have headaches."
"You're fast becoming one."
"Good. It's nice to know I bother someone besides Jenna and Ivan."
"Felix. You bother Felix," Isaac pointed out helpfully.
"Do not go there. It's Christmas, I don't want to deal with Felix's ire."
The two of them walked into Vault, looking around at the beautiful Christmas lanterns placed in every window and next to every front door. "I've never seen Vault like this," Isaac whispered, in awe. "I've never seen anywhere like this. It's so beautiful."
"It's cold," Garet corrected. "Can we get out of it?"
"Fine," Isaac relented, pushing open the door to the Inn. "But only for a while. Whatever I'm after isn't going to be here in Vault."
~*~
Mia stood at the window of Isaac's house, looking out at the softly falling snow. She loved this time of year, and always would, but things weren't really the same without Isaac and Garet around. There was no one who would just sit and listen to her talk, who would take it all in and then say three or four sentences that put everything in perspective and made understanding out of chaos.
And there was no chaos, not really. Not without Garet to pester Jenna and Ivan. Or anyone else, for that matter. Thus, Jenna and Ivan were left to argue with one another, and since what Ivan felt for Jenna bordered on sheer terror, unless he was feeling unusually brave, the arguments didn't last long.
Thus, Jenna was employed in helping Dora bake her Christmas desserts while Felix helped at their house—the siblings had been overjoyed to learn that their parents were still alive! They had returned to Vale happy and together again, at last.
And somewhere around the house were Sheba and Picard. Mia thought the latter was probably on the roof, hanging evergreen rope-vine things (courtesy of Felix) all over the house—this was confirmed by a soft thud and a short, sharp burst of Lemurian cursing, though from the sound of it, it wasn't too bad—but Mia had no idea where Sheba might have been.
Deciding that being outside might take her mind off Isaac—he hadn't told here where he was going or why, just that he'd be back in time for Christmas, he promised—Mia put on her cloak and went outside.
Immediately she was pelted by a barrage of snowballs. "Oh, you children!" Mia laughed, looking at Ivan and Sheba, who shared identical mischievous grins.
"How do you think we got Picard off the roof?" Sheba asked slyly. The Lemurian pulled himself up from the snow and looked at Mia, raising a questioning eyebrow.
"Look here," Mia said, giving the Jupiter Adepts a slightly less powerful version of the Glare. "I am twenty-two years old, and this is a childish game!" Ivan and Sheba didn't even notice as Picard moved up behind them.
"But Mia—" Ivan began.
"It was only—" Sheba tried, but both were cut off as Picard tackled them, throwing them both face-first into the snow.
"And never let it be said that I hate snowball fighting," Mia finished, grinning, then laughing with Picard as Ivan and Sheba stood, disheveled and wet.
"That does it," Ivan said darkly. "This is war."
"Oh good! A war in the snow against Mercury Adepts!" Sheba shouted in Ivan's ear. "Will you think about what you're doing before you do it?"
"You're right. I hope I didn't pick up all this irrational stuff from Garet." As he said Garet's name, Ivan ducked, and the others watched a wooden spoon sail out the window and pass over his head. "That woman must have sonic hearing. I can be miles away and say 'Garet' and OUCH!" Ivan yelped as he was struck in the back of the head by a ceramic bowl, which thankfully didn't break.
Jenna scowled at them from the window, then shut it and went back to helping Dora cook. The woman seemed very sad, and rather older this year than she had any year before.
I hope Garet makes it back, Jenna thought with a sigh. He can't be enjoying himself in all this snow.
~*~
"I am not enjoying myself!" Garet grumbled, pulling himself out of another snowdrift. Isaac tried his best to cover his laughter. "I swear that one was a hill before I stepped in it. It just changed to snow to be spiteful."
"Right," Isaac said sarcastically. "Anything you say, buddy."
"If you're going to be that way about it," Garet shot back, "then I say we turn around now so we can spend Christmas with our families! It's the last one we get all together!"
Isaac's eyes widened. He'd forgotten about that. After this Christmas, as soon as the snow mostly melted and the roads were safer, Picard would return to Lemuria to finally sort things out, Sheba would go back to Lalivero and the family she had there, and Ivan was even considering a return trip to Kalay, or perhaps Tolbi, to learn what he could about…well, basically anything.
And Mia would go home, to Imil. That was the part that Isaac hated most. Mia had to go home—people she knew and loved still lived there, after all. Her home was there, everything she'd ever known. Her job was still to be guardian of the Mercury Lighthouse, whether it needed a guardian now or not.
And she would leave Isaac in Vale. She wouldn't want to, of course, but she was duty-bound, and honor-bound, and Isaac knew Mia well enough to understand that only in the most extreme cases would Mia place her own feelings before her obligations.
So doesn't she love me that much, after all? Isaac wondered. Not enough to stay for me, anyway, he corrected himself glumly. He didn't even realize where he was walking—out of Vault, yes, but his steps were taking him ever northward, towards Imil or perhaps Prox if he thought about it. But he wasn't thinking about it—he was thinking about Mia.
"You know," Garet continued, five years' time having in no way cured him of his tendency to complain-ramble, "the farther north we go, the colder it gets. This is bad. I don't want to have a replay of the whole Prox incident, okay Isaac? Isaac? …Isaac!"
"What? What!" Isaac asked, snapping out of his thoughts.
"Well you obviously weren't here, so where were you?" Garet asked, shaking his head and watching the snowflakes fall from what parts of his hair stuck out from under his hat.
"In Vale," Isaac said quietly. Garet nodded solemnly.
"What I wouldn't give for some of that Imilian chili right now…or maybe some hot cocoa…with marshmallows and whipped cream…"
"Every holiday is about food with you, still, isn't it?" Isaac asked sharply. "Garet, aren't you thinking at all about Jenna?"
"Sure am," he said cheerily. "She's the one who'll make me the cocoa. And sit with me by the fire and watch Ivan and Sheba bother Picard with their snowballs like they do every year. And fall asleep on my shoulder as the fire dies down and the snow starts to fall."
"Okay, sorry I snapped," Isaac said, nodding. In truth, Garet's words had brought back Isaac's memories of last Christmas. It had been a strangely warm one—there was barely any snow, and the ground was muddy and the paths slick with slush and wet ice.
The Adepts hadn't really felt too bad, though, because the slickness had made the perfect conditions for nearly nonstop sledding—with the Teleport Lapis, they hadn't even had to keep climbing back up again.
Isaac smiled at the memory. Many people would view that as a bunch of adults acting like children, but to them, it was just the gang having fun like they always had. Even the Djinn got in on the fun, though Bane had done the best he could to spoil it before being taken along for a ride or two and deciding it wasn't so bad, after all.
Isaac sighed. The day was nearly over, and the only place that he and Garet could stay was here, out here in the snow. They were nearer the mountains now, though, and Isaac put the idea in Garet's head that if they didn't find a cave soon, they'd freeze to death in the snow. Garet got right down to it, melting the snow from a moderate-size hole in a mountain as soon as he found it, and he and Isaac dragged themselves inside.
Using an old trick long since perfected, Isaac created vines on the ground with Growth, and Garet lit them on fire. On opposite sides of the fire, the two Adepts fell asleep, each one falling into dreams of the one they most loved.
~*~
"I wonder if they found what Isaac was looking for," Mia whispered to no one that night. She, Sheba, Ivan and Picard were staying in the house that Kraden had left behind, which was quite decent and rather spacious when not cluttered by Kraden's…junk. Thinking everyone else asleep, Mia was quite surprised when she got an answer.
"No doubt they have, or they are very close," Picard said reassuringly. "I know you wish Isaac was here, Mia, but you must remember that he is rational, unlike his current traveling companion, and he would not leave you on Christmas without good reason. As I'm certain you would not leave him."
"No. No, I wouldn't leave Isaac for anything. He's…I love him, Picard. You know that." Something about Mia's words, though, made her frown. She was forgetting something, she knew it.
"Is he more important than your return to Imil?" Picard asked quietly. "More important than going back to your home and guarding anew the Mercury Beacon?"
Mia was about to answer, to say of course he was, this was Isaac, this was the person she was meant to be with forever. But something stopped her. If he was more important than Imil, then why was she going back? What had made her decide to leave after the snow had gone?
Isaac did, she realized. Isaac…he left me on Christmas…some love he must have, not enough to stay with me, apparently. She was about to say more to Picard but she found that he had left, gone to bed. Sighing, she unbound her hair and slowly went to her own bed, falling asleep slowly and dreaming of terrible cold and a feeling of intense loss.
~*~
It was cold. Too cold, here in the snow. There in the snow? He couldn't tell. But the cold was good; it had been so long since he'd felt the cold biting at him. Too long. He knew, though, that sleep was coming, that it would take him if he wasn't careful.
To sleep in the cold, in the snow and wet, that would kill him. And he couldn't die, not now, not when he'd come so far. He groaned, pulled himself up again, and continued his slow, half-walk, half-stumble, ever southward. Ever towards his home.
He'd passed the mountains, made it past the coldest place in all Weyard. He could survive this, could accept the cold, make it part of him, take strength from it. He could make it home.
Far in the distance, he thought he saw a light. Then he collapsed, let the sleep take him. He couldn't go on, not with the wind picking up and the snow falling harder. At that moment, despite their faces flashing before him, in his mind forever, he could not bring himself to go on.
In the morning, he promised himself. When the sun rose, up he would get and onward he would go. Ever southward. Ever bound for home.
~*~
Dora was the last one awake in Vale that night. Her mind, her will, everything about her was focused on Isaac. How could he do this? How could he leave, at Christmas of all times? How could he leave her alone like this? Leave her with all the responsibility, all the work of Christmas?
How could he ever leave her at all when he was the only person she had in all the world anymore?
She shook those thoughts away. He was Isaac, he was the savior of Weyard, and he promised he didn't need to pass Goma Range. He could take care of himself.
He had promised her, told her that she could count on his being home in time for Christmas. And Dora had to believe in Isaac. She had to believe in her son.
I miss you, son, she thought, looking up at the stars, for the sky was clear now, so late at night, and it seemed that one star shone a bit brighter than the rest. Christmas star that shines for me, grant my wish. Bring my Isaac home to me for Christmas.
She remembered the wish she had made, so many years ago, that Kyle would return to her for Christmas. And he hadn't come. She almost laughed at herself for doing it, but she looked up at the star again and asked anyway. Christmas star that shines for me, grant my heart's desire. Bring Kyle back to me this Christmas.
She chided herself for such silly wishful thinking. Kyle was dead. Even when Jenna's parents had returned, they'd said as much. Kyle had died in Prox, they'd said, and there was no way he could come back. Dora had cried harder that day than she had the day the boulder had fallen. There was the proof, actual proof that Kyle could never return to her.
Glancing at the sky one last time, Dora blew out the lanterns and walked up the stairs to bed. She slept that night in an empty house that echoed with the memories of the past.
~*~
There. First chapter done! Tell me what you think—it's likely that two chapters will go up tomorrow, and the last one on Christmas day. So…review if you want the next chapter! And feel free to ask questions…I just won't be able to answer the ones that would reveal my plot! Ahahahahahaha! Happy day before Christmas Eve!!