Silver and Gold
A/N: Another chapter…heh…this one's a bit more action-filled for you. Now, if I could remember what happens in the next one, I'd taunt you with that…but of course, I forget. But I remember, I forgot a disclaimer, so…I don't own Golden Sun or any familiar characters from there. However, I do own Andrew, Colin, Barbaus, and every single random pirate. So there!
Midnight: Picard and Sheba, sane? No way! We're all completely wacko here!!
Kyarorain: No, the people aren't pirates. Well, okay, they're pirates, but not pirates on the ship. They're a different manner of pirate.
Not much else to say, really…except that I was wrong, there are no cliffs this chapter either. Enjoy it while it lasts, because it won't last long!
Chapter Three: Standard Pirate Arms
"They've returned, milord, full to brimming with the loot."
"Wonderful. See that the fifty percent that is mine is taken to the treasury."
"Of course milord. …Er…your pardon, milord?"
"Yes?"
"They have been sighted, sir. Reports are that one of them was using Psynergy to identify the ship as our men were headed away from Daila. It is believed that they know our next target, once we are finished in Alhafra."
"Oh really? Then let us make for Madra with all haste, as soon as our Alhafran business concludes. That will be all."
"Yes, milord."
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A storm slowed the ship down, but Briggs was in a good mood that morning, and they sailed right on through, despite the pouring rain.
"What makes you so happy?" Felix asked sourly.
"We're catching up," Briggs said with a harsh laugh. Felix made a sound that resembled 'hn,' and Sheba, overhearing him, giggled under her breath.
Just like Wheeze, she thought, amid a nearly harmonious laughter chorus from every Djinni except Wheeze, who mimicked Felix's aggressive-indifferent noise.
Eventually the skies cleared and Sheba lifted wind into the sails, making Briggs' ship speed along like it had likely never done before. They were headed for Madra, but it would probably take them a day or so more to get there, even at an improved pace.
Picard grumbled under his breath. He knew that running a ship, especially one so large, meant a lot of work, but he'd never been ordered to scrub the deck before. Usually Briggs made Isaac or Felix do that, particularly Felix, who he must have still been sore at even after all this time.
There was a loud, inhuman cry, and a suddenly-appearing flock of Sea Birds began to dive on the Lemurian. He yelped and ducked even lower, tossing his scrub brush at the flock to scatter it. They came back together quickly, though, and began diving on him again. Picard would have sighed had he not been otherwise distracted. This just wasn't his day.
He grabbed the bucket of water, moving into a crouch and springing up, spinning and sending droplets of water flying, at the same time calling, "Megacool!" The droplets became sharp-edged shards of ice, slicing at the Sea Birds and taking several of them down.
"Should teach them," he muttered as the rest flew off. He had, however, lost both scrubber and bucket to the birds, thus leaving him jobless. He sighed and decided to sit up there, at the bow, just watching the sea go by.
Sheba looked down, having heard most of this spectacle, and grinned to herself. Leave it to Picard to use water in a bucket as a Psynergy attack. She jumped from the crows' nest bucket and scurried down the rope ladder, jumping off and landing lightly on the deck. The ship itself barely moved. Felix, across the deck making spare rope from vines, scowled.
"Come on, you two. Lunchtime. Before Jenna comes up here banging those pans together again. I had a headache for hours. And don't either of you start up on me about it," Sheba added, noting the identical looks on Picard and Felix's faces. "It was a few days ago anyway, and we've got more important things right now. Like lunch," she reiterated, opening the door and finding Mia, Isaac, Jenna and the two Champans already seated at the table. "Well, there go our seats."
"You're talkative today," Felix remarked dryly. He honestly couldn't see how rope made from vines that would die hours after he left the ship would be of any use to Briggs and Chaucha.
"So," Picard said to Isaac as he grabbed a piece of fruit—much as he respected Jenna, he knew about her cooking and her love of spicy food—and leaned against the wall. "How close might we be to Madra?"
"Depends," Isaac said offhandedly, gulping water after eating some of the soup Jenna had made. "Gah! Jenna! You're going to kill us with this!"
"They're the best dried chieles Naribwe had to offer!" Jenna protested. "They gave them to me in exchange for a few good recipes to use them in!"
"I feel bad for them," Andrew gasped, choking on the over-spicy broth. "They suffer through this on accident."
"What does the distance depend upon, again?" Mia asked, returning to Picard's question.
"Whether Briggs is crazy enough to keep sailing through more storms or through the night. And how often we get attacked by the usual fare of sea creatures." Picard hid a smile when Isaac said this, and Sheba giggled quietly.
"The captain's not entirely crazy," said Andrew, smiling. "He likes to chase pirates, after all. Who wouldn't enjoy that?"
"The pirates?" hazarded Jenna.
"Even they like the thrill of the chase, I'll bet," Felix argued. The other all stared at him, but he didn't notice as he continued. "Somewhere behind the fear of being caught and punished and losing their treasure, they love the challenge of having to outrun the good guys."
"Wow Felix," Sheba said after a while.
"I read a lot," Felix offered in explanation, shrugging. "Besides, if you were in that position…wouldn't you?"
"This is one of those 'deep' moments," Isaac muttered. "Those ones that a leader's supposed to have every so often. Pity I don't—Felix comes up with some pretty good stuff when he feels like it."
The remainder of lunch passed without much talk—everyone was dead tired, though they wouldn't admit it. Sailing work was hard—somehow, it hadn't been nearly this bad for the Adepts when they'd been on Picard's ship. Isaac and Felix returned to the deck to do whatever it was they'd been doing, and Jenna returned to the galley ('boat's kitchen' to Garet) mostly to clean up but also to snag a few spare moments to read an interesting book she'd found a while back and had never gotten the chance to really get into.
Picard, Sheba and Mia, plus Andrew and Colin, remained at the table, just sitting, each lost in his or her own thoughts.
"We ought to chase them down," Andrew said finally. "Hunt the pirates down and catch at least one of them, find out who hired them."
"Hired?" Picard questioned.
"Of course hired," said Colin, surprising all of them—he rarely spoke at all. "Pirates, while they do pirate for their own greed, are more often than not hired by someone at the price of the pirates keeping half or more than half of any raided goods. Pirates haven't been in the Eastern Sea for decades, not counting the captain, so it's likely they're just a bunch of outlaws looking to make money and have 'fun' all at the same time," Colin finished.
"Well done," Andrew said after a moment's pause. "You've made your first speech." But the Adepts took no notice. Sheba had recalled a thought, an interesting one, and had relayed it to the other Adepts. Now Andrew and Colin studied the looks on the faces before them.
Mia sat in one of the remaining chairs, one elbow resting on the table and her head on her hand. The look on her face was complicated, and almost looked like it was constantly shifting—a striking combination of worry, puzzlement, and thoughtfulness. There was something else there, but neither Andrew nor Colin would have been able to recognize it for what it was—they didn't know Mia well enough.
Sheba stood between Mia and Picard, and her face wasn't hard to figure out. She was definitely concerned. But there was a light behind her eyes that suggested something more, something like…excitement. A desire to cause havoc and be proud of it.
And Picard had perhaps the most interesting thoughts of them all, if his face gave anything away. He leaned back in his chair, nearly frowning, his eyes full of inner fire. But he was only nearly frowning, because if you looked for a moment he was also nearly smiling. Like he thought whatever was to come might be fun, except the matter was too serious for him to actually look like he was enjoying himself.
"Well, what is it?" Andrew asked finally.
"Champa," the three of them said together. "Suppose the pirates are done with Alhafra and Madra by the time we reach Madra," continued Mia. "Suppose, since it seems they were originally after Obaba and Kraden—and they got Kraden—suppose they return to Champa, to, in their own way, finish what they started?"
"But Madra comes first," Chaucha said, coming up the stairs. "Yes, Mia, I heard you," she went on, looking at the Mercury Adept's stunned face. "We came out here to stop the pirates, or at least help the Eastern Sea protect itself. Briggs will remember Champa soon, and we'll go back there. But for now…he so enjoys fighting for the noble cause," she said wistfully. "Even when he has to pirate, himself, to do it. Let him have his fun."
"You don't worry for Champa?" asked Colin, astonished.
"We left two very capable Adepts back there with Obaba and Eoleo," Chaucha reminded him. "I'm certain that no pirate fleet will be a match for them."
"Capable," muttered Mia, absolutely certain at that moment that there was something they'd overlooked when they'd decided it would be Garet and Ivan who stayed behind. But the feeling fled quickly—it was her turn to watch from the crows' nest and Briggs was yelling to her from outside.
"Honestly, sometimes I want to just…" Chaucha began, then shrugged. "But what can I say?" she went on, more to herself than anyone else, as she headed back down the stairs. "I love him. I married him."
Sheba giggled, then followed Mia out the door. The two Champans had gone with Chaucha. Picard sat alone at the table, looking from the door to the stairs for a few moments as though betrayed. Then he noticed the map, rolled up and placed on a shelf on the wall. He got it down and unrolled it, weighing the ends down with his half-filled glass and three Djinn—Spring, Serac and Rime—who had been called upon for the purpose of three alternate opinions.
Serac thought like a fighter. Spring thought like a healer. And Rime thought like a master strategist. It was that simple.
"Izumo…Champa…Daila…Alhafra…Madra," Picard said to himself, pointing for a moment to each area on the map. "It follows a pattern, aside from Alhafra. In fact, if Madra and Alhafra were switched, I could bet that the next place they would go would be Yallam."
"Should we go there, then?" Spring asked. "It seems likely—no pirate would take the risk of stronger monsters just to cross into the western sea."
"You know nothing of pirates," Serac said confidently.
"Neither do you."
"Yes but I pegged you with it first."
"You two are hopeless," Rime grumbled, hopping around on the map to get a better view. Picard placed his hand on the vacated corner before it could roll up on itself, glaring halfheartedly at Rime.
"Alright, you tactician. What have you got to say?" Serac spat.
"First of all, it's strategist, not tactician. Secondly…I agree—if indeed these pirates were following a pattern, Yallam—easily reached and not at all ready for a fight—would be their next target."
"But?" Spring asked. Serac and Picard looked at her. She sighed. "With him, there's always a 'but'."
"But, this isn't a pattern," Rime continued, right on cue. "They went to Alhafra before Madra, thus their attacks may be based on something other than following the coastline around the Eastern Sea."
"But what?" Picard wondered aloud, running a finger along the pirates' path again. "Nothing I can think of makes any sense with this particular line."
"They could be based in Alhafra," offered Spring.
"I thought of that. But the mayor of Alhafra hates pirates. With such a passion it is unbelievable. He'd never allow them to come from his own city."
"True. Perhaps they went there first to get him out of the way—perhaps they even did it at night, so they'd not have to deal with him," suggested Serac.
"Basically what we have come to," Rime put in, "is that we're as lost as you are, Picard." Picard sighed and recalled his Djinn, rolling up the map and placing it back on the shelf.
"Picard!" called a voice from outside. The Lemurian pulled open the door and stuck his head out. "No, up here!" He came all the way out of the room and looked up at Mia. "What do you know about boats?"
"Now there's a question for the books," Isaac chuckled, looking up from wiping off the rails. "And, I might add, anyone who thinks a ship like this is going to benefit from being so clean I can see my face in the knotholes is completely gone."
"I know a lot about boats," Picard settled for saying, deciding that making a joke out of it consisted of a bit too much in the way of complications. "You looking for anything specific?"
"What do you know about pirate boats?" Mia asked, her voice carrying much less of a carefree tone this time.
"Sheba!" called Picard, pulling himself as quickly as he could up the rope ladder leading up the mast. Sheba's head turned so fast her neck hurt—she'd never been summoned in that sort of voice before. And coming from Picard, that sort of tone almost drew you there through sheer force of speech.
If Mia had said it, Sheba would have been compelled to Teleport there with Psynergy. Shaking her head as she climbed the ladder opposite Picard, she sighed. Mercury Adepts and their mysterious voice control, she thought dryly. Sometime I'll have to learn that.
Picard held on to the rim of the crows' nest with one hand and stood on the ladder with one foot, looking at the ship with his hand shading his eyes from the sunlight. He spotted a black flag with the pirate symbol—a skull over crossed bones—stitched on in blazing white. "That's it, alright. No other…ship would bear a flag like that."
"And both of you fail to realize that there are no other seagoing ships aside from this one and Picard's, and we're on this one and Picard's not only has wings but is residing in Champa," Sheba pointed out.
"Always ruining the fun, you are," Mia accused. "Besides, you're here to…Picard, why is she here?"
"To pull their voices to us, as she did before," Picard stated. "After all…only they know where they will head next."
Sheba closed her eyes and let go of the ropes completely; Mia grabbed her wrist before she could topple over backwards. With her other hand, Sheba began waving as though conducting a chorus, and slowly, the direction of the wind changed. After several long moments, scattered words returned.
Picard and Mia listened carefully. To their apparent dismay, none of the voices said a thing about their next destination. Sheba, however, sensing the voices as mush as hearing them, did not note the presence of the voice that had, before, defended Madra.
"Where is he…" she mumbled, but the words alone broke her concentration and her eyes snapped open, the voices fading.
"Where is who?" Mia asked, and Sheba frowned.
"Last time, there was the voice of a man who spoke in defense of Madra. Said that Madra was none of his business or something like that. But I didn't hear his voice this time. That leads me to believe that their business with Madra is concluded," Sheba continued as she and Picard began to climb down. Unfortunately, the Jupiter Adept was overheard from below.
"Do you suggest," said Briggs with venom in his tone, "that we abandon Madra?"
"I suggest we alter course," Picard said before Sheba could get defensive. She'd never especially liked Briggs and it had only gotten worse. "We could, in a few hours' time, catch the pirates, provided we have clear skies and a bit of Psynergetic aid."
"Well you can suggest all you like," Briggs snapped. Picard's eyes widened, startled. "I'm the captain of this ship, and you will do as I say!" Speechless, Picard nodded. "Good. Now, I say to send two of your Adepts off with their…whatever it is…to Madra, right off the ship like I know they can do. But not you, Lemurian, and not your upstart little friend there either. Two of you, sort out the problems in Madra. The rest of you will stay here and help us catch the pirates."
"Yes sir," Picard said with much emphasis—Sheba had begun to protest against Briggs claiming the idea for his own. Satisfied, the noble pirate turned and walked away.
"Well, who will you send, Isaac?" Picard asked. The Venus Adept looked sheepishly out the door, caught eavesdropping.
"I suppose…well…I would say Mia and Jenna, to throw a bit of unpredictability the Madrans' way, but that leaves us…lacking, and it might send Jenna off on one of her 'equality' rampages again. Perhaps Felix and Mia. Or even Mia and myself"
"Not Jenna? But she'll be useless on the water. Mars Psynergy and all," Felix added, coming out right behind Isaac.
"Ships are made of wood. I imagine she's very good at that sort of destruction," Isaac said with a hint of a grin. "Myself and…oh. Mia!" Isaac called. Mia looked out over the edge of the crows' nest. "Come on down here for a second!"
Mia joined them, and Isaac outlined Briggs' plan. He did add his own interesting twists to it, however, so in the end, Mia and Isaac left with the Teleport Lapis for Madra, and Sheba climbed to the top of the mast again and called wind into the sails.
"Now," said Briggs, smiling almost evilly as he rested his hands on the wheel. "Full sail! Today, we hunt pirates!"
Colin and Andrew gave one another high-fives, then set to work with Felix and Picard, hauling up the sails. Jenna and Chaucha emerged from below, Jenna casually tossing a small object back and forth from hand to hand.
"What's that?" Felix asked, giving a final pull on the rope and letting Andrew tie it down. Jenna smirked.
"Pound Cube," she said, holding out the grey, block-shaped stone, its edges glowing faintly red, in the palm of her hand. "They shall be smashed."
"Just give us time to try to talk first, alright?" Felix asked, nearly taking a step back. Jenna was scary when she got in one of her battling moods.
"If that's what Briggs plans," Colin reminded them. The Adepts looked at one another. They knew now what Briggs was like on a ship—confident and in total command, unquestionably leader. Could he, in a true fight against evil, be also passionately heartless and cruel?
They came up nearly right behind the pirate ship only a few hours later, and Jenna and Picard stood at the bow, hands raised, waiting for their signal. A shrill whistle was heard, and Jenna sent forward a blast of Fume seconds after Picard dried the wood of the pirate ship with Parch. The boards began to catch fire, and the pirates scurried about, throwing all the water they could find onto the flames.
Sheba, too, waited, and the sight of most of the fires going out was her signal. With a wave of her hand, she called down a Ray attack from the sky. The lightning bolts were small, compared to many other things she could do, but to the pirates it must have seemed as though the world had drawn to a stop.
Felix was last, with a borrowed Djinni of Jenna's at his disposal. He extended both hands—in them, he held one of his ropes. "Growth!" The rope sprang forward, growing and thickening to be nearly two feet in diameter, and burst out across the gap between the pirate ship and Briggs' ship. Colin, Andrew, Picard and Jenna instantly began running across, though they did not draw their weapons (save Jenna—hers was a staff).
"Sheba!" Felix called, and the Jupiter Adept nodded and leapt down, landing gracefully and lightly on the deck, following the others across the rope at a run.
Felix let the thick vine attach itself to the ship's deck, then ran across with Briggs on his heels. He kept one hand on his Excalibur, but made no move to draw it. He was instead focused on the pirates themselves.
One of them had actually drawn his—it was a cutlass, Felix supposed—and was exchanging blows with Jenna. The fiery Adept was more than a match for any second-rate pirate, Felix noted—the staff landed one final smash on the back of the pirate's head, and he dropped.
Something stopped Sheba as she rushed ahead, something out-of-place among the general chaos. One of the pirates stood calmly, his back against the door to the hold, with his eyes closed and…and warm green light surrounding his hands.
'Felix!' Sheba called, and the Venus Adept halted mid-punch, frozen in place. 'The pirates! They have a Venus Adept on their side!'
Felix, about to reply, suddenly found himself back in the moment and on the receiving end of a swing from his opponent's cutlass. What is this, the standard pirate arms? Felix asked himself, moving as fast as he possibly could to get out of the way. However, he wasn't fast enough, and the blade sliced along his left side, tearing open his shirt and making him curse leaving his armor behind on Picard's ship as he felt the sharp edge on his skin.
There was a flash of pain, and Felix dropped to his knees. Something had struck him in the shoulder. He reached behind him and felt the hilt of a dagger. Growling, he looked up and found the pirate who had cut him dropping to the deck. Jenna stood behind him, her staff held firmly in both hands. Jenna spotted Felix and gasped, the staff clattering to the deck—somehow they heard it amidst all the commotion—as she knelt by her brother.
She muttered something, and there was a red flash. Felix sighed, assuming his sister had cast Cool Aura or something along those lines, but he felt no different. He heard Jenna say a word he hadn't known she knew, then dropped to the deck, not even conscious to hear himself hit it.
"Where is it?" Jenna asked herself, glaring at both hands in utter frustration. With a scowl, she held them out and called, "Fume!" A very faint fiery dragon-shape shot from her hands, disappearing almost instantly. "I cannot be out of Psynergy already!" she shouted, grabbing the Tisiphone Edge from the deck and continuing to take out her frustration and, added to that, growing worry, on the dozen or so pirates that had gathered. One by one they hit the deck, none of them awake to notice it.
Picard found he was having similar problems. Somewhere in all the chaos, he and Colin had been singled out by six or so pirates. Without his sword usable, Picard could do little but fire weak blasts of Psynergy—and suddenly, these were failing him. Could he really have run out so soon?
Sheba was the only one, standing as inconspicuously as possible while Andrew, somewhere off to the left, was smacking down pirates—there couldn't have been many left—with the flat of his sword, who knew approximately what had just happened to their Psynergy. The Venus Adept was surrounded by the glow now, and Sheba felt her ability to reach out with her mind diminishing by the second. She did the only thing she could think of, moving as fast as she dared.
With a rather final-sounding thud, the end of her staff slammed into his temple. He dropped like a stone to the deck, the glow faded, and Sheba felt her Psynergy return with a rush. She turned to regard Andrew, but an odd thing happened then that made her stop.
There were a few flickers of light, and Isaac and Mia appeared on the deck of the pirate ship, looking very bewildered. Mia instantly ran in one direction, Isaac in the other. Mia joined Jenna, now rather enjoying using her Fume to put smoking holes in the remaining available wood on the ship. Mia saw Felix and just barely stopped herself from gasping; Jenna caught her look and gave a quick nod. They stood one on either side of Felix and pulled him up, running for his vine with him practically hanging between them.
Isaac found Picard and Colin surrounded by a group of pirates, taking hits on every side but returning none. Isaac rushed in behind the nearest pirate, simply running into him and letting the domino effect occur—three of the pirates, on the ground and dazed in one blow. Picard looked at Isaac thankfully, then dropped to his knees. Isaac moved to help him, but froze as a short sword swished over Picard's head, the very tip scoring a line across Isaac's forehead.
Picard shifted his weight and launched himself backwards, taking out the pirate behind him as he went, and nearly going over the edge and into the black water. He managed to roll aside, however, and stood facing the remaining two pirates.
"How many are there?" Isaac asked himself. "How many places could there possibly be to find pirates?"
'Adepts!' Sheba's voice rang clear in their minds. 'All of you, drop to the ground. I might hit you, too, otherwise.' Instead of questioning the voice in his mind, all five Adepts, plus Andrew, Colin, and Briggs, dropped. Almost immediately, faint images of Psynergy-created illusory sheep began their illusory stampede. Every pirate on board fell into a deep sleep.
"Ha," Sheba said aloud. Jenna and Mia, with Felix, continued their run until they were across Felix's vine bridge, and the rest of them followed behind shortly. As soon as the last of them were across, Isaac took out the Teleport Lapis and looked at it.
"Where to?" he asked Mia, knowing that she now stood at his side.
"Madra. It's closest. And the pirates won't go back there."
"You're certain?"
"Isaac, we need to leave," Mia said, the underlying tone of her voice suggesting that if they didn't leave each and every one of them would regret it later. And not because she'd smack them around with Clotho's Distaff, either.
"Right," Isaac said with a nod. Waving the Teleport Lapis in a short arc, he smiled as the ship and all its current residents faded into little balls of light. The next thing he saw was the beach just southeast of Madra.
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It was later that night, and Isaac sat in front of a fire in the common room of Madra's Inn. Jenna and Picard sat there too; Jenna was sipping a mug of some hot liquid, staring at the fire as though deep in thought, and Picard sat with his legs over one arm of his chair and his back against the other, a book held open on his lap.
Isaac sighed, looking at the dagger he held in his hand. It had a hilt wrapped in some sort of leather, and on the bottom was a strange insignia—an A and a B overlaid on one another, in turn overlaid on the design of a sailing ship. It'd been washed off, of course, and Isaac had taken it to look at it for any sort of recognizable clue as to who these pirates were and where they'd come from—so far, he wasn't getting much of anywhere.
"It was like old times," Jenna said softly. Isaac and Picard both looked up at her. "Felix, Sheba, and you and me, Picard. Like when we were all wandering around together. Everything about that battle all happened in perfect synchronous harmony, like it used to be, once we all got used to one another."
"It was like that with us too," Isaac agreed, remembering his earlier travels. Jenna suddenly stood up and marched angrily over to Isaac, standing very overpoweringly in front of him, arms folded, face locked in a scowl. "Yes?"
"The minute you and Mia showed up, it all fell to pieces! Odd stuff started happening with my Psynergy, and Felix went down, and the pirates started winning, all because you threw it off. You and her."
"Jenna, I think you've got a few things backwards," Isaac began, standing also to somewhat dissipate the total control Jenna seemed to feel when she towered over the seated Isaac.
"I have nothing backwards! And if you hadn't interfered with us at Contigo, we wouldn't have had to go all the way through the Eastern Sea again looking for the keys to unlocking summons! Saturos and Menardi might still be alive! Karst and Agatio might never have died!"
"It is not my fault, Jenna!" Isaac cried, taking a step forward. The Mars Adept didn't back down an inch. Isaac, eyes blazing, brought his voice back under control. "I did not cause any of that. I know you're worried about Felix, we all are, but Mia promised he'd be fine, and I trust her, and so should you, especially after all this time. I don't know what else to tell you, because right now everything you're saying is completely absurd."
"Don't you dare talk to me like that, Isaac!" Jenna screeched, her hand rising without her even noticing. "You know nothing of how it was, or how it is! Nothing! To life every day of your life wondering if you'll see the next one, if your family will see the next one, knowing that they're out there somewhere but you can't do a thing to save them…you just don't know, Isaac!" Jenna finished at maximum volume, and abruptly her hand came around fast, connecting with Isaac's face with enough power to run him into the chair and flip it over backwards.
Picard looked at Jenna for a few seconds, but she refused to look back. Tears stung her eyes—she couldn't face either of them right now. Letting out a soft sob, Jenna ran up the stairs, leaving Picard staring after her.
Setting his book down, the Lemurian swung himself out of his chair and walked over to where Isaac lay flat on his back on the floor, staring dazedly at the ceiling and with a bright red handprint on his face. Picard studied the Venus Adept for a moment, then held out a hand. Isaac took it and pulled himself back up, sitting in Picard's offered chair. Picard himself righted Isaac's former chair and sat in it.
"Are you angry?" Picard asked finally. Isaac paused for a few moments before speaking.
"No. I think…I think Jenna's needed to do that for a long, long time, and better she do it to me, explode at me, than at you or Garet or Ivan. I mean…if it had been Garet, she'd either be in a fistfight right now or feel so angry with herself she wouldn't be able to speak. If it had been Ivan, she'd have felt like a bully, picking on someone who really didn't deserve it. And if it had been you…all things aside, Picard, I'm willing to bet you're her closest friend. She couldn't face you, not if she'd yelled at you when you did nothing, then slapped you across the face and knocked half your lights out. And she certainly couldn't complain to Felix." Isaac reached up and gently touched the side of his face, flinching.
"So she chose you," Picard continued for him. "Quite unintentionally, but it does make sense. She'll still be able to live with herself, tomorrow morning, and she might not feel too bad about hitting you because she knows that you will understand why she had to do it."
"Besides, we should know not to get her too near a fireplace," Isaac added, smiling with the unmarked half of his face.
"Toss me that book, will you?" Picard asked. Isaac lifted the book from the floor and studied the title, then gently threw it over. "Thanks."
For about a half hour more, they sat in silence, Picard reading, Isaac seemingly lost in his own thoughts. Picard marked his page and closed the book, looking up at Isaac and finding that the Venus Adept had fallen asleep. Probably shortly after we stopped talking, Picard thought.
Mia came down the stairs then, very quietly; in fact seemingly quiet on purpose. Picard stood and smiled, nodding at Isaac and heading for the stairs, to his own bed and a sleep he really felt like getting.
Mia gently woke Isaac, noting with some curiosity the large red splotch on his face, but she attributed it to his sleeping in a different position prior to her arrival. Isaac smiled tiredly at her, and they walked back up the stairs together.
"Felix?" Isaac asked in a whisper.
"He'll be alright. He might not be up for much tomorrow, but the day after, sure."
"That's good," Isaac said, smiling again. He reached over and put his arm around Mia's shoulders. "Do you know how glad I am to have you here?"
"What, so I can keep on saving the life of your silence-inclined counterpart?" Mia asked with a hint of a smile. Isaac pulled her closer.
"No, so you can save mine," he said slyly. Mia laughed softly. They reached the top of the stairs, and Isaac slowly pulled his arm away, heading into the room he'd been given to share with Felix.
"Look here, you," he said to Felix's pale-but-sleeping form. "If something happens and I sleep through it, Jenna will give me such a bashing I'll be thrown into next month. So please be loud enough to wake me up if something goes wrong."
Getting and expecting no response from Felix, Isaac assumed it was an agreement and, after dumping his armor and such on the ground, fell into much-anticipated sleep.
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