And you all thought I'd died...
(Char): With the amount of time it's taken you to update? I think they were wishing...
Gee, thanks... how kind you are.
(Dew): Darn right.
(Char): Dew, how's construction on the painful thing I told you to start on a while ago going?
(Dew): Oh, it's done.
eep...
(Dew): Here it is! *takes out a large machine* You put Omniflyer in here... *points to a hole the size of a doorway* ... and he comes out here. *points to a hole the size of a quarter*.
...I don't like this...
(Char): Then start writing and maybe I won't make you go in!!
Fair enough...
Review Responses (I'm going to start taking memory pills to remind me to do these... that's if I can remember to take the pills...):
Well, basically the reviews were all pretty linear, so I think I'll cover them like this...
Midnight C, Shade, Mist, Crystal, Knightblazer 88, QueenDragonGoddess, Akachi, Jenna, Hama, Karst, Agatio, MercuryAdept, Ivan of Vault, Zephyr, 0==|=R=a=g=n=a=r=o=k=, Cowpuppy and Mia: ...Owies...
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Mia watched helplessly as Shalex flew off into the distance. Tears stained her soft cheeks as she held the still Isaac close to her, rocking slowly. The others were gaping, openmouthed, tears coming to them as well. Mia buried her head in Isaac's chest, then rose to turn as Jenna laid her hand on her shoulder.
"Mia... you have to be able to do something," she whispered softly. "Please... please tell me you can do something." Mia simply stared at her, her broken-ness being reflected in the shade of her eyes. Mia's mouth moved, but no words could escape her.
"Mia," Sheba began, "do you remember when we were in Anemos Sanctum...?" Mia nodded shakily. "I didn't know how to use Tempest, remember? And then Ivan collapsed?" Mia looked down at her fallen Isaac, and sympathized with Sheba's feelings that day. Sheba continued her story, but Mia was too deep in emotion to truly hear the words.
As it had happened, deep in the catacombs of the Sanctum, Ivan was felled by a particularly nasty blow from Dullahan. Sheba was at his side before he had hit the ground, but Dullahan had already launched a plasmatic attack towards them. If the attack struck Ivan, he surely would have died, too quickly for Mia to heal and too far for Isaac or Felix to Revive. Sheba, summoning all of her courage, held Ivan's hand, closed her eyes, and relied on his fading spirit to guide her. She managed, for the first time, to cast Tempest, which was strong enough to blow the offending attack away, and saving Ivan's life by buying Mia enough time to get there and heal him. Mia, remembering what had happened, looked up.
"Do...do you think that I..." she wondered, looking at Sheba through tear-stained eyes.
"Yes," she said with a weak smile. "You can do it, Mia... use him to help you cast Revive." Felix frowned.
"I could have done that. He's too far gone for Revive," he said, but soon regret it as Mia's face broke again and she seemed on the verge of drowning them all in a deluge of tears. Jenna, however looked at him furiously.
"Just because you can't do it doesn't mean she can't!" she snapped. "Mia is closer with Isaac that you can ever hope to be. She can use her bond with him to help!" Mia looked at her with a look of gratitude. Jenna nodded. "Bring him back to us."
Mia decided not to waste any more time. She lowered her gaze to stare at Isaac and took his hand carefully. It was still faintly warm.
She closed her eyes and reflected on Isaac. Something, some hidden instinct buried deep within her that she couldn't deny, began to draw a yellow light from Isaac's body. It basked her in a golden light that reminded her of the warmth that she felt whenever he was with her in person. Or at least, in person and alive.
Mia prayed to Mercury with all of her heart and all of her strength, and slowly, in the back of her mind, she felt a new power begin to rise within her.
Distantly, she could hear a faint voice speaking. "What if she cannot handle it? She is not of this element. She does not have the power." And then, another.
"Have faith. She is a child of the water, and a chosen child of Mercury. She will do."
Mia wondered what these voices meant, but put them out of her thoughts. All that mattered right now was bringing Isaac back.
'Please...let me do this... just this once...'
Mia lowered her hands over Isaac and a golden glow, the golden glow of Venus, overtook her. It shimmered over to him, and slowly, ever so slowly, it receded. And when it did, Isaac's chest slowly began to rise and fall.
"Isaac-chan!!*" Mia cried. She threw her arms around him and cried into her shoulder. She pulled back and kissed him lovingly, and then pulled him close into a long embrace again. The others all watched them, expressions of joy on their faces. Isaac stared deeply into Mia's eyes.
"Mia..." he whispered.
"Oh, Isaac..." Mia trailed, but Isaac cut her off.
"You fool..." he muttered. Mia jerked like she'd been slapped.
"Isaac...? Isaac, what...?' but that was all she could say before everything around her began going black. Her friends, the weapon shop, it all faded into blackness, until the only thing she could see was the form of Isaac. She tried to grab him for support, but he withdrew back a step, and his form began to twist and morph.
Mia screamed in horror, as the one she had worked to hard to bring to her, the one she had kissed and loved changed slowly from Isaac into Shalex. Shalex snickered and then burst into all-out laughter.
"You fool!!" he laughed, flying into the distance. "You fool!!"
********************
"Shalex!!" Mia cried as she bolted upright. She took in her surroundings. She was back in her bed. The covers were strewn about, mostly on the floor now. It was raining heavily outside, occasionally the sound of thunder piercing the silence.
It was the night after the disaster, when she was helpless to save the one she loved. Mia shook at the memory.
Mia swung her feet over the side of the bed and staggered to her feet as though she was going to be sick. She stumbled to the window, but then turned away quickly when she remembered that she had her house specially built so her window overlooked Isaac's house.
She looked back to her bed and realized she had a snowballs chance in the Suhalla Desert of getting back to sleep. So, she dressed herself, found an umbrella and stole out into the night of Vale.
The rain pounded against the umbrella, but she ignored it. She forced her way against the wind along the many twisting paths of Vale. Eventually, she came across the place that she wanted to be.
Kraden's hut.
She didn't bother to knock, but burst in. Thankfully it was unlocked and Kraden was conveniently completing an experiment.
"Kraden," Mia said darkly, not quite a threatening tone, but one that lets you know the speaker wasn't in any mood to joke around. "We need to talk." Kraden looked up at her curiously.
"Well, I just need to clean up this little bit of..."
"Now."
"...of course, that can wait."
"I want to know...you know more about Alchemy than any other person alive." Mia stated.
"Almost any person," Kraden said, referring to Shalex, who indeed was mostly Alchemical power, making him the expert on the topic. Mia stared at him dangerously.
"Not now," she said, and Kraden quickly shut his mouth and took a step back. "You know all about how Alchemy and life interact... please, is there any way to revive Isaac? Please, if Alchemy is the source of all life, it must be able to restore it to, right? Please, tell me it can!" she said, close to hysterics again. Kraden chose his words carefully, knowing that anything he said that wasn't what Mia wanted to hear when she was in a dangerous mood could be quite hazardous to his health, anyone within a 5-kilometer radius, and, most importantly, his experiments.
"My dear, if we could bring people back so easily, we surely would have done it by now, don't you agree?" Mia glared at him. "That's not to say it's... impossible, but I just don't know how. Mia, I want to, but I simply can't." Mia's eyes narrowed and Kraden prepared for the coming storm of anger, but it never came. Mia's knees simply buckled and she fell to the floor, tears staining its wood finish.
Kraden let her cry for about five minutes until he finally got the nerve to attempt consolation. He crept forward and began to speak. "Um... Mi-"
Mia rose from the floor with frightening speed. There was no hint of the gentle healing, protective angel that others had seen there. Though Kraden supposed the angelic quality was still there, she was now more of an avenging angel than anything. She rose from the ground with her head faced down and her eyes overshadowed by her hair. The temperature in the hut dropped considerably and Kraden gave an involuntary shudder. The ends of Mia's hair began to float slightly, and Kraden mused over how she could look so beautiful and yet so deadly at once.
"Fine, then," she said softly, tears dripping down her face, eyes still overshadowed. "Just tell me... tell me how or where I can find Shalex. I will chase him to Gaia falls and beyond if I need to! I will make him pay for what he did!!" Mia's hair was floating furiously now, and some of Kraden's random liquid-related experiments froze solid. Kraden sighed, then took a further step back.
"Very well. Come with me," he said, gesturing to the back of his hut. He scrambled around for awhile, and then furiously dug through some old scrolls. It took him so long that the storm had passed. Dawn was slowly coming, and the Golden Sun was beginning to glow its more brilliant shades again in accordance with the time. Finally, Kraden gave a cry of enthusiasm and leaped up, clutching an old scroll. "Here we are," he said.
"What's that?" Mia wondered, leaning in for a closer look.
"This is an old scroll of Alchemy. It lists the steps one must undergo if they wish to understand its power," he explained.
"Why do we care about understanding it?" Mia wondered. Kraden smiled.
"Through long, detailed research, I have discovered that it is not the understanding of alchemy that one achieves by following these steps."
"What is it, then?" Mia wondered.
"It is the power of Alchemy. What Shalex," he shuddered slightly, "now has. Or rather, what he nearly has."
"I thought he had it all," Mia wondered.
"Not quite," Kraden explained. "Look, read the scroll..."
'Ye who wish Alchemical Might
Read this, and then none more.
Go forth and by your hand, light
The lighthouse beacons four.
If then this task ye should succeed,
Then atop Mount Aleph's peak,
Ye will see what is here to read:
The treasure of the meek.
The Sun which holds most of the power
Of Weyard's Elements,
To get the rest, climb all the towers
So your power is not spent...'
"I don't understand..." Mia said.
"Come, then," Kraden said. "Let us go to my roof for a moment."
The two walked outside and Kraden pulled down his special ladder. Mia climbed up and then assisted the elderly Kraden to the top.
"Thank you," Kraden said. "I'm not as young as I used to be..."
"Why are we here?" Mia asked.
"Just look over there," Kraden said, gesturing to the Golden Sun.
"What about it? Mia wondered.
"The Golden Sun is the representation of all of Alchemy's power," Kraden explained. "It is sort of a balance between the two panoptic Elements, Sol and Luna, which aren't really elements, but more like governing entities." Mia nodded to show she understood. "But because the Golden Sun is mostly Sol and Luna, it cannot be entirely of Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and, of course, Mercury," he said with a small smile towards her. Mia grinned slightly, despite herself. "So, then main powers of Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter are restrained..." Mia cut him off.
"'...climb all the towers'... they're restrained atop the Lighthouses, aren't they?" Mia said.
"Yes. Shalex's power is indeed powerful, nearly invincible and invulnerable, not to mention he can now easily cast spells of every element, but it is not limitless. If he does manage to take the elemental powers from each lighthouse, however, his power will be limitless. He will never run out of Psynergetical Power," Kraden finished. Mia looked down.
"How can I stop him if he's that strong...?" Mia whispered. Kraden reprimanded her.
"You can stop him. He isn't unbeatable yet!" he exclaimed. "You can still stop him. Just try and remember why you're doing this!" Mia nodded.
"Isaac..." she whispered solemnly. Kraden stared at her.
"I was going to say for all of Weyar..." he said, before an icy glance from Mia cut him off, and he realized that he couldn't take a step back, being on the edge of the roof. "Yes, of course, you're right. For Isaac."
Mia looked away, dawn now having fully arrived. The Golden Sun was beaming brilliantly, and Mia was reflecting on her past, and preparing for her greatest journey.
"I will not fail you...
"Isaac..."
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Another chapter in the vault.
(Char): Oh, hooray...
(Dew): I'm overjoyed...
If you hate it that much, leave!
(Char) I wish...
(Dew): We could if you stopped writing!
Oh, be happy! I didn't cliff this time.
(Dew): Well... I guess so. What happened? Lost your touch?
(Char): Quiet! Don't provoke him to!"
(Dew): I'm not scared of him! I've got the crunching machine!
*cringing*
(Dew): What do you say to that, Omniflyer?!
...Shalex.
(Dew/Char): IT BURNS!!
Well, to the rest of you, review, and I'll get started on the next chapter. Eventually. Sometime. With cliffhange... I mean, without cliffhangers. Yes, without. (Bwahahaha...)
*Isaac-chan entirely belongs to and is copyrighted to Midnight C. It's just that everyone, including myself, likes using it because it sounds right. It's a perfect name! So, it's not mine, and Midnight, if you don't want me using it, just let me know and I'll change it.