Well, let's just get right into it today, shall we? I know you've been waiting. What can I say? Writing for English class takes up my enthusiasm to write for ff.net. Darn life.
(Dew): I didn't know you had a life.
(Char): Yeah. We're always telling you to get one.
...I don't know whether I should be angry or... well, angry.
(Dew): That would make you angry.
...let's just get to the reviews.
Review Responses:
Tetra: To be quite honest with you, most of that I was thinking myself. Thanks for being honest!
Jupiter Sprite: heh... that name can now be used to make my friends cringe, coincidentally... SHALEX!
Ivan of Vault: Why not throw Picard in, then? You'd probably get a lot of money for him, and I can think of a few OBHL-ers that'd pay quite a bit to 'glomp' him.
MercuryAdept: *laughing* Quick...
Akachi: OW! GARET! Stop... stop stop stopstop OW!! How am I supposed to write if you-OW!
Midnight C: Soon is a relative term. ^_^;;
Cloud-123: Thank you! I think I will...
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Mia was starting to boil inside.
The last few days had tried her harshly. First and foremost was the loss of her beloved Isaac. Her one true love was fallen now, sacrificed for her benefit, defeated by a demon of her past. Her nights now were partly sleepless, with nightmares of his final moments plaguing her mind.
And then, should she ever manage to see beyond that, she was reminded of the simple fact that she wasn't even in her home- in her world- anymore. Now she had been stolen from her land and placed in this strange new world, where she didn't know anyone or anything save those that were drawn into it with her, where the rules kept changing and where she wasn't sure of who was friend and who was foe.
But even beyond that, could she still think about it, were the two acts of sabotage that no one could detect. Ivan and Sheba had attempted their best mind reading on their group, but it had not availed them, as still they had no idea who the saboteur was. Mia was thinking of possible saboteurs outside the group, but still she couldn't decide upon a plausible explanation. Of course, there was always the possibility of Mokol.
Mokol. Just the name now made her tremble. He surely wasn't responsible for the incident aboard the ship, but the carriage incident could have been his fault. But even those developments escaped her minds when thoughts of that little girl arose again. The little girl who was in tears over her poor grandfather, and he hadn't cared. If Mia's suspicions were correct, he had caused it.
Mia was definitely starting to boil now.
And all things that boil must eventually give off steam.
********************
The group moved slowly down the darkening spiral staircase. The sunlight from above was fading, but it wasn't getting much darker. In fact, for some odd reason, after a few spirals, the stairway seemed to stay at the same luminosity. Ivan pointed out some odd glowing objects on the ceilings that were giving off artificial light. They slowed their pace even more in wonder at what they might come across next.
"Unnatural light," Garet whispered. "I'm telling you... anything that can produce light that isn't Sol-based just isn't good. Evil, probably."
Jenna stared at him, then cast Blaze in her hand to give off a little light. "Are you calling me evil, Garet? I thought you cared about me!" Garet swallowed hard and then tried to move closer, but Jenna drew back in fake sadness. She called up fake tears in her eyes and stated acting extremely melodramatic to force Garet to squirm, which worked quite effectively.
Jenna would have kept this act going for a long time to come, but they reached the end of the stairway and found themselves at the doorway of a large underground room.
"Where are we?" Sean wondered, staring ahead at the room. It was lined with boxes that appeared to have glowing surfaces that displayed information. Some people were using their hands and other devices to interface with them. Picard started in amazement.
"This is amazing..." he reveled. "Such ability." Mokol stopped at the doorway and turned to face them.
"This is the computer room headquarters of the Keunam Fighters," he explained. "This is where we keep all the information for our missions and campaigns." Sheba furrowed her brow.
"What kind of campaigns?" she asked objectively.
"You'll see," Mokol said mysteriously. "But first, I'll have to ask all of you that are not Jupiter-aligned to wait here. As you can see, other elemental Adepts cannot enter this room," he said, taking Felix's hand and trying to force it through the doorway. Felix's hand wouldn't pass.
The Wind adepts passed through the barrier, but stopped just on the inside and looked back at the others.
"What about us?" Mia asked, folding her arms over her chest. "I surely hope you don't expect us to just wait here while you take our friends. There are still some things you have to explain."
"Of course there are," Mokol replied with a tone of impatience. "Here, we can try something else." He pointed to a marble arch. Beneath it was a circular platform slightly raised off the floor. It was embroidered with the symbol of Jupiter. "If you all stand on that and we activate it, your elements will phase slightly to Jupiter... simply put, there should be enough Jupiter in you to allow you to pass into this room."
"You make it sound like our elements are just liquids that you can mix at your will," Felix commented levelly. Mokol chuckled.
"Call it what you will," he said. "Just hurry up and stand there so we can get on with this."
The two Fire Adepts, the two Water Adepts and Felix all cautiously moved to the platform, as though expecting another trap to spring from the very walls themselves, but none came. They all took their places on the platform.
"Ensign," Mokol nodded, "initiate Teleport." With many brilliant flashes of light, the five Adepts disappeared from sight.
"Mokol!" Sean growled, "What did you do?!"
"Isn't it obvious? They aren't even Wind-based, but they expected to be allowed into the very core of the Keunam Fighters?" he scoffed. "Low-life scum like those off-elemental Adept-wannabes don't deserve to be here." Ivan glared at him, his hand tightening on his staff.
"Off-elemental or not, they're our friends!" he said darkly. Where did you send them?!"
"Away," Mokol replied shortly, moving into the room. "Now hurry up. The sooner I explain the situation, the sooner I can answer your other questions."
The Wind Adepts reluctantly moved into the room. Mokol drew them over to the largest screen, where a large map was shown, with great blotches of red and blue being shown over the land masses.
"What are we looking at?" Feizhi asked quietly.
"All blue spots on the map are areas that our forces occupy," Mokol answered. "The red spots show territory occupied by the enemy."
"Are you at war?" Sean asked.
"No," Mokol replied. "We are quelling the uprising before it begins."
"What uprising?" Feizhi wondered. "Are you expecting a rebellion?"
"The Keunam Fighters is an association which fights back the monsters that would attack the cities and destroy any levelers that come by. The levelers are the giant monsters, like the one you fought earlier," Mokol explained. "However, in recent months, the general public has shown... dissatisfaction with our battles."
"Dissatisfaction how?" Sheba questioned him.
"We fight the levelers as best we can, but occasionally, they get into a city. Once they do that, we have to continue the fight near the public," he sighed.
"So what's wrong with that?" Ivan wondered. "Evacuate the public and finish it off fast." Mokol chuckled and shook his head sadly.
"We try... but they don't listen. We order them to move, but they stay because they want to fight. Then they blame us when they get hurt."
"You can't just order them to move and expect that they will," Sheba pointed out. "They're going to want to fight for their home."
"The Keunam fighters are part of the government. As such, we hold the right to order the public to do anything." Feizhi shuddered.
"Why should you have such power over their lives?" she asked, visibly startled. "Shouldn't they get to live for themselves? Why do you get to call all the shots?"
"If we were to allow the people to stay and fight for themselves, and allow them to not follow the guidelines and procedures that we've laid out for them, then some of them might get the idea that we aren't in complete control," Mokol said.
"Complete control of what?" Sheba posed.
"Of everything," Mokol answered impatiently, waving his hand as though to deflect bothersome questions. "As the governmental body, we should have control over everything that affects the people's lives." Feizhi shuddered and clasped a hand on her opposite elbow to steady herself.
"That doesn't sound very fair to me," she muttered. "I should think I would hate to live in a world where others would make m decisions for me."
"It's better than if you were to make decisions for yourself, about everything," he replied.
"I'm not so sure," Ivan replied. "While I have nothing against a proper leader, that leader shouldn't have control over everything." Mokol frowned and put his face very close to Ivan's.
"You're starting to sound like a Frean to me, Ivan," Mokol growled. "Don't spread those ideas too far; people might not like it."
"What's a Frean?" Sean asked. Mokol's frown deepened even further. He gestured to the screen again, at all the red spots.
"The Freans control all areas that show up red on the map," he explained. "The Freans are the bane of our society. They wish to overthrow this system and install one of their own." Ivan blinked at the screen, and then stole a glance at Mokol.
"What system do they want to employ?" he asked.
"They want to install a system where the people are responsible for their lives. They have grown so bitter at being... unable to see how much we do for them, that they wish to abolish all government entirely."
'Ivan,' Sheba called telepathically.
'Yeah?'
'Is it me, or are we just dealing with two extremes, here?'
'I see what you mean. In Weyard, we had happy mediums. A leader to guide his people, but they could live their lives. But here...'
'I know... two complete opposites. One side wants government with total control. The other wants people with total control.' Sheba thought, her telepathic voice becoming smaller and distant. 'Everything's all wrong here... nothing's like it should be. It's a world that we should be at home in, but...' she trailed.
'We'll be home eventually,' Ivan comforted her, 'and until we are, I'll be here for you. You know that...'
'We don't have Mia, or even a healer anymore. If one of us gets hurt...'
'Then the others will tend to them,' Ivan replied, his voice calm. 'I'm not going anywhere, and neither are you.'
'And if one of us does?'
'We won't.'
"Well?!" Mokol burst, agitation dripping from his voice.
"What?" Ivan jerked from his thoughts, glancing around wildly.
"Are you going to help up quash the rebellion?" Mokol asked impatiently, as though he'd been waiting for an answer to that question for some time.
"Can we have time? To think about it, I mean?" Sean asked. Mokol grumbled, and stalked off down a corridor from the main room. He led them down an ivory corridor and into a poorly-lit room. There were a few hard wooden chairs, but nothing else in the ways of aesthetics or practical uses.
"You can deliberate over it here. Just make up your mind fast." He shut the door behind them and walked away.
"I'm worried," Feizhi said, once she was sure Mokol was out of earshot. Sean nodded his assent.
"This world is crazy. Nothing seems right here."
"Not about the world," Feizhi said.
"About Mia and the others," Sheba commented. Feizhi nodded.
"They'll be fine. From a healing standpoint, they're much better off than we are. Mia's a gifted healer, and Felix, Jenna and Picard can all heal if they need to," Ivan pointed out. "Whereas we have no healing Psynergy and," he paused, looking in his bag, "I don't think we have any healing items."
"I have an herb," Sean offered meekly.
"One herb..." Sheba muttered.
"They're much better off than we are," Ivan repeated.
"Having good healing Psynergy isn't going to help if Mokol Teleported them over the edge of an island, sending them plummeting to the ground," Sheba, commented dryly.
"Attagirl, Sheba, look on the bright side..." Sean said.
"What are we going to do about the others?" Sheba asked.
"What if we went along with the Keunam Fighters for now?" Ivan posed. "Just until we could find Mia and the others. Then we can ditch these guys and worry about getting home."
"I don't much like the idea of helping them, but... if it gets us home," Sheba said softly.
"So the ends justify the means?" Feizhi asked.
"This is absolutely the worst time for a philosophical debate," Sean interjected. "Should we help them or not?"
"If we go with them, they'll probably make sure we stay healthy, at least... our healer problems will be over," Ivan reminded them, with a meaningful look at Sheba.
"So..." Feizhi trailed.
"So we'll have to go with them," Sean finished.
"For now?" she asked.
"For now."
********************
"Good news, sir."
"What's that?"
"The Wind Adepts are here, and are deliberating over whether or not aid us."
"Well done, Mokol. If they agree, so much the better."
"And if they don't?"
"Kill them."
********************
"So it's agreed, then," Ivan said.
"Yes," Sheba agreed. "We'll help them for now." No sooner had she ended her sentence than a klaxon went off deeper in the complex. Mokol came bursting back to the door.
"It's another Leveler... and the Freans are involved too! Will you come?" he cried. Ivan nodded.
"Let's go," he said.
********************
Mia's head was throbbing, but a quick wave of Psynergy washed over her and her headache diminished. She awoke to see her friends stumbling to her feet and man in brown standing above her. He looked ready for a fight.
"There's a leveler ahead, and the Keunam Fighters are there as well... will you help us, Adepts?" he asked, helping Mia to her feet.
'Keunam Fighters?' Mia thought, and a surge of anger took over her. "Who are you?"
"We're the Frean Resistance. Our objective is to overthrow the Keunam Fighters," he replied. A lump formed in Mia's throat, and she gripped her staff tightly.
"Lead me to them."
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(Dew): That's not nice.
(Char): That's kind of a double cliff...
Kind of... but not really...
(Dew): Explain the not really part.
Easy. It's not a double cliff if you don't read it.
(Char): But everyone's read it by this point.
...please don't hurt me!
Review, yes, but don't hurt me!