Disclamer: See part five.

The Shifters, Part 6, New Ally

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Glenn-Shifter heard it too, Lucca yelling "Hello?! We need to talk to you two! That's all!"

Marle turned back to Glenn-Shifter, "What should we do?"

"I do not know."

"I think we should hear what they have to say."

Glenn-Shifter nodded, "Alright."

They stood up and faced toward Lucca's voice. She repeated it several times, getting louder and louder.

Lucca started to yell again, "Hello?! We need-Oh." She saw them, "So you heard me"

Glenn-Shifter stepped forward, "What do you want?"

"To talk."

"We heard that part about twenty times already. What do you wish to speak about?"

"You two. One of you is a Shifter, and the other's not."

Glenn-Shifter laughed, "How did you reach this conclusion?"

Ayla stepped up. "Glenn and Marle talk. Glenn leave and say Marle call him Swau. Swau Shifter."

Glenn-Shifter muffled a laugh at Ayla telling him who he was.

"Marle say no happen. We not know who believe. We hope you know."

Glenn-Shifter sighed slightly, now he had to tell Marle who he was in front of them.

Marle frowned, "So now you say one of us is real and the other's a Shifter. How-"

"Marle." Glenn-Shifter said.

Marle turned towards him, "Yes."

"Um," he wanted to look at the ground and mumble, but he looked straight into her eyes. "They're right. I'm not Glenn. I'm a Shifter."

Marle eyes held anger, disappointment, and disbelief. Her face showed nothing. She shook her head, "Why did you lie to me?"

"I was afraid that if I told you I was a Shifter, you wouldn't trust me. But now that I know you, I believe I was wrong." He didn't know what to say after that.

Marle turned away and looked the sky. She was glad that the Shifter thought he was wrong, but she wasn't sure if he was or not. She looked at the clouds in the sky, her mind tried to form what words to respond with, but failed.

The real Glenn moved towards her and gently grabbed her arm. He felt at guilt for this, and hoped he could make it up to her somehow.

Marle-Shifter moved towards Glenn-Shifter. "Why have you betrayed your people?"

"Depends how you look at it."

"What do you mean?"

"I betrayed the few high ranks who wanted this war. The middle ranks to low ranks, none of them wanted the war. You betrayed them. "

"They will hear of your betrayal." She turned and ran right off the mountain. She jumped and disappeared. Soon a black bird flew up and away.

Glenn-Shifter turned back to see Marle was watching. He sighed silently. "I'm sorry I lied to you."

Marle nodded, "Before they came, you were going to tell me, weren't you."

"Yes."

Glenn-Shifter looked at the others, but he didn't say anything.

Lucca did. "I think it's about time you explained some things."

"Aye," Glenn said, "But before you do, would you mind changing."

Glenn-Shifter laughed, "I will change. Now what should I look like? Hmmm." He changed into what he looked like at the Cathedral. "My favorite human look. Well, sort of human look."

He sat down on the floor, "I am Swau. My partner was Viaat. She is the one who just left. The leader of the Shifter is Jubf. Jubf considered declaring war with the humans a while ago. Viaat and I were sent up to study humans, and discovered you were at war with the Mystics. We watch to see the abilities of humans, and saw the Mystics were winning. When you came, we knew you had the chance to beat the Mystics, and so we studied you. When you beat the Mystics, Jubf created a plan, which was to replace all of you one at a time before you knew we were there. Then we'd start the war, and Guardia's heroes wouldn't be able to stop us. However, none of you seem to separate until recently."

"Good plan," Lucca replied.

Swau nodded. "What Judf didn't know was there was a group of Shifter, called Biqse, who were working against him. I am part of the Biqse. We are the ones who put the letters around Guardia, so the humans knew about us."

"How Swau study us?" Ayla asked.

"By being different people and animals. Remember Tata's grandfather?"

Marle answered, "Yes."

"That was me. If you look you will notice he's not there anymore."

Lucca frowned, "Didn't Tata and his father notice something strange."

"I wasn't always there, just when you were there."
Ayla nodded. "Swau tricky. Swau tell us, how stop war."

"If you fight Judf and some of the other high-ranking Shifters and win, the war will stop. No one else wants this war. I can show you the way but I won't fight. I hate to fight."

"Three of us will go." Robo said.

"I'm going," Marle and Glenn said on the same time.

"Who else will go?"

"I could go," Lucca said.

"We should go now, before Viaat can warn them, "Swau informed..

"First," Lucca said, "We have to see what armor and helmets to wear."

"What do I get?" Marle asked.

"You can have the Haste Helm and Prism Dress."

"Yea!" Marle jumped happily.

"I get," Lucca continued, "The Prism Helm and Zodiac Cape."

Glenn nodded, "I shall have the Vigil Hat and Nova Armor."

Lucca smiled, "I'll have the Sight Scope, Glenn you have the Hero's Medal, like always, and Marle you have the Gold Stud."

"Yea!" Marle was happy.

They quickly got everything they needed with and on them.

"Now," Swau said, "Shall we go." Swau began to leave, and they followed him.

"Swau," Ayla called, Swau turned around, "Ayla see Swau again?"

"Yes, we will see each other again."

They continued walking. On the way they continued talking. "Swau," Lucca said, "Where is Shifton?"

"It is under Magus's Lair."

"Marle," Glenn said.

Marle moved beside him, "Yes?"

"I'm sorry I put you in jail."

"It's ok. You did what you thought was right."

Glenn nodded. "So...did he behaveth like me?"

"Yes, he did, even spoke with the occasional accent." She watched him nod lightly before she continued, "Now, let me ask you a question, what did you think when the other Marle ran at the end of the battle?"

"It brought a higher suspicion that she was a Shifter, especially after thou wanted to help."

"Why did you let us win that battle?"

"That was not planned. We suspected that you might be the real Marle because the other was acting less as thee as time passed. For the others, I think they might have suspected that the other 'Glenn' was real, and I had been replaced. I believe nay one liked the idea of realizing they fought and hurt a friend. Marle-Shifter not doing her job seemed to confirm this."

They walked through the Magic Cave and were by Magus's Lair. Glenn glanced up by the lair, feeling a slightly chill move through his body. Even though he knew Magus was gone, killed by his sword, the place still made him feel on edge.

Swau walked behind Magus's Lair, and near the water's edge. He slipped into the water. "There's a hole about five yards below. The cave goes upwards before heading down, so it cannot be filled with water.

"How big is the hole?" Lucca asked.

"Three feet from side to side and top to bottom."

Marle nodded. "We'll just have to crawl."

"It gets bigger as it goes," then he went under.

Lucca turned to the others, "This seems strange."

Marle smiled, "I like swimming." She jumped into the water and swam under.

"I hope we are not walking into a trap," Lucca stated.

Glenn nodded his agreement, and went to the edge. "Tis a risk we must take." He looked at the water. "Swimming will be different as a human." Then he went in.

Lucca laughed when he first tried to swim like a frog. Then he started using Marle's way of swimming and disappeared. Lucca followed soon after

Marle swam into the cave which went up steadily. It was fairly dark but light was always there. As sunlight disappeared, she realized light came from where she was heading. When she got to the top she saw the light source was torches in the wall. The water now looked like a pond, with the ground being a foot higher than the water. It was also muddy, and she saw Swau holding his hand out to her. She took it, and she pulled her up.

"This place is neat!"

"It leads us down from now on."

Marle nodded and looked in the water, seeing Glenn.

"Hello," she greeted as Swau helped him up. "You swim just the way I do."

"Actually I copied you. I cannot swim the way I did was a frog."

Marle giggled.

Lucca arrived, and Swau helped her help as well.

They started heading down. The muddy ground lowered quickly, and the humans slipped a few times. The torches on the wall, alternating sides, were a meter apart. Several weren't lit, but that changed as they moved on. Soon an unlit torch couldn't be found. The walls were dry now, and were painted which what appeared to be faded images.

"Swau, what are these pictures of?" Marle asked.

"They tell of the history of our people. They date from when the first Shifters were here in 2000 B.C. This," he pointed a group of pictures. "Tells us of tells us of the leader Qub. He was a great leader." Swau continued to walk.

"How many symbols are there," Lucca asked.

"876."

"Wow!" Marle said, "That's a lot. Think I could learn some."

"A English-Shiftaz dictionary might help."

"Is that what you used?" Lucca asked.

"No, I learned English when I was a baby, same time I learned Shiftaz."

"Oh," Lucca felt embarrassed.

"Here we are, the first part of Shifton."

They had walked into a large room with five more doorways, three holes in the floor. The walls were covered with pictures.

A lion greeted them, "Swau, who are your friends. Are they the humans who have come to stop the war." The voice was feminine.

"Yes, Fiis. How are you?"

"Good, but that doesn't matter. We must get them to Judf to defeat him."

Swau nodded and walked past her, gesturing the other to follow.

"You do not need to hide our plans?" Glenn asked.

"No, none of the Shifters here want the war. Most of them are with the Biqse."

"How do you identify one Shifter from the other?" Marle asked.

"By the smell, that is also how we identify where we are in Shifton, that and the symbols on the walls." He went into an entrance that lead down. They followed. After going down several doorways Swau spoke. "This is the lowest floor. We are about 78 miles underground."

"How are we going to get to Judf."

"You will fight, but they let us through most of the way. When you do fight, I can help by putting them to sleep, but as I said I won't hurt them in any way. I can also give you Ethers when you need them. Marle, you and I could do Double Cure, so Glenn can fight."

"Good plan." Marle said.

They reached the end, and two soldiers were guarding the doorway. "Gskr." (Halt in English.)

Swau wasn't worried. "Jubf bir. Biqse."

The guards nodded, and one spoke. "Sorry, we didn't know you were Biqse. Go on."

Swau nodded and went through, "As you see," he said to his friends, "Many are part of the Biqse because only Jubf wants this war. But there is one who will obey him no matter what."

They went farther in the cave. The walls were still covered in paintings, but the torches were now on both sides of the wall, and were more elaborate. Swau used that same password to get pass another set of guards.

Finally they came to a room where what looked like water was on the floor. The Shifter rose, "What are humans doing here, Shifter."

"My name is Swau. These humans are here to destroy Jubf."

"Not if I can help it." The Shifter brought up his arms, and the team saw ice forming around them.

Lucca laughed after the ice had cracked, ignoring the coldness it left. "I hope that's not the best you can do." Then she called for Flare, and she saw the Shifter turn to fire mid-attack.

As, Marle started to put haste on everyone.

Before Lucca's attack was over, Glenn called for water, which struck the firey Shifter as soon as the flare had passed. The Shifter sizzled as the bubble of water hit him, and steam went into the air.

Swau put the Shifter to sleep, which gave Marle time to finish the around of Haste. Together she and Swau gave everyone the Ethers they needed.

As the Shifter began to wake up, Glenn lifted his arms to use Heal. Blue sparkles surrounded him and members of his team as he lifted into the air. He glanced to Marle as both of them rested, and gave her the signal for Glacier.

She nodded lightly, and stood straighter as she saw Lucca use Flare again. Marle lifted her arms when she saw Glenn was ready, together they lifted into the air as each called for their own power. The water came first, hitting the Shifter, who had taken the form of a rock to defend against Flare. The water froze almost as soon as it hit its target.

Glenn looked up as he returned down to the earth, feeling some guilt, as he knew now how painful the attack was.

The Shifter reformed back into his human form and laughed. He brought up one hand, and a wave of muddy colors hit the team. They were knocked down with a painful force, which lingered in their bodies, and left them very week.

Marle got to her feet with Swau's help, feeling slightly dizzy and nauseous. "Double Cure," she heard him whisper. She nodded, knowing, they must react quickly, and was thankful the other Shifter needed to recover after the attack. She lifted her arms, feeling Swau's power join hers, and together they worked the spell through their friends and themselves. She laughed lightly.

The Shifter frowned, "That's cheating!"

Marle laughed again. "Since when?"

The Shifter growled, and they saw the same dark colors coming at them. "Remember this attack, it's called Weaken."

"Oh, that's creative," Marle remarked, though this time too dizzy to be able to stand, even with Swau's help.

Glenn immediately started using Heal, as Lucca thew a Mega Bomb at the Shifter.

The Shifter shook his head, "No." Then collapsed.

Marle, Glenn, Lucca, and Swau each celebrated in their own small way

"Next is Jubf, more powerful then this one. I should stay here, and make sure no one else comes. Just follow down the hall."

Marle nodded and took lead, without a word, she started to walk through a long hallway. It like every other wall, had the torches and paintings. But the paintings also covered the floor and ceiling, and the torches were held by gold scalped to look like hands. Soon a doorway could be seen. The team had mixed of emotions of excitement, fear, and nervousness, the same feelings they always got before they fought the leading bad guy.

They walked through the doorway. At first Marle, Glenn, and Lucca saw nothing, but then saw a small black insect on the floor, which started to grow and reform. Four of its legs stayed on the floor. The other two rose up. The upper part turned white. It turned into a centaur. Its eyes were red with no pupil. The hair was as black as the horse body, while the tail white, like the human part. Two long horns curved slightly back from its head.

"I've been told that Swau has betrayed me. Where is the coward?"

Marle stepped forward. "Your concern right now, is us."

Jubf laughed, and threw a ball of ice at them. The ice exploded when it hit the floor, and everyone was hit with ice.

Lucca threw a Mega Bomb at him as Marle started giving Haste to her friends.

The bomb caught Jubf off guard, and threw him back. He stood up afterwards and laughed, "You think you can defeat me?"

Glenn called for Water. "We know we can." He directed a bubble towards the enemy, hitting him from above.

Jubf laughed again, seeming to just shake the water off, and held his hand out. "Take this, humans." A thin white light came from his hand, and turned into muddy rainbows. The room flashed with the colors, and the humans found themselves lying on the ground.

Glenn frowned slightly, quickly trying to figure out what the whole effect was. At first he thought it was extreme pain and dizziness, but both went away after the attack. Then he realized he was both physically and magically weak. He turned over to his side, and saw Marle grab form her bag, a Mega Elixer. She closed her eyes, and held it tight in her fist until it broke.

Glenn forced himself to stand, as he felt cool air wash over him, his energy and health restored.

Lucca summoned Flare, figuring that with Jubf's Weaken 2, there probably wasn't much need to conserve her magical power. Afterwards, she saw Jubf throw double-sided knives at each of them. As the knives spun into the air, she dived to the floor to dodge the knife being thrown at her. She heard both Glenn and Marle cry out, and knew they had been hit. She glanced back, and saw the knife for her had lodged itself into the dirt wall behind her.

"No!" Jubf cried, "You ruined my wall. You will pay!" He performed Weaken 2 again.

Marle grabbed another Mega Elixir when she saw it coming, and held onto it until the attack was over. She broke it, wincing slightly as she felt the outer shards cut her hand and fingers. The pain was gone as soon as the medicine made it's way through her hand.

The fight continued, long and hard for both sides. Each used medium and strong attacks against the other, and seemed to recover from whatever was thrown at them. But what only one side knew, it would soon end.

It was getting harder for Jubf to keep his shape but he wouldn't let his enemies know this. He didn't know how longer they could last but he couldn't last much longer. His health was low; he wished he knew more about healing himself. He smiled to them, hoping they too were weaker than they looked. He brought up his hands, and used a desperate spell on them.

He lifted his arms, and the room filled with both dark and bright colors. They circled the room, striking his enemies, causing them to yell out. Suddenly the room was black, and he kneeled down dizzy and weak from his own spell. Jubf looked up as the darkness left like a black cloud, and saw two of his enemies had fallen. He smiled to himself, knowing the last one didn't have much fighting power compared to the other two. Still too dizzy to do anything at the moment, he decided to wait for it to pass, heal himself some, and then take out the last human.

Marle lay on the ground, too dizzy and in too much pain to move. She closed her eyes briefly, and listened to the sounds of movement from the others, but heard nothing. "Glenn? Lucca?"

She managed to turn around, and saw they were unconscious, nearly dead. "Oh." She closed her eyes again, wondering why Jubf had not yet hit again. Perhaps he is very weak, she hoped. She grabbed out of her back, an Elixer, and broke it. It seemed to take a while for it to work, and even after, she was still dizzy. She waited it to pass, knowing she had to be fully recovered from anything to perform her next task.

Dizziness leaving, she forced herself to her feet, closed her eyes, brought her arms close to her chest, and concentrated. She pictured Glenn, and in her mind, formed a beacon of light on him. Wake. Restore. She felt the light had come in life, shining on him. Wake. Restore. Wake. Restore. Wake! Restore!

Her knees became weak, and she felt the magic leave her. Opened eyes found Glenn, getting up. "I believe he is getting weak," she said as she watched Glenn eat a Mid Ether.

Glenn nodded, and looked to Jubf, who looked quite shocked and angry that he was awake. The former frog smirked lightly, and pulled out another Mid Ether, ready to give it to Lucca when Marle was done waking her. He stepped over to the waking Lucca as the light on her disappeared.

A tired Lucca ate the Mid Ether before fully realizing why she needed it. As she got up, she was knocked down again by rays of green light. She saw her friends knocked down too, and was a bit surprised how weak the attack was. She got up again, annoyed, angry, and half expecting him to perform that last attack again, Weaken 3, it must have been.

Glenn raised his sword, seeing also that their enemy was becoming weak. "Let us finish him." He leaped towards the Shifter King.

"Let's," Marle said as she lifted her arms, calling forth her power of ice. Ice 2.

Lucca followed suit, calling her own power in maximum form. Flare.

The room became filled with a mixture of chilled blues, and hot reds. Lucca briefly thought that her and Marle might have unintentionally performed their strongest technique together, Antipode 3, but Antipode 3 didn't quite look like that, and nothing seemed to be happening from their spells.

Glenn landed on the Shifter, slashing his sword into him, but his sword stopped midway as Jubf froze and ice formed over him. "What?" He pulled his sword out and jumped away, just in time as the king exploded in fire.

"Glenn!" Marle hurried over to him as he was landed after being thrown. "That looked painful. Are you all right?"

He nodded, and looked to where the Shifter was. He looked around, and saw Jubf seemed to have shattered all over all over the room.

"Is he dead?" Lucca asked, as she looked around the room, waiting for him to reform. Her question seemed to be answered when the shattered pieces melted into several small puddles of water.

Marle helped Glenn up. "What was that? He completely froze, and then exploded."

Lucca smiled. "I believe we learned a new technique."

"Really?" Marle said as she jumped up and down. "We need to name it."

"Er..." Lucca looked thoughtful.

"Antipode Slash?" Glenn offered.

"I like that," Marle squealed. "Antipode Slash." She smiled when she was done jumping. "Need to go back to Swau," he started running out, and her friends quickly followed.

They found Swau still in the room, watching the puddle of the former king's most loyal servant. He glanced up at them when they came in. "Did I hear an explosion?"

Lucca nodded. "Yes, we believe he is dead. There are small puddles of him all over the room.

Swau frowned slightly. "That doesn't sound like a nice way to die." He turned to them, "Tell your leader to no longer worry about the war."

"Aren't you coming with us?" Marle asked.

"I will follow you, but I have things to do here first."

"Then we won't leave 600 A.D. until you come."

to be continued...