8BTFreek: Hooray! Reviews! Let's respond.
REVIEW RESPONSES:
Joker: Thanks! Yeah, the fight scene was fun to write. Glad you liked it. And it's ok to miss a chapter.
Mesoforte: Thank you for that support. Y'know, this is going to be an interesting chapter to write, mainly because I'm going to make the plot thicker than cement. Dry cement.
tigerlily: "Schism: a division into two mutually antagonistic groups." Basically, Rhoen has caused the members of Garet's family to divide into two groups that hate each other equally, but Kay doesn't want him to fix it. Thanks for liking it.
Rallalon: Yeah, that's about how it goes. The second was (oddly enough) the less accurate. Y'see, I can't reveal much more, save that if I reveal more, all the mystery, suspense, and darkness that I've been building through the last few chapters sorta fades t'nothing, y'understand? Nothin' personal.
END RESPONSES
Eshli: So, what'cha doin', blue-hair?
Alex: Dammit, kid, my name's Alex, not "blue-hair."
Eshli: Whatever, blue-hair.
Alex: *roars* I'll get you for that! *prepares to use a blast of alchemy*
Eshli: *aims plasma rifle*
8BTFreek: Stop that, both of you! Jeez, you'd think I wanted you to fight, the way you two go at each other. Alex, don't pull Psynergy on Eshli. Eshli, don't torture Alex. If either of you disobeys, I'll send Gannon after you.
Eshli: Meep!
Gannon: If I do the disclaimer, will you leave me out of this?
8BTFreek: No. You're doing the disclaimer anyway.
Gannon: *grumbles* 8BTFreek doesn't own Golden Sun or Queen. Good thing, too.
8BTFreek: I heard that! Anyway, chapter 8 of Forms! Enjoy!
**Chapter 8: Sail Away Sweet Sister, or Plans That Were Made**
The living room was relatively packed. Sheba, Ivan, Feizhi, and Kay were all having a conference about what to do next. Kay had just finished telling them about the dream she'd had the day Piers first attacked Rhoen. "And that's the dream Garet wanted you to tell us?" Sheba sat back and pondered the possible meanings. She liked none of them.
"Yeah," sighed Kay. "That's the one he wanted me to tell you. Before he disowned me, that is." She let out another sigh. "Gaah. This is bad, isn't it?"
"Could be worse," offered Ivan. Feizhi hit him with a pillow from the couch. "Well it's true! At least we have a year. If we can just convince Isaac or Felix that Alex is the one we should work on right now..." His tone sank to the floor. "Easier to convince Piers that Rhoen's a nice guy." It was the morning after. "Even I'm not fully convinced. I just don't like the alternative. Besides, I trust you. You're like Feizhi in that way." The last comment was directed at both Kay and his wife, who was preparing to chuck another pillow at him.
"How is she like me, my husband?" Feizhi gave him a look that said if he didn't say what she wanted to hear, he'd be sleeping on the floor. With a knife in his back.
"Well, besides being strong-willed, she's got a sense that tells her if someone's ok or not. Would you have ended up with me without that?" She shook her head.
"No, I would've gone off trying to get Isaac 'cuz he's cuter than you." It was Ivan's turn to get angry. "Just kidding. You're the better of the two. You're more trusting." He was about to ask if that was really better when she kissed him.
"Ahem! If this has been cleared up?" asked Sheba. Ivan and Feizhi nodded, both looking a little embarrassed. "Now then, what are we going to do? I mean, it's obvious that the others want Rhoen out, if not dead. We have to keep him from leaving." All of them pondered this one.
This time, Feizhi had the bright idea. "One of us goes out before him all the time. That way, he's always got someone to protect him." Sheba and Ivan looked at each other before nodding in agreement, but Kay immediately jumped at the idea.
"Perfect!" she said. "Now then, who's going to be the first?" The three Jupiter Adepts bent down and dragged her head down into the whispered conference.
"We can't let the others know. We'll tell Rhoen, but we're going to have to tell him why. Although if I know anything about men, it's that they don't like being tied down." Feizhi smiled at Ivan before she continued. "Although sometimes it's for their own good."
"A-hem!" grunted Ivan. "So who's taking first shift?"
"I will," muttered Sheba. She grabbed the Meditation Rod from the table. "They'll have to get up pretty early to get past me." Kay nodded, smiling approvingly. Sheba noticed. "Kay, you've only known the guy for what? Two days? Do you really think that's long enough to know a person?"
She turned a little red in the face. "Well, uh, it's... it's just that... If anything happens to him, it'll be my fault for letting him stay here." The excuse shouted "pathetic" at every angle, but they let it pass for her dignity's sake.
The morning came. Rhoen woke up and wanted to get some wood. Sheba informed him of their new policy. Oddly enough, he accepted it. "So now I get bodyguards. Huh, the Lemurian really wants me dead, doesn't he?" He grabbed a slice of toast and bit down. He stood behind Sheba as she opened the door. The clock on the mantle read "10:00".
***
"How will we get rid of him?" asked Piers. The other three men frowned. The women had gone off to discuss their own matters - none of them seemed to be as dedicated to removing Rhoen as the men did, even though Hama's own brother had abandoned their cause.
"Well, is he human?" asked Isaac. "What I mean is, is he built like a normal human?" he added, catching Piers's furious glare.
"I guess so," he admitted grudgingly. He got up and paced Isaac's living room floor. "Why?" he shot at his host.
"Well, shouldn't a simple arrow get rid of him?" asked Isaac.
"Yeah, but he's probably got plate-mail armor," said Garet. "We've got to use something smaller, something we can conceal."
Felix jumped up excitedly. "A blow-dart!" he exclaimed.
"Nah, it'd be too hard to get in his heart while he's wearing armor." Garet shrugged. "Although it was a good idea."
"Yeah," sighed Piers. "Well, we could try an ambush." He frowned. "Although it might kill one or two of us." He sat back down. "Well, this is a mess. We can't even think of a way to get rid of him."
Isaac got up. "Although... Felix, I like your blow-dart idea." The others looked at him curiously. "If we aim it at the neck instead of the heart, it'll still kill him, and we won't have to worry about armor. After all, none of the Jupiter Adepts can heal. It'll be perfect!"
"Unless Sheba releases Breath," reminded Piers.
"If she does, we launch another one. She can only unleash him once before she has to set him. By that time, we'll have two or three darts in him, and we can keep firing until he's dead." Piers shook his head.
"No, if she unleashes Breath, she'll find where we are and attack. We fire the dart, wait to see what happens, then get the hell out of there." He stood up. "So, does anyone here have a blow-dart? Or perhaps a pipe to use to fire them?" Felix stood.
"I made a blow-dart in Prox, but I've only got one. I also have the gun that they used to fire them." The others looked at him. "That's what they called the little tube you put in your mouth." He shrugged, then walked off to his house.
By 8:00 AM, three of them had gathered outside of Kay's house. It was called that because Kay was the only one living there that they would actually recognize. Rhoen's face was too new, and besides, his name only produced anger from one of the Mercury Adepts in town. Isaac, Garet, and Piers had cleared out a large space in some bushes in front of Kay's house. Felix ran up to them. "Hey guys, I got it! Here it is!"
Piers looked at him. "We made some changes to the plan," he said. "We decided to have a poisoned dart. That thing poisoned?" Felix shook his head. "Well, go poison it."
Felix paused. "What's the other change?"
Piers sighed. "Aim for the heart. We decided that he probably wouldn't be wearing armor." Felix nodded, then ran off to his house.
At 8:10, Felix returned. "Well, one poisoned dart. Anything else?" Piers shook his head. Felix placed the dart into the small wooden tube and waited. Isaac and Garet walked off toward Isaac's house, where the girls were waiting. Felix stayed behind so that he could take down Rhoen. Piers just wanted to watch.
By 9:30, the door still hadn't opened. Piers was beginning to worry about the success of his plan. Had the Q'tiil actually thought of the possibility of an attack and tried to go out the back? Worriedly, he snuck around the back. From the door, he could hear voices. He crouched in the bushes around the back, hoping not to be seen. From inside, he could hear a slight murmur. The door creaked open. Kay looked out, shook her head, then turned back inside. Breathing a sigh of relief, he went back to Felix. The Venus Adept was still sitting there, the pipe in his mouth, waiting...
At 10:00, the door opened. Felix paused to aim in a general direction, then fired. It wasn't until he'd fired that he realized who was standing at the door. It wasn't Rhoen. It wasn't even Kay, who would have called Sheba over.
It was Sheba. In one of those moments where time slows down, the dart flew toward her body. She turned her head left, right, made to turn back in. Just as her head returned to its normal position, the dart sank into her chest. Not even a scream escaped her mouth. Her head slowly tilted down, her eyes widened. Her mouth opened to scream - and she fell backward, dropping back from the force of the blow. At that point, time returned to normal. Piers's mouth dropped. The blood drained from his face. Something refused to connect in his mind. His mouth moved silently, mouthing the word "Sheba." Finally, his voice found itself and came out of his mouth.
"Sheba," he whispered. He turned to look at Felix, whose face was equally pale. Piers's words came out as a croak. "Please tell me that was an accident." Felix nodded, then his mouth creaked open.
"You told me to poison it, too... I'm sorry, Piers." Tears fell down his face. "Sister, I've failed you," he muttered. "I tried to protect you, but I killed you. Why'd it end this way?" Piers sobbed silently into his hands. They ran over to Sheba just as Rhoen stepped out of the house.
***
8BTFreek: Sorry for the short chapter, but... I didn't know what to do, so I left you with a killer cliffie instead! Mwa-ha-ha!
RM: Although, it isn't really much of a cliffie so much as a character death.
8BTFreek: Shush! I say it's a cliffie because I have so many plot twists that anything could be considered a plot twist. Besides, this is something I was planning on from chapter 7.
RM: So it's a recent development?
8BTFreek: Eshli, please explain to RM my writing style.
Eshli: *picks up blaster, leads RM off* Don't worry, you'll understand shortly.
8BTFreek: *sweating* Uh, ok... Review, and I won't send over Nynaeve to nag you to death for not reviewing!
Nynaeve: Huh? Me, nag? You've got the wrong Aes Sedai.
8BTFreek: Yeah, and I'm the King of England.
Nynaeve: First of all, England's got a Queen...
Gannon: Well, review, all!
REVIEW RESPONSES:
Joker: Thanks! Yeah, the fight scene was fun to write. Glad you liked it. And it's ok to miss a chapter.
Mesoforte: Thank you for that support. Y'know, this is going to be an interesting chapter to write, mainly because I'm going to make the plot thicker than cement. Dry cement.
tigerlily: "Schism: a division into two mutually antagonistic groups." Basically, Rhoen has caused the members of Garet's family to divide into two groups that hate each other equally, but Kay doesn't want him to fix it. Thanks for liking it.
Rallalon: Yeah, that's about how it goes. The second was (oddly enough) the less accurate. Y'see, I can't reveal much more, save that if I reveal more, all the mystery, suspense, and darkness that I've been building through the last few chapters sorta fades t'nothing, y'understand? Nothin' personal.
END RESPONSES
Eshli: So, what'cha doin', blue-hair?
Alex: Dammit, kid, my name's Alex, not "blue-hair."
Eshli: Whatever, blue-hair.
Alex: *roars* I'll get you for that! *prepares to use a blast of alchemy*
Eshli: *aims plasma rifle*
8BTFreek: Stop that, both of you! Jeez, you'd think I wanted you to fight, the way you two go at each other. Alex, don't pull Psynergy on Eshli. Eshli, don't torture Alex. If either of you disobeys, I'll send Gannon after you.
Eshli: Meep!
Gannon: If I do the disclaimer, will you leave me out of this?
8BTFreek: No. You're doing the disclaimer anyway.
Gannon: *grumbles* 8BTFreek doesn't own Golden Sun or Queen. Good thing, too.
8BTFreek: I heard that! Anyway, chapter 8 of Forms! Enjoy!
**Chapter 8: Sail Away Sweet Sister, or Plans That Were Made**
The living room was relatively packed. Sheba, Ivan, Feizhi, and Kay were all having a conference about what to do next. Kay had just finished telling them about the dream she'd had the day Piers first attacked Rhoen. "And that's the dream Garet wanted you to tell us?" Sheba sat back and pondered the possible meanings. She liked none of them.
"Yeah," sighed Kay. "That's the one he wanted me to tell you. Before he disowned me, that is." She let out another sigh. "Gaah. This is bad, isn't it?"
"Could be worse," offered Ivan. Feizhi hit him with a pillow from the couch. "Well it's true! At least we have a year. If we can just convince Isaac or Felix that Alex is the one we should work on right now..." His tone sank to the floor. "Easier to convince Piers that Rhoen's a nice guy." It was the morning after. "Even I'm not fully convinced. I just don't like the alternative. Besides, I trust you. You're like Feizhi in that way." The last comment was directed at both Kay and his wife, who was preparing to chuck another pillow at him.
"How is she like me, my husband?" Feizhi gave him a look that said if he didn't say what she wanted to hear, he'd be sleeping on the floor. With a knife in his back.
"Well, besides being strong-willed, she's got a sense that tells her if someone's ok or not. Would you have ended up with me without that?" She shook her head.
"No, I would've gone off trying to get Isaac 'cuz he's cuter than you." It was Ivan's turn to get angry. "Just kidding. You're the better of the two. You're more trusting." He was about to ask if that was really better when she kissed him.
"Ahem! If this has been cleared up?" asked Sheba. Ivan and Feizhi nodded, both looking a little embarrassed. "Now then, what are we going to do? I mean, it's obvious that the others want Rhoen out, if not dead. We have to keep him from leaving." All of them pondered this one.
This time, Feizhi had the bright idea. "One of us goes out before him all the time. That way, he's always got someone to protect him." Sheba and Ivan looked at each other before nodding in agreement, but Kay immediately jumped at the idea.
"Perfect!" she said. "Now then, who's going to be the first?" The three Jupiter Adepts bent down and dragged her head down into the whispered conference.
"We can't let the others know. We'll tell Rhoen, but we're going to have to tell him why. Although if I know anything about men, it's that they don't like being tied down." Feizhi smiled at Ivan before she continued. "Although sometimes it's for their own good."
"A-hem!" grunted Ivan. "So who's taking first shift?"
"I will," muttered Sheba. She grabbed the Meditation Rod from the table. "They'll have to get up pretty early to get past me." Kay nodded, smiling approvingly. Sheba noticed. "Kay, you've only known the guy for what? Two days? Do you really think that's long enough to know a person?"
She turned a little red in the face. "Well, uh, it's... it's just that... If anything happens to him, it'll be my fault for letting him stay here." The excuse shouted "pathetic" at every angle, but they let it pass for her dignity's sake.
The morning came. Rhoen woke up and wanted to get some wood. Sheba informed him of their new policy. Oddly enough, he accepted it. "So now I get bodyguards. Huh, the Lemurian really wants me dead, doesn't he?" He grabbed a slice of toast and bit down. He stood behind Sheba as she opened the door. The clock on the mantle read "10:00".
***
"How will we get rid of him?" asked Piers. The other three men frowned. The women had gone off to discuss their own matters - none of them seemed to be as dedicated to removing Rhoen as the men did, even though Hama's own brother had abandoned their cause.
"Well, is he human?" asked Isaac. "What I mean is, is he built like a normal human?" he added, catching Piers's furious glare.
"I guess so," he admitted grudgingly. He got up and paced Isaac's living room floor. "Why?" he shot at his host.
"Well, shouldn't a simple arrow get rid of him?" asked Isaac.
"Yeah, but he's probably got plate-mail armor," said Garet. "We've got to use something smaller, something we can conceal."
Felix jumped up excitedly. "A blow-dart!" he exclaimed.
"Nah, it'd be too hard to get in his heart while he's wearing armor." Garet shrugged. "Although it was a good idea."
"Yeah," sighed Piers. "Well, we could try an ambush." He frowned. "Although it might kill one or two of us." He sat back down. "Well, this is a mess. We can't even think of a way to get rid of him."
Isaac got up. "Although... Felix, I like your blow-dart idea." The others looked at him curiously. "If we aim it at the neck instead of the heart, it'll still kill him, and we won't have to worry about armor. After all, none of the Jupiter Adepts can heal. It'll be perfect!"
"Unless Sheba releases Breath," reminded Piers.
"If she does, we launch another one. She can only unleash him once before she has to set him. By that time, we'll have two or three darts in him, and we can keep firing until he's dead." Piers shook his head.
"No, if she unleashes Breath, she'll find where we are and attack. We fire the dart, wait to see what happens, then get the hell out of there." He stood up. "So, does anyone here have a blow-dart? Or perhaps a pipe to use to fire them?" Felix stood.
"I made a blow-dart in Prox, but I've only got one. I also have the gun that they used to fire them." The others looked at him. "That's what they called the little tube you put in your mouth." He shrugged, then walked off to his house.
By 8:00 AM, three of them had gathered outside of Kay's house. It was called that because Kay was the only one living there that they would actually recognize. Rhoen's face was too new, and besides, his name only produced anger from one of the Mercury Adepts in town. Isaac, Garet, and Piers had cleared out a large space in some bushes in front of Kay's house. Felix ran up to them. "Hey guys, I got it! Here it is!"
Piers looked at him. "We made some changes to the plan," he said. "We decided to have a poisoned dart. That thing poisoned?" Felix shook his head. "Well, go poison it."
Felix paused. "What's the other change?"
Piers sighed. "Aim for the heart. We decided that he probably wouldn't be wearing armor." Felix nodded, then ran off to his house.
At 8:10, Felix returned. "Well, one poisoned dart. Anything else?" Piers shook his head. Felix placed the dart into the small wooden tube and waited. Isaac and Garet walked off toward Isaac's house, where the girls were waiting. Felix stayed behind so that he could take down Rhoen. Piers just wanted to watch.
By 9:30, the door still hadn't opened. Piers was beginning to worry about the success of his plan. Had the Q'tiil actually thought of the possibility of an attack and tried to go out the back? Worriedly, he snuck around the back. From the door, he could hear voices. He crouched in the bushes around the back, hoping not to be seen. From inside, he could hear a slight murmur. The door creaked open. Kay looked out, shook her head, then turned back inside. Breathing a sigh of relief, he went back to Felix. The Venus Adept was still sitting there, the pipe in his mouth, waiting...
At 10:00, the door opened. Felix paused to aim in a general direction, then fired. It wasn't until he'd fired that he realized who was standing at the door. It wasn't Rhoen. It wasn't even Kay, who would have called Sheba over.
It was Sheba. In one of those moments where time slows down, the dart flew toward her body. She turned her head left, right, made to turn back in. Just as her head returned to its normal position, the dart sank into her chest. Not even a scream escaped her mouth. Her head slowly tilted down, her eyes widened. Her mouth opened to scream - and she fell backward, dropping back from the force of the blow. At that point, time returned to normal. Piers's mouth dropped. The blood drained from his face. Something refused to connect in his mind. His mouth moved silently, mouthing the word "Sheba." Finally, his voice found itself and came out of his mouth.
"Sheba," he whispered. He turned to look at Felix, whose face was equally pale. Piers's words came out as a croak. "Please tell me that was an accident." Felix nodded, then his mouth creaked open.
"You told me to poison it, too... I'm sorry, Piers." Tears fell down his face. "Sister, I've failed you," he muttered. "I tried to protect you, but I killed you. Why'd it end this way?" Piers sobbed silently into his hands. They ran over to Sheba just as Rhoen stepped out of the house.
***
8BTFreek: Sorry for the short chapter, but... I didn't know what to do, so I left you with a killer cliffie instead! Mwa-ha-ha!
RM: Although, it isn't really much of a cliffie so much as a character death.
8BTFreek: Shush! I say it's a cliffie because I have so many plot twists that anything could be considered a plot twist. Besides, this is something I was planning on from chapter 7.
RM: So it's a recent development?
8BTFreek: Eshli, please explain to RM my writing style.
Eshli: *picks up blaster, leads RM off* Don't worry, you'll understand shortly.
8BTFreek: *sweating* Uh, ok... Review, and I won't send over Nynaeve to nag you to death for not reviewing!
Nynaeve: Huh? Me, nag? You've got the wrong Aes Sedai.
8BTFreek: Yeah, and I'm the King of England.
Nynaeve: First of all, England's got a Queen...
Gannon: Well, review, all!