Posted: 5-19-05

Chapter 3: Sheba's Decision

AN: Hola, mis amigos! I'm back! Why did I write in Spanish? I'm done with school for now! Yay! Well, I may be for a while if thingswent as badly as they probablydid... Don't ask. Anyway, summer equalsmore time for FMP to write! Less time online thanks to the dail up at my house, butoh well. So hopefully I'llupdate more and start responding to reviews.And I don't own any of the Golden Sun games... well, the rights to them.

The boat sailed past the now glowing Venus Lighthouse, the ground still showing clear signs of the huge earthquake that changed the face of Weyard itself. "We're close, aren't we?" Piers asked, turning to look at Sheba who was getting her things together for her departure from the ship.

"Yes, it won't be long now. It's right by that unfinished lighthouse over there."

"I wonder how things have been in Lalivero since you left," Mia said, helping Sheba get her stuff together while looking at the ghostly form of Babi Lighthouse. "They were pretty distraught when you were first captured, but things looked better just before we left in the ship."

"I guess we'll find out soon," Sheba replied, smiling a little as she looked at the increasingly clearer view of her hometown.

An hour later, they had set anchor on the coastline next to the incomplete lighthouse, and whether it would ever be completed was unknown since the one who funded the project was now dead. Piers and Mia followed Sheba past the boulders and other debris still littering the road and in through the back gate of the town.

Lalivero remained much the same as it had been since before the lighthouse was lit. It was very quiet with few people wandering the streets. Some folks sat outside of their houses chatting, while others would occasionally look at the brown light coming from the southeast or the strange gold tinge that had been on the horizon for several weeks and appeared to be thinking about something.

The three stood and looked at the town. "It's good to be back," Sheba said quietly.

"So this is where you're from," Piers commented. "I've seen almost everyone's hometowns in one way or another, and I was still the last one to join on this quest."

"We've traveled all over the world," Mia replied. "We've probably seen more on this adventure than most of these people will in their whole lives. ...Do you think they'll notice us any time soon? You would think that their savior would stand out!"

"Give them some time," Sheba answered. "It's not like they're excepting me, and we haven't made a grand entrance or anything. If we start moving someone's bound to notice. What's the rush?"

"Well, I'd just like to get home myself," Mia said. "But staying here for a little while and resting sounds pretty good. What do you think, Piers?"

"Yes, a few days on land would do us all good." They entered the town and began walking the streets around the obelisk and toward the front gate.

"Are these people blind?" Mia whispered. "Strange travelers, one who looks like Sheba... You'd think they'd react."

"Who knows what's been happening since I left," Sheba returned. "Maybe they've given up hope on me, or with the lighting of the Venus beacon they've had a lot of outsiders in town. You never know. Maybe they're just not paying attention, like seeing me is an everyday thing still."

Just then, a young boy ran out in front of them and stopped dead in his tracks. He stared at the trio for a moment and then ran back to where he had come from.

"Well, that's a good sign!" Piers commented.

A few moments later, the boy came out of a house dragging a woman, probably his mother, behind him. She was sighing and shaking her head.

"For the last time, Billy, she's not coming back."

"But I really did see her this time! Honest! Look, there she is!" The boy pointed at Sheba and the woman stared at her longer than her son had.

"Oh my stars..." she murmured before running off toward the town gates and then turned to the house immediately to the west of them.

"Here we go..." Sheba sighed, not looking very happy.

"What was that for?" Piers asked, giving her a strange look along with Mia. "You're home again and they've finally noticed you! Isn't that a good thing?"

"Yes, but you don't know how they get when I'm around. They'll be all over me for weeks now. I'd really like to rest before having the entire city attack me."

"Well, you should have told us that so we could have snuck to Faran's house," Mia said.

"I didn't think about it until now!" Sheba replied as a crowd of people came rushing over to the spot where they stood.

Faran was at the head of them. He was walking very quickly. As they neared where the Adepts stood, they slowed their pace to stare at the short girl with blonde hair. The citizens of the town broke out into a series of whispering and pointing. Finally, their leader walked forward until he was directly in front of the group.

"... Sheba?" he said cautiously. "Is it... really you?"

"Yes," she replied with a confused look on her face. "Who else would it be?"

Faran did not answer.

"You're hiding something from me, aren't you, Faran?" She closed her eyes and began using Mind Read, which went much easier than she was used to since she had spent so much time challenging Ivan while they were in Vault.

"So many people have claimed to see Sheba, but not one of them can prove... what the...?"

Faran stared at her wide eyed. The people of Lalivero also had stopped their whispering and had similar looks.

"... It is you!" he exclaimed, leaping forward and grabbing her.

Sheba laughed a little. "Hi!"

The citizens broke into a loud uproar as many of them rushed to the spot.

Five days later, Sheba, backed by many of the people of Lalivero, were waving goodbye to Mia and Piers as they sailed away in the Lemurian boat. As it disappeared to the north, everyone turned to head home, Sheba and Faran bringing up the rear.

"That was very nice of them to bring you here," he said looking back over his shoulder.

"I'm sure it was no problem," she replied. "It made things a lot easier, actually."

"Well, I hope that all of those nice people that you met will be okay. I remember that girl from the group that was following your captors and they were good people."

"Yeah," Sheba said softly, looking troubled.

"Is anything the matter?"

"No, of course not, Faran! I mean, those were the last of them, and it was a really involved adventure."

"Yes, I would like to hear your side of it. Piers and Mia said a lot, but I'd like to hear you tell it from beginning to end. Of course, some of those people you were with had been on it longer, hadn't they?"

"Yeah, they had," Sheba answered, seeming to cheer up a little. So as the adoptive father and daughter returned to their home, she told him about everything that she could remember in her travels to save Weyard. The walk was not a short one and the story ended up going on long into the night.

After sunset, though that strange golden glow could still be seen to the northwest, she was two thirds through her part of the tale.

"See, we had to use the rod that I think Ivan once had to get the Hover Jade so we could go into the Jupiter Lighthouse. And near the lighthouse there was a village called Contigo, and that's where what was left of the Jupiter Adepts lived. Well, there weren't very many of them. I think most of the people were just Wind Adepts, but there were a few with the full power. There were these old ruins outside of the town from this civilization that I guess were the full powered Adepts, too, but I'm not sure what happened to them. It's a really odd place and it gave me a strange feeling. They also had these hieroglyphics that showed a boat with wings and it turned out to be Piers's, because once we were done at the lighthouse, after fighting these Mars Adepts who were a lot like the ones who kidnaped me, and meeting up with Isaac and the others, they had attached wings to the boat, and if you use Hover it floats. It's pretty cool, actually. And this lady named Hama who used to live near the other desert, the one in Angara, she came and we found out that she was Ivan's sister and that he came from Contigo, but..."

She trailed off here and became lost in thought for a moment. Faran merely watched her and remained silent, though his eyes widened a little.

"Anyway," she happily began again, "After that, we had to sail up north..."

As the days went on, Sheba and the people of Lalivero quickly returned to their old routine, though now Sheba had a little bit more focus on her than usual since she had been gone for so long and since the prophecy about her was true. She had saved Lalivero. She had helped save the entire world!

The Jupiter Adept could go nowhere without having some adult greet her and ask her a variety of questions about herself or her journey, or some child running up and wanting to play with her and see her new powers. The first time she had used Douse in front of the citizens was the day after she and Mia and Piers had arrived, and it was met with much enthusiasm. Now she was constantly approached by someone who needed water for their garden, or their dog, or fill up a glass, which was rather annoying since the Psynergy covered so much space. Lift was one she had only recently revealed to the people of her town, as it was not as necessary as one would think. This came around when she and a few of the other children were going to look at the old Babi Lighthouse and they complained about the many large boulders that blocked the path. By the time she had moved them, the kids, who had just seconds ago been extremely cranky, were now running back into Lalivero and shouting about how she had yet another new power. It was good to be home... she guessed. Ever since she had fallen from the sky into the ruins north of town, Sheba's Psynergy had been regarded as something amazing. Now that she had gone on a life threatening mission which had greatly increased her abilities, the people had begun to look upon her like a supreme authority figure, somewhat of a deity that could use nature itself to her whim. Sheba merely laughed at this attitude and tried to explain what was really going on and that she had met dozens of other people who had similar powers, but this was not listened to. It was almost as if the citizens loved her more now, if that were possible.

Faran watched over her almost all the time. Having her gone had made him realize that her abnormal powers could be used in many ways by the people who understood them. With this new situation she had told him about, the reawakening of Old Kimmy or something like that, he seemed to be much more worried about her safe keeping than ever, even though she had just survived being captured by two of the most powerful, misguided Mars Adepts in Weyard. He had also begun noticing that she had been acting strangely lately. He was also pretty sure that it wasn't a personality change that had happened while she was away. It was something different, like something was on her mind. Often he would find her on the roof looking around in every direction, then out to sea, where she would strain her eyes as if looking for something, and then sighing and losing touch with reality, like she was thinking about something. Sometimes, were she out late enough, she would look up at the sky. Whenever she would come back inside, he would ask her what she was doing. Sheba would merely reply that she was just looking around Lalivero and that it was nothing to worry about, although at times, especially when she was out late, she would have an odd look in her eyes.

One morning, Faran was preparing to make an announcement to the town about the future of Babi Lighthouse when one of the towns guards reported that a strange boat was seen heading south and if they should be ready for any attack. Faran laughed a little and replied that it was probably Piers and that they shouldn't worry. When he turned to finish putting his papers together, he noticed a shadow going around the corner and heading toward the stairs to the roof.

Sheba stood on top of her home and looked out into the blue emptiness of the ocean. Sure enough, a small vessel of some kind was heading south a long the coast and would probably go past Lalivero by midday. "What should I do?" he murmured to herself.

"Whatever you think would be best," she heard a low voice reply. She turned and saw Faran standing there, looking at her with a small smile on his face.

"What?"

"I've noticed how you've been acting ever since you came home," he answered. "The way you talk about your friends and your travels. You'd like to be out there again."

"No, Faran, it's not like that..." she began, but was cut off.

"But I know there's more to it, because I can tell that you like being home. What's bothering you is that you're not sure that you are home."

Sheba lowered her eyes to the roof top and sighed a little.

"You thought you were close to finding out what happened to you when you were a baby, and why you were sent here, didn't you?"

"Yes," she replied softly, tears forming in her eyes.

"Therefore," Faran continued, with a very official tone, "I want you to do whatever you feel you should. From what you have told me, you can almost see into the future. I think that if your heart tells you something, you should do it. But if you go to find your history, I want you to come back and tell me what you've found."

"What are you saying?" she asked, looking at him strangely.

"If you want to find where you came from, go right ahead. But if you can't, remember that you always have a home here."

Sheba stared at him for a moment in silence. Finally, she broke into tears and embraced him. "Thank you so much for everything," she cried out. "You've... you've been better than a father to me, and I don't want to leave but I kept having this feeling that I should and... and it's like you said. I love you... Dad."

With that, she left the roof and went into her room, still crying. Faran stood there for a moment and then smiled, although tears were in the corners of his eyes. He went back downstairs and outside, now preparing to make another important announcement to Lalivero.

Sheba stood on the shoreline near Babi Lighthouse, the future of which she did not know since she was busy packing her things. As the sun rose higher, she saw the small point slowly growing into the ship that she had spent so much time on, and was about to spend even more. As he came within sight range, Sheba began waving and calling out.

"Wait a minute," she said to herself. "He won't see me! What am I thinking? I need to get him attention with... something."

She stood there for a minute, knowing that if she didn't act soon she would not be able to use the boat as she had hoped to. Finally, she came to her quick thinking senses and used Spark Plasma on a nearby snake, just to get the full affect of the bolts.

The boat seemed to lurch strangely and then began heading toward where she was standing. "Perfect," Sheba said with a grin, ignoring the now smouldering remains of the poor creature.

Half an hour later, Piers had laid anchor in almost the same place he had two and a half weeks earlier. "What's wrong?" he asked, lower the plank and looking over the side.

"Nothing," Sheba answered. "I'm coming with you. There's something I still need to do."

Piers helped her load her things onto the Lemurian vessel, although he looked at her strangely while doing so, and within a few minutes they began sailing back to the other side of the continents and into an unknown future.

AN: Blah. That was really sappy. I even thought that when I first wrote it. I know I said it would take Piers a month to do the round trip, but Sheba need more time home so Ivan'll have to be wrong for this one time. Oh well, he'll live. So, what's going to happen next? Who will be on this journey? And if anyone isn't, will I still write about them? You'll just have to keep your eyes open to find out! ...Or remember what I had originally gotten up.

Oh, I should explain something else, too. I sort of have a weird way of thinking about Adept types. Ivan, Hama,and Sheba are obviously Jupiter Adepts, and Mia's a Mercury Adept, as is Alex, and we also know that the people of Prox are Mars Adepts. As for the others, I tend to think of them as simply whatever they control. Like, Isaac and Felix are Earth Adepts in my opinion. Yeah, it's weird, but since I've begun referencing that and it'll keep coming up, I thought I should explain.