MiraiEvo: Usually I do update once a week. Unfortunately, I've been too busy to write much lately. As for the groups coming together, the first two will meet up shortly. Since I edited the ending of the last chapter, I suggest you reread it.
BTFreek: The wacky-theory reviews are good; they show that you actually like this fic well enough to think about it. Yes, Andrew is Rebecca's son and the Gary and Ian conflict will come up again. But as for the Lord Crest thing: he was, but not anymore. In other words, I edited the ending of the last chapter so I would have a cliffhanger instead of nearly killing the opposition. It'd be good for Picard, but not for the plot.
POTATO MAN: Thanks for the info.
End of Response Section
I've had a lot of problems for this chapter. I wrote over 14 pages of the events that would result from the ending of the last chapter before I changed that ending. When I changed the ending to something that would be better for the plot, none of what I had written fit in with that ending. So 14 pages of writing went down the drain. After that, I wasn't too eager to start again.
Sorry.
On the bright side, I have figured out the ending of the fic. All I have to do is get there, which will take roughly thirty chapters(hopefully less, but you never know). So stick around; this fic is far from over.
Disclaimer: Rallalon does not own Golden Sun or any of its characters, items, or locations. Nor does she own squirrels, telephones, categories, or a hyperventilating Lemurian. Strangely, the curse "flude" actually is her own creation.
…………………………………………
"That is Mercury Lighthouse. And today is the day its beacon will shine once more." Picard watched as Oliver processed this information. The poor boy's brain seemed to have shut down by the way his hand was twitching toward a pocket inside his coat. He was probably reaching for smelling salts or the like to make sure he didn't pass out. Picard gave the boy a comforting pat on the back. "Follow when you're ready or wait here."
His eyes closed, Oliver didn't move. Oh well, he'd be all right later. With a sigh, Picard jogged up to where the others were standing outside the doorway, unable to get in without a Mercury Adept.
He looked up at the heights of the grand building in awe. There was something about this ancient decrepit structure of Mercury that felt so familiar to him. If Picard had been a building rather than a human, he would have been this mighty tower.
Without a word to his companions, he laid his hands on the Pynergenic barrier over the doorway. Lower your shield, Lighthouse of Mercury, Blue Tower of Water. I have come to make you whole. For some reason, Picard fancied this tower as an sentient being of some sort, seeing if it would respond to him even before he cast Ply.
As if the Lighthouse understood him, its shield dropped.
Picard grinned and entered.
…………………………………………
Sheena Fara stared at the wall, willing images of another place to float before her eyes. This worked best when what she was looking was white or close enough; any color would cause the image to look tinted. Focus, she told herself. I can do this.
A presence waited in the back of her mind, allowing her to do it for herself.
She could do this. She would do this.
Picturing a man's face in her mind, she willed her eyes to show her the same. Once it started, the vision would keep going by itself, but first it needed a starting point.
An image flickered before her eyes, solidifying. A moment later, Sheena was staring at just a wall again.
She sighed. The problem was getting it to start.
Take your time, Sheena. You don't have to get it right the first time.
………
"Milord!" Andrew called, thoroughly panicked. He ran back below deck.
"Milord!" Where had King Piers gone? Andrew rechecked every room; no sign of him.
"Where are you?!" He had felt a blast of Pysnergy from the deck, but before he could see what was going on, all signs of the blast had disappeared. So had everyone else on the ship.
"Milord!" The last time he had felt a blast like that… Andrew missed his father. His father was gone. He hadn't come back. King Piers was gone. He…
"Andrew! Andrew, calm down! You're hyperventilating!" a Venus Djinn commanded. Now why hadn't he thought of asking one of those elementals?
"Flint, do you know where they've gone?"
"Who?"
"Everyone else who was on this ship!"
"What about them?"
"They're missing! Do you know where they are?"
The Djinn looked like it was considering its answer. Finally after a painfully long time, it said: "Yes."
"Well?"
"Well what?"
"Where have they gone?"
"They're going to be back soon."
The Lemurian began to become annoyed. He might not be the biggest book on the shelf, but he still knew when someone was playing dumb despite what some people thought. "I didn't ask when they'd be back. I asked where they were."
"I don't suppose 'Canada' means anything to you?"
"Not really."
"Then they're in Canada."
"And King Piers is coming back?"
"Kid, we're on the man's ship. Of course he's coming back. Sooner or later, he'll be back."
Andrew sat down and tried to breathe. No, King Piers wouldn't abandon him. Not on purpose. Not unless he was stuck somewhere against his will. Not unless he was dead. Not unless…
I really need to stop thinking.
………
"What are you honking at?" Gary questioned him as the car screeched to a halt. "I like squirrels as much as the next guy, but aren't you going a bit over-board?"
Xander blinked. What the hell had happened? One second there was a flash of blue light, a bunch of people appeared and then disappeared as fast as they had come. Maybe he did need glasses. Or he was hallucinating. Either way, he had plenty of reason to pull over. "Did any of you guys see that?"
"The squirrel? No."
"Well, we're here anyway," May said. "We can just cut through these woods. But maybe we should wait a little before you drive again, Xander," she added, getting out of the car.
"So none of you saw that?" Xander inquired again. "That flash of light?"
"Well…" Ian tentatively began, "Was it blue?"
"Yeah. Yeah, it was."
Gary looked at the pair of them like they were nuts, but thankfully May interrupted before he could say so. "Why don't we just go to the lighthouse?"
………
Menardi looked around at the familiar corridors. It seemed like only a year ago that she had been here. Less, even. But if it had been less than a year, how had all these passages turned to rubble so quickly? How had all the climbing vines grown over nearly everything? How had so much of the water dried up? "How long have I been dead?" she asked Picard, king of a myth, who had only just remembered he was using Halt. How anyone couldn't notice the strain of using Pysnergy for half an hour was beyond her, but one thing at least was clear:
Felix had met some strange people after she had died.
The Lemurian king shrugged. "About a million years."
"I'm serious."
Picard gave her a look that said quite clearly that he was as well.
That's insane! Menardi ranted to Makrina. I didn't feel like anytime had passed. One moment I was tumbling down Venus Lighthouse, the next I was with you.
And strongly affecting my emotions.
I take it you mean your newly found attraction to Satornil?
It's not newly found; it's newly made. And it's your fault!
Makrina, you're going into denial. You've got it bad.
No, what I've got is a boyfriend back in Prorva that's going to pummel Satornil's head in!
What's his name?
Menardi felt the other's puzzlement. Agatal.
Figures.
………
Oliver looked around, completely confused. He had blinked, and everyone else had disappeared. Everyone was gone, leaving no trace. Well, no trace that he could detect; he was a lord, not a woodsman!
He wasn't completely alone, he realized, hearing the sound of people trampling though underbrush. And with that realization, four people came trampling out the surrounding woods. The three boys and one girl, all dressed rather strangely, gawked at him and he gawked back. The girl even had the gall to not only wear trousers but to wear them so short that her legs, knees and below, were showing! The indecency!
The red-haired boy stepped forward. "Not to be rude, but… what are you doing here?"
Oliver's brain went into overdrive. He needed a response that would let him seem at least semi-normal in the outsider world. "I'm here with a few friends of mine, and we're here because…" Now what would make sense? "Because one of them, an archeologist by the name of Dr. Crade, wanted to study these ruins."
They were still staring at him. Of course! His outfit, although completely normal to him, was completely foreign to them. "It's a bit of a bother really," he continued, thinking up a reason these uncultured children would except. Wait, who said they were completely uncultured? "I have this play I need to get to, and here I am, in full costume, and they go and leave me outside!"
Another one of the boys, a blonde, nodded. "I know the feeling." Oliver gave an inner smile; he had found common ground.
The redhead did a double take. "Did you say 'Dr. Crade'?"
Was the archeologist important? Or, more significantly, was he important in a way that made one of his acquaintances stand out? Maybe bringing him up had been a bad move. But… just because one of them hadn't completely heard him didn't mean the others hadn't. Therefore, he couldn't change his pervious response. All this flashed though his mind in less than half a second, giving him the nearly automatic reply of "Yes."
The girl, puzzled, asked the redhead, "Isn't that one of the people your dad is looking for?"
Redhead nodded. "He's one of the missing guys, yes." Red directed his next question at Oliver. The boy suddenly took on the personality of an interrogator. "Have you happened to have come in contact with a pair of Russians, a girl and her male cousin, and a man by the name of Picard?" Forget about interrogators, the boy had the tone Picard had used when he discovered Rebecca Stormwind had killed her husband, a man who had been one of the king's closest friends at the time.
But as for Picard… The Senate was right; Picard has been making a mess. But why do I have to be the one to clean it up? And why does he have to die? But as for the moment, I can't let them on, so it's time for lying through the teeth.
Aloud, he replied, "No, it's just Dr Crade, his assistants, my son Piers, and Piers' friends." After causing this mess, Oliver felt that a tad bit of payback would be in order for the king. Plus, Picard's physical age was fitting of a child, he would respond to his last name, and it seemed safe enough to assume that the red-haired interrogator didn't know that name.
After a pause, long enough to feel authentic, short enough not to make it feel like he was over-thinking things, Oliver continued, "Plus, I don't think that…Jim is missing." Actually, Dr Crade's first name probably wasn't Jim. But then again, that was the whole point.
Picard owes me for this, Oliver thought as he went on to elaborate about the play he was in and how proud he was that his "son" had gotten a starring role. Picard really owes me for this.
………
Matthew was pretty much asleep in the sense that he wasn't aware of what was going on around him. As far as he knew, he was still in bed. Heck, he didn't even know if he had ever gone to bed or had simply been left to doze where he had collapsed.
But, even asleep, he still knew something weird was going on. He'd find himself in the middle of a perfectly normal dream of killing wolfkin and other random monsters with something called a "Grand Gaia" and suddenly realize that this was a far from a normal dream. He dreamed about staring dumb-founded at the spot where the familiar peek of Mt Aleph had been, only to find that he had never even heard of Mt Aleph.
Then there were the dreams about her. He'd been getting little flashes of the dream for months, feeling like he knew this violet-eyed girl even though he knew he didn't. But now… now they were like his own memories, wither he was jumping off a Lighthouse (he didn't know why it needed a capital L; it just did), telling her that it was finally her turn to get the firewood, or just doing whatever.
Then the strange thing happened. It was a small pain in his foot, as if he was walking with a stone in his shoe. Of course that was ridiculous, he thought in his slumber, I'm asleep; I can't be walking.
But he was.
And he was sitting down to take off the shoe and take the rock out of it. His fingers felt the sharp edge of the tiny rock; his behind felt the chill that came of sitting on cold stone. There was something else, too. Something that his half-asleep mind couldn't quite figure out.
It was as if there was a voice in his head, thinking/saying: "Oh, putrid flude! Matthew's waking up."
How strange.
………
Picard was starting to wonder: were they going the right way to get to the Aerie? Although it shared his element, he'd never been to the Lighthouse before. And the directions of Saturos and Menardi might not be quite accurate. After all, they'd been dead for a million years, no matter how little time they thought had past; they could've forgotten things. Moldy fish bait! Their brains have to have rotted into nothingness by now! How can they remember anything at all?!
[The mind is a different thing than the brain,] Shade reminded.
[He's right, you know,] Spring agreed.
I don't care! And I shouldn't have brought you two along; Andrew will know I'm gone if you're not there.
[Unless he's suddenly gone blind, deaf, and is unable to sense Pysnergy or the absence of it, he's already figured that out anyway,] Spring reasoned. [And calm down! You've endured worse pressure than this.] The Djinn being right was only the first part of his annoyance.
Having to do this again was bad enough, but with the Senate sending Oliver after him and Oliver actually managing to come… Not to mention how much trouble it was now that his friends had shown up in an age where this sort of thing was caused by drugs and anyone who admitted to having company in their skull would be medicated and thrown into an asylum.
[I thought you wanted to have your friends back.]
Picard was really getting to hate whoever had made up the saying "Be careful what you wish for; it might just come true." Nobody should be right about such a warning that often. The ancient mariner felt a strong need to curse.
Felix did it for him. "Oh, putrid flude! Matthew's waking up."
A strong will and millennia of practice at keeping his face straight let Picard get off with only a grimace. Perfect. Another complication. "Alright, Felix. You stay here. Jens, you two should be here to help Matthew cope." He paused for a moment and decided it couldn't hurt to ask.
Spring?
[You want me to stay here with them so you can stay in touch with them. Am I correct?]
What gave me away? Picard asked good-naturedly.
[Well, I am sitting inside your mind; I shouldn't have to be aligned to Jupiter to read it,] Spring replied while switching to Standby.
[Plus, we've known you practically all your life; that's a long time to learn how to read someone.]
Point taken.
And so, Spring comfortably in the arms of Jen/na, Picard hurried on with Crade, following Makrina/Menardi and Satornil/Saturos. Someday, he promised himself, I'll come back when I've got more time. The building was amazing. Even more amazing was that he hadn't thought to visit without the Mercury Star; the entire place, from top to bottom, was overflowing with the presence of his element, a marvelous experienceMy element? I'm getting more a bit prideful. Still, just one look around the place filled him with the simple pride of being a Water Adept, a thrill he hadn't felt since he was young.
The Russians/Proxans led the way up winding corridors, along deteriorating hallways, and finally a dead end with the wall covered with the only waterfall Picard had seen throughout the entire Lighthouse; it seemed the rest had dried up.
Saturos gritted Satornil's teeth. "I hate this part."
Menardi grinned mockingly at him. "So the great warrior's afraid of a little water?" And with that remark, she plunged through the wall of water, much to Picard's and Crade's surprise.
Saturos and Satornil, annoyed at this taunting show, dove in through after them.
Of course… Picard thought, watching the water more carefully now. The waterfall covers the door, as part of the Lighthouse's defense system. How much more of this will there be? He probed with his Pysnergy to tell where the wall ended and the door began, and he too leaped through the cascading water.
Water pushed him to the floor, the opposite of what the substance of Mercury usually did. For a moment he stood in the downpour, adjusting to the pressure of the powerful torrent, delighting in its might. This was the strength of Mercury, its tranquil force unleashed. He would've laughed had he been able to breathe.
The one drawback of water. No, not the drawback of water; the inefficiency of humans. What he would give to breathe this liquid element. For something that changed form with the temperature, water was practically the only constant in his life. Gaia, it was the only constant in his life, apart from the Djinn of course. People lived and died; water endured for the ages. The substance of Mercury been in the world before the Lemurian race had come into existence; it would last longer than even he would.
The only constant in his life? It was the only constant in the world! Not even the world's name could stay the same for long. Fires burnt out, the wind stilled, trees died and mountains ground themselves to dust, but water would always remain.
His train of thought was interrupted by Crade pushing him all the way through the doorway. "Do you have a death wish?" the sodden archeologist asked. "What were you trying to do: drown yourself?"
Picard simply shook his head, spraying droplets of water everywhere. What use was there trying to explain what the element of Mercury meant to him? He looked around the small chamber and a Pynergenic voice, the voice of the Lighthouse filled his ears: He who honors the goddess of the rainbows shall be guided to the heavens upon winds of fluid grace.
The goddess of rainbows? A guide? That would mean Iris. But what was he supposed to do? Picard turned around and looked back the way he had come. A rainbow arched over it. Well, why not try? "Iris, I honor your name," he murmured in Lemurian.
Nothing happened. So much for that idea.
He turned to his right. There was a statue in the corner. The sculpture was of a woman, a head and shoulders taller than him, pouring an urn of water that was hoisted onto her left shoulder. Her stone hair, the blue shade of a Adept from Imil, flowed down her back. Her dress of rock seemed to ripple as if the woman was Halted while a breeze whispered around her.
Maybe it wasn't the rainbow that was the representation of Iris, but the statue. It was a strange portrayal of the summon, true, but still… "Iris, I honor your name."
Still nothing.
He turned to the smirking Proxans/Russians in defeat. "Ok, what am I doing wrong?"
"All you have to do is Ply."
Picard stared. "That's it?"
"Just Ply to the statue."
Picard hated feeling like a twit. "Ply."
This time something did happen: a burst of pale golden light began at the base of the waterfall and worked its way up. The was a great rumpling, strong enough to knock them all to their feet. Picard, clinging to the statue, stared in astonishment at what happened next:
The water flowed up. The entire waterfall suddenly consisted of water that did the exact opposite of falling.
Only practice kept Picard's jaw from dropping.
"Well, King, do you want to do first?"
Picard nodded numbly at Makrina's offer. Once again, Picard stepped into that doorway.
And went up.
………
"Jen, please tell me you're kidding," Matthew pleaded.
Matthew, she's not, the voice said before Jen could even shack her head.
Matthew shuddered. He was hearing voices. He'd finally cracked. When had that happened? When he was asleep? When he was wielding that sword? The sword! Of course! There had been something wrong with it; even Picard had said… well, he had said something about it. It wasn't Matthew's fault that he couldn't remember. He was insane after all.
Matthew, you're not insane. Just calm down for a bit and let us explain this to you.
"Go away!"
Matthew felt a surge of irritation and annoyance from the voice. Oh yes, he was definitely insane. Do you remember the Djinn? The little creatures hanging around Picard? Like the one your cousin's holding?
"How could I forget?" Those things were disturbing. Wait, Jen was holding one? Gaia, those things were dangerous as well! Matthew didn't exactly have any proof of this, but still…
Have you seen the Djinn pop in and out of people?
"Yeah, it's how I met Picard."
Ok. The voice paused, unsure of its new choice of words; it was picking up Matthew's vocabulary as Matthew was picking up his. When a Djinni is Set, he's inside the person, usually an Adept, who Set him. The Djinni can talk to that person through a sort of mind link, like how they can when they're on Standby, but stronger. Think of me like a Djinni; I won't hurt you, and I'll do my best to protect you. And you don't have to talk aloud. Just think to me.
I don't want your protection! What I want is you out of my body!
You think I want to be in here with you? You're a wuss and a child!
No, I'm not!
Hey, I'm seventy-five years old and a warrior in my prime. If I say you're a wuss, you're a wuss, Matthew.
You're an old guy? Strange. Matthew had always thought that if the voices were to have some sort of age, they'd be his.
I'm an old guy who saved they world. I'm also the father of a wonderful daughter, the grandfather of two boys and a cute little girl, the uncle of a powerful Fire Adept, and the great-uncle of a set of triplets. My name is Felix.
Um, I'm Matthew. Feeling like his intro was missing quite a bit, he added, I like reading, drawing things, and going on the computer.
What's a-
Felix was interrupted by a giant rumble that vibrated throughout the entire building. Come to think of it, where was he?
Mercury Lighthouse, Felix answered and took control of Matthew's voice. "This means that it will be lit soon. We should head out if we're going to meet up with the others."
Did Jen know that it wasn't him talking?
"Right, Felix." Apparently she did.
………
Picard looked around, dazed. It seemed he had blanked out while riding up the waterfall. Strange, that. There seemed to be no way to get up here; the waterfall was nowhere in sight. Despite that, he, Makrina/Menardi, Satornil/Saturos, and Dr Crade were on the top left spire of the Mercury Lighthouse, just a few steps away from completing their goal.
[Who cares how we got up?] Shade demanded. [We're in the Lighthouse Aerie. Or on. I can't think of the proper preposition, but we're here.]
Picard stood up, more because of the Djinni's will than his own. His hand felt around in his pocket until he found the mithril bag containing the Mercury Star. He was afraid he had lost it in his watery ride. He gave a sigh of relief.
Saturos/Satornil groaned and sat up. "I really hate that part. The sooner we can get this over, the better… Oh, flude," he cursed.
"What?" Crade inquired, weakly standing up. "Did you just realize that we will most likely never be dry again? I realized that the second I saw Menardi go through the waterfall the first time."
"No… Well, yes, but that's not the problem. Not the main problem anyway."
Even with the knowledge of approaching distress, Picard had to surpress a smile. Being wet as a problem. Ha!
Menardi followed Saturos's gaze with her own. "Flude," she agreed. "There's supposed to be these… floating stepping stones so we can get to the main part of the Lighthouse."
"And they're not here," Crade remarked. "That is a problem."
Picard carefully crept to the edge, laid down on his stomach, and looked over the side. "No, they're here. They just aren't floating."
"A lot of good that'll do us," Saturos remarked dryly.
"You do realize that we can't even get down unless we reach the other spire over there?" Menardi pointed out.
"Once again," Crade replied, "That is a problem." He paused for a moment, thinking. "Picard!" he exclaimed, full of hope, "What about that hovering thingy you told me about?"
"The Hover Jade? I left it on the ship."
Five people stared at him with three pairs of eyes.
"I thought we wouldn't need it until we got to Jupiter Lighthouse," the mariner hastily explained.
There was a long pause.
"So we're really stuck up here?" Crade asked.
"Yep," Satornil replied.
"With no way down?"
"None," Makrina said.
"Not even any food?"
"Forgot to bring that too," Picard admitted.
"Well," Crade surmised, "this really is a problem."