Author's Notes: Have I mentioned that you don't need to be registered with FF dot net to review my stories? Try it out. I can use more comments and criticism.

I'll be posting a topic about the direction of this fic in the Land of Fire and Ice forum shortly. Head over and voice your opinion if you're of the mind. In the meantime, hope you enjoy this chapter.

- Chapter 5: The Proxian is a Harsh Mistress -

They're going to be pretty pissed off about this, Felix reflected as he climbed the massive spire of earth that he'd forced up from the mountains, spearing the Lemurian ship. It was the most tremendous demonstration of psynergy he'd ever managed to pull off. The act had left him drained, induced a positively agonizing headache, and worst of all, punched a considerable hole in the irreplaceable flying ship. But it was the only way he had of warning Isaac.

Not that that would excuse him; it would take weeks to repair the damage to the ship, and after all, it was his fault that they were in this situation in the first place.

The rough-hewn spire of rock rasped at his legs as he climbed on, scraping ugly tears in his pant legs. Besides the skull-cracking headache, he was still exhausted physically from running after the ship. I let myself be blinded by my feelings for Karst... didn't think things through before I acted. But I won't let Isaac and Garet die because of that. I won't.

As he neared the ship, he tried calling out again. "Isaac! Garet! Is-"

"Felix? Is that you?" Piers's voice. And a moment later, his face appeared over the edge of the ship. "It's fortunate you're here. Isaac and Garet's psynergy just withdrew from the power flying the ship. I sent Jenna below decks to check on them, but she hasn't come back yet."

A chill went over Felix's body. Jenna...? "How long has she been down there?"

"Not long at all, but I wasn't comfortable with her venturing down there alone to begin with. I would have insisted on accompanying her if I weren't needed to steer the ship. Now that that's no longer an issue..."

Felix gave a grunt of agreement as he heaved himself on board. "We'll check this out together. I think I know what the problem is... I just hope we're not too late."

"Felix, are you well? You look disastrous."

"I'll be fine. Let's go."

They raced across the deck and down to the storage rooms, but as Felix feared, they were too late - though not too late for Jenna, to his relief. His sister was pressed back against a wall, holding a hand to a bleeding gash that ran down her side.

Karst was focused on Isaac, lightly slapping his face. "Come on, you piece of filth, wake up. I won't have you sleeping through your final hour... not with what I have planned for you." At that moment, Jenna noticed Felix and Piers and let out a gasp. Karst twitched at the sound. "Jenna, there's no need for you to see this. Go join Piers up on deck and pretend none of this is happening."

"She won't need to pretend," Felix announced, drawing his sword. "Because I'm not letting it happen."

Karst whirled around. "Well, well, the traitor is here again. I take it that bit about you staying in Prox was just a ruse?"

"Not a word of it. And don't you dare give me that self-righteous 'traitor' bullshit, not after what the two of you just pulled. You let everyone think you both were dead!"

"Ha! You expect us to believe that anyone cares whether we're alive or dead?" Agatio sneered. "Why do you think they chose us to find out what happened to Saturos and Menardi?"

"They chose you because you're the bravest and strongest of those that were left. You -"

Karst cut him off with a laugh. "By Mars, you're naive, Felix. Now, enough of this chatter. If you two leave now, we'll gladly forgive you for having interfered with my vengeance last time. You can take Jenna with you."

"We defeated you before," Piers tried.

"When there were four of you. But I don't see that blonde brat anywhere, and Jenna is in no position to help you. You two are both too weak to defeat a Proxian in a fair fight." She smiled, shifting her weight from one smoothly toned leg to the other. It was amazing, Felix realized – or maybe ridiculous would be a better word. Even now, when she was standing by the bloodied form of one of his friends and threatening another, the first thing in his mind was what a sexy vixen she was. He had to fight the urge to lose himself in those mocking eyes.

"How about this?" Felix said, pointing his sword at her in a gesture of challenge. "If you're so convinced I'm weak, why not prove it in a duel, one-on-one... a fair fight, as you say? Unless you're afraid that I'll smear your blood all over these walls."

She looked at him, considering. "The stakes?"

"If I win, you let go of your vengeance and leave my friends alone."

"That sounds fair. And I think it's obvious what we get if we win." Felix smiled, acknowledging to himself that he was going to enjoy this. Trying to court Karst in the traditional way would have been hopelessly awkward for him. Now, battle... that was something he was more than comfortable with. He'd just have to avoid seriously hurting her this time, and that was no problem for him.

Karst turned to her partner. "How about it, Agatio? Would you like the honor?"

"With pleasure." He cracked his knuckles with a subtle but eager smile.

Felix's own eagerness deflated. "Wait a second... I didn't say anything about fighting him."

"What's the matter, kid - scared?"

"Don't flatter yourself." In truth, Felix was scared. He wouldn't say that Agatio was a better fighter than Karst, but he was definitely more powerful. Win or lose, the odds were good that he'd come out of this with shattered ribs or a broken leg. And then there was the little detail that Karst had turned him down for the fight - spurned him. That frustrated him, whatever her reason for it.

Piers's hand grabbing his sword arm almost made him jump. "Felix, this is insane. I understand that you want to prove yourself, but Isaac and Garet's lives are at stake. You can't take him on all by yourself."

"I'll be happy to join in and make it two-on-two," Karst said in a tone that suggested Piers wouldn't like that.

"You cannot win by intimidation," Piers said sharply. "Even against two of you, Felix and I do better as a team."

"Piers..." Felix said, thinking quickly. "No."

"Felix, they're members of the Fire Clan," he whispered back. "And I'm a Mercury adept."

"I don't want either of them or either of us killed," he returned. "There's not much chance of preventing that in a group brouhaha. Besides, if we lose, who's going to get Jenna safely out of here?"

"They will. They offered to let Jenna go, so they have no grudge with her."

"I'm not relying on them. They've already hurt Jenna, in case you hadn't noticed."

"Then why me instead of you? Let me be the one to fight Agatio."

Felix was silent a moment. "It's my responsibility."

After a moment, Piers gave a reluctant nod of understanding and stepped back. Agatio folded his arms and said, "You ready or what?"

"Why don't we take this upstairs, to the main deck?" Felix suggested. "It's less cramped up there."

"No," Karst said firmly. "I have to stay here with my sister's murderers, and I don't want you pulling any dirty tricks while I'm not watching."

"Then we'd better make this a no-psynergy fight. I don't want the rest of you hurt, or the ship damaged, by the two of us tossing fire and earth around."

"That sound good to you, Agatio?"

"Fine! Let's get this started, already!" Agatio said, and charged Felix like a bull.

Felix was quite grateful for that. His psynergy reserves were drained from creating the massive spire of earth, and he doubted he'd be able to concentrate on any useful techniques with the headache that was ripping through his skull anyway. Beating Agatio by himself was tough enough under normal circumstances; if he had to face flame psynergy with none of his own to counter it, it would be utterly hopeless.

He sidestepped Agatio's charge, but it was merely a feint, as he expected; his leg stretched out to trip Felix up. Rather than fight it, he let himself fall backwards, thrust his hands underneath himself to break the impact, and extended both legs simultaneously to kick Agatio in the solar plexus, knocking him backwards.

The Mars adept crashed against a pile of crates. "Nice move," he grunted, hopping to his feet and hefting up one of the crates. "Guess you've gotten a lot of practice since Jupiter Lighthouse, huh? Good!" He hurled the crate at Felix.

Felix snatched his sword up off the floor and slapped the crate aside with the flat of his blade, trying to make the act look like less of an effort than it was. "Still underestimating me, Agatio," he said. "You probably haven't even accounted for the fact that as a Venus adept, my strength is diminished by Jupiter Lighthouse."

"Haven't even blah blah blah," Agatio mocked, throwing a punch at his face. Felix deflected it with his sword, but Agatio was wearing thick leather gloves; the blade drew no blood. "Using big words doesn't impress me."

He knew what Agatio was doing: trying to get him to lose his temper by pretending to not take the fight seriously. To fight the urge to strike out in anger, he took a step back.

He immediately realized this was a mistake, but it was too late. Agatio charged, fist ignited with energy, and caught Felix square in the chest. He flew just a couple feet before his back impacted with a wall. He felt his spine smash against the unyielding timber, his chest cave against the force of Agatio's knuckle. He released a gasp, but he did not yield to the pain, maintaining a firm grip on the hilt of his sword. He slashed at Agatio's face. Agatio instinctively pulled back, but the stroke still scored a shallow cut across his torso.

For all the good that does. Dammit, if only I weren't so exhausted just from getting here, I wouldn't have made such a boneheaded mistake. I'm making it easy on him!

"Well, come on," Agatio smirked, spreading his arms in a gesture of invitation. "You're gonna let me off with just the one little cut?"

It was tempting to let loose in a rage, but Felix reminded himself that he'd refrained from pressing his attack for good reason. Instead, he began circling his opponent.

"Ring around the rosie? Fine by me." Agatio put up his fists and imitated Felix's movement. "Ha! Get a look at your sister's face - she knows you ain't got a chance."

Another attempt at distraction. Ordinarily, he'd have matched Agatio misdirection for misdirection, taunt for taunt. At the moment, it was all he could do to focus on what his opponent was doing and keep an eye out for a slip in his defenses. Besides his headache, that punch to the chest was making it hard to breathe. And Jenna...

No, dammit, don't look at her!

In the instant that Felix took his eyes off Agatio, the Proxian lunged forward for another swing at his head. Felix tilted his head out of the way and slashed across Agatio's back. With Agatio off-balance, he stamped on the big lunk's heel and thrust across his belly with his sword.

Agatio howled in pain and reached out to grab him, but Felix ducked down, deflected his arm with the flat of his blade, then darted back.

"Nice moves," Agatio snarled, and Felix couldn't hold back a satisfied smile. "Then again, maybe the main thing you got going for you... is your weapon." He picked up a long shard of wood from the crate that had broken earlier, and brandished it at Felix. "We're even now. Ready to get torn apart?"

In fact, having a weapon was not a great advantage for Felix, not because of Agatio's thick skin and scales, but because he didn't want to kill him. Not being able to use anything that might be a killing stroke rather put a cramp in his swordplay.

To make things worse... I don't think Agatio is worried about hurting me. It's not like him to agree to a fight where he can't murder his opponent.

They circled each other, making tentative attacks at first, but it wasn't long before Agatio went for a serious thrust. Felix stopped it with his sword, and the wood shard shattered. Agatio cursed. "Karst, toss me your scythe!"

"Over my dead body," she returned. "Use your own weapons."

Talking to Karst was a distraction, and Felix took advantage, swinging at Agatio's leg in hopes of disabling him. Before the stroke could reach its mark, the Proxian's fist slammed into his gut. He doubled over, and another punch like a cannonball smashed into his face. He barely had time to spit out a tooth before Agatio lifted him off his feet and threw him. He bounced off a wall, nearly blacking out from the impact, and hit the floor. The pain was blinding, so overwhelming his nerves that he couldn't get the message through for his limbs to move, even as he saw Agatio approach.

The pain did give a moment of lucidity. Suckered. Completely suckered. Even Agatio's not dumb enough to think Karst would let him use her scythe. With his strength, he'd break it the first time one of his swings connected with something. He just wanted me to think he was distracted... If I didn't have this splitting headache, I'd have realized that right off. Damn it, it's not fair. If-

Agatio seized him by the neck and hoisted him into the air. "That's all the fight you got in ya? Shame. I thought with no psynergy, this might actually be a pretty even match."

With the threat of death hovering right before Felix, his mind searched for a reason to live, a reason strong enough for him to overcome the exhaustion in his limbs and the throbbing pain from the beating he'd taken. He thought of Isaac and Garet. If he didn't pull himself together... Karst would kill them. A burst of energy surged through Felix. He grabbed hold of Agatio's arm and swung a kick to his stomach.

"Weak," Agatio grunted, and slammed him against a wall a few times to knock the remaining fight out of him.

Felix's mind raced. Jenna. He had to fight back, for her sake, and Piers...

But that didn't hold water. It was obvious from what Karst said when he came in that she and Agatio had no intention of killing either of them. They'd get along fine without him. Even Sheba... He hated the thought of leaving her alone, not even getting to say goodbye, but he couldn't make himself believe that she wouldn't be able to survive without him. She was a strong girl, and besides, Jenna was sure to look after her.

Damn it, I don't even matter. If anything, they'll all be better off with me gone.

Holding him up against the wall, Agatio readied his fist. "Time to say goodnight, sweet prince." Felix's head rolled back, and his eye fell on Karst.

Her face showed cold disdain, and only a mild hint of disappointment. She was disgusted by the fight he had put up, but had plainly expected little better.

Sudden rage swelled through him. He was not weak, not even remotely so. And he would not let Karst crow over Isaac and Garet's corpses with the thought that their once-friend had been too weak to save them. He would show her how wrong she was.

A fresh dose of adrenaline trickled into his veins. His face contorted with raw determination, and an important piece of his training in Prox came back to him. He gripped Agatio's arm with both hands and growled under his breath, "No mercy."

With one mighty push in opposing directions, muscles stretched to their fullest extent, he dislocated Agatio's elbow. Crying out more in shock then pain, Agatio dropped him. Felix landed on his feet and delivered a hard right to Agatio's face. He followed up with a left, but Agatio blocked it with his right arm. Not slowing, Felix seized his head and pulled him into a harsh knee to the stomach, immediately followed by a kick to the jaw.

To most, it would have seemed incredible that Agatio remained on his feet after that, but Felix was too lost in his bloodlust to think of how much punishment it should take to knock his opponent down. Agatio tried striking back, but Felix caught his fist and delivered a headbutt to the face. He could hear the crunch of cartilage, and the sight of blood streaming from his foe's smashed nose gave him a light beat of pleasure, but he was nowhere near satisfied.

"No... mercy!" Felix coughed out through his own blood, slamming his fist into Agatio's face over and over. When he noticed him beginning to stagger, he kicked one of his legs, sending him crashing to the floor.

He hopped on top of his opponent, squatting on his chest, and began striking him over and over with his fists. Each blow came with an utterly satisfying impact and a slight spatter of blood. The release of his pent-up emotions, the triumphant display of his strength and power over his opponent, made his heart feel more happy and free than it had in ages. This was wonderful.

He wasn't sure how long it would have taken him to stop if he hadn't begun to notice a familiar voice calling his name over and over. He couldn't place the voice, but it somehow brought him back to himself, at least enough for him to realize three things in a hazy sort of way. The first was that Agatio hadn't been moving for a while. The second was that, if Agatio were playing possum, he would have given up on that several punches ago. Both those things would have been irrelevant if not for the third: That he was a good person, or at least tried to be, and repeatedly pummeling an already defeated foe wasn't a very good thing to do. Especially not when said foe was essentially a good man. He stopped, and got up.

The first thing his eyes happened to fall on when his bloodlust had faded was Karst.

Bombarded by physical and mental exhaustion, groaning pain from his injuries, blood loss, the adrenalin still pumping through his veins, and the exhilarating feeling of victory in battle, Felix was in a state of delirium. A vague sense of self had made him pull away from Agatio, but nothing like a sensible thought had entered Felix's head since that rush of anger had given him his second wind. Seeing Karst standing there, raw and beautiful, gazing at him with surprise and interest, he could hear nothing but his triumph over Agatio singing his praises and encouraging him, You have won the courtship battle; now claim your mate.

He swaggered towards Karst, somewhat unsteady on his feet but growing more purposeful with each stride. Her look of interest turned into a puzzled frown, but Felix thought nothing of that. He stepped forward, took her by the waist with one hand, by the back of her head with the other, and kissed her with a furious passion.

Her lips were warm, smooth, but with a tough leathery texture. Her taste, mixed with the coppery flavor of blood flowing from where Agatio had knocked out his tooth, seemed rich and compelling. For five seconds, it was nothing but deep pleasure, albeit clouded by the foggy mist of delirium. Then he felt a hand seize his hair and jerk his lips away from hers. And the sharp edge of a scythe pressing lightly at the back of his neck.

Karst smirked up at him, her mouth smeared with his blood. "Never lose your head to a woman, Felix... Or you might just lose it in a more literal sense."

For a moment Felix was utterly confused, but soon the shock of this rude awakening brought him to his senses. He smiled, half at himself, half at Karst. "I won the fight. Now... let them go."

"Why should I?"

"You said yourself... you would never break your word so casually."

"You haven't won the fight yet," she returned. "He's still breathing."

"Cut the bullshit! I'm not going to kill Agatio, and you knew that from the start."

"So, you're still too weak to finish off a foe who tried to kill you and your friends," she remarked in a mocking tone.

"Weakness has nothing to do with it. I don't want Agatio dead... and I know you don't either."

"Let go of him, Karst!" Jenna cried. "Can't you see he's hurt!"

Karst opened her mouth to reply, but she hesitated a moment, and in that moment they were interrupted by the sound of feet clopping down the ladder to the storage room. "We've got trouble, Felix!" Piers shouted. "I thought I felt a tremor during your fight, and when I went up to look... Some enormous creature is climbing up that length of rock you made! I suspect it's looking for prey."

"'Enormous creature'?" Felix echoed. "Couldn't you be more specific?"

"Forgive me, Felix, but I've never seen one of these things before. Whatever it is, I think we'd better -"

A pinkish snakelike thing of incredible size and a barbed head lashed into the room, sweeping along the walls and ceiling. They all dove to the ground, and more by luck than by the quickness of their reflexes, managed to avoid being hit. The ship groaned at the sudden force.

Then, as swiftly as the snakelike thing had come in, it was gone.

"What in blazes was that thing!" Jenna burst out, looking with revulsion at the viscous transparent fluid it had deposited randomly about the room.

"I suspect that it was the tongue of that cre-"

Piers was interrupted a second time by the pink snakelike thing, which this time made a sweep of the floor. Felix instinctively dove at Jenna to protect her, and Isaac, Garet, Karst, and Jenna herself were already near the far wall of the room. Not being so lucky, Piers screamed as the tongue snatched both him and Agatio, its sticky saliva gluing the two of them to its surface.

Felix could do nothing but stare in horror for a split second at his friend and vanquished foe caught like flies in honey. Once that split second was past, the tongue was gone, the two of them with it.

Then things got worse.

The ship groaned again, and this time the groan was accompanied by an unpleasant screeching and the foreboding sound of timbers cracking and splintering.

"Shit," Felix said softly.

"What is it?" Jenna said, voice panicked. "What's going on?"

"I think -"

He was going to suggest that the creature's weight, combined with its eager scouring for food, was too much for the damaged Lemurian ship to support. But his answer was drowned out by Jenna screaming at the top of her lungs as the whole ship lurched into free fall. The room spun, the storage crates tumbling about along with the five adepts still aboard. Felix went crashing head first into a wall, and his long ordeal was at last brought to a rest by merciful oblivion.