Little late for Disclamer, buuuuuut… Characters do not belong to me, all belongs to their respective makers (Camelot, Nintendo, blah, blah)
Ewww, I suck at titles…
--
Chapter 3: Feelings made known.
The four jump out of the way, and the soldier without a helmet immediately lunges towards the beast with his spear.
"Yah!" he yelled as he closed in on it. The lizard casually swiped at the man with its tail, slamming him into a rock formation. He slumped to the ground, unconscious. The other soldier used this as an opportunity for to strike. Quick to react, the monster swipes at him with a claw. He fends it off with his spear and counters with a jab. The beast dodges and swipes at the man again, his attack deflected by the man's tough armor. The two exchange blows as Ivan and Sheba stand up.
"This one actually seems competent," she remarks. Ivan closes his eyes and aims his arm at the soldier in melee.
"This should make him more than that!" a burst of red psynergy erupted from Ivan's limb and entered the body of the man(1). He experienced a sudden increase in strength as he matched spear to claw with the beast and manages to break past its defenses and stab it in the side. The Lizard roars in pain.
"Woah!" the man exclaimed, surprised by his strength, which was actually borrowed from Ivan's psynergy. The monster backs away and opens its frills once again. It began to glow. The man, who seemed not to have noticed this, charged at the best.
"Uh oh!" Sheba exclaimed. Using her natural agility, she ran between the man and the lizard and began to concentrate. Ivan had no time to stop her.
"Sheba!"
The lizard unleashed several tornadoes of wind that mowed a path through Sheba and the soldier, kicking up an unbelievable amount of sand. Ivan shielded his face with his arm. Scared of the possible outcome, he lowered it and saw Sheba and the soldier still standing, surrounded by a purple aura(2). Sheba's psynergy had deflected most of the attack. The lizard seemed agitated that its assault was ineffective and began to charge towards them. Before it got close, a searing pain surged through its body, preventing it from moving and allowing its targets to back away. It turned to see the blonde boy with both arms outstretched, releasing streams of violet electricity into the lizard(3).
The lizard, still held by Ivan's bolts, opens its frills again. Ivan stopped the attack, realizing it wasn't having much of an effect. The monster was Jupiter aligned as well. With a screech, three blades of air were shot from the monster. Ivan dodged them until he had joined up with Sheba and the guard who had also retreated to a safe distance behind a rock formation. The lizard continued to fire blades at the rock, slowly blasting away chunks of stone.
"Where's a Venus adept when you need one!?" Sheba lamented. The soldier was panting, and seemed to be worn out. Ivan thought for a second until he had an idea.
"Sheba, use Wheeze to cripple the monster!" she nodded and understood his plan. Wheeze appeared on her shoulder.
"Alrighty then, I'm ready!" it said between labored breaths before quickly infusing itself into her staff. Ivan jumped out from one side of the rock, releasing more bolts of electricity from his hands to grab the monsters attention. Hissing, it begins charging up more psynergy. Out of nowhere, Sheba zooms from her hiding placed straight up to the beast. It notices her and tries to react, but it was too late.
"Hiyah!" she yells as she jabs the beast in the chest with her staff, releasing Wheeze's power into the abomination. The monster's eyes widen as it stumbles back, then quickly swings its tail, slamming it into Sheba and knocking her into the air.
"Crap!" Ivan runs to catch Sheba before she hits the ground. He looked at her, her eyes were closed. He looked at the beast. The creature was struggling to stay standing as disease spread through its body, and then it eventually fell to the ground, dead, or at least unconscious. The winds suddenly stopped blowing, revealing the rocky dunes and stone formations of the Suhalla. Everything fell silent. He looked back at Sheba, sighing in relief when she opened her eyes.
"What happened did it work?" she inquired as she rose to an upright position, scanning her surroundings. She saw the lizard motionless, and beamed a victorious smile at Ivan. He couldn't help but smile back at her.
"Looks like it." The soldier went over to his downed comrade, and looked him over.
"Eh, he's gonna be out for a while." He picked up the man and slung him over his soldier. The Jupiter adepts were in awe of his strength, especially after such a battle. "Well, let's go." A purple light exited Sheba's staff into the air and formed the body of a Jupiter Djinni, followed by another who exited Ivan.
"Yeah! That was awesome!" Breeze exclaimed while flapping to stay in the air, "We totally kicked butt!" Wheeze coughed at his comment.
"What do you mean we?" Wheeze he said in a sore sounding voice, "You didn't do crap!" He coughs in Breeze's direction, causing the Djinni to flinch.
"Ewwww! At least keep your Djinni germs to yourself!" The two young adepts couldn't help but chuckle at the two as they continued on their way through the Suhalla desert, the two Djinn flying over to their respective adepts and fusing with their bodies.
It was nothing they couldn't handle, but they were both glad that encounter was over.
"Hopefully the Suhalla will be a bit less dangero…" before he could finish Sheba snuck up on him and gave him a small peck on the cheek. He froze. This had caught him completely off guard.
"Thanks for being there for me," she whispered into his ear before walking out of her room. Ivan stood there for a good four seconds before becoming apple red and collapsing to the floor.
--
He opened his eyes to find himself staring at Sheba's ceiling. Her sneak attack seems to have put him out of commission, but for how long? At that moment, a familiar purple, blue-eyed Djinni came into view, sitting on Ivan's chest.
"Wow Ivan, that kiss knocked you out!" Breeze commented, laughing. "If a peck on the cheek did that, I'm scared that a kiss on the lips would kill you… Ow!" Another Jupiter Djinni came out of nowhere and kicked Breeze off Ivan.
"Hush up Breeze! It's not Ivan's fault he's never experienced such emotions" It scolded. Purple light flowed from Ivan and formed a third Djinni that hovered in place, flapping its wings.
"But still, that rush of emotion through Ivan's body kinda shook me up," it said giggling. Apparently, the Djinn felt what Ivan felt when they were connected with him.
"That wasn't nice, Gust!" Breeze hopped back into the air and joined its brethren in hovering over Ivan's body. "But Kite is right, the emotions were pretty mind boggling. Humans are so weird!" The three giggled in unison.
"Ugh!" Ivan grunted. Their constant chatter over his loss of emotional control embarrassed and aggravated him. He swatted at them with his left hand as he got up, but the three Djinn dodged it easily. He got the message across, though.
"Okay, okay, sorry Ivan! We won't tease anymore…" Kite apologized, then he looked at the other two Djinn and added, "Maybe!" then the three disappeared back into the adept's body.
He got up on his feet and looked out the window to judge the sun's position. Couldn't have been out for too long. The sun was still high in the clear sky. Then, he heard a voice in his head.
Hey, you're up! Come downstairs, Faran and the rest of my family are back!
It was Sheba communicating telepathically. She had recently learned to do that on their way to Vale from Prox. At this point, she can only speak to Ivan like this. Since then, they took interest in developing this ability further, and Ivan finally found himself able to do it while they were in Vault. Since then, they tend to have totally silent conversations, that is, until they start getting headaches from constant psynergy use. It was a special bond that they shared.
He brushed some dust off his clothes, fixed his hair a bit and headed downstairs.
"Sister! I've missed you so much!" a little boy said, crying in Sheba's arms. He was holding so tight, she was afraid he wouldn't let go!
"I missed you, too!" She replied. After he reluctantly released her, Faran and his wife proceeded to embrace their adopted daughter, whom they feared would never return. Tears of happiness streamed down the parents' cheeks.
Foot steps were heard coming down the stairs, much to Sheba's family's surprise. Ivan had appeared from the upper floor. Faran looked angrily at him.
"Uh, am I interrupting?" Ivan asks nervously. Faran looked at him fiercely, but his expression soon changed to one of joy as he recognized the short young man. He must have thought he was an intruder at first.
"Ivan! You have brought Sheba back to us!" He yelled, running up to give him a hand shake.
"Oh! I must prepare dinner! This is a glorious occasion, and I know just what to make!" Sheba smiled as her mother ran into the kitchen. She already knew that her mother was going to prepare her favorite foods.
"You must join us for dinner, Ivan." Faran suggested.
"Oh, um, okay. I'd be glad to."
--
The sun was setting over the horizon. Twilight added a mysterious beauty to the desert wasteland surrounding Lalivero. The myriad of orange lights bathed the two Adepts who were sitting on the west wall of the city.
Sheba tilted her head back, closing her eyes as the gentle breeze swept over them. Ivan, who was slumped forward bit, shot at glance at Sheba and watched as the wind blew through her golden locks of hair.
Hey, hey! Tell her that her hair shines brighter than the Golden Sun itself!
It was Breeze… Ever since they defeated him and earned his assistance amongst the Tret tree's branches, he's been the annoying little voice adding in his two gold pieces to every conversation. Ivan's made it a habit just to ignore him, but this particular comment made him slap his own forehead with his palm.
"Uh, something wrong?" Sheba asked, eyeing the red mark Ivan left on his forehead.
"Nope, nothing." Ivan turned away, blushing and twiddling his thumbs. He started to sweat and Sheba raised another skeptical eyebrow.
Oooooh, Ivan's nervous! That's a new one!
Oh dear Gods, Breeze! Shut up!
No you, Gust!
The two Djinni broke out into a storm of high pitched voices that echoed throughout his head. Their rounds gave him a pounding headache, and caused his already fluctuating emotions to grow more difficult to deal with.
"Ivan?" Sheba grew concerned as Ivan started twitching and rocking back and forth.
Ivan threw his hands up and roared "Shut up!" his voice echoing throughout the entire west side of the city. His outburst actually caused some people to turn their heads. The Djinn stopped their quarrel, surprised that Ivan actually yelled at them. Breathing heavily, he then turned to Sheba, who was staring at him stunned, with an almost hurt expression.
"No, no, I didn't mean you!" Ivan flailed his arms, "you see, it was Breeze and…"
"Oh… Breeze, say no more…" Sheba shuddered as memories flooded her mind. The last time she had custody of Breeze on their journey, lacking the mental control Ivan possessed, the little Djinni wrecked havoc in her brain. Being in a new Adept, he started asking her questions for a whole hour. This resulted in Sheba screaming her lungs out, reaching into herself to pull the Djinni out, and throwing it onto the deck of their flying ship. She proceeded to try to crush him under her foot, but Ivan had restrained her just in time. "Never again!" she yelled.
"Ugh…" Ivan put his head in his hands, frustrated. Sheba sensed his confusion, but was unsure of the cause. He's been acting very strangely ever since they left Vault.
Sheba, maybe you should try talking to him about… your visions?
This time the high pitched voice was in Sheba's head. Ever since Isaac and Felix's groups united in Hesperia, she's had strange dreams. They all consist of her traveling Weyard, which was what she was already doing. What makes them stranger was the presence of Ivan in each and every one of them. It baffled her. She was dreaming of a random guy she barely knew. What really takes the cake was that she felt a strange happiness…an unexplainable bliss whenever she has the vision.
For the rest of their journey she ignored them. After the lighting of Mars lighthouse and the forming of the Golden Sun, she wanted to know more and started paying more attention to them. On the way back to Vale, the dreams kept coming. Sometimes they came to her several days in a row, at other times, they'd come every week or so.
Soon enough, she decided to learn more about Ivan himself. In Vault, whenever she wasn't hanging out with Jenna, she was chatting with him. They really hit it off, often talking about experiences involving their psynergy. They've also taken an interest in each other as people.
He was charming. He had an intellect and natural curiosity she had never seen before in a boy around her age. She didn't have to read his mind to find out that he was a gentle soul, with a heart unmatched by others.
As time went by, she couldn't stop herself from thinking about him… and she's also found herself experiencing that same feeling she has after her visions whenever she's around him. He made her… happy. She was overjoyed that he wanted to accompany her to Lalivero after they stopped by Kalay, but she grew very reluctant to arrive, since it meant Ivan leaving her alone.
Sheba sighed and responded to the Djinni who spoke to her. I don't know, Aroma, something's a bit… off about him today.
That's because he likes you… Sheba froze at her comment. And you already know you like him too… Sheba started to grow just as jittery as Ivan.
How do you know?
Forget about that, trust me on this one!
Oh boy, Sheba thought. The thought of Ivan liking her unnerved her, but it also made her feel good. Thoughts about Ivan rushed through her head as she stared downwards and started rocking her legs.
Ivan, who had just finished some breathing exercises to calm himself down, looked at Sheba. Her hair shielded her blushing face from his view. He soon became enticed by her mystical beauty again.
Dang, dude, you fell head over heels for her…
Ivan ignored Kite's comment, still enraptured by the Jupiter adept adjacent to him.
"Ivan?" He snapped out of his trance as Sheba said his name. "I want… to tell you something"
"O-okay, sure…" Sheba raised her head and took a short glance at him.
"I… I've been having these visions, you see… and you were in them." This certainly caught his interest. They talked all the time about their visions, but this was the first time either one of them saw the other in one. Sheba continued, "And, well… every time I have this vision… it makes me happy…" She hesitated a bit, and this made Ivan grow nervous again. "Whenever I'm around you… it makes me happy too"
Something went off in Ivan's head. His heart started beating faster… and his Djinn noticed it.
Uh-oh, temperature's rising. Thing's are getting hot! Breeze commented in his usual joking manner.
Sheba took another glance at Ivan and took a deep breath before continuing, "These visions made me think… I've yet to figure out my own destiny, and I still barely know anything about myself. I've come to the conclusion… there's nothing for me here in Lalivero…" Ivan gulped and mustered the courage to speak.
"But… what about Faran, and your family?"
"I love them, you know that…" she lifted her head and smiled at him, "but these walls… I feel they will keep me from what I really want." She scooted closer towards him and stared into his eyes. "I want to be with you…"
Eyes closed, she tilted her head and leaned forward until her lips met his. Delight and an emotion never experienced before surged through both their bodies. It was as if they had entered a world in which only the two of them existed.
The Djinn in Sheba cheered.
Yes…yes… most excellent! Aroma commented in satisfaction.
Awww, how shweet… Wheeze and a third Jupiter Djinni, Lull, commented simultaneously
The kiss went on for several seconds, until…
Wah!! Overload, overload! Abandon ship! Breeze yelled as he and two other Djinni warped out of Ivan, the emotional experience too much for them. Sheba slowly pulled away from Ivan, who was in a state of bliss. Then he fell backwards, and with a loud 'Conk!' had landed head first on the roof of a building several feet below the wall on which they were seated upon. Sheba gasped and covered her mouth with both hands.
"WOW, I think the kiss DID kill him!" Breeze yelled in astonishment.
"Oh Shit!!" yelled Gust as he flew down to the unconscious adept. He flapped around him, noticing that Ivan sported a goofy smile. He looked up to them and yelled, "Don't worry he's still breathing!"
Sheba sighed in relief. She then looked at the darkening sky and smiled…
--
Yesh, battle scene! Action is fun to write (for me that is). I'm new at romantic stuff, so whatever needs work, TELL MEEEE! Early thank you's for all who read (and cookies for those who review!! Never hurts to have higher max PP!!)
Anywhoo… I thought about a little thing for those who read. Notice those asterisks (well they WERE asterisks, but i turned them to numbers in parenthesis... :O) during the fight? They're for…
Guess that Psynergy!
Basically, you can unscramble the names to match the Adepts' attacks. Pull out those game packs! (If you'd like :P) Answers will be in the next chapter!
(1) matcip
(2) ssiert (bonus points for the attack she blocked!)
(3) tomsr yra (hmm a little inaccurate, but I wanted something a bit different)
Breeze: Ew, no wants to waste their time with your games!
Me: SILENCE!
Breeze: You cannot silence the star!
Me: -sticks tongue out-