Chapter 3: Family Ties

Jenna and Ivan sped over to Garet, who was lying on the ground lifeless. Blood flowed from an open wound somewhere, probably on his back. His fiery red remaining eye stared into the sky. A grin was on his face. The mighty warrior had gone down with a fight. Next to his body laid the mighty Firebrand, no longer a sword that lived up to its name, but just an ordinary weapon. Jenna crouched down and tried her best to heal him. His body glowed, but no response. "Garet! Garet, wake up! GARET!" Jenna wasn't going to give up. She had lost her lover already. She wasn't going to lose her childhood friend.

Ivan looked away in pity as Jenna desperately tried to recover Garet. Never has he had this kind of pain ever since the loss of Isaac and Piers.

He felt tears burning in his eyes, but he held them back. Garet was gone, and nothing could be done. He knelt beside Jenna and gripped her to stop her from wasting anymore energy. "Jenna, stop!"

"NO! Let go!" she tried to force herself out the Jupiter Adept's grip, but she was already too weak from spell casting on the body of Garet and eventually gave up. His gripped eased as her arms dropped to her sides. He reached down and closed Garet's eyes. She gazed down at his body. Tears flowed uncontrollably from her eyes onto the Mars Hero's clothes.

"Garet…" she started weeping uncontrollably onto Garet's chest. Ivan stood up and looked downstream to see a very angry Felix slowly approaching. Ivan gripped his Swift Sword hard. Jenna must have sensed him too because she slowly arose, Garet's Firebrand in hand.

I'll avenge you. Both of you.

She dropped her Salamander Rod and looked into that direction. Ivan looked at her and felt her anger. "Ivan," she said in a dark voice.

"Go find Sheba. I suspect she's in trouble," she said as one more tear fell down her face. Her eyes were filled with renewed fire. The look of death was in her eyes. "Jenna, what about you?"

The Firebrand ignited with a flame that it has never had before. With her eyes still glaring in the direction of the approaching fighter she said, "Go. He is mine."

Ivan said no more and rushed upstream towards the ruined mountain, the last place he saw Sheba run to. A Mars aura seemed to pulse around the fire maiden as she stared in that direction

Felix, the brother whom she thought lost in the eruption of Mount Aleph.

The Firebrand ignited even brighter than before.

Felix, the boy who protected her from harm's way when she was kidnapped and on the journey to light the elemental lighthouses.

She felt her heart pulse faster and faster.

Felix, the brother who assisted in defeating the Fusion Dragon and saving Weyward.

She started towards him.

Felix, my only sibling.

"Felix…" she said.

"You have raided our quiet town and destroyed it. The peace that you so wrought to have has been broken because of you. What you are trying to do…I won't allow. I promise…" she turned and looked at Garet's lifeless body. "…you will die."

She walked the same pace as Felix. An evil grin crossed his face, then an utter look of terror. Immediately her speed picked up until she was running full speed towards the Venus Adept, Firebrand pulsing with the hunger for the blood of the traitor. The Crimson Rose howled with fury. Felix only uttered two words; "Oh Cybele."

-

Xavier stared at Sheba in confusion. His own blood? What? Sheba looked towards the town plaza and saw Ivan fast approaching. "Sheba!" he screamed.

He fast dropped by the three who were kneeling. Roxas used his weight to help her up. He looked to Xavier, who looked like he had seen a ghost. "Xavier!"

He turned to look Roxas in the eyes. Fire burned deep within his own eyes. He started to remember how his mother spoke so coldly whenever he mentioned anything about her brother. Then a minute later she would become saddened.

She told Xavier once that his father and her brother fought each other for Weyward. Isaac sought to keep harmony while Felix sought to resurrect some dark entity. He remembered that she said his father sacrificed himself to end Felix and the destruction of Weyward. "This man is the one who fought my father, right?" he asked.

Ivan and Sheba both flashed looks to the Venus Adept for a quick second and looked away.

Xavier knew his answer. His shot up, whipped out the Gaia Blade and bolted off towards the plaza where his family was. Ivan quickly turned to pursue, but a weak voice stopped him. He turned to help his son support Sheba. Cursing himself for using all his vials, he took out his final herb and fed his wife with it. "No Ivan! Go after hi-"

Ivan placed his fingers to her lips as he checked her wounds. "He'll be fine, Jenna's there. Rest my love."

Sheba tried to say more, but fell into a state of unconsciousness. He frantically looked to his son. "What happened?"

"She was beaten for protecting those pitiful townsfolk, that's all," said a cold voice in Ivan's mind.

Ivan's face immediately turned a ghostly white. Roxas looked at his father in confusion.

What was he so afraid of? He then felt a chill colder and darker than anything he had ever felt coming from the sanctuary. Ivan lowered Sheba to the ground, drew Swift , and slowly approached the sanctuary of Vale. He then remembered and swung around and looked to his son. "Protect her, and get her and Xavier out of here."

He tossed the Teleport stone to Roxas. "And if you can, take Garet's body there as well to receive a proper burial."

Roxas flinched. "Garet's….dead?"

Ivan was silent.

Roxas shook his head in disbelief and asked another question "What about you, Father?"

Ivan turned to the sanctuary and started off without another word. "Wait!" Roxas called.

"I can help you! I am stronger now, an-"

"NO!" Ivan spat out.

"Your powers have not reached a high enough level," Ivan said calmly.

Roxas slumped. His powers were still too weak? "Your goal is to protect Sheba, and stay beside Xavier. At this time you cannot hope to win against such a powerful foe."

Those were the last words Ivan said before he stepped into the darkness of the Vale sanctuary. Roxas stood there with a bewildered look on his face. He…was too weak?

No…

All those years of constant training, all those years of beating Xavier, and he was too weak? That can't be true.

No! I won't believe it! He thought.

He carefully placed his twenty year old-looking mother on his back and darted quickly but carefully towards his home, where a teleport circle to Lemuria was located. His mind was made up. He would drop her off and return to the sanctuary to show his father how "weak" he was.

-

Jenna parried Felix's thrust to the chest and countered with a swipe aimed at the legs. Felix hopped quickly to dodge the attack and released a devastating vertical smash. The Crimson Rose merely rolled to her left as the Darksword sunk into the ground and shot a backslash at the surprised Earth Adept. Quickly Felix snapped the Darksword up just in time to intercept the hungry Firebrand and slide back a few feet. Felix grunted as he felt a thin line of blood trickle from his side.

He growled angrily as she again forced him back with another overpowering swipe. Back and forth they went, each putting on an onslaught of cuts and swipes and releasing enormous amounts of psynergy.

The Crimson Rose dropped to the ground to dodge the traitorous Venus Adept's sword and released another Dragon Fume, forcing Felix to pull back to cast Ragnorok to intercept the destructive psynergy. He hopped back and stood facing the enraged Mars Adept, panting and leaning heavily on his sword. He had learned at this point never provoke a female Mars Adept, especially Jenna.

Cursing himself for his weakness, he struck first this time, forcing Jenna to dive, roll, then counter with her own attacks. As Jenna came across with a horizontal swipe Felix dropped to the ground and managed to conjure up a Gaia spell, surprising the female fighter and forcing her to stop with the onslaught. He stood slowly, then winced at a sharp pain in his side. Felix looked and saw a deep gash there; why he hadn't noticed before was beyond him.

Clinching his teeth, Felix looked at the female warrior and grinned. Jenna was now breathing heavily, and seemed to have a similar gash on her side. He also noticed that wielding that powerful sword was taking its toll, for Felix saw that she was swaying and could barely keep the weapon up. "My sister." He said.

"If you stop now I can promise you a quick death."

Jenna smirked. "How can you promise something that you don't intend to keep?"

Felix frowned, then again smiled. "I could say the same thing for Isaac."

Jenna's eyes flashed with immense anger at him. "Yes, didn't he promise to come back?"

Again the Fire Brand flared with the brightness of Sol itself. The female warrior stood, crimson eyes on the traitor. Felix smiled an evil grin as Jenna seemed to be at Felix in an instant, instantly wiping the smirk off his face. Again they went on, until one moment.

-

Xavier ran as hard as he could to what seemed to take forever. He couldn't cut through town on account of all the fires so he had to take the long way through the forest and around the cliff bend. He could see the edge of the forest and the cliff. As he approached a lone figure stood. His hair was of blue hew. He wore a cloak and some kind of foreign breastplate. His skin was quite pale to many standards. What was that made Xavier quake in his boots were his eyes, those red, evil, blood lusting eyes. "Child," a dark, sinister voice came from his throat.

Xavier quickly unsheathed his Gaia Blade. The man laughed. Xavier had heard of this one from Garet. Thought to be dead, this struck fear into the heart of the promising warrior. "Y-you are-"

"Ah, so you know. Then this will be easy then, won't it?"

Xavier shook the fear off and stared the man with courage beyond his time. "Saturos," he spoke with confidence. "Move, or I will kill you."

-

Ivan looked around the sanctuary. The benches, ceiling, and walls were frozen. An eerie blue glow came from the ceiling, as if it was resonating with life. Ivan's eyes drifted to the altar, where the figure stood. The blue cloak and hair of this person swayed with the icy wind. He turned and looked into the eyes of the wind adept. He cold, sapphire eyes cut deep into Ivan, but Ivan put on the same stare. "It's been a while, hasn't it young Ivan?" the man said.

Ivan tightened his grip on Swift. "It has, huh Alex?"