Chapter 12: A Mysterious Encounter
After getting passed the "moment," all of us when to where Sharla was, who had her arms folded looking at the two unconscious Homs. Reyn still had the smirk on his face, but I jabbed him with my elbow as Sharla looked up.
"So, how are they?" I asked, breaking the short silence.
"They haven't sustained any serious injuries, but her condition is far from stable," Sharla motioned over towards the girl.
"Do you know what's wrong with her?" Shulk asked.
"Her symptoms suggest ether deficiency. It's well-known that Homs are strongly affected by ether levels in the environment. But I've never seen symptoms like this before." Sharla looked at Reyn, who made a thoughtful noise. "A sudden drop in ether content in the surrounding atmosphere causes a reaction. Symptoms range from fatigue to nausea...but these two..."
"But, there's a way to help her right?" I looked at the unconscious girl as I saw how she wasn't breathing normally like the other.
"There is a way, but we're gonna need Water-type Ether Crystals," Sharla unfolded her arms. "I'll load the crystals into a cartridge to shoot from my rifle."
My eyes widened hearing what she just said, but then I processed another way since just shooting a girl wouldn't do us any good unless it's a shot.
"Eh? Y-you're gonna shoot her?" Reyn exclaimed in shock. Both Sharla and I looked at Reyn like he was crazy. Ok, Reyn may be dense at times, but he can't be this dense, right?
"No!" Both Sharla and I corrected him in unison. The boys were startled by this, but I calmed myself down and saw how Sharla just lowered her hand from her face.
"I'll fire them into the air, and the dispersed ether will heal her," Sharla finished off.
Reyn gave a little nervous laugh. "That's what I thought…" was all he said.
"Yeah right," I mumbled to myself. "Like I'm going to believe that..."
"But the problem is the crystals," Sharla grabbed back our attention to the main problem at hand. "We can't just use any old crystal; they must be as pure as possible. This area must have a water source nearby. We should search there first."
"I spotted a waterfall a little way back," Dunban said, thinking. "What do you think, Sharla? Would a waterfall produce pure crystals?"
"I can't think of a better place," she replied.
"Then it's decided," Shulk said firmly. "I'll search for the crystals."
Reyn turned toward him as my eyes widened. "Hey, you're not going on your own!"
"I'll be okay," Shulk said dismissively. "I need you to look after the group. We're short on water, too, so I'll fill up our flasks."
"Hey, good idea-!"
"Shulk? ARE-YOU-CRAZY?!" I blurted out with panicked. "Shulk, it's late, dark and most importantly, we known barely anything about what lurks around here at night?! Listen, I might not be an expert of exploration, but I do know wandering around all alone in a dark forest is not a smart choice!"
I "might" have been a bit overreacting, but once I finished my panic attack, I took a deep breath as I had my hands to my chest. My heart was beating fast and I was obviously red with blush. Closing my eyes seemed the best thing to do, but I look towards the open tent and remembered the nice, fresh air outside.
"Well then," Dunban's voice trailed off. "How about you go with Shulk then? After all, you two lovebirds do need to spend some quality time together," he said while hiding his smirk with his left hand.
"Dunban!" Shulk blushed as I rolled my eyes.
"Let's just get going. The sooner I get fresh air, the better I can keep my temper in check," I grabbed the water flasks. "Because I'd like to whack some sense into somebody..."
As the three laughed at us–which I just ignored all together since I had no romantic feeling for Shulk, we let on our way to get the Water Crystals for the girl. As we were walking, close together and keeping an eye out for any monsters that could be wandering out during this time at night. I bugged Shulk that I wanted something to light up our way there, but then after passing a monster that had us barely out of its line of sight, I accepted the fact we were to walk in darkness to avoid being seen. We walked through the heavy night and I couldn't help but enjoy the cool air that had covered the once hot air. Even though it seemed to be thick, it was better than the constant heat that we experience earlier.
After some time–I lost count after nearly encountering a group of monsters–we were getting closer to the waterfall, now walking down the winding path to the bottom. Neither of us talked too much and I frankly was thinking more about what Dunban said. I knew I was going to tell them sooner or later, so maybe now was "probably" a good time. I was unsure but if I could get that one thing out of the main scheme, things would either get pretty good or bad. Looking up as we made a turn, the beauty of the night sky's twinkling lights brought me back to being on the Bionis, a place unlike anything back home. If I ever return home, I'd look up anything about that could be related to this just to enjoy it once again. I could do so much with what I'll and I have experienced here. When we reached the bottom, I smiled looking up into the sky.
"This is truly a stunning place," I mumbled before noticing that Shulk was chuckling at me. "What?!"
"Oh nothing, it's just that..." His voice trailed off before he shrugged it off. "Never mind, it's not important."
"Shulk, you know you've made me more curious." I followed him towards the Water Ether Crystals deposit, "What were you going to say?"
"I said it's nothing. Fill the flasks for me, will you?"
"But Shulk! I... Fine," I accepted and went to fill the flasks. Getting as close as I could, I filled them up and closed them tightly so no water could be leaked from it. As I turned around, my eyes widen seeing something by the pathway we came from. I couldn't recognize what it was, so I slowly tip-topped over to Shulk, who by the time I got there was standing up. By that time I could make out the he was a Homs, but a gut feeling told me this guys wasn't like me or Shulk. "Shulk...who's that?" My eyes stuck to the mysterious figure behind him, who looked way too different from anybody else I've seen–well besides his pink-like hair.
Shulk turned around and both of us were on edge, seeing this stranger calmly leaning against the stone wall. I'm not sure if it was by pure instinct, but Shulk got in front of me, and I grumbled and stepped a bit to the side. I'm not some damsel in distress and I don't plan to be one...except for the tentacle Mechon attacked me. I wasn't expecting that.
"Who are you?" Shulk asked, keeping me behind him as I grumbled.
"Shulk, I don't need to have you as my babysitter," I whispered at him.
"Hello there," the man greeted calmly as he walked closer to us. This man was different, and for lack of a better term, creepy in my case. His silver eyes were locked onto us as he calmly strolled over, hands at his sides with a slight smile on his face. Of course, seeing as how he replied, neither of us knew how to respond to that until I uttered it out before Shulk could.
"Um... H-hello, I guess?" I answered uncertainly as he got closer.
Shulk didn't need to ask like my protector for that long as the man began to examine us. Since both of us were nervous we turned to watch him while I backed away from his if he got close.
"How unusual... It's rare to see a Homs…" His voice trailed off seeing me before my heart stopped. No, please no! Don't let this random dude drop the bomb here. I can handle it, but not by a stranger! My hands clenched into fists seeing him before he shook his head. "…Two Homs traveling together, especially in this region," he corrected himself.
My body felt rigid. That tone of voice of his... He knew about me, this random, fricking stranger knew about me. Well, at least he didn't exactly say that was The Outsider. Then things might have gone darker than I needed.
The man knew how I felt, but just laughed quietly to grab Shulk's attention away from what he just said. "I suppose you two are wondering why I am here, in that case," he said. He walked past both of us, and both of us turned our gaze to keep an eye on him, for me now two reasons instead of one. "Then permit me to introduce myself." He placed a hand over his heart and bowed. "My name is Alvis."
"Alvis?" Shulk took a few steps towards him as I stood in place. Something wasn't right about this guy, and I wasn't getting too close in case he did another thing I didn't like. Shulk didn't turn back to check on me, but I didn't care because this guy was doing something with me that I didn't like. "Um... My name's—"
"It's Shulk," Alvis interrupted with a little knowing smile, glancing at him sideways, "and your friend over there is Neetz, am I right?"
Both of us let out a gasp and that made me only approach a little closer. I still kept my distance as my questions of how I got here to how I could get back filled my head, just begging to be answer.
"And you know about us?" I questioned, a little angry in my voice could be noted.
Alvis looked away, his face titled towards the starry night sky. "Wielder of the Monado; Defender of Colony 9. The hero that has every Mechon running." He looked back at Shulk, then, but it indirectly meant for me as well. "You're famous amongst all Homs...and Outsiders as well."
"Outsiders..." I whispered to myself before I notice a faint smile was to me as his gaze looked indirectly at me.
I didn't hear what Shulk said, since it was bit too low for me to hear, but I didn't think much of it. What I did hear was what Alvis said after–I believe–Shulk asked him a question.
"The Monado emits a particular ether wavelength in its ground state," Alvis explained before looking up again. "It must have drawn them."
Our gaze turned towards the sky and a roar of some kind broke the calming silence. Three creatures flew down towards us at high speeds and I reacted too late, falling to the ground as I felt something pass by at high speeds. A streak of yellow-blue went over head, letting out another roar. My eyes found them looking at my bracelet, looked onto the creatures flying back for another round.
"Wh-what are those things?!" I cried out, still paralyzed in fear as Shulk got up.
"Neetz! Alvis! Get out the way!" Shulk called back to us as my feat returned to the flying monsters coming back for another round. "I'll deal with this myself!"
Shulk grabbed the Monado and charged at the creatures, activating the Monado as I managed to catch my breath. Alvis had by that time walked over to me and stood by me, watching Shulk. Getting up to my feet, I noticed how Alvis was doing nothing to help, but he did look over at me once I was up.
"You're a puzzle, you know that?" He asked me as I noticed that he was holding something in his hand.
"And how would you know?" I grumbled back at him.
"That's nothing something I need to answer now, but perhaps later..." He back to me with his faint smile on his face, "You'll be needing this."
Looking confused, he just tossed over the short distance between us a small, blue crystal–or rather gem for that matter. Catching it, I curiously held it up, seeing the pure blue's shading in the night's light.
"And...what's this?" I asked him.
"Do you like it? It's an Ether Crystal. Quite a marvelous true sapphire color, if I do say so myself."
That seemed excessive, I thought. "…What am I suppose to do with this?"
"You'll find that out when the time comes," Alvis eyed on Shulk's battle, "but until then, you better go help Shulk before he gets himself killed."
Looking back to where he was looking, I saw Shulk lying back on the ground, in pain of some kind as I saw the creatures coming back down for the kill. I growled, pocketing the gem and ran over to Shulk, seeing if he was alright with the Junk Sword out in case if I had to attack the creatures. Even though I was confused as to how they were beating him this quickly, all I cared about was for Shulk's safety, even it required to risk my own.
"Shulk! Are you all right?" I asked him, helping him up to a sitting position as he winced in pain.
"It can't be!" Shulk managed to get out, clutching his stomach in pain. "I saw its movement before it struck. How can it…?"
"It is a Telethia," Alvis had strolled over to us as he looked at the flying creatures.
"Telethia?" My gaze turned into a glare, since my gut was telling me something was wrong with trusting or even talking with him.
"They can read your mind," Alvis explained, tapping his head as he met my glare. "Whether you have a vision or not, if they know your next move, it's all in vain."
"So we have flying bird creatures that can read minds... Oh joy! I'm so excited," I said, sarcastically, cutting off Shulk before he could even reply to what Alvis explained. "Got any ideas on how to beat them then?"
"There is only one way." Alvis eyed at the Monado laying on the ground. "Stop it in its tracks, then dull its perception." Suddenly, Alvis took off running fast away from us, snatching the Monado as he did.
"What the-?! Are you crazy?! You can't wield-!" I yelled until I saw the Monado activated, silencing my rage as both Shulk and I saw the new symbol upon the blade.
"A new symbol?!" Shulk gasped. Both of us looked at each other for a split second before back to see what Alvis would do.
The Telethia charged straight at Alvis, who readied the Monado for the fight. He swung the weapon and a green energy came forth from it, latching onto the Telethia before the creature was frozen in mid-air. Ok, what did this guy just do?! Did he just freeze time or something? By this time Alvis had sliced the antenna off the creature before destroying the creature before it had the chance to strike back. As he stylishly landed down to the ground, the Telethia was no more, bursting into green energy in front of us.
"Wow..." I uttered as both Shulk and I got to our feet, but I soon closed myself up from emoting those same emotions as Alvis looked back towards us.
"That was...amazing!" Shulk exclaimed quietly as he tried to limp towards Alvis, but I had to hold him a bit to keep him from falling.
"I suggest you two stop staring," Alvis walked over to us, holding the Monado in his hands before tossing it over to Shulk. It spun end to end in the air, and I had to release my supporting grip on Shulk in order for him to catch it. The strange symbol was gone now and I couldn't blame the sword for doing so. I didn't even how close Alvis got to us when he got behind both of us and placed his hand on Shulk's shoulder. Both of us looked back at him as many questions were swirling in my head about this strange man. "The sword is yours to wield," he said, referring to Shulk before giving a small push forward.
"What was that light from the Monado?" I asked him as Alvis as he backed away, my grip tightening on the sword.
"The Monado does not control itself. You control it."
I think Shulk's brain was able to process what he saw as my sense alerted me to the Telethia overhead. We turned around and got ready to fight, but neither my thoughts wandered not to what Alvis said nor the Monado, but to my own blade. The strange blade I'm able to summon, its own connection to my bracelet... Did it have any connection to the Monado and how it worked? I still had no idea how the blade worked, but it didn't have one main Art: Time Warp. The design of it... It did resembled to the Monado, but there's only way to find it out. Holding the Junk Sword, I began to focus like how I summoned it the first time as I looked up to the Telethia getting ready to come down to fight.
"Well, only way to find out," I whispered to myself, trying to focus upon my bracelet and the sword.
"I...control it," Shulk said softy. I looked over to Shulk, who grasped the hilt tightly with determination in his voice. "By the light of the Monado...I will stop them."
The Monado was then activating, sharing the same green light as when Alvis used it before. Maybe Shulk can do it and perhaps, I could tell him-!
Strange jolts of energy shot up my right arm, whose grip tighten around the Junk Sword. Looking down, my eyes caught sight of the bracelet reacting by the white and gold carvings glowing. Not long after, I saw the Junk Sword change into the strange blade only for me, the one that anyways caught Shulk's attention, and now Alvis'. I could sense the question incoming about the blade's name and for the first time, I knew what this blade's name was, one that was burnt into my mind: Telaensis.
I'm ending the Chapter here so that this one chapter doesn't become a lengthy one.