Disclaimer: I don't own Golden Sun or the Tomegathericon.

Author's Note: I'm back, after being sidelined for several weeks by a combination of broken computers, vacation, and plain old writer's block.  All three of those problems have disappeared, but another looms: next week I move into college.  I'll be bringing my stories with me, but I have no idea if or when I'll be able to work on them.   Hopefully, I'll be able to stick with it.

As for this story, it's been kicking around inside my head for a while and I finally pinned it down.  Hope you enjoy.

         "I shall give this power to the first to reach it."

         And that was why they'd returned to this godforsaken village.  Felix shook his head disgustedly.  After recovering Piers's crystal, they'd gone to his ship at the shore.  Felix had been anxious to leave, to get this quest done with as quickly as possible, but Piers had wanted to assure the mayor of Madra that they'd recovered his prize.  Felix hadn't seen any feasible reason to deny him, so they'd returned to Madra that night.  The decision was made to rest at the inn that night before starting out the next day.  Then, at breakfast the next day, Kraden and Jenna had brought up what the Gabomba Statue had said.

         "We're really going to need every type of Psynergy we can get, Felix," Kraden had argued.

         "And for the Gabomba to hide it like that, it must be something pretty important," Jenna had reasoned.

         Felix had been adamantly against returning, feeling it was imperative to find their way to the Western Sea.  He and Jenna had argued stubbornly all through breakfast and beyond.  Piers had refused to take part, insisting that he had no part in the discussion.  And in the end, it had been Sheba who had swayed Felix's decision.  He'd looked into her deep hazel eyes for support, and she'd simply said, "It may make our quest easier, Felix."  And he'd been unable to argue with her.

         It was just like her to be the diplomatic one, Felix thought.  Before they'd met up with Piers, Jenna's fiery temper and his own inherent stubbornness had led to more than one encounter, most of which were smoothed over by the young Jupiter adept.  There was something remarkable about the girl with no past.  Her poise throughout her abduction from Lalivero had impressed Felix, even as he feared Saturos's motives.  And throughout their trials and tribulations, he'd found it increasingly difficult to deny her anything.

         So they'd made the continent-and-a-half trek back to Kibombo, snuck into the mammoth Gabomba Statue, and descended into the catacombs.  Only to find this dead end.

         Felix glared around the damp, dreary cave, looking for some outlet for his frustration.  There was nothing here except dark puddles and overgrown mosses.  That was surely worth the week's journey back to Kibombo.

         "Nothing here either," Piers called from the other side of the cavern.

         "Can we leave now?" Felix growled out.

         Jenna was very quiet, avoiding his gaze.  Piers spoke up, "There doesn't seem to be any reason to stay."

         Without waiting for another response, Felix whirled and strode towards the ladder.  He was stopped dead in his tracks by the small voice sounding behind him.

         "Felix, I can check to see if there's anything hidden in the mosses," she said firmly.

         Felix closed his eyes without turning around, heaving a large sigh.  They really needed to get moving, especially having wasted all this time, but he still could not come up with a good reason to deny her.

         "Can you be quick?" he said with more edge than he wanted.

         For his response, he felt the stagnant air in the cave begin to swirl.  He turned, cape whipping in the ever increasing breeze, to find Sheba holding her staff in front of her, eyes closed.  Felix narrowed his eyes and shifted as the wind ripped the moss from its tenuous cling to the damp earth, revealing a strange depression in the center of the cave.  The wind intensified even further.

         "Sheba, don't you think that's enough?" Jenna cried out, struggling to keep her balance.

         Suddenly, Sheba's eyes snapped open, and Felix read panic in her eyes.  "I… I've lost control of it!  I can't stop it!"

         Felix felt a spike of fear drive into him, and he attempted to leap towards Sheba, only to have the wind drag him roughly along the ground.  He struggled in vain to regain his feet as he slipped into the edge of the depression.  Felix felt a strange wrenching sensation inside of him, and suddenly the wind stopped and he felt himself falling.  He hit the ground hard, landing on his back and momentarily losing his breath.  He blinked rapidly, shaking his head and trying to regain his senses.  As he looked at the ceiling, Sheba suddenly appeared out of nowhere, falling directly towards him.  Felix's breath whooshed out of him for a second time as he broke the wind adept's fall.  His arms reflexively wrapped around Sheba's back.

         "Wha-" Felix started, then coughed violently.

         "Ugh," Sheba groaned, lifting her head and shaking it groggily.  She looked into Felix's face.  "Are you alright?"

         Felix drew in a breath and slowly exhaled.  "Yeah, I'll be fine.  How are you?"

         "A little sore, but otherwise I'll live," Sheba replied.  Then she began to blush violently.  Felix suddenly realized their position and felt the heat rising in his face as well.  He removed his arms from Sheba's back and let her roll to her feet.  After climbing to his feet, he looked around and said, "So what happened?  And where are we?"

         Sheba retrieved her staff from the ground and looked around.  "I don't know what happened.  I started my whirlwind and it just grew out of my control."

         Felix shifted the scabbard on his back.  "Do you think it had something to do with that weird depression?"

         Sheba glanced at the ceiling.  "You know, I think you might be right.  It was probably some sort of secret passageway that requires the wind's power to work.  When I started the whirlwind, it triggered the passageway."

         "Alright, then my next question is," Felix replied, "Where are the others?"

         Sheba glanced around.  "I don't know why they didn't come with us.  And before you ask, I have no idea how we're going to get back."

         Felix looked at the Jupiter adept.  She merely smiled in return, tapping Felix's head with her staff.

         "Well," Felix said.  "Let's head down this tunnel and see if we can find a way back up."

         "Let's be careful," Sheba pointed out.  "We don't know what's down here."

         "Indeed," Felix said, and strode down the passage, his bad mood replaced by a powerful curiosity.

         *               *               *               *               *               *

         Sheba followed Felix, keeping close behind in the oppressive darkness.  A dim light seemed to emanate from the walls, allowing the young girl to just make out the form of her companion ahead of her.  While she was a little nervous about their circumstances, having Felix there, protecting her as always, made her feel a little more secure.  Ever since she'd been kidnapped from her home in Lalivero, Felix had been the only one looking out for her.  It had been such a weird feeling, to have someone there for her, someone who seemed to understand her…

         "I think we've got company," Felix interrupted her thoughts, drawing his sword.

         Sheba tightened her grip on her staff and stepped forward to flank Felix.  Two dim shapes were blocking the passage in front of them.  Felix leapt forward and slashed his sword at the rightmost form, slashing its left arm clean off.  To Sheba's horror, the shadowy enemy barely seemed to notice, and attacked Felix, who backpedaled quickly.

         "They're undead!" Felix called, taking the mummified corpse's attack on the flat of his blade.

         Sheba moved into action, conjuring a Psynergetic tornado to attack the other form.  This enemy responded by raising its staff, and suddenly pale phantoms shot from his weapon, providing Sheba with a clear view of her emaciated attacker just before the spirits attacked.  Pain shot through Sheba's body, dropping her to one knee as the pain faded to an aching throb.  Felix finished dispatching his foe and turned to attack Sheba's assailant.  The dark mage dodged to the side, but unfortunately for it, ran straight into Sheba's plasma assault, disintegrating quickly.

         Felix helped Sheba to her feet.  "Are you alright?" he asked.  Sheba didn't need to read his mind to feel his concern.

         She coughed once and nodded in the darkness.  "Yeah, just a little shot.  We'd better be on our guard."

         Felix kept his sword in front of him as they continued down the path.  Sheba felt the pain begin to subside in her chest.  She hated fighting, and probably always would.  But when she was in Lalivero, she'd had foggy visions of a tall, dark form.  She'd never really understood them, but when Felix and Saturos had kidnapped her from Tolbi, she'd somehow felt that Felix was connected to her missing history.  When they reached Jupiter Lighthouse, hopefully she'd learn something about her clouded past, her missing origins, and her strange visions.  Until then, she'd stay with Felix.  And if she didn't learn anything, well, then maybe she could stop fighting.

         *               *               *               *               *               *

         The twisting, winding passage had continued for close to an hour, by Felix's estimation.  But lately, it seemed to be sloping upwards.  Felix hoped that was a good sign.  There had been several encounters in the depths, and while none of them had been truly threatening, their endurance was being stretched severely.

         Felix took a step, feeling the ground give way slightly beneath his boot.  He paused, saying, "I think the moss has returned.  The ground is starting to squish."

         "I think the passage has been getting wider," Sheba added.  "Maybe we're getting close."

         "Let's keep going," Felix said, trying to inject some hope into his voice.

         He'd taken no more than five steps when Sheba yelled, "Felix, look out!"

         Before he could react, something rammed him violently from the side, sending the Venus adept sprawling into the slimy mosses.  Scrambling to his feet, Felix turned just in time to see Sheba blast his attacker with a plasma assault, suddenly lighting up the area and their assailant.  Felix blinked his eyes.  They were being attacked by a plant?

         Shoving his thoughts aside, Felix leapt to the attack, driving his sword at the main body of the beast.  Unfortunately, the plant showed surprising agility in leaping backwards, and Felix only managed to nick a single large petal.  The attacker gave a keening screech that echoed through the darkness, and Felix suddenly realized he was vulnerable to a counter-attack.  He stood, horrified, as the plant gathered itself and spat some viscous goo…

         …right at Sheba.

         The Jupiter adept gave one scream and fell backwards, wiping at her face.  Something inside of Felix snapped, and he took his sword and hurled it at his enemy with such force that it drove through the plant and into the nearby cave wall, pinning it.

Keening death throes emerged from the mortally wounded attacker, but Felix's rage was not satisfied.  He focused his Psynergy and summoned a Gaia explosion, burying his dying foe in a rockslide and bringing a deathly silence to the darkness.

         Felix stood there a moment, chest heaving, then ran over to Sheba and knelt by her side.  "Sheba, are you alright? Sheba, talk to me."

         The wind mage coughed violently, multiple times, then seemed to settle herself.  "I… I'm ok, it… it just stings, a lot."

         Felix cursed.  There was probably some sort of venom in that goo.  "Can you walk?" he asked her.

         Sheba brought herself to a sitting position, with Felix's hand on her back to support her.  "Yeah," she said shakily.

         Felix helped her up, wrenched his sword from the wall, and continued to slosh through the mossy passage.  They'd been going for about ten minutes when Sheba started to cough again behind him.

         "Sheba?"

         "I…I don't…don't feel…" she managed between coughs.  Suddenly, she fell to her knees and started vomiting, violently.

         Felix cursed over and over again as he rifled through his satchel.  Some of the venomous goo must have gotten in Sheba's mouth.  His cursing redoubled when he found no antidote in his bag.  Jenna had all their antidotes.

         He knelt next to Sheba as her retching continued.  "Sheba, can you hear me?"

         His only response was more vomiting.  Felix ripped off his gauntlet and touched Sheba's forehead with his palm.  His hand jumped away as if scalded.  She was burning up!

         "Felix…help…me!" Sheba whimpered between vomits.

         As he watched, horrified, Sheba crumpled to the ground, dry heaving as her stomach emptied completely.  Felix placed both his hands on her chest and focused his Psynergy, trying to find the poison and purge it from the increasingly frail body underneath him.  After a moment, he gave up, panicked.  His healing Psynergy wasn't nearly as powerful as Piers's, and this was beyond him.

         Unless he did something soon, Sheba was going to die.

A/N:  And that's the start.  A little short, I know, but more should come soon.  Now, motivate me: Review please!