A/N: I started writing this little... thing... after a minor re-discovery and subsequent obsession with the Golden Sun games and it struck me that if I were one of those kids, I wouldn't be able to deal with the pressure... I forgot about it after my craze passed, but this morning, it was just begging to be finished. So, y'know... I finished it?

This is pretty much the first actual story I've finished in months. I'm rusty.

-x-

The first time a monstrous Turtle Dragon attacks their ship, Jenna has something of a breakdown. It's not due to the threat the creature poses – Felix brutally destroys it almost singlehandedly, thanks to a lucky hit – and it is not due to its admittedly terrifying appearance and size. After all, she has seen more horrifying beasts than this before. It takes her a good ten minutes to calm down, and when she does, she plasters on a cheerful face and pretends it never happened.

Piers and Felix, in their male simplicity and aversion to talking about feelings, let it drop immediately and accept an airy, "Oh, I'm just stressed. You know how I get sometimes!" without a second thought. Sheba, on the other hand, is not so easily deterred. She knows what a stressed-out Jenna is like: angry, irritable, and aggressive. Jenna, while under pressure, does not cry in the face of monsters, but rather tears them apart with great pleasure. No, something is wrong with Jenna, and it runs deeper than simple stress.

It is not until later, when Felix demands that Piers drop anchor near a shallow, that Sheba is given the chance to confront her friend. Jenna is leaning against the rail, her hair blowing in the crisp ocean breeze. Her face is carefully blasé, with an expression that sings 'I haven't a care in the world'. It's convincing, but Sheba knows Jenna well enough to know that the air of nonchalance about the girl is contrived. Her suspicion is confirmed when Jenna notices her and waves to her with a wide, cheerful, fake grin.

"Sheba! Hey, come here, I think Felix found something!" Jenna gushes with too much enthusiasm.

Sheba rests her elbows against the rail and leans her cheek on her fist. She doesn't answer her friend, instead fixing her with an expectant sidelong glance. The silence is vaguely uncomfortable.

"Sheba?" Jenna repeats, her fake grin slipping slightly. "Hey ... What's the matter with you, Sheba?"

At this, Sheba sighs and closes her eyes. They open a moment later, and she replies, "No, Jenna, what's the matter with you?"

Jenna's carefree façade slips for a fraction of a second, but returns with a vengeance. "Oh, you're not still thinking about that, are you?" she says with a scoff. "I thought I already told you guys... I'm just kinda stressed, and geez, that thing was huge! I'm surprised that even Piers managed to hold it together, to be honest."

It's a very feeble attempt at a joke, and Sheba can't help but roll her eyes at her friend. Although the mental image of tall, muscular Piers breaking down in the face of scary monsters is somewhat entertaining, she knows that Jenna is just trying to change the subject. "Stop it, Jenna," Sheba says quietly. "Why won't you tell me what's wrong?" Her voice is gentle, but insistent.

The wind picks up and tugs at Jenna's hair, covering her face. Sheba can only guess as to what she's thinking, since Jenna would be furious if Sheba invaded her privacy and read her mind. It's an idea that is quickly becoming tempting.

"There's nothing wrong," Jenna finally says. "I'm just being stupid. Stress and all that." She turns and brushes her hair back from her face, and the look she wears is still determinedly cheerful.

"Stop it," Sheba repeats harshly – more harshly than she means to. "Don't give me that stupid 'stress' story. We both know that's not it. Tell me what's wrong, Jenna!" Her voice turns pleading as she adds, "Don't you trust me?"

"Why does it even matter?" Jenna exclaims, pushing off the railing and raising her arms slightly in exasperation.

"Jen-na."

"She-ba."

They stare at each other, both scowling with their hands on their hips. Sheba, despite being younger and shorter, manages to be more intimidating than her friend, and Jenna turns away after a moment. There is a long silence before she heaves a sigh. Leaning over the railing once more, she says ruefully, "You're gonna think it's stupid."

Sheba smiles as she joins her friend against the rail. "No, I won't," she promises. "You know me better than that, Jenna."

Jenna shakes her head and tilts it back, her eyes fixed on the endlessly blue sky. "No, it is stupid," she insists, and her eyes glaze over, clouded with an unidentifiable emotion. "I'd think you were stupid if it didn't seem silly to you. I mean, you're so brave, and it was such a – such a... such a stupid thing to get upset over, and –"

"Quit saying the word stupid and tell me what's bugging you, dummy," Sheba says, not unkindly.

Jenna laughs reluctantly. "Yeah, whatever, I know, I know. It's just..." she trails off, leaving her thought incomplete. A short silence follows, and she gathers her courage. "It's just that I was thinking, it can't have been even a few months ago that – that – th-the worst thing a-attacking us was a-a stupid little r-rat! A-and now we have t-to fight giant monsters! I-I just don't, I-I can't believe that it's – that it's gone this far, a-and...!"

The mask has crumbled. Her voice rises in pitch and her words pick up speed, and Jenna is trembling with the effort of holding back hysterical tears. "I-I'm only seventeen, Sheba! I'm j-just a kid! I never w-wanted for any of this to h-happen, and it's so, it's so pathetic, b-because n-no one else is f-falling apart, n-not even you, and you're j-just fourteen, y-you're all being so – so...!"

She can't force the words out, and instead wraps her arms around herself so tightly that Sheba wonders if maybe she's trying to keep herself from shattering. It's too late, in any case, since fat tears have already leaked from Jenna's tightly shut eyes. Sheba feels her eyes prick dangerously, and swallows a lump in her throat. Tentatively, she takes a step towards her friend. A moment later her hesitance is lost, and she flings her arms around Jenna.

Jenna cannot say a word, whether to thank her friend or protest. All that escape her throat are choked sobs and strangled whimpers, and she shakes in time to her muted cries.

It is a long time before either of them can bear to move or speak, and when Jenna does, it is out of embarrassment. "God, I- I'm a mess, aren't I?" she sniffs, her voice cracking and her eyes red. She pulls herself away from Sheba and her face reddens. "Please don't tell Felix or Piers about that, Sheba, please... I don't know what came over me, but I really don't want them to know about it. Promise you won't tell, Sheba, promise me now."

She is babbling, but Sheba understands. She understands so well the panic and pain of loss of emotional control (though hers had come in the wake of an identity crisis), and she nods, and promises. Together they stand by the rail and stare out at the ocean that stretches on for what seems like forever, and silently swear to keep the other's weakness a secret.

Felix and Piers, for their part, have been tactfully silent from their places near the figurehead and helm. They hear every word, but they are in no position to judge or condemn Jenna for it. They have already experienced their own private breakdowns, under the pressure of leadership and the loneliness of complete exile. When it really comes down to it, they are just a bunch of kids (for Piers is still a child, despite how many years he's lived) in over their heads, trying to save a world that doesn't know it needs saving.

They have all grown – they have had to, because the choice is to grow up or to give up, and to give up is to let the whole of Weyard die a slow, lingering death.

Sheba still has yet to discover who she is, where she came from, if she has a family that misses her, and if she even wants to know the answers to those questions.

Jenna is still unable to accept how violently her life has changed in recent years, how she went from playing with Isaac and Garet in Vale to fighting horrific monsters on the high seas.

Piers still has not come to terms with the fact that he will never get back to Lemuria, and that he – he, Piers, is going to grow old and die before the most wrinkled and decrepit old man in his homeland.

Felix still stalks off after particularly fierce battles, to hold his head in his hands and wonder how and when he became responsible for the lives of his companions, responsible for the fate of the world.

And still they keep going, and they swallow their fear. They push back weariness of body and mind, and they speak not of their hopeless, but of cheerful stories and sweet, precious memories. They swing swords far too heavy for them, and they don armour made for grown men and women. They watch each other collapse in the middle of battles and through their panic and shaking hands they struggle on.

They fight to save their world, regardless of whether their opponent is a tiny rat, or a monstrous Turtle Dragon.

-x-

Feedback would be most appreciated. Especially since I've never written a Golden Sun fanfic before... Yeah. (: There are probably grammar mistakes that I didn't catch, so feel free to point them out to me if I made some mistakes.