Tabitha Monki vs Marcus

"What are you saying?  That you don't care anymore?!  It can't be that simple!"  Tabitha couldn't hold back the tears.  Marcus simply looked at her indifferently.

"I had thought, for a time, that I could regain what I lost," he said.  "Regain my nobility.  Regain my purpose.  But I guess all it was delusion.  I let my love for you blind me to the fact that nothing really changed."

Tabitha forced back her tears.  "So... what?  Now you don't love me anymore, and you've given up?  Is that all I've been to you?  A distraction?"

Marcus shrugged.  "Call it what you will.  Distraction... a fling... maybe it was just one of those flashpan romances."

"So what will you do now?" said Tabitha.

"Whatever I want," he said.  "I no longer care about this world... but then, I'm not ready to just go back to sleep."  He smirked, turning to Tabitha.  "Maybe I'll treat myself to a bit of conquest.  These people really could use a strong, guiding hand, don't you think?"

Tabitha's gaze hardened.  Her sword materiallized in her hand.  "Do anything to this world, and I will stop you.  I don't care who you are... I haven't given up on them."

Marcus smirked.  "I know," he said, snapping his fingers.  Tabitha cursed as a pillar of fire erupted beneath her, searing away her skin almost faster than it could regenerate.  By the time to spell ended, and she got to her feet, Marcus was already beyond her reach, his emerald draconic form racing off beyond the horizon.

Sighing shakily, Tabitha sank to the ground, tears flowing again.  She was supposed to be the Defender of the Earth; why couldn't she have seen this coming?  She pulled her hand away and looked at her tear-stained glove.  It had been centuries since she had cried, centuries since she had gotten close enough to someone to let them hurt her that badly.

Standing, she composed herself.  Things would be harder now.  She was on her own.  But as ever, forever, she still had her mission.  She turned and trudged back to the airship.

"Hey!  Earth to Tabby!  Hello! ... If the Captain does not respond by the count of ten, I am going to walk over there and pants her.  One... two..."

Tabby casually snagged Monki's hand just as the fingers touched her belt and judo flipped the girl halfway across the deck of the airship without so much as turning around.

"About time I got your attention," said Monki, rebounding off the deck and leaping back towards the helm, perching on the railing just infront of Tabitha.  "What's up?  You thinking about some hot guy?"

"Yes," said Tabitha matter of factly.  "I'm sure you would enjoy rocking his world."

Monki frowned.  Tabitha was usually quite adept at comebacks, but something was bugging her today.  Monki could smell it.  She dropped off from the rail and walked over to Tabitha, who didn't seem to acknowledge her presence.  Monki leaned forward until her nose was nearly pressed against Tabitha's cheek.  She sniffed lightly.  Then Monki stepped back, one hand on her hip, the other rubbing her chin.  She began to randomly poke Tabitha in mulitple places, as if searching for that special button that would set her off.

Tabitha, for her part, managed to last quite a while under this intense scrutiny until finally she threw up her hands, swatting away Monki's in the process, with a final, "Okay!  Knock it off!"

Monki smirked and leaned back against the railing.  "What's up, Tabby? You seem more focused than usual.  Or perhaps I should say spacy."

Tabitha awarded her with a raised eyebrow, to which Monki simply tilted her ear towards her inquisitively.  Tabitha shook her head.  "We're visiting an old retreat of mine, from back before I met you.  I haven't been there for fifty years.  It wasn't really my island, it belonged to a partner of mine, from back then.  He let me share it with him."

"Him, huh?" said Monki with a knowing smirk.  "How thoroughly did you share with this guy?"

Tabitha simply kept her eyes on their path.  "We were partners," she said.

Monki looked Tabitha up and down.  The wind managed to still carry some of Tabitha's scent to her.  "Must have been quite a partner," Monki said.

Tabitha frowned.  "He was."

Nothing more was said as the two women flew towards the island in the distance.

As the two women leaped down from the railings of the airship, Tabitha felt the rush of memories come back to her.  She and Monki landed nimbly on a rocky beach.  After taking a moment to reconfirm her bearings, she strode with purpose into the forest.  Monki followed close behind, choosing to leap and swing from the trees rather than walk, both for the hell of it, and to give her a better vantage point.  Tabitha simply stayed on the ground.  The path was overgrown, but she walked it without hesitation.  Not too much had actually changed, save for a tree here or there had died or fallen, and few more had sprung up.  The stream off to the side was a bit wider.

After about ten minutes, the forest ended at a cliff, which revealed a majestic waterfall, easilly twice the height of the cliff they were on.  The scene was breathtaking, even for those used to such sights.  Tabitha smiled a bit at the nostalgic effect.  Then she focused her vision past the water to a cave just behind it.  There was no way to reach it except if one could fly, or somehow swim up the falls and then "dive" into the cave.  Or if they could leap from this cliff.  Tabitha looked to Monki and held out her arm, nodding her head sideways to the cave.  Monki blanched, and with a sigh, lifted Tabitha into her arms.

"Drag me all the way from China just so I can be your carraige," Monki muttered, crouching down.  "I swear, no respect for my talent."  The gap between the edge of the cliff and the entrance to the cave (going through the waterfall in process) was at least a thousand feet. Monki cleared it quite easily.

Smashing through the water to the other side, she gracefully landed on the smooth, stoney floor.  Setting Tabitha down, she held out her hand.  "That'll be three-fifty," she said.  Tabitha smirked, than ruffled Monki's hair and proceeded into the cave.  "Hey!" said Monki.

Another ten minutes of walking through various passageways revealed that after the main entrance, many tunnels had been cut into the rock and reinforced.  Further in, glowing crystals lit the walls, along which pictures and ornaments were hung.  Most were decorative, but even Monki could sense there was power within some of the ornaments.  She recognized a few Chinese bangles and charms hanging from the walls.  "What are we here for anyway?" said Monki.  Tabitha didn't say anything, and Monki noticed she was just looking around, almost in a wonder.

Monki licked her upper lip as she took her Nyoibo staff out from where she tucked it behind her ear.  Lengthening it to about the size of a pool cue, she extended her right arm and rested the staff upon her knuckle.  Keeping pace with Tabitha, she aimed for the pirate captains hat.

Willing the staff to extend, Monki aimed to knock the hat off and hook it onto one of the crystals up ahead.  She got as far as the staff touching the hat before Tabitha whipped the hat off, caught the end of the staff in it, then twirled the hat to send the Nyoibo spinning out of Monki's hand and smacking her on the nose.  Monki glared at Tabitha as she recovered the staff and shrank it back down so she could tuck it behind her ear again.

"Sorry, Monki, I'm rather... distracted at the moment," Tabitha said.  "You live for so long, you start to think you just can't get attached to anything anymore, and that which you were attached to, you eventually forget.  Its been fifty years, but I feel like I only just left this pace."  Tabitha paused and trailed her fingers along a Roman shield made of bronze which was hung on the wall.  She inspected the dust on her fingertips.  "Could use some polish, though," she muttered.  She kept on walking.  Monki rolled her eyes and followed.

"Man, if all we're gunna do is sift through some junk, why did you even bring me along?" said Monki.

"Just in case," said Tabitha.

"In case of what?" said Monki.

"My old partner starts feeling equally nostalgic," she said.

Monki raised her eyebrow at Tabitha.  "That much of a bad-ass, huh?" she said.

Tabitha paused and sighed.  "There's a bit more to it than that," said Tabby.  "But yes, he's very tough."

"Hope he shows then," said Monki.  Tabitha gave her a flat look.  "What?  I'm bored."

Another few minutes, and they entered a chamber filled with gold, lit with torches which continuously blazed with magical fire.  In the middle of the tallest mountain of gold, was a marble pillar, upon which was a small purple pillow holding a large, multifacetted emerald.  The display was covered in a glass case.

Tabitha climbed the gold to reach it.  Carefully, she removed the glass covering and gingerly lifted the emerald off its cushion.  Looking at it for a moment, she reached into her pocket and produced a ruby of identicle size and shape.  Touching them to together, there was a flash of white light, and the two fused into a single, smooth gem, red and green twisted together within.

Monki yawned.  She began to fiddle with the gold, grabbing a couple of trinkets and juggling them.  "Are we done yet?" said Monki.

Tabitha smiled at her impatient friend, pocketting the gem.  "All this gold and you don't even blink," said Tabitha.  "I thought girls liked pretty things."

Monki shrugged, tossing the baubles to the side, where they clattered noisily among the masses of treasure.  "Yeah, they're shiny, but they're soft.  Give me something hard to work with."

Tabitha chuckled a bit.  "Well... I got what we came for," she said.  "Let's get out of here before we're..."

Suddenly, there was a brilliant flash and Monki cried out, pitching forward.  A paper talisman, glowing with eldtrich energy, was stuck to her back, crackling with energy.  Monki, gritting her teeth, tried to move, but the mystical seal left her nearly parallyzed.  Still, her struggles caused the talisman to crackle rather violently as she fought its power.  But still, the seal held.  A few more talismans suddenly stuck themselves onto her, thrown like shuriken.  Monki cried out again, and lay still, the seals humming with magic as they held her down.

Tabitha paled slightly, her sword already in her right hand, a fireball forming in her left.  Still, she hesitated, partially because she knew she wouldn't be able to reach Monki in time, and partially because of the shillouette standing in the entrance way.

The figure stepped forward, revealling a man in simple leather armor, green and brown, lined with gold, with long, flowing white hair and yellow, draconic eyes.  The man smirked as he strode over to Monki.  He lifted her head with the toe of his boot under her chin and she glared at him.  He gave a short grunt of amusement, then let her head drop onto the ground.  He turned to face Tabitha, who had her sword pointed at him, her fireball spell ready to be thrown.

"Its been a long time, Tabitha," he said.

Tabitha swallowed, keeping calm, but unable to help but feel a pang of mixed emotions as she looked at him.  He had been the only person in all those centuries to truly capture her heart, after all.  And even after all these decades, she still felt that faint echo of loss and regret.

"Well, my dear," he said, stepping closer to her.  "I see you've decided you wanted your ring back.  Seems a bit late for that, don't you think?"  As he stepped closer, Tabitha's fireball blazed hotter.

"Stay back, Marcus," she said with more calm than she felt.  "I need this gem again.  I'm sorry I chose to take it this way, but..."

"But what?" he said.  He was right infront of her now, allowing her to press the tip of her sword against his chestplate.  "Didn't want to see me?  I'm almost hurt.  You could have asked, you know."

Tabitha swallowed, looking into his eyes again.  He shook his head.  "Haven't changed much, have you, Tabitha?" he said.  "To the world you present a powerful, unyielding figure, but I still see the lonely young woman beneath the surface.  Calling out desperately for companionship."  He half turned towards Monki, who was still struggling against the seals.  "But whomever you managed to find, it never trully goes away, does it?  The sense of loss, of alienation."

He stepped closer, pressing himself against the sword, which yielded easily.  Tabitha dematerialized the sword and her fireball snuffed out, her arms coming to rest at her sides and Marcus stepped intimately close to her.  He lifted a hand to her head and gently stroked her golden hair.  "Despite your great power, you're just a human.  A human forced into immortality, forced to leave your kind in the dust.  You protect them, but cannot be with them.  So you turn to us for companionship.  Us monsters and gods, dragons and demons.  As if we would have anything to do with you."

He sighed, resting a hand on Tabitha's shoulder.  For once, in a great long while, she didn't know what to do. Marcus shook his head.  "Well, we put up with you," he said.  "Your persistance is charming, in a way.  And you do try, so hard.  But you're still out of your league.  The fact that you have to sneak around like a thief, like a scavenger, only proves you still know, deep down, that you can't walk equally with us."  He held up his hand, which now held the red and green gem.  He smirked as Tabitha's eyes widened.

"Get lost, thief," said Marcus, pushing her roughly aside.  "Take your ape with you."  He waved the two off dismissively.

"No," said Tabitha.  Marcus turned back with a raised eyebrow.  Tabitha whipped out her sword.  "I need that gem.  Its power can save lives."

"Any lives in particular?" said Marcus.

"There's a city of people being afflicted by a demon's curse," said Tabitha.  "I need the full gem to complete the banishment spell."

"And this would be a human city, would it not?" said Marcus.

"Yes," said Tabitha.

"Then all the more reason to keep it for myself," said Marcus, pocketting the gem.  "What concern are humans to me?"

"They concern me, Marcus," said Tabitha.  "I'm not asking you again.  Give it to me."

"No," said Marcus.  "Tabitha, if you truly wish to be an equal among us, you're going to have to learn to cut off the deadwood.  Enough of this "Defender of the Earth" nonsense.  I always thought you could be destined for greater things."

Tabitha shook her head.  "Marcus, you never understood," said Tabitha.  "I'm not a god, or a demon, or a dragon.  I'm just woman, like you've said.  A woman trying to make a difference. I do this job because its what I want to do, and that will never change.  Its what I am, because its what I choose to be.  It has nothing to do with delusions of altruism, or delusions of granduer.  Its just me trying to do my part.  And if "joining the ranks of gods" means having to act like a world weary, unfeeling soul who just mopes around on his pile of gold, then to hell with that."

With that, Tabitha blasted forward, sword glinting as she enchanted it with golden magic to increase its power.  Marcus dodged aside, his own blade materializing, as he swung at Tabitha's back.  Tabitha whirled and blocked, the two swords striking together with a flash, and Tabitha was blasted back into the far wall of the cave.  Marcus inhaled, then blasted a powerful ball of emerald flame at Tabitha.

Tabitha, having twisted in the air to strike the wall feet first, pushed off and charged through the ball of fire, cutting it in half with her enchanted blade.  As she did so, she rapidly chanted a lightning spell, and as she leaped towards Marcus, he smiled pitiably at her as he moved his hand to block the spell.  Tabitha instead hurled the spear of lightning at the mound of gold Marcus was standing on.  The reflective surfaces scattered the lighting in a wide web of arcs flying everywhere, blasting Marcus from all sides.

Tabitha landed long enough to leap into the air and dive bomb Marcus with her cutlass.  Marcus, gritting his teeth through the lightning, whipped up his broadsword up and parried the strike, knocking Tabitha off course.  With a swipe of his arm, he sent her flying across the cavern again, causing her to smash into the opposite wall.

Monki watched the fight with interest and annoyance.  Interest, because as powerful a fighter as Tabitha was, Marcus clearly outclassed her.  Only the Immortality Effect was helping Tabitha stave off the worst of the fight, but against gods and monsters, even the Immortality Effect could not garauntee a win.  It was obvious Marcus had the upper hand in this fight.  Of course, Monki watched in annoyance as well, because she wanted a piece of the action.  That was the whole reason she was here, right?

Damn it, if only these seals would come off!  They were some kind of Onmiyoji curse talismans, redirecting her strength back into the earth, like a grounding rod channeling lightning.  She could barely move, despite her immense strength.  The seals were crackling as she strained against them, hoping to overload them so they would break.  She figured she could do it eventually, but Tabitha was getting pretty well thrashed.  There was no time for this.

Sighing, Monki managed to work her hands together and formed the proper sutra.  With a small chant, she was suddenly transformed into a fly.  She buzzed away from the seals which faded away as they fell off her body.  After another second, the transformation wore off and Monki sprang to her feet.

She whipped out her staff, extending it nearly a hundred feet as she swung it in a wide arc, which smashed apart the mountain of treasure Marcus was standing on.  He had not been expecting this, and so stumbled back, allowed Tabitha to ram her sword into his chest.  Marcus gasped, then fixed Tabitha with a scowl and flung her straight at Monki.  Ripping the sword out of his chest, he hurled it after her.

Monki caught Tabitha easily, who in turn clapped her hands to catch the sword blade just before it could bury itself in her skull.  "Let's go," she commanded.

"But..!" began Monki, seeing Marcus reering back to prepare another fireball.

"Now!" said Tabitha.  She dashed out of the room.  Monki frowned as Marcus cut loose with his fireball.  Thunderclapping the blast away, she whirled as Marcus zoomed by her, his clawed hand missing her face by an inch.

Monki's tail snaked up and snagged Marcus' ankle, hurling him back into the chamber, burying him in his own treasures.  Monki paused to inhale, than cut loose with a blast of the Fire's of Sinnai, vaporizing most of the treasure and melting the cavern.  With a sinlge punch to the ground, she split the mountain straight in half, before high tailing it out of the cavern, grabbing Tabitha, and zooming them through the passageways, until they exploded from the waterfall.  Flying across the gap, the two hit the cliff and turned to watch as the mountain collapsed, burying Marcus, the Grass Dragon, inside.

Tabitha breathed a sigh of relief, fishing the gem out of her pocket.  "Thanks for the distraction," said Tabitha. "I definitely needed this."

"Won't he be pretty pissed when he gets out?" said Monki.

"Probably," said Tabitha.  "I'll handle it when the time comes.  I always do."  She turned and smiled at Monki.  "As long as I have some good comrads."

Monki waved her off dismissively, "Okay, I'm gunna stop you right there before you make another one of your 'all for one, one for all' speeches."  She looked back at the wreck of the mountain.  "Sorry I wrecked your old digs," she said.

Tabitha shrugged.  "We can always excavate when we have the time," said Tabitha.  "And I'm sure we'll have plenty." The two began to head back to the ship.

"So who was he?" said Monki.  "Old boyfriend?"

Tabitha didn't answer at first, thinking back to Marcus.  Now that the mission was over and the excitement was wearing off she sighed regretfully.  "Something like that," she said.

Marcus watched the ship take off and frowned.  A simple teleport spell had saved him from getting buried, though he would have survived.  He wondered if he should go hunt the two down and get the gem back, just to spite Tabitha.  But he thought better of it.  There wasn't really a point.  The emerald, a gift to him from Tabitha when they declared their love for each other decades ago, no longer meant anything to him.  Well, of course, he never enjoyed losing a piece of his horde, no dragon ever did.  One day he might get it back.  But for now, he could do without.  He supposed he owed her that much, for her tenacity.

END.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE: This was from the early adventuring portion of the series idea, before it was refocused into Tabitha's War against the gods. Marcus would also became a prominent figure in the plot line later on.