Sheba and Garet walked into the room where they had battled the Jupiter Djinni. They saw a bright glow on the other side of the platform just in front of them. Rounding the corner, they saw the rest of the group sitting around what appeared to be a poor excuse for a campfire: three torches had been wedged into the ground, with some small pieces of the fallen stalactites arranged to keep them in place. Some of the other fallen rocks remained relatively intact, and were being used as chairs or benches, and in Kraden's case a (relatively uncomfortable) bed. Piers sat next to him, talking to the elderly scholar about Lemuria. Jenna and Ivan were on the other side of the "campfire," each holding a Djinni of their element (Flash and the once-sleeping Djinni, respectively).

Isaac and Felix were talking to Mia, who was blushing madly and held Sleet in her lap. "I was just...w-worried. What with, you know, the m-monster attack earlier, a-and..."

"I'm sure the three of us could handle ourselves." Felix looked from Mia to the Djinni and back, not sure which he should be mad at, if either. "Besides, if you were that worried, you could have just come along."

"I-I know, I j-just..." Mia fell quiet as she saw Garet and Sheba walk around the platform, and for a moment she thought they were holding hands. Great, now my eyes are playing tricks on me.

"Garet! You're back!" Flash jumped out of Jenna's arms and nearly tackled his Adept partner, dispelling his Flame-torch.

"*Oof* Heh, it's good to see you too, Flash." Garet picked up the Djinni, who began glowing a bright red and vanished inside the warrior.

Although she'd long since dried her tears off, Sheba had to take a deep breath to keep her voice from cracking. She walked up to where Ivan and Jenna were sitting and crouched to look the Jupiter Djinni in the eyes. "You feeling better now?"

"E-eep!" The Djinni flew out of Ivan's arms and hid behind him. Either Sheba leaned in a little too close or the Djinni recognized her as the one who woke it up in the first place. Either way, it was almost shaking with fear.

"Hmph." Sheba puffed her cheeks out in frustration, then sat down on a stalactite that, oddly enough, was lodged straight into the ground. "That Djinni sure seems more fond of you than me, that's for sure."

"First of all, its name is Gale." Ivan reached behind himself to pet the Djinni. "And don't forget, you did give him quite a scare earlier."

"Oh, come on. That was an accident."

"Now you know how I feel." Garet began walking to where the Venus Adepts were talking to Mia, but Sheba held her arm out to stop him.

"Do not get me started on that list again."

"How about neither of you start again." Felix stood up and walked towards the group of fire and wind Adepts. "When you two got back, I thought that meant you came to an understanding."

"Right, right. I'm sorry." Sheba gave Garet a sideways glance, then turned to Felix. "Besides, I was only joking."

"Well, you need to stop. It's getting out of hand."

"Okay, I'll try." Sheba grabbed one of the torches and lifted it out of the ground as she rose, knocking the other two over in the process. "Oops!"

Piers sighed and picked one of the torches up. "At least they didn't land in water this time."

Isaac grabbed the last torch and stood, addressing the team at large: "Well, hopefully that's settled. Let's get moving." After some shuffling, Mia reabsorbing Sleet, and a few complaints from Kraden (both because he had to get up and because he had such an uncomfortable bed), the team walked through the only other exit from the room, which had to lead further into the cave.

As the team walked down another damp passageway, they quickly fell into casual conversation. Isaac and Felix were in the front, discussing battle strategies and where they might go next if the money earned from this trip still wasn't enough. Garet walked shortly behind, lost in thought; or at least, that's what it seemed to everyone else, but in reality he was mentally talking with his Djinn. Mia and Jenna were close behind him, talking about things the guys would probably consider "girl talk." Taking up the rear was Kraden and Piers, continuing their earlier discussion. Between them and the other girls was Ivan and Sheba, with Gale riding on Ivan's shoulder.

The shoulder opposite Sheba, of course. "I'm not that scary. Am I?"

Ivan chuckled. "Well, everyone's scared of something, even if it doesn't make sense to anyone else."

"B-but..." Sheba turned around and walked backwards, looking Ivan in the face. "I'm the spunky, lovable one. It's just weird for anyone to be scared of me."

"Spunky, eh?" Ivan laughed again. "From what I've seen, you typically clam up around strangers."

"You wouldn't be saying that if you were with us the first time we visited Garoh or Shaman."

"Yeah, Kraden told me about how you chewed out Moapa." Ivan pointed past Sheba, showing her that she was about to run into a wall. "Besides, this seems fair to me." Ivan turned the corner, but Sheba quickly caught up. "Lull chose you over me, so I get Gale."

"But, but... *sigh* Fine, whatever." Sheba picked up her pace to join the other girls, and noticed that the team had come to a crossroad.

Felix looked down the left-hand path, and motioned for Piers to come and provide some light. "I guess my team can take this branch." The Venus Adepts typically used their pre-Atteka teams whenever they had to split up.

Isaac walked up to the right-hand path, "And we'll take the other one."

"Umm, guys?" The group turned to look at Sheba, who was looking at Isaac's team. "There's something I kinda wanted to talk to Mia about."

Piers handed his torch to Felix, who returned his attention to the cave. "Can it wait until we're back on the ship?"

"A-actually," Mia said, "I want to speak with Sheba, too."

The Venus Adepts met between the diverging paths. "Do you want to take Mia this time?" Isaac asked.

"That would put Piers on your team, making me the only real 'warrior.' Besides," Felix leaned closer, lowering his voice, "Sheba's been known to make 'pimp jokes' on occasion, so I wouldn't want all three girls with me."

"Heard that!" The duo looked at Sheba, who was smiling not-so-innocently.

"Riiight," Isaac stretched his neck, and heard a satisfying *pop*. "I guess we'll take Sheba then. Ivan, you're going with Felix's team this time. What about you, Kraden?"

"One step ahead of you!" Kraden's voice came from down the passage Felix had chosen. Nobody had seen him leave, but he hadn't gone so far down the path that he was out of sight. "Piers and I were in the middle of a rather riveting discussion, and I wouldn't want it to end cold."

-*-*-*-

Isaac's torch flickered and dimmed as it reached the end of its life. Garet took out his torch and lit it, handing it to Isaac in exchange for the nearly-dead one.

"Thanks." Garet just gave a confirmative nod before returning to his thoughts. Isaac gave his childhood friend a worried look. "You've been awfully quiet this trip. Something up?"

"No. I just..." He didn't bother finishing his sentence, which only increased Isaac's concern.

"Just what?"

"Well..." Garet ran his free hand along the cave wall. Small streams of steam rose from the rock, a telltale sign that he was giving off some Psynergy. "Do you think I'm actually useful to the team?"

"Huh? Where'd this come from?" Now Isaac was really worried. Garet's not the type to doubt himself, or even think heavily about what he does.

Garet lifted his hand from the wall and rubbed his fingers together. Yup. Not wet. "I didn't really start thinking about it until what happened in Yampi."

"Look, we all know that was an acci-"

"It's more than that, though." Garet was looking his friend in the eyes now, but had to break his gaze when they came to another bend. "I mean, Jenna's just about as good at Mars Psynergy as I am, and her healing moves make her more flexible than me."

"But you're stronger in physical combat."

"But between you, Felix, and Piers, we really don't need any more warriors." Garet noticed that the flame on his torch was about to reach his hand, so he cast Flare and burnt the entire stick. The two fires quickly cancelled each other, and the ashes fell through his fingers in a fine dust. "I'm really only helpful when we split up, like now. Even then, though - Sheba mentioned this earlier - I tend to do some…" Garet grimaced to admit it, "pretty stupid things, even if I don't mean to. Sometimes, like earlier today and at Yampi, I wind up putting the team at risk. Lately I've been wondering if maybe the team would be better off without me."

"Okay, now that's just crazy." Isaac stopped walking and grabbed his friend by the shoulder. "Sure, you can be a bit...unlucky, at times. But there are also a lot of times you wind up saving our hides. Like back at Mars Lighthouse, when that Fire Bird ambushed us."

"I nearly got myself incinerated."

"We all might have been cooked if you hadn't stayed behind."

"Yeah, sorry for saying that was stupid of you." The boys looked behind them when they heard Sheba's voice. Both she and Mia were just standing there. "Umm, is there any other reason we stopped?"

"Oh. Right." Isaac turned and resumed his walk, with the others returning to their relative positions. The Venus Adept continued his discussion with Garet. "There's also that time we snuck into Dodonpa's fortress."

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I remember that." The dark passageways of Lunpa Fortress had allowed the team to use their then-new Cloak Psynergy to sneak past the guards unnoticed. They were able to share the Psynergy by locking their hands together. At one point, though, Mia's hand slipped, making her visible for a moment. One of the guards noticed, but fortunately he was the only guard in the room. Garet managed to knock him out, but not before the guard called for help. Fortunately, Garet had an idea...

-*-*-*-

Several months ago...

"This isn't going to work..." Ivan wasn't the only one skeptical of Garet's plan, but he was the only one to admit it.

The unconscious guard had been propped up in a chair, with a bunch of barrels stacked up next to it. The four Adepts were hiding behind the barrels, once again concealed by the Cloak Psynergy. Garet was the one closest to the guard, and could see the stairway leading to the next floor up. Voices and footsteps could be heard echoing down the stairs.

"We don't have time for another plan," Garet said in a half-whisper. "They're almost here."

As if on cue, three men walked down the stairs and into the room. They were dressed just like the rest of the guards in the fortress, except that these three wore red bandanas rather than the usual green. The three criminals looked around the room, then one addressed the unconscious guard. "Hey, you awake?"

Garet inched closer, still cloaked, making sure the unconscious guard was between him and the other three guards. "Yeah, I *ahem*" Garet tried lowering his voice, hoping they wouldn't notice that the guard was out cold. "I'm wide awake. Just tired from standing so long."

Another of the red-bandanas stepped forward. "Are you okay? Your voice sounds weird."

"Oh, yeah. I think I'm catching a cold. *cough, cough*" While Garet tried to fool the guards, Mia was silently praying that his "ventriloquism" would work.

The first red-bandana spoke again. "Didn't you say there was an intruder?"

"Uh, no, I..." Garet turned to look at his teammates, who just shrugged. "I, umm, I said that there's, uh…"

Try "recruiter." one of Garet's Djinn suggested.

"I said 'recruiter!' " Garet could tell that the red-bandanas were getting suspicious, but he managed to figure out what to say next. "One of the new guys came asking me a bunch of questions. He was really getting on my nerves, so I yelled at him: 'Why don't you go ask one of the recruiters!' I guess I was louder than I thought, if you guys heard me."

The red-bandanas looked at each other, then the first said, "Okay, where'd he go?"

"Uh, to the lower levels, I think." Garet heard a faint noise behind him, and turned to see Ivan holding back a sneeze. Gotta wrap this up quick! "I, uh, I've got everything taken care of down here, so you guys can head back on up to your posts."

One of the red-bandanas, who hadn't spoken until now, leaned towards the other two. Garet could barely hear him saying, "Something fishy's going on here."

"Maybe so," the first red-bandana said, then motioned towards the unconscious guard Garet was using as a dummy, "but he's got a point. We gotta get back to our spot. If there are intruders, they'll have to go through our post sooner or later."

The three guards went back up the stairs, with the last taking a quick look back before leaving. After waiting a few more seconds, the four Adepts dispelled their Psynergy and breathed a collective sigh of relief as they climbed out of their hiding place.

"That was too close," Ivan said as he rubbed his nose. "Eh...Ah-CHOO!"

"Bless you." Mia handed him a handkerchief. "I think Ivan was right, though. That wasn't a very good plan."

"Maybe so, but at least it worked." Garet said. "Besides, at least now we know we're going to be seeing those guys again."

Isaac shook his head. "That's not necessarily a good thing. Now they suspect we're in here, which means they'll be on guard." Isaac's eyes grew wide, and he pointed at the unconscious guard. "Uh, Garet?"

"What?" Garet, being closest to the guard, turned to look. The guard was stirring, and began to slump over.

"Hmm, wha?" The guard opened his eyes, but Garet whacked him across the back of the head with the hilt of his blade. "AH! Unh, zzzzz..." And with that, the guard lost consciousness again.

Isaac motioned for the others to follow. "Come on, let's move."

-*-*-*-

Moments before Garet's flashback:

Sheba and Mia kept pace a short distance behind Isaac and Garet, led by the light from Sheba's torch. Both secretly hoped Garet wouldn't hear them, so they spoke in relatively hushed tones.

Mia fussed with a strand of her hair. Something had been bugging her for some time now and, even though she didn't want to, she knew she had to ask Sheba about it. Even so... "S-so, you wanted to ask me something?" ...she somehow managed to completely avoid the unavoidable.

Sheba tilted her head as she looked at the healer. "And you wanted to ask me something, too. So what is it?"

"Umm, w-well... , so...yeah..."

The Laliveran was a bit dumbstruck at the speed of the Imilian's language, but managed to regain her composure. "I...actually followed that." Mia blushed, which only served to encourage Sheba. "Well, you know what they say: age before beauty!"

"Wh-what!?" Mia's face reddened further, though this time there was a bit of anger mixed with her embarrassment. "What is that supposed to mean? I'm still beautiful!"

Sheba raised her free hand in defense. "Sorry! Sorry! That came out totally wrong!" She then returned her attention to the path in front of her, noticing steam rising from the wall where Garet touched it. "Let me make up for it by going first. And I'll get straight to the point, too." Sheba looked at Mia again. "You like Garet, don't you." Hehe, I told you we'd talk about it later.

"Uhh... W-well, I... I mean, I..." Mia's face was now about as red as the flame Sheba carried. "W-well, maybe, a little. B-butonlyasafriend!"

"Reeeaally?" Sheba raised her eyebrow, hardly convinced.

"Yeah. I-I mean, sure, sometimes we... N-no, that makes it sound like we..." Mia looked at the floor and sighed in defeat. "I honestly don't know anymore."

"Hey, cheer up!" Sheba swung her non-torch arm around the older girl, giving her a half-hug. "I'll bet you two would make a great couple."

"I don't think…" Mia looked at the well-tanned blond. "Really?"

"Sure! You just gotta be brave! Tell him how you feel."

Mia looked away from her friend and started rubbing her arm nervously. "I... I don't know if that's such a good idea."

"Aw, c'mon. Why not?"

"Well, that's actually what I wanted to talk to you about." Mia didn't want to ask, but she knew she had to. "Umm... I was sorta wondering if...well..." Mia lowered her voice even further, so that even Sheba could hardly hear her, "i-if you're in love with Garet."

"Oh!" Sheba let go of the nervous healer, a little embarrassed herself now. "I see why you didn't want to ask. Wait, is that why you sent your little Djinni to spy on us?"

"Wha- Well... M-maybe... Oh!" Mia grabbed the Wind Adept's arm in time to keep them from running into the boys, who had stopped walking.

"...a lot of times you wind up saving our hides." Isaac appeared to be giving Garet a pep talk, about what Mia couldn't tell. "Like back at Mars Lighthouse, when that Fire Bird ambushed us." Mia noticed Sheba acting nervous, like she was guilty of something.

Garet just gave the Venus Adept a detached look. "I nearly got myself incinerated."

"We all might have been cooked if you hadn't stayed behind."

Sheba took a step forward and spoke. "Yeah, sorry for saying that was stupid of you." The boys looked at the girls, a bit surprised to see them standing there. "Umm, is there any other reason we stopped?"

"Oh. Right." Isaac resumed his trek, with Garet by his side. Mia and Sheba waited a moment before following.

Sheba inspected her staff, noticing a few scratches. I really hope those were there before I took this from Ivan. "Where were we, agai- Oh yeah!" She returned her attention to Mia. "You don't have to worry about me and Garet. He's really not my type."

"Really?" Mia brushed some hair behind her ear. "You're not just saying that?"

"Nah! Garet's a nice guy and all, but a bit too reckless for me." Sheba noticed her torch running low, so she handed it to Mia. "Besides, I don't think he'd appreciate it if I started flirting with him."

Mia pulled a torch out of her cloak and lit it on the dying torch. "Who's 'he?' Not Garet, I'd assume. Faran, then?"

She handed the new torch to Sheba, who blushed slightly. "Uh, n-not exactly."

"Let me guess, then." A small cloud appeared over Mia's torch as she cast Douse. "Another reason you're not interested in Garet is because you already have someone else in mind." As the rain fell and put out the torch, Mia noticed Sheba had suddenly grown quiet. The Laliveran had fallen a step behind, and was trying to hide her reddening face behind the flame. Mia turned and put the now-dead torch away in her cloak. "Are you alright?"

"Y-yeah, I just..." Sheba closed her eyes for a moment, then burst past Mia. "C'mon, we're falling behind!"

-*-*-*-

"Okay, so maybe I'm not completely worthless." Garet cast Flare a few times, just to see how long it would last in the humid cave. "Still, I wonder if it's enough to balance out all the times I screw up."

"Don't worry so much. We managed to make it this far without many serious mishaps, so I'm sure we'll be just fine." Isaac turned to check up on the girls, and noticed they fell quite a ways back. Sheba was quickly catching up, though, and Mia was just a few paces behind. "Slow down a bit, Garet. The girls need to catch up."

"Great, so now I can't even walk right."

"I'm just as much to blame as you are."

Isaac and Garet had slowed to a near stop, but Sheba just barreled past them, almost knocking them over. Soon Mia caught up to the boys and stopped to rest. "I *huff* think I said something to upset her."

"That's a relief." Garet ran his hand through his hair. "For a moment, I thought you were being attacked."

Mia could hear one of her Djinn speaking. Aww, see. He does care about you.

"N-not now, Spritz!"

"Uh, guys?" The trio heard Sheba calling from up ahead. They turned the next corner and saw her standing in a small room. Just in front of her was a large pile of boulders that rose to the ceiling. The rocks blocked off what could have been another passage, if not the rest of the room.

Isaac came up next to her. "Well, that's not good."

Garet looked to his right and saw another door. "This way's not blocked."

At that point, a muffled voice could be heard: "Do you guys hear something?"

"No, nothing." Another voice, which seemed to come from inside the pile of rocks.

The four Adepts looked at each other for a moment, then Mia walked up to the rocks and ran her hand across the stone. Then, in a loud voice, she called: "Hello? Can anyone hear me?"

A third voice answered this time. "Wait, I think I heard it too."

"I'd recognize that voice anywhere." Isaac walked up to the wall of fallen rocks. "Felix? Is that you?"

"Isaac!" Felix's voice could be heard, a little clearer this time. "Where are you guys?"

"A small room. Might as well just be another turn in the cave. We were just about to move on. What about you?"

"We're at a dead end. I don't think we can remove this rubble safely, so we'll loop around and catch up."

"Should we wait for you guys?"

"Only if you think you need to."

"There's no telling what we'll be up against next. We'll wait." Isaac turned to the rest of his group. "Well, get comfortable. This might take a few minutes."

While waiting for Felix's group to catch up, Isaac and Garet took up guard duty at the two exits, and Mia and Sheba sat near the pile of rocks. Mia looked through her batch of healing herbs, but finally felt a need to speak with the still-nervous wind Adept.

"So, umm... Did I say anything that offended you? If I did, I certainly didn't mean to..."

"No, no," Sheba stared into the flame of her torch, uncertain what to say. "I just... I guess I never really though about, y'know, boys that much before."

Mia sighed, and looked towards Garet, who was playing with his Flame spell again. "You do like Garet, don't you?"

"No, no. It's not Garet, it's..." Sheba motioned for Mia to lean closer. She whispered into the Imilian's ear, and both pulled away blushing.

"Oh! I-I see. Well, I guess he is more your 'type,' isn't he."

"P-please, don't tell anyone! I-I want to be the one that tells him, a-and..."

Mia patted the distressed Laliveran on the shoulder. "Don't worry, I won't tell a soul." Sheba sighed, but found her gaze being raised by the Mercury Adept. "Just don't tell anyone about me and..." she glanced around the room quickly, "y'know."

"Fair enough." After another moment, Sheba leaned forward and added, "Besides, even if it wasn't for him, I probably wouldn't be interested in Garet. I wouldn't want to spend a lot of time around that much fire after what happened in Yampi."

"I heard that!" Garet turned to look at the girls.

"Relax," Sheba now spoke loud enough for the boys to hear, "I was thinking about that demon-thing we fought in the bottom of the cave."

"Oh, yeah..." Garet rubbed the back of his neck, a little embarrassed. "J-just don't keep bringing up...y'know..."

"Only so long as you don't pull a stunt like that again."

"Hey, it wasn't my fault. And besides, last time I checked sand isn't supposed to be flammable!"

Sheba giggled. "Tell that to the desert, not me."

-*-*-*-

After regrouping, the nine heroes passed through the low doorway into the next room. This room was incredibly dark, so much so that even with four torches and two Flares they could barely see the other side. Fortunately, they had enough light to see that the floor soon came up to a sharp cliff, which extended so far down that the bottom couldn't be seen. Another platform, larger than the one they were on, could be seen on the other side of the room.

Kraden pointed to one of several pillars on the platform across the chasm. "I think those might be torches."

"One way to find out." Garet lifted his free hand, aiming at the far platform. "Fire!" Four fireballs shot from his hands, each one striking the top of a different pillar. The flames stayed lit atop the pillars, helping the team see the other platform much clearer. They soon wished they couldn't.

The opposing platform had two levels, connected by a small staircase. The pillars were on either side of the staircase, two on the top level and two on the bottom. At the head of the stairs was a humanoid figure. The figure wore a robe made of a dark blue material with yellow trim and star designs printed all across. Aside from glowing yellow eyes, the figure's face was hidden under a pointed hat that matched the robe perfectly. Between the robe and hat the figure's gender was indistinguishable. The only actually visible body part was the figure's hands, which were a deathly white. The figure held a mysterious sphere in its left hand - perhaps "held" is the wrong word, as the sphere floated in the air above the figure's open palm. The sphere was a light blue in color, almost matching the figure's hands, and had odd gray lines encircling it.

The figure spoke in a voice as androgynous as its body: "Who are you, and what are you doing here?"

Everyone was a bit shocked, either at the commanding presence of the figure or simply the fact that the island wasn't uninhabited like they though. Finally, though, Isaac choked down the lump in his throat and answered. "Uh, *ahem*. M-my name's Isaac, and these are my friends," Isaac motioned towards each member of the party as he introduced them, then returned his attention to the figure. "We came here seeking treasure, hoping we could sell it and use the money to rebuild our hometown, which was destroyed recently. Of course, we thought the island was uninhabited. May I ask who you are?"

The figure walked down the staircase, its robe flowing behind it like a stream. "I am the guardian of water." Garet and Sheba both opened their mouths to retort, but the figure cut them off. "But if it is an actual name you seek, the last group I met called me the Star Magician. As for your quest, there is only one treasure I care for."

"Guys?" Ivan was clearly nervous about something. "I have a bad feeling about this."

"Wait," Felix stepped forward, being careful not to come too close to the edge. "You said you're 'the guardian of water,' didn't you?" He looked at Isaac rather than waiting for an answer. "Sounds familiar, doesn't it?"

Garet scratched his head. "It does?"

Isaac nodded. "Yeah. That demon we met in the Yampi Cave called itself 'the guardian of fire.' Think there's a connection?"

"So you've met Valukar." Everyone returned their attention to the Star Magician, who had reached the bottom of the staircase. "And survived, no less. Impressive." Star Magician's ball began to glow, brimming with Psynergy. "Very well. If you would claim my power, you must prove your worth." Even as it spoke, it dissolved into a flurry of Psynergy particles of varying colors: yellow, green, red, blue, purple. These particles flew down into the depths of the chasm.

"Teleport." Kraden peered over the edge. "I wonder how he expects us to follow."

Jenna glared at the old man. "What makes you so sure this 'Star Magician' is ma- Ack!" Jenna was right to be shocked, as the party soon began breaking apart in the same manner the Star Magician did. Soon no trace of the group remained, save for the torches left behind.

Although they had already acquired the Teleport spell, this teleportation was cast by the Star Magician, leaving the young Adepts unable to control its course. A rain of sparks - the heroes in "Teleport form" - flew down the chasm, which gradually widened. Before long they reached the bottom and reformed, finding themselves in a circular room about as large as the main plaza of Vale. Many stone lanterns lined the walls, and a few shallow pools of water - the deepest of which wouldn't even come up to a person's ankle - reflected the light into even the most remote of shadows. On the floor, along the north end of the room, was a stone engraving depicting a serpent curled into a crescent shape. Atop the engraving was a stone tablet, and before the tablet was the Star Magician.

Ivan rubbed his head. "Could you at least warn us next time? Or better yet, ask permission first."

Kraden was checking his pulse, making sure he hadn't just died. Then the gravity of the situation hit him, and he took a few steps towards Star Magician. "Uh... P-perhaps I should mention that I'm a scholar, not a warrior."

"Very well." The Star Magician's ball glowed again, and the ground beneath Kraden began to rise. The elder lost his balance, and fell to his knees to keep from falling over. He soon found himself on a disk of rock, long enough across to lay down on, floating about ten feet off the ground and drifting towards the side of the room.

The ball began glowing again, and four more balls appeared around Star Magician. They were essentially identical to the one it carried in its hand, except for their colors: purple, red, yellow-green, and blue.

Garet chuckled, then turned to Jenna. "Yup. He's male, all right."

"What makes you so sure?"

"Because, he's got ba-"

"Don't you dare finish that sentence!!!" Sheba cut him off, giving him a look that could make even a demon flinch.

The four colored balls - Hehe, the narrator said "balls." - (Shut up, Garet). The four colored spheres moved forward slightly, and the Star Magician spoke. "Now, show me the power that defeated Valukar, guardian of Daedalus. En garde!"

-*-*-*-

Author's comments:

First of all, I'd like to thank my younger brother for coming up with the word "recruiter" for the flashback. I was trying to think of a word that sounds like "intruder," but couldn't think of anything besides "computer," which hardly works in this setting. When he suggested "recruiter," I realized that was the perfect word, as I'm sure you noticed.

There wasn't much action in this chapter, but the next chapter should more than make up for it. Still, this stuff was necessary to tie up loose ends and advance the plot. As for who Sheba's got her eyes on...well, it really doesn't matter, so it can be whoever you want it to be. Except Garet, of course. And what exactly happened in Yampi, anyways? I'll tell you...once Draco tells us what happened in Lalivero.

.net/s/4329146/1/Mia_in_Ponyland

Apologizing in advance: I might not get the last chapter up as quickly as the rest. I already had the first three chapters mostly done when I put the first one up, but I haven't had much time since then to work on the next chapter. Don't worry, I'll get it done. I'm just not sure when.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to have a word with Garet about interrupting me while I'm narrating.