Jules pulled up a chair and sat down in his ringsmithing workshop, Chaos Emerald in one hand. He set it down on a table, then got out some Weezilite, a chisel, and all his normal ringsmithing tools, and put them on the table. With that, he began to carve a pair of rings.

What was his plan, you ask? Well, he wanted to use the Chaos Emerald's energy to create two specially charged rings, one for him and one for Bernie, so that they might be united together by Chaos. He thought it was a good and honorable thing to do to be united with one's spouse as much as possible, and do things he thought would be beneficial for both of them, so he thought it must be what he should do.

But after he carved the Weezilite chunks into two rings, he got stuck. What was the next step? Should he try making the Chaos energy go into it, or should he make the energy of the rings go into it first? Or should he do both at once? He thought about it for a while, but he simply didn't know. He didn't even have the faintest clue.

Now, already, Jules was frustrated. He may have been led to the Special Zone to get the Chaos Emerald, but now he didn't know what to do with it.

Jules sighed very heavily. Then, he picked up the unenergized rings and the Chaos Emerald and threw them into the box filled with energized rings. He stared at it. To his shock and dismay, the rings he had carved were not only failing to be charged with Chaos Emerald energy, they were failing to get charged at all!

The agonized Jules sat back. As a ringsmith, he learned a lot about the abstract energies of Chaos and Ring power. Though no one really understood the true nature of these fundamental cosmic forces, they were pretty confident about a few things, and one of them was that Chaos and Rings were both the perfect complements to one another and the perfect opposites of one another. Their opposing nature must've caused the problem, Jules realized. Surely something great would happen if he put them together...but how? How could he make this work?

Jules had lost faith, and was exhausted and annoyed. He brought his forehead to the desk and kept it there. When he was in the dreamy Special Zone and had found the Chaos Emerald, it seemed like everything would work out, but now, in the "real" world, everything seemed to be falling apart. Well, maybe that wasn't true...but either way, he didn't care, because he was tired and grumpy.

He just sat there for a while, until he heard someone come in.

"Jules? Are you alright?"

"Oh! B-Bernie?" Jules said, getting up.

Bernie took a few steps closer. "Jules, what's the matter? I thought you were working on a ringsmithing project!"

"Oh. I...was, but...I didn't know what to do."

"About what? What were you even working on in the first place?"

"Oh." Jules kind of wanted it to be a surprise, with him giving it in a romantic fashion to his spouse, but now that it didn't seem to be working, he didn't see why he should keep it secret. "I...was...working on making two rings...one for you and one for me...fueled by chaos energy, so we'd be bound together by the forces of the universe, but...I can't seem to get the rings and the Chaos Emerald to even interact!" He sighed and looked down.

"Oh, Jules." Bernie got close to her husband and looked him in the eye. "That's so sweet of you, but we don't need to be bound together by Chaos Emeralds and rings. We're bound together with something even greater."

Jules nodded slowly. "Yes, Bernie. You're right."

There was a pause.

"Should I deliver this to my brother now?" Jules asked.

"Yes, that would be a good idea," Bernie said.

"Alright. This very instant?"

"Well, I don't see why not."

Jules nodded. "OK. I'll be on my way."

And as he went off into his car, he had no idea that, despite the "failure" of his project, effects that he could not discern were at work...


As he got out of the car in front of Jules' house, Jules briefly wondered if maybe giving the Chaos Emerald to Charles was a bad idea, but he dismissed this thought quickly. He had made a promise, and he could trust his own brother.

Right?


(I...I have done the impossible! I have written a SHORT chapter! HAHAHA! Maybe too short for some folks...ah, well, it seemed a good ending point, so what I am to care?

I hope you enjoyed and had a very merry Christmas!)