ME: Hey, all.

CHIBI CHAO: 'Sup?

ME: Y'what?!

CHIBI CHAO: Well, you said it earlier...(Sniffles.) can't we get along? Just for once?

ME: Oh, shut up, crybaby.

DISCLAIMER: ONCE UPON A TIME, DRAGON EMPRESS OWNED GOLDEN SUN. IT WAS GREAT, SHE HAD TO POWER TO DO WHATEVER SHE WANTED WITH THE CHARACTERS AND RULED THEIR IMAGINARY WORLD.

YEAH, AND THEN SHE WOKE UP.

ME: Alright, Thursday! Oh, and the majority of you have asked me to give Ivan the punishment he so rightfully deserves. Heh heh heh, snip, snip...

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Ivan pulled the hat tighter around his ears, ignoring the sounds of muffled laughter in the next room. Sheba, Mia and Jenna were sat across the table from him, and kept glancing across, probably wondering why he was wearing Isaac's old Lure cap.

The truth was it was the only hat he could find...

The door to the left of the table opened, and Isaac and Garet walked in, still sniggering and trying their hardest not to. Their eyes widened when they realised that Isaac's mother had made lunch for all of them.

Garet sat down next to Jenna. (And yes, she did take his arm and hold it like it was the most expensive arm in the world.) He coughed a little. "Ah, Ivan, could you pass me that last roll please?"

Ivan glared at him and picked up the roll...

"Thanks."

...and dropped it on the floor. Garet raised his eyebrows.

"Well, that was unnecessary." He said, looking at Isaac briefly. Isaac nodded in agreement.

"Yes, totally uncalled for. On a side note, Ivan, why on Earth are you wearing my old Lure cap?"

"You know why."

"Do I really now? Well, I seem to have forgotten. Could you re-inform me as to why you're wearing my old Lure cap? It only attracts attention y'know."

"Shut up, Isaac."

"My, my, such language." Garet leaned forwards in his chair. "Why, anyone would think you were upset with us."

"No, surely not, Garet. On what grounds would he have to be upset with us?"

"Quite right, Isaac. I believe we've been perfectly angelic all week."

Jenna snorted, but disguised it as a cough. She glared at Garet and Isaac. "What did you do?" She demanded suspiciously.

"What, us?"

"Nothing!"

"What did you do?" She squeezed Garet's arm tighter.

"Ow! N-nothing!" He winced in pain. "I swear, Jenna, we didn't do anything!"

"Jenna! His arm's going purple!"

"Wow, she does have a tight grip, doesn't she?" Mia said to Sheba. The younger adept nodded in agreement.

"Yeah."

"Jenna, please let go of my arm!" Garet yelped, banging his head off of the table to try and escape the pain. She didn't let go.

"What did you do?"

"We cut Ivan's hair!" Isaac yelled it out before he could stop himself, so shocked at the level of pain Jenna could inflict on his best friend. He immediately slapped his hands over his mouth. The others looked at him, shocked. Jenna even let go of Garet's arm.

Ivan stared at Isaac, and the Venus adept knew that if looks could kill, it'd be best to start planning his funeral now.

Sheba got up and walked over to Ivan. "Let me see."

"No."

"Come on, Ivan. It can't be that bad."

"Oh, really?!" He pulled the hat off. Sheba gasped.

His hair was almost completely gone. It had all been cut off, except for a little bit at the front that looked like it used to be his fringe.

Isaac and Garet glanced at each other, and then fell to the floor laughing. It took Jenna and Mia almost half an hour to get them to stop.

Later, later, later, later:

The fun was over. Isaac and Garet had paid dearly for their act of revenge on Ivan. As soon as Jenna had gotten over the shock, she'd hit the roof and demanded that they apologise to the traumatised Jupiter adept. They had, half-heartedly, and she had then whacked them over the head with her staff a couple of times for god measure. Of course, Isaac and Garet were the only ones who knew the real reason why they'd done it. Jenna and Mia weren't allowed to know, or everything would be ruined.

Now, Mia...in many ways she was worse than Jenna, and was now ignoring Isaac completely. This to him was a lot more painful then Jenna's yelling and physical abuse. How the Hell was he gonna tell Mia how he felt if she wasn't even speaking to him?

But luckily, even though it was now only a small victory, he and Garet had been allowed to keep their own hair the way it was, no matter how much Sheba ranted about "An eye for an eye." And all that rubbish. Jenna, as angry at Garet as she was, had refused point-blank to him having his hair cut off. And it would have hardly been fair if Isaac had gotten that punishment when Garet had not.

Thank Venus for Jenna's obsession with her boyfriend. It definitely came in handy sometimes.

But still...

"How long to you think we'll have to stay down here, Isaac?"

Isaac glanced over at his best friend. "I don't know, Garet. It depends on how it'll take for Ivan to forgive us."

"We'll be in here for ever!"

"Yeah, well make the best of it. At least they locked us in my basement, not yours."

Garet shuddered. "Uh huh. There are rats and snakes and stuff down there. My dad keeps promising he'll clean it out, but never does."

"Your dad has problems." Isaac muttered.

"Scary problems." The Mars adept agreed. "Do you want me to light another fire? It's pretty dark down here."

"Uh, yeah."

Garet put his palms together and a small flame spread across to the tips of his fingers, illuminating his hands in fire.

"Cool."

"No, it's not cool. It's hot, Isaac. Fire is hot."

"You're an idiot." Isaac said, shaking his head.

"I know you are, but what am I?"

"Not to mention immature."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. Jenna tells me all the time." Garet dismissed the insults with a shake of his head. "Get some new material, Isaac. Hey, maybe Mia will help you. Oh wait, that's right, she's not speaking to you!"

"Shut up."

"Heh heh heh."

Isaac glared at him. "Just what is so funny?"

"You're funny, Isaac. You and Mia. It's such a stupid situation you guys are in."

"How do you mean?" He was curious now. Since when was the big, stupid Mars adept master of romance?

"Well, just think about it. You could solve your problems with her easily by just telling her how you feel. One sentence is all it'll take."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Hey, how have you had time to figure this all out?"

Garet smiled. "Oh no, I haven't. I'm just repeating what Jenna was telling me last night. Full credit goes to her."

"Last night, eh?" Isaac grinned wickedly. "Just what were you and Jenna doing last night?"

Garet blushed scarlet and shook his head. "Aw come on, don't! You're as bad as my Dad!"

"Oh, thanks." Isaac said dryly. "Nice of you to compare me to that old pervert."

"My Dad is not a pervert!"

"Then what is he?"

"He's a, a...oh, alright. He's a big, old pervert. Satisfied?" Garet snapped. His friend's grin grew even wider, if that's even possible. He was starting to look like the Cheshire cat on acid. It was rather scary.

"Immensely."

"Well, whoopee for you." Garet grumbled sarcastically. "As soon as we get out of here, I'll throw you a party."

"That's if we ever get out of here."

"When. Not if. You're being a pessi...erm, a pessimast again."

"It's pessimist, Garet. Pess-im-ist. Say it slowly after me now..."

"Shut up, you. Just because I'm not a genius like you are doesn't mean I can't say passimist."

"Pessimist!" Isaac yelled. This was getting frustrating. "It's not passimist, not pissimist, not even pessimast! It's pessimist!"

"Whoa, alright, alright!" Garet put up his hands. "Don't Ragnarok me or anything, it's only a word!"

"Yeah well, if you would only say it right I'd..." Isaac stopped his rant abruptly.

Garet frowned. "What's wrong?"

"Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"Ssh, there it is again, listen!"

They both listened silently. For a while there was nothing, then...

Scrape, scrape, scrape. The sound of something scraping at the walls filled the dark basement.

Isaac went pale. "N-Now do you hear it, Garet?"

His friend swallowed nervously. "Yeah." The fire in his hands trembled.

Scrape. Scrape. Scrape. It seemed to be getting closer.

Isaac went, if possible, even paler. He turned to Garet. "Cast a bigger fire."

Garet nodded and did so. Instantly, the tiny little flame that was sat on his palms erupted into a blaze. The light from it filled the room. They both looked over to the corner where they had heard the scraping sound, but nothing could have prepared them for what they would see there...

"Felix?!" Garet's jaw almost hit the floor in shock. "What the Hell are you doing down here?!"

Felix frowned. "What are you doing down here?"

"I asked you first."

"Tch, fine. I've been following you around for the past couple of days. Y'know, making sure you weren't cheating on my sister or whatever. But then when I was watching you kidnap Ivan yesterday, Isaac's mother caught me and put me down here as punishment for spying." He glared at their stunned faces. "Hey, if you had a sister, I'm sure you would do the same!"

"I do have a sister, and I don't stalk her boyfriends!" Garet burst out angrily, but Isaac cut him off.

"Let me get this straight, my mother put you down here yesterday, and she's still not let you out?" He said.

Felix nodded. "I think her age is finally catching up on her."

"Yeah well, I think your inner-psychopath has finally caught up with you! Imagine, spying on me for no go reason..." Garet went off into a rant, cursing everything from Felix and his downright weird habits, to Isaac, the little old man next door, his Djinn, some random rat that lived in his basement, his mother's cactus plant...

"Tell me, do you ever shut up?" Felix snapped, after half an hour of Garet's tirade, which by now had successfully had a go at everything in the universe except himself, Jenna and his mother's cooking. "I swear I'll kill myself if I have to listen to another second of your whining!"

"Is that a threat or a promise?"

"If I kill myself, you'll never get to marry my sister."

Garet eyes went as wide as dinner plates. "Wha...?! How the Hell do you know about that?!"

"Well, I have been following you around since Tuesday."

"You know everything, don't you?" Isaac said quietly, not liking the triumphant look in Felix's eyes.

"Yes I do, Isaac. And I'm sure Mia would be delighted to know about your little thing for her."

"You wouldn't dare."

"Oh yes I would!" Felix smirked. "I spent three years living with Saturos and Menardi, you think I don't know how to put valuable information to good use?"

"Blackmail you mean."

"Exactly."

Then, the door swung open, and light streamed into the tiny basement. Garet, Isaac and Felix took to the stairs, eager to get out of their prison. But as Isaac and Garet were out the door and ready to get back to their planning, Felix stopped them.

"Don't forget, you guys. I know everything." And then he sauntered off.

Garet turned to Isaac, his face quite pale. "Damn Isaac, how are we gonna get out of this one?"

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ME: MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! How indeed? Just what does Felix have planned for our two unfortunate young adepts? Doesn't Isaac realise that time is running out? Will Garet ever actually get round to proposing to Jenna? And will I ever stop asking these damn questions? Heh, the only way to find out is if you REVIEW!