Golden Sun: Last Heaven
Episode 01- Mystery in the Moonlight

Vale is quite an interesting place. It's everything that Isaac and Garet told me it was, and there's even more on top of that! The residents have been very kind; they seem to be very tolerant of outsiders. This might because they are Adepts as well, and thus they may be able to relate to us a bit better.

The climate of the town is quite suitable for living as well. Not like Imil, where everything is so cold most of the time. Come to think of it, ever since I took up residency here I don't think I've ever had to wear my full set of robes that I wore throughout our great journey.

You just might say that things here are absolutely perfect. If only it could stay that way for an eternity…

"Come on guys, go chase the ball!" Garet said as he pointed forward, almost like a general leading his army. His 'soldiers' were in fact a group of Mars Djinn, the ones that gave him his strength during battle.
"That way, that way! Let's go, let's go!" Garet exclaimed as he rushed toward the ball, with the nine red Djinn following close behind.
Off to the side, Isaac was sleeping on a bed of grass that made up part of a giant field. The grass there was a luscious green, with different-colored plants growing around in every direction. Garet had found this place while exploring one day, and he decided to claim it as his own little park.
Suddenly, a giant ball of straw crashed into Isaac's head, which woke him up quickly. "Ow… that hurt," he thought as he sat up, looking for the culprit.
"Sorry about that!" Garet said as he ran over. "Could we have our ball back, please?"
Isaac looked over at the ground around him. He reached over to pick up the ball that had landed nearby, when suddenly... it moved.
He was a bit startled at first, but he realized what it was when the ball moved higher off the ground. Carrying the ball was a Venus Djinni, whose size was no bigger than that of the ball's. As Isaac reached over to take the ball, a large group of them clustered around and began to squeal excitedly.
Garet laughed out loud. "Looks like they want you to play, Isaac," he said.
Isaac yawned, though he was a bit annoyed with the noise. "I'm a bit tired right now, can't we play later, you guys?" he pleaded.
The group of beige Djinn picked him up off the ground and began to throw him up and down, as if to tell him that he wouldn't get any rest until he met their demands.
"Ow… ow! Fine, okay!" Isaac said as he felt his insides lurch. "Put me down, and I'll play!"
The group of Djinn squealed happily as they put Isaac back on the ground and let him stand up. "Yikes, that was painful. Guess there really is strength in numbers…" Isaac thought to himself as he kicked the ball back towards Garet.
From an outsider's point of view, the game would have looked pretty strange. A group of red Djinn and a separate group of beige Djinn, all of them running after a single straw ball, which was bouncing every which way now.
"Hey, watch out! Garet the striker's about to shoot!" Garet said as he bounced the ball along the grass and prepared to kick it. "Here it comes!"
He kicked the ball as hard as he could, sending it straight at the makeshift goal that Isaac had created with two posts. "Granite, stop that!" Isaac called out.
One of the Venus Djinn immediately jumped out in front of the ball. Suddenly, a translucent-beige barrier appeared in front of it, causing the ball to bounce right off harmlessly, where it was taken by another Venus Djinni.
"All right, good job!" Isaac called back. His excitement was short-lived however, as a Mars Djinni suddenly bowled over the ball holder and ran off with it.
"Give it here, Fever!" Garet called as he waved his left hand in the air.
The Djinni reared up and gave the ball a sharp head-butt, sending the ball flying through a large crowd of beige and red right towards its intended target.
"I'm not going to miss twice," Garet said as he noticed Isaac standing in front of the his goal now. "Here it comes!"
He kicked the ball as hard as he could, aiming directly for the upper corner of the goal. Isaac dived for it, but he missed and came crashing to the ground.
"Oh yeah! Now that was pretty, wouldn't you agree?" Garet said as he helped Isaac up.
"That was luck," Isaac retorted as he wiped some dirt off his shirt. "I could have had that if the sun wasn't in my eyes."
"Dream on. That was a clean goal and you know it," Garet said with a wicked grin.
"Well, you boys looks like you're having fun," someone said from behind them.
Isaac and Garet turned to see Mia standing there, holding the straw ball that they had been playing with. They also noticed a group of blue Mercury Djinn sitting on the grass behind her, resting peacefully.
"Want to play?" Garet offered. "It's fun, you know."
"No thanks," Mia declined. "I'd rather not work up a sweat at the moment."
"If it gets too hot for you then maybe you can take off some of your clothes," Garet said jokingly.
"The reason I came here is to tell you that Piers was looking for you," Mia said, ignoring his comment. "He said it was something important, so I told him that I would relay the message to you as soon as possible."
"Did he mention what it was about?" Garet said, suddenly all business. "Piers isn't really the kind of person to have big news."
Mia shrugged. "Don't ask me, I'm just the messenger."
"Fine, I'll go talk to him," Garet said. "All right guys, fun time's over! Time to re-integrate!"
The Mars Djinn looked disappointed at having their play time cut short, but they all went back inside Garet's body one by one until they were no longer visible.
"Here," Garet said as he tossed the ball to Isaac. "You should give your Djinn more workouts. That's how they'll get stronger."
"Perhaps," Isaac said as he sat back down on the grass. "But different people want different things."
Garet gave him a funny look. "Just giving you a bit of friendly advice, old buddy. Anyway, catch you later. I'm going to go see what Piers is all excited about."
"Thanks a lot, friend," Isaac mumbled under his breath as he laid down on the ground and focused on falling asleep again.
"Isaac…" Mia began as she sat down beside him.
"What?" Isaac responded, his eyes still shutting out the outside world around him.
"Is everything all right?" Mia asked, treading cautiously.
"Sure, why wouldn't they be?" Isaac replied, his tone not all that sincere.
"It's just that… you've been acting kind of strange lately, especially towards Garet," Mia said. "I'm worried about you, that's all."
Isaac opened his eyes and sat up, leaning on one knee. "Maybe you should be more concerned about Garet," he said tersely.
"Huh? I'm not so sure I understand what you mean…" Mia said.
"Have you noticed how he's been constantly training, day in and day out, ever since we've come back here?" Isaac asked.
"Yeah… so what about it?" Mia asked.
"Don't you think it's all a bit unnecessary?" Isaac said, turning to face her.
"Well, it never hurts to be prepared…" Mia began.
"Our mission has been completed. We should be resting now and taking it easy instead of preparing for another battle," Isaac replied. "I doubt we're ever going to have to fight again."
"But you never know what could happen," Mia responded. "Anything's possible. You of all people should know that."
She was right, of course. After all, there was no way that Isaac could have guessed that his little expedition into Sol Sanctum with Kraden could have led to his great adventure across Weyard.
"Even if the need to fight does arise…" Isaac started. "You can count me out."
"But… why?" Mia said, a bit taken aback.
"I'm through with fighting," Isaac continued. "There's too much at stake during a battle. In one moment, you could lose it all. Or worse yet, you could take somebody you care about down with you…"
"But we can't operate as a team without you!" Mia replied. "Are you just going to turn your back on us? Your best friends?"
"You don't need me. Felix is a better leader than I could ever be," Isaac said.
"Felix wasn't our leader when we defeated Saturos and Menardi atop Venus Lighthouse," Mia said. "You were, Isaac."
Isaac laid down on the ground again. "Oh, and did you forget to mention which one of us almost got you killed that day?"

The final battle with the Fusion Dragon was one to remember, and it was definitely one of the most intense battles that we've faced throughout our journey. If ever there was a time when we had nothing to gain, but everything to lose, that was it…

"What the heck is that thing?" Garet exclaimed as he got into his battle stance.
"It appears that Saturos and Menardi have fused their bodies into one ultimate beast!" Ivan said from beside him. Though his voice was calm, the sweat running down his forehead was an indication of his fear.
"Come on, guys! We beat them in their human forms, and we'll beat them in this form too!" Isaac said as he prepared to fight.
"This isn't going to be easy…" Mia said. "We really need some sort of plan before we attack it."
The conversation was interrupted as the Fusion Dragon let out a vicious howl that shook the whole lighthouse. It eyed the four Adepts in front of it hungrily, almost like a lion stalking a deer.
"Split up! It'll have a harder time tracking us if we're separated!" Isaac called out.
With that, each team member headed off to an opposite corner of the battleground and began running around the Dragon in a wide circle. "Now, let's hit it with everything we've got!" Isaac yelled.
"Freeze Prism!" Mia cried as she swung the Crystal Rod through the air. Several boulders of ice appeared in the air and zoomed at the Fusion Dragon, smashing into it like an icy meteor shower.
The Dragon roared in pain, and as it howled its mouth began to spew jets of flame towards seemingly random locations. The four Adepts dodged the bursts themselves, but they quickly found that their mobility was now severely hampered by the spreading flames that had engulfed the battlefield.
"Come on, now's not the time to let up!" Isaac yelled as he focused his energy into his left palm. "Take this! Quake Sphere!" he cried as he launched a sizzling brown energy ball through the air.
The Dragon had regained its senses now, however, and the Psynergetic ball dissipated as it came into contact with the Dragon's mystical aura.
"Hit the dirt!" Ivan cried as the Dragon lunged straight at them with its mouth open.
Garet and Mia ducked instinctively, but Isaac's reaction time was slower than usual after using so much Psynergy in one blast. The Dragon caught him with one bite and pulled him into the air.
"Isaac!" Mia cried as she and Garet watched the Fusion Dragon take to the air, with Isaac barely able to hold its mighty jaws open with his trembling arms.
"Get him! Now, while he's distracted!" Isaac yelled in between grimaces of pain. The Dragon's teeth were cutting through his armor, and he felt his grip on the beast's jaws begin to slip.
"What do we do?" Garet said, trying desperately to think of a solution. "None of my Fire Psynergy can hit it while it's flying around like that, and I'm fresh out of other ideas!"
Mia looked around, trying to find something that she could use to aid her cause. Then she realized where she was, and an idea came to her. "That's it!" she said. "Garet, I've got it!"
Garet looked very confused. "Care to fill me in on your brilliant idea?"
"Can you fire an Inferno right at it when it flies around the front?" Mia asked.
"I should be able to hit it from there, if I can stand a little higher up… but what good would it do Isaac?" Garet asked.
"Trust me on this one, if this doesn't work then Isaac's pretty much dead," Mia said as she stood up on a elevated rock. "Here it comes, get ready!"
The Fusion Dragon was now chasing Ivan around the now considerably smaller battlefield, and it was coming around to where Garet and Mia were standing. "Now, Garet!" Mia shouted as it zoomed near the center of the lighthouse platform.
"Here goes!" Garet said as he charged both his hands with his fire Psynergy. "Inferno!" A barrage of fireballs shot out of his outstretched hands and flew around the whole lighthouse, circling around and around in a spiral.
The Fusion Dragon was forced to slow down as the circle of fire began to tighten around it. It roared in pain again as the fireballs zoomed in and collided with its eyes, sending it flying right over the lighthouse beacon.
"Isaac! Now's your chance! Get out of there!" Mia cried.
Isaac was still straining desperately to hold the Dragon's jaws open. But as the Dragon was thrown into the illuminating beam of the Venus Lighthouse, he felt the light of the beacon all around him, its bright aura strengthening his body and refueling his magical energy. "Here goes nothing!" he cried. "Grand Gaia!"
A bright golden aura surrounded him for a second, and then it expanded into a massive burst of earthen energy. The blast was certainly too hot for the Fusion Dragon to handle, and it was fortunate enough to spit Isaac out before its head would have literally exploded into thousands of pieces.
The damage that Isaac had done with that attack was substantial, however, and the Dragon was brought to the ground, with smoke running out of the corners of its now closed maw between its gritted teeth.
"This is it! It ends now!" Isaac cried as he unsheathed the Gaia Blade and charged straight at the Dragon's head. However, he failed to notice that a small parcel of energy was charging within the depths of the Dragon's smoking mouth.
Mia saw it however, but by then it was too late to stop him. "Isaac! Watch out!" she cried as she came up behind him and tackled him down just as the Dragon launched a purple bolt from between its gritted teeth. The attack zoomed harmlessly over Isaac's head, but it collided with Mia and brought her down hard.
"Mia!" the remaining three Adepts cried in unison.
The Fusion Dragon was charging up for another attack, but this time Isaac was ready. "You heartless bastard! You will die for that!" he yelled as he picked up his sword and drove it right into the skull of the Dragon. "Titan Blade attack!" he cried as the tremors from the Gaia Blade's energy burst were now shaking the whole lighthouse.
Brilliant flashes of light began to burst outward from the Fusion Dragon's bloodied skull, as it howled in mortal pain. Suddenly, there was a massive explosion where Isaac and the Dragon were standing, and everything around the Venus Lighthouse turned completely white...

When I came to, I was back in Lalivero. It turned out that I had been unconscious for two days already. Ivan was at my bedside, changing the bandages that covered my battle-inflicted wounds, and he seemed surprised but happy to see me awake. I asked him where Isaac and Garet were, and I was certainly relieved to find out that they were all right.

Isaac came to see how I was doing after a short time, and the minute he walked into the room he did something that I thought he would never do, or at least not in front of me. He cried. Not just a few tears of relief, he was really letting it all out. He held onto me tight, as if I would disappear from his sight at any given moment. I tried to comfort him, but I guess the battle had taken its toll on him already…

To this day, he still blames himself for what happened that day. Perhaps that is why his fighting spirit has been extinguished now.

Maybe Agatio and Karst were right. Maybe compassion is the warrior's weakness…

"That's how battles are, Isaac. There's no guarantee of anyone's safety out there," Mia said, putting her right hand on his shoulder. "But what matters is that I'm all right now, right?"
"Did you know how worried I was about you for those two days?" Isaac asked, shaking off her arm. It didn't seem like he was listening to her at all. "I couldn't eat, I couldn't sleep, I could barely even move. And do you know why that is, Mia?" he added, with just a hint of scorn in his voice.
Mia was about to answer, but instead she shook her head wordlessly.
"Because if you had died, then your blood would be stained on my hands forever," Isaac said. "I know that battles can be brutal sometimes, but I'm just not prepared to deal with knowing a loved one died because of my stupid mistake."
"Then why didn't you come back here instead of getting on that ship with the rest of us?" Mia asked. "You could have turned back and gone home, but you didn't."
Isaac sighed. "Maybe it's time I told you something that I've been keeping a secret from you and everyone else…"
That came as quite a surprise to Mia. "What secret?" she asked.
Isaac looked her in the eyes again. "The truth is… you really did die that day."
Mia's heart almost jumped out of her body. "Wh-what? What are you talking about?" she said, her voice trembling.
Isaac's gaze turned away from her once again. "The Fusion Dragon's blast hit you harder than we all thought. You developed a severe fever as we were bringing you back to Lalivero, and… well, your body stopped functioning that night."
"But… if that's true, then how am I standing here right now?" Mia asked.
Isaac sighed once again. "The draught of Lemuria," he answered.
Yet another unexpected twist in his words. Just when she thought she was going to get a straight answer, she always ended up even more in the dark. "What does that have to do with anything?" Mia asked, getting more curious with each passing second.
"It turns out that the draught of Lemuria can do more than just extend a living person's life," Isaac replied. "It can also be used to bring the dead back into the world of the living."
"Okay… But how did I get some of it? I thought that Babi was the only person to possess any, at least outside of Lemuria," Mia said.
"Babi's most loyal and trusted aide was Iodem, as you know," Isaac replied. "His trust went so far that he even gave Iodem a small portion of the Lemurian draught to use."
Isaac's story was beginning to piece itself together. "I see, so go on," Mia said.
"Iodem was the first to discover that you were deceased, and he was greatly distressed since he was the one who asked us to go up the Venus Lighthouse," Isaac continued. "So in the middle of that night, when nobody else was around, he crept into your room and gave you the draught, which rejuvenated your body and awoke you two days later."
Mia was awestruck. "Iodem… He gave up Babi's most precious gift to him so I could live…" she trailed off. "But tell me, how do you know all this when it's supposed to be a secret?" she asked Isaac.
"I was going to check up on you that night, but when I arrived at your room I saw Iodem inside pouring some strange clear-colored liquid inside your mouth," Isaac replied. "Naturally, I barged in and asked what he was doing. So, seeing how he could no longer hide the truth, Iodem explained everything to me and swore me to secrecy."
He paused and looked towards the sky for a moment. "So you see, that's why I got on that ship with you, Garet, and Ivan. I knew that there was going to be more fighting up ahead, and it just wouldn't be right if I abandoned my friends in the face of such a situation."
Then, Isaac reached into his robe's inner pocket and pulled out a small pouch. Reaching into the pouch, he produced a small bottle, which was half-filled with a clear liquid substance. "This is what's left of the Lemurian draught that Iodem gave me that night," he said matter-of-factly.
"He gave all of it to you?" Mia asked, with a look of surprise.
"Iodem knew that we were going away on a journey across the world, and he thought that we would be able to make better use of it than he would," Isaac said as he put the bottle back in its pouch. "But then we ran into Felix, which made us all a lot stronger than we would have been individually. So there was never any need to use it."
"Well, what are you going to do with it now?" Mia asked.
Isaac sat up once again. Taking her hand into his, he placed the brown pouch containing the draught into it. "You keep it. It's yours now," he said.
"What?" Mia exclaimed. "But I can't take this! Iodem gave it to you, so it should stay with you!" she said, trying to force the pouch back into Isaac's palms.
However, Isaac held her hand tightly within his, preventing her from moving. "Babi gave this to his closest friend, and now I'm giving it to one of my closest friends," he said. "Go on, take it."
Mia realized that resisting him was pointless, so she stopped. Holding the brown pouch in her hands, she closed her palms tightly around it. "Isaac… I don't know what to say…" she said, as tears began to form in her blue eyes.
For the first time in their whole conversation, Isaac smiled. "Just say, 'I'll take good care of it.'"
Mia reached forward and pulled him into a hug. "I'll take good care of it, Isaac…" she said as her tears ran down her cheeks. "Thank you."
"Just do me a favor. Don't tell anyone else about this, okay?" Isaac said. "They'll probably ask a bunch of questions that I don't have the answers to."
Mia nodded as she choked back the last of her tears. "I promise. It'll be our little secret," she said.
"Okay," Isaac agreed. "Hey, it's starting to get dark, we should head back to town. Come on, I'll walk you home."
Just then, Mia remembered why she had wanted to talk to Isaac in the first place.. "Hey, Isaac…" she began, but she stopped in mid-sentence.
"Yeah? What is it?" Isaac said as he turned around.
There was a long silence. Finally, Mia replied, "Nothing… it's nothing," as she stood up and began to walk with him back to their town.

The Lemurian draught may have been the one thing that saved my life, but it meant a lot more to me now. It was the first real gift that Isaac had ever given me, and it's something that I'll be sure to cherish forever.

Isaac keeps a lot of secrets. He doesn't show it to anyone else, but I can tell. There's nothing wrong with that, since everyone has their own hidden treasures buried within their minds, it's just that with Isaac, you never know what to expect.

Mysterious he may be, but Isaac is still one of my best friends, and nothing can ever change that.

And so, Isaac and Mia walked back to New Vale together, talking about whatever came to their minds. As time passed, the sky above went from the shining orange of the sunset to a blanket of darkness that signaled the night. It was going to be a full moon tonight, something that only occurred once every month or so.
"Well, here we are," Isaac said as the two of them arrived at Mia's house. "You'd better go inside, Sheba will be wondering where you've been," he added with a chuckle.
"No doubt," Mia said with a laugh. "Well then, I'll see you tomorrow, okay?" she said as she walked up the steps that led to the front door.
Isaac nodded. "Good night, Mia."
Mia smiled at him. "Good night, Isaac," she said as she walked into her house, closing the door behind her.
Isaac turned and began to walk in another direction. "Guess I'd better go home as well. Mom and Dad will be curious as to why I'm so late."
"Where are you going?" a voice said from somewhere around him.
Isaac stopped. "I'm going home," he replied tersely, without turning around. "It's getting late, shouldn't you be doing the same?"
"Some of us don't have homes that we can go back to," the voice said, from a much closer distance this time.
Isaac turned around in surprise. "What the… how did you…?"
The voice that was behind him emerged from the shadow that it had been hiding in. "Surprised? Or did I just catch you off guard?" the voice's owner said. It was a teenage boy, about the same size as Isaac and appearing to be about the same age as well. He wore a long cloak that covered most of his body to Isaac, but he could see the boy's fiery eyes glowing in the darkness.
"Who… who are you?" Isaac said, showing just a hint of fear. "And what do you want with me?"
"You'll find the answers to those questions soon enough," the mysterious boy said as he turned around and began to walk away. "Just know that we will meet again in the near future, Isaac of Vale."
Isaac's eyes went wide. "How do you know my name?" he called out to the stranger.
No answer came. As quickly as he had come, the boy was gone.
"Who was that guy?" Isaac thought to himself as he stood transfixed, staring at the shadow that the stranger had disappeared into.

To Be Continued…