To everyone who reviewed the last chapter, thank you for your time, and I'm glad that so many of you thought what I was writing was actually emotional in some way. As an author, I always critique myself rather harshly, so I didn't expect to get such a great bunch of reviews. Thanks in part to the warm response to the last chapter, I've decided to post the next chapter ahead of schedule (don't worry - the next chapter will be up later this week, as well. Just consider this a bonus!)

(Dew): Right. What you mean to say is that you were sick on Sunday so you had more time to write, hence you can publish this chapter and the next one later this week.

...Whatever you say, Dew.

(Dew): Excellent! Everyone maul Omniflyer!

That's not what I meant! [A large group of djinn appear from nowhere and start mauling Omniflyer] Ouch.

(Dew): That's the way to start an update! ^_^



Review Responses



To Void: The idea for the Sol Blade drawing on it's wielder's soul for Megiddo was meant in no way to be some mix-up with sol/soul. However, I will admit that it's a very nice little bit of alliteration...

(Dew): Are you sure you just didn't know that Sol means sun?

I've been referring to the sun as Sol for...how many chapters?

(Dew): 5 agonizingly painful chapters.

...they aren't that bad.



Disclaimer: Just out of curiosity...Is there a single person out there who actually, honestly believes the authors on ff.net own Golden Sun?



- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -



Chapter 6

Scrap of Hope

The night went by uneventfully for everyone but Mia. While the others were more or less sleeping, she was preoccupying herself with the patients. Again, she heard the talk from the people that she was healing about her being an angel. 'When will that ever stop?' she wondered.

She eventually stumbled across Sheba, who was up reading in the waiting room.

"What are you doing here, Sheba?" Mia asked her. Sheba paused a moment before looking up.

"I couldn't sleep," she replied. Mia took the seat next to her. She hadn't noticed how soft these chairs were...

"Neither could I," Mia sighed. "I don't think I'll be sleeping for a while."

"Most of the others aren't, either," Sheba mentioned. "Only Garet and Felix are asleep. Jenna's still getting over the shock, and I was keeping Ivan up so long talking..."

"I wonder how they do it?" Mia thought out loud. Sheba looked at her puzzlingly. "Sleep, that is. With all of this going on."

"What you wouldn't give for a sleep spell right now, huh?" Sheba smiled. Mia nodded sadly. "If you really want it, I could always use Sleep on you..." Sheba offered.

"Maybe a little later," Mia replied. "But thanks for the offer. I'll never get over it if I run and sleep through it all the time." Sheba frowned.

"You'll also never get over it if you don't rest a bit, too."

"That's true. I guess I'll try and turn in," Mia said, rising to leave for her room.

"Good luck," Sheba said, returning to her book, still not tired in the least, nor believing Mia would be sleeping right now. It made her wonder if she would react like this if she ever lost Ivan...

********************

The next morning came far too fast for any of the Adepts. They all trudged down to the dining hall as soon as they thought themselves ready to appear before the others, and ate a quick breakfast, despite Garet's insatiable appetite.

They stayed at the table for a couple of hours, in fact. Though they were convinced they wouldn't after their farewell the previous night, Isaac got wrapped up in the conversation again, everyone reminiscing about their leader. After what seemed to be days, but was really only a couple of hours, Felix stopped the conversation.

"As much as I would love to continue talking about Isaac and making us all the more depressed, we really need to get going," he said quietly.

"Go where?" Jenna asked.

"Back to Vault," he replied. Sheba shuddered, and Ivan slipped her hand into his under the table.

"Why Vault?" Ivan asked. "Let's just be blunt about this. Let's skip all the side battles and head straight for Lunpa." The others looked at him curiously. Surely this wasn't Ivan speaking? He had never wanted to get right down to a fight before. He was always the careful one. Jenna noted that the loss of Isaac had changed everyone present, including herself.

"Because Lunpa is going to be impossible to reach," Felix said. "Anyone going to Lunpa is either crazy or overconfident."

********************

A golden, nearly white glow came over a small portion of the area that was the battlefield a few days ago. It surrounded one figure in particular, and then stopped. The figure rose, bruised, battered, bent, and beaten to within an inch of his life. But he was alive. He stood, sheathed his sword, and got his bearings. He looked around for the direction Lunpa was in, muttered one word, and took off for the city of thieves.

"Dodonpa......."

********************

"Yeah, but we aren't anyone," Ivan said. "We're many people. Many dangerous people armed with Psynergy and the will to end this before it goes any farther." Again, everyone looked at Ivan. Even Garet noticed the difference, which really is saying a lot.

"I agree with Ivan," Garet said. "It's time to end this before Dodonpa gets any more tricks out, like those stupid Mimics." Everyone shuddered at the memory. "Jenna, are you in?"

"I'm in this one. For Isaac," she said.

"For Isaac," Garet nodded.

"Sheba, are you in?" asked Ivan. She nodded.

"You don't even have to ask," she said. Felix looked at Mia.

"I'm in, then. Are you, Mia?" An unusually cold glare came over Mia's typically soft face.

"Dodonpa is mine."

********************

The figure made its way across fields and rivers, every so often regaining enough strength to cast Cure, which made it a lot easier to move. Eventually, he came to the outskirts of Lunpa, and, like he had in the past, relied on the tunnel outside of town to sneak in. There was a large gate in the way that was unopenable from this side. Not one for subtlety this time, the figure cast Ragnarok and broke the fence down.

Unfortunately, as he passed through it, his scarf caught on part of the fence where it was sharp from Ragnarok and ripped, leaving a bit of yellow fabric behind. The figure paid no attention to it and moved on.

********************

Hours later, the group of Adepts were well away from Bilibin, having already borrowed Caravans to travel with, and were well on their way to Lunpa. They received word that the next time the two armies would meet would be tomorrow at noon ("It's always at noon," Garet grumbled). Not wanting to get caught in the skirmish, the Adepts hurried to make the best possible time to Lunpa. If they kept up this pace, they could be there within the hour.

"What do you think the odds are we can get in the city?" Felix asked Ivan.

"Slim to none. It was hard enough to get in when Master Hammet was captured last time. We'll have to use that tunnel outside of town again. However, I don't know if we can get through it still. They may have blocked it with more gates since we were there last, due to the war," Ivan said.

"We'll get through it," Mia said. "One way or another."

Ivan turned to look at Mia. She had changed the most out of all of them. Mia never liked going into a battle, but here she seemed...vengeful. There was nothing more important to her now than seeing Dodonpa brought to justice.

'Of course not,' Sheba cut into his thoughts. 'She's lost something very important to her.' Ivan chuckled sadly, not loud enough for anyone to hear.

'So if I go and die, can I expect you to act like her?' Ivan joked.

'What makes you think you're important to me?' Sheba smiled at him.

'Your mind betrays you,' he replied. She blushed.

********************

The caravan reached Lunpa just as Sol was beginning to hit the mountaintops around Lunpa. Felix imagined they would have about three hours left of daylight.

"Ok, Ivan," Felix said, "show us this cave."

"Sure," he replied, and they walked to where Ivan remembered the cave was.

"You see," Jenna joked with Garet, "this is why we have Ivan lead: because he's not likely to lead us into rivers or anything." Garet smiled.

"Yeah, but this way is so much slower," he said. "You go a lot faster if you stay with a river current." They started to laugh.

"Will you two keep quiet?" Felix hissed. "We don't need them knowing where we are!" he reminded them, gesturing in the general direction of Lunpa. The two Mars Adepts grinned sheepishly.

"Here it is," Ivan said, pointing at a cave entrance in the mountainside.

"Let's go, then," Mia said shortly.

They entered the cave. It was dark and damp inside, but there was enough light to guide the Adepts. The torches were all burned out, and the ground was more uneven than Garet remembered, as he continually tripped.

"Ow!" he cried after about the fourth trip. "Darn ground!"

"Will you be more careful?" Jenna hissed. "They're going to hear us!" Garet opened his mouth to counter, but instead opened in wonder as they stumbled across the gate. Or rather, what used to be the gate.

********************

The figure climbed a tree, and bounced over to the castle that belonged to Dodonpa. He had done some major redecorating. The castle was huge, now, adorned with fine fabrics and materials. The figure carefully scaled the outside wall, so as not to attract attention. He slipped in a window, climbed the inside wall so as to hang from the wooden ceiling support beams, and started looking for Dodonpa from the ceiling.

********************

"What could have done this?" Garet wondered. "This looks like an Adept's handiwork..."

"More specifically, Garet," Ivan said, "this was the handiwork of a Ragnarok attack." A silence filled the room.

"Do you mean...?" Mia said, her voice quavering.

"I mean this looks like the work of a Venus Adept," Ivan smiled.

"Don't get ahead of yourselves," Felix said, grounded as always. "There could be another Venus Adept we don't know about."

"Oh, don't be so pessimistic, brother," Jenna said, a large smile beginning to show on her face. "I think Isaac was here."

"Whatever the case," Felix said, "we need to keep moving." The Adepts formed a single file line and went through the narrow opening, having no trouble doing so until...

"Ow!" Mia yelped in surprise.

"What's wrong, Mia?" asked Jenna.

"Oh, nothing... I just caught my robe on the fence..." she noted that the fabric had ripped off, saw where it had caught, and gasped.

"What is it this time?" Jenna asked, concerned.

"Look...look, right where I ripped my robe..." Mia said, pointing at some ripped yellow fabric.

"Is that...part of Isaac's scarf?" Garet wondered, noticing the material.

"It is," Sheba said.

"He's alive..." Mia whispered. "He's alive!" She and Jenna grasped each other's hands and danced around the cave, trying to make as little noise as possible, but also letting themselves enjoy the moment. The others were also visibly energized, now with a new sense of purpose, knowing that Isaac may still be alive.

"So what's the plan now, Felix?" asked Garet, after the rush of joy had worn off.

"Same as before, except now he have to expect to run into Isaac," he said.

"You mean...in the castle?" Jenna wondered.

"Why else would Isaac be here?" Ivan questioned.

"He's trying to do this by himself, isn't he?" Sheba thought out loud. While Isaac was never one for foolish strategic moves, she supposed being alone on the battlefield may have convinced him to do something rash.

"I'll kill him," Mia said. "Right after I save his life, I'll kill him." Everyone laughed.

"Well, then, let's get this over with so we don't have to have another circle around the fire when this is over!" Garet said, now smiling quite broadly.

"Amen to that," Sheba smiled.

They started walking and they were almost outside the cave on the Lunpa side when Garet had to pose one last question.

"Hey, Felix?"

"Yeah?"

"How exactly do we intend to get inside the castle?" he wondered.

"Mia has the Cloak Ball, right?" Felix asked.

"Yes, I have it," Mia answered, feeling around inside her bag for it.

"Then that is our ticket in," he replied.

"But that only works in shade," Garet said.

"Garet, it's only two hours until Sol goes down. Once Luna's up, there will be plenty of shade," Jenna replied.

"Oh," Garet said. "That'll work then."

So the Adepts waited for the two hours to pass, mere steps away from the fragments of clothing left by the Defenders of Venus and Mercury, which now stayed pinned together, giving the Adepts hope for the trials of the night.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

(Dew): Does this mean Isaac's still alive?

Maybe.

(Dew): ...Does that mean he isn't?

Maybe.

(Dew): Allow me to rephrase that. You know Isaac is alive, or the other authors will kill you, correct?

That's an interesting way of putting it.

(Dew): I try hard.

Well, at least this wasn't...too much of a cliffhanger, right? Right?

(Dew): Get writing.

Aww... To the rest of you, leave a review, please!