I'M BACK!

Isaac/Leggy: YAY!

Yami: Boo!

Well, two out of three isn't bad. I love all the people who reviewed, in a normal way of course! Hehehe... Anyway, onto another chapter of my infamous story. Hope you like it!

Yami: And don't worry, she owns not Golden Sun.

The Plot Thickens

Isaac couldn't sleep. He turned over on his bed and stared at the vision next to him. Bathed in the moonlight from the sky outside, Mia lay in the bed across the room from him, her chest moving up and down in a soothing way. He could hear her breathing softly, but other than that, she made no sign of waking up.

Isaac sighed and closed his eyes again. Images of Mia sinking into darkness surrounded him, setting all of his senses on red alert. He desperately tried to reach her, but she was just too far away. The same shadowy arms appeared around her. Isaac cried out then found he couldn't breathe. He was suffocating in the darkness. There was a scream followed by intense silence. A figure appeared in front of him carrying Mia, a boy, no older than Ivan, but something wasn't right. He shone in an odd way. His whole chest was made of metal as well as his right arm. He grinned evilly and cut open Mia's chest.

Isaac cried out in pain and woke up. He was in the small bare room again. Mia was still in the bed and she was still alive. Isaac breathed easily again. Relaxing, he let himself drop back onto the bed yet didn't remember sitting up.

Five minutes later, Isaac was going over the dream again and again in his mind. He couldn't remember what the boy looked like except that sickly smile and the metal armour covering his torso. But why was he hurting Mia if he was a stranger? Was it perhaps a vision of the future? Isaac knew there wasn't any Jupiter Adept blood in his family, so how could that be? He decided to talk to Ivan the next morning. With one last fleeting look at Mia, he turned over and closed his eyes again.

Moments later, his eyes snapped open again. There was someone in the room with them. He could sense another person. The intruder was moving so quietly, Isaac wasn't sure if he was dreaming until he sensed it again. Whoever it was, it wasn't someone Isaac knew.

He lifted himself ever so slightly, enabling him to look around the room. A man was standing over Mia's lifeless body. A blue headscarf bearing strange symbols obscured his face and he wore an outfit of different cloaks and materials, all of which were a deep ocean blue colour.

Undoubtedly up to no good, he moved his hand over Mia's face while muttering something in a foreign language. Wishing he'd brought his sword from the other room, Isaac got out of bed and approached the man with his hands balled into fists. But before he could attack, the stranger said, "Ply". Isaac instantly recognized this as the water spell Mia used often to heal people after a battle and froze.

Mia's eyelids fluttered, and then opened slightly, blinking in the moon's bright light. She gasped softly when she saw the man in front of her.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Piers," he replied in a strong, but gentle voice, "And I need your help. My people need the aid of you and your companions."

Turning to check that Isaac was still asleep, he found himself face to face with none other Isaac who was still in an attacking position. Before Isaac could move, the man ran to the only window in the small room and jumped out.

Isaac reminded still as he watched in shock. A tap on his shoulder made him turn to the one he'd been longing to speak with for a while.

"Mia!" he cried, hugging his friend. When he realized what he'd done, he pulled away quickly, though he didn't notice the disappointment in Mia's eyes. "Are you alright? Should you be standing up?"

"I'm fine," she answered cheerfully, "I don't know what that guy, Piers, did, but I feel amazing. You don't look it though. Is your arm ok? Have you been sleeping? It's just, there are huge bags under your eyes as well."

"Same old Mia. I'm fine and it's great that you are too. Still, I wonder what that guy wanted."

"I don't know. It may sound strange, but I didn't feel as though he was a stranger. He seemed oddly familiar. You think I'm mad, don't you?"

"Never." Isaac's voice was full of sincerity and as he held Mia's hand tightly, she felt comforted.

"Where are we anyway?"

"Somewhere called Daila. That Kraken threw us pretty far, and apparently quite hard. You've been out for a while." He looked deep into Mia's aquamarine eyes and his smile widened. She smiled back, her head tipping towards him slightly. Before he knew what he was doing, Isaac took a step back and shook his head as if trying to clear it. "Hey, it's late. Maybe we should rest up and talk again tomorrow with Ivan and Garet. I'm actually quite amazed that they found us considering Garet's sense of direction. Well, night then."

Mia looked rather shocked. For someone who barely spoke on their journey here, Isaac sure was babbling on. She felt rather disappointed again that he hadn't realized she wanted to stay up and talk, but decided she better not voice how she felt. At least not now.

"Night," she replied, slipping back under the cool sheets on her bed. While Isaac did the same.

Unable to think of anything else to say, Isaac turned his back on her and pretended to go to sleep. Though he wasn't in the least bit tired. He turned back and gazed at her sleeping form. Suddenly he realized something. This wasn't the same shy girl he'd first met in Imil that fateful day when the first lighthouse had been lit. She'd changed somehow. She was no longer a girl, but a young woman and this change was something he'd never noticed. When he looked at her beautiful face, something jumped inside of him and he felt as if he could look at her forever. A warm glow spread gently across his face and even in the virtually empty room, he felt self-conscience in front of her.

Is this love? He asked himself. Unsure of the answer, he closed his eyes for the last time and smiled slightly as he drifted to sleep, only to be plagued by the same dreadful dreams again.

Coughing, a young blonde girl crawled out from under a large pile of rubble. The cave that she'd slept in with her companions seemed like a good place to stay the previous night. None of them anticipated that it would collapse when the two men in the party had a fight.

The girl's clothes were torn and covered in dust, and the crystal rod she used as a weapon has smashed, littering the floor with glass. Aching all over, she tried to stand, but was too weak. Trying again, this time using her useless rod to lean on, she got to her feet and looked around. Everything had been destroyed. The walls had caved in and there didn't seem to be anyway out.

"Felix!" the solitary figure cried pitifully, her voice echoing in the silence, "Jenna!"

She was the only one left. Despite her powers growing to levels unknown to her before she'd been dragged into the journey, she hadn't seen this happening and couldn't stop her new friends from suffering a terrible fate. And now, she was all alone in a strange place.

Jumping at a loud noise behind her, the girl turned to see an older girl emerge out of the rubble. Her auburn hair was full of dust and stones, and her once beautiful red outfit was just as damaged. Grinning, they rushed to embrace each other.

"Jenna! You're ok!" the younger girl cried with joy.

"You too Sheba. Oh, I was so worried."

Being the only two girl prisoners of Saturos and Menardi, the two evil adepts that had snatched them away from their homes, they'd become friends in a short amount of time.

"Have you seen Felix?" Jenna asked, looking around hopefully.

"Oh Jenna, no I haven't, but I'll help you look for him. We will find him, don't worry."

Smiling gratefully, Jenna began moving rock with her psynergy with great determination. But some little voice deep down inside her kept saying that it was too late. He was gone like the rest of her family and once again, she was alone.

Sheba suddenly screamed and jumped away from the rocks she was shifting with Whirl Wind. Jenna grabbed her tightly and held her trembling friend as if they were family.

I suppose Sheba's the closest thing I have to a sister now, Jenna thought sadly.

"Sheba? What is it? What's wrong?"

All Sheba could do was point at something that stuck prominently out of a pile of large rocks. When she went to investigate, Jenna also cried out when she saw that it was a human hand. Terrifying thoughts ran through her head as she dropped onto her knees and began pulling the rocks away with her bare hands, desperate to see who it was. She kept clawing at rock after rock until her hands were raw and bloody and there was only one large boulder left blocking her view.

"Move!" she cried weakly, using the last of her wasted psynergy. Her eyes watered as dust rose from the floor and when it faded away, lying unmoving on the floor was...

"Kraden!" Coughing from the dust, Sheba crept closer to Jenna and knelt down with her next to the old scholar. Blood was streaming from a deep wound on his head and the rest of his frail body was covered with more cuts.

Pulling the folds of Kraden's cloak away from his neck, Jenna tried to find a pulse. She looked sadly at Sheba and slowly shook her head. Sheba made a small cry and began sobbing into her dirt smeared hands. Although she wasn't crying, Jenna felt torn up inside as she held the poor man's hand. One of her oldest friends was dead. She clenched her free hand and glared at the roof of the cavern.

"When will this stupid quest and the killing end?" she yelled into the darkness. Sheba flinched at this unknown side of Jenna, but felt exactly the same way.

Jenna carefully removed her long purple cloak that she'd worn since she was a child and wrapped it around Kraden's now cold body. Even if it wasn't much, she was glad that she could at least do something to show proper respect to him, which was something he'd been striving to teach her from a very early age.

Sheba got up and began pacing around, deep in thought.

"What are we supposed to do now? We're trap...argh!"

Sheba hadn't even finished her sentence when she tripped over something on the dark floor. Going to help her friend, Jenna suddenly realized that Sheba wasn't the only one groaning in pain. In the shadows, a barely visible figure lay nursing a wounded arm.

Jenna grabbed her own rod and gripped it tightly. Sheba, knowing that something was wrong, but completely defenceless, ducked behind Jenna and peaked at the strange person. Prepared to attack, Jenna raised the rod, when a familiar voice stopped her instantly.

"Jenna?"

"Who's that?" Jenna asked suspiciously, scared yet curious. She knew that voice, she was sure of it, but it couldn't be.

Getting up, the stranger limped out of the shadows, revealing that he wasn't such a stranger after all.

"Felix!" Jenna breathed, rushing to her brother and hugging him tightly.

"It's good to see you too, Jenna," the dark haired warrior said happily. He held her by her shoulders and looked her over carefully. Satisfied that she was indeed fine, he let go and grinned at Sheba. "You Ok?"

She nodded shyly, trying not to meet his gaze. After he'd saved her from an immediate death when she'd fallen from the aerie of the Venus Lighthouse, she found it rather awkward being the focus of his attention..

Something else had caught Felix's attention though as he looked over Sheba at the large bundle on the floor. He glanced at Jenna with a questioning look.

"It's Kraden," was his answer. Putting two and two together, he placed his hand on her shoulder in a comforting way and said, "He was a good man and lived a long, healthy life. At least he died doing what he loved."

The girls both wore sad faces as Felix used his Venus powers to raise a pile of dirt from out of the ground and placed his old teacher into it before covering him with soil. The makeshift funeral was cut short by a distant rumble that caused dust to fall from the roof onto the trio.

"We need to get out of here. Quick, hold onto me," Felix instructed the girls who rushed to his side.

"Wait! What about Alex?" asked Sheba, her compassionate nature showing concern for even those who didn't deserve it.

"He can handle it! Hang on tight!"

The rumbling grew louder and just as Felix used the almighty power of the Earth to invoke Retreat, a slab of rock fell and landed right where they had been seconds before.

Chapter Three done and dusted! I'm so proud!

Yami: I'm not!

I didn't ask you. God, there's always one muse that disagrees with every single thing you say isn't there?!

Isaac: Of course. It's in the contract.

Damn contract!

Leggy: It matters not my mistress. Let your loyal servant Legolas sooth your tense muscles with a nice back rub.

Oh Leggy. What would I do without you?

Isaac: And I have made you a cup of coffee.

Why Isaac, I didn't know you cared!

Isaac: Which you will get if you stop hurting Mia and me!

Blackmail, I should have known. Fine, no more pain! Happy now!

Yami: NO! It was the only good bit in you fics!

Leggy: I personally think the good bit is the romantic stuff.

Yami/Isaac: You are such a sad sap!

Leggy: Am not!

While they fight I must remind you that reviews are good things, not bad things so send as many as possible to make my writing go faster. Thank you, goodnight. Hey! Isaac! Stop pulling Leggy's hair! And Yami! Urm...Yami...put down the chainsaw! No! Yami stop it! Get away from the matches! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!