After many millenias, I, Oracle of Elements, have gotten off my lazy backside and I'm finally updating this story. It has been so long, but I'm doing it. By the way, we have to be quiet as Jenna and Tiamet are sleeping. I managed to drug their drinks so I could get some me time.

Can I just say that I am displeased with the new way to respond to reviews! Why does have to make everything so needlessly complicated?

Disclaimer: I don't own Golden Sun so there!

Now, on with the show!

Golden Sun: Critical Hit

Chapter Five: A Whole New World

Lingering images of his parents and friends remained fresh in his mind as Isaac slowly woke up, but they were accompanied by strange memories of a journey and feelings of loss. He frowned at the sky when he heard birds singing around him and felt a light breeze rushing over his face.

'Wasn't I in that club' he thought to himself. 'How'd I get outside?'

He sat up, rubbing his head and looked around.

"My hair! What happened to it?"

"Calm down, it looks fine. Blue suits you. Honestly. And it's not like you don't change your hair colour all the time anyway. It was bound to end up blue some time or other."

Two girls were arguing to his left, the ones who were supposed to have met the band after the performance if the VIP passes around their necks were anything to go by.

Behind them was Ivan who was trying to calm down both of the girls since their shouting match had become rather loud, as well as the mysterious man that he'd heard Jenna call Piers who looked extremely happy.

Isaac suddenly noticed that not only were they outside, they were in the middle of a dense forest and were completely surrounded on all sides by trees and other foliage.

"Whoa, where are we?" he groaned, getting to his feet and staggering over to his friend, Piers and the two strange girls. "And where are the others?"

Everyone looked up at him and after the blonde girl and the blue haired girl had stopped squealing in excitement at seeing the famous singer finally wake up, Ivan spoke.

"We're not quite sure about the where bit. Piers wouldn't tell us until you were awake as well. The others seemed to have taken off. They weren't here when I woke up."

"Let us just hope that they haven't found themselves in trouble. This area can get particularly dangerous, but it's nothing any of us can't handle," Piers said with a nod before he indicated for everyone to sit down with him in a small circle so he could properly explain.

After a few more excited giggles, the two girls walked over together and stood in front of the singers in awe.

"Hi! I'm Sheba!" the shorter blonde said, sticking out a quivering hand, which Ivan took in his own and shook warmly as he watched her with a bemused grin.

"Well, hello. I'm…"

"Oh! You don't need to introduce yourself!" Sheba interrupted with a sharp intake of air in order to prepare herself for what she was about to say. "You're Ivan, the bass guitarist of the band Critical Hit as well as one of the singers. You were born on the east coast and moved inland to go to a music school where you studied The History of Music and Modern Music before you joined a school band with Isaac and Garet. Once the band took off Felix, an old friend of Isaac's, joined as well and you're music became famous. I've been listening to your music since you released your first single and have loved every single song!"

Rather scared, Ivan stood with his mouth open while Isaac was leaning heavily on his friend, trying his hardest to stop laughing and to stay on his feet since the whole speech was hilariously funny to him.

Stepping forward, the second girl smiled apologetically and said, "I'm very sorry about her. She gets a little too excited at times. My name is Mia. It's very nice to meet you."

Isaac shook the blue-haired girl's hand and took a strand of her oddly coloured hair between two of his fingers and twirled it around.

"I like your hair," he said with a cool grin.

Mia blushed a deep red and stared up at Isaac in embarrassment.

"It's not my normal colour I assure you!"

An annoyed coughing noise drew their attention away from each other as Piers stared at them impatiently so the small group finally sat down to listen to what Piers had to say.

"I do not wish to alarm any of you, but we are no longer in your world."

"Yeah, right. And I have secret super powers that I use to fight the forces of evil," said Sheba, giggling to herself.

"Actually, you're not far from being wrong," replied Piers with a smile, which made Sheba giggle again, but this time with a hint of uncertainty. "What I'm about to tell you is incredibly important, so I'd advise you to listen carefully. Whether you believe me or not is up to you, but I assure you it's all true."

By then, Isaac, Ivan, Mia and Sheba were glancing at each other in confusion and slight fear since Piers seemed deadly serious. Whatever he had to say must be really major.

"The place where we are sitting right now is a small forest on the outskirts of a ruined city named Vale in the world of Weyard. Legends say that many, many years ago a significant event happened that involved eight young teens and a power that was released back into the world. These eight had skills that granted them the ability to overcome any enemy, any trap and any danger. They could tap into the very elements themselves and command them to do their bidding. Using these abilities they fought a force of great evil who wanted to take over this world. The eight beat him and the evil was locked away within the centre of a mountain, Mount Aleph, which crumbled along with him. The eight could finally lay down their weapons and live their lives without putting themselves in any more danger.

"Of course, this happened a long time ago," Piers explained, his eyes focused on the ground by his feet as he remembered those legendary events. "So the heroes are gone now, except for one. That is why I need you. That is why I brought you here. I need your help because the past is repeating itself and I need the help of some of my oldest friends in order to lock away another evil force. My name is Piers of Lemuria, one of those eight heroes, as are the four of you."

A long period of silence followed Piers' story. No one even dared to breathe as they took in every word that had been said to them.

Finally, Ivan began to laugh.

"You have to stay off the booze, mate. If you really expect us to believe that load of rubbish you've got another thing coming."

The blonde boy continued to laugh as he stood up and began to walk away from the group who watched him uncertainly.

A swirl of liquid blue right in front of him stopped Ivan in his tracks as a column of shimmering water appeared and curved around him as if to trap him.

"What on earth?" Ivan cried, jumping back out of fear before turning to look at Piers who had a smirk on his face and a hand stretched out in the direction of the water as if he was controlling it.

"Exactly. This isn't earth anymore, Ivan. This is Weyard where most things are possible," the older man explained, lazily lowering his hand, which caused the water to slowly sink into the ground and disappear in a mass of bubbles and soggy pops. "Please understand. I am not lying to you."

Deciding that he had no other choice, Piers stood up as well and walked towards the frightened boy who backed away slightly. Slowly, he bent down so that their eyes were level.

"Tell me, Ivan, do you ever feel as though you can almost read people's minds? As if you know what others are thinking? Or do you enjoy being outside when the wind blows its hardest and your hair is whipped around by it? Does it ever seem as if lightning is always in the sky when you're upset or angry?"

Now very startled, Ivan's violet eyes were wide with terror as he stared into the endless golden orbs that were Piers' eyes.

"How did you know that?" he whispered tentatively.

"I told you. We were friends a long time ago and I'm not one to forget friends like you," replied Piers with a friendly smile before he gently wrapped an arm around Ivan's shoulder and led him back to the group who were now all standing as well. "Now, does anyone have any questions?"

"I have one," said Sheba as she put her hand up into the air as if she was answering a teacher. "Do we all get cool powers like that?"

Laughing heartily, Piers nodded and said, with true happiness in his voice for the first time in a while, "Welcome home, my friends."

Thanks to Garet's amazingly bad sense of direction, he found himself even deeper in the maze of trees with an already shivering Jenna sitting next to him.

They'd been walking for ages and still hadn't found their way out of the woods and had only succeeded in getting themselves lost, therefore, they'd decided to stop to give themselves sometime to think and come up with a new plan.

In front of them was a small pile of collected branches that they hoped they could use to make a fire since despite it being the middle of a sunny day, this area of the woods seemed unnaturally cold as if a blanket of icy air had descended down upon them.

Garet was desperately rubbing two of the long twigs against each other in an attempt to create a flame to warm them up, but his efforts were in vain as nothing seemed to be happening. Angry and tired from walking, he wearily flung the pieces of wood back onto the pile and sighed loudly.

"This is great! No fire, no idea where we are and no chance of finding our way back to the others!" he cried into the silence that surrounded them.

"I knew we shouldn't have left them," Jenna murmured as she leaned heavily against his shoulder, straining to keep her eyelids from closing.

Grumbling quietly, Garet grabbed another two twigs and started to rub them together instead.

"It's a shame we don't have a lighter or even a box of matches," he complained, pausing for a moment to study the sticks in his hands. "Then I could get this wood going in an instant."

He snapped his fingers to emphasise how quick he meant and was astonished when a small flame jumped from the tip of his index finger and set one of the twigs on fire. Unable to say anything, he quickly placed the lit bit of wood onto the pile by his feet and watched as the fire grew, eating at the sticks hungrily. It didn't provide much warmth, but it would do.

Looking up slightly, not realising what had happened, Jenna smiled sleepily as said, "Well done. You got the fire burning."

All Garet could do was nod in confusion before something suddenly occurred to him.

"Hey, you know when Piers did whatever it was he did after we were at the restaurant?"

"Yeah, you said something about him needing our help. What about it?"

"Well, I think we used to be friends with him. You know, me, you, Isaac, Felix and Ivan. It's just, after seeing him I've been having such strange dreams. It's as if I'm remember a life I used to live and that I…we were part of something important and now we're here in a strange place where even stranger things are happening," he said, referring to his new found ability to create fire. "I don't think any of this happened by coincidence."

As she wasn't really listening, Jenna nodded her head in agreement before she curled up into a ball, still leaning against Garet, and said, "That's nice. Can we talk about it tomorrow? I'm sooo sleepy."

Knowing that the conversation wasn't going to go any further, Garet let himself fall backwards onto the grassy ground behind him and stared upwards at the clear azure sky as Jenna snuggled into his side. He would have joined her in the innocent cuddle if his mind hadn't been on other things. Something was going on and he knew those he held close to him were in the very centre of it.

Very slowly, he closed his eyes and let his weariness take over.

Forcing his way through the barrage of plants, leaves and low hanging branches in the strange forest, Felix finally made his way out into the outside world, but it wasn't what he expected.

Instead of the usual group of tall brick buildings and houses accompanied by cement pavement that would normally be seen even when out in the country, all he could see was more trees, more plants and even more grass. There was a nearby town, but the houses were so different. They were wooden and had thatched roofs as if they'd come straight out of the very distant past.

Curious and in need of somewhere to rest since he'd been bitten by a strange little creature that resembled a blue mouse and was carrying a stick of all things, he headed towards the small village. As he approached it, he was very aware that there was a large area of wilderness behind it that almost, but not completely, covered a mountain that seemed to have collapsed on itself and taken out another town with it.

"What a weird place," he muttered to himself, tying his black denim jacket around his waist since the heat of the sun on his back was making him feel uncomfortably warm.

He passed under a wooden arch that curved over his head and stared rather blankly at the sign that hung from it for visitors to see. It stated, in delicately carved letters, 'Welcome to New Vale'.

Wondering why it was new, he made his way in and passed several people who were talking, walking and shopping in a small market space like normal people would in a market, but they were wearing strange clothes that matched the old style of the buildings. The woman wore long dresses of various colours with white aprons tied around their waists, shawls around their shoulders and they seemed to be carrying baskets that contained their shopping. The men wore dark coloured trousers with white shirts and were rather dirty looking from manual labour, which showed from their muscular bodies and tanned skin.

There were many stalls that were selling all sorts of different food, clothing, what looked like herbs and potion bottles, as well as a few actual shops selling weapons and battle armour.

Almost as soon as he entered the place, Felix felt as if he'd been here before, like a long forgotten memory, although he was positive that he'd never seen such an odd town before. He continued forward, very aware that he was being watched by the many people since his own clothes didn't exactly match theirs, and found himself drawn along a certain path. This path took him up a set of dirt steps that were set into a hill, through a bunch of houses built rather close together and towards the area at the back where the mountain used to stand.

By what looked like the entrance to the old destroyed town that stood at the base of the equally demolished mountain was a line of stone statues in the shape of eight different people. Each of the eight statues had something placed at the foot of them and, as Felix approached them, he discovered that they were eight different weapons ranging from long swords and axes to wooden staffs and metallic rods.

He curiously studied each of the faces and was extremely surprised when he recognised half of them. One statue resembled Isaac, another was of Jenna, and he could also see one of Ivan, Garet and even himself. The remaining statues were of two girls he'd seen before, lying asleep on the ground when he'd woken up in the forest and the final one was of the mysterious and now very suspicious man named Piers.

"They're magnificent, aren't they?" someone suddenly asked.

Felix span around in shock, his hand instantly reaching down to his side as he was about to draw a sword or something, but as his hand clamped down on nothing but air he wondered to himself what made him do that. He was facing an elderly man with a wrinkled face and bald head who was leaning heavily on a long walking stick and wearing long, dark brown robes that covered even his feet.

"Urm…yeah," Felix agreed, unsure of what to do.

"The eight heroes of legend. They saved the whole of Weyard, you know. Although they lived so long ago we still remember their heroics as if the Alchemy incident happened yesterday, but anyway. What are you doing up here by yourself and so poorly equipped? You're not from around here, are you?"

Felix simply couldn't understand what this man was talking about. Weyard? Alchemy? Eight heroes? None of it made sense. Ignoring the man's question, he asked, "Is there anywhere where I can stay? Like a hotel?"

"Yes, there is an inn near the market place. But it would be better if you stayed with me," the man answered with a swift nod before he started making his way back towards town. "Follow me."

Together, the two wound their way back through the houses and toward the old man's house. Although Felix found the invitation rather strange he wasn't about to pass up a place to stay since he wasn't even sure if his money would be accepted in this backward town.

"What happened to the old town that was up there?" Felix found himself asking; curious about how an entire mountain could come crashing down onto it like that.

"Hmmm? Oh, you mean Vale. It was destroyed when the Golden Sun rose and Mount Aleph was almost sucked into the ground," the old man answered, glancing back at Felix before he carried on towards his house, which seemed to be on the outskirts of New Vale.

Again, Felix was confused by the old man's words as he didn't see how the sun could possible make a huge mountain crumble.

As if he sensed Felix's uncertainty, the old man stopped just as they reached his house and turned to study the young brunette.

"You really aren't from around here if you don't even know about the Golden Sun," he said, then placed a hand on the handle of the front door, twisted it and walked into the primitive house.

Felix followed, shaking his head in answer to the question.

"I really don't think I am. Where am I?"

Suddenly, the musician heard what he thought was the word 'Sleep', and then a wave of drowsiness hit him hard straight in the face and he practically fell backwards in a very deep sleep.

Luckily, the old man, who was much faster than he appeared, jumped behind him and caught the falling teen. He placed Felix, who was still lightly covered by a layer of psynergy that had forced him into an unnatural sleep, on the bed in a spare bedroom at the back of the house before he started to remove his robes. Surprisingly, underneath was the body of young, athletic man as well as jeans and a casual white shirt, something that wouldn't be worn by the people in this town, but would be worn by Felix or one of the other boys.

Tossing his walking stick to one side, the man stood up straight and rummaged around in the chest of drawers that was also in the small bedroom. He finally found what he was looking for, a tiny bottle made of blue glass that was about half full of liquid, and downed the contents in one gulp.

Slowly, as he silently thanked the potion seller who he'd bought the bottle from, his face began to change and turned from an old man into the face of a handsome young man. The man now had long silvery blonde hair that was held back in a low ponytail with a blue bandana wrapped around his head.

Laughing escaped the man's mouth as he watched Felix breathe slowly on the bed.

"Welcome to Weyard, Felix," he chuckled. "You're in the clutches of Eric Newman now and there is definitely no escape!"

Dun Dun Dunnnnnnnnnnn! Ohh! Cliffhanger!

Read and review or I'll be forced to wake up my muses and you won't like them before they've had their coffee!