Well hello there. Its been a while. I know i didnt quite make it to a week, but i was just struck by inspiration. I had to get it out asap, Anyways, I want to thank you all again for all ur support and this chapter is dedicated to all of you. Hopefully it ends my story's little dry spell. Sorry to start it off with a flashback.

Brooke sat there a while, well aware of the fact that Ace was watching her like a hawk. She was devising a plan, one to go and retrieve her twin, but for that, she'd need a little help. Sure she was pretty strong, even by Soyan standards, but against Hiranu-Sama, she would look less than pathetic.

She then leaned over with her elbows to her knees, holding up her head by her mouth.

"Ace," She said into her hands, "I need your help." She looked up at him. "I know that you and Caliph don't get along very well, but I need you to help me save him."

Ace opened his mouth to speak, but Brooke kept on before he got a chance to.

"Before you answer, I don't want you to look at this as a favor to Caliph, but as one to me."

Ace continued to stare at her.

"You done?" He asked, giving Brooke's heart a sinking feeling as she nodded. "Good. Brooke, I may not like Caliph very much," he paused, "Actually I don't like him at all, but I would never want anything bad," he paused again, "anything TOO bad to happen to him. You didn't even have to ask."

Brooke smiled brightly and tried to stand up, but immediately went crashing down.

"Oh yea," she said as Ace quickly made his way to catch her. He then set her back on the couch.

"Before you do anything we need to wait for that spell to wear off."

Brooke grudgingly agreed with a slight nod.

Ace stared down at her as she restlessly began to fidget with her fingers. He quickly got down on his knees in front of her and placed his hands on top of hers.

"Brooke, you need to relax," he said looking her dead in the eyes. "You wont be able to do anything for Caliph without a level head."

Brooke stared up at him and nodded once again.

"You're right," she agreed, "I just gotta keep calm."

-Easier said than done- she thought glancing to the side.

"So what's the plan exactly?" Ace asked standing back up and turning around. As her attention was dragged back to him, it became evident that he was looking at the mess her living room had become.

Brooke sighed.

"I don't know."

Ace placed his fists on his hips and continued to stare away from her.

"Going to the Soyan main house might be a good start." He finally turned back around, "At the very least, it's better than just sitting around and waiting for him to turn up."

"I'd figured as much, but if Hiranu-sama has betrayed us, it's not going to be as easy as ringing the doorbell." Brooke responded.

Ace paused in thought for a second.

"So we just need a decent infiltration plan," he said, "We could just go with the direct approach, the guards of the main house have some of the Soyan's weakest magic. You and I could take 'em like that." he ended with a snap.

"But then we'd have to end it quickly," she said, "otherwise Hiranu-sama will come out and attack us himself. Then we're through."

Brooke noticed an indignant look on Ace's face.

"Underestimate yourself, fine." He said with a raised eyebrow, "but please refrain from underestimating me. Red is a darker color than yellow."

"And white is not." Brooke added, "So good luck." She'd forgotten that Ace hated underestimation even more than her, but she wasn't crazy. There was no way they could take him on, Ace had to know that too.

Ace then walked over to Brooke and moved his hand over her head. After about a second or two, his hand and her head both began to glow red. Her eyes widened in shock.

"Ace," she asked a little panicked, "What are you doing?"

"Shh," he said with a look of concentration on his face, "he used some kind of paralysis spell on you, so I'm trying to counter it."

Brooke remained silent as her eyes fell on his bright red shirt.

"What I don't understand is why his spell hit your head, and effected your legs." He said quietly.

Brooke lowered her eyes as that realization finally processed. He was right, it didn't make any sense. What was really going on in the Soyan main house?

Brooke peeled her eyes open and felt as though it had made no difference. She found herself surrounded in darkness. Suddenly her heart plunged into a state of panic.

Oh no! she thought in dread, I'm blind.

Another realization then came to her mind. She couldn't hear anything either.

She sat bolt right up and went crashing back down as her head impacted into something hard and solid.

What the- she thought as she fell back down with a splashing thud. Exactly where was she?

She felt around to assess her situation. Apparently she was in some kind of a coffin like box halfway filled with water. She then felt over her body and to both her relief and frustration, she was fully clothed. But what was she doing there? What had happened? Has she been taken hostage by those kids? Last thing she remembered…was the showdown. Suddenly panic settled in her heart again. She'd used her magic and passed out…again. But she'd won the showdown, was that really important at this point? What had happened to the things she'd had in her hands? What about that Raimundo boy? The last thing she'd remembered before blacking out was…falling…

She suddenly gasped.

Was she dead? Was she in limbo? Or worse! Was she in hell?

Can't…breathe…

Brooke had started hyperventilating when the little box she was in suddenly began to rumble. Light came flooding in when the lid was removed. Reflexively Brooke threw up her hands to shield her currently hypersensitive eyes, splashing up water as she did so.

So maybe heaven…

As her eyes slowly became adjusted to the light, she removed her hands from in front of her face. She placed them at her side and used them as support to sit herself up. Water slid off her as she did so and she finally looked around. Chase was standing over her, looking down with no readable expression on his face. Had he done this to her?

"Chase," she uttered while looking up at him. She was overwhelmed by a variety of emotions. Anger, relief, fear, happiness, but one reigned over them all; confusion. "What's going on here? Why am I sitting in a box of water?" She tugged at her flimsy, soaked sun top. "Fully clothed?"

"I could have put you in there fully naked," Chase said folding his arms.

Brooke's cheeks suddenly began to burn as he'd spoken that last sentence.

"Why did you put me in here at all!" She snapped, drawing the conversation, and thoughts, away from her naked body.

"It's just a healing technique," he said holding out a helping hand. Brooke stared at his hand for a second in shock. For a supposedly evil mastermind, he always seemed polite. He was definitely not your average evil mastermind.

"Water is the element of life..." she said in comprehension more to herself than Chase. "So I guess you deserve a thank you, rather than the smack that I want to give you?" Brooke asked while taking his hand.

Chase smirked and pulled Brooke out of her wet container. She was soaking and water poured off of her as she stood up. Shaking each of her legs off one by one as she stepped out of the box, she finally looked around to take in her environment.

She and Chase were standing on a large parch of grass with a randomly located tree and pond off towards the right. The walls were solid white and the ceiling seemed to be a window, showing off the bright and sunny day that there was. The only thing throwing off the room's décor was the wooden box Brooke had just stepped out of. (I know I have a room like this in my other chase story too, but it's all the same place right?)

Brooke realized that her mouth was hanging open and quickly snapped it shut.

"This room is-"

"It's my mediation garden," he said, cutting her off. "I come here to be away from the world's idiocy."

"But the sky around your lair looks nothing like-"

Chase pulled out a control from behind his back and clicked the sole button on it. The room was immediately submerged in darkness as the sunny sky above turned to the night sky, speckled with flickering stars.

"Right." Brooke said, and suddenly began to shiver as goose bumps now covered her arms. "It's a nice room."

Chase glanced over at her and noticed how cold she looked. He reached inside his armor(u gotta love that cartoon magic) and pulled out her overshirt.

Brooke looked up in surprise as he draped the article of clothing over her shoulders. Her cheeks flushed for the second time since she'd been awake(a grand total of five minutes) as Chase left his hands on her shoulders.

"Come," he said, gently guiding her towards the door on the left, "let's get you dried off.

Chase's P.O.V.

All Chase really had to do was clap to dry her off, and so he did. After he had led her out of his garden, he took her to her room where he dried her off with a little bit of that Heylin magic.

"There," he said, swiping his hands against each other, "Good as new."

He watched as Brooke put her overshirt back on.

Phase two of his plan had gone off without a hitch. He had captured the Dragon of wind and obtained the shen gong wu. Everything was in perfect order. Now he just had to sit back and wait for phase three to let itself unravel.

Once she was done, Brooke looked up at Chase and Chase stared back.

"How long was I out?" She asked pulling a loose strand of her shoulder length onyx hair behind her ear.

Chase stood there with his hands behind his back.

"Only six hours." He answered.

"Six hours…" Brooke mumbled to herself, "So it's about one, one thirty in the morning right now?" She stated more than asked.

"About." Chase confirmed.

She had a look of though on her face as her eyes lowered, then she suddenly looked back up at Chase again.

"Thank you," she said sticking out her hand, "For everything."

Chase peered down at her hand for a second before he'd completely registered what she was doing.

No! he thought, My plan. I can't let her leave yet.

With both of his hands he grabbed her one and placed it back at her side.

"I assure you," he spoke, keeping his calm disposition, "the pleasure has been all mine. But are you sure your wounds have healed enough? If your brother were to return, would you be able to defend yourself?"

Brooke stared at the man standing less than a foot away from her, the expression on her face was one of shock with a hint of suspicion and skepticism, and the look of thought she had been wearing earlier returned to her face.

"I could be in the best shape of my life and it still wouldn't be enough to defeat my brother," she remarked sadly, looking down. Chase noted that she had thrust herself back into thought and took the opportunity to do some thinking himself.

Obviously he hadn't injured her enough…so now what? He could always make her stay, but then the rest of his plan would probably crumble. Chase stared at the pained expression on her face and felt the slightest tinge of sympathy for this girl. He mentally sighed as he figured out what he had to do.

Taking her chin between his fingers, Chase gently lifted Brooke's head up and took one step forward, so that their bodies were as close as they could possibly be without actually touching, and their faces mere inches apart.

"Somehow," Chase said, pulling her lips a little closer to his own, "I doubt that."

Time seemed to have been set to slow mo as Chase finally closed the gap between their mouths and pressed his lips firmly against hers. Brooke's eyes went wide, but she made no attempt in resisting as Chase pulled her body against his own and wrapped his free hand around her waist, locking her within the kiss.

CUT! Oh my, what WILL happen? Hehe, well that's all she rote for this section peeps. Thank my sis for telling me to bring the romance. Well, until next time…I'm out.