It was the third day of searching, and the six of them were two-thirds of the way done with their section. They were taking one of the hourly breaks, and were stretched out their with their heads in the middle of an improvised circle and talking idly, when two Humans approached them. One was a man with short blond hair who was smoking; the other was a woman with long, blue hair and not much of a shirt.

They heard them coming, and stood up out of politeness.

None of the party of six really wanted to make the first move, so they left it to the newcomers.

"Hello," said the woman. "I am Mary and this is my associate Jake. We're looking for Cadis Etrama Di Raizel. Have you seen him?"

Shinwoo scratched his head. "I think he's inside. I'd go around front and try knocking on the door."

Jake smiled. "Well, the thing is, we already tried that and no one answered. Is there any way you could let us in the back?"

"Sorry," said Ikhan, "we don't have a key."

"We just need to leave him a package. Our instructions were to leave it in his house, if he wasn't home. Are you sure you don't have a key?"

"Yeah, I'm sure," Ikhan said.

The man, Jake, suddenly became a lot less friendly. "Well, see, here's the thing: we've been watching the house for awhile; we saw the two of them leave, and then we saw the six of you leave the house. We snuck over and tried the door and, wouldn't you know? It was locked."

He grabbed Ikhan by the collar of his shirt and dragged him forward. "So then, buddy, you sure you don't have a key?"

Ikhan was huffing at the indignity of the situation. "We can lock the door, but we can't unlock it," he said.

Jake looked doubtful. "Really? Sounds very unlikely to me. So, here's what I'm going to offer you: unlock the door and we'll let you live. Don't, and you're alligator food."

Ikhan glared at him. "You're not going to hurt a kid."

Jake threw him in the lake before he could say another word. Ikhan vanished below the surface and didn't reappear. A few alligators swam curiously towards where he'd entered the water.

The other five kids were looking angry, but their weapons were still on the ground.

Jake started walking forward, thinking to back them against the lake. Before he knew what was happening, however, the five of them were gone into the water, presumably to rescue their friend.

Mary started to go after them, but Jake held out an arm to stop her. "They'll have to come out eventually," he said.

"Well, certainly," said a voice from behind them.

"It's not like they can breathe underwater," said a second voice.

The two of them turned around, to see three figures before them. A gray-haired man stood in the middle of a trio. On either side of him stood a Balrog. They couldn't tell which two had spoken, as they weren't speaking anymore, but in truth it was of little matter.

Jake and Mary were not able to hang around after that.

Once the two strangers were gone, the trio was uncertain of what to do next.

"Well, the kids are in the lake," said M-21, morphing back to from Werewolf to Human form. "And who knows when they'll come back out..."

It was, in fact, six hours before the anyone left the lake. The five residents of the mansion were sitting out on the back lawn. Tao and Takeo were standing near the water, so as to let anyone beneath the surface see their glowing forms.

It was Takeo whom they singled out. "Psst!"

Takeo turned. Seira was holding her head above the water, but looked ready to duck back under at a moment's notice.

"Are the intruders still here?" she asked in a whisper.

Takeo shook his head. "They're gone," he informed the archer.

Seira looked relieved, and she rose further out of the water, making sure the Balrog spoke the truth, before sticking her hand back under the surface to gesture at her companions.

A few minutes later, after everyone had cleared the water from their lungs, the six adolescents made their way onshore. Ikhan made to start healing people, but Regis stayed his hand. "I can do that," he offered. "My mana reserves are still fairly full,"

Ikhan nodded gratefully, and sank down on the grass.

Shinwoo was the first person Regis healed, because the swordsman had something to discuss with their employers.

He strode towards M-21, who looked up at his approach. Shinwoo reached into his pocket and pulled out a silver cross on a chain. "Well, we found it," he said. "It was in the section we would have searched tomorrow."

Indeed, Seira, whom Regis had healed next, was already gathering up the ropes and stakes they'd used to make the grid.

M-21 took the cross and handed it over to Frankenstein, who cleaned it off with a cloth. He then presented it to his Raizel, who put it on.

"Thank you," Raizel said.

The party didn't really hear him. Seira and Regis were the only ones who didn't look exhausted, and they were supporting Ikhan between them. He'd acted a a focus of power for the water amulets for a good seven hours that day, five of them consecutive. He was wiped out. The rest of them had merely had to power their own amulets, but that still took a lot of energy.

Frankenstein noticed their fatigue and spoke.

"Why don't we head back to the house? I've got some food left from dinner, if you're hungry."

The party of them went instead back to their chosen room, followed by their hosts.

"You're all sleeping in the same room?" asked Frankenstein, surprised.

Regis regarded him. "Safety in numbers," he said.

"Ah."

Ikhan was placed on the bed, and the other three Humans reclined on their sleeping bags, not wanting to stand up, but still wanting to listen to the the conversation.

"We didn't have much of a chance to speak with them," said Tao and Takeo. "We heard when someone jumped in the lake, and came out to see what was happening, since there was nothing else to do."

Regis decided he should explain the situation, so he did, recalling the exact dialogue and actions that had occurred.

"You found a way to lock the door from the outside?"

"Ikhan did, yes."

"Was Yuna's idea," muttered the Human mage from the bed.

"After that, we set up a sanctuary in an underwater cave and stayed there for the rest of the day. Seira scouted out the perimeter of the lake every hour, and came across your cross while doing so.

"We didn't know who those people were or how much power they wielded, so we thought a strategic retreat would be best, under the circumstances. We were going to sneak out under cover of darkness and give M-21 the cross the next time we saw him, but we saw you during our last scouting trip before leaving, so we thought we'd save him a trip."

Now that the essentials were taken care of, the Humans were losing interest. "If that's all, I think we'll be retiring for the night." Regis said.

The others quickly got the hint and left.

The five of residents of the house then convened in the living room.

Tao whistled. "They really did it," he said. "They got Rai's earring back out of the lake. You know what this means? This means we can fight again!"

"We could always fight, Tao," pointed out M-21.

"You know what I mean, '21. We've got our general back! One who can lead us into war! We can finally defend ourselves against the Union..."

"Indeed," said Frankenstein. "The enchantments which warded the lake prevented us from entering, but you managed to choose some rather competent proxies, M-21."

"If only I could get them to stop calling me 'grandpa' life would be perfect," the Werewolf grinned.

The five of them schemed late into the night, while the six adolescents slept on, unaware of what powers they'd helped unchain.