The next day was the Festival of the Guardians. Werner and Elliot walked together to the secret room, where the party was to be held. When they arrived, both men became wide eyed. Everywhere, on the walls, the table, and even the tree, were pictures from Duran's porno collection. The cookies, although shaped and sized correctly seemed to be colored in puke green. And there was the worst looking drink in the center of the table. It seemed to be punch, if you made it in green and threw a whole cactus inside.

"This is weird," Elliot stated, "I mean, I love cactus juice as much as the next person, but it is not an ingredient in punch. I wonder though, did Malik bother to make it with alcohol?" He walked over, and took a drink. With his sensitive tongue, Elliot deduced that nothing of the sort had been added. But there was a fair amount of mint ice cream mixed in with the cactus juice. It was so putrid, that Elliot spit it right out.

Werner went over to try a cookie. Afterwards, he figured out why Melody was guzzling Listerine the day before. Those things were just too horrid to describe in words. Figuring the drink wasn't any worse, he washed the taste of cookie out of his mouth. Which only made him want to run right to the bathroom and follow his female comrade's example. The man did just that, and returned almost immediately to the room.

"Those two don't know the first thing about cooking. Duran doesn't know the first thing about what decorations to use for the holidays. And Leehalt probably did nothing to stop him either. Or he gave up trying to get Duran to listen to reason. Raftina this is a disaster," muttered Pete as he walked into the room. He spied the decorations, as well as Werner and Elliot half messed up over the taste of the food.

Suddenly, a camera went off. There in the door was Leehalt. He had taken one of Werner, hoping that putting him in a room filled with pornographic pictures. Werner, in an extremely frustrated voice, asked, "Leehalt, what is going on? Weren't you helping Duran with the decorations? So why is it like this? I would assume you to be the voice of reason in that group, seeing as you always chide Duran on his obsessions."

Leehalt stared down his rival, and laughed. "Don't you see? Now you are on camera in a room of nude women. All I have to do is show this picture to Ekatrina, and she will leave you. Then, I can marry her. Oh, and hopefully you'll take the brat, I certainly don't need the stress of raising your offspring."

"That is the dumbest theory I ever heard," Elliot retorted, "First of all, I'd think Ekatrina wouldn't be so shallow as to leave Werner without him giving a chance to explain. Second, Duran was the one who did this, so he could always just tell the truth about holiday decorations. She knows he's a pervert, since he hit on her about ten times between when she and Werner first went out and the day they got married. Third, well you're the biggest moron in the history of the world." Ok, so that wasn't a very mature example, but this war between the three men always reached childish levels. Werner not so much as Elliot and Leehalt.

"Oh, I like ze decorationz. Zey reflect ze perfect human body. Bezidez, zey vere ze only holiday decorationz I had lying around," explained Duran as he entered the room. He saw Leehalt with the camera, and knew the man had reached an all time low. Duran may have crushed on many a girl in the past, but he always let them be once he knew that it was impossible. That's why he never hit on Ekatrina after she and Werner got married. He knew she was off the playing field and it would be better to just find someone else.

Suddenly, Malik and Melody ran into the room in a panic. The female scientist exclaimed, "There's a problem! The Silver Tiger has broken out of the cylinder, and is wreaking havoc on the laboratory! If this keeps up, all of my makeup will be ruined! So stop it right away!" She sounded upset, as if you couldn't buy makeup in one of the many stores on Filgaia. But remember, this is Melody we're talking about here.

Werner and Elliot ran into the other room. There, they saw the beast trying to escape via the secret door. Grabbing his Duel Pistols, Werner fired off two shots. Elliot then used his Submachine Gun in order to hit it again. But the monster didn't die from that. Instead, it charged the two men, ran past, and into the party room. Panicking over the others in danger, both of the scientists ran for the room at their top speed.

Inside, Leehalt threw the entire punch bowl at the Silver Tiger, mad after it destroyed the camera with the incriminating evidence against Werner on it. Although it didn't kill the beast, he did succeed in getting rid of the awful Mint Chocolate Covered Cactus Punch. Malik began freaking out. "Hey! I worked all day making that! You know how hard it is to think of a good punch when we ran out of fruit just last week."

"Well, then tell Maxwell to buy you some more," demanded Leehalt, "He's the errand boy since he has that Teleport Orb. Besides, it was either him or us, and you don't want it to be us. So stop acting like the Mama's Boy you always are and fight!" His temper over the loss of his plan was flaring up considerably. Also, he was mad that Werner and Elliot had "run off and left the others to deal with the problem right here."

"How dare you insult Mama! Next time you say something like that, I will personally beat you up for saying such mean things about her!" Malik yelled back. It was almost as childish an argument as one of the daily Leehalt and Werner and/or Elliot and/or Jet fights. Sadly, only Jet had the right to be childish.

At that minute, Elliot and Werner returned. They got the Silver Tiger's attention by firing at it once more. But that wasn't enough to stop the monster, and it charged. All three ARMs were knocked from the hands of their users, landing just far enough away so they couldn't retrieve them. Then, the beast began to howl like a victorious animal, and move in closer to the two men. It raised its paw, ready for the kill.

Suddenly, a beam of energy shot through the room, and sliced the monster straight through the heart. When they talked about it later, the seven all agreed that it was a beam of light. Pete said it was close to the Arcana spell Specter, but something about it was different. He couldn't tell them what though, only that it could very well be from a long forgotten tribe loyal to the Guardians. The Baskar informed them of a sister tribe to the his own that died out during the last Demon Invasion of a millennia ago. However, no one knew if anyone of that tribe survived to carry on the blood. And no one there saw who the caster was.

But in the shadows of the door, was a woman with long blond hair and green eyes. She wore a red dress, and her right hand was outstretched as if she'd cast a spell. Her left hand held a board with runes for the casting of such spells inscripted on it. Next to her was a small child of about five that bore resemblance to Werner. The little girl wore a white blouse and orchid skirt, with a yellow headband in her long hair. She looked up to the woman, and asked, "Mommy, is that how real magic looks? Did we do good here? Will Daddy and the others be safe now? I hope so, I don't want him to never come back home after this."

Her mother smiled, and picked the child up in her arms. "It will be ok Virginia. I could never allow something to happen to Werner, he's the most important adult in my life. Even if it means I must fight, I so hate to get violent. And I hate to kill other living beings, be they men or beast. Remember Ginny, meaningless violence solves nothing, but sometimes you need to fight in order to protect those you love. So, wasn't that a nice surprise, going to see Daddy on the Festival? And you received your first lesson on your new Crestboard. But now that the monster is dead, we have to go. After all, it will do us no good to be seen as witches and killed." The woman, now confirmed as Werner's beloved Ekatrina, walked away with Virginia still in her arms. But she did take one look back, and smiled at the man she loved the most.

Back in the other room, the team took inventory. Leehalt, as stated before, had broken the punch bowl and spilt all of the Mint Chocolate Covered Cactus Punch. The decorations were all ripped down by either the Silver Tiger, or a stray shot from the three ARMs that had gone off after they'd hit the ground. All of the cookies were strewn about and dirty - - both Werner and Melody stated that nobody missed much on that one. Finally, the Festival Tree had fallen over the side, and got tangled in the machinery that lay below.

"This is a disaster!" exclaimed Elliot, "All I wanted was to have a nice celebration with everyone, so we can make up for not being able to go home. What did Werner and I get? Inedible food and drink, porno on the walls and tree, and a monster destroying what we would have been able to salvage somehow."

"Elliot! Don't despair just yet. Remember, we still have the cookies that your mother baked and gave to us when we dropped off Jet. And you have about five casks filled with that sangria you got for your birthday. We can still make the most of this day, and get off early enough to see our friends and families. After all, with the tiger dead there's no more need for us to stay here to watch over it. It's not like a slain beast can get up and walk away, we can study its genetic makeup when we come back," Werner stated.

So they returned to Elliot's room, and got the necessary food and drink. Then, the team toasted to another years work of studying how to rejuvenate the planet. Finally, it was time to exchange gifts. Elliot got six different types of wine, Melody got assorted cosmetics, and Duran received six porno magazines that he had never heard of. Malik was given some hair gel, a new scarf, a book of necromancy - - from the ever observant Pete - - a winter hat, some cactus juice, and a porno - - guess who sent that. Pete found himself stuck with six varieties of cactus, while Leehalt ended up with wacko things from a punk store - - a joke Elliot and Jet had arranged some months back. Werner was happy for the most part. He had been given a nice photo frame from Elliot - - to put a picture of his family in - - along with a new floppy hat and coat set, expensive pens, a book of tips on how to make your wife beautiful - - from Melody, but he tossed it before returning home least Ekatrina see that - - a dirty magazine - - from Duran which followed Melody's gift into the dumpster - - and nothing - - give ya three guesses as to who that was from, first two don't count.

When the last crumb had been eaten and the last drop of wine drunk, Werner and Elliot left the lab together. The latter was dropped off at his mother's, to spend time with his son over the holidays and tell him of what had transpired. The former returned to Boot Hill, in order to see his own family during this time.

When he came in, Virginia ran to the door screaming, "Daddy's home! Now we can have a real celebration. Mommy! Uncle Tesla! Aunt Shalte! Daddy came back!" She jumped into his arms, and he gave her a big hug. This made everything worth it, to know his child was ok even though he had been gone.

Ekatrina walked into the room, and smiled. "I had a feeling that you would come home. I guess I wished hard enough for it to happen, and it did. So, you're not too late for dinner, and Shalte and I worked hard on this. Eat something, and tell us about what happened to you at the lab." Of course, she knew about the rampaging monster, but she had to make it sound like she and Virginia had stayed at home.

"Daddy, I've got something for you," stated Virginia, "I'll go to my room and get it." She ran right up the stairs, returning a few minutes later. When she did come back, there was a small wrapped gift in her hands. The child handed it to her father, so he could open it. As he did so, she smiled just like her mom.

Inside, Werner found a hand made clay sculpture of a man and a child. They appeared to be of him and Virginia, but as it was only a child's work the forms weren't perfect. Not that it bothered Werner one little bit. After all, his daughter made it just for him. So he took her in his arms, and whispered, "You are the greatest gift of all Virginia. One day, I promise I'll make sure all of your dreams come true."

Sappy, I know. It's called "Getting Brownie Points With Your Partner". Teefa loves fluffy stuff. Besides, what would a Wild ARMs 3 story written by Teefa85 Productions be without mention of their "Ginny is descended of Cecilia and has mastery over the long lost arts, which is why she's such a good sorceress" theory. And I finally found the little weasel. She ran off to the Guardian World from Shamanic Princess with Lufia.