Ace slept curled up in his bed in the Jade Winglet sleeping cave. Light trickled in through a small hole in the wall, lighting up the floor.

"BOO!"

"ACK!" Ace shrieked and fell out of bed, crashing down onto the floor. A figure draped in black let out a laugh from the head of Ace's bed.

With a groan Ace studied the figure. "Des? Is that you?"

The figure pulled the black mask away from their face, revealing it to be, indeed, Des.

"Des, what the hell," Ace said, because they were now allowed to swear.

"Doofus, it's Moon's Eve!"

"Moon's..? Oh, right, your favorite holiday. We all get to dress up and be creepy, yaayy..."

Des smirked. "It is my favorite holiday, and it is fun. I mean, every year we get to scare Splendid, and she still never sees it coming!"

"Right, whatever," Ace said, "Hey where is everyone else?" For the first time Ace noticed he and Des were the only ones in the room.

"Why, dressing up spookily of course," Des teased, putting his mask back on, "Anyway, see you later!" Then he bounded out of the room.

"Geez," Ace mumbled, padding out of the cave.

And then, at least for him, everything went black.

- - -

"Have you seen Ace yet today?" Dashie asked, wrapped up in old bandages. She was supposed to be spooky mummy, but looked more like toilet paper roll.

Des nodded. "Yeah, I saw him earlier. He's probably just hiding somewhere- he doesn't like Moon's Eve as much as me." Des was wearing a different costume now- he was wearing a large cloak that came down over his head, he was wearing black gloves, and he had a scabbard on a belt around his waist, but due to rules at Jade Mountain he couldn't have a sword to go with it.

"Alright then, forget about him, we can have just as much fun without dragging him around," Thor said. He was dressed in a spider costume. Señor Tonto sat next to him, dressed as a witch.

Venge sat next to Irre, and he was dressed as a vampire. Irre was dressed as a white wolf with weird orangish-red markings and- is- is that a mirror on it's back?

Suddenly Des lifted his head and smiled. "Hey, I'll be right back," he said before slinking off into a corridor. Seconds later Splendid ran out screaming, and Des walked out laughing.

No one thought to question this.

"Hey, I know!" Dashie said, "Let's go find Ace! Then we can force him to dress up with us!"

Des smiled slyly. "Good idea."

So they went looking for Ace.

- - -

"So, who're you?"

Ace looked at his kidnapper, and spoke to them casually. He'd kinda been expecting more enemies- at least, Des had warned him that because he was the protagonist there would be more enemies.

"The name's Trick," said the IceWing, "And this here is Fish." She glanced over at a SeaWing sitting in the corner.

"You have sensible names?"

"Yep."

They sat in silence for a moment.

"Sooooo.... Why'd you kidnap me?"

Trick smiled wickedly. "You didn't think Antag was Sugar's only henchman, did you?"

"I did, actually," Ace said.

Trick frowned. "Oh. Well then..." Trick looked around for a minute. "Hey when are your friends going to come rescue you?"

"What?"

"You know, you're the protagonist, so all your friends are gonna come rescue you, mostly defeat me, and then you'll trip over a rock or something and send an avalanche to bury me in rocks or whatever."

"That's not what happens!" Ace said, jumping to his feet, "we'll all work together to defeat you!"

"Whatever you wanna believe kid," Trick said, sitting back and pulling out a newspaper to read, "Just remember you're trapped here until your friends arrive."

"I'll get out of here on my own JUST FINE."

"No you won't- your animus powers won't work here so unless you plan on moving that stone covering the cave entrance you're kinda stuck."

Ace looked over at the cave entrance. "And you have the key, don't you?"

Trick nodded.

Ace sighed and went to go wait for his friends by the door. While he waited the thought occurred to him- was what Trick said true? Was he... Useless?

This thought floated around in his head, and with nothing else to think about, it stuck.