I own only my twisted mind. The characters I play with here to give myself amusement are not my own. Please read it anyways.

It was a bright sunny morning that day. It was a good day. Three years had passed since Nina had given up the holy stones and her chance to become princess so that she could stay in the human realm. Ayu couldn't remember all the details very well, but she was happy. After all, Nina had said that Maya was the one the prince was in love with. Wait. Maya? Who was this person that had suddenly returned to her memories? As she sought further in her mind, she remembered more and more until everything that she had ever known about Maya came back to her. Memories flooded her in a rush of information; a flower that stole her soul, a flying chair, a huge chameleon by the name of Lulu, the black vortex, a fight over a broken crystal ball, Tsujai's confrontation in his summer home, a horrid butler that was forever fawning over Maya, Maya's constant quest and determination to find all the holy stones and even memories of her with Luna.

What could it all mean? And on a nice day like this too? Thought Ayu as she walked over to Nina's house. It was Saturday and she was going to meet up with Nina at her house. Kaji and Tsujai were going to meet them there. They were then all going to go out for a movie and then lunch.

Time had changed many things between the friends. All of them, now 17, were in high school. She remembered wistfully how the four friends had been before they paired up and started going out. Tsujai had finally asked Nina to go out with him at the end of middle school and Nina had said yes. The two of them were very cute together, and were often found talking about one of their many shared interests. Ayu had been worried for Yuta, but he was taking it quite well. He chose to immerse himself in his studies and hadn't been back and forth between the magic kingdom and the human world often. The last time they had seen each other was for Christmas, but that had been six months ago and the weather was now starting to become chilly as they approached fall. But since it was only June, the sun was still out despite the cold wind. Lately though, the weather had been a bit out of whack. A few storms here and there, and even a snow day. The friends had been worried that the good weather would not last till the weekend, but their luck had prevailed. She and Kaji had now been going out for three years, and things were still as strong between them as they had been. Ayu and Tsujai were both the captains of the tennis teams still, and Kaji was in the running to become the baseball captain next year. Nina was now much better at English and magic spells, thanks to Tsujai and Yuta's influences. They had changed a lot physically too, thought Ayu wryly. She had decided on a change of hairstyle for her sixteenth birthday, and she had cut it short so that it was now shoulder length. Nina had been growing her hair out, and now it was wavy and blonde, just past her elbows. Tsujai had grown his hair out a bit, so it was now slightly messy. Kaji was the same, except for his sudden growth spurt. In fact, all of them were now tall. Ayu was 5"9, Tsujai was 5"10, and Kaji was 5" 11. In fact, the only one who hadn't grown that much was Nina, who was 5"6. But Nina had always been petite, so it had come as no surprise to them that she would be that small. Yuta had grown too, being 5"8 the last time she saw him. She had teased him mercilessly about being an inch shorter than she was, but he was still undergoing his growth spurt. He had also grown his hair longer, and it was around his chin at Christmastime.

While absorbed in her musings, Ayu had tuned herself out of her surroundings and was surprised to find herself already at Nina's house, standing absentmindedly in front of her door. Shaking her head to clear her mind of all the random thoughts floating in it, she knocked on the door.

"Come on in, the door's open" rang out Nina's voice, loud and clear. Ayu opened the door and went inside to find Nina in the kitchen cooking frantically.

"What are you doing Nina? I thought we were going out for lunch after the movie?"

"We were, but something huge has come up Ayu, HUGE!!!!" cried Nina while frantically running around in circles, cooking bacon, eggs and sausages on the stove while baking a cake in the oven and toasting bread and also trying to make sure nothing burned.

"Calm down Nina. Honestly, sometimes I don't know exactly how I put up with you for so long," chided Ayu gently as she took over the stove to let Nina concentrate on the bread. "And what's with all the cooking and running around frantically? What happened? Can I help?" asked Ayu.

Suddenly Nina was very still. Taking the bread out of the toaster and putting it on a plate, she wiped her hands on a towel before taking Ayu's hands in her own.

"Can I ask you something very important Ayu?"

"Of course Nina. What's wrong? You're starting to freak me out."

"What do you remember from three years ago when I was collecting the holy stones?"

Nina's questions made Ayu remember her extremely weird dream and thoughts that had been plaguing her as she walked over.

"That reminds me Nina. I remember someone named Maya who was competing with you for the holy stones and how you said you gave them too her because it was her that the prince was really in love with. But I thought that when she became princess that all my memories of her were erased. In fact, I had completely forgotten about it till this morning when I had the strangest dream. And then on my way here, I kept having all these flashbacks and it was like having pieces of my memory that were absent put back. I guess that was kind of what happened, wasn't it?"

"It is exactly as we feared."

"What? Who feared Nina? And what fear?"

"I will explain everything as soon as the others come over. Meanwhile, why don't you go make yourself comfortable in the living room Ayu? The food is almost done and I will bring it all out. Thank you for your help."

Just then, the doorbell rang. Hearing Kaji and Tsujai's voices outside, Ayu decided to go and open the door for them. Filling them in on what happened to her that morning, they both admitted to having the same flashbacks as her. They all walked into the living room while discussing possible reasons for the flashbacks and Nina's strange behavior and stopped short.

On the living room couch were two people sprawled out, fast asleep. On closer inspection, one was revealed to be Yuta. Both looked extremely haggard, as if having been in a huge brawl and were muddy all over. Their clothes were all torn up, and their hands and feet were stained with blood. The other one was not easily distinguishable; being someone that Ayu had never seen before. The fact that his head was in a makeshift head sling and was stained with blood didn't help. In fact, most of the blood seemed to be his, or at least what Ayu thought was a boy. Nina then came in to the living room with both her hands full of food and put it on the table.

"Oh dear, they must have been very tired."

"Nina what's going on here?" asked Tsujai.

"Yes, and what happened to them and who is the second person?" asked Ayu.

"Is something wrong? Can we help in any way?" asked Kaji.

Nina nodded. "Yes, there is plenty to do, and we could use all the help we could get. However, I am not quite sure of the details of what happened, myself. We have to wait for them to get up before we can figure out what to do."

"Don't worry about the movie," said Tsujai. "We'll stay here till they wake up."

"I'll go phone my parents to tell them I'm staying over," said Kaji, getting up to use the phone. After calling his parents to tell them where he was, he came back and all of them sat down to eat what Nina had made. She had taken cooking as an elective and was getting much better at it.

"Where is everybody?" asked Ayu, noting suddenly the absence of noise that usually accompanied Rio and Nina's mom.

"They went out to France for this weekend. Dad had a work trip and since you were going to come for a sleepover, he said that I could stay alone at home with you. My parents are letting me stay here only because you're staying over. They wouldn't trust me to be alone at home. I wonder why?" mused Nina. Ayu, who could remember all too well the time that Nina had accidentally set the house on fire or blown up parts of the house, had no problems figuring out why Nina's parents, though they loved her, refused to let her stay alone at home. Kaji and Tsujai, remembering all those times as well, sweat dropped.

Two hours later, Kaji and Tsujai returned from home with all their things that they needed to sleepover at Nina's house. As they set up their sleeping bags on the floor of Nina's living room, Yuta slowly started to come to. Wiping sleep-heavy eyelids, he winced as he slowly got of the couch. He blushed deeply when he realized that all of the other people in the room were staring at him. Then he felt a warm presence around him and looked to his side to realize that his companion was huddling into him. She was still wounded badly, he noted. She had also sustained many injuries. He felt guilt wash over him as he looked at her. This was his entire fault. He had sworn to protect her but instead she had protected him. It had been her magic that had gotten both of them out of that horrid place and here to Nina's house. Even now when she was dead tired and badly wounded, she still had the strength and presence of mind to charm the house so that they were all protected by her magic. They would be safe here for the time being. He nodded at Nina. It was good that all of her friends were here. They would all be safe and he would be able to explain what had happened right away. They could use all the help they could get. Slowly he got up. The smell of eggs and sausages tantalized his nostrils, making his mouth water. Nina gave him a towel and told him to go wash up while she heated his food for him. That plan was fine with him, so he went up quickly to wash. He came down in some clean clothes he had left here on his last visit. In his red-checkered shirt with brown Capri's, he looked almost like nothing had happened. Almost. There were still scars all over his hands. Nina came in with his plate and he started to shovel food in his mouth like as if he had starved for days. Everyone was burning with curiosity, but they realized that Yuta was really tired and so they held off all their questions until after he was done.

Nina was the first to ask him, "What happened to you. You just barged in here with her and dropped onto the couch. And you're covered in bloodstains. And your hands are still scarred. Why don't you just heal them? Are you out of magic? What happened? Why are you both so battered?"

As the questions started forth from all of their mouths, Yuta found himself floating in a sea of questions. Holding his hand up for silence, he began to explain.

"It's a really long story, and there are many things that are still unclear, even to me. Only she knows all the answers. Please don't interrupt. Things that don't make sense at the beginning will make sense later on."

" When I was five, I met her for the first time. Her name is Lorelei. She's an extremely powerful magic user. In fact, she is the Princess of many worlds. She gets called by many names. For now, you can call her Lorelei. It is her job to keep all the worlds that there are in sync. You could say that she's a go-between between worlds. All of them belong to her mainly, and she is also head of the council of Power. As head, she keeps the peace between worlds. She has her own mini army that she creates out of people that she sees great talent in. She teaches them how to harness their talent and use it for the greater good. She has taught many of the council of Power, and is the strongest person living, despite her youth. It was her that taught me how to harness my power and made me the strong wizard I am today. Added to that, she allows all her students to tap into her power in times of need, and we can call on her to help us. I was supposed to be one of her helpers, but I wished to devote my time to learning magic and furthering my power. She agreed that it was important for me to do so and let me go. I then forgot about her need of my help and studied instead to help increase my power. I did not remember about her until Maya called me and asked me for my help. She had been feeling weird connections in the air and asked me to check it out. Maya was also taught by Lorelei at one point in time. It was Lorelei who gave Maya Lulu. She asked me if I had been in contact with her recently and I said no. I then devoted my time to finding her. I found her a week ago. Apparently, while you and Maya were fighting for the Holy Stones, Lorelei was fighting for control of her kingdoms. She was being threatened by one of the council that did not like her and wished to be the strongest ruler. He forced a document binding her power so as to protect everyone from her strength. If he hadn't done that, she would have been able to stop anything he threw at her. As it is, he forced the document through and she had to sign it. He then took advantage of all of her bodyguards being away and her students away to further their knowledge and power and attacked her. He locked her up and used her power to help him gain control of all of the worlds under his control. Yes, before you ask, there are more worlds out there than just the magic and human worlds. There are mages, and knights, and ninjas, and assassins, and vampires, and werewolves, and warlocks and all kinds of other creatures out there that are loyal to her. All of them were forced under his rule. He is also given many names, but his most common one is Hades. He kept her locked up with extremely high security. I barely managed o find her. It took all the combined effort of myself and all her other students to get her out of there. I was the only one who escaped since I was with her. Everyone else sacrificed themselves to help us escape. It is very dangerous for us to be here right now. Even the magic kingdom has fallen into his clutches, otherwise I would have taken her there. Maya is also in his power. If we can get Maya free, we will then have enough power between us with the help of the holy stones to free the magic kingdom. Once that happens, we can keep going from there until he is destroyed. Nevertheless, we're going to need all the help we can get. Even now, it is not safe. We need to strike soon. Already Hades is exerting his control over the human world to control it and find her. If he finds her, he will kill her. We need to make sure she doesn't die, no matter what. Right now we are safe because she has put wards all over the house to make sure that no one can find us. But it wont last for more than two weeks tops. She's used a lot of strength to get us so far. It is her power that is helping me stand and speak and which is healing my wounds. I have completely exhausted all my magic for now. Rest and recuperation is what we both need. That, and a plan. Are there any other people that you can count on to help us?"

"Well, we can ask Kawanakajima for his help." Said Nina.

A groan was heard from the couch. As all heads turned toward the sound, the figure on the couch woke up.

And it was all they could do not to stare at her…