DISCLAIMER: I do not own Mountain Dew. I do not own Baten Kaitos. (Well, I have a copy of the GAME, but... ack! You all know what I mean...)I own all the other characters, though, so do not steal them!

Summary: (Caution: SPOILERS) The Guardian Spirit returned to her home, but she's very unhappy and can't stop thinking about Kalas. Oh, and when she came back, the monsters came with her... KalasxXelha, KalasxSpirit(one sided)Rated for violence, and language from the Spirit

Prologue: Bittersweet, but mostly bitter…

Shrieking tires. Hazel green eyes widening in shock. That sickening impact like she'd been hit by a train, and then the nauseating whorl of shapes and colors as her slim, willowy body was forcibly thrown over the top of the speeding SUV, to land in a broken, crumpled, lifeless heap fifteen feet away from the crosswalk. Injuries: multiple broken ribs, compound fractures in her left shoulder, arm, and collarbone… skull crushed on landing. Neck broken on impact.

Yep, she was dead all right.

Azil was crying… heh, and she should be. Silly bitch, if she'd just stopped to look, damnit, none of this would have happened!

…

…

…

And why the hell did I shove her out of the way? She mused. I hated Azil. She treated me like dirt. So why, in the name of all things holy did I just do that!

Would you like a chance to live again, child?

WHAT! Her mind was reeling. First she died, and now some disembodied voice was talking at her? This was too much to take in at once…

Hmm… perhaps I was too abrupt. Humans these days, so skeptical… so I shall explain. In answer to your earliest question, little one, the reason you saved your sister, despite the fact that you despise each other, is because you are a Guardian. It is in your very nature to protect others. You can't help yourself. However, you were not supposed to die today. There is great need for one such as yourself, so I am giving you an opportunity. I will do something for you… resurrect your shattered body in perfect condition… if you, sweet Guardian, will do something for me.

Where's the catch, whoever you are? God, perhaps? Or some sort of demon?

Heh, heh, heh… close, close, little Guardian. Close, but not quite. Guesses aside, there is no catch. You become a Guardian Spirit for me, and I'll give you your life back once your task is complete.

What? There's always a catch… but very well. I'll accept. I'm not ready to die yet.

I was hoping you would say that, little Guardian. No, Guardian Spirit Astarael…

"I think that spirit likes you," said the white-haired girl. "Why don't you try talking to it?"

"Hello," said the blue-haired boy. "I'm Kalas. May I ask you your name?"

"Astarael…"

"Your task is done, Astarael!" Kalas shouted at her, his white wings blinding her. Or were those her tears, perhaps? Could she cry as a spirit? "Go back to your own world! Quit playing your silly games… I don't need you anymore!"

The Lava Caves started to fade out… he'd betrayed her… nothing mattered anymore…

Nothing…

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

"Arrgh! You stupid alarm clock… shut the hell up!" the girl shouted, floundering around on top of her nightstand for the hated contraption that summoned her out of her warm and cozy bed almost every morning to go to the hellhole known as SCHOOL…

She'd nearly knocked over her reading lamp three times before she remembered that she had (Oh-so-cleverly, in her opinion at seven p.m. on last Friday night) moved the alarm clock to the shelf under her nightstand, and far enough away from her bed that she couldn't reach it and shut it off accidentally in her sleep. She had checked this before going to bed the night before. (At 3 a.m. Damn stupid nightmares, she'd forgiven Kalas, she'd wanted to forgive Kalas, and he'd earned that forgiveness. Why was she still having that nightmare? Why?)

In short, there was no way she was going to be able to turn off the hateful alarm without getting out of bed.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! it reminded her. For some reason, the beeping sounded more sadistic than usual this morning.

"Life was more fun when I was dead.," she groaned, kicking off the blankets and swinging herself out of bed, so she could kneel and shut off the god-forsaken Clock of Doom. Someday, she was going to reduce that hateful thing to a mound of smoking, shapeless plastic and melted electrical wires. She could almost hear its feeble, dying beeps. Someday…

Spirits had it lucky. Not only did they not get tired, they didn't have to go to school.

She staggered over to the far side of the room and slapped the wall multiple times before she found the lightswitch. The sudden brilliance of four, 120-watt bulbs coming on simultaneously at full blast made her close her eyes with a yelp, and reached blindly for the dimmer. Once the radiance had reached tolerable pre-Mountain Dew/shower levels, she staggered into the bathroom, turned on yet another light that was too bright, and turned on the shower. After making sure that errant jets of liquid were not going to cover the bathroom floor in water, she proceeded to sneak stealthily out of her room to obtain a can of liquid energy from the refrigerator in the kitchen downstairs.

Five minutes later she was back in her room, green can in hand,sitting on her bedand drinking the mana of life, staring out her window, and listening to the soothing, constant sound of water hitting bathtub as the shower warmed up. The only good thing about the morning was in her hand.

She sat there on her bed, facing east, for all of five minutes before putting down the three-quarters-empty can of soda with a dejected sigh and preparing herself for part two of the wakeup process… The Shower That Might Be Warm By Now. With an expression of extreme reluctance… how she longed for the blissfully dreamless sleep of a mere ten (fifteen...?)minutes ago… she closed the blinds and started unbuttoning her nightgown.

An unearthly scream distracted her from this ritual of preparation for Entry Into the Unspeakable. She had become very well acquainted with that sound and its cousins in the three years since she'd been mowed down by a drunk driver.

That sound meant there was a monster nearby.

A smile crept across her fair features, and her yellow eyes lit up. She pulled on a pair of biking shorts, a pair of sneakers, and snatched her weapon out of her purse. There wasn't any need to bother with mask or hat right now… no one was up at this ungodly hour who was going to recognize her, anyway.

"Perhaps today won't be so boring after all," she murmured as she unwound her whip, Briar Rose, and ghosted out of the house.