"Hello? Oh, Ikuto! What's up?"
"Have you heard anything new?"
Utau purses her lips. "No. Sadly, we haven't."
Kukai's face goes from curious to understanding. Although the topic wasn't said aloud on any side of the conversation, they all know.
Amu.
~Two weeks before~
"The company is reset, sir."
A man smiles. "Excellent. The search for the Embryo will continue as before. Do you have a plan?"
"Yes. We will capture the leader of those in our way, the strongest, and brain wash her. She will be under our control from that point on, more so than even the former CEO's step-son."
"Absolutely wonderful. Set out immediately."
"Of course. I shall take my leave."
Once the other man leaves, the new CEO laughs. "Soon, you will be under our—no, my control… Hinamori Amu!"
~Present day, one hour earlier~
Amu opens her eyes to a bright, sterile laboratory. She sits up, and then falls back against her bed, her head spinning. "Whoa…" she says. She blinks, waiting for the darkness to disappear again.
"Carefully, now! You've been asleep for a while, Miss Amu."
She sits up again—cautiously, this time—to see a woman with short brown hair, glasses, and a lab coat standing at the other end of the room. "Where am I?" she asks, her voice thick with sleep.
"A laboratory managed by New Easter, Co. We had to perform some… tests on you, sorry we didn't get permission."
Amu nods her head, not really understanding. The only thing she knows is that, 1) Her name is Amu Hinamori; 2) She's 15; 3) She has 4 Guardian Characters: Ran, Miki, Suu, and Dia; 4) Her enemies: some kids, a pop idol, and a really hot violinist; 5) She's supposed to hunt them down and capture them; and 6) She's also supposed to look for this thing called an Embryo. She wonders what an Embryo looks like.
"Now," the woman says, bringing her back to reality, "please come with me. There's a small bit of training you should go through before we put you on the field to test our experiment."
"Okay," Amu says, hopping off the bed to follow the woman, who takes her down the hallway. "So," she says, making conversation, "what's your name, Doc?"
"You can call me Yuki if you like, Miss Amu."
"Just Amu is fine."
"Okay… Amu."
Amu takes a closer look at Yuki. She looks kind of young, possibly a little older than she is.
"How old are you?"
"Um, 18." Amu nods, acknowledging. "Well, here we are!" Yuki says, opening the door to a large room the looks somewhat like a gym at school. "This is where you will undergo training. It's only a little bit, really not a lot at all."
"Like how much?"
"Less than an hour."
"Oh, wow."
~Present time~
"Nee-chan! Souma-kun!"
Utau and Kukai look up to see Tadase sprinting towards them. "What is it?!"
"She… She's… in the"—swallow—"park…! Come… quickly...!"
They look at each other. "S-Sorry, Ikuto! Tadase says he's found something! I'll get back to you!"
"Wait, Uta-!" Click.
"Take us there."
Sure enough, there's a pink-haired girl at the park. But…
"Is that her?"
"She looks… different."
Kukai snorts. "That's a bit of an understatement."
"Amu-chan!" Tadase calls out to her.
The girl's head turns, and her expression turns to one of recognition. "It's you…"
Tadase's eyes well up with tears. "Come back, Amu-chan!"
Amu frowns. "My own Heart: Unlock!" They watch her as she transforms. "Chara Transform: Dark Heart!"
"Dark… Heart?" Their faces become those of despair. Her outfit is different. She wears a black tube top with a "torn" lower hem, lined in pink. Her skirt is the same, and she wears black thigh-high boots with pink trim. She has long sleeves that rise just below the shoulder and flare down to her knuckles, and black pom-poms with pink X's all over them. She wears a visor similar to her old one, but black and pink instead of light pink and magenta. On it is a red heart with a white X on top. She has black legwarmers with magenta ribbon woven on the hems.
"Dark Speeders!" she calls out and a pair of black and pink roller skates replace of her boots, and she flies up into the sky.
"Utau! Kukai! Let's go!" Tadase orders.
They both nod, and together they all call out, "My own Heart: Unlock!"
"Chara Transform: Seraphic Charm!"
"Chara Transform: Sky Jack!"
"Chara Transform: Platinum Royale!"
The three shoot up into the air after her.
"Amu-chan! Come back home!"
"What do you think you're doing, you idiot?! I gave you permission to protect Ikuto, but you can't even protect yourself?!"
"Amu, come back, please! If you don't, I don't know what I'll do! Daichi might disappear, because I won't have the motivation to play sports because there's no one to train specially!"
Amu flinches, but she doesn't know why. Something about this boy's special training seems very scary to her. She stops and looks down at them. Who are these people? As far as she's concerned, they're just little bugs she's supposed to crush, but they're saying 'come back' like she belongs to them.
"Amu-chan, we miss you!" the blonde boy says. Then he scoffs and shakes his head. He floats up closer to her (using a rod that shoots out gold) and looks up with a grieving face. "What am I saying? I miss you. I need you, Amu-chan. I love you. I promised to tell you every day, but I haven't been able to since you've been gone."
Amu feels her cheeks warm up. She feels oddly happy. Which is weird, since he is her enemy, let alone does she even know him. He comes up to her level, and takes her hand.
"Amu-chan—"
She smacks his hand away. "Don't act so familiarly with me, shrimp!" Strangely, she felt like she'd done that before. What is it with these people, giving her weird feelings?! Maybe they're psychic, and are actually manipulating her brain to feel this way…
No, there's no way. That's impossible. Right?
He looks sad. "Have you… really forgotten us? Amu-chan?"
"Don't call me that like you know me!" His face turns to one of extreme pain, like his heart had been ripped out as he goes down to join the other two. They must be good actors, because the other two have similar expressions. "I have a job to do… You're in the way! Black Rod!" She grips two black twirler's batons, and spins them. "Spiral Heart: Extreme!" She throws them at the three, who dodge the first, but as always, not the second. The batons wrap around them, capturing them. She floats down to them. "Now, here's the extreme part!"
Suddenly, their eyes turn wide from pain. They all scream, and she smiles. "My Lord will be pleased!"
"Your… Lord?"
"Who do you… work for?"
"Whatever you do, don't tell them anything about New Easter!" Yuki warned Amu.
"Huh? How come?"
"They knew about us. They don't know that we've come back, though. If we have the element of surprise on our side, then we can beat them for sure!"
Amu shrugged. "Whatever."
"Oh…" she whispers to herself, then aloud: "Can't tell you! Miki!"
"Roger!"
"My own Heart: Unlock! Chara Transform: Dark Spade!" This time, she wears a top with one short sleeve and one strap with an "X-Spade" pin. The top is tucked into a pair of black shorts with a white belt, with shorts underneath with black and dark blue stripes. She has black boots with blue straps. She has a very long, black, fingerless glove on her right arm, and a dark-blue-and-black striped band on her left wrist.
"Juggling Party!"
"Go! Go! Little Duckies!"
"Hmph." Amu looks over at the newcomers attempting to free their friends. "Dark Canvas!" Dark colours flow from her large, black paintbrush towards them.
"Watch out!" the three captured ones shout to their friends on the outside.
The clown girl pushes the baby girl out of the way blast. Her brain informs her the their names are "Rima" and "Yaya".
"Tch." Amu grits her teeth. "Black Music!" Black music notes flow from her conductor's baton that's in the shape of a G-clef sign.
"Tadase-kun, is that…?" The clown girl trails off.
"Yeah."
The two newcomers give her the same look. She clenches her fists. "Quit looking at me like that! Gray Sculptures: Heart and Clover!" Clay appears and splits into 2 parts, each taking the form of Amu.
"Chara Transform: Clay Heart!"
"Chara Transform: Clay Clover!"
"Clay Rod: Spiral Clay!"
"Clay Bubbles!"
"Dark Canvas!"
"Blaze Shoot!"
"Aw, geez, another one?! Just how many of you are there?" `And where's that smexy violinist?!`
"Geh!" Nagihiko, her brain tells her, grunts, annoyed. "I'm 'another one', now?"
"Well, it's okay. I've still got a strong weapon. Gray Sculpture: Spade!"
"Chara Transform: Clay Spade!Clay Canvas!"
"Dia!"
"Understood."
"Chara Transform: Dark Dia!"
Utau's eyes fill with tears. "It's the same…"
Kukai consoles her. "It's alright, it's okay..."
"Quit crying! Shining Black!" Sharp, black diamonds shoot from her hands towards the others.
Utau swallows. `If this hits them, then…` "Everybody, get back!"
"Utau?!"
"Dark Dia is very powerful. I know this from experience."
"Grr, damn that girl! Glitter Particle!"
The attack hits Utau, forcing El out of her heart. They fall to the ground.
"Utau!"
Utau grits her teeth and squeezes her eyes shut. She looks over at Amu, and shouts, "What is it you want?!"
"I don't want anything. My orders are to find the Embryo and capture you people."
"Who ordered you?! Who is your captor?!"
"I'm not supposed to tell you, I already said!"
`Amu-chan, come back.`
`Yuki-nee, is that you?`
`Yeah. There's a helicopter on the way.`
Sure enough, the thp thp thp of a helicopter's blades approaches. Amu looks up. A ladder falls, and Amu lets the clay sculptures fall apart.
"Amu-chan!" Amu hears as she grabs the ladder rope, about to climb up.
"What is it now?"
"Please, remember."
Amu grits her teeth. Remember what?! She climbs up into the helicopter.
"How'd it go?" Yuki asks.
"Nothing to report," Amu mumbles, looking out the window at the full, white, shining moon.
Yuki purses her lips, then shakes her head. `No, no, she'll be fine. We've improved on it since Ikuto Tsukiyomi.`
