Jayden was training when he saw the girl. He wasn't sparring with any of the other rangers. He had far surpassed them in skill by this point and besides, after his run in with Master Xandred, none of them were speaking with him anyway. Not even Emily. Emily who cried when he was wounded and held him so tenderly as his whole body throbbed in pain. He felt a pang in his chest when he realized how much he had frightened her. But he had done what he needed to do. Xandred needed to be stopped at all costs.

Jayden saw a rush of black hair whip by him as he struck the training dummy with a grunt. His samurai instincts told him to pretend that he hadn't noticed her. At least for a little while longer as her decided what his next move should be.

It was too late. The girl noticed him falter and darted off into the woods to avoid being seen. After a moment of deliberation, Jayden decided to follow her. He chased her through the dense foliage and ground thick with vegetation. She was fast. As much as Jayden tried, the girl kept managing to shake him. And just when Jayden thought that all hope was gone, he had really lost her this time, he would hear the rustle of leaves, or snap of a twig and begin his search anew.

It was almost as if the girl wanted Jayden to follow her. When Jayden stumbled or lost her trail, the girl would send a small sign his way, helping him, coaxing him into finding this mysterious stranger.

Finally, from at distance he saw her stop at a river, sit down and begin to meditate. She was waiting for him.

Jayden finally reached her, breathing heavily. There was a long moment of silence. Finally, the girl opened one dark brown eye lazily, taking him all in from his ripped jeans, to his now shredded red t-shirt. Then she sighed and closed her eyes once more.

"Took you long enough," she whined in a strangely musical sounding voice.

Jayden had recovered well enough to answer her. "Sorry. You're not an easy girl to follow."

She offered him a cat-like smirk. "So I am." She opened both eyes fully this time and gazed at him thoughtfully, as if she had asked him a question and was waiting for him to answer it.

"Why did you bring me here?" Jayden asked her.

"I didn't bring you anywhere." The girl responded simply. She looked at him, perplexed. "You followed me of your own free will."

"But… you wanted me to." Jayden retorted. He sounded flustered. After all, it did sound ridiculous if you said it out loud. She was probably just some little girl exploring the woods who stumbled upon the Shiba house. Jayden must have seemed threatening to her. Maybe he was the crazy one. Maybe he misread the signs…

"You wanted me to." Jayden found himself repeating. The girl looked at him, amused. Jayden felt his face grow red as he realized how insane he must look. Without another word he turned to leave.

"So I did." The girl responded quietly. Jayden stopped in his tracks. He was right! She did want him to come here. She brought him here for a reason!

Only then did it begin to dawn upon Jayden how dangerous this could be. They were out in the woods, all by themselves. She could attack him without anyone knowing. No one would even here him scream…

Jayden immediately brushed the though aside. The girl didn't look very threatening. And if she wanted to hurt him, she could have done it already. No. The girl brought Jayden here for a reason.

"Why?" Jayden asked her.

The girl paused for a long time, as if she didn't quite know why she had lured him out to the middle of nowhere.

"Serrator must be stopped," she said after a while.

Jayden almost took a step back in shock. "You know about Serrator?"

She smiled in a superior and condescending fashion and answered his question in a way that made her seem a lot older than she looked.

"Child… I know everything. You cannot keep anything from me. I know every lie you've every told, every weakness you've ever felt, every secret you've hidden."

Jayden shuddered at her emphasis on the word secret. Was it possible that this strange girl knew what he had been hiding from his fellow rangers for months?

"My team and I can take care of Serrator. You don't need to worry about it." Jayden responded brusquely.

The girl smiled, once again looking amused and shook her head at this. "Can you now? Because it seems to me that your team no longer trusts you. That will not improve once they discover your secret. You haven't really been much of a team lately. Face it. You are horribly unprepared… Jayden."

Jayden tensed as she said his name. He didn't doubt her claim that she knew everything about him but still, it was so unnerving for her to just casually toss out private information that he had not volunteered yet into the open like that. And he couldn't help but feel offended in this girl's lack of faith in him, lack of faith in the team.

The girl chuckled. "Don't get too touchy Jayden. I'm here to help you."

He narrowed his eyes at her. "What if I don't want your help."

The girl flashed him another cat-like smile with a orderly row of pearly white choice. "I'm afraid, my dear child, that you don't really have a choice." Abruptly she got up to leave. "I really must be going," she said as she turned her back to him. "I expect to see you here at this very spot at the exact same time tomorrow. Then we shall see what we can do about your complete and utter lack of coordination, fighting skill and all around inability to defeat a real Nighlock."

Jayden stood as steady as a rock, unfazed by her words. "And if I don't?" He asked her.

At this, the girl's smile got even wider. "Oh, you will," she assured him. She was still not facing him.

"How do you that?"

There was a long pause. "Haven't you been listening. I know everything," she explained. And then she was gone.

Jayden stood still for a few moments pondering what had just happened. He stood in the clearing for a few more minutes, almost expecting the girl to show up again. When she didn't he turned to leave.

The girl had never truly gone. How could she when she had no where to go? She stood hidden behind a tree by the river and gazed sown into its icy cool depths longingly. Even now it was beckoning to her, sloshing around the promise of sweet liquid tauntingly. Faintly, she could hear her master calling out to her from deep within the hear t of the river.

"Dayu… Dayu…"

She shushed the rampaging river soothingly.

"Don't worry Master Xandred. I will make good on my promise. We shall be together soon." Tentatively she lowered her hands to stroke the water rushing along in the river and it instantly quieted, like a petulant child, temporarily appeased.

Dayu smiled to herself as she watched the face that stared back at her in the river begin to transform. She smiled at the face that had now become familiar to her for centuries and allowed herself to fall back into the lonely paradise that she called home.