The sun shone fiercely, its heat beating down any living thing that crossed the desert plain. Scorpions would, once in a while, scuttle along the sand, showing no response to the sweltering ground, eventually finding a nice hole to occupy. The wind blew, not as fierce as the sun's heat, but it made it livable, cooler air and did blow enough to pick up some sand and twist it into a weak, small cyclone. As the inconsistent wind rose and fell, the sand cyclones appeared and disappeared all over the desert land. The sun made the sand extremely hot, but not hot enough to burn through traditional wooden sandals. So that was what she wore.

A lone figure walked across the plain, under a reed-woven hat and a silk kimono, the color of the sky as hot as it was. She seemed to carry nothing in particular, her hand enclosed around the other in front of her. And she didn't seem to have a place to be going to in mind either. She was just walking, straight into the desert in front of her, starting to feel the heat of the sun to her head, as her hat finally allowing it to penetrate through.

All of a sudden, a figure dropped out of the sky. Landing right in front of the women, with a cloud of sand dust creating a fog hazing around them, the figure landed easily on both feet. The woman did not look surprised; in fact, she looked as if she had expected it. Her hat cast a shadow, covering her eyes, but it was clear that she was looking at the figure standing up, somewhat pleased.

The figure was a man, strong looking and well-built. His black hair hung off his face, longest at the sides by his ears, emphasizing the strange golden tint in his hair. His outfit, colored a dark navy blue, was tight and covered his entire body, from his wrists to his ankles. Normally he was without shoes, but taking into consideration of the sand and how it could blacken the bottom of his feet, he wore flexible flats that same color as his outfit. A short, black belt was tied around his waist, where a sheathed katana sword lay. His face was, just as she remembered him, emotionless and his unseeing eyes stared blankly ahead, over the woman's head, watching nothing in front of him. But when he spoke, he spoke directly to her:

"You have traveled far, but I have finally found you."

"How do you recognize me, when you cannot see?" The woman lifted her hat slightly, revealing the brightest shade of green eyes.

His pale blue, unseeing eyes glanced in the direction of his left, then back forward again, and he said, not noticing this, "I can hear the ocean from here. I can hear the singing of the birds from here. I can here your heartbeat from here. I can hear all of this. You should have the knowledge of that."

He stood still, but the woman started circling him slowly, as if observing him up and down. Smirking, she spoke, "Of course I have this knowledge, and I knew you'd come find me." She took off her hat and tossed it on the ground, revealing her hair, the dark chocolate locks gathered together in a ribbon, the curls at the end reaching her shoulder blades. She had circled around him once when she stopped in front of him and swiftly wiped bangs out of his unseeing eyes. "I just did not know when."

"Hikari…" he spoke her name. She glanced up at him, listening. "…I want to regain my kingdom, Hikari."

She frowned at him. "Yourkingdom? If it was yours, them it would be in your possession, wouldn't it?"

He did not respond to this. Instead he said, "I need to redeem my family's name. And in order to do this…"

"Hayato! You're not persuading me at all!" Hikari scowled at him. "I'm not giving it up that easily! You've turned into even more of an idiot if you have not realized that!" she poked his chest hard and he staggered back, not expecting it, having listened to her voice, instead of listening for her actions.

Immediately he grabbed her hand, holding it in front of her face, and digging his nails into her skin. If he had smiled, his face would have matched his voice; the pure sinister tone of his voice, "Then how shall I persuade you?"

Suddenly, a wolf came out of no where, running towards the two and jumped at the two's joined hands, breaking their bond. Hikari and Hayato flew backwards, in opposite directions. And they saw, well, Hayato heard, another woman's presence.

"Well, well, well…" the wolf smiled, morphing into a young woman, baring her fangs, protruding out from under her blood red lips. "Seems to me you two have made an alliance. I thought you two vowed that you would hate each other until the end of time."

This woman's hair was different shades of grays, just like a wolf's fur. It was perfectly straight and extremely long. Her nails couldn't have been human ones, long and sharp like claws. She wore metal wristbands and ankle bands, as if she had escaped being chained up.

"Akane!" Hikari stood back up from her crouching position. "No alliance has been made here. There will never be such a thing between any of us again." She glared at Hayato, who was already walking towards Akane. As he approached her, Akane stuck out a clawed hand towards him and a low laugh came from the back of her throat, somewhat like a growl.

"Well, that was her side of the story. So what were you trying to do? Manipulate her?"

Hayato's face was as blank as his eyes, and Hikari ran to the two of them. "I have done nothing of the sort," he spoke. "I was merely asking her to give up the stone, but my first plan has failed." His voice was steady, aware of his words and how they would affect Akane's actions. He did not need any blood spilt, especially not his… not just yet.

Her bright red eyes flickered and she whirled around to Hikari, eyes broadening. "You?! You have the stone, Hikari?!"

Hikari did not answer. Akane and Hayato turned on her, taking a step closer. Akane clenched her fists, "I knew I smelled it. And because you touched her," she concluded, "you both reek of the stench."

Hayato, however, was no longer paying attention. "I hear something," he mumbled. Hikari gave a small sigh of relief as the attention was redirected off her. Akane turned her hear towards Hayato, who had started walking off in another direction and was looking at the ground with every step her took. Wolf-like ears sprouted from her head and she listened. It was all very quiet. Akane growled lowly when she decided to ignore Hayato, realizing nothing was happening and she advanced on Hikari.

Akane gripped her by the collar of her kimono, snarling, and lifting her up off the ground to make her eyes level with the hybrid wolf-girl, "Okay. No more playing around! Where is the stone of Fatum Vox? Give it to me! I know you have it!" she shook the girl vigorously. Hikari's hands circled around Akane's neck.

"I can kill you easily like this," Hikari's own sharp nails pressing against a vein in Akane's neck. "Don't tempt me!" with this, Hikari thrusted herself upwards, kneeing Akane's jaw, causing her to release Hikari's shirt. Hikari back flipped and landed a few feet away from Akane, who was now cradling her chin in her hands, her lips bleeding from her teeth slicing through them from the impact.

"Damn you…" Akane snarled. A look of satisfaction flashed upon Hikari's face, but it disappeared quickly when Akane readied her stance. They did not notice, since they were focused solely on each other's next move, but Hayato said again, "I hear something… an eruption from below…" –that's what she said-

Hikari and Akane lunged at each other, when two gigantic walls of rock uprooted from the ground, standing ten feet tall, directly in front of the two women. The women had no time to react and collided head on into the walls, rebounding off and landed on their backs in the sand, fogging dust around them. Their whole faces and palms were scraped up with cuts from the rock walls that had interrupted their fight.

"I told you I heard something…" Hayato said as-a-matter-of-factly. Hikari sat up and ripped the hem of her kimono carelessly, so rest of it hung to her knees, while she coughed on the ground from the dust. She stood and tied the remaining scraps around her waist for a long belt.

Akane stood also and leaned on the rock wall. She yelped, "Damn it, Kenji!" as if on cue, a pillar of rock came out of the ground, with a man standing on top. His arms were folded in superiority and he jumped down off his pedestal.

"So you have the stone of Fatum Vox, dear Hikari?" he said, his jet-black eyes smiling. His messy, short, dirty blonde hair looked naturally windblown, and like Hayato, he was also well-built. His outfit was similar to Hayato's as well, except for the fact of his sleeves being rolled up to his elbows and the color of his outfit being a dark shade of green. Tied at the neck that flowed all the way down to the back of his knees was a pure white cape.

"I do…" Hikari's fists clenched, "I do ha-"

"HIKARI!" Akane called out. Hikari suddenly leapt to another spot on the hard sand, instinctively responding to the loud shriek.

But it was a good instinct, for the pervious spot she had been standing in burst into flames. Hikari gaped at how strong the fire was, he had gotten better, and saw how high the flames touched the sky. When the fire died down a bit, she turned and gaped towards Akane.

Two others came towards the four, both running on foot. "Ah, Xiawu and Sanura. You have finally come," Kenji spoke to them when they arrived, smiling. "I did not receive a reply after I sent you the message."

The man, Xiawu, laughed and held out his hand, and sparks of fire came out of his palm. His big eyes shone a deep, sea blue and his straight, black hair with red at the roots was tied also in a ribbon at the end, reaching his mid-back. His outfit was a deep, dark Sanura with fingertip-less gloves, pants that ended at his knees and flats on his feet. "I sent the response with this," he acknowledged he flames in his palm as they got larger, dark gray smoke rising from it.

The woman, Sanura, was a ninja, covered in all black from her toes to where her head met her neck. A black headband was wrapped tight around her head, letting her locks of bright sunny yellow hang to her shoulders, the excess pieces of the headband joining them. On the bottom of her shoes and wrapped around her knuckles were sharp spikes, sticking outward towards the enemy. She had a silly grin on her face and ran over to Hikari and Akane, in the blink of an eye. Her super fast feet were a blur to those staring, and she would have run to the ends of Japan and back in the time to say, "If Sanura tried to walk at normal speed, it would kill her."

Hikari was still staring at Akane, who now looked uncomfortable, turned away from the girl, who was two feet shorter than her.

"Why?!" Hikari was saying. "Why did you warn me about the flames?!"

Akane said nothing to defend herself.

"W-we hate each other!" Hikari continued.

"Yes, we do! And I'm going to get that stone away from you!" Akane lifted a fist to her chest in determination, the bracelets on her wrist jingling.

But why did you warn me, when you could've let me just…" Hikari became quiet, discontinuing her sentence. Their friendship with everyone and each other had been broken long ago, and when the stone changed to require only one ruler, in which it picked the eldest, their relationships turned to that of pure hatred for one another.

"Hikari," Hayato came up behind her. "Do not be fooled by one word; one action. If no one had warned you about Xiawu's flames, you know that you would have burned to death."

"That's correct," smirked Kenji, "And if you had died, we would not be able to achieve the stone of Fatum Vox, for we do not know where it is kept, and we would never have a way of knowing."

"So, don't think of it, Hikari, as a sign of compassion or care," Xiawu said, clapping his hands together, extinguishing the fire in his palm. "It was only a way to save the stone of Fatum Vox."

Hikari glance at Akane, and said, "Oh… yes… I know.

"So you all hate me."

"Of course! It's because you were chosen and you possessed the stone of Fatum Vox!" Sanura spoke for the first time. "Once we get it out of your possession, you will lose all power of the kingdom."

"Don't mix us into your silly, little fantasies," Kenji said, "We are, in no hope, ever becoming alliances towards each other again. So stop dreaming of the impossible world where we're all friends once again."

"Yes," Hayato agreed. "Now we all despise each other and with good reason. When the time comes when I defeat you and when you can no longer stand, you shall whimper on you knees, dying, I will get the stone of Fatum Vox."

"You get the stone?!" Xiawu scoffed. "Who died and made you superior to all of us? I shall be the one to kill her, and because I am the second eldest, I shall get the stone. Besides, no one here is more important than the other," he hesitated, then smiled, egotistically, his hands firing up again. "Well, except for me!"

Sanura punched his arm hard. "No way! If anyone has a level of importance, then you have the least! And please, as if we need more heat here!" Xiawu's fire extinguished immediately and he scowled at her. "And I should have the stone of Fatum Vox, because I shall put it to good use and rule the kingdom efficiently!"

"But, I shall do better!" Akane cut in, "and I got her first, even before you, Sanura!"

"I arrived here first," Hayato pointed out, lifting a finger to his chest.

"But I have proved myself to be the strongest out of all of you!" Kenji interrupted them. "Using my skills of controlling the earth, the stone of Fatum Vox should belong in my hands!"

They bickered on and on. Hikari knew them, how they would start and never finish. Suddenly she leapt high into the air above all of their heads. "The stone of Fatum Vox is mine! And none of you shall ever know its whereabouts!"

When she landed a bit of a distance away, she immediately ran at a sprint away from them as they chased her. And thus the fight began.

Sanura sped up faster than the others and caught up with Hikari. As she swung a spiked fist by her, Hikari stuck out her open hand and a purple glow spewed out, hitting Sanura and flinging her off her feet and into her ground a distance away.

Hayato leapt in the air, suspending in it for a while, until he also caught up to Hikari and unsheathed his katana. He swung his sword around blindly just above the girl's head, and Hikari dodged the random swings and lunges aimed for her.

Still at a sprint, she lifted her hands up and the purple glow hit Hayato, rebounding him up higher into the air, grunting as he hit her fore field. Because they had been so far ahead, when Hayato came back down to Earth, he landed on Xiawu, as the rest of the group had caught up to the spot where Hikari used her force field.

So, Xiawu was crushed, face planted in the sand, as Hayato stood, dusted himself off and began walking towards the chase. Xiawu, from his position in the ground, lifted a hand and fire came from his palm, lighting up the ground in flame. The fire lit up the ground in a curved line and eventually that curved line made its way to one of Hayato's navy blue shoes.

From the excess heat, Hayato yelled and threw off his burning shoe, which soon burned to ashes. Hayato glared, a glare meant for Xiawu, but it was directed in the complete opposite direction.

Xiawu brought himself up, spitting out pebbles of sand, "You'll regret that!"

Hayato spun around towards the sound of Xiawu's voice but Xiawu ran to him and punched Hayato's cheek, his hand heating up. Hayato blinked and touched his cheek. In reaction, he took his katana and aimed its point directly at Xiawu. Xiawu's hands turned red and burned fire, while he bent his knees slightly.

Before they could move any more, the ground shook. A giant boulder came out of the ground with five other smaller, yet longer rocks. The two men froze and another similar clutter of rocks came out of the ground. Just as Xiawu would put out his fired palms, the two rock hands clapped together, extinguishing the fire of the two men, squishing them together under the earthy pressure. After a good amount of breath and blood lost, the two hands separated, releasing the men and fell right back into the ground. The two men lay on the ground, panting and groaning. A pedestal of rock came up and Kenji, on top, stood with his arms crossed, laughing in a good-hearted way for a maniacal purpose.

If they had the strength, they would have given him the finger. But they attempted, lifting their arms and then flopping them back down.

"Oh! I'm so, so sorry!" Kenji said, sarcastically, stifling his laughter poorly. "Please! Please continue! I won't interrupt you two anymore!" and with that, he turned and, on his pedestal, started it similarly like a car. He stomped on a specific point on the flat surface of his pedestal and the pedestal of rock started moving, away from the men on the ground and to the chase.

"Dammit…" Xiawu sighed and lifted his hand again. Out of his fingers came a little flame, not enough even to light a candle.

"I…don't' mind just laying here for a while…" Hayato said.

"Hm," Xiawu nodded his head once in agreement.

Hikari's energy was weakening from her sprint and the strong force fields she had to use. Xiawu and Hayato were no longer in sight, Sanura was recovering from the impact of Hikari's force field, and Kenji just disappeared. So the only one on Hikari's tail was the one with the tail herself.

Akane had transformed into a wolf and her four paws could carry her faster then Hikari's slowing two feet could. She abruptly stopped and turned to the world charging towards her. Holding her hands up she tried to make a force field but the purple glow did not emerge from her hands. Hikari's eyes widened in shock when nothing happened and she looked frantically at her hands panicked.

When she glanced back up, Akane pounced on her, sinking her fangs into her arm. Hikari screamed in pain and spun around, yanking and pulling, trying to free her arm from the beast's grip while keeping her arm in her socket. With her free hand, she held it in front of Akane's blood red eyes. Despite the pain gradually growing in her arm, Hikari concentrated and soon an eerie purple glow seeped out of her hand. The misty purple air touched Akane and consumed her. Numbing her with pain, Akane released Hikari's arm and the glow tossed her into the air. She land on the sand, yelping as she hit it.

Hikari knelt, clutching her bleeding arm. She panted as she examined the bite holes, blood seeping through her light blue kimono sleeve. Akane transformed back into her human form, lying tiredly on the sand. The ground started shaking and Kenji's moving pedestal was seen approaching as if he just emerged from the sand. Sanura appeared in a flash; no one had even seen her coming. Kenji came and jumped off his pedestal and the three of them walked towards the kneeling Hikari on the ground.

Sanura started running. She circled Hikari; circling circling circling circling… until she created a giant tornado of sand and dust, holding Hikari inside it. Hikari grit her teeth and let off thin spirals out of her hands of her purple force field. If any of them would hit Sanura, they would knock her off course and hopefully the tornado would die out. But Hikari's spirals kept missing and Sanura's sand tornado only grew stronger.

Kenji brought big stones out of the ground in the small section inside the tornado where Hikari was kept and threw them at Hikari. She rolled on the ground away from them, bloodied arm hanging limp at her side. She kept dodging the rocks, nearly missing her by a hair.

Kenji held another rock up, but placed it in the skin of the tornado, making a hole. Akane transformed and went through the hole made. The hole closed up behind her and the tornado grew stronger still, making the possibility of escaping even slimmer. So Akane and Hikari stood face to face again. Other than the feeble attempts to escape before, Hikari had been very silent and still, concentrating. Akane growled, the hairs on her back standing up, threateningly. Hikari suddenly screamed a long, heart-piercing scream that made Akane press her canine ears flat against her head. Her scream turned high-pitch like an alarm, becoming louder, so that Sanura and Kenji could hear it.

The sound reached their ears, slicing through them and Sanura staggered while she was running, slightly weakening. Kenji, clasping his hands over his ears, realized what Hikari was doing and uprooted more rocks, tossing them at the tornado.

Hikari at this time, exploded with her purple barrier, blasting Akane, Sanura and Kenji into the air in all directions. She had used the scream as a distraction while she gathered the energy to use her barrier. Kenji, in the air, took more rocks and threw them in Hikari's direction. One of them clobbered the side of Hikari's head; she swayed a little on her knees and then fell to the ground.

Unconscious for a while, her mind suddenly flickered, restarting back on and Hikari opened her eyes. Her head was bleeding now and she was dizzy when she sat up. Clutching her bleeding head in pain, she looked around blurrily.

She heard a swish of the wind and all of a sudden saw red. She gasped in air, coughing because of smoke inhaled. Hikari's eyes focused, becoming clear. She was surrounded by flames, Xiawu's traditional Ring of Death. She would waste her energy if she were to jump and try to get out of the circle, but then Xiawu would only raise the flames higher.

"Where have you hidden the stone of Fatum Vox?" a voice came from above. Hikari looked up. Hayato came down, right in front of her, almost exactly alike he had done just maybe an hour before. The only difference was now Hayato was also bleeding, blood stained on his torso and shoulders.

"W-where's Xiawu?" Hikari let out.

"You should not be the one asking questions… where is the stone of Fatum Vox?" Hayato asked again menacingly, pointing his katana point to her face.

"Over my dead body will I ever show you fools!" Hikari's eyes narrowed. After she said this, she started coughing and clutched her head. The heat of the fire and the sun combined was making her dizzier.

Hayato said, "Well, not to worry… it won't be long…" he swung his sword and cut her unwounded arm. He swung again and cut her knee, and then her cheek. At this she did not flinch. But when he went to strike her again, she swung her own leg around, tripping him. He fell back into the flames, yelled loudly in pain, and leapt back up, jamming his sword into Hikari's gut, since she had just managed to stand back up. Eyes widening, she fell back into the fire behind her and screamed. The flames were put out after Hikari was cooked for a minute.

Once the fire was out, Hikari collapsed on the ground, covered in burns, and was bleeding profusely everywhere. Xiawu and Hayato stood over her. "Where is the stone kept?" Xiawu demanded. "We'll keep torturing you until you reveal it." Hayato said nothing, but stuck out his katana and swung at Xiawu's arm, slicing through his black cloak and his sleeve, also cutting his forearm.

"Ow! Dammit!" Xiawu winced and clutched his arm, examining his shredded cloak. "What the hell, Hayato?!"

"That was for the burns on my back," Hayato said calmly.

"Damn you!" someone yelled. Hikari opened her previously closed eyes from her position on the ground. Someone kicked her side. Once the blurriness cleared, she saw Sanura, kicking her side with her spiked shoes. And she repeated her actions, "Damn you damn you Damn you damn you Damn youuuuu!!"

"Cease, Sanura," Kenji said, walking up to her.

"Make me, baka!" Sanura turned to Kenji, stomping her foot on the ground.

"Yes, Sanura," Akane also appeared, next to Kenji, in Hikari's view. "Stop, she's immovable now. She must answer our questions."

Sanura's shoulder's slumped, and rubbed one of her arms that she had landed on top of in her previous fall.

Hikari grasped her stomach as she coughed again. Her neck gave out with support and her head flopped down onto the sand. She breathed in and out in harsh shallow, and much needed breaths.

"You must tell us where the stone is, or Xiawu will have you burned," Hayato threatened.

"Tell us!" Kenji demanded kneeling down to Hikari. She turned her head to the side and she laughed softly out of her sore throat. "Five against one, huh? Was that really fair?"

"Nothing in life is fair. We all realized this when you got the stone, but have avenged ourselves by beating the crap out of you!" Xiawu exclaimed, almost excited, pointing a finger at the girl on the ground.

"You did more than that," she croaked out.

"Listen here," Kenji grabbed her wrist and pulled her up to sit. She moaned as he made her sit up straight. His grip was rock hard. "Tell us where the stone is, and we'll end you suffering."

"I won't! Never will I tell you! Do you have any idea what a burden it is?"

"Burden…? How could it be a burden?"

"The stone of Fatum Vox had only torn us apart. If you guys hadn't been such asses, I would have used my power to divide the stone and give us each a piece, so we would still be rulers of the kingdom!" Hikari fell into another coughing fit, spitting out blood this time.

Everyone froze except for Hikari, who was regaining her breath. Akane knelt beside Hikari. "Hikari," she said. "Why would you do that? Why would you let us have the opportunity to rule it with you again, when we abandoned you before?"

Hikari said nothing to her former best friend. Akane had gotten pretty beaten up as well. She had bruises and small cuts everywhere, mostly on her arms and face. Hikari looked at her face for a moment and then slowly smiled at her, warmly. For just a moment, Hikari saw her friend again, underneath the pain and differences. And underneath the blood red eyes. She saw them flash their original hazel. Her face changed as well. From a wolf hybrid to a girl, a normal girl. Hikari looked at Kenji. His eyes were flashing a blue color, and his face changed as well. It was a familiar face that made Hikari smile brighter. She looked up at Xiawu and Hayato and Sanura standing over her. They changed to a boy with brown eyes and glasses, a boy with blue eyes and wavy, sandy colored hair, and a girl with blue eyes and a silly grin.

Surrounding Hikari were her friends. At least, who they used to be…

And thus, she remembered it all.

She looked at them, and then she looked at herself. Hikari, right before her eyes, changed as well. Her hair as light brown and she was sure her eyes had turned hazel again. Consumed by selfishness, hatred and greed, the six friends had turned from their original true selves to selves that they had longed to be. With the use of the stone of Fatum Vox, they were about to do this; to change their faces and to give them extraordinary powers. They had chosen their powers themselves according to their interests, and, just like a walk-in closet, picked out different eyes and hair, from so many possibilities and choices.

And then came a time when the Fatum Vox required only one ruler to control the kingdom. The stone of Fatum Vox chose the eldest of the six, which happened to be Hikari. Once she gained all the power, the other five became angry and left, leaving each other with hatred towards everyone in their minds. When they spoke one of the others' names, they said them bitterly and their whole faces and tone would darken.

But now they were together again and still hating each other. As of right now, however, when Hikari revealed the fact that she would have given power to each of them, everyone's hatred slightly decreased.

Hikari's smile never wavered and Kenji released her wrist. She instantly fell backwards and lay flat on her back, her blood staining the sand underneath her. She took one of her bloodied hands and opened a compartment by her side, just above her ragged belt. She took out something and held it in her enclosed hand. Her arm fell by her side, the something inside her fist, shining through from the space between her fingers. It was the green shine that everyone recognized, but no one dared to move, as Hikari out a rounded, purple force field around all of them. She spoke softly, with the remaining breath she had:

"We'll be friends again… maybe in heaven…" Hikari closed her eyes and then did not move. The other five waited for a moment and then realized that she was dad. But strangely, the purple barrier was still surrounding them. Akane took Hikari's shining hand and slowly opened her fist. Inside, was the stone of Fatum Vox, shining an emerald green.

The five just stood there. It was really the stone! But there was something else Hikari had in her palm. It was a small, round, black ball. All of their eyes widened, even Hayato's, at the sight, or feeling, of the black ball.

Before anyone had time to react or move, the black ball, which was a bomb, exploded.

Everything went black, and bold, white letters appeared.

PLAYER 1 HAS BEEN DEFEATED

PLAYER 2 HAS BEEN DEFEATED

PLAYER 3 HAS BEEN DEFEATED

PLAYER 4 HAS BEEN DEFEATED

PLAYER 5 HAS BEEN DEFEATED

PLAYER 6 HAS BEEN DEFEATED

"Damnit!!" five friends sat on the floor, some yelling and some gaping in disbelief at the TV screen. The sixth friend, sitting in the front, because of her weak eyes, just smiled and laughed evilly.

"Damnit, Tia!" the boy with blue eyes and dirty blonde hair yelled, throwing down his controller.

"As, Kenny, don't be a sore loser!" the girl with the blue eyes and silly grin said.

"Yea, Kenny, I agree with Paige!" the boy with the blue eyes and wavy, sandy hair. He shook his head, "and, don't take it out on the controller…"

"Shut up, Keith!" Kenny said. He turned to the girl sitting in the front. "Geez, Tia! I almost had the stone! You planned that stupid bomb thing all along!"

Tia nodded her head, turning around towards him, and smiled in satisfaction. "Yep! I knew no one would see that coming!"

"Can we play Guitar Hero now?" the boy with the brown eyes and glasses asked, in a monotone. He stared at the screen blankly, pressing A over and over again through the credits.

"Yeaaaaaaaaa!!!!" the girl with the hazel eyes and brown hair wagged her hands around, bouncing up and down in her seat next to Keith. Tia's smile quickly turned into a scowl. She twisted around back to the TV, "Mehhh…."

"Alright guys, let's play! Tia obviously wants to play so bad!" Keith said and laughed when Tia turned and glared at him.

"…I still can't believe I couldn't kill anyone…" Kenny mumbled under his breath. "I just wanted to crush everyone!" Kenny lifted a hand and tightly made a fist.

The boy with the glasses made a face, as if he were laughing, with his eyes widening and his mouth forming a smile, but he made no sound.

"What, Tyler?"

Tyler pointed to the screen with the player stats flashing. "The only two people who killed anyone, by giving them a final blow, was Tia and Keith."

Tia said, "Yea! I killed all of you off with my hidden bomb! Hee hee, you were the first to die, Taylor!"

Taylor laughed, "That's a first, but it's only because I was the smart one who picked up the bomb in your hand."

"Wait, if Tia killed all six of us… who did I kill?" Keith asked. Paige laughed when she realized the answer to Keith's question. Tia also started laughing and said,

"Well you and the power to control fire. Remember when Tyler… I mean, Hayato, was fighting me when he was in the air?"

"That was highly difficult to do when you're blind." Tyler pointed out. Keith nodded and then Kenny and Taylor started laughing, understanding it before Keith and laughing at Keith because he still didn't see it.

"And Hayato landed on you and burned his shoe off?"

He nodded again, smiling and reminiscing that memory.

"Well, they counted the shoe."

Keith laughed and asked, "But why?"

"They count everything that burns to ashes," Tyler said, turning the game off and picking up the GH guitar.

"Oh c'mon, Tyler! How many songs?" Tia whined.

"Only four."

"Well, you can't do that all at once! Taylor and I wanna face each other after you do one song!" Paige said, as Tia mumbled something grudgingly under her breath.

Then Kenny vs. me!" Keith called out.

"Then I do my other three songs!" Tyler started his first song on expert, his fingers flying and hitting every note with ease.

"And… this'll take all night," Tia held her chin in her hands. "Can't we just play the Fatum Vox game again?" she sighed once Tyler finished and Taylor and Paige grabbed the two guitar controllers. They strummed a bit to warm up their fingers.

"Please!" Tia begged, lacing her fingers together. "Let's just play it one more time. Using the voices was so much fun!"

Taylor and Paige paused and everyone looked at her. She rolled her eyes. "Okay, okay… we won't go to the desert this time. I only picked first because it was my idea to play. Pick where ever you'd like to go…" Everyone else smiled and shut of Guitar Hero, with Tia breathing a sigh of relief to see the red light go out. Tyler sighed and picked up his regular controller.

"We'll play more later. Just be patient," Tia stuffed her mouth with gluten-free pretzels, and Paige stole one of Kenny's brownies from the platter. They all took hold of their controllers and pressed the power button with the Fatum Vox game inside the game system.

"So, let's go to the mountains this time! There are big rocks there I can crush you with!!!"

"No! Wolves can't survive in the snow covered mountains!"

"Yeah, and my fire won't light anything up when someone hits me with a snowball!"

"I wonder if our characters can bundle up in layers… My kimono's all torn up!"

"Hee hee! Mountains sound good, I love running and playing in the snow!"

"…it doesn't matter to me. The sight of the mountains, desert, ocean, whatever… all of it makes me indifferent…"

They played, ate, laughed, and had fun.

And thus, all was well.