(Author's Note: Wow. Two years later, and I finally decided to write the sequel to Three Cyniclons and a Baby. I hope everyone will enjoy it.)

Chapter One-Breaking All the Rules

"Hey, that's not fair!" Arissa pouted up at Mint. "I was going to drink that…" The ten-year-old girl put her hands on her hips. "You can't just assume I was finished!"

"Sure I can. You've been playing with this milk for an hour. You're stalling for homework." Mint replied simply. "You know Ryou said if you don't get your homework done you can't go to the sleep over."

Arissa's brown eyes widened. "He can't do that." It seemed to Arissa there was always some rule she didn't like. She thought about the cyniclons and remembered a time when there had been very few rules. The half-human girl frowned.

"Yes he can." It was Keiichiro who butted in now. "Arissa, this isn't like you. You'd gotten so much better.." He wiped his hands on his apron. "Go get your homework folder so I can look at it, alright?" He watched her look like she might protest, but in the end, he won the confrontation, as usual, and he watched her go upstairs. What's wrong Arissa? You're not usually this rebellious. You had been getting better…

Three years ago, Arissa had come into the care of his business partner, Ryou Shirogane after their foe, the Cyniclons had decided to return her. The had feared she would get hurt in the middle of their battles with the Mews. It had taken a long time for the girl to even trust them, let alone forget about the Cyniclons, who she felt were her best friends. Keiichiro did have to give the annoying Kisshu his props, for getting her out of the dangerous living situation she'd been involved in prior to that.

The aliens' reluctance to give her back had been something new for the team, since they'd shown nothing but cruelty towards the rest of the human race. The whole experience had felt surreal, but at the same time, it had been dangerous, with such a young child caught in the middle. They could all be thankful that the most the Cyniclons had done was fuse their DNA with hers. That, he'd never forgive Pai for.

"Do you think she misses the Cyniclons?" Mint asked, as she wiped up Arissa's table. "I mean, she hasn't mentioned them to you, has she?" As far as she knew, Arissa hadn't mentioned the Cyniclons to anyone in a year, but the girl did seem to talk to Keiichiro more than the rest.

"I wouldn't doubt it…" Keiichiro blinked a little. "She did mention Kisshu the other night…something about an anniversary."

"Oh." Mint shrugged. "It must be a mixed up memory or something…" In recent weeks, Ryou had been working on a mind wiping device, disliking her random references to the Cyniclons, and especially after she failed a science experiment on the Earth's pollution. "I have 

to say, I agree with Ryou on that device he's been working on. Maybe she wouldn't get into so much trouble in school."

That's probably true….Keiichiro thought. But would we be doing any better than the Cyniclons had, experimenting on her like a guinea pig?

"Hey, Keiichiro, where's Arissa?" Ryou came up from his lab then. "I have the device ready."

"Is it going to take long? I was just about to have her do her homework."

"Not really; a couple of hours at the most. We'll make sure she gets it done. Though, I can't believe it's not done yet. She's been home for two hours." Ryou sighed. "So is she upstairs?"

"Yeah…" Keiichiro was starting to wonder if this was going to go well. "Just be careful." He went back into the kitchen.

Ryou watched Arissa from her bedroom doorway. "Hey…what are you doing?"

"I'm finishing my homework….before Keiichiro takes away my computer." She glanced out the window. "How's your experiment?"

"Actually, I need your help with it. It's ready for a test run." He smiled a little. "It won't take that long."

"Alright." She got up, and followed Ryou to his laboratory downstairs. She looked up at him as they got to the entrance. Ryou suddenly seemed really serious. "What's going to happen?"

"Nothing that will harm you." Ryou said, though he felt a less confident than he sounded. He hoped it would all go good. He entered the room, and gestured to a seat."Have a seat."

She sat down. Arissa took in the way the lab had changed over the last few years. She didn't come down anymore, because he was always busy. "Ryou, do the girls have to fight with the aliens?"

"Yes. Until they're gone." Ryou replied without looking over. He could guess her eyes were sad, and she pouting over it. "You still think about them as friends, hmm?"

'Yeah…especially Kisshu, and Tart." She had lost her love for Pai the day he'd tried to hurt her.

"Well…" Ryou didn't finish his thought. "Okay, come on. Hop up here for me." He patted the soft table he had.



She was starting to get a sense of de ja vu. Hadn't Pai had her on a table similar to this one? "What are we doing?"

Ryou didn't answer her. "Just come lay here, please." He didn't like what he was about to do either, but it was the right thing to do, if she was to remain with them. He had half expected the aliens to retract their decision years ago but they hadn't. When she wouldn't come, he picked her up, and made her lay down on the cushioned table. "I promise you this won't hurt."

That's what Pai said…but it changed me forever, what he did. He made me a part of them. What if Ryou wants to try and take that away from me? She sat up. "No! I don't want this. I want to go play."

"And you can go play, after I'm done." Ryou said firmly. "You're just going to take a little rest, alright?" He laid her back down again. "Just relax. Deep breaths…" He placed a few wires on various parts of her head, and then turned the machine on. It hummed to life. "Just relax…we'll be finished before you know it."

Finished with what? Arissa thought, as she found herself being lulled to sleep by the steady humming of the machine she was now hooked up to. "Ryou..?"

"Sh…" Ryou said now, needing the concentration to pull the right plugs on her memories. Hmm. There's a lot here…but I will keep a couple, and alter the ones that I keep to make them worse than they were. That should help her. He admitted that he felt a little guilty for doing this. But it's the best thing I can do, in case they come back. I don't want to lose her again. She's come so far. He glanced over at his adopted sister silently. "Sorry, Arissa. I hope you'll forgive this one day."

"Hey, guys. Sorry I'm late…" Ichigo came in a few minutes later. "Did I miss anything?"

"Besides the lunch rush? Not really. Oh, and Arissa threw a fit because I threw out her milkshake because her homework wasn't finished." Mint filled her friend in. "Nothing out of the ordinary, really."

"Oh…" Ichigo frowned. "That doesn't sound too good. She's been getting into a lot of trouble at school too…" She glanced up, seeing Pudding come in. "Hey, how'd it go at the library?"

"Not bad." Pudding replied, smiling. She had been volunteering there with Lettuce for the last couple of weeks to get school credit. "It would've been better if this wasn't there." She pointed to a burn mark on her leg which still hurt. "I didn't realize Arissa had been trained to use those infusers so well…"

"Yeah…" Mint frowned. "She hasn't been brave enough to try that with any of the rest of us…"

"All I was doing was enforcing Ryou's rule about keeping her room clean. It wasn't as if I'd asked her to save the planet." Pudding rubbed the spot tenderly. "At least it wasn't a big predacyte."

"Well I still think you should have told Ryou about it." Zakuro said now, leaning on the door frame. "For all we know, she could still be talking to them secretly."

"Not a chance of that, really." Keiichiro said now. He had been listening in for a while. "We took her tracer from her last year, when we found out she was still trying to communicate with it, and we don't let her use Ryou's computers."

"What about hers?" Mint asked. "Have you checked that for alien communications?" She sipped her newly made mug of tea. "I wouldn't put it past those sneaky Cyniclons to find a way to break the rules."

"Kish wouldn't…" Ichigo began, but she narrowed her eyes. "Or would he…?" She had to admit that Kish had become the most unpredictable, infuriating opponent ever since Arissa got involved. And then she had to remember that it was Kish, and she knew he wasn't to be trusted. "Well, all we can do is hope that when Ryou fixes her memories; he'll make her forget about being half-Cyniclon. Then that infuser power of hers won't be a big deal."

"We can only hope…" Pudding replied, as she got to work cleaning her tables for the dinner rush. She had the feeling that even taking away her memories would be a bad idea. And she knew that the Cyniclons weren't letting go of Arissa. Tart had just recently asked about her. She'd been cryptic in her report, but gave the alien the satisfaction of telling him about the plant predacyte she'd been attacked by.

"Fish, I win." Tart smirked at Kisshu's scowl. "Not a bad game."

"Yeah yeah…" Kisshu yawned out of bordem. "I wonder when we'll be going back down there.." I wonder how Arissa is too. He didn't voice that thought. It had become an unspoken rule not to mention the human girl they'd fostered for a year. Kisshu had also made a promise to himself not to check on her from time to time. Though, Pai and Tart did, and whether he wanted them or not, he'd get a report on her progress. He had to smirk, remembering the report that said she was failing science over alien technology.

"What are you smirking about?" Pai demanded. "It's not like you're making any progress in the mission lately. All you're doing is stalling for time."

"It's not that. Arissa is failing science over alien technology. Nice job, Pai."

"Heh." Pai snorted. "Well, we had to leave our mark on her somehow." Though I think the infuser abilities were enough… "Let's just hope she doesn't start trying to use it."

"Well, she popped Pudding with a plant infuser the other day for making her clean her room." Tart smirked. "Pudding told me that the last time we met."

Pai had to laugh at that. "Well, at least we taught her defense maneuvers well enough…" Then he sobered, glancing to the viewing screen. "Hey! He can't do that!" He put a hand on the screen.

Kisshu dared to look over. "Hey!! What does he think he's doing?!" He scowled angrily. "That...!" Kisshu wasn't sure what Ryou Shirogane was doing to Arissa, but he was sure it broke the agreement. "I'm going down there!"

"Wait!" Pai grabbed his arm. "We can't just "go down there" anymore, remember? We handed her over to them on our own accord. They can do what they want."

"Yeah, but they yelled at you for messing with her DNA…" Tart was frowning sadly. "Why would they turn around and experiment on her after that?" He didn't like this at all. "I'm with Kisshu. We should go stop them."

"I have a better idea." Pai said, smirking a little. He went off to his room without another word to his brothers.

Tart and Kisshu looked at each other, frowning. Kisshu spoke first. "What is he up to?"

"I don't know, but I hope it doesn't get her into trouble…" He left to go to his own room.

Several hours passed, before Arissa woke up again. When she woke up, she felt fuzzy, and out of sorts. She opened her eyes to find she was back in her room. Strange. I had a dream Ryou was hooking me up to some machine….She started, feeling a sharp pain in her head. It hadn't been a dream. Her adopted brother had hooked her up to some device..to her brain? She sat up slowly, and winced again, as the pain repeated itself. She slowly got out of bed. It was dark outside, and she wondered where everyone was. She checked her digital clock. The large blue numbers read eleven. My homework! Oh no. Keiichiro will take my computer if I don't finish it…

"You won't need a computer." A very calm voice said. A being levitating just above her large book shelf smirked. "It's been a long time, Arissa. My brothers and I have missed you."

Arissa blinked. Who is this?! He doesn't even look human! And beside, who are his brothers? Were they like him too? She backed up just a little. "Who are you?"

"Who am…?!" The being now lowered himself to the girl's floor. "So that's what he did. That sneaky…!" He forced himself to calm down. He cleared his throat. "I'm Pai."

"Pai?" Arissa giggled. "That's the silliest name I've ever heard." She sobered when the being called Pai glowered at her dangerously.

Pai formed a ball of energy, but then forced it to dematerialize; realizing hurting her now would be pointless. Those who were raising her would come running. But he needed to get her out before that. "You're coming with me. No fussing now. I don't want to hurt you." With that, he grabbed her wrist firmly.

"H-hey! Let go!" She suddenly had a flashback. The Cyniclons…our enemies…they killed my parents…and this one…Pai...the leader, had dissected me! She yanked as hard as she could. "No! I won't let you experiment on me again!" Arissa writhed in pain from the alien's grip on her wrist. She looked towards the door. "Ryou! Help!"

"He won't be able to help you now." He winced when Arissa kicked him hard.

"Get off!" Arissa fought as hard as she could and eventually did manage to break free long enough to get away. She backed up to a wall near the intercom that led to the café below. She bumped it, setting off an alarm that sounded throughout the building. She jumped a mile, when Pai got closer. She gasped, and raised a palm. A shot of energy fired, but missed Pai. What was that?! How…?! She didn't get to finish her thought, because it was about then that she collapsed in pain. Her head still hurt, and now it hurt even more.

"Gotcha!" He picked the girl up again. Pai cursed in his native language, and tightened his grip, wrapping an arm around her middle tightly. He glanced up, hearing a door bang open from down the hall, followed by a second door closer to the bedroom. This is looking bad, and more complicated than I intended!

"Please, don't hurt me…I didn't do anything on purpose, I swear…I don't even like the Mew Mews…" And that was mostly because of their ridiculous rules.

"If you're a good girl, I'll think about it." He spoke in English now, as he produced a vial filled with a mixture of her breathing medicine and a sedative out of thin air. He loved that ability of theirs. He forced the substance down Arissa throat quickly, and snapped his fingers. The girl was asleep almost instantly. He smirked.

"HEY!" Ryou and Keiichiro were both in the door way. Ryou looked panicked. "What do you think you're doing?!"

"It doesn't concern you." Pai replied, his voice dark and full of malice. "You broke our agreement. Now I'm taking my sister back."

"Please don't…" Keiichiro said now. "We love her, that's all. We wanted to give her a chance for a normal life…is that so wrong?"

"And yet, her so-called guardian turned all of our good intentions into monstrous acts of cruelty. That does not carry well with me. No, you've done enough damage." He retrieved his 

fan, and prepared to use it. "Either you turn around, and leave or I'll be forced to do something you'll both regret." He still held on to the sleeping half-cyniclon firmly.

"Fine. Let's go, Ryou." Keiichiro could see no other way to keep Arissa safe. He hoped Pai wouldn't hurt the girl, but the look of pure hatred in the alien's eyes made him nervous.

"You won't keep her forever!" Ryou threatened. "You wait and see." He left with Keiichiro, heading to the basement to call the mew mews together at once.

Pai chuckled rather coldly. "We'll see about that." He disappeared with Arissa in tow.