Death of the Princes

by ShugoCharaPMS

Alice Emerges Latovayl is attending Alias Institute, an academy in the center of Earth's core. Kids are divided into 4 clans, and no one but your clan mates can be trusted...Rated T for mild violence.

1. Book 1: Alice

Death of the Princes

ALICE

Benicia Chiang

All I remember before falling off the cliff was that we were on a road trip and my foster dad, Alastair Tai Kingsley, saw a run over skunk on the road and swooned like a princess being carried off by a dragon. Foster mom, Shairilyn Rachel Marquise Kingsley, tried to grab the wheel and instead, sent us flying off the cliff. On the way down to meet the ground that seemed so close to us I prayed to all the gods I knew. The front of the beat up yellow Hummer collided with the ground first and my wonderful foster parents were killed within seconds. I managed to scramble out of the car broken and bloody and collapsed. I felt like I was being carried into the air. Is this death? I thought.

When I was lying on the dusty ground, I thought about all the happy times in my life: when I was adopted from the terrible orphanage; how I got my own room and was spoiled by my new parents; all the fun times with my new brothers: Blaire, Kenneith, Xaviere, Taeiki, and Shameisehn. Then I passed out.

When I woke up, I found myself lying on a soft memory foam bed in a white, high- tech hospital. A strange couple was looking at me with dark, sparkling sapphire eyes. The man spoke to his wife in a husky whisper. A question escaped my parched lips. "Where am I?" They did or said nothing to acknowledge that I had spoken. Instead they turned to a tall girl with pinkish- almost red- hair in a blood-red running suit that had just arrived in the room.

"Why are you here so early?" they questioned.

"You said our new member didn't change almost immediately when the operation finished. So I came to check up on her. Is she one of them?" After speaking, her hair started to become bright red and feathery. She took a swig of bottled water and turned. I shook my head. Maybe it was a trick of the light.

"Julia, where's Artemis? I thought you said you were going to bring him along."

"Asthma attack. I sent him back to the main building. Plus he forgot his antidote. Is her form the same as Aria's?"

This time the woman spoke in a heavily accented voice. She gave me a mysterious smile. "We're not sure. Something fierce I think. Her eyes changed color during the operation though." Peering down at me, she smiled a knowing smile. She turned to me, "What's your name, dahling?" Though she couldn't have been older than twenty years of age, her voice contained an odd wisdom to it.

Finally, somebody knows I'm here. "Alice Emerges Latovayl. Let me ask again, where am I?"

"Julia, since she's in your Clan, why don't you tell her?" The man's deep voice boomed throughout the room.

She sighed and spoke in a monotone voice as if she'd said this many times. "Alias Institute. We are here to help the earth. Show me your left wrist."

"What? Why?"

"Alice, dahling, just do it. Some people gain powers after the operation. Julia is just worried you are one of those people." The woman's voice seemed soothing so I did as she said.

I scrunched up the sleeve of my grime- covered sweater while I was staring at the woman's icy blue eyes. How could they seem so cruel yet so motherly. I scolded myself. Pssh, Alice. You grew up, abandoned by your parents and left to fend for yourself at the orphanage, You were adopted by complete strangers who you lived with for eleven years. Alastair and Shairilyn were never home except on Fridays and weekends. What the hell do you know about motherly? The girl named Julia smiled and walked out of the room.

I was frustrated and I still had so many questions. Instead of telling me why Julia had left, the woman handed me a massive stack of pamphlets and forms to be looked at and filled out.

After reading the first booklet, I now understood a little more of what the mysterious people were talking about. Alias Institute is a group of people who are changed by a secret operation that forces them to shape-shift into a specific animal if they are displaying any strong emotion. In order to prevent this from happening, they take an "antidote" in the form of a normal drink.

As I was filling out a form of preferences and allergies regarding food and what your previous home looked like, a guy my age walked in with his exotic looking dog comes in and looks at me with a pair of blue, scorning eyes. He sneered at me and said, "So you're the new mage? You look pathetic. The name's Hilton, Jake Hilton, Captain of Pheonix Clan. And now I'm your senior."

"I am up to here" I indicated above my head, "with you mysterious, stuck up people. Where in the world are we? All I know is that we are at Alias Institute and that we shape-shift! Will you just tell me where-" I stopped yelling long enough to notice he was laughing.

He was clutching at his stomach and his face was becoming furred in some places. "You are so right. Where in the world?All right, all right. Fine, I'll tell you some more about us. Artemis, did you get my antidote?" I didn't look at the door to see who had entered but when Jake insisted I see who had brought the antidote I tilted my head just enough to see an incredibly tanned guy with droopy dark hair walked in.

"Are you the new mage? Nice to meet you. I'm Artemis Polyxena, the Deputy of PheonixClan. And you are...?"

"Yeah, I'm Alice Emerges Latovayl. I suppose you're another mage?"

Jake butted into our little chat. "Did you bring my antidote my face is still half furred and my hands are starting to change."

I looked down at Jake's hands to just to see the fingers emerging together at the base near the palm while Artemis handed him a cup filled with a fizzing purple drink which Jake chugged down in a matter of seconds.

After a deep sigh, Jake turned to face me again, "Now back to lecturing the newbie." I glared at him. He casually ignored the dirty look like the way one brushes a speck of dust off one's self. "Have you heard about a bird's wink lids?" He didn't pause long enough to acknowledge my nod. "During the operation, they modify our eyes and add several of these lids that help us during our missions. Right now, you might not be able to control them but you will in time. With these we can see things normal people can't see, such as hidden explosives or weapons. We can see through walls and rock. You also have a special setting on your eyes to take pictures each time you turn it on and blink. This must also be controlled in case you take a photo of something misleading. Every time you photograph with this setting the pictures are sent immediately to HQ. Artemis, can you take it from here? I need to go check up with the Top." He led his dog out of the shining metal doors.

He stared at me. Annoying poker face, dark, eyes. I sensed something in his eyes flickering. Something similar to pain. "Okay, just come back soon. I need you to cover nighttime vision and hunting. Alright, now with Jake gone I can explain some of the finer modifications without him interfering. Your mind is also different. You can remember what happened at any given time. There is a tracker inside your blood, which will show where you are. Now, you're probably wondering where we are located. You might not believe me but right now we are in the earth's core. We are burn-proof." My jaw hung wide open. "Julia said she gave you the main idea. Every one of us helps keep the entire earth as well as the universe running perfectly. 'We are here to help the earth.'"

"But I thought that she meant we help the ecosystem. I didn't know there was a building here. Nobody does. Why isn't the structure melting?"

"It was developed by a very trustworthy human alchemist named Vincent van Gogh, an artist in the human world. He associated with us half-people after he discovered our secret and agreed to help us keep living near the earth to keep it running smoothly and forged a metal that never melts. The only way we could help him was to help him find his hidden talent: art. Now back to the subject of the building. The building is actually a series of metal transportation tubes that connect several structures. Let's think of it as a giant molecularly shaped city.

"But why do we need to hide?" I was aching to get the answer to this question.

"Years ago, we let the wrong person into the city. He was Jake's early predecessor to the dingo. He told many humans about our first joint in the Bermuda Triangle. Ships poured in. None returned. We were forced to move."

"That was your doing?"

"Yup! We learned more about the outside world from the things the sailors brought in. Here the Top told me to give this to you. If you don't mind I turned in your forms. Artemis, time to bring Alice to the main center." Jake grinned and held out a bottle of water and on the cap, printed neatly in black, were the letters "w:Ab" circled by a red pheonix.

"What do the letters stand for? And am I really in your Clan?" My face was the most obvious picture of confusion possible.

"That's for you to figure out isn't it? And yeah, you're in PheonixClan. If you were in another Clan they would have sent members to come get you." The two guys were in perfect sync. Artemis piped up, "Keep that bottle with you at all times. Oh, and here," He tossed me a small iPod-like device. "This contains a map of the whole complex and is connected to the trackers in everyone's blood. You can also contact people with it." When I looked at the main screen, I noticed that a miniscule picture of several animals outside the hospital complex. In the small white circle with a red cross in side of it, a question mark floated next to a picture of a dingo and a cougar. Odd.

They slid the door open and I was shocked into temporary paralysis. When I peered down the hallway. I saw my new family members. The members of the half-people Clans, every single one of them in their animal forms in the metal tunnel. I just stood there gawking at them when my face started tingling. Understanding this was the change, I reached to uncap the water bottle Jake had just given me. When I felt a hand on my shoulder, I turned around and saw Artemis was pressing his other hand onto his bare wrist and I saw the tattoo after he released it. An interesting design composed of swirls and line. His nose was becoming broader and jutted out. The look I gave him was to question him about his tattoo, but the way he nodded back at me was a command to do the same as he and Jake were doing. I rolled by left sleeve and what used to be tan, unblemished skin was now black and white. I stared at it a few seconds before I was out of my trance and realized that I now had a black tattoo of a curling symbol that somewhat resembled the letter "f" on the underside of my wrist. I pressed my hand against it and soon the tingling was everywhere. After a minute or so, the sparking had stopped. My first change had finished.

A pheonix stepped out of the group of creatures huddled together closest to me. I bowed down to who I assumed was Julia and ended up hitting my head on the ground. The fiery bird cried out in some language I didn't understand and I heard the lowering of heads in PheonixClan's group. Three other creatures stepped out of the crowd. Every single one of the four was mentioned only in fantasy books and fairy tales. A pheonix, a dragon, a griffin, and a basilisk. I didn't look into the giant snake's eyes in case the rumors were true that is you looked into a basilisk's yellow-gold eyes, you would be paralyzed for eternity. A cold voice hissed, "Julia, what have you told her about a basilisk. Pfft, if only the rumors were true. Then maybe I wouldn't need to fight." I realized the tone was feminine. The basilisk's voice turned from cold to mocking. "'Oh no, don't look into her eyes. She'll turn you to stone.' Wait, that's Medusa. Oh, is it, 'No, if only you don't look directly into those golden eyes, you'll survive to kill it. Ha! Quivering, pestering, interfering, stupid HUMANS!"

A much quieter male voice hissed, "Now, now Jamie. No need to get so worked up. She is new after all." I realized a sidewinder in the snake-populated section had been hissing to the larger snake. The snake slithered out a foot away from the crowd and said, "May I?" I saw the icy white colored dragon tip its head ever so slightly.

He had made his way over to me and said in a soothing voice, "The legends about basilisks are all wrong. Except a certain few. Professor Drake was almost correct. The basilisk is born a chicken egg and hatched beneath a toad. He also said the eyes petrefy but didn't say the crowing of the rooster will kill the creature. The only thing he got wrong are the eyes.

"Take a look up and see a real basilisk." I did in fact risk a look at Jamie and saw something resembling a scaly chicken with golden eyes and a serpentine tail. I was shocked and took it all in. A real basilisk. Right in front of me. It opened its giant mouth to reveal ginormous fangs the size of my foot. That is when I was human. Now I'm some mental person who's probably dreaming who changes into a badger and has different features than me. Even when I'm still me. Argh, this is so confusing. Fantasy creatures come to life. Houses in the earth's core. People who turn into animals.

Everybody's features started changing. The snakes becoming wider and differing in size. Four male and three female. Jamie growing skinnier and shorter. Hair growing on their snakey little heads. The rest of the animals had begun changing back in their own way. Wings and feet becoming arms and legs. Paws and talons becoming hands. Pelts, scales, and feathers becoming different colored uniforms. Red and orange; blue and white; orange and yellow; black and green.

When I looked behind me, I saw that Jake had dissappeared and in a flash Artemis stomped on the ground and a cloud of fire appeared and out of it stepped Jake. Fully clad in a white shirt with a red and orange tie. Then he held out a small pile on which was a small card inscribed "Alice Emerges Latovayl". There was a orange bow tie, a white shirt, a bloodred jacket, a gray skirt, and a pair of gray shoes. "I'll help you take this to your room."

The woman who I had seen earlier stepped out of the crowd of adults and a clear eyelid flickered ever so slightly above her left eye. Julia and was holding hands with a guy who had hawkish eyes; Artemis was holding a hand belonging to a girl with a rumpled mess of blond hair; and a couple who looked like they wanted to tear me apart were holding hands so tight, I saw the girl's knuckles go white. Then Jake turned to me and spoke to me. Only he didn't open his mouth. Hold my hand then we'll begin the ritual. So I did as he told. Then all four couples held hands and Julia was suddenly holding a knife with a crimson blade and a pheonix carved onto the handle. Everyone rolled up their sleeve so I did the same. Then Julia raised her bare arm and cut four cuts into her pale left arm and did the same with the right. Then arms dripping blood, she handed the knife to Artemis who continued the unsightly ritual. I then looked over Julia's shoulder and saw the other Clans gathered around in their own circle, in which I was guessing, dripping their own blood in some stupid mumbo jumbo ceremony.

When I looked back into our own circle the knife was already at Jake who finished cutting in an estonishing speed. Then the beautiful knife came to me. I looked at my arms and thought, Who cares if I do this? Not me. When I had finished slitting the lines, I smelled it. Sharp, tangy, and salty. Julia pressed her arms against Artemis's and the other guy. And so on so forth. I pressed my bleeding arms against Jake's and then my body felt renewed. Like I could run around the universe over and over again. Julia released her arms and everyone copied her. As she dropped her hands back down to her side, I noticed that her arms were perfectly healed. Mine too.

Jake, Artemis, and the girl with the tawny, blond hair came towards me. The girl looked and me and muttered, "Aria was prettier." Then she left.

Artemis rolled his eyes and said, "Athena's just jealous of you because she thinks Jake is," he mimicked Athena's voice, "is like way cooler." Artemis went back to his normal voice, "I mean, we get stuck with who we get stuck with. You two are lucky to be a double mage couple. There are only ever two. The other one is in DragonClan and they're not even our allies. I mean Anita's nice but Andrew's kinda odd."

We stopped at the end of the corridor. The man and the woman from the hospital came before us and Jake and Artemis bowed so I did the same. The man spoke again and I realized he was German. " Alice Emerges Latovayl, I speak your given name, but do you wish to change it in any way?"

"No, my name is fine. Why do you ask?"

"Some of our students are required to change their names for traditional reasons. Several of our students do not like the way their names are. Such as Artemis and Athena. They used to be brother- sister but Artemis couldn't be paired with his own sister so she changed her name. That is why they are so bitter to each other as a pair. Many other students came as siblings but just were separated into different Clans."

"Still, no thank you. I do have one question though, who are you?" When I finished, Artemis's bitter face and Jake's mouth scraped the soles of their shoes and gasped but the couple just laughed.

"I, my lady," he said smoothly, "am your saviour and the creator of the universe. My wife and I are responsible for everybody's fates. Every animal, every tree, and being. Right now your fate is the PheonixClan common room. There you will meet all the members of your Clan. Julia will explain our weekly rituals inside. Now hurry, your ClanMates are waiting. Dinner will be served at 7 sharp followed by announcements."

I went with Jake and Artemis as we walked into a glass, spherical room that led into five corridors each marked with a ribbon of our Clan colors. The middle entrance was marked with a circle shaped cloth patch divided into four sections each with a Clan ribbon in their respective sections and embroidered on top of the ribbons was a mythical animal representing each Clan. I looked at Jake but he and Artemis had already gone. "Great, tease the new girl. Now where do I go? " Then something in my jacket pocket vibrated. When I checked what it was, it turned out to be the device Artemis had given me.

Instead of showing me the screen it had shown me in the hospital complex, it contained a message saying:

From: Artemis Polyxena of PheonixClan

To: Alice Latovayl of PheonixClan

Alice, follow the PheonixClan ribbon to the end of the corridor. There is a door. If you say your name and your student pass number, you'll get into the common room. If you need to go to the common room from other places, there are other entrances but we always use this one when we greet a new person. Come quickly. Mark is trying not to rewreck the common room. Your student pass number is something implanted in your brain. It'll come to you.

Great! So we get texting sevice too, I thought to myself sarcastically. Follow the corridor. I power-walked down the wide hallway and reached the door with a pheonix carved onto it. "Alice Emerges Latovayl." Then I paused. Nothing happened. Was I not supposed to say my full name? Then as I was thinking a long string of numbers poured out of my mouth.

"579495821276945235644-56732355794432568911358."

The door swung open and a wolf was emmiting this aura that was making me freak out. So this is Mark. I guess I should have come faster. Then the gray pelted animal quietly returned to his normal form. The room was painted with the colors of fire. Four two-seater couches, red of course, were arranged in a circle around a fire pit. To the far left was a circle of eight desks surronding eight mahogany floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. To the right, three glittering doors. The middle one was blocked by a wall of garnet. The left and right ones with obsidian.

Julia sat next to the guy I had seen with her. Her partner I guess. Mark and a girl with strangely yellow eyes sat on a couch next to them and Artemis and Athena on the other side. The yellow-eyed girl pulled the brim of her hat to block her eyes from sight. Jake sat solitary across from Julia. I went to join him next to the fire, which, I noticed, had several animals trapped inside of it. I reached inside instinctively and my hand was knocked aside by a large encylclopedia.

"Don't touch the Flame of Truth." The growl had echoed around the room and I had no idea where it had come from.

Another strange ritual. Julia turned to me and said, "Every year, or when a new member comes, the Flame of Truth is brought out. Usually we store it in the center compartment of the bookcase. But anyway, I was told specifically to see if you responded to it. And you passed. Alrighty, let's get the show on the road."

I raised my eyebrows at her overly enthousiastic but she didn't notice. Instead she talked like it was all she could do to save her from expellation. Maybe she would be expelled if she didn't do this. "On the Friday of every week, we don't have school and have parties and ceremonies. Of course, Friday is detention day so you'll miss party hours. Every ceremony we hold honors the animals we rep so pay attention or you'll lose your form and die in the heat and pressure of the earth's core. We have a Noah's Ark Ball and a Moon Ball and Sun Ball. If you are a daytime animal, you go to the Sun Ball. But since that doesn't apply to you you'll go to the Moon Ball and the Noah's Ark Ball. Wait, Jason, are badgers nocturnal?" The guy sitting next to her shrugged. "So I guess you'll go to both Moon and Sun as well as Noah's Ark Ball. You lucky dog."

Artemis spoke, "Of course if your partner isn't a Moonwalker, you'll need to find a temporary mate at the Ball to dance with you. But since Jake here is active dusk and dawn, he'll be at both. Same as you."

Athena muttered, "The best this about this place is that it's like a boarding school out of a little kid's storybook. We all have our own servant squad. And the wardrobes always have the best formal dresses and the uniforms are always cleaned and ironed. Of course, we have regular kid school. I mean, who here knows anything about being REGULAR?"

"Athena, calm down. We all used to be human." The yellow eyed girl turned to me, her bright pink hair making a swishing sound and I swear I saw the brim of her green, knitted beanie move. "We have regular school and training. The only bad parts about being here is everyday school and trackers on you every minute. And we have the same uniforms ever since the school was first created. It's not that horrible here though. The chemicals in your brain which tell you what happened anytime help when you've fallen asleep in class. The teachers here don't really care though. Hey Jake, remember that time Squid caught you napping in class and she gave you an A on a quiz you didn't even do?"

"Yeah, that was awesome! See Alice, maybe being changed isn't so bad."

"Why couldn't they rescue the rest of my family?"

"Umm... Alice? The reason is they were already dead when they got there. You were strong and fighting. And adults can only be Assistants, teachers, or servants. Children younger than fourteen can only be emergency temps. They help us blend into the human world."

Then the iPod device went vibrating again. And showed a screen a bright flash went off and the device played a voice. "Measurements and preference scan complete." The screen went black. Then all was quite quiet. The girl next to Mark said, "Dinner is in half an hour. You can explore our territory. Oops, I mean quarters. You'll have your own room in the mage area. Since there are no other female mages. Oh, by the way, my name's Melissa Tolman, senior warrior of PheonixClan. Special form's the Tiger, Queen of the Jungle. Use the Crestmark Hark to help you." She left.

"Crestmark Hark. CRH, Creature Routine Helper. Well, their official name is the Crestmark Hark's Creature Routine Helper. But that's just confusing. They're only shaped like iPods for disguise. All of them have hidden keypads, games, tracking signals, Internet access, cell phone, and, of course, music." Mark actually sounded happy. A techy? Doesn't seem like it.

Several familiar songs went off at once. Melissa burst out of the door to our right, her "Crestmark Hark" playing Killers' Human. And mine was blasting Lady Gaga's Bad Romance.

"There's the warning bell. We've got ten minutes. Get dressed and let's go." Artemis barked out the order.

I followed Jake and Artemis past the garnet doors into a luxurious dorm. Inside the room was three cluttered tables filled with study materials and several interesting as much as they smelled materials and scorched firing ranges and a wall map of the structure of the Institute, intricately labled. "Don't gawk. We don't have time. We're the farthest territory from the cafeteria so we hafta change really quick. If we're not there on time, we have clean-up for a month." Jake's shouting voice was heard through a thick wooden door. The door on the right still had it's dark cherry-wood door wide open. The brass nameplate had my name engraved upon it so I walked in. Placed upon a couch was the uniform set I had seen earlier.

After I had changed, I met the others in the common room. Jake turned and saw that my long, matted hair was now smooth and brushed down. My old tattered jeans and Rock Band tee were exchanged for a short skirt and long-sleeved polo shirt. He smiled just as a trumpeting, blaring loud bell started clanging. Everyone's eyes widened as they all rushed out of the room. Julia leading us with the other boy who hadn't spoken, dashed out of the corridor and into another orb. When we had all stepped in, Artemis panted wheezily, "Cafeteria." The orb sealed off and whooshed up and away.

In a matter of seconds, we had reached a huge door decorated with ribbons and designs. The door opened with a bang and we walked in. It looked just like nothing I'd seen before. The mysterious man and woman were sitting at the head table along with several other adults. At the students' tables, several students in uniforms only slightly different in color were eating and having small talk with their friends. There were three adults, all men, standing behind each of the other students. Women came and went with platters of steaming food and goblets of what I guessed was antidote.

The table on the far right was empty and there, standing dutifully behind the seats, were 24 men, three at each red chair. Women in red gowns stood with food that was making me drool from about a couple meters away. The smell hadn't even hit me yet. We went to go to the table and Jake led me to a seat across from him. The woman behind me served filet mignon grilled medium rare. Oh em gee! This is the food I get only on birthdays. I turned to one of the guys. And asked, "Hey, excuse me? Could I have my antidote as Coke?"

"Certainly ma'am."

"Thank you." He returned in a blink of the eye and I smiled.

"Alice, these are the guys that run this joint." Jake's voice came from across the table. "Alpha, Nyx, and Phelix."

I put on my 'radiant smile' and said, "Nice to meet you. I'm Alice of PheonixClan." I added that last part because everyone seems to introduce themselves that way here.

The guy with the red suit was looking at me like I was crazy. "Alice Emerges Latovayl, warrior of PheonixClan. Age 16 and a straight A student. If you weren't in PheonixClan you wouldn't be at this table. I'm Alpha, Official of the Clan of the Pheonixi. In other words, PheonixClan. I also overlook the festivities, contests, and other fun stuff. The dude in the blue suit is Nyx of DragonClan, animal preparations and surgery, and Mr. Green Suit is Official of BasiliskClan, who organizes the Battleroom and uniforms. We're sorry Mise of the Griffins couldn't make it today. She plans missions. Top Secret business on the human world."

Another weirdo? "It's okay. I'm sure I'll see her around. Today was a big day for all of us so I wouldn't be surprised if someone's timetable was out of wack." Nyx went bright red and bit his lip wereas Phelix snickered.

Nyx's quiet voice murmured, "This year PheonixClan is paired with BasiliskClan. All regular classes will be held with them but every Thursday afternoon, you have magic user training with the others. Every Tuesday we hold training sessions and the Battleroom is open. Weekends are training classes." The three left us to eat.

As I chewed slowly, my face tingled again and I took a swig of the fizzing contents of the goblet, which returned my face to its normal state.

After the first course of steak, the woman (whose name I later learned is Lydia) served a small platter of diced bananas and strawberries glazed with chocolate, slathered with a mocha cream, and generously dusted with powdered sugar over coffee ice cream. Just the way Shairilyn did it. I struggled to keep back projectile tears as I speared the first strawberry piece with my fork. I devoured the treat in seconds.

The third course came and I gasped. So did someone else from across the table. Jake. Then I remembered why I was so willing to listen to him. He was the boy I had met at summer camp that saved me from drowning, ten years ago. A couple minutes after saving me, we went to the camp mess hall and coincidencially ordered the same dessert. Boston cream pie with a Plymouth Rock sized dollop of whipped cream.

When I saw Lydia and the lady who was serving Jake carry the same dessert my eyes grew wide as dinner plates as I remembered that summer ten years ago. "You've changed. Namewise and mentally. Long time no see, Jacob Sanders." Jake looked shocked, disappointed, and like he wanted to rip my head off at the same time. I was changing again, but only because of my sudden emotion. "Jake" was morphing into his dingo form and charged. I nimbly sidestepped him and he went tumbling, which caused a huge ruckus of laughter.

Jacob/Jake's eyes held the fire of murder but the man and woman from earlier injected him with a syringe, which changed him back to a human, and a bunch of black clad men dragged him away. I also returned to my form and sat back down. The black-eyed woman plopped herself next to me and said quietly, "Try not to provoke him. It's been hard times for PheonixClan and especially for him ever since Aria was killed. They truly were a perfect match for a dingo and badger. Please try to accompany him well in battle."

I opened my mouth to speak but then decided against it. Julia walked past me and I swear she glared at me. The leaders were all going up to the front of the room. That was when I noticed they were all female. Jamie's hair reached the microphone first. Except it was scaly. Typical of the leader of the Clan filled with snakes to have a pet snake. Wait, that was the snake that told me about Jamie earlier.

The snake unwound itself from Jamie's head and neck and extended his body to reach the microphone. "Hey everyone, I'm Ark Athens, Deputy of BasiliskClan. Today I'll be making the welcome speech to our newcomer, Alice of PheonixClan."

"I'm really sorry but you give the speech two times longer than it should be and it should be four hours long," yawned the bored looking cougar at the edge of the stage.

"Fine, Artemis, do you want to do it?"

"You know it's only costomary that the deputy of the allied Clan makes the speech."

"THEN LET ME MAKE MY SPEECH!" I never knew snakes could really yell. The sidewinder turned to one of the black clad men who had dragged Jake out earlier, "Could you bring Mr. Hilton back to us. He needs to be here."

"Yes, sire." The man disappeared and reappeared with a disappointed looking Jake.

The snake started speaking and some groaned. "On this day, March 15 of the year twenty eleven, we welcome Alice Emerges Latovayl, our new member of PheonixClan. Alice is replacing the previous badger Aria Malice, who fell in battle yesterday." I felt Jake stiffen beside me. When Mark shot Ark a dark glare he began speaking so quickly I could only catch. "Blah blah blah form. Blah blah blah partner. Blah loyalty to your Clan." There must've been a noticable question mark above my head because he paused. He continued, very, very slowly, enunciating each syllable. "We don't expect you to willingly give your life for any one of us but-"

"Uh, could you get to it, Ark? We were planning on going to bed on time." Jamie sounded on the brink of falling asleep while standing on the stage.

He sped up again. "- ?" The snake began to wheeze and breathe heavily to catch his breath.

I laughed. "I do."

"Then go back to your common room and check your Crestmark Hark for your timetable and calendar. Class will begin at 9:00 tomorrow after breakfast which is at 7:30. May Faiy be with you."

The crowd echoed, "And you."

Everyone swarmed out of the cafeteria and sped into the elevator orbs, which whooshed them back to their common rooms. I followed Julia and asked her, "Who is Faiy?"

"Faiy is the name of the couple who always seem to be watching. The Fatalities we call them. But since they don't like the darkness of the name, so we call them Faiy." I followed her into the common room shortly before others came in. Jake shuffled toward me.

"Hey, I'm really sorry 'bout what happened there," he murmured.

"It's cool. I shouldn't have provoked you." Artemis joined us and we made our way to the mage room. When I stepped in I flopped onto a battered orange couch. "I've noticed all the furniture in the common room are red but the things in here are orange."

"Oh, yeah. Orange is the mage color. Green for Basilisk-Clan's blackcasters, yellow for GriffinClan kondarcs, and white for DragonClan's wizards. All the Officials are dressed in their rep Clan's colors and the servants in- ohmygawd is that really the time?" Artemis looked panicked for a second than flashed out of the mage quarters and sprinted back in, holding a set of white pj's, a red cloak, a red swimsuit, and a striped red and orange scarf.

"How did you forget? Those were delivered right after dinner. What about her textbooks?" Jake was serious sounding but I detected a hint of amusement in his voice.

Artemis smacked himself on his forehead. Hard. Like hard enough to make a large cracking sound. He pick up his Crestmark Hark and quickly slid out a hidden keyboard and typed faster than Bella from school, who can type 200 characters in five seconds flat. "Speed is another thing we gain. Superhuman speed and strength. It should be here soon." There was a knock at the door and Athena stepped in holding a massive pile of textbooks, which she cast aside onto a red, white, and orange bookbag.

"Wow, you guys should really clean this place up a bit. It's been through something like a tornado since I last got here." She snickered and cracked up, banging her fist on the wall and laughing until she teared up. What was so funny?

Artemis went a deep shade of scarlet(which was quite a sight because one: he still had his poker face- like expression and two: he was on the more purple shade of red) as Jake hid a giggle behind his hand. "Artemis nearly blew up the room when we were messing around after mage training. Never got back to cleaning up. Hilarious."

"Yeah, even in the girls' dorms we heard a muffled boom and we were like, 'What's going on?'" I could only imagine and laugh along with them. "So Alice, do you have any will to go on a mission?" I heard a sharp intake of breath from where Jake and Artemis were lounging. "Jeez, just asking!" The boys relaxed.

A small beep came from everyone's pockets and Jake, sounding very bouncy, said, "Well, five to lights out. Man, I can't believe it's almost nine already."

"Believe it, man." The ex-siblings said simultaneously.

"THEY MAKE US GO TO BED AT NINE?" I was shocked.

"'Course. We would go to bed at eight if we didn't have homework. Alice, next to your wardrobe is a door which leads to your bedroom. Bathroom is connected to the bedroom and if you get hungry in the middle of the night, raid the fridge in the common room. I'm serious."

Athena left and I gathered the things Artemis and Athena had given me and hung the clothing in the wardrobe of my changing room and stepped into the extra long shirt and sweats provided for me. I went back into the mage room and placed all the books Athena had thrown down neatly into my new bookbag. I closed the door and slumped onto the white canopy bed. A desk and bookshelf were by the door. I paced over to the shelf and picked out The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, My childhood favorite. Several others, like Harry Potter, Warriors, the Companion's Quartet, Story Time, and H.I.V.E.,were were placed neatly on the shelf. A nastolgic tear crawled down my cheek and stopped at my quivering lip. I went back to my bed took out my Crestmark Hark and checked my timetable. Okay, wake up to a healthy dose of Physiology with Mr. Sun. After that, Calculus with Ms. Ammia and then A.P. U.S. History with mr. Kenxique. I closed my eyes and dreamed of falling. I was finally one of the people of Alias.

I was awakened to a persistant bleeping from the iPod in my hand. But iPods don't bleep. Then I opened my eyes and saw that I was in the place I least wanted to be. Ugh, what time is it? Seven. Gotta hit the shower.

I stepped into the bathroom to find a room with an enormous, circular hot spring. Off to the side were a small freshwater pool and a mirror. Where is the toilet? In an area to the way far left was a stall. I splashed my face with the water in the pool and wiped the shivering cold water off my face with a velveteen orange towel.

While pacing back to the changing room, my Crestmark Hark vibrated. Text from Jake:

From: Jake Hilton of PheonixClan

To: Alice Latovayl of PheonixClan

Meet us in the common room in 30 minutes.

I grabbed a clean uniform off the rack in the wardrobe and dashed back into the bathroom and into the hot spring. The heated waters soothed my aching muscles and the conditioner made my hair silky and smooth. My face started tingling again and I didn't have antidote with me. My mind flashed back to the previous day outside of the hospital. There was probably no way to stop the change without antidote but Artemis sped it up. I pressed the tattooed skin and the tingling spread across my body faster and faster and then stopped. I realized that I was too short, now, for my feet to reach the bottom of the spring and I began to drown.

My tiny black paws began paddling furiously to keep my head on top. I dipped underwater, my arms (or should I say, paws) too tired to keep going. There was no hope. I started sinking. I needed air! My chest was about to burst. What a horrible way to die, I thought to myself. Jake won't like this one bit. Jake! I couldn't die out on him. He'd already lost Aria. He probably wouldn't be able to take it if I died too. If I'd been chosen to go to Alias Institute, those Faiy people must have decided I was strong enough to save the world. I should be able to take a bath.

With my renewed strength, I began to paddle back up to the surface. As my badgerish nose poked out, I took a great gasp of air and began to change back to my human form. After breathing so deeply, I felt like I would pop, I emerged from the water. I stepped into my uniform and started heading out. My Crestmark Hark vibrated just as I stepped into the mage room. I blushed as Jake turned his face away from his device and stuck it back into his pocket. So many weird things had happened in just one day, I wouldn't be surprised if Jake turned to me and said, "Hey, Alice, don't change in the hot spring again, 'kay? If you want someone to help you, I can arrange that." Oh, the humiliation.

"Come on, Alice!" hissed Jake. "We're going to be late!" As if following a routine, we rushed out of the room followed the rest of our Clan into a waiting elevator orb, which sped us into the cafeteria.

"For a change, we're the first ones here." Julia looked bitter as a bittermelon. As we settled down, BasiliskClan burst through the door with a cold look on every single face that passed by us to the table on our left. After them, DragonClan made a slightly quieter entrance, the perfect opposite of GriffinClan's loud, extreme, and totally uncalled for entrance, which included some stupid rap the deputy made up about how great he is.

The servants began setting up huge, silver platters of food at the head table, where no one was sitting. The leaders strode up to the table grabbed massive plates of their Clan colors and piled their dishes with a dangerously tall mound of food, threatning to topple down on everybody. Once all the leaders had seated themselves, the deputies sprinted up to the front and grabbed ten of this, twenty of that and sat back down. A group of females, one from each Clan, gracefully glided to the buffet table, now less full due to the stupid deputies, daintily took a plate, placed just barely enough food to cover the surface of the plate, and slid back into their chairs. Then Jake, Melissa, and a bunch of others went up to grab their mountain-high pile of food. Finally, Julia's partner and Mark signaled for us to get our platters.

I filled my plate quickly. Not as high as everyone else, but definitely unlike the girls with the almost empty plates. No food was left at the table. When I sunk back into my cushioned seat I asked Jake, "Where are the adults?"

"In their classrooms, preparing for us. They don't eat breakfast so they don't come. We don't have lunch so you might want to ask for some more chow."

Outrageous. "We don't have lunch?"

"Sacred Fast. Sucks. Only water allowed."

I turned to Lydia, who was standing there in her plaid red skirt and apron. "May I order three eggs, fried, with a side of sausage? And, uh, a hash brown and ten pancakes?" She bowed and disappeared. In the blink of an eye she returned holding a full plate of warm, hearty, and fragrant food. When Jake nudged me, I looked at the head table, where several people, including Artemis and Mark, were lined up with six plates piled high. Only one girl was up at the table. Her yellow and orange uniform marked her out as a GriffinClan member. Phelix announced in a game show announcer voice, "Breakfast Wars. Our competitors: from GriffinClan comes the undefeated, Megan Jacobs! Runner up: Artemis Polyxena of PheonixClan" Several boos and hisses were heard from the GriffinClan table. The hisses turned into roars, whistles, and screaming "In third, Matt Cross of GriffinClan." A short boy with dark, scruffy hair trapped under a whirring, colorful propeller hat, raised his arms as if to say, Bring it on. "Triple-tied for fourth, Mark Jenkins of PheonixClan, Ark Athens of BasiliskClan and Jasper McCormack of DragonClan." A HUGE roar boomed throughout the room. "Do we have any new competitors willing to gorge themselves to possilble death." I smirked. Why not? While I walked up to the front of the room, I attracted several stares and hisses from DragonClan and jeers from GriffinClan. Jamie and her Clan just nodded approvingly. My Clan just couldn't stop gawking.

A new set of plates was set at the table. The contestant next to me, Ark Athens, whispered a warning to me, "Watch Megan closely. She's known as "the anti- antidote". I bit my lip and asked him why. "You're new and don't know anyone. So if you find someone cheating, you can't be disqualified for being prejudiced. All the rest of us are quite senior members here. A few upset stomachs have been known to be caused by a scorpion's sting." Green headbands were handed out.

"What are these for and do we really have to wear them?"

"They might save your life." I jumped. Artemis had snuck up behind me with his dorky headband on. "The headbands notify the judges if you can still eat or not. Some attempt to keep going after their limit. It doesn't turn out well. Green equals still hungry. Yellow full. Orange stuffed. Red means dangerously bloated and black means on the verge of dying."

I, quite against my will, put the headband on and just as the whistle blew to start eating, my vision became so blurred that I could only see a yellowish blob standing above me. I remembered what Ark had said. The anit- antidote. But how long did I have to prove it?

Next thing I knew, I was back in the hospital orb. Jake was sitting next to me, snoring like a running chainsaw badly in need of repair. I snickered and he yawned and, while yawning, said something I couldn't understand. But it went like this, "Aremih, wha tie ih ih?" He stopped yawning just as I deciphered the gibberish. Artemis what time is it? "Oh it's just you."

"What do you mean it's just me?" I snarled.

"Artemis was just here but I guess he went to the bathroom or left. Oh, speak of the devil. He's right behind me isn't he?"

"Yeah." I turned to Artemis with a calm expression on my face and out came, "DON'T DO THAT YA FOOL. YOU'RE GONNA SCARE THE LIVIN' DAYLIGHTS OUTTA EVERYONE!" He stared back at me calmly as if I were stupid.

"Alice, we missed first period just to see if the scorpion had poisoned you. That is no way to treat us like that." He was still wearing that expression that made me want to throw up. Preferably on his white shoes . "Now we have to go our separate ways until lunch. Follow Mark or Julia . They're both in your year."

"Meaning if we were on Earth then you'd be in your Junior year in high school, right?" The way Jake said this it sounded like he wasn't sure.

"Yeah. What about you?"

"Senior."

"Oh..." I swung myself out of the soft bedding and made a beeline for the exit. Jake sped ahead of me. Then I noticed his once blue eyes were deep red. He turned to Artemis who was snapping his CH keyboard back into the device.

"Jake, keep it cool. Everybody must be feeling it by now." He turned to me, "Emergency meeting. Magicks room." I noticed his warm eyes going red as well and his hair was sizzling. Then a feeling of incredible hate surged through me and I almost threw up.

I followed the guys out of the orb and headed straight for an elevator which, after the machine got into a huge debate about how we should have been in class, whooshed us into an enormous room filled with training equipment. Soon after we arrived so did several members of other Clans. Each panting with hate and eyes glowing red.

Megan was among them and announced, "They only have one which still hasn't been born. Yet I sense a deep strength within her. If she hatches, it's simple." Her eyes traveled and connected with our glowing red pupils filled with hate. "We're dead." She put her index fingers to her temples and closed her eyes. "Mise is heading back. She'll assign the missiongoers. But for now, nobody is going to class. We'll be training until we're called. EVERYBODY. No exceptions to the noob." Groans were heard throughout the room.

Click. "I've contacted HQ. They're sending everyone to the cafeteria for a meeting. Artemis will design outfits for whoever is going on the mission and James will take missiongoers, and Alice, to pick and retrieve weapons. Let's go." Megan led us out of the room, into a elevator which became fairly crowded, and into the cafeteria, where the rest of the Clans were waiting.

Ark sped up to the microphone and said two simple words, pausing in between each word. "They're back." There were murmurs of outrage and some even changed. Including Melissa, Mark, Jamie, and so many others. A strange woman in a sunshine yellow raincoat walked in.

"Now, now children. No need for anger. I have already finished picking the missiongoers." The room became deadly silent. She paused eyes scanning the room. "The mages will be suited and armed by sundown or there will be consequences." The woman stared straight at Jake. "It will be a good chance for them to restore their Clan's honor."

Artemis gestured with his head and everyone filed out of the room. Others who had been in the magicks room with us were now glaring at us. One of the guys, James, led us to a room filled with armor from different eras until we reached a locked room with several padlocks and fingerprint readers attached to the door. James produced a hefty ring of keys and inserted them into the padlocks with agonizing slowness. Then, he scanned four fingers but left the fifth unattended. I then realized he was slowly morphing into a lithe snake, which by the head shape, I could tell was poisonous.

James then bit deeply into the sensor and if you looked closely you could have seen venom being pulsed into the the twelfth and final lock on the door. The snake released his bite and the door swung open revealing a drawing room filled with beautiful new and techy weapons and armor. I let out a gasp of amazement, "Wow."

Artemis and Jake led me to a showcase with red cushions lining the inside. "Artemis Polyxena. 719412770266945235624-46732365794432568911378." A red, embroidered curtain fell over the case only to be risen again, this time not revealing an ugly, gaping, unfilled spot, but displaying a wickedly curved scythe with runes carved into the blade. "Beautiful, isn't he?" Artemis reached forward and grabbed the weapon from the case.

"Pah, that little toy is nothing. Wait 'til ya see this, Alice." Jake tilted his head back. "Jake Hilton. 649495827676978235644-56732351352432561277238."The words wooshed out of his throat in one breath. The curtain covered the case again and revealed a beautiful golden spear with hieroglyphs all the way down the shaft. Using what I had learned in sixth grade in Ancient Civilizations, I tried to find out what the spear's story was.

"It displays the most horrible part of the owner's life. The Crying Spear. The more pain it causes the owner, the stronger the spear becomes. Right now, the saddest part of Jake's life is Aria's bloody death."

"SHUT UP, ARTEMIS! YOU'VE NEVER LOST YOUR PARTNER BEFORE!" The snarling dingo bared his teeth and prepared to fight." Artemis's expressionless face turned cold as stone. But James, who I had forgotten was there, morphed and threw himself in front of Artemis.

"Stop! Do you want Mise to take you off the missiongoers list? I'm just sure that Megan would want to go." This caused Jake to morph back, grab the spear, sit down on a couch, and sulk. Talk about a temper tantrum. Artemis walked cooly to a table and started sketching, his back turned to me.

I walked up to the showcase and declared loudly, "Alice Emerges Latovayl. 579495821276945235644-56732355794432568911358." The curtain didn't fall back down but instead a ring and a bracelet fell to the bottom of the case. The ring was simple with a few runes enscribed on it. Simple and elegant. I slipped it onto my finger and took a look at the fallen bracelet. I was astounded by the crasftsmanship. There were four different colors of chain, eight links of each color. But what left my mouth wide open were the small metal animals, each one connected to a chain link, each with such precise detail I could name almost everyone of them. Connected to the badger link was a small cross. I held the cross like a compass. At north was day, south was night and at east and west sunrise and sunset. In the intersection of the cross was a small amethyst. The starry, blue portion of night was glowing. I put the oversized bracelet over my skinny wrist and it shrank to fit perfectly. But it wasn't a weapon.

"Alice Emerges Latovayl. 579495821276945235644-56732355794432568911358." Nothing happened.

"What. Didn't you get your weapon already? Don't be too greedy or picky 'bout what you get."

"No, Jake, I happened to get something you wouldn't care for." I showed him the bracelet. At that he sat up and tapped on Artemis's shoulder who took off his headphones and turned his CHR off.

"Yeah? What happened?"

"While you were doodling your pretty little dresses, Alice has been Chosen."

"For what?" Even if Artemis's face didn't show panic, his voice gave him away.

"For what else? The Faiy."

"What do you mean?" I wasn't just worried, I was scared. I was looking at Jake but Artemis answered.

"When you become of age, you will know." He paused to pick up his drawing pad to show me. James looked over Artemis's shoulder.

"Not bad. I'll take the design to Phelix when you're done."

"'Kay. Should I take it to your common room?"

"Whatever. I guess I'm done here." He turned and burst out of the door. Artemis turned back to us and showed us a tight-fitting uniform with several pockets, secret compartments, and a gun holster. He flipped through the pad to reveal an intricate drawing of a manniquin in a black skirt, black turtleneck sweater, black gloves and socks, and a pair of loose, knee length boots with no heels. At the side of the same page was a small ring with a needle protruding from the top, a machine gun with a strap, and a huge sword shaped like a cross.

Then it dawned on me. I was to use the jewelry as a lethal weapon? The cross on my bracelet then glowed and grew to a height of over five feet. I expected the cross to weigh a ton, but it felt like nothing and had perfect balance. "It changes in only three cases. When you're in deadly danger, when you say its name, or when you find out the true meaning of the sword. The ring only changes when you flick it out. Nothing really special but one stab can cause instant death and the poison will reload afterwards. It's awesome cool." Jake was grinning.

"We'll get the uniforms tomorrow, train for a week, then depart. We'll need code names in case we meet someone who knew the old us. Shouldn't be a problem. Unless you had a boyfriend who knew you perfectly."

"I never had a relationship."

"Good. By Friday we'll be enrolled into Yemes Academy for the Gifted." He turned to Jake and spoke. "Alice and I will be in the same class, Art, but you will be in Chemistry. Have fun. It's mostly girls."

Without changing, Jake halfheartedly said, "Artemis, ya' wanna die?" I realized something was wrong.

"Yemes?"

"Yeah."

"I used to go there."

Jake swore.

"Alice, you've changed. Don't worry. Not a problem."

"Guess what, Artemis. I have friends who know me inside-out. NOT A PROBLEM?"

"Yeah. Not a problem. We knew you used to go there and it's the only school we have agents in. It was expensive but it was well worth it."

I narrowed my eyes to dark slits. "What is it?" I snarled.

"Brainwashing." My eyes opened to be as big as dinner plates.

"No..." I spluttered out breathlessly. I felt a warm hand on my shoulder.

"Alice, leave it. At this rate we'll never be on track. We'll be disgraced forever." Jake lowered his eyelids and head to make him look bitter and pained. "And we'll never be what PheonixClan used to be." He looked back up and became his usual gruff self again. "Well, I guess we need to be fitted."

Artemis led us to the back of the room where a blindingly white door was hidden. We passed through the door into a room with even more painfully black walls. Suspended from the ceiling was a set of two matresses, which were about three feet apart from each other. Jake muttered, "Who's goes first? I hate this part." Artemis growled then postioned himself inbetween the two matresses.

The ground beneath Artemis levitated him until the tips of his hair were at the top of the matress and the tips of his shoes were perfectly at the bottom of the matresses, which were now slowly sandwiching him. Jake snickered and said, "Good luck, fella." Silence fell upon the room while the distance between the matresses grew smaller and smaller until there was no gap. But the matresses kept pressing upon each other. About a minute later, a gap between the matresses appeared and out fell a battered Artemis, gasping for air. I let out a sigh of relief.

"You're next, girly." Jake laughed. I gulped. He gave me a light shove towards the now very frightening contraption. Standing on the levitating floor, I saw Artemis biting his lip so fiercly that the floor was dappled with a light spray of his blood.

The matresses began to press together slowly. The brief time period allowed me to think about how I would breathe in the suffocating atmosphere. Then darkness decended upon me.

The two giant cushions were not still, as I had predicted, but contained a large, airy but firm plate which moved in a circular motion. The matresses kept pressing in on each other and I felt the air go out of my lungs. When I tried to inhale only a gust of powder traveled down my throat. I choked and tried to cough but the pressure on my body wouldn't let me. Finally, the pressure released and I heard a small beep. "One minute forty-seven seconds." The rough, boyish voice I had heard so much made its way into my ears. Jake offered a hand and helped me up off the ground.

Artemis then looked at me tilted his head ever-so slightly towards Jake. I smirked and nodded. "Uh-oh," Jake muttered. Artemis threw Jake up into the air and I, almost too early, karate kicked him towards the gap. The matresses closed in on Jake and Artemis and I high-fived. About two miutes later, Jake fell out of the monsterous contraption. A footprint was perfectly imprinted on his face.

I grinned, "Sorry, Jake." He glared at me.

"You two, stop bickering. I gotta get this uniform design to Phelix. You coming?"

"We'll be with you in a sec."

"Kay. Meet you guys back in the common room." As soon as Artemis left, I turned to Jake.

"Weird guy. Never shows any emotion."

"It's 'cuz he can't."

"I'm sorry?"

"Never mind," he muttered.

"Tell me."

"Okay. Fine." Yes! He gave in! "You're going to have to understand something though."

"Shoot."

"We're immortal." I stared at him like he was crazy.

"So you mean I'll stay young forever?"

"Not just that. We mature at the age of eighteen. After that we stop aging. So...yeah. Artemis was changed in 1984 after his parents died in a car crash. He was retrieved in Philidelphia, Pennsylvania after he moved from Hawaii. To tell you the truth, only Athena changed her name. Hated him. No one knows why."

"I'M GONNA BE EIGHTEEN FOREVER? I WANNA GET MARRIED AND HAVE KIDS!" I screeched as I tore at my hair.

"Technically, you can get married, but only to an Alias guy."

"What was her name?"

"Whose?"

"Athena's name. What was Athena's name?"

"Don't know."

"Why did he move?"

"His parents were worried that Mt. Kilauea would erupt again. He just suffered a serious injury to his face. During the eruption, he tried to save a friend and had half his face burned severly in the process."

"Oh."

"Right. So after he comes, they fixed up his face so he wouldn't feel pain whenever he spoke. But whenever someone has something wrong with them before they come and they're operated on, they always seem to have special powers. There's this one girl in DragonClan, Amelia Chan, who can change her hair color; don't look at me like that I'm not kidding, and levitate. Athena can see the future, Artemis is able to control minds."

"Wait. You just said we're immortal. So how do we die?" He bit his lip before replying.

"We all have something of an Achilles heel. Mine's the underside of my tongue."

"Eew. So who else has a power?"

"Well, I kinda have one." He fidgeted. "Umm, we should really be going now. Artemis will be wondering where we are."

"It's only been two minutes." His eyes widened.

"Two minutes? Artemis will be freaking out now." He seemed quite happy that he could get out of telling me more. I sighed.

"Fine. Come to my room at eight thirty. Bring Artemis with you."

He spluttered. "Bu-but we have homework."

"Stop lying. You're gonna hafta do better than that." Suddenly my Crestmark Hark vibrated.

From: Artemis Polyxena of PheonixClan

To: Alice Latovayl of PheonixClan

WHERE ARE YOU?

I hit the reply button and wrote:

srry. lost trak of tme... ): .

Jake saw my little sad face and shook his head. "Do it properly." I snarled and carefully typed out:

Sorry. We were talking and lost track of time. Where are you right now?

The reply came quickly. Artemis's monotone voice muttered, "Right behind you." I jumped and shrieked loudly.

"DON'T DO THAT!" Jake and I yelled together.

"Jeez. Don't burst my eardrums." He sighed. "Whatever. Julia sent me to fetch you." He turned to Jake. "She says Melissa's got some trouble with Fluffy. He got a bit out of control when she fed him and is now wrecking havock in the girls' dorms." Noting the questioning look I gave him, Artemis informed me, "Melissa has something of a special power which allows her to grow a carnivorous plant from the top of her head. She chose a Venus flytrap. It changes size depending on its mood and what it's been fed. And she named it Fluffy. Well, she named it Susan, but when it started growing some weird fur in its mouth she nicknamed it Fluffy."

I looked at Jake, pointed at Artemis and circled my finger around my ear. "I'm not kidding. And now Fluffy's messing up the girls' dorm." Artemis was begging me to believe him.

"Let them take care of it. They're not babies who need to be weened," Jake scoffed. "Plus, if their panicking, shouldn't they be morphing now? Shouldn't a living plant be afraid of a lion, a fire-spitting pheonix, and a tiger?"

"Fluffy's just grown to the size he gets to after he's eaten a tarantula." Jake's eyes became huge. "Yep. But Melissa claims she didn't do it. The only people who could infiltrate our security system are..."

"So you're saying that the Others came in through Alice, went through Nyx as he was operating on her, went into Phelix, then through Phelix into-"

"You got it. Through Phelix into Julia and straight into Melissa. Who knows where it may be."

"What are the Others?" I inquired.

"Have you heard of the story of Pandora?"

"Yeah. She had this box Zeus gave her filled with seven evils and one day she opened it." I had read this story several times.

"Not just seven. Millions. When we die, we go into the spirit world if we have done something involving the element of one of the fires. But you can only stay in the spirit world if you believe you are remembered." As Jake was explaining to me, his voice wavered and his bottom lip trembled. "Aria was burned in the Flame of Bravery after she died." A tear slid down his cheek.

Artemis mumbled, "Suck it up, man."

Jake hastily wiped his tear away and took a deep breath. "If you think you aren't remembered, then your spirit becomes dark and transfers you to the Pandora's box. If the box is opened, then the spirits come in the form of Others. The Others feed on life like a parasite. They have also developed a creature which destroys us easily. Yet they only capture us alive. No one has ever come back. But the creatures can only be created every few millenia because the process requires the lives of millions of Others." Then the room became quiet. Like my sixth grade math teacher used to say, "Like an angel passing over us." A wave of nastalgia crashed into me.

"We better go save the girls." Artemis sighed. Jake nodded. They took off at lightspeed, leaving me in the dust.

"HEY! WAIT UP!" I yelled at them. I tried to catch up but found I was lagging too far behind. All of a sudden, I felt as if I'd been electrocuted and my feet tingled. Amazingly, I passed them and crashed into a wall. Jake snickered.

"I guess you still need to get used to superspeed." He laughed and held out a hand. "Hold on tight. You're in for a ride." Squeezing my hand, he took off and my arm was wrenched out of its socket. In seconds, we were at the door of the common room.

"Artemis Polyxena. 719412770266945235624-46732365794432568911378." The crimson door swung open, revealing a group of frightened girls in blood-red pj's crouched together on the couches. A loud crash came through the wall. Artemis said to the door, calmly, "Athena, what's your pass code?" The beautiful blond stepped up to the door and, with wide eyes, spluttered through her pass code. "M- mai A-athena P-poly- I-I -I mean Era-rasmus. 167891654378914835602.-65418954387294001862597." The door creaked open and a screechy roar blasted throughout the room. Temporarily deafened, I sank to my knees. Artemis lept into the air, scythe in hand, and attempted to lure the beast out of the shadows. Instead of a monster, a panicked looking tiger streaked out of the room into the common room where a terrified lion now sat.

"ALICE, DRINK YOUR ANTIDOTE! You can't change during a crucial battle!" After Jake almost spat out the words, I chugged down almost the entire bottle. Artemis went over to Melissa, now changed back, to ask what had happened.

"I'm so sorry. It's just that when I changed Fluffy detached himself from my head and got even bigger. I thought he would disappear like he does normally. I'm so sorry." Suddenly, a huge green, bean-shaped head, covered in transparent fuzz, came out from behind the door. It let out a roar that sounded like someone just hit the brakes on a car going at ninety 0and bared it's foot- long, fang- like fronds. I shivered and Jake fainted. Artemis was whispering to his scythe and nodding, as if he was talking to it.

"Okay, Alice, if we can't do this, we're out of the mission and... uh... we might be executed." I looked at him in horror. He continued, "Cronos, my scythe, says he's figured out the name that will activate your bracelet. But ya gotta listen carefully." I nodded. "It's Nagir." He paused as if to think. "Now, if you think we can't do this, press on a charm from one of the blue links. DragonClan's dorms are closest to us. It won't take them long. On the count of three, jump as high into the air as possible and try to latch onto a hair, They're slippery so, don't recommend this but, dig your sword as hard in as you can."

"He's getting closer," muttered a woozy sounding Jake.

"Okay. Just look for a golden tooth and either shatter it to destroy him. One. Two. THREE!" We flew up into the air and I reached my hand out to grab onto a hair. Out of the corner of my eye, something green flashed. A long arm-like root was coming towards me. The long root snaked its way towards me and coiled itself tightly around my body. I felt the air go out of me and my vision blurred.

A silky voice purred, "Call to me, Alice. Call to your weapon and fight your way out." I felt my mouth forming the word, just barely, calling to Nagir. "Say, louder this time, 'Dance, Nagir.' And I will come to aid you."

I came back to my senses. And said loudly and clearly, "Dance, Nagir." It was as if the sun had been brought into the room. After the blinding light had gone, in my hand was a massive cross. Shouldering it, I smirked. "It's time for Fluffy here to go to the dentist." I lept into the air again.

Artemis shouted up at me, "After you destroy the tooth, you've got ten seconds to get out of there!"

"Roger," I said over my shoulder. Using Nagir to prop open Fluffy's mouth, I crept into a cavern full of yellowed stalagtites and stalagmites. But something was allowing a dull light into the cave-like mouth. I scanned the slivating mouth and finally found what I was looking for. The golden tooth. As I started making my way there, a giant tongue came out of nowhere to attack me. With Nagir keeping open the door, I was defenseless. I tried to flick my fingers outward, as if to make magic, but only succeeded in making myself look stupid. A glint of metal flashed. Now connected to the ring I wore on my left hand was a long, thin needle, glowing with every color known to man, animal, plant, and extraterrestrial being. I remember what Jake had said earlier that day. The ring only changes when you flick it out. Nothing really special but one stab can cause instant death and poison will reload afterwards. It's awesome cool.

I curled my fingers into a fist and jammed the needle into the slimy, bubblegum-pink tongue. The response came immeadiatly. The creature began swaying back and forth, throwing me against the walls of his mouth. I managed to hold onto Nagir and stop myself from becoming Fluffy food. Suddenly, a scythe sliced through the skin of the mouth and shattered the pulsing, golden tooth. Artemis came through the hole and pushed me out of the gruesome, bloody mouth. The teeth scraped shut just as he gracefully lept out of the Venus flytrap's mouth. Green ichor oozed out of the great beast's body. Paralyzed and deprived of power, it shrank to the size of an adult's hand and disappeared. A streak of blood raced down Jake's arm. He was staring at it and Athena raced over. She passed her hand over the wound and it was fully healed.

"Are you hurt?" Athena fixed me with her cold blue eyes. At a loss for words, I shook my head. A beep sounded through the room. Five 'til lights out. The Faiy woman walked into the room.

"Children, good work today. You have foiled a plan of the Others to destroy us from the inside. But instead of sending a clean-up crew, I'm afraid you'll have to clean up this mess. Since it is the fault of the Clan on patrol today, they will be coming up with the supplies. But as a bonus, you will be allowed to sleep in and skip class and training tomorrow, as well as staying up as late as you want." She glided out the door after speaking to us in a motherly tone. Julia and her partner followed the woman and waited by the door.

A raucous voice called out, "Julia, they are not from our Clan. Should you really trust them?"

"Mrs. Faiy sent them to help. You wouldn't want to doubt her word would you? Now, go and be useful and help Jasmine carry those water buckets." Something rippled, as if someone had thrown a rock onto a pond. Suddenly, the wooden pheonix carving detatched itself from the dark-walnut wooden door panel. The colors of the bird's feathers changed from a deep brown to a vibrant red with blue plumes and a sweeping, crimson tail. It swooped down to greet the visitors that I could not yet see. The "mythical" bird immeadiately returned, balancing a pile of buckets, which nearly touched the ceiling, on his head.

I stuttered and pointed at the blood-red bird, "Th-the b-bir-bird."

"It's rude to point, if you didn't know," it retorted back at me. I ignored the comment and took the buckets off from its tiny, ping-pong-ball-sized head. I set half of the stack on the floor and balanced the other half on my fingers. When I counted them, I frowned. Eleven. Tsk, I'll throw them at the same time. I narrowed my eyes and concentated on keeping the buckets in order as I threw them into the air. Using my superspeed, I deftly caught the buckets and began to juggle them in the most inhuman way. I stuck my foot under the handle of the bucket at the top of the pile on the floor and flicked my ankle upwards, launching the bucket into the air. The bucket sailed towards me at the wrong angle and I nearly cut the chain cycle of buckets that I was juggling. I scolded myself, Shame on you, Alice. Master would have called the lion keeper to whip you with his snakeskin whip with the bull's tail. My foot kept chucking the buckets into the air one by one until all the buckets were aloft. Slowly, I sped up and spun the buckets even faster and, gradually, I juggled the buckets at super-superhuman speed. As each bucket came, I threw each bucket high into the air and preformed a headstand. I bit my lip and knew that the buckets were going to come crashing down when I attempted to preform this trick. The buckets began to come down again. With lightning reflexes, I grabbed the buckets, one by one, and tucked them under my arm. After I had grabbed all of them, I executed a perfect backflip without using my arms. Everyone stared at me in awe.

"Where did you learn that kind of stuff?" Jake asked.

I blushed with embaressment. "Um. Well, one day when I was about six, my cat died because my Shairilyn overfed it. Then I threw a temper tantrum and I said I was running away from home. I didn't have anything but a small glass bauble which meant everything to me. I joined the circus as an apprentice and made my debut at age eight as a master magician and juggler." I looked at my feet and said, bitterly, "I might have been able to try out the lions if my foster family hadn't been at the next show I performed near our town."

"That's nothing to be ashamed of, Alice. That's amazing. I have a story similar to that but not as dramatic." I turned to locate the owner of the voice. When I saw who it was I was shocked. The owner of the kind voice belonged to a girl in a blue and white uniform with rebel-like, neon purple hair pinned with a baby blue, x- shaped clip. The x clip looked familiar. "I also ran away from home to seek out a famous artist I idolized. But I got into a car crash when I saw my sister on the street about to be hit by a truck. Now we're both here at Alias, my sister and I." Her hair color changed to a mousey brown. So that was the girl Jake was telling me about.

"Nothing to be ashamed of? Ha! That's awesome Alice! If only you got to the lions." Jake was laughing like a maniac.

"I never knew you had such rebelious side to you. What other tricks can you do?" Melissa was shifting the hat on her head as she spoke to me.

"I'm really out of shape, so not that much. I can probably create a few small illusions, maybe as big as an oven. Make people disappear and reappear, but only for a few seconds though. But I think I can still juggle chainsaws. Maybe. Card tricks. Simple stuff." I shrugged.

The blue uniformed people were murmuring among themselves. I caught a few phrases, like archives and sphinx. Julia looked horrified for a second but as soon as she caught me looking at her, she smiled. Something was up. A short, dark blue haired girl walked up to me. "Alice, would you be as kind as to form a line of buckets, which you have so messily thrown aside?" She adjusted her glasses with a flick of her index finger. This girl pisses me off. I trembled uncontrollably in anger. Suddenly a massive gust of wind swept though the room, knocking everyone but me to the ground. A bowling pin appeared out of thin air and headed straight for the snotty girl's face. A flash of pink streaked towards the target. Julia blocked the bowling pin from hitting the girl. Her once kind face now streaked with terror and fear.

I snarled at the girl and growled at her, "You guys better get out of here. This is our territory and I can't guarantee what I might do next. We can clean up on our own. PheonixClan isn't made up of a bunch of half witted oiks who can't clean up after themselves. Now, get out!"

The Clan which had just come, stalked off. But the girl with the color-changing hair turned back to me and gave me a pained look. And whispered, "Remember, Alice. November 6th, 2003." My mind whirred back to the date she murmured. November 6th, 2003. Ah, the day I performed at the circus. Also the day I got caught by my parents. A girl in the audience who was my subject for my magic trick. A girl with a red x-clip and an artist's beret on.

"Michele. Michele Synokowski. That was you. Eight years ago on my stage." She just smiled and rushed out of the room to catch up with the rest of her Clan. "How do these people do it?"

"Huh?" Jake inquired.

"Never mind. Let's hurry up and clean this mess up."

"Alice. That power you were able to access there-" Julia stammered.

"Yes, I'm sorry. I just realized that rank is indicated on the collar of our uniform. I do realize that I nearly hit a leader with an illusion, which, I was sure of, would not have knocked that obnoxious leader unconscious." I laughed. Suddenly, I morphed and an odd sound resembling a nasal snicker resonated throughout the room.

"Argot Septimoses." Artemis's voice had a hard edge to it as he stretched his hand towards me. A group of seven fiery wings shot out of his palm and entwined themselves around me. As they wrapped around me, I felt myself growing and slowly, ever so slowly, understanding why the world had been so cruel to me. Throwing me off that cliff. All so I could come here to make new friends. But at what price? Losing those who took care of me for almost my entire life. If my understanding could have been measured as easily as stock prices, it would have crashed. I, now completely in my human form, fell to my knees, tears streaking down my face. A small glass bauble rolled onto the floor beside me. The silver ring running across the middle, the painted everchanging designs, the pearl colored mist inside the bauble. I clutched it to my chest and cried.

"Why did they have to die? WHY?" I let my sadness get the better of me and sobbed. A knock on the door shook me from my trance. Somebody outside swore.

"D-ed bird. I'm just trying to help! Julia, your doorkeeper is attempting to kill me! It's me, Megan. In my scrying pool, I saw the new girl in distress so I got a potion together for her." We heard the voice clearly through the door.

Julia looked at me, "How 'bout it?" When I shook my head vigorously, she turned to the door. "Sorry, Megan, the pheonix wasn't sure what you were going to do. Alice doesn't need a potion. It's late. Go back to your dorm."

"I'm sure it would make her feel better. Are you positive?" The voice sounded almost threatning, daring me to take whatever Megan was offering.

In my shuddery voice managed to mumble, "Megan, thank you for the offer, but I think I'll pass today."

"Whateevverr. It's totally your loss." We heard the sound of footsteps fading away. After the small noise faded, I silently grabbed a mop and began cleaning up the green mess on the floor.

I turned to Julia. "How will we get water to wet the mops?"

Jake grinned. "Like this. Artemis, you gotta help me. Spell 34, Chapter 7." Artemis nodded and held Jake's hand.

"Eew. Your hand's all sweaty. What have you been doing?" Artemis immediately let go of Jake's hand and rubbed his now quite shiny hand on his black uniform pants, leaving a noticebly darker patch on the fabric. When Jake shot him a dark look, Artemis sighed and reluctantly held his hand again.

"Now, don't mess it up like last time." Jake snickered.

"Shut up. Let's just get this over with." Artemis chewed his lip.

"Okay. On the count of three. One. Two. Three."

Together they recited a chant and stretched out their hands towards the sky. "Silhph Arkiat Mulitiplicalis." Blue, glowing strings wrapped themselves around the guys' outstretched arms, illuminating the whole room. Slowly they traveled down their arms to their fingertips. A neon blue flash sparked the room and when the light subsided, miraculously, the buckets were filled halfway with sparkling water. I stared, dumbfounded, at Jake. Then I turned to Artemis and back at Jake.

"Close your mouth, Alice. You look like a catfish." Mark, as I turned to glare at him, stuck his tongue out and grinned. When I stared back at the mops, they had disappeared. Along with the oozing green mess and the giant body of the monster that reaked of rotting flesh. Well, I didn't know how rotting flesh smelled but I guess if I ever knew how it smelled, that would be the exact smell to describe the stench as.

"You just had to fill the buckets. But I guess this is good, too." Julia's bottom lip quivered and I thought she was going to cry, but then she burst into fits of laughter and with a poof, a majestic bird, the mirror image of the one which had peeled itself off the door only minutes ago, sat on the floor, looking somewhat surprised. Jake stretched out his hand towards her but Julia pecked his pointer finger, drawing blood.

"Ouch. Jeez, I was just going to change you back."

"I'll change back normally, thank you very much. Now I want everyone to change into pj's then come back out here. Bring blankets and pillows." After she said this, I swear her beak curved into a smile. "We're gonna have a slumber party, the first in the history of Alias." Julia poofed back to her human self then turned to me. "I want to see you, Jake, and Artemis in the homework room after you've gotten changed." I froze up and tried to nod, but I just stood there, staring. Jake steered me towards the mage room door.

When I was finally inside, I broke down. I burried my face in a battered orange couch cushion and sobbed. "Oh, God. I'm so sorry, Jake. All because those Other things came into the Institute through me and caused trouble, now you don't get to go on the mission to redeem our Clan." The door opened and closed again and this time Artemis walked in, IN ONE OF THOSE ONE PIECE PJ'S FOR TODDLERS WITH THE ZIPPER IN FRONT, THE ATTACHED FOOTIES, AND A BUUNY HOOD! Paralyzed, I stared at him, like an idiot. I fell off of the couch in shock. Lying on the ground, I started laughing so hard my stomach hurt.

He glared at me and grumbled, "Athena started filling out my forms before I woke up and she thought it would be funny if she messed up my info." He hurled a bulging, red bag at me with mosterous strength. As if seeing things in slow motion, I flashed to the other side of the room. Standing at the door, I stood there, panting and replaying those very few seconds over and over again. I thought to myself, Did he just try to kill me? I quickly shrugged off the feeling of dread I felt. Artemis's eyes widened as if he had just realized what he had done.

"I'm sorry. The Others' negative energy is messing with my brain."

"Oh, so now you're saying that you're sorry that you tried to kill me?" I could feel the edge of my mouth tingling. I quaffed the fizzy Coke and swished it around before swallowing it.

"Alice, open the bag, " Artemis said with an impatient edge to his voice.

"And calm down, " Jake added. I growled and lumbered over to the bag angrily and tore open the red fabric. The bag held clothes made of shimmering black fabric and giant sealed boxes.

"We better take this outside to show the others. I can't wait to see what BasiliskClan has provided us with this time." Jake was grinning from ear to ear.

Taking one last glance at Artemis's bunny suit, I gestured with my finger for him to follow me. I walked into my changing room and rumaged in my wardrobe for a set of pajamas that looked like they could fit him. Suddenly, I heard an unfamiliar female voice in my head. "What are you looking for, master?" I was so intent on finding fitting clothing for Artemis that I didn't even notice the unfamiliar tone.

Then I furrowed my eyebrows and inquired, "Artemis, did you say something?"

Artemis, who had been staring out into space (okay, staring out into the center of the earth) responded, "Huh? I didn't hear anything." Then he looked at the wardrobe. "Ohhhhhh." He turned to the wardrobe. "Excuse me, what is you're name?"

I heard the voice in my head again. "Deianeira. Tell him I refuse to speak to or serve men."

"She says she refuses to speak to or serve guys. Her name's Deianeira." I paused. "Wait, did that wardrobe just speak?"

"Of course I spoke, master. What do you require?"

"God, my brain's starting to hurt. Too much to take in." I turned back to the wardrobe. "I need a pair of pj's that are age appropriate and are his size."

"Yes, that suit is most vile. Tell him to step in."

I had a blank expression on my face. "Huh?"

"He'll understand."

"She says to step in, whatever that means."

Artemis turned to the wardrobe and pressed the right doorknob. After about ten seconds the wardrobe began to make a humming noice. Artemis stepped into the wardrobe and closed the doors. Soon after the wardrobe stopped humming and the doors opened with a hiss. Artemis stepped out wearing a long shirt and sweats. He sighed in relief. "God, this is so much better. Thanks, Alice and Deianira." He held open the door for me and I stepped out to be greeted by a pillow in the face.

"Oh, it's you. I thought Artemis would be the first one out. Sorry." Jake said sheepishly.

"You guys go on ahead to the common room. I need to do something." They looked wary but I shooed them into the common room where Jake had lugged the now closed red bag. As soon as I locked the door, I took the bauble out of my pocket and murmured so quietly that even if Jake or Artemis could not hear outside the door with their keen hearing. The words formed not in my mouth but in my throat. Like many times on my escape from home I rasped out, "Mqkurxzqn Arqukxqen Zxukqmbqrl." Pausing for a moment I tried to remember if there was anymore. My eyes brightened as I found an answer, "Scaoilfeadh glas Eekxeiswoete Ouvrir Unlock." Smoke began to emerge from the bauble and the silver band split and the orb opened. I murmured the words, "Azlksn Puqlxera. Eqwena." A giant box, which could not have possibly fitted in the bauble, launched itself towards my face. In a flash, I caught it and the bauble hissed shut. I scanned the room to make sure that absolutely no one was watching and gave the bauble a little squeeze. It shrank ever so slightly then gave a little pop. The bauble was now about the size of a large pill. I took a swig from the antidote bottle and slipped the pill-sized bauble into my mouth and swallowed it. I lugged the box behind me and opened the door to the common room. Julia and the others had already set up red and white striped sleeping bags in front of the TV. Jake gave me questioning looks but I just shrugged them off. I ripped off the tape, the same tape that I could never even budge with a chainsaw that kept the rock hard lid stuck to the clouded, white diamond box. The flaps opened to reveal a collection of small, hard orbs with a silver ring around the middle and purple and white bands winding around the entire surface.

"SphinxClan Wishing Balls! Those are supposed to be extinct. Gone! It's supposed to a curse, a jinx, if you are in possession of even one! AND YOU HAVE BEEN CARRYING EVERY SINGLE ONE THAT EXISTS!" Mark flashed into his wolf form and bared his teeth. In response to his action, Melissa's pale eyes opened wide. With a tortured expression, she took off her cap to unveil a miniature version of the beast we had just fought. She reached into her pocket and tossed something towards the plant. The stem lunged towards the speck and opened its jaws and ate it. The green head swelled a few inches in diameter and detached itself from the girl's head.

"I'm sorry, Alice. I must stick with my partner in whatever he wants or needs to do." She morphed and stood alongside Mark, who was preparing to lunge at me.

"Qkziamrete Alpxviyw." After murmuring the words that sounded like sandpaper in my mouth, a pale yellow orb surrounded me like a shield.

"This girl is sure filled with wonders. She can speak the ancient language, she has obtained SphinxClan Wishing Balls, and apparently knows how to perform SphinxClan type magick," the boy who had remained silent until now spoke slowly and was barely audible, but there was no mistaking what he said.

"Who's in SphinxClan? Why haven't I seen them? Wha-" I was cut off from finishing my interrogation as Mark slammed his side against my protection ward. His body froze to the side of the sphere and blue strands of magick crawled from his fur and spread like roots all over the orb, eventually turning the entire surface a shimmering turquoise. From inside of the ball, I began to sweat as I worked to maintain the magick that was keeping him stuck to the orb.

"Fluffy, no! You'll get hur- Ow! SPLATHERIN' FLIBBERNUKS! HOW DARE YOU BITE ME YOU INSOLENT-!" Melissa stopped yelling long enough to notice that Mark was now detached from the orb but was trapped in a block of bluish ice with a horrified expression on his face. "Oh my Faiy, please don't tell me he's dead."

I saw Jake walking over, his face set in a frown. "Elzxqsh." The spell that I was using to control Fluffy's actions was ended as I muttered that one word.

"Good job. Now defrost him." Jake was biting his lip to prevent himself from laughing and getting killed by Melissa.

"Bleh, it's much more fun to take pictures first." I smirked. Suddenly, Melissa bowled into me and demanded for me to defrost her partner immediately. I laughed nervously as she snarled baring her fangs. "Mtyzxr. Okay that should melt the ice as well as take care of his frostbite." The ice block disappeared and the fuming wolf popped back into his human form. Mark's lip curled upwards as he snarled. I gazed back steadily with a cool stare and he flopped himself onto the couch farthest from where I was standing and began to sulk.

"How many fights do you hafta pick before we start your mission training?" Jake chuckled as Artemis sarcastically complained with a straight face which did not pair well with his teasing voice. Changing the subject he casually said, "Anyhow, we should be looking over what we have been provided with for the mission." Jake shouldered the bag which Artemis had hurled at me earlier and brought it over to where the sleeping bags, which reminded me of Dr. Seuss's Cat in the Hat's hat with the vibrant red and white stripes, were gathered.

"Your really gonna love this. It always feels like Christmas when we get our gadgets for missions. Of course this is only my second mission so it's really exciting for me. Since this is your-"

"Stop blathering and just show me." I was getting impatient as I sharply cut him off and took a swig from my antidote bottle.

Unzipping the bag, Artemis explained, "BasiliskClan members are in charge of designing and developing technology to help us survive here in the core. They're also in charge of creating mission gear, whereas DragonClan slaves away building more structures and pathways to aid us in growing in numbers." He paused long enough to hand a shimmering black garment to Jake. "PheonixClan used to be the Clan that housed the strongest half-beings. We were the ones always going on missions, not GriffinClan. But that all changed when SphinxClan appeared. After they were banished, things were never the same." His voice ended with a bitter tone.

Using an obviously false tone, Artemis' voice became happy and cheery. He began to explain the contents of the bag. "This is called a shimmer suit," he said gesturing to the swimsuit- like item in his hand. He tossed it to me. "This is the reason we need to go through the compressor to get our sizes for these. It needs to be perfectly sized or else it won't work right."

"They can't rip, become damaged, or even malfunction. It detects thought waves and body temperature to create an illusion of, say for example, the Yemes uniform." Though I thought I had heard Jake's voice behind be, I knew it couldn't have been possible because he was right in front...

"NYAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHH!" I felt my soul leaving my terrified body.

"OmyFaiyhurryupandcatchit!" Melissa, now a nervous wreck, began scrambling about trying to capture the wisps of smoke that left my body from my mouth.

Jake, as calm as before, snapped his hand around the mist as if it were solid. While the others' hands passed through it with ease, the wriggling spirit could not escape from his clutches. Instead of my normal voice, a raspy whisper coughed out, "Jake, choking."

"Alice, you know the spell that I used to save you, back then at camp. You're the only one who can save yourself."

With the last of my breath I chanted along with him, "Ankquizkchaeil raqtjmurn elhyqzxaonvkme."

Like being sucked into a vacuum machine, my soul regained control of my body.

"Jake, Jason wants to ask you where you learned the ancient language." Julia had turned to the area where the Flame of Truth was kept for my very short orientation. Now there was a cylindrical container the size of a CD set onto the carpeted floor.

"Alice taught me a few when we were young. And everyone in my family was trained to be fluent in spells that could save lives," he replied, in a casual tone.

"Why is it that something always gets in the way when we try to accomplish something?" Artemis inquired jokingly. "Anyway, the rest of the gear is almost self- explanatory. The pulse stick radiates a substance which destroys Others. Pills labeled for individual use in battle, labeled. A collection of spy bugs, visual and conversational. Gadgets, food pills, first aid supplies, antidote pills, etcetera, etcetera."

"All of us should begin training now." Melissa picked up the disc- like object from the floor. "Alice, if you would please, pick up the Wishing Balls, one at a time, until you feel a sudden change." I bent over to hold one of the spheres in my left hand. Nothing felt any different. I repeated the process until I held the sixth one in my hand. The moment it rested in the palm of my hand, it felt as if my stomach had suddenly been filled with stones and dropped to the ground.

"That's the one,"Melissa remarked, clearly noticing my reaction. "Unlock it. I know you can."

Just like it had happened with my pass code, a stream of words in the ancient language poured out of my mouth. However, this time, I could actually understand it. "Kjiouvbqytz mxsqioutjky," Creation of Myth, "Scaoilfeadh glas Eekxeiswoete Ouvrir Unlock" Unlock the Soul Magicks.

I could barely hear what Melissa instructed me to do. "Gkquit ikjlqtrusct fopxzyq." Follow that girl's instructions... for now. My head was filled with a sharp pain and, as if my world was being sucked into a black hole, we were whisked into a place with no ground or sky. Melissa tossed the disc onto the empty white space; where it floated somewhere near where our feet were magically leveled. She said to me, "This is a hologram projector. BUT... the images it projects will feel and appear to be solid. If you get injured it'll hurt, but after you leave this dimension, you won't bear any bruises or scars."

"Oh, and keep in mind... the hologram will shape- shift," Mark sadistically chided.

"On the count of one... two... three." Melissa threw her hat to the ground revealing Fluffy. An audible click sounded throughout the entire area and black smoke poured from the hologram projector. The smoke dispersed and formed itself into a dinosaur. To be precise, a troop of T- rexes.

"Dance, Nagir." I whipped out my cross- sword and my bauble shot up my throat and began to float in the air. A green light began to dance around me and I immediately knew what it was doing. I slowed my breathing to lower my pulse and cast a spell with the words, "Ckzxyter Hmtpoisqwer," which lowered my body heat to about 7 degrees Fahrenheit.

"ALICE, WATCH OUT!" Jake, who had just finished off one of the prehistoric beasts with a plunge of a spear to the eye, which in turn led to the sharp tip piercing its brain, turned around just to see a T- rex taking advantage of my energy usage and sprinting towards me with its giant teeth bared.

I grinned, welcoming the challenge, and created a bridle large enough for the oversized head of the Tyrannosaurus rex and, using superspeed, strapped the bridle around his mighty fangs. I swung myself up onto his back right behind his puny little arms and created a saddle with a stirrup for comfort. With my right hand, I plunged my sword deep into the flesh of the giant creature. I looked over to see how the others had completed their task. Jake walked over to me. "Look over there. Watch his eyes." He gestured to Artemis, who looked as if he was having a staring competition with his opponent. His eyes widened and the T- rex fell down to the ground, dead.

I looked around. Julia had woven a magical song and the dino had been moved to death by the pheonix's beautiful voice. The body had been set on fire. And it was emitting a disgusting smell. Melissa was fumbling in a pouch at her side while Fluffy was drawing blood from the snout of the beast. She emerged with a handful of magenta colored barbs.

The girl liked her lips as if the T- rex was a delicious meal. "Like a Venus flytrap, if two of the fronds on the inside of the flower are touched, the flower will close and trap the bug. I don't know if Fluffy will be able to eat the entire thing but I'd like to give it a go. " She smiled at the creature. With a motion I saw as a blur, she hurled the barbs at the chest of the rampaging animal. He knocked them aside as if they were bugs, but as he brushed against them, Fluffy lunged forward and engulfed the entire beast in his jaws.

Disgusted, I turned to see a mass of blood and flesh at the feet of the silent boy, Jason, and Mark.

"Our work here is done." Melissa picked up the hologram projector and suddenly, we were back in the PheonixClan common room. "Alice, time does not exist in white planes. So the time it would take us to train in about an hour, takes less than a millisecond."

"Time... oh dear, it's eleven o' clock already." Julia, looking at her CRH, grinned suddenly and laughed while saying, "Let's play charades, boys versus girls!" She suddenly slumped to the floor and began to sniffle and jerk around, as if she was in pain.

"Jake crying in his sleep." I heard Julia's voice telling us what her act was demonstrating and I burst out laughing.

"What?" Jake asked me with a frustrated look on his face.

With a gentle smile, Athena, trying also to hold back her laughter, said, "How about you try this one Jake?" She grinned at her brother and sent him a telepathical message. He bit his lip and responded. A buzzing noise passed through my head every time they sent a message to each other.

"QUIT IT! You're making my brain hurt!" Jake snapped at the former siblings. He morphed and sighed. "Change phase one," he said as he put one of his paws on his wrist were the tattoo used to be. When he returned to his human form seconds later, he looked exhausted. He started to guess what Julia was acting out. "Depression." She shook her head. "Sadness? A sulk? Spasms? Umm..."

"Can we tell him now?" Melissa begged Julia. The red haired girl grinned and nodded.

"It's you crying in your sleep," I stated matter-of fact-ly. Jake groaned.

"Oh... sorry. Not a good topic," Julia apologized with a grimace. "Well then. Let's have a vote on what to do."

Jake immediately shouted, "Roller coaster stimulator!"

Athena, scowled, "No way. Plus, I need some new clothes and dresses for weekends and dances. We should go shopping."

"She's right. After I came here, the only thing I've worn is this uniform, pajamas, and the stuff they found me in," I agreed with Athena. I didn't particularly like to go shopping but I absolutely hated roller coaster stimulators. It just didn't feel real.

"Alright, fine. But Alice doesn't have merits." Jake agreed, thinking he could fox his way out of it.

"You weren't paying attention in last year's meeting were you? We decided that in your first week, you will be granted unlimited merits." Julia smacked Jake across his head for his stupidity.

"Yay! We're going shopping! Oh, and by the way, Julia, the leashes. We all know that they'll try to get awa-. They've locked themselves in the Boy's Dorm." Athena, thrilled to be able to go shopping, was determined to make this shopping spree the worst memory of the boys' lives.

"Don't worry. I'll get them out." I smiled and held a finger to my lips. I knocked on the door.

"We're not coming out no matter what! You can't make us." Mark's harsh voice, now wavering with a scared tone, sounded through the thick door.

"Yeah, I know. Tell Jake the girls and I are gonna go to the pastry shop. We're going to get sweets and pastries. Ask him if he wants us to bring back some Boston Cream Pie." As soon as I said this, Jake opened the door and I shouted, "Tzxyqme Pftyorezzqw Bjyt." The boys were frozen in time and Melissa appeared holding four different shaped leather collars and Athena popped her head out from behind her and grasped in her hands four colored leashes; yellow, brown, orange, and gray.

Wasting no time, Melissa clipped the largest collar around Mark's neck; a bit difficult due to the fact that Mark had curled into a ball in the messy closet. Athena handed her the gray leash, which she hooked and knotted to the collar. Jake, who had been storming through the door to demand Boston Cream Pie, was easier to reach and I clipped the second smallest collar around his neck. Athena showed me how to secure his orange leash to the collar. Julia bound Jason's collar around his ankle and quickly secured the leash. Athena stared down at her brother who was hiding behind Jason.

"You coward." She laughed and began to draw on his face with a permanent black marker. Making a prominent barber's mustache under his now black freckled nose, she began to darken his eyebrows extremely until they were as thick as redwoods were tall. She also drew swirls on his cheeks, a goatee, and a pile of dung on his forehead underneath a bold underlined, "I'm an Idiot!" She then clipped his collar to his neck and secured his leash. She nodded and we held on tight to the leashes as I released the time stop.

"How the heck di-." Jake started saying as he was tugging at his leash before a dark aura filled the room. I traced the source to Artemis who was looking at the mirror set into the closet door.

"Athena... would you like to tell me what is on my face."

Mark burst out laughing. "She got you good this time."

Artemis morphed and attempted to pounce on Mark when Athena jerked on his leash, stopping him short.

"Come onnnn. I wanna go shopping." Athena began to through a fit before Jake, Mark, and Jason rushed out of the room. She gave me a sly grin and dragged Artemis, sitting on the floor hiding his face, into the common room.

"Artemis, unless you want friction to burn the seat of your pants off, you better stand up and walk," I teased him.

"Let's go." Julia led us out of the room and into the elevator orb. "Shopping district."

"Isn't it past curfew?" A mechanical voice whirred as the doors hissed shut.

"Mrs. Faiy let us stay up as long as we wanted doing whatever we want as long as we don't disturb the sleep of others." Athena responded to the machine.

"Ah. I see. New girl, if your going shopping with the lion lady, you're going to learn a new meaning to 'shop 'til ya drop.'"

The door dinged open to reveal a giant door with neon signs saying things like, "Welcome to the Shopping District" and "Merit Store", as well as, "Ladies, make sure not to lose your partner." Athena led us to a gigantic store, filled to the brim with shoes. A lady with a beaming smile asked us, "Size?"

"Six."

"Eight."

"Four and a half."

"Nine."

"Jason's a size... oh right. Size seven."

"Five."

"Eight and a half."

After Melissa spoke, I looked at the bottom of my shoe. "Size six. But I was sure I was a size seven."

"Alright, mink- lined knee length boots with cushions, slimmed for easy try- ons for the girls. As for the reluctant boys, "Double cushioned sneakers. So... who's paying?" She held out a barcode scanner and Jake poked me.

"What?"

"Your CRH. Let me see it." As he stated his request, I handed him the device. He pressed something and a barcode appeared on the screen."

"That'll be 3,000 merits."

"Here." Jake passed the gadget to the woman who scanned the barcode and handed it back to me. She disappeared briefly and returned with a giant pile of shoeboxes.

"Women's size four and a half?" She held up the first box.

Athena stepped forward to accept it.

"Men's size seven." Jason smiled and took the box.

"Two women's size six."

"Here." Julia and I both reached out to get the boxes.

"I'll take the eight and a half men's." Mark said, polite for once.

"The eight." Artemis kindly took the box from the table.

"Size nine over here." Jake gave a friendly wave.

"Then the size five must be yours," the lady said, handing the remaining box to Melissa.

"Change into the shoes now." Athena commanded us. "If we change into them now, we'll break into them when our feet don't hurt yet then when we need the cushioning, it won't be uncomfortable."

I slipped into the deliciously soft boots and began to walk around in them. Jake, power- walking to break into his shoes faster, walked over to the lady at the counter. He whispered something into his ear and her eyes widened but nodded and returned with three extra shoeboxes. Feeling like I needed to be of use, I unlocked my Wishing Ball and created a dimension for all of our goods. I instructed everyone to put their old shoes into the shoeboxes and I bound the set of boxes with a red ribbon, produced by the intricately swirled orb, and let the secured pile be sucked into the dimension. I then told the magical object to remain open until I instructed it to close.

"Hey, need some help with that?" I walked over to Jake.

"Thanks," he murmured as we watched the boxes being sucked into another dimension.

Athena dragged us from store to store, buying everything, in every color, of every type in our sizes. I looked at my CRH to check the time. When I informed her that it was one o' clock, she panicked and said, "We're never gonna make it anywhere past Shopping district seven hundred sixty!" The guys groaned loudly.

At every store, as we tried on clothes and accessories, the boys were allowed very little sitting time. From inside the fitting rooms, we tied their leashes to little poles outside the curtains set there just for this purpose. At four a.m., even Athena was satisfied. I closed the Wishing Ball and we set off for the common room. When we arrived, everyone else slumped onto the couches and fell asleep. However, I stayed awake and sorted out the items we bought. When I looked at the receipts, the amount spent totaled around 700,000,000 merits. Athena had by far the smallest pile, but the clothes she bought were beautiful but childish. And their prices certainly added up. I surveyed the mass and noticed a slip of paper with my name on it. It rested on a small pile of two boxes Jake had laid next to him. Inside the long, narrow box was a necklace so simple, yet so elegant; a garnet ring on a silver chain with a shooting star of diamond in the center. I clasped it around my neck and opened the second box. It contained a pair of black boots. In his elegant handwriting he had written. "Let's do our best on the mission!" I reached into my pocket for the other Wishing Balls. As I passed the first one under his hand, his groaned and shifted in his sleep. I replaced the two boxes with the Wishing Ball and stored my belongings in my own ringed orb. I went to Deianira to stock up on clothing.

"Deianira, get me everything in your stocks in my size."

"Yes, master."

"Just leave it in a pile. I'll come back for it. Prepare a clean uniform for me as well." I turned and went to go take a bath. I let my muscles unknot in the scalding hot water and pulled myself up and changed into my uniform. I returned to the common room and packed everything Deianira had provided me with into my Wishing Ball. Jake had gone missing.

I was about to knock on his changing room door when I heard him talking. "Hercules, what did your wife say?" He paused. "What? Everything? Wow... she's really getting prepared. Yeah, do the same." He opened the door.

"I got your gift," I said showing him the necklace.

"Thanks. I mean for the Wishing Ball."

"Same." I replied. He then whispered something into my ear.

He then cleared his throat and said loudly, "We should go to the Battleroom. Train some more before we go. But no magicks are allowed. So you have to use physical strength."

"No problem. You forget I trained in a circus," I grinned as we strode out of the room. As I opened the door, I noticed everyone had woken up.

"Hey, we're going to the Battleroom. Anyone coming?" he asked.

"I'll stay here. Athena has a bit of a shopping hangover," Julia said with a weak smile as she gestured to Athena, whose head was cocked to one side.

All of a sudden, Athena put both arms in front of her and began waving them frantically. "No, anything but District nine thousand nine hundred ninety- nine! I can't walk another step." She began babbling endlessly that she didn't care about the cute rompers they had there or the most fashionable clothes they sold. I laughed and apparently the sound brought her back into Earth. "Wha? Huh? Oh." She turned bright red and shooed us out.

Mark, Melissa and Artemis followed us out as Julia rested her head on the couch. We walked outside and again into the elevator orb.

"How was the shopping spree?" the elevator orb asked.

"We're the only ones who have recovered. Lion lady has a shopping hangover. The leader and her partner are staying behind with her," Artemis reported to the elevator.

"Where to, fellas?"

"Battleroom," Melissa chirped cheerfully.

"Alright," Ding. "You're here." The door opened to reveal a room with a pedestal with a clipboard placed neatly on top of it. Behind it was a white door which had a sign that read, "CAUTION!"

To my horror, a dark haired boy walked out, bloodied and nursing his right arm in his left. Somehow he managed to smile. "You better watch out there. Jamie's out on a rampage."

"Wait, what's your name?" I called out as he was about to go into an open elevator orb.

"Oh, right. You're the new girl." He fixed me with intense brown eyes.

"Alice. The name's Alice." I emphasized my name. I snarled at him. I was sick and tired of being called "new girl."

"Hey, sorry. Don't bite." He leaned back and smirked. "I'm Andrew the Leopard. DragonClan. I saw you yesterday when we were sent to clean up after you guys. Nice juggling act." This guy was annoying me. He was just so casual.

"Don't you have a last name?" I retorted back.

"Palmer." He turned and bounded into the elevator orb and disappeared.

"Not a guy after my own liking," I said.

"I wanna go against Jamie," Jake bounced up and down.

"Then go before someone else comes." Mark pushed him towards the door. Jake slipped into the room and Melissa sat down on the white bench near the entrance.

"Take a seat. This may take a while, since their both formidable fighters." I followed her suggestion. She told me that the Battleroom was a place to hone our fighting skills, since we can't rely on magicks alone, when in battle. "But if we have special powers, like myself and Artemis," she paused to gesture at him, "who can dominate one's mind, we can't use those either."

"That's what he was doing with the dinosaur?"

"Yeah. So continuing, people with special powers, along with magicks, are not allowed to use their powers in the Battleroom. Only physical strength, not superstrength, is allowed. You can kick, punch, slap, and I've only heard one occasion of pressure pointing but it's not illegal."

"Are we allowed to bring anything inside?" I didn't want to tell her what I had in mind, but I wanted to know if it was legal.

"Just nothing sharp," Artemis informed me.

"Okay thanks. Anything else I need to know?"

"Naw, that's about it," Melissa concluded. Hearing this, I brought out my Wishing Ball and unlocked it. I gave it a few instructions and it immediately spewed out what I needed. I pocketed the small box it launched first and took the large bottle, it squeezed out. I reached inside and brought out the large fuchsia trench coat, which I slipped on top of my uniform. I unscrewed the cap and began to drink it. Melissa instantaneously noticed the stench it gave off. "Is that gasoline? Oh my gawd, are you going to blow yourself up? We don't have an unlimited supply of dying teens and animal bondings."

The door blasted open and Jake and Jamie, still in her scary basilisk form, battered and beaten, strode through the opening.

"Who won?" Mark asked.

Jamie, instead of Jake, responded, "Tie. I had his neck and he had my head. If it were a real battle, it would've been a matter of who could act quicker. Ark, you wanna go next?"

Ark, who I had met on my first day, had silently arrived and had been standing behind me like Artemis did.

"Yeah, I was thinking I would go against Alice. After all, she's never been to the Battleroom."

"You're on, snake boy," I said, accepting the challenge.

"Don't generalize. There are some snakes at Alias who are real idiots." Jamie growled.

"Enough talk." Melissa said. She nodded towards the door. "Go," she said with an encouraging smile. "And good luck."

As soon as the door shut, Ark pressed his tattoo to morph. He hissed and I calmly spit at the floor.

"That's disgusting, Alice," he hissed.

"You'll see what I'm doing later. For now, just shut up."

We began to circle each other, trying to anticipate what our opponent was going to do. For the most part, I had him confused. I continued to spit on the floor every couple of inches or so until it formed a circle. Ark's change wore off, but while I was setting my trap, he had collected venom and rolled paper balls into the dangerous liquid. He set the wads into a straw and aimed towards me. The first one whizzed by my ear and stuck to the wall, but the ones that followed came closer and closer to their target. When all that flowed from the straw was air, he swore. I reached into the right pocket of my brightly colored trench coat, which I stored the most random things in and pulled out a set of ten bowling pins. I launched them at his head, which he dodged easily, but he had backed into the circle of my spit, which was still tainted with the foulness of gasoline. I quickly reached into my pocket again and brought out a box of matches, that I had instructed my Wishing Ball to create earlier. I lit a match and set it onto the nearest spit wad to me. The fire spread quickly and, soon, Ark was trapped in a circle of flame.

"I surrender." I heard a weak voice from inside the inferno. I quenched the flames with a bottle of antidote and left the room.

"Who won?" Mark again questioned.

"I did." I heard the door reopen. Ark held out his hand, congratulating me.

"Well done. You are a quick and clever fighter. You are sure to win a battle." I shook his hand and thanked him.

A squirrel voice ringtone began playing loudly and Jake, in all his bright red glory, answered his Crestmark Hark. "Hello." His face became serious and grave, not to mention deathly pale. "Yes, sir, I understand. Very well. Yes, sir, I'll see you tomorrow." He turned to us. "Schedule's been moved forward. We're told to get ready and launch tomorrow."

Artemis, as pale as snow, responded, "How are we getting to the surface?"

Jake's answer was one word. "Kilauea."

"Wait, somebody tell me what's going on," I said, to no one in particular.

"We'll be shot up in a high pressure resistance orb tomorrow up Mt. Kilauea. Our mission date's been moved up."

"You guys keep training. We have to go back to the common room to get ready for tomorrow." Artemis told the others to stay behind and keep working just in case the Others invaded our home base. He didn't say it. But we all knew what he meant. We trudged back to the common room and packed everything we owned, except for the furniture. By the time everyone was back, the three mages of PheonixClan were fast asleep on the red couches.

When we woke up, Artemis had more permanent marker decorations on his face and I had a box on my lap. I opened it up and inside was a letter and a photograph. The letter read:

Dear Alice,

While you were busy, Julia, Jason and I were doing some research. We believe that your mother may have been the leader to SphinxClan and that you originally had the form of a sphinx. The photograph is of your mother. Good luck on your mission!

Athena

The photograph was of a beautiful woman with long black hair and stunning golden eyes, like mine had been before the operation. I cried myself to sleep and remained that way until morning.

As I opened my eyes, I noticed my eyes were red and puffy. "Htyver." I cast a spell to soothe the puffiness. I turned over to where Artemis and Jake were still asleep. Slapping them across the face, I yelled, "Rise and shine!"

Jake snorted and, still half asleep, stood up only to fall down again. "Pfft." Artemis had awoken and mocked Jake, now sprawled on the floor, snoring.

"I know something that will get him up in an instant," I said, mischievously. "Do we still have the buckets from the night before yesterday?"

"Yes, but what are you going to use them for?"

"We have heightened senses, right?"

"Right."

"Nobody's gonna thank me for this, but let's just say that the smell of a wet dog is very potent." I grinned as I told him my plan.

"You wouldn't." Artemis gasped.

"She wouldn't what?" Athena had made her way into the common room dragging Melissa and Julia out behind her. They had the same idea as Jake and were still slumped forward in their sleep.

"Soak a sleeping dog," Artemis replied for me.

"By all means, help me with these two." Then, with a more serious tone she addressed me, "I take it you got my present."

"Yes. Thank you."

"No need to thank me. Just don't mention it to anyone else. The officials wouldn't be pleased if we had a natural born sphinx roaming around. There's a reason you don't see many dragons or pheonixi flying around." She turned to Artemis. "You there, poophead," she said, referring to yesterday's facial tattoo. "Go and round up the sleeping boys. Jason's in the library so don't bother trying to find him."

Artemis sneaked into the boy's dorm and we heard a loud crash and Mark's voice yelling, "I'M UP, OKAY! What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Athena left the two sleeping girls next to Jake and went to go to retrieve something in the girl's dorm. She returned with a bucket, a large spool of bright red ribbon, and several large burlap sacks. The bucket was launched through the air and I caught it by the handle. The blond- haired girl then busied herself tying up Jake and Melissa with ribbon. She then put a burlap sack over Julia's head and secured it with a length of ribbon. I then used a spell to enlarge the bucket and make it float in the air. Artemis filled it with water using magicks. Athena then asked, "May I do the honors?" Artemis and I nodded, giving her the 'go ahead.'

She placed her hands on the top rim and bottom of the bucket and flipped it over, just as Mark walked in growling, "What's the big idea? Waking me up like that. Honestly, have you gone mad?"

"ARGH!" Jake had woken up, by the sound of it. He had morphed and slipped out of his bonds, but he was still soaking wet. Melissa struggled when the bonds tightened when she changed. Athena, who immediately noticed, went over to help her Clanmate by cutting the ribbon into tiny shreds.

"Today is an important day for everyone. We can't spoil it by being late." As if on cue, an alarm went off on Julia's CRH. "Exactly. So hit the showers and be out, clean and tidy, in twenty- five minutes."

"We have showers?" I asked Melissa.

"Behind the curtain next to the dorm doors."

"Oh... thanks."

"Anytime."

I decided to take a bath instead. As I was trying to find where I had put the shampoo, I found out that there was a temperature control. I set it on scalding hot and gave up on trying to find the soap and just created a new set. I drank an entire bottle of antidote before soaking myself in the steaming water. I checked the time and, seeing that I still had fifteen minutes, I trudged back into my room and changed into my uniform. I stepped out of my room to find Jake in ripped jeans and a t- shirt sporting a bunch of ninjas.

"Look. We're going into civilization. You might want to dress casual," Jake lectured me.

"Right, thanks." I embarrassedly rushed back into my room to change into something more casual. A white, long sleeved polo- shirt, cuffs unbuttoned, a lacy black skirt, thigh length white and blue striped socks, and black flats.

Artemis and Jake looked me up and down. "Interesting outfit." Artemis commented on my unusual sense of style.

I looked at what he was wearing; sagging straight- leg jeans and a floppy jacket with black and white stripes.

"Now's not the time to start a fashion war. We gotta go. You can do it going up the volcano." Jake put his hands in between a crackly tension that filled the room as Artemis and I made scathing mental comments about each other's outfits. We were whisked into the common room and Julia had to help Jake drag us into the elevator orb. We glared at each other the entire time. We entered a hall which Julia referred to as the disaster brewer.

"' Kay, this is gonna get cramped." A few servants in black uniforms sealed us into clear orbs that were connected into a circle by thin tubes. We were then rolled into a massive, redwood- sized tube. After a muted hiss, a fiery red liquid began to fill the rest of the tube. Julia held up ten fingers. I saw the rest of the Clans file in. Amelia waved to me frantically to get my attention. I grinned and waved back. Andrew snuck up behind her and pulled on her ponytail. He made a mistake by holding onto it. She changed and suddenly he was on the floor. I turned to Jake and mouthed, "What just happened?" I couldn't get an answer before we rocketed up out of the tube. Shot several feet in the air, we came crashing down with rock, debris, and ash. The orbs, which had withstood pressure and heat in a volcano, cracked open when it hit land. We crawled out of the wreckage and onto the earth.

"There's the plane." Artemis gestured to a sleek jet with the Alias crest painted on the door. We clambered into the passenger area and I pulled out a ice cream sandwich from my Wishing Ball and laughed as Jake and Artemis stared longingly at it. I was reminded that we hadn't had breakfast. I handed them each a Big Mac boxed in the white cardboard case. I tried not to gag as they wolfed it down in less than a minute. Artemis wiped his face and passed me a shimmer suit.

"Go change into this and imagine the Yemes uniform," Artemis said, his mouth half full. He pointed at a door to a private compartment

I began to tug on the tight shimmer suit and zipped it up till the collar reached my neck. I stared at the mirror and imagined the black mission uniform change into a white skirt and long sleeved dress shirt. I then pictured the mauve vest that art and theatre students wore. I shut my smoky, gray eyes and imagined myself wearing the neatly pressed uniform. When I opened them, the shimmer suit had changed its appearance to match my mental description. I folded my regular clothes and headed back to my seat. Artemis was wearing the same out fit with long white pants and Jake's vest was green, for sciences. The plane began to whir and suddenly touched down. We had arrived at our destination. When our pilot opened our doors, I recognized my surroundings as Yemes Academy. Students had gathered around and were staring to see who was coming out of the plane. A mental message in Jake's voice filled my head. "While we are here, we are to act as siblings. You are Alina Lionheart and I am your brother Brooke, and Artemis' alias is Christopher. Got it?" In response to his question, I gave a slight nod, trying not to laugh as I sent him a message.

"The ABC siblings, eh?" I mentally chuckled as I slowly walked down the steps that led from the plane to the paved ground. Jake started grinning at the group of girls huddled at the bottom of the stairs. He waved at them and a few of them fainted. Only then did I realize that everyone at Alias was so gorgeous, handsome, cute, or hot that they could make normal people swoon if they smiled.

The crowd parted to reveal a girl with a loose circle of black ribbon pinned to her sleeve. Ugh, the Welcoming Committee. I could feel Artemis' thoughts screaming out, What's she doing here? Why's Nina here? He kept his calm and continued to walk forward. When our feet touched the floor everyone became silent.

"My name is Alina Lionheart, and these are my brothers. I'm an arts student in eleventh grade." I gave the boys a winning smile. I recognized most of them, though they had no idea who I was. I heard a couple of them wolf whistling. Definitely Elliot Simmons, twelfth grade.

"Yo, I'm Brooke!" Jake grinned at the girls and turned to where Elliot was standing. "And if you ask my sister out, I will personally tear your heart out and roast it and feed it to the dogs." A few of the girls gasped in horror.

"Christopher Lionheart. Art student. Twelfth. Let's go check out the dorms. I'm exhausted."

The Welcome Committee girl brushed her blond hair out of her stunning blue eyes. "Welcome to Yemes Academy. My name is Nina Black. I'm the head of the Welcome Committee as well as of the Latovayl Dorm, where you will be living until you graduate. Follow me." She turned her back on us and began walking while explaining things. "Brooke, since you are in the science department, your classes will go from six to twelve in the morning. Alina and Christopher, classes for the art department run from one to three. You are required to take classes five days a week. The library is open twenty- four seven as well as the study hall. Cafeteria hours run from five a.m. to eight p.m. The school store runs from seven to nine, daily. Other school-wide buildings, like the workout room, are open from six to ten." The stopped in front of a vibrant purple building that had animals intricately painted on the walls.

"It's very,,, um,,, eye-catching." Jake spluttered as he stared at the walls.

"It's said that every generation of the Latovayls paints it however they want. It's the most expensive dorm on campus. Every suite has two bedrooms, two twin beds each, a kitchen, a bathroom, a sitting area, an individual study hall, and three TVs." As she explained the room to us, she handed us each key cards. "Maroon side for the front door, purple side for your individual suite. I hope you don't mind that we've put you in one suite, since you're family. Room 218, it's the most luxurious. I expect to see you in class tomorrow morning." She waved goodbye and turned to the taller but more run down building a couple blocks down.

Artemis opened the door with his key card and we walked into the posh lobby, which was carpeted and looked like a hotel lobby. We scanned our key cards on the elevator and let ourselves up to the second floor and observed our surroundings. We found the door marked with a gold plate labeled '218' and let ourselves in. The leather couch had a fur cover and the TV's Nina had been talking about just about took up an entire wall's worth of space. The beds were piled with plump pillows and soft bedsheets and blankets. The study rooms were just as luxurious, the tables were lines with personalized stationary and, resting in the middle, was a Sony VAIO laptop. The kitchen was something you'd find in one of those cooking challenge shows they have on TV. Fully stocked with a full size refrigerator, stove, microwave, sink, and oven, it was all shiny and new. In the cabinets were accessories, glasses of all sorts, and cake decorating supplies. A coffee table was laid out near the living room.

"Alright. I get one bedroom and you guys get the other." I opened the door to the bedroom nearest to the kitchen and unlocked my Wishing Ball and gave it the instructions, "Pty Kzxqwer Schopter." All the clothes I owned, besides my shimmer suit, poured into the closet and I watched as shirts, jackets, and sweaters worked to hang each other onto clothes hangers and hook each other onto the pole in the closet. Everything worked with each other to neatly fold their friends and put them into the drawers at the bottom of the armoire or hang them onto hangers and, just the way I did it myself, organized themselves into the compartment. Everything in rainbow order, jackets on the left and shirts right after them. Then skirts and after that pants. A pant leg hooked out to reach into the Wishing Ball and pull out, and stick to the wall, labels that read 'Jackets', 'Tops', 'Bottoms', and 'Seasonal' (under which snow jackets, tank tops, swimsuits, and other items worn only in either summer or winter piled themselves in.)

As soon as I heard the armoire door slam shut, I sank my face into the pillows. "Alice? We have lunch ready. Are you coming?" I heard Jake's voice through the door.

"No thanks. I'm not hungry." I just wanted to sleep. I looked at my CRH. I opened the door and stared at them as they ate.

"Alice, did you know about this dorm?" Artemis said as he attacked his rock hard steak.

"No. Apparently only the wealthiest or most scholastically advanced students lived here."

"Weren't you adopted by a wealthy family?"

"It's abnormally expensive. Some people are wealthy. Millionaires. Some people are abnormally rich. Multi- billionaires." I stared at their meal in disgust. "And which one of you made lunch?"

"I did. If I let Jake take over, we would gain about ten pounds a day," Artemis said.

"Why didn't you ask me to cook? It would be better than burnt broccoli and carrots, steak that's the size of a dictionary and harder to eat than diamonds, glop that's covered in gravy and, well at least you got the smoothie right," I commented as I poured myself a glass of strawberry smoothie. Only to spit it all out at Jake.

"Eew! That's disgusting!" Jake and I yelled at the same time.

"She spit health potion at me! And a botched one at that!" Jake complained.

"That's gross. What is that, a protein drink made of puke?" I yelled as I spit out the remaining of drink onto to floor.

"It's a health potion. It's for keeping our HP up on a mission."

Jake leaned over and whispered to me, "He forgot to put in the sweet cream."

"I DIDN'T FORGET! THERE WASN'T ANY IN THE FRIDGE!" Artemis yelled.

"Then why didn't you just create some?" I asked.

Artemis changed. "Not all of us are like you and have magicks parents." He snarled at me.

"Can it. Go to class." Jake put both hands around Artemis' round snout. The cougar turned back into his human form and glared at me. I walked out the door and made my way to the Arts Department building.

When I pushed open the door, Elliot and my old classmates were chipping away at giant blocks of marble. He stood up and kissed my hand. "We're making sculptures now. You can take some time to design one before we bring the marble in for you." We had already had our designs ready before break so I already had my design. Artemis slammed the door behind him, arriving moments after I had. With one look at the scene before him, he sat down and began to sketch something on a sheet of white paper. I sat down next to him and used my memory to remember my design for my sculpture. With a few strokes of my pencil, I had finished and gestured to Elliot to have a few of the TAs bring in the marble. His eyes widened as he looked over my intricate drawing. As soon as I was seated before the large slab of stone, I began to imagine the picture come to life. As I worked with mallet and chisel to create a work of art.

Everyone was watching as I began chipping off stone from the slab. When the TA stood from his seat behind an easel, where he was sketching the scene of the students working, he informed us that the class period was over. However, still immersed in their work, none of the students moved. Artemis, who had finished his sketch, had begun chipping at the shimmering slab of gray veined marble and was proceeding with alarming speed.

We stayed where we were until Artemis finished first. My heart skipped a beat when I saw his masterpiece; a cougar was in a pouncing position next to a dingo sitting tall in from of a massive creature with a lion's body, wings, stripes carved from in between its ears to its snout, and a human face with feline features. When I looked at my sculpture, I shuddered at its cruelty; an angel with flowing hair and outstretched wings and gentle hands reaching out for yours. In her pure white arms, she caressed a demon with scars and stitches carved into its body. Yet, it had a beautiful angel's face, whereas the angel had the twisted, evil face of a demon. When the TA saw it, he screamed. "It's so beautiful, yet so horrid," he said in a wavering voice.

"It represents that in every kind soul, there is darkness and hatred and in every dark soul, there is a speck of kindness. Similar to yin and yang," I explained to him.

"Alright, everyone. Since you have just finished the major project of this year, I'm going to paint this scene. But I don't want to waste your time. Since our minutes are limited, I'll take a picture to use as reference. I want all of you to sit at your statues and look like you're still working." He said from behind his desk. He took out an expensive- looking camera and took a picture of us, posing as if we were working. He turned and left the room. We took this as our cue to go back to our dorms. Taking one last look at Artemis' work, I noticed that the textured face of the sphinx had something drawn onto it. I had seen that design somewhere else. When I scanned my memories, I remembered from where: my mother's photograph. I had been crying so much that I hadn't noticed such an obvious mark. I forced myself to turn away and walk back to the dorm. I looked to the darkened sky. It's probably around seven o' clock. I wonder if Jake's eaten. I thought to myself.

When I opened the door to the dorm, a whining voice yelled out, "Where have you been? Your class ended six hours ago! I'm starving! Get me something to eat!"

"Jake, shut up." I walked to the kitchen and looked into the fridge. "Why is the fridge stocked with noting but steak, chocolate, milk, and soda? And the freezer's packed with ice cream, popsicles, and frozen food," I sighed. "Since we won't be running out of junk food for a while, I'll just create something. Honey barbeque chicken wings and fries to go with steak and Coke for you guys and my mix for me." I conjured up the meal I listed and had it placed on the plates I found in the cupboards.

"What's your mix?" Artemis, who had just walked into the room, had heard only the last part of the conversation. "If your cooking for all of us, you might as well multiply everything by ten. Jake ate seventeen steaks for lunch."

"How can someone eat something so hard in such large quantities?" I asked, disgusted.

He responded, chuckling, but still straight- faced. "One, have you seen how strong Jake's jaws are? Two, he's a glutton. He could probably qualify for a position as a wolverine. He'll eat anything."

I created several giant pots and used my own magicks to make more of the unhealthy meal. When I looked back to the low table that Jake sat on his knees in front of, three of the steaks were gone. I poured a generous amount of Coke into large mugs. I then focused my attention on the last glass; a small shot glass that was a midget compared to the curved, ten gallon pitcher I set next to it. I filled the pitcher halfway with ice cold raspberry iced tea and began adding lemonade, Fanta, Mountain Dew, and finally, a strong concoction of my own that I had made in my time at the circus. I pulled out a dropper and only added one drop to the mixture in the pitcher. I then added a drop of antidote just for kicks.

I heard a sniffing sound and Jake said, "Hey, that smells good. Can I try some?" I pulled out another shot glass and carried the Coke for Artemis and the pitcher and shot glasses. I poured myself a small amount of the drink and sipped it as I watched Artemis and Jake ravenously, almost magically, make the food disappear.

I felt something tugging at my gut and excused myself from the room. I didn't command my muscles to do anything but I found myself walking towards the statue courtyard. Surrounded by thousands of statues made by the students over the years as well as donated or bought, I, instinctively, hid behind a statue as I saw another figure in uniform creep into the courtyard. When she stepped into the moonlight, I silently gasped. It was Nina, the blond girl, who had led us to our dorm. What was she doing here, so late at night? Then another person appeared and bowed to Nina. Then, in less than a second, the being threw itself into Nina's face, then disappeared. But in that second, I had managed to take a picture of the shadowed person. Nina threw her head back and cried out in pain. I was taking pictures so fast I myself could barely see the scene. A pair of shining, red demon wings had emerged from her back and torn through the fabric of her shirt. She then surveyed the scene to make sure no one was watching. My heart skipped a beat as her eyes skimmed over the statue I was hiding behind. She then shrank her wings back behind her prominent shoulder blades and slunk back into the shadows. I took a shaky step towards the direction of the dorm.

I finally reached the safety of the suite minutes later after speeding through the courtyard, afraid that Nina might suddenly be in front of me and transform into that frightening beast. Even though all she did was grow wings, her aura felt different and her eyes were somehow different. She looked almost violent, like she could kill someone and not care. I collapsed on the floor and took a shuddery breath of warm air.

"She's back." Artemis popped his head out of his bedroom. Jake followed him out and took one long look at me.

"You look like you've seen a ghost. What happened?"

"Get me some of the drink." I shook as he wrapped a blanket around me.

"One step ahead of you," Artemis said, appearing with the pitcher and my glass. He poured some of the fizzing, brown liquid into my glass and handed it to me. "Tell us what happened."

I took two gulps of the liquid, which cleared my mind. "I need to make a report. So just listen as I tell them. How do I do it?"

Instead of answering with words, Jake brought out a USB cable from his Wishing Ball and attached his phone to the TV in front of me. "If you need to show them something that you didn't record, just press your index finger to this," he said pointing to a small, dented oval on the top of the phone. "Then think about what you saw and they'll get the image. One, two, three, and we're on."

A familiar voice said, "Hello, this is Alias Institute. Amelia speaking. How may I help you?"

"Amelia, this is the mission gang. We've got some information," Jake said. "Get us connected."

"Got it." The TV flickered and showed Amelia's worried face. Her hair was the normal brown but starting to turn purple with worry. "We received pictures minutes ago of the winged being. Really blurry and cruddy quality so I'm guessing it's Alice." I nodded. "What's the black thing that takes up about a third of the pictures?"

"Probably the statues," I muttered. I pressed my finger down on the indented surface on Jake's phone and began to replay my memory of the horrifying event.

"No, it can't be Nina," Artemis whispered.

"I know what I saw, Artemis, and it was that girl."

"Nina's too pure, too kind," he argued.

"How do you know so much about this Nina character?" Amelia asked.

"I have the right to remain silent," Artemis grumbled.

"Very well. Your job is done. Come on back. Wait a second, I'm getting something." She put her hands onto earphones and her normally healthy pink skin tone paled to a whiter shade of gray and her hair paled to a silvery gray as well. "Oh, no."

Artemis' CRH began ringing and he opened it and almost yelled, "What is it?" He paused as the person on the other side said something. "We'll be right over." He turned back to the TV. "Amelia, we're coming back, okay. And tell them that all we want are the merits and to cancel the feast." She nodded and the screen went dark again.

"What was that all about?" Jake asked as he dug into a gallon sized tub of ice cream.

"Nyx has been murdered. Stabbed by a sharp item on his left ear. Pack your bags; we're going home." Artemis turned and went into his room. I followed suit and instructed my Wishing Ball to pack all my clothes, as well as the furniture, into another dimension. Artemis knocked on my door and asked if I was ready to go. However, I wasn't there. I had teleported myself into the art room and begun to carry both my statue and Artemis' back to the dorm when I spotted a pile of enlarged photos on the TA's desk. When I took a closer look, I noticed that it was the photo he had taken in class earlier today. I saw that he had made copies for everyone in the class, as well as himself. I took two of the copies and teleported back to the dorm.

"What the heck are those?" Jake asked as I set them down.

"Our school project. But why did you bring them here?"

"They're ours to keep after they've been graded. And I brought the picture the TA took." I handed one of the copies to him. I stuffed my statue into my Wishing Ball and slipped the picture in after it.

"How am I supposed to carry this?" Artemis asked.

"Oh right, I didn't give you a Wishing Ball." I flicked one at him and a buzzing sound filled the room. "That's the one." I instructed it to fill itself with Artemis' belongings, the statue, and the photo. Even though I wasn't its master, it followed my orders and, within, seconds, the suitcase was empty.

Artemis and Jake both held my hands and said, "Earthus Magnuim." A giant hold opened up underneath us and we traveled through layers of earth and we reached the mantle where gooey strands of magma stuck to my hair, instead of burning it. After what seem like millennia, we traveled through the outer core, which felt like a warm bath in liquid iron and nickel.

Artemis sent me a mental message telling me to set up a shield that would protect us from the solid wall of the inner core. I did as he told me and right as I finished the spell and the shield went up, we collided with a hard object. We landed on one of the several half- orbs that were built to serve as launch/ landing pads. We scrambled into an elevator orb and instructed it to whisk us back to the magicks room, where Artemis said they were having a meeting discussing how we were going to find the murderer and replace Nyx.

We arrived in the room where the magicks were debating on who killed Nyx. "Waita sec. I gotta go to the bathroom," Jake said, bouncing up and down.

"Can't you hold it?" Artemis asked.

"No, I've been holding it since we started coming back," he said while doing the potty dance.

"Fine, be back ASAP!" Artemis yelled as Jake disappeared down the corridor. He then seated himself on a metal foldable chair and asked a tall Asian girl sitting next to him. "Is everyone here?"

"We're still missing Jake and Megan," her somber voice slurred. Jake stumbled back into the magicks room minutes later.

He fainted and everyone ran towards him. His breathing was quick and shallow and his face was paling. I put a hand to his forehead and sighed in relief. "He's fine, just give him some space," I said to the magicks. Not convinced that he was all right, I stayed by his side. His eyelids fluttered open and he gripped my arm in tightly.

"Blood," he stammered.

Andrew stepped forwards with a wet towel in his hands. He applied it to Jake's forehead and said, "Speak up, cousin, we can't hear you."

"Blood, there was blood everywhere. She just sliced her head off. The body's still there. Catch her, before she strikes next." So in shock that he couldn't' speak, Jake sent a vivid memory of what he saw. It lasted less than a second, but it left me shaking in fear.

"It's Megan. She's the murderer. She's murdered Mise. Her body is in front of GriffinClan's common room. Jake thinks she's going for Alpha next."

"If we're going too catch Megan, one of the most cunning assassins in Alias, we might as well send a full blown army," Ark joked.

"Now's the wrong time, Ark." Artemis' eyes seemed to be filled with anger. "I want all of us to go after Megan." He turned to Andrew.

"Send a message to Amelia. She should still be at the report station. Tell her to send everyone to the guard gates. We mustn't let Megan get away." We heard a sniffing sound behind us.

"She's headed for the escape mobiles. Follow me!" A girl with spiky, brown hair morphed into a cheetah.

"Well, this should be easy," I muttered.

"Carry Jake. We can't leave him here." Artemis adjusted Jake's limp body onto her well muscled back and she sprinted away.

"Tqzxypartzietz Mezxgna." As I cast the teleportation spell, Artemis lassoed the cheetah's tail and pulled her into range of the spell.

We landed a couple feet away from the murderer and she turned around and spat a horribly aimed glob of spit, which landed on the wall behind us, where is fizzed before bursting into flames. Artemis quickly extinguished it, keeping his eyes on Megan.

She smirked and brought out a small, glass vial and put her lips to it, draining it in one gulp. "It's smart to drink sphinx blood regularly, isn't it, Alice? It clears the mind and is an antidote to every poison known to exist." I snarled was about to throw myself at her and snap her neck when Artemis held me back.

"Don't. She's just taunting you. But it's true. What you created was a mix of your own blood and human substances. Am I correct?"

I opened my mouth to respond when a piercing scream sliced through the quiet, tense hallway. Megan was on the floor, gasping for breath. Her face was blue and I looked around to see who was casting the spell to make her like this. "Gah," she gasped.

"Ark, quit it. She'll die before the execution," a girl with curly black hair yelled at him.

I turned around to see Ark gripping a small, fabric doll in his right hand. His hand was squeezing it so hard that his knuckles were white. The girl who had saved Megan slid a bright pink highlighter out of her jacket pocket and drew in the air in front of her a compass- like design. In the center of the compass, where the four points met, she drew a scorpion.

The spell then transferred itself to Megan's forehead, causing her to fall onto the floor and turn to stone. "James, get Melissa and head for the execution site." A guy in a BasiliskClan uniform nodded and disappeared in a blur to find the PheonixClan warrior.

Artemis stepped forward to pick up the statue but was stopped by the girl with the pink highlighter. "You'll chip her." She paused to think. "Artemis, Alice, could you create and air drift to carry her."

"Just recite, 'Aeolux Drift' and imagine Megan floating in the air," he instructed me.

I started to imagine Megan floating and began to recite the spell when I noticed Jake had woken up. I created a simpler version of the air drift spell which held the Megan statue up and rushed over to him,

"Are you okay?" I asked him.

"Why don't we just kill her on the spot, like she mercilessly killed the officials. She doesn't deserve a formal execution," he spat.

"It isn't a formal execution, Jake. Melissa and James are devising a scheme right now. We're not going to sever her body. We're going to destroy her fate. It's much, much more painful," Artemis told Jake.

"Fine. Let's hustle. The sooner we get rid of this murderer, the better," he snarled.

Ark led us to a giant cavern with an oversized guillotine in the center of a circle of chairs that went around the entire room. Seated on one of the two- seaters, were Melissa and the magick from earlier. Their heads were hovered over a sheet of paper that rested between them.

"So... what's in store for her?" Artemis asked the two of them while gesturing to the floating statue behind him.

"We can't figure it out. Something's messing up the reading. Everything that comes out is gibberish," Melissa said, frowning so much that shadows were cast on her face.

"I thought you weren't a mage," I said, puzzled.

"No, I'm not a mage. I'm a half magick. Some of us half people have both the power and the talent to be able to use magicks. Others, like myself, don't have the power but can do some magicks but only because they have talent," Melissa explained, her gaze never shifting from the paper in front of her.

In a quieter voice, I asked Jake, "What are they doing?"

"Trying to tell Megan's fortune. Even though Melissa's in PheonixClan, she's got powerful Blackcaster magicks, she just can't summon or completely control them. Then, once they have her fortune, the have seconds to freeze it, they'll need us for that, and save it for the execution, where they'll destroy it."

"We got it!" Melissa yelled.

"Kronet Spear!" Artemis yelled out and from his hand pooled out a golden spear coated in locks and chains.

Jake yanked it out of his hand. "Gimme that. I've got better aim than you do." With that said, he hurled the spear at the sheet of paper that was still on the chair. I stepped forward to see that letters were flashing, changing, and disappearing on the paper and as soon as the tip of the spear pierced it, the letters froze in place. "James, I'll leave you to it." The Blackcaster nodded.

Andrew said, "We need a signal to let them know that we have t." He turned to a tall, tan European boy. "Can you get that done, Matthew?"

"Arooooow." A echoing howl filled the room and seconds later, everyone else arrived.

Phelix and Alpha stepped to the front of the gathered group and the green clothed man announced, "We are here to witness the execution of Megan Jacobs, a traitor who has tried to destroy the core of Alias and take over the universe. Executioner Melissa Tolman please inform us of her crimes."

"Wait a sec. I'll be right back. I need to get my Grim Reaper suit"

"MELISSA!" Alpha exclaimed.

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. Megan Jacobs has killed two Alias officials as well as attempt to destroy all of PheonixClan. Now can I get my Grim Reaper suit?" Melissa complained.

"No!" Alpha yelled.

"Phooey. Spoilsport."

"Executions are not done for fun, Melissa!"

"Everyone, in your seats," Phelix said, interrupting their argument.

Jake beckoned for me to sit next to him. I plopped myself on the red cushioned chair. Melissa carefully lifted Megan's stony body onto a large platform. With the spear in it, James ripped the paper to shreds and Megan let out a pain- filled scream. I shut my eyes.

"Open your eyes, Alice. This is what happens to traitors," Jake's voice had developed an icy edge. Scared, I opened my eyes just a crack. Pieces of smashed rock lay on the platform. Nothing else.

"We need to find our next scorpion. Hopefully, she won't be tainted by evil like this one," Alpha murmured.

"Let's go get her then," Said Jake enthusiastically.

"Everybody go to the surface and go access the possible candidates," continued to official

"Everybody?" Jake complained while slowly taking tiny steps towards the exit.

"You were the one who wanted to 'go get her then', was it?" Alpha teased.

"I thought the guys in GriffinClan were gonna go do it."

"That was before we needed to find two new officials. And it's going to be hard work training them."

Phelix addressed everyone, "Very well. GriffinClan will depart as soon as they gather their things and will go to find their new member while DragonClan goes to go find their new official. BasiliskClan will go find Mise's replacement. PheonixClan will get a break because their mages have just completed their mission. However, those of you who are going to search for the new members, be wary of the winged being that has been reported. May Faiy be with you."

"And you." This time I joined in with the Alias wishing. As I turned to exit the room, a tall girl with dark brown hair who had sharp, green eyes stepped in front of me.

"My name is Josephine Chang, GriffinClan's Leader," she said, staring down at me.

I became very nervous. Was she upset that Megan was executed? "I'm sorry for your loss."

"It's alright. I should have noticed something was wrong. BasiliskClan warned me months ago that Megan's future was filled with darkness and bloodshed. They told me to report to the officials about what she was doing in her private cavern."

"What was she doing?" I asked her.

"She was performing spells that no one had taught her; magicks that she shouldn't have been able to do: blackmagicks. I knew then that something was fishy. Only Others could do blackmagicks." Josephine said this with tears in her eyes. She looked at me and gripped my arms in hers. "I don't know why I'm telling this to you but there's something about you that makes me feel like you won't tell. You won't tell, right?" When I nodded, she buried her face in my shoulder and began to sob. "If only I told the officials when I found out, Nyx and Mise wouldn't be dead. It's all my fault."

"Shh, it's gonna be all right," I tried to soothe her but my efforts failed as she changed and the talons of a griffin gripped my shirt. Massive tears began to stain my white shirt with darker spots. How was I going to make her think that the deaths weren't her fault? I contacted Artemis, who was probably in the common room by now. "HELP!"

His response came immediately. "Bring her to the common room and I'll calm her down. After that, she'll have to pack her bags and go to the surface."

I teleported Josephine to the entrance of the PheonixClan common room and recited my pass code. "579495821276945235644- 56732355794432568911358." The door creaked open and Artemis helped me carry her onto the couch. He had her sit up and stared deep into her eyes. After a while, Josephine had stopped sniffling and crying.

When Artemis widened his eyes, they broke their connection and Josephine began to hum and walked out the door with a smile on her face. When she closed the door, I swear I heard her singing, "It's not my fault, it's not my fault," to the tune of "na, na, na, na, na, you can't catch me.

"We must go see the other Clans off," Julia said as I slumped onto the couch that Josephine had been sitting on moments ago.

"Yeah just gimme a sec. I'm really tired."

"Alice, we have to go. They're leaving in a few minutes," she insisted.

I rolled off the couch and landed on the carpeted floor with a thud. I forced myself to stand up and followed the group out into an elevator orb.

Melissa commanded, "Disaster Brewer." The elevator orb closed its doors and opened them again in less than a second later.

"Did you guys get an update?" Mark asked.

"Yeah, after the missiongoers left we were shut down for maintenance, remember?" it replied in a less monotone voice.

"No, I don't remember, but that's great," he replied with a nervous smile on his face.

We stepped out of the elevator and were just in time to see the Clans being loaded into their orbs and were connected by tubes to resemble the molecular structure of Alias. The only difference was that two of the orbs were a dark blue in color. From inside one of the blue orbs, Amelia waved to me and mouthed, "Wish me luck!" I didn't have time to wish her luck before a bunch of hands sprouted from the sides of her orb and began tugging at her hair. She glared at the orb next to her, inside which resided Andrew. The hands disappeared and she grinned at me, pointing to her eyes. Amelia pressed her hands together and then brought them apart. Connecting her two palms was a thin line of pure white lightning. Twitching her fingers slightly, Amelia shaped the lightning bolt into the shape of a wild cat. "Igux," she commanded it. Go. It ran through the solid wall of the orb into Andrew's and bounded onto his chest, shocking him every time it touched him.

Andrew fainted and Amelia, in a fit of laughter, changed and water spewed from the side of the blue orb she was encased in. and I saw how she was able to shock Andrew. Her form was an electric eel.

She waved her tail at me and the tube that shot us onto the surface was filled with water now. The tube opened and they shot up into the unknown with the powerful blast of water.

I jumped when I heard Jamie's voice behind me. "She's a great girl. She doesn't always follow the rules, but she does what she thinks is right. You'll never go wrong, following her."

"Does everybody here do that? One day you'll give me a heart attack." She chuckled and started to seal herself into an orb.

"Soon you won't be the new girl," Ark said. Looking deep into my eyes and putting a reassuring hand on my shoulder.

"Yeah. Good luck," I said with a grin.

"Thanks."

Jake poked me ask gestured for me to follow him. We stood opposite from the rest of our Clan. He stood his back from the Clan took a deep breath. "I never told you my power." He sighed. "I can communicate with invisible worlds and their inhabitants."

"The spirit world?"

"Not exactly, but close.. But one of them told me that I was going to join them later in their world. That's why I gave you that necklace."

"To remember you by?"

"No. I've enchanted the shooting star to reflect my life. If it is intact it means I'm alive. Alice, that is crucial. Something is going to happen very soon and I think it's gonna affect all of us." He jerked his head over to our Clan. "Athena can feel it. But since it's in the spirit world, it isn't clear for her. She can only see the future of visible worlds."

"Continue..." I prompted him, my voice trailing off at the end.

"That's it. Oh, wait..." He leaned in and gently brushed his lips against mine. "I just wanted to tell you that I'll do whatever I can to be with you." I felt my face turning hot as he grinned and walked back to where Artemis and Athena were standing.

"The rest of the Clan already went. We were just waiting to see GriffinClan off," Athena said. "But it might take them awhile so let's go back."

"I'll stay," I said as she began to walk to the elevator orb. "They should be seen off like the other Clans. They are just like them. Why are you treating them like this? Just because one of the eggs went bad in the carton doesn't mean all of them are," I protested.

"She's right, you know?" Artemis said, holding Athena back with one arm.

Athena sighed heavily and said, "At least create some chairs for us."

Just as I was about to recite the spell, a girl who looked just like Amelia, besides the fact that her x- clip was replaced with a orange- yellow bow, rushed in and panted, "Sorry, we're late."

Josephine, still in a trance- like state of happiness, strapped herself into one of the orbs. As soon as the black clad figures as sealed the tube, a spinning column of air began to circulate around the orbs and then shot upwards along with GriffinClan.

Silently, we walked back to the elevator orb and instructed it to take us back to the common room. When the door swung open, Mark had loaded an arbalest, a medieval crossbow, and was pointing it at my chest.

"Julia," Jake said with anger rising in his voice. "what is going on?"

"She has to go," Mark panted with hate in his voice. "Ever since she's been here, things have been happening. If she continues to stay here, we'll all be killed."

"Mark, calm down," Melissa said, in a pleading tone.

When Mark turned to look at Melissa, he accidentally pulled the trigger and the arrow flew towards me. Jake suddenly shouted, "Alain, catch it!" and the bolt froze, just millimeters away from my chest. In my mind's eye, I saw a little boy with hair that stood up. The only thing was, his entire body was pure white. He smiled and waved goodbye as he began to fade away. The arrow looked darker in color in his ghostly hands. When he finally disappeared, the arrow crumbled to dust.

I stared at Jake. "Who was that?"

"The spirit of the guy who was the dingo before me. He was changed when he was nine so that's why he appeared as a little kid," he explained. "He's been following me around for a while. Some people who weren't burned in fires but weren't executed stay in the mortal world, looking for a person who can see them clearly. Only that person has the power to transfer them into the spirit world."

"Then why is he still here in the mortal world? Shouldn't you just transfer him into the spirit world?"

"It takes a lot of energy. I put a little of my energy everyday into a small reserve underneath my tongue where my Achilles heel is so that I can transfer them into the spirit world in a month."

"That's a long time. I haven't even been here a month!" I realized.

He nodded. "It's unusual for so much to happen in such a short period of time. The Others haven't been this active for years, according to Artemis."

"It's probably becau-" I stopped to check my Crestmark Hark as it buzzed loudly.

When I pressed the center button to stop the buzzing, Alpha's face, now streaked with lines of worry, was displayed on the screen. "Alice, tell Jake to show you where my office is. I need to talk to you," he said in an urgent tone.

Jake grabbed my wrist and ran to the elevator orb before Alpha even finished talking. When the doors closed, Jake spoke to the machine. "The Red Prince's Throne Room." The elevator lurched forwards and came to a screeching halt. Rubbing my neck, I stepped out of the elevator orb and came face to face with a pair of fiery stone wings emerging from a large bonfire. Jake leaned forward and stood on his tippy toes to reach into the flame and closed his fingers around something. He jerked his arm backwards and quickly shouted out, "Atlantis Encasement!" Whatever he was holding began screaming, a horrible sound that sounded like fingernails running down a chalkboard.

"NOOOOO! Anything but water! I'll take you to Alpha! I'll cooperate! I really will!" it shrieked continuously.

"Swear upon your soul," Jake commanded. I felt a shiver run through my body. I had never seen Jake look so cold.

"Tch. Fine. I swear upon my soul that I'll take you to Alpha. You and the Banished Clan's Leader's daughter. Bleh, that was a mouthful," the creature said with a voice that sounded like two rocks being rubbed together. Jake extinguished the spell and I got a closer look at the little tyke. It resembled the gargoyle that was perched on the right side on roof above the entrance of the orphanage that I used to live in. It had a face like a demented eagle and had gray, scaly skin running down the length of its body. Its barbed tail swished back and forth like a whip and its wings were as large as an airplane's. They unfurled with a snap and Jake leaped into the left one. Once atop his perch, he held out his hand and pulled me up onto the creature's right wing. The gargoyle used its sinewy back legs to propel itself into the air. It flew with such speed that I saw my surroundings as a blur. Suddenly, the gargoyle stopped mid-flight and used its leathery wings as a parachute and safely touchdown in front of a door that looked as if it was made entirely from flames. Jake walked through the flames and after a second, was launched back through the "door". I snickered.

"You give it a try," he retorted.

Without saying another word, I stepped into the fire and continued to walk forwards down a smoky tunnel that seemed to go on forever. I had lost track of time and soon I felt like I had been walking for days. My feet ached, my eyes stung, and my throat hurt. Stupid smoke. I saw a light at the end of the tunnel, panicked, and ran back the way I came. No way was I gonna meet some angel. I came to a fork in the road. I thought to myself, "This wasn't here before." Taking a deep breath, I began to think of a solution. "Dance, Nagir." With a shaky hand, I made a small cut on my arm and lapped up the blood that welled from it. All my panic and fear vanished and, in my mind's eye, I saw a thin line on the floor of the tunnel. I began running, turning right and left into tunnels that had not been there before and found myself in front of a door that was about the size of a small plant pot with a collection of locks embedded in the door. I pressed my badger tattoo and began to shrink until I could finally fit through the door. I lifted my paws from the ground and attempted to stand and instead fell backwards onto the cold, stony floor. Giving up, already, on trying to open the door manually, I pressed my paws together with a clack and began chanting.

"Oh spirit of flame, burn this interfering, wooden door down and allow it to fuel your soul." My stomach felt queasy and after a few minutes, nothing happened. A bubbly sensation that felt like the touch of magick welled up inside of me and I thought my spell was working. Until I tried to push the door open again. That didn't turn out so pretty.

I reached out my paw to the door and gently touched my claw to the charred wood. A force that felt like running into a brick wall at the speed of light smashed into my face. I put my paws to my throbbing nose and felt myself becoming human again. I brought out my Wishing Ball and unlocked it. After giving it a few instructions, a small chain was launched out of the opening. Strung on the fine silver, was a collection of lock picks, from the width of pencil lead to that of paper.

I was just about to insert the thinnest pick into the lock when the door opened.

"Alice, do come in," Alpha said with a grim smile. He gestured for me to sit down at a plush couch, where Jake and the creature from earlier were seated with plates stacked with pastries on their laps. "Alice, Alice. You need to be daring. You could have been here much earlier. You need to follow the light. Didn't Jake tell you?" Alpha sighed as he handed me a plate loaded with éclairs, cream puffs, different samples of cake (which included strawberry chocolate cheesecake, yum, and raisin date cake, yuck), a slice of Crème Brulèe Tart, and a stack of other pastries that I didn't recognize.

"Ro," I said, my mouth stuffed with orange crisps and Mochaccino cake.

"We're here to discuss something that must not be mentioned outside of this room. I'll need to you sign a few confidentiality contracts," Alpha said after he took a quiet sip of boba milk tea. I bit the tip of my thumb fiercely, drawing blood. Alpha objected, " A signature is all that's required."

"Oh... Htyver," I muttered the healing spell. I signed my wispy signature and sat back down.

"Alice, your birthday is on the second of January, am I correct?" Alpha inquired.

"You are not misinformed," I replied, bored already.

Alpha sighed, "Please pay attention. I believe this is yours." I took a quick glance at him. He was holding a small test tube filled with swirling, purple mist.

"And that is...?" I made circles with both my hands, gesturing for him to continue.

"An adolescent sphinx's bondings," he said as Jake sat up, cakes, cookies, pies, etc. flying everywhere. I winced as a piece of strawberry cream gateau hit the carpeted ground with a squish.

"Nyx removed this from your Achilles heel when he was performing your operation," Alpha groaned.

"Where is my Achilles heel?" I demanded. The official took a quick glance at me, took off his right shoe and sock and tapped the back of his foot, where the heel was.

Jake gasped, "It's all in Athena's prophecy." In my years as a human, I've noticed that people do things with their lips when deep in thought or when they're nervous. I, for one, am a biter. Jake was sucker. He pulled his lips inwards, a nervous look on his face. Then in a ghostly voice, he whispered, "In three months time, treachery shall stain the emblem of Alias with blood. The exiled shall rise up once more and that with the heel of a demigod, destroy all evil." I stood up and using the hard toe of my knee length boots, placed a kick, which such force that all the bones in a regular human's leg would have shattered, on Jakes left shin. "Haw, man! That hurt!" he cried.

"You're just joking right? Stop scaring me!" I said as I gave him a nervous chuckle. "You were kidding right?" I asked him, serious this time.

"Athena made this prophecy exactly three months from four days ago. I told you she could tell the future right?" When I nodded, he continued, "An oracle special, oh yeah, special is the term we use to refer to people with powers, is the only person who can stay in a flame and not be transported to the spirit world. So, like the oracle of Delphi, they sit in the fire and are able to prophesize danger or important events. Athena is one of the most important half people." Right as he was about to continue talking, a leg burst through the bookshelf.

"Alpha, we got him!" Amelia yelled. The shelf toppled and a cloud of dust erupted from the scene. Coughing, Amelia dragged in a scrawny looking boy who was soaking wet. "Wassup, Jake!" Amelia said as she kicked him on his right shin.

"WHAT IS IT WITH GIRLS AND KICKING MY SHINS?" Jake roared as he morphed. I grinned and high- fived Amelia.

"So you're the eel, huh?" I grinned. Amelia ignored me and instead beckoned to someone I couldn't see. Jumping over the remnants of the secret passageway, the newcomer caved to me.

"Hi, my name is Taeiki Kingsley. I'm to be the official of DragonClan."

"Bro?" I swear it was my foster brother who had been watching the Saints' game on his laptop the day I had disappeared off the face of the earth and was bouncing up and down in the car yelling and screaming, "GO, GO, GO! YES, TOUCHDOWN!" Not to mention, he also was a year older, in two of my required elements classes at Yemes, and was a real math geek. I only ever beat him in one quiz by half a point. It pissed me off. But that was his strong point. He was a living, breathing, moving calculator.

"And you are?" He obviously didn't recognize me after my eyes became smoky gray.

"Alice," I said. "Warrior of PheonixClan. And now, I'm your senior," I said just like Jake had done.

"Hey, I'm probably, what, two, three years older than you, ok? Don't go riling up your elders," he snapped. Taeiki hadn't changed, always looking down on others.

"My name is Alice Emerges Latovayl. I am sixteen years old and my form is the-"

"ALICE! I thought you died!" he squealed. Then, as if in slow motion, I saw his feet leave the ground. He launched himself onto me and embraced me in a tight hug. I felt his momentum throw my balance off.

"Goin' down," I said, as I always did when he did this to me. I fell backwards but Jake, still in animal form, pushed me back up. Taeiki being the cat person he was, he looked at Jake with scorn. "Alice, this dog is probably riddled with fleas; don't let him get near me." Jake's eyes flashed mischievously and grinned.

"Change phase one," Jake sighed. He flashed back into his human form.

"Gah! The dog's a person?" I felt the corners of my mouth twitching upwards. I couldn't help it after seeing the horrified expression on Taeiki's face.

"Mr. Kingsley, may it please me to inform you that, here at Alias, we show respect based on a hierarchy. Leaders and officials who have been here for at least a year are at the top. Deputies and healers next. After them come the senior warriors who are in front of the warriors. The group at the bottom of that are the newcomers, which comes after the servants. When you move into the training stage of your development, you receive the same amount of respect as a servant. After you complete your training, you are then equal to the senior warriors. When you have reached your fifth anniversary as an official, you shall then be respected as I am," Alpha reprimanded. "Jake, on the other hand, is three classes ahead of you. And Alice, though she has only been here for four days, is your senior as well." I began to feel lightheaded and everything was a blurry blob of color. I felt a piercing pain on my heel and my thoughts and vision became clear again.

"Alice, do you hear me?" Alpha said with concern in his voice.

"Mrmph." I mumbled. I felt exhausted and nauseous.

Something was put into my hand. "Here. Drink this." I suddenly changed and began lapping up the sweet water from the cup. I felt more awake but still a little groggy. "Alice, you are suffering from a condition that often occurs in overworked half beings. You won't be able to fall asleep unless you want to. Go to sleep. I'll take things from here." A melodious lullaby gently lulled me into the warm clouds of sleep.

"Alice. Alice, wake up. ALICE!" I heard someone yell as a blow was delivered to my head.

"WHAT DID YOU DO THAT FOR?" I shouted as I was wrenched out of a lovely dream filled with fame and fortune.

"It's been three days since Megan was executed. Even if DragonClan and BasiliskClan were successful finding new officials, GriffinClan couldn't convince the girl to leave her home," Jake sat on the mini bedside bookshelf with his head in his hands. "At this rate-"As he was about to finish his sentence, a loud rumble echoed through the room and seconds later, the room shook like an earthquake. Jake moaned, "Oh, no. It's started. The world's gonna end."

"What's happening?" I yelled, my eyes wide in fear.

"The famed apocalypse," Jake replied so quietly I just barely heard.

"Jake, Alice!" Artemis broke down the door. Even though he was shouting at us, his poker face still betrayed no emotion. "It's started," he panted.

"I know," Jake groaned.

"Artemis, can you please explain to me better than this useless glutton what is happening?" I snarled.

"Alice, tell me what our motto is," Artemis replied calmly.

"Alias Institute, we're here to help the earth," I said in a rush of words.

"Every one of us has a strong link to the universe; PheonixClan to heat, DragonClan to air, GriffinClan to light, and BasiliskClan to life." The emotionless boy stopped for a breath. "If one of our members dies, we need to find a replacement within three days."

"Wait, wait, wait. Three days? I fell asleep the day that Megan was executed. It can't have been- " I paused to check my CRH which happily displayed the date: March 22, 2011.

"Yeah. So if we don't find a replacement, the universe starts to destroy itself. Usually starting with planets that are able to sustain life," Artemis continued.

"That one rumble probably destroyed a few major cities. Imagine, Paris, London, Sydney, Tokyo. All gone," moaned Jake while banging his head on the wall.

"But there is a way to stop it," Artemis said as he held Jake's head back. I gave him a nod and he continued, "Someone has to sacrifice themselves to the Flame of Sacrifice in BasiliskClan's common room." The room went silent.

Our CRHs went off, sounding the dinner bell. I pulled off the covers of my bed and made for my changing room. I then pushed Jake and Artemis out of my bedroom. I leaned against my changing room door and rubbed the necklace that Jake had given me and bit my lip in thought. I heard a voice coming out of nowhere. Except that nowhere isn't really nowhere because it's always somewhere.

I soon identified it as Jake's voice. "Please Jamie, you have to let me into your common room." My eyes widened in shock as I realized what he was about to. I dashed out of the corridor past my confused Clanmates and into the nearest elevator orb. "BasiliskClan common room."

The machine spoke to me. "Do you have authorization to be there?"

"Perhaps," I growled at it.

"Good answer." With a whoosh, I was in front of the BasiliskClan common room. How was I going to get in? Argh. Thinking quickly, I changed the tone of my voice to match Mrs. Faiy's voice (I could do this with anyone's voice).

"Stephanie Faiy." I said the first name that popped into my head. "111111111111111111111-11111111111111111111111."

The door swung open. I had done it! Standing in the center was Jake, about to step into a bonfire sized flame.

"I'm sorry, Alice," he said in a pained voice. I used my superspeed and grabbed him on his shoulder.

"Jake..." I took a deep breath. "Jake, I- I really love you." Without waiting for an answer, I grabbed his tie and kissed him forcefully.

He wrapped his arms around me and whispered in my ear, "I love you, too, Alice. I'll see you in the spirit world." His voice cracked at the end and a tear dripped onto my shirt. Without one last look, he walked into the flames never to emerge from them ever again.

Someone let out a scream that shook the entire Institute. I later learned it was me. Nagir suddenly materialized and I stood by the fire and hacked at my long locks of hair. I dropped the black mass into the Flame of Sacrifice and collapsed onto the floor, tears streaming down my face. Jamie had rushed back when she'd heard me screaming.

"Alice? What happened? Where's Jake? What happened to your hair?" she demanded.

I was an empty shell of a human. I barely remember what happened until two weeks later. GriffinClan had finally convinced the girl to join Alias. I had punched her so hard that I broke her nose. And maybe more. I faintly remember yelling at her about how it was her fault that Jake was gone. The next day, Jake's replacement had come in.

With his auburn hair and strikingly blue eyes, he looked just like Jake, except he wore glasses. I felt myself tearing up. "Jake, you've come back!" I said as I kissed him.

"Who are you?" the boy said as he pushed me away gently.

"You're not Jake?" I sobbed.

"Excuse me," Julia interrupted. "This is Alice Latovayl, your new partner. Please introduce yourself."

The newcomer held out his thin hand that looked so much like Jake's. "Nice to meet you, Alice. My name is Jack. Jack Sanders. I used to live in Boston with my twin brother who drowned five years ago. His name was Jordan Sanders."

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