Authors Note:

Thank you LeFay Strent, Guest reviewer, and black-rose-angel for the reviews!

Gah! I just realized I've been using the wrong kind of Conscious throughout the entire story Dx I've been using Conscious - which is awareness of one's own existance, sensations, thoughts or surrounding, when I should have been using Conscience - the inner sense of what is right or wrong in one's conduct or motives.

So, I went back through the previous chapters and changed the spelling. Also, I will be changing the story title to Hello! This is Your Conscience Speaking.

Now that that's taken care of, lets get on with the show!

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Hello! This is Your Conscience Speaking

by: Fyuro

Chapter 02

In Which Kittens are Evil, Sunhats are Friends, and Palmtrees Have Unknown Genders

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"If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there."

- George Harrison

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"A fine mess I've gotten myself into this time." Amity gasped, doubling over and panting for breath. The hot desert sun beat down on her head relentlessly and she nearly choked on the dusty air. The blunette chuckled dryly to herself and shook her sweat covered head. "You're really a piece of work, aren't you Amity?" After nearly being stepped on by a dozen passerby's, Amity discovered a very loathsome thing about being a weak Conscious.

In this world, she was the size of the average adult males thumb.

And, if that wasn't bad enough, no one could see her. She was use to not being seen, but not being seen and nearly flattened by a shoe was an entirely different story indeed.

After the Portal of Truth spat her out, Amity found herself in a large, desert town (which she later discovered was named Liore). She quickly changed out of her old Conscience clothes once she could find a private place to do so. Not that anyone could see her, mind you, she just felt awkward stripping down naked in front of a bunch of people.

The clothes Sidius had given her were definitely out of style here and Amity couldn't help but wonder if the clothes he chose for her ever were in style. White, slightly puffy pants that reached just above her ankles. They they were so baggy, she had to tie it with a white, cloth belt. She also had a white, short sleeve open jacket that she believed was a bit to long for her, and a black tank-top undershirt. There were no shoes, but Amity didn't mind; she liked walking barefoot.

She couldn't help but wonder... Why did she have to wear clothes from this world? What was wrong with her old clothes? It's not like anyone could see her, so why did Sidius give her clothes that would help her 'fit in'? After thinking of several possibilities, the young fairy shrugged it off,' It's probably not important anyway.', and started walking again; though the nagging feeling in the back of her mind didn't go away.

Putting her mind on the task at hand, she jumped up off of the busy street in one great leap, and landed on a small stores window edge. That was one thing she was glad that she didn't lose; her fairy ability to jump high. She supposed though, it wasn't magic that made her be able to jump great lengths and heights, it was just the way her own body naturally worked. Amity sat down and pulled out the necklace Sidius had given her from around her neck.

At first glance, Amity believed the necklace was just a plain compass attached to a silver chain. It was upon further inspection, however, that Amity discovered that this item was of a very different sort indeed. It was a Valderite locator.

Valderite is a purple, liquid mineral that existed in her home world. It is typically used as a kind of flu shot for Consciences to ward off strange illnesses that they might pick up on other worlds. Valderite also has a cousin mineral; Malderite. Malderite it a black, hard crystallized mineral that has no known use besides the fact that it steadily changes from it's black color to white when it get close to a concentrated source of Valderite.

The tip of the compass arrow Amity held was made of Malderite crystal.

So, if her hunch was correct, that meant whoever this Envy person was must have a concentration of Valderite on him. Amity couldn't help but grin slightly. It was brilliant! A completely non-magic way to locate your partner! She wondered, since Valderite is a mineral that can only be found on her home world, how did Envy come into possession of some? Did Sidius sneak over before she came and inject some into Envy's bloodstream? A comical image of a mouse-sized Sidius holding a needle larger than himself whilst sneaking up on a poor unsuspecting man flitted into her mind; she didn't even try to stifle the giggle that made it's way up her throat.

The compass was pointing towards a large chapel and its tip had turned dark gray. 'At least I know which direction to go in now.' she thought happily.

"Meow."

The fairy nearly jumped out of her skin and whirled around. Standing on the opposite side of the window's edge was a small, black and quite underfed kitten. It blinked it's large, bulbous yellow eyes at her.

Amity put a hand over her pounding heart and sighed in relief, mentally berating herself for how silly she was being. The kitten couldn't even see her for goodness sake! And here she was being as jumpy as a new born purgle.

"Mrrow?"

Amity didn't twitch in fear at all when she saw the kitten crouch down...

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Neither did she fidget nervously when it stalked closer to her. After all, it wasn't like this thing could see her...

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Nor did she take a hesitant step backwards when it stopped, wiggling it's rear end in preparation for a pounce...

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"MRREOW!"

She did however, run like a bat out-of-hell when it lunged at her, claws and teeth first.

"AIIEEEE!" she wailed, leaping off the windows edge and landing on the ground in a crouching position with a solid 'thud'. Not wasting any time, she bounced to her feet and took off into the streets, zig-zagging through the crowd. The starving alley kitten was already hot on her heels. Amity was grateful that she manged to retain another useful fairy ability.

Fast running and fairy agility.

She wasn't grateful, however, for the hundreds of shoes she once again had to dodge.

"MRREOW!"

Oh, and she wasn't too thrilled with the cat that was trying to eat her either.

'How can it even see me!' she mentally raged, somersaulting out of the way before a rather large gentleman could squish her with his pudgy, sandaled feet.

The kitten pounced again. Amity darted to her left, narrowly avoiding its pair of razor-sharp claws. The kitten spun around and slashed at her again. Amity jumped upward, grabbing an innocent pedestrian's pant leg and scaling up it with ease. The cat, however, wasn't detoured and followed.

"Eek! Rat! Rat!" the woman cried, swatting at the cat that was climbing up her with her large purse. Amity barely dodged the blow that was meant for the kitten and hopped up onto the woman's shoulders. She jumped nimbly with all her fairy grace onto the woman's head, then, made a running leap onto another man's balding head.

"What the-!" the gentlemen yelled, swatting at his hair (or lack thereof), once again nearly knocking Amity over. Failing her arms to regain balance, she saw out of the corner of her eye, the kitten pounce from the previous woman's shoulders and at her. In a desperate attempt to evade the cat, Amity began jumping from one person to the next's head and scaring many of bystanders; getting many of them clawed and scratched by the stubborn feline.

Thus the head-hopping game of cat and fairy began...

Amity made another running leap, and took a glace over her shoulder. Her face twisted into a panicked grimace, it was gaining on her! She pumped her arms and legs as fast as her body would allow. "Sweet Jiminy Cricket!" she panted, once again launching herself off another person's cranium. "What is wrong with this cat!"

Then, like a light bulb that suddenly went off in her brain, an idea hit her. She scanned the crowd carefully, a her eyes lit up once she found the desired object. 'Perfect!'

Hopping in a few zig-zag patterns across more pedestrian heads (earning startled cries from all of them as the cat followed), Amity landed on a young woman's shoulders; she prayed the kitten from hell didn't see her, and climbed under the lady's large sunhat.

Beads of sweat dripped off Amity's face. She hugged her knees to her chest, gasping desperately for oxygen. The air inside was stuffy and sticky... and smelled oddly like roses. The woman's hair felt relatively clean and soft under Amity's bare and tired feet. The young fairy's highly sensitive, pointed ears were working overtime, listening for any sounds that could be described as 'hungry feline searching for tasty fairy'. Much to her relief, she heard none.

Amity's breathing calmed, and her heart stopped thundering madly in her chest. The blunette wondered how far off course she'd strayed. She had intended to follow her compass and go to the large chapel, but that demon cat had delayed her.

She pulled the compass out from around her neck.

The tip of the arrow had gone completely white.

The fairy's mouth dropped open in shock. How could that be? She... she would have to be sitting on Envy's head to get that kind of a...

Wait.

She looked down at the woman's hair. Was this... was this woman Envy? Amity grinned. 'Lucky!' she thought, punching the air with her fist. 'I found Envy in under a hour! This has got to be a new record of some kind! If my mission is going to be as easy as this was, everything else ought to be smooth sailing!' Of course, in all of the praise filled thoughts that were bouncing around in her head, she had completely forgotten all the times she was nearly squished or eaten by stray felines in the entire fifty-two minutes she had been there.

Suddenly, Amity became aware that the noise of the busy streets had faded, and that Envy's footsteps started to echo all around them, like they were in a large, open room. She mentally cursed, pressing her ear against the hat and wishing she could see what was happening. It sounded like they were going up a flight of stairs now, and felt like it too, since she was bobbing up and down along with Envy's head.

Then they stopped. She wasn't entirely sure how long they'd been walking, but it felt like it had been at least for several flights of stairs.

"Lust, Gluttony, I'm here."

Amity frowned. This woman certainly had a... well.. not a masculine voice, but it wasn't really feminine either... maybe a cross between the two? Either that, or this woman was a heavy smoker with a raspy voice. Amity shuddered. Oh, she hoped not, she hated the smell of cigar smoke... just smoke in general, actually.

Envy walked a few more steps. From her position on the woman's head, Amity could feel Envy looking over her shoulder. "Tch, they must not be here right now. Didn't those two know I was suppose to be coming today to help them with their little Priest problem?" the woman sighed in annoyance. "Oh well, suppose I'm going to have to wait. Ugh, how annoying."

Red electricity surrounded Envy's body, and Amity had to hold her hands over her mouth to stop a startled gasp from escaping her. Envy's whole body started to change, and the sunhat was soon gone, leaving Amity sitting on a mop of black, slightly green tinted, hair. Envy stretched her ( or his? Amity couldn't tell now) arms; they looked muscled... but not in a huge, hulkish sense, they were lean, lithe... like the fairy boys back in Amity's home world. Amity had to grab tiny fistfuls of Envy's hair to keep herself from falling off. Thankfully, Envy didn't seem to notice... Not that she was worried about being seen 'Because people defiantly cannot see Consciences!'

The green haired enigma whose gender she was uncertain of, sat down. Crossing one leg over the other and resting his/her chin in the palm of his/her hand.

Amity dared not move for a while. It wasn't until his/her breathing had slowed and his/her chest started falling gracefully up and down that she decided to hop down. She landed noiselessly on the arm of the chair that he/she was sitting on and walked in front of the person of unknown gender until she could clearly see his/her face.

Well, she supposed it looked more like a he than a she, so Amity was going to dub Envy a boy. His whole body was definitely lean, and muscled. He wore his hair in long, thin spikes that greatly reminded her of a palm tree... or blades of grass. He wore a purple headband with a triangle symbol in the center. But, of all the things that threw her, it was his outfit. He wore a body tight, sleeveless purple shirt that showed his toned stomach, and an equally pair of tight purple shorts/skirt... thing.

'He's... definitely an interesting sort of fellow...' Amity thought, chuckling nervously to herself. She wondered how he managed to change his appearance. Magic didn't work here, so how did Envy manage to change his looks without the use of it? Or, better yet, if he could chose to look like anything he wished, why choose to look like that? If he was trying to look unique, green hair was such a horribly common color. 'Brown would have made him look much more exotic.' thought the fairy with a nod of her head.

'Oh well.' She smiled. He looked awfully peaceful while he slept. Almost cute. Amity shook her head. 'No time to gawk. I need to merge with his subconscious mind. Then, I start my job as a replacement Conscience.' her smile turned sad. She wondered, what would it be like to talk to a human? Another person? She'd never got to before, and couldn't help but wonder what it would be like... How would she even introduce herself?

Giggling before wiping the smile off her face, she stood as straight as she could, then gave Envy a low, over dramatized bow. "Hello! My name is Amity Spicket and I'm your new Conscience!" She nearly giggled at how ludicrous the entire idea was. People being able to see her? What a laugh! She straightened her back...

...And found Envy's purple, cat-like eyes staring down at her.

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Both Envy and Amity seemed to be frozen, staring at each other with expressions of pure, utter disbelief.

Then, Envy the Jealous: master of trickery and deception, the fourth eldest shape-shifting homunculus who always had a smart-arse comment to make no matter what position he was in, said the most intelligent, profound thing that could be voiced in situation such as this...

"...Huh?"

Sooo...

What did you guys think of the chapter?

Review please ^^

I love any help I can get with my writing. All constructive criticism, hints and tips are appreciated ^^