It was a bad situation no matter how you looked at it. Arya had made limited progress with her flames, although her sound wave power had matured. And yet at this critical point, the enemy had decided to attack. Even worse, Arya was somewhere alone, meditating. If she got caught, there was no doubt in his mind that she would face death. This thought spurring him on, Squalo charged through the ranks of the enemy.

Meanwhile, Arya had in fact been noticed by the enemy. But she was not alone. Fran had started joining her in her meditating sessions. Due to a clever illusion the boy had quickly cast, they were safe for the time being, but Arya knew they would be discovered soon enough, which was why she was humming urgently under her breath. They couldn't move from their spot due to the enemy surrounding them.

An enemy spotted the two of them hiding in the bushes and the illusion disappeared. Arya kept Fran behind her and took out her staff. As soon as the enemy got too close, she gave a high pitched squeak causing her sound wave bombs to explode. The concept of the bombs was simple. They were just little bundles of sound waves packed closely together. With a little catalyst, they would explode and go haywire.

But the enemy kept coming. She kept a barrier wrapped firmly around Fran so that the boy wouldn't come to harm. The enemy took out their box weapons. The storm flame covered animals came flying at her. Driven by the desire to protect Fran, she stared at her ring, "Please. Just this once. Workdamnit."

Responding to her firm command, the ring lit up in bright red flames. "So I'm a storm flame attribute. Well if memory serves me, that means disintegration which suits me just fine!"

She jammed the ring into the box she had been given. A large cheetah emerged. As the enemies' box animals came toward them, it roared. The animals started writhing in pain and she used sound waves to destroy them. The cheetah jumped at the enemy started running around them at high speeds, its fur lighting everything it touched on fire. The remaining enemy retreated hastily and the cheetah returned to Arya's side. She hesitantly reached forward to stroke its fur which was now no longer lit by storm flames. It purred and rubbed its head against her leg. "Ah, princess-sempai, you saved us. Good job."

She turned to face Fran and a dazzling smile appeared, one that Fran hadn't seen in a long time. The Arya he knew did her best to hide that she was devastated over the loss of her voice, but it was clear from her smiles that she was not the same. "Franny, I figured out the trick to flames. I just need to protect someone with all my power."

A loud roar signaled the approach of a certain swordsman, who immediately noticed the familiar cheetah. The cheetah gave an excited chirp and bounded over to the shark. The two reunited and cuddled happily for a moment, before Arya's disbelieving stare brought her box weapon back to her side, its ears flattened sheepishly. "Hmm, I need a name for you sweetheart. You're a boy, so how about Fluffy" she suggested jokingly.

The cheetah gave her a deadpan stare and she threw her head back and laughed, "Okay, okay that was bad. Then, how about Kou? It's Japanese for happiness and peace which is what we're fighting together for."

The large cat purred and then continued to play with his shark friend. Arya sweat dropped, "Were they this friendly when my future self was here?"

"Ah sempai, the long haired commander still hasn't told you yet?" Fran asked.

"Hmm, what do you mean Fran?"

Before the green haired boy could respond, knives thudded into his back once again. "Prince" she said exasperated, "How many times have I told you to stop doing that?"

The blonde man strode into view and grinned, "Ushishishishi Froggy is saying unnecessary things again. The Prince had to stop him."

Squalo voi-ed and asked, "What's the status report?"

"The enemies have been wiped out" Levi responded.

"Ah, when did the perverted thunder man get here?" Fran asked in a mock surprised voice.

Despite the fact that Arya had gotten her flames to work effectively during the battle, during practice, she still struggled. Without the urgent desire to protect, she just couldn't summon those strong flames she had. As a result, Kou was much smaller during practices than during the real battle. The cheetah didn't let size affect it, demonstrating that he was just as strong in his mini form during his play dates with Alo, Squalo's shark box weapon. Perhaps mirroring their owner's relationships, Kou and Mink, Bel's mink box animal, got along as well. The two of them when not controlled tended to get carried away with their play fights and set their surroundings on fire. After Alo had to put out yet another fire, Squalo decided enough was enough.

"Vooiiii stop letting your box weapons cause trouble!"

Arya, who was cuddling with the storm mink and cheetah, looked up briefly. "They don't mean it and Alo could use the exercise."

"Are you calling my box weapon fat?"

"Well, you don't exactly use him very often Squalo. I'm sure Alo appreciates the chance to stretch his fins."

"ARE YOU CALLING MY BOX WEAPON FAT?"

Mink snickered, his laughter oddly close to that of his master's. The ushishishishi set Squalo off, and he chased after the box animal, waving his sword. Alo nudged Arya reproachfully and she laughed, "Sorry Lolo. I couldn't resist teasing Sharky."

Nevertheless even without Kou at full power form, the two of them created a few combo attacks that involved Kou roaring and Arya using her sound wave powers to strengthen the attack. Arya found it incredibly ironic that the enemy used what they called "dark scythes" when her own weapon was a scythe covered with storm flames as well. As far as she was concerned, the weapons were a rip-off and copy-cat of hers.

All in all, Arya was doing well, although she was not at future Varia quality yet. So it was inevitable that the question came up. In the middle of dinner, she asked the question that had been on her mind for awhile, "Hey, Squalo, can you tell me about Genkishi?"

The room went silent. Evidently, it was still a hard topic to bring up. "Genkishi is a swordsman. He was supposed to be my hundredth win when I was fighting for the Sword Emperor title, but he pretended to lose. The bastard's a mist illusion user. Your future self would've beat him if he hadn't used his Hell Ring. You got trapped in a high level illusion and exhausted your voice getting out of it."

"As I am right now, how easily would he beat me?"

"3 seconds brat. I'm not gonna soften the truth for you. You'd get creamed in the state you're in."

Arya finished her dinner and left quietly, her mouth set in a grim line. Behind the mansion, she released Kou who was albeit a little larger than usual, but still not full grown. She lit her staff up with flames and started sparring with the cheetah. To say she was frustrated was the understatement of the year. Despite how hard she was trying and all the work and effort she had put into her training, she was still the weak link of the Varia. And she still couldn't beat that bastard Genkishi.

"Vooiiii! We're heading into battle in a week! Everyone better be ready by then!"

Arya covered her scythe with her storm flames and deflected Bel's knives. They were batted to the side easily but his flames collided with hers, burning through them. She strengthened them and then moved in to counterattack. She was just about to slash at him when she froze. Sensing something, she twirled the blade side to face her and then drove the butt of the scythe back behind her. The flames coating it battled with Mink's defensive barrier flames before she jumped back. She lit her ring and jammed it into her box. Kou appeared by her side and leaped at Mink. The smaller animal darted back and forth avoiding the cheetah's attacks. Kou growled with annoyance and sped up, pinning the tiny box animal underneath its front paws.

Meanwhile Arya was surrounded by laughing Bels. She watched them for any irregularity but the illusions were flawlessly made. They raised their arms in unison to throw knives at her and she spotted the Bel that was just a tad slower than the rest. Immediately she lunged at him and slashed with her blunt staff. The Bel flung his knives at her staff, driving away her flames before catching the stick in his hands. Keeping Kou out was using too much of her flames, and she could only manage to coat her weapon with a faint flicker of storm flames. Suddenly she heard a whine. Her head snapped around and she saw Kou, growing smaller and smaller by the second. Mink managed to fling the now small cheetah cub off and they started darting and snapping at each other.

Her poor baby was going to be mauled at this rate. Arya's resolve rose and her flames exploded, sending Bel flying back. She hummed, pinning him in place with sound waves and then rushed over to her box weapon. She twirled her staff and knocked Mink away. Her ring lit up and Kou began feeding off the flames, growing to his biggest size. The biggest he could get with her current resolve was about the size of a young teenage cheetah, but she couldn't muster her flames to get any stronger than this.

"Stooop. Princess-sempai. You figured out which the real Bel-sempai was. But you didn't realize that I cast an illusion on your box weapon."

Arya let the flames disappear from her staff, panting slightly at the exertion. Bel got up from where he had been knocked down, "Ushishishishi Principessa's flames sting a little now."

The girl didn't respond and instead started walking back to the castle, her bangs covering her face. Her flames had grown a little in power, but she was still no match for the other Varia members. What did they think about? What was their resolution? She had tried everything from wanting to beat Squalo, her rival, to wanting to destroy the Millefiore for killing Mammon. Nothing seemed to make her flames flare up. It was only when she thought about protecting someone that her flames got powerful. The rest of the time, they could barely be considered a threat.

She only had 5 days left until their attack on the enemy's mansion. Assuming her meditation position, she tried to find something that would allow her flames to become strong.

"Woman."

She ignored the voice. She had to focus. "Oi. Woman. VOI WOMAN LISTEN TO ME WHEN I'M TALKING TO YOU!" Squalo finally shouted.

"WHAT?" she yelled, turning around to face him. The yell surprised both of them. She immediately turned her back to him and muttered, "I'm sorry Squalo. I'm just not in the mood to talk right now."

A hand on her shoulder forced her to turn around. "Voi. I can't tell you how to make your flames stronger, but your future self could do it, so you definitely can too. Otherwise you couldn't be my rival. Anyways, stop sitting here and do something!"

She ran, feeling the breeze against her face. Her hair was falling out of its ponytail, allowing the wind to control it. As she ran, the frustration that had remained a lump in her stomach finally surfaced and she opened her mouth and screamed, not bothering to control the sound waves. The ground in front of her was destroyed and she ran through the ditch, her pace not slowing. She let scream after scream out, pouring out all her frustration, willing herself to become stronger. By the time she was done, the field she had been running on looked like it had been bombed. She ignored it all and sat down to catch her breath.

As much as she hated to admit it, Squalo had been right. It didn't suit her to sit in one place. She was much more inclined to run around and hit things. She slipped her ring on and focused on the feeling of power she had had when running. In her mind's eye her ring lit up with bright red flames. She wanted to be strong even if it killed her. She opened her eyes; her ring was flaring brightly. She coated her staff with her flames and released Kou. He was medium-sized but the flames on her staff seemed to glow brighter.

That would do. It was time for a rematch with Bel and Fran. She couldn't let the two youngest members of the Varia show her up forever. With this mindset, she slowly overtook Fran, who's only real advantage was his illusions, Levi, who's attack she could avoid by riding on her cheetah, Bel, who she was about on par with. The last thing she had to do was get Squalo to fight her. Which she did the only way she knew how. By marching straight into his room without any warning and demanding a match. To her surprise, he wasn't there.

She was about to leave when a picture frame on his dresser caught her attention. "Squalo wasn't the type to keep pictures around" she thought curiously.

She walked over and picked it up to look at. And froze in shock. Squalo was smiling broadly at the camera. He had his arms around a girl who had hid her face in his shoulder. There was a shy smile on her face- she was interrupted when the picture was snatched abruptly out of her hands. She turned and found herself face to face with Squalo. Who was wearing only a towel around his waist.

"What did you see?" the man asked her, an urgent tone underlying his voice.

"Wha- Squalo, calm down. What the hell?"

"What did you see?" he insisted.

"You and some girl in a picture, okay? You don't have to hide your romantic life from me. I'm not going to do anything." She retorted, her heart sinking. Was Squalo really that opposed to her finding out more about him?

The swordsman sighed in relief and put the picture back on his dresser, facedown. She frowned and punched him in the arm, "What, you're not going to tell me who she is?"

He stiffened and then muttered reluctantly, "She's no one."

"You keep a picture of her by your bed, Squalo. Don't give me this bullshit. She's clearly someone special."

Before he could respond, she said, "And how long are you going to stand around half naked? Put on some clothes damn it!"

He jerked and quickly started pulling his uniform on. She turned her back to allow him some privacy and said, "I'll be waiting in the training grounds for you. Unless I can beat you, I'm not going on the invasion."

She left quickly, forcing down a combination of emotions. Resentment, hurt, and was that regret? Shit. She thought she had forced those emotions away a long time ago. True, back when they were in school, she had a crush on the swordsman, but she had shoved those emotions away. Squalo wasn't interested in a lover; he merely wanted someone he could spar with. When she thought he had died in the ring battles, that crush had risen again and she had barely pushed it back, forcing herself to not acknowledge something that would never be possible. Of course, she had thought Squalo was asexual; had never considered the possibility that he would look away from his swordsmanship long enough to fall in love.

She shook her head. She couldn't let this distract her; she had to become strong. Strong enough to finally leave these emotions behind her. She faced the man, determination masking her face. And began her attack.

Arya panted, sweat dripping, her arm aching. The ten extra years Squalo had had made him incredibly powerful. She could barely keep up and she was already at her limit. Kou and Alo were fighting somewhere nearby, her voice was almost hoarse from all the attacks she was using. Her sound wave bombs were keeping the swordsman busy for the moment. But it was clear that he was playing around with the bombs, giving her time to recover.

The idea that he was looking down on her filled her with rage and gave her enough energy to get up again. She stopped the sound wave bombs and waited for him to come to her. He was whipping his sword back and forth like a shark that was eager for its prey. She concentrated, letting her flames focus at a point on her staff and then whipped it at him. The focused storm flames broke through the rain flame barrier covering his sword. Triumphantly, she moved the scythe to a kill position at his neck. But before she could, she found the tip of his sword resting on hers.

She looked down; rain flames surrounded her, making her movements pitifully sluggish. She closed her eyes in frustration and muttered, "I admit defeat."

Squalo didn't move his sword away. Her eyes opened and she glared at him, shouting, "I lose, okay? Do you want me to dress up in a maid outfit again like before? Shit, Squalo. Can't you stop?"

He slowly lowered his sword but didn't move. Arya struggled to get away but he pinned her hands down. "What?" she asked confused.

His eyes were focused on her, and she looked down uncomfortably. "I can't tell you" he muttered.

"Huh?"

"I can't tell you who that girl was. But she's…I-"

Her eyes met his for a brief moment and he snapped, "Shit! Fuck this! I don't care anymore!" He grabbed her and crushed her mouth against his. Arya froze, her eyes still wide open. Her brain had shut down.

But he didn't stop kissing her. Her body on autopilot, she kissed back hesitantly. His moan however, brought her out of her daze. Quickly, she pushed him away and yelled, "Don't use me as your girlfriend's replacement Squalo!"

She turned and ran, Kou coming to her side. As she ran, the emotions she had stifled all those years ago welled up. Hands over her mouth, she continued running, blinded by unshed tears. When she was far away enough she screamed. All that came out was a feeble squawk. She curled up into a ball and sobbed.

Why did she have to like a bloodthirsty idiot who was in love with someone else? Why did she have to let her first kiss be taken away by him? She cried until she ran out of tears and then started hiccupping. Kou nudged her gently, growling. She buried her face in his fur and sat there numbly.

By the time she got back to the mansion, they were all gathered, eating dinner. Squalo was going through the details of the attack without a care in the world. She turned to go to her room, but he stopped her. "Voi. You're coming with us. You won't be a burden."

She smiled bitterly and went to take a seat, listening to her part in the fight. If anyone noticed that her eyes were red and her voice was hoarse, no one said a word. When they were done with their battle plans, she left without a word.

Fran drawled in his monotonous voice, "Strategy commander-sempai. What did you do to princess-sempai?"

Bel grinned, knives in hand, "Ushishishishi if you hurt her, I'll have to cut you to shreds."

Squalo threw a plate at the blonde and growled, "It's none of your fucking business, brat."

"It is actually. I only let you have the future Principessa. The one from the past doesn't give a damn about you yet."

Squalo buried his head in his arms and muttered to himself, "Shit."

"Sempaiii, when are you going to tell her that you proposed to the future her?"

Author's Note:

Sorry for not updating for so long! I got distracted with my other fic, plus it was Thanksgiving and I was dying and stuff lol. Hopefully this chapter is okay...I don't even know anymore. It's getting so hard to write this; I have no idea what I'm doing anymore :( And I feel like Arya is getting too angsty and depressed all the time, which I hate, but don't know how to change. :/

Anyways, read and review as always~

And happy late Thanksgiving!