I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! Gx, Rosario + Vampire, or any other franchises used in this story related to the for-mentioned or not. The events and people in this story are completely fictional and any resemblance to real events or people in purely coincidental.

Swimming With the Big Fish

After helping Mokuba assist his brother hobble on to the buss Jaden turned his attention to Chazz, who had not heeded his warning about hitting on Fangs and the others and was now laying face down on the ground with Fangs' shoe pressed to the back of head.

"Uh, Fangs do you think could let Chazz up now? I kinda need to talk to him." Jaden asked the white-haired vampire.

"So why did you come here?" Jaden asked after Fangs had let the young man up.

"I came to deliver this." Chazz said handing a cardboard box to his former rival, while Kurumu and Yukari couldn't help staring at the footprint Fangs had left. Unsure of what to expect Jaden opened the box to find Professor Banner's research journal and the other shadow charms.

Chazz smirked cockily, "I had an idea after you left Duel Academy. If the shadow-charms could grant a normal person the power of Darkness, maybe they could be used as a filter so you wouldn't have to worry about losing your mind and going on a take over the world spree."

"So, this was Alexis' idea, and you decided to take credit for it." Jaden said making Chazz merely hang his head down in guilt.

"Yeah..." he confessed.

"Well it's a good idea and all that, but I don't need a filter anymore I have Yubel." Jaden told his old friend.

Chazz couldn't believe it, "Are you crazy? Don't you remember what she did?"

"No, I haven't forgotten her actions or Haou's... But I know that I can trust her." Jaden said, he understood Chazz's point of view but Yubel had almost fully recovered from her exposure to the cosmic energy that caused her insanity. And he was going to stand by his choice at the end of the Dark World Disaster.

Chazz just stood there thinking about the duel that had happened a few minutes ago. It was true that he didn't see any signs of the madness that she was heavily submersed in back when she had first come to Duel Academy. He sighed, "Well I suppose there is no helping it... Fine, if you real think she can be trusted I'll believe you".

"Thank you that means allot to me." Yubel said appearing behind Jaden's shoulder. It would slightly easier to trust her if she hadn't been smirking, but sometimes being a good friend means you have to do some crazy things.

"Okay before I forget, you should take this." he said handing him a red cell phone and wall charger, "O'Brien got it from some shady branch of the government he's in contact with, it can get coverage on the moon and it can't be traced."

"Um, I hate to say this but this school is surrounded by a mystic barrier there is no way to get coverage here-" Yukari started to say, but was cut off by Jaden.

"Actually I'm getting all six bars."

x-x

After Jaden had asked Chazz to see that the letters he had written to the others back at Duel Academy and apologized to the buss diver about the delay who assured him that it wasn't a problem, Chazz was on the way back to the Academy and was about to read letter when Ogama Yellow piped up, "Hay are you going to read Jaden's letter now boss?"

Seeing that he wouldn't be able to avoid a commentary if he read it right then, Chazz chose to ignore his annoying duel spirits and try to sleep through the trip back to his boat home, which was made more difficult by the fact that the three duel spirits never stopped talking. Good thing he remembered his ear-plugs.

x-x

Back at the bus stop Fangs stared at the young man in front of her with an unreadable expression.

"What is it?" Jaden asked.

"I don't understand you." She said as she finally got her cross back from Jaden and reattached it back onto its chain, changing her back into Moka.

"Please don't leave..." the kindhearted side of the vampire whispered as she fell asleep.

"Don't worry." Jaden assured the young woman in his arms, 'I am going to have to face everyone back at the Academy some time, but I'm not ready just yet.'

x-x

After Chazz had gotten back to Duel Academy all of Jaden's friends immediately started pestering him with questions.

"Well speak up already and tell us about the Sarge, private!" Haselbarry commanded in his typical military attitude, "You did see him didn't you."

"ALRIGHT!" Chazz shouted making everyone fall into silence, "Yes, I spoke to Jaden... He still has some things he needs to figure out. And I don't think he be coming back."

"Not now or not ever?" Syrus asked.

Chazz thought back to those three girls who were at the bus stop with Jaden and image of Yubel giving him the peace sign as the bus drove away, and said the only truthful thing he could, "...I don't know."

x-x

If Jaden said, "Please, don't touch that", he said three times...

The first time was when Kurumu was trying on the gauntlet he got from his duel with Tania, the second time was when Yukari was trying to open Banner's research journal, and the third time was when the light hit the box in a weird way that made Ms. Nekonome think it was a box of fish.

"So, what exactly is Yubel?" Yukari asked, "I thought she was some kind of rare Yokai and now she's a card?"

"Well, that's a hard question to answer." Jaden said while trying to think of a way to explain what Yubel is while keeping his cover intact, "I suppose that start from the begging Yubel was originally a human- I know that it's hard to believe but please hold your questions until the end."

Kurumu slowly closed her mouth and waited Jaden to continue.

"When back before she became a friend, she was the loyal companion of the prince of some ancient kingdom, I never asked which but I do know that humans had learned castle building, and she was one day called before the King and what he told her was chilling. He told her about a prophecy that said how his son would one day save the world from a great and terrible calamity, but the young prince would need a guardian until that time came and being completely loyal to her prince Yubel readily volunteered."

Jaden sighed as he continued, "Of course there was no way for a mere human to posses the power needed to protect the young prince because of the fact that such a future naturally attracts the attention of yokai as well as humans. So the king had his royal magicians fix that."

Jaden turned to face the young witch, "Yukari, you know what the term patch-work immortality means?"

"Yeah, of course!" Yukari said happy to show off her knowledge on anything and everything, "Patch-work immortality is a theory that suggesting that humans can gain artificial yokai traits."

"Right" Jaden said, "And Yubel was the first successful attempt, surgically removing her heart and replacing it with the heart of a dragon. After a while a duel monster card was made in her likeness enabling her to be reborn as a duel spirit, and crossed my path when my dad bought her card as a gift for me."

"Wow..." Kurumu said, overwhelmed by the story she had just heard.

"Of course, Yubel coming into my life is what started the whole Haou incident." Jaden started to walk to the door that leads out of their homeroom.

"Wait! Aren't going to tell us about Haou now!?" Kurumu asked.

"No..." the duelist said as he walked away.

x-x

"So, on account of overwhelming popular demand the bus that was coming here ever month will now be arriving daily. Furthermore there is now a payphone on campus connecting us to the human world." Ms. Nekonome informed her class the next morning.

"That is very interesting, but I have a small question." Jaden said keeping the card on top of his desk covered with his hand.

"Oh?"

"Yes." Jaden said, channeling the power of darkness into the card making the Scythe of Nightmares appear in flash of dark energy.

"Are you planning on returning Pharaoh any time soon or are things going to get messy?" he asked pleasantly as he ran a finger over the top of the scythe's blade.

Needless to say the rest of the day was spent in a marry chase with Ms. Nekonome in the lead pursued by Jaden and Jaden being pursued by Moka, Kurumu, and Yukari.

x-x

Awakening in the Hotel that Yubel had made for herself and the other duel spirits Jaden found himself in front Filia's door only for it to be opened from the other side by Filia herself.

"Jaden... Could you please come in for a minute please? I need to talk to you." she asked, her tone suggesting she was unsure about something.

"Okay." Jaden complied with the powerful spirit's request and entered her room.

It wasn't exactingly in keeping with the fact that it was the room of the duel spirit that many viewed as the ruler of the mystic. Most would imagine something like an Egyptian temple with large stone pillars with ancient hieroglyphics and a majestic throne.

This was, for lack of a better term, a very nice apartment. Complete with a kitchen area, living room and other such things.

Sitting down on a comfortable looking coach, the golden-haired woman motioned for the duelist to sit next to her. "So, what did you want to talk about?" Jaden asked as he sat next to her.

"I wanted to say some things that really need saying." Filia said as she looked deeply into Jaden's eyes making the duelist take notice of the bright red shade of the spirit's eyes.

"First, I want you to know that you're not just someone I think can who handle being my master I feel it in my heart too. When you saved me from being used like some common attack dog on leash, I saw more than just some powerful duelist or a kindhearted boy. I saw a man who saw me as great and beautiful and saw the act of me being chained in service against my will a horror. And at the end you were happy have met me. So for that you are always dear to my heart." the dragon of the sun said as she took hold of Jaden's hands in hers, "Also, I didn't come back this world to be made into a new card because you're powerful and we would save the world together on epic adventures. I came because your smile had made me feel like I was looking at a starry sky while rapped in a warm blanket where all was safe."

Filia's left hand moved from where it rested on Jaden's, to stroke the young man's cheek.

"I tell you this so you will know that there is no lie when I vow to stay be your side, or when I say "I love you" and hold you unto me... or when I kiss you" she said leaning in quickly kissing Jaden fully on the lips.

x-x

From the other side Filia's door Yubel had been listening in on what the Goddess had been saying to her beloved Jaden and had all most burst in when she heard about her kissing him, but she stopped herself. If this situation was going to work then all of Jaden's duel spirits, If not her especially, needed to be able to trust him and each other. Filia knew better than to get carried away and Jaden wouldn't let things go too far so there was no real need to worry.

She was still going to give Jaden a piece of her mind about him not asking her kissing before.

x-x

For the entire week after Jaden had added the use of a bladed weapon in his attempts to reclaim his former teacher's cat the soul hiding in it, everyone was trying to find out how Jaden managed to make a scythe appear out of nowhere and each had their own theory... all of them were wrong and some of them were pretty weird.

"No! I didn't get from my scythe from Death! I am not related to Death! And I didn't date his daughter! Now drop it!" Jaden exclaimed. He would have been a bit more patient and might have found their clueless guesses funny if Ms. Nekonome had returned Pharaoh.

"So, just to remind you today is day where you get to sign up for club activities. You can find booths to sing up or ask questions about each club at the front of the main school building." the feline teacher said from within the safety of a suit of armor.

*Brrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiing* Went the bell calling an end to class and starting the race out of the class room.

"Be sure you check out our newspaper club..." Ms. Nekonome started to say but saw that everyone had already left.

"Meow..." the teacher mewed sadly.

x-x

The entire path from the front gate to the school and was covered with booths for various clubs and students who were eager to sign up for the one that caught their eye.

"Wow, it like a festival or something. You guys don't kid around about clubs do you?" Jaden said, overwhelmed by the crowds at each information stand.

"What do you mean? Didn't you have clubs at Duel Academy?" Moka asked.

"Yeah, but it was more if you wanted to join a club you could. We never really made a big deal about it." Jaden explained.

"Hey, why don't we join a club together?", Moka asked hoping that the two of them would be able to find one and spend more time together... and make some new friends.(the later was Defiantly an after-thought)

"Okay, provided we can find a normal one in this crazy parade." Jaden joked.

After looking into the clubs that were still open and finding a few that were normal but they had no interest in, he and Moka heard a voice calling out, "Come join the swimming club!"

Standing at the applications booth for the school's swimming team was a sight that sang to the hormones of male student, hot girls in swimsuits. All of the swimming team's members were attractive but one stood out from the rest. She had turquoise hair and eyes; she was wearing a bikini top and bottom and a fabric skirt tied around her hips.

"My name is Tamao Ichinose. I'm captain of the school's swimming team." she said with a smile as cast her eyes on Jaden, "How about you? Are you interested in joining?" she asked.

"No, thanks I don't like crowded pools." Jaden answered with a smile and walked away, Moka following close behind.

'Damn, looks like the one I really wanted to catch today got away...' the swimming captain thought to herself, 'But I'm not too worried... Another time my sweet little treat'

x-x

After they visited the last of stands, the two friends found themselves by the pool, the swim-team's first session already over. "Ya know I'm actually a fairly good swimmer." Jaden said absentmindedly.

"So, why didn't you sign up for the swim-team?" Moka asked, confused by why he would pass up on a club that he'd be good in.

Jaden smiled knowingly, "Water. Many legends depict water as being one of a vampire's weakness, too many dating back too far be a random writers gimmick. So, I didn't want to risk putting you in a risky situation. So, did I make the right call?"

"Yeah, the purifying effect of water makes a vampire's demonic urea unstable making us weak and hurting us, if I want to come in contact with it for any reason I have to neutralize it with herbs first." Moka said impressed that Jaden had figured out that water was one of her greatest weaknesses from stories he had heard in the human-world but then grew uncomfortable as a thought came into her mind.

"I'm sorry!" the pinkette said bowing her head down in apology, "I made you miss out on join the swimming-team because of my stupid weakness."

Moka felt a gentile hand rest on top of her head and looked up into Jaden's smile.

"Don't worry about." he reassured the kindhearted vampire, then smile faded a little, "But, we haven't found any club that we wanted to join."

"Did, I hear that correctly?" Ms. Nekonome said, her head popping up over the fence around the pool, "Because, I am the representative and club sponsor of the newspaper club, and because of a small oversight we're still short on members!"

Jaden looked over at Moka, "Sounds normal."

"Yeah, let's do it." Moka answered.

"OH! NO YOU DON'T!" Kurumu came in out of nowhere and hugged Jaden's head to her chest and glared at Moka, "I am not going to let join some club without me so you can try to take Jaden without a fight, Moka."

"I wanna join too!" Yukari popping up out of nowhere and latching on to Moka, "There's no way I'm going to let you guys have all the fun!"

"Well, looks like you've found four new members Ms. Nekonome..." Jaden said.

The feline teacher's ears and tail perked up happy at that. While being a club representative didn't get you a higher pay-rate it is fun and looked good around the time for Christmas bonuses.

"If, you return Pharaoh." the duelist said added with an absolute tone in his voice.

"Oh, meow..." the teacher's head and furry ears drooped in Defeat, "Fine... our first club meeting is this time next week."

x-x

When afternoon-classes where finished Jaden had returned to the pool and after swimming until he was tired and was resting in what was commonly referred to as "the dead-man's float" and letting his thoughts run where they would when he heard the sound of footsteps approaching.

Shifting from floating to treading to get a look at who was there, Jaden saw the swimming team's captain, Tamao standing at the pools edge. "So, you can swim after all" she said teasingly as Jaden got out of the water and sat on the edge next to her, smiling as he knocked some water out of his ear and said, "I never said I couldn't, I just said I don't like crowded swimming pools."

"Fair enough." the turquoise-haired lady said as she began to feel that sensation she felt every time he was near, "Although, admittedly I have had my eye on you ever since the entrance ceremony."

If the attractive young woman had been facing Jaden she would have seen his eyes go from passively associative to panicky, 'Oh, dear Yubel just started getting along with Filia and the others... Here's hoping that she will be merciful.'

"You have a strange sent... It's completely intoxicating. And everyone I have talked to say the best or worst of you." she said before stepping down the pool-ladder into the water, "What do you know about mermaids?"

"Not much, I was raised in the human world so I only know the fairytale stories that my parents would tell me." Jaden answered.

"Hum," Tamao's smile was unwavering as traded a few feet away from the pool's edge.

"Well, then I suppose that you are going to learn about my kind first hand." she said before diving down under the pool's surface kicking up her tail... Wait! A tail?!

Instead of legs and feet Tamao now had a bright orange fish tail and when she resurfaced next to him Jaden saw her hands had become webbed, she also had fin-like ears and a set of gills on either side of her neck above her collier-bone.

"Try not to think badly of me. Luring men into water to drain their life force and increase our own strength is just my kind's nature..." she said, grabbing Jaden by the arms before he could run away and pulling him into the pool and biting into his neck and started to feed off of Jaden's life-energy as she carried down to the bottom of the pool

Using Yubel's raw strength, which was enough to throw a man a cross a room one handed, he pushed the mermaid away and kicked off of the pool's bottom out of the water to pool's edge.

"And here I thought we were going to get another playmate" Yubel said, appearing next to Jaden but still unseen by Tamao, as the mermaid resurfaced.

"Wow, your life-energy is something else... It taste's so divine." she said as she rushed to where he was pulling himself out of the pool and pulled him back into the water again.

This time she kept him restrained by holding his arms in place in a crushing embrace, strengthened by the energy she had taken from the duelist, "I have to have more!" Tamao exclaimed, her voice now echoing on itself in demonic tones with hunger for the young man in her arms and the power she had stolen.

'So, how pray tell are you going to get out of this one?' Yubel asked from the edge of the pool, still invisible to the aquatic yokai as if the situation didn't matter to her.

"Jaden!" Moka yelled, she had been looking for him ever since school ended and remembering how he had mentioned being a fair swimmer had come to check if he was at the pool.

"Oh crap! Moka, get out of here!" Jaden yelled as Tamao smirked nastily.

"So, the vampire shows up. Sorry, if I'm stealing your favorite sank, but I don't plan on returning him and you..." she said as she splashed some water toward the vampire making her jump back to avoid it, "Can't make me."

Then Jaden, taking advantage of the fact that the mermaid had released his forearms to taunt Moka, reached up and grabbed the arm that was still wrapped around him and channeled the power darkness trying to burn her, was rewarded with Tamao screaming in pain as her was forced to release him, and leaving a black mark in the shape of his hand on her shoulder. Jaden wasted no time in getting to the pool's edge, where acting without thinking about herself Moka immediately helped him out of the water but Jaden was still wet and the water in turn got on her hands and arms, causing her some minor pain. Seeing this Jaden tried to get away from her but somehow he knocked off Moka's cross unsealing her inner-vampire.

The silver haired vampire smirked at the Jaden, "So, you take on a gigantic mix up of three monsters and yet you have problems with one small fray?"

"Who are you calling small fray!?" she yelled in outrage at the insinuation that she was weak. Right then she felt unstoppable.

"The one who has mistaken stolen power as theirs, your power is a fake." Jaden said standing up next to his friends.

Fangs looked at the duelist impassively, "Oh, so you're up again?"

"DON'T IGNORE ME!" Tamao screeched, leaping out of the water to rushing the two, "Mermaids are unstoppable in the water!"

Giving each other a glance and then on a unspoken signal, Jaden took on the same features that he had adopted from Yubel as his "yokai form" and charged the bluish green-haired girl while she was in mid air and punched her in the gut, making her gasp in pain as the force in Jaden's attack sent her flying upward, "That may be so..."

"But a fish out of water is powerless." Moka said, finishing the mermaid off with a kick that knocked her out and launched her in to fence around the pool area.

Moka gazed at the Defeated foe with a look of boredom, "Know your place."

x-x

After Jaden had dropped the turquoise haired mermaid off at the infirmary, Fangs was giving him a blank stare.

"I will never understand how you can be so kind to the people who try to kill you," the silver haired vampire said, her red eyes boring into the spirit-seer.

Jaden smiled sadly as he said, "I use to be able to say that it just the kind of guy I was, but now... I hope you never understand why."

And then he turned to the dorm rooms and walked away, leaving the vampire behind him.

x-x

Tamao had been in the school's hospital wing for a while... brooding over her resent activities with that mysterious yokai and the vampire.

When the nurse told her that the mark on her shoulder more like a tattoo then a burn probably wouldn't fade, mean she might always have Jaden's hand print seared on her, everything went to hell. The swim-team had left her because it would be nearly impossible to draw in victims to the water without them asking questions about it. And she knew that they were right.

But really vexed was that for the life of her, she couldn't figure out why she lost. The power she had taken from that Yuki boy was potent enough should have made it so it wouldn't matter if she was in water or out of it. Could it be that there was some truth to what he said? Was the power she had attained by draining other people's life-force really a shame? Without any answers and unable to sleep she stayed awake to thinking about it some more.

Not noticing that the burn on arm beginning to glow with a faint purple light.

x-x

Things were quiet for the next four days. The outer persona of the vampire was worried by what her Umbralist friend had said, but as time passed and Jaden went about interacting with their friends, her worries were belated and things went back to normal… or normal for them anyway.

"Jaden..." Moka asked with a small blush on her cheeks.

"Yes?" he answered, worried about what he thought she might ask.

"I'm sorry... I can't help himself any longer," Moka said as she looked into his the brown eyes mesmerizing him with her green ones, "Can I- can I suck your blood?"

Barely reacting to what the vampire had said Jaden answered, resigned to what would happen next, "Sure."

Not wasting a second Moka quickly bite into his neck, using her fangs to draw blood, careful not to cause the young man pain, and enjoyed the rich satisfying taste of his blood.

"Stop!" Kurumu said, pulling the vampire off of her chosen life-mate, "If you keep drinking Jaden's blood whenever you want you'll drain him dry!"

"Don't worry, Jaden!" the succubus' attitude did an illegal u-turn as it changed from being mad at Moka to smothering Jaden with affection, and her breast, "I'll make you feel all better-"

DOING! The sound of a wash basin making contact with Kurumu's head rang out. "No-one is going to get Jaden, but me and Moka!" Yukari said triumphantly.

Kurumu growled angrily partly transforming before attacking the young witch with vengeance for the blow to her ego and for ruining her attempt to win Jaden.

As the succubus tried to catch the half-pint witch, who was staying three steps ahead, and Moka tried to prevent someone from getting hurt, Jaden couldn't help smiling at his friends' antics. Before long he was chuckling and then laughing, making everyone stop to look at him with an odd look.

"I'm sorry..." Jaden said after his mirth had subsided, only to laugh again when he saw Moka pulling on Kurumu's tail to keep her from hurting the young genius, Yukari pushing the succubus back with her wand, and Kurumu pulling on the little witch's cheeks... all frozen in place to stare at the highly bemused Jaden, "I really am sorry. I shouldn't have laughed... But think about it... I am seeing a vampire, a succubus, and a witch having a childish fight. No one would ever believe me back in the human world that I met a real yokai, but here you are... and you're fighting like children."

And the thought of it made Jaden start laughing again, and it was infectious enough that while the other three didn't completely understand, they started to laugh as well.

"JADEN!" a raspy reptilian voice called out from the trees, shattering the happy mood as a large dark-blue creature burst out from the woods knocked over the three girls and pinned Jaden to the ground with its left hand and its right poised to strike.

That was when Jaden got his first good look at his attacker. It was obviously some kind of reptile, its body covered in a snake-like skin but the head was more like a serpent's. Its upper body was Defiantly a female humanoid's, complete with sizable breasts, but below the "hips" it had a serpent's tail and running down from in between its shoulders was a long blue-green fin ridge that went down until it reached the tail. Its arms looked like human arms except for the hands they were disproportionate from the arms, they looked like they were large enough to easily crush a human head, but the way that they shaped down in to claws told him they could be used to gut someone without much effort at all.

And for some reason all that was lost when you looked into its eyes... They were what were really scary. Every part of them a bright-green color and they had a slit like a lizard's eye. They had feel to them that unnerved you, like the way looking in to the eyes of a tiger unnerves people. But inside those reptilian eyes there was an intelligence that let you know not to cross it.

"Get off of him!" Kurumu yelled, as she charged at the creature with her nails at the ready intent on slicing it to bits, but it whipped out its tail toward the attacking succubus, hitting Kurumu dead center and sending her flying back several feet.

Taking this moment Jaden used Yubel's strength to left up the creature's hand and roll out from under it quickly.

Leaping back to avoid an attempt to crush him, Jaden saw something on its right shoulder a black mark that looked like a hand print... It had black, vine-like channels branching out across the creature's shoulder onto its arm and neck but Jaden knew beyond any doubt who this mystery assailant was... "Tamao, is that you?!"

The serpent smirked, "Yes, You are correct Jaden," she confirmed with a raspy voice, "And it's thanks to you that I'm like this."

"So, the power of Darkness once again tries to run amok..." Jaden muttered under his breath.

"You've ruined everything for me! Now DIE!" she roared opening her mouth all the way to charge him and attempt to bite his head off.

Jaden quickly grabbed her jaws to keep them from biting down and ending his adventures at Yokai Academy only for Tamao to whip back her head and send him flying into a tree, making Jaden's eyes open wide in pain and surprise as he felt something in his shoulder go 'snap'.

And that was when something snapped inside of Kurumu. She went from lying down in pain to attacking with pure fury. There wasn't a battle-cry or a shout, she the state she was in was beyond using such things. She wasn't going berserk, her attacks weren't wild or erratic, she was attacking quickly and precisely, the succubus was acting on the need to punish the person who hurt her Jaden.

Tamao was struggling to keep from being slashed by the sapphire-haired succubus, while her new water-serpent form was stronger than when her old mermaid-form she was still new to it.

And then she felt it... a dark presence that crept in through every weakness in your soul and filled it to the brim with terror. Everybody turned to face the source of the demonic aura. And saw Jaden standing hunched over with in his "Yubel form". The only person truly frightened by his aura was Tamao.

'This what I tried to kill?! His aura on the same level as the vampire!' Tamao mentality screamed, 'He could have crushed me without any effort!'

"Kurumu..." Jaden said, "Please... Don't make my mistakes..."

x-x

After spending several hours in a class-room that wasn't in use at the moment to figure out what had happened to Tamao, and what to do about her in silent discussion with Yubel, Jaden had discovered that she could change into her human form which was the same as before except for her hair which had turned black and the black mark on her arm was still there, before he asked the million dollar question. "So, why did you try to attack me the second time?" he asked as touched the black mark on the former mermaid's arm.

Tamao flinched as she put a hand on the burn mark on her shoulder, feeling a phantom-pain burning, "I always thought that my way of life was good and would last, but you shattered my perception of the world and I've got no clue what is true anymore... I don't even know what I am anymore..."

Jaden sighed. "And so seeing me as the only one you could blame, you lashed out using me as a scapegoat..." he summarized, Tamao nodded in guilty confirmation. "Well, I can't help you figure out what is truth of the world and stuff like that, that something you have to find out on your own and pray that you get the right answer. But, as for what you are I can help you figure out if you let me, and I'll tell you this as a free be, it's absolutely impossible for the powers of Darkness affect you the way it did and remain sane or suffer an agonizing death unless you are naturally suited for it."

"When, it comes to matters involving Darkness there are no coincidences. Our encounter and your transformation were destined to happen," Jaden said as he walked out the door before glancing back he said one thing in parting, "You have the power darkness now... Do your best to honor it."

x-x

"You know you could have simply ripped the power away from that wannabe sea-serpent," Yubel said, after Jaden had gotten back to the dorm rooms, "But, considering how that would kill her, you made the right choice."

"Yeah, I hope so..." Jaden responded in a low tone, "If not and she starts to fallow my old path, I'll have to hunt her down... And stop her..."

"I know... But she'll have us to guide her."

"...She doesn't stand a chance."