Author speaking: Hi! Thanks for reading my story! It's coming to a close soon so that I can work on better ones. Practice, practice, practice!^^

Chapter 10:

~Rein and Fine's house on the Wonder Planet~

"*Sigh* Shade-sama's been gone for a whole day. I wonder if he's found Fine yet," Rein said while lying on her bed.

"Well, this is the Wonder Planet. I guess the most we can do is wonder and hope," Bright replied.

A big sigh rang through the room from everyone else there.

"No!" Rein sat up and looked at everyone. She seemed to be literally burning herself up. You could almost see a fire raging around her. "We have to try! There must be something we can do!"

"But what?" Altezza said frustratedly.

It was like someone splashed a bucket of water over Rein's head. Her fire went out and she dropped back onto the bed again. "I don't exactly know…"

Another sigh rang through the room.

"Some things never change," Altezza muttered. Bright nudged her in the side.

Rein got up again. "Why don't all of you go home? It's no use if we stay here with no plan."

"I think that's a good idea. We'll meet up again tomorrow at lunch. It's Saturday, anyway," Lione said.

"Yes! We must think of a plan! Saving a damsel in distress is a prince's duty!" Tio shouted. Lione covered her brother's mouth and led him out of the room. "Goodnight, Rein! Goodnight, everyone!"

"We should get going too," The seed princesses and prince mentioned.

After everyone else had left, Rein lay on her stomach and stared at Fine's empty bed. It felt so weird without her sister.

~The next day—

"So, any ideas?" Rein asked. Slowly, everyone shook their heads.

"We thought the whole night!"

"I gave up my beauty sleep for this!" (Can you guess who this is?)

"Sorry, but we tried! We really did!"

Rein sank to the ground. There seemed to be a dark cloud floating over her head, and it was currently pouring rain on her.

Just then real rainwater showered down on them. Thunder and lightning cracked in the sky. Immediately afterwards the sky cleared again, but not without leaving them completely soaked to the skin. Sophie looked confusedly at the sky.

"BOO!"

"Ahh!" All the girls and Tio screamed.

An old, old lady dressed like a witch cackled at her joke. When she was able to calm herself down, she said, "Well, well, look who we have here. I'm assuming you're trying to rescue a certain little girl named…oh, I don't know…Fine?"

Rein gasped and pounced on her. "Yes! How did you know?"

The lady shook her off and zoomed away, calling back, "Catch me if you can! Hahahahaha!"

"Hurry, catch her!"

The group thundered down the street, kicking up so much dust other pedestrians coughed on it. They ran back and forth, but whenever it seemed like the lady ran around one corner, she would appear from another.

Bright raced in front and held up his arms to stop everyone, but they trampled him anyway and landed in a heap on the ground. "We need to split up! That's the fastest way!"

"Ok!" And within half a minute they were speeding off in different directions.

"Look! It's the lady!" Sophie and Auler saw a fleeting image of her turning a corner and ran toward her.

On the other side of a building, Bright and Altezza saw her flying down the street opposite to theirs.

The seed princesses and prince chased after her through the park trees.

"Over there!" Lione and Tio tripped over each other trying to reach the lady eating cake at a shop table. When they looked up again, she was gone and they heard her voice coming from the top of a car.

Rein and Mirlo checked in every store. Then when Rein was being mesmerized by some new dresses in a boutique, Mirlo saw the lady. She ran over to her.

In the middle of the plaza, Mirlo, Lione, Tio, Bright, Altezza, Auler, Sophie, the seed princesses, and the seed prince crashed into each other with a loud bang! They looked up to see the witch lady floating over them, laughing to herself again.

Rein started running up to them, waving her hand in the air. "Hey, you guys! What—" Then she stopped talking because she noticed the lady. A lightbulb appeared over her head. She crept up behind her. The witch probably had some kind of laugh addiction, because she couldn't seem to stop. Rein jumped and pulled her down by the ankles. Then everyone crowded around her so that she couldn't escape.

"Where's Fine?"

"Who are you?"

"What have you got to do with this situation?"

"Enough!" The witch pushed all of them away and glared. "You're not getting anything out of me." She crossed her arms.

"But we caught you!"

"And I never said I would tell you if you caught me."

Altezza marched up to her. "Hey, you can't just trick us like that. Tell us what you know or else I'll send you to my parents—" This is where Bright covered her mouth in case of angering the witch.

Rein begged, "Please, won't you tell us? We'll repay you!"

"No."

"I'll give you my favourite dress!"

Everybody stared at Rein. She laughed nervously and said, "I mean, I'll introduce you to a really good fortune-teller in our planet. Yeah, that's it! Her name is Chuuba." This interested her.

"When?" The lady glanced suspiciously at Rein.

"When I have time. And also after you tell us what you know about Fine right now!"

The witch considered it for a while. "Alright, then." Then she told them the exact details of why Fine was taken away and all the mumble-jumble of her spell that she cast over them. When finished speaking, she stood there looking proud of her strong magical powers, but the rest of them very clearly looked annoyed.

"Since I see you have nothing to do right now, how about that trip to the fortune-teller?" The witch asked Rein.

A dark aura appeared around Rein. She leaned toward the witch and whispered, "Take it back."

The witch spluttered, "You can't take back this deal! That's cheating!"

The whole group screamed at her, "Not the deal, TAKE THE SPELL BACK!"

"Why?"

"Because it's not funny! TAKE THE SPELL BACK!"

"Don't any of you people have a sense of humour?"

"TAKE—"

"Okay, okay! I'll take it back," she muttered. "But you'd better take me to that fortune-teller. I need some advice on seeing into the future for this new potion I'm making. It's supposed to make yourself ten years older for five hours just so…nevermind." She cleared her throat at the glaring crowd.

She turned her back to the group so they couldn't see what she was doing. She sensed them trying to look over her shoulder, so she turned back around. Taking out her wand, she said some words of witchcraft. Sparks shot out of the tip of her wand and flew high in the air until they couldn't be seen.

"Do you believe me now? Those sparks will reach you friend and change everything back to normal."

Rein smiled and replied, "Thank you! I'll take you to the fortune-teller soon, but not now. Thanks again for your help!"

And with that, she followed her friends down the street.

~Crystal Realm~

~Fine's POV~

I was almost there. My plan would've worked perfectly (well, hopefully) if Shade hadn't showed up and asked to talk to Aiko privately. He led her away from me and into a faraway room. I know because I followed them.

If anyone asks me why, I'm probably always going to say it was because something felt wrong. But really, I think the real reason is because I was jealous. I wanted to see what Shade would tell Aiko. After all, what did he have to tell her that I couldn't hear?

So I followed behind them. I was never very good at trying not to get found out, and they walked all the way to the other side of the castle; let me just say it was long time before I dared breath. Still, I made it without anyone noticing and saw Shade asking Aiko which room was okay to enter. She showed him an empty room.

Uh-oh…he was turning around, he was turning around! In a moment he would see me! I glanced around and quickly dived behind a pillar. I peered out from the other side. Shade looked to see if anyone was watching, then went into the room with Aiko and pushed the door closed.

I ran over and crouched at the door. It wasn't closed! He'd unknowingly left a crack open. I pushed it open a little more (thank goodness the door wasn't creaky!) and almost gasped at what I saw. My eyes widened. What I felt inside of me at the moment I'm not quite sure, but I felt my heart tightening and my breathing go sharp and fast.

Shade was kissing Aiko.

Shade's kissing Aiko, Shade's kissing Aiko, Shade's kissing Aiko…I couldn't get the thought out of my head. I couldn't get it out of my eyes, either. I didn't even have the energy to cover my mouth so I wouldn't accidentally cry out.

Mustering up all the strength I had left, I finally picked myself up from the floor and ran back to my room, not caring a bit how loud (if they were) my footsteps were.

So that's it.

Shade likes Aiko. And there's nothing I can do about it.

I was such a clown to think maybe he liked me!

By the time I buried my face into the pillow, tears were streaming down my cheeks, and I was hiccupping as well. I wrapped the pillow tighter around. It was all I could do to make sure my cries weren't audible outside.

~Normal POV~

And that's when the sparks arrived.