Caldwell sighed and brought his gaze back to the things in front of him, his old acquaintance could wait for the moment. He gripped his staff tighter as his thoughts returned to more important matters. He winced and brought his hand up to his shoulder once more. He knew the seal was weakening and was doing so at a rapid pace. It wouldn't be long before it snapped and there was no telling what would happen once that deed was done.

He brushed a strand of hair out of his eyes, a seemingly harmful gesture, but he watched as information slid past his closed lids.

Ah, so that was what he was up against.

He let his brow furrow more as he examined the information at his disposal. It wasn't good, but it was convenient to him. Any knowledge was valuable, as the more you knew the more control you have over a situation. His fears were confirmed. Emit, Edge, and Thorn had been captured. His sensitive senses told him that they had fought a battle on a planet known as Floria and there they had been overwhelmed thus resulting in their imprisonment.

His gaze swept over his surroundings before he resumed his wondering. If they were captured, that meant his vision had been true.

Caldwell let a small sigh escape his lips as he thought of the dangers and the benefits of being a psychic. For one, he had information at his clearance but it cost him energy and aura. For another, he could learn spells at an extraordinary rate, with much will and force to cast them. He could see visions, but they weren't always true and they physically cost him. His father had forcefully honed his 'gift' to truly outstanding levels. Of course, it had cost Caldwell greatly but his father had not cared.
"Caldwell," Meta Knight's voice broke him out of his reverie, causing him to start slightly.

"Hmm?" He kept his voice calm, keeping his emotions out of his eyes. Meta Knight and Stranger could both read him like a book if he let his emotions show in his eyes, he was just as talented an actor as the next guy was.

"You are healed, I imagine. You had quite the vision, so Stranger and I were wondering what it was about. Would you mind indulging us?" Meta Knight stated, searching Caldwell's hidden gaze.

Caldwell felt his throat tighten. If he told them...would they doubt him? Or would it cause more harm than good? His trusted staff suddenly felt uncomfortable within his grasp and his resolve wavered slightly. He shifted his gaze from Meta to Stranger then let his eyes rest on Fumu's. She wouldn't tell, at least he hoped she wouldn't.

"Caldwell, if there is something you need to say, say it," Stranger's voice came out colder than usual and he wondered what was bothering the Wanderer.
"Ah...well you see... I saw Sir Anduin, Thorn, Emit, and Edge being ambushed and...,"he cleared his throat once more before continuing, "They were captured in time for the Games ...Nightmare wished for them all to be annihilated on sight. I tried to stop it-them from advancing to the point of attack, but I was only an astral projection...I could do nothing. I apologize for not being able to perform my duty." He hung his head, not bearing to look at his comrades' faces. He was a failure. He could do nothing to defend those closest to him.

"Caldwell, why did you hide this from us? We should contact Drifter right away! This is not a matter we tread lightly upon! Your visions have saved many lives before, they shall save lives again," Stranger rebuked. Then the Wanderer dissolved into the shadows, emerging again directly behind Caldwell.

Shadow turned, nodding as he did so. Stranger was right. Caldwell's visions had saved people before. Of course, that was only after he'd come back to the light after his father had sold him to Nightmare.

"...You are right. I shall not hide things from you anymore. I will get my effects ready and prepare my mind so that I can talk to Drifter, but first I had a toilsome time landing here, my star ship needs repairs to be done. I'm sure she doesn't like mending it on her own..." his voice trailed off before he looked into their eyes cheerfully, the cloak still abandoned on the floor.

Stranger and Meta Knight looked at Shadow and then exchanged glances. They both asked simultaneously, "Who is on your star ship, Caldwell?"

"Eheheheh...you'll meet her. She prefers to do her own introductions and I want to keep my sanity," He smiled after he said this and, for once in his life, it was genuine. She had always been different from everyone in this cosmic Universe. He felt heat rise up around him as he once again donned his cloak...what was that? It was strange, foreign even, but Shadow easily shook the feeling off, they had work to do.

"When we get there, you are going to project yourself to Drifter or am I mistaken?" Stranger muttered nonchalantly. He looked back at his fellow Wanderer and shook his head slightly. He'd always been distant to facts when they came to him, but that was how Caldwell had always been.

Caldwell responded with a quick nod before he grabbed a leather-bound journal from the uppermost shelf of the bookcase. He slid it under his arm and gestured for them to follow him out the door. His staff continually thumped the ground but he kept walking ahead of the small party. Trees passed by and the dirt road switched to a carpet of grass. The sun steadily went lower into the sky, and not before long, it was dark.

"D-don't you think we should stop? We've been walking non-stop all day!" Fumu asked, "How can you see with it being so dark?"

"Nonsense, I can see perfectly fine and a little walking won't hurt you," Caldwell shot back. Indeed, he could see every fine detail, from the bark on the trees to the individual blades of grass. This capability of seeing in the dark of night was what had gotten him the nickname 'Shadow' in the first place.

He looked over his shoulder and sighed. Fumu hadn't been trained for military purposes; he would stop.

"Obviously, you can't go on much further. We'll stop here for the night, but I'm waking you up at dawn."

"Thank...you..." Needless to say, Fumu slept well that night.

Stranger on the other hand, did not. He knew that the person sent after him was still out there. Every time he closed his eyes, he would see that hummingbird blade darting toward him and he would hear the pleading screams of the people he'd been forced to kill in the past, but overall he saw the laughing face of Shadox Veroxin. Over to his left, Caldwell the Shadow was silhouetted against the silvery night light. Stranger observed that his comrade was staring at the moon before Caldwell shifted his weight and looked unswervingly at Stranger.

"I guess I'm not the only one who couldn't get to sleep tonight, huh?" Caldwell muttered, his voice carrying over the breeze.

"No, I suppose not," Stranger replied. It would be a long night for the both of them.

Stranger watched as Caldwell pulled out the journal and started to leaf through its yellowed pages.

They sat in comfortable stillness until the slightest allusion of sunshine peaked over the distant horizon.

Caldwell smirked and closed the journal before he went over and shook Meta Knight awake, "Did you sleep well? You were certainly having a good dream by the way your eyes look this morning."

In response to this statement, Meta Knight quickly turned his head before realizing that he was wearing his mask, making it a dead giveaway to the blush lingering underneath. He shook his head; he couldn't be thinking of his wife at the moment, they had more pressing matters at hand.

Caldwell walked over to Fumu, and noticing how deep asleep she was, he sighed and began to carry her bridal-style. He shifted his weight so as to not jostle her and started walking in the same course as they had been following the day before.

Stranger picked up the staff and the journal, as he knew Shadow preferred to have them with him. He watched as Caldwell masked his limp and continued at a steady pace. Pain would flash in his eyes, but the warrior kept walking.

"You are a fine man, Shadow," Stranger muttered softly to himself. Caldwell would care for others no matter what the cost, probably because of his own low self-esteem.

Caldwell continued walking, he would have to get back to his accomplice before she blew her top and left without him. He may be an Amasi warrior but that didn't mean he could fly! After all, Amasi Warriors were merely people who had a certain spark within them and after rigorous training; they could perform a variety of tasks of the supernatural. And even then, they had limited prospective and certain spells could exhaust them with repeated use.

They continued at their brisk pace, an hour having only passed before Fumu began to stir.

She was warm, much warmer than she had been the night before. A stiff softness surrounded her and she was rocked more abruptly to one side than another. Light filtered through her closed lids, painting the insides of them a golden yellow. She felt a soft rumble to the tune of words and the voice was vaguely familiar. She struggled to open her eyes, now suspicious of her current conditions.

Her eyelids fluttered open and she was met with the glazed look of Caldwell the Shadow. Fumu could see under his hood from her position and noted how he would shift his gaze constantly to scan the terrain around him, never staying at the same spot for too long. Sparks continued to dance across his skin, even as he walked. The shadows that covered his face seemed menacing, even alive, as he shifted his gaze downward to Fumu.

"About time you decided to wake up." That was not his typical joking and cynical manner; he had said in a much more deadpan way than usual.

She looked at him again and this time she saw the bags underneath his eyes, the glazed look in his purple gaze, the way he held his shoulders high but let them droop ever so slightly. These all painted a picture that expressed how weary Caldwell was. The sparks that leaped off his clothes were subtly duller in appearance and color. If anything, she would say that they had lost their energy, the life drained out of them. With a start, she realized that he looked like a walking corpse. She flinched and Caldwell sighed for the umpteenth time that morning.

"Would you like down, Miss Fumu, or am I to hold you the whole way there?"

She spluttered after he said that. His chest rumbled again in dark laughter as he set her down, his eyes deep within the shadows of his hood, covered by locks of his hair. He moved one of his bangs and she realized his eyes were not purple anymore; they were a dark and bloody red. He blinked and she watched as eye color slowly changed back from bloody red to a shade of magenta until finally returning to their natural color of purple. He looked at her once more, something deep and wise underneath his outwardly inquisitive gaze, before they continued walking in the light of the morning sun. Then he seemed to bend the shadows around himself and beckoned for Stranger to hand him his staff.

"If you wouldn't mind, my leg is killing me." He grumbled stiffly. Stranger looked at the staff before he handed it to the Shadow and he too noticed the change in his friend's behavior.

Stranger of the Emerald Heart merely shrugged at the undulation of manner, Caldwell would tell them when the time was right and until then he would simply have to wait.

They stepped into a clearing where a small aircraft was latent, smoke curling faintly from its wounds and pieces of it lay strewn about the small grove.

"What did you DO to my ship, Eagle?" Caldwell asked as soon as he saw the atrocious damage inflicted upon the machinery.

"What did I do? I am repairing OUR ship, just like I was told to. Rabbit, the ship is almost completely totaled; you should have driven it more carefully." A fully armored star warrior retorted as she stepped out from behind where she had been examining the hull.

"What? You were the one who was driving at the time, Eagle! And I only left because you insisted that I go and find Meta Knight or Stranger since apparently I am inadequate to handle the refurbishing of my own ship! I would've been back sooner but it's a solid day's walk from here to the cliffs and somebody snapped my cane in half. Besides, you said that she would be ready by the time I got back, that you could accomplish it."

Eagle rolled her eyes and sighed crossly, "I can accomplish it, I was just...training! Yes, that is what I was doing! Your cane was snapped because of you! I had nothing to do with it! What makes you think-!"

"-If you were training as you claim, show me. Prove to me that you've enhanced significantly from your 'training' as opposed to my ship being repaired. I'll tell you this only once. I'm not going easy on you this time." He finished that with a cold and ruthless smile, a smile that Fumu felt was all too credible.

"...well, erm...Hey-"

She was cut off as he lunged one of his scimitars at her, his steps once more dance-like.
'Eagle's' steps mingled with Caldwell's as her common sense was replaced by a cool, irrational bloodlust. He would pay, what with making her look like a complete fool and all.

She lunged and he brushed her assault with a flick of his wrist, then she attempted trick him with a false molesting to his right, but he always kept his guard up. He brought one of his swords into a large over-head cut before he swiftly lunged with the other sword. Eagle jumped back, cursing herself for forgetting how focused he could be on any battlefield. Caldwell swung around after she blocked and placed a single scimitar at her exposed throat, the other ready to strike.

"You trained, huh? Don't lie to me, Eagle. Next time, try to land a mark on me." His swords slid back into their sheaths, the shadows dimming slightly in intensity. He walked to the main part of the ship, shaking his head and muttering to himself all the while. Eagle huffed as she stomped to the place Caldwell was examining.

"Vain yaiw non vara vavor, I wyair, I yaiw hoiwn ovev hara ainyay..."

"I know. 'I aimn ndomney vor yaoi; loui voryard no daiv,' what- no! Why, is this written on the Scarlet Wolf? I have no enemies who can teleport, do you?"

"No, I don't." The individual known as Eagle shrugged and slid underneath the ship, the sounds of metal on metal soon following.

Caldwell sighed resignedly, pulled out a few tools from the toolbox, and began to start working on the engine.

Fumu looked at the ship again, he said it was small, but it was larger than three of her, and it was long and narrow. It appeared that it would comfortably house up to nine people and still have room for more.

"Um, why did you call this ship small…? It looks pretty big to me!" She blurted out.

Caldwell turned toward her before he spoke, "That is because this is a stealth ship. Normally I would not have dared to lengthen it as you see it now, but I had no time...I mean, I was in a rush and I forgot to take the other part off!" He finished simply, nodding almost imperceptibly to his partner beside him. Stranger watched him like a hawk, before he allowed a slight lift of his shoulders, shooting Caldwell a dastardly look before he did so.

"Ah...the rooms are still usable, we just have to find some cloaked parts, fix the engine, and repair everything else. So please, make yourself comfortable!" Caldwell muttered with much optimism.

Fumu frowned, he had seemed unapproachable, crestfallen even, but now he was assuring them that everything would be okay and to make themselves comfortable. Something was unsettling about him, she decided. Then it hit her with a two-ton force, the shadows around him had dispersed, his eyes looked bright, cheery, and there was no sign of fatigue or depression that had been so evident when she'd woken in his arms that morning.

"Vay air soey no san wuwvindioiw, yaoi uinoya. Raivin, yaoi ndain non hid avaryvey," whispered Eagle, low enough that not even Stranger would hear the spoken words.

"I uioya. In iw hoiwn... vay yaori no' mnoik aind I do non nad vamn yaoriey avan mnor in ai nimn of yair. Vay yail voisoir in' oin avanoiaily, I woivow, aind yahara vain haivenor, I soiaw I yail haiv no hov vor va vawn."

"Yoi hov? Air yoi woir yoir viwknenor air non huiwn aivoaindney yoir vhywindail ndondinion? Do yoi non vinui vay yail yaondev yahy yai haoyael oiv yaivoin yairney? On nov ovo nan yoi air vrovaivly on' ovo va vawn vilonor I uinoya, vay yail vrovaivly va yaondevey yahy yoi ndrailha laindel."

"And so what if they do? Let them wonder, I am not to answer," Caldwell replied smoothly. Every point she'd brought up had been true, of course. He would need to be careful; he would need to be very careful.

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A figure grinned from his perch within the swirling, pulsing gas that surrounded him. He had planted the seeds of doubt, and strewn them over their unsuspecting minds. Their doubt would water the newly planted seeds, and he would wait for them to grow. They were suspicious of an ally. That alone would be a key component to their downfall, he mused to himself. He would not need to come to them, instead with doubting themselves and each other, he would wait for his prey to become weary, and only then would he attack. His wings beat behind him, constantly reminding him of his own existence. He would do his job, and he would do it gladly. Nightmare missed his two favorite puppets after all, and even then, the figure knew that a father would enjoy tormenting his son for a little while longer. It was all coming to place, soon blood would pass between his lips and he would taste the luxury.

He grinned and licked his lips in implicit anticipation; they would twist themselves against each other. He fingered the locks over his left eye, and shook his head, there would be a time to release his full power but now was not that time. Seffali would return to the king of darkness' control and he would do it willingly or not. He casually fingered the ornately carved dagger, lining it up with his targets hearts and he once more licked his lips before he continued his silent watching.

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Acore had been difficult to find, to say the least. The old and wisdom-filled tree had evaded him at every possible turn until Galacta Knight had stumbled into a dull clearing, ready to give up his quest. That was when he realized that Acore was standing right in front of him, for all his worth looking amused. The price to save his vessel was far more planned than he'd originally thought which forced him to have to re-think the whole strategy. It had been tiresome and strenuous but he'd found the tree.

"Acore, guardian of this forest, I request your knowledge and assistance."

He waited, kneeling stupidly to a tree, as Acore mulled things over yet again. And just what exactly was the tree mulling over? Most likely, the fact that he'd been addressed in the formal manner of a knight and the fact that another being, other than the animals of the forest, knew where he lay.

"What...do you...seek?"

It took all of his training to not stick his lance through the guardian's roots and then twist it painfully. Of all the wise things for it to say, he was graced with a mere four words? It was a far cry from how well the tree had been when he had been young, very much so indeed. Galacta Knight simply resolved to himself grating his teeth against one another to curb his legendary anger.

"I seek answers. And I seek to speak to the guardian of the night sky, Nova. Will you give me the answers I seek? Or am I to seek elsewhere?"

"Search within yourself and...You will find...ask to a moon and you...will...receive..." The ancient and withered maple responded, his voice slow and weary.

"Thank you, oh great guardian of the forest, for the contribution." He waited until the tree had closed his eyes again before he got up out of his kneeling position. That stupid tree! Riddles made no sense and guardians always spoke in that manner. He'd come for answers only to be disappointed yet again. He glanced down at his lance, then to the tree, before deciding that it wasn't worth the effort. He could burn the worthless pile of firewood later, for now he had to locate the source of that dark aura.

At least he knew that the Scarlet Wolf wouldn't be able to take off for a good two days.

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Blade looked around at their surroundings and found a familiar face chained to a wall like they were. His gray-white locks hung past his eyes and his form was limp as he listened for their captors. He'd clearly been in here far longer than they had and so had two other familiar companions. One had his four wings painfully folded in crooked angles behind him while the other, usually emotionless, let restrained tears fall from his sharp, blue eyes.

"Thorn, Emit, Edge! They got you too didn't they?" Blade cried out, causing all eyes to rest upon the unarmored knight.

The oldest of the three he had recognized as Thorn looked up at her and nodded slowly, while Emit slowly shook his head, wincing at the pain derived from his broken wings, Edge merely tried to hide the tears that continued to fall.

"Haven't heard your voice so clear in a long time, Blade," Thorn's voice trembled to Blade in greeting.

Blade replied to that with a simple nod, once again looking around at their surroundings. The knight gave a start of surprise when Bun and Kirby were found chained as well.

"Blade? You're a girl?" Bun asked, for once taking in the unarmoured knight.

"Yes I am a girl, but pl-" she cut off as a guard arrived outside of their cells.

"It is time for all of you to be prepared; the games start in the next day. Let's think that all your training wasn't useless."

Blade felt herself sink after she heard that, but to her surprise, Thorn recomposed himself, straightening his back and pulling back his broad shoulders. Once more, she realized how kingly he could look when he truly needed to, especially now that Edge had stopped his silent sobs. They would all need the courage to go on, even if it meant that they were going to be endlessly tortured within the next week.

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Alright! Thorn, Emit, Edge and Stranger belong to Sweey.
Caldwell, 'Eagle', and my character in the clouds are mine.
When Eagle was talking to Caldwell , that was Ivoian; if you want the full details, you can look to Sweey's (she invented the language and translated it for me) story Details of the Mind
No I did not forget about Blade, Sword, Bun, Kirby, Galacta Knight, or anyone else for that matter.
Please enjoy the site!
This chapter is dedicated to my Twin, Nightime Whispers, Sweey, and MetaKnight4Ever.

See you next time!