Once again, my usual message. Please review. Thanks.

First Things First

The ballroom had been cleared of people, and limp bodies as well, just in time before it caved in. No one smiled but the criminals that the Alpha Squad had managed to detain in the last few minutes of the battle as they tried to escape.

"We will soon be free," one man cried. "Darcy will come and break us free."

Mech looked stony-eyed at the man. "Not if you're executed before she can return," he said, just to scare the man. He didn't have the authority to make that decision. Only the royal family did, and he knew that the Solarians were too peaceful and liberal to execute a man, no matter the crime.

There were cots brought out to the dining room where all the injured were staying as there were too many to bring to any other room in the palace. Around, Mech saw his father nursing a broken arm, sitting on a chair by a passed out Helia. Just a few cots down, Riven was having his stomach wrapped to prevent more bleeding from the slice in his side. He had tried to chase Krannert, but had fallen from the strain and the loss of blood. Marvel was passed out on a bed as well, and on the cot next to him, Angel lay stiffly from hitting the wall. Trend and Brandon were jumping between the two beds, trying to make sure that both were going to be okay. Trine was not far wrapping gauze around his arm to stop the bleeding.

Idale was in critical condition and all but Rodge and Mech of the Alpha Squad were by his side as a nurse was insisting that he needed surgery or he would for sure die. One thing was for certain; Idale wasn't giving any more orders for a while.

Mech approached his father. "Let me help with that, Dad," he said taking over wrapping the broken arm. "This will hurt, but it needs to be tight enough to hold the bone in place while it heals."

"Shouldn't you be with your squad?" Timmy asked before wincing as Mech continued to wrap the arm a lot tighter than Timmy would have.

"You're my father," Mech said. "The only thing I'd be able to do with Idale is watch. I haven't gone to medical school, remember."

Timmy nodded. "Have you seen your mother? She disappeared during the battle but I don't know where to."

"I believe she went with Bloom and Stella, to protected them," Mech said as he finished his father's bandages. He looked around. "I'll go find her. I want to find Celeste as well, make sure she's okay and everything."

Again, Timmy nodded. "I'm sure she will be."

"What do you mean I'm not granted access to the palace grounds right now!" Violet yelled as the Solarian Guard stopped her after she got off her transport. "My family is in there. I'm a close personal friend of Princess Celeste."

"No one is allowed access unless granted by the King," the guard said. "He said that he only wished for the teachers of Alfea, Cloud Tower, and Red Fountain to be allowed in."

"I'm sure if he knew that I was out here, he'd grant me access," Violet said.

"We still cannot let you in, Miss."

Violet growled and clenched her fists.

"Then consider her my personal assistant for the afternoon," the voice of Miss Griffin sounded as the heads of the three school approached together. "After all, I need someone who knows the palace to show me to King Radius."

The guard nodded and allowed Violet and professors into the palace, stopping everyone else who tried to get into the grounds. Violet showed the heads to the King's meeting room, after thanking Miss Griffin profusely for letting her in, and then ran off to find her family.

She was directed to the dining room and almost cried immediately when she saw her mother leaning against Layla, tears pouring from her eyes. Violet shook slightly, then ran to her mother, throwing her arms around the crying woman. Upon seeing her daughter, Flora cried out and held her daughter closely.

"Oh, Violet, I'm so sorry," Flora cried. "We should have taken you more seriously and made sure that that man wasn't using a spell on his appearance."

"Where are Daisy and Dad," Violet asked after a moment.

"Your father is right here," Flora said bringing Violet to Helia's bedside. "Daisy, I fear, has been taken."

Violet clenched her fist and a bit of dark energy began to fizzle. "It must have been Chase." She looked at her father and placed a hand on his chest, just over his heart. Suddenly, she felt a surge of power, dark power, radiate from Helia's body and flow into her. Helia coughed and opened his eyes, as Violet was able to unknowingly pull the dark energy that had been used against her father without it affecting her.

"What happened?" Helia asked looking around, then sat bolt straight as he remembered. "Where's Daisy?"

"They took her," Flora cried as she threw her arms around Helia and sobbed.

Mech heard the cries of babies just outside the new nursery. It looked as if there had been a small battle, maybe a lesser minion of Darcy had tried to follow the two queens and Tecna, but nothing that wasn't easily handled by the fairy. He knocked lightly on the door, then opened it up. All three women were fine, just a bit shaken from the battle. Bloom and Stella were both holding a crying baby while Tecna was keeping an eye on the third baby, fast asleep in the middle crib.

"Oh, Mech," Tecna said and stood, ran to him, and held him tightly in her arms for a moment. "What's happened with the battle?"

"And why is the sun eclipsed?" Stella asked. She was rocking her baby and it wasn't helping. "Artemis hasn't made a peep, but Luna and Diana haven't stopped crying since we got here."

Mech bit his lip. He didn't know how much to tell them. "No one died, but there are a few people that we won't be able to tell about for a while. Helia's been hit with dark magic. Your husbands are both fine, and Dad has a broken arm. Angel's in a lot of pain from getting knocked around by Darcy, but nothing she won't recover from."

"And the eclipse?" Stella asked. She looked tired.

"Darcy stole Celeste's ring and infused it with dark magic," Mech said. Mech took a deep breath. "There's one more thing." The three women looked at him. "Krannert captured Caleb and Musa."

"What!" Mech was momentarily deaf after the reaction from his mother and the two women. The two babies were stunned for a moment, then began crying harder and Artemis in the third crib woke and began looking around.

Mech approached Bloom and took the sobbing baby from her so that she could run to the dining room to see how Angel was and sob in her husband's arms about Musa. The baby, Diana apparently, immediately stopped crying and looked at Mech.

"How did you…?" Bloom began, but shook her head. "Never mind."

As soon as Bloom was out the door, Celeste walked in, looking heartbroken and as if she had been sobbing. Mech knew she had probably been sobbing nonstop until she walked into the room.

"What was the yelling about?" Celeste asked. She spotted Mech for a moment, but then turned away from him and took Luna from her mother's arms and began hushing the baby. Eventually, Luna stopped crying and settled for sucking on a pacifier that Celeste snatched from the crib.

"I have to go," Stella said. "Musa's been taken." She grabbed Tecna's wrist and pulled the woman with her to see the damage done for herself.

Celeste kept her eyes on Luna, but Mech couldn't stand it. He lightly placed the now sleeping baby into the empty crib. Celeste was keeping her eyes so trained on everything else that he assumed she'd want him gone. However, just as he reached the doorknob, she spoke.

"Don't go, Mech." He stopped and turned to her as she placed Luna into the final crib. "I don't want to be alone."

"Are you sure that you don't want me to get someone else, like Trend, to keep you company?"

Celeste shook her head. "Mech, I know you still love me, so why can't you just admit it so we can be happily ever after?"

"Celeste, aren't you forgetting about a few things?" Mech asked. "Like Trine, and the fact that I still have seven years of Alpha Squad service to complete."

Celeste shook her head. "I don't care, Mech. You punched Trine because you still love me. I want you to prove it to me, Mech."

"Are you sure, Celeste?"

"Yes, Mech."

Mech stared at Celeste. For a moment, it was all he could do. Then Mech grabbed her, pulled her close, and kissed her deeply. He loved how she felt in his arms, how kissing her felt correct. He hadn't felt as if he had done anything so perfectly correct since he had given Celeste her locket. Celeste's arms wrapped around the back of his neck and he held her close, even after they broke the kiss. "I love you more than words can describe, Celeste."

Celeste moved back just enough so that she could look at him and smiled. Suddenly, her eyes rolled back and her body became limp. "Cel!" Mech freaked and held her body, keeping her from collapsing to the floor. He picked her up and carried her to a couch in the room, placing her down lightly. She was breathing and Mech calmed down realizing that Celeste had just fainted. Mech sighed and ran a hand against her cheek, staring down at her. He then frowned at how pale she was, and he looked out the window at the eclipse, knowing that she would need to go somewhere where the sun wasn't blocked if she was going to survive until Darcy's spell could be undone. Placing one last kiss on Celeste's cheek, Mech walked into a hall where a servant was approaching with three bottles to feed the babies. He explained Celeste's presence and then he had to leave to find the Alpha Squad and speak with them finally. He hadn't since during the battle and he figured he was in trouble.

King Radius and all the teachers of the three schools of Magix sat in his meeting room, discussing the situation and how best to solve it. The rest of the kings that had been fighting against Krannert were coming, but they had nothing from any of the criminals they had caught yet.

"If we have nothing when the other kings and generals arrive, we will not be able to gain support. We have no clue where Darcy and the rest of the criminals escaped to." King Radius was ranting.

"If I may be so bold to say, we have been unable to get any of them to talk because none of us lost anyone we are emotionally connected with," Miss Griffin said. "But, if we were to let someone who had a family member hurt or, more likely, abducted interrogate without someone to hold them back, the pure fury that that person may carry in his or her eyes may make the prisoners fear that person more than we ever could."

"We cannot allow Riven to interrogate any of the prisoners," Saladin said. "He will not ask, he will just kill."

"I wasn't thinking about Riven," Miss Griffin said. "I was thinking Violet."

"No one is going to show fear of a fairy," Codatorta said.

"You don't know Violet very well, do you?" Griselda asked. Codatorto shook his head. "Yeah, well, she scares me and I'm the headmistress of her school."

"Not if she transfers back to Cloud Tower for her last school year, where she belongs," Miss Griffin said with a cheeky smile.

"That plan may actually work," Saladin said. He turned to Radius.

"Do whatever you have to to get those criminals to talk," the king said.

Violet was led to the dungeons by the Solarian royal guards. The guards turned off all the security cameras so that whatever Violet did, it would never be known outside the dungeons. After handing her the keys to the different cells, the guards left and stood outside the door, in case a criminal tried to run. Violet paced up and down the aisle, ignoring the cat calls the prisoners were throwing at her. She finally stopped outside the cell of a man who looked powerful and decided, Beat him up and let the others do that talking. She opened the cell and walked in.

"Hey, Golanzo, it looks like she likes you," the criminal in the next cell over said with a whistle.

Violet smirked and lightly wove her hand around. Suddenly, a dark vine shot up out of the ground and wrapped around the other guy tightly. The other prisoners stared in horror as the vine wound tighter and tighter. The man was screaming as several bones were heard cracking. When a few tears appeared on the man's face, Violet had the vines stop and just drop him with a loud thud. She then turned to the guy in the cell she had stepped into.

"Wanna talk?" she asked. He just stared at her. "It's Golanzo, right?"

"That's right."

"I know, you're looking at me, thinking, why would a little fairy be sent to question you, right? Well, Lanzo… it's okay if I call you that, right?" He nodded stiffly. "Well, Lanzo, one of the men you were attacking this castle with, specifically a boy named Chase just a year or two older than I am, almost killed my father, almost killed a good friend, and abducted my sister! Darcy also thought it was funny to humiliate me and make me think I was crazy! Do you know how that makes me feel?"

"Upset?" Golanzo guessed.

"No," Violet said, her eyes growing darker, dark energy sparking off her body, and a dark aura growing around her whole body. As the darkness she carried grew, she became more powerful and she transformed into her witch form, wearing a purple and black outfit "If I was upset, I'd be crying. Do you see any tears in my eyes?"

"No."

"Correct. I am, by no means upset. I am angry. Very angry. The last time I was slightly angry, I didn't talk to a soul in my family for a week. Now, I love my family, so that was me being extremely kind. I don't give a shit about you, Lanzo. So, if you don't talk, I will put you through more pain than your friend with the broken bones and it will happen over a much slower period. You will have roots digging their way through your body between your muscles and skin. Plant spores will make your brain their home. You will be begging for death. And, I love to see men beg. Beg for your life and tell me what I want to know, Lanzo."

"I'll tell you," Golanzo said falling to his knees. "Anything I can. What do you want to know?"

"Where did they run to?" Violet asked in a low voice so no one else could hear.

"A wandering planet called Delos. It is near the Hysteria Galaxy right now, heading between Paranoia and Narotica."

Violet smiled slowly. "Is that all you have to tell me, Lanzo?"

Golanzo shook his head and continued to spill everything he knew.

"We've learned, confidently, from one of the apprehended criminals that Darcy's fortress on the planet Delos is near the North tip. The criminals are scattered about the area in a five-mile radius and the prison where they will be keeping anyone they captured is five miles out from the back of Darcy's fortress. Krannert is living in a house directly east of Darcy, Icy and Stormy are sharing Darcy's fortress. The security system includes cameras, watch dogs, security guards…" Mech was presenting everything Violet had learned from Golanzo. Violet sat in the back of the room, only staying because Rodge was holding her tightly. The kings of all the planets were impressed with the knowledge they had gained, and no one had to know about the man in the body cast.

"So, what's the plan, Mech?" Cornelius, his teammate, finally asked.

"Well," Mech took a deep breath. "Our first step is rescuing those that were captured. That would be Musa, Caleb, and Daisy. No one else is reported missing, and all those that the criminals were being disguised as have been found."

"How do we rescue them?"

"I've got Daisy," Violet said from the back. "I'll take her place because the eclipses around the galaxies are only strengthening me."

"And Alpha team will be going in to rescue the other two," Mech said. "Under cover, of course. Once they're safe and rescued, we concentrate on building our defenses while our injured heal."

That seemed to satisfy everyone. Well, everyone but Mech himself. His mind was still dwelling on Celeste. She had woken up earlier, but her brother had restricted access to see her to family, Angel, and Trend. Mech knew it was to keep Trine out of the room, as Brandon, just as Daisy had, felt that Trine was untrustworthy, at least when it came to Celeste. Mech was more concerned with the pressure Celeste would be under when Trine did get in to see her finally. Would she tell Trine that she didn't want to be with him? Would the pressure and anxiety of seeing him cause her to pass out again?

He left the room once he was finished explaining the plan and found Trend. She, along with a few other ladies, had been working effortlessly to see how far the eclipses had spread. Without finding a planet with sun, most of the fairies wouldn't survive much longer. Violet was one of a kind, feeding off the dark magic rather than weakening. Trend, having spent a year at Cloud Tower, could withstand it, but not forever.

"Any luck?"

"None," Trend said hanging up the phone. "No known realm that any of us can think of has a sun shining."

"I can think of one that probably won't be affected," Queen Bloom said as she passed by. "Can you let me make a call?"

"Sure," Trend said handing Bloom the phone.

Bloom dialed a number and waited a moment. "Hi, Mom, I have a question… Is the sun shining there?" There was a pause. "I know it's a weird question, but there's been a crisis in, well, the magical realms of the universe." Another pause. "Great! You can finally see Angel now that she's grown up. We'll be there soon. Bye." Bloom hung up. "Earth has a sun."

"Earth?" Trend asked. "But, isn't that a no magic zone?"

"Right now, that might be the safest place," Mech said. "Plus, if Celeste doesn't get some sun she's not going to be able to last."

"Stella's going to need sun as well," Bloom said. "I'll go get her and we can use a portal to get there. Her years in Shadowhaunt built up a resistance, but still…"

"Don't wait up," Mech said. "When we've rescued Daisy, we'll send her your way."

Celeste had been moved to her own room and Trend was helping her to pack for Earth. When Stella had told her to pack one bag, Celeste knew that it was serious, so she needed Trend's help to get her stuff together. Trend helped pick out two pairs of shoes and three outfits that would fit in the one bag she was allowed.

"Sit down, Celeste," Trend said when she noticed that Celeste's skin was looking an off color. "You really need to rest, okay?"

Celeste nodded and sat down at her vanity. She grabbed her basics bag of make up and held it out for Trend to pack. After all, it was one thing to go away with out her entire collection of make-up, but to go without her favorite lipgloss, black eye-liner, mascara, and cover-up, that was just ridiculous. Then, Celeste spotted something she couldn't survive without, at least not until she knew that Mech had gone on his mission and returned safely. She grabbed her locket and put it back on.

"Trend, could you do me one more favor?" Celeste asked as Trend placed Celeste's bag on her bed, zipped and ready to go.

"Sure," Trend said.

"Can you send Mech here quickly? I need to talk to him before it's too late."

Trend nodded and left the room. When Mech arrived ten minutes later, he was fully dressed in his mission uniform. Celeste smiled slightly, thinking that he was more handsome than she could remember, despite how that uniform had almost ruined their lives.

"Don't forget to come back to me," Celeste said as he sat on the side of the bed.

"Wouldn't think of it," Mech said bending forward and kissing her lightly on the lips. He took her hand. "I think your love is going to keep me alive out there, Cel."

Outside the door, Trine sighed, upset that Celeste had chosen Mech, and that he had allowed her to. What was it about Mech that he didn't have?