Episode 2: Dying to Live: The Reason behind the Madness

"How long are you going to sulk?" Sakura asked Stella.

Stella sighed, "I'm not sulking. I'm just confused and sad. I hurt Dante, and I don't know why. Plus, I feel like a jerk for not trusting him."

"Stella, you said it yourself; it's a bad idea. The Scyphozoa messing with a Lyokoian warrior equals bad news. We don't want you to die."

"Don't want to or can't let me die?"

"Both. C'mon Stella, you know Riley and I would do anything for you. That's why we're in this limo going to a spa after you freaked. Why did you freak anyway?"

Stella sighed and took off her nun hood to run her fingers through her hair.

"Your hair looks fine."

"No, look up!"

Sakura lifted her gaze to Stella's hairline and saw what Stella was pointing at.

"Ooh. How did that happen?"

"I dilly-dallied on getting to set a hair appointment, and well my hair grew."

"Huh," Sakura said as she examined Stella's inch of roots.

"Maybe I should dye my hair blue." Stella mused.

"What? Are you going anymore crackers then you were today?"

"No, but if I dye my hair wild colors it'll be more adventurous then brown."

"You'll stick out more. No, it stay's brown."

Silence reigned in the limo for a while until Stella pulled on a plain white baseball hat that had grey mesh and foam fore head that read, Girly-girl. Sakura smiled in approval and gently clapped her hands.

"Now that looks better. If you'd been calm and had worn that hat, today would have been less stressful then what you made it. I can understand freaking at roots, but you took it a bit too far."

Stella sighed, she's been doing a lot of that lately, and fiddled with the knobs on the limo ceiling.

"I had…a bad dream. A nightmare even. When I woke up it was morning. When I looked in the mirror and saw my roots all the nightmare had shown me came back to haunt me, and I panicked."

Stella sighed again, see? And twiddled her thumbs. Sakura watched her with new concern.

"What was the nightmare about?"

"I can't remember."

After the spa and salon trip: Back in Stella's room

"Manicures are a gift from heaven," Sakura moaned as she examined her nails. Stella snuggled on her Barrett hat, making sure it fit just right. The spa had unwound her nerves and had given Stella time to think.

Her big toes had flowers on them: white petals with a glittering blue nail jewel in the center. Stella wiggled her toes at Sakura. Sakura chunked a pillow at Stella which clipped the hat off her head. All brown hair there.

"Uh!" Stella gave off an indignant/ infuriated verbalized girl gasp. Soon the two were clobbering the other with pillows. A knock came on the door, and the door slowly opened. The fight stopped as the two girls stared at the intruder, Riley.

Riley started to back out of the room, "Oh no you don't." Sakura exclaimed and dragged him in, "You're coming in, and with your little dog to!" she cackled dragging in Drew.

"BOMBARDMENT!" Stella yelled starting a barrage of flying pillows. The guys yelled (guys don't scream [unless it is a really girly scream they yell, so they say), and took cover on the other side of Stella's bed.

Well in five minutes Sakura was clobbering Drew, who was clobbering Riley, who had lost someone to clobber when Stella slipped out of her room and headed for the factory.

O CHIBI! O

Dante was fully absorbed in his work. Something wasn't right with Stella's card. It took longer to load then other cards. Even bugged it shouldn't take that long to load up. The computer was thinking longer then it should. Why would it?
"Hey," the soft voice brought Dante out of his musing and into reality.

"Is it to late to train?"