(HAH! I found the horizontal line button! Now I won't have to keep writing (Change) whenever the perspective changes! ...Man... I feel slow and slightly less observant than I usually am... Anyway, more chapters are coming! Again: Sorry for the wait!)

"Precious leader of the Mews." Aella looked down on Ichigo in her petrified state. Only she and the other aliens were left, the other Mews in their prisons deep within the maze. Aella snapped her fingers, and Ichigo instantly collapsed. She was breathing heavily, trying to get air back into her frozen-feeling, oxygen-deprived lungs. "I believe you have something for me."

"Think… Again…" Ichigo straightened up, regulating her breath. Aella smacked her.

"Impudent alien! That's what you are, even on your own planet! You call yourself a hero." She sneered. "Your ears and tail separate you from everyone else…"

"My teammates…" Ichigo began.

"They're just freaks too. You can't possibly be normal. Ever. How can you get along with anyone who doesn't know about you? Doesn't know the truth? How does it feel to hide a whole other part of you?" Aella leaned down to meet Ichigo's height. "On my planet, no one would look at you differently. You should join us."

"When you're so cruel and evil to others? Never." She breathed.

"Baka!" Aella yelled as she reached out to strike Ichigo again. All of a sudden, someone caught her arm. She looked to them quickly. Stupid blond!

"You will never get what you want, Aella." He turned to her, holding Ichigo in his arms. "Especially not by hurting others."

"Leave Koneko-chan alone!" Kisshu lunged out with his sais.

Aella dodged him swiftly. "This is a man's job. Oh, Nikias?" She called for him, then disappeared.

"Get back here, bitch!" Kisshu seethed.

"I'm sorry, she won't be necessary. I'm just as challenging an opponent." Nikias flashed a smile, holding his sword out in front of him. "Would you care to go first?"

"Bring it on!" Kisshu yelled, then turned to the Blue Knight. "Get Ichigo out of here!"

"No, I'm fighting with you!" Ichigo said, jumping out of the Blue Knight's arms, then turning to face Pai and Taruto, who were just beginning to thaw. "As soon as you can, go find the others." She whispered, then turned back. "Strawberry Bell!" Her weapon appeared in her hands, a pink heart shaped object with wings on the top of it.

"Very well." Nikias began, then charged at Kisshu. "I don't prefer to fight women, so this one will have to do first." Kisshu dodged him, blocking the sword with his sais.

"Pudding-chan is all alone!" Pudding wailed, beating on where the wall had boxed her in. "Just her luck to be caught all alone, na-no-dah..." She sighed. "Oh well, never fear! There has to be some way out of here, na-no-dah!" She smiled, thinking of her brothers and sister at home. "People need Pudding-chan! She won't be forgotten!" She felt the walls for cracks and grooves, smiling every time her fingers found a hold.

"Zakuro-chan!" Lettuce reached down to help her friend as she was becoming herself again. "Are you alright?"

"Just… Out of breath…" She coughed, shaking her head clear. "That was a dirty trick."

"None of us were expecting it…" Lettuce replied, frowning. "I wonder where the others are."

"We have to figure out how to get free first." Zakuro said, taking in her surroundings.

"Surely they wouldn't leave us here to die?" Lettuce asked nervously.

"Unfortunately, I don't know the answer Lettuce-chan." She stated, then began feeling the walls. Lettuce began doing the same, unsure of what they were looking for.

"Too bad we can't climb or fly like the others." Lettuce said thoughtfully, her fingers brushing over the wall's indentions.

"They wouldn't leave us, Lettuce-chan. We just have to hope." Zakuro's ears twitched, hearing something in the distance. "Someone's fighting." She turned, looked at Lettuce's worried expression, then went back to the wall to listen.

"Goyokuna keiro-ka!" Possessive lightening! Nikias screamed as he raised his blade, aiming it directly at Kisshu. The sparks flying off of it sent static rustling through the air. Kisshu teleported, getting away, when he noticed the Blue Knight taking his spot.

"Aoyama!" Kisshu yelled as the Blue Knight stabbed through Nikias' heart.

Nikias screamed in rage. "Shi no hikari." Death light. His sword turned pitch black, then flamed a red color as he smashed it through the Blue Knight's stomach. They both fell, writhing in pain.

"Masaya!" Ichigo ran to him crying. "How could you do-"

"Anything, to protect Ichigo." He smiled up at her. "I love you, Ichigo. Please let… Kisshu take care of you…" He closed his eyes. "He's been a good-" The Blue Knight shook, then transformed back into Masaya, his eyes wide. "Ichigo… I can't…" He grew silent as his eyes lost their spark. Ichigo wept over him.

"I told you he was just a pathetic human…" Kisshu replied, floating above her.

"You're wrong, Kisshu." Ichigo cried.

"He saw that I was better for you, Koneko-chan." Kisshu said with disbelief. "That's why…" He floated down, sitting beside her. "He risked it."

"It'll never be the same…" She said sadly.

"If that's how you feel…" Kisshu let his voice drift off, then summoned his sais. "It's funny, how we were almost… friends." He half smiled, but Ichigo wasn't looking at him.

"What are you-" She began, but was interrupted when Kisshu moaned in pain.

Kisshu drug the sais across his skin, cutting an X shape onto his stomach while Ichigo looked on in awe. "It's because I love you, Koneko-chan. Goodbye." He smirked, tears coming into his eyes. "Remember, I did this for you." He closed his eyes and laid down on the hard floor of the cavern.

"Kisshu! Don't leave me! I don't want to be alone!"

But Kisshu's mind was already drifting away, trying to find Masaya's spirit, the one thing that would make her happy…