Ms. Foster, Mr. Herriman, Cheese, Goo Goo, Jackie, and the rest of the friends were gathered at the front of the museum. "Well, it's offical. The front doors are now locked," Mr. Herriman said.

"Did ya try the back doors?" Cheese asked.

"Oh yeah, the BACK doors are locked." Jackie said.

"Can anybody fly?" Goo Goo asked, causing everyone to groan right out loud.

"Look, there;s no way around it," Jackie said angrily. "Until tomorrow morning, we are stuck in this museum for the night!" Everyone groaned again.

"Well, now what do we do?!"

"Can I make a suggestion? Let's panic!" Cheese said.

"No, no,no," Ms. Foster said before Cheese could set everyone off. "Look, we're all stuck here, so let's go try to find Wilt, Frankie, Mac, and Bloo. Let;s all team up and search, and if you find them come back here immidiately. All right?"

Frankie sat down and studied the riddle carefully. "Hmm...when does today meet yesterday?" she mumbled to herself. "I tell you, this is a tough nut. This is a real tough nut."

Bloo took the paper from her. "When does today meet yesterday?" he mumbled. "Cleveland!"

Mac gave him a Look. "CLEVELAND?!"

"Why not? It's weird enough!" he said.

"Bloo," Frankie responded, "The question is WHEN does today meet yesterday? Not WHERE does today meet yesterday?"

"And this is only the first test?" Mac asked.

"Yes," Ashi answered. "The other two are harder."

"Harder than THIS?"

"Much harder."

"Well, we're gonna try to help you," Frankie said. She studied the riddle again. "Hmm...this is tough. But I know we can do it."

Just then they heard the sound of many clocks start bonging the time. "8...9..10," Mac counted.

"Well, we got plenty of time to think too, the museum is closed now," Wilt said.

"Can we figure this out in 2 hours?" Mac asked.

"We can if we all think," Frankie pointed out.

Ashi sat down on the raining in front of the display. "I've been thinking and thinking ever since I've come here. I can;t figure it out," she looked up at the painting. "I miss Jack so much. I just want to be with him again. Every night, whenever I look at his picture, I just wonder...if he's thinking of me at the same time."

"I'm sure he is," Frankie said.

"Well, unless he's not," Bloo said. Mac gave Bloo a dirty look. "Well, ya gotta consider the fact that she's been here for more than 1,000 days, and he's all the way in Feudal Japan where thousands of years have gone by, and well, there are a lot of people down there, so.."

"BLOO!" Frankie said through clentched teeth.

Wilt rushed over to the plaque and quickly reread it. "Bloo, I'm sorry, but you're wrong," he pointed to the plaque. "Look, Ashi! It says right here that he never got married! He still loved you when he died. He never forgot you!" Ashi managed a small smile.

"It's not only Jack that I miss," Ashi confessed. "I miss his family as well."

"Oh?" Wily asked.

"Yeah."

"Would you tell us about it?" Mac asked, sitting next to her.

"Yeah, talking about it might help you feel better," Frankie said, sitting on her other side.

Ashi looked out into the distance. "When we went to Feudal Japan and killed Aku for good, I was prepared to leave immidiately. I even felt a bit faint and I thought that was it. But when I didn;t go away, I thought the gods had shown me mercy and I was going to stay for good. When Jack took me to meet his parents a bit later I was a bit nervous about how they would react to me . After all, I'm not Japanese myself, and I was the daughter of their most sworn enemy. Then when I found out that were a royal family and Jack was actually a Prince I thought for sure they would turn their backs on me. I'm not royal..I have no royal blood in me."

"But they didn;t?"

"His father was a but surprised at first, but his mother..." Ashi smiled at the memory. "Now I know where Jack got it from. The minute she heard my story, she welcomed me with open arms. She was so good and warm to me. She told me from now on I had a home there, and her family would love me. She was the closest I've ever had to a real mother in my whole life."

"Gee," Frankie, Mac, Bloo, and Wilt all said.

"Coco," Coco agreed, leaping up to sit on her lap.

"Coco already likes you," Wilt said.

"Go on," Frankie said.

"She wanted to know all about me, and she taught me things like how to make tea, and how to walk in a kimono. After a while his father accepted me as well. I guess it was because he saw how much Jack and I did love each other. Once Jack's homeland was rebuilt, he took me for rides on their horses and he showed me all around. I was never happier then when he did that. Feudal Japan was so beautiful. I had never seen so many trees, and such a lovely pond, and when the wind blew and the cherry blossoms floated to the ground, all around us...and me with Jack... it was almost perfect. I loved it whenever he kissed me in the woods underneath those trees. Weeks and months went by while the Kingdom was being rebuilt. I staid there the entire time and Jack was right next to me. With the two of us there, it was like...this is what I've been wanting my whole life and I never even knew it. So, when he asked me to marry him, I thought I could and of course I accepted."

Frankie leaned forward. "Would you tell us how he proposed?"

"Yeah, we;d like to hear the story," Wilt said. "Is that Okay?"

Ashi nodded. "Well, it happened about a year after I came to Feudal Japan with Jack. By that time the Kingdom was repaired and it looked like nothing had been done to it at all. Jack was taking me out on a walk that afternoon. We walked over a bridge that was under some cherry trees. It overlooked the Royal Palace. We stopped in the middle of it and Jack put his arm around me. He told me to took out upon the palace and said he was spreading his Kingdom at my feet. He asked how I liked it. I told him it was the most beautiful place I had ever seen in my life. Jack told me that in his eyes what made it so perfect was the fact that I was right there with him. He took me in his arms and kissed me so tenderly and I could feel the wind blow and the cherry petals flow all around me. He looked me in the eyes and told me how much he loved me. I told him I loved him too...and the next thing I knew he had gotten down on his knee, and he told me that even though he was glad to finally be home, what would make it perfect would be to share it with me forever. Then he asked...'Ashi, will you marry me and share my life always?' After I stopped crying, I said yes."

"Wow," Frankie said.

"Yeah...it was so perfect...I never forgot it. And I was there for almost a year so I thought I would always be there. So I thought that I would stay with him forever and we could get married. I couldn't wait to be his wife. I wanted to be with him forever, he was my soul mate. He was my best friend. But on the very day of our wedding...that's when it happened."

"Right then?" Frankie said.

"I never even made it down the isle. I never got to marry him. I didn't even get a chance to tell him how much I loved him...how much he meant to me..."

Coco sniffled at that. "Coco," she said, snuggling up to Ashi. Frankie took her hand gentily.

"I'm sorry that that happened to you, Ashi," she said softly. "And just when you finally got a family too."

"The worst part of it was.." Ashi stood up then. "It was my own fault."

"What do you mean?" Frankie asked. "How was it your fault? Ya didn't have any say on who your father was! Ya can't pick your parents ya know."

"That's not what I meant, Frankie," Ashi said, turning toward her. "I meant that if it weren't for me Jack and I wouldn't have ended up back in Feudal Japan."

"What do you mean if it weren't for you?"

"I mean...I was the one who created the Time Portal that sent the both of us back to Feudal Japan!"

"Whoa, whoa...YOU created the Time Portal?" Wilt asked incrediously.

"Yes," Ashi answered. "When I found out that Aku was in fact my father he took possession of my body and tried to force me to kill Jack."

"He POSSESSED you?!" Wilt said.

"That bastard!" Frankie mumbled.

"Fortunately Jack still knew that I was in there. He tried and tried to help me fight it and to help me to break through with his love for me! He saved my life all over again! And when I was finally able to break Aku's hold on me I discovered that I suddenly got Aku's powers!"

"Whoa," Wilt said. "So, you could do a lot of the things that monster could?"

"Yes. I discovered I could form my hands into claws, shoot lazers out of my eyes...powers I used against Aku along with Jack."

"Cool," Bloo said. Frankie gave him a dirty look.

"Knowing how much Jack truly missed his home, I realized that if I had THOSE powers, I might be able to summon up a Time Portal just like AKU could. So I concentrated on Feudal Japan, in particular the time Jack told me about and I tried...and it worked."

"Well, what do ya know?" Bloo said.

"I jumped into the portal with him to make sure that it took him home. When he killed Aku I didn't expect to live long, I expected to disappear right afterward. But I hoped that that last gesture would be my final gift of love for him. But when it didn't happen...I thought that meant I could stay."

"So you were all prepared to sacrifice yourself to make Jack happy?"

"Yes. I guess that was all I was thinking about at the time. Giving Jack what he really wanted. Letting him go back home and kill Aku there. Maybe I shouldn't have done that. Would it have mattered where Aku died, just as long as he did die? I didn't even give him enough time to say goodbye to all the friend he made in the future. All I was thinking about was sending him home, fufilling what he wanted. I...I didn't think about anything else. I didn't think about the consequences of what I did. I honestly didn't think...I just did. And when I didn't disappear I thought I could stay, and we just got closer and closer and more in love than ever. It never occurred to me that I was just slowly disappearing. By the time I realised it it was too late. I'll never forget the look on Jack;s face. How heartbroken he was..." she choked up and stared at the painting again. "If only I could see him one more time. Just to tell him that I didn't mean to hurt him, and that I was sorry...Jack, I'm so sorry that your heart got broken..."

Frankie took her hand. "Don;t blame yourself for what happened, Ashi. You said it yourself, you just wanted Jack to be happy because you loved him so much. That happens sometimes, we love someone so much that we just want to see them happy and we do something that we think will make them happy without thinking of the circumstances. We're not perfect, no one is. Everybody's done that, not just you. I'm sure Jack knows what you tried to do for him, and he doesn't blame you."

"Yeah," Wilt agreed, pointing to the plaque again. "He loved you right up until the end. He never found anyone else."

"And ya know what? You're gonna see him again, and you ARE gonna get married. We're gonna help you pass these tests! "

"You will?" Ashi asked.

"Absolutely!" Frankie said. "There are six of us here now, and if we all put our heads together, we can find the answer."

"Then you can go back to Japan and become a Princess, and eventually an Empress!" Mac said.

"Yeah! Just think, you'll be an Empress!" Wilt said.

Ashi smiled. "Thank you."

"Coco," Coco replied, nuzzling her chest, causing Ashi to pet her gentily.

"That's really nice of you to help me," Ashi said. "I've been alone here for so long, with only this painting of my best friend to talk to, knowing he can;t answer me back."

"That had to be rough," Frankie agreed. "Only a painting of your closest friend."

"For the longest time, he was my only friend," Ashi said.

"You're kidding!"

"No. Mother kept me and my sisters sheltered in that cave our entire childhood. We were never allowed to leave, only train and spar. We weren't allowed to even talk to each other!"

"So you grew up with no friends?"

"No. And ironically, the one we were trained to hunt and kill was the one who turned out to be my first friend...and the one I love."

"Well, you have friends now!" Frankie said. "We can be your friends."

"We sure can!" Wilt said.

"Coco," Coco agreed, nuzzling up to her.

"And you know what? We're gonna help you pass these tests even iof we have to stay up all night to do it!"

Bloo turned a bit pale. "All night?"

"Yeah, Bloo. You got anywhere else to go?" Mac asked.

"Well, I was a guy to sleep," Bloo said. "Besides, we only got two hours! How are we supposed to find the answer to that riddle in that short amount of time?" Just then a sudden noise from the outside startled them all into looking up.

"What was that?!" They all cried.