Yuki: Not much in this chapter...just a little fill-ya-in for the next chapter. The next one has pretty much action, but may be a little confusing. I've almost finished writing it, just a couple more lines, then copying it and everything. I guess I could do it right now, but nah, I'll wait until tomorrow.
CCS does not belong to me. Please R&R!

A Comeback
"What is going on?"
We were still in the Fourth Dimension, even though it was a risky place, everyone was too worn to make the trip back. My cordial bottle had healed mostly everyone's wounds, and now Vash had awakened.
In quick, descriptive words, Kelli told him the story.
"Oh my!" Vash said, looking as he was about to cry (and I've never seen I guy cry before). "Nakita, she's really gone?" He looked around, as if not believing us and as if searching for her."
"Vash." I said, putting a hand on his arm. "She's gone."
"But where to!" Vash cried.
"Vash." Kelli pleaded. "Please calm down."
"But Nakita-"
"Vash, she's not dead, and we plan to rescue her at the next eclipse."
"This is all my fault." Vash said, starting to cry. "If I had taken better care of her, if I had kept my promise and my grip, and if-"
"It isn't your fault." Rene said quietly. "It isn't anybody's fault. What's happened has happened, and you can't blame it on anyone. Being superheroes and helping others to thrive for the good does take many consequences, and risks, you know, and it's not always pretty business. But put up with it Vash, and get over it. It's already over. We can't keep looking back and blaming ourselves, we have to look forward to help her and plan ahead instead of looking back for impossible answers. Vash, do you understand? It's no use blaming yourself."
This was the first time Rene had spoken to Vash, and the longest time to practically everybody. Vash nodded. Kelli smiled at him.
"Let it go Vash." She said. "Rene is right. It's over, so let it go." Vash sighed, and looked at the ground.
"We know it's hard." Kanari said. We all looked at him sadly.
"Vash, are you healthy enough to walk?" Anora asked, talking our minds off of Nakita.
"I think." Vash said weakly and got up shakily. "Wow, what happened to my burns?"
"Yuki fixed them with cordial." Snowy said. "It works instantly. I remember when Doughboy was all stashed up when we captured the first jewel."
"That was all so long ago." Doughboy said. "So much has happened."
"It's not a long way, but it'll be fast if we fly." Anora said. "If you have the energy, that is."
"We're all very tired." Liz said. "But I think we regained some waiting for Vash." She took a seat on Rene's broomstick, Vash took a seat in my wand, and we flew off. Anora opened the door for us and we dropped through to land on the grass in the park. The sun shone brightly and the door began to shimmer. To an ordinary person, it wouldn't even be there, but to us, we could see what looked like a faint mirage.
"Oh, SNAP." I said. "What are we going to tell Mrs. Bowman?" I looked at Kanari, who looked at Vash, who looked at Kelli, who looked at Rene, who looked at Liz, and then Snowy and last Doughboy.
"I never thought of that." Kanari said. "By golly, what ARE we going to do?"
"C'mon Doughboy, you're good at making excuses." Snowy said. "Think of one, think." Doughboy scowled angrily.
"The time you need him the most he backs out." Liz said. "How like him." Rene giggled and I checked my watch.
"Only a quarter of an hour has passed since we were gone." I said.
"This whole expedition of freeing the slaves was only supposed to take an hour at the max." Vash complained. "In advance, we should have stopped time."
"If time traveled that slow while we were between the Fourth and Fifth Dimension," I started, "does that mean that right now, Nakita is going through fifteen minutes as we go through one?" Vash groaned ("Please, Yuki, don't mention Nakita, I can't bear it." "Oh, sorry Vash, I forgot.").
"I suppose so." Anora said. "It makes perfectly good sense, I've just never bothered to time it."
"Do you think they caught her?" Rene asked.
"She made it to Uri, that's for sure." Kero said.
"They must've gotten her, and locked her up." Kelli said.
"Ransom." Doughboy said. "Then it's really not good."
"We've GOT to get her back." Snowy said. "They could do ANYTHING with her. What do you think will happen? Quick, when is the next eclipse?"
"I'm not sure." Anora said. "I never know until two days in advance."
"I thought it was the same with the moons." Kelli said.
"No!" Vash said. "We can't wait a couple of years!"
"No, moons, as in Full Moon, Half Moon, not the eclipse of the moon!" Kelli said.
"Oh." Vash said.
"Of course not." Kelli said. "But that's still a very long time."
Rene sighed.
"Let's all go over to my house." She suggested. "It's big, and we have enough food to go around for a party, so we can eat, then rest, and then go plan."
"Do you mother and you do much together?" Kanari asked. Rene shrugged.
"Not much, I guess, she's really busy." Rene said. "I guess working in a toy factory is a big job for a boss." Liz looked around.
"Does anyone have a suggestion on how we are going to get there?" She asked. Rene dug in her purse and ran to the side of the street.
"Taxi!" She waved.
"Do we actually HAVE taxis around here?" Doughboy wanted to know.
"Of course." Liz said. "Where have you been?"
"Oh, well, I've just never seen one." We walked over to the street and tried to fit into one taxi, but it was just too impossible. We had eight people and four seats.
"Rene, you take Kelli, Vash, and Doughboy and go in the taxi." I said. "The rest of us can go (I nodded towards the sky) with you guys THAT way."
"Oh, okay, but why does Doughboy have to come too?" She asked.
"He's too slow." I said. "I'll take Liz, so don't worry." Rene nodded and hustled the rest of them into the taxi.
I lead the rest of the group back into the park, a private area where we could spread out our wings and fly into the sky without being seen. One by one, we entered the sky. I thought Kelli looked very much like a raven, since her dark blue wings glittered black in the sun.
We arrived at Rene's house hours later.
"WHAT are we going to do?" Kanari asked, worried. Vash was pacing the floor.
"Chill Vash, Kanari." I said, though I was as worried as they were. "I didn't know what to tell Mrs. Bowman. The truth popped into my mind, and if we had good proof (which, with our magic and all, we did) then she probably would believe us, but I didn't want to risk getting some outer force and people into this. So far, the only people who knew had magical powers themselves.
"Ooh." Kelli said. "This IS bad."
"We need to get Nakita back today." Doughboy said.
"I'm afraid that's not possible." Anora said. "Just not."
Worried looks traveled around the room.
"Let's just tell Mrs. Bowman that Nakita is visiting some people out of country." I suggested.
"We don't have her passport, and Mrs. Bowman would ask for their phone numbers." Doughboy pointed out, a hand on his chin.
"Ooh." I said.
"We need to make a fake Nakita." Rene said suddenly.
"How?" I asked, because Rene was looking at me. "Oh, oh, oh!" Rene and I grinned and gave each other a high five.
"What's going on?" Kanari asked.
"Beats me." Vash said. "What IS going on?"
"I have figured it out." I said, digging into my pocket. "Ha!" I pulled out a card. "Bow down and obey!" Doughboy, Liz, Snowy, and Kelli saw the card and started cheering. Vash and Kanari blinked.
"The Illusion Card." Kanari read. "Oh, isn't that the card that?" She looked puzzled. Vash suddenly started cheering, but by that time everyone else had stopped.
"He takes a little while to respond." Snowy said. "He's slow." Rene and I giggled, and explained what the Illusion Card did to Kanari, who may have forgotten.
"That's brilliant." Kanari said. "Okay, so don't we have another problem?"
"Did you say I'm slow?" Vash asked Snowy.
"Oh!" Snowy said. "Look everyone, he just responded. Gosh Vash, you really MUST be slow!" Vash's face turned as red as a beet and some say that steam was pouring out of his ears. Snowy moved out of his way. "Now that's fast." She said.
"The other problem." I said to Kanari. "Is how to get Nakita back. I personally don't think that's as bad as getting her mom to believe she's not gone. All we have to do is wait until the next eclipse, which is a week or something, I believe, and then rescue her."
"It's not as simple as that." Kelli said. "We've got to devise a way to sneak up and find her. But this is not the time to plan, nor is there a way to plan without getting inside information, and getting information would just let us waster valuable time, since the time cycle in the worlds travel at different rates. So as soon as we get there, we will snoop around and find out a way to get back at them. There is no way we can predict anything, so let's all go home and rest up."
"All right." Snowy said. "C'mon." All seven kids piled out of the door, and Rene shut it gently.
"God Bless Us." Rene said after the door closed. "We'll need it."
I walked to school the next day, and as soon as I got there, I saw Alicia by the band room where we usually meet.
"It's only Alicia." I thought. "There's no reason for me to hurry." I passed a big tree and there was a rustle. I looked up and circled the tree, thinking it was Anora, but nothing appeared, so I just kept walking to Alicia, thinking I would say hi.
But when I reached her, I was puzzled.
She had blond hair. Yes, she looked like Alicia, but she was wearing weird clothes, Kanari clothes.
"Kanari?" I asked. Kanari looked up.
"Oh hi!"
"Did you get a haircut?" I looked at her cut bangs.
"No, they're just a few inches shorter." Kanari said sarcastically.
"Ah, what happened to you?" I said, recalling she had said the same thing to me once.
"That's mean." She said. I shrugged and told her my reason. "It's still mean."
"It really couldn't be helped." I said, looking at her hair. "For one, I thought you were Alicia!"
"Is that why you didn't come over here?" Kanari asked.
"Yup." I said.
"I was wondering." Kanari said. "You looked awful silly walking around that tree in circles."
"I thought I saw Anora." I said. "And beside, if you were Alicia, I wouldn't be so interested in seeing her."
"I see." Kanari said.
There was sudden rustle in the bushes behind us and a girl stepped out. Her hair was dark blond, her eyes light blue, but there was something seemingly familiar about her face.
"Nakita?" I asked. She grinned.
"No way!" Kanari said. "Nakita has dark brown hair and dark blue eyes."
"They dyed my hair." The girl said. "They tried to cut it off and dunked me into this pool and when I got up, my hair was this golden color. It's been washing off. Oh, I hope mom will be all right."
"Where do you live?" Kanari asked. I wondered if Kanari was actually asking or just testing her.
"Over there." Nakita pointed into the right direction.
"Hm." I said. "Where's Vash?" I looked around.
"Don't know." Kanari said. "Why?"
"I have a surprise for both of you." I said. Suddenly I saw Vash and Kelli approaching.
"Okay, everyone congratulate me and give me a hug!" I said.
"What for?" Kanari said.
"Oh boy, what is it this time?" Vash asked.
"I made the IB school!" I shrieked.
"The what?" Kanari asked.
"Ooh, you did?" Kelli asked. "I did too!" Kelli and I realized the significance of this and started prancing around.
"I'm going to Bartow too, but not the IB school." Vash said.
"Okay, what the heck is going on?" Kanari demanded.
"The IB school is a magnet school for 60 of the smartest kids. You get tested and they accepted Kelli and I. It's called the International Baccalaureate School and it's actually a school within a school. They're housed in Bartow Senior High." I explained to a furiously confused Kanari.
"And I'm going to that high school, only not the IB school." Said Vash.
"Because you weren't smart enough to get in!" Kanari finished grandly.
"No, because I didn't want to test for it." Vash said.
"Actually, you didn't turn in your registration form in time." Kelli whispered.
"She doesn't need to know that." Vash said.
"Vash probably could get in." I said. "He's got the brains, he's just too lazy."
"Probably." Kelli said. Kanari kept her mouth shut.
"Hey Yuki, wasn't the E-Team competition this weekend?" Kelli asked me, tilting her head.
"Oh, yeah." I said. "Who wants to hear what actually happened? No more practices (I stretched my arms) Ah, the glory. It's going to be pretty strange, though."
"So how'd it go?" Kelli asked.
"We lost." I said simply.
"Oh my gosh!" Kanari said.
"Hey." I said, opening an eye (I was stretching with my mouth open and eyes closed). "At least I wasn't part of the team that said, 'We are the bomb. Totally. When it comes to E-Team, we rock!'"
"Who said that?" Vash asked.
"The other public middle school." I said certainly. "No names mentioned."
"Tell us a little of it." Kanari urged.
"Can you believe that the six graders don't even know how to spell equilibrium?" I asked. "And so we were just sitting there, and that was the first question! And I said, 'Who wouldn't know how to spell equilibrium?' and William Thomas goes and says sheepishly to me, 'I don't'. Now how is HE in the spelling bee? Of course, he doesn't spell mayonnaise manaze, but I've learned the correct way by now. He's been on E-Team for four years?"
"How IS he in spelling bee?" Vash chuckled. "I almost made it."
"You got 14/25." I said. "I graded your paper." Kelli and Kanari snickered.
"And you got 13." Vash said. "Okay, so don't say anything!" The rest of us (including me) smiled.
"William Thomas's spine was fractured a little." Kanari said. "I don't know if I told you or not, but he's having to go to the hospital. Just the other day, he almost had another car accident."
"What?" Vash asked.
"True." Kanari said. "He was walking across the street, saw no cars, and started fixing his braces. He thought he was moving but actually stopped in the middle of the road." Vash shook his head sadly, chuckling.
"Why wasn't he hurt?" Kelli asked.
"The guy stopped the car, but it crushed William's big toe." Kanari said. "I've learned he gets into a lot of these accidents."
"I can see." Kelli said.
"Well, enough with the talk." I said. "Let's find the others and tell them all the news!"
Vash suddenly spotted the girl behind us.
"Is that who I think it is?" He asked.
"I don't know." I said.
"What do you mean you don't know?" Vash asked.
"She has Nakita's face, but not the hair nor the eyes. She says she's dyed her hair because the people at Uri made her do it." Kanari explained.
"I've known her the longest and I still don't know whether that's Nakita or not." I whined. Vash put his hand up to his chin.
"There's something familiar about that girl."
"Duh, she's got Nakita's face, maybe?" Kanari suggested.
"It's not that." Vash said. "I've met her before, when I was little."
"That's what I was worried about." I said quietly.
"What?" Kelli asked.
"She might be a spy from Uri, and the real Nakita could still be out there."
"How do we find out?"
"We need to go on the expedition without her." I said. "And find the real Nakita."
"But what if she's the real one?" Kanari asked.
"We need to be sure of this somehow." Vash said. "And yet she looks so familiar."
"Something fishy is going on." Kanari said. "I can sense it."
"I guess." I said. "C'mon, let's go now. We're going to exclude Nakita from things. If she's not real, she will get worried, but she won't let it bother her so much."
"And if she's real?" Kanari asked.
"How can THAT be the real Nakita?"
"You thought she was real at first." Kanari said.
"Well, I was wrong. I don't believe that the real Nakita would dye her hair. Nakita loves her hair. And there's one last thing they forgot in constructing the fake Nakita."
"So we're sure she's fake?" Vash asked.
"Most definitely." I said. "Look at her ears."
"Yeah?" Vash asked. "Hey, they don't have holes in them?"
"Holes?" Kanari said.
"Pierced ears." I said. "Nakita has pierced ears, though she almost never wears earrings."
"Leave it up to Vash to notice Nakita." Kanari said. Vash elbowed her rather sharply.
"There's no such thing as pierced ears on Uri." Kelli said.
"That settles it." I said. "C'mon, let's go."
"One last thing." Kelli said.
"Go ahead." Kanari said.
"Anora says the next eclipse is coming up soon." Kelli said as we walked away, leaving a shocked "fake Nakita". "We've all got to meet Friday. I must say that break was nice. But now? It's time for the main event."

Okay, everyone, be mad at me because I put all my Digimon sequels and stories (and CCS) on hold to write another chapter...for whom?
For this little kid whom we call VASH WHO WON'T REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!1
Ah, that felt much better....Vash, please review, okay? Even Ulala did...