To The Light
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Author's Notes:

The Third Navigation is upon us! What's Dias and Ernest's urgent problem? Does it have something to do with Leon's epiphany that pieces of the Sorcery Globe still exist on Expel? What does it have to do with the Dragons? And are Leon's real parents really still alive? This Navigation answers all these questions and more!

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"Wait a minute," Opera said as she set down her cup of tea. "You're telling me more monsters are showing up on El?" The seven of them had relocated to Bowman's kitchen table. Opera, Bowman, Dias, Precis and Ashton were drinking tea. Leon, carrot juice. Ernest had uncapped a bottle of his liquor.

Dias nodded. "It seems something is making the number of monsters on El multiply. That's why we ventured to Lacour, to see if Leon could perhaps build another version of the Lacour Hope. But when we arrived, Rena, Leon and Claude were nowhere to be found. When we gained an audience with the King, he told us Claude and Rena had been sent to Earth, and that Leon was staying here for awhile."

"I knew it," Leon commented quietly. "I knew the Sorcery Globe still existed on Expel." He looked up to everyone else. "Don't you see? There are fragments of the Sorcery Globe still lying around on every continent. I remember when we first came in contact with the Sorcery Globe, how monsters seemed to get more and more violent. It must be because of those fragments that the monsters are multiplying."

"That would explain it," Ernest commented, capping his bottle. "But we haven't seen any of the fragments lying around anywhere. Do you think maybe fragments from other Continents affect El? Maybe all the power is drawn to where the Sorcery Globe once laid."

Precis shrugged, and lifted her mug. "I don't know about any of this. I know Leon had mentioned something about those minerals Opera and Bowman had given us that they had wanted to get rid of, and we figured maybe we could find a way to exorcise the dragons, but I don't really think they give off any real magical power."

"There's only one way to find out." The teakettle whistled, and she rose to tend to it. After hushing it, she poured herself a warm cup, and turned back to them. "And that would be to ask an expert."

Dias nodded. "Agreed. Celine should be returning to Cross in two days. Until then, Ernest and I will rest here. We'll bring Celine back here to identify what exactly those rocks are."

The seven of them parted ways, and everyone went home. After making beds for Ernest and Dias, Opera and Bowman settled in themselves.

"Well, looks like this will postpone the Honeymoon," Bowman sighed as he slid into his pajama pants. Opera, already clad in her black nightgown, was smoothing her hair with her brush.

"Yes, but its just another possibilty for adventure," she argued. She set her brush down on the dresser she and Bowman shared, and pulled the covers on the bed down. "Just think! We could save the world, again."

Bowman smiled."If saving the world really matters all the much to you, then you know it means just as much to me. If you're going to save the world, I'll do it with you."

"Oh, Bowman.. I think thats the most romantic thing I've ever heard you say!" Opera chuckled at her own joke. Bowman smiled and shook his head. He slid into bed, Opera following closely behind."Goodnight," She whispered, placed a kiss on his lips, and turned away. The light was soon cut out, and the both went to sleep.

Across town, Leon had just put on his pajamas, and was sitting on the edge of Precis' guest bed, praying. "Oh Tria, thank you for all my blessings. And thank you for taking Mama and Papa into heaven. I miss them so much.. and I hope to see all three of you one day.. I love you, Mama, Papa." Leon slid into his bed, and put out the small candle that rest on the nightstand beside him. "Goodnight."

In the room beside Leon's, Precis was climbing up to the top of her loft bed. Her pajamas, a blue t-shirt and grey shorts, hung loosely on her body. "I feel so sorry for Leon," she said, as she sat down on the edge. Ashton, who had just slid out of his robe, nodded.

"I know what its like to miss your parents." He worked his robe off, around the dragons, and let it fall on the floor in a heap. He slid his arms out of his sleeveless tunic, and unwound it from the dragons, and let that fall as well. The next piece of clothing removed would be the top half of his spandex bodysuit, and then the second half. Finally, clad in only his underwear (and blushing at the fact he's undressing in front of Precis!) he began putting on his button down blue pajamas. He climbed up to the top of the loft and sat beside Precis.

Precis looked down, then back up at Ashton. "Well, goodnight." She laid down, Ashton not too far after. She laid there, looking into his face, a slight glow from the candle they hadn't put out yet still illuminated the room. Ashton reached over and hushed the candle, and turned back to Precis.

"Goodnight."

Back at Bowman's, Dias sat upright in a chair in the corner of the room Opera and Bowman had fixed up for Ernest and he. Ernest was sitting on the bed they'd made. "You know, Dias. Won't it be weird for you? Seeing Celine again? Even after she dumped you?"

"Hush your mouth, Ernest," Dias spat back at Ernest, and shook his head. "It doesn't matter. Love is for the weak, anyway." He raised a book to his face level, and began reading. "I just don't see how you can be so calm, watching Opera with Bowman. Wasn't she your girlfriend?"

Ernest uncapped yet another bottle of liquor. "Yeah. But he's welcome to her. I don't care anymore," He took a swigg of the alcoholic beverage and then screwed the cap back on.

"Sure you don't," Dias said, rolling his eyes. "You expect me to believe that. All this time I've been working with you on the El recovery team, and I know almost all there is to know about you through your drunken babbles and sleeptalking, you're telling me you're not in love with Opera still?"

Ernest choked, and glared up at Dias. "Sleeptalk?!" Dias nodded. "I..I-I sleep talk?!" Dias nodded once more. "Oh.. Great." Dias shook his head. "I'd almost thought you'd be laughing, Dias."

"Oh, I'm laughing. I haven't laughed this hard since.." Dias recalled the time where Ashton had gotten Celine's sex toy stuck on his forehead, and he'd needed help to get it off.. But that had been so long ago.. and he was pretty sure Ashton struggled to not remember what had happened.. His first Yaoi experience. (Kudos to who wrote that story! I forgot your name but it was sheer brilliance!) Dias shook the thought off quickly and set his book down. "I think we should be getting some sleep, now, Ernest."

Dias laid his book down on the desk he was near, and laid in on the floor next to Ernest. Ernest turned to cut out the light, then laid back down. As soon as his head hit the pillow, he went to sleep. Dias blinked, awake, Ernest already keeping him awake with his snoring frenzy.

He sat up and crawled over to a window. It was a peaceful night out that night, wasn't it? Surely Rena and Claude were in space already. They were in that beautiful sky. Dias switched his glance to the darkness. Seeing Celine again. This was going to be a challenge. Why did she pick money over love?

Dias shook his head. Celine was one of those people who'd rather not be in love and be rich than be in love and be poor. Aristocratic. Dias could never have been able to buy a rock that big to put on an engagement ring. But he could have supplied her with love.

'Love is for the weak,' he'd snorted those very words eariler, and they echoed silently in his mind. If love was for the weak, then why did he need it? 'I'm not weak,' Dias stated to himself. 'I'm not weak,' he repeated in his mind. But still..

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Author's Notes:

Love is for the weak. -__- Dias, you have no idea! When I was writing that stuff about 'he could supply her with love,' I was almost thinking of that song by Shania Twain, "That Don't Impress Me Much." Navigation 4 brings in our Witch! Betcha can't wait for that! What will Dias' reaction be to seeing his former lover being all chummy with Prince Chris? Find out!

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