New chapter. Yadda, yadda. Prepare yourselves!

Mikoto paced back and forth, her tail twitching pensively on occasion, as she waited for Vivi and Eiko to return. Sure enough, the Iifa tree was a day's travel either way by foot, but she knew all about their little float-aero spell combination. Thus, even if they stopped to examine the tree for an entire day, the longest they could have taken would be 2 days after the night of the day they left. But it had been 3 days, and there was still no sign of them at all. She was starting to get worried about her adopted little sister. Really, she had to be worried about herself, as well; if a summoner as powerful as her, especially one who was travelling with a black mage like Vivi, could be stopped by something, then what would happen if that something came for anyone else?

Of course, from a logical standpoint, such a something couldn't possibly exist on Gaia. For there was no one with the technology to make something like that, and there was no sort of creature who could spawn it. So, if there was something powerful enough to beat Vivi and Eiko present on Gaia, it would have had to come from another world. But that was impossible. Wasn't it?

Even still, Mikoto couldn't help but wonder what exactly was holding up those two. After much pacing, tail twitching and waiting, she decided finally to go out and look for them. Plucking her dagger off the wall, she holstered it and went off in search of one of her fellow Genomes. She told him of her mission, and without any more talk she was off. She raced along at a rather impressive pace; she was Garland's perfect Genome, after all. After all of these years, she had not stopped her physical training, so she was just as strong and fast as Zidane, if not more so. As such, she did not even bother going around the plateau to get up to Conde Petie; instead, she climbed it straight out of the forest.

Actually, she had done this many times before. She had even strung a series of ropes and foot holds down the face of the plateau to make climbing faster in the future, should it be necessary. It was a very tall plateau, and would take a few hours to climb, but with all of the aids she had installed, it would be a rather easy journey. In fact, she didn't need to stop for an entire hour, and that was only because she noticed a small spring bubbling up inside one of the cavernous spaces of the cliff. It was always a good idea to stop for a drink when possible, so she did so for about two minutes. After that, she resumed her climb, and within the next hour she was up. Though somewhat exhausted, she could still walk, and had cut off hours from the roundabout trip.

Her real troubles didn't start until she made it to Conde Petie. The bridge-like building was problematic because, as was still the custom, only newlyweds could pass. Mikoto had no intention whatsoever of getting married, but didn't want to destroy the poor little creatures either. She decided that as long as she was here, she should search the place for Eiko and Vivi. They just might be there.

Or, they could be in the clutches of extra-Gaian invaders, as was the case. O had not been hesitant to probe deep into the minds of those two, to begin the process of reforming them to the wills of his mistress Clariya. Clariya, the ruler and overseer of perfection, was the very embodiment of perfection itself; she was as good as it got. Except for one, fatal flaw: perfection is defined by the goals that it exists to attain. In Clariya's case, this was to attain the perfection of all things; to make the universe fit for her presence. The problem with this goal was that it was impossible to achieve.

As time went by, she had gathered more and more followers, inspired by her beauty and drive to carry out her every bidding. The process started out slowly, however, and it was some time before she could efficiently bring souls under her command. Centuries even. However, as was her design, she grew neither old nor ugly, and would not until her goal had been attained.

Such a being as Clariya, one might think, could not exist. But, the universe contains an intricate balance of all things. As Necron existed to end all life, Clariya existed to preserve all life. As it happened, neither of these outcomes were preferable by most life; as such, there would be a balance powerful enough to outweigh both Clariya and Necron. Clariya knew this well, and she was comfortably sure that Necron did as well. He had, after all, been defeated in combat, and was now little more then a memory, and would regain his power at a sickeningly slow pace. Such a power, Clariya thought, was not only a threat to all living things, but to her and her goal as well. It needed to be neutralized as fast as possible. Little did she realize that this could not be done.

Not in totality, at any rate. The sources of the power could be cleansed of their violent wills, but the power itself was not tangible, and would stay with them for as long as they lived. O was discovering this the hard way. For, no matter how he tried to break through the wills of those two mages, there seemed to be something blocking it. It was an emotion of some sort that he was not familiar with. Well, most emotions he wasn't familiar with for that matter, but it was an incredibly powerful one. He knew how to break it, though. A visit to Mistress Clariya would do the trick.

As O prepared to walk the two delinquents to see his sovereign, a fellow Clariyan approached him and presented a salute to him.

"You have something to report, M?" O responded.

M nodded. "Indeed, O. I have a new status analysis on the transformer fog."

"Excellent. Let's hear it."

"It has made its way into the mountains, and a fair amount has seeped onto the plains. It is shown that the bridge-like building has been exposed. They will be ready to accept Mistress Clariya's will in three hours."

"Good, good. I shall inform the Mistress immediately. I was heading to her chamber anyway. Have a productive day."

A 'productive' day was the closest thing to a farewell that the Clariyans knew. After all, they didn't exactly have any sort of relationship, whether it be good or bad, so all they ever did were the necessities of a social creature's life. In a way, they were like Termites. Endlessly functioning only to ensure that they and their colony survive a healthy life, so that they can continue to reproduce for just the same reason. And all the while, they served under the will of the Queen, or in their case, Mistress Clariya.

O put the sleeping bodies of Eiko and Vivi onto a pair of hover carts, and floated them over to the platform they had departed the leaf from, oh so long ago. He now pushed them down the sloped tunnel, and followed its winding path for a good 10 minutes. Finally, he approached a door. It was circular in form, and made of a dully warm metal. He knocked on it once, and it rolled away to the side, revealing a larger space. It was still made of rock, but instead of a circular tunnel, it was a large, cubical room. For the most part, it seemed completely empty. There was one thing in it, however, that O moved to activate. A floating pedestal in the middle of the floor was that thing, and after leaving Eiko and Vivi behind in the cube room, he went down to the next floor with it. It was here that he came face to face with Mistress Clariya. Or actually, face to ankle.

As a counter-part to Necron, Clariya had a very similar size to Necron. Of course, on some worlds, this size was normal; on others, it was small. It just happened to be huge on most worlds. The size of the people under her sovereignty was actually determined by the average size of all of those people. In fact, most of their attributes were. Anyway, O did not step off of the pedestal, but instead waited for it to start going up again. As it reached a height such that O could look Clariya in her intoxicatingly beautiful face, it froze in mid-air.

The room they were in was, in fact, not really a room. Rather, it was a portion of pitch-black space, which seemed to stretch on forever. Clariya sat upon a throne of iridescence, hands in her lap and head hung low. She was deep in thought. O waited in silence, until eventually the titanic creature took notice of him. As a friendly smile spread across her face, there was a flash of light, and she was suddenly the same size as O, floating in the empty space in front of him. The only reason for this was to make conversation easier, of course. It took far too much of her energy to stay this way for long. Her throne floated her to a talking distance from O.

"Milady," he said, bowing.

"Welcome. There is something I may help you with, correct?" she asked in one of the most innocent voices that could exist. O nodded, and related to her the information about the mist. She nodded softly.

"I see. Then, you shall prepare the retrievers. The time has come to bring in more wayward souls."

"Of course, Milady. There is one other thing I was hoping that you could deal with."

"The two on the floor above us, correct? Despite the massive amounts of fog they have taken in, they still refuse to accept our perfection, because something is blocking it, correct?"

Nodding, O replied. "Your knowledge is infinite, Mistress Clariya. You are correct, as always. I thought that you could break through to them."

"O, why is it that these two are so important? If they refuse to bend, then why do you not discard them as unfit?"

O became a little nervous. "B-because, Milady, they both possess incredible powers. They would make a valuable addition to our warriors."

"And why is it that you would want such powerful beings among our ranks, if they seem so repellant to our cause, even in a state of unconsciousness?"

Now O was frightened. "Only because of their power, Milady. I would never wish for them to damage our, I mean your, perfection. I merely thought that if they were to be influenced by you, there would be no need to worry."

Clariya continued to wear a smile, all the time just speaking calmly and innocently, and that was part of what worried O so much. It was impossible to tell what she was truly feeling.

"A correct assumption, O. My influence will bring them to us, permanently and without question. But you have failed to realize that these are the partners of those who we came here to destroy. They are too powerful to exist in perfection, and thus need to be eliminated. This power is a real threat to us, O, and by influencing their allies, we will only bring the threat to us. You should not even have brought them here. We do not yet have the power to deal with such things."

"I... I... you're right, as always, Mistress. I am not fit to be in your presence."

Clariya's throne floated right up next to the pedestal, and one of her soft, delicate hands reached out to touch his cheek.

"You have served your people in life. May you rest eternally in death."

O stuttered softly, until his eyes fell shut and the blood stopped flowing through his body. In an instant, his body was reduced to a pile of dust. The pedestal flipped over, and the dust fell down into the darkness of Clariya's chamber. Stepping onto the pedestal, she rose up into the cube room, and glanced upon Vivi and Eiko, her sweet smile now replaced with a concerned frown. Waving her hand over their forms, they disappeared in a flash of sparkles, and found themselves in a pair of beds in Conde Petie. She erased their memory of the crater, and all of the other things involving what used to be the Iifa tree when she did this. That should give her and her people plenty of time to prepare for those who had defeated Necron. Of course, she might be able to defeat them all by herself, but she would be incredibly weakened, and her people would decrease immensely in number. Since her purpose was to preserve all life, she couldn't let that happen willingly.

So, with the danger redirected, Clariya returned to her chamber, and back to her normal size, to consider more on just how they would prepare for the coming attack. For that matter, she wondered where Necron was and what that infidel was doing. He, too, would have to be destroyed, as he was her greatest enemy. They had skirmished with each other many times before, but neither of them had been powerful enough to beat the other. If she could just find out where he was hiding, regaining his power, she could end his existence, perhaps. Then, of course, there was the ever-pressing issue of where the third balance was... she knew that most life did not desire her wish, or Necron's wish, and no matter how foolish that notion was, it meant there would be something to combat both of them. She realized that it could be those creatures on Gaia, but how? They may have been able to defeat Necron, but they didn't destroy him, and they were not one. Rather, they were many, all banding together to help one another.

Could that be the secret to their power?

Clariya, in all of her wisdom, did not know. All she knew was that if the counter-balance was indeed within those who lived on this planet, she would need to come up with one super plan. Perhaps if she could disrupt their togetherness, she could take them out one by one. Yes, that would work wonderfully. But first, she would have to find them all. Oh well. Time would bring them to her. And then she would begin the end. Clariya let out a soft chuckle, and the darkness around her seemed to swallow it up. Closing her eyes, she faded into her dream of total perfection of life, ruled under her. Clariya, ruler and overseer of perfection; no, Clariya, ruler and overseer of TOTAL perfection. Yes, that was what she would be. It made her head spin with delight just to think about it.

Meanwhile, in Conde Petie, a pair of veyr startled Dwarves discovered Eiko and Vivi asleep in their beds.

"Aiyee! What're ya doin' in me bed, girly?"

Mikoto was attracted to the screaming. She had already searched the place over thoroughly; could she have missed something? As she located her friends, she was indeed amazed at how she could have missed them. In fact, she couldn't figure it out. She approached Eiko and shook her.

"Eiko! What's going on? How did you get here?"

"Ahh! Stop it, Miko! I'm tired... let me sleep!"

Mikoto slapped her. "Wake up! Something very strange is going on, and you aren't going to sleep until I know what it is!"

The slap had brought Eiko back into reality, and also made her slap back on instinct. After rubbing her cheek a bit, Eiko took in her surroundings.

"Ugh... how did I get here?"

"That's what I asked you."

"You did? Cause... I don't remember how I got here. I just remember... falling asleep somewhere. Is Vivi here?"

Loud snoring from the bed adjacent to her answered that question.

"Oy, tail girly! What're ye mates doin in mah sister 'n mah bed?"

Eiko was out with that much, and when she and Mikoto worked together, they got Vivi up and standing as well.

"Mikoto? What are you doing here?" Vivi asked.

"I came looking for you because I was worried," she stated.

"What? Worried? But, we were only gone for less then two days!" Eiko explained. Mikoto shook her head.

"Wrong. You've been gone for over three days."

Vivi and Eiko's jaws dropped.

"What, you mean you don't remember all that happened during that time?"

After popping their mouths back into place, Eiko and Vivi shook their heads.

"Great. Just great. All we need now is to be attacked by some other-worldly invaders, and then we'll be really confused."

As if on cue, the dwarves noticed some men and women in white clothing coming up the mountain path. It seemed to cause a lot of commotion in the building, so everyone, including Vivi and Eiko, made their way to the exit. The people in white just marched towards them resolutely, obviously with a purpose. When one of the dwarves ran out to say "Rally-ho!" to them, things started to get really ugly. For at that moment, the one in front pulled out a needle of some sort, and stuck it into the dwarf. He fell to the ground instantly. Muscles tensed, and fingers flexed. Vivi was ready to cast a flare spell without hesitation. But, as he tried to find the magical energy within him, he discovered that it wasn't there.

Okay, I know this is kind of a bad place to cut off, but I NEED to stop the chapter somewhere, right? I just couldn't stop, but now I have to. So, I hope you enjoyed it, review, PUHLEEEEEAZE, and um if you have any suggestions or anything feel free to email me. Peace!