Taylor blinked a few times as the light disappeared. Her hand was still on the door handle, but when she looked around, she was in a completely different place. A large dining hall and a table with about twenty chairs loomed in front of her, the table set and covered with food. She turned around, half-expecting to see the library behind her through the doorway, but instead she found herself looking out onto an enormous, beautiful garden. The sun was just beginning to set, and she heard voices coming her way, more than likely heading for dinner. She froze, not sure of which way to go, then turned again and headed toward the table quickly. But before she had time to dive under it, as that was the only hiding place she could think off, two figures appeared in the doorway. One of them, dressed as a monk, was waving his staff around excitedly while he spoke. The other, a tall man with spiky black hair was listening and nodding. The monk looked up at the table and stopped in his tracks. The other man stopped as well when he noticed Taylor.

"Go-Good evening." Taylor said, once again frozen in her tracks and not sure what to say.

"Good evening." The monk said, while the tall man just nodded politely. "Are you lost?" he continued.

"I think so..." she said, looking around. "You see, there was this door-" She stopped abruptly when another person walked through the door. She thought she recognized his flaming red hair from somewhere before, but....

Apparently, he recognized her. When he noticed her, he took a step forward menacingly and growled.

"Tasuki, do you know her?" The monk asked the red-headed man.

"You bet I do." He growled, and reached for something on his back. "That's Misara's....friend." He spit the last word at her, and she winced. Now she remembered him. She had seen him in Kutou once, with Misara, and once again in Ciro, just before Yui had summoned Seiryu.

"Put that away." The monk said sternly to Tasuki, who had pulled out a huge metal fan. He turned back to Taylor. "You know Misara?" He asked.

She nodded quickly and tried to explain. "I was brought back here because someone told me I could save her."

"How?" Tasuki interrupted, his fan still in his hands. Taylor shrugged helplessly, as three more people walked in the door. Taylor recognized one of them as the Emperor of Konan. Hotohori. He was the one Misara had died for, she thought, a little angrily, then chided herself. Misara wasn't dead.

"That still doesn't explain why you're here." Tasuki moved forward again. "You tried to kill Misara." At the sound of that name, Hotohori looked up from his conversation and stopped walking. He took in the whole situation in an instant, then moved forward to cut off Tasuki.

"You know Misara?" He asked.

"She's the one that tried to kill her!" Tasuki shouted from behind the Emperor.

"Shut up, idiot." The purple-haired man that had come in with Hotohori hit Tasuki over the head.

Taylor tried to explain herself to Hotohori, telling him about the door, and the man, and how she was sent here because she could save Misara.

The monk interrupted. "Taitskun said that when the time came to get Misara, the Seven Warriors would all be together. Maybe that's the reason we all showed up here yesterday, after what happened two years ago, no da."

"Chichiri! I was on vacation!" Tasuki shouted, and pointed to Taylor. "She's not the reason I'm here!"

But Taylor didn't hear him; she was staring at the monk. "Two years???" She said loudly. "It's been two years?!?"

Chichiri nodded, giving her a puzzled look.

"It's only been a few weeks!" She said to him. "Misara's only been gone-"

"Two years." Hotohori finished. Taylor looked at him, but he was staring at the ground, his eyes dull.

"Oh my lord..." Taylor whispered. She hadn't realized that time in this world moved much faster than the time in her own. "Oh Misara..." she sighed desperately. No one said a word for a moment, then Chichiri spoke again.

"I can see why we're all here, now...but like Tasuki said, that still doesn't explain why you're here. I mean, I know the seven of us have to be together, but where do you fit in?"

Taylor slumped her shoulders. "I don't know..." She looked up at Hotohori. "I just thought-if there was some way...to save Misara...I'd do anything..." Not only was she now unsure of why she was there at all, but apparently they weren't too thrilled with having her there. At least, Tasuki wasn't happy. And she didn't want to be a burden...but she did want to get Misara back, and she'd do anything she had to.

Chichiri cut into her thoughts. "Maybe you should explain exactly how you got here, no da, and why."

Taylor felt exasperated. "I did tell you! Someone called me and said that a portal was opening at midnight and if I went through it, I could save Misara!"

"And there was a man there? Leading you?" Hotohori prompted. Taylor nodded. "What did he look like, exactly?"

"I don't know." She said, irritated. "He was dressed in white and had white hair and...well...everything about him was white. And he was glowing too. Do you know who he is?"

Chichiri hesitated, as though he had an idea, but he didn't voice it and instead shook his head.

"I don't think this really matters." The man with the purple hair spoke up. "I think we need to focus on how to get Misara back."

"How would we do that?" Tasuki asked, looking at Chichiri.

Chichiri shrugged. "We'd have to go ask Taitskun, no da. She'll tell us."

"Can we eat first?" The one with purple hair spoke up again, moving toward the table. He motioned to Taylor. "Sit down, uh..."

"Taylor." She said. The rest of them sat down and were starting their meal when the door opened again, and the last of the Seven Warriors of Suzaku walked through it. Taylor saw him and gasped.

"Taka?"


Hi everyone! Sorry that chapter was so short and so long in coming, but the Seniors at my HS have to give "Senior Exhibitions" and I'm so busy with mine that I barely have time for anything else! If you're wondering where I'm going with this sequel, I have no idea either. And I don't know who this 'white man' is, but I guess we'll all find out pretty soon, eh? And of course you know this is going to turn out to be one of those "love stories", right? Misara and Hotohori reunited? Or does she turn to Tasuki instead? Will Taylor fall in love with Mitsukake or Nuriko or Chichiri or even *gasp* Chiriko? Don't forget folks, it's two years later! And eventually, you know they'll meet up with the Seiryu Seven...including Nakago, who I haven't managed to kill off yet in an interesting way like I wanted. Got any ideas for that? Let me know if ya'll liked it, and I'll keep going! Thanks for reading! ^_^