Chapter Three

Gazing at Stars

Many light years away on an enchanted planet, a young man looks out a window of a grand crystal palace known as the Omega Palace. He looks at a tiny star. His raven black hair was long with white tips. His skin was star kissed tanned that complimented his tall lean frame. But his beautiful gray eyes betrayed his calm composure. Fire sparked in their depths as his mind twirled in agony. He hated this, this constant worry - he would rather be fighting Damien but not this.

He heard a knock on the door of the all white interior room. "Come in, Roc." His voice was deep yet calm and smooth.

The door open and a man with identical body built walked in. His hair was also pitch black but without white tips at the end. His eyes was blacker than night. His attire was jet black also. "Diamond, we're all ready to go when you're ready."

"Give me a minute Roc. Let my blood cool some more - for I will surely strangle that girl when I see her."

Roc chuckled. Diamond was his best friend, the only person he trusted most. They both knew each others deepest secrets from childhood. He also knew how Diamond's partner made him lose control of his anger and Diamond always had control of his temper. But he had to admit, she did went too far this time.

Roc walked beside Diamond. "What are you looking at?"

"That tiny star is the solar system they're in. What in the world could she be thinking, Roc?" Diamond said so low that Roc almost didn't hear him. He had reached a new level of his fury.

"It's not totally her fault now Diamond." Roc heard Diamond scold. "She wouldn't have done it if the others, especially Alexandrite, didn't help her out. The fault is easily shared."

Diamond laughter rumbled in his throat. "Don't try to bring Alex in this Roc. Your partner is as innocent as the day she was born. It's Amethyst doing all the way." He looked at Roc then. "She stole my blasted sword! She didn't want us to follow."

"Speaking of 'following' . . . "Roc said trying to change the subject. "The others are getting curious about your knowledge of the Omega Palace and the use of its mystical powers. When are you going to tell them?"

"Now is not the time." Diamond turned and started heading for the door. Roc followed him. "Right now, we need to get to earth and quickly."

The conversation ended there as they exited the room and walked into the hallway. Not far down they entered a huge room. The ceiling was glass and the sun shined brightly in. The center of the room was a beautiful garden with a surrounding stream. The floor was tiled with a hard crystal with all the trimmings in gold. It was the royal parlor.

It took them fifteen minutes to reach the center of the room. There they met their friends. The twins stood first. The only way to tell them apart was that one wore glasses; obviously the smarter of the two but they both had the same celestial blue eyes.

"Just don't kill her, Diamond." The one with glasses said.

"I'm not going too, Sardonyx. But I'm going to give her a cut ass and anyone of you that want some can try and stop me!" Diamond said coolly.

"Cool down, bro." The other twin said. "Emerald is going to get her share too. No one's going to stop you." His voice was more jovial than his younger twin who was more serious.

"While your at it Onyx, you might as well give your little sister Topaz a stern talking too" A younger man stood then and approaches them. His light green hair sparkled in the sun light and his dark red eyes were shadowed with worry, "because what I have to tell her isn't sweet."

"Alright Ruby." Said another as he came from behind Ruby and put his hand firmly on his shoulder. "I believe they had good intentions before leaving here. Jasper wouldn't have left me if she felt what she had to do was for all our benefit."

That statement almost sent Diamond over the top. "Are you trying to say Garnet that we as males couldn't have taken care of this? I don't care how clever they think they are - Damien could slaughter them! Then how beneficial that is? That's plain stupidity!"

"I know Diamond." Garnet said, "But your reaction to this situation is utterly ridiculous! Can't you calm down and think straight!"

"Think straight?" Diamond asked sarcastically. "I don't think you know what those little brats got their asses into. Fine, let me explain!" He takes a breath and plunges in, "They're on a strange planet which they know nothing of, it has a history of another demon - Tulpa, who will surely join up with Damien and if they find them - I promise you they're as good as dead. Mostly, if they find the Book of Ever what will they do then? They're sitting ducks! And you say I'm acting ridiculous? To make matters worst, which has got me so angry, is that Amethyst took my sword. She can cause an upset with the Star Guardians and end up killing them, killing herself, and destroying the galaxy! You let them get away with too much, but not this time -"

"All I'm saying is to have faith in her." Garnet said calmly. "You said you know a way we can get there. Besides I don't think that was her reason for taking the sword, there must be something else."

"I have a hunch why she took it." Diamond said. "I know she's trying to do good Garnet, don't get me wrong. But I won't excuse the fact that what she did was totally and utterly crazy. She put too much at risk when it wasn't necessary - that is what infuriates me!"

"So you're thinking that there is a different motive that we don't know of why she took your sword." Sardonyx said. "What could that be?"

"I'm going to find out. She's going to tell me everything when I'm beating her ass redder than hot coal - which is exactly how it will feel like!" With that Diamond turned around and the others follow him. They headed to the throne room. It was completely empty; everywhere on the planet was empty, gloomy and desolate. They were the only ones that didn't fall under the horrible spell Damien had cast over the planet. Behind the thrones was a hidden door that led into a dark room. At the center of the room was a glowing purple crystal that immediately grasps everyone's attention.

"This will transport us to our destination." Diamond said.

"How does it work?" Onyx asked.

"When powered enough, the controller only has to think of the destination to be teleported - it'll take some time to reach the blue planet, Earth."

"Where are we getting this power from, Diamond? I'm curious, how do you know all of this?"

"I'm psychic, remember? I had read the king's mind. The power will be coming from my body since Amethyst took my sword. Now if all of you are ready, let's get going!"

Everyone was stunned. Diamond couldn't possible use his power alone to energize such a massive crystal and for as long as day or more too? "But won't that be a bit much?" Roc finally asked.

"You worry too much." Diamond said before he places his hand on the crystal. There was an immediate flash before they all disappeared.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

After packing all of Nia's equipment in her jeep, they all headed into town. Ryo and Nia rode together in the jeep while the others were in the car. Upon entering the city, the buildings glowed with waves of color from the skylights. But the people of Tokyo are calm and going about their daily duties.

"Everyone's taking this good - too good if you ask me!" Rowan said as he gestured to Kento in the front seat to switch the radio on.

"And there you have it folks!" came the radio announcer loud over the speakers. "These skylights are totally normal and they only occur once every millennium. You should find yourselves fortunate to be seeing it in this warm Tokyo weather instead of the North Pole!"

"That's right Ein!" said another announcer, "According to aerospace center's top scientists, these skylights are rare since they are caused by nitrogen gases over the Earth's atmosphere. It seems like we had a three rare big explosions of space gases last night on the Sun, which cause these skylights today. But it isn't harmful in anyway and these lights will disappear just as quick as they came!"

Click. Sage reached over from the steering wheel and silently switched off the radio. "Like shit it is! I don't believe any of that crap!"

Rowan thinks, "It may have been an explosion but not a natural one. Still we can't jump to conclusions."

"Rowan is right; we need to get all clues and facts before we could conclude this little mystery." Cye said. "You think all of this could be related to your dream Sage?"

"I don't know! I never had a vision like this - It's driving me nuts!" Just then his car phone rang. He answered it with a snap, "WHAT?"

"You don't have to get snappy Sage." Ryo said on the other end of the phone. "Did you guys listen to the radio?"

"Yeah, I shut it off in a snap when I heard that junk."

"I've got that feeling Sage. Something is happening. I told Nia about your dream and she also believes this is connected."

"Is that Ryo?" Kento asked on the side of Sage. "Put him on the speakers, man!"

"Hold on a second, Ryo. I'm putting you on the speakers." Sage passed the phone to Kento who then quickly plugged it into the speakers.

"Okay Ryo, you're on." Kento said.

"Like I was telling Sage, I believe this is all connected but I'm wondering why we didn't get an earlier warning."

"That puzzles me too, Ryo." Rowan said. "Tulpa's presence could be since days in advance but this is different."

"No one said it was Tulpa yet." Cye interjected.

"Then who else could it be?" Ryo asked.

"The warrior in my dream was no ordinary warrior. He wasn't one of Tulpa's goons. So if we have a new ally, who says we don't have a new enemy?" Sage said.

The air was quiet as everyone contemplated the truth to Sage's words. From that moment on his dream was realized as a message from someone with great significance. What was in stored for the future? They could only guess. The feeling of another demon invasion tingled there senses.

"Let's stick close throughout this. Who knows what we're up against?" With that they hung up.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The sidewalks were crowded. No one paid any attention to a small band of young girls all at around the age of 19 walking amongst them. They looked the same as everyone else. No one knew that their hair color was natural. The vivid pink, purple, white, sandy yellow, sunset red - gold and the baby blue streak with white hair was real. Who would?

"What do we do now Amethyst?" The white haired one asks the purple hair one.

Amethyst looked at her with her amethyst eyes, the reason for her name and sighed. "We must wait for the warriors, I sense them coming, until then we must not make a seen to alert the dark creatures that surrounds us, Alex."

"The dust I left in Nia's house will protect her. But I doubt she will stay there." The sunset red and gold haired one said, "Knowing the human's attitude, she must be running in circles scared out of her wits!"

The two with the pink and the baby blue hair giggled. "Sapphire, you shouldn't talk so frankly about that one." said the one with the pink hair. "I sense she's tougher than she looks."

"Jasper is right, Sapphire." The blue haired one said. "We should be more concerned with our lives."

"Topaz speaks some truth." The sandy yellow haired one said, "I see some strong courage in that one, but usually knowledge and experience brings that about."

"You are right Emerald" Amethyst said with such dread that everyone looked at her in all seriousness. "You all shouldn't have followed me. You could be killed."

"That's Nonsense!" Alexandrite said. "From the day we started training we all knew the risk of death. Our mission was clear from then - there was no way I would let you do something like this on your own."

"She's right." Jasper said; her beautiful round pink eyes flooded with tears. "Master Hushi would have wanted it this way. Besides, us coming before the boys is better - we even saved there lives in the process as well."

"Diamond won't understand." Amethyst said sadly as she looked away.

"Diamond this - Diamond that! You've been down ever since we came here. Does it really matter what Diamond think?" Sapphire snapped.

Amethyst stared into Sapphire's deep light green and hazel eyes, her composure and attitude none moving after Sapphire's opinion. "Diamond is all that matters to me."

With that the girls headed north to the middle of the city.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Yulee was testing out his new skateboard his dad had brought earlier from the store. Carefree as he was, he happily skated down the walk way in midday Tokyo City. Around the corner he could hear loud whispers and voices as well as police sirens. Curious, he made a sharp left and proceeded through the crowd.

After shoving and pushing through bodies for 15 minutes, Yulee finally makes his way to front of the crowd where a police ribbon blocked him from going further. And no wonder, the museum of Ancient Artifacts looked as if it was about to crumble.

"Whoa!" was all Yulee could manage to say in his shocked state. But while staring at the crumbling mess, Yulee notice something moving. No wait, a whole swarm of camouflage creatures moving!

"Why can't people see those?" Yulee thought frantically to himself. Just then he felt a warm glow in his chest. "The jewel of life!" he whispered to himself, "It must be the reason why I see these creatures!" He began to cautiously walk backwards, vanishing in the huge mass of people. "I can feel danger - are you trying to warn me jewel of life?"

Just then Yulee turned around swiftly to dash away, but in his abrupt haste to leave the scene, Yulee collided into someone.

"This isn't the place for kids you know!" said the jovial voice.

"Sorry mister." Yulee manage to stumble out and then he realizes the masculine voice. Joy lighted his eyes as his head shot back and looked into Ryo's face. His smile reached from ear to ear as relief flooded his body. "Ryo!" he said to himself.

Before Ryo could have even reacted, Yulee was already in his arms, tightly gripping his neck.

"I'm glad to see you too, little buddy." Ryo said as he hugged Yulee back.

"Ryo!" Yulee pulled away from his embrace to look in his face again, "You got to do something! Monsters, there's lots of them!" Yulee began to babble.

"Wait now, slow down." Ryo said, gently setting Yulee back on the ground. Ryo looked around at the large crowd of people gathered around them making the area tight and small. "This isn't the best place to talk. Follow me."

With a nod, Yulee followed Ryo until they both pushed there way out of the crowd and unto a near by sidewalk. Ryo gave the area another look before turning his full attention to Yulee. With a pleasant smile he looked down at the trembling child.

"Okay now Yulee," Ryo said as he got down on one knee, "tell me what happen, tell me from the beginning."

Yulee took a long shallow breath before plunging right on in his story. By the time he was finished Cye and Rowan came strolling up the sidewalk.

"Hey Yulee!" Cye said with a warm smile beaming, "How you been? We missed you yesterday."

"I hope you're keeping your grades up!" Rowan said mockingly before he noticed the anxious look on both Yulee and Ryo's faces. "What's the matter?"

"It isn't safe to talk here." Ryo stated flatly as his eyes channeled the words of danger to Rowan and Cye.

Instantly, Cye and Rowan straighten and began to look around as they formed a circle to protect Yulee.

"Do you know which direction?" Cye asked tonelessly.

"Look toward the museum." Ryo said as he nodded in the direction of the crowd. "They're some kind of creature-" Yulee had cut him off.

"Ryo!" Yulee's faint whisper was hardly recognized. "They're coming!"