Dream: Well hello there everyone!

Freckles: What no costume today?

Dream: … *puts on a giant squirrel costume* Better?

Freckles: Much.

Dream: ^_^

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Freckles and Chuchu both started screaming. The figure let go of the crystal and then caught it again. "Freckles! Chuchu! Calm down! It's me Autumn!"

"Autumn!" Freckles ran over and was quickly picked up and hugged.

Autumn knelt down and set the glowing crystal aside. She then put Freckles down and looked around. She saw the rose and frowned, "Where's Kurama?"

Freckles pointed to the drop. Autumn looked over the edge now extremely worried. She was relieved to see that he was still breathing. She then looked around for any way to get him to safety. Her eyes fell onto the rose.

"It's the only way…" she mumbled before picking it up, "I hope this works…"

She closed her eyes and concentrated on the rose. When she opened her eyes she was holding a rose whip. Freckles and Chuchu gasped. She tied one end of the whip around a crystal sticking up from the floor. She then held the other end tightly and hopped over the side of the drop. She passed right by the ledge Kurama was on and found herself hanging above complete darkness. She grumbled before focusing her energy into making the whip retract a bit. Once she was on the ledge with Kurama she wrapped the end of the whip around her waist and pulled Kurama close. Then she focused and the whip retracted fully.

Some time passes…

Kurama opened his eyes to see two black ovals looking down at him. He sat up quickly sending the little white creature rolling into a wall. A wave of pain shot through his right arm.

Chuchu stood back up, "Speckles! He's awake!"

"For the last time, my name is Freckles! Not Speckles!" The frustrated rabbit said as he hopped over.

"Freckles?" Kurama asked before perking up and looking around, "Where's Autumn?"

"Right here." Autumn knelt down and put the bowls she was carrying down next to Kurama. She took his right arm and put a bit of pressure on it. He winced. She then took a piece of wet fabric out of the larger bowl and wrapped it around his arm where it hurt the most. She handed him the smaller bowl, "Drink this."

"What is it?" Kurama looked down into the bowl at the golden liquid, "Is it… glowing?"

"Yup! I took water from that waterfall and crushed one of those glowing crystals in it." Autumn smiled.

Kurama took a sip of the mixture. It tasted surprisingly sweet. He drank the rest before turning to look at Autumn. "Where are we?"

"Inside that mountain we were looking at." Autumn took the bowl from him and put it aside, "Your arm should be fully healed in a few minutes."

"How did you know how to do that?"

"Do…what?" Autumn laughed nervously.

Kurama pointed at his arm and the two bowls, "That."

"Oh…umm...I…have to clean this bowl!" Autumn picked up the smaller bowl and walked over to the lake to clean it.

Kurama sat silently watching her. Why did she avoid my question? He walked over and sat down beside her. She fidgeted a bit. He broke the silence by asking the question that had been gnawing at his mind for what seemed like forever, "Are you Phantom Harmony?"

Autumn dropped the bowl in surprise, "Wh…What?"

"Are you Phantom Harmony living as a human?"

Autumn stared blankly at him for a moment before lowering her gaze to the floor, "…was it really that obvious?"

"Only if you pay attention to detail."

Freckles hopped over to Autumn followed by Chuchu. Chuchu jumped in the water to fetch the floating away bowl while Freckles sat next to Autumn protectively, "Don't tell anyone!"

"You figured it out too?" Autumn sighed, "I really slipped up this time. If only Dariken hadn't shown up!"

"This time?" Kurama raised his eyebrows.

"You think this is my first time living life as another creature?"

"Why would you want to?"

"To learn… about life… and about myself... I think…"

"You think?"

Autumn laughed and rubbed the back of her head, "I blocked my memories. I did a sloppy job, though; I'm remembering bits and pieces through dreams and stuff."

"I see…" Kurama tested his arm and found that it was fully healed. He removed the wrap and handed it to Autumn, "Thank you… You healed my arm like that the first time we met…"

Autumn smiled, "First time we met? I guess that must be one of my blocked memories… Oh! Here you dropped this." Autumn handed him his rose. They sat silent for a minute, neither knowing what to say.

"AIEEEEE! Speckles, I can't see!" Chuchu's voice said from underneath the bowl she had fetched.

"FRECKLES!!!! MY NAME IS FRECKLES!!!"

Autumn giggled and took the bowl off of Chuchu, "Peek-a-boo."

Chuchu giggled. Freckles sighed before turning to Autumn, "Shouldn't we try to find the others?"

"Yeah that would probably be the smart thing to do." Autumn turned to Kurama, "Listen, you can't tell anyone about me being Phantom. It's too risky. Especially now that the crystal has fallen into the wrong hands. There's a good reason that I disappeared…. A good reason that has absolutely nothing to do with this, not that I remember it anyway…I'm just gonna be quiet now…"

Kurama laughed. He couldn't help it. "I won't tell anyone. Now let's go find the others."

Autumn smiled and gathered her things up. Freckles followed her every move like a furry little shadow and Chuchu started running in circles chasing her tail. Autumn finished packing and walked over to the hallway. She pulled another glowing crystal out of the wall. She then started to walk down the hall.

"Wait! Let me go first!" Kurama called out.

"Why?" Autumn looked over her shoulder.

"So I can…"

"…protect me?" Autumn finished for him.

"Well yes."

Autumn laughed, "I appreciate your concern but I can take care of myself. Besides, if something is going to attack us it'll attack from the back."

They walked in silence for a moment. Kurama finally spoke up, "Does Dariken know?"

"Yeah, why do you think he's been calling me little sister? He said he was going to call me baby sister like he used to but I…convinced him it was in his best interest not to."

"Does he hate me?"

"He always hated Youko. Said that kitsune were getting a bad rep. Someone even tried to pass our cousin off for you. I took care of that."

"…do you hate me?"

Autumn stopped and turned to face Kurama. She put her hands on her hips.

Kurama smiled, "Well I guess that was a stupid question."

"Ya think?" Autumn turned back to lead the way and banged into someone. The two figures fell backwards away from each other.

"Ow…" the stranger said.

Autumn raised the crystal to see who it was. It was Botan. Behind her a ways off was Koenma in his teenage form. Autumn raised her eyebrows, "I don't think I wanna know what you two were doing here alone…in the dark…"

Botan hit Autumn's head lightly, "That's sick!"

"Well can ya blame me for thinking it?"

Kurama walked over as Autumn stood up. Botan looked at the two of them, "And what were the two of you doing here in the dark alone?"

"We weren't alone. They were with us." Autumn pointed to Freckles and Chuchu.

"Hey! It's the oar lady! Where's the oar? I wanna eat it!" Freckles walked in a circle around Botan.

"The rabbit can talk?" Koenma asked walking over to stand next to Botan.

"Why that man have a pacififer?" Chuchu piped up in her squeaky voice.

"It's called a pacifier. Pass-i-fi-er!" Freckles pointed out.

"Ok Speckles!" Chuchu started chasing her tail.

"FRECKLES!!!!!!! MY NAME IS FRECKLES!!!!!"

"Ok Speckles!"

"Where're Yusuke and the others?" Botan asked.

"They went Kaboom." Autumn said for lack of anything else to say.

"We don't know where they are." Kurama clarified.

Autumn nodded and made an exploding gesture with her hands, "Boom."

"Autumn, now's not the time to act stupid." Freckles piped up.

"I was imitating Teresa and Heather. Are you calling them stupid?" Autumn narrowed her eyes.

Freckles sighed, "Your friends are crazy."

"You're just realizing this now?" Autumn thought for a moment, "My only sane friend is Felicia. If she were here she'd tell me that I'm delusional, that none of this is real and that any minute now I'd wake up from this dream."

"…but your not dreaming." Freckles pointed out.

"Can we get back to an important subject now?" Botan asked.

"I have a question. Who's Nuala and why is she aiding us in finding the crystal?" Autumn's voice was focused (a.n: focused? Me???) and thoughtful.

"She came into my office the day I discovered that the crystal was missing and told me that she could help. She then said that she had foreseen the theft of the crystal but hadn't been able to get to my office on time." Koenma said.

And you believed that???  Spirit World is being run by an idiot! Autumn wanted to yell but instead said, "I see…"

Botan saw the doubt in Autumn's eyes. (a.n: damn mood ring eyes!) "She had helped us before you see. When Phantom Harmony first brought the crystal to the vault. Nuala had predicted it was in danger and said that Phantom should bring her to the crystal's shrine since only a Mist Mountain kitsune or someone under one's supervision can enter that area. Phantom returned with the crystal and said only that it had indeed been in danger. She told us only that she and Nuala had gone separate ways because the reward Nuala wanted was too far out of her reach."

Fools! Autumn thought.

Botan continued, "Phantom was always so quiet. I mean sure she lost practically her entire family but 600 years was a long time to grieve. I wonder where she is right now…"

Closer then you might think. Kurama mused silently. Aloud he asked, "Why are you here?"

"We got transported here somehow. First we lost track of all of you and then everything went black. When we woke up we were here." Koenma said. He then looked Autumn over and flexed his arm muscle, "How bout a date?"

"..." Autumn blinked a few times before bursting out laughing.

"STOP LAUGHING! I COMMAND YOU TO STOP!" Koenma yelled.

"Ok this is not the time to fool around." Autumn said.

"I wasn't fooling around!" Koenma yelled before taking a step toward Autumn, "Will you go out with me?"

"…get away from me…Besides, isn't that against some rule or something?"

Koenma sighed, "That's what Phantom said when I asked her. She said she wasn't in the mood to date."

That was the only nice thing I could think of to say. What I was really thinking was that I didn't want to date a stuck up brat who, at the time, didn't know which hand was his right and which hand was his left. That and the pacifier creeps me out. Autumn said telepathically to Kurama, who had to clasp his hand over his mouth to keep from laughing.

Botan sighed, "Koenma, Autumn is head over heels in love with Kurama."

"I AM NOT!!!!" Autumn blushed bright red, "Well, not head over heels in love…"

"We really should try to find the others." Kurama pointed out.

"Mommy, I wanna go home!" Freckles pawed at Autumn's leg.

Autumn was startled, "D-Did you just call me Mommy???"

I cocked my head to the side, "Is that bad?"

"No, just a little…awkward…" Autumn scratched her head.

Chuchu suddenly ran into the wall and fell through. Autumn raised an eyebrow, "Well that's normal."

"No it isn't." Koenma said.

"I was being sarcastic." Autumn pointed out before walking over to the wall that Chuchu had gone through.

"Don't touch it! We don't know what will happen, you could get hurt!" Kurama reached out toward Autumn.

She turned to look at him, "I appreciate your concern but I don't want to leave Chuchu alone out there. I'm going, follow if you want." She then walked through the wall followed by Freckles.

Botan walked over to Kurama, "Awfully confident for a human in one of the most dangerous places in Makai, isn't she?"

Kurama sighed, "Yes, she is. Well we'd better follow her before she gets into trouble."

Kurama, Botan, and Koenma walked through the wall and into the darkness beyond.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Dream: you're ending it there?

Freckles: Yeah.

Dream: why isn't it in your point of view anymore?

Freckles: 'cuz there's stuff happening that needs to be told from 3rd person P.O.V

Dream: wh—

Freckles: here's a lollipop, go sit in a corner and be quiet.

Dream: YAY! LOLLIPOP!!!!! *goes and sits in a corner*