The next day was Sunday, so it was time for church. Well, it would normally be time for church, but Adrianne woke up in the hospital at noon. She didn't remember much from last night, except the kiss from the two men she cared for most. 'Maybe I should play it safe and go for a realistic relationship with Jake,' she thought as she sat up. Her right arm was scarred only a little, and her leg seemed to be okay. She had been pretty lucky.

"I always get the unconscious ones," someone griped outside her room. "Stupid kids getting into knife fights-" the woman stopped in her tracks when she saw Adrianne she stopped. "Oh, hello. I'm, uh, Rawlena, and I'll be your savior today," she said, making a poor attempt at a joke. "Rawlena Mueller?" Adrianne asked. "One and the same," replied Rawlena. "I own Mueller Steel Mills, but I help out here at the local hospital in my spare time. But that daughter of mine, Kate, has been missing for quite a while." Rawlena then sat down at the foot of Adrianne's bed. "That's awful, I'm so sorry," Adrianne said to her.

Rawlena appeared unmoved. "For all my millions of dollars, I can't seem to find one simple teenager girl. Poor Kate. She's probably being held for ransom at this very moment, lonely and-" Rawlena began, only to be interrupted. "Don't say that," said Adrianne comfortingly. "For all you know, she could be perfectly safe and waiting for you at home right now." Rawlena shook her head. "No, my butler would call me on my cell phone," she replied. "Well, um," Adrianne ventured. "Maybe she got past your butler. You never know." Rawlena smiled.

Suddenly, without warning, the hospital window broke, and a thin girl with flaming red hair burst through. She looked to be about fifteen years old, and she was just a hair shorter than Adrianne, who was standing at the moment. Rawlena jumped to her feet. "Kate!" The girl looked at Rawlena and said feebly, "Mommy......" Then she pulled out two long and apparently very light swords and swung them madly around the room. "NO! No, you won't use me for this! NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!'' Her screams echoed throughout the whole hospital. Adrianne ran out of the room, but Rawlena stayed behind. "Kate! Kate, are you alright?"

The Void Dragoon was trying his very best to keep up, and Rawlena called Adrianne in to see the fight. "My daughter, swords master. Who'd have thought it?" Adrianne had to admit, Kate kept up surprisingly well with Lloyd's blows. Then Adrianne got a closer look at the Dragoon, and noticed it was not Lloyd. 'Hm, that's odd,' she thought. 'Who else has his powers?'

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

Jake grumbled as he picked the phone up. 'I was lucky enough to oversleep today, and the freakin' phone's gotta ring,' he thought as he walked over to the answering machine. The message was as follows:

"Jake? Hello? This is Ben. Check today's paper and call me ASAP. Bye." 'What the...' Jake thought as he walked outside to get the paper. The front page was what caught his eye. He read out loud.

'Armored Aerials Assault Adolescent Assembly.' According to local resident Krissi Manion, armored flying things came and trashed the class of 2004's prom last night. "I watched them attack half the cafeteria ladies, and everyone saw the gray one try to abduct Adrianne Something-or-Other, I don't know her last name." Needless to say, these people, who call themselves Dragoons, are dangerous, and should be avoided at all costs. Continued on page A5." The article went on to say how the Dragoons destroyed the prom, and how great Krissi was and how she had saved the whole town. Jake decided to call Ben.

"Ben, have you seen this?" Jake said when he connected. Ben sighed into the receiver. "Don't worry, I have a plan to get Prissy Manion back twice as bad for that," Ben said, using a nickname that really got Krissi mad, even though she is prissy. Jake was intrigued.

Krissi had always gotten on his nerves. Her "daddy" published the local paper, and she was in the class of 2004, so that was probably where the paper got its angle from. "How can we do that? She'll just twist the information so her father can print something else bad about us." Ben laughed with a hint of evil in his voice. "Well, it's a long and complex plan that involves Prissy, a connection to Jimbo, and the Dragoons." Jake leaned his arm on the couch. "I'm listening."

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

"The pieces are falling into place, Daddy," Krissi said to her father. "Soon the great and glorious world where you control everything will be at hand." Her father rose from his chair.

"Krissi, I didn't create you to mess around like this. You've developed an attraction to that boy, haven't you?" Krissi looked shocked. "I was just messing around Daddy. We'll kill them all when the time is right. I know the plan. Duh!"

"Krissi dear," Eevano said slowly. "The plan is to make the Dragoons look bad, not to try and sleep with them. Your part," he said. "Is to get close to the potential Dragoons and assassinate them. I will take care of the ones who have realized their Dragoon powers already." Krissi turned away. "You mean with that Mueller girl? Come on Daddy, certain people have certain skills, and fencing is not one of hers." Eevano stood up. "Krissi! Are you contradicting me!?" He appeared to be twenty feet tall. Krissi shrunk back. "N-no, sir," she said timidly. "It's just that-" "SILENCE!" Eevano yelled. "You are not to go against me again. UNDERSTAND!?" Krissi shuddered. "Y-yes sir." Eevano seemed to shrink back. "Good. Now go and do your job."

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

Ben made a few calls to Jimbo and some other friends of his before calling Jake again.

"Alright, the plan has been set in motion. We'll put Jimbo in front of the manicure shop, pretending to wait for someone inside. He'll really be waiting for someone outside, Krissi. Then he can use his charm to easily seduce her into going home with him. I'm gonna be waiting there for her to kiss him good-bye, take a picture, and sell it to the papers as a scandal. What do you think?"

"I think you spent WAY too much time coming up with this plan," Jake replied. "But it's a good one. You said the Dragoons are involved. How is that now?"

Ben sighed in annoyance. "To clear our name of course."

"Right," Jake said. "Now I have to make a phone call of my own, so bye." Ben smirked, although Jake couldn't see it. "Would it happen to have anything to do with your lip-lock with Adrianne last night?" Jake nodded. "Yep, both of them." Ben winced. "Two? Ouch. I'm guessing one as Jake, and one as Lloyd." Jake nodded again. His bangs bounced in his eyes, so he pushed them back. "Right again. I want her to be interested in me, not my Dragoon alter ego. So bye!" "Have fun," Ben said as he hung up.

Jake hung the phone up, turned it back on, and dialed Adrianne's number. Her sister picked up.

"Hello?" Jake turned around. "Yeah, can I talk to Adrianne?" A pause followed, and then he heard a timid, "Hello?" Jake took a big breath and then launched the mother of all speeches.

"Adrianne, I don't want you to say anything until I'm done. I know we had a little, um, scene at the prom last night, and I know it means the world to me. I don't know how you feel about it, and, well, crap; I'm so bad at this. Um, I really, uh, like you, and if we can't be, er, involved, then I want us to just be friends, no weirdness between us. But if we can be together, that would be the highlight of my life."

Adrianne breathed a sigh of disappointment. "Oh, Jake, I'm so sorry. I have my eye on someone else. If it helps, though, I was thinking of it until about midnight last night." Jake was shocked. 'What happened then? That was when I dropped her off at- Oh my god!' Jake thought. 'She's falling in love with-'

"I'm falling in love with Lloyd, the Void Dragoon. I know it sounds like a girlish fantasy, but I get the feeling that he loves me back, and I hope you'll understand."

Needless to say, Jake was crushed, but Adrianne couldn't know. "Yeah, sure. I get it. I have something I have to do now. So bye." "Bye."

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

Jim was a little sad about the prom being cancelled. He automatically knew who the prom court was going to be. He was going to be king, Krissi was going to be queen, and the rest were going to be their friends who were just as popular. Krissi moved to the town more than three weeks ago, and fought her way up through the high school hierarchy pretty quickly.

Most people liked Krissi well enough. 'Well, what wasn't to like?' Jim thought. Her adorable blonde curls, her deep sapphire eyes, her beautiful teeth, her perky personality, and her cutesy little smile made her seem more like an otherworldly being than a girl. She seemed to have been manufactured, not born. Jim just dismissed these thoughts as anxiety as he waited in front of 'Fanny's Nails' for Krissi.

'Ben said she'd be here by now,' Jim thought. Then he saw it. It was like a giant mirror, reflecting the sun's rays. Only one person had hair that shiny. 'Krissi,' he thought, and began to work his magic.

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

Kate screamed as the larger-than-normal sword of the Void Dragoon sliced right through her light armor and made a small gash in her stomach. Kate growled and leaped out the window. Adrianne walked up to the victorious warrior.

"That was an amazing victory. Would you mind telling me your name?" The Dragoon flashed a winning smile. "Why, Lloyd of course." Adrianne grabbed a knife and held it to his throat. "Look buddy, I don't know who the hell you are, but you're not the Void Dragoon I remember from last night. Now tell me who you really are!"

"Look lady, I don't know who you think you are, but I'm the one with the giant sword, and you're the one with the butter knife, so you're in no position to make threats. What if I'm not the Void Dragoon? What then? Do you want to kiss me again? Come now, you're a waste of my time." He walked toward the window. "Go make out with someone else, you little harlot." Shocked, Adrianne dropped to her knees and cried as the Dragoon flew out the window.

Rawlena put her arm around Adrianne. "There there, men are pigs. You can't expect much more from them. Kate's father was the same way. When we were married, he seemed different. I think he was only in it for the money. My money." It didn't help. "He was so charming last night," Adrianne sobbed. "I started to fall for him. I guess it really was just a girlish fantasy." Still sobbing, she picked up the phone. "I have a phone call to make."

"Honey, I'm sorry, but you won't be making any phone calls for a long time," Rawlena said as Adrianne collapsed. "I have to take you somewhere safe. Somewhere where that horrible man from your past won't ever bother you again."

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

Jake was walking, well running really, down the street when he saw the wings of a Dragoon touch down beside him. "Jake, nothing would make me happier than to kill you right now to clear my name, but I can't do that. I have a job to do, a job for Wink." Caught between changing into a Dragoon and kicking some tail, and asking just who the hell Wink is, Jake simply stared.

"I can get her back. But it will require the help of Dragoons. And you need to help me." Jake was suddenly defiant. "And what if I don't?" The man smiled and raised his hand. The town disappeared, and a new one, a dusty one, replaced it. There were baskets and shops full of interesting items, but the one that really caught Jake's eye was a young girl. She was bound and gagged, and she was very familiar.

"Adrianne!" A woman stood next to her, and Jake recognized her as Rawlena Mueller. She stood up spoke.

"I'm sure you're wondering where you are and why I have Adrianne here." Jake shook his head. "The thought had crossed my mind."

Rawlena started to untie her prisoner. "First of all, let's start with whom. My real name is not Rawlena Mueller. My name is Rose. The man who brought you here is Lloyd. We, through no fault of our own, were slain in our original world. Now we have the ability to travel between worlds.

"This brings me to the second question. Where. This town is called Lohan. It is the center of trade here in the world of Endiness. Endiness is falling apart. The Dragoons are dwindling. We have only the Blue Sea Dragoon and the Jade Dragoon. Unless you count us of course. The other Dragoon souls are trapped in the Castle of Shadows, where Eevano resides. Some, he has tricked into doing his dirty work, like poor Shana, or he simply keeps their souls in bottles colored to match their Dragoon Spirit.

"That brings me to the third question. Why. I don't know how, but you're friend here possesses some kind of unlimited power within her. She may be the key to the doors of Eevano's castle. He still believes he loves her, and he will go to great lengths to get her back. She also may be the key to his undoing."

Rawlena, or Rose, had already finished untying Adrianne. She stood up, and slapped Rose straight on the cheek. "I deserved more for what I did to you. And what Eevano did to you, friend of Adrianne. The Void Dragoon has much to discuss with our little princess here."

And with that, the town disappeared. Jake and Adrianne were brought back to the street that Jake had originally found himself on. Adrianne turned to face him.

"What the hell was that?"

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

Jim took Krissi on a walk through the park, followed by a romantic candlelight dinner, and finally, he took her to a small diner for desert. Afterward, he walked her home.

"You didn't hafta do all that for me," Krissi said. Jimbo smiled. "But I wanted to. You really make me feel special." Krissi leaned in, and Jimbo leaned in. Ben and Jake watched from the bushes.

"Here comes the part where he dumps her right on her sorry ass," Ben said. But he didn't. Jimbo took that kiss. Ben started banging his head on some hard surface. After Ben had a splitting headache, Jimbo had still not finished.

"Jim, I love you, but we can't go beyond this doorway. I really just need some space right now. Bye!" And she slammed the door in his face. Jim had a look of intense pain and longing on his face, and he was definitely depressed.

"Now, instead of us playing her, she played him like a violin," Ben sighed. "So, "It looks like the set-up back fired on us."

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

Jake looked at Adrianne, and she asked again. "What the hell was THAT!?" Jake walked around in a circle. "I have no idea. But I do know that I have to walk you home sometime-"

"Are you a Dragoon?" Adrianne's words cut like a knife into Jake's heart. "W, what?" Jake stammered. "Are you a Dragoon?"

"Well, uh, it's a complicated story that involves a long and detailed-"

"I asked you a yes or no question. Are you a Dragoon or not? The queer rich lady said that you were, and now I'm asking you if you are." Jake stuttered a lot more before getting to the speech he should have said a long time ago.

"I am a Dragoon and I probably should have told you sooner, Adrianne, because I can't keep stuff like this from you. I love you." Adrianne couldn't stand it anymore.

"If you love me so much, why didn't you tell me? Is it because you're a great superhero, and you have to keep your identity secret? Even then, you could confide in me. You know that. We've only known each other for a couple days, but when you've found your soul mate you can just tell!" Her hands jumped to her mouth. Jake cocked his head.

"Did you say... soul mate?"

"Um, no I said soup fate. Yes, soup fate. It's this thing my tarot lady does with soup and cards and-"

Jake put a finger to her mouth to silence her. And once again, knowing the risks, he changed into a Dragoon right in front of her house. Adrianne was so wrapped up in yelling at him that she had forgotten that they were walking. Once his change was complete, he looked into her eyes.

"Kiss me again. And this time, no false pretenses," he said. Adrianne nodded even as her mouth came to meet his. Jake blissfully folded his wings around her again.

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

"Oh, this is too easy! Krissi, you've worked miracles!" Eevano cooed as Krissi walked through her door. Krissi smiled and dropped her coat on the floor.

"Well, I figured Jim was susceptible to kisses just like everyone else. And besides, I needed to have a little fun!" She moved further to the throne Eevano was sitting on. "But, if you don't mind me saying so, you disapproved of the methods that won him over. Isn't that just a little hypocritical?"

Eevano glared at her. "If you didn't amuse me so much, you'd have been dead a thousand times. But you do, more to your benefit than mine, and you amuse me. Do you see where I'm going with this? Of course not, you're a blonde," he said without giving her a chance to answer. "I only kept you alive because you're amusing, but you're pleasantness has dissolved. You've become a liability. Now you must go." With a flick of his wrist, Krissi flew out the window screaming.

"All's far in love and war. And I don't believe in love."

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

It was a good thing that Jim had been waiting for Krissi by her back window, or he wouldn't have seen her fall out. Or heard her screams. Or been there to rescue her.

She fell far, and Jim extended his arms to catch her just in time. She landed in his hands with a soft thump. Jim looked at her unconscious face. 'She's so pretty. I wish we could.. No point in thinking about it now.' And he walked out of her yard and brought her to a hospital.

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

Jake and Adrianne eventually pulled apart, but only after strenuous effort. Jake saw something in Adrianne's eyes. "Adrianne, get down!" he said just in time, as a Dragoon wing nearly sliced off her head.

The Dragoon turned to face Jake. "I am the Doppleganger, and you are my next prey, Dragoon."

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

A/N: Why can't the bad guys just leave Jake alone!? Every time he and Adrianne try and get together, something interrupts them. Kinda reminds me of the best part in LoD. You know, the one at the twin castle where Dart and Shana are about to kiss three times and they keep getting interrupted? That game is like a god-send. Well, if anyone is still following this, keep reading!