A/N

Hey! Another update! I'm getting a little better. This story only has about two more chapters, so keep with me please! Thanks for putting up with me!


"Thank you so much for making all of this possible. We could not have cut out this annoying little circumstance without your help." He said.

I frowned slightly. My stomach groaned in protest. "What are you doing here?"

"I've been following your movements for quite awhile. I had to wait until the proper moment arose to intervene." His voice was smug again, which was annoying me to no end. The fight was still going on. Encroth was tearing the other monster to pieces.

"What, are you trying to say you had all this planned?" I asked a little sarcastically.

"Oh, no. We have no way of influencing thoughts directly. In fact, it was almost a point when whether or not your group got here at all would have made no impact whatsoever. But you managed to get here at the vital moment, and made it possible for me to deal with everything else."

"Uh hunh. So, why don't you lay it out for me since I'm not a high and mighty whatever it is you are and couldn't possibly understand the stuff you are talking about."

"I didn't expect you to understand. Humans have low attention spans. But I won't trouble you with details. You made it possible for me to find a way through the Soulking's defenses, because you took his mind to other matters. Essentially, your psychic's plan to 'annoy him until he sends you home' worked."

"How is he going to send us home if you appear to be here to kill him?"

"I'm so glad you pay attention to minute details. I will send you home."

I frowned. "You know, if you told us that instead of giving us the runaround, we probably would have done it."

The hooded man waved impatiently. "I don't have time to explain the implications of later actions to humans that would never understand anyway. Just consider your mission an accomplishment if you all survive the next few hours."

He was covered in smoke before I could ask what he meant. Then he disappeared.

Jerk.

"I really dislike that guy." I wiped some sweat of my forehead and glanced around. The others were doing well. Jean and Ray had found each other and teamed up with scott to take out an elephantine monster Crepuscule had missed. Rahne, Jubilee and Kitty were halfway up the main building, phasing one of Alistair's monsters through a wall.

Speaking of the little man….

Alistair was sneaking around the back of Mr. McCoy and Ms. Monroe as they kept an ugly looking iron soldier at bay. I started moving towards his position, a place near the rubble of one of the left towers.

I didn't like this man. He struck me as pathetic little whiner before and the fact that he creates ugly flying elephants does nothing to improve my opinion of him. The fact that he doesn't even make the creatures correctly makes it worse. I didn't know how he got here. I don't care about that either.

I crept up from behind more silently than I've ever done. My clumsiness didn't hinder me. It was non-existent. It was as if my body now realized what my mind wanted and was only too happy to comply.

I scooped up a rock from the ground and walked toward Alistair as he was muttering something from a scroll and looking at the soldier. It seemed to be slowly overtaking Mr. McCoy and Ms. Monroe, and it didn't take me long to put two and two together.

I brought the rock down hard on Alistair's head. His eyes looked at me in shock, then the scroll dropped and he fell unconscious.

A shriek pierced the air and I looked up to see the metallic soldier that they'd been fighting stumble and fall.

I saw in my mind's eye the scroll start to bubble. I didn't think too much about it.

Mr. McCoy gave me a thumbs up and swung off after Ms. Munroe that jumped on another group of soldiers that had Sam and Rogue backing up.

Then, as luck would have it, the scroll I didn't pay attention to decided to catch my full and undivided attention by spewing smoke.

I glanced down at it confused. Now that I looked at it, it was beginning to swell.

"Ahh…." My body jumped back into screaming 'Run!' I didn't argue.

I ran back the way I came at full speed, but only got about twelve steps when a blast of air propelled me forward and made me hit the ground fourteen feet away.

The scroll that Alistair had been reading from exploded.

He had been over there. Now there was nothing but a large black mark that steamed in the earth.

I guess it was a long time coming.

I got up and dusted myself off. As I did, I became more aware of details in my mind eye opening up even more than before. I looked up to see dozens of Morphos gliding over the black mark and then over me.

'Attracted to magic' I thought to myself. Magic must be crawling over this place. I was too busy to realize before, but morphos butterflies were everywhere. They were coming down in swarms.

And through their eyes I saw things that I had never seen before.

At the top of the main building was the Soulking, not as humans saw him, but through the eyes of creatures that could see so much more. It was not horrifying to see, but like a strange, crystallized being moving around in a body it created. And even stranger, another one was there as well, with a image blurred around it that looked like a hood…

"You little jerk." I whispered. "Your Soulking is just another one of you. That's why you couldn't fight him outright. And why you're fighting him now. You don't want anyone to know."

Too late.

A sudden bright explosion that had a horrible screeching noise blinded the butterflies and me as well, being so connected with them. My body and true senses felt nothing. It was all in my head.

It still hurt, like a burning sensation in the eyes. I rubbed them out of reflex.

"Danny! LOOK OUT!" I heard someone scream. I think it was Jean. My mind was dazed.

Something rushed past my head to slam into whatever it was sneaking up on me from behind. I shook my head hard to get butterflies back in the back of my attentions. I turned to see Crepuscule leap onto his hind legs and bat the head right off an iron soldier with a well placed paw.

That probably hurt.

He turned and smacked me on the forehead with his chin. "Pay attention! You could have gotten killed!"

"Oww! Watch it!" I put a hand to my forehead. "That hurt."

"Sorry."

"No you aren't." An idea hit me. "Crepuscule, could you fly me up there?"

I pointed to the main building. To the top to be exact. I wanted to see what was going on with both sets of eyes.

"It's dangerous. Magic is coming off in waves around the top. I think the Soulking is trying to make a spell."

"I doubt it."

"How do you know?" He asked suspiciously.

"Just call it a hunch. Well?"

"It's dangerous."

"So is here, apparently." I pointed at the head that had landed five feet away.

He hesistated, then nodded. "Very well. At least you won't be caught unawares."

"Thanks." I stepped on his outstretched paw and got on his back. "Fly up there so we can see what's going on but not close enough to not be able to move away."

"I doubt I can do both." He muttered as he jumped into the air. I took a moment to give a mock salute to Jean as she watched us leave. She and the other two had joing with Rogue and Sam and had been (I think) fighting a small group of iron soldiers.

I looked around. Alistair's monsters seemed to be running away from the fight. Without Alistair, they were just poor, frightened beasts. I felt sorry for them.

I closed my eyes and called the butterfly portion of my senses back. The first thing I noticed was that their movements lost the drive of simply finding magic and fluttering, like normal butterflies and flowers. Now they were moving in unison, forming a tighter and tighter curve around the main building. There weren't enough yet for humans in general to see the pattern, but more and more Morphos were joining the pattern, dancing around like moths to the flame. I could sense their need to fly to the magic, but there was so much! Too much would burn them, they couldn't carry it. It would burn holes in their delicate wings, make them plummet to the ground and die.

But it was alluring, and that's why they stayed, and why more came.

I kept the tide back a bit so I could watch the fight with my own eyes.

"Who is that?" Crepuscule asked, pointing at the hooded man.

"I don't know! He's the guy that gave me information. The other guy is the Soulking!"

The Soulking. His body was almost exactly like the robed man, except his hood was drawn back to show a surprisingly human face. Too human to be human. The hair was just right, a ginger the exact cut it should be, mouth full of emotion, eyes expressive, and a trustworthy face that immediately set off the panic reflexes in my body. And even better, I was getting the same danger signals now from the robed man. He must've been masking himself somehow, or perhaps I could sense it now because the mental barriers that had kept me from seeing all of these things had fallen apart. This must've been why the animals stayed silent. Almost as if they were begging, 'Please don't notice me…'

I was beginning to hope they didn't notice us. But the butterfly portion of my mind's eye saw they were more interested in each other.

I saw them beyond the robes, straining against confining bonds, both crystalline forms attacking each other while the human bodies didn't move at all. I saw the waves of magic and felt Crepuscule move out of their path in the nick of time.

"The building is falling apart and they barely move!" Crepuscule yelled, bringing me back sharply.

"Don't get too close!" I said, gripping the rope around his neck tight. "Don't believe what you see! It's getting nasty down there."

Suddenly I saw something that stopped my blood cold. Kitty, Rahne, and Jubilee were almost to the top.

They wouldn't stand a chance. The building was falling to pieces, supports going first. The entire thing was already groaning in protest.

"Crepuscule! We have to stop them!" I pointed wildly to a floor just below the top floor. I knew he couldn't see them, but I did, and we needed to stop them.

"Who?"

"The girls! They'll walk into a deathtrap on the roof. We have to stop them! Fly!" I yelled.

He shortened his wingspan and dived down.


Raliena: Ya gotta take your time if something's going to come out good, I suppose. Thanks! I hope you enjoy the chapter!

Anongirl88: Heh, thanks for understanding. My paper is finally done, and for the first time all year my afternoons are free! Ring out the bells! Hope you enjoy this chapter!

PricessofWildfire: Well, I have been busy. At least I keep up with one of them! Well, I hope you enjoy the chapter!

Herman will take the reviews!