Finding Umi

"Knight of water, art thou alright?" a deep voice cried as Umi slowly opened her eyes, her vision first being blurry saw only navy blue and pillars but after a few seconds everything became clear again. She found herself in a familar location and realized who the voice that was crying out to her belonged to.

"Selece?" she whispered softly

"Good thy lady does not appear hurt."

"But how did I get here?"

"Thou drifted here"

After hearing that Umi sat down and tried to recollect her thoughts and memory about what happened before she ended up in Selece's temple. She recalled the sun shining over the blue sea after falling from the sky and then a blue flash before she passed out.

"Oh okay, can you give me a ride to the palace?" Umi asked while trying to restyle her hair. "Ha. It maybe the land of the will but its still too deep to even swim out alive," she joked

Before Selece could answer a black scaled dragon with bloody red eyes crash though the entrance of temple. It glared at at Umi and opened it's mouth, gathering energy, within seconds a massive ball of energy formed. Umi tried to run aware that her ova wasn't with her but the dragon sent the ball at Umi. She closes her eyes to brace herself for death.

When she opened her eyes she found Selece in his dragon form deflecting the energy ball back at the black scaled dragon wounding it. Rather than flee the black dragon retaliated sending more electrifying blasts at Selece. This time Selece wasn't able to deflect all of the blast back instead wounding Selece brutally while the blast that Selece manage to deflect back at the black dragon ended up missing it and striking the pillars in the temple causing several of them to fall apart. Both dragons became extremely tired, Selece was breathing heavily when it stared at its donor and muttered to her, "Water knight thou must go, thou must not let this new evil win, thou must stay alive and rescue thy." With that both dragons vanished.

"Selece," Umi screamed several times but no respond each time. She sighed, 'Not again, can't this damn place ever be at peace whenever I visited?' She wondered around trying to find away of the damaged temple when she noticed the ceiling dripping, 'Shit, my hair! Ack.. my agent is going to kill.' The temple started to fall apart with pillars crashing everywhere and the water level slowly raising. Umi became more anxious and desperate with each time she found a exit being blocked. What was going on here? Why are dragons suddenly attacking out of nowhere? Where was Selece and why in the worlds was temple collapsing.

"THIS IS NOT FUNNY," Umi shouted, "SOMEBODY HELP ME"

♥♥♥

Hikura and Fuu dashed through the palace entrance and finally into the throne room where Ascot, Ferio, Lantis and Clef were discussing some Cephiroian matter. Hikura ran to Lantis's side and immediately dived into his arms started to cry into Lantis's arm. Fuu tried to stay calm while trying to catch her breath. Clef approached the girls.

"Is something the matter? Did either of you get injured before Fyula fetched you?" Clef asked in a rather calm tone. Then his tone became serious, "Its rather strange but normally you two are able to get to the palace without any trouble but not this time."

"YES! ITS UMI!" Hikura shouted.

"Umi? How is she involved? That girl hasn't been here for over a year ," Ferio laughed..

"Miss Umi came with us but Fyula didn't get to her in time and she fell into the ocean. We thought she'd be able to swim out but we never heard from her."

"WHAT! Umi is here?" Ascot cried and Fuu nodded.

How long has Umi been missing?" Clef asked.

"Over two hours" Hikaru said, "We have to find her!"

"Well its logical to assume Miss Umi might not be coming back recall that the average human can hold their breath for 3 minutes at most." Fuu sighed and let her worse fears take over her.

"No! We can't give up hope!" Hikaru shouted.

"I agree with Hikaru, we have to FIND HER!" Ascot demanded, he broke out of his shyness and became more confident.

"I guess but logically its not possible with a human to live that long underwater," Fuu insisted.

"But this is Cephiro! Will the will is the power remember Fuu?" Hikura yelled.

"Hikura is right! I bet Umi wouldn't want to die and besides she is the knight of the water." Ascot nodded.

"Very well, you may all go out and search for her while I will await her if she is to show up here," Still Clef looked impassive but there was tension deep in his sapphire blue eyes..

♥♥♥

Ferio and Fuu paired off to by land search together while Ascot, Lantis and Hikura did the search from the air. Clef stayed behind in the palace just in case she would return. While Persea, Lafarga and Caldina searched the forest of Silence.

♥♥♥

The party that took the search from the water zoomed through the air at intense speeds with Lantis holding on to Hikura tightly while trying not to fall off the flying manta ray that Ascot summoned for them.

"Ascot," Hikura cried, hearing her cry the Summoner turns around from where he was sitting.

"I can't find her anywhere," he said sadly.

Hikura shook her head, "I wasn't going to ask that, I was wondering if you could slow down I know you're worried about her but if we move this quick we might miss Umi if she is around," she pointed out with a nervous sweat mark down her face.

Ascot noticed how the couple was trying to hang on, he nodded in agreement and whispered to his beast to slow down. Then he resumed his position near the head of the manta ray.

Hikura finally relaxed and places her head into her arms while placing her arms over her knees. She imagined if Umi was with them right now, she would be very pissed and probably would have slapped Ascot, screaming at him if he was insane and of course demanding that he slows down. Hikura sighed, Umi where are you?

"Hikura?" Lantis broke his silence and looked into her eyes with concern.

Hikura looks up and breaks out of her thoughts, "Yes?"

"You are feeling depress, do you want to talk about it?"

Hikura shook her head, "No, we need to find Umi first."

Lantis didn't buy that excuse so he continue, "We don't know how long it will before we can locate her and I'm sure we won't miss her if we talk while trying to find her at the same time."

Hikura realized he won't drop it and didn't feel like arguing about something like this so she admitted what was on her mind, " I think its my fault that Umi is missing," She started to cry. "Now I'm not sure if it's a good idea for her to come to Clamp high school anymore. I mean I know I've wanted her to come ever since her parents made her go to that other school but now I'm not sure if its even a good idea."

Lantis, "I doubt it, its not your fault. You can't blame yourself for what faith brings just like what faith bestowed upon my brother." He wrapped his arms around her to try to comfort her, "You haven't been visiting Eagle lately, Why is that?"

Hikura looked into his eyes and realized he was right but she didn't notice it until today that she had completely stopped visiting him. Eagle could no longer communicate and seemed more like a corpse these days, "Its just not the same, I know he is a friend but every time I see him I feel guilty.."

♥♥♥

Once they had all left, Clef summoned his viewing pool into the throne room to try to search for her He closed his eyes and muttered a small spell, then whispered the water knight's name. The water started to boil softly for a few moments and finally calmed down revealing a faint image of the water knight trapped somewhere. Clef realized that it was indeed the temple of Selece due to the colour of the pillars and the carvings on the walls. "Summon," he whispered trying to summon Umi but no effect. Someone or something was blocking his power.

He got off his seat and called for someone to send word to the others that Umi was located and still alive for now. Once a messenger had taken off Clef summoned his staff and vanished.

♥♥♥

Umi stopped trying and finally gave up, 'I guess I'm going to dying here, sorry mom and dad that I was such a disappointment. Maybe I'll see you both in the next life?', Umi closed her eyes as a pillar came crashing down on her. She screamed as it smash into her knocking her out cold and burying her body underwater.

She felt warm arms hold her closely and its bearer screaming "Umi hold on," as they dragged Umi's body out from underneath the pillar. "Umi," they called out again but Umi saw only a blurred image of hero with black robes as she blacked out.