Justice

"Companion to our demons

They will dance

And we will play…"

Neither May, April, Johnny nor any other of Dizzy's companions had made any appearance the entire day.

Zappa did feel sorry about that, along with being unable to tell his friend about his 'illness', but despite both of those he was having more fun than he could remember for a very long time. Not only had he fainted just once the whole day, but he also had someone to talk to as he continued on his hike through the forest.

Of all the things he liked to do, talking was one of Zappa's favorites.

"…so instead, I fell off the side into the lake… luckily, I'm a pretty good swimmer!" he finished one especially long and elaborate story with a laugh. After Dizzy had shared some happy memories about the crew of the May Ship, he decided to tell her some stories of his own to pass the time. He told her about his own friends, his hometown, and how he worked in the summer running a tour boat off the coast.

"…but you've never even been to Australia?" he asked, tilting his head to one side.

Dizzy shook her head. "I don't think so – if we flew over, May didn't say anything." Her shy smile still brightened her face a little, but he could tell she was becoming more despondent as the day progressed. Sadness gathered around her ruby-colored eyes, making their gaze slowly sink towards the ground.

"You know," he said, trying again to cheer her up, "I think I remember seeing a girl with an anchor a few days ago. I mean, how many people would walk around carrying that!"

"Really?" her face lifted at the mention of May.

"Yeah! At least I think it was a few days ago…" he pondered, suddenly unsure, but he kept rambling on. "It's so hard to keep track of the days, fainting all the time… well, anyway, if your ship's been around here since then, wouldn't you think that they would look for you here?"

"That does make sense," Dizzy responded, and a little spring went back into her step. Her healthy wing suddenly didn't seem to hang as heavily over her shoulder.

Though it didn't seem to Zappa that they'd been walking for very long at all, the sun's angled light soon took on the warm, orange tinge of sunset. The rays that managed to penetrate the dense treetops bent their two shadows into long, black robes trailing behind them. Despite the warm glow, the wind was already starting to bite with the chill of evening.

"I don't think we're going to find them today," Dizzy spoke up suddenly. She gazed at the darkening sky one last time before her eyes fell back down to her companion.

"It's still light out! We shouldn't give up," Zappa exclaimed.

"We can keep going tomorrow," Dizzy said. She still sounded disappointed, but she had accepted the fact she'd be separated from her friends for a while longer.

"They could be looking for me right now… they might even find me first!"

"I guess…" he said hesitantly. "As long as you're sure… let's find someplace they can see us from above."

As they continued walking, he added, "A flying ship… that's just crazy."

By the time the two of them came across another small clearing, it was almost dusk.

"Hey, this should work!" Zappa concluded after surveying the open area. Long golden grass grew in a dense mat between the trees, but as long as they stayed in the center of the clearing they should be easy to see.

"Okay," Dizzy agreed after catching up to him. "Let's stay here."

But as the two of them started smoothing out a patch of grass to sit in, a new dilemma entered Zappa's mind.

How was he going to sleep?

He froze in place, a caricature of worry, as he realized what might happen. What if the creature inside him decided to take control again as he slept?

"Um… Miss Dizzy?" he said, slipping back into his typical over-politeness. "I-I think I should go now."

"What? Why?" Dizzy said, standing up straight in alarm from where she'd been kneeling in the grass.

"I can't stay here… It w-won't be safe for…"

"You aren't going anywhere," a stern voice called out suddenly from the trees behind them.

A tall figure stepped out of shadow as the two of them whirled around in panic.

He wore the white, high-collared overcoat of a police officer, but the large blue cross design cut into the center of the jacket proclaimed him as something more – a Holy Knight. A determined frown was engraved into his face, framed by gold-blond hair. One of his hands gripped the hilt of his sheathed sword tightly and his steely blue gaze fell straight down on Zappa.

"Officer Kiske?" Dizzy recognized the police officer immediately, but not his intentions. "What's going on…?"

His eyes flickered towards her for a moment, then darted back to his target. "It's good to see you're still well, Dizzy… but are you aware of whom you're traveling with?"

Dizzy's eyes went round as she turned to face her friend standing next to her.

"Officer, what's wrong!" Zappa cried, wilting under Ky's lethal gaze. "W-why are you looking at me like that…"

"You don't look dangerous at all," the policeman continued as though he hadn't heard him, "But your trail was ridiculously easy to follow, and it led straight here from the crime scene. It has to be you. There's no other way."

"C-crime…" Zappa stuttered softly, his mouth going dry. His stomach was starting to churn and knot inside him.

"I am placing you under arrest as a suspect in the murders of Samuel, Dana, Bethia and Paul Leinfeld," Ky spoke blankly. His grip on the sword tightened. "If you try to resist, I will take you in by force."

Zappa could only stand motionless, eyes wide and blank. Suddenly, horrifyingly, it all made sense.

He found the red stain emblazoned on his arm; stared at it for a moment before holding it out to Ky as evidence.

"Th-this blood… I knew s-s-something happened…" he started, his voice hoarse and quavering, before it swelled into a terrified cry, "P-please, take me in!"

The look of shock on Ky's face matched Dizzy's. That was the last thing he'd expected a monster that killed and mutilated an entire family to say.

But Zappa wasn't done. He stumbled towards Ky, his hands stretched out in supplication, making the police officer jump back and draw his sword.

"I don't want to hurt anyone anymore! Take me – quick, before… before…"

That's when the world started to spin around him.

"Oh… no…"cold sweat broke out all over his body. Familiar darkness was creeping in on him from the edges of his sight as he started losing his balance. He had to fight it this time. He had to.

"Di-Dizzy, run!" he yelled

The sound of her name snapped her out of her trance; she started backing away from him, but found that she couldn't detach herself from the sight of his quickly fading consciousness.

"You… prom…" he said before his eyes finally fluttered shut.

It looked to Ky as though the young man would fall to the ground, but as his body started going limp it twisted itself into a painful-looking contortion. A strangled kind of cry came out of Zappa's throat.

"What's happening to him!" Ky demanded, turning to Dizzy.

"I don't know!" she answered, her red eyes fastened onto his form, twitching and tying itself into knots in front of her. A strange tingling feeling was spreading along her skin, making her hair and feathers stand on end.

Zappa suddenly bent over backwards, his spine folding in on itself, and faced the confused police officer standing on guard a few yards away from him. His eyes looked strangely white, and a wide, vacant smile was plastered onto his face.

"YOU AREN'T GOING ANYWHERE," he mocked, his voice leaping several octaves.

Dizzy didn't know whose voice that was, but she knew it couldn't be Zappa's.

And then she felt the wave of spiritual energy hit her with the force of a gale. She cringed and shielded herself from it, but managed to look up at its source. With a Gear's eyes she could see the portal forming around Zappa's body; a black orb heavily inscribed with symbols she didn't recognize. The Gatekeepers - three huge, black centipedes – spiraled around the portal, tearing it open further. Something was coming through.

Ky, with his fully human eyes, could not see any of the dangerous magic spinning around his foe. But he could see the Three Gatekeepers' hideous wormlike forms, and electrifying his sword until it crackled with blue sparks, he leapt forward.

A black animal, snarling and foaming, launched itself out of the portal and knocked him to the ground before his sword could hit home. The orb around Zappa's body abruptly disappeared; the centipedes sank back into the ground; but the summoned spirit remained.

The ghostly creature, a giant black dog, now stood guard obediently next to its master. Its skeleton was faintly visible inside its flesh and its red eyes glared menacingly at the fallen policeman. With each ragged breath it took, blood and foam poured out of its mouth.

As Ky rose to his feet and rushed forward with a battle cry, both Zappa and the hellhound lunged savagely at him.

Dizzy's body was now tingling so badly that both her hands and feet had gone numb.

"What's… happening…" she said, panic gripping her as she stared at her own outstretched hands. A shadow fell over the woman; she looked up abruptly to see what had cast it.

Her black wing was unfurling, rising high above her head. Clumps of feathers morphed and shifted into claws, and Necro's skull-like, hollow face appeared, gazing towards the fray.

"Necro, what are you doing?" Dizzy called out to the creature, but he did not respond.

The black wing shoved Dizzy aside, and with a mighty heave, launched a spinning war hammer across the clearing – straight at Ky. The police officer had actually been holding his own against his two opponents until the projectile smashed into his chest.

"Necro! Stop it!" Dizzy screamed. Power was flowing out of her every cell, and with her other guardian out of commission, all of it was draining into Necro.

Ky rose to his feet a second time, coughing thick droplets of blood, and glared at the young winged woman.

"You… you are with him!" he accused.

"No! It's not like that at all!" she yelled back. Against her will, Necro was dragging her forward, clawing eagerly towards the injured policeman. She focused on everything she'd learned to desperately try and stop the flow of power within her body, but she could only succeeded at slowing the stream a bit, not damming it completely.

"Please, officer, you've got to run! My power's going out of control!"

"I'm not going to run!" he roared stubbornly. "I can't let him go! I saw what he did with my own eyes!"

Enraged, Ky turned back towards Zappa and the dog, who were both leaping at him with rabid looks on their faces, and an arrow of white-hot lighting flew off the tip of his sword as he swung it. It knocked the young man backwards through the tall grass, and as he flew through the air the hellhound at his side immediately vanished.

Though she was digging her heels into the ground and fighting with every mental weapon in her arsenal, Dizzy was nevertheless pulled towards the policeman with Necro looming tall above her. Ky spun around just in time to block a black claw that came thundering down on top of him. But as he saw Zappa lurching back onto his feet out of the corner of his eye, he realized he couldn't last long against three magical opponents if they all attacked him at once.

Her world spiraling out of control and with her every effort thwarted, Dizzy cried out to the only other person who had the slightest chance of turning the tide of the battle.

"Zappa!" she yelled, her hands clamped down on her ears as though to block out the chaos around her. "Stop it! Wake up!"

It seemed for a moment that her plea fell on deaf ears, but as she screamed his name a second time, something flickered across his face.

He froze in place, half-bent, and his eyelids started drooping closed.

"Wha…" he mumbled, dazed, just before his muscles snapped tight again, and a hiss of threat escaped his lips.

It was just the opening Ky had been hoping for.

He lunged, sword poised; and before the demon could wrest back full control of Zappa, Ky's blade sliced deeply into flesh. Much too late to stop him, Necro howled in anger and lashed out, his fist slamming into the policeman and sending him into the ground.

"DAMN…YOU…" Zappa wheezed, falling to his knees and clutching at his stomach. Despite his efforts, blood kept gushing out from between his fingers, all over his white clothes.

She couldn't take it anymore. Everyone around her was dying.

Dizzy closed her eyes and screamed. She screamed and screamed until all the breath was squeezed from her lungs, but sound kept forcing its way out of her mouth.

Inside her body, the electric stream of power began to turn. It shuddered for a moment before something snapped; and the river was diverted away from Necro.

Dizzy felt like her eardrums were about to shatter, but the piercing scream coming out of her kept getting louder.

Her power had to find another outlet.

The gray, twilight forest lit up brighter than a sun. A pure white orb of light hung motionless above the clearing for a moment, curiously silent, before it exploded. Searing air that flattened trees and scorched branches rushed outward, trailed by a wall of deafening sound. As Dizzy's power finally drained itself, the white light was extinguished.

She stood frozen in the sea of singed grass. After the release of so much power, her body felt cold and weak, and Dizzy could only stand heaving for breath for a moment. Somehow, she'd managed to loose her power without her guardians – something she would have felt quite proud of if the situation weren't so dire. Necro had disappeared, his life-source drained for now. But Dizzy had others to worry about.

She had to scan the dim clearing before spotting the crumpled form of the police officer. She ran towards him and parted the tall grass with one hand - though Ky was still breathing, he'd been knocked thoroughly unconscious by Necro's blow. All in all, he'd miraculously escaped with only scrapes and bruises.

But where had Zappa gone?

An unexplainable fear suddenly washed through the girl's body.

"Zappa…?" she called out cautiously, turning away from the knight. She couldn't be sure if he would attack her, but she had to find him. As she ran towards the center of the clearing, the tall stems of grass lashed against her legs. It took an entire minute of searching before Dizzy found him, hidden in their shadows.

Zappa lay curled up on one side; red, slick-looking burned patches on the exposed parts of his body. Dizzy didn't notice the black, wet pool spreading out from beneath him until she knelt in it.

"Blood…? Oh…!" she cried, holding one hand stained with the liquid up to the fading sunlight.

"Zappa!" she screamed at him, but he didn't stir. His face looked deathly pale. She timidly placed one hand on his chest, and for a moment mistook his shallow breathing for none at all. Tears slowly clouded over her vision.

"Zappa," she whispered. For all her confusing and wonderful powers, Dizzy realized just how helpless she actually was.

-Author's Note!-

Well, after a long, difficult semester of classes and a lot of problems with my account grr... Chapter 4 is finally up! I'm such a lazy ass sometimes. Now that winter break's come around though I should have a lot of time to work. :D Chapter 5 (and some editing), here I come!

Dizzy: "Oh, please hurry! He's in grave need of medical attention!" ;;

p.s... A huge thanks to everyone who's taken the time to read (and especially review) my story so far!I getwarm fuzzies and tinglies and all other kinds of pleasant sensationsevery timeI see that a new review has appeared.