Okay, let me start out with saying that I am SO SORRY for taking so long on this! I had written this chapter and almost posted it a couple days ago, but I re-read it and realized that it wasn't very good, so I took the extra time to make it a little better. THANK YOU to all who reviewed, once again! Let's break it down:

Paine3: Thank you for the bday wishes :D I'm not dishin' ANYTHING on Aya... you'll just have to wait and see :D

Motet: Haha, wouldn't you know it... when you review about loyalty to my fic, I go and leave you guys hanging for at least a week, probably two XD Anyway, what I would have said, had I not gotten lazy with this, was that I have all these ideas in my head, and that I can't wait to put them on paper... but you'll notice the Rikku/Yuna/Lulu/Paine stuff getting a little dry. Don't worry, I've got big plans for them comingup, too!

DarkAnimePriestess: Thank ya kindly :D

7w7: Kana is a bit of a taunter... like a bully almost. You'll see how cold she can really be, but she didn't want to be too mean to Aya just yet... remember, she had said that she had taken a liking to her... we'll have to see what that's all about. Coming up in this chapter, actually!

Aya glared at Kana. She had long since stopped crying; she was too angry for that. She felt something hot trickling down her cheek, and discovered a cut beneath her right eye. She wasn't quite sure how to react, considering she had hardly ever been injured in her life, other than the small pink cuts she got from her shield, and almost never to the point of bleeding. She already had cuts up and down her arms, which she was trying to discreetly heal while Kana talked.

"I remember you asking why I killed your dear mother, Izumi," Kana said. It seemed she had the same facial expression nearly all the time—it was somewhere between a smirk and a sneer. "Well, that's something that is actually the reason why I brought you here today."

"You didn't—"

"Brought, lured, same difference," Kana said in a superior tone. "Anyway, someone very important to me died a few years back, and I had been working on a spell to bring her back to life—"

"That's illegal," Aya said immediately. "My mother knew the rules, no wonder she—"

"Was foolish," Kana interrupted. "She should have known better than to tangle with me. Look where it landed her, why don't you—buried beneath the dirt. She had been interfering with my work, and I couldn't risk losing to her, so I killed her while you and your brother were at school, and your father was away. She was no match for me, none at all."

"YOU SON OF A—"

"Keep calm, and perhaps I shall finish my story faster," Kana cut in. "You're every bit as powerful as she was… even more so, in fact. Don't waste it on helping out the useless, stupid citizens of Luca that do nothing in return for you. Help me perfect the spell, Aya, and we'll bring your mom back, I swear it."

Aya folded her arms stubbornly, while privately shocked that her mother's killer would even approach her with such a proposal. "It all depends on who you'll use the spell on."

"Just my older sister," Kana replied quickly "Anyway, like I said… help me, and I'll help you."

"You killed her in the first place, you horrible—"

"Sure, I killed her then, but I doubt she'd object to using the spell if it brought her back to life," Kana said, shrugging. "You and I both know that she wanted to study magic much further than she got to in the 36 years she lived."

Aya's fists were clenched so hard that a small trickle of blood dribbled out between the fingers on her left hand. She half wanted to look at what she had done to herself, but kept her gaze locked on Kana. "Don't talk like you knew my mother," she snapped. "You knew nothing about her."

"I know that she was only 18 when she married your father," Kana said smugly. For a moment, Aya considered yelling that her mother had married so young because Sin had around, and her mother had been worried, but she held her tongue. "I know that she was 19 when she had your older brother, and 20 when she had you. I know that she went to one of the greatest magic schools there ever was, and the exact number of her magic attribute. I know so very much, I think it would make your blood run cold, really."

Aya tried a stony glare, but almost started crying again. She couldn't help but be upset that Kana knew so much—she was only trying to get to Aya. "So you've done your homework, so what! You know nothing about me," Aya growled. "You know I'm powerful, but any mage could sense my magic from miles away. I could destroy a whole city, if I wanted… it's easy to see. What's more mystifying, is how I couldn't sense your magic until you fired that transportation spell."

"You let your magic run wild, little girl, that's why. You have no inner strength, therefore you cannot control what it does on the inside of you. For a genius, you certainly are a bit stupid, aren't you?" Kana said, mouth twisting into a small, devious smile, making her look positively evil. "You are powerful, yes… If you could play into all the power you really have, you'd perhaps become the most powerful mage Spira has ever seen… if you'd only help me with the spell…"

"Plug that giant hole in your face!" Aya shouted. "If you're going to kill me, just do it!"

"But you won't let me," Kana said in a taunting, fakeish sad voice. She launched an enormous thunder bolt at Aya. For a moment, Aya considered letting it hit her, but she knew it wouldn't kill her, so what was the point in going through the pain? She dodge out of the way, threw her hand out in front of her, and screamed, "BURN!"

An inferno of fire blasted out, engulfing Kana completely. The fireball was so big that it made a huge roaring noise as Aya fought to sustain it, in hopes of severely injuring Kana. When Aya at last let her hand fall back to her side and the fire ceased, Kana was standing there, translucent shield up, looking pleased with herself. Aya noticed gashes all over her arms and face, and smiled to herself—Kana was wearing down.

As Rikku, Yuna, Lulu, and Paine marched along the path that led to the Moonflow, Rikku continued grumbling while Yuna and Lulu were discussing more likely places to be checking.

"Well, Bevelle has that huge dungeon," Yuna offered.

"The 100 floors one you were telling me about? How many days do you think it would take to search that one?" Lulu asked, an edge of sarcasm in her tone.

"I guess you're right, we really don't have time," Yuna admitted. "Perhaps the room where Vegnagun was."

"I doubt it," Paine said. "Bevelle's dungeons have anti-transportation stuff on it, I'm sure of it. If that was supposed to be top secret, even if it's gone… and Bevelle is pretty heavily populated… there's not much chance for them to have gotten in undetected."

"The fact that we have no idea who could possibly have done it helps tons," Rikku said bitterly, kicking the ground.

"Let's just keep going, and maybe we'll find something," Yuna said doubtfully.

The girls' walk through the Moonflow was rather peaceful. The fiends seemed to be keeping on the down-low, and the sun was shining brightly. When they finally finished walking through the huge area of land, they were all severely discouraged.

"We're going about this the completely wrong way," Lulu said in frustration. "I wonder…"

"We've checked a lot of places already," Yuna pointed out. "A few more to go. I'm sure we'll find them!"

"What if we've already missed them?" Rikku asked worriedly. "It's not like we have our own private expert of every place like we did in Luca…"

"We could ask Leblanc in Guadosalam," Paine suggested. "It's not the best idea, but I'm sure she knows her way around."

"Or maybe Tromell or those crazy musicians can help us," Rikku suggested.

They walked across the clearing and entered Guadosalam. One of the first people they met on the nearly deserted streets was Tromell himself. "Why hello, ladies," he said warmly. "What brings you back to Guadosalam? Goodness knows you're not the visiting type… so what type of mission are you on this time?"

Yuna smiled. "We're just looking for our missing friends… would you allow us to search your city for them?"

Tromell's brow furrowed in thought. "That's a difficult question. I would really discourage it… if there were any strange activity going on around here, I'm certain the person would be turned in."

Anger blazed behind Rikku's swirly green eyes. "But Tromell, it's our friends! We really need to find them before they get hurt!"

"I'm sorry, but the only place that isn't patrolled regularly by guards is Leblanc's mansion. There is no possible way for anyone to be hidden anywhere—"

The girls were already gone, walking at top speed towards the estranged sphere hunter's house. Rikku was mumbling insults under her breath the whole way, when at last Paine tried to shut her up by explaining the situation to her. "Tromell is trying to be a good leader," Paine said. "He thinks that because of all of his 'reforms', his city and his people are invincible from crime of any type."

"That's stupid," Rikku said, knocking loudly on Leblanc's huge red door.

"I know," Paine agreed. "I mean, it's great that he feels like what he's changed has helped, but…"

"It sucks that he's wrong," Yuna said, sounding more angry than she had in a long time. "Not cooperating is the worst thing that he could have done."

Lulu remained silent, staring at the red door blankly. When Leblanc at last answered, she seemed the same as ever. "Gullwings? What are you doing here, I thought we'd broken off contact for good!"

Paine rolled her eyes, and Rikku almost shoved her fist into her mouth to keep herself from saying something back. "Listen, Leblanc," Yuna began, as nicely as she could. Yuna had a natural gift for sounding nice when really, she was pissed. "Two of our friends are missing, and I was wondering… how much do you know about Guadosalam? I mean, secret passages, stuff like that."

"You think I'd waste my time on something like that?" Leblanc said in disbelief. "Ormi, Logos, and I have better things to do than to go searching for secret passageways!" She began laughing.

"Well, just checking," Yuna said, clearly defeated. She gave Leblanc one last rock hard look before turning on her heel and walking away. The other girls followed suit, and they heard Leblanc's door slam behind them.

"Can you believe her?" Yuna raged.

"This has been a rather unsuccessful visit," Lulu said, sounding a bit disappointed. Her weak, almost limping walk made her look a bit tired; the dark circles under her eyes reinforced it. The past few days had been stressful and draining, and it was starting to take its toll on Lulu—she wasn't in practice like the other girls, not to mention she was older than them.

They walked toward the Thunder Plains, each feeling increasingly discouraged. "Really, we have to find something soon enough," Rikku said. "If we waste another day, I'm betting that Wakka and Tidus will be…" she shuddered.

"Don't say that," Yuna said firmly. "They'd never…"

Lulu's eyes became more focused on the ground ahead of her, and her muscles tensed up. Thankfully, nobody noticed.

Yup, nothing particularly exciting going on there... XD Review anyway, and I PROMISE things will get better... when they roll into Macalania, you will see :D And that's not giving too much away, except the place where something MAJOR will happen to the four of them! As for Aya... can she beat Kana? We shall see :D

Thanks muchly,

Lulala