Ahh, exciting! Another chapter :D School's starting soon, so I'll update 1-2 times a week... most likely 1, 2 if I can manage. Depends on if the writing is flowing as well as it has been lately. Thank you SO MUCH! To those who reviewed! Feel happy, you made somebody's day today:

Motet: Glad you thought so! I love writing fight scenes, they're fun :D Thanks once again, as always, for reviewing!

Musicmaker: Yes, I am evil :D Kana is... okay, not saying anything... you'll see! Of course, there are plenty of baked goods to go around :D

7w7: Glad you like it! If you're wondering how it'll turn out now, just wait till later :D

Paine3: Haha, yes, curse the cliffhangers! They will return, unfortunately... gotta keep you guys reading, after all!

Aya's eyes cracked open, and she looked up to find Kana standing over her. "And to think, if you'd only helped me, none of this would have ever happened," she mused in a taunting voice. "You still have a chance: help me with this spell, and I'll let you live."

Aya weakly reached for her pocket, where she knew she had an Ether or two still stored—if she could only get it, she'd feel like a new person, and be at the top of her game again. "I…" she murmured, praying that Kana wouldn't notice her hand cautiously feeling around in her pocket—

Unfortunately, she noticed, and placed a lethal kick to Aya's hand, which could have easily, and probably did, break bones. At that point, Aya was in far too much pain everywhere else to notice her throbbing and considerably distorted hand. "No! Answer me now, or you shall die!"

It seemed there was no other choice—it was literally do or die for Aya. "Fine," Aya replied, softer than a whisper. "Fine."

Kana's face broke into a devilish smile. "I knew you would. Look at it this way: your dear mother shall be among us again soon!"

Aya's eyelids were feeling heavy, but she tried hard not to close her eyes—how was she to know what Kana would do the second she passed out? Kana grabbed the brown belt of pouches that was around Aya's waist, and gave it such a violent tug that it lifted Aya a couple of inches off of the ground, but successfully detached the belt. "I'll just keep this," Kana said coolly. She bent down, and placed her palm on Aya's forehead. Her eyes widened slightly. "My, you are very drained, aren't you? Well, might as well finish the job…" Aya's forehead started to glow green, and she felt the few remaining magic points being sucked out of her. "Precautionary, for now," Kana said.

She lifted Aya off the ground, and threw her over her shoulder. Her arms shot up into the air, and Aya felt the very familiar sensation of being dunked in freezing water, and everything went black.

When she next opened her eyes, she found herself in an unfamiliar looking cave. She, of course, was in an extremely small jail-like cell, laying on a wooden plank with a thin, ratty blanket on it. The wooden plank, which was hanging from the wall like you might see in an old jail in a movie, took up most of the room in the cell. There was a small space that she would be able to comfortably pace back and forth in front of it, but that was all. After surveying the cell the best she could without moving much, she noticed that she was throbbing all over, her head being the worst. She doubted she had ever been beaten up in all her life—she was completely covered in bloody cuts and gashes, colorful bruises, and other types of wounds. On her face, she could feel a tender, swollen spot, which was undoubtedly a gift from Kana. She noticed that one of her pigtails had fallen out, and she resigned to the fact that she had never looked worse in her life. She finally noticed the eerie figure sitting on the outside of her cell—Kana, to be exact.

Aya tried to sit all the way up, but found that she couldn't—magic was such a big part of her that being completely drained of magic points left her literally drained of all energy.

"So tell me," Kana began, voice considerably cold, almost in a tone that suggested that she didn't really care, "how is it that you managed to last so long?"

"I'll… never tell…" Aya murmured in a pained voice.

"You see, though you agreed to help me, it would take but a snap of my fingers to kill you… so I should think that I am in the power position right now," she said, eyes staring unblinkingly at her as one side of her mouth curved upward. It gave her a positively eerie half-smileish expression that made Aya feel a little scared.

"Fine," she muttered angrily. "The… bracelet… mom, she… one magic point…"

"This won't do," Kana muttered. She waved her hand at Aya, restoring enough magic points so that if Kana managed to hit her, it would drain all of them in one shot, but would make it easier for Aya to move and talk.

"Thank you," she said through gritted teeth. "My mother cast a spell on the pearl bracelet. One magic point for every spell but shield and transportation when you're moving more than one person… she couldn't figure a way around either of those two." She discreetly reached for her ankle to see if the bracelet was still there, and was not surprised to find that not only her ankle bracelet, but all of her bangles and jewelry, had been removed. Without it, her wrists felt light and bare… not at all pleasant.

"Clever," Kana muttered, folding her arms across her chest. "But how she managed…?"

"What's this, you can't do it?" Aya said, immediately regretting mouthing off.

Kana's eyebrows shot up. "Treat the person who spared your life that way, eh? You want me to give you a little taster on what'll happen to you if you ever snap at me again?"

Aya's gaze fell to the stone floor. "No," she said in a quiet, barely audible voice.

"Thought not," Kana said. She pulled a sphere out of one of her pockets. "Hmm, now, I think you might find this interesting," she said, not noticing that Aya wasn't paying attention, but was inspecting her many cuts and injuries on her right arm. Her left hand was extremely sore, and she was certain that that was the one that Kana had broken. She was also certain that Kana had healed it when she had passed out, since Aya could hardly work a spell with a broken hand.

"I said, you may find this interesting," Kana repeated more loudly and sharply, catching Aya's attention at last.

"What's that?" Aya said absently.

Kane glared angrily. "Just watch," she demanded, beckoning towards the sphere. It suddenly turned on, showing a path leading from the Thunder Plains into Macalania Woods. Walking along the path was…

Aya slid off the wood plank and feel to her knees on the floor, face pressed against the bars, hoping to get a better look at the sphere. "What are you showing me this for?"

Kana grinned in a twisted manner, as she always did. "I'm showing you this because I'm going to use one of my newly perfected spell on these friends of yours."

Aya's eyes widened. "NO!" she yelled. "You have to leave them alone!"

"I don't have to do anything!" Kana yelled angrily back. "Besides, I shall only mess with their heads a bit… no need to worry, I won't be killing any of them… today… if I can help it. When I do… it will likely be in person." Kana finished her sentence speaking from behind gritted teeth, and Aya vaguely wondered why she would have something against one of the completely innocent four girls.

Yuna, Lulu, Rikku, and Paine were walking quickly along the path, blissfully unaware that a mage was about to completely mess up their trip thorough Macalania.

Lulu, Yuna, Rikku, and Paine had had a very rough time through the Thunder Plains. They had been forced to wait out a particularly bad storm at the Travel Agency. They hadn't even bothered calling the airship… it would have been too risky to bring the Celsius close to the storm. When they at last made it across the perilous plains, without finding anything, of course, they came closer and closer to Macalania. So close, in fact, that it was driving Rikku absolutely insane.

"Can we be done searching after this?" she whined. "My legs hurt!"

Paine rolled her eyes, but didn't comment.

"You said yourself that time was running out," Yuna softly reminded her. "I think we should keep going."

Paine made a small noise of agreement, while all Lulu could manage was a nod. Rikku couldn't help but groan, even though she wanted to find Wakka and Tidus.

At the edge of Macalania Woods, they all decided to have a rest. After all, if Rikku wouldn't shut up about how tired she was, it would be hard to get through at least another two places with her babbling. It was best to appease her than to argue and have to deal with her disruptive whining for the rest of the day. After resting, they continued, completely unaware of the peril that would await them the second they stepped across the threshold into the woods.

"What are you going to do to them!" Aya demanded, watching her friends' progress in the sphere that Kana had provided.

A smile played at Kana's lips. "A new tactic I've developed. Using magic, I can develop an illusionary Macalania Woods, which all four of them will easily be sucked into. The illusions will be either as pleasant or as terrifying as I desire…" she smirked.

Aya rested her head in her hands, willing herself not to attempt to escape—it would only injure her more than she was already hurt, and perhaps give Kana reason to kill her. It took all the strength she had and then some to keep her from transporting herself out of wherever she was.

Aya raised her head and gazed at the sphere, eagerly watching her friends. She could hear Rikku shrilly complaining, but she couldn't make out the words. The tone, however, was unmistakable. "Why are you doing this to them?" Aya asked Kana, voice quivering with anger. "They're looking for their friends, and you're doing this for your own SICK AMUSEMENT!"

Kana's eyes narrowed almost immediately. "Sick amusement? I will not deny that I shall indeed be amused as I watch them fail against my illusion. Unfortunately enough for you, there is a much deeper reason as to why I am doing this."

"What the—?"

"That's enough questions," Kana snapped. "Tomorrow, we shall begin work on the spell. I will have complete control of your magic points. You shall not at any point have more than I will you to."

"Great," Aya grumbled sarcastically.

"If you attempt to transport outside of the ward I have placed on this cell, you shall be decimated, so don't try. Watch me crush your friends' lives in the palm of my hand, weak little girl."

My favorite line this chapter: "I will not deny that I shall indeed be amused as I watch them fail against my spell." Haha XD Don't forget to review, folks!