Sorry about the long wait, again. I'm just very busy with school... I will finish this, though, and it's getting down to the wire! I've got my next fic in the works already, title and everything, and I'm almost done with the first chapter! Special preview and summary at the end of the last chapter of this fic, keep an eye out!

THANK YOU to all three of my reviewers last chapter:

DarkAnimePriestess: And continue I most definitely shall :D Thank you, as always, for reviewing. You people that review every chapter deserve something special, haha. Good for one request in my next fic, perhaps? We shall see :D

Paine3: You'll have to wait and see what happens :D Good luck with the guessing, and thank you for reviewing!

Musicmaker: EXTRA long, just for you. And school is poop.

Aya, Wakka, and Tidus were all cheering. The illusion had been broken, and they could rest considerably easier. If Aya could now only get some time out of her cell. Then, perhaps, the escape could happen even today.

Lulu stirred. When she cracked open her eyes, a burst of light swelled in, and she quickly threw her blanket back over her head. Where was she, anyway? She took another couple minutes to get used to the light. Once she got a proper look at the room, she realized immediately that she was in the cabin of the Celsius. Yuna, Rikku, and Paine were lying there, as well; all three of them were awake, and looked considerably relieved when Lulu sat up. Right on Lulu's forehead, there was a sudden stab of pain—a killer headache, no doubt, from overusing her magic.

It was silent for a moment as the girls looked at each other. Finally, Rikku spoke. "What… happened to us?"

Paine looked angry, and Yuna looked bewildered.

Lulu hesitated. "I think I can answer that."

Everyone's attention snapped to her. She took a deep breath. "The whole thing as an illusion."

Paine's eyes widened. Lulu saw her fists clench. Rikku ripped off one of her bandages, bearing a deep, long gash. "You think this is an illusion!"

"Obviously a new type of illusion," Lulu replied immediately. "Formulated by a mage. I've never seen the spell before."

"How did we get out?" Yuna asked. "The last thing I remember is that I was about to die—"

"Me too," Rikku added.

"Hmph," Paine grunted. Everyone took this to mean that she had nearly died as well.

"Well… we got out because… since I'm a black mage, the magic has the least amount of effect on me… wow, this is complicated…" Lulu bit her lip. "Actually, Aya saved us."

"What?" Paine said sharply. "How could she have?"

"She… well, she basically sent me little bits of magic with feelings attached. I read her feelings and found out it was an illusion, and I did my best with what little training I had to break it," Lulu explained.

"So, the major question now is, who cast this on us?" Yuna said, picking at one of her bandaged fingers absently.

"I keep thinking I know the aura of the magic from somewhere," Lulu mused, thinking back.

"Let's get off this airship and go relax in the village or something," Rikku suggested. "We're in Besaid, so I'm thinking that could be fun."

Everyone agreed. Much to Brother's dismay, the girls went back to the village. All of them could walk just fine, thankfully. Being completely without anything to do, Paine bought a few yards of fabric from a weaver in the village, and she, Lulu, and Rikku sat down and began to mend the holes and cracks in Rikku and Paine's hut. Yuna couldn't sew at all, due to the damage done to her fingers by the birds. All of them were wrapped and bandaged up, and nearly unmovable.

"I'm sure you can figure out who it was, Lulu," Yuna said encouragingly.

"I hope I can," Lulu said with a sigh. "I mean, maybe I should try sending a message to Aya… or maybe I should just go see her."

"So, I'll bet she seemed pretty clued in on the whole thing. How convenient that she just happened to know that you were stuck in an illusion," Paine commented, an edge of sarcasm in her voice.

Rikku scowled. "Will you drop it?"

Paine scowled back at her. "It could have easily been her."

"Could NOT!"

"Don't make me argue with you!"

"She didn't—OUCH!" Rikku squealed, pulling her hand away and sticking her thumb into her mouth. "You made me stick myself!"

Paine rolled her eyes.

Lulu stood up. "I'm going to go to the library in the temple for a little while," she announced. She had to get away from the arguing, and besides, she wanted to do a little research on mages. She could recall some extensive studies done on them when there were more of them around—they had learned precious little about them in school, however.

Once Lulu got there, she pulled out every book that she could find—which was an astonishing total of two. There wasn't anything useful that she could find, so she resorted to paying a visit to Luca to talk to Aya. Sure, they had the radio, but a radio conversation just wasn't going to do it for Lulu at the moment. Besides, she was pretty sure that Aya would have some type of magic books around her house.

When she returned to Rikku and Paine's hut, they were still sewing things up, so Lulu dragged Yuna back to the airship with her. "Hey, Brother, could we head to Luca for a few hours?" Yuna asked.

Brother eyed her warily. "You are hurt."

"We just want to talk with Aya," Lulu told him.

Brother looked uncertain. "Well…"

"Okay," Buddy said. "You guys will be okay, I'm sure."

Buddy set the ship up on autopilot to take them to Luca. Lulu found it hard to fend off her curiosity, which was growing and growing. The illusion would have had to have been extremely powerful to affect her the way it had. She vaguely wondered for a moment how Aya knew, but stopped herself. Doubting her best source of information at the moment wasn't wise.

When they were dropped off in Luca, Lulu realized that she hadn't the faintest idea where Aya lived. Luckily, Yuna had her radio with her. Lulu punched in the button with the number of Aya's radio on it, and said into it uncertainly, "Aya?"

There was no answer.

"Aya, it's Lulu," she said, a little louder.

Silence.

"Aya! This is important, please answer!"

Either Aya had misplaced her radio, or something was very wrong with this picture…

For awhile, Yuna and Lulu aimlessly wandered all around Luca, looking for Aya. As the city itself was so big, it was impossible to search everywhere. Anyone they asked said that they hadn't seen her for days, so it wasn't much help.

"Odd, isn't it?" Yuna said after yet another person denied seeing her within the past three days. "She usually is all around the city helping people, and nobody has seen her for awhile."

Lulu nodded in agreement. "Maybe she got sick or something. I bet if we could find her brother, he could help us."

After a bit longer of searching, they found themselves on a completely deserted section of the docks. The only person that was there was a very peculiar looking girl. She had raven black hair down to the middle of her back, and piercing, ice blue eyes. She had on a pair of white shorts over distressed black capri pants, with a spikey belt just for looks, and wore a black tank top over a white one. Her wrists, similar to Aya's, were covered with bangles, and she had a silver ring on almost every finger. She didn't look very approachable, leaning against a wall the way she was, staring out at the ocean with a blank expression on her pale face.

A man walking suddenly came into view, and Lulu and Yuna decided to question him as to Aya's whereabouts.

"Sir, have you happened to see the short, redheaded girl named Aya around here lately?" Yuna asked politely.

"No," he answered, eyeing them strangely.

"Do you happen to know her address?" Lulu pressed, as the man was looking as though he was about to bolt.

"No!" he answered firmly, walking quickly away.

"What are we gonna do?" Yuna moaned.

The girl leaning against the wall was suddenly paying attention. "I know where Uruna Aya lives," she said, her voice reminding Lulu sharply of Paine.

"Really?" she asked cautiously. "Are we thinking of the same Aya?"

"Short, red hair, mage," the girl said with a nod. "I'm guessing that we are."

Lulu smiled slightly. She held out her hand. "Lulu."

The girl took it. "Meena," she replied, shaking Lulu's hand. "Follow me, it's this way," she said, leading them off the docks the way they had come.

"So Meena, how do you know Aya?" Yuna asked.

"My family is friends with her family," Meena replied easily. "I spend a lot of time at her house, actually… she and her brother train me."

"Are you training to become a mage?" Lulu wanted to know.

"Partly," Meena replied. "Just like Ryuen, I specialize in a certain element."

"I didn't know he did," Lulu replied thoughtfully. "Which is it?"

"Fire," Meena replied. "And I specialize in ice magic."

Lulu immediately understood why ice magic would work better for Meena—for one, she had an icy type of aura, and for another, her eyes were so blue that Lulu was reminded of ice when she looked at them. "I'd much rather be a fighter, though," Meena added.

Lulu and Yuna exchanged glances. They were both fairly certain that this girl would love to meet Paine. Before long, they came upon a cozy little house, wedged tightly between two much larger houses. Meena walked up and rapped hard on the door without hesitation. A very tired looking Ryuen answered moments later.

"What, Meena?" he said, sounding annoyed. "I've been up all night, and I've just gotten to sleep, so could we train tomorrow?"

"It's not about that," Meena replied, shooting him a stony glare. "I brought some people that were looking for Aya."

Ryuen's eyes widened. "Not—oh, you guys—hi, what's up?"

"Have you seen Aya lately?" Lulu asked. "I need to talk to her, it's important."

Ryuen looked worried. "I was hoping she was with you. She hasn't been home for three days, at least."

There was an outbreak of momentary panic, but almost immediately, a calm, collected Meena suggested that they go inside and talk things out.

"So, when was the last time you saw her?" Lulu asked.

"Three days ago," Ryuen replied. "I brought her with me out onto the docks to buy some books from a few vendors I know, and she disappeared. I figured she just got bored and transported herself back here, or to wherever you guys were, but… I guess not. And then, not much later, I felt a transportation spell come from that secret basement beneath the stadium. It wasn't her that I know of, though, because it was much sloppier than hers, with more power than needed."

"Skip the magic analysis," Meena advised.

"Right. Anyway, I was up all night looking for her, but I couldn't find her," Ryuen finished.

"Now Wakka, Tidus, and Aya are all missing," Lulu mumbled thoughtfully. Suddenly, a light bulb went on in Lulu's head as she was digesting everything Ryuen had said. "…because it was much sloppier than hers, with more power than needed…" Why hadn't Lulu noticed in the first place!

Yuna noticed that Lulu had frozen up with a look of surprise on her face. "Lulu, what's wrong?"

"Yuna," Lulu said urgently, "we have to get back to Besaid, now. You two had better come, too," she said, gesturing to Ryuen and Meena. "This is an emergency, we have to hurry!"

Yuna called Brother while Lulu begged Ryuen for books about mages and magic in general. Ryuen loaded up two bags full of them, and they all hopped on the airship, Besaid bound.

Upon their return, Rikku and Paine were relaxing in their newly fixed hut. Lulu saw Paine's eyebrows shoot through the roof when she first saw Meena, but she figured the subject of Meena's training could stay on the back burner for the time being. "Rikku, Paine, come on! We've got work to do!" Lulu said loudly as she poked her head into the hut. Rikku and Paine immediately got up and hurried out. Surrounded by questioning friends, Lulu sped down the small road towards the temple. She veered off to the left, and burst into the blue tent flanked by military men.

"Listen, can I ask you something really quickly?" Lulu asked the person sitting at the desk.

"Sure," the man replied.

"Has their been anybody running around in a black hooded cloak around here recently?" Lulu asked. "It may sound strange, but—"

"Yes, actually," the man interrupted her. "Never did see that lady's face."

"When?" Lulu demanded.

"Just yesterday," the guy said. "She went up to the temple and came out awhile later. Headed off into the woods."

Lulu didn't wait another minute. Yuna, Rikku, and Paine were considerably less confused now, but Meena and Ryuen were almost completely in the dark.

Lulu ran to the temple, everyone else struggling to keep up. She slowed as she was entering, and made a beeline for the first monk that she saw.

"Excuse me, but—"

"Lower your voice," the monk requested quietly.

"Sorry," Lulu said. "I was wondering… was there anybody wearing a black cloak praying by the Lady Ginnem statue yesterday?"

"Why, yes," the monk said, slowly and monotonously. "There was. I thought it odd that she be wearing a cloak here in Besaid. However, we gladly welcome anybody that wishes to pray—"

"Thanks!" Lulu said, before dashing out of the temple.

"We've been quiet thus far, but do you mind filling us in?" Ryuen asked hopefully.

"Once we're back in my hut," Lulu said quietly. She walked at top speed back to her hut, and once everyone was situated around the room and the door flap was shut, Lulu took a deep breath, and began.

"It all started back when I was first becoming a guardian…"

Whoo, what a cliffie! Faster update next time, I promise! And if you don't get the purpose of Meena yet, you will... very soon. Also, with the title, I'm sure some of you might possibly be beginning to understand it now, hehehe... we shall see :D

Preview for next chapter:

"Whoa," Ryuen said, voice quivering a little. "Are you serious? You actually knew her?"

"Yeah, I did," Lulu said, eyes narrowing slightly in anger. "And I know where she is."

"What!" Everyone said together in shock.

"Now, it's just a matter of our attack plan," Lulu said. "Let's split up."

Thank ya, keep reading :D

Lulala