Author's Note (A/N): Right, so… It's been a little over a year since I last updated. Like I said in my profile, I neglected the story quite a bit… I think I just got tired of writing. Well, I hope I still have readers… if not, maybe someone new will start reading. shrug. Anyhow, I've edited every single one of the old chapters. There are some slight, minor differences. If you're an old reader, it's probably a good idea to go back and read them all again.

Previously: The ruler's all split up to go to their own individual Realms. Tyrell and Lloyd were captured in the Thunder/Lightning Realm, Sigma and Candice were captured in the Light Realm by Abner, Shadow went to talk to people in a secluded village in the Dark Realm, Matriana and Eriol went to the Water Realm, and Sakura, Li, and Solana went to the Air Realm to relax for a while and pick up some stuff. All in all, they've been having bad trips. Let's see if anything changes here, hmm?

Chapter 27: Foreboding Victories

"Tyrell, wake up…"

Tyrell rolled over in his disturbed sleep, finally waking up with more than just a migraine. After the room stopped spinning and settled itself with defined corners, lines, and geometric shapes, Tyrell stared at the person that roused him, attempting to put a name on the face. Moments later, Tyrell's mind cleared and his memory returned. He nodded at Lloyd before standing up rather shakily.

"Be careful. I sensed a poison in your body when I woke you. Take small steps," Lloyd cautioned, getting up next to Tyrell. The two of them walked around for a while, Lloyd helping Tyrell when he stumbled and Tyrell attempting to regain his wits. A short while later, Tyrell regained his sense of balance and managed to walk from one end of the room to the other, finding a comfortable spot next to a fire to sit when he was done.

"How… long have you been awake?" Tyrell asked, speaking for the first time since he awoke.

"Not long. No more than an hour. I don't know what happened before, but the poison in your body is deadly. The good news is that you managed to fight it off and it should be gone within the hour," Lloyd replied.

Tyrell stared for a while into the hearth, watching as the flames danced and formed shapes in his mind. Flickering shadows cast themselves across the ceiling, revealing the small imperfections of the otherwise smooth ceiling. All of this, Tyrell let drift through his subconscious, not really paying any attention as other thoughts occupied his mind. He wondered where they were, but when that answer presented itself to him through the faint strands of Thunder energy phasing in and out of the room, he turned to other, more important, thoughts.

Thoughts of how they would escape came next and Tyrell went through all the different methods he could use, running into a dead end each time. He attempted to seize the energy of the Realm, pulling at it and channeling it into the wall, but none of it came. Everything seemed to be blocked off by some invisible barrier far behind the walls of the room. As he realized there was no way out, Tyrell decided to stop trying, saving his energy for the first weakness he saw, in order to strike fully then.

"Lloyd, do you have any idea where we are?"

"No, I'm sorry. All I know is that we're in the Thunder Realm."

Tyrell allowed these words to flow through his thoughts as he stared at the door, sensing the approach of another person. When the door flung open the next moment, Abner walked in, staring maliciously at Tyrell and Lloyd as if trying to decide how to torture them next.

"Well, I see you're both awake!" Abner said loudly. He paced across the room, putting a hand up to his chin and staring at Tyrell as if he had decided to do something before returning to his pacing. Over and over he did this, keeping suspense in the air. As he continued his routine, Tyrell ignored him, staring into the flames and allowing Abner's arrogance to be his own downfall. He could not reach the Thunder energy flowing through the Realm, but there were things that could be done without it.

"I've got it!" Abner said triumphantly, cuffing Tyrell's hands together and leading him on a chain out of the room. "After this, you will tell us everything that we need to know. If not…"

Tyrell ignored Abner's threats, feeling for some odd reason that Abner wouldn't do anything to harm him. As he grew more and more faithful in this belief, he no longer feared for his own or Lloyd's safety. Contently, he followed Abner into a small room, ready to face whatever illusions Abner would present to him.

"Here we are," Abner said in a sadistic voice.

"Of course we are," Tyrell muttered, taking a seat in the chair Abner motioned to. "So now what are you going to do? Flaunt your nonexistent power?" Tyrell asked, mocking Abner.

"You think I'm powerless? Do you have any idea what I could do to you right now?"

"Nothing."

At this, Abner looked shocked, staring into Tyrell's fearless eyes and pulling a large amount of power into his body. Still, Tyrell sat, staring coldly back at Abner, knowing, somehow, that he could do nothing to harm him, knowing that Abner's was restricted by something.

"Fine!" Abner yelled, storming out of the room, slamming the door shut behind him. A moment later, he reappeared, somehow with a more sadistic aura. Tyrell stared blankly at the wall, ignoring Abner's entrance completely until he was forced to acknowledge it when Abner turned his head towards him with some unseen strand of energy. "How did you know?" Abner asked vehemently.

Tyrell chose not to answer, now assured of his previous hunches, assured that Abner could do absolutely nothing to harm him. Every moment of Abner's desperation to ascertain Tyrell's means of gaining knowledge humored Tyrell, almost so much that he laughed. With every ounce of his willpower, he held his laughter, gazing into Abner's powerless eyes with what he thought was a knowing look.

Abner turned away, pulling tightly at Tyrell's chain and almost dragging him out of the room. Unceremoniously, he tossed Tyrell back into the small room where Lloyd waited, kicking his back hard enough to land Tyrell on his hands and knees before turning away. "You'll pay for this."

Tyrell got up, gave Lloyd a victorious look that said he was alright, and took his place near the fireplace again, staring yet again into the dancing flames. At the moment, Tyrell felt as if all would work out in its own way, that after the strife and struggle of this war, he would end up back on his throne, relaxing until he was called on for minor, outlandish problems.

Eriol sat up in his bed, waking up at the exact time of six thirty, as usual, and pondered the slightly useless information that he'd acquired the night before. Failing to see what else to do, he headed for the library again, feeling that time was a pressing issue and whatever information he could glean from the books now would be useful at some future date.

As he walked down towards the library, a strange aura appeared, feeling almost benign in comparison to the past few days, but still carrying a twinge of evil. Ignoring the feeling, he stepped into the library and realized, immediately, the importance of what he had felt.

How interesting… The parallelism of the Realms will never cease to amuse me… Eriol thought, allowing himself to fully experience the small aura that radiated through the Realms. Having realized what the aura was, he set to work, deciding that Inter-Realm Parallelism would have to be investigated sometime in the future.

Eriol sat down at the table once again and found the book he had been studying the night before. An hour passed, and Eriol finished the book entitled Powers Dancing Through the Realms: The Dark Sphere. Upon finishing, Eriol searched the tall bookcases for more books from the same series. When he had found five of the expected six books, Matriana stepped into the room and summoned him to breakfast.

"What time did you wake up, Eriol?"

"Six thirty," Eriol replied simply, but cheerily.

"Do you always wake up so early?"

"Yes, I do. I don't like to sleep in too late."

"But you're so young, and you were up really late last night. Oh well, I'm not your mother: can't tell you what to do. What do you want for breakfast?" Matriana said.

"Whatever you have is fine. When are we leaving to go meet up with Shadow again?"

"We'll head out later today, probably after lunch. Are you in a hurry to get back?"

"No, not really. Actually, I was hoping to stay here a little while longer to do some more reading. Can I borrow a few books from your library?" Eriol inquired hopefully.

"Sure. Let's get breakfast, then we can go back to our research. We haven't found very many books on the war so far."

The two of them stopped talking as they arrived at the dining room of the large, underwater palace. The windows leading to the wet world outside the castle showed large fish swimming nearby and elegant, waving kelp surrounding the castle. Light from the bright dining room caused a slight reflection of the room in the windows, giving the effect that window led to an identical, but underwater, room filled with playful fish. Eriol watched these exotic fish swim around, taking mental notes of each of them and deciding that his study of the Realms couldn't end until after he had swam in the waters of the Water Realm and studied the oddly colored fish. As Eriol and Matriana finished eating, they struck up conversation again, this time about plans in the upcoming battle.

"Matriana, do you have any troops or anything of the sort? Maybe some sorcerers or something?" Eriol asked.

"I do, but most of them have to stay around here to help out with this Realm. I'll bring with me as many as I can spare, but the beauty of the Realm around the castle is by no means an accurate picture of what the rest of the Realm is like. This area is only so beautiful because of constant upkeep by the workers around here.

"The sorcerers are immensely important as well, as one of the first things that any sorcerer in this Realm learns is how to extract molecules from dirty water. Any underwater community without a decent number of sorcerers that can access the Water Sphere will eventually die away due to pollution in the water.

"In addition, warriors are necessary to the well-being of any community. The largest underwater community has formed itself around this castle and has been here for years. If I take away too many people, either sorcerers or warriors from this community, it will have negative effects on the people that live here. As ruler of this Realm, I can't allow that to happen."

"I see. What about the other communities? Surely there must be extra people in the Realm somewhere," Eriol suggested.

"Yes, there are a few extra people, but it's always important to keep as many workers in a community as possible. The reason is simply one of precaution. If one of the regular workers dies, or is sick, or something of the like, then a standby, substitute worker would have to take his or her place.

"But again, I'll take as many as I feel can be spared. Besides that, my warriors would be largely useless in the other Realms. Warriors in this Realm are only very briefly trained in land combat unless they specifically request extra training. The only land in this Realm is near the center of the Realm and nothing really lives there."

Eriol sat and listened as Matriana explained the workings of the Realm and asked questions from time to time. They discussed topics ranging from purification of water, to the types of creatures that might threaten a community, to a hypothetical discussion of life on land as opposed to in the sea.

When they finished, it was well past nine O'clock and the two of them headed towards the library as servants came to take their bowls from the table. As Eriol and Matriana headed towards the library, they passed through an arched corridor and saw various figures swim by above the transparent ceiling. A huge figure swam past. Eriol stopped cold.

"Matriana," Eriol said, all cheeriness in his voice suddenly gone. "Look up."

Matriana did and saw the dark figure. "What is that?"

"I don't know. But it's not friendly. What protects this castle?"

"There's a large energy shield keeping all the water pressure off of it. As a secondary and tertiary defense, there are also spells that have been carefully constructed by a combination of all the rulers of the Realms when this castle was first built more than 700 years ago. It's a rather complicatedly structured spell and seems to use a technique that's been lost since that era. I doubt that even the Spiritmaker knows how to break it."

"That's good news. You should probably call some warriors to take care of that thing. I'll help too."

Matriana nodded to Eriol before the two of them darted back down the hallway. The two of them called to the first servant they met whom Matriana asked to sound an alarm. Mere moments later, a group of warriors and sorcerers dressed in tight, rubbery clothing that fully covered their bodies stood in the foyer of the castle where Matriana awaited them.

"Alright then. Warriors, sorcerers, we have to take care of that creature above us. I've never been one for rallying speeches, so all I have to say to you is don't die and watch your backs. You've all been trained well for invasions of the Realm and each and every one of you know exactly how to maneuver in the waters of this Realm better than any outsider ever could. If you're ever wounded during the battle, rush to the medical team if you can. If not, contact them through your communication ring on those suits and they'll locate and help you. Alright, troops, move out."

The legion of soldiers saluted Matriana by placing their right hand on their left shoulder and turned in unison to dive into the water one rank at a time. Matriana watched until each of them had gone and quickly put on her battle suit over her regular clothes. "Eriol, here's a suit for you. Their magically protected to keep water out, but you still have to be careful. The shield that they create isn't very strong and a blade wielded by a skilled underwater swordsman can still penetrate it. Along with that, anyone wielding Power from the Spheres will be able to penetrate it if your guard's not up."

"I understand. I'll be careful," Eriol replied simply before diving gracefully into the water with Matriana.

"Oh, and you can speak in the water. It'll carry just as well as it would in the air. I'll explain why later. For now, I've got to lead my little army against whatever that thing is."

Eriol simply nodded as Matriana swam ahead to the front of the army. After waiting a short moment, Clow's magic circle formed beneath him and he suddenly held his long, golden Sun Staff. Eriol swam forward, joining the fight that had begun.

The large creature, from this less restricted perspective, appeared to Eriol as a huge manta ray with four waving tails. Two eyes were placed at either side of its head and a third stationed itself at the front. The enormous creature was a dull gray-blue and spanned the length of the castle. Its back was covered with large humps, each of which had a tiny slit across the front. From each of these slits, people exited, wearing suits not much different than those worn by Matriana's army. Amazing… Eriol thought, watching the giant creature.

As the opposing army exited its vessel, Matriana's army swam forward to meet them with Matriana in the center of the second line. The group swam in a tight formation and swiftly dodged magical attacks before retaliating with their own magic. Eriol watched for a moment before joining in himself, marveling at how well he could move through the water with the suit he was wearing.

As Eriol approached the fray, a small group of four enemy soldiers swam up to him.

"Who are you working for?" Eriol asked.

"You, who are about to die, don't need that piece of information!" cried the leader as he charged at Eriol with a long, curved sword.

Eriol swiftly dodged and sent fort a barrage of red energy from his staff. The four enemy soldiers weaved through the barrage, attempting to close in on Eriol. Feeling no fatigue, Eriol continued his barrage, watching his attacker's every move and filling up any holes in his defense, all the while paying attention to his surroundings to make sure no one would sneak up behind him. Finally, one of his balls of energy collided with an enemy and punctured his suit, leaving a patch of flesh across his chest charred.

"Is that Fire?" asked another attacker bewildered. "How are you using Fire magic here underwater? Even the strongest of the Fire Realm can't achieve that! Who are you?"

"You, who are about to lose, don't need that piece of information," Eriol responded calmly before suddenly switching his attack style and forming a sphere of energy around his attackers. "Good bye."

Eriol's sphere of Clow's energy closed in on the attackers, giving each of them burns in various places and knocking them unconscious. "You should be glad I didn't kill you. Then again, it's not really in my nature to kill anyone, is it?" Eriol asked the unconscious figures. After making sure that each of them were securely tied to the nearest solid structure, which happened to be a protrusion of rock from the seabed, Eriol turned to join with the rest of the advancing army. If only we never had to fight magic users… Eriol thought to himself. This war would be thousands of times easier if we had the only sorcerers. Let's see what I can do to help Matriana out.

Matriana swam swiftly through the waters, carrying with her a trident wrought purely of Water energy. As enemies swam up to meet her, she shot out massive streams of energy from her trident, knocking each enemy down as it appeared. Her army continued to advance with minimal casualties towards the large transport creature. Sorcerers from the Water Realm cast power spells to rather thoroughly annihilate their enemies while the warriors fought with their weapon of choice, easily outmaneuvering their enemies. The army pressed forward.

"Matriana!" Eriol called.

"Eriol! Where have you been? I've been worried that you had been captured or something!"

"I ran into some of the enemy. Four of them attacked me a while back. I defeated them and tied them to those rocks over there so we can take care of them later. After that, I ran into a few other minor skirmishes. I had to get here and I need to warn you about the creature. It's storing up spiritual energy! I think it's about to unleash a rather large attack and it'd probably be smart to have you and your sorcerers put up a strong shield of sorts."

Matriana thought over this for a while and decided that since Eriol had yet to be wrong since she met him, she would follow his advice. Matriana called out to her nearest soldiers and told them to spread the word. Then, she touched her communication ring and spoke through it to all who were listening. "This is your commander speaking," she said. "I need all of my sorcerers to begin building a large shield together around the entire army. Spare none of your energy in doing this as it may be our only hope of survival. I repeat: form a large shield over our entire army. Work together people!"

Matriana turned to Eriol. "You're very sure of this, right?"

"Absolutely," Eriol replied. "I'll help strengthen the shield once it's up. I should be able to puzzle out how to intertwine my own magic into it to make it stronger."

Matriana turned back to the fight and saw groups of sorcerers begin to from fragments of a shield. As the sorcerers pulled more energy into the fragments, they enlarged and met together at perfect angles. Holes closed up in a matter of seconds and the shield completed itself, held in a little more than seventy places by individual sorcerers. A second group of sorcerers filled with Water energy swam up to the shield and strengthened it, tying together the individual fragments with streams of energy that could be visibly seen to any well-trained mage. "Ok Eriol, they're ready."

Eriol nodded and swam forward as Matriana watched. A magic circle suddenly appeared at Eriol's feet and he began to glow an eerie red. Matriana watched carefully as the entire shield was surrounded by the same, red aura. What is he doing? Matriana thought, fascinated by the magic that Eriol used which was so different from her own. There aren't any threads of energy. It's just one large, fluid mass. It's not only intertwined with the energy from the Water Sphere, but has more or less fused with it! This is amazing!

Eriol swam back. "Matriana, the creature's ready to attack. I think this is the final attack. All of their soldiers have basically been defeated and the rest are retreating with the wounded back into that large fish."

"Understood. I hope this shield holds."

"It will."

Abruptly, the large transport fish started glowing a tremendously bright, vivid blue. As the last enemy soldier entered into a bump on the fish's back, the fish opened it's mouth and a concentrated beam of energy shot from it. The beam hit the shield and swept from left to right. Fragments of the shield began to shatter as the beam passed over it, dissipating into the water and disappearing. Immediately, Matriana filled herself with a torrent of Water energy. With large, thick flows of energy, she helped hold the shield together.

The fish continued to sweep the beam of energy left and right and the shield continued to fragment slowly. As all hope seemed lost, the fish finally closed it's mouth and sped swiftly away.

"That's it then. We've won," Matriana gasped, struggling from the effort of holding the shield. "Eriol, are you alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine. However, it might be unwise for you to leave this Realm now that it's been targeted. Their army today may only have been a portion of what they might still have somewhere. Let's head back to the castle and question the four soldiers I captured."

Matriana nodded to Eriol and called the army back to the castle. Cheerful sounds of victory reached Matriana's ears as the army slowly and happily swam into the castle. "Eriol, you tied the prisoner's to this rock?" Matriana said, motioning to a large protrusion of rock with ropes hanging from it.

Eriol nodded grimly. "Yes, I did. I have no idea how they escaped without breaking the ropes. In fact… it seems like they were never here," Eriol replied.

"Eriol, could the entire army have been made purely from magic?" Matriana asked as worry showed itself on her face.

"That may be. If it is, then whatever or whoever was controlling them…"

"… must be incredibly strong," Matriana finished. "Neither of us felt that they were created from magic. Let's head back, Eriol. It's well past time we should've left to meet Shadow. I'll have to contact him through the communication orb. Come on."

Matriana headed back to the castle followed closely by Eriol. When they arrived, the army greeted them cheerfully with cheers and a multitude of questions ranging from what they should do next to who Eriol was. Deciding to let her army celebrate, Matriana forced a cheerful smile and complimented them all on a job well done before making up an excuse and walking into the communication room, leaving Eriol to talk to answer questions that the crowd might have. He'll be fine. He's extremely intelligent, Matriana thought as she hurried through the castle to talk to Shadow.

Lights turned themselves on as Matriana stepped into the oval shaped room. Hastily, she switched on the orb and called to Shadow's orb with it. About five minutes later, Shadow appeared. "Yes?"

"Shadow, we have a problem. My Realm was just attacked. We won the fight, but…" Matriana proceeded to tell Shadow about the fight and the deduction she and Eriol had made. When she finished, Shadow met her with a long silence.

"Matriana, I'll need you to leave your Realm either way. I know it's difficult to do, especially with all the people you have to worry about, but find some way to gather reinforcements. Don't bother bringing any troops, but I know for a fact that we all need to be in my Realm. I'll let you in on some more details later, but until then, please trust me. You and Eriol need to be back here as soon as you can. I can give you until noon tomorrow to make preparations. Ask Eriol to help you build up some defenses or something. Oh, I might stop by tomorrow if you're not here yet to help with some defense. I'll see what I can do, ok?"

"Alright, I'll prepare then. I hope you know what you're doing," Matriana replied before shutting down the communication orb. Eriol trusts you; I may as well too.

Ok, so we have this chapter after a long time. Hopefully I'll get the next chapter up before another year is over. To all of you that have been asking me to update, well, here's an update. Sorry it took so long.

So, some things for you to think about. Mainly: What'll happen to Lloyd and Tyrell? How will they escape? Why can't Abner hurt Tyrell? What happened to Kayley and her daughter? What's going to happen to the Water Realm once Matriana leave?

Ok. Anyhow, solve the challenge. I think some people already have, but I can't honestly remember.