A/N: Hi guys! Here's chapter 17, we finally get a few answers to some questions, although not all of them yet. Its more or less Alistar explaining things from the beginning and stuff and I'm actually really proud of this chapter and I hope you all enjoy it too!

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The group consisting of both children and their future 'parents' walked towards the Captains meeting room. After the Witch Queen made her surprising appearance she requested that the entire group come to the Castle for a little 'chat'. Vanessa hadn't been pleased about her mother's appearance at all, she knew that meant something was going on or that there was someone in this group she was interested in. But Vanessa kept all of this to herself, although she got the feeling everyone else was feeling the same way.

" So uh, since when does the Witch Queen leave the Forest of Witches?" Finral asked no one in particular, Vanessa looked over at him.

" Rarely. If ever. I don't think I can recall a time she left the Forest." Vanessa muttered as she racked her brain to try and find a memory but came up empty handed.

" Hey Vanessa," Yami called as he looked over his shoulder at Vanessa and Finral who walked behind him. Vanessa blinked as she was pulled out of her thoughts. " You good?"

" Yeah, I'll be fine, Captain." She told him as she nodded firmly, Yami raised a curious brow slightly before shrugging to himself and facing forward again.

Yami stared at Alistar's back as the young man walked in front of him, ever since the Witch Queen had appeared the white haired man had become extremely tense and appeared to be even nervous. Although none of these things appeared on his face, it was all in his Ki.

" Something on your mind Yami?" William asked as he came to stand next to the Black Bulls Captain, Yami scoffed.

" Not really, your kid's just acting weird. Which isn't surprising since, y'know, he's your kid and all." Yami muttered as he watched Hikari walk next to Alistar.

" Alistar hasn't been acting weird, at least not to me." William said thoughtfully before he looked at Yami out of the corner of his eye. " By weird do you mean by it's proper definition, or do you mean weird like suspicious?" He asked curiously. Yami grunted before rubbing the back of his head as he really didn't want to answer that, it seemed like both Charlotte and William saw right through him.

" I'll take your silence as confirmation of the suspicious definition." William said before he and Yami walked next to each other silently. Meanwhile, in front of them, both their 'children' were having a conversation of their own.

" He's getting suspicious of you y'know." Hikari muttered softly as she glanced behind her at her 'father', she heard Alistar inhale sharply.

" I've noticed, I'm trying to hide my Ki like you taught me too, but I see it isn't working." Alistar muttered back as he also glanced over his shoulder. He noticed the cold glare Captain Yami was sending his way and quickly turned back around causing Hikari to giggle.

" Well of course it isn't. The only one's it would work on would be those who are either just starting to learn Ki like Brielle or those that aren't very good at it. When you try to use it against me or my dad it's going to fail." Hikari explained with a shrug, Alistar's eyes narrowed sharply.

" Then why did you even bother teaching me how to use it?" He asked, slightly irritated. Hikari sighed softly before giving a half shrug.

" Because I just wanted to spend time with you." She explained simply. The white haired man blushed before looking away and rubbing his neck in embarrassment, of course she wanted to just spend time with him. They had known each other since they were children and spent most of their time together, but now that they were older and in different squads they didn't get to see or spend as much time together.

" By the way," Hikari started, suddenly changing the subject. " What did you and Miku talk about the other day?" She asked curiously and was surprised when he stiffened and just looked at her, his expression completely unreadable.

Instead of answering he looked away and began to walk a bit faster. Hikari frowned slightly as she watched him, that was an odd reaction, she glanced over her shoulder and looked at the small girl. She looked…tired. Before Hikari could ponder on it more, she suddenly turned to look as she heard Ezio groan.

" Hey what was that for Joss?" The pink haired boy asked as he gently rubbed his side where Josslyn had elbowed him sharply. He had thrown his arm around her shoulders and began to flirt with her and she had enough of it.

" You're being clingy and annoying. Stop it. Get some help." She told him with a huff, Ezio chuckled.

" Aw you know you would miss my flirting if I stopped Joss." He teased light heartedly, the pink haired girl looked at him with a raised brow and cold eyes.

" Would I though?" She asked with a mocking frown and in a slightly teasing voice, although sometimes her teasing voice sounded more like her normal one. Ezio clutched his chest as though she had just stabbed him.

" Ow, that hurt." He mumbled before falling back a few steps.

" He is annoying, just like his parents." Nebra muttered coldly as she shook her head, Josslyn glared icily at her 'mother'.

" Ezio may be annoying, but he's much less annoying than you." Josslyn told her coldly before walking away, Nebra just gaped at her before huffing.

" Those two really don't mesh do they?" Zora asked with a sigh and Ace shook his head.

" No they don't, they never have." Ace said softly as he looked down at the ground, Zora frowned curiously.

" Why not? Are they too much alike?" He asked and watched as the red haired boy shook his head.

" No. They just don't get along." Ace shrugged, Zora let out another sigh before ruffling the young boy's hair. Apparently that was all the information he was going to get.

—

" Ah, welcome everyone, please take a seat!" Julius Novachrono said as the rag tag group walked into the Captain's meeting room. At one end sat the Wizard King in his chair with his aide Marx by his side. While at the other end of the table sat the Witch Queen in all her intimidating glory.

" You're all late. What a way to make a first impression." She told them with a small roll of her eyes. Everyone ignored her comment and walked into the room. Charlotte, Yami, and William all sat in their respective seats while Alistar, Hikari, Zora, Nebra, Grey, and Vanessa sat down in the other remaining chairs. The others stood or leaned against the walls.

" What are you doing here?" Vanessa asked sharply as she crossed her arms, the Witch Queen just smiled slightly before turning to Julius.

" I came here because I felt multiple disturbances in the universe. I had planned to come sooner but I thought it would be best if I waited until the disturbances ceased." She explained simply. " I will admit, when I felt those disturbances, I wasn't expecting it to be a bunch of children." She added as she looked around the room at the 'families'.

" You felt them too, didn't you, Wizard King?" The Witch Queen said as her eyes landed back on Julius, a smirk playing on her lips. Julius steepled his hands in front of him before nodding.

" Yes I did." He confirmed with a nod. Everyone in the room looked at him with wide and slightly surprised eyes, they really shouldn't be surprised seeing as this was the Wizard King they were talking about, but it still came as a bit of a shock.

" I felt the first disturbance about a day before Hikari showed up, which is why I had gotten the house set up. Just in case the disturbance was dangerous and I would have to assemble a team of Captains and Magic Knights again." Julius explained simply. " That's also the reason why I was in the basement when Hikari showed up. I was looking to see if there may have been any documents or records of this disturbance happening before, but of course I came up empty handed." He added with a sigh.

" Umm, I-I have a question," Finral stammered as all eyes suddenly turned to look at him. " Can you explain the disturbance a bit more?"

" Hm, the best way to describe it would be like dropping a stone into a lake. When you first drop the stone it creates a ripple, the closer the ripple is to the rock the stronger it is. So the children in this case would be the stone while the Witch Queen and I, as well as the universe, are the ripples. If I were to guess; the closer the ripple, the closer to the stone's original time you are." Julius explained with a sheepish laugh. " This is all just speculation, especially since we don't know what era these kids are from." He added.

" So what you're saying is that the children aren't too far into the past?" William asked as he leaned forward a bit, Julius nodded in agreement.

" Exactly. If I were to guess, I would say the children are at least between 10-20 years in the past." Julius said as he pondered for a moment.

" My, for a mage who's magic is Time Magic you're sure making a lot of guesses and assumptions about all of this." The Witch Queen almost mocked as she leaned her head onto her hand. Julius smiled as he turned his attention back to her.

" And for a Witch Queen who can see into the future, this certainly caught you by surprise." Julius chuckled a bit and watched as the Witch Queen glare harshly at him.

" The future isn't set in stone, you of all people should know this, Wizard King." She spat Julius's title at him, but he kept his calm smile on his face, even though his eyes held a seriousness in them.

The meeting room became silent for a bit, the air was tense and uncomfortable. No one knew exactly what to do or say next as the Witch Queen and the Wizard King seemed to be having a silent battle of wits as they stared at each other. Finally the Witch Queen looked around at the children again.

" Since your Wizard King won't ask you, I will." Her eyes landed on every single child in the room although they lingered a bit longer on Ezio before continuing to the others. " Why are all of you here? What is your purpose?"

Alistar swallowed the sudden lump in his throat, this was it, it was finally time to tell everyone. He looked up at Hikari and their eyes met, he couldn't stop the small smile from forming on his lips. They had always been able to know what the other was thinking just by looking in each other's eyes, it was quite funny.

These exchanging looks didn't go unnoticed by Yami and he glared and opened his mouth to say something when he suddenly felt someone swiftly kick the side of his leg. He turned and noticed Charlotte giving him a look and a small smile, she was telling him to be a good Captain and sit there quietly. He grumbled under his breath but obliged her.

" I can answer that," Alistar announced as he looked at the others in the room. He took one more look at Hikari and when she smiled and gave him a small nod he felt his heart sink into his stomach, he hoped telling them everything would alleviate the weight on his shoulders, but instead it made it worse.

" A week and a half ago, we lost all contact with the Spade Kingdom. No matter how hard we tried to reach them we received nothing in return, so we sent a couple of scouts to survey and tell us what was going on. Well, we only received one report back before we lost contact with our scouts." Alistar let out a sigh as he glanced over at the Adlai family, a sad smile slightly forming on his lips.

" The intel our scouts were able to report to us were, to say the least, disturbing. They reported that the entire Spade Kingdom had been wiped out, and if their report is to be believed, it was completely eradicated in one night." Alistar continued as he looked around the room, he could see the visible surprise on everyone's faces. The children, the parents, everyone in the room just looked at him.

" So, you're here to investigate why the kingdom just disappeared?" The Witch Queen asked curiously, Alistar shook his head.

" Not exactly-." He started before Charlotte cut him off with a question of her own.

" Are you sure these scouts' intel is accurate and not a mistake?" Charlotte asked as she leaned forward a bit, Alistar nodded.

" Yes. I would trust those scouts with my life." He confirmed firmly, Charlotte nodded before allowing him to continue.

" How," Asta started with a slightly confused look on his face. " How can an entire kingdom and its citizens just completely disappear overnight? And where did they all go?"

" They didn't just 'disappear' Asta, they were all killed." Alistar said seriously as he looked at the ash-blonde haired boy. The air in the entire room became heavy once more at his words.

" Who could have done something as huge as that? Especially with Yuno being the king?" Neva asked with a curious frown, Alistar gave her a small smile.

" Well our scouts didn't get that far before we lost contact, but luckily for me we have the only known survivor of the Spade Kingdom in this room with us." Alistar looked behind Neva and Yuno and stared straight at Miku, the 12 year old girl slightly hid behind her father as all eyes looked at her.

" I told you," the girl started softly. " I don't remember what happened that night." She added as she clutched onto her father's talisman tightly in her hand.

" And I believe you. But," Alistar started with a kind smile. " Marx here can go through a person's memories, even buried ones, and show us so that way we know exactly what happened to your kingdom." He added as he watched the girl think.

" You'd really be helping us out, Miku." Alistar continued but Hikari cut him a look.

" Alistar, don't pressure her." She warned and Alistar nodded, a bit ashamed of himself, he wanted to know what exactly happened to his friends and who, or what, was responsible and he wasn't even taking what Miku wanted into consideration.

" It, It'll really help you if I agree to this?" Miku asked softly, the white haired man nodded. After another minute of thinking the girl nodded.

" Ok. I'll do it."

" Are you sure?" Marx asked as he looked at the girl, she nodded.

" I'm sure, I…I need to know what happened to my family, to my kingdom. You guys need to see it so that way we get a better idea as to what's going on right? So, let me help." The girl told them, her head held a bit higher and a determined look in her eyes. Marx looked at her 'parents' and then Julius for confirmation, once they all nodded he used his memory magic to go through Miku's memories.