A/N: Hi guys, so I decided to go ahead and update this since I haven't posted anything in a while. I apologize this chapter is kind of "filler" (although the WQ *does* say something kind of important hehe ?). Its mostly the group coming up with the plan and is setting up chapters 35 and 36 which are the final battle with Noir, and they'll be pretty long, so hopefully they'll make up for this chapter ?!

—

Hikari and Yami both quickly met up with the rest of the group, they explained that they evacuated as many people as they could, but there were still more and more that were being affected by Noir's magic. So the group decided to retreat for now, as they were all outnumbered. As the group was preparing to leave, The Green Witch quickly found them and gave them a message; that she and her small group of Witches would be taking care of things in the Capital, so the group could find and take care of Noir.

That was the only way they would be able to turn the townspeople back to normal.

So the group retreated to one of the small border towns in Lumi, it was around the size of Nean so if there were to be a battle there would be lots of cover, but there would also be lots of people to move.

Yuno had quickly contacted his mother in Spade and asked for her assistance in helping get the townspeople to Spade just until the battle was done, and Ciel agreed and sent a few Spatial mages to help with the evacuation, as well as a few members of her Division Leaders and a few members of the Magic Defense Force to help.

The group had to admit, although they figured they would be able to handle Noir and whatever she had to throw at them, they weren't going to refuse the extra help.

The group sat around a large table discussing possible plans and ways that Noir would try to attack them, Hikari had walked off saying she was going to look at some of Alistar's notes to see if they would give any ideas or clues.

" From what the Green Witch said, Noir's possessing all the small towns one by one and this is her last stop before she tries to invade Spade." Charlotte said as she pointed to the towns in question on a map that lay in the center of the table.

" She's executing the same plan she used in the future." William said as he crossed his arms. " When we had gone to the future, the Wizard King had a map on his desk that looked a lot like this one. Which means Noir took over the entire kingdom of Lumi before she took over Spade."

" Then why did she summon that Botis guy if she's already able to do all of this?" Gauche asked as he leaned against the wall, Yami looked up at the brown haired man.

" Probably to make it easier to control them. He would erase and manipulate their memories, leaving nothing except the fear of everyone but him and Noir, and she would use her magic to just intensify that fear which would make their little army more dangerous." Yami explained with a shrug.

" Most likely she'll come to the town ahead of her small army, so we'll need to try and find a place to corner her to keep them away from her." Charlotte said as she looked at the map again.

The group all talked back and forth, and slowly a plan began to form. They didn't have a way to beat her yet, but they did have a plan on how to save as much of the town as possible as well as keep Noir occupied.

—

Hikari sat inside one of the storage rooms alone as she read Alistar's journal. On the one hand she was grateful was able to leave this behind, but on the other hand her heart hurt that he didn't share any of this openly with anyone.

But that's how he was, he would take everything and anything upon himself if that meant alleviating some of the worries the people he cared about had.

Hikari let out a soft sigh, there wasn't much in his journal besides what she had read previously. She made sure to avoid that entry, as anytime she read or thought about it a sharp pain would hit her in the chest, and right now she needed to focus.

" There has to be something in here." She muttered quietly to herself, she went back to the page where he talked about the devils and reread it. Most of the questions he posed have already been answered the past few days. She closed the journal with a small sigh.

'Alistar had to have thought of this, right? He had to have a plan up to this point.' Hikari thought as she crossed her arms and leaned back in the chair.

This was going to take a while.

—

Meanwhile, Back in Clover.

Julius looked out over the kingdom of Clover with a determined yet worried look, he could feel the strong, and dark mana coming from the west. He silently hoped his magic knights would be alright and come back safely.

" Ah, you're here." Julius remarked as he turned slightly to see the Witch Queen walking towards him.

" Of course I am, this affects the entire kingdom and my Forest." She told him as she stood next to him and looked out over the kingdom as well.

" Ah, so that's why you're helping. Because it affects your forest." Julius said with a chuckle, The Witch Queen nodded.

" Of course." She told him simply, but they both knew the other reason she was doing this was because Vanessa was involved.

The two stood quietly, both knowing the other could feel the darkness coming from Spade.

" Do you think we should step in?" Julius asked as he turned slightly, although he had a feeling he already knew what her answer would be.

" No. If you and I step in now we'll affect the battle in a negative way, so it's better if we just stay here for now. If Noir manages to defeat the group then we'll intervene." The Witch Queen said and Julius gave her a small smile.

" That's not going to happen, my magic knights won't be defeated by her that easily." Julius said confidently, but as the Witch Queen looked at him they both knew that the group being defeated by Noir was a possibility, no matter how slim.

" By the way," Julius started with a curious frown. " You intentionally sent Alistar on that mission knowing he would die didn't you?" He asked and he saw the Witch Queen give a small nod.

" I did."

" Why?" He asked and the Witch Queen turned to fully look at him.

" Since when did I have to explain myself to others? Especially to men such as yourself?" She asked with a glare and Julius turned to fully look at her as well.

" When you knowingly send one of my Magic Knights to die." Julius said with a glare of his own.

" I sacrificed him for the greater good, if I hadn't sent him to the future to meet his fate, then he would have met it somewhere else." She told him. " And then the future would have turned out much worse than what it already is." She added seriously before turning away.

" Besides," She started again after a few minutes of silence. " What has been done can be undone." She added cryptically, but a ghost of a smile graced her face. Julius frowned a bit but a smile appeared on his face as he understood exactly what she meant.

—

Back in Lumi

Hikari let out an aggravated sigh as she rested her head on the small desk that was next to her. She couldn't think of a single thing! She looked at the journal again and flipped to the very last page, there was a photo of her, Alistar, and all their friends. The Next Generation of Magic Knights, she smiled fondly yet there was a sadness to it. She wished she could go back there, back to the days where everyone was together and happy.

Suddenly, as she stared at the photo and everyone's cheerful smiles, a memory popped into her head.

" It means you can connect the threads of time and space together. You can connect the past with the future, the present with the past, etc;. You can also send your enemies to different time periods if you wish, maybe you can send them to alternate realities if you work hard enough."

That was it! Hikari jumped up and quickly ran out of the room, Yami and the others all stared at the dark haired girl as she ran into the room, she smiled brightly at them.

" I know how we can get rid of Noir! Both the past and future versions!" She told them slightly out of breath, everyone jumped up and gathered around the table.

" What you found something in Pretty Boy's journal?" Josslyn asked as she crossed her arms, but Hikari shook her head.

" No, well yes, kind of? Anyway it doesn't matter! I know what we have to do!" She told them excitedly before clearing her throat she began to explain.

" Do you guys remember what the Witch Queen said when she unlocked Ezio's 'true' powers? She said we can possibly send them to alternate realities! Which means we can lock both versions of Noir away, and because only Ezio can open those kinds of portals she won't be able to get back here!" Hikari explained, she knew it was a long shot, especially considering Ezio only just recently realized he had this ability.

" U-Um Hikari?" Ezio started nervously, the pink haired boy's face pale. " How do you expect me to open two portals at once in different locations? Besides I've never even tried to use my new powers before, what happens if I botch it up or I run out of mana?"

" I know it's a longshot but-." Hikari started.

" There's a number of things that could go wrong Hikari! It's too risky!" Ezio tried to reason, he didn't want to screw it up, if their only chance to stop Noir was ruined because of him? He would never forgive himself, so Ezio didn't want to take the chance.

" Maybe you won't have to," William stated thoughtfully. " Maybe all you need is one portal? We only need to lockaway the Noir from the past, correct? If we lock her away then the one from the future will no longer exist." He added and Hikari nodded.

" Captain Goldie is right! All we need is to lock away the past her and that'll take care of the future one!" Hikari said and William blinked.

" 'Captain Goldie'?" He muttered bur Hikari ignored him.

" You have a flaw in your plan," Aloys said as he looked at Hikari and William. " The past Noir is heavily guarded by both the Queen and her future self, so you gotta figure out how you're going to get her away from them long enough to put her in an alternate universe. Also Ezio has no idea how to open portals to those alternate universes, and do you really think past Noir will just happily skip into the portal?" He asked, Hikari bit her bottom lip in thought.

" Aren't we all just good at winging it?" Brielle asked softly from the other side of the room. " I mean, we've had plans and stuff before, but we've also just adjusted to the situations. So won't we be able to do it again?"

Hikari looked towards her parents, she could see they were thinking over the plans and what everyone was saying. It was a half baked idea, but it was really all they had right now.

" Ezio," Yami started as he looked at the pink haired boy. " How long do you think it'll take you to figure out your new powers?"

" Um, y-years?"

" You've got two hours." Yami told him and Ezio's face paled even more. " Don't worry, Finral and Vanessa will be helping you out, I'm sure between the three of ya you'll be able to do it." Yami added, he knew the three of them weren't very confident with their powers, especially in the beginning, but as they grew and became older they began to become more and more confident. So Yami silently hoped that Finral and Vanessa would be able to help their 'son'.

" That takes care of the portal, now how do we get Noir away from the Queen and her future self?" Charlotte asked as she placed a thoughtful hand under her chin.

" The four of us can easily distract the future Noir," Hikari stated as she pointed to herself, Charlotte, Yami, and William. " She probably already knows we're the ones she'll be fighting against, as for the Queen since she's Nacht's cousin wouldn't it be better to let him handle her?" Hikari asked, Yami turned to his side.

" Hey Nacht-." He went to call but quickly noticed his Vice Captain wasn't there. " Where the hell did he go?"

" Oh, Vice Captain Nacht didn't come here with us," Asta started with a sheepish laugh. " He told us what was going on and then disappeared again, so we thought he was with you."

" So, no one knows where he is?" Charlotte asked, when everyone shook their heads she turned to look at Yami, who had a small smirk on his face.

" I have a feeling I know where he is."

—

Discordia let out a soft sigh as she leaned back into her velvet chair and took a sip of her red wine, she knew that dark haired girl that had been with her cousin had almost caught her when she mentioned Noir, but luckily she had enough power to be able to kick them out.

" No one will take her from me, not again." She told herself softly as she took another sip. They weren't going to take Noir from her, if so they would have to kill her first.

She suddenly turned in her chair as she felt something from the shadows, she chuckled a bit before placing the wine glass onto the table beside her chair and she stood up to face her visitor.

" How long have you been standing there dear cousin?" She asked as Nacht moved out of the shadows and into the light, he smiled at her.

" Long enough," he told her before his smile disappeared and his eyes grew dangerously cold. " I think you and I need to have a long overdue chat."