Well, this took a little longer that I expected... Before I begin, let me thank VampireMassacrexx for the follow and favorite. It's been a while since this story got one, so thank you!

Now, the chapter begins!

Wishes, Dreams, and Memories

Chapter 22 – Decision under the Stormy Night

The rumbling thunder could be heard throughout the whole Selphia as a rainstorm had invaded the peaceful town. The townspeople had mostly stayed indoors and away from the storm, only getting out for important businesses. The loud rumbling sounds could even be heard clearly inside the buildings, signaling for lighting to strike and slightly brightening the sky.

A certain ghost girl was present in a place one wouldn't expect, as she had temporarily left her friend's side. Pico had visited Lest's sister, who was also staying in the castle, as she had some stories that Dolce wouldn't want anyone to know. She was telling Frey something the ghost had seen herself, but couldn't understand at all. Knowing how Frey had been poking her head into various books similar to Kiel since coming to Selphia, Pico had hoped that she could hear some satisfying answers from her.

"A dream?" Frey asked in confirmation as she held an open book in her hands.

"It feels like one, so I think it is…" Pico replied in a worried look, "Dolly and I never actually share the same dreams, but for the past few nights…"

"I see…" Frey gave her a nod and turned back to the book, "It's unusual, just like you said, but I don't think it has anything to do with what I'm looking for."

"Okay… but can you do anything to help?" Frey looked back to the still-worried Pico, "I'm worried with what the voice said… Telling milady to leave Lest and head out to the mansion…"

"Do you remember anything else?" Frey asked, looking a little more interested in the topic.

"Sorry, but I think that's all I remember…" Pico noticed Frey looking slightly disappointed and suddenly remembered something, "Oh, wait! The voice sounded like a woman's! Would that be helpful?"

"Um…" Pico looked at Frey with expectant eyes, which made her unable to say anything too bad to her, "Maybe that can make a good lead…"

"Of course!" Pico exclaimed proudly, "When milady is at stake, I can do anything!"

"Okay, okay," Frey laughed at Pico's excitable behavior, "Should you return to their side now? I'll look into this strange dream that you told me just now."

"Okay, we'll be counting you!" With a single spin, Pico disappeared from the room.

Frey let out a sigh as she went over to her bed and switched the book she was holding with one of the books scattered around her bed, "I don't think it has something to do with this case, but that fever might be something else," Frey flipped through the pages of the book, "I think I saw something similar here…"

Lest was watching the stormy sky from the window of his bedroom before he let out a sigh, "The rain has just heavier and heavier since this morning. It's pretty much a big storm out there."

The Earthmate closed the window curtains before walking back towards the bed, where his wife laid down weakly. He sat on the edge of the bed and looked at Dolce worriedly as he pulled the bed covers over her. Lest took a small towel from a bowl of water, putting it over Dolce's burning forehead.

"Hi, I'm back!" Pico appeared on her side of the bed and looked at her friend, "Is Dolly…"

"She's still the same," Lest replied, his eyes never leaving Dolce, "It's hard to believe how her fatigue could turn into a really bad fever within a single day."

"Yeah…" Pico looked at Dolce with a frown before turning to Lest, "Um… can I ask you something?"

"Yes?" Lest gave her a short reply as he was soaking the towel before putting it back on Dolce's forehead.

"What do you think of your sister?" Pico's question finally got Lest's attention.

"Huh?"

"I know that milady felt kind of… uncomfortable with her but that's not what I meant," Pico turned to look at the ceiling, "Do you feel something different about her? About her presence?"

Lest took a moment to think before he slowly shook his head, "No, I don't think so…"

"I see… You can't really feel it but… I think I feel something familiar with her," Lest looked at her in confusion, "I'm not sure if I should say it but she somehow has a familiar scent to mine…"

"Would that mean that you're related to her?" Lest looked at her while being uncertain with his own theory, but knew that Pico might have noticed something.

"I'm sorry, but I don't think I can say…" Pico apologized with a frown.

"Okay, it's fine," Lest pulled his legs up and went beneath the covers, "Come on, let's just get some sleep."

Pico watched as Lest turned off the lights and laid down on the bed, "Okay…"

The sound of rumbling thunder could still be heard as Frey was once again surrounded by various books. She let out a tired sigh as she flipped through another book, which made her sat up suddenly. She read through the pages quickly as the book was written in a language she was familiar with, completely ignoring how her realization had caused some other books to be thrown around and off the bed.

"This… is written in Earthscript!" Frey frantically flipped through the pages, before she suddenly clutched her chest in pain, "Ugh…" Frey slowly lifted her head to look at the window.

The storm hadn't stopped with lighting still striking here and there, but what Frey saw wasn't the lighting. Dark fog was forming around the town, getting thicker and thicker as seconds passed with the sleeping townspeople completely unaware of the situation. The female Earthmate took the book with her as she approached the window to look at the town's condition, but the dark fog had limited her vision.

Frey slowly reopened the book she was holding, "It's… just like what the book said… The climax is at the season of the dry leaves…"

Dolce found herself wandering around in an empty white space without having anyone with her. She felt that she was lost somewhere, but she couldn't even remember how she got there in the first place. Calling out for everyone she knew didn't do anything at all as she couldn't hear anyone responding to her calls. She knew that she had been in that place before, but she couldn't remember how she could get out the last time.

"This place again," Dolce shortly commented as she looked around the empty space.

"Hmph, I never knew that you're such a stubborn young lady!"

The voice alerted the Guardian, who looked around for the source of the voice, "Who's there?"

"A forgetful one as well, I see," The voice replied casually, testing the female Guardian's patience as she let out a quiet growl, "We've shared this space for hundreds of years, yet remembering that damn dragon caused you to forget what happened all those years here?"

"I… I truly don't remember…" Dolce hesitantly replied, "I was asleep in that mansion to help Venti and I only remember sleeping there and waking up in that place…"

The sound of an angry growl was heard, "Fine, you'll remember once I show who I really am."

A puppet-like monster appeared in front of the Guardian, who quickly recognized it, "It's you!"

"You can just refer me as Marionetta," The monster's yellow eyes turned to glare at her, "You remembered my ugly self, yet you didn't bother remembering this beautiful voice?"

Dolce didn't look shaken from the glare, "What do you want from me?"

"You're realized it, smart girl," Marionetta let out a cackle, "Yes, I do want something from you. I have been telling you for the past few days but you completely ignored me."

"So that's what you wanted," Dolce's look at the monster softened, "The answer is no."

"What?!" Marionetta glared at the Guardian angrily, "That was not the correct answer!"

"You never asked for one," Dolce replied flatly, earning another angry growl from the monster.

"Fine then! It's because of that beloved Earthmate of yours, isn't it?" The blush on the Guardian's face was enough for an answer, "Then you shouldn't let him get hurt," Marionetta looked at Dolce with a sly grin.

"Keep your hands off him!" Dolce said sternly, "I will not let you hurt him!"

"Interesting…" The sly grin never left the monster's face, "Are you sure you're not going yo let him get hurt? Not even from yourself?"

"What do you mean?" Dolce asked in confusion.

Marionetta broke into laughter, "What's this? Young lady, haven't you heard the news yet?"

Dolce stared at the amused monster for a moment before noticing that a single bubble had come out from the ground in front of her. She quickly stepped back and looked at the floating bubble between her and Marionetta, "What is this?"

"Don't worry, this is just a rune bubble I borrowed from Thunderbolt a while ago," Marionetta spread out its arms, "Let me show you how you can hurt him, just like how this horse guy hurt the others around him."

The bubble flashed, revealing images of Dylas and the customers in the restaurant. No voice was heard, but the customers were talking with the male Guardian as he was carrying a plate of food with him. Suddenly, Dylas slammed the plate he was carrying on the table and took one of the customers by the collar and threw him back to the chair. The other customer got angry as well and hit Dylas hard enough that he had fallen on the table a few meters behind him.

The customers on the other table didn't look pleased as well and the whole restaurant slowly turned to be more like a bar with people fighting all over the place. Porcoline had come out from the kitchen to stop the fight, but instead took hits from Dylas as he shielded Margaret from getting hit. The chef pushed and pinned him to a table and held Dylas' injured hands to stop him from creating more chaos before he sternly put the fight between the customers into a complete stop.

"I… I've heard of this…" Dolce commented in disbelief before turning to look at Marionetta, "Is this really your doing?"

"Not exactly," The puppet monster shrugged as it let out a sigh, "I'm not too fond of brawls and like it better if they had endless torture instead," Marionetta looked at Dolce once more, "Long story short, I can do the same to your closest people as well. I think I'll start with the two closest to you right now…"

"Stop."

A sly grin returned to the monster's face, "Yes?"

"Don't you dare lay a finger on my family!" Dolce was looking at the monster angrily.

"It's a deal then? You leave, I'll let them live unharmed," Marionetta replied, satisfied with the result it was going to get.

Dolce's expression softened, "I don't want to leave them because they're too precious for me to let go, but…" The Guardian looked at the monster with a determined look, "If leaving is the only way of keeping them from harm… I'll go as you wanted."

Marionetta gave her a nod, "That's what I want to hear from the start, young lady. I'll leave you to get things ready now, so there's no need to worry about the fever I gave you last night," The monster disappeared from Dolce's sight as she slowly could feel her consciousness slowly came back.

Dolce stirred in her bed and slowly sat up, feeling something warm and slightly wet had fallen to her lap. She opened eyes and saw that the wet object was actually a wet towel, which was previously put on her forehead. The Guardian carefully got off the bed without waking up the other two sleeping figures, getting her nightgown changed for her regular attire before looking out the window.

The heavy rain had stopped, but the rumbling thunder could still be heard. The light coming from the lighting illuminated the dark bedroom for a few seconds as Dolce turned to look at the people sleeping on the bed. She approached them quietly and stared at them for the last time, thinking that her decision to leave her family had come to her once more. It was to protect them, but this decision was harder for her than when she decided to become a Guardian.

"I'm sorry," Dolce whispered sadly before she sat on the edge of the bed where Lest was sleeping. She reached out for her the Earthmate's hair to stroke his hair, but decided not to as she was afraid she would wake him up.

Dolce turned to look at Pico, who was sleeping on the other end of the bed. Even as a ghost, Pico would still want to go to sleep just like how people usually did. Being a ghost of a child, Pico slept more or less like one as well. Even if she looked and acted like typical children, Dolce admitted that Pico could be wiser than her sometimes. After all, she had spent hundreds of years being a ghost and had seen a lot before they even met.

"Be good, Pico. I'm sorry I have to leave you again, but I know that you're not alone anymore," Dolce turned to look back at Lest, "Sweetie, please take care of Pico for me. Thank you for everything."

Dolce leaned in to give him a kiss on the forehead before she quietly left the room and headed towards the town gates.

"Good, the others should have already been waiting now," Marionetta's voice echoed in Dolce's head.

Dolce completely ignored the monster's voice and headed out of the gate. All of the sudden, she felt dizzy and fell to her knees, unaware of the three silhouettes waiting for her at the gate. The dizziness came into a suddenly stop and the Guardian lost her consciousness as the monster took over her body.

"Heh, took ya long enough!" A horse-like monster said.

"Well, her human need some family cleaning first, what do you expect?" A reply came from a butterfly-like monster.

"Silence you two," The monster shaped like an old coffin spoke up, silencing the other two monsters before it turned to the shadow in front of it, "Marionetta is ready. Ambrosia, Thunderbolt, we shall all leave to see our lord immediately. A good reward is waiting for us all."

The shadow turned into a monster shaped like a puppet as it followed its comrades, leaving a single black top hat sitting in front of the gate.

This story is slowly reaching its climax! And while this one's almost over, I'm planning on another RF4 fanfic, but this one will feature another bachelorette who's my second favorite. The plot is done and it'll most likely to be written soon.