Band of Brothers

by tears-in-rain

As the evil of Shadow Haunt threatens to engulf the rest of the universe, the specialists of Red Fountain must bond together to survive new obstacles, aid the Winx Club and pass their junior year. Sequel to Brothers at Arms

14. The Wrong Righter's

Okay, word of warning guys; this chapter is looooooonnnnnngggggg. It's so very, very long. It's like a story within a story, so just keep in mind that you may not be able to read it in one sitting. You may have to get up and give yourself a little intermission from time to time. And that's fine because it is so long.

You've been warned. Good luck to you!

---

Chapter Fourteen – The Wrong Righter's

"Ready to go?" Brandon asked, closing his bag and fastening the buckle. Sky glanced at his squire before nodding and closed up his own bag.

"Yes, I suppose so," he sighed. Raising his blonde head, Sky looked at the other two boys that were in his dorm room, watching him and Brandon pack. "You sure that you two can't come?"

"Can't and don't want to," Riven said bluntly, not even bothering to life his eyes from the pages of the book that was in front of him.

"Sorry Sky, but this weekend will be the only chance I have to install and trial the new upgrades to the squad ship I have planned," Timmy explained more gently with an apologetic smile. "But I'm sure you won't need us. After all, these are your parents we're talking about. Would they really dismiss your girlfriend just because she doesn't come from as plentiful realm as Quartz?"

Sky flinched at the mere mention of his former fiancées home-realm and he suddenly felt heavy, as if all of Quartz's plentiful gem mines were weighting down on him. "You clearly don't know my parents."

"Well, at the very least, it should be an interesting weekend," Riven commented. Sky's blue eyes narrowed and he was just about to snap at his friend when someone else suddenly appeared in their doorway.

"Weren't you ever told as a child that silence is golden?" Helia asked his roommate calmly.

"The only gold I was interested in as a child were the ones in other people's pockets," Riven replied with a wickedly sly grin, shocking the three other boys in the room. Riven was never one to even discuss his past let alone make light of it, but a weird friendship that no one had seen coming had started to develop between Helia and Riven, and it had resulted in Riven acting in ways he rarely done before.

"Listen, Doc's doing a workshop this weekend on field medics," Helia informed his roommate. "Wonna come sign up?"

"Not really."

"You could do with the extra credit."

Riven groaned. "Fine."

"What about the rest of you?"

"Sorry, but I'm busy," Timmy said.

"And me and Sky have plans," Brandon told the art student before glancing at the clock. "Which we should probably get going for if we're gonna get ahead of traffic."

"Right, let's go," Sky agreed, swinging his bag over his shoulder. "See you guys later."

---

"Have you noticed Riven's been spending a lot more time with Helia recently?" Brandon asked as he and Sky headed for Red Fountain's garage so they could grab their levi bikes before heading over to Alfea to pick the girls up.

"Well, they are roommates now," Sky pointed out. "It's probably a good thing. Maybe some of Helia's gentle nature will rub off on him."

"I doubt it" Brandon scoffed, kicking the ground as he walked. "And I don't like the idea of Riven having a bromance."

"Bromance?" Sky repeated. Where did Brandon come up with these words?

"Yeah, it's when a guy makes a new friend and he gets so caught up in the new friendship that he forgets about his old ones," Brandon explained, his face miserable.

"Riven's not going to forget about us," Sky assured his squire, reaching over the clasp his shoulder in a comforting manner. "No one annoys Riven quite like you."

"That's sweet of you to say, but haven't you realised how Riven hardly ever spends any time with us out of class? He's been doing it all year, and now Helia's in the picture who knows what's gonna happen."

"Brandon, I know how concerned you get about your friends, but you gotta trust that we're not just gonna ditch you again like what happened after the Day of the Royals," Sky promised. Although Brandon never came out and said it, Sky knew that the squire had been cut deeply at the way their squad had fallen apart the year before. He and Riven had always been kinda close, so it had really upset Brandon to see his friend get messed up with the Trix like that. And then when the whole switching identities with Sky came out during the Day of the Royals, the squire had found himself ostracized from the people he cared about most. He didn't want to go through that again. "Brandon, we're not going any where – me, Timmy, Riven – we're not gonna walk out on you again."

"I know," Brandon said, shifting uncomfortably. "But I still don't like it."

"Did you ever think that if you just gave Helia a chance, you might like him? Sure, he's quiet and keeps to himself, but that might be a welcome change from Timmy with his tecno talk and Riven with his mood swings."

"And you when you whine about Bloom," Brandon smirked slyly.

"I do not whine."

"Yes you do. 'Ohhh, I'm engaged but I wonna be with Bloom. Why don't my parents like her? Oh Brandon, now she's making kissy faces at Avalon instead of me. Boo-hoo-hoo'."

"I don't sound like that."

"In my head you do."

"Whatever. Let's just go already."

It didn't take long for the two specialists to arrive at the gates of Alfea. Once inside, they quickly found the two fairies that were travelling with them to Eraklyon to meet Sky's parents for dinner. The girls looked to be coming back from a lesson that ad been held outside and when they noticed Sky pull up they made their way over to him.

"Hello ladies," Sky greeted with a wide smile to Bloom, Flora and their pixies. The four teenagers and pixies would be travelling to Eraklyon via one of Red Fountain's space ships that was waiting for them at Magix's space port which was why they still needed their levi bikes. Plus, they would come in handy once they got to Eraklyon since Sky preferred his bike to a town car any day.

"You're early, Sky!" Chatta said loudly. "We haven't had a chance to get ready yet!"

"I was hoping we could beat the intergalactic traffic," Sky explained as Brandon pulled up along side him. But girls would be girls, and the two fairies didn't seem too keen on the idea. Especially Bloom, who Sky knew was nervous about tonight since the only other time she had seen Sky's parents was when she had ruined the Day of the Royals last year by attacking Sky's then fiancé Diaspro.

"But we have to change," Flora protested glancing down at the clothes she had worn to class. Her outfit might have been okay to wear in front of Palladium but not in front of a King or Queen.

"It's just going to be a casual dinner," Sky reminded them, but then it dawned on him that casual dinners at his place really weren't that casual. But he really didn't care what the girls wore since he believed that all members of the Winx Club were more beautiful then all the ladies of court combined. "Besides, you already look lovely."

"Yeah, you do," Brandon agreed and it wasn't just out of politeness.

"Well thanks," Bloom beamed. Sky could tell by the way her eyes glowed that – although nervous – the Earth girl had been looking forward to tonight as well. "I'm excited to finally see the place where you grew up, Sky."

"I really hope we get a chance to check out the royal gardens," Flora said sweetly.

"I've already arranged for us to take a tour after dinner," Sky informed her since he had already guessed that that would be something she would like to do.

"Fabulous," Lockette grinned.

"I've been reading up all about Eraklyon," Bloom admitted to her boyfriend. "I'm so psyched."

"You'll love it," Sky assured her as Bloom climbed on the back of his bike and Flora did the same on Brandon's. "Are you girls ready?"

"Ready," Bloom said.

"Let's go," Flora agreed before leaning over to give a personal message to Brandon. "Oh, Stella said to tell you 'hugs and kisses'."

Brandon forced out a laugh, but he didn't believe a single word of it. Originally, Stella was supposed to be coming with them instead of Flora, but when the princess had pulled out due to 'homework' reasons, the flower fairy had stepped in as emotional support for Bloom.

Stella still wasn't ready to apologise, and until she was, neither was Brandon.

---

Although she had said that she was looking forward to going to Eraklyon, Sky could tell that Bloom was nervous and he had a feeling it had everything to do with the fact that his parents lived in that realm. Bloom had only ever met them once before and during that meeting Bloom had been too busy beating the pants off Diaspro to allow any proper introductions. And even through Sky had explained the reason for the misunderstanding between the two fairies, his parents were still less than impressed with the Earth girl, especially since she was the main motive behind Sky wanting to break off a very profitable arrangement between Eraklyon and Quartz.

"Don't worry Bloom," Sky said in an effort to try and comfort her. "It's just a dinner, that's all, and then we'll sneak off into town and go see Brandon's family. You'll love them."

"Yeah, but it's not Brandon's family I'm worried about," Bloom confessed, nervously chewing on one of her fingernails and glancing out the window as they flew through the blackness of space. "I'm not exactly your parents favourite person, especially your mom."

"Oh his mom doesn't like anyone," Brandon assured her. "I've been best friends with Sky since we were kids and she still doesn't like me."

"But are you the one who's dating her son?"

"You know, you'd be surprised how many people have asked me that," Brandon said with a sly grin, trying to get her to lighten up and relax. The red head shot the squire a soft smile but it quickly returned to concerned look.

"I'm nervous about Eraklyon manners. I hope I don't make a fool of myself."

"Just remember to chew with your mouth closed," Chatta advised loudly.

"Just be yourself and you'll be perfect," Sky told her encouragingly. He wished that his parents didn't have to be so daunting, but he knew there was nothing he could do about it. Outside of the princes and princesses that attended Alfea and Red Fountain, Bloom had not met any royalty. Stella had apparently been teaching her a few pointers on bowing and addressing the king and queen, but there was only so much they could do in the comfort of their dorm room. The best way to feel comfortable around royalty was to expose yourself to it. Sky was contemplating telling her about the way Brandon kept screwing up whenever he met the king and queen when he was young and he and Sky had only just started becoming friends, but any chance of recalling such delightfully humiliating memories was cut off when a little seat which was in front of the control panel spun around and Sky realised that they had a pixie stowaway on their ship.

"Are mullets in style in Eraklyon or should I try something else?" the little pixie asked in a serious sounding voice. Sky had thought he was familiar with all the pixies, but he couldn't recall ever meeting any that looked like this one. And apparently, he wasn't the only one.

"Who's that?" Bloom asked, staring at the pixie in shock. The pixie stared right back at her and after a second, her attire and appearance changed out of the mullet wearing space trekker look into one that everyone recognized. Dark hair, yellow glasses and an outfit that resembled a bumble bee could only belong to one pixie. Zing grinned impishly at the teenagers, before returning back into her trekkers look. "Oh Zing."

"Hi!" Zing greeted cheerfully.

"We're, er, approaching Eraklyon," Sky informed the others. He was still a bit thrown by the unexpected appearance of Zing and he couldn't help but wonder what his parents would think about the extra houseguests. While he did like the pixies – particularly Zing with her cookey attitude – his mother had never bonded with a pixie which meant that their exposure to pixies had been rather limited. And there was no denying that pixies could get sort of annoying after a while, especially Chatta. "We'll be there in approximately two minutes."

"Yay!!" Chatta cheered loudly, and Sky shuttered at the thought of how his mother would act when she met the enthusiastic pixie. However, he didn't have time to worry about that; he had a ship to land.

"Alright everybody, let's prepare for landing."

---

The front gates Royal Palace of Eraklyon was located only a short distance from the capital city, but given the massive size of the estate, the ride took a lot longer than one might initially have thought. Game hunting had been apart of Eraklyain culture, so the Royal estate had been big enough to house several species of animals. There were open fields where rabbits and herds of deer grazed. In the large Farthingwood Forest (1) lived foxes, boars and countless birds, and the large lake was filled with many diverse and tasty fish that regular found its way onto the royal table.

So when the palace finally came into view, Sky felt a wave of relief wash through him at the thought of finally being able to relax at his home after a long trip. But as soon as that relief hit him, it instantly vanished and was replaced with an uneasy feeling. "What's going on?"

"Is something wrong?" Bloom asked from her place behind him on the back of his levi bike.

"There could be."

"The high security car is out front," Brandon noted, feeling the same uneasiness as his prince.

"Is that bad?" Flora asked, and Brandon could feel her tense behind him from the unknown that was waiting for them at the palace.

"That car means that the palace is basically in a lockdown. No one is allowed out of the palace and the only people they allow in are the scores of security personal that instantly come from the city to guard the palace and the surrounding gardens," Brandon explained, slowing down to a stop out the front steps. Waiting there for them were two men that Sky had known his entire life; obviously the elder of the two, Leopold, the Chief of Staff (2), and Alcester, Captain of the Royal Guard and Eraklyon's most talented Sword Master.

"Welcome home, Your Highness," Leopold greeted Sky with a formal bow which Alistair copied. Sky had begged them time and time again not to do that, but even after all these years he had only just got them down to a formal nod, once the initial meetings were out of the way of course.

"Leo? What's going on?" Sky asked, dismounting his bike and climbing the stairs.

"The grounds are on high alert," Leopold informed him in an emotionless, factual voice. "Your parents are waiting for you in the throne room. If you and your guests wouldn't mind following me right now, I'll take you to them so that they can debrief you on the situation."

"Are they okay?" Sky asked, a sick feeling in his stomach. Like most powerful families, there had always been the threat of assassination attempts lingering over his family, but that never made it any easier for Sky to deal with. He may not always get along with his family – particularly his mother – but he still loved them and never wanted anything to happen to them.

"They are both fine," Leopold assured him as they walked down a grand looking hallway.

"We have them both under the protection of my finest men," Alistair said firmly, his right hand resting on the hilt of his sword out of pure habit. "You yourself were watched and followed from the second you entered Eraklyain air space."

"Really? I didn't see anyone," Brandon admitted. While he might not as been so honest around Sky's parents, he was comfortable enough with Leopold and Alistair to be. Being best friends with Sky had lead to the squire being exposed to Leopold a lot and he knew Alistair since Brandon's father work underneath him as one of the palace's royal guards.

"They're not called the secret service for nothing, Brandon," Alistair said in a completely serious tone of voice. Brandon noticed Bloom and Flora exchanged a look, uncertain whether they should smile or not.

The Royal Throne Room of Eraklyon was just like it had been when Sky had left it at the end of summer; a big room with two thrones at the end of it. Sure, there were several priceless relics that lined the room along with a few ancient Eraklyain artefacts, but to Sky it was just like walking into his lounge room. In fact, the only thing that stood out the Sky was the fact that three times as many guards lining the room and the concerned look on his parents faces.

"You Majesties, presenting his Royal Highness Crowned Prince Sky of Eraklyon, Master Brandon, first Royal Squire of Eraklyon, Miss Flora of the Realm of Linphea and Miss Bloom of Earth and the Last Princess of Sprax," Leo announced formally from the doorway. Only after that was done were the four teenagers allowed to enter the throne room.

"What a mouthful," Brandon muttered to Flora, trying his best not to move his lips too much.

"How did he know who we are?" Flora asked, also trying to make the fact that they were talking as inconspicuous as possible.

"Nothing ever gets passed Leo."

"Welcome home, son. It's been far too long since summer ended. And welcome to your friends. I ask that you all make yourself comfortable and treat this place as if it was your home," the king greeted. His words were inviting enough – if not a little premeditated – but there was something about his tone of voice and his expression that told everyone that the King of Eraklyon was distressed. Beside him, his wife was as cold and emotionless as a marble statue.

"Father, is everything alright?" Sky asked, skipping the formalities that he knew his parents would be expecting. "Why is that palace on lock down?"

The king looked at his son carefully, and then shifted his gaze to the three teens and three pixies that accompanied his son. Out of the corner of his eye, Brandon noticed the two girls tense ever so slightly, and frankly, he couldn't blame them. As a child, Brandon had always been absolutely terrified of the King of Eraklyon, which of course had resulted in him making the most incredible stuff ups one could imagine whenever he was around. Over the years, Brandon had gotten over his nerves a bit, but he still got the feeling that the king did not approve of his only sons close connection to a commoner. And as for Sky's mother, well, Brandon was fairly sure that she didn't like anyone.

Needless to say, that everyone breathed a little easier when the king lifted his gaze off of them and focused it back on his son.

"Twelve hours ago, our intelligence uncovered proof that the crime lord Yousha Nowa has illegally entered Eraklyon and has been hiding out in an unused lodge on the furthest edges of Farthingwood Forest," the king informed his son, his expression grave and serious.

"What? You kidding?" Sky gasped, looking at Alistair for confirmation. He had no idea who Yousha Nowa was, but he knew what it took to earn the title crime lord.

"It's true, you highness," Alistair nodded, always formal before his king and queen no matter how much the prince begged him to be otherwise. "It would explain how he managed to stay hidden from Alliance Police since he escaped from their surveillance three months ago."

"And I'm afraid that not the worst news," the king said regretfully. "We believe that he and his men have kidnapped Princess Diaspro of Quartz who was in Eraklyon on diplomatic matters."

"They kidnapped Diaspro?!" Sky asked, his blue eyes wide in a combination of shock and horror.

"Yes son."

"And when exactly did this happen?"

"This morning," the king answered, handing something to one of his footman who, without needing to be ordered to, complied with his kings wishes to pass the object onto the prince. "The kidnappers sent this."

Sky opened his hand and looked down at the object that the footman had just given him. It was an elegant, one of a kind brooch – though rather plain compared to the jewellery that came out of Quartz – but it had belonged to the Royal House of Eraklyon of generations so it was a priceless gift and not one that would be disregarded lightly. "This is the brooch I gave her."

"The kidnappers must think that you two are still engaged," his father concluded. "Diaspro's parents are crushed. I've assured them that we'll do everything we can. Look, this is the ransom note."

"No," Sky gasped when he looked at the curled piece of paper his father was holding up. From a distance, Sky couldn't read everything, but there were a few words that did jump out at him, and none of them were very pleasant.

"You can count on us to help, your majesty," Brandon instantly volunteered. He had never really gotten along with Diaspro, but as a future hero, he couldn't stand by and let anything bad happen to her.

"I'll lead the rescue mission!" Sky said firmly.

"We won't leave till you find you daughter . . ." Brandon said at the same time, but he froze halfway through the term 'daughter-in-law' when he realized that Diaspro was not the kings daughter-in-law, nor would she ever be if Bloom and Sky continued on the way they were. (3)

"You are no longer Diaspro fiancée, son," the king reminded Sky. "You are not going to do anything."

Raising her head for the first time since the subject of the kidnapping, the queen looked up and observed her guests with cold, emotionless eyes. "Don't worry, dear. The royal guard will take care of it. We just have to hope for the best."

"I can't just sit here and hope for the best when Daspro's in trouble!" Sky said sharply. "I'm going to go find her!"

"Excuse me," Bloom piped up nervously. "But if I may just suggest that maybe – "

"Silence!" Sky mother commanded like a cracking whip. Everyone cringed at the sharp tone of the queen, and Bloom flinched as if she had been hit. "You can't address the court without permission."

"Sky, we're holding a press conference in an hour," the king informed his son. "Go get your formal cape right now."

"I'm sorry dad, but I have to go find her," Sky said, turning and bolting out of the throne room.

"Sky!" Brandon called after him, but the prince was already gone.

"Get back here!" his mother shouted, but her attempts were as fruitful as Brandon's had been.

"Wait! I'll help you!" Bloom called, turning to follow after him. Hesitating for a moment, Bloom looked back at the King and Queen of Eraklyon uncertainly. This was not how she pictured her first proper meeting Sky's parents to go. Not only did Sky's mother greet her with the warm of a glacier, but now her boyfriend was running off the save his ex. Yeah, not the ideal dinner date. With a gloomy look, Bloom turned and ran after her boyfriend.

Brandon felt terrible as he watched Bloom chase after Sky. He knew that she had been worried about tonight and that it had taken a lot of pleading for Sky to get her to agree to this, and now it was all getting messed up because of some snotty little princess who Sky used to be engaged too and who Bloom had always felt in competition with ever since she had first learnt of Sky's relationship with her. The squire noticed Leopold and Alistair exchange a look before Alistair silently slipped out off the room and followed after Sky to try and talk some reason into him. Exchanging a worried glace of their own, Brandon and Flora smoothly bowed and waited for the King and Queen to dismiss them.

But the royal couple had other things on their mind.

"This might not be so bad," the queen finally said to the king, completely ignoring the two teens who wished for nothing more than to be excused so they could go after their friends. "Have you ever heard of heroes syndrome, my dear?"

"It's when heroes fall for someone they rescue," the king recalled, before catching onto what his wife was hinting at. "I suppose that could happen with Sky and Diaspro and then they could get engaged again."

"Not likely," Brandon muttered out of the corner of his mouth to Flora. His King and Queen clearly had no idea about who their son was and what he wanted out of life.

Brandon couldn't be sure if the king heard him or not, but at that moment, he looked up and finally noticed the two teens who were still in mid bow. "Brandon, Miss Flora, you may be excused."

"Thank you, your Majesty," Brandon and Flora said in unison, bowing again before heading for the door.

---

"Sky!"

The blonde prince paused when he heard his name and when he looked over his shoulder he saw familiar fiery red hair running towards him. "Bloom?" he said as the Last Princess of Sparx ran down the corridor and came to a stop right in front of him, panting heavily. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to help you," Bloom told him, though that only seemed logical. What else was she going to do? Sit around and knit until Sky found the time for her?

Sky smiled warmly at her offer. He knew she didn't like Diaspro – and frankly, Sky didn't blame her – but it was just like Bloom to volunteer her help for someone who was in need. "Thanks Bloom. You're awesome."

"You're welcome, but also in saying that, don't you think we should leave this to Alistair and the royal guards?" Bloom asked. "I mean, they've already kidnapped royalty once for ransom. Do we really want to give them the opportunity to get their hands on another one?"

"The girl has an excellent point," a deep voice pointed out as Alistair marched down the corridor to where the couple stood. A second later, he was joined by Brandon and Flora. "Yousha Nowa is a dangerous man and I will not risk the life of our realms only heir to the throne just so you can go play hero."

"I am not playing hero," Sky snapped, glaring at the Captain of the Guards. "I go to Red Fountain just like you did when you were in high school, and it is my duty to try and rescue anyone in danger. I will not shirk that task just so you can sleep easy."

"Don't be foolish, you highness," Alistair said firmly though not insultingly. "You are a prince. You have a higher calling."

Sky was struck by how familiar those words were, and suddenly a memory flashed through his mind of when Diaspro arrived just before the fall of Red Fountain during the Great Witch Invasion last year offering him a way out, which he point blankly refused. Well, he didn't run from his duty as a hero then, and he certainly wasn't going to run from it now. "I ­am going to find Diaspro and the people who kidnapped her."

But Alistair wasn't going to back down from his duty either. "No, you're going to go to your room and get ready for the press conference like you're father ordered you to."

"I'm not going to the press conference."

"Fine, then go to your room and wait there until we give you the all clear," Alistair ordered, looking over his shoulder and spotting two guards that had followed them. "I have to go be with your parents for this. These guards are going to watch you until I get back so don't try anything stupid. Am I clear?"

Sky continued to stare stonily at the Captain of the Guards, not saying anything.

"Am I clear?" Alistair repeated.

"Fine," Sky finally caved. Alistair nodded in approval and although it appeared as if he had nothing else to say, the Captain remained where he was. Sky rolled his eyes. "You're free to go."

"Thank you, your highness," Alistair bowed his head and then left the teens in the care of his two guards.

Brandon waited until Alistair was gone before saying, "You're still gonna go after Diaspro, aren't you."

"Yes, I am," Sky told him.

"I knew it," Brandon sighed. "Oh well, I guess I better go with you to make sure you don't get yourself kidnapped."

"Would I able to go to the Royal Gardens?" Flora asked suddenly. "I just thought of something that might be able to help us."

"Sure, I'll send one of the guards to show you the way," Sky said, gesturing one of the guards over to him. And with that, Bloom and Flora headed towards the gardens while Brandon and Sky went their separate ways to get ready for the mission that was awaiting them.

---

After the guard had successfully escorted Bloom and Flora to the gardens, he was returning to his post of guarding the prince when he crossed paths with the Queen of Eraklyon, who ordered him to allow her son to escape his room so that he could go a rescue Princess Diaspro of Quartz.

---

Once he had grabbed a few items from the royal armoury that might just come in handy in their mission to rescue Diaspro and grabbed his Red Fountain uniform, Brandon headed down the familiar corridor that lead to Sky's quarters, accompanied by the pixie Zing. He smiled softly at the guards which stood against the wall opposite the door that they returned before dropping back into their rather inattentive stance. Brandon wondered at this before pushing it the back of his mind and opened the door. Inside the room, Sky was packing a bag, but he looked up when his squire entered.

"I'm ready to go," Brandon said softly enough so that it didn't carry across the hallway. Zing flew into the room and Brandon closed the door so that he and his best friend could speak freely. "Are you all set?"

Sky nodded slightly, but Brandon could see in his blue eyes that Sky was distracted by something. "Do you think Bloom's upset that I want to rescue Diaspro?"

"Don't worry about it. I'm sure she understands," Zing told him, jigging around merrily, though Brandon had to disagree with her. Bloom had looked rather troubled after Sky had run off with the intent of hunting down Diaspro and the people who took her, but that was a matter for Bloom and Sky to work out between themselves.

Sky smiled at the pixie and patted her on the head fondly before turning his attention back to the task that was at hand. "Alright, now what do we know about this Yousha Nowa dude?"

"He's kidnapped royalty before and he's got an army of forest ninjas," Brandon informed his best friend. Caught up in the moment, Zing transformed herself into a ninja, complete with a bo staff and a heart eye patch over one eye. Sky laughed out loud as she twirled her staff around her, looking like she was itching for a fight. "It looks like Zing is ready."

"Are Bloom and Flora coming with us?" Sky asked.

Brandon shook his head. "They've gone out looking for some flower called poppy portalus. Flora read about it when Bloom was looking up on Eraklyon. She says it should be able to help us find Diaspro."

"Alright. Well, we better get moving," Sky suggested, standing up to full height and swinging his bag over one shoulder.

"Right," Brandon nodded. "Those two guards outside are watching the door so we can't get out that way."

"Well then, it looks like we're slipping out the window and jumpin' the palace walls."

"Some things with you never change," Brandon laughed, before following his prince towards the window.

---

"This is just like old times, ain't it?" Brandon asked after several minutes of walking through the darkness of Farthingwood Forest, sounding a little too cheerfully for a rescue mission. Both of them were now changed into their uniforms, and the dark blue was helping them blend into the dark undergrowth.

Sky looked back over his shoulder sharply, but he didn't stop walking. "What?"

"Remember when we were little we used to always play here? All them games of us pretending we were part of the Zodiac Fighters? They were fun," Brandon reminisced.

"Brandon," Sky sighed, but his squire wasn't listening to him.

"I've still got all my Zodiac comic books, you know? And I found out Timmy was into them when he was a kid too."

"Brandon."

"I can remember wishing so that the Zodiac Fighters were real so badly. I mean, I know it was a cartoon and all, but that Virgo was one hot heroine. Scorpio was too, I guess, if you were into that whole dominatrix thing."

"Brandon!" Sky finally snapped.

"What?"

"We're on a rescue mission."

"I know. I'm just talking, that's all."

"Well does it have to be about the bloody Zodiac Fighters?"

"Sorry," Brandon grumbled rather bitterly, a bit offended at the way Sky had insultingly brushed off a very sacred part of both their childhood. "What do you want to talk about then?"

"I don't know," Sky snapped back sharply. "How 'bout the fact that we managed to escape out of the palace main grounds while it was on lock down without anyone spotting and stopping us. Doesn't that seem even the slightest bit odd to you?"

"Yeah, kinda," Brandon nodded. "But then again, not really."

"What are you babbling about?"

"It's just a hunch. Well, not even a hunch really. More like a little niggling at the back of my – "

"Brandon! Out with it!"

"You're mother wants you to rescue Diaspro in the hopes that you'll get heroes syndrome with her and the two of you can get engaged again," Brandon said very quickly.

"What?!" Sky exclaimed.

"You're mother – "

"I heard what you said. I'm saying 'what' to the fact that my mother would think that I would fall into something as stupid as heroes syndrome," Sky spat, walking forward with more heat than he had been a minute ago. "Heroes syndrome. Ha! What a load a crud."

"Well it has been documented that heroes have left their wives and family for a girl they've rescued."

"Please, it's a fairytale that girls cling too. And no matter what story it may be, they're always the same. It's always about some cold, jaded, arrogant hero whose whole life gets turned around when he finds some sweet, caring, independent yet helpless damsel. It's so ridiculous."

"Okay, you better be channelling Riven right now or else I have no idea where this jaded perception on the world has come from."

"It's not the world that's got me so pissed off. It's heroes' syndrome."

"Is it?"

"What else would it be?"

"Diaspro."

Sky was silent for a moment before saying, "I just hate it how they think we're gonna get back together. Not that we were ever really together to begin with. We were just engaged to be together. Can't they see that I'm happy with Bloom?"

"Well, to be fair, they've never actually seen you with Bloom," Brandon pointed out. "I mean, tonight was the first time they were actually going to meet her since that whole thing with the Day of the Royals doesn't really count since Bloom was too busy kicking Diaspro's ass for proper introductions."

"I just can't stand it. Why do my parents have to be so unfair?"

"Ah, the age old riddle that has been plaguing teenagers everywhere since the dawn of the universe."

"Couldn't you at least try to take this seriously?"

"C'mon Sky. Chillax."

"Chillax?" Sky repeated. "Are you channelling Musa now?"

"You never know. And don't get any ideas of us hooking up, Riv," Brandon grinned impishly before turning serious for the sake of his suffering prince. "Look, you'll be fine. Just suck it all up, focus and put all your energy into proving your parents wrong."

"What?" Sky asked. He thought they were on a rescue mission, not starting a teenaged rebellion against his parents.

"Prove to them that you can rush in, save the damsel in distress and then send her packing so you can sit down and have a pleasant dinner with your girlfriend who you adore from the top of fiery red head down to her little, earthy toes," Brandon told him. "I believe that is generally referred to as having your cake and eating it too."

"That sounds like a good plan," Sky nodded.

"Of course it is. And just so you know, I could really go for a piece of cake right about now."

"Brandon," Sky said in a warning tone.

"What? In case you haven't looked at your watch, now would be the time when we would be having our mains brought out to us."

"Shh."

"And it's been ages since we last ate."

"No, seriously, shh. I thought I heard something"

The two heroes in training froze, looking around the dark forest for any sign of their enemy. Sky silently cursed the fact that he and Brandon had been talking so loudly instead of focusing on their mission, because even though he couldn't see nor hear anything, he knew someone was out there.

"Huh?" Sky muttered when he finally pinpointed the sound of someone moving around in front of him, but before he could signal anything to Brandon, two heavily armoured forest ninjas dropped out of the trees and crouched on the ground in front of the two teens. They were quickly joined by several more ninjas, all of which were wearing identical armour. But Sky wasn't going to let that frighten him off. "Let's go!"

Extending their phantom blades, the two teens ran forward to meet their enemy head on, but the ninjas were completely in sync with one another so they quickly moved to gain an advantage. Jumping up into there air with such strength that they were able to reach heights that most morals could never achieve without wings, the forest ninjas hurled handfuls of ninja stars down upon their opponents. Brandon and Sky were able to deflect the stars with their swords but no sooner had they survived that attack than the ninjas landed in a circle around them and the real fight began.

Sky soon found himself crossing blades with one ninja who – true to his training – was fast, strong and incredibly agile. Brandon swung his broadsword at another ninja who easily jumped out of danger. Glancing over at Sky, Brandon was too distracted making sure his prince was alright to notice another ninja sneak up behind him. In fact, Brandon wasn't even aware that he was in any trouble until a green phantom wire suddenly looped itself around his neck and proceeded to cut off his airways. Shock and panic cause Brandon to drop his broadsword, but then his combat training kicked in and the squire wasted no time elbowing the ninja in the face. The tension around Brandon's instantly disappeared as the ninja stumbled backwards. Eager for some payback, Brandon spun around a jabbed the ninja in the face with his left hand and then followed through with a sound punch from his right. The ninja crumpled to the ground, leaving the victorious Brandon standing over him.

"And that's how I roll," Brandon said smugly to the unconscious ninja before turning his attention back to Sky.

The Prince was yet to defeat his opponent, and at the moment it was obvious that the ninja had the upper hand in this battle. With clear, clean swishes of his golden katana, the ninja was forcing the Red Fountain student backwards towards a large boulder. Sky was pushing himself to his limit to try and block all the attacks that were coming at him and maybe turn his moves into some more offensive ones, but all chances of that happening vanished when the back of his heel hit a small, seemingly unimportant rock. Sky's balanced wavered, and before he could catch himself, the prince fell backwards and slammed his back into the boulder that the ninja was trying to drive him into. The impact was enough to cause Sky to drop his phantom blade and for all the air to leave his lungs. Completely winded, Sky struggled to recover as the ninja moved in to finish him off.

With a loud battle cry, the ninja leapt into the air and allowed gravity to bring him back down with his katana out in front of him. With nowhere left to run, the Crowned Prince of Eraklyon would soon find himself skewered on the end of his katana.

Sky blue eyes widened as he watched the ninja descend down upon him, and he couldn't stop a scream from escaping his lips. Thinking fast, Sky quickly moved to his left just as the ninja landed. The katana embedded itself in the boulder in the exact same place that Sky's head had been only seconds before. Scrambling to his feet, Sky moved in to punch the now weaponless ninja hard in the stomach, effectively winding the forest ninja who dropped to the ground, clutching his stomach.

"Tell me, where is Diaspro?" Sky demanded, towering over the ninja with an expression and a tone that he only used when he was being completely serious.

Sensing this, the ninja decided to be totally honest with the prince. "We don't have her."

"What?"

"Another group of ninja got her before we could," the ninja explained.

"You mean like another bunch of Yousha Nowa ninja?" Sky asked as Brandon joined him. The rest of the forest ninja had slipped away into the darkness, leaving only the one that Brandon had punched out and the one that was speaking behind.

"No, these guys call themselves the Wrong Righter's. Yousha Nowa's only pretending he has Diaspro so he can collect the ransom."

Sky gasped loudly. "And where are these Wrong Righter's now?"

"If we knew that, wouldn't we'd have Diaspro by now?" the ninja pointed out.

"Well, aren't you a big load of help?" Brandon muttered, folding his arms across his chest.

"We better get back to the palace," Sky suggested. "As soon as when get these two into custody of the royal guards, we can go find the girls and see if they've come up with anything."

"Right," Brandon nodded. "How do we do that?"

"Er . . ." Sky stammered, glancing at the two ninja's. It was going to be hard enough to move the unconscious one, and there was no grantee that the one that they had been speaking to wouldn't run off as soon as he had got his breathe back. Fortunately, Zing flew in was an answer.

"Perhaps this would help?" Zing said, hovering over to them with Sky's bag hanging beneath her. Sky had dropped it just before the ninjas had attack and he had completely forgotten about it until then.

"Good one Zing," Sky smiled, relieving her of the heavy bag and opening it to pull out two addle shacklers and a compactable magical stretcher. As soon as the ninjas were under the sleepy spell of the addle shacklers and the unconscious one was piled onto the stretcher, the two heroes, the pixie and their captives headed back to the palace grounds.

---

"Well, that was a total waste of time," Sky grumbled as he and Brandon made their way through the gardens in search of Flora and Bloom. They had dumped the two ninjas they had captured into the custody of the royal guards from questioning and then slipped off before anyone could suggest assigning someone to watch them. It was an easy task since Leopold and Alistair were still off with Sky's parents, but finding the girls was proving to be more difficult than expected given the massive size of the gardens.

"It wasn't a total waste of time," Brandon reminded his best friend. "Least we know Yousha Nowa doesn't have Diaspro."

"It still doesn't make us any closer to finding her," Sky growled, but his foul mood lifted when he spotted a glimpse of familiar red hair. "Bloom! Flora!"

"There you guys are," Bloom smiled, turning around and waiting for the boys to join them.

"Any word on Diaspro?" Flora asked. She was holding in her hands a large, glass sphere, and inside the sphere was a flower that Sky had noticed around his home several times, but every time he saw it, it was always growing in a different location.

"Yes and no," Brandon answered. "We ran into a bunch of Yousha Nowa ninjas and apparently they don't have Diaspro. Some group called the Right Wronger's took her before they had a chance to."

"Wrong Righter's," Sky corrected.

"Whatever."

"And where are they?" Bloom asked.

"We have no idea," Sky informed her gravely.

"Well, we might be able to help," Flora said sweetly, heading off into the forest. "C'mon. Bloom and I can use this flower and Diaspro's pin to try and locate her, but the spell will work best if we're away from any distractions."

"Okay," Sky nodded, following after Flora. He was all out of ideas, so he was grateful for the fact that someone had a back up plan.

"So who are these Wrong Righter's?" Bloom asked as they tried to put as much distance between them and the palace as possible.

"They're some kind of social justice group," Brandon answered her.

"Social justice ninja fighters?" Bloom repeated.

"Social justice. Saving the environment. Apparently they're into all sorts of causes," Brandon said. He would have gone into more detail on the topic but any chance of that happening vanished when Flora suddenly gasped. Instantly on the alert, Brandon's brown eyes widened as a red feather shot passed Flora's head with such force that it was actually able embedded itself in a rock. Putting the contained flower down, Flora ran over to observe the object that had come close enough to her face that it had actually brushed through her hair.

"Hey, it's a feather!" Bloom noted.

"It's more like an arrow," Brandon corrected. "That thing could do some damage."

"This is a very environmentally friendly weapon," Flora said picking it up and handing it over to Sky so he could get a closer look at it.

"The Wrong Righter's are into the environment," Sky reminded everyone. "It looks like they're sending us some kind of warning."

"Can you do the spell now Flora?" Brandon asked as Flora picked up sphere with flower in it again.

"Here's Diaspro's pin," Sky offered, holding it out in the palm of his hands.

"The full moon is not good for location spells," Flora informed the two boys.

"I forgot about that," Bloom admitted.

"We'll need everyone's help."

"Well, okay but I've never cast a spell before," Brandon warned her.

"We just need you to focus your energy," Bloom told him with an encouraging smile.

"When Bloom and I start casting the spell, try to picture what we want it to accomplish," Flora explained to everyone.

"If we can all focus on finding Diaspro we can balance the strong pull of the moon."

"And that'll lead us to the Right Wronger's?" Brandon asked.

"Wrong Righter's!" Sky corrected again.

"Whatever."

"It'll lead us to Diaspro since we can only focus on one person at a time. The others will have to wait," Flora said. "Okay, what we need is some water and some earth since they are the two elements which relate most to location spells."

"Really?" Brandon asked. He knew a bit about magic since his mother had been a rather talented fairy, but there were still a few things that managed to escape him. And using a pile of dirt and a drop of water to locate something was one of those things.

"Yes, Brandon, trust us. We know what we're doing," Bloom grinned as her and Flora went about getting the spell ready. Before too long, the two fairies had two more glass spheres in their possession; one holding some water and some holding some earth.

"Alrighty then, everyone focus your energy and picture Diaspro in your minds," Flora instructed. "Lockette, do you have the brooch?"

"Right here!" the little pixie held up.

"Good. When the spells starts, it should start pulling you in the direction of Diaspro."

"Ready guys?" Bloom asked, and when she got determined nods off of everyone she said, "Okay, let's do this!"

"This is kinda like dragon wrangling," Brandon said to Sky as the two of them watched the dark trees around them so Bloom and Flora could focus on the spell.

"Dude, concentrate," Sky silenced him, but Brandon was right about the similarities. Focusing his mental energy, Sky sent it outwards exactly like he would if he was trying to take control over a dragon, but instead of focusing it into another beings mind, he focused it down into the three sphere. And all the while, Diaspro's face was pictured in his head. Neither Sky nor Brandon could tell if their efforts were being on any use to the spell, but not long after they started concentrating then the three spheres levitated themselves into the air and started floating off in a direction that – if Flora was correct – would lead them straight to Diaspro. Along with the floating spheres, the brooch in Lockette's hand started to pull forward, dragging the pixie with it.

"Guys, we got it!" Flora announced cheerful, scrambling to her feet so that she could follow the spheres and Lockette.

"Is the spell working?" Sky asked, uncertain about this whole way of tracking.

"It's leading us to Diaspro!" Bloom assured him proudly.

Sky couldn't help but grin. Not only were they finally on the right track of rescuing Diaspro which meant that the chances of him and Bloom having dinner with his parents as planned had gotten more likely, but also his very first spell had been a success. "I'll remember this next time I lose my keys."

His grin faded though when Lockette – an admittedly cowardly pixie – started freaking out for no apparent reason.

"What's the matter Lockette?" Flora asked, her tone of voice rather concerned.

"I sense all paths are dangerous," Lockette told them all in a quivering voice. While she was cowardly, everyone listened to her when she warned them of dangerous paths. She was the Pixie of Portals after all, and she was able to sense things that others couldn't.

"Something's flying around at bug-like speed," Zing told everyone, and the group instantly turned their eyes to the dark undergrowth that surrounded them. Sky had Brandon both got that feeling at the back of their necks that told them they were being watched, but – just like when they were looking for the ninja – they couldn't see any sign of anyone in the area.

"I don't see anything," Brandon admitted.

"I don't either. Let's keep going," Flora suggest, turning back around to continue on the way they had been going. But no sooner had she turned her back then their unseen enemy fired a small, purple arrow at her from behind. The arrow was an addle arrow, which meant they reduced whoever they hit with the same sluggish state of mind that the addle shackles did and if it hit Flora, that would mean that the group would be down one person when it came to a fight. However, Zing – who had changed her appearance so that she was dressed as a cowboy – drove in and took the arrow right in the chest. There was a puff of smoke as the arrow hit her, and the little pixie dropped to the ground. "Zing!" Flora gasped, crouching down by the pixie who had just taken a hit for her. The others quickly rushed over. "Are you okay?"

"I'm all right, little lady," Zing assured her in a heavy cowboy accent. As a pixie, she was full of enough positive energy to protect her from any addle weaponry, but also as the Pixie of Insects, her clothing – although they didn't look it – were made up of a hard, exoskeleton-like material to give her extra protection.

"Wow, that sure was a close one," Brandon pointed out to everyone.

"Alright, we should all try to stick together," Sky suggest, positive that whoever was watching them was not going to give up after one failed attempt.

Now sooner than he had said that, then several attacks came at them from all sides. From above, dropped two large nets. From the sides, arrows and pointed bamboo sticks shot at them, embedding themselves into the ground right at their feet. And from below, the ground underneath Brandon suddenly fell away as a trap door opened to reveal a massive pit. Happening too fast for Brandon to jump clear off, the squire helpless fell into the pit and would had ended up skewered on a bunch of sharp spikes that were waiting for him at the bottom if he hadn't by chance reached out and grabbed a root that was penetrating out of the wall.

"Whoa!" Brandon gasped. Looking down, he saw the spikes that he would have impaled himself on if it hadn't been for exceptional good luck. "That was a little too close."

"Now Flora!" Bloom should, raising her hands above her head. "Griselda Bubble!"

Suddenly, the four teenagers and their three pixies were surrounded by a cone of fiery orange light. The nets that had dropped out of the sky landed on Bloom's shield, but the intense heat of the Last Princess of Sparx magic caused them catch fire and disintegrate into nothing.

"Ivy Fortress!" Flora cast, and out of the ground grew several thick vines which reinforced Bloom's shield and block several pointed bamboo sticks. While the fairies forced on shielding them from this unknown enemy, Sky quickly rushed to his best friend's aid.

"Hold on!" Sky called out, trying to keep the panic out of his voice. Kneeling down beside the edge of the pit, Sky held out hand. "Here!"

Trying to ignore the burning pain that was gathering in the shoulder of his right arm that was holding onto the root, Brandon stretched his left arm out as far as he could to try and reach his prince. Their fingertips brushed light against one another, and for a second there, Brandon had a sickening feeling that he was just out of reach. But then Sky leaned out further over the pit and grasped Brandon by the wrist. Pulling with all his strength, Sky managed to drag his best friend out of danger.

"Thanks, man," Brandon panted, thankful to be back on solid ground.

"Anytime," Sky grinned back, relieved that his friend was safe.

"Sky totally saved Brandon!" Chatta cheered loudly. "He deserves a cheer! Go Sky! You're our hero!"

"Chatta! Quiet!" Bloom scolded, silencing the pixie. They weren't out of danger yet.

"I think it's them," Lockette whimpered, looking towards one of the trees. The others followed her gaze and saw, perched upon a tree branch, were four people and dressed in similar uniforms. There were three young adult who looked like they had only just graduated the year before and one little kid who looked like he was still supposed to be in middle school. Of the three young adults, there were two males who looked like they were twins and one female. They all wore the same blue leotard with patches of yellow on their legs and on their arms. On their chest they bore the emblem of the Wrong Righter's, which was a yellow triangle with a thick arrow of the same colour pointing down from the bottom. Their hands were covered in red gloves and capes of the same colour covered their backs. All the males wore blue/grey helmet with clear face shields while the girl wore a cap that resembled a lady bug. They could have all been related for all the teens could tell since the Wrong Righter's all had dark, straight hair which all of them except the boy wore long.

All in all, Brandon thought they all looked pretty ridiculous, and apparently he wasn't the only one.

"That's them?" Bloom asked, jerking her thumb at them.

One of the twins – and the one the teenagers instantly assumed was their leader – started laughing for no real reason, and it was enough to make Brandon shake with rage. "I don't know who you clowns think you are or what you think you're doing with – "

"I'll tell you who we are; where ever there is injustice and inequality, we are there! Wherever people are suffering, we are there!" the Wrong Righter's leader told them jumping into air dramatically.

His twin then leapt into the air two, twirling around a few times before releasing several red feathers just like the one that had been thrown at Flora a few minutes ago at Bloom's feet. The young man then landed gracefully on the ground and removed a feather from mouth to say, "We fight poverty!"

The boy flew down to ground level using a yellow hang glider thing and then landed on the ground with levi blades. "That's right! We save the oceans!"

"That's right!" the woman agreed, jumping into their air with big, silver helmet in one hand and some lipstick in the other. "We lobby for education!"

Throwing the helmet into air, the woman then reached into her purse and pulls out the rest of the body armour – all of which should have been far too big to fit inside such a small purse – and threw it into the air to join the helmet. The four teenagers watch in disbelief as the armour assembled itself in mid air to form giant robot. It too had the Wrong Righter's logo on its chest and a red cape, and when it landed on the ground it stood taller than anyone else on the team.

"Our mission is to stop environmental depredation and to defend under privileged beings all across the magical dimension!" their leader ranted. "We are here to uphold justice! We are the unstoppable, invincible – "

"Wrong Righter's!" all of them cheered together.

"They're wired!" Chatta grinned, delighted by their enthusiasm.

"They're crazy," Brandon muttered to Sky under his breathe, and out of the corner of his eye he saw Sky nod in agreement.

"Freedom Kick!" the leader of the Wrong Righter's cried, running at Sky and barraging him in several very quick ninja kicks. Sky managed to block most of them, but one or two did get around his hands to hit the princes body. Even Yousha Nowa's best forest ninja wasn't on the same page as this guy.

"Let's go girls!" Bloom shouted as she and Flora transformed.

Jumping on the back of the robot, the woman leapt into the air, hurling several sticks of lipstick at the two fairies. "Righteous Lipstick!"

The lipsticks hit Bloom's shield with full force and the Last Princess of Sparx slide backwards under the sheer force of the attack. "Watch out!" she warned Flora.

"I'll take care of her!" Flora assured her, but she was a bit taken back when the woman hurled several more lipsticks at her and when they missed they embedded themselves in the ground and in the hard bark of the tree behind the flower fairy. "Whoa. Something tells me those lipsticks aren't used from cosmetic reasons."

Meanwhile, Sky was still fighting the Wrong Righter's leader, but the guy was proving to be far to fast for the prince. Sky was focusing all his energy on just avoiding the ninja's legs and from the looks of it the Wrong Righter's energy was as limitless as their enthusiasm for conservation of the environment. Brandon was busy taking on the twin, whose similarities with his brother went further than just looks. He was just as strong and as fast as the leader, and he was currently running rings around Brandon.

"Man! They're fast," Brandon gasped as the twin caught his around the neck with a cord made out of electricity and for the second time that night, Brandon found his airways cut off. He tried to struggle out of his opponents hold, but before he could escape, he lost consciousness and fell in a heap on the ground.

"Brandon!" Sky shouted, trying to get away for the ninja he was fighting to go and check on his friend, but his opponent wasn't going to let him leave.

"Give it up, hero," the Right Wronger said. "We're not letting the princess go until she fully understands the injustice she had caused in her realm."

"Injustice?" Sky repeated. He knew that the Wrong Righter's weren't working for Yousha Nowa, but he was surprised to learn that these guys didn't take Diaspro for finical gain. He would have liked to just be able to talk this out with the ninjas, but he suddenly found himself having to dodge several high kicks again so all chances of a conversation was lost.

"Vine Wrap!" Flora spelled, tying up the robot. But kid had locked her into his missile system and seconds later it hit her. Knock unconscious, the flower fairy collapsed on top of Brandon who was still out cold.

"Dammit!" Sky hissed through clenched teeth. But again he wasn't able to check on his friends because of the ninja he was fighting. Feed up with this game, Sky finally retaliated with an attack of his own and managed to kick the Wrong Righter off of him, but as he stumbled backwards, the Wrong Righter threw a small, blue ball at the prince. When the ball opened, several blue strings lashed out and secured Sky's arms to his side. Grunting in his efforts to free himself, Sky over balanced and fell to the ground, and without the use of his arms, he wasn't able to get back up again.

"Sky!" Bloom cried, before realising that the robot was flying right at her. Gathering her power to full strength, Bloom took aim and fired everything she had at it. "Dragon Blast!"

The blast hit the robot right in the chest and the impact was enough to completely disassemble the robot. But if the other Wrong Righter's were troubled by their comrades defeat, they didn't show it. Almost calmly, the woman pulled out her compact case and after checking herself in the mirror, threw the powder puff right at Bloom. "Mac Out Powers."

The powder puff hit Bloom and surrounded her in a thin cloud of powder. The fairy instantly started coughing before sinking to the ground. Her eyes got heavy and before she knew it, the fairy was in a powdered induced sleep.

"Bloom!" Sky called, straining against his bonds. A shadow fell across him and when he looked up, he saw the twin brother of the Wrong Righter that had tied him up.

"Nighty night," the Wrong Righter grinned sadistically, raising his foot. The last thing Sky could remember was the ninja bring his foot down on his head, and then everything went black.

---

"Sky? Sky, wake up."

"Huh?" Sky grunted, slowly waking up as someone gently shook him. Blinking, he looked up at the person who had been calling him. "Flora?"

"Sky, thank goodness you're awake," Flora smiled, a look of pure relief washing over her face.

"Where are we?" Sky asked, sitting up slowly.

"I don't know," Flora admitted. By the looks of it, they were in a single celled dungeon made of stone with only one window which was barred. Getting to his feet, Sky made his way to the window and looked out at the forest. In the distance, he could see the lights of the palace, and even further back was the capital city.

"I know where we are. This is the jail they set up when Eraklyon was originally colonized. I'm sure we're breaking some heritage rule by being here," Sky said, though considering their captors, most likely not. "Where's Bloom?"

"I'm here," a soft voice said weakly, and Sky turned to see Bloom leaning against the wall as she sat on the ground. She still looked pretty groggy, but she was slowly coming around.

Making his way over to her, Sky knelt down in front of her and took her hands in his. "Bloom, I'm so sorry about this. I wanted this to be the prefect night, but it's just turned into a big old mess."

"It's not your fault," Bloom reminded him with a smile. "And besides, least we can never say that Eraklyon is boring."

Sky couldn't help but laugh, but his smile faded when he saw that Brandon was still lying unconscious on the floor. Moving over to him, Sky gently shook his best friends shoulder, trying to wake him up. "Brandon? Brandon, can you hear me? Brandon?"

"Not now, Mom. I don't wonna get up," Brandon muttered sleepily.

"Brandon."

"But Mom," Brandon whined, opening his eyes slowly. He blinked a few times and looked around the dungeon groggily. "Somehow I get the feeling that this isn't where your parents are meeting us for dinner."

"No," Sky grinned. As Bloom and Brandon recovered, Sky told them about where they were and about how he thought that the Wrong Righter's hadn't kidnapped Diaspro for money.

"Then what did the Right Wronger's kidnap her for?" Brandon asked.

"Wrong Righter's," Sky corrected.

"Whatever."

"I dunno," Sky shrugged. "They said something about injustice but I have no idea what that meant."

"Well, I did hear reports that Diaspro was being a bit of a fashion tyrant and a major sob back on Quartz. Maybe it has something to do with that."

"Maybe. But how do we convince the Wrong Righter's to release Diaspro?" Sky asked and the cell fell silent.

Finally, Bloom asked, "Do you think they know that Yousha Nowa is claiming he took her and that he's demanding a ransom?"

"I doubt it," Sky said, catching on to what she was saying. "But I'm sure that they wouldn't approve of it."

"If they knew that Yousha Nowa was using them they'd let Diaspro go," Brandon concluded.

"You're right Brandon," Flora agreed. "We have to tell them."

"Yeah, but they would never believe us," Bloom pointed out, but Brandon was already one step ahead of her.

"We could show the Wrong Righter's the ransom note."

"Of course," Flora grinned. "Let's get out of here and go get the note!"

"That's a good plan," Bloom agreed.

Sky agreed as well, but there was just one flaw to their plan. "How do we get out?"

"Can we help?" a small voice asked. Looking out the window, the four teens saw Lockette smiling at them and accompanying her was Chatta and Zing.

"Hi Lockette!" Bloom greeted fondly. "You can help me do the escape spell Palladium taught us!"

"While they do that, Zing, you can go get the ransom note," Brandon told the bug-like pixie.

"I'm on it!" Zing saluted, flying off back towards the palace. With the combination of Bloom's Dragon Fire and Lockette's portal powers, they were able to get the lock to the dungeon open and in no time at all they were out under the nights sky in a very similar situation.

"So now what?" Brandon asked. "I mean, we have no idea where Diaspro is, no idea where our environmentally conscious ninjas have run off to and we have no idea how we're gonna find them. And don't even get me started on how late we are for dinner!"

Flora timidly raised her hand. "I think I may have an idea."

"You do?" Sky asked hopefully.

"Yeah, the poppy portalus flower has the same magical components as a transport pad," Flora explained, holding up the flower that was still encased in its sphere. "If we can locate Diaspro using the location spell we did last time, the poppy portalus through exchange of molecules can then bring Diaspro right here."

"Serious?"

"Yeah."

"Then let's do it."

The girls quickly set up the spell in the same way that they had before, only this time they had the spheres water, the earth and now one with Diaspro's brooch arranged in a triangle and hovering above them was the poppy portalus.

"Let me get this straight," Sky said once everything was set up. "All you have to do cast a spell and that little flower will transport Diaspro?"

"Yup," Flora nodded.

"Looks like it located her," Lockette said as the three spheres down the bottom suddenly seemed to have a picture of Diaspro in it.

"Now we have to do the teleporting spell," Bloom told everyone.

"What were you saying about how the flower teleports?" Brandon asked, making sure he understood everything before they started anything. He had heard tales of teleportation and translocation spells going totally wrong, resulting in people being what is referred to in the teleporting industry as 'spliced' which basically meant that a person would leave half of themselves behind when they teleported. It was a painful and awkward situation for a person to be in – and on the odd occasion, irreversible – and it was not something that Brandon wanted to witness. "That it needs to exchange one molecule for another or something?"

"Yeah, that's exactly right," Flora said, getting up off the ground.

"Well, what does that mean?" Sky asked.

"The way the spell works is that one of us will have to switch places with Diaspro in order for the flower to teleport her back here," Flora explain, plucking the poppy portalus out of the air and placing it in the centre of a tripod that they had set up beneath the triangle before stepping back.

"Right," Bloom agreed.

"If someone has to go I should be the one to do it," Sky volunteered.

"I'll go," Bloom disagreed.

"No, I'll go."

"I think Bloom should be the one to go because she can use her powers to get back to us," Flora suggested, trying to head off a round about argument.

Bloom nodded. "That settles it then."

"I'll go with you," Lockette offered, but then her nerve started to give out so she quickly added, "If you really want me to."

Bloom smiled. "You should stay here and help Flora."

"Why are you doing all this?" Sky had to ask. He knew Bloom did not like Diaspro in the slightest – hell, the first time they met it had quickly escalated into them throwing attacks at each other and Bloom knocking Diaspro clear out of the sky – so it didn't make sense to why she would want to risk splicing and encaging herself with the enemy for the sake of Diaspro.

"I don't care much for Diaspro," Bloom admitted. "But I care about you and I said I'd help you."

Sky wanted to say more, but Flora cut in before he had a chance to even open his mouth. "Okay you guys, let's get this spell started. Just remember to focus like last time. Ready Bloom?"

"Ready," Bloom nodded enthusiastically.

"Okay. Focus everyone."

Concentrating all his mental energy on picturing Diaspro in his head, Sky kept his eyes glued on Bloom. He still didn't like the fact that she was the one going to replace Diaspro, but Flora did have a good point about Bloom having magic. But he still didn't like it. Suddenly – without any warning – the poppy portalus flashed white and Bloom vanished. In her place, the very beautiful and regal Princess Diaspro sat on the dirty ground looking very baffled. Looking about her, Diaspro glanced at Brandon and Flora, but when her brown eyes fell on sky, they widened and filled with tears.

"Sky!" she wailed, scrambling to her feet and running over to him. Throwing her arms around his neck, Diaspro pressed herself hard up against him and sobbed into his chest. "Oh Sky! They were horrible! They had me in this damp old cave that was dreadful on my hair and there was this big, slobbering dog! Oh, it was horrible! Horrible!"

"Frizzy hair and dog drool? Give that girl a metal," Brandon muttered to Flora who tried horribly not to smile.

"Diaspro," Sky said, pulling her off him. "Bloom won't be – "

"Bloom? That Earth girl's here?"

"That Earth girl is the one that volunteered to trade places with you in order to get you to safety," Brandon told her with undisguised distasted. Since she wasn't used to being spoken to like that, Diaspro looked a little taken back but at the same time, she was equally baffled by the fact that Bloom would risk such a thing for her.

"The Wrong Righter's will be here shortly," Sky reminded everyone. "Flora, you and the pixies take Diaspro out of harms way. The Princess has been through enough today."

As soon as Flora and Diaspro were gone, Brandon and Sky pulled out their phantom blades and waited.

"She'll be fine, right?" Sky asked, rocking back and forward on his feet nervously.

"Yeah."

Silence fell over the two of them, but wasn't long until Sky broke it again. "What's taking her so long?"

"Dude, she's fine. I'm sure she'll give us some kind of signal," Brandon told him. As soon as the words left his lips, a massive fire tornado appeared off in the distance, signalling that Bloom was making a successful and flashy escape. "It looks like this is it. Bloom is coming back."

"And she's got company," Sky noted as Bloom joined them and hot on her heels were the Wrong Righter's.

"So did Zing get the ransom note?" Bloom asked.

"Zing's is not back yet," Brandon informed her anxiously. This whole plan depended on Zing getting that note and convincing the Wrong Righter's that they had been used. Without it, they were no doubt facing another ass kicking like what happened last time.

"We have to distract these guys until she gets here," Sky told everyone.

"Villainous rogues!" one of the twins cursed them and from the way he talked the teens were able to identify him as the leader of the Wrong Righter's. "You dare enter our quarters and thwart our plans for education?"

"Didn't you learn anything from last time," the other twin spat.

"Look guys. We're not looking for a fight," Sky tried to reason with them.

"Too bad. You found one."

Before the teens knew it, the Wrong Righter's had them completely surrounded, putting Sky, Brandon and Bloom at a disadvantage. "Zing better hurry," Brandon muttered, eyeing off each Wrong Righter.

"Many have tried to stop the Wrong Righter's but all of them have failed," the leader informed them. "Let's attack!"

"Wait!" Zing little voice called out, freezing the Wrong Righter's in their tracks.

"Huh?"

A wide smile crossed Brandon's face when he saw the little, bug-like pixie flying towards them. "Just in time."

"Yup," Bloom agreed.

"Here!" Zing said, throwing the note at Bloom, but the leader quickly jumped in a caught it.

"And what do we have here?" the Wrong Righter demanded to know.

"A ransom note for Diaspro," Bloom explained.

"Not only that, it's been signed by Yousha Nowa," Sky added.

"He made you look like kidnappers!"

"Huh?" the leader gasped, before letting out a feral sounding growl. "This Yousha Nowa dares to shame the honoured name of the Wrong Righter's. This insult shalt not be ignored as long as this body draws breathe. We shall not excuse the injuries that he had done to me for the hate I bare him can afford no better term than this; he is a villain!" (4)

"Wow, he's like Shakespeare," Bloom commented.

"A what spear?" Brandon asked, unsure as how a person could be related to a weapon.

"Comrades, please offer the most sceneries apologizes from a misguided fool," the leaded said, bowing low. "We wished only to educate the tyrannous princess and inform her of her peoples suffering. We did not think that something this horrible would transpire from our actions. You have my deepest apologizes and my solemn vow to be you faithful and unconditional servant, Stephen."

"Oh, there's really no need for . . ." Sky stated, but he trailed off when what the Wrong Righter had said finally hit him. "You're name is Stephen?"

"That it is."

"Oh. I just figured with the way you talked that it would be something more . . ." Sky trailed off again. "You know what, never mind."

"Allow me to introduce my comrades," Stephen said, gesturing to the small boy. "This is Robert, our technical expert. A finer hand at infiltrating a computer system you shall not find."

"Hey," Robert waved, completely unfazed by Stephen's odd way of speaking.

"May I now introduce a maiden whose shames us all in our beauty as daylight doth a lamp, and her eternal beauty is only complemented by her endless knowledge. She is too wise and too fair for this mortal world, but we are blessed to have not only her company, but her beloved friendship as well," Stephen gushed, looking adoringly at the woman of the group. "May I introduce the elegant and stunning Bindi."

"How come you never talk to me like that?" Bloom asked Sky.

Sky looked at her in shock. "I don't think even Helia could talk to you like that."

"And of course, my beloved kinsman," Stephen said, looking lovingly at his twin. "We are one face, one voice, one habit and two persons. A natural perspective that is and is not. An apple cleft in two is – "

"Oh, shut up!" his twin cut him off, clearly stating that they were not one habit. "I'm Irwin and the big robot's called Ventidius (5). Now can we please go and get this Yousha Nowa guy."

"Yes. Onwards Wrong Righter's and new comrades!" Stephen cried, marching forward towards the tent that Flora had set up to house Diaspro while the fight was on. Stephen easily lifted the tent clear off the ground, revealing a terrified looking bunch of fairies and pixies.

"Oh no!" Flora gasped.

"It's okay," Sky quickly reassured her.

"These guys are on our side now," Brandon said.

"Come on. Let's go get Yousha Nowa!" the leader shouted.

"Yeah!" the rest of his team cheered.

"We shall vanquish Yousha Nowa and rid your kingdom of this vile parasite once and for all!" Stephen promised before sinking to the ground in front of Diaspro. "M'lady, please accept my deepest apology. I shall strive each day to rid myself of the shame of the wrong I did unto thee. I swear, on the blood of – "

"Look, I forgive you," Diaspro cut him off. "Just go, or whatever."

"To Yousha Nowa!" Stephen cried, rising to his feet. "Wrong Righter's, away!"

And with that, the Wrong Righter's bounded off into the night, ready to put an end to Yousha Nowa reign of terror.

"You know, despite being a little weird, those Right Wronger's were alright," Brandon said.

"Wrong Righter's!" everyone expect Diaspro corrected him.

"Whatever. Can we have dinner now?"

---

The following morning, the four high school students were lounging in Sky's private quarters, simply enjoying a peaceful morning after such a hectic night. Once they had convinced the Wrong Righter's that Yousha Nowa was the real villain, they had returned to the palace with a very relieved Princess Diaspro who apparently had adopted a new look on life. After her brief stint in captivity, Diaspro was making decrements of freedom for all those she had wrongly imprisoned back on Quartz for simple fashion violations. The Princess was quickly rushed onto a private ship so she could return back to her home and put her parents and her people minds a peace. Sky hoped that Diaspro's new views would last, but there was no real guarantee of that.

But that didn't matter at the moment. The most important thing in Sky's mind was that he had finally able to sit down with his parents, his girlfriend and his friends to have the dinner like they had originally planned.

The group were laughing as Brandon went about retelling them one of the times when he was younger and he had gotten so nervous about meeting Sky's father that he had accidentally enclosed himself in Leopold's closet when he thought it was a bathroom. Any chances of the young squire correcting his mistake before the king arrived was ruined due to the fact that no sooner had Brandon closed the closet door and realised his mistake than the king entered the room.

"And what did he do?" Bloom asked, covering her mouth in pure embarrassment for young Brandon.

"When he found out that I was in Leo's closet he told me to come out," Brandon told her, and in his voice she could tell that even after all this time it was still something Brandon cringed at. "Of course, I had to do it! So out I come – absolutely ready to die from embarrassment – and he asks me . . . Sky, do the voice."

"He said, 'What were you doing in closet, boy?'" Sky said, mimicking his father very well.

"Oh no," Flora whined, really feeling for Brandon.

"And I said, 'I had to pee'," Brandon told them and the room instantly filled with howls of laughter. "Oh shut up! I was like eight or something!"

"Oh my god," Bloom gasped, clutching her sides.

"That was that the second time you met my father, wasn't it?" Sky asked. He knew Brandon hated bring up the embarrassing stories, but there was no denying that these stories were funny and he also knew how much Brandon liked to make people laugh.

"That was the third time," Brandon corrected. "The first time was when I slipped over in the throne room due to those new shoes my mom got me. The second time was when he saw me dancing around in a bathrobe and when I realised he was there I threw my drink up in the air." (6)

"I still don't understand how you didn't see that 'wet paint' sign they had on the bench."

"Wet paint was the least of my troubles that day."

Another round of laugher filled the room and just as it was dying down when there was a knock at their door and at Sky command, Leopold entered, "Your highness, the King and Queen requests the presence of Princess Bloom and yourself in the throne room."

"What do you think they want?" Bloom asked, looking nervously at Sky.

"I'm not sure," Sky admitted. "But I guess we better go and find out."

A few minutes later, Leopold's strong voice announced them to the King and Queen, and the two teens found themselves once again standing before the royal thrones.

"Thank you both for coming so quickly," Sky's father greeted with a warm smile. "We just thought we should inform you that the Wrong Righter's have successfully contained Yousha Nowa and the rest of the forest ninjas. Yousha Nowa is currently in the custody of the Preventer Force."

"That's awesome news," Sky grinned. The Preventer Force was a military Special Ops. Unit which patrolled the universe preventing acts of terrorism and needless war mongering. The head of the force was a powerful celestial who had held the position of Commander in Chief for over six hundred years. There was no way the Preventer Force was ever going to let Yousha Nowa escape their custody.

"Yes, but all credit is to go to you and your friends, son. Without them, we may never have had the Wrong Righter's join our side."

"Thank you, but I'm afraid all real credit should go to Bloom," Sky told his parents modestly. "It was her who willing placed herself in danger so that we could get Diaspro to safety."

For the first time that entire weekend, Sky's father smiled warmly at Bloom. "Yes, we cannot forget that. Such bravery and selflessness is rare in this day and age and it should not go unrecognized. What say you two join us on our private yacht next weekend? I haven't been sailing with Sky in such a long time."

"We'll have to see about that one, dad."

"You're very brave Bloom," the king told the fairy honestly. "We're extremely impressed."

"Thank you, your majesty," Bloom grinned back, relieved to have finally made a good impression on Sky's parents. Sky saw her start to relax a bit, making him feel less anxious that he had been over the last few days. "That really means a lot to me."

"You'll make a great queen some day, dear," Sky's mother said, and her son knew that that was about the closest thing to an acceptance that she was ever going to give.

"Now, what should we do about these Wrong Righter's?" the King asked. While he was grateful for them removing a dangerous crime lord out of him realm, the king did find their enthusiasm to be a bit exhausting after a while. "I have to say, I hope they're not planning to stick on Eraklyon."

"I could be wrong but I don't think you have to worry about that, your majesty," Bloom assured him.

---

After Bloom and Sky had left to go meet Sky's parents in the throne room, Brandon and Flora had received word that the Wrong Righter's were out of the front of the palace, preparing to leave. After a moment hesitation, the two teens decided to head out side to see them off. After all, if you ignored their insane enthusiasm, the Wrong Righter's were a pretty nice group of people. There was just one thing that trouble Brandon.

"I still don't get it," Brandon said as they watched the activists squabble amongst themselves about what their next mission was going to be. "How do they tell those twins apart? They're completely identical. I mean, I know that's expected since they're twins, but I can't pick out one feature that identifies one from the other until they open their mouths." (7)

"I was talking to Bindi, and apparently Stephen is the taller one and Irwin is the one with the temper," Flora explained.

"How can you tell which one of them has the temper at the moment?" Brandon asked as the group continued to snap at one another.

"Alright, one more time. Let's see if we can come to a group decision," Stephen begged his team in a voice that stated his was starting to lose his patience.

"I want to save the oceans!" Bindi instantly said.

"Yeah, well, what about children's rights?" Robert asked.

"What about robot's rights?" Ventidius raised.

Irwin didn't seem too thrilled about any of the suggestions. "Don't you think we should go stop the drilling in the pristine realm?"

"Maybe we should go protect the water supply in Tides?" Stephen pondered.

"Er?" Flora and Brandon grunted in unison. For a group of activists rallying for universal harmony and conservation, they weren't very good at agreeing with one another.

"Children's rights are more important than the environment!" Robert protested, earning several horrified looks from the rest of his team.

"They're of equal importance!" Bindi shouted back.

"What about the winged liger?" Stephen suggested out of nowhere. None of the others verbally agreed to Stephen's idea, but none of them disagreed which was good enough for him.

Completely unaware of the dilemma that face the Wrong Righter's, Bloom and Sky made their way over to them while reflecting on what had just happened in the throne room. "I think that went pretty well, right?" Bloom asked.

"Sure, my parents are never that nice," Sky answered truthfully.

"Hey," Stephen greeted the couple when they joined the group. Apparently, his odd way of speaking only occurred whenever he got really enthusiastic about something.

"So tell us, what are the Wrong Righter's up to next?" Bloom asked them. Brandon flinched, expecting all five Wrong Righter's to start yelling at once, but it never came. Instead, they were all willing to let Stephen answer for them.

"We're going to save the winged liger!" Stephen cried, suddenly turning and running off towards the gate with a few massive jumps thrown in for good measure. "Everyone's who's with me, come on!"

"Alright," Irwin grinned, following after his twin.

"Let's go!" Robert cheered. A couple large jumps and a few seconds later, the Wrong Righter's were out of sight, leaving four rather sell shocked teens in their wake.

"Wow," Bloom gasped, a little taken back by their never ending enthusiasm.

Sky totally agreed with her, but right now he wanted to fill Brandon and Flora in on what had just happened inside the throne room. "My parents said Bloom was the greatest and they said they'd take us sailing next week."

"Um, I don't mean to jump the gun but do you think I could be queen of both Eraklyon and Sparx at the same time?" Bloom asked cheerfully.

"I think you should take Sky to meet your parents," Brandon suggested, a rather cheeky expression on his face.

"I don't know. I'm nervous about Earth manners. I'm scared I'd make a fool of myself," Sky repeated what Bloom had said on the flight to Eraklyon, putting his arm fondly around Bloom's shoulders.

"Just be yourself and you'll be great," Bloom told him. "And at least I can guarantee you that you won't have to do anything crazy like go running out to rescue a princess from ninjas while on Earth."

"Hey, I didn't plan that," Sky reminded her. "Although you are right about those Right Wronger's being crazy."

"Wrong Righter's," Brandon corrected.

"Whatever."

---

A few hours later, the group decided that they should probably get back to Magix since each of them did have a small amount of homework waiting for them there. Also – after such a chaotic night – each of them were hoping for a bit of quiet time before classes started on the Monday.

"Please try and have a safe flight, your highness," Leopold begged as he and Alistair stood in the front courtyard to see them off. Sky and Brandon's levi bikes were standing by, ready for it owners to drive them to the Eraklyon space port where their ship was being held.

"Have we ever given you any reason to believe we wouldn't?" Sky asked, trying to look as innocent as possible, which in turn made him look all the more suspicious.

"I do recall the time when you were eleven and one of the royal space ships somehow managed to smash through the garage doors."

"Yes well, that was Brandon's fault."

"Hey!" Brandon objected loudly. "Don't you dare try and blame that on me! It was your idea to show me the inside of the ship – "

"Yeah, but I didn't think you're actually try and – "

"Shh," Brandon suddenly cut the prince off.

"Don't you shh me. It was you're idea to – "

"No, shh," Brandon said again. It was there that Sky suddenly became aware of how alert Brandon was, looking as if he was trying to listen for something. "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Bloom asked nervously, as fresh memories of being attacked by ninja's entered her mind. "I don't hear anything."

The only thing Sky could ear was his own heartbeat pounding in his ears, but his anxiety quickly changed to confusion as a delighted, childlike expression crossed Brandon's face.

"It can't be?" Brandon grinned widely and for no logical reason – or at least as far as Sky could see – he began running down the driveway. However, things became much clearer with he started to call out, "Lady! Lady! C'mere girl!"

From around a bend in the driveway, galloping at fast but seemingly tireless pace with her tongue lolled out of one side of her mouth, came Lady; the stray dog that Sky had picked up off the streets the year before. She still had the same cream coat and loving brown eyes – though she did look a little fatter but that came as no real shock if you knew how much Brandon's mom loved to mother people to within an inch of their life – and Sky was surprised when he realised how much he had actually missed her over the past year. She had offered no magical support like the pixies did to the Winx Club, but Lady had been a well loved member of Sky's crew, especially since she rarely back chatted. The little dog skidded to a stop in front of Brandon and hopped playfully out of his reach before letting him tackle her to the ground. The human and dog rolled on the ground, rubbing and rough housing one another. Lady managed to playfully bite Brandon's hands a few times, but there was no intent to hurt him, unless of course she planned to kill him by drowning him in dog slobber. But Brandon couldn't really care less.

"Who's my good girl? Who's my girl?" Brandon asked, gently taking hold of her ears and shaking her head from side to side. The dog smiled widely at him and made loving grunting noses as she lapped up the attention of one her beloved masters. Brandon continued wrestling the dog, but he paused when he heard a very familiar and sarcastic voice speak.

"It's nice to see they're teaching you how to act mature at that school of yours."

"Will!" Brandon cried gleefully, scrambling to his feet and tackling his little brother into a tight bear. Not expecting his older brother to leap at him like that, Will was unprepared for the attack and as a result the two of the went crashing to the ground to have a very excited Lady run over to them and start licking both their faces.

"Argh! Lady! Get off!" Will shouted, pushing both sibling and dog off of him. "You know I'm supposed to meet a girl after this!"

"Ooh. Willy's got a girlfriend," Brandon teased, grinning widely at his brother.

"Don't call me that, Brandon Thomas," Will ordered, calling his older sibling by his first and middle name like their mother did whenever either of them was in trouble.

"Shut up, William Jared."

It was ironic that only a few minutes before Brandon had been complaining about how difficult it was to tell Stephen and Irwin apart because now, with the two of them still lying in a pile on the ground glaring at each other, it was quite hard to guess which brother was which. Will looked just like his brother Brandon, but on a few years delay. They both had the same strong jaw line and both had brunette hair, though Will's fringe wasn't quite as long as Brandon's. In fact, the only real difference apart from age was the fact that Will had his mothers green eyes while Brandon had their fathers brown.

"Hey Will," Sky greeted as soon as Will got to his feet and brushed the dirt off his clothes.

"Hi Sky," Will smiled. It never ceased to amaze Sky just how comfortable Brandon's family were with his rank. While almost every other person Sky met seemed to fall over themselves when they found out he was a prince, Brandon's family had always just seen him as a real person, not just a title. Sky loved Brandon's house and everyone in it because of that, and it was one of the reasons why he had asked Brandon to switch identities when they first started at Red Fountain. "When are you going to get some brains and ditch that hopeless excuse for a squire you have?"

"Hey!" Brandon objected from his place on the ground.

"I think I'll hang onto him a little longer," Sky told Will with a fond smile. "But how have you been? How's your final year of middle school?"

"It's alright," Brandon shrugged. "That Mrs. Gregory lady is a real control freak but. She's not even our year adviser but she's all up in our faces like it's her business."

"Argh! I hate that woman," Brandon growled. Sky had gone to a more exclusive middle school than Brandon had, but he had heard enough about this Mrs. Gregory to know just how much Brandon hated her and exactly why. "Just hearing her name makes me so mad I want to kill small children." (8)

"Good thing Roberts gone," Chatta piped up.

"Are you allowed to talk like that?" Flora asked. "You know, as like a future hero?"

"If you knew Gregory you'd understand," Brandon assured her. "She's a tyrant, right Will?"

But Will was no longer listening to his brother. He had suddenly become aware that they were in the presence of two very attractive young ladies, and a charming smile that Sky knew all too well crossed his face. This guy was definitely Brandon's brother. "Aren't you going to introduce me to your friends?"

"Dude, they're too old for you," Brandon quickly informed him, getting to his feet.

"So? Age never stopped you."

"You still aren't pissed about that Stacey chick, are you?"

"You did that on purpose."

"I didn't mean for her to get a crush on me."

"Yes you did. She was three grades below you and you knew I liked her," Will snarled, still very upset about the whole thing.

"Bro, you were ten. What did you think you were going to do with her? Share you're juice box?"

"You shut up!"

"No! You shut up!"

"Both of you shut up," Sky ordered, rubbing the bridge of his nose. He did love Brandon and Will like brothers, but that also meant he sometimes hated them like brothers too. "So, Will, which school are you looking at for next year? St Dominic's?"

"Yeah, but also – since your family funded Brandon's tuition to Red Fountain over the last three years – my parents have been able to save up enough to possibly send me to Red Fountain next year."

"My baby brother at Red Fountain? That's awesome!" Brandon cried, launching himself at his brother and encasing him in a strangling bear hug. As an only child, Sky was always shocked at quickly Brandon and Will could go from being at each others throats to being the very best of friends. "Sky! You hear that? Willy and me at Red Fountain together!"

"I doubt the teachers are ready for that," Sky noted.

"It's just a thought," Will pointed out, but Brandon was already planning his senior and Will's freshmen year together. Will ignored him, and instead turned to address Sky. "I don't know how you put up with him. I'm stuck with him because he's family, but you're here by choice."

"It's a mad world," Sky agreed.

After ten more minutes of Brandon ranting to himself and once Lady had lapped up enough love from everyone for the day, it was time to leave. Loaded up with some homemade cookies that Brandon's mother had baked for them, the four teenagers got ready to leave.

"Well, I guess I'll see you when I see you," Sky said to his parents. That was the bad thing about attending a private school in another realm; there was no guaranteeing when he would see his parents next, especially when you considered their own busy schedules.

"Farewell, son," his mother said. "Have a safe flight."

"We'll miss you," the king told his son before smiling over at Bloom who was leaning beside Sky's levi bike, allowing her boyfriend to say goodbye to his parents in private. "That girl's one of a kind so you hang onto her."

Sky smiled warmly at his father. "Oh, I will dad. I will."

---

(1) When I was little there was an English cartoon called the Animals of Fatheringwood. I blanked on a name for a forest and then out of my childhood memories came this little number

(2) I couldn't help but picture Leo from the West Wing when creating this character

(3) The actual line from the show is simply "We won't leave till you find you daughter" but I figured I needed to make it appear like he was going to continue on to saw daughter-in-law since I don't condone incest even if it was a common practice in medieval royalty

(4) I can't remember why exactly, but I decided to make the leader of the Wrong Righter's have an elegant, long winded almost Shakespearian way of talking. I think I just wanted them to seem that little bit more crazy and enthusiastic

(5) The Wrong Righter's are named after the most famous lobbyist for environmental conservation; the Steve Irwin and family. The two twins are obviously named after the crocodile hunter himself while Bindi and Robert are the names of his kids who took on his role as wildlife warriors after he died. Ventidius however has nothing to do with the Irwin family and is in fact a Shakespearian reference to a solider in Antony and Cleopatra who was given some incredible lines about how the elite oppressed the working class and that a smart man doesn't try to outshine his superiors. Also I just happened to like the name off.

(6) Brandon's embarrassing moments as a child were inspired (some might even say stolen) from some of my favourite moments in the West Wing. That closet/bathroom scene with Ainsely Hays and the President is one of my most favourite scenes in the entire series

(7) After writing this I realised that there is a difference between the two twins; one has a fringe and the other doesn't, but that comment by Brandon that you can't tell them apart relates to a moment later in the chapter so I decided not to fix it

(8) Mrs Gregory was a teacher during my final years of high school and I couldn't stand her. That killing small children comment was actually a quote spoken by my goody-two-shoes, Christian friend

Whoa. Long enough for ya? Oh, and as an extra bit of trivia; a liger is the offspring when a lion mates with a tiger, just in case you didn't know.

TBC.