Last time Brandon, Musa, Riven, Layla and Tatewaki, along with Steve, Michael, Virgil and Shawn, journeyed to Eraklyon to 'kidnap' Sky. The kidnapping was a success. With the 'promiscuous' (or not) prince safely secured, the 'kidnappers' headed back to Magicx, where all of our heroes expect to get some answers. Meanwhile, everyone's favorite royal pain in the ass, Diaspro, watched and continued her malevolent scheme, whatever it is. On with the show!

Chapter 5: The Truth

Back at Alfea, Stella just heard from Brandon that they have Sky secured and are on their way back. "Sounds great," she said into her cell phone, "I'll be sure to tell Bloom the good news. See you soon, snookums!"

"How soon till they're back?" asked Andrew, checking his watch for the third time that minute."

"Not long," answered Stella as she hung up her phone, "About half an hour."

"Good," said Andrew, "They've made excellent time."

"Indeed," said Max, "I promise you, we're going to get to the bottom of this."

"How can we thank you for helping us?" asked Tecna.

"It's our pleasure," said Jill, "What are friends for? Besides, it'll be a cold day in Hell before I stand by idly and allow outside forces to interfere with true love, for that is what Bloom and Sky have."

Meanwhile Elise and Carmen were entranced by Fay's story of her experience of death and rebirth. "Unbelievable!" said Carmen, "You were killed, yet your living soul survived and attached itself to another."

"It sure did," said Violet, "I had to carry Fay's katra in my head for a few weeks before Virgil cloned a new body for her."

"That wouldn't have worked here in this universe," said Elise, "Cloning was outlawed many years ago. Only one species is allowed to use such medical science, The Tleiaxu. Damn good with genetics, but they never share their secrets with outsiders."

"How good are they?" asked an intrigued Violet.

"Good enough to grow an adult clone body in less than a day," answered Elise, "They can also make gholas, which are clones of people who are already dead."

"Like me," said Fay, "I died, they cloned me a new body, and my soul was put into it."

"Not so," said Elise, "A ghola has no memory of whom it was cloned from, unless the memories are Awakened. In your case, Fay, the DNA sample used to make your new body was taken when you were still alive, so you're a clone, not a ghola."

"How do you go about 'Awakening' a ghola's memories?" asked Violet.

"Only the Tleiaxu know for sure," said Carmen, "Something to do with creating a mental crisis in the mind of the ghola."

Bloom, meanwhile, having had the chance to calm down and collect her self, was apologizing to Julie. "I'm sorry I accused you of doing it with Sky," she said, "I overreacted and had no right to act the way I did."

"Damn right you overreacted," said Julie, "But I'm willing to be forgiving, this time. I'm just anxious to get this whole mess cleared up."

Just then Laura came in the room, "I'm ready."

"So what should I do?" asked Bloom as she and Laura sat at a table.

"Just give me your hand and relax," said Laura, "I'll do all the work. You may feel an intense rushing in your head. That's just me entering your mind."

"What!?!" exclaimed Bloom, "No! No way I'm letting anyone inside my head!"

"Just relax," said Laura, "I won't hurt you."

"I don't think so," said Bloom, "I've had enough of people messing with my mind."

"I'm not going to mess with your mind," said Laura in a reassuring tone, "I'm just gonna poke around a bit, looking for the truth. I give you my word, no harm will be done to your mind, I promise."

"You can trust her," said Jill, "Just make sure she doesn't get angry when she's in your mind."

For some reason Jill's assurances eased Bloom's fear of having her mind invaded again. "Alright," said Bloom, "lets just get it over with."

"Okay," said Laura as she held onto Bloom's hand, "One quick mind probe coming up!"

"Ouch!" exclaimed Bloom, "Do you have to grip so tightly!?"

"Sorry," said Laura, "That's how it works."

Within a few seconds Bloom began to feel a sudden rush in her head as Laura examined her recent memories. "Let's see now, uh-huh, yes, yes I see now. It's a fake all right. The memory of you catching Sky with another girl, it was put into your head to cover up what really happened."

"And just what really happened?" asked Stella.

"I remember now," said Bloom in a slightly dazed tone, "Sky and I, we were in the park, not at Red Fountain. We were watching the sun go down. He was about to ask me something, when someone came up from behind and, and, somebody grabbed me and pressed something to my face, something that smelled really bad. After that, I…I can't remember, the rest is all a blank."

"Try harder, Laura," said Jill, "Bloom may have seen who did this to her."

"She won't," said Laura as she let go of Bloom's hand, "Because there are no memories beyond that. She and Sky must have been drugged. Their attackers then implanted the false memories into Bloom's mind. The same thing must have happened to Sky. We'll know for sure when I've had a chance to examine his mind for false memories."

"So somebody attacked Bloom and Sky," said Carmen, "Drugged them and made them remember a compromising situation, one that would force them to break up."

"Indeed," said Tecna, "But who would do such a dastardly deed?"

"Darcy," said Morgan, "This is just the sort of sick, twisted, sadistic plan she'd come up with."

"If it was Darcy she would have followed up on it," said Elise, "She's not the kind to just start something and let it go."

It was then that Flora and Helia came back from Earth, with them were Kodatchi Kuno from Japan, her boyfriend Tenchi Masaki, and Shampoo of the Amazon tribe.

About a year before Bloom met Stella, she and her mom took a trip to Japan as part of a tour of rare flowers of Asia. While in Tokyo, Bloom encountered Kodatchi. Now Kodatchi is a rare young woman, a brilliant gymnastic who mixed her favorite sport with martial arts. On the other hand she is, well, much more than eccentric.

Now Shampoo, she's a horse of a different color indeed. After Tokyo, Bloom and her mother went to China. There Bloom saved Shampoo from drowning in a river. According to the law of her tribe, Shampoo was honored bound to serve Bloom until the young Amazon could save Bloom's life in turn. As thanks for saving her life and in celebration of their new friendship, Shampoo made Bloom and honorary Amazon.

Then there's Tenchi, also from Japan, and a brilliant sword master. His grandfather, Yosho, is the half-brother of Ayeka, Empress of Jurai. Now Tenchi never asked have alien relatives, or to be related to royalty. All Tenchi asked for in life was simple things, yet fate considered to throw him into one mess of trouble after another.

These three Earthlings, along with several others from Japan, helped Bloom and her friends fight and defeat The Shadow Riders a few months back.

"Honored friend!" exclaimed Shampoo as she rushed over to Bloom, "Is true? Did boyfriend Sky really cheat on you?"

Before Bloom or anyone could answer, Kodatchi pulled out her primary weapon, a long, gymnastic ribbon. "Where's that two-timing man whore!?!!! I'll kill the bastard!!!"

"Nobody is killing anyone, Kodatchi!" exclaimed Bloom, "Sky didn't do it. We were set up."

"Set up?" asked Tenchi, "Who and why?"

"That's what we hope to find out," said Max. Introductions were made between the Ramblers and Bloom's friends from Earth.

"Feeling better?" Stella asked Bloom.

"A lot better," replied Bloom, "Now that I know for sure what really happened, or at least what didn't happened. But Sky still thinks he cheated on me."

"I can remedy that problem," said Laura, "As soon as he and the others get here."

The wait was short. Five minutes later Brandon, Musa, Riven, Layla, Tatewaki, along with Steve, Virgil, Michael and Shawn, returned with their 'prize.'

"Success!" exclaimed Riven, "One cheating, princely boyfriend, bagged and tagged."

"I hate to destroy your visions of victory," said Timmy, "But Sky's innocent. He didn't cheat on Bloom."

"Really?" asked an embarrassed Steve, "Well, I feel sheepish."

"You sure?" Layla asked Bloom, "You were so certain of what happened."

"Laura examined my memories," said Bloom, "What I thought happened, never did. Someone put a false memory in me."

Shawn and Michael meanwhile had released and untied Sky from the sack. He didn't hear the current conversation, for he was madder than a henhouse full of wet hens. Then he saw Bloom, and all the color drained from his face. "Bloom! I, I don't know what to say! I don't even remember why I did what I did."

Then he saw Julie, "Oh gods! It's you!! Listen, about the other day, I don't even know why we ended up like that."

"I've never seen you before today," said Julie calmly, "So how could we have done what you think we did?"

"It's okay, Sky," said Bloom, "It didn't happened. Seriously, you never cheated on me, it was a false memory that someone put in my mind to break us up. They did the same thing to you."

"What?" asked an understandably confused Sky, "Are you sure? It seemed so real to me."

"It's a false memory," said Laura, "And I'll prove it to you. Just give me your hand and I'll examine your brain. I'll have the truth dug up in no time."

"Uh," said a hesitant Sky, not comfortable with having someone who isn't always mentally stable poke inside his head.

"Just relax," said Laura, a reassuring smile on her face, "I'll be as gentle as a lamb." Sky then took Laura's hand, "That works out with weights!" Sky then winced as Laura gripped his hand tightly, beginning her scan of his recent memories. "Uh-huh, there it is, another false memory. And the truth should be right about, there!"

Sky then remembered what really happened. He was in the park with Bloom, watching the sun go down. "Oh my!" said Laura as she let go of Sky's hand, "That is interesting, very interesting."

"What's interesting?" asked Brandon.

"It's personal," said Sky as he rubbed the circulation back into his hand, "But that isn't important. What is is that I remember what happened. We were attacked from behind and drugged. But before I passed out, I remember a familiar face, one I hoped to never see again. I saw Diaspro, looking down at us. She whispered something to be before everything went black. She said, 'Welcome to the world of suffering.'"

"That bitch!!" Shouted Stella, "That goat-sucking whore!!"

"I knew we should have killed her when we hand the chance," said Tatewaki to Tenchi, "You had her at your mercy not too long ago, when she attacked you."

"I know," said Tenchi, "She meant to blast Ranma, but hit me instead. I then punished her by giving her the spanking to end all spankings. I thought some humiliation would do her some good. Apparently I was wrong."

"We saw her on Eraklyon," said Musa, "We passed her on our way out of the palace."

"I knew there was something wrong about that little tramp," said Shawn, "We should have grabbed her when the opportunity presented itself."

"We didn't know," said Virgil, "There was no way we could have known."

"Well we know now," said Stella as she pulled out her cell phone and dialed The Night Rider, "Hello, Amanda? I need you, Beauregard and Lucinda to go back to Eraklyon and kidnap Diaspro. She was behind the whole thing. Steve, Michael and Shawn will explain fully when they get to the ship. Thanks, Amanda, you're the best."

"Two kidnapping in one day," said Steve eagerly as he, Shawn and Michael got up, "This just gets better and better." If only things did get better.

Just then all the light went out of the room, blinding everyone into chaos and bedlam. A minute or so of darkness later, Stella had one of her rare moments where she actually knows what she's doing. Being from Solaria, spells involving light came naturally to the blond bombshell. She flooded the room with light.

"Is everyone alright?" asked Stella.

"We're fine," said Brandon, "But what happened?"

"A darkness spell," said Carmen, "One that drains all light from a specific area. I should know; I'm a creature of the night."

"Well maybe you should watch were you're casting spells," said Julie, "Somebody could get hurt."

"I didn't cast that spell," said Carmen.

"It wasn't me," said Morgan.

"Or me," said Elise.

"We've got a bigger problem than who cast what spell," said Riven, "Somebody's missing here."

"Bloom and Sky!!" exclaimed Stella, "They're gone!!"

The end of chapter 5. What horrible fortune has afflicted Bloom and Sky now? Find out in the next chapter. Reviews will be rewarded with cake and pie. See you next time!