YAYS!! NEW CHAPPIE!! Well, here we go! Don't have anything else to say, so…YEAH!

NiGHTS: Uh, how about "Sorry it took so long folks!" eh?

Oh, YEAH WHAT HE SAID!!

Zephyr was now out of the water and wringing her long hair out while NiGHTS was sitting in mid-air, a little impatiently at that.

"Come on! We have to go and find the ideya!" He said flying over and around Zephyr, who was getting a little tired of him asking that and stopped wringing and put her hands on her hips.

"Well, tough teddy bears!" She said while grabbing his ankle causing him to fall to the ground. He stood up dusting himself off. Zephyr walked up to him, nudging his arm. "I'm just kidding! I'm finished anyways!" She said playfully, but she noticed that he was taller by a few inches. "Great…. now I feel small…." She said pouting and NiGHTS put his hand in her head,

"Yeah, well, not ALL humans can be as tall as Nightmaren." He scoffed with a smirk. Zephyr looked at him with annoyance.

"Yeah….and not all of us have no body whatsoever…" She mumbled, deserving a hit upside the head. "What was that for?!" She yelled. NiGHTS shrugged, but looked around as if on red alert.

Zephyr was confused, she didn't feel or see anything, so why was NiGHTS being paranoid? He pushed her out of the way of something as it whizzed by, missing them by no less than an inch. NiGHTS floated up when the possessed laundry himself came into view.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHA! Well, well, well! If it isn't the traitor himself, not to mention a card thief!" Jackle shouted as NiGHTS crossed his arms with a smirk.

Zephyr had her head tilted to the side. "Now, HOW THE HELL COULD YOU TELL?" She yelled. Jackle twiddled his thumbs and began to stutter, but Zephyr interrupted him, "I mean, what low-life geek counts his cards? You have ten decks!! GET OVER IT!!" She yelled again. She turned to NiGHTS gesturing if he wanted a go.

"No, No. I can see you've got it handled." He said waving a hand leisurly. Zephyr shrugged and was about to continue ranting but Jackle was gone. She looked around searching both the sky and ground.

NiGHTS cried out in pain and Zephyr ran over to him immediately. "NiGHTS! What happened?" She asked as NiGHTS clutched his arm. He removed his hand to show his sleeve had been ripped and some sparkles were trickling out of the rip. He put his hand back into place. Zephyr saw a card on the ground on its corner and some of the sparkles trailed after it. A loud, annoying cackle rang out and Jackle was looked like he was about to explode in laughter.

Zephyr stood up and clenched her fists, still looking at the ground. "You'll pay for that…" She muttered and looked up at Jackle who froze in mid laughing fit..

"And WHO is going to enforce that? You?" He taunted, but his expression soon changed when he saw how angry and serious Zephyr seemed. She took off the straps on her legs and combined them so they looked like one big strap. She swung it at Jackle and it latched onto his foot. But, he had another card and sliced the strap. Zephyr fell backwards and landed on her rear. With another card thrown, Jackle was sure he'd get her. His orders were simply to make sure NiGHTS was permanently separated from the girl, no one ever said to keep her alive or not.

Zephyr squeezed her eyes shut but heard a voice, "Zephyr! You HAVE to wake up!" NiGHTS called out. Zephyr shook her head, not wanting to, but it was too late. She felt her mind slowly being drawn away from the world of dreams to the real world. She slowly fluttered her eyes open and found that she was on the floor in front of her mirror. She propped herself up on her elbows and saw that there was a few drops of blood there and saw that her shoulder had been cut, her silver straps were gone.

"So…it was real…." She muttered under her breath. She got up and washed off for the day. Apparently it was four in the morning on Tuesday….and she wasn't even tired at all. She decided to take a walk so she got dressed and walked out with hands in her pockets.

Zephyr wandered around for a while and stopped when she came up to Twinseeds Tower. She just gazed up at it for what seemed like hours and she just wanted to stay in that spot for a while…..but she was getting cold and didn't want to catch a cold. On the way back to her apartment her mind kept on wandering when she'd see NiGHTS next. She didn't know if she could handle another ten years or so of not knowing where he was or it he was around or not. She halted on the spot when a thought crossed her mind: What if NiGHTS didn't beat Jackle when she left? Zephyr put a hand to her mouth and shook her head. Of coarse NiGHTS beat him! NiGHTS is a first-level nightmaren and Jackle seemed simply too insane to focus on a fight for long. But Zephyr still had reason to worry.

While lost in her thoughts, Zephyr didn't realize where she was walking and bumped into a wall. She swore under her breath and looked up while clutching her aching head. She was back at her apartment and she pulled her jacket closer. As she came to her door and unlocked it, she stopped and put her head against the door for a moment then went inside. She just started to read a book to take her mind off things. She couldn't concentrate and fell asleep. Unfortunately, she didn't have a dream….so she didn't know if NiGHTS was alright….

She woke up to hear knocking on her door, loud knocking at that. She grunted and groggily got up and opened the door to get tackled by two familiar teens who looked like clones.

"ZEPHYR!!" Two voices chimed simultaneously while their owners pulled her into a hug.

"Yes, me, what?" Zephyr said bewildered at the wake-up call.

"You're alive! I mean, you're not missing, I mean…" His twin cut off Alex finishing for him.

"You were gone all day Sunday and Monday!" Andrew said while he and Alex were still squishing Zephyr with their double-impact hug.

"Not…..BREATHING!" She choked out and the boys immediately let go. Zephyr panted with a hand on her chest and she straightened up. "So, what's this about me being missing? I couldn't find you guys on Sunday." She said bluntly.

Alex and Andrew started to move in perfect unison, both wagging a finger at her. Today both of their hair was just blonde and they both had their original brown eyes and both had glasses on, so it looked like one was next to a mirror.

"True, but what about Monday, huh? We knocked on your door practically all day!" They both said, sounding like the same person

Zephyr stuttered, not being able to find a good lie…..she was bad at it anyways….but how in the world was she supposed to explain to her two best friends that she had spent the day with a dream creature that someone can only see in their sleep and got attacked by a maniac with razor cards?

Much to her relief, Alex and Andy dropped the subject telling her a package arrived for her. Zephyr opened it and saw that it was from her aunt that she hadn't seen in a long time….or heard from at that matter. She read the letter first:

"Dear Zephyr,

I'm sorry I haven't been in touch with you for a couple years. So much has been going on and whenever I wrote a letter to you from my home, it was lost in the mail. But, right now I'm in Venice, and I hope I got this package to you. I know you most likely aren't fond of this kind of thing, but isn't a carnival coming to Twinseeds? I figure that you should at least look nice for the fireworks on the first day. If not, I'm sure you'll find SOMETHING to wear it for.

With love,

Aunt Aggie

P.S. You're uncle sends his love as well."

Zephyr looked in the box and unwrapped the tissue paper to reveal a red spaghetti strap dress that looked like it stopped one inch above her knees. Her aunt was right…at first Zephyr kind of regretted opening the package, but figured that she could do something with it. Calmly folded the dress and looked at the twins.

"Okay, why are you two REALLY here?" She asked skeptically. Alex and Andy looked at eachother and sighed in defeat.

"We can't come with you to the fair…." They said at the same time, than Alex started on his own.

"Uhm….ya see….we kinda got dates when you were gone…" He said nervously as if expecting it would trigger a bomb.

ZZephyr stood there unblinking for a few moments, and the boys were afraid she'd explode. But she didn't. Instead, she calmly folded the dress and draped it on her arm and replied in a slightly disturbing tone of understanding.

"I'm happy for you two. Now if you excuse me, I'm out of milk." She said and after draping the dress over the back of a chair walked out the door and slammed it behind her.

Alex and Andy looked at eachother and sighed, "Yep, she's ticked." They said in unison and left as well to get ready for their dates.

Sorry it's a little boring, guys. But I really am starting to get some writers and just thank the Big Guy that I remembered this seeing as I thought it up during school and am getting a little sick…..R&R!!