Midnight growled at Crow.

What does he mean? He would get angry? No way.

"I won't get angry."

"You're missing the other part, she didn't want me to tell you." Crow stated while crossing his arms.

"Fine I'll go find her myself." Midnight said to Crow as he passed him, heading the direction that Strawberry was going.

~0~

To say that Strawberry was surprised was an understatement. Crow knew? Crow knew that she was training to handle her father's sword, Conwell?

She clambered through the Nasod Foundry, being careful to look out for the Crow Rider. He had a component she needed.

Strawberry soon approached an elevator that was frozen in it's descent. It looked sad, to say the least. Crow Rider, however was not here.

Strawberry huffed and continued to walk.

She only had one component needed . . . this wasn't good at all.

What if . . . she were to tell you . . . that she had trained with Conwell, officially, she could be a Sheathe Knight. But, Strawberry honoured her Dimension Witch title, so, call her a Sheathe Witch.

Strawberry thought back to the card game.

"Velder and Feita were merged together because of the damage the demons caused."

She ran the words that Crow said through her head, if she was going to regroup with the others, she'd have to travel to Hamel.

"After they'd merged, the two cities figured out that their power combined, would not be enough to fend off the demons, so they ran to Hamel."

"They were foolish, if they cannot fend off the demons themselves, they shouldn't even try, they'll just fail. . . The buncha idiots."

That's how Strawberry responded.

"No, they were smart. Also, that's the dark el talking here, guess it is taking it's effects."

Crow said, reshuffling the deck.

She turned her attention to the direction the ocean would be in, and teleported.

The side effects immediately kicked and she almost fell to the floor, that's how nauseous Strawberry was.

After quickly drinking a health potion, Strawberry shakily stood up and looked around. What she saw made tears prick her eyes. The dynamo seemed to get closer to her, the area was gloomy and had a bad felling about it.

Waving it off, Strawberry stared in shock at the ruins of the El Gangs old tents.

Most of them were torn to shreds. Others weren't even standing anymore. Add's white and purple tent's left side was caved in, the white was almost a yellow and the purple was more of a pink.

She carefully walked over to it and walked inside. The screens were distorted but she could barely see the outline and planning that looked a bit like . . . Eve? But Add had given up on that chase a long time ago.

The dynamos seemed to deactivate and they fell into her hood. Strawberry walked over to where the tent caved in and lifted up the material, on his cot was what looked to be Eve.

Slightly rusted but fixable, her outfit was dulled and she had a bit of blood on her.

Strawberry's eyes widened considerably. Her magic! She could use her magic and fix Eve!

Strawberry cupped her hands and summoned her magic, she put her hands to Eve's core on her forehead.

She heard the machinery underneath her skin and stepped back.

Eve choppily sat up and looked at Strawberry. She tilted her head and Strawberry took a step towards her.

Slowly smiling Strawberry picked up Remi and Moby from the cot and handed them to her.

Eve's eyes suddenly went dull and she spoke slowly "Code updating, please wait a moment."

~0~

Midnight pushed branches out of his face as he walked towards the United City, as they called it now. He had forgotten what it used to be called Ham . . . Hamlet? No . . . Hamel?

GAH! He can't remember! Midnight jumped over a fallen trees, he was now walking through one of the forgotten kindoms . . . Velder.

He soon came to a clearing, so he looked down at himself and dusted off his clothes.

it was just fine
we lived in peace
looked to a happy ending

the days were bright
they shined like gold
every step ascending

our dreams came true
our path was clear
the moon watched safely from above

but every smile
is not the same
and every heart's not filled with...

love for mankind
look around it's getting very hard to find
not every open wound is simply healed by time
but revenge is always sweet
and chaos is the prize

feel it everywhere and you see it growing
enemies arise and the hate is flowing
shattering the moon and bloodying the sky
the machines of war will fuel both sides
and the greed will only grow more lies
farewell to days of peace cuz now it's time to die

The singing was soft and Midnight recognized the voice immediately.

"Strawberry!" Pushing through the last branches, he saw a ruined camp and in the middle of it, Strawberry sat on a mossy log.

She jumped and turned towards the Magic Knight. Smiling at him, she signed 'Oh. Hi Midnight. How are you?'

He stomped up to her and took her shoulders in his hands, and shook her. Hard. "What the heck were you thinking?! Leaving with no warning?!"

"She did it because she had to."

Midnight snapped his head to the voice, there stood a girl with white hair.

"You really are like the Idiot, aren't you?"

Strawberry nodded.

'He is isn't he?'

"UGH SHUT UP!" Midnight rubbed his temples and grabbed Strawberry's wrist. "C'mon, we're leaving."

A branch rustling caught the three's attention. "Oh no, now I'm lost . . . Darn it."

Came a voice, it sounded male.

Soon, they had a person to match that boy to. He was pale, and wore a hooded coat that reached his knees. It left a lot to imagination.

The boy snapped his head up, making his hood fall. "Oh hello! I'm kinda lost, can you tell me where to find . . . Atlas?"

Strawberry and Eve sweat dropped, while Midnight just tilted his head.

"You . . . Idiot!" Yelled Eve and Strawberry at the same time.

The boy just blinked. "Huh how am I an Idiot?"

Eve swiped the map out of his hands and pointed to the top, where in a chicken scratch cursive wrote 'Elysion'.

"Oh. I see."

He smiled up at the team of people. "Thank you. I'm Shirou. It's very nice to meet you."

Eve crumpled the paper and glared, "Electrecia," She muttered.

Midnight blinked at him, "Erm . . . I'm . . . Midnight . . ."

Strawberry picked up the map, unfolded it and handed it back to him. 'I'm Strawberry, it's a pleasure.'

Shirou nodded at the Midnight,"Why are you all together here?"

"Well you see . . ."

From there Midnight explained their situation to Shirou.

He explained that they were going to meet the rest in Hamel and Shirou decided he would go with them, something about, not knowing his way around Elrios . . . ?

~0~

The path to Hamel was uneventful and the team rarely saw Shirou, when he came back his excuse was "I was training."

Strawberry would always put her hand on his shoulder and sign 'We understand.'

However this night it wasn't Shirou missing, no, it was Strawberry. Earlier today Shirou had told Strawberry about a peaceful field just south of where they were.

All three sat around a fire and were, to say it simply, bored.

"Oh I know. I hear humans like to learn more about others. Why don't we tell each other about our pasts?"

"Hmm. That actually sounds like a good idea. Okay, Electrecia, you go first."

". . . I would but with my new code installed and updated, all memories of the past code, were deleted during maintenance."

"Okay . . . How about Midnight?"

"I grew up in Elder with my older brother and twin sister. If I were to saw life was good . . . I'd be lying. When bandits attacked Elder, my brother was killed, and seeing my sister's skill, the Red Knights recruited her. Leaving a 9 year old on the streets. For 8 years I had to steal, cheat do anything I could to survive. Soon, the village alchemist took notice of me, and trained me to become a Magic Knight. That's when I met Berry. And now, everything is good."

Midnight finished off with his hair covering his eyes and a small smile on his lips.

"Everything is . . . Good."

Shirou put a hand on his shoulder and smiled in understanding.

"Since I was a kid, I've trained. The whole family believed I was destined for greatness, I was a prodigy, even by their standards. Which is really high might I add." He chuckled at this part, then continued," I mastered my family's art then left their care at the tendor age of 14. Realizing I wanted to bring justice to the "other side" I became a mercenary, however I didn't know that that bloodlust? It was just a disorder from my mother who was a demon."

Strawberry then appeared out of no where. Wait, WAS SHE HERE THE WHOLE TIME?!

'I was going to say I found Crow and Yumi but I would've interrupted your backstory. But I'll say it now : I found Crow and Yumi.'

As if on queue, the two teens came out of the bushes. "Oh, hello." said Shirou smiling, he looked er . . . sparkly. Like a child who was just too happy.

"Erm yeah. I'm Crow this is Yumi." Crow said quickly, then in a flash sat down next to Strawberry, Yumi sat next to Electrecia.

'My turn? I guess I'll just say it, because I'm too lazy to sign.'

Strawberry sighed and turned it gaze to Midnight. A growl broke their stare, making all of the teams jump in fear of what would happen.

"Strawberry!"

She looked at Crow, gulped, then nodded. "Ma-Mael-MAELSTORM RAGE!"

The demons closest to her were pulled into the attack.

Crow came up to Shirou and put a hand on his shoulder, "Let's see what you got, New Guy."

He smirked at the younger male and shouted "Crescent Divider!"

Shirou had figured "Hey! New people, let's show em what I got."

So instead of firing Crescent Divider forward in one direction, he fired it around his perimeter, knocking any and all demons unconscious.

But, it also destroyed a bit of the woods, and knocked Yumi and Midnight off their feet.(Literally, they were heaps on the ground.

"Hmm." Shirou turned to the person behind him.

Crow had his nasod arm on his chin and he was staring at Shirou.

"W-What?"

He stuttered out, not used to being stared for other than training reasons. "Ah hah!" He said snapping.

Shirou jumped back with a wierded out and scared expression written on his face.

Yumi and Midnight rubbed their hands and stood up.

"Woah!"

They both ran over to Shirou and made comments on his attack, and how over powered it was.

Crow soon joined them and said, "Good job."

It might not have seemed like a lot but it was how Crow showed his respect, in his own . . . weird ways.

Midnight looked over at Strawberry over Shirou's shoulder.

She was hunched over holding a piece of hair, one of the pieces that hung over her shoulders.

Crow noticed his stare and took a glance at Strawberry while Yumi and Shirou were both talking.

"What's she doing. . .?"

Strawberry slide the piece of hair she was playing with over her ear.

She jumped around towards them. Her purple eyes, a bloody red, but then they turned back to purple.

"Mm! Get over here slow poke."

The piece of hair she was playing with before fell out, she quickly put it back into place and ran back over to the gang to join them.

However what Midnight and Crow didn't notice was that, that piece of hair was a menacing black.