Sorry for the lo~ng Delay :/

Recap: Tasha and the group have been tailing a circus troupe because the performers' faces are the same as all the members of WH. When they thought that they finally got a handle of things a yellow cat named Kun led them to a "Time Bridge" and the group ended up in the future. Tasha encounters a girl named "Aria Godspell" however she doesn't look like his little sister. What will happen next? Keep reading and find out.

WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING TRUTHS IS A LIE

"You're Aria? MY little sister?" Tasha asked with disbelief, "But you look nothing like her."

"Oh, that's cause" with a gentle stare, "I'm Aria of the future. The one you are thinking about is the Aria of your present", Aria stated kindly with a slight bow to her posture.

"I see", Tasha inspected the girl once more but decided to hold off the rest of his questions. Kun on the other hand pounced off of Aria's shoulder and bounded off to a familiar black caped figure approaching from behind the group. Kun leapt up to the figure, gave a meow of recognition and purred against his chest before perching on his shoulder.

"SHADOW-MAN!" Cooga exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger to the caped figure. But before Cooga can say anymore, the non-too-surprised greeting cut him off by Aria.

"Oh, Ryu. Welcome Back", Aria smiled sweetly up at the figure, now Ryu, as he handed over a thickly packed manila folder to Aria, " How was the mission? Any progress with the current case?"

The hood to the cape slacks as he readjusts Kun position to cradle in his arms, revealing dark Periodot eyes accompanied by short black hair strands covering up parts of his face. Kun then sat on his hind legs to reach for Ryu's chin and planted a quick hello kiss.

"Yeah, I missed you too Kun," Ryu looked down and scratched the back of Kun neck, receiving purrs of affection from the little creature. "The case is now official going to kill me," he replied back to Aria, with frustration and tiredness etched into every word. Kun looks up and meows to comfort him and is rewarded with more scratches under his chin.

"We lost her at her rendezvous sight with the dealer, and now she is under our radar, again. For all we know, the brat will try to change her hiding places again, or try to come in contact with her accomplices, or create new ones", Ryu replied wearily, "it's back to square one". Ryu faced up slightly, only to see the rest of the WH members silently listening to the conversation.

"Hey" was the only form of salutations to the WH members as he reverts his gaze back to Kun.

With only a "Hey" as his hello, Cooga couldn't stand being ignored anymore.

"Hey, Jug-head!" Cooga yelled, causing several heads from other employees to look towards him but resumed back to their duties when they saw that he wasn't referring to them, "Is that all you got to say after what you did to me back at Poritanno, Shadow-man?"

"What? Is there something else I should say?" Ryu replied with a smirk and playing innocent, "Getting all hot and bothered by a hello kiss, are we?"

Cooga was going to let him have it now. Time to get payback, upfront and personal. With only a hair strand of composure left Cooga could only clench his fists till they turned white and grind his teeth till sparks flew out of his mouth.

"In answer to that last question, No I am not. But why don't I return the favor? I'll give you a 'hello kiss' right now with a LVF3 ELECTRIC SHOCK!" the final hair strand of composure snaps, Cooga lost his mind.

With fists connected knuckle to knuckle, Cooga was ready to charge. Kun, right then, leapt from Ryu's arms and pranced over to Tasha, avoiding Cooga's sparks tagging the carpet floor, and weaved and purred between his legs till Tasha lifted him up into his arms.

Once Ryu knew that Kun was safe, Ryu faced Cooga with confidence exuding out of his body and parted his cape to reveal a pitch-black space where his body should be. Taken aback, Cooga hesitated for a split second but resumed his attack stance and released all the pent up energy, and added stress, and concentrated its flow straight towards Ryu like a lightening bolt. The dark space from Ryu's cape grew slightly wider while consuming all of Cooga's attack. The last of Cooga's attack fizzled out and scattered up to the ceiling, making the fluorescent lights flicker slightly. Nearly out of juice and out of options, Cooga staggered back into a ready position to charge for another attack. But a with a step ahead, Ryu was already in position to counterattack.

"Well, that was quite intense." Ryu comments, "Now it's my turn."

Then, from the dark space of his cape came black hands with claws, stretching out from the shadow and ensnared Cooga in seconds. Two of those hands clenched Cooga's gloves and disabled his ability to charge up for any more sparks. Once Cooga's sparks were unplugged, the shadow hands embracing the rest of his body started dragging him towards the dark portal from which the arms came from.

With little energy left, Cooga could barely fight back. Digging his heels into the carpet, he struggled to find any way out. But to no avail, the only way out was nowhere to be found. Cooga's hands and the tip of his shoes were the first to disappear into the dark portal. But before anymore of him can disappear, an arm wrapped around his waist, lifted him up and stopped the procession. The helping hand belonged to none other than Xing, the real Xing.

"Ryu, you know better than to catch prey in broad daylight, don't you?" Xing asked, having no shame in interrupting the personal feud. "I'm not one to normally stick my nose into other people's problems. However, they are our guests and I would never live it down if someone were to get hurt."

After a short staring contest, the dark portal subsided, revealing a black V-neck short sleeve shirt with matching color pants. Ryu's large hands holding Cooga's hands now. Xing released his grip around Cooga's waist and turned to go greet the rest of his guests. A moment of silence between the Shadow-man and the Spear of Odin, when once again, Ryu pulls Cooga into a tight embrace, covering them both behind the black cape. Ryu whispered into Cooga's ear for a second and Cooga shoved himself out of the embrace, face burning red. With only a smile as his "good-bye", Ryu glided passed the once again stunned Cooga and towards the rest of the group. With introductions underway in the background Cooga didn't make an effort to re-join with the team. His mind was only thinking about what Ryu had whispered to him moments ago.

"Next time, I'll make sure to pull you in entirely. I'll make sure you taste the pleasure that all of my Shadow World has to offer"

Before parting, Ryu nuzzled into the crook of Cooga's neck and licked-kissed the small space and then let the chain of events to follow after.

Back to the others…

Allen was re-introducing the WH to Xing. Of course, the others were entirely confused that there were two of Xing, Yue still kept his mouth shut about the matter and feigned innocence. The real Xing only smiled and let the conversation detour to other matters.

"Now that the introductions are out of the way, lets get on with business." Allen said with full authority riddled in his voice. "What do you have Xing?"

"I thought you would never ask Allen. The test result from the blood off the glass from the totaled car came back negative; it's not our John Doe down at autopsy. So we're talking about either a second victim or an accomplice involved. However, I did get a match from the partial fingerprint found on the murder weapon. It's from our aloof little snitch." Xing replied with pride, " AND, get this, I found out where the missing money went."

"Don't keep me in suspense, Xing." Allen said sarcastically.

"All the money was transferred over to an account under an alias. Couldn't get the actual name but the account was accessed at only ONE location. The Deserted Island Inn, own by Warz." Xing beamed.

All the pieces were matching together in Allen's brain and a satisfied smile broke out, stretching from ear to ear.

"That's good work Xing." Allen's four words of praise earned Xing a quick hug and light pinch to his cheeks. Allen waved a hand to the group and started their way across the hallway and towards another set of staircases that led back down to the evidence garage.

"What? No 'Pick -me up' Al?" Xing called to them.

"Check the lab, Lee left it there before he headed out!" Allen answered back.

"Thank you Al!" Xing called after the retreating figures.

While on their way down to the evidence garage, the team had a bad foreboding.

"Allen," started Tarras, "Why is Warz under investigation?"

"Because, in this world Warz is responsible for numerous misdemeanors, felonies and war crimes. He is one of the top most wanted criminals in the world, along with his accomplices." Allen bluntly stated, "I wouldn't be surprised that he is doing the same thing in your world as well."

"How could that be?!" Cooga retaliated, "Warz wouldn't-"

Allen suddenly stopped in his tracks and immediately turned around and directly faced Cooga with an oppressive glare.

"Here in this world, Warz betrayed WH, betrayed Kun by selling him off to a slave trade when he was in his human form. He practically gave away this location, and we barely managed to relocate without him knowing. He is going to do the same in your world pretty soon. Trust me, it's going to happen" Allen said, continuing to glare down Cooga and the rest of the WH members.

"He is responsible for deliberate killing of WH members, the kidnapping of Aria and Kun, as well as assisting the death of my mother, Edea Florence." He said as he turned and continued on ahead of the group.

"Edea Florence! Your mother is Edea Florence?" Ryuhwan piped in, trying to catch up to the front of the group.

"What do you mean 'the kidnapping of Aria Godspell? She's right here isn't she?" Tasha chimed in while staring at Aria, who was currently walking next to Allen, just as serious about the topic.

"Tasha, the girl you are after in your world isn't who you think it is." Allen replied to Tasha first, "and yes, Edea Florence was my mother, till she died" he replied to Ryuhwan.

"Tasha-oppa," Aria added in, "The Aria in your world was switched by a witch, known as Luciel, using a soul switch spell. The reason for the forced switch is still unknown but all we know is that the girl you are after isn't completely Aria. Luciel is inside her body. But the body that contains Aria's soul in still alive."

With all these new and confusing facts cluttering up and not clearly piecing together, the WH members continued on to the garage, the members of the past were left wondering, "Is any of that true?"