The recollection I have of the following events is a bit hazy. I'm not sure exactly how much happened and how much didn't. I'm not even sure I really experienced everything I'm going to talk about, and not just imagined later, thinking back of it.

I remember falling off all right. However, I was no longer falling from the school building's roof. I was in space. In the Earth's orbit, to be precise. Not far from myself, I could see an entire armada of spacecrafts battling fiercely around the Shadows' Lair, the fortress which had landed in the schoolyard earlier. What looked like the Pegasian ships were being torn apart one after one, and by the time I entered the atmosphere of Earth, there was scarcely any of them left. I felt attracted by the planet more and more. Yes, I was undoubtedly falling, and I would crash thousands of miles below.

Don't give up, Annabel. You can't let the Shadows put you down so easily.

I was startled at Prince Erlan's voice, and even more so as I saw him flying peacefully in circles around me.

B-But! my mind spoke for itself. How can you be here? You – I mean, you're dead, right?

Well, not entirely, Annabel. A part of myself still lives through you and your friends.

Or, I'm just dreaming my last moments away.

What difference does it make in the end? The fact that you're dreaming proves you're still alive. And as long as you're still alive, hope remains, doesn't it?

I'm afraid there's not much I can do to work out this situation, Prince...

That's the reason why I'm here. To provide you with advice.

Then you'd better provide that advice quick, Prince.

Fly, Annabel.

I felt even more helpless than I had a few moments ago.

But I can't fly, Prince!

Sure you can. Give it a try.

What with? I don't have wings like you do!

Yes, you do. You're part Pegasian, now, remember?

But I-

The Prince suddenly soared into the air – or more precisely, he stopped falling alongside me.

Fly, Annabel. Fly or die.

I can't!

Yes, you can. Your mind is strong. I believe in you.

I figured I might as well stop trying to convince myself there was nothing I could do, and take advantage of the few remaining moments to focus. What had Prince Erlan's told us in the courtyard? Genetic engineering... Powers... Formulae. A formula. A formula what was I needed. But I barely had a few seconds on my hands to try like billions of combinations of words before I could possibly hit a single result. What in the virtually endless human lexicon was I supposed to say to trigger any powers relevant to my current situation?

I tried to remember further. Meaningful sentences. Yes, that's what Prince Erlan had told us. The formulae had to be meaningful. I was looking for something that had some kind of sense. But unusual. Yes, he'd said that, too. An unusual, meaningful sentence. I looked around, desperately searching for an answer in my imaginary surroundings. Strangely enough, though I was already deep inside the atmosphere of the Earth, and closer to the ground than ever, I could clearly make out the shape of a planet in the heavens. A gray, rocky planet, with lots of craters in its surface, just like the Moon. But it wasn't the Moon. I remembered how a classmate of mine had mistaken it for the Moon during our last astronomy lesson.

Then, it dawned on me. It all seemed so obvious all of a sudden. It was like a riddle written in the stars. Yes, it had to be that. Since I was on the verge of being crushed on the ground like an insect, I had nothing to lose anyways.

It felt strange. I experienced the physical sensation of air blowing through my throat as I uttered the formula, but at the same time the voice I heard seemed distant, powerful, like it was echoing from the depths of space. And as I was about to hit the surface of the Earth, I could hear myself shouting:

'MERCURY POWER, MAKE-UP!'

Then silence.

It felt like an eternity until I finally came back to my senses. I tried to move around. I was on the ground. My face was down to the ground. I could move. No pain. No sensation of being broken, or torn apart. I was healthy.

I quickly got up and looked around. Only then did I truly realize that something was different with me. Knowing what was going to come next, I'd be able to explain it better to you now, but at that point it was just a fuzzy sensation. I was not just feeling okay – I was feeling great, actually! A tiny whistling in my ear caught my attention and I looked up, at the edge of the roof. A Saurian was standing there, and I could see him clearly, so very clearly – it was incredibly how I could tell every last detail about the cracks in its skins, the shape of its teeth, or the complex coloring of its eyes, even though it stood six stories above. I faced away and ran. Well, ran, strictly speaking. Because it didn't feel like running at all. More like – teleporting forward! I don't know how to put it any better. I was there before I could even see where I was going. My brain was racing, it would work on its own accord, and my body felt strong, so incredibly strong. Oddly enough the Saurians which were chasing me weren't able to keep up anymore.

At some point I ran into a dead-end and my conscious self rang the alarm. But my body wouldn't listen, and instead of stopping, it jumped forward. I soared in the air, pretty much like when the mad Saurian had tossed me away, except that I was doing so on my own strength this time. My hand grabbed the roof of a nearby house, and I flew past it, just like I had hopped over a low wall. It felt like gymnastics, like when I had this sensation of full control, that nothing could stop me. But that – that was just – I can't even find the words. At that point it wasn't even playing with gravity, it wasn't even fun anymore. It was like finding out that you can sprint when all you've done your entire life is crawl.

Anyways, I eventually found my way home, somehow – after losing all of my pursuers countless times, despite their amazing physical abilities. My conscious self hinted against walking through the front door like that, and my body wasn't in the mood for embarrassing itself with doors anyways, so I leaped right through my bedroom's open window. I don't know if it was the fact that I finally stopped, or the sight of my familiar, safe environment, or both – but I suddenly felt exhausted and heavy and my shaking limbs weren't able to support my weight anymore. I barely caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror before collapsing. And I kept seeing this picture in the dreamy state I went into – the picture of a heavenly Annabel, with silvery hair, shiny eyes, crystal fingernails, gorgeous jewelry, and exuding with an overwhelming powerful aura. I could even swear there was a hint of radiant Pegasus-like wings in the background.

I woke up with a severe headache the next morning. I hadn't exactly been sleeping straight through the night from the time I had been back, because my mom had found me in the meantime and yelled at me like crazy – just like I knew she would. I couldn't care less at the moment, I was so exhausted I actually had a hard time just to understand what she was saying. I think the sight of my school uniform ripped apart and her daughter completely stoned made her way more worried than angry and she helped me out of my damaged clothes and let me go to sleep without asking for further explanation. I just had enough composure to take the Pegasian cube out of my school bag and stash it under my pillow.

So, when I woke up, everything seemed to have gone back to normal. Birds chirping outside, music on the radio, Mom cooking breakfast, Dad reading the newspaper. Getting dressed, packing my stuff ready for school. Aside from my ruined uniform and backpack – and the cube, of course – there was virtually no trace of the previous day's horrors, and I was starting to wonder whether I had simply gone crazy and was being completely delusional with how all of it supposedly happened. Fortunately my older sister Ellen had a spare uniform and I would be able to wear it until we bought a new one. It didn't look very good on me though because Ellen was much taller than me. When I showed up for breakfast, she started teasing me:

'Wow, Anna, been putting yourself into the washing machine, have you?'

'Wouldn't hurt for you to spend some time in it, anyways,' I fired back.

Ellen and I had always been very close to each other. Recently, though, she had become quite distant and I never knew why.

'Less talking and more eating up!' Mom urged us. 'Anyways, Ellen, how's it going with that new club of yours?' she casually asked, as to avoid talking about me, I suppose.

'The Sharing? Oh, mom, it's great, I promise! Much better than hanging around with those losers from the swimming club...'

Ellen was great at swimming and had been an inspiring figure for students my age at our school's club – which is actually how I got to know Lynn better, since she's in too. But as soon as she'd heard from that Sharing thing, she'd suddenly quit swimming with no further explanation. I had no idea what they would do in that club exactly, but I couldn't help but resent them for stealing my sister away from me.

I quickly ate up my plate with an unusual appetite everyone noticed – but no one dared to bring it up. Mom told be she would be coming with me to see the principal – and I knew better than to argue with her on that matter. So she gave us a ride. She went ahead of us, and before leaving me at the school's gate, Ellen grabbed my arm.

'Hey, sis?'

'Yeah, what is it?' I said, startled.

'Listen, I know the two of us haven't been as close as we use to be lately... Stuff going on in my life, people to see, exciting things to do, y'know!' She giggled. 'Anyways,' she said in a more serious tone, 'I don't know what happened yesterday, but – if you wanna talk about it, I'm there, right?'

Her touch was reassuring. At the sight of her beaming face, with that confident smile of hers I'd always envied, and those sweet words she was having, I must say I was extremely tempted to tell her everything, right there, just like that. But instead, I gave an awkward smile.

'Thank you, Ellen. I won't forget that.'

'Cool,' she grinned, rubbing my arm tenderly. 'And, oh, you should try and come over to the Sharing someday, y'know? Have a lil' fun... hang out together like in the old days, huh?'

'All right,' I coyly replied, waving her goodbye.

I entered the school's courtyard. Everything seemed perfectly normal, and it was hard to believe that monstrous aliens had made an appearance there and chased a schoolgirl over the roof less than twenty-four hours ago. Phoebe was hanging with her usual gang of stylish girls and gave me an odd look as I smiled at her. Abiona seemed as scary as ever so I did not dare approach her. And as far as Sophie was concerned, she was quietly enjoying a book, as if nothing had happened. I was seriously starting to doubt my sanity, and going straight to Sophie to question her, I unexpectedly stumbled on Lynn.

'Hey, Annabel! Good to see you! So what about that English paper we worked on together?'

With a gentle, but firm hand on my shoulder, she dragged me away from the others. It was unusual behaviour on her part, so something was definitely up. It didn't help me to relax a bit.

'Lynn? What's going on?' I asked quietly.

'Quit that serious look and smile and giggle,' she said, immediately putting her own advice in practice.

I managed to feign some carefreeness.

'Nice, now that's much better! We just don't want to attract attention, now do we?' Lynn laughed, just like she had made a good joke.

'Yeah, you're right... So what about the others?'

'Well, just as I said... It would seem very suspicious if the five of us suddenly started to hang out together overnight, wouldn't it?'

'Yeah, I suppose so...'

Deep down I knew she was absolutely right, and I felt a bit stupid not to have thought of that by myself. Lynn looked around and hushed her voice a bit.

'Sophie lives in a farm, away from town. We reckoned it might be safer to talk there after classes – are you in?'

I nodded quickly. Lynn smiled. The bell rang and we hurried to our classroom. I already knew the answer to that question by now, but I still felt like I had to ask.

'So – did that all actually happen?'

Lynn gave me a bright smile and giggled, still faking gossip girls.

'Every last part of it.'