Amu walked slowly to the big double doors, then paused for a moment right in front of them, as if working up her courage. Then, she pushed open the doors, and we all gasped.

Inside was a large entryway room, with stairs directly in front of us that led up to a second level. But it wasn't this that shocked us. Completely covering the stairs and the floor around the doors was an army of little robots, their eyes glowing purple.

Amu unconsciously took a step back. "There's so many!"

"Their presences feel like X-eggs!" Daichi said.

"They're probably powered by X-eggs.... somehow." Azami said, sounding unsurprised but looking on her guard.

"Hinamori-san, you stand back." Tadase said. "We'll take care of these." by unspoken consent, we all chara-changed and charged at the horde of robots. I felt highly under equipped. Tadase had his scepter, Nadeshiko had her naginata (the spear thing), and Kukai had a skateboard. Even Yaya had her giant rattle. As for me... just my bare hands. Admittedly, I was stronger when I chara-changed, and using fists and claws worked well. But I could really only get rid of one or two at a time while trying to hold the rest back.

All of us fought our hardest. And yet, for every robot we destroyed, it seemed like there were two more to take its place. Only a couple minutes passed, and already it looked like all of us were getting tired. We wouldn't be able to keep up at this pace forever, and already this was taking too long - I doubted Nikaido would just wait for us to get through this obstacle. At this point, though I really didn't want to do it, there really wasn't any other choice.

"Kukai! Yaya! Cover for me for a bit!" I said, since those were the two fighting on either side of me. I fell back until I was standing next to Amu. She was looking at me, worry in her eyes.

I didn't want to chara-nari yet - that would be my absolute last resort. Though I wasn't even sure if my smoke attack would work on robots, I figured I could give it a try. For some reason or another, I had the feeling that I really didn't need to use a hair every time I wanted to do this. Even when just chara-changed, I realized that I now had enough power to make a fire by itself.

I cupped my hands together, and willed a tiny tongue of flame into existence. "Everyone, hold your breath!" I shouted over the action, hoping that they could all hear. Then I let the smoke from the flame grow and spread, until it filled the air. Starting with those closest to me and spreading like a disease, all of the robots slowed and stopped.

"You guys get up first - I'll come up after!" The others nodded and pushed past the robots, up the stairs. Apparently, they had all heard me - none of them had breathed in the smoke. They waited until they were at the top of the stairs, where they could breathe again.

"Come on, Miyuki!" Kukai shouted. I tried to keep the flame going as I moved forward, but it quickly went out due to lack of concentration. The robots around me began moving again, and some tried to grab my legs as I tried to make my way up the stairs to where the Guardians. But their attempts were weak, like they were just waking up; I was easily able to push past them. Once I made it to the top of the stairs, the Guardians looked at me curiously for a couple seconds, undoubtedly wondering when I'd acquired this ability and why I'd never used it before. But they knew that now wasn't the time for explanations.

"They're this way, commoners!" Kiseki said, pointing down the right hallway. We dashed off quickly, getting away from the robots that were making their way back towards us. Azami, Temari, Pepe, and Kiseki all lead the way, doing their best to sense where Ran, Miki, and Su were. Eventually, the charas stopped in front of a seemingly ordinary door.

"This is it!" Daichi said.

We all looked at Amu, who spared no time in opening the door and entering, with the rest of us coming in behind her. We found ourself a fairly large room. Along the side to our left was a bookshelf, as well as some boxes filled with more robots. At the far end of the room, a massive machine stood. The main body of it was a compartment, and on its front side, there was a window. And through that window, we could see hundreds of X-eggs lying within. Adjacent to the machine was a smaller, completely glass container, with one of the sealed white eggs inside - either Miki, Su, or Ran. And on the right side of the room, looking smugly confident, stood Nikaido. He was right in front of a desk, which had his laptop sitting atop it. There was one window to the right of his desk, and another to his left, but both were a ways away from him.

"Himamori-san, I'm so glad you could make it! I was just about to get started. I decided to start with Ran, and if she doesn't work, I'll simply move on to Miki and Su. How does that sound?" He was talking in his annoying teacher voice again. He flashed me a glance, and that told me all I needed to know. He could see that I had abandoned him for the Guardians, and that he would have to fight me as well as them. Nonetheless, his smile didn't waver - he seemed confident that, even without me on his side, he could still win. Nikaido then turned to me, saying what I had been dreading all along. "I must admit, I was expecting more from you, Mizuki-san. But that's of no concern - now that there's an audience, the show can start!"

I cringed back as soon as he had started talking to me, my chara-change fading out of fear. As soon as he said my name, the others turned to look at me, wondering what he was talking about. Their glances differed, though - Amu, Kukai, and Yaya all seemed confused. Tadase looked slightly suspicious. And Nadeshiko's glance was calm, but accusing. I was still staring at Nikaido, my gray eyes locked with his amber eyes. But as soon as he mentioned the show starting, the others turned back to the matter at hand. Nikaido turned his eyes away from me, looked back to his laptop, and began typing something. I noticed that, to the left of the laptop, there was a bird cage with the other two white eggs in it. To the right of the laptop there was small basket, filled with perhaps a dozen or so X-eggs. I guessed this was how he was planning on dealing with the Guardians. And while X-eggs wouldn't have been able to hurt my progress, he'd already shown that he could deal with me - all he had to do was look at me to prove what a coward I was. Even when I had committed myself to fighting against him, I just couldn't work up the courage to face him directly. Not even when I was chara-changed.

"Wait! Give me back my charas!" Amu shouted as the machine began to hum. When he did nothing to stop the machine, she started running across the room, towards the machine. But Nikaido was a step ahead of her. He grabbed four of the X-eggs out of his basket, then he held out his hand. The eggs hovered over it, then sent out a barrage of X-energy, hitting Amu and knocking her to the ground.

"Hinamori-san!" Tadase said, stepping towards her. But then Nikaido aimed the X-energy towards us. Tadase barely got his scepter up in time.

"Holy Crown!" He shouted, stopping it just before it hit us. I looked around, feeling helpless. At the other side of the room, X-energy was beginning to fill the chamber with Ran's egg in it. It looked like a sort of heavy gas, rising from the base of the container as more and more seeped in. The very bottom of the egg was almost touching it. Amu slowly got up from where she had been knocked down.

"I'm dissapointed that the Guardians couldn't do better than this." Nikaido said, reverting back to his evil voice. This gave back some of my courage - I could deal with him, as long as he wasn't talking like he was nice.

Suddenly, Kukai dropped his skateboard on the ground and sped off across the floor. He got about three-fourths of the way down the room, but Nikaido used the X-energy again to knock him off his board. This was to be expected, but what I didn't expect was Kukai's reaction as he was hit; rather than look defeated, he was smiling despite the pain of the blow. Then I heard the crash of shattering glass, and I saw the reason Kukai was grinning. Right before the X-energy had hit him, Kukai must have done something with the board to send it through the air. And since the X-energy was aimed mainly at his torso, not his feet, the board had kept going even when he had been forced off. The board has smashed through the glass of the X-egg chamber. The machine's hum lowered in pitch until finally shutting off. In the compartment with Ran in it, the X-energy drained quickly, but I noticed that it had already made its way about a third of the way up the sealed egg.

"No! You broke my machine!" Nikaido shouted.

Kukai stood up, and Amu stood up as well and joined him. "It's over, Nikaido. Now give back Amu's eggs." Kukai said.

Nikaido smirked, but he had a lot less confidence than before. "Just because my machine is broken doesn't mean I can't build another one. And once it's finished, I think I'll still need Hinamori-san's charas." He grabbed the bird cage with Amu's other two eggs in it, while keeping his four X-eggs hovering above the other hand.

"NO YOU DON'T!" Nadeshiko shouted. She had been chara-changed all this time, and I was surprised that she hadn't done something like this before now. She charged, with her naginata in hand. Nikaido launched his X-energy towards her, knocking her back towards us.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I really must be going." Nikaido stepped towards the window, apparently going to escape somehow despite the fact that we were on the second floor of the building. However, he stopped as there was another shattering of glass from the opposite side of the room. Kukai, with Amu at his side, had picked up his board again and had used it to break into the compartment that held Ran. I inwardly congratulated them on their quick thinking - if Amu had Ran, then she could chara-nari to save Miki and Su. But as soon as Amu opened the egg, I knew something was wrong. Ran didn't pop out, like the hyper chara she was.

"Ran?" Amu asked tentatively. Even from across the room, I could see that Ran was lying in Amu's cupped hands, looking asleep or... or... well, that was a possibility I didn't want to think about. Ran's outfit, normally such a bright pink, seemed dimmer, and her face was pale.

"Well, there you go." Nikaido said, drawing our attention back to him. "If Ran can survive that contact with concentrated X-energy, then you can feel free to have her back. But, as I said before, I really must go." He started moving towards the window again, which was only a few steps away from him. With Ran unable to chara-nari with Amu, I realized that if Nikaido got away now, we might never be able to save Su and Miki. And I knew that there was no way that any of the other Guardians could get near without being blasted back by Nikaido's X-eggs. The rest of the Guardians knew this, too, and all looked frustrated with their inability to help.

Me, on the other hand - I could get Amu's charas back. I had the power, and the ability. The only question was if I could work up the courage to face him. But whether I'd be able to or not, I knew I had to try.

"Azami?" I said, looking up at her.

"I've got it covered." She replied, as if reading my thoughts. "Chara-change!" That familiar boost of strength gave me just enough courage to face Nikaido. I let my anger towards him flood through me, then converted that into an all-out charge towards him. Whether out of ignorance or forgetfulness, he launched the X-energy at me. I stopped, but wasn't sent flying backward. Rather than hurting me, I absorbed the little spheres of energy, which only caused the X-energy already within me to grow stronger. Nikaido cut off the attack quickly, understanding his mistake too late. I stepped forward again, more confident than before. I was now in front of the window, with Nikaido only a few steps in front of me.

"Mizuki-san, won't you please step aside so I can get past?" Nikaido said, using his teacher voice. Normally this would have been enough to freak out my chara-changed self, but Nikaido had forgotten to take one thing into account - the X-energy. While it was already highly active due to the action, absorbing that last attack had just fueled it. And the current emotions of choice? Anger. Revenge. Rebellion. There was no room for fear now.

"I'd rather not." I said in reply. I stayed at my position in front of the window for the moment, waiting to see what he would do next.

He scowled, but didn't seem too phased. "Another disappointment. Still, I think I can go on without your cooperation." The X-eggs continued to hover near him as he reached into his pocket and grabbed something. It was a small, spherical white object, but I didn't have any idea what it was supposed to do.

Nikaido acted like he was going to throw it at the floor, but he was once again interrupted when a surprised yell came from the other side of the room.

When we all turned our attention back to the area where the machine was, we saw that Amu was on the ground, still clutching Ran. Kukai was holding his skateboard in his hands, facing the machine and looking defensive. And coming from the machine, a massive blob of the partly gas, partly liquid X-energy was forming in mid-air.

"While we had our backs turned, this... thing knocked Amu down!" Kukai said. He tensed, preparing to defend if another attack were to come his way.

Suddenly, smoke billowed up around us, and the others started coughing. My eyes adjusted almost immediately, and I could see that Nikaido had dropped the white sphere onto the floor. That answered what it was - I suppose he just liked to use smoke bombs.

Through his cover of smoke, Nikaido said, "That's a blob of concentrated X-energy. I'm sure it'll finish you all off for me." And, changing to his teacher voice for a moment, he added, "Have fun!"

Nikaido started to back away, heading towards a window on the other side of his desk. I heard a shout of protest from Kukai, and looked through the smoke to see that he was being held against the wall by the X-energy, with two smaller blobs of darkness acting like manacles, strapping his wrists to the wall. The rest of the mass of X-energy - which seemed to be getting bigger by the second - extended towards his feet and began to engulf him. Kukai's struggling all but vanished as his motivation was sucked away.

My anger was rising ever higher, and with it growing, any forethought I had vanished. Nikaido was going to escape, the Guardians were helpless in the smoke, and the X-energy was going to attack them. Consequences didn't matter anymore - this was the situation, and it seemed enough a reason to reveal myself one step farther.

"My own heart - unlock!" I said, activating my chara-nari. Azami entered her egg, and I pulled her into myself. Even more power seemed to reveal itself as the changes manifested. Then, as quickly as it had started, it was finished.

"Chara-nari: Dark Dragon!" I looked around, ready for a fight. It didn't even seem like the Guardians knew what had just happened; they were still attempting to breathe and see through the smoke. The X-energy had made it's way up to Kukai's hips, and his face looked unnaturally pale. But he would have to wait - Nikaido, despite the smoke, was rapidly making his way to the window. Being too close to the wall to open my wings, I ran at him, intending a full-blown tackle. Nikaido heard and sped up, trying to get to the window before I could catch him. But matched against my character transformation, Nikaido was nothing. I slammed into his back, sending him tumbling to the ground. The X-eggs darted away, but he kept a hold of the cage with Miki and Su in it. Still, he was too stunned to keep me from wrenching it from his grasp. I looped the end of my tail through the handle at the top - I would let them out as soon as possible, but for the moment I had to save Kukai.

"You stay right there - I'll deal with you in a minute." I said threateningly to Nikaido. Then I faced the next task - getting rid of the X-energy. The first thing I did was open my wings and flap. Hard. The smoke cleared within seconds, allowing the Guardians to see again. I wanted them to be able to defend themselves, since I wasn't sure what the battle with a massive, non-solid blob of energy might turn out as. Unfortunately, that also meant that they could see me in my chara-nari. But at the moment, that hardly seemed as important.

"Yamada-san... what.... how did you chara-nari?" Tadase asked, almost at a loss for words.

"Yeah! Cool, Miyuki-chi! Yaya wants to transform, too!" Yaya said.

"I'll explain later. For now, we've got to deal with that thing." I said, gesturing to the X-energy. Then I turned to Amu, who had got back up from where she had been knocked down. She still held Ran, who remained motionless. Since her hands were full with that, I looked back to Tadase. "Here - catch." I flicked my tail, sending the cage through the air, directly to him. He caught, and once he comprehended what I'd just thrown, he started opening the cage to release the two charas, who were still trapped in Nikaido's artificial eggs.

I now faced the blob again. By now, it was fully out of it's container, and stood at least a foot taller than me. The small appendage of darkness that was slowly overcoming Kukai had now made it's way up to his chest - if it was left for a little longer, I didn't want to think about what would happen. Already, Kukai was hanging limply from the shadowy shackles, but he didn't appear to be unconscious. His eyes were downcast, and it looked like he was perhaps mumbling something to himself. Next to him, Daichi's egg floated, but it was dimmer in color than usual, and getting darker by the second.

Every time in the past I'd had to deal with X-eggs, my smoke had worked well. So that's what I decided to try now. I moved forward until I was just five feet or so away from it. Then, in a low voice so the Guardians hopefully wouldn't hear it, I muttered, "Hopeless Haze." A large black flame sprang up in the palm of my hand, and I directed the large amount of smoke coming from it towards the X-energy blob. The blob stopped almost immediately, and all of the energy around Kukai dissipated, causing him to fall limply to the floor. Inwardly, I congratulated myself.

But then, I realized something was wrong. Rather than it calming down, as I had expected, it seemed to grow more agitated. And, to my horror, it rapidly began to grow, absorbing my haze into itself. I quickly doused my flame, but it had already grown at least another foot taller by the time all the smoke was gone. And once it had absorbed it all, it grew angry. Despite the fact that it made no noise whatsoever, I could feel the wrath coming from it... almost like a hunger. Readying myself, I raised my hands in front of me, and shadowy fire engulfed both of them. Perhaps my haze hadn't worked, but I could get a lot more aggressive than that. My heart was racing: partly from excitement, partly from worry, and partly due to the Darkness that was surging in my body.

As if it couldn't control its rage any longer, the blob surged forward - directly towards me. "Let him have it!" Azami encouraged.

I was already one step ahead of her. With barely two feet between us, I swept my hands towards the blob and shouted, "Blazing Rain!" A barrage of black flames hit the thing directly on, but it absorbed it and grew even larger still. In a moment of revelation, I realized what was wrong. It was just like when X-energy hit me - since I already had some inside me, all I did was grow stronger from being hit. And since my attacks must be at least partly composed of X-energy, and since I was attacking something that was made out of concentrated X-energy... well, it made sense that all I was doing was making it harder to beat.

Before I had a chance to even think about dodging in some way, the full force of the charging blob hit me. I was sent flying backwards through the air, falling to the ground a few feet away. I tried to get back up, but almost as soon as I had hit the ground, I found that dark manacles like the ones that had held Kukai were around my wrists and ankles, keeping me on the floor. Then I saw the blob itself slowly approaching, as if knowing that its prey had no means of escape. I attempted to absorb the manacles since they were made of X-energy, but it didn't work. It was as if the energy used to make them had solidified, making me somehow unable to take them into myself. My wings were pinned beneath my back, and though I tried whacking the restraints off of me with my tail, I couldn't break through. The blob stopped right in front of my feet, and then I saw a tentacle of the ghostly goo reach towards my feet - just like it had done with Kukai.

"LET GO OF MIYUKI!"

"Get away from Miyuki-chi, you big meany!"

Nadeshiko and Yaya charged forward, intent on saving me. Nadeshiko drove her naginata into the center of the blob. Yaya's giant rattle appeared above her own head, and she swung it down as hard as she could on top of the beast. The blob paused, halting its tentacle right above my feet. I was hopeful for a second, but then I noticed that their weapons had simply stuck into the creature. If anything, the thing was simply annoyed right now - not harmed. It whipped the tentacle towards its attackers, sending both of them flying. It let the weapons drop from its gooey body, then the tentacle turned back towards me and wrapped itself around my feet.

As soon as it made contact, my character transformation disappeared and all of my X-energy left. But no, it wasn't gone - as if by instinct, it had withdrawn so deeply within me that even I could hardly feel it. I could feel coldness crawling up my legs, and looked down to see that I was being enveloped by the darkness. And, stranger than that, I could feel it almost sucking at the X-energy within me, trying and failing to absorb it into itself. That was why it had abandoned Kukai and attacked me instead - it had felt the power in my attacks, and it apparently wanted that power for itself. At the moment, it was unsuccessful, but I could slowly feel my will to resist crumbling.

Everything is useless, anyway. I mean, I'll never be able to get out of this. No matter how much I try to keep it from overcoming me, it's going to defeat me. And even if I somehow got away, the Guardians will probably figure out that I've been betraying them all this time, and they'll hate me... my best friend already had her egg taken away because of me. I don't even deserve the power of my X-energy... I should just give it up...

I heard Tadase saying something to Amu, but it all seemed distant and far off. None of it mattered to me. There was nothing I could do. There was nothing anyone could do. I looked up and saw Azami's egg floating next to me, with the normally vivid flame pattern growing less and less distinct. I looked downward, and saw that the X-energy had made its way up to my hips. Sooner or later, I'd be fully consumed. First it would suck the X-energy out of me, and then... well, I didn't know what it would do. I didn't care anymore. It was all useless in the end.

Suddenly, I was jerked out of my daze as a wave of bright colors hit the tentacle at its base, slicing it off and causing the engulfing darkness to fade from my body. Azami popped out of her egg, but sank to the ground and sat there, saying nothing. The manacles binding me disappeared, but I continued to lay where I was. I had already been brought partly into the depths of hopelessness, and it would take a while for me to pull myself back out. Still, it had woken me up enough for me to watch what was going on.

As soon as it was hit, the monster made its first noise - a sort of rumbling roar. Then it rushed towards Amu, who had character transformed into Amulet Spade.

"Colorful Canvas!" She shouted, attacking with more of the rainbow-colored energy. The blob stopped, seeming to shrink a bit due to the attack. It roared, then charged forward again. Amu jumped out of the way, then sent another attack at its back. The thing roared, then turned around and lunged towards her again. It seemed quicker this time, and Amu wasn't ready to defend herself. She braced herself for the blow, unable to launch another attack in time.

"Holy Crown!" Tadase shouted as he dashed up to Amu's side. The golden light shot forth, creating a wall between the blob and them.

"You need to purify it, Hinamori-san!" Tadase said through gritted teeth as he continued to hold back the assault.

"I know!" She replied, "But I don't think I can purify something that big!"

"I can help, desu~." Su said, joining them. "Let me switch with Miki, desu~."

Amu nodded. Her body was immediately surrounded by light, which vanished in a couple seconds to reveal Amu as Amulet Clover. It was then that the X-energy blob broke through Tadase's shield, but Amu was ready this time.

"Remake Honey!" She said, aiming her cooking whisk at the creature. An enormous glob of honey fired towards the blob, completely encasing it and stopping its advance. Other blobs splattered off of the main one, going in the directions they needed to go - a little bit went to Kukai, another little bit to Ran (whom Nadeshiko was currently holding), and a whole lot splashed onto the X-eggs that were still lying in the machine. The equivalent of a couple of cups of the honey landed on my arm. And while it did wake me up more completely, it wasn't very pleasant. Once it touched me, the X-energy came back from hiding with a vengeance. My arm burned where the honey stuck, and I could practically feel the two opposing forces attacking each other through my skin. I used my other hand to quickly brush it off, but while it lessened the pain on arm, my hand now began to experience the searing pain as well. I managed to wipe the rest of it off onto the floor, but when I looked back to my arm and hand, both were a bright, blotchy red. Azami floated up from the ground to look at the wounds, acting calm. But I knew she had felt the pain, too.

When I looked up from her, I saw that the blob was gone and hundreds of eggs of the heart floating around in mid air. One by one, the disappeared - I guessed they were going back to their rightful owners. But before I knew it, one zoomed out of the group right at me, hitting me directly in the middle of the forehead. I rubbed my head and looked forward to see an egg of the heart. To be specific, it was a creamy white egg, with a light blue pencil in the center: Mai's egg. My heart soared. But as soon as I had identified it, it circled rapidly around my head a couple of times, then disappeared like the rest. I practically couldn't believe it - Mai's egg was okay. Which meant that she could live her dreams again.

But then I realized that something else was going on, and I turned my attention to the Guardians. On the other side of the room, they were all huddled around Amu. I walked up and joined them, and at the center, Amu held Ran in her hands.

"Ran?" Amu asked, almost in a whisper.

Ran didn't respond. She still looked dim, despite the remake honey. I looked at Kukai and Daichi, then at myself and Azami. We had all recovered - why was Ran still unconscious? I wondered, just for a moment, if she was dead. But that was silly; a chara couldn't die. Could it?

Miki and Su stood on either side of Ran, looking worried. "Ran, why don't you wake up, desu~?" Su said.

"Come on, Ran. We beat Nikaido and the X-energy." Miki said. "You need to celebrate with us."

"Amu-chi, maybe Ran just needs to rest! You know, like a baby!" Yaya said encouragingly.

"Maybe..." Amu said, sounding unconvinced.

Nadeshiko turned around and glared at something behind me. I turned to see that Nikaido was still here, but he was standing right next to an open window. He had his laptop in one hand, and he seemed prepared to leave at any moment. And he was close enough to the window that we wouldn't be able to stop him.

Though quieter due to the fact that she was no longer chara-changed, Nadeshiko's voice was filled with anger. "What's wrong with Ran? And how do we get her back to normal?"

Nikaido shrugged uncaringly, then spoke in his evil voice. "As I said, she was in direct contact with concentrated X-energy - even more concentrated than the thing that attacked all of you. If one of Hinamori's annoying, goody-two-shoe attacks didn't help, then there's little chance she'll ever wake up. But that's of little concern to me."

"I think I can help." Came a small voice from the other side of the room. We turned again, and saw a shugo chara floating towards us. He was sort of dressed like a scientist, with a lab coat and big, round glasses. His hair was dark blue, and in one hand he held a little yellow wrench. "I'm good at fixing things."

I looked at everyone else, but it didn't seem like anyone knew who the chara was. It floated right up to Ran, and all of us held our breath, waiting to see if he could really help Ran. He lightly touched the end of his wrench to her forehead, and held it there as it began to glow. Slowly but surely, the color came back to Ran. When she seemed back to normal, the unidentified chara lifted his wrench away and stood back. Ran opened her eyes and sat up, while all of us gave a sigh of relief.

Rubbing her head, she looked around, her eyes showing her confusion. "What's going on? Why is everyone looking at me like that?"

Amu smiled, her eyes looking on the verge of tears. "We're all just happy you're all right."

The unknown chara then floated away from us, straight towards Nikaido. We all watched in amazement. Surely this couldn't be... Nikaido's chara?

"I'm glad we finally got to meet." The little chara said. Nikaido seemed in shock, unable to say anything in response to the chara in front of him. "But now that I've helped them out, I really have to go now. I'll see you again!" A light golden egg appeared around the chara, but due to the fact that his back was turned to us, we couldn't see what the symbol on the front was. Then, the egg vanished.

Nikaido stood there, staring at the spot where his long-lost chara had just been. "I thought... you had broken... I had to face reality... I had to win..." He said, talking to himself.

"Win what?" asked Amu, surprising me. This man had just kidnapped her charas and nearly killed Ran - how could she be talking to him so casually?

Nikaido snapped out of his reverie, realizing that we were listening. He looked off at the ceiling, as if no longer able to meet our eyes. "Well... You know..."

"Can't you remember?" Amu asked.

Nikaido crossed his arms. "It doesn't matter anyway. My chara just left again. That proves that dreams are useless. I've already chosen a different path."

"But Nikaido-sensei," Su said, floating over. "He said 'see you later.' That means he'll come back someday. All you have to do is keep working towards your dream, desu~."

Nikaido seemed surprised at this revelation. When he didn't say anything for a while, Tadase spoke to the rest of us. "Let's get going, everyone. We got the charas back, so there's little else to do." By some unspoken recognition, it seemed that everything was forgiven between us and Nikaido. And when I looked at him one last time before we left, there was something definitely changed about him. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but... it seemed like the evil in him was gone. Or, at least, buried so far within him that it wouldn't be a problem any longer.

We walked through the house and out the door, talking to Amu's charas and making sure they were completely all right. But as soon as we were out of the building and on our way home, Kukai looked to me and brought up the subject that everyone was most interested in.

"So, are you going to tell us what all that awesome stuff you did was all about?"

I looked at the ground, while everyone else stared expectantly at me. "It's kind of a long story." I said.

"We've got a long walk back." Tadase pointed out.

"Come on, Miyuki-chi! How long have you been able to chara-nari!?!" Yaya shouted.

"What! Miyuki did a chara-nari?" Ran said. "Why'd I have to miss this?"

"Tell us, Miyuki!" Amu encouraged, smiling. "I couldn't have fought off that thing if you hadn't attacked it while I recovered my senses. I was so worried after seeing Ran that I almost wasn't able to fight again."

"And who knows what would have happened if you hadn't gotten it away from Daichi and me!" Kukai said. "Thanks for that, by the way."

Well, I was going to have to tell them something. All I had to decide was whether I would tell them the truth or not. I decided that, since Nikaido hadn't given away that much, I might be able to get away with lying. But I didn't know if I could tell a lie this big without Azami's help. The problem with that would be that they would notice a chara-change, and they might wonder why I would need to chara-change just to explain.

I think Azami knew what I was thinking, and she came to my rescue. "Being shy about something isn't an emotion a dragon should have. But if you insist on being so reluctant to talk about it, I guess I'll have to make you talk. Chara-change!"

I made a mental note to thank Azami for this later. But, seeing as I now had both the boldness and the cunning to lie, I started with my story. "Well, I think it was a week or two after I came to Seiyo that I first character transformed. Me and Azami had found that we both have a sort of... addiction to flight, and the best way we could do that was jumping off roofs. One night, I had just jumped from the top of the building, and I realized too late that it was too tall - I wouldn't be able to land without hurting myself. Halfway down, Azami and I just seemed to synch up or something, and I character transformed. My wings saved me." Though I wasn't looking any of them in the eyes, I tried to transfer the persuasive power I normally had in my gaze into my voice.

"But why didn't you tell us earlier, Yamada-san?" Tadase asked.

"Well... maybe you didn't notice it in the smoke and confusion back there, but when I character transform, it's not like when Amu does it. Rather than having a glow around me, I'm surrounded by shadows. And when I'm character transformed, my presence is like one massive X-egg - according to Azami, it's like what the charas sense when they feel an X-egg, only bigger. Everything about my chara-nari is dark, and I was worried that you guys... I don't know. That maybe you guys would think I was evil or something, and that you wouldn't want me around anymore."

"That's stupid of you, Miyuki." Kukai said jokingly. "I mean, you practically just saved all of us! Who knows if we'd even been able to get past those first robots without you! Even if your chara-nari seems dark, we know you're not evil."

How utterly wrong can you get? I wondered.

"Speaking of those robots, what was that smoke attack you used?" Tadase asked. "You were able to do that while chara-changed, Yamada-san. Why haven't you used that before?"

"Out of curiosity, Azami actually had me use the attack once before. She knew I could do something, but she didn't know what exactly would happen." I said, still tremendously glad for the chara-change. "But when I did, everyone around me got all gloomy and depressed. I stopped it right away. I was afraid that it might even draw out an X-egg from someone, but everyone there recovered after a few minutes, and no X-eggs came out. I just had a hunch to use it today, and it definitely seemed to have some sort of an effect on those robots."

"So what about that night you got all scratched up?" Amu asked. "Do you really remember nothing?"

I looked at the ground, faking shame. "I felt really bad about lying about that, but the fact is that I do remember it. The only reason was that I wanted to hide the fact that I could character transform, for the reasons I said earlier. The truth is, I was walking around that night when Ikuto showed up. He made fun of me and Azami, so we got angry and character-transformed. He did his own chara-nari, and we fought for a bit. He managed to get the upper hand, and that's when he scratched up my arm. I think he left when he saw Tadase and Nadeshiko coming."

"And what about what Nikaido said to you when we first came into that room today?" Nadeshiko questioned. "He said that he expected more from you, or something to that extent."

I figured faking ignorance would be the best way to deal with this. "I don't know. It seemed like he knew a lot about us - perhaps he already knew that I could chara-nari, and he was expecting me to do that, despite my worries about you guys would think. Maybe he wanted more of a challenge. As I said, I really don't know. Just something about him today completely freaked me out. I got over it eventually, but at that point in time, he scared me half to death. And while it did feel like he was challenging me or something, I was still worried about what you guys would think about my chara-nari."

"Miyuki, we're your friends." Amu said. "No matter what your character transformation might be like, we know that you're not like that."

"Yeah!" Yaya shouted. "You should have told us earlier! I can't believe you've been able to chara-nari all this time and you never showed us!"

"I doubt you can control what your chara-nari is like, anyway." Kukai said.

For some reason, Tadase chara-changed. "A king will always look out for his loyal subjects! You commoners should never be afraid to tell anything to your kind and understanding king!" Then his crown disappeared, and he mumbled his apologies. We all laughed, but as my own chara-change faded, guilt set in.

They're all completely wrong. I am like my character transformation, and I did more or less choose what it is like. I'm a horrible friend, lying to them like this. But... but the lie is my burden to bear. As long as they don't know about it, they won't be hurt. Who knows? Maybe they'll never have to know. Plus, I finally stood up to Nikaido. A smile came to my face as that fact finally set in. I had actually stood up to him. And I beat him. A lot of bad stuff had nearly happened today, but at least two good things came out of this whole mess. One, as I said, was that Nikaido was now out of the picture - I'd no longer have to take any orders from him. And two: Mai's egg was back, and she should be back to normal. Maybe I'd have to go on lying, but I'd live with it.

After all the action of the past couple days... I just want things to go back to normal. I nearly laughed as I thought about that. Yeah, right - like things could ever be normal with Azami and the Guardians around.

And the climax of book 1 is over! I'm going to post my own opinion on how this chapter went on my profile, so if you're curious, you can read it. Please review, telling me how you liked it! (or disliked it...)

As I said before, I will have one more chapter. And I'm sorry, but it's going to be somewhat of a flashback chapter. Perhaps you don't want it, but I need it to get my thoughts and Miyuki's thoughts in order. There will be more to it than just flashbacks, so I'm hoping it won't be too bad. However, I won't be posting it until I finish chapter one of book 2, so that I'll be able to post a link to book two at the end of the chapter. Due to this, as well as me having finals this week and leaving on a short trip away from home soon, I may not be able to get them out for a while yet. I'll try my best, and I'll post a temporary author's note if I'm unable to get it out by next weekend. But after that, summer will have started, and I shall (hopefully) have all the time in the world to write!