And now here's chapter 24. Why is it that it took so long to make you may ask? Laziness, lack of interest, other stories, and writer's block a hell of a lot of writer's block (I miss the days when this story practically wrote itself DX). But I'm back to finish this so with that all said onto the next chapter

Aqua's mother had taken Evy back to her room with Dante and cleaned her up. Evy had always been kind of a handful but what happened back there was just beyond strange.

While she cared for her daughter, Dante was bored out of his mind as he sat upside down on a chair. In fact he was so bored that it was starting to tire him out or that might been just because nightfall had finally come.

"Mommy…?" he asked in a yawn getting her attention

"Yes Dante"

"Can I please go play with Aqua? It's boring in here!" he whined a little at the end. His mother simply shook her head

"Not right now dear" she said as she looked back to her sleeping daughter to see she hadn't changed in condition. The thought of something being severely wrong with her because of what Terra did brisked her mind. What if she was in some kind of coma?

Dante let out a sigh as he crossed his arms and pouted away from his mother. His mother is kind a lot of the time but if she doesn't want you to do something she wont budge in opinion, he knew from the couple of times Evy wanted to stay out a little later than she should. His mother sighed as she picked up the wet towel she put on her head just in case that weird outburst was the result of a fever. She noticed it was rather dry, so she got up and looked over at Dante

"I'm going to go wet this up a little bit. Stay here ok?" she asked as Dante gave a nod with smile. She smiled back, he was always such a good listener, then she left for the bathroom. Leaving Dante alone, with his thoughts… and the gifts his mother brought. Which he thought as odd since santa always takes of gifts on Christmas. He didn't think to far into it, he figured Santa just gives all the kids that one gift they really want.

'I hope get a cool blade thingy like Aqua!' Dante thought happily as he looked at the other gifts. All of them had already been wrapped and named to who they would go to. His mother tried to hide them by putting a sheet off her bed on them but he could tell exactly what they were at short glance. He really wanted to see what his mommy got him but he didn't want to chance not getting a keyblade from santa. Afterall he knows when your awake and see's you when you're sleeping. Dante did a quick look around the room and out the closed window.

'I'll just shake them to see what they are' he thought, be fairly confident that Santa at the moment was watching him and got off his chair and started 'peaking' at his presents.

Meanwhile…

Aqua's mother was making her way to the bathroom, towel in hand, when she noticed someone exiting it. She knew exactly who it was

"Elise?" she halfed asked already knowing it was very well her. Elise quickly turned around and gave a wave and small smile at her

"Oh hi Claire what's going on?" She asked as Claire finished her way to the bathroom.

"I've been better"

"Really why's that? And what's with the towel?" she asked as Claire began to explain

"Well you see it started when my younger daughter bursted into my older one's room with a bloody nose. We were going to help her but then she ran off…" she went on to explain how they ran after her and how Dante stopped her.

"Wow that's odd, but how did you get her calm enough to get to her to your room?" Elise asked. Actually Claire had purposely left that part for last

"Actually it was your son." She said, making Elise hum curiously "He said he hit a pressure point and that you taught him it" Elise looked shocked when she heard that

"Oh my I'm so sorry I had no idea that Terra even knew that!" She apologized rather fastly. Making Claire have to calm her down

"Whoa whoa it's ok, I'm not mad or anything" she explained as Elise calmed down

"Your not?"

"I was a little at first, afterall he did take me by surprise. But I'm thankfull besides I think that without him I'd still be chasing my daughter around this huge castle, so I'm actually a little thankfull now" she explained as the look of worry that found its way on Elise face disappeared and she sighed in relief

"Oh… alright then. You know for what it counts sorry about that" she apologized knowing that Terra had learned that from her.

"You don't have to apologize for anything. By the way where did you learn that?" she asked intrigued about where someone like her would learn something like that

"Well I like to read and I stumbled upon it in a book on anatomy. Originally I was looking for something to help soothe the pain that Terra would feel after going through that rough house training his father put him through day after day. But instead of finding that I found a knockout pressure point that Knocks someone out for about half an hour or a full hour. Though I barely used it, it was only on occasion that when my daughter needed something to calm her down" She explained, surprising Claire. She didn't think she would actually do that to her daughter

"Don't you think it's a little extreme to do that instead of something else to soothe her?"

"Well… I tried other things but they didn't work as well. And to be honest my husband has never really favored Destiny over Terra. He'd always threaten me about giving her up to some orphanage because of how much noise she would make when she was a baby and a toddler. So in those cases I had to do it to keep her…" She said in a saddened voice that Claire could truly feel. She could image how she would feel if she was almost forced to give up one of her children. She loves more than life itself and wouldn't want them away from her at all.

"Oh my… I'm so sorry" she said as Elise took a breath and forced a small smile

"It's ok it's in the past. So shouldn't you be going back to your daughter?" she asked as Claire remember about the damp towel in her hand and the whole reason she was here.

"Oh yes thanks for reminding me" she told her as she ran into the bathroom and wet the towel. When she stepped back out Elise gave her a wave as she started back for her room, back to her terrible husband. Claire couldn't let her go back to that man. While someone would argue that she only knew half the story between that couple she could plainly tell the way that man acted at dinner and the days previous that he was every inch the monster she described.

"Hey…" she called out Making Elise stop and turn around "…you want to come over to my room and help me with Evy?" she asked striking Elise as odd.

"Why?"

"Well who's to say Terra might've hit the wrong point on her body or something? You mind looking her over?" She asked because the thought of that did breeze her mind in the past hour and a half.

Now the choice was this, either go back to a husband whose been a complete ass to both her children since they were born or go hang out with a new friend who is fun to talk to and might need her help. Truly a easy choice for anyone

"Ok I'll take a look. I actually might now a way to wake her up early" she told her as they both went to Claire's room and talked about random things. Some families were just destined to be friends or united. Terra, Aqua, and their mothers were the greatest example of this. As they approached her room Claire noticed something odd. Her door it was wide open, she clearly remembered closing it and Dante wasn't one to disobey her. Elise noticed the slight look of worry on her face

"Something wrong?"

"I closed that door, and I don't Dante would've opened it"

"Oh don't be so paranoid I bet it just got hot in there and…" she said as they entered her room and both gasped. Evy was gone and Dante was on the ground not moving at all. Instinctivly Claire rushed to her child and checked him over while trying to shake him awake.

"Dante! Dante wake up!" She said as she shook him some more. Elise crouched to her and Dante and did a once over of him. He looked perfectly fine. Then she noticed something as she shook him. There was a faint bruise on Dante's neck that she immediately recognized

"Stop!" She told Claire as she did as told

"What?" she asked as Elise pointed out the first two fingers of her right hand, drew back, and bumped two points on his neck. The next moment he awoke in a fluster

"EVY!" he said in a rush as he struggled to get out of his mother's arms.

"Dante!" she said in relief as she wrapped in a hug

"Mom?" he asked as his mother loosened her hug

"I'm so glad you're ok" she said as she looked over to Elise and mouthed 'thank you' as she mouthed back 'your welcome'

"Mom how did you get here so fast and where's Evy I gotta get back at her for knocking me out"

"What?" both the mothers asked in disbelief

"She knocked me out by doing the same thing Terra did"

"How?"

"Umm…"

Flashback…

"So Terra bumped back his hand and hit your neck right there" he told her as he poked her neck and made her sneer in pain. She rubbed her kneck and noticed how precise the bruise was, it was like a dot.

"Yep so that's what happened and Mom just left to get you a wet towel and I'm sure she wants me to make sure you don't leave and GAH!" he said as he fell to the floor after Evy poked in the same area she was by Terra

"Whoa it works…" she said to herself as a devious smile went across her face. A plan was coming to mind, one involving her and Ven and a unconscious Des. So she sweeped her legs off the bed, took off her nose blood stained shirt with something from her mom's stuff and left.

Now…

"…I uh don't know" he lied because he was embarrassed that he went down that easily

"Then we gotta find her she couldn't have gotten to far" Claire said as Elise nodded

"You take one side of the castle and I'll take the other"

"Agreed"

"What about me?" Dante asked wanting to be usefull

"You find Aqua and tell her what's happened and help find her" she said as Dante gave a confident nod, he wasn't going to to screw this up like not stopping Evy. Everyone rushed out the door and did what they were told. Claire taking note of one thing as she left

"Gez she even messed up the presents a little"

Hope you liked the new chapter. Again I can't stress how sorry I am it took this long to get up and that it wasn't a VenXDes chapter as promised. The next will be half that. So yeah hope it was worth the wait and if it wasn't… well sorry

Ok R&R if you want, bye