Panicked, Nathan turned back to Audrey. "We'll drop her off at the hospital and come back, alright?"

She nodded, climbing into her little red Ford and flooring it to the hospital. Pulling in, she slammed the brakes for an oncoming car. "Crap!"

The vehicle jerked forward a bit too much, and underneath them a crack in the earth appeared spontaneously. The car Audrey almost hit was swallowed whole. Audrey clutched Nathan's hand as the car lurched forward at the edge of the crack.

"I love you, Nathan." she was tearing up.

"I love you, too, Audrey," he kissed her softly as the car tumbled into oblivion.

Axel drove faster on the highway than he should have, the little girl in the back of his car trembling in fear. Adele hugged her pink zebra-striped pillow and her over-stuffed purple cow for comfort as fat, salty tears rolled down her cheeks. "Mommy... Uncle Nathan... Auntie Panacakes... Goddess... Help..."

The dawn of the new morning glowed, sending warm sunlight all over her, and for some reason, giving her an escape plan. When she was eight, Auntie told her that her mommy was special. Magical. A spell-waver-thingy. And she said that Mommy put a special device thing inside her purple cow, Jean.

Adele laid her pillow on her lap, sort of like a dissection table. She placed her cow facing up on it. Then she prayed to her favorite goddesses, Rozen Garten, Zoren, and Stellira Noctair.

Axel swerved, and Adele swayed, still in her reserved state. She opened her eyes and smiled for the first time in a long time. Opening Jean and digging around in her fluffy cotton, Adele found a red shiny rock thingy. Auntie told her hold that stone close to her heart with one hand and everything you wanted to take with you in the other. The little girl placed her bags (they weren't very big) in her lap, and she wrapped one arm around them. She whispered where she wanted to go and disappeared.

Terra walked down the side of highway R-13, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand. Hot, angry tears were streaming down his face. He was alone, physically and mentally. He wasn't a man that cried for silly reasons, he decided, and he abruptly stopped his tears, totally oblivious to the car speeding in the opposite direction.

He stood still, and Terra mentally began to create a plan. He would go to Aqua's house and wait until she came home. If she was already there, he'd apologize and take her to dinner and explain everything. Determined, he began running down the highway, confident steps in tow.

Kairi sat in a corner, facing the wall, and she turned up "Help, I'm Alive" by Metric to drown out Namine's foul mouthed yelling.

Namine was strapped to a silvery dissection table, glaring up at the blonde woman holding a needle. Larxene stared down, intimidating her harshly until Zexion walked into the room.

"Get me off this goddamn table! What're ya gonna do! Inject me to death?"

Zexion laughed and back-handed her swiftly. "Quiet, witch."

"Make me," she growled, and he back-handed her again. Her bloody saliva hit the floor near his foot.

"Now," Zexion bent down over her and whispered into her ears, "Tell me how to get in touch with Mother."

"Never," she spat in his face, curling her fists against the cold steel tabletop.

He straightened up, wiping his face with his sleeve. "You've asked for it, Namine."

Zexion stepped over to a machine, the one that sends electrical discharge to through the patient's system to kick-start the brain. He turned it on and rubbed the two metal plates together, hovering over the girl. Zexion pressed the plates into her chest forcefully. Namine writhed and wriggled and jerked continuously, until he let her go. She gasped for air, blood dribbling down her red lips, gurgling on the blood closing her airway. She spit blood up at him and whispered, "Do what you will, you sick bastard."

"How sweet," he said, slapping her again, "Let's try this again. Call upon the gods. Now."

"I can't. They come to me. Not the other way around. If you let me go..."

"In your naive dreams, little witch."

Vanille flitted around the castle, as light as the sunlight streaming through the silk curtains. She stopped short in the dining room, entranced by the gold and silver lily centerpiece on the table. She came closer, holding it in her hand, turning the little flower over and over in her little pale fingers. The petals themselves were shimmering gold, accented by cold flecks of sliver. She pocketed the small treasure, and she continued about her work nonchalantly. But Vanille stopped again, realizing a bit of crucial information. The eight o'clock news had blared for the living room television, and for the first time that day, Vanille realized she was totally alone. She went inside and sat on the squishy couch, listening to Robert Bishop, a blonde haired, blue eyed newscaster, report something about a kidnapping somewhere. She was about to turn it off, when something caught her attention.

"In recent reports," Robert began, "the Princess of Daloria, heir to the queen's throne, and Prince Riku, heir to Encante's kingdom, are both stationed in the Intensive Care Unit at Rockrema Memorial Hospital. Both are under severe comatose states until further notice."

Vanille gasped, and she bounded out the room and down the stairs, practically flying out of the castle's walls. She ran to the horse stables and clicked her tongue, calling her master's horse, Creampuff. She didn't even saddle him; she just got on and began riding through the courtyard. The thundering of the hooves went from tiles to dirt road in minutes. Vanille's brunette bangs blew in her face, but she was very happy she had cut her hair pixie short beforehand. She reached one hand inside her pocket and fingered the small flower.

Passing the marketplace already, Vanille kept galloping through. She needed to see Riku. The time had come. She remembered him saying when she was ready to know everything, that she should come to him. She just hoped he'd wake up in time to see her. She prayed, even, but to no god or goddess in particular. She had to know why he had asked for her hand, and why she couldn't remember anything after that. Nothing but pitch black darkness and muted memories.

HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!