"The important thing to remember with any magic is visualization."

Marea Rio opened one brown eye to look at her best friend. "I'm trying, really, I am."

Though Marea was looking at Clara, Clara was not looking at her. Blonde, blue-eyed, and obviously not native to Mexico, Clara de Luz was staring at Marea's hair. A smile stretched across her heart-shaped face. "I can tell," she said. She reached into her purse and found a mirror, offering it out.

Marea took it and looked at her reflection. "¡A huevo!" she exclaimed. Hell yeah! Her hair, normally dark brown, was now a vivid red. "I can't believe I did it!"

Clara grinned. "I can believe it. I've known your magic was strong since I came here."

"From another planet," Marea said in wonder.

Clara nodded.

Marea was never quite sure how to react to Clara's claims. According to her, her real name was Light. According to her, she was nobility from a far off planet called Solaria, where magic was everywhere and teenage girls were all fairy tale characters. Hers was a world of fantastic spells, arranged marriages, amazing creatures, and royalty at every turn. It was much different than the world Marea knew, though about equally as fantastic… her family owned a quaint little inn that tourists seemed to adore, and were quite well off compared to the rest of Marea's friends.

"You never told me, Clara. Why did you leave?"

Clara sighed. "Mama and Papa, a lady and a lord of Solaria, decided that since I had no interest in attending Alfea, the fairy school, I should be wed immediately. Of course, all the good boys need time to prepare to court. The only one of proper blood who even tried to woo me was awful. So I ran away to Earth, say, four or so months ago now? Right after your fairies got freed. Had to wait for it to be safe again."

"Do you ever think of going back?"

"I've been here over one hundred days, and I've never even tried. What's waiting for me at home but dumb marriage and parents who are going to be so mad when they find out where I am?"

"But don't you miss them?"

"Not really." Marea opened her mouth to ask another question, but Clara cut her off. "Hey, now that you know basic metamorphosymbiosis, I bet you can try transforming and growing wings!"

Marea's eyes widened. "Really?"

"Yeah, really!" Clara laughed and disappeared into a fountain of yellow light. When she emerged, she was in a sparkly outfit with translucent wings on her back. "See? Easy! No big deal for a fairy like you, Agua!"

Marea got caught up in the happiness and laughter as Clara used her nickname. "Yeah, Light, no big deal!"

Neither of them saw the eyes watching them, the sharp eyes of the red-tailed hawk perched on the building that they gathered next to.

"Knock, knock! Time to rise and shine!" said a voice that was almost British, but not quite.

Amanda Gordon glanced at the door that led from her two-person dorm room to the halls of the Royal Fairy Academy. Then, she grumbled, put her pillow over her head, and tried to go back to sleep.

"You're going to miss breakfast!" said another voice, which like the first came from the hall. This one was high and determined, the voice of someone with a lot to prove, but trust in her own abilities.

"I have snacks in my room!" Amanda shouted back as she rolled to face the wall.

"Can we bust the door down, Leilani?" asked a rougher, overly-excited voice. Amanda thought about its owner, who was basically a puppy trapped in the body of a mechanic, and decided the voice fit.

"No, we can't!" This voice was low and mature, and definitely belonged to the president of the student body. Amanda wouldn't have needed a name to tell her that. "Definitely against the rules."

"Then how do we get her up?" asked the first voice… Safeyah Hafeij's voice.

"Hang on," said the second person. "I have an idea."

There was a flash of green magic that leaked through the cracks in Amanda's door, strong enough that she could see the light even with her pillow over her eyes.

Then, Amanda's cat, Sir Fluffybutt, jumped up onto the pillow… and consequently, Amanda's face. "Those girls are right," he said. "You really need to get up. See, my food bowl is empty, and I haven't been pet in over eight hours. While I have you here, if you'll direct your attention to your desk, I caught three stinkbugs and killed them. Now you can have breakfast, too. I hear they're in season, and I enjoy them very much, though I can't say much for the smell…"

"Okay, okay, I'm up, I'm up!" Amanda shouted as she picked up her cat and put him on the floor, to some amount of protest. "Roxy, that was a cheap tactic!"

The four girls outside of her door giggled. "It worked, didn't it?" said Roxy.

Amanda refilled her cat's food and pulled a sky-blue cardigan, white polo shirt, black skirt, and white tights from her dresser. After slipping all of them on, she wrapped her pink tie around her waist. It promptly became a belt. Within three minutes, she was out the door and ready to go.

Her new friends stood there smiling, still amused by the morning's antics. Each wore her own uniform a little different: Avi used her tie as an actual tie and preferred pants, while Roxy and Saf both had a sailor uniform-esque bow around their necks. While Saf and Avi both had the same blue cardigan as Amanda did, Roxy's was purple… testament to her more advanced magic skill… and Leilani's was the college wine red, worn over a dress rather than pants or skirt. Her tie kept silky black hair out of her eyes.

That was it. There were no more students at the Royal Fairy Academy. Only the five who stood in the dorm corridor. "You know," said Amanda thoughtfully, "once I read a book about psychics who went to a school about as small as this."

"Oh?" asked Leilani.

"Yeah, and it was creepy. I hope we get more girls soon."

Everyone looked to Roxy. Leilani was the student president, but Roxy was the princess of the Earth fairies, and that did rank a little higher. She also had natural leadership qualities, and though she denied them, Amanda had seen them in action.

The pink-haired girl shrugged. "Hey, we're getting stuff on the fairy tracker, but it's still kind of shaky. After all, Lysis has to put in the data of every fairy that we already know about before we can start to track down the fairies we don't."

"How many fairies do we know about?" asked Saf.

"Not counting us? There are about a thousand."

The number seemed simultaneously large and small. It was smaller than most cities, small to be a species. If fairies were animals, they would probably be considered endangered. Still, one thousand fairies… one thousand powerful women who could kill with a word… and Amanda was one of them. She shuddered. "Wow," she said.

"I think the exact number is one thousand, three hundred twenty-two. That's not counting Bloom, since she's Dominon and not Terrestrial, or any of you, since you've been found since the last census. It counts me, though. So adding for everyone else, there are one thousand, three hundred twenty-seven fairies that we know about on Earth." Roxy grinned.

"Wow," repeated Amanda.

"Hey, so what about breakfast?" Avi said. "It's great to talk numbers and stuff, but I am starving, and I heard that Tora was making bacon today."

"Oh, that's going to convince me to get going. It's not like I don't eat meat or anything," Roxy quipped sarcastically.

Amanda laughed. Roxy didn't strike her as the kind of girl who would be a vegetarian, but she supposed that when you were the fairy of animals, it would feel kind of sick to try to eat one.

"Pancakes too," Avi added with a smirk.

"Okay," Roxy said. "I'm there. Let's go!"

The five girls headed downstairs to the cafeteria, but Amanda felt a pang of discomfort. It would be just as empty as the dorm.

The Royal Fairy Academy wasn't the school she had been promised, not yet. For now, it was just a building with a few kids, desperate to learn. Amanda wasn't sure how she felt about that.

It had taken some doing, but Leilani convinced Bloom to let her skip all of her "normal" classes for the rest of her time at the Royal Fairy Academy. She had already gotten her gen eds out of the way; now she was just doing major work. Bloom didn't have the resources to give her a super well-rounded education yet, so adaptions were made. For half of the morning, when the others worked on English and math, she was video-linked to Alfea's Magical Theory and Etiquette classes. Then, she had a free study period in the library. Finally, she would meet back with her friends for history, though had a tendency to zone out on the human stuff.

Her study period was the best part of the day. She had kept the book with Agrippine's story; it was thick, full of magical history, and she found herself wanting to know more. Luckily, the book was full of almost every major event in Earth's fairy history, and despite its original claims that nothing more was known of Agrippine and her brother, it soon contradicted itself.

She reread the story… the clue… that Monday morning that Amanda had her first class.

Long ago, when fairies were half gone and growing scarcer and scarcer with each passing day, there lived a fairy of life named Leira. Fascinated as she was with the problems of her people and the history that led to such problems, she came up with a solution. She would find Agrippine, an enemy who once was an ally, and who might be convinced to become one again. Leira knew that despite the pain of losing one's wings, such limbs could grow back. She believed that the sacrifice of Agrippine, the one that caused her to be shamed within the fairy world, could be reversed. She believed the fairy could return, perhaps not a hero, but no longer a pariah.

To the fairy queen Morgana, Leira took her idea, though not in detail. "Let me search for Agrippine," she begged. "Let me find her and speak to her, so that she may be our enemy no longer."

Morgana misunderstood Leira's intentions. "I grant you permission. Bring me her head so I may know you have succeeded, young fairy."

Leira was horrified, but the Terrestrial fairies were in a time of war. She did not dare contradict her queen; neither did she intend to follow through. Without a spoken answer, Leira curtseyed and returned to her home to think.

After contemplation, recorded in her personal journal, Leira knew what she must do. She would find Agrippine and speak to her. She would convince her to become a fairy once again. Then, she would return to Morgana. The queen would not be happy, but she would give in. No fairy would kill another except in times of great distress, and Leira did not believe the distress to be great enough.

She journeyed far and wide, across the world, the only fairy at that time who actively searched for wizards rather than avoiding them. She paused only to study, and after five years, even managed to create the first device that could track a magical signal. After twelve years of searching, at last she came upon her target, Agrippine Octavia, former fairy of chemistry.

What happened then was a mystery. Leira's journal claimed a sad, charming, intelligent and lonely woman who found pleasure in the fairy's company. After that, the journal entries ceased until five years later, in a different hand, there came to be one more.

"Dead. I did not wish this, nor did I plan for it. Again we rest alone, my dear."

Tracix fairies attempted to see the events that unfolded, but the journal had been hidden far from the actual events. And thus, those five years of Leira's life remain a mystery, with only one result. Agrippine, decided as a killer of fairies, was hunted ever harder, though to no avail, and such, Leira became a tragedy of trusting too much.

"You really like that book, huh?"

For the second time, Leilani looked up to see Tora. "Yeah. Agrippine's fascinating."

"If you think so, I have a book just about her story that you can borrow. Might be easier than digging through that tome."

Leilani nodded. "I'd like that. Also, I have, uh, a question. You said that your teacher went to Agrippine's home. Where is that?"

"It was in Italy, and the forest around it is gone. The house still stands. It must be enchanted, for nobody can destroy it." Tora smiled grimly. "Fairies have tried, not just humans. We've tried to destroy it to punish her."

"I want to go see it, someday," Leilani decided.

"Maybe you can." Tora smiled. "It isn't exactly fair that the travel team can jet off whenever and our student president can't."

Leilani looked at her feet. Tora was pretty cool, for someone who was her age. Even being one of the younger fairies, she was still much older than everyone else at RFA. She was just barely younger than twice Saf and Avi's age.

Despite being thirty, Tora had some immature tendencies. Half the time, Leilani suspected her of trying to show Lysis up. She had heard about the two teachers' history and the bad blood between them, but there was a horrible lack of details. For Leilani, whose curiosity knew no bounds, this was a nightmare of a situation.

"Did you really date Lysis before?" she blurted out, the thought in her mind passing all the censors of her mouth somehow.

Tora smiled. "Yes, up until about four months ago."

"And then, when the fairies were free, you just left?"

Tora's smile became a frown. "Well… I wouldn't put it that way." Leilani waited. Tora sighed and sat down in the chair across from her. "I told you, Agrippine fascinates me as well."

This is about Agrippine?

"I spent fifteen years trapped in Tir Nan Og; the wizards found me when I was fourteen. The older fairies did their best to find a tutor for the fairies trapped as kids, so that we wouldn't be illiterate or unable to use our powers if… I mean, when… we were freed. For me, a fairy of education, it was more important than usual."

Tora smiled as she reminisced. "Then Historia said she wanted to teach me. She was the fairy of history and a scholar for the queen; in fact, it was she who wrote the book you hold!" Leilani blinked in wonder. "Our lessons were more or less storytime. Of course, I excelled in all subjects, my powers made sure of that. I never forget anything, and I can speak any language I've heard even a single word in fluently. Historia, however, made sure history was my favorite, and she did well. As I learned more and more from her, however, I grew increasingly annoyed by what she forgot. Just because I remember everything doesn't mean that every fairy does, after all."

"By the time I had learned everything Historia had to offer, I was twenty-eight, and still with many questions. At the time, I was dating Lysis. She called me obsessed, too curious for my own good. Historia agreed. Both of them were such one-subject fairies, with specializations too narrow to truly understand. They stick to what they know. But I'm all but limitless, all but immortal, and I want to know. Everything!"

Leilani was almost scared of the fire in Tora's eyes. There was a passion in the brown that reminded her of a flame. It could burn… it did burn… anyone who got too close.

"Historia died weeks before we were released. Don't ask how. I don't want to find out, ever. It's the one thing I don't think I could bear to learn. Despite how we had grown apart since I admitted my desire to find out everything about Agrippine, I still mourned. I still do." She hung her head, and for a moment, she was silent. When she continued her story, her voice was softer and slower, her eyes cooler. "And when we were freed, I fought beside Lysis for our vengeance, and as soon as that ended, I bid her goodbye and went to find some answers of my own. I would have taken her, but she would have criticized every step of the way. I couldn't have stood it. At that point, all I had was my hurt and my drive."

Tora stood up again. "But the thing is? Every time she looks at me like she hates me, it hurts. So maybe I could just never win. And I love the girl a lot, but she doesn't forgive, so it's best for both of us that I just keep my distance."

Leilani frowned. "Even if you know she won't accept, isn't it better if you apologize? At least you'll feel better, and you can tell yourself you did the right thing."

Tora laughed a short, sarcastic laugh. "I don't deserve to be in the right here. I screwed up, and I'll take the pain from it. Anyway, I shouldn't have burdened you with that. I'll find that book on Agrippine and get it to you, okay?"

"Okay," said Leilani dumbly.

As Tora left the library, the student president thought about what she had been told.

Then, a thought flashed into her mind. Maybe it was a result of loving to play mystery games; maybe it was just intuition. Either way, she knew it was true.

Contradiction.

"So, where are you sleeping tonight?" asked Marea. "I hear it's going to rain."

Clara smiled. "Don't you worry about me. There's a park with a nice open gazebo!"

"You can always come back to my house, you know."

"And then you can have all the fun of explaining who I am to your parents, the infamously strict and controlling Ana and Jose Rio."

Marea protested. "They aren't that bad!"

"That's not what you say every other day!" Clara teased. She let her hair turn Marea's natural color of brown, her eyes become dark. "My name is Marea Rio, and my parents never let me have fun!"

"Hey!" protested the real Marea.

"They never let me have any fun, and if they ever met you, Clara, nobility from the world of Solaria, they would blow a gasket and send me to the nuthouse!"

"Wait a moment!"

"All day, it's 'Marea, Marea, Marea, concentrate on your grades so you don't end up drug dealing in the streets! Marea, find yourself a good man!' How hard it is to be Marea Rio!"

"I can't believe you're really…"

Clara pointed at her friend. "And do you, Lady Light, dare to insult my parents? Don't worry, they aren't that bad!"

From around the corner, Marea heard a deep laugh. "Um, friend…"

Clara continued. "My parents are just controlling, unwelcoming, and altogether…"

"Human parents, of course," said a new, low voice.

Both girls looked over the the corner where the voice came from. A man stood there. His pale skin and silver hair already stood out, but the strangest part of his appearance were his eyes, shifting every color that Marea had ever seen. Perched on his shoulder was a red-tailed hawk. He chuckled darkly. "Of course, my dear, you're used to them," he said, walking forward and ruffling Clara's hair. "For so long, you were human yourself."

"What?" Clara snapped.

He ignored her and walked up to Marea. "Now you, on the other hand… Lady Light of Solaria, I presume?"

Marea was too scared to respond. Clara, behind the man, snapped. "No, that's not her. I'm the girl you're looking for, Clara!"

"Good to know," said the man without looking back. "I heard you call yourself Marea, and even if you weren't her, I wasn't looking for a Clara, not yet, anyway. Maybe once I deal with this pest I can find some Earth fairies. You see, we thought we had gotten rid of all foreign fairies from this planet, but apparently we missed one. So we'll just be taking Light here and sending her back where she came from."

Marea whimpered, and the man smiled, almost reassuringly. "Oh, look on the bright side, kid. At least there are no more Earth parents to deal with now."

He grabbed her by the hair and grinned. "Goodbye, Clara. See you soon," he hissed, and then Marea was pulled into a black hole.

Lady Light of Solaria freaked out.

She hadn't wanted to admit how bad her situation was, not when Marea was so concerned. She hadn't wanted to admit there was no park with a gazebo, or that she really did miss her home. She hadn't wanted to admit she was tired of sneaking around, knowing that she was an Earth imposter, and that if the queen of Earth knew about her, she might be deported back to Solaria (which as much as she missed the sunny planet, she really didn't want).

Now her friend was captured and in danger, and she had no idea what to do, not if that creep refused to believe that she was the real Lady Light.

There seemed to be only three options, and both seemed equally bad. She could go home to Solaria, and if Marea somehow made her way there, she'd be able to meet her. Still, what was the likelihood that Marea would get to Solaria without someone realizing she was Terrestrial? She could track down the wizards, but she had no clue where they were or what they would do.

That left going to Queen Nebula of Tir Nan Og, throwing herself on the royal's mercy and begging for help. Asking for help to save a fairy that most people thought to be human from a woman who infamously hated humans.

It was a terrible idea, and yet, the best of the three.

She pulled a necklace from under her shirt, a silver piece with the symbol of Solaria on it. It was a knockoff version of the ring Princess Stella used to wear, popular with Solarian teenagers. Not as powerful, no, but powerful enough to get her where she needed to go.

Light clutched it tight in both hands. "Transportus a Palace," she whispered.

In a flash, as quick as her best friend had disappeared, so too did she, hoping all the while that Queen Nebula wouldn't kill her the moment she materialized inside the Tir Nan Og throne room.

AN: Marea "Agua" and Light/Clara are both the creations of Light-Leckrereins... and pretty darn special as the first fairies here who weren't in the original Fly or Fall!

Thanks for all your support everyone! It's really nice to wake up to three or four reviews, and good ones at that. Honestly, that's a huge part of how I am getting these chapters out so fast! I hope you like this one just as much as you've liked the ones that came before. :)