To my guest, Rain makes me cry: Well, who's 'they'? And as for Nagihiko. . .teehee. The answers to the questions from last chapter will be revealed in this chapter, but thanks to everyone who guessed/reviewed. Prepare to be surprised!

"Don't move," A low female voice ordered me. I felt cold metal press against my throat and I swallowed. "Yes, that's a knife. And if you move so much as an inch -" The blade pushed farther in, just enough to draw blood, then pulled back. I inhaled shakily.

Another shadow strolled up beside the one who was holding a knife to my throat. "And don't bother using magic-nya - Miki's ropes hold magic back."

"I told you to cut the -nya, Yoru," the dagger girl said angrily to the second shadow.

"Whatever, Miks, we have to get her outta here, remember?" he replied casually.

"I never forgot." Miki dropped to her knees and squinted at me through the darkness. For the first time, I caught a glimpse of my captor's face. Her eyes were a brilliant shade of blue that matched the locks of cerulean air falling forward from a faded blue hat. Her face was pale, and her thin lips were set in a straight line. Long, slender fingers grasped the ropes binding my wrists together. They were ice-cold.

"You are Amu Hinamori, correct?" she asked as she hauled me to my feet. I nodded numbly. My mind was completely blank.

We had failed. No, I had failed. The others were probably already being hauled off to prison, or worse. . .dead. What had Utau said about having the power to fight? Despite her inspirational words, I was standing here helpless.

"Okay, you're going to need to know all the people here-nya," the one called Yoru said. I could make out amber eyes and navy hair that painfully reminded me of Ikuto.

"So, for starters, I'm Miki." I nodded again, glancing around at the other people surrounding me.

"I'm Yoru-nya." The cat-like boy flashed me a thumbs-up.

"Forget about the -nya. He thinks it's cool." A tall, lean teenager snorted. "I'm Ran, by the way."

Two more girls came forward, huddled close together as if they were afraid of me. "I'm Suu-desu, and this is Dia. We're all sisters, and we've known Yoru for years." Suu, who wore a bonnet and a maid's outfit, gestured to a petite girl with orange pigtails the length of Utau's.

"Hello," she said simply. All I could think of was how I didn't need to know my captors' names if I was going to die anyways.

"And, well, that's it-nya." Yoru finished. A bunch of teenagers? They were my age, and Suu and Dia seemed even younger. Why had Tiraldae employed them, of all people, to capture me? They hadn't been the captors I had imagined countless times, either. They seemed giddy and boisterous, as if my presence was a good thing. I stayed quiet as we walked through the pitch-black darkness, trying to figure out what was missing in this equation.

"Can you speak?" Dia asked gently after over ten minutes of silence.

"I can talk," I said softly. "I just don't see the need to."

"Ooh, it taaaalks!" Yoru gasped exaggeratedly.

Miki tugged me forward. "Ignore him."

I kept my eyes on the ground, listening to the animated talk between Ran and Yoru next to me. They were attempting to speak quietly, but they weren't exactly succeeding.

"She's quieter than I thought-nya."

"Well, what d'you expect? Some cheery, bubbly kid?"

"If she was a little more exciting, maybe this could've been a little more fun-nya."

"And how many times do I have to tell you - drop the -nya!"

"Oh, come on, Ran."

"It's silly. She probably thinks you're nuts."

"She probably thinks I'm hot."

I cast a sideways glance at Yoru's confident face. "No, I don't," I said, waiting for him to flush with embarrassment for being heard. He did no such thing.

"Hey, you talked again!" Yoru smirked and sidled closer. "Well, I guess now's my time to make a first impression-nya."

Miki shot him a glare. "Lay off her."

Yoru pouted. "Oh, come on. It's not often that girls come around here-nya."

"Um, hello?" Ran waved her hand in front of Yoru's face. "Don't me and my sisters happen to be girls?"

Yoru laughed, though it was more like a bark. "But you're, like, Ran and Miki-nya."

"You're insufferable," Miki huffed.

Before Yoru could reply (most likely to ask what 'insufferable' meant), I cut in, "What happened to my friends, anyway? Did you kill them?" My voice rose slightly as I spoke the last sentence.

"Nah, the others took care of them. You'll see 'em later." Yoru answered. Before I could so much as express my relief, however, Ran had begun talking again.

"I shudder to think of what Rhythm's gonna do with all those girls, if Daichi, Kiseki and Mushashi weren't around" she giggled, and just like that, the chatty group was blasting off again.

"Well, here it is." Miki gestured to a small, half-crumbled stone building. "Where you'll be staying."

"What? Not a prison?" I asked disbelievingly.

"Hm, why would we - oh, shoot, we forgot to tell her!" Ran slapped her forehead dramatically.

"No wonder she didn't think I was hot-nya," Yoru said with an almost laughable expression of realization.

"Tell me what? And no, for the last time, you're not hot." Yoru's face fell comically, the glint in his golden eyes giving away his joke.

"Anyways, Hinamori, this is our house. Ran, Suu, Dia, and I live here, and Yoru stops by often," Miki stated calmly. Her normality was jarring after enduring Ran and Yoru's weirdness for the past half hour.

"It's 'cause I don't have nowhere to sleep-nya," Yoru announced shamelessly.

"Seriously?" I asked, and he nodded. "How are you so casual about it?"

Yoru shrugged, and for the first time I saw a hint of darkness in his eyes. "I don't like to think about it-nya. They call me an alley cat, y'know, 'cause I've got nowhere to call home. But I'm happy 'n all. Suu makes the best food-nya!" His face brightened again, losing any trace of seriousness.

"Thank you, Yoru, but don't we need to explain everything to Miss Hinamori first-desu?" Suu asked politely.

"Oh, right!" Ran slapped her sister on the back jovially. "Anyways, then, here's the deal." Ran took us inside, speaking as she walked.

"We're all poor, as you can see. The four of us work at the palace - don't freak out, we hate them too - and Yoru does odd jobs around town to compensate for him eating all our food."

"Hey, I'm not all slacker," Yoru said.

Miki took over, gesturing for me to sit down on a rickety wooden chair. "Over the years, we formed a kind of group with a bunch of other poor kids around here. But when I was thirteen, three years ago, I overheard. . .some things. . .from the king and queen that I shouldn't have."

"Three years ago?" I questioned.

Suu nodded. "It actually happened to concern your banishment to Earth-desu." For some reason, nobody teased her about her little sentence endings of -desu.

"The magic you and your friend attempted to steal, it's very valuable-desu. Not just because it's powerful." Suu paused. "Apparently, it has had some effect on you that makes you a danger to the government of Tiraldae, if you returned there."

"Huh?" I asked dumbly. Nadeshiko had never told me any of this.

"We don't know the details. I'm sorry." Dia bowed her head. "We hope you know more, but all we know is that, with this power, you are supposedly able to see or do something that could overthrow the king and queen."

"And that," Yoru said, cracking his knuckles, "is exactly what we wanna do."

"No, I don't know anything," I said for the hundredth time.

"Nothing? Not even the tiniest detail?" Ran pressed.

"No!"

She sighed, pacing the length of her tiny bedroom restlessly. "We were betting everything on you knowing what to do with that magic."

"Well, I'm not much stronger than I was three years ago, so it obviously doesn't amplify my powers," I supplied.

"What about giving you a special magic?"

"No. . ."

"Then what is it?!" Ran demanded, more to herself than to me.

"Look, why do you and your friends even want to get rid of the king and queen?" I asked, slightly exasperated and very confused.

"They've done bad stuff to us all. Our parents weren't earning enough money to pay off taxes, so they. . .sold them off as servants. I don't even know where they are anymore," Ran's voice dropped.

". . .I'm sorry," I said awkwardly.

"Don't be. You've gone through enough already, and we're only putting you through more. I mean, Miki practically slit your throat," Ran looked up at me with a sad smile.

"Why did she do that, anyway?" I asked, fingering the tiny cut on my throat. "I mean, if we were allies all along. . ."

"She got nervous and went overboard," Ran laughed. "You see, Miki -"

Miki (speak of the devil) opened the door with a sharp crack. "Temari and the others stopped by to drop them off. Your friends are here, Hinamori." I stood up abruptly and followed Miki into the kitchen, where Yoru was just finishing explaining their dilemma to my eight friends.

"Um, guys?" I tentatively poked my head through the doorway.

"Amu." Ikuto looked up, startled.

"You're safe?" Utau questioned, walking over to check me over.

Nagihiko stood up. "Good thing. We were all worried."

"I wasn't," Rima corrected him. "I knew she'd be fine."

Only now that I was surrounded by my friends did I realize how much I'd missed their absence. Talking to Ran and Yoru was entertaining, to say the least, but nothing was like the familiar personalities I knew so well.

"So, Yaya hears Amu has a special power?" Yaya (come to think of it, I actually hadn't been talking to her in a while) tugged on my sleeve.

I shrugged. "I never knew about it. And I'm not even sure it's there."

"I'm sure it is," Kairi said. "You may have to search for it inside you."

"Yeah, we all knew you were special!" Kukai laughed.

"Oh, shut up," I grumbled half-heartedly. We continued to talk, exchanging friendly banter and teasing one another. Only when Dia peeked in, commenting quietly about the late hour, did we even think of bed.

"Because our house is so small, " Dia began, looking down sheepishly, "we can only hold two extra people in our shared room, so the rest of you will have to cram in the kitchen, unless you want to go with Il and El, who have a small apartment, or Temari and Rhythm, who built their own little home."

We all looked around at the less-than-large size of the kitchen. As it was, Rima and Yaya were sitting on the counter and Tadase was on top of a cabinet to have just enough space to move.

"I'll go with Il and El," Utau volunteered. "They seemed like cool girls to me."

Nagihiko opened his mouth just as Rima did, and they said at the same time, "I'll go with Temari and Rhythm."

"Wait, don't fight." Tadase said placatingly, just as Rima turned to Nagihiko. "You can both go with Temari and Rhythm, okay?"

"No way!" Rima exclaimed. "I'm not going with the crossdresser."

"Yes, you are," Utau said firmly. "Unless you both want to stay in the cramped kitchen?"

And so, it was settled.

I woke up in the middle of the night for absolutely no reason. I hadn't even had a dream - that was a first - and there weren't any odd sounds in the old house.

I sat up cautiously, wincing as my foot bumped into Miki. I stopped, waiting to see if she would wake up. I had almost begun to think that she had stayed asleep when she yawned and sat up (of course, she didn't hit anybody).

"Sorry, Miki," I whispered. "That was me."

"It's fine -" Miki's eyes widened the slightest fraction as her eyes found me.

I studied her pale face. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she mumbled, looking at the ground.

"Well, um," I mumbled, "I guess I'll go back to sleep now. Sorry for waking you, Miki."

"Hinamori." Miki grabbed my wrist. "Wait."

I blinked at her sudden urgency. "Um, okay. And call me Amu."

"I didn't tell you everything this evening," Miki said, ignoring my comment.

My heartbeat sped up. "What?"

"I saw your sister and your friend," she blurted.

This wasn't possible. "A-Ami. . .and Nadeshiko. . .?"

Miki nodded grimly. "Both."

"What, but. . .how?"

"I attended to Ami when her family came here to discuss matters. . .of capturing you. We actually ended up getting along," she admitted shyly.

"My family?" It was unbelievable. They were willing to help the royalty to capture their own daughter?

"I'm sorry." Miki's eyes had turned stone-cold again.

I couldn't bring myself to say that it was okay. Instead, I asked, "What about Nadeshiko?"

She gulped and stammered, "I. . .I was in charge of prison rounds one day, and she. . .I gave her food, but she asked. . .about you. . ."

"Wh-what did she -"

"She asked me whether you were safe, and I said yes and walked off, and that was the end of it," Miki interrupted harshly.

"O-Okay, then. . ." There was no way I was going to be able to sleep tonight.

Miki's face was a drawn white. Studying her sharp features and clear eyes, I realized that her face wasn't naturally pale.

"But, Miki," I began. She tensed, as if she knew what was coming next. "why do you seem so nervous about me? I mean, I thought you were on my side."

"I am," she replied softly. "Ran and Yoru are too carefree to notice this, and Suu and Dia are too innocent. But Amu, we live like caged birds, trapped inside the palace without power as the king and queen toy with our lives. You are the one person who has opposed this oppressive rule. I want - I need - freedom. I have since I was a child. And you are the one person who is really, truly free."

I took in her hard expression, the loose blue hair that dangled long and free without the hat to restrain it. Her fists, clenched in anger, the very same remorseless eyes that had watched me with not hate, but respect.

"Do you know how much I lost to gain that freedom?"

Miki fingered the cracked walls of the bedroom. "Your family, your home, your world. But if this revolution of the poor goes right, soon it will be one of us on the throne, all thanks to you."

I paused, reflecting on Miki's words. There was nothing to say on the matter, honestly, I couldn't even begin to form thoughts as complex as this girl's.

"Did Ami hate me?" I asked abruptly.

She shrugged. "She seemed as if she didn't want to associated with you. But she did say that you had been the best sister ever."

The best sister ever. "Originally, we were going to break into the capital, get Nadeshiko, and use a portal to get home. I wasn't going to see Ami or my parents ever again. This way. . .is there a possibility for me to see them again, as a good person?"

"You never know." Miki laced her hands together. "You can only make the decision you think is best. For all we know, this could end in death for us all."

"Maybe," I reflected.

Miki snuggled down in her pile of blankets that served as a bed. "Enough talk. I'll see you in the morning."

"Okay, then." I lay down and pulled the blanket up to my chin. "'Night."

That night, the one who had woken Amu earlier that evening was also awake. The thoughts he pondered were far different than the ones Miki and Amu shared, but equally deep. He, too, would be forced to make decisions soon, though he did not know it. One moment, one word, one step from him was all it would take to shift the future of a criminal girl who believed she had control over her own destiny.

One wrong move, and it was all over.

Okay, I lied. You're not going to find out who this person is until a couple of chapters. But it's pretty easy to guess. Anyways, were you surprised that it was Miki and all her Shugo Chara friends? (Just to clarify, they aren't Shugo Chara in this story, they're Guardians.)\

And also, for any of you who have watched/read Attack on Titan, I have written a little Mikasa-centric oneshot called Conjoined Souls. Check it out?