Chapter Three

When Merrick arrived, everyone was seated around Animus. He chose to lean against one of the pillars.

"What is it Animus?"

"The Crystal Guardian has indeed returned. I alone know who she is now. She has all of her powers...only her memories remain missing."

"Who is she?"

"Her name is the same yet not."

"Ana Mal Lya. I just met her at the roadhouse earlier, before the fight."

"Well, we have to talk to her. If the Orgs find out about this then she'll probably be in extreme danger," Cole said as he stood and turned to Princess Shayla. "Can you find her usng the sacred pool?"

"Yes. Let's look."

Around a half hour later Merrick was sweeping the floors of the roadhouse when Ana came in. Nodding at Merrick she went up and started talking to Willie about what rooms he had available. When she was told she nodded and he gave her a room key. She went back outside and came back in carring a backpack and disapeared into the back. When she came back out she walked over to the pool tables and picked up a que and was about to start a game when Merrick spoke.

"Want some company?"

She tilted her head before smiling slighly and nodded. "Sure. If you won't get into trouble."

"I was just finishing up anyways." Picking a que he watched as she gathered all the balls and set them up to break. He nodded for her to start. Doing so she managed to get a solid colored ball in the first time. Going again, she barely missed the shot. Frowning she stepped back as Merrick took a shot. He missed hole all together and he was glaring at the purple ball when he heard a snort and turned to see Ana with her mouth covered. Her eyes were wide and her brows raised. He gave her a look as she stepped upto takea shot. When he saw the slight tick of her mouth he knew that she'd tried not to laugh. "It wasn't funny."

"You gave the ball a look that said you would've killed it if you'd been able to. I thought I was the only one to glare like that."

He looked at her in a way that could be called evaluating. He watched how she set up to take the hit, and how she took a deep breath before striking and hitting two balls in. Going to take the other shot, she glanced at him and he merely stared back. 'Lya...are you in there somewhere...? Are you trying to tell me something that I just can't understand? Is this the type of girl you would have lived to become had you survived?' He came back to reality when she lightly shook his shoulder, letting him know that he had missed that she hadn't made the shot.

He couldn't help but compare her to Lya (I'm calling her Lya as in the one he remembers, Ana is her...new personality). There were so many similarities that it shook him to the core. When the bar closed down for the night, she went to her room after saying good-night to him and Willie. That night he was haunted by nightmares of the war that he'd managed to forget, but seeing Lya after the fight and seeing this new persona of hers was almost more than he could handle.

Yet, a part of him welcomed it with open arms.

For it meant that he had never really lost her.