The end is nearing its beginning, and to start it off, we begin a new arc, and the longest one. This arc will reveal many things that have been hinted at in the past, and emotion may be hurt in these. Also if you hadn't noticed, this story has a new cover image! I made it myself, and honestly I'm very proud of it.

Oh and since school's starting up in less than one week for me, chapters will come out at a slower pace again. But with that out of the way, I hope you enjoy the start to this

Chapter 22: The Truth (Part 1)

After returning from a long boat ride from the fifth temple, the guppies had reunited with each other, be it in a weird way. They decided to take a day to relax after the events that occurred, especially for both Molly and Zooli. To start, Gil and Mia were watching Molly have a training spar with Glacia. While Molly was launching ice beams and shards at Glacia, her mentor simply reflected right back at her, surprising the pink-haired girl.

"How did you do that?" Molly asked Glacia.

"I focused on the energy of the attack, and cleared myself to make it my own," Glacia explained. "Sometimes, you have to clear yourself to get a clear understanding of things. Now, let us continue."

Molly smiled and launched more beams at Glacia, who simply sent them right back at her. Molly blocked them with an ice pillar, but that gave Glacia an opening for a long reach ice punch, which Molly narrowly avoided. "That was close," Molly quietly said.

"Go Molly! Beat her!" Mia shouted, supporting her sister from the stands. Gil chuckled and got up to join her. "Yeah, go Molly!" he shouted. Bubble Puppy barked happily, which made Molly smile.

"I think it's time I test something out," Molly said confidently.

"Oh? Do go ahead dear," Glacia said. Molly took a deep breath and put her hands together in a praying pose, causing a light bluish aura to form around her.

"What's she doing Gil?" Mia asked him.

"I'm not sure Mia. I've never seen her do this before," Gil told her.

Molly put her hands on the snow and smirked before moving her hands upward, creating several pillars of wind and snow to form. When it cleared, everyone was shocked to see several snow clones of Molly.

"That's so cool!" Mia shouted excitedly.

"Impressive dear. It seems you've learned some new tricks," Glacia complimented her.

"Thanks Ms. Glacia. It took me a while to master this, but now I can attack from anywhere now," Molly said. The snow Mollys swam around Glacia, attacking from different angles. Glacia dodged and blocked their attacks swiftly, destroying some of the snow clones, but was starting to be overwhelmed from all the attacks, giving Molly a chance to attack her with a tail uppercut, sending her mentor up and to the ground. Glacia got up and used ice pillars to surprise Molly, but she sensed them from under her, and jumped out of the way, but didn't notice Glacia firing a powerful ice beam at her, hitting her and sending her to the ground.

"That's enough for now!" Glacia told her. Molly got up, tired from all that attacking.

"Ugh..I thought I was doing good," Molly said, frowning a little. Glacia put her hand on her shoulder. "You were doing great dear. You just have to clear your mind more. That way, you'll be able to focus on and sense what your opponent's next move will be," she explained to her.

"I see. How do I clear my mind during a battle though?" Molly asked her mentor, confused.

"There is no clear way to do that. You just have to not think about anything else except what's around you. If you let your senses take over your body, you'll be able to dodge anything. That's what martial arts is all about. Not fighting, but improving your physical and mental control," Glacia told her. "Now, why don't you and your friends go look around town? I believe there's a ballet show happening soon," she told Molly.

"I love ballet! Gil, Mia, come on, we have to go there!" Molly called to them, heading out the door.

"Let's go Mia, we'd better go before your sister gets lost," Gil said to Mia.

"Okay!" Mia happily replied.

After they all left the building, Glacia wiped her head and sat down. Lady Snowa came in and greeted her sister. "Still holding back sister?" She asked her. "Snowa, you know as well as I do that she isn't ready for my true strength. I sense something is wrong with her, like something is blocking her from being her true self," Glacia explained.

"Like what? You mean some kind of mental block?" Snowa said, handing Glacia a hot chocolate.

"Not exactly," she said, taking a sip of hot chocolate. "It's like something in her own mind is trying to take over, like an inner demon," Glacia said.

"And do you think she'll be able to overcome this "demon" of hers?" Snowa asked her sister.

"I'm not exactly sure yet sister," Glacia answered. "She'll have to realize it first before she can overcome it." "Oh yeah that reminds me. Have you found the next temple yet?" she asked her sister.

"I'm afraid not. I've been looking at the scroll for hours, and there isn't one hint about the location of the next one," Snowa said.

Meanwhile, Zooli and Cryo were sitting on a bench outside the cafe, chatting to each other about what happened yesterday.

"So how did it feel to be a frog Zooli?" Cryo asked her.

"I'll be honest, it felt very weird, yet also exciting," Zooli answered. "I love frogs, and getting to actually be in the body of one is something I'd never thought would happen to me. But it was also very weird being in another body, and let me tell you, getting used to it was not easy," she said, chuckling.

"Well at least you're back to yourself again," Cryo said, finishing the bagel he got.

"Yeah. I just hope we can find the sixth temple soon so we can get this nightmare over with," Zooli said as she finished eating her french toast. "I also hope to find out who's doing these attacks on this town, cause I remember Deema saying something about the blacksmith being on fire while we were gone," she said.

Oh yeah…that…too," Cryo said nervously.

Zooli got up and stretched her arms. "So, what do you want to do now?" she asked Cryo. He thought to himself for a bit. "Maybe we could go check out that new museum that's being built?" He suggested. "Sure! That works," Zooli said. "Let's go before we lose time!" she said, grabbing Cryo's hand.

Molly, Gil, and Mia were heading towards the ballet stage area. Mia was playing with Bubble Puppy, giving Gil and Molly some time to chat with each other.

"Say Molly, I've been wondering…," Gil said.

"What is it Gilly?" Molly wondered.

"I keep seeing you being so focused on training with Glacia and getting to temples quickly. Are you sure you're okay?" Gil asked the girl.

"Gilly, I'm fine please, no need to worry-" Molly happily said before being interrupted.

"Molly, I'm serious. I care about you, and I feel like something's up with you lately," Gil told her in a serious tone. Molly stared at him shockingly.

"Gil, I'm fine. I'm not crazy, and you don't have to worry," Molly said in a serious tone to him.

"Well, you know you can talk to me if you're feeling down," Gil said.

"I know, thank you Gilly," Molly said to him, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek and giggled, which made the blue-haired boy blush slightly.

"Molly, Molly!" Mia called to her sister.

"What is it Mia?"

"I think I smell fire somewhere," Mia told her. They sniffed around and found the smell of smoke somewhere.

"Yeah, I smell it too!" Gil said.

"It's coming from over there!" Molly said, swimming over around the corner to see lobster and crab firefighters trying to put out a fire. Molly ran up to it to help out.

"Stand back everyone!" Molly shouted, using her powers to pull a large chunk of snow from the ground. She dropped it on the flaming building, which put out the fire almost immediately. Everyone cheered for the girl, causing her to blush.

"You did it sis!" Mia said, hugging her sister.

"Thank you again Molly," a lobster woman thanked her.

"No problem Miss, I'm just helping out," Molly said. "But do you know what caused the fire?" she asked.

"I have no idea. I closed the shop for a while to go collect things, but when I came back, it was all in flames," the woman explained.

"Well, I'll try to find out who's causing it," Molly said before leaving.

Zooli and Cryo were walking around when they stumbled across what was just left of the burning building. Zooli was upset that they missed their chance to catch the culprit.

"Ugh, we could've caught them!" Zooli angrily said.

"Hey it's no big deal…we'll just…w-wait for them to do something else…," Cryo said.

"Hey, you okay?" Zooli asked Cryo, confused.

"Me? Y-Yeah, I'm fine, totally," Cryo nervously said.

"Hmmm alright, but I have to ask. Where did you go when you said you had to go do something earlier?" Zooli said. Cryo got nervous when she asked that.

"I had to..um go to the bathroom real quickly," he said.

"Yeah, I guess that makes sense," she said. Zooli looked at her watch, and saw that it was 5 o'clock. "Oh yeah, I forgot that there was a ballet show happening today! The others are waiting for us, so we'd better get going," Zooli told Cryo, who followed her.

Near the entrance of the town, a large stage was set in place for a show. Everyone in town was there for it, and the guppies were watching it from afar.

"I wonder what it will be about," Deema wondered.

"Maybe it'll be about a princess," Oona said.

"I think it'll be about a knight and a dragon," Goby said.

"What do you think Molly?" Deema asked her.

"Me? Well, if I had to guess, I'd say it'd be about someone who goes an arc that strengthens their bond with their friends," Molly said.

"What's an arc?" Oona said.

"An arc is the development of a character in a show, and can have different themes too," Nonny explained.

"Ooh."

"Shh, the shows starting!" Zooli said.

The play starts out with two actors acting as two siblings, with one talking to the other. They laugh before heading behind the curtains. It cuts to one of them pretending to be the hero's friends as they pretend to defeat a villain. As the play goes on, we go to Zooli and Cryo watching from a balcony with the others near the front of BlizzardTucky

"Wow, I didn't expect them to pretend to be their friend, right Cryo?" Zooli said.

"Y-Yeah, right," Cryo replied in a pensive tone.

"Hey, you alright?" Zooli asked worriedly.

"Yeah, I'm alright, just feeling some deja vu," Cryo said. The play then showed a scene where the main characters find out the secret, and kick him out of the town, when he had realized what he was doing was wrong. Cryo looked away and sighed.

"Zooli, I need to tell you something, but I need to do it in private," Cryo whispered. Zooli was confused, but decided to listen to him.

"Okay, where do you want to go?" Zooli quietly said.

"Follow me," Cryo said, Zooli following him. As they were leaving, Molly managed to catch them with the corner of her eye. She was confused, and wanted to know what was going on.

"I'll be right back, I have to…use the bathroom," Molly said, leaving for the door.

Cryo took Zooli to an alleyway near a building by the gate. Zooli was still confused about why he wanted to bring her here. Molly was also looking behind a wall at them.

"So why did you bring me here Cryo?" Zooli asked him. The boy was sweating, but sighed.

"So you know about these attacks that have been happening lately?" Cryo asked her.

"Uhm, yeah? Why? Do you know who's been causing them?" Zooli said. Cryo nodded his head. "Well, who is it?"

"It's…it's my sister," Cryo said, shocking Zooli.

"Really? I told you she wasn't one to be trusted, Cryo! I knew she was up to something!" Zooli said in rage.

"Wait Zooli! There's someone else doing it too," Cryo said.

"Really? Who else would do it?" Zooli confusingly asked him. Cryo looked around, and was sweating hard, but took a deep breath and sighed.

"It's me," he told her with regret.

Zooli was shocked to her core when she heard this. She never expected Cryo to say that out of all things. "W-W-What?" Zooli stuttered in shock.

"Yes, it's true, I was also with her," Cryo said.

"But, why? Why would you do this?" Zooli said. "I thought you stopped working for your dad."

"It's not what you think Zooli, I'm working for him, just not in the way you think, just let me explain!" Cryo said.

"I've already heard enough," Molly said. Zooli and Cryo turned to see her standing there, shocking them both.

"Molly?! How long have you been there?" Zooli asked her.

"Long enough Zooli, now step aside," Molly said in a cold tone.

"Molly, wait, he was just about to tell me everything!" Zooli said, trying to reason with her.

"Tell you what? That he destroyed things and betrayed us? I'm not going to let that happen Zooli," Molly said harshly. "Cryo, I'm going to say this once, but I want you out of here, now," Molly coldy told him.

"Molly stop! This isn't like you!" Zooli yelled at her.

"I said, get out, please. Don't make use force," Molly said.

"I said stop it Molly!" Zooli shouted.

"No Zooli, it's okay," Cryo stopped her. "What? No! You can't just leave Cryo!" Zooli said.

"It's fine, I deserve it anyways. It was my fault to go along with her plan anyway," Cryo said, tearing up slightly. "Goodbye Zooli," he said. Zooli tried to stop him, but he summoned a fire pillar around him, pushing the girls back. When it cleared, Cryo was nowhere to be seen.

"I'm sorry Zooli, but it had to be done that way," Molly said, putting her hand on Zooli's shoulder, but was cut off when Zooli slapped it away.

"Oh shut up Molly…," Zooli said, clenching her fists.

"Zooli, are you okay?" Molly asked her friend.

"Am I okay? AM I OKAY?!" Zooli screamed as she turned around with tears falling from her. "No, I am not okay Molly!"

"Zooli-" Molly tried to speak, but Zooli stopped her.

"No, don't Zooli me! I was wrong about you Molly, you haven't changed one bit," Zooli told her in a fit of rage.

"Zooli calm down!" Molly said, starting to get angry.

"No, I won't! I'm actually going to be the bigger person here, and say that you've changed since we got here. You're way too overprotective of us, you never let us do anything that might get us hurt, and you're always yelling at us when we do something you don't like!" Zooli explained angrily. "You don't even consider what we would do, or even let us think for you!"

"Well excuse me for trying to keep you safe!" Molly shouted back.

"Keep us safe?" Zooli said, laughing. "Don't try to fool me Molly, you done a really good job at doing that," she said sarcastically. Molly clenched her fists.

"The Molly I knew would listen to what someone would have to say, and help them with it, but I don't see that Molly anymore," Zooli said.

"Shut up…" Molly quietly said, her anger rising.

"You're becoming a monster Molly, and I'm not going to take it anymore," Zooli said, crying. "I'm going to get Cryo back, and you can try to stop me," she told her before swimming off to the mountains.

Molly was bewildered and shocked to her core. She wanted to chase after Zooli, but she physically couldn't after hearing what she had just said. Molly looked at her hands, not knowing what to say, still mad yet also shocked about what Zooli said, when a voice called to her.

"Molly?" Gil called to her. "I heard something loud over here. Are you okay?" He asked her.

"Get away from me Gilly, please," Molly said.

"What do you mean? I'm not going anywhere," Gil responded, walking closer.

"Please Gilly, get away from me before I snap," Molly told him worriedly.

"Molly, please calm down," Gil said.

"I said..STAY AWAY!" Molly shouted as she sent an shard wave that hit Gil, knocking him to the ground. Molly snapped back and covered her mouth.

"Y-Y-You hurt me…" Gil said in pain.

"Gilly…I…I…," Molly said, scared of what she had just done, tearing up. She looked at her hands again. She then saw the Molly in her nightmare chuckling evilly at her from afar.

"No…no.. …NOO!" Molly screamed loudly before summoning a snow attack that stretched across the entire town. When the snow cleared, Gil got up, but saw that Molly wasn't there anymore.

"Molly? Molly!" Gil called out to her, but no response came. Bubble Puppy barked pensively. Soon after, the others arrived.

"Gil, we were looking for you!" Goby told him.

"What happened? It was like a giant blizzard," Deema asked him.

"It's Molly guys. I think her and Zooli had a fight, and a bad one too. I think something's up with her guys," Gil explained.

"Did she do that?" Goby asked him, pointing to the cut on his chest.

"Yeah she did, but I don't think she meant it at all. I think she's having problems of her own," Gil said. They soon heard Bubble Puppy barking.

"What is it boy?" Gil asked the dog. Bubble Puppy barked and pointed to the mountain they all arrived from.

"What's he pointing at?" Deema wondered.

"I think Bubble Puppy can smell where Molly is," Nonny suggested.

"I'm going to get her," Gil said.

"Yeah, we'll help you too," Deema said.

"No, I think it's best if you guys stay here and inform Glacia and the others about what's going on. This is something I need to do alone. Please," Gil told them.

"If you say so then. Just be safe friend," Goby told him.

"I'll be fine guys," Gil informed the others. "C'mon boy!" Gil said to Bubble Puppy, who followed Gil into Mt. Danger. With both Zooli and Molly running away, a friendship in ruin, and no temple yet, only time will tell how this will all unfold.

That's it for Part 1 of this arc. How many of you expected that outcome to be true? This is only the beginning of this, and more will be revealed later on. Also on a side note, expect chapters to come out much slower from now on, since as I am typing this, school starts for me again tomorrow on August 10th, so I'll have less time to work on these. In the meantime, I will answer the reviews.

ReaderandWriter9000: Hello there again! I'm glad you enjoyed that chapter. Having Bubble Puppy "talk", is something I've always wanted to do, and I'm glad I got to implement it in this story. Also you can imagine how mad Pyros will be heh. I'm glad you enjoyed it, and I can say that you'll enjoy what happens in the future.

mermaidf: Hey, nice to see you here. Not everyday you see someone make Bubble Puppy talk, but it was a way to make him actually do something important.

PrimroseRaspberry: Nice to see you again. I'm glad you found it funny, and it was a fun way to bring back a location from the show. I'll probably do more things like that in the future, but for now, I hope you enjoy the rest of this story :).

Well that's it for n–ow. I…zzt-ope to sszze you…again…..

[Dimensional Portal activated. Searching for possible realities….]