At first, the four companions were too frightened to move. Then Zuma suddenly saw Kelpie's hands light up. He quickly realized that she was about to try and use her powers on their attacker. "No!" he cried out, grabbing Kelpie's right hand before she could use her aqua-kinesis. "Our powers are no match for those Forbidden Crystals!"
"So what do we do?" Kelpie asked, giving Nya a look of sheer panic.
Nya was quick to answer that question. "Well, I think this leaves us with—RUN!" She didn't have to tell her friends twice. Quick as a flash, the four raced down a nearby corridor. But their attacker and his dragons were not far behind, and the four friends suddenly found that they were at a dead end. Behind them were their pursuers. In front of them was a locked door. Then their situation suddenly got ten times worse. Water started to flow into the corridor.
"Uh, dudes, why is the corridor flooding with water?!" Zuma asked, his voice suddenly going up a full octave. One look at his face told Kelpie that he was terrified.
"Our little friend back there must have opened the airlocks!" Sora exclaimed as the water continued to rise.
Quickly thinking, Nya shouted, "Sora, put on your helmet! Kelpie and Zuma, brace yourselves!"
Once again, there was no need to tell them twice. Sora slapped her helmet on her head, while Zuma and Kelpie clung to a nearby pillar. Just then a huge wave of water washed into the corridor. Sora clung to Nya, who was clinging to another nearby pillar. Zuma struggled to keep a good grip on the pillar as the wave battered him like a leaf in a hurricane. His Merpup tail activated as soon as the wave hit him, but it would be of no use to him if he lost his grip. Kelpie was unprepared for the wave's impact and lost her hold almost immediately. The wave slammed her into the door, and she was knocked unconscious.
"Kelpie!" Nya cried out in shock. She let go of the pillar as soon as the wave settled down, and Sora let go of her leg so Nya could swim over and help Kelpie. But before they could even flinch, a giant chain-and-hook shot out and snatched the unconscious Kelpie. At the feeling of the cold vengestone hook wrapping around her waist, Kelpie came to and screamed as the hook jerked her away from her friends.
"No!" Nya cried out. Not again! I can't lose another friend! Without thinking, she swam forward to meet this enemy who had so brutally taken Kelpie from her.
"Nya, no!" Zuma cried out in warning. But it was too late. Two dragons swam forward to meet Nya, and the Water Ninja had to move quickly to dodge their jabs at her. One touch of a Forbidden Crystal, she knew, and she'd be Crystallized before she could say, "Oops!" She knocked the dragons backwards with her water jets, but two more swam forward to take their place. At the same time, Kelpie's kidnapper started to retreat with Kelpie in tow. He barked one singular command at the dragons.
"Take them! Take them all!"
The dragons immediately intensified their attack. Nya realized that this would only end one of two ways. Either she would escape, or they would all be taken. And both options totally stunk. Then she suddenly realized what she had to do. It would not be easy, and it meant that Zuma would lose her again. But it was the only way to ensure that he and Sora escaped the attacker's clutches.
"Zuma, get Sora out of here! I'll hold them off!"
"No!" Zuma protested. "I won't leave you! I can't risk losing you again!"
Nya suddenly paused and looked at Zuma apologetically. The dragons—who, to be honest, weren't the sharpest tools in the shed—stopped their attack for a second, curious as to where this was going. "I'm sorry, Zuma, but I can't risk losing you either."
With that, she did the hardest thing she had ever done since Zuma had given up his power to save her. She directed her strongest water jet yet at the door, and it suddenly burst open. The water had built up so much pressure that the resulting current swept Sora and Zuma away before they could even blink. Nya grasped the base of a pillar before she could get swept away too. Faintly behind her, she could hear Zuma crying out her name in shock and sorrow. But once again, there was no turning back now. What was done was done.
When the current finally died down, the dragons seemed to snap out of their hesitancy and started attacking her again. This time though, Nya had the advantage, as these dragons had been living underwater for so long that they had become rather clumsy when fighting on solid ground. Still, Nya knew that her defense couldn't last long, but it would at least last long enough that she could buy Zuma and Sora some time to get out of here. Then one of the dragons had enough sense to swing its tail at her, and before she could say "knife" she was on the ground. The wind was knocked out of her, and she gasped for breath as she lay there. Then she weakly looked up to see the invader staring down at her. He had come back as soon as he realized that the water was draining from the corridor. "Foolish child," he said, "to sacrifice your own safety so that your friends might escape. But don't worry. They shall be joining you soon enough."
With that, he whistled, and one of the dragons carefully picked Nya up in its teeth. Nya made no resistance as the dragon tossed her into a cage on its back. Even though she had not kept Kelpie from being taken, and though she had not escaped herself, she had at least given her friends a chance to escape—so that they may be able to fight another day. And she knew that, sooner or later, she would escape, and Kelpie with her—with or without the help of her team.
Sora slowly opened her eyes and found herself laying on the ground, cold and shivering even inside her aqua-suit. She looked over to see Zuma laying on the ground just a few feet from her. The young Lab was shaking with quiet sobs—a sight that just about broke Sora's heart. She could not imagine what she would feel like if Arin was taken away from her in the same way that Nya had just been taken from Zuma.
From the moment they had met, Arin had been like the brother Sora had never had. He was kind and funny and caring—all the qualities Sora had longed to see in her parents. Sure, they disagreed sometimes, but overall, they really cared about each other—not romantically, but as if they were really, truly family. Thinking about Arin made Sora miss him even more. She could vividly remember the day they had met each other for the first time.
Sora—for that was her name now—stared longingly at the café window. Inside it she could see a young black-haired teenage girl serving soup and bread to several different customers. Sora's stomach growled—she and Kelly had not eaten for three days. Sora looked down and saw Kelly had the same look of longing that she did.
"I don't know, Kelly." Sora said, guessing what Kelly was about to ask. "We don't have any money."
"Well," Kelly started, "maybe we could work for a meal? We could, you know, help wash dishes or something."
Sora mulled over that for a moment. That was a possibility. And the girl serving the customers did look like she might take pity on a homeless girl and her pup. "Okay, let's go in and see."
Quietly so as not to be noticed, Sora ever so slowly pushed the café door open. She didn't realize there was a bell over the door until she heard its soft jingle. Frightened, Sora was about to take Kelly and run when she heard a panicked "Look out!" behind her. She suddenly felt a sudden shove behind her as Kelly pushed her to the ground, and the two fell into a heap on the sidewalk. When Sora looked up to see why Kelly had shoved her like that, a pup on a beat-up skateboard zoomed past in a blur of motion. Sora then heard a loud CRASH and a cat screech. A trash can lid rolled down the street right in front of Sora's eyes. Kelly got up off of Sora and ran over to where the crash happened. As Sora got up from the ground, she watched as Kelly helped a young pup climb out of a trashcan. After the pup brushed himself off, a young boy who appeared to be about ten years old came running over. He knelt down in front of the pup and asked, "Are you okay, Kito?"
"Yeah, I'm all right." It was then that the boy noticed Sora. Sora realized she'd been staring and looked away in embarrassment.
"I—I'm sorry." Sora stammered. "I didn't mean to stare."
"It's—it's okay." the boy replied. Then his face took on a look of concern. "Are you and your pup okay? That was quite a tumble."
"I'm okay. If Kelly hadn't shoved me from behind, your pup would have crashed into us."
The pup—whose name was apparently Kito—chuckled nervously. "I'm still getting the hang of skateboarding. I haven't practiced it a lot, and I kind of forgot how to turn."
"What are you doing here?" the boy asked. "Where are your parents?"
Sora looked down at her shoes, not wanting to tell him where her parents were—back in Imperium. It was just too risky to tell anyone who her family was. But she couldn't just not answer. So she said the first thing that came to her mind: "I'm from Imperium."—which was, in fact, true.
"Do you have a family?" Kito asked, just as concerned as his friend.
"Not—not really." Sora replied. Once again, her answer was true. Looking back, she probably wouldn't call her parents family—not in the connotative sense. The only true family she had was Kelly. But neither Kito nor the boy seemed to notice Sora's hesitancy in answering.
"That's okay." the boy said. "You two can be part of our family." Sora was about to thank him for the kind offer when her stomach growled again. Kelly's stomach also growled, almost simultaneously.
"You two eaten at all today?" the boy asked. His tone was not one of mockery or slyness, but of genuine concern. It made Sora want to break down and cry right then and there. But she managed to maintain her composure as she replied, "No, not for three days straight."
"Why don't you come in with us? We were planning to eat here anyway."
"You'd pay for us?" Kelly asked.
"Sure!" Kito replied. "We don't exactly have cash, but Keika and her grandmother love it when we bring them snowberry pies."
"Snowberries?" Sora and Kelly asked at the same time. They'd never heard of snowberries before.
"You've never had snowberries before?!" the boy asked in surprise. Sora shook her head vigorously to say "no". Kelly did the same.
"Oh, let me tell you, they have got to be the best fruit in the whole world." Kito replied. Then he paused for a second, as if checking himself. "Well, worlds anyway." he then said.
Now Sora was totally confused, and judging from the look on Kelly's face, she wasn't any different. "Worlds? What do you mean?" Sora asked.
"Well, you see, about five months ago…"
Sora sighed as the memory flooded back to her. That was the very first time she had heard about what had happened that fateful day she had decided to give up her home, her heritage, even her name. The Merge had definitely changed many lives since—including hers and Kelly's. It had changed Arin's and Kito's, too—in some good ways and some not-so-good ways. But what had come out of it she never, ever wanted to lose. A lump rose in her throat as she thought about how she knew that she'd see Arin and Kito again someday, but as for Zuma…
She silently crawled over to the still-sobbing pup and wrapped her arms around him in a gesture of comfort. Then she looked up and saw a strange foxlike creature staring at her. As it looked at her, she noticed it had three tails. That wasn't normal for a fox. As she puzzled over why it would have three tails, she suddenly heard a voice in her mind, saying, Follow me.
Puzzled, she shook her head vigorously. Follow you? she thought.
Follow me. It was then that Sora realized what the creature was.
This fox was a kitsune.