Joerdan scowled at the far wall of his chamber, draped in his favorite throne-like chair like a cat. "Damn. Why did this have to happen now? Beryl was already in a bad mood, and now this happens to me, just when I am getting somewhere."

There was a faint crackle of static, and one of his spy-youma appeared in the room, bowing to him. Kunyou was almost entirely composed of electrical energy; it managed to maintain a face, but the body under the clothing was only energy shaped into a roughly human body. Its eyes were lined with crackling energy. "Uh--Lord Joerdan?"

Joerdan turned his eyes to the heavily robed figure. "What do you want, Kunyou? I am not in the mood for your--"

"Forgive me, my lord, but I encountered some information you may find useful on the electronic web that the humans call the Internet. About the attack you--"

Joerdan scowled. "I was there." Kunyou backed up under the weight of that glare. "There is little more that you can tell--"

"Someone altered the humans' memories to where the attack was nothing more than normal human terrorists. And there were pictures of the four traitors and the strange woman."

Joerdan's eyes narrowed. "Memories altered? How?"

"To make sure that no one remembered that the traitors were there, except for Nephlite." A black gloved hand held out a small stack of pictures. Joerdan received a slight shock when he took them.

"Peculiar," Joerdan said, flipping through the pictures. "Where did these pictures come from?" Nephlite playing an instrument before a group of human children. The same classroom, but filled with smoke, part of one wall gone. Nephlite leaning over an adult human woman bandaging her leg. The fear-filled students huddled in the gym; the red-haired doxy and a few other girls clustered close around the traitor. Nephlite standing, facing Joerdan the human girl hiding behind the traitor. Nephlite and Joerdan dueling with magic. Nephlite with the instrument in his hands, the magic flaring powerfully. An angle of the ceiling showing Zoisite perched amongst the rafters with a blade of ice-crystal in her hand. Jedite and Malachite fighting back to back with magic, Tuxedo Mask in the background. Nephlite's doxy standing next to another girl, two of the Scouts in the background. "None of the four traitors had the power to alter all of those memories. Which means they may have combined their forces to--" He stopped, staring at the last picture. **What is Beryl doing--** Then he stopped, looking closer. That strange woman, was not his queen. The strange woman was leaning over Nephlite's crumpled body, her hands glowing blue as she held them over his blood-covered chest.

The youma looked at the picture that held Joerdan's stare. "The information with these pictures, said that the person who took these pictures was a student who snack in a camera. He claims the red-haired woman is the leader of the traitors."

Joerdan stood quickly. "Well done, Kunyou; go back to your duties."

* * * * * * * *

Malcolm peered uncertainly at the oval of blackness that cut the air before Bridgette. "What--is that?"

"It is a portal," Bridgette replied wearily, wings drooped with weariness. When she lifted her head briefly, Malcolm could see the underlying sadness and pain that was always there, raw and on the surface. He had to stop himself from going over and trying to cheer that expression off her ethereally beautiful features. "What you see through there, or don't see, is what is left of my home world."

"Does this thing open in a cave or something?" asked Mina, shuddering and stepping closer to Jared as bitterly cold air poured through the opening, frosting the food on the plates and fogging every smooth surface.

"No," said Bridgette softly, turning to look at them, her glowing eyes lowered, voice misting the air. "There is no sun, no star, no warmth left in that entire universe. It was all--drained." She sighed while the others could only blink at the implications of that, her shoulders and wings drooping a little more. Sighing deeply, Bridgette refolded her wings, and glanced over at Jared. "To light the torches, simply turn the knobs on the side; that controls the brightness, as well." She paused, hesitancy in every muscle. "Don't look directly at the flame if you can help it." She turned back to the portal, laying a hand on the shimmering band of colors that lined its edges. "I--will go across and raise the Shields." With a slight, pained twist to her face, she stepped through, nearly vanishing into the pitch-blackness, but for the faint glow that surrounded her; then, even that vanished as she stepped further away from the opening.

Blinking, Jared set the bag down in one of the chairs and pulled it open. Several poles of a silvery gray dull metal rested in the folds of canvas, one flaring out to form a sort of cup. The interior of the cup was coated with a strange material that looked like oil when you looked at it, yet was dry to the touch and didn't seem to slosh. Malcolm warily picked one up, turning it over in his hands, muscles straining a little at the surprising weight of the things. "What is it made out of?" asked Jared, taking another, stumbling a little at the unexpected weight.

Ami pulled up her computer, peering at the strange torches, then frowned. "I don't know--the material that they're made of does not register in any of my databanks--it seems to be completely composed of several new elements."

Malcolm shrugged a little, his eyes straying to the still black portal through which his mentor had vanished. Sighing, he braced the torch against his arm and found the knob. Pointing it away from everyone and moving to aim it at the fireplace, he turned the knob. There was a faint click, and a white-hot flame shot from the top, flaring out to fill the entire to, and flaring like a welder's torch. Jared winced. "It's like magnesium or something. Ouch!" Grimacing, he rubbed watering eyes and hefted his torch, turning the knob, and watching as it flared to life. He grinned at Malcolm who peered at the portal hesitantly. "Weird; easy to use, though. Even you could, Mal."

Malcolm smiled sourly, pretending to heft it. "As a club, maybe." Jared pretended to squeak at the threat, ducking behind Lita. With a sigh and a muttered oath, Malcolm gritted his teeth and ducked into the blackness, his torch shining in a small circle around him. The light, though brilliantly bright in the dining room, seemed pitiful in comparison in the blackness beyond, shedding only a bit more light that revealed nothing more than a small patch of icy ground, and what looked to be perfect ice sculptures of grass and wild flowers.

Zoë paused, then bit her lip and ducked through as well, moving to stand close at Malcolm's back as he moved forward to Bridgette's back, the torch outlining them faintly in the darkness. Zoë pressed against Mal's back, looking mistrustfully around in the blackness. Jared glanced at Nathan where he stood with his arm around Molly's shoulders. "Ah well; who want's to live forever?" With a grin, he darted through as well, his torch showing the bowing form of an ice bush, his voice rising in curses, the tones flavored with Jedite's accent as he went across.

Nathan sighed, running his newly healed hand through his hair, and huffing out a breath, looking uncertainly at the portal. "Oh hell; in for a lark, eh? Bri's ne'er offered t' 'urt us ever." He leaned away from Molly a moment and grabbed one of the torches, lighting it. Nathan looked uncertainly at Molly a moment, pausing on the threshold of the portal, holding the younger close against his side. "Molly? Do you want to--"

Rei stepped forward suddenly, eyes flaring with heat, though her face was pale and frightened-looking. "No way are you taking her in there!" she said, eyeing the darkness warily where Jared danced about, blowing on cold-red fingers, as he pulled on his wyvern-shed gloves, Zoë holding his torch as he did so.

Lita snorted and grabbed up one of the torches, blinking a bit at the weight, then lighting it. "We came here for an explanation, right? If she wanted us dead, she could have poisoned us, or turned us into frogs or something by now any way. I mean--seeing what she is, and what we've already seen her do, do you think we could have even a chance?" Lita walked through, moving to stand beside Jared, placing her feet carefully on the frozen grass that shattered into an icy powder as she walked slowly and carefully, the sound of her steps echoing eerily in the silence on the far side.

"She's right, Rei," said Ami with a reluctant sigh, hefting her own torch then staggering through.

Luna was tucked into Serena's coat against her chest, while Artemis was tucked into Mina's, though both cats were also clad in their own 'wyvern' shed attire. "And if she is Kaela from the Moon Kingdom, then it was she who gave our ancestors to the Royal Family for protection; I don't think that she would have done that if she meant us dead."

Serena glanced down at the cat, startled, "I didn't know that--I just thought--well, that you were always there or something." Sighing, she shrugged weakly as Darien grabbed the last two torches, tossing one to Rei, trying not to wince when he almost pulled something.

"Here, Pyro. We might as well do this; otherwise, why did we get dressed up?" Putting his arm around Serena's waist, Darien followed Nathan and Molly into the blackness.

Exchanging glances with Mina, Rei squared her shoulders, lighting the torch and moving to stand abreast with the other girl before the portal. Together, they carefully stepped through into the darkness. A blast of frigid air struck them like a wall, cutting through the clothing no matter what magical properties it was supposed to hold. "I--" Rei said, shivering, huddling closer to Mina, Darien, and Serena. "I th--th--thought y--you said y--you were g--going to raised heat shields, Bridgette," she managed between chattering teeth.

"I did," said the woman's voice from somewhere to one side. "The air in a fifteen foot radius in all directions around us but down is heated to well over 200 degrees Celsius. Go further than that, and you would die of exposure to the cold, wyvern shed or no, in a matter of hours."

"Where--is this?" asked Malcolm, crouching on the slippery ground to regard a perfect ice flower, still a deep, brilliant purple.

"This use to be a beautiful clearing in a forest," Bridgette said. "All you see, is frozen as it was when--" she broke off, anguish flashing across her ethereally beautiful face. "Come. The place we need to go is this way. Be careful of the ground; it is treacherous. And the ice can cut you easily if you don't mind the grass." She pointed in a direction, whatever she was gesturing to lost in the total darkness outside the glow of their torches. "I set up a system of lights here a few thousand years ago, but to be in close enough range to light them, I need to be that way."

Silently, they followed her slowly over the icy ground, staring in shock at the little bit of the frozen landscape the pitiful light from their torches could show. Rei paused a moment, staring at what looked like a dragonfly frozen to an ice leaf. "What happened here?"

"A mistake," said Bridgette, her voice layered with a deep pain.

"This was a mistake!?" asked Zoë in shock, staring around herself in horror and huddling closer to Malcolm's back.

Bridgette stopped suddenly, everyone running into her back as she turned her head to regard them all with her glimmering, flat gaze, though agony flickered somewhere in the depths of her eyes. "A simple mistake, Zoë, is the root of any problem. Everything hinges on seeming simple, everyday decisions. Particularly when every day decisions for a people already deal with the fates of whole worlds. As--it was for my People." She shook her head, closing her eyes before turning back around.

Malcolm ached to go to her side, but restrained himself, remaining where he was as the uncomfortable silence grew, other than the muffled protests of cold. They stood in silence for what seemed like an eternity, then Bridgette started leading the way across the twisted landscape once more. Huge shapes loomed up over and around them. "What--are they?" asked Jared, pale eyes staring upwards in awe and a little fear.

"Trees; once." Bridgette led the way to a side, showing them the ice-bark of a huge tree trunk. A smaller tree nearby had exploded in the cold at some earlier point, the shards sticking in everything around it like daggers. "You see?" Bridgette turned and led them back to the 'path' and kept going.

After another short eternity of silence, Bridgette stopped them under the glittering spectacle of icicles hanging from a limb that stretched just over their heads. "Here--I can activate the lights from here. Turn off your torches as soon as the rest of the lights are on."

"Lights?" asked Malcolm, blinking, looking around dubiously and shivering.

"Yes; I managed to set up a system of satellites and lights a while back. I can--turn them on from here--my powers can reach the controls now." Bridgette closed her eyes a moment, face strained, and the area flooded with dim light.

They stood under the perfect ice-sculptures of trees, branches arching far overhead. Ice ferns and other underbrush lined the path. In the tree above, a bird was frozen to the branch, beak still opened as if to sing. From her place at the back of the group, Rei saw a strange lump lying to the side of the path. Leaning closer, she was shocked to see a frozen human. Shuddering, and choking on bile, she pulled back staring at Bridgette.

Wordlessly, the torches were snuffed. "You can leave them here; nothing will bother them." After a brief exchange of glances, everyone gladly put down the heavy torches on the frozen ground with loud, glass-like thuds as they followed Bridgette through the utterly silent frozen world. "There--was a person back there," Rei said faintly, eyes edging over her shoulder towards the frozen lump.

Bridgette winced, sighing deeply and running her hands through her hair wearily, wings dropping a little. "Sorry; I had forgotten that he lay there. He died in the attack; Min got him."

"Min?"

"My guardian," Bridgette said flatly, fingering the locket around her neck idly.

"You need a guardian?" said Nathan incredulously.

Bridgette sighed dropping the medallion to lay cold and glittering on her chest once more. "I was not always--what I am. I was a child, too, Nathan. I had nightmares and troubles just like any human would." She sighed, shaking her head a little.

"Where--are we going?" asked Molly after an uncomfortable silence.

"There is a--place we must go. You must meet the Presence in order to understand what I am and what I do." Bridgette shook her head. "There is a building ahead which is where the Presence appeared to us."

"What is it? God?"

"I am not sure; perhaps. The Presence is--unexplainable, really. A him, a her, an it, a they, or all of that--or any combination, or nothing at all." Bridgette shook her head, wincing at the obvious confusion on the faces of her companions. "You will just have to see."

"Is it--um--scary?" asked Serena huddling closer to Darien, clutching Luna tightly against her, making the little cat squeak until she let go.

Bridgette stopped again, faint humor crossing her features. "Why do you humans always ask questions you don't really want to know the answers to? Would it really help you to know that it scares the willies out of me every time?" She raised an eyebrow, crossing her arms primly over her chest.

"Uh--no," said Serena weakly, pressing back against Darien.

"Terrifying and comforting; but not dangerous. Not to you, anyway. None of you." She sighed. "And I have secured the portal to hold until I personally close it, or until all of you have crossed the threshold once more. If something should something happen to me..."

"Happen to--" Malcolm stared, taking a step towards her.

"I am not saying that something will happen, Malcolm; just--in case the Presence is angered with my bringing more mortals here. The last time--" she shook her head.

Ami turned her gaze from the sky. "The lights seem to be a complex satellite system; if you set this light system up thousands of years ago, how--"

"There are perks to having access to all the worlds, universes, and their parallels." Bridgette sighed, pushing her hair from her eyes carefully. "Not every world develops at the same rate, and not every world has the same staring point. I copied the technology from a different world."

"Oh," Ami said meekly.

"What's tha' then?" asked Nathan, pointing to a vague outline on the horizon, visible through the trees and only now even partially clear because of the lights that shone from the sky like bizarre stars.

"A castle; or what's left of it. I used to live there, but now it's too cold, even for me." Bridgette fanned her wings a few times, the hotter air from near the shields wafting to the center carrying with it the peculiar clove-like scent that Bri's wings carried.

"Thanks. It's a bit cold," said Jared, wrapping his arms around himself and looking miserable.

"Trust the Southerner to get cold," Zoë teased, though her voice quavered from the chill as well. Jared managed to muster the energy to stick his tongue out at her.

"It is--warmer and lighter where we are going." Bridgette turned back to face the dimness of the path once more and led the way through the silent landscape.

After a moment, they came to an almost solid wall of ice, rippling in intricate patterns, strange prisms bouncing through it. "It's pretty!" Serena said in delight, watching the rainbows dance on the path before her.

Bridgette paused and turned to look at Serena, then managed a small smile. "Aye, I suppose it is, in a way." Sighing, she turned down a smaller path that led along the icy wall.

"What was this?" asked Malcolm, trailing a gloved hand over the smooth ripples.

"Fountains alternating with willow trees. It used to be a lovely place to come read--or to come shove friends into the water," Bridgette's eyes were distant, and a longing, wistful smile was on her face as she seemed to see into the past. But when her reaching fingers touched the ice, she flinched and turned away. "This way."

She led them to an opening in the wall of ice, and paused, as they all gathered behind her, stopping in shock. Before them spread the frozen remains of a garden with fountains and lush banks of frozen flowers. Serena and Mina had to stop looking so closely at the ground. Here and there were little creatures frozen where they had been when the warmth had been sucked from this world. And there was a frozen hand coming out of a depression with a twisted lump in it in one of the flowerbeds.

At the far end of the gardens, surrounded by a warm and inviting glow, was the most bizarre looking building any of them had ever seen. It was a mad cross of virtually every old building type that had been thought of: Greek, old Oriental, minarets like a Moslem mosque at intervals with medieval or fairy-tale towers. "What in--" began Zoë.

"It was added to as we found styles we liked." Bri actually looked a little sheepish. "It is overdone, but--it seemed to amuse the Presence to see the feats that the mortals had created, so we continued to build onto it, no matter what the whole resembled." She sighed. "Come, you will be in warmth soon."

Bridgette led the way through the ruined gardens, face resolutely forward keeping to the building before them, not looking around. As they approached, they could see that the building was the only thing aside from them that was not covered with ice; the grass and flowers nearer the building were still lush. As they entered the outer fringes of the welcoming light, the air started to warm. There were the normal sounds of insects and birds, though strangely subdued, but almost deafening after the dark silence of the rest of the world.

They stepped between a series of glyph covered columns of lapis and gold, and found themselves standing at the base of some steps leading up to a pair of simply enormous, beaten-gold doors. The doors stretched far above them, carved scenes of half-familiar stories and legends covering every inch. Bridgette placed a gentle hand on the gleaming metal, and the doors swung silently inward. Whatever hodge-podge madness the outside of the building looked like, the inside was a single huge room; a room too big to exist in the confines of the building itself, no matter how big.

Columns were interspersed regularly, vanishing into the soft glow that hovered hundreds of feet up. They followed Bridgette into the room, looking about in awe, gasping and pointing out things to each other with hushed voices. The floor was tiled 10-foot square sections of every stone that they could put a name to and some they couldn't. The walls were covered with elaborate paintings of as-mixed scenes as decorated the doors. Bridgette waited for a moment, letting them stare and point, then spoke, without turning back to them, her voice soft and almost hesitant. "This way."

She led the silent, staring group across the 'center' of the room towards the barely visible far wall that was almost lost in the mists. Lita looked up, trying to discern how far up the ceiling went, then gasped, eyes widening. "Jared! Look!"

One moment, there was the strange glow encompassing everything that was above them, then there was a huge dome over them. The dome was divided into hundreds of panels, each made of some dark blue or black stone with stars patterned out on them. Bridgette glanced up as everyone stopped to stare. "Ah; must be night, I suppose. This is the only way you can tell if it's night or day anymore." When all eyes turned to her in curiosity, she shrugged. "Each panel represents a section of the sky of a different world. During the day, the dome is the daytime skies of each of the worlds that you see the night skies of now. It used to be a curiosity to come relax and gaze at, but now--" she slumped a little and led the way forward again.

Underneath the exact center of the dome, Bridgette paused, holding up her hand for everyone else to keep back, and tilting her head upwards. Above them, a patch of light appeared in the center of the dome, no more than a pinprick at first, but then slowly falling towards them. As it lowered, an overwhelming sense of something/nothing/everything/good/evil surrounded them. There was a tumble of every emotion they could put a name to, but mostly amusement.

The light stopped, hovering and flickering though a myriad of colors as it hung before Bridgette's eyes. "Kae'ayla--" a voice boomed/whispered, amusement evident, "still breaking rules." The voice was in their heads and ears at the same time. None of them could decide if the voice was male, female, young, old, or even no more than one person or thing. "Why do you bring mortals here again?"

"For--forgive me," Bridgette bowed her head, flinching a little, hands clutching nervously at her skirt, as if she were a child facing an adult. "I felt they deserved an explanation; I had to show them this place, so that they would understand."

There was the sound of a playful clucking of a tongue. "Are these the ones you have caused so much trouble over?"

"Yes." Bridgette's voice quavered a little, and her wings drooped further. "Forgive my presumptions."

"You are aware what your reckless actions with these mortals has caused."

It wasn't a question, but Bridgette nodded, closing her eyes, face shamed. "I am prepared to deal with the damage I have caused to the Balance keeping them alive. But--this is--I had to--"

"Dear Child," the voice soothed, "Daughter, you are lonely and you are hurt; it was only to be expected. You have nothing to be shamed for." The voice was gentle, soothing and tender, caressing them all like a feather. "Go now, Child--take them to a world that is not dead; one that does not pain you so. Take them elsewhere before the Balance is even more unsettled by their presences here; mortals belong where things matter--where their brief lives can make a difference." The Light fluttered closer to Bridgette, brushing along her cheek, seeming to caress, then faded, the voice fading with a soft, "Oh Child."

Bridgette stared at the floor, hands gripping the shimmering material of her skirts, not speaking for a long moment. Malcolm cautiously stepped closer to her and put an arm around her shoulders, making her start. She turned to stare at Malcolm for a moment, then sighed, muscles untensing as she hugged Malcolm back. "Come. Let us--go elsewhere to talk; somewhere with suns, and life." Her voice shook with each word, and her eyes seemed suspiciously wet.

Malcolm touched her shoulder gently, keeping his arm around her shoulders. "What--did you mean keeping us alive?"

Bridgette sighed, shoulders stopping again, wingtips dragging the floor a little. "You four, were each meant to die in childhood. I--prevented it." She shook her head sadly at Malcolm's sharp intake of air and pulled free of his embrace, headed for the distant entrance in silence.

After a moment of furtive glances, Malcolm followed, trotting to catch up and walk at Bri's side, hand touching hers in concern. Jared shrugged off the disturbance of meeting the being/thing, and grabbed Lita's hand with a forced grin. "Last one outta here's a youma!"

* * * * * * * *

Beryl's eyes narrowed angrily as Joerdan appeared before her, bowing. "I trust you have a good reason for disturbing me, Joerdan. I am already displeased with you."

Joerdan swallowed and bowed low, nearly bending double. "Yes, My Queen." He hoped his voice wasn't shaking as much as his insides were. He held out the pictures that his youma had brought him. "One of the humans at the school had something called a 'camera' with him. I thought that you would like to see--"

"I know of your failure already, Joerdan, and of the Traitor's return," Beryl began, flipping through the pictures with little interest, "I don't need to see--" She stopped, eyes fixed on the last picture. "No. Not her! Not now!"

"My Queen?" asked Joerdan, taking a cautious step backwards, stunned to see the Queen pale.

Beryl flung the pictures to the ground at Joerdan's feet, the pictures fanning out from the force of her throw. The picture of the strange woman crouched over the wounded body of Nephlite was on top. Joerdan was struck again with the strong resemblance to Beryl in the woman's beautiful features, though there was nothing of malice in her face. "We will find more opposition to our plans than I thought," Beryl said flatly. Beryl glared at the pictures, then stopped, raising a hand. One of the pictures, one of Molly leaning on Nephlite's shoulder floated to her hand, and she regarded it through narrowed, yellow eyes. "Then again, perhaps there won't be; especially if we strike where she is not."

"Majesty? The girl in that picture is with the Traitors almost constantly now. Who is that woman?"

"Do not question me, Joerdan," Beryl snapped suddenly. Her face turned into a deadly smile. "Zoisite did that once."

Joerdan swallowed again and bowed. "Yes, Majesty."

* * * * * * * *

Malcolm was nearly blinded when he stepped not into the fire lit dining room, as he had expected, but into a brightly sunlit clearing. His clothing suddenly felt wrong. Once his eyes had stopped watering, he looked down at himself. He was startled to see that the strange, silvery-gray of the wyvern shed had changed into a rich medieval tunic of black velvets with slashed sleeves showing a fine shirt of cobalt blue silk underneath. His legs were now covered in leather breeches and thigh boots of fine suede, both dyed a matching black completed the new clothes along with a long cloak. The cuffs of the boots were trimmed in silver, as were the hems and cuffs of the tunic. "What in--"

Nathan, dressed similarly, but in dark blues and gold looked around in confusion. "Where in 'ell are we?"

Malcolm looked around, seeing everyone dressed in clothes that he would have placed in a high budget medieval or fantasy film. Bridgette's wings had vanished again, though her ears retained their points. "A safe place. I thought that you might like to see somewhere--another world that wasn't a frozen wasteland. And I have a comfortable place to speak here," she said.

"Where do the wings go when you aren't--um--you know?" Jared blinked.

"I gain about half a foot. As to where they go, I draw them in. It is a natural--ability. It would have to be; my magic cannot affect another of my kind; including myself."

"Then--"

"Illusions are not affecting me, they are affecting the people who see them; or altering the light. The same with clothing changes." Bridgette closed her eyes, tilting her face to the sun and breathing in deeply.

"This place is beautiful!" Zoë exclaimed, inhaling the sweetly clean air and listening to the music of the birds as she looked around, the blacks and grays of her tunic standing out in the bright sunlit clearing.

Molly smiled as Lita whooped and threw a handful of fallen leaves at Jared, getting the yellow-haired musician to yell a cheerful insult and chase her through the drifts of leaves. Nathan chuckled. "Yer right, Bri; I thin' we needed this." He laughed when Jared slipped on some leaves and went shooting down a small incline yelling playful curses to smack into a bush, sending birds chirping in every direction.

Bri hid a smile behind her hand. "I hope everyone is hungry again; I have a--neighbor who is fond of guests." She paused, biting her lip, considering. "His smile is rather alarming, but don't let the growling fool you; Feolin wouldn't hurt a fly." She stretched, then set off down a narrow, sun-mottled path. "This way."

Jared managed to get himself disentangled from the bush, with Lita's help, shaking like a dog, trying to dislodge twigs and leaves from his hair. Malcolm shrugged at the others and strolled down the path after Bridgette, hand resting easily on the hilt of the sword that had appeared with the rest of his outfit. Nathan chuckled and bowed gallantly, winking a gem-bright eye, and took Molly's arm, leading her down the trail with a light bounce to his steps. Jared grinned as Serena and Darien followed, the two cats close behind, pouncing on the occasional leaf. "Ladies? If I might escort you?" he said, bowing and doffing an imaginary cap at Rei, Mina, and Ami with a flourish.

Rei rolled her eyes and stalked off down the trail after the others, the scarlet velvet skirt of her tunic flaring out behind her. Mina and Lita grinned and each took one of Jared's arms before setting off after Rei's retreating form.

The trees that lined the path were an almost mad mix--willow trees grew next to oaks and birches, with tall firtrees interspersed. Birds' song and the hum of insects filled the perfumed air, along with Jared's cheerful chattering.

Bridgette stopped suddenly, shoving her long braid carefully back over her shoulder and gesturing for them all to be quiet with a delicate hand. Smiling fondly, she pointed into the trees to one side and everyone followed her hand to see what she was showing them.

Five strange creatures nosed gracefully amongst the leaf litter looking for acorns that had fallen from a huge oak tree. They were all snowy white, and slender, with long graceful manes and tails. The general shapes were mostly like horses, but far too willowy slender to be real. Long silver and opal horns sprouted up from their foreheads, gleaming in the sunlight that made it through the canopy. Unicorns. Three fully grown, and two smaller ones. "Oh!" gasped Molly softly, clutching at Nathan's arm in wonder.

The biggest unicorn raised his head, snorting, and regarding the party warily. Bridgette took a step forward, smiling. " *Hylo. Dils'yn, Juli.*"

The unicorn started, then bowed his head respectfully. He turned and nosed the others and slowly, they each began to pace closer to the group. The small herd stopped just along side them, heads raised proudly, tails swishing, even though one was barely as tall as Serena. "What--do they want?" Serena asked, staring at them with shining eyes.

Bridgette smiled, reaching out a hand to touch the slender nose of the largest. "They came to greet my friends. In unicorn customs, you touch faces in greeting," she said, laying her cheek gently on the unicorn's, her face serene. "This is Juli, the leader of this family group. The female is Ora; the younger male is Tybl. The two foals are Fala and Kali. Kali is the youngest."

Wondering, each person followed Bridgette's example and touched cheeks with each of the unicorns. Molly was the last to greet Kali, and the foal whickered and knocked Molly backwards with a playful but, hooves prancing on the forest floor, eyes twinkling with mischief. Nathan laughed. "I think we've been invited to play."

"You have," Bri's smile was warm and easy, one arm draped comfortably around Juli's neck. "Would you like to? Or, I can bring you all back here some other time; when things are not as tense."

Molly hesitated, glancing at Nathan. Finally she sighed wistfully. "I suppose we should come back later. Would--that be all right?"

Bridgette glanced at Rei who was touching Ora's mane with tear streaked eyes. "That would be all right. This world--is peaceful." She closed her eyes for a moment, looking content. "We will return." She touched Rei's shoulder gently, then turned back to the unicorns, speaking once more in the strangely musical language. "*Namarie. Namarie wedi rwan.*" The unicorns nodded each in turn and turned back for their tree. Kali stopped for a moment, then rubbed his horn on a tree nearby, as if it itched. As he did so, a glittering curl of horn peeled off and fell with a little chime to the forest floor, lying amongst the leaves like a lost gem. He pushed it towards Molly with little pushes of his silken nose, a high pitched whinny coming from his throat as he raised his head and gazed into her eyes.

"What is he--" Molly touched his nose gently.

"It is an offer of eternal friendship," Bridgette said with a smile. "If you accept, you will have a friend for life; he will come to you whenever you need him."

Molly stared. "What--do I do?"

"Give him a bit of your hair, or something." Bridgette held out a tiny pair of golden scissors. "The pact need only be sealed by one member of a party. Kali is offering his whole family to all of you." Bridgette's eyes were gentle.

Molly wordlessly snipped a lock of her hair and held it out. Kali took it from her gently with his teeth, then trotted back to his family while Nathan stopped and retrieved the thin curl of horn, handing it to Molly. Rei blinked. "Why--why did they do that?"

"They wanted to, I suppose. They can sense what kind of people you are; that you fight evil. That is their purpose too. So--they offer to help you." Bridgette turned and headed back down the path.

Everyone lingered a moment more, watching the unicorns watch them. Finally, and not without regret, they all trotted to catch up with Bridgette. "Did you know we were going to meet them on the trail?" asked Lita, after a few moments.

"No. And I had no idea that they were going to do that, either," Bridgette said. "I am glad they were and glad they did, though. You all feel better, don't you?"

Rei nodded, wiping the last traces of tears away. "Yeah. They were so beautiful--"

"They exist to amplify good and lessen evil."

"Oh. Umm--are they attracted to--er--"

"Guess not, considering they liked all of us," Zoë mentioned wryly. Then she glared when Nathan elbowed her.

Bridgette chuckled. "Merely legend; people knew that they were attracted to goodness, and for some reason, people have always associated virginity with goodness."

"Oh," Jared said, blushing.

Lita snickered.

Bridgette paused a moment, as the trees started to thin. "Be careful here--we are nearing a cliff." Everyone slowed, watching their footing as she led them out of the trees and to the edge of a cliff.

Down below them stretched a picture-perfect rural valley. Hedgerows crisscrossed the landscape surrounding fields, turning the countryside into a verdant quilt. Sheep grazed in a few meadows, their soft baa's reaching them even where they stood. A small medieval-looking village was nestled near the center of the valley, a small and graceful-looking castle at its center surrounded by a glittering moat. To the other side of them, a mountain rose majestically to a crystal-clear blue sky. The stones of the mountain were a dusky purple in some places, reddish brown in others. Patches of green showed where plants clung to the slopes and the top was covered with white snow, small clouds rising from the sides. "I wish I'd m'paints," Nathan complained, gazing around.

Bridgette smiled gently. "I'll bring you back here again, all right?" Smiling, she led them towards the mountain rather than towards the valley, as they half expected. She pushed aside the branches of a bush that clung to the side, revealing a narrow trail curving up the side of the mountain. "Where are we going?" asked Mina, confused, glancing back down at the valley.

"I told you; I have a place to speak here. It is this way."

"You and your mysterious neighbor live on a mountain?" asked Jared, grinning widely.

"I told you; my friend is rather alarming to most people."

Bridgette didn't volunteer any more information, so they were forced to follow in silence. After about an hour, most everyone was out of breath from the effort of climbing the steep trail. Bridgette finally pushed aside another bush revealing an even narrower trail that cut steeply up through the rock; rough stairs had been carved into the very stones of the mountain. "Where are we going?" whined Serena, panting and waving a hand in front of her sweat-damp face.

"Up these stairs, then no further than inside," said Bridgette soothingly. She waited until the next person had the branches of the bush and then led them up the stairs. The steep walls on either side towered a couple of feet above her head, blocking the view of the valley below them. Finally, the sweaty group emerged onto a large, flat shelf on the side of the mountain just before the entrance to a huge cave. Everyone stopped and looked at the cave in confusion, panting. "A cave?" asked Zoë. "You live in a cave?

"Who dares to disturb me?"

The loud voice shook them, sending pebbles and dust raining down the cliff-face. Everyone turned in horror towards the cave, Malcolm actually drawing his sword instinctively to see--

--a huge golden scaled dragon, leaning towards them looking very angry.

Row after row of sword-like teeth filled a mouth big enough to swallow a city bus without straining. Hot breath poured onto them as the dark green eyes peered at them. "Hello, Feolin," said Bridgette, wryly, laying a calming hand on Malcolm's sword arm. "Don't you know it's rude to eat guests?"

The dragon blinked, then all the fury faded from his eyes. The head seemed to grin pleasantly, thought the sight was enough to jar the nerves of the rest of the party. "Bridgette! It's been ages! Are these friends of yours?" The dragon beamed cheerfully.

"You know how you've always pestered me to meet people from another world?"

"Yes."

"Here's your chance."

"Oh! Why didn't you warn me, Bridgette?! I'd have made dinner! Ah me! At least I have something in the oven."

Rei turned to Bridgette. "Your--ah--friend with the alarming smile?" She said faintly, pointing to the dragon with a trembling finger.

"Of course."

* * * * * * * *

Melvin hung up the phone with a sigh. All of the girls had gone over to the musicians' home for dinner. "What's wrong with them?" He muttered to himself, pacing through his room. "Can't they see that those people are weird?"

He straightened his glasses, and with a resolute grimace, he grabbed his camera and his jacket and headed out the door.

* * * * * * * *

After carefully following the lumbering dragon through a few hundred feet of rough and dark cave, they had all found themselves in a brightly lit and cheery, enormous room. The huge cavern was furnished rather like a nice country cottage with huge "chairs" shaped to comfortably hold a large dragon. Nice area carpets--some of them being about the size of football fields covered the stone floor. Huge bundles of drying herbs hung from the roof about 100 feet up. The few stalactites left hanging from the ceiling, were wonderfully carved in into columns of rose vines, the some of the carved roses in them four feet across, the thorns like stone swords. Tapestries hung from the walls; tables, cabinets, and shelves were littered with huge books and various dragon-sized curios and knickknacks covered the surfaces, resting on crocheted doilies and swaths of nice cloth.

Feolin bustled about the room, acting like nothing but a busy homeowner, dusting, and straightening for his guests, clucking and tsking, chatting brightly to himself as he worked. "Just make yourselves at home! I've tried to keep Bridgette's room tidy, but I really have to be so careful, since everything's so little!"

Bridgette's room wound up being in what was to Feolin a small niche in the wall of the cave down by the floor. The space was divided into a series of rooms with beautiful lacquer panels with scenes of mystical creatures on them. Like the rest of the cavern, rich carpets, though in a less daunting size, covered the stone floor. There was fine, if dusty furniture, which Bridgette cleaned with a muttered word.

While everyone explored the places, exclaiming over this and that and looking at the pictures on the screens, Jared let out a giggle. "This is like the Reluctant Dragon meets Better Homes and Gardens," Jared said finally, sitting on a green brocade-covered lounge.

Bridgette's lips quirked into a smile as she settled into a well cushioned chair with a sigh. "Feolin likes the finer things in life." She turned her head to where the golden dragon bustled near a large stove across the cavern. "The villagers still trying to give you sacrifices?" she called out as everyone started pulling chairs close around the "sitting" room.

"Hmm? Oh, yes," said Feolin cheerfully, chuckling and winking. "I send the poor terrified little girls over the mountain, with a bag of gold so they can make their fortunes." He grinned. "No one bothers me on the far side." He reached into a large cupboard and pulled out a wooden box that was tiny in his hand, but which was actually about the size of a small car. "Fire wine?" he asked. "Oh--and perhaps some of my cheese scones?"

"Sounds delightful, Feolin. We'll be here a while; we'll likely need food and drink before I get finished." Bridgette sighed wearily, settling back into her chair, rubbing at her forehead.

"Fire wine?" asked Nathan, glancing at Molly, "D'you think that the--"

"It's not actually wine, Nathan. It's a juice made from the berries that grow in the Valley of the Sun. It doesn't intoxicate you, but I wouldn't be surprised if you have the urge to get up and run around a few times," she said. "The stuff's more invigorating than caffeine, but safer. Feolin has a few friends who are fire birds--like the phoenix, except that they lay eggs--and just--well, associate with fire." She smiled. "And Feolin is an excellent cook."

"A dragon who cooks. What next?" muttered Malcolm.

Bridgette shrugged as Feolin carefully opened the box he held and pulled out seemingly tiny bottles of faintly-glowing red liquid with the tips of his claws. Delicately, he placed the bottles he retrieved on the table in the middle of the group. Bridgette got up and went to a cabinet, coming back with a silver tray holding several silver and crystal goblets. "It depends what you decide, Malcolm." She sat down as Feolin set a cheese covered biscuit-like thing the size of a monster truck tire down on a plate amidst them.

"We're supposed to eat all of that?" asked Zoë, laughing. "He's worse than Jared!"

"What are you worried about? We have Serena, remember?" said Rei, grinning and watching Bridgette pour the wine and pass it out.

Malcolm smirked a little and took a filled glass from Bridgette. Cautiously, he raised the glass to his nose, sniffing. It smelled like hot cider with some sort of spices in it; indeed, the goblet was faintly warm to his grasping fingers. Tentatively, he took a sip.

Malcolm's eyes rose in pleased surprise. The liquid warmed a path down to his stomach, filling him with warmth and comforting energy. The taste that rolled on his tongue as he drank, started like apples and cinnamon, and ended somewhere between strawberries and grapes. "This is--good!" He grinned some and had another sip.

"I'll warn you; this is the only place to get it," Bridgette said with a smile, settling back down into her own chair with her own goblet while Serena carved a hunk of scone off for herself, inhaling the rich aroma of the fresh-baked bread.

Mina turned from watching Feolin settle himself down into one of the huge chairs with a book the size of a truck balanced in his hands. "So--now what?"

"Now I start explaining, I suppose," said Bridgette with a sigh, swirling the liquid around in her glass as Malcolm reached out and refilled his own. She paused, cocking her head, apparently thinking. "I suppose that I'd better start with my people."

"Remind me to get the recipe for these scones from him," Jared interrupted, grinning cheerfully and saluting with a wedge of the scone. Jedite took over for a moment. "I am sorry. Go on, Bridgette."

Bridgette smiled briefly and nodded. "My people are one of the oldest races--if not the oldest in all the universes--we were--an experiment of Creation, I suppose." She sighed, pushing her hair from her eyes. "There were close to three-thousand of my people living on my world when the--mistake happened. That was the most there ever really was since, for the most part, those who were born were really just older souls reborn into a new form."

"So your People can be killed," said Zoë, "but they get reborn. How--"

"Our bodies were just as fragile as humans' are, Zoë. Flesh is flesh, and there is always the danger of being hurt if you have a physical form," Bridgette explained patiently, still staring into her glass. "We could bleed, but for the most part, only our bodies died. If a friend died, all you had to do was wait, and soon they would be back." Sighing, she took a long pull from her glass. "When a new soul was born, it was a call for great celebration."

"How long did your people live?" asked Ami. "I mean life-spans."

"Until we were killed; but then, we came back. We really didn't have a lifespan, per say, Ami--more of a circle. There were a few times when the souls vanished--we had--great enemies. Those times, when someone suddenly vanished--were disturbing to us all. We all shared a sort of--group consciousness. We could, if we concentrated, track down every last one of our people no matter where in the universes and times they were. We could tell what they were feeling, what they were doing. When one of us 'vanished', it was like a part of you was suddenly taken."

"Must've made things hard to get intimate," said Darien.

"Yes and no, Darien. No relationships usually didn't last very long or get too deep, and it could get uncomfortable being the only person with no one to be with at night, but--occasionally, there would develop a more permanent and closer relationship." He voice trailed off a moment, pained, then continued softly, though still loud enough for everyone to hear. "These two would bind their hearts to the other, making the link they already shared stronger. I--had such a bond with one known as Kyl'so. And we had a son who was born a new soul, named D'ult'ara."

"How on earth did you figure out family if the souls were being reborn all the time?" asked Rei. "I mean, if you had a child and the soul wound up being your mother's--"

"We were a family, Rei; all of us. We cared little for the terms. Only when there was such a close link did it matter. And you--always remembered who started your first lifecycle." She sighed, fingering the locket.

"What were your parents like?" Jared prompted gently.

"I never knew my parents--the closest I had was the Presence."

They were all quiet a moment while Bri, sipped at her wine, her eyes distant. Finally, she sighed and drew in a breath to start speaking again. "Now--while we were on Cynillon, we were mostly ordinary people. We were each born with a certain type of magic, and that is all we could use there. While this seems limiting, it was--more relaxing. Power brings heavy responsibilities, and if you needed something that your own abilities would bot grant you, there was always someone else who could do what you needed." She sipped deeply of her wine, Malcolm refilling it for her when she rested the goblet on the arm of the chair. "I was rare in that I had more than one type of power on Cynillon; so I was given a sort of leadership position--as much as we could have one, anyway." She sighed. "And due to that, and due to my already more intimate than normal relationship, it was left to me to deal with the Presence, for the most part."

"Why did you guys come to our world, then?" asked Jared. "I mean if you didn't like the responsibility."

"It was our Duty. The Presence had us watch and maintain the great Balance." She shrugged helplessly. "We were to prevent destruction from UnBalance--to protect and make sure things went for the greater good."

"Wait--Balance? What--t'ween good an' evil?" asked Nathan, brow wrinkled.

"The Balance is a good deal more complex than that, Nathan," Bridgette said. "Good and evil are but two aspects of the whole. There is nothing as simple as only two sides. The Balance is good and evil, law and chaos, light and dark, happiness and sorrow, and few million other things. We had to make sure that the Balance was reasonably even throughout all of the universes."

"Ouch," commented Jared wryly.

Bri smiled a little, though with little humor. "What about you guys? I mean, don't you think you guys would off set the Balance a little? You're pretty powerful," said Mina, shifting in her chair a little.

"We are outside the Balance, Mina--we have absolutely no effect on it by ourselves. It is the normal people--humans, and the other inhabitants of the worlds that make the difference, and to make sure the Balance is kept, we must influence them directly, or manipulate the world around them to influence them indirectly. We must work, through you mortals who are the heart of the Balance. We could occasionally, directly alter the Balance ourselves, but little good ever came of that." She sighed, rubbing her head and winced, eyes filled with pained remembrance. "While on our world, though, we could ignore the call, of the Balance--everywhere else, it hurts deeply, as though someone were thrusting hot blades into you, and worse." She sighed again, sipping at her wine. "Which is why we liked to keep to Cynillon; for some time, we would have the peace of ignorance."

"So--how do you keep the Balance going?" asked Molly.

"Various ways; it depends on what needs correcting." She sipped her wine with a grimace. "I have found myself starting and stopping wars, killing certain people, or helping others to live. I have altered the weather, I have snuffed stars--I have to do whatever it takes."

"That's awful," said Malcolm with a shudder. "How could you just--start a war like that?"

Bridgette looked at him, anguish on her features, eyes pleading for understanding. "We never thought of it like that, Malcolm. We had no idea what you mortals were like; not at first. We never paid any attention, so intent were we on keeping the Balance straight." She sighed. "That is why I wanted you to see the Presence; so that you would--at least partially understand the force that drove us to do this."

Lita shivered. "That was--disturbing to say the least. I--I wasn't sure whether to bow or run."

Bridgette nodded, and Jedite spoke up again, the accent, expression, and posture telling that it wasn't the gentle-eyed musician speaking. "So what happened to upset this? You said 'at first'; I presume that at least some of you started to take notice of mortals."

"Aye--one of us fell in love with a mortal."

There was a long silence. "It was you, wasn't it?" Malcolm guessed softly.

"Yes."

The silence grew uncomfortably, then finally, Serena spoke up hesitantly. "What happened to your world?"

Bridgette started a little, then sagged back in her chair wearily. "A mistake, as I said; one of those times when we tried to alter the Balance directly." Bridgette rubbed at the bridge of her nose. "There came a time when the Balance shifted badly in one universe. We have several options about what to do; we could have released a plague on one world to wipe out 80 percent of the population through the ways they transferred foods; or there were other things, equally unpleasant. There were hundreds of things we could have done, but one of our number, who was one of us that were beginning to have doubts about our arbitrarily meddling in mortal's lives, discovered that the creation of a new world would fix the problem. Since the person who suggested it was my son, we did just that."

"Created a world just like that?" said Zoë flatly.

"Oh, no, there was more to it than that; a great deal more. Certainly it is easy to conjure rock enough to make a world, but you must make that rock almost live; make it active. Then you must make life grow. You have to build atmospheres, food chains, evolutionary cycles--it took all of us to do this--"

"How long?" asked Nathan, "Seven days?"

Bridgette flinched, and Nathan grimaced in apology. "Who can say, Nathan? What is time to an immortal?" She sighed. "We cared little for tracking time; we had no need to, since time runs differently on all the worlds anyway." Bridgette sighed, refilling her glass slowly. "So--we created a world. It was beautiful then; filled with the most beautiful parts that we could recall from the other mortal realms. We put everything we could think of that was beautiful and good. Perhaps things would have been all right, but for one fatal mistake; the mortals were aware of us and of our purpose--and they resented it. There was--one of us who--had--become mortal, and she chose to live on the new world we had created."

"Uh oh," guessed Lita.

"Time went by, and we didn't notice the growing trouble." She looked embarrassed. "We were rather too fond of being ignorant." Sighing, she set aside her glass. "Finally, a few of the humans on the world we had created elected our exiled one as leader and sent her to us, in disguise, to demand that we share what we did with them. This woman was clever, born with her own powers of creation even with her powers having been stripped when she was--"

"What on Earth could you guys possibly exile someone for, with that group consciousness of yours?" Zoë wondered.

"She took delight in blatant destruction, and she hated deeply. Especially her mother and her brother." Bridgette looked deeply pained and sighed. "This one had an incredible imagination, and she knew she could not hope to equal our powers any longer--not that she ever could; she was always fairly weak. She hated that.

"Thinking nothing of it and not knowing who she really was, we agreed to her demands, and began to show her how we did things, even though we knew she would never have the power to duplicate what we showed her. We brought her to our world, showing her everything--telling her about our people. We didn't notice that taking one of the mortals into our world, where the Balance did not touch was--"

"Your world wasn't part of the Balance?"

"No." Bridgette frowned. "Imagine that the Balance is like holding a ball on the tip of your finger. Our world was the point on which the ball rested." She shook her head as Zoë sat back, frowning. "In any case, this changed-mortal began to finalize her plot against us. Knowing that we could not die completely unless the souls were destroyed as well, she used her creative powers to make a group of--Things that completely destroyed what they killed. We knew nothing of this; it was business as usual. Why should we expect attack?

"Then, one day, she released them on us, and the people of the world we had created turned on their makers." Bridgette's head bowed, and Malcolm stretched out a hand to take one of hers, though she didn't seem to notice, her eyes turned inwards. "It happened so quickly, we never knew what was happening. One of us after the other dropped out of our minds after terrible pain; we weren't sure what to make of it. We were all disoriented with the loss; a few of us were off our world on Duty, but most of us were there. I was in the field I took you to, with my son and husband, enjoying a picnic, and suspecting nothing. Then _she_ arrived with her--Things." Her voice was trembling, tears running down her face unchecked. "The--Things--they killed D'ult'ara before Kyl'so and I could even stand. I watched my son get Unmade before me, and I was helpless to stop it! Then--they--they went after Kyl'so. I could do nothing, stunned by the loss. Min, my guardian, was the only thing that kept me from following Kyl'so into nothingness.

She was silent a moment, tears tracking down her lovely face as Malcolm stroked the delicate hand he held soothingly. Finally, she spoke, her voice quavering and soft. "To power the Things, the mortal woman drained all the power she could from our stars and from out world, freezing it into the lifeless rock that you saw. My People died around me, and, all at once, something in me snapped, and I felt hate for the first time; the pain I felt was too great.

"I went a deep rage, and went to the world we had created, killing any I could find in my madness. I managed to destroy the Things, but not before they had wounded me mortally, my very soul bleeding away." Her face was taught in remembered pain. "I knew I was hurt in such a way that I would waste away into nothingness in a short time, and I no longer cared, horrified at what I had done, and lost without my people and my family.

"That was when she came in to gloat over me; Beryl."

"Beryl?!" gasped Nathan, sitting bolt up right in his chair, eyes huge. "Then the world was--"

"The Negaverse, aye, though it looked nothing like that then, and it was named another thing then--even before she mocked it and turned it to the 'Dark Kingdom' and then, later, the 'Negaverse'. The presence of the Things that she had created fouled and twisted that once beautiful place into what you knew." Bridgette rubbed her forehead again. "Beryl had been badly wounded in our battles too, and she collapsed near me, dying as well. But, as we both lay there, she bitterly wished that I would live on, remembering all that had happened and never be able to enter the peace of dying. In irrational anger, I stripped her of her creative ability with my own faltering power, making her forever rely on the plans and thoughts of others, and told her that if I was to live forever in pain and loneliness, then she would follow me. Both curses took." There was silence. "I don't know exactly what happened next, but I awoke on the shell of my world, utterly alone. The Presence was no help, so I fled to the mortal realms, hiding and seeking comfort, looking for the few of my people who had escaped. Thousands of years, I spent amongst the mortals, and for the first time I realized more and more how much we had wronged the mortals; how much that the mortals, too, felt things.

"But I was helpless to stop doing what I was ordered to do. Beryl's curse, you see; and there was no more ignorance for me to find a temporary balm to. I had to start wars that butchered millions to preserve the Balance, watching in agony and helpless to stop it. I felt regret for near the first time.

"Then, one day, Beryl and the shattered remains of her world showed up. She sought to destroy me, but due to the curse, we can no longer face each other directly.

"So--lacking a target in me, she attacked the place that I was, seeking to injure me more by slaughtering my friends. Always, she follows me, attacking where I am or where I was."

"You were on Earth, then?" asked Serena hesitantly as Malcolm put his arms around her gently. Jared crawled out of his chair and put his arms around her waist, hugging and resting on his knees at her side, Zoë and Nate going over to join in the hug, too.".

"I was. Earth is where the most of the remainders of my people had gathered. Yet, there was something wrong with them; perhaps as an effect of my curse, or perhaps due to their having been away from Cynillon so long, they were no longer as strong as they had been. Or perhaps it was their way to hide from the pain.

"They had become semi-mortal; dropping out of my mind as surely as if they had died in the attack. They became the Sidhe of Ireland, the Alfar of Norway; the became angels; they became the legends, and faded."

"What are the Sidhe?" asked Luna, speaking up for the first time.

"Irish faerie folk," said Nathan. "Elves, if ye will; but no' exactly. Tall, beautiful--" he broke off with a gasp, "--an' prone t' meddlin' wi'mortals."

"Exactly," said Bridgette, sighing. "I gathered the faded remnants of my people and built them a safe place; a small parallel world that led to Earth. The humans in the area at the time, associated me with one of their goddesses--"

"Let me guess," said Jared said, grinning. "Bridgette, right? Light and art."

Bridgette nodded. "That is where I got this name from. One of my birth-gifts; the powers I could use on Cynillon was Art magic; turning art into reality." She sighed. "Finally, I couldn't bear being reminded of all that was gone, so I went once more amongst the mortals, trying to lose myself in them.

"Many hundreds of years later, I found a position in the court of a relatively small noble. By the time a few thousand years had passed, this noble's family had become Kings and Queens, and I was still their Bard."

"You were Kaela!" Artemis gasped, jumping up with a startled trilling meow.

"Yes," Bridgette sighed. "I wove spells so that people did not remember what I looked like so that they wouldn't get upset seeing me staying the same through the centuries. I knew that one day, Beryl would catch up with me and it bothered me. I tried to help prepare them for it, knowing I wouldn't be able to do anything direct. I--was distracted."

"What happened?" asked Luna, intensely interested, hopping up into her lap and pressing her head against Bri's stomach, purring when the hand Malcolm wasn't gripping stroked her ears.

"I met four young mortal men who could remember me even with the masking spells I had. They filled a place that had long been empty in my heart; I once again had a family."

"The four Generals," guessed Rei. "These four."

"Men?" asked Zoë with a raised eyebrow and a gasp. "I was--"

"I'll explain that later," said Bridgette with a sigh. "I spent much time with these four, and for a moment, I could forget a little.

"But Beryl came.

"She tried a new tactic this time; instead of just attacking, she spied first. Finding out about these four mortals that I seemed to care so much for, she altered her plans to make sure she captured them, twisting them and using them against me. She knew I could never hurt them." Bridgette grimaced, more tears trickling down her raw cheeks. "They resisted her at first, so Beryl, no longer able to do anything of her own, followed the suggestions of her flunkies and accidental hints my four dropped, and twisted each of them in a certain way.

"The youngest, she turned from a cheerful trickster into a mirror of herself; relying on the plans of others: Jedite." Jared/Jedite blinked, flushing and hugged her waist tighter. "The most cheerful of the bunch she changed partially into a female: Zoisite." Zoë paled and sat back in her chair, downing the fire wine in one gulp and yanking at her ponytail. "One of them declared that he would never turn to her while his heart moved red blood through his veins, so Beryl turned it green: Nephlite." Nathan grimaced and pulled Molly in close to his side, arm tightening around Bri's shoulders. "The last, the eldest, was the one of the quietest and most unassuming mortals I knew. She made him the most cunningly cruel: Malachite." Malcolm blushed and hugged her, face uncomfortable.

Bridgette sighed. "I knew Beryl did this to spite me--but I couldn't bring myself to fight against my friends. So instead, I moved and attacked Beryl's rear flank to slow the conquest as much as I could; to give enough time for the extra powers I had begun to install in the crystal in the scepter of the Moon Queen to take effect." She sighed. "You know the rest of what happened in that attack."

Malcolm blinked. "So--we still don't have all the memories back? I certainly don't remember Earth--or you on the Moon Kingdom or anything like that."

"No, you don't." Bridgette sighed. "What Beryl had done to you four had changed you enough so that the protective spells that I had erected around you in vain hopes of saving them kicked in, triggering their reincarnation. But since they still existed in the Negaverse, though trapped, they new incarnations were doomed to die young. So you were split, with two lives. Until about 20 years ago when I could take it no longer, and I intervened to save each of you when you were slotted to die."

Malcolm paled, pressing against Bri's side. "I--remember--before I was taken to the shelter."

Serena blinked. "Shelter?"

"I was born in Detroit--my parents lost our home when I was very young," Malcolm said softly, staring at his hands, voice trembling slightly. "My parents and I lived in and out of homeless shelters for years. When I was four, a bad winter came up; one shelter had only room enough for one more. My parents left me there and walked off back into the storm; I never saw them again." Serena's eyes filled with tears as he went on. "For the next little while, I wandered around, until one day, I was almost caught in the crossfire of a gang war. But--a woman stopped me from going into the alley by giving me the address of a place that could take me in--" Malcolm stopped, staring. "That was you, Bridgette; I remember now."

She nodded, eyes averted to her lap. "And you Nathan? Do you remember the day you woke up fine, but got sick and had to go to the doctor's? The same day a car bomb exploded near your house, collapsing it?" Nathan closed his eyes and nodded. "And you, Jared; do you remember the way a secret imaginary friend of yours enticed you to crawl out the window of your room and go play in the field the night that your family died of carbon-monoxide poisoning from the road nearby?" Jared pressed his face into her stomach, nodding slightly, sniffling. "And you, Zoë--do you remember the day your parents decided to run to Western Germany? The gunfire? Your parents falling and a strange woman taking bullets as she passed you to the far side of the border? The way no one would believe you?" Zoë stared, face pale, nodding.

Everyone was silent for a long while, no sounds filling the cavern but for the ponderous breathing of Feolin and the crackle of the fire.

* * * * * * * *

Mrs. Baker sighed, turning off the television with a grimace. Still, there was nothing on except for more talk about the attack on the school from earlier in the day. Sighing, she turned to stare at Maxfield Stanton's will, lying on the side table where Molly had left it.

What was happening with her daughter? First she inherits a fortune from a man whom Serena was claiming was a horrible person two-months ago, but whom Molly and Sailor Moon had claimed had died saving her. Then Molly starts to spend a great deal of time with those strange musicians.

There was a knock on the door, and she got up, grumbling and opening the door--

--and blinking at the news crews standing there.

"Miss Baker! Is it true that your daughter has inherited the pending fortunes of Maxfield--"

"Is it because of the Stanton fortune that the attack on the school today was--"

She slammed the door in their faces.

Groaning, she flopped back down on the sofa, picking up a book she had started reading three weeks ago, yet hadn't gotten beyond the first page. Then a noise made her look up.

Startled, she saw the shadows seem to peel off the wall, a scratchy whispering filling the room. Jumping up, she ran to the kitchen for something to defend herself with--and ran into the chest of a tall, handsome man with cold blue eyes and a mop of luxurious black curls. "Queen Beryl is expecting you," he hissed, sneering as his hand closed on her arm.