CF#31

"Child's Play"

Led by Jason Barker

The two ships peered out from over the clouds, their cargo, the legendary Crystal Fighters.

"It's totally destroyed." Entropy said as he look down at the destruction that the Vile had left in their wake--the Faia headquarters (surprisingly constructed as part of an old Faian castle) had obviously seen a huge battle. Ultra Avenger, Kyle, and T were all extremely skilled fighters but it was unlikely they could have survived such fight.

"Let's go down and see if there are any survivors." Entropy said, and the ships lowered into the destruction, leaving Destiny far enough behind so as not to affect to natural orbits of this system with it’s large mass.

The CFs exited their ships and tried to determine if there were any survivors.

"Getting anything from your telepathy, Zel?" Entropy asks.

"I'm not sure... So many evil impressions... It's confusing me," The elven CF replied.

Entropy frowned. They weren't at full strength here. Somebody had to watch their prisoners and Kevin back at the Destiny's Child. It had fallen to Krakken and a number of hastily created robots. The robots were made of old suits and weapons Pyro had created. They had power, but were untested.

"I 'think' I'm getting something on sonar," Tachyon said, "but the unique nature of the rocks in the castle’s construction makes it difficult to determine..."

Kaliana looked around nervously. The last time she was here, there'd been that terrible mess with the Vile... She, Tachyon, Deyja, and Iam had almost died. The three of them became CFs, while Iam had evolved into some kind of angelic being. Deyja began to cry, ever so slightly. This had been his world. It was a mess.

Entropy scanned the area. Even if UA wasn't their official leader anymore...the man still knew what he was doing better than he did.

"Deyja," he said, turning to the only one of them at all familiar with this world. "I know this's gotta be a tough blow, but we need your help here. You have any idea where the others might have taken refuge around here?" He was still scanning the horizon, looking over to see anything, any sign that they might be there.

Tala sighed softly. It was a mess.. at one time, this must have been a nice looking planet. But now, thanks to the Vile, it was reduced to mere illusions of what must have been.

"How sad.." She murmured, looking around.

Without thought, shadows began to creep around for her, looking around as well.

Laina scowled at the sight. She remembered all too well some of the fighting that had happened before they left. And what Nokomis and Entropy had done. Grumbling, she stalked off in a different direction; getting away from the group.

Rupay tried to console Deyja as best she could. She gave him a big warm hug and told him everything would be ok.

Zelda hugged her arms to herself as she scanned the landscape listlessly. While they were on Destiny’s Child the CFs signatures had faded from her Crystal's sense. They didn't just blink out as had others and she had guessed they was just out of range. She had hoped anyway. The signs were stronger here, but they were traces..almost echoes. Plus, it didn't help that they were back near the asteroid field.

She started to take a step toward Tala, and then drew back, feeling a little stranded. Sure, she worked with all the CFs, knew them, did her best to help with their problems, but sometimes... She shook her head, she had nothing to complain about. Still, she stepped back.

Movement caught the corner of her eye and she recognized Laina shifting away from the group. She cast a look towards Entropy, leader after all, to let him know she was going to follow the new comer. But, he was busy looking in another direction so she just shrugged and followed. One of the others would notice two CFs leaving anyway.

Kaliana shook her head, "Look, guys," she said, trying to take the initiative, though she was still uncertain around the CFs, "why don't we split into search parties?" ~No..no it's not time.. But, still..just have to restrain..~ She had vaguely noticed Zelda and Laina going off in one direction. ~Or maybe they have some sort of unspoken plan for every situation.~ she thought curiously with a shrug, still looking toward the others for a more definite sign.

Entropy looked to Kaliana. "No." The others looked at him in suprise, it was the more sensible... "Listen, I know it'll take longer, but we have to stay together. Whatever was strong enough to do all this...they might be here still. If they were strong enough to take out UA and the others, they'll make short work of any of us alone. We go together."

Kaliana tilted her head in accordance. She didn't know the capabilities of those particular CFs, but apparently there was a lot of faith in them. But then again, they all seemed to have faith in each other, whether earned or not. She cast a glance toward where Zelda had last been, faintly surprised that she wasn’t still there. She shrugged infinitesimally.

Tala blinked slightly, having just noticed the shadows. She rubbed her forehead, Oy.. this was going to be a problem. And she would need to tell the others about it.. and soon. With a mental command, they stopped, resuming their places. Laina paused, then glanced over her shoulder. Seeing Zelda, she nodded.

"What do you think happened here? Those creatures from before, or something a little different?"

Zelda looked out painfully at the destruction.

"The Vile yes..I'm sure. But..there was something else too... The Vile don't just come out destroying things, at least the smart ones don't. They need wars to stay "alive" and without people they're without lifeblood." she quieted after the information. It had been a while since she had explained things like that. Fondly, she remembered her naive first meeting with the early CFs. Eme's welcome.. Eme..her face clouded. Of all the CFs, she had been fairly close to Eme and now it seemed like she would be gone as well soon.

She gasped slightly with a sharp realization. Of the first group, with UAs disappearance, she was the only one left. Unless you counted this alternate Razis, but, she shook the thought away, she wasn't going to make that mistake again. She couldn't afford to. Coda, she had felt his spirit surge up with the loss of Crystalia and had almost believed that he had come back to them somehow, but..aparently not. Naive, yes. She had, subconsciously, seen the CFs as invincible against the forces of evil.

But so many times had evil triumphed over good in this life. She counted by hurt, by lives lost, by all they couldn't save. And it would continue of course. CF was a noble cause, but a harsh one, made noble only by the combat against evil. Without evil...there was no reason for CF to even exist. She almost wished CF didn't exist for a second. There would be no evil to combat.. But was that really true? As Laina had, if inadvertently, suggested, there were other forces of wrong in the universes.

Laina frowned thoughtfully then studied Zelda as she began thinking to herself. Laina waited, then shrugged.

"Do you ever wonder.. what would happen if this group had never been formed? How much worse things could be?" She gestured to the planet. "If Vile didn't do this.. then something else did. We just weren't here to stop it in time. What I know of you all, is legendary. You are known as The Fighters where I come from." She paused. "I don't know what you were thinking about, and I won't try to guess.. because it didn't seem good.. But think of it this way.. Everything has a reason for being. This group, the Vile, you, me.. everything. And it usually happens, whether you wish it too or not. Such is the way of Fate. However, if that didn't work.. Think of the happiness you've caused two people. And how much you've helped the people you were able to save." With that, Laina turned to look over at the group again. "Hmm.. I see steam from our leader's ears.. I guess he didn't want us to wander off?"

"Fate" Zelda repeated in a mumble, then looked up at Laina's last comment with a half smile, "I would guess you're right." she replied with a wave towards the others, "We'd better join back up with them." she commented as she started to walk back towards the group.

Laina and Zelda reluctantly return to the group.

"Sorry" Zelda replied to the leader and Laina just sneers a bit.

Kaliana gasped and the rest of the group turned to see the wall straight ahead holding a man nailed to a wall.

"Richtor?!" Entropy yelled and runs up.

Below the body in blood was written the words: "The Hunter Falls Prey"

Entropy grabbed his half-brother’s dangling head and turned it towards him, suddenly Richtor's eyes and mouth snapped open and a shrill inhuman noise escaped him. His body began to meld itself into hundreds of fat brown insects that scattered down the wall. Dakey and Rupay screamed as the cockroach-like creatures spread small wings and zoomed into the air to fly at the CFs. They tried to run, but the bugs latched on and quickly burrowed into their skin

"AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!" They all screamed in unison as a blue light traveled through their veins and they fell unconscious.

"Sweet dreams." Wizrobe said as he hovered above.

The CF's were only unconscious for less then a minute but in that time the poison, or better yet potion had taken a radical effect on them.

The grownups had de-aged about twenty years while the kids had gone in the exact opposite direction!

Zelda yawned and sat up, ~What in the universes was...?~ she began to think when suddenly she realized things seemed a *lot* bigger.

"R-rupay?!" she exclaimed as the girl caught her eye. No, not a girl anymore. She looked almost like she had before.... There was someone next to her, just waking up as well. Zelda stared, eyes wide, he looked just like...so much like...

"Nity?!" she cried out in a first reaction, but she stopped before saying anything else.

"Dakey." she explained out loud. She looked around at the rest of the CFs, realizing the all the kids had just...grown up suddenly, while the adults... And then there was herself.

"Woweeee!" a voice said as Tachyon flew by. The transformation, being magical, had resized his armor. "This is the neatest toy ever!" He was now only about an inch tall. It seemed that some of the CFs were regressing mentally too, some quicker than others.

Meanwhile, a small puppy sized creature was furiously sniffing the air.

"Where'd he go?! Where'd he go?! Where'd he go?!" he said while jumping up and down. Grey Wolfe.

"I stand corrected," a teenage girl said. "My life can get worse." She appeared to be about sixteen. Ganthet's spirit within the body had staved off some of the affect. He'd only lost about ten years and appeared to be about 16.

"Bloody hell!" Entropy swore as he realized the problem. He was 10. He was frigging 10 years old!! They were screwed now! Ranting around the room, he finally reached the Griever as the others started to wake up. Picking it up, he noticed it seemed a little heavier. He tried to shift...no effect. Just like when he was 10.

"And here I thought you'd be less mature." Ganthet commented.

"You try romping through a playground when you were left on an abandoned planet ALONE for THREE MONTHS at this age!"

"Oh...Never mind."

"Dammit, dammit, dammit!!!!" He raged, storming out of the room. "Griever! Purge!"

The sword glowed slightly, but nothing happens.

"What the hell do you MEAN, there's no toxin?! What?!? What memory effect?! Then stop it! Damn right!" He suddenly remembered.

"Tala." He instantly headed back in, worried.

"E, watch your language." Zelda grinned at him, "Ten-year-old's shouldn't know such words!" she admonished mock-seriously. Then a shadow crossed her eyes as she remembered the kids. They'd been exposed to that and worse at even younger ages.

~I really ought to stop complaining.~ she grumbled to herself. ~Why ruin the fun of life?~ Then she tripped and almost fell flat on her face. She pulled at the edge of her pale dress. She had to drape and wind it a bit to keep it from dragging on the ground so much. She ended up with something messily knotted in odd places, but more convenient.

"Uh oh...I hope we don't have to fight like this.." she commented as she looked at the others, but then she broke into a giggle as a comical image entered her mind.

Tala sat on the ground, knees drawn up to her chest. Not again.. she had hated being a child, and now.. she was trapped.. trapped..

She rocked back and forth, while Laina chuckled at Zelda.

"You look like a roman goddess, in that get-up. Uhm.. is it just me.. or does it seem like a few of us.. are.. uh.. acting younger?"

"What do you mean?"

She pointed at the doctor.

"What are we gonna do if we all regress?"

Meanwhile, Entropy knelt down by Tala.

"You okay?"

She shook her head, she wasn't okay.. but she'd make the best of it. Just like she had done before.

"I'll be alright.. you should go check on the ..adults now.. I bet they're worried."

"Dakey..." Her voice was matured, heck...her whole body was matured! It was hard to remember what she looked like before she died. But then she was only a "teen" at that time. Because of the poison, she was a full woman and was even more gorgeous with her opal eyes and white hair. Let's not get started on her body...

"What's happened to us?"

Zelda looked over to Tala and E, neither seemed too happy about reverting to childhood. She couldn't see why. Other than that things would be much harder to reach. She looked towards Laina with a sudden urge and pointed at a nearby tree with study low branches. For a moment she stopped, such a silly notion...climbing a tree...but a minute later she was rushing over with a grin on her face.

~Why in the universes have I not done this in so long??~

The puppy that Grey Wolfe had become sniffed the ground furiously, his tail waging like mad.

"I can smell 'em! I can smell 'em! And I can smell.... Oooh, critters!" he ran off into the bushes and comes back out chasing a rabbit.

Tachyon sat down on a rock, trying to think.

"Ok. I am not really twelve. But my body thinks it’s twelve. All the chemicals and hormones in it think I'm twelve. So my instincts think I'm twelve. Well, I'm up the bacterial creek without a paddle."

Ganthet, still possessed of most of his reasoning skills, tried to get everyone to focus.

"OK," he said flatly, "we need to organize. And we still need to find UA, Kyle, and T. We need to fix this and deal with what ever Vile threat has befallen this planet and ....and I...," he suddenly starts to break into tears. "I'm sorry. It just all seemed so awful for a moment, and this blasted body of mine had a conditioned response."

Kevin woke up with a start, but the pain in his chest was gone.

"Apparently our mysterious friend is out of range." He grabbed his crystal and slipped it around his neck. His mind suddenly raced with images.

"The others are in trouble!" He summoned his cloak and in a flourish had teleported to the planet.

He reappeared in the midst of the chaos. Gery Wolfe stopped chasing the bunny and started sniffing him.

"Grey Wolfe…?" Kevin wasn't sure if it was Grey Wolfe or some twisted puppy.

"Yep, yep, yep, I can smell you!!!"

"Oooookay.... this is weird." Kevin said as he materialized a dog biscuit and threw it, drawing Grey's attention.

He continued looking for the others, trying to make sense of what was going on. He suddenly noticed the doc on a rock.

"Doc, What happened? You’re ever shorter then before! What in Bobo's name is goin on here?" He exclaimed, references to a god of a specific race of tree dwelling dwarves. A god that happened to be a drunken chimp.

Laina had followed Zelda up the tree, the two of them laughing as they swung from branch to branch.

Tala watched, then shook her head slightly, about to say something to as G began to cry. She rose, walking over to her. Resting a hand lightly on her shoulder, she wondered what to say.

"It's gonna be alright. We'll figure out a way to fix everything."

Laina by now was hanging upside down in the tree, and was helping Zelda do the same.. both of them trying not to ruin her dress or make her fall. When Kevin arrived, Laina scowled.

"Watch, he's going to ruin our fun."

"How?"

"..'s an adult. Adults always find a way."

Tala turned to Kevin, wryly grinning.

"We've regressed. All of the adults are children, and the children are adults. And some of us..."

She taps her head, then pointed at the doc, chuckling. Even though she was still basically her adult self in a pint-sized body, this just might have some advantages.

Zelda nodded vehemently, still upside-down.

"You were right!" she scowled at the serious discussion of their present situation. "What's wrong with being short anyway?" she grumbled flipping around the branch in a white flurry of fabric. "Wheeeeee!!" she giggled out happily.

"Now try with your eyes closed!" Laina encouraged with a sense of the mysteririous unknown. Zelda gave her a mocked surprised look.

"Closed??" she gasped, then grinned, "Neat idea!!"

Dakey came up to Rupay in a body somewhat shorter then Rupay's yet very tall by his people's standards; the trait had run in his family.

"Are you okay?" The dreamworld woman asked the Tenlion man as he seemed to be struggling for air.

"Just these clothes are so tight." The collar of his shirt suddenly burst a part and his shirt split half way down his chest.

"Ahhhhhhhh!" Dakey sighed as he sucked in a gulp of air.

Watching this happen made Rupay realize that her dress didn't cover everything.

"Uh..." She got into Zelda's things and borrowed a dress that fit better. Her face was beet red, embarrassed that Dakey had seen her half-clothed.

Kevin looked around, the scene was far too chaotic.

"What ever the magic is, it's not temporal in nature.. I'd notice that."

Suddenly Kevin’s crystal glowed red, "Our armored friend is here, somewhere..."

ELSEWHERE

"I failed." The armored man spoke to no one in particular.

"You did well, it’s been a log time since anyone has been able to hurt the Crystal Fighters that well." A mysterious presence replied.

"I did not get the nexus."

"Don't worry about the nexus, you are more then strong enough now."

"The spell worked?"

"On everyone but the boy."

"Doesn't surprise me, I won't be able to take him out of the battle again, he will be ready for me."

"No matter, the others are more important then him. I will be able to kill him if it comes to that." The man suddenly glowed with an eerie black light, "And if you are now more then powerful enough to destroy him."

"I will slay them all."

"Prepare for battle Rage, for it will be a glorious day."

Rage felt the presence leave.

"Prepare for your doom fools, you cannot stop me this time."

"Think we should go see what they're talking about?" Zelda asked, reluctance wafting through her voice, "After all..maybe we'll be stuck this way forever or something... We should probably change back as soon as possible." She wasn't too thrilled with the idea, what was wrong with being a kid anyway? So, they wouldn't be able to really fight anymore. She was having a hard time caring about that. This was so much nicer..

"OooOOOoo!!" she squealed excitedly, "Look!!" she pointed so frantically that she almost fell out of the tree. The amazing sight that was causing all the commotion was a bird. Specifically, an avian with shimmering rainbow sparkled wings. It had launched itself from a tree branch about ten feet away and was gracefully gliding through the air.

Of all the CFs, Kaliana seemed to have the least problem with her clothing. She maintained a dark frown of concentration. Though, in her present state it looked more like an annoyed pout. She refused to forget her purpose for being here. The memories were all too recent and clear. But..that the CFs could be neutralized so easily.. Yes, there were some (probably due to their unique physiology) that were not mentally regressing. But, they were not taking this new...old rather, form well. The kids just seemed a little confused though. Zelda and Laina..well.. She shook her head. Zelda had to be the weakest link of the CFs. She had yet to figure out the girl's purpose, other than her wavering healing powers. She gave a shrug. Well, whoever said fate and destiny made any sense? She walked over to the group in conversation, finally appreciating how long just a few weeks were.

"Can we take gene samples and analyze this whole mess at the lab on the ship or what?" she asked, sounding plaintive with her childish voice.

"Wow!"

Laina nearly fell as well, and then grinned at Zelda.

"Don't you wish you could turn into a bird? I wish I could. But I have an idea. Maybe this'll work."

Laina shut her eyes, thinking of wings. Wings on Zelda, pretty gossamer wings.. just like a faerie would have. One eye cracked opened, and she squealed! It had worked! Zelda now had a pair of delicate wings coming from her back. She clapped, happy.. but it backfired. She lost her grip on the branch.

"AHH!"

Zelda reached out for her, but Laina reacted quickly, and shifted into cat. Her claws dug into the trunk of the tree, and she stopped herself from getting too badly hurt.

She meowed up at Zelda, tail waving back and forth wildly.

"ZELDA!!"

Zelda jumped, at Tala's sudden yell. However, she didn't fall.

"You have WINGS!!"

Laina clawed her way back up, and grinned at Zelda.

~Fly! I wanna see you soar like that bird! And forget about the adults! Now's our chance to break loose for a while!~

A moment later, the Griever dug into the tree with a loud THUNK, the tree turning to ash immediately. Laina landed on her feet, but stared up from Entropy's foot.

"There's very little that annoys me more than people causing trouble. Change her back. Now." Retrieving the Griever from the ashes, he pointed it at Laina. "I won't tolerate it if you don't."

Laina reverted to her natural form, glaring at Entropy.

"TROUBLE! All I did was give a pair of wings. They aren't going to last!! And you had to go ruin our fun!"

She stamped her foot, then burst into tears.

"I HATE you!! Hate you hate you hate you!"

Before Entropy or anyone could react, she shifted into wolf form and took off. Even though she was just a pup, she was still fast. Tala went over to Entropy.

"Great move. Now, what do you we suggest we do?"

"Let her go. No sweat off my back if something happens, ain't my responsibility. Besides, we've got bigger problems." With that, he turned, storming back into the castle. "Good riddance."

Tala grabbed him by the shoulder, before he made it through the door.

"You aren't the Entropy I know."

"No, I'm not. So?"

Tala frowned. Then she removed her hand from his shoulder, and stepped back.

"Fine, you want to be an idiot... go right ahead. But if I've lost a friend because of your cruel words, the favor will be repaid."

She glared at him, then turned on her heel, stalking away. Entropy stared after her, then resumed walking into the castle. Tala paused, looking at Kaliana.

"I agree, tests need to be run. I guess Kevin, Rupay and Dakey should gather everyone up. I'll be back after I find Laina."

Dammit! Now he'd done it. God, what was wrong with-Dangit. It was the regression. He'd always been violent, especially so back then. But now...

"Tala! Tala, wait up."

"What do you want?"

"I'm sorry. I'm letting this stuff get to me. Don't worry, I'll patch things up with Laina...but would you mind coming along? I mean...I don't wanna screw up again." He bowed his head slightly. "I didn't mean to get you angry...I'm sorry."

She sighed. Then she looked at him, frowning thoughtfully. She could understand what was going on, and she knew that he must feel bad about it..

"All right.. Let's go find her."

Laina was running, running.. running to get away from what had just happened. But finally, she came to a stop. She sat on her haunches, looking around the area. It was worse here.

There was nothing left. Just rubble here and there. She sat quietly for a few minutes, and then let a soft howl.

From where Tala and Entropy were, they could hear it.

"Over there!" Tala pointed, and they both began to walk to her. Entropy walks quietly as ever, but Tala.. still not having learned that art, stepped on a small branch underfoot.

Laina jumped up, looking around. Seeing Entropy, she growled.

Entropy flinched slightly, letting the defensive shield around him drop. He had to remember, he was 20, not 10. He needed the calm, the leadership...the diplomacy he had. Taking a deep breath, he started towards her, hands up.

"I'm sorry, Laina...I didn't mean to snap at you like that. Could you forgive me?" He said, haltingly. He didn't like saying that...each word tasted like pitch. He grumbled, slowly edging towards her.

She stopped growling, and sat down again. Eyeing him thoughtfully, she waited. As he moves closer, she rose, then shifted back to natural form.

"All right... I forgive you... This time."

She looked over at Tala.

"Your doing, or his own?"

"No, he did it.. on his own."

Laina nodded, then looked at Entropy.

"Okay... I guess we should go back, the others are prolly worried. Let's go."

She ran off again, bypassing a semi-stunned Entropy.

"What was that?"

"She can't hold her anger for long. You're lucky."

Tala turns, then turns back to him again.

"C'mon.. let's go."

Meanwhile, Zelda was floating a few feet off the ground. How rude of Entropy to just disintegrate her tree like that! It had been a perfectly good climbing tree. And then making her friend go off who knows where. She had wanted to follow, but she was just getting the hang of these frail fluttering wings. She lowered herself unsteadily to the ground and touched down lightly.

~So this is what is feels like to have wings like Eme..EME!~ Zelda thought suddenly bursting into tears. The Queen of Crystalia had been almost like a mother to her.

"Aww.. Zellie, don't cry. He said he was sorry."

She turned, and Laina stood there, smiling shyly at her.

"How do you like your wings? Were ya able to fly yet? I know they're prolly weak right now, just give 'em some time."

Tala and Entropy showed up a few moments later, and Tala looked around. She went over to Kevin.

"So, what are we going to do?"

Tachyon meanwhile, was regressing rather quickly. He was busy seeing what he could blow up with his pulse blasters.

Ganthet looked around and sighed. Things had really hit the fan now. But...that was odd. He was feeling strangely sick. He fell to the ground, feeling like his skin was on fire. It fact, it was. When he rose again, he was himself again. Although a himself from when he was a teenager. A smile crosses his restored crystalline features.

"Heh. Our old enemy just did me a favor. When those....things reverted us, my spirit and body were in conflict. My spirit just won out."

Grey Wolfe meanwhile, was running around like a chicken with his head cut off. He sniffed everything and was chasing everything from a bunny to a bug.

It was then, that all you-know-what broke loose. A horde of Vile attacked the transformed CFs.

Seeing the oncoming Vile, Kevin's eyes glowed.

"This is not good." He muttered as he fired a couple blasts, trying to delay their advancement, "HEADS UP! WE GOT PROBLEMS!"

Not far behind the Vile, Rage stood amused at the chaos about to ensue. He would finish them off this time. That much he was sure of.

Zelda stumbled backwards in surprise, catching herself with her wings. She gave Laina a smile, wiping away the tears though, it still just wasn't fair. Eme had been so nice, nice people were supposed to make it through anything. Meanwhile...she was intending on psychically pushing the Vile away, mostly to see if she was strong enough for that yet. Then she realized it. Her psi powers were gone. Completely blocked off.

~Of course.~ she thought, ~They've only come up in the last year or so...~ There was a reason she had kept herself busy at her little home's library. It was easy to disappear into the histories of space (through moongate, of course) travel. All the different worlds.. with the same lack of telepathy that had set her apart from her peers. In group lessons at..what UA would've called "school" as just part of daily learning they'd get together. Or play mind games after school, testing out their powers. Hers had developed so late in life that the elders had started whispering that she was an anomaly without the natural abilities of the rest of her species. Like a human born with one less appendage.

Zelda grumbled and reached for her Crystal. At least it reacted to her soul and not to her physical presence. A moment of blue-purple mist later and she stepped forth as Rydia. One of the Vile rushed towards her, picking the "young girl" as an easy target.

~Whatever happened to not attacking women and children?~ she asked, only half aloud. She raised her arms in an unconscious gesture, drawing the dregs of water up from the ground and into a writhing mass of wet blue. Suddenly, the slowing forming sphere collapsed, splashing across the group at the Viles' feet.

"LET ME GO!" she shrieked in a high-pitched tone. Another Vile had come up behind and grabbed her by the wings.

Grey Wolfe ran up to a Vile, jumped up, and bit its arm. He didn't let go, just hung there. After a minute, the Vile looked at him, then started shaking its arm to try and get Grey off. It kept shaking, but Grey had his teeth sunk in tight. Finally, it grabbed him by the nape of the neck, pulled him off his arm, and tossed him to the side.

"Grrrr," Grey growled, baring his fangs, "I'm ronna ret rou!"

Tachyon floated in front of a Vile, and suddenly realized he couldn't remember how to work most of his armor. He raised a hand and pressed his index, middle, and ring fingers together. Twin bolts of electricity shot out and exploded the Vile's head. Unfortunately, Tachyon forgot to brace himself and was blown to the ground.

Ganthet, was thoroughly enjoying himself. He'd been an arrogant, cocky, and foolishly brave young warrior. His sword sliced through the air, separating a Vile's arm from its body. Unfortunately, he put too much power behind the swing, and left himself open for a Vile to land a slash across his chest.

Entropy shot across the battlefield, growling as he struggled to retain his experience. He cleaved a Vile in two, then leapt between its halves to cut open a second, then looked to Zelda, and sliced a new one for the Vile attacking her. He tripped then landed face-down in the grass. He could hear the Vile over him, sword raised...

"Griever! Fight!" The sword instantly leapt from his hands, fencing with the Vile until it finally dug into its "heart," and Entropy smirked a bit as shafts of black light emerged from the creature, finally shattering from the Griever's power. As the blade snapped back into his hand, he fought his way over to Tala, trying to make sure if she was all right.

"Entropy, look out!"

Tala pointed, just a second too late. The Vile swung, catching him off guard, and knocking him into the ground.

Laina growled, and as Tala tried to make her way over, Laina was off again. She hopped over two fallen Vile, landing in front of Entropy (between him and the Vile).

"Pick on someone your own size!"

The Vile roared at her, and Laina waves a hand in front of her face.

"Ewww! You need a breath mint! And a better attitude!"

He swung, and she dodged, and then she leapt at him. Claws dug into face, and she started slashing wildly.

Meanwhile, Tala cast a web of shadows around another Vile, dropping him to the ground. Two more made their way to her, and while she attacked one, the other grabbed her, lifting her up. She squirmed, trying to break loose, when he flung her, knocking her into the Vile that was attacking G. They both fell to the ground.

Laina slashed the throat of the Vile she was on, and fell, landing on her feet. Seeing Tala fly, she gulped.

"Ut-oh.."

Entropy was gonna be soooo mad. Huh. Maybe she could help someone with strong powers.. they'd be able to fry at least fifty Vile that way.

Entropy saw it, a second too late to do anything as he got to his feet, the Griever in hand. He chuckled slightly. Then, a little more. They'd always said he was more than a little uncontrollable at this age....

When he looked up, his eyes glowed red.

"I'm killing them ALL." He said simply.

He was still laughing. Raising the Griever overhead, it glowed strongly. He shot off through the Vile horde, slicing open each one as they came anywhere near him, even the ones that started to run didn't have a chance. Finally, he stopped, as blood sprayed across his cheek. He chuckled again, grinning, then the glow faded from his eyes, and he collapsed as his strength left him.

Zelda covered her eyes with her hands, her wings retracted in an elongated cringe.

"Did he get them all yet?" she asked fearfully.

Kevin's eyes glowed brightly, he couldn't let the Vile get to them when they were so defenseless.

"RUN FOR IT!" he yelled as he slammed his fist into the ground and a wave of energy threw a line of Vile several feet away, "Run for it, I'll cover you!"

Still advancing slowly, Rage could see everything.

"Yes, leave him alone, that will make destroying you all so much easier."

"I can feel my power is stronger now!" Dakey excitedly reported to Kevin, and indeed Dakey's powers had matured with his physical body. "I can still help."

Two Vile advanced on Dakey and he turned his palms outward instinctively, and swung both arms upward and the ground below the two dark creatures rose in pillars of flame and they were instantly incinerated. A third Vile had its head taken off be a white hot fireball and the rest of its body crumbled to dust.

"Yeah." Kevin said, this definitely wasn't the timid child he had met back on Destiny's Child.

Zelda stood still for a moment and rather than watching what was going on around her, she made an oh-so-observant comment.

"Wow. Look at the new stuff Dakey can do now!" she chirped randomly to anyone within hearing distance.

BACK IN DESTINY ON ALTERNATE CRYSTALIA

Razis looked at his altered body.

"What happened?" he was now in the body of a child. Suddenly it came to him, something must have happened to Zelda that was also infecting him.

~The Crystal Fighters are quite arrogant risk takers, putting Zelda's life on the line, which means mine is to, that makes me really mad!!!!!~ He snarled as he squeezed his small body between the bars of his cell. ~and when I get mad people die!!!~

FAIA

Zelda was still staring, fairly blankly, at Dakey's new powers at work, when one (of the few) Vile left came up behind her. It was a little more wary than the others had been, now that it had seen what the CFs could do, even if they were younger. Though, it recorded for its leader the fact that many of the CFs were mentally unstable after the transformation.

This was one of the Vile that had been genetically enhanced--it's systems functioning with acid as it's base structure. It reached out towards her, smoldering the air with an aura of destruction. It didn't even have to touch her, just the nearness was enough.

Zelda staggered forward with a cry as the air seemed to burn against her back. It ate away at one of the many *many* layers of white fabric around her, but it still hurt. She whirled around, tripped, and fell on her face, still chanting, "ow ow ow ow ow ow OW!" just to let everyone know that she wasn't having a good time. She threw a rock at the Vile, but, like some of the weapons..and even a few spells..that had been used against it, the acid effected it as well. A moment later the rock had disintegrated into it's component particles.

Dakey released spears of flames that caught the Vile in the shoulder another in its chest, it slammed it back into a tree holding it there for seconds until its acid coating melted the tree out of existence.

The Vile charged back at Dakey and swung at him but a burst of flame surrounded him like a shield.

The Vile fist deflected of the wall of flame and its momentum

carried it crashing to the ground. Dakey jumped high into the air and accessed an attack that he had already developed in his youth, the Flaming Missile attack, as he fell back to land he appeared to become a solid flame shooting like a missile, he crashed into the middle of the Vile's back and it exploded.

Zelda uncovered her eyes.

"Wow! Thanks!" she exclaimed happily. In the back of her mind though, it seemed a little strange. It had always been she *trying* to protect the kids. Now it was the other way around. She looked about a bit for Rupay, but she forgot what she was going to say before she even said it. Instead she ended up running over to Laina, babbling about the "neato powers" of the active CFs around her.

Kevins Crystal glowed brightly, "Dakey, get everyone out of here, NOW!" he snarled, realizing that Rage was coming. He looked into a seemingly empty spot in the sky and released a blast of energy, it erupted, revealing Rage's location.

"COMMON PAL JUST YOU AND ME!!!"

"Yea! Dakey has a huge fireball, just way too cool! But, it musta hurt that Vile though.. heh heh. Good riddance to bad rubbish!"

Laina glanced around, blinking as Kevin snarled, and then.. that flash...

"Hey? Who's that?"

She pointed at the sky, where Rage could now be seen.

Tala had her hands full helping Entropy, finally, she was able to sit him up, and leaned him against the stump of a tree.

Sighing, she scowled at the spot where Rage now waited, and then looked over at Dakey.

"Are you going to need any help?"

"YEAH!" Zelda replied enthusiastically, "And look over there!" she pointed again, trying to decide which was more interesting, Kevin with his Crystal glowing, or Rage coming towards them. "Oh wait...I think that other guy might be a bad guy.." she looked nervously at Laina and fluttered her wings.

Entropy groaned, getting to his feet and raising the Griever.

"Gh....Get out of...here..." he said, staggering slightly. "I'm...I'll keep you safe....Just go."

"Entropy, you're in no cond-"

"Dammit! Get going!" He staggered again, and Tala caught him before he could fall. "Just...just go. Get into...the castle...I'll cover you. I have to...I'm 10...but I'm still the leader here..."

"A-all right. But I'll help you." Tala said, still helping him to stand as they start back towards the castle.

"Griever...shield the door with death once we're inside...Anything that isn't our ally...kill it on contact. Understand, old friend?"

The sword glowed slightly, then flew out of his hands as the last of them entered the castle, and a dark aura of black light surrounds the door. Seeing an opportunity, one of the vile ran at it...and atomized as soon as it hit the aura. The sword glowed softly, almost chuckling as it held its position.

Kevin's eyes glowed green as he flew after Rage. Catching him with a series of charged punches he delivered a roundhouse that sent him flying through a couple trees.

~I gotta give them enough time to get clear, then I'll take this guy out... one way or another.~ Kevin thought as he dove after Rage.

CASTLE HQ

"I'm scared....," Zelda said. "I've never been that afraid of the Vile before..."

"We're all scared Zelda," Dakey said. "Children shouldn't have to deal with the Vile."

Entropy looked at the other CFs, standing in front of the door, his strength returned to him. He had a normal sword now, taken from the castle's armory. He stood stoically, his sword staked down before him like a walking stick.

"I'll let anybody who's planning on trying to leave know right now...You want out, you go through ME. Got it? Right now we're kids. We'd be a problem out there. A liability."

"But-" Ganthet started to say.

"No buts." Entropy said, maintaining his poise. "Nobody leaves. Unless..." he glanced to Ganthet. "You'd like to test your skill, G."

"Guys."

Tala stepped forward, looking between them.

"This is not what we need.. fighting amongst ourselves. Entropy is right, we wouldn't be much help on the battlefield. We're too young."

"There' s gotta be a way that we can help him though.. 's not right, him being out there all 'lone."

She glanced over at Laina, and shrugged.

"There should be way that we can help... but we can't go out there. Remember? He wanted us in. Unless you know of a way to make us adults again, then we're stuck.. and so is he."

Laina scowled, and turns away to think, while Tala shook her head.

"So, what's the plan? Anyone have any ideas?"

Zelda was clinging to Rupay, they could still hear the sounds of battle from inside the castle.

"We could put some traps around the castle, like in those old medieval scenarios...you know, with the boiling oil and such. I could put in boiling water!!"

"Um...Zel, no one's laying seige.."

"Well, just in case." she clutched Rupay's hand tightly, "We'd be more protected and stuff. Butbutbut Kevin must be more scared.”

“We can't let him fight out there alone. Griever's guarding the castle entrance, so nothing's getting in, so we might be able to do something from inside. Pyro must've left some artillery around here before he bought it, Tala, take Zelda and Ganthet and start looking for some. The rest of you, start looking around for anything, and I mean ANYTHING, we could fire at that sucker out there. And one more thing, those of you who still wanna try gung-ho-ing it out there. I'm personally gonna kick the ass of ANYONE who leaves this castle without my permission. Got me?"

The others nodded quickly, then headed off on their respective tasks. Entropy continued to stand stoically at the door, waiting for what he hoped was good news.

Ganthet seems to be comtenplating Entropy's words, waging an inner battle.

"How DARE you speak that way to the prince of the Crystalix....," he started to say, then suddenly stopped.

"I'm sorry. I couldn't control that. I was a very arrogant teenager. So sure of myself and my abilities...I took nothing from no one. Almost got me killed a couple times."

Tachyon took Grey Wolfe and Laina with him to look in the castle's basement.

He kept repeating to himself, "I am not really twelve years old. I can keep myself sane and rational. I am not really twelve."

The battle between Kevin and Rage was heating up quickly. Both men were using their powers to their max. Kevin was getting sick of it though. Rage was giving as good as he got and the fight was becoming a standstill. Kevin slammed Rage with an energy blast then Rage burned him with a fire blast.

Kevin decided he needed to push himself farther then ever before. He summoned as much power as he dared to, lifted off the ground above Rage and fired. A 3-foot wide blast of energy slammed into Rage, driving him into the ground, but within seconds he was back up.

"Doesn't ths guy ever quit?" Kevin swore. He tapped a button on his belt and the clouds seemed to open up with laser fire. Half a dozen lasers from Destiny blasted Rage back into the ground. The crater seemed to be 30 feet wide.

"If you ain't dead, you probably wish you were." Kevin said.

CASTLE HQ

On the mission to find military supplies, Zelda dragged Rupay along. She was determined to be of *some* help. It was dreadful to be so useless on a normal basis, but now in this form?? Then again..kids could reach places adults couldn't... she thought, grinning as she got down on her knees.

"Zelda.."

"Just a minute," she waved Rupay away and squeezed through a small passageway. Normally it was supposed to be an air hole or..something. She shrugged. It didn't matter what it was *supposed* to be. At the moment it was a really neat indoor cave.

"Zelda!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming." Zelda grumbled, still going forward on her hands and knees (thankful that she had earlier taken the time to change into shorts and a shirt "borrowed" from the CFs that had previously been kids). A moment later it opened up into a slightly larger area with a treasure chest on each side. She started to pretend that one of the boxes would reveal a secret magical (as well as sparkly) treasure and the other would lead to certain death! But, then she started getting a little nervous about which box to open, so she stopped pretending.

"Hmm... We gotta look for weapons. Anyone have an idea as to where Pyro would hide 'em?"

Tachyon shook his head, and then Tala stopped, looking around.

"Where'd Zelda go?"

Laina rolled her eyes at Tachyon. She looked around the basement, frowning thoughtfully.

"So.. uhm.. what are we looking for? Anything in particular.. or just... anything?"

Tala looked up to the ducts, then at G.

"We can wait here for her, I can have someone else go look for us."

"Who?"

"Them."

She pointed, and three shadows stepped forward, then melted into the walls.

"They'll check the area around here. While we wait for Zelda.. maybe she found something."

Zelda attempted to decide to just drag them both out, but one was *way* too heavy. Hesitantly, she opened it. No golden light, no earth-shaking cataclysm, just another box! She glared at it, but then shrugged and tried to lift it. Weeeird. The tiny thing seemed to weigh even more than it had with the bigger box as well. Shakily, she levitated it out and dropped it next to Rupay's foot. There was a resounding clang that seemed more visceral than anything else. She tried to pull the next box along. It was so light she ended up falling over and hitting her head. She sniffled for a minute and then attempted to push the thing out the hole she had come in. Of course, it didn't fit.

"Oh, I give up!" she exclaimed and teleported herself and the box outside. "I found something!!!!!" she yelled as soon as she materialized. "But um..I don't know what it is..or if it's at all useful." she mumbled and then set about breaking into the second box. This time she almost got zapped backwards, but automatically deflected the laser of electricity (which went crashing through the next hall instead). She tapped the lid and it opened lightly. She gave it a look of consternation and pulled out an object (it wasn't even *glowing*!) that looked like a deformed sculpture of..chaos or something. "Great. An art project." she grumbled.

"What.. an.. ugly.. thing."

Tala wrinkled her nose at it.

"But you know, it could be useful! To bad we couldn't make it come to life or something.. and then get to help Kevin. I'd bet it'd kick that guy’s butt!"

She then paused, and tilts her head to the side, as if hearing something.

"Hey, they found something! Be right back."

She went over to the wall, then phased through it. A few minutes later, she returns; along with the shadows. All are carrying guns (of various types). One shadows is pulling a box of ammo behind him.

"Ya think this is enough?"

"Entropy. Let me out." Once Tala, Laina and Tachyon had come over to wait for Zelda, Rupay had returned to the main hall. Now she was towering over E commandingly.

Entropy looked up at her, still standing in the same position.

"No." He knew this was a gamble, but then, he'd never been all that respectful of his elders. And he remembered what he needed. "I'm not letting anybody out, and neither is Griever. And I can't change its opinion. You want to help, get the weapons together and start helping."

"Listen, Entropy, you're 10. You-"

"I don't give a flying f*** if I'm 10, 20, or 500! I'm the leader here. Now if you wanna help, help. You want out, think of something else to do. Got me?"

Abruptly, a familiar figure appeared.

“Hello, Zelda.”

Zelda could hardly believe it. Eme? Back? And stronger than even it seemed. She almost glowed with a radiant aura. Zelda smiled at her, thankful that at least part of the horror had just been a bad dream, banished with the light of the morning sun.

"How...did you..?" she asked, haltingly, "We thought..the ship blew up..and UA escaped but..."

Eme smiled and hugged Zelda then led the group back towards the main hall.

"Let's just say an old friend called me to his kingdom, in the nick of time, to knock some sense into me." Eme listened to Rupay and Entropy.

"Wait here." She said and disappeared.

"Alright Entropy, have it your way, Eme!" Emerald floated down from the ceiling and landed before Entropy with a smile on her face.

"Dear, dear Entropy. She doesn't need to gather weapons to help. She shouldn't even be in here with you children. Rupay is more powerful then she or anyone else ever imagined. Now that she's aged she can tap that power with my help."

Eme paused a moment.

"Now let her pass!"

"..."

Entropy paused, looking to Eme, then to Rupay. He held the same pose, then finally took a deep breath.

"Get Kevin back here alive." He said, and a moment later the door opened, the Griever still holding its force field before it. "It won't hurt you."

As Eme walked past him, Entropy broke his form, and the sword was at Eme's throat.

"Listen, Ems. Just because I look like a kid doesn't mean I act like one. Don't give me any of your patronizing bullshit." With that, he put the sword down, glaring daggers at Eme. "Get moving, or I'll seal the barrier again."

She stopped for a moment, looking at him.

"Go. Now. Before I change my mind."

With that, she left and the barrier closed after her. However, E left the physical door open to monitor the battle.

"Same ol Entropy. I feel sorry for him." Eme said sincerely and Rupay and her walked on.

Tala sighed, and shook her head.

"They know what they're doing Entropy. I don't think anythin' happen to them. Here's what I found.."

She motioned to where the shadows are dragging in the ammo and weapons.

"Besides, she's right.. Rupay is extremely powerful.. if she ever went bad.. We'd be screwed."

Dakey stood peering out a window. Three bars came down in it, much like a cell door in those old dungeons. Dakey gripped tightly to the bars, he could feel his sweaty hands slipping on the cold metal as the blasts of battle raged outside, it was growing into night, the air was cooling his damp forehead. The cold sweat running down his face gave him chills. He looked back at Kevin who now lay unconscious on the ground, it was hopeless, this villain had been defeated before but that was when the adults were in charge, now they were kids probably as frightened as he was. They no longer had the power to stand up to this creature and Dakey felt all his sense of security leave him when he saw Zelda now as fragile as himself. The original adrenalin rush he had felt earlier while fighting the Vile had now worn off, his body had matured but his mindset had stayed behind and this was to much for him to take in and process, Dakey suddenly fell to his knees and grasped his stomach wrapping both arms around his torso then he fell to the ground shivering and looking out into no where.

Kevin landed just outside the castle, exhausted from the battle and the intense overuse of his powers he collapsed right in front of Eme.

Kaliana paced back and forth in front of the door, hoping the rhythmic footsteps would get on Entropy's nerves enough that he'd let her out there to help as well. These CFs were such strange people. Not that she expected anything different, why wouldn't they lock themselves up in a castle and leave the others to deal with things? She twisted her chubby little child face into a frown, CFs. CFs.

"Eme..are you sure you're okay now?" Zelda asked from the doorway, her voice quavering worriedly, "To fight..." then she noticed Kevin, "Oh no!" she dredged up some of her, now not so easily accessible, magic and moments later a blue haze was surrounding him.

"Yes, take him inside Zelda and take care of him." Eme said. She also wanted Zelda out of the battle to keep her safe.

"Umm...I don't think I can lift him." Zelda said with a dubious look on her face. The two of them thoroughly annoying E. With the spells she had cast lately trying to levitate such weight was out of the question. Unless she intended to drag him into the castle that way, but she didn't want to aggravate his injuries, the spell was no rejuvenating fountain of health after all.

Suddenly, Zelda canceled the spell.

"Eme!" she exclaimed, her focus still on Kevin. "I can't, I'm doing it all wrong!"

"Zelda, it's just a spell..you can still do it.." Rupay said cautiously.

"No!" Zelda replied, "I can't..I can't tell where he is or what's wrong.. I can't heal him." she whispered in shock at her own loss of power. Of all the things she couldn't do there was always in the center her healing; she could always help, however slightly. But now.. she couldn't tell where he was injured, how, how much.. It was all a blank. Just attempting that spell could have..killed him. She couldn't even send forth life energy to revive him. There were so many different types; it always had to be altered when sent on to another. But, she couldn't feel the identifying signature..couldn't find the pattern to alter to.

"I could have hurt him." she gasped out softly, looking wide-eyed at Kevin.

Kevin woke up and struggled to his feet.

"Its not over, I had to use Destiny's weapons to knock him down, I know he isn't out of it. Whatever power boost he's gotten... he’s more powerful then all of us." He groaned as he tried to walk through the door.

Eme stopped Kevin and put her hand to his forehead. She mumbled a few words unknown. His whole body glowed a green light and his injuries were healed within seconds. This was fast for her healing, signifying her change.

"Zelda, go back inside the castle. Dakey needs you." Eme said.

"Dakey!" Rupay cried and started back to the castle, but Eme grabbed her arm.

"No, you must fight Rupay. This is your destiny and you know it. Only you have the power."

"But Dakey needs me..."

"This world needs you." Rupay looked down sadly and nodded.

"I'll do it for Dakey. Go Zelda! Help him."

"Now, take us to the battle Kevin" Eme said.

"Dakey?" Zelda asked in surprise and worry. What had she been missing with her psi powers gone? She nodded at them, giving Eme a gracious smile of thanks. Though, she was a little surprised at how easy and fast the healing was done. She called to the CFs to let her through the door, wondering if Griever was still nearby to stop her.

ELSEWHERE

Zealen, being in a far off place, was watching the stars from his new home.

"Sir, the Space Station is officially complete. We wouldn't have been able to do it without you. You have saved the Protoss race." Zealen looked back and nodded. He knew the CFs needed him, but would they want him back? He had been gone for, 8 months now? Zealen pondered for a moment. He then knew what he needed to do.

"Is my new suit's systems completed yet, Delix?" Delix looked at his clipboard, and looked back at Zealen.

"Yes sir."

"Good. Tell them to get ready for the replacement."

Zealen walked into the R&D room, being welcomed by a few Protoss females.

"Sir, this way please."

They led him into a room with 2 stands, one with his new suit, and an empty one.

"Please, stand here, sir."

They pointed to the empty stand. He stood in it, and a force field covered the two stands.

"Activate Sequence! All power is normal."

Zealen's body began to deteriorate in his old suit, and appear in his new one. Finally, the procedure was complete, and the force fields were lifted.

"How do you feel sir?"

Zealen looked at Delix, and pointed at him with all three fingers.
"I feel like seeing some old friends." And with that, Zealen disappeared in a flash of bright blue light.

FAIA

BASEMENT

Laina opened a box...

Nothing?!?

It was empty.. what a crock!

"Nuts.. nuttin' in there... I thought for sure..."

She scowled, and walks away from it, back to the others.

MAIN HALL

Tala's head poked through the shield the Griever had cast, ghost-like.

"C'mon Zellie.. it's okay. It'll just stop anything bad from coming through. Not you though, yer one of us."

She held a hand out to her.

"But if you're unsure, I'll phase you through. I can phase through anything, remember?"

Zelda nodded, and took her hand. Tala helped her through, gently. They were reunited with the others, Kaliana frowning at Tala.

"Yes, I could have done that any time, but Entropy was.. and is right.. we can't help him. Most of us regressed too much. Rupay should be able to do it though."

Then she turned to Zelda, and hugged her, spur of the moment.

"Don't worry, Zellie.. they'll come back to you. Everything will be alright in the end."

"I hope so." Zelda said nodding.

"Well?" Kaliana asked impaitiently, "What happened??"

"Eme healed Kevin--"

"Zellie...you're regressing too much..loosing memory...Eme is gone, remember?"

"No, no, no! She's alive, and she's helping! They went back to the battle but I...wait, Dakey, I had to come back because something happened to Dakey...where is he?" she asked, looking around anxiously.

Zelda looked and looked but Dakey was gone. All she found was a broken window.

Zelda ran over and started tugging on Entropy's shirt.

"E! E! E! E! Entrop-YYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!" she chanted until she got his attention, "Dakey's gone and there's a broken window and there's something wrong!" she felt a little silly saying that was there was *always* something wrong. And other things at the moment were *very* wrong. But, it got the idea across, didn't it?

Entropy scowled.

"God Dammit!" He stormed up to the room, Zelda following behind him with a fearful look.

"See? See? He's gone!"

"The little....He must've gotten out through the window. Dammit all to hell! I swear, as soon as I get back to normal..." he stormed for a moment, then looked at Zelda, who instantly withdrew, thinking that his wrath was on her.

"Zel, relax. I'm not mad at you. But it's not like we can do anything now. Come on, go help the others. I'll see what I can do."

"O...ok..." She replied as he left, heading back to the entrance.

Zealen popped out of the shadows and put his hand on Entropy's shoulder.

"Need some, assistance, comrade?"

Zelda stared for a moment at Zealen.

"Y-you're alive?!?!" she exclaimed in shock. For a moment she thought that this had to be a dream, no matter how real things seemed. These people kept...coming back from the dead! Eme..Zealen... she was just thankful that their alternate Razis hadn't made an appearance. Without her psi powers, she really wouldn't be able to tell them apart. She took the time to blink twice, then grabbed the leg of Zealen's suit in a hug before scampering off to declare to everyone that Zealen was back--just in case they didn't know already.

"Of course I'm alive. I just needed time to myself." Zealen said, placing his hand, or what would fit, on Zelda's shoulder when she’s come full circle. He looked at her with a glare in his orange eyes, and lifted his Crystal. "Besides, we're together again. I'm sure with my help, we'll be able to destroy that little problem of yours."

About five minutes later she got bored with that activity and remembered what she had been doing earlier. She frowned darkly.

~Dakey.~

She left the large box where she had placed it earlier, in the corner of the room. Maybe one of the others would figure out how to open it. She took the energy to levitate herself out of the broken window, bringing with her the smaller--if heavier--box.

"I take it you were one of us?" Grey Wolfe asked once E had taken Zealen back to the group.

"Yes," The miniature, armored scientist, Doctor Tachyon said, "I 'member from the records. But supposedly, he fell into the Core with another, Kisutsu."

Zelda was curious about the battle, but if something had happened to Dakey... Besides, she rationalized, Rupay and Eme were handling it along with a healed Kevin. She was still aggravated that she couldn't use her good healing spells anymore. They *had* to get this problem fixed!! Ah, but first to find Dakey. She made it to the forest, in the opposite direction of the battle, and began to search for traces.

Zelda jogged along, first tracing the path of broken glance, then that of Dakey's footprints. It took her a while to realize those were his though, they were so big compared to the little ones she was using to tracking when he disappeared. Those ones barely made a mark in the ground; it was easier to follow these firm impressions in the earth.

~Where in the universes did he go?~ she wondered, half curious.

This search was definitely more interesting than being cooped up in the castle with E blocking the door with his absurd new height and Kaliana trying to make annoying noises. Hmm...he could have just decided to go out for a walk. That was a nice idea, maybe.. Wait, no. Keep focused! She could have fun when she found Dakey after all. He couldn't have gone all that far....unless he was using his newly strengthened powers. She frowned slightly, would he want to return to his old self after this? And Rupay...that was her original form...that was how she had been before... She blinked away thoughts of the cataclysmic end of their Crystalia.

Not long later, she exited the forest and found Dakey curled up in a ball near a large boulder that oddly sat in the middle of a field, Zelda couldn't see any means of origin for the huge rock that blocked half the sky's view as she neared.

With a small pudgy hand Zelda pulled away Dakey's forearm from where it covered his face and realized he had been crying, it was odd to see the tears of a young fragile child staining a man's face.

"Dakey what is it?"

"It's him Zellie, he is inside I can feel his magic in me." Dakey's lip quivered and a new batch of tears began to consummate within his reddened eyes.

"Who Dakey?" she wiped the wetness from his face.

"The bad man, he tried to hurt Rupay and me and now he wants to hurt everyone else, and his monsters, they're so MEAN!!!!" Dakey rasped loudly and began to shake.

"Shhh shh shh," Zelda hushed him and held him tightly. "You don't need to worry about him Dakey, he won't hurt you, we'll protect you."

"No Zellie he made you little so he could hurt us again, I can't let him." Dakey looked at Zelda strikingly and then she gasped as a new essence entered her mind, or one she hadn't felt in some time. The psychic link she had had with Nity, she could feel it again but this time it was coming from Dakey.

~It must be an aspect of his aging.~ Zelda thought and her the link was the spark that suddenly reawakened her psychic abilities, hopefully her underdeveloped mind could still cope with them. Suddenly she sensed what Dakey did, Wizrobe was near. Zelda looked back at the boulder now realizing it was simply an illusion, there was something more, it blocked an entrance way to a hidden lair, and they entered.

Zelda sighed thankfully as her mind was opened to the things around her, she hated to be so blind. With her sense of life back, she felt older; denying some of the regression her younger body had caused her mind. Yes, they had already entered this place that reeked of danger...and Wizrobe. But, was Dakey really ready for such a confrontation? Was either of them? They weren't used to this change, would one of them break down at a crucial moment. She shook her head, it didn't matter, they were here and they were going to get something done for once.

Zelda was surprised that the illusion hadn't revealed something more...technological. But then, maybe that was part of the camouflage of the secret entrance. This part that they traveled through was spiraling downwards in a obstacle course of stalactites and stalagmites. She hated caves. She'd always hated them..just the thought that it was so easy to be trapped in the depths.. She shuddered and resisted the urge to take the adult's hand for comfort.

If anyone was in need of comfort, it was probably Dakey. She was supposed to be the older, the more secure..used to things like this..able to handle them. Then again, that had never been true, even when she was at her normal height. Instead, she sought the psychic link. So strange..it was just the same as with Nity..but..the mind it bridged to was so different. It hadn't aged with the body, it was still trying to cope with the change, consciously and subconsciously.

As the natural corridor passed further and further from natural light, the surrounding blocks began to illuminate the area. Zelda could sense the magic in them and cringed. If Wizrobe was paying any attention at all, he would know they were there. It was set up in a motion-sensor type arrangement. The cavern would glow dimly in a radius of about 10 feet and keep that radius moving with it's center at the movement which had triggered it.

~Maybe..we should have asked the others to come as well..~ then again, she didn't want to bring them into danger. She smiled wryly at the twisted logic of that, feeling a little guilty that she hadn't told anyone she was leaving. Well...she had left the other box.

Zelda took out the small engraved bluish box, still curious as to what was inside when Dakey suddenly motioned with his hand.

~What is it?~ she asked, not even realizing for a moment that she hadn't spoken aloud.

"That thing feels wierd Zellie what is it?" Dakey asked instead, looking at the bluish box that she held in her hands.

She simply shook her head as she felt the urge, even stronger now, to open the box. She flipped up the metal latch then pulled the two halves back on its hinges and peered into the darkness of its innards. At first she could see nothing but then something caught the glint of the light and she reached it to find what it could be. Her hand grasped a small, cold, metallic object that felt heavy for its size as she lifted it from its container. She pulled out a pendant of some sort and a chain drew out behind it.

"A necklace?" Dakey asked quizzically.

Zelda nodded, "It's beautiful!!!" she exclaimed in awe, although she’d never been much interested in jewels. She examined the pendant. It consisted of several objects, in the center was what appeared to be a sun made of gold and from it spread three branches, two branches of crystal one of ruby.

At the end of the ruby branch, that extended out to the bottom left of the sun, sat a round ball of ruby that appeared to be a planet as it's expert carvings within the surface seemed to suggest land and water masses. From the crystal branches that aligned diagonally across from the sun, one shot to the top left another to the bottom right.

The top left shone in brilliant crystal while the bottom, also of crystal, seemed to be somehow of a faded quality. Besides there difference in shine they appeared to be identical, carvings and all different then that of the ruby.

"It's pretty Zellie." Dakey said.

Zelda only nodded, as she felt a sense of deja-vu come over her, she had seen this before.

"Hold this, Dakey." he gratefully grabbed it from her hands.

Zellie fished into the pocket of Rupay's traded dress, luckily she had remembered to remove the book, the one she had carried around ever since the last moments of Crystalia, from the dress she had given Rupay. She hadn't looked into the book for quite sometime as their search for Jerium Prime had become hopeless. They had been from planet to planet but know one had ever heard of such a place and no one could read the writing with in the book.

Zelda pulled it open now and fished through the old crinkled pages until she found what she was looking for, indeed it was there, the sun and the red planet in the bottom left with two silver planets diagonal across from each other on each side of the sun one still more brightly colored then the other.

There was a caption beside the image she did not understand.

Under each planet was what she figured to be a name. Under the red she read Afia, and under the duller silver Muirej, the last she said out loud, the bright silver.

"Jerium?"

Suddenly there was a bright flash and Zelda looked up from the book to see the necklace slipping around Dakey's neck and suddenly he was off the ground and being pulled quickly down the stairwell.

"ZELLIE!!!!" he yelled frantically.

"D-dakey?!" Zelda exclaimed in confusion and fear as she began to chase after him. She hadn't seen anyone else..hadn't felt another presence.. Then again, there were always types of shielding...still.. Maybe they should have just left the jewelry in the box.. But..Jerium... she repeated the word in her mind, almost crashing headlong into a dead-end as an image of the book of Jerium Prime floated across her vision, and then Crystalia. She skidded to a quick stop, momentarily devastated. She hadn't been paying attention, he could be anywhere now. But then she heard a fading cry and turned toward it, to the right was another stairwell. Apparently the place wasn't entirely natural. Maybe the earlier part only seemed natural, or was built that way. Or Wizrobe just built his lair underneath it for shielding. Either way, it didn't matter, she had to follow.

She decided to risk the energy cost of levitation. She could move so much faster that way, and avoid most of the obstacles more easily. Finally, she ended up in an empty room, brightly, almost blindingly, lit with a yellow-white light. She couldn't tell where the source of it was, in fact, like the rest of the place, it seemed it might be an invisible magic source. She frowned and scanned the room. Empty. There was no where else to go..but..she could have sworn she had heard Dakey just moments before she came in.

There was a strange echoed rumbling sound--almost a laugh. She whirled around and gasped. The opening she had entered from was just...gone. She couldn't feel any illusions, or lack there of. Frowning worriedly she jogged over to the new wall and placed her hand against it. Solid.

~Dakey?~ she asked through the psi link. Maybe..just maybe he could still hear her. She could barely feel the link anymore, everything had been confused since that box had opened and she hadn't noticed when the change had occurred. For all she knew, he could be in this room. After all, she knew that there had previously been an opening. Waiting for a reply, she began to check around the smooth curved wall of the colorless room for passages, openings, illusions, whatever she might find.

A golden light flashed before Zelda, before becoming a figure. A golden man, with wings of light. Iam. He looked around, putting his mystic senses to use, before facing Zelda.

"Zelda," he said, he voice almost echoing itself, "You should not be here. It is much too dangerous. Why are you here? ...And before you ask, I cannot return you to your natural state...it is beyond my powers."

CASTLE HQ

"Entropy isn't going to like this," Kaliana said.

"I don't care," Tachyon said from his seat on Grey Wolfe's back. "We hafta find Zellie and Dakey. Gods...listen to me, I keep talking like a child."

"That's becawse we is children," Grey Wolfe replied.

"But why did WE hafta go?" Kaliana asked.

"Because only you and I know the local geography from our brief trip here, and we need Grey Wolfe to track them with his senses."

ROOM

Zelda was locked in the room, and there was no way out. Time seemed to meld from all periods, past, present, and future in one small little box. She crouched into a corner. Suddenly, a familiar figure appeared.

"Well, another mess you've gotten your self into, Zelda. Lets just hope when I need it, you can help me." Zealen nodded to Iam then placed his hands on her, and she grasped his cold, gray hands firmly. Suddenly they were back at the cave where Zelda had been before. "Now, lets go catch our Ally."

Iam rematerialized with a flash of light. He flew so that he matched Zelda and Zealen's pace. His wings of light shifting every few seconds to keep him aloft.

"Dakey is escential to the future. He cannot be allowed to die. Though I fear...that may be what happens."

Iam was actually amazed at the power Zealen showed. The Protoss’ PSI-powers reviled Iam's holy ones.

ELSEWHERE

Grey Wolfe tensed. "Their scent....it changeded direction. But I t'ink I can still find it."

"Well," Tachyon said, looking about nervously, "at least Entro...Entra....Entrall....uh, E hasn't found out we left yet."

"Yeah," Kaliana agreed, "or we'd be in big twouble."

PASSAGES

Zelda wasn’t sure what he meant by the importance of keeping Dakey alive. Had he seen something of the future? All of it? She decided she didn’t want to know, it was enough that he was helping them, right? Suddenly she stopped, almost crashing into Zealen as Iam put out signs of warning. She nodded, keeping quiet. This was it, wherever they had been meant to arrive, they were here. She whirled at a sound behind her.

“Wizrobe?!” she asked in sudden fear. How could she have been insane enough to think that she could go up against such a presence, let alone in such a weakened state. She glared aimlessly, that had never fazed her before. Their mission was more important than such trivial concerns, no, Dakey's life was more important. Her brow furrowed, now why had she immediately thought it was Wizrobe? She cast a ball of light upwards to illuminate the figure in the shadows, floating near the ceiling in between the hanging rock chandeliers. Wasn't that..Dakey?

ELSEWHERE

"Too much trouble. He's a kid too, he should like thistuffsfun!" Kaliana said, beginning to ramble before she started chanting her last "word" repeatedly. "Yep, yep, thistuffsfun thistuffsfun thistuffsfun thistuffsfun, it is it IS!" Then she remembered what they were supposed to be doing.

"Weeeeeeell?" she paused for a second, "Didja find the new scent, puppy?"

"I t'ink...that way.."

She petted him on the head, "Oo good! We havta getcha some treats when we get back." Then she stopped moving abruptly with a horrified look on her face, "WE FOGOT TO B'ING SNACKS!!!!!"

"Aw geeze," Tachyon said, "We did. Dididididn't we?" He shook his head, trying to clear it. "Ok. We need to focus. We aren't really kids....right?"

"Yep.yep.yep.yep," Grey Wolfe replied. His tail was wagging furiously. "Uh oh."

"Wat?" Kaliana asked.

"I smells somet'ing icky." As if to drive that point home, a half dozen Vile lurch out of the forest.

"Aw shock," Tachyon swore.

"Potty mouth!" Kaliana yelped.

PASSAGES

Iam shielded his eyes, looking up at the figure. His wings folded at his back.

"No...," he said slowly. "Dakey has...something in him. Some kind of darkness. It's spreading...slowly. But if it is not exorcized, it will consume him, remake his soul into something foul and black."

"And, I fear this is a power too close to my own in terms of strength. I do not know if the darkness can be removed, without killing Dakey in the process. ...Perhaps, if the lizard was here, it could help to focus the boy's powers and give him the strength to defeat it..."

Dakey could only look straingingly down to his companions as he shook violently and then he slammed back to the ground.

"Dakey!" Zellda cried as she stooped to his side.

"Zellie, I'm okay" Dakey said tightly, she knew it was a lie meant to comfort her, she could feel the torment in him.

"HA!" a laugh came from a new shed of light in the darkness revealing the face of Wizrobe.

"You!" Zelda said with a vile tone a she jumped up and began in his direction, Iam quickly restrained her.

"Good move, ghosty!"

More light entered and Wizrobe motioned to a small vessel, from inside could be seen the three faces of UA, T, and Kyle, their eyes were all tightly shut and their bodies motionless. Wizrobe smiled.

"If you don't meet my demands, these four take a trip to the center of that there sun." Suddenly the roof was gone and the sun shown through brightly overhead.

"The demands?" asked Zealen calmly.

"Blood of the youth." Iam said already knowing.

"What?" Zealen asked to Iam.

"His magic is powered by the souls of youth, that's why he turned the Crystal Fighter's into children, but he failed to realize their true soul could not be altered, he needs the real thing. He will bargain for Rupay and Deyja, I assume." Iam explained.

"He can't have Rupay!!!!" Dakey screamed in anger.

"Oh I will have her and Deyja, two for one you can't pass up a deal like that."

He smiled sadistically as the many madmen of the world tend to do. "Plus you can take the remains of my failed guinea pig, for proper burial."

Light shown on the sprawled body of Krakken in the corner, a child sized body to be exact, he had a wound in his chest from where his soul had meant to be extracted.

"YOU SON OF A MMMPH--" Iam clasped his hand tightly around Zelda's mouth, muffling her words.

"No--" tears began to show once more in Dakey's eyes. "Iam can you help Zellie be safe?"

Iam simply nodded to the young boy in a man's body.

"Here, all I can give you is this." He touched Dakey's forehead and there was a tingling sensation then Iam picked the book out of Zelda's pocket and handed it to Dakey.

"The text is yours."

"But.." Dakey protested but Iam hushed and the young dwelf only nodded.

Then Iam backed away with Zelda struggling fiercely to get free of his grip and Krakken's body floating after them. "Are you sure about this?" Zealen asked now appearing undecided for the first time since he had returned.

OUTSIDE HQ

Kevin was leading them back to the battle site.. Not that it was much to look at, the volley from Destiny had turned the field into a crater. Kevin stopped suddenly, almost knocking the others over.

"$#@%@! He’s gone! RAGE IS HEADED FOR THE OTHERS!”

~Ah Goddess...Krakken...~ Zelda thought in anguish as her mouth was still covered. Still, she struggled against the divine presense of Iam, how could they just *leave* Dakey like that?? With the book, or not. For a moment she burst free and took a step forward, rage burning in her eyes--a pyre for her friends, a H*ll for her enemies.

"D*MN YOU WIZROBE!!!!!!!!!!" she screamed just before Iam caught her again.

As Wizrobe continued to watch his newfound hostages, he suddenly glanced to one side as he heard something. A moment later, two Vile heads bounced into the clearing.

"Who..."

Entropy entered as if on cue, the Griever still in his hands.

"You know, if you folks would just LISTEN to me, we wouldn't have such problems." He said to the erstwhile hostages. "You know, Wizzer, you really start to get me POed after a while." Still 10 years old, he didn't have so much presence, but still carried a lot of authority with the Griever in-hand.

"Don't bother me, BOY." The words dripped off Wizrobe's tongue like acid.

"I believe the proper term is 'Young Adult.'" he smirked, falling into his stance. "Besides, I'm not the one who's gonna get punished here."

ELSEWHERE

"Ut-o.." Kaliana pronounced, leaving her mouth an "o" shape. "Bad." she declared with a nod, then she got behind Grey, "Guard puppy!!" she squealed at the idea as the Vile closed in on them.

Lil' Grey Wolfe cried out, "Howling blaster!" and spat a beam of energy at the nearest Vile. However, due to his condition, his power level was greatly reduced. It did little more than annoy the Vile.

Doc Tachyon was a little more successful. He took off with his boot jets and fired a pulse bolt. It burned the Vile along the arm. He tried to do it again, but found that the weapon was out of power.

"Uh oh...," he said, "no batteries. Kali...gimmie a power boost. Hit me with a little nova power. My....eh, some nifty gizmo will turn it into juice."

WIZROBE

"Zelda, calm down." Iam cautioned, "Loosing control will not help anyone." For the first time, Zelda cast a dark glare.

"Keeping control hasn't ever helped either!!"

As she was driven into memories of the dark events of recent years, her mind gradually resumed its original state. She had always kept control, or broken. Tears never solved anything, dispassion never solved anything. What other recourse did she have?

"Iam." she began tightly, "I am going to ask this calmly." her words were filled with barely suppressed emotion, " L e t m e go.."

Iam relented and released Zelda.

"Very well. I did not wish to run either. We shall fight Wizrobe together. You, Zealen, I, and....I believe some of your other friends are near."

OUTSIDE

"My power!!" Kaliana cried with a sniffle as one of the acid Vile grabbed her, "Ya can't have iiiiiiiit!!!" The Vile had a bit of a surprise when it's genetic advantage didn't start corroding her skin. Apparently, they hadn't taken her own genetic makeup into account--there was only one time they had ever encountered her species after all and had never actually had contact. She shuddered with power in the vise grip as she began to tap into her Crystal. Very, very slowly some energy leaked out, but it didn't have the momentum to do anything more than be collected by Tachyon's device.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEK!! That wasn't 'spossta happen!!" She tried again and ended up vibrating the Vile into dropping her, "Oww...be a little careful next time...sheeshes!"

Tachyon watched as his suit converted the heat energy into usable power. He fired his pulse bolts rapidly, exploding a Vile's head. Another Vile reached out and swatted him, sending him tumbling to the ground.

Grey Wolfe, meanwhile, had sunk his teeth into a Vile's arm and was holding fast despite the creature's efforts to shake him.

ELSEWHERE

~This may be my only chance to stop Rage, I gotta try.~

Kevin thought as he raced back towards the castle. It's time to finish this once and for all. In a flash Kevin teleported directly above Rage and tackled him, a moment latter they were both gone.

OUTSIDE

"Guuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuys!" Kaliana whined, "This innt workin'!"

She stood up and dusted herself off, then gave the offending Vile a kick in the shins. It toppled over, off-balanced, and knocked over two more in a domino effect. "Oo oo!! Lookie what I diiiiid!!" Then she knocked herself back over with an inadvertent burst of power. "Oof! Oowwww!!" The miniature nova ball that exploded from her and her Crystal dissipated about five feet away from them. About all it did was fry the Vile that had just fallen over. She stayed sitting obstinately in the dirt, "This innt no fun!" she pouted.

WIZROBE’S LAIR

Meanwhile, the fight had commenced.

"You can't win against me." Wizrobe declared, punctuating his statement with a maniacal laugh. Dakey forced a glare back at him, hiding the fear in his child's heart. He dredged up his courage and hurled a fiery ball at the evil wizard. It was blocked easily, not just blocked but also thrown back at him.

"NO!" Zelda cried out in matching pain as the flame, augmented and corrupted by Wizrobe's power, zoomed back at its maker, already searing him. Quickly deciding she'd need all the help she could get, she pulled an incantation to mind,

"Crystalline CYCLONE!!!!!" A burst of wind fled past like a sudden vacuum, almost pulling the CFs along with it. Whirling violently, the wind picked up speed and began to glow as well as take on a faint bluish color as it brought nearby water into it's frenzied spin. It enveloped the fireball, just before it hit Dakey, and sizzled both to their death in a cloud of sudden mist.

"Zellie?!" Dakey exclaimed almost angrily. She wasn't supposed to be here, she needed to be safe!

Wizrobe gave them a disdainful look. These CFs were such an inconvenience. He had hoped that the quickly materialized wall would keep them from interfering, but apparently he had hoped for too much. No matter. He didn't bother deflecting the useless ball of water; he hadn't meant it to hit Dakey anyway. If he seared about the child's blood after all, it wouldn't help him at all. Instead, he turned for a moment to the annoying pests who had just appeared.

"YOU WILL DIE WIZROBE!!!!" Rydia screamed with an almost fanatic air, "Rydia lightening STRIKE!" she yelled the spell quickly, almost meshing the words into one. The air parted with a gigantic crack as she threw as much energy as she could into the spell, using her Crystal to strengthen and aim the large bolt of lightening. Wizrobe banished it with a negligent wave and grinned at Rydia's resulting curse,

"Become so foul so soon?" he taunted. Rydia glowered death at him, panting out her next spell before he countered.

"Tempe--" Suddenly, she was interrupted and blasted backwards. She was slammed into the nearest thing, the other CFs, and all of them were hurled backwards into the wall. As soon as the airflow stopped, Rydia resumed the spell.

"Tempest SUBMERGENCE!" she yelled, bringing her arms upward in a hard rush. She staggered then, after throwing all her energy into those two spells, and fell to her knees. Wizrobe almost toppled from his stance as the rush of water hit him in a tsunami of force.

Suddenly, among the other hostages, a vision of Rupay, sickly and pale, appeared realistically in the space between them. Zelda stared in shock and horror.

"I lied. I do already have her." Blood and tears mingled across Rydia's battered frame as, in her painful confusion, she couldn't realize the illusion for what it was.

"D*mn you Wizrobe." she cursed hoarsely as she saw him turning to his next victim with a smug look. He hadn't even had to do anything to down this one, other than withstand her not-quite-so-pathetic attacks.

"D*mn you to h*ll." she choked before collapsing forward.

Zealen's eyes glew with a bright orange color. His suit's Psi claws grew to sword shapes. Zealen jumped at Wizrobe, slashing him in the shoulder, which Wizrobe quickly grabbed. Zealen recovered from his jump and began to blast him with some intense Physic energy. Wizrobe muttered a few words, and his lightning bolt bounced off Zealen's shield. Zealen let off what could be passed as a grin, and prepared for another Hack and slash.

"You..."

Wizrobe stood back stunned looking at the fresh wound. "You made me bleed!!!" the red fluid ran down the front of his robe but under its owners command, the blood lifted up and shifted into the solid shape of a pure black dagger.

Wizrobe didn't throw the dagger but instead it simply shot from his hand with a jolt, it hit Zealen square in the chest with a flash of energy that could be felt by the others. Zealen looked stunned, laying on the floor, a crack spread across the front of his suit with blood seeping.

"Sneer at me?" Wizrobe asked. "Then sneer as your friend's go bye bye." Wizrobe reached to push the button that would ignite the rockets on the capsule and sent the riders to be obliterated in the sun.

In a flash of orange light Dakey shot across the room and slammed Wizrobe into the wall just before he could compress the button under his finger.

Dakey stumbled back short of breath.

"UHHHHHH!" Wizrobe screamed, blood down dribbling from his nose, he gave Dakey a backhanded uppercut and Dakey rejoined his comrades as he slammed into the ground at their feet. Dakey did not get up he had lost all energy.

ELSEWHERE

Kevin was running back towards the castle, Rage and his Vile minions not far behind.

WIZROBE

"Dakey!" Iam called out, "Tend to Zealen and Rydia! I shall save your other friends!" His wings lifted into the air as he put all his speed into flight.

"Wing fletchets!" The angelic beings cried out, firing feathers of ethereal energy. They pierced the contraption Wizrobe had set up to blast off the CFs.

"But," Iam said to himself, "they are still in danger. Impact...and perhaps lack of oxygen. And piercing Wizrobe's barriers, delaying Rage with my elementals, has drained my powers. I may not be able to save them..." A tear of sadness trickled down the former Vile's cheek.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh, must you idiots ruin everything?" Wizrobe glared. "I guess you just want this to be one big blood bath, I tried to get this going the other way but it's your choice." Wizrobe said calmly then his body began to glow, a hum of energy began resonating through out the chamber and the hair on their arms rose in a tingling sensation.

"GRIEVER STRIKE!" Entropy released the sword much as Wizrobe had done with the dagger of blood.

Wizrobe pursed his lips and blew at the sword. It fell to the ground.

"Hah, you thought that would stop me?" Wizrobe brought the red light surrounding him into a compact energy in his hands that would destroy everything within several miles once it was released.

"No." Entropy replied with a smirk.

"What are you talking about foo...AGH!!!!" The tip of the sword shot out from his stomach as it passed through his body.

Wizrobe collapsed forward with a worn Richtor standing behind him. Blood covered his clothes and his face was unrecognizable under the cuts bruises and swelling.

"I thought I killed you." Wizrobe said in a horse wisper.

"You did." Rictor said in an equally forced whisper and he collapsed dead beside the man who had become his prey and his predator.

As Richtor exposed his last breath, Wizrobe gave a little smile, the energy in his hand was severely depleting but there was enough left contained to crush his enemies from the inside out..starting at their hearts.

Wizrobe pointed his arm out and shot the ball at the capsule and it ignited, rocketing off to the heavens. Apparently Iam’s hit hadn’t damaged it enough.

Spinning into darkness, Rydia heard Iam's voice.

~Heal..yes..~ The medically talented part of her from her home of Majiska snapped awake. For a moment, she glowed a reddish color matching to and focusing on her released blood. Then she was Zelda again, just Zelda. She reached a faltering hand out and pushed herself up, the earlier physical and mental pain gone from her eyes, blocked by professionalism.

~Heal.~ her mind repeated stubbornly. But she was falling, falling away from everything. Bemusedly, she wondered how long until she hit the ground, or h*ll, depending.

Zelda bit her lip, trying to create a new pain to shock her back. Before long, there was a trail of blood dribbling down her lip. She blew it away with a small effort and turned her head to her injured companions, eyes glazed.

~Heal.~ She didn't have the strength to even lift a helping hand to direct the magic, instead she let it flow freely from her. It circled the two, around and around, searching.

The blue light slowly became tinged with purple and another voice called to her, not the mindless order of her own mind, but a soft foreign strength.

~You're not going to kill yourself over them.~ It pronounced quietly in it's own strength and firm decision. Suddenly, she wasn't falling anymore, just floating. It was a slightly sick feeling, but no eminent destruction...or release.

~Careful.~ The voice warned and Zelda sighed, why couldn't she just let Adlez be? Poor spirit trapped inside her. Oh well. For now she'd keep control, it had been slipping. Through blurred sight Zelda saw a hazy figure in front of her, helping her to sit up. She was filled with calm warmth as if her spell was not just affecting Dakey and Zealen, but herself as well.

Zelda felt a little faint at the expenditure, but not as much as she should be. The stream of magic was almost all purple now, sealing wounds, as well as Zealen's suit, and soothing bruises. Finally, Zelda had recovered enough to turn to the battle, she watched in a curious, detached manner. Then, she caught a glimpse of raven-black hair and the mysterious presence was gone. Her eyes turned towards Dakey and Zealen.

"Are you all right?" she asked with a blank, dispassionate tone.

"We gotta help them Zellie." Dakey coughed as the capsule was increasingly becoming distant in the sky above. Dakey pushed himself up onto his feet and then he pushed his arms down to his sides, palms out.

Zelda wondered hopeless it there was a chance and sadly she didn't think so.

Suddenly Dakey was gone, rocketing off into the sky in pursuit of the three stranded CFs.

*FLIT* *FLIT* Lil Flame called, zipping after Dakey, he hadn't needed the lizard’s help in producing his powers since he had been forced to age but if he was to accomplish this, he would need the extra boost.

"Come on Lil FLAME!" Lil Flame entered the Crystal hanging from Dakey's neck beside the second necklace that they had seen in the book that now rested in his pocket, for some reason Iam had given it to him but he couldn't worry about right now.

As Lil Flame directed his powers even more precisely he felt it all increase and he was boosted into the sky and he could barely stay conscious under the force, if not for the Lizard's help.

He was definitely gaining ground ( sky actually) on the capsule that was powered by the last traces of Wizrobe's magic.

It could only be fifty yards or so now but, it was nearing the outer reaches of the atmosphere.

~Almost there~ Dakey's finger tips grabbed for it, stretching as far as possible, if he didn't get it before it entered space....

His hand clasped around the protruding door handle as they shot into space, Dakey quickly used most of his remaining energy to make a protection sphere that conformed to his body as if there was nothing there.

The capsule kept moving into the heavens of space. He pulled at the door, he might have to pull the three out he thought, realizing he had no clue how to stop the capsule. He tugged harder, preparing to cover them in a protection sphere the second the door released.

Then suddenly there was a heat against he had never felt before.

~No we couldn't have reached it so soon, there's no way.~ Dakey screamed as himself and the capsule were surrounded in the blinding light of the sun, their grave.

ELSEWHERE

"Dakey and Zelda are in trouble. I can hear them...we must get to them!" Rupay exclaimed.

"Rupay...remember your new powers. If I hold onto you and give you some of my empathic power you should be able to project us to their location." Eme said.

"That’s right, my power of Astral Projection. DEENA POWER!" And Rupay transformed into Deena. She took Eme's hand and shut her eyes. Eme surged a little power to Deena and within moments they zipped to Zelda's side. Their frozen real bodies were left hidden in the forest.

"Zelda! What happened to Dakey?" Deena asked.

Iam could only watch in horror as Dakey and the others apparently died in the explosion. Too late, he'd been too late.

"I...I failed," he said, hovering in the air. "But if Dakey dies... Though....that is but one future. Perhaps it does not depend upon his life.... But I will mourn the loss none the less."

FOREST

Kaliana, Tachyon, and Grey Wolfe had failed to stop the Vile. All three were unconscious. Things were not looking up for the CFs.

CASTLE HQ

"We can't just do nothing," Ganthet said to Laina and Tala. "Everyone but us has struck out into this fight. Surely there must be something we can do?"

WIZROBE’S LAIR

"Eme..Rupay.." Zelda said the names softly, but again without emotion. "Gone. They're all gone." she could feel the darkness opening up beneath her again. It would be easy, she knew how to do it. She stared blankly at the floor, there were so many more on the other side. Whether there *was* another side or not. There were more CFs dead than alive, and she could be with them, at least in one shared thing.

"Then I failed." Deena looked down and tears slowly fell from her eyes.

"I shall always love you Dakey." She whispered then sensed the doubt in Zelda.

"Zelda, we must go on. Dakey wouldn't want us to give up. Don't give in to the other side. I need you!"

The blankness lifted from Zelda's face for the instant it took to shed one solitary tear. She put a hand on Rupay's shoulder, pushing comfort for her friend through her newest shield.

CASTLE HQ

Laina nodded.

"We can go out and kick some butt!"

"But there's no one.."

"There's monsters comin'.. can't you smell them?"

Tala frowned, monsters? She looked at G.

"Vile." They said together.

"Yea.. We might as well..."

As they moved to the door, Tala stopped suddenly, and put a hand to her head.

"Zelda... oh..."

"Is she alright?"

"Something happened.. but not to her..." A pause.

"We gotta stop the Vile.. and protect the castle.. they'll need someplace to return too! Let's go."

They all headed out, and then Tala turned. Laina placed a hand on her shoulder, as if knowing she'd need help.

It took a few minutes, but the castle was soon covered by a wall of shadow. No Vile would be able to get in. She staggered, that had taken a lot more power then she had expected.. even with Laina's help.

"How far now?"

"Five minutes..."

"You ready, G?"

He nods.

"Alright.. we need to take out as many as we can. If it gets too messy, I'll just 'port us outta here.. or sumthin'."

Ganthet crackled his crystalline knuckles. Even if he was younger, it was good to be back in his true form.

"We may be the last line," he said gravely. "We may not live. I've said it so many times..., but, 'today is a good day to die.'"

FOREST

Kaliana woke slowly, rubbing her head, ~Owwwww.. Where are we? Weren't we fighting the Vile?~ she looked around, neon colors beating behind her eyes in a pulsing headache.

"Here puppy, puppy..." she called for Grey Wolfe and began to stand up.

"They're awake." a gravely voice said, "You'd better tell master Wizrobe.."

"....where *is* master Wizrobe?"

"Hey hey hey hey hey hey HEEEEEEEEY!!!" Kaliana yelled annoyingly at the two voices as she banged on the bars of the jail cell like area.

"What *is* it?"

"Not 'spossedta keep kids locked up, we're in'cents, we d'serve snacks!!!" Then she began to whine, "I want COOKIES!! WHAAAAAAAA!! And it's COLD and DAMP and UNFUN!!!!!!!!!"

The second voice sighed, "I think I liked it better when they were unconscious."

"Oh shut up."

"GIMME!!! Whaaa!!!"

"You too!!"

"NO! I want I want I want I want!! LET ME OOOOOOOOUUUUUT!!!"

ELSEWHERE

The scene was desolate.. what else would you expect an orbiting asteroid to look like? The combined force of the teleport separated the two combatants and stunned them. Kevin recovered first. He focused some energy and knocked the asteroid out of its orbit, sending it heading towards the planet below. He guessed it would take about 10 minutes before it hit the atmosphere, hopefully he could weaken Rage enough... He also realized it would probably kill him too... but he didn't really care at this point.

"Nice Trick." Rage said as he regained his balance.

"You don't know the half of it." Kevin smiled as he fired the first energy bolt of the battle.

Where it was night on the planet, the battle could be seen easily, and for truth it was only just beginning.

FOREST

Grey Wolfe and Doc Tachyon both came to awareness slowly. Of course, Kaliana screaming her little lungs out helped.

"....My powers not workin'," Grey Wolfe said slowly.

"My armo....toy...armor isn't working neither," Tachyon said. "There must be sumthin' 'bout this cage that sussssspressses our powars."

WIZROBE’S LAIR

Iam just looked on helplessly. Zealen was down, Zelda was loosing it...again, and Dakey had failed to save UA, T, and Kyle. Eme and Rupay were here now...but there were no more foes to fight. Only scattered Vile. The angelic CF who would never fight alongside them as a teammate, only an ally, did not know what to do. Nothing he'd seen, nothing he'd been able to determine about the probabilities surrounding this world, had shown him this. For all his power, he could do nothing.

CASTLE HQ

Tala laughed, slowly. She was accessing her darker half, trying to build her power again..

Laina scowled at G.

"Don't say that! You say bad things, they'll happen!"

They could now see the Vile, drawing closer. A sea of black.

Laina took a nervous step backward. There were... so many.

"You okay?"

Tala glanced at Laina, who nodded.

"Yea.. let's. Do. It!"

She ran towards the Vile that had begun to surround the castle, her fingers sharpening into claws as she ran. Her speed had increased slightly, and she jumped on the Vile, slashing.

Tala unleashed black fire, which struck five Vile, turning them to ash instantly. The Vile Laina was on, dropped to the ground, and she jumped off it, hopping onto another one.

She continued her slashing, while G ran towards the Vile.

Tala called up the fire again, just seeing more and more.. hopefully... they would be able to stop some of them...

SPACE

The asteroid was only half the size it started; the energy blasts slowly chipping away at its mass. It still left the rock over 20 feet wide.

~This is going no where.~ Kevin thought as he dodged yet another blast, ~ I gotta slow him down. ~ He was about to launch another blast when Rage rushed him.

Using his enhanced speed he was next to Kevin in a moment, Rage pulled back and punched him in the guts, then with an odd sound extended a blade out his forearm and it stabbed straight through. Kevin used the last of his energy and aimed his energy blast into Rage’s face.

The warriors fell back, Rage's helmet was scattered around the asteroid and Kevin could finally see his face.

"I knew it was you." Kevin grunted. Rage was finally regaining consciousness.

"Oh man, what happened?" Rage groaned holding his head.

"Welcome to the land of the living Pyro." Kevin groaned, "at least for the next 45 seconds."

"What happened to you? And what’s with this armor?"

"Really no time to explain it now... Its basically over."

With that the asteroid hit the atmosphere and Destiny's sensors picked it up, firing a salvo at it and blowing the thing to dust.

FOREST

Kaliana turned and started whining to the other two, "Guuuuuuuys!!! We have to get OUT OF HEEEEERE!!!"

Grey Wolfe sighed. "Whining isn't going to get us anywhere, Kali. We need to think. Our powers aren't working. And we're still children...."

"I don't know, I just don't know," Doc Tachyon said. "Let's hope the others aren't having the same kinds of problems."

OUTSIDE THE HQ

Ganthet, Tala, and Lania stood against the approaching Vile horde.

Ganthet raised a hand, preparing to draw on a harmonic blast. But nothing happened. A Vile struck him sharply in the chest, shattering it and sending the rest of him flying.

"Warrior Gods," he thought, "Am I dying...again?"

WIZROBE’S LAIR

Iam, still reeling for all the chaos, picked up on the signs of battle. Zelda and the others were secure for the moment. So he could help there.

He landed in front of the girls. With but a gesture, he let loose a blast of holy power that eradicated the vile.

"Wow!" Tala said. "Awsome!"

"Whata hunk!" Laina said. "You're incredible!"

Iam shrugged, then turned his attention to Ganthet.

"You're dying...," he said simply.

"Oh. You," Ganthet spat.

"Ganthet.... I am sorry for what I did to you. If I thought there was any other way to get the Crystal Fighters to Faia, I would have done so. But....I can set things right." He lifted Ganthet's Crystal from the remains of his chest.

He then set it into the air, letting it float. Little bits of crystal forged around it, until finally forming into the adult Ganthet they had come to know and love.

"I...," Ganthet stammered, "I'm back?! For real?"

"Yes," Iam nodded. "This is still not your birth form, but it is as close as even my power can bring you. It is forged from the same substance as the Crystals themselves, which is still surprisingly like your own. You'll still be strong...and very hard to hurt. But you'll also have control over your form. Not morphing like Entropy, but stretching, shaping your arms into weapons, growing extra limbs and weapons... Your mass resources, while not infinite, will be great. And you will always reform when shattered."

"Iam.... I thank you. You brought me back to my teammates, and have given me a semblance of my life back."

Iam smiles, then turns to Tala and Laina.

"The poison is almost gone... I can remove the last of it." Holy energy flowed through them, until they were returned to their proper ages. "Now...,your friends, Kaliana, Grey Wolfe, and Tachyon are prisoners of the Vile. Go help them."

"What about you?" Tala asked.

"I...I cannot remain here any longer. I strayed far outside my mission and my powers are depleted. I must return to recharge and report. But fear not. You will win this day." With that, Iam vanished, as though consumed by flames.

FOREST

"Like *what*?" Kaliana complained, sticking out her tongue at them, "This is so not fun!! I don't want to be a little kid anymooooore!!!!!!!" She grumbled to herself for a while, then started her whining again, "Maybe if we scream enough, they'll get annoyed at let us out!" she informed the others of her master plan.

OUTSIDE THE HQ

Ganthet looked to Tala, then to Laina. "You heard him. Our friends are in trouble, and we must act."

Tala smiled slightly. "Now THAT's the Ganthet I remember. Confident and ready to act."

"Uh...ideas on how to get there? Or where they are?" Laina asked.

As if in answer, a ball of light appeared in front of them, and set off in one direction.

"I'll see if I can contact them," Tala said. "My communicator should be able to reach Doc's helmet."

FOREST

Tachyon stopped for a moment, listening to the sounds coming over the comm. channel.

"Good news," he said, "Ganthet, Tala, and Laina are coming. And, we should be our proper ages soon."

Grey Wolfe pulled back his lips in a snarl.

"Good. Then we fight." The Tyger wasn't a violent creature; he just was tired of being pushed around by the Vile. It was time to kick butt.

"Hey... we don't have to follow that."

"Huh?"

Laina looked confused. Tala just smiled.

"Watch."

She grabbed a hand of each, and suddenly shadows surrounded them. They reappeared where the others were held captive.

"Ah... It's good to have my full range of powers back. You guys okay? Some people don't like that type of teleporting."

Laina and G just nodded, their thoughts were on more important things... like how to bust the others out.

"At least you guys appeared on the right side of the bars.." Kaliana said dubiously as guards surrounded their rescuers. "Do ours powers work *yet*??" she complained, setting a spark off through the bars at one of the guards. He looked around in annoyance and then focused on the intruders.

~Well..at least I got that much..~ "Am I any taller yet???" she grumbled, "Are we gonna stay little kids forever, do we have to grow up all *over* again?" she continued to complain.

"Hold off the guards," Ganthet said, "I'll free them."

He looked at the bars for a moment, pondering how best to get rid of them. He activated his new powers, growing a second set of crystalline arms from his sides. With four arms, he grabbed on to the bars and yanks. The cell door came off easily.

"All right!" Tachyon cried out. "...Wait a minute. You couldn’t do that before..."

"Thank Iam. He's restored my form permanently...and I gained new powers from the bargain," Ganthet replied.

A bright light being entered the room, briefly touching Kaliana, Grey Wolfe and Doctor Tachyon. They too, returned to their natural ages.

"Yes!" Kaliana said. "I'm not a kid anymore!"

"You have no idea how happy that makes me," Grey Wolfe said. His teammate’s whining had started to give him a headache.

"Now let us deal with our foes," Ganthet said. He raised a fist, and tiny crystal spikes shot from the back of his hand, embedding themselves in one of the guards.

"Howling blaster!" Grey Wolfe cried out, shooting another with his blue energy blast.

Tachyon flew this way and that, shooting pulse bolts into the guards and generally avoiding any return strike.

Kaliana called up a powerful nova burst, the heat and flame proving quite effective.

Tala directed the shadows to swallow a guard, sending him who knows where.

And Laina pounced viciously.

"Thank *goodness*!" Kaliana exclaimed with a sigh of relief, not only could she *reach* doorknobs now, but she was also *taller* than them. The world was quite different down there.

"Now, do any of you guys know what happened to the others?" For a moment Iam explained before fading away completely. Then, they headed back to the site of the battle to collect the others.

"Whoa.." Kaliana gasped quietly when they had reached Wizrobe’s lair, "Ske...I guess they had a harder time than we did.." She noticed Zelda, staring blankly into the sky and still in child-form, up ahead.

"Hey, Z-zel!" she hesitated a bit with the name, she hadn't gotten the hang of them all yet. She frowned when the girl didn't even turn around, "I said ZEL!" she yelled, speeding up her pace faintly and whacking her on the shoulder when she got over. Zelda took a bracing step forward, but otherwise had no reaction. Kaliana wasn't about to bother with the girl's mental problems, but it *would* be nice to find out what was going on. She thought she spied Rupay not far away, "Hey!" she called. Finally, Zelda turned around. Her face was not as blank as it had at first seemed, but there was no recognition, only acceptance of reality.

Entropy and Zealen helped to tell the others of the events that had transpired, Zelda was feeling to unable to do so herself.

Tachyon flipped on his long-range scanners in his helmet and surveyed the heavens.

"Anything?" Entropy asked hopefully.

"No...wait yeah I got something, I can't tell what it is but there is definitely an artificial construct floating around out there, it could the capsule." Tachyon said bleeding a bit of hope into the others.

"I'll fire up my ship, Tachyon come with me, the rest of you..." he stopped and looked at the three bodies of Krakken, Richtor, and Wizrobe's. Lifeless bodies, casualties of war. A far to familiar sight in the world of the CFs. Entropy didn’y finish telling them what to do but they understood, it's time to bury more of their dead.

Tachyon noted briefly that, while they hadn't been quick-aged like most of the others, Zelda and Entropy were looking older. And Rupay was looking younger. With a simple cybernetic command, he triggered his turbine wings. They weren't as fast, but they used less energy than his boot jets, and he was running much lower on power than he'd like. He checked the power display in the HUD (heads-up display) and found he was down to 30 percent capacity.

Ganthet felt a familiar grimace slip onto his face. Krakken...he hadn't always gotten along well with the blue-skinned CF, and never doubted his loyalty to their cause.

"Rest well, little friend. Your soul will live on forever, joining all those who've fallen. Something I know too well..." Nothing like death to change a person...

Grey Wolfe fought back the bile in the back of his throat. He'd not known Krakken well, he'd barely been a Crystal Fighter, and he'd seen a lot of loss already.

Zelda nodded at various intervals during the tall and eventually Kaliana stopped giving her odd looked.

Grey Wolfe looked at Zelda for a moment, trying to form the right words.

Rupay stood beside Zelda, almost as blank as she,

"My love..." She whispered.

Eme put her arms around the two, to comfort them but Zelda’s face remained unresponsive.

"Zelda," he said after a long pause, "do not do this again. Every time someone dies, you become catatonic. They would not want you to do this on their account. You must not do this; otherwise their sacrifices are wasted. If you do not live life, you mock what they lived for."

He was one to talk. Lilia, the elven woman who'd cared for him after he was cast out of his tribe, that same tribe, even his back-stabbing brother were all gone. And he'd never stopped to mourn them. He'd been trying to forget. But, as much as he would miss their presence, he had others friends, and could not be lost to self-pity.

"I think she's in shock... Grey. Remember, she also had a link with Dakey.. Maybe that's all it is."

Laina shook her head, slightly. She was used to death.. having been a cause for a murder, and one to do the deed herself. But this, this was different..

"I do hope that we don't stay here much longer.. This place.. the evil still lingers."

"There will always be an air of Wrong here." Zelda said softly, if abruptly, without a glance behind her as she started walking, almost intuitively in the general direction of their HQ. Kaliana shrugged with a glance at the others, with a confirming nod, she and the others began their way back as well.

Grey Wolfe merely nodded sadly before following. Dakey had been the first CF who hadn't just treated him like a wild animal to be taken down, then questioned. Of course, his blasting his way past Entropy hadn’t helped.... But, that was beside the point. Dakey was gone...

He sniffed the air, and his Crystal and eyes began to glow.

"...I... I'm afraid I have more bad news. My senses carry death to me. Kevin...and Rage...but Rage's scent is mixed with Pyro's...?"

Kaliana frowned in confusion.

"Pyro? But..wasn't he already on the MIA list?" She shook her head, life with these people just seemed to get more and more strange.

Back at the Castle the CF's were easily showing visible signs of returning to their rightful age and were picking up the debris fallen by past battle. They secured the three bodies in catacomb-esq. chambers. They would bury them when Tachyon and Entropy came back, hopefully with a few more of their friends.

The ship landed outside a while later dragging behind it the capsule in which their three comrades were secured.

"We found them, they’re alive Zelda!!!" Kaliana said excitedly trying to pull her Zelda to the door as the others rushed out to greet their friends.

"No not all of them." Zelda said not looking from the ground, she just stared at nothingness.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I can no longer sense the life source of Dakey, he is gone." She said it without emotion because at this she had none left to express, this life had sucked her dry.

*CLICK*

Entropy, final report on the Wizrobe matter. More lives have been lost; Krakken, Kevin, Pyro, my half-brother Richtor, Wizrobe our enemy, and even Dakey-- only still a child and already lost to this insane war of good and evil. I'm uncertain if I can go on like this, or if any of the other CFs can. We have found no evidence of Jerium Prime, the only hope we once had is now gone. But all we can do now is see what tomorrow brings.

Entropy out.

*CLICK*

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