“Teal, what happened?” I asked her softly, still rather weak.
“Well, after you passed out, everyone was very confused. You did not wake up, no matter what we did. Then, everyone started dropping like flies. I was the only one left standing, when you rolled over on the time machine, and Shell rolled over on one of her virtual reality devices. I figured this would be of no consequence, since typically you must input the code to enter a virtual reality. But, apparently I was wrong. The time machine made a noise, and we found ourselves here. You and Shell woke up shortly after. The only thing is that we do not know where we are,” Teal explained, trying to remember all of the foggy events.
“I know where we are. This is The Fairy Lands,” I replied, and looked around.
“What is The Fairy Lands?” Teal inquired, rubbing her neck in anxiety.
I crawled over to a bush. There were beautiful berries on the bush. They were pink, purple, red, and blue, and they glimmered in the starlight. I picked one, examined it, and popped it in my mouth. Immediately the color returned to my face, and I stood up. Memories flooded over me of all the things that should be present. I whistled, which caught the attention of all the others. I beckoned for them to follow me, and ran off to the south. On earth, this run would have lasted for three weeks, but the star never set, and we never grew tired. It also felt like a rather short run to us, which puzzled them. All of them were very confused until they found out how it took such a sort time, and it was Shell who first solved the mystery. Magic, this was a land of strong magic. That was how they were running without tiring.
“Soooo… Lilac. Why on earth did you call this ‘The Fairy Lands’? I do not see any fairies. But, of course that makes sense, because fairies are not real,” Cerulean asked, trying to refrain from a sneer, but failing.
“Who said that?” a voice asked.
Everyone stopped when they saw who had spoken, eyes wide with fear and confusion. It seemed it to be a girl. Or female at any rate. Although not one of them could have even guessed what she was. Her hair was honey yellow, and pink flowers were growing from it. Her eyes were a sparkling emerald green, and her skin was as pale as a cloud. She was wearing a purple and blue dress, which had alien jewels interlaced. The shoes she wore on her feet were made of solid diamond. Wherever she stepped, she seemed to leave a puddle. Aside from this, underneath her cloak there was a strange bulge, which were wings. She glowed slightly, there was a bit of frost at her fingertips, and if you looked closely into her eyes you could see the fire in them. She could hardly be called a ‘person,’ and indeed, she was not a person. She was a Rainbow Complixie. Rainbow, of course, did not mean her skin or hair color. It only meant something of her ancestry, and her magic. She looked to be around 17. But, looks are often deceiving as far as age goes in The Fairy Lands.
When nobody responded, she asked again, “Who said that fairies are not real?”
“He did it!” Clover said, hiding behind Sapphire.
The girl turned to look at him, and said, “Fairies are real. What do you suppose I am? One of the sort of things you call holograms on Ierba? A mirage or an illusion? True, I have not the baby’s tool you humans call a wand, but I am still a fairy race. They are not just one sort of being you know.”
“How do you speak English?” Flutter asked, which was the first logical thing anyone had said in the presence of the Rainbow Complixie.
“I should think you would know, Flutter. If  I am not mistaken,” I turned back to the girl, “You are Lily Pielikey.”
“What makes you think that?” the girl asked, cleverly avoiding any expression of fear or confusion.
“Because, have you not guessed it? Lily, it has not been that long! It was only three months. Do you really not recognize me?” I asked, trying to sound casual.
“You forget that three months by the time of people that live on Ierba is equivalent to six million, nine hundred forty four thousand, four hundred forty four years for those of us in The Fairy Lands. Now, which one are you?  Lacy, Leah,  Lilia, Liza, Linny, Libby, or Lilac?” the girl asked, reciting the names perfectly.
“Lilac. Now, Lily. Why in the name of  Dilly will you not just tell me what has happened while I was gone?” I asked impatiently, paused, and decided to continue, “We are rather pressed for time. Doubtless the Martians will be after us shortly, if they think we are alive, or think they have not killed us by slaughtering our touchograms.”
Melon hesitantly stepped up to me, and pointed at Lily’s side. She was wearing a light green cloak, which she drew aside her right with her left hand. But, despite her effort, a faint purple glow could be seen from underneath the cloak. Lily looked at me, and I nodded in response. Lily sighed, and let go. Her cloak fell back to right in front of her shoulders, revealing a curious sheath. This very much surprised the teens, because swords had almost completely fainted away into the darkness of history. But, history set aside, if one did know at least anything about sheaths, they would be very intrigued by this one. It seemed to be made of silver, yet, somehow different. The silver was not like that you might see on a necklace or a ring. It was transparent. It actually rather possessed the effect that the sword was encased in water it was so transparent. To top it all off, the sword itself could hold you spellbound, figuratively, and if Lily wished it, literally.
The sword was solid gold. It was not transparent, but it was the most clear, bright gold that was ever, or ever will be discovered in any world, universe, dimension, or realm. It was a rather curious shaped for a sword. Most people would hear the word ‘sword,’ and would instantly picture a sharp looking object that was like a long knife. This did not resemble a knife in the slightest. It was perfectly straight, which is the only perfectly describable thing about it. The hilt was covered in amethysts, and it was the amethysts that were emitting the purple glow. When someone from around the time of the 2000s would think of a sword, there would be a hilt, and a blade. Before the blade is a piece that sticks out to the side. On this sword, that thing was a sphere instead of a stick. The blade itself had the width of a toothpick, but looks can be deceiving. This sword was indestructible, and magical. Everyone had kind of stood silently staring up until now. It was rather shocking, if you were not accustomed to magic. Quite obviously I was alone in regards to this.
“Lilac, look at me. Why are you acting so weird? This is the safest place in all the universes, dimensions, worlds, and realms. Well, the safest one you can be living in. What is going on?” Lily asked impatiently, staring straight into my eyes.
“Why are we here? We are supposed to be on earth, or somewhere else in our universe hiding. Here, look,” I said, activating a hologram, and explained “See? When we left our home planets to come to earth, we left touchograms behind us. It would be too obvious if we just vanished. Look at what happened. All of the ‘grams are either dead, or will be soon. Look, Watermelon is the only one who they think is still alive. Oh wait, never mind. Not anymore… Remember about… two hundred ninety one billion, five hundred sixty seven million, four hundred sixty thousand, three hundred seventeen years ago? It was only three thousand eight hundred sixty two years according to earth time. Then this world was only five thousand three hundred forty seven years old. Remember how you were constantly trying to escape someone or something? That was not happening in our universe. But, now it is.”
“But, why? Why would it have taken so long?” Lily asked, very confused.
“It has been happening for the last three thousand thirty four years. Leah should have told you that,” I said, growing steadily tired of Lily’s ignorance.
“Is this targeting teens?” Lily inquired, somehow still not sensing my impatience.
“Enough of the incessant questions, Pielikey! No, it is us. A long time ago…” I  began, but was interrupted.
“In a galaxy far far away…” Barnacle laughed, but stopped when I glared at him.
“Not funny, Barnacle.” I said, attempting to contain myself.
“Hey, you never know which laugh will be your last.” Barnacle shrugged, and looked at his feet.
I turned back to Lily, and said, “A long time ago, some people called Pilgrims came to North America to escape religious persecution. They left their homes, so that they could worship freely. Well, that is what we did, except ours did not work nearly as well… That is what is causing Intergalactic War III.”
“Whoa whoa whoa, back up. You never told me you were in the middle of another Intergalactic War! Your universe was nearly destroyed in the last one! Why do beings in your dimension never learn?” Lily groaned, completely confused.
“That is an excellent question…” I confessed, rubbing my neck.
“I feel so awkward. This whole entire conversation has been completely unrelated to us.” Turquoise commented, kicking a rock.
“Oh yeah, I forgot you know nothing of our culture here… We typically only have conversations that include more than two when there is something immediately dangerous taking place. And that has not happened for over a million years.” Lily explained, obviously still not understanding how much danger they were in.
“Mother,” a girl said, appearing out of nowhere, “You do not understand. They are in immediate danger. You think that only Dimension Jumpers can travel betwixt dimensions. But, the world of Ierba has developed technology that can give anyone the ability to be a Dimension Jumper, even if they are not born with it. And, I am not sure which one, someone in our midst is accidentally  broadcasting  your location. So, I would advise you to stop acting so casual and put up the dimensional barriers.”
“Ahyracie, could you not have just send a Jluda? Our ancestors developed a method of quick communication for a reason.” Lily commented, turning to face her daughter.
Ahyracie was quite a sight. Her hair was white as snow, her eyes a soft blue. Her skin was aqua colored, and it gave the illusion of water. Water was dripping off her fingertips, even though her hands were not wet. She too was barefooted, but her feet were webbed. She had a dark blue tail that resembled that of a Seahorse. You could tell simply by looking at her that she was built to live in the water. If all of her odd features had not been a dead giveaway, the fact that she was floating in a giant sphere of water certainly revealed it. This is probably confusing, because it is not logical that water could be dipping from her fingers, and her skin looked like water if she was already in water. But, the only explanation to this was that it was another work of magic. She looked to be 11.
“I do not think they speak our language.” Ahyracie pointed out, seeing the kids, aside from Lilac, did not understand a single word she was saying.
Ahyracie spoke the native language of the Northern Kingdom, the language of the fairy people, which is called Kipukolinam. Lily was fluent in both Kipukolinam and in English, having lived among humans. Lilac was also fluent in both, as were all her ancestors. She knew that unless it was genetic, it was impossible for a human to understand Kipukolinam, and they could not be taught. That was why every single other being who had somehow managed to reach the 927th dimension had left, because the magic had prevented them from learning their speech. It was a sort of defense, without being able to speak, you were figuratively powerless, for almost everything required speech.
“Why do you have such a normal name as Lily, and she has a name like Ahyracie? I am not saying there is anything wrong with that, it is just, different. And what did she say?” Krystal asked, having finally regained enough composure to speak.
“Because Mother a Rainbow Complixie, and she is not. Ahyracie is a Water Complixie. Rainbow Complixies have the most unusual names, so as to match their  being. What is a normal name for you, is a very unusual name in our dimension.” another girl replied, appearing at her sister’s side.
“Wait, this one speaks English? What is going on?” Apple moaned, burying her head in her knees.
“What is happening is that we have got a bit of a language barrier problem between Kipukolinam and English.” the newest girl replied, as Lily and Ahyracie spoke.
“What is Kipukolinam?” Azurite inquired.
“The language of the fairy people. I am going to say the same sentence in Kipukolinam. Kie mawojax yf kie maopu quizol.” the girl translated.
“Kie mawojax yf kie maopu quizol?” Azurite asked, speaking slowly so as to pronounciate correctly.
“No. Loziuq upoam eik fy xajowam eik.” the girl corrected her.
“But, that is completely different!” Azurite exclaimed.
“That is because you are partially, and do not inherit the ability to understand my native speech. What about you, Lilac? What did you hear each time?” the girl inquired.
“I heard ‘The language of the fairy people’ each time, Skyly.” I responded in English.
“Your name is Skyly?” Krystal asked, and the girl nodded.
Skyly was a very appropriate name for her. Her hair was neon blue, and her eyes were a bluish-grayish. Even though there was no breeze, her hair flew about, as if blown by wind. Her skin was almost as pale as her mother’s, but it seemed as if it glowed with sunlight. Lily’s hair went down to her ankles, and Ahyracie’s went down most of her back. Skyly’s hair only went down to her shoulders. This was because she had wings. They were blueberry blue, and were transparent. There were small clouds floating around her hands, which also seemed to be pushed by a gust of wind which nobody but Skyly could feel. She also was bare footed, actually everyone in The Fairy Lands are, but, even if she were to try for the rest of time, her feet would not touch the ground. She would step, as a human would, but she was stepping on air. She looked to be 13. Skyly was an Air Complixie.
“How many of you are there?!?” Kiwi exclaimed in astonishment and confusion.
“Four.” another replied, flying about fifty feet above them.
Skyly flew up, and the two of them went in circles, and seemed to be talking. Then they both came down, more or less. Skyly stayed about three feet in the air, gently flapping her  wings, and the other alighted on the ground. She was another foreign fairylike race to my companions, a Light Complixie. She was about three feet high, except most of the time she flew two feet off the ground to make herself feel bigger. Her hair was pink at the top, and transitioned to yellow. Her eyes were a mixture of turquoise and mint, and her skin was a very light pink. Her wings were transparent, and were blue and purple. It was blinding for the others to look at her, so she dimmed herself. She looked around 8.
“Who are you?” Melon inquired, somehow already very comfortable with these fairy people.
“Ia, Polly!” I squealed excitedly.
“Ia, Lilac!” Polly replied merrily, “Bua omn iqaz?”
“Xipaz! Iqaz?” I replied, speaking in Kipukolinam again.
“Ukmo xipaz! Yjaw vopi uqq jipom!” Polly replied, flying around my head.
“Ecihb!” I exclaimed, “Bua kaor iqaz vopi?”
“Yjaw vopi muzib vapul iqaz.” Polly admitted, once more alighting on the ground.
“Ecihb, Polly, ecihb.” Skyly commented.
“Y bemkw coap Y qaz keuf elrauzibj.” I gigged, and started to blush.
“Would you please speak in English? Nobody knows what you are both saying.” Kiwi said, and her face turned red from embarrassment.
“Oh yeah, right. Sorry, I kind of got carried away…” I said, and looked at the ground.
“It is fine, but what were you talking about?” Kiwi inquired.
“What if we just started over, is that good?” Polly inquired, speaking in English once more. and Kiwi nodded in agreement.
“Hi, Polly!” I squealed excitedly.
“Hi, Lilac!” Polly replied merrily, “How are you?”
“Great! You?” I replied.
“Also great! It has been too long!” Polly replied, flying around my head.
“Agreed!” I exclaimed, “How have you been?”
“It has been boring without you.” Polly admitted, once more alighting on the ground.
“Agreed, Polly, agreed.” Skyly commented.
“I did not think I was that important.” I gigged, and started to blush.
“Yes you did silly. The world would collapse without you!” Skyly exclaimed, carrying on the conversation.
“Well, it looks like you have managed in my absence. Have Leana or Sherman returned?” I asked anxiously, and let out a breath.
“Yes. Welcome, humans.” Sherman said, as he and Leana materialized.

“Why, of all times, why now?!” Ahyracie exclaimed in Kipukolinam, placing herself between them and the humans.
“Pleasure to make your acquaintance,” Leana responded in her native tongue.
Leana saw Lilac, and her eyes sparkled. She signed something to Sherman, who nodded and disappeared. I stared at Leana, and if  looks could kill, that one would have killed. I slowly backed up to Lily, and the strangest thing happened.  Lily stepped forward to meet me, and took off her necklace. I also took off my necklace. We put the pieces together, making a clear globe. The globe filled with water, and the water started to sparkle the colors of the rainbow. A dim light started to shine from inside of it. The light grew brighter and brighter.  It was not an ordinary light, such as comes from the sun, or even which comes from Polly. In the world of Ierba, humans call it Earth, the light is rainbow colors which form white. But, this light was rainbow and white. It was incredible, and if it had not been blinding, one could have stared for it for the rest of their lives without giving a second thought to anything in the universe. The globe made a soft, soothing musical sound, that which no human ear has ever heard on earth. Then the light faded, leaving a mist. When the mist cleared, I stood with Lily’s sword in her hand. The globe was in a string around my neck, and one could see simply by looking at me that I could do everything Lily did.
“Well, Leana. What have you brought me today?” I inquired, shaking my head.
“I should rather like to kill you today,” Leana replied coolly, twirling her dagger.
“I am awfully sorry I can not please you, I am going to need you to drop the poison you thought you could hide, and go home,” I commanded sternly.
“What poison? Oh, the one I am throwing at your face?” Leana inquired, obviously throwing the poison at my face.
I reached out my hand, and it froze midair. I grabbed my black charm, and squeezed it with my left hand. A black light appeared, coming from the charm, and I gently lowered my hand. Once the poison was in close proximity of the black light, I flicked my wrist, and the poison flew into the light. It stopped there, and I squeezed the charm. The light disappeared, along with the poison, and I returned the charm to my bracelet.
  “LILY!” Leana groaned like a whiny child, “Why are you so meaaaan?”
“I believe the real question, sister,” I said, turning to stare her in the face, “Is why you have repeatedly tried to kill me.”
With that Sherman started to summon a dark magic, and Leana stepped behind him. I laughed at his cute folly he called ‘magic.’ True, he was an evil wizard who had defeated me twice, but he was still a coward, fool, and does child’s magic. Some of the people in The Fairy Lands, The Techno Lands, and The Normalands do not understand balance. There must be balance, or else the dimension that Lilac and her kin rescue to in times of trouble would be gone. That, that would be very bad. Even the dimensions must hold each other in balance. The dimension of Ierba, and the dimension of The Fairy Lands are in balance. It is when the white is seriously threatened by the black that the balance is disturbed. When the balance is disturbed, bad things start happening. That is why the dimension of Ierba is in conflict.  
Lily and I separated, and the necklace returned to being two half-spheres around our necks. Lily drew her sword, which started to glow bright purple. I grabbed my light blue charm, and aimed for Leana. She froze, of her own accord. I really hate using my freeze ray, but I will if the worst comes to worst. I knew Leana, and I knew so long as my ray was pointed at her, she dared not try to kill anyone. That would be a mistake on her part, cause I would have to freeze her then. She knew that I would, because it had happened a few times.
Lily meanwhile had held out her sword directly in front of her. Sherman threw a ball of fire at her, and Lily moved the blade straight into the path of the fire. The sword absorbed it, and the sheath glowed red. What Sherman did not know was that the more he attacked Lily, the greater advantage she had. After her sheath had gotten the power absorbed by the sword, something strange happened. Whoever wore the sheath was invulnerable to any power that the sheath knew. So, now Lily would be unharmed by any fire that might happen to touch her. For this reason Sherman was constantly having to come up with new incantations. This kept him occupied, and thus kept The Fairy Lands out of his way for long intervals of around ten to twenty years. He was such a fool that even if told, he would never believe the truth about the sheath, or even investigate.
This fight did not last long, and before it ended the other three knights of the Third Kingdom had shown up. I lowered my hand, and put the charm back on the bracelet. Dennis, Lily’s sister, stood opposite Lily with his Emerald Sword drawn. Lily stood with her Amethyst Sword drawn. Jenny, nicknamed Dilly, stood to the right of Lily with her Ruby Sword drawn. Lenny, Dilly’s brother, stood opposite Dilly with his Sapphire Sword drawn. The swords started to glow, brighter and brighter, somehow more colorful and more alive every second. Then Leana and Sherman disappeared. Satisfied with their work, the four sheathed their swords, and looked at us.
“Ia, Lilac. Who are these people?” Dilly asked skeptically, speaking in Kipukolinam.
“These are my friends, the other Hidden,” I replied, continuing the conversation in her language. 
“If they cannot understand our speech, and they do not believe in magic, then why are they here?” Lenny inquired, quite obviously tense.
“Ierba has been destroyed,” I replied with a sigh.
“Yhud! Ebquozydli!” Ahyracie exclaimed in astonishment.
“No, it is not ebquozydli. I am dead serious. Do you not see how they stare with their mouths open, stare unblinking, and make not a single sound? I would not have brought them to this place that so disorients them unless worst had come to worst,” I pointed out, growing steadily tired of language barriers.
“Lilac,” Maroon called softly, “When came we go home?”
I froze. Home, I had not thought about that. What would we do? I looked at Sapphire, who shrugged. Polly settled herself comfortably in the air, that way only Air Complixies could, obviously waiting for a response. Lily also offered no help, but rolled a charm around in her palm. I looked at Skyly, who blushed and hid behind Polly. Dennis hummed quietly, and tapped his foot. Dilly started counting the stars overhead. Lenny was doing something with a hologram, trying to hide it lest I see, and ask what he busied himself with. Flutter offered no advise, Amethyst no help, Turquoise was quiet as usual, and Azurite let out a great big yawn. It was quite clear everyone was waiting to hear what I had to say in response to this kindergartener.
“Well,” I staggered, stalling, “I guess we will just have to go back into hiding somewhere else, give up and go to the valley, or we can split up into little groups, and continue our original mission. Of course, if we do the last one, we will have to make sure that the Martians do not discover who we are. If they did, all would be lost.”
“Well, maybe for us. You have powers,” Emerald pointed out.
“About that… so do all of you others,” I giggled sheepishly.
“WHAT?!?!?” everyone shouted in unison, completely blown away, “SINCE WHEN!?!?!”
“Jinx,” I laughed, and began my explanation, “Well, all of us have some power. Some of us are cyborgs, some of us have fairy blood in us, and some of us have super powers. You just have not learned how to use them, because we have been too busy trying to save lives. I can tell each of you what you are.”
“Wait, how do super heroes activate their powers?” Melon inquired.
“Simple, wave your left hand like so, and your right hand like so,” I said, demonstrating, “There,  now, Dennis, you take the cyborgs. Lily, you take the elementals. I will take the super heroes.”
So, we split up into groups. Since I was not with the other two groups, I will just show you my group for the time being. We had Melon, Amethyst, Rhubarb, Krystal, Teal, Sapphire, Kiwi, Coconut, and Emerald. Melon already more or less knew what her power was. The others were completely in the dark in regards to this.
“Alright, so, you are the group of us who have what pure blooded humans call super powers. This basically means that you have a special ability. They are usually either genetic, acquired, or bestowed. In this case, it is genetic. So, here, grab a hologram, set it ten feet away, and come back here,” I said, and so we did just that.
“Okay, just do what I do,” I said, going through a swift set of motions, “Now, hold out your dominant hand, and think about power.”
When I did it, surprise surprise, my telekinesis went to work, and drew the hologram toward myself. Melon had no apparent powers, until she stepped forward, showing me that she had speed. Amethyst started floating off the ground, flying, although unstable as it was her first time. Rhubarb’s hand shot forward and touched the hologram, her power was stretchiness. Krystal tried different motions for a long time, till eventually in her frustration she stomped her foot. This created a brief earthquake, showing me that she had extra strength. Teal was somewhat embarrassed by all this, and wanted to disappear. So, she disappeared. This created quite a pandemonium, until I explained to her that she was invisible, and she re appeared.
Sapphire was growing quite tired of trying, to no avail like some of the others. She walked up to the hologram, and tried once more. there was no doubt about it this time, for she hopped into the hologram. She hastily jumped out again, and sat down to watch. Kiwi turned into a cross between titanium and granite, although could move quite easily and create this substance. Coconut became invincible, which nobody knew until Amethyst accidentally fell on top of him. Emerald could do nothing. She tried, and tried, and tried, and tried, and tried. Finally she came up to me crying.
“Lilac, nothing is working,” Emerald said quietly, and  I wondered where my peppy friend had gone.
“Well, let us see. Maybe you are not thinking about the right power. You have one, I can feel it. Try again,” I suggested encouragingly.
Well, she did. She just tried a little too hard. She canceled sound. It took me quite a while to signal out that she needed to stop using her power. So, she stopped and sound was restored.
“Did I do it?” Emerald inquired.
“Oh yeah,” I replied.
Having completed our lesson, we split up to watch the others. I went over to Dennis, to see how he was faring. He was definitely not the greatest people person, and you really had to put forth a significant amount of effort in order  to establish a stable and strong relationship with him, and had to exhort the same effort in maintaining that relationship. That being said, English was his seventh language, so I had reason to suspect they might be having a bit of a language barrier hindering them. It turned out my assumptions were not far off. To his credit, Dennis was doing incredible compared to how he usually did. In fact, I was slightly disoriented by this, and actually blinked in astonishment. I could simply not believe I was looking at Prince Dennis Pielikey, who had been hidden by Leana for three million years. It was absolutely mind blowing. But, despite his amazing improvement, it still was not as good as his sister, Lily, was doing. None the less, I sat down to listen.
“You each have a color. Your power depends on your color. Red is a heat ray, light blue is a freeze ray, black creates a disposal vortex, blue is a force field, white is gravity, purple is a time machine, green is a portal, and pink is a teleporter. Unless you are a clear. If you are a clear, then you can do all of this. So…” Dennis explained, until someone raised their hand, “Yes?”
“None of us have any of those colors,” Flutter pointed out.
“You do, actually. It is just covered by silver. Ah, Lilac. Can you help us out?” Dennis inquired, noticing my presence.
“Of course,” I replied, plucking my light blue charm.
I held out my charm, and froze the metal of the others. I then did it a second time. I could see hesitation in their movements, and reluctance in their eyes. But, they each by now had a significant amount of trust in me, so that they were not as concerned as if Dennis had done this. I made the ice shift against itself, until it fell off. This had likewise successfully rubbed off the silver. Now, with their colors revealed, they set about to testing their powers. After a while, after they had satisfied themselves, we went to Lily’s group, who was struggling.
“Bua jaoz yj?” I inquired.
“Xipaz! We learned how to speak Kipukolinam. But, we still are having a bit of trouble identifying our elements,” Turquoise replied.
“Xipaz! Well, how far have you gotten into that, Lily?” I asked.
“Not far at all, we were just getting into that. Have you others finished already? It has only been ten minutes,” Lily said, quite impressed by our speed.
“Yes, but do not mind us. Carry on,” I responded.
“Very well. Now, I want everyone to jump up into the air, okay? Here we go,” Lily said, and they all jumped.
“Why can I not come all the way back down?” Cerulean asked anxiously.
“Because you are an Air Elemental. You belong in the air, Polly, come and show him how to fly properly,” Lily called, and continued, “Now, think about the sun. So hot, so bright, so big.”
“Hey, look at this! Turquoise is a Light Elemental,” Skyly said, and stepped aside with her.
“Water, rain, mist, so wet…” Lily said softly, but loud enough to hear.
So thus things continued for quite some time, until everyone knew the powers of their element. What a jolly time it was! It was just like Christmas morning when everyone is so happy with their gifts, and so eager to show everyone else. So everyone was quite happy, and things continued just like this for the rest of the night, and into the next night. Meanwhile, those of us who already knew our powers before hand talked amongst ourselves about what should be done.
“Ahyracie, Skyly, and I will come with you to your dimension. With us with you, the Martians had better not attack. That would be a very grave mistake for them,” Lily said.
“We did not wish for war with our enemies, but peace. I, for one, think that we should return, and go to Neptune. The Martians disregard Neptune, because they are too lazy to explore. But, I discovered that underneath the layers of mist and gas, far far down near the core, there is indeed a solid center. I know not where it came from. But, the Martians are not wise enough to watch interplanetary travel, unless someone is coming to Mars. For this reason, we could simply teach people on Neptune with no fear of being discovered,” I suggested.
“That is the best idea I personally have heard all day. What do you think,  Lily, Skyly, and Ahyracie?” Dilly asked, quite pleased with my plan.
“I think it is pretty well thought through. And this would provide the Hidden with a new place to live, maybe introduce more people to Christianity, and could provide an opportunity to study the time machine,” Lily replied.
“I agree with all of what mother said, especially about the time machine. I remember Lilac saying she wished that she could go back in time, and witness the events that we read about in the Bible. Although, arrangements would have to be made, as the gases are toxic,” Ahyracie pointed out.
“True, but that is easily fixed. Cerulean is an Light Complixie, remember? He can solve that problem quite easily. I, for one, am excited to see where this goes, and what sort of galaxy the Milky Way is,” Skyly concluded.
“Very well then. In the morning, we will tell the others,” I said, and everyone finally went to sleep.

I yawned, and rolled over. When I saw the cubular sun in the sky above my head, I smiled, and sighed happily. Oh how good it felt to be back among the fairy people! If only it could last forever. But, there was work to be done, and I was just as happy to do it as to stay. I stood up, and found Azurite already awake. She looked very sleepy, and probably had stayed up later than the rest of us from the excitement and insomnia of these last three days. She looked as if she rather wanted to stay here as well, and seemed at peace. Peace, the word tore me into pieces. Never in my life had I seen anyone with that look about them called peacefulness. The fact that it would soon melt away, and by my doing, absolutely broke my heart. But, it must happen sometime. Besides, the mission field was calling. Was not that way Azurite was yet among us? We were all here for the sole purpose of ministry. All the other Christians had gone into the Valley, as we called it. Abandoning the command to spread the good news. That was why those fifty of us out of five million who remained were so hard pressed. Indeed, our fellows had greatly harmed us. But, there was no turning back now.
“How are you this morning, Azurite?” I asked softly, so as to not wake the others.
“I am quite tired, how are you, Lilac?” Azurite responded, and yawned  again.
“I am troubled. Today we return to the Milky Way Galaxy, and we are going to live on Neptune,” I replied, also with a yawn.
“We are? But, the gases are toxic, and not safe for us to breathe. Besides, it has no surface,” Azurite pointed out.
“Nay, sister. I have told you before that I discovered a surface. You need not trouble yourself about the gases though, not now that we know that Cerulean is an Air Elemental. As soon as he even blinks, the gases will become air. We also have among us Nature, Plant, Water, and Earth elements, who can alter the surface to suit our needs. And I am well trained in magic. I can make it so that the Martians will still see a twirling globe of blue gases,” I explained. *
“But, I think that they will probably be able to find us, whether we are on Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranius, Neptune, or even out of the solar system,” Azurite pointed out.
“Well, as far as they know we are all dead, so they certainly will not be looking for us,” I replied.
“How do we get back?” Azurite inquired.
I turned white. I had not thought a single moment about how to get back. Ordinarily I would either teleport, or open a portal. But, how did we get here in the first place? How to get back always depends on how your arrived when we are talking about summons generated in The Fairy Lands. We must have been summoned, because otherwise we would have been the ones responsible for the magic that brought  us here. Since none of the elementals knew they had powers before yesterday, they obviously could not have done it. I can not do it without knowing that I am doing it. No, someone from The Fairy Lands had summoned us. The only way then to get back is to find the person who summoned us, help them with whatever they needed our help with which was why they summoned us, and then they can send us back. the only other way is if the summoner dies, but of course we did not want anyone to die.
“Lily, Skyly, Ahyracie, Polly, Dilly, Dennis, Lenny,” I called, “Wake up, we have a problem.”
Lily rolled over reluctantly, and yawned. She stretched for arms, and opened her eyes.
“What is it, Lilac?” Lily asked, and yawned again.
“Who summoned us?” I inquired.
“I… do not know. Maybe Polly?” Lily suggested.
“It was not me. Ahyracie has been watching you to make sure nothing terrible happened. She probably did it,” Polly muttered, almost losing her balance.
“I did not. I do not think that any of us did it. Maybe it was Sherman,” Ahyracie replied, the only one who seemed truly awake.
“Ebquozydli, light can summon light, and dark can summon dark. It is not an interchangeable thing. We all know that the Hidden are light, and we all know that Sherman is dark. Therefore, it is quite impossible for him to do the summoning of them,” Skyly said, quite awake, but refusing to show it.
“I am very frustrated. Who on Ierba has summoned us?” I asked impatiently.
“It was I” a voice behind us said.
We all turned to look, and saw a young child. He was about two, actually. That was definitely an age that was far too young to understand the art of summoning. I blinked in disbelief. This little kid was such a masterful wizard that he could summon a group of elementals? I looked him all over for traces of a magician. Hm, no wand, no potions, no spells sticking out of his pockets, no books, none of the tell tale signs that distinguish a wizard from a magician.
“Who are you?” I asked in astonishment.
“I,” the boy said, “Am Max Takiobur.”
The fire became a bit too evident in Lily’s eyes once she heard the name Takiobur. Polly literally fell out of the sky in surprise. Skyly, who had been dim as a human for night time, lost control of herself, and started glowing bright as the sun. Ahyracie simply stared with her jaw dropped, and water dripped off her fingers a bit more quickly than usual. I cast a force field, and shook my head as the others embarrassed me. Azurite quietly slipped away into the cluster of trees where she had fallen asleep with a few others, and hid under her blanket. I laughed internally at this, because for some reason people always seemed to think that blanket was the invincible shield that would protect you from all harm and danger, and make you invisible. This, of course, is not true. Yet, for some reason, when we are scared we never really seem to think about it being incredibly silly, we just want to be safe.
“Are you the son of Sherman Takiobur?” I asked quickly.
“Well, yes, but I did not summon you for father to destroy you. It is actually because of a problem with father that I have called you. I know that you, at least, know quite well how to stop him, and I want your help,” Max replied.
“Can you explain please?” I inquired, using my power to hold the others back.
“Of course. It started when mother was teaching me how to use high technology. Admittedly, she did want me to use it to destroy you, but I could not tell her if I valued my life that I did not want enmity with you. Anyways, then father came home, and fell into a great rage against us. He said that full potential cannot be reached with technology, as there is no real internal power that comes from technology, Then he said that magic was the real key to power, and insisted on sending me here to The Fairy Lands to learn magic from the Dark Complixies. So, he taught me a bit on our way, and then left me in their care. But, we all know very well what effects interplanetary travel in this world has on natives of this dimension. I got sick, very very very sick. I actually almost died, until someone by and by came along. She said her name was Iryen. She helped me to overcome the sickness, and taught me magic enough to get by. Then she told me to go to S.E.E. School of Elemental Education, and left. So, I did as she said, and learned that I was an Ice Elemental, and how to use my powers. Then I sent a Jluda to my parents telling them that I was alive, and had learned light magic. They were very enraged, and they thought that they had killed me. But, anticipating this, I sent my touchogram, which they killed, while I remained at the school.
So, ever since then I have pretty much just been hiding. Hiding, and looking for someone I could call to help me learn how to defend myself against my parents,”  Max concluded his story.
“Well, I can relate to almost every single word of that. What do you know so far as shielding magic goes?” I asked.
“I do not think you should trust him, Lilac. And, for Dilly’s sake let me go!” Lily demanded.
“What did I do?” Dilly asked, finally waking up.
“Nothing, Princess. Lily is just swearing again. And no, Lily, I will not let you go. Try as you might, you cannot hide the fire in your eyes from me. Why should I not trust him? You forget that I am not just a Complixie. I can tell when people are lying,” I said, and turned back to Max to hear his answer.
“I wish you would not swear, Lily,” Dilly scolded.
“Says the girl who would have died a well over thousand times now without me. I do not need you to act like a grown up, Dilly,” Lily retorted.
“Well, basically nothing,” Max admitted.
“Alight then, come with me, and I will show you how,” I offered, and we went away quite a distance.
“Ha! And where would you be without me, Lady Lily?” Dilly asked, as Lily collapsed on her face in the mud since I let go.
“Definitely not in the mud,” Lily replied, pulling herself up as Polly laughed her head off, “Thank you for your sympathy, Polly. I appreciate it.”
“You are very welcome. I would be glad to do it again,” Polly giggled.
“Well, let us hope that you will not have the opportunity to do so. Behave yourself, Polly,” Lily snapped.
“Yes, Mother,” Polly mumbled.
“Look, could it be true? Could that boy actually be my cousin? Leana never said anything about having a child to the best of my knowledge,” Skyly said.
“Well, why should she? It is not like we are the best of friends, your aunt and I. If you remember, she has been trying to kill me for around three hundred sixty seven quadrazillion, two hundred thirty eight billion, seven hundred twenty seven million, three hundred eighty four thousand, one hundred fifty nine years now. In other words, since we were two. As soon as she could chase after me, hold a knife, and shout insults she was after me. Besides, if we forgot about that, there is no interplanetary communication. She stays in The Techno Lands, and I stay here. That is why she married Sherman, so that he could come here and do the dirty work for her, or so that he could shield her with his dark magic from the effects of the magical barriers she would have to pass through in order to reach The Fairy Lands. It is simply not reasonable that she should want to tell us. Or that she would tell us, because the minute we knew he existed we would have tried to influence him in some way to stop him from following in the horribly dangerous foot steps of his parents. None the less, I am still very taken aback, and quite disoriented at the appearance of such a powerful young wizard,” Lily replied.
After the family had finished their discourse, the others started to one by one wake up, and join them. By this time the sun was high up in the sky, and the morning hours completely gone. So they betook themselves to practicing their powers, and were indeed quite good at it by the time that Lilac and Max finally returned from their lesson.
“Well, can we go home now?” Lilac asked patiently.
“Yes,” Max replied, and made a quick motion with his hand.
Everyone felt suddenly more, floaty. In fact, they felt far more that floaty. They felt dizzy, and confused. Some of them passed out, and eventually only Lilac and the natives were standing.
“It looks like they are not quite accustomed to The Fairy Lands yet. I had forgotten most people with human ancestry were disoriented by the magic of this place. We had better set about our plans,” Lily said, as Lilac went about reviving her companions.
“Yes, please do so swiftly,” Lilac called.
Lily made a quick motion with her hand, and muttered something under her breath that was unintelligible. A mist covered the area that could really only be described as a soft, pure, sparkly mist. When the mist started to roll away, everyone sprang to their feet, as if they had only stumbled. Dilly, Dennis, Lenny, Skyly, and Max were all gone, as was the indigo sky, yellow grass, pink trees, and green flowers. The Hidden very vaguely remembered what had happened, like when you remember a dream you had a few months ago. In fact, if there had not been magic emitting from Lily and Ahyracie, color on the once silver parts of the cyborgs, and berry juice on their mouths, they probably would have completely forgotten about the whole thing. That is what happens to all humans, or partial humans, who had no magical background or experience and go to The Fairy Lands.
“Wow… I did not think it would be this bad…” Lily said with wide eyes.
“It has definitely gotten much worse since we left,” I managed to say, as my jaw dropped and my eyes popped out of my head.
It had, in truth, gotten a lot more than much worse. Here we stood, on a hologram. A hologram that was stretched a distance of over four billion miles across, and each end was attached to a piece of what had unfortunately once been the planet earth. Random pieces floated everywhere around us, and if it had not been for Turquoise, we would have all floated away. And if we had not had Cerulean among us, we would have died from lack of oxygen. All these things raced wildly through my mind, and my heart beat faster than ever before. Finally, I lost control of myself. My legs grew wobbly, my arms shaky, and I got very dizzy. I fell down, purposefully lest I fall accidentally, and I cried. I cried and I cried and I cried. I grabbed a rock that was floating by, and hugged it as if my grip would break it into a million tiny pieces. Everyone else but Lily and Ahyracie, who watched in confusion, had also broken down, although some to more or less extravagant levels than I.
Eventually I stood up, and I grabbed my green charm from off the bracelet. I threw it into the air, and it swirled up in a spiral, making a path much like green brushstrokes as it went. It flew around and around, over, under, around, across, in, beneath, beside, above, below, everywhere, making a green line everywhere that it went. Finally it stopped, and re attached itself back on the bracelet around my wrist. I walked over, and plucked the green ball it had painted out of the air. Once I had it in my hand, I squeezed it tight. It glowed brighter and brighter, getting squishier and squishier, larger and larger. Then, finally, it burst into a quazadrillion tiny green sparks, that scattered in all directions. They were alighting on different pieces of the earth. Once a spark landed on a piece of land, it would move slowly towards us. a few xillion sparks still hung about, so I twirled, sending them out in different directions and down. They formed a line on top of the hologram that honestly looked somewhat like a blue print. Then, the sparks had done their jobs. Pieces of land started falling into place one by one. At last we had a valley about the size of two football fields, surrounded by mountains. Birds and butterflies flew about the trees and flowers. Squirrels playfully bounced through the fruit trees. A few fish swam in a lake off to the bottom left corner of the valley. My companions looked up in astonishment, and I laughed internally at the befuddlement on their faces.
“H… how did this all get here?” Krystal asked, once more staring.
“I used the gravity generator to restore gravity, and sent out electrically charges microns that were programmed like a homing missile to get these pieces of earth back together. The rest was incredibly simple, as all I had to do was reverse the electro magnetic pulse that emitted from a piece of land that blew up and was heading towards us to reinforce the magnetic field’s pull on these pieces, thus restoring suitable conditions for an atmosphere. Then I collected the air molecules being emitted by plants and other living things to restore the atmosphere,” I explained quite quickly as my words blurred together into something unintelligible.
“Lilac, Lilac, slow down! Nobody knows what you are saying! A gravity generator? Electrical sparks? Electro magnetic pulses? I thought that you only knew magic,” Juniper said.
That shows you how much he knew about me. Magic only? Silly Juniper. Had he not heard what I had just said? Well, he would know soon enough. But, for the time being, I had other things to worry about aside from the fact that nobody believed I could be a wizard of both magic and technology. In time they would understand what I could do, but none of that was currently important. All that mattered right now was, what should we do now? Our previous plan required earth as a critical element to carry out the plan. You might be thinking that there was not really a problem, since we had this last valley. Well, that is true enough. But, we really need earth as it was before, the same size, and with sufficient gravity. Not electrically charged homing sparks that had collected small pieces of earth from the far reaches of the solar system, and artificial gravity holding together an incredibly small piece of land.
“So, what are we going to do?” Ahyracie asked in English.
“You do speak English!” Flutter exclaimed, whirling around to face her.
“Well, yes. You see, I am not exactly a Dimension Jumper. So, I can only speak the language of whatever world I am from, and whatever world I am currently in,” Ahyracie explained.
“That does not really make any sense. Is that more magic?” Flutter asked, because as a cyborg she does not really understand magic.
“Yes, I suppose so,” Ahyracie replied, turned back to me, and asked again, “What is the plan?”
“We had better split up. The best way to recover from this disaster is to go back to society, and try to hide,” I said, and noticed that everyone was looking at me, “Now that we know we have powers, and we know how to use our powers in ways that can defend us, then we should be able to go back… Go back to… to our families. I… I do not know what else to do anymore.”
I started to cry again. This was the absolute worst plan I had ever heard in my entire life. Go back, back to our families? That was the most outrageous, most stupid, most idiotic, most foolish thing any living thing in the entire universe could do. These were the people who had betrayed us, who had tried to kill us, who had done unspeakable things to us. Actually, they were a large part of why some of us were cyborgs… it was pretty bad. For crying out loud, it was practically either suicide or surrender to go back to our families. But, hey. What are a bunch of kids supposed to do? Then, it finally hit me. Of course! Our powers! That was the answer to our problems! If the Martians wanted a war, then we had to fight back! By golly, what were we going to do hiding forever? I knew there were more of us. Lots more of us. More of us that had powers, and the ones that did not have any powers that they knew of. But, let us face the truth. Every single one of us was either an elemental, a super hero, or a cyborg. Mostly cyborgs, as everyone who was found out by their families lost at least an arm or a leg.
So, where were these other Christians? Well, they were either in the Valley, you know, the place in the virtual reality where they had decided to hide till death perfectly safe and do absolutely nothing to help the rest of us. Or, they were on Mars. What were they doing on Mars, since Mars was crawling with Martians, who are the ones that are trying to kill us? Well… okay, yes. That was the majority of us, who were either being killed, or were about to be killed. So, now the real question was, why the heck were we hiding on earth? I think that is pretty self explanatory. We were trying to not get killed, or caught, and continue the ministry. Anyone of us who was still in the Milky Way Galaxy was there for the exact same reason, we refused to get into the Valley, because if we went in the Valley, we could not get out again. And, it would not be wise to let the whole universe in there when someone was bound to blow up the whole thing, and kill everyone. And here I go rambling again. The point is, we thus far had not done anything to either stop the Martians or help the others, and it was about time we started.
I shook my head in amazement. I simply could not believe that yesterday I had had a perfectly normal day on earth. It made even less sense that this entire adventure up to this point had only taken sixteen hours. Is not it quite strange how things can be going absolutely wonderful one moment, and completely horrible the next? I will never ever ever understand how that works, but this was not the time to dwell on that. I was in charge, and I had to figure out how to protect the others.

“Or,” I said, making it clear I preferred this option, “We can go to Mars, and help the others. We have just sat here while others are being killed. I think it is about time we did something about this. What do y’all think? Which choice?”
There was a resounding “TWO!” in reply.
“Let us be swift, and go right now!” Teal said hurriedly.
“I do not think that would be a good idea. Why are you so eager?” I asked.
“Because… remember how I have only been here for two days now?” Teal asked hesitantly.
“Yes,” I replied, “Go on.”
“Can I talk to you alone?” Teal asked, avoiding eye contact.
“Yes, of course. How about we go over here?” I asked, and we went and sat by the lake.
“Well, I was just found out by my parents. Everything would have been alright, I would have gotten away all right, until my brother intervened. He…” Teal said quietly, tripping over her words, “He admitted that he was the one who helped me become a Christian, and that turned their attention to him. So, I ran, and he never followed. I do not know if he is dead, alive, or anything at all.”
“Oh,” I said quietly, “What is his name?”
“His name is Asparagus,” Teal said quietly.
“Asparagus… ah ha. He is alive,” I reported.
“Is he okay?” Teal asked, gazing into my glasses to try and see the information displayed on the inside.
“Define ‘okay’ please. How drastic is not okay?” I asked.
Teal turned bright red, and replied, “Well, healthy and in one piece I suppose.”
“No, he is healthy. But, he lost a leg, and a hand,” I replied, and dismissed the saddening information.
We were both quiet, and returned to the group. Nobody said anything, because apparently Emerald has listened to the whole conversation with her super hearing, and related it to the others. The rest of the afternoon was a quiet one. There was occasional whisper as we set about doing the things that needed to be done, but nothing more. We all felt as if some horrible monster was looming above us, waiting for the perfect moment to pounce. It was absolutely awful, just keeping ourselves busy, not knowing which hour was to be our last. It had always been this way, but I think we were too hopeful to really accept the fact. Hope? What was hope? Everyone walked about as if they had nothing left. Okay, that does make sense since technically that is completely accurate. Or was it? What had gone wrong? Part of me longed for my mother, but I knew I would receive no comfort from her, not anymore. That was when I remembered the time machine. I could turn back time. I could go back. Back to when everything was okay.
That was the most tempting thought that had ever yet crept into my mind. Freedom I thought Away from this life of tragedy and despair. No! I had to do something. I had to do something fast. If I did not act now, this horrible feeling would slowly creep over all of us. This regret, this longing, this feeling of being outcast and unloved, this despair, this depression. Something had to be done! I leapt to my feet, and the life crept back into my eyes. The color returned to my cheeks, and my heart beat normally again.
“Everyone!” I called, “Everyone come here!”
Slowly, and one by one, my companions dragged themselves over, and sat down to hear what I had to say. Once everyone was there, I started to express my worries and concerns.
“Friends, brothers and sisters, I am afraid that we have allowed something unhealthy to happen. Look around, look at yourself, what do you see? A miserable heap of someone who has lost everything, and is at the peak of the high mountain called despair. Why have we allowed ourselves to come thus far into depression and sadness? We have to change now, before this feeling consumes us. For the next few days, I do not want anyone to talk about their darkest moments in the past. Anyone who had just arrived would ask where the Hidden are. Look, I know this has been hard, these last nineteen hours. But, are we not supposed to be glad when we face trials, and rejoice when we face persecution? I know that none of this had been easy, but, I think we have cast our faith behind us without a second glance. I think, and I am sure most of you will agree, before we do anything else, we need to get off this high mountain of despair! We need to go back, pick up our faith, and carry it proudly. For these next few days, we need to pray, and read the Bible, and get over our pasts. Because it is not just going to suddenly be sunshine and rainbows. We need to learn how to defend ourselves. Not our physical selves, but our souls. Look, we have done nothing but worry. Where in that have we even prayed a single word?” I asked, very overcome with emotion.
Once more, there was silence.

Well, that is exactly what we did. We spent the next week in prayer, and in the Bible. That was definitely what we needed. By the end of the week, you could not recognize us for the same people. We decided that, unless something absolutely life-threatening happened, we would do this for two hours every night, because we could all see what a difference it made. With that done, we set about making this little valley a nice place to live.
There was a bit of a cave inside of one of the mountains, so we hacked away at that, and made it a very nice cave that was plenty big for everyone. We used some of the leftover green sparks that we found while carving the cave as lighting, as they were definitely bright enough to serve as lights for a large part of the cave. Nobody really complained about his process, we were too busy thinking about how wonderful this valley would be when we were done. We picked some fruit off some of the trees, and planted them in rows so that in time it would become an orchard. We also did the same with some nuts we found that the squirrels had collected, being careful to only take one or two. Pretty soon we had a little farm growing with all sorts of things. There just so happened to be some chickens there, so there were eggs. We did not really want to eat the birds or squirrels unless absolutely necessary. We did, however, eat a few of the fish. Without the tilt that the earth provided, we basically were living in unending spring, which turned out to be wonderful since we were growing things. We even made a little pool by digging a tunnel to make a stream go into a place where the rock of one mountain sagged down quite a bit.
In other words, this was the best time we had had in our lives, and actually time got away from us. When Teal finally remembered her brother, and came to speak to me about when we were going to go, I turned red as the cherry I was eating. We had completely lost track of time, and two months had passed. We all laughed about this, except Teal’s laugh was very half hearted for a laugh. I felt pretty badly about this, but I informed her that he was doing fine. I felt a bit of regret, going to Mars, since everyone was so happy, and things were going so well. I loved my friends, and I did not want anything bad to happen to them. Never the less, I agreed that we should carry out this mission in three days. When I told everyone, nobody seemed any less cheerful. In fact, to my amazement that has still not left me, they seemed more cheerful. I suppose they were looking forward to the undetermined fruits of our mission. I was hesitant, but everyone else was determined, and I eventually became of the same mind.
And so it was. On Friday, we set out for Mars.
“Now, we do not want to blend in, okay? Cyborgs, roll up your sleeves, take off your gloves, roll up your pants, and take off your shoes and socks. Elementals, do not hide your magic. Let the Light glow, the Air fly, the Ice skate, and the Fire burn. Super heroes, do whatever it is you have been gifted with, whether it be flight, force fields, speed, invisibility, let the world know. But, above all else Do Not Hide Your Faith. This plan does not rely on speed, surprise, or strength. We cannot lose. That it is not to say that there is no margin for error. There is plenty of room for mistakes, but however this day ends, we have been different. We have shown our faith. And when it all boils down, no matter what happens, God is in control. Remember, remember, remember, and I will say it again remember whatever anyone does, we are to act like Christians. Remember,” I said, and squeezed the green charm.
Once more the charm glowed, and flew from my hand. It weaved around us, above, across, among, behind, below, beneath, beside, down, under, underneath, up, in, and out. Then, finally, it faded away, and there we stood on Mars, with everyone looking at us.
“Lilac?” a familiar voice asked.
“Hello, father. I know you thought I was dead, but you killed my hologram,” I said, playing with my wand, despite what Lily thought of it.
“How dare you, you blasted little wretch!” he cried, and flew at me.
I simply made a gesture with my hand, stopping him in his tracks, and replied, “It is wonderful to see you again as well. If you will be so kind as to excuse us, we have a mission to complete.”
With that, I shifted my back, so that I had wings. I flew up into the air, and motioned for the others to follow me. Unfortunately, I was indeed a Martian, which was way I heard constant shouts of “Traitor!” as we went along. I was extremely ashamed of my ancestry, and memories started to come back. But, I dismissed them, and once we were a safe distance from father, I shifted again, and jumped out of the sky. A few of the others were looking at me with an expression of fear and hatred. I did not like that, and began to feel uneasy.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” I asked hesitantly.
“You are a Martian? You were someone who hated us and wanted to destroy us?” Watermelon asked.
I hung my head, and replied, “Yes, but I was not quite that bad. I was always a traitor in their eyes, because I always wanted peace with the Christians, and the others laughed at me. That was actually a large part of why I was supposedly killed the first time. It happened twice, really. After the first time a target which I shall never be able to rid myself on was placed on me. Your burden is five times easier to carry than mine. No matter where I go, everyone who looks at me either shouts traitor and other insults, or goes after my head. But, not everyone knows you. You are very fortunate.”
That pretty much ended the conversation for a while, until Watermelon finally asked, “What happened?”
“That,” I replied, “Is a long story. Then again, we have the time. Do you really want to hear it?”
“Yes, tell us, Lilac. You have intrigued me now,” Cerulean persisted, flying in circles above my head.
“Alright then, here we go. Oh, wait a moment, I need all of you to promise something,” I said.
“And what is that? Amethyst asked.
“That, no matter what I say, you will not turn against me. What I am going to say will blow your minds, and make you recoil in fear and hatred. But, that is just how it happened. I was not introduced to Christianity until somewhere around three years ago. I need you to understand that I did not know that what I did was wrong, and everyone was telling me what I was doing was right. I simply did as I was told, and I honestly hated doing it. Unlike my family and friends, my heart was not against you. I do not want you to think that I am still of that mind, or doing those things. My past haunts me every day,” I replied quite red, “I do not think I will speak about that, but I might accidentally slip it in.”
Everyone else seemed quite uneasy, but at last they promised. I let out a long sigh, and began my tale.

“Well,” I started, “Things did not really start happening until I was five.”
I woke up one morning, and saw that it was going to be a very gloomy day. Gloomy, perfect, it fit my mood. I was not happy about training, and I even wanted to run away. But, none the less, I went along with my father so he could teach me that day. It was okay at first, we had some fun on the way there. But, we passed by a house. The house had been destroyed, and everything was charred from fire. I saw a little book, with something tied around it. I picked it up, and luckily father did not notice. He never approved of taking interest in the remains of belongings of rebels. I hid it in my jacket, since it was cold, and me hugging myself would make it seem as if I were cold, not hiding something. I drew my scarf up to cover my cheeks, for I knew they always turned green when I was lying. So, I put the book in my pocket, until we came to work. Father left me to play with some other children until he was ready to teach me. But, I slipped away, and dug out the book. That was when I found out that I had picked up the most hated and forbidden book in the galaxy, the Bible. Tied around it was a necklace, that had a cross. Doubtless this had belonged to another girl and her family, who had been found out.
I knew that I was not supposed to touch it, but I did not care. I was overcome with anger that such things were happening, and my father would not tell me a word explaining why. I crawled farther into the shadows, and started to read. Most of the pages were very badly burnt, so it was quite hard, and it was in the pitch black dark. I can see in the dark, but not quite that well. It was quite challenging, but I was determined. I used my magic to become invisible, so that I might read on without being found or disturbed. The more I read the more interested I became. The more I was interested, the more I found myself being sucked in. At first it was wonderful. It was the best story I had ever read! But, yet… there was something different about it. It… it was not like other books. Usually books, well, you can relate to the character in some way or another,  but this book was somehow remarkably different. I read and read and read. Minutes passed, hours passed, a day passed, days passed. I would occasionally eat something, but I did not sleep. There was something about my family that made us masters of insomnia, and we can stay awake for up to a year, although we do get sick afterwards. This was why I kept reading, and reading, and reading. I had started when I was five and one week, and finished when I was six and three days. I still had four days until I needed to be asleep. So, I decided that I would walk around, until I found someone who believed in this book.
Finally, I found someone. A Venuian. He was rather scared when I asked him about this strange book, until he found out that I only wanted to know more about it, because I very much loved this weird story. That was the day when I became a Christian. I showed him the Bible, and the necklace I had found tied around it. He was able to tell me exactly who it belonged to, and I thanked him, and went home. When I got home, nobody asked me where I had been for the past year, because I rather liked to just disappear to be alone for long periods of time. I did get a scolding when they saw I had been using my insomnia, but I had expected a more stern talking to than that, quite honestly. Then, again, the next day I went with father, playing the girl’s name over and over in my mind. I was planning to give them back to her, if she was still alive. I knew very little about what happened to the people who got on the wrong side of the emperor, but I knew anyone I encountered who had needed this book far more than I did. Rose, Rose, Rose, Rose, it kept ringing in my mind. When we got there, I pretended to be sick because of my insomnia. Although I had secretly slept for five minutes the night before, so I was ready for another year of being awake. I crept away, and used my green charm to see where she was. I knew I would not get anything back if she was dead. But, to my great delight, the signal came back. So, I threw the green charm against the ground, and found myself sitting next to her.
“Hello,” I said, “Are you Rose?”
“Yes,” Rose replied quietly, staring at me with a look I did not like.
“I think this belongs to you,” I said, and handed her the Bible and the necklace.
She looked up in surprise, and I could tell she was very confused. She studied my face, my eyes, my body language, my expression, and my tone of voice. I could tell she was absolutely shocked by all of this. I knew what was running through her mind. Anyone who looked into her eyes for a fraction of a second could see. Even someone without fairy blood. There she sat, curled up into a ball. She did not have any natural arms or legs, in other words, all her limbs were cyborg. It was easy to see that she had been crying for a long long time. The expression on her face, and the words written in her eyes broke my heart. ‘Why, why would you, a Martian, be kind to me? Your kind have killed my family, given me these metal parts, and taken away close to everything. Why are you so different?’
“Here, take them. Do not be afraid of me. Unlike the others, I do not want to hurt you. Come on, you can at least trust another Christian, can you not?” I asked.
She stared at me like I had gone crazy. She slowly reached out, and took the Bible and the necklace. She put the latter around her neck, and held the book close to her heart.
“Did…” she staggered in disbelief, “Did you just call yourself a Christian?”
“Yes, yes I did,” I replied.
“But… You are a Martian…” she staggered,  unable to believe.
“So? Are you saying that a Martian can not be a Christian?  But, I am not exactly a Martian, I am a Martiman. But, that does not matter. How long have you been here?” I asked, giving her a hand as she struggled to stand up.
“Thanks. Well, I think it has been exactly one year today,” Rose replied, still a bit unsure.
“Do you have a family?” I asked.
“Not anymore,” she replied softly.
I heard a noise, and vanished. I stepped through the wall, to see who was coming. I saw that they were coming this way. I went back through, and became visible.
“Do you trust me?” I asked, my eyes serious.
“Why…” Rose began.
“Quick, there is no time. Do you trust me?” I whispered again.
There was a moment’s hesitation, then she replied, “Yes.”
“Good, take my hand,” I said hastily.
“Why?” she asked, and the door started to open.
“What is going on?”  a voice growled.
“Rose, take my hand! Now!” I said, as the other Martian advanced towards us.
She finally did, and we vanished. When the dizziness wore off, we opened our eyes.
“What happened?” Rose asked, blinking at the sudden light, “Are we dead?”
“No,” I replied, “This is earth.”
“You… saved me?” Rose asked, taken aback, because she still was not over the fact that I was Martian.
“Yes,” I whispered, and she started to cry.
“So you saved me, good for you. Come on, tell us what happened next,” Rose said.
Kiwi laughed, and replied, “Do you not know? It was only five years ago.”
Rose shrugged, giggling, and replied, “I like stories. Go on, Lilac.”
“Well, alright,” I replied, and continued the tale.
So, we stayed on earth for a long time, then I explained that my family would probably be looking for me. But, Rose did not want to leave me. So, we decided that I would make her invisible, and go back. Then, every day, we would go out, and find others, to bring them to earth where they would be safe. So, that is what we did. And for one year it worked. Until my sister found out about it. I came home one night, and saw that there were visitors. This was odd, because usually my parents would tell me if there were going to be visitors. They started shouting when they saw me, and rushed out of the house. Rose stepped back, unsure of what was happening. I did not like the angry look on their faces.
“Hey, what is going on? What has happened?” I asked, backing up slowly.
“Traitor!” they hissed, “Rebel!”
Hey? What had I done? But, there was no time for questions. In a moment I found myself fighting for my life. Soon a crowd gathered, all cheering on my family. I felt very betrayed, unloved, and alone. My mind raced, what would happen if I was caught? Never mind, that was a foolish question. I might as well be caught. Then it happened, the absolute most painful moment of my entire life. My brother raced off, which made me feel better at first, since it was a four to one fight instead of a five to one fight. But, then he came back, with a Kulorblade. A Kulorblade is very very sharp, and my heart started to beat a lot more rapidly than it had been before. They were trying to kill me! I grabbed the light blue charm for a split second, and squeezed it. But, not before my brother had swung. He went for my head, but I flipped over. That might have been a mistake. It cut my leg pretty badly… Okay, fine. It completely cut off my leg. But, when I flipped, my father grabbed me, and I fell on my back. Of course, I could not get back up again. I looked into my brother’s eyes, searching for any sign of sympathy or love. I found none.
“Please, no…” I managed to say, despite the fact that I wanted to clench my teeth, and was crying really hard.
“Suck it up, traitor,” he replied, and rammed it into my chest.
That was the scariest moment of my life. I do not really know what happened after that.
“Rose, do you remember? Do you think you can take over?” I asked, still unsure of what really happened afterwards.
“Of course,” Rose replied, and picked back up.
I was really scared. Especially when they killed Lilac.
“Wait, back up! They killed you?!” Sapphire exclaimed, whirling around to face me.
“No, it just looked like they did. The shield kicked in right after my brother cut off my leg,” I replied.
“Oh. That makes a lot more sense,” Apple replied, having a light bulb moment.
“Yes, I suppose it does,” I laughed, “Continue, Rose.”
“Okay, here I go again,” Rose started.
I was not really sure what to do when I saw Lilac lying on the ground, moaning with blood pouring out from her leg and her chest.
“Lilac, are you okay?” I asked, although obviously she was not.
“Nnnnnnnn… o…” Lilac replied, and lost consciousness.
This, I considered dying. Not knowing that she had really just passed out from loss of blood from her leg, and that the wound on her chest was the work of a hologram to trick them. I grabbed her green charm, held her hand, and slammed the charm against the ground. We re -appeared among the other five of us, who crowded around.
“What on earth happened?!” Flutter demanded, as her eyes popped out of her head.
“There was a fight. I think she was found out…” I managed to say through tears.
“She is not dead, you do not need to mourn,” Sapphire said, bending down, and touching Lilac’s chest.
“What do you mean she is not dead? She got pierced right through the heart!” I  exclaimed.
“She has a pulse. Dead people do not have pulses. And look, this is a hologram. In the fight she must have put up a shield, and used a hologram to make it look like she was actually harmed in that area,” Sapphire replied,
“But… so, she passed out? Why?” I asked stupidly.
“Because of blood loss, and quite possibly the shock of it all,” Amethyst concluded.
“Well, let us go run and get a wand to see if we can fix it,” Turquoise suggested.
“We do not know any magic Much less healing magic,” Azurite pointed out.
“I know of a book. I saw Lilac reading it one night. It was a book of magics,” Flutter offered.
“Hang on… look at this,” Sapphire said, pulling down Lilac’s shirt.
Around her neck was a half sphere. We did not know it yet, but this was the half sphere which would connect with, empower, or summon Lily from the far off dimension of The Fairy Lands. We looked at it with curiosity, unsure of what to do with it. Sapphire carefully removed it from around Lilac’s neck, and held it in her hands. We turned it over and over, examining it for hours. We were just deciding whether or not we should try it, when Lilac stirred. We looked at our watches in shame, and realized we had completely lost track of time while we were looking at this thing. A few of us turned red, and went back to Lilac. I was the first one with her.
“What happened?” Lilac asked weakly.
“That is not important right now. Does your leg still hurt?” I asked.
“Leg? What leg?” Lilac inquired, “Why do you not go off and ask a doormat volcano whether or not it is still hot?”
I blushed again from embarrassment, and asked, “Do you hurt at all?”
“Yes,” Lilac replied, regaining the high level of pain she had experienced earlier.
“Where does it hurt?” I asked.
“Everywhere. You need to do something, or I am going to pass out from loss of blood again,” Lilac advised.
“Oh dear…” I moaned, and ran off to find the book Flutter had spoken of earlier.
“Did I say any of that? I do not remember any of that,” I said.
“I remember as well,” Amethyst said, “Perhaps I should continue since Rose left?”
“Go ahead,” I said, and nodded.
Well, that left us with Lilac fading fast, a weird half sphere, and other problems along with all of that. I took the thing from Sapphire, and knelt beside Lilac.
“What is this thing?” I inquired.
Lilac cracked open an eye, and replied, “Oh, the half sphere charm. Quickly, slam it. I had forgotten about it. Use it.”
So, I slammed it, and when it hit the ground, it became a whole circle.
“Here, put it around my neck,” Lilac instructed.
I was so confused, but I did as she said.
As soon as it was around her neck, it sparkled and glowed. The color rushed back to her face, and she opened her eyes completely. Blood stopped gushing out of her leg, and she sat up. I was happy that this had happened, but I could not take my eyes off the sphere. Lilac saw that I was mesmerized, and she giggled. She waved a hand in front of my face, and eventually she put her hands around the sphere. I then blinked, as if waking up from a dream, and stared at her in confusion.
“I see you have no idea what this is. If you would not mid too much, then please do not ask me. It is very complicated, and it will be a long time yet until you are ready,” Lilac said, and pushed back her hair.
“H- how are you better?” I asked in astonishment.
“I will tell you all in good time. Now, how long was I still passed out?” Lilac inquired.
“I think it was four hours…” I replied, and kicked at a pebble.
“Four hours? Wow, and that was not even counting the time on Mars, was it?” Lilac asked.
“I do not know, Rose was the only one there,” I said, and then something dawned on me, “Why did you trick us with the hologram?”
“I did not mean to frighten or trick you, I was just trying to protect my life. I would have set up the hologram so that it only worked on my enemies, but I did not have time to do this since my brother came back with the Kulorblade to kill me,” Lilac pointed out.
So, basically after that things not worth mentioning happened, until finally we managed to make a cyborg leg for Lilac.
“Is that good?” Amethyst asked.
“Yes, good job, Rose, good job, Amethyst. Oh, look. Here we are,” I said, and looked forwards.
Rose shuddered, and said, “Um… could I go back to the valley, please? Please, Lilac, I do not want to go in there again!”
“You can go back if you want. But, if you want to rejoin us, you know where we are. Actually, here. Take this maroon charm. I have the other. That way you can track us, just in case something happens,” I replied, handing her the sphere.

“Well,” I asked with a deep sigh after Rose had gone, “Are we ready?”
“Ready as we are likely to become,” Bouncy said.
“What can man do to us? Let us go swiftly, and get this over with. All things work out for good. Let us be confident, and do what we have to do quickly and efficiently,” Teal said, very shaky.
I hugged her, and whispered, “It will be alright.”
If only I could guarantee that! I am not sure how many prayers we prayed, but it must have been a lot. I had half a mind to send Teal and some of the others back to Rose. Teal, because I was concerned that she would break down, and that would likely draw unwanted attention. A few of the others because, even though I very much wanted everything to go perfectly, I knew it absolutely could not be so, and we needed back up if worst came to worst. So, against my better judgment, I sent back half of the strongest kids among us. Strong physically, you see. Not strongest mentally, for I could simply feel the fear radiating off of them. They were all quite willing indeed to go back to, ahem, help Rose and Teal calm down a bit.
“Wait, Lilac… I just realized something. How do we get inside?” Krystal asked.
“Intimidation,” I grinned, and used my magic.
Ha! I looked hilarious. The.. tail… and the wings… so, so… ha ha ha! Okay, okay, wheuh, okay. So, I had a monkey tail, butterfly wings, horse ears, and flamingo feet. It was hilarious! but, that was not the best part. One of the flamingo legs (yes, my left leg) was still metal, and I could see use my super power and my magic. Aside from that, we all had the charm which enabled us to walk through walls. The look on the faces of the Martians when we showed up was absolutely priceless! And it was better still when they realized that I was Lilac! The Lilac who they had helped kill. The Lilac who they had thought they could trust. The Lilac who was responsible for the rescue of Rose. The Lilac who was the head of a band of rebels known as the Hidden. The Lilac who they used to look down upon as an apprentice. But, now I was the Lilac who floated through the wall with a crowd of little kids and young teens who had powers and stared them straight into the eyes with a look of satisfaction. A look that told them that I was no longer that little helpless girl, but a huge threat should I wish an attack. And they were so sure that I had come to destroy them to avenge myself from what they helped my family do those five years ago, and they actually ran from the building howling and screaming!
This, I can assure you, was absolutely hilarious, and a huge advantage to us. I had really meant them no harm, little did they know. I knew that the pure blooded Martians were quite insecure and flighty people, but this was far more over the top. Although, this was going to be so incredibly much more easy without them here, we might have missed out on valuable info. Oh well, I am not exactly sure what is going on within the inner circles of the Martians, but that might be another mission for another time.
“See?” I asked Krystal, laughing my head off, “Intimidation. Alright everyone, follow me.”
I lead them to the section of the place where I had found Rose those six years ago.
“Um, Lilac. I do not see anyone,” Kiwi pointed out.
“Of course not, silly. We can not see through walls. Look, everyone listen to me. Here is the plan that I think will work the best and be the safest. Five of us will stay here and fend off any Martians that might just so happen to decide that they want to stop us. The rest of you jump back and forth betwixt Mercury and Mars, then we can all go back to Mars after we are completely sure that it is safe,” I explained.
So, thus it began. Lily, Ahyracie, Krystal, Maroon, and I stayed in that long but small passage while our companions went to work. We kind of just talked amongst ourselves, since this was honestly the most boring job. But, as time lagged on, and the others still darted about, I began to grow steadily more and more anxious. Why was it taking so long? I popped up a hologram, and start doing the math. Okay, so the Hidden were exactly one percent of the Christian population. There were fifty two of us. So, fifty two multiplied by one hundred was five thousand two hundred. If you divide five thousand two hundred by five, you get one thousand and forty. Subtract fifty two from one thousand and forty, and you get nine hundred eighty eight. So, in conclusion, four percent of us were here. Well, until the one percent that the Hidden made up arrived, and before we started the mission. And, remember, I had sent half of us back. So, why was it taking six hours for twenty six kids, (subtracting those of us who were standing outside as guards) to take nine hundred eighty eight people to Mercury? And we knew for a fact that not all of them were still alive, so it should be at the very least a little bit less than nine hundred eighty eight. It dawned on me that perhaps it was taking a while, because of obvious reasons. I mean, had not my first encounter with Rose these five years ago taken a considerable amount of time? But, still, six hours! What on earth?!
I saw Jack Rabbit run by just then, and said, “Hey, how many more people do you think there are?”
“Well, being one in eighteen I am not completely sure if this information is totally accurate, but I think that there are about twenty left,” Jack Rabbit replied, and continued on.
“Hallelujah! I simply and absolutely can not believe that it should have taken an hour, much less six stinking hours!” I said, losing my patience.
It was right after I said that, that it finally happened. A Martian finally found us, and they did not seem to be frightened by several of the others floating through walls, or us standing there the weirdos we were appearance wise.
“Lilac?” he hissed, and immediately my eyes would have burned a hole in him had they only but had lasers!
“Hello, brother. I see you have taken it upon yourself to take my place in following father’s footsteps. Thank you, I am afraid that life does not suit me anymore. My, you have gotten a lot bigger! Did you stop by to say hello?” I asked sweetly, yet still a bit of cunning and rage slipped out.
“No, Lilac. I have come to finish the work that I started five years ago. You escaped me once, you blasted little rebel, you idiotic traitor, but by Neptune you are not going to do it again!” he exclaimed, and once more drew the very Kulorblade which had cost me a leg.
“Oh no you will not. I know that you have gotten stronger, but so have I. Every last ounce of strength you can summon up in your entire body from now until the day you die could never even exceed ten percent of the strength that I have even now. I am not your poor, helpless, little sister anymore! I have battled against dark wizards and Dark Complixies and Elementals. I have mastered my superpower. Even as I was about to die I still managed to undergo the complicated steps of materializing a shield as I single handedly fought back five of you. And I have done something which you would call unspeakable.
I have done something that you would die a twenty seven billion four hundred eighty nine million one hundred fifty two thousand six hundred and seventy three times before even thinking of doing. I have done something which you would call full out treason, and deserving of death. I have done something for which you drove that very blade straight into my heart. I have done something that cost my a leg, yet I would still do it a trillion times over. I have done something that you do not yet know. And I am doing something which one day you will look back upon in utter befuddlement, stare at the far off stars which you could never reach, and ask yourself, ‘Why, after all that I have done, has this happened?’ And later on I will do something that, maybe, perhaps, will change your heart.
Why do you stare with hatred in your eyes, and rage figuratively dripping from your mouth? Why does literal steam rise out of your ears? I do not want to be your enemy. I have not come to destroy you, or to cause you any harm what so ever. Why do you shake your head in disbelief? Look, here is the scar exactly where you put it with the deadly end of that very Kulorblade you hold in your left hand this very moment. Here is the metal on which I stand since you swung, and I lost my left hand. And you swung with the deadly end of that very Kulorblade you hold in your left hand this very moment. Brother, brother, brother! I do not understand! What hinders you? What holds back your rage? You hold the weapon, why do you not charge?” I asked.
I watched the effects of my speech go to work on him through the duration of the latter. The hatred slowly melted away from his eyes, replaced by fear. I watched the steam blow away in an imaginary breeze, and his mouth clam shut. I watched his once steady hand holding the Kulorblade out in front of him, and the training he had in his art become washed away. His arm seemed to go limb and very much like jelly, and his face paled when he saw the scar on the chest. He looked at the tip of his precious Kulorblade with a look of disgust and rage. With a now incredibly shaky hand, much like the hands of the Hidden during the earthquake, he held the blade in front of him, and stared at it hard with his eyes nearly popping out of their sockets. Eventually he finally waved his hand over it, and the blade disappeared, and he returned the hilt to his pouch. Then he looked into my eyes with a look of horror and despair.
“Peace be with you. If you go now there will yet be not harm that will befall upon you,” I said, returning his gaze with one of love and kindness.
He turned on his heels, and ran out of the room as fast as his wobbly and shaky kegs could take him. Maroon turned, and stared at me in shock. Krystal’s jaw had dropped. Ahyracie’s heart was thumping wildly, and even Lily seemed surprised. They all turned, and look at me in confusion. Once does not have to be a mind reader to see what they were thinking. ‘HOW?!’ I giggled, and revealed the surprise that was on my face as well.
“Well, that was far easier than I had expected,” I said happily.
“That was incredible! How did you do that?!” Maroon demanded.
“I used his will against him. He wanted to harm a little harmless girl whom he had failed to kill five years ago, and stop her rebellion. He did not want to get vengeance on his little sister who had done nothing to earn his enmity, and was actually doing the right thing while he was the villain. In writing we would call this conflict Man Vs. Himself. I think it was the scar that really did him in,” I replied.
“That looks absolutely hideous! Does it ever hurt?” Krystal asked.
“Sometimes, when my heart thumps wildly. There was not fatal damage, but not even a shield can fully protect anyone from a Kulorblade. It becomes better looking all the time. Had you seen my scar those five years ago I daresay you would have run away to throw up,” I responded, not taking any real insult from this.
“Lilac,” Flutter called.
“Yes, what is it?” I inquired.
“We are finally done,” Flutter replied.
“Finally indeed! They are all on Mercury?” I asked.
“Yes, we are the last six,” Flutter replied.
“Excellent! Well then, let us go back to the others, and we will sort everything out from there,” I suggested, and we disappeared in a flash of green light.
“It is too hot here,” I heard someone say, and I shook my head in bewilderment.
We had just almost undoubtedly saved them from dying, and here they were complaining about how bright it was, how hot it was, and how orange everything looked. It is called Mercury, for crying out loud! What did they expect? Huh, well, maybe they would feel better when we got to the valley.
“I have had enough of this. I am going to the virtual reality, whether anyone goes with me or not!” another exclaimed, and vanished.
About nine hundred eighty four people agreed with that. And before any of us Hidden could lift a finger or say a word, they all vanished. My heart thumped wildly, for I did not know who Asparagus was. But, I soon had other concerns. I clenched my teeth, and squeezed one hand with the other until the one I was squeezing started to turn blue. Then I let do, and tried to take deep breaths. Only Krystal, Maroon, and Lily among us understood why I sank to the ground, and grunted in pain, for Ahyracie had been paying more attention to her job than the conversation. Eventually, by that I mean about thirty minutes, most of the pain faded away, and I got up. Although I still clenched my teeth, and grunted periodically, I finally decided to ask a question.
“Well, shall we return home now?” I asked.
“Yes, and let us be quick about it too. The others must be rather concerned, about our being gone for seven hours I mean. Especially poor Teal,” Melon said.
“Teal? So she is alright then?” a boy asked, brightening up.
“Yes, she is. Are you Asparagus?”
“I am,” Asparagus replied, and I immediately threw down the green charm.
We found Teal sitting by herself up in a grassy place in the mountains, watching the others play a game. She not even turn to look at us when the green light flashed behind her. I walked up, and sat next to her, dangling my legs over the edge of the cliff.
“I think you should get back from the cliff. I have found something for you,”  I whispered.
Immediately she leapt up, and searched the faces of everyone. Her face shined brighter than Skyly when she found who she was looking for. She ran towards him, and hugged him so hard that his face started to turn red. He hugged her back just as hard. I smiled, and a deep feeling of peace swept over me. I had always been helping people, but this was the first time I had re united a family. I could tell they had missed each other more than a block of ice misses the cold in an oven. If this was not a treasure, then I do not know what is. I do know at least one thing, that moment was probably the best of both of their lives.
I could tell the others were quite uncomfortable, for they left and joined the rest of us in their game. I turned to the four who had not left, and was surprised to see who they were. My heart pounded wildly again, but I fought through the pain. Could it be?
“Rain Drop?” I asked breathlessly.
“Lilac?” she asked in shock.
“I thought you were dead,” I said uncomfortably.
“Nay, thou was mislead,” Rain Drop replied.
“And Skylor?” I asked, turning to another familiar face.
“Hello. I suppose you thought I was dead as well?” Skylor asked.
“No, but how did you get to this universe?” I asked, becoming more and more befuddled by the second.
“It is a rather long story. I think it would be bad for me if I told you. The last thing I need right now are flashbacks,” Skylor replied, and I could tell she was fighting hard against one that very moment.
I turned to the other two, who I did not yet know, and asked, “Who are you two?”
“I am Bronze, and this is my sister Pear,” the elder girl replied.
I glanced over at Teal and Asparagus, who were now engaged in conversation. I looked over each of the new kids, because something seemed amiss. Then it dawned on me that maybe, since Rose had managed to get away without them finding us, the Martians might have taken precautions to make sure that it did not happen again. I pulled out a magnet that, I think it was Amber, created, and made sure that it would not attract to any cyborg parts. With this accomplished, I waved it in the air, over my head. I got five different points of contact. It was just as I had suspected, tracking devices. I could shoot a special electro magnetic pulse to try and fry the system, but it might leave the cyborgs helpless as well. Then again, we had magic, and that was worth something. All of my high tech depended on magic as well, so I could still check to see if it worked. So, I shot the pulse. It worked, the system was fried, and a vast majority of us collapsed on the ground. Oops.
I quickly waved my hands in a quick, sharp motion, and uttered something. There we go, all systems up and running again, aside from the tracing devices. Rain drop studied my face intently. She had known me for long enough to know that something was wrong.
“Lilac, what is it?” she asked, and I could instantly tell she knew my feelings.
“Tracking devices. I took care of it, I hope,” I replied, and rubbed my neck.
There was a long pause, and I started to climb down the cliff. This was an excellent place to watch the stars, so most of the Hidden had made the climb many many times, and were quite accustomed to such an extreme level of climbing. It slipped my mind that the newbies might not have the same level of climbing experience as the rest of us, which was indeed almost the highest level in the galaxy. Skylor was alright, she had a power somewhat like telekinesis, except more powerful, with which she could catch herself should she fall, which she did many a time. The other three had no such powers. Skylor was from a universe free of Martians. There were an abundance of aliens, and they were always trying to kill her since she was part of a rebellion, but she still had enough freedom to learn how to use her power, which was known only as the Power. Super creative, right? I guess they were too busy learning how to use it to come up with a nicer name for it.
I knew that Rain Drop was an Electricity Elemental, which obviously would not aid her in her climb. All these things occurred to me, and I jumped off the cliff, which was still about twenty five feet up in the air. I used my Form to put on wings, and used my super power to get the other three to the bottom. Once they were all safely down, I flew down to the ground as well. Then we joined the others in their game. With the sun setting behind us, the triumph of successfully completing a mission still ringing in our minds, and new friends a sense of utter happiness befell upon the whole party, and we sat back laughing amongst the flowers. Another great day, and hopefully another waiting for us at sunrise tomorrow.

I awoke to a beautiful sunrise, and the birds chirping in the trees. Hiding has its pros and cons, and this was without a doubt one of the pros. Since nobody else was yet awake, I quietly slipped out of the cave, and out into the valley. It was so beautiful! I could hardly have asked for more if this was truly earth. I smiled, and walked over to the little brook through the meadow of flowers. I climbed into one of the apple trees that stands right next to the brook, and started to read the Bible. Although, there were other thoughts in my mind. Doubts, wishes, regrets, longings, oh for crying out loud. I brushed these thoughts aside, and focused on what I was reading. Remember how Flutter had commented how I get so absorbed into my reading? Yup, that is what happened. When I looked up, I saw Flutter approaching the tree. The sun was now high in the sky.
“Reading again?” Flutter inquired with a smile.
“Yes,” I giggled, and hopped out of the tree, “Are all the others awake yet?”
“Everyone but Teal, Asparagus, and Krystal. They stayed up quite late talking. They were too happy to fall asleep, I think,” Flutter replied as we headed back to the meadow.
“Well, better to be awake from happiness and love all night than sorrow and despair,” I replied.
I found Lily talking with Ahyracie, in a language I did not recognize. This confused me very much. Was Lily or Ahyracie hiding something? They both knew that they could trust me, so  this was indeed quite confusing.
“Good morning. How are you two today?” I asked.
“Okay ish, how are you?” Lily asked.
I laughed at this aloud. I knew that Lily knew me better than that. She could not play me with my own trick! It was kind of funny that she had tried, and yet kind of worrying. I could tell she was not telling the truth.
“I am also okay ish. Why are you hiding something from me, and not telling the truth?” I asked outright.
Ahyracie blushed, and replied, “Because it has something to do with The Fairy Lands, and you do not need to worry yourself with our affairs.”
“I thought you knew something about me, Ahyracie. The Fairy Lands is part of my affairs. Have you forgotten that I am one of you? And Lily, you at least should know better than that, you are me, and I am you. It is actually kind of offending for you to not think of me as one of your own,” I replied.
“Well, it is rather hard to forget, especially because we are the same person. But, you are the half that belongs in this world, and I am the half that belongs in The Fairy Lands,” Lily replied slowly.
“Are you sick Lily? Has something gotten to your head? Are you so determined to hide something from me that you will not tell me even if it drives us both insane? Do you not think that you can trust me, or rely on me?” I asked, placing all the cards on the table.
“It is Dennis. He disappeared again,” Lily said, finally admitting her worry.
“This is absolutely insane. Who is the suspect this time?” I inquired reluctantly.
“Did someone say suspect?” Emerald asked.
I stared blankly, and turned to Lily, who also stared blankly.
“I just, really love mysteries…” Emerald said, breaking the awkward silence.
“Great! Lilac, what do you think?” Ahyracie asked.
“I think this might require a bit ore training on the parts of the other Hidden so that they can fully master their powers to protect themselves, but for now I think it will be okay,” I replied.
I was not exactly sure what I was saying at the time. If I did know, I definitely would not have agreed. Ugh… what, Emerald? No, I will not. Just stop, please. this is my book. Yes, I know you are in it, but I am the one writing the book. Oh for Neptune’s sake. No, it is not going to be happening. But, fine. Okay, this is really short notice, but Emerald is taking over for a while. (Sorry, but this is going to be extremely weird. Sorry, have fun! Heh, heh, heh…)

Are those dot things Lilac puts at the ending of every chapter weird or what? Actually, why even have chapters in the first place? It must be to bump up her word count. But, seriously, that is just so weird! For the sake of time, we will have no more chapters, since I intend to finish writing this book. What? Oh, come on, please? Come on, Li, just this once? I can write my own book later? Yay! But, I can still write this piece, right? That was a stupid question, the notebook is mine now! Mwah ha ha ha! Okay, that was the worst entrance in the history of mystery novels. Just ignore this bit, and let us move on, shall we? (I absolutely can not believe I messed up already, ugh!) Ooh, look! I already have 137 words! How exciting! !41, 142, 143, I could do this forever! What, aw, please? Ugh, fine. I will not tell you how many words I have written. But, Li, it is really fun! Please? Fine… Oh right! The entrance! Wait, what was I doing? Oh, it just occurred to me that I can just look back and see what I was doing! Brilliant! Okay, entrance…
So there we were, sitting in a circle, discussing who, or what, was responsible for the disappearance of Dennis. I sat there, listening to the other three talk all at once. You do not have to be a rocket scientist to tell that I could not think clearly with all three of them talking at once. So, after I got them to all calm down, I asked them individually what they knew about Dennis, whether he had disappeared before, and what had happened right before his disappearance. The first one I spoke to was Lily, who had brought up the case of the missing brother in the first place.
“So,” I said, “What do you know about Dennis?”
Lily blinked, and looked at me like I was crazy.
“Well?” I asked.
“We do not have time for this. It will take approximately two thousand five hundred thirty five years for me to tell you,” Lily replied, and shook her head.
“Well, what do I need to know?” I asked, growing slightly frustrated.
“His name is Prince Dennis Pielikey…” Lily started.
“He is a prince? Are his parents still alive, or does he have an older sibling?” I asked.
“Our parents are dead. Leana killed them right after Dennis was born. I…” Lily continued, and was interrupted again.
“Who is Leana? Why did she kill the parents?” I asked.
“Leana is my evil twin. As I was saying, I am the eldest, Leana is in the middle, and Dennis is the youngest. When…” Lily tried to explain.
“So Dennis and Leana are your younger siblings? Interesting. So why did Leana kill your parents?”
“Because I loved them,” Lily replied flatly, too angry to say anything else.
“Is there anything else I should know?” I asked.
“Yes, there is! I am Lily Pielikey, Queen of the Northern Kingdom, Princess of the Southern Kingdom, Knight of the Parallel Kingdoms, Protector of The Fairy Lands, and Leader of the A.L.W.I.N. I will not tolerate your incessant rudeness! Now, do you want to know anything or not?” Lily asked, starting to lose her temper.
I shrank back, and replied quietly, “Continue.”
“Dennis is much like me. We both grew up with Leana, and we are the only two in every dimension, universe, and realm who knows how to defeat her, aside from Lilac. Before he could defend himself, I suffered pretty badly trying to protect him. So as soon as he could crawl, I began to teach him the ways of magic, and I started with several protection spells. despite my efforts, he was not a very good wizard until about the age of five. Five years, you see, just plain five. It was then that he finally started to understand what I was teaching him, and he was soon very much able to not only defend himself, but up to five others at once. he was quite pleased with his powers, and I continued to teach him everything I knew. Not one day passed when we did not have to fight for our lives against her, for she indescribably hated the very names of us. Therefore, we were just about as close as every two living things could be. That made Leana all the more determined to separate us. So the years passed in much the same manner. We started keeping track of how many times we had saved each others’ lives at first, but the list was far too long. It was never less than ten times every two hours.
One day, it finally happened. We had been fighting Leana for thirteen million years, and Dennis finally made his mistake. In his haste, he slipped in an y where there should have been an ie, and he accidentally summoned a magic that he did not understand. That one slip up caused Leana’s first victory. This might have turned out okay, except that this was no every day battle. This was the Battle of the Butterflies. The magic backfired, and instead of hitting Leana’s side, it hit our side. But, it made the most direct impact on three different people. Dilly, Rose, and I. Not your Rose, but another one. The impact knocked us out, which made us perfect targets. So, we got caught. When we finally got back after thirty years…” Lily said, and was interrupted again.
“Thirty years! What the heck happened?” I exclaimed in shock.
“Well, I can summarize, or I can give you a longer story. Either way, I have forgotten a large piece of it. But, I can give a lot more details that you would get with just a summary,” Lily replied, deciding to accept the fact that she would likely be interrupted.
“Let us go with the longer story,” I responded.
“Whatever you please, but, before I start, do you have anything you need to do today?” Lily asked.
“No,” I replied confusedly.
“Good, cause it is very likely to take all day to explain. Alright, here I go: (at this point, I means Lily)
Dilly walked briskly down the hall, her golden braid swishing back and forth. Her best friend, and practically her sister, that would be me, was a step behind. We had been through a lot together, many many things, adventures which would take quite a large number of books to explain. So, here is a very short summary of what we have done. Princess Jenny Angelina Daffodil Bunnie, called Dilly, princess and ruler of the Middle Kingdom, knight of the Southern Kingdom and the Western Kingdom, protector of Queen Jackie, time traveler, world renowned inventor, and part fairy. I, Lily Pielikey, queen of the Northern Kingdom, princess of the Middle Kingdom, knight of the Southern Kingdom and the Western Kingdom, protector of Queen Mackenzie, time traveler, Dimension-Jumper, leader of the A.L.W.I.N, and fully Complixie. I giggled to myself as Dilly’s braid swung back and forth rapidly. My own curls went up and down, and my cloak flew behind me. Dilly turned to look at me, and I instantly noticed that something was wrong.
“What troubles thou, Dilly?” I inquired, and pushed back my cloak.
“Leana. The Techno Lands have invaded The Fairy Lands, by forming allies with…” Dilly paused, and looked at her feet.
“With whom?” Do not hinder telling me,” I persisted, growing steadily more worried.
“The Eastern Kingdomers,” Dilly finished.
My face fell instantly, and I closed my eyes, as if in pain. I took my green charm, and threw it up into the air. It spun around and around, making strokes like that of a paint brush. It drew a circle in the air, then continued to fill in the interior. It drew a complicated and detailed map of The Fairy Lands. It slowly fell to the ground, and settled under our feet. The charm continued to spin around and around, and produced a map of The Techno Lands, and one of The Normalands. The three circles formed a triangle, by connecting the circles with large bridges. This was a map of the three planets, and the bridges that connected them. Each planet was a parallel to the other two. The Fairy Lands was strong in magic and the arts, The Techno Lands was strong in technology and science, and The Normalands was strong in agriculture and architecture. The charm stopped spinning, and refastened itself on the bracelet.
I concentrated hard, and a glowing sphere appeared in front of me. I placed a tiny stick in it, and it disappeared. In about another two seconds, four more spheres appeared. Inside each was a flower. I threw my light blue charm into the air, and it painted four figures. One was a Pixie. It was about three feet tall, had blond hair, and it had pink and blue wings. The other two were girls who looked about Dilly’s age. The fourth had the appearance of a child who was five. She had green hair, green eyes, ad was a bit shorter than the Pixie. They were Polly, Emily Ann, Lucy, and Skyly Pielikey.
“What is the problem?” Lucy asked.
“As we know, there are the three planets in our dimension. The Fairy Lands, The Techno Lands, and the Normalands. On our planet, there are five kingdoms divided equally. The Middle Kingdom in the center, the Southern Kingdom to the South, the Western Kingdom to the West, the Northern Kingdom to the North, and the Eastern Kingdom to the East. On The Techno Lands, there are three kingdoms divided unequally. Yndanosela takes up sixty five percent of the planet, and Alesonadny and Yanleasoan have equally divided the other thirty five percent. The Normalands is so concerned about having peace, that they have one kingdom, so as not to engage in war. Our three planets are connected by bridges, which were originally built to support trade and to spread cultures. This was foolish, for we know that one cannot survive without a considerable amount of what their world is good at. But, now these bridges have become a source of intergalactic warfare. Yndanosela is perfectly positioned to control the bridge connecting The Techno Lands to The Fairy Lands and The Normalands. This has given them far too much power!
They have made allies with our enemies, the Eastern Kingdomers. The Normalands have developed an architectural wall that is invulnerable to their technology, so they are safe. But, the Yndanoselians are already in The Fairy Lands. Lead, of course, by Leana Pielikey,” Dilly said, and started to continue, but was cut short.
“Do not call my evil twin Pielikey! You know that I hate that! I told you she married Sherman Takiobur!” I snapped as my face turned bright red in anger.
“Sorry, I have got a lot on my mind, and it slipped me… Anyways, Leana wants to kill all the butterflies. the butterflies are the only pollinators who are still alive. They are also the only things that know how to extract the magic from one flower, and place it in another, much like what bees do in the world of men. But, basically what killing the butterflies means, is that they want to destroy the plants. A large part of our population depends on the trees and flowers for survival. If the plants go, so do millions of lives. But, I think we all know what she is really after…” Dilly finished, and looked at her feet again.
“Why must my life always put everyone in danger?” I asked.
I sat down, and curled myself into a ball. I stared at one of the landmarks on the map. It was labeled ‘Lily’s Tree.’ I pulled my cloak over my head, and squeezed the invisibility charm. Ever since I was three, Leana had constantly been trying to kill me. She had actually succeeded in her endeavors countless times, but none of them had been permanent. One time when I, Dilly, and Skyly had been time traveling, time stopped. It somehow started up again, which remains a mystery to everyone in all the dimensions, universes, and realms. But, it had caused something strange to happen. Since the three of us had been time traveling when time stopped, the aging process had stopped on us. It had also given us the ability to wake up, as if sleeping the whole time, after being killed. There were, of course, conditions, but this had proved all of Leana’s desperate attempt to rid the dimension of me useless. Which unfortunately meant that I had to go through that unpleasant experience quite a few times.
“Mother, please come back. We do not even have a chance again Aunt Leana without you,” Skyly said softly.
“Get Dennis to do it,” I responded, refusing to make myself visible.
“You know your brother has been missing for 1,937 years now,” Sherman sneered.
I squeezed the clear charm again, revealing myself once more. My face was red. My flowers were red. I was about to explode. I gave him a withering glare, and stared at him with unblinking eyes.
“We all know you did it!” I said, desperately fighting the urge to spring at him.
“What makes you say that? Besides, you knew it must happen, you blasted little rebel!” Sherman retaliated, reaching for his pocket.
“ENOUGH! Leave me alone, you fool! Do you think your dark magic will work on me!? I have defeated you once, and I will more than gladly do so again!” I retorted, drawing my sword.
At the sight of this sword, Sherman froze. This was the Golden Sword of Amethyst. This was the sword that had defeated him four thousand eight hundred ninety six years ago. He was The IT. The evil wizard who had almost succeeded in destroying the Southern Kingdom and the Western Kingdom. Until Mackenzie, Mack, Jackie, Jack, Dilly, Lenny, Dennis, and I had put a stop to it. The sword was invincible, and could only be wielded by me. That was how the prophecy worked. No dark magic, no matter how strong, no matter how powerful, no matter how much of it could so much as scratch the sword. It was solid gold, and the hilt was laid with amethysts. A soft, relaxing, purple glow came from the blade. It could slice through concrete with literally no effort. The magic made it so that, if I wished, whatever it touched turned into amethyst. The Association of Lijetopian Writers and Inventors Network had succeeded in considerably damaging Sherman’s magic. He could pretty much make someone hurt just a little, but that was it.
“I would put my wand away whilst I still had the chance, Takiobur,” I hissed, and sprang at him.
Skyly immediately intervened, and cast a shield around him. She then made me fly two feet in the air, pushed me back to where I was before, and put me down again.
“Control yourself, Mother,” Sky cooed.
And now I summarized to you what happened next, so we will simply skip that part. Basically we lost the battle, and the three of us got caught, Pretty simple. Okay, sorry my memory is so blurry. I am going to skip about twenty nine years. I do remember a bit, but I honestly would rather not speak about it.
“How goes it, Dilly?” Leana asked cheerfully.
“Like you care,” Dilly replied, and stared at her feet.
“Jenny look. I know we have had our differences, but you do not have to be so rude,” Leana pointed out.
“Well, let us be logical. You invaded my kingdom, caused the butterflies to become extinct, killed innumerable people in the process, caught Lily, Emily Ann, Lucy, Rose, and I, and have forced us to attend the school of spherical geometry and disbelief in magic for 30 years now. As you say in The Techno Lands, technically I am perfectly in my rights to be in such a foul mood. I would be perfectly within my rights to be in a much worse mood. You coward, give me a sword, and let us see what happens then!” Dilly retorted.
“Nobody calls me a coward!” Leana shouted, and shot a laser at Dilly.
Dilly giggled, and stepped to one side. Leana kept repositioning the laser, but Dilly somehow always knew where it would strike next. That was because the exact same thing happened every single day for thirty years. Leana would come, talk to Dilly, Dilly would retaliate, Leana would shoot a laser, and Dilly would dodge it. It was as if someone hit a reply button every single day. Sometimes Dilly wondered if  Leana actually could not remember she had said the exact same thing ten thousand nine hundred fifty seven times. For her this had actually become as lifeless, dependable, and danger less as acting. In about another, ten minutes Leana would grow bored, and go off to mess with one of the others. Dilly had always wondered in what order Leana came to mess with them every day. Knowing her, it probably went Lily, to Dilly, to Emily Ann, to Lucy, to Rose. Basically, the order of importance they had to The Fairy Lands, and the threat they were to Leana’s plans. Lily must know the schedule, because the very second after Leana left, Lily would communicate with Dilly with the only form of magic they had left.
Same thing as normal? I inquired, and shook my head.
Yup. You can not expect anything less form Leana. Dilly replied.
You are very very very fortunate. You have no idea how fortunate you are to be able to know what is going to happen, and stop it from happening. I sighed.
What happened? Are you okay? Dilly asked nervously.
I giggled softly, and replied, No. No I am not. How about you?
I am fine, well physically and emotionally. What happened? Dilly persisted.
Let us just say you have got two things over me. I do not really want to talk about it… I replied with a slight groan, and we two girls stopped talking.
The next day, as Emily Ann and Lucy walked to school, they came upon a girl who seemed to be going to school as well.  She was writing so quickly, they wondered how she happened to not run out of lead. The wind blew strongly from the other direction, and flipped the girl’s pages.
She started to talk to herself as she was writing: “Alright, where was I? Oh yes…
‘What now?’ Dilly asked, she sat down and thought very hard.
‘Perhaps we could find them, I am sure there is someone who could help,’ Lily tried to reassure Dilly, but in her efforts were in vain. 
‘There is no way. If we do find them, what could they do in this world?’ Dilly asked, and held her head in her hands.”
“So who will help them?” the girl asked continuing to talk to herself as the two others looked on, “Oh, maybe Skyly could explain to Matt, Bill, and Fred about what happened. But no, Skyly has no idea where Dilly and Lily are. Oh, I wish she would just hurry up! I do not know how much longer Dilly is going to last in this cursed land. If only they had won the battle, then maybe everything would have been alright. Dilly, Lily, Emily Ann, Lucy, Skyly, and Polly would still all be together, and the kingdom would be safe. But now everything has gone wrong!”
Emily Ann and Lucy looked at each other in confusion, then Emily whispered “Who is she? How does she know our names?”
“I do not know…” Lucy said slowly, “But, I have got a sort of feeling deep down inside of me that I have heard of, and known those people quite well.”
“Really?” Emily inquired in surprise, “Because, I feel the same way. Like, sometime long long ago, in a dream, yet a dream in a story in the dream.”
“Exactly!” Lucy exclaimed, “That is just how it seems to me also!”
The girl looked up in surprise, and quickly shoved her notepad into her bag.
Emily looked up, realized they had the girl’s attention, and asked “Who are Dilly and Lily?”
She looked scared that she had been heard and replied “Dilly and Lily are two of my main story characters.”
“Ohhhh,” Lucy said half to herself, and the girl slowed her pace so as to fall behind. 
“Are you worried?” Lucy asked. 
“Well… it really depends on what you are talking about,”  Emily replied keeping a steady gaze forward. 
Lucy knew that Emily was thinking of two things, the day, and the girl. As they arrived they noticed that the girl they had seen earlier was whispering with another girl under the large oak tree, which no student would hang around because of the shadows. That tree was something straight out of a horror movie. It was said to be enchanted by magic. Whenever a foolish student got too close, the tree would reach out to them. It would pick them up, and they were never seen again. So far only the bullies had foolishly wandered into its shadows. The bullies who had tormented Dilly and I. Of course, Leana told another tall tale, and we got the blame. Leana had honestly been the one behind this, with the help of Sherman. That is a very mild example of what she did that caused problems for me.
“That girl seems very secretive,”  Lucy said glancing over in that direction. 
“Maybe they share a secret,” Emily waved it off, but really was very interested.
Just then the bell rang, and all the kids crowded inside. However, the two whispers kept a distance from the others. As the students flooded into the classrooms and sat down, Emily Ann and Lucy noticed that the other two girls were in their first class. They waited patiently, yet eagerly for the teacher to call roll, so they could learn who the girls were. Both Emily Ann and Lucy felt something… something they could not ever come to describe. Their subconscious thought that perhaps there was a deeper connection betwixt the girl and her story. There was definitely something going on. The problem was that something was going on which neither girl knew. Something that could prove fatal without the help of a dear friend they had long forgotten. Deep down a part of them was screaming in despair and agony. But, that part of them had long been silenced.
The first period of the day was biology, so it was not surprising when the teacher’s name turned out to be Miss Rose. 
Miss Rose began to call roll “Lily,
‘here.’
Matt,
‘here.’
Bill,
‘here.’
Caroline,
‘here.’
Emily Ann,
‘here.’
Lucy,
‘here.’
and Daffodil
“I am here,” the girl replied, then mumbled to herself “As if you had to ask Lily, Emily Ann, Lucy, and I if we were here. You ought to know perfectly well, Rose.” 
“Is your name really Daffodil?” Miss Rose asked, despite the fact that she knew perfectly well. 
“It is truly my second name. I prefer not to go by my first name as of late,” Daffodil replied with an annoyed look in her eyes as I shook my head. 
“Do you go by any other names?” Miss Rose asked. 
“My friends call me Dilly,” Daffodil responded growing red.  4
Emily and Lucy continued to watch Daffodil and I. As the day progressed they could not help  but realize more and more how different we best friends were. For one thing, we would avoid other people entirely if possible, and were always whispering about something.  Sometimes, we would also whisper with Miss Rose, but never with anyone else. When the bell rang two periods later, Emily tried to find Daffodil. Much to her dismay, Daffodil and I were experts at falling in with the wave of colors to avoid her and Lucy. Something about this seemed odd, and somehow familiar for a split second. But, Emily immediately forgot it without having time to ponder this. If she had that important piece of the puzzle that Dilly and I were literally dying trying to give her, she would have recognized something she had long forgotten, and remembered who she was.
But, of course it would never do for Emily Ann and Lucy to figure out who they were, what they were doing there, and the horrible danger they were in. That would not go well for Leana and Sherman’s plan. No, there was a huge gap in their memory. Something that seemed like a legend, inside a story, inside a dream, inside another dream, which was inside a story. If only knew knew who they were! But, Leana was no fool. There is actually a remarkable difference between fool and another word which shall not be repeated. A fool being someone, obviously, who does something that is foolish, and a waste of time. An example would be these two sentences, which is a bad example, but there it is. And the second being someone who is a combination of someone who does something foolish, who does stupid things incessantly, is never any the wiser, and enjoys doing it. The latter is a fairly accurate version of Leana ever since she was three.
Leana and Sherman had done something perfectly awful to Emily Ann and Lucy, something that is never, under any circumstance, no matter what the risk, to ever be written. Because it was not something that should actually even be hinted that it had once happened, but it is an important factor in the future of the two girls. In all fairness, none of them actually should be called girls, unless you describe people based on appearance. Even then, girl is not an accurate word, or one that anyone would use to describe them under normal circumstances. I was fifteen thousand nine hundred eighty four, Dilly was fifteen thousand nine hundred eighty seven, Emily Ann was three thousand eight hundred and twelve, and Lucy was  three thousand eight hundred and eleven. But, precisely fifteen thousand nine hundred seventy five years ago, time stopped, and people stopped aging. It is a very interesting story, actually. But, it is very long, and it is another story for another time.
“Do you think that Daffodil was telling the truth this morning?” Lucy asked Emily.
“I am not quite sure yet. There is just something that bothers me about her, and I can not exactly put my finger on it. Those two seem more like adults than ninth grade girls,” Emily Ann replied slowly. 
“Have you noticed how they avoid others, but look at others with a look in their eyes.  It looks like a mixture of jealousy, desperation, frustration, and depression,” Lucy said. 
Emily nodded in agreement, “And it is no wonder they have that look. They are absolutely incredible at everything they do! Yet the teachers aside from Miss Rose treat them with pure hatred, and torture them as much as possible.”
I had been listening to this conversation, and was inwardly screaming.
This is bad, very very bad. There is no telling what Leana will do if  Emily Ann and Lucy find out who, and what they are. It certainly will not be good. I have to get them back to The Fairy Lands. If I never achieve anything else in my life, if I die in the process, it does not matter. They MUST return, or else the world is going to end! The planet will be destroyed, the dimension will be in ruins, and all of the other universes will be in danger. Oh, I wish they knew what they are capable of! They could stop all of this. Linny said in frustration.
Ugh. Leave me alone, Linny! This is bad enough without you bothering me. I replied, and tried to disrupt her telepathy.
I do not know what you are talking about, Lily. We both know that I must interfere, it is critical to your survival. Listen to me, things are fine on earth. Things are fine in The Fairy Lands. We are using the time machine, and we brought butterflies from earth. But, our shields will not last long. Magic can only do so much, as you know perfectly well. Magic is not the answer to our problems. Linny informed me, and kept the telepathy going.
Please focus on the others instead of me, Linny. I will be fine. I begged, desperately trying to make Linny leave me alone.
No, no you really will not. You know that as well as I. Skyly is doing all she can. The signal is fading. You need to speak to Dilly, convince her it is still possible. Linny persisted.
But, Linny… I protested.
I can not hear you. It is too soft. Goodbye, and hopefully I will see you soon, Lily. Linny replied, and the telepathy faded away.
“Are they alright?” Skyly asked, “Has Mother talked to Emily Ann and Lucy?”
“I… I do not know. I am sorry, Sky, but I just do not know…” Linny faltered, and turned away.
“It is, it is going to be alright, is it not?” Sky asked.
Linny bent over, and slowly fell into a kneeling position on the floor. Her hair fell over her face. She could feel herself continuing to get lower and lower, and she closed her eyes. She let out a soft groan, and put her head in her hands. Her mind was not on Skyly anymore, not on Dennis, not Dilly, nor Emily Ann, it was not on Lucy, or even on me. The date was ringing in her head, and would not stop despite her greatest attempts to silence it. It was Syxamber nineteenth, five thousand eight hundred seventy two. The time was precisely 4:37pm, on the second second. She had exactly three days left. Three days, and she was responsible for the fate of the five kingdoms of The Fairy Lands. She did not even know who she was, where she came from, and had never known her family. She had actually been called a memoryless orphan. Yet, here she was. The eldest of the remaining kings and queens of The Fairy Lands. She was the one burdened with what might happen to the lives of everyone on the planet.
“Linny?” Skyly asked.
“Please, just give me a moment to think. I do not know what is happening.” Linny pleaded.
It had not occurred to her that Sky still was not sure what to think. Everyone had always viewed Sky as a five year old, because she had the appearance of a five year old. Nobody ever took into account that Skyly understood these things. She knew how to handle them. I suppose that is one of the disadvantages to beings permenantely frozen in growth at the age of five. But, despite how bad things seemed in The Fairy Lands, things were much worse back with Dilly and I.
“Dilly, they are beginning to notice and are rapidly becoming curious. There is no way to hide our despair,” I said.
“Lily Pielikey! For the last time, we are UTTERLY POWERLESS to do anything in this horrible world!” Dilly snapped at me.
“Girls…” Miss Rose began.
“Who are you calling a girl, Rose?” Dilly asked and left the room. 
“I guess we are the only ones who remember what life used to be like, back at home,” I sighed, and watched Dilly storm off to another dark corner. 
“For all we now there might not be a home soon,” Miss Rose replied.
The next two weeks of school went along in pretty much the same matter.  Dilly continued to be upset and have a short temper, despite my friendship and outstanding patience.  Emily Ann and Lucy continued to try and connect with Dilly and I, but each time we two girls would slip away before they had the chance.  Miss Rose continued to whisper to me about their homeland far away from the world they occupied at the present time. So life went until one Monday when Dilly could not bear it any longer.
She had been picked on and treated so badly the day before she had not ever fallen to sleep last night.  When Miss Rose was taking role, she was thinking of everything that had happened since the Battle of the Butterflies.  She had tried so hard to do what was required to save the other dimension she ruled a part of called The Fairy Lands, but it had not been enough to stop my evil twin. The more she thought about it, the worse she felt.  Then that one morning she began to cry.  I glanced over at Dilly, and started to cry as well.
However, I had a completely different reason.  The Middle Kingdom was in The Fairy Lands, and many magical creatures lived there. I am one of these fairies. I am part human, part Wood Nymph, part Dryad,  part Sylph, part fairy.  Someone (most likely my twin Leana) had hurt my tree. I have honey yellow hair, with bright pink flowers intertwined. When I get hurt, the flowers will begin to fade, which was what was happening at the present moment. ‘At least’ I thought to herself ‘The Fairy Lands must still be okay if I can still feel pain.’ It is pretty unfortunate that pain from another world was my only comfort, but I somehow never thought of it that way. I was more concerned about everyone else to meditate on much of anything for an extended period of time.
Usually what happens in stories is that everyone just starts crying without knowing why, and eventually everyone stops and moves on with life. However, this did not happen at all.  One of the other teachers, followed by everyone at school, came in and just watched us cry. Then one of the teachers did something that was not very appropriate, and should probably not be written. A girl sitting in the back of the class whose name was Caroline, stood up and touched a charm that was hanging on her bracelet. The teacher shrieked, and ran back to his classroom. That scared everyone else away as well, and attracted the attention of Dilly. ‘That girl has the Inventions Bracelet I need to talk to her.’ Dilly thought for she could not speak. Dilly looked at Caroline, and pointed at her mouth and her ear. Most kids looked confused, aside from Caroline and I. 
Dilly, Rose, and I were not allowed to talk about The Fairy Lands, the Battle of the Butterflies, or who we are.  Dilly, as well as being a princess, was an inventor.  She made a weird sort of walkie talkie thing that goes inside your ear so no one else can hear the conversation. This was how us three Middle Kingdomers communicated about those things the teachers would not let us.
So now Dilly said to Caroline “I invented that bracelet. But, the teachers stole it after something I prefer not to talk about happened. I have no idea how in The Fairy Lands (Fairies never say how on earth) you came to posses it. Meet me after school in the large oak tree.”
“Okay,” Caroline replied at a loss of words.
For the first time in at least ten years Dilly smiled. I smiled back, the color restored to my flowers. Although I limped a bit that day, my heart was higher than the clouds. Indeed, it seemed as if there were no more clouds now that Dilly had shown a sign of happiness. Finally, things were looking up.
Once they were in the tree after school as planned, Caroline asked two questions “Why can you not talk anymore?”
“The teachers do not want me to,” Dilly replied in sign language.
“Oh, and how did the teachers steal your bracelet?” Caroline asked.
“To answer that question, you need to know who I am. I am Princess Jenny Angelina Daffodil Bunnie. I fought in the Battle of the Butterflies to protect the butterflies from extinction. The enemy was the teachers. We lost, and that is why Lily, Miss Rose, and I are here today, and not in our homeland of The fairy Lands. The teachers got everyone except Bill, Fred, Matt and Skyly,” Dilly signed.
“Wait back up. You, a ninth grader, are the ruler of the Middle Kingdom  mentioned in all the stories?!?”
Dilly looked offended, and asked “Are you calling me a fraud? Yes, I am Princess Angelina and the Middle Kingdom is not make believe! Leana started that story that the Middle Kingdom is fake, and she has betrayed the whole dimension!”
“Leana, the principal?” Caroline asked.
“That traitor is no principal, she is Lily’s evil twin!” Dilly said beginning to grow a bit red.
“Lily has an evil twin? Like in fairy tales?” Caroline asked.
Dilly sighed, very frustrated and signed “Do not mention stories or fairy tales anymore. Can you please just let me hold the bracelet?”
Caroline gave it to Dilly, who duplicated it and gave the copy to Caroline. She smiled again, and secured her treasure around her wrist. A hologram materialized and it looked like a young girl.
“Dilly!” the girl exclaimed “I thought I would never see you again!”
“Same here,” Dilly signed back. 
“Why are you not talking?” the girl asked.
“That is another story for another time. Caroline, this is my friend Skyly,” Dilly signed.
“Hello,” Caroline said.
“Hello,” Skyly echoed, then turned back to Dilly and asked “Can I go find Mother?”
Dilly nodded and signed “And make sure you do not use speech, or take freedom for granted.” Skyly raced down the tree and ran off.
“Who is her mother?” Caroline asked. “Skyly’s mother is Lily. She has not seen her in thirty years,” Dilly signed.
“How old are you guys?!?” Caroline asked.
“That is a hard question. How old am I in The fairy lands, how old am I here, or how old should I be?” Dilly asked.
“I guess all of them.” Caroline said. “In The fairy Lands I am fifteen thousand six hundred seventy three, here I am fourteen, and I should be so old there is not a number. Technically I was born in the year two hundred nine hundred eighty one,” Dilly signed.
“But that would make you twenty six…” Caroline said.
“But I have time traveled so much, and died so many times that I am much older than I really should be,” Dilly responded.

I was sitting in a corner doing homework, when I heard a voice say “Mother?”
I looked up and signed “Is that you, Skyly?”
Skyly nodded and I got up.
“How have you been doing? Goodness, you have gotten so tall!” I said.
“I have been doing fine, the Northern Kingdom is yet safe from Aunt Leana. The Middle Kingdom, on the other hand, is on the verge of perishing,” Skyly responded.
“None the less, I have gotten the notion you have been getting into trouble.” I signed.
“Well… maybe just a bit,” Skyly grinned “It is hard to not do so when you are a princess in a fairy kingdom.”
“So I have noticed,” I agreed.
Two days later Skyly was successfully enrolled for the time being. There was, of course, probably some way that the teachers would find out that Dilly and I were behind this. But for now, the trio was ready to cause problems for the teachers of spherical geometry and disbelief in magic. The fact that the teachers were teaching such things was part of what made being there even worse. Dilly being from a land where everything was constructed of bricks, and Skyly and I being from a land where fairies, pixies, sprites, and nymphs were the only inhabitants. It is a wonder that Emily Ann and Lucy would one day save the Middle Kingdom, being raised to reject such things as that world consists of.  But that is another story for another time.
Dilly is very happy to have Skyly around, for she had a very close relationship to the girl. I was in much better spirits with even my daughter’s hologram being with me. The only downside of Skyly’s hologram was that it was a constant reminder that the vortex betwixt the worlds, in which I used to travel freely, was still locked despite countless efforts from several worlds to reopen it. But, it also brought about positive changes. Skyly, having the freedom to speak, told Matt, Bill, and Fred exactly what was happening.
“I can not believe you two did not recognize them after all these thirty years,” Skyly said.
“Well we are not all holograms being mistaken for people, are we?” Matt snapped.
Emily Ann and Lucy had been listening to this whole affair, and Emily said to Dilly, “That story that you were writing that day when we first saw you… it was true, was it not?”
Dilly nodded, as she watched Skyly solve the mystery for the boys.
“I knew I would eventually bump into you somewhere in the past,” Dilly signed.
“But this is the present…” Lucy staggered.
Dilly shook here head, and signed “The present is actually Syxamber thirteenth, in the year of five thousand and twelve.”
“That is impossible! It is Syxamber eleventh, in the year of three thousand and sixteen!” Emily exclaimed.
“You have been sent back in time to this school to try and divert you to this world’s view on right and wrong, ultimately to destroy all other dimensions,” Dilly communicated in a quick blurr.
“I do not understand…” Lucy said.
“I have an idea you w will not for a long time yet,” Dilly shrugged.
The bell rang, and the three girls were so absorbed had not I distracted them, they might still be discussing to this day. The teachers were obviously suspicious of the girls, but Dilly and I made sure they did not know we could speak sign language lest something happen to our hands. We did posses power, but not very much out of  The Fairy Lands. Even if something did happen to our hands, Dilly had made sure when she invented the earer hearer that no one could do anything to force you to turn it off. Besides, the plan of escape was to be enacted that very afternoon.
“Is it time?” Emily signed to Dilly impatiently.
“It is time,” Dilly affirmed.
Dilly, Skyly, Caroline, Ms. Rose, Emily Ann, Lucy, and I  had gathered underneath the shadows of the large oak tree.
“Will you Please  just hurry up and press the button, Angelina?” Ms. Rose asked for the twentieth time.
“I thought the person who was in charge got to decide when it was time to push the button,” Dilly said “All would be lost if the teachers know we are gone.”
“I AM  in charge here,” Ms. Rose said.
“If you would prefer to stay in this nightmare, that is fine with me. I am the princess of  the Middle Kingdom, Lily is the queen of the Northern Kingdom, and Skyly is the princess of  the Northern Kingdom. I was not referring to power in this world of our enemies,” Dilly replied flatly.
A few minutes after everything had been completed, Dilly pressed the button. Gone were the uniforms of the horrid school. Gone were the spells and dark magic looming over Dilly, Rose, and I. Gone was Emily Ann and Lucy’s ignorance of what they had done in the present time zone. The shadows of the tree they had found comfort under vanished before their eyes. A moment later, Dilly’s and my crowns reappeared, Skyly’s hologram vanished, and we were once more dressed in the familiar silky clothes of The Fairy Lands. When the wind died down, and our eyes became accustomed to such glorious sunshine as we had not seen in years, the landscape was clear. We were standing in an open field full of flowers, and butterflies flying everywhere.
“This is very familiar, which should be a good thing, but Dilly, we have not traveled to the time we intended. Therefore, we must fight this battle once more, if freedom is what we truly desire,” I commented, completing the glory by returning to our old way of talking which we had been forced to abandon in The Techno Lands.
“Alas, thou art right. This is indeed that which you sought to avoid. There is yet a means to accomplish thou’s task, if you would have it so and restore the kingdom to peace,” Skyly said appearing once more.
“It appears our companions fail to understand our speech. If it must be so, let us talk in the language used in my sister’s world, and confuse them no further,” I said, then clarified “We are going to stop talking like Middle Kingdomers again so you two can understand what we are saying.”
“Ah, okay. Good idea,” Emily Ann giggled.
“Mother, what if Aunt Leana and the teachers win again? Surely you will not get away if it happens again, if I know your sister,” Skyly said.
“That is very true. The magic of that world is only enough to support life, and technology is obviously not the answer to our problem,” I replied.
“The teachers are coming,” Caroline said in a worried tone, “And I believe Skyly is right. Victory might be the one way to save all the dimensions.”
“At least the nine hundred twenty seventh dimension, yes,” Dilly said, then something struck her, “I am sure you have all heard of bird-bombing. What about butterfly bombing?”
Rose grinned widely “Plus we never repaid them for their hospitality.”
I drew my pencil, and wrote something in the sky. Instantly after adding the period, seven butterfly suits appeared, for I was a member of a secret group know as A.L.W.I.N. (Association of  Lijetopian Writers and Inventors Network) who had control over some of what happened in all the fairytale dimensions of books, movies, and dreams.
I would explain what happened next, but I am sure anyone can guess what would happen since they were all thinking of bird-bombing. If you can not figure it out, I am sorry. I am trying not to write about such things as how they fought the battle, even though it was pretty funny.  Three days past, and The fairy Lands was once more restored to peace.
“I was starting to get pretty worried about that whole thing,” Skyly laughed.
“I was worried since the first time it happened,” Dilly replied.
They had finally won the Battle of the Butterflies.
The end.”
(At this point, I means me, Emerald, again.)
“Wow, that took way longer that I thought…” I giggled sheepishly.
“Same here, I guess I remember more than I thought I did. Things can start to get a bit burry after the first zillion years,” Lily replied.
“And all of that really happened? All because of what Dennis did? Wait, you left out a bit, I think. You said that Dennis was missing, and then he caused you to lose the battle. Did he turn up?” I inquired.
“Yes, we found him in a flower,” Lily replied.
I stared at her in confusion.
“That is another long story. Which we do not have time for. We have already been sitting here talking for twelve hours, I think we should take a break,” Lily said.
“Twelve hours?! Really?! That is impossible! It does not take twelve hours to read what I have written on the notepad,” I pointed out.
“Well, we started at eight thirty am, and now the sun is almost done setting. Also, you have not recorded every single word,” Lily replied, peering over my shoulder at the notepad.
“True, true. But, I still have a hard time believing that all of that really happened,” I replied.
“Fair enough, it is kind of hard to believe my tales the first time you hear them. However, you can ask both Ahyracie and Lilac to tell you the tale of The Battle of the Butterflies, and they will tell you almost the same thing. Although, it would be a little bit different, since, of course, they were not with me, but in The Fairy Lands still trying to defend it from Leana,” Lily replied.
I yawned, and said, “I will ask them tomorrow.”
And with that, since we were the last ones awake, we went back inside, and drifted asleep.
The next morning, following Lily’s advice, I came up to Ahyracie, and asked her about the Battle of the Butterflies.
“… and do not worry about time, I do not have anything to do today.” I said in response to Ahyracie’s question about hearing the whole story.
“Alright then, here it is:
Lily, Skyly, and Caroline were waiting for Dilly to arrive at the Lego City town square. Today was the day when everyone celebrated the victory of the Battle of the Butterflies, and the riddance of The Fairy Land’s greatest enemies, Leana Pielikey and Sherman Takiobur.
Lily was beginning to get anxious, and said “Dilly is never late, she is scarcely ever on time either. She is usually the first to show up. Something is wrong,”
Just then Dilly finally showed up, but she looked very different. Instead of her long caramel colored braid, she was wearing her hair down and pitch black. And instead of her blue-green friendly eyes, they were also pitch black and angry.
             “Hello, Dilly,” Lily said and smiled. 
“Hi,” Dilly replied quite rudely.
Lily was taken aback. Dilly had only had that sort of attitude in her twin’s world. Actually Dilly today resembled Leana nearly perfectly, and Lily could have sworn she recognized those cruel eyes from her childhood with Leana.
“Are you okay?” Skyly asked, very sure that she was not.
“Never been better. Go away,” Dilly responded.
“You do know you can tell us if there is a problem right? I mean, that is how we have solved most of our problems, by working together,” Caroline asked, backing towards Lily and Skyly.
Dilly looked at Caroline, and who stared back and ran away.
“Caroline! Wait!” Skyly called and went after her.
Lily was more than happy to run off after her daughter, leaving Dilly with her strange attitude. Caroline slowed on discovering that the other two were following her, and let them catch up.
“Why did you run away?” Skyly asked.
“There is no way in all the dimensions that is Dilly,” Caroline replied, and ran off again.
Lily turned to Skyly, and they said at the same time, “Leana.”
Dilly was sitting against a wall, panting, when a hologram appeared on the wall. This was strange, because it seemed to Dilly if someone was trying to get her, she would probably recognize them. But she did not, yet.
“Who are you? And what do you want with me?” Dilly asked.
“Do you not recognize me, protector of  Jackie Sylli? I am Sherman Takiobur. I want the Middle Kingdom, the Northern Kingdom, the Southern Kingdom, the Western Kingdom, the Eastern Kingdom and all of  The Fairy Lands,” the hologram replied, “I want your powers and your butterflies.”
Dilly had been through enough to understand she probably should not dispute this to a hologram, or until someone knew where she was.
“Why do you want to take over, Takiobur? And why only the places which are important to me?” Dilly asked.
“You are the reason I failed to conquer the Northern Kingdom. You are the reason I failed to conquer the Southern Kingdom and the Western Kingdom. You are the reason I failed to conquer the Middle Kingdom. Who will protect them now you are gone?” he asked.
“I am not alone in my endeavors to protect these lands,” Dilly replied, not at all frightened by the fact that Sherman basically just said she was now out of the picture.
Skyly was reaching for the two teleportation spheres to enter the Northern Kingdom. But as she was about to grab them, Sherman leaped from a portal, grabbed the return sphere, and disappeared once more. Skyly had just realized what happened, it was too late. She was sent into the Northern Kingdom, with no apparent way to return to any other world. Caroline has just went through the vortex to get something from the school in the past. What she did not notice was Sherman lurking behind her in the shadows. After she had gone through, he locked the vortex. There was only one more person standing in his way from taking over the dimension, Lily Pielikey. Dilly had been watching everything that happened on her bracelet hologram, when Sherman appeared out of the portal. She quickly made the hologram vanish, but he had already seen it.
“If you are so very interested in how your friend is getting along, then I can help with that.” Sherman said.
He pulled something invisible out of the portal, and said, “If you will wear this, I will let you go.”
Dilly looked closely at Sherman’s face, and saw the thing she had suspected. She was not stupid enough to think that he would let her go that easily. No, it was a trap.
She stood up, and said, “You do know I only look 14, right? I am so incredibly older than you, there is not even a number big enough to describe how old I am. I know enough to know that you would never actually let me go. I would think you would have gotten to know me well enough to understand this.”
“Her name ought to be Princess Persnickety,” Sherman said under his breath.
He pulled a remote out of his pocket, and what he was holding suddenly became visible. To the untrained eye, it looked like a suit of armor. But to Dilly, it was a robotic suit in which the occupant was physically helpless. Sherman pressed another button, and the suit began to walk towards her. She took the red charm off of her bracelet, and extended it out in front of her.
“If either that thing or you come one step nearer to me, I will blast you to pieces!” she said.
The suit split into ten different pieces, and formed a 6 foot circumference around her. She turned around and around, becoming steadily more anxious. Any piece of the suit could spring at her while her back was turned, and all would be lost.
“Crud, I did not see that coming,” Dill muttered inaudibly.
“This is taking way too long,” Sherman said, and teleported all of the pieces onto her.
“No!” Dilly cried.
“Yes,” Sherman snickered.
Lily was trying to figure out where everyone had gone.
“It does not make sense,” she was saying to herself, “Why in The Fairy Lands would Skyly, Caroline, and Dilly all disappear so suddenly, and so close together. If someone was trying to get us, it seems like they would wait a while before making three at a time disappear. Unless this person, or perhaps otherwise, is very impatient. Who do I know who is impatient?… Leana and Sherman are both impatient!”
She was about to continue trying to figure out her problem, when she heard a noise behind her. She turned around, and saw Dilly running towards her.
“Lily! Get away from me! Hurry, go!” Dilly called.
Lily cast a force field around the area, and jumped onto her plate. She landed on earth, picked up the plate, shut down the dimension-tunnel, and cast another force field.
“Dilly, what is up with you lately?!” Pielikey demanded.
“I am stuck in a robo suit,” Dilly responded.
“But what about at the festival?” Lily asked. Dilly c***ed her head, “What are you talking about?”
“You were all rude to us, and acted very strange,” Lily said.
“I was never at the festival, Pielikey,” Dilly said.
“Yes, I actually was Lily,” Dilly said.
“Who said that?” Pielikey demanded, grabbing her pencil.
“I did,” Dilly said.
“No, I did not,” Dilly responded.
“Bracelet, show me Princess Jenny Angelina Daffodil Bunnie,” Lily said.
A hologram popped up with two pictures. One image was running around the area where Lily had vanished a minute ago, and the other was sitting at an ice cream shop.
“Dilly at the ice cream shop, reveal your true identity,” Lily said, ready with her brown charm in hand.
“Queen Lily Pielikey, what on earth are you talking about? I am Dilly,” the impostor declared.
“Dilly never says ‘what on earth,’ you silly impostor!” Pielikey said, and fired the charm.
The charm destroyed the disguise, and revealed that this was her sister.
“Leana, so we meet again, you evil, filthy traitor and murderer!” Lily hissed.
“For the last time, you foolish child!” Leana exclaimed.
“Who are you calling a foolish child? I am older than you, you stuck up, annoying, jealous bully!”
“Who are you calling stuck up? All you have ever strived for was more power!” Leana retorted.
“To stop you from destroying the universe!” Lily replied.
She seriously wanted to rid the universes, dimensions, and realms of this threat. But, she could never come to the point of hatred against her sister. All she ever wanted was for Leana to stop being evil, and just act like a normal princess. But, for some reason ever since Leana had learned speech, all she could say was her everlasting hatred for her older twin sister. Lily had been teased, hurt physically, hurt emotionally, gotten some of her greatest works destroyed, and gotten blamed for things all her childhood. Things only got worse after she became queen of the Northern Kingdom. Now she had fought to the death, been captured, been tortured, gotten the same thing done, which Leana considered vengeance, and all of that a million times over. Leana had even gone so far as to kill their entire family, all Lily’s friends, Lily herself, and then destroy all memory of their existence.
It had never seemed to click with her that Lily was immortal, which was actually another story as well. There was a glitch in the time machine that had caused Lily to stop aging. When time had actually been destroyed, and then brought back at the last possible moment, Lily had accidently been giving the ability to wake up, as if she had been sleeping, only a few minutes after she had been killed. This also had partially to do with her nature. She was a Dimension-Jumper, which basically meant at any given moment she could be screaming in pain in one world, and then dancing gleefully in other, simply by teleporting herself to a different world. As soon as she went back, things would pick up exactly where they had left off.
“You have betrayed the Middle Kingdom and The Fairy Lands, you have betrayed me, who are you seeking to betray now?” Lily asked.
“Says the captive,” Leana mocked.
“I am not your captive anymore!” Lily retorted.
“You know your freedom will never last so long as I live,” Leana responded coolly.
“This is my world. We shall see who gets the last laugh, evil twin,” Lily replied. She drew her wand, and Leana disappeared.
Leana reappeared in front of Lily, and said with tremendous relief “I though that you killed me.”
“Please, sister, I do not kill. You are very fortunate I am  not going to do to you what you have done to me,” Lily replied angrily.
Leana was amazed, and asked, “Why not?”
“You have no love for me, yet I still do have a bit for you. Have you not noticed every time I have dealt with you, it has only kept you from harming me, but also causes no harm to befall upon you?” Lily asked.
“I guess that is true,” Leana said.
Lily wrote on the air with her pencil “Leana disappeared from earth, the Middle Kingdom and The Fairy Lands, and the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom. She reappeared in another dimension.” Leana disappeared, and reappeared in another dimension.
Lily’s A.L.W.I.N. pencil also worked in most dimensions and worlds that she called home, as well as the Middle Kingdom and The Fairy Lands.
Sherman’s hologram appeared and he said, “Well well well! You show too much mercy. You know she will come back and try to destroy you again.”
Lily backed up, sword in hand, “True, but why do you care?”
“Well, because I am actually working with Leana. By the way, you might want to turn around,” Lily did not have any time to do so before she knew what was happening.
Back in the Middle Kingdom, Dilly said, “I am so sick of this.”
“Same, and you are probably not lonely anymore either,” Lily glared at her.
“Stop blaming me! It is the blasted robo suit!” Dilly exclaimed.
“You could have said you were behind me!” Lily retorted angrily.
“That is awful nice of you to say!” Dilly complained.
“Well at least you can move,” Lily rolled her eyes.
“Technically I can not,” Dilly responded.
“You do sometimes,” Lily growled.
“Will both of you just stop it!?” a voice said.
“Who said that?” Dilly asked.
“I believe it came from behind me, but I obviously can not turn around to look at it,” Lily replied, still in a sour mood.
“I said it,” the voice said.

“Who exactly is I?” Dilly asked.
“Daffodil, do you not recognize my voice? I am Caroline,” Caroline responded.
“Run! Do not ask, just run!” Lily exclaimed.
“But it is a hologram, nothing can touch it,” Caroline replied.
“Well using a hologram was a very wise decision indeed,” Lily muttered under her breath.
“Why would even your hologram come here in the first place? This is no place for anything associated with life,” Dilly inquired.
“Well then, why are you here?” Caroline asked, then added “Lily, what in The Fairy Lands are you doing?”
“Ask me what I was doing,” Lily sighed.
“Alright then. Lily, what were you doing?” Caroline asked.
“I was not getting caught by Sherman. But, evidently that ship has sailed,” Lily replied.
“What happened?” Caroline inquired.
“Somebody forgot to warn me that they were behind me,” Lily glared at Dilly.
“What about the sword?” Caroline asked.
“I was holding the sword, so as to be ready for him to attack me,” Lily said.
“How do I re-open the time tunnel?” Caroline asked.
“When someone destroys a dimension or time tunnel, they can not be fixed unless you go back in time, and prevent it from happening,” Lily responded.
“However, if you go back in time to three minutes before you got stuck, you should be able to get back, and send a touchogram to fool Takiobur,” Dilly added.
Caroline nodded, and her hologram began to disappear.
But, she asked, “Can I help you, Lily?”
Pielikey shook her head, and replied, “I would advise you to not worry about me. But, if you get Sherman’s white key, and twist it in on the sword hilt, then the spell should begin to break, and I can move again. On the other hand, you should not come anywhere near here without either an army, the A.L.W.I.N, or both.”
“This sounds immensely complicated…” Caroline said.
“Just get the key, and twist in it the keyhole,” Dilly simplified for Caroline.
“Can I help you, Dilly?” Caroline asked.
“My response is the same as Lily. If I were you, I would get Sherman out of the way first. But, the way to get me out of here is to destroy the It, uh, I mean Sherman’s controller,” Dilly responded.
“What is the It?” Caroline inquired.
“It is a Southern Kingdom and Western Kingdom thing,” Lily replied.
Skyly’s hologram suddenly appeared, and she said, “Can somebody help me?”
As soon as she had spoken, she realized she might not get any sort of help from her companions. Angelina was in a robotic suit of armor, Pielikey was still as stone, and Caroline was also using a hologram.
“Sky, you know your bracelet works in the Northern Kingdom too, right?” Lily asked.
Skyly’s face turned bright red, and she said “I think I forgot again, mother.”
“Well now you know, watch out for Sherman,” Lily said, and Skyly and Caroline both vanished.
They both did as they were advised, and reappeared in the Middle Kingdom where they were waiting for Dilly those few days ago. Everyone was panicking, although why they were panicking was hard to figure out.
Caroline and Sky looked around in confusion. Sky saw one of her friends run by, and grabbed her.
“Polly, what in The Fairy Lands is going on?!” Sky asked.
“You are back!” Emily Ann exclaimed.
“Yes, we are. Now why is everyone running in circles yelling? Actually, it is pretty funny to watch. But, what happened?” Caroline asked.
“That is the most idiotic question that I have ever heard,” Lucy said.
“What is wrong is that you, Dilly, and Lily all disappeared!” Luke said dubiously.
“I did not think we really were so important that everyone would freak out when we are gone,” Sky said.
“Well, on the other hand, they know that when you vanish, a battle is at hand,” Natalie pointed out.
“Where are the other two?” Lucy asked.
“Dilly is stuck inside a robot. And Lily is… preoccupied let us say,” Caroline replied.
“So it is just us,” Polly said.
This was no laughing matter. Dilly and Pielikey were always critical factors in protecting the dimensions. Without them, things were likely not going to end well. Who had defeated Leana the first time she attacked The Fairylands? Lily and Dilly had. Who had saved the Southern Kingdom and the Western Kingdom from the IT? Lily and Dilly had done most of that. Lily was constantly battling Leana, she was the only thing stopping The Techno Lands from overthrowing The Fairy Lands. Dilly was the inventor who created the things that Lily then used to fight against Leana. Without a strong signal emitting from Dilly’s Inventions Bracelet anyone might be able to hack the system, and cause a malfunction in the system that could be fatal. The throne was an easy fix, because in Dilly’s absence, Lenny took control. In Lily’s absence, Skyly took control. The problem is that whoever ruled was a walking target, which was why four out of the five kingdoms in The Fairylands were in alliance with each other, and were typically on good terms, whether through friendship or marriage.
Lily’s mind was racing. She had to think of something that she could do to get back. But, nothing is really that easy when pretty much all you have is the power of speech. She knew it was only a matter of time before Sherman and Leana attacked. For all she knew they ,might be in the process of doing so at that very moment. Yes, Skyly, Lenny, Polly, Caroline, and Luke were there. But, had they yet learned enough? No matter how much time she was given to train them, there always seemed to be something that would get in her way when she was teaching them the best way to deal with Leana. Her sister was probably spying on her, making sure that Lily and Dennis alone knew the secret. But, Dennis had been missing for over 3,000 years, probably killed. These were the thoughts that raced through Pielikey’s mind as she desperately attempted to counteract the dark magic. Suddenly, it struck her.
“Look! A butterfly landed on my sword!” Pielikey said.
Immediately Dilly lunged, and the force of the impact destroyed the spell by knocking the sword out of Lily’s hand. Lily made use of her bracelet, and cast a force field. She walked over, and picked up her sword. She giggled, and put it back in the sheath. Leana might have done a good job programming the offensive and defensive abilities of that robo suit, but she had not thought about making it look before it leaped. And that was literally what it had done. Dilly laughed, despite the suit slamming her into the force field. Pielikey’s smile faded, as she realized no time must be wasting in returning to the Palace of Reflection in The Western Kingdom. If all was well, then they should be able to activate the magical Jewel Flower, blasting the evil clean off the planet.
Dilly smiled, and said, “That was the best idea I have heard in a long time.”
Lily nodded, and asked, “But, what do I do now? You are undoubtedly going to follow me wherever I go.”
“Maybe you could turn invisible,  jump to the Middle Kingdom, and leave a touchogram,” Dilly suggested.
Pielikey did as instructed, making sure that she left the force field on. They tried the plan, but it backfired. Dilly still went after her, and let the touchogram be. Lily revisiblized, and ran like the wind towards the Southern Kingdom and The Western Kingdom. She squeezed her white light blue charm over and over, but it was not working. There must have been a glitch in the system, because otherwise the charm would sparkle green. If it sparkled green, then she would be able to paint a vortex, and get there instantaneously. But, it only sparkled red. In frustration, she ran on, fastening the charm on the chain bracelet.
“Lily, where are you going?” Mackenzie called.
“Can not talk, running for life,” Lily shouted back.
Lenny used his weapon to construct a dome that consisted of and emerald around Dilly. Pielikey turned around with her sword, and added amethysts. Lily slowed to a stop, and turned around. Now, of course, the charm was sparkling green. That really figured, things like that happened all the time. There was one other charm, one that was black. Only Lily had it, for she had made it. It was not originally black. It was actually originally aqua marine, but it had turned black when she left The Southern Kingdom and The Western Kingdom. Now it changed back to aqua marine in a bright flash. Out of curiosity, Pielikey squeezed it. It flew out of her hand, and painted a person. The boy stumbled over, and Lily caught him.
“D, Dennis?” Lily asked in amazement as the boy stood up,  and rubbed his eyes.
“Lily! You finally broke the spell!” Dennis said excitedly.
“What are you talking about? I do not do spells. Neither do you. How did you get stuck inside the charm?” Lily inquired.
When Lily had made the charm, it was meant to be used as a sort of storage compartment. It had remained unused for two weeks, for she had not decided what exactly she should put in it. That was the day that Leana had first attacked The Fairylands. Dennis had been with them, but then when Leana had been defeated, he was gone. They had searched for 10 years in vain. On the day of the battle was the day that the charm had turned black, and it had remained unusable ever since. During the years that Dennis had been missing, all of the other seven had not reunited at the Palace of Reflection. Every time Lily had tried to return, Leana or Sherman had interfered. Now the reason had been revealed. Sherman had cast a spell that trapped Dennis inside the charm, and made it unable to open or be used. That way, in theory, the Jewel Flower could not be activated, and therefore Sherman could not be defeated. When this was proven untrue, Sherman did not lift the spell, because obviously Dennis was a threat to him. When Lily had reunited with the other 7 at the palace, the light magic was so strong that it overridden the dark magic. Then, Dennis was finally released from the charm. It took about two hours to discuss this, and then they decided to turn their attention back to Dilly.
“Why in The Southern Kingdom were you running from Dilly?” Jackie asked.
“Because she is in a robotic suit that is being controlled by Sherman. Lenny, Dennis, Mackenzie, Mack, Jackie, Jack, you all need to stay around the Palace of Reflection. I might need you to be there in case something happens,” Lily said.
“But, it takes all eight of the objects, and surely nothing can be quite as bad as dealing with the It,” Mack said.
“You have not seen much, Mack. Dilly, Lily, Dennis, and I have been through things much, much harder than saving The Southern Kingdom and The Western Kingdom,” Lenny said.
“Just stay here. I do not want you near Sherman ever again,” Pielikey said.
Lily took her light blue charm, and threw it up into the air. It flew in circles around her, one minute above her head, the next minute at her feet. It was moving of its own accord, and painting with blue and purple glowing strokes. It kept on forming, growing brighter and brighter the whole time. Then at last the light became blinding, and everyone closed their eyes. When they opened them again, Lily and the swirl were gone. In the place was a magenta pink lily that still seemed to be in the wind current of the swirl. It drifted to the ground, and vanished. If it had stayed, then that would mean that the teleportation had backfired, and Lily was in the vast everlasting expanse of nothingness than linked all universes, dimensions, and realms. Lily’s symbol was that magenta pink lily, and if it vanished after she teleported it meant she was safe. Everyone had a symbol that worked in this way. And it was only logical, if nothing else in The Fairy Lands is, that Lily’s symbol is a lily.
“Mother!” Skyly exclaimed.
“How did you break the spell without the key?” Caroline inquired, “And did Dilly escape?”
“Well, I told Dilly that a butterfly had landed on my sword. She ran into it, and knocked the sword, and the spell, out of my hands. I do not know where she is now,” Lily replied.
“We are glad you are back now,” Lucy said.
“I am not out of the woods yet…” Lily replied.
“How so?” Natalie asked.
“Well now that I have gotten away, naturally Sherman will be infuriated. With his anger, he will resolve to try that much harder to get me again,” Pielikey answered.
“That does make sense,” Polly agreed.
Everyone was quiet for a minute, and just kind of stood there while people were still running around in a panic. Nobody really knew why all the others were silent, but each were waiting for someone else to continue the conversation. They just stared at each other sheepishly, and kicked their feet. Then at last Lily broke the group’s silence.
“Did not you get the message I sent?” she inquired.
“You sent a message? To whom?” Polly asked.
“To you, Polly,” Lily replied.
She plucked her green charm, and threw it into the air. It swirled around and around, painting a circle. The circle divided into five equal parts, representing the five kingdoms. One in the center, that being The Middle Kingdom, and four on the sides, The Southern Kingdom, The Western Kingdom, the Northern Kingdom, and the Eastern Kingdom. It showed all of the cities and roads, all of the most important places. It slowly floated down to the ground, and went under their feet. The charm stopped spinning around above their heads, and started spinning in front of Lily. It painted a smaller circle, about the size of a plate. Then, it reattached itself to her bracelet, and she grabbed the small circle.
“Where is the messaging orb?” Lily asked.
The smaller circle glowed green. When the glow faded, it said: The Eastern border of The Middle Kingdom. Lily tapped on the screen, and the big circle zoomed in on the Eastern border. She then let go of the small circle, which hovered in place. She closed her eyes, and opened them again. There was a messaging orb, the kind traditionally used by the fairylike races. She placed a stick inside of it, and told it to go to Polly. Lily grabbed the circle again, and set it to track the orb. As she had predicted, the orb vanished instantaneously, and did not reappear at Polly’s feet. A red spot started to glow on the map. She zoomed in, and there were the two messaging orbs, right next to a M.M.O.I.M.
“What is that thing?” Caroline inquired.
“That it a M.M.O.I.M. A Magical Messaging Orb Interception Machine. It takes orbs, and stops them from reaching their recipients,” Skyly explained.
“Wait… I thought the messaging orbs were unable to be intercepted…” Emily Ann stuttered.
“They were, until the day Dilly disappeared. Sherman somehow figured out how to intercept them with the aid of Leana,” Lily replied.
“What is a messaging orb?” Lucy asked.
“A messaging orb is something fairylike races use to communicate. It is much like the things called phones that you use to text in The Techno Lands. A stick represents danger, a leaf represents happiness, a mushroom represents sadness, a flower represents a positive response to a stick, and a ball filled with water represents a negative response to a stick,” Lily replied.
“I thought that technology was not existent in The Fairy Lands and The Normalands, just as magic is not existent in The Techno Lands, and The Normalands,” Natalie said.
“True. Except when a war is at hand. When a battle is going on, all bets are off,” Polly responded.

“So, how is it that Lily returned to The Middle Kingdom if I have had the key the whole time?” Sherman asked.
“She said there was a butterfly on her sword, and you were silly enough to make this robot incredibly gullible,” Dilly replied.
“Well you could have stopped it!” Sherman retorted.
“I can do no such thing, you fool!” Dilly exclaimed.
“Enough with your annoying talk! Just go find the three, and no messing up this time!” Sherman said enraged.
Dilly sighed, and said, “Lily, I am coming again.”
“So I figured,” Pielikey responded, while she was messing with a small box.
“Are you done yet?” Skyly asked impatiently.
“No, just wait a little longer,” Lily replied, keeping her attention on her work.
“We do not have time for you to be playing with a silly box! Dilly is coming, just as you said she would. We need to hide,” Sky retorted.
“Hiding has never done anyone any good,” Lily replied.
It seemed like a normal box that Lily held. It was about the size of a jewelry box, and it was a faded white. It had a lid, and it indeed held a piece of jewelry inside. It was a small, clear, cube-shaped charm, which Pielikey had been pressing continually for an hour now.
“Mother, we must do something besides just sitting here!” Skyly said.
“If you do not stop complaining, you could make me forget the code. If I forget the code, there will not be anywhere to go,” Lily replied.
After three more minutes, the charm finally sparkled green, and Lily’s face lit up. She drew out what looked like a small bottle of glue.
“HOW WILL A BOTTLE OF GLUE HELP?!?!” Skyly exploded.
“You will understand after I have used it. Let us see Sherman stop this,” Pielikey replied, not at all taken aback by Sky’s temper, and said, “Follow me.”
She went to her magical, rainbow, crystal dot, took Sky’s hand, and jumped on it.
The Middle Kingdom began to fade, and the dimensions of humans called earth grew steadily more clear. When it was completely clear, they were both sitting on the ground on top of a Lego plate. Sky and Lily were accustomed to such things, as they were both Dimension-Jumpers, and did this sort of thing all day long with ease. They went upstairs, and onto a staircase. Here Lily took the tube, and squeezed a drop of its contents onto the wall. She waited a moment, and a tiny bump appeared on the wall.
“That Will Not Save The Dimensions!” Skyly exploded again.
“Never judge a book by its cover,” Pielikey responded, and touched the bump.
The bump shifted and changed, until there was a door where it had originally been. Lily motioned for Sky to follow her. After they had gone in, the door shifted once more, and the bump alone remained.
“Where are we?” Skyly asked.
“We are inside the bump,” Lily replied.
“But… that is impossible! The bump is only two inches in circumference!” Sky said.
“You do not catch on easily. We live in a land of magic, we jump between the dimensions, we can do so many things that are impossible, that it should not puzzle you anymore when I do something that you thought impossible,” Lily replied.
“I do not understand why this is a better place to be than The Middle Kingdom and The Fairy Lands,” Sky said.
“That is very simple,” Lily responded.
She reached for Sky, but where she should have touched her, both girls felt nothing.
“So basically, we are invincible?” Sky asked.
“Precisely,” Pielikey confirmed, and added, “We can also watch everything that happens in The Middle Kingdom.”
“How so?” Sky asked.
“We live in the age of technology, how do you suppose?” Lily inquired.
“Holograms?” Sky asked, and Lily nodded to her daughter.
Finally the girls had found a place where they wee completely safe. The only question was, “Mother, what about the others, what about the dimensions?” Skyly asked.
“You will understand in due time,” Pielikey replied.
“But, what if in due time is too late?” Sky asked.
“It is never too late. If anything happens, we simply go back in time to prevent it from happening,” Lily said very matter-of-factly.
“Then why do we not just go back, and stop this whole thing from happening in the first place!?” Skyly demanded.
“Sherman has damaged the time-tunnels, and that means we can not go that far back to that particular day. However, we can travel to any time after or less than one day before the vortex was damaged,” Lily replied, then said, “Here comes Dilly.”
“What if she just picks up the bump?” Skyly asked. If this happened, they might not be harmed, but they would be caught.
“Then we cast a force field,” Lily replied.
“What if she picks up the force field? That gets us to no better place,” Skyly pointed out.
Pielikey shook her head, and teleported her talking parrot, Sweet Tweet, the bump.
“Fly to The Eastern Kingdom,” Lily said.
“But the Eastern Kingdomers are our greatest enemies!” Sweet Tweet retorted.
“Which is why it is the place that Sherman is less likely to look for us, or send anyone after us. The minute an unprotected Legotopian enters The Eastern Kingdom, it would be better if they had been stuck at the school in Yndanosela,” Lily replied.
“But I am unprotected,” Sweet Tweet said.
“That is not so. Do you not trust me yet?” Lily inquired.
“Hey, how will we get out if the bump is in a force field?” Sky asked.
This was an interesting point to bring up. If they could not get out of the bump, they might as well be in Sherman’s hand already. Lily messed with her buttons, and created a pass code.
“What if Sherman gets the pass code?” Sky asked, peeking over her mother’s shoulder.
“You are really good at discovering issues with my plan,” Pielikey said in frustration.
“Dilly is below us, what do I do?!” Sweet Tweet asked anxiously.
“Drop it,” Lily replied casually, as if this would be of no consequence.
“I can  not drop you!” Sweet Tweet retorted.
“Yes, you actually can,” Lily responded.
“No, I will not,” Sweet Tweet said.
“I Said Drop It!!!” Pielikey exclaimed.
Sweet Tweet let go, and the bump rolled onto the ground. Lily teleported Skyly back to The Middle Kingdom.
As Dilly ran up, she said, “Lily, Lily, why do you not understand you are in the easiest position to catch?”
“Or am I?” Pielikey asked with a mysterious voice, then laughed.
She leaped out of the bump, and outstretched her hand with the pink charm. Dilly ran at the completely still Lily. Then, at the last second, Lily clutched the charm, and a pink ray shot straight into Dilly. Dilly collapsed on the ground, and Lily clutched the light-blue charm in her other hand.
The robo suit was completely frozen, and Lily dropped beside Dilly saying, “Hey, Angelina. Wake up. Wake up, Dilly.”
She sat there for a while, until finally Dilly groaned.
“Dilly, wake up,” Lily said softly.
Dilly cracked open one eye, and asked, “Where am I?”
“The woods on the far ends of The Middle Kingdom. Can you move?” Pielikey asked.
Dilly tried to lift herself up to sit, but fell back down.
“Can I? Yes. Can I enough to really do anything? No,” Dilly replied, at looked at Lily.
Lily looked at her, and said, “You have not slept for a moment or eaten a single thing for a week, have you?”
“Nope,” Dilly replied.
She looked around, and asked, “Can you destroy that accursed piece of junk?”
This, of course, indicated the robo suit. Lily stood up, and removed her red charm, she clutched it, and where the suit had been standing, there was a pile of ashes.
“We need to get back to The Middle Kingdom,” Pielikey said.
“You go. I can not be of any help,” Dilly said.
“Oh, but you can. There is always a way,” Lily replied.
“But, how will we get there?” Dilly asked.
Lily looked down at Dilly, and said, “I know. Just do not freak out or anything.”
She made a bubble, similar to what Sherman has used to catch the other seven in The Southern Kingdom, including Dilly, several years ago. Lily ran off, and the bubble followed her. about there, the bubble popped, so Lily carried Dilly the rest of the distance.
“Mother! You scared me to death! I…” Skyly stopped mid-sentence.
Lily sat down with Dilly next to her, and said while she was panting, “Well, I guess it just scared you mostly to death, because otherwise you would not be speaking to me.”
“Lily, Sherman is coming,” Dilly said.
“How can you tell?”Lily asked.
“Because, I can just feel it. It feels like he is coming. You have to beat him.”
The ground started to shake, and everyone split up, except for Lily and Dilly.
“Do not forget to use your code names instead of your regular names,” Natalie called.
“Rose, there is physically nothing I can do,” Dilly told Lily.
“Nonsense, you give up far too easily. Use your imagination, this is a land of magic, not like the human world of earth,” Lily replied and wrote something in the air.
Suddenly, Dilly was elevated three feet off the ground.
“I do not understand,” Dilly said.
“It is simple. If you can not walk, that limits your options to flying around,” Lily explained.
“Oh, but I am still helpless,” Dilly pointed out.
“Aside from the fact that you can move around,” Lily persisted.
“Alright, I will see what I can do,” Dilly finally agreed.
“Do not worry, Daffodil. This time, he is not getting away from me so easily,” Lily narrowed her eyes, and raced into the crowd.
As Lily and Dilly continued to fight their way through the fleeing crowd, Dilly shouted above the noise, “I have a very bad feeling about this.”
“I feel the same, Daffodil. But, have we not always felt this way when there is someone trying to destroy us?” Lily shouted back to Dilly.
After the crowd had vanished, Lily suddenly stopped, with an inquisitive look on her face.
“What is the matter?” Dilly asked.
“What am I standing on?” Lily asked, peering worriedly at the orange ground.
“I only have one idea…” Dilly groaned.
Lily stepped forward, but ran into something. She stepped backwards, but bumped into something.
“Let me guess, is your idea a force field?” Pielikey asked.
“How did you know?” Dilly rolled her eyes.
“Just lucky, I guess,” Lily responded sarcastically.
“Welcome back,” Sherman said.
Lily drew her sword, and said, “So, Takiobur, what are you trying this time?”
“Well, you annoying, little rebel, I was just wondering if you could tell me what this wand does,” Sherman said, producing a wand.
Lily’s face turned pure white, and she stumbled over.
Dilly blinked, she was obviously oblivious to the danger that she and Lily were presently in.
“Well, Pielikey seems to understand the power that I hold. This, foolish princess, is called an ice wand,” Sherman said.
Dilly blinked again, she still was not impressed.
“You rule a magical kingdom, and you seriously do not know what this is?!” Sherman asked, completely bewildered.
Lily rose to her feet, and said, “I will not become a victim of that wand again.”
“Sucks for you,” Sherman sneered.
Now Lily’s face was red.
“What does it do?” Dilly asked.
“I will show you,” Sherman said.
“No! No! An explanation will be perfectly fine!” Lily exclaimed desperately, but it was too late.
Sherman waved the wand at a random person who just so happened to unfortunately be runing by, and they were instantly frozen.
“And this time, the Fire Fairy is not here to help you,” Sherman scoffed at Lily, who shouted, “Lilac, go to the P.D. world, and wait.”
“But… I need to help here,” Lucy called.
“Just do it. Trust me,” Lily commanded.
Lucy opened a vortex, and stepped through.
After making sure she was safe, she closed the vortex, and ran to her friends. Lily breathed a sigh of relief, if Lucy was safe, they might be able to beat Sherman after all. Provided he did not destroy the universe, but that was not likely to happen anytime soon.
“What is the matter, Lucy?” Pete, her oldest brother asked.
“Sherman is attacking The Middle Kingdom again. And he has a wand, and Dilly can not move, and Lily told me to come here, and everyone is going to be frozen, and then he is going to destroy the universe, and…” Lucy rambled on in a panic.
“Whoa, whoa, slow down a bit. Why do you think Lily told you to come here?” Edward, her other older brother, asked.
“Well, I do not know,” Lucy said.
“Think about it. If he is about to freeze everyone with his wand, why would Lily want you to get away from him?” Edward asked.
“So that I do not get frozen?” Lucy asked.
Pete nodded, and said, “But why else?”
Lucy thought for a moment, then said, “So I can unfreeze them!”
“Precisely,” Edward said.
“Goodbye, and good riddance you blasted little rebel!” Sherman said, and waved the wand at Lily.
However, she knew what was going on beforehand, and dashed out of the way before the pulse reached her. So Sherman decided to try and hit Dilly, which, of course, worked with hardly any effort on his part. He continued to try and hit Lily, but each time she would bolt away at the last second.
So things continued in much the same matter for a few minutes, until Lily said, “You underestimate my persistence. I will never give up, so long as I still have the strength to continue.”
She jumped here, dashed there, and rolled over yonder. She drew her sword, and dived for Sherman’s wand. She was almost there, but she was so close she could not dodge away. She literally froze in her tracks. Despite this, the fire still burned in her eyes, fueled till the last with rage. She slowly started to try and melt the ice, but it would  be a few days. She could only hope she had that much time left.
Sherman smiled widely, for he knew that no one was nearly so powerful as Dilly and Lily, and no match for him without them. He disabled the force field, and ran off, waving his wand on every side. Sky and Emily ran up to the two girls, but they knew as soon as they melted the ice, Sherman would freeze all four of them. While their backs were turned, Sherman waved the wand at them. Now the only ones left were Caroline, Natalie, and Polly, and Lucy, but she was safe. Caroline was frozen with a butterfly in her hands, which did protect the butterfly. Polly had been flying over the crowd, and was about to shoot her bow. Now Natalie was in a panic, she and Sherman were the only people left, and she knew she had no chance hands down.
“Why run anymore, little girl?” Sherman asked with a wicked smile.
“Even without Dilly and Lily, I would still feel ashamed to surrender to a chicken like you,” Natalie said.
“WHY YOU LITTLE FOOL!” Sherman exclaimed, and Natalie touched her sparkling green charm before she was frozen.
This sent a message to Lucy, saying, “It is about time for you to come. The coast is clear, and frosty.”
“Now on to the world of men,” Sherman grinned, and stepped into the portal.
Lucy stepped into The Middle Kingdom, and suddenly wished she had not. Everything in The Middle Kingdom, The Northern Kingdom, The Southern Kingdom, The Western Kingdom, The Eastern Kingdom, and the Fairylands was solid ice. After seeing what happened to the others, Lucy stepped back into the vortex.
“Well?” Pete asked.
“You were right. It is so terrible,” Lucy said shakily, partially from the bone chilling cold, but mostly from fear.
“Well then, let us gather the others. Then they can help us melt that other world,” Edward said.
Two hours later, everywhere in that dimension the P.D. worlders were defrosting the ice. As soon as someone was unfrozen, they would run off to make sure they did not miss any person, creature, or plant. When Caroline could move her hands again, she released the  butterfly, and said to herself ‘Mission accomplished.’ She walked over, and saw Lily in that same position again.
She shook her head, and said, “Lily, Lily, Lily. You never know when to quit.”
She looked around, and ran off to go defrost others.
When Lily was finally mostly unfrozen, Caroline asked, “Why did you try to fight?”
Pielikey sighed, and responded, “To try protect all of you.”
“Come on,” Caroline beckoned.
“My feet are still ice,” Lily noticed, “I will catch up later.”
Finally Lily and Dilly made it back to the Palace of Reflection in The Western Kingdom, and saw the other six kings, queens, and their protectors frozen. Lily shuddered, and they both stepped into place. Lily held up her sword, and Dilly started to hold up her object.
But halfway up she stopped, and asked, “Last time doing this restored light to The Southern Kingdom and The Western Kingdom. How will this help us? We already have plenty of light.”
“It also restored warmth and happiness. I think those two things are lacking right now. Would you not agree?” Lily asked.
“I suppose so,” Dilly agreed.
Sherman suddenly appeared behind Lily, and waved the wand. In a panic, Dilly jumped into place, and raised her object. She tried to get in just the right position, for if she was not, the magic would not work. She looked at Jackie’s ring desperately, searching for any faint glimmer of hope of ruby red magic emitting from the ring. She found none, and braced herself, hoping that somehow, someway, warmth would come of its own accord.
Sherman waved the wand again, and said, “Well well. There is no one left now. Not even the P.D. worlders.  NOTHING   can stop me now.”
Suddenly, Lenny’s weapon, and Mack’s ring began to glow. Then Dennis’s weapon, and Jack’s ring began to glow. But nothing happened to the girls. A butterfly had been sitting in a corner, then it flew up to Dilly, and alighted on her weapon. It waited a moment then flew down in confusion. It should be glowing green, but nothing was happening. It landed on it again, flew off, and waited. This time the object, and Jackie’s ring both started glowing green. The butterfly waited for Pielikey and Mackenzie, then finally it landed on Lily’s sword. It to began to glow, along with Mackenzie’s ring. The butterfly alighted on the ground to watch the show of magic. The rings and weapons were glowing brighter and brighter every second, until finally it happened.
The light shot out in a quick beam, and bounced all around the castle on the mirrors it was made of. It bounced here and there, until finally all eight rays hit the Jewel Flower. The flower glowed for a few seconds, growing so bright you could not look at it with the darkest sunglasses and equipment that has ever been created. The Jewel Flower shook a bit, then it shot out the Sapphire Stream. The stream went out like a pulse ray over all of the dimension it went over everything, and touched everything. As soon as the magic would reach something, it would instantly be unfrozen. The force of this impact on Sherman blasted him into Yndanosela, the world of Leana, which was currently un-exit-able. Then Jackie noticed something, Lily was not moving at all.
“Why is she not moving?” Mackenzie asked.
“That is strange, the magic should have worked…” Dilly said.
“Boo!” Pielikey said, and everyone laughed.
A day later, everyone was back in The Middle Kingdom.
“You two saved everyone!” Lucy said.
“No,” Dilly shook her head, as Caroline’s butterfly alighted on her finger, “We were saved by a butterfly.”
And that is the story,” Ahyracie finished.

“But… that is completely different from what Lily said!” I stammered.
“Wait… which one? There were three battles. That was the second, I do not know the first very well. I thought you were just asking for a random one,” Ahyracie said.
“Okay, three battles? I suppose I will just ask Lilac about the third tomorrow,” I said.
The next morning, I related to Lilac what had already happened.
She giggled, and replied, “Yes, there were three battles, I am afraid. So, you really want to hear the next one?”
“Yes please,” I replied.
“It is extremely long, maybe even longer than a day. I am not sure, but we will see, here it is:
This was exactly twenty eight years, one hundred fifty four days, six hours, forty one minutes, and nine seconds after Dilly had said “We were saved by a butterfly.” In other words, it was the thirteenth of Syxamber, which is the thirteenth month of the year. There are thirteen months in The Middle Kingdom and the fairylands, because nobody believes in luck. It is an interesting topic, but there is something more pressing. Historically, Leana has only started to cause trouble on the thirteenth of Syxamber. Lily and Dilly were together in a forest.
Lily looked up from examining the lily she had found, and asked “What is that strange whistling sound?”
Dilly looked around, and said, “It seems to be coming from that circle thing.”
“Hmmm… I wonder what ‘that circle thing’ is,” Lily said as both girls drew nearer to it.
“Perhaps an egg,” Dilly suggested.
“Or maybe a..” Lily started, but was interrupted by the thing exploding and gas flying everywhere, then she finished, “Gas bomb.” 
“Well, is that not delightful,” Dilly muttered.
“My twin is behind this, I can feel it,” Lily said with an angry face.
“So, what now?” Dilly asked.
“I suggest we hold on to each other. I do not really see anything else sensible to do. Either we die, or we are caught, but there is no escaping either one,” Lily said.
“Why can we not ever just take a break from all this incessant battle?” Dilly groaned.
“We do at least have quite a few stories,” Lily shrugged.
“Why are we sitting here talking? We should send out a signal to the others,” Dilly said.
“Except, all the others have turned off their bracelets,” Lily pointed out.
“But… we never turn off our bracelets. That only happens when we get caught,” Dilly said.
Lily nodded, and popped up a projection. It showed how many people, fairies, aliens, whatever were in The Middle Kingdom and The Fairylands presently. The number was zero. Lily looked at Dilly, and Dilly looked at her. They grabbed hold of one another, and laid down on the ground. Dilly closed her eyes, soaking in the last bit she could of The Middle Kingdom. Lily squeezed her hand, and also closed her eyes.
“I do not want to be separated from you,” Lily whispered, a slight quiver in her voice.
“I know. I love you,” Dilly whispered back, and they both passed out.
Skyly opened her eyes, and immediately noticed she was not in The Middle Kingdom. But, this place was vaguely familiar. She also noticed that Lily and Dilly were still holding on to each other.
Though she was still very weak, she managed to ask, “Is anyone else awake?” Caroline groaned, rolled over, and looked at Sky. But, she was soon very much more awake. Her face turned white when she saw Sky.
“What is wrong?” Sky asked, frightened by Caroline’s expression.
“Your clothes,” Caroline whispered, for a whisper was almost all she had the strength to say.
Sky looked down, and suddenly everything made sense. She was not wearing the clothes of The Middle Kingdom, these were the clothes she, Lily, Dilly, and Caroline wore in Yndanosela. It was the exact same glowing thing that she had had on her wrist when she, Lily, and Lenny were forced to compete in The Tournament of Paths on Sherman’s home planet, Ogenihutokymc. This surprised and scared her so much that she completely forgot about feeling weak. She sprang to her feet, and realized that she was indeed in Yndanosela at the school of spherical geometry, and disbelief in magic.
Being there scared her so much that she lost her balance. She accidentally fell on her mother. This was enough to wake Lily up, and she opened her eyes. But her eyes also held fear, and she sat up with an expression of astonishment.
She looked at Sky, and said, “Your hair is Brown!”
“BROWN!?!?” Skyly exclaimed, which startled Caroline to the extent that she too leaped up.
It was unfortunately true. Her emerald green hair was turning the color of a withered leaf.
“The magic is not strong here. You Must return to The Middle Kingdom and the fairylands,” Lily said.
“Your stupidity amazes me, Lily,” Caroline said.
Lily whirled around, and said, “Excuse me?”
“Do not you see? Not only will they be more careful to not let the others escape, but what about the four of us? Doubtlessly they will make sure we do not escape again. It is like what you said about Sherman Takiobur. Now that we have previously escaped, they will try that much harder to make sure it does not happen again,” Caroline finished.
Lily was angry, but Caroline was completely right. She heard a familiar laugh, and turned red with fury.
“What was that?” Caroline asked.
“Leana,” Lily hissed.
Her twin’s hologram appeared in the room, “Oh, is the magic not strong enough to support Skyly? Well, sucks for you! Hey, guess what? I am the principal this year!” Leana laughed.
“Why do you continuously try to destroy me?” Lily asked.
“Why do you continuously try to stop me? It would make things so much easier,” Leana said.
“But why do you have to torture me? I just send you to another place, but you are much less merciful,” Lily said.
“Hey, that reminds me, sister. Do not you have a pixie friend as well?” Leana asked.
She was holding a small jar. Inside the jar, was Polly. Polly had been in The Middle Kingdom during the Dark Ages, when it was under the control of the Bugs. Lily and her friends had helped Polly after she had escaped by giving her a name, and helping her remember some things, because the Bugs took her memory.
  Pielikey blinked in utter disbelief. When she finally shook herself from the shock, she asked “How in the name of magic did you find the power to challenge a pixie in the fairylands?”
“Lily, surely you can see that I have my ways. You never have accepted my ways ever since we could talk. Besides, I am as much a fairy as you are. You just always forget that,” Leana said.
“You are not as much fairy as I am. You never have been, and you know it. It is true, I have never accepted your ways. Only because they are the most foolish, horrible, destructive, betraying, humiliating, disgusting, and dumb ways that have ever existed!” Lily retorted.
“You are more fairy, I admit. But that puts me at an advantage.” Leana said, and continued “You are partially Dryad, partially Wood Nymph, partially Naiad, partially Sylph, partially pixie, and partially fairy. But, you also have a tree. We both know what would happen if your tree was damaged,” Leana said.
Lily’s face was growing steadily more white by the second. Leana was suggesting this time she would finish Lily quick as possible. Leana’s hologram disappeared, and Lily sank to the ground.
“Mother, what is happening?” Skyly asked.
“I want you to get back to The Middle Kingdom at all costs. I might not come with you,” Lily replied.
In The Middle Kingdom, Sherman and his friends started to throw huge rocks at a tree. Pielikey closed her eyes, and screamed in pain. Her golden yellow hair felt like it was being pulled straight out. The pink flowers that were in her hair felt like they had been cut in half, then plucked. She was not really sure if she could walk anymore, and her arms did not really want to work.
She continued to cry, but she whispered, “Wake up, Dilly. Oh, please wake up.”
Leana was laughing her head off. Caroline and Polly looked at each other, then back at Skyly and Lily. There was no telling how long they would survive.
“Can you not do something?” Caroline asked Polly through their communication device.
“I can do as much as you can,” Polly replied, which was obviously nothing.
“Wake Dilly up,” Polly said.
“I think our attention should be on Lily and Sky right now,” Caroline said.
“But Dilly will know what to do. Surely she has some gizmo to put a force field around the tree, or something constructive,” Polly said.
“Talking is constructive, because it builds social skills,” Caroline said.
“I am in a jar right now. It is hard to be social when you are in a jar,” Polly retorted.
“I guess I can relate to that,” Caroline said.
“Alright, smarty pants. When was the last time your friend’s evil twin used dark magic to counteract your magic when you are trying to protect The Northern Kingdom, then stole your magic and trapped you in a jar that smells strongly of moldy jam?” Polly asked, quite peeved.
“Yeah, I will wake up Dilly now,” Caroline said.
“Oh, good idea. Hurry up, Caroline,” Polly rolled her eyes, as Caroline began.
Eventually Caroline succeeded in waking Dilly up, “Where are we? What happened?” Dilly asked.
“I am not completely sure, but it might be the Yndanosela school of spherical geometry. As for what happened, that would be an excellent question for Leana,” Caroline said.
“What has she done now?” Dilly asked.
“Well, obviously we are here again. She is killing Sky and Lily, and she did something else which you will have to see to believe,” Caroline said, and popped up a hologram.
“What the heck…” Dilly staggered, “How in The Middle Kingdom did she do that?!”
“That is a very good question, Dilly,” Polly shook her head, and continued, “You have bigger problems than me right now. I suggest you look behind you.”
Dilly turned around, and there was Lily. She did not look like she was awake, and had her flower not been a light pink, it would certainly appeared as if she was dead.
“Lily, open your eyes, wake up,” Dilly said.
Lily rolled over, and cracked open one eye. Dilly looked exactly the way she had 80 years ago. This was honestly not the greatest thing, for the first month of being at school Dilly had looked that way, then later she lost hope. But it did bring back memories. She was wearing the same yellow shirt, blue skirt, pink sweater, green tights, purple shoes, and orange bow she had been wearing that day they escaped. But this time she was also wearing another thing, determination.
“Oh, Dilly,” Lily said, and hugged her tight.
“We will stop Leana. I promise,” Dilly said.
“But why do I even try anymore? I always fail,” Lily said.
“Oh, come on. What has gotten into you? You have never acted this way before,” Dilly said.
“True, but things were different every other time. At least someone was in The Middle Kingdom,” Lily retorted.
“Lily, here she goes again,” Polly said in warning.
“Ohhhh, why, Leana?” Lily groaned.
She started to cry again, but then Pielikey realized something she had not noticed before. She was still wearing the bracelet on her wrist. She took off the light blue charm, and squeezed it very hard. Eventually it glimmered green, and she stood up.
“Everyone get out of the way,” Lily said.
She raised her hand, as if she had just thrown a Frisbee, and released the charm. It flew into the clearing, and swirled around and around. It was painting on the air as it spun, and a vortex appeared. Then it stopped swirling, and flew back into Lily’s hand. She squeezed it again until it returned to being light blue, then she put in back on the chain.
“What are you doing?” Skyly asked.
“I have re-opened the tunnel,” Lily said.
“But… that is very dangerous!” Dilly said.
“Not for me. You are a Legotopian, you only belong in The Middle Kingdom. I am a Dimension-Jumper, I do not belong in any one place at a time. How do you suppose I escaped the Dull-Pos?” Lily asked.
Polly emerged from the swirl, which closed behind her. “Lily, why did the vortex open?” she asked.
“Why do you suppose?” Lily asked.
“To… use the magic?” Polly asked, and Pielikey nodded.
“But, why did you not just do it?” Polly asked.
Lenny held up his hand, and said “You remember these, right? The holo-bracelet,” he continued in a louder tone “That cancels powers?”
“No, I do not remember,” Polly shook her head.
“Father,” Skyly interjected, “She was born long after that happened.”
“Yeah, I still have no idea what you are talking about,” Polly said.
“What did we start off talking about?” Caroline asked. Dilly could not help but just laugh at all the confusion.
Lily sighed, and said, “We need to focus on Skyly.”
“Yea, my hair is as brown as Caroline’s,” Sky said.
“Oh, right,” Polly said. A minute later, Sky’s hair was emerald green again.

It might interest someone to know how Dilly and Lily came to be such good friends. This is the story. Dilly’s first name was Jenny, and she had three younger siblings: the twins Lenny and Benny, and the youngest was Penny. They wee the ones who were supposed to rule The Middle Kingdom, but the kingdom was overthrown. Their mother knew she could not let Dilly try to take over, for at the time she was only five. So she decided that Dilly should hide in the world of humans, until one day it was either safe to return, or she could defeat the new ruler. So Dilly went to earth, where she met Lily, who was hiding from Leana. So while Dilly waited and watched, she and Lily grew up together. Every now and then Lily would go to The Middle Kingdom, then return to tell Dilly weather or not it was safe. On one of these trips, she was with Lenny. They got caught by aliens, and Dilly decided to return despite the dangers.
There she lived in hiding with Lily and Lenny’s daughter Skyly, because Lily had told Dilly to take care of her before the aliens found out. Later on Dilly, Penny, Benny, and Lily (who Lenny had helped escape) saved Lenny, and that was when the adventures really began. There was the time in The Southern Kingdom and The Western Kingdom, where Dilly, Lenny, Lily, and Lily’s brother Dennis helped restore light. There was the time that time collapsed, and then stopped even though the world continued. Another time Dilly, Lily, Lenny, and Sky got caught be aliens, and had to win a tournament of capture-the-flag games to get back to earth. There were a lot of other adventures as well, but it would take far to long to tell all of them. On these adventures, they all died and brought each other back with time machines so many millions upon billions of times, that they actually stopped aging. They did get older, right now they are several tens of thousands of years old, but they always looked like they were in their teens. Then of course, there were these adventures. Every time they would make new friends, reveal more secrets, and become better friends. Actually, Dilly, Lily, Leana, Dennis, Skyly, Lenny, Penny, Benny, Edward, Pete, Lucy, Emily, Kenny, Irene, Eliza, Max, Emmet, Milly, and Beth Rose were all related somehow. Lily, Leana, and Dennis were sisters and brother, Skyly was Lily and Lenny’s daughter, Dilly, Lenny, Penny, and Benny were sisters and brothers, Skyly and Emmet’s daughter was Eliza, Lily and Lenny’s son was Emmet, Lucy’s brothers were Edward and Pete, Lucy’s cousin was Kenny, Penny and Kenny were married, Lily and Lenny’s second daughter was Irene, Irene got married to Kenny’s son, Milly was a descendant of Irene, Beth Rose was a descendant of Eliza, and Emily was Kenny’s cousin (Lucy’s second cousin.) That is a very basic explanation of the relationship of the main people. It does go into much further detail, but it is extremely hard to remember off the top of one’s head. Now, back to the story.
  “If you wish, I might be able to protect you a bit from Leana,” Polly told Lily.
Pielikey smiled, and said, “Thank you, Polly. Here, take this,” she put a lilac colored charm into Polly’s hand, “If something goes wrong, life-threatening wrong, use this.”
“We already have a life-threatening problem,” Polly said.
“You know what I mean,” Lily said.
“No, I really do not,” Polly retorted.
“I do not know if you remember or not, but the Bugs stole her common sense,” Dilly said.
“Well, it seems like a thing that one could accumulate over time. What I mean, Polly, is if things get to where your life is in much more danger than it already is,” Lily explained. The pixie nodded slowly, as if still unsure, and disappeared.
“Let us go see exactly where we are,” Caroline suggested.
“But what about Lily?” Dilly asked.
Lily looked up at them, and said “I doubt very strongly I will be able to walk anytime in the next few days. Go ahead.” The others left, and Lily fell to sleep next to Mackenzie. After a while, Lily began to dream. She woke up and, as is the typical nature of dreams, she thought it was real.
“How did I get back to The Middle Kingdom?” Lily asked herself out loud, “And what has happened?”
Everything was completely laid waste. The plants were withered, the buildings were burnt, and ashes laid a thick carpet as far as the eye could see. Something caught her eye, there was a lily, and a daffodil. She was in the forest she had been in the last time she was in The Middle Kingdom, but for the exact locations of the flowers, she never would have guessed. She ran throughout the entire dimension. She ran through The Northern Kingdom, The Southern Kingdom, The Western Kingdom, and The Eastern Kingdom. Everywhere she ran it was the exact same thing, it was if all life has ceased to exist, and the dimension had been engulfed in fire. No matter where she ran, there was no sign of any other living object. Then a thought struck her. She ran to her tree, and found it still alive somehow. But the sight around the tree was not welcoming. There were several dead butterflies, and all the things she had written were in shreds.
“What has happened? What does it mean?” Lily cried, but then she heard a noise.
Out of a bush limped Polly. Lily’s eyes grew wide, and Polly’s eyes were very very sad.
“I know what happened. Leana destroyed the dimension. And it means you were too late. We tried to stop her, but it did not work. Why did not you jump? You could have saved us,” Polly said.
“But, I was wearing the holo-bracelet,” Lily said.
“That can not stop you. You know how to disable it,” Polly retorted.
“Except for the fact that I have her tool,” Leana said. Polly fell onto the ground, but not out of fear.
“Polly,” Lily said, “Polly.” But the pixie did not respond.
Her face turned bright red, and she whirled around to face the laughing Leana. “WHY!? Why do you hate me so much?!” Lily asked.
“Because I wanted to win that chocolate when we were three,” Leana said. Lily was completely shocked. Their parents had said whoever ate their dinner would get a chocolate. Lily had not viewed this as a competition, and ate both her dinner, and a chocolate. Leana, after seeing Lily finish her dinner, did not finish her’s. While Lily recalled this event, Leana swung an axe at the tree.
“NO!” Lily cried, and sat straight up.
“Lily?” Mackenzie asked.
Lily instinctively felt for her sword, but it was not there. When she felt instead the holo-bracelet, her face turned pale, and her flowers began to fade. Mackenzie realized she must do something to calm Lily, so she took Lily’s hand, and let it feel her ring.
“Maybe feeling that I still have the ring will help her relax,” Mackenzie whispered to herself.
Several hallways and rooms away, the others also heard the scream.
“What was that?” Skyly asked.
“I have a feeling we will find out when we get back,” Dilly said, and everyone began going back. When they got there Lily was still just staring, as if there was something mesmerizing about the light.
“What happened?” Caroline asked.
“I am not completely sure, but I think she had some sort of nightmare. She will not move, or blink, or talk, or anything,” Mackenzie replied.
“She definitely saw something frightening,” Sky said, examining her mother’s hair, “Her flowers are very pale.”
As Sky spoke, the flowers began to return to their bright pink color. When she stopped talking, they stopped growing brighter. ‘That is interesting…’ Sky thought to herself.
“Well, what should we do now? If she will not snap out of it, that only makes things harder,” Lenny said. As he spoke, the flowers grew brighter again, and froze again.
“I remember her saying she had a dream. In her dream, she was asleep, but she was dreaming about the things that were happening. So basically she said she was talking in her sleep in the dream, and she would say what was about to happen,” Dilly said, and the flowers… you get the idea.
So on and on the conversation went, until eventually everyone paused. Since they all thought the others had finished talking, Dilly, Sky, and Lenny all started talking at the same time. They stopped when they realized that, and silence fell again. Silence enough to hear Lily make the sort of sound you make when you wake up.
“Hey, her flowers are getting brighter,” Sky noticed. Pielikey closed her eyes, and let out a deep breath. Then she opened her eyes, and said, “What happened? Did I die?”
“I do not think so?” Dilly offered in an inquisitive voice.
“Wait, I am in Yndanosela again…” Lily said looking around.
“It was all a dream, Lily,” Mackenzie said.
“You do not even know what has happened. When did all of you get back?” Lily asked.
“A while ago. You have been out for a long time,” Dilly said.
“I had a dream as well. What was yours, Mother?” Sky asked, and Lily’s eyes grew wide.
Lily stared at Sky in shock. Why had they both had dreams? In any other world, there was one dream per month. This was odd, but that is just how it seemed to work. The shocking thing was that Skyly had had her dream one week ago. The only thing that made sense was being separated from their homeland. But this also made very little sense, because every other one of the million times something like this had happened, Lily had not been affected. Nothing in any recorded history in any dimension, world, universe, realm, or whatever had said that a Dimension-Jumper could be affected by being taken out of one place, and put into another. Actually, the very fact that they were never affected was a large part of being a Dimension-Jumper, as they jump between the dimensions easily whenever they please. Finally Pielikey shook herself, and related the dream.
The fear of that dream made Lily’s flowers grow pale again, but they turned white when Sky said, “I had the EXACT same dream, every single detail identical. The only difference was that it was me, and Leana told me the chocolate story.”
“Lily, are you okay?” Dilly asked.
“No, no I am definitely not okay.” Lily replied and sank to the ground.
“Sky, what is going on?” Caroline asked.
“I am  not completely sure… just give me a minute please,” Sky replied. She closed her eyes, and began to breathe deeply.
Then, she opened her eyes again, and said, “Something very bad in happening in The Middle Kingdom. Or at least, something very bad is about to happen.”
“The dream…” Lily whispered, and faded away into a phase somewhat similar to hypersleep.
“What do we do?” Lenny asked.
“There is not anything we can do. Leana told me in the dream that we do not have the tool to hack the holo-bracelets anymore. And if we can not hack them, we do not really have any power,” Sky said.
“But you are a Dimension-Jumper like Lily. Why can you not just jump?” Dilly asked.
Sky turned to her father, and Lenny said to his sister “She can not because the holo-bracelets have magical properties. If they did not have these properties, she could jump.”
“And even if I did make it to The Middle Kingdom, I still can not do anything while I am wearing this blasted bracelet!” Sky said angrily.
“But what about Lily?” Caroline asked.
“That I might be able to fix. Hey, Mack, Jackie, Jack, come here,” Mackenzie called.
“What is it?” Jackie asked, but then she figured out the problem fairly quickly. All four of them held up their rings, and everyone but Mackenzie’s started to glow.
“How will this help?” Sky asked.
“Because the rings will only glow if all eight of us are okay, and ready to go. If not, like right now, the magic will help whoever is not ready or okay,” Dennis said. Dilly looked at Lily, who started to move. Her flowers bloomed bright pink again, and she stood up. All eight of them got in position, and the Jewel Flower appeared.
“Soooo… now what?” Lucy asked.
“Now,” Lily said “I jump.”
“But you can not… for one thing, there is no hacking tool, and for another, I know for a fact you can not be weak, and still jump,” Sky said.
“Well, the Jewel Flower can provide a means of hacking, and I am no longer weak,” Pielikey said. She took the Jewel Flower, and squeezed it. The sapphire stream shot out again, and all the holo-bracelets simply vanished into thin air.
“Yes!” Dilly said as her real bracelet reappeared. Everyone had all the things that could help them now.
“Ow!” Lily said, and stumbled around.
“What is it now?” Caroline rolled her eyes.
“The magic is colliding. It is time for me to jump.” Lily answered.
“Let me come with you.” Skyly said.
“No, it is too dangerous,” Lily replied. she plucked a flower from her hair, and set it on the ground. then she jumped in the air, and vanished from Yndanosela. She landed on the ground by her tree, and saw what was happening, and why she had passed out.
Polly had clutched the lilac charm, and she and Leana fighting. Lily smiled to herself, and tapped her twin on the shoulder. This was distraction enough to throw Leana off her guard, and she appeared in The Eastern Kingdom again.
“How did you get here?” Polly asked, panting.
“Let us just say we were not completely powerless after all,” Pielikey replied. She and Polly spent the rest of two days making sure as much as possible that the dimensions would be better protected for when Leana came back.
Then at last Lily turned to Polly, and said, “I need to return to Yndanosela.”
Polly was rather taken aback by this statement, and asked in astonishment, “Why would you ever want to return? I would not go back for all the wealth in every dimension!”
“The others are still there. I could not live with myself knowing I could go back and help them, but would not out of fear,” Lily responded, and jumped back. Pielikey floated lightly onto the ground, and found all gone, aside form Sky. Skyly had been sitting there for two days straight, just sitting and watching the flower.
“You made it!” Sky exclaimed.
Lily smiled, and asked, “Did you ever doubt that I would return?”
“Well, everyone else did. I almost did too, but I remembered that you promised that you would always come back,” Sky said.
Lily sighed, “The others have yet to learn the truth about you and I. But, now is not the proper time. Let us go find the others, and go back to The Middle Kingdom and the fairylands.” Just as Lily had finished speaking, the ground began to shake. It shook more, and more, and the girls looked at each other worriedly.
“Well,” Sky said, “Good luck finding me in another world.”
“Why do you say that?” Lily asked.
“It sure looks like we are going to die in this world,” Sky said.
“Unfortunately, this is Leana. Goodbye,” Lily said, and the building collapsed.
When Lily opened her eyes again, she was surprised to see they were still in the school. She was standing next to Sky, who appeared to still be unresponsive. Everyone else was in the room as well, and everyone was standing perfectly still. That is, everyone aside from Dilly. She was moving her head, and trying to move everything else. She twisted enough to see Lily looking at her in confusion. Dilly let out a grunt, and everything popped perfectly back into place.
She was breathing heavily as she asked Lily, “Why did you come back?”
“Yes, why did you?” Leana asked. Lily’s heart pounded, and she closed her eyes.
‘Maybe it is all just a dream, maybe I am just still not with it since I just regained consciousness. Everything is very foggy, and dreamlike. Oh, I wish this had never happened.’ Lily said, her mind racing.
“Leana, why will you not just leave us alone?” Dennis asked, on the other side of Lily.
“Lily and Sky know why.” Leana said. Lily was shocked, Leana had sent the dreams.
Leana recognized the utter fear on her twin’s face, and said to Dennis, her younger brother, “The reason for all this is similar to the reason for Lily and Sky. You ate a lollipop I wanted to eat.”
Dennis was very confused, and Dilly said “But that is like, the most stupid reason for hatred I have ever heard in my entire life!”
“And YOU, Angelina. You are your sister Penny stopped Sherman and I from taking over The Northern Kingdom. That was going to avenge me, but no. You just had to interfere!” Leana said.
            Lily looked at Dennis, and whispered “Did you even know that she wanted it?”
             “No,” Dennis whispered back, “Did you know?”
             “Of course not. Leana just refuses to give up, because she thinks she has been enduring a great injustice,” Lily whispered, and rolled her eyes.
             “That is not how I remember it at all.” Dennis said, “As I recall Leana got anything and everything that she wanted. It did not matter what it was. If we had something, even a tiny pebble that we would play with, she would take.”
             “Yeah, but there are three things Leana never got,” Lily said.
             “What would those be?” Dennis inquired.
             “Our lives, vengeance, and her power over us to continue forever,” Lily replied.
              “But it has continued at intervals. Such as right now,” Dennis said, “Plus, the first one you said… it is not looking too good.”
              “And if she gets us, she will have had power over us, she will be avenged, and we will be dead. But, if we are dead, there will be no one to stop her from destroying the universe!” Lily said.
             “What about Skyly?” Dennis asked.
              “She does not know how to deal with Leana. Since you and I grew up with her, we know a few tricks. If we had not known those tricks, we would be long gone by now,” Lily said. All of a sudden, Lily’s back felt like it had exploded. She looked at Sky, and saw a tiny trickle of  brown leaking over her hair. Her own hair was not any better, the flowers were wilting.
Lily started to move towards Leana, but she soon found out why Dilly was so exhausted. It took a tremendous amount of effort and strength in order to move, and it sucked the energy completely out if you tried to maintain that position. Pielikey was still weak, so as soon as her muscles gave out, they went perfectly back into place, just like how a string on a harp returns to its place. Then, something dawned on Lily. ‘If I can not move my arms, then I can not reach my bracelet.’ She thought to herself.
As if in response to her twin’s thoughts, Leana said to her. “Can I try on your bracelet?”
Everyone’s last glimmer of hope was gone. Without a bracelet, there was no light at the end of the tunnel. Leana took the bracelet, and left the room.
“What do we do now?” Dennis asked.
“I do not know, and I do not care. If Leana wants to finish me, she should hurry up and do it,” Lily cried.
“May I remind you, Lily, that you are the sole protector of Queen Mackenzie, and we can not save the world anymore without you to hold the sword,” Dilly said, and continued “And…”
“Yes, Dilly. I know who I am. But, may I point out that you are also one of us?” Dennis retorted.
“But we are none the less in the worst condition we have ever been before,” Dilly said.
“Is that so?” Lily asked, “What about when you were trapped inside the robot, and you were forced to work against us? What about when I was as good as a statue, because of the spell? What about when we were caught in the first Battle of the Butterflies? What about when Caroline was trapped in those thirty years here yet again? What about when the fairy people were destroyed by Sherman? What about when Lenny and I were stuck in the alien spaceship for fifty-eight years? What about when the Eastern Kingdomers attacked, and we had a quest that took three whole years to unite again? What about when we were all frozen, and had to be rescued by a butterfly? What about when time stopped, and the world very nearly ended? What about when Skyly was trapped inside the computer for generations? What about when Milly saved us, but we could not save her? What about when Milly was still Lilia the homeworker? What about before Polly escaped the Bugs? What about when all of you were trapped inside a giant, holo, donut looking thing, and I had to save The Middle Kingdom mostly by myself? What about all the millions of times we have died?” Lily had been raising her voice, and was almost shouting. But now she lowered her voice, and continued, “What about right now, when my flower is fading, and Sky’s hair grows steadily browner?”
Three more days passed, and by now everyone was awake. They also all wished they were not awake. Leana continued to mess with Lily, Sky, and Dennis, until they thought they might be able to move if it meant getting her to just go away. Then the fourth day came, and they concluded that they would try to poke her. Today the teachers came as well. Every teacher, except for Rose. Rose had on one of the holo-bracelets, and Lily thought that, had it not been there, she looked as if she would have been lying on the floor for days.
Sky looked at her mother, and said, “This is something horrible. I can feel it.”
“So can I,” Lily said as her face grew red, “But I am not completely sure why.”
“Quiet, Pielikeys,” Leana snapped.
Lily longed to speak, just to irritate for sister. But despite the fact that Leana was constantly trying to destroy her, Lily knew that she was still her sister, and loved her a bit. She found it was easy for some odd reason, and she had no idea why this was since Leana hated her.
“You are a Pielikey too,” Dennis retorted.
“And if it could be otherwise, do not disbelieve it would have been otherwise for a very very long time,” Leana replied.
Lily longed for Polly to return from The Middle Kingdom, but she knew the pixie was ignorant to the state of her companions.
“I heard you whispering about some other way to protect Mackenzie. Tell me, how do you do that?” Leana said, standing right in front of her twin.
“I would not stand there if I were you,” Benny said from by Dilly. Leana turned to look at him, and Lily lurched forwards taking the bracelet.
As soon as she grabbed it, she deactivated the holo-bracelets again, and touched her purple charm. She slipped the bracelet on her arm, and used her sword to cut at the air. She then leaped into the air, a safe distance away from Leana. She had found out that what was holding them in place was somewhat like invisible elastic. The threads move towards the nearest person, and now the nearest person was Leana.
“I have my ways, sister,” Lily grinned at her. She used her sword every time a teacher would come at her, and every time the threads would go for the nearest person. And every time the nearest person would be the teachers.
“Lily!” Lenny called from across the room. He was by Skyly, trying to hold her up.
“I will   be   okay,” Sky mumbled.
“You are the only other one who can make it to The Northern Kingdom in time,” Lenny said.
“Right. Well, do your best to get back to The Middle Kingdom, everyone,” Lily said.
She touched Sky, and jumped. Lily used the gravity charm to make Sky float, and turned to go to the tree. But as soon as she turned, she was face to face with… “Sherman Takiobur.” Pielikey hissed.
“We meet again, Lily Pielikey.” Sherman responded.
Lily reached for her bracelet, but Sherman said, “Do not even  try. The minute you touch a single charm, that tree is as good as a pile of ashes.”

Sherman pointed towards Sky’s tree. Meanwhile, the magic had helped Sky a bit, so she touched the force field charm on her bracelet, and she and the tree were protected. She tried to protect Lily, but only one wearing a bracelet can put a force field around themselves. Lily and Sherman stared at each other for a long while, and her hand had finally inched its way to the sword.
Pielikey drew the sword quickly, and said, “As if I do not know how to deal with the likes of you. I have met you in combat and I have met you the wrong way far too many time to be a fool.” (Whenever Lily says ‘the wrong way’ that means getting caught.) Sherman was terrified of seeing that sword again. The magical sword that Lily wielded, and had used to pop the bubbles of her companions, and save The Southern Kingdom and The Western Kingdom from unending night. By this time, a large crowd had gathered to watch the queen and the wizard face off. There was at least one of everything that lived in The Northern Kingdom, fairies, pixies, Wood Nymphs, Dryads, Naiads, Sylphs, kelpies, kobolds, and on and on. Lily shocked everyone by putting away her sword. Even Sherman was dumbfounded.
“Before one of us destroys the other, I should like to know why you have made allies with my twin,” Lily demanded.
“Leana is your twin?!” Sherman asked, struck dumb anew, “But, you are completely different!”
“The word ‘twin’ is not the word ‘copy,’ wizard,” Pielikey said, “On the contrary, it is more often the opposite.”
“If she is your sister, I do not want to have anything to do with her either!” Sherman exclaimed.
“Then go pay her for her betrayal,” Lily said.
While all this was happening, Polly had helped the others return to The Middle Kingdom, and they were waiting for the girls to come back. Lily helped Sky get into the tree, and she was wondering weather or not she should return with, or without, Skyly.
“Behind you!” a fairy cried. Lily did not move.
Leana came right up behind her, and said “I see you have started a civil war. Maybe you should see how it ends. In fact, if you do not, I might like to destroy the world.”
Lily still stood perfectly still. “Are you paralyzed with fear?” Leana asked.
Still her twin was unresponsive. Leana came in front of her, and looked her in the eyes. Lily did not lower her gaze. Leana shrugged, and stopped to take the bracelet.
Now Pielikey moved, her hands went up, and she said, “I have never understood you. You come here, and threaten me in my own world.”
Leana turned red with anger, and waved her hands in a complex pattern. Still Lily stood in the same position. A dragon landed next to Lily, and she did nothing. It breathed fire and after it had finished, Lily was gone.
The crowd scattered in all directions, shouting as they ran that a dragon lurked about, and Lily was dead. Sky had watched every second of this, and jumped to The Middle Kingdom. When she landed, she did not even try to land on her feet. she just fell and started crying.
“What happened?” Dennis asked. Sky drew her mother’s bracelet out of her pocket, and let it fall into her uncle’s hand.
“Leana destroyed her,” Sky cried.
Nobody knew what to say. Pielikey had saved them, and they could do nothing to save her.
“Leana can not actually destroy Lily,” a voice said. Sky lifted her head, and saw that the voice had come from a dog.
“Who are you?” Dilly asked.
“My name is Holly, I am Lily’s dog,” the dog replied.
“What do you mean Leana can not destroy her?” Caroline asked.
“You all know her as several things. Queen Lily Pielikey of The Northern Kingdom, protector of Queen Mackenzie of The Southern Kingdom, and the mother of Emmet, Skyly, and Irene. But she is also part of the world of humans, where she has a different name entirely. Leana has not destroyed her in that world. 
“How do you know that?” Polly asked.
“Because I have come back,” Lily said, jumping to the ground.
“Oh, Mother.” Sky said, and hugged Lily.
“You did not forget, did you? I promised, and I was serious. I will always come back to you,” Pielikey said.
And that is the tale of the third battle.”
“This is so time consuming. How, exactly, does this help me learn anything about Dennis if he was not mentioned but a few times?” I asked, yawning.
“Well, let us think critically about this. Dennis was trained to be a wizard, but he sometimes made a few slip ups, which caused huge problems for Lily. Leana hates Lily. So, there are two possibilities, either Dennis had another slip up, and he is responsible for his disappearance. Or, Leana is responsible for his disappearance, because of she got her hands on him, and harmed him in some way that might haunt him, then that would make him more prone to slip up, and therefore cause problems for Lily that could cause success for Leana. There is also the possibility that Leana would just straight out kill him, but I have the feeling that she would rather use him. And knowing Leana and Sherman, if there is anything they love, it is using us against our best friends and closest family,”  Lilac replied.
“Well, how do we find out?” I asked, for I honestly had little to no knowledge of what a detective does.
“We have to investigate. Emerald, look. I know you want to do this, like a real life detective, but I do not think you understand. This is a problem that is affecting millions of lives, and is unspeakably dangerous. We have these sorts of problems fairly frequently in The Fairy Lands, and we have learned what to do. I think it might be better if you left it to us. But, if a less dangerous case pops up, then I will turn it over to you. Is that okay, and do you understand?” Lilac asked.
“Yes, but… how dangerous are we talking?” I asked, intrigued by this very much.
Lilac leaned over close to me, and replied, “The universe that The Fairy Lands is in could cease to exist.”
“Okay, yeah. You three take over,” I said, blown away by this statement.
Lilac, no. Please? Pretty pretty please? Aw, come on. Just a little longer? Fine, here. Wait, just one more paragraph! Okay, fine, I will hurry, but then, alas, my writing days will be over. Wait, I can write my own book? Yay! Never mind then, here you go!

Well, it certainly appears as if Emerald has been busy. Oh my pepperoni, twenty four thousand words! Holy cow! I wonder why she left out proper paragraphs… never mind. Well, now it is my turn again.
After I answered a few more of Emerald’s questions, and we went to sleep with the others. Once again, Emerald’s inquiry had run until around midnight. I, however, waited until she had fallen asleep, and awakened Lily and Ahyracie. We stepped out into the valley, and decided that every night we would return to The Fairy Lands, until we had figured out what had happened to Dennis, and had gotten him back. So, without a moment’s delay, we jumped through the dimensions, and blinked at the pink sunlight.
“Well, where to first?” Ahyracie inquired.
“Let us go to Dilly and Skyly, they are sure to be together, and see if they have discovered anything,” Lily suggested, but Dilly and Skyly had already come to us.
“Did you find anything out?” Ahyracie and Skyly asked each other in unison.
“No,” Dilly and Lily replied at the same time.
“I think we should find out where he was last,” I offered my advice.
“Okay, Sky, can you hop on that?” Dilly asked, and Skyly nodded.
She popped up a hologram, and started typing. It was insane the speed she was typing. Out of curiosity I scanned the keyboard to see how fast. See was typing four hundred words per minute. But, in the middle of this flurry, she was reading and soaking in data while typing! This astounded me, and I had a very hard time believing that anyone, even a Complixie, could be multi talented to that intense of a level.  Although she was going so fast, it still took her ten minutes to find the last recorded location of Dennis.
“He was last located at KYPW-903462, and no other trackable source, or being, was present,” Skyly reported, looking up, and turning off the holograms.
“Wait, is not this very place KYPW-903462?” I asked.
“It is…” Dilly stuttered.
“When was that signal received?” Lily asked.
“Right now,” Skyly replied.
“Alright, everyone back up, I know what to do,” I said, and pulled off a charm.
Once everyone was out of range, I squeezed the charm. Instantly a wave fired over the area, sweeping over everything, recording every little detail, and making everything that had been invisible, visible.
We all looked eagerly, and then our hope started to decline since we saw nothing as the wave run over everything in the surrounding area. Then, just as we had given it up for lost, we saw a flash. Immediately we sprang up, and ran over to where the flash had come from. There, sitting in a tree fast asleep, was Dennis. In his hand was a fruit, it was rather like a grape, watermelon, and apple all rolled into one. The purple juice had dried up where he had taken a bite. Although, it was not the fruit which had cast him into this sleep. This was actually the fruit that was my personal favorite in The Fairy Lands, and I knew it was also Dennis’s favorite. So, somehow the Grameple had been involved in this, but how? It had not been poisoned, and we could find no footprints. The only answer we got was found after Ahyracie kicked a rock in frustration. It had looked so simple, like all the others, but it was gold, with a silver button on the bottom.
When we finally decided to press the button, Ahyracie insisted on doing it since she had discovered it. Unfortunately, we made no objection to this, although Dilly stepped back. But, as soon as she had pressed the button, Ahyracie vanished! I looked at Lily, and Lily looked at me. We both nodded, and Lily pressed the button. She too disappeared. I then reached inside of the rock, and pulled them both out. You see, as long as Lily is in close proximity, I can do anything necessary to get to her without any effort on my part. Ahyracie was very drowsy when I pulled them out of the stone, and Lily also yawned. I immediately recognized that this rock thing must have multiple spells on it, most likely placed by Sherman Takiobur. If he were to put the rock, button up, directly where Dennis was going to step, then he could suck him into the rock, and therefore get rid of him by sending him to sleep. However, Dennis must have set to work to do a spell to get him back out of the rock, but it had not finished working before he fell asleep. Which meant that neither Dennis or Leana were responsible, as I had suspected, but Sherman Takiobur. However, Leana, I dare say, put him up to it.
“Well, now we know how to wake all of you up,” Skyly said, and set about doing so.
A minute or two later, and Ahyracie and Lily were wide awake again. A few minutes later, and Dennis yawned, and jumped out of the tree.
“Dennis!” Lily exclaimed and hugged him.
I smiled, and watched them as Lily explained what had happened. I had always felt a bit uncomfortable around my brother when Lily was present, especially after we had saved him. It is kind of pathetic that it happens so frequently, but I suppose that is the price we pay for trying to save the universe. Eventually, however, I joined the circle. There we stayed for three months, making sure that no other traps had been laid, and helping anyone who had fallen into a trap that we had looked over or not gotten to in time.
“Lily, Ahyracie,” I called, “It is time to go back. It has been three hours.”
“Aw… alright then. On the count of three. One, two, three!” Ahyracie said, and we all jumped.
It was now 3am on the exact same day as when we had left, although three months had passed. With that we all fell asleep, and did not awake until after all the others. Fortunately this got little to no suspicion, since the other Hidden knew that Lily and Ahyracie often stayed up talking, and I was the master of insomnia. When I found Emerald, I told her that we had solved the mystery, and the crisis was diverted. She smiled, but I could tell she still wished that she were the one solving the case. But, she was mature in this instance, and realized that she could not start off from the top step of the stair case and skip all the steps in between.
So, life returned to normal for about two months. Then, things started to pick up again. Emerald had decided that she too would write a chronicle of our adventures, although starting from the very beginning, you know, with how Rose and I first met, and the mission began. She had gotten a tiny bit past the beginning of this book, when something dawned on her, and idea and dream that we had neglected, shoved aside to the corner to collect dust. She took this dream to me, and asked me what I thought.
“Lilac, remember when, right before the earthquake, you were talking to Flutter and Turquoise, and you said that you always wished you could go back in time to see some of the events of the Bible happen, that you might have a better understanding of what it says?” Emerald inquired out of the blue when I had agreed to take a hike with her up the mountain.
“Oh, that is an idea, is it not? I had forgotten all about that dream of mine. I know that you have taken it upon yourself to also chronicle all the events and happenings of the Hidden, but why do you bring this up?” I asked.
“Well, do you not have the time machine in that very pocket on your right?” Emerald asked.
“Well, yes, I suppose I do. But, remember what happened last time? We have no control over the technology, and have little to no experience with how to travel through the portals, rifts, and continuums of this universe,” I replied.
“But, Lily was not with us then. She is an expert at time travel. You yourself have told me so. She has been time traveling for quazadripinollions of years. Why, even Lily and Ahyracie have said so when they related the tales of The Battle of the Butterflies and The Battle of the Butterflies II. Surely it can not be nearly so dangerous with them here to guide us,” Emerald persisted.
“The technology is just too unstable, I am afraid. I would really really really like to do it, and I quite believe that we could possibly master it with time, but what about before we master it? What could happen to us? What could happen to time as we know it? As soon as the word gets out that a time machine has been created, there is absolutely no chance of our survival, for undoubtedly the Martians will continue to hunt us and seek us out until they find the machine. And once they find it, all will be lost. If for any reason they get their hands in it, there is no telling what extreme measures they may take. They might destroy all of us, and end the universe. The Martians are very unpredictable creatures. I know, because I am one of them, and I unashamedly admit that at certain times on special occasions I can be completely unpredictable for an unpredictable period of time, and will do and think things that are not anywhere within any of the spectrums surrounding predictable. That is usually when we are exposed to Mars more than usual, for I am certain that there is something in the air that haunts me day and night whenever I breathe it in, and it consumes me, and makes me completely insane.
I do not understand, indeed, I strongly believe that I will never understand it, but it is there, and as long as it is there, it will do these things to me. I never had a problem with it until I had heard of Christianity, and then something clicked that no one ever thought to tell me. Before then I had wondered why the others acted so strangely, then I found out why. But, then I found myself doing the very actions and rituals and habits the day before I would have stared at in confusion. It is too dangerous. If ever once any of us Martians, aside from me, for I have learned to control it to a very significant degree in comparison to the others, even had the thought for a nano second that the Hidden had a time machine, all our lives would be in danger. Like the kind of danger that comes when you realize you have been pushed off the edge of a volcano, and are only three feet above the magma.  Have I made myself perfectly clear in all of this?” I inquired, and looked straight into her eyes.
“Yes, Lilac. But, what if we kept it to ourselves?” Emerald asked.
I rolled my eyes, and replied, “Surely you have enough friends that are elementals to know the answer to that question. Have you learned absolutely nothing about magic, super hero though you be? Surely at least some knowledge of my inventions has rubbed off on you from some of the cyborgs. The answer is no, we will not use the time machine. End of discussion.”
We continued on in silence for a while, then Emerald plucked up enough courage to turn around, and ask me, “Then why do you not destroy it? Why did you not destroy it sooner, if you knew how dangerous it was?”
“I can not be sure what will happen if I do,” I replied, and silence fell over us like a fog.
Eventually we returned from our hike, which took about six hours. I could tell that the others knew that something had happened that I was not telling them. So, to distract them, I told them a different thing I had had on my mind as of late.
“I have been thinking, you all know of the Intergalactic Olympics, right? Well, we obviously can not compete, or else we will be found out. But, what if we had our own, right here?” I asked.
This received a mostly resounding “Yes!” So, I gathered a group of others, and we planned this out for July twenty second, about three weeks away. Then, answering the plead of kids who were not athletes, we also planned one for non sporty things, such as drawing, programming, board games, writing, math, magic, tech, and super powers. We did not want anyone to be left out.
“So, I know we will not be able to do all of the events, so which ones do you people suggest that we focus on for the athletic portion?” I inquired, popping up a hologram to take notes.
“Well, I think we should definitely do swimming. The pool we made out of the crevice in the mountain is perfect for diving, and the pond in the valley will do wonderfully for swimming. The stream could also provide for other water events, such as canoeing,” Jack Rabbit explained.
“Good thoughts, that requires little to no extra work to complete. Anyone else?” I asked.
“There are plenty of trails along the mountain, those can definitely provide for biking and running. And we could do gymnastics in the little clearing in the forest. We like to do gymnastics there anyways,” Amethyst pointed out.
“True, okay, how about a sport?” I asked, jotting things down.
“Soccer!” Kiwi exclaimed.
I laughed, and anticipating this, I had already wrote this down. If there was any pass time in the universe that Kiwi absolutely adored, it was soccer.
“And maybe long jumping. We could do both of those in the meadow,” Jack Rabbit agreed.
“Long jumping,” I laughed, “Everyone knows who is going to win that contest.”
None the less, I wrote it down, and everyone else laughed as well.
“Okay, this is a pretty good start. Now, how about we all go back to our like people, and we can each get two or three more events from them,” I suggested, and we split up to do so.
Since I was an elemental, a cyborg, and a super hero, I left the other three to collect theirs while I waited, being a mis fit.
While I waited, I gave what Emerald had said more serious consideration. A part of me was longing to do what she had suggested, the other part of me waved it off as illogical. I knew I would receive no support in this from Lily, because, well, being the same person, she would have the same struggles. Having a past you, that escaped from their place in time, follow you everywhere is so confusing sometimes. So, I concluded that I would turn to Ahyracie to ask for counsel while I waited. I made my way around the valley, and eventually I found her, talking to a squirrel. She looked up when she saw me, and I could tell by the look in her eyes that she knew I was about to ask her a hard question. I have never understood it, but somehow Ahyracie is hyper sensitive to stress, so she can tell when stress levels are building. I know that part of this is because she, like me, can read a person’s thoughts through their eyes, just so long as they make eye contact. Something else happens for Ahyracie though, and look, I have gotten side tracked again.
“What is it, Lilac?” Ahyracie asked.
“Well, do you think I should use the time machine?” I asked, letting my words come out quickly, for it felt so good to get them out of my system.
“What are the pros and cons?” Ahyracie inquired, leaning back against a tree.
“The pros are that I could use it to go back in time, and see the things that happened in the Bible, I think if I saw them, then I could understand better what it says. And the cons are that the universe might explode if something is still glitchy with the system,” I replied, and rubbed my neck.
“Well, I do not think that the universe is going to explode,” Ahyracie commented absent mindedly.
“Why not?” I inquired.
“Because you are a cyborg. If the system were fried, or was still very glitchy, it can simply draw power from you. And, if such an instance were to occur, then you have sufficient magic to float quite easily,” Ahyracie pointed out.
“True, but what if I did not have enough power? Would it affect others, or suck the life out of me?” I asked persistently.
“I do not really know the answer to that, since I do not know what it is like to be a cyborg. There is only one way to find out. The choice is up to you, Lilac,” Ahyracie answered, still quite absent mindedly.
That was not the answer that I had wanted. I knew that I was not mature enough to make such a dangerous and life changing decision, especially one that would have a dramatic effect on the lives of all these other people who I had saved. I would never forgive myself if I just destroyed everything I had worked so hard to put together over the years. Why would a girl who was twenty six thousand not give advice to a girl who was eleven? True, in her world she was the equivalent of eleven, but she was still more experienced than me. My faith and trust in her had diminished quite sufficiently, and indeed, our friendship had taken a blow. Then again, this was none of her business, and did not affect her what so ever, except that the loss of me would weaken her mother, and cause temporary emotional damage. Still, that left me alone to decide. Everyone had deserted me, and left the fate of all present, protectors of The Fairy Lands, Hidden, and others, in my hands. I feared that this very well might turn out to be the greatest mistake that Ahyracie would ever make in her life, but, of course, there was no apparent way to be absolutely sure of any of this. I felt a pang in my heart of despair, regret, and fear. And although I was surrounded by so many others, I was consumed by loneliness.
I climbed the Health Fruit tree, and looked out over Moonlight Valley. I watched my friends swim in the lake, look for shapes in the clouds, play games in the meadow, skip rocks in the pools, make tunnels in the sand, hike the mountains, and more. I watched Amethyst, Jack Rabbit, and Kiwi run around chatting merrily. I sighed, and jumped down from the tree. I walked along the leafy avenue of trees, heading for the mountain. I searched for a cliff, for I knew there was a secret door in it. When at last I spotted it, I stepped into the dark hole, and slid down the steep drop which led to water. I crawled out, and headed towards the other secret door, which I knew was there since I had come down here countless times. I found it, and it swung open easily, bathing the area in light. I went in, closing the door behind me. There I found her, in the same place as I always found her. Princess Lavender Borealis Pyrite. The heir of the Martian empire.
“Hello, Pielikey. How are you today?” Lavender asked, looking up from her book.
“Hm, I suppose not very well. I feel very alone. You, of all people, probably understand that. But, I came here for another reason. We will be having our own little mock Olympics soon, and I was wondering if you would join us,” I replied.
She sighed, with a thoughtful look on her face, and closed her book. She walked over to the nearest wall, which was covered with bookshelves, and returned her book to its place. This was the secret basement of the library. As long as we had been in this syntheticish valley, Lavendar and I had been carving out this place. It was a secret, the door I had previously entered the only way in, at least to the basement. If you had asked any of the other Hidden, who were not close in my counsels, they would have talked of the library and how it was connected to the school. Those whom I trusted with all my heart would have spoken of the secret second floor, from which missions are conducted, and you can find the portals to the other places. And the masters would have spoken of a secret door located on the second floor, which leads to a whole other section entirely. The section where ‘normal’ work is done.
The masters, as we call them, are geniuses who excel at their craft, and work to perfect their skills for the benefit of the community. For example, Rose works in the medical field. There are a few departments, equaling to 11 of us. As mentioned multiple times earlier, I am the master of insomnia. That was not just me trying to look good.
“Well,” Lavendar replied slowly, “I will get back to you. I am busy down here, contrary to popular belief.”
“What are you doing, I mean, since the books stack themselves?” I inquired.
“Lavendar, come along. Stop daydreaming,” a voice said.
She motioned for me to follow, and showed me a hologram.
“I am protecting those living in hiding on the planets, Sunshine Valley, and Moonlight Valley from my parents. Now, I have to get back to work. I will see you later,” she replied.
I wanted to stay and see how the princess managed this, but there were other things demanding my attention. As leader of the Hidden, I do not get too many breaks. So, I took a deep breath, shook myself, and headed back to the meadow. I knew that by now my friends must have gathered their info. Yet, something caught my eye, and I was very startled when I saw it. I saw Ahyracie, and I ran up a trail. Turquoise, seeing my the fear in my eyes before I bolted up the mountain side, ran after me. I slowed a bit to let her catch up, but I did not stop running. We ran side by side, each too breathless to speak. Finally, we reached the top of the mountain, where there was a great view over the whole valley. This was where I came when I was trying to find someone, or looking fro something. I cast a hologram in front of me, and put on my glasses. These glasses were multi functional, and at the moment I was using them as binoculars. I located Ahyracie, and pinpointed her location on the hologram. After I had done this, and confirmed her identity, I scanned the valley for someone posing as Ahyracie. There was a match. I pinpointed the imposter’s location on the hologram. That confirmed my suspicions. Huh, they were coming this way…
“Lilac,” Turquoise said in her normal quiet voice through panting, “What is wrong?”
“It is rather difficult to explain. Sh, get down!” I whispered, and she hid behind a large rock.
“Hello, Ahyracie, Bua omn ipaz?” I asked, initiating the first stage of my plan.
“Xipaz, bua own ipaz?”Ahyracie replied in her native tongue.
Hm, Ahyracie, or her imposter, replied in Kipukolinam. Interesting, I would have to try another test, On to stage two of my plan.
“I was thinking about writing down the adventure we had, but I forgot the coordinates where we found the rock. Do you remember them?” I asked.
“What coordinates?” Ahyracie asked, coming up the mountain side, “The coordinates of the place where we found Dennis fast asleep in that tree?”
“Who are you?” Ahyracie asked.
“I might be asking you the exact same question,” Ahyracie replied.
They both turned to me, and said in unison like whiny children fighting over a toy car, “Lilac.”
“Both of you hold still,” I replied, and squeezed my magenta charm.
Instantly the imposter’s disguise melted away. One was Ahyracie, obviously, and the other was… my sister? My jaw dropped in amazement, and I rubbed my eyes to make sure I was seeing straight.
“Amber?” I asked breathlessly, “But… how?”
“That, Li, is an excellent question. I know what you are thinking, you thought I was dead. It was a lie, as are most words that proceed from the lips of our family,” Amber said.
“But, I watched them kill you in the same fashion in which they supposed that I was killed!” I declared in astonishment.
“They wanted you to think that, Li. They knew that you had been meeting with Christians, and they needed an example. Unfortunately, in their endeavors to find one, I was found out. But, let us not dwell on the things of the past, lest they consume me mentally and physically. I will explain later. A lot of very bad things happened to me while you thought I was dead. How many years has it been?” Amber asked.
“Seven, I replied, and plucked up courage enough to ask, “Why were you trying to be Ahyracie? Hold on… since when do you know Kipukolinam?”
“Did you think you were the only child in our family that was a Complixie? As you are part Lily, I am part Ahyracie. That is how I looked like her, same as you sometimes look exactly like Lily,” Amber replied.
I looked to Ahyracie, who nodded in agreement.
“So… you are a Rainbow Complixie?” I asked dumb founded.
“Yes, that is the only way that this could work,” Amber replied.
I saw Turquoise standing on top of the large rock, and motioned for her to come over. I could not speak, for my amazement was too great.
“How did you get here?” Ahyracie asked, “If you were found out, why were you not killed?”
“Experiments,” Amber responded flatly, and continued to answer the first part of the question, “Every Rainbow Complixie has a strength, Lily’s is Fire, and mine is Electricity. Hacking and other complicated computer processes come quite naturally to me. That is how I hacked into a computer that was in range, which is about one hundred yards. Once I disabled the encryption, I transported myself to the Valley of the Sun. Then I fried the system of the computer, to erase all evidence of my escape. Then I hacked my way out of the virtual reality, and ended up here,” Amber replied.

Now I knew how great the joy of Teal and Asparagus was to have each other again. I had thought that Amber had been killed, but it was a trick to scare me. Or maybe to harm me, since I loved Amber more than anyone else when I was really little since she was the only one left who loved me. Although, I was greatly pained by the regret that fell over me like a cloud that somehow, in all the confusion, every time we had gone to Mars, somehow Amber was never found. I was also enraged that the Martians had decided to start doing experiments. According to Amber, that had started a month ago. A month ago was when the Martians discovered in that little adventure that most of us Hidden had powers. This also filled me with regret, because it meant that I had caused harm to befall upon my sister. But, it really could not be helped… or could it?
After discussing a while longer with Ahyracie and Amber, I discovered that Amber had actually been the one to give me that piece of advice, but she and Ahyracie were of the same mind, which I really should have guessed before hand. So, later that night, with the sun setting behind the mountains, everyone gathered in the valley, and I poured out my heart to them. I told them the problem, I told them the pros and cons as Amber had suggested, I told them how eager I was to try the time machine, I told them how much I cared about them, I told them how hard and costly my struggle with this dilemma was, and I told them that I thought we should all consider this, and then vote. Once everyone had voted, we would do whatever the majority decided was the right thing to do.
So, everyone pulled out their holophones, and started to vote. On mine the votes were being counted. I waited patiently for everyone, and cast my vote as well. I watched as the scores were neck and neck, only a few away one from the other. Then, finally, it was done. And the answer was… you will see.
When I had everyone’s attention, I looked at all the faces on the grass. I looked at all the cyborgs, the elementals, and the super heroes. All young kids, under the age of fifteen, all Christians, and they all loved me.
“And the answer is… time travel. Can the electricity elementals who are cyborgs please come here?” I asked, for I really did not want to die because of this decision.
For the next three days, the four of us worked diligently on the time machine. Then, at long last, it was done. Finally it was complete, and hopefully fool proof. I had no doubts in this, for I knew the other three very well, and I had reason to put my complete trust in them confidently and without any doubts flooding into my mind to stop my from doing so. So, once again everyone gathered in the meadow, and we discussed where we should go to. We decided to go back to our little Olympics, for not everyone could be present for every event they wanted to be present for. So, we counted to three, and threw it down. It worked. We came back, and no side effects were apparent. This opened up a new world for us, and soon, we would become professional time travelers… well… in about 789 years. But, that is another story for another time, and will be told later in other places.