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((Warning: The following post is really long. And also a dialogue between two of my characters. Read on at your own peril!))

Flying high in the deep blue sky was a young woman with a pair of large, white wings and bright, teal-colored hair. She wore a navy blue outfit reminiscent of a schoolgirl's uniform and was adorned with white bows. Sheathed at her side was an unusual sword capable of harnessing the power of the wind. She was quite an unusual sight. The woman giggled with glee as she soared through the clouds. She loved nothing more than flying up into the sky, where she was truly alone, though she was starting to get tired. The teal-haired woman went from supersonic speed to a slow, floating motion in what seemed like seconds. She was looking for the perfect place to rest, one that could only be found up in the sky. "Ah! There you are!" she thought as she spotted a large cloud. As she floated toward the cloud, she heard an unusual sound off in the distance, though she found nothing as she looked around. The sound increased in volume as she floated closer to the cloud, and everything around her began to fade away. Soon, the woman could no longer see anything. But the sound was still there, louder than ever. And the woman, or girl, rather, knew exactly what it was.

BZZZZT. BZZZZZT. BZZZZZZT.

"GROOOOOAAAAAAN! Who could possibly be calling me?" she grumbled. The young girl lazily reached for her phone on the nightstand to her left. She was fairly surprised to find out who was calling her and immediately sat up on her bed as she did. "Terra? Where have you been these last few days? I have not seen you on campus at all, let alone heard from you! Are you all right? The town has been in complete disarray these last few days!"

"Ease up with all the questions, wouldya?" replied Terra. The teen paused briefly, unsure if her friend would believe what she was about to say. "Well... I uh... I kinda overslept on the first day of school, heh heh... And then you know what happened the second day with that crazy pillar-thing and those magical beings that showed up to attack it!"

"Magical beings? What do you know of them?" Aeris asked. She seemed slightly confused by Terra's words, or at least she pretended to be. "And that still does not explain why I did not see you! Everyone in the school was evacuated to the field!" Aeris was expecting her friend to confess what really happened yesterday. She knew a bit about the magical beings from the extensive collection of books in her home, but she thought they were just an ancient legend.

"W-well, about that..." Terra began laughing nervously. She was all but sure Aeris already knew what she was about to say. The girl was very sharp. "I uh... I ditched school when stuff hit the fan at lunch. B-but for good reason! I didn't do it just to get outta class! That weird topaz necklace I showed you way back when... It was glowing, like, telling me to leave school and head for that pillar. And when I got there, I saw all these magical beings fighting that pillar! It was amazing! But then... One of them was sucked into the pillar. And when she came out, she attacked the others. There were these weird watery copycats of all of them, and of me too! I would've been a goner if this one woman didn't save me! I think she was one of the magical beings too." Terra took a short break to catch her breath. It seemed like she was speaking a mile a minute.

"Wow, it sounds like you had quite the adventure yesterday." Aeris finally chimed in. She certainly wasn't as much of a talker as Terra was, though she didn't mind.

"That's not even the half of it! I ended up at some place called the Barton Manor after so--"

"What!? YOU are at the Manor!?" Aeris interrupted. "Oh my, I am sorry. I did not mean to interrupt like that. I am just rather shocked that you ended up at the Manor."

"Um... Okay? I don't see the big deal. Anyway, this guy named Chef, kinda weird, he dragged me to the Manor after one of those water thingies cornered me. And what's more is all the other magical beings were there too! And there was this little dragon, one of those imp things, and this really hot butler guy. Like REEEEAAAAALLYYY hot. Mmm. Um... Anyway. There was another thing that happened..." Terra paused briefly and took a deep breath. She wasn't sure if Aeris was ready for the next bits of information. "They told me I'm one of them! That the topaz necklace is something called an 'object of light'. And, um... I had some weird dream last night. I couldn't make sense of it at first, but I know now what it means. Aeris, I think you are one of the magical beings too."

Prim nodded gently. "I'm sorry for rushing things. I'm just worried that the enemy is so close. I was just with Lunette, she was the one that alerted me to the situation. I can take her to where she is." Prim paused a moment, thinking about the woman who had arrived earlier. "Do you think that lady knows something? She kinda makes me nervous. She tried talking to me when I was in the kitchen earlier. She might still be there." Prim bit her lip and awaited Aylin's reply.

Chef kept his distance from the unusual woman. He briefly contemplated fighting her, but a quick glance to the crumbling town hall caused him to reconsider. He was quite puzzled by the woman's words and actions. There was little doubt in Chef's mind that she was behind the doppelgangers as well as yesterday's attack, yet she claimed not to have any interest in fighting? Chef was attempting to pick the woman's brain when ice suddenly rushed out from her to the building and caused it to disappear completely. The other girl was nowhere to be seen, but just as the building was about to disintegrate into nothing, a purple beam of energy, similar to the pillar yesterday, shot up from the rubble. That was Chef's cue to get outta dodge like everyone else near town hall did several minutes ago. He was about to leave the town when he had a sudden realization.

"Wait! Cel! She's still in town! I have to get her out of here before things get any worse!" Chef bolted for the cafe where Cel worked at. It wasn't a great distance away, but he still wanted to get there, get her, and get out before anything got worse. That woman seemed very unpredictable. Chef didn't want to take any chances. He arrived at the cafe not much later, completely out of breath as he burst through the doors. He wasn't sure if anyone else in the cafe knew what was going on, but he was sure news would spread quickly if it didn't already.

"Cel... We need to go, now." he managed between heavy breaths.

The nervousness and worry was written upon Prim's face as she spoke of her concern about the enemy they now faced. To Aylin Prim still felt as though she had failed the young woman who was taken by the dark energy. It was evident that Prim had it in her mind that it was her job to correct the mistakes she made alone. Aylin was going to have to get Prim to see that the only way to win this war and protect the people of Barton was by working as a team. The first step was to keep Lunette from leaving them the moment the issue of the duplicates had been dealt with and get the mystery woman who revealed herself to be a Senshi to work with them.

"I know she can seem intimidating but if she truly has been around for as long as she says then she might be able to give us some clues about how you and the others can better control your magic. That's the only way I can see any one of you becoming stronger and the only way I think we can try and figure out how to get the others to unlock their transformations," Aylin began as she took the opportunity to turn the moment into another lesson, "Plus, she just might have some clue as to how we can stop this witch before she tries to attack my people and take the stone Ailsa died trying to protect. We need as much information as possible before we make our next move. That way we can hopefully minimize any possible damage and injury. That is the mark of a good mature leader."

"I'm surprised everyone is so calm," Chef thought as he left the cafe with Cel. It was the third attack in three days, yet these people weren't at all panicked. He wondered if that would change if he told them what he knew, what that woman said at the town hall. But for right now, he was focused on getting himself and Cel out of town and letting everyone at the manor know what was going on. As far as he was concerned, they were probably completely clueless.

"Honestly, I'm not so sure the people of Barton would even leave," Chef replied as he and Cel left the cafe. "They seem a bit stubborn. Maybe that's not the right word. Resolute, maybe? Just judging by the council's reaction yesterday, it seems the last thing they wanted to do was give up the city. I'm not so sure if we have a choice anymore, however... I'll elaborate more on it later, we need to get out of here first."

The two were completely unopposed on their way to the manor, though that was about to change. Chef were within a hundred yards of the manor gate when the young man suddenly stopped. Between the two of them and the manor gates were about a dozen or so of those watery clones.

"Well, that's just great," Chef said sarcastically. "I don't suppose there's another way into the manor? Preferably one that's more stealthy than scaling the wall?" He was at a loss for how he was going to get past the wretched things.

Caelen hadn't bothered to stick around after giving his warning to the renegade devil imp. Leaving the creature to take his advice and scamper off, Caelen had taken off to do a check of the grounds. If there were other rouges hiding around the manor, he needed to know. He scanned as he systematically made his way around the manor, going counter-clockwise. Nothing out of the ordinary pinged his radar. Cae was convinced by this point that the devil imp had been the only immediate threat, and not much of one at that.

Then it happened. Caelen felt an energy surge from far off, coming from the direction of Barton Square. It felt even stronger than the previous dark energy burst had, but it also felt more controlled this time. As of yet, Caelen's keen eyes did not see any dark pillars issuing forth from the square, but he figured it would be only a matter of time, if something else had not happened already. Then something did ping the butler's sensitive radar, something much closer to home.

Taking a springing leap up into one of the taller trees outside the manor grounds, Caelen focused his gaze out toward the front gates of the manor. What he saw was both unbelievable and disturbing at the same time. Somehow, those Aqua Shades had multiplied, creating more watery copies of the manor guests who had been targeted the previous day. The butler glared at the now tripled number of doppels ambling outside the manor. They had even begun to push and bang on the gate, but to no avail. They'd never be able to get through the magically protected gates of Barton Manor. However, their numbers were still a problem, especially for those young warriors taking shelter inside the manor. Caelen furrowed his brow in frustration.

If we don't start showing those girls how to battle their copies, they'll never be able to leave the manor, let alone complete the task for which they have been called forth. I think it's time to put all formalities aside and start working with Miss Argent. One can only hope she'll cooperate and do her duty when she is called upon. Lord help us all, that one is a wild card. Caelen though to himself as he continued to scan the grounds from his high vantage point up in the tree.

It was then he spotted Chef and Celestine making their way quickly up the path to the manor. About 100 yards out they both stopped, obviously seeing the increased doppel sentry. Caelen let go of his hold on the tree and fell to the earth, doing a perfect forward flip and landing lightly on his feet. He made his way back around toward the front of the manor and over to where Chef and Celestine stood, pondering how to get past the doppels.

It appears you two could use an alternate entrance. Follow me. Caelen said simply and led the two around the left side of the manor wall.

Caelen stopped just in front of a spot where there were no bushes to block the wall. He let his hand rove over the brick, carefully searching for something. Finding what he was looking for, Caelen pushed in a subtle indentation in one of the bricks that triggered a mechanism to open a hidden entrance into the manor grounds. The hidden door made no sound as it slid back into the wall, so no doppels came running to see what was happening. That was at least one lucky break. Giving Chef and Celestine the "follow me" signal, Caelen led the way through the hidden entrance and into the manor grounds.

Seren continued to attempt to find Aylin when she spotted Prim guiding Aylin somehwere, curious she decided to hurry after them and found them stopping at the place Lunette had wandered off to. Hmm I wonder what's going on?

"Ah, Caelen. Your timing is impeccable, as usual," said Chef upon the butler's arrival. He led Chef and Cel to a hidden entrance to the manor located on the left side of the wall. As they made their way to the front door, Chef took the time to inform the other two about the situation in the town.

"Town meeting was fairly short, Caelen. Actually, it didn't happen. That dark senshi destroyed the building. I don't think there were any casualties, though. That doesn't seem to be her objective. There was also this second individual. Not sure if she was another dark senshi, but she seemed powerful, deadly. Just to give an idea of what we're up against."



"What do you mean I am 'one of the magical beings'!?" Aeris exclaimed with great disbelief. "There surely is not a magical bone in my body, nor in my family! A-and they would have told me if this were the case! I-I don't even possess any sort of object of light!" The logical Aeris couldn't make any sense of this event, and she was started to unravel.

"Aeris, calm down! Let me explain myself, will ya?" said Terra in an effort to reassure her friend. "Like I said earlier, I had this weird dream. There was a girl with fiery orange hair next to a girl with cool teal hair. It's like they were polar opposites, but they were close. I dunno about you, but I don't know many girls with hair like yours. Those girls were us, Aeris! And that necklace I found in a cave in the middle of nowhere? That's the magical bit! I don't have an ounce of magic in my family, I know that much! But I must have been destined to get this power, to meet up with the others. Don't you have some kinda fancy, super shiny object in your house that lights up when you're near it?"

"Terra, I have a lot of 'fancy, super shiny objects'. But now that you mention it..." Aeris briefly paused to recollect, "there was one piece that was not part of the collection of family jewels. I bought it rather recently, in fact. It is an unusual pair of blue bracelets that only seemed to glow more intensely the closer I moved to them. I thought they just did that because somebody was near them. They felt cool to the touch, but I did not mind at all. The shopkeeper hardly knew anything about them either. He said someone simply left them in his store. I just liked the way they looked. Didn't think much else of them. Oh my, listen to me ramble on. I'm sorry, Terra. You really sh--" Aeris was cut off a loud rumble, and everything around her started to shake.

"Aeris? Aeris!?" Terra called. "You still there? What's going on?" There was a brief moment of silence as Aeris stumbled to her bed to reach for the tv remote, followed by an uncharacteristic gasp.

"There has been an attack on town hall, close to where I live! Oh, how horrible! The building is completely gone now! I do hope nobody was hurt!"

"Wait, WHAT!? Aeris, I gotta go tell the others! You need to get to Barton Manor A-S-A-P!"

Terra hung up the phone without letting Aeris even get a word in. The poor girl was somewhat rattled, but she knew she had to get to the manor, even if she was still skeptical of what Terra said. She quickly changed clothes, made sure to take her bracelets, and left the safety of her home to head to the uncertainty of the manor. She knew enough about it from all the social events her parents attended, so she knew she'd be in good hands upon arrival. But first, she had to get there.

Back at the manor, Terra frantically searched for someone, anyone, to let them know what was happening in the town. She finally arrived in the foyer, out of breath from running around half the manor, so it seemed. She took a moment to catch her breath before relaying what Aeris saw.

"There was... an attack... town hall's gone... My friend..." the teen paused to take a deep breath. "My friend, Aeris. I think she's a senshi. She's near town hall, but I told her to come here as soon as possible... Sigh..." Terra slumped to the ground, both mentally and physically exhausted. All this talk of attacks and dark senshi and impending doom weighed heavily on her.