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"Heh, I win again, Megan" said Sam as she placed down her cards. They were playing Goldfish again. Who knew gaurding a princess was boring when the princess hasn't said anything for an hour. Which was kind of refreshing, the two pirates were getting annoyed by her costant yapping or whining. But, they were kind of getting suspicious of her actions lately.

"Hey! Princess! What the hell are you reading?!" said Megan as she looked over at Ai, Ai was over at the far corner of the room and by a dusty bookshelf, probably where all the forbidden books are. Megan and Sam looked at each other when Ai didn't say anything in response, they shrugged as Megan gathered all the cards and shuffled them. "You know.. you can come and join us in our game. We don't bite" Megan said as she smiled, Sam leaned back on the chair and stared at the ceiling, what she was questioning about was why hasn't the ship left already? Its been a couple of hours since they got the princess. What more do they want?

Ai slowly walked over, she was kind of tired, plus she wanted to escape but no plans ran through her mind. Without her wings, she can't fly out. She sat down on the chair next to Megan and Sam, and smiled weakly. "Hey, what made you guys want to be pirates?" she questioned, Megan and Sam looked at each other and then back at Ai. Megan smiled but Sam frowned at the thought.

"I wanted to become a pirate ever since I almost drowned but a pirate saved me! Ever since then, I've been inspired to become one!" Megan said with that childish giggle.

"I never wanted to be one. Its kind of a long story. You see.. I had a twin brother who wanted to become a pirate, I wanted to be.. actually I don't remember what I wanted to be, it was a long time ago. But, when I was six years old, my brother passed away because of an illness that went around my village. I guess you can say I didn't want to believe that my brother was gone. So, I cutt my long hair, locked away all my dresses and anything girly, and started to research on pirates." Sam said as Megan started to pass around a card to each person.

"I become more like a boy everyday, trying to preseve everything my brother was. Even the villagers thought I was my brother with my short hair. One day, I got fed up with the village and left, and with enough knowledge about pirates, I was taken into this ship" she said as she smiled slowly, but it was kind of a sad smile.

"Oh. That must of been hard, loosing someone you love. I can resemble that" Ai said as she thought of when her father left, her mother dying, and even when Feena died. "So... Megan do you have any queen cards?" Ai said as she glanced over at Megan.

"Hey! No fair! The game has already started and i'm losing again!" Megan whined as she gave Ai her card, Ai smirked as she placed down one pair of four queen cards. Sam stared at Ai, something was bothering her, something about Ai didn't really resemble a princess. Yes, Ai does look like one, but she doesn't act like one. Whatever.. thought Sam as the three continued on playing their goldfish game.

"Yah!! Aren't we lucky!! We haven't ran into a pirate yet!!"

Tiffany estaticly threw her hands in the air and started to cheer in relief. Kiyowa just stood quiet and for a moment just ignored Tiffany's praise. Kiyowa then looked at her suroundings and started to raise her eyebrow. Somethng about seemed oddly familiar.

Woah...deja vu

Kiyowa then looked at Tiff who was still cheerfully skipping along the corridor of the ship. Kiyowa just sighed and placed her hand on Tiff's shoulder. Tiff at first thought a starfish pirate had spotted them, but she soon relized that Kiyowa always stays at least 1 foot behind Tiff. Tiff then quickly turned her head and gave Kiyowa a confused look.

"Doesn't this place look familiar to you?"

Tiff gazed in Kiyowa's eyes and then at the surounding area. She carefully observed the doors, the floors, the ceiling, and the walls. Then all of a sudden, she spotted a candy wrapper, but this was no ordinary candy wrapper....it was Tiffany's candy wrapper.

"Hey, Kiyowa! Isn't that my candy wrapper?!"

Kiyowa looked over to where Tiff was pointing. As she spotted the candy wrapper, she just sweat dropped in disbelief. It was true then, they had been going around in cirlcle's!! Kiyowa just slouched on her knee's as she gazed at the evil candy wrapper in astonishment. She then threw her hands up in the air and started to whine like a little three year old. This kind of stunned Tiffany. She had never seen Kiyowa like this ever, not even Tiff herself whined like this.

All of a sudden, Tiff heard a faint sound. Tiff quickly ran up to Kiyowa and covered her mouth. Kiyowa didn't like the thought of someone covering her mouth, especially someone who smelled of vanilla bean scented lotion. kiyowa then struggled to free her mouth. As she broke free she just looked at Tiff and gave off a pissed off face.

"What's the big idea!!"
"Sssshhhh! Shut Up!"

Kiyowa twitched her eye a bit. Tiffany had never told Kiyowa to shut up before. Kiyowa was about to say something, when all of a sudden she glanced at Tiff's face. Her face seemed different for some odd reason. Her eyes were tough and aggressive, her smile transformed into a emotionless frown, and her aura was growing fierce and cautious. From that, Kiyowa knew that something serious was going on. Soon after kiyowa too started to hear the faint sounds.

"Footsteps..."
"Yes, but what worries me the most is her aura...it's so huge...so powerful..."

Kiyowa then looked in Tiff's eyes, as did Tiff to Kiyowa's eyes. The two girls nodded to each other, and with great speed, the two girls dissapeared.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A dark figure walked down the path of the empty corridor. The figure seemed young and defenseless. She was humming a playful tune as she carelessly walked down the hallway. The girl then stopped in her tracks and started to look around, as if she was looking for someone. The young girl then spotted a lone candy wrapper on the ground. She frowned a bit and slowly picked it up.

"Tsk, Tsk, litering."

Suddenly the girl's wings started to twitch. The innocent girl grew more cautious of her surroundings as she dropped the wrapper. Her eyes narrowed to one spot to another...someone was here, but where!

"NOW!!!"

Another girl's voice echoed withing the hallway. The winged girl just stood there waiting for her attacker to appear. Suddenly a blonde haired girl busted through one of the many doors, then a darker haired girl also busted through another door. The winged girl caught the two girls movements and gracefully flew up into the air.

"Omega Tempest!!"

The blonde haired girl shouted out the name of her attack. Suddenly the wind around the three girls started to grow violent. With a stroke of the blonde haired girl's hand, dashing crescent-like moon blades danced through the air, beaming toward the winged girl.

Still in the air, the winged girl seemed defenseless, but all of a sudden, a mystical blue orb surounded the girl. The crescent moon blades just bounced off the orb and hit the surounding walls. Dust covered the hallway, nothing could be seen. The winged girl took several steps forward, part of her body could be seen, but the other half was still engulfed in the dust. As the dust cleared off, the blonde haired girl's eyes started to widen. Her battle stance slowly relaxed. As the winged girl laid eyes on the blonde haired girl, she too also relaxed her stance. Almost in unison, the two girls spoke out.

"Daze!!"
"Tiffany!!"

Tiffany and Daze then ran up to each other and started to hug. The scenery was almost like a family reunion. Kiyowa just sighed at the sappy scene and shrugged it off.

Daze then looked at Tiff and Kiyowa and saw that they had the same uniform as the Starfish Pirates. Daze just gave them a confused look and asked them what was going on.

"What's with the uniform...Oh, have you guys joined the Starfish Pirates!!!"

At that thought, Daze jumped up in glee, now she would be able to see her friend again, but this time, everday! Tiff just rubbed the back of her head, as she was about to explain everything to Daze.

"No not really, actually we came here to see what was going on. Why is Maxi here in Ria?"

Daze just sweat dropped and shrugged her shoulders as she mentioned Maxi's name.

"Well you see, we were supposed to go to another land, but all of a sudden, we ended up here."
"Let me guess...Maxi was navigating..."
"Yup...-_-"

The girls just sighed, and for a moment it was silent. Kiyowa then stepped in to ask more questions.

"So...are you guys having matinence problems, recruiting new crew members, just chilling for a bit...what?"

Daze then turned her attention to Kiyowa and rubbed the back of her head.

"Well actually, Maxi learned that a Princess lived here at Ria, so he went to go capture her."
"Princess, I didnt know we had a princess at Ria?"
"Well, I think she called herself Ai...I think..."

Tiffany's eyes started to widen when Daze mentioned that name.

"Wait, you dont mean Sakura Ai Wonderland do you? She has long lavender hair, shimmering lavender eyes, she's about 5 foot 3, and has fair skin."
"Uh, yah, thats her!!"

Tiffany took a few steps closer to Daze.

"Wait, you can't take her!! Ai is my friend!! Daze please, you have to let her go."

Daze looked into Tiffany's pink hypnotic eyes. Her face showed signs of fear and sadness. Daze hated seeing Tiff like this, so she nodded her head.

"Ok, I'll try to reason with Maxi! You guys should come with me also, if he see's you again, he may instantly say yes!!"

Daze chuckled a bit, Tiff blushed, and Kiyowa just sighed. Daze then walked off, with Tiff and Kiyowa following behind.

((gah, this took me forever to type!!! @_@))

((In response to raine_falls)) "Hmm...your welcom well that takes care of that prehapes we should move along before more come", he suggested as he began to drag one of the girls into the shadows so she wouldn't be discovered before she came around. Hefting one up he quickly opened one of the doors finding a closed and began to shove her in as he picked up the other one. "Well now that's that what should we do now?", he asked no longer interested in the ship =x

"Damn it, that kid sure can run..." muttered Lydia under her breath as Kurai and Makie began speeding away from her down the hallway. She kept a rather close tail on them for quite a ways down the passage before Kurai managed to ninja his way down another staircase with his bewildered charge in tow.

Hearing some reinforcements arriving from down the hallway, she grinned to herself and began running in the opposite direction. Jumping down a few flights of stairs herself, she took off down the lower hallway.

Those kids are in for a surprise if they think they can get away from me in here. There's no way they're going to be able to find their way to Princess Ai by themselves.

Soon, Lydia found herself facing the two, and was very nearly bowled over by Kurai as he continued to run down the passage. Instead, she pointed her dagger at him once again, signaling for the group of pirates behind them to hold their position as they finally managed to catch up.

"End of the line, kids."

((Gah. Sorry that took so long, you guys. I've had a very busy and very tiring day. sweatdrop ))

"s**t! What the hell!" Lydia swore loudly as Tomoro vomited all over her feet and ran off after Kurai and Makie, who had taken their prime chance to escape. Turning around to glare sharply at the group of pirates in front of her, she waved her hand at them, pointing emphatically toward the mess on the floor.

"Clean that up! Now!"

With that, and without waiting for a reply, she ran off after Tomoro, Kurai, and Makie. Something looked suspicious about that pirate girl, and at the very least, Lydia needed to pay her back for throwing up all over her feet. She winced sharply as it squished between her toes, and tried to focus instead on how badly she was going to hurt someone as soon as she got the chance. It was like some divine force just didn't want her to fight today.

"You three! Stop where you are!" she called after her quarries. Flipping one of her daggers around in her hand as she ran, she threw it at the back of Tomoro's head, slicing off a few stray strands of hair as the knife flew past and stuck into the wall as the group rounded a corner. Following swiftly after them, Lydia plucked her dagger out of the wall as she turned the corner. There was still some distance between them, but she was starting to catch up.

"Eep!" Makie said holding onto the back of Kurai's shirt harder. Kurai actually managed to turn that 180 degrees. Well... She didn't think he would actually turn THAT sharply, but hey- Miracles happen. Unluckily, miracles only happen every once in a while, so... It definately WASN'T a miracle that these pirates, younger, but taller, than Makie were throwing daggers at her. When Kurai suddenly stopped, the girl looked up a bit, her chocolate eyes looking at the herd of pirates behind Kuri. They stopped too.

When Kurai turned around, Makie met the wall behind the boy. My god. It was un-comfortable being slung over some person's shoulder... But it was more of a burden on the person carrying the other on their shoulder. So, actually, the little brunette nearly jumped with glee when Kurai gave her a chance to get off his shoulder. She sighed happily. And jumped off, standing right by him, the difference in their height was now once again clearly visible. Makie felt even worse when she found that she was up to their eye level in height. Some of them were her height though. So she was thankful for that.

"End of the line, kids."

Makie jumped slightly, and turned to face Lydia. She waved at her. "Hello again Miss!" She said smiling, before grabbing onto Kurai's arm once she saw the daggers. She was really happy to see the girl, because she could maybe be-friend her, but she was still afraid of those daggers. That was when she heard a familiar voice. And the voice's words were slurred... Very slurred... But who could it be...?

Oh! It's Tomoro!!! Yay! Is she here to see Princess Ai too? Makie thought, barely containing her happiness. But... She didn't sound too well, so Makie just had to ask. "T-T-Tomoro...?" She said very quietly, and was droned out by Tomoro suddenly barfing on the floor. Makie didn't have a weak stomach, but it wasn't strong either, so she turned away quickly. She turned around enough to see Kurai dash off down another hall.

"Uh... W-Wait up! Kurai!" She called out in a bit of a talking tone as she ran in the same direction the silver haired boy went. Then the brunette witnessed the boy bump into a girl pirate and take a few things from her. Her chocolate eyes widened when Kurai tossed her the bag. She wondered what could have been in it. She'll find out soon enough.

That's when her hand was yanked and she was dragged dwn the hall way. Makie quickly got up on her feet and began to run herself. Taking in a breath, she ran faster, running along side Kurai. "I-I can... Run myself... Y-You don't have t-to h-hol my hand..." She said, prying her hand out of his. "I'm not a child... I-I'm 15, I.. Can take c-care of m-myself." Her tone was more of a playful, childish angry than actual anger.

"And great, i hope i dunt get any knives stuck in my head."

That thought clawed at Makie vigorously. That could happen and she never thought about it. And the more she did, the more she began to be scared for her life. "D-Don't think a-about that... I-It might happen..." Her tone of voice changing to it's normal small voice with hints of fear. In fear of that actually happened, she looked behind her, checking to see if the pirates were on her tail. Tomoro and Lydia were catching up... Why wasn't Tomoro on her side? Prehaps she angered her new friend at the sleep over some how.

"Wahhhh!" She cried out, picking up more speed and running as fast as she could. "I just wanna s-see m-my friend!!" She threw her hands up in the air, running, panting, her mind racing. She didn't care where she was going, as long as she was getting away from the sharp pointy objects. As she turned a corner, Makie saw a door. Without thinking, she opened it. Who, and what was there? More pirates on their lunch break. And they didn't look happy that they were missing their lunch.

"QUICK! AN INTRUDER! GET HER!"

The brunette drew back, pausing for a second. Oh boy... She was screwed. Turning on her heels she ran another way, that wasn't the way she came. Now, a bunch of pirates, Lydia, AND Tomoro were chasing her. And she lost sight of Kurai. With that instant, she drew back her pink ribbon, and as she turned she flung her ribbon forward. Attatching itself to one of the pipes on the ceiling. She supposed this must have been near the bottom level. Then, she hoisted herself up, holding the top of the ribbon, and staying relatively close to the ceiling. She curled up into a ball so the pirates would see her too. And it worked-- The pirates ran down the corridor looking for her.

Breathing out, she jumped back down, taking the silence to look into the denim bag... A map of the place... Stuff to polish swords and daggers with... Daggers... Some un-mentionables... And what looked to be one of those walkie talkie things that would contact other pirates. Oh! A walkie talkie! She always wanted to try using one! Pressing a button, Makie began to speak. "H-Hello? Err... Testing... 1, 2, 3..." The girl said slowly, before pausing. "I-Is Ai there...?" Silence. Maybe she pressed the wrong button? Or maybe the bateries were out. The girl slowly began to put the walkie talkie back in... Wondering where to go. She lost Kurai, the pirates were some where else... That's irony for you. Ah well.

"YOU THERE! THINK YOU CAN TRICK US!!"

A band of angry pre-teen pirates called out. Makie groaned and ran back the way she came from, a dagger whizzing past her and knocking out her pink fuzzy hair clip. A clump of brown hair that was tied up in a small pony tail fell to the side. At this point she didn't care, so she just kept running the way she came, hoping to find Ai, Kurai, Tomoro, or the way out.

( Sorry about the length... >.> )

Part of her hair being chopped off by the knife, stabbing into the wall just inches away from her face caused Tomoro's face to pale even more than it was before; she now looked like there was white clown paint smothered all over her face. She gulped, and then heard the silver haired man.

"And great, i hope i dunt get any knives stuck in my head."

OH MY GOD!!! She screamed in her mind, picturing that she could actually be killed in such a simple rescue act. These pirate girls meant BUSINESS. They would probably end up slaughtering one of their own, if the time came. She continued chasing after the stranger and Makie, with a tale of pirates and Lydia directly behind her, throwing daggers everywhere. It scared her to death, and she felt like she was going to pass out any second. It was then that she lost sight of both of the intruders, even though she was one as well.

Her eye twitched, and she looked around quickly for any sight of the brunette haired girl. I.... I JUST SAW HER!!! AND SHE DISAPPEARED!!! After wandering about aimlessly, knowing that her cover wouldn't work anymore, Tomoro heard voices coming from across the hall.

"YOU THERE! THINK YOU CAN TRICK US!"

Tomoro let out a small gasp, and bit her lower lip, beginnning to run. It was then that she saw the group of girl pirates chasing after Makie. She gulped, and jumped out onto the railing of the ship, swinging around with one hand on a metal pole and landing gracefully in front of them, squarely on her feet. She looked back at Makie, whom was running away, and quickly slipped her hand into the pouch on her waist, pulling a pistol out. She took a military stance, and pointed it at all of the pirate women before crying out, "MAKIE! I'M COMING!" In a normal voice that she would understand. Just for show, she also pulled the trigger a few times, shooting the upper floors of the ship. There was one scream... probably someone shot accidentally... but Tomoro didn't care! She had a two friends and some copycat of herself to save!

Swiveling around, her clothes barely clinging to her skin, Tomoro charged after Makie, hoping that she would stop and let her catch up to her.... besides, she had also stolen a map that showed the entire layout of the ship...