It would only take four words.  
 
	They didn't sound like magic words.  No arcane 
incantations, no harsh alien syllables.  They were just 
four ordinary, everyday words.  No, they were not magic 
words.  But through them, he would work magic.  The words 
were just the means.  The power was in him.  
 
	Or so Twix hoped.  Without his sister's aid, his 
abilities were severely diminished.  He had, on a few 
occasions, been forced to summon without her, most recently 
when he had accompanied the Warrior Priestess to the Snow 
Cap Mountains.  But those had been only partial summonings; 
the creatures he had called forth were barely substantial, 
requiring his constant attention or they would dissipate 
again, as the Airhead had when Krackel had wounded him.  He 
needed more than that now.  This summons would need to be 
perfect, a full summoning, or it would all be for naught.
 
	Of course, other magicians cast spells without aid, 
but they weren't summoners.  Summoning was... different.  
 
	But the Crystal Warriors had left him no choice. 
 Without remorse or hesitation, they had killed his sister, 
killed Twix, killed the only person he had loved and who 
had loved him.  Now, they were off somewhere, engaging in 
their repetitive adventures and tawdry romances with hardly 
a care in the world, while she rotted in her grave.  That 
was something that he could not allow.
 
	Twix read and reread the passage from the Codex Ares.  
Though he had spent the past few days poring over the book, 
the concepts within were subtle and slippery, and without 
constant study, they faded from his mind.  Besides, its 
presence in front of him helped him find the confidence to 
make this attempt.  Once again, he concentrated upon the 
methods its pages contained and considered whether he had 
properly incorporated them into his own technique.
 
	When Twix was satisfied that he had done so, he sat 
back, breathing calmly and deeply until he felt ready to 
begin. 
 
	First, he had to find the power within him.  He 
focused deep inside himself, finding the spark of power at 
his core.  It had been easier to find with his sister by 
his side, but eventually he located it.  
 
	"I," he said, for the magic began in him.  
 
	The process of summoning had been fast, almost 
instantaneous, when he had been helped by Twix.  Now, it 
was ludicrously slow.  He reminded himself that the speed 
he had become accustomed to had not always been there, even 
when the siblings had been working together.  In the early 
days, it had been just like this.  
 
	He had found the power.  Now he had to build it.  He 
concentrated upon the spark, fanning it.  A slight shudder 
racked his frame.  This was his own power he was drawing 
upon.  With two people providing the energy-  He didn't 
have two people.  He had one, and it would be enough.  
 
	Gritting his teeth, he focused inward.  The energy 
would need to be much more than this for the spell to work.  
 
	The power was growing inside of him.  He could feel 
it.  His temperature was rising.  His throat was dry, and 
he could feel sweat start to pour down his forehead.  He 
raised a hand to his brow to wipe it away, but when he 
brought it down again he saw that it was covered not in 
perspiration but in a sticky red liquid.  He was sweating 
blood.  
 
	The power was still growing, and it felt like it was 
doing so faster than he could control.  But he knew that if 
his concentration wavered for even a second, it would 
vanish instantly... unless it was too late, in which case 
he would soon be joining his sister in death.  
 
	The power began burning through his nerves.  He felt 
oddly numb; his entire body was registering nothing but 
pain, so he had no sense of the outside world.  He was a 
world unto himself, and it was a world of agony.  
 
	This energy was not meant to be contained within a 
single body.  Two could handle it, but with one it should 
have been impossible.  The power should have consumed its 
host.  Yet, somehow, Twix mastered it.  
 
	"Summon," he roared, calling the magic to rise.  And 
it did, magnificent and horrible.  
 
	Next he needed to extract it from himself.  He ignored 
the pain, forced his mind to distance himself from it.  The 
task was, to understate the matter considerably, not easy. 
 Every muscle ached, every bone hurt, every inch of skin 
tormented him.  His body demanded that he acknowledge his 
pain, but he had trained for this.  The magic: it was not 
him; and so, he was not it.  He was outside it; and so, it 
was outside him.  
 
	But if he had been totally consumed by the pain and 
the power, if it was all that he was... what was left when 
it was gone?  
 
	Twix fell forward.  He landed on the ground in a 
tangled heap.  He couldn't move, because he had no strength 
left.  His heartbeat was irregular; even the involuntary 
muscles had no power.  He didn't think of his brain as a 
series of electrical impulses that could be drained, but he 
could tell that even his mind felt used up.  That the pain 
was gone was a relief, but its replacement was nothingness, 
and death would have offered that as well.  
 
	Again, he remembered the ease with which this spell 
had been performed by two people.  With two people 
providing the energy, the draining had been shared, and 
there had been plenty of energy left over for both casters. 
 Within recent years, the pair of summoners had grown so 
adept that, just as the rising power had not overwhelmed 
them, the departing power had barely drained them.  To an 
outside observer, the entire process had appeared painless, 
almost imperceptible.  That had been then.  This was now.  
 
	Well, he'd only have to do it this once, Twix thought 
grimly.  After that... things would take care of 
themselves.  For him, for the Crystal Warriors, for his 
poor murdered sister.  
 
	He forced his lungs to move, to intake air, and then 
to expel it again.  He forced his lips and tongue to move, 
to form a word.  
 
	"Thee," he gasped, because the magic was not him.  
 
	Now came the final step, the hardest step.  The 
shaping.  
 
	Some people had thought the Twixes a lesser power 
among Wintergreen's lieutenants.  The rumours came in 
whispers to them, for they were still feared, but the 
rumours came nonetheless.  All that the Twixes did, the 
hushed voices said, was to supply a few dumb monsters, 
beasts that could be found roaming the wilderness anyway.  
 
	The whisperers didn't understand.  
 
	"Summoning" was a bit of a misnomer.  It belittled 
what the Twixes did, but keeping the truth hidden served 
its own purpose, and so they occasionally encouraged the 
mistaken belief that what they did was merely a sort of 
teleportation.  Twix knew that even Wintergreen, who knew 
better, had often preferred to think of what they did in 
that way, for it made it easier for her to look down upon 
them.  But it was more than that.  On occasion, their 
actions had hinted at how much more; the Wintergreen 
impostor and later monster should have given the truth 
away, but people rarely questioned their assumptions even 
when faced with contradictory evidence.  And the reality 
was that the Twixes did not need to locate whatever they 
wished somewhere and then bring it to themselves.  Such a 
task would have been relatively simple, a mere parlour 
trick compared to what the twins had been able to 
accomplish.  They took the raw magics, they shaped them, 
and then...  
 
	The Twixes gave them life.  
 
	So, the twins had specialized.  Aside from a few 
rudimentary spells such as levitation and the simplest of 
healing techniques, they had pursued no other arcane 
secrets.  They had not chosen to manipulate the elements, 
to cast bolts of energy, to transform themselves...  Their 
sole ability of note had been merely, humbly, pitifully to 
create life.  
 
	Even Wintergreen could not do that.  She could only 
destroy it.  The Twixes had always, very privately, taken 
satisfaction in that.  Wintergreen fancied herself on par 
with the gods, but she lacked their most quintessential 
ability.  
 
	The greatest triumph of the Twix twins had been the 
Jawbreaker's entry into the Taffy Swamp.  Some might have 
thought that it was the creation of the massive beast that 
signaled their abilities' heights, and indeed it had 
required massive amounts of power and skill.  But when it 
entered that curious area where magic ceased to function, 
it had been the final proof that their creations were not 
mere magical constructs, but true and genuine life.  They 
existed independently of their creators.  All that the null 
magic field had done was sever the mystic link that existed 
between creator and creation, rendering ineffective the 
twins' partial control over the beasts they summoned.  
 
	Now, once again, Twix had to shape the forces he had 
brought forth, to mold their form.  And what he was about 
to do was more complex than a simple beast, whose physical 
characteristics could be generic for the species.  It was 
more complex than the beastly Wintergreen-monster that he 
had summoned with his sister that last time, though it 
required less imagination.  It was even more complex than 
the Wintergreen they had once summoned to frighten the 
then-inexperienced Crystal Warriors, whose accuracy had 
only been enough to be convincing for one brief meeting 
with people unfamiliar with the genuine article.  This 
would need to be infinitely more precise.  He wanted it to 
be perfect. 
 
	With an artist's skill, he manipulated energy as it 
became matter, then matter as it took shape.  Even as the 
body formed, he crafted the mind, a job more complex by 
several orders of magnitude.  
 
	The intelligence of the beasts he and his sister had 
normally created had been minimal.  The most intricate mind 
he had ever made before today had been for the first 
Wintergreen imitation, and it had only been given the 
intelligence for a limited interaction with known 
individuals- and the strain of a crafting even that 
detailed a mind had literally driven the twins into 
unconsciousness despite their combined efforts.  This went 
far beyond that. 
 
	He had never attempted something like this before, not 
even with his sister.   To create a mind required holding 
it within your own, imagining its every pattern and 
pathway.  But there is only so much room within one brain, 
and the more complicated the mind he had to envision, the 
less room there was for his own.  His thoughts were 
dedicated to detailing its existence, and therefore were no 
longer really his thoughts at all.  Twix risked losing 
himself in his creation, having his own essence submerged. 
 He could sense it starting to happen, could feel his sense 
of self starting to dissipate, the pressure of the new 
forming mind trying to push him out of his own skull, but 
he knew he could finish before that happened.  At least, he 
hoped he could.  
 
	The Crystal Warriors had killed his sister.  Twix had 
vowed to ensure that this injustice would not stand.  He 
would make matters right.  Finally, that was within his 
grasp.  
 
	His creation was perfect.  
 
	All he had to do was breathe life into it.  For if not 
him, only the gods could, and he had long ago stopped 
believing they'd ever come to his aid. 
 
	He choked out the last word of the spell; he defined 
the magic.  "Twix."  
 
	"Hello, brother," she replied. 

>o< >o< >o<

The Starburst Crystal
Created by Ardweden

Chapter Fifty:  Anniversary Cake
By Nicolas Juzda

>o< >o< >o<
 
	Waves lapped gently against the pink sand of the 
shoreline.  The sound was soothing, and if Yumi closed her 
eyes, she could almost imagine that she was surrounded by a 
beautiful wilderness.  Almost, but not quite, for even with 
her eyes closed, she could still somehow feel the 
barrenness of the wasteland that the three teenagers were 
traveling alongside.
 
	Miroir had advised that they avoid crossing the Scar 
if possible, but the direction that Kit Kat had indicated 
was right across it.  Rather than traversing the stripped 
terrain of white rock, they were staying on the beach, a 
narrow band of sand between the Scar and the water.
 
	Yumi could see Tsugiko marching just ahead of her, 
leading the way toward the point where the ruined landscape 
would be replaced by forest.  The other Warrior Priestess' 
stride was confident and purposeful, and Yumi wondered how 
her friend could seem so untroubled by the horrible 
wrongness of the Scar, so close it seemed ready to reach 
out and swallow them.
 
	But then, Kyouji didn't seem bothered by it either.  
He walked alongside the blonde girl, between her and the 
Ocean, and though his eyes darted past her to the right, 
toward the Scar, Yumi could tell that he was simply 
scanning it for approaching enemies.  The terrain itself 
was beneath his notice.  He caught her looking at him and 
flashed a somewhat nervous grin.  He seemed about to say 
something, but instead he turned away to look across the 
water.
 
	Only Kit Kat seemed to share Yumi's unease.  The 
carret stuck close to the blonde Warrior Priestess, 
fluttering about between her feet and almost tripping her.  
Yumi suspected that both of her companions would think she 
was imagining things, but the occasional "gika" from their 
guide seemed fraught with discomfort bordering on panic.
 
	"Kyouji?"  Yumi reached out and grabbed her 
boyfriend's hand in hers.  The Knight Protector turned with 
a start to look at her, almost yanking his hand away 
automatically before he stopped himself.
 
	"Yeah, Yumi?"  Kyouji frowned as he stared at her, 
pulling her to a halt.  "Are you okay?  You look kind of 
sick."
 
	Ahead of them, Tsugiko slowed to a stop and turned to 
look at her old roommate.  For a second, her eyes darted 
down to the linked hands, and the Warrior Priestess' visage 
darkened.  But then the green-clad girl looked right at 
Yumi's face and all traces of anger left her expression.  
"He's right.  You look terrible."  The dark-haired girl's 
tone was gruff, but Yumi had known her long enough to 
recognize when Tsugiko was genuinely concerned.  "Your face 
is all flushed and your eyes look bloodshot."
 
	"I'll be alright," Yumi replied, and she was somewhat 
shocked to hear how ragged her own voice sounded.  "It's 
the Scar.  I can feel it inside me somehow."
 
	Kyouji gave her hand a comforting squeeze.  "That's 
happened before," he said.  "I remember.  Like when we got 
the Shard from the Spree."
 
	"It's never been this bad before," Yumi admitted.  
"Not even at that other Scar Wonka took us across."
 
	Tsugiko frowned.  "Are you okay walking?"
 
	"Yes."  The pink-clad girl smiled in what she hoped 
was a convincing manner.  "It'll only be another hour.  I 
think I'll be okay once we're at that forest."
 
	Both of her friends hesitated before nodding their 
acceptance of her statement.  Kyouji's hand slipped out of 
hers, and he moved around her, placing himself between his 
girlfriend and the Scar.  It didn't make any actual 
difference, but Yumi smiled to herself anyway at the 
gesture.  Once again, she reached out and took his hand, 
this time his left one.  Yumi realized how concerned 
Tsugiko must have been when the green-clad girl didn't even 
seem to notice.  Instead, the dark-haired Warrior Priestess 
just turned and began walking again, and the other two 
Crystal Warriors fell into step behind her.
 
	"At least it doesn't look like Wintergreen's armies 
patrol there," Kyouji said.  "That's something, I guess."
 
	Yumi winced almost imperceptibly.  She hoped that 
Kyouji took it as a sign of her feeling ill and not a 
reaction to his words, as it had been.  She knew her 
boyfriend meant well, but she wasn't in the mood to hear 
about the positive side of horrible wounds in the planet's 
ecosystem, however well intentioned.  "I guess," was all 
she managed to say.
 
	"Yeah," Tsugiko called back, having easily overheard 
Kyouji's words.  "When we get to the forest, though, we'll 
probably start to encounter them.  I know Twix told us that 
the patrols aren't actually that thick in Wintergreen's 
occupied territories, but this is her home turf.  I can't 
believe she won't have some troops around here somewhere."
 
	"We can handle it if it's just some troops," Kyouji 
said.  "What I'm worried about is encountering her entire 
army."  As he spoke, his free right hand absently fingered 
the grip of his sword.
 
	"Well, if we do, just try not to charge at them all by 
yourself like you did in Ganache," Tsugiko replied, and 
though Yumi couldn't see her friend's face, the dark-haired 
girl's smirk was evident in her voice.  "I doubt you'll be 
lucky enough to survive a second suicide run."
 
	"Tsugiko!" Yumi protested, her tone conveying 
indignation on her boyfriend's behalf despite her dry 
throat.  "You know Kyouji couldn't help doing that.  It was 
the Knight Protector compulsion that made him do that."
 
	"Yeah, I was just messin' with him.  I know he's not 
in control when the Knight Protector aspect takes over."
 
	"Wait, what?" Kyouji interrupted.  There was nothing 
but surprise and confusion in his face.  "What are you 
talking about?"
 
	"You know," Tsugiko said.  "The Knight Protector 
aspect that takes you over when Yumi or me is in danger and 
makes you do crazy stuff to rescue us."
 
	Kyouji blinked.  "Yeah, I know, but it's not, it 
doesn't work quite like that."
 
	"What?"
 
	"I don't lose control of myself.  Not exactly."  
Kyouji brought his free hand up to rub behind his neck.  "I 
mean, it feels really, *really* important that I do 
whatever I can to rescue you, but it's not like I black out 
or lose control of my body or anything."
 
	Yumi's grip on Kyouji's hand tightened.  She felt a 
wave of light-headedness and nausea pass over her, making 
it difficult to focus, but he didn't seem to notice.
 
	Tsugiko turned around, but instead of stopping she 
began walking backward.  "But the Temple Spirit said you'd 
act-"
 
	"She said a lot of things," Kyouji snapped.  "She said 
I should be a girl, remember?  There are supposed to be 
three Warrior Priestesses, not two Warrior Priestesses and 
one Knight Protector."  The boy pointed at himself 
emphatically, as if to make absolutely certain that Tsugiko 
could see what he was.  "There isn't supposed to even be a 
Knight Protector!  How would she know how one works?"
 
	"But those things you've done to save us happen so 
fast!" Tsugiko exclaimed.  "How can you even have time to 
think about what you're doing?"
 
	"I don't know how exactly, but time seems to slow 
down."  Kyouji shrugged.  "Do you understand how you fly?"
 
	Yumi's step faltered, and she started to trip before 
catching herself.
 
	"Are you sure you're okay?" Tsugiko asked.
 
	"I just need some water."  The blonde girl reached 
into her pack and drew out a metal canteen.  She unscrewed 
its cap and took a few sips, then a longer swallow than she 
had intended.  Her throat was incredibly dry.  As she 
gulped back more water, her two friends continued their 
conversation.
 
	"So when you helped me against those pikemen back in 
Guylian, that was really you doing it?"
 
	The boy nodded.  His brief moment of irritation having 
passed, he replied calmly, "Yeah.  I mean, when I did that, 
the Knight Protector whatever was still, it was still 
inside of me, telling me I had to help you.  But I was the 
one who had to do it, you know?"  He shrugged.
 
	But Kyouji wouldn't hurt her...  The blonde girl 
remembered thinking that back on the beach, as her energy 
was ripped away.  That had been the Knight Protector's 
compulsion doing that, not him; it had to have been.  
Except that the Knight Protector's instinct was supposed to 
make Kyouji save her, not hurt her.  None of this made any 
sense.
 
	Tsugiko didn't share Yumi's confusion.  "I guess it 
just seemed so unlike you, the way you took out those 
soldiers, that I figured-"  The green-clad girl broke off 
and smiled almost apologetically. "Thanks for that.  And 
for all the other things too.  I guess that's overdue, 
huh?"
 
	He shook his head.  "Don't mention it."
 
	Yumi took a break from her hydrating.  "Yes, thank 
you, Kyouji."  Her boyfriend smiled at her, and it was 
clear that he hadn't noticed the uncertainty in her voice.  
She remembered running toward the fight Tsugiko had 
referred to and seeing Kyouji batting aside the men's pikes 
before slicing through each of their hearts.  Could it 
really have been her Kyouji who had done that?
 
	"Oh, and you know what I said before, when I teased 
you about taking on Wintergreen's army all by yourself?"  
Tsugiko grinned.
 
	Kyouji blushed, his attention once more drawn to the 
green-clad girl, and his free hand again reached up to 
scratch at the back of his neck.  "Uh, yeah?"
 
	"Forget what I said.  Doing that took a pair."  There 
was actual respect in the dark-haired girl's voice.
 
	Kyouji laughed somewhat incredulously.  "Thank you."  
Then his face split into a more confident grin than any 
Yumi could recall seeing on his face in recent weeks.  "I 
guess it did."
 
	"So, you've been in control the whole time?" Tsugiko 
mused.  "'Cause those were some kick-ass moves you had on 
the beach."
 
	"I didn't even know I could do that.  That's why I, 
uh, you remember I was pretty nervous about the odds."  
Kyouji smiled self-deprecatingly.  "But then I just 
suddenly had an idea of how to use my power to do that.  It 
was like a flash of insight.  I'm not sure if it's a Knight 
Protector thing or not."
 
	"No, that's happened to me too.  I think it has 
something to do with our powers becoming stronger.  Like my 
wings or Yumi's shield."  Tsugiko tilted her head at the 
blonde girl as she spoke her name.
 
	"Yeah.  And some of the stuff I've done's just been an 
accident," Kyouji admitted.  "Like when I was moving so 
fast that just touching the female Twix tore her-"
 
	"But what about what the Nestlings' said?" Yumi cut 
her boyfriend off.  Kyouji and Tsugiko both almost jumped 
at her sudden question.  The other Warrior Priestess 
frowned at the interruption, but neither of them said 
anything to object.
 
	"What?  The, uh, the Nestlings?" the Knight Protector 
asked his girlfriend.
 
	"They said that you weren't responsible for your 
actions when you killed one of them.  That's why they let 
you go," Yumi said softly.  Tsugiko tilted her head 
slightly as she listened; she hadn't been present during 
the Nestling trial.
 
	"Yumi, they were *wrong*," Kyouji said.  "Don't you 
remember what *I* said at that trial?"  Her boyfriend 
looked into her eyes for confirmation that she understood, 
and when he didn't find it, he continued, "It wasn't being 
the Knight Protector that made me do what I did.  I did it 
because it was what I, Kyouji, had to do.  I told the 
Nestlings that, but they didn't listen."
 
	"I thought..."  Yumi's voice trailed off.  It was 
becoming very difficult for her to concentrate on anything.  
Kyouji and Tsugiko's voices seemed to be coming from far 
off, and the ground was twisting beneath her feet.
 
	Kyouji, apparently taking her pause for uncertainty or 
embarrassment, attempted to complete her sentence for her.  
"You thought that they were right and I was wrong."  He 
seemed more hurt than anything.
 
	Yumi turned away, unable to look at him.  "But if they 
were wrong then you were-"  She suddenly found herself out 
of breath.  As the blonde girl began gasping for air, she 
staggered forward, her hand pulling out of Kyouji's.  The 
half-empty canteen fell from her grip.  It landed on the 
beach, water spilling out onto the sand.
 
	"Yumi!"  The blonde girl couldn't even tell which of 
her companions had shouted her name.  
 
	All she could do was mumble, "I don't feel well."  
Then there was only blackness.

>o< >o< >o<
 
	"My liege, the invasion of Godiva will be back on 
schedule within the month," announced Admiral Twerpz with 
pride.  He was a Suchard, a race of humanoids with an 
obvious bird ancestry that showed in the fact that they had 
bright yellow feathers instead of hair on top of their 
heads and beaks for mouths, though their wings had long ago 
evolved into arms.  Mixed in with this were a few aquatic 
traits, such as gills on the neck.  "Reinforcements are 
already en route to replace those lost in the assault by 
the Crystal Warriors, and we anticipate Ganache shall be 
ours by next week at the latest."
 
	Wintergreen nodded absently.  She lay sunk back on her 
throne, surrounded by courtiers, nobles, ambassadors, and 
generals, but at the moment none of them seemed to interest 
her.  The green hair that obscured her face made her 
expression impossible to read, but the rest of her body 
language was as plain as day; Wintergreen didn't care.
 
	Rollo wondered why that was.  The Dark Queen's self-
imposed mission to conquer the planet was normally one that 
she viewed with full enthusiasm.  But all today, the 
Corruptor of Mars had hardly seemed interested in her 
troops' success or failure.
 
	"Very good, Twerpz," Wintergreen said after a more 
than token pause, as if she had finally noticed that the 
Suchard had stopped speaking.  "You shall be rewarded for 
your service."
 
	"Thank you, O Dark Queen."  With a bow, the admiral 
withdrew.
 
	Before whoever was next could step forward, the Dark 
Queen stood, and instantly every eye was upon her.  "That 
shall be all for today," Wintergreen announced.  "You are 
all dismissed."  The young attendant's hopes that she was 
included in that command were dashed when Wintergreen 
added, "Rollo, attend me."
 
	As the various members of the court headed for the 
exit, Rollo noticed Clorets and Riesen conferring and 
casting glances back at their queen.  The girl wished that 
Krackel had been in attendance, but her brother had been 
sent to deal with a band of Sparkling Elite who were 
striking at Wintergreen's supply lines.
 
	The Dark Queen strode past Rollo, her slinky black 
evening gown trailing on the marble floor behind her.  The 
girl resisted a brief mischievous impulse to place her foot 
on the hem; that would have been suicide.
 
	"What is thy bidding?" Rollo asked.  The words were no 
longer distasteful to her.  After so many repetitions, the 
sounds had almost lost meaning.
 
	Without replying, Wintergreen headed out into the 
hallway and made for the royal suite.  Her attendant kept 
pace, knowing that her question would be answered soon 
enough.  One advantage to following in the Dark Queen's 
wake was that everyone else made way, pressing themselves 
tightly against the walls to enable her to pass.  Rollo 
stuck close enough to her mistress to take advantage of 
this, lest she be caught in the crowd and fall behind.
 
	When they had arrived in Wintergreen's personal suite, 
Rollo assumed that instructions would be forthcoming.  The 
suite contained eight rooms, including a bathroom whose tub 
could have hosted a swimming competition.  There was also a 
bedroom, three general living rooms that lacked any 
particular theme, a library, an entire room that had been 
converted into a closet, and a torture room.  Each of the 
rooms was large and ornate, full of sumptuous furniture and 
beautiful artwork, even the torture room, where a rack and 
a stockade sat amidst plush couches and a whip hung on the 
wall between portraits of the Dark Queen.
 
	Rollo wondered what Wintergreen would ask of her.  
Usually her services to Wintergreen were utterly mundane.  
In the past, the girl's duties had ranged from reminding 
the Dark Queen of her appointments to giving her mistress a 
pedicure.  Rollo sometimes suspected that Wintergreen 
deliberately created the most servile tasks imaginable just 
to torment her attendant, but those occasions were 
preferable to when the Corruptor of Mars chose darker ways 
to make the girl suffer.  When last Wintergreen had brought 
Rollo to her suite, mere days ago, the Dark Queen had not 
only had Rollo witness the torturing of a True Spree 
freedom fighter, but the Corruptor of Mars had even forced 
her attendant to crack the whip three times against the 
Spree's bare back herself, a memory that still filled the 
girl with guilt.
 
	Rollo doubted that any request Wintergreen made of her 
would surprise her, but in this she was mistaken.
 
	"I have need of your advice," said the Dark Queen, and 
her attendant had to suppress a gasp.  Another person might 
have made such a statement with humility or embarrassment, 
but there was no trace of either in Wintergreen's command; 
her voice was as cool and authoritarian as ever.  The Dark 
Queen did not notice Rollo's startled reaction, or if she 
did notice, she chose to ignore it.  Instead, she headed 
for the room containing her myriad collection of clothing.
 
	"As you wish, my liege," Rollo replied automatically, 
her mind still reeling at this unexpected turn.  "But I 
don't know anything about warfare or-"
 
	Wintergreen emitted a cold laugh.  "No, child.  That 
is not the advice I need."  The Dark Queen swept her arm 
around her, taking in hundreds of dresses, suits of armour, 
skirts and blouses, boots and shoes, capes, jackets, and 
more.  "I need you to help me look humble, modest, and 
unassuming."  The Dark Queen's eyes seemed to almost flash 
beneath the dangling green hair that obscured them.
 
	And Rollo realized that, in all of her months of 
service to Wintergreen, this was by far the most difficult 
task she had had to face.

>o< >o< >o<
 
	"Yumi?  Are you awake?" Tsugiko asked.  She thought 
she had seen her friend stir, but she wasn't sure if the 
blonde girl was waking up or just moving in her sleep.
 
	A few feet away from Tsugiko, Kyouji sat on a log.  He 
was tired, and Tsugiko didn't blame him.  After Yumi had 
passed out, the Knight Protector had carried her the rest 
of the way along to beach and then over a kilometre into 
the forest before he'd set her down.
 
	"Gika?"  Kit Kat prodded the unconscious Warrior 
Priestess with his nose.  The carret had seemed livelier 
since they'd gotten away from the Scar, and Tsugiko hoped 
that Yumi would feel the same way.
 
	"Mmmm?  Kit Kat?"  Yumi opened one eye, then the 
other.  "Oh!  What happened?"
 
	"You passed out," Tsugiko said.
 
	Kyouji smiled reassuringly.  "We thought it'd be best 
to get you away from the Scar.  We thought that'd make you, 
uh, feel better.  Also, there's more cover here."
 
	Yumi nodded.  She pushed herself to an upright 
position.  Tsugiko thought that the other girl did look 
much improved.  Yumi's breathing was regular, her eyes were 
no longer bloodshot, and her complexion had returned to its 
normal attractively pale shade.  "Thank you."
 
	Kyouji grunted a bit as he shifted position.  "Hope 
you don't mind if we don't start moving again immediately.  
My muscles are kind of aching."
 
	"Oh!"  Yumi hopped up so quickly that it was hard for 
Tsugiko to believe that her friend was recovering from a 
fainting spell.  Then the dark-haired girl allowed herself 
a small smile as Yumi almost tripped again in her haste to 
tend to her boyfriend.  "I can give you a massage.  It's 
the least I can do, after you carried me all that way."
 
	Tsugiko tried to suppress a grimace as her old 
roommate began rubbing at the boy's shoulders.  The green-
clad Warrior Priestess had vowed, over and over, that she 
was through being upset about that relationship, and she'd 
meant it each time.  It was just moments like this that 
made actually keeping those vows difficult.
 
	"Mm, that feels good," Kyouji said as Yumi worked at 
his muscles.
 
	"I'm going to check around here for Wintergreen's 
troops," Tsugiko announced.  "You two lovebirds have a good 
time sublimating," she added, unable to resist a bit of 
snark.  Still, she felt quite proud of herself; snark was 
several huge steps up from the sort of explosive reaction 
that she would have had to the scene even several weeks 
earlier.
 
	Both of her friends blushed, but before either could 
reply, the dark-haired girl gave an exaggerated wink and 
thumbs up sign, causing Kyouji to nearly choke.  Chuckling 
to herself, Tsugiko wandered away from the makeshift camp 
she and the Knight Protector had set up while they waited 
for Yumi to recover.
 
	The forest reminded Tsugiko of autumn.  Unlike the 
orange grasslands that the Crystal Warriors had seen 
growing on the other side of the Scar, here the bizarrely 
coloured foliage of Martian fauna was almost absent.  The 
trees were largely barren of leaves, though here and there 
one still clung on, a spot of purple or aquamarine standing 
out defiantly.  Otherwise, all that she was surrounded by 
were brown trunks and jutting branches that swayed in the 
wind.  Tsugiko was no botanist, but she could tell this 
forest was dying.  Far too many branches had fallen to the 
ground, crunching under her feet and occasionally 
threatening to trip her.  The green-clad girl was glad she 
was no longer in her old miniskirt outfit, for the downed 
branches brushing against her legs would surely have cut 
them had they been bare.  Even the trees themselves were 
beginning to topple; where she encountered these, Tsugiko 
was forced to awkwardly scramble over them.
 
	There was no one about.  Wintergreen's soldiers were 
not patrolling this forest, but nor was anyone else living 
or working here.  After a few minutes, Tsugiko realized 
something else; there weren't any animals around either.  
The silence was oppressive, and the Warrior Priestess 
imagined that if she tried, she could still have heard Yumi 
and Kyouji back at the camp.  Perhaps she could have.
 
	As she wandered, Tsugiko wondered about her old 
roommate's ability to continue on the path before them.  
That trip past the Scar had obviously taken a lot out of 
her, and Wintergreen's lands were bound to be full of such 
things.  Would Yumi be able to take it, or would she 
collapse under the strain and be of little or no use when 
they needed her?
 
	Tsugiko sighed.  They'd find out the hard way if Yumi 
was up to the challenge.  There was no choice but to 
continue.
 
	One other thought nagged at the green-clad girl.  The 
proximity of the Scar might not have been the sole cause of 
the other Warrior Priestess' weakness.  Tsugiko had known 
Yumi for a long time, but only since coming to Mars had the 
dark-haired girl *really* gotten to know her friend, to see 
past the apparently perfect exterior to the real person 
inside.  And Yumi did have flaws.
 
	Two flaws in particular nagged at Tsugiko's thoughts 
now.  Yumi had always been uncomfortable about the fact 
that their mission on Mars involved killing people.  
Tsugiko knew that Kyouji had killed several times, be it 
Wintergreen's soldiers, a Nestling, or the female Twix.  
Often he had done so to protect the Warrior Priestesses, 
and both girls had assumed that he was acting involuntarily 
at least part of that time.  Tsugiko was actually relieved 
to know that Kyouji had remained in control the whole time, 
but if Yumi had been using the Knight Protector compulsion 
as a way to exonerate Kyouji of responsibility for his 
actions, the truth might be devastating to the blonde girl.  
That is, if she chose to accept it.
 
	The other flaw that Tsugiko had noticed in Yumi was 
that her old roommate often retreated from unpleasant 
truths.  Perhaps it was necessary for her in order to 
retain her unwaveringly positive worldview.  But the blonde 
girl had almost gone catatonic after Winis' death, and even 
now, Tsugiko suspected that her friend was unwilling to 
face the fact that Kyouji had torn the female Twix in two 
right in front of them.  Maybe Yumi had *let* herself faint 
in order to avoid dealing with what Kyouji might be 
responsible for.
 
	Tsugiko resolved to deal with this soon.  She'd been 
waiting and hoping that her friend would make progress on 
her own, but that didn't look like it was happening.
 
	Over an hour had passed by the time the Warrior 
Priestess returned to camp.  When she arrived, she saw that 
Yumi and Kyouji had started a small fire and were huddled 
around it, cooking some meat preserves they'd obtained on 
the Pramandine.  As the girl drifted closer, she could hear 
them discussing the preparation of their meal.
 
	"So you're saying that if it's fresh meat, charring 
the outside is- Oh, hey, Tsugiko.  How'd it go?" Kyouji 
asked, looking up from the cooking meat at her approach.
 
	"I've searched a couple of kilometres in all four 
directions and didn't see a single soul."
 
	"Foolish girl, that's because you've missed the fifth 
direction: up," called a familiar male voice.
 
	"Twix," Tsugiko hissed.
 
	Ever since their earliest encounters with the Twixes, 
Tsugiko had felt an antipathy for the twins that went 
beyond that which she would have automatically felt for any 
foe.  The arrogance that the summoners exhibited had always 
gotten under the green-clad girl's skin, and even now it 
made her want to smash the smirk she just *knew* was on 
Twix's face right off of it.
 
	Even though Tsugiko felt some guilt-by-association for 
what Kyouji had done to the female Twix, it didn't give her 
any sympathy for the surviving summoner.  He had had more 
than enough chances already, and his sister had died 
because the twins had betrayed the Crystal Warriors.  The 
green-clad girl had never shared her companions' faith in 
the supposed reformation of the twins, but that betrayal 
had still stung.  And Tsugiko knew that it had hurt her 
friends worse, because they *had* believed the Twixes had 
come around to the side of the Crystal Warriors.  The dark-
haired girl found her anger growing, not on her own behalf, 
but on that of Kyouji and Yumi, who had trusted this 
slimeball and suffered for it.  Even the death of his 
sister changed in her mind from a reason to be sympathetic 
to Twix to a reason to be angry at him; whatever emotional 
issues Yumi was going through as a result would never have 
come about if he and his sister hadn't attacked them and 
gotten the female sibling killed.
 
	Twix had chosen his side, and now he would have to pay 
the penalty.  Tsugiko found herself actually looking 
forward to it; maybe she'd let Kyouji and Yumi handle 
whatever the monster-of-the-week was, and take the fight 
right to its master.
 
	Then the green-clad girl noticed both of her friends 
staring upward, their mouths hanging open.  "It can't be," 
Kyouji mumbled.
 
	"What?"  Tsugiko looked up herself and realized the 
source of their astonishment.
 
	Floating about ten feet above their heads was the male 
Twix.  His silver hair was tied back into his normal 
ponytail, and rather than the somewhat tattered old outfits 
he had worn during their last few encounters, his clothing 
was clean and well tended.  He wore green pants and a 
matching green cloak, with gold thread embroidered into 
some sort of Martian symbols on both.  His cloak hung open, 
allowing Tsugiko to see the black silk shirt he wore 
beneath it.  His face was set into his old arrogant smirk.
 
	Floating next to him, dressed identically though 
filling the clothing out a bit more, and with a similar 
smirk adorning her face, was Tsugiko's second to least 
favourite red headed woman on Mars.
 
	Tsugiko felt her own jaw drop, her expression 
mirroring that of both her friends.
 
	"Miss me?" asked the female Twix.

>o< >o< >o<
 
	Wintergreen ignored the stares so completely that one 
might have suspected she didn't notice them at all.
 
	As she strode through her palace, her bearing as regal 
as ever, the Spear of Mint itself grasped in one hand, 
still some of the functionaries, diplomats, soldiers, and 
servants- now that she thought of it, they were *all* 
servants of one sort of another- stared at her.  She 
supposed that some must be trying to convince themselves 
that what they were seeing was real or that she was really 
who she appeared to be.  Others might have found the sight 
so shocking they couldn't tear their eyes away, for it was 
one they would likely never see again.
 
	Wintergreen was dressed in a loose beige dress.  The 
material was quite comfortable, but the fabric was coarse, 
for it was made of woven Wrigley hair.  It was loose around 
her torso, hinting at her breasts without defining them, 
then tied tightly around her waist with a dark brown belt, 
before billowing out again around her legs and descending 
to lightly brush against the floor.  The sleeves went to 
just past her elbows, and her lower arms were bare save for 
a carved wooden bracelet around her right wrist.  She wore 
no other jewelry.  While the ensemble was by no means ugly, 
it was, without a doubt, the least attractive outfit that 
anyone had ever seen her in; even her armours were far more 
shapely and ornamented.
 
	The Dark Queen did not slow her pace.  If anyone let 
their amazement prevent them from getting out of the way in 
time, that would be their problem, not hers.  It was 
doubtless a sign of just how much terror she was held in 
that this possibility never materialized.  No matter how 
shocked passersby were, still they instantly made way.
 
	Rollo followed her, as ever.  The Dark Queen did not 
spare a glance at her attendant, but she knew the girl was 
exactly three feet behind her.  Wintergreen had to admit 
that Rollo had chosen this outfit well, and she decided 
that her attendant would be rewarded for that later.  Some 
might have been surprised at the very idea that the Dark 
Queen would ever consider rewarding her unwilling 
attendant, but they missed the point: a gift from the 
Corruptor of Mars was always its own price.  After all, the 
girl wasn't even aware of the worst thing that the Dark 
Queen had done to her, and it was simply this: if Rollo 
were returned to her simple peasant village tomorrow and 
left in peace, Wintergreen knew that still a part of the 
girl would always long to be back amidst the opulence and 
power of the royal court, no matter how much she hated and 
feared her present position.  And it would be for that part 
that any reward the Dark Queen offered Rollo would be 
intended.
 
	Wintergreen came upon the door that was her 
destination and did not hesitate before opening it and 
stepping through.  Beyond it was a small anteroom, on the 
opposite side of which was a large double door.  "Wait 
here," Wintergreen ordered Rollo, and without even turning 
back to see her attendant acknowledge the command, the Dark 
Queen proceeded to unlock the double doors into the room 
beyond.

>o< >o< >o<
 
	"No way," Tsugiko said.
 
	"Surprised?" the female Twix asked, her voice laced 
with a condescending laugh.
 
	The dark-haired Warrior Priestess' blood ran cold.  
The woman floating above them was unquestionably the same 
one who had been torn in two by Kyouji's blade.  Tsugiko 
had turned around and seen the two halves of the summoner 
lying on the ground, blood and guts spilling from each.  
She'd seen the woman's face frozen in a mask of pain, and 
she'd looked on as whatever light remained in Twix's eyes 
vanished.
 
	Yet here she was.
 
	"I don't believe it," Tsugiko muttered.
 
	"You don't believe it?" asked the male Twix.  Tsugiko 
noticed that he had a book clasped to himself in his left 
hand.  "Haven't you learned to believe in magic yet?"
 
	"You know, brother, I don't think she has," the female 
Twix drawled back in an amused tone.
 
	"No healing spell could undo that.  Could it, Yumi?" 
Tsugiko asked.
 
	"I don't know."  There was something in the other 
girl's voice that the Warrior Priestess couldn't place, but 
she found herself unable to tear her eyes from the revived 
Twix to see her friend's face.  "I don't think I could 
have."
 
	"A healing spell?" the male Twix asked with a chuckle.
 
	"Don't you realize that I was-" his twin added, and 
then they finished her sentence in unison.  "Dead!"
 
	"You can't bring the dead back to life!  It's 
impossible!"  Tsugiko's voice was almost a shout.
 
	The Twixes twirled in the air, circling the three 
children staring up at them.  "Really?" asked the female 
sibling.
 
	"Remember the Temple of the Warrior Priestesses, 
Tsugiko?" Kyouji whispered.
 
	The green-clad girl nodded.  When she received no 
reply, she realized that the Knight Protector was no more 
able to look down at her than she was at him.  "Yeah," she 
answered.
 
	"That Bubblicious guy created some sort of artificial 
bodies for the spirits of Mia and Akie to inhabit, 
remember?"
 
	"Okay, fine," Tsugiko muttered.  For some reason, that 
had been far easier to accept.  A thousand year old ghost 
of your previous incarnation was just some fantasy thing.  
It wasn't like a *real person* who she had actually known 
dying.  When that happened, people stayed dead.  Still, 
Kyouji had a point, and her head accepted it even as her 
gut kept telling her that this was impossible, that Twix 
was dead, that there was no way she could be back here, 
flying around, insulting them.
 
	"Did you hear that, Twix?" the male summoner asked, 
and Tsugiko realized that Kyouji's whisper had been louder 
than intended.  "They think you're some sort of 
homunculus."
 
	"I'm insulted," the redhead replied, tossing her head 
to the side.  The summoners were circling faster and faster 
now.
 
	"Yumi, what do you think?" Tsugiko asked.  There was 
no answer.  "Yumi?"  Still no reply was forthcoming.  With 
an almost conscious effort, Tsugiko tore her gaze from 
their enemies and faced her fellow Warrior Priestess.  What 
she saw there was almost more disconcerting than the dead 
woman flying above them.
 
	Yumi was smiling beatifically.

>o< >o< >o<
 
	Wintergreen smiled coldly.
 
	The room was barren stone.  There were no windows and 
no candles burned, but a tiny hole in the ceiling let a 
thin shaft of light into the room.  As the day progressed, 
the beam slowly crossed from one side of the room to the 
other.  Halfway across, it shone upon the only object of 
note present, and when it did the room gleamed bright as 
day.
 
	On a raised dais in the centre of the room sat a Shard 
of the Starburst Crystal.  Krackel had obtained it for 
Wintergreen months ago, and since that time it had resided 
here.  The sunlight was not yet upon it, but it was near 
enough that the purple Shard's colour stood out from the 
darkness.
 
	The Dark Queen approached cautiously, stopping to lean 
her Spear of Mint against the stone wall.  Being within 
sight of the Shard was already starting to give her a 
migraine, but soon the pain would be far worse.  She would 
need to touch the accursed thing.
 
	It had been hours since she'd first felt something 
nagging at the outer edges of her consciousness, and in 
that time the feeling had resolved itself into eight embers 
burning inside of her brain.  Nearly a millennium 
imprisoned in that accursed jewel had given Wintergreen a 
connection to it, and she was able to sense its fragments 
if they were nearby.  The closer they got, the easier it 
was to feel them, until the task became to ignore them.  
Had she not grown used to dealing with the nearness of her 
own Shard, the sudden proximity of eight more might have 
overwhelmed her.
 
	The Dark Queen could use that painfully forged mental 
connection to learn the exact location of nearby Crystal 
Shards, but with eight of them together, she dared not make 
the attempt.  Focusing her mind on a gathering of almost 
the entire Starburst Crystal would likely leave her 
vulnerable for days.
 
	But the Corruptor of Mars had not survived waging war 
against an entire planet by lacking subtlety.  If the 
Shards had penetrated into the heart of her territories, 
then so had the Warrior Priestesses and the Knight 
Protector.  Weeks ago, Wintergreen had set into motion a 
plan for just such an eventuality.  She had allowed Krackel 
to return the sword of the Knight Protector not due to the 
pointless machinations of Riesen, but because it served her 
own purpose.  An enchantment had been placed on the blade, 
and now sympathetic magic connected the crystal on its hilt 
to this fragment of the Starburst Crystal.  Using the 
Shard, her sorcery would reach out to the nearby sword, and 
through that link, she would finally put an end to the one 
real threat to her reign.
 
	The Dark Queen knew that even now the Crystal Warriors 
would be finding themselves under attack by her twin 
summoners.  She had been amused when she had learned of the 
brother's plan to summon his own sister, and she had 
allowed it to proceed for that reason.  If it succeeded, so 
much the better, and if not, it would almost certainly 
leave the teenagers vulnerable.
 
	The ray of sunlight moved another inch, striking the 
object on the dais.  Purple light exploded from the Crystal 
Shard, bathing the entire room in its glow.
 
	At that crucial instant, Wintergreen reached out and 
grabbed hold of the Crystal Shard.  Pain seared up her arm.  
The muscles in her forearm began to twitch, but the Dark 
Queen's grip remained so tight, she could have been 
squeezing the breath out of a vanquished foe.
 
	"Now, Knight Protector, you shall learn the true 
meaning of my prophecy, and in so doing, you shall know the 
nature of your doom," Wintergreen hissed.  Then the 
Corruptor of Mars toppled forward onto the dais, one hand 
still wrapped around the purple Crystal Shard.

>o< >o< >o<
 
	"Yumi!"  Tsugiko repeated yet again, and this time she 
reached over and gave her friend a gentle shove on the 
shoulder.
 
	The other Warrior Priestess blinked.  "Sorry, I didn't 
hear what you said."  The blonde's peaceful smile 
transformed into a cheerful expression.
 
	"I asked what you thought about this," Tsugiko 
repeated, almost growling the words.  "And keep your voice 
down."
 
	"Ooh, brother, a conference," called down the female 
summoner.
 
	"I don't think we're invited," the other replied.
 
	"I think," Yumi began in a normal tone; then, at 
Tsugiko's glare, she dropped to a whisper.  "I think he 
summoned her." 
 
	Kyouji literally slapped his forehead.  "Of course.  
That Wintergreen wasn't the real one, and if they can 
summon another Wintergreen, they can summon another Twix."
 
	Tsugiko frowned.  "But she's not, like, the real one, 
right?" 
 
	"What do you mean?  Of course she's the real one," 
Yumi whispered back.
 
	Kyouji began rubbing at the back of his neck, a sure 
sign he was nervous or preoccupied.  "I don't know.  I 
mean, the fake Wintergreen wasn't the real Wintergreen, 
'cause there was still a real Wintergreen."
 
	"That's because she wasn't dead," Yumi replied, as if 
was the most obvious thing in the world.
 
	"What does that have to do with-" Tsugiko began, but 
before she could finish her question, there was an 
interruption from above.
 
	"I'm getting bored," the female Twix said.
 
	"You always did prefer to be the centre of attention," 
the male replied.
 
	"I liked them better when they needed our help," 
Kyouji muttered.  "They weren't so damn cocky all the 
time."
 
	"They usually weren't so cocky after we kicked one of 
their pets' asses, either," Tsugiko replied, giving him a 
small smile of agreement.  Then she looked up with a start 
at the still circling twins, and forgot to whisper her 
reply.  "Wait, you're right.  They haven't been this 
annoying since they were working for Wintergreen.  Do you 
think that means they're not on the run anymore?"
 
	"Her majesty has allowed us back into her service," 
the grey-haired one confirmed.
 
	Yumi gave a pained cry.  "But you've been given a 
second chance," she shouted.  "You have to make the most of 
it!  You can't throw your life away again, working for 
Wintergreen.  You can still side with us."
 
	Tsugiko winced.  Please, she thought, don't let them 
say yes, because Yumi really is dumb enough to believe it.
 
	The green-clad Warrior Priestess' fears were 
unfounded.  The flight of the two summoners slowed to a 
stop, the pair of them hanging almost directly overtop of 
the three teenagers.  When the female Twix finally replied, 
her voice was cold as death.  "You," the summoner said, her 
arm sweeping out to indicate them, "killed me."
 
	The male twin held out his book, it pages open.  He 
raised his free arm, palm pointed at the ground, and his 
sister did the same.  "We summon you," he intoned, her 
voice joining his, "Tictacs!"
 
	Tsugiko let out a curse, pulling her warhammer off her 
back.  She had faced a Tictac in the Gumdrop Palace; it was 
a snakelike creature and had demonstrated the ability to 
survive an almost fatal attack, emerging more dangerous 
than ever with a second deadly tail.  None of the Crystal 
Warriors had been able to beat it then, and only the 
intervention of Krackel had sealed the beast's fate.  This 
time, it would be up to the Warrior Priestesses and Knight 
Protector to do the job.
 
	Yellow light shot from the twins' hands to strike the 
ground nearby, and as a circle of energy formed there, 
something clicked in Tsugiko's mind.  "Wait, did they say 
Tic*tacs*?"
 
	Her question was answered as not one but three 
serpentine forms slithered out of the circle of light.  
Their armoured scales glinted like emeralds.  One of them 
emitted a puff of green, sparkles of acidic fluid floating 
suspended in the creature's exhalation.
 
	"Okay," Tsugiko said.  "One for each of us."  She 
hoped she sounded more confident than she felt.
 
	"I've got the one on the left," Kyouji replied gamely.  
His sword let out a metallic noise as he drew it from its 
sheath.
 
	"I can handle the one on the right," Yumi added.  A 
bolt of pink energy flew at the creature's head, knocking 
off a large chunk of the Tictac's outer skin to reveal the 
red layer beneath.
 
	"Tictac's minty fresh breath will make short work of 
you this time," the male Twix announced confidently.
 
	"I don't know, brother.  They have gotten stronger."
 
	Despite the dangers of doing so, Tsugiko took her eyes 
off the approaching Tictacs long enough to see the male 
Twix turn to look at his sister and reply, "Perhaps you're 
right.  What would you suggest?"
 
	The formerly dead Twix smiled, and her brother smiled 
back.  Tsugiko had never been sure if the twins had some 
sort of telepathic link, but they had always seemed to know 
what the other one was thinking.  The brother flipped the 
pages of his book, and then, in perfect chorus, they cried, 
"We summon you... Tridents!"
 
	Tsugiko's head snapped to follow the bolt of energy 
the summoners emitted.  From the ground emerged no less 
than seven of the three-headed wolves.  Unlike the three 
Tictacs, which were approaching together, the Tridents 
spread out, circling the Crystal Warriors.  The green-clad 
Warrior Priestess recognized it as pack behaviour.  Her 
eyes darted from one Trident to another, studying their 
movements carefully.
 
	"Yumi!  Hold off the Tictacs!"  Tsugiko shouted.
 
	"Okay," replied the blonde girl.  There was no fear in 
her voice, only confidence.  From her wand emerged bolt 
after bolt of pink energy, bashing at the faces of the 
snakes until the colour of their heads no longer matched 
their bodies.  Already, one had begun to slither out of its 
outer layer, exposing the two tails beneath.
 
	The other two Crystal Warriors tried to ignore the 
Tictacs.  They'd need to trust Yumi to do her job, while 
they took care of the Tridents when one inevitably pounced.  
Tsugiko presumed they were waiting for a moment of weakness 
to strike.
 
	"They say that a pack of Tridents is almost like a 
single organism," the female Twix announced.  "They work 
together."
 
	"And they're almost as smart as people," added her 
brother.  "Do you think you can stand against all of them?
 
	"We won't have to," Tsugiko muttered, then suddenly 
pointed at one of them.  "That one."
 
	"What?"  Kyouji didn't turn to look.
 
	"That's the pack leader.  Kill it and the rest won't 
be a problem."  As she spoke, Tsugiko was already moving, 
raising her mallet into a high arc and bringing it 
downward-
 
	"We summon you... Beechnuts!"
 
	The green-clad girl skidded to a halt too late.  She 
had slid right into the middle of a swarm of gigantic bees.  
The buzzing sound was deafening.  Her disorientation was 
too great for her to call upon her powers, not even to 
generate a flaming aura that might keep the creatures at 
bay.  Instead, acting immediately, she altered her hammer 
swing into an arc around her head, trying to bat the 
Beechnuts away.  She felt a stinger penetrate her right 
shoulder from behind, its point jabbing outward again just 
above her breast, covered in gore.  Tsugiko dropped her 
hammer as all feeling left that arm, and she screamed, a 
medley of pain and rage.
 
	Instead of seizing on the opportunity, the other 
Beechnuts scattered.  Only one remained, trapped by its own 
stinger.
 
	Tsugiko turned her head to see her attacker still 
struggling to free itself.  Snarling, she twisted her body 
around, reaching over with her left hand and grabbing hold 
of the Beechnut's head.  Her fingers dug in on all sides, 
her thumb poking directly into a multi-faceted eye.
 
	Then she made a fist.
 
	The Beechnut's head exploded in a splattering of goo.  
Tsugiko gasped as a wave of pain from her shoulder overcame 
her, and she fell to her knees.  "Can't end like this," she 
moaned, but the blood flowing down over her chest made the 
truth obvious.
 
	Then the stinger point poking out above her breast 
vanished, replaced by an even more intense pain and a truly 
improbable amount of blood pouring out of the now unplugged 
wound.  Tsugiko heard a voice behind her, calling, "Yumi!" 
but it wasn't important.  All that was important was sleep.  
It wouldn't hurt so much if she slept, and she was very 
tired.

>o< >o< >o<
 
	Kyouji tossed aside the Beechnut corpse he had just 
pulled out of her, aiming the stinger right at the eye of a 
Tictac.  Despite the carcass being much more unwieldy than 
his normal poppies, his aim was true, and the giant bee 
served as an adequate missile for dispatching the snake.  
The pack of Tridents converged on the two downed monsters, 
tearing into the corpses with gusto and devouring their 
steaming innards.  Despite his relief that the wolf-like 
beasts were distracted for the moment, the boy felt his 
stomach churn at the sight of their feast, and quickly 
looked away.
 
	Beside him, Yumi waved her wand, bathing the dark-
haired girl in a pink glow.  While one Warrior Priestess 
was busy healing the other, it was Kyouji's job to guard 
them both from the remaining threats: two Tictacs still 
slithering slowly toward them,  Yumi's blasts having 
evidently taught them caution, and sixteen Beechnuts 
regrouping for a pass at the teens.
 
	"We summon you... Mambos!"
 
	Kyouji winced as a pair of flying Mambos burst forth 
from the ground.  Superficially, they appeared to be 
Skittles, but Kyouji recognized these monsters from Tsugiko 
and Yumi's tales of the battle in Guylian.  The pair of 
Mambos floated in the air in a slightly disconcerting 
manner, not so much flying as hanging on nothing.  
Periodically, a blast of electricity darted between the 
two.  The Knight Protector noted with alarm that the two 
Mambos were moving into position on opposite sides of the 
Crystal Warriors.
 
	"How much longer, Yumi?" Kyouji asked.
 
	"Another minute.  The Beechnut really hurt Tsugiko."
 
	"We might not have that long," Kyouji warned, sending 
a volley of poppies into the heart of the Beechnut swarm.  
One lucky shot impaled a Beechnut in the neck, blood or 
ichor spurting out, and it crashed to the ground.  The 
other fifteen scattered in all directions.  The Knight 
Protector hoped they would wait to regroup before 
attacking.  That would buy a minute or two in which all 
they would have to do would be to fend off everything else 
the summoners were throwing at them.
 
	As if the emphasize this point, yet another cry rang 
out from above.  "We summon you... Maestros!"
 
	This was a new one.  The Maestros resembled four foot 
tall ambulatory tables made of some sort of blue leather, 
with a blinking eye looking out from each corner.  Their 
four legs ended in a rather nasty looking claws that dug 
into the ground as they staggered about in an oddly drunken 
gait.  Kyouji honestly couldn't tell if the Maestros were 
moving into an attack position or just wandering around.
 
	The Mambos had made their way to either side of the 
three teens.  Kyouji barely had time to note the threat 
before a flash of electricity headed toward Yumi.  The 
familiar feeling of time slowing down took hold, and he 
tackled the girl just before the energy would have fried 
her.
 
	As Yumi fell to the ground beneath him, the pink glow 
around Tsugiko began to fade.  The wound was only half-
healed, though under the blonde girl's ministrations it had 
scabbed over and no blood now emerged from it.  Still, the 
coughing noises that the Warrior Priestess was making did 
not sound promising.  "Get back to healing her," Kyouji 
barked, pulling himself to his feet and charging at one of 
the Mambos.  He drew his sword for the second time this 
battle.
 
	"We summon you... Airheads!"  For a second, Kyouji 
thought he heard a note of stress in the voices of the 
summoners, but perhaps it was his imagination.  He couldn't 
focus on that now; a new threat had joined the growing 
list.
 
	Tsugiko had mentioned these avian monstrosities as 
well, so the boy knew what to expect as five Airheads 
sprang up on yet another side of the Crystal Warriors.  
Each of them was almost two metres tall, standing on their 
hind legs.  The Knight Protector wasn't sure if the rubbery 
wings on their backs could possibly lift that much mass, or 
if they were vestigial.  Then again, as both the Mambos and 
the Twix twins were proving at this very moment, flight on 
Mars didn't have to obey the rules of physics.  
Fortunately, the six of them headed in pursuit of Kyouji 
instead of attacking the Warrior Priestesses.  
Unfortunately, they were surprisingly fast, and their claws 
would tear him to shreds if they caught up to him. Without 
breaking stride in his charge against the Mambo, the Knight 
Protector let fly left-handed with a rapid series of 
poppies to back them off.
 
	"We summon... you..."  Kyouji almost smiled when he 
heard the stress marking the voices of the summoners.  Even 
though in the past that strain usually signified they were 
bringing forth a particularly difficult monster, he 
suspected that this time it was simply that they were 
running out of energy.  "Kissables!"
 
	Kyouji didn't turn to see what the Kissables were.  He 
was almost upon the Mambo.  The bizarre creature's face 
showed no surprise at his charge.  Instead, it unleashed 
another bolt of electricity at him.  The line of fire did 
not also include the Warrior Priestesses, so this time, 
Kyouji simply ducked under it, continuing his charge.  He 
thrust out his sword.  The blade glowed blue.
 
	The Mambo fell dead to the ground in two halves, much 
as one of its masters had done not long ago.
 
	Kyouji turned to see if the girls were alright.  It 
was fortunate that he had, for in her concern for Tsugiko, 
Yumi had not noticed that a pair of unfamiliar foes- Kyouji 
presumed they were the Kissables that had just been 
summoned- were almost on top of her.  They resembled five 
foot long golden ants, but where the head should have been, 
there were instead surprisingly human upper bodies that 
shared the golden hue.  Only two had materialized at the 
summons, one male and one female.  Kyouji blinked; they 
weren't wearing any clothes, and the bare torso of the 
female wasn't bad looking.  Then Kyouji reminded himself 
that she was half-giant ant, and his libido stopped 
interfering with his thoughts.
 
	Time slowed again as Kyouji ran back toward them, and 
inside his head, the Knight Protector's instincts screamed 
at him that he had to be faster.  If he had been able to 
spare the thought, he might have noted that such additional 
urging was hardly necessary.  Within a second, he stood 
between Yumi's unguarded back and these Kissables.  The 
monsters snarled and spat, but his raised sword held them 
at bay.
 
	"I don't suppose you'd, uh, listen to reason?" the 
Knight Protector asked.
 
	The only response he got was the female spitting on 
him, a substance fortunately less venomous than that of the 
still approaching Tictacs.
 
	"We summon... summon y-  We summon *thee*... 
Whatchamacallit."
 
	The single lobster-like creature just stood there, its 
eyes blinking at Kyouji as it clacked its claws.  
Curiously, the beast made no move to advance, and the 
Knight Protector remembered that during that first battle 
in this strange world, so long ago, the Whatchamacallit had 
spent significant amounts of time just standing still and 
absorbing their attacks.  The boy thanked Mars for small 
favours.
 
	With a sudden cough, Tsugiko sat up.  Kyouji glanced 
back.  The girl's outfit was still torn open where the 
stinger had penetrated it, but the exposed skin above her 
breast showed no evidence whatsoever of a wound.
 
	"You better not be checking her out," a voice inside 
the Knight Protector's head warned.  He didn't bother 
replying.
 
	Tsugiko looked around at the menagerie of horrors the 
Twixes had called forth.  "Why couldn't you have left me 
unconscious?"

>o< >o< >o<
 
	"No more, sister," gasped the male Twix.  "I need to 
rest."
 
	His companion nodded.  She didn't seem nearly as tired 
as he did, but she had always been the stronger summoner, 
better able to build and channel the magics than he was.  
"Yes, that should be enough.  No matter how powerful these 
children have grown, not even Krackel could defeat a 
collection of monsters this large."
 
	The male Twix slammed shut his book.  "It's just a 
matter of time now.  If the Beechnut's stingers don't kill 
them-"
 
	"Then the minty fresh breath of the Tictac will!" 
finished his sister.  "And if the Trident's flames don't 
roast them-"
 
	"Then the Maestros will gobble them up."  The grey-
haired sibling smiled.  "It will finally all be ours!  The 
glory, the recognition, the respect, the power-"  Once 
again he broke off, waiting for his sister to finish his 
sentence.  She did not disappoint him.
 
	"And the revenge."

>o< >o< >o<
 
	Tsugiko grabbed her hammer, standing up.  Already the 
pain was just a memory, though she needed to roll her 
shoulder muscles a few times before they felt ready for 
action.
 
	Immediately in front of her were both her friends.  
There was blood splattered on Kyouji, but it didn't look 
like he was hurt.  Similarly, aside from some dirt on her 
hands and dress, Yumi looked good as new.  The dark-haired 
Warrior Priestess was glad of that.  She hoped their luck 
held better than hers had.
 
	The green-clad girl twirled her warhammer like a 
bayonet.  As it revolved, it made a satisfying whooping 
sound as it chopped the air.  She suddenly stopped the 
motion and assumed a battle stance.  There was work to do.
 
	A quick survey showed the seven Tridents had returned 
to circling.  Tsugiko wondered what they were waiting for.  
Perhaps there was some scavenger in them.  If so, their 
caution made perfect sense.  It was better to feast on a 
corpse than risk getting killed attacking a live target, 
and there'd be plenty of corpses soon, one way or another.  
But they still might not wait forever.
 
	With a roar, Tsugiko leapt forward, passing between 
her two friends.  She threw a left cross at the male ant-
person, breaking his nose, and he howled.  Tsugiko ignored 
that, hopping onto the back of the ant portion of his 
anatomy, and then over the other side, right into the midst 
of the circling Tridents.
 
	She heard Kyouji's footsteps right behind her, and 
without turning to look back at him, she shouted, "Cover my 
back!"
 
	"What are-"
 
	"Just do it!"  Tsugiko's head snapped back and forth 
among the shifting pack of Tridents.  Most of them were 
continuing to circle, but one especially large one had 
broken off.  It walked slowly toward the Warrior Priestess.
 
	The three headed wolf growled at her, flames licking 
forth from its lips.
 
	Tsugiko growled right back.
 
	"The only thing deadlier than a Trident's flames..." 
shouted girl-Twix from her vantage point.
 
	"Is its fangs!" finished guy-Twix.
 
	"And the only thing more annoying than your monsters 
is your lame taunts," Tsugiko shot back, not taking her 
eyes off the beast in front of her.
 
	The Trident pounced, the jaws on its middle head open 
and heading for her throat.  Tsugiko waited, waited, and 
then swung.  She could feel the flames from its mouths 
blistering her skin, and her eyes started to water.  But 
she'd timed it correctly.  Her mallet knocked into the 
rightmost head, knocking the entire creature into the dirt.  
The beast scrambled back into a standing position, but its 
injured head drooped, unconscious.  The green-clad girl 
hoped the other two brains had gotten the message.
 
	The sounds of a battle being fought right behind her 
echoed in the Warrior Priestess' ears.  She could hear 
Kyouji's grunts and cries as he covered her rear, his sword 
clanging against whatever enemies he was fending off.  The 
boy's back bumped into her own, and she hoped he was able 
to hold his ground.  But right now, she simply couldn't 
afford to think about that.
 
	The Trident's two remaining heads stared at Tsugiko 
for a long moment.  She stared right back, forcing herself 
not to blink or flinch.

>o< >o< >o<
 
	Kyouji had learned two important facts about Mambos 
during the course of this fight.  The first was that if 
one's mate is killed, it will single-mindedly pursue the 
killer until either pursuer or pursued is dead.  The second 
was that, fortunately, a single Mambo was a rather pathetic 
thing and easily ignored, especially if it had the body of 
a Skittle.  Its electrical abilities had been reduced to 
little more than the ability to give shocks no greater than 
a discharge of static electricity, and it had been forced 
to resort to kicking and biting.
 
	As Kyouji swung his sword wildly in an attempt to hold 
off both an Airhead and the female Kissable, the flying un-
Skittle punched wildly at him.  Had he not been in the 
midst of combat with two far more formidable adversaries, 
Kyouji would have crushed the Mambo easily, but right now 
he could not afford even the few seconds that would have 
taken.
 
	Behind him, standing back to back with the Knight 
Protector, Tsugiko was facing the entire pack of Tridents.  
Kyouji hoped she knew what she was doing.  Failing that, he 
hoped his Knight Protector instincts would warn him if her 
situation should become dire.  Then, he grimly reminded 
himself, all he'd have to do would be to instantly 
extricate himself from his own combat.
 
	The Knight Protector swung his sword at the Airhead, 
but the birdlike humanoid caught the blade in its claws.  
As the boy struggled to free his weapon, the Kissable raked 
at his face, and though her hands resembled a human 
woman's, her nails were sharp enough to gouge parallel 
bloody lines across his cheek.  Kyouji grimaced at the 
stinging sensation.
 
	Pain and anger spurring him on, Kyouji kicked out at 
the Kissable, but that was a mistake.  His boot made 
contact with the carapace of her ant-half, and it was rock 
hard.  He hopped briefly on one foot, and the Mambo took 
that as a sign to bite him on the arm again.  As the boy 
tried to ignore both the pesky semi-Skittle and the growing 
pain in his toes, he finally managed to pull his sword 
free.  "Dammit!"
 
	"The Kissable's bottom is said to be harder than 
steel," called down a mocking male voice.
 
	"How about her top?"  The Knight Protector tossed his 
sword from his right hand to his left, easily catching it 
by the handle, and thrust out again, this time at the 
Kissable.  The female's eyes opened wide as the blade 
penetrated her golden flesh at the ribcage.  Her six ant 
legs buckled, and she fell, green blood pouring from her 
wound.  For a second, the boy almost felt a pang of 
remorse; she really did look nearly human from the waist 
up, and shoving his sword into a woman's gut was not 
something Kyouji enjoyed doing.  Then the Kissable reached 
up for one final attempt to claw at him, and all his doubts 
vanished.  Kyouji shoved his blade in deeper, and her body 
went limp.
 
	The Knight Protector had no time to savour his 
victory; with his sword no longer guarding him from the 
Airhead, the monster had swung a claw for his head.  For a 
second, Kyouji was worried that he had miscalculated and 
that the price would be half his face.
 
	But even if it was too late, he had to at least try to 
do something to defend himself.  Before the blow had 
landed, Kyouji raised his right hand, a poppy in it, and 
jabbed the flower into the attacking limb.  The claw didn't 
even slow down, and the boy's heart skipped a beat.  There 
was nothing else he could do now.  But even as the thought 
passed through his brain, he realized there was one last 
thing to try.
 
	Blue electricity danced up from Kyouji's hand, along 
the stem of the flower, and into the beast.
 
	The monster's attack halted as it tried to pull its 
claw back, away from the source of its pain.  Within 
seconds, its whole body began to thrash.  Foam poured from 
its beak.  Despite this, the Knight Protector held tight to 
the flower, continuing to pour electricity through it until 
a sizzling sound came from somewhere deep inside of the 
Airhead.  Only then did Kyouji let go of the poppy.
 
	The boy turned away from the convulsing Airhead to 
look behind him and see how Tsugiko was doing.  As he did 
so, he finally swatted the Mambo with the flat of his 
blade.  The little being fell to the ground, shrieking 
incoherently.
 
	From above came the words of the woman he'd sliced in 
two.  "You may have killed me, but you'll never manage to 
defeat our Mam...  Okay, now that's just lame.  I admit 
it."
 
	Ignoring Twix, Kyouji stomped on the Mambo with his 
boot.  It continued to twitch, so Kyouji stomped on it a 
second time, and it lay still.
 
	The Knight Protector considered asking the green-clad 
girl if she needed help with the Trident she was glaring 
at, but as none of the creatures seemed to be attacking 
while the staring contest was going on, he decided not to.  
The last thing he wanted to do was distract her.
 
	It was only then that the boy heard a thump from 
behind him as the Airhead finally collapsed in a heap.  The 
smell wafting over to Kyouji was not unlike roast chicken.

>o< >o< >o<
 
	Tsugiko didn't even notice that Kyouji had turned 
around to look at her battle of wills against the Trident 
pack leader.  All of her attention was focused on the 
contest.
 
	She stared at the Trident pack leader for a second 
longer, and she snarled as menacingly as she could.
 
	The Trident's two remaining heads both looked down at 
the ground.  The left one actually whimpered.
 
	"Get out of here," Tsugiko shouted, pointing.  The 
beast got the message, turning to run off into the dying 
forest, and the other half-dozen Tridents followed after 
it.
 
	"I'm glad that wor-" the Warrior Priestess began as 
she turned around, only to stare right into the face of an 
enraged ant-man with a bloody broken nose.

>o< >o< >o<
 
	Yumi glanced around the battlefield.  She was worried.  
Tsugiko and Kyouji had run off, and she could see them 
standing back to back, fighting off foes on all sides.  But 
there were so many!
 
	The Warrior Priestess gasped as she saw a Tictac 
sliding toward Tsugiko.  The other one was close behind.  
Caught in some sort of face-off with the Tridents, the 
dark-haired girl didn't appear to even notice the serpents 
poising themselves to strike.
 
	Yumi unleashed a bolt of pink energy across the fray.  
It passed under the legs of the still unmoving 
Whatchamacallit, hitting home on the Tictac with a blast of 
force.  The Tictacs had already learned to keep away from 
Yumi.  Now she taught them a similar lesson regarding her 
companions.  If either of the snakes approached too close 
to any of the Crystal Warriors, they received another 
painful lesson.  The Tictacs proved to be quick studies, 
and after a while they gave all of the teens a wide berth.  
Still, Yumi tried to keep an eye on them, just in case.
 
	With the rest of her attention, the blonde girl 
surveyed the nearest threats.  Fortunately for her, when 
the other two Crystal Warriors had run off, they'd taken 
the attention of most of the monsters with them.  Most, but 
not all.  A few remained focused on her.
 
	One was the Whatchamacallit, standing serenely amidst 
the carnage.  It did absolutely nothing except observe its 
surroundings, its eyes winking independently of each other.  
Yumi ignored it in favour of curiously observing the 
Maestro wandering toward her.  While many creatures on Mars 
resembled combinations or mutations of Earthly animals, 
this one was like nothing living she had ever seen or even 
heard of.
 
	Yumi's fascination was so great that when the Maestro 
made its attack, she was caught unawares.  One of its legs 
whipped out, the claw catching on the hem of the Warrior 
Priestess' dress and pulling it up and underneath the main 
body.  Yumi staggered forward a couple of steps as she was 
pulled by the end of her clothing.  The clawed leg dragged 
the end of her dress up to a mouth waiting on the underside 
of the table.  The creature's jagged teeth began to chew 
the pink fabric.
 
	"The Maestro's claws are lightning quick," the newly 
revived Twix called down.
 
	"And its jaws are even quicker," added the male one.
 
	"Too bad you're so slow, Yumi."
 
	The pink-clad girl frowned.  She'd always disliked the 
way the summoners did that.  Sure, the information on the 
creatures was helpful and interesting, but they always said 
it in such a teasing way.  "Why are you doing this?" she 
called up, ignoring the monster devouring her hem.
 
	"You killed me," replied the redhead.  "I thought I'd 
return the favour."
 
	"But you're better now," Yumi insisted, absently 
tugging on her dress in a futile attempt to free it from 
the Maestro's grasp.  "So there's no reason to fight us 
anymore!"
 
	Before the Warrior Priestess could get an answer, the 
Beechnut swarm swooped down on her and the Maestro, and any 
reply that either Twix might have provided was drowned out 
by the buzzing.  Yumi instinctively threw up a protective 
wall of pink energy right in front of the dive-bombing 
giant bees, and through its translucent sheen she could see 
the creatures bouncing off it.  A couple had been going so 
fast that the impact injured or killed them; they fell to 
the ground and moved no more.
 
	Yumi felt the tugging on her dress grow more 
insistent.  With the Beechnut swarm repelled for the 
moment, she let her energy shield fade.  The Warrior 
Priestess instead used her powers to shoot a blast of pink 
energy at the Maestro that flipped it right over.  The 
creature landed on its back.  Its legs scrambled helplessly 
in the air, unable to right itself.  The Maestro's gaping 
mouth now faced upward, bits of pink fabric still caught in 
its sharp teeth, but unless anyone was careless enough to 
step on it, it could do no further harm.
 
	"There's no reason for us to fight," Yumi repeated, 
but the summoners were no longer there.

>o< >o< >o<
 
	Kyouji scrambled to his feet.  The male Kissable had 
charged him when he'd been distracted by Tsugiko and the 
Tridents.  He cursed his own stupidity.  Tsugiko had asked 
him to watch her back.  That's what he should have been 
doing.
 
	The boy looked on as the enraged Kissable reared up in 
front of Tsugiko, but before he could rush to her aid, 
something snagged his foot.  Glancing down, he saw that a 
Maestro had wrapped a clawed limb around his leg, and it 
was trying to pull his foot up to the mouth that lurked 
under it.
 
	On his other side, Kyouji saw a Tictac fast 
approaching.  Yumi's lessons in caution must have worn off.  
The cobra-like creature had already shed its outer skin, 
and now its two inner tails thrashed menacingly.  Kyouji 
remembered that these creatures could both breathe flame 
and emit green clouds of acid.  This one preferred the 
latter form of attack.  A puff of acidic breath emerged 
from the creature, hanging in the air.
 
	With a roar, Kyouji grabbed hold of the Maestro and 
twirled it around him.  He hurled the peculiar creature at 
the Tictac.  Since the table-monster still had his leg 
entangled, the move caused him to fall over again, but the 
boy didn't care.
 
	As the Maestro collided with the Tictac, its body 
passed through the deadly acid.  Steam began to rise from 
the Maestro, and it screamed horribly.  Its leather 
exterior peeled off and evaporated.  No longer held 
together, whatever remained undissolved of its internal 
organs and bizarre skeletal structure collapsed to the 
ground in a heap amidst the stubs of its legs.
 
	Kyouji didn't bother pulling the now disembodied 
Maestro leg off his shin.  His only priority was backing 
away from the Tictac as fast as he could.
 
	It was then that he noticed the other Tictac, still 
mostly green, closing in on him from the opposite side.

>o< >o< >o<
 
	The Kissable grabbed Tsugiko's warhammer before she 
could react, but instead of using it against her, the 
golden beast tossed it aside.
 
	"Fine with me," the Warrior Priestess said.  Both of 
her fists were enveloped in coronas of green fire as she 
swung an uppercut at its jaw, dislocating it.  The 
creature's flesh burned where she had struck it.
 
	The monster roared and struck back with a roundhouse 
that left Tsugiko's head ringing.  "That the way you want 
it?" she spat.  The dark-haired girl blinked rapidly, 
trying to focus on the ant-man, but to no avail.  Her 
vision remained cloudy.  Still, her target was large enough 
that she could just aim for the blur and hope for the best.  
As she swung again and again, her knuckles leaving burn 
marks up and down its body, its counterattacks ceased.  She 
pressed her attack, throwing punch after punch, and she 
wasn't sure if the blood on her knuckles as the creature's 
or her own.  She no longer felt any pain.  There was only 
the fight.
 
	With a squeal, the monster collapsed, falling onto its 
side.  Tsugiko stood over it, breathing heavily, her heart 
still pounding.  She might have remained there for hours, 
but she knew that this battle was far from over.
 
	"Yumi!  My eyes!"  Tsugiko shouted, and from somewhere 
a pink glow bathed her, clearing her vision.  The green-
clad girl looked down at the ant-man and was surprised at 
just how much of its chest and face had been reduced to 
horribly swollen and blistered flesh.
 
	The Warrior Priestess grabbed her warhammer and headed 
back into the fray.  Ducking past a floating bubble 
produced by the Whatchamacallit- something she knew from 
experience would trap anyone it touched- she swung her 
mallet first to one side and then the other, discouraging a 
pair of Airheads from advancing on her  The avian humanoids 
allowed her to pass unmolested.
 
	"Okay, what the Hell is that thing?" she asked as she 
came across what she could only regard as a vaguely 
menacing table.
 
	"It's a Maestro," supplied a not-particularly-helpful 
female voice from above.  "Its claws can-"
 
	"Don't care," interrupted the Warrior Priestess.  Her 
hammer smashed down on the Maestro from above, its legs 
splaying out in all directions.  She gave it another couple 
of whacks for good measure, then hurried on.

>o< >o< >o<
 
	Yumi stared at the Beechnut swarm.  She'd been trying 
to pick them off one by one with blasts from her wand, but 
over a dozen remained facing her.  And her shield was 
weakening.  She'd used up too much energy healing Tsugiko.
 
	The pink-clad girl remembered the first time she had 
faced a Beechnut.  Just one of them had been a threat back 
then.  Like Tsugiko had been today, Kyouji had been impaled 
upon one of those vicious stingers, and only Yumi's nascent 
powers had allowed him to survive.
 
	The Warrior Priestess' emerging abilities had allowed 
her to do something else in that battle.  The blonde girl 
remembered the feeling of energy growing within her, fueled 
by a burst of unfamiliar rage, then pouring out and 
obliterating the Beechnut.  Not even dust had remained.
 
	The Warrior Priestess felt that same rage now.  This 
whole battle was so *pointless*.  Twix had been brought 
back to life.  There was no need for all this violence.  
There was no need for anyone to get *hurt*.
 
	As the swarm of Beechnuts flew down for another pass 
at Yumi, she didn't bother shooting bolts of energy from 
her wand.  Instead, she let her head fill with painful 
images.  Tsugiko, blood pouring down from above her chest.  
Kyouji, his stomach torn open.
 
	The girl's face set firmly.  She didn't frown or 
snarl.  She merely looked resolute.  But in her blue eyes, 
a fire burned.
 
	If the Beechnuts had possessed any sort of ancestral 
memory, they might have known what to make of it when Yumi 
began to emit a pink glow from her entire body.  But they 
did not, and so they did not recognize that their brief 
existence was about to come to an end.

>o< >o< >o<
 
	Kyouji twirled about.  No matter which direction he 
faced, a Tictac barred his path.  His best bet was the one 
that retained its outer layer; its single tail would be 
easier to dodge.
 
	The Knight Protector shook his head.  Even with one 
tail, a Tictac was formidable, and he wasn't sure he could 
get past it without running into a cloud of acid that would 
melt him as easily as it had the Maestro.  Not even his 
speed could help him if the very air around him would 
dissolve the flesh from his bones and then dissolve the 
bones themselves for good measure.
 
	Kyouji sheathed his sword.  There was only option open 
where the odds of his survival were competitive with those 
of his being crushed, melted, chomped, burned, or 
suffocated.  And he didn't feel like backing a dark horse 
contender.
 
	The boy crouched, closing his eyes, ignoring his 
attackers.  The Knight Protector winced as he felt the dull 
pain in his foot, the stinging of the slashes in his face, 
and all the aching muscles in his body, and then he drove 
them all from his mind.
 
	Instead, Kyouji recalled something Tsugiko had said to 
him earlier.  He clung to her words, recalling the feeling 
they'd given him.  Sure, he may have screwed up more times 
than he could count, but he'd taken on a damn army all by 
himself- almost- and he'd won.  And he was not going to let 
a few snakes take him down.  As the unfamiliar feelings of 
pride and confidence surged in him, he felt his power 
rising up.
 
	The Tictacs, meanwhile, sensed none of this.  All they 
knew was that their target was weaponless and in a 
vulnerable stance.  They closed in, and clouds of green 
death drifted towards him from each of their mouths.
 
	The Knight Protector began to glow a gentle blue.  His 
cape whipped out behind him, and from nowhere a wind began 
to howl.  The lethal puffs of breath dissipated as the air 
suddenly became violently agitated.  The Tictacs glanced 
over at one another in confusion.
 
	Kyouji's eyes snapped open.

>o< >o< >o<
 
	"Great, another table of death," Tsugiko muttered, 
readying to demolish it as quickly as she had the previous 
one.  But before she could do so, she noticed that it was 
not alone.  Four Airheads were right behind it, their beaks 
clattering in what might have been a threatening manner.
 
	"You know what?  I've had it.  I've been insulted; 
I've been stung; I've gotten into a freaking boxing match 
with an ant-guy.  I am through with this."
 
	Green flames burned from every pore in Tsugiko's body.  
She held her warhammer out, the head aimed at the group of 
summoned monsters, and it too developed a corona of emerald 
power.
 
	The assembled beasts tried to scramble out of the way, 
but it was far, far too late.

>o< >o< >o<
 
	Floating above the battleground, the two summoners 
watched their creations at work.
 
	"How much longer do you think it will take?" the 
redhead asked.
 
	"I'm sure one of them will-  What is it?"
 
	The female Twix pointed downward.  "Look!"
 
	At three separate spots on the battlefield, brightly 
coloured points of light were flaring amidst the gloom of 
the dead forest.  Twix's head whipped about from one to the 
other, uncertain where to direct his gaze.
 
	The first source of light was a raging green fire, and 
it was only after staring into the flames for a second that 
Twix saw the faint trace of a girl within.  Despite the 
impossibility of making out specific details, the summoner 
could imagine the look on Tsugiko's face, and he shuddered.
 
	The source of the second was more readily discernible, 
for it was as though the light itself had somehow been 
shaped into the form of a girl.  Pink brilliance formed 
arms and legs, hips and breast, head and streaming strands 
of hair that were each brighter than the sun.  That the 
form had any material component, any flesh or bone within 
that body of light, was difficult to believe, and perhaps 
right then Yumi did not.
 
	The third was the most human in appearance.  He was 
still recognizably a dark-haired boy wearing a blue outfit.  
And yet, from beneath the cape whipping behind him spilled 
a light that suggested he was hiding a blue sun in the 
small of his back.  Light leaked down and out from his 
back, but that alone would not have made Kyouji shine as 
brightly as he did.  No, it was the material lining the 
cape that did that.  It reflected the illumination outward 
in all directions while it twisted and fluttered.  And as 
Twix stared, he saw that Kyouji was smiling.
 
	Then all three exploded.
 
	The green flame shot forward, as if someone had 
quickly poured a highly flammable liquid on the ground in 
front of it and then had poured an awful lot more on the 
four Airheads and one Maestro.  The creatures did not 
appear as immune to the effect of being within the inferno 
as Tsugiko was.  The screams of the creatures and the scent 
of burning were all that emerged.
 
	At the same time, the pink light lost all pretense of 
maintaining human form.  Legs and arms and features melted 
away.  What remained was a beam of energy that shot 
forward, expanding as it went.  It was only after a second 
that Twix realized that Yumi's physical body was still 
standing there on the ground, left behind by her emanation 
of pure power.  The energy flew through the air, enveloping 
the Beechnut swarm, and when it had passed, there was 
nothing left of any of them.
 
	As the pink light had seemed to shed all trace of 
material form, the blue light had gained it.  The rays of 
energy pouring out from Kyouji's back were suddenly no 
longer mere beams of illumination.  They were a swarm of 
poppies, pouring forth from behind him, bouncing against 
his cape and flying in all directions.  Twix could only 
compare what he was seeing to what it might look like if 
someone planted an explosive inside of a greenhouse, but 
even then, the flowers would simply have been strewn.  Each 
of these flew true, stem extended, a perfect missile.  The 
two Tictacs resembled pincushions, and trees as far as 
twenty feet away from the boy were covered in poppies, each 
one embedded up to its petals.
 
	The sight of it all, the green and pink and blue, 
blinded Twix.  With a grunt, he held up a hand to protect 
his eyes, covering them with the Codex Ares.  He heard his 
sister curse as she too tried to shield herself from the 
glare.
 
	And just that quickly, it was over.

>o< >o< >o<
 
	"Did we win?" Tsugiko asked.  She twirled about, 
hammer at the ready, searching for any remaining targets.  
Aside from Yumi and Kyouji similarly surveying the 
battlefield, all that she could see was the Whatchamacallit 
standing a ways off.  It opened its mouth lazily and a red 
bubble floated out.
 
	Everything else was gone.
 
	"I think we did," Kyouji called back.  His clothing 
was torn and blood poured from cuts on his cheek, but he 
smiled.
 
	"Curses!" cried two voices in unison.  The Crystal 
Warriors all looked up at the source of the noise.
 
	"Please, stop fighting," Yumi called.  "It's over 
now."
 
	"Yeah, we don't want to hurt you," Kyouji said.  His 
voice was genuinely imploring, and Tsugiko blinked in 
surprise.  Kyouji may not have hated the twins as much as 
she did, but she certainly didn't recall him liking them 
*that* much, not even when the summoners had allied with 
the Crystal Warriors.  Then the green-clad girl understood; 
Kyouji had killed the girl-Twix once already.  He wasn't 
looking forward to doing it again.
 
	"But we will if we have to," Tsugiko added.  She 
hefted her hammer for good measure.
 
	"Your powers are exhausted," replied the redheaded 
Twix.
 
	"Care to bet on that?"
 
	"Besides," added the Knight Protector, "you're tired 
too.  I heard how much trouble you had during those last 
few summons."
 
	"It seems that we are at an impasse," the grey-haired 
twin mused.  "We shall return later, when our powers have-"
 
	"Hey!" shouted Kyouji.  His voice was filled with 
alarm.
 
	Tsugiko spun around.  She raised her warhammer into 
position, ready to smash whatever was attacking her friend.  
What she saw almost made her snicker.  "I don't believe 
it," she muttered.
 
	The Knight Protector was struggling with a red bubble 
that had already enveloped his left arm.  The boy's 
attempts to pull the bubble off only resulted in his other 
hand being caught as well.  Within seconds, it had 
enveloped him completely.

>o< >o< >o<
 
	Kyouji thrashed about as the bubble swallowed more and 
more of his limbs.  At first it constricted his actions, 
holding him in a twisted position, but as it spread over 
his body, he found that being trapped entirely inside it 
actually freed him.
 
	The bubble didn't stop growing once it had entrapped 
the boy.  It continued to expand until it was nearly 
fifteen feet in diameter, forming a red dome over top of 
him.  Had Kyouji's earlier attack not blasted a clearing 
around him, the bubble would have had to either absorb or 
circumnavigate trees, but as it was, it formed a perfect 
hemisphere empty of all save the Knight Protector.  Beneath 
him, a thin filmy layer of red covered the dirt.
 
	Kyouji pulled out his sword and charged at the 
barrier.  As he had expected, his attack accomplished 
nothing.  The bubble was slightly elastic, and the point of 
his blade pushed it outward a short ways.  But he was 
unable to penetrate it, and as he pushed harder, he 
exceeded the amount it would give.  The red barrier snapped 
back, shoving Kyouji away.
 
	"Okay, that won't work."  Kyouji winced.  Stumbling 
backward hadn't helped his injured foot any.  The throbbing 
in his toes flared up.
 
	The Whatchamacallit's bubble was tough to penetrate, 
but it was not invulnerable.  Tsugiko had been trapped 
within one, in their very first battle on Mars, and she had 
escaped by discovering the Crystal Warriors' ability to 
unleash a wave of explosive energy.
 
	"Great."  Kyouji sat down.  Through his pants, he 
could feel that the red coating was slightly sticky.  "A 
big blast of energy.  Right."
 
	Kyouji felt drained.  His obliteration of the Tictacs 
had used up all of his stored energy.  He had none left.
 
	The boy took a deep breath.  His energy came from his 
emotion.  To get more energy, he needed more emotion.  It 
was simple.
 
	He checked first for those feelings of newfound 
confidence that had served him just a few moments earlier.  
But while he still felt proud of what he had achieved on 
the beach in Ganache, it wasn't enough anymore.  The 
feelings were a warm glow within him.  He needed a fire.
 
	The boy turned to worry for the Warrior Priestesses 
next.  This bubble was far more opaque than the one Tsugiko 
had once been trapped in.  He could just make out tall 
shadows that he assumed were trees.  Staring hard, he saw a 
couple of moving blobs among them, which might have been 
Yumi and Tsugiko or might have been a trick of the light.
 
	"Are they in danger?" he asked.  He turned deep within 
himself, accessing the instincts of the Knight Protector, 
but they were quiet.  Either the girls were not in danger, 
or it was beyond his ability to sense from in here.  Kyouji 
tried to fill his mind with the latter possibility, 
envisioning the girls in heated battles with another wave 
of monsters summoned by the Twixes.  But he just didn't 
believe it.  He'd seen how exhausted the twins had been 
from calling forth dozens of monsters.  If they could 
manage to summon anything at all, he'd be surprised if it 
was more threatening than a Cherry Mash.
 
	"Maybe the twins themselves are a threat?" he 
muttered, remembering the female Twix's attempt at stabbing 
Tsugiko in the back.  But the Warrior Priestess had been 
distracted; ordinarily the summoners were no match for the 
Crystal Warriors in direct combat.
 
	No, the girls just weren't in danger.  He found 
himself amused at what he was doing.  Normally, thinking of 
Yumi and Tsugiko imperiled was the last thing he wanted to 
do.  His nightmares were haunted by images of them in 
jeopardy.  And now, when he was trying to do just that, he 
couldn't make it convincing.  "Isn't that just like me?"
 
	Perhaps angst would work, or self-loathing.  In the 
past, they had been his most reliable means to access his 
powers.  Whenever he needed strong emotion, he had merely 
to reflect on all of his screw-ups and let the negative 
feelings rise.  But, to his surprise, the Knight Protector 
found that neither of them were forthcoming in great 
quantities either.  He'd picked Yumi, and while he 
continued to screw up, he was making good progress.  He'd 
stopped hesitating or second-guessing that decision, and 
was making an honest attempt at getting their relationship 
to work.  And while it had hurt Tsugiko, in the end it was 
for the best.
 
	"Great, I'm finally well-adjusted right when I don't 
want to be."  Kyouji snickered.
 
	Then another idea occurred to him.  "Got any advice, 
Teru?"  But there was no reply.
 
	The boy looked around at what was, for the moment, the 
entirety of his world.  It seemed entirely unlikely to be 
an interesting place to pass the time, though at least it 
was quiet.  No noise passed through the barrier.
 
	No noise and no air!  Kyouji remembered with a start 
that the Whatchamacallit's bubble was airtight.  He would 
suffocate if he stayed inside for too long.
 
	The Knight Protector again turned to his powers, 
trying to fan the spark of fear that he was feeling until 
it would allow him the power to exit.  But the danger was 
too distant.  He was afraid, but he wasn't terrified.  The 
bubble probably had at least an hour's worth of air left.
 
	Kyouji reached up to rub the back of his neck.  An 
hour of air.  There had to be a way to extend that.  He'd 
heard of meditative techniques that might help, but he 
didn't know any of them.  All he could think of was that 
he'd use up less air if he remained calm.
 
	"Well, that's not my problem.  The problem is that I'm 
*too* calm."  He glanced around.  "You sure you're not up 
for some conversation, Teru?  I feel kind of silly just 
talking to myself."
 
	Then he had an idea.  His powers were at a low ebb, 
far too low for him to unleash a wave of power.  But he had 
enough that he could attempt another trick.
 
	The Knight Protector's abilities allowed him to move 
quickly by speeding up time for him.  If they could do 
that, maybe they could also slow it down.  That way, he'd 
use up the air less quickly while he waited for Yumi and 
Tsugiko to get him out of this.  Shaking his head, he 
couldn't help but snicker as he realized that he had pretty 
much given up hope of escaping without the aid of his 
friends.
 
	Most of the Knight Protector's more advanced 
techniques had been learned through a combination of 
instinct, desperation, and mystical insight.  They had been 
mad gambits seized upon in the heat of battle.  Later on, 
Kyouji had been able to repeat them by recalling that 
initial moment of sudden, decisive action.
 
	This time, he had to try to figure it out for himself, 
calmly and deliberately.  It proved much harder.  For long 
minutes, Kyouji sat there, feeling foolish as he tried to 
will time itself to bend to his will.  But there was 
nothing better to do, he reminded himself, and if he was 
unable to do so, no one but he would ever know.  Well, 
possibly Teru would too.  His previous incarnation always 
seemed well-versed on his failures, even if she was silent 
while they were actually occurring.
 
	Kyouji focused on the heady rush of time speeding up 
that he had felt on multiple occasions.  But instead of 
embracing it, he examined it from a distance, turning it 
over and over in his mind.  He didn't understand it, by any 
means, but he tried to feel it, how it worked, what was 
involved.  And gradually, on levels that he couldn't 
possibly explain, he began to know *how* he could speed up 
his own personal time-speed.
 
	When he was satisfied that he had prepared all he 
could, he set himself to the real task.  He twisted the 
process he had been studying, both keeping it the same and 
yet making it utterly the opposite.
 
	And then, all at once, Kyouji thought he could feel it 
happening.  He had no frame of reference in his unchanging 
red dome, but he somehow knew that the world around him was 
moving much faster.  And even though he still felt that 
time was passing normally for him, he somehow knew that it 
was not.  He was slowing, slowing, 
slooowwwwiiiiiiinnnnnnnnggggggggggggg.
 
	Kyouji had no idea how long he had been sitting there, 
either in his own personal timeline or according to the 
world outside.  Nothing changed.  He breathed in and out, 
using up one breath of air after another, but he was 
certain he'd reduced the rate significantly.
 
	And then he was not alone.
 
	The beige blur appeared suddenly, just within the red 
barrier, and then shot toward the boy as if propelled from 
a cannon.  Kyouji would never have had time to roll out of 
the way, but it proved unnecessary.  The new arrival 
stopped short of him.
 
	Kyouji blinked.  He thought that he could make out a 
humanoid shape within the blur.  With a groan, he realized 
what was happening.  He had slowed himself down to the 
point where normal people would appear to be moving almost 
too fast to be seen, and even standing still, their slight 
motions would render them a blur.
 
	The Knight Protector realized that maintaining his 
slowed time rate had become automatic.  Forcing himself to 
become conscious of the effort it was taking, he willed it 
to stop.  With a sudden snap, normal time resumed.
 
	Kyouji instantly wished it hadn't.
 
	The blur mere feet in front of the boy had resolved 
itself into Wintergreen herself.  The Dark Queen stood in 
front of him, and he was utterly cut off from either 
retreat or reinforcement.
 
	The fear that Kyouji had been unable to find earlier 
was suddenly all too available.  His heart was trip 
hammering.  He felt its power course through him, but 
escaping the bubble was now the least of his worries.
 
	And alongside the fear was something else, something 
Kyouji remembered from the very first time he had seen an 
image of Wintergreen.  As much as he hated her, as terrible 
and terrifying as she was, something about her made him 
want to bow in submission and serve her forevermore.
 
	He ignored the emotions she elicited in him.  He had a 
more pressing concern, and that was survival.  In a single 
motion, Kyouji leaped to his feet.  His sword was in his 
hand seemingly without it having to be drawn.
 
	"What are you doing here?" the Knight Protector asked.  
It was a stupid question, he knew, but it was the only 
thing he could think of to say.
 
	"I have come to see you, Knight Protector," said the 
Dark Queen, her voice surprisingly gentle.  There seemed 
almost to be a twinkle visible in her eyes where they were 
exposed beneath her green hair, and her mouth was drawn 
into a smile that would have been pleasant if not for the 
prominent fangs.  "I want to save your life."

>o< >o< >o<
 
	As the growing red bubble devoured her boyfriend, Yumi 
felt fear rise within her.  "Kyouji!" she screamed.
 
	Tsugiko took off at a dead run, heading for the Knight 
Protector, but by the time she'd covered the distance, he 
had already been completely swallowed by a fifteen foot 
wide dome.  The blonde girl could hear her former roommate 
hurling curses as she smashed at the barrier with her 
warhammer, to no avail.
 
	"It seems the odds have shifted in our favour," 
commented the male Twix.  He and his twin hovered directly 
overhead.
 
	"Please let Kyouji go," Yumi begged.  "He didn't mean 
to hurt you-"
 
	"Kill me," corrected the woman in question.
 
	Giving up on attacking the bubble directly, Tsugiko 
turned and ran toward the monster that had created it.  
"No!" shouted Yumi, but it was evident that the other girl 
wasn't listening.  Already she was moving her hammer into 
an offensive position.
 
	The pink-clad Warrior Priestess aimed her wand and 
concentrated.  A wall of pink energy materialized between 
Tsugiko and the Watchamacallit, blocking the girl's attack.
 
	The dark-haired warrior skidded to a stop.  "Hey!"
 
	Yumi ran toward her friend, almost tripping as her 
half-eaten dress tangled between her legs.  "Tsugiko!  
Wait!  If you hurt the Whatchamacallit, the bubble will 
shrink and Kyouji will suffocate!"
 
	"Dammit.  Isn't there anything we can do?"
 
	"We have to convince Twix and Twix to let Kyouji go."  
The wall, no longer needed, dissolved back into 
nothingness.
 
	"Oh, I'll convince them alright."  Tsugiko gave a 
feral grin.  "Duck."
 
	Without thinking, Yumi did as she was told.  Her move 
came not a second too soon, as the other Warrior Priestess 
hurled her warhammer right through where Yumi's head had 
been.  It continued onward and upward, leaving a trail of 
green fire scribbled across the heavens, a skywriter with 
nothing to say.
 
	A crashing sound echoed in the dead forest as the 
mallet smashed into the male Twix.  "Ahhh!"  The pain in 
his voice made Yumi wince.  The summoner hurled end over 
end through the sky, dropping the book he was holding as he 
turned upside down.
 
	"Brother!" cried the resurrected Twix, flying after 
him.
 
	"Get the book," Tsugiko shouted, shoving past her 
fellow Warrior Priestess and breaking into a sprint toward 
the falling tome.
 
	Yumi spun around and raced in pursuit.  She had always 
been faster than her roommate during gym class back at St. 
Hebereke, and it seemed she still was.  She drew alongside 
the green-clad girl and then passed her.  Yumi's breathing 
was becoming ragged, and perspiration dotted her forehead.  
If the leather-bound volume had been farther than a few 
dozen metres away, she would never have been able to 
maintain this speed the entire distance.
 
	The book hit the ground with a thud before either 
Warrior Priestess reached it.
 
	Yumi dove down, scooping it up, when Tsugiko rammed 
into her from behind.  Both girls ended up in a tangle of 
arms and legs, but the book was still clutched in the 
blonde girl's hands.
 
	As the Warrior Priestesses extricated themselves from 
their predicament, it became clear that the Twixes had done 
the same.  "Return the Codex Ares," demanded both summoners 
in unison.  The male one was flying a good distance higher 
than he had been.  Clearly, Tsugiko's warhammer was not 
something Twix was eager to re-experience anytime soon.
 
	"Only if you free Kyouji!" Yumi replied, and Tsugiko 
nodded.
 
	The female Twix flew up to confer with her brother.  
When they had finished their brief huddle, the redhead 
replied, "If your boyfriend dies, next time we attack, you 
won't be able to survive.  We can get the Codex back then."
 
	"Fine, then leave," Tsugiko said.  Yumi was shocked 
that her friend would say such a thing.  Didn't she care 
about Kyouji at all?
 
	"We..."  The female turned to her brother for 
assistance.
 
	There was a long pause.  Then the other summoner said 
smoothly, "We want to stay here and watch him die."
 
	"Ha."  Tsugiko snickered.  "They're not about to let 
that book out of their sight."
 
	"That's not true.  We can leave anytime we want to."  
The grey-haired Twix crossed his arms.
 
	"We just don't want to," added the redhead.
 
	"Not right now."
 
	"Yes."
 
	Tsugiko let out an exasperated grunt.  "I can't take 
this right now.  Should I just knock some sense into them?"
 
	"Do that, and we can kill our Whatchamacallit."  The 
male Twix's manner was a good deal more confident now.  He 
wasn't bluffing.
 
	"The bubble will shrink so fast, it will crush your 
boyfriend's bones."
 
	"He's her boyfriend, not mine," groused the dark-
haired girl.  She started to rub at her forehead.  "Listen, 
I don't feel up to dealing with a stand-off right now.  Can 
you handle them while I go take another crack at that 
bubble?  I think I was making progress."
 
	"Really?"  Yumi filled with hope.
 
	"Nah.  I just want to smash something, and if it can't 
be them," Tsugiko said, indicating the summoners, "it might 
as well be that."
 
	Yumi nodded reluctantly.  "Okay."
 
	Tsugiko stalked off toward the red dome, pausing only 
to shout up to the floating summoners, "I'll be keeping an 
eye on you!"
 
	There was a moment's silence in her wake, before Yumi 
said softly, "I don't understand."
 
	"What are you talking about?"  The male Twix hovered 
lower now that the warhammer-wielding Priestess was gone.
 
	"I just don't understand why you're doing this," the 
girl repeated more loudly.  "You turned away from 
Wintergreen before."
 
	"That's true," replied the redhead.  She followed her 
brother downward.  "And we found out what that led to.  We 
were pursued, shunned, never allowed a moment's peace."
 
	"Even when we were children, living on the streets, 
life was more tolerable," added the other summoner.
 
	"It turns out there's something worse than being 
ignored."
 
	"Being hunted."
 
	"Is that why you're doing this?  So Wintergreen will 
stop hunting you?"  Yumi shook her head.  She knew that 
people sided with the Dark Queen out of fear or greed, but 
she had never comprehended it.  The blonde girl had 
certainly known both emotions, but she could not imagine 
them being so bad that she would betray every principle she 
had.
 
	"We already told you.  This is about revenge."  It was 
the redhead who answered.  "It really isn't that hard to 
fathom."
 
	"But *why*?" the Warrior Priestess insisted.  "It 
doesn't make sense.  You're *better* now."
 
	"So?  Your boyfriend killed me, Yumi."
 
	"I can only imagine what my sister felt when she was 
torn in two.  The pain she felt must have been unbearable."
 
	"I'm sorry."  The blonde girl really did feel guilty.  
"I haven't ever been through something that bad, but it 
must have been terrible.  I know that.  I'm really sorry 
Kyouji hurt you.  And I know he is too."
 
	"Do you think that's enough to make it all better?"  
The redhead shook her head.
 
	"But it is all better!"  Yumi pointed up at her.  
"You're okay now.  Everything's okay now."
 
	The summoner chuckled darkly.  "Just because I came 
back to life, it doesn't mean I never died."
 
	"But you're not dead," the Warrior Priestess 
practically wailed.  Why couldn't they see that?  Twix 
wasn't dead, and if she wasn't dead, then she hadn't died, 
not *really*.
 
	"My sister may be alive once more, but that doesn't 
erase what happened."
 
	"If nothing else," added the redhead, "it's an 
insult."
 
	"An insult?"  Yumi felt her head swim.  Nothing the 
summoners were saying made any sense.
 
	"Yes.  An insult."  The female Twix crossed her arms.  
"We are the most powerful summoners on Mars.  We may be the 
most powerful summoners who ever lived.  We should be 
respected.  People should know that we *matter*."
 
	"And it used to be that way," added her brother.  "No 
one dared to ignore or displease us, except Wintergreen 
herself.  We had everything we'd ever wanted."
 
	"But then you came along.  You beat our monsters again 
and again, until we were a laughingstock.  One by one, we 
lost our respect, our positions, everything, until we were 
on the run like common criminals."
 
	"And just when we thought there was not another 
indignity left for us to endure-"  The male Twix looked 
over at his sister.
 
	"I got killed."  She pointed at her waist.  "I got 
chopped in half.  You know, I've been forced put up with a 
lot in my life, but that's going too far."
 
	Yumi sighed.  She hated when people held grudges like 
that.  If something was an accident, the proper thing to do 
was forgive and forget, especially when there was no real 
harm done.
 
	Still, the girl resolved not to let their bad mood 
spoil her own.  The fact that Twix was alive was cause for 
cheer, even if the summoner was their enemy.  Maybe one 
day, the twins would realize that the Knight Protector's 
attack hadn't done any real harm in the end.  And it was 
fortunate that that was so, because the alternative, if 
Kyouji really had killed Twix, was something that the girl 
didn't even want to consider anymore.  The weeks when she 
had thought that was the case, when she had had to struggle 
to keep the dark truth out of her mind so that she could 
still function normally, already seemed like nothing more 
than a nightmare, and Yumi was awake now.

>o< >o< >o<
 
	 "If you face me, you will die."  Wintergreen's words 
contained no hint of either boast or threat.  They were a 
simple statement of fact.
 
	"How do you know that?" Kyouji said.  He still held 
his sword at the ready, but now that he had had time to get 
over his initial shock, he noticed that Wintergreen did not 
appear ready for combat.  She did not have her Spear of 
Mint with her, and that alone suggested to Kyouji that she 
had a purpose in coming here other than killing him.  While 
she was a formidable foe even without it, there would 
simply be no point in her forfeiting the advantage her 
principal weapon gave her.
 
	For that matter, she was not dressed in armour either.  
True, he had seen her in battle in other outfits- she had 
been wearing an exquisite black evening gown in the vision 
he had had of Teru's death- but now she wore a plain beige 
dress.  It was somehow difficult to picture her deciding to 
wipe out her archenemies in such a humble outfit.  While 
her bearing remained as regal as ever, the simple clothing 
gave her an air of humanity that he had never before 
associated with her.
 
	Wintergreen's smile left her face.  "I know it because 
it is fated that it be so," she said, and there was venom 
in her tone now.  But not, Kyouji realized, directed at 
him.  When she continued, her voice had returned to the 
previous gentleness.  "There is much you need to learn, 
Knight Protector."
 
	"Okay, I'd gotten used to every inn and boat on Mars 
having somebody just waiting to tell me about Fate and the, 
uh, Wheel of Fortune or whatever, but I never thought I'd 
get this lecture from you."  Kyouji reached up his left 
hand to rub at his neck, but the right still held the sword 
poised.
 
	Wintergreen tilted her head to look at his blade.  
"Put your weapon down and let us speak as civilized 
people."  She waved her bare arm at the sword, and Kyouji 
was startled to see it pass right through the blade.  "It 
cannot harm me."
 
	Kyouji's sword hand shook.  He tried to steady his 
nerves.  "I can, uh, I can make a blast of energy-"
 
	Wintergreen's eyes bore into him from behind her hair.  
"It cannot harm me because I am not truly here, Knight 
Protector."
 
	This revelation filled the boy with renewed 
confidence, almost enough to make his heart stop pounding.  
He sheathed his sword reluctantly, missing the irrational 
confidence boost just holding it gave him, however useless 
it was in fact.  "You're, uh, just inside my mind?"  Teru 
occasionally manifested in the form of an apparition that 
only he could see and hear, so he was used to that.
 
	"No.  This image of me is truly appearing here.  Were 
your companions about, they would be able to see it as 
well."
 
	Kyouji nodded.  "So, why are you, well, sending an 
image to talk to me and not them?"
 
	"So little confidence in yourself, Knight Protector."  
The Dark Queen made a "tsk" sound with her tongue, as if 
she was disappointed in Kyouji.  "Perhaps I find you a 
worthier foe.  Perhaps I find you more... interesting."  
The image of Wintergreen circled him, surveying him from 
all angles.  "I have seen and fought Warrior Priestesses in 
my long years, but you are the first Knight Protector I 
have ever encountered.  Perhaps you are the first one there 
has ever been."
 
	"People have heard of them before," the boy pointed 
out.
 
	"Yes," Wintergreen agreed.  "It was a good choice."
 
	"What?"  Kyouji felt his head swimming.
 
	"Being a Knight Protector.  It suits you."  
Wintergreen finished her circuit, facing him head-on again.  
"And it shows we are kindred spirits, Knight Protector.  We 
share something that no other who has ever walked the face 
of this accursed planet truly can lay claim to."
 
	Kyouji felt his stomach lurch.  The thought that 
Wintergreen would compare him to herself like that made him 
physically ill.  Forcing his gorge down, he managed to 
choke out, "What could I have, what could I possibly have 
in common with you?"
 
	"We have sought to defy the rules and dictates of 
Fate, Knight Protector," said the Dark Queen, raising an 
insubstantial hand to rub against his blood encrusted 
cheek.  Her fingers traced the wounds the Kissable had left 
there, and though Kyouji knew he could not feel her touch, 
still he shivered.  "And we have been successful!"
 
	"I never wanted, what you said, I never cared about 
any rules of Fate!" Kyouji protested, stepping back, away 
from the intangible caress.
 
	"Don't lie to me, boy," hissed Wintergreen, and all 
trace of gentility was gone.
 
	"I-"  As he stared at her face, Kyouji felt himself 
being drawn in.  Behind the ever-concealing hair lurked two 
pits, endlessly deep.  He forced himself to look away, down 
at her hands.  "I don't understand."
 
	"Fate decreed three Warrior Priestesses, as Fate 
always has and always will.  Yet here you stand, Knight 
Protector."
 
	"I thought you killed Fate, killed the Temple Spirit."  
The boy kept looking at her hands, unwilling to look the 
Dark Queen in the eyes again just yet.
 
	Wintergreen gave a cold chuckle.  "The Temple Spirit 
was a manifestation of Fate.  Her death weakens Fate's hold 
on this planet, at least for a while.  But she is not Fate 
itself."  Again Wintergreen laughed.  "If she were, I'd 
have dispatched her long ago, and had a far more pleasant 
existence."
 
	"How can you just laugh about killing her like that?" 
Kyouji demanded, and now he found that he did have the 
courage to look her in the eye.
 
	"Are your hands bloodless?  Somewhere nearby is a 
woman dead by your hands."
 
	Kyouji resumed rubbing the back of his neck, a nervous 
gesture, but he kept his gaze firmly on Wintergreen's eyes.  
"Yeah, I killed her.  But it was an accident, and at least 
I feel guilty about it."
 
	Wintergreen slowly nodded.  "All those deaths you've 
caused, and that's all you have to say for yourself?  That 
you feel guilty?"
 
	"Yeah.  But it's more than you can say."
 
	"I know what I am, Knight Protector.  I consider that 
a virtue."
 
	"Yeah?"  Kyouji felt himself becoming angry at this 
woman.  Trying to destroy Mars was bad enough, but her 
casual manner somehow made it all worse.  "What is that?"
 
	"An upstart."
 
	It was not an answer the boy had been expecting.  "An 
upstart?"
 
	"Do you think I am powerful, Knight Protector?"  
Wintergreen did not wait for an answer before continuing.  
"My enemy is a planet, and its chief ally is Fate.  Or 
perhaps they are one and the same.  Against that 
opposition, I am humble and unworthy."  The Dark Queen 
gestured at herself.  Her uncharacteristic outfit seemed to 
echo her point.  "But I do not accept my place."
 
	The Knight Protector felt his anger surging.  
Wintergreen had sent legion after legion of monsters, 
sorcerers, warriors, and soldiers against him and his 
companions.  Time and time again, Yumi and Tsugiko had been 
hurt and almost killed as this madwoman sought to achieve 
her megalomaniacal ends, and here she was trying to justify 
her actions as... what?  A defiant stand against the odds?  
How dare she, he seethed.  "So you're going to kill us to 
prove it," he said, the rage in his voice barely held in 
check.
 
	"Quite the contrary, Knight Protector.  Killing you 
proves nothing except that Fate's plan continues 
endlessly."  Wintergreen placed her right hand on her hip, 
a slightly coquettish pose that made Kyouji's skin crawl, 
and she bared her teeth and fangs in a smile again.  "When 
you and I meet in final battle, it is possible that you may 
defeat me.  But you can never destroy me.  I shall survive 
to renew my grand design.  You and the Warrior Priestesses 
shall not be so fortunate.  You shall die.  *That* is 
Fate's plan."
 
	"And you have a better one?" Kyouji asked 
sarcastically.
 
	"Yes.  I would not ask you to join me, for I know you 
would never do so.  I merely ask you not to force that 
final battle.  Ever.  Let me wage my war on Mars without 
your interference, and I shall order my forces to leave you 
be."  Wintergreen's intangible hand slid up Kyouji's shirt.  
The boy knew the chill he felt must have been imaginary, 
but it was there all the same.  "Just because neither of us 
would ever wish the other as a friend, Knight Protector, 
does not mean that we must be enemies.  That was the idea 
of Mars and Fate, not me."
 
	"So, what, Yumi and Tsugiko and me get to, uh, to 
spend the rest of our lives on Mars, which, by the way, 
you're going to turn into a total charred wasteland?"  Now 
Kyouji did let his anger fill his voice.
 
	The Dark Queen did not seem to notice his tone as she 
responded to his words as calmly as before.  "I am not a 
creature of truth, Knight Protector, but today it serves my 
purpose better than lies.  So I tell you this truly.  When 
I have conquered Mars, I will have all its power.  If it 
truly has the ability to send you home, as you believe, 
then that I shall do.  If it does not, then there was never 
a way for you to return."
 
	"Send us home?"  Despite himself, Kyouji felt his rage 
subsiding as thoughts of Tokyo replaced it.
 
	"It's more than Mars did for your predecessors," 
Wintergreen remarked drily.  "And since I know you must 
doubt me, consider this.  You would remain the beings 
anointed by Fate to defeat me.  Getting you off this planet 
is entirely in my best interest.  So tell me, Knight 
Protector," said the Corruptor of Mars, holding out a 
phantom hand for him to shake, "do we have a bargain?"

>o< >o< >o<
 
	Tsugiko peered into the barrier as she readied for 
another swing.  For a second, she thought she saw two 
blurred figures instead of just one.  But it was so 
difficult to see through the almost totally opaque bubble 
wall that she couldn't be certain she was seeing anything 
at all.
 
	Again she swung, and again her hammer bounced off.  It 
was at the point where her futile efforts were frustrating 
her even more than the Twixes.  She was tempted once again 
to turn her weapon on the twins, but she remembered their 
warning.  It wasn't a bluff she was willing to call, not 
while there was still probably plenty of air left for 
Kyouji to breathe, if he wasn't doing something stupid like 
hyperventilating.
 
	Tsugiko let out a curse as yet another swing proved 
useless.  "Fine, be that way."  She felt her anger surge.  
The thought of unleashing a wave of energy at the barrier 
was tempting.  She'd escaped from a Watchamacallit bubble 
that way herself once, so she knew that was one thing that 
would penetrate the otherwise impervious barrier.  But 
Kyouji was trapped inside this thing.  If she unleashed a 
torrent of power at it, she'd probably vaporize the idiot 
along with his prison.
 
	The Warrior Priestess turned and walked back to where 
Yumi and the Twix twins were.  Their conversation had 
apparently run its course in her absence.  As she 
approached, Tsugiko broke the silence.  "Someone tell me 
you worked something out."
 
	"I'm sorry," her old roommate said.  Even the Twixes 
looked vaguely apologetic.
 
	"Okay, Yumi, why don't you take a crack at busting 
Kyouji out while I deal with them."
 
	When she was alone with the summoners, the Warrior 
Priestess pulled out her hammer again, twirling it in her 
right hand.  She was pleased to note the male Twix quickly 
floating upward.
 
	"So," said Tsugiko, in an attempt to make 
conversation, "how was death?"
 
	"It's difficult to describe without a common frame of 
reference," replied the female Twix drily.  "Have you ever 
died?
 
	Tsugiko paused, as if turning the question over.  "Hm, 
no, don't think so.  Though I'm pretty sure the only reason 
for that is that Kyouji stopped you from plunging a knife 
through my heart in the only way he could.  So you are 
*not* getting sympathy from me."
 
	"I didn't ask for it."
 
	Tsugiko passed the mallet over to her left hand, still 
whirling it.  "Why are you bothering with all this?  You 
know we're going to win.  We always win.  Frankly, you guys 
kinda suck."
 
	The Twixes' reaction could not have been stronger if 
she'd smashed her hammer into them.  "How dare you?" 
demanded the male sibling.  His hands were clenched into 
fists.
 
	"You know nothing of us," added his sister.  "You 
think your little Warrior Priestess powers make you 
something special?  My brother brought me back to life!  I 
rose from the grave!  That is something special!  That is 
something worth respecting!"  Her voice rose to a shriek.
 
	"God, you can tell you two are related.  You sound 
just like him."  Tsugiko pointed at the male Twix.  "When I 
asked him what he wanted, he told me that all he was after 
was respect."
 
	"Of course," replied the female Twix.  "What my 
brother wants and what I want are the same.  They always 
have been."
 
	Something nagged at Tsugiko's mind.  She had a vague 
memory of something Kyouji had told her something during 
that week they had spent traveling with the summoners.  She 
hadn't been in a very receptive mood at the time, angry at 
her friends both for accepting their enemies into their 
midst and for other things that had been going on.  But 
before her curt replies and cold demeanour had caused him 
to abandon that particular attempt at conversation, he had 
said something about a conversation he'd had with the 
female Twix the previous night.  What had it been?
 
	"And though you've beaten us in the past," added the 
male Twix, breaking into the Warrior Priestess' thoughts, 
"we're more powerful now.  This time will be different."
 
	"You know what bugs me about you?"  Tsugiko passed her 
hammer back to her right hand, letting it come to a stop.  
"You get too damn many chances.  You do whatever you want 
and you never have to pay for it."
 
	"What are you talking about?"
 
	"You attacked us again and again, and no matter how 
many times we beat you, you just ran away and came back 
later.  And then, after all that, when you needed our help, 
even after all you'd done to try and hurt us, we did what 
you asked."  Tsugiko felt a peculiar sting of jealousy.  
"You act however you want, and for some reason you just get 
to keep doing it.  Meanwhile, the rest of us have to suffer 
when we screw up."
 
	"We've suffered," snapped the girl-Twix.
 
	"Why, because you died?"  The Warrior Priestess swung 
her mallet around, pointing it up at the resurrected woman.  
"That's exactly what I'm talking about!  You actually 
*died* and got another chance.  Why?  Why do you deserve 
that, when all you do is act selfishly all the time?"
 
	"How else should we act?"  The male Twix sneered.  "I 
told you once already that there's no such thing as 
altruism.  Everyone's selfish."
 
	"And I told you I don't believe that."
 
	"You should listen to my brother."  The redhead 
smirked.  "We've learned our lessons the hard way."
 
	"No, you haven't, because you never learn," Tsugiko 
said.  "You get so many chances to change.  We saved you 
from the Peanut Brittle Curse; we let you join up with us; 
you even got brought back from the dead.  And you've wasted 
every last one by acting the exact same way.  Well, you've 
used them all up now.  Maybe Yumi still feels forgiving.  I 
don't."
 
	The Warrior Priestess lashed out with her free left 
hand, pounding against a nearby tree in frustration.  To 
her surprise, the thick trunk gave way, pushed back by the 
force of her blow.  The impact of her fist had caused a 
crack to form just beneath where she had hit it.  As she 
watched, the entire ten metre high plant began to lean 
farther and farther away from the girl.  As the mass of the 
tilting tree moved off-centre, it proved more than the 
weakened trunk could bear.  The tree snapped like a twig.  
The entire plant dropped onto its side, burying itself 
halfway into the dirt.  The noise of the crash reverberated 
through the empty forest for long seconds.
 
	"Huh.  Tree must have been dead or something."  
Tsugiko looked up.  "Right, Twix girl?"
 
	"If you say so."
 
	"I thought you were some kind of botanist?"
 
	"That's right," replied the summoner.  "It's a hobby 
of mine.  What of it?"
 
	"Seems kind of funny that a botanist wouldn't know 
something like that.  I guess you're not a very good one.  
Or maybe your botany skills stayed dead when the rest of 
you came back."  Tsugiko smirked.  But something about what 
she'd just said triggered her memory.  She suddenly knew 
what it was that Kyouji had told her.  And that was when 
everything fell into place.
 
	"Oh God," the Warrior Priestess muttered.  The 
realization overtaking her was revolting.  She didn't want 
to believe it.