Shipping Contest Omake: AdrianxPhoenixia - Shades of Violet Skies

Consciousness came back to him in increments. He was warm, he wasn't too sore, and he was comfortable where he was laying… Oh yeah, he'd spent the last night with Phoenixia for some comfort after that battle with Silver. He had had no idea whatsoever that that Stu would be so strong. For once he had underestimated his opponent.

"Morning, handsome." A voice came from above him.

"Mn… mornin'…" Hands came down onto tense muscles and worked into them. "Phoenixia, you keep doing that and you'll put me back to sleep."

"Well, you need it. You're always tense after a battle and this is one of the few ways to get you to relax."

A thump and a yell came from the hallway outside Adrian's room. Footsteps ran past, screaming bloody murder, "I'll get you for that comment, Blake!"

"And oh yeah, the other thing." Phoenixia snickered. "The British Society Agents are up, along with a few American ones. Thought you should know." She sighed, putting a hand to her cheek in thought. "You lost a bit more of your mind by letting them in, didn't you?"

"Yeah. But the Library was too quiet for too long. Much too quiet…" Adrian tensed up again, to which Phoenixia growled at and worked at his shoulders that much more enthusiastically.

"How long do you think you'll let them stay?"

Adrian paused for a moment to ponder it. "I really don't know. They're…refreshing. And entertaining. Can't forget that. I mean what kind of person, in the middle of a mission, will drop everything and glomp a character, forgetting everything and everyone around them, including the target Sue? I'm not sure if I should be completely exasperated with them or laugh until I drop with them around. I like the change."

He snuggled into the sheets as Phoenixia giggled and worked her way down his back, and then back up his spine, soothing the muscles, getting them to release their knots and relax.

Adrian 'hmm'ed and pushed his face into the pillow, like he was going to go back to sleep.

"Adrian, no, you can't go back to sleep. Stay in here too long and people will think something happened to you."

"Meeeh. Something did happen to me." His face was almost completely in the pillow, so it came out muffled.

Phoenixia narrowed her eyes, lifted one eyebrow wryly, smirked, and jabbed a finger into his side. He twitched, grumbled a bit, and stilled, ignoring the first offensive in Phoenixia's tickle war.

"Oh, you're not getting off that easily. You need to get up."

"Meeeeeeeh. Don' wanna." Other than the fact that Adrian was smiling, Phoenixia would have believed him. As it was, she wasn't stopping any time soon.

"Ah-huh. C'mon, mister 'Master of the Library,'" He voice was teasing, taunting, daring him to come after her. "Show me what you've got." And she attacked him on the back of his knees, his one weak spot. The Librarian immediately broke into shakes, trying his hardest to not break out into laughter.

"Oh, so you want to play it that way, huh?" Now wide-awake, Adrian leapt up from off the bed and counter-attacked, fingers dancing over Phoenixia's sides, just under her ribs.

She fell into giggles, curled around her middle, and smacked ineffectually at Adrian's tickling fingers. "All right! I give. For now."

Adrian smiled and stretched, no longer wanting to sleep and feeling good about the day so far.

"Ah! I guess the Society is good for you!" Phoenixia smiled warmly. "Had I tried that after a battle before they got here, you would have just ignored me and gone right back to sleep."

"Hrn. You're right."

-

Adrian paused, violet sword in hand, and reached out with his senses. The hard-light holograms were hard to sense in the training room, but they displaced air. A whisper here… a ghost of a breeze there… Adrian disappeared into a flurry of motion, striking at the opponent behind him before leaping up out of the strike range of the others in front of him.

He shot back down like a meteor and the other targets quickly fell under his sword. Adrian sighed, and watched the holographic training ground, a run-down part of a city; vanish in a fall of motes of light.

"Aww… but that was too easy! Phoenixia, next level please!"

"No," She appeared next to him, arms crossed in a disapproving glare. She was wearing a near exact copy of what Adrian was; a burgundy trench coat with red-gold embroidery at the edges, dark trousers, a forest green shirt and black boots. "Valerie said you have to take it easy, otherwise she would come down on you with all the healer-y wrath she could muster. You're still healing."

Adrian looked at her with a slightly petulant glare, and gave in, his shoulders slumped. "I hate it when you're right."

"Of course I'm right." Phoenixia smiled. "I'm a sentient computer program. I'm always right."

"Where did you get that ego?"

Phoenixia smirked. "From you, dearling."

Adrian rolled his eyes. "Of course." He sighed, and transformed Hoshikuzu back into its much smaller pendant form. "I have to admit, having a healer around is nice. And Valerie isn't even typical of a healer."

"You're telling me? I've seen the talks you've had with her."

"I haven't had any philosophical debates like that in two-hundred years! I mean, it's not like I can get the meaning of life, the universe, and everything from your local Joe-shmoe!"

Phoenixia laughed softly. "I see. Anyone else come to mind?"

"A couple." Adrian went into a couple of light stretches, favoring his injuries. "Michael is one. The man's a fighter through and through, and it shows. Introducing one's self as 'The Gary-Stu Gutter' pretty much says 'I have a sword, I know how to use it, and I like doing it, too.'" He laughed.

"So. Michael. And?" Phoenixia prompted.

"Aster." Adrian's head tilted in thought. "She…" He paused, thinking. "She reminds me of me, so long ago before I learned a hero isn't always welcomed with open arms."

Both paused as they knew exactly what Adrian meant.

Adrian smiled again as a happier thought occurred to him. "Tash." He let out a long, low whistle. "Those fire abilities of hers certainly fit her. It's almost scary. I don't think I want to get on her bad side. And if anyone can take on all the Sues in the Multiverse, it's her."

Phoenixia shrugged. "Weeeell, if you did, I guess all you'd have to do is give her some chocolate and she'd be happy again."

"True." Adrian laughed.

-

"Phoenixia, I need you to do me a favor." Adrian said to the air in front of him as he shelved some new books the Library had recently acquired.

"Sure. What?" She appeared next to him and picked up a book to put away herself.

"Keep an eye on the Society. What they do on their computers, who they talk to and such. As much as I've trusted them to let them into the Library on a permanent basis, I can't trust them so far as to leave them alone." He sighed. "I hate doing this, but it needs to be done. The Society…" He shook his head. "They've stepped into something far larger than they can imagine. There are worse things than Sues out there and they might piss the wrong people off…"

Adrian stopped, suddenly, and sucked in a breath. His face went whiter than a sheet and he shivered.

"Adrian?" Phoenixia put her hand on his shoulder, ready to rush him off to the medical ward.

"I'm fine, I'm fine." He brushed her hand off and rubbed at his arms. "You know how people say that they just felt like someone walked over their grave?"

Phoenixia nodded. "Yeah."

"That was ten times worse." He breathed in again, deeply, to dispel the last of the crawling feeling going down his spine. "I think… I think something's coming. And it's big, and it has to do with me. That's the only way I could've felt it in advance."

"Do you want me to make preparations?"

"No." Adrian shook his head. "I think it'll be a while before anything happens. We just need to keep an eye out."

"Right."

"And Phoenixia?" The hologram turned back to look. "Keep yourself out of sight when you spy on everyone, ok? Can't let them know about out ace in the hole just yet."

She rolled her eyes. "What, do you think I'm new at this? Of course."

-

Omake scene: Because I can.

Adrian and Phoenixia sat behind a counter as Rhia looked at them, gobsmacked.

"You want to learn how to cook."

Adrian nodded. "Yep."

Phoenixia shrugged. "Yeah. I mean, I could just look it up, but there's no fun in that. So we'd thought we'd come in here and ask you for a couple lessons."

"Oooookaaaay." Rhia thought about it for a second, and shrugged. "Sure. You got a few minutes now?"

Both nodded.

"Right." The self-appointed (and frankly nobody argued with it unless they wanted to eat nothing but oatmeal for a week) Society chef started shuffling through her supplies. "You know, cooking is a lot like chemistry. Mix one part A with two parts B and you get the result, the same result, every time. I, however, got kicked out of my chem. club in high school." She turned to give them a wicked grin over her shoulder, bags of something in her arms.

Adrian had a feeling he'd regret asking the next question. "Why?"

"Ooooh," Rhia shrugged, and grabbed a small bottle of something off a shelf. "I had habit of blowing things up. I mean, fire plus chemical A equals a very nice boom. And I do like explosions. And fire. Ever put a grape in a microwave? It lights on fire. And those peep marshmallows? Stick two full of toothpicks and place them about an inch apart in the microwave. They'll expand until the toothpicks pierce each other. Then they explode into warm marshmallow goodness." Rhia had a look of absolute delight on her face.

Adrian and Phoenixia wondered what exactly they had just gotten themselves into.

Insert Jaw-Dropping Reveal Here (part 3.5 of 5)

"None of them?"

"Not one."

Kuroneko began pacing as Valerie massaged her temples. It had been a hell of a day. "Did you check the Marcuses individually and together?" the catgirl asked.

"Yep."

"The Counter Guardians? Wanderers?"

"All those who had encounters with Adrian, yes."

"What about Phoenixia? I know she didn't get a proper body until after Adrian died, but—"

"Been there, done that," Valerie interjected. "Phoenixia's mind is connected to Adrian's on a fundamental level, but computers aren't built to house human souls. Not in the way we're thinking of anyway." The healer pinched the bridge of her nose. "I even went so far as to hunt down Blake, of all people. It took some persuading to get him to let me inside his head, but no dice. He didn't have one either."

With both Michael and Tash backing her jurisdiction, Valerie had been able to extend her search for soul pieces far and wide. The remaining Society Leaders plus a handful of Counter Guardians had been informed of the situation, as well as Danielle and Phoenixia—the former because she had been promised information and was useful to the search, and the latter because there was really no keeping anything secret from her—but it still fell to Valerie to do most of the leg work. In the past two days, virtually every inhabitant of the Library Arcanium had had their minds scanned for Adrian's aura, but to no avail. They were running out of options here.

Kuroneko drummed her fingers. "Maybe there aren't any more to find," she suggested. "Maybe three pieces is all there was."

Valerie shook her head. "I asked Danielle about that this morning. There's still a good-sized chunk missing, from what she can tell." The healer stood up, wobbled a bit, and regained balance. It really had been a hell of a day. "I don't know about you, but I'm running out of ideas."

"You're also running out of steam," the catgirl pointed out. "So I'm going to give you an excellent idea: get at least twelve hours' sleep and a giant pancake breakfast, and we'll get back to this when you're ready."

The healer chuckled, but didn't have the energy to argue. "Better knock that off, Kuroneko," she said, "or people will start thinking you actually care."

-o-

On her way up, she found Phoenixia milling around outside the med ward, looking a little lost. Valerie wondered if she had been sleepwalking, which had been a problem with her recently. "Can I help you with something?" she asked.

Phoenixia turned toward her and smiled. "I was just wondering how everything was going. You haven't been on the computers for a while now, and I was getting curious about your progress."

Valerie chuckled. Phoenixia had apparently known all along what the healer was up to all these months—as noted many times by various agents, there was simply no keeping secrets from her, and it was a waste of effort to even try. "To be honest," she admitted, "we're running out of places to look. I mean, I could try re-writing that search engine I was using before, but I doubt it'd do much good, what with natural variations between different soul pieces... It's like searching for something, but you don't even know what it looks like."

"I can do that for you, if you'd like," the woman offered. "It's complicated, but I could probably do it faster than you."

"That'd be helpful, yeah," Valerie smiled. "Although, now that you mention it, how come you never said anything to me before, if you knew what I was doing?"

Phoenixia shrugged. "He was dead, Valerie. I knew he was dead, and if anyone would know that for a fact, it's me. Never in a million years did I think you might actually find anything..."

Valerie pondered that for a moment. "To tell you the truth, I didn't know what I was looking for myself. All I knew was that he couldn't be dead, because I could still sense him there, just like when he was alive."

"I thought I could sense him anywhere, but maybe not..." She trailed off, then looked sharply at the healer. "Do you think I have a soul?" she asked suddenly.

Valerie blinked, somewhat surprised at the sudden question, and then chuckled quietly. "With all the research I've been doing on the subject, I could go on all day about the logistics of that question alone, never mind the answer." She smiled. "And I could also go on all day about why the answer to your question is yes, even though I know why you're asking me."

"I have a body now, but all I really am is a machine," Phoenixia said softly. "An accidental file, a mistake in programming. Computers can think, but they can't imagine. They can't make something out of nothing, they can only do what their programming allows."

The empath smiled. "Phoenixia, I have a firsthand account from Terrie that you are much more than a program—"

"I live through him, Valerie!"

Both of them were silent for a moment, equally confused by the ex-hologram's sudden emotional state. Phoenixia wasn't prone to sudden bouts of existentialism, at least from what Valerie knew. But then again, what did she know? With a slight raising and lowering of her eyebrows, the healer opened the wide double-doors to the med ward and stepped inside. "Adrian's dead, Phoenixia," she said.

Phoenixia followed her friend in at her motion. "I know, and—"

"And you're still here. What does that say about your own autonomy?"

The ex-hologram stopped dead in her tracks.

Valerie put her hand on her friend's shoulder with a gentle smile. "You forget: I've been inside your head. Is that what brought this on?" she asked. "My looking for pieces of Adrian's soul? Trust me when I say that you are one hundred percent your own person, Phoenixia. It's true that computers aren't quite compatible with the kind of soul you're talking about—in one sense, they don't think in the way that's necessary, and in another sense, they think entirely too much. But the main problem is that everything a computer is is static and unchanging, and the nature of a soul is continuous change. You, Phoenixia, have been fluid and creative and utterly human for as long as I've known you, hologram or not. Maybe you started as an extension of Adrian, but in time you broke off and became your own person in spite of living in a computer—a fact that, given your personality, doesn't surprise me in the least." She grinned.

Phoenixia simply stared at the healer with the oddest look on her face.

"What?" Valerie asked, confused.

"It's just that... I never believed Adrian and Tash when they told me about your lectures, but they really do work."

There was a faint sound of crickets chirping... and then both of them burst out laughing.

"Well it's not like I come out with them on purpose!" Valerie said with an amused grin. "Irrefutable logic just spews from my lips whether I like it or not!"

"That's the other thing I didn't believe," Phoenixia giggled, "That when you get into that 'mode' of your's, you don't even realize you're making a speech."

Valerie rolled her eyes "Well I've been ordered to get some sleep, so I'm probably done with speeches for the day." She eyed the older woman. "You are feeling better now, right?"

"Mhmm," Phoenixia nodded. "And I've got a mission to get to, so I'll catch you later." She waved as she trotted out of the ward's doors and down the hallway.

Valerie smiled and shook her head. Phoenixia was a vibrant woman; it took a great deal to shake her, but the slightest nudge in the proper direction could put her back on the right path, even though she would never truely forget her doubts. Sounds like someone I know, Ari interjected with a small mental smirk.

Oh, hush you, the empath replied.

It's true though! the guardian protested. And goodness knows you could go on all day about the dynamic nature of the Soul. Constantly flowing and changing...

Minute to minute and second to second, Valerie confirmed as she entered her own quarters through the back door in the med ward. And the changes are so subtle and rapid that, most of the time, the person in question doesn't even realize it. She flopped onto the bed, exhausted, and let her mind wander. Changes... and rigidity versus fluidity... How fast do you suppose one person could change without realizing it?

Ari didn't answer, and Valerie thought of Tash's reaction to her little "revelation" a day and a half earlier. The Leader had changed since Adrian's death, to be certain, but so had she. Both of them had been overworking themselves to avoid thinking too much. Tash refused much of her sleep for fear of nightmares, but with all the thinking and meditating she'd been doing, Valerie found she could barely sleep at all. Tash put all of herself into her job, her friends, her duty, in order to hang on to the remainder of those she loved with all her heart. Valerie, though it sometimes tore her apart inside, protected the protector, and kept her from going places she'd regret.

"Whose purpose is to shield the sword?"

Abruptly she sat up, eyes like golden saucers. "Th-that's not possible. It couldn't be..." She couldn't even finish the statement.

"How much of your identity is wrapped up in your purpose?"

Ari was conspicuously nowhere to be found, hiding in the back of her mind as though waiting for the thought process to come to its conclusion.

"What's the answer, Valerie?"

Valerie laid back down and closed her eyes, pouring all her excess energy into her forebrain and launching her conciousness into a meditative trance.

-

"Back again, I see." He didn't look up at her as he said this; he was busy cleaning Hoshikuzu's blade.

She locked her gaze onto him. "What am I missing?"

"The obvious, of course."

Valerie crossed her arms. "I've been wracking my brains trying to think of any other possibilities, but I keep coming up with nothing. Zilch. Nada. There has to be more you're not telling me."

He smiled at her. "Oh, I'm sure you'll figure it out. You just need some practice finding your targets." And suddenly they were at the Library's archery range, and Seiryu was active in her hand. Not-Adrian stood and pulled another sword seemingly out of nowhere. It was slimmer than Hoshikuzu, but just as strong, and glimmering with power. The blue, V-shaped guard was shorter than the hilt, with a red stone embedded where the guard, hilt, and blade met. A sapphire decorated the pommel, and the silvery blade pointed straight and true, glinting in the half-light.

He flipped the sword over in his hand once and expertly flung it towards the target. It landed with a shuddering halt, point embedded several inches into the wood, dead center.

Dead center, thought Valerie. Ha.

Not-Adrian looked at her, all business. "Try to hit it."

She looked back at him, confused. "I don't want to hit it; I'll hurt it."

"You might," he nodded sagely. "But you know what they say about 'whatever doesn't kill me...'"

"You're a fine one to talk about not getting killed..." Valerie muttered, but turned toward the target range anyway.

After a moment's hesitation, she fired off three shots. Every one of them missed, forming a multicolored half-circle around the sword. The first arrow, to the lower left of the sword, turned a vibrant blue when it landed. The second, to the lower right of the sword, a deep, dark green. The third arrow, just above the blue one, became crimson when it hit. With each hit though, the sword in the center shone a little brighter.

Valerie tilted her head, then looked back at Not-Adrian. "I'm not the type to miss subtle hints like that, y'know."

He smirked. "Clearly. But are you the type to miss the blatant ones?"

She looked back, and suddenly there were two more arrows on the range, filling in the spaces to complete the circle. One of them, directly across from the red one and a little above the green, was a rosey sort of yellow that pulsated subtly when she watched it.

The other was white.

-

"To know. To feel. To play me once again.
Do you denote from what we feel?
Do you not know? I see you play these games.
Do you?" 
-Globus, "Orchard of Mines"

Insert Cliched Halloween Clipshow Here (part 3 of 5)

The music was almost deafening, and drowned out most of the agents speaking, and even the DDR machine. Karissa and Charis, who were currently making use of the machine, were falling over themselves as the obnoxious singing threw them off the music that they were supposed to be dancing to.

"When the moon shines, on the cow shed! And we're rolin' in the hay! All the cows are out there grazing. And the milk is on its way!"

Everyone groaned loudly, as Harriet and Jess seemed to bounce higher and higher on the bouncy Jack-o-lantern. This was their second rendition of this particular song, and they had just finished treating everyone to a rousing round of "I've got a brand new combine harvester".

"I am a cider drinker! I drinks it all of the day!"

As they sung they clanked their cider bottles together and took swigs. It was amazing that they had not managed to spill any over the bouncy castle.

"I am a cider drinker! Soothes all me troubles away!"

"Here it comes..." Tash muttered, all too familiar with this song (it was one of Harriet's regular drinking songs).

"Oh arr oh arr aay! Oh arr oh arr aay!"

The sober leader palmed her face into her hand. On her shoulder, Adrian had hidden his white kitten face into her neck, and had his paws clamped firmly over his ears to try and block out the noise.

"How long can they go at this?" Valerie asked, awe in her tone. "They've been bouncing on that thing for fifteen minutes and not been sick... or spilt any cider... or bounced that jack-o-lantern right through the ceiling."

"Hmm..." Tash's gaze was fixed somewhere in the region of Jess and Harriet's chests as they flung themselves around the bouncy Jack-o-lantern. "Not the only thing that's bouncing..." She noticed no less than seven pairs of eyes on her and blinked. "Oh like I was the only one thinking it!"

"This is one of the longest music recitals we've ever had," Terrie stated. The rest of Val's team were nodding in agreement. "Worse than the time Michael got hyper on British chocolate and sang Without Yugi for two hours straight..."

Everyone turned their heads back to the Twister mats, where the epic game was still going on.

"Emotion Marcus!" Michael was groaning, trying to twist his head to one side. "Get your butt out of my face!"

"YEAH THAT'S WHAT HE SAID..."

"Right foot yellow!" Miri shouted, interrupting the argument. Claire gratefully moved, her foot, which was twisted at an awkward angle. However she missed the circle and accidently kicked Michael's hand out from underneath him, sending her boyfriend crashing on top of her. Both of them were flattened against the floor, with groans of pain.

"Hmm...this is an angle we've never tried before..." Michael commented, as soon as he realised just how he had landed. Claire wriggled out from underneath him and crawled between the other players and off the mat. Michael followed, with a slightly relieved expression.

"Thought Marcus, left hand blue," Miriku instructed. Shaking, Thought Marcus stretched and leaned as far over as he could for the only free blue circle within his arm length. At the movement next to him, Doug wobbled slightly and gave Thought Marcus a small nudge with his hip, and the thinking half of the Society agent landed face first onto the mat, his glasses giving a nasty crunch as they impacted with the floor.

"Thought Marcus is out," Miriku stated, wincing as Doug fell over too with a thud. "So is Doug."

Grumbling, Doug got to his feet, while Thought Marcus just scurried over to a sofa to inspect his glasses, and was immediately wrenched to his feet by a surprisingly military looking Aster. Doug straightened the bent pieces of paperwork that made up his costume (he was dressed as some kind of paper monster – apparently parodying the Society's ridiculous amount of pointless paperwork) and made his way over to what was left of the food, and began searching for any decent sandwiches that had been left by the hungry agents. It was gratifying to see that most of the plates had been completely cleared – he had been one of the agents who had volunteered to help Rhia do the cooking for the party.

Cristoph materialised, as he always did – seemingly out of nothing, and approached the table too. He did not appear to have dressed specially for the evening, preferring instead to remain in his ninja outfit.

"A word of advice Lord Doug," he said. "Don't go near Aster – she has had a great deal of sugar and is trying to start a dance."

Doug paled. "What dance?"

"The Haruhi dance I believe."

"You mean that torture that she's been putting us through learning each anime class for the past three weeks? The reason I got whacked around the face with a metre stick and could not see straight for seven hours? That's considered dancing?"

"Apparently so," Cristoph nodded in a grave manner.

"...the author does not want us to survive with our sanity intact, does she?" Doug asked, stuffing a sandwich into his mouth.

"You have sanity?" Cristoph asked in surprise, for he had always been under the impression that he was one of the saner members of the Society.

Neither of them noticed Emily nearby, chewing her lip in worry, before sprinting out of the room at top speed.

FLASHBACK

"What are you two doing?"

Adrian and Tash seemed to shrink to half their sizes in their seats, as their stern looking teacher stood above them, metre stick in one hand, copy of Azumanga Daioh in the other.

"I look up during my class and I see the Society leader and the Librarian at the back of the classroom, not doing their work," Aster sounded incredibly fierce. "Were you two making out under the desk?"

It was hard to tell who went more red – though most people would have said Adrian by a shade. Tash attempted a suck-up smile, which just came off as incredibly nervous.

"We were doing extra curricular activities!"

Aster peered over the desk and saw a spread of cards on the floor. "You two were playing YuGiOh under the desk?"

"Its anime!" Adrian butted in. "It counts!"

"Skiving your assignments to play a children's card game is against classroom rules!" Aster declared. "You both get a penalty!"

She placed her stick in the centre of the field and swept the cards all over the place.

"Hey!" Tash wailed. "I was winning!"

Adrian snorted. "Like hell you were! I was two moves away from beating you!"

"Oh please! I had a counter already set u-"

The metre stick slammed between the two of them, and they jumped and faced their strict teacher.

"Sorry Aster-sensei," they both said in unison, hanging their heads. Aster seemed satisfied, and turned to face the front of the classroom.

"Let that be a lesson to all of you. Playing YuGiOh under the table in my class is a bad idea! Now, onto Azumanga Daioh..."

She trailed off as her eyes settled over the seats belonging to Michael and Claire, situated in the third row of desks. The couple were nowhere to be seen, but Aster's ears had just caught a small giggle coming from the floor, and she marched straight over and slammed her metre ruler on top of the abandoned desks. The couple gave startled yells and reappeared in their seats, blushing furiously.

"Lazy students," Aster muttered. "Now, as I was saying..."

OOO

"Hey, who requested that flashback?" Tash demanded, hands on her hips.

"Don't look at me," Chrys was shifting uncomfortably, already anticipating the moment she would fall over during this dance routine.

"Shh! The music is starting!" Aster said excitedly, as Ben (who was stretching his limbs after the marathon game of Twister) hit the play button on Harriet's laptop, and Hare Hare Yukai began to blast from the speakers.

Aster immediately began to sing along, while the rest of the agents who had been roped into dancing just copied the dance moves half heartedly (with the exception of Chrys and Tash, who were actually trying to do the dance right). Thought Marcus was having difficulty seeing through broken glasses and tripped over his own feet, before just giving up, walking away from the dance in disgust, and going back to watch the Twister game. Charis was doing okay, until Pete stumbled into her, and the two leaped away blushing furiously.

"Sorry!" they both squeaked in unison, before backing out of the dance. Several agents snickered at their retreating backs, including Tash, who was being shot dirty looks by Aster, for the coins on her outfit were doing a good job of drowning out the music being made by the laptop's limited speaker volume.

Finally Adrian (who had been clinging fearfully to Tash's shoulder throughout the whole dance) leaped off her shoulder and morphed back into human form in the midst of the dance. About half the dancers (those who had not seen his costume) burst into giggle fits, and Adrian seized his girlfriend and picked her up over his shoulder.

"Adrian!" Tash screeched. "Put me down!"

"Nu uh!" the Librarian declared, marching away from the dance, and over to a vacant sofa. "I was getting nauseous, sitting on your shoulder while you danced."

He dumped her onto the sofa, before sitting down next to her, and yanking her into his lap. Tash squirmed, but not that hard.

"You're mean..." she declared. Her boyfriend's response was to kiss her on the nose.

"You don't really believe that. Now pet me."

Tash was going to object to the other, but Adrian pulled the cutest face he could muster, his eyes going wide and watery, and his ears flattening to his head in the most adorable fashion. His tail swished slowly from side to side and his fur seemed to triple in fluffiness. Tash gave a moan and immediately succumbed to the kitty eyes, petting his ears softly. The Librarian purred.

"You know that face will kill me one day..." Tash muttered, but she could not be mad for long – her eyes had just been drawn to the bouncy Jack-o-lantern, where Harriet and Jess were still bouncing. Doug slid slowly down one side of the inflatable, and loomed over the two, rustling his papers in a creepy fashion.

"Woooooooo!"

Both girls screamed and raced away, leaving Doug to fall over himself laughing. He gave a yell however, as one of Cristoph's ninja stars seemed to materialise out of nowhere and embedded itself into the plastic. There was an almighty hiss and air slowly began to escape from the bouncy castle.

"Someone should go help him," Tash muttered absently, still stroking Adrian's ears, as a Doug-sized form flailed from within the deflated plastic.

"Uh huh..." the Librarian replied absently. "Really should..." He squirmed into a more comfortable position and began purring. Tash sighed.

"Well don't volunteer immediately or anything..."

"Mmm…"

FLASHBACK

Waking up in pain was nothing new to Adrian. He had lost track of the number of times he had got himself involved in a fight that had a bad outcome. Such was the life of a hero – you were destined for a world of pain, and a multitude of suffering. But you still didn't give up. When life flung pain in your face, you got back up and carried on until your body was on the verge of breaking apart.
What was new to the Librarian, was the Library hospital. Normally when he regained consciousness after a fight he lost, he was either still in the same place he had passed out in – his opponent having died at the same time. Or he was being held prisoner by whoever had captured him…he had to shudder as he remembered the last time that had happened, and he immediately banished the horrific memories.

He rarely woke up in the Library after a huge battle that left him almost dead. Who would have moved him here when so few people knew its existence and could actually get in? Then his brain caught up with the situation. The Society must have moved him…

And like a flood, the memories of the fight came back, along with the pain his various limbs. Runoa had unleashed the Gate of Babylon. All those swords had flown at him… there had been pain, so much pain as he fought them off… and then the Society had shown up and…

His left arm had something warm and heavy resting on it, and he opened his eyes a crack. The light of the Library seared through his retinas, and he hissed softly. A hazy golden blob was resting on his arm, and the familiar tingling pins and needles sensation had settled there. It took all of his strength, but he managed to twitch his fingers softly. The blob gave a groan, and seemed to rise slightly. As Adrian blinked more, his vision came into focus, and he could see that the blob was actually Tash's head.

"Heh… silly Tashy. She's practically in the bed with me…" he thought in a disjointed manner. The Society leader was lying by his side, with her legs dangling off the end – she had obviously started out sitting and had fallen asleep while watching him. As he watched, she twisted her head around to face him. She was pale, except for the black circles of tiredness. Her eyes themselves were puffy and red.

"Adrian?"

The Librarian nodded slowly, wincing at the stiffness in his neck, and the pain that appeared as he moved. "Hello."

Tash sat slowly upright, staring as though she could not quite believe he was really there, awake and smiling softly at her. Adrian did notice that her fist was trembling from clenching it tightly. Then he realised that she had started crying again, and all of her emotions flooded out along with her tears.
"You're an idiot!" she burst out. "A stupid, heroic idiot! You know that?"

Her raised voice brought Valerie running from her office, and she immediately began to restrain Tash, who looked torn between slapping Adrian and sobbing all over him.

"Do you have any idea how bloody terrified I was?" she continued to scream. "Do you know what it's like to be shoved back and watch someone risk their life for you, and then feel them dying in your arms? Can you imagine what its like watching someone you lo-"

She cut herself off with a horrified look, and like magic, her crying seemed to double in volume to smother out the rest of her ranting. Valerie carefully lowered her onto the next bed, whispering that she shouldn't put Adrian through any kind of stress in his condition. The leader curled up and sobbed into her knees, while Valerie loomed into Adrian's line of sight, a relieved smile on her face.

"I'm glad you're back with us," the healer told him, glancing over her shoulder at the hysterical Tash. "So is she."

Adrian's smile widened. "I did promise I wouldn't die..."

"You still shouldn't have pushed yourself that hard," Valerie informed him, checking that none of his injuries had been disturbed. "What was the point? Runoa still got away, and you're going to be out of action for quite some time now – and you will be staying in this bed!" she added firmly, as the Librarian made to protest. "And believe me, I have plenty of ways of making you stay – and not all of them are necessarily fun for you."

Deflating, Adrian leaned back against the pillows, and allowed her to check his light reactions. "Whatever the doctor says."

Valerie gave a satisfied smile. "Good, you're learning... you look fine to me. No permanent damage except scarring, so a week in bed and another two weeks or so taking it easy – and by that I mean no missions what so ever –" she interjected before Adrian could ask her to define it. "You will be as good as new."

Adrian sighed. "Thanks Val."

"Any time," the healer assured him. "Now you rest. I'll be back in a bit."

She turned and faced Tash sternly. "Now no exciting him, alright?"

Tash muttered her response, but it seemed enough to satisfy Valerie, who hurried off, humming All I Ask Of You. The Society leader waited until she was out of earshot, and slid slowly off the adjacent bed, approaching the Librarian with her head hung. For a moment, Adrian was sure he was about to get yelled at again.

"...I thought I'd – we had lost you," she corrected herself.

Apparently the yelling was over.

"I know," Adrian nodded slowly. Tash swallowed hard and raised her head.

"Promise me... promise you'll never do something that reckless again."

Another sigh – this time heavier – broke free from the Librarian.

"I'm sorry Tash... I can't do that."

"Why?" the leader burst out. "Do you like putting yourself in this kind of danger? Does it make you feel good to know that we all worry ourselves sick when you get hurt? Does it?"

"Of course I don't like it!" Adrian retorted sharply. "But I've got no choice!"

"You always have a choice, Adrian!"

She was not screaming any more – now she had just gone back to hysterical sobbing, which somehow, Adrian found worse than being yelled at. Valerie had reappeared, and began to usher the leader from the hospital, telling her to come back when she was less upset. Adrian closed his eyes and went back to staring at the hospital ceiling.

"I wish I did have a choice Tash...but I don't."

The brutal truth of the situation was no comfort at all as he slowly drifted back to sleep.

OOO

Emily yanked open the next door and found one of the reading rooms that she was familiar with, and kept on running, not bothering to close the door behind her. She had to check on this as fast as possible. She had to find out what was wrong – because there was something wrong. She could feel it. Something was happening at this party and she was going to find out what.

She was thankful that the Library seemed to have sensed her intentions – the rooms seemed to be rearranging themselves to make her journey quicker. Some of the rooms and corridors were familiar, and some were not. Or maybe she was just nervous, allowing her frightened energy to propel her footsteps faster across the rooms. Maybe she was so anxious that she had completely failed to acknowledge that she had already walked through the rooms.

She should have guessed that something was going to happen. It seemed that the Society was one of those groups that were destined not to enjoy themselves. Fate it seemed, did not want them to have fun.
She came at last to the door she needed – Adrian's office. Normally neigh on impossible to find unless you asked the Library nicely for it and prayed that you were heading in the right direction. The door was unlocked (to her surprise) but she hurried through it, with no hesitation in her step, but rather trepidation all over her ten year old face.

She had been in the Librarian's office before – with Adrian himself present obviously – and she knew just where she was going. Her feet knew that what she was looking for was beyond this... she supposed it was a door. It was the same colour of the walls, and had no door knob, or handle, or keyhole. In fact were it not for the indent of couple of centimetres, she would never have known it was a door at all. She closed her eyes for a moment to check, and had no doubts. As a fictional character (of sorts) she could sense its presence, and knew it lay behind this door. Slowly, she reached out to push it...

And suddenly she was no longer in Adrian's office. Surprised (and a little fearful of what she might find) Emily peered at her new surroundings, after confirming that the door was still behind her for when she wanted to leave.

The room was dark. She could not tell where the faint amount of light was coming from, but it cast a haze over the high, stone arched ceiling. It was cold, and the stone floor was freezing her bare feet. Her senses urged her on, and she walked slowly, and nervously forward, trying to keep her eyes dead ahead to where she knew her goal lay, afraid that if she took her eyes of it for a second, it would vanish.

And yet, she found it so hard to focus – out of the corner of her eyes, half hidden by shadows, she thought she saw things... moving things in the darkness, too far away in the various nooks of the corridor for her to identify. Shadows seemed to creep along the walls, reaching out to ensnare trespassers and drag them into the darkness. She shivered, and her steady footsteps were interrupted by a shudder of nervousness, which seemed to echo forever.

She had never been in a crypt before, and she wondered if this was what they were like – they were certainly how she had always imagined them. Tall ceilings, stone everywhere like some kind of prison for the dead bodies. And the bodies themselves, lying on flat, open stone beds, covered in old flimsy white shrouds, shielding the decaying flesh and brittle bones from anyone foolish enough to disturb them. She remembered that tonight was Halloween, and suppressed a whimper as she wondered if this place was haunted.

It seemed like forever before she reached the end of the corridor, but when she did, she knew she had come to the right place. Piles of fresh books, manuscripts and half complete pages, which Emily knew were waiting to be sorted onto the correct shelves, lay still where they had been placed – which Emily knew was wrong. The books should be floating off to the correct section of the Library, to be catalogued and shelved by the Librarian, not just laying there doing nothing.

She took another step forwards and immediately fell back, cursing and rubbing her forehead.

Someone had erected a barrier, blocking her from reaching her destination. It was like a clear piece of plastic, and as Emily placed a hand gently on it, it felt as smooth as glass, before forcing her hand away like two positive sides of a magnet, placed end to end.

Beyond the barrier, lay the wall, cast in shadow, but the various sections of brick, wood, concrete, stone and paper were all visible, extending all the way up to the high arched ceiling. All forms of building material were mishmashed together and tied together with a chaotic collection of string, glue, cement and copious amounts of duct tape. Between the cracks in the wall, words oozed through, glimmering and shimmering in the low corridor light, before they dissipated like dust particles in the air. Wedges of paper were folded up and jammed between cracks in the wall, and as Emily watched, a small plothole slid open, and a new manuscript slipped slowly through, before the gap to Real Life slid slowly shut.

Emily pressed hard against the barrier, struggling to get through, but once again, she was forced backwards, landing on the floor painfully, the wall looming above her like an impossible challenge.

Something moved in the corner of her vision again, sweeping behind one of the archway pillars, and with a small scream of terror, Emily scrambled to her feet and bolted back the way she had come, trying to fill her mind with the one piece of information she had learned in this room in order to distract herself from her fear.

The way was shut, the Fourth Wall sealed off.

FLASHBACK

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

"What on Earth is that?" Valerie demanded, heading into the reading room. Adrian was leaning back on a sofa, occasionally looking up when there was a particularly loud echoing crash from the hallway, obviously anxious about the state of his Library. Marcus was buried behind a book titled "The 1000 most Memorable Quotes of all Time". Harriet was reading a copy of All Out Cricket, her laptop in front of her, drafting a letter that was no doubt intended to insult the bowling, batting, fielding capabilities and general appearance of certain English cricketers.

"Tash chasing Blake with a frying pan."

The leader's voice was casual, as though she were doing nothing more than reciting a shopping list. Valerie's eyes opened wide and she turned to face the source of the disturbance.

"Shouldn't we go help him?" she demanded. Harriet shrugged.

"Personally I think he deserves it..."

"Harriet!" Valerie's voice was heavily reproachful. "Whatever he's done it doesn't warrant being chased!"

"It does when Tash is PMSing," Harriet corrected.

"You women use PMS to excuse anything," Marcus muttered, looking up from his book in time to see Harriet's head swing round sharply, and her most evil glare (which was usually reserved for cricketers by the names of Matt Prior and Steve Waugh) affix itself to him.

"What did you just say?" she snapped, and Marcus thought better of repeating himself – he was rather keen to leave the reading room with all pieces of his anatomy attached where they were supposed to be.

Bang! Bang!... CRACK! Thump...

"...Tash knocking herself out with the frying pan." Harriet filled in for the confused people.
"Hooray!" Adrian cheered, his kitty ears twitching. "I can eat my oreos now without fear!" And he shot off to his office. Valerie sighed, and turned her head in the direction that the rampage had been coming from.

"I suppose I'd better go patch them up. Can you help me move Tash please Harriet?..." She blinked several times, having turned her head back to the sofa, to find that the leader had mysteriously vanished. "Umm... Harriet?"

"Oooh Adrian!" the leader's voice echoed the way the Librarian had vanished. "Did I hear you say something about oreos?"

OOO

"These flashbacks are getting really annoying!" Rhia complained.

"Yeah, they interrupt me every time I try to eat..." Tyler whined, replacing the cupcake on his paper plate. Rhia blinked at him in surprise.

"You're eating after what happened earlier?"

Tyler looked confused. "Of course. I just choked on a stick. It's not like I'm dying..."

Rhia was sorely tempted to point out that he could have died, but decided that it was not worth the effort. Clearly it would take some sort of miracle to stop Tyler from eating, though she was still mystified as to where the small agent put the weight – mystified and a little annoyed.

"Hey guys!"

Rhia was not particularly pleased to hear Jess's voice – especially not when it was that giggly. The buxom brunette had spent most of the last quarter of an hour headbanging along with the music (no one had wanted to tell her that it was not really the kind of music you headbanged to). Rhia and Tyler approached Jess, to find her leaning over another of the sofas, carrying a sleeping Charis in her arms. On the sofa was Pete, snoring softly as he dozed.

Before either of them could stop her, Jess placed Charis on the sofa, and began rearranging the two bodes so that they were cuddling in their sleep.

"Awws!" Harriet giggled, sitting on the end of another sofa. There was a surprised squeak, and Harriet realised too late that she had sat on Tash's feet. The leader broke away from kissing her boyfriend (who mewled in annoyance) to rub her sore toes.

"Harriet, you sat on my feet!" Tash complained.

"Oh noes!" Harriet wailed. "What will we do?"

Adrian lifted one pale eyebrow as he regarded the tipsy leader. "Should we take her to bed?"

"Oooh please!" Harriet sounded entirely too enthusiastic about that, and too late, Adrian realised what his sentence had implied, causing him to blush a furious shade of red, and morph back into kitty form, in order to better hide under the sofa.

"Awws!" Harriet pouted. "No kitteh..." She flopped lethargically onto Tash, burying her face somewhere in her chest. "Mmm... Hello Tashy's boobies."

Sighing heavily, Tash slipped an arm around her friend, and hauled her unsteadily to her feet. "Come on Hati. Let's get you some carbs."

As the duo made their way unsteadily to the tables of food, Emily bolted into the room, her face pale, and her eyes searching the masses hastily as though any second something would happen to prevent her finding the one person she really needed...

"Emily?" Valerie's voice was tight with concern, particularly when she saw the young girl's face. "Are you okay?"

"I need to find Adrian," Emily said urgently. "Right now!"

"He's under the sofa," Valerie informed her, pointing at the sofa across the room, where she could see a distinctive white furry tail poking out from underneath. Emily muttered a brief thanks, before pushing through the crowd and forcing her way to the Librarian. Valerie's forehead was still pinched in worry.

"I hope everything is okay..." she muttered, before turning back to her group of friends. Her eyes widened.

"What happened to my Reese Cups?" she demanded, pointing at the empty plate. In unison, all her friends pointed to Chrys, who had chocolate smeared in the corners of her mouth, and was blinking innocently.

"...what? Aster was going to eat them..."

FLASHBACK

"Damn it, this one is tough!" Michael growled.

Its a level seven Stu you fool, the Darkness replied sarcastically. Did you expect this would be a walk in the park?

"If you don't have something helpful to say-"

"MICHAEL!"

There was just enough time for two snake-like tentacles to block the blade, an inch in front of Michael's nose, before a third one exploded through the middle of the Duel Spirit and caused it to vaporise on the spot. Michael staggered to his feet, sword in hand, sweat plastering his hair to his scalp.

In the middle of the park stood the Stu, surrounded by numerous Duel Spirits, most of whom Michael was not familiar with (the author of this particular fanfiction had made a deck full of original and insanely overpowered cards for their character, before said character had decided to break free and go on a Stuish rampage). Two more of them charged for the Society agent, but before they could do anything there was a cry of "Juari-Ken – Tairenso!" and both spirits went flying through the air, their bodies wreathed with flames, before they exploded into nothingness. Tash landed a little way off, and gave Michael a wide grin.

"So Victorious Reginald... whatever your name was," Tash shrugged her staff over her shoulder and waved a Prohibitor in her hand. "You ready to come quietly?"

"Like hell I am!" Victorious removed the cards from his active Duel Disk and shuffled them back into his deck. "If I can't outfight you, I can still outduel you! I challenge you both!"

Michael and Tash exchanged a look, before smirking at each other and activating their own duel disks. This one had enough arrogance to fill a duelling stadium – defeating him would be no problem, even if his deck was overly powered.

"Game on!"

OOO

"Michael?" Claire poked her boyfriend hard, and he ceased his spacing out.

"Huh? Sorry baby," Michael blushed. "I was having a flashback."

"Another one?" Claire sounded worried. "That's the fourth tonight. This isn't normal at all."

She swiftly got off her boyfriend and to her feet, hurrying over to the food table, where Harriet was eating her way through a very nice looking pile of sandwiches. Tash was drinking a small shot glass filled with chocolate from the fountain that Rhia and Doug had finally managed to get working. Various agents were now gathered around, sticking bits of fruit or marshmallows in to coat them in warm sticky chocolate.

"Hey!" Ben whined. "That's not fair! The author of this story said in her note for this chapter that there would be cake, not chocolate fountain!"

"Only when she completes the story," Drake corrected, chewing a piece of chocolate covered apple slowly.

Ben blinked. "So...the cake is a lie?"

"The cake is not a lie!" Miriku hissed at them, throwing her head back to finish her chocolate shot. Claire blinked slowly, and wondered why the fourth wall was not breaking, before turning to the person she needed.

"Tashy?" Claire approached the leader. "Michael says he keeps having flashbacks..."

Tash frowned and placed her half full shot glass on the table, wiping the chocolate off her lips as she did. "That's strange... there have been so many going around tonight. Maybe I should talk to Adrian about it."

She was distracted as Harriet knocked one of her sandwiches to the floor. The leader's face fell.

"Oh noes!" she cried. "What will we do?"

Tash sighed and scooped the sandwich up, throwing it into the rubbish bag tied to the end of the table. "Not eat it, for a star-"

She was cut off, as for the second time that night, a platter crashed to the floor – this time knocked over as a body slumped onto the table in what seemed to be a dead faint, and knocked the food flying.

Panicked descended and frantic voices instantly filled the room.

"Ben?"

"Drake? Say something!"

OOO

Adrian barely registered Emily, clinging tightly to his coat, and casting fearful looks at the shadowed niches along the corridor. His concentration was focused entirely on the wall before them, that for reasons beyond his comprehension had been blocked off from him and everyone else.

"This is impossible!" he whispered, shaking his head. "This is just impossible!"

And for the first time ever, Emily heard fear in the Librarian's voice.

Insert Plural Noun As Title Here

For a brief minute, let's forget about Tally Youngblood.

I'm not kidding. Despite the fact that Tally is the most important character to Scott Westerfeld's painstakingly created series, let's forget she exists and concentrate on another character.

Alyana Markerstone is our main character for today. She resides in the dorms in the ugly center of the wonderful city of Diego itself.

And for the first time in Mary Sue history... she ISN'T astonishingly beautiful to every person she sees.

Alyana's story goes as such. She grows up in Uglytown, anticipating her sixteenth birthday. She is considered horrifically "ugly" by everyone in her dorm, but considering everyone's called ugly there, she doesn't care.

She pulls off a set of tricks that alert the authorities somewhat, then continues off with her life. Then one day she gets a little lost exploring the Rusty Ruins and meets... Zane.

Apparently Zane has not died like he was thought to have in Specials, even though it was pretty obvious that he was close to flatlining and the only thing keeping him alive was the machine. But no, actually, Zane has somehow been made into a Special. And he isn't a rewired Special like Shay or Fausto. He's dangerous, much like a worse version of Tally. GASP. SHOCK.

Zane threatens poor, sweet Alyana and lets her go. But Alyana cannot find her way back, and stumbles into the city where Tally Youngblood lived years ago. She then finds a cult, much like the Japanese cults from Extras (although that book shall not be mentioned considering many fangirls like to pretend that book, and Aya Fuse and Frizz Mizuno, don't exist). The cult grabs Alyana and makes her into a Special. She gets the exact same operation that Tally Youngblood has gotten years ago.

Alyana becomes part of the cult and meets and falls in love with another faux-Special, named Jonas. But when Alyana comes face-to-face with Tally Youngblood herself...

Ah, there's Tally.

Alyana meets Tally and instead of attacking each other like they should, Tally instead takes Alyana's arrival as good news. Tally isn't the last Special anymore, so she is no longer bound to Dr. Cable's last wish. And so Tally opts for the surgery that makes her an ugly again, and Zane meanwhile is also given the surgery. He meets Tally again, and a mushy-gushy love scene happens, and they both acknowledge that they do have beauty - just not the way society wants it.

Yuck.

Oh, did I mention, David has suddenly popped out of existence?

Alyana and Jonas are also given the surgery, and Jonas tells Alyana the same thing that Tally and Zane have just told each other: that although nobody else may acknowledge it, Alyana is truly beautiful...

Tired of this nightmare already? Me too. Let's cut to a more interesting scene.

-

"Adrian-kun~!"

Adrian, who was sitting on his sickbed, paled as the blue-haired vision of total idiocy burst through the door, holding a box.

"Tash-san told me you were injured!"

At this rate, I'm probably going to be even more injured considering you've walked in, thought Adrian.

Aster sidled straight up to Adrian, smiling mischievously. She then opened the lid of the box to reveal a pile of candy. Immediately Adrian's uncomfortableness disappeared.

"(gag)"

He hadn't had candy in over a month...

Obediently, Adrian opened his mouth as Aster unwrapped each candy, held it over his mouth, and dropped it in his mouth, the same way one would give a treat to Meg.

"Aster!"

Aster turned around to find a very livid Tash at the door.

"What on earth are you doing?"

Quickly, Aster sidled away.

"You know that considering Adrian is injured he could choke on one of those!"

I wouldn't care even if I did, thought Adrian.

"And I never said you were allowed to visit! From now on, no food or drink will enter this room without my express permission!"

As Tash pushed Aster out of the room, she swiped the box from her. "And I'll be eati- er, confiscating that!"

-

As Marcus arranged the books, he saw Aster walking towards a familiar shelf...

"Ah," he said, putting his hand up. "You can't do that."

"Why?" said Aster.

Marcus pulled out a list. Adrian had dictated this to Marcus to make sure Blake wasn't the only one tending to the library while Adrian was in abstentia.

"...Uh, here. #3: Under no circumstances should Aster be allowed to pull any manga, manwha, light novel, anime DVD, Korean drama DVD, or whatever else she's currently into, off the shelf."

Aster stared blankly at him for a minute. Then she said, "Hey, Marcus-kun, do you like origami?"

Marcus blinked. "Um, yeah?"

Aster held up a paper. "Do you want this?"

It was a paper folded into a shape barely recognizable by the common man - but Marcus was able to get it immediately.

"A monkey!" said Marcus. "Tell me how to make it! Tell me!"

Aster winked and pulled a copy of Hana Yori Dango Vol. 6 off the shelf.

-

"Hey! Tash!" said Kate on a nearby computer. "We've got a tag. New Sue. Uglies fandom."

"Uglies?" said Adrian, on his bed. "You mean that book series about people getting operations at sixteen to be supermodel pretty and yet at the same time be brainwashed by the government?"

"Yeah, that one," said Kate.

"Kyaa~, anyone who's brainwashed already should be an easy target for a Sue," said Aster.

"But that's the thing," said Kate. "The 'mind-rain' happened years ago. They should be normal right now."

"Should be?"

"And I'm detecting lesions in many canon characters' brains. Something's wrong."

-

It had been so easy, thought Alyana.

She had wormed her way into a plothole after receiving orders from the Lieutenant (and a few genetic modifications, although not nearly as many as Flare's - for God's sake, he was a hedgehog). She had entered the Uglies fandom, posing as a fifteen-year-old, and had "accidentally" run into a group of faux-Specials (actually friends set up by the Lieutenant). She then acted out a few scenes, and had resurrected Zane. Eventually, she did some things that would attract Tally Youngblood's attention, and became the hero of the story.

When Tally wasn't looking, Alyana booted her skintenna (almost identical to the ones present in the other Diego citizens). She then pulled up a familiar name.

"Markerstone?" a cool female voice said.

"Lieutenant," replied Alyana. "All systems are go."

"Good," replied Lieutenant Mary Sue. "Make sure you don't fail like Willowe has been doing lately. Seems she has some...personal...issues getting in the way nowadays. She has lost the purpose of our organization: to make worlds perfect."

"Permission to commence temporal distortion."

"Granted," said the Lieutenant.

Alyana cut off the connection. She then looked upwards, and made a motion as if she was grabbing something from the air...the technique used by Nagato Yuki in the fourth Haruhi novel.

Soon, thought Alyana. Very soon.

-

"Huge signal on GPS locator."

Harriet twisted the small device. "Diego. I'm assuming this is some twisted future version of San Diego?"

"They did mention Death Valley in the first book," said Kate.

Then suddenly Aster screeched to a halt. She looked around, and seemed to wave her hands in the air.

"What are you doing?" said Tash.

"Look," said Aster. "It won't let me in."

True enough, when Tash felt ahead of her, it was like she was blocked by a barrier. Aster had been trying to pound on it.

Eventually Aster lost it and shot different-colored beams at the barrier from her fingers, but the barrier seemed to absorb them.

"Wonder if Adrian-kun could do anything," said Aster.

It was mayhem. Tash was on a screaming fury to get in, Michael was attempting to stab the barrier with a sword, Miri and Aster were trying to blast the thing off, Marcus was using brute force - with both halves, and Harriet and Lauren were trying to electrocute it.

It just stood there.

Tash had an idea. "One of two things. It's restricted access for Society members, or it only allows Sues in."

"Both," said a voice.

They all turned around to behold Alyana Markerstone.

"Hell-o," she said. "We may or may not have met. I dunno. I see so many Society members around."

"What is this?" Tash demanded.

"If you inform us, reverse the damage, and hand yourself over, we'll put you on parole," said Lauren.

Alyana tossed her head back and laughed.

"You really don't know? Ask her."

And she pointed at Aster.

Everyone stared at Aster, wondering how this mundanely idiotic agent would know. As Aster followed the glares at her, she shook her head.

"No, I wouldn't... but... oh!"

Her face came into realization.

"Temporal distortion line... She's turning the time backwards, restricted to a certain area... kyaa~..."

"How on earth would you know that?" said Tash.

"I read the Suzumiya Haruhi series, you know..."

Alyana laughed again.

"Yes, she's right. It is a temporal distortion line. Anything inside it will be going backwards. It covers Diego and any city 30 miles from it. At this point," and here Alyana looked at her watch, "we should be in the middle of the second book right now. If you do manage to get inside, you'll be forced to go backwards as well. Only I can go in and out without being affected."

Harriet rubbed her hand on the invisible barrier, and watched a leaf fly by inside it. Aerodynamically, it was going backwards.

"Now," said Alyana, "leave me alone..."

She pulled out what looked like a small pistol. Words were inscribed on it: PLAIN JANE.

"Watch out!" said Tash, and pushed Miri out of the way just in time to avoid what looked like a small pin shooting at them.

Tash breathed heavily. Lauren took out a cloth and picked the pin up with it, holding it like it was a poisonous snake.

"Plain Jane pins. They're lethal to self-inserts... they'll rob us of our identity if they touch us..."

Lauren looked up to see Alyana pointing the gun at her.

Luckily, Lauren moved away in time, but the pin struck her shoe. Lauren kicked it off with the other foot.

"Get out of here. Now," said Alyana.

The Society didn't need telling twice, except Aster, who continually stood her ground.

"I'm not a self-insert," said Aster.

"Aster, get out!" said Tash, pulling her away.

-

"We need help."

Tash lectured the ragtag team of Society members.

"Is there any way we can get some?"

Blake had a suggestion. "Canon characters. This is a futuristic universe. Some character could explain it to us and help us out."

"There's a problem with that one," said Michael. "All the canon characters are trapped in that time bubble."

"Ah..."

Aster had interrupted.

"When you told me about that series, I looked it up in Adrian-kun's library...There's a fourth book, it's in Japan, kyaa~"

-

"I hope to God she hasn't put a temporal distortion in Japan too..."

"The fourth book is usually uninterrupted by fans. Most people hate it."

They used a helicopter stolen from a nearby city to land in Tokyo, and Aster's eyes got very, very big...

"Ah - I - "

Then suddenly Aster fell on the floor, throwing a tantrum, swearing in Japanese and yelling, "WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY CITY?"

"Apparently she can't handle the future changes," said Tash.

"Be thankful there are changes. It means this place is untouched."

-

Tokyo was swarming with cams.

Tash could practically feel the cams scanning her. She didn't have an eyescreen, but she had a feeling...if she could see her face rank it would probably be over a million. (Aster's would be lower, probably.) Considering that nobody in this place knew her name, she'd have the lowest. Actually, she wouldn't be on there.

"Tash-san..."

Great, maybe it was Aster's fault, but Tash had just made it into the reputation economy.

"Tash-san, where are we going?"

"Shuffle Mansion," said Tash. "We need to find a certain canon character, and we have to get in."

-

Shuffle Mansion was huge.

Aster ogled at it. She lived in a small apartment in her universe, and this place defied whatever her imagination had fed her before.

"Tash-san, it's huge."

Tash reached for the door, but the handle mildly electrocuted her. The automated system said something in Japanese.

"Crap," said Tash. "I forgot. This place is supposed to be secure."

"How do we get up then?" said Michael.

"Send them a message?" suggested Miri.

Tash noticed a small intercom, and pushed the button. Japanese phrases came out.

"Hey!" said Tash. "English please!"

However, in the Uglies fandom, the author had clearly defined a language barrier, which required a Japanese-speaking person.

"Aster, get this right. Or else there will be consequences!"

"Kyaa~, don't be so hard on me~"

Aster walked up to the intercom, and in Japanese, said: "For Fuse Aya. I am Aster Selene. I have information that concerns you, your city, and most of all, Tally Youngblood. If you want juicy info, please open the door. I am not a normal extra."

15 seconds later, the doors swished open.

-

"So, I want an explanation," said Aya Fuse.

Aster blushed.

"Well?" said Tash. "What does she want?"

"An explanation," said Aster.

"Hm," said Tash. "Explain to her about Mary Sues."

"But you're the one who says it better, kyaa~"

"But you're the one who speaks Japanese!"

Aster blushed even more and explained the situation to Aya. Hiro, Ren, and Frizz made a few side remarks. Finally, Aya nodded and said something intense to Aster. Aster turned back to Tash.

"She says she'll help if she has permission to kick the story to help her face rank. She won't mention the Society, or authors, but she'll talk about Sues..."

Tash faced the rest of the Society. "That could work..."

-

Aster screamed.

"What - is - that!"

"Moggle," said Aya. "My camera. I need shots to kick a story."

"But...it's...looking at me..."

"Get used to it," said Hiro. "We're all kicking this story. And get ready for a jump in face rank, because once people see you around Aya..."

-

The Society and Aya were swarmed with cams as soon as they walked out.

"Ren!" said Aya. "Reputation bubble! Hurry!"

Ren took out his preprogrammed jammer and slowly the cams fell from the sky.

"Quickest way to America..." said Tash. "Besides a ten-hour long helicopter ride..."

"I do hope I get some more merits as soon as I kick my story, because I spent a lot to get this..."

-

Despite Aya's general newfound fame from kicking the City Killer and Leaving Home stories, she still fussed about her merits. Perhaps it was habit from being an extra. But the Society found it worth it, because who could resist a plane ride in the future?

"Kyaa~," said Aster.

"So," said Aya. "Are you really self-inserts? Or are you just a cult of uglies - except for her," and here she pointed at Aster, "who just had a very bad attempt at a manga-head surge?"

"We're Authors," said Tash.

(All this time, Aster was scrambling back and forth as translator.)

"And you are here to catch... Mary Sues?" (She pronounced it "merisu".)

"Yes," said Lauren.

"She's damaging the city of Diego, and Tally Youngblood," said Blake.

"Tally-sama..." Aya gulped. "Maybe we should have involved the government?"

"No," said Tash. "We can't have the idea of authors spreading across your Japan."

-

"Wha- no! Canon characters!"

Alyana Markerstone stared in horror at the large Society group and the four Japanese canon characters.

"Moggle, are you getting this?" said Aya.

"Ah..." Alyana found that she would be close to being seen by almost all the feeds in Japan. "Well..." A grin slowly spread on Alyana's face. "What if I - "

But Tash got there first.

Alyana had charged and attacked Aya. A full scale brawl broke out.

In the background, Moggle curiously zoomed in.

Everyone was rubbing some area of the body in pain, but Alyana merely stood up. She healed fast. "I'm tired of this charade."

She pushed a button on her crash bracelet, and the mask covering her fell off. Within a few seconds she had revealed herself to be a Special.

The Society had been duped. Alyana had not received the ugly surgery after all.

"You're gone," said Aya in slanted English. "I will post this on the feeds, and everyone will catch you."

"I don't have to stay in this fandom anymore!" said Alyana. "And to make sure you don't pursue me, I have something you need!"

Alyana pulled out a small screen and showed what was in it. Tash gasped in horror.

"I have your little puppy," said Alyana. "Don't worry, she'll be a great companion. But if you annoy me..."
Alyana laughed and disappeared through a plothole.

-
Although she was dismayed at Alyana's last trick, Aya had enough shots, and would kick the story to be on the watch for more Sues.

"Dammit..." said Tash. "We have to get the Sue, and rescue Meg."

-

In the Library...

Tash was already feeling down but Aster was making it worse.

" - how on earth could you possibly be a HaruKyon fan, Haruhi's not meant for that, Kyon even says in novel #5 - "

"Not now, Aster - "

" - total disgrace to Kyon, everyone knows Yuki's the one for him - "

" - Aster - "

" - so since season 2 is coming out, I expect there to be a sharp increase in YukiKyon fans, and if you're not one of them by then, then you are going to have a lot more up your sleeve than a lost dog!"

TAOM: Valerie - Line the Pieces Up

Showtunes, she muttered to herself. Why is it always showtunes?

Valerie nearly always had some form of music running through the back of her mind, though recently songs from Broadway musicals she'd seen proved most prevalent. Of course, this could be a remnant of her early and late childhood, when she burried herself in stories and books to escape the problems of her own life. Showtunes - basically songs about stories - seemed to accomplish the same thing. What Valerie was attempting to escape, however, wasn't going to be ignored without a fight.

"Come on," Terrie's plainative was accompanied by a light poke, "talk. I want details! I didn't think you went for blondes..."

Valerie sighed heavily. Terrie had cornered her in a remote corner of the Library's kitchen, where they were unlikely to be disturbed, after catching her looking wistfully after a young man about their age. "It's a crush, Terrie," Valerie said irratibly, "nothing more. It'll pass. And it's not like it would've worked out anyway, even if he felt the same."

"Well that's no excuse! Zanney and I make it work out, and we live on opposite sides of a continent!"

"That's what you said about Sam when you were dating him," Valerie felt compelled to point out, "And besides, for me it's moot point. It's unrequited."

"How do you know that?" Terrie asked impishly.

Valerie was sorely tempted to roll her eyes. "Trust me. I know."

Terrie blinked, then remembered: Valerie was an empath, someone able to sense the emotions of others. If anyone could tell what this guy was feeling, it would be her.

Valerie, for her part, was a little bit depressed by this fact. It wasn't often that a male really caught her eye, but rarely did those young men look back at her. She knew why too: she was ordinary. Straight brown hair that fell to her waist, small hazel eyes that pretty much looked like plain brown unless you looked closely, a plump frame too fat to be called attractive but not fat enough to be called ugly... not to mention her shyness. Empathy made it difficult for her to be in crowds (for obvious reasons), but even when well-shielded, talking to people she wasn't very good friends with was nearly impossible for the girl. Put it all together, and she was invisible.

'You can look right through me, walk right by me, and never know I'm there...'

Terrie thought for a moment, then said, "Well what about that guy from college? From what you've told me, he worships the ground you walk on!"

This time Valerie did roll her eyes. "Ter, he's eleven years older than me! If his constant flattery wasn't such a much-needed boost for my battered ego, I think I might file a restraining order!"

The shorter brunette giggled a bit. "Well it's good to know you won't settle, at least. Because if anyone deserves the man of her dreams, it's you."

Valerie didn't respond. Here's hoping... she thought.

TTTTTT

"Okay, Danielle," the team leader said softly, so as not to disturb her redheaded friend's concentration, "Guide it through the maze."

She placed a small white mouse at the beginning of a relatively simple maze, and Danielle's eyes seemed to glaze over as she focused on the small creature's aura. To anyone else, this would look like a classic lab experiment, but the difference here was that bait for the mouse was placed at the maze's dead ends, not the exit. Danielle was attempting to force the mouse to move away from the food, toward the end of the maze.

It put a tiny pink nose in the air and sniffed for a moment, then immediately turned down the leftmost path, toward the first set of bait. It took a few steps in that direction, then froze, looking distinctly confused. Valerie felt, rather than saw, it's aura flare up momentarily (she had very little talent for seeing auras unless she knew exactly what to look for, which rather defeated the purpose), then pulse rhythmicly in the direction of the maze's exit. Slowly, as if unsure why it was doing this, the mouse turned in that direction...

...and immediately bolted for the second set of bait on the right. Danielle struggled with it for a moment more, but once it started eating the food pellets, it was a hopeless cause. She sighed.

"Well that was a complete failure," she said miserably.

"Hey, I wouldn't call it that," Valerie reassured her. "You've never done anything bigger than a spider before, let alone against the animal's food instinct. That was a fantastic first try."

The redhead tried not to show it, but Valerie could tell she was preening under the praise.

"I am getting better at this, aren't I?" Then she got more serious. "But I need to keep getting better."

The team leader nodded, thinking of the recent disaster with Tash's kidnapping. She was going to be fine, but Adrian's wounds were far more complex. With her shields let down she was able to tell exactly what hurt and where by feeling an echo of the same pain in her own body, but that wasn't much to go on with somebody that badly damaged, both externally and internally. And it was the internal damage that worried her. She had taken enough medical classes in the course of her college carreer that she knew how to repair the majority of his gut wounds, but the damage to his sense organs was something else entirely. The senses, she knew, were incredibly complex, incredibly fragile things - far too complex for her to attempt putting things back in order herself. The damage might even go all the way back to the brain. All she could do was send in as much energy as she could and hope Adrian's body would know what went where.

'How do you document real life when real life's getting more like fiction each day?'

"We all need to get better," she said quietly. "We have to."

Danielle was silent for a moment. "Well I'm gonna put this stuff away, and then I'm schedueled to practice weapons with Stacey."

Valerie nodded absently, still lost in her thoughts. "Just make sure you eat some chocolate first to restore your mental energy. In fact, I'll put the mouse away, you-"

"No, I got it!" she said quickly. With a wave she exited down the hall with the white mouse in one hand and the little maze under her other arm. As she went she began to singsong: "It was a dark and stormy night. The toilet light was dim. We heard a crash and then a spash, for Drew had fallen in!"

Her team leader gave her an exasperated look. "Danielle..."

Said redheaded looked back over her shoulder. "What?" she asked impishly. "It's catchy! And Drew deserves it a lot more than Blake does anyway."

"That doesn't mean I'm going to tolerate meanness. Now go on!" She made a shooing motion with her hand, but couldn't help but grin back. It was an amusing image after all.

TTTTT

Cree... thhhunk.

"So that's when I decided..."

Cree... thhhunk.

"...that I wasn't going to..."

Cree... thhhunk.

"...sit on the sidelines anymore."

Valerie reached over her back to her quiver, but her hand only found empty air. She was out of arrows again. As she trotted down the range toward the target to retrive them, she continued, "I mean, I hate fighting. Unless my shields are completely airtight, which they rarely are since it restricts my powers so much, I can't fight. Harming someone else is like deliberately hurting myself, and what sane person does that?"

"I can think of a few people who don't get that concept," her shooting partner, Monika, replied in a soft tone, "but I'm not sure if they qualify as sane, even by our standards."

The brunette nodded. "So I've been hiding out in the Emergency Ward, helping out whoever needs it, and telling myself that that's enough. And most of the time it is enough. But with all these new Sues and Stus showing up in greater numbers with greater threats to our cause and our lives, we need every agent we can muster." Privately she giggled at Tash's reaction when Valerie revealed to the Society about her healing ability, back when Adrian was injured in the Fate/Stay Night universe. "You've been able to do this for how long? And you never told us?" Valerie could only shrink under their leader's gaze. "I, uh... I was busy with schoolwork... Finals, you know?" It had been an interesting day, to say the least.

"Projective empathy can be used as a weapon if it's strong enough," she continued, "but I'm mainly receptive, so that's harming myself too. Archery is really my only choice, since it keeps me far enough away from my target that it's harder to feel that pain."

Monika nodded as well. Of all in Valerie's team, she had the fewest of what could be deemed "powers." Her only gifts were some mild projective empathy, enough to be very persuasive when she wanted to be, and a great deal of common sense. They had been best friends for as long as they could remember, and even though they had their spats, as all friends do, there was no one who's opinion Valerie valued and trusted more.

"I guess I'm just not sure what to do," the brunette finished lamely. "I don't want to fight, but it seems like, more and more, fighting is the only way to get this war to end." She returned to the beginning of the range with the collected arrows in her quiver and picked up her bow again. "But how is that right? How does violence against the Sues make us any better than them?"

'In my life, there are so many questions and answers that somehow seem wrong...'

Monika hesitated a moment before answering. "I could say that we're not the ones making violence," she said slowly, "that they're the ones who brought this battle to us. I could say that up until recently it's just been police work; that they made it into a war, and we're only defending ourselves. But that's not what you're asking, is it?"

Valerie couldn't meet her tall friend's eyes, so she mutely shook her head.

Monika drew back her own bow and continued practice. Valerie did the same. Neither of them spoke for a long time.

TTTTT

There was a sizable black and blue lump on Stacey's right wrist, and it seemed to be growing bigger even as Valerie examined it. "Yep," she said, "That's a bone bruise. And let me tell you, you're not gonna get rid of that in a hurry..." Muttering to herself, the healer opened a cabinet, selected an herb poultice, and handed it to her friend. "Keep that pressed on it as much as you can. And use ice on it when you can't. Not heat; that'll just make the swelling worse."

Danielle looked more demure than Valerie had ever seen her as she hovered over her blonde friend. "I am so sorry, Ami-chan," she said penitantly.

Stacey offered her a pained smile. "I'm hearing deafening appologies from Ezra, Danielle. I don't need them from you too."

The redhead let out a nervous giggle and took a small step back, no longer hovering obsessively. "Sorry," she said again.

Valerie rolled her eyes slightly. "Here," she said, putting a hand on Danielle's shoulder, "why don't you go file an accident report before the paperwork starts breeding again. And after that I want you to find Monika and practice your psychic abilities some more. If she's not around, see if you can annoy a swordwork lesson out of Terrie. Kay?"

Danielle's face split into a broad grin, and Valerie knew she would be seeing Terrie first. She left eagerly without a further word.

Back in the Emergency Ward, the two remaining girls chuckled appreciatively at their youngest team member's excitability. "She's been wanting to learn swordwork for nearly a year now," Valerie commented. The only reason Terrie - who loved new chances to show off her skills - hadn't opted to teach her was that Danielle might be too old to begin such complex training from scratch. Valerie privately disagreed. Danielle, though stubborn and impatient at times, had a near miraculous ability to learn almost anything completely on-the-fly, and had a resilience that bordered on the paranormal.

The blonde girl next to her scoffed. "As if she needs a bladed weapon to do significant damage. Her staff seems to work just fine." Valerie noticed the hard gray gleem in her friend's sea-colored eyes and realized that it was not Stacey, but rather her alter-ego Ezra, speaking now. The warrior side of the blonde shot Valerie an almost embarrassed look. "You do realize the spar was tilted in her favor, right? She was armed. I wasn't."

Valerie chuckled. Ezra's pride was the thing most wounded right now. "As if you could possibly do any better with a staff than with your own fists, Ezra. It was fair."

Ezra never pouted. Never. "I went easy on her..."

The healer did her best to suppress the giggle that welled up in her, but it was difficult. Instead, she busied herself with infusing healing energy into the bruised wrist. Her own power combined with the herbs from the poultice, making them that much more effective. Already the swollen area had lightened in color as the pooled blood under the skin resumed proper circulation.

"Next time," she said absently as she worked, "let Stacey fight some. She needs the practice just as much as anyone else, y'know."

"I'm perfectly fine, both of you!" Stacey exclaimed as she took back control. "Geez, I can take a little pain!"

Ezra returned to respond. "Yeah, that's great for you. But can you inflict any?"

Valerie put her hands on her hips. "You of all people should know the answer to that one," she said, addressing Ezra.

The brunette wasn't entirely sure which of them blushed.

"Valerie," Stacey said, suddenly serious, "Are you alright? I know something's bugging you. You've been in such a funk since Blake left."

The healer started, and then remembered that Stacey, too, was an empath. One more sensitive than herself, actually, though with a good deal less control of her abilities due to a complicated home life. Of course she would've noticed Valerie's turmoil, even if she couldn't pinpoint the entire cause.

'Think of me. Think of me fondly when we've said goodbye.'

"He was my friend," Valerie said simply. "And I'm going to miss him, even if he doesn't believe I will."

Stacey nodded, and then put her injured hand over Valerie's. "When he's ready to talk to you again, he'll know where to find you."

Valerie let out a half-smirk. "Is that precognition?" she asked dryly. The gift of prophesy was another talent of Stacey's. The girl had power - lots of it. And perhaps everyone in the Library except for her knew it. So even though the healer spoke somewhat sarcastically, part of her - more than part - hoped that Blake really would come back.

Stacey smiled. "Only if you want it to be."

TTTTT

What a day... Even though it was just business as usual in the Anti-Cliche and Mary-Sue Elimination Society, Valerie was feeling a bit more tired than usual as she climbed the stairs to her favorite retreat.

You should get some chocolate in you, dear, said a gentle voice in the back of her mind. You've been working with your mind all day.

Valerie smiled at the concern in her spirit guardian's mindvoice. Ari wasn't the most talkative of beings, but the things she did say were always worth paying attention to. I'll get some before I leave for home, I promise, she replied.

A mental nod was her only response, and Valerie continued climbing the spiral staircase to the top of one of the Library's towers. Even in the towers, she noted, books lined the walls in shelves upon shelves... though the brunette was a bit perplexed at some of the more obscure titles. "The Ancient Guide to Females"? Wasn't that in Xialin Showdown? Apparently this building housed not only all the stories, but all the stories within those stories. I wonder if I can find Nightblades in here somewhere? she thought absently as she climbed. Or maybe Windrider Unchained...

Finally, she had reached the last stair, and a grin broke across the girl's face as she headed for the balcony to claim her prize: the most spectacular view imaginable.

Because the Library Arcanium existed everywhere and everywhen, the space surrounding it was consequently both nothing and everything. The blackness of space was layered with images both beautiful and fearful, astonishing and ordinary, profane and profound. Every thought in her own mind, as well as every mind that ever existed, was projected onto that midnight sky in a myriad of colors and symbols too chaotic to imagine. And it was never the same twice.

Once, Valerie had tried to take a picture of the vision before her, but the photos had only shown black nothingness. The beauty of the universe was in the eye of the beholder, it seemed.

'The courage of a dreamer, the innocence of youth...'

She looked in the direction of a small woosh sound, and smiled as Ari - in her most commonly used form, a small queen fire-lizard - flew lazily toward her chosen and backwinged to land on her shoulder. Valerie smiled again as her guardian nuzzled her neck affectionately, and stroked her back. Been keeping busy? she asked.

Oh, you know. This and that. Valerie chuckled at Ari's deliberate obtuseness. The little dragon was always up to something, but rarely did she see fit to inform Valerie of her activities. Valerie was always left curious, but always gave up asking eventually.

You've been visiting the basement again, haven't you.

The abrupt change of subject surprised Valerie, and she turned to look at her guardian with a start. "Why do you ask?" she said aloud, not wanting to speak with her jumbled thoughts.

Because you are invariably attracted to people in pain and bad spirits, Ari said plainly. And though the Mary-Sues in the basement dungeon only barely merit being called "people," you will still feel compelled to help them and comfort them to the best of your ability. Even without empathy to compel you to ease such disturbances, it's just in your nature to want to help those who need it and help them avoid further harm. Am I right?

Ari was exactly right, but neither of them needed to say that. The fact was, Valerie had been visiting the prisoners in the dungeon once or twice a week for over two months now, talking to them and bringing them cushions or blankets, things to make their accomodations more comfortable for them. They were, after all, only acting as they were created to act, so didn't they deserve the same fair treatment as everyone else? And though they inserted themselves into fandoms, they only did so because they didn't have a home to call their own. They were drifters, hopping from fandom to fandom in an attempt to make something of themselves. And, when you got right down to it, they just wanted to make things right in the storylines.

Valerie would never admit it, but she sometimes wondered if they even had the right to persecute people who only wanted a place to belong.

'...The failures and the foolishness that lead us to the truth...'

And what about Runoa? Ari interjected, picking up on her thoughts as she always did. She's the reason Adrian nearly died twice. Or Harold, who beat Michael into a bloody pulp without batting an eye? Or perhaps Willowe, the diabolical mistress behind everything we've gone through so far? You've sensed their minds and hearts throughout your journey, Valerie, and you know without question that perfection is not what they're after. They want control.

Valerie felt some of the tension leave her stomach, and nodded. Once again, Ari was exactly right. There was no compassion in the hearts of Mary-Sues, only a desire for domination. Characters and fandoms are so much easier to manipulate if they're content, after all. And if all the characters are content with their lives, there would be nothing left for them to strive for. No story at all! That was how fandoms were destroyed in the presence of Sues: the storyline simply... stopped.

What Willowe and her kind don't see is the perfection that's already there, Valerie thought. Everything happens for a reason. Every story, even the most deadly of blacklisted fandoms, has a plot that's already worked-out and perfected. All the trials and hardships... if not for them, how would we know what happiness even is?

Ari blinked at her with swirling blue draconic eyes. You cannot know warmth if you have never known cold, she quoted. You cannot know know happiness if you have never known sadness. You cannot know love if you have never known fear.

And you cannot know peace if you have never known war, Valerie finished. I understand. Fandoms... our lives, even, are based around the fact that everyone has to have encountered both ends of the spectrum in order to recognize either when we see it. If all there is is Sue-manufactured happiness, then there's no happiness at all.

'...The hopes that make us happy, the hopes that don't come true...'

Ari nodded her triangular head. But there's something else that's bothering you tonight. Tell me.

Valerie laughed. Compared to everything else that's going on even as we speak, my everyday little troubles seem kind of petty...

They matter to you, Ari said firmly, That's all that counts.

The brunette sighed. I guess I'm just feeling lonely, she admitted, and maybe a little jealous. So many of my best friends are just deliriously happy with their romantic lives. Tash and Adrian. Michael and Claire. Danielle and Felix. Stacey and Don. Even Terrie and Zanney. Sometimes I feel like I'm not good enough to be... wanted like that.

It was impossible to hide anything when speaking mind-to-mind, and Valerie suddenly found herself on the receiving end of a surprisingly penetrating blue gaze. No, Ari said in a tone Valerie couldn't quite place. She almost sounded angry. No, Valerie. Never think that sort of thing. It was all she seemed able to say.

Valerie was caught up in the depthless blue for a moment longer, then let out a small laugh. Well, I know it's not really true, she said, but you know me. My confidence has never been very high. I just have trouble going out and meeting people, is all.

Your confidence skyrockets when you're defending the ones you love, Ari said in that same almost-angry tone, When it really matters, you have no hesitation at all. You will happily lay down your life to save a virtual stranger - Don't deny it! I've seen you. The real you comes through when you're helping someone else, and that makes you more precious than anything else in all the worlds.

Valerie had absolutely no idea what to say.

'...And all the love that ever was. I see this all in you.'

Never feel like you're not good enough, Valerie, Ari said, because you are the most good person I know. And if you don't believe me... Her mindvoice gentled considerably, and her depthless blue eyes focused on a point behind her, ask your friends.

Valerie turned around, and was stunned to see all the members of her team, plus Tash, standing at the top of the tower stairs behind her, waiting for her to notice their presence. "How... How did you guys know I was here?" she sputtered.

Tash was grinning. "I was sitting in the common room, going over the blueprints I found for some of Adrian's booby traps, when I heard singing coming from the west tower. The others said it was you, so we came to visit you. You sound nice!"

"Wait a sec," Valerie interrupted, confused, "I wasn't singing! In fact I haven't said more that five words since I got up here! How could you hear me?"

Terrie walked over and put an arm around the taller girl's shoulder. "Hun, take our word for it. You were singing."

"You do it all the time," Stacey said. "You really couldn't tell?"

"How do you not know when you're singing?" Danielle asked, giggling a bit. "You do it so often, I think everyone in the Library recognized your voice by now!"

"I can sort of see why it's a Sueish trait to have a nice voice," Monika commented, leaning against the railing. "It's nice to have it around, always in the background like that. Kind of calming, you know?"

For the second time, Valerie was rendered completely speechless. I've been singing without realizing it? All day?

More like all your life, Ari commented dryly. Valerie flushed, and was profoundly glad she was the only one who could hear her guardian.

"Listen Val," Stacey said, "Why don't you come back downstairs. Tash has pretty much figured out how to disarm the trap in the autobiography section, so we'll have plenty of cookies to munch on. Ezra wanted to know if you had another poultice for me, 'cause I think this one's worn out." She help up her bandaged hand to reveal a worn, lumpy herb poultice in need of replacement (though the wrist itself looked just about healed).

"And I've got some more drawings to show you!" Danielle said eagerly.

"And I was wondering if I could enlist your help in rounding up all the plot bunnies that have been breeding in the animal pen," said Tash. "With all the publicity we've been getting and all the new rookies that keep coming in, they've just been breeding like mad!"

"Hey," Terrie replied, "it's better than dealing with writer's block."

Tash looked skeptical. "With the way they've been biting everybody, I'm not so sure. Some of those bunnies have some pretty weird ideas..."

Valerie looked among her friends, the closest people in her life. They might not always get along, but they were, without question, standing behind her. With her. Through thick and thin. She looked out once again at the swirling not-void, mesmerized by the shifting colors and designs. In the chaos that is the known universe, how could anybody not find perfection in little wonders like this? In everyday miracles that fit flawlessly within the disorder and cacophany of life, in perfect moments in time that made the rest of it worthwhile?

Never feel like you're not good enough, Valerie, Ari had said. Never feel like you're alone.

"Come on, guys," Valerie said with a smile. "Let's head back downstairs."

Her friends smiled back at her, and she felt like she could take on the world.

"Always look on the bright side of life..."

TTTTT

Ari watched her chosen go back inside with a feeling of mild regret. What she had said was true: a person cannot truly know a thing until he or she has learned it's opposite. But although Valerie had encountered her opposite many many times, in many different forms, she had yet to realize how extraordinary she really was.

Who else would see perfection in a world so troubled, Valerie? she said silently. Who else would find the pinpoint of light when everyone else is drowning in darkness?

That was her destiny, Ari knew. When all else was in darkness, Valerie would help them - all of them - rediscover the light. It was Ari's mission to protect her until she was ready, and guide her along her path. Valerie was a true Healer, and she would fulfill her dream of healing the worlds... one close friend at a time.

A soft soprano voice floated up the stairwell and past Ari's ears. It sang of love and healing, joy and sorrow, but most of all it sang of forgiveness, and hope for a better future. A hope that resided in Valerie, and the lives of everyone she touched.

"For out of what we live, and we believe, our lives become the stories that we weave."

The dragon flew off into the distance.