"Okay," Svetlana says as she opens the gateway to the Dark Angel Realm as we stand outside the restaurant, "It is ready."
"Let's go!" Lucilla shouts and goes to walk through, but Salem grabs her by the arm.
"Uh, you're not going anywhere," Salem says, "Absolutely no way."
"But you told me before that I could go places as long as I stay safe!" Lucilla complains.
Salem glances nervously at me and I just nod. He sighs and lets go of Lucilla's arm.
"Fine, you can go, but stay by one of us at all times," Salem says.
Lucilla beams and hugs Salem briefly before rushing over to Svetlana's side. We all walk through the gate one by one and it closes when the last one of us walks through. I stare up at the dark sky before glancing around at the black, cobblestone streets and the market place around us. In the distance I can spot the Dark Angel castle and its tall, black walls and red rose bushes that surround it. The smell of cinnamon drifts through the market and someone walks past us pushing a cart of spices.
"It smells wonderful here!" Lucilla cheers and looks around.
"Okay," Blaze says and pulls out her Arcane Map, "Their magical essences should show up on my map, so we can go right to them."
Blaze stares at her map, along with the rest of us as we huddle around her, but the only blinking area on the map is in our area.
"Uh, Blaze?" I question, "Where are they?"
"Huh," Blaze frowns, "That's odd. I specifically told it to look for the Time Twins. The only other light it should be showing is all of ours, and we're all in the same area, so where is the Time Twins' light?"
I suddenly get the feeling that I should look up and when I do I find a Dark Angel hovering in the sky above us with a kris blade in her hand. Her long black hair flows around her black and red outfit and her amber colored eyes watch us.
"Hey Blaze," I say quietly, "Who's that?"
Blaze looks upwards and so does everyone else to find the same Dark Angel still hovering there.
"That's Bellatrix, one of the Time Twins, but they always stay together so where--"
Blaze stops her sentence when a Dark Angel with all pink hair and blue eyes flies over to Salem and puts one of her hands on the side of his face before smiling wickedly and leaning close to him.
"You're cute," She giggles madly, "I've been waiting to meet you."
Salem's eyes widen as he stares at the Dark Angel before him. She moves away from him before flying around him and laughing. She draws out a dagger and flies close to him before holding it against the side of his face.
"You'll have to excuse my sister," Bellatrix says as she flies closer, "Hadrian is insane."
"Awh," Hadrian pouts and pulls her dagger away, "Why'd you have to tell them that?"
Bellatrix rolls her eyes and sighs.
"We've been waiting for all of you to appear, we've been expecting you," Bellatrix says, "We support you only because Evangeline will try to overthrow the Dark Angel Queen, but our master does not. He simply works for chaos itself and does not support either Evangeline or any of you. In fact, I doubt he knows who is behind the movement, just that it exists."
"Your master?" Blaze asks.
"He's technically not our master, but he's stronger than us and so he's our leader," Bellatrix says.
"You can try and reason with him," Hadrian giggles as she holds a finger up to her throat and makes a slashing motion, "But you won't make it!"
"If you wish to try and talk to him he is meeting with Nokomis," Bellatrix says, "We would take you to him, but..."
"But then master would be angry!" Hadrian laughs and flies close to Salem again, "And I wouldn't want to be in trouble with master. I wouldn't get to see the cute Demon Prince again."
"She's crazy," Asher whispers.
"If you talk to Razi, the Shadow Assassin, she'll tell you where to find them," Bellatrix says, "I can send you to her."
"Send us to her," I say.
Bellatrix nods and slashes a symbol in the air with her kris and a giant circle full of runes appears.
"Evoyance!" Bellatrix commands.
"Goodbye, cutie," Hadrian smiles and flies away from Salem.
Suddenly the world around us seems to blur and spin away at high speeds. When it stops we're standing in the middle of a room with tall, carved, black pillars against a black floor that reminds me of mirrors. Up above on a balcony a girl with brown eyes and brown hair with one silver highlight sits perched with a cloth covering her mouth and daggers at her side. She jumps down from the balcony and lands in front of us and rests one of her hands on a dagger.
"What do you want?" She says sharply.
"We're here to find Nokomis and the person who leads the Time Twins," Corliss says.
"The Time Twins sent us here saying that you might tell us where to find them," I say.
"Please," Svetlana bows her head slightly, "Help us."
"They're in the room straight ahead of us," Razi says after a moment, "Don't think that I'm helping you because I like you, I just can't stand Nokomis."
Razi turns and runs towards the one pillar and jumps back and forth between it and another one until she reaches the balcony she was on once more. She pauses on the balcony's railing for a moment before leaping forwards and running off.
"That was easier than I thought it would be," I say, "Huh, oh well."
We all quickly and quietly make our way to the giant double doors in front of us with intricate carvings on them. I push lightly on one of the doors so that it's open enough for me to see inside. Behind me, Corliss, Blaze, Svetlana, and Amorette all transform into one of their sets and I transform into my Sakti set.
"You've come to bargain with me, Nokomis?" A male voice carries over to us.
"It's not something that I'm proud to admit, and not one of my best tactics, but yes," Nokomis says, "Surely you should understand the power of bargaining."
I watch as the moon shines down in the dark blue sky on Nokomis's silver colored hair and her black and silver colored dress as she stands next to a balcony. The guy that must be the Time Twins' master is standing with his back to the door, wearing a black shirt with dark blue jeans and black converse.
"You do not get the right to tell me what I do and do not understand," The male snaps and runs a hand through his black hair, "You don't even know me."
"My bad," Nokomis smirks, "But you never answered my proposal. Will you side with Evangeline to take out those who are rebelling against her?"
"They are only rebelling against her because she's evil, what did you expect would happen?" The male snorts, "That everything would remain perfect? You're a sorry excuse for a being."
Nokomis starts to scowl, but then her dark grey eyes drift over to the door and a sly smile makes its way onto her face.
"It seems that we have unexpected visitors," Nokomis says.
The male, not much older looking than us, turns around and his bright green eyes meet mine. They widen in surprise slightly as he scans over my face and his lips part slightly. Svetlana gasps and Blaze clenches her saber tightly in her fist. As I stand there staring at him I begin to notice familiar details in his face.
"Alder?" I breathe out his name.