Chapter seven

Presenting the Elements

Serena, Ani, and Hermione were just arriving at the entrance to their little ship, when across the hanger, Laria the Sorceress, spots Hermione. Serena was actually glad that Peter had gotten Jesse safely into the ship. For as soon as Seri pressed the button to close the hatchway, Laria sounded the alarm.

"Stop them! There is a witch on board that ship!" she yelled angrily.

About a dozen soldiers came out to see what the sorceress was yelling about and looking ahead, they see a ship about starting its engine. "Idiots, don't just stand there! That's an enemy ship!"

"If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself, Laria," Aster says, walking calmly up behind the gawking minions. Laria gave him a deadly glare. "Come on you lackeys, get to your single fighters, you're following me," Aster commanded.

At that moment, he spots his sister looking at him as her ship rises and without Laria's knowledge, he winks to her, silently saying, 'Just make sure not to hit the bluish-silver one,' he mouths to her.

In the matter of minutes all fourteen ships were out of the atmosphere and in space. After a couple of successful hits on the ship, Serena began dodging the laser beams. "SOMEONE WAKE JESSE!" Serena yells. Ani hurried out of her seat and started to shake her cousin. 'Jesse Anderson! Wake up, we're under attack and we need the weapons specialist!' Ani panics. Serena smirked. That'll wake him up.

Jesse springs up into a sitting position almost hitting Ani. "Wha…I'm up, I'm up…where am I…? Oh right…ummm…under attack… right, I'm on it," Jesse exclaims, still a little dazed. Rushing to the controls, when he sits down, he points behind him to Ani, "We will talk about this later," he says in a serious and almost angry tone.

Ignoring his comment, Ani climbs in her seat, ironically behind Jesse, watching the battle scene unfold in front of her. She noticed that the one her brother was in, while aiming at their ship, was shooting his own people, seemingly on accident. On the other hand, Jesse was totally confused. "What the hell is that pilot doing? Shooting his own people like that?"

"Helping," Ani answers proudly, "aim at any of the others, just try not hit that one."

"I don't need help," Jesse mutters.

"Oh shut up, Jess. He's trying to prove that he's not out to kill me."

"Well, there are only two left, the soldier and Phoenix's." Jesse says. He aims the laser gun and shoots the soldier, making him explode. Aster was close enough to the explosion, making him loose temporary control of his ship; giving Serena enough time to jump into lightspeed.

After several hours, of both Ani and Jesse not talking, the small pod returned to Serenity Phoenix, while Serena gave Chazz instructions on how to open the hatch without blowing the ship up. Serena, Jesse, Ani, Hermione, and Peter saw that Odd, Jaden and Ruby were the only ones standing in the docking bay, welcoming them back from their mission.

But the minute the door of the small pod open, Ani jumps out of her seat and ran out of the small pod, passing Jaden and the others, "Ani, get back here this instant!" Jesse shouts from inside the pod.

"No!" Ani shouts back, and she didn't stop until she was in her room, she shared with Serena and Ruby.

The three of them glanced at one another, before Jesse comes out and runs after Ani. Serena, Hermione, and Peter step out more gracefully then the other two. Ruby crosses her arms, looking expectantly at them.

"Let me guess, Antaria ruined the mission?" she asked. Both Jaden and Serena glared at her.

"Not really, she didn't stay in the conference room like she was supposed too," Serena said.

"We found her talking to Aster Phoenix," Hermione said, with a disapproving voice. Jaden's eyes widened, followed by both Ruby and Odd.

"And she survived?" Odd questioned, his voice sounding shocked and surprised.

"And they were just talking?" Jaden asked, his own voice sounding surprised. Peter smirked.

"Oh yeah, you should've seen Jesse, when he found out that Ani was missing. He literally fainted into an unconsciousness state. I had to pull him into the pod." Jaden burst out laughing.

"As much as he's overprotective of Ani, I can totally see that happening," Jaden smiles. Serena also smiles.

"Well I better go see Jesse and Ani, before their argument gets out of hand," she sighs, before heading to the forth floor.

"Ani, we told you to stay in the conference room! Why did you deliberately disobey a specific order?" Jesse shouts angrily. Ani stands at the doorway, not answering his question. He's too angry to listen, why bother? She thought to herself.

She turns around, and steps into her room and says, in a forced calm voice, "I'll explain everything during the debriefing with Susan and the other members. Goodnight." And before Jesse has a chance to grab her, the door to her room closes tightly and locks itself. Jesse sits down with his arms across his chest, and his knees pressed against his chest.

Meanwhile, Serena was standing at the corner, listening to their argument. "Oh great, I'm locked out of my room," she mumbles to herself. Then she walks up to Jesse. "Jesse, leave her alone. We'll hear about her end of the story tomorrow when we get back to the Moonbase. Now, I'm going to find Odd, so that I'll have a bed to sleep in tonight," she smirked, before walking off. After a minute, he finally registered what his cousin just said, and turned beet red. Serena pops her head back around the corner. "And get your mind out of the gutter."

Serena walked down the hallway to the boys' rooms. She sees Jaden and Odd talking, the younger brunette leaning against the wall, looking amused about whatever Odd was talking about. Serena walked up to them and said to Jaden, "Jaden, please talk to your girlfriend. She needs someone to talk to that's not Jesse." Jaden nods and starts to wonder off. "Odd, which room is yours, I'm sleeping with you tonight," she says with all seriousness. Jaden hears the comment and falls flat on his face, but quickly gets up. He turns around, face red with embarrassment, and says, "You did not just see that."

Serena looks at him with an innocent face and batters her eyes. "See what?" she asks innocently.

"Exactly," he said. And then he walks off, but Serena stops him again, with a warning.

"Oh and Jaden? I know you'll be tempted to stay the night with Ani, but just remember…Jesse." Jaden pales at the name.

Serena turns to Odd. "So which room is yours again?" she asks.

"And why do you want to know?"

"Because Ani locked herself in our room, so I have no bed to sleep on."

"You can sleep on the couch, can't you?" he suggested, but then shuts up when he saw the death glare in Serena's blue eyes. Odd sighs and he heads to his room, with Serena following him.

Noticing the Kiwi, purple bed sheet, Serena heads over there, pulls back the covers and settles in. She was about to close her eyes, when she realized that Odd hadn't moved from standing in the doorway. "Um, aren't you coming to bed?"

"Nah, I can sleep on the couch," Odd said.

"Odd, get your tail over here. It's not like we're going to do anything, we're just sleeping," she explained. Defeated, Odd joins with his girlfriend. Smiling with satisfaction, Serena kisses Odd on the edge of his mouth, says, "goodnight," and turns over.

Meanwhile Jaden was walking towards Ani and the girl's room when he spots Jesse still sitting in front of the door. Cautiously he walks up to Jesse.

"Um…" Jaden started scratching the back of his head.

"Go away!" Jesse snaps interrupting whatever Jaden was about to say. "Ani is not taking any visitors right now."

"But, um, Serena told me to come and talk to her. I think she needs someone to talk to, not get a lecture."

"Whatever." Jaden glares at the oldest cousin of three, tired of Jesse acting like a jerk and bringing everybody's mood down

"You know you might want to lighten up, you're bringing everybody down especially Ani. You are the one who always wants to keep her safe; all you are doing now is pushing her farther away from you. You are not letting her make her own decisions. What are you going to do when she is queen, lock her in her room and rule yourself? Like that's going to happen." Jaden says finally knocking some sense into Jesse.

Wide-eyed Jesse replies calmly, "I'm sorry I'm being a bastard but I was scared that something happened to her. If what she has to tell everyone is of any use then I will make it up to her somehow."

"You can start by leaving her alone and going to bed. Then by letting her do what she thinks needs to be done instead of telling her what to do."

"Fine I will leave. I know Serena is staying with Odd. I will be back in one hour to see if you are still here if you are…" he trailed off leaving it up to Jaden to fill in the blank. Jesse walks off a bit down the hall and then stops and turns around. "Does this mean when she's queen I'll have to take orders from her?" He asked in a lighter mood.

"Most likely. I have just one word for you to remember… PAYBACK."

Jesse pales; he mumbles to himself "Great, what have I gotten myself into?"

"I heard that, lighten up and it won't be so bad in the long run. She will make mistakes but that's the only way to learn sometimes."

"Yeah, yeah I know. Goodnight Jaden."

"Night Jesse," Jaden turns to the door and knocks. "Ani, it's me can I come in and talk?"

"Is he gone?" comes the muffled reply from behind the door.

"One moment." Jaden turns his head and sees Jesse disappear around the corner to his room. He waits just a moment longer before turning back to the door. "Yeah he's gone now."

The door opens up to darkness. Jaden peers inside to see if he can see Ani through the blackness, when all of a sudden a hand reaches out and grabs the front of his shirt and drags him into the dark room. Jaden 'eeps' and the door closes behind him the sound of the lock clicking in place is heard and a thin beam of light is seen under the door.

Once the shock of being dragged into the darkness by this petite girl wore off, the sensation of being hugged came over him. He looked down to see Ani with her head in his chest and tears threatening to fall from her eyes. 'Can he be that bad that he makes her cry,' he thinks to himself. "Don't worry about Jesse; I have a feeling that whatever I said," not remembering any of it, "knocked some sense into him."

"I had every intention of staying in the room. Really I did, even though I was bored completely out of my mind, I was going to stay."

"Then why did you leave, you know how Jesse gets."

"I know, it's just that I had this feeling that just wouldn't go away. At first I just ignored it but then I looked up to the door that was left open and saw a flash of silver and the feeling just grew to a point that I couldn't ignore it any longer. I saw that everyone was too busy to notice if I left; so I snuck out and went in the direction that feeling lead me. I had no clue I was following Aster until he turned around and I saw his face."

"He didn't see you at first, right?"

"Yeah but I still think he knew I was there."

"How did you end up talking to each other anyway?"

"That's how I think he knew I was there, he lead me into an empty room where he confronted me and that lead to the talk we had. Jaden, we have to get him out of there."

"What, why?"

"He is not what everyone thinks he is. Mom has been in contact with him for years, without telling him who she was of course, and has turned him into a double agent for the good side."

"Wouldn't that put him in a dangerous situation? I mean, if Sartorius finds out, he would be killed."

"That's why I'm upset. It's not because of Jesse, but it's because I'm afraid of what could happen to Aster. I just found him and I don't want to loose him again." With that Ani broke down into a fit of tears. Ending their conversation for the night.

The next morning Ani and Jaden were rudely awakened by pounding at the door by four hands.

"Antaria Phoenix open this door this instance." Ani and Jaden stare at that door hearing Serena's voice and hoping to god Jesse was not the second set of hands trying to get in.

"If you don't let me in and change into a new set of clothes I will not only tell Jesse that Jaden stayed with you last night, but I will also castrate your boyfriend," threatened Ruby. Jaden paled and crossed his legs flinching in imagined pain. Ani got up and unlocked the door sighing in relief that Jesse was not on the other side.

"Thank god, I hate being in the same clothes for more then a few hours at a time." Ruby says running to her closet and rummaging through her clothes.

"Don't worry I will not tell him either, but Jaden if you don't mind leaving so that we can get ready for the meeting with Susan. We will be approaching the moon base in less then 20 minutes and it takes Ruby that long to decide what to wear let alone get dressed." Serena says jokingly loud enough for Ruby to hear.

"Hey, I do not take that long to get ready," Ruby snapped, sending a death glare at Serena.

In the next two hours, after Serena landed their ship in the docking bay at the Moonbase, Serena, Ani, Jesse (who finally calmed down, after a good night's sleep), Jaden, Ruby, Odd, Hermione, and Peter all left to head over to Susan's office. After an hour of Ani telling her story, everyone took their minute to process the information.

"Well, it seems like Antaria had more success then you guys did," Susan says with a smile. Hermione glares at Ani.

"Basically, the only thing it really proved is that Aster's not really the bad guy," Jesse replies, getting shocked looks from almost everyone. Jaden smirks and winks at him.

"See, I…"

'Ani! I have some more information on the crystals,' Aster says, interrupting her in mid-sentence.

"You what?" Serena asks, but she noticed that Ani is not paying attention. She waves her hand in front of Ani, but she holds up her pointer finger to signal silence.

"What's up?" Odd asked.

"Shut up. I'm talking to Aster," she answered with an annoyed tone. 'What have you found out?' she asks, ignoring the weird looks coming from everyone except for Serena and Jesse.

"So what's he saying?" Serena questioned.

"He's saying that he had a meeting with Sartorius and the sorceress," Ani answers, repeating everything that Aster is saying in her head. "Laria knows who was behind the infiltration, but doesn't know where they went. My meeting with Aster is still secret, which gives us an advantage. Sartorius gives him more information about the crystals. Aster is saying that he has not told Sartorius about the prophecy. He is the only one on their side who has connected the crystals with the prophecy."

Susan holds up her hand to stop the one-sided conversation; Ani acknowledges, telling Aster to hold on and Jaden snaps his fingers, as he just figured out something.

"I think I get what Aster's been saying," Jaden said. "If the crystals go with the prophecy, then wouldn't there be a fire crystal?" Everyone gives him a look, silently asking, where are you going with this? "Well, if he already connected the crystals with the prophecy, then that means he already found one."

"Right. And?" Serena says.

"Oh geez, do I have to figure it all for you guys?" Jaden replies. Ani slaps him across the face.

"Stop being such a smartass and get to the point."

"I'm part of the prophecy, fire, remember? The crystals are also part of the prophecy, so therefore there's a fire crystal out there. You guys with me so far?" Everybody nods. "Okay, so Aster is saying that he has a crystal, which meeeaaannnssss?"

Jesse snaps his owns fingers. "I think I got it. Wait-no, I don't have it." Ani also smacks him across the face for his stupid comment.

"Duh, Aster's part of the prophecy," Odd said. Everybody, except for Jaden, looks at him with shocked faces, then they're like, "Oooohhhh."

"Right. That means, whoever finds the crystals is part of the prophecy," Jaden finishes his explanation.

"Okay, so what exactly is the prophecy again?" Peter asks.

"An innocent will be lost when the evil one comes.

The Knights must find the elements to save us all.

Time and Space will be reunited when Love, Wisdom, and Strength finds Sky, Spirit, and Death.

Wind and Water become one along with Heart and Rebirth.

The Fire of Justice will spark the flames to reclaim the throne.

The Time is near…" Susan replies.

"Time and Space will be reunited, brother and sister. That means me and Aster. The Fire of Justice will spark the flames to reclaim the throne," Ani repeats. Everyone is waiting for her to continue. "Reclaim the throne…hm. Hold up, I'm the princess, and I'm supposed to take the throne once my mother retires. That means, I have to be Justice. Jaden is Spirit and Fire. Aster is saying that he has ice powers, if that means anything. And that his crystal was surrounded by ice; which might gives us a clue to where the other crystals might be."

"So that means my crystal would have to also be surrounded by fire," Jaden says.

"Okay. I have a new mission, but it only involves Ani, Serena, Jesse, Jaden, Ruby, and Odd. So, Hermione and Peter, can I have a moment with them alone?"

AN: Sorry it took so long. We're writing the next chapter as we speak. So the updates should be a little quicker. Also, I couldn't have come up with half of the entire story without my cowriter. She's so awesome!

And beware of random movie quotes in the next chapters. (Just to add more humor to the story, not that it really needs it, lol.)