Midori was actually a very good driver. She seemed to know which roads to take and which ones would have cops and/or guards.

I was stuck in between Roan and Marge, so I was warm and snug; and the humming of the car's engine was so nice that I soon found myself dozing off....

Suddenly I was at my old house, and my mom was inside cooking lunch. I looked around, and Tsuban was there, too. We were both younger. I was around five, and Tsu looked to be about eighteen.

Then someone walked around the corner. I immediately recognized her rose-red hair and lime green eyes. It was Annabelle Tomaru, one of my best friends when I was little.

She jogged up and gave me a big hug.

"Hey, Vic! What's up?" she greeted me.

I smiled. "Nothing much. How about you?"

She shrugged. "Same old, same old. My dad's gonna send me to boarding school next month when summer ends."

This was shocking, indeed. "Boarding school?"

Annabelle nodded. She grew solemn, a shadow passing over her small face. Worry clouded my own features, which quickly turned to sadness.

"We're never gonna see each other again, are we?"

Annabelle sighed. "I don't know, Vic. Maybe you can come visit me!"

I did my best to smile convincingly. "Yeah! Maybe."

But we both knew I would never see Annabelle again.

×××××

I was jostled awake when Midori ran over a pothole in the road. Sin was clutching the dash so tightly his knuckles were white; Midori was gripping the steering wheel in a similar fashion. Roan had wrapped his arm around me protectively.

"What's wrong?" I asked uneasily.

Teruo leaned up from the back seat where Giin was fast asleep. I saw that he had tried to strap her in as safely as possible.

"Someone is chasing us," Teruo answered, his blue eyes darting to the back windshield uneasily.

"There are a lot of cars on the road, are we for sure this one is actually CHASING us?" I asked hopefully.

Marge's mouth was set in a grim line.

"It's the same car. Midori has tried to shake them, but the driver's persistent. She even made a U-turn once." She stared at me seriously. "The car followed."

My brow furrowed. I turned around, trying to get a glimpse of the elf behind the wheel through his tinted windshield. I couldn't make him out.

I turned back around in my seat, growling in frustration. "I can't see anything."

Roan held me a little more tightly. "I don't like this," he muttered. His gaze met mine and in that moment I could see that he was scared; not for his own sake, though, but for mine. He cared that much.

Just then the car lurched to the side, pushing me on top of Roan, and Marge on top of me.

"Hold on!" Midori yelled back to us.

"Thanks for the heads-up!" Teruo sarcastically replied, helping Tressa up out of the floorboard where she had fallen.

Midori pressed the gas pedal to the floor and started weaving through traffic. Car horns blared as we sped past them. Midori shifted gears and turned a sharp corner, drifting like a professional racecar driver.

"Whoah, whoah, whoah, whoah!" Roan exclaimed, gripping his seat and holding me tightly.

I gritted my teeth and tried my best to steady myself, so as not to crush Marge.

We were on a stretch of pavement now, and there were no other cars around us. I squinted and tried to make out where we were. With a start and an impending sense of doom in the pit of my stomach, I finally realized. We were on the tarmac.

"Oh my gods!" yelled Tressa. "That's a plane!"

"it's coming straight at us!" screamed Sin, in a frenzy.

"That's what I'm counting on!" replied Midori steadily.

"What the HECK is that supposed to mean?!"

Midori disregarded his question and floored it.

The plane touched down, and we were speeding right toward its front wheel. Then, with a jerk if the wheel, Midori swerved out of the way at the last possible second. I quickly turned around, and saw the front wheel of the large plane collide with the car chasing after us with an ear-splitting crash. .

"Don't think he'll be walking that one off," said Teruo.

"No kidding," Tressa replied.

Midori navigated out of the maze of runways of the airport and quickly got back out onto the the open road.

"Umm... Could we make a quick stop?" asked Sin. "I need to use the bathroom. I also need to buy some new pants."

×××××

We were waiting for Sin to finish with his "pit stop" when we noticed someone was watching us. She was a tall, dark-skinned elf dressed in all black. I nodded to Roan who had motioned toward her.

The night air was hot and humid as we waited for Sin. The elf watching us wiped her brow.

Roan pulled his cigarette out of his mouth and flicked it to the ground, smashing it with his shoe. He was staring in the direction of the elf watching us.

I looked over at Giin, who was sitting on the curb with her head between her legs. Marge brought her two pills to help with the headache.

"So what exactly happened back there?" I heard her ask Giin.

"Super beer," Giin muttered. "Five times as potent as normal beer. Which makes it five times faster to take effect and makes the effects last five times longer. Bucket, please."

Marge quickly gave her a nearby bucket, which Giin promptly threw up in.

While this was going on, Roan hadn't taken his eyes off of the elf who was spying on us. She approached us.

Sin discretely drew his knives and Roan had a hand on his sword hilt. I fingered my gun hanging on my back nervously.

"Excuse me!" she began. "But I think you kids will be coming with me." She pulled out a gun.

Roan's eyes narrowed. "I don't think so."

But before we could engage, the woman gasped, her eyes rolled back in her head, and she collapsed in a heap on the ground.

We were all stunned, shocked, and confused. Then, we saw him standing behind her, his dagger glittering and dripping with her blood.

He was a foreigner. A half-breed. An Outlander.

He was obviously half-dragon, as most of the Outlanders are. He had two large horns curling close to his face and poking from underneath his hood, claws instead of toenails, and a long, scaled tail. His eyes, horns, and tail were all the same color: an ashy red.

Teruo had notched an arrow. "Who are you?" he demanded, in a surprisingly level tone.

The Outlander stood up straighter.

"I am Tatsuo. I come from the Outlands. I came to help you on your quest," he answered solemnly.

I could tell most of us were wary of the stranger, but I also noticed that Giin didn't seem nervous or scared at all. In fact, she seemed to be in awe of Tatsuo.

"I am an expert on daggers and knives," he continued, doing a few exemplary moves with his dagger.

"We already have a knives expert," Sin replied defensively. He glared at Tatsuo. Tatsuo glared right back.

"Okay, why do you want to help us?" I asked, trying to break up whatever was going on between Sin and Tatsuo.

The latter turned to me. "Because I want the Empress dead, as well."

Marge and I shared a confused glance. How would it affect the Outlanders? I had always heard that they didn't like mingling with the elves who lived in the Empire. They didn't care what was going on outside of their borders, apparently. But Tatsuo's answer seemed to contradict everything I had been told of his race.

I guess he could see I didn't understand.

"The Empress has been suppressing us for too long. She shuns us and leaves us to die. She denies us necessities like food, clean water, and materials for housing. The Outlands are a harsh place, full of beasts and monsters. Bloodthirsty demons. It isn't exactly an easy place to live, especially without the proper vitals," he explained bitterly.

I nodded in understanding. "So if we have a different, better Leader after the Empress is dead, you guys will be a lot better off."

Tatsuo nodded.

Giin stood up shakily. "I think we should let him come with us."

I stared at her quizzically. It wasn't like Giin to be so open to trusting people, especially this quickly after meeting them for the first time.

She stumbled, but Tatsuo rushed to her side and caught her. She smiled at him, blushing slightly.

"Thanks," she said.

Wait. Was Giin.... In LOVE?

That would certainly explain why she was so eager to trust him. But Giin had never before shown any interest whatsoever in any sort of romance. What was going on? Was it the super beer talking? Or was she genuinely experiencing certain feelings for this stranger?

"Well, considering he did just kill someone to save us, he seems pretty trustworthy," said Roan thoughtfully, interrupting my contemplation.

I nodded, and after a general agreement to take him with us was made (with much grumbling from Sin, who was being rather disagreeable), we all piled back into the car.

"So you guys are heading toward a red zone?" Tatsuo asked as we pulled out of the gas station.

"'Red zone'?" asked Tressa, brow furrowed. "What's that?"

"It's a term we use to refer to dangerous areas that are currently heavily protected and guarded by the Rumaen Guard," he replied, acting like it was obvious.

Marge turned to me, a worried look on her face. "We're headed for a 'Red zone'? Already?"

I turned to Tatsuo. "Tell us what you know about this particular area."

He looked thoughtful for a moment. "Someone tipped the Guard off that a group of teens were heading towards Republic, with intent to harm the Empress."

Sin cursed under his breath. I was unperturbed.

"Do you know who is guarding it? Who is the leader of the Guard in that area?"

"Cassandra Prince, the most dangerous female general alive."