Lana swatted at the alarm clock that went off right beside her head. She looked at the time and sighed. It was only 4:30 in the morning, and school started at 7:45. But she had to go in extra early to help finish setting up the gym for the costume dance that night.

Lana stood up, stretching her arms and walked out of the guest room they cleared out for her to stay in while she was training. It's almost the end of the school year, and they haven't even seen any of the warlords since the first week of school.

After taking a hot shower and dressing into her uniform, she walked into the pitch black kitchen braiding her hair, the only light coming off the full moon. Grabbing her lunch out of the refrigerator, she wrote a note on a piece of paper, signed it, and placed it in the middle of the table where the others were sure to see it.

She was about to leave the room when she saw a note taped to the kitchen door. She took it off and read it. Take something for breakfast, Lana. And it was signed by Cye.

Smiling, she wrote, Took an apple. Thanks Cye, on the back and put it by the table after grabbing an apple from a small basket of fruit. She also placed that and her lunch in her bag and climbed on her motorcycle, pulling on her helmet.

Making sure that her bag was secured, she took off down the road, leaving a trail of dust behind. The sun wasn't even up as Lana drove into town, passing the first buildings of Toyama. It was hard to believe that she hadn't even lived in this town for less than a year.

Very quickly, Lana pulled up to the school and climbed off her bike. As she grabbed her bag, something flickered across her vision, a shadow. She studied the trees before she finally went in uneasily.

Lana walked into the gym and began to work on the decorations. "Why I'm I up here," she murmured, "when the decoration I need is still on the floor?" She looked down from the ladder and frowned. Unconsciously, with a wave of her left hand, the decoration floated up toward her quickly.

Watch it!

Lana had to jump off from the ladder to avoid falling off. Don't do that to me Anubis!

"Lost your balance?" a voice came from behind.

Lana turned and saw a her friend, Nakano Kyouichi, walk into the gym. He had shoulder length, icy-blue hair and icy-blue, almost silver, eyes. Lana shrugged as Nakano walked toward her. "Can't concentrate while on a ladder. What are you doing here?"

"Same as you. I signed up to help put up the last of the decorations."

"That's strange. I didn't see your name on the list. I signed up because I thought no one was willing to wake up at four-thirty."

Nakano shrugged. "So where's your boyfriend?"

Lana narrowed her eyes a little. "He doesn't have to work the dance committee to get the last credit he needs and I thought I would let him sleep."

"Jeez, you don't need to get so touchy."

"Sorry, I still feel tired and I don't work well with others much."

"Well, lets get started on the decorations again. It needs to be up by tonight."

Hey Anubis.

Yes Lana?

Are you any good at math? I'm stuck on a problem.

Soft chuckles ran through her mind. Not really. I wasn't very good in math. And it's probably a lot different now.

Now? But Rowen said they fought you about three years back. How-

I was born on May fifth, fifteen-fifty-one.

Lana dropped her pencil and suddenly snapped out of the talking to pick it up. Fifteen-fifty-one!

I'm the youngest of the warlords.

Lana made a small choking noise and the teacher walked up to her. "Are you done, Lana?" he asked.

Lana scribbled the last answer down on the paper and handed it to the teacher. "Yeah, Mr. Era. Thanks."

"You might want to leave school before your the last one."

Lana looked from the blonde-haired teacher to her watch. "Oh blast! I'll be late for work! Thanks for letting me make up that test, Mr. Era."

Lana ran through the halls to get to the restroom, change into a pair of jeans and white shirt, then out of the restroom to her motorcycle.

"Slow down, Lady Lančna."

Lana felt a flash of anger being called that. And only one of her teachers would call her that. Mr. Gotistic. She turned to the young, white-haired teacher. "Sorry, Mr. Gotistic. I'll be careful next time."

"You need to slow down before next time or you'll have to see the assistant principle, Mr. Alevolen."

"Yes sir. See you tonight."

Cye walked through the doorway to a bodyshop, his senses immediately assaulted by the smell of grease. Blinking in the bright light, he walked up to the counter to the tall man.

"Excuse me, but I'm looking for Lana Vampirra."

The tall man smiled at Cye. "I'll take you to her."

Cye followed him into the back, where a few cars sat, being worked on or waiting to be worked on. The man stood by a blue car. "Hey Lana! You've got a visitor."

Lana rolled out from underneath the car, face smudged with black grease, and looked from Cye to the man. "Thanks. I'll need to leave in a few minutes, so check me out, will ya?"

The man nodded and walked away as Lana rolled back under the car. "So, what are you here for, Cye?"

"Rowen got sick and can't escort you to the dance."

Lana rolled out again and sat up. "Are you serious? Poor Rowen. Maybe I can-"

"He asked me to take you in for him," Cye interrupted. "I hope that'll be okay."

Lana nodded as she slowly stood up, wiping her hands. "Yeah, that's okay." She looked at Cye and smiled. "You're all ready dressed for the dance. I just need to get home, shower, and change. I hope you don't mind waiting there for me. I won't take long."

Cye shook his head. "It won't be a problem."

Lana lead Cye back out to the front (waving the tall guy good-bye) and got on her motorcyle, parked in front of Cye's car. She pulled on her black helmet and started up the engine.

"I'm going to pull ahead of you when we get onto the road," Lana yelled back to Cye. "When you get to my house, just come on in and wait for a while. You can watch TV or something. 'Kay?"

Cye nodded as he got into his car. Lana waved again and pulled out onto the road. Lana glanced back in the side mirror and barely saw Cye's car following her.

I hope Rowen's all right, she thought. It took less than fifteen minutes to pass the Warrior's house and less than five to get to her own. Lana ran up the stairs and into the large master bedroom that had a bathroom adjoining it Her dress and tiara were already laying out on the bed, ready.

Lana grimaced at the thought that she was actually assigned a costume to wear to the dance. A long, floor length, strapless blue dress with elbow length gloves and a sapphire and silver tiara. It made her even more sick at the thought that she was assigned a dress.

Unconsciously, she turned on the CD Player in the bathroom and hummed to the song as it softly began to play in english. It took Lana about twenty minutes to clean off (her hair taking up most of the time). With such long hair, she had no idea of how to put it up for the dance.

Lana finally decided on doing a braided crown and leave half of it down, so it fell around mid-back. She quickly got dressed and placed the tiara in her hair. Two short brown strands of hair curled slightly and framed her face as she checked herself over.

Turning off the CD player, she grabbed her high-heel sandals and ran down stairs. She walked into the living room where Cye sat reading a book. "Hi Cye. Sorry I took so long."

Cye jumped and looked to Lana as she sat down to put on her sandals. After a few seconds, she looked up into Cye's blue-green eyes and raised an eyebrow. "Jeez Cye. You're looking at me as if you never saw me."

"Well, I never saw you in a dress like that before."

"Point made." Lana grabbed the dangling moon earing and a sun earing off the small table and put them on. "What are you reading?"

Cye showed Lana and she smiled. "Pretty good book if you ask me."

Cye nodded. "It is good. Mind if I borrow it?"

"Not at all." Lana stood up just as Cye did, pulling on her gloves.

"You ready?" Cye asked. Lana nodded. "Let's go."

"Are you sure this a good idea?" Ryo asked for about the tenth time that hour. He looked at his blue haired friend as they walked into the bathroom.

"I want to surprise Lana. She was assigned to be a princess," Rowen shrugged. "I'll be her knight-in-shining-armor." He pulled off his jacket, revealing that he was already in his sub-armor.

"Don't you mean 'Warrior-in-Mystical-Blue-Armor'?" Kento asked.

"Very funny."

"Well, it true," Sage said.

Cye walked in. "She's looks bored out of her mind, Rowen. You might as well change."

"Well, lets get it on."

Lana sat in a dark corner of the gym, bored out of her mind. Every once in a while, if a good song would come on, she softly sing it in English, something to occupy her mind. Poor Rowen, she thought. I should there caring for him instead of here. But I have to be here for the last credit to graduate.

Someone stopped in front of Lana. "May I have this dance?"

Lana looked up and nearly fell out of her chair. Rowen stood before her, fully dressed in his deep-blue Strata armor, mask down covering his face. He extended an armored hand and pulled Lana to stand up.

A slow song came on and they began to dance. Everyone seemed to clear away from the two, leaving them undisturbed.

Lana looked into Rowen's eyes. "Isn't this dangerous, Strata?"

Rowen smiled. "By what do you mean?"

"This could attract the warlords. And how did you get in here with you bow and arrows?"

"If I tell you, I would have to kill you."

Lana smiled and rested her head against Rowen's shoulder plate. "Thank you, Rowen."

Rowen just smiled and closed his eyes, thankful for this one quiet moment alone. That one quiet moment didn't last long.

A soft rumble traveled through the air, then became more intense, knocking dust down form the ceiling. Lana looked up, her eyes wide. "Rowen!" she whispered. "A warlord!"

The ceiling finally gave away in one spot, right above Lana and Rowen. Rowen pushed Lana to the floor and covered her with his body, making a shelter over her.

After a few moment, the dust and screaming stopped. Lana looked up into the pain filled eyes of Rowen. "Are you all right?" Rowen asked.

Lana nodded and the debris was pulled off of them suddenly and they looked up to see Kento and Cye clear away the rest, in their armors. Lana looked beyond her friends into the lightning filled sky.

"Fraezi!" she growled, her eyes starting to glow slightly.

"Not here!" Cye whispered fiercely. "You can't transform here!"

That killed most of the glow in her eyes, but not all. "Then how can I join the fight?"

"I can take you to the hall where no one is," Rowen said. "You have to act injured to make it real."

"How about just knocked out cold?"

"That would work."

Lana just nodded and closed her eyes, slowing her breathing down and relaxing every muscle in her body. When Rowen picked her up, she was just a limp doll in his arms.

Rowen ran across the gym floor, everyone making way for the Warrior of Strata and the "injured" girl. After a few seconds, they got to a cleared part of the hallway, void of people.

"Lana." Lana didn't move. "Lana wake up!"

After a gew seconds, her eyes fluttered open, and she took deep breaths. "Sorry, just acting dead." Lana stood up and closed her eyes, then said, "Armor of the Night Tao Mikomi!"

Blue, black, and silver energy surrounded Lana, making her Armor of the Night. She opened her eyes, glowing bright blue. "I'll go in first, then you come in. We don't want people to get suspicious."

Rowen nodded and Lana ran down the hall and into the gym. After a few minutes, Rowen ran in, pulling out his bow and an arrow. The site that greeted him horrified him.

Lana pulled out her swords, making an X and let go. The swords stayed afloat as she concentrated on them, then blue and black energy surroundded the swords as she was about to call on her attack.

Fraezi smile. "You just sealed your fate, Night." He twirled the staff in the air and an icy wind blew everything back. "Eternal Blistering Aisu!"

Ice suddenly surrounded the twin swords, and then Lana. Lana struggled for a second, but was then completely covered with ice! Her body stopped struggling and in the center of the now ball of ice became black.

With a small movement of his staff, Fraezi lifted the ball of ice into the air and hurled it across the land.

"NO!" Rowen cried out.

"We shall get her, Strata, one way or another."

Rowen pulled out his arrows and cried out, "ARROW SHOCK WAVE!"

Gold energy gathered at the tip of the arrow, but even more than usual as his anger fueled the attack. He finally released it. The energy soared through the air, aimed at Fraezi.

Fraezi barely could get away, but still got hit by the blast. "You won't see the last of me, Ronins!" He pressed the staff into the ground, calling out, "Eternal Blistering Aisu!"

Blue energy came cam from the staff, striking the clouds above. Instantly, the air was filled with an icy wind and blue energy came from the clouds. As soon as it touched ground, it instantly froze and took Fraezi up with it.

Rowen collapsed on the gym floor. He didn't care that a blizzard was on its way. All he cared about was getting Lana back.

So cold, so dark. The impact as the ball of ice hit the earth barely disturbed the near dead, sleeping warrior.

NO!

I'm sorry, Rowen. I'll be waiting for you.