Disclaimer:  I don’t own Diadem, so don’t sue me.

Okay, thanks again to all of those who reviewed.  This is my first fanfic so I appreciate the input.  Oh, and for those of you who aren’t fans of the Score and Helaine pairing, you probably won’t like this chapter.

            As the unicorns made their way back to their herd lands, after being assured of Pixel’s eventual safety by Helaine, the two magic users headed back to their castle to retrieve some supplies before going to rescue Pixel.

            Score turned to Helaine as he walked.  “Um, Helaine?”

            “Yeah?” she replied, sounding distracted.

            “I know you made it sound easy to try to reassure the unicorns, but even if we find Pixel, how are we going to fight Dironal?”

            “Well, what do you mean?” Helaine asked.  Score’s comment seemed to have jerked her out of her thoughts.  “We’ll fight him just like we’ve fought all of the sorcerers we’ve faced over the years.”

            “Yeah, but… well this time it’ll be different.  I mean, I know we’ve fought magicians before, but…” Score hesitated.  “This time it’ll be like we’re fighting Pixel.  How do we fight one of our best friends?  How do we overcome Dironal without harming Pixel?”

            Helaine stopped walking.  She hadn’t considered that.  How would they manage to defeat Dironal if they were unwilling to hurt their friend?  “We’ll deal with that when the time comes,” she said decisively, then began walking again.

            Score nodded, but still wasn’t sure.  He could see the doubt in Helaine’s eyes, and he didn’t blame her.  Nothing like this had ever happened before.  At least the time when Destiny had held Pixel captive, she hadn’t actually taken over Pixel.  They had been able to fight her without worry of harming someone they cared about.  And besides that time, they had always fought together.  Now, not only would they be fighting without Pixel, they would, in a sense, be fighting Pixel.

            He shook his head.  He couldn’t worry about that right now.  At this point, the most important thing was finding Pixel.  They could worry about the rest later.

            Pixel still couldn’t decide why Dironal had stopped.  He obviously had some kind of plan, but he wasn’t making it easy for Pixel to understand what it was. 

They had stopped at the edge of a river, several miles from the castle.  It wasn’t even really that far.  Dironal obviously wasn’t that intelligent.  He knew Helaine and Score would be after him.  Why stay so close to the castle?  In fact, why stay at all?

Dironal, in Pixel’s body, was sitting cross-legged at the edge of the river.  He had the Book of Magic open on his lap, and was slowly flipping the pages, reading every spell.  That once again brought up the question of why Dironal was staying on this planet.  Pixel knew he had already read the portal spell.  He could easily leave, and then it would be next to impossible for Helaine and Score to find him.  It would be so easy.

Pixel returned his attention to what Dironal was reading.  He seemed especially interested in one spell.  A power stripping spell.  It stripped the powers of a magic user, and made them therefore available for the use of whoever got to them first. 

Pixel would have gasped if he had been in control of his body.  Now he understood.  Dironal was staying because he wanted Helaine and Score to find him.  He had Pixel’s powers, but that wasn’t enough for him.  He wanted Helaine and Score’s as well.  When they came to rescue Pixel, he would strip their powers and then kill them.  After that, he would absorb their magic.

This presented several problems.  First of all, Helaine and Score were already on their way to save Pixel.  He would warn them, but he couldn’t unless Helaine contacted him again, and so far she had neglected to do so.  Second, if Dironal succeeded in his plan, which would be bad enough, absorbing Helaine and Score’s powers could be too much for Pixel’s body.  Individually, Score, Helaine, and Pixel were already incredibly powerful.  Putting all of that power into one body could destroy whoever was unlucky enough to attempt such a thing.

At this point, Pixel didn’t mind so much the thought of Dironal being destroyed.  But the magical overload would kill Pixel as well, and being destroyed himself was a different matter altogether.

After gathering the necessary supplies, Score and Helaine set out.  Unfortunately, they didn’t really have a great plan for finding Pixel.  At this point, it was basically follow the river and hope they stumbled over Dironal and their captive friend.  Not their best strategy ever, but hopefully effective.

Score followed closely behind Helaine as they quietly walked along the edge of the river.  Everything was quiet, and they could see footprints along the bank.  After several minutes of following the footprints, Helaine stopped. 

“What?” Score asked.

“It’s just… well, this is too easy,” Helaine said, peering ahead of them with one hand shading her eyes.

Score sighed.  “Does everything have to be difficult for you to think you’re doing a good job?  Maybe this guy is just an idiot.”

“No,” Helaine said, shaking her head.  “An idiot couldn’t have come up with that plan to take over Pixel’s body.  This guy is no idiot.  He is, however, leading us into a trap.”

Score looked at Helaine, still critical.  “Are you sure about that?”

“Positive,” she said.

“Can’t anything ever be easy?  Just once?” Score said to himself.

“Shut up,” Helaine said, pulling her agate out of her pocket.  “I’m going to try to contact Pixel and see if he knows what’s going on.”

*Pixel?* she said.  *Can you hear me?*

*Yeah * he said.  *Thank goodness you contacted me.  I’ve got something important to tell you. *

*Okay, * Helaine said.  *What is it? *

            *Dironal wants you to find him, * Pixel said quickly.  *He’s going to use a spell out of your book to strip you and Score of your powers and absorb them into my body.  That’s why he didn’t leave Dondar. *

            “I knew it,” Helaine said to herself. 

            “What?” Score asked.

            “Nothing,” Helaine said, waving her hand.  “I’ll explain in a minute.”  Then she resumed talking to Pixel. 

            *So, what are you going to do? * Pixel asked.

            Helaine sighed.  *I’m not sure yet, but we’ll think of something.  We’ll probably set up camp where we are for now.  At least until we figure something out. *  She then added quickly, *But don’t worry, we’ll help you as soon as we can. *

            *I know, * Pixel said, sounding exhausted.  *It’s just that, well… Helaine, if I stay like this for much longer, I’ll go crazy.  I can feel it, Helaine.  You guys have to help me. *

            *We will, Pixel.  Just hold on, * Helaine said, sounding much more sure than she felt.

            After ending the connection, Helaine explained the situation to Score.  “You’re right,” Score said.  “It’s better if we stay here.  We’ll have time to rest and to figure out our next move.”

            Then, he turned to the river.  “And since we can’t exactly take a shower, we can at least go for a swim.”  Then he began to pull of his shirt, heading for the edge of the water.

            “What are you doing?” Helaine asked, feeling a blush creep up her cheeks at the sight of Score’s lean form.

            “Hey, it’s not like we have a bathroom out here, and I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to walk around all day tomorrow stinky,” Score said.  “Anyway, it’s just a swim.  It’ll help clear your head, so you can think of a plan.”

            “Oh,” Helaine said as she pulled off her tunic, revealing the tighter, sleeveless top she wore underneath.  “So it’s me who has to think of the plan?  You’re so lazy, Score!”

            “Maybe so,” Score said as he gingerly dipped his foot into the water.  “But being handsome and charming makes up for it.”

            Helaine rolled her eyes and walked closer.  She casually bumped Score, causing him to topple into the water.  He was under for a while, then his head broke the surface, coughing and sputtering.  “Okay, that was so wrong.  This is really cold.”

            Helaine used her levitating jewel to slowly float over the water until she was at the center.  Score watched her, mesmerized, then blinked and looked away.

            “Oh, stop showing off!” he said, then swam over and grabbed her foot, pulling her into the water. 

            Helaine grinned and splashed some water in Score’s face, who promptly splashed back.  Soon, they were in an all out water war.  Score was easily winning, using his power over water to cause large amounts to rain over Helaine’s head throughout the entire fight, but Helaine was putting up a good struggle.  After a while, she swam around behind Score while he was busy conjuring a big ball of water to pour onto her head.  Helaine got behind him and jumped onto his back, causing him to go under water, shouting.  Score turned around and grabbed her, then hauled her onto the shore.  He sat on her stomach and began tickling her.

            “That was cheating!” he said as she laughed uncontrollably.  “I was distracted!”

            Helaine looked up at Score, sitting on her and preparing to dump another torrent of water on her head, and couldn’t help herself.  She did something she had wanted to do for a long time.  She leaned forward, and kissed him. 

            The kiss lasted for a long time.  Helaine was running her hands through Score’s hair, just wanting to touch him.  She had wanted to do this for so long, it was hard to believe it was happening.  But what was even harder to believe was that he was kissing her back.

            But then Score pulled back.  He looked at Helaine, his eyes wide, as if he couldn’t understand what had just happened.  Then he stood up, stumbling a little.

            Helaine felt herself blushing again.  Great, she’d scared him away.  “Score, I’m sorry, I did mean to---,”

            “No,” he said.  “It’s not you, it’s just that… I can’t.  I just can’t, Helaine.”  Then he grabbed his shirt and walked off into the woods.

            Helaine sat up slowly.  What had gone wrong?  Don’t cry, she told herself.  Do not let him make you cry.  When Helaine had pulled herself together, she stood up and quietly began gathering wood for a camp fire.  Score would come back eventually, and when he did, she fully intended to pretend like nothing had happened.

            Score was gone for several hours.  When he finally returned, Helaine had already eaten her supper and was sitting by the fire, poking at the glowing embers with a stick. 

            Score quietly crept into the firelight and sat down on the opposite side of the fire from Helaine.  She completely ignored the fact that Score had returned, and they just sat there like that for several minutes. 

            “Helaine,” Score finally said.  “Please just let me explain what happened.”

            Helaine didn’t even look up, but she didn’t object, so Score continued.  “Okay, it’s just that for the past several years, you and Pixel have been my best friends.  And even though I have to admit that kissing you was definitely… interesting, it scared me.”

            Helaine finally looked at Score.  “How could it scare you?  I don’t think I was that bad at it.”

            Score grinned.  “Oh, trust me,” he said.  “You definitely weren’t bad at it.”  But then he got serious again.  “I just don’t want to lose my best friend.  I mean, if it didn’t work out, what would happen with you, me, and Pixel?  We have to stick together to survive, and if you and I broke up or whatever you want to call it, would we be able to do that?”

            Helaine sighed.  “Score, after all of the fights you and I have had, do you really think that we could ever stop being friends?  We’ve been through too much for anything to ever tear us apart.  Being together won’t change that.”

            “Are you sure?” Score asked.

            Helaine smiled.  “Absolutely.”

            At this, Score stood up and walked over to where Helaine was sitting.  He sat down beside her and said, “Okay, then.”

            This time Score kissed Helaine.