(3rd POV)

Meg sat hunched over her writing desk. Under her arms were a few heaps of paperwork and on the edge of her desk was dangerously placed a bottle of ink with a quill, threatening to fall on the Persian rug. Meg's legs were crossed under the table and the skirt of her purple dress was slightly gathered in her lap. It was visible on the blonde Angel that she was trying her hardest to not lay her head on the paperwork and sleep for a while. Since she sent the last person to find the lost princess, it was all just papers and papers for her. 

A figure suddenly just barged into her room and she wouldn't even notice, if the person didn't clear their throat. Meg abruptly stood up, smoothed our her skirt and tried to fix herself up.

"I am sorry, your Highness, I just got tired over the paperwork. Please excuse me, I promise it won't happen again." she constantly apologized as she finally got back some of her usual elegant looks. The person who she couldn't stop apologizing to was one of the members of the royal family, Prince Raoul.

"Countess, could you please stop apologizing to me? It is not a crime what you did." Raoul calmed her down a bit.

"Of course, your Highness. Why did you come here? Are you bringing news?" Meg asked when she finally put herself together. Her heart was beating fast, as for each time them two met, Meg happened to just randomly get into some sort of an awkward situation.

"I am bringing news, but not good ones." the young prince sighed. "The King and Queen are dead. The illness was stronger then all remedies and spells we used to keep them alive. Have you found the Princess yet?"

"No, your Highness. Although we are close, we aren't quite certain. I will contact our allies on Earth as soon as possible." Meg said. "What will we do now, Highness?"

"I will have to take the responsibility to protect the kingdom until you find her, since I am the only living heir, but since I am not directly from the royal bloodline, my powers might not be strong enough." Raoul sat down on one of the sofas that Meg had in her room. "Tell me, Meg, what do you remember from times with her?"

Meg's heart fluttered with joy. This was the first time that the Prince, her one and only secret love, has called her by her first name. She has always admired the distant cousin of the Princess and as she soon started to realize, she has developed feelings for him. But she knew that it would be on the verge of impossible to show her true feelings to him, for he was of much higher social status then her and also being the only heir left, she knew that she didn't have a chance.

"I remember that we used to play since we were little kids." Meg started to tell her memories to Raoul. "We would always run out of the palace onto the meadow and I would teach her how to make flower crowns. The funny part: she never quite picked it up. Her flower crowns would always fall apart just a moment before she could fasten them or they would wither in her hands, because she took quite the time to put them together. On the occasional lucky times she would get them done, there would be ends of the stems poking on the sides. I used to tease her for it, but she had a different thing to tease me back for."

"And that would be?" Raoul asked Meg, who was now leaning onto the rim of the big window in her room and gazing outside onto the field of flowers.

"She had an incredible talent in playing all kinds of different instruments and she often tried to teach me how to play the piano or the violin, but I always kept on messing up. She gave up trying to get some musical knowledge into my head after one and a half years of tearing the strings on her violin bows. When we were older, she would teach me how to sew and I would teach her how to do different hairstyles. Of course, it didn't work out and the evening before every huge ball would come up at the palace, she would sew the dresses and I would do what I picked up from her and would do small things, like tying bows or making fabric flowers. But that would be enough for my story. What about you, your Highness? What do you remember?" Meg finished her story and sat down on the place that before supported her arm.

"I remember just the first time I met her." Raoul started. "Both of our families were on a picnic and I remember I was really shy about meeting with the princess. So, I ran away from my parents and hid underneath a willow tree. I soon saw a girl running around and I thought she was just one of the girls that kept the princess company. A colder breeze was blowing that day, so she had a red scarf around her neck. The scarf suddenly flew away from her and I tried to catch it, but I, together with her red scarf, landed in the pond that was there. I was soaked to the skin but I was proud at myself that I got to help. As I later learned, she was the princess I was so shy of and I remember I remained as red as her scarf for the rest of that day." Raoul got up from the comfortable sofa he was sitting on.

"I best be going. People might wonder where I disappeared." Raoul said as he opened the door to Meg's workroom. Meg was sad that he was leaving so soon, but in politeness, she curtsied as a farewell.

"And one more thing," Raoul said in the middle of the door. "You don't have to call me your Highness. It makes me feel as if there were such differences between us. You may just call me Raoul." and with that, he shut the door.

Meg straightened up and tested his name on her lips. It felt good and right. But there was no time to wait around, she had to contact the allies on Earth and quickly.

////////////////////////////

Erik was just getting ready for Christine's first big performance when Nadir barged into his underground lair. The old friend of his was panting and looked as if he just ran a mile in the hottest of hot summer weather without taking a sip of water.Erik's intended reactions ranged from utterly surprised from his friend's visit, through happy because he hasn't seen the Persian man in quite a few months, to downright rude and angry about him barging into his somewhat sacred domain. Before all these emotions in Erik got to set, the Persian spoke:

"Erik, I hope you have found her or at least have a close tip, because if you don't, I will take that Punjab lasso of yours..." He didn't finish before the masked man stopped him.

"What are you talking about, Nadir?" Erik was utterly confused.

"Well, Mr. Destler, let me explain why I came in such a hurry. I just got a message from there." He said while pointing upwards. "That blondie who shot you down here has told me that we need to hurry and be up there in two weeks time. Of course, with the princess too. And I hope you found her, because if you didn't, we will end up eternally resting. And you know how it is, since you have by some means already experienced this and somehow you are still here, but I could give two damns."

"Don't worry, Nadir. I have a very close tip. There is one problem however." Nadir relaxed when he heard Erik say that, but as soon as he got to the problem part, the Persian's eyes were about to pop out of his head from rage.

"What do you mean by problem?! This is supposed to go on without problems!" Erik let the Persian rage himself out on him, since he knew he would soon calm down. 

"Well, the problem is, she has never seen me fully, she only knows my voice and supposedly, she tends to faint quite a lot around me. Otherwise, she is perfect." Erik suddenly escaped into his dream world in which existed only he and Christine. "She has beautiful chocolate eyes that simply cannot lie. Her smile always brightens the day for me. She is fragile as porcelain but she is so kind and has such a big heart."

Nadir listened to his old friend's constant babbling about how amazing this girl is and he just let it out of his head as soon as he heard it. But inside, he was happy for his friend. For most of the time he knew him, he was cold and almost emotionless. The only emotion he would let out was usually anger. But now, he saw that Erik was almost lighting up with joy.

Who would think a single girl can change someone like him so easily?