A soft purring sound was all Andie could hear as she tried to finish her Spanish homework. When Stella meowed, Andie looked up and smiled.

"Stell, I'm trying to concentrate. I'm almost done."

But before she could continue, however, Stella moved over to sit on her paper with a meow.

"Stella," Andie sighed, her tone half-annoyed, half-amused. "All right, then. You win. Come here, you silly cat."

She lifted her off the desk and lowered her onto her lap, where she stroked her soft black fur. Stella rubbed her head against Andie's chest.

"Ha... you're not so bad, are you?" Andie grinned.

Stella meowed, as though in agreement, making Andie chuckle. She looked outside a moment. It was getting late, and Andie was tired. But she'd fallen behind in her homework and wanted to catch up. If Stella would let her, anyway. Andie looked down at her big yellow eyes.

"If I don't graduate, it'll be your fault, you know," she told Stella jokingly.

Stella mewed softly and rubbed her head against Andie again. Just then, a purple light glowed behind her. Startled, Stella jumped off Andie's lap with a frightened meow and hurried under the bed. Andie looked round and stood up warily. The light eventually faded into a silhouette. Andie flexed her wrists, which glowed with flames. She waited, standing very still.

"Z... Zarias?" Andie asked incredulously when she recognized the figure.

"Adrianna, we have a problem."

"You mean besides you being in my room in the middle of the night?" Andie asked.

"I'm serious! Bane is doing something stupid!" Zarias replied. "I tried to stop him but it was already too late."

Andie was starting to get worried. Scared, even.

"What's too late, where is he?"

Zarias bit his lip. He looked so human when he did that, Andie almost thought it was someone else. And she supposed in some ways, he was someone else, now.

"He's gone after Zorak."

Andie took a second to let the words sink in.

"In the Demon Realm? Alone?" she squeaked.

Zarias nodded.

Adena? Andie asked.

It's true, Adena told her unhappily. Balon only just had time to warn me...

Andie closed her eyes and pressed her hands against her nose, as though praying.

"I'm sorry, I know you asked me to watch out for him..." Zarias said.

Andie dropped her hands and shook her head.

"No... I should have seen it coming..." Andie sighed. "Ugh, why does he have to be such an idiot?! I knew I should have tried to get him to talk more..."

"He hasn't been listening to anyone, lately," Zarias reminded her. "What now?"

Andie forced herself to calm. Rash decisions were not the solution right now. And yet, at the same time... they had to act fast.

"You go and get Isabelle, I'll get Emily and Jessica." she said. "But don't forget, her parents don't know about our powers, and they'll probably run you through if they catch you in their teenage daughter's room. It's not the best position, in out world. Then we'll meet up at Robert's. Does he know about this?"

Zarias nodded.

"Good. Okay. Let's hurry." Andie said.

She quickly scribbled a "Had to leave, be back ASAP. Don't worry, love you", then she and Zarias looked at each other. They both took position and the lights soon began to glow beneath them. When they both crossed their arms, Andie said:

"Thank you for telling me."

And she slipped into the whirlpool.

About ten minutes later (Jessica had been the hardest to wake), Andie and the others were at Robert's. They were just listening to Robert's report when Zarias arrived, Isabelle in tow. There was a moment's pause when they saw that he had his arms around her, but no comment was made as Isabelle stepped away.

"Thank you all for coming so fast," Robert said.

"Of course," Isabelle said.

"Yeah, we're here, but now what? Last I checked, the palace alone is pretty massive. How are we going to know where to find him?" Jessica asked.

"We can get closer to him by picturing him rather than the place where he went." Zarias told them. "But we have to be careful. I have no idea what we're getting into."

"We? You're no-"

"Jess, this is not the time for that," Andie said sharply. "We need all the help we can get."

Jessica was silent, though her eyes were glittering irritably. Andie held her gaze evenly.

"Okay, fine." Jessica conceded, rolling her eyes.

"We have to hurry, Bane could already be in trouble..." Isabelle said.

"Why did he go out there by himself?" Emily asked uncomprehendingly.

"Because he's blinded by his grief..." Andie said heavily. "He's going to end up killed if we don't move it..."

She couldn't believe he'd actually gone by himself... She'd always known him as responsible and the kind who thought before he acted... clearly, the recent events had shaken him so much he didn't care about that, anymore. Andie looked towards Robert who was pale and shaking. She walked over to him and touched his shoulders.

"We'll bring him back." she promised.

Robert's gaze was full of pain.

"No offense, Andie, but... last person you brought back died in our arms."

Andie opened her mouth to answer, but had to admit he was right.

"This won't be the same."

She turned away before she could say something stupid and joined the others. They formed a circle with Zarias in the center, like the first time. Soon, the swirling light surrounded them. Andie felt her hands ball into fists as she disappeared into the portal.

The now familiar spiraling sensation lasted somehow longer than usual. Though maybe that was because she was scared for Bane. The first time, she'd at least had Zarias with him. She spun so fast she couldn't see where she was going exactly, and it was amazing she never felt dizzy with these frequent portal travels. She couldn't tell were the others were, either.

Soon, however, they landed on the stone floor of Zorak's palace. They immediately got to their feet and looked around for any sign of danger. And seconds later...

"He was expecting us," Emily said as hoards of Umbras surrounded them.

"Of course he was! That means he and Bane found each other. You take care of things here, I'm going after Bane," Andie said.

"Andie, no! We can only beat him together!" Isabelle argued.

"I can't just leave Bane fight him alone, not this time." Andie argued.

She looked around for an escape. There was only one way out, and that was forwards. She raised her hands, then got an idea. She closed her eyes and let the fire within her run free. It spread through her body to her hands, her feet, her hair. Seconds later, her hair was ablaze, and her eyes were a golden red. She could feel the heat radiating off of her.

She marched forwards and the Umbras squealed and shifted hurriedly aside, hissing against the heat. She was well aware of the shocked looks on her friends' faces, but had no time to deal with that. She was soon through the sea of darkness and took off at a run, her heart calling after Bane.