The pretty cures had woken up to an explosion and saw that Rikka had disappeared. Worried for their friend they transformed and split up into groups so that they could find her.

Mana and Aguri were paired and went east. Makoto and Alice paired up and went West.

"Have you found anything?" Makoto asked as she climbed down from a large tree.

"No I haven't found anyTHING!" Alice's sentence ended up with a startled scream before she disappeared from sight.

"Alice? Alice!" Makoto quickly jumped down from where she was on the tree. "Alice! Where did you g- AH!" The ground gave way beneath her and she started sliding down a tunnel deep underground. When she got to the bottom she slid straight into Alice, who was looking up the tunnel to try and find a way out.

"Ow," Makoto said as she rubbed her head. She looked down and noticed that she had landed right on top of Alice and their faces were only centimeters a part. Alice's face was scrunched up a bit from the pain for a moment before she opened her eyes. The two stared at each other for a few heartbeats, which felt like eternity of them, both started heavily blushing.

Makoto was the first to snap out of the trance and let out a small yelp as she got off of Alice.

"S-Sorry about that," Makoto said as she offered Alice a hand, not looking Alice in the eyes. Her face was still bright red.

"It's okay, it's my fault for standing in front of the tunnel like that," Alice said. She was definitely more calm than Makoto, but that didn't stop the pink blush dusting her cheeks and the shy smile she had on her face.

Makoto took a deep breath to calm herself down. "It doesn't look like we can go back the way we came. We're going to have to go through this cave and find another way out."

The two walked around through the cave together for who knows how long. Eventually something caught Alice's eye. "Hey, Makoto look at this."

Makoto looked over to where Alice was and saw a solid stone wall covered in symbols that looked like they were painted on.

"It looks like some sort of writing. It could be important if it's all the way down here. Too bad neither of us can read it."

"What do you mean? I mean sure the wording is a bit weird, but you can still understand it," Alice said looking over at her friend confused.

Makoto's eyes widened. "You can read that?"

Alice looked at Makoto and then at the wall. Her eyes continued to shift between the two a couple more times before her eyes widened. "I can read that. Makoto how in the world can I read that?!" Alice said as she grabbed Makoto's  shoulders and started to shake her.

Makoto put her hands on Alice's arms to get her to stop shaking her. "I don't know, but we can figure that out later. What does it say?"

"It says," Alice let go of Makoto and looked back at the wall. "Take your body, free your mind. Soon all you know will be left behind. In darkness you will drown. Just calmly let your body shutdown. Your world will spiral out of control, when the spirit comes into your soul.

"What is that even supposed to mean?" Makoto asked

"I-I don't know," Alice trailed off as she collapsed onto the ground. She grabbed her sides, so she looked like she was hugging herself, seemingly in pain.

Makoto quickly kneeled down to Alice's side. "Alice! Are you okay? What's happening?" She tried and failed to keep her panic out of her voice.

Alice looked at Makoto with wide terrified eyes. "I-I don't know. It feels like my soul is being torn out of my body."

Suddenly a strong wind blew through the area surrounding the two girls. Makoto quickly pulled Alice to her and held her tightly. Then was blinding white light filled the cave.
***
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?!"

For a few moments there was no response. The only thing Rikka could do in her adrenaline and fear filled mindset was stare at Ira in shock. Her mind was filled with so many questions.

Is this why Kyra lead me here? But why would I see her and not Alice? Why is Ira here? Does this mean that he's connected to the prophecy? But how did he-

"Hey smarty pants, I asked you a question!"

Ira's impatient shout was able to snap Rikka out of here daze. "Pretty Cure business. What are you doing here?"

Ira was annoyed by the vague answer, and barely held back a snarky response. It would just waste more of his time and he had enough of his time wasted.  So instead he said a retort for the thing that was annoying him the most. "Oh you know nothing much, I'm just having a pleasant walk through a hell of a jungle because you and your pretty cure friends used some kind of freaking magic to get me here!"

"What in the world are you talking about?! My friends and I haven't done anything to get you here! I'm just as confused as you are," Rikka said.

"Well if you didn't summon that weird spirit, and I'm sure as hell that Marmo and Bel didn't do it, then who did?" Ira asked glaring at Rikka, obviously still suspicious of her.

Before any response could be made Mana and Aguri bursted into the area, transformed, looking very worried. They didn't seem to notice that Ira was there just yet. When they saw Rikka their expressions went from panic to relieved.

Cure Heart immediately went over to her best friend, put her hands on Rikka's shoulders and put her face only a few inches away from her's. "Rikka, are you okay? We all woke up because of an explosion and you weren't there! We're you attacked? Did you get hurt? Why were you-"

"What is he doing here?!" Cure Ace exclaimed looking at Ira. Rikka was both glad and dismayed that Cure Ace had cut Cure Heart off. This is sure to be fun.

"I don't know! I just followed Kyra and she brought me here! Ira just happened to show up," Rikka said.

"Well that's a nice way to say that I saved your fricken life!" Ira yelled.

"I had it under control!" Rikka yelled, her cheeks fed with anger.

"So hugging your little pixie and looking like a scared little girl is having it all under control?"

"Alright! Enough arguing," Cure Heart said trying to stop the two from yelling at each other anymore.

"I'll stop once you tell me why the hell you all brought me here!" Ira yelled.

"Please if anyone is up to something it's you Ira. So stop with all this trickery or else things are going to get ugly," Cure Ace threatened, already getting into a fighting stance.

"Fine if you won't tell me why I'm here then," Ira trialed off as he shot a blast of dark magic at the girls. "Then I'll make you tell me!"

Cure Ace quickly reacted with an attack of her own. "Ace Shoot!"

The two attacks looked like they were going to hit both parties, but a figure quickly got in the way of the attacks. An explosion filled the area causing both groups to shield themselves from the debris.

"ENOUGH!"

When the dust settled it was revealed that two shields got in the way from the attack. They looked like clovers, but instead of being green the shields were white.

After a few more seconds the figure could be seen clearly. The figure was Alice, transformed as Cure Rosetta, but there was something off about her that everyone could see. Powerful magical energy was radiating off of her in huge quantities. She held herself in a very stern and stiff way that was unlike her usual pose, but relaxed stance. Parts of her hair had turned white. The feature that was the most off were her eyes. Instead of their usual bright orange amber color, her eyes had a mix of her usual eye color and red, with her pupils being yellow instead of black. They looked unusually dull and lifeless.

It almost looked like she was possessed.

****
So who thought that this was discontinued? Well luckily you were wrong, I just suck at updating and have a busy life. Really sorry about that. I'm not going to lie, the whole spell thing in this chapter had me just staring at my iPad for 20 minutes because I didn't know what to write. I'm just now staring to realize that this book looks like Ira x Rikka is the big thing of this book, it's actually a lot more plot driven. Don't worry though! The ship is still a major part of the story it's just probably not the main premise, like how I made it seem to be. Following up that Alice is getting a lot of spot light that you wouldn't except from a book that's supposed to be about a ship that she's not in, but you guys know I much I love this cinnamon roll that could kill you in an instant and you can't stop me! If you guys want more of a visual of what Alice looks like right now then I am willing to draw it if you guys ask. (Yes I can actually draw decent pictures) Wow this is a long author's note! Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and pray that I don't take as long next time.