Jakira had never felt so many different emotions at once in her life.

She was overjoyed and relieved that Night was still alive, even if she didn't know how, and had practically floated home and sang the good news to her mother. Only moments later, however, she'd been overwhelmed with horror and fear upon hearing that Alex had just suffered a heart attack and was on the verge of death for the second time. She'd gone straight to the hospital and had been at his side when he'd woken. They'd talked, and when the subject of romance came up, he'd teased and playfully pressured her into telling him who she was crushing on. (Thinking about it, that'd been a weird thing to talk about right after a near-death experience.) She'd ended up telling him, but it had seemed to put him in shock. The last she'd seen him, he was lying back down to rest.

Now, the evening of the next day, she was at home.

"Are you not hearing me?" Synthia poked her head into her room, startling her out of her thoughts. "I've been calling you. Time for dinner."

"Oh . . . sorry. Yeah, I'm coming." Jakira rolled off her bed and followed her mother to the dining room.

"You've been distracted all day," Synthia complained as they sat down together at the table. "What's going on? Boy trouble again?"

She shrugged. "Kind of. Alex keeps scaring me and weirding me out."

Her mother seemed genuinely bewildered. "Sounds like the norm," she pointed out, then started eating.

Jakira groaned. "I mean more than usual."

"Alex is a different kind of person," her mother said with a half-shrug. "Sometimes he acts like a regular teenage boy, like when he raids our kitchen, plays pranks on you, thinks it's a good idea to climb on the roof with a pizza box, yada yada. And other times he's downright depressed and gets too scared to even call us. He's got a different mind than most people. You're not going to be able to understand his every move."

"I don't expect to," she protested. "I just . . . don't . . ."

"He's also going through a lot right now," Synthia added. "You can't expect him to just go right back to normal . . . or, what's normal for him, anyway, so soon after whatever he went through."

Jakira sighed in frustration, but didn't reply out loud. Alex is unique. Yes, I knew that. She and her mother ate the rest of the meal in silence. But why was he acting like he knew something I didn't?

-

Late in the night that evening, she lay on her back in bed gazing at the ceiling. She couldn't fall asleep, and wondered if this was how Alex felt every night.

She couldn't keep her mind off him. Him and Night both.

Had it been a bad idea to tell Alex about her feelings for Night? Maybe he found it strange, since he didn't know how well she knew the dark guardian.

But wasn't it almost . . . stereotypical? Citizen girl falling for the hero? She knew that Night wasn't comfortable with talking to civilians— he'd expressed it many times before, and on occasion would even disappear if the situation were too uncomfortable— but his job alone spoke some things about him. He protected total strangers from both Preciser and regular criminals, and was willing to risk his life for his partner and city. He was selfless. Even though he had his flaws, and would rather battle a giant than talk to strangers, the public did love him. So did she.

In a distracted daze, she sat up in bed and rubbed her eyes. The digital clock on her nightstand read 11:34.

This is ridiculous. She swung her legs over the side, stood up, and changed back into her clothes. Her light still off, the only illumination moonlight from her window, she arranged her braided hair into a bun. Finally, she slipped her shoes on, grabbed a black sweatshirt, and left the house.

She didn't get bad nights very often, but when she did, it felt somehow relaxing to get out and take a solitary walk through the still-crowded city streets. Everything would be lit up against the black sky, and in her exhausted state, her familiar Milan would seem like a new world.

When she finally glanced down at her watch again and realized it was almost one in the morning, she began making her way back home. About halfway there, however, she was abruptly interrupted when a gloved hand from behind covered her mouth and a strong arm dragged her into the alley she was passing.

Blindly kicking and punching, she bit down hard on the hand, and when her attacker let go in haste, she whipped out her taser and was about to thrust it at him when she suddenly recognized the large golden eyes glowing in the darkness.

"Raevyn?" Quickly she put the weapon away as her darkald friend switched on a flashlight and shone the beam on the ground. "Dude, you seriously need to learn some social skills. That's no way to get someone's attention; I thought I was being kidnapped."

"I didn't think such skills would ever be needed," Raevyn sighed. "But I definitely never thought a lack of them would get me tased."

Jakira giggled. "Good thing I looked before I hit. What are you doing here?"

"Several reasons. One, to return this." He held out the flashlight to her. "I kinda realized I'd accidentally stolen it five minutes after you left."

"Oh." She rolled her eyes with a smile. "I was so caught up in the moment, I forgot all about it."

"Two, I wanted to check on you guys," the darkald went on. "Is everything okay? Has Night been doing better?"

She hesitated. "Yeah . . . I think so. My mom's back to normal, and the last I saw Night, he seemed much better."

"That's great." He relaxed.

"How about you?" she questioned with concern. "Has Preciser been treating you okay?"

Raevyn shrugged. "As well as a master treats his personal slave. The good thing is that he hasn't acted suspicious at all." He shuddered. "Just be glad you weren't there when he found out Oscuro and Night were missing. I played dumb, but I seriously thought he was going to kill someone."

Her eyes grew wide. "I'm just glad he didn't take it out on you."

"Nah, he values me too much. I'm special." Her friend got a glint in his eyes. "Technically, I owe him my life, which is the excuse he throws at me every time I so much as make a minor protest to his orders."

Jakira stared at him in confusion as she comprehended his words. "He saved your life once?"

"In a way." Raevyn tilted his head slightly. "I mentioned the other day that all the other Rifugian darkalds have no minds of their own, you remember that?"

She nodded, frowning.

"Well, that's of course not natural. Their minds are magically altered to be that way at birth. When I was born, though, there was a mistake with the procedure, and it left me with my normal mind. This whole mind-stealing process thing has to be done when they're first born— when they have no memories and few emotions— otherwise it's just too . . . complex. But no one even realized I was still normal until I was almost twenty years old. He was just going to kill me, but Preciser had never seen an intelligent darkald slave before, so . . . I'm kind of a living experiment."

"Wait, back up . . ." Jakira's head was spinning. For one, apparently this little darkald was a lot older than he seemed. But the other thing he'd said . . . "Who tried to kill you?" she asked warily.

"Oh, sorry. Our king. Korral."

She froze. "Wh—I—I thought— we thought . . ." Her blood felt icy. "We thought Preciser was the king."

"No . . ." Raevyn's golden eyes widened a little bit bewilderment and alarm. "No, Preciser's just a viceroy. Next to Korral, he's pathetic."

The sudden knowledge hit her like a slap in the face. "Korral . . . ?! My ancestors and I have been fighting for our lives against Preciser for over two hundred years, as have Night's. What king?!" she demanded. "Why have we never heard of him?"

Her darkald friend started to look nervous. "W-Well, he's a bit absentee; he's been traveling and learning about the world for a while. Actually, he should be back soon . . . "

The way he referred to such a huge amount of time as simply "a while" sent chills down her spine. "Raevyn . . . how old are you?"

Raevyn blinked as if the question surprised him. "Six hundred twenty-seven," he answered, then added proudly, "Almost twenty-eight, though."

She gaped at him for a few seconds, then shook herself back to her original questions. "Okay, back to the king; does he know about Night and I, and our gems?"

"He—" Her friend suddenly cut himself off, and covered his eyes with his hood to hide himself completely in the shadows.

Jakira glanced over her shoulder and stiffened. A random stranger was frozen right outside the alley, staring fearfully past her. "What was that thing?" he cried.

With a furtive deep breath, she pulled a confused face. "What thing?" she questioned, frowning. "I just stepped in here for some space and quiet so I could call my boyfriend."

The person looked at her with nervous bewilderment, then shook his head and continued on down the road.

"What kind of excuse was that?" Raevyn whispered once they were left alone again.

She shot him a look. "One to trick the dude into thinking that seeing you was a hallucination. And second, I didn't know if that guy would be trouble. The boyfriend thing usually scares them off."

He cocked his head. "Smart. But uh, I gotta run. I don't want something like that to happen again, and Preciser will be wondering where I am about now." He waved frantically, added, "I'll explain more about Korral later!" and dashed off to the back of the alley. A sound similar to metal scraping on stone a second later made her realize with a jolt that this was the same alley where Rifugio's entrance was. When she raised the flashlight, she saw the same out-of-place car still parked beside the wall.

-

Jakira awoke the next morning torn between emotions. Alex was being allowed to come home today— with a bunch of scheduled medications, a long list of instructions on what he could and couldn't do, and future checkups in mind which he kept complaining about— but the conversation she'd had with Raevyn the night before was worrying her. Rifugio had a king, and it wasn't Preciser. If Preciser was just a viceroy, then how many other viceroys and provinces were there? Just how big was Rifugio?

I'll have to tell Night about this, she decided silently as she got out of bed and began her morning routine. As soon as I see him next. Especially if this "king" will be back soon like Raevyn said . . .

She and Synthia had their breakfast in silence, still tired from the night— Synthia had overslept, and Jakira hadn't slept enough. As they were finishing up, they both jumped when Jakira's phone started ringing.

She glanced at the screen, smiled at the name, and picked up. "Morning, Alex."

"Moooorning," his voice sang back, and she giggled.

"You happy to be coming home?"

"Actually, I just got home now," Alex replied happily. "They let me out as soon as it was open."

"That's great!" Jakira put the phone on speaker as she cleared her bowl and started washing the breakfast dishes. "No wonder you sound so excited."

He laughed, which made her smile even more broadly. "Exactly. But anyway, I wanted to ask if you guys will be doing anything today?"

"Nah, we're free." Excitement flared in her chest. "Did you want to come over?"

"If that's okay?"

"Of course! I'll even clean up my room." She finished up the dishes and practically bounced into the living room with her phone. "And I'll make pizza. Special occasion."

He inhaled slowly and dramatically. "I love you."

This was the first time he'd said that to her since she'd gotten a conscious crush on him. The words made her blush, although she knew he didn't mean romantically. She forced herself to give him her usual teasing response: "I know."

Alex laughed again. "Alright . . . I'll see you in a bit, then."

"I look forward to it. Bye, love you."

"I know," he replied, then added, "Love you too," and hung up.

As she put her phone down, she glanced up to find Synthia smirking at her triumphantly. "Confirmed," she announced gleefully. "You definitely have a crush on him. Grab a mirror and look at yourself."

Jakira raised her eyebrows, then held up her hands in surrender. "Yep," she said with a shrug. "Next time I see Night, I'm gonna ask him if he has a long-lost twin brother. I can't believe how much he and Alex are alike."

Her mother stared at her intently for a few seconds. "Yeah, and they even look alike . . ." she ventured, then blinked, rubbed her head, and frowned. "Wait, what were we talking about again?"

Jakira gave her a "you've got to be kidding me" look, but when she opened her mouth to answer, she realized her mind had gone blank. She couldn't remember any conversation after she'd hung up with Alex. "I dunno . . ."

Why did this kind of thing keep happening? It was beginning to make her feel like pieces of her life were missing; like her memory was filled with empty puzzle pieces where stolen moments had once lived.

-

Late that afternoon, Mrs. Sameron dropped Alex off at their house, having refused to let him walk the two blocks by himself like he used to. Jakira waited by the door excitedly, anticipating his visit even more than usual. One, she no longer saw him as simply a friend, and definitely not as a brother. Two, she'd almost lost him. After that experience, she couldn't see him the same way she had before. She couldn't take him for granted.

In the present, he strolled through the door with a wide smile, singing, "Where . . . is . . . the pizza—" to the tune of "We Are the Champions," but broke off coughing in the middle of his made-up verse.

Her laugh died in her throat. "You alright?"

"Fine!" he managed between coughs, still grinning like an idiot. "It's just—" Cough. "—my voice—" Cough. "—doesn't—" Cough. "—like me—" Cough. "—right now." Cough. He wandered through the kitchen into the living room and flopped dramatically across the couch, still trying to stop coughing. Jakira couldn't help giggling a little. Even after all he'd been through recently, Alex was still such a Drama King.

"You mock my pain," he wheezed when he finally caught his breath, quoting an old movie they'd watched together. "I think I'm dying."

"Say that again and you're not getting any pizza," she said firmly, half-teasing and half-serious. "That's too real now."

Alex sat up and looked at her for a long moment. He was still smiling radiantly, but it seemed he was studying her for details he hadn't seen before. Slowly he stood up, stepped up to her, and leaned so close that their foreheads brushed. Jakira didn't know what she expected him to do, but after a moment's hesitation, he whispered again, "I'm dying," and fell onto the couch next to her with a teasing snicker.

Jakira tried to glare at him, but she couldn't. Why did he have to be like this? Why did he have to be so . . . adorable?

"Besides, I promised I wouldn't die on you," he went on, oblivious to her thought process. "And I didn't. I kept my promise. When are you going to start trusting me, S—Jak?" For the briefest moment he looked nervous, but the emotion quickly melted back into his smile.

Alarmed, she stared. Had he just . . . "What?"

Alex, however, just frowned as if confused. "What?"

"Nothing." Maybe she'd imagined it, especially since none of his nicknames for her started with "S."

"Seriously though, where's the pizza?" He twisted slightly and reclined backwards until his head was resting on her blanket-covered lap. "I need food."

Once again trying not to blush, she forcibly relaxed and started messing with his hair. "It's in the oven. I put it in a few minutes before you got here."

"Okay." He slipped his phone from his pocket, turned it on, and handed it to her. "Your move."

She took it and scanned the screen, which had a virtual chessboard on it. With a smile at how normal these things had become, she moved one of her pawns and handed the phone back to him.

As he stared at the screen, probably devising a brilliant strategy to defeat her, he muttered absent-mindedly, "Jakira, the birds work for the bourgeoisie." He made his move and held it back up to her.

She'd heard him say such random things to her so many times before that she barely reacted to this one. Time went on, faster than she would've liked. They finished their game (which he won), had dinner, talked for a while, and in short did all the weird things that had become their normal. One would've never known he'd just gotten out of the hospital; other than looking a little pale and limping slightly, Alex seemed perfectly fine. The only truly strange thing he kept doing was staring at her with an incredulous smile. When she asked what he was doing, though, he just shook his head and laughed, like he knew something she didn't.

By then, she knew better than to think she was imagining it. The only question was, what did he know? 

-

The next day seemed a little stressful for him, since he'd missed a week of schoolwork now that winter break had ended, but most of the teachers were sympathetic and merciful. Not to mention he got more than a few heartfelt welcomes from classmates.

It wasn't until one in the afternoon that Jakira suddenly remembered what day it was.

Their last class was nearing its end, and although she was paying attention, she also couldn't help wondering why Alex was taking so long in the bathroom. Finally she glanced at her watch, and jumped so high she fell out of her chair. Some of the boys snickered as Ms. Elena sighed, "Jakira, is there a problem?"

"Um, yes, actually," she stammered, plastering on a sheepish smile. "I need to use the bathroom."

To her surprise, the teacher stared at her fiercely in response. "You and Mr. Sameron have been asking to leave early for this same class an awful lot," she pointed out harshly. "I let it go for a while, seeing as the latter was having mental struggles beyond his control, but that's over now. I'm aware the two of you are close friends. I want to know what you've been doing."

Jakira's heart skipped a beat. 

"We haven't been doing anything, ma'am," she replied carefully, furtively swallowing. "I'm still getting the day's quota done."

"Then why do you leave early?" Ms. Elena demanded. "And what about your friend?"

"It's because they're actually Night and Sunray," one of the girls called sarcastically, making the whole class erupt into snickers and giggles. Jakira forced herself to join them, never having been more grateful for sarcasm in her life.

Her teacher groaned. "I expect it to stop after today," she said sternly, then nodded to the door. "Go."

"Thank you, ma'am," she breathed, then stood up with her backpack and shakily left the room.

That was too close . . . What am I supposed to do now? The class ends at the same time Preciser attacks. Or . . . is supposed to attack, anyway.

She was still trembling when she found an empty classroom, transformed, and left the school. On the rooftop of the building beside it, she stood silently for a moment, breathing deeply, then leapt deftly down to the streets.

"Afternoon, fine lady," a familiar voice said sweetly, startling her. She glanced over to find Night walking beside her, just a few feet away within the barrier. He hadn't been there a moment ago, but of course, that was normal.

"Afternoon, good sir," she answered with a smile, and started nervously playing with her hair. "How've you been?"

"Fine. I'm home." He grinned uncertainly. "More or less. I'm supposed to be taking it easy, but—"

"Then I expect you to take it easy," she cut in firmly. "I'll handle most of the fighting, and if at any point you need a break, take it."

Night laughed nervously. "I didn't want to not show up. But . . . thanks, Sunshine." 

Sunray smiled. "No prob, Night Hawk."

For some reason he was avoiding her gaze. "Also, um, after the fight . . . could we talk? I need to tell you something . . . s."

"Of cour—" Her reply was cut off by an abnormal explosion barely ten feet in front of them. Instead of fire, green clouds of what must have been poisonous gas billowed out around the towering silhouette in the center.

Both guardians immediately dropped to the ground, pulled on their hoods, and covered their mouths; there was no time to run. Through the haze, she saw her partner's figure jump back to avoid a swipe from Preciser. Quickly she scrambled to join him, feeling a surge of relief as the wind picked up and began to dissipate the venomous clouds. She staggered out into clear air, took a quick breath, then sprinted to the giant and attacked.

As they fought, she and Night gradually realized Preciser must've been planning this fight for some time. They saw powers of his that had not been seen before: reflection (which had something of a hypnotic and dizzying effect on them), all sorts of bizarre nature magic, and force fields. Her partner did surprisingly well, for having suffered what he did not too long ago, but he only managed to keep it up for around fifteen minutes. After getting thrown into the side of a dumpster, he didn't rebound, but instead bent over and hugged his abdomen. His complexion was pale, and he looked like he was either going to pass out or be sick.

In a flash Sunray raced to the edge of her barrier, as close to him as she could, and called softly, "Take a break. I've got this."

Night gave her a weak smile and a thumbs-up, then staggered off and disappeared into an alley.

When she spun around to face Preciser again, he was nowhere in sight, but she knew better. The giant would never give up that easily, especially at a moment like this. She raised both hands and created horizontal beams of intense light all around her. Almost instantly, her enemy's huge shadow appeared.

The moment she saw it, she whipped out her bow and within a second had already shot at him multiple times. Preciser managed to clumsily swipe aside the light arrows, although he growled with pain every time he touched one. When he charged her again, she summoned a white-hot shield around her made from light and heat energy. She couldn't see the giant well through it, but she did hear him yell in frustration— probably when he tried to touch it and burned his hand.

"I don't know how you got your mother back," he snarled at last, "but I plan on finding out as soon as possible. I do know that she escaped the same way Night and Tizian did. And let me just remind you, Sunray, I still know who you are, and I can take Synthia away again just as easily as I did before."

Sunray was suddenly glad the giant couldn't see her, because if her expression matched her emotions, she would've looked petrified. She wanted to shout back something defiant like, "Then I'll get her back just as easily! I have friends in high places!" but of course she didn't say a word. There was no way she could risk Raevyn's life like that. Besides, Preciser might threaten to do worse to her mother than just capture her.

She listened carefully to the giant's heavy footsteps, and waited for a full minute of absolute silence before cautiously lowered her guard. No one was in sight, and when she tried the light ray test again, her first glance proved correct.

He's done. She relaxed uneasily. That was weirdly quick.

Remembering her partner, she jogged over to the alley she'd seen him vanish into earlier, where she spotted him sitting on a box with his head between his knees. Since their barrier wouldn't let her enter the alley, she said, "You alright?"

Night jerked upright at the sound of her voice, wide-eyed, then summoned his blade and walked quickly over to her. "Do you need help?"

"No, no, he's gone," she assured him. For a second he frowned, but then raised his eyebrows and shrugged.

"That works."

She grinned. "So what was it you wanted to tell me?"

"Oh . . ." All of a sudden, he appeared nervous and very interested in his sweatshirt. "Um, yeah . . ."

Both smoothly and awkwardly, he sank down to a sitting position at the edge of his shadow. Sunray didn't know what else to do but copy him.

"So, um, I've been meaning to tell you this for a long time . . ." her partner began quietly. "There have been a lot of opportunities, all of which I've missed." He took a deep breath, very obviously flustered. "I-I know this could ruin everything, and— and you have every single right in the world to keep this one-sided, but . . . uh . . ."

She watched and listened to him with with something like amazement. Night hadn't stammered with her for years now, but simultaneously it was kind of cute to see. All these thoughts, however, vanished in a flash— to be replaced by a feeling too wonderful to describe when he finished with three familiar words that for once had entirely different meaning.

"I-I . . . love you . . . As more than just a sisterly friend."

Enveloped by awe and unbelievable excitement, Sunray merely sat there for a few moments, her mouth parted, gazing at him speechlessly.

Apparently panicking at the silence, Night started nervously rambling again. "It's totally fine if you don't feel the same way! I-I'm sorry, sorry, I shouldn't have said anything—"

"Hey," she cut in, laughing delightedly. "Settle down." Without effort, she smiled at him lovingly, then went on, "You're fine— don't you dare apologize again. But . . . if I could hug you, and kiss you right now . . . I would."

Still half-hiding in his hoodie, he glanced at her with surprised questioning in his eyes.

She giggled. "That means I love you too, doof."

"Wait . . . really?!" A light had kindled in his eyes, one she'd never truly seen in him before. It was followed by an incredulous smile of wonder, which was another expression he'd never seemed to have worn. "I mean, yes. Okay! That's amazing—!" He stopped himself, looking extremely embarrassed.

Sunray couldn't help herself— she started laughing. Did he even know how awfully cute he was being right now? 

Her partner had only relaxed for a moment before he took another long breath and went on, his voice nervous again, "There's one more thing I need to tell you."

She was still internally flipping out about the last thing he'd told her, but she forced herself to sit still and pay attention. After a few seconds of quiet, Night finally spoke again. "I know who you are."

In an instant, her heart froze. She looked at him in shock and terror, scarcely managing to choke out, "Wh-what?! How— Did— Did you follow me or—?"

"No!" His hands shot up in protest, his eyes wide with something that looked like guilt. "No, I didn't follow you or stalk you or anything! I never saw you detransform. It's just . . ." He lowered his gaze for a moment, then continued, "You told me something the other day that made me realize who you are, while we were talking." He paused again and swallowed. "As mortals."

Already trembling, Sunray felt the color slowly drain from her face. "We . . . we know each other in real life?"

"Yes." A tiny smile had appeared in his expression. "That's what I meant," he said softly. "I don't just know what you look like. I know who you are."

She stared, once again struck speechless.

Night took his third deep breath and began, his voice only loud enough for her to hear, "You're a girl in my class at school. That girl's name is Jakira Holli Lumière." She stiffened in amazement, but he went on, "She lives in a house way too big for just her and her mom to live in. She likes to sit on her balcony listening to music on sunny days, but she likes cloudy days even more, for several reasons. She's sassy, but loveable, and although she tells me she has trouble making friends, for just about four years now she's been the best friend I could ever have. I love her passionately and without a doubt would die for her." 

At this point she had both hands over her mouth, and wanted to cry happily at the way he was telling her this. Yet, the other side of her was frozen in disbelief. There was only one person in her real life other than her mother who knew her this well.

"Jakira." The familiar way he said her name confirmed her sudden suspicions almost as much as his next words. He raised his hand as if for a handshake, nervously smiling.

"My name is Alex Sameron."