"Nails," Zed spoke, reaching his hand out from the hole in the floor of the house that he was helping to repair.

"Nails," Boomerang repeated, handing Zed a box of iron nails. He was bored out of his mind, but still he stuck around and helped.

"Hammer," Zed said, reaching up from the hole again.

"Hammer," Boomerang repeated once again, giving Zed the hammer.

*tap...tap...tap...SLAM!!*

"YEOWCH!!"

"Bandage." Zed snatched the bandage away from him. Boomerang laughed and looked up as Jack entered the room. The two demons were inside a house in Adlehyde castle, repairing a large hole in the floor. It was later in the day than it had been, around late afternoon. The demons still were not wearing their armor. In fact, they were not even wearing their shirts, for the roof of the house was also missing and the sun had been beating down on them since they started working on the house around eleven o'clock that day.

Jack knelt beside Boomerang who was lying on his stomach, peering down into the hole that Zed was inside. The swordsman then asked, "Uh...don't you two think you should rest?"

"We will in a minute!" came Zed's voice up from the floor, "I'm almost done!"

Boomerang rolled his eyes and retorted, "Yeah right! Your repairing skills are almost as bad as your cooking!!"

"...I resent that...besides...my cooking isn't that bad anymore!" Jack gave Boomerang a confused look.

"Long story..." Boomerang answered with a nervous smile, "It happened loooooong before we came to Filgaia..."

Just then, Zed finally climbed out of the hole in the floor. His left hand, which he was rubbing to soothe the pain, was bandaged up. He muttered, speaking to no one in particular, "Damn...it's a good thing I'm right-handed, 'cuz I won't be able to use this hand for a while...OW!"

Jack tried to hold back his laughter as he spoke, "Well...now, if you two are finished, everyone's heading back to the castle for the night."

Boomerang groaned as he picked himself up off of the floor, "We're comin'! We're comin'!"

Right when the boys exited the house, Noble Knight, who was behind them, asked, "Uh...Jack? What do you want me to do with this?"

Jack looked at her and replied, "Just throw it over the walls around Adlehyde for now." As Jack started to walk back toward Adlehyde castle, Boomerang and Zed turned to look at her and see what the two of them were talking about. Once they turned around, their jaws dropped and their eyes bulged.

Noble Knight was holding a large chunk of rock over her head with both hands. The rock was obviously from either a stone building or part of the wall around Adlehyde, but what really surprised the demons was the fact that it was almost twice as big as she was, yet she could still hold it.

Like them, Noble Knight was still not wearing her armor and was still dressed in her t-shirt and pants. However, now her silver hair was braided and her ears were flat against her head from concentration.

Zed and Boomerang noticed right away that the chunk of rock was almost too heavy for Noble Knight from the way she was staggering, the way her feet kept sliding on the cobblestones, and also from how hard she was concentrating on keeping her grip on the rock mass.

Boomerang ran forward and helped Noble Knight hold the slab of rock. Once they had thrown it over the walls, they followed Zed who had already started back toward the castle. The sun was setting and stars were already beginning to appear on the darkening sky.

Noble Knight spoke, catching Boomerang's attention, "Thanks...for helping me back there."

Boomerang laughed, "No problem. Your arm was probably still weak from the other day, anyway. I don't doubt that you could hold that thing up without help."

Noble Knight corrected him, a nervous tone in her voice, "No...I mean back at the Filmsphere. Why...did you help me?"

Boomerang froze in his tracks. Noble Knight stopped and looked at him, confused. Boomerang looked down at his feet and replied, his voice barely above a whisper, "I don't know...Something's happening inside me, but I can't figure out what it is...I...I just couldn't leave the sphere without you..."

Noble Knight responded nervously, looking away from him, "Uh...well...thanks, anyway..."

Zed yawned as he headed toward his room. It was not until then that he had started to feel tired from his helping the other Dream Chasers begin the rebuilding of Adlehyde. His hand was killing him from hitting so many times with the hammer.

Just as he got to his room, Zed heard Alicia shout, "AAAACK!!" Her voice was followed by the sound of something slamming onto the floor. "Oh...DAMN IT!!" came Alicia's voice again.

Zed walked over to Alicia's room and stuck his head inside. The door was already open so he did not bother with knocking. "You okay?" he asked, just before seeing what had caused the noise that he had heard. A large bookshelf was now lying on the floor as were all of the books that had previously been on it.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Alicia replied, a hint of irritation in her voice, "I'll clean it up tomorrow. I'm too tired to right now."

Zed said, "I'll help you in the morning. Good night, 'Licia." Alicia giggled as he left. She loved the nickname that he had given her.

Just as the girl started to shut the door to her room and blow out the lantern, an ocean-blue pendent around her neck started to flash. Her hand flew up to it, her eyes widening. "Damn...they're coming..." she muttered.

"What the?!" Zed gasped, quickly taking the stone that Alicia had given him from his pocket. It was flashing a bright blue color. Whenever the flash became its brightest, the gem emmitted an almost musical tone. "What the hell is this thing?!" he asked the air. Alicia had said that he might need it one day, but Zed could not imagine why.

It's just a stone...isn't it? Zed thought, sitting down on his bed and staring at the still flashing stone. He shook his head and set the stone on a table beside his bed. "This war is getting to me...it's messing with my head..."

Chakrum yawned and looked up at the stars. He was standing on the deck of Josh and David's ship, feeling somewhat relaxed sitting under the starry sky and listening to the waves crash against the bow of the ship. Josh, who was steering the ship while David and the other three demons slept, looked at Chakrum and asked nervously, "Um...you...don't act like the other three demons. Y-You don't think like them either. Are you like the demon that I heard about who switched sides three years ago--"

Chakrum answered, cutting him off, "No, I'm not. I don't make a fool of myzelf. Well...I try not to anyway..." That got a half-hearted and nervous laugh out of Josh. Chakrum sighed and continued, "Unlike ze others, I don't like to kill. I don't know why, but I wish I wasn't a part of zis war. I can't turn my back on zem, otherwise zey'll hunt me down and kill me."

"Mmm...uncertainty," Josh said to no one in particular, "You don't know whose side you should be on."

"I guess...Hmm...Do you believe in deztiny?"

"I don't know. I've never really given it much thought."

"Do you ever 'ave a strange dream, but when you wake up you almost know zat it's going to come true?" Josh shook his head.

"You have?" he asked. Chakrum nodded, looking back up at the stars. "Um...would I be risking my life if I asked you to tell me about it?"

Chakrum laughed, "No. Remember, I don't like killing." He took a deep breath and started, "I saw Dazare, Dark Knight, and Zeik, but zere was zomeone else, too. I couldn't quite see 'im well enough to come up with a dezcription, because shadows were covering 'im. Zere was a flash and zen I saw myself in ze Guardian Shrine. Ze spirits of ze Guardians were floating all around me and telling me zomething zat I couldn't make out.

"Next I zaw ze shadowy figure again, but zis time he was surrounded by ze Dream Chasers. Zere was an explosion and zat's when my dream ended. I can't figure it out, but I'm almost certain zat it will come true one day."

Josh muttered, confused, "Strange..."

Chakrum laughed, "You can say zat again!"

"LOOK OUT!!" Boomerang yelled. Jane screamed and dove to the side just a split second before a large, wooden board fell on the section of the floor that she had been standing on. Boomerang, Jane, Noble Knight, Lucied, Seph, and Elmina were all inside the Aldehyde inn, trying to repair it. At least, they were trying to repair it. Now the six of them were dodging flaming debris as they hurried out of the blazing building. Somehow, the entire building had caught on fire and now it was a towering inferno with Elmina going headfirst down the fire escape. Actually...where the fire escape used to be...

Elmina shrieked as she fell into a bush beside the inn. The Fenril Knight quickly leapt to her feet and ran to another house where Jack, Rudy, and Zed were.

"Lucied!" Boomerang coughed, "Get out *hack* of here! Go *coughcough* find the others!!" Lucied barked and leapt out of the same window that Elmina had burst out of. Boomerang, Jane, Seph, and Noble Knight were having a really hard time making their way to the stairs. The smoke from the fire was stinging their eyes and making it impossible for them to find their way, plus it was giving them major breathing problems.

Noble Knight's scream of pain immediately grabbed both Seph's and Boomerang's attention. They looked around until they saw her. A board had fallen from the ceiling again, but this one had managed to fall on top of her, trapping her legs. "OH, DAMN!!" she growled, trying to free herself. Boomerang was beside her in an instant.

"I found the stairs!" came Jane's voice.

Boomerang turned to Seph and said, "Follow her *cough* and get the others!"

"B-But..." Seph protested.

"Go!" Noble Knight commanded. Seph whimpered and reluctantly followed Jane out of the inferno which used to be the inn.

Boomerang wrapped his arms around the board and struggled to lift it off of Noble Knight just long enough for her to get out from under it. The silver-haired warrior placed her hands underneath the board and helped him. After finally getting her legs free, Noble Knight leapt to her feet and looked around the smoke filled room. She could barely see three feet in front of herself, much less where the stairs were.

"Is there *cough* any other way downstairs?" she asked.

Boomerang groaned, looking down at the floor, "Oh, god...there could be.

Rudy coughed, stumbling back down the stairs, "Damn it, we can't get back up there! The fire's too intense!"

"We can't just leave them up there!!" Zed and Seph yelled in unison.

Suddenly, a section of the ceiling collapsed right over the table in the main room of the inn. Along with the wood from the ceiling, the coughing and sputtering figures of Boomerang and Noble Knight also fell. Without even noticing Zed, Seph, and Rudy, the two warriors bolted out of the building, closely followed behind by the other three boys.

As soon as they were outside, Noble Knight and Boomerang fell to their knees from exhaustion and gulped down clean air. Zed and Seph ran to them and knelt beside them. The two warriors were covered in ashes and soot.

"Are you alright?" Zed asked. Both Boomerang and Noble Knight nodded.

Boomerang choked, "Yeah, yeah...I'm *cough* fine." Boomerang laughed at pat Lucied on the head as the Guardian started to lick the soot from his face. Just then, the inn collapsed, still burning.

Jack let out a shrill whistle and spoke, "It's a good thing you guys got out of there."

Noble Knight slowly climbed to her feet and asked Jack, "Can I borrow some money?"

He replied, "Sure, uh...why?"

She answered, staggering over toward the cafe, "I need a drink!"