Justin glanced up from his conversation with Chad and Jason as Janet came walking up to the park bench they were stationed at. "Hey babe. I thought you were in the library with Lucy."

"I was." Janet muttered out quickly.

"Well..." Justin glanced at her with a bit of confusion. "What happened?"

"She had to... go home..."

"Is she feeling okay?"

"She's just fine Justin!" Janet turned on Justin, glaring at him angrily. "Now just shut up and stop asking stupid questions!" And with that, she whisked by the small group of three and continued on her way. Justin turned and gave the two other guys a helpless look.

"Can someone explain to me why she gets mad when I ask little questions?"

Jason watched Janet as she paced off angrily. "I dunno, she seemed kind of upset when she walked up here in the first place. Maybe something's up."

Justin just shrugged helplessly as he watched his girlfriend stalk off. "I really just don't understand her sometimes."

"No offense man," Jason turned and gave Justin an odd look. "But that girl isn't really one that makes sense much of the time anyway."

"Watch what you say about her..."

"Hey!" Jason held his hands up in defense and smirked. "I'm just kidding. You two both seem to have tempers that just fit each other, you know that?"

"Are you sure you're okay?" Britney's concerned voice came from just outside the bathroom door. Ray was leaning over the sink, looking carefully at his black eye.

"Yea, Brat. I'm fine." He winced lightly as he touched the sore spot.

"Why don't you just transform and bite their heads off or something?" Britney's angry, childish mutterings could be heard through the door. "Stupid, feather head, jerky old..."

Ray just chucked. "It doesn't work that way, Brat." He said as he opened up the bathroom door and walked out. His sister peered curiously up at him.

"So now what?" She asked innocently.

"Now..." Ray sighed, "I'm going to get some ice for my eye." He headed downstairs and into the kitchen. Britney followed behind him.

"Why don't you ever fight them, Ray? Why do you just let them hit you?"

Ray glanced over at his sister as he pulled out a small ice pack from the fridge. "Well, what kind of an influence would I be if I just taught you to solve everything by fighting? Besides, if I fought back, I'd just be as bad as them..."

"Why?"

Ray sighed at his sister. "Sometimes it's just better to hold your ground in a fight by not fighting." Britney just gave him an even more confused look. Ray sighed again as he applied a small bit of ice to his eye. "Look, just don't worry about it, okay Brat?"

"I just wish they wouldn't pick on you." The little dragon crossed her arms and stomped a foot lightly. "It's not nice, and they should know that."

Ray just chuckled. "I don't know if I could really hold that group to knowing something like that..."

Lucy stood just outside the doorway, staring into the room where the man lay sick in his bed. That man... her father...

"He's very ill," her escort had told her. "Some strange sickness, the doctors don't know what to think. He's been bedridden for almost a month now. Just today he's made the request to see you..." Lucy was not sure if she could bring herself to enter into the room. Her father, lying there, he looked so weak.

This is the man, she thought, the man that sent me away eleven years ago, changed my life, changed my past, changed my future... and here I am now, outside his room, coming to him only because this may be one of the last wishes of a dying man... She sighed. I wonder, if I was sick like this, would he have come to see me... Taking a tentative step into the room, Lucy approached the bed.

"Father..." The words came uneasily to her mouth, as if they were trying to explain to her mind that she did not know this man, that she did not have a right to call him father. The thought almost choked her words off altogether, but she managed.

He could barely lift his head, but even so he forced himself to respond to the girl who had just entered his room. "Nina? Is that you?"

Nina... the name shot through her like a poison in her blood, making her wince as if it had caused her physical pain. That name, connected to so much and yet it meant so little. Eleven years... she thought again. Nina was nothing more then the name of a deceased. A girl, cut from her life at the age of 7 and given a new one in its place. There is no Nina, she thought grimly. And yet, standing there, and staring at that man changed all of that. Suddenly Nina was real again, and there was no Lucy. The nostalgia came in a great wave, and suddenly she was a little girl again, standing before her mother and father, King and Queen of Windia. Nina, Princess, child of the wing, descendant of Nina the Second.

And then it was gone, and she was Lucy Conwing, daughter of a soldier, sister to a royal guard. The clashing thoughts alone were almost too much for her to bear as she struggled to answer the man before her.

"Yes father, it's me."

"You would still call me father..."

I would not... she thought bitterly, fighting back the burning sensation of tears welling up in her eyes. I would not... but, it was not her that was talking. It was someone else, some persona of her past that still thrived in her life, often bringing back to her memories of her past that swarmed about her at night like sweet nightmares. Pleasant, but painful.

"Why did you summon me here..." Lucy was doing her best to keep her voice steady.

"My dear Nina, I could not die without seeing you one last time..." Lucy waiting, watching the ill figure of the weakened King before her. She wasn't sure what she expected him to say, or why she was even bothering to wait for him to say more. She had almost considered turning to go when he began talking again.

"You're mother is in her room. You should go see her... she can tell you more then I can right now."

Lucy paused, staring over at the man in the bed. Something about his words struck her curiously, sticking in her mind and causing her to wonder. Then there is another reason he has me here...

"Miss... if you will come with me." Lucy turned, gazing up at the new escort who had just appeared from seemingly no where to remove her from her father's room and take her to the Queen's. Lucy nodded and followed the man.

"Your highness..." Lucy's escort addressed the Queen quietly, her back was turned to the door where they had entered. "She is here to see you."

With a wave of her hand, the Queen dismissed the escort. He went, leaving Lucy to stand alone just inside the Queen's room. Minutes past, feeling like hours until the Queen finally turned to face Lucy, studying her with sad eyes.

"It was always said that such things as this would come to pass as punishment for those who did not obey the old warnings." The Queen's voice, soft and full of sorrow as she studied her daughter, echoed quietly throughout the large room. "But of course, we could not believe such a silly superstition... that a child with black wings..." The Queen turned her head away once more, and Lucy heard her sniffling lightly.

A few more moments passed and the Queen straightened herself up again, turning once more to Lucy.

"Child, why do you hide them?"

Lucy looked at her curiously. "Hide what?"

"Your wings, of course." The Queen scolded. "Didn't we teach you better then that."

"You taught me nothing." Lucy stated simply as she walked into the room, her arms folded in front of her.

The Queen scolded once more, this time at her boldness. "Wings are a blessing that many Windians lack now. You should be proud of your own."

"A blessing? Or a curse? Aren't these the very reason why most of you believe my father is right now sick and dying in his bed?" Lucy unfolded her arms, bringing them down quickly to her sides.

"Child... whatever are you talking about?"

"My wings of course!" Lucy pulled her long raven hair up, unfolding the feathered pair of wings that had been resting so tightly against her shoulders and letting them now be held loosely up on their own free will. "The omen of the child of black wings, the great troubles that will come to Windia..." Lucy felt the anger and sorrow that had pent up within her for the last eleven years come rushing out at once. She had to do her best to keep the wave of emotion from overtaking her entirely.

Her mother scolded at her yet again. "That is nothing but superstition."

"They why did you kick me out?"

"Because there are still people who believe in such things." Her mothered watched her with sad eyes. "Don't you understand? We could never believe such a tale, but there are still people out there who do. People who would not rest until they see that it had been dealt with. You would have been in danger if you had stayed here."

"So you sent me away."

"We gave you a new life." The Queen insisted.

"Then why did you bring me back to this one?" Lucy folded her wings once more, close to her back as she was used to carrying them. "If you gave me a new life, then why are you trying to revive me to this old on all of the sudden?"

"Because..." the Queen sighed and turned away from her daughter for a moment, her eyes scanning around the room as if searching through it for the explanation she was trying to force out. "Because you cannot hide from what is meant to be."

Lucy stared blankly at the Queen for a moment. "What do you mean?" The words slipped from her mouth without her noticing them right away. Of course she already knew what the Queen had meant, how could she not?

"You cannot hide from destiny." The Queen turned once more to face her daughter.

"And you cannot be certain that I am the Nina destiny calls for," Lucy began defensively.

The Queen sighed. "We are nearing the time when the next Destined Cycle has been prophesized to happen. The next Ryu, the next Nina, the next great battle. There may not be a way to tell if you are the chosen Nina, or if you are not. But, there is a way to tell whether or not you are required to play a part in this destiny."

Lucy paused for a moment as she considered her mother carefully. "Why do you believe that destiny has decided to start now in playing out its next great cycle?"

The Queen turned away from her daughter once more and was silent. Lucy was about to ask the question again when she heard her mother talking quietly, her back still turned towards her.

"Nina, when your father fell ill, at first we thought it just a simple sickness, one caused by age, or perhaps the weather, or malnutrition. We brought in doctors to examine him, gave him medicines, did everything that any normal illness would have required to get better. But, after a few weeks, he was only getting weaker. Finally, we brought in a different type of doctor to examine him. He found the reason for your father's sickness." The Queen turned to face her daughter again, her eyes blinking harshly to hold back the tears that had suddenly appeared in them. "Nina..." the Queen started quietly. "Your father is not sick with some earthly illness. There is a demon that is causing this..."

Lucy just stared back at her mother. For once, she did not know what to say in reply. She only waited to hear what else her mother had to say to her next.

"Nina..." the Queen began again. "There is... something out there... some force that has awakened in the world... or that is awakening. Can't you feel it?" Her mother studied her carefully.

Lucy paused, averting her gaze from her mother down to the floor. It was true though, she had felt something different. Not a huge change, something small, like a quiet buzz that had slowly been increasing in volume over time. An odd humming that she could feel throughout her body, that coursed through her blood. She looked back up at her mother, muttering out quietly, "yes..."

The Queen nodded. "Then there is nothing more I need to tell you. You can feel the power in your own blood. That is because you are being called to it. It is your own destiny, whether or not you are to be the legendary Nina, or whether you play a smaller part in this has yet to be seen." For the last time, the Queen turned her face away from her daughter.

"Now you know why we summoned you here." The Queen continued, her voice suddenly seeming to lack the emotion that had been woven into it just before. "We need you, one of the destined, to go out and find the evil that has begun to awaken in our world. If you still do not believe, after all that we have said, after all that you have felt, if you still do not believe that this is your destiny, then I would request that you head to the Shrine of Heroes, east of Windia. You will find out there, if this is really your destiny."

Lucy watched the form of her mother a few seconds longer, then turned and walked out of the Queen's room. She was not very surprised to find her escort walking up the hall to receive her.

"The King and Queen wish for you to stay here in the castle until you feel you are ready."

It took a few moments for the words to register in her mind. She was too busy thinking, remembering, wondering about everything that had just happened. She nodded, just barely, letting the man know that she had heard his words and accepted them. As he led her through the castle to her room, Lucy's mind continued to race with wonders and questions.

How is it... she thought, something it has taken me eleven years to leave behind, can return so suddenly in one day and sweep me away like this...

During her reunion to her mother and father, Lucy had not noticed just how much time had past since she had left the library that afternoon. As she and her escort made their way to her room, a silver moon rose quietly over a sleeping Windia.