Isabel sat in her room, looking at a photo Max, Michael and herself. It had been taken up at their rock almost a year ago. The one place that was theirs alone, or so they liked to think. That had been before the fiasco at the Crashdown. Before Liz, Maria, and Alex found out their secret. Before Isabel really knew what it was to be happy.

But now, now she knew about everything. It had been frightening, having the thin curtain that kept that world and this parted torn down.

She had just gotten home from the Crashdown, gone to her room to think. She heard Michael and Max leave, and knew they'd be looking for answers they weren't supposed to have.

She'd gone to her room to think, try and clear her head. She lay down on her bed, closing her eyes, and that was when she felt it.

The smooth, soft, flutter of butterflies dancing over her skin. She smiled, her heart warming at the sensation. Had she opened her eyes she would have seen a silver-green glow surrounding the image the mirror reflected.

Memories flooded through her, her deep friendship with Maria, Michael, and even Katie. Max was a vague point, as if a subconscious something held back painful images of what her brother had been. She shed silent, unnoticed tears at the loss of her friends, she had been forced to watch them die, before the world had shattered. A strange sense of calm washed over, and what little she didn't remember (save any knowledge of who or what Max had been) was painted in a clear as crystal picture.

She sat up and sighed, closing her eyes to process everything. Accomplishing nothing in her waking hours, she relented and let herself fall asleep. She had seen the world she had once been a part of in vivid color, the only one small part missing being one Max but that seemed inconsequential compared to everything else she saw. She walked through a place of high white walls and marble statues of beautiful things.

The sky was of a pale violet, stars sparkled in the sky, and a beautiful silver moon hung in the sky. She wore a gown of gray and silver, falling around her like air. She hurried towards the large arch where two figures waited for her.

"Izzy!" Maria called to her, she ran to

Isabel, flinging her arms around the blonde."Hey, Ria, where's Katydid?"

"The ancients called her back for a private consultation," Maria rolled her eyes, "you'd think they'd learn that our Katydid cannot be tamed."

"You'd think," Isabel laughed, "but then again, they are rather dense, for omnipotent beings that is."

They shared a smiled and returned to Michael, who still stood by the arch.

"Hey Mickey," Isabel smiled, reaching up to kiss his cheek.

"Hey Is," he smiled back, ruffling her hair delicately, before enfolding Maria in his arms.

Michael wore a classic black outfit, loose fitting slacks, long sleeved tight black shirt, black shoes, and a small black band on his finger.

Maria, on the other hand, wore an outfit of the most pristine white. Long sleeved, boat neck shirt of white cotton, a long, loose white wrap skirt, and a pair of white tennis shoes, her hair tumbled around her face, white ribbon tied around one or two stray locks. A white stone band rested on one of her fingers, and a small, clear violet stone suspended from a silver chain link necklace hung around her neck. The two contrasted perfectly, and Isabel simply had to smile at the vision of perfection that they were.

"Hey you!" an ecstatic voice filled the night as Katie ran full force towards them.

"Hey there, stranger!" Isabel laughed, catching the girl that leapt at her. "Do something naughty, did you?"

"Naughty? Me?" she feigned innocence, "Never!"

"Don't you lie to me, Katydid," Michael warned, "what, or should I say who'd you do?"

"Nothing, for your information, Mister Guerin," the wisp of a girl laughed merrily. "I have been informed that, as keeper, I am to report to the vast chamber every day, at least once, to update the ancients on the status of their 'investments'," she laughed, looking at the three accompanying her. "Get that, you're investments, not just security!" her laughter turned bitter.

"Well, glad to know our status has moved up," Isabel said dryly.

"What else, Katydid," Maria asked quietly, noticing that the girl had become quiet, an unusual occurrence to say the least.

"They also said that, as keeper, I am to live on, throughout time, until the crystal is reformed, or completely destroyed," her eyes were downcast, and the three others felt the despairing cloud of loneliness that hung over the normally cheerful, pretty girl.

"There's something else too, isn't there Katydid?" Michael asked, taking the girl who was like a sister to him in his arms. Maria rested a comforting hand on the girl's shoulder, while Isabel stood back, sending empathetic mind messages to her friend.

The girl nodded, tears filling her eyes, she hated being the one forced to tell them, hated to be the one they would unconsciously blame. She hated it more than she hated herself for having to live on without them, more than she hated the ancients for setting their fates so, more than she hated the idea of eternity without them.

"What, Katydid?" Isabel asked softly, "You know you can say it."

"They--" she paused, her heart telling her not to say, to let them live at least another night without the pain of death looming over their heads.

"What?" Michael prodded, smoothing the back of her shirt comfortingly.

"They say that you have to be punished," he voice caught in her throat, a strangled cry escaped her lips and made Isabel shudder at the raw emotion it held.

"What?" Maria spoke first, shocked and terrified, the ancients rarely deemed punishment, and when they did it was terrible. "Why?"

Katie let out a sob of pure anguish and pulled away from Michael's arms, running towards the gardens, her hands hiding her tears from the world.

"Katydid!" Isabel shouted after her, picking up her skirts and running after the girl. Michael hesitated, as did Maria.

"Punished?" she asked in a whisper, terrified.

Michael didn't move; he caught her hand and pulled her after him, running after the two other women. "We have to know…" was all he would say.

They ran, following the sound of sobbing to the place they both knew they would end up.

Sitting on the edge of the crystal pond, Katie wept, her crystalline tears sending delicate ripples through the waters. Her face was no longer beautiful, or even pretty, marred by her sorrow and tears. Isabel knelt beside her, a hand on the other girl's knee."Hush, Katydid, my love," she was saying over and over.

"Who?" was all that Michael asked; it was all he needed to. Katie took one look at the tall man and let out a hollow, soul-searing sob, collapsing from the edge of the pool into the clear water with a huge splash.

"Katydid!" the three of them shouted, frightened for their friend, she had never been so torn before, never so sad, so distraught. Never once had anyone simply fallen into the pool, ever. Isabel was closest and looked down at the girl in the pond sadly, she was wet, bedraggled, and still bawling. The pool was deep and Katie struggled to keep herself above the waters, not because she feared death, or because she couldn't swim, but because she couldn't bear to see them look at her with worry, pain and fear in their eyes.

A pair of strong arms pulled her out from beneath the surface of the water. Hauling her slight frame over the edge of the pool easily, Isabel set the girl on the grassy ground, not noticing how wet she herself had become. She pulled the sobbing girl into her arms she rocked her gently; shushing her enough to quiet the sobs that threatened to tear the girl apart.

"Why is she like this?" Maria whispered, she knew the girl well, almost as well as herself, and it frightened her to see her so unhinged.

"I don't know, she's always been a mass of composure, I've never once seen her cry," Michael replied, pulling his lover close.

"Who is it, Katydid, you know you can tell me, I'll always love you…" Isabel pleaded with the girl in her arms as she sniffled, her tears not subsiding.

"Michael," she whispered, before a violent possession overtook her body. Her eyes flashed and a black aura surrounded her. "The voice of the keeper holds back its message," she said coldly, her eyes blank, as she stood and moved away from Isabel. "The heretic and his whore will be punished," she continued, looking pointedly at Maria and Michael, "separated from eternity, one from fire, one from ice. Burn and freeze in unending limbo," she shrieked the last, so that it rang throughout the gardens and ran up to the buttresses flying high above.

As soon as she finished, the spirit was gone, and Katie sank to her knees, screaming in agony. "No!" she wailed to the sky, her eyes burning into the violet depths of the universe, "No! No fate is destined! Not forever apart, only lost from each other, I will NOT allow such a pair to be parted!" she screamed this, her heart telling her that there was no other way, no redemption for her soul otherwise. "I take them into my charge, as keeper of the fallen ones, redeemer of the lost, let the fate deemed by the ancient ones be revoked in part by my claim!"

Isabel stepped back, frightened, she had never seen the girl so livid. Maria began to sob, and Michael held her, masking his own perfect pain.

Katie collapsed once again, looking over at Maria, wrapped in her lover's arms. Her best friend, aside from Isabel, was breaking because of her. She stood slowly and began to walk away, her back to the three.

"Where are you going?" Michael asked quietly.

"I have condemned you to die, my love, I will not suffer you my presence a moment more than necessary," she said dejectedly, her head bowed low and her heart aching from pain and loss. Michael didn't speak, only sent out his emotions to her, she shuddered in abhorrence as the presence neared her.

"Don't," she murmured, walking farther, "don't pity me, love, for I am worthy of nothing but scorn." She fled, fast and far, tears falling from her eyes. Isabel stood, looking after her friend and she glared at Michael.

"You couldn't use that damned tongue of yours for something useful could you?" she shouted, "she would have taken on your fate tenfold if only to spare you the pain of losing yourself in loneliness!" her eyes were close to tears now, and she ached to comfort her wayward friend.

"Isabel," he began, trying to calm her.

"NO!" she snapped back, a tear finding it's way down her cheek. "No, Michael, don't Isabel me! She was your friend, she kept you from your fate as keeper no less!" she continued, not caring who heard her. "She took on your destiny to be keeper, and as a result, she's taken on the one fate she would rather die than be fixed with, she now knows that she will outlive those she loves, and never see a warm smile from any of us again!"

"Isabel, I can't take this from you," he said waveringly, his eyes touched with tears. "I know what she gave up for me, what she sacrificed, for all of us, Ria, Max, you and me," he continued, "but I now have been fixed with a fate unthinkable to me!"

"A life without Ria?" she scoffed, "you will die before you know half the anguish she feels now! Her future is black, empty. She always saw us as her family, her reason for being, she knew she would end when we did, and now she knows she will watch each of us die, and watch us blame her for it. Watch YOU blame her for it!"

"SHUT UP ISABEL!" Michael shouted, tightening his hold on Maria, "you have no idea what it's like to love anyone completely, you've never loved anything but yourself!"

"I loved her!" she shot back, tears flowing freely from her eyes. "She knew I loved her, she was my sunshine and my moonlight, I would give anything to take her pain from her, but only you can!" she seethed, glaring at him, "don't assume you know anything about me Michael, obviously you don't." She turned and left in the same direction Katie had.