Dawn started glowing and her mind faded away...

"My poor child. You have even more coming..." The light godess hugged Dawn. "Stay strong."

Dawn returned, as did her energy. She began to heal Donald. But she couldn't find Adrian's energy... "NO!"

He emerged on the other side in the most incredible place he'd ever seen.

A palace of gold and white. The facade was adorned with statues of every shape and size. Warriors, scholars, beasts and beauties were all carved from the glimmering white stone.

The doors were huge, metal, shining. The voices beckoned him inside. The streets were made of gold...the lamps burned with white fire. Was he in heaven? Was God speaking to him?

He moved to the door, and reached out to touch the knob. His hand went through the metal. He walked through. The foyer housed some hundred white pillars leading down a hall draped with golden tapestries. The hall seemed to have no ceiling, instead the open night sky gleamed as brightly as he'd ever seen it. A rainbow of nebula's streaked the distance, a shooting star rocketed across his view every minute.

At the halls end, there were four people. Each had a different colored glow about them.

One woman, who sat in a throne on the far left, was surrounded in a rich blue glow. Next to her was man who possessed a mighty red aura. To his immediate right, another man, surrounded by a white mist, and to his right a beautiful woman encurcled in green.

"We are:"

"Water", the woman in blue said.

"Earth", said the woman in green...her voice was just like that of Earth...

"Air", said the man with the white.

"Fire" boomed the man in the red.

The light godess hugged Dawn. "Shh, my child."
Dawn started crying. "A-Adrian!"
She hugged Dawn tighter. "I'm so sorry..."

"Why have you brought me here", he tried to say. His mouth moved, but no words emerged.

The man in the red stood up and strode toward him.

"You ask why you have brought here mortal. This is the realm of the divine, the place you may call heaven."

Adrian was shocked...where was God?

"Ah...your christian God is here...we are not gods..no, He is. We are simply spirits, much like St. Peter or the Virgin Mary. He has entursted us with the four elements.", the man continued, "you are not dead..." he said, adressing Adrians other fear, "not yet at least."

Adrian grew cold, but the man filled him with warmth again.

"We have brought you here to save you from the icy grip of death...but we cannot bring you back to your body...it is out of our realm to cheat death in this way. We saved you beacuse you are one of the five that must live. The others have not passed to us yet...and we felt you die for the sake of one of them. You were deemed worthy."

He started leading the man toward the other three spirits, who all smiled.

"Your friends must bring you back...but we cannot help them...well...Mother Earth can, but the laws of our realm forbid her flat telling your friends how to save you. You see, if you do not return to your body, your spirit will wither and die. You will live eternally here in heaven of course...but we need you on Earth now. That is why we saved you."

He motioned for Adrian to sit in his throne.

Adrian seated himself, the chair was so warm...and it felt so good.

"You see", Mother Earth said, "we have diembodied you, and your firends must bring you back. You can travel freely between here and there, but you cannot speak to them, only hear them. It will take some time before they can bring you back into their realm...they must first find something..."

Adrian wanted to ask what.

"This is going to sound cliche," Eath said, "but long ago, we spirits once inhabited the Earth, and attended the same acedemy you do now. It was under a different name of course.We left four relics behind when we were called above, and those relics contain our mortal selves. Through them we can speak..."

Water stood up, "Your friends have already found one...the Earth it...well...Earth. They simply must bring part of her to you...a precious gem. A ruby perhaps...a diamond."

Fire looked at him, "I have hidden myself so well, it will take the forms of the others to unlock where I hide. I am in the form of a small statue...a Dragon to be precise. I believe I am in the depths of the academy...where spirts of anger lurk.

"I", air said, "I am a flag, fluttering where I want to. I'm not sure if they have taken me down...but I can assure you I'd be in a place of honor."

Water smiled at him, "I am in the shape of a pearl, resting at the base of the lake of Belway..."

He nodded.

"Mother Earth," Fire continued, "can drop cryptic hints as th where we are...but other than that, she is forbiddent o tell you. For know however, you probabaly return to Earth...inhabit the one you love. You can speak to her with limit. You cannot speak of where you are, or how to bring you back...but other topics are permitted."

Adrain was confused by all the stupid rules. Why couldn't anything be simple. Stupid death...stupid Demon...stupid Jacobi...

He left, soaring back into Dawn...

"Dawn?" he asked..."can you hear me?"

The light godess patted her head. "You must keep him precous to you. You also need to speak with Lord Fire."
Dawn nodded and closed her eyes. "Fire, accept me into the realm once again. I need conference with you."

Donald stayed on the ground, his arm healed, but still shaken up. Adrian was dead, and Dawn seemed out of it.

Were they ever going to have a normal day? Classes started in a few hours, and none of them were in any shape to go.

Dawn felt herself being pulled, up into the clouds, into the white palace and before a lone man.

The glowing red aura around him sparkled elegantly. He wasn't facing her, he shouldn;t have even known she was there. She couldn't speak in this realm, but she could tranfer thoughts to him.

"What is it you needed my child?", He said, not turning around.

'Adrian is dead. I... It is my fault. It was my life he saved.' Dawn's eyes, back to amber, glistened with tears.

"Ahahahahahaha!" His laugh was hearty. Dawn looked sick.

"Your loved one is not dead." He turned around, and he looked just like Adrian. He took the form of whatever the person he spoke to was thinking of the most.

"He's inside you...don't you hear him..."

Adrian yelled at Dawn, "Dawn! Baby"...did he just say Baby? "I'm here! He's right!"

Fire continued, "He can be brought back, but I'm not permitted to tell you how. In fact, you should not even be here by the laws of this realm, for your body is not deceased. You have only a short while before I must make you leave..."

'Of course. Lady Light has granted me power, and I used it to heal the other. I must see if he wakes.'

Fire shook his head. Not only did she speak in riddles, but even if what he understood was correct, she was wrong.

"Child, your powers of healing cannot bring him back. His body is dead, not injured. Mother Earth will know how to bring him back, and the one named Donald can speak with her quite well. I suggest you speak to him, perhaps she will have tried to tell him what she could...now, be gone with you...I cannot tarry from my work any longer, Fire is potent, and I need to keep you damn mortals from misusing it."

She felt herself being pulled back...there was probabaly more she wanted to say. She could ask at a later time. Adrian couldn't wait much longer...or he would be dead.

Around the time Dawn came to, Donald was puzzled. Earth had told some really, really random stuff. She said she wants some presents. But not just any will do. She needs a representation of all the elements. She sent him images of each, but that was it.

Aww, great. Now riddles from hell.

Dawn sighed when she was back. "HALF mortal, f***er. You know Lady Light is my mother." Dawn looked at Donald.

Donald stared at Dawn's vulgar expression.

Today made no sense.

"So, this may seem weird to you, but Earth just told me to go to class. The hell is that about? And...I'm probably getting kicked out for killing Jacobi, correct?"

"Dawn...are you there...I have to be inside you. I see through your eyes and fele through your hands...if I'm not inside you, my spirit will wither faster..."

He thought...

"Don't do anything gross with me in here..."