:Laughs: I thought you all would think this was funny. I acutally found a draft of Ruby Shadows that I wrote in 1996; it was one of the first things I ever wrote on a computer (my old laptop, with its awesome Pentium 1, running Windows 3.1 with less than half a gig of memory, total). And I saved it on a floppy disk and then transferred it from computer to computer, until I saved it to this one in my freshman year of college, then I forgot about it. So, if you're intersted (which I doubt you are), here's one of the first drafts of Ruby Shadows. If you notice, Shainia is Naiya. I changed her name when Shania Twain got big, cause I thought it would be retarded to keep her name even close to a pop stars... And Tooya's old name was (apparently) Yokema. :snorts: Boy, did I suck with names or what?

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Sighing, Shainia turned to look at her companion. Her face displayed great discomfort as they walked down the street together. She watched as her friend turned around to give her an unmistakable look.

“What is wrong?” she smiled and shook her head. “It’s Halloween, be happy.”

“I just feel weird, like something bad is going to happen,” then she laughed. “I bet that sounded funny!” They walked up to a house and rung the doorbell. “Trick or treat!” After gathering their candy, Shainia sighed again and pulled her Jedi robe around herself.

“Perhaps we are getting much too old for this,” Maka stated, watching the small children run by.

“Yeah, you’re right. Let’s get out of here,” the two made their way past the children, and sought Shainia’s house.

“They could be anywhere, Captain. So how are we supposed to find them?” the co-pilot frowned. “This is a vast, fairly large planet.”

“They are on that continent, in this general area,” the Captain pointed to a map on the veiwscreen. “They will not be difficult to spot.”

A low ranking officer stepped into the room. “We will be landing in one hour.”

“Good.”

“I am going to get fat off of this candy,” Maka couldn’t help but to laugh at her friend’s comment.

“Give it to your brother, I don’t care. Just as long as you had fun tonight, right?”

“I suppose, but really, Maka, do you want it?” she looked at her friend as they made their way down the crowded street.

She never answered that question.

The wind picked up suddenly, startling the two girls. They turned, because the wind couldn’t have just appeared like that. It must have been caused by something unnatural. Screams were heard as a giant ship (it had to be a ship, it looked like a really high tech shuttle) landed in the street. Shainia felt she’d seen the ship before and had an urge to run. It became so strong, in fact, she was positive she’d seen it and that it meant bad news. She ran the other way, quickly followed by Maka. ‘She musta felt the same thing...’ they ran toward one of the closest houses when the rampway on the ship opened and emitted a pair of some sort of droid looking things (they looked like floating metal bubbles). They quickly targeted the two girls. Shainia ran faster and pushed gently on Maka to make her move. She turned, seeing the droids hot on their trail, and took the hint.

“Why are they running?” the Captain asked, not expecting an answer.

Another man, taller and more imposing, moved next to the Captain, running a steady hand through his black hair. “It was the spell they were placed under. We made them want to run when they saw us so we would be able to quickly find them,” the man sighed gently. “They don’t remember anything.”

Shainia stopped, picked up a large log, and stood in guard position. Waving Maka on, telling her not to worry about her, she would take care of these things, Shainia got ready for an attack. When the droids came into view, she was ready.

Smashing the first one, she turned to dispatch the other, but was too late. A cable snaked around her waist, and one around the stick, pulling it from her hands and rendering her helpless. She pulled at the ropes, which proved to be pointless. Lifting her up, the droid made its way back to the ship. ‘At least,’ she thought, ‘they won’t get Maka,’ Shainia looked back and saw nothing, ‘or I hope they don’t.’

The stubborn droid beeped loudly at her as she continued to struggle uselessly. When the reached the ship, Shainia took a firm grip on a protrusion on the side of the rampway in a vain effort to save herself, or at least give Maka move time to get away. She pulled herself up and held, the droid pulling her down. Surprisingly, the droid gave up first and disappeared into the ship. Shainia, tired and weak, lost her grip. Her body slammed into the lowered rampway, knocking her unconscious and giving her several cuts as she rolled into the street. A human, dressed as a formal guardsman, walked out onto the ramp, picked the bleeding girl up from the pavement, and went back into the ship, closing the ramp behind himself.

On the bridge on the ship, the Captain stood looking at nothing and thinking of the poor girls they had come to get. The King had instructed them to clear the major parts of their memory of Earth. The girls kept only what they were allowed to know. Even though they were tough to capture and busted two droids, he still felt what they were doing was wrong...

“Having second thoughts about this, Captain?” the imposing man placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. The Captain shook his head, fear in his black eyes. “Good! I’d hate to have to kill you for treason.”

The Captain bowed to the older man and wondered, not for the first time, what was planned for the girls once they reached the planet.

Shainia woke with the biggest headache she ever hoped to have, temporarily forgetting what had happened before. She moaned and kept her eyes closed, gently caressing her temples with her fingers.

“Drink this,” a metallic voice instructed as a cool hand slipped around her neck and held her head up while the other held a glass to her lips. Shainia obeyed without thought, just wanting the pain to go away. The liquid tasted like water, but with something dissolved in it. If she had thought about it long enough, she probably could have come up with what it was, but even thinking hurt. So she polished off the entire glass and laid back down. The liquid slid down her throat, spreading a gentle coolness through her body and slowly the headache disappeared. Shainia slipped back into unconsciousness.

A few hours later, she woke to a white ceiling. Finally remembering what had happened, she got angry and began to wonder what happened to Maka and where she was. Looking around, she took in her surroundings. A small table sat next to her bed with small objects that looked remotely familiar, a small dragon, a box covered with zodiacs and moons, some candles, and a metal goblet filled with marbles. Two dressers sat in a corner of the room with several filing cabinets occupying the space next to it. The walls were covered with posters of people and some characters that, again, were remotely familiar, but she could not remember where she had seen them before. Now that she thought about it, she could remember almost nothing, including where she was. On the other side of the room, there was another bed, surrounded by posters and tables covered with some figures and toys. Laying on the bed, was Maka.

“Oh, my God! They got Maka!” she ran over to her bedside. Her friend must have been just brought here, for her wounds were not yet bandaged like Shainia’s were now. So Shainia stood, and began opening cabinets to try to find something to cover Maka’s cuts. On her third try, she found healing equipment, sufficient for the job at hand and got to work cleaning and wrapping the wounds. When she had finished her forearm and had started on the small but deep gash above her eyebrow, the door slid open with a gentle whoosh. Afraid of what might come in, Shainia armed herself with the closest thing to her hand, which just happened to be long wooden staff. Three droids came in, each rolling on three wheels. They had a humanoid shape to them, with the exception of the third leg they had for balance in the back. Moving to a guard stance, she swung at the first one, sending it crashing against the wall. The others followed suite: one was tripped and had his smashed in by her heel, while the other had a staff brought down on its head. Shainia quickly got back to work healing Maka, with her staff close at hand.

An hour went by and Shainia worked with no interruptions. After finishing with Maka’s wounds, she sat in a chair by her friend’s bed and waited for something to happen. The door glided open, bringing her out of a trance. She grabbed for her staff and watched as several droids came in. They stood by one side of the room and sat there. After about five minutes, Shainia wondered what they were waiting for, then quickly got her answer.

“So you are awake,” a man walked in, running his hand through his black, bowl cut hair. Looking at the ground, he blinked, “and you are, I presume, the one that smashed my droids.” Shainia said nothing in return, staying crouched in a defensive position. “I am not going to hurt you. You may put down the weapon,” he purred reaching for the weapon. It leaped from her hands to his, seemingly flying though the air. Shainia stared at him at first with surprise, then with hate and a bit of doubt.

The tall dark haired man moved over toward her. She growled a warning to him. He, seemingly, took the hint and halted. Then smiling, he moved closer, Shainia kept her cool until he was in range of her foot. She swung it around in a hook kick, shouting a challenge. He caught her foot, no emotions on his handsome face. Letting go, he moved closer.

“Don’t touch her,” Shainia growled, adjusting her position.

“You don’t care what happens to you? Just about her?” his voice held an amused lilt to it.

“Yes,” she answered coldly, locking eyes with the stranger. Taking him by surprise, she brought her foot around and made contact with his chin and throwing him to the floor. While falling, he let go of the staff which Shainia picked up and put into a guarded stance. His face twisted with anger as he sat up and rubbed his cheek with his hand.

“Time to end this little game,” he stood up quickly and caught the staff as she swung it around. He took hold of Shainia’s shoulder and used his, ‘Magic,’ Shainia guessed. ‘If you can call it that.’ She fell to her knees as the sleep spell took hold. The droids rushed over to Maka, intent on healing her wounds.

Shainia woke, once again, to a white ceiling, but in a different room. This one was a plain white room with very little furniture. She looked around for a while, then decided to try and find the room that Maka was in. That’s when she realized she couldn’t move. Panicking, she fought the bands that held her down.

After about ten minutes of thrashing around uselessly, she noticed this was getting her nowhere and calmed herself with a couple of slow deep breaths. She thought of her options: she could either wait for someone, or try to get out somehow. Choosing the second option, she inspected the metal bond around her left wrist. ‘No good, it’s locked with a code combination,’ she wanted to panic again, but her calm prevailed. She decided to wait for someone or something to happen. Wishing she was free, Shainia set her head back down to wait. Suddenly the bonds started to shake, drawing Shainia’s attention. The bonds convulsed suddenly, then snapped, making gentle clanking sounds on the floor. Unable to believe her good fortune, she slipped off the bed and crouched on the floor. ‘Now to get out of here...’

The door slid open with a curious whoosh. A face appeared in the hall looking to and fro for someone that might see her. Sliding into the empty hallway, she wondered if this could be a trap. She moved down the hallway, every nerve on end. ‘If it isn’t a trap, how did I get out?’ she thought picking hallways that were empty and slipping into crevasses when she saw someone. ‘And where’s Maka? I gotta find her.’ Then a strange thought went through her head. ‘What if I did take the bonds off with my will, like that black haired man did? Is it possible to...’ if she had gone mad, she really didn’t care. Anything seemed to be possible anymore. ‘And besides, maybe I had magic before, I can’t remember much of my past, so...’ Sliding into an empty room, she closed the door and locked it. After seating herself comfortably, she tried to will the door open. To her pleasure, and great surprise, it glided open. Locking the door with the new found power, she willed herself to float, and that she did.

After an hour of trying to find the extent to her discovery, she walked out the door, confidence making her feel invincible. She walked through the halls in plain sight no one seemed to notice her. ‘That’s a disappointment,’ she sighed, deciding to spice up this boring walk and used her will to push herself up. Walking on the rafters with confidence, Shainia sought a door that looked even vaguely familiar, intent on finding Maka before she did anything else. Walking down the hall, she wondered how her friend was fairing.

“...and she’s been unconscious since.” a familiar voice came from behind her. ‘It’s that man! All right! I’ll get him back for tying me up like that...’

“Very good, and how is her friend doing?” a smooth quiet voice asked.

“She was busting droids, I had to put her under,” the two men came into view. “Last time I checked she was still asleep. We had to chain her up though, she kept moving around and reopening the cut on her hip,” he sighed. “I musta used too much magic on her, she been asleep too long.” They were almost directly under her. Falling through the hole in the ceiling, she landed with a gentle thud on her feet.

“Oh really?” Shainia smiled at the dark haired man’s surprise. “No wonder I couldn’t move when I woke up. That explains a lot.”

“How...” he started.

Shainia shook her head. “All I wanna know is where Maka is,” his mouth moved, but offered no response. “Okay, if you want tell me, I will find her myself. Goodbye.” Flipping over the stunned men, she found purchase on the floor behind them. She waved then moved down the hallway, trying to will herself into finding her friend.

“She found her power much sooner that I anticipated,” the taller man ran his hand through his black hair. “Let’s check on the other one shall we?”

Moving through the closest door, she tried to follow instinct. Pushing a button to open a door, she found something familiar. ‘I found it!’ stepping inside, she looked around for her friend. As she expected, Maka lay on her bed, sleeping silently. Shainia sat on a chair beside her, wanting to think.

‘I don’t remember anything about before I came here. Well, I remember a few things, but most of them mean little to me,’ she sighed and looked at the floor, watching as distorted rays of lamp light sparkled on the wood. ‘The only hint to my past at all is her. Perhaps she will remember things I don’t and she could give me her pieces of the puzzle. It’s my only hope to regain my memory. And this power I have, what is it? Could Maka have it too? Could that be the reason that we were brought here from wherever we came from?’

Gently pulling on her hair, Shainia moved thoughts around in her head, trying to sort things out a little. “Will she be all right?” she asked suddenly, braking the silence.

“She should be,” a familar voice floated in from the doorway, “if all goes well.”

Turning, Shainia met the black haired man’s eyes. “Who are you?”

“I am called Yokema. I am the operator of this mission. This,” he moved slightly to allow the other man step into the room, “is my Master.”

Shainia bowed, “I am Shainia. This is my friend Maka,” she pointed to the bed.