-Frienemies-

Another memory, but this time he smelt smoke.

And he could instantly tell, it wasn't from cigarettes, it was from fire.

Fairies were running in every direction, desperately searching for anywhere to hide. It took Sage a minute to figure out where he even was, but he knew when he saw the painted sign that read "Orchid Village High School" fall to the ground as fire spread around it and burnt the wood.

He was walking across the ashes of his old high school.

He saw his past self in the crowd and dashed after him, he was clearly trying to put out whatever fires he could, and looking for who caused them.

Past Sage looked around frantically, before his eyes fell on someone in the distance, he went to charge after them when Aqua grabbed his hand.

"Let go of me." Past Sage said in a low voice, barely making it over all the screaming.

"You can't do this, there won't be anyone else left to rule if you go after the hunters that started this raid." Aqua said to him in a calm voice.

"My parents will rule after I'm gone, and once they're gone, I guess this village will be screwed by then." Past Sage tried to jerk his arm away from Aqua but they held onto with all their strength.

"Well, I guess this village is screwed then!!" Aqua yelled.

"What do you mean?" Past Sage said, as he stopped struggling and looked Aqua in the eyes.

"Last I heard your parents were sent away on a stretcher to the nearest hospital in the River Domain, believe me when I say, there is no one left to rule...except you." Aqua said.

"I don't believe that." "You don't have to."

Aqua continued to speak calmly, making direct eye contact.

"Everyone here will be fine, the spell to reverse everyone's age will be complete in a matter of minutes, but we have to get out of here before that happens." Past Sage looked taken aback by what Aqua had said,

"How do you know about all this?" He asked.

"I spoke to the time fairy, that's why it's important that you come with me, this village has an evacuation tunnel built under it. If we can make it to the River Domain, we can find a way to keep your memories. In fact I have a memory stone we can store them in, and once you're old enough again you'll see these memories and know you were a prince, then you can finally-" Aqua quickly ducked to avoid a blast of fire that was shot at them, they then took Sage's hand and ran through the crowd. Present Sage had a hard time keeping up with them, and thought he might lose them.

They made it far past the school and kept running until they had reached the small river that split the domain into two. Aqua raised their hands and parted the river, leaving a gap in it and revealing the entrance to the tunnel system.

Sage was confused as to how they were supposed to get in, the entrance was completely barred to keep water from getting in. Aqua grabbed past Sage's hand and used his other hand to grip a crystal that was tied to the necklace they were wearing, they tapped the crystal twice and both of them were teleported inside the tunnel.

"How'd you do that?" Past Sage asked.

"No time." Aqua immediately began sprinting down the tunnel.

The sounds of their footsteps echoed through the tunnel, which is also how they were alerted to the fact they were no longer alone in this tunnel.

"I think someone's following us..." Past Sage said in a hushed tone, clearly out of breath as well.

"How did they get here without a teleporting crystal?? Unless..."

Aqua suddenly stopped running as they pondered the question.

"Aqua? C'mon, we gotta go..." Sage shook their shoulder and that's when Aqua came up with an idea, they grabbed Sage's arm and said "Brace yourself."

Aqua then used the teleporting crystal to repeatedly teleport them a couple feet ahead, run a couple feet, teleport a couple feet, run a couple feet and the process went on.

This worked wonderfully, they couldn't even hear the footsteps anymore.

They were just about to make it out...when Aqua stopped again.

"Aqua?"

Aqua was just staring at the ground with empty eyes.

"Aqua?"

Sage could tell by the way his past self called out Aqua's name...he was doubting this. He was doubting that Aqua, his high school bully would ever try to help him, even in the most dire of situations.

Sage realised what was happening before his past self did, because he witnessed the exact same thing happen not long ago, in the first memory he saw. The tunnel had been dripping because of water leaking down from the lake above, and the water was pooling around Aqua's feet, just like it did in the memory where they fought, this meant they were preparing to strike.

Sage just looked at his past self, hoping he'd realize what was happening, but then Aqua made all the water that had been pooling at their feet come up in a wave, that grabbed past Sage like it was a hand, holding him at the top of tunnel and covering his mouth, Aqua was trying to drown him! There weren't any plants or anything in the tunnel, which was what his past self seemed to be good at, but regardless Sage could see little rocks all around the tunnel starting to lift and fall, his past self was still trying to use his telekinesis to free himself.

Maybe an apology would be enough to forgive them for bullying him in the past, but trying to kill him was a different story.

All the rocks that had been hopelessly floating fell as past Sage closed his eyes...

"AHH!!"

Aqua pulled back all the water and Sage fell to the ground, they looked around almost paralyzed by their own actions. Sage however, swiftly opened his eyes, reached his hands into his pockets, pulling out a bunch of small seeds and throwing them on the ground, he then threw his hands forward causing the seeds to grow into huge vines that threw Aqua back, picked them up and threw them to the ground again. Unfortunately that was all Sage had in him, he immediately passed out again.

He must have still been a little conscious since the memory continued,

"No, no, no!" Aqua mumbled as they went over to Sage. They looked to the end of the tunnel anxiously, before deciding to try carrying Sage through the tunnel.

Then, I guess he must have passed out fully, since that's where the memory ended.

Now he was lying on the floor. The last thing he remembered was turning in for the night, so he must have rolled right off the bed. When he sat up, his head hurt enough to prove that he had fallen.

And now he was going to confront Aqua for the second time, he didn't bother to get dressed, he was just going to yell at them in his pajamas.

He strolled over to the spare room and knocked on the door twice before just coming in anyway.

"See? Now that's how many times a normal person knocks." Aqua said, completely unaware of what Sage saw.

"Aqua, what are you doing here?" Sage asked them, they definitely didn't know how to answer the question so Sage continued,

"What, have you come here to try and kill me again? If that's the case then you can get out of my house."

Aqua then understood what he was talking about.

"Oh, you saw your final memory. That one might be a little difficult to explain..."

Sage sat down in the chair that had been left out for him, as if explaining why they tried to kill him was a simple magic lesson.

"I assume you don't know what psychic fairies are?" Aqua asked.

"There are psychic types?"

"Yeah, you could call them that I guess. Well, you used to know a psychic fairy named Amethyst."

"Oh hey, I saw her in one of the memories!" Sage chimed in.

"That makes sense, you two were friends as little kids, she went to another school for a bit before transferring to ours but she only did that because she was on a mission. She was a dark fairy, the kind that kills, and her and Josephine were just stirring up drama while they waited until all the hunters were ready to raid the village."

"Josephine is a dark fairy?" Sage said in shock.

"Of course she is! Why would you think otherwise?"

Sage thought back to the events of the ball, Josephine left, the lights went out, the attack started. Fairies were worried beforehand about rumours that a dark fairy may be infiltrating, if Josephine was a dark fairy, and she was at this ball...

She's the one that started the attack.

"Sage? Are you listening to me?" Aqua asked, and Sage nodded.

"What I'm saying is Amethyst is a psychic fairy, meaning she can mind control if she focuses enough, when she saw us escape down the tunnel and couldn't catch up to us, she mind controlled me instead, so I would kill you before you could make it out and your memories would be lost. Meaning you wouldn't remember your time as a prince or be able to find out that you have to save this domain."

"If you weren't trying to kill me then why were you hanging out with two dark fairies??" Sage argued.

"I didn't know they were dark fairies, they were clearly just trying to manipulate me into not completing my mission." Aqua explained.

"And what IS your mission?" Sage asked.

"I was supposed to get you out of the Mushroom domain alive, save your memories in the memory stone, get another memory stone, save my memories, restart, regain my memories, wait for you to arrive in the River domain, come back to the Mushroom domain, give you your memories, and train you."

"And who gave you this 'mission'?" Sage asked.

"The time fairy, the most respected fairy of them all, the only one to possess the magic of time. He can see into the future, although it isn't one constant timeline, everything we do sends us down a different path, so he tells fairies what they have to do to be sent down a good path. And he told me that I had to give you that memory stone."

"Why me? Why do I have to remember this stuff?" Sage asked.

"Because you have to fight Josephine and save the Mushroom domain." Aqua said simply.

"I don't want to! I don't want any of this! I just want to go back to normal!" Sage said, covering his eyes with his hands and sinking into his chair.

"What?" Aqua said.

"Fighting a dark fairy? Aqua, I could die. The last time I tried to defend myself I almost did, I've never been as scared as I was when the hunters attacked the ball. I can't fight anyone, okay? I want to go back to just being a normal human." Sage confessed.

"But you're not human! You want to just pretend to be?" Aqua asked.

"I guess so, beats dying."

"Aw, Sage, you're not going to die." Aqua said.

"But I could...isn't that scary to you?" Sage asked.

"You want to know what's scary to me?" Sage nodded at Aqua's question.

"The fact that everyone in the Mushroom Domain is currently under Josephine's control." Aqua said.

"But how did they hold the ball if everyone was under Josephine's control?" Sage asked.

"Do you know what 'Village center' actually is?" Aqua asked.

"A village that's in the center of the domain?" Sage answered.

"Close. It is at the center of the domain but it was also made by the survivors of Josephine's takeover, that ball was a celebration of hope, that soon this domain would be under the rule of their prince."

"If they all knew who I was, why did no one recognize me?" Sage asked.

"Josephine did. And I think you forgot that not all fairies got their memories back, they've heard your name, but they have no clue what you look like." Aqua explained.

"They really think...I can save them?" Sage asked.

"They know you will." Aqua said,

"I know you will."