They talked the next day about the probability of Lara returning with what was happening. No one liked the idea, but they all felt that the chances were high that Lara was behind the disappearing boy.

"Does anyone know what his name is?" Hailee asked. They looked at each other but no one could answer her.

"I hate feeling useless like this. At least last year she confronted us directly." They could hear the frustration in Alexis's voice as she spoke.

"Yeah... but I'd still rather not have a run in with her again, if at all possible," Caleb added. "We need to not think about it though. All it will do is distract us."

Hailee nodded. "Caleb's right. We need to focus on our classes right now. Exams are in three days; we should spend this time studying instead of worrying about something that we can't control." They didn't like what Caleb and Hailee were saying but Parker and Alexis finally agreed.

Ana had been present for many of their recent conversations about Lara. For the most part, she just sat and listened, not sure what input she could really give. She hadn't even been at the school to witness the fact that the four of them went missing; let alone what they went through.

The kids sat in silence for a while around one of the tables in the dining hall working on homework and studying for exams. The masters had given them the go ahead to study in the dining hall since there were plenty of other students in it at almost every moment of the day. They were trying to make any accommodation for the kids as possible knowing how frustrated they had to be.

Exams came quickly which meant the start of the second term Aether matches arrived just as quickly. Parker hadn't talked to Ana much about Aether and he felt bad for her. The team was doing well, but not nearly as well as the previous year. Whenever Parker saw them practice or even in a match, he felt they didn't mesh overly well.

He and Alexis started to formulate behind their backs. Thinking maybe if they spent some time together outside of the practices, they may get to know each other better.

-----

"So, are you ready?" Alexis asked Parker as they walked into their history exam. She felt like she had aced everything up to that point in the day but was nervous for the one remaining. There were so many minute facts that she didn't know which ones to focus on.

"Um... sure," Parker said with an unconvincing smile. "I was feeling great in this class until we got to talking about each of the house rivalries that existed. Who could imagine there had been so many discrepancies between them?"

Alexis laughed causing Parker to smile. "Well, good luck. I'll meet you in the stands after the exam. I'll save you a seat."

"Thanks, good luck." It wasn't until Parker took his seat that he realized Alexis had told him that she would for sure finish the exam before him. He told himself to ignore that and focus on the exam. He just wished there was a way to give himself more time, afraid that he wouldn't have enough to finish.

Master Keegan had informed them that it was a long test filled with lots of detail. He thought for a moment about using his Space Imperial to give himself five times the amount of time to take the test. But he couldn't figure out how he'd get away with it. He knew there was no way he could explain disappearing from the room in the middle of the test.

In that moment he realized that it had to have been Lara who took the boy from Master Terra's chamber. It was the only explanation that made any sense.

"Begin!" Rang Master Keegan's voice from the front of the room. It took everything Parker had to make it through the exam. His mind kept going back and forth between the exam and Lara.

After what felt like hours, Parker finally left the room and made his way to the stands. Just as Alexis had said, she saved a seat for him next to her. When he sat down the match was just about to begin.

Both The House of Erion and The House of Kenna had taken their spots on the field and Parker noticed that something had changed. Their team had changed positions around some. Clay was back as an attacker, Emma was now a blocker with Finn and Claire was a shooter.

"Well, this should definitely be interesting," Parker said.

Alexis nodded and asked, "Have you seen Claire handle the ball?"

Parker shook his head and told her he hadn't. "Have you?"

"Nope. I guess we're about to find out what she's like through."

The whistle blew and both teams rushed the ball. Cassidy tried to kick it away from Marianna but was plowed down. Marianna ran forward with the ball as her shooters followed her.

Emma and Finn ran straight for them and without talking took out the other two shooters leaving Marianna by herself. Her attackers were a few feet behind her aiming a fireballs at Emma and Finn.

They noticed at the last second they were being targeted. Right before they were hit, they karate chopped the air like they were cutting it. The fireballs split in half and shot passed them on both sides.

Marianna took a shot at the goal which Evelyn blocked with the tips of her fingers. The ball rolled along the edge of the outer ring of water. Gwen sprinted by and scooped the ball up. She would've used her feet if it hadn't been for the ring of water being right there.

Gwen took off down the field and passed the ball to Cassidy. She hugged the inner wall of the field to protect herself on one side. When she passed the center line she was met with two fireballs. She ducked at the last second but lost control of the ball. One of the shooters from the other team scooped it up and passed it to Marianna.

Emma noticed how much they were favoring Marianna. They always passed it to her when they got the chance. She knew the next time Marianna crossed the centerline she needed to take her out.

Marianna ran forward with the ball. Ana and Clay were closing in quickly so she took off across the center line. Focused so much on the two attackers, she missed Emma closing in from the side. She was hit with a blast of wind from the side hard enough to make her crumple to the ground. Claire ran by and kicked the ball to Cassidy who made her way back down the field.

Cassidy turned her head to look back and see where Marianna was. She saw her still lying on the ground. She knew that if Marianna was out of commission, this match was clenched. Marianna was by far their strongest player this year, having graduated three players.

Ana and Clay took the blockers out of the way and Cassidy scored with ease. The castle glowed white as the stands roared with cheers.

The next two points went by in a flash and the game was over. Losing their star player made their team lose confidence and as soon as the confidence was gone, nothing could stop The House of Erion from winning.

When they got back to their common room, they couldn't hear anything over the cheering and celebrating from their housemates. Quickly, the five of them disappeared from the crowd and made their way to the roof.

"That match was amazing guys. You worked so much better in the new formation. When did you guys decide to switch it up?" Parker was proud of the way they'd worked as a team this time. It reminded him of how the team worked the last year, making him miss it even more than he already was.

They talked for a while before going to bed. After a long day it didn't take long for any of them to fall asleep.

The next morning, they all met in the corridor and made their way down for breakfast. Alexis had been practicing her Space Imperial a lot improving ever so slightly each day. She could now handle moving all five of them to the separate space for around five minutes. Alexis made sure to make their morning trip to the dining hall a practice run.

A few tries ended in them appearing midair in the center of the staircase scaring several students around them, even making a few fall several feet before regaining their control.

The last several attempts had been successful in making it to the entrance of the dining and coming out of their space. After a few intense scares of reappearing on top of someone or crashing into someone, Alexis made sure to always try and reappear in spots where people didn't go.

When they arrived that morning, they reappeared standing against the wall figuring no one would be there. The moment they appeared they saw a girl in red robes lying on the floor in the corridor.

Parker ran to her as fast as he could and knelt next to her. He looked at her and saw burn marks on her face and neck. Alexis saw the marks and immediately raised her hand to her neck. It had been a while since she'd thought about it after getting used to it. Several weeks had passed before she was able to not think about them every minute of every day.

Something was different about these burns though. It didn't simply turn the skin red and deformed. There were black streaks running the length of arm and creeping down from her face to her shoulders.

"How could she get burned?" Caleb asked. "She's from The House of Kenna."

Parker touched one of the burns and it was as cold as ice. "They're not fire burns... it's frostbite."

They rushed her to the Medical Ward when Ana and Master Sora came rushing in. Master Keegan soon appeared from behind them.

"What happened to Riley?" Master Keegan demanded.

"We... don't know..." Parker said. "We reappeared from Alexis's Space Imperial and saw her lying on the ground. There was no one there though or if there was, they immediately disappeared before we could see them."

Master Keegan and Master Sora looked at each other with worried expressions on their faces. "We think she's back." That was all they said. It caused a wave of fear they'd never felt before.

"We thought so too..." Caleb said. Having the masters confirm their thoughts made it unbelievably worse. Before, they'd just been worried that it might be true. Now, they were terrified.

Riley was resting in the bed next to Marianna. She was still recovering from the hit she'd taken during the Aether match from Emma. When she woke up and saw Riley lying next to her, she started to cry. Parker found out while he was checking on her to see if she was improving that they had been best friends.

Parker apologized for what had happened and Marianna looked at him like he was crazy. "You did nothing to her Parker. It's that jerk's fault." Parker could see the anger in her eyes, a fire burned in her pupils. He was pretty sure that if it wasn't for her friend being injured, they wouldn't be having a civil conversation. There weren't many students from The House of Kenna that talked to others outside of their house. Cesily was the only exception that he could think of.

-----

Several days passed and Mariana was healed and back to her normal routines. She would visit every day along with Parker and Alexis to check on Riley. Since the attack she hadn't woken up. The masters visited from time to time and would spend several minutes talking with Madame Sasaki and then disappear again.

They couldn't figure out why she wasn't waking up. Parker couldn't help but feel like if they'd appeared ten seconds earlier, they could've saved Riley.

-----

The end of term came quickly. Final exams approached before they were ready to take them. Parker couldn't keep all his history facts straight. He had one more exam to take and he would be done with history forever.

"I feel like I'm not going to pass this," he said to Alexis.

"You'll be fine!" He was glad to hear her chipper personality come back. He needed it after everything that was happening. Parker still found it difficult to not let his thoughts wander to Lara when he was studying.

"I can't focus though! I've only got one more week before the exam—"

She gently rested her hand on his shoulder and smiled at him. "Parker, you'll be fine. You're always fine. It always works out in the end." He smiled back and shrugged.

"I suppose you're right—" They stared at each other for a few more moments before returning to their studies. "Caleb, how are you feeling about exams?"

"I suppose I'll be okay, at least I think so," he laughed as he said it. "How about you Ana?"

"I'm doing fine. Haven't really had any problems with any of my work."

They spent the rest of the night studying in their common room in front of the fire. The weather outside had chilled significantly since the middle of October. As each day passed, they spent less and less time outdoors.

The next morning, they were making their way to breakfast, Parker taking a turn practicing his Space Imperial. He was able to make it to the staircase before it fell apart. Hailee decided that she'd give it a try to get them to the dining hall with her Space Imperial.

As they were descending the center of the stairs Alexis thought she saw something but thought otherwise since she knew they couldn't see anything while in the separate space.

When they landed the Imperial broke, and they were in the open again. A scream came from down the corridor. They saw a boy in green robes fall to the ground and a glimpse of a blue robe vanish.