{Ron}

When I finally came out of the bathroom I had figured out how to change back into my human form just by doing what Patty told me to do. I imagined that I was a human and after a while I saw my hand change from a wolf's paw to a regular human hand. I then went to my room and took the rest of the day off.

About an hour after I got to my room and laid down, there was a knock on the door. I laughed when I heard Ruff-Ruff barking to alert me that Asher was at the door.

"Okay, okay Ruff-Ruff," I said as I got out of bed, "I'm coming! I'm coming!"

When I opened up the door Asher was laughing, "Well you definitely have one heck of a guard dog here!"

Ruff-Ruff entered the room, "Yeah, yeah I get it! Can you blame me though? That's what Abigail created me for to help protect you guys because she wouldn't be here in person, so yeah I'm your guard dog!"

I snorted. "Well you're doing your job alright!"

"So what happened earlier? Are you okay?" Asher asked.

I sighed, "I'm fine it's just changing into the wolf form terrifies me!"

"Oh," Asher said.

"You know I can help with that!" Ruff-Ruff said as she perked up.

I looked at her. "How?"

"You know I'm the good side of Princess Black right?" Ruff-Ruff said.

I nodded. "Yes? So?"

"I'm starting to sense that Princess Black is working on summoning her wolf form as we speak," said Ruff-Ruff. "So I can tap into that and help you out as well. Unfortunately I can't use that to turn Princess Black back into Abigail. It doesn't work that way! I wish it did though."

"I wish it worked that way too," I said. "But my question is when we do get Abigail back, how do we change her back to her old self? Especially if Dr. Crow's used the brainwashing crystals on her."

Ruff-Ruff sighed and looked down at the floor, "I'm not sure either but I bet Patty can tell you what to do if she decides she wants to tell you guys anything." She looked back up at me, "Anyway so I can help with the-"

I didn't hear the last part of what Ruff-Ruff was saying when I suddenly found myself in a bathroom and I was staring at the bathroom mirror but my reflection wasn't staring back at me. Someone else was staring at me completely confused. The person was a man who looked like he could be Dr. Crow's age, he had gray eyes, tan skin and he was wearing a black t-shirt, black jeans, brown sandals. I also noticed that he had fangs just like I did and I wondered if he was a Diamond.

He blinked. "Uh, okay?" He looked around the bathroom trying to figure out if there was anyone else in the bathroom with him. I looked around too because I was just as confused as he was. I looked down to see that wasn't in my body and then I realized what happened, somehow I was ghost seeing at the moment.

"Oh boy," I said, "this is weird. I'm not going to be able to get used to this part of my powers! I seriously hope Abigail's having to deal with this along with other crap she might be going through!"

The man paused. "Okay I think I've lost my mind unless Dr. Crow decided to brainwash me too without me knowing it? Although I wouldn't put it past the asshole to do that," He paused and looked up at me. "Wait, did you just say Abigail?"

"Yes, why?" I said.

"That's who Princess Black used to be before Dr. Crow brainwashed her into thinking she's always been Princess Black!" The man exclaimed.

"Okay and who are you? And how do you know about this?" I asked.

"I was going to ask you the same thing," the man said. "But I guess I should start first. My name is Shinjin and I'm Dr. Crow's right hand man so to speak. Uh, hold on!'

Shinjin promptly ran over and locked the bathroom door. I thought he was a little paranoid but then again, if someone walked past the bathroom and heard Shinjin talking to himself they might think he's gone nuts. So actually that was a smart move on his part.

After Shinjin closed the bathroom door I nodded. "Okay my name's Ron."

Shinjin's eyes went wide when he heard my name. "Your name's Ron huh? Is Ron your sub-name by chance?"

I nodded. "You might also know me as Prince Silver. Wait a minute! You're the guy Abigail told me about!"

"You wouldn't by chance happen to be Agent Silver too?" Shinjin asked.

I nodded again. "Yup that would be me, let me guess, Abigail told you about me didn't she?"

"Before she got brainwashed she mentioned you more than once actually," Shinjin replied. He perked up, "Oh that's right! I know how to undo the brainwashing, and it's kind of like a fairytale ending sort of thing…"

I raised an eyebrow. "Fairytale ending? What on earth are you talking about?"

Shinjin blushed and looked away and he seemed slightly embarrassed, "I… Uh… Well…"

"Come on Shinjin!" I said with an annoyed tone of voice, "Spit it out already! What do I have to do in order to undo the brainwashing?"

Shinjin looked back at me. "The kiss of true love…"

I chuckled, "Seriously? That's it?"

"It's not funny even though it sounds funny," Shinjin snapped. "Listen, undoing the brainwashing without there being any serious side effects is the kiss of true love. Trust me, I know. I got lucky the last few times because I heard the person say their true love's name in their sleep repeatedly. Now there were some people that got brainwashed that didn't have a true love and undoing the brainwashing had some serious side effects."

"What serious side effects?" I asked.

"Their personality gets warped a lot worse than the brainwashing," Shinjin responded. "They become completely deranged and zombielike. Trust me I know a couple actual Zombies and in case you're wondering I'm not a Diamond, I'm a Vampire."

"Yup," I said, "ever since I found out I was a Diamond and royalty at that, my daily life has been nothing but one big nightmare!"

"Yeah Princess Black felt the same way before she was brainwashed," Shinjin said.

"So exactly how do I even begin to get Abigail back without surrendering to Dr. Crow?" I asked.

"I have no idea," Shinjin said., "But what if the next time I see you in person and not in ghost form I could make it easier for you and your friends to capture Princess Black? I'm not sure how I would be able to do that without Dr. Crow catching wind of my betrayal."

Then I felt this strange sensation in the back of my head, the same type of sensation that I would feel when the communication on the limbo realm would break. I sighed, "Well looks like this conversation is coming to an end, the connection's being broken. I don't know if I'll be able to talk to you like this again because I don't have the ability to summon my powers at will at the moment."

Shinjin nodded. "Alright then, until we meet again or if we meet again. Goodbye for now!"

After that the communication broke.

* * *

The next time I opened my eyes I looked over to see Asher giving me a worried look, "Okay what happened?"

"You passed out on us when Ruff-Ruff was getting ready to say something." Asher replied. "Are you okay? Because that looked like it hurt!"

"Huh? What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well you were moaning in your sleep like you were in pain!" Ruff-Ruff said.

"Actually I wasn't in pain," I said. "I was Ghost Seeing again and saw a man named Shinjin and he knew that Princess Black used to be Abigail! Apparently he's Dr. Crow's right hand man and he knows how to undo the brainwashing without the Brainwashing Crystals. He also said that sometimes even with undoing the brainwashing with the Brainwashing Crystals it can have some… Serious side effects…"

Asher tilted his head to the left and raised his left eyebrow. "Serious side effects?"

"Um…" I said looking away. "How do I explain this? A person that's been brainwashed and the brainwashing is undone with a Brainwashing Crystal a person can become deranged and their perception of reality is permanent."

"Lovely well that's just perfect!" Ruff-Ruff growled.

"No kidding!" Asher agreed.

"But, on the bright side," I said, "there is a way to undo the brainwashing without a Brainwashing Crystal!"

"Huh?" Asher said.

"Well it's one of those fairytale things…" I trailed off.

"Okay what do you mean by that?" Ruff-Ruff asked.

I cleared my throat and mumbled, "The kiss of true love…"

Asher snorted. "That's it? Well that's not so bad! I mean you're Abigail's true love even if she's been brainwashed into thinking she's always been Princess Black. You two can still connect with each other in the limbo connection thingy. So it should work no problem!"

"Actually the problem is how do we get her back?" Ruff-Ruff asked.

"Well…" I said, "Shinjin seemed to think that he could help make it easier for us to capture Abigail the next time we see her. Although I have no idea if we're going to see her again or if I'm going to be able to get control of my Ghost Seeing powers or summoning my wolf form!" I threw my hands up in agitation. "Ugh! This nightmare just keeps getting better and better."

"Anyway, as I was saying before, your powers decided to pull you somewhere else," said Ruff-Ruff. "I can help you work on at least summoning your wolf form at will."

I nodded. "Alright, so when do we start doing that?"

"We can start doing it today if you want?" Ruff-Ruff replied.

"Sure why not? It's worth a shot," I said.

Ruff-Ruff nodded. "Okay follow me to the training area and we should inform Patty what we're doing so she can make it so that no one else is allowed in except us."

"I'll go tell her and then I'll meet you guys at the training area," Asher said.

"Alright, let's go!" I said.

* * *

{Princess Black}

"I've been having these weird dreams," I said to Shinjin. We were laying on the bed in the room that I now share with Dr. Crow. Dr. Crow was busy for the day so I was spending most of my time with Shinjin. We had just had sex and Shinjin was looking at me in curiosity.

"What do you mean by strange dreams?" Shinjin asked.

"Well…" I wasn't sure how to explain the dreams I've been having lately or if what I was experiencing was even a dream at all. "It's kind of hard to explain but I feel like I'm someplace else after I close my eyes sometimes. I'm not totally there, it feels like I'm a ghost just watching events unfold in front of me and not really being able to do anything about it."

"Huh that's interesting," said Shinjin, "but I'm going to make a recommendation about this."

"What?" I said.

"Whatever you do, don't tell Dr. Crow about it." Shinjin replied with a stern look on his face.

I raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"Because Dr. Crow might think you're sick and try to keep this from happening to you," Shinjin said. "I think it might have something to do with your magic. I've seen other Diamonds that do this stuff and they call it Ghost Seeing. Although humans would call it an out of body type experience. From what I know of Dr. Crow either can't do it or he's chosen not to tell me about it."

"Oh," I said, "okay then. And another thing I wanted to mention to you."

"What?"

"You and Dr. Crow have been acting rather strange around me lately," I stated.

Shinjin raised an eyebrow. "Oh? How so?"

"Well first of all you have been acting like you're falling in love with me and second Dr. Crow has been very emotional about every other thing I do," I said. "Dr. Crow's been annoying about that because he even acts emotional if I just go to the bathroom!"

Shinjin snorted. "Yeah he's been acting rather emotional around me too. I've asked him about that but he refuses to answer the question. But I have a suspicion as to why that might be."

I tilted my head, "Why?"

"You know how Diamonds have both reproductive systems?" Shinjin said.

I nodded. "Yes."

"Well even though Diamonds have both the sperm and eggs you still need a partner to create a baby," Shinjin explained. "Now if you don't want to get pregnant that's fine. Or at least I think it's that way? From what I know of if you don't want to get pregnant then your powers will keep that from happening. But if your partner wants to get pregnant then there's nothing you can do about it."

My eyes went wide at that thought, "So you're telling me that it's possible Dr. Crow might be pregnant?"

Shinjin nodded. "It's possible but it's hard to tell since either the male or female Diamond can get pregnant…"

"Great, lovely," I said. "Dr. Crow might be pregnant with my child."

"Or my child, there's another thing that I know of is that Diamonds can cross breed but if that happens then it's only the Diamond that gets pregnant and not their partner. I'm glad that's how it goes because there's no way I'm carrying the baby! Nope, not happening!" Shinjin said.

I cracked up, "Yeah I don't blame you. I don't want to carry a baby either but if Dr. Crow wants to do it then fine but it's still kind of creepy that Dr. Crow might be pregnant with my child!"

"And as far as the first thing you mentioned I uh…" Shinjin said he looked away. Then he sighed, "Well I guess I have to admit it huh? I seem to be having some sort of feelings for you. I'm concerned about your health and well being a lot. What I mean is I'm not concerned about you like Dr. Crow is. I'm concerned about you on a deeper level I guess. And I know you're in love with Prince Silver but you can be in love with more than one person. I mean I'm in love with Dr. Crow for sure but with you… I'm normally not into women although I have dated a couple of them in the past but there's something different about you and I'm wondering if it has something to do with you being a Diamond? Or your personality like why I feel for Dr. Crow? I have no idea… I don't understand my feelings for you at all! Does that make any sense to you?"

I smiled at him, "Honestly, it makes perfect sense! I felt the same way when I realized that I was having feelings for Prince Silver even though I heard we were arranged to be married from the very moment we were born and that's not why I feel for him."

"Why did you fall for him?" Shinjin asked.

"His personality and the fact that we understood each other on so many levels," I answered. "We just clicked somehow. I always thought it was funny because Prince Silver was obsessed with making weapons. He was always looking for my approval on it when making one and honestly, I think he was doing it just to impress me when he didn't need to. But I guess."

Shinjin chuckled, "That's natural when you like someone you'll do what you can to get on their good side. What did you do to get on Prince Silver's good side?"

I thought about it and said, "I would challenge other people to sparring matches and invite him to watch, which he did no problem. Although some of those sparring matches we sometimes set up by either him or my real dad. And I won most of them and there were sometimes when I lost and got my ass handed to me."

Shinjin's jaw dropped for whatever the reason. I raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"You lost a couple of sparring matches?" Shinjin asked.

I nodded. "Uh yeah, you know what they say, practice makes perfect! You don't always win at things, and speaking of not winning…"

"Oh no you don't!" Shinjin said, "Don't start doubting yourself just because you're having trouble summoning your wolf form at will during a fight. You're going to be able to do it sooner or later, okay?"

I nodded but I still felt like a failure not being able to summon my wolf form yet. But I did just start training on summoning my wolf form a couple of weeks ago.

Shinjin made me look into his eyes and kissed me. For a moment or two he just didn't want to stop kissing me and I was fine with that. He stopped kissing me and smiled. "Not to mention you're also pretty sexy, I wonder what Prince Silver looks like without his clothes on?"

"You haven't even met the guy and you're already fantasizing about him?" I chuckled, "Wow."

Shinjin snorted. "What? Dr. Crow did show me a couple pictures of him and yeah."

We heard the sound of the door opening and we looked to see Dr. Crow enter the room. He seemed really upset about something. I frowned. "What's wrong?"

He came over and sat down on the bed and sighed, "I still haven't found him yet!"

"Huh?" I said.

"Prince Silver, I haven't found him yet," Dr. Crow growled, "and to think I sent my strongest agents out to find him too! I had to fire Jester Lava and those stupid Malya twins! It seems that every time they get close to capturing him, he's either evaded capture or if they engage in combat it seems he's gotten stronger somehow. Although the first time they came across the guy he did just randomly change into this big scary wolf as they call it."

For whatever the reason, Shinjin choked. "Prince Silver can already summon his wolf form?"

Dr. Crow shook his head. "I don't know. To them it looked random but it's hard to tell. And there is another thing I found out about why my emotions seemed all over the place lately."

I engaged a look with Shinjin already having an idea what Dr. Crow was going to say next.

"Okay, what is it?" I asked.

Dr. Crow hesitated a bit and rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm uh… I'm pregnant!"

I blinked. Although I knew this might be coming up, I was still somewhat surprised by this. "Okay. Who's child is it?"

Dr. Crow gulped and then gave a nervous laugh and looked at Shinjin at first, "It's yours…"

Shinjin gasped, "What? It's-"

Dr. Crow shook his head rapidly, "No, no, no it's not yours Shinjin!" He looked at me, "It's yours Princess Black! Honestly, I'm happy about this and hesitant at the same time."

It took me a moment or two to process that someone is actually pregnant with my child. I mean I know I'm an alien race and pregnancy doesn't happen like it would for a human because only the females of the human race can get pregnant. But the fact that both female and male Diamonds can get pregnant, it's a lot to take in.

"Okay…" I said. That was the only thing I could think to say. Other than that I was speechless.

Dr. Crow started laughing and that kind of snapped me out of my shock but not entirely. "What?"

"You look really shocked right now!" Dr. Crow said, "Although I don't blame you. I would be pretty shocked too if someone told me they were pregnant with my child. At least now I know what's causing me to be emotionally unstable lately."

"No fucking way!" I heard someone shout but it sounded very faint and I looked around to see where the voice came from.

Dr. Crow had a look of concern. "Are you okay Princess Black?"

I shook my head. "Did you hear that voice?"

Dr. Crow looked around and shook his head. "No, maybe you're just hearing things because you're still shocked about this? I think you need some rest. We can come up with some names for the child once I figure out if it's a boy or girl."

He smiled at Shinjin. "You can stay here too if you want? You don't have to leave just yet."

Shinjin nodded. "Okay sure."

The room suddenly started to spin around me and I tried to keep my bearings but the more I tried the faster the room spun. Eventually the room stopped spinning and everything went dark.

* * *

{Ron}

I woke up lying on my back on the floor in the training area. I felt numb knowing that somehow I was ghost seeing and I heard the conversation that took place in front of me. Dr. Crow was pregnant with Abigail's child!

I shook my head trying to shake off the feeling of shock about what I saw. I looked up when I heard Asher say, "What's wrong? You took quite a doozy when you fell over in the middle of our sparring match! We're trying to help you summon your-"

"I was ghost seeing!" I shouted, "I seriously hope this doesn't start getting out of control because if it does I don't know what I'll do!"

"Okay Ron, calm down and take a deep breath," Asher instructed.

I nodded and took a couple of deep breaths and let them out slowly. When I finally felt somewhat calm I said, "Okay well I was ghost seeing and somehow I wound up in a room where Abigail, Dr. Crow and Shinjin were sitting and Dr. Crow just explained that he was pregnant with Abigail's child!"

Asher blinked and gave me a look of disbelief. "That's not possible! Human males can't get pregnant!"

"Nope," said Ruff-Ruff, "the only way that Dr. Crow would get pregnant is if he were a Diamond himself! And if he really is pregnant with Abigail's child then yeah he's a Diamond. That would also explain why he's so smart."

I paused. "Huh?"

Ruff-Ruff barked and then nodded. "Oh yeah Diamonds are extremely smart creatures by default as they are for the most part indestructible! The only thing that really truly would kill them is old age."

"And exactly how long does a Diamond live?" Asher asked.

"About 4,000 years to be exact which is why not very many Diamonds choose to have a child. However, when the Diamonds escaped to earth for whatever the reason Diamonds decided to start having more kids," Ruff-Ruff explained.

"Great, just perfect!" I said then I remembered the other part of the conversation about Dr. Crow not being able to find me and I laughed.

"What's so funny?" Asher asked.

"Dr. Crow seemed upset about not being able to capture me!" I chuckled. "Although I'm not sure how Jester Lava and the Mayla twins thought they engaged in combat with me because I've only come across them once or twice and that's it."

Asher snorted. "That's probably a case of stupidity and mistaken identity!"

"Yeah no kidding! Those agents might be strong but they're pretty stupid!" I chuckled.

"Question is what do we do now?" Asher said.

"I have no idea but we'll figure something out and we'll get Abigail back sooner or later. At this point it looks like it might be later than expected." Ruff-Ruff said somberly.

I rolled my eyes. "Well gee Ruff-Ruff thanks for your optimistic attitude!"

Ruff-Ruff snorted. "You're welcome!"

"Well the only thing I know for sure we can do is work on helping you control your magic," Asher said.

Ruff-Ruff nodded. "Yup! And the more you control your magic the more you won't need your key to transform into Prince Silver."

I paused. "Huh? Sooner or later I won't have to use my key in order to transform?"

"Yup! And it happens to all Diamonds that sooner or later once they get control of their magic they don't need their key but all they need to do is say the words that are on their keys and the word release and then bingo! They are now transformed as they were before they became a human on earth!" Ruff-Ruff explained. "Not to mention you guys are a lot older than you think you are!"

I blinked. "Say what now?"

"Oh yes, Diamonds actually live to be 5,000 years old!" Ruff-Ruff answered. "Even though you Ron are registered as- how old are you registered as?"

"I'm 30 years old," I replied.

"Well in Diamond years that makes you 900 years old!" Ruff-Ruff exclaimed. She turned to Asher. "And how old are you registered as?"

"Uh, I'm registered as 28 years old," Asher responded.

"In Diamond years that makes you 898 years old!" Ruff-Ruff said.

At this point me and Asher's jaws were dropped and we exchanged a look of shock.

I regained my composure, "Is this a joke Ruff-Ruff?"

Ruff-Ruff shook her head. "Nope! Not a joke! Which means since Diamonds live a lot longer than humans some Diamonds have resorted to faking their deaths every 100 years and starting their lives over either in the same area or in a different country entirely. I know Queen Pearl is up there in age and she's probably had to do that more than once when the Diamonds escaped to earth."

"Okay then…" It took me a moment or two to try and process the information Ruff-Ruff just gave me.

"Yeah I understand it's a lot to take in but knowing the information you know about Dr. Crow being pregnant with Abigail's child might just be what Patty needs to pull the trigger and capture both Abigail and Dr. Crow," Ruff- Ruff said.

"I don't know about that," I said. "But it makes it even more important to get Abigail back and capture Dr. Crow to make sure the baby turns out okay."

Ruff-Ruff and Asher nodded in agreement.

"Alright that's enough about that," said Asher. "Let's get back to your training Ron. Sooner or later you will be able to control your magic and you won't need your key anymore to transform. Trust me, you need to control your magic the most if you're going to be ghost seeing randomly and changing into your wolf form randomly and scaring people when it happens."

"No kidding!" I said. With that I got to my feet and we continued my training for the day. But I still couldn't believe that Dr. Crow is pregnant with Abigail's child! It just didn't seem real.