Ripley groans as she wipes her eyes, following a fully dressed Rachael to the door of her Wyvern House dorm room. The couple embraces before letting go, Rachael stepping out the door.

"You sure you'll be okay darling? I know this month is fairly flexible with classes but..." Rachael looks past Ripley back into the room.

"Yeah, I've dealt with him like this before, I'll be fine. Even if they are flexible, the boutique isn't going to run itself." Ripley nods and smiles lightly.

Rachael sighs, giving her lover a final kiss before walking off down the hallway in her Valkyrie House uniform. Taking a couple of deep breathes, Ripley turns around to adjust her slacks and long white shirt, walking through into the living room where Edward lays on her sofa hugging a pillow.

"Sorry to be a bother..." Edward sighs deeply.

"Normally you're back there in the morning... Which makes me think something is up." Ripley states getting comfortable.

Edward avoids looking into her eyes as he continues trying to process fully the information he learned from Alexander.

"I don't want to talk about it..." Edward states sighing deeply.

Ripley shakes her head before getting up and going to the kitchen to put on the coffee pot.

"You're not staying on my couch, dude. As much as I love you guys as friends, we enjoy our privacy. I don't want to press you, but you're going to have to talk about it eventually." Ripley states waiting for the coffee to boil.

Edward sits up and takes many deep breathes before looking towards the kitchen, still hugging the pillow.

"Ripley... I can confide anything in you, right?" Edward asks as the girl in question walks back through with two mugs of coffee on a tray with sugar and milk.

"Duh, why else would you come to me? Unless you killed somebody, I'm not up to that level of shit." Ripley sits down to get comfortable again on her bean bag.

Edward nods at her confirmation, glancing down at his coffee mug before looking out the window.

"So... To understand why this is a big deal for me, you need to know something about our 'familiars'... Twilight and Starlight are from another dimension and came here by accident when we performed the same spell on opposite ends of the multiverse. Thus, we took them in as our 'familiars' until we figure out a way to get them back home." Edward begins to explain, picking up his mug.

Ripley simply begins sipping her coffee as she stares at Edward, not really leaning towards any specific facial expression.

"Then yesterday Alexander and Starlight were kidnapped by some people we believe are some form of gem entities, where certain events lead to Alexander revealing he has had a familiar since starting Kilgharrah and never told me about it..." Edward continues before sipping some nicely brewed coffee.

Ripley chokes ever so slightly when mentioned that Alexander has a familiar, but she remains calm while lowering her mug.

"What grade is his familiar?" Ripley asks, sounding curious as she didn't expect this when she got up this morning.

"Blacklisted..." Edward replies making Ripley choke again as she goes to take another sip.

"Oh..." Ripley puts down her mug, "that's a lot of heavy stuff to have happened in one day..."

Edward nods and rubs his eyes, feeling tired as he slept little last night.

"I know he's been my friend for a long time but this sorta thing is a big deal for a magician... I feel betrayed because it appears he couldn't trust me enough to tell me about his familiar and why none answered our summons at the second-year ceremony..." Edward frowns, sipping more coffee.

Ripley gets up and goes to the kitchen to fix herself some eggs and bacon for breakfast.

"Would you like anything?" She asks but Edward shakes his head, "I understand what you mean, at the same time Alexander is absent-minded quite a bit and can be fickle. Why else would he go through so much trouble to do another summoning ritual with you? I know it hurts now, but you need to seriously think about what your friendship means to you."

Edward gets up to stretch before heading towards the door.

"I'm going to go for a walk, thanks for letting me crash here again Ripley." Edward states before leaving the dorm room.

Ripley sighs deeply to herself and takes her breakfast to the sofa where she gets comfortable.

"Now that is dealt with, I can enjoy a leisurely paced breakfast of delicious eggs and perfectly crisp bacon~" Ripley cuts up some egg and bacon before taking a slow bite, her phone suddenly going off which turns her delighted moan to an annoyed groan.

Glancing down at the irritating device, she swallows the mouthload and answers it reluctantly.

"Ripley, how soon would you be able to come to to the student council room?" Cassandra asks before sounding like she is sipping some tea.

"Oh umm, hello Cassandra, in about half an hour, I suppose?" Ripley states eyeing her plate with sadness.

"Could you do twenty minutes? Something urgent has come up and I require your aid." Cassandra asks putting down her cup.

Repressing a sigh she nods to herself before taking a deep breath.

"Yeah, I can do twenty, see you soon." Ripley states before Cassandra hangs up, "guess it'll be a rushed breakfast after all... The princess doesn't normally call so I wonder if everything is okay..."

Ripley quickly eats her breakfast all while getting dressed in her Wyvern House uniform, grabbing her charged phone before speeding out the door.

Splashing some water on his face, Alexander sighs deeply and stares at his reflection in the mirror contemplating the mess he is in right now. Hearing a knock on the door, he dries off with a towel before going to answer it, seeing an unimpressed Ripley standing in his doorway.

"You could have changed at least, you're still in your pyjama's..." Ripley comments entering the room and walking to the living room.

"I put on a shirt didn't I, what more do you want from me? Least I was already wearing pants when you knocked on the door." Alexander comments, grabbing two sodas from the fridge.

Shaking her head lightly, she accepts the soda as Alexander sits down.

"You realise you're an utter asshole?" Ripley queries which makes Alexander smile just a little bit.

"All the time, only now I feel like a cunt." Alexander opens his soda and takes a heavy mouthful.

Ripley winces slightly in disagreement, "I wouldn't go that far, but you should have told him."

Alexander nods with a deep sigh, "There was no good way to say it, no ample opportunity to bring it up... Then I tried to make it up to him and it ended up dragging two ponies miles from their home, I assume he told you about them?"

Ripley nods, "He did explain some aspects to me."

"Believe me I wanted to... While a familiar is a big deal for a magician, it's much different for someone with a blacklisted familiar... I trust those three entirely but that kind of thing is hard to bring up so casually..." Alexander finishes his can and puts it on the coffee table.

Ripley opens and downs her soda quickly sighing in relief and short buzz.

"You will have to face up to this mistake sooner rather than later. I now need to go meet Cassandra on the main campus, I had twenty minutes and I spent fifteen of that talking to you." Ripley states standing to stretch.

"With your particular electric magic, you'd be there in ten seconds," Alexander comments also standing up, collecting his can as he goes to the kitchen.

"Yeah, but Racheal needs me to get some shopping so I'll do that first," Ripley opens the front door before frowning, "Hey... Edward said you and Starlight were kidnapped by some unsavoury types... Be careful, yeah?"

Alexander gives Ripley a silent nod before she speeds off leaving a rainbow trail behind her. He shuts the door and leans back against it, sighing deeply before heading back in the direction of the bedroom.

Author's Notes:

This chapter is finally done, took a little bit to get past some blocks but we managed it in the end and should be able to get a bit further before another one pops up, least that's our hope. We're happy to see so many enjoy our work with the sheer amount of likes compared to dislikes. We realise it's a unique taste and not for everyone, which is fine, we are simply happy for those who stuck with us up till now and express gratitude for your comments, feedback, etc. See you again soon.