Yeah, I'm still alive and still I haven't given up on this fanfiction. Big "Hooray" for me XD

Actually, when I saw what the "real" season 3 is like, I wanted to quit writing on this fanfiction, but then I just felt like I had to go on again, for the sake of my writers block finally being gone. Big hooray again ^^.

Some of you – the ones who have stayed with me after the long time – might be very pleased to hear, that I finally let Sinedd make an appearance in this chapter! *waves I-3-Sinedd-flags* And I tried to make it a little funnier (I blame you for that, Destiny-Hope! ;-D)

Oh yeah, since I'm on a new school now, I'll barely have time to write (and I also have another writing-project next to this one, which is more important to me) so please don't be sad if there will be another long pause after this chapter.

But for the time being: HAVE FUN WITH THE NEW CHAPTER! *places cookies*

Rocket yawned. The evening had been really fun, especially after he and Tia had left the "Cliff" and gone to the disco to join the other Snow Kids. They had danced almost the whole night and barely had taken a break to drink something or to watch Micro-Ice joking around – and being chased by Yuki after having flirted with some other girls in the funky club.

The Midfielder looked into his teammates' faces to make sure he wasn't the only one to be completely overtired and was glad to see them in quite the same condition.

Only Thran seemed to be well-rested as he had left the group again only little time after arriving at the nightclub. And although he hadn't said anything about the reason for leaving, all of the Snow Kids knew why he had done so: He just couldn't be without Ahito for long. And with his brother in this condition it already was quite an effort to get Thran out of the infirmary to have some fun.

"Good morning, everyone!" A good-humored Arch stood in the doorway, flanked by happily smiling Clamp and Dame Simbai.

Everybody turned around to listen to their coach as he told them about today's training. Meanwhile, avoiding being noticed, Yuki poked Micro-Ice, who had dozed off on one of the orange cushioned benches, to wake him up. Wearily he opened one eye. He immediately noticed Arch and wanted to stand up so jerkily that he fell off the bench.

"Nice to have you listening too now, Micro-Ice", Arch deadpanned. Clamp next to him chuckled, while the Snow Kids tried to keep their smiles hidden. Dame Simbai only shook her head. Clearing his throat, Arch gained the others' attention again. "I've got another announcement to make. Nin will stay with us and become Simbai's assistant. Part of her job is to watch over and treat you during matches and training. Dame Simbai will of course help and train her."

Mentioned brunette woman nodded slightly, whilst Arch looked into the Snow Kids' faces.

D'Jok looked clearly irritated but a slight blow with the elbow from Mei kept him from saying something about incompetent rookies on the team.

"If she should watch our training sessions", Tia cut in, "then where is she?"

"I'm here!" Slightly out of breath Nin entered the room. "Sorry, I got caught up", she excused herself with an expressionless look on her face and took a stand between Arch and Dame Simbai. She got up on her tiptoes and whispered something in the medic's ear, then she turned to listen to Arch.

"Okay, now that we're all here, we should start training. Clamp."

"On it, Arch." The mechanic rushed over to his control desk and typed a few things on the keyboard, while the Snow Kids went to the square field in the middle of the room, where white and black pixels began to form the holo-trainer.

On planet Shadow

The pitch under him came closer at a rapid speed. It was like falling onto the surface of a giant sea, it's dark red color reminding of a pool of blood. The air wheezed in his ears like a thunderstorm. The next second, his feet touched ground, dust flying, the impact taking away his breath for a split second. A stinging pain rushed through his left ankle.

Then the Smog flooded his body and emerged in a black smoky cloud, taking all the pain with it. He turned around, tackling the ball away from Nihlis and went straight for the goal. A battle cry escaped his throat as he kicked the ball with all his strength.

Dark swirls of Smog followed the ball as it flew past Fulmugus and didn't leave the Shadows' goalkeeper any chance to catch it. With a dull "thud" it landed in the net and then plonked to the ground where it disappeared into a bunch of blue-ish pixels.

Satisfied Sinedd turned away ignoring his teammates' congratulations to the amazingly good training session and went for the changing room. Each of his steps dispersed another cloud of dust. He coughed, lungs burning. This planet sucked even more than Akillian. Everything was dark and underground, only illuminated by the cold light of uncountable neon tubes and a few streams of lava in the stony ground which gave everyone not native to these circumstances the feeling of being trapped in a solid pile of rocks. And despite the icy atmosphere it exuded Planet Shadow was warm like hell making it the exact opposite to the snowy landscape on Akillian.

In silence Sinedd lay a hand on the door of his locker but didn't open it. Instead he looked at the reflection of his features in the blank metal front. Dark eyes stared back at him. Dull eyes. His eyes.

Angrily Sinedd punched his fist into the locker's door, leaving a dent behind that let the reflection disappear. Suddenly tired he leaned his forehead against the cool metal. Once again he coughed. Harder this time. Somehow he felt cold.

He quickly removed his jersey and put on dark jeans, a shirt and a long black jacket instead. Just as he had finished changing, his teammates finally came in. One of them – Senex – hesitantly walked up to Sinedd.

"Hey, boy", he started with his hoarse voice and brushed a strand of brown hair out of his face. "The team's been wondering whether you're okay. You've been looking sick for some time now."

Sinedd's gaze hardened. "I'm fine", he replied. As if they actually cared …

"You sure?", Nihlis interfered. There was some sort of emotion on her skull-like face that might've looked something like worry on a human's features. She and the rest of her team might've not always been the nicest of all persons but they respected their human teammate as their captain as well as their friend. But Sinedd didn't make it easy for them to help or be friendly to him.

The boy put on a pair of black truncated gloves and looked over Senex' angular shoulder at the other Shadow players. All of them looked somewhat uncomfortable with confronting him. Showing feelings even if that meant only such little gestures as asking for ones welfare wasn't exactly their strong point.

Sinedd bristled. "Did Artegor speak to you?" He didn't even wait for an answer. "Of course he did. Why else would you care to ask! If you see him, tell him he can go to hell. He doesn't even has the heart to talk to me himself!" In his sudden anger he had set free a pall of the Smog that now surrounded him like a dark aura. Startled by their striker's outburst the Shadows moved away from the doorway and let Sinedd pass. The only thing left when the doors had slid shut behind him were a few loose swirls of Smog.

Mei's and Tia's room

"Have you decided what to do this afternoon already?", Yuki asked when she entered Mei's and Tia's room. Mei seemed to have just stepped out of the shower, the only thing hiding her bare skin being a big towel. Her long brown hair hung into her face in loose wet strands as she opened her stuffed wardrobe.

"We don't know", Tia answered, putting her camera aside and offering Yuki a sit on her bed. "What about watching a DVD?"

"Hey, there's that new film with Koulan Terrence! You know, that super cute newcomer film star. And I think Rocket's mother has a minor role in that film, too."

Mei giggled and pulled a yellow shirt out of a pile of clothes which were forcefully stuffed into the far too small wardrobe. "Be careful. If Micro-Ice finds out you've got a crush on that guy, he'll probably kidnap you and annoy you until you go out with him again."

Tia and Yuki laughed.

"Why don't we watch the Shadows' game against the Rykers?" She packed the top back to the other shirts again, causing a shoe to fall onto the floor. "Crap."

"That game's tomorrow, genius", Yuki replied. "We-"

She was interrupted by a knock on the door. Though whoever was outside didn't seem to want to wait and a moment later the door slid open with a hydraulic fizzling and Clamp stepped in.

"Aaaah!", Mei – still only wearing her towel – screamed and hid behind the opened door of her wardrobe. "Didn't anybody teach you some manners, Clamp?"

Clamp had immediately put his hands in front of his eyes. "I'm sorry!", he stammered, blushing. "I'm terribly sorry! I'll just come back later!" He tried to leave again with his hands still covering most of his face, which led to him bumping into the wall.

Yuki burst out laughing again while Tia stood up smiling and went over to the Technician.

"Why don't you just tell us what you came for?", she said gently and grabbed his shoulders to guide him to the door so Mei was out of sight.

"Y-yes. Right. Arch wants me to tell you that he just arranged an interview with Callie Mystique this evening about yesterday's match. That's all."

"Thanks for telling us", smiled Tia. "And you can open your eyes again, you know."

"R-really?" He removed one hand from his face and blinked through his glasses. "I guess I have some work to do. So … uh … see ya later!" With that he nearly ran out of the girls' room, babbling something about "girls are scary", before the door slid shut again.

"You can come out of your wardrobe again, Mei."

"I'm glad he isn't something like our personal manager, or this would happen all the freaking time", the brunette sighed and finally decided what to wear. "But this news gives me an idea for what we can do the rest of the day …"

Akillian Shopping Center

"What do you think?" Mei turned around once more so the silky cloth of the orange dress she just put on flew around her, looking like a flower. "I don't know if the color really suits me …"

"Well, you didn't really care about that regarding the other dresses", Yuki said dryly and pointed at the pile of evening gowns Mei had already tried on. Some of them had colors that even a brainless and blind robot wouldn't want to wear. But they were expensive and from some famous designers so Mei didn't really care about the rest. The greater problem right now was …

"It's PINK!"

"Well, yes."

"Pink is for girls."

"You actually ARE a girl."

"I don't care! There's no way you could make me wear this!"

"I'm not the one who wants you to put those dresses on. Mei is. And believe me: She WILL make you wear them. Yuki and I could tell you a thing or two about that." That finally brought a little smile onto Nin's lips though she still looked at the bright pink dress Tia held out to her in disgust.

The three Snow Kids had dragged the team's new medical assistant with them to – as Mei had called it – get some proper outfit for this evening's interview with Callie Mystique. But getting Nin to try on dresses had turned out to be much harder than expected. The girl obviously preferred convenient clothing over the glamorous gowns, which the shops Mei had shown her had at the ready. What made matters worse was her completely different taste in colors. Whenever Mei, Yuki or Tia had shown her a dress in bright colors like red, yellow, green, silver and whatever the shelves had else, she had grabbed a black dress in return.

"Aw, come on. You're not going to a funeral!", Mei's voice came from inside the changing room once again.

"Neither am I going to Barbie land", the medic growled and shoved the pink dress away. "Do I really have to put on that stuff? Dame Simbai and Arch never dress up like that!"

Mei opened the dark red curtain which served the changing room as a door and stepped out of the little cubicle, dressed in her everyday clothes again. "I don't see the problem you have with trying the dresses on but I'm not here to tease you so let's make a deal: I'll pick out like … three dresses for you which you have to try on. And if at least two of us agree on you looking good in one of them, I'll buy it for you and you have to wear it this evening."

"Does 'No' count for an answer?"

"No", Mei, Yuki and Tia said in unison.

Nin snorted. "'Kay", she finally mumbled which made Mei beam with joy. Almost immediately the brunette disappeared between the countless frames with all the overly expensive evening gowns. Nin just let herself sink onto a cushioned bench and waited.

Yuki took a seat next to her. "Come on, this isn't so bad, right?", she said.

"Only a little." Nin smiled sarcastically. "I just don't see the sense in buying such expensive dresses which I'll only wear once in my life. I could easily live a whole year by all the money Mei spends here in less than an hour. It just doesn't feel right."

"Good", said Tia.

The medic shot her an incredulous glance. "What?"

"That way you can be sure, spending so much money won't even have a chance of become a bad habit of yours."

Nin smiled. An honest smile – that faded away as soon as she saw Mei coming at her with three dresses in her arms. She looked at Yuki and Tia desperately. "Help me?"

"Hell no!"

The next moment, Mei had already grabbed her arm and dragged her along into the changing room, closing the curtains behind her. "And now you squint you eyes shut, so you don't see the dress and only complain if I allow you to do so", Mei's voice came from behind the heavy read cloth.

Yuki grinned. "She always gets the new ones with that, huh?"

"Yup."

About a minute passed without either of the two girls saying a word. Tia took the chance to look at a big clock-hologram at the wall. They still had about three hours left until the interview.

Suddenly the clothing room's curtain was pulled aside and Mei hustled Nin so she made a step forward, almost tripping on the high heels she was wearing. "Now what do you think?" The dress, the Snow Kids' defender had chosen for the medic, went down to Nin's ankles, leaving both shoulders free. It's color lay somewhere between a darker shade of blue and purple. Silver sequins were sewn onto the fabric that – after taking a closer look – showed a flowery pattern.

The dress sure was nice, but the longer Yuki looked at it, the more convinced she got, that it simply didn't suit Nin. Something just looked off.

"It's too long", Tia stated.

Yuki nodded in agreement. "Sorry Mei, you're outvoted."

"Okay, next one." The words were barely spoken when Mei and Nin disappeared behind the curtain again. This time it took them only about a minute until Nin got changed as the new dress was a lot simpler.

White and tight the silky, high-necked gown lay on Nin's skin. It looked a lot like the Asian dresses Yuki liked to wear on interview occasions, with its golden rims and the long slit that went from the brim almost up to the hip. A golden Asian dragon winded itself around the gown, it's head seeming to rest on Nin's left waist.

Yuki and Tia shot each other a look, then looked at Mei. "No", they said at the same time.

"It's just good that Dame Simbai isn't here to see how pale Nin looks in that dress." Yuki shook her head to emphasize her statement.

"Do I even want to know the details?" Nin sounded slightly doubtful and shifted uncomfortably, not daring to open her eyes.

"Hey, it's not THAT bad", Tia assured her. "And you have only one dress left."

"Phew."

"Hey, I've heard that!"

"Relax, Mei, that was a joke," Yuki sniggered and shoved her and Nin back into the changing room. "Two down, one to go. Don't let us down, Miss I'm-the-queen-of-shopping."

"Will do" Mei's smile got a confident edge to it as she pulled the curtains shut behind her. The next minutes, all the two girls outside could hear, was a constant rustling and Nin squealing in pain as Mei jammed her skin in the zipper of the dress – which happened not only once. But finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Mei stuck her head out of the dressing room. She gleamed with joy. "I hope you are ready to be jealous."

With that she opened the curtains and guided Nin outside.

Tia could only stare, while Yuki began clapping her hands. "Totally approved!"