The Fire Within

By: Mischievous Dragon

Chapter 1

Pasa: Truth, Sincerity, Determination

It had been three years since Kyo and Alice had saved Mayura from Darva. Kyo of course, graduated high school before Alice who graduated a year later. They were now living together and expecting their first child. A few weeks before Alice found out she had been having dreams about Nyozeka. In these dreams Nyozeka had been telling Alice "Alice, Darva will come back soon! He will try to destroy your family once more. You must find the other Lotis masters before, before the birth. One of our own has been taken by the Darva and she must be saved before it's too late like it was for Eric."

Before Alice had found out she was pregnant she was confused as to what the "birth" meant but now she knew exactly what it did mean. She knew she would have to once again tour the temples of Lotis looking for more Lotis masters. Kyo had begun packing his bags and so did Alice when a young girl about the age Alice was when she found out she was a Lotis master stepped in. "Who are you?" Alice asked, the girl seemed to be out of breath. "I am Brittany Rankin." said the girl, she had dirty blonde hair and blue eyes and, apart from her chest she had the figure of a tomboy. Though she was not dressed like one.

'She's very pretty' thought Alice. She could tell the girl had been weeping. "What's wrong?" Alice asked. "It's my sister," Brittany replied "she's been swallowed by the Darva.". Alice did not think Brittany looked like a Lotis master, but looked at her wrist to find she had a bracelet with one red gem attached to it. "So you really are another one of us? A lotus master I mean?" Alice asked. "Of course I am!" Brittany said trying to stand up. "and so is my sister!". "Well, how I mean how was your sister swallowed by Darva?"

"Well you see, our grandfather died recently. Our parents had died in a car crash when we were little so it was our grandfather that too us in and raised us. My sister and he were very close, she was born on his birthday and you see she was engaged-she wanted our grandfather to walk her down the isle and her fiancé kept delaying the wedding and when she found out he had died she blamed her fiancé completely and wouldn't leave her room for weeks. Finally I burst into her room and saw that the Darva was slowly sucking her into himself feeding on her despair. I tried to save her but I'm not a powerful Lotis master yet, as you can see." she said as she lifted up her wrist with the one gem on the bracelet. "I didn't know that the Darva could consume someone so easily."

"Usually it can't, but it has grown secretly stronger off of humans since the last Kyo, the others and I have fought against it. Come on Kyo our next stop is Northern Europe!" Alice then asked Brittany if she wanted to come. Brittany did of course, she had just been through hell trying to get to Japan and it wouldn't be so much of a struggle getting to Europe with two expert Lotus masters. After all she was only a beginner. Kyo sighed when he knew they were going, he knew how Frey was-with him and Alice.

They boarded the plane with the girl called Brittany, who Kyo could tell was from North America. While boarding the plane they met up with a Maram master called Ryushisou. He smiled and called out "KASHA" towards Brittany who blocked him with her word, the first and only one she had learned so far "PASA". The man was about to attack Brittany again when he saw that both Kyo and Alice had Lotus bracelets and were prepared to fight. He knew he couldn't take on all three Lotus masters at once, so he left.

"He'll be back," Kyo said "looks like he was after Brittany, he'll try and come after you when you're alone." Alice wasn't sure anymore if she should take the plane in her condition. There was a feeling in her heart and she didn't trust it. "Kyo," she yelled out. He stopped and walked to speak to her. "What's wrong Alice?" "I don't think I should get on the plane with you guys, I don't think it's safe for me or the baby." "Well we'll take a boat with you then." "No, you need to get to Frey's as fast as you can. Wait for me when you get there." Kyo smiled and said "There's no talking you out of it is there?" "Of course not!" Alice laughed and kissed her boyfriend.

Alice watched as both Brittany and Kyo got into the plane. It soon lifted off and Alice went to see the timings for the boats to dock. The flight went by okay, they met with no other Maram masters and Kyo hoped Alice's Ferry ride was the same. He called Alice on her cell phone as soon as she landed to make sure she was okay and was greatly relieved when she was. A few seconds after Kyo said goodbye to Alice, Frey showed up.

"Hello Kyo!" Frey said arms spread wide ready to hug Kyo. Kyo didn't want to be rude so he let him and then Kyo kissed him on the cheek. Kyo got mad and hit Frey like he always did when Frey was being stupid. "So where's Alice?" he asked. "She didn't feel safe travelling by plane with a baby on the way.." Kyo was cut of by Frey who burst out "Wow so Alice is going to have a baby! You know you could have told me before you got here!"

"Yes, but we didn't want to many people to catch word of it in case one of the Maram masters finds out" Kyo said discreetly. "Oh Okay I get it." Frey said back to Kyo patting him on the back. "And who is this lovely lady?" Frey asked playfully kissing her hand. "This is Brittany Rankin, Frey she is one of the Lotis masters-she just hasn't been completely ordained yet." Kyo answered for her. Brittany then spoke "You can call me by nickname Britt if you like, it gets weird if people call me Brittany all the time. It feels so unfriendly! But back to why I'm really here."

"My sister is a Lotis master who has been absorbed by the evil power of Darva." she said looking at Frey. Frey smiled-it was a smile of sadness for Eric who had also fallen into the hands of Darva and could not get out and, in the end, died. "Well let's hope we can save her, unlike when we weren't able to save Eric. Things have gotten worse over here, we should at least fix the harm done in the lotus temple before we leave for it's members have been corrupted by the Darva. We'll need the full force of all of us-including Alice we'll have to wait until she arrives."

"So your sister was engaged? To another Lotus Master?" Frey exclaimed. "And your the only one who was able to make it through the plane to Japan?" "Exactly! After they absorbed my sister Jodi, they moved on to her friends Abby and Erin. Who were so distraught over her turning they each blamed themselves and were buried with guilt until the Darva took hold of them too! We only had two people left after that myself and my sister's fiancé. One of us had to stay and make sure the temple of Lotus was still standing in North America. So he let me leave."

"He said to find Alice and Kyo in Japan and to bring them over to North America, with the rest of the old masters who defeated Darva the first time around." she stopped and Frey asked her. "What is your sister's fiancé's name? and have we met him before?" "Yes you have, he was one of the 6 besides Nyozeka who fought with you the first time Darva was ever defeated. His name is Billy MacDowell"