Hi again. Thanks for the reviews, they're lovely and I'm glad you liked the last chapter. Hope you like this one too. Ta.

Oh, and I still don't own the Boosh, I checked. I'm just playing with them.

Howard wanted to hurl the crystal ball across the grimy cobble stones. He was doing his best on this hellish quest and out of nowhere he was faced with the sight of Vince being tortured again. The Hooded Council, it seemed, were now torturing him just because they could. Howard just hoped he'd have a chance to show them what an angry Howard Moon was capable of. They weren't going to get away with this, no sir.

His fingers itched but he couldn't smash the crystal, he knew. That would mean losing all contact with Vince, which would leave him alone with his imagination, and Howard knew that would be worse. Instead he fell to his knees in the dirty tunnel and once again watched while Vince struggled, suspended above the ground and exposed in a way that he knew his lover wouldn't be comfortable with, (Vince liked his clothes skin-tight but that didn't mean he liked his skin to be on show). It was more than Howard could bear, but even when he closed his eyes he could still hear the sounds of Vince's pain, almost as if they were in his own head.

'Oh God, Howard! I'm sorry! I love you. I'm so sorry.'

Howard's eyes snapped open. He looked at Vince, whose teeth were clenched and eyes tight shut against the fiery onslaught. He wasn't making any noise now, other than the occasional groan, and yet Howard had heard him speak.

'Maybe... Just maybe...' he thought. 'Vince is pretty special, after all.'

He closed his eyes and pressed his forehead against the crystal ball, concentrating with all his might.

'Vince?'

There was a gasp within his mind before he was suddenly overwhelmed by a flood of sensation from Vince. It felt like a tidal wave hitting him in the chest but it was full of misery and pain and need.

'Howard? Howard, is that actually you?'

Howard gave a mental nod and focused his energy on cushioning Vince's weakening emotional resolve against the pain of his body.

'It's me, little man. I'm so sorry. I'm here now.'

'I knew we were psychic! But how are we doing it?'

'I went to a school of sorcery. I've spent years trying to pretend I didn't but Psychic Skills was one of my best subjects.'

'Is that... is that why you have... have walls around your mind?'

Howard could feel how hard it was for Vince to concentrate on their communication while his body was in such pain but was also aware that the charge of Dark Fire was probably keeping their communication hidden from the council. This might be their only chance to talk.

'Yeah, little man. But how did you know?'

'They're picking your brain, Howard. Trying to read your thoughts. This is all to get you to do their bidding, Howard, so they can just carry on as before. You can't let them use you.'

'Who, Vince? Do you know who the Hooded Council are? Who's behind this?'

'They're the school council, Howard. I heard them talking. They're your teachers. But they said that you've got the power to send them to some underworld and trap all the dark power back in Scim - wherever that is - and close the school for good... Ow. Howard it hurts...'

Howard pressed his head against the ball until he felt sure it was bruising. The school council. That figured. If he hadn't fallen for the reunion ruse they probably would have kidnapped him to get him here. They were ruthless and they hated him.

He had no idea how he could bring down the evil in this place, or defeat the tutors who had made his young life such a misery. He felt so incredibly tired. At this rate he'd never save Vince, let alone close the last door.

'I'm so sorry, Vince.'

'It's not your fault, small eyes.'

Vince's mental voice was weak and exhausted and Howard was amazed that he was still conscious after such an onslaught.

'But I don't know what to do.'

'They called you the Last Moon. The Light that rules the Darkness.'

'But what-'

'You'll think of something, Howard. You've got so much to give, remember?'

'But-'

'I love you, Howard. Just so you know.'

Howard sobbed as he felt Vince's consciousness slip away. He pulled the crystal ball back from his forehead in time to see Vince's body slump awkwardly in its chains like a puppet without a master. He fought back another sob as the ball went dark and the urge to smash the thing doubled. Instead he struggled back to his feet and kept walking.

The Light that rules the Darkness. Those words had been part of the family crest, had been the first words Howard had learned to read after his own name.

His name: Howard Moon. He'd been teased once that the name meant sheep herder but his mother had told him quietly that it meant Defender and that it was a name of power. He'd never really believed it, though he'd tried to live up to it when he'd been young and stupid. Now he began to wonder. Vince had said that he could bring down both the school and the dark magic that lived in it. But if he did that the school council would see and take it out on Vince again. Was it a risk he could take?

Howard stared at the golden light bobbing at his shoulder and thought back to how strong Vince seemed, even when facing humiliation and magical torture. He had to try. Vince loved him. He had to try.