Chapter 21

Dess gave Jess props for being alive this long, of course that wasn't the nicest thing to be thinking in such real times as these. For Dess this was the most exciting thing that had happened since before Jessica had first gotten trapped in the Blue Time. Dess had gone from sitting in her dark room doing nothing 25-7 to totally killing darklings in a freakish dimension, her favorite thing to do, besides making weapons and doing math (not in that order necessarily). If she said so herself life had definitely picked up speed wise over the last few days, and with slight disappointment she realized that after this it would all be over. Of course even this was a little much for Dess but still, the thrill was better than nothing. With a bit too much enjoyment Dess whirled around and stabbed a darkling coming up behind her straight in the chest. Rex witnessed this seeing the slightly crazed look in Dess' eyes. Though Rex admitted to himself he was not a Seer he was still part darkling, which worried him because it felt stronger here. For a moment he wondered what it would be like to just loose control in this place, as he stabbed a darkling he quickly regained control. He also felt like Melissa, the dark creatures were whispering things to him which was not helping with the whole stay in control thing, so he focused on killing darklings and tried to ignore the voices.

We will beat you, join us now…

The voices would hiss at him, he would then take his metal spike and stab it into the darklings that surrounded him hoping to silence them, but they kept coming. Then something happened that was surprising enough to get Rex to refocus his thoughts.

Jonathon came crashing through the portal door Rex had not noticed he was standing by. He turned around in just enough time to catch him,

"Jonathon what the hell are you doing here?" he asked sternly. Jonathon managed to give that annoying smile Rex hated so much,

"Couldn't let you have all the fun."

"Rex!" he heard Melissa scream, he turned around just in time to see a panther like darkling leaping at him. Even with his darkling reaction time he wouldn't have been able to pull up his metal spike, luckily he didn't need it. The darkling was pushed away by an invisible force, he looked at Melissa who looked angry.

"Way to go! 'Let's turn my back on this darkling it won't notice or try to kill me'…yeah sure!"

He shrugged, it was all he could do. Melissa turned her angry expression to Jonathon,

"And you, you are being tossed right back through that hole, I can't even believe you got in here!"

Jonathon stood up straighter in resistance, holding up his metal weapon he answered,

"I can fight Melissa, just lay off." She looked at him with a 'yeah right' kind of look but he kept his face stern. Melissa opened her mouth just as Jessica screamed,

"Jonathon!" he opened his arms to her she ran into them gratefully, the other Midnighters somewhat reluctantly held off the darklings as the two love birds reunited.

"Oh Jonathon are you alright? I was so worried, I'm so sorry. I knew-" but she couldn't finish.

"It's okay Jess, I'm sorry too." That was all he could say as well because Dess interrupted them.

"Look I know you guys are having a moment and I don't want to be a jerk but could we save this for a moment we're not all, oh I don't know surrounded by darklings?"
Jonathon looked at Jess, who nodded in agreement he kissed her gently then they both separated gripping their weapons tighter.

"Let's finish this." Melissa said eagerly, but then three more people came through the portal.

"Oh for the love of God!" Dess said as Sam, Drake, and finally Emily came through all wearing smug grins.

"We're a little late, but this is a party we couldn't miss." It would've been cheesy if it wasn't for the way Drake had said it all dark and creepy. But to much of the Midnighters surprise they turned from them killed a few darklings to make a path to the cave, where Caine lay unconscious.

"Um, anyone else confused?" Melissa asked as she killed a darkling without looking at it.

"We have to stop them, come on!" Rex said leaping over a thin layer of darklings with superhuman agility. The others simply stabbed their way through knowing they'd only have so long until more darklings came to try to kill them. However another interesting thing happened when the came close to the mouth of the cave, the three Wanderers were standing weapons bared gazing into the cave fearfully.

After another moment the Midnighters realized why; two huge eyes were peeing out of the cave, two huge darkling eyes. A deep growl came from an unseen mouth and for a moment the eyes disappeared then from the cave the darkling emerged jumping over all of them only to face them again. Rex met the eyes of the darkling and a familiar voice, different from the non-ceasing hisses, whispered in his head,

Hello Rex.

His mouth almost fell open, Rex couldn't believe it; the darkling was Caine.

The darkling that was Caine narrowed his eyes as though he had read Rex's thoughts,

"You guys…the darkling is Caine. He's a shape shifter in this world."

Jonathon, Jessica, and Dess' eyes widened in realization, Melissa just seemed like she was on the verge of swearing.

"Okay that is beyond not cool!"

The darkling/Caine growled at her Rex leaned toward her,

"He said he's going to kill you first." Melissa narrowed her eyes,

"Yeah, well I'd like to see him try to pull that off."

In the meantime Emily, Drake, and Sam were being very confused.

"I think it's going to be a bit harder for us to take our anger out on Caine when he's a killer darkling." Sam said obviously, Drake glared at him,

"No duh!"

Emily was assessing the situation, no one had planned on this. Of course she could barely grasp what was happening before Caine whirled around and shot through the portal.

"Now why the hell would he go there when he knows he won't be a darkling anymore?"

"Unless he was already one." Jess said absently.

Dess started after him, but of course no sooner did she do that did darklings begin flooding towards them at all sides.

Melissa looked reluctantly at the Wanderers,

"Momentary truce?" she asked quickly, Drake and Sam looked at Emily, and even though she wore a look of detest she said,

"Fine." Rex, Melissa, Dess, Jonathon, and Jessica turned their backs on the others concentrating on the darklings approaching quickly. With a jerk Jessica looked up at the portal,

"Jonathon." She asked, "Where's Lily?" Jonathon's face grew grave,

"Alone."

Lily was frozen in her position, the darkling hadn't blinked yet and she was afraid to do so herself, she also couldn't dare herself to breath. The darklings face showed danger but no sign that it was going to attack her. From behind she head someone come from out of the portal at first she could have sworn it was a darkling as a growl reached her ears, but the opinion changed when she knew she was hearing footsteps behind her.

The darkling looked up and at once she blinked and took in air. Now there was someone new to face and Lily wasn't sure if she wanted to face them.

They didn't give her much of a choice, Lily felt someone grab her arm and pull her up. Childishly she closed her eyes, fear had run through her heart like a spear.

Whoever held her did not laugh when they saw her eyes closed tight, which made Lily curious. With slight personal suspense she opened her eyes and saw Caine holding her. She jumped back hoping it would break his grasp but it didn't, which figured.

"Caine let me go." She demanded in a small whisper, it had been so quiet until just then.

He held her in a serious look, which confused her, he didn't let go.

"I can't do that Lily." She noted the difference in his voice, something darker, darker than what had even been there before.

"What do you mean?" she asked even though the question was pointless.

"You're going to do something for me Lily, one way or another. You are going to step through that portal and kill everything and everyone inside."

Lily was taken back and disgusted,

"No!" she almost yelled, the darkling behind her growled.

"That, I'm afraid isn't an option." This wasn't Caine, or at least a different Caine. Still the Caine that was here was going to see that she got herself and everyone in the darkling dimension killed.

"Happy birthday Lily." He said but his voice, along with his eyes were empty.

"I won't do it Caine." She declared once more, he finally looked at her and she saw the ominous appeal in his eyes. "You'll have to kill me." She added her voice weak. That almost made this Caine smile,

"Oh don't worry Lily, you'll die, one way or another."