So, the last chapter was my third favorite. Is this one my second?

NOPE.

You'll see. Review if you like it, and as always I can take some criticism!

Chapter 21: Time's Up

"Damn it!" Samantha yelled, her angered voice echoing throughout Vaati's tower. She had received a report that the Shadow train was destroyed when the heroes had retaliated on the train. "You are USELESS!"

"I'm sorry, milady. It was that girl in purple who had gained power from seemingly out of nowhere, powered the bombs used to fire at us, and killed all the monsters and the train's engine!" The minion on the other side reported.

"LIKE I SAID BEFORE, USE- wait, what?" She pondered on whether she heard her minion right. Power? That purple brat gained power? "What do you mean 'she gained power'?"

"The readings on the train went off the charts. Her power had increased. But it wasn't her element." The minion continued.

"...Finally. The time has come." Samantha whispered to herself, turning off the communication between the minion and his leader. Her smirk grew very wide as she called out for her right hand shadow.

"SHADOW! I HAVE SOME NEWS!" She yelled, once more her voice echoing through the tower.

"I'm right here, you know." Shadow muttered, covering his ears. He was in the middle of a nice nap, so he wondered how important the news was.

"Turns out Victoria's reaction to the Darkeon stone is finally reaching it's end point." Samantha stated simply, her fanged smirk remaining. "Now, we'll be able to control her thoughts, powers, and body as well!"

"Now? Like, right now?" Shadow needed to know everything about this feat.

"No you dimwit. There has to be a trigger. An emotional trigger for this to work." Samantha continued. "Something has to upset her balanced persona. Something momentous. Something devastating. Soul crushing, preferably."

"What?" Shadow asked. He needed to know what to tell the heroes to prevent this from happening.

"...I'll check the Dark Prophecy. It has to have something about this and I want to know what." Samantha mused, eager to pick up the Dark Prophecy to read it's writings of evil wisdom.

"The Prophecy of Light's final opposition. Kill who mustn't be killed. Capture those who must die. Win the last battle, and doubt your past. Fail, and one shall fall to the call of the ancients.

~Dark Prophecy"

"Uhh, what does that mean?" Shadow asked, again.

"Idiot. It means that we need to kill the hero that's left. That purple one, what's his name?" Samantha responded.

"...Vio?" Shadow answered.

"That's his name! Yeah, Vio! He's the one that's gonna die!" Samantha shouted, laughing evilly.

"Yeah, sure." Shadow muttered to himself, walking away from the insane girl. 'I have to warn the others.'

Shadow turned around, calling out to the mad girl, "Samantha! I'm going to train the minions for the next attack, okay?"

"Go ahead! S'not like we're gonna use those weaklings!" Samantha shouted back.

As soon as Samantha said "Go", Shadow had already teleported to where he sensed the heroes were. He opened his eyes as he felt wind tear at his clothes and face. He remained focused, trying to find the nearest spot he could teleport to so he could locate the heroes. Once he did, he landed in a patch of grass.

"Well, that was quick. That means they're nearing the Air Kingdom." Shadow mused. He saw a cottage with a burning chimney. His head cocked to the side, wondering why his teleportation led him here.

However, his confusion vanished as he saw what led him here. Vio opened the front door to the cottage and walked out. He seemed like he had a lot on his mind.

"Hey, Vio!" Shadow called out, walking up to him. This took Vio from his thoughts as he looked up, his lavender eyes glinting.

"Hello, Shadow. What's the news?" Vio asked as he walked up to his shadowy best friend.

"..." Shadow was silent. "Vio, you need to watch your back closely. Samantha's planning to-"

"Kill me?" Vio finished, guessing correctly.

"Yeah. How did you know?" Shadow asked.

"The Light Prophecy told me I would die." Vio muttered. "However, it also told me I would be able to come back to life afterwards. By someone with no zeal."

"Someone with no… zeal?" Shadow asked, confused. "Why no zeal?"

"I don't know. The ancients may have gotten it mixed up." Vio muttered. "But everything that they wrote was correct…"

"I say just believe in that book you've got there." Shadow said, putting his hand on Vio's shoulder. "So, how's everyone else?"

"They're doing well. However, Victoria's acting strange." Vio answered.

"That's not surprising. The Darkeon stone's all ready to be launched." Shadow muttered.

"WHAT?" Vio shouted. "So… What you said…"

"That, now I'm not sure."

When the shadow boy answered Vio's half-question, Vio's eyes widened. "So, she won't die?"

"Like I said before, I'm not sure. Samantha's planning something but she won't tell me…" Shadow muttered.

"That's a relief." Vio said, sighing in relief. He nodded and beckoned Shadow to come into the cabin for a short while to catch up on what happened.

"Shadow!" Rosie shouted gleefully, holding a pot of chef-quality soup. "Glad you're here with us!"

"Hey! Have something to eat, I bet you that Samantha doesn't even feed her loyal subjects, heheh" Blue said, side hugging the shadow boy.

"Nope. I don't eat anything. That soup that I smell would be nice." Shadow replied, sniffing the area.

"Not a problem. Here." Red said, putting a bowl of fresh chicken soup on the table, next to others. "Dinner is ready, after all."

"I'll get Victoria and Brittany down here, I don't want them alone together without someone watching them." Grace muttered, running up the stairs to retrieve the two girls.

"That would be nice." Green replied, sitting at the table. He was anxious to eat the food Rosie was going to serve. He knew that Red was a good cook, but this would probably taste twenty times better.

"How did you guys find this cottage, anyway?" Shadow asked, eating his soup greedily.

"The villagers from the Village of Fire Roses built it for us, in return for saving the village." Rosie answered, serving the other bowls of soup.

"Quite the big payment, don't you think?" Shadow muttered, still eating.

"You seem hungry."

Everyone looked to the stairs where the calm voice came from. Victoria, Grace, and Brittany all were standing there. However, Brittany seemed pissed off more than usual. The three girls went to their seats at the table.

"Yeah. I'm hungry." Shadow muttered, yes, still eating.

Victoria eyed Shadow for a second before taking her seat next to Vio. She knew Vio was friends with him, so she didn't decide to push it. She began to eat when she noticed that Brittany was picking at her food.

"Lack of appetite, Brittany? From our feud upstairs?" Victoria asked, trying to see if she could get a reaction out of the blue garbed girl.

Brittany's eyes narrowed, but the focused on her food. "Shut up." She muttered, beginning to eat her own food.

"Uhh…" Shadow decided not to say anything to the girls. He knew one word could make an explosion of insults and probably fists from the two girls.

"Hmph." Victoria sighed, almost as if she was bored. Suddenly, her eyes widened and she turned her head towards Vio.

"Vio, did we read the Air Prophecy?"

Vio stopped eating in his tracks, dropping the spoon into his bowl. His face froze, not wanting to meet eyes with the violet garbed girl. Shadow's face fell as well, not wanting to say anything.

"I couldn't find it" Vio lied.

"What?-!" Green shouted, standing up. "What are you talking about, Vio?-!"

"There's no way that the Air Prophecy could be missing!" Rosie exclaimed.

"Vio…" Victoria began calmly, "Is this the truth?"

'Damn,' Vio thought, 'She'll definitely find me out one way or another. I need to secure the Light Prophecy in order to make sure that she won't find out a thing about this...'

"Yes. This is the truth. I cannot find it." Vio replied quickly, looking her in the eye and lying. This made him feel sick to his stomach to lie to her.

Shadow noticed how Vio felt about this. He knew that Victoria shouldn't know, it could be the trigger. He needed to help Vio, but he can't make a scene.

"Yeah, I was with him." Shadow added. Everyone at the table looked at him, not sure whether they should believe him. However, he kept his hard gaze, as if he was telling the truth.

"I believe him." Green said, sitting back down. The others nodded in agreement. Eventually, Victoria nodded solemnly and continued eating.

Conversations led from memories, to stories, to other legends the girls have heard. Victoria was intrigued by all the stories and memories, listening and hanging on every word. Vio seemed like he was ignoring everyone, but he was also listening to the stories.

"And that's how I met Red!" Rosie finished her story, hugging Red tightly and making his face turn the color of his tunic.

"Cool! I didn't know you two knew each other before the four sword!" Green exclaimed, smiling.

"Yeah, it's kinda weird, but cool!" Red responded.

"Well, I also knew Brittany before the sword." Blue said, wanting to tell a story of his own.

"Really? Please, fill us in." Vio asked. This hardly shocked the boys, but the girls were surprised that he was actually listening.

"Sure! Anyway, it started like this…" Blue had begun to tell the story when Brittany filled in for him.

"Blue and I were sailing on the same boat. He was a lanky on the boat, so he had to do some work on it. I met him when I almost fell off." Brittany told the others, catching their attention.

"Always the hero, aren't you?" Green asked Blue playfully.

"Eh, in all honesty, I was just doing my job." Blue chuckled lightly, rubbing the back of his head.

However, before Brittany was able to finish the story, Rosie yawned. "I'm tired, but I wanna hear the rest of the story."

"It is getting late…" Green said, yawning as well.

"I need to get back before Samantha becomes suspicious." Shadow muttered, running outside. "Thanks for the food."

"You're… wel...come…" Rosie struggled to say before she succumbed to the gentle feeling of sleep. Her head rested on her arms, which were placed on the table. Red chuckled slightly, before (just barely) picking her up and taking her to her bunk upstairs.

"Cute." Victoria commented, getting up from the table. "I'll be joining her in sleep, I'll see you all in the morning." She walked upstairs almost silently.

"Us too, we're really tired." Grace said, speaking for both her and Brittany. Yawning like the rest of them, the girls headed upstairs to join the other two.

"I'm gonna hit the hay, I'm so tired from all that happened." Green said softly, yawning as well. "All this yawning is so contagious."

"You got that right." Blue yawned as well, heading upstairs rather loudly. Green facepalmed as he headed upstairs, leaving Vio to his thoughts.

'I just hope that everything works out tomorrow, and that Shadow was wrong about what he said earlier on the train...' Vio thought to himself. 'I'd better get some rest, though. I can't prepare for anything without a good night's rest.' He got up from his seat and headed upstairs, going into the room next to the girl's and getting on the last bunk there was available.

'Good to know they thought about my privacy.' Vio thought as he went for the top bunk nearest to the door. He took off his hat and boots, placed all of his weapons next to the bed and covered himself in the sheets. He looked around, watching the others.

Green seemed to be snugly tucked in, like a mother was just in here. Blue was snoring loudly, but it didn't seem to bother Red since he was sleeping snugly with a pillow between his arms. Vio smiled and he too joined his brothers in the realm of sleep.

ZZZzzz... Huh? Oh hi. I was just so tired since I haven't slept since, I dunno, the afternoon. I just finished this and I'm ready to join their realm of sleep too... ZZZzzz...

HUH!? okay I'll try to stay awake. Looks like all Victoria needs to go insane is a trigger. Who'll ignite the trigger, setting off one of my most favorite chapters in this whole fan fiction!? Whoever it is, I love them.

Ciao!

~V-fanfics