Okay, it's the third relic chapter of the story. If you read the title then you should know this may have some depression and suicidal thoughts, you have been warned.

The heroes were now getting the briefing of the next relic to defeat Metteraun's evil. Which looked like a black hooded cape, but it holds something deadly.

"What you are looking at is perhaps the darkest thing that was ever created" Mildred explained to them.

"College?" BJ shivered.

"Kids?" Akira shivered.

"Neither,

The Shroud of Darkness

Forged by shadows and the spirit of a dark evil, the same evil that created Lord Metteraun.

This gives the wearer the ability to control shadows and the dark, shadow travel, teleportation, fear manipulation, and the ability to control others. But these powers can only be unlocked in one way. Once you put on shroud, you are faced with all the dark insecurities and inner demons in your mind. You'll have suicidal thoughts and you won't be able to trust anyone.

The shroud is the most horrifying relic to ever be conceived, and because it was made from nightmares and evil you must have a lot of demons for it to work. So Rose" the goth stood up "because of the pain you went through in losing your family to evil and your levels of misery, this will be your task. Once you put on the shroud, you need to think of all the positives in your life to defeat the evil in the shroud, and that won't be easy because once you have the it, it's depression city for you."

"Sigh, well this will be my downfall." Rose sighed dreadfully. She felt a warm hand on her shoulder.

"Don't worry, we'll be there for you. I'll be there for you, my little rose bud." Akira cooed his girlfriend and sealed with a light kiss on her lips.

"You always know how to brighten my darkest days." She swooned.

They soon got in their positions to retrieve the most difficult relic yet, "okay everyone, you'll need this more than you ever will yet. Good luck." Mildred then slowly sent them to their next location of the tools to delete the evil of Metteraun.

ZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPP

The heroes were now in what looked like a dead field. There were skeletons and animal carcasses everywhere, the sky was dark and void of stars, the grass was grey, and the trees were dead.

"Okay, according to my specs. The shroud is an a dark cavern protected by a mad goblin. We must relieve him of the shroud and give it to Rose. Once that's done we have to help her through the pain and darkness she'll feel when she puts on the shroud." Lara explained their mission. "Luckily it's not far from here, come one." And so they went towards a dark mountain where they saw a tunnel with a skull on top of the entrance.

GULP

"Well we tried." BJ tried to run but Cass stopped him.

"Not so fast." awwww.

They each took a deep breath, then slowly made their way in side. The caves were littered in bones and skulls, the walls has lots of blood stains. There was even a message in blood that say 'go away, or you'll die'. They turned on their flashlights were they got when they were zapped to this nightmare.

Wary travelers

They got spooked at the voice.

Leave while you still have your sanity. Don't go down the path others have died on.

They continued anyway. After a lot of the twists and turns and darkness. They made it to the end where they found a small stone room in the corner they saw a small hooded figure cowering in the corner.

You should have run when you had the chance, now you will perish like the others.

The figure then sprung up and sent over a dozen shadow beasts at the heroes. They punched and kicked and sliced through them with the special knives they also obtained. While they were doing that, the figure escaped into the dark caves.

"Gr, follow him" The heroes ran after him, but they came to a cross roads. Six different paths, so they each went a different way. Looking for the hooded figure.

Akira

The part time hero went the far left, after minutes of running he encountered a shadow werewolf, a giant shadow bat, and a a very ravenous shadow mime. Ever since he saw that movie he had been terrified of these things, but he had a job to do and they went at it.

Lara

The part time sidekick took the next one over, at the end she saw the shadowy figures of a few not so nice drunk guys she unfortunately ran into. After puberty she may have attracted some unwanted and seriously wrong attention of a lot of messed up men she stumbled upon when she went to or from late night workouts at the ninja gym. After that she hated nothing more than perverts.

"Well hey there pretty lady." one of the shadows greeted.

Lara just got ready for a fight. "Ugh, not these people."

"We're gonna have some fun with you tonight."

"Over my dead unavailable body." And so she then began a beat down on her demons. When one went down two more appeared.

BJ

While the twins were dealing with their demons, he went down the third path which led him to a dark classroom where they had a big test and he didn't study.

"Oh no no! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-

Cass

The genius took the third one from the right. Her nightmare scenario was where was being dragged by shadow versions of her parents to a scary Harvard away from her friends. "LET ME GO!" she struggled against the pull, but then she turned over and kicked them off her. She stood up and ran at the shadows with intent to kill.

Tyler

Where Tyler went down his cave was a long dark tunnel, a few meters in he found a shadowy Lara.

pant pant "Lara honey?"

"Who you calling honey you scrawny pushover?" the dark body of his girlfriend asked harshly.

"What?" Tyler asked fearfully.

"You think someone like me would ever want to be with a wimp like you? HAHAHAHAHA-"

"I may be a wimp. But I'm the wimp that got to sleep with the real LARA FUCKIN ZERO!" fear turned to anger. His relationship to the real Lara made whatever insecurities he had that this dark impostor told him meant nothing anymore, he got into a stance. "And I'll show you how much I improved on my fighting abilities."

"Well see about that, 'Ty Ty'" And that started the brawl between Tyler and his insecurity of the his relationship with Lara.

Rose

And then there was Rose, the darkest most depressed of the group. She went along the last cave, which was also the darkest. On the way she encountered the figure with the shroud.

"Please give me the shroud. I need it to stop Metteraun."

"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH, DON'T MENTION THAT NAME! THIS SHROUD IS EVIL, I CAN'T LET YOU HAVE IT" the figure yelled, they pullel the hood down to reveal a shaking and paranoid goblin with bags under his wide eyes and clattering teeth. "You'll get destroyed, along with your sanity."

"Well I don't care, I need it to get my family back!" she then tackled the goblin and that started a fight which had Rose trying to pry the shroud off the terrified goblin.

Akira

While she was doing that we move to see how her boyfriend is dealing with his demons. And so far he beheaded the mime with an invisible axe. Meh, he's a mime. And now he just had the bat and werewolf to defeat. The wolf slashed at him and the bat tried to bite him but he kept avoiding their attacks. Though he had a few scratches on his face and arms. He had to think of something. "Hey, he said your mother has fleas!" he screamed at the shadow wolf.

The wolf turned to the bat and growled (I'll have you know my mother double shampoos and conditions)

Akira then told the bat "And he said your mother's breath reeks"

The bat screeched (Why you little) And so that cause a battle between the two shadow demons, which gave Akira enough time to escape. When he reached the end of the tunnel, he found a button which he then pressed. And that sealed off the tunnel. "Suckers, now to help Lara." He tried to go into Lara's tunnel but was stopped by a black force field. He then saw a five torches above the one Rose went through which was now sealed off. One of the was lit. "Hmm so I guess I have to wait for the others to conquer their demons before I can help Rose. Good luck guys."

BJ

While BJ was having a difficult time with his shadow test, he remembered all that Cass had taught him over the years and immediately wrote down all the answers. Which he saw a 100 appear and the whole thing dissolved into the cave, which he ran back down to the entrance and he saw a button.

"Oo button" he pressed and the tunnel he went through closed up with a rock door. He saw "Akira!"

"BJ" the boys then celebrated the tall one's victory over his demon. "You did it."

"I guess I did."

"Now for the other three."

Cass

Cass has come to a stand still with her parents.

"Your not learning anything with these dimwits and this stupid job."

"That is a lie, I've learned so many life skills from heroing. Stuff that may not get me in Harvard but Harvard's not everything!" her shadow parents gasped. "I've been more happy saving the multiverse with my friends than anything I've ever done. I will go to Harvard, just when I'm really READY!" she then punched the shadowy figure of her mother and father, which then dissolved into nothing. She saw the pathe back to the front and she ran. "She pushed the button to seal her tunnel and joined the others.

"Cass you made it." BJ congratulated the panting Cass with a big hug.

"Thanks BJ."

Lara

With the fiery Zero twin, her situation has not gotten any easier, her shadow pervs have kept multiplying whenever she defeated one. The numbers kept adding up until she had about a hundred shadow men holding her down and had tried to remove her clothes, when they got her to her red underwear, she got a another dose of adrenaline and pushed them all off and did a flying helicopter kick that knocked off the heads of every shadow in her nightmare.

But all that did was make the number double. She had it.

"Okay fine you know, to heck with this! You want it then" she ripped of her underwear, leaving her naked much to the shadow's shock "then take it, because I know there will always be pigs out there. And I can't do anything about it." She got on her knees and accepted defeat. "Just do what you want to me, this fight I can't win."

Then the shadows then clapped for her and started dissolving.

"uhh what's going on? Why aren't you guys on me?" she was so confused.

One of the shadows explained to the nude twin. "You just conquered your true greatest fear: accepting defeat." he then used a shadow to repair her clothes, now she was back in her normal attire. And so all the shadows were gone from her.

"Woah, deeeeeeeeeeeeep." She said before walking back to where she came. She pushed the button to seal her tunnel.

"What happened?" Her brother asked her after he saw the look on her face.

"I think I just learned a valuable lesson about accepting defeat. And it took giving in to a bunch of shadow guys trying to 'play' with me to learn it."

"i am not even going to ask."

I may have pushed the limits on the Teen rating with her inner demon scenario, she doesn't show that much fear to anything. Anyway let's move on to.

Tyler

From the real deal to the shadow deal that's fighting Lara's boyfriend Tyler. Before she would have won easily, but Tyler has improved much. Now he has battled her to a stand still.

"You lasted longer than I thought."

"My relationship lasted longer than I thought."

"You-"

"Nope, I'm not hearing it anymore! I know I'm not the biggest or strongest, or most athletic, or coolest, but none of that mattered to Lara. She gave me a chance, and that's all I ask for. Lara is the fiercest, kindest, most loving person I ever had the honor of meeting and dating. We shared moments together, and they were awesome." Tyler got closer to the shadow Lara. "And I don't care what she, or you say about me. No matter what happens, I will always love her." After that he gave her a big kiss on the lips, the shadow tried to push him off but soon gave into the kiss and dissolved.

He looked on with a look of satisfaction. "Well that's over with, and I no longer have any doubt about me and Lara.". He then ran back and found the button that sealed his tunnel and lit the final torch. Now they can go help Rose.

But Tyler held Lara back while the others went on, before she could ask what he was doing he gave gave her a surprised kiss, which she returned. That went on for ten seconds until they separated and went to follow their friends.

Rose

While her five teammates had dealt with their demons, Rose had managed to get the shroud of the goblin. That was the easy part, now for the hard part. Putting on and defeating the evil depression it had. Once she had it on and pulled up the hood, she was met with a dooming sadness not even SHE felt.

"I'll never save daddy.

I'll never see my brother again.

Akira doesn't really love me

No one loves a pastey tar hair goth like me"

These were only a sample of the the hurt, pain, and demons that immediately clouded her mind. She found her blade and went to bring it up to her neck. She was now feeling so down and depressed that she won't have anyone to love her anymore she wanted to kill her self thanks to the shroud.

But before she could finish she heard a voice in her dark abyss.

"Rose!"

"Huh wha?"

"Rose can you hear me? Rose? It's me Akira. Look you have to fight this evil."

"but-"

"Please Rose you have to beat this shroud. Think about all your giving up. Zed would want you to keep fighting, he loves you more than anything. Think about your dad, deep down in his evil's control, he's rooting for you and waiting to be rescued."

"... Zed...dad..."

"Think about your friends, and the times you shared with them!" his voice said desperately.

She then remembered all the good times she spent with Lara, BJ, Cass, and Tyler. The ladies' nights with the girls, the missions.

"And what about me? Without you my life has no meaning. When I felt lonely, you were always there for me! You always gave me love when ever I'm at my lowest, now it's my turn to return the favor."

She then remembered all that Akira gave her. The dates, the missions, the kisses, their 'chats'. She loved those times, and she loved him.

"Akira."

"Rose, no matter where our hearts take us. You and me, will always be connected in a way.

Rosaria Svetlana Harven"

In the real world where Akira was holding onto a crouching Rose in the shroud. He brought his face close to her's and said

"I love you." Before giving the most heartfelt kiss he ever gave her. She wrapped her arms around him and returned the kiss. This caused a glowing Akira to appear in her mind trap and literally pull her out of her depression. In the real world, they separated for air. Rose moved her hand to remove her bangs to show Akira her tear filled violet eyes to his ocean blue eyes. He thought they were amazing.

"I love you too." And they went back to the kissing. The others were happy for them.

ZAP

They were then zapped back their world, Akira and Rose were still making out with each other.

"Congratulations" they separated when Mildred came up to the team.

"You have completed the most difficult challenge of any hero part time or full time: facing their demons. Rose, Akira and your love for each other was more than enough for you to secure the shroud of darkness. Now you have full access to it's powers without the negative side effects."

"I couldn't have done without you with my red headed prince of darkness." Rose humbled lovingly to Akira.

"Anything for you my queen of the night." AKira gave one last kiss to her, which caused her to giggle and blush. Things she hadn't done with a huge smile in forever.

"And remember this lesson from this dark ordeal.

No one is an island, no one stands alone

As long as you have people who car about you, you're never on your own."

And finally that is over. This really is the most darkest chapter I ever written to date. Shroud of Darkness, never look for it in real life. I may have pushed the rating a bit with Lara's inner demon challenge, but listen I HATE rape. It hurts to know that some people have been a victim of it and sexual abuse. It's the worst kind. For those people I'm sorry it happened, but you're not alone. Talk to someone you trust and let them know what you have been through. Speak up and stand up for yourself. Be brave.

Anyway in the next few chapters will be some missions, and how Tyler is dealing with his mother and aunt since they returned.

WTYL