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*~ The Darkness Inside ~*

*~ Chapter 26 ~*

I don't remember any falling sensation that would have occurred but I must have blacked out as one moment I was panicking and struggling blindly against who I presumed to be Ravi and the next…I was lying down in a quiet, damp room.

I groaned and slowly opened my eyes, terrified that I still wouldn't be able to see. I breathed a sigh of relief as the ceiling above came in to view – it was blurry but it was still there, I could still see.

I looked around as I slowly tried to sit up. I was in a dimly lit cave-like area. The walls and ground were all made from dark red stones and rocks. The walls had jagged edges poking out at dangerous angles in places and the only light source were the burning torches hung up every few feet.

"Rae, you're awake!" I heard the familiar voice and looked around. My eyes then widened as I found him sat curled up in a cage hanging from the ceiling.

"Dojo!" I cried as I hurriedly rose to my feet and made towards him only to be stopped by steel bars.

I gripped them and looked around confused, "We're locked up, kid," the dragon that I hadn't seen in forever explained. He went on, "How you doing? How've you been?"

"I've…" I thought about Jack and suddenly wished, even though I was reunited with a little green friend of mine, that I had never left the Spicer household. But then who knows, maybe they were on their way to capture me there instead. I shrugged, "I've been fine, I guess. What about you? I've heard nothing about you. I thought that you and Master Fung had gotten away, maybe."

"Oh, Master Fung," Dojo wailed with a claw over his head, "The poor guy, is probably wasting away in a cell somewhere. Too scared to even realise what's happening in the outside world. Not getting his Dojo-prepared meals and Dojo-prepared baths and Dojo-supervised exercise! Oh, the poor guy!"

"Dojo, I'm right here," I turned to see Master Fung peeking through the bars of the cage next to my own. I would have already noticed him if not for the walls made of rock that separated me from the cells either side of me.

"Master Fung!" I cried and then I realised, "Are the others here? Clay? Kimiko?"

"I hope you were saving the best till last and not forgetting about me," I heard Omi calling out from a few cells down.

Hope filled my chest, he sounded fine and still like himself. Jack had told me the truth, he hadn't done anything to them, "Of course! I couldn't forget you, Omi! I'm so glad you guys are okay!"

There was silence and the only face I could see clearly from where I was was Dojo's and he looked down at the ground with his eyebrows arched upwards and the corners of his mouth drooping. Something was wrong.

"You guys are okay…aren't you?" I asked. Dojo lifted his gaze to mine, his eyes sad and I was met with silence again, "Why aren't Kimiko and Clay responding? Are they not here?"

"They're here," Master Fung answered, with his eyes closed and his hands clasped together in front of the bars that he was pressed against just so I could see him. My lips trembled with fear at what could be wrong. He took a breath and explained, "They're just not conscious right now."

"What?" I asked, my eyes watering and my vision beginning to blur again from a different cause now.

"Kimiko got in to an argument and in the end challenged one of the Oracles," Master Fung explained.

Oh god, Kimiko, I glared at the floor and growled as a silent tear for my friend slid down my cheek, "The Sun."

"No," Master Fung corrected me, "The Moon."

I stared back at him wide eyed. She seemed like the calm one out of the pair of them. She wasn't the one that tried to fry my arm off. In fact she hadn't made any move toward me at all.

The pain was still aching but not as excruciating as it was at first. Remembering how the oracle attacked me, I looked down and that's when it registered that I had bandages wrapped from my right hand to my right shoulder. I also wasn't wearing my white jumper anymore but a black vest top instead.

"The Sun was not innocent in the initial argument but it was the Moon who had made the comment provoking Kimiko to challenge her, as much I tried to calm her down and make her see sense," he sighed deeply, shaking his head, "It was brutal and then Clay tried to step in and save her. That's when the Sun got involved and punished him for intervening in a battle that was not his. An old fashioned rule."

A sob escaped me, I was hit just once and the blast the Sun had delivered to my arm hurt like hell even now. I feared for Clay. How bad was he? I hadn't seen what the Moon could do yet…I didn't know if that was worse. How bad was Kimiko?

I cried for my friends, I also cried for the fact that I thought Jack had kept my friends safe like he promised me he would. He had failed and in doing so hurt me. I pressed my forehead against the bars and took a moment to calm down. I didn't wanna look weak when the enemy came knocking.

"It's okay, Rae," I heard Omi's voice calling again, "We'll all be fine. I give you my word – and that means a lot, after all I am the Dragon of Water!"

I smiled despite the situation, at least Omi was still Omi and Dojo and Master Fung seemed okay.

The smile vanished when the next voice echoed from nearly every inch of the room, "You shouldn't promise things that you have no power over, little dragon warrior."

I scanned all the shadows for her, knowing how she liked to hide and found her glowing amber eyes staring back at me like before. I glowered at her. How dare she hurt my friends!

I saw Master Fung sink out of view back in to his cell and Dojo curl up and avert his gaze from her. What had she done to terrorise all of them. Now I was even more fearful for Kimiko. What had happened to my friend?

"It's good to see you awake, my child," she said, "I was beginning to worry."

I didn't respond, I just stood there gripping the bars and glaring at her with as much hate as I could muster.

She continued as if we were on friendly terms, "I have placed a spell on your wound to increase the speed of the healing process and to numb the pain, otherwise you would not be standing right now. The pain would be too much for you."

"Is that why my friends are unconscious right now?" I snapped.

She pursed her lips and her eyes dragged to the right and I guessed that that meant either Clay or Kimiko was in the cell on my other side in whatever state the Oracles had left them in.

"They were causing unnecessary disruptions," she sighed as if it was tedious and looked back at me. She let out a lazy half laugh, "You look at me as if I have done something wrong and I know that that is what you believe. But I didn't issue the challenge, I only accepted it."

"What have you done to Kimiko?" I growled.

"I won the battle," she replied with a completely serious and calm expression. Before I could say anymore she quickly said, "Anyway that is not what I came here for," she moved closer yet still remained in the shadows, just out of direct light, "I imagine you have many questions. You're younger than Chandra was…then again Chandra clearly wasn't ready as she died."

Did that mean that…? She was indeed correct, I did have a lot of question to ask and that was now another one, but I would leave that for later. I had other questions to ask first.

I waited for her to continue but the longer I waited the longer she seemed to stare at nothing in particular with a wide-eyed expression, as if she were daydreaming. I cleared my throat and asked the first of the many questions I had, "Fine, when did Chandra, Heru and Ariel all begin? What was their time?"

She looked up at me with a blank expression and after a moment she answered, "I don't remember. Over three thousand years ago at least."

"What?" I breathed, that was insane. How could anyone remember something from that long ago? How could they remember that much about three people from that long ago? "But how…? Do you oracles have the same ability as Heru and Ariel? As in…do you remember everything from every life you have?"

"I don't know," the Moon answered with a small shrug.

I frowned, "How can you not know? It's either yes or no."

"You can only answer that question if you have lived more than once," she explained.

I narrowed my eyes at her, "What do you mean?"

She sighed and confessed, "I am just under five thousand years old, as are my siblings. We have never died, so I have no idea if we would remember this long life we have lived in the next or not. I don't know."

My jaw almost dropped to the ground. That was impossible…what?

"So…do you wander around the Earth until the next SunChild or MoonChild appears?" I asked more than a little baffled.

She smiled then which threw me even more, "Not exactly."

I shook my head. What was I supposed to ask next? I didn't understand any of this? What was the point in all this? What was the point in…

"Why am I the Moon Child? Why is there a MoonChild at all? Why do I have these powers?" I asked and these questions I desperately needed to know the answers to. I needed to know why I was such a messed up little girl when I was younger and even now, all because I could move shadows and manipulate the darkness around me.

"I will tell you how it all began," she stated and stepped forward out of the darkness but that cloak hood of hers still hung a black shadow looming over her face.

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