Summary: She couldn't move though, try as she might to run, her feet seeming to be stuck from taking steps forward. Panting, her heart racing and in full panic, she struggled to find a way to get away from the maniacal laughter that grew louder by the second. She had to get away. She had to run.

Author's Note: OC Work w/ MSQ References

The sound of a cup falling in the distance, liquid splashing.

Heart wrenching screams of a man in pain, both physically and emotionally.

Darkness was everywhere, not a light to be found to illuminate where she was. Rhea looked around, trying to sense something - anything. Fear raged in her breast. When had she ever been afraid of the dark? Why did it feel so cloistering and suffocating? What was this panic she felt rising up in her? It was irrational and very unlike her. Yet, it was how she felt, regardless...

Her instincts told her to run but to where? She couldn't see anything.

Yda's voice lilted through the darkness, echoing until it faded to nothing, "I'll handle this lot!"

"We will hold our pursuers here. Hurry, now!" Papalymo's voice echoed in the shadows.

A deep sense of loss only amplified her fears as she steadied herself and tried to run to the voices she'd heard. They'd come from everywhere though and, yet, also nowhere. She didn't know where to go, where to run. Still, she was not one to just stand by while her friends - her family - were lost to her.

So she ran…and she ran. Through the darkness, she ran, desperate to find the keepers of the voices.

"Thancred and I will deal with this," Y'shtola's voice echoed.

Like Yda and Papalymo's voice though, it came from everywhere and nowhere, and seemed so painfully distant. Rhea turned and tried to run in another direction, but she was just as lost as before. She felt like she was running in place, no light to offer her a point of reference to measure her hastened steps.

"You haven't seen the last of these fair features!" the dulcet voice of Thancred joining the others in its ethereal resonation.

Rhea stopped and opened her mouth to scream for them, to beg them to tell her where they were or where to go but she couldn't. Her lips parted but no sound escaped them. She was mute, stripped of her ability as surely as she was stripped of her Blessing of Light.

Silence fell around her, threatening to snuff her life out and crushing her very soul.

The sound of a lantern dropping into water behind her made her whip around and look, but there was nothing there - only more darkness.

Rhea could feel herself shaking, losing herself to the madness as she felt utterly alone and abandoned. Everyone was gone. Everyone was dead. There was nothing. No sense of time. No presence. No light. Only darkness.

She tried to steel herself but the panic continued to rise. There was nowhere to run, nowhere to go. She couldn't save them.

They were gone.

She hadn't been strong enough.

Suddenly, a fear like she'd never known shot through her as if she'd been struck by lightning and she senses a presence behind her. Slowly turning, she peered into the darkness, her eyes straining to see anything. From deep in the depths of the abyss she resided in, a dark and sinister laugh began to build as if it were moving closer and closer to her. Any warmth within her was stripped at the sound of that laugh.

Only pure evil laughed like that.

Suddenly, she realized who's laugh it was and along with it, she recognized the darkness surrounding her. She knew this place. She knew that voice. Eyes going wide, she wanted to run. She was too weak, devoid of Hydaelyn's Blessing as she was, to confront that voice. She couldn't face the evil coming her way. It would snuff her out as easily as one put out a candle.

After all, it had already done so once before. She had known death at the hands of that voice's keeper before the miracle of Hydaelyn's blessing had saved her.

She couldn't move though, try as she might to run. Her feet froze, seeming to be stuck from taking steps forward. Panting, her heart racing and in full panic she struggled to find a way to get away from the maniacal laughter that grew louder by the second. She had to get away. She had to run. She was nothing. She was weak. She couldn't even save her friends or the Sultana...or Raubhan...or Moenbryda. She wasn't strong enough. Had she ever been or had it all been Hydaelyn?

Suddenly, the laughter ceased and whatever had been rooting her released. As she turned to run, a face popped up right in front of her own features, his visage shrouded beneath a hood but the floating red glyph over his face was unmistakable.

Lahabrea.

She opened her mouth to scream, but once more, not a decibel of sound left her lips. He cackled again and lunged at her.

In that moment, she felt arms wrap around her waist from behind and, in a powerful tug, felt herself falling back and down, down, down as if she'd never stop her descent, her screams continuing to soundlessly fall from open lips. The last thing she heard was her father's voice echoing in the void around her, "Shine on, my little light. Shine on."

Inspirational Soundtrack Song: In the Dark of the Night Cover - Jonathan Young (from Anastasia)