The Battle of the Gods
Vash leaned towards the crystal ball even more. He could see his reflection, but what was that on his forehead. A star? Was it a star? It was an odd pattern, a diamond, stretched out like a star. Ah! The birthmark of his family. Yes, that was it; Vash remembered something like that. Clay the Elder had told Vash and Kelli about the birthmark of their family when they were little. So if Clay the Elder was his grandfather, then that birthmark was his too.
With his eyes still unfocused and blurry from the crystal ball, he looked up, with the effects of it still working inside his eye. He saw the pattern on Mr. Clay and Clay the Elder's forehead and his sister Kelli's. Then he looked around and almost fainted.
There, on Lair's forehead, was the same star. Vash jumped up, knocking the crystal ball over.
"Vash!" I yelled.
"Sorry." He looked around, his eyes focusing again, but trembling greatly.
"What's wrong?" I asked. "What did you see?"
"N-nothing." Vash replied. He looked at Lair, who was staring curiously at him.
"Absolutely nothing?" I asked.
"You're lying." Doughboy said, holding his pendant in his hand.
"What?" Vash spun around.
"Don't even try me." Doughboy said. "You're lying. Let's see, what did you see?" And I saw him work his Memorization charm into his own brain. The next second, he dropped the pendant and it fell and bounced around his neck.
"Not possible." Doughboy gasped. "You, and Lair? Sister and brother?"
"What?" Kelli asked, almost falling over. Rene's eyes opened wide.
"I suppose it is possible."
Lair was floating in the air, somewhat suspended, her blue eyes glittering.
"Wow." was all she could say. "Now you really can become my brother and rule this world with me!"
"Never!" And with that, a panic-stricken Vash aimed his Blue Mist at Lair, who shot a stream of Ice at it. "You may be my sister by blood." Vash said, gasping as it shot at him in the face (he didn't freeze like the dwarfs did, so I guessed it was his magical ability). "But never by heart." They charged at each other again.
"One last thing." Kanari said. "Snowy, when they were talking, what was all that about 'I hear that voice in my nightmares all about'?"
"The Darkness of the Empire." Clay the Elder muttered. "The most feared beast of them all. Did I ever tell you guys that Vash and Kelli have five siblings?"
"You might have mentioned it." Doughboy lied.
"He ate them." Clay the Elder said. "Literally ate. And I believe that with all her power, Lair can summon the beast again."
"But it didn't eat her?" Doughboy asked.
"I guess she got away and managed to tame it somehow." Clay the Elder said. "She was always very good at taming things." He whispered, "Even Vash."
"This is just wrong." Rene said. "We can't just stand here and watch, we have to DO something!"
"Gods of Evil, Darkness, and Power,
Be of my greatest feared Endower.
Show yourself and let be feared,
For they have all but one left and smeared
On you and your past
So strongly and fast
And I think
As fast as a blink
That it is time." Lair recited. Then, lifting her head to the sky, she shouted, "Let the Gods awaken to the Chime!" There came a distant sound of bells and the ground seemed to open up and shake under us, swallowing us up. We plunged into darkness.
I spread out my wings, and caught someone. It was Rene. Nakita caught Clay the Elder and Kelli caught Vash. Snowy caught Doughboy and they rode on our backs up to the light. But beneath us, something was coming out. Something big and black and huge and ugly all integrated into one. With a huge thrust, a huge black ball bounded out.
"Great." Kanari moaned, Anora and Kero on her shoulder. "All the day's hard work is to be destroyed by this monster. Oh, how I HATE that girl." And she glared at Lair.
The monster uncurled itself and Lair flew on top of it and landed on its shoulder, patting its neck. The beast was fully black, except for the red streaks on its tail.
"Looks like a dinosaur." Snowy commented.
The beast has black wings, and a huge, black mouth, even on the inside, with saliva drooling out like a stream. Its huge, beadily eyes seemed the same size as volleyball, and I was unmistakably afraid. Vash kicked a rock on the ground.
"How can I ever make you understand Lair, that ruling the world isn't just everything?" Vash asked, on the verge of crying.
"You can't." Lair said, her eyes turning back to red. She opened her mouth and blasted out fire now instead of ice. "Now!"
The monster came charging at us.
"Avido!" Snowy shouted from the air and strings came and curled themselves around the beast's neck. The beast charged at the rest of us, leaving Snowy flying after it.
"Fire Beam." Lair burnt the ribbons of strings and Snowy went flying as the beast swung his head. Doughboy jumped off and was able to get his bubble out before he hit the ground but Snowy wasn't that fortunate. She plummeted and hit the ground, skidding across the floor. Rising in a cloud of dust, she tried to rejoin the battle, but her wing was just too tired. Doughboy had rolled off of it and had bent and almost torn a muscle, so she couldn't fight, and all she could do was sit and shoot little beams of light at the monster, which didn't even faze him.
Kanari and Nakita tried to deafen and blind it, but only Nakita was successful. The monster had a protective film over its eye. Lair, meanwhile, was after Kelli, who launched a Blow Hole and ran. Vash used his Atomic Shock, which threw Lair to the monsters feet and actually did any damage.
"Watery Card, Freeze Card, release and dispel!" I shouted. "Whoa!" the monster ran into me as the two cards lunged at Lair and her fire mouth. I felt myself flying across the town. Suddenly, I felt myself going up again and I saw Rene and Nakita supporting me. "Thanks guys."
"No problem." Nakita said as she lowered me to the ground. Lair had turned to ice once again and was trying to outsmart my cards.
"Ack!" Vash said and we saw him run from the monster running after him. Then, we heard a deep, roaring voice.
"You don't remember me, do you Vash?" The beast said. He stopped running. "Then maybe I can remind you!" And with an evil laugh, a bubble came tumbling out of his mouth.
"Vash!" The three of us aimed for him at the same time and collided into Vash, knocking him three of four feet out of the distance of the bubble, but it was too late. Rene, Nakita, Vash and I were sucked into the bubble as we left Kanari, Snowy, Doughboy and Kelli to deal with Lair. The beast was concentrating on adding to our concentration of the memory on the bubble. The bubble was originally blue and translucent, but now I could see a setting, a background. There was a small baby in a deserted world, full of stones, and it was crying, crying!
"That's you Vash, you." The voice said. The baby kept on crying. We watched as the baby stood up and we realized that the baby was four of five years old. Vash was covering his eyes. The monster was there too, only slightly different in proportion, and in his hands were two little kids, brothers.
"No!" The little boy cried. "Don't!" The monster extended his hand and started towards Vash, but someone else jumped in and started to bite the hand.
"Your sister Vash, sister."
"Kelli?" Vash asked, looking up."
"No, not Kelli. Think Vash, think." And from the depths, a name rose.
"Rakana." Vash whispered. It was pronounced RaK Anna. It was one of Vash's sisters.
"C'mon Vash, let's move." A hand was pulling the little boy away.
"Kelli." The boy yelled as he pointed to the two hands that the beast was using, stuffing the kinds into his mouth.
"We have to go. Lair?" Kelli looked around. "Oh dear, where is she?" The Kelli in the image looked around. The beast was reaching an outstretched hand towards them again, laughing wickedly and talking in a mocking tone. Kelli pulled the boy towards her and they ran and ran and ran until the world became blackness.
"We thought we were swallowed." Vash said.
"But in reality, you fell into a water pit, and hid there until your mom found you there and you escaped off of Genesis. But you left behind Lair, whom I took control of, and when she got enough ability to force me out, I pretended to be her father."
"The duke!" Vash shouted.
"Yes, I was the duke that visited you when everyone was little with Queen Jewel, and not even she could catch me and force me down! You wonder how Genesis became a barren and isolate place, ne? And she loved every moment with me."
"Liar." Vash spat on the ground. The acid from his spit burnt a hole in the bubble. The next second, we were all falling and we landed on the asphalt. "That's where I recognized the voice. I knew it sounded familiar."
"Too true, something I could never hide, my voice." The beast said. "Have I told you my name?"
"Of all these years, never."
"My name." The beast said. "Is Kieserite."
"Isn't that a girl's name?" Nakita asked.
"Yes." The beast said. "But I'm not a girl. Never question the beast's names. I was named after my sister, the one that you destroyed!"
"We?" I asked.
"The Liberty Angels before you, the makers of the joints of the worlds, the creator soft the dimension, the ones who sort everything out!" The beast shouted.
"One question." Rene asked. "Then why doesn't Kelli remember any of this?"
"Think about it." Vash said.
"Oh." Rene answered after a moment. "Maybe she doesn't want to remember. So she knew it all along."
"Yes, I'm afraid." Vash said. "I remember her calling for a girl, but I didn't know her name was Lair, that she was my sister."
"And now you do." The monster charged again.
We were thrown backwards and forwards and twisted, until I saw myself heading for the mouth.
"NO!" I shouted. "Uh, Light Card, destroy this monster once and for all. Light, Release and Dispel." The Light Card formed, and from her look, I heard her message,
"That I cannot do, but I can force it into the darkness once again."
"Do it Yuki!" Clay the Elder yelled. He was standing under the awning once again. The rain pounded harder and harder and the wind howled.
"But it won't do any-"
"Do it!" Clay the Elder yelled. "If Lair realizes her mistake, then she can never summon it again."
"That'll never happen." Vash said. Rene reached out and slapped him. Everyone was silent. Rene had never slapped anyone in her whole entire life. She didn't seem a bit ashamed of it either.
"We have to look up to our spirits and say, we CAN defeat this beast, we MUST!" She yelled. "Power Hoops!" It actually sliced through his fiber. "Everything CAN be done, if only you TRY!" She shot out her Golden Rings. "It MUST have a WEAKNESS!"
"That's it!" Vash said, snapping his finger. "Doughboy. Where are you?"
"Here." Doughboy drifted to the ground with his bubble. Unable to fight, he had stayed out of the way.
"Use your memorization and let me control it." With the two boys teamed up, this finally seemed to prove a truce for the two-at least, temporarily. We had no clue until later what Vash was signaling over, all I know is, the Light Card aimed for it and so did everyone else with their attacks at the exact same time, and suddenly, the monster collapsed and was gone.
"I will be back." I heard it faintly. "I will not die."
Lair in her panic recited the poem again, but nothing happened. "Soul!" she cried, and then collapsed. "You destroyed the soul this time too." Then her eyes suddenly brightened. "I'm sensing something. Oh no!" the sky was clearing, and it revealed a Lair with bright blue eyes, very wide. There came a flash of red that looked like red lightning, and then, she was suddenly sprawled on the ground, motionless.

Just a few more chapters and Jewel Quest will be done with...a few more chapters...then the first premier of Black Magic....ohh ::rubs hands greedily:: I can't wait, I've postponed all my fics for this moment!