Chapter 9

"Ryo, you should have been here to see Mia when she thought you were in trouble," Kento was chuckling, "She was screaming 'RYO! Oh no, he's in trouble!'"
Ryo threw a glare laced with poison at Kento's smriking features, "Hahahaha, Mia looooves Ryo."
"Kento, shut up, no she doesn't!" Ryo was saying in annoyance.
"She wouldn't have shouted for me like that," Kento said cackling.
"He's got a point there, Ryo," Rowen was saying nursing a cut on his cheek with an alcohol suave, "She wouldn't 'uh' nearly fell down a flight 'uh' stairs for me."
"Guys!" Ryo was trying not to shout, his ribs were aching and shouting would not help them. They sat in the living room, Ryo sitting upright, rigid with pain on the couch, Rowen in an arm chair, and Kento and Sage on the loveseat.
"She nearly pulled me down with her when she came barreling down the stairs. I hadn't even said a word, I just looked like I had felt something from outside and she started screaming..." Sage remarked snickering as Kento guffawed
"Not you too!" Ryo struck his head on the back of the couch.
"Mia and Ryo sittin' in a.." Kento stopped his song as Mia followed by Cye entered the room. Mia holding a roll of bandages. "Ok, Ryo, off with the shirt, lets see what you've done."
Ryo began to take off his shirt, but only before glaring at Rowen, Sage and Kento as their eyes danced in amusement at Mia's wanting Ryo to undress before her.
Mia whistled at the black and blue bruises gracing Ryo's torso, "What did this?"
"Sage says the Darklings," Cye said sitting down with a cup of steaming mint green liquid, he handed it to Sage, "Drink all of it, and I don't want to hear any complaints."
"The Darklings? What did they look like? You were able to fight them?"
"The Darklings looked like big black smoke people with no faces..."
"They had faces..." Sage commented taking a timid sip of the liquid and grimacing at the chalky taste.
"What do you mean they had faces?" Kento turned to face Sage, "I didn't even make out eyes on those things.. They were just smoke."
"I didn't see the faces at first either, until I used the light to let you all see..."
"Mia, Sage was the only one of us that could actually see the Darklings without aid, we only saw them when Sage illuminated the battlefield. Do you know why that is... and now, Sage, you say you had an even better view of the Darklings in the light?"
Mia chewed on her bottom lip thoughtfully, "Well, the Darklings' element is darkness... and the opposite of darkness is light... maybe that's why."
"But didn't it talk to you Sage? You said you could hear them as well," Cye asked.
Sage blinked, "I couldn't understand them, if that's what you're asking. They were talking in some weird language, all of them... you couldn't hear them at all?"
Everyone shook their heads.
"You're psychic too, maybe that's it," Rowen was trying to figure this out, "What was going on when it was just you and that one...? You were standing there like you were in a trance..."
"Yeah, if I hadn't of pummeled you when I did..." Kento was staring at Sage who looked thoroughly confused, "What are you guys talking about?"
"What do you mean.. Sage, you were like standing like some kind of statue! That thing had its hand out in front of your face like this," Ryo tried to imitate the gesture, but was restrained by Mia who was applying a solvent to his rub cage.
Sage was shaking his head, "I don't know what you're talking about..."
"I asked you about it outside and you acted like you didn't want to talk about it..."
Sage was starting to jitter with his agitation, "I don't know... I just... I just... remember fighting.. And then I heard Kento yelling, and next thing I know I'm eating dirt."
"Mia...?"
"More research?" Mia asked with a wry grin, she slapped on more solvent and Ryo yelped at the sting.
"I can help.." Sage was leaning forward, wanting to try out a little healing power on Ryo's ribs, "Oh no you don't," Mia looked at him, "You're lucky you're getting to stay downstairs, young man."
"But..."
"No buts, unless you want to go to bed," Mia was saying beginning to tape on Ryo's wrap around bandages. Ryo let out a hiss of pain as Mia pulled tight. Sage pouted, "Suck that lip back in."
"We did discover one weakness about the Darklings, they despise light. I mean, it didn't seem to weaken them a bit, nothing we threw at them landed," Rowen was saying, "But the light made them stand down."
Mia nodded, "Ok, that's good..."
"Do you think if we had used Inferno we could have beaten them?" Kento questioned.
"Maybe one of them, if we were lucky," Rowen muttered, "Those things are strong... and if Witches are the only thing that can challenge them, then I'm not looking forward to meeting a Witch.. And they are not going to be very happy when they find out the reason we're seeking them out. They might use that hocus pocus on us too!"
"Yeah, one of them threw me across the clearing without even touching me!" Cye was recalling.
"It doesn't look good for us Mia, we don't stand a chance.... but one thing I would like to know is. If these Darklings are supposedly only after the Witches, why do they waste their time attacking us?"
"Well, they're evil Ryo, ever think they may just wanna fight something?" Kento was baring his nails.
"Or maybe we have something they want..." Rowen was contemplating, "They seemed mighty interested in Sage..."
"Cause he could see them. If no one else could see them, then maybe they wondered what it was about him..."
"Maybe," Rowen nodded, ",or maybe the answer lies in why Sage can see and hear them." Rowen gazed at Sage appraisingly, "You feel any differently when the familiar vanished and the Darklings came? I mean I know you heard them but..."
"I felt sick to my stomach.. But that happens anytime something evil is approaching, and then I'm sick. I can't really tell you anything that could be a definite clue," Sage said.
"But your missing time... the time you don't remember, maybe that's our clue," Rowen was thinking, "Mia, do you think you could find a topic that may have something to do with Sage being hypnotized?"
Mia nodded, "I'll try."
"We fought a familiar earlier, but never met up with the Darklings, why did they come now?"
"Maybe cause we killed one of their pets?" Kento suggested with a barbaric grin.
"If we killed it," Sage said looking uncertain, "and how would you know if they had come the last time you fought the familiar? As far as we know, you can't see them without my light. Ryo your lights and Rowen's combined didn't illuminate them enough to where you could see their faces... only my sword...my light did it."
"Well you are the Warrior of Light," Ryo spoke up, "Maybe that's just it. It's another one of your attributes, you heal and can see what is really in the dark... Ever think that... Darklings, you know how little kids say they see monsters under the bed, in the closet. Do you think..?"
"But maybe it's not Darklings, maybe there are other creatures in the dark.. Ones we can't see except with a special light..." Cye trailed off, his tone losing its excitement, as he gazed at Sage who was suddenly as white as a sheet, "Only some little kids still saw the monsters after a certain age...and fewer still when they grew older..but some still saw." He looked lost in the haze of time, the years falling away from his expression as he was remembering something.
"You had monsters in your closet?" Kento teased nudging Sage with his elbow.
Sage smiled back at him faintly, "My whole family thought I was nuts. I saw so many child psychiatrists.. All the other kids thought I was weird, guess that's why I'm so different from everyone now," he shrugged, "Instead of birthday parties I trained in the dojo... No one invited the weird kid to their party. My Dad and Grandfather couldn't have been happier.. But my Mom was kinda sad. But I guess I'm popular enough now to please her," Sage grinned, letting them know why he was so popular. He was a very good-looking young man, and one couldn't help but want to hang around him, despite how he could act sometimes. He had that magnetism about him.
"I didn't get invited to many parties either when I was a kid," Rowen confided, "I was the teacher's pet that always got the perfect grades with all the stickers and candy, and now in high school I'm the nerd that always throws off the curve."
Kento pretended to be upset, "That's right! I could have bombed that history test with a higher 'F' if it hadn't of been for you!"
"Aw, stop your complaining Kento, if you would have studied..."
"Ahem!" Ryo interrupted them, "This is a great conversation guys, and we'll have to bring it up again sometime, cause Rowen, I studied and bombed that history test with a vengeance and could have used a merciful curve too.. But... Sage?"
"Yes?"
"You saw the..monsters...even after no one else could?"
Sage nodded.
"And now? Do you still see them?" Ryo pressed, and Sage blinked. He kinda bit his lip and looked away.
"What? What was that for? You don't see them anymore? Do you remember why you stopped seeing them? Did you get too old?"
Sage was shaking his head at all of those reasons, he rubbed at his forehead absently.
"That thing was staring at your kanji... it shone right through your helmet. Like it was trying to see through it. Sage? Look at us.. What is it you're hiding?"
"N..nothing," Sage stuttered, "Look, I don't know what you're getting at."
"Guys, back off, he's not well," Mia was beginning sensing the angry charges in the room.
"Why should we back off.. Why won't he just answer the question, since he volunteered to feed us with so much information before?" Kento was narrowing his eyes and glaring at Sage, "What are you trying to keep from us Blondie?"
Sage met Kento's glare with an icy one of his own. Kento's eyes downcast after a while, no one could match glares with Sage for very long. "I'm not keeping anything that is important from you."
"Well if it's not important, then why won't you share with us Sage?" Ryo said, grimacing as he strained his ribs.
"Well if it's not important to this situation, why should I tell you?" Sage's eyes were wide and guileless.
"DAMMIT SAGE DON'T PLAY GAMES WITH US! WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO....?"
"I TOLD YOU IT'S NOT IMPORTANT!" Sage jumped up from the chair, "It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter at all! I DON'T KNOW WHY I SAW THE DARKLINGS, I WISH I DIDN'T!" He stormed off towards the stairs and was soon running up them.
"Shit," Kento stared after him, "We did it again.. Why do we always gang up on him?"
"Well if he wouldn't be so damn secretive all the time," Ryo was muttering. Rowen stood up, "I'm gonna go up and see if I can talk him back down. There's something to this, and if we all," he looked to Ryo and Kento, "can be civil, then we can get to the matter at hand."
Ryo grunted in reply, while Kento nodded, "I'll be nice."
Rowen smiled at him, and ventured up the stairs.

He didn't knock, he just entered. Sage was sitting on his bed clutching a pillow to his chest, he rocked back and forth. Rowen entered the room slowly, "Hey..."
"I just wanted to sleep Rowen..."
"What?"
"I just wanted to sleep. I couldn't take any more, the voices, the creatures, the ghosts....things no one else could see. My parents were gonna send me away, and no one would understand me where they were going to send me." Rowen reached the bed and sat down beside his friend, "Woa, woa, tell me what you're talking about buddy."
"I had to do it.." Sage was whispering to himself, "I had to get rid of it...it was a curse, not a gift like she had told me. I was going insane Rowen," Sage looked up at Rowen with sad eyes, "I did what I had to."
"What did you do buddy?" Rowen asked touching Sage's shoulder, and feeling Sage rest his head on his shoulder, "I... what I did was bad, Ro."
"I'm not here to judge you Sage..."
"My parents would kill me if they knew some of the things I did in my room while they were asleep.."
"Sage?"
"Rowen, I had had enough. I read every book about psychic phenomena, about ghosts, evil... Exorcism... anything that might be able to tell me what I had, and how to make it go away Ro... I...I... went to this woman, a guy in a new age bookstore told me about her. She was a medium, a witch, Rowen. She told me I was special...told me I had a great gift to offer to the world."
"So she told you, you are psychic?" Rowen asked with a shrug.
"No, she told me I was....that I had the 'silver touch'... What ever the hell that means," Sage muttered, "It's like being an open passageway, I hear everything, see everything, past, present, and future...but I can't do anything to change any of it. Shivoni, that is the witch, she told me it's a gift. A rare gift, and I should be honored.. You have to be chosen."
"Sage, she was right, it is a gift, certainly to us. You've given us warnings and your senses keep us on our toes...And it does sound like an honor..."
Sage was shaking his head, "The crazy are blessed with this power Rowen... Schizophrenia is not a disease.. It's a gift... voices, hallucinations..." Sage was shaking his head, "None of them are truly insane.. Just suffering, as I was, with the gift."
"So what did you do about it Sage? How did you make it stop?" Rowen let his arm fall around Sage's shivering shoulders.
Sage took a deep breath, "I performed a ritual, a spell... I made a circle of salt, I took some candles, and made an altar..."
"An altor? But altars are for...
"Sacrifices," Sage finished for him.
Rowen gasped and turned his head to stare at Sage in horror, "You hurt someone?"
"No!" Sage said imediately, sitting upright and holding his pillow again, "Never! Not a person... my pets.. My cats... I needed blood Rowen...some kind of sacrifice."
Rowen nodded looking sick to his stomach, "Go on.."
"After I did the spell and finished the chant it went away Rowen.. I was normal," Sage's eyes were glazed with his pent in tears, "I could sleep Rowen, that's all I wanted was a few hours of sleep with no noises, no lights, no voices, no whispers, no nightmares. Was I wrong for wanting to rest? I was so tired Rowen..." Sage let his head rest on his pillow. Rowen stared at his friend, he put out his hand to rub his back and let him know it was ok. Instead of looking up at him Sage extended his arm and set it in Rowen's lap, exposing his left wrist. Rowen gazed at it, then grabbed it and brought it to his face... "Sage...?" a faint scar over the pumping artery in his wrist was visible in the soft lighting.
"I tried everything," Sage said helplessly, "That's how bad things were."
"Nothing could ever be that bad," Rowen said softly, he sighed, "So what happened after that, to..to..."
"Break the spell I cast on myself? I'm not sure, I think it has something to do with the armor. A few years before we came to be, I felt a reemerging of my...gift. It wasn't nearly as strong as it has been when I was a kid.. I was petrified it would come back full blown, and I was getting ready to do the spell again.. But then..."
"You found Halo," Rowen said.
"I found Halo... and through Halo my powers were fully restored, and I gained a new talent, healing."
Rowen nodded, the frowned, "Sage, you said a witch told you about your gift... and she also gave you that spell that you used I'm assuming."
"A witch did tell me, but I found that book on my own. She doesn't give spells to minors with no training..."
"But you were still able to cast a spell... Sage, wouldn't that make you a..."
"No," Sage said flatly, he shook his head, "Rowen, I don't know what exactly I am...what it is I'm supposed to do. I know it has a lot to do with me also being the Warrior of Light, though."
"And a Darkling would like you for...?"
Sage was looking up at Rowen now, smiling sadly, "Ro....my story's not through. I've since been back to that witch. I had to close my channels again, get selective permeability, something. Remember the first day you met me?"
Rowen nodded, "You fainted in the middle of class."
"That evening I snuck out and went to see Shivoni... I told her what I had done when I was younger, and she had been impressed that I had even been able to cast the spell and that it was a success. I'm under her protection now Rowen... Witches mark things that are theirs, it's territorial, and I bare her mark, on my forehead. It guess it kinda went under the kanji."
"And you think that's what the Darklings were looking at? Shivoni's a Witch, so they'd be looking for her!"
"Shivoni's not that kind of Witch, remember there are different kinds!"
Rowen blinked, "But they..."
"Rowen, there's something else..."
"What?"
"I've seen a Darkling before. A long time ago, in my room. I don't know what it wanted, but the langauge that they speak... I remember understanding it then. Rowen, why could I undertsand them when no one else can... it's obvious what they are speaking isn't any langauge I've heard or seen before."
"So you think that maybe they remember you? You're a threat! If you can understand them and see them, and even have the power to make them back down...Sage, they'd want you dead. But...my question is why? What does this all mean? Why do you have these powers, what are they for?"
Sage frowned, "I don't know, and it scares me...and I just want them gone completely."
Rowen rubbed his back, and sighed, "So that mark on you now, that's filtering out that mysterious power of yours?"
Sage smiled lying his cheek on his pillow, "Yeah...and in a way it makes me the most dangerous to be around, now. Shivoni's gone, she went back to the United States, and now I bare a mark of protection with no protector near by... Demons love my kind."
"When did Shivoni leave? And why do they like you?"
"Not very long ago Ro... a month, she never got to meet Sylvia," Sage looked a little dreamy, "And it's because the broken or long distant marks of protection are the easiest to see, and the easier to torture. If Shivoni isn't close she can't sense the minor disturbances, that can be strong enough to send me off the deep end, but not strong enough to reach her. If it hadn't been for Sylvia, Ro..."
"Shhhh.." Rowen rubbed his friend's shoulders, "Sage. As long as I'm here, no one is gonna hurt you, no one and no thing, and now we have to go downstairs and tell the others the same things you just told me, Sage."
"No," Sage tried to move away from Rowen, but Rowen held him in place," No Rowen!"
"Sage, they're your friends, you trusted me, you can trust them too..."
"But they yell at me Rowen," Sage was saying starting to tremble violently, "You don't yell at me.. Except in the morning. Rowen I can't deal with them rejecting me."
"They won't..."
"They will.. They'll want to know why I didn't tell them right away. They'll accuse me of knowing how to find other Witches..." Sage broke off coughing violently. He gasped and patted his chest.
"Ok, ok, slow down," Rowen patted his back, "Don't forget you're sick. Sage, I won't tell them anything you don't want me too... but Sage, they gotta know. What you just told me is important."
"How? I can see Them that's all they need to know..."
"And the fact that They may be attracted to you," Rowen said flatly, "Sage, Mia can research this... She can find us something that can help us, help you."
Sage was nodding, "You're right, of course... I just.... You promise they won't yell?"
Rowen cracked a smile, "I'll kick all their asses if they yell."