Free Change Fault

A/N: FINALLY! I'm back with a new chapter. I hope you haven't all lost interest! I'm really sorry for the long wait; I was planning out my CCS fic when I remembered that I had this new chapter down on paper from vacation!

Review Replies:

SVZ: We did go to your dad's buffet! It was good. And a few days ago we went to a Japanese Restaurant. I have a small obsession with shrimp tempura now.

DTN: Well now, you really should read the series. Not much of this can make sense with out it...

DSRockStar: Sorry about the 'soon' thing. Vacation plus me being lazy kind of ruins it.

Sars3: The people I'm around rarely say wicked. (And most of the time it's to make fun of someone else) So I wasn't sure. Anyway, I wrote wrote wrote, but I was too lazy to type type type.

katie janeway: Well, this chapter really doesn't do too much to tell about the other power. (KIDDING! You just have to read it to find out.) Now read!

Kalyra Shadowdancer: Thank you!!!! Here's what happens next. *points to new chapter*

Morgaine of Ithil: Wow... Niceness. Shima came from 'Shiro' and 'Lina'. (Shiro: NW and Lina: From Slayers) But Tempis really I had no idea what it was. Then I heard the word 'tempest' and liked it. Well, "and" came from.... Just kidding! Finals went well, I got a pretty good grade on my French one. (I messed up TWO questions! TWO! WAAH!) Thanks for the review.

Silverwitch2: I don't mind repetition. I actually appreciate it. Weird, aren't I? Well, thanks!

ReaderGirl14: ....SOWWY! I didn't mean to take so long... Hope you continue to read!

ang3lcat: I've actually been back for almost a month. Sad, isn't it? Still writing, of course. And thanks for your review!

Disclaimer: I do not own the Young Wizards series, and I don't want to (for once), because if I did then it would stop right now because I could NEVER replace Diane Duane.

This chapter is dedicated to GIS. May you rest in pieces. (I WOULD NEVER DEDICATE ANYTHING TO REGIS! [really evil guy in suit]).

Chapter Eleven: To Be Clear

Cold. It was the first thought that entered Nita's mind when she awoke the next morning. It was an odd thought, seeing as it was 60º outside, and beads of sweat lay on her forehead. She shoved her comforter onto the floor, sitting up and stretching out her arms. Nita looked through the darkness at the opposite wall, trying to narrow down reasons for her chills.

She found one: Dairine.

Dairi left with Darryl last night. That was why she was so freaked. The plan, the bait. What she and her fellow wizards for the past 2 weeks had been working on. Man, why did we have to stay here? Nita asked herself silently, lying back down and gazing up at the ceiling.

Your guess is as good as mine, Neets. The voice that entered her head was tired and groggy.

Oops, didn't mean to wake you, El Niño. Nita replied evenly, glad that Kit wasn't here to give her a good punch in the arm.

You didn't wake me up, I was already conscious. Kit was not lying, wizards don't lie, even at 7:00 a.m. Nita felt Kit leave her head; the usual empty feeling was ever present. Though nothing was as bad as before...

Where had Dairine and Darryl warped off to? The worldgate down in the deli, of course. It had returned to its usual position a while ago; it happened to be an adequate spot for calling spells. It would be Darryl's first time there, and only Dairine's fourth. It was another reason Nita pressed wanting to go.

"The thing is," Tom had told her merely hours before, "quite a lot of things can actually happen when more than the amount of wizards needed come to one place for a calling spell. The most common result is an over-use of wizardry, which then--"

"Let me guess," Nita had interrupted, "a very large 'Boom'?" She sat back in the armchair in Tom and Carl's living room, clasping her mug of freshly brewed tea.

"That would be the main idea; yes."

Now Nita wasn't so sure.

She got up out of bed, quite reluctantly, and stalked into her closet. It was Saturday and October, but unusually warm. Nita slipped into fading jeans and a T-shirt before going barefoot downstairs and into the kitchen...

...Where Kit was already waiting, sitting on a stool at the counter with his wizard's manual open and in front of him. Nita passed him and waved absently while opening the refrigerator. She didn't even notice the grim expression on his face as Nita sat down with a bowl of grapes.

"What's up?" Nita took out her own manual, thumbing through random pages and chomping on grapes at the same time.

Kit didn't answer with words. Instead, he raised his left hand for her to see.

Nita's jaw dropped. Kit's hand was completely and utterly black, as in absorbent darkness. The female wizard could only look at it in short, timed glances. Kit had put it in a plastic bag as the darkness spread; though even with a spell it was barely contained.

"Wh-what happened?" Nita asked, amazed and horrified by the sight. Kit shrugged one shoulder and continued looking through his manual. The pages seemed to shudder every time he touched them with his clean hand.

~!~!~!~!~

Dairine and Darryl sat silently in the subway car. It was mostly empty, save and old woman and a guy in a fancy brownish suit. (A/N: GISs Minion!!) Dairine, being older than Darryl and a few inches taller, had forced Darryl to pay for the tickets. Now Darryl held a secret grudge against her and wouldn't speak.

When they reached their destination, Grand Central, they were back on speaking terms. Getting two packs of chips and a large soda to split at the deli, they chose to sit at the table closest to the worldgate's hidden entrance.

"This is going to work, right?" Darryl's voice seemed slightly unnerved.

"Duh." Dairine answered, not exactly sure herself. They each in turn went into the back, to the worldgate. Supplies weren't needed in this case; Dairine slipped Spot out of her newly acquired "pocket."

Darryl watched in almost awe at the familiar manual, then remembered his own talent. Suddenly there were two Darryl's looking at Dairine as she worked, both holding ends of the wizardry net. When the "spelling" began Darryl became one again and entwined his own part with Dairine's. He was still new with this spell, and he paused quite a few times. Dairine had her part on Spot's screen in front of her, making it slightly less difficult.

The normal intrigue of the world as it leaned into hear the wizardly Speech heightened Dairine's confidence. Darryl was too absorbed to even notice, as the net glowed an intense blue, the places with each of their hairs glowing the brightest.

Suddenly everything was too blinding to see; the partnered wizards closed their eyes tightly as the spell continued to take hold of the worldgate.

It was over in less than a second; but it took several minutes for their eyes to readjust. When they did finally, the strangest creature stood in front of them.

It looked mostly human; a pair of legs, arms and the normal chest and torso. But where there should've been hands, there were paws. And instead of normal human ears, black and fuzzy cat ears sat upon the being's human head. To top it all off, a furry, swishing cattail was--well, in the back.

"What the hell is that?" Were the first coherent words out of Darryl's mouth.

Paws went to hips. "A strider, you pompous idiot, and I could ask you the same question. Now tell me what I'm here for." The 'strider' was male, it seemed, if they even had gender. The only thing the two wizards were thankful for at that moment was that the strider was wearing pants, as well as a leather jacket. "Hello? Do you two have trouble hearing?" The next thankful note, it was talking in the Speech.

"We didn't bring you here!" Dairine blurted angrily, making Darryl side step a few times to get away from her. "We called the Lone One!"

The catboy looked at them with skinny, diamond-like pupils. "Well, I'm certainly not the creator of entropy."

~!~!~!~!~

"So you and Ponch encountered a Power, and now this?" Nita gestured to the large, clear garbage bag that was now up to Kit's shoulder. His whole arm had been consumed by something much worse than just darkness. Tom and Carl, already keeping track of Dairine and Darryl's progress, were to be over at Nita's soon enough. Nita just hoped that they wouldn't be too late.

Kit nodded lamely, he hadn't spoken yet today. His eyes had darkened much over the last hour, making him uncomfortable for Nita to be around. But she didn't leave his side-that is, until Tom and Carl got there, to which she retreated to her bedroom. It was being in a hospital waiting room, only ten times worse. Nita knew what waiting was like, and this was way different.

It was over an hour later when Nita heard Tom's call to come downstairs. She did so reluctantly, only to find Tom the only one present in the kitchen.

"Where'd they go?" Nita asked immediately, not needing to specify who 'they' were. Tom urged her to sit down on a kitchen stool, and Nita saw the urgency in the senior wizard's eyes. She complied immediately, plopping down on the stool and waiting for Tom to speak first.

"Kit has been attacked." Was what Tom started off with, making Nita almost slip off of her stool. She stared at him with wide eyes, as if asking him whether he was lying or not. Tom didn't say anything for a moment that seemed like forever, and just as Nita opened her mouth to urge him one he continued. "By what, we don't know for sure. In truth it may possibly be the same thing that attacked him before, the reason he had to be contained. Carl took him to a meeting with a few other wizards, to decide whether we need to contain him again or not. I have a feeling that whatever let him return human was temporary, but its just a feeling. The spell Kit was using to contain it in the first place was a much minor version of the real spell that contained himself, which was the only reason it was working. So at the moment, you can do nothing about it and all we can do is wait for Dairine and Darryl's findings." That was how he ended his speech (A/N: No pun intended), and Nita merely gaped.

After a few minutes, Nita slammed her manual (after taking it out of her "pocket") down onto the counter and ruffled through it frantically, getting to the listings in less time than usual. She scanned down the line, ignoring Tom's obvious protests, and finally reached Kit's own.

Status: Contained

Nita held her breath and looked at the senior wizard in her kitchen with enraged, wild eyes. "They can't take Kit again! He didn't do anything! And you lied, you said they were considering it, you didn't said they had already gotten him!" She was close to hysterics now, still flipping through pages, wishing her manual would suddenly giver the address Kit was contained in, let her find him. Anything... Anything!

Looking at her with sympathetic eyes, Tom got off his stool and let his hands rest gently on Nita's shoulders, ceasing her quest. "Nita, there's nothing we can do now. This is in the Power's hands. And, whether its fortunate or not, in Dairine and Darryl's."

~!~!~!~!~

Dairine and Darryl shoved the Strider into the girl's bathroom, Dairine conjuring up a quick spell to not block out, but merely turn away anyone else. The spell gave the bystander merely a mental reason why she couldn't go into the bathroom. That way, Darryl wouldn't die of embarrassment and for the moment they could hide the Strider.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing? I have to get back to my galaxy." The Strider was staring at them as if they were insane. "Now." It tried to get out of Darryl and Dairine's grasps, but the two were frantic and didn't let it go.

"We can't give you back until we understand why you came!" Dairine explained, and the Strider stopped struggling. (A/N: Strider stopped struggling. Say that 5 times fast!) "Now, first question, who are you?"

"Kizaeith."

Dairine glanced at Darryl, who was looking around the bathroom curiously, there were three stalls, and a fourth for handicapped people. The bathrooms, on the inside, seemed almost larger than the deli itself.

"Well, Kizaeith, it seems you have been sent to us for some reason..." Dairine was laying it out quickly, and Darryl sent her a rather dull look, which matched the one on Kizaeith's face. "You must know something about what we're trying to find out." The Powers don't do things for no reason, Darryl. Dairine commented dryly in his mind.

"Depends, what are you trying to find out?" Kizaeith was now looking around the bathroom. "And you are correct, the Powers don't do something for no reason." Dairine stared at the creature along with Darryl, who had received the thought perfectly. "Striders are telepathically inclined beings, you two, obviously wizards, should know that."

Apparently, the partners didn't. "We wanted to figure out why the Lone One could... Consume people in darkness, as it appears." Dairine explained before Darryl could open his mouth to try and do so himself. The Strider tapped his paw against his chin, then looked at Dairine with contempt.

"Consume? No. Cover? Yes. No one can be consumed by darkness. Where Striders are from, the whole world is... As you called it, dark. Maybe the Lone One figured out how our planet gets covered."

Following Kizaeith's every word, Spot had been taking detailed notes. However, by the end of its speech, Spot's screen had turned blue. "Error!" It spouted cheerfully.

~!~!~!~!~

The problem with dealing with something you don't understand is finding out why you don't understand it in the first place. For Kit, it was trying to find out why he was back where he started.

Darkness befell every part of this cursed world. The tree that was struck by lightning was unfortunately still standing, no matter how far he walked it kept appearing. The grass was damp and dewy, as always, and he rarely sat down. The minute he was banished here the thick black smoke-like demon crept along the ground and up the tree and into the sky, of which for mere seconds had been a lighter gray.

"Deja vu." Kit mumbled to himself, wringing his hands with discomfort. He couldn't sit, he couldn't stand, and he couldn't walk, without feeling a ceaseless discomfort. Being normal, being light, for no matter how long, was only a temporary medicine if he was just going to be thrown back here.

"All over again." Was the reply, and Kit pushed off of the tree he was leaning on and looked around frantically. No body connected with the voice. "Good things always have to end. Your friends aren't doing much to help you, and the ones who were already in action are now stuck with more questions." The male wizard snarled, a snarl that could never belong to him.

"Temper, temper. I thought I gave you enough advice when you were with your dog." Out of nowhere stepped a man in a clean-cut, three-piece business suit. He took off his bowler hat to reveal red-gold hair. "I'd hoped you'd be glad to see someone you knew."

~!~!~!~!~

A/N: HA! The chapter's over. And for those of you who don't know who that person mentioned is, read So You Want to Be a Wizard over. It took me a while before I could find the description I was looking for.

So, REVIEW!