"What sort of tasks and tests are you talking about exactly?" Gabe asked, more than a little worried...

"You will see in due time young one. For now patience... will be of utmost importance." His ring half replied. Gabe was getting tired of all this cloak and dagger mystery shit. He didn't like it one bit. There was something inside himself that said all was not what it seemed. There was this nagging sense of foreboding that was creeping around inside his veins and he couldn't ignore it... It was growing by the minute. The longer they sat around listening to their past selves in this twisted place, the worse he felt.

Nikki sensed Gabe's growing unrest and had to wonder what was going on inside his head. She knew from the first time she had met his soul so long ago that he was a fairly good judge of what was going on... Soon, their past selves were fading into the scenery...seemingly out of view or maybe gone altogether. Nikki pulled Gabe to the side she had to know what was bothering him because she was sure it might be important.

"Gabriel, what is wrong?" She said softly but seriously.

"Something doesn't feel right Nikki." He replied in equal tone.

"What do you mean? You need to be more specific dear... if I am to help you in any way."

"Something else is going on here. I get the feeling that things are not what they appear to be. I've got this nagging sense of bad juju. You know like something bad is going to happen. It isn't that uneasiness that you get when you're some place unfamiliar... it's FAR more than that." He explained.

"I see. But what can we do now that we are here? I think we need to band together. If this is not the Witchblade itself drawing us in, then something is indeed very wrong and if we cannot work together something bad may well happen. We cannot let things come to that. We are going to have to do all that is within our power to get through this and to figure things out. This could all be a part of the test, but if it isn't, then we must be on our guard. Our lives may depend on it." She said as she led him back to Ian and Sara.

"What is wrong Lady Phoenix?" Ian inquired. He seldom called her by anything other than Milady, or Lady Phoenix. In fact other than in one instance it seemed he did not shorten names much at all. His air of formality was strangely comforting. Even here faced by God only knew what, he was still Ian and that was good.

"Gabe senses that there is something amiss. And now that I am aware of it... I too sense that things are out of sorts. Whether this is all a part of the test or something else I cannot be sure. But his instincts have never been wrong before. I believe that we should be on guard at the very least. I have a feeling that it is going to be imperative that we all stick together. We cannot let petty disagreements or mistrust separate us. If we cannot stand together, then we will fall. So Ian and Gabe you two need to quit it with the testosterone and machismo acts. You are not competitors; you are equals...you have nothing to prove neither to Sara or myself nor to one another. You each have your parts to play and I suggest you start playing with the rest of us instead of fighting with one another. In fighting will only bring us to defeat. It will solve nothing, it will achieve nothing... at least not anything of any positive nature. So you two will behave here or else when we get back... if we get back, you will have to answer to me. And you won't like me when I let the crystal take over... I assure you." She practically growled. Gabe cowered and even Ian looked intimidated. Sara just inwardly smirked.

The boys needed to be reprimanded and Nikki was the only one that could instill fear in the both of them. Granted, scaring Gabe was fairly easy... but Ian on the other hand could be one tough egg to crack. After all, he had lived with that tyrant Irons for most of his life... and if he could live through that. well then it was easy to understand why it was so difficult to visibly shake him. She knew all too well just how much Nikki could scare Ian. In fact, the first night Nikki had appeared on the scene Ian had come to her door looking as though he'd seen a ghost... And that was something she hadn't at the time known how to deal with. She hadn't thought that anything could do that to Ian... but Nikki had. Sara shook herself from her mind for a moment there would be time to analyze such things later... once they were out of here. But to get out, they needed to get to work.

"I agree with her. It's like watching two dogs go at a pissing contest to see who's the bigger dog on campus... and frankly, cute though it can be... now is neither the time nor the place for it. We have more important things to worry about than you two vying for male dominance here. So Nikki, what should we do once the boys get their heads out of their asses?" Sara chuckled oh she was serious...but that last comment... well even she couldn't maintain a straight face for that. The boys were just staring at her incredulously and she just smiled and blew them both a kiss and soon they too were laughing.

All attention then turned to Nikki. She was suddenly elected leader it seemed. Of course she was the oldest... and being that she was immortal she still retained the information from when they had last done this all those years ago... So it made sense to let her take the reins. She stood there in quiet contemplation for a moment, trying to come up with just what to do next... There was after all a lot riding on this... It was succeed or die... there was no fail, there was no try again. They wouldn't get a second chance at this so she had to make a good plan...

"Well I think that first we should make a pact to stick together no matter what and to not let any petty differences, insecurities or dominance issues break us apart. We are loyal to each other 100%, no less. If we can't do that then we might as well just give up now and let whatever power has us here to kill us, because it'll be pointless to go on if we'll just fail anyway because certain individuals can't keep their testosterone in check. Second we need to take stock of the situation and try to come up with ideas as to just what they may have in store for us and try to make the outlines of plans for any of the possible eventualities that we can come up with. So, are there any other questions, comments, concerns, issues or anything of the sort? Because if there are, I suggest that we get them out into the open right now and deal with them before they can hurt us." Nikki said as she stood there expectantly. She looked like some ancient warrioress standing there bathed in the light of the strange moon that was in the 'sky' of this place.