Journey into Darkness

Taichi gazed apprehensively at the domed building. It was the closest thing to a medical facility they had in this place, where people lived in trees and talked in each other's heads. Mimi was in there. Giving birth to a baby, Matt's baby. Something in Taichi that had been holding on, clutching desperately at any shred of hope, finally let go and died. Matt would never see him as anything but a friend. That part of him that died also allowed him to finally forgive Sora. He realized it really wasn't her fault, if it hadn't been Mimi, it just would have been someone else.

"It's about time."

Taichi turned to see Chloethia, wearing a flimsy skirt that was so much longer than her usual that it almost reached her knees- he was shocked.

"You're not suppose to be in my head." He told her, trying to sound irritated.

"If you'd remember to shield I couldn't be in your head." She said matter-of-factly. Taichi rolled his eyes, she always got on to him like that, was he suppose to shield all the time? How exhausting!

"You' are worried." She said.

"Of course I am, she's my friend… and Matt would never be able to live with himself if Mimi died." He looked at the grass he was standing on as he said that last part, feeling his heart wrench at the thought of Matt being hurt. Chloethia watched him curiously.

"Your emotions are confused?" She asked. She only asked questions when she was trying to get him to see something for himself but Taichi found this question easily.

"No, I love him."

"Love him how?" This one stumped Taichi, how did he describe his feelings for Matt? Sure they fought a lot but no one challenged him like Matt did, no one forced him to be better, rise higher, and improve himself like Matt did. He got a warm, glowing feeling in his chest when he thought of him; he wanted to protect him and shield him from hurt, and so many other emotions when he thought of his blond haired comrade, how did he break down all those feelings into simple words?

"You are not shielding Taichi." She warned him softly, his mouth twisting in frustration, and he grounded himself, centered, then sent a bit of his energy into that dark place in his head whence all his thoughts emerged. Imagining a thick brick wall, the 'shield' rose up around him like a prison- he really hated this feeling it made him panicky and claustrophobic. To be surrounded by such a thick, blankness confining him to this dark space was horrible and he had trouble thinking clearly while struggling to maintain it. He told her such.

She clicked to herself in annoyance, then reached out and gave his mental wall a powerful shove, he wasn't ready for such a response and he felt the cracks breaking along the inside, quickly, he tried to cover the damage but another shove had the bottom crumbling, one more sent the whole thing crashing to the ground and gave him a tremendous headache.

: Did I say a wall Taichi?: She asked him in his head, announcing that she had again invaded his mind without his permission. : I said a shield, solid and smooth, flexible. Here, I will show you.: Without warning, she seized a portion of his energy and began to build her own shield around his mind. Showing him what he needed to do. First, she created a foundation, so the shield would be grounded firmly, something he always forgot to do, the she slowly spun something resembling a spider's web which she showed him moved and bent to her will, then handed it over to him, where it wavered in his inexperienced 'hands' before coming to hesitant stability.

: Move it, it is your will that controls the shield.: Unsure, he tentatively told it to bend in and the whole web closed in fast until it was like a tight bubble around him, then her told it to bend out and it went so far it seemed as though he could lose himself in the darkness. : Just so,: she said, amusement lacing her voice,: now make it stronger.: He did so just by thinking for it to be stronger, as he watched, the spider web became a solid, shiny sphere of which he was the center, then he raveled it down to nothing but thin wisps of silk like thread that couldn't possibly hold anything out. At that time Chloethia removed herself from his mind and he was once more alone. However her words brought him out of his fascination with his new shield.

"I have thought over what you were thinking and I have come to a conclusion." Until that moment, Taichi had forgotten that she had been reading his mind. Remembering what had been going through his head, he should have been embarrassed, but he found he was more interested in what she had to say.

"There is no lust in you Taichi, no desire for this boy you believe you love. You do not wish to lay with him as he lay with the girl. If you do not wish to make love, how then can you love?"

"You mean sex?" He asked quizzically "I'm too young for sex, I'm only eleven!" Chloethia seemed to find something amusing about such a statement and her voice revealed her restrained laughter.

"Your love and the girl were not to young." Taichi started to speak, but he could think of nothing to refute her point. She smiled in approval. "Do you wish to know what I think?" He nodded. "You are merely friends with this boy, friendship is a close kin to love and for a boy who does not know his own self perhaps it is confusing, but you will see that there is differences and when you find that true love that you seek, there will be no doubts if you face it with an open mind." She paused, then sighed and looked toward the building where Mimi was. "Perhaps someone should have spoken to those two, they are so mixed up by their emotions and their guilt that they do not know if they love or lust or if they are even friends. A bond like theirs should not be strained with such thoughts and feelings as those." Then she sighed again and walked away, having said what she'd meant to say.

Taichi looked back at the building and thought about what she'd told him.

Daenerys looked down at the baby resting peacefully in his little bed, smiling softly; Mimi, the poor thing, had fallen into an exhausted sleep as soon as the baby was born. Studying the infant, she lifted the blanket away to see that it was a little boy, hairless and round face, his chubby little fingers curled into a fist beside his head, She felt a pang of maternal affection, and longed to hold him in her arms. Perhaps it was time she talked to Jon about another child.

Daenerys sighed and placed the blanket back over his vulnerable little body. Someone would have to spell him soon lest he grow to quickly and they couldn't have that, not with the children at the last stage before they journeyed into Kalabrys' land, where the sun never rose and dark clouds hid the stars. Her realm of darkness.

Koushiro gazed with trepidation at the path before them. Gigantic black thunderheads hurled bolts of purple lightning down into the shear walls of the canyon through which their destination lie. He could feel his courage, already flayed, crumble beneath the oppressive darkness of that chasm and he shrank away. Comforting arms reached up to support him as he stumbled and he looked up to find calm in Jyou, of all people.

He didn't say anything; just gazed at the path Taichi had ruthlessly forced them to trek in pursuit of their fleeing comrades. In his eyes was a kind of uncaring fearlessness, as though he no longer worried over the outcome, but simply followed orders.

They were dying, he realized, looking at the faces of his friends. There was nothing in their world that they founds joy in and therefore they had nothing left for which to fight.

"Are you sure they came this way?" Koushiro, his natural curiosity surfacing, studied their cold and dead looking surroundings, the bare black limbs of grotesquely twisted tress thrusting up from pristine snow and strange black clouds hanging ominously over that canyon, glowing ghostly blue, yawning before them like the mouth of some great, hungry beast.

As Taichi leveled those burning brown eyes on him, he realized that he had spoken his question aloud and felt panic hit him like the lightning overhead, jolting him to his shoes.

Taichi didn't say anything though, just as he hadn't said anything for days, he turned away silently and gazed at the shadows beyond those black clouds. Koushiro watched his profile for a few moments, wondering what could have gone so terribly wrong. After Mimi had left there had been the sulking, angry Taichi, everyone had been concerned, but not overly so. Then Sora had vanished and he'd been violent and abusive; insane even. Now he was silent, but still he drove them on to some destination known only to him.

Trembling in the aftermath of such absolute terror as he had felt in those moments before Taichi had turned away, Koushiro leaned more into Jyou and felt the arms tighten briefly around him. The embrace gave him hope. They were not broken, not yet, just badly bent. He smiled a little, looking around at his friends once again with new eyes. He could see the wounds in them, the lacerations ran deep, but if they managed to escape somehow before it was too late, he suspected that the scars would fade with time.

He stepped out of Jyou's embrace and looked each of his friends in the eye, or tried to, Hikari was the only one who returned his gaze. He smiled and hoped it was reassuring, of all she had suffered most. She smiled back in turn, a trembling, pathetic attempt, but a smile just the same, sometimes her strength amazed him.

The crunch of snow jerked his gaze away from Hikari and he focused on Taichi's back as he walked purposely down the path. Without comment, the others followed and Koushiro was left behind. He thought about just leaving, he could do it too, he knew that, with all their backs turned he could just turn around and fade back into the forests behind him. He almost did, almost left them all behind, but remembering that brief, silent exchange of smiles, the hopelessness, the sheer emptiness of his friends, and he knew he could not leave them. Matt had left them. Mimi had left them. Even Sora had deserted them. But he would not, they needed him and he would be there.

Slowly, he took first one step, then another, his legs feeling as though they were filled with lead, but it grew easier with each shoeprint he left behind and the darkness yawning before him didn't seem quite so terrifying as before. In fact, it almost looked welcoming, as though beckoning him home.

Chapters to Come

Abduction of Beauty

Face off with Flowers

The Clash of Power

A Feast of Evil

Dance of the Fearless

A Time for Friendship

Good-byes Can Last Forever