What Happened?

The fire burned high and a pillar of black smoke rose even higher. It had been grueling work, gathering all the gibberlings together. But they knew it's what Knight would have wanted, to burn the vermin so their diseased carcasses couldn't harm others, even in death.

The five heroines stood around the fire with their heads bowed as the flames licked the sky, and they thought of the man in blue who had brought them together. Tears fell to the ground and wet the dead foliage as leaves fell from the trees above.

It was bright, brighter than anything he had ever seen before, and the purest white. And he hadn't opened his eyes yet. When he did, he found that it was even more intense; it surprised him that the brightness didn't hurt his eyes.

"Where am I? What is this place?" His brain made the last few crucial connections and everything came rushing back, the gibberlings, and the arrow, lying in the creek. "Am I dead?"

"Depends on what you define as dead." Out of the whiteness, a robed figure resolved. The way he was dressed and held himself made Knight think of some sort of priest. The man smiled, "Yes, you could say I'm a kind of priest, although I'm quite a bit above your average holy man."

Knight looked at the man incredulously, "So, what are you trying to tell me? That you're God and I'm in heaven?"

The robed man shook his head, "Young man, I am not here to how you the way to eternal bliss, and I am most certainly not God."

"Then who are you and what am I doing here?"

"I'm no more than someone who's here to offer some advice. Though you don't realize it, right at this moment you are fighting for your life. And you are giving up."

"So I am dying."

"To put it bluntly, yes, you are dying. But you don't have to. You're wounds, although serious, are not necessarily fatal. You have the choice of whether or not you die."

"And let me guess, you're here to convince me not to give up."

"On the contrary, I'm here to convince you to die."

Blade, Fade, Fel, Elfsong and Virgo sat in a side room of the spa resort. Mara had set them in guest apartments while they waited to see what became of Knight. He was pretty bad; he had lost a lot of blood when he was attacked by the gibberlings, and the arrow had just barely missed a major artery, choosing instead to lodge in his shoulder blade. They had almost made the damage worse when they pulled it out. Luckily, Fade some basic healing spells.

Mara had a skilled healer on staff that had worked on Knight all through the night, bandaging, stitching, and Healing. She finally managed to stabilize him. He had a constant, albeit weak, pulse and was breathing shallowly, but regularly.

Mara walked through the door and five heads turned to look. She shook her head and stood in front of a small, unlit fireplace.

"For all I can tell, he's physically fine, and there's no logical explanation as to why he's unconscious. It's like some force is keeping his mind in limbo."

Fade shook her head, "Who could be doing that? I've never heard on anyone with that kind of power."

"Nevertheless," Mara replied, "something is keeping him from waking up."

Fel looked up, "was there some sort of poison on the arrow?"

Mara shook her head again, "No, we checked, and the Healer didn't find any foreign agents in his blood."

Elfsong turned to Fade, "Could some sort of magic be responsible?

"There are a good many spells designed to keep a person unconscious, 'Sleep' for example. But anyone of those spells would have dissipated by now and Knight would be either awake, brain dead, or just dead."

"He's doing this to himself." Everyone turned and looked at Blade, "Think about it, the mind is the most powerful thing in existence. It can channel the primal forces of the world into magic, solve complex problems, and look at what monks can do just through sheer force of will."

Virgo had a confused expression, "So, Knight is forcing himself to stay in a coma?"

'I think it's more than that. I think he's fighting some sort of battle in his own mind, and he has some sort of decision he has to make on his own."

"What? What do you mean?" Knight's hands were clenched so tightly into fists, that his knuckles were white.

"It's really quite simple, but it's not every day that someone is told that they will destroy the world, so I'll explain it again." The man folded his arms in his robes and began to pace around Knight. "Not long from now, you and your friends will, indeed, find and confront Damian. It will be an intense battle, Damian's power is great, and you will eventually win, but the cost will be high. Do you remember the technique your father taught you but warned you never to use?"

Yes, he had learned it venturing in the oriental lands to the east of us; it was called Masshibutakku Makura, the Destructive Power of Darkness. Are you saying I'm going to use that attack to kill Damian?"

"Correct. Normally, this would not be a cause for concern, as the effects of this attack are limited, against a normal person. However, Damian is such a wellspring of evil energies that when you use that attack, it's power combines with the power that resides within Damian and explodes across the world. Any who are not immediately killed will go mad and die slow, horrible deaths. All because of you."

Knight shook his head, "No, that's impossible. I swore and oath never to use that attack and I will not break it."

"You will break this one, that destiny has already been written. But you can avoid it; the Fates did not expect this opportunity to present itself. You can change the future, come with me into Oblivion, save the lives of the people you are sworn to protect."

Knight's head bowed and his hands relaxed, "I really don't have a choice, do I?"

"Not if you wish to preserve life in this world."

"Alright, I'll go with you."

The man nodded and, turning around, inscribed a large circle in the air. A portal leading into darkness swirled into existence in the space he marked. The man gestured Knight forward.

One of Mara's girls burst into the room, almost breaking the door down. Breathlessly, she said, "We're losing him, he's not breathing and his pulse is fading!"

The six women jumped to their feet and ran for the door, nearly knocking the girl of her feet.

Knight's body lay on a cot in a bare room while a Healer frantically tried to keep him alive. When they entered, she was pouring some sort of herbal concoction down his throat.

"What happened?" Blade asked the Healer.

"I'm not sure, one moment he's fine and the next I've got my hands full just keeping his heart breathing, some one hand me that stone in that bag over there." Mara snatched the bag off the floor and handed the small smooth stone to the Healer. She chanted a few words over it and placed on Knight's chest. "I just gave him the strongest heart's fire and athelin plant mixture I can make, it should help some, this Heart Stone will tell us."

The stone began to slowly pulsate blue and read, show the rhythm of Knight's heart. It didn't look good, any slower and his heart will have stopped.

Blade grabbed one of Knight's cold hands and said, "No, Knight. Stay with us, don't give up."

Knight stood in front of the portal. He didn't know why, but he felt cold, and his head was starting to get cloudy. This must be what it feels like to die. He lifted a foot to walk forward again, when voices cut through the wool in his mind. They were familiar to him, telling him not to give in, to stay. His foot went back down on the floor.

"Before we go, I have a question. What will happen to my friends?"

"You don't need to know that, you already know what you have to do."

"No, I need to know, and I'm not going anywhere until you tell me."

The man shook his head, "Very well. They will continue on without you, and they will confront Damian without you. But without you Masshibutakku Makura, they will lose."

"What! Why didn't you tell me that before?"

"Because you know the consequences! Can you honestly say that they would want to die slowly and painfully with the knowledge that they helped destroy the world than meet a quick end with more opportunities to end Damian's evil?"

Knight turned away, "No, I can't, but now that I know, maybe I can change it."

"I tell you, if you go back your future is set!"

"No," Knight looked down at the ground. "When he died, my father told me something. 'The future has not been written, you can always make your own destiny.' You said yourself, I have a choice."

The robed man shook with fury, "So be it. And when you destroy the world for your own selfishness, remember that it could have ended here."

His eyes shot open and he gasped as air filled his lungs, and the rock on his chest began shifting colors faster. It took a few moments for the shapes in his vision to resolve into the faces he knew. He sat up and smiled at the relieved expressions on their face. "I'm going to be alright. Really, I'm going to be fine." They all came at him at once, happy to see their friend was back with them. But in his mind, Knight wondered, did I just kill us all? Then he remembered the words of his father, all those years ago.

The future has not been written; you can always make your own destiny.

--Author's Notes: Yeah, this is just a first version of how I want this chapter to go. That Japanese there, not gonna be in the final draft. It sounds neat all by its lonesome, but it just doesn't fit with the more western style of the rest of the story. Maybe if the whole thing took place in the Orient it would work, but reading over it, it just doesn't sound right. I dunno. Well here you go, enjoy!