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Nita began to fall forward, and Kit, bewildered, caught her by the shoulders to try to steady her. But then he himself began to fall onto the bed, and watched the world dissolving into black…

Kit's eyes were open, but he saw nothing except the deepest darkness he had ever seen. It had mass, it was pressing against his eyes and even his nose and mouth, suffocating him. He tried to twist away, but his body was stuck in the darkness, unable to move. Help! he thought desperately. Nita!

I'm here, came Nita's reply, so distant that it was barely audible. It's this darkness that's muffling her thoughts, Kit realized, shocked, as he tried to force his lungs to draw breath. Nita, he screamed with his mind, the only part of him that still seemed to function, I can't breathe!

And suddenly, there was a light in the darkness that pushed it back. The light was beautiful, a welcome sight after the horrible black nothingness, although it was almost too bright to look at directly. Kit could breathe again, and move. He looked at that blinding sunburst, and saw, at the center… Nita?

Nita breathed heavily. "Let's go," she said with some effort. "I can't keep this… whatever, away for long." In fact, Kit was now encased in that blinding light.

"Which way?"

Nita didn't answer immediately; she shut her eyes and acquired a look of deep concentration. Finally, she sighed and said, "This way," leading Kit off into a patch of blackness that looked just the same as it looked in any other direction.

"I don't like this," said Kit after a while of walking in the darkness.

"Neither do I," confessed Nita. "It's a real strain to hold this darkness away…" she indicated the aura of light around her.

"What is it?"

She gave a small, grim laugh. "You think I know? I'm just doing my best to keep us from getting suffocated." There were beads of sweat popping out on her forehead now. Kit had been silently trying to use his mind to shoulder some of the burden, push back his own little square of darkness, but as he erected a mental wall around himself, the dark came flooding though. There was some reason that Nita could control this, and he couldn't, and it was all so confusing… "Dim the light!" Nita hissed suddenly at him.

"Huh?" he responded stupidly.

"Dim the light!" she whispered again.

"How?"

"Jesus, I'm keeping the dark out! I can't do two things at once! I dunno… let some back in, I guess."

Kit groaned. He was completely lost here. He had no idea what was going on. All he could do was trust his partner, who had saved his neck a fair few times. "Let some in…" He probed with his mind at Nita's barrier, the edges of the glowing light, and pushed at one spot…

Too late he realized his mistake. The darkness came flooding in again to envelope them. He saw it coming for him, for Nita… No! he thought fiercely, throwing his entire self against the blackness surrounding them, and then he was aware of no more.

A/N: I've been doin' the cliffhanger thing for so long now, haven't I? More soon, I promise. The review box awaits… hint hint… And I want to know how good a job I've been doing thickening the plot; send your theories on what will happen/what's going on to or REVIEW, DURN YOUS! Lol… XD