A/N: Oh wow, it's really been ages since I've updated, hasn't it? From last Thanksgiving? I just finished this year's excuse-- ahem, camp... Geez... SORRY! I hope you all remember this... Thanks for putting up with my, y'all.

Disclaimer: insert standard disclaimer

Dairine had been sitting in this black little cell for what felt like several days now, and felt more hopeless than she ever had in her life, even when she had been cornered by the Lone Power on her ordeal. Because being trapped isn't the same as being cornered, and now she was trapped. And she thought she knew who it was who was holding her prisoner inside her own mind. The same Someone who was controlling her body now, for reasons she could not begin to fathom. And she couldn't do anything to stop Him from this place that was four black walls and a black ceiling and floor, this place that was so dark she couldn't see a thing, that she could barely tell if she herself was still there.

Again and again in the past few—days? Hours? Weeks? There was no way to tell—she had tested the strength of the cage of darkness that held her, probing it with her wizardry, of which she had a surprisingly little amount left. But there seemed to be no way out. And every time she would attempt to cast a spell to free herself, her captor would appear, cackling maliciously, and subdue her, smothering her with darkness. She would always wake some time later, aching, her head throbbing, and be overwhelmed again by that sense of hopelessness. But always, she would be glad that the Lone One had not used that terrible light on her, as he had on her first day in this prison. A thousand lashings with that darkness would be preferable to one encounter with that blinding, searing, wrong light. In fact, she was almost beginning to embrace the darkness...

No, no, no! Dairine thought fiercely. You can't think like that! That's what he's trying to do, turn you to the dark! She shook herself out of that train of thought. She couldn't let herself be controlled any longer:

Nita? she thought. Kit? Anyone? With a gigantic effort, considering the amount of power at her disposal, she threw her perception out of the walls of the cell. What she "saw" scared her; her inner world was now only the darkness of the Lone Power, stretching everywhere. Everywhere except...

There was one little gap in the darkness, a blip on Dairine's wizardly radar. And that blip of light was moving closer to her. She recognized it. Nita! she thought frantically. Nita, I'm here! And she thought she heard a reply, but a very muffled one. She reached out to contact her sister again, allowing herself a brief ray of hope...

Which was immediately extinguished by a sudden chill presence in her cell, a darkness darker than the inky black that surrounded them. She shuddered, afraid. Fear was not an emotion that Dairine Callahan liked, nor experienced very often. But now, she was afraid. And longing for comfort... No. She couldn't reach out for Nita now, or He would know that she was there. She had to keep her sister safe, even though the only way to do that was to face Him, to distract Him and keep His mind off other things, like the two wizards making their way towards him.

"Tsk tsk," he said in a voice that was agony just to listen to. "Trying to get out, are we?"

Yes, Daring thought fiercely. That's exactly what I was trying to do. That was all she allowed herself to think.

"You need a lesson in manners," He said again in that horrible, painful voice. "Something a bit harsher than what we've been doing..." And again, that light split the darkness, striking Dairine. She screamed, then she convulsed, her body weirdly illuminated by the bolt of light that had struck her, and crumpled.

"There!" said Kit, pointing into the distance, where they could see the afterimage of a lightening bolt. And hear the echoes of a scream.

"Dari!" gasped Nita. That had been Dari's scream... She quickened her pace. Kit was nearly jogging to keep up, but he didn't complain. After all, Nita was the one shielding them from this darkness, after all...

"How do you keep it away?" asked Kit, waving his hand at the blackness surrounding them, except for the little not-quite-as-dark sphere that Nita had created for them.

"I push it away with my light," Nita explained shortly, "then I cover up my light with my darkness. Hard to explain..."

Kit nodded. This was, apparently, one of Nita's "things," but something he was destined not to be able to understand.

Suddenly, he felt cold all over, and shivered. He put a hand on Nita's shoulder to stop her. "Wait," he cautioned in a whisper, crouching low and pulling his partner with him. She took her cue from him and remained silent. She darkened the shield still further.

Cruel, mocking laughter filled the air, and they both shuddered, instinctively taking eachothers' hands. Then the air warmed slightly as the chill presence of the Lone One vanished. Inching forward, Nita and Kit saw, or rather sensed, the wall of Dairine's cell. They both gulped. Kit squeezed Nita's hand, whether for her comfort or his, he did not know.

"I can hide us," Nita said. "Can you open the wall?" Kit nodded mutely and lined up a spell in his head to rearrange the molecules of the wall. Nita, whose forehead was now damp with sweat, called upon all her dark emotions, searching for those that she hadn't already used: her jealousy, her hate, her hopelessness... She pulled them from within her, and laid them around herself and Kit.

Kit's spell worked, but barely. "I don't think... they rearrange themselves... for just... anybody," he panted, wiping his own sweaty forehead.

"Yeah," said Nita, equally out of breath. I had to shield you... make you darker, so He wouldn't notice."

"Thanks," said Kit. He paused for a moment, then looked at Nita. "Well?"

Nita looked scared. But also determined. "Lets go." Checking her shield of light—and the shield of darkness within that—she stepped with Kit into the small, dark room.

A/N: Heyyyyyy! How'd you like it? I dunno if I lost the style over all this time or got rusty or what, but I hope it's still good. Please review! I really need to know what I'm doing wrong (I hope it's nothing!); constructive criticism is greatly appreciated!