Darkness; in a time of pain, it embraces her as the only comfort. Drained of all energy; spirit, life, dream and magic, she could only lay in silence. Aside from the occasional twitching and staggered breathing, she seemed to be lifeless. Voices filled her dazed visions, a silhouette of another dreamer in the distance, she noticed, and ran to. Another Klonian much like her, a being of darkness, Bendilen, the chaos deity, was left alone to ponder his life.
"Hello?" she asked timidly, squinting in the distance, he looked up at her, subtly nodding in acknowledgement. As she approached, he asked "Did you cross dimensions, or are you dreaming?"
Marie scratched her chin in thought, and replied "I think I was knocked out……"
"How?" he asked accusingly "Have you been getting yourself into trouble again?"
"It's not that!" she quickly and frantically explained "I was avenging my friend, but this man, he was able to avoid the sacred infusion attack, and I barely hurt him…… he's not mortal, I tell you!"
"And neither are you" he replied "However, it seems once again you have gotten yourself in trouble, do you need any help?"
"No actually……" she answered eagerly "I think I found a new power!"
"?"
"Yes!" Marie continued "This bright light just appeared from my body, and it seemed to affect the enemy! Now if I could only control it for a short time then-"
"No!" he said coldly "You can never use that power!"
The young Klonian deity stared back at him, utterly confused at this sudden scolding she received. Shrinking away, she softly asked "Why?"
"I can't explain….." he said "But if this is true, than it's my responsibility to…"
He paused in silence, solemnly turning away. Marie walked up behind him, expecting some answers. Bendilen suddenly turned, grabbing her hand, a dark aura surrounding him. A blank, sorrowful look spread across his face, as he uttered "I'm sorry……"
She struggled against his grip, but couldn't break free, just as he chanted a spell at her, someone interrupted.
"Bendilen, STOP!" another Klonian scolded, a teenage girl, slapping him across the face. Dumbfounded, he explained "Kina, you know as well as I what this means!"
"I know too…… but we have to stop this… altering this child's mind every time she learns too much, we are her friends" Kina explained "and as friends, we have to trust her!"
"What's this all about?" Marie asked curiously. The two looked at her, trying to think up an excuse for such acts.
"Marie…" Kina said, placing a hand on her shoulder "Remember how it's said that the strongest deity was the first one to come into existence?"
"Yes!" she eagerly replied "That was my father, Liei!"
"Well……. Not exactly…."
"Huh?"
"Your father….. your mother, they never existed….."
"!"
"They were invented to make your false memories believable" Bendilen interrupted "The names were derived from the two spirits who rewrote your past, Ranoke, and Liei….."
"Wait!" Marie said, her mind all boggled "If they didn't exist, then who was the first deity!"
Kina paused, tying to find her words, muttering "It was you….. you were the most powerful being in the universe….."
"And because of that, we had your mind and memories altered….." Bendilen said reluctantly "Damn, we shouldn't even be telling you this!"
Kina gave him a cold glare, and turned back to Marie "that light, at one point you could control it, but you must understand, that force is so destructive, it could easily bend reality, and destroy the universe, but it couldn't be destroyed, it was a part of you…."
"So……" Marie paused, and thought for a second.
"We and the other deities hired a memory spirit and a history spirit to lock away the power, and erase all knowledge of its existence" Bendilen said bluntly "We feared the power so much……"
"And even though it seems to have become active again, you're forbidden to ever use it" Kina explained "You must understand, you can't control it perfectly, putting the universe at risk to get back at one person, is that really worth it?"
"But this Kresant guy, he's so powerful!"
"Wait, you picked a fight with Kresant?" Bendilen gasped "Have you lost your marbles?"

"No……." she paused, a hint of sorrow in her voice "It's because of him that my friend has to suffer, even in death…"
"But you must think things through before you carry out such actions!" Kina said "Haven't you heard of this man? He's not only a plague upon his planet, but feared throughout many dream realms!"
Marie shook her head, being the oblivious, naïve, stubborn child that she was.
"I don't care how much I get beaten; I just want to take him down…. It's not right!" she yelled, kneeling down. She staggered, sobbing softly. Bendilen hugged her affectionately, saying "It's okay, we'll figure something out….."

She looked up, nodding slightly, and uncertainly. At that moment, she heard a voice, calling out to her.

"Wake up!" it said, its presence caused all else to fade. Seeing her two friends leave before her eyes, she panicked, hearing those two words over again.

"Wake up……"

"...Wake Up... Please...!" Kei shouted from the outside world. As Marie opened her eyes she could see him kneeling over her, praying for her to awaken. She could also see some form of a healing aura surrounding his hands as he did. She blinked, feeling sore all over, gazed up at him, and weakly asked "Healing... magic?"

Kei opened his eyes from praying "...Oh, thank god. I... I was afraid you were dead..." He sighed "...My heals don't exactly work on the dead though... just the undead..." He sat back watching the mysterious child.

"I wish I could do more, but I'm out of energy. Hold on for a tight second."

"..." she paused, smiling "You have no clue... death isn't really something on my mind anymore... thanks for the lending of energy, though it's not much. To repay you I'll help free you, but you must wait for me to heal."

"...Heh. Then you've trained in the ways of the swordsman, I suppose." The fellow prisoner let out a small chuckle, then a sigh "darn you swordsman and your increased stamina recovery..." He joked with himself.

"I don't get it..." she stared at the cold, stone walls "I'm immortal... and all the power I had... and it still couldn't stop him... I'd kick myself for making such a big mistake... except I can't move right now..." She turned her head, a tear forming "I promised my friend..."

"Heh… Silly swordsman..." he chuckled again "You may feel invincible, and at times you may be... but when pitted against a much stronger opponent, that feeling near instantly goes away. Doesn't it?"

"No..." she replied "When I heal, I'll find a way to bring him down! He doesn't scare me!"

"Relax... You'll never heal in anger..." he tried to heal Marie again. He felt uncomfortable with the wound he saw Kresant strike.

"...Many swordsmen are like you, you know. They don't understand that brute strength alone can't take down an enemy. You have to think things through, be smart about them. Even the smallest forms of life can take down much larger, and that's because they think before they strike... why won't this thing heal...?"

"It never heals... that wound's millions of years old... just leave it alone" she said "Myu... stupid scythe lady... had to kill me an' give me that wound... and I am more than a swordsman. It feels odd that you tag me on with a title because of the way that I fight, I am what I am, and simply that, a dreamer..."

"...Oh sorry..." Kei stopped trying to heal and placed his hands on his lap "...A dreamer you say? Well that's something new... You see, where I was born there were people who were members of the swordsmen guild. Each was extremely powerful and could take a lot of damage. however, they were far from invincible. I became an acolyte to help them... to help those wounded from battle. Especially those swordsmen who went into battle headfirst. After you said you could heal yourself, I just assumed..."

"Odd thing is, I can't use my healing magic on myself..." Marie said "It's water-based, and I'm a water-being, since I am immune to water magic, I can only heal others... but time also heals wounds, and that's all I need... as far as that chest wound, ignore it, even if it seems fresh, it's not, and it can never go away... man, I feel so sore..."

"...I see..." Kei wiped an old tear from his eye "Kresant... he has that effect. He kinda envenomed you when he knocked you to the floor... I could tell from the purple hue you gained when he did. It'll wear off soon, don't worry."

"Purple?" Marie asked "All I remember was a bright white... and supposedly that's forbidden magic in my realm... anyway, it's probably better if we can escape sooner... if I can stand..."

She thought of sitting up, groaning, it seemed to take her forever "Well, okay, the breakout might have to wait..."

Kei closed his eyes and smiled "That's fine by me... I don't want to escape. Kresant will kill me if I do."

"Then I would take you as far from here as I... could..." she mumbled the last bit, falling off to sleep yet again, but this slumber would be a slumber of no dreams or visions, just blank darkness. Kei chuckled again, placing his hand on Marie's forehead and curing her poison by taking it himself. "...Yes... sleep, sounds good..." he fainted.