Guardians
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Chapter Twenty: Into the Darkness
Karmina chose to ignore his snide reaction to her help due to the circumstances. Closing her eyes and frowning in concentration, she tried to unlock her telekinesis. Finding a warm glow deep inside herself, she latched on to it and urged it to do her will. Together, her brute strength and telekinetic power pulled Seto Kaiba onto solid ground.
"That… was exhausting," she noted before collapsing.
Kaiba gave her a peculiar look and caught her just before she fell into the chasm. "Thank you."
She smiled and withdrew herself from his arms. "We s-should go find out what t-that was," she muttered, wavering dangerously on the edge of the rift.
Knowing that their moment, if there had ever been a moment, had passed, he followed her shaky steps into the castle.
"There you two are. Are you alright?"
"No, we're both dead," Kaiba muttered tartly.
"I'm okay… j-just tired." She said, waving away her guardian's concern. "But what was that… tremor?"
"Darkness is upon us, Karmina. This is but one of the effects of our shield's slow decay."
"Then we have to do something."
"Indeed something must be done, but I'm not keen on allowing you to go into danger. Unfortunately, a guardian cannot still destiny. You two will face the darkness, one way or another, and I'll see that you're ready."
"How do you plan to do that?"
"By lending you my own power. With that, your efforts will not exhaust you as much as it normally would."
Wingweaver closed her eyes and Karmina could feel the power restoring her strength. The fairy collapsed, but it was with a smile on her face.
"You must go… through the north gate… trust your instincts and you will be fine. I know… you can do this… if… you… work… together."
Karmina locked eyes with Kaiba, who nodded. "I don't really believe in all this, but I might as well go along with it for now."
She shook her head and gave a nervous laugh, still a little shaken up from the earlier events. "Well, Wingweaver, is there anything else we should know about this darkness?"
"Indeed… this will be no… average… fight. The darkness will 'toy'… with you… that's how you must… beat it. If you… survive… all of it's tricks… then you've won.It feeds off of death, pain, and especially trickery. Think of it… as… an obstacle course. But the… price… for losing… is your life. The darkness will play off your weaknesses… off your feelings towards… other people. Use… your head… don't let… fantasy… fool you. And good luck. I am with you always. Now… through… gate."
"We'll go."
And, without asking Seto's permission, she rushed towards the door and afterwards the gate.
"Hold on a minute, Karmina," he ordered, not expecting that she wouldn't listen. His mouth gaping for a moment, he tried it again. "STOP!"
She halted, though not as instantly as the CEO would have expected. "What?" she snapped.
"There's no reason to rush into danger. Let's think about this for a moment."
"W-what's there to th-think about?" She asked, her voice shaking with anger and impatience rather than crippling shyness.
Seto Kaiba stared at her before replying. "How we're going to beat this thing, of course," he retorted.
"You heard W-Wingweaver! It tries to trick us, and if we don't fall for it, it loses strength and disappears."
"We need a game plan," he demanded. "Do we go in together, or do we try to confuse it by going in at different times?"
"T-Together," she said, her anger deflating rapidly. "The last thing we n-need is to be caught b-by our worst fears… alone."
Kaiba was so deep in thought that her nervousness with him hardly bothered him at all. "Alright… let's go."
Karmina slowed down to walk beside Seto, feeling strangely safer. The air was thick with a feeling of evil, danger, and cold. As shivers went down her spine, and she first saw the dark mass of hatred, she clutched his arm, and didn't even turn red. She was far to petrified by what was forming before her. The dark mass was swirling and changing, becoming a tall, humanlike form.
"YOU DARE TO CHALLAGE ME!" It roared in a voice that spoke both in her mind and to her ears, filling both with vivid pain.
Karmina clapped her hands over her ears, but Kaiba just looked slightly bored. "Yes, we are," he replied, not visibly shaken.
"THEN PREPARE TO FACE YOUR WORST NIGHTMARES!" It called, again sending pain through Karmina's ears and mind.
The darkness wrapped around them, shifting until it was nearly invisible, but neither of them was fooled. The presence of utter hatred and evil did not lift. If anything, it became much worse.
Then, without warning, their surroundings changed. They were outside the orphanage where Karmina had formerly taken residence and Seto Kaiba before her, though she knew it not. It was impossible to tell whose nightmare it was supposed to be.
A tall, grim faced woman appeared. "Karmina, you're not scrubbing hard enough," she yelled, hitting the girl with an angry swipe that she recalled well. "You're useless and nobody wants you, so you should at least keep this place clean for the good little orphans!"
She cringed, but the woman who'd yelled and abused her for so many years no longer made her want to scream and run. She'd had far to many nightmares, and spent too much time hiding in her room for that. She loosed her hand from Seto's arm and tentatively stepped forth, suddenly more sure of herself than Kaiba had ever seen her.
"If you think that's going to send me screaming, you have a thing or two to learn about me!"
With an eerie pop, the atmosphere shifted again, and the orphanage became a large mansion, the woman turning into Gozaboro Kaiba. But before Karmina could see the stuff of Seto Kaiba's nightmares, if such a person even had them, she found herself falling into a dark hole. Seto grabbed at her arm, but she could tell his grip would not hold long.
"Don't give up," she told him, rather calm for someone about to fall into what appeared to be a bottomless pit. "I'm sure your stepfather can hardly be worse than that woman," she noted.
"How did-?"
"I can read your m-mind, remember?"
"Of course. Well, don't you give up either. I'm hoping you survive long enough to get rid of that annoying stutter."
"I look f-forward to it," she assured him.
Despite his show of not minding if she fell, Kaiba tried to pull her back up. Don't make me face him alone again, he thought frantically, startling Karmina with the child-like fear in his mind.
"I'm s-sure you'll be fine."
"Did I say I wouldn't be? It's you I'm worried about."
She gave a half hearted laugh, turning into a scream as a black tendril wrapped itself around her leg and pulled.
"Just let go," she told him, fearing that he'd fall as well.
"Yes, Seto, let go of the girl. You need to study more. You're a disgrace to the Kaiba name."
Karmina smiled at Seto. "Give him my b-best regards," she told him, pulling her hand free. It was his battle, and he needed to fight it alone. She could only hope that he won it.
After falling for sometime, she landed badly on her ankle, hearing a sickening crunch from it. She winced and tried to stand, but her ankle would not hold her weight.
"This is nice," she noted dimly, pulling herself up again and falling once more.
If ever there was a bad time for us to be separated, this is it.
With a sigh, she looked around her for anything helpful, but of course, there was nothing but darkness. "Is this how you plan to destroy me? Without giving me any chance of fighting back? That's not very brave of you."
There was no response from the darkness. It was as if it was gone, save a dead remnant. Perhaps Seto had defeated his stepfather and drained the darkness's power? If so, she hoped he found her soon, and if not, she wanted some sign that she could continue to battle the darkness. And then, a horrible thought found her: What if I am already dead?
Once there, it refused to leave her. She tried to logic it away, but it didn't seem to be working. If I was dead, would I still feel the pain of my ankle? Would I still take in breath? And then: Those things could be an illusion.
"Karmina? Are you alright?" called a familiar voice from the darkness around her, which she realized had been slowly engulfing her entire body.
"Seto?" she asked cautiously, as the tendrils receded.
End note: Yet another cliffie as the author plots more horrors and twists. Stay tuned for chapter 21! Review!