Update time! Man, I was really emotional a few moments ago. I was watching my favorite show, American Idol, and Chris Daughtry was voted off. He should have won the whole thing. I can't believe that he left! I'm protesting and I'm gonna quit watching this show. They did the exact thing to Mandisa, it makes me upset. They announced it and I started to bawl. I don't know where it all came from. Anyway, here's the next chapter. If you're upset about this result too, quit watching it with me. I swear there is some higher authority in the business making the decisions, not the people who are voting.

Chapter 15: Into the Shadows

The group was beginning to get close to the Shadow Temple and they couldn't wait to get there. The sooner they got there, the sooner they got the crystal, and the sooner they could take a break from all their traveling. They were beginning to wear out. They had not slept in any sort of shelter in weeks. They had no running water and there were no more shops for them to restock supplies, they were all on their own.

As they came over a small hill they could see the temple in the distance for the first time. Sheena decided it was a good time to bring out Shadow and see if it was really worth their while to walk that far.

"I summon the envoy from the dark abyss. I call upon thee, come Shadow!" Sheena called as Shadow appeared in a dark cloud in front of the group.

"Shadow, can you sense Mithos' crystal shard by the temple?" Sheena asked him as Shadow focused his energy briefly to hunt for any trace of the shard. Finally, he looked to Sheena with his answer.

"...Yes...," was all he had to say before Sheena thanked him and he disappeared.

"Well, that's all I need," Storm said as she began to walk towards the temple in the distance. "Maybe this time it'll be an easy snatch too."

"I don't know, could we really get that lucky twice in a row?" Raine asked.

"It's always possible," Lloyd commented.

Zelos and Yuan were hanging around in the back of the group and were talking about the conversation Yuan had been having with Storm the other day. Kratos saw them behind the rest of the group and had something he wanted to discuss with Yuan. He fell behind the others to walk with the two of them.

"So Yuan, why were you so eager to stay with Storm the other day?" Kratos asked almost challengingly.

"We were just talking," Yuan defended both Storm and himself.

"Yeah, I'm sure. You better not have done anything," Kratos began but was cut off by Zelos.

"He's telling the truth. I asked him to talk to her. Something's been bothering her and she won't tell me what's wrong. So, I thought that she would be more willing to talk to Yuan. I thought that she considered what I was doing as nagging," Zelos told him.

"Really? I've been trying to figure out what's bothering her. I know that she's worried about Anna, but she was acting a little bit better before, but now she just seems like she's almost feeling hopeless and depressed. I hate seeing her like this," he told the other two. "So, what did she tell you Yuan?"

"Nothing, she wouldn't talk to me. She said I wouldn't understand," Yuan explained.

"I wish she'd tell so we could understand. We could help her," Zelos said sadly.

"Yeah, but she's stubborn and there's no convincing her on something she's already decided. That's why she has such a hard time with trusting people, because Mithos always told her not to," Kratos told them.

"I know, but maybe she'll come around," Yuan said, trying to boost their hopes a little bit.

They all soon arrived at the Shadow Temple as they began to file into the dark depths of the cave. They walked through and Storm began to get panicky in the dark. She could remember her dark cellar with Pronyma when she was younger and the dark cell she had been in when she was captured by Kvar (Return of the Queen). She ran back to Zelos and grabbed his arm as he reached for her hand and squeezed it reassuringly. She tried to make her way through as she conquered her fear of the pitch black surroundings.

They continued down the impossible darkness until they arrived at the area down by the stairs that led down to where they had reformed Shadow and formed the pact. Genis saw the crystal first as he went to grab it before something could happen. He was almost to it when a spear landed in front of him, just missing him. Genis stopped dead in his tracks as he looked up and everyone else followed their gazes toward the sight in front of them.

There in front of them was a small army of skeletons with what appeared to be a general of sorts. They were all eery skeletons that were wearing armor over their bones and were carrying a variety of weapons. Axes, swords, and spears were littered throughout the army.

"Man, I give up," Storm said as she pulled out her wings to prepare for yet another battle.

"If they're already dead, how can we defeat them?" Colette asked, the others looked at her wondering if she had actually asked a good question or if it was just another Colette moment.

"I guess we find out if we can," Lloyd answered her.

Presea and Storm were the first to rush into the battle as Kratos and Lloyd decided to stand back and see how the skeletons fought. Lloyd had really been watching Kratos' battle strategies more closely and was trying to imitate them more often to become more like his father. Storm and Presea decided to start the battle off strong as they both launched their Beast attacks at the front row of soldiers that attacked. When they hit them they flew into many separate bones that scattered all over the floor. Presea and Storm looked at each other with a look of shock on both of their faces.

"If they're this easy, we'll be done with them in no time," Storm said confidently.

"Yes," Presea agreed.

Suddenly, the bones began to shake as they slowly lifted off the ground and reformed the soldier, once again ready for battle. Storm and Presea, seeing that their physical attacks weren't going to work temporarily retreated.

"Colette's right. If they're already dead, how can we kill them?" Storm asked the others.

"Maybe we need to attack them differently," Raine offered the idea.

"Like what?" Lloyd asked as the army began to make their way ever closer.

"Sheena, get Luna," Raine called to the ninja.

"Got it!" Sheena replied. "I call upon the light of the heavens. I summon thee, come Luna!" Sheena called as Luna appeared in a flash of light, blinding most of the skeletons into a temporary paralysis. Luna went over towards the skeletons and a powerful explosion of light causing some of them to disintegrate.

The rest of the army didn't seem to care much about the loss of their comrades as they kept making their way towards the others. Storm brought out her sword just in time to clash with that of another sword a skeleton was wielding. Storm then was about to be attacked from the side by another skeleton, but was defended by Lloyd who wouldn't let him get his spear into his sister. Storm and Lloyd continued their fights as they began to fight several of the soldiers at once and soon Zelos, Yuan, Kratos, and Presea got into the fighting as the others tried to come up with some sort of plan.

Suddenly, Raine got an idea. She called to Storm and Kratos in the middle of their brawl.

"You need to use Judgement and let the light rain down upon all of these soldiers, that should defeat them all," she told them.

Kratos looked at the situation they were in. He looked up at Storm and knew that only one of them could really leave the battle. If both of left to chant, the others wouldn't be able to handle the immense numbers of skeletons on their own.

"Storm, cast Judgement, I'll hold these guys off for you," her father ordered her.

"Okay," she answered, knowing better than to disagree with him.

She flew up above the battle and began to chant. She was trying to gather up her energy for her attack, but for some reason she wasn't feeling anything. She didn't have enough energy to cast the spell. Between not eating enough, not sleeping enough, worrying about Anna, and spending all day traveling she was getting drained of her energy.

"Sacred powers, cast thy purifying light upon these corrupted souls. Beware sinners. Judgement," Storm cried but nothing happened and Kratos could tell. He looked up at Storm and called to her again.

"Get back down here and help them and I'll do it," Kratos told her. Storm flew down almost unwillingly as she took over his spot. Kratos flew up above the others and began to chant.

"Sacred powers, cast thy light upon these corrupted souls. Beware sinners! Judgement!" he called as the temple began to shake as bright and powerful light rays began to fall from the ceiling. The skeletons were either hit by the rays or saw the bright light it emitted, but either wat it disintegrated them. Kratos came down and landed at the crystal shard and picked it up, handing it over to Lloyd who placed it in his pack.

"What happened Storm?" Kratos asked when he got a chance outside of the temple.

"I don't know, I guess I just didn't have enough energy. Too much walking maybe," she told him, trying to hide why she'd really be that tired.

"Well, maybe you should sleep some more to make sure that doesn't happen again," he advised her.

"I'll try. Sorry Dad," she said as he walked away, back to the fire with the others.

Later that night as the others were sleeping, Storm heard someone whispering her name in the darkness. She decided t try and find out what was going on. She was prepared for just about everything by this point in time and she pulled out her sword just to be safe. She looked back at the others sleeping peacefully as she tip-toed out of the camp to find out where the strange noise was coming from.

Well, that's it for this chapter. I know, I'm leaving you with a cliffie. I tend to do that you know. You probably all hate me for it too. Well, that's it here. Tell me what you thought and please review. Thanks for reading.