The scene in the ice faded away. Daphne, Shaggy, and Flim-Flam stood there for a moment, silent and shocked. Daphne looked ready to cry.
"Like, he took our memories to protect us," Shaggy finally broke the silence.
Winter shrugged. "I told you, questions his motives, not his integrity."
"He tried to find us after it happened," Daphne's voice was thick with sorrow. "And we had all already gone."
"Why didn't he tell us?" Flim-Flam asked quietly.
"Now that is a question that I cannot answer," Winter told him. "Only Vincent can tell you that."
Daphne looked at him at that. "You know magic, though. What...did Asmodeus do to him?"
Winter thought through what he had seen. "Asamad took an opportunity to curse Vincent when it came, and not just by hiding you all from Vincent. Vincent kept Asmoedus from stealing your memories by taking them into his emerald. They would be safe there. But to do that Vincent had to divert Asamad's magic, and when he did that, when he touched Vincent's emerald, Asamad would have gotten a good idea of the scope of Vincent's abilities. And I'm sure he won't let that information go to waste."
"So, like, he saved us and let Asmodeus know all about his magic in exchange," Shaggy gulped.
Winter nodded. Except for the noise of the blizzard outside, there was no other sound.
Daphne swallowed again. "There's...there's something else." Shaggy and Flim-Flam looked at her. She went on. "We need to know ...what happened last time Vincent faced Asmodeus."
Winter took a deep breath. "Of course. If he didn't tell you how you lost your memories..." but he seemed reluctant in spite of his statement.
"It's more than that, sir," Shaggy said, finally. "It's...when we went to fight Asmodeus last time, Mr V was, like..."
"Reluctant," Flim-Flam finished. "He didn't want to go. And that's not like him at all."
"He didn't want us to go," Daphne corrected. "He wanted to go by himself. But we wouldn't let him."
"Mmmm…." Winter nodded. "I can show you. But are you sure that you want to know?"
"We need to know." Daphne finished with finality.
"Well," Winter gestured at the basin. "I suppose you have the right to know, now that Asmodeus is back."
The three of them drew near to the basin. For a moment, everyone hesitated. Shaggy gulped again. "Are we sure about this?"
"We have to know," Daphne said. It was enough. The three of them reached down and touched the ice. It started to glow again, and they watched the next scene unfold.
(-)
The Himalayas
Approximately 300 years ago
A man in medieval clothes nearly bounced off the ground, having been thrown back by the force of a blast of magic that had narrowly missed hitting him directly. Mortifer, for it could be no one else, pushed himself up, and then dodged again as a second blast followed the first. A younger looking Vincent, dressed in his blue and purple sorcerer's robes, slid back under the force of the magical blast that he had just managed to deflect.
Vincent pulled the Chest of Demons out and set it on the ground. He started to pull the lid up.
Asmodeus flew up, wings spread. "You think you can stop me?!" He began to gather energy in his hands. "Dark Astra Ultimatix!" He launched the blast of energy; a meteor of power, at Vincent. The warlock was preoccupied with the chest, forcing his own magic into opening the lid, which he had no doubt was held back by Asmodeus' power.
The Chest moved faster than the incoming attack. The lid flew open, and the Chest sucking Asmodeus into it. Vincent slammed the lid shut with a decisive click and let out a breath, half-relieved, half-exhausted.
Then something else, momentarily forgotten, came back to the forefront of his mind, and he looked up to the Ultimatix coming straight at him; Asmodeus' parting gift.
"Vincent! Look out!" He heard Mortifer for one brief instant, and then the human had flung himself in the way, between Vincent and the blast of magic. The force of the impact sent Mortifer flying back into Vincent, who was in turn knocked back by the transmitted force.
There was silence on the battlefield. The Chest, knocked aside by the blast, was a stone-faced sentinel.
Vincent got his breath back and pushed himself up. As he did, Mortifer shifted as well, and Vincent looped one arm around his friend's shoulder to help support him. Mortifer coughed up blood. It splattered over the front of the warlock's purple embellishments, just missing the emerald at his neck.
"Esuna!" Vincent placed on hand on Mortifer's chest and cast the healing spell, but nothing seemed to happened.
Mortifer coughed again. "Won't...help," he gasped out. "Ultimatix. Remember, you told me..." he trailed off, and Vincent bit his lip. This particular spell was meant to kill a magic user. Once cast it rendered the caster useless for hours or days until their mana had regenerated, and what it did couldn't be undone by other spells, not even healing ones.
"No," Vincent said, clutching Mortifer tighter. "I can fix this!" A million schemes were presenting themselves, one after the other, in his mind. He wasn't sure any of them would work.
But he had to try!
Mortifer shook his head. It was a feeble motion. "It's...okay." He coughed again. More blood trailed down his chin. "Vince, don't...forget." He reached up and clutched Vincent's emerald pendant. "Don't…forget." He breathed out a sigh and went limp in Vincent's arms. He hand fell away from the emerald.
Vincent clutched Mortifer's body closer as tears began to stream down his face. The Chest of Demons watched, it's silent face unchanged.
[A/N:] I am not sure that Vincent ever explained in any depth what happened to Mortifer in Curse to the kids. I just re-watched it again, but I didn't notice anything about it. (I watch it and I look for things I can take from it and recycle for LoT.) They know now. And boy will Winter have some explaining to do when Vincent turns up again. This chapter is a short one, but I wanted this incident and the preceding one to stand by themselves.
Mana is the term used for Vincent's magic in Season Two. I do believe that the term itself came from the Final Fantasy series. The spell that Asmodeus uses is one that I made up, but Esuna is a healing spell Vincent uses in the second season. The title of this chapter comes from the song Tunnel by the band Third Day. It's also where the title of the story comes from. I went through a lot of titles for this thing before I settled on the one it has. ("Into Darkness Fall" was the original title, based on the opening prologue.)
The money verse is the second one, which goes,
"You've got your disappointments and sorrows,
And you oughta share the weight of that load with me.
Then you will find that the light of tomorrow
Well it brings new life for your eyes to see."
This chapter's title was a conglomeration of the first and second lines.