Chapter 16: Bloody Midnight

The next morning came around, and there was a loud knocking at the door of Skye's apartment. Skye lifted her pillow and buried her head underneath it, mumbling something about it being early. So, it was Riku who rolled out of bed, wearing only his boxers, and walked up to the door. He opened it a crack and peered outside, yawning. Jade was standing at the door, trying to look official and important, but was having a hard time keeping from grinning.

"Oh, hello Riku." She greeted him with a wink. He rolled his eyes and was about to speak when another voice rang out behind Jade.

"Who's Riku? I thought you said I was meeting Skye!" A little boy came out from around behind Jade. Riku blinked at him.

"Skye's sleeping, little man." He said tiredly. The boy pouted at him.

"Then how come you get to be inside?"

"Because I was sleeping too, until you two showed up."

"Why were you sleeping here? Don't you have your own place to sleep?"

"You ask way too many questions, kid." Riku said finally. The boy fell silent. It was then that Riku noticed he was wearing a habit that matched the one Jade was wearing. The woman nodded.

"Riku, this is Galen. The Shrine has apparently been searching for me for a long time to be his teacher. He's to be my apprentice." She explained.

"Awesome…" Riku said, yawning again. "I thought the Shrine disowned you because you chose to side against Dax and they wanted to be neutral."

"They did, but apparently since the incident that brought Venus and Mars to us, there has been some debate about whether or not the Shrine should support us. Either way, they've wanted me to be his teacher ever since they found out I was with Skye." She answered.

"What does Skye have to do with you being his teacher?" He asked, confused. Jade shrugged.

"Galen has an unnatural strength, exactly the way Skye does. I've already dealt with someone who's had that extra strength, so I guess they figured I'd be the best for the job." She said. Riku nodded.

"Oh. Well. I'm going back to bed."

"Wait!" Galen piped up. "I want to meet Skye!" He insisted. Riku sighed.

"I told you, she's asleep." He answered.

"But I want to meet her!" Galen said again.

"Why do you want to meet her so badly?" Riku asked, slightly exasperated. There was a long silence.

"I can't tell you." Galen answered after a moment. Riku was immediately suspicious.

"Why not?" He asked warily. A deeply sad expression passed across Galen's face.

"Because you'll tell Skye, and I made a promise I'd make sure that she didn't know."

"Why?" Riku asked again, still not trusting Galen. The boy sighed. He looked like he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders, even though he couldn't be any older than seven.

"Because she'll get hurt. It will hurt her heart. And it will make her mom sad if she gets hurt. It will make you sad too, I think." He answered. Riku knelt down next to Galen so that they were at eye level.

"What is it? If it's going to hurt her, we should know so that we can do something about it."

"But it won't hurt her until she knows. And if she does know, it will hurt her a lot. Her mom made me promise not to tell her, because when her mom found out, it hurt her heart so much that she died. She doesn't want Skye to be hurt and die too." Galen explained slowly. Riku stared at him. If Skye's mom has been dead since she was little, how does this kid know all this? He wondered. Jade, as if reading Riku's mind, spoke.

"This is why they sent him to me. We are healers, using Life Magic. His magic is so strong that he can cross the line between life and death and listen to the whispers of those gone before us." There was a long silence as Riku absorbed this information. Jade smiled. "I think, as well, that it has something to do with the suspicion at the Shrine of the Rebel City being in this area. His sister lives in town, and they usually like to keep families together." She added. Gaden perked up.

"Oh, since I can't meet Skye yet, can we go see Daisy instead?" He asked eagerly. Jade sighed, and then nodded. They were about to leave when Skye's voice echoed into the hall from behind Riku.

"What's going on?" She asked tiredly, rubbing her eyes. She was wearing only a bath robe and was trying to peek over Riku's shoulder to see who was at the door. Gaden peered into the room with wide eyes.

"Skye?" He asked excitedly. Riku stepped away from the door and disappeared back into the bedroom to find some clothes. Gaden walked into the room, grinning up at Skye, who smiled back, albeit confusedly.

"Hey there. Who are you?"

"I'm Gaden. I'm Jade's new apprentice." He answered proudly. "I'm a healer, but my magic is extra strong like yours." He added. Skye looked genuinely interested.

"Really?" She asked. "Do you know how come you magic is so powerful?" She was eager to learn anything about why she was so much stronger than others. She wanted desperately to know what the connection between her, Dax and now Gaden was. Of course, Gaden was as clueless in the matter as she was, if not more.

…………………………

The Council Room was full of people: Lodi, Jade, Ace, Skye, Riku, Venus, Mars and Erik.

"Where's Gaden?" Skye asked.

"He's seven. He'll just get bored and in the way." Ace answered. Skye glared at him.

"This concerns him as much as it does me." She shot back. Erik held up his hand.

"Stop it, both of you. Gaden is in the town with his sister." He said sharply. Ace glowered at him.

"You're not king yet. This is our domain, so don't think for a moment that you can order me around!" He said, his voice raising to near shout.

"Then I'll tell you to shut up!" Riku answered angrily. Lodi stood up.

"I expect my orders to be followed around here as they would be on my ship, is that clear? Now, stop this arguing so we can get down to business." He said calmly, but with a tone that demanded obedience. There was quiet for a long moment, and then he sat down again. "Alright, so what's the issue?"

"Where does this excess magic come from in Gaden, Dax and I?" Skye asked. Riku frowned.

"Before Gaden showed up, I'd kind of thought that it had something to do with Ansem. Either that your mother and father were from different planets, or that your father had such close ties to darkness." He said plainly. Jade chewed her lip in thought.

"I could imagine that inter-planetary marriages have happened before, but nothing like this has happened before. So the idea that the parents are from different planets causing this is pretty unlikely. I'd put more stock in your second suggestion, Riku." She said slowly. Lodi crossed his arms.

"But why would darkness affect them like this? One would think that the darkness would weaken magics like fire and life, with them both being inherently light."

"Darkness is extremely strong." Riku replied. "It can overcome nearly everything, and it takes a great deal of strength to defeat it. It's no chance that the people who seek power often end up caught in darkness. If light was the stronger of the two, we would find ourselves with enemies wielding light. The darkness increases someone's power, and then as they crave more, they fall further into darkness, until the darkness claims their heart."

"…but darkness won't claim Skye's heart, will it?" Ace asked. Skye shook her head.

"I've never gone to the darkness seeking power in the first place, so I don't see why it should. People go to darkness for power, and then as they crave more, they fall deeper in. I never went to the darkness, so I shouldn't ever crave more power using darkness, right?" She asked, looking at Riku for confirmation. He looked as clueless about the suggestion as she felt. It was Jade who spoke.

"Actually, now that you bring that up, I think your power might be only a side effect of your father's ties to the darkness. I don't think you can inherit darkness…but I think you might be able to inherit the excess power Ansem gained from giving into darkness."

"That sounds about right." Riku agreed. "Ties to darkness aren't permanent. Me, Sora and Kairi are all living proof of that. And since they aren't permanent, I don't think they could be inherited." There was a long silence. Everyone seemed in agreement with that theory. However, a frown passed over Skye's face as she spoke.

"This is all well and great, but it only explains it if it was just me and Dax. Gaden changes everything." There was another long silence, this one much longer than the previous.

"We know it's not random, since this is the first time it's ever happened, and it's not a unique case, since there's three of you…" Erik said thoughtfully. Skye's hand burst into flames, and she turned it over in front of her, as if the power itself would give her the answer. Everyone else started at the sudden burst of fire. No one said anything for a long, long time.

……………………………………………

The burning forest was all around her, and Skye felt as if her dream from her first night on the Islands had occurred only moments ago, and now she was continuing it. Indeed, she vaguely recognized that this was a dream, but the implications of it being a dream didn't occur to her at the time. She was standing in the burning meadow, in the burning forest, with the shadowy warrior who had just dispatched the two other shadows. As the fighter's face came into light, she smiled. Riku. He smiled back at her. She put her hand out in front of her, palm facing the ground, and the flames shrank away from them, retreating to the edges of the meadow. Six long tendrils of white spread out along the ground from Riku, extending to the edges of the meadow and splitting as they grew, becoming like a great glowing set of roots. Then, Mars and Avani were next to her, and they put their hands against the glowing roots and used them to grow all of the wildflowers that had been killed in the fires. Skye noticed after a moment that the tendrils didn't originate from Riku at all; they started at a spot somewhere just behind him. Once they were all ankle deep in every flower imaginable, Riku stepped aside and Gaden was there behind him. He took Riku's hand and a sobered looked passed over his face. Everyone looked sad, but Skye wasn't sad; she was angry. A figure was lying on the flowers between her, Mars and Venus, and Riku and Gaden, draped in a black cloth that covered them from head to toe. The body was wrapped in the white 'roots' and Mars and Venus placed their hands on it and roses sprouted out, creating a great mound of blood red roses in the middle of the multi-coloured field in the center of the burning forest. They all stood there for what could have been moments, but also could have been hours. At some point however, the two shadows reappeared, stepping out from the burning forest and into their meadow. Skye cast her hand towards the smaller one, who instantly burst into flames. The second, bigger shadow absorbed the smaller one, growing even bigger. Suddenly, Skye found herself in a battlefield, with Riku at her side, and an army of familiar warriors at her back, though she couldn't turn around to see who they were. They charged the enormous shadow. She brought her weapon down on him, and as soon as she made contact, everything went black and she woke up, startled and sweating.

Riku was half-sitting up, cradling Skye carefully.

"Nightmare?" He asked quietly. She shook her head.

"I don't think so…"

"You were trembling." He said. She sighed and looked up at the ceiling.

"Something big is going to happen. I just wish I knew what." There was a pause, and then a door slammed somewhere. Skye rubbed her eyes, looking annoyed. "What was that?"

"Sounded like a door." Riku answered, stating the obvious.

"Who'd be up at this time of night?" She asked.

"We are." Riku said, again stating the obvious. She rolled her eyes, slightly amused.

"But we're not slamming doors and disturbing other people." The sound of muffled, raised voices could be heard, followed by a yell. Skye sat up suddenly. "I swear, that was Ace!" She said, getting to her feet and pulling on some clothes. Riku got up and pulled on a pair of jeans, ignorant of the fact that he definitely wasn't wearing a shirt. The two of them headed out the door and onto the platform, where the 'sun' still blazed as if it were day. There was no one there. Everything was quiet and peaceful as it usually was at night. But still, there was something funny… That's when Skye saw it. Ace's door was open, and there was a splatter of red on the stone wall next to the door.

"There!" Riku whispered, seeing it at the same time she did. They ran towards it, and as soon as they were able to see the floor in front of Ace's room, Riku skidded to a stop, shocked into paralysis for a moment, and Skye let out a slight scream, picking up pace. She dropped to her knees next to the crumpled body, her eyes stinging with tears. Ace's blue eyes stared up at her from the pained face, blank and lifeless. And next to his body on the ground was a spear, soaked in blood and water.