ROOTS: THE SECOND NIGHT

Rayman slept restlessly. He was in the darkness. Somehow, he knew it. He was spiraling through it, falling without falling, moving but standing still. It was a most uncomfortable sensation, and it the thought appeared somewhere in his mind that it wasn't a dream. Rayman removed this thought from his head and continued to drift. In truth, he was scared. The darkness was suffocating and cold. It reminded him of someone…Mr. Dark? The man's face flashed through his mind in the darkness. No, not him. Someone even worse…but…

Niehr's smile appeared in Rayman's mind, and he suddenly felt as if he'd hit the ground. His eyes jerked open in unexplained terror, and he saw that he clearly had hit the ground; he wasn't in Clearleaf Forest anymore. He felt a pair of cold patches on his side. Attempting to get warmer, he moved his hand over them—and promptly jumped when he realized that the patches were Niehr's icy hands. Rayman rolled away and sat up. Niehr actually looked mildly startled, and it seemed to Rayman that she was blushing, albeit incredibly light.

"I'm sorry," Niehr rubbed her hands a little bit, "did I startle you?"

"You have cold hands," Rayman hastily explained.

"You're warm," Niehr replied. Rayman could tell she meant nothing by this response, but he still blushed nonetheless.

"What happened?" he quickly changed the subject. "This isn't Clearleaf Forest."

"I moved us," Niehr explained, "so that we could look for answers."

"Answers?"

"We should probably find out who our adversaries from last night were," she hadn't looked in Rayman's direction since his awkward waking. Same old, same old.

"So are we going to the Fairy Council library?" Rayman asked.

"Does this look like that forest to you?" Niehr countered, a peculiar sarcastic edge to her voice. "We're nowhere near the Fairy Council. This is the Land of the Livid Dead."

"Why are we here?" Rayman asked. "I thought the Council Library was the biggest source of information in the accessible world."

"Are you tired?" Niehr asked.

"Not particularly," Rayman scratched his head.

"I thought you were smarter," Niehr mused. "Think about it. You're dead—I would imagine that you walking into such a structure as the Fairy Council would attract some attention. Furthermore, we're in one of the oldest regions of your world. I would imagine that there would be more information here than in the newly rebuilt Fairy Council." Rayman had to admit, Niehr had a point, although he could sense that there was another reason as to why his companion didn't want to visit the Fairy Council. Was it because of him…or because of her?

"So, if you knew to go here," Rayman looked around, "I assume you know where we should be looking."

"The Tower," Niehr pointed to an all-too-familiar tower in the distance. The "Griskins' World" was a place he'd been to more than once, although he had not always enjoyed his visits. Naturally, Rayman was more than a little apprehensive about going back there, especially if Niehr was guiding him.

"Why don't you trust me?" Niehr asked abruptly. "…Is it because of how much I resemble…her?" Rayman almost asked, "'Her' who?" but caught himself, realizing with perhaps just a tad too much regret that she was referring to Ly. Ly, who had helped him to defeat Razorbeard so long ago. Ly, who, more recently, went alongside him and Frank to defeat Mr. Dark. Ly, who had become a friend, who was becoming so much more—"Is it because of how she betrayed you?"

"What?" Rayman stammered. Niehr gave a short, mirthless laugh.

"Don't try to hide what you feel, Rayman," she told him quietly. "You aren't any good at it. I can see it—your bitterness; your resentment; your hate…all finds its way to your memories of her." She then held up her hand, appearing from behind to be examining it.

"And who's to say it's your fault?" Niehr continued, eerie laughter on the edges of her voice. "After all"—Niehr spun around, and Rayman saw that her right eye had once again begun to bleed—"she betrayed you. She saw you before the execution, and yet she did nothing to stop it; and later, she witnessed your return. But, instead of returning the fondness you felt for her, she threatened to kill you…and then she fled. Yes, Rayman, she betrayed you, and you hate her for it. And do you know what the best part is, Rayman?" Niehr was now smiling fully; a dark, hateful smile, full of malice, evil…and affection. She stepped closer to Rayman now, and Rayman could swear that he could see thick tendrils of darkness coming from her and the ground around her feet.

"The best part, Rayman," Niehr was standing mere inches from Rayman now, her face uncomfortably close to his, "is that no matter how this ends, if you are proven innocent, if you somehow resurrect Globox, even if the three of you become as close as you once were…that hate within you will never die. It will always be there, in the back of your mind, burning endlessly. Not just because of her, however…" Niehr suddenly put a hand on Rayman's shoulder and pulled him closer to her, embracing him.

"…Because of me," she whispered in his ear. The dark tendrils enclosed around them both.

"…You've been staring at me for some time, now," Niehr's placid voice brought Rayman back. She was standing ahead of him, where she'd started, watching him with the faintest look of apology and apprehension. "Did I…do something wrong?" Images of Niehr's speech seconds ago flashed dimly through Rayman's mind. He studied her bandage closely, but saw no trace of blood.

"Sorry," he said. "I…just spaced out." Niehr made to approach him, hesitated, and then turned around, silently beginning her walk to the Tower.

Niehr had apparently had a pretty good internal map, if she'd really moved Rayman and herself to where he'd woken up; the walk to the Tower was less than three minutes.

"Where are we going?" Rayman asked when they'd reach the Tower's base. "Last time I was here, I didn't see any sort of information."

"You never went into the lower levels," Niehr replied.

"Lower levels?"

"Living beings can't find the entrance," Niehr told him. "The Griskins, being ancient, have stores of knowledge that could, if in the wrong hands, change the face of the world—it's only natural that they would want to keep them hidden."

"But if only the dead can get to them, then how did the Griskins…" he paused. Land of the Livid Dead. "Oh. Right." Niehr seemed to chuckle, and for once it didn't frighten him. It was oddly comforting to hear a normal laugh come from his mysterious companion.

"But then how are we getting in?" he asked.

"You forget so easily," Niehr half-turned her head, so she could see him from her one exposed eye, "you are dead, and I don't officially exist, so we should have no problem getting in." Rayman scratched his head. It was hard to remember that he was dead, and harder to remember that Niehr wasn't…what? Real? It was hard to say, because, even now, he still wasn't entirely sure what the girl meant. It was then that he noticed something else: the door was closed.

By "door", of course, he meant the inter-dimensional portal the Griskins had activated for him the first time he'd come here that took him inside the real Tower. As far as he knew, only the Griskins could open it, and without that, there was only a building of stars with a semi-connected spiral staircase (which, by the way, led nowhere). As far as he could tell, everything of importance was beyond the door. In other words, no door, no lower levels.

Niehr didn't seem to notice—Rayman almost automatically skipped over the thought of her not knowing, as that had yet to happen, and now, seemed impossible. When she approached the arch where the door would be, Niehr spawned an orb of darkness and hurled it at the arch. As soon as the orb hit where the door would've been, it flattened and expanded. Soon, a new (if not slightly off-color) door was swirling in the arch.

"That was…impressive," Rayman stammered. Niehr didn't respond.

"Don't you wonder why I'm not hiding my control over darkness from you anymore?" she wondered aloud. Rayman inadvertently drew in a sharp breath.

"Spying on women is rude," Niehr informed him coolly. "Especially when they're in the middle of a sibling rivalry."

She knew I was watching her fight that boy, Rayman realized. It took him a moment before he noticed the real hint in her response.

"Sibling rivalry?" he asked. "…So you already know who those two were." Niehr gave what seemed like a light sigh of approval.

"I have a hunch," she said carefully, before stepping through the door. Rayman followed, and wasn't surprised in the least to feel what had become a familiar fear within him.

Niehr was, of course, right. Below the floor was a massive library, full of tomes written in languages Rayman had never seen, but that Niehr seemed to understand just fine.

"Please leave me in peace while I read, Rayman," Niehr's voice remained normal, but Rayman still felt like he was being ordered away (which wasn't to say that he wasn't secretly thrilled to have an excuse to get away from Niehr). Trying his best to look unhappy, he left Niehr to the old book she was reading through and began wandering the halls.

It wasn't long before Rayman found yet another thing bizarre about the library; looking up, he did not see the twin moons, but a whole other planet hovering above him. The large, red rock was something that Rayman was sure had never been there before, if purely for the fact that he couldn't have missed something that big, especially when it was in front of the twin moons.

The twin moons, that look so much like the Heart's eyes…Rayman thought about it, and realizded what it meant: the Heart of the world could not see down here, for whatever reason; more importantly, he couldn't help Rayman.

"Rayman?" the voice, the familiar voice, was one that shocked Rayman, and made him recall Niehr's words far too soon for his liking. Turning to his left, he saw exactly whom he expected.

"Ly?" Rayman said, as if asking for confirmation. Ly smiled sadly, then ran up and hugged Rayman tightly.

"I'm…" she said. "I'm sorry…for how I treated you, when you…came back."

"It's alright," Rayman replied. "I'm working on proving myself innocent with a…an acquaintance, but I could probably use your help."

"I felt horrible," Ly continued, "I knew I had to find you. I shouldn't have let them kill you, but now that you're alive again…I have a chance to help make things right."

Alive, Rayman thought suddenly. Wait…Ly's alive…so then how did…? Rayman pushed himself away just in time to dodge Ly's kneecap.

"To help make things right," Ly repeated. "By killing you for good." She launched a fireball, but Rayman easily dodged it.

"Ly, wait!"

"Like you 'waited' for Globox?" Ly cried out, launching two more fireballs. Rayman dodged them both. He knew that there was nowhere to run…he knew what he had to do. But he just couldn't.

"Ly, please!" he pleaded. "Please listen to me!"

"I'm done listening to you!" Ly cried, tears in her eyes. "I'm…I'm going to kill you!" Ly prepared a fireball, overcharging it on purpose before launching it a Rayman.

Rayman was completely numb. Ly really had turned her back on him. There was nothing left.

Anger seamlessly replaced his grief. With an inhuman scream Rayman grabbed Ly's fireball from the air. He then shot his blazing fist with all of his power. It traveled faster than Rayman thought possible. Ly had no time to react.

There was a sickening sound, like someone splattering a plum with a hammer. Rayman's head cleared just in time to see that simmering hole his fist had made through Ly's stomach. Ly looked down in disbelief, then back up.

"I…" she staggered toward him. "I knew it." Ly fell to the ground, dead. Rayman sank to the floor. He'd done it. He'd killed the one person closest to him in cold blood. Maybe…maybe he really had killed Globox. If this fight was any evidence, Rayman could've let rage overtake him and beaten his friend to death. But at the moment, that didn't matter.

Only two things mattered to Rayman right then: Ly was dead, and Rayman had killed her.

Yep. I've killed off both of the other primary canon characters. Because I believe that only my characters should star in Rayman stories (mua ha ha ha ha ha)! No, I'm kidding. So, I'm sure that you guys are all kind of wondering what's up with Niehr and why Rayman's suddenly hallucinating. Well, I'm just going to say it right now—I don't really know. I've figured out everything with Niehr's character (not giving anything away, though), but I'm still working on the whole thing with Rayman. So for now, I'm just going to say that when Niehr moved Rayman to the Land of the Livid Dead, it messed with his head a little, causing him to have that hallucination…or did he have a hallucination? I'll leave that up to you for the moment—just know that I have more planned than I'm letting on. Anyway, review and stuff—maybe speculate, too. It's always fun to read your predictions (when you actually write them…hint, hint). Til next time,

CHZL