Hey guys! Happy belated holidays! I am really sorry that this dang story came out so late – writer's block and the addiction to a computer game do not go well together, hehe. Well, this is a climactic and resulting story! I would like to thank all the people that read and review, by the way. Enjoy!

Chapter Twelve

Raimundo's Point of View

Darkness…

Darkness was all around me.

Wherever I went…

Whatever I did…

It followed.

I heard voices bickering the while I had my eyes closed. As the voices and clomping footsteps approached, a blinding light surpassed my eyelids, and I was forced to put my hands up, but, not realizing that my right hand still hadn't healed, screamed out in frustration of a life, dark, dank, and unfortunate, that had cursed me absolutely.

While the luminosity faded, I strained to open my tearing eyes. Wuya and Chase were holding a flashlight with the disgusting color of black – the color I never wished to see again.

"Looks like the boy decided to wake up," a warped lady's voice went.

Another strange tone replied, "About time."

I could see them clearly, the horrible people I also never wished to see.

"I bet you wonder how we did all this, don't you?" inquired the hag.

"No, I don't – it all comes clear to me now, how all of these horrible things happened."

Impressed, Chase stepped back. "Well, I never questioned that you were an intelligent one, Raimundo Pedrosa. Not in the least."

Anyone sensible would have wanted to shout out loud things like, "How could you," or "I hate you," or something like that, but in my fury, I just spat in his ugly face.

Wuya opened her eyes wide and started to cough out sniggers, but Chase just wiped it off with his gloves. "Well, I underestimated your infallible audacity, Raimundo. But your friends did not survive as long."

With a chuckle and a smooth flourish of his arm, he yanked a chain, just as black and ugly as a flashlight, to reveal a cage – too fast for my currently-impaired eyes to see what happened exactly, or even close to exactly – with, as one might have guessed it, Clay, Omi, and, most importantly, Kimiko. The cage was held by the four Antis that caused all of this mass of destruction, and I was going to do so much damage to them, but I could not feel anything. Anything at all but misery…

They were on the ground as if dead, and the expressions on their face lifeless as a painting. Splattered in the dark blood of defeat, it brought pain in my heart and, apparently, my solar plexus.

"Admit it Raimundo, you are forever conquered by the dark side!" I didn't know exactly who was saying this. "No matter how much you spit," okay, now it's clear, "you can never defeat the Heylin way!"

I kept thinking to myself, 'No, it's just too much to lose, I can't lose."

But…

Hanging my head low, I knew I was, indefinitely, whitewashed.

The laughs those horrible bastards brought up so many memories.

So many laughs heard by my friends and my enemies…

So many calendar proverbs misunderstood from Master Fung…

So many wounds healed…

So many scars that were not…

So many sights not seen…

So many songs not heard…

So many dreams unfulfilled…

So many hearts not to be broken…

Hearts to be broken…

Hearts…

Beat…

Love…

Kimiko.

And with one amazing outburst of energy, I closed my eyes.

Having no idea what it was, my five senses just lost control. I said it, but I'll say it again – at the time, I had absolutely no idea what it was, but I supported everything it did.

The last thing I said that I knew I said was "Wu…" and then I lost thought in my voice.

The last thing I heard was the shrieking of the ugly hag and the horrible man and the evaporating of some substance that must have been ghastly.

The last thing I tasted and smelled was new blood out of me coming from who knows where – maybe everywhere.

But the best last thing was the feeling. The last thing I felt were three heart beats – oh no, they were not my own, but I'm pretty sure I know from who.

After that it was weird, for there was something that clicked – a sixth sense maybe. There was no real way to describe it other than that, because, for some reason, it couldn't be described any other way. But I know how it was experienced, I was, and still am, sure.

But I felt that my heart…

It was saying to me, 'You've got guts, kid.'

Then all went blank.

Ruwot: Not much to say, no one to say it so, R and R.