Where did all my reviewers go? Or are you all on vacation or something? *shrug* I'd like some reviews for this chapter, at least! We're almost done with this story, only about two more chapters to go! And then we can start the sequel! Yay! Read on, and remember to review!

IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!

Since Kitty and Karma have been taken over by their respective elements, the elements is what I'll refer to them as - because Kitty and Karma are technically 'not there'. I put thus notice at the bottom of the last chapter as well, but if some of you don't read those, there's this one here.

Remember:

Kitty = Light

Karma = Spirit

Summary: Kurt is a Fallen, an indescribably beautiful race of demon–angels. Kitty is a fledgling priestess with a hidden power. Kitty knows that Kurt isn't her enemy, but can she prove it?

Fallen Angel

22. Fighting the Darkness

Kurt waited alongside Light; it was still rather strange to him to think of the fact that the element Light had taken over Kitty's body. In all truth, the thought actually made him a little scared.

What if Kitty never came back?

He knew Karma would be in the same predicament, but hadn't Karma been alive longer? He shrugged to himself, keeping his eyes carefully focused forwards—he didn't want to look at Light.

Kitty looked relatively the same, in fact, which was what unnerved him—but she glowed with a golden light, and her eyes had turned golden as well. In his opinion, that wasn't Kitty. No, it was Light.

Sparks flew in, landing beside them. "Spirit's coming," she said, apparently also not wanting to speak of Karma in the same way.

Almost seconds later, Karma and Fervior appeared, lighting down next to Light and Kurt. Karma looked much like the way Kitty had become, only difference being that Karma's glow was white, not gold, and her eyes also pale glowing white.

"…What do we do now…?" Kurt asked, blinking. He'd been expecting something more to happen.

"Well…" Sparks paused, thinking.

Kurt idly pulled at some grass, twirling it around. "Does the Darkness know what's happened?"

Sparks nodded. "Undoubtedly. The elements are interconnected; the Darkness would have known instantly when the balance of power changed—when Light and Spirit entered this world."

"Balance of power?" questioned Kurt, and Sparks shook her head.

"Never mind. We should be on the lookout in case Darkness attempts to attack."

"You think it would do that?"

"I don't know what it would do, which is the problem. Kitty already scouted out Treehaven, but we don't know if and when the Darkness will take over Shade." Sparks sighed. "There are a lot of gaps here in the plan…"

"Yeah…" Kurt agreed, glancing over at Light and Spirit.

"Well, we've got to do something," grumbled Sparks.

Before Kurt had a chance to reply (although he did open his mouth), a black object came spinning out of the trees, embedding itself into the trunk of a nearby tree. It was a boomerang, a dark one, at that. Light pulled it from the bark of the tree, crushing it into tiny pieces, purifying it as the shards dropped to the ground.

A voice floated across the clearing.

"So you want to fight, do you?"

All present whirled to find the source of the voice—Shade, sitting in a tree at the far edge of the clearing. But she looked far different from what she used to—normal, anyways.

A dark aura hovered around the Fallen girl; it had taken the visage of black flames. Shade's eyes were purely black, and her mouth was twisted in a cruel, mocking smile. While Shade could grin 'evilly', she couldn't have attained that level of cruelty in one smile. This wasn't Shade—it was the Darkness.

Realizing that no one had yet to answer, Kurt called out, "What did you do to Shade?"

The Darkness glanced down at him lazily, as if he were merely a bug, not worth its attention. "She's not here right now. So sorry." Sarcasm was evident in its voice. The black eyes passed over them all once.

"So you want to fight?" it repeated.

Sparks stepped forwards. "You want to fight us…?"

The Darkness laughed. "Why not? I'd be able to wipe you off the face of the earth, and who'd want to miss that? Come to the Ring of Tall Trees at evening, if you dare." There was a flicker among the shadowy flames, and Shade was gone.

Leaving Sparks, Kurt, Fervior, Light and Spirit to think of a plan.

"What are we going to do…?"

Sparks sighed. "I don't know."

"Will we even be able to defeat it?" asked Kurt, looking sullenly at the ground.

"The Darkness is a powerful adversary," conceded Sparks, "but we have Light and Spirit on our side, and both you and Fervior have at least basic fighting skills. I can use my dragon-form, if need be. I don't think even the Darkness will be able to fight all of us at once."

"True…" muttered Kurt.

"However, the Darkness is also clever—that's what's kept it around for all these years. And where it has set the battleground…this pushes the advantage to it." Sparks said, casting a glance upwards at the sun.

"How so? I've never heard of the 'Ring of Tall Trees' or whatever it said…" Kurt was confused.

Sparks sighed. "The Ring of Tall Trees is a clearing, deep in the Forest, aptly ringed by the tallest trees in the Forest. The reason the Darkness wished our fight to take place at evening was because of the shadows—they are longest at dusk, and that gives it the clear advantage, even though we outnumber it five to one."

"That puts a damper on things, now doesn't it?" grumbled Kurt.

"The only way to find out if we'll win…is to fight."

And fight, they would.

As Sparks had predicted, the shadows were long as they stepped into the clearing, the towering trees casting darkness across a good portion of the glade, the sky above them dark.

Shade was waiting, holding a large, black broadsword; fiendish black eyes alight with the thought of a challenge.

In the little time they had had left, the two non-elements (or Guardian) had armed themselves with a spear each and a sword in case the spear got chopped up. If the sword went, there were always daggers. After that, well…

The two elements conjured up their own weapons—Spirit had a bow, similar to the one that had once been Kitty's tooth, and had once belonged to Karma; Light had a glowing spear, and a chain with a sickle.

Sparks changed into dragon form—Kurt was vaguely curious as to why her fire didn't burn the grass or trees.

Kurt also had little time to wonder about the oddities of Light's curious weapon—he watched in utter surprise as the Darkness split into three—one for each group: Kurt and Light; Fervior and Spirit; and Sparks last.

"Wonderful…" muttered Kurt, readying his spear.

And the fight began.

Kurt found himself doing all right, for someone who'd rarely even held a weapon since today. Pure instinct was a powerful thing, it seemed. But the main target was not either himself or Light; it appeared to be that the Darkness was trying to get them to release each other's hands—without either all-elements wielder, apparently, they were doomed.

And they needed the elements to stay in this world a little longer.

He blocked another swipe at his head, panting slightly. Dusk had come and passed, and the shadows were fading into the night. Were they winning? It was hard to tell. At least neither of the elements seemed to be having any problems—both Light and Spirit appeared unscathed, while both he and Fervior had taken damage—he, himself had failed to parry a blow to his leg, and was now limping as a result. He didn't have enough energy to try to teleport. Fervior was doing better, so it appeared; only favoring one arm slightly.

Kurt couldn't tell which clone of Shade was the real one—or maybe none of them were; it all depended. He managed to scratch the Darkness in front of him—for that; he received a gash along one arm as a result.

Things were going blurry for a moment; then he shook his head and the spots cleared. He didn't know how much longer he could keep this up—though he was fairly certain Light and Spirit could most definitely keep going; but even Sparks looked a little tired.

"I think…things are looking down…" he hissed at Light, who nodded once.

This was affirmed by an explosion of white light. Kurt's gaze flitted to the glowing white force field that had appeared between the Darkness and Spirit with Fervior.

"What happened…?" Kurt mumbled, and Light shrugged vaguely. Kurt got the vague feeling of being split into various light particles; then they were re-forming behind the shield. There were only two Darknesses now; the third had vanished.

"Wha…?" Kurt blinked, disoriented. Then he saw what had made Spirit create the barrier. Fervior had been hit, maybe one time too many. The formerly evil Fallen was lying against the grass, eyes closed. Spirit stood; ready to dispel the force field, when Kurt spoke.

"Don't!"

The elemental turned to face him, and he swallowed. "We want Karma to be able to come back."

Slowly Spirit nodded, sitting back down.

"What are we going to do now…?" groaned Kurt. He really wished Kitty was there to make up one of her strange-sounding plans that always worked out in the end.

Now there was only a single Darkness, back to the first one, no doubt—apparently it believed it could take them all out now that they were all in one place (as Sparks had reappeared behind the force field as well)

Kurt heard a faint noise and moved back just in time to avoid being hit by one of the spears. He was now very glad for his reflexes.

Fervior had woken up, picking up one of the spears (this was the one that had almost hit Kurt)

None were more surprised than Fervior when a strange, multi-colored light appeared at the tip of his spear.

Kurt stared and asked, "Are you…doing that?"

Fervior shook his head, staring as well.

"If it's not yours…and it's not any of the rest of ours, then…whose magic is it?" questioned Kurt.

Fervior shrugged, hefting the spear in one hand. Spirit dispelled the force field, and Kurt blinked at the sudden disappearance of the white light.

Kurt and Light started forwards, helping out Sparks in distracting the Darkness. Meanwhile, Fervior's spear had acquired gold and white light, spiraling down from the orb of shifting multi-colored light attached to the top of the spear.

Staring at the light a moment longer, Fervior flung the spear.

Even if the spear had been widely off-course, Kurt had no doubt that it still would have hit its target—the energies of the opposite magicks drew each other together.

An explosion of white washed the clearing, and Kurt saw nothing more, save for two orbs of light fading into the now-bright sky…

Well, well, well! What on earth is going on now? What, exactly, was the multi-colored lights? Suggestions, anyone? Some questions will be answered next chapter (Yay!) This story's almost over! About two chapters to go, to be precise! At least the sequel will be longer! This chapter was all right, in my opinion, but I fail at fight scenes, sorry… Anyways, you know you want to review! Dooo ittt!

~ Shadey