Hey guys,

I know there was like a two week gap between the last chapter and this one, but hey, I finally get to bring you the first chapter that I'll write during my birthmonth. So yeah, here it is, all ready and finished for you. I seem to get writing done quite a bit when I'm keeping watch over the girls when they're watching their current favorite thing; Monster High movies. I personally think they're trash, but that might just be me being... older than 12.

But yeah, I hope you enjoy this, I can't help but enjoy that fact that DBR is just getting a little darker now. But I guess I'll find out just what you guys think about this chapter and this arc in general when you guys review it. I hope you guys do enjoy it and I'll see you later!

xKiha

They had heard it all. Every word of it and every spell.

"Oh god… Oh god… Oh god." Yumi couldn't stop herself from panicking, holding her head in her hands as she leaned over her knees, back against the wall that separated her from Kesai and Kenja. She felt sick, mortified and unsure. This couldn't be happening. She couldn't have heard what she thought she did, there was just no way that any of this was happening right now.

"Yumi, you need to calm down." Roku said, his usual smirk completely lost, instead looking at her with sincerity in his eyes and determination in his voice. "We're not helping anybody if we're just going to sit here and panic."

"But… But you heard Kesai screaming!" The usually timid girl shouted, tears beginning to run down her cheeks. "You heard what he said about Kenja possibly dying! And now I can't hear either of them! Something bad just happened and we don't even know what it was!"

"And screaming and cryin' about it isn't helping anybody." The clown demon replied, sighing stubbornly and folding his arms. "Look, we decided to help them cause they beat us, well not really but they probably would have if they weren't all friendship is magic on us… but we also saw them get into an argument and decide not to help each other. But we do want to help them, or I guess we wanted to help Kimiko and Kenja apparently, since we're here. Right?"

"Y-Yeah." Sniffled Yumi. "You're right."

"So, then ya can't just sit on the floor and cry because Kenja and Kesai might be hurt…ordead… but we need to keep goin' so we can help anybody else who might need our help. Capiche?"

Yumi nodded, wiping her eyes and standing herself up. "You're right… we can't just sit down and let everybody else handle it. Kesai would be pretty mad if we did."

"He'd get mad no matter what, he's too tightly wound." Snickered Roku. "But ya got it! We gotta keep going, gotta make sure we prove to ourselves why it wasn't dumb for the both of us to fight with a team instead of as a gruesome twosome!"

His bookreader couldn't help but giggle, reaching into her shoulderbag to touch her spellbook, finding the sensation of her fingertips against its cover to be more relaxing than anything. A reminder that at least for now, everything was going to be alright for her. She had everything together, or at least felt like she did.

"You really called us the gruesome twosome?" Yumi asked as they began walking through the long stone maze once more.

"Well, kinda. I did in my head a little." Roku said, snickering to himself and nervously rubbing the back of his head. "I thought it sounded just crazy enough to fit my style, ya know?"

"I'm not gruesome." Pouted Yumi.

"Yeah… I guess that's a manufacturing error, huh?" The clown demon said, rubbing the back of his head in thought. "But hey, I probably make up for that. So I can be the gruesome part!"

"But I'm not two people either."

"Damn it, Yumi! You ruined our cool team name! I wanted to get shirts and everything!"

.

.

.

"Do you hear that?"

Kyo jerked, looking around at the four hallways that surrounded him and Amera. The sounds of clicking shoes brought him to feel on edge, Amera drawing her sword out of its sheath. "Yeah," He replied. "What do you think it's supposed to be?"

"I have no idea." Amera said under her breath, narrowing her eyes and trying to listen to the clicking to pinpoint just where it was coming from. "But I'm not going to take my chances with anything."

She didn't need to ask for Kyo to remove the spellbook, it was second nature by this point in time. Just common knowledge that told him when to pull out the book and to be prepared for anything at any time.

"Sorusen!"

Amera felt power surge from her fingertips and into the sword, looking around once more as the clicking got closer. She felt her heart beating into her dry throat, swallowing back any thoughts and instead trying to focus on just whatever was getting closer to the both of them.

Just had to pinpoint where the clicking was coming from.

Just had to pinpoint it.

Just had to-

The hall on the right of her sword.

Amera rapidly jerked, turning her body. "They're to the right!"

"Alright!" Kyo said, flipping through their yellow spellbook. "I've got it! Boru Sorusen!"

Immediately she began to feel the effects of the spell, speed coursing through her body before directing her attention back to the hallway on the right of her sword. With grey eyes narrowed, she began rushing forward, upgraded sword pointed forward with the only goal of slashing into whatever was attempting to sneak up on them.

.

.

.

"And that's why we can't use that title!" Yumi scolded, seeing her demon partner roll his green eyes in frustration. "If only part of it fits both of us, it can't work as a team name."

"But it's awesome!"

"Why do we even need a group name anyways?" Frowned Yumi. "Nobody else really has one. The Alliance is a group name, but I think that's just kind of the lazy name they came up with because they needed to call this something."

"Maybe 'Holy shit, we're using magical kids and books as weapons and almost dying' was taken." Roku snickered. "So they just threw in a working title for their exclusive club."

Yumi couldn't help but giggle, covering her mouth. "No, I think your title might be a little too long for them to use as a team name."

However, instead of Roku's sarcastic or witty reply, instead she found him standing in place. Eyes growing wider by the moment.

"Y-Yumi…. Yumi…. Spell…."

"Pardon?" Fear filling the girl at the stuttering of her partner. "What are you saying?"

"Second spell! Second spell now!"

"Alright! Alright!" She removed her light green spellbook from her bag, flipping through it as fast as she could. "Sh'dowshiel!"

And then she saw it, a blur of a figure getting closer to them by the moment. Yumi immediately braced for impact, pulling her book to her chest and lowering her head. Roku focusing his energy as his shadow shot out from under him and lifted itself into the air. It expanded itself out, creating a dome made of shadow that covered the both of them as they ducked for cover.

However, what was rushing towards them didn't seem to want to stop, Roku watching in shock as a powerful sword smashed into the dome that was protecting them. However, after the dome was smashed, the attacker got a good look at just who they were trying to take out.

"Roku? Yumi?"

The both of them looked up, meeting the eyes of the somewhat shocked Amera. Not only the fact that the shadow duo were there, but also because they were alone and the ones that had unintentionally scared the shit out of Amera.

"Yeah, yeah, it's us." The clown said, trying to laugh off the fact that he was as mortified as humanly, or maybe demonly, possible. "Now could you kindly… you know, put away the piece of silver that you coulda killed us with?"

"Oh!" The graceful woman blinked, nodding as she set her sword back into its sheath. "Roku, Yumi, I'm so sorry about that. I just thought that you might have been the stone demon…"

"Ya mean Aphrodite?"

"Pardon?" Amera's grey eyes shooting open in surprise. "Did you run into her? Did she hurt you?"

Yumi looked guiltily at the ground, Roku trying not to blurt something out.

"Exactly what happened?" Muttered Amera, noticing the looks on their faces.

"We didn't fight her," Roku said. "Kesai did."

"Pardon?" That didn't sound right, there was no way that Kenja of all people would let himself and his demon fight this Aphrodite alone. "That can't be right."

"Well, we ran into Kenja when walking here, so we decided to go together," Yumi said, trying not to feel guilty about it. "But Aphrodite created a wall that separated us and… well, she was on Kenja and Kesai's side of the wall."

"What exactly happened to them?" Amera said, eyes narrowed.

"We don't know… the last thing we heard from them was Kesai screaming because something happened to Kenja… h-he said something about how that couldn't be good, because Kenja was sick and might die… and then we heard him begging before… silence." She couldn't help but tremble at the reality of what might have just happened. "I don't know what happened, the wall never opened up to let us see."

"Amera!"

They all turned to see Kyo running up to see what was happening, noticing that Roku and Yumi were standing there. "Wow, I didn't think that you two would be chasing after us. But you're all alone too, huh?"

"They were with Kesai and Kenja… but it seems that the stone demon caught up to them before we could all group together."

"Crap… Are they okay?"

"We don't know." Yumi sighed. "We have no idea what happened to them, but it's not good whatever it is."

"Just great." Kyo huffed, running a hand through his hair. "This is why going in here alone was a bad idea… but it's not like anybody was replying anytime soon."

"It's going to be alright now," Amera reassured. "We're in a team now, so things are at least looking a bit better for all of us."

"Yeah, things are going to be better." Yumi swallowed, bringing herself to smile. "Everything is always better if it's more than two of us."

"Exactly." Amera said. "Now come on, I'm sure that Michael and Kimiko are somewhere in here too. Well, Aislinn as well, but I'm not sure how Cheshire would react to seeing the rest of us in here and trying to work alongside her."

"Yeah, we should just keep moving." Kyo agreed, looking to Yumi. "Alright, you're coming, right?"

"Of course." Yumi beamed, placing her spellbook back in her bag. "We're right behind you."

.

.

.

Kimiko bit her lip, trying to stay quiet, nursing a shoulder wound and keeping her eyes lowered. He had told her to be quiet, Tsumi or T, she didn't know who he was supposed to be anymore. It was all so confusing, so scary while she tried to figure out just what she had done by letting this monster out of his book. What had happened by allowing herself to read the sixth spell and unleash the demon that had been locked away in her own partner.

T was trying to conceal his panting, tightening his hands into fists all while ignoring his bookreader. Nothing mattered to him that moment but winning, crushing the skull of his doppelganger and find the bitch that had created this pain in the ass in the first place.

"Spell, now."

"I… uh, which one?"

"NOW!" T hissed as he watched his doppelganger sprint forward, ready to strike him down if T didn't make his move to end this first.

"Uh…" Kimiko stumbled for a minute, looking up at the feral and angry eyes of T and hesitantly flipping through their spellbook faster. "The… Seventh spell?"

No, this couldn't be right, there was no way that they had earned a spell while her partner was in this state. There just, this couldn't be how they had to earn spells, was it? The only way for them to get stronger, it couldn't be through T, could it?

"Ah, yes, sweet proof of just why I need to be in control here." Snickered the poison demon. "Now read it!"

She didn't want to fight him on it, lowering her head in fear of his spiteful voice before nodding, studying the words on the page and trying to swallow all of the doubts that came with T fighting his mirror image. "The Seventh Spell! Koronaji!"

Instinctually, T reached into his sheath, removing his sword from it only to notice that the blade now had a purple aura glowing from it, an acidic purple substance leaking from it and burning the stone ground under them. "Just perfect." He sneered. "This'll be perfect."

Without waiting for a word or response from his bookreader, T lunged forward at his doppelganger, cold purple eyes narrowed with the intention of killing the creature that rushed towards him. They were both incredibly quick, leaving Kimiko to try and keep up with what was happening, brown eyes darting forwards and backwards in hopes of at least getting an idea of just where they were going, if her partner was going to win or if she should prepare for the worst to get, well worse.

Eventually the two skidded backwards, T seeming quite a bit more beat up, with blood leaking from his forehead and knees. However, he didn't seem angry, but rather he seemed to be pleased with himself. A vile smirk spread on his face.

"Serves you right, you bitch." He managed to say between pants, sharp teeth glinting with what looked like blood.

The doppelganger stood there, expressionless, with what appeared to be a bite mark in its left shoulder, blood dribbling from the small holes that the teeth of T had created. However, this wasn't what made Kimiko's stomach flip, as the right arm wasn't completely there anymore. It had been stabbed or slashed into by the acidic sword somewhere right below the shoulder, synthetic and false flesh melting off of the arm to show the grey matter that made up the stone enemy. It looked empty, but the poison bookreader couldn't help but feel lightheaded from the sight.

Would this happen to any demon over time or was it only melting because it was never a demon to begin with?

"What's happening to it?" Kimiko whispered. "It's melting..."

"No, just the arm is. Never expected it to be this strong though, you think Gash would have checked that out, before he gave me the okay." T muttered, no trace of regret or pity in his voice as he inspected the wound. "Who knows what'll happen when I try that one on a real demon, wonder if they'll melt too… It would make winning a lot easier…"

The word afraid just wasn't enough, it didn't justify just how T was making her feel enough. She swallowed back her emotions, bringing herself to just nod, pretending that she understood what he was meaning and forcing herself to smile to him. "Yeah… I guess it would make everything easier." Looking back over to the doppelganger and trying to imagine that being the arm of a real demon child, the idea of their screams, of tears running down their face as the acid destroyed one of their limbs.

She didn't want to think about it, it just wasn't okay. She would burn their own book before something like that happened, they weren't going to become those people, they weren't!

"You can't be afraid." T turned around to face her, eyes narrowed coldly while he sheathed the acidic sword. "This isn't the kind of game where you can let anything that we face scare you! We are going to use every spell to our advantage, no matter what that means for the demons that we're fighting! Each spell had a purpose and I intend on using each one of them to that purpose."

She wanted to scream, to yell and him and show just how much power she had and how much he would lose if she were to abandon him. But out of the corner of her eye, she noticed movement. It was incredibly quick and she had trouble trying to pinpoint just what it was. Only seconds before it reached her partner did she realize it was the mirror image, rushing forward with its melted arm practically flailing behind it.

By the time T whirled around to notice it coming right for him, it was too late. The doppelganger immediately smashed its head into T's skull with incredible ferocity along with a lack of self-preservation, the shock of the impact sending the poison demon flying backwards and smashing into the stone wall behind them, creating a large hole as stones tumbled down, practically burying the demon under them.

"T!" Kimiko screamed, holding their book even tighter to her chest. It wasn't black, it wasn't black, he was okay.

However, so was the doppelganger.

It showed disinterest in the unconscious T, instead stepping forward towards her, removing its sword from the sheath on its belt and holding the sword in its left hand. As dead eyed as it was, something about how it stood gave off the idea of it being focused and prepared, prepared to strike down Kimiko and burn their book before she even had a chance to fight back.

"Please don't do this." She whispered, shaking in her shoes. "Please, don't do this."

However, it was clear that the dead eyed creature wasn't going to listen to her, lunging forward as the brunette released a scream, holding her spellbook closer to her chest and turning her back to the mirror image, afraid to watch it lunge for her as the sound of its running feet grew closer and closer.

"Gou Luporuku!"

Kimiko was stunned when the sound of another spell was shouted, from a familiar voice nonetheless. She opened her eyes in time to notice a giant wolf jump over her, then seeing Terry along with Aislinn and Cheshire standing in front of her. Tears boiled in her eyes, jerking around to see that Canis had tackled the mirror image, knocking the sword out of the way.

"Of course you're already in here." Cheshire said, shaking her head. "I should have known we would end up saving you before we got a chance to see the statue demon that we've been hunting down."

"Terry, Aislinn, Cheshire, oh thank god." The poison bookreader sniffled, tears beginning to run down her cheeks. "I'm so glad to see you here."

"Where is your partner?" Aislinn muttered, looking around.

"Knocked out." Kimiko guiltily replied.

"Should have known, Tsumi's defeating of Xenolith was just a fluke, he's not strong enough to take out a clone of himself." Cheshire snarled.

"He's not Tsumi anymore." Kimiko muttered, holding her spellbook tightly and looking down at the cover, unable to keep herself from wondering if the cover had always been the menacing shade of purple that it was now.

"Tsumi isn't here, just T."