Plappermouth: Hey guys! Loved the reviews! And I will take them into consideration and work on it : ) Pinky swear! Sorry for taking so long with the update! It's almost Christmas time…so… MERRY CHRISTMAS my little followers! I hope you have a wonderful time with lots of presents and love and cookies and candy canes and a songs and whatever else is needed for it to be a wonderful time. I love Christmas guys, I really really really do. So enjoy : )

Home… What is a home? Is it the place we live? The place we rest, put our feet up, laugh and sing? Or is it, maybe, the place our heart longs for when we do these things? Home…I couldn't remember when I'd felt home for the last time, but it wasn't here, not in this cabin. It was as beautiful as the day I'd first arrived, but it held no comfort for me now. Nothing had changed here and yet everything felt different. I felt different.

I looked at myself in the mirror. My hair had grown quite a bit since I'd chopped it off short after my mother's death. It almost touched my shoulders in a black wavy mess. My emerald eyes had lost some of their glow, somewhere along the road, although they were still beautiful. I had always liked my eyes, but now their soft innocence had been replaced by hard experience. These eyes had seen too much. Old eyes Khai would have said. A pang of regret went through me. I missed him.

And then there were the scars. They shone white against my suntanned skin. I gently touched the fine white line that ran from my left temple down my neck to my collarbone. It hadn't been a deep wound and yet the scar hadn't faded, maybe it never would, just like the part of my soul underneath the scared skin that wouldn't heal. Not even in time.

Now that I was back here, memories of who I'd been came flooding back to me. Memories of laughing at the lake, of flying the pegasi, of kissing under the stars. Happy memories that filled me with bittersweet feelings. Sweet because of their innocence and bitter because they were irrevocably lost… I cast the thoughts aside. I'd been happy in my ignorance, something I could no longer afford. I wasn't here for that…

I sat down on my bed and concentrated. One of the nifty little tricks I'd learned these last two years was how to access the shadows. Shadows and darkness can be found every and anywhere, and they're all connected, that's how shadow travel worked. To shadow travelling one had to become one with the shadows and step into my father's realm for a short moment. It wasn't just traveling from one place to another, but walking through one door and exciting another, almost like using a corridor. Most of the time it happened so fast one didn't realize what was going on, but with practice and a lot of patience, it was possible to stay in that realm, that hallway between places. It was also possible to hide things in it and that's where I'd stashed my silver chest.

I concentrated and imagined a window, just big enough for the chest, opening in the darkness. I felt it rather than I saw it, a cold flickering feeling in the air before me as the real world gave way to the shadows. Gently I stretched out my hands and grabbed for the chest. I had to be careful, the beings in the shadows weren't always friendly, but most of the time they left me alone. I was the daughter of their master after all.

The chest, as always, felt cool to the touch and I sighed at its familiar feeling. I pulled it through the gate and put it on the bed next to me, admiring the beautiful symbols and images. I gently stroked over the lid with my left hand and then, almost reverently, I opened it.

Inside lay an old papyrus scroll, a silver diadem with softly glowing crystals, a silver rose and a large ancient silver key with runes engraven upon it. My hand hovered over the diadem and my heart swelled in my breast. Soon, soon it would be mine… anticipation coursed through me, tickled my fingertips, willing me to pick it up and put it on my head where it belonged. I closed my hand in a fist and took a deep breath. Not yet Kyra, I told myself, not yet.

My hand gently touched the silver key, feeling the runes edges and I shuddered. It held power, power so strong that I was afraid to touch it for long. Atlanteans of old had created this and other keys with their last will and power. It was pure magic, only held together by the powerful runes that seemed to run along the surface like water. It wasn't time for that yet either, but I felt no regret when it came to that. The key scared me, more than it should have.

I moved my hand to the old scroll. It was magic, like the other artefacts in the chest, and told the story, the true story, of Atlantis. It was a map that would help me find my city and raise her from the shadows. And the first stop was here…. Here in this blasted camp. Gently, careful not to harm the precious parchment, I unrolled the scroll. Images flickered, shifted and faded, showing me the paths I had to take. The seven keys to unlocking Atlantis.

Finally I moved to the silver rose, but I didn't touch it. I could feel it radiating the evil it contained and felt sick as I thought of how it had gotten here and what I was about to use it for. Could I really do it? My heart hurt at the thought, and yet I knew no other way. The rose was beautiful, its silver petals glowing in an otherworldly kind of light, inviting me to touch it, but I knew better. I pulled myself from the hypnosis of the rose and closed the lid. There were things to do before that part of the plan would come into action.

No one knew that I was here yet; I'd made sure of that by only moving in the shadows. I'd been careful to stay away from Nico, knowing that he would have sensed me, but he hadn't. I was sure that if he had he would have come look for me. As always when I thought of Nico I felt a bitter wave course through me. What we'd shared hadn't been love, although I'd thought so at the time…. It had been infatuation, nothing more. Sure, he'd made my heart race and my head spin, but in comparison to what I'd shared with Khai, my feelings for Nico seemed weak and meaningless… yet I couldn't forgive what he'd done…. Forgiveness didn't come easily to me, yet I'd have to pretend to be over it if I wanted my plan to work.

Once again I thought of Khai… about the way his chocolate brown hair always fell over his sky blue eyes, about the dimples on his cheek when he smiled that brilliant white smile… about his broad shoulders and strong arms that could swallow me hole and make me feel tiny, weak and safe. About his gentle lips on mine. My heart hurt and tears started to form in the corners of my eyes. Angrily I pushed the thoughts away. He was gone, and no amount of heartache would ever bring him back. Just one of the many prices I'd had to pay.

It was almost midnight when I reopened the silver chest. I'd done what needed to be done, I'd protected my future allies from the evil I was about to unleash, all without them noticing I was there. It had been particularly tricky with Nico... I wasn't entirely sure whether he'd noticed me or not, but that couldn't be undone now. Maybe he'd think he'd imagined it… The silver rose was lying there, whispering to me in my mind… it was excited to be used. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. My heart felt heavy with guilt as I gingerly grabbed the silver rose between my thumb and forefinger and shadow travelled to the top of Zeus fist.

I could feel its poison trying to burn my skin and work its way into my soul, but my resolve was stronger. It was a thing borne out of the darkest of magics in Atlantis, an abomination, but one that had its uses. I could feel the darkness pressing against my skin, caressing it and reassuring me. I was doing what needed to be done.

My shadow gently detached itself from my feet, something that had taken me a year to achieve. It was a painful process to learn to let go of your shadow, but it was well worth it. Shadows could travel between the worlds… it was my shadow which had brought me the silver rose and it was my shadow that now took it into its inky hands crushing the petals between its fingers and it out to me. I took a deep breath and blue the dust out over the camp. A silver poisonous fog settled over the entire area, engulfing it and spreading its disease.

I sat in my cabin and waited as my conscious ate away at me. I had just condemned the entire camp to a painful and miserable existence as shadows if my plan failed. Innocent people, people who had never harmed me in any way. They wouldn't die… they would just fade and become creatures of darkness, bound to serve for eternity. That was the curse of the silver rose, it robbed you of life and death at the same time. I pressed my hands against my eyes, trying to fight the pain in my chest. It was a necessary risk, I knew that, and yet… a tiny part of me doubted that. I shook my head, it was too late to go back now.

My shadow had returned to me and was now sitting on the bed across from me with its legs crossed and its hands in its lap. "You know what you have to do", I said and it nodded, flickered and faded away. It was getting lighter outside and if I wanted my story to be believable then I had to be outside the gates before they awoke. Shadow travel was out of the question, with my own shadow on a mission. You didn't want to enter the Darkness shadowless. Not if you wanted to emerge alive.

I snuck through the gates as the first rays of sunshine crept over the hills bathing the camp in a warm and golden light. I shivered, suddenly feeling cold, lonely and cruel as I looked back at the camp. It looked so peaceful…