Jaina-Elessar: -laughs- I was editing "Dejarik," so it went pretty slowly, I admit…"Caught in the Rain" doesn't have that blockage, though, so hopefully the chapters will be put up more quickly. Thanks for reading!

Terin: thanks! Here's the prologue, and chapter one should be along shortly. :)

Mistress Eden: I agree about the Jaina/Zekk stories… I have noticed an increase on the JCF, though, if you're brave enough to venture there, lol. Here, though, might I suggest Jade-Max? She's the one who helped re-convert me to J/Z… I hope you keep reading. -g-

DogDemon4040: Thanks!

-0-0-0-

If you've been getting a few update alerts from this fic, I apologize -- ff.n deleted the first two chapters (...), and I had to re-upload/add them. Take this new, real chap in apology?

Also, "Caught in the Rain" has shorter chapters (which get longer…) than "Dejarik", but because they need less work, I'll be updating a lot more frequently now. Well, that's the plan, anyway… Enjoy!

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Prologue:

The crumpled form on the metal slab was moving.

Sanar hugged herself tightly, and tried to look away, but found she could not. Her eyes were glued in horrified fascination on the corpse-that-was-not-dead. Her only contact with the being was through a vid-screen, yet still she felt the maligned evil wash off of the being, strangling even her – a hardened slave, who had seen too much, and fallen deep into corruption herself.

I am corrupted, she thought with a shudder, but that body is a vessel for the most evil and vindictive spirit I've ever seen – even more than Horaire ever was.

Beside her, she felt her brother, who thought himself so brave, who held himself so arrogantly in the Dark, become anxious.

Even Devnos feels and fears it, Sanar wondered. Childhood instinct wanted to reach out and grab her brother's hand for comfort, but her survivor instincts negated the desire immediately.

The being sat up, and its red eyes blazed into the vid-screen.

Devnos moved as if to put a protective arm around Sanar, but he, too, negated the instinct. Around them, a few key members of the New Empire shifted in trepidation.

"Find him," the emperor hissed, literally shaking with hatred. "Find the one who called himself Lord Onyx and bring him to me! Do not rest until I have his head!"

Sanar couldn't watch anymore. The idea of someone actually living off of their hatred – resurrecting in a medical miracle, that could not even remotely be classed as a miracle – and revelling in it, was too much. She ran out of the viewing room and emptied her dinner into a wastebasket.

She doubted she was the only one.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Short. Very short… Chapter One is coming soon, though :)

Please R&R!

Tjz