Previously:

Reese glances around. There has been a definite lack of curiosity. "Where are the others?"

Neah watches Taylor. "Japan."

Reese blinks in surprise. "You sent them back?" He thinks on the Takenouchis and Raul. "All four of them?" He frowns uncertainly. "Is that safe?"

--

"I get the feeling we'll be seeing the boys again soon."

--

"And what shall you do, oh Great One?" Marisol asks in her sweet young voice.

The skin on the Great One's hands begins to blacken as if charred by fire. "I shall seek the land of the Rising Sun."

--

Reese sighs and looks at the dark-haired boy who seems to be in the midst of brooding. "He won't be all right, will he?"

"You're asking me?" Neah replies with a wry grin.

Reese turns back to look at Taylor, still seated and staring into the Lagoon of Time. He can't seem to stop the image of digital red numbers that flash into his mind. 10 days. 1 hour. 45 minutes. 15 seconds and dropping.

Season Four Finale!!

Episode One Hundred and Four

"I Am the Thing the Darkness Fears"

Pizoku looks up at the mighty East Pagoda at Yakushi-ji Temple and isn't sure how he feels. He really wasn't expecting to be back in Japan so soon. If he's honest with himself, he's not sure whether or not he ever expected to be back at all. It hadn't really been much of a thought with him these past few days. But now as he watches his mother helps his injured father down the winding path, he finds that he isn't finished.

"I always wanted to see Japan." Pizoku looks over at Raul who is looking around in slight disbelief. "I can't really believe I'm here."

"Stay as long as you want," Pizoku offers. He turns around on the path. "I'm going back."

Raul seems taken by surprise. "Going back?"

Pizoku nods. "I've seen too much. I can't just, stop now." He begins to feel what he knew would be coming. "She died to protect us." Raul nods and squeezes his arm. Pizoku feels reaffirmed. "Those things are still out there and they want to destroy the world. We found something at Heliopolis, we'll find something again. I need to help."

"I'm going with you," Raul says. "I have to." He bites his lip and looks off into the distance a bit. Pizoku finds this cute. "You know the girl? The one who you said had your mother, took your father."

Pizoku shudders on the inside. "They called her Marisol of Nine."

Raul looks back at Pizoku, like he's apologizing. "She's my little sister." Pizoku gasps. Raul continues. "You saved me, I have to believe we can save her."

Pizoku looks back at the Spanish boy for a moment. Then takes his hand. "Then we will." Raul smiles and they both turn back up the path to the Temple to find the Portal.

Izanami and Naoki don't notice as they are too busy with being reunited and getting Naoki to a hospital. They don't notice.

They don't notice the ocean receding far into the horizon but other people do. They notice and some know. They know what it means when the ocean disappears and a dark line appears on the distant horizon.

Panic ensues. There has been no warning. The NOAA Tsunami Warning Center is in place to warn them of this very possibility, how could it have failed?

The sheer size of it strikes the people of Japan with pure terror. Such a monstrosity is never ever heard of! Only in myth and legend and possibly in the occasional religious text. The whole country will be inundated!

Panic and hysteria seize the country. How do you evacuate when the estimated time to impact is only thirty minutes?

People begin to attempt to get as high up as possible and this brings comfort to most.

Until the volcanoes erupt.

Meanwhile

Taylor looks down. She looks so peaceful, laying on the altar. Her long blonde hair lays splayed out around her. The blue of her clothing would normally be bringing out the color of her eyes, if they were open. She looks asleep. Peaceful and quiet. Only she isn't

"It's me, isn't it?" Taylor says. He strokes the golden hair that splays across the silken pillows. "I'm a curse. Everything around me crumbles and dies.

Reese seems horrified by this statement. "That's not true." He walks over to stand by Taylor. "They get stronger."

"She wasn't supposed to die," Neah looks down with apparent confusion. Her brother stands by her side. "She had a place in the future." She looks up at Kha'lei. "She was from the future! The 25th century. How could this happen? Why would this happen?"

"You once told me that everything happens for a reason, but that there was no guarantee that the reason would be a good one," Reese says, looking at the girl on the other side of the altar. "Maybe it just had to happen."

"Have you tried doing a Leto?" Ashlee asks from the end of the table. Ma'at looks at her confused. She doesn't understand the term, but the reaction in the others makes it clear that they do. "Bringing her back?"

"Tahiir died to bring him back, there was a trade," Taylor reminds her. He notices the look of dawning on Ma'at's face. "You volunteering?"

Ashlee walks around the altar closer to Taylor. "Why do you need a volunteer?" She asks. "You have the power." She laughs lightly. "You are the power." She stands beside Taylor and looks in his eyes. "They took her from us." She points down to Jilan. "Make them pay. Use them to bring her back."

Taylor looks back at her for a moment as he processes what she says, then he looks down at Jilan and the axe the had placed in her hands. "I could do that."

Reese turns Taylor to face him. "No, you can't."

"Why not?" Taylor asks. Reese can see the dark light burning behind his eyes. He can feel the temple around them beginning to shake. "After all, I am the thing the Darkness fears."

To Be Continued in Season Five...