A new enemy

by GreenxLady

The second book: The life of the Wild Kratts finally became quieter. Chris managed to control his power to an extent, and even the villains didn't show themselves for a longer time. But unknown to them, a new evil rises. A new enemy, stronger than anything they have ever seen before. An enemy they probably won't be able to defeat. And it came to destroy them...

5. Visions

Hello Guys! I've finally been able to write again! I spent the whole last week typing, and I hope it was worth it. Well, this chapter is really long and I'm sorry if you get bored, but it is pretty important for the rest of the Story, so it would be better if you read it, that makes the rest of the Story easier to understand.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter. It concentrates on Yami and the orb that is powering her, but next chapter, I'll come back to the Wild Kratts, and then, the Action will really start! And I think you noticed that I changed the Rating, it is because the Story got more violent than I expected, and I don't want to be in trouble for not Rating it properly.

Disclaimer: I do not own Wild Kratts! It belongs to the Kratt Brothers.

And here, I'd like to thank the ones that helped me most while I was writing all of this: Wikipedia and Barbapapa for all the Informations about the animals, and PONS for my Little Translation Problems. Furthermore, I want to thank Two Steps From Hell for writing amazing Music that really helped me getting into the writing flow :-). And you probably won't be interested, but I finished this chapter in the exact same place where I got the original idea for 'A new power', and it was almost exactly two years after that! Wow, time flies...

Visions

Yami sat in her lab, thinking about everything that had happened. She was angry with herself, because she had almost succumbed to her thirst of revenge at the wrong time. But luckily, her will power had been stronger than her hate...for now. One day, she would finally be able to destroy the curse and satisfy her wish of killing Martin.

But first, she needed answers. Answers to all the questions inside her. There were too many to solve them in the short time she had left, but one of them was dominant:

How did the hemisphere work that gave her power? Why wasn't she able to use the other half? And, most importantly, could it help her gaining control again? She knew that the thing in her chest held the answers she was looking for, but there was no obvious way to get to them.

For the millionth time, she took it out and inspected it: It was pitch black, perhaps with a hint of blue, the colour of the sky at night. She knew that it held the power to turn her feelings into energy, how, she didn't know, but it somehow worked.

'Well, nothing more than a single feeling' she thought, remembering that she lost all of her emotions apart from one after her transformation into a cyborg. Hate was the only feeling that she still wielded inside her, and it was the power that flowed through her veins, let her move forward until she would be destroyed by the insanity that slowly consumed her mind.

The insanity had come after the pain, and she knew that she had to fulfil her mission and destroy herself before she would turn completely insane and destroyed the world, perhaps even the galaxy.

But that was difficult. The pain was still there, even if she had been able to stop the acid that had slowly destroyed her body all these months ago. The acid, that had come into her veins through claws – cheetah claws.

Martin Kratt had been the one causing all of this, and he would pay! That was the only thought that let her fight the insanity long enough. If she didn't destroy him, the planet would be doomed.

But now, she had to concentrate. The part of the sphere she held in her hand still didn't give away any of it's secrets, and whatever she tried, she couldn't make it reveal more than it already had. Sighing, the stood up to take out the other half. It was in a secured titanium chest that would stop any energy from radiating outside.

She opened the box and closed her fingers around it. Unlike the half she was able to use, it was white, just like a clear pearl. She let it rest in one hand and her half in the other. Luckily, she was able to save most of the energy inside herself, or she would have already stopped working when she took it out for a longer time.

Weighing both parts in her hands, she tried to find another way to activate them. She didn't want to bring them together, because she didn't know what would happen if she did. But then, she thought again.

'If I don't try it, I will never know what happens. And if I want answers, I'll have to try everything! So, whatever.' she told herself, and put the two parts together.

The giant energy-wave that occurred took her by surprise, so she stumbled and almost fell over, but her now heightened sense of balance made her quickly stand firmly on both feet again. The whole sphere she hold in her hands glowed so bright she had to change her normal camera-eyes to special mode. Now immune to the brightness, she looked closer, and noticed that one half, the one she used, glowed dark purple, just like her suit. The other half, that had always burned her when she tried to use it, glowed in a sky-blue.

But then, as she tried to let go of them, everything went black.

---

When she opened her eyes again, she didn't feel anything. She seemed to be in some kind of spirit form, able to see and hear everything, but unable to interact with the world.

'Where am I?' she thought. But just as she wanted to close her eyes again, hoping that she would just wake up in the lab, she saw something beneath her. It was blurry at first, but she soon managed to see it clearly. It was a desert. Just plain sand.

'Wait, how is that possible? There isn't a single desert for miles from where I was, so how comes I'm here?' she asked herself. But then, she heard a small sound and looked down again.

Two figures were walking through the desert. Both of them were cloaked in black, their faces were obscured. The only thing that was special about them was the symbol sewed on their cloaks: a dark red circle with a crossed arrow and sword. One of them was older than the other one, and seemed to be some kind of teacher or master, because he had a small golden dagger strapped to his side, which seemed to represent power.

None of them spoke a word, they just walked forward. It was night time, and the sky lied above them like a dark blue satin cover, covered in stars. No other light, not even the moon was there, only the cloudless sky showed them the way.

Suddenly, the midnight-blue horizon turned red, but it wasn't dawn. It was blood-red, the colour the sky takes on when fire is there. Both of the figures looked up, noticing the change in the sky.

One of them gasped as he noticed the source of the light. It was a bright orange fire-ball soaring through the skies. And it came right towards them!

Both of the figures stood completely still, stunned by the sight in front of them. Only when they could already feel the hot wind on their faces was when one of them finally reacted, pushed the other one out of the fire-ball's trajectory and jumped to safety himself. Even if Yami was far away from both of them, she felt some sort of connection to the younger one, one that was linking his feelings with her own, and so she could also feel the hot air around her and flinched when she hit the ground.

Both men lied in the sand as it flew towards the ground and crashed at the point where they had been standing just a second ago. The one who had been pushed shut his eyes tight when the sand exploded around them, and tried to ignore the intense heat burning into his skin.

Then, merely ten seconds later, everything was silent again. Dead silent. Finally, the man on the ground dared moving again. It was painful, but his thick coat had been holding away most of the burning sand. The first thing he did after he had been able to stand up, was checking on his companion. He was OK, but his coat had been burned away completely and he had some wounds on his arms where the sand had burned some of the skin away since he didn't have the time to jump away far enough.

The younger one helped him stand up and got out a bottle with a clear liquid to tend his wounds. When he had finished wrapping them up, they both slowly moved towards the giant crater in the sand and looked down to the ground.

Inside, lied a golden orb that was almost as big as a young filly. The younger one started to back up, but the older one grabbed his wrist and made him climb down the hole with him.

Carefully, but steadily, they made their way to the orb. Without saying a word, the older one ordered the other to inspect it. He didn't want to, but he did what his master told him. As he came closer, he awaited the heat to touch his skin, but there was nothing. So, carefully, he touched the orb, ready to jerk back if anything happened. But instead of being extremely hot from the fire, it was ice-cold.

That made him curious, so he ran his hand over the surface to inspect it further. It was perfectly smooth, but as he touched more points on the orb, a light blue pattern started to appear. Instantly, he jumped back, in front of his master to protect him if anything dangerous would happen.

But the orb lied perfectly still, only the irregular pattern glowed lightly in the darkness of the night. The student went back and, following an unknown instinct, started to run his finger along the lines that covered the mysterious object.

Suddenly, as he reached the end of the last line, they began to glow more powerful than before. But when he wanted to run away again, he couldn't. His hand seemed to be glued to the surface. Panicked, he called out to his master, but a sandstorm suddenly started and slowly enveloped him, separating him from the older man.

He slowly started to lose hope he would survive this when, in mere seconds, the orb started to break up along the lines, and fell apart, releasing something that was trapped inside.

First, the young man thought it was a ball made out of light, and he had to close his eyes because it was too bright for him to look at it. He didn't see anything, but he somehow felt it rising into the air. Now that it's cover was gone, he could also feel the extreme energy radiating from it.

Then, it suddenly stopped. Everything stopped. The sandstorm, the light, the heat, everything. The student slowly opened his eyes and, realizing that his hand was free, ran back to his master to check if he was alright. He was fine, but the storm had pulled away what had been left of his cloak and buried it somewhere in the sand. He only wore a light tunic and was freezing in the cold night. The student wanted to give him his cloak, but the old man refused it. But the student just wrapped his cloak around them both and they started to walk again, trying to reach their destination in time.

When they stood next to the remains of the orb, the student had a sudden thought. He gave his cloak to his master and ran down, looking for what he had thought was a light-ball. Finally, he found something that lied in one of the bigger plates that had made up the orb: It was a small sphere, barely as big as his fist and it fitted almost perfectly into his hand.

But it was broken in half. The edges weren't perfectly straight, they seemed to have a wave-like form instead. When they still lied on the ground, one

half had glowed a light blue, and the other half had glowed purple, but when he took them in the palm of his hand, they stopped glowing and just lied dull. The blue one had turned pearl-white, and the other one night-black.

The student looked at them, thinking about if he should take them along, but he finally choose to put them into his pocket. Then, he made his way back to his master and helped him continue their journey.

Yami had watched all this without saying a word, but when she saw the thing the student was holding in his hand, she gasped. It was the sphere she used to power herself, well, at least she used one half of it.

'That doesn't make sense, how did that thing get here?' she exclaimed. But then, she realized. 'That has to be how the sphere got here at first, it came from outer space! That would explain it's strange power. So this has to be a memory, a vision. Perhaps I can find my answers here! I have to follow these two men.'

She looked down again and noticed that the men were walking further and further away from her. Instantly, she tried to move forward, and realized it was extremely easy, just like walking on air. Following them, she wondered why they were in the desert in the first place! There were all kinds of dangers here, from scorpions, over thieves to the biggest danger of all: the extreme temperatures and the lack of water. These both were the things that would kill you first, so there had to be a very good reason for them to wander around down there.

But as she was thinking deeply, a couple of other men on camels rode up behind the ones she has been following. They too were completely cloaked in black or beige, but cloths were covering parts of their faces. At their sides, they were wearing sharp weapons, sabres or knives, and strapped to the back of their camels were wooden chests overflowing with gold and precious stones, some of them even had rich carpets with them, but as soon as Yami saw that one of the carpets was stained in blood, she gasped.

"Bandits! And they have almost nothing to defend themselves, only that one dagger." She knew that they would either be killed or kept to be sold as slaves, these ruthless men would stop at nothing to get money. And apparently, the two men knew that very well, at least they started to run as soon as they had noticed the thieves, but it was to no avail. The camels were just too fast for them, and so they were quickly surrounded. The master tried to protect his student, slashing his dagger at anybody who tried to approach them, but they were too many and had better weapons. It looked like the bandits would just kill them before stealing everything they had, including the orb they had found only a minute ago.

Yami didn't know exactly how the orb had gotten to the place where she had found it, but she didn't think that these bandits had anything to do with it. Who knows what would happen if they got their hands on it! That small object held an incredible amount of energy, and in the wrong hands it would cause so much damage, so much pain.

In the meantime, one of the thieves had already disarmed the older man, and was threatening them with his sabre. The student was shaking, he knew that they would die if nothing happened. But suddenly, he remembered the object in his pocket, and the power he had felt. If there was any possibility for him to use this power to his advantage, perhaps they could defeat their enemies. Without hesitation, he took it out of his pocket and held it in front of him, each half in one hand.

For a moment, the attackers were stunned, but after he saw what the student was holding in his hands, their leader started laughing. He then talked to the student, still grinning, and with every word, the young man got angrier. Yami didn't have to understand their language to know that the thief was mocking him, insulting him, because he thought that these simple stones couldn't hurt him.

But instead of jumping forward to defend his honour, the student just brought together the two halves, and then, everything went by really fast.

When the two edges collided, everything stood still. The camels stopped moving, the men stopped laughing, even the small breeze stopped. But in the next moment, a huge shock-wave that came from the stone blasted everything away. The sand was flying through the air, the animals and their riders were pushed backwards, and the ones that weren't buried by the sand ran away as fast as they could, pure panic showing in their eyes. They surely believed that this young man, barely an adult, was a powerful sorcerer, who could kill them with one snap of his fingers.

After only a minute, everything was over. The sand was lying on the ground again, and the remaining bandits were slowly disappearing in the distance. The master, who had been able to hold onto his student, started to calm down again and brushed the sand off his remaining clothes, then started to talk to the other. Yami got closer, hoping that she would perhaps be able to decode their language and understand them. To her surprise, she could understand what they were saying without using any of her technology, but after the student had used the power of the orb, she had felt that the connection between them had gotten much stronger.

"What you did there was impressive, how did you know that this would happen?"

"I didn't, honourable master! It was just that, when I first saw this orb, in the sandstorm, both parts were together, and you witnessed its power yourself. Only after it had fallen to the ground and broken in half, did the light and the storm stop." the student answered, before he started shaking again and collapsed to the ground. The master hurried to catch him before he could hit the sand below him, gently took the orb out of his hands and put both parts in two separate pockets. Then, carrying him on his back using a strength that nobody would have thought he had, the older man continued their journey through the desert, towards the now rising sun.

Yami wanted to follow them again, but something prevented her from moving. Instead, some sort of fog began to rise, enveloping the two men and hiding them from her sight. The fog rose higher and higher into the air, slowly surrounding her until she couldn't see anything else, not even the sky. Then, just before she thought that she would never get out of there, the fog lifted, revealing a small room. Inside were only a simple bed, a small table with a chair, and a chest made out of dark wood with complicated carvings.

This time, she wasn't floating above the things that happened, she was standing right next to them instead. Everything was still a bit blurred, but as she came closer to the big chest she could slowly make out the symbol that had been on the cloak of the two men, but it was slightly different. This time, there wasn't a plain circle beneath the crossed weapons, but a sign that resembled the Yin and Yang sign she had already seen in some places, only without the black and white dots inside the white and black parts. But just before she could get a closer look, she heard voices behind her.

She quickly hid behind the chest, afraid of being seen, but the people didn't seem to notice her, as if she wasn't there.

"This still has to be a part of the vision!" she thought. "They can't see or hear me." So, she stood up and walked over to the two people that were talking. One of them was lying in the bed, pale and shivering, but sweating at the same time. When she could see everything clearly, Yami recognized the two men from the desert, but much older. The student had grown a beard, and the teacher seemed to be very sick, almost dying. He tried to say something to the student, but his speech was always interrupted by coughs that made his entire body shake.

"My time has come, faithful student, you will now become the new leader of our clan." With these words, he handed him the golden dagger, which

Yami recognized as a symbol of leadership, and not only of any special rank. Then, with shaking hands, the former leader and teacher reached behind him and pulled out a small chest made of some kind of metal, but Yami didn't know exactly what it was.

The old man then opened it and pulled out the white part of the orb they had found. "I also make you the first Guardian of the Stone. I only kept it for you, but you are the one who found it and the first and only one to use it. We have both found out that only the ones strong of mind and pure of heart are able to use its power, so choose wisely who is going to become your heir." Then, he closed his eyes for the last time.

The new leader got up and fetched a small box, opened it, and proceeded to draw lines all over the dead man's face and arms. That seemed to be an old ritual because he did it with swift movements and without making a single mistake. He then drew the clan's symbol on his own hand, closed the box before putting it back in its place, strapped the dagger to his own side and left the room, with Yami following right behind him so she wouldn't miss anything.

Outside, many other people were waiting for the man. Men, women, children, even elderly people stood there. But when they saw the dagger strapped to his side, the last bit of hope in their eyes disappeared and they lowered their heads.

"Members of our clan!" the new leader declared. "I am sad that I have to tell you that our honourable leader has passed away." He stopped for a short time, wiping a small tear off his face.

"However, this is now the start of a new era! He has made me the next leader and the first Guardian of the Stone. We will not lose hope, and we will go on as we did for all these past decades. But now, we have a mission: we must protect the stone at all costs. It's energy would be strong enough to destroy entire cities if it got into the wrong hands, that's why we must keep it safe."

The people around him agreed, but before Yami could get closer, everything disappeared around her, like dust that was being blown away by the wind. Next thing she knew was that she was flying towards a destination that was yet unknown to her. As she was moving, she felt a presence beside her, but she couldn't see what or who it was. Suddenly, there were normal shapes around her again, but before she could see them clearly, she heard voices screaming and people running.

The first thing she was able to see was a horse galloping in her direction, but again, it didn't notice her. Instead, the horse's rider moved closer to the shapes around her, which she now recognized as tents. He was holding a flaming torch in his hand and used it to set fire to the cloth. Women with children tried to run from more riders, before they were either taken prisoner and killed. Yami noticed that all the riders were men, and that all

of them wore white clothes with red crosses on them.

"Wait...aren't these...the crusaders?" she exclaimed. They really seemed to be the men that had been sent by the pope to liberate the city of Jerusalem, which was holy to the Christians. But, of course, they also did some pillaging along the way and brought back incredible treasures which would all go to the church or stay in the families of the knights.

Before she could think about it further, she noticed two men who were hiding behind a big rock. First, she thought they belonged to the village, but then, she saw the sign on their clothes. It was the same sign she had

seen on the cloak of the first Guardian of the Stone.

"We have to warn our leader. These warriors are dangerous and if we're not careful, they will find the Stone!" One of them whispered, trying to stay unnoticed. The other one nodded and together they crept away from the tents that were slowly burning to the ground.

Yami made sure to follow them all the way through the desert to another space where other tents stood. Many people had already gathered around a middle-aged man who was wearing the special dagger, but it wasn't the same man as the one she had seen before. She two men she had been following ran up to him and, as soon as he had given them the right to speak, started telling about the things they had seen in the other village.

"Yes, you are right." the leader said, as soon as they had finished. "These men are here to destroy and to steal, and I'm sure that we won't be able to escape them. These new animals they are using to move are way too fast for us, we would never be able to get away." The villagers lowered their heads, and some children started crying.

"But we mustn't lose hope! I had a vision last night, which showed me the bright future that awaited us. This land became too dangerous for us to stay in, so we will move away. If we follow these fighters, I'm sure they will lead us towards the lands where we will be safe. I need volunteers to find their encampment, and then we'll have to try and steal some of their animals and their clothes, that will be the only possibility for us to hide amongst them. Who will volunteer?"

About seven young men raised their hand instantly and, after a few seconds of thinking, others joined in.

"Perfect." he looked satisfied. "You will go out tomorrow and try to find enough clothes for all of us." But then, he was interrupted by an old woman who raised her hand. He gave her permission to speak.

"What about us? Some of us are too old or too weak to start such a long journey, what are we supposed to do?" The leader thought for a short time.

"The ones that are not strong enough to join us, will take refuge inside the caves further south. We will give you enough water and food for several weeks, and hopefully the fighters will be gone by then. We can't all go inside these caves, that's why all men and women that feel strong enough for this kind of journey must come with us."

All the people around him agreed and the volunteers already gathered some weapons and disguises they would need to infiltrate the knights' camp. Then again, everything went blurry, but this time it was only for a few seconds.

The next thing Yami saw was a big group of horses with riders on their backs. The were all moving in the same pace, except for a smaller group. They were a bit slower than the others and clearly had difficulties controlling their horses. All the knights that rode past them just shrugged their shoulders and moved on, careful not to lose the others from their sight.

She moved closer so she could understand what all of them were saying, but she already knew who the small group was.

"Faster, we cannot lose them!" the leader said, the helmet he was wearing slightly muffling his words.

"Yes, we're trying! But this is more difficult than it looks." one of the young men that were following him complained. But some of them, namely the women, were already more self assured about it.

"You just have to keep calm. I f you are scared, the animal will be, too." they tried to explain it to the others. Afterwards, everybody was more relaxed on their horses and they began accelerating until they were as fast as the rest of the horde.

"This is good!" the leader encouraged them. "The more we are able to behave like them, the less they will suspect us of not being an actual part of their group. But I'm sure everything will be alright." The next second, the strange fog started rising again and Yami was flying through some kind of tunnel.

Sometimes, she was able to see glimpses from the past, but they were nothing more than just a few seconds long. She could see the people arriving in a big city which she didn't recognize, then, she could see them settling in another city, living just like the townspeople with normal jobs. In the next sequence, she saw some kind of ritual where a man she didn't know was made the next Guardian, and this went on for what seemed to be hours. It got really difficult for her to see anything more than one picture, but they started to become more violent. There were guards running around the town following people, women that were tortured and burned at the stake, fake trials.

Finally, she stopped flying and the fog lifted again, revealing a room inside a ship. It was crowded and hot in there, and she didn't recognize any faces, but the symbols told her that it was the clan she had been following for a reason she didn't know yet. All the people were underfed and scared, but one of them was still confident.

"I know that this is a long journey, but I'm sure that the new world will be safer for us to stay in. The kingdom where we lived until now has just gotten too dangerous. The soldiers are killing everybody whom they suspect is using magic, and I haven't been able to hold in all of the Stone's energy. You know that several people have been looking for us because of the damage it did to the animals, and this was the only possibility to escape them." he explained to the others, clearly not for the first time. It couldn't satisfy them completely, but they got a bit more calm.

Suddenly, there was a deep rumble going through the entire ship. A young woman who was closest to the door jumped up and opened it, asking a sailor what was going on.

"We have hit a sandbank. We're sinking!" he yelled, and ran towards the exit. Instantly, the people inside the room got panicked and tried to get out, too, but the leader stopped them.

"Wait! If we go out there just like that, we won't be able to stay together, and you know that it is crucial for our surviving to remain one group. We have already been separated twice, and every time it has left us weakened and scarred." With these words, everybody calmed down a bit and they all started running towards the stairs that led to the deck, still staying together. There, they all found one big life-boat and started lowering it to the water, then they all got in one by one. The leader was the last one and he cut the ropes that held the small boat in place with his golden dagger.

As soon as they were free to move, they started rowing the boat towards the shore, which, luckily, wasn't far away. When they finally reached it, they all helped each other get out of the boat and started walking, looking for any sign of life. They found other people that had been on the ship, even with some supplies like food, water or weapons. Almost everyone of them wanted to head north, because they had heard of a new city forming there, but the 'Clan members', as Yami started calling them, didn't want to join them.

"We won't be able to live in another city again." the leader reminded them. "It would be better for everybody if we find a space to live in alone, without threatening everybody." So they set off to the west, looking for a safe place to live.

Yet again, everything got blurry. 'So that's how the orb came to America.' she thought. But she felt that there was more for her to see if she wanted to understand this story completely, the story that was also going to become her own.

After everything cleared up again, she saw the Clan members walking through a forest. It was a sunny afternoon and some men had been able to go fishing, so they would have enough to eat. But the moment didn't last for long. Soon, high-pitched yells came from the forest all around them as many men armed with spears or bows and arrows ran towards them and surrounded them. Some of them had feathers stitched onto their clothes, others had just some symbols painted on them, but most of them were wearing animal skins or fur which made it almost impossible for anybody to spot them in the shadow-patched forest.

The Clan members just huddled together in a circle, ready to die, but the natives, as Yami had recognized them, didn't attack. They stopped as soon as they saw how helpless these people really were, and the Clan leader had already told them to throw their weapons away to show that they didn't mean to harm anybody.

The chief of the natives walked up to the leader and greeted him, and the leader greeted back, thanking him with a nod that they didn't hurt them. Using sign language and sounds, the leader tried to explain why they were here, and that they needed a shelter. The chief nodded and motioned for them to follow him. Once again, Yami travelled through a tunnel of fog.

This time, she saw the natives' village. The Clan members seemed to be trained in camouflaging techniques right now, while other natives prepared weapons for them to practise with. In exchange, the Clan leader taught them how to heal some of the diseases that had been brought over by the other Europeans, and the women taught the squaws how to weave using the long bison hair. It seemed that the Clan had somehow become a part of the tribe, even if they were foreign.

But they still had to go further. It was great to live with people that knew how to survive in the wilderness, but it wouldn't work out for a longer time, since there were other tribes around that didn't like the people that arrived and took away their land. So the Clan leader decided that, the next day, they would leave and look for a new spot to build a home in.

Yami watched him talk to the chief, since he had learned their language during the time he had spent with them. The chief listened to him in silence, but nodded at the end, understanding their problem. He agreed to give them weapons and smoked meat so they would be able to walk on without having to stop to go hunting.

Finally, the hour came where they would say goodbye. The children from both the tribe and the Clan hugged each other one last time, the women exchanged some last ideas about cooking and the men exchanged some of their own goods like weapons they had brought over from the other side of the ocean and necklaces made out of eagle feathers. The chief even entrusted the Clan leader with one of his own Tomahawks, which he had made with the iron the Clan had brought along in form of brooches, knives or old pistols. Both men hugged for one last time and then, the Clan left to look for another place to live.

Yami wasn't surprised when the fog enveloped her one more time and let her travel further through time and space. This time, she seemed to cover a bigger distance in both dimensions, but before she landed she heard the familiar sound of battles. For some brief moments she saw several soldiers in red coats fighting ordinary people armed with what they could lay their hands on.

"The American Revolution" her inner Computer told her. Even if she had never been to school, she knew everything there was to know. And since her memory didn't work like a normal human's memory, but more like a hard-disk, she never forgot anything that happened or that she learned.

She travelled further through the tunnel and could now see the Clan. They had built themselves a new home, hidden from the rest of the continent so nobody would discover their secret. It was really peaceful, the children helped the grown-ups grow crops before learning how to read, write and count. The leader also taught them how to tame animals and how they could learn from them, things he had learned from his own teacher. This was knowledge that had stayed in the Clan for more than a century, first given to them by the natives.

A few seconds later, she left that moment of peace but somehow felt something different than hate, was it...regret?

But before she could really grasp it, it was already gone, washed away by the new flow of impressions that kept raining down on her. She saw more years flashing by, first, a time of peace, but then, there was another period of war.

"The Civil War" she knew instantly. Again, all the people were fighting each other, but when she reached the Clan's hideout, it seemed to be as peaceful as ever. Their village had grown since she had last seen it, and it was strangely more modern than it's environment. The members seemed to be a lot more focused on developing new techniques for everything than all the other civilians.

But instead of just flying above it like last time, she was pushed by a strong wind towards one of the bigger buildings, probably the leader's house. She just floated through the ceiling and further down until she got to some kind of big cellar, several feet beyond the earth's surface.

BG Music: Two Steps From Hell – Black Blade

It seemed to be some kind of labyrinth, it's walls made of a special substance, very similar to metal, but Yami could feel it isolated this part of the house from the rest of the village, nobody would be able localise it, even with the technology she knew from the future. Or perhaps it was meant to hold back energy, like the one the Stone kept emitting!

She floated further through the winding hallways, until she heard voices. First, they were muffled, but as she approached them, she heard clearly what they were saying:

"I already told you, you must leave! I have to make this decision by myself."

"But you already made it! Why would you want to remake that choice?"

Now, Yami could also see them. They were two men, standing in front of each other. One of them had the golden dagger stripped to his side which she had seen so many times, and he was remarkably old. The other one was a lot younger, but didn't show any respect towards the leader. They were clearly arguing, but she didn't know what it was about so she tried to get closer.

"Only after I made my choice I realized that I was wrong." the leader said. "You are not fitted to be the next leader."

"You already trained me, you taught me everything that you knew, because the Stone had chosen me to be it's next Guardian, that's what you said all these years ago!" the other man, who seemed to be his student, yelled at him.

"Yes, there has been a time when I thought you would become a great leader. You were intelligent and learned fast, and you were willing to learn everything I had to tell you. But you changed. Now, the spark of evil has been lit inside your soul. You don't seek peace anymore, like we have done for all these years, you only seek power." The old man looked sad as he spoke, but the student just started laughing.

"So you finally got it, didn't you? As soon as I knew what power lies inside this Stone, I've been dreaming about it for weeks! They were dreams where I would rule the world, and nobody could defeat me. All the armies on this planet would be useless! I could be able to destroy them like annoying flies. I knew that I would be able to do all these things as soon as I knew how to use this weapon of pure power, so I decided to study even harder after that. But then, you found out about it."

The leader looked at him, still standing in front of him as firmly as he could, even if tears were forming in his eyes. "Yes, I noticed it even earlier that you think. Since then, I've been looking for another student to teach our ancient ways of peace, because you stopped listening to me."

"I just couldn't believe how you did it! You had all that power right in front of you, but you still didn't use it! We could have been ruling the world for all this time and you just didn't do it." The student now got closer to the man, but the leader didn't budge.

"That is because the Stone is not meant for war. If the Guardians before me had thought the way you do right now, this planet would have been destroyed long ago! Its power is too strong to be controlled by people like you." The student was now standing right in front of him, a mere inches away from his face, hissing his next words:

"Then they were all weaklings, just like you! I will now take what's rightfully mine, and then I will teach everybody where their place has to be!"

"No!" the teacher shouted. "The moment you gave in to your wish for power, you lost your right and ability to use the Stone. Only the ones pure of heart are able to use it, and your heart is dark. As long as I'm here, you will never see this Stone again! I now ban you from the Clan, you are not allowed to come back here."

"Well, if I can't use the Stone as long as you are here, I guess you'll have to go." the student said, pulling out his own dagger. But before he could hit the leader, the old man blocked the weapon and ran away, quickly followed by his former student.

"You can't run from me forever! I know these hallways as well as my own house." the younger man shouted. Yami also ran after them, so she wouldn't miss anything. Many times, the student almost caught up to his teacher, but he was too fast, dodging every time the young man tried to slash him with his weapon.

Finally, the old man disappeared into a room, and the student laughed, certain about his victory. There was only one door to this room, and he was blocking it. But his grin disappeared as soon as he saw what the teacher was holding in his hands.

He was holding the two halves of the Stone, ready to use them. Only calm showed on his face, but Yami sensed that there was more to this than she knew.

"Oh, no. You – you wouldn't try to..." the student started, but the teacher was serious. "You wouldn't be able to do this! You are too old to use this power, it would destroy you!"

"Yes, but even if I will disappear, you will, too! I wasn't able to teach anybody else how to use the Stone, but at last this will prevent people like you from abusing its energy!" Then, he brought the two halves together.

"NO!" the student yelled, as he tried to hide behind the door, but the energy-wave reached him anyway.

Yami shielded her eyes from the strong light as everything exploded around her, but even if she could have seen what was happening thanks to her special cameras, she didn't want to know what the student and teacher were talking about. And a few seconds later, everything was over. The two hemispheres fell to the ground, the man who had been holding them had just disappeared into nothing. She wanted to leave this place instantly, she didn't even know why she saw all of this. It was clearly the journey the Stone had made, but this didn't explain the way it had come to her.

But before she could walk away, she heard something move beneath the pile of rubble. She turned around, only to see the student freeing himself from the thick metal door that had buried him beneath it. It had probably protected him from the power, but not completely. As she got closer, she could distinguish burns all over him, and his clothes were in rags from the sudden burst of energy. Further, the door had been pushed against him so hard that his arm had snatched out of its socket, and multiple shards of metal had dug themselves deeply into his flesh.

He winced in pain, holding his arm to prevent it from damaging any nerves, and started walking towards the exit. He tripped many times, still extremely weak from the explosion, but still made it somehow. Outside, all the Clan members were waiting for news. They had felt the explosion, and when the student came out of the house, with all his wounds open, they became really silent. Everybody was watching him, and when he fell over, too weak to stand anymore, they started panicking.

The best healers they had instantly started tending his wounds, took care of his arm and gave him something to drink that would make him strong enough to explain what happened. So, with the little strength he had gained, he raised his voice and began telling.

Yami stood there, her arms crossed in front of her chest. The student couldn't tell the truth, the Clan would chase him instantly. But she wanted to hear how the student would explain the explosion and the fact that his teacher was missing, so she listened.

"My teacher wanted to show me how to use the Stone one more time." she heard the student say. "When we arrived, he took the Stone in his hands, but suddenly, the earth started shaking! I was still able to hide, but our leader couldn't control the Stone's power anymore. And when everything was over, he was...gone!" The student broke down again, he was even able to fake that he was crying. The whole Clan was sad that they lost their leader, and most of them were crying, but some told the student to go on.

He cleared his throat, wiped away some fake tears and talked again. "Before that, he told me about his plans. He told me that the way we are using the Stone now can't be the right one: There is still so much pain in the world, so much injustice." Some of the people in the crowd started nodding, but most of them were confused. Yami could see that mainly the younger members that hadn't known the old leader that well were ready to believe the student. But then, she concentrated on the young man again.

"Right now, there is a big war that is tearing our country in half, and we're just sitting here, protected by the nature, doing nothing! We have the biggest power source that exists on this planet right in front of us, and we're too scared to use it! This can't be the right way to live. We should destroy all evil in this world and bring peace!" Now, even older members agreed, but some were still unsure about what he was saying.

"But this won't be easy. Most people will try to fight us, because they don't like others that are trying to tell them what to do, even if it brings peace. So we'll have to, I really hate to say this, use violence to stop the fighting. This is the only way! I know that many of you will not agree, but this was our leader's last wish, and so this is what we'll have to do. A new era has now started for our Clan! We will win this battle, and with the Stone's power, we will bring peace to this world!"

Most of the members were now cheering, only about a handful were shocked. Did he really want to use their holy Stone to kill people, even destroy whole nations? But the student already went on. "And I already know how to do it. With the technology we have, we will create the ultimate warrior, a fighter that nobody will be able to defeat! We are still a long way from there, but with skill and patience we can reach our goal, and we will reshape the world as we want it, so everybody will live peacefully under our reign."

He ended his speech, dropping to his knees again. All of this had exhausted him, and the healers already carried him inside a house to be able to take care of him.

Yami just stood there, but her anger would have made her strong enough to destroy this whole town. What did he think who he was?He had absolutely no right to do this! But at the same time, she began to realize something. It was just an idea in the back of her head, she wasn't able to grasp it yet, but she started to feel the connection between what she was seeing and what she had lived. But before she could think about it further, she was travelling again.

This time, there was fighting again, but with more sophisticated weapons. She realized that this was World War 1, and soon, she saw the Clan. They weren't fighting like the rest of the world, they were working on their technology. Performing experiments on animals, they knew what to improve and where they had already been successful. But because they were not concentrating on the war, their technology developed much faster than other's, and soon, they were able to extract DNA before anybody else was even thinking about it. Furthermore, their scientists had found a way to harvest the Stone's energy without having to be able to use it, because none of the leaders had found the ability to control its power. They were just too evil.

So now, they had found a way to work without ever running out of energy. Soon after, Yami saw the battles of World War 2, and how the scientists abducted prisoners of war to experiment with their DNA. The humans were tortured by the methods of the Clan, and most of them were killed, but there were still some members that didn't approve of the leader's methods, and they helped some of the prisoners escape. All in all, some experiments were successful, but the human died soon afterwards, the pain being too much for them to take in.

They worked that way for years until, some years after the end of the war, they had nobody else left to perform experiments on. But that was when the current leader had a horrible idea.

"We need humans for our researches, or we'll never be able to create the ultimate soldier!" one of the scientists stated.

"Yes, I know." the leader replied, exasperated by their complains. He had been thinking about that problem for many days and nights, but the only idea he had was to start another war, and they were still not powerful enough to do that. In addition, since the Stone was so powerful that everybody would try to steal it if they knew that it existed, they had been hiding successfully from the rest of the world. Even planes wouldn't be able to detect them, they had moved their laboratories and the rest of the town underground. Thanks to the Stone's energy, they had even been able to grow crops without having to be outside.

"We can't just go out there and ask for people, can we?" The leader sighed. Then, suddenly, he had an idea. "But perhaps the war isn't over completely! Yes, they stopped fighting," he held up his hands to prevent the others from interrupting him. "but in Germany, they still have problems with bombs that didn't explode on impact!" He paused, in the clear that his colleagues had to be as ruthless as him if he wanted to go on with his plan. But he was sure that they would follow him anywhere. So he continued.

"We could look for smaller villages around here, abduct all the inhabitants and destroy the whole town! If we make it look like it came from underground, as it would look like a bomb had exploded underneath, nobody will suspect a thing! And we'll have enough humans for the next few months." He stopped, hoping that they would agree. And, one by one, they did.

Yami clenched her teeth. "So that's how it happened!" she hissed. But before she could do anything, they disappeared in the fog again. She wouldn't have been able to do anything anyway, this was still a vision. Next thing she saw, was a burning village. The Clan members were chasing and capturing an entire village! The children were running around screaming, some of them tried to hide, but the Clan members were able to find everybody.

The very last thing she saw, was a mother who was trying to save her child. She was running away from the attacking men but suddenly, she tripped on a stone and fell, still protecting the kid in her arms. Some men were walking up to her, laughing. And then, they took both of them away. The child, a little girl, started screaming as she was violently ripped out of her mothers arms. The woman was crying as well, and when Yami saw her face, she got a shock.

"Mum?" she whispered, but the fog was enveloping everything again before she cold get a closer look. She was now travelling faster than ever, but she could feel that she wasn't alone. Next to her, she could distinguish the face of the very first Guardian of the Stone, the man who had found the powerful sphere.

"So now you know how you got it, and why you can't use it completely. Remember my words: Only the ones who have balance can use the full power of the Stone, you'll have to change!" Then, he disappeared.

The next moment, she woke up in her laboratory. Everything was exactly the way she had left it, and her computer told her that only a second had passed. But Yami was too concentrated on what she had just witnessed. This had answered many of her questions, but she still didn't know exactly how she would be able to use the other half of the orb.

Now, she noticed that she was still holding it in her hand. Sighing, she stood up fetched the small titanium chest and put it back, before putting back her own half inside her power core. Then, still thinking about the vision, she started working on her suit again. She still had to transfer most of the informations from the Disks onto herself, but she wanted to improve them. Of course, the Disks as they were would already give her many abilities, but that wasn't enough. She needed perfection. Only that way she would be able to defeat Martin to finally do what she needed to do. Only that way she would finally make him pay. Only that way she would get her revenge!

Well, that was it for that endless chapter. It took me Ages to write it, I spent every free hour typing, but I'm finally through! Only perhaps seven chapters and a Sequel to go...

I hope you enjoyed it, and if you did, why not leave a Review so I know how you liked it and how I can improve.

See you next chapter (probably around Christmas - or later, I don't know. These two School years are the most important ones for me, because everything I do now will Count for my very final grade, the one that will give me the opportunity to do the Job I like, or the one that will forever ban me out of the Universities...)

Greetings

GreexLady