Someone was laughing behind him. He couldn’t see who it was – Zola, perhaps, or Nyoko – but in the vastness of the cave it sounded eerie… and it echoed off the walls. He had no desire to know who it was; he had enough problems of his own. Even though he was not physically being attacked, his link with Kykherhenha was enough to experience the pain she was feeling right now.

If there was any good news, it was that Kykherhenha was blessed with powerful wings. Even though the beast had a fierce grip on one of her legs, her wings were free, and she flapped them with all her might. Thekherham could feel her exertion, wondered how long she could keep it up. For one brief moment, he expected someone to help him, but he quickly shook away the thought, because the others were busy with their own problems.

Slowly, very slowly, the monster was losing its grip. It almost looked as if his hand was sliding off her leg, or was he just imagining it? The pain in Thekherham’s own leg intensified to such an extent that he cried out. Don’t stop, he sent. Keep going!

Thekherham struggled to his feet. His ears were laid against his head, and the black tip of his tail twitched as if it had a mind of its own. He took a step toward the monster, calling it every vile epithet he could think of. All he wanted to do was get its attention away from Kykherhenha. That one step almost sent him to his knees again, but he managed to stay on his hindpaws. I may not have any magic, he thought, but I have something that will kill just as well.

“Damn you to the pits of darkness!” he screamed. He did not hear it because he had shut off his hearing.

The monster faced him and roared back. In that moment he had loosened his grip on Kykherhenha, and she did not even hesitate as she struggled to fly up as far as she could to get away from the monster.

She wheeled around, extending her claws. If she wanted to kill it, he would let her. It was she who had been attacked, and she would defend herself. The beast was about to feel her fury.

Even as she prepared herself to attack, something struck her full in the chest, and she plummeted to the hard, rocky floor of the cave. Thekherham had no time to wonder what had happened as a sudden darkness swept over him.

Grabbing the sword as soon as she reached it, Nyoko paused as she felt the power Zola was channelling... it was dark. Very dark. Turning to face Zola Nyoko shook her head, It's too late... she won't listen until this is over one way or another. Turning towards the undead, Nyoko blinked as she saw Tyro had gotten up at some point and was facing the undead mage. Shrugging, Nyoko tossed the sword passed the two hoping to distract the creature and turned to deal with the other threat, trusting Tyro to deal with his own opponent.

Frowning as she saw Thekherham going down, Nyoko's eyes widened as she saw Kykherhenha falling from the air, I didn't think the link between them was that strong. she thought as she lashed out with her magic, sending out a continuous stream of tiny balls of fire towards the Creature responsible even as she tried desperately to cushion Kykherhenha's landing.

Zola stood there unmoving for a moment longer. Her bandaged wounds were still steadily bleeding, but she now felt no pain. Her silver hair whipped wildly around her, each strand looking alive with energy and power.

She watched with emotionless eyes as Tyro attacked the undead mage and Thekherham and Kykherhenha struggled with the unknown monster. “Damn you to the pits of darkness!” she heard him yell, but in the next moment, they were down, unconscious. Zola watched as Nyoko lashed out with her magic, sending out a continuous stream of tiny balls of fire towards the Creature responsible even as she tried desperately to cushion Kykherhenha's landing.

Zola just smiled, considering. Monster first, or mage first? She pondered. Some part of her mind screamed out that she shouldn't even be thinking such thoughts when her friends were in danger.. Friends? Friends? she had no friends. She frowned. Friendship was for weaklings.

Her eyes narrowed when she spied a fireball heading her way. Looking almost bored, she dodged it unnaturally fast and looked to see what had tried to attack her.

She grinned, dark grey eyes eerily reflecting the purple and black glow around her.

So the mage wanted to die first, huh?

Eyes gleaming with anticipation, Zola dug the tip of her sword into the ground with force, holding onto the handle. Dark power of purple and black energy streaked up and down the blade then travelled onto the icy ground, breaking all the ice on its path. It streaked towards the undead mage so fast that it just managed to move its torso away. But the bolt of energy struck its handless arm so strongly that it shattered into millions of pieces up to its shoulder with a massive exploding sound that echoed eerily around the cave.

The mage howled in agony, its horrible face now contorted with rage and hatred.

Zola just grinned, pulling her sword out from the ground.

"That was just a taste of the beginning, you fool," she said, eyes laughing.
Her voice was deeper than before, carrying in the cold air strangely.

Tyro stopped and looked towards Zola once part of the dead man's hand exploded. He stared in semi-horror, semi-confusion. She looked...nastier. Seeing as the dead man had decided that Zola was greater threat, he moved into the light. His bare feet under the long robe were exaggeratedly large and so was the claw his hand had become. The yeti and the Mage seemed to be one and the same.

Tyro looked back up to Zola. He raised his weapon as he moved towards her, cautiously. His Kitsune-senses...yeah, OK, were tingling. But he could feel some kind of energy. He had felt anything that polluted since the black git in the armour. Or Abyss...
"Zola? Are you All right?"

Thekherham opened his eyes, and he knew immediately that Kykherhenha was still alive. What had happened? She had been out of the creature’s clutches, hadn’t she?

He got to his hindpaws, a little too quickly, because he went down again. His paw touched his head, his chest, his arms, taking stock. Kykherhenha? he sent.

I’m all right, she returned. I know I shouldn’t be, but…

He looked at the others. They all seemed to be staring at Zola, and as he looked at her, he saw something that frightened him so much he began to fearshiver. He didn’t want the others to see him like this, so he willed himself to stop, and to keep his tail in its usual position along his back. Was Zola somehow being affected by the magic in this cave, by the cave itself? Was there something else in here, stronger than anything they had yet encountered? He watched as Zola drove the tip of her sword into the ground, releasing powerful energy that drove like a laserbeam toward the undead mage, shattering its arm. The sound happened so suddenly, that Thekherham did not have time to turn off his hearing, and he had no choice but to listen to the explosion.

The frightening thing about all this was that Zola seemed to be enjoying this.

One arm down, he thought. He wished he could do something. "Finish him," he shouted, and his voice sounded strange.

There was magic here, all right, good magic, bad magic. Kykherhenha had fallen, he knew that much, because he had seen her fall, but somehow, miraculously, she was alive, which meant that he was alive. Nyoko? He looked at her, and his large, dark eyes were full of questions.

"Zola? Are you All right?"

Zola's head turned slightly to gaze at Tyro with blank eyes. For a moment, she stood there, just staring at him coldly. She could hardly remember who he was....
Of course she was all right... What did he expect?

"I've never felt better," she sneered at him.

A fireball erupted towards her again from the mage and her eyes snaked back to see it coming. With frightening speed, she dodged it again, smiling.

"Finish him!"
Zola spun around to see Thekherham shouting at her. He seemed almost afriad, and for a moment, Zola felt confused. Shouldn't she be afraid too? But it all passed away in a second and she spun back to face the mage again.

Finish him, huh? Her eyes narrowed. Of course she will... But...

"No," she said, glancing back at Thekherham. She grinned viciously, a crazy gleam in her eyes.
"Let's play a bit first..."

Zola swung her sword around, and as she slashed the air, three streaks of dark energy streaked towards the mage.

Its other arm shattered to pieces, exploding like a bomb. Its disjointed hand flew to land at Zola's feet and she stepped on it with an amused smirk. It gave a loud crack as the frozen piece of flesh also shattered under her boot.

The mage howled again, anger prominent in its facial features.

As the mage let out a howl, there was another noise that could be heard, one which sounded like a deep, pain-filled roar. Rose immediately span around in all directions, a look of confusion on her face, "Uhh...I thought that the mage was the yeti, right?" she spoke up, not knowing what to think of it. She was beginning to look a little frightened of what it could be, not for herself but for the others; she let out a gasp when someone seemed to had come back into view from the darkness. It was Thorn although, he was now small again but there was something wrong with him. His eyes were glowing light blue, his expression looking considerably expression-less. He didn't seem to be moving much and while it seemed like he just wasn't going to move, he suddenly launched into a beast-like sprint right for Zola, leaping at her claws first.

Tyro stared straight back into Zola's cold pits. He didn't like what he saw. He had a sneaking suspicion on what had happened to her. He had a great deal of experience with things. First hand too. But they had to make sure that the mage wouldn't be much of a threat.
"Finish him or run, Zola! Now!" He said as he moved towards her.

He started recalling memories of Lilly. She had darkness take her too. It killed her and used what was left as an avatar. It freaked him out. Especially when she licked your neck...

He kept his weapon at his side and ready but casual as he could. Them mage wouldn't cause to much trouble. The onlt thing Tyro could think of doing was putting Zola down. If he looked threatening, he'd have to chase.

Then something big and blue pounced. Tyro slid in the way, swinging red hot metal.

Thorn almost flipped over himself as the weapon was swung right for him, only his cloak seemingly guiding him through the air. He flipped backwards, landed on his hands before letting out a vicious growl. Despite being small and back to his normal self, he definitely was out of his mind completely. He stood up and immediately, bared his claws and pounced for Tyro...that was until his arms were suddenly pulled back while his claws struggled to meet with Tyro's flesh.

Rose was holding her hands out, concentrating on the now glowing cuffs to keep Thorn away from Tyro. He growled viciously, trying to find the ground with his toe-nails. Thorn wasn't giving up to Rose's ghostly powers and continued to pull himself forward, even managing to swing his claws; it was only a few seconds when Thorn managed to break free and launch himself straight for Tyro.

The ringing metal that made no difference to Tyro was raised in defence and caught Thorn under the chin. He din't like the idea of burning the demon but he had no choice.
"Calm down! I'm not your enemy and deal with the dead guy Zola!!"

Nyoko frowned as she continued to hurl the tiny fireballs at the creature, but looked over at Zola in concern, "Do not let the Darkness without become the Darkness within." she said in a soft voice, enhancing the words with a touch of magic so Zola would hear them clearly regardless of other sounds that might drown them out, "Or you will lose your sense of self and become one with the Darkness forever."

Frowning as Thorn attacked and was driven off, Nyoko sighed and relaxed her hold on her power, becoming a becon of Light to rival the Darkness consuming Zola, "Do not trust the Darkness for it twists things to its own ends...Trust the Light. Light does not corrupt nor consume those that it grants its power to."

"Finish him or run, Zola! Now!"

But Zola just laughed, hardly listening any longer. Run? Never! It was too much fun to play...

Then she saw Thorn leap at her and stood ready to blast him out of the way, when she saw Tyro slide in and took the attack for himself. Her smile vanished, marred by confusion. Why did he do that? Why?

"Deal with the dead guy Zola!!"

Her eyes narrowed. And who was he to boss her around?

But even as she thought that, another soft voice floated into her mind, confusing her further.

"Do not let the Darkness become the Darkness within.Or you will lose your sense of self and become one with the Darkness forever."

Zola's eyes widened. What...?

She felt something warm growing inside her. She knew what it was... yet, she couldn't put a name to it...

The soft voice continued, and Zola could not help but listen, transfixed.
"Do not trust the Darkness for it twists things to its own ends...Trust the Light. Light does not corrupt nor consume those that it grants its power to."

Light? Light? Zola blinked, and slight understanding dawned on her. The warm feeling... it was light, wasn't it?

Zola suddenly realised what had been happening and gasped softly.
What the hell was she doing here? She was still confused, but she was now fighting the coldness grasping her mind.
But it held on tightly, voice whispering, "I'll never let you go, Zola..."

"No... No!" She clutched her head, trying to clear her head. "I never wanted this..." she whispered frantically.

The voice just laughed cruelly. "Yet you just love the feeling of power, don't you? You can't deny the truth, Zola."

She closed her eyes, focusing on the warmth, fighting... fighting... Her past experiences flashed behind her eyelids... The friends she made on her journey, the hard times, the good times..
And her father... Her father...
How ashamed would he be if he saw her like this? A teardrop ran down her cheek and onto the floor.

"Forgive me," she said quietly.

And as she opened her grey eyes, a wild cry escaped from her lips and the dark power that had raged around her became more focused.
But she now had control.

"Die you stupid mage!" Zola screamed.

The dark aura around her hurtled towards the mage in a massive beam of shadow.
It hit the mage full on the chest, shattering its whole body into tiny little pieces, its dying screams echoing around the cave strangely.

And as it died, the shadowy aura left Zola and her eyes turned bluish-silver again. But even as the darkness finally left her, she heard a whisper of the voice saying, "I'll be back. I'm always here..."

Zola stood for a moment, as the power left her. The wounds began to bleed again, heavier than before and her body felt extremely drained of energy. She struggled to keep her eyes open, and keep her consciousness, but blackness threatened to take her.

No, she thought fiercely, I have to fight still...

Zola tried to take a step forwards to face the monster, but she landed on her knees, driving the tip of her sword into the icy ground.
She tried to stand up again, but she couldn't...
Then she couldn't even manage that and fell completely, her mind giving into the welcoming unconsciousness...

Thorn let out a sudden roar as the blade met his skin, his arm immediately slashing outwards in rebuttal to the attack. He was quickly becoming more violent, now not afraid to come in at close range to Tyro to try and slash his nose off. He continued to try and get through Tyro to get to Zola; however, that feeling quickly died down once the mage was shattered. His eyes ceased to glow blue but instead flashed purple before he suddenly fell forward, flat on his face; it seemed Rose was still trying to hold him back, considering the cuffs around his wrists were deeply embedded into the ground.

Rose was very quick to release her hold on the bonds and immediately floated straight over to Thorn, trying to inspect what happened to him, "Thorn? Thorn! Are you alright?" she asked out, her finger poking through into his head as she tried to prod him back to life. She didn't quite know what was wrong with Thorn and his attacking suddenly, but something didn't feel quite right about him, "Uhh...sorry about, umm, him...he's never had that with his eyes before".

"Its OK...We've all got some explaining to do..."He said with a little smirk rose. Well, first mission accomplished, he thought as he looked towards the spot were the mage was. He then looked to Zola on the floor, put on a grin and went to put his hands in his pockets. Of course, they fell straight through.
"Who's going first?" He looked around and saw that most of the inhabitants of this cave were unconscious or hadn't anything to reveal. "I suppose its me then."
He clicked a fireball into life and waved it into a corner of the cave over another shape in the dark. Winter clothes, limp muizzle, red mop of slightly obstructive hair with black ears coming out. Yeah, a dead Tyro lying in blood.
"Ooooo...Sorry about the winter stuff. Bloody ruins everything. Take it from me." Tyro undid the buttons on the other him. No sense wasting warm clothing.
"Kyoko, were you going to tell me that I'd been wearing fox fur or were you going to have a quiet titter to yourself?"

Thekherham was trying to make some sense of everything that happened in the last few minutes. His mind was a whirlwind of confusion, and Kykherhenha knew his thoughts.

Stop it, she ordered. The mage is dead! It’s over.

“You know what I wish,” he said aloud. “I… felt so useless there… Zola was fighting, and Tyro was fighting, and Thorn… and…” He looked further into the cave, pricked his ears as he turned his heaing to maximum. He turned to the others. “We’re safe for now, but if you think it’ll be easy going from here on, think again.”

Kykherhenha flapped her wings, took to the air. Do you want a drink? she asked.

Later, he replied. And I don’t care what Thorn thinks.

Sighing with relief as Zola released her hold on the power that was trying to claim her soul, Nyoko walked over to her, still radiating power and began to pour the pure energy into Zola to give her strength and heal her wounds, "We should rest until Zola is recovered." Nyoko said as she tended to Zola before turning towards Tyro as he asked a question, "Now why would I want to tell you about it when we could all get a laugh out of it?" Nyoko asked with a smirk as she finished tending Zola and allowed the power to fade away.

At Nyoko's healing touch, Zola shifted slightly on the ground, feeling strength returning. Her mind felt strangely numb and cloudy.

She slowly opened her eyes to see Nyoko tending to her. For a moment she just stared in confusion. What had happened?

Then it hit her: the dark power, the voice, the mage...

Her eyes widened and she quickly scrambled up, even though her whole body protested against the sudden movements.
She grabbed her sword and looked around, eyes alert.

"The monster... Where is it? Is it dead?"

She did not meet anyone's eyes. She just couldn't... Not yet...

Rose felt a little lost; it was hard doing anything to help when you couldn't move anything or touch anyone. She sighed heavily, looking down at Thorn before around in the area, "It would be nice to have some help here...I can't exactly touch people". she spoke up, feeling slightly exasperated already. She looked down at Thorn before around at the others, "I'm not willing to possess him just to see whether his soul is still there or not!" she said, raising her voice, "The mage was trying to use him! Not his fault that demons are so easily possessed..."

Thekherham watched Kykherhenha for a moment, then he looked at Rose. “It would be nice to have some help here,” she said. But what was that about not being able to touch people?

Come down, he told his whistling dragon. When Kykherhenha had landed, he walked over to Rose. “Is there anything I can do? I have complete… uh, empathy with Kykherhenha here, but I don’t know if I can do anything.” He hesitated. “I’ll try… I mean, I haven’t done much, have I?” He let out a sad little laugh. “Claws with poison inside, and I can’t do anything unless I’m attacked.” He looked down at Thorn, cleared his throat. “What can I do?”

"Thek, you can help strip the dead me. I like these clothes, even if Nyoko is trying to have a great giggle in the corner." He pulled the fox fur coat of his own arms. "By the way, why isn't anyone freaked by the fact that I'm taking the clothes off my own corpse? Isn't anyone interested in how that works? Nyoko might have a power point presentation."