Chapter CCXX: Darkness Advent ~Kaye

Kaye stood in the empty bedroom. It had been a good while since Mazzic had stopped knocking on the door. She knew everyone had exited the train, but where they were she wasn't sure where the Spectrum had stopped that they could've exited.

They're going to fight the Twilight Council. She opened her still dry eyes and looked over her shoulder towards the door.

The Arcanian tightened her grip on the headband and waved her hand to dismiss the spell sealing the door. She pulled it open to the silence of an empty Spectrum, and then stepped out into the hall. She walked slowly down the hall, pausing outside the room that held Kyanosa and Josh's bodies.

Suddenly she felt a mental signal, for lack of a better word, appear. She pulled the door open quickly.

"Ahh, Miss Glenwater." The large man who had been reading the yellow book in the main room of the Spectrum stood next to Kyanosa's body. "I trust you're feeling better."

"You…you're the one who brought me back." Kaye said darkly.

He nodded. "Yes." He reached down and pulled out the Spoon of Dullness with Not Even a Slightly Sharp Edge from Kyanosa's position.

"So you were there? You…you left Kyanosa to die."

"Now Miss Glenwater, I know you're a little bit upset, but I was aware of Mr. Kyanosa's abilities, and I…"

Kaye covered the distance between the two of them in three strides, pulled back her hand and slapped the man across the face.

He paused, looking down into her furious eyes for several minutes before breaking the silence again. "I guess more than a little bit." He said softly, and with a flash of green fire he was gone.

Kaye sighed deeply and looked down at Kyanosa. Then she turned and left the room, her steps once again slow and vacillated. She ignored the eyes that turned to her as she walked off the Spectrum and onto solid ground. She went right to CR, her eyes tracing over the map set out in front of him.

"Kaye…" The Twilighter started.

"I want to fight." She said in a hushed whisper that halted all idle conversation between those who were still standing around waiting. Kaye ignored all the feelings she normally would've gotten from those surrounding her. She didn't care what any of them thought right now. It wasn't important.

"How about someone you've fought before then? Mazzic has already decided on Vole, but how about Jadea?" CR said.

Kaye nodded without a word, watching as the Rip Watcher pointed out Jadea's position on the map. Then she turned and started walking, leaving more than one worried person in her wake; as well as a few who didn't care either way.

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Kaye walked down the deserted halls, her footsteps echoing down the corridor; her mind in silent turmoil. The halls were empty and only meagrely lit by dirt-covered lights. She could sense Jadea ahead, waiting. The Arcanian hadn't been hiding her power signature. There was no point to it.

The darkness in Kaye's mind stirred, stronger than before. She had always kept it subdued. The part of her that wanted to fight, the part that wanted to gain power.

Just like the Twilighters, she thought with mild disgust.

All they wanted was power, and unlike humans they could go to so much greater lengths in order to obtain it. But for what?

Defence had been enough for Kaye. Ever since all the death she had seen during The Coming of Grey. It had always been enough to protect her friends…it had always been…

Kaye clutched the headband in her fist even tighter, her nails digging into her palm. She looked up at the doors she was approaching, and they exploded inward and crashed against a table, clattering to the floor. The sounds echoed down the vacuous halls. That noise faded away to leave only the continuing tap of Kaye's shoes over the tile floor. Jadea was on the other side of the room, smirking as she tossed a beaker of green liquid up and down in her right hand.

But then how was the Twilight Council different from those on the Spectrum? They were all in this for their own purposes, or because they had been forced to come. Not a single person on that train cared about each and every one of the others. Maybe in theory they did. They would claim to without a doubt, but how many of them were currently wishing they could've given their lives to save Kyanosa's?

It was all about killing the Twilighters, and nothing more. There was a noble cause. There always was. 'Save the Multiverse. Make it safe for all the little kids to grow up in.' How many of them even gave that a second thought as they were going into a battle? A quarter of them? An eighth? A sixteenth?

"Well hello then. It's Kaye isn't it?" Jadea said, taking the beaker by the neck and swirling around the contents.

Kaye closed her eyes, feeling the darkness in her mind spreading more quickly now. She wasn't trying to hinder it any more.

"I hope you have all your business finished. You're not going to leave here today in one piece."

"No. I'm not."

Jadea blinked in surprise. "Well I have to say that was not the answer I would've expected. Of course you are the one who didn't fight. CR just sent you to be slaughtered didn't he?"

Kaye looked down at the headband clutched in her right hand.

No one in the Spectrum really cared. None of them even knew him.

She gripped the other end of the headband with her left hand, and then with the white side facing outwards, set it against her forehead and tied it behind her head.

"Oh, well now isn't that cute?" Jadea said. "Does this mean you're going to try and fight then?"

"Try?" The darkness crept into her voice as she smirked at Jadea. "No."

Two demon wings burst out of Kaye's back, flaring in the air behind her.

Kaye felt her mind fall the rest of the way into the darkness with a sudden snap. There was a flash of shadow and the Arcanian felt her body change. Her stature shrunk slightly as a thin layer of black fur sprouted from her skin. Her eyes shifted from their normal bright blue to red, and then narrowed expectantly.

Jadea took a step forward and hurled the beaker of liquid at Kaye's feet. The glass shattered as it hit the ground, and the liquid exploded into a green gas that almost immediately filled the room.

Kaye smirked as the calm confidence settled into her mind, replacing the fury that had brought about the change. She could easily feel Jadea's power signature in front of her. The Twilighter was pulling magic in for some sort of shadow attack.

"Too slow."

Kaye planted her left foot and launched forward, slamming her fist into Jadea's face, and then darting back to her original position before the Twilighter smashed into the wall behind her.

Kaye chuckled. "You can hardly think this smoke gives you any sort of an advantage."

Jadea was back on her feet. Kaye dashed forward, halting only inches from the Twilighter's face. "Though I'm sure it works just fine against humans."

Jadea reached for a spell quickly, firing it forward, but Kaye slipped easily to the side as the magical attack missed its intended target, and instead blew a hole through the wall of the room.

"You. How did you?" Jadea stammered, as the gas started to dissipate though the newly created door.

"This is not a question and answer session. Now fight."

Jadea didn't have time to reach as Kaye darted forward, and threw her fist into the Twilighter's stomach. Without giving Jadea a chance to retaliate Kaye spun around, slamming her leg into the Twilighter's side, aiding the blow with the air around her, sending Jadea flying into the far wall.

"Quite sad," the Arcanian commented.

The green smoke swirled around the room, settling slightly, only to be stirred up again each time one of the two opponents moved in any way. Jadea twirled pushed herself to her knees, wheezing as she struggled to regain her breathe.

"You're going to regret that," Jadea snarled, wiping a trickle of green blood from the side of her mouth with the back of her hand.

"You haven't touched me yet." Kaye said with a smile. "Haven't even seen a decent attempt. Is that really the way you want to die?"

Jadea moved into a defensive stance. "Oh, you haven't seen anything yet."

"Yeah, you're right about that."

"Just underestimated you a bit. You can hardly blame me, what with your habit of hiding behind the skills of others. But you'll fail, just like that silly umbrella boy."

Kaye's mind went completely blank, the smirk fading from her lips. Jadea gasped as she felt herself pulled into the air. The Arcanian lifted the two fingers on her right hand, palm facing towards the Twilighter suspended in the air. Kaye pulled the two fingers in to form a fist. There was a swirl of wind, and Jadea's body was ripped apart.

Kaye pulled the headband from her forehead with a sigh; her eyes faded back to normal and the fur disappeared. She sat down, hugged her legs to her, and rested her forehead against her knees.

"It was a parasol…"