Yes, it's been a long, long time...School is great but it takes up so much time that I haven't had chance to even think about writing this. A lot of things have changed but I'm happy, so I don't care. I'm not making any sense either, I think...my mind stopped functioning half an hour ago...but it's only temporary. Anyways, I'm supposed to be going to the thanks section now, aren't I? Okay, here goes! Many thanks to Susan, Mags and Jason for the friendship and emails and whatnot. Also to Marcus and Kenny, you two are the weirdest! And that's a compliment! To my best friend David L.Z, I wouldn't be who I am if it weren't for you...are ya feelin' bad yet? ;) To David C., thanks for the support when I really needed it (though the other David was there more often, but I don't hold that against you). To the love of my life, David L.Z. again...can't stop thinking of you, thinking about you, thinking for you...heh ;) And of course thanks(?) to Neto for pestering, nagging, badgering, harrying, yelling, complaining and basically begging for this next chapter to be out. Now please stop! It's out already! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This story contains homosexual content and should not be read by anyone under the age of 18. Also, this story does not imply anything about the sexualities of anyone from Nsync, Westlife, Backstreet Boys, a1 or any other celebrity mentioned here. I do not know them and their characteristics. This also does not imply anything about any other people mentioned in this story. Their names and descriptions are there but that doesn't mean that their characteristics are the same in real life. And none of them possess any special powers of any sort and this is totally fiction! And now you may read this next chapter! Happy reading!
For David L.Z. (Was there any doubt?) ______________________________________________________________________________ |The Daemon Gate - Chapter Five|
Leo felt another presence in the room and he looked up from his book. It could not be Kenny, Marcus or David who were over at his house for a sleepover that night as David was bathing and Marcus and Kenny were playing around with his guitar and piano outside his bedroom.
<Who's there?> Leo asked telepathically.
<Tharsis,> came the reply from all around him. Leo nodded, knowing that she could see him.
<Hey! So what's up?> Leo asked cheerfully, looking back at his book.
<In trouble, need help,> Tharsis replied. Leo took note of the page number and closed his book.
<Dagda! Why didn't you just say so earlier?!> Leo jumped out of his bed. He opened his room door and motioned to Kenny and Marcus to be quiet. They stopped their music and walked towards him.
"What's wrong?" Kenny asked.
<In trouble,> Tharsis said.
<Oh, my bad,> Kenny said. <Some elder I am. Anyway, where are you?>
<I don't know, but we need help quickly,> Tharsis explained. <I don't have much time, I can't stay out much longer.>
<Situation?> Kenny asked, suddenly serious.
<One sitha, four human males and four human females,> Tharsis replied.
Her voice faded, showing that her presence was no longer there.
"Damn!" Kenny said. "What do we do?"
"Contact the others," Marcus replied. "Each take care of his own section."
"Working on it," Leo replied. "How about David's section? He's still in the bath."
"I'll tell him," Kenny said. "After all, I'm one short in my section now that Tharsis is in trouble."
"Okay," Leo said. "What's the time now?"
"Ten thirty," Kenny replied checking his watch.
"Meet at the reservoir near school in twenty minutes. We don't have much time."
"Your mother?" Marcus stopped Leo from disappearing.
"Oh yeah," Leo said. He walked to his mother's room and knocked on the door. "Mom, we guys are going out to buy some food from Jalan Kayu. They're open twenty-four hours so we should be able to get food at this time."
"How are you going to get there?" Leo's mom asked from inside the room. "You want me to take you there?"
"No, it's okay," Leo said quickly. "We'll walk there, and probably be back by about two or two thirty in the morning. We'll be fine, there's four of us."
"Okay," Leo's mom replied. "Just be careful and don't get into trouble."
"Sure mom," Leo replied. He looked at Marcus and they both rolled their eyes. "Come on, let's go."
"It's been too long," Britney paced around the room. "Something's happened."
"Should we go after them?" Lance asked. Lalaith shook her head.
"Not yet. Give them another thirty minutes," Lalaith said.
"Easy for you to say," Mark grumbled. "The love of your life isn't the one that's disappeared over there."
"Hey, I've got a cousin-in-law and a brother over there," Lalaith countered. "It's not the greatest feeling for me either."
"I think it's time we go after them," Peter replied. "They were supposed to be back ten thirty and now it's almost midnight. We've waited long enough."
"I agree," Shadow said. Joey nodded as well. Lalaith sighed and nodded.
"Yes!" Steve cheered. "Action at last!"
"Does everyone have to go?" Justin grumbled. He gave Mark a discreet cold stare.
"You don't have to if you don't want to," Lalaith said, misunderstanding Justin's remark. Justin shrugged and said that he would go.
"So who's going?" Lalaith asked. "Show of hands. Okay, Mark, Britney, Shadow, Peter, Paul, Brian, Joey, Lance, Justin and I. You staying behind, Nick?"
"Yeah," Nick replied. "Denny and I will watch the place to make sure they don't worry if they come back before you reach them."
"Okay," Lalaith said. She closed her eyes and the group faded into the air and disappeared.
Charmaine opened her eyes. Expecting darkness, she was surprised to find herself in a well-lit chamber. She looked around the room and saw her companions in cages similar to the one she was in. All of them were still knocked out. She glanced around the room and noticed a small table right in the centre. On it was a very familiar looking stone. Two malenti mages were sitting around it and a malenta warrior was patrolling the room.
"The fiery one is awake," the malenta warrior hissed. The two mages looked up at her.
"So she awakes just in time to see her downfall," the male mage sneered. He held up the stone. "Remember this, fire mage?"
Charmaine realised that the stone was the same one that had given her her fiery powers. Seeing the recognition in her eyes, the female mage spoke this time, "I see you recognise it. Have you ever wondered what happens when the stone is destroyed?"
Charmaine just kept her face blank. The warrior smiled in amusement.
"She is strong, that one," the warrior said. "The daemons will love her as a sacrifice."
The two mages nodded at each other. They held hands in a circle around the stone and began to chant.
"Your downfall begins, fire mage," the warrior sneered. The malenti mages chanted and Charmaine felt the power seeping throughout the entire room. Suddenly, the energy rushed towards the stone with a strong force and the stone exploded into dust. A red orb began to form outside her body and she felt the fiery powers drain from her. The orb of light faded into nothing. She looked and saw green, blue and yellow orbs appearing in front of Karene, Vincent and Fariz, then they too dissolved.
"Your power is gone forever," the male mage hissed gleefully. Charmaine sat down in her cage, as though in shock. She closed her eyes and began to mumble something.
"That whimpering is pathetic," the warrior said, disgust in his eyes. "You lose your power and you lose your courage at the same time. Pathetic!"
"Actually, I have to thank you for taking the power away," Charmaine said, standing up suddenly. "I never needed it, it was more a curse than a blessing."
"But now you have no defenses left to struggle when you're about to get sacrificed," the female mage became suspicious.
"Wanna bet?" Charmaine said, pushing her cage open and stepping out.
"What? How..." the warrior exclaimed. "Never mind."
He drew his scimitar and rushed forward towards Charmaine. Charmaine smiled at him and dodged out of the way. The mages began to chant a spell. Thinking quickly, Charmaine pulled out her pager and mobile phone from her pocket. She tossed the pager at one of the mages, knocking him out. She was about to throw her handphone when she realised how precious it was to her. She quickly moved to the ringtone section of the phone and put it to very loud, then chose a very annoying loud ringtone and pressed preview. The blasting noise disrupted the remaining mage's concentration, causing the spell to dissolve.
"Damn your spunk, girl," the warrior said, charging towards Charmaine. She caught movement behind him so she stayed her ground. The warrior collapsed to the floor, a dagger sticking out his back.
"Nice shot, Veron," Charmaine called. Veron, a short, fair girl with dyed blonde hair smiled sweetly. The female mage began to chant another spell and the male was already getting up from the ground.
"Duck!" Cried a voice. Charmaine and Veron ducked and an arrow came flying out of the darkness, strking the female mage through the heart. The male mage quickly uttered a quick spell and shot five red pulses towards the girls. Charmaine and Veron leaped to both sides, and the magic missiles followed them, three to Charmaine and two to Veron. A whistling sound zoomed in between Veron and Charmaine. The circular object split into two sections, bouncing off the walls and striking the magic missiles, causing them to explode prematurely. The two halves continued to bounce around the room in such a manner that they both headed towards the neck of the second mage at the same time. They converged and became one again and sliced off the malenta's head, then clattered to the floor.
"Nice shot, Tara," Charmaine called. "I never get sick of your chakram."
"And nothing about my bow," Leo said, walking out of the shadows. He motioned to the darkness and another eight people emerged from the shadows.
"Quick, let's get them out of here," David ordered. "Hurry people!"
The group worked quickly getting the prisoners from their cages and bringing them towards the darkness. Leo picked Estel up from his cage, which was the furthest end from where they were. He walked over to where David was beckoning urgently.
"Stop right there!" a voice said from behind him. Leo groaned and turned to face the newcomers.
"Let go of him right now," Mark commanded. Leo shook his head. Lalaith glanced around the now nearly-empty room.
"There's only two of you and there's ten of us. Now let him go!" Paul said. Leo shook his head, narrowing his eyes.
Justin reached out his hand and began to telekinetically pull Estel out of Leo's hands. Leo felt the light tug as Justin tried to pry his fingers off Estel.
"Not on your life, buster!" Leo said, pulling back. Estel floated into David's arms.
"Get out of here, Ghob," Leo said without turning back. "Don't wait for me."
David nodded and disappeared into the darkness. Justin growled and tried to knock the insolent youth to the floor with his telekinesis. Leo felt the pushing and countered it with his own mental prowess. Peter stepped forward and added his strength to the telekinetic battle. Justin and Peter pushed with all their minds, the strain showing physically on their faces. Leo, however, seemed bored with the whole thing.
"Give it up," Lalaith ordered. "Surrender yourself!"
"I tire of this game," Leo yawned. Suddenly, Peter and Justin found themselves being flung back into the group, knocking everyone over. When they untangled themselves, Leo had already gone.
"Who was that?" Mark asked, troubled.
"I don't know," Peter replied. "His mind was too well blocked. The most powerful psychic and the second most powerful mage in the world, defeated by a teenager who was just toying with us! He wasn't even tired!"
"Whoever that was," Steve said, "I wish he was on our side. We could use his help."
"Suddenly the future seems so bleak," Paul said. "And he wasn't alone either. There are two of them, both probably of equal power."
"Actually, there were twelve of them," Lalaith said, looking around the room. "I've got twelve different heat signatures walking about the room, Charmaine's one of them."
"So Charmaine's a traitor?" Steve asked angrily. "That explains why she was awfully heated up when I first met her."
"Seems like it," Lance muttered grimly. "It seems we may have to carry on with great losses. Greater than we expected."
"Wait," Peter said. "Let me try to pick up some psychic signatures. Maybe that will yield some information."
"Let me help," Justin said. Peter nodded. The mage and psychic wandered around the room, trying to get some psychic energy leftover from the other group. After ten minutes of searching, Justin sighed.
"Nothing," he said. "Not a damn thing! They covered their tracks well, not even the slightest bit of psychic information."
"Not so," Peter said, suddenly looking up. "If you know where to look. I've got twelve names to go on. One of them is the guy Ghob who disappeared with Estel. What puzzles me, though, is that Charmaine's name isn't there. Neither are the energy patterns of our friends. It's as though they were never here."
"So there's one guy accountable?" Joey asked, not really understanding. Peter nodded.
"Unless Charmaine has a different name, we've either got one heat pattern short or one psychic leftover extra."
"What are the names?" Britney asked.
"Well, we all know Ghob," Peter said. "We've got a Kerub, Phorlakh, Paralda, Ariel, Chassan, Djin, Seraph, Aral, Nichsa, Tharsis and Taliahad. Weird names."
"Six guys and six girls," Lalaith mused. "Interesting."
"It still doesn't help us," Lance said. "We've got nothing to go on. They cleared up everything even if they did forget to wipe of their names."
"I think they meant to leave us their names on purpose," Peter said. "The place is too well wiped for it to be anything else. We're up against a very, very powerful group here, and if one can defeat us, think of what twelve can do."
"We should leave," Shadow suddenly said. "Malenti are coming."
"Right," Mark said sadly. "We might as well. We can't do a bloody thing anymore anyway."
The group disappeared from the room just before a large group of malenti stepped in.
"You think the malenti will get our little message?" Jason asked.
"Most likely," Leo said. "Since when have the malenti had human spies? They even have three half-sithi and one full-blooded sithi working for them."
"Are you sure?" Kenny asked.
"Positive," Leo said. "I could sense the darkness of malenti magic in that group. Even if only one person had it, it would make most sense that the rest would be allies. I couldn't tell who had it and how many had it though. It was powerful."
"Maybe it was the Boss who cast it," David said. "She's powerful enough to do that on her own. Or maybe the malenti are more powerful than they are letting on."
"I don't know," Leo said. "The two that I fought were pretty powerful. More than the normal malenti mages are. I think that the Boss did it, but I would prefer to make no assumptions. We may either overestimate or underestimate them, and either way, it's dangerous to us."
"I agree," Charmaine said. She looked over at her fellow prisoners. "We really should heal them and get them back to their base before their friends start to worry."
"What about the elemental mages? Or whatever's left of them anyway," Ian asked. She looked at the remnants of the stone. "They've lost their power and they can't regain it. We can't leave them powerless and knowing about the war. They'll feel helpless and depressed."
"Might I make a suggestion?" Chelsea asked. "Maybe we should erase their memory?"
"It's the best idea we have so far," Lydia agreed. "It's better that they not know than letting them know but remaining powerless to fight it."
"I don't like the idea of taking away another person's memory," Tara argued. "It's just not right."
"I agree," Sidney said. "It's wrong, but we have no other choice. We have to do it."
"May Brigit forgive us," Veron uttered, closing her eyes.
"She won't have to," Leo said. "Because we're not going to do it. The stone chose to give its powers to people who already had power of some sort, and I'm sure that even if the remaining three mages don't know that they have more powers, they'll find out soon enough. Come on, let's start the healing before they bleed to death."
Estel woke up to the sound of people chanting. He slowly opened his eyes, wary. He looked around at the people standing in a circle around him. Six guys and six girls dressed in black robes, runes painted on their faces and hands. All of them were youths between the ages of seventeen and twenty. Estel looked on his body. There were runes written all over it. Or rather, there was a rune written many times all over him. As the youths continued to chant, a cool and yet warm feeling filled Estel. They emanted from the runes and Estel felt himself gaining more strength. The cuts and bruises on his body seemed to close and fade away. The youths stopped chanting and the runes faded away from their bodies and from Estel's as well.
"That's the last one," one of them, a black-haired, brown-eyed boy of about nineteen said. Estel looked over at the unfamiliar faces until he came to one very familiar face.
"Charmaine?" he asked curiously. Charmaine smiled.
"Actually, I use the name Tharsis in this group," she said. Estel sat up and looked at his companions sitting further away from the group.
"Wiccans!" Estel said, suddenly realising who's company he was in. "So all those jokes about meeting your coven weren't jokes after all, huh Charmaine?"
"Nope," Charmaine replied. "Blessed be."
"You're finally healed," Neto said, walking up towards Estel. "Good. Now we can go."
"What's the rush?" Estel asked.
"There's no rush unless you want Mark to worry himself sick about you when you're perfectly fine," Neto said. Estel grinned and looked back at the youth.
"Thank you..." Estel trailed off, extending his hand.
"Paralda," replied the youth. "But don't thank us. We were just the instruments of Goddess."
"Okay," Estel said. "See you around."
"Aren't you going to ask them to fight with us?" Neto asked. "They will be helpful in the battle against the malenti."
"I have no need," Estel said. "They're already fighting, and we will meet again. They will come when they are ready."
With that, Estel transported the group back to his hideout.
Nick and Denny sat stunned when they heard the news. The whole group was sullen, Mark most of all. The unbearable sadness of losing someone you love was evident in the faces of Lalaith and Mark.
"Who died?" a voice came from the door. Everyone was still looking either at the floor, the ceiling or each other.
"Oh no! Who died?" the voice was suddenly serious. Lalaith turned around to see who was at the door. Kevin stood in the doorway, looking scared and serious.
"Kevin?" Brian yelled, rushing to embrace his cousin.
"What's going on in there?" another voice called from outside. Mark perked his head up, his eyes open wide.
"ESTEL!" he shouted happily. Estel walked into the room, followed by Grace, Susan, Meganda, Neto, Vincent, Karene and Fariz. The mood in the room was suddenly brightened with people huggung each other. Finally they all settled down.
"So what happened?" Mark asked. "How did you escape?"
"It was strange, really," Estel said. "We were helped by a group of people. I thought we were goners when the malenti trapped us in the cages, but we were helped out, healed, and released."
"I notice that the traitor isn't with you," Lance said. "What happened to her?"
"What traitor?" Estel asked.
"Charmaine," Lance said. "She betrayed us and got all of you captured."
"I did not!" Charmaine appeared behind him. "Why would I do something like that?"
"Hush, Tharsis," said a tall guy from behind her. His straight hair was streaked with blonde dye. "Let them make their accusations first before you reply, then you have all he facts and no mindless argument."
The people in the room were suddenly aware of a group of unfamiliar people in the room with them as well.
"Well, well, well," Peter sneered. "Look who's back for a rematch."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Okay, I'm done...Chapter 6 should be up and running soon...how was this one? good or bad, email me at ensstyenlc@hotmail.com