"Your sister and her men just impaled you. I guess our plan wasn't good enough."

"Your plan. Is Khalid...dead too? Can you save him like you save me?"

"No I can't. He's not directly bonded to me like you are. Right before you died I saw your sister order her men to capture him, it seems like she wants to interrogate the both of you before deciding what to do with him."

Oh that's right, she's seen me revive once before, when I died the first time. Or so the dark lady says.

"They probably tied up your body and your hands, so that when you revive you can't run. You could still cut your way out of the rope, but what good would it be if they just killed your right afterwards. And we can't risk too many unneeded deaths, it could speed up your transformation into, well I think you described it as a monster. And after that the next stage would be being stuck here."

"So then what should I do?"

"For now play a long. Khalid's abilities could really help us, so I would rather we try to keep him alive for now, don't give your sister any reasons to kill him. We'll have to think of an escape plan once an opportunity presents itself. Maybe wherever their taking us will give us some ideas."

"Can I choose when to revive? Maybe if they think I'm really dead forever, stuck in here, that could help us out?"

"Your getting clever. Good, the dark is helping shape your mind. Right now, the level of connectivity between you and the dark lets me delay it a little. Instead of being instant, we have time for this discussion. But time's up."

The world starts to draw into existence around me. Feels good to be alive again.

I can feel a tight rope strangling my arms, tying them behind my back. Agh! I'm dropped to the ground. I must have been carried by one of the soldiers up till now. A few of the men come up behind me and command we to walk forward. I can see Khalid a few paces away with another few men surrounding him doing the same. He gives me a look that makes me think he has his own plan for getting out of here. I hope it doesn't involve me teleporting.

"Your back, good, I was beginning to think you died for real. Or maybe you did die that day, and this is something else I'm talking too."

My sisters behind me as well.

"What did I do, I can't remember, please tell me. Maybe it was a misunderstanding, I don't think I would ever try and hurt my family on purpose."

"Oh I know you wouldn't, but you would do anything our mother asked, and she was willing to hurt us. And you were too much of a coward to try and stop her."

My mother was trying to hurt our family?!?!

"But I'm not like you brother. I'm willing to do what it takes to bring our mother to justice. She was willing to sacrifice you, turn you into...or replace you with whatever you are. All to help her....you know what she wanted. You must still not care."

"I really don't remember anything, what did she want?"

"I thought you were lying to gain some sort of sympathy, do you really not remember anything? Maybe your not him then after all."

Every few steps I feel a prob pushing me forward from behind. The rope around my wrists are starting to really hurt.

I can tell her about the dark lady, she knows I can revive, and the dark lady didn't say not too.

"After the dark saved me, I lost my memories. I think its like amnesia, if you help me maybe I'll remember something, maybe I can work this out."

"Amnesia, or you weren't created with those memories, I wonder which is the case."

Why does she keep talking about me like that.

"What are you implying? That the dark changed me so much I'm not who I used to be? Is it because of how my miracle changed? I'm still me, just damaged. Still your brother."

I can't see her face, but the tone of her voice shifts a little bit, she's starting to sound a little sad almost.

"What did that thing in you tell you, that we killed you and mother made a deal to save you?....Do you want to know the truth?"

This time it felt like I was yanked into the dark by the neck. Almost hurt.

"Change the topic of the conversation."

She doesn't want me to know the truth.

"No, you lied to me about what happened. I need to know what happened between me and my family."

"And you lied to me as well. How did you do that earlier, the attack with the lines moving forward?"

Dammit! I never thought about what I was going to tell her, Khalid probably assumed we would have time to think of a lie the next night, since we didn't think we'd be in a fight so soon. I can't let her know about me and Khalid's training. She could leave me right here for going behind her back and working with him. I need a good lie.

"It came naturally. I just wanted to get out of there alive, so I listened to my instinct. Before it was telling me to cut, yelling me to do it. This time it told me to punch."

That's how it actually felt when I put the dark in me and punched Khalid, so it's as good as a lie as I can make.

I hear nothing for a few seconds.

"Interesting, I didn't think you would start hearing the dark say different things so soon. It should of taken longer, but maybe you being more connected to the dark is why it happened so soon. Very interesting indeed."

Sounds like she believed me. I'll have to stick to that lie when I show her my other new attack. Maybe I should use that to get out of here, but It didn't last long the last time...

"Now let me out of here."

"Change the topic, or I'll leave you as soon as she finishes her sentence."

! So she's that desperate, she must not of anticipated me finding out the truth so soon.

"Actually, I think I feel Khalid about to do something. Call it instinct, we know him well. Just sit back for now."

Khalid is going to do something?

I'm ejected back into the world as forcefully as I was yanked out of it.

I turn my head and stare at Khalid. He has a very serious expression on his face.

I turn back to face my sister, her mouth is still open, right where I left off. If Khalid just waits a few seconds I can hear the truth!

I hear a rush of air, and look over to see Khalid inhaling more than I've ever seen him inhale. He holds it in. 3 of the 4 soldiers are near him, the others by me. If he takes them out.... I need to be ready to get away from mine at the same time. But how? ....My new power.....they may not notice my arms going black under my clothes, and my fists are covered by giant rope. If I can use that speed and power to run away...grab Khalid and just run as fast as I can until that power runs out....its a plan. Not a great one though. Were would we even run to, were in what looks like a barren field, an hour away from the city. Maybe he has a plan, that doesn't involve teleportation...

Khalid turns his face towards the soldiers behind him and exhales. There's no way they're going to expect him to be as strong as he is.

One by one they start dropping. Out of the corner of my eye I see two of the soldiers behind me start rushing towards him, transmuting their arms into giant weapons. He's several feet away, I only have a few seconds to do this.

I focus, focus on pulling the black into me. I feel it, the rush of energy, I feel it start to enter me, I feel invincible again.

The ropes on my arms feel like air now. I tear them off of my with a shrug. I turn to run towards Khalid, I get to him in an instant. He doesn't even have time to react me, I grab him and turn my head to see where my sister and the rest of the men are. Their arms are still growing to full size, only my sister seems ready to attack, but I can tell even she wasn't expecting me to do this. I hear Khalid whisper something.

"Wait. Let me."

He inhales again, and exhales as my sister and her men start sprinting towards me. Only this time he doesn't exhale air or some invisible attack, he's exhaling dark fog. No this isn't fog...it's the dark.