White Light's Decent, Dark Shadows Arise

In the early morning Reia slipped out of the to the shores to watch the ocean’s waves crash as she thought of her home in Spero, her father who died to save it, and Naoya who gave his life to save its people. Her father, he was always so protective of her, guarding her from everything but in turn harming her ability to govern the nation. He took care of all political matters and raised her to be a respectful, well-mannered girl who knew her place among social accord. He raised her as a normal child, not royalty or divine, he made sure she had what he never could when he was brought to be stern, strong, and fierce. She remembered his last words to her as she cried when he moved the islands to Spero, she recalled that he said,

“Please remember who you are and never forget how I raised you. My child, never forget why you are here now and leave the past behind you. Forgive me for leaving you like this, I have no choice. Naoya take care her in my place, you were always like a son to me, never forget your place by her side.”

These thoughts brought up Naoya, his brave sacrifice led to his own demise in Spero. She had learned from her father that the person creating the portal could not pass through it, she cried for him to go through the portal but he refused coldly. She remembered how warm he was toward her before, how he showed her around outside the borders of the castle, he showed her the oceans and they watched as she watched now. She remembered the scar on his back from where someone had attacked her when she was young and he pushed her out of the way and was struck himself. His first kill at age 14 was because of this; afterward he joined the military to train and left the capital for years. When he returned he was older, stronger, but still so warm and kind to her. She wished that this had been the last thing she saw when she left him but that was terribly untrue. His last actions toward her were the coldest he had ever been with her and she regretted this.

At the crack of dawn when the sun had just cut over the eastern horizon when she was engulfed in her thoughts she was unsuspecting of the events to come and of the figures that lurked behind her. The S.A.I.N.T.S operatives were assigned to capture the leader of Arian. They remained hidden until the sun rose and the opportune moment arrived that she was completely distracted from her surroundings. Having no guards with her she was helpless in defense when one came from behind, covering her mouth and pulling her away to a vessel hidden within a bay. She tried to kick them and squirm but her actions only strained her own body and did no harm to the soldiers. When they brought her aboard they tied her hands, gagged her mouth and swiftly left the area. The only things that were on her person at the time was the seals of her father and that of Naoya’s on a chain around her neck along with the ring Karos had given her before the International Peace Conference. She tried to break her binding at no avail, after realizing that she was helpless she sat quietly in the small cargo room she was in with thoughts of how stupid she was for leaving with guards. As she began to cry one of her tears fell upon the ring Karos had given her and it began to emanate a soft power that she did not notice, even so, it seemed to calm her.

Karos' eyes shot open when he felt her ring activate and he struggled even more against the reinforced bonds he had been in since the previous night, they had got him while he on top one of the mountains, thinking about the home so many people has sacrificed their lives defending, so many of his friends had died. Hell stinger was gone, Taras was dead, Dehix was dead, he found himself wishing that he could go back in time and warn them, try and stop all of this mayhem and chaos. The SAINTS got him while he closed his eyes and began to meditate as he saw the very first soft light from the sun.

He calmed down and reached out with his power and his mind and said in Reia's head "Please tell me your home safe in Arian...for the love of night please tell me your not here on this ship.." His voice would sound rasped and labored as if he was in massive amounts of pain and had been screaming, which he had been from the beatings and torture he had received from the SAINTS.

She sat in the corner of the room she was in trying to stay calm and find some way to escape when she heard Karos' voice in her head. She looked around in panic, was he on the ship too or was this Lux playing with her mind? She thought within herself, not expecting Karos to hear her.

"Please Karos, please be in Atrum. Let this fate befall me alone." Her thoughts reflected what troubled her the most, that all had sacrificed themselves for her and she was unable to save a single life. She had no power of her own, all within her family had great powers and could see glimpses of the future but she had never been able to do this. She could not use wards or manipulate gravity, she had no powers to speak of and for this all those around her suffered. However, what lie dormant within her was about to awaken. Should Karos close his eyes he would see the ripples of water like tears falling into a mirror, reflected in the movements of the water was a hazy image of her cell. This was Suzaku's Kagami which had been a power only possessed by divine phoenix but no longer, it had awakened with Reia and slowly began to break the seal that held her powers. So long as he kept his eyes closed he would be able to see her.

He closed her eyes and did see hear, a few silent tears fell from his eyes as he imagined what they would do to her, the same thing they did to him? No..no he wouldn't let them. He struggled against his bonds more to no avail as he felt he anger and dark power beginning to rise in him. He said to her, his voice now rank with anger and a demonic hatred "I will get us out of here...i will save you" He would struggle more and more to still to no avail, he was beginning to make the skin on his wrists raw and start to bleed slightly. He yelled out in anger and Reia may here him, in her mind, and normally.

"Why, what happened? Why are you here? Why can't I be the only one to suffer,no, instead they have to drag those around me into this nightmare. Please put your own safety before mine,please save yourself," she cried out to him. She thought that his life was more important than her own. She thought to herself, "What is the difference if I am lost to this world, but they still need you." Her thought began to confine her again, lies and blame fell upon her for all the deaths caused by her lack of experience. Everyone knew that she blamed herself for their deaths but now even her own sense of survival was outweighed by the thoughts that she deserved this. She deserved to die by Lux Lucis' hands, no one else should have had that fate befall them but her.

A saints operative opened the door and walked into her room, behind him was all manner of torture devices and instruments of pain and anguish. The tools on the table were all so disturbing and too numerous to describe. They were bladed, spiked, still bloody from other prisoners, some even had a slight tint of orange brown indicating rust or just incredibly old dry blood. The man pushing them never looked up and seemed to have a burn mark on his face where an old tattoo was, if she looked closely she wouldn't know what it was, but it was a religious symbol of another group enslaved and put to work in the Lux Lucis Empire. The saints operative told the slave to wait there a moment as he stepped from the room and the slave nodded and said not a word.

The slave slowly looked up at Reia and a few tears rolled down his face "Steel yourself child...and make peace with whatever you worship...you probably wont leave her alive...im sorry..im sorry oh god im sorry" he looked like he had once been a proud warrior but he was reduced to this because of lux lucis. The saints operative walked in and dismissed his slave who gave one last remorseful, sorry glance at her before leaving.

The Saints soldiers looked at her and smiled as he picked up this curved, bloody device with crude angles and spikes covering it. "Hello my child...your going to die here but first we want some information from you." He leaned down next to her and placed the cold metal device right up against her neck and he could feel it tighten threatening to break her neck if it tightened fully where it was. "Now...tell me what i want to know...or im going to have to make this hurt."

She pushed back against the wall with a nearly soulless look about her face. She watched the slave enter then leave the room, having already known what he told her. When the SAINT operative approached her she stayed silent as she tightened the grip of her fist in a manner of lessening her fear. When he began to tighten the devise around her neck she struggled to contain her fear. In the end she cried out in horror, this could not be the fate that was to befall her, she refused to let it be by the dirty hands that took everything she cared about.

"Kyaaa, don't touch me!!!!"

Karos' eyes were closed but from Reia's cell he heard a yell and her screaming something. His eyes shot open and he began to scream and yell in a language used by the dragons of atrum veneficus, it was broken because he was not fully dragon but the people in this ship would not under stand it in the least. He shouted "konahrik ek staadnau! naan faal fifteen gods i fen kriid you all, konahrik ek staadnau!" what he was actually saying was "let her go! by the fifteen gods i will kill you all, let her go!"

He struggled against his bonds more and more and in his rage he didn't even feel the bones and flesh of his hands slowly cracking and changing and forming into dragon like claws as his eyes shifted into a dark red and changed tot he eyes of a dragon. Three Lux Lucis men charged in with long tazer sticks and began shocking him but it just made him angry. He ripped through his bonds and grabbed the head of one of the men closest to him and squeezed blood ran from under the helmet as popping and crunching noses mixed with the sounds of blood curdled screaming as the man skull was crashing in the grip of a half dragon. The screaming ended quickly as Karos closed the fist completely on the man's head and he threw the corpse at the other man as he appeared in front of the other and tore his heart out with his bare hands. He walked over to the last man standing and ignored the man's pleas for mercy and he grabbed his head and slowly twisted, eventually break his neck.

With his last shred of sanity he managed to say "you monsters....lost just....sealed....hokoron own dez" which means in english "you monsters....have just....sealed.....your own fate" He screamed out in anger and pain as two dragon wings made of a think shadow energy seeped from his back and slowly turned from energy into bone and flesh. He turned to the door and with his bare hands ripped it from its hinges and threw it out and without even saying its name he used a chant level umbra cannon done each hallway.

The SAINTS operative in Reia's room would quickly remove the device from her neck ,cutting it slightly, and he ran out drawing his sword, preparing to fight the now enraged Karos.

She heard Karos' voice speaking words she had never known prior, the anger in his voice disturbed the entire area, he had grown so uncontrollably angry because of her screams. The umbra cannon destroyed part of the wall of the cell and this allowed Reia to see Karos. His appearance was frightening but she did not fear him, she knew that it was Karos underneath this cruel exterior. She was still bond so that she was unable to move even to place pressure on the wound on her neck.

Karos saw the Saints operative rush out of the cell and saw her, but also saw the blood, he looked at the man with such primal hate and disdain in his eyes and he walked forward slowly, the saints operative charged and slashed at him fearlessly but Karos grabbed the blade in his hand drawing blood from his own palm as he crushed the sword and yanked it from the mans hand. The Man fell backward and Karos smirked maniacally and he boot his foot on the mans head and pushed as hard as he could, crushing the man skull int he process splattering blood and gore everywhere. He rushed forward to Reia and ripped her bonds off and then quickly healed her neck and looked at her worriedly, but he couldnt speak.

Reia frightened by his new appearance but at once she recognized him. The fear that gripped her eased in his presence even with what she had just witnessed. She reached up and threw her arms around him, crying on his shoulder. Something was unleashed within both of them, something more powerful than she ever knew resides within her. Just touching him calmed the rage that gripped him, bringing him back to himself.

"I was so afraid, I'm sorry!"

Karos became calm as soon as she touched him but due to the aggressive situation he stayed in his dragonic form, he wrapped his arms around her and held her tight to him and comforted her, gently stroking her hair "Shhh shhhh its ok calm down..its ok im here now ill keep you safe and get you out of here down worry Reia everything will be ok" He looked around "We need to move..i need to get you out of here and i need to get home to atrum. Sorac has some explaining to do about.....me." He snarled a bit like he was getting mad again but her calming touch made sure he didnt lose it.