The world was sliding out from under him, ripping itself from the very fabric of creation itself. Pain. Intense, mind-numbing. Meant to confuse him and make him drop his guard. He couldn't let that happen. . . Swirling grey stone dripping past him in an oil slick of viscous fluid, whispering past his feet like the softest touch of silk.

Another lurch and the silver-backed mirror cracked away, suspended mid-air like a drowning victim slowly sinking to the bottom of a turbid lake. A thousand reflections of the canopy bed glared in the bevelled shards, grossly distorted, then gone. Glass flakes disappeared into the void. The inky blackness rising below his feet seemed endless, like the devils of hell reaching up with hungry maws to swallow all color, all life.

The candles surrounded him completely now, their light impure, defiling, stretching along the seeping oil like a tangible creature hunting. Curling around his limbs, a grotesque parody of a purring feline, leaving behind a wet slug trail of rotting juices. The stench assaulted his senses, settling in his chest around the lump of swollen flesh coagulating there.

Pain. His hands swung angrily through the light, armored gloves eaten away before his very eyes to reveal decaying white flesh, dry skin fluttering away like moth wings in an invisible breeze.

~You are mine.~

Yellow eyes burned deep within the greasy black void beneath him, two points of light swimming nearer with each halting breath he took. His chest. . . Such agony, each burning gasp dragging across raw nerves.

~Every thought. Every desire. I am your master now. Surrender the yoroi. Surrender everything. Give yourself to me.~

Why had he been fighting? There was something he had to remember. No. Someone. The void was up to his knees now, the eyes swelling toward him like the bulging guts of a corpse on a hot day. Closer and closer. If he just let himself sink, maybe then this pain might fade away. Maybe then the hammering in his head and the acid in his mouth would fade away. Death, dead, dying.

An electric buzz was pushing at his eyes, the back of his skull, wanting him, seeking penetration. Spitefully, he flung it away. Sweet misery. Sweet song of death, embrace me in your arms. Cleanse me in your filth, purify me in your decay.

Moments crept by at an agonizing pace, the soft whisper of sand in an hourglass. The darkness caressed his brittle shell, the hardened exoskeleton adorning his shattered dreams. The laughter came to him on a silent breeze. He could see him now, head thrown back in passion, eyes heavily lidded with desire. Soft skin slick with the sweat of carnal acts, arms open and inviting.

Half his arm was submerged now. Soon it would be over and they would be together again. Life would be happy again. As the blackness crept over his face, a soft caress on his cheek brought a pale blue eye open. There, long red hair in front of him, so close so close, if only they could touch it would be perfect. Jade green eyes bore into his very soul.

~Fight it. Let me go.~ The low-pitched but nasal voice was right in his ear, he could feel his cold breath across his cheek. ~Live, Rayjura. Live again, love again. Don't let your fear chain you to the shadow of what could have been. Don't let me destroy you, love. Never let me do that.~

As his head was engulfed, he saw a flash of brown, felt a strong grip on the back of his neck as a gloved hand plunged into the darkness with him. He was being pulled, someone was struggling to free him from the viscous fluid.

~Live.~

A hundred images of him flashed before his eyes. Even surrounded by destruction he was so bright, so alive. Red hair sinking slowly into golden waters, at peace. Green eyes flashing with fury and vengeance. Calm gold waters, sparkling in an unnatural sun. Rough hands shaking him. Slamming the door behind him. The eyes of the one he loved held only thoughts of the past. Eyes so pale blue to be almost white.

What had they seen? What was in this empty shell to love? Both willing to sacrifice everything to make him open his eyes and see. Could he lose them both?

Slowly, struggling against the searing agony, he raised his arms to grasp the hand holding his neck. He wanted to live.

*******************************

"What the fuck is that?!" Naaza snarled as he shook off the throb of power from teleporting. His katanas were unsheathed and itching to destroy something.

"I think it's alive," Touma called from a gnarled tree branch. "It's centered upon the house, and it doesn't look like it's planning on leaving."

"Great. Maybe it'll stand still while I kill it." Shu glowered at the hands restraining him.

The group of Ronin and Masho were gathered on a gentle slope upwind of the cabin Naaza had remembered. Only now there was a black amorphous ~thing~ pulsing out the doorways and windows, sending out grasping tendrils and leaving scorched ground beneath it's questing limbs.

"We need to figure out what it is first," Seiji argued coldly, restraining Kongo through Shu's grace only.

"I'm gonna get a closer look," Touma yelled and jumped down from his tree perch. Ryo quickly followed with Shu.

Seiji rolled his eyes. "Does no one listen to me?"

"Apparently not," Anubis smirked. "I think we should join them. That thing- I've never seen anything like it in the Netherrealm."

Naaza watched as his allies made their way down the hill. He could feel the Gen Masho now that they were on the same plane, but it was so weak. "Oi, Rayjura, you sure know how to pick 'em," he muttered as he trudged after Anubis.

The pulsing became more violent the closer they came. When Touma was a few feet away, an angry limb clawed at his breast plate, sending him sprawling. The ancient armored sizzled at the point of contact, then glowed a faint dark blue. Touma shook off the impact and accepted Seiji's hand up.

"Don't even say it," he glared at the smirking blonde.

"Well," Anubis contemplated the scene before him. "It seems sentient, and probably poisonous from the look of it. What think you, Naaza?"

"Ch'." Colorless blue eyes stared intently at the black shape. "He's in there."

"I can't find Shin," Seiji half-whispered, thoughts focused inwards on the link. "If he's here, something's blocking him completely. It's hard to hear anything through the anger."

"What anger?" Touma looked at him questioningly. Korin was the strongest of the armors in the mystical aspect of their fighting, with Seiji's own mental strength bordering on outright telepathy outside their mindlink. A shiver ran down his spine. Seiji's kanji was pulsing.

"It's angry- Rayjura defied it-" He spoke haltingly as he processed the various impressions he received. "It wants- A body. No- *bodies*- Rayjura can make it look- human- If it takes blood it will become as blood- It exists through- emotion- feeds on misery and hurt and anger- I . . . I don't get it." He broke off, confused, as the other warriors stared at him. His head was throbbing; a terrible pressure was building in his mind. The Gen Masho was present, like an aftertaste in his mouth swirling down his throat. The bond between Ronins and Warlords had never been very strong, but now he could feel it as though he was linked to one of the other Ronins. The clouded feelings of Rayjura were interfering with his perception of the amorphous creature.

"Seiji," Ryo placed an armored hand on his shoulder plate. "You're telling us this thing is some sorta- vampire?"

"Maybe. It's adept at manipulating minds. Now it's using Rayjura to keep me from probing any deeper."

"So how do we kill it?" Shu spoke up, never looking away from the black creature undulating before them. *Shin. . .* As they stood there, so calmly discussing the repulsive ~thing~ that had taken his best friend, he had been questioning himself, his feelings.

It fed off misery- had he hurt Shin so badly? He had lied to him, in saying he was strictly heterosexual. The warrior of Trust had been blinded by his own emotions, so he hadn't caught the lie, at least Shu didn't think he had. It wasn't that he didn't want Shin- it was becoming harder to subliminate the attraction he felt- he just didn't want to jeopardize everything they had because he was horny. What if they didn't make it as lovers? Where would they be left? He needed Shin's love and compassion and vibrancy in his life more than he needed to get laid. Needed it with a desperation that refused to let him take the chance of fucking things up. But now- had his fear led them to this? If he had just been honest with him, would this have happened?

Ever since Shin had disappeared, he had been angry. Angry at Rayjura for taking what he wanted so badly to have, angry at feeling so helpless, angry at himself. Now he had an enemy to pound into the ground and that rage was building in him, wanting release.

"Let's see if there's any other way in," Ryo suggested, heading around to circle the building. Normally, he would have charged in, but the heat in Kongo's voice reminded him that he was their leader; he had to keep things under control no matter how much he wanted to rip the thing apart until it gave them Shin and Rayjura. And Seiji said he would never grow up. . .

Cautiously forming a ring around the structure, the six warriors searched for a way in. Anubis paused, wondering at the blackness. It was as if it was filled with the dark fathomless void of the Netherrealm, or more pointedly, ~his~ realm. Darkness he could understand; the sweeping desolation of winter's midnight plane scouring away the warmth and light. It was where his soul resided every day. Perhaps he could reach out with his powers. . . The black shape crawling out a nearby window parted against it's will, but only for a moment. The building shuddered as an angry force rallied against such violation.

"What'd you do to it?" Ryo called out, eyeing the tremors warily.

"It responded, albeit reluctantly, to Yami's command. It is part of the Darkness." Anubis' smile was feral. Maybe they could create their own door in.

"The Darkness?" Information Touma was actually not familiar with.

"The Netherrealm's own special brand of hell, my boy."

Raising a skeptical blue eyebrow, Touma thought ~Great. This just gets better and better.~ Sometimes the world of science was a good thing; most computers didn't try to swallow your soul on a daily basis. Or if anything, at least Bill Gates didn't ~look~ like a demon.

Anubis laughed at Tenku's obvious disgruntlement. This modern generation was so disenchanted with the more spiritual aspects of life.

"Then, if it's akin to your power," Seiji interrupted abruptly, "Mine should be able to harm it?"

"That would follow the logic. Although my control of this thing is shaky, so who knows how it would react to your light?"

"Anubis, why don't you see if you can move it away from Rayjura?" Ryo suggested, Touma's seared breastplate a stark image in his mind. He liked to think the days of running blindly into battle were behind him, mostly, and this unknown enemy made him cautious. They still couldn't sense Shin.

The Warlord of Corruption nodded swiftly and focused on the coal-black void while the others braced themselves for anything untoward.

As the blob was slowly pulled out the doorway by a seemingly invisible force, a quaking tremor ran through the structure. A terrible wheezing discord seemed to pour from the windows, like the death rattle of an immense beast, carrying with it the fetor of decay and pus and putrid flesh. The cabin seemed to erupt as the blackness liquified and engulfed the rotting wood in its embrace, consuming it. In it's swirling depths, Naaza caught a glimpse of white, perhaps hair, perhaps a pale hand. Calling forth the venom of his armor to protect him from the burning ickor, he immersed himself in the solidifying sludge and made his way to where he last saw his brother in arms.

As Naaza plunged in, the remaining warriors backed up in horror. Riding on the crest of the vile wave was Suiko, faceplate locked in place, armor splotchy with the sickly color of rust and disease. The pale lips visible under the helmet smiled cruelly, revealing sharp canine teeth.

"Sorry, chaps," the British tenor was as sweet as always, "We can't have you doing that, now."

An armored hand swung the massive trident around and directed it at Anubis, black impure water beginning to gather menacingly at its tip as the Warlord shifted to a defensive stance. The resulting blast tore a channel deep into the land, barely missing Yami as he dodged to the side. The silence afterwards was deafening.

"Oops." Such an innocent tone, with such evil intent.