Aurora could no longer see Daniel Almis, the man that was so unalike his great-grandson and for that Aurora was glad. She was now consumed in darkness, and for a moment there was a grave silence. Then the sound of a wind chime and a scene emerged before Aurora's eyes of a familiar house lonely in the desert. She knew this to be the home of her childhood, where she had lived with her father and their closest neighbour had been nearly a mile away. There was nothing around here, they grew their own food, kept animals and lived a life so secluded Aurora knew no one her own age. This is what she assumed had led to her maturity and sensible nature, she had been in the company of adults and solely adults since she was six. 

The house slowly began to fade from view as Aurora walked towards it, she knew it wasn't real but she longed to walk once more through the house and see the rooms that were filled with memories. She wondered if her father sat inside the house, if perhaps she could talk to him one last time. As the darkness descended she knew that was a lie. The house melted away and there was once again only desert cloaked in darkness. She felt the overwhelming feeling that she was being watched and turned to see a faceless figure stood, silent, a few feet away from her. She had no doubt his intent was to murder her, but he stood as still as a statue, watching. She raised her hands, although she knew she had no magic she thought that maybe she could summon something from somewhere within herself. 

The figure began to advance, and before she could act his hand was in a vice grip around her throat. She let out a stifled gasp for air and failed like a rag-doll. She closed her eyes and tried to remain focussed on the house of her childhood, on her father, on the friends she had made like Aaron, on Santori and her home, on everything in her life that was good. The grip was released from around her neck and she opened her eyes. Now there were hundreds of the figures, faceless and menacing. They ran towards her, some walked, some crawled like insects. She raised her hands, she willed herself to unleash her magic. And before she was completely consumed with the figures a spark emerged from her hand. The sparks grew greater, they became great blasts of light, she began to aim and take down the figures, wiping them out like vermin. 

Before long there was only one remaining. It had taken one of her blasts and lost a leg, so it crawled towards her across the sand, a horrific sound like a wounded animal came from the gaping hole in its face. She stood before it, knelt down and said, 

"I'm not afraid of you anymore." 

Then she kicked it to its side and stood above the creature. She raised her hands high above her head and formed with a bolt of energy a great spear which she took and plunged through its chest. The thing squirmed and then vanished. 

Aurora fell to her knees, she looked around her and yet she remained in this nightmarish version of the desert she once called home. She screamed aloud so that if anyone could hear her they might pull her from this nightmare. She willed herself to wake up. Her entire body jolted and she felt as though for an eternity she was falling. Then she opened her eyes and realised she was back on Santori in her chambers, doused in sweat and shaking from head to toe. But she was home. She reached her hand up to her head to wipe the sweat from her brow, she brushed her hair back away from her face. She looked down at her hands and noticed clumped blood had fallen from her hair. 

It had not been a dream.

"Why do you resist so much. Your soul is rightfully mine." The dark voices multiplied and strengthened, surround him much like the forming shadows now. He was forced to grasp his head and fall to his knees, trying to physically pull the thoughts out of his skull. "It's futile. You will be the death of all worlds. All realms. Your power will fuel shadow incarnate. It will be your fault all over again."
"No." Dan shook his head, releasing it from his own grip. He refused to believe it. He refused to be a part of this. Guilt couldn't hold him forever, and neither could fear. "I won't. You won't." There was a smile on his face now, causing the shadowy figure to hesitate mostly in confusion.

Slowly Dan managed to stand, eyes narrowed between the encircling shadows trying to spot the figure so he could look it in the face. Even though there was no discernible figure, he continued to speak.
"You've tried so many times, yet failed. Statistically that's a 0% success rate." His usual humor had come back, fear no longer had its hold. "I will always win. You will not take me nor the galaxy."
With the realm losing its power over him, Dan managed to conjure one pistol, holding it up to his own jaw. "I'm not afraid of death."

As soon as he pulled the trigger, the real world shot into focus. Morning sunlight broke through the blinds in his small den on Entiis; his servant droid startling slightly across the room at his awakening.
"Sir, are you alright?" It asked.
"Yeah," Dan answered, pulling himself out of bed. "Get me some transport to Nightblood."

He heard her coming, rapid footsteps quickly approaching from behind him, getting closer and closer. As a split second response, Sebastian dove to the side, away from Aaron's attacks. Jaya, who was getting ready to strike him to behind, missed him by a second and instead ran right into Aaron, who accidentally ended up bringing his scythe down onto Jaya's head instead. Sebastian lay there at the side, watching as her head split open and her limp corpse fell to the ground.

The feeling of horror and sorrow at the sight of someone who he respected, the daughter of one of his closest friends, dropping dead in such a brutal manner began to grow in his heart. However, he quickly remembered that this was nothing more than a nightmarish land. Nothing here was real, it merely felt real. However he wasn't going to go down without a fight. Because in case whatever happened to him here affected him in real, he wouldn't let it happen without a fight. He stood up and looked at Aaron.

The zombieifed Spartan turned to face him and growled. Sebastian looked it dead in the eye sockets for a few moments. And at last, he finally brought what remained of those nagging, irrational thoughts in his mind to a logical conclusion. This wasn't Aaron. It never was. It was just him, his experiences, the things he saw and feared. And the more he gave in to the irrational, the more he would be likely to lose this fight.

The thought of all this inspired newfound bravery in Sebastian. Instantly, it all came back to him. His training, both physical and mental. He was a soldier, not some scared, helpless civilian. He was a Spartan. They stood there for a few seconds, one of them an armoured abomination, and the other covered by nothing but a pair of shorts. Aaron took a few steps forward and raised his scythe, before quickly bringing it down on him. Sebastian quickly sidestepped the strike, jumped up and delivered a spinning roundhouse kick into Aaron's helmet. The creature stumbled from the force of the blow as Sebastian landed on his two feet. He didn't let it recover however, and quickly rushed forward and delivered several punches: to Aaron's chest, abdomen and throat.

The creature desperately flailed its scythe, trying its hardest to strike Sebastian despite getting battered now. Sebastian ducked under the scythe and delivered a powerful punch to Aaron's left knee, causing the creature to buckle and drop down onto it. Aaron growled in pain and swiped again, attempting to cut Sebastian's in half. Sebastian stepped in and with both hands, grabbed his scythe arm from the bicep and elbow, absorbing the force of the swing and stopping it mid-strike. Aaron roared in frustration and grabbed Sebastian's left shoulder using his normal, right hand, attempting to crush it. Sebastian gritted his teeth and released his left hand from Aaron's left arm to smack his right hand off his shoulder. This counter was followed by a powerful headbutt into Aaron's helmet, dazing the creature.

Sebastian placed his left hand on Aaron's shoulder and used this position to vault over the creature. His right hand that was still on Aaron's right elbow, slid down to his forearm as he ended up behind Aaron. He spun around so that his front was facing Aaron's back and, still having his hand on his forearm, twisted it so the scythe was facing Aaron's neck and with all his might, pulled it back with force while backing away from the creature at the same time.

The scythe went right through Aaron's neck, and his head rolled off his shoulders. The creature's limp body dropped to the ground and then... silence. Sebastian looked around, still surrounded by the forest.
"Kitty..." He uttered, remembering that his friend was still out there and quite possibly in danger. He took off running, hoping that he was moving in the right direction... but just then, everything started to disappear. The trees turned to mist and floated upwards and disappeared into a now pitch-black sky.
Sebastian looked around. "What the..."

There was nothing that he could see now but the massive plain of grass that he stood on, stretching out for miles and nothing beyond it but the inky blackness that was now closing in on him. The grass plain began to shrink, the edges dissipating into dark mist that join the blackness that was moving in on him from all sides until finally, he found himself floating in a void of nothingness...

Sebastian woke up with a start. He looked around quickly to find himself in a bedroom, his bedroom back at the base. He was drenched in sweat and practically hyperventilating. He cooled down within a few seconds and took another look around. His pistol was where it should be and the door to his room wasn't damaged at all. He got up and walked towards it, opening it and taking a single step outside. The brightly lit corridors that stretched out towards his left and right were normal... no blood, no gore, nothing. A colonial marine walking down the corridor saluted him as he walked by. Everything was normal. 'That means it was just a nightmare..' Sebastian thought. His mind went back to the events that he had just experienced. What Kitty had told him. 'Did all that actually happen? Did.... did Kitty make it?' And just like that, Sebastian would spend the rest of the day contemplating the horrific events that he had experienced in his sleep.

Kitty's palm blood stained rested in her mothers clean tan one, a soft sob left Kitty's lips as she felt the warmth of her mother's hand. She relished it because she knew it was not a sensation that would last long. She knew what she was giving up, and she accepted that without fear. It was a strangely bittersweet scene, Kitty sitting on the grass covered in blood and holding the hand of a woman who looked near ethereal. But that scene soured quickly. 

Long moments went by and suddenly Vasilla ripped her hand from Kitty's, and a startled Kitty opened her eyes and looked up at her mother's face which was rout with anger and confusion. "Why can I not take your soul!? Where is your fear?!" She hissed at Kitty, sorrow blooming in Kitty's chest from the dark look her mother was casting her. Kitty slowly got to her feet and looked down at herself, feeling a little confusion as she too realized she was no longer afraid. 

"I..I am not afraid." She murmured as her mother began backing away from her. "Of course you aren't Kit Kat." A smooth icy voice with an edge of madness came to being, and a flickering vision of Corsetta came to view behind her mother. "Because you've accepted it. You've accepted the darkness." Corsetta passed through Vasilla, who seemed to fade into mist, and walked up to Kitty and grabbed her chin. "You have accepted that the darkness will consume and destroy you. You have accepted your loss." Corsetta hissed out the last part before she jammed her hand through Kitty's chest and ripped out her heart.

Kitty woke up with a gasp in her bed, a great pain blossoming in her chest and a feeling of wetness on her cheeks. Kitty brought a hand to her chest, the other going to her mouth as she shook. The hand muffled her sobs as tears flowed freely down her cheeks, her legs moving up to her chest as she sobbed in the dark room. Sorrow and pain and anger coursed through her, despair and defeat was heavy. There was a little ping and Kitty looked toward her phone and grabbed it, reading the message sent to her by Sebastian and typing out a reply. "I got out."