This is where you find out a lot of stuff...perhaps this will reveal
many things, only time can tell....

			Running Blind [Part 5]
	                           Secrets Revealed! Betrayal

	Moriko dodged blast after blast of spirit energy, but couldn�t dodge the
hundreds of spirits that filled the air.  The best she could do was to
put up a wall of energy and earth about her.  It was hard and drained her
life force and energy.  She tried chanting, but the ghosts were
relentless.  They wanted life and wanted to take it from her and devour
it like a glutton would devour food and drink.  Yurei stood hands pressed
against the barrier, the slightest look of concern in his ashen eyes. 
Hikaru was busy laughing and gloating, he didn�t notice how each time
Moriko was hurt more and more the ghosts attacked a bit less.  Yurei knew
that if he didn�t kill Moriko that he would be killed, but he couldn�t
bring himself to kill his friend.  
	"Fire Ring!!" the attack was sudden and unannounced.  Both attackers
were stunned and caught off guard as Ryuhi came running over the hill. 
The stream of flames circled around them both, slowly closing in,
increasing the heat and pain.  
	"We�ll be back!" Hikaru waved his hand and a dark void opened beneath
them, swallowing both them and the ring of flames.  Soon they were gone. 

	"Cowards!" Ryu screamed back at them.  
	Moriko was kneeling on the ground, arms limp by her sides, sweat
dripping from her forehead.  She dropped the barrier and fell forward,
landing on her hands.  
	"Riko!" Ryu ran up to her and helped her gently to her feet.  "You okay,
Partner?"
	She was shaking from head to toe, her eyes held a look of utter
disbelief, "Y-Yurei.."
	Ryu cupped her chin in his hand and lifted her face to his, "Don�t think
about it.  That wasn�t our Yurei."
	"I thought�he died�in the wars�" she looked up into Ryu�s red eyes.
	"I�ll make him pay for what he did to you�I promise," he looked down at
her.
	"No, Ryu, don�t hurt him�It�s still Yurei," she pulled away from him and
turned her back to him.  "But I won�t forgive this, Hikaru will die.  I
will kill him with my own hands if I have to."
	"You can�t go against him alone, Riko, you know that.  It�s like
committing suicide," Ryu reached out to her, but withdrew knowing that
she didn�t need his friendship now.  
	"I know�but I have to do something about this!" she snapped around,
tears brimming in her eyes.  "I can�t let Hikaru get away with this!"
	"Not now!  This isn�t the time for revenge!" Ryu pointed to her wounds. 
"You need healing, not war."
	"I�m going home, Ryu, I�ll treat myself there," Moriko walked past him,
thoughts of retribution racing through her mind.  
	"Be careful, Moriko," he called after her.  She rounded the bend and he
watched her go.  "I care about you too much to lose you now."
	Sora came running through the brush and spotted Ryu standing by the
road, "What the heck was that?" 
	"Nothing, it�s over now and you�re late," Ryu pretended to chide him. 
	"Yes, Mother, but seriously, what was that?" Sora walked up to him and
checked around.  "Looks like a battle."
	"Yeah, Riko ran into some trouble," Ryu looked ahead again.  "She�s fine
physically, but I�d be careful of her mental state.  She�s out for
revenge."
	"Why?" Sora bowed to the shrine and returned his gaze to Ryu.
	"She found out."
	"What?!"
	"She found out Yurei is still alive."
	"She knows we lied then�"
	Ryu nodded absently, "I have a feeling it�s going to be rocky from here
on out."
	"You might be right," Sora looked at the blackened streets and the dead
trees all around.  
	"She has the power to defeat him, it�s just that�" Ryu started.
	"She can�t control it.  I know."
	Ryu turned to him, "What are you talking about?"
	"Listen I�m going to break code by telling you this.  The only reason I
know is because I was Moriko�s partner and they can�t take memories like
that away.  However, what I tell you must never leave your lips, get it?"
	Ryu nodded.
	"Let�s get out of the open�I don�t want anyone finding out about this."
	Twenty minutes later they were sitting in Ryuhi�s small living quarters.
 Sora pulled up a chair and Ryu sat on the bed.
	"So?" he leaned back and waited for this classified explanation.
	"Okay," Sora began quietly.  "Long ago, when the wars started, the
agency was on the look out for those kids that could exercise their
special powers.  Everyone has them, not just warriors, but they make us
believe that the others don�t have the guts.  The thing is they can�t
exercise them the way we can.  Your name, Ryuhi, means �dragon fire� so
you manipulate fire.  My name, Sora, means �sky� and I can manipulate the
winds and clouds.  Well there�s probably a hundred other Soras out there
and a hundred other Ryuhis, right?"
	Ryu nodded, "But I don�t get it."
	"You see, out of that hundred," he continued, "Only two or three can do
what we do.  It�s not that the others are afraid, it�s that they can�t
fight."
	"What does this have to do with Moriko?" Ryu demanded.
	"I�m trying to explain!" Sora clipped him short and sat back in the
chair. "Well, sometimes there�s one special child that can exercise his
or her power to such an extent that it can be the most destructive force
in the galaxy."
	"And Riko�s one of them?" Ryu sat up.
	"Not one of them, the only one.  I saw it long ago, since I�m ten years
older than her.  I watched her power grow and strengthen.  The thing is
these children hide their powers until something happens.  For each
person it�s different.  Once I heard that someone close to one of these
kids died and a wall of water surrounded the entire village and swallowed
it.  The village just never existed, only the kid made it out.  And you
know what?"
	Ryu looked at him, "What?"
	"The kid only shed one tear.  It�s assumed that the wall of water
symbolized the tears he couldn�t cry.  So he took it out on everyone
else," Sora shook his head.  
	"Again what does this have to do with Moriko?" Ryu sighed, slightly
bored.
	"It�s going to happen to Moriko, soon.  She�s going to flex her power
and it�ll bring about the end of something.  She�s already done it once�"
Sora looked down.
	"That�s what I was asking you earlier,"  Ryu said with exasperation. 
"When?"
	"Look out your window.  See that desolate planet and the blanket of dust
killing the sun?" Sora replied sadly, directing Ryu�s eyes outside.
	"You can�t be serious�she was only fifteen!" Ryu jumped up.
	"She flexed it then.  Here�s the whole story.  Sit down, it�s pretty
long," Sora took a deep breath.  "I was already in the agency when they
brought her in, but I was only ten.  Moriko was four years old and they
had to bring in her parents.  I was introduced to them and we began
training immediately.  I was amazed at how much the little girl already
knew.  She was growing flowers outside and not even touching the ground. 
I was astonished at how fast she learned too.  Moriko soaked up knowledge
like a dry sponge.	
	"Then the wars started eleven years later.  She knew enough to go into
battle and they sent her, with me as her partner.  They also sent her
parents out because she exercised more power with them around.  So we
fought, Yurei and you by our side.  I knew that Yurei cared for Moriko
like a little sister, just as I did.  All of us looked out for her and
you, the youngest members of the team.  But I�m getting off track, one
day we were out on the field like normal, but we were ambushed.  Marai�s
forces attacked out of the brush and killed almost everyone.  I took
Moriko and ran with her to the forest.  I made sure she was safe and
returned to fight.  
	"I was too late and most of them were dead.  I watched as the guerrillas
retreated to the shadows.  Thankfully you weren�t in that unit.  You were
in the next one over, remember?" Sora looked at Ryu as he nodded, totally
transfixed.  "We were told to split forces and we went with Yurei, you
with your partner, whom you also lost.  However, Yurei had been captured.
 I was trying to get him when I turned and saw Moriko walking through the
piles of dead bodies, without any emotion.  It was then that I knew she
was a Child of Destiny.  Those that can change fate to suit themselves. 
She was just stepping through the puddles of blood without any regard to
who they belonged to.  The look in her eyes was horrible, a dark void,
blacker than a starless, moonless night.  
	"She tried running after Yurei, but I stopped her.  I held her like I
would hold a little sister, even though she was fifteen.  She was crying
and screaming for him, I couldn�t stop her.  I kissed her on the cheek
and told her to stop crying, to stop thinking about that.  After awhile
she did calm down, then she wanted to find her parents.  We were both
covered in blood�why did I ever agree?  Why did I ever let her go?" Sora
grabbed his head as the tears flowed down his face.  "It was like her
pain was mine as she searched through the dead, looking for a familiar
face.  She couldn�t find anyone�not one trace of them."
	Ryu looked at his friend as he poured his heart out.  He had never seen
him cry before, not even at his own father�s funeral.  This was big and
it was only going to get bigger.
	"I couldn�t stop her from crossing the hill and seeing the rest of the
field�or what was on it," Sora could barely speak now because his tears
interfered with his breathing.  "I couldn�t stop her from seeing her
parents that last time�the way they were�torn apart.  Limb from limb they
had been dismembered like a rag doll.  Not only had she lost Yurei, but
she lost her only family.  Then she lost it�totally.
	"I can still remember her walking so calmly over to her mother�s head,
twenty feet from her neck�thirty feet from her arm�nine yards from her
body�Moriko just kneeled down and took her mother�s head in her arms.  No
tears, just a mad rage burned in her eyes.  She dropped the head and
moved over to her father�s, running her fingers down his cheek.  Then she
turned to me.  I could see the power of thousands of elementals running
through her.  
	"She turned to me and said, �Sora, I�m going to end this now.�  Then she
walked out to the ridge�s end and stood there.  She chanted the most
horrible spell I�ve ever heard.  The darkest spell of her type of
magic�She was able to conduct three spells at once, something none of the
others, the other Children of Destiny, could do.  She protected Jukaih
and it�s people, us, and she performed that spell�"
	"You mean to tell me, Moriko is the cause of the gray skies, the dead
earth, the end of the war?" Ryu spat out.  "You�re lying.  I was briefed
that we unleashed a weapon and then Marai killed the earth."
	"Like I said, do you remember any weapon being released?  Or watching
the earth die over the three years they said it took?" Sora wiped away
the tears and resumed his normal quiet demeanor.  
	"Well�" Ryu thought hard. "No. I don�t remember."
	"Do you remember what really ended the war?" Sora looked at him, already
knowing the answer.
	"No," Ryu looked away.
	"Let me continue my story and I�ll tell you why you don�t remember,"
Sora looked up at the ceiling and sighed.  "She chanted something dark
and foreboding, something that would cancel out all life, suck it into a
void and contain it for all time.  The Kiss of Death, the one spell
banned by all gods and demons, she knows the Kiss of Death.  It was named
by some deranged god and for some reason he deemed it a kiss of some
sort.  What really happens is the person uses their energy and channels
it into a crystal ball.  Quite harmless if left alone, but if you
continue with the spell, it starts to glow with that energy.  Then all
you have to do is throw it out or down and it�ll suck up anything in the
area.  Well, Moriko threw it over the ridge and up into the air.  It
began to feed off the planet�s power and life energy and drained it in a
matter of seconds.  I watched, helpless, as that small orb devoured our
planet.  Then she did what happened a week ago; that wall of earth. 
	"She put her arms out and smiled�yeah, in the face of all that death,
she smiled.  I saw her channel her energy twice in the same minute. 
Something no one has ever done.  She raised her arms to the heavens and
watched the wall of earth rise to her command.  She turned to me, that
terrible swirling mass of dirt, gravel, and rock behind her, and she ran
to me in terror.  That�s when she lost control of all her power and just
let it run rampant.  I�ve never seen anything like it.  That wall tore
through mountain after mountain, destroyed anything in it�s path and
Moriko was shivering, crying, and holding on to me like I was the only
comfort.  I was mesmerized and could only watch as the wall came closer
and closer.  It was surging and twisting around itself, almost like it
wanted to destroy everything, even itself�.
	"We were found seven days later and taken to debriefing.  This is where
that part of not remembering comes in.  Moriko had been unconscious the
entire time we were wandering through the country, trying to get back. 
When she awoke, she didn�t remember anything except that her parents had
died in the war.  She wanted to know where Yurei was, she had forgotten
that he was in our team.  She wanted to know where you were and I told
her you were safe because I had seen you walking around that day.  We let
her rest and Tsurumi took me into another room and drilled me for hours. 

	"I had to tell him everything and he realized the consequences of what
might happen.  That�s when he turned to memory loss.  He went through and
debriefed everyone that survived, the remaining ten or eleven teams,
stealing what memory they had of both that and the end of the war.  Then
he implanted the vision of the weapon being fired and the earth dying. 
In reality, we don�t have any type of weapon other than the Lorcan. 
Admin tells everyone that we do so Jukaih�s people don�t revolt of
something, but it�s all up to us whether or not we die.  As a matter of
fact, I don�t know if the Lorcan will even fire�I�ve never tried it. 
Sorry, off topic again. It was all a hoax to protect the Child of
Destiny.  All the others are dead and it�s assumed that Moriko is the
last.  These children are extremely dangerous, but since Moriko
conveniently never remembers what happens, Tsurumi just trains her and
keeps her on.  He couldn�t take my memories because of how much he�d have
to remove, it would have killed me," Sora looked down at the floor. 
"That�s it.  The truth is finally out and I�m sure you remember how we
told her that Yurei had died, not captured.  I told you before you had
been debriefed that Yurei had been taken and we told Moriko he was dead. 
I�m sorry it took me ten years to tell you."
	Ryu sat there absorbing the impact of everything that had just been
revealed to him.  Then the door swung open and Moriko stepped into the
room, disbelief on her face.
	"Riko!" Ryu and Sora jumped up and looked at her.
	"I-I caused this?" she stared at them.  "And you lied to me�both of
you�How could you do this to me, Sora!?"
	"It wasn�t my choice," he looked away from her.
	"But you can tell me partner?  My partner?" Moriko looked at both of
them and slammed the door behind her.
	Ryu ran out after her, "Moriko!"
	"Leave me alone, Ryuhi!  I don�t want to see either of you!" Moriko
stormed down the hall and slammed the door to her living quarters.  Other
doors opened and curious people looked out.
	"Is this part of your business?!" Ryuhi yelled.  All the doors slammed
shut simultaneously.  He thought of what Moriko had said, they had been
friends�now just partners.  "What have we done?"

_____________________

Dark enough for you?  parts of betrayal starting to fall into place.

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