The Witch Within Slipped Arc Part One

 The Return

It had been a month since Loc had found out Grasharlo was Dark Master Lord Gajellidor Darcroghs' daughter. She was taken to a cell once they had arrived. She was to awate the fate that T.O.O.T.R.O.E had decided for her and Draganna and Kuro which were also rounded up and put into their own cells. She knew that an execution was out of the question. Which only gave Morgan a little comfort, who was the only one who had visited. She mainly tried to talk to her but she was never in the mood to speak. It was approaching her birthday and, despite knowing that he did not have to, he had promised that he would tell her her fate by that point. This was little comfort and gave her a date to dread. This day had come. Ringer had come, and with Kuro and Draganna too.

"Lorra Cerberus, we have thought about all the things that you have done both as Grasharlo and as Lorra Cerberus and we have looked at your creations...Well, all that we have at least. We have spent a long time debating what to do with both you and them. After a long and heated debate we decided that you are to go and serve the labours of Hanubid. There, you will mine, farm and serve for the rest of your long, long life." He said, his voice like ice. "As for your creations, they will be subject for testing if they fail they will be executed. Do you understand?"

She barely looked at him but nodded nevertheless. She, at this point, hardly cared for what happened to her. Then her eyes looked at Kuro and him trying not to cry. He was shaking like a leaf and carried an even more depressed look on his face than her. It was all too clear that he was going to be the worst affected by this. She just hoped that he would pass, though his vulnerable mind would be the thing that would cost him.

"And if they pass?" She asked, trying to give some ease to the man.

He turned to them and saw Kuro. He saw the way that he was and,  for a moment, his face softened, yet the next ot hardened.

"Then they will be set to work in the mines that would undo the evil that you and your father have done." He said.

"He's not my father." She said. "He may have been in my past life but he is not in this one."

He nodded.

"Well it hardly matters how you see him. You still have to pay for all that you have done. Any more questions or remarks that you wish to say?" He asked.

"Will I know when my sisters are gone?" She asked.

"That depends entirely on you and what you do and what the me and the other elders decide. Same case for your creations too." He said.

She nodded.

"Will this extend to if their evil has been undone?"

"Perhaps."

Loc felt a thin and sorrow tainted smile spread across her lips. Then she wiped it off.

"If I start remembering my past life?"

"Then we will address that bridge if we ever cover it." He said.

She was about to open her mouth to comment but then they heard an explosion. Then followed by the sound of loud sirens going off! There was a sound of heavy rain and peoples' boots hit the ground outside. Ringer turned back to see what was going on and the door flew open and a man stood within a flash, he fell down, his eyes still open and he no longer breathed. Soon screaming rose followed by laughter. They all looked at each other realising what was going on.

They all took their places and hid behind the door, however Ringer gestured to Loc to stay where she was. She, trusting him nodded and stayed as him and Morgan came up with a plan yet as they did they barely opened their mouths to do so. He ten looked at Kuro who had started to tremble and those tears that he had been holding back had started to fall.

"They're coming for me! They know that I betrayed them and they're coming for me!" He started to weep.

"No Ku, if they're coming for anyone it'll be me." Loc said. "After all, they want to be one again and they can't do that without me."

He looked at her about to say something more but then the dismay in his eyes told her that they would want to get him, after all he did have many powers that they would want to keep under their control. They would try to get him and maybe this time they would try to find a way to kill him this time! And they would try to do it the moment that they were whole.

That was when she heard it. The silence, the complete and utter silence. The kind that could deafen anyone. Then she wondered when the sirens stopped, when did the screams stop? When did the rain of footsteps stop? Her eyes met Ringer as she figured out why. He gave her a black stern look that told her to remain in position. So she did. She soon felt a pounding in her head like there was something crushing and letting go of her brain.

Ready or not here they come… She thought to herself as she closed her eyes in dread. Her breath became slow but shaky as she tried to control herself and stop panicking as she knew that she was by far from ready. She felt herself grow cold as a cold drop of sweat fell from her chin. That was when the door ripped off its hinges and spun into the neck of the dragon.

"Draganna!" She shouted.

"My, my, my emotions, you have hardly changed a bit!" Said her sisters came to the door. "No,  you have more marks on you. I love what you have done with that crop of white hair that I have given you!"

It crept her out that they not only said it in unison and with a cheery tone to their voice. Yet she had to not only have to bury that, she had to get them into the cell too. So she put on a smile on her face and gave a false confident demeanor.

"Well, why don't you come in here and I'll return the favor?"

"And what, fall into Ringer and Morgans' trap?" They giggled. They then looked behind her. "Well,  well, well if isn't the creature. Oh, how long have I been dying to find out what you are. I have my theory,  I just hope that I'm right!"

"No, no,  please no! Don't! I just can't take it anymore. Please don't!" He wept as he clutched his head as he shook.

Loc wrapped her arms around him.

"That's enough! He has a name!"

"And what is it?"

"Kuro, his name is Kuro." She snapped.

"Oh, that's cute, very cute! A bit how you were acting when I sank those blades into those fools that you still cling to."

"That's mother and father to you!" She shouted as her legs ran to her as if they had a mind of their own and her fist to one and a kick to the other. Both of which were caught by the same hand and both tilted their heads.

"Oh my deer, deer emotions how predictable you are!" They sang as they drove a punch into her gut that she knew hurt her more than it should. Yet she also knew that she would have flown back if her triplets did not have the grip on her as they did. They then hit her in the jawline and then in the chest and in the side. They did this again and again until she started to scream. With this they let her go and she fell beside their feet. She clutched her aching stomach as bloody saliva drooled from the corner of her mouth. Her body shook and curled up. Then she felt the twin kicks hit her in the chest and arms. She soon felt and heard the crack which caused her to scream out in even more pain. 

That was when Ringer and Morgan pounced. All her triplets did was look at them and they flew back and the bloody door flew back to its hinges and as they got up the door had already been sealed in place, with Dragannas' blood as the only evidence that it was ever off its hinges.

"Now, now, now, I can't have them getting in the way." They said as their eyes dropped. " Now, where was I?"

Her eyes looked up at them in horror as they crouched down to her and then one placed her hand through her hair. She felt that all so painful longing to be with them and return to the way things were. Her heart ached to just be with them and let them take her back home. Yet she resisted this part of her as much as she could but then the grip that her hand in her hair became painful. This helped her mind come back to reality as she shook and tried to free herself as they picked her up by her hair. She tried to fire a fireball at them but it turned to ice and dropped out of her hand. That was when they punched her in her throat and her neck snapped and all the world went black.

Morgan and Ringer and even Kuro looked in horror as they saw through the bars as Loc was slung over one of their shoulders, they could not tell which. Then they spotted that her eyes were closed and she was not resisting. This told them all they needed to know and they could do nothing but watch as they carried her off.

"Loc! Loc!" Morgan shouted in vain. She hit her bottom as it fell to the floor. Her mind tried to process what exactly she had just seen.

"We have to rescue her." She said to Ringer. "I know that you don't like it, but I feel like we have to rescue her."

"I know and I agree, Morgan, you were right. This is all my fault. I acted far too emotionally, after all...Never mind. It is just, this was far too close to me. I always seem to act emotionally whenever things connect to him. So once we get ourselves out of here the first thing that we will do is set ourselves on a rescue mission with a small number of people, after all not everybody wants to face that witch above all." He said as he punched a hole in the door. 

She nodded as she rushed to the door and beat it until there was a dent. They targeted the dent until it produced another hole in the door. With the two holes there Ringer put his hands through and pulled the door off its hinges. Then Ringer looked at Kuro and the beheaded Draganna with remorse.

"Kuro, I hardly think that you need those tests. Regardless of your mother and her father, I can see that you are just another victim of theirs. I can see why she is one of the most evil of witches." He said as they walked to the planning room.

The others took their places.

"What's the plan?" Morgan asked.

"I will get to that but I wish to say something first. I don't know, but somehow, I have always felt like there was something about Loc, there was something more to her that met the eye. Which was why I was willing to let her work for us and why I studied the prophecies of Phorap the Mad. Now, having said that, I do think that we do need to keep an eye on her. But what we need to figure that out once she is back. So,  Kuro, where do you think they would have taken her?"

He looked at the table he had a pained look in his eye.

"Yeah,  my mother's Island Of Darkness. There are crystals there that can make people who have been reincarnated, can touch them to find out why they were reincarnated. She used to use it to try and find a soul that her father had tasked her to find."

"Not important. Is there anything that protects it?"

"Yes, mother cast out ages ago! It's a spell that means that only those that she wants can enter and leave!" He said as his eyes lit up.

"Which means that we have to rely on Loc to want us there. Also, needles to say we need to do this before they wake her up."

"Which means we need to get a message to her."

"Which is an ability that only Lenume` has." 

"Unless we can manipulate the other two into letting us in,  but that is far too risky a move. As far as I can see Loc is our only option. Then once we're in then we need to think about the other two. Once they're out cold we get her and hide her under the biggest rock that we can find and then once the other two are out of the way, we will focus on what to do with her and you later."

"Right…"

"Then we need to gather the people and set off!"