Warning! This chapter contains graphic descriptions of wounds and deaths, reader discretion is advised. These portions will be marked as bold faced words.

And no, this will not contain any smut, sickos.

Chapter 15: The Library of Aala

Kur roars again and pounds the ice below him, sending any standing too close to him sprawling. Few, if any, of the warriors were fighting Kur directly so fierce were the cryptids pouring forth from his jaws.

A smaller group battled nearby, a three-on-three melee. Fisk wrestles in the snow with Munya.

Tara fights against Argost wielding her pair of Japanese Tantos in swift, flashing attacks. Her style had improved since her first true battle with Rook, and she now danced in and out of attacks with aid from her bio-vision. Despite her improvements and advantages, Argost parries her attacks aside.

Zak dodges the powerful sweeping slashes of another mutated bladerith. His eyes flicker with his powers as he attempts to connect with it. The creature roars in rage each time Zak gets close to gaining connection, seeming to blame Zak for its imprisonment, "GET OUT OF MY HEAD! GET OUT!" Making the difficult decision based off of Tara's own encounter, Zak leaps onto the bladerith's back, avoiding running himself through on the spines. He clambers up to the control device on the base of the creature's skull, and whispers, "I'm sorry Brother." He raises the Claw over his head and stabs it into the gap in the device's armor, sending an electric shock through the cryptid and killing it.

The bladerith falls, and Zak sprints over towards Tara. So in sync were they, Tara allows Argost to throw her back towards Zak so that she could join him for a combined attack which sends Argost flying back towards his fallen bladerith. Furious, Argost snarls in agitation. He stands and tears a spine out of the bladerith's back with a sickening and audible pop.

Scroll down to the next bold faced marker if you're squeamish.

He charges Zak, catching him off guard. The maniac backsweeps the bloody base of the spine into Zak's temple and knocks him to the ground. He raises the improptue weapon for a stab at his heart, and Zak, stunned by the blow to his head, does the only thing he can think of to save himself and sweeps his weapon downward.

The Claw deflects the stab downward to Zak's abdomen. The serated and barbed spine impails Zak, tearing and slicing a jagged wound in his lower left abdomen. Zak screams in agony as his blood spills onto the snow. Fisk slams Argost away, unintentionally tearing the weapon out and causing more damage. Tara is instantly by his side, and Fisk goes to tell the family what happened as Argost and Munya make their move.

Kur's next strike opens a fissure in the ice dropping the family down into it. Realizing that the crevasse would be the safest place for the time being, Tara gently slides her forearms under him and shifts, doing her best to alleviate the pain. "Keep holding in there Zak, I just have to get you somewhere safe." Using her tail for balance and flaring her wings, Tara hefts Zak into the secure cradle of her fore claws and sprints briefly before taking flight. She lands on the bottom of the crevasse nearby the family and shifts back, laying her bondmate on the ground gingerly.

The family rushes over, not seeing the wound initially. Zak inaudibly gasps and wheezes in pain as Tara swiftly unzips his jacket and cuts open the lower half of his shirt. He shudders as his wound is exposed to the fridged air, and the others gasp in horror upon seeing it. Tara immediately sets to work healing him.

Pushing her powers farther than she has ever dared to go, veins and arteries pull back together and seal as if nothing happened, excess blood pooled in his body cavity pulls out, and tissue and muscle knit back together under Tara's focused will. Soon, the only thing that remained of the wound was a seven pointed star-shaped scar two inches or so across and his blood smeared on his stomach and Tara's front.

Okay, you can open your eyes now kiddies

Supporting each other, they stand, looking up at Kur through the top of the crevasse. He whispers, "He's inside that thing now, isn't he?"

"Yes." She whispers. They stand together closely, " We might not be able to stop this thing."

"I don't have a choice. I'm the only one who can stop him."

"Weren't you listening Wolfie? WE are the only ones who can take this thing down 'cause if you fight, I fight."

He gives her a grateful glance, and they wait for the inevitable protests from the family but none come. Instead Doc and Drew hand them their Power Glove and Fire Sword.

Zak watches stunned as his father says, "This is your moment. We won't hold you back" They embrace him, and then Drew pulls Tara into a separate hug. She stiffens uncomfortably, unused to any physical contact with any but Zak, but soon relaxes into the familiar yet forgotten motherly embrace. "Be careful up there," She whispers and pulls back, smiling encouragingly at them.

Gathering their courage and energy, the three enter the belly of the beast.

Later…

Zak's power surges forth with startling ferocity and strength, snapping Argost's control like a twig underfoot. His fur wips around in a nonexistent tempest, his powers forming a visual aura around him. Golden runes weave along his sides, and his eyes burn with ancient power as he advances on Argost. Next to him, Tara is in a similar state, her feathers and wingtips glowing with blue runes.

"NO!" Argost screams as he stands, "The power is MINE!"

Tara batters him aside with a sweep of her wings, cutting his rant short. They stride towards him, shifting back. The black fuzz-ball cryptids begin advancing towards Argost as well, and he sneers, "Sending in your cryptids to finish me off? How sadistic of you."

"You know I'd rather get you myself, Argost."

"Then they are still mine. Cryptids! I speak for Kur, and he says to tear the shifters apart!" The creatures ignore him and attack in a writhing mass of bodies and black fur. Munya pushes away from Fisk and leaps into the fray after his master.

Without a word or backward glance from Zak or Tara, the three turn and leave. The howls, screeches, and screams of the fighting beings escort them into the throat cavity. Suddenly, two separate gusts separate the three, taking Tara and Zak further into Kur.

The pair screams as they slide down into the mouth on its chest. When they thought they'd land on solid snow, they were dead wrong. As they flew out of the mouth they were greeted by a gaping abyss. Tara tries to shift but fails, and they fall.

Later….

Zak's eyes snap open, and pain courses through his body. Lifting his face off of the ice, he looks around for Tara, "Tara, are you alright?"

He hears her groan, "Well nothing's broken. Aside from that, I find it hard to see this situation as 'fine'."

They struggle to their feet and look up. A huge dome of ice stretches over their heads seemingly as vast as the night sky, the ice at the apex of the dome diffusing some light down to them. Looking closely, they can see the dark silhouette of Kur sprawled on the ice above them.

"How'd we even survive that fall? It has to be a couple hundred feet to the top, at least." Zak wonders aloud.

Glancing around into the surrounding darkness, Tara says, "We've known that we're more durable than a typical human but not to this extreme…"

"Either way, we're alive, so I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth."

Tara nods in agreement and reaches for her pouch on the back of her belt, producing a glow-stick. She cracks it, starting the chemical process within, "Lets see where we are." She shakes the stick to speed up the reaction and holds it out.

Below their feet, an elaborate mosaic depicting thousands of cryptids, animals accepted by science, and even a few species that they've never seen before stretches into a huge circle, and large columns are placed at perfect intervals on the edge of what seemed to be a courtyard. They turn around notice a fountain. They stride over to the rim of the fountain and realize that no water flows through it. Tara reaches out and places her palm on the lip of the fountain. Suddenly, the sound of rushing water fills the air, and glowing blue water pours forth from the fountain. Beneath their feet, the water's glow extends under a network of clear ice covered channels no thicker than an inch through the mosaic, illuminating the circle.

The now illuminated fountain is revealed to have a sculpture of a Chinese Water Dragon coiled on a stack of scrolls, holding an unfurled scroll in one foreclaw and an ancient navigation instrument in the other. The water pours forth from the ends of the scrolls and the navigation tool. This is all carved from polished marble and wrought in fine bronze craftsmanship.

The pair gape in wonder at this creation, having never seen something so finely crafted in all of their lives.

"By the spirits," Tara murmurs in awe. She looks around and realizes that the columns aren't columns at all. Surrounding them were the beginning edges of bookshelves.

"The Library of Aala…," Zak reads the words carved into the base of the fountain in an ancient tongue. Despite never having seen the language in which it was written, the words just jump into his head.

"Welcome brethren," a silky voice croons in greeting, "it has been long since shifters have come to these tomes."

The pair spin around to se a pale blue spirit floating on the edge of the circle. Were she living, her hair would be raven black, and her eyes hold the same mystical glint as Tara's. Her body was swathed in a simple linen toga. In essence, she looked like a Greek godess of myth, "I am Aala, the Spirit of Wisdom. It is nice to see the you've returned."

Felling that it is the right thing to do out of respect, the bond mates cross their arms across their chests with a slight bow, "Greetings, Lady Aala."

Aala smiles, her timeless eyes sparkling, "Fill a lantern and follow me. I shall wait."

"Lanterns?" They look around quizzically.

Seeming to hear their unspoken question, Aala gestures behind them. They turn and see spherical lanterns lining the outer wall of the fountain. Zak grabs a vessel and fills it with the glowing water, Tara falling in beside him as he follows Aala into the darkness cloaking the bookshelves.

Tara speaks up, "So… this is your library?"

Aala continues, answering, "In a respect, I suppose. You see, this place was created in my honor several generations after my passing into the Spirit World. It started small, containing only a few tomes of great importance- oh listen to me, I'm rambling," she giggles, "We're getting close."

They pass through an archway the reads Medicinal Studies. The tables centered in the middle of the rows are covered in old and untouched scientific experimenting and reseach equipment. On the shelves were books and scrolls pertaining to physiology, psychology, and healing powers and techniques. The deeper they get into the section, the more skeletal and preserved specimens they start to see. Sea monster skulls, a hominid skeleton, jarred Mongolian Death Worms, analids, and more.

Zak peeks over at Tara and can't help but chuckle at what he sees. Her eyes were alight with an intelligent and borderline childlike wonder, a light usually just a simple spark. He leans over and whispers, breaking Tara from her daze, "You know, we can probably come back here someday."

She jumps slightly and turns to him with a grin, "That'd be… That'd be amazing. Your mother and father would have a field day here too."

They turn to find Aala floating backwards, still leading them. There is a soft knowing smile on her face. Zak rubs the back of his neck sheepishly and says, "I mean… That is if it's okay."

Aala stops abruptly and throws back her head in howling laughter, "of course you two can return!" She instantly sobers, "I've not seen a shifter in these halls for well over two thousand years, not since the beginning of the Great Sorrow."

They glance at each other, and Tara asks, "Lady Aala, who were you when you were in the World of the Living?"

Aala falls back to float in between them and she answers, "I… I was the first shifter Mother Mystic, the conduit between the Great Mother and her children."

"The Great Mother?" Aala stops and stares at Tara incredulously, "Forgive me sister, but I have only heard of her but once."

A reverent look comes onto Aala's face and she begins to speak, continuing onward, "The Great Mother has many names, the most common on being Earth. Like your mothers, She is the creating force on our bodies, and even after you have left the womb, she nurtures and provides for you. She is the Mother of all living beings, for she creates our physical forms." She leads them down a passage, "She works in tandem with the Master of Souls, our Father. The Master of Souls creates the spirits of all self aware beings. We are there."

Zak and Tara snap out of their trance that they had fallen into and take notice of the new room they were in. They were now in a smaller dome only 20 yards in diameter, and channels of glowing water veining their way across the ceiling and walls, illuminating the walls and floor. Various animals and cryptids are etched into the walls and floor, and in the center of the room is a pair of winged dragon statues on their hind legs, wings flared, both pouring a nonexistent liquid from bowls held in their foreclaws into a basin at their feet. Both's faces are set in calm yet intense masks as they stare into the liquid filled basin.

They glance over to Aala, who only gestures toward the two dragons. Gulping back their uncertainty, the pair step towards the basin at the stone creatures' feet. They drop slowly to their knees at the edge of the basin, and as they do so, an opaque liquid begins to pour from the bowls held by the dragons.

Zak holds out a shaky upward-held palm and ignites his powers into a small golden flame-like apparition upon it. Above him, the eyes of the closest dragon glow the same color. He looks over at Tara expectantly, waiting to see if she is indeed the one other who could create a flame like his.

Pulling strength from an entity which was unfamiliar yet as familiar to the other half of her soul as her own heart beat, Tara holds out her own palm and brings forth a flame of silver. She holds it over the basin next to Zak's, their thumbs brushing against each other lightly. Tara returns his look with a smile of total recognition, and the corasponding dragon's eyes glow.

They exterminate the distance between their hands and fuse the flames into one pure white one. Prismous light shines forth from the fragile yet, in the eyes of ones who can See, the strongest flame in the world. As if practiced, the two partners fluidly and gingerly place the Flame of Souls in its rightful place in the now-full basin. The liquid came alight with the flame, and the fire follows the fluid up to the bowls. The basin is full of a whirling, relaxing, and almost water-like fire. Softly murmuring voices of spirits past spill forth.

Aala whispers, "It has been affirmed. The Mother Mystic and Kur have returned to their place in the World of Life."

At this statement, Zak breaks out of his zen-like trance and spins around, "What are you talking about? Kur is above us and-"

"You misunderstand, Zak Saturday. You are Kur," Zak staggers away from the basin of fire, shaking his head in disbelief.

He chokes, "No… No, no, no…. I'm no monster!"

Aala looks upon him with pity but says, "You felt it when you reignited the Flame. You could not identify it at the time, but you know what you are, who you are."

He howls in horror at what he is. He drops back to his knees and buries his head in his hands, "After all of this time, this struggle, I'm the ultimate evil?"

Tara has stood by this time and could offer no comfort to her partner. At his statement, Aala flares up in rage, her voice reverberates in anger, "Evil? You believe the human propaganda that Kur is evil?" Zak flinches away from her fury, "Kur is no evil being. He is the warrior son of the Master of Souls, His champion of the Balance, and the conduit through the boundries between souls. He is the first to walk through the Veil with the Mother Mystic by his side, and the leader of the shifters. With out you in the World of Life your brethren cannot take their forms. And Tara?

"You are the Mother Mystic and the champion of the Great Mother, her mage daughter. Your powers can manipulate the very base energies of this presence and bond to Kur helps him control himself, and he amplifies your powers. Through you, shifters have access to true magics. You have seen what you are and have accepted it, have you not?"

The newest Mother Mystic tears her eyes from Zak and sets them upon her predecessor. Tara hesitates, but answers, "I cannot fully accept who I am until the one to whom I am bonded can accept himself." Zak winces once more as she says this and looks up at her with a tortured expression. In an attempt to quell her despondant partner, Tara beseeches her forrunner for clarification, "Sister, if the human story isn't true, what really happened those ages ago? Did Kur really destroy ancient civilization?"

Aala murmurs, "A dark piece of our kind's history indeed… One of which I wish we didn't have to revisit," she glances at Zak, who was still struggling with himself, "but I see it shall be necessary to move forward." She floats over to the abandoned basin, "Come, so you may see truth."

Weary of whatever Aala would have to show him and untrusting of the Spirit of Wisdom, Zak stays where he was. Knowing her predecessor only wished to help, Tara approaches him and joins him on the floor.

He looks into her eyes as she whispers soothingly and places a hand on his cheek, "Exsisto sedo. Credo mihi." (see bottom of page for translation)

Zak instantly calms and musters his courage, allowing Tara to pull him to his feet and following her to Aala.

Aala whispers, "Gaze into the flames and See."

The room melts away, and soon the pair find themselves as ghostly apparitions in a receiving hall to a throne room. Twenty feet from them, a man and woman just out of the years of adolescence converse in hushed tones. The pair wear simple leather armor, the man in black and the woman in deep blue, and corresponding colored travel cloaks rest on their shoulders.

The woman whispers, "Something feels… wrong with the energies here."

"Hmmm… I feel it too. Should we go through with this meeting, Aket-ten?"

"We have to," the woman, identified as Aket-ten, insists, "Minos has been causing unrest all over, and if we don't talk to him now, we'll never be able to speak with him diplomatically. We'll end up causing a war. Mother doesn't like it when oceans of blood are spilt upon her over greed."

The man huffs, "Hmph… Somehow I have a feeling that, no matter how we approach this situation, a war is what we'll get."

The scene shifts, and they are now standing in a throne room. Before them, Aket-ten and her companion are arguing with a man adorned in kingly garb. The man they assumed to be King Minos snarls, "I grow sick of your demands Kiron! You underestimate our strength!"

"As you underestimate ours," the man, Kiron, responds on the edge of calm, "If you continue with your scheme for conquest, we'll have to take drastic measures."

Minos stands abruptly, his face red with rage, "I'll not be threatened in my own throne room!" He snaps his fingers and suddenly the chains inlaid in the marble floor crackle with dark magics. They come to life and bind Aket-ten and Kiron to the floor, pulling them down to their knees.

The pair lash out with their respective powers, but the strength of their energies reverse and zap them before Kiron's power could snag control of the guards or Aket-ten's could unleash a cleansing flame. Mages enter the room quickly, pulling a huge guillotine like blade into the room. The blade itself crackles with dark magic, and the mages begin to chant and raise the blade.

A scream of terror explodes from Aket-ten, and she cries, "What is it that you think will come of this Minos? What will come from severing our bond?"

He laughs cruelly as the mages continue their work, "You will be powerless of course! I will have the largest empire this world has ever seen, and man will reign supreme!"

Kiron snarls as another bolt of energy flares through him, "Over our dead bodies!"

"That's the plan."

The Mages stop chanting, and a thick band of light spreads between Kiron and Aket-ten. Minos gives the signal, and the blade of horrible magic drops. The pain that explodes from both of the shifters is nearly malleable, and despite it only being a memory, the strength of their past lives' agonies drive them to their knees, eliciting twin cries of sorrow.

Kiron and Aket-ten collapse, the pain of their souls being rended apart too unbearable for their vocal chords to work. The guards come forth, release the pair still writhing in pain from their chains, and haul them to their knees before Minos.

They gaze at each other through the haze of pain, their hands twitching towards each other.

"See? Man can do what ever it pleases, for we are the superior race!" Minos stands before Kiron, "You wasted your power Kur. You and your shifters could have ruled the world, yet you wasted it on keeping all power equal…. Pathetic." He grabs Kiron's chin roughly and turns his head towards his partner, and he mocks, "Now… You'll see the consequences of your weakness." He nods to the guard standing behind Aket-ten, and he draws the blade at his hip.

Kiron groans, struggling frailly against the gentle hold Minos has on him, "Please, just let us touch and we shall leave in peace!"

Minos barks an laugh, "And let you return with an army? I think not." He nods to the guard.

The guard plunges the blade through the gap in her armor above her shoulder. Aket-ten doesn't make a sound, just jerks and falls to the floor. Minos releases Kiron so that he can scramble to his dying love, and Kiron gathers Aket-ten into his shaking arms.

She looks up into his pained eyes, their connection failing to reconnect for the fact that a living soul cannot be bound to a dying one. Her hand comes up to his cheek, and she chokes, "I… I love you, Kiron."

Tears well up in his eyes, and he holds her bloodstained hand to his face, "I love you too."

She gasps once more before going still. Minos throws back his head in a horrible laugh, "Their power is no more! Man shall rule now! I shall rule now!"

Minos fails to realize that now his existence was in mortal peril. Kiron rises to his feet slowly, like a ghostly shadow, the pure, golden color of his eyes bleeding out into a enraged, bloodthirsty red. His head rolls back and a roar of unfathomable rage tears forth. All of the room's occupants besides Minos fall to the ground dead, the very connectors between their bodies and spirits severed like Kur's bond.

Minos gawks at him, eyes wide and face pale. He falls to the ground in soul shaking fear, scrambling backwards away from Kur as he advances on him. As Kur does so, his feet lengthen until he stalked on digitigrades legs like a cat or dog's, his skin darkens and hardens into impenetrable scales, his face morphs into that of a reptilian monster's, and his hands turn into bladelike claws. Wings and a tail soon join the monsterous ensemble to create one of the most horrific beings conceived by the mind of man or gods.

"No… no no no no, go away. Gods no!" Minos babbles incoherently, praying to his gods to save him. However, this does not deter Kur, but this only stirs his rage into an unstoppable maelstrom.

His voice seemingly splits the air, and he grabs Minos by his throat, "You will not find release from pain in death worm!" Thin streams of blood trickle down Minos' neck from where Kur's gripping claws peirce the thin skin. With no mercy nor humanity left in his soul, Kur forces upon Minos a vision of what enternity awaits him.

Minos screams and wails in terror, his struggles only digging the wounds on his neck deeper. Kur tears the ornate jewel amulet from around Minos' neck and presses the face of the amulet against his forehead. The amulet begins to glow with white-hot power and this glow spreads from the trinket and perforates Minos' bones, allowing any who looked to see his bones through his flesh. His eyes snap open and his mouth gaped in a silent scream. His body disintigrates and bit by bit the pieces are sucked into the amulet until nothing is left of the king.

Kur drops the amulet and throws back his head in an echoing roar, a rallying call for his allies and a vow of vengence to humanity.

Zak and Tara watch the entire war play out before their eyes in seconds. They watch as civilizations that they've never heard of crumble into dust under Kur's wrath, leaving no trace. They see Kur forge an alliance with the beings he once stood against, the Nagas. They observe how the shifters took a stance of indifference towards the human's pleas to curb their former leader's wrath. Finally they witness the death of Kur at the hands of the Legion of Garuda and the binding of his soul and powers to the Kur Stone.

Tara and Zak emerge from the visions gently and find themselves back where they started. Aala studies Zak briefly before asking, "Do you See?"

Zak gazes up at the past life of Tara with lupine gold eyes, Sight glimmering in them, "Yes m'lady. I am Kur. As I have always been, as I always shall be."

Aala smiles at both of them and says, "You have learned much today young ones, and your marks have been revealed." Zak notices for the first time that Tara's hair was streaked through with blue, "I must send you back now. If ever you need guidance, seek it in your dreams... Good luck, shifters."

The world around them fades to white and they are gone.

Translation: "Be calm. Trust me."