Season Five

The Legend

Season Five

Season Five:
Unstoppable Forces

The Battle Of Time

"Come now Forces, surely you don't all expect to be able to be heroes every chance you get, now do you?" continues the voice.

"Who are you?" asks Destiny in disgust at the fact that she seems to be constantly asking this question.

"That's Knowledge." answers Effort.

"Yes, I am Knowledge. That battle you all just participated in caused a great deal of discomfort among those that live in this land. I feel that it is time for me to tell you the truth, once and for all."

"I thought you were more of a neutral Minor, one that doesn't get involved in anything but... well... Knowledge." states Effort in a confused tone.

"Not everything is an exact science," responds Knowledge, "but rather, most things, those things that matter, are ever-changing - Much like the path you Forces are all on."

"Cut to the chase and tell us what you need to say. I'm sick of all these extra words and expressions of care and worldly intelligence. Everyone seems to know their own truths around these parts and frankly, I don't think any of you are to believe. So just say what you need to say," proclaims Advantage, "and leave."

"Advantage, always trying to stand firm on the ground. I give you credit for being able to do it so well. Fairly so," explains Knowledge, "I will do as you say." A brief pause of silence that almost seems Time-stalling is made by Knowledge as he prepares to quickly continue. "You all truly do stand on Paradigm Mountain and you all truly should be attempting to find the remaining Life Streams (Sparks) and bring them back to The Paradigms. Everything that Wisdom and Spirit told you is completely true. She did not mislead you."

Advantage quickly responds, "Great, then how about you tell us things that will help us and things that we don't already know?"

Knowledge, seemingly unscathed by Advantage's attitude with him continues his speech. "The Paradigms are slowly weakening more and more and they will soon be at a point where they will not be able to have enough energy to bring the life streams together. If this does happen, all existence will cease and any hopes for survival will be lost."

"But one of the sparks was destroyed - does this mean our mission is over?" asks Purity.

"No, it does not." Responds Knowledge. "When a spark, as you call it, implodes and then explodes, it is merely spread thin into another plane of existence. Much like your recent battle with the other Forces was partly in the Realm of The Mind, the seemingly destroyed spark was simply sent into another realm."

"Does that mean that Need, Vision, Integrity and Hope are all alive too?" questions Strength (though not truly caring for the answer).

"They are," replies Knowledge, "...not alive any longer. They have all truly ceased to exist."

The Forces all stand in shock at the conclusion of the matter. Never before has anything seemed so definite and so irreparable. The sense of such mortality has struck fear in the hearts of the Forces.

Knowledge continues, "At the moment, you needn't worry about the Life Stream you all just battled for. So long as it is in another realm, it is safe from Destruction. Your more immediate problem is the other sparks and your lack of manpower. With so many of your ex-comrades fallen, your task will be even more difficult."

Advantage angrily responds, "And how is that supposed to help us? You're telling us not to worry about a Spark we were told to worry for, you're telling us that we can barely make it with who we have helping, and you're telling us that we can easily die the way the others did. Try telling us something helpful."

"Very well." responds Knowledge. "There is one being on your side that has traveled from the other side of Paradigm Mountain to help you. He is a very powerful being named - "

Just as Knowledge was about to finish his explanation, a character suddenly appears out of nowhere. There, before the Forces and next to Knowledge stood, Luck.

He speaks, "Ahhh Knowledge, always informing, never living. I can take it from here, no worries. Go on, go. I have a lot to discuss with these Forces."

Knowledge bows his head down almost as if not listening would have been a form of insubordination and all of a sudden disappears.

"He can disappear?" asks Purity.

"Well, he can appear." responds Effort.

Luck, with a big grin on his face, continues to talk: "Oh Forces, what a day your life brings. All this loss and all this battling and you find yourselves with less allies and more problems. Seems like nothing goes right for any of you, doesn't it? Really, that's not true. It's just how you look at things. In any case... I'm here to warn you and help you."

Harmony quickly intermits, "How do we know we can trust you?"

"Well," replies Luck, "You really don't know if you can or can't. You simply have no other choice but to listen and then decide. After all, it's going to all pretty much come down to a matter of if you believe in me or not."

"How encouraging." Mutters Advantage.

Luck continues: "As I was saying... You're all at a point in your paths where things are more or less drawn out. Not much keeps happening and then, all of a sudden, everything happens - but it's never enough. Well, I think it's about time we stopped all that. While I'm not going to give you exactly what you're looking for, I am going to make you all a little stronger... not by instilling powers into you - you already have that - but by replacing what you've lost. It's only a matter of..."

Just as Luck was about to finish his sentence, a seemingly dark character comes into view. His disposition is tall and eerie and to describe him would be to say that he looks like a human black hole. He speaks, "... Time."

The Forces all begin feeling a sense of fear. Destiny quickly steps in front of Harmony as if to protect him and suddenly, she faints. Strength immediately catches her and tries to snap her back into the moment. She slowly reopens her eyes. The other Forces all stand guard in fear and Advantage angrily yells out, "Who are you?!"

Luck responds before the character even gets a chance to, "He is my Counterpart. His name is Time and he is not someone any of you are ready to face. He's here to kill all of you so prepare yourselves for battle, Forces."

Luck's words strike fear in the hearts of the Forces and immediately, all but Strength begin to glow. Destiny fully comes to and, after being helped up by Strength and noticing that she too is glowing, asks, "Who are you?"

The Forces all seem to feel a moment of frustration as most roll their eyes and Strength quickly explains the problem before them. Destiny listens and carefully assumes an attack stance.

Time stands perfectly still and begins laughing, "HA HA HA!" His voice seems almost more thundering than that of The Paradigm of Spirit. It strikes more fear in the hearts of the Forces worse than the memory of Destruction when he was at the peak of his powers. The fear travels through Effort, Destiny, Advantage, Strength, Purity and finally right into Harmony. Time speaks:

"It's no wonder Chance and Fate are where they are now - suffering atop a pathetic little hill. You simpletons have nothing to offer to this world and it all needs to end now. After all, if there is someone who can make it all end, it would be me."

"NO!" screams Luck, "It doesn't end here, not after everything they've gone through. They were put here to balance the world and make everything make sense. They don't deserve to be stopped - especially by a Counterpart like you."

"Luck, I'm surprised at you, defending them." Proclaims Time.

"You most of all should know that they are just pawns in a greater game."

As Time and Luck have their exchange, Destiny whispers to Effort to transport Harmony away and to guard him. Effort, understanding that Destiny must have a good reason for this command, complies and swiftly grabs Harmony and takes him away.

"Don't you dare stand in my way." Finishes Time to Luck as he turns immediately to the now diminished set of Forces. "Splitting up won't help you now."

With the end of his words, Time seems to glow a powerful black and extends his reach to let out a thunderous attack that knocks back all the Forces. Luck stands back and sits down in a position similar to that of one who is oddly enough, meditating. Advantage lets out a scream of fear and pain after Time's first hit. Effort, having heard Advantage's cries immediately leaves Harmony's side and transports himself to Advantage's aide. Regardless that the Forces are all glowing (still except for Strength), they are weakened by the seemingly unstoppable power that is Time. Once again, he winds up and swoops out another gargantuan attack on all the Forces at once and all are once again, knocked back even more. Blood begins falling from the eyes of Purity as Advantage and Effort are knocked into the nearby rocks and pass out from the blows to their heads. Destiny is knocked into a tall tree that cracks just as she hits it. The tree towers right down and onto her legs pinning her to the ground. Strength is thrown aback but doesn't hit anything and gets right back up. He looks around and sees that everyone is down for the count and, immediately, he begins glowing. Time sees this and snickers at his attempt to gain ground on the situation. While his black glow seems a little more diminished, the look in Time's eyes is ever more focused. He turns straight to Strength and winds up for an ultimately fatal attack. Just as Time is winding up, Luck stands and is glowing an indeterminable color and yells out, "NO! I WILL NOT LET YOU DO THIS, TIME!" All of a sudden, Luck's body begins to form a vortex that stretches out to Advantage and Effort which slowly sucks them into him. It reaches Purity and begins bringing him in as well. It slowly attempts to make it's way to Strength and begins dragging him. It attempts to reach Destiny, but is somehow blocked by the tree that is still over her. Strength, while being sucked into Luck's vortex passes Destiny and yells at her to grab his hand.

"Grab onto me! HURRY UP!" he yells.

"No! - You don't know what's in that vortex" she responds.

"He's trying to help us... GRAB ONTO ME!"

"You don't know that for sure!"

"I'll protect you. Just trust me. No matter what's on that other side, we can face it together. It's the only shot we have. GRAB ONTO ME!!"

Just as his words end, Time lashes out an attack directed at stopping the two Forces from entering the vortex. Before it can hit, a glowing Harmony comes running into the battle area and dives to get in the way of the attack. He takes the hit at full Force and is knocked back but immediately begins glowing stronger. He is thrown next to Destiny and yells at her to take Strength's hand as he is fighting to not be dragged into the vortex so fast. Destiny finally gives in and grabs onto Strength just as he was about to be too far from reach. He drags her, and with the help of the pull of the vortex, pulls her loose from the fallen tree and both disappear into Luck. The sounds of Harmony and Time battling can be heard as the other Forces all disappear completely.

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

The air is still. There is no sound and barely any light. The Forces lay on this new ground and slowly begin to get up and look around. Purity mutters, "Where are we?" and a voice quickly responds, "We're in Luck."

Purity, Effort, Advantage, Strength and Destiny are all shocked to see three beings before them that they had never before seen. Strength assumes an attack position and quickly yells out, "Who are you?!"

The three female Forces each introduce themselves as Faith, Loyalty and Intuition.

Faith:
To imagine a world where joy was nothing but ever-present is to imagine the world Faith lives in. Though, at times, Faith gets easily thrown out of that world and into the reality that is life. With a kind heart respectfully carried on her side and a soul that simply desires to be requested, Faith carries the capability of transferring abilities from any one creature to the next. Since she cannot transfer abilities to herself, she never truly could understand why she carried this power. Regardless, Faith uses this skill to show the world that there is always another angle to be viewed and that one should never give up. She is precious, caring and a breath of fresh air to have as part of a team. While she somtimes loses her track of mind because she focuses on helping just one creature of choice above all others, she rarely - if ever - tends to herself above all else. To have Faith is to have companionship, and companionship is truly something every being needs.

Loyalty:
In the attempt to embrace what she feels is real, Loyalty usually finds herself emotionally drawn towards care. She is a Force that is magnetized to the purity of the world while also realizing the injustices that are faced on a daily basis. Loyalty has a deep respect for all those she cares for and therefore desires to constantly be kept in their presences while living her daily life. She wanders about using the ability to link minds in order to communicate with others. This power, plus the uncanny skill to retain the details of a memory with exact precision keep this Force at her strongest in the realm of the mind. Though, with this ability, comes the instability to use it. When Loyalty allows her insecurities to take her over and her emotions to run free, her ability is incapacitated and at times, so is she. Regardless of this fact, her disposition is always true and her kindness is always nothing short of unbelievable.

Intuition:
There is a certain feeling of freedom that comes with being able to stare off into a perfect daydream. That feeling of freedom is what defines Intuition. She is a Force that doesn't enjoy confrontation but if pushed to a limit she feels she does not want to surpass, she will use her knowledge-filled mind to deploy countermeasures. At times, those countermeasures can mean giving an opponent the impression that she has failed and lost a battle or has even seemingly faded away slowly, but in reality, she is the one that tends to gain the upper hand in the end. She uses her ability to shield herself from danger quite frequently while also being able to sense that danger is at hand. Never the less, her passion for turning that perfect daydream into a reality is ever-present and always a possibility. She travels the lands in an attempt to show others that opening their eyes isn't just an action to be taken lightly, but rather one that can reveal more than most can see. Her kind heart and true spirit can be clearly seen in the way she enjoys being in the company of those that care for her. To give Intuition respect is to know that she is capable of realizing that daydream and moving to it. She is nothing short of a powerful ally with a keen mind and a brave inner soul.

The new Forces begin explaining how long they've each been in Luck and how Luck has been on their side protecting them from harms way recently. They retell the same story that Luck gave them.

Intuition speaks, "We don't have much memory of what happened before we entered Luck, we just know that things weren't necessarily going our way. When Luck took us in, he told us that he'd bring us together with those who we were meant to be with, and that together, we would stand a chance at defeating Time."

"But why does Time want us dead? What did we ever do to him?" asks Advantage.

Faith takes over, "None of us ever did anything to him. From what we gather, Time is taking revenge on us for something The Paradigms did to him. We know he swore to destroy all of us at the same moment so that we could all feel the same loss he had endured, but we don't know what that loss was or how he plans on doing it. All we know is that he's very powerful and that Luck felt that without his help, we'd stand no chance. At least now we know that's true. The set of us are together - now we just have to take the next step."

"No" replies Destiny. "We're not all together - Harmony is still out there and Honor is still with Promise. No matter how many times we try to fight Time, we'll never be able to defeat him because being together will get us destroyed and being apart will keep us weak. The only way to stand a chance at survival is by not staying together at all. He can't kill all of us at the same time if we're not together. We may wind up being weakened but at the least, we'll be doing what's right."

"Where is this coming from?" asks Strength in a condescending tone. "Stop pretending that things are better when we're apart. We all want to not have to deal with these things and we all just want to move forward to lives that we can be proud of, but right now isn't the right time to be thinking like that. We are stronger together, we are who we are when we are together. So unless you see something I don't and want to indulge us on what that may be, stop fighting us and let's stay together."

"How dare you try to make me look like the bad guy in all of this! If anything, I'm being the realist here. Seems to me that I'm moving forward with life and you're just not. Get over yourself and look at the big picture here." replies Destiny.

"I'm not trying to make you look like the bad guy" responds Strength. "I'm just trying to make the point that we work well together and that we stand a better chance at doing what needs to be done while being near eachother. So unblock yourself and let's be together. It's better than being apart."

Purity intermits, "Let her be, Strength. It's not easy dealing with all of this. You may be able to make yourself stronger, but don't forget, we get weaker when you reach your moments of power."

Loyalty, while agreeing whole-heartedly with Purity, chimes in and says, "As for right now, we need to figure out what to do with this new threat on our hands. Luck had taken Intuition, Faith and I to Knowledge in order to help us understand why we exist and we know about the Sparks that need to be gathered. That is what is really important here, saving Fate and Chance. They are the only ones who can save life as we know it and they are the only ones that can help us finally have the lives we all want to have. So, to get to the other Sparks, we need to get Time out of our faces. That way, we can follow the path we know in our hearts we need to follow and we can be at last, Saved."

"Well said." Compliments Purity.

Loyalty smiles a sincere smile as she acknowledges Purity's kind words and seems to feel a moment of joy.

The Forces all continue to discuss the happenings and what can be done. Moments later, the same vortex that had dragged them all in, begins to open back up. Intuition is the first to notice it and calls it to everyone's attention. The sounds of what seems to be Time and Harmony still fighting are eminating from the other side. All of a sudden, Luck's voice echoes and says, "Stay where you are Forces, I'm trying to save Harmony from Time. I don't know if I can do it, but I'm going to try."

Just then a giant flash of light falls over the entire area and a chill is sent up the spines of all the Forces, new and old. All the noises seem to have stopped and there is no more battling going on beyond the vortex. It is beginning to grow smaller and smaller but Harmony is still nowhere in sight.

All the Forces stand perfectly still. In the minds of Effort, Advantage, Destiny, Strength, Purity, Loyalty, Faith and Intuition, one question keeps repeating itself:

Has Luck saved Harmony from Time?

...or is this the end of...

The Legend.

______________________________

There are some moments in life that cannot be controlled or planned properly. It is a matter of accepting that Time will move forward and hoping that Luck will keep those you care for close to you.

Have the Loyalty, Make the Effort, Take the Advantage, Feel the Purity, Grab the Destiny, Find the Strength, Hear the Honor, Use the Intuition, and Keep the Faith.

This is the key to what Harmony is.
_____________________________

DECISIVE MOTIONS Part I

"WHERE IS HE?!"

... As the vortex comes to an almost complete close, Faith lets out a yell and begins to glow a calming light blue color. This incites Loyalty to begin her maroon glow that expands to cover Faith and the next Force closest to them, Effort. All three immediately understand eachother thanks to Loyalty's ability to link their minds and Faith's glow begins to cover Effort. Just as the vortex almost completely dissipates, Effort's Orange aura shoots out of his body and, with Faith's glow side by side, both streams of light exit the area. Effort falls to the ground as if badly bruised and cries out in pain. Within seconds, a deep blue aura begins emminating from his body and he quickly gets up and smiles with a sense of joy.

"So it worked." proclaims Faith with the notion of accomplishment in her voice.

"I guess so - Good Job." responds Effort to Faith.

"Hey, I had something to do with it too." Loyalty announces.

"Excuse me," intermits Purity, "but what exactly did you three do?"

Intuition responds, "Isn't it obvious? Loyalty can link minds together, Faith can switch the abilities of Forces and Effort can Transport. So Loyalty linked her mind to Faith's to find out why she was glowing and once she realized that Faith wanted to transfer Effort's ability to Harmony so that Harmony could escape the battle he was in with Time, she linked Effort's mind to Faith's so that all that could be done quickly before the vortex closed. It clearly worked because Effort was surrounded by Harmony's aura which helped him self-heal just like Harmony always does."

"And you know this how?" Purity asks.

"Well... they don't call me Intuition for nothing. I tend to understand things easily." Intuition boasts.

"Now, I hate to be the downer in all of this..." begins Strength, "...but, doesn't that mean that you've now removed Harmony's ability to Heal himself? And wouldn't that mean that if Time is still beating Harmony to a pulp, Harmony can't heal himself?"

The entire group takes a moment's pause and Advantage replies, "He'll figure out he has Effort's ability and transport his way to safety."

"I hope so." replies Strength.

With Strength's words coming to an end, Destiny begins to glow herself and seems to enter into an eerie trance. The glow retires back into her body almost immediately and a smile comes to her face. As everyone looks at her in anticipation of an explanation, she merely says, "We each have things that need to be done, we don't need to be in Luck anymore, let's find a way out of him."

Rather than questioning Destiny's words, all the Forces ban together to figure out a way out of Luck and back to the reality where Luck cannot protect them.

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

In the meantime:

Harmony's attempts at defending himself from the awesome power that is Time seem almost futile... and though he keeps getting badly beaten, Harmony keeps healing himself bit by bit. In a moment of incredible fatigue, Harmony's aura begins to glow and is ripped out of his body and replaced with a burst of light exiting from Luck and directly into Harmony. Time takes pure skill to the moment and delivers a powerful attack that causes a giant explosion coupled with a tremendous cloud of dust. Luck, noticing an exit strategy, uses the cloud of cover to mask his escape. An overwhelming cry of defiance is let out by Time as the cloud of dust dissolves, showing him that both Luck and Harmony have escaped his wrath.

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

"Ugh... this is getting more and more complicated..." says Harmony to himself as he slowly opens his eyes, "...Where am I now?"

A familiar voice let's out a response, "Get up."

Harmony, not expecting a reply, quickly jumps up (while still being rather sore from the last attack) and looks around to find out where the voice came from. "Who was that?!" He cries out.

"You're either still blind or you got even dumber - turn around."

Harmony immediately turns around and immediately, a tear falls from his eye. He is overjoyed at seeing the very Force he once walked side by side with in his quest for answers.

"Honor!" shouts Harmony, "Honor! It's so good to see you!" He quickly embraces Honor with a fear that in another moment, the joy of his company may leave once again.

"I would have thought that after all you've been through, you would be a little tougher than this." Smirks Honor.

"And I would think that a joyous reunion would have you show a little more happiness." responds Harmony with disgust.

"Follow me."

"To where?"

"To find Promise and Trust."

"Trust? Who is Trust? I forcibly remember Promise - Not Trust." responds Harmony with great shame.

Honor does not bother replying and the two Forces proceed to walk forward and catch up on their seperate lives. Honor begins by explaining how some time after he and Promise continued their lives together, they came across another Force named, Trust:

"He's more of a Force that escaped the Paradigms after he was created. He doesn't like to be governed by rules and fights for what he thinks is right. He helps me take care of Promise from time to time but mostly comes by on his whims so as to let us know he is always nearby. I know Promise is safe with him around - He came by a short time ago and I decided to walk around looking for some things I'd need to build another small hut. That's when you popped up out of nowhere."

"So how did you know I wasn't blind anymore... and how did you know the things I've gone through." asks Harmony.

"I have Trust to thank for that. One of his abilities is that he can move at great speeds. When I had told him about you, he decided to set off to find you all and watch you from a distance. When he got bored, he had come back to visit and told me about what he saw."

"Oh. Well... I'm glad you knew WE were doing so well. Thanks for the help, by the way." angrily responds Harmony.

"I have more important things to take care of than that quest of yours." answers Honor.

"That 'quest' is about you too - and Promise." responds Harmony.

"No. Promise is my life - You keep to yours and I'll keep to mine." declares Honor.

Harmony, in shock yells out, "You act like we're worthless - as if nothing else matters - as if what we stand for when it comes to the world, isn't even important. You were once one of us and we all fought together, side by side."

Honor responds, "Yes. That was then. I've made my own world now. It has nothing to do with thinking you're worthless. There are different directions we've taken, and I'm sure our paths will cross again. I haven't forgotten anything, I just found what I need to do. Destiny showed me that. She might need to show you too."

Harmony, with his head kept low and in a pensive state continues the conversation with Honor, but in many different directions. They jump from subject to subject as if the very enemy Harmony had just fought is the hidden enemy now. Within a small amount of time, the two Forces reach their destination and Trust stands guard in protection of Promise because of the unfamiliar face he sees with Honor. Trust and Harmony lock eyes as if to respectfully meet for the first time and to prove to eachother that they are not foes.

Trust:
Known as The Protector Of The Minors, Trust is one of the most Powerful Forces in the known worlds. His kind heart and sincere demeanor are carefully hidden behind his brute power and defensive nature. Though Trust does not follow the path of the other Forces, he is still an intrical part of life itself. He wields the ability to move at great speeds but frequently desires to keep himself at bay. When Trust came to be, his caring respect for others lead him to see the pains which the Minors continually suffered. Thus Trust took it upon himself to make sure they would not be abused, or taken advantage of, any longer. This honest care lead him to develop one other ability that he has not yet learned to control. Trust is capable of feeling the fears and pains that others have and absorbing them onto himself in an effort to remove them from those he protects. Yet, with this ability comes his refusal for company. Despite the geity he manifests, Trust chooses to stay away from most others. He feels he has absorbed far too many of the tortures that life brings in order to let himself get too close to anyone else once again. This fact has callused his self while making him quite strong both mentally and physically. Trust, at times, takes on the task of visiting Honor & Promise because he feels a sort of distinct connection to both. Though most of the Forces wish he would stay with them, he rarely keeps their company since he does not want to compromise his own self-being. Regardless, he is by far a Hero to be respected and falls nothing short of a friend one always wants to keep close.

In the quest for inner-peace, Trust often battles his Counterpart, Rage. He is a very cruel-hearted being who tends to benefit from Trust's own moments of anger and who often tries to bring out the worst in all those he comes into contact with.

Once Trust lets his guard down, Promise comes into better view and the sight of something different catches Harmony's eyes. "What..." he asks, "Happened to you, Promise?"

Honor answers, "There are more important things than your quest, Harmony. That includes Promise and my soon to be child."

Harmony's confusion is quickly replaced with a slew of uncontrollable emotions ranging from joy to fear. The three Forces and Promise all sit around a fire and talk together about whatever their minds came up with. As quickly as the day's events came to an end so did the daylight. Night takes over and Honor and Promise retreat to a hut Honor had built to protect Promise from the tortures of darkness. Trust decides to leave the area and without so much as a kind word, speeds away. Harmony is left sitting near a fire that was built earlier and begins sobbing.

In the distance, Trust, while sitting alone, begins to glow a pure white. He raises his head and speeds straight to Harmony who is still tearing at the depression that has taken over him. Harmony doesn't even jump at Trust's appearance, and instead, begins talking to him about why his mind has brought him to tears. Trust, still in full glow, begins to almost absorb Harmony's pains and tears begin falling from his eyes as Harmony's tears subside. Harmony takes a full sigh of relief and looks at Trust and asks, "Did... did you just take away my pain?"

Trust responds, "Yes. Along with my speed, that's my other ability."

"And you take the sorrows and pains of others? How can you deal with that? Doesn't it build up?" Questions Harmony.

"I can take care of myself - I have all this time." Responds Trust.

"You're an amazing Force. We need someone with your abilities and your inner power to help us. Honor may have tied himself down, but you can replace him. Join us, Trust." Let's out Harmony.

Trust responds, "There's no need to gas me up. I travel alone. I've dedicated my life to helping those who cannot defend themselves. In that, Honor and I have much in common. What you Forces are doing is truly important, but I don't feel I belong to it. There are too many others out there who can benefit from my help while the rest of you move forward in your task of saving Chance and Fate."

"You are a hero among heroes. We are all fighting for the same thing. Without you, this world would be empty, and I, well, as of a few moments ago, I'd be more lost than ever. The world needs you, Trust. Never forget that." says Harmony.

Trust lets out a smirk of joy and speeds away. Harmony's tears begin to once again fall. A faint set of words come to Harmony's ears and though he still feels the world's abandonment and weight, he grins with the assurance that he can go on.

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

All The While:

Hours pass and the Forces still try to find a way out of Luck.

"If I still had my ability and not this healing thing, I'd be able to transport us out of here." Effort frustratingly proclaims.

"I'd rather your ability saves Harmony, than keeps us from learning how to use our abilities to get out of here." Angrily replies Destiny.

The Forces all begin to fight with eachother due to the close quarters and inability to escape their current situation. Their frustrations reach a point that causes Purity to scream out in intense anger:

"THIS IS RIDICULOUS! WE HAVE NOT FOUGHT THIS HARD TO FIGHT WITH EACHOTHER IN THE BODY OF SOME CREATION WE DON'T EVEN UNDERSTAND!"

Loyalty moves towards Purity and, in trying to calm him down, says, "We will get through this. It's okay."

Purity Continues: "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! I DON'T NEED KIND WORDS RIGHT NOW! I JUST NEED TO BE ABLE TO THINK CLEARLY!"

With those words, Purity's body begins to glow. It begins to get so bright that it blinds all the Forces momentarily and lets out one giant Flash of light. When all the Forces recover, each is left glowing in their own respective color (except for Strength) and each feels more able to think than before.

"What just happened?" asks Faith.

Everyone immediately turns to Intuition for an answer. She responds, "What? I don't know."

Advantage: "Why can't we have some sort of ability where we shoot our powers out at something and break things?"

Intuition replies, "Okay, I do know what happened... I think."

"Well then now would be a good time to share." Replies Strength in a light-hearted manner.

Purity intermits, "I can clear minds. I guess that's my thing. Remember when Destiny and Harmony did that whole glowing aura thing and they knew what they could do? Well, I just did that."

"So now what?" asks Effort. "I can still only Heal."

All of a sudden, a similar vortex to the one that brought the Forces into Luck, begins to appear. Advantage, noticing it right away calls attention to it. Each Force begins running toward the portal and they all quickly come out of Luck. The Forces all look around to acquaint themselves with their surroundings as Luck stands smirking in front of them. He speaks:

"Well Forces, I've saved you from your greatest enemy this time, but I cannot guarantee that I will be around to help any of you for the next battle with him. The powers you saw Time weild were just a small sampling. He is capable of doing far more damage than before. He was merely biding himself. I warn you all, Time has a plan, and if you do not stop him, your lives, along with that of the future will come to an end."

Luck stops talking and bows his head. He begins turning around and walking away. As he leaves, Advantage yells out, "If you know all this and you're on our side, why don't you help us fight Time? The more of us there are, the better a chance we stand at defeating him."

Luck pauses his steps, lets out a small chuckle, and speaks while once again resuming his steps:

"Because, Advantage, I already know that it is impossible to defeat Time."

With the end of his words, Luck vanishes into a mist that shrouds him. The Forces all commence trying to figure out where to go and how to find Harmony.

"We can just switch Harmony and Effort's powers back." Initiates Faith.

"I can still only Heal." Replies Effort as he tries cutting himself with a rock.

"But what if Harmony still needs Effort's powers?" Asks Purity.

"I don't like this healing thing." Responds Effort as he continues cutting himself with a rock.

Intuition begins to grow an aura around her and proclaims, "Harmony is fine."

"How do you know?" Asks Loyalty.

"We went over this." Responds Intuition.

"Can I have my ability back?" Asks Effort in a childish tone.

Faith, getting annoyed, looks at Intuition and says, "Are you sure?"

Intuition responds, "Yep" as Faith begins to glow her light blue aura once again. The glow Faith produces spreads to Effort as his newly acquired blue glow begins surrounding him. As quickly as it completely covers him, the glow shoots out of him and travels with Faith glow into the sky and disappears. In the heat of the moment, Effort gets struck by his original orange glow that now, once again, surrounds him. He disappears and reappears right next to Advantage and jovially whispers, "It worked" to her.

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

At the same time...

As Harmony stands alone, he is struck back by his own original aura and he quickly realizes that his original ability has returned. He is left standing, staring at the hut where Honor and Promise rest. Tears keep slowly falling from his eyes as he turns around and begins walking away wondering what will become of him and how he will return to the other Forces that have kept him alive for so long. He feels a sense of complete loss and solitude as if nothing is right with the world, but never the less, he continues to walk on...

______________________________

The Advantage in finding the Purity in you is being able to see the Faith you never knew you had.

______________________________

DECISIVE MOTIONS Part II

The night turned to a bright shining day and the stiffness in the air has almost vanished. Harmony continued searching for the Forces as the Forces continued their quest...

"It doesn't feel right that we keep going up this mountain without looking for Harmony." Announces Destiny.

"He'd want us to. We have to stay focused no matter what. That's what Harmony wants. Besides, we know he can take care of himself. He can heal. When has there ever been a problem that Harmony didn't surpass?" Responds Strength.

"You think you know him so well, Strength. I assure you - YOU DON'T." Prompts Destiny.

"I was trying to make a poin -" Speaks Strength as he is cut off by Destiny once again, "He isn't a buddy of yours that follows your rules. It isn't always about doing the right thing when it's about him but listening to you explain why you're so down when it's about you. Harmony doesn't even think he deserves to carry his name. We're all the very reason he exists and yet you feel it best if we travel forward without him in the hopes to run into him again? You don't know him at all."

"Then why are you carrying on with us, Destiny? Why haven't you turned back to find him?" Strength angrily responds.

"Because she knows that there is something up ahead she needs to be here for." Replies Intuition.

"What?" Asks Strength.

Intuition continues, "Remember when we were in Luck, how Destiny began to glow? Then she smirked and told us that we needed to each do things to carry on. She knows something is up ahead."

"That's a pretty big assumption." States Loyalty.

"Doubt it then. You're welcome to deny my existence." Replies Intuition with her head held high.

Faith interupts, "Destiny... is Intuition right?" Destiny nods her head in agreement while linking eyes with Intuition. Both keep treading on with a smirk on their faces as the others follow behind.

"And you don't think it would be a good idea to tell us what you know, Destiny? You know... since we are a team fighting for the same cause." Asks Strength.

"What's the matter, Strength? Worried that Harmony can't defend you once we see you cower in battle again? He was the only one that ever really defended you. Guess you'll have to stand up for yourself and prove who you are to us on your own this time." Destiny snidely states. "Besides, better to be constantly on guard than know right when something is about to happen. For the record, I don't know when. I feel the future, remember? I don't see it."

With Destiny's words spoken, the conversation ends and the Forces all awkwardly continue on each with a different idea in mind.

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

Coincidingly...

Harmony finds himself at quite a distance from Honor and Promise's hut and alone. He continues on in the hope of running into the Forces or at least a Minor who can help him. At this rate, he'd be content with even a battle with a Counterpart just so his feelings of lonliness in the world wouldn't be so proven. Ironically, within a few hours of moving forward, he is ambushed and surrounded by Hatred, Indiscretion and Fraudulence and they begin attacking Harmony freely. Harmony, not ever having met these Counterparts, let's out a scream for help and begins trying to fend off the evil beings. His attempts at holding off each one at the same time are almost useless. Every time Harmony focuses his attention on one, the other two take every step to throw him off balance and attack him viciously. In a short few minutes, Harmony finds himself bleeding from many parts of his body. His eyes shed blood instead of tears and his breathing is nothing short of painful panting.

In a whisp of wind, Trust appears in front of Harmony. He is at his prime white glow and in a ready-to-attack stance. The three Counterparts all look at him in shock as Harmony catches his breath. Harmony states, "I'm ready, let's go" to Trust and immediately, Trust turns around and lunges a huge punch at Harmony, knocking him out. The other three Counterparts all look at this scene in confusion and are undecided if Trust was a friend of foe. With Trust's white aura still glowing bright, he flashes in front of each Counterpart one by one over and over in an effort to confuse them. Then, as each one loses focus, he stops and attacks. The first blow is given directly to Hatred as he is thrown accross the sky and lands on top of a boulder. The next attack goes directly to Fraudulence, and with a vengence, Trust grabs him and throws him up into the air. As he comes back down, Trust hurls an uppercut so powerful and quick at him, it literally seems as though Fraudulence is stuck bleeding profusely in the air for a few moments. Just when he hits the ground, Trust delivers a thrustful punch directly at his chest and he is pushed into the ground, creating a indentation surrounding his body. Indiscretion, seeing these attacks and having little time to react, decides to flee in fear as his commrades still suffer Trust's assault. Immediately after pummeling Fraudulence, Trust goes directly back to Hatred who is still laying on the top of the boulder, picks him up and throws him right back down smashing his body against the cold hard stone. He then jumps up in the air and angrily lands on top of Hatred and throws punch after punch directly at his face - each one hitting with more and more power. Once he sees that Hatred has no more energy left in him to fight, he picks him up and throws him next to Fraudulence who was attempting (while being barely able) to get back up and announces, "Let your friends know. Let them know I, Trust, protect Honor, Promise, and now, Harmony as well. And the next time I see either of you, it will be the last time we meet."

The two Counterparts hearing this, help eachother up and limp fearfully into the forest as quickly as they can. Trust flashes to where Harmony lays and allows his glow to almost ignite Harmony's own blue aura which in turn, heals Harmony's own body. Harmony opens his eyes and asks, "Ughh... what happened?"

"I heard you cry out for help," Responds Trust, "And I came to help."

"But you knocked me out." Replies Harmony.

"You would have gotten in the way. I knew you'd heal whatever I did to you so I pulled you out of the fight and defended you."

"That's an odd way of defending someone. I could've helped."

"I'm too fast and impulsive for you to have helped with this. Besides, it turned out well."

"You hurt me."

"I'm not going to entertain your lack of gratitude. That is how I fight."

"And you don't bother worrying that you hurt me?"

"I'm not going to change my fighting style for anyone. I fight alone."

"Is this how you defend Honor and Promise."

"I come into the battle when Honor is incapable of defending Promise himself."

"I may have healed my physical scars, but I can still remember you hurling that punch at me."

"You'd rather I not help next time?"

"I'd rather you fight by my side than not let me speak or move in battle."

"We do things differently. The future will tell us if we can work together or not."

"Fair enough." Replies Harmony.

With that conversation had, Trust helps Harmony back to his feet and Trust walk forward in conversation.

Trust begins, "Do you want me to go find the others and have Effort transport you to them?"

Harmony thinks about the question carefully, opens his mouth to reply, then closes it and pauses pensively once again. He replies, "No. They're not with me for now. Let them find me on their own and let me find them on my own."

"Then I'll leave you be." Responds Trust.

"Why? You're a Force like me, remember? You found me. That's how things work. If you leave now, it would pretty much be like losing the battle you just had with the Counterparts. We can work together in this epic journey we were both thrown into." Knowledgably replies Harmony.

"I suppose good friendships are worth fighting for." Responds Trust with a grin of respect.

"I'm surprised you finally let down that first wall." Says Harmony grinning back. "Now... where can we find these ellusive sparks?"

"No clue."

"All right then, forward it is." Replies Harmony.

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

All the while...

The Forces continue their climb up Paradigm Mountain during the day when all of a sudden, a loud rumble begins growing stronger from a distance and the ground begins to violently shake.

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

(Trust and Harmony having felt this as well, decide to send Trust to assess the situation. Trust quickly begins glowing white and dashes away at a high speed to investigate. He comes up to the Forces and stops behind them unnoticed.)

"What is... gooooing... onnn...!" Yells out Faith.

Suddenly, Luck appears before the Forces and collapses to the ground. The land is still shaking violently and Luck begins to talk as Purity and Strength stagger to his aid:

"Time... Time attacked me... I.. I couldn't.. defend my...self. I give you all... the last amount... of help... I can... give.. to.. you.... all. . ."

With those words spoken, Luck loses all strength and completely collapses. His body begins glowing and all of a sudden, it begins to seem as if it is going to erupt from too much internal energy. Though the ground is still violently shaking, the Forces all keep close attention to what is happening to Luck's body. Finally, his body explodes and his energy seems to break off into nine different pieces and immediately flow into each one of the Forces present. All the Forces are knocked back and with the combined ground tremor, each fall to the ground. The shaking continues momentarily and then stops. Trust, still unnoticed, quickly begins glowing again and speeds back to Harmony to tell him what happened. The rest of the Forces slowly get up.

"What happened now?" Asks Purity.

All the Forces turn to Intuition immediately in the hopes that she will have some sort of answer.

Intuition looks at everyone and says, "I don't know - ask Destiny."

The Forces all once again turn to Destiny in the hopes of an answer.

"This, this is what I felt before. I knew we were going to gain something and that we had to keep going to gain it." States Destiny.

"And what exactly did we gain, Destiny?" Asks Strength.

"Maybe we gained new abilities!" Responds Purity with great enthusiasm.

"Well, I'd say," intermits Intuition, "that it would stand to reason that we have a little Luck in all of us."

"That doesn't help much." Replies Loyalty.

"Whatever we gained will hopefully help us battle Time. If he did that to Luck, I can only imagine what he can do to us." Says Advantage.

The Forces all look into the distance from where the trembling began and each knew that they had to continue on with their mission. All wonder in complete fear as to the dangers that might befall them and they are all silent for this part of their tread. They reach a part of the mountain covered in snow. The white dust covers the entire land giving the false sense of tranquility, but that is clearly far from the truth at hand. Once again finding themselves even more distant from each other than before, the Forces all continue forward. Though they are separate, their memories of one other are all still together...

...Only Time can tear them apart...

.....A Loud Rawr Is Heard From Atop Paradigm Mountain and The Sky Begins Growing Darker.....

______________________________

When all else fails, Intuition and Trust become two of the most powerful allies you can have in your quest for inner peace.

Regardless, it is imperative that all the other allies you've made in the past not be forgotten. All of them together will help you come to terms with the enemy that is Time.

And Time... is truly the enemy.

_____________________________

Insufficient Answers

Days of continuous walking forward pass. Neither Trust and Harmony or the other Forces encounter anyone or anything. The land still seems an awkward calm and the fear of facing Time is in everyones' minds.

*****

"This walking forward is getting ridiculous," starts Harmony, "we don't know where we're going nor do we know how to find these sparks Wisdom told us about. Not to mention that we're split up and there are too many enemies out there that want us to fail."

"Shut up." Replies Trust.

Harmony, with complete anger, swallows his words and doesn't even bother talking back to Trust. He knows that any attempt would be futile and would likely end in a less than helpful way. They continue on.

*****

Meanwhile:

"It's been way too quiet around here." Says Advantage to Effort as they walk separated but still together with the other Forces.

"Nothing we can really do about it though." Responds Effort.

"That's the thing... I was thinking about where we're going and how we're getting there and I think that we're going about this the wrong way."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, we each have these abilities and yet we only use them when we're in danger instead of using them all the time." Cites Advantage.

"What would you have us do then?" Questions Effort.

"Well, why not split up for portions of our travels? We can keep in communication with Loyalty's ability and we can transport in groups with your ability. We've done this all before, why not do it again while being sectioned off into teams?"

"I guess that makes sense."

Loyalty, while walking along side Purity and in a notion's distance from Advantage and Effort listened attentively to the conversation the other two Forces were having and begins talking about it with Purity.

"I don't think Advantage has such a bad idea." Loyalty starts.

"But I thought the point was for all of us to be together, not split up." Replies Purity.

"Well, we're not really getting anywhere like this now are we?"

"But at least we're together."

"And it hasn't done us any good yet."

"Yes it has. Neither of us would be alive if it wasn't for the collective help of this team and you know that." Responds Purity in a loud voice.

"KEEP QUIET! Don't be so loud, I don't want them to think we were listening in on them. I understand what you're saying but since we don't really have much time to find these sparks, wouldn't it be best if we found a way to get to them faster?" Quickly recovers Loyalty.

"I think it's an absurd idea."

"Well I don't." Proclaims Loyalty.

As Purity and Loyalty keep debating the conversation between Advantage and Effort, up ahead, Faith and Destiny are walking together and discussing a similar idea:

Faith: "...If he's hurt, he can heal."

Destiny: "That's not the type of pain I think he's in. Let's face it, he carries burden on his shoulders."

"Well, one way or another, he's not dead. If he were, we wouldn't have been able to trade Effort's powers with his. What I don't understand though, is why Harmony didn't just transport straight to us when he had the chance? He could have sensed us using our powers with Effort's ability and come right to us."

"Maybe it was because we were in Luck and he wasn't? Or maybe he just didn't want to rejoin us."

"I was afraid you might say that."

"It makes sense. All things considered, we're a set of beings that were thrown into a similar area with similar goals. I'm not so sure there is such a tight bond between all of us collectively."

"It's undeniable that there isn't." States Faith.

"Well one way or another, I think Harmony is safer without us nearby. He's always been able to take care of himself if he's needed to." Argues Destiny.

"Then maybe that's what we all need to do for a bit. . . Each take our own path instead of traveling together. These past few days have gone by and we've caught up with no one and haven't found a thing. Wouldn't we cover more ground apart?"

"I suppose - now that almost all of us have an understanding of our powers a little better, we would be able to fend for ourselves with more ease..."
Walking a little more up ahead and ironically leading the entire pack up Paradigm Mountain are Strength and Intuition. They carry on a conversation together, but, in reality, apart.

"...I just know what my ability is and if I use it, I put everyone at risk." Says Strength to Intuition.

"We should all split up. There's an entire side of this mountain we're not even covering." Proclaims Intuition to Strength.

"I want to help but I don't want to hurt everyone."

"If we were to just separate, we could cover more ground."

"I know I have a good power."

"Do you think the others would go for that idea though?"

"I mean... they didn't call me Strength because I was weak and they were going for the trick name."

"I'm guessing I'd be shunned if I said anything like that. After all, I am one of the newer ones around these parts."

"I AM pretty amazing, I have to say." Valiantly declares Strength.

A few hours of continuous conversation and treading up the mountain for all the Forces, continues.
Eventually, Harmony and Trust decide to take a short break:

Harmony: "There has to be a way to find these sparks without doing all this."

Trust: "Any ideas?"

Just as Trust finishes his question, a giant blast is heard in the distance towards the direction the two Forces had come from.

"Honor!" Yells out Trust as he begins to glow white, "I'll be right back. Stay here."

"NO!" replies Harmony, "Wait! You don't know - "

As Harmony tries to finish what he was saying, Trust speeds away. Harmony finds himself alone and worrying about what's going on. His fright puts him on guard and he begins to glow.

*****

All the while:

The eights Forces all stop in their tracks as the sound of the explosion booms into their ears. They all turn around in fear and stand guard wondering if the next place to get attacked is where they stand.

"We need to know what that was." Says Advantage.

"I hope Harmony wasn't there." Sadly states Faith.

"Effort, go check that out. Find out what it was from a distance and come back." Orders Strength.

"NO! Don't put him in danger!" Yells out Destiny.

"Effort GO! If that WAS Harmony, he's in trouble. That may have even been a sign from him to us. We couldn't pin point where he was before, but at least now we have what might be a clue. Just keep a safe distance." States Strength.

The other Forces all look at Effort in agreement and Effort quickly understands and begins to glow orange once again. He bows his head and attempts to concentrate. In a blink he vanishes. Within seconds, he appears immediately in front of Harmony.

"EFFORT! ... What are you doing here?!" Announces Harmony.

"This power is more complicated than you'd think. I was trying to get to the explosion site because we all thought you might be there."

"Trust is there checking it out now."

"Wait... There's another one of us?" says Effort in a soft-spoken confusion.

"It's a long story. He's been around for a while. He's more of a loner though."

"I'm not even going to ask. So do you know what that explosion was?"

"No."

"Well, let's get you back to the others. At least we can figure things out together."

"No."

"No?"

"No."

"No." restates Effort while rolling his eyes, "Why not?"

"Because otherwise Trust won't be able to find me when he comes back. Transport us to him instead."

"How am I supposed to find him?!"

"You found me didn't you?"

"Yes, but I don't know how."

"Well... aim for that explosion site and we'll take it from there." Says Harmony with an obvious tone.

Effort, not really agreeing but simply accepting begins to glow orange again and moves his aura to surround Harmony. He bows his head once again and concentrates. In an instant they are transported directly in front of Trust as he is attempting to covertly survey the area. It is the same zone that Honor and Promise resided in.

"I told you to stay where I left you." Angrily states Trust without any surprise.

"What happened here?" Replies Harmony while ignoring Trust's last statement.

"Hi. I'm Effort."

Trust looks at Effort and says nothing.

"He knows." States Harmony to Effort.

"Well I'm glad we got that out of the way." Says Effort to no one.

As the three Forces all carefully try to understand what happened, they suddenly hear a scream coming from the big crater which the explosion left behind. Harmony quickly recognizes it as Honor's voice and begins running toward him. Trust and Effort follow close behind.

"Honor! What happened?!" Yells out Harmony as he gets closer to Honor.

"TIME! TIME!"

As the three Forces all get closer to Honor, they see him holding a lifeless Promise in his arms. Honor is angry and crying. The only thing he keeps repeating is, "TIME!" Harmony quickly begins glowing and attempts to move his aura around Promise. He fails and begins to try again. This time, the aura surrounds Honor and heals his wounds instead.

"NO! NOT ME! THEM! HEAL THEM!" Yells out Honor.

"It's not working, Honor. I'm trying." Sadly responds Harmony.

"TRY HARDER!"

Harmony attempts to surround Promise with his aura one more time but fails yet again.

"I'm sorry."

With those words, Honor begins to glow. His anger is overwhelming him and he lets out a yell that blasts his aura into the day's sky. It is so bright, it illuminates the area even more than the natural light of the sun already does. Finally, Honor drops to the ground and his aura fades out. He lays there faint and crying hysterically.

"Even I can't absorb his pain." States Trust.

Harmony listens to Trust's words and begins glowing once more. This time though, he is more determined.

"I REFUSE to accept that we are THIS powerless!" Harmony yells out. "LOVE! WHERE ARE YOU?! I KNOW YOU HAVE TO BE NEARBY! WHERE ARE YOU?! COME OUT NOW OR I SWEAR I'LL HUNT YOU DOWN AND DESTROY YOU WITH EVERY BIT OF POWER I HAVE!"

Suddenly, the Minor, Love, appears and says, "There is no need to make such empty threats, Harmony."

"Don't test me, Love." Answers Harmony. "You and Bliss know how to bring Promise back, don't you? DON'T YOU?!"

Effort, seeing the situation turning more and more heated takes a few steps back and prepares himself in case he is needed.

Love replies, "Her life force was taken away. She's gone."

"THEN HOW DO WE GET HER LIFE FORCE BACK?!" Harmony angrily responds.

"We each have a life force in us. Once that life force is removed, we cease to exist corporeally. A Minor is incapable of giving life to any other creature, big or small."

"Then tell me how a Force can give life."

"Harmony, you can't possibly tell me you are willing to give up your own life force just to bring back Promise, are you?"

"Tell me how a Force can give life, NOW, Love."

As Honor hears this conversation, he gets up and begins focusing his attention on Love.

"Love, I have no problems beating the answer out of you. I have nothing left to live for. Tell us or I will crush you." Claims Honor.

"Effort, go get the others." Yells out Harmony. "They can help us get the answer out of Love."

Effort accepts the order, bows his head, glows and vanishes. Just then, a powerful beam of light shines in the crater in which Trust, Honor, Harmony, Love and Promise's lifeless body, were. The beam of light glows powerfully enough to momentarily blind the Forces and the Minor. As Harmony's vision slowly returns, he vaguely sees Love seemingly frozen as if time had stopped. Trust and Honor see the same thing and all three notice a figure standing in front of them. There, before them, stood The Paradigm of Virtue. He speaks:

"Forces wanting to give life to a creature who is not even deemed a Minor? Why? She serves no purpose in your ultimate goal and yet, you both stand to bring her back. Willing, even, to give up pieces of yourselves. Incredible. And you, Trust, so-called 'Caretaker to the Minors' by reputation. You stand at their side in silence not knowing what to do to help and wanting to support them? Curious isn't it? You didn't jump to Love's aid after Harmony AND Honor threatened to kill him. Not a very good caretaker for the Minor's then are you? Where do your loyalty's side, Trust? In attaining the cheap thrills of protection or in maintaining truly forged alliances?"

"Whoever you are, I'd stop attacking Trust, he's done nothing but care all along." States Harmony in anger. "Regardless, unless you're here to help us, I suggest you leave. It's either that, or we do whatever it takes to make sure you leave."

"I'd be quite careful when talking to a Paradigm, Harmony. It would stand to reason that you feel the energy surrounding you. It's my light. You are in my realm and I hold all the cards at the moment."

"P-Paradigm?" Replies Harmony in shock.

"Correct. I am The Paradigm of Virtue."

"Well then, as a Paradigm, you have the power to save Promise!" Shouts Honor.

"As a Paradigm, I have the power to do many things. Regardless, that is beside the reason of why I am here. It seems as though Wisdom, Spirit and I are weakening more and more by the day. At first, Wisdom felt that you Forces would be able to recover the sparks of Chance and Fate in Paradigm Mountain and restore this land to what it was. Clearly, that was an error on her part seeing as how any of you have yet to achieve even a miniscule part of this goal."

"What do you expect? You give us orders and throw us out to be attacked and hurt at every corner and expect us to know how to use our abilities!" Angrily replies Harmony.

The Paradigm of Virtue continues: "You'll have to go speak to the Minor, 'Pity,' for that. It is neither here nor there. Instead, I am here to give you all a warning. Each of you are about to take actions that sway from the very reason you exist. Do so, and your lives will be in much more danger than you realize."

"And they aren't already?" Says Trust.

"You of all people shouldn't be the one to talk, Trust. You know very well what it means to let things go."

Trust, knowing what Virtue meant and immediately getting angry, replies, "And you very well what it means to manipulate those that want don't you?"

"Careful Trust, you would not want to anger me again." States The Paradigm of Virtue.

"Again?" yells out Harmony.

"Virtue and I have disagreed on many things in the past revolving The Minors." replies Trust.

"ENOUGH!" Shouts Honor as he holds Promise in his arms still, "YOU HAVE THE POWER TO HELP PROMISE AND MY CHILD, VIRTUE! DO IT! . . . please." Honor drops lower to the ground with Promise and begins sobbing.

"Honor, you have the ability to help them already. You don't need me." Replies Virtue in a calming voice.

"W-W-What?" asks Honor.

"Love can explain that later to you. What's important right now is that you realize that if you choose to help Promise, you are destroying the very reason Chance and Fate put you on this land. Moreso, Harmony - should you choose to let go of anything from your past, you will also be going against the very reason you exist. Finally, Trust - in order to find the inner peace you seek, you - "

"STOP IT!" Interupts Honor. "Now is NOT the time for this! Do what YOU were put here for and HELP US NOW!"

"I am helping you, Honor. You are just too stubborn to see it." Replies The Paradigm of Virtue. "It is imperative that you each listen to wha-- AHHHH!! NO!"

Virtue's words become lost in his screams of pain as he falls to his knees. "NO," he yells, "this... can't... be..." Upon the end of his words, Harmony runs to his aid.

Harmony: Virtue! What's wrong?!

Virtue: Ti..Time... he is attacking Wisdom and Spirit. They are unable to defend themselves since they-- a-are so weak already. We- - are bonded to eachother -- and thus, I- feel- their--- pain --- as well.

Harmony: There has to be something we can do!

Virtue: I must go back and fight them.

Trust: Them?

Virtue: Time --- i-i--s now leading-- the Counterparts. I must go... and fight... along side--- Wisdom... and--- Spirit. We-- will... be.. AHH!.. strong--er - - - - once we are... together.

Honor: WHAT ABOUT US!

Virtue: Harmony- - - you... AHHHH!!... must... find... the... sparks. Seek-- out... Burden. He.. has all-- the-- sp... AHHH!!!

Harmony: VIRTUE!

With Harmony's yell, The Paradigm of Virtue slowly stands up and begins glowing a blinding brightness once more. As the brightness fades away, the echoes of a battle fall into Harmony's ears. He hears the three Paradigms all let out a war cry and what seems to be the sound of Time screaming out in pain...

The three Forces and Promise's body all return to the area where they stood before and Love's body unfreezes. Honor gently puts Promise down and quickly gets up and grabs Love.

"VIRTUE SAID YOU KNOW HOW I CAN BRING PROMISE BACK! TELL ME NOW!" He yells.

"Virtue was here?" replies Love.

"Yes Love, and he told us you can tell us how to bring back Promise. How do we do it?" questions Harmony.

Just as Love is about to speak, Effort appears out of nowhere with the other Forces.

"What's going on?!" Yells out Strength.

"TELL ME!" Yells out Honor.

"It's more simple than you think, Honor, just as Promise had a Life Force, so do you. Simply place your Life Force into hers and she will come back to life." Replies Love.

"How do I do it?!" Let's out Honor in a hopeful tone.

"Just release your energy into her. The same way you did before into the skies - do it again but into her."

Just as Honor lets go of Love and begins to glow, Bliss appears out of nowhere with a warning tone:

"Honor NO! Giving her your Life Force would kill you! Just give her enough to live!"

By the end of Bliss' words, Love fades away with maniacal laughter. Bliss runs beside Honor and begins coaching him in how he can achieve this life-giving moment. As he does so, the other Forces all surround Harmony with joy and embrace him. Harmony quickly pushes them each away and watches as Honor begins slowly doing exactly what The Paradigm of Virtue said he shouldn't do. As Honor's glow gets stronger and all the Forces watch in awe, Harmony walks to Effort and asks him to take him away from the area. Effort bows his head, begins to glow an unnoticed orange, and vanishes with Harmony. They reappear in an unfamiliar part of the Mountain and Effort asks Harmony why he was just asked to do what he did.

"Honor did what I would have done had I been in his place I'm sure. I may have tried going about it differently, but ultimately, he had no other choice. Likewise, I need to find Burden." Replies Harmony.

"But why can't we all find him together?" asks Effort.

"Because the rest of you need to focus on getting to the top of Paradigm Mountain and mounting a resistance against Time."

"How are we supposed to do that?"

"Carefully."

"But what about you?"

"I'll meet you all there. With what we need in tow."

"How?"

A giant flash of Honor's aura flashes and surrounds the land. It quickly vanishes and both Effort and Harmony feel weak for a moment.

"That must have been Honor. Go check on him and the others, make sure they are okay." Says Harmony.

Effort agrees and transports away. Harmony begins walking as if he knows what direction he is headed. Moments later, Trust appears by his side, glowing white.

Trust: And you're going where?

Harmony: I'm going to do what Virtue told me to do.

Trust: And you're going alone?

Harmony: You'd be doing the same thing.

Trust: They're just going to follow you. The moment your aura begins glowing, Effort, Loyalty or Faith will be able to find you using their abilities. You know that.

Harmony: If they want to come, they will. I told Effort what I thought they should do. They can decide collectively what they think is best.

Trust: I don't see their decision being very unanimous though.

Harmony: And you? What are you going to do, Trust?

Trust: I'm here aren't I?

Harmony: That's good to hear.

As Trust and Harmony continue walking their conversation progresses to trying to decipher exactly what Virtue was about to say to Trust. Harmony clearly feels as if there is something missing in his mind and Trust, as usual, doesn't respond much.

Harmony: It just seems like nothing is going right.

Trust: ...

Harmony: I think that I may have failed being who I was supposed to be. I bring no unity with the others.

Trust: ...

Harmony: Something has to go right, doesn't it?

Suddenly, Trust looks forward as if a thought caught his mind and he begins to glow.

Trust: I need to go.

Harmony: Where?

With that, Trust speeds off and Harmony finds himself, once again, walking side by side no one, treading up a Mountain filled with injustices are peril, evil and misfortune, pain and suffering...

*****

A short time passes and a loud roar comes emanating from atop Paradigm Mountain. The sound wave is so powerful, it seems to travel through the land itself and beyond. Harmony, and all the other Forces who are still together all begin unwillingly glowing. A strange feeling comes over all of them and a sudden silence seems to plague the land. Each Force is paused in their tracks for just a moment as their glows slowly begin to fade back to their normal states. . .

An air of stillness covers the land as The Legend...

Continues...

______________________________

Harmony.

______________________________

Winds of Change

A shrouded mist surrounds two beings to a point where neither can even be seen as they calmly and eagerly talk about their plans...

"It's actually going to be easier than I thought."

"Don't get too confident. There's a lot of them. We've only just begun our plan and we have other powers that be to worry about."

"Yes - but I think we can use it to our advantage."

"We shall."

"I have a good feeling about this."

"I'd expect nothing less from you."

"What I don't understand is how you managed to make everything seem so real."

"There's a reason why I am who I am and you are who you are."

"Well it's only a matter of time before I become the powerful one who overtakes all of them."

"Hm. You waste your breath for no reason, Intuition. Go now and get his blood."

"Very well."

With that, Intuition waits and is all of a sudden transported back near the other Forces. As she walks through the shrubbery to get to them, she is greeted by Strength:

"Are you okay Intuition?"

"Why wouldn't I be, Strength?"

"Well, you've been gone for some time and you were supposed to gather wood for the fire tonight but you're coming back empty-handed..."

"Oh... I... couldn't find any."

"We're in the woods." Replies Strength in a confused tone.

Intuition replies hastily in an attempt to change the subject, "Everything that's happened has gotten to me. We still don't know where Harmony is, Honor gave himself to Promise completely and now she has all his power, and we're still no closer to finding these sparks."

"Harmony will cross paths with us again. The sparks - we will find. And as for Honor... He's still out there. He says he's happy with what he has. Promise simply holds all the power now. Honor chose to place his life-force into her. He chose to give himself to her. He chose to let her have everything he is and give up who he was. It was his choice and now he's not one of us anymore. You just have to accept that."

"I suppose that's a lot to swallow." Replies Intuition.

"For you?" Responds Strength as he walks away carrying firewood and smirking.

Hours pass and darkness falls over the land. Strength, Purity, Intution, Advantage, Effort, Loyalty, Destiny and Faith are all sitting around the camp-fire they set up and once again find themselves trying to strategize their next steps. As each one brings up their own plans, fights break out. Finally, they begin reaching one unanimous conclusion:

"It just doesn't make any sense for all of us to search for the same thing... ...all... together." States Destiny.

"We've been through this same thing over and over, Destiny. You always want to split up and we all always wind up together." Replies Strength.

"She does have a point Strength. This isn't about accomplishing one task anymore." Begins Purity, "We have to build up a resistance against Time; the Counterparts are clearly still out there waiting to strike; We need to find a set of sparks that are who-knows where, and we have to find Harmony again. We can't do all that if we're ALL always fighting and resting, fighting and resting. Some of us could be off searching for what we need while others fight. Don't you think that makes sense?"

"I agree," says Intuition, "We need to find Harmony especially. He's one of us, we can't just abandon him and assume he's ok."

"At least Trust is looking after him now." Remarks Faith.

"I wouldn't be so sure. We don't really know Trust and have no idea why he's been spying on us all this time." States Loyalty.

Purity replies: "We should find Harmony. I think that should be a priority. We need him too if we're going to accomplish all these other goals."

"Well, I suppose it's like you said, Purity, splitting up makes sense." Restates Intuition.

"I don't think Trust has bad intentions," starts Advantage, "he just has a mindset seperate than ours. We were all lucky enough to find eachother and go through all this together. He did it all alone. If he wanted to hurt Harmony, he would have already. He would have hurt Honor and Promise too if he had bad intentions."

Effort nods his head in agreement and adds, "He may not have had a way with words, but at least I know he was there helping Harmony throughout everything that was happening. He could have used his abilities to leave right away if he had wanted to but he chose not to. Ultimately, he chose to watch over Honor, Harmony and Promise. I refuse to believe he's got alternative reasons for being there."

"Alternative reasons? I doubt that. Only foes have alternative reasons. If you're a Force, you're on the side of good. I don't think it can be any other way." Remits Intuition.

"That's probably true. We know he's a Force. So then I suppose maybe Harmony is well off for now." Remarks Loyalty.

"Still... maybe it would be a good idea to split up into teams." Quickly replies Intuition.

"Then let's do it. We can make 2 teams." Says Destiny.

"I'd say 4 teams might be best. We can cover more ground that way." States Intuition.

"I can probably just sense him like I did last time and transport to him anyway." Yells out Effort in an angry tone as if to proclaim that no one has thought about him and his ability.

"Yes, but we need you here for now, Effort. You're in a committed group, you shouldn't be going off doing what you want, when you want." Replies Advantage. Effort looks at Advantage with a confused eye and shrugs off the remark.

"Even so, our main objective should be the sparks. So more ground coverage is necessary." Says Intuition with certainty.

"It's settled then. Let's split up. Advantage and Effort, Loyalty and Purity, Intution and Faith and Strength and Me. Those will be the teams. Each team has someone who can sense eachother so if need be, we can hopefully find a way to contact one another in a time of need. We can all agree that by the seventh sun, we should all meet at that cavern up on those rocks. We can check the progress we've made there and then decide the next meeting point." Says Destiny with a clear premeditated tone.

"How long have you had this all planned out, Destiny?" Asks Strength.

Destiny doesn't bother replying and all the Forces agree to partake in this plan come sunrise. The hours of the night begin to quickly pass as each Force falls slowly into a deeper and deeper sleep.

. . .

. . . .

. . . . .

Morning breaks and the Forces all wake up one by one. Purity is the last to rise and finds the others ready to take journey. Each team goes off in a seperate direction. Hours pass and quite some distance is placed in between each team. Faith finds herself confused and in fear as she tells Intution of her insecurities.

"Let's face it," states Faith, "This probably isn't the best plan."

"I disagree Faith. It's a difficult one, but a good one."

"How can you be so sure?"

"How can you not be?"

"I just think we all gave up on eachother too easy. We've always been stronger because we were a team." States Faith in a pure tone.

"Well now we all have abilities that we've learned about ourselves. We're able to take care of ourselves better. That's worth something."

"I don't even understand these powers of mine to tell you the truth."

"Oh," Replies Intuition, "How so?"

"It's just... My power is to be able to transfer one's ability from one person to another but... I have no idea why I would even need that. What's the point?"

"It helped Harmony when we were in Luck and he wasn't." Proclaimed Intuition with a sudden glow in her eyes.

"I suppose but... it just seems like it doesn't have any purpose."

"I don't understand why you feel this way." Intuition pauses for a moment as she turns her back to Faith. "Maybe if I had your power I would be able to. I apologize Faith, I just can't seem to understand you without feeling what you feel."

"You're right. I suppose it comes with who I am. I noticed that's how I can make my powers really work. The more I want us to understand and work with one another, the more I'm capable of using my ability."

"Well, if I had your ability, Faith, I'm sure I'd understand a little better. It's a shame that I can't. What you're saying and feeling would make so much more sense. You and I would make for a better team. I'd understand how you work. But I just don't. I mean... How can I without your ability?"

"Well... I could..." Starts Faith.

"Could What?" Adds Intuition with a wishful gaze.

"I supposed I could... transfer my ability to you and once you saw what I meant... once you understood who I am... you could always just give it back to me."

"That could work." Says Intuition in an innocent tone.

"Then again, I'm not sure there's any point. I'm just not sure of anything." Replies Faith.

"That doesn't mean you shouldn't try to give me your power!" Hastily yells Intuition.

"I... Well... I... I suppose."

Intuition with a decieving smile on her face replies, "Then let's give it a shot!"

Faith, with a slight hesitation, begins to glow a light blue. "OK." she says as her aura embraces Intuition. Eagerly, she begins to take in Faith's ability and in a quick flash, Faith's surrounding light completely abandons her and circles only Intuition. Faith is now powerless as she watches Intuition glow in her aura.

"Do you feel it, Intuition? Do you feel my pain?" Asks Faith as she looks on in a fear of insecurity.

Intution defiantly looks at Faith and yells out:

"Oh Faith. Always a believer in things that don't exist. Always quick to go against your very self and give up. That's why you're a sweet fool, Faith. You look for reasons to give up. You look for things to go wrong. And in doing so, all you do is make things worse for yourself. So worry not, my friend. For now that I hold your power, you haven't a need to even exist. You've turned yourself empty, Faith. Empty. HAHAHA!"

Intuition's words strike fear in the heart of Faith as she realizes she put too much faith in Intuition. Her heart begins pounding with a weight she had never before felt as she stood there, completely powerless and unable to defend herself against what had clearly been a dangerous friend all along.

"Tremble, Faith, Tremble. Tremble in fear. Tremble knowing that you've made a mistake that will lead to the end of your friends. Tremble knowing how easy you made it for me." As Intuition speaks, her glow becomes stronger and begins combining with her original aura. The aura surrounds her as if to form a protective shield as she eminates a light that weakens Faith and has her fall to the ground. "VIRTUE! WHERE ARE YOU?! I HAVE COMPLETED THE FIRST PART OF MY TASK!"

Faith sits shaking on the ground as before her, appears The Paradigm of Virtue.

"Take her away from here, Virtue. Take her where she can't find the other Forces and have her wait there so that she can witness the end of everything she knows."

"You grow drunk with power, Intuition," responds The Paradigm of Virtue, "but not in mind. It would be a shame for you to forget that I am in charge and it is not in your best interest to command things from me."

As his words come to an end, Faith yells out a scream that is immediately silenced by Virtue disappearing and taking Faith with him. A maniacal laughter fills the area and Intuition stands still as she uses her new ability to sense another Force. She turns around and begins briskly walking to a new destination.

***

******

*********

"Effort, you can't just be transporting away whenever you sense something. I don't like it. It leaves us all unprotected. Don't you care about me?... About US?" Angrily states Advantage.

"Well... Yea." Replies Effort.

"Well then," Interupts Advantage, "You need to commit. I don't want to feel as if I'm fighting this alone again."

"But..."

"Come to think of it, you've caused so many issues for us."

"I have?" Asks Effort as he just barely gets a word in.

"I can't rely on you. Maybe it's best we not be on this team together." States Advantage with certainty as she begins walking away.

"NO! What?! Why?!"

"You just don't get it, do you? It's been how many moons now that we've been going through all this together and you just don't get it, do you?" Replies Advantage as she begins to walk away.

Effort quickly gives chase and grabs for Advantage as she nudges him away. "NO!" She yells out in anger. "Just leave me alone! I can't do any of this anymore!"

"Any of what? I have no idea what you're talking about?"

"EXACTLY!"

"OK, I'll get better then, I'll be better. I'll defend us all and keep you and the others as safe as I can. Am I right?" Says Effort in desperation and confusion.

"Just go away..."

"But..."

"GO AWAY!" Yells Advantage in anger as she begins to run into a wooded area of the forest.

Effort, not knowing what to do, begins to glow a weak orange and suddenly transports himself away.

As Advantage keeps running without any attention to where she is going, she stumbles and falls on a broken tree branch and bursts into tears. She starts to glow and begins fading away. Moments later, Intuition nears Advantage's line of sight and calls out to her.

"Advantage, are you okay?"

Advantage reappears and says, "How did you know I was here? Did you sense me?"

"NO!" Quickly replies Intuition, "I heard you yelling and crying so I started looking for you."

"Where's Faith?" Asks Advantage.

"She... we were attacked."

"What?! By who?!"

"Time. He just attacked us all of a sudden. We didn't even expect it. We tried to fight him off but it was useless. He was too strong for us so we had to both run. We lost track of eachother after a while. For all I know, Time took her away." Replies Intuition.

"Are you okay?!"

"A bit scratched up but ok for the most part. What are you doing on the ground like that? And why were you yelling?"

"I just... Effort and I had a fight. I... I just ran. I can't take it anymore, Intuition." Advantage breaks down and cries once again as she explains why she felt so alone and confused. "It's been so long and it just feels like we haven't gotten anywhere. We're right where we were when we first started."

"I understand Advantage, I understand. You just need to breathe. Let it all out." replies Intuition as she sits down next to Advantage and embraces her as if to show a comforting care. As Advantage continues to tearfully talk about her problems, Intuition begins to slowly spread Faith's light blue aura around her. Advantage, being so deep into her current state of disarray, pays no mind to Intuition's actions and within the wind's thoughtful breeze, is completely surrounded in Intuition's trap.

"What? What's going on? Intuition what are you doing?! STOP!" . . .

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

"What was I supposed to do? What was I supposed to say?" Asks Effort.

"I don't know." Responds Harmony as he keeps walking forward, "but we have far too many things to worry about. Let it go for now."

"I can't." States Effort as he steadily follows Harmony on his seemingly directionless path. "I'm supposed to be there following through with the plan. She just suddenly started saying these things. It was so odd. I don't get why she suddenly started acting that way."

All of a sudden, Trust stops in front of Harmony and Effort and they pause in mid-conversation. Trust adds, "Burden was there."

"What?" ASks Harmony, "Where? And who is Burden?"

"Burden is a Minor. He's all about making others feel the struggles they carry ten-fold if not a hundred-fold. He doesn't particularly care about who he troubles as long as he feels it will teach them the lesson of balance." States Trust.

"Where was he?" Asks Effort.

"With Advantage."

"How do you know?" Asks Harmony.

"It's my job to watch over all the Minors, if I sense them in an area, I go find them."

"There's too many things I don't understand about you, Trust." Says Harmony.

"shut up." Replies Trust.

Suddenly, Effort begins to glow a bright orange. "She's in trouble!" He says.

"Go." Says Harmony. With those words, Effort transports back to Advantage.

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

"Advantage, Advantage, Advantage. Now I'll take your power just as I took Faith's. Weakling." Yells out Intuition.

Suddenly Burden appears as if out of nowhere and speaks:

"You weaken them, Intuition. You weaken them and then attack. They protect you as one of their own and you attack behind their backs when they don't even so much as expect it. They're weak because they don't think an ally could attack and that's exactly when you attack."

"And you are?" Replies Intuition.

"Burden. As if you really wanted to know."

"At least now I'll know the name of the Minor whose power I'm about to take. Just as soon as I rid this one of her misery..."

"On the contrary, Intuition, I'll tend to that. She's frozen in fear and carrying so much weight on her shoulders that she's trapped in your little aura at the moment. Well, I'll even the odds for you. You think you're so tough that you can just take powers as you wish, that you can just cast your eye on an aura and absorb it when they can't so much as defend themselves? Well Intuition, I felt you get away with it once. I felt you remove Faith's troubles as you took her very ability. I knew what you did. Weakening them is my job though, mine! And I've had too much taken from my grasp to let you come here and try to be better than me at my own task. Thus Intuition, you're big enough to take the power of someone who is too weak to defend herself, let's see how you can handle someone who cannot be weakened!" With his words, Burden unleashes a blast of dark gray light onto Advantage. It completely removes Intuition's aura-grasp on her and she becomes completely shrowded in a mist of gray light. As Intuition backs away in fear, Effort appears out of nowhere.

"EFFORT - He's hurting Advantage! Get him!" Yells out Intuition.

Effort quickly turns his attention to Burden who is focused on Advantage. He disappears and reappears behind Burden, puts his arm around his neck and pulls him down while choking him. Intuition, grasping the opportunity runs toward Burden and delivers a thrusted punch of pure anger right into his stomach as he lets out a yelp of pure pain. Effort releases his hold on the misunderstood Minor and jumps up into the air only to dive right down onto his already fallen body to deliver a final blow that knocks Burden unconscious.

"Are you ok?" Asks Effort to Intuition.

"I'm fin--"

Before she could finish her answer, Effort turns to Advantage and notices she is still shrouded in a gray light. During the battle though, the mist hardened and encased Advantage in an seemingly impenetrable shell. Effort's attempts at punching through were useless as he screamed for help.

"GO GET HARMONY!" Yells out Intuition in an attempt to get rid of Effort, "HE CAN HEAL HER!"

"RIGHT!" Responds Effort as he vanishes.

Intuition, knowing she has little time to do anything begins calling out for Virtue:

"VIRTUE! VIRTUE! I NEED YOUR HELP, HURRY!"

Suddenly, Intuition and the encased Advantage are tranported to some other realm of light. In front of them stands The Paradigm of Virtue:

"Did I not tell you that you were becomming too proud, Intuition. All you have managed to gain thusfar is buy a mere power."

Intuition: "Yes but I've accomplished the first part of the plan quickly and easily. There was no way I could have expected that Minor, Burden."

Virtue: "And what do you expect of me then, Intuition? You know I cannot destroy the Forces - otherwise I would not have needed to bring you here."

Intuition: "Well then get rid of her. Move her away. She's trapped in that shell, the other Forces won't be able to sense her. And even if they did, that would mean I could too."

Virtue: "Very well, but do NOT fail me again. You have more than enough resources to accomplish our plans - even WITH Minor interferences. This once, I will transport her away, but if you fail again, you will be the one to be tranported."

With those words, Virtue moves his hands and transports Advantage away."

Virtue: "There. She is now behind Integrity's stone body. Quite fitting seeing as both of them have been trapped by their own weaknesses. The Forces are quite far from there and won't be heading back anytime soon. I have placed Faith's body there as well. Should the Forces return there, you will be able to sense them and control Faith's body from afar."

Intuition: "What? How?!"

Virtue: "There is much you still do not understand about your auras. To have one's power is to have their aura and to have their aura is to control their bodies. You can see and hear through the body of any aura you control. But be weary, for attempting to control more than one aura at once can just as easily destroy your own. You are not a Paradigm, Intuition, you are a mere Force. Remember that."

Intuition: "Oh I will, Virtue, I will. And for now, I have no need to control Faith's body. Let her rest near Advantage and Integrity for now. She'll make a good alarm for me should anything happen to them."

With the end of her words, Virtue disappears and Intuition is back to the same spot in the forest where Effort had left her. She quickly runs away so as not to be caught by Effort and Harmony upon their return.

Moments later, Effort, Harmony and Trust appear from thin air. Trust, immediately noticing Burden laying on the ground unconscious, runs to his side.

"They must have managed to beat him and get away!" Expresses Effort. "Trust, what are you doing? He was attacking Advantage and Intuition."

"He's badly hurt. We need to help him." States Trust, ignoring Effort's statements.

"Why should we help him?! You're not listening to me!" Yells Effort.

"Burden isn't evil. We need to help him." Explains Trust.

Harmony moves towards Burden and begins to shine his blue aura around him. He stays focused but is shocked to see his healing ability isn't working on the wounded Minor. "What?" He asks, as he attempts to focus even harder. "Why isn't it working?"

"Burden can't be healed by a Force or a Minor." Begins Trust. "It is part of who he is. He has been plagued to show the world that despite the problems anyone may hold, there is always the need to continue forward. It isn't possible to heal him because his ability is that of a healer. He teaches those he meets how to push through their problems, not how to find easy fixes."

"But he was attacking Advantage and Intuition. I saw it!" Yells our Effort.

"Burden is not the type to attack without first being provoked. His methods may seem harsh, but he has never chosen to be an evil Minor." Responds Trust.

With those words, Harmony walks towards Burden, leans downward and lifts him over his shoulders. "There's a ravine over there, let's go get him cleaned up for now." Harmony and Trust begin to walk towards the visible stream of nearby water.

"NO!" Yells our Effort. "I saw him attacking Advantage and Intuition! And they're not even here anymore. They must have escaped! Why else would Burden be hurt like that and they not be here! Leave him, we have to find Advantage!"

"Then go." Responds Trust as he continues to walk away. Effort, upset and lost begins calling out for Advantage and Intuition. He begins glowing orange and disappearing and reappearing all over the area. His determination to find the two missing Forces is only matched by the pain he feels for having left Advantage in the first place. Blaming himself, he searches deeper and deeper into the forest.

Harmony, still carrying Burden over his shoulders, says, "You know, you could help me carry him instead of making me do this alone."

"Toughen up." Responds Trust.

"It's not like he's the lightest of all the Minors." Responds Harmony.

"Shut up." Says Trust.

The two Forces make it to the ravine and begin cleaning Burden's wounds. He is still unconscious and barely breathing.

A wave of silence fills the air as even the water seems to stop being pushed by the light breeze. The ground begins to vibrate lightly as Harmony and Trust stop mid-movement. A sudden scream breaks the tension but it's echo is so continuous that there is no way of knowing where it came from. As abruptly as it began, the scream is hushed and an eerie feeling of despair.

"Something isn't right." Quietly murmurs Trust.

"Where did that scream come from?" Asks Harmony.

Suddenly, a bright beam of light emerges from the water. It seems to give off a feeling of safety as it comes closer to Harmony and Trust. The light begins to remove it's focus from a being who is standing there, floating in the sky, surrounded by the natural light. The being speaks:

"Harmony - Beware. The Counterparts have all joined with Time and are all working towards what they think is the same goal. To erradicate all The Forces from existence. Cowardice, Delusion and Despair are nearby. They are hunting for you."

"Who - are -" Begins Harmony.

"My name," Interupts the being, "is Guidance. I am here to protect you and help you. As I always have."

"But... what do you mean, 'as you always have,' I've never seen you before."

"I have always been around you. I have always been the one to show you the way. The moments your instincts carried you, the moments you simply knew what to do, that was I. My whispers have lead you. I become stronger the more you need me. I keep you from what harm I can and try to help you follow your path." Replies the voice in a caring tone.

"Why haven't you shown up before then?" Questions Trust.

Guidance: "I have. You just weren't aware of me. Things are in deeper turmoil now and you have more enemies around you than you realize."

Harmony: "What?! Who?!"

Guidance: "Though I am here to help you, I cannot say things that can change your path. You must grow and learn things on your own."

Harmony: "Then why warn me of the nearby Counterparts?"

Guidance: "You will need to battle them inevitably and though, at the moment, I cannot fight at your side, I can still keep you safe by warning you."

Harmony: "What do you mean, 'at the moment,' is there more you're not telling us?"

Guidance: "In due time, Harmony, in due time. For now, prepare yourself, for the Counterparts are close."

The light surrounding Guidance begins to cover her as she fades away into the water. A warm breeze blows by almost as if it is embracing Harmony. He closes his eyes and smiles, realizing that he need not worry that Guidance was deceiving him. Upon opening his eyes, his smile quickly dissipates as he sees Trust standing in front of him staring at him and rolling his eyes.

"Are you done enjoying this little touching moment?" Asks Trust.

Harmony looks at Trust with disdain and quickly snaps back into reality. "So what do we do about Cowardice, Delusion and Despair?"

"We can't take them on alone AND defend Burden, that's for sure." Replies Trust.

"They won't go for him. You heard what Guidance said. They want me."

"Still, we can't let him get more hurt and trampled on."

"Go find Effort, he should still be nearby. He couldn't have gone too far."

"His ability is to transport - he COULD have gone too far." Replies Trust with a disgruntled tone.

"Well do you have any better ideas?" Asks Harmony in anger.

Just then, Guidance's voice echoes out: "Loyalty and Purity"

Harmony looks at Trust in confusion. "Ok, I guess now we have a better idea. Let's ...find... Loyalty and Purity?" He says while looking up as if talking to the air itself.

"I'm guessing they're nearby..." Says Trust.

Just then another loud yell echoes through the trees as Trust begins to glow white and speeds off to find it's source. Harmony, begins to concentrate and glow blue as much as he can in an attempt to have Effort or any of the other Forces sense him. Suddenly and without notice, Harmony feels a thrust from behind him that pushes him directly into a branch on a nearby tree that stabs through him. He is pinned to the tree, gasping for air but still glowing bright blue. His blood is dripping everywhere as he screams in pain only to find Cowardice standing in front of him. Suddenly, Effort appears behind Cowardice and throws a punch directly at his head. Cowardice falls to the ground and Effort quickly runs to Harmony's aid. He pulls Harmony away from the branch and watches as his screams of pain penetrate his ears. Once off the tree branch, Effort loses his grip on Harmony and he falls to the ground gasping for air and grasping the gaping hole that he now finds on his mid-chest. Cowardice gets back up and lunges at Effort dropping them both to the ground. The two wrestle on the ground each trying to pin the other. Effort headbutts Cowardice as he bites Effort's arm in an attempt to get him to let go of his grip. A release from eachother has them both panting and struggling to get up as they each continue their battle.

Meanwhile, Harmony, still with his blue aura shining, manages to get a full breath and begins to focus on healing himself. The gaping wound starts to close as Harmony gets back up. "Good thing I was already using my power," he says to himself, "I don't think even Guidance could have brought me back from that one." A sudden gust of hard wind flows through the air almost as if intentionally smacking Harmony's face. "OK OK. Maybe." He says to no one once again. As he gathers his bearings, his aura diminishes to the point where it cannot be seen any longer. He looks at Effort and Cowardice fighting and runs to join in. In a defiant scream, Harmony jumps up in the air and lands on top of Cowardice's back causing him to once again, fall to the ground. Effort takes this opportunity to grab Cowardice and begin glowing. He and Cowardice disappear as Harmony falls to the ground from having lost the foe he was pinning down. Harmony stands up and looks around to find Effort walking out of the water slowly and with staggered breath.

Harmony: "Where's Cowardice?!"

Effort: "Hopefully drowning at the bottom of the ravine by now."

Harmony: "You transported him underwater?!"

Effort: "What would you have rather I'd done?"

Just then, Cowardice is heard gasping for air as he comes almost exploding out of the water. A blast of blinding light flashes and he is suddenly vanished. The water makes waves at what appears to be Cowardice swimming but this fact goes unnoticed by the two Forces who are now recouping.

Effort: "Do you think he took Advantage?"

Harmony: "I think we need to get ready for another attack. Cowardice got away and Despair and Delusion are still nearby."

Effort: "How do you know that? I didn't see them anywhere nearby before."

Harmony: "Just believe me. We're not out of the woods yet..."

As Harmony uttered those words another scream echoed in the air. Effort, filled with anxiety over what was going on, begins feeling a sense of loss and despair as he drops his head and begins tearing up. In an attempt to keep Effort focused, Harmony tells Effort that it best they go find Trust, Loyalty and Purity and so Effort raises his head, reveals his aura, and they both disappear.

______________________________

In Times of Fear, In Times of Pain, In Times of Hurt, and In Times of Loss, one must maintain the LOYALTY of TRUST and seek the GUIDANCE of those who truly care. They are the ones who Vanquish the Fear, Conquer the Pain, Abolish the Hurt, and Engulf the Loss that you cannot overthrow on your own.

The Legend.

______________________________

Questionable Alliances

"I just don't see what that has to do with anything." States Loyalty to Purity in a clearly intensifying tone.

"How not? Actually, I can see why you can't make sense of what I'm trying to say." Replies Purity with a trying voice.

"Then try explaining it to me again."

"It's simple," Starts Purity, "the bottom line is that we need a leader. Simply put, Faith, Intuition and you are too new to this to be deemed leaders. Advantage and Destiny are too stuck on other situations that apparently affect the way they react in battle and Trust is always doing other things."

"So basically that leaves Harmony, strength, Effort or you."

"Yes."

"Figures."

"How are you so bent out of shape about this?"

"I just don't think you are being rational about any of this. Why do we even need a leader?" Asks Loyalty. "We all work just fine together."

"Because we haven't gotten anywhere in all this time. Look at what happened with Honor! I would never let that happen to me. I have goals and things that need to be done and I refuse to let anyone or anything get in my way." Replies Purity.

"Where is this new-found attitude even coming from?"

"It isn't a new-found attitude. I'm just doing what needs to be done."

As Purity and Loyalty continue walking through the woods and politely arguing their difference of opinions, they come across a large fallen tree-log. Purity quickly climbs it with no regard for Loyalty. Once on the other side, he hesitates for a moment and calls out, "Are you coming or what?"

Loyalty, in an annoyed state replies, "You could help you know."

"Help what? I don't control your feet."

As Loyalty finally makes it down the other side of the log, she looks at Purity in anger and yells out, "How can you expect to nominate yourself as a leader if you don't so much as take care of those you lead?!"

"I never nominated myself! And even if I was a leader, I would not be the one to carry everyone across every muddy path! That wouldn't be a good leader, that would just be a caretaker." Replies Purity. "There's a ravine right over there, let's go wash our faces and take a break."

With that, the two Forces walk silently together to the ravine. Each is thinking about what the next thing to say to one another should be. Shortly after both rinse their faces and take a few moments to themselves at the water's side, the two once again turn to eachother.

"I just don't think we see eye to eye anymore."

"I agree. Let's face it, we don't make a good team."

"We can try to work together more but we keep fighting."

"We should just go seperate ways for now. It might be best. Let's regroup with the others and part from eachother from there."

As both sighed with a sense of sadness and fear, they embrace and agree they've both made a decision for the overall greater good.

Suddenly a scream is let out and the two Forces quickly turn their attention towards where it came from.

"What was that?!" Yells out Loyalty.

"I don't know but we should go see. It sounded like whoever screamed needs help." Responds Purity.

As Purity and Loyalty start to run toward where they heard the scream, Trust appears in front of them and stops them.

"Trust! What are you doing here?" Asks Purity.

"The same thing you're about to do." Replies Trust.

Just then, Effort and Harmony transport in front of the three Forces.

"Hi!" Calls out Effort.

Trust, while rolling his eyes, begins walking away, "Let's go."

The five Forces carefully walk further into the woods searching for the source of the scream. Minutes later, they spot 3 beings standing off in a nearby clearing. All three are playfully laughing and none of them seem to be in any danger.

"Come on! It's your turn!" Yells out one of the beings as she tugs the arms of the other two. "Let's go!"

Two begin running away from the one as she attempts to catch them.

"Are... they in trouble?" Asks Loyalty to no one.

"They seem happy. I don't get it." Replies Effort.

"I'M COMING AFTER YOU!!! HA HA HA!!" Yells out the chasing entity.

Purity, being awe-struck by the being giving chase immediately runs towards her with a wonderous smile on his face.

"PURITY! Where are you going?!" Yells out Loyalty.

"Hm... Another one..." Quietly states Trust to himself.

"Hey! Hey! What's your name?!" Jovially asks Purity to the three beings but mostly guided towards one in particular.

The three beings all stop their game and turn to Purity. Fear doesn't strike any of them as they gather to respond and greet the joyous stranger.

"Hi! I'm known as the Minor, Confidence." Answers the first of the three. "And these are my good friends," She continues as she goes behind each Minor she is introducing and almost embraces them, "Freedom and Courage."

"Really?" Says Harmony as he still stands afar with Effort, Loyalty and Trust watching Purity and the newly found Minors. "Confidence, Freedom, and... Courage." He states in a voice of disbelief.

"Do you think Advantage is hurt? I still can't sense her." Says Effort as if not even noticing anything happening.

"Well, I guess we should go over and introduce ourselves." Mutters Loyalty.

Harmony and Effort follow Loyalty as she begins walking towards the others. Effort keeps his head low and seems to be quite pensive, once again, not even caring for what is going on around him. Trust stays behind but no one notices. As the Forces come closer to the playful group, they notice Purity's lack of care for anyone else other than Confidence.

"Hello. I am Loyalty."

"Hello Loyalty, I am Confidence and this is Freedom and Courage."

Effort stays quiet.

"Oh, this is Harmony." Says Purity to Confidence only.

"We... have to go now." States Freedom to the others in regards to himself and Courage.

"What? Why?!" Sadly responds Confidence.

"We... need... to gather wood and warm ourselves for the night." Replies Courage.

"Really?" Says Harmony in a sarcastic tone.

"Please don't leave." Says Confidence to the two seemingly close Minors.

"We shall meet again, Forces." Nods Freedom as he indiscreetly taps Courage and they both begin to walk away.

Confidence, with tears forming in her eyes, turns around and quickly runs away but stops only a few feet ahead. She drops to the ground and bursts into tears. Purity runs to her side without any hesitation leaving Loyalty and Harmony to watch from a distance and Effort to completely not care.

As Courage and Freedom walk out of sight, they spot Trust who is eyeing them from afar. All three let out a smile to one another until the point where Trust could no longer see them.

"Love." Says Trust to no one. A brief pause of silence is broken as Trust repeats, "Love." Another pause, "Don't make me have to drag you out into the open, Love. Where are you?"

"I don't understand what good it is to be invisible when others can always find you." States the Minor, Love, as he appears out of nowhere.

"What are you doing, Love?" Asks Trust in a demeaning tone.

"Nothing at all."

"Why are you doing this, Love?"

"Doing what? I am just being me. Spreading my self to the world - or rather - to your world now." Replies Love in an accusatory voice.

"Where's Bliss? I thought he was supposed to keep you in check. That was the agreement."

"Bliss? Really? You think that... rotund... pale excuse for a Minor can hold me back?"

"Love - I won't ask you again."

"Oh he's fine. I told him that I had seen the 'error of my ways' and that I needed some time to myself. That fool believed me and told me he would meet me near Honor and Promise."

"Then that's where you should be, Love."

"Oh come now, it's much more fun here! Look at everything going on! Effort is struck for fear of his love as Purity is simply... lovestruck, Harmony is still wandering aimlessly as Loyalty now wonders who to take aim at... and you want me to be in Boringland with Bliss? He's probably petting berries as we speak. This is clearly better."

"You shouldn't be doing any of this, Love. The Forces all need to be ready for what's to come. You can't interfere with them like this."

"Interfere? That's what you think I'm doing? If anything I'm helping you, Trust. I'm helping all of you. You're just too stuck against who I am to see that. Don't you get it? I'm the only one that's truly helping these so-called 'Forces' strengthen their bonds."

"YOU'RE PART OF THE REASON WHY THEY'RE NOT EVEN TOGETHER RIGHT NOW!" Yells out Trust in anger.

"Oh open you're eyes, Trust! The reason they're not together is because they don't even understand that they should be together! And you're one to talk! Don't act like you're doing any different. Pick a side and commit to it already. Are you the sole protector of us Minors or are you a Force?"

"You're the fool to even think such a thing, Love. Had it not been for me, you'd be burned in a pit of lava by now. Or have you forgotten?"

"I've yet to forget, Trust. But you can't hold that over me forever. Eventually, they'll find out what deals you've struck and the more you keep it silent, the worse off you'll be for it in the end."

"I fight for the greater good, Love. I am not like you. I do not go where the wind takes me. My allegiances are set and I offer them without compromise."

"You say that now. But when put between choosing yourself or your 'allegiances' - do you really think you'll sacrifice yourself?"

"Get out of here, Love, before I run you off a cliff."

"Now then, Trust. Don't be so cruel. I'm the only one who can help you - even if you don't understand that I am. ... Regardless, I believe it's time for me to go catch my next performance... I wonder what excitement is going on with my first project... Until we meet again, Trust..." With those words, Love vanishes into thin air once again as Trust sits down on a nearby rock to contemplate his recent conversation. As he ponders, he looks up to see Purity still consoling Confidence as Harmony, Effort and Loyalty stand to the side.

.....

"...and why can't I sense Intuition either?" Asks Effort to no one. "She might know where Advantage is."

"How long is Purity going to waste time? We need to keep going. We have things to do!" States Loyalty.

"Wait... you can't sense Intuition either?" Says Harmony to Effort.

"No." Effort replies.

"Try sensing the others. Try to find Destiny and Strength."

Effort bows his head and begins to concentrate. His aura surrounds him. "Yes! I can sense Destiny. Wow... I can REALLY sense Destiny." He says.

"Well, she's with Strength. What do you expect?" Replies Harmony.

"What is he doing over there?" Says Loyalty with frustration.

"Maybe it's time to regroup ourselves. We need to find Advantage and figure out why I can't sense the others." Says Effort to Harmony.

"I agree. ... Purity, we have to go!" Harmony yells out.

Purity, hearing Harmony's words, mumbles something to Confidence. With her nod, he releases his caring embrace of her and gests up to address the other Forces.

Purity: "I'm staying here."

Harmony: "Why?"

Purity: "Confidence needs me."

Loyalty: "She's a Minor, let Trust worry about her if she really needs help."

Purity: "I want to stay here with her. She needs me and I think I need her."

Loyalty: "We just had a conversation about this, Purity. I thought a leader doesn't let anything interfere with the bigger picture."

Purity: "Exactly."

Effort: "Well that was fast."

Loyalty: "What about her other two friends?"

Purity: "Didn't you see how they left her?"

Harmony: "Effort, let's find Trust and then go. There's no changing his mind."

Effort leans his head back and begins to focus. His aura wraps around Harmony and Loyalty and the three transport to Trust. Purity, in the background helps Confidence up and the two wander off into the woods.

Trust: "You needed to transport to me?"

Harmony: "How we were supposed to know you were still here?"

Effort: "I knew."

Trust, rolling his eyes once again, listens as Harmony starts to explain their new plan to go find Destiny and Strength. As Harmony mentions that Purity wasn't going with them, Trust interrupts him and explains he's already heard such stories and doesn't want to hear it again. After the conversation, the four Forces all agree to transport to Destiny and Strength. Effort begins to concentrate his aura to surround them all.

*****

*******

*********

Strength: "Are you really going to keep giving me the silent treatment?"

Destiny: ...

Strength: "You know you want to talk to me."

Destiny: ...

Strength: "You made the teams, Destiny. It's not a random coincidence that we're in the same one."

Destiny: ... ...

Strength: "Fine then, I'll just talk. You can listen... for once."

Destiny: ...

Strength: "I don't really blame you for having picked me as your partner. I think Intuition got a little flustered though. Faith definitely did too. Come to think of it, Loyalty didn't seem all too thrilled about being stuck with Purity either. A few moons back, when we were all sleeping in the same cave, Advantage and I woke up in the middle of the night. We talked for a little bit. It was almost as if we clicked really well. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea for you to pick me as your partner. You may have made a lot of our group a bit unsettled for it."

Destiny: "...You are such an idiot."

Strength: "She speaks!"

Destiny: ...

Strength: "Face it Destiny, I can always break you..."

As Strength takes a breath to continue his next thought, Destiny, while being one step ahead of him, turns around and punches him in the face. The hit was strong enough to send Strength backwards and trip on his own two feet.

Destiny: "There. Now no one needs to feel unsettled for anything anymore."

Strength, in a slight shock as he feels his bloody lip, gives out a big grin to Destiny and says, "You can't resist touching me, can you?"

Destiny, in a fit of annoyance turns away from Strength and keeps walking. Strength quickly gets up and follows. Moments later, the other Forces all appear.

Destiny: "Harmony! What happened?"

The Forces all seeing Strength's battered face all question if there was a recent battle.

Harmony: "Were you two attacked too?"

Destiny: "No."

Effort to Strength: "Pushed it too far?"

Strength in reply: "One of us had to talk."

As Harmony explains their recent events to the two newly joined Forces, a breeze begins to blow by. At first, none of the Forces take note of it. Eventually, the breeze turns to a gust that seems to circle them all as it gets stronger and stronger.

"What's going on?!" Yells out Loyalty.

The now brazen wind envelopes all the Forces and creates an impenetrable wall. Within the windy chasm there is an air of calm yet near the borders a turbulent gale can be heard. It is clearly not prudent for any of the Forces to try to make an attempt at passing through.

"You may relax, Forces. I am not here to cause you harm. ...for now." States a mysterious voice as she emerges from a smoke that came from nowhere. Before the Forces stood the Counterpart, Serenity. A light veil of mist surrounds her almost as if it is forming a protective shield. The Forces all prepare to attack.

"You picked a good time to come fight us, Serenity, we all could use a good battle right about now." Defiantly yells out Loyalty.

"She knows she's too outnumbered to fight us all alone. She wants something else." States Destiny.

"What do you want then Serenity?" Yells out Strength.

Serenity: "My how much you've all changed, Forces. I remember back many moons ago when my all I wanted to do was destroy Need and bring the world to a calmer state. One that didn't include any of these creatures here on Paradigm Mountain."

Trust: "You mean like yourself?"

Serenity: "You're one of the worst pests of all, Trust. Defending those pitiful Minors. How could you?"

Harmony: "Last time Serenity - What do you want?"

Serenity: "At the moment I seek an allegiance of sorts."

Loyalty: "HA!"

Serenity: "It seems we both have a few common enemies at the moment. I for one am not the type to let myself be trampled by the onslaught that is to ensure. I'd much rather ally myself with the only group that seems to want almost the same thing I do."

Loyalty: "And that would be?"

Serenity: "Erradication of course. While I prefer to be rid of all insolence, you Forces simply want to be rid of Time and the other Counterparts. Not to mention all the other evil that seems to keep growing stronger and stronger. So, for the moment, we want the same thing and thus we can ally."

Trust: "And why should we trust you?"

Serenity: "Oh I'm not asking for your confidence in me. I am merely here to see to it that you all come together to attack our enemies before they are too strong to attack."

Harmony: "And how do you propose we do this then?"

Serenity: "Simple. I give you the information you need to find the Counterparts and Time and you all formulate a little plan or do whatever it is you Forces think is the right thing to do and attack."

Strength: "But why ally with us? Time and the other Counterparts want us gone just as easily as we want them gone."

Serenity: "Yes, but as Time and the Counterparts lurk in the shadows, they grow stronger. As each attack those putred Minors and feed off their abilities, they grow more and more powerful. Eventually, they will have the ability to create new life-forces and there will be no solace in sight. I'd much rather you all stop them from becoming Legends so that their plans cannot succeed."

Harmony: "And how do you propose we stop Time? You know we could barely hold our own in a battle with him. He is close to defeating the Paradigms and their powers far surpass any of ours."

Serenity: "Defeating the Paradigms? Hm. Interesting. I have in fact witnessed Time's power. I watched as he brought even Destruction to his knees. There was a phase when Destruction was a true ally with which I wished to side but unfortunately, Time saw to his limit and forced him to join his ranks. As we all did. Now we all take orders from him, we follow you Forces, gathering what we need, biding each moment and waiting for the battle that Time has promised us to destroy you all. Yet with all this waiting, new plans emerged. Once Time realized that if he grew strong enough, he could surpass the abilities of even the Paradigms, he sought out to grow. Little by little he is getting more and more powerful. He has tried to create new life-forces but has yet to fully manifest them. Soon though, soon he will bring more annoyances into this land and the quiet will be gone. The silent mornings, the blissful nights - none of it will exist anymore. He wants to shape the world in his image, Forces. And he will do so by filling it with more and more of his creations. None of us can let that happen."

Strength: "Are you the only one of the Counterparts that feels this way?"

Serenity: "I am the only Counterpart that understands the true beauty of inexistence. The others look to bring anguish to all. They think Time will give them more beings to torture and so they follow him and listen to his every command. They are fools and will ultimately see that even they, should not have trusted Time."

Destiny: "So tell us what you think we need to know."

Serenity: "First, you must do a favor for me, then I will tell you how you can defeat Time."

Strength: "Wait. I thought we already were doing you a favor. Aren't you trying to get rid of Time and The Counterparts and weren't we going to help make that happen?"

Serenity: "Yes, but I cannot tell you how to become powerful enough to defeat him without the security of knowing you will not be able to vanquish me."

Strength: "What?"

Loyalty: "You want us to help make you strong enough to not be defeated by whatever will be strong enough to destroy Time?"

Effort: "What?"

Serenity: "No. I do not ask to become powerful. I simply seek to be able to enter another realm during your battle with Time. That way I need not be involved as you all destroy silence."

Destiny: "Why not just enter the realm and stay there forever then since you claim that all you want is to be alone and at peace?"

Serenity: "You've yet to figure out how these other realms work, haven't you? You've traveled into the Realm of The Mind, you've been to The Realm of The Paradigms and you've even encountered The Realm of Luck and yet you haven't understood that each realm can only manifest and stay active so long as the life-force of the creator of the realm is able to focus and will it?"

Strength: "What?"

Trust: "She's saying she doesn't have a realm to enter because she isn't a Force, Paradigm or higher being."

Serenity: "Yes."

Effort: "We each have realms?"

Trust: "We each have the ability to manifest realms but we, as Forces, are too weak to sustain them for long if at all."

Harmony: "That must be why Thought was able to transport all of us to The Realm of The Mind but was never able to keep us in it for long. His powers grew as he tried to corrupt our minds and eventually he managed to discover this ability."

Destiny: "And how exactly are we supposed to give you the ability to enter a realm? None of us have any idea how to even enter one much less let you enter one."

Serenity: "Counterparts can enter and exit the realm of a Force as often as they would like. Unfortunately, I am Need's Counterpart and he is no longer with you to open the realm. His life-force however, still is."

Harmony: "Where?"

Strength: "What? We're already searching for Fate and Chance's sparks - we can't accept having to find Need's life-thing too."

Serenity: "Why search for Fate and Chance's sparks? It isn't as if they're hidden."

Effort, Destiny, Harmony, Trust, Loyalty, and Strength: "WHAT?!"

Serenity: "It looks like I've even more valuable information for you, Forces. Go get me Need's life-force and I will tell you everything you need to know."

Destiny: "Where is it?"

Harmony: "And why can't you get it?"

Trust: "Forces and Counterparts can't make use of eachother's life-forces. Otherwise the balance between them falls and they would both cease to exist."

Harmony: "Fitting."

Strength: "You know this because?"

Serenity: "Irrelevant. Now tell me Forces, do you agree to the terms of my proposal?"

Destiny: "Where is Need's life-force?"

Serenity: "Any life-force removed from it's host body can only remain in the same area in which it was separated."

Strength: "So we have to go all the way back there? I don't even know where that was anymore with the amount of times we've been transported from place to place."

Effort: "I'd transport us but I wasn't there during that time."

Destiny: "We need time to decide whether or not to agree to this Serenity."

Serenity: "Very well Forces, I will return once the moon has finished its cycle."

With her words, a shroud of fog surrounds Serenity and she vanishes. The winds surrounding the Forces dissipates and they are once again in the woods where they stood before.

Strength: "So are we doing this or not?"

Effort: "We still need to find Advantage and the others."

Destiny: "Doing this can give us the edge we need to finally end all this."

Trust: "Or it could just be a trap waiting for us."

Loyalty: "What about Purity, are we supposed to let him pull an Honor?"

Harmony: "It looks like we won't be getting any rest tonight."

A sudden gust of wind seems to almost smack Harmony's face once again.

Harmony: "OK OK, maybe we should sleep on it."

Strength: "I think it's time we stopped searching for these 'sparks' and we went on the attack. Serenity knows something we don't, we need to figure out what that is and attack.

Effort: "How can you be so sure that she isn't leading us to Time himself? I say we find the others - they are more important than Serenity's need to be 'at peace.'"

Destiny: "The others are probably captured by now if none of us can even sense them. We need to go fight and get whatever leverage we can."

Harmony: "We don't even know where we're going."

Trust: "We can find out."

Destiny: "From who?"

Effort: "Knowledge!"

Strength: "Knowledge."

Effort: "Yes. He was the one that told me and Integrity everything we needed to know when we first joined this battle."

Loyalty: "Integrity?"

Trust: "Serenity is a Counterpart. She shouldn't be trusted."

Harmony: "I say we find the others before we jump into a battle unprepared."

Destiny: "We need every advantage we can get right now. Let's just go get this life-force from Serenity and get what we need from her."

Effort: "...Advantage..."

Loyalty: "I think we should fight. I agree with Destiny. We need to go on the attack."

Strength: "I said that."

Harmony: "Looks like we're torn amongst ourselves again."

Effort: "We could always just capture Serenity and make her tell us everything."

Trust: "She won't."

Harmony: "Guidance. ...GUIDANCE! .... GUIDANCE WE NEED YOUR HELP!"

Strength: "Who?"

Trust: "What makes you think she can help?"

Harmony: "You're right. She had said she isn't allowed to change the course of our futures."

Effort: "So how do we decide?"

As the Forces each continue to discuss their best course of action to take, the night grows darker and darker. Confusion and insecurity begin to cloud their judgements and none can form a reasonable conclusion or make a final decision. Hours pass until finally...

______________________________

To find the Honor within,
one must sacrifice the securities of silence
and have the Trust to simply let go.
______________________________

* * * * * * * * * *

Wondering what the Forces will do next?

Click Below to Cast Your Vote!

You Decide!

* * * * * * * * * *

Serenity Chosen

...a large explosion is heard in the distance along with a loud scream.

"What was that?!" Yells out Harmony.

"Faith! It's Faith! She must be with Advantage and Intuition!" Replies Effort as his aura glows bright. "Let's go!" Effort wraps his aura around all the Forces and concentrates as he transports them all to where he felt Faith's presence.

...

There, up ahead from where they stood was Intuition. On the ground and seeming more angered than hurt.

"Intuition! Where's Advantage?!" Asks Effort completely forgetting to question her own well-being.

"Are you hurt? What happened?!" Questions Loyalty as she runs to Intuition's side to help her up.

The Forces all crowd around Intuition as they wait for her to explain what happened. "I... We were attacked." She starts, "...Time attacked us!"

"You were attacked again?" Questions Destiny.

"Yes." Replies Intuition with conviction in her eyes.

"Where's Advantage? When I came back for both of you, neither of you were there. I haven't been able to sense any of you since then." Says Effort.

"Advantage was trapped in some sort of hardened gray cloud and was suddenly transported away. I've been trying to run from Time since then. I've been so scared." Replies Intuition.

"Effort sensed Faith here, where is she?" Questions Destiny.

"She... ...was here before. ...She's been turned evil. She was attacking me." Responds Intuition.

"Turned evil?" Says Strength.

"Yes, Time must have done something to her. She started attacking me all of a sudden. She didn't seem the same." Replies Intuition.

"Impossible." States Destiny.

"What exactly did Time do?" Asks Strength.

"STOP! I'm so scared. I wish this would all just end!" Yells out Intuition as she drops to her knees and covers her face as if to hold back tears. "Why can't everything just go back to normal?!"

Loyalty ducks down to her side and tries comforting her. "Don't worry Intuition, we all have eachother for now. Just breathe. We won't ask you any more questions for now. Relax. We need to catch you up on so many things. We can do that for now. Just stay focused."

Intuition nods her head in agreement and the Forces all begin telling her of the recent situations they've found themselves in. Intuition listens carefully to the what happened with Serenity and a hidden smirk comes to her bowed down face. She gets up and with defiance she says, "We HAVE TO find Advantage and Faith! They both need our help!"

"And how do you propose we do that, Intuition?" Asks Strength.

"Maybe Purity might be able to heal them. If Faith's judgement is being shrouded, maybe his ability can help. And if Advantage is paralyzed in some form of hard mist, maybe Harmony can try to heal her so she can move and break out." Replies Intuition.

"We should go get Purity then!" Says Loyalty.

"No. We still have to find those sparks. That's the most important task we need to accomplish. Effort and I can go find Purity, you should all continue up the mountain." Says Intuition.

"What about Serenity's offer?" Questions Effort to everyone.

"Trust, can you use your speed to go covertly find out where exactly Need's spark is?" Asks Harmony.

Before Trust could answer, Intuition yells out, "NO! Why try and help a Counterpart?! We've been fighting them since the beginning and every encounter we've had with them has been nothing but a battle! Trust could get himself hurt and we could lose another ally!"

"She's getting a little bossy, isn't she?" Whispers Strength to Effort.

Effort, nods his head in agreement and says, "They all do."

Destiny having heard Effort and Strength's quick exchange, scoffs and walks away from their sides.

"I don't have a good feeling about this plan." Says Destiny.

"It's not like your last plan of splitting us all up worked so well, Destiny. We already tried it your way..." Responds Strength.

Destiny scoffs once more as no one else dares to cut the tension by intermitting with their thoughts.

"Serenity is going to come back to see what we decided. Are we really just not going to give her an answer?" Asks Loyalty.

"Well we don't actually owe her any allegiance. Besides, if she really wants to strike this deal with us, she can stand to wait until we get Purity, Faith and Advantage back." Replies Strength.

"It's settled then. Effort and I will go find Purity. Once we explain what happened and convince him to come with us, we'll go find Advantage and Faith. As soon as we know where they are, we'll come back to get the rest of you so we can all help them. Right now, the most important thing is that we are all together." Says Intuition.

"Then why are we splitting up?" Questions Strength.

"It's just momentary." Replies Intuition. "We can't afford to waste more time not searching for those sparks."

The group agrees to wait until daybreak and they all gather wood and set up a camp for the night. It's a task they've all become very accustomed to and thus, with barely any communication, they manage to get it done quickly. Within a short time, Loyalty, Effort, Strength and Intuition fall asleep. Destiny, Harmony, and Trust remain awake to talk about the day's events.

Destiny: "I just have a bad feeling about this plan. I don't know why but I do."

Harmony: "Feelings aren't your ability, Destiny. It's Intuition's."

Destiny: "This isn't coming from my ability."

Trust: "I still don't believe Burden attacked them without reason."

Harmony: "Burden?! What happened to Burden?! After the battle with the Counterparts and meeting Guidance, we lost complete track of him!"

Trust: "He's fine. He's not the type to stay and linger while other's fight."

Harmony: "How do you know these Minor's SO well, Trust?"

Trust: "I just do."

Harmony: "Can we know what happened that made you so close to apparently all of them?"

Trust: "No."

Destiny: "Strength was very quick to agree to Intuition's plan. I can't help but wonder why."

Harmony: "I think he was quick to disagree with your plan more than anything."

Trust: "We should sleep."

Destiny: "Agreed."

The three Forces all lay themselves to rest as each have their own thoughts flowing through their minds.

....

Day breaks and all the Forces rise one by one. A little time passes and Intuition and Effort are prepared to go find Purity and Confidence. Destiny, Harmony, Trust, Strength and Loyalty all begin treading up Paradigm Mountain once again. As Effort's aura surrounds Intution, a smirk comes across her face. They are transported near Purity and Confidence who happily playing in a small lake.

Effort: "Well they look happy."

Intuition: "They do. I feel terrible having to rip the two of them apart after they just found eachother."

Effort: "So we'll bring them both along."

Intuition: "But didn't you all say that Confidence is a Minor? We can't put her in danger like that."

Effort: "Well we need to find Advantage and Faith and we need Purity's help to do it."

Intuition: "Why don't we just go find them first then. Afterwards we can come back for Purity and get the others all at once. I don't see how Purity is going to be able to help us now."

Effort: "Speaking of which, how are we supposed to find Advantage and Faith anyway?"

Intuition: "Well, didn't you say Knowledge might be able to help us? Let's go find him first. We'll come back for Purity later."

Effort, still focused on Advantage's well-being, agrees to Intuition's proposal and begins focusing his aura. They immediately transport to the area where Knowledge first met Integrity and Effort and helped them retain the information they needed.

"He should be in that cave. Let's go." Says Effort.

"No. I'll go. You stay here. What if someone tries to attack us while we're in there. We could easily be ambushed." Replies Intuition.

"I can transport." Answers Effort in confusion.

"And if you get knocked unconscious? Come on Effort, stop being so absurd."

"Well... Shouldn't I go in since I know him already?"

"And if someone should attack me while I'm out here?! At least you can transport into the cave and get us to safety." Says Intuition in a condescending tone.

Effort, feeling embarassed and undermined, bows his head and agrees. Intuition starts into the cave with yet another smirk on her face. As she enters the cave, the fire in its center grows stronger.

Intuition: "Knowledge, show yourself!"

suddenly, a shroud of light reveals Knowledge sitting in front of the fire.

Knowledge: "You have no business here Intuition. You must leave immediately."

Intuition: "But I wish to know the things you know."

Knowledge: "I know why you are here and you will not be able to steal my ability."

Intuition: "Oh really?"

Intuition begins glowing in Faith's aura as she lunges toward Knowledge to attack him. She strikes his face with a punch so hard, he falls back and nearly loses consciousness.

"Not enough?" Says Intuition, "Ok then, a little more." She lunges once more towards Knowledge who is refusing to defend himself. Despite this fact, Intuition takes full advantage and continues attacking him but this time, with a large grin on her face. she throws yet another punch directly onto Knowledge's stomach and he drops to the ground and coughs out a bit of blood. "Now then, old fool," Says Intuition as she stands over Knowledge in defiance, "are you sure I won't get what I want?" Intuition empowers Faith's aura and begins surrounding Knowledge with it.

Knowledge: You have already lost Intuition. There was no need to fight back because you had lost once you began using what was not yours to use.

All of a sudden, Effort yells out to Intuition as he comes running into the cave.

Effort: "Intuition! I just sensed Faith! Is she here?!"

As Intuition looks back to see where Effort was, Knowledge vanishes and she is left standing in front of the fire alone. Once Intuition comes into Effort's view, he questions if Faith was in the cave once again.

Intuition: "No. She wasn't here."

Effort: "But I sensed her. I know it was her."

Intuition: "It was Knowledge."

Effort: ...?

Intuition: "He showed me where to find her. He created an illusion that surrounded me so that I could see her. It seemed so real."

Effort: "Well it was real enough that I sensed her in here. ... Where is Knowledge?"

Intuition: "He vanished. He said he didn't feel safe staying out in the open anymore with Time out on the hunt for power."

Effort: "So do you know where Advantage and Faith are now?!"

Intuition: "Yes, I do. We should go there now."

Effort: "I thought we were going to go get Purity and the others first?"

Intuition: "Yes, but first we need to make sure we definitely know that Advantage and Faith are actually where I saw them. You wouldn't want to get the others and then find out we were wrong, would you?"

Effort bows his head once more in agreement. "You're right." He says. "How do we get to them?"

Intuition: "Knowledge showed me where it was. Do you remember where you and the others fought Thought when he had become evil?"

Effort: "Yes, but that's where Need's spark is. We have to go get the others and let them know that everything is in the same place!"

Intuition: "Effort! One step at a time. Let's go make sure it's all there and not some sort of trap."

Effort, without an extra thought, agrees and begins to glow. His aura spreads around Intuition and, with an extra bit of his concentration, he transports them to the site where the battle against Thought, Vision, Hope and Need took place. Effort quickly and eagerly begins looking around. His eyes begin to water as he notices traces of the battle still spread around. Suddenly he sees Integrity's stone-solid body in the distance and without hesitation, he runs towards it. As he got closer and closer, he noticed that what he thought was a large boulder was actually the gray encasement which held Advantage.

"INTUITION! COME QUICK! I FOUND ADVANTAGE!" He yells.

Intuition doesn't reply as Effort calls out again, "INTUITION! SHE'S HERE! COME ON!"

Effort looks back for a moment to see where Intuition is but doesn't see her anywhere. He turns around and begins slowly walking around the area to see if he can locate her. He is careful that each step he take not make a sound as he fears that he walked into some sort of trap. Suddenly, Faith's body emerges from behind a large stone pillar and walks towards Effort. Effort is shocked but doesn't realize that Faith isn't as she should be right away.

"FAITH! You're ok!"

...

"Faith?"

Fear strikes Effort's heart as Faith's face comes into view. Her basically soul-less body continues to walk toward him as her eyes glow with an empty black void in them. Suddenly her body jumps up in the air and attacks Effort as he tries to fend her off. Their two bodies roll around on the dry, rocky floor while Effort tries to figure out whether to hurt the entity attacking him or not. He manages to get a hard jab to Faith's stomach but it's as if it is of no consequence to her. She headbutts him on his forehead and grips him tight enough that he can't move - Her body is pinning him to the floor while showing no sign of remote struggle. Suddenly, Faith's aura begins wrapping around him slowly as he notices it's coming from another source. As he struggles to break free, he turns his head and sees Intuition standing there with Faith's aura surrounding her.

"INTUITION! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" He yells in fear.

"Hmm... finally I can have your ability, Effort. It'll come in handy. Don't worry though, I'll put it to good use. I promise." Replies Intuition.

As Faith's aura completely surrounds Effort, he feels himself weakening against and not being able to fight back Faith's body. His eyes begin to open and close as he struggles to stay awake.

"Stop fighting it Effort. You can't get away now anyway. It's too late to transport yourself away..." Says Intuition.

Suddenly, an explosion coming from the hardened mist that Advantage was trapped inside of resonates and knocks Intuition back a few steps. Regardless, her aura-grasp on Effort isn't released. As the dust cloud settles, what seems to be a new entity is left standing. She is hovering above a boulder and immediately flies towards Intuition as if she herself is a torpedo. Intuition is sent flying back and her hold on Faith's body and Effort is released. The entity turns to Effort and speaks, "Effort, are you okay?"

Effort: "I will be when we get Faith's body off of me."

The entity helps nudge the now limp corpse off of Effort and helps him up.

Effort: "Thanks."

Entity: "Let's get her."

As Effort begins to glow, he notices something different. He looks at his hands as if to try and visually see what he was feeling but it is of no use.

Entity: "What's wrong?"

Effort: "I don't know. Something feels different."

All of a sudden, Intuition appears out of nowhere in front of the entity and Effort and throws a powerful kick that send Effort flying once again. Faith's body rises again and attacks the entity. The two are locked in eachother's grasps each attempting to deliver an attack powerful enough to throw the other into the distance. Effort, recovering from Intuition's attack stands back up and transports in front of Intuition to deliver the same attack she had just gotten him with. Intuition gets thrown back and once again, Faith's body becomes limp.

As Intuition stands back up, she is dumbfounded and confused.

Intuition: "But how? I have your ability now. Why do you still have it too?!"

Effort: "I knew I felt something different."

The entity throws Faith's body aside and immediately runs to Effort's side.

Entity: "Let's take care of her once and for all, Effort."

A smirk comes across Effort's face as he prepares to attack. Intuition, realizing she was outnumbered and understanding that she cannot control Faith's body and fight at the same time, begins to glow in a lighter version of Effort's old aura.

Intuition: "Next time Effort, next time. I got what I needed from you anyway."

Intuition suddenly transports herself away. As Effort and the entity drop their attack stances, both see Intuition reappear a slight bit further away from where she originally was standing.

Intuition: "What?!"

Effort and the entity quickly run towards Intuition to attack and Intuition vanishes again and reappears only a little further than where she stood before.

Intuition: "How is this possible?!"

"Don't you get it, Intuition?" Starts Effort. "You only took a part of my ability and left us both unable to transport far at all."

Intuition: "Then I'll have to take the rest of it!"

Intuition transports closer to Effort and the entity once again as they both prepare to fight Intuition once more. This time, the entity begins to glow a light brown aura and begins to hover above Effort. She once again torpedos herself toward Intuition but Intuition transports away only to find Effort appear right in front of her and swing a punch with all his strength at her. She falls to the ground and before she has a chance to recover, Effort pulls her up by her arms and swings her at the entity as the entity dives at her from up above. As Intuition is sent flying into the ground, she transports herself as far as she can and is seen falling directly in front of a large boulder. Effort and the entity run towards her when all of a sudden, she begins to glow in Faith's aura once more. The aura seems to surround the boulder but there is nothing visible happening. Effort and the entity stop running and stay still waiting to understand what Intuition was planning.

Effort: "What is she doing?"

Entity: "I don't know. Is she trying to transport the boulder and herself away?"

Effort: "No, that's not my aura."

The boulder suddenly shatters into pieces and Intuition stand up. Heavily bruised and panting, she speaks:

"Well well well... it looks like this place is full of abilities that are ripe for the picking. ...I'm pretty sure I just picked up a pretty good one, Effort. ...Do you remember it?" Asks Intuition conivingly.

Intuition begins glowing a crude orange as she begins laughing maniacally.

Entity: "Need."

Effort: "What?"

Entity: "She has Need's aura."

Effort: "How? ... Wait... you knew Need?"

Entity: "Effort, you can't recognize me, really?"

The entity turns to Effort and smiles at him.

Effort: "Advantage?!"

Entity: "Call me Clarity now."

Effort: "...Clarity?"

Clarity: "We'll talk later. Let's beat this tramp up now."

With that said, Clarity and Effort turn back their attention to Intuition who is slowly psyching herself up with more and more of Need's aura.

"I like this one." She says with a crazed rage. "Go ahead, attack me now. Come on Effort, dont' you want revenge for having hurt your precious friend, Advantage."

Effort, angered by Intuition's tease, makes a fist and steps forward.

"No!" Yells out Clarity, "Need's ability was to make anything necessary happen for him to be safe. If we attack, who knows what will happen. We can't attack her while she's channeling Need's aura so much."

"Then what should we do?" Asks Effort.

"Follow my lead." Replies Clarity.

Clarity: "Are you really going to convince yourself you're THAT strong, Intuition? The only reason you can put up a fight is because you keep using abilities that weren't even yours to begin with!"

Effort: "Yeah!"

Clarity: "If it wasn't for those stolen powers, you would just be that whiny little shielding girl you always have been."

Effort: "Yeah!"

Clarity: "You couldn't do harm to anyone so you had to resort to trying to be like others to do well. Pathetic."

Effort: "YEAH!"

Intuition: "Oh really? You speak a lot for a no-name Minor."

Clarity: "I'm no Minor, Intuition. The name is Clarity. And it's pretty clear to me that you need to be destroyed."

Intuition, angered by Clarity's words, immediately stops glowing orange and begins glowing a very light blue. She transports herself closer to the two Forces and begins running toward them while letting out a scream of intense anger.

Clarity to Effort: "Get ready."

Effort: "To do what?"

Clarity: "I didn't think that far ahead yet."

Effort: "Fair enough."

Just as Intuition was about to attack, a bright light engulfs the entire land and she is tranported in front of The Paradigm of Virtue once again.

Virtue: "You are letting them manipulate you, Intuition."

Intuition: "I'm stronger than them. These three abilities will help me steal what they can do and then I'll be even more unstoppable."

Virtue: "You are drunk with power again. You need to think rationally or they will get the best of you and our upper hand will be lost."

Intuition: "You wanted me to get the things you couldn't do done, Virtue. Now send me back so I can destroy them!"

Virtue: "They are not who you are trying to destroy."

Intuition: "So then let me destroy them!"

Virtue: "You need to focus on your task, Intuition. I'm sending you to where you need to be if you are to accomplish what I entrusted you to get done."

Intuition: "Let me take Effort's ability completely first. If I can transport to anywhere I want, I'll be able unstoppable."

Virtue: "Until you learn to control your emotions, you'll be everything but unstoppable, Intuition."

With his words, Virtue disappears and transports Intuition to where the Forces had camped the night before.

*****

Clarity and Effort are left trying to understand where Intuition disappeared to and attempt to figure out a way to get back to the other Forces.

**********

As Intuition realizes Virtue took her away from where she wanted to be, she let's out a scream of frustration and anger. As she looks up at the now rising moon, she hears the sound of a branch breaking. She immediately turns to see Serenity trying to quietly run away. She transports herself in front of her and stops her dead in her tracks.

Intuition: "Why off in such a rush, Serenity?"

Serenity: "I have no battle with you, Intuition. Leave me be."

Intuition: "But you're a Counterpart and I'm a Force. We're destined to battle eachother."

Without hesitation, Intuition grabs Serenity's throat and begins choking her with one hand. As Serenity gasps to breathe, she begins making a strong wind surround the two. Intuition begins glowing Need's crude orange and all of a sudden, a large branch comes flying at Serenity piercing her arm and remaining stuck within it. Serenity let's out a scream as the heavy winds subside. Intuition lets go of the injured and bleeding Counterpart and begins laughing maniacally once again.

"HAHAHAHA... Serenity." She begins, "What an ironic name. No? I suppose that's what those fools were thinking when they gave you a name, wasn't it? Well, let me tell you. I've had quite the rough day and I REALLY need to let out some steam. I suppose I'm the one who needs a little 'Serenity' aren't I?"

Serenity tries to get up and limp away but Intuition transports directly in front of her blocking her path once again. She turns around and tries limping away in a different direction but once again, Intuition appears immediately in front of her.

"Let me go, Intuition." She says.

"I suppose I have you to thank for this new ability. Plus, now I know where to get more. I believe Integrity's ability should still be intact and who knows what others I'll find. Had you not approached the Forces looking for their help to hide, I wouldn't have found out about it and the idea that all those Forces' auras are still at that battle site wouldn't have even crossed my mind. So thank you, Serenity." Says Intuition. "I think I'll go ahead and return the favor now. Let's see... what is it you wanted? Oh that's right... you wanted some peace and quiet. Well, let's get you that, shall we?"

"No. NO!" Yells out Serenity.

Intuition begins lulling Effort's aura around Serenity as she is standing above her laughing hysterically. She transports the two of them close to a rock formation up ahead and begins walking away as she leaves Serenity there. Serenity, noticing that Intuition has turned her back attempts to draw up a powerful wind to attack Intuition but just as she is about to, Intuition glows orange once again and all of a sudden, the earth begins shaking and boulders begin moving above Serenity. One by one boulders fall on top of Serenity's body first knocking her unconscious and then eventually causing her bones to begin breaking. Intuition doesn't even bother to turn around and just transports further and further away laughing.

...As each boulder hit Serenity's almost lifeless body, Burden appears out of nowhere and manages to drag her body away. A trail of blood is left behind as they disappear into the darkness of the night...

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When sight of the Advantages one has in life is lost, a reach for Clarity must be made to regain them. Though, without a true Effort, one can only rely on their own fraudulent Intuition.
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