Chapter 1: The Unwelcome

Nikki yawned, a small tinkling sound that was hungrily swallowed up by the night air. All about the slight faery were the pregnant sounds of the night, teeming with hidden life. Crickets hummed invisibly, playing childish games of hide and seek in the cold grass. A breeze tossed the young faery's brown hair about like a flag, then let it hang limply as if it had grown bored. The torchlight from the castle behind her made her shadow greatly exaggerated, and for a moment Nikki raised a hand and wiggled her fingers. She giggled lightly at the absurdly huge shadow hand on the courtyard that waved back, its tremendous digits seeming to stretch on to infinity.

"Nik?" came a whispery voice from behind her.

Nikki nearly jumped out of her leather armor in surprise. She took an exasperated breath as she turned , her hands flying uselessly to the dagger at her waist and fumbling there helplessly. With a final tug she freed it from its scabbard and held it out in front of her. "Who's-"

"It's only me!! Gosh Nik..." Andrian grinned out from the half open castle gateway into the night air. Nikki's hands trembled for a moment, then a smile crossed her face and she slowly lowered the dagger.

"Jeezum... you scared the pants off me Andrian!" the faery holstered the dagger and walked up to the outside of the gate. Andrian let out a light laughter and put a hand on the inside of the gate casually.

"I jus' couldn't sleep I guess... I get so little time here on Avalon with you guys," her light laughing voice dispelled any lingering fears that were caught in Nikki's throat.

"So you came running down here in your pajamas to say hi?" Nikki grinned, pointing at Andrian's slap-dash outfit: a collage of pink and orange cotton articles.

"Yeah... I'm gonna go scare the pants off of Cress," a wicked smile spread across Andrian's face.

"You have fun now Andy, I'll be done with my shift with the first rays of dawn." Nikki grinned as Andrian swiveled and disappeared back into the castle in a flash of red hair.

The castle doors creaked back shut and Nikki was again alone in the torchlight air. In the distance a light fog was clearing with the approaching light of dawn, its tendrils pulling slowly apart like a theater's curtains.

There was someone on the road. Nikki strained her eyes to see as the figure neared from out of the fog, walking in by foot. 'Probably a gargoyle...' she muttered under her breath.

It wasn't. The form drew nearer, the features of a man becoming more apparent. His pace was constant, unrushed. After a moment he drew into the range of the torchlight and Nikki could make him out. Her eyes widened. "Hey... YOU! Wow..." she scratched her head in confusion, " we certainly didn't expect to see YOU so soon... I mean..."

The figure lifted its head as if in mute annoyance and stared at her.

"Wow, you look terrible... I mean... should I go tell the others?" Nikki chirped excitedly. Perhaps this would be an interesting shift after all.

"No." he replied slowly, with an unexpected iciness.

"Ummm... so what happens now?" Nikki cocked her head curiously.

The figure smiled.

* * *

Flicker's hands slowly ran across the surface of the mirror in the stillness of the basement. It's coldness was shocking, sending a spike of ice up the nerves of his arm. Flicker frowned. He withdrew his fingers and stared solemnly into his own eyes in the glass.

Empty. His eyes looked back like unfilled graves, colored with the distant blackness of space.

'What am I doing here...' his face expressed the question without it's needing to be said. His Colorwhip dangled emptily at his side, offering no answers. 'Why am I looking in this mirror... why am I doing this to myself?'

Gently Flicker ran his hand along the bronze frame. 'My mother touched this... this thing. This coldness. How did she make life from this coldness?' he saw his lips part in the reflection with the silent questions on his lips.

And then he saw something else. A flicker of something. Someone.

"What the..." he mumbled out loud, putting a hand on the surface. It passed through the glass like water. His hand closed on something as the mirror rippled outwards like an angry sea. He felt something squeeze his hand back and a panic struck him. Swearing loudly he pulled back but found resistance. Something warm had his hand.

"Wha-HEY!" his arm was tugged in a little. Flicker braced his feet against the marble. "Ok buster..." he muttered. Flicker yanked his arm back using the floor for leverage, nearly tearing his arm out of its socket. Something came with it

Sprawling through the mirror, her hand clenching his in a brutally strong grip, was a gargoyle of medium build with startlingly contrasted features. Her skin was a chalky white color like a ghost, offset by the deep blackness of her hair and wings. Her lips were a fierce red color, and her intense blue-black eyes darted to and fro, taking everything in. Her taloned feet clacked as they hit the marble and she fell into a crouch, putting one hand to the floor like a sprinter ready to take off.

Flicker was sprawled on the floor from the enormous effort of yanking her through, and he looked at her in a mixture of surprise, curiosity and amazement. "h-how... how..."

"What the hell am I doing here?" she stood up and placed a hand uncertainly on the scabbard at her waist, her fingers closing around the hilt.

"Shadowstar? What the-" Flicker recognized the gargoyle.

"You pulled me... through the mirror," understand dawned on her face, "I was touching it... and then..."

"I know you... you're the one who crosses realities," his eyes narrowed uncertainly, a strand of maroonish hair falling in front of his face. " I remember you... we hunted a Watcher... you are... Kindred. Immortal."

Flicker suddenly felt an unsettling presence touch his mind for a brief moment, like a finger had just prodded the inside of his head. Shadowstar was holding him in a steady, locked gaze.

"...the shard..." she muttered under her breath, "of course..." Shadowstar withdrew her telepathic probe. Her mind swam with new thoughts. 'Can this be? Why didn't I think of it... the only other Flicker counterpart... how strange...'

"What? What shard?" Flicker's eyebrows formed a confused 'V' shape.

"Nevermind. I WAS Kindred. No more," she sneered, ending the subject, "you pulled me here somehow... our realities must be closer than I thought," Shadowstar was silent for a moment and there was an unpleasant 'now what' look on Flicker's face. "Where's Oberon? And Titania?" Shadowstar decided it would be a good idea to make sure she was where she thought she was.

"Oberon's in the human world..." he said cautiously, "...learning how to be nice to people. Titania would be sleeping. Why are you concerned?"

Shadowstar's eyes narrowed. "What could this mean? I'm not supposed to be able to cross realities like this now... something must've happened." She spun around and glanced at the mirror she had emerged from. "Your birth mirror... strange. I was standing just outside it in MY reality when-"

"How do you know of my birth?"

Shadowstar smiled. "You exist in my reality too. In fact... I think I know wh-"

There was a strangled yell from upstairs that caught both by surprise. Shadowstar's hand closed tightly on the sword's hilt by her waist.

Flicker's leafy-green eyes shot open and he turned to the stairs leading up. "Andrian!" He grabbed Shadowstar by the arm gently "come on, we'll sort this out later," he muttered quickly.

Shadowstar looked curiously at the arm tugging her along, wondering why she hadn't objected to this. She turned back to look at the mirror as Flicker raced up the stairs leading her. In the mirror she saw their fleeing forms, Flicker's green cape spreading out below his wild red hair and her arm taken in his as they raced away. 'This isn't my Flicker..' she thought glumly to herself, 'I've got to remember that. And yet.... somehow he is...'

Her thoughts scattered like leaves as they rounded a corner.

* * *

"Good God..." Deloon dropped to his knees, his lance falling to the floor as he leaned forwards retching. The acid taste of vomit swirled like poison in his mouth. Andrian's form was sobbing in the corner of the courtyard, her face pressed to the cold floor and her red hair wet with her own tears. Titania and her personal servant, Hermes, looked down solemnly at their feet, making quiet sobs of sadness like children stumbling upon a dead pet in the morning. As Flicker burst in pulling the strange gargoyle along he nearly skidded into the whole mess in the yard.

The carefully chiseled stones of the courtyard were covered in thick, syrupy blood, as were several nearby trees and the castle door. Flicker had one foot in the sticky ichor before he even realized it, and his eyes widened when he discovered what he had stepped in. Shadowstar cringed as she surveyed the scene. "The body... where's the-"

When she saw it she suddenly felt her stomach churn and a nauseous wave made her swoon.

Swinging gaily from a tree in the twilight breeze was what was left of the faery, Nikki. It wasn't much. Ropy nerves decorated the tree like sickly Christmas decorations. What looked like a leg dangled from a few cords of muscle and swayed unpleasantly just above a crimson-stained bush. The torso was impaled on a particularly large branch of the tree from underneath, propping the corpse upright.

Shadowstar looked away before her unwilling eyes had time to find the head.

"H-how.." Flicker choked. Hermes put a hand on his shoulder, looking sternly at Flicker with eyes that seemed to have seen too much in their long existence. He pointed quietly up to the wall behind Flicker, his eyes never leaving those of his friend.

Flicker and Shadowstar turned to follow his gesture.

Scrawled above the castle doors in slowly drying blood, four words had been etched large and crookedly, as if by the finger of God.

* YOUR * MESSIAH * IS * COMING *

"By the gods..." Flicker looked up in horror. Shadowstar drew her lips in tightly and frowned.

"It seems I came at a bad time," she spoke very softly, "unless things like this happen often in your reality."

Deloon suddenly cried out and picked up his lance. "THERE!" he yelled, pointing out to the sea as the first rays of dawn struck the walls of the castle.

Riding in from the shore was a lone horse with a figure upon it.

"Coming back to gloat... I'm going to tear his fucking throat out," Deloon said, gripping the lance murderously tight.

"I think we're about to find out who our 'Messiah' is," Hermes stared out at the slowly approaching horseman as sorrow mixed with rage in the solemn gray pools of his eyes.

The rider took his time.

Chapter 2: The Cure of Sacrifice

As the rider got closer the air slowly filled with an irritating buzzing sound. It began as a small droning hum in the background, like the whine of an old television. Then it slowly exceeded ambiance levels, growing into a noticeable hum above Andrian's sobbing and the rustling of metal armor as the faeries gathered. Indeed, all the faeries were gathered and in the courtyard before the rider had made it halfway up the winding trail. Only the children were spared the vile sight of Nikki's mangled body, having been quickly kept inside by Princess Katherine, who did so choking back tears of loss and sadness.

There was a rustling in the ranks as the horseman approached. Deloon stood at the forefront, the guardian Tom by his side, sword drawn. Shadowstar's eyes gazed distractedly at the back of Flicker's head as he looked out onto the scene, looking into his mane of red hair as if for answers. Odin calmed his agitated horse, Slepnir, as he fixed icy eyes on the rider's own horse. Titania motioned for silence in the ranks.

The rider stopped some distance from the battle ready fae, its head cocked up in curiosity. A few faeries grimaced at the sight.

Underneath a quietly flapping cloak, the rider's skin was visibly infested with sores of all types, pulled this way and that by boils and scars. Fat maggots crawled along its arms until they disappeared into the darkness of the cloak. It was impossible to determine its gender, any signs of that had been eaten by the lice and brooding insects that marched on it like a second layer of skin. The horse was almost as bad, a pale creature so rotted that it looked as though it had been pulled from a grave.

"What manner of beast is this?" Odin grunted, drawing Slepnir's reigns in tight and trying to pacify his mount.

"SPEAK DEMON," Deloon snarled at the creature, "before we lose the patience to hear your death cry."

The thing looked up, accomplished by rolling one of its pus-filled eyes in their general direction. It opened its mouth to speak and a ridiculously long tongue rolled out like a sick red carpet from its mouth, lolling a good foot in length.

"Mine name is Pestilence," it spoke croakily, the tongue wagging grotesquely with the effort. "I come to prepare you for the Coming. As your hearts have been sickened to your God, so shall my sickness be on your flesh."

"That's cheery," Flicker muttered, "I really needed that cheery report."

Shadowstar drew her sword, her eyes detaching from their study of Flicker as he turned and pulled his whip free of its holster. "I don't like the look of this thing... I can't seem to touch its mind with my power..."

"Aren't you supposed to be powerful beyond belief or something?" Flicker looked carefully at the gargoyle. The last time they had met, she had seemed larger somehow. Still... Flicker felt some kind of strange kinship with her just from the look in her bluish eyes. There was something deeper to her.

"Once I was. Like I said, I'm not traveling that path again," she watched the rider nearing the army out of the corner of her eye.

"As you've said... what do you mean by that?" Flicker gave her a blank expression of curiosity.

"I think we have more important problems at hand," she pointed with her sword towards the horseman.

Without warning, Pestilence increased its pace towards them. The horse it rode breathed a cloud of fetid steam from its tired carcass with the effort. Tom was the first to meet it as it charged, swinging his sword in a high arc to strike the rider's legs. His blade sunk through the flesh and came out on the other end perfectly clean, Pestilence's leg coming off with a disgusting squishing sound.

Pestilence broke its charge and swiveled around, cutting Tom off from the others, who now raised their weapons in approach. Undaunted by the loss of a limb, it reached for Tom with one leprous hand, the arm seeming to stretch to make the contact. Pestilence grazed Tom's arm briefly, scratching Tom's wrist very lightly. Tom hissed and rolled back just as the army swarmed over the horseman, plunging magical instruments and weapons into the horse and rider. Pestilence made no sound as it was hewed from all sides, simply allowing itself to be hacked to pieces as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Then Pestilence burst with a sick popping sound into a cloud of all manner of insects. Taken by surprise as the cloak that had been filled with a being fell to the ground, the fae found themselves standing in a horde of bees, wasps, locusts and mosquitoes, stinging and biting at every open chink in their armors. The horse that the creature had ridden broke apart into a collection of maggots and larvae that squirmed over each other on the ground.

Flicker and Shadowstar watched from the back ranks in horror as the front rows were swallowed by the plague of insects that flew about like ashes in a breeze. Deloon yelled and threw himself backwards to escape the swarm.

Something unpleasant was clearly happening to the guardian Tom. He hadn't gotten up from the roll he'd gone into to avoid Pestilence, and his body quaked feverishly on the battlefield. As he turned his head Titania saw that his face was riddled with boils so fierce they looked rather like tomatoes dangling from his skin. Tom shuddered and lay still on the field.

Then the impossible happened. Fae were falling on the field. Caught in the swarm, an older warrior suddenly clamped his neck and turned a shade of gray, slumping over Tom's body.

"IRON!" Titania yelled into the fray.

"This is madness... RETREAT!" Hermes yelled into the mass of suffering faeries. "Into the castle!! THE CASTLE! NOW!"

The faeries pulled back slowly. It seemed for a moment like the swarm of insects and vermin were regrouping too, gathering just behind the fallen bodies of a few faeries. The hideous buzzing reached its loudest point as they assembled in a cloud. The laugh of Pestilence could be heard from within the cloud, a crackling sound. "You cannot fight a sickness. You cannot defeat a plague. Submit and await the Coming or continue to suffer."

* * *

"The insects will follow us in here, we're not safe," Shadowstar laid her sword across the table with a loud clattering noise. Her eyes, which had been a soft ocean-blue just a few minutes ago now seemed to burn with a dark, navy fire. To Flicker it seemed as though she was entirely out of place in the lush brownness of the war-room. Her colors contrasted with everything, being both extreme black and white at the same time.

"I say we erect a magical barricade around the castle," Hermes folded his great chromium colored wings against his back. For a moment Flicker saw his reflection in Hermes' metallic armor, and then Hermes shifted to lean against the center table.

Odin frowned. "'twould appear that the bees have iron stingers... and perhaps even iron poison in their bellies. I pray that iron will not cast down such a barrier of faery magics..."

From outside the tightly packed room came the cries of the wounded, who had been withdrawn into the Princess' care. The remainder of the faeries were in the main hall, watching the castle doors for signs of an insect intrusion. None such was happening.

"Perhaps we're going about this the wrong way," Odin stroked his beard, "if we deal with insects, we must find the appropriate solution..."

"If you're suggesting we purchase an economy size can of Raid I'm going to personally throttle you, old one," Deloon produced a sickly grin on his blue face, which was scarred with an iron scratch that had turned a metallic gray.

"Nay, I mean to suggest that we use the weather to our advantage," Odin stood up proudly, his starry cloak seeming to flow across the floor like a carpet of sky.

Shadowstar's eyes widened as she understood the idea. "Of course... the cold..."

"If there's one thing bugs hate it's a good chill," Flicker put a ponderous hand to stroke his chin. "But how?"

Odin frowned. "I think I have an idea..."

* * *

With a shout the foremost faeries observed the slow leak of insects as they filed through cracks in the door, slow and furtive but limitless in number. Maggots and wasps fought to push past each other and into the throne room. Termites gorged themselves hungrily on the castle doors, letting in the bigger bugs through the paths they devoured. The doors began to bulge with the weight of the insects outside.

"It's not going to hold..." a centaur-like faery took a few nervous steps back. The crowd started to panic.

Suddenly, Titania's voice came loud and clear through the frightened crowd. "BACK! EVERYONE CLEAR THE HALL!" the command embedded itself in their minds, a powerful motherly instruction. As if they had lost their free will, the faeries turned in unison and walked out in an orderly fashion. As they passed their mother only one figure remained in the room.

Odin stood facing the door. "Leave me," he turned to Titania. "I will rid us of this plague."

Flicker cast a nervous glance over his Queen's shoulder. "You won't live through this old fool... there must be another way..."

"To cure the sickness one must sometimes cut off the arm," Odin gathered his cape about him. The door started to bulge outwards as insects filed in. "I gave up my eye once for knowledge. I can give up my body for courage."

Odin turned to face the bulging doors with a dismissive wave of his cape and Titania and Flicker stepped back into the darkness of the hallway. The door splintered violently, shards of it flying across the room as the flood of insects gathered like the dust of the earth. From where he stood, Odin could see them assembling into the shape of a figure on horseback once again.

"Begone foul demon, Avalon will not tolerate intruders." Odin's hair was blown by an unseen wind like a flag of white.

"There are more that follow me, resisting will only put off the inevitable. Why do you resist so?" Pestilence wagged its tongue sickeningly.

Odin started to shimmer with a blue haze, his countenance growing pale. He seemed larger somehow. The room slowly started to chill. Odin's breath came out in ragged puffs of steam.

Pestilence advanced, swallowing the faery wizard up in the folds of its bees and crawling insects. Odin raised his arms, stoic and unresisting to the horde as it surrounded him. His eyes turned a bright electric blue. "in frio... vas frio..." he began to chant, his arms clapping together. His face became swollen with disease and blue with the cold.

Suddenly the room was enclosed in ice. It gathered together as if from the air, completely sealing off the throne room. Odin screamed into the fog of insects as they closed about him, pricking him with iron. The space inside the ice-room reached absolute zero in the space of a few seconds. The air solidified all about them, losing all its energy in the space of a heartbeat. The scene of Odin engulfed by insects while Pestilence approached was locked into a tomb of ice.

It remained silent in that section of the castle for several minutes until a few curious faeries (among them Flicker and Shadowstar) crept back to the scene. When the saw the frozen scene before them, they all leaned against the wall in sorrow and one went to call for Titania. Flicker walked right up to the wall of ice and laid one hand on its surface, quickly drawing it back as the chill gripped his fingers. "Old fool..." he shook his head and with a whirl of his cape stormed back down the hall.

Chapter 3: Famine and Plenty

Flicker laid his whip down on the table across from Shadowstar and sat down in a lush but sturdy oaken chair. His look towards Shadowstar was fairly blank, but underneath it Shadowstar could sense a mixture of curiosity, anger and confusion all at once. She returned the blank stare, her head cocked slightly to the side waiting for him to say something.

It took about ten seconds before Flicker did.

"So what happened?" he said it as if he was irritated that she wasn't saying anything.

"Maybe it's not the best time to discuss this. There are going to be more of those horsemen, and if you're in some kind of mood I don't think-"

"You're RIGHT I'm in a mood... many of my friends have died today. Now I'd like to know what you're doing here and why." Flicker growled the words, surprising himself with their angry sound.

Shadowstar's face suddenly looked hurt. This took Flicker completely by surprise, and he put one hand to his forehead as if he had a headache. The hurt on Shadowstar's face was unbelievable, but then she seemed to swallow it and give him that blank look again.

Flicker sighed. "I'm... I'm sorry... it's been a very bad morning..."

"I understand," she seemed satisfied with that answer somehow. "It must be hurting you a great deal, friend."

"Am I your friend, now?" Flicker raised an eyebrow.

"If you are anything like the Flicker I know, you already have my friendship," she smiled, her mind filling with thoughts of Avalon... HER Avalon.

"Wait... what of the Flicker in your reality?" Flicker pulled his chair up closer to the table.

"He is much like you... born of a mirror, crafted in an experiment performed by the one known as Ladybug. Titania took him in... he had the mind of a child at first but quickly matured. But there is something wrong about his presence..." Shadowstar trailed off a little bit.

"Wait... what do you mean, wrong?," Flicker said with a trace of confusion.

"Yea... that is intriguing. That is... the Flicker in my reality is somehow not the whole. He is... that is, I have touched his mind and yours. They are incomplete somehow..." she looked at him, but he showed no sign of understanding. "Let me explain... some realities are VERY closely linked by certain factors. I believe... it may be possible that ours are joined by that mirror. But when Ladybug created you, fate had called for only one such as you to be crafted. Something in my reality shifted the balance the scales and you emerged in mine as well... a side effect. I think... I think that the two of you need to form the whole once again."

"What would you know of fate? And what of Shade? I thought he was my counterpart..." Flicker scratched his chin in thought.

"I do not know of one named such as he... perhaps there is an explanation. If there is then I know it not," she shrugged, her sword making a small scraping sound on the stone as she did so. "And I know nothing of fate except what my lying masters taught me. But if they are to be believed, only one of you was ever supposed to be created. It is sad that the Flicker I know is not supposed to even be..."

"And what exactly is your relationship with the Flicker of your reality..." he had a grinning expression, as if he found the idea that he might be in other places amusing.

Shadowstar bit her lip for a second, deciding what to say. "Well... we're... that is we've...umm.."

Just then Deloon burst into the room, sending the wooden door open with such force that it struck the stone wall and rebounded back halfway. There was an expression of panic on his long blue face. "A second horseman approaches, you are needed on the field. Both of you, we need everyone." Deloon swung back out of sight as quickly as he had appeared, running down the hall to get others.

Flicker and Shadowstar looked at each other and nodded, getting up wordlessly and following the faery out the door.

* * *

The second horseman came exactly at Avalon's noon, when the heat had already started to decompose the bodies strewn on the battlefield. Stone gargoyles, dumb to the events of that morning, still stood in their mute positions on the castle's spires, looking with disinterest at the faery corpses and the oncoming horseman. The remaining faeries, a gathering of no more than sixty or seventy, tread warily about in the courtyard, nervously casting glances out towards the sea.

The horseman, like its predecessor, stopped just as soon as the faeries could make it out. Most of the faeries curled their lips back in a snarl, but others stopped to scratch their heads at the strange creature that approached. Anansi, the spider, seemed particularly upset by its appearance. "Great..." it clicked its mandibles and made a snorting sound, "we're going to be done in by a clown in a frilly costume."

It was indeed a clown that rode towards them, riding a silly looking pony that was hardly the size of a large dog. The clown had two wild tuffs of green hair on the sides of its head in a "v" shape, but was otherwise completely bald. It had a red clown-nose and a great deal of rouge on its cheeks, giving its face a swollen appearance more than anything. This was especially noticeable when one looked at the rest of its emaciated body. The frilled clown-suit that it wore flapped directly against its ribcage, which could be seen clearly even through the material. The two great puffs of red cloth on its shoulders gave way to arms that seemed spidery and gauntly white. The clown had a mad gleam in its twinkling silver eyes.

It looked up and around for a moment, as if sniffing the air for something. Then its painted lips parted and it spoke in a wheezy but comical voice. "You did it... you got rid of that idiot. Congradulations, I never thought I'd be rid of that annoying thing. Always scaring away my entertainment... hmph, well... should I begin? Oh how I hate speeches... well that is..."

Hermes spread his mechanical wings and put his hands provokingly on his hips. "Leave this place, or by Oberon we'll make your existance so painful you'll beg to-"

"Oh shut up," the clown laughed and Hermes' face fell at the casualness it spoke with. "I've heard all that before. Come on then, I've ended the life of bigger than you."

"You are Famine, are you not?" Titania crossed her arms. At her side, Andrian stared outwards with a hatred that none of the faeries had ever seen in her.

"You are quick, milady," Famine bowed gracefully. Shadowstar grimaced as she heard the rustling noise he made when he bent over, like crinkling papers. "I will prepare you for my master's coming... as shall my two other companions."

"Then your master would rule over a dead land?" Flicker sneered.

Famine laughed again, a raspy sound that made Andrian squirm uncomfortably and Anansi shuffle his legs in his webbing. "If you want my opinion, I don't think he really cares whether or not you live. He only cares if you are obedient..." the clown sneered up at them with its hauntingly thin face.

Cress took a few steps foward, drawing a dagger. Deloon watched her with interest as she paced in the forefront of the ragged army. She spat once in the direction of the pony on the path and marched in its direction. "Famine... famine to those who know nothing of hunger. What do immortals have to fear from lack of food? This is a sham, ATTACK!" She yelled, calling her troops in behind her.

Famine raised an eyebrow.

One of the faery wizards made a circular gesture with his arm and sent a fireball hurtling out in a crackling burst. The fireball raced ahead of the charging fae and straight for the clown, which seemed to have vague, distant interest in the oncoming inferno. Just as the fireball was about to make contact, and it seemed to already be charring the hairs from the pony Famine rode, he put up one hand like a police officer directing traffic. "An mana."

The fireball winked out of existance with a small popping sound.

"What the-" Flicker slowed his charge as he saw the way in which Famine dispelled that assault. It didn't look to the faery like any counterspell he'd seen before.

He was about to yell out when Cress reached the pony and leapt to cut the throat of the clown. With speed unbecoming of its small frame, the clown whipped out a hand and clamped it around Cress' neck as she came at him in midair. Her pinkish hair flew ahead with the momentum and she dropped her dagger, pulling her hands up to her neck. Famine muttered a word and it seemed like a small rush of white traveled along his arm and into Cress. She screamed so horribly that the army stopped in its tracks, looking with fear at their general.

Cress' waist and arms shrunk as if invisible strings were cinching her in. Her eyes became huge with fear as she shrivelled up considerably. Her mouth opened in a second scream, but it was silent. Famine dropped her body and it made a sound like snapping twigs when it hit the ground.

"CRESS!" Deloon cried out, pushing aside two bigger warriors in front of him. His eyes filled with tears of hatred. He rushed at Famine with his lance outstreched in a mad joust of rage.

Famine stretched both its arms out towards the crowd. "VAS AN MANA" it yelled in a serious tone. Suddenly, a wisp of green energy was torn from Deloon and sped towards the clown. The energy flew up its arm and up to its eyes, where it pooled and disappeared. Similar wisps of green, etherial energy started to fly from the fae. In the space of a few seconds, it had already happened to all but the back ranks of warriors.

"HALT!" Titania gave the cry. To everyone's surprise, Famine obliged. Deloon's rush lost its urgency and he slumped to the grass, clutching his heart as if something were wrong there.

"What's wrong milady," Famine smiled, "afraid that your little henchmen can't fight without their magic?"

Deloon clenched his fists and had a look of terror on his face. "My magic... h-he turned off my..."

Titania was by Deloon's side in an instant, teleporting to the side of the kneeling faery. Without a word, she placed a hand on his shoulder and he looked up at her like a child seeking some kind of consolation from its mother. Titania turned a sorrowful head from the fae and stood up to approach the clown.

"Tamper not with what magic we have here, this land is sacred and so are its people." She walked past the body of Cress, looking sorrowfully down at it.

"Ah..." Famine looked at her with interest. "You have something that is not yours. Pray tell... would you explain this that I feel?"

Titania looked up mutely for a moment, trying to understand. Then she realized. "You are reading my essence. Yes, I bear the powers of our Lord Oberon in his exile. If the need is so, I shall call upon them here to defeat you and save my people."

The faeries watched in awe at their Queen and mother as she stood, chin high, in the face of this laughing monster. Famine slowly turned and rode its pony up alongside Titania, close enough to touch her. Hermes and Flicker instinctively took a few steps closer protectively.

Famine smiled again, this time showing a few teeth that protruded from its gaunt face. "You take too much upon yourself, O wise mother of this people. Here... let me relieve you of the great load of your husband's power..." he stretched out a hand without warning and grabbed Titania by the arm.

The faeries roared into action, but it was a moment too late. Titania let out an unearthly yell as Oberon's power jackknifed out of her from all sides, uncontrollibly massive and unstoppable. It tore from her body like steam escaping from a wound, and in a scalding cloud of green energy it flowed into Famine's twinkling eyes. Titania slumped over lifelessly.

Flicker yelled out and Shadowstar grabbed his arm before he could charge forwards. "THE QUEEN!" he yelled, his eyes filling with crystalling tears that shone in the noon sun.

Shadowstar nearly pulled his arm off yanking him backwards. "You FOOL! Think of what happened the LAST time we attacked blindly like this." She had a serious, hardened look in her eyes that actually broke through Flicker's rage. "Use your head, what can fight a famine?" Flicker stammered, his mouth flapping up and down uselessly and a tear falling down his cheek. Shadowstar shook him by the shoulders. "Think!"

"M-magic... we feed it. Give it too much..." Flicker turned his head nervously to look at the crowd of fae that encircled the strange looking pony and its rider. Famine continued to rant his spell, sucking magic from the faeries that approached it until they all kneeled and looked around in confusion.

Shadowstar nodded. "We need magic... tell me, where can we get the power we need to do that?"

Flicker looked out hopelessly at the battle. "It... it would have to be greater than Oberon's... unbelievably great... we can't get that kind of-"

"I know... where" Andrian cut in. The two whirled to look at her. Her cheeks and hair were wet with tears, and she leaned weakly on the walls of the castle. Flicker and Shadowstar looked at her for a moment expectantly. "It's... it's in Avalon. I can tap it... I can-"

"Can you channel that kind of energy? Andrian... there's no fooling around PEOPLE ARE DYING," Flicker looked at her with wide, concerned maroon eyes. Andrian nodded slowly, looking fragile but graceful somehow. Without a word, she put her hands to the floor and appeared to start pulling up the earth with her hands, like a farmer churning the ground. Except that, after a moment, green power started spilling upwards into her hands until a solid stream of it poured up from the ground like a fountain.

Famine raised its head. "eh?"

It marched on its absurdly small pony up the trail, past dozens of weakened and kneeling faeries. As it got nearer, Andrian stood up.

"What's this now?" Famine brought its eyebrows together in a puzzled "v". "How are you doing this?"

Andrian walked over to the pony, her eyes filling up with green energy as it curled up around her. "This land is sacred, leave it," she spoke like someone possessed, as if the voice came from somewhere beneath her and not from her lips. She laid a hand on the clown's arm.

"What... what's this now?" Famine repeated, gesturing. "An Mana... vas an ma-"

Suddenly, a stream of green energy leapt from Andrian's arm into Famine's eyes and pooled there like water whirlpooling down a drain. It was accompanied by more until it appeared that Famine's eyes were connected to Andrian by a long green tentacle.

Then another stream came from the earth below, grabbing the pony's leg. It whinnied in fear and buckled back on its rear legs, but was held fast. Another stream of energy tore from the earth and coiled around Famine's neck, and he suddenly realized what was happening. His mouth formed an "o" of shock at the power he was being channeled, and then it turned into a wide silent scream as a giant arm of energy leapt from the ground and took him by the torso.

There was a huge crash as Famine collapsed in on itself, the pony's legs buckling like strands of wheat. Famine's eyes burst with the energy with a sound like popcorn being cooked. He slumped forwards, energy pouring from every pore of his body until he shuddered atop his dead mount and lay still. The last traces of green energy faded into the air, and then there was silence.

"You did it..." Shadowstar said, her look betraying how impressed she was. Even among the Kindred, displays of power such as this had almost never been seen.

Andrian smiled weakly before collapsing on the grass over the body of her foe.

Chapter 4: Bringing Down the Horse>

Staring nervously at Famine's corpse, Flicker slowly started to nudge Andrian awake. Famine was little more than a frilly costume on the ground, but Flicker wanted as little to do with it as possible. The other faeries slowly stood up on the battlefield, fifty strong. They looked around like lost sheep, and their whining could be heard even from the area by the castle where Shadowstar stood.

"Our Queen... what will we do without out Queen?"

"Why didn't anyone protect her?"

"We should surrender the land... we have to regroup off of the island!"

Shadowstar shook her head in annoyance at their pleas, more concerned with the idea that another horseman would be on its way shortly. She noticed Andrian and Flicker talking off to the side and walked in their direction, deciding that it would be for the best to make sure that the uncertainty of the crowd hadn't spread up to the people in charge.

Flicker finished saying something to Andrian and she nodded through tears, turning to walk away from the crowds.

"Where is she going?" Shadowstar looked at Flicker, noticing the way his face had grown heavy and tired.

"I sent her to the human world... someone has to tell the other fae about this. There's Puck... and a few faeries on leave in the human realm. They must be warned..." he mumbled it more than anything. His eyes were lost and distant.

"Flicker," she touched his chin to turn his head to look at her. His eyes focused slowly on her pale face, darting nervously about for a moment before settling on her features. "Flicker. Don't fall apart on me now, I don't want to have to lead these people alone," she faked a smile, if only to make him feel better.

"I'm... I'm trying," he managed to smile back somehow. "Come inside... I don't... I don't want to be around everybody like this."

Shadowstar nodded. "We have time, if I'm right we can expect the next one after sundown." As they started walking Flicker gave her a puzzled look and she explained. "The first came at dawn... the second at noon. It would make sense if one came at dusk as well."

Flicker nodded as they passed the room of ice bearing Pestilence in its frosty tomb. Not knowing what to say for a while, he just let his feet guide him around the empty castle. "This whole place... it's... it's like a way of life is ending. Nothing like this has ever happened... Oberon was always here to protect us."

"Any society that couldn't stand on its own two feet without a leader is not much of a society at all," she said, opening the door to a quiet chamber, "if you rely too much on one person, you put everything at risk."

"You certainly know your way around the castle," he commented abruptly. She nodded, taking a seat on the room's bed.

"My room," she shrugged, "just not in this reality."

He snickered at the idea, and then collapsed backwards on the bed. "Would you explain to me now why you don't have your umm.. powers anymore?" He looked at her, hoping he wasn't bringing up something too sensitive.

"Long story actually," she sighed, "but if you must know then fine. You see... I only recently discovered that faery blood runs in my veins. All of this... my history... was kept from me by the Kindred. They gave me powers that one could only dream about, and kept from me power over my own memory." She sneered at the irony. "Oh but I found out. They took away my strength for it, banished me to remain on Avalon with only my inborn faery abilities... the potential remains as always... I found those liars out. Damn Kindred... they're worse than the Watchers they pursue."

"Wait... what abilities?" Flicker interjected.

"Telepathy... telekinetics... all manner of mental manipulation. Isn't it funny how I was the one being manipulated... heh..." she rubbed her hands on her arms to keep them warm, "but you helped me. You helped me to find my past in my reality."

Flicker nodded. "This other Flicker... he sounds like a nice guy," he grinned. Shadowstar suddenly smiled widely as if enjoying some personal secret. Flicker was about to ask but thought better of it.

Shadowstar suddenly grabbed his hand and pulled him up. "Come on, we have to assemble who's left. We're expecting company."

* * *

Dusk.

The gargoyles had broken free of their encasement; another fifty warriors added to the ranks. They took in the explanation of what had happened with looks of horror spreading across their normally stoic faces. Hermes did the explaining, as most of the other faeries were still too distraught to speak a great deal.

As Flicker watched the other gargoyles breaking out of their stone encasement, he realized that Shadowstar had had to do no such thing, despite her gargoyle body. When he asked, she raised one braceleted arm and jingled a beautifully crafted trinket. "Kindred magic. I'd forsake wearing it if it weren't so useful."

The ranks formed in the army, facing out to sea in expectation, but no horseman came. As time passed, Shadowstar shrugged and consented that perhaps the horsemen were not restricted to following time schedules.

Then a cry rang out from behind the army ranks. A young female gargoyle emerged from the castle, bearing a body in her arms. "The... the princess..."

Princess Katherine, her old hair splayed out limply below her, lay dead in the arms of the gargoyle. As the gargoyle lowered her gently to the ground, the other gargoyles broke formation and surrounded the one they had accepted as their mother for the whole of their existence. Their anguished expressions and sobbing made Flicker saddened, even though he had not known the princess for any good period of time.

Suddenly the cry of murder went through the ranks. "It was that damn spider... I swear I saw it happen," the female who had borne Katherine's body shouted in sudden revelation. Flicker looked all about but didn't see Anansi anywhere. The gargoyles clenched their hands in anger, some storming into the castle before any of the fae could stop them, chanting "death to the spider!"

In their haste, Katherine's body was actually left lying in the mud. The faeries looked up from their mourning for the Queen to gaze solemnly upon the princess' dead body, which had been clearly punctured with a set of fangs. She was pale, and her eyes were wide with surprise, locked eternally in their shock at the moment of her death.

Hermes mumbled something under his breath as the gargoyle disappeared into the castle, and Flicker looked about in a panic. "What in Hades... why isn't anybody doing anything?"

Deloon suddenly flashed him an angry look. "What do you expect? After all, your idiocy cost us our Queen..."

Shadowstar's eyes flew open with alarm. "Don't you DARE!" she growled. "I saw you grovelling on the battlefield like... like a CHILD!"

Suddenly there was a horrible shriek from within the castle, like the rattling chirp of a cicada but much louder and higher-pitched. Flicker immediately recognized Anansi's chattery screech for what it was, the sound of something taken completely by surprise.

"Beware... it may be among us already..." Hermes spoke.

"Stop being such a doomsayer, we would have seen it by now," Flicker hissed back nervously and Hermes made a deep frown.

"What... what if it can change forms? What if it's one of... of us?" Deloon fingered his lance in a nervous fashion, shuffling it in his hands.

"Don't be so paranoid," Shadowstar chastised the faery.

Deloon looked at her as if for the first time. "Hey... who the hell are YOU?"

Hermes drew one of the sais at his waist, pointing its tip at Shadowstar. "'tis true... I've never seen this one here before."

Just then, a horde of gargoyles emerged from the hallway carrying what was left of Anansi out in bits and pieces. One of the angry gargoyles tossed a hairy leg down in front of the crowd of fae. "HERE! THIS is what happens to your kind when they hurt one of ours." She spat on the leg as it lay curled on the grass.

"How did they... IRON!" Deloon cried as he sighted the iron daggers some of the gargoyles were holding. "No iron was allowed on the isle... how did-"

One of the gargoyles, a large male, grinned toothily at the faery. "You honestly expected us not to have some hidden..."

"TREACHERY!" Hermes yelled and turned his sai on the crowd of gargoyles.

The female gargoyle who had carried in the princess' body shot him an angry look. "I witnessed that filthy thing," she pointed at the bloated body being passed forwards by the crowd, "I saw it attack her unprovoked."

"LIAR," Hermes roared, "I'll teach you what happens to LIARS," he flung the sai and it suddenly flared to life, electrical power coiling along its surface. The sai struck the gargoyle full in the chest, and she toppled over screaming. The crowd of gargoyles leapt into action, running as a unit over the bodies strewn in their way to get at Hermes. Fae rushed to Hermes' defense, drawing all manner of magical weapons and forming a tight ring.

The rush of the gargoyles was much greater than the faeries expected. Having lived among them for so long, the faeries had secretly laughed at the idea that these creatures were the isle's official defenders. None of the fae were laughing this day, however. The first wave of iron wielding gargoyles burst through and got to Hermes almost instantly. The large male he had accosted plunged the dagger down through the top of Hermes' winged helmet with such strength that the helmet, as well as Hermes' skull, might as well have never existed. Hermes fell backwards, his mechanical wings crumpling up behind him and trapping another faery who had been right behind him.

Flicker had just drawn his whip when a strong pair of arms lifted him into the air from behind. Instantly he turned around and snapped the whip through what should have been the face of the person holding him. Instead they met with air.

Deloon was similarly lifted invisibly, floating in the air and swinging his lance around wildly. The two faeries were pulled back from the frey and deposited in a heap a few metres away.

Flicker looked up groggily into the face of a gargoyle and yelped. Shadowstar reached down and clamped his mouth shut with one big white hand. "I told you I had telekinetic ability. Now... I know what's going on."

Deloon got up with a growl and pointed his lance at Shadowstar. "Then tell us after I rip your throat out."

"Oh shut up," she scowled, giving him such a fierce look that he fell back a few steps. "Listen to me... we have bigger problems." She pointed out to the sea.

Both the faeries she had grabbed followed her gaze.

Trotting along the forest border was the largest horse either of them had ever seen. It was too large to be natural... and Flicker realized from the way the light shone off of it that it was completely mechanical. It had a silvery red lining, with burning coal cinders where the eyes should have been, deeply entrenched in hollow sockets of steel. Atop the horse was a massive giant of a suit of armor with a crested helmet. One couldn't even tell if there was a man beneath.

"We must defeat it ourselves... it has spread its poison to us by its mere presence on the isle." Shadowstar sneered, drawing her sword at the same time.

"Then... this is the horseman War," Deloon drew his lips back in a snarl.

"How do we defeat it?" Flicker muttered, looking with awe at the huge monstrosity.

Behind them, the faeries and the gargoyles continued to cut each other to pieces. One sound registered in Flicker's sharp ears above the battle screaming that gave him an idea. "that sound... a horse whinny. It can't be from War..."

"Slepnir," Deloon shrugged, "big deal."

"No... we can use it. Deloon, can you joust?" Flicker looked at his friend hopefully.

"Against THAT?" he pointed at the massive warrior on the shore.

He was answered by silence.

* * *

"HO WARRIOR," Deloon yelled and leveled his lance at the monstrous suit of armor. It was still higher than he was, even though he was atop one of the largest horses ever to exist. Slepnir whinnied and reared up in anticipation.

War gave faint signs of acknowledging, its gaze leaving the battle by the castle. It spoke with a low rumbling sound that resembled a thunderclap more than anything.

"Do you challenge me?"

Deloon was taken aback by getting a response from the suit. He regained his composure quickly and nodded in affirmation.

"Then prepare to lose. As soon as I finish making your races kill each other I'll be glad to hear your complaint."

"Nay, we fight now," Deloon started to charge, without waiting for his opponent to be ready. War turned in his chair to meet the charge, plucking a lance from the side of the great mechanical wonder he rode. Deloon met him square in the chest with his lance before War even had time to aim his lance. The impact made a horrible jangling sound, and Deloon was thrown from Slepnir's back as he clutched the end of his lance. He landed on the ground with a whooshing sound as his breath escaped him.

"This is madness," he wheezed. War turned his attention back to the battle.

Shadowstar and Flicker watched this glumly from in the shrubs. Flicker gumbled. "It seems the direct approach isn't going to work. I doubt Deloon has the magic left after Famine took it all to handle such a beast."

Shadowstar looked at him blankly. "Then I suggest we cheat." She motioned for him to follow her onto the shore's sand.

War suddenly turned about, as if having finished something. He looked down at the faery near him who was scrambling to get back onto Slepnir. "Now I will deal with your grievance." The voice came from deep withing the crested helmet.

Deloon leveled his lance again, a tired look on his face. "I'll never relent, yield now or die."

War gave a throaty laugh. "Such fire from one so young. I shall teach you of the fine art of War. Prepare yourself." It turned the great mechanized horse to face Slepnir. Then it bowed rather gracelessly in its armor. "To the death."

Deloon bowed back according to customs for the joust that had been written in stone with the invention of the art. Deloon advanced Slepnir at a run.

War started its charge, gripping the lance tightly in the crook of its metal arm. The hooves of its beast clamped across the sand with machine efficiency.

Suddenly, Flicker and Shadowstar darted in the path from out of the shrubbery, taking positions on either side of the approaching horses. "NOW!" Shadowstar yelled. She drew her great sword with a steely sound and swung at the legs of the warhorse. Flicker drew his whip and it ignited with orange fire like laser. He swung it in an arc through the other side of the horse. The Colowhip sliced through two legs like as if they didn't exist at all, the laser-focused light tearing through it like butter. Shadowstar's sword plunged through the other pair of legs with more difficulty, but managed to shear one off completely.

War toppled forwards and fell from the collapsing horse, landing with a thunderous crash on the ground.

Deloon aimed low with his lance and continued the charge. War struggled like a turle on its back, unable to move in the humongous armor it wore. The end of Deloon's lance went right through the back of its head with incredible accuracy, neatly piercing the helmet and impaling it on the end of the lance. The sheer momentum of Slepnir's run caused War's head to tear off on the end of the lance.

Deloon gave a whooping cry of success. "WE DID IT!" He threw down the lance, which had War's head impaled on it.

He was met by silence from all around. Flicker and Shadowstar looked forlornly back towards the castle. Deloon looked at them in confusion. "Hey..."

"We're too late..." Flicker whispered the words.

There was total silence from the castle, where fifty gargoyles and fifty faeries lay dead.

Chapter 5: Death and What Follows>/b>

Walking among the bodies like a zombie, Flicker had an expression of utter disbelief. Here they lay all bout him; his brothers and sisters with twisted expressions of pain etched on their faces, lying atop one another in an orgy of death. It was clear that by the end they had even started killing each other once the last of the more vulnerable gargoyles had fallen. Flicker choked back tears as he came upon Hermes, lying face down with an iron blade through the top of his helmet. He looked at the body, biting his lip so hard it drew a drop of his rainbow blood. Then, reaching down, he gripped the dagger in one hand and gave it a firm yank, removing it from the head of his friend. Flicker stood there for a while, dagger in hand, looking around in the carnage. Deloon was a choking, sobbing creature in the distance, not daring to near the field where his brothers lay.

Flicker didn't care less, he had come to join them.

With a single, futile gesture he brought the iron dagger right up against his neck, feeling its chill mixed with the fading warmth of his friend's blood. A tear ran down his cheek as he let the dagger stay there, his hand wavering.

"And what will that solve?"

Shadowstar's voice brought Flicker back to reality for a moment. He spun around, lowering the dagger to his waist.

She looked at him, her blue eyes pooled with tears. "You'd leave me here alone? Is that what you'd do?"

"I... I wasn't... going to..." he dropped the dagger. She looked at him very soberly, waiting for an explanation. He gritted his teeth and sucked in a deep breath, shuddering from the emotions that ran through his blood. "I should though. I should be with my people."

"Do you think they ask that of you?" Her face was paler than usual. She suddenly reached down and grabbed Hermes by the neck, lifting the body up and shaking it violently to and fro like a rag doll. "Is he saying anything? I bet you hear him saying "come Flicker, why don't you throw it all out the damned window and join me in being dead!" WELL?" she tossed the body to the floor.

Flicker looked at her, the pain of being scolded adding to the sorrow he felt. But he nodded absently in her direction, looking down at his feet as if all the solutions lay there. Instead he saw a pile of dead bodies.

"Don't... don't leave me." her voice struck something in him and he looked up at the gargoyle standing before him. Her eyes told him they story of someone who has seen too much go wrong. The pain he saw in her eyes was mixed with something else that Flicker couldn't recognize, but it was there when she looked at him.

Suddenly Flicker felt ashamed that he had even been thinking about doing something with the dagger. "I won't... leave you," he took a step towards her.

She ran up to him, suddenly enfolding him in her wings and hugging him with all her might through a haze of tears. Flicker let himself be lifted into the hug, a dumbstruck expression on his face. He moved his hands down to hold her waist in the hug and waited patiently until she let the hug go. Then he looked at her with glazed eyes and an expression of gratitude and wonder.

"He's... something special to you, isn't he?"

Shadowstar looked at him with confusion.

"Flicker. The one you know." he added, looking at his feet again, then back into her eyes.

"He would be in any reality," she smiled. Flicker's heart missed a beat.

The scene was interrupted by Deloon's yell. He pointed out to the sea. "It's the last one! It's Death!" he fell to his knees in desperation at the sight of the oncoming figure

There were two figures coming up the path, and the first was on horseback.

* * *

Death was completely masked in a long flowing cloak, and nothing of what lay beneath showed through. Two gloved hands held out in front of the cloak held a massive scythe. the blade was a rusted, gnarled thing that had seen much use, and the long wooden handle was twisted to be more comfortable to grip and swing. The horse it rode was a nightmare of legend, its hair glowing red with a dull fire and its eyes flashing a brilliant white against the blackness of its body. Flicker felt weakened just looking at it.

Then, coming up just behind it was a lone man wearing a tattered silver cape. His blue skin was the first thing that betrayed him, and when the three surviving faeries saw him they all whispered the same word with expressions of disbelief.

It was him.

"Oberon..." Flicker gritted his teeth. It took a moment for him to realize that he wasn't half as surprised as he should have been.

Oberon looked up, an icy smile crossing his face. "Indeed. We are ill met by moonlight," his face was scarred horribly with scratches. It looked like he had a disease, with deep and blue-cobalt streaks crossing one side of his face. "Would you like to see who I've brought?" he pointed at Death.

Death made no sign of movement. Its cape flapped loosely in the cold winds.

"So you're behind this. All of it." Deloon growled. "And to think I am your son... you MURDERER!" His hands couldn't even feel the lance they clung to in the bitter cold.

"Did you really think I allowed myself to be exiled?" he grinned sickly, resting one hand on Death's cape. "Please, allow me to show you your demise." He yanked back the cloak and Death was revealed.

It was a Styx machine.

It was a female, iron, skeletal thing that glared straight ahead with unseeing eyes. Its body was a rusty mesh of iron drenched with seaweed and the smell of decay. But what Flicker saw when he looked at its head was a sight that drove him to his knees.

It had Ladybug's head. His elderly mother was looking straight ahead without emotion, like some sickening prop. Then its eyes rolled accusitively in his direction and Ladybug smiled at him.

That was quite enough for Flicker.

He fell backwards sobbing like a child, putting his hands up to block his view of her. But it was hopeless. Her accusing face was everywhere in his mind. "No... go away just leave me be... just leave me..."

Shadowstar immediately ran to Flicker, putting an arm around him and pushing his crying face against her body. She turned her head and snarled at Oberon. "You play a sick game, fiend."

"Ah, a Kindred." Oberon grinned.

Shadowstar's look turned to one of shock. "You know of me... but... how?" Her eyes rested on Oberon's scarred and cobalt features. There was something familiar about it. Something she should have realized from her first glance, just from her long training. "A Watcher... Oberon is a-"

Deloon stood up and growled. "I challenge Death." he spat the words out like poison. Oberon laughed as he approached the two.

"Then go right ahead, I won't stop you." Oberon's face contorted with the smile of someone who is truly enjoying himself.

Deloon drew his lance and faced Death, who looked down at him with interest. It was listening.

"I fear you not." Deloon dropped his lance unexpectedly. Death looked at him mutely. Deloon turned his head up proudly in the face of the mostrous skeleton. Death's horse breathed a cloud in his face from the cold, and it clung to him like a shroud. "Death is nothing to those that do not fear it. I have seen all my friends die, I do not hesitate to be among them once more. Do with me as you will, but think not that I am afraid." Deloon was shuddering, a tear rolling down his hard blue face. He looked a dozen years older.

Death lowered its scythe. It did so with a quiet, relenting motion, the eyes in Ladybug's head fixed on his proud form. Then it rested still.

Oberon frowned. "I summoned you, forget not your master." Death gave no sign of complying. Instead, it grabbed the reins of its horse and sat there , one eye moving to look at Oberon. The only sound it made was the squealing of its iron joints.

Deloon swiveled around to face Flicker. "Do you see my brother? There is nothing to fear in death. This thing will not harm us, it can only harm those wh-"

His speech was interrupted by a loud, violent screech as Death suddenly jerked into action, slicing the air with its scythe with speed that was unbelievable. With perfect aim, the point of the iron scythe swept through the air and right into Deloon's back, going clean through and emerging from the front of Deloon's rib cage. Deloon had barely enough time to gurgle in surprise before he was lifted off his feet in his armor by the amazing strength of the Styx machine with Ladybug's head. Even Oberon was surprised, taking a step back as if he hadn't expected such brutality. Deloon spit a wad of blood and his eyes went wide with fear just before they went white with death.

Shadowstar pulled Flicker up urgently, her look of fear matching his look of horror. Deloon's body slid uselessly off the end of the scythe and dropped to the ground.

"You're next," Oberon grinned, "and then my work will be complete."

Death started to float towards them, the horse's feet not quite touching the ground. It moved at a steady drift, rearing back the scythe with a move of its iron hands.

"Why are you here, Watcher?" Shadowstar yelled to Oberon, already backing away from the approaching horseman.

"Oh, so you recognize me now? Well, let me explain. Taking over Oberon took some time you see, his presence was quite formidably. But that which can not be broken, can surely be corrupted. I worked on his soul a long time before it was docile enough to possess," Oberon's expression turned hard, his face wrinkled with scars and his white hair looking dead and limp. "But surely you noticed it. His lapses in judgement. His acts of violence. After all, he did try to murder you," he laughed at Flicker, the laughter of someone in a park on a sunny day.

"You... you're in his body then," Flicker stammered, slowly understanding. Death was about five meters away.

"That I am, and I'm not leaving. Not until my plans are complete. This world is ripe for the picking, especially the human realm. Once I finish here, I think I'll visit all your human friends too."

Flicker suddenly broke for it, this time tugging Shadowstar along with him as he made for the castle. His feet slipped once on a corpse's face with a sickening squish, but he regained his footing.

"GO ON, RUN! IT WON'T DO YOU ANY GOOD!" the Oberon thing hollared with laughter.

Death started moving again, going straight for them. Flicker tore into the castle hallway, running through its familiar twists and turns, nearly sliding in a pool that was probably Anansi's blood. Shadowstar ran along beside him, her breath short but steady. "Where are we going?"

"No idea," he huffed, aware that everything was silent except the two of them. "I think we should-"

A scythe suddenly came tearing at him from right through the wall, as if it didn't exist. It sliced a line down his arm, thankfully not getting stuck there. Flicker screamed in pain and his arm turned grey from the iron. Death came right through the wall like a phantom, as if it didn't even exist.

Shadowstar pulled Flicker by his other arm, not missing a beat. Flicker's legs took over, guiding him after her running form on automatic. They rounded another corner, plowing down a flight of stairs. Flicker tripped and went flying into Shadowstar on the marble, sending them both rolling down in a heap until they crashed at the bottom in a tangle of limbs.

Shadowstar was on her feet right away, pulling Flicker up as he winced in pain. "How do we defeat Death? Come on... we have to figure it out!"

"No time," he hissed. Death drifted down the stairs lazily, the horse whinnying in anticipation of another kill. "Nothing defeats Death... nothing can... not even an immortal."

Death reached the bottom and stood in the confines of the basement room with them. It raised the scythe, looking ahead with its mute eyes into the distance as if it saw something there. Flicker whirled about and came face to face with his birth mirror. His eyes widened. "The... the MIRROR!"

Flicker grabbed Shadowstar's arm. "We go through, NOW!" She suddenly understood his plan and touched the surface of the mirror.

Behind them, Death lifted the scythe painfully high as if ready to cut the world in two.

Flicker laid his hands on the mirror's surface. "Both of us did it before... why isn't it working?" Just then he felt as if an invisble hand had pushed him, and he went tumbling through the mirror with Shadowstar just as Death's scythe went through the air they had just occupied....

* * *

...and landed soundly on the other side. The two of them fell out of the mirror, its glassy surface rippling like water and then growing still like a calm lake. Sprawled on the ground, Flicker groaned as Shadowstar landed on top of him, her gargoyle weight a little more than he was used to supporting. His arm shrieked in protest at the new weight, but she rolled off quickly and was on her feet in an instant. "We... we did it. We escaped Death... we-"

She looked back at the mirror. Death stared right back at her, its form coming through the mirror. Its scythe grew huge and distorted, coming out of the glass like a great pop-up page in a child's book. Flicker yelled in fear.

"Oh no you don't," Shadowstar gestured. The mirror buckled on its hinges suddenly with the force of her telekinetic sledgehammer. The glass suddenly shattered and Death's image, which had grown large and almost three-dimensional, exploded into thousands of shards that sprayed everywhere. Shadowstar was cut by one in her abdomen and she doubled over. Flicker managed to avoid the worst, but one grazed his face and left a bleeding scratch that trickled with rainbow blood.

The glass settled. There was silence.

Flicker opened his eyes and looked around, he was in a basement identical to his own. "We have to go back... we have to stop Oberon..." then he realized where he was. "Is... this... your reality?"

"Yes," a voice from up the stairs echoed. A lean figure was walking down the stairs in a green cape, and Shadowstar's eyes widened at the sight. Flicker groaned as he saw who it was.

Flicker stood on the stairwell, staring down at his counterpart. "Well... this is interesting."

-To be continued