His steps echo metalically and clink against the floor. Every step he makes, he knows they know where he is. It doesn't matter exactly who 'they' are. They know, and he can feel them watching him.

He walks on, across the bridge that Annabel had built in opening the Fourth Gate. He knows his master - World's Master - will tell himi to transport to Annabel and fight her again. However, Hend does not know how crippling the tortures he has inflicted upon him have been. Carmelotto walks on, brutally aware of the fading feeling he harbors in his limbs.

He does not mind so much the torture; pain fades, but paralysis - can the Master cure that? What good are cybernetics if he can not feel them? What good is he if he slips out of touch with his body?

Mel sighs and throws a glance over the edge of the bridge. Why doesn't he just end it all now? Hend owns his body, but not his immortal soul. He stares into the endless blackness. His eyes scramble to find the bottom in the dark.

He turns. He walks to the edge. He stops.

Then, he closes his eyes, and the evil of the maze, the Master, and the men of World surrounds him. He spreads his arms wide, and he feels, for a whispering moment, the malignance licking at his limbs, flitting over his body, exciting all the remaining nerves within him. He leans forwards.

He falls.

Then, just when he feels the ground is upon him, he opens his eyes. There is a flash of light and a jarring feeling. His eyes are assaulted by blindingly dim arteficial lighting panels, and he lands, softly, on his back in Hend's office.

Hend walks with his lazy, paced shuffle, and he leans over Mel. "Ah, ah, ah," the good doctor chides, a twisted smile playing on his face. "You've work to do and my daughter to kill. Suicide is not an out."

But how could Hend have known!?

"Lucifer! What are you doing?" Corliss demands, her arms crossed over her chest, her milky gaze demanding an answer. Who would have thought that her glaucoma-stricken eyes could look so hard and cold?

"What do you mean 'doing,' dear sister?" Lucifer asks innocently, moving to stand between Corliss and the glass of water he had obtained.

"You know perfectly well what I mean, Lucy. What are you hiding?"

"Oi! What's this?" Charleton asks, whapping Lucifer over the head with a toothbrush.

"Ummm..."

"Lucy, have you been helping Good Mistress Nabel?" Corliss asks coldly.

"Ummm..."

"You can't help her, Luce! She's better off dead! Just let her go!" Charleton elaborates.

"No!" Lucifer protests, yanking the toothbrush from Charleton's grip. "She's our only hope to get out of this Hendish place! I'm sick of being a minotaur! I want to be a Satyr again! I want to see the sun! I want to see grass! I want to see flowers! I want to enjoy a gentle breeze without having to worry how many toxic fumes are in it! I want to see World how she was meant to look, not how she looks now that Hend has corrupted her! It isn't fair for anyone to let Annabel die, let alone the youth!"

Charleton and Corliss say nothing. The just stare, agog.

"I know you're not too happy that Nabel hatched a black, but can you blame her? How long has that egg been sitting here, just waiting? It's older than you are, Charlie! Centuries of sitting in the maze, soaking up the evil vibes have got to make someone like Kipfel, but at least he isn't a chip off the ol' Hend! He could be worse!"

"He could be better, too, Lucifer," Corliss snapped. Now stop this foolishness immediately.

Lucifer narrows his eyes and glares at Corliss. "You can't make me."

"By the Gates I can't! I wield more power among the Gehenians than you'd ever hope to! Charlie does, too! There's no way they'd let you support Annabel and a black!"

"Back off! I'll do how I like! I don't care what you say! You can't make me stop! So nyeh!" Lucifer holds the toothbrush tightly and touches the glass of water before teleporting out of the area.

"That-! That insubbordinate wretch of a child!" Corliss fumes.

"Maybe he has a point, 'Liss," Charleton remarks calmly, stroking his chin. "I mean, after all, she is the One. There can't be another One, or else they'd be a Two."

"You-!"

"Hey! Calm down! I was just saying maybe. Don't you want to see the sun again, 'Liss?"

"I'd just like to see. Period." Corliss sighs and teleports out.

Charleton shakes his head slowly. "What's the point in playing mediator?" he wonders aloud before he, too, teleports out.

*That's all you had to do to that one?* Kipfel asks warilly as the pair stare about themselves.

"Evidently," Annabel remarks, dragging herself up to her feet, dusting the dirt off her black pants, not that anyone would see it in the darkness anyways. "Who would have thought that the Fifth Gate was a bump in the floor of the maze."

*You still could have held onto me a little tighter.*

"I said I'm sorry, Kipfel. What more do you want?"

Kipfel says nothing, and Annabel gets the distinct idea that he's embarrassed.

"Oh! Come here, you silly wyrm!" Annabel laughs, picking up Kipfel and letting him wrap himself around her neck. "Come on. Let's go find the Sixth Gate."

They walk onward, listening and watching as they do so. After a few turns in the corridors, Kipfel speaks up.

*Annabel?* he asks guardedly.

"Hmm? Yes?"

*Do you... Do you think it's not so dark suddenly?*

"You mean lighter?" Annabel stops and looks around. "Possibly. I can't really tell. We've been in here so long, it's like my eyes have permanantly adjusted to the darkness."

Kipfel lifts his head up and looks around. *And your wings aren't out. I wonder what's going on...*

They turn a corner, and Annabel throws her arm up to shield her eyes while shrinking back. "Holy sh-"

*AIIIYEE! IT BURNS!*

Annabel sucks in air through her teeth and retreats around the corner. "By the Gates. That's ... that's..."

*What is it?* Kipfel whines.

"It's World's sun, Star." Annabel peeks her head around the corner again to stare into the light of the bright, blue orb. "I never thought I'd see it again..."

*Again? You've seen it before? And you didn't destroy it? It's so bright! It hurts!*

Annabel turns to look at Kipfel, whose eyes are clenched shut and face is contorted in pain. "Oh suck it up. At least your eyes aren't boiling out of your head."

*Do we have to go that way?*

"I thought you were scared of the dark. This is the opposite of dark. You should be embracing it."

*In an ideal world. Let's go the other way, mm?*

"No. Stop whining and let's just go."

Kipfel sighs with resignation. *Fine,* he grumbles, deciding not to stare at the brightness.

They walk onward, towards the light. The brilliant blue glow seems to intensify, and the temperature seems to steadily rise a few degrees. They continue onward, and Kipfel dares not to open his eyes for more than a few moments.

"Is it just me, or is it getting warmer?"

*Yeah, it is kind of hot. But that's to be expected, isn't it? I mean, the maze is cooler than the outside air, isn't it?*

"I didn't think the air was this warm. I mean, the whole planet ought to be climate-controlled, set at a certain temperature..."

*That's freakish and scary. Your father has too much time on his hands if he can do that.*

"It's not his doing; the settlers from Earth brought this technology with them, if I can remember my history texts correctly."

*Wait. We can't possibly be nearing the end of the maze. We still have three more gates to open, I thought...*

"Good point... So then why is it getting warmer?"

*AIIYYY! Holy Mothers of the Gates!* Kipfel screamed.

"What?"

*Thaaaats... really bright.*

Annabel looks at him. His eyes are open, and they were wide in either pain or fear or something. She sighs. "You'll get used to it soon enough," she mutters.

*Yo. I think I see something in the distance.*

"That's not really all that far away. You ought to get your eyes checked."

*Excuse me. Who grew up in the darkness and is only now seeing daylight for the first time?*

"That has nothing to do with distance-judgement..."

*Point.* Kipfel blinks at the structure in the closer-than-distance. He stares hard at it. He ponders over it. He sighs. *Okay. I give up. What is it?*

"It's a gate."

*Already? We just opened the Fifth Gate a few minutes ago...*

"Not that kind of gate, silly! This one, I think, is just like a really big doorway."

*Really big, and really, REALLY ugly.*

"Oh, quit being so pessimistic."

*Fine. I'll be an apathist. It's a gate; whoopdedoo.*

"I think I liked you better as a pessimist," Annabel sighs.

*Deal.*

"Oh my... By the Gates, Kipfel! Look at that!"

*What?*

"Beyond the gate! It's a huge field of sand!"

*Sand. Yay.*

"Quit being sarcastic."

*Sarcastic? Me? Never!* Kipfel retorts, his voice oozing with irony.

"Quiet, you. I think it's a desert. But I didn't think there were deserts here on World..."

*Huh. Shows what you know.*

"Oh, be quiet! Did you know there was a desert here?"

*Hey, I didn't even know the sun was blue, so cut me some flack, Nabel.*

"Hmm..." Annabel grunts, walking towards the sheet of pale, powdery white sand. It looks like flour. A whole field of the flour-like sand spreads before them. The blue sunlight reflects off the pure white field, illuminating it in an azure glow. The purple-red sky above it all and the blue-green clouds that float hazily make the scene seem dreamlike and pure fantasy.

*It's really bright,* Kipfel observes again after a moment.

"Yes. It is. I wonder if it's got anythng to do with the Sixth Gate...?"

*Naw! It can't possibly! Besides, this whole conversation is getting drastically redundant. Can't we just decide whether or not we're going in there?*

"You're not," Mel's voice says as he materializes before them, for the first time revealing how hideous he has actually become since the begining of this journey. He is no longer handsome and charming, but rather lumpy and misshapen. His eyes seem half-alive, and he stares, blankly at the two of them.

Annabel sighs at the hunk of machine and man that stands before them. "Oh go away, Mel."

"No, I mean you'll survive only a few hours going out onto the Salt Flats of Albenugia. You can't go."

"Since when do you care whether or not I die?"

"Since the minute you kill your father, my servitude will come to an end, and World will be reborn."

"How charitable of you. What's in it for you?"

"In it for me?! I get my freedom! My release through death! I no longer have to habitate this lumpish body! I no longer must endure the pain of my Liege's torture! I can finally be-"

*Oh, shut up already,* Kipfel hisses.

"Don't tell me to shut up," Mel warns.

*Don't tell me what to do,* Kipfel shoots back, narrowing his eyes in the sunlight.

"But it's okay for you to tell me what to do?" Mel scoffs and waves his hand dismissively. Annabel notes that, despite his physical impairments and crushed spirit, he still retains his previous charisma, despite his twisted and black heart. Mel turns away arrogantly.

"Mel," Annabel begins.

"Don't start with me. You're as insubbordinate as your ridiculous little dragon."

*WYRM!* Kipfel corrects forcibly, all-out glaring at Mel now.

"Whatever," Mel mutters.

"Both of you just stop! If you want me to open this Gate, we have to find out how it is we have to go about doing it!" Annabel protests, glaring down at her shoulder where Kipfel lays and then up at Mel, who is still staring away, across the deserts.

"You know, these deserts will be very useful one day," he observes.

*Should we care?* Kipfel manages, sounding as if he forced the words through gritted teeth.

Mel chooses to ignore this barb. "The Cöd speaks of many things, not just the present of many people, you know."

*Again, sho-*

"Yes, you ought to care," Mel snaps before continuing with his observances. "There will be, one day, a great battle between you and your father. World as we know it will be destroyed, but World as the Gehenians know it will be reborn. Great beasts will roam the wilds where cities once sprawled, and humans will be sparce. The Salt Flats of Albanugia will take over a good deal of World, leaving only a few portions to habitable, arable land, available for humans. Never again need the Gehenians worry about the death of World, for the great beasts will come, and they, with their bondmates, will protect the planet.

"And they will owe it all to you, Annabel."

"Why are you telling me all this? I read Cöd. I know what will happen. Mordecai and his people will care for the Bunny Dragons with the help of Sabra and Ranger. I've read the story already. I know what will happen, come a few hundred years."

"But there is so little that you really do know, Annabel."

"Other than how to open the Sixth Gate?"

"Other than how to open the Sixth Gate."

*That was redundant.*

"And you're obnoxious."

*Thank you.*

"The pleasure is all mine."

Again, Kipfel leers at Mel, who is still not looking at either him or Annabel. Mel's attention is still on the Salt Flats.

"Oh you two! Knock it off already! Mel, just tell me how to open the Sixth Gate."

"You must restore it to its former beauty, of course. I thought you said you read Cöd."

"It wasn't very deep in detailing how to open the Gates."

"Then you didn't read the right one. I, myself, have not read the true version. The only ones who have are my Lord and a very sparse handful of the Gehenians."

"Then how do you know?"

"Your father told me. I, being the only one he deems worthy to be his confindant, have been very privledged to his ramblings, and a few important tidbits of information that slipped in with the ramblings."

*Lucky you. You must feel the love.*

Mel's expression darkens and he turns to stare at Kipfel coldly. "It's a very tough love relationship."

Silence ensues for a few moments, and Annabel feels the tension mounting between her former tutor and her bondmate. She clears her throat, and the two look away from each other again. "Mel," she says cautiously. "How do you feel about my father?"

"What sort of smarmy question is that?" Mel demands.

*For once, I agree with the moron.*

"It was just a question. If he hurts you so much, why do you follow him? I don't understand at all."

*Then again, Annabel has a point.*

"It's difficult to explain..." Mel admits, looking down at the ground.

*Don't tell me you're big on S&M.*

"Kipfel!" Annabel gasps.

*What?*

"Don't insinuate that my father is gay."

*There's nothing wrong with gay people,* Kipfel admits, sticking his nose up in the air.

Mel blinks. "That's the first time I've heard that little mongrel stand up for anyone, least of all the downtrodden," he observes.

"You're dodging the question," Annabel reminds him.

"I follow him..." Mel begins, but he cuts himself off, shaking his head. "I have to get going."

"Carmelotto!" Annabel chides. Kipfel simply grins.

"Good luck with the Gate. Your little Gehenians will be coming soon enough to help you out of this predicament."

"Mel!" she protests, but it is too late, and he is already gone.

Kipfel's dark laughter floods her mind. She looks over at him on her shoulder and shakes her head. He simply laughs harder.

In truth, Lucifer, Corliss, and Charleton, as well as many other Gehenians, did indeed arrive shortly after Mel left. After a short exchange, the Gehenians agreed to help Annabel provided Kipfel did not hinder her process through the Gates. The agreement was reached, mostly due to Kipfel's lack of desire to raise a protest, and the Gehenians began to help Annabel restore the Gate to the Salt Flats of Albanugia, and thusly open the Seventh Gate.

A week was all that was needed, and by the end of it, Lucifer was antagonizing Kipfel, demanding why he didn't grow. Kipfel, naturally, snapped at him regardlessly and said that he would grow when he was good and ready, and that Lucy ought to sod off, thank you very much. The Gate was closed, rather than opened, and outside it, Annabel could see the skies darkening more and more, and rain fell on World's surface for the first time in a long while.

Now, a day after the rain fell on the Salt Flats, Annabel and Kipfel set off again, this time with the verbal guidance of Charleton. They are to proceed cautiously until they reach the end of the maze, and there, they should meet Tirival Hend, as well as the culmination of their fates.

For a long time, Kipfel and Annabel traveled in silence. Then, after a bit, Kipfel finally speaks up, expressing thoughts he would usually keep guarded.

*Annabel, don't you think I'm overdue?* he asks.

"Overdue?" Annabel replies, blinking.

*To grow.*

"You were overdue to hatch, too, my dear."

*Not by my choice. I ought to grow soon, right?*

"I wouldn't know. I've never been around a dragon before."

*Pfff... Some help you are. The least you could do is reassuringly pat my head and say, 'Of course, Kipfel. You'll grow soon enough.' You can't even do that for me!*

"Now, now, Kipfel. Are you in flux that you're suddenly acting this way?"

*I'M A MALE! I DON'T GO IN FLUX!* Kipfel projects so powerfully that the thought literally echoes off the walls, adding a good amount of oomph to his usually sillibant voice.

"I was... kidding..." Annabel replies guardedly before she begins to walk again.

*Don't. Kid.*

"Yes. Sir."

*Is it possible for you to be serious?*

Annabel grins. "Is it possible for you to jest?" she chuckles.

*I don't know how I got stuck with you.*

"Because I'm the daughter of the Heir of World!" Annabel announces, grinning manically.

*Oh stop. I think I'll get ill on your power trip.*

Annabel turns to face Kipfel in the darkness and sticks out her tongue.

*I saw that.*

"I doubt it."

Kipfel makes a face and turns away, again returning to his brooding nature. *Okay. Let's get this over with. I'm getting sick of seeing darkness everywhere.*

"AHHH!" Annabel screams.

*What?*

"The sunlight! It converted you! You suddenly have a dislike for the darkness!"

*Not entirely. I'm just getting bored of it.*

"Ah... hah... Riiiiight."

*Oh shut up and let me drown in psychobabble.*

"Oh, don't sulk, Kipfeeeeeeeeeeeel!" Suddenly, the ground drops out from beneath the two of them.

*What'd you do to the ground!* Kipfel demands.

In answer, the ground appears again - right under their noses, allowing them to pull glorious face-plants into dark-enshrouded linoleum.

*OWWW! THAT FUC-*

"Now, now, little wyrm. Now is not the time for obscenities."

Kipfel jerks himself upright as Annabel takes her sweet time, rubbing her nose as she sits up. *You,* he seethes.

"Yes. Me. Hello, Annabel. I trust your little wyrm hasn't given you too much trouble."

"Umm, no, Daddy. Kipfel's been pretty good."

"I'm so glad. I'd hate to have to kill you if you were miserable for the past few months."

"Daddy?"

"Say 'Goodbye,' Annabel. Until your next time around." A projectile weapon cocks in the darkness.

"With all due respect, my Liege, that's where you're wrong," Mel says out of the darkness. A switch flips, and the lights come on, blinding them all.

Hend is the first to regain his eyesight. "Well, well, well. Isn't this interesting?" he asks, a smirk running over his face, a pistol in his hand pointed at Annabel's forehead.

Background by Absolute Background Textures.