~Joy~

I
walked slowly away from Lupa to Rastus and bent over him, shaking his shoulder
murmuring, “Rastus, wake up. Come on sleeping beauty.”

Man,
I thought waking him up in the morning was hard, waking him up after he’d past out
was all most impossible. But after calling him, “the cutest sleeping beauty
there ever was he woke growling, “Sleep beauty...” And stretched, making me
jump back so I wouldn’t get hit by his arms and bumped into Matthew. He was
jumpier than usual and practically hit the roof when my back met his.

“Sorry!”
we say at the same time.

Lanni
is awake and talking about escaping, I hope we can. I’m a bit shocked about the
whole thing and don’t really know what’s going on, but what did I expect? I’m a
shape shifter, whether I like it or not, and things like this happen to special
people...

I
look around for Kimya. She isn’t around...Does this mean she’s working for them
or...dead.

I
slump against the wall, letting my hair fall across my face to hide the
tears...I don’t know anything, who to trust, how to use my power properly, who
I really am... My body starts shaking and I’m sobbing uncontrollably. No one
says anything, they don’t know why I’m crying and I could never tell them. I
guess they think I’ve decided that we’ll never be free...

I
start shaking my head, hoping that they’ll understand... It doesn’t work. Lanni
comes over while the others turn away.

“Don’t
worry,” Lanni smiles, “we’ll get out of this.”

“It’s
not that,” My voice is barely audible.

Linna
doesn’t understand and gently rubs my shoulder before going back to the others.
I see through a fog of black hair, her shrugging at them.

I’m
alone, hurt, lost and confused. I don’t know...

A
man with black hair comes up to the cell (Not Kuruka), with two strong, brown
haired men either side of him. and points at me, “she’s the one he wants to
do first.”

I stand and move backwards, pressing myself against
the wall.

They come in and grab me, Matthew and Rastus
pound the men’s backs with their fists. The men don’t seem to notice and drag
my kicking and screaming out of the cell and down a hall. They push me into a dark
room and I fall. They come in and close the door. I stand up and braise myself.
Lights turn on and I see that I’m in a small room fill with different kinds of jewelry.
There is a weird feel to the room and I turn and run to the furthest wall and
bang on it, though I know it will do nothing. The big men come with ropes and
in seconds I can’t do a thing. The men put me into the middle of the room and
the black haired man comes over with a silver neck chain with five violet Jewels.
It’s beautiful but I feel the evil pouring from it, I’m not letting it go
around my neck.

“This necklace is very special,” he begins,
hold so I can see it perfectly, “once it’s around your neck, it will change
you. You’ll no longer be Joy, but Raven. Our servant, you’ll use your powers
for us.”

“Can’t someone just take it off and then I’ll
be as good as new?” I glare at him.

“We’d be stupid if it was as simple as that.
Once the necklace is on it takes your personality and some of your life force,
so that you can’t live without it.” the man laughed at my horrified face. “The
only way to free you is for someone to stir you deeply buried memories and find
a way to transfer your life force back to you. The only person who could wake
you up would have to be someone you feel deeply about.” He grinned, seeming to
know how much a loner I was.

I hung my head. I was doomed, “Are you going
to do this to the others?”

“Maybe, but it depends on them.”

I looked up and saw him coming closer. I
struggled, turning my head left and right until one of the brown haired men
held me still. Someone please save me!
I cried inside then the man placed the necklace around my neck, muttering, "awaken Raven!" and I knew one
more...

Just so you guys know, I didn't quiet feel right about this, but couldn't think of anything else. Don't make her do anything really horrible, okay. I just wondered if it's wrong by God somehow? 

Ash~ 

Kuruka had left, so I was all alone, with my manacle. I could realse the power I had been holding in. With the necklace removed, I had started getting back my old power. My scales were hardening. I might be able to do it now. He is not watching me. The manacle is made to fit a dragon arm. So I must go to my human avatar, fast. I begin to shrink, hair coming out of my head, and then, my arm slips out. Kuruka sure is careless, he forgot about Malva, and about how once the necklace was removed my power would grow back. I then turn to my smoky form and slip out of the room, looking for Kimya, then the others, I better be ready when the council comes, I need to seem good, so they don't go back to hating me. 

I race down dark corridors in my smokelike ghost of a girl form. Then I hear Kimya's voice, it seems to be saying something, muttering. I slip through the keyhole in smoke and see her, in a cage, with no one on guard where is everyone? She then finnishes muttering and turns into a smoke form, (ah, she used my old b-day gift, a spell to make her into a smoke that looks exactly like me(since shapeshifters have to envision what the will look like when they shift) so we could pull a prank on someone. The spell takes none of her energy and is really strong (the person we wanted to sneak up on so log ago was strong, so the spell to trick him had to be). She then slipped out of the bars, and then, she turned into a stone and started rolling, small enough to fit under the door and large enough to move swiftly she rolled. I then sank down and picked her up (you wonder how, I made myself partly solid). Sensing me, she rolled to a halt and turned into a rat, so that she could converse with me, we ran (I drifted, she scampered) and after passing a few corridors, we saw, Kukura and Malva, fighting. Then, we saw Silent Eagle, flying away to some place. I turned to dragon form and started to growl, Kimya turned into her favorite form and flew after him, dropping a few scales as she flew. I turned to Malva and Kukura and joined the frey. 

Matthew Wang

"Could somebody please explain what's going on?" Rastus whined for the fiftieth time. I was getting very close to punching him in the face, as was everbody else. When Rastus whined, he whined. And it was getting extremely annoying.

"For the last bloody time," Lupa growled, "we don't bloody know!" We could hear the sounds of a fight, from somewhere down the hall, but we couldn't see what was going on, and we couldn't shift out of the cell. It had some kind of lock on it.

A dragon bounded down the hall, grabbed the bars, and forced them open. Kimya raced after, holding an unconcious? dead? Malva. Kuruka was hot on their heels, but we were already running out the door of the cell. Once out of the cell, we would be able to fight back.

Rastus turned into a fox. Really? Really? We're fighting against someone who can turn into anything, and that includes a polar bear with fangs and wings, and he turns into a fox? Does Rastus even have a brain? I don't think so.

Then again, I turn into a panther. It won't be any real defense against anything that Kuruka's got up his sleeve, but at least I've got actual teeth. If I were to turn into, say, a Chimera, that would be a total giveaway.

Ahead of me, the dragon and Kimya skid to a halt. I turn around to face Kuruka. "So," I hear someone say, "this is your escape attempt?" My fur stands on end. It's Joy. It's Joy, but it's not Joy. Joy-not-Joy laughs. "Is this really the best you could come up with?"

Joy-not-Joy and Kuruka have an advantage that we don't. They don't have to play by any rules, they can kill us. And they will, easily. The good guys always have limitations. Maybe, maybe one of us could block out our conscience long enough to kill Kuruka, but never Joy. She looks like the girl who left the cell just an hour ago.

"Raven," Kuruka calls. "Open the door."

She does without question. "Leave," he says, his eyes dancing. "Leave, and we'll start the game again." I have no clue what he's talking about.

But we leave. Kuruka let's us go.

But it's only when we're in the air, flying as birds, that I realize that what Kuruka meant by game.

He didn't let Aranel go. He didn't let Joy go. He's going to hunt us down again, and take a few more. And again.

Maybe me and my other half should find someone else to stick us back together.

Oh, and if anyone feels like taking responsibilty for splitting Matthew in two, feel free. If nobody does, it'll end up being Kuruka or maybe the Council, if we develop the Council any farther.