Chapter 14
Bellamy saw Octavia running through the woods and yelled her name in an attempt to get her attention. She turns towards his voice but soon changes direction when she hears someone else. He watches in horror as a series of scenes flashes before his eyes of his friends and their nightmares.
"You aren't supposed to be here." A voice says from behind him and when he turns he's face to face with the rogue dream walker.
However before he can say any more or do anything to him a blinding white light appears and when it's gone so is the dream walker and Bellamy is no longer in the woods. He's in some kind of white room with no door or windows and begins to panic, thinking that he's somehow been locked in a dream. Suddenly there's another flash of white light and when it disappears there's a person in its place who looks exactly like A.L.I.E..
"Where am I? Where are my friends and what do you want with us?" He demands angrily.
"Relax Bellamy, you're safe here. I'm not who you think I am. My name is Becca, A.L.I.E. was my twin sister and I brought you here because I need your help."
"How do I know you're telling the truth? How do I know you're not some trick from that other dream walker?" Bellamy asks unsure if he should believe her.
"Search your feelings Bellamy, you know I mean you no harm."
Bellamy is silent for a few minutes as he allows himself to take everything in around him and sure enough what he felt was different from what he'd felt with either the dream walker or A.L.I.E.. There was something else there too and as he focused on it he looked at her in shock as the realization hit him.
"You're The Key, aren't you? Or at least the part that's lonely and in pain."
"I am but I'm also not. There's a lot you need to know and far too little time to tell you but at least I can give you something for your friend Roan's search."
Bellamy looks at her confused and is about to say something when she holds up her hand to stop him.
"This will go quicker if you just listen. Perhaps when I'm finished there will be time for your questions."
Bellamy nods for her to continue but before she starts she waves her hand causing one of the walls to become like a video screen.
"This will play things out as I tell them because some of the details are to horrific for words to effectively describe them. What I'm about to tell you is essentially the history of both Arcadia and shadow warriors/dream walkers."
Bellamy listens closely to the story that Becca tells him.
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A.L.I.E. and Becca were twins and the first shadow warrior and dream walker to ever exist. In their time shadow warriors and dream walkers were the elite of the elite and they never had to worry about the darkness taking over because they were paired with their prefect match and as long as they were together darkness never came. Becca was obviously paired with A.L.I.E. but she didn't realize how angry and resentful her sister already was until it was too late.
Becca was like Bellamy and had the ability to use every form of elemental magic including shadow but A.L.I.E. could only use shadow which was fine with Becca because they were sisters and none of that mattered to her. However A.L.I.E. became jealous which turned into anger which turned into resentment which allowed the evil that hid within the shadows an opening through which to enter our world.
Becca was able to keep the darkness at bay for a time but she fell in love and when she became pregnant A.L.I.E. lost it. They had a huge fight about everything and A.L.I.E. stormed off. Becca gave her time to cool down thinking it would blow over like all fights between siblings eventually do but she had underestimated her sister's hate towards her and the hold that the darkness had on her. Becca comes home to find her husband dead and A.L.I.E. staring at the corpse. She was about to go to her sister to ask what happened but something changed. She was suddenly able to see the darkness swirling around her sister and feel the anger and hatred within it and instantly knew what A.L.I.E. had done.
Before she could get out A.L.I.E. attacked her but she was able to use her abilities to get away. She fled to the Temple of The Elders, a place where the first elementals had come to worship and commune with those that gave them their power. It has since been forgotten but in Becca's time it was where you went for guidance or sanctuary and since she was in need of both it was only logical she wound up there.
However what surprised her was that the place wasn't empty. There was what appeared to be a priest standing at the center of the temple who seemed to be waiting for her. He told her that what was happening to her sister had happened long ago when shadow magic first entered the world and that it had to be extinguished soon after because of The Key.
The Key is an ancient darkness that uses anger and fear to find the most suitable host to carry it's form into the world of light. It's goal is to plunge the world into darkness and eternal suffering and it uses shadows to achieve it. Once it's found a suitable host and enters our world it needs power to sustain itself until it can find a more compatible host. A.L.I.E. was it's host but it wanted Becca because she was more powerful and could sustain it longer.
Becca trained under the priest, at least that's what she called him until after her child was born and then she left her son with the priest where he'd be safe to go fight her sister. She had wanted to save her but he had told her that that wasn't an option because she was no longer her sister, she was The Key now.
Becca wasn't sure she believed that but when she saw the death and destruction that her sister had wrought while she was away, she began to think that maybe he was right. She managed to find what was left of the dream walkers and shadow warriors and enlisted their help. She told them what they needed to do but the final blow had to come from her. The priest had told her how to send it back to the shadows and drilled into her the importance of not letting it get her.
When the time came to end things she sent the evil back to the shadows but couldn't kill her sister which was what The Key had been counting on. It tried to take her in her sleep but she fooled it because it needed both a willing and living host to inhabit, once she felt it enter her, she sacrificed herself to send it back to the darkness. However she was able to lock a part of her away inside A.L.I.E.'s dreams and mind in the hopes that someone would come along that could finally stop The Key for good.
She didn't realize that The Key had done the same thing and that her sister would continue carrying him. The world was safe for a while because since her sister was an inferior host, it needed to conserve it's energy for a time when shadow warriors and dream walkers returned to the world. That happened a few centuries later when The Eilte were born and not long after a young dream walker awakened A.L.I.E. and when he was older and in power, the purge happened.
The purge wasn't because of shadow magic being dangerous but because A.L.I.E. feared them finding their prefect match and fighting against her. Shadows are the only thing that can fight shadows and with her in an inferior host, she was weak and vulnerable and unable to survive an attack from them.
Becca stops the images suddenly on one of two young boys playing near the water with what appeared to be shadow magic but where one's shadows were black the other was white and upon closer inspection Bellamy realized who they were; him and Murphy.
"You're special Bellamy and always have been, ever since the day you were born. Your father was a shadow warrior and although your mother wasn't a dream walker, you are both."
"Is that why my shadows are white like that? Why don't I remember that day or Murphy?"
"Light repels darkness and your light has a purpose, a very important one at that. She/The Key is looking for a new host and she's found one but she doesn't have much time."
"The little girl from Azgeda told me she was dying."
"She is and if she doesn't inhabit her new host within the next three weeks, my sister will die."
"So we just let her die. If she needs the new host then we just wait her out, right?"
"Normally that would work fine but The Key isn't just in my sister, it's also in the dream walker that's with her. So even if she dies, he has another body lined up. It's also inferior and the amount of energy it would take for it to take over the body fully would require the draining of your friends that she's captured."
"So even if we wait until she's dead my sister and friends still die. Why?"
"I'm afraid so. The whole point of capturing your friends and your sister was..."
"Was so I'd find Murphy. Murphy is it's host, isn't he? That's why he has nightmares, right? It's The Key trying to get him like it got A.L.I.E., isn't it?" Bellamy states realizing that he's been used to find the one thing she couldn't.
"Yes but she can't get him."
"Well duh, that's obvious."Bellamy interrupts her.
"No, I mean yes but that's not what I'm talking about. The Key can't get a hold of Murphy. It's been trying since his father was killed in the purge. His mother was even kept alive in the hopes that she'd help turn him in her grief and pain but all she'd managed to do was make his life miserable. Something kept him from giving in and accepting the darkness. Mbege was an inferior dream walker for Murphy but he kept the darkness away, at least momentarily and he was killed in the hopes that it would be easier to get Murphy but something was still stopping it. I think that it's you. I believe that the little bit of time you two spent together as children allowed you to somehow give him some of your light."
"If that's the case then why couldn't I remember anything about him until your sister showed up? And even then I didn't realize we knew each other until he pointed it out to me and you showed me that." Bellamy says pointing to the wall that's still frozen on them as children.
"To protect him. You aren't just any shadow warrior/dream walker Bellamy, you're his. You're his perfect match, his protector. You are the reason he's been able to hold out against the darkness for so long but..."
"He's getting tired of fighting and being alone. If she can get rid of me and Roan, she'll have a free and clear path to Murphy. That's why she needs us, not to drain us of our power but to kill us on front of him, showing him there's no hope."
"Yes but there's another reason she wants Roan dead besides that one. He's the last living descendent of the priest who helped me all those years ago and you Bellamy Blake are the last living descendent of my son."
Before Bellamy could even ask or process what she just said he's pulled from his sleep by a soft and distant knocking. He slowly opens his eyes to find Murphy standing in the doorway to his room looking a bit confused.
"I came to see if you were awake and wanted breakfast. I didn't mean to wake you."
"It's fine. Is Roan still downstairs?"
"Yeah, why? I'm about to go give him some food if you want to come along?" Murphy says picking up on something in Bellamy's voice.
"Yeah I think that would be good. Give me a bit and I'll be right out."
Murphy nods before heading back out to the kitchen to fix Roan's plate and wait for Bellamy to fully wake up.