As night fell, Sakura Yugure settled down into the vacant lot near the Rindou Dojo. {Mr. Rindou offered to put me up there, but I have my tent and stuff, so the vacant lot near the dojo will serve just as well for me,} she thought.

Setting up her tent as a simple lean-to, the young girl laid out her bedroll and settled down for the night. {I just hope I can sleep,} she worried. {I've had the feeling all day that something's not right. Everything seems OK here - is it about Morri-neesan?}

Indeed, as she sank into slumber, her thoughts - and vision, and perhaps more - were drawn inexorably back to Makai.

Sakura watched as if from above and behind her 'sister' as she returned to her castle. She sensed the dissatisfaction Morrigan felt in employing those who shared her attraction for Demitri, and felt the simple joy Woad took in serving his Mistress.

{What are all these feelings?} the girl wondered. {I guess it's just that I'm seeing this in a dream.}

Then horror came, as Moloch Aensland came upon his daughter, rage and resentment echoing in Sakura's heart like a shout in her ears. As the girl watched in horror, Morrigan taunted and dismissed her incensed father, pushing him over the edge.

Dream though this might be, Sakura slipped into a defensive stance as the fury and envy of Moloch washed over her like noise at a rock concert. {How can Morri not feel it!?!?} Sakura wondered, frightened by the sensation's intensity.

The fear however quickly gave way to shock and rage of her own as Moloch proceeded to bind and rape his own offspring. The familiar haze of the Satsu no Hadou began to slip over Sakura, but something was different. There was a coldness to it now, a core of ice at the center of the raging inferno. She dashed her insubstantial form about the room, seeking some way to free her sister, but she could not touch Moloch, couldn't even attract his attention, and the only things that felt solid to her were Morrigan and the chains of moonlight binding her.

Desperate to free Morrigan, Sakura flashed over to one chain and began to pound at it, but it might as well have been Adamatium for all the impact her efforts had on it. Crying for the harm and death being inflicted on her sister, Sakura laid her head against Morrigan's back and sobbed-

-then stopped. Blinking, she pressed her invisible, insubstantial form closer against her sister, and was sure. {My energies are flowing into Oneesan when I touch her!} she realized, and felt both fear and a touch of joy. {At least there's something I can *do!*}

It didn't quite occur to her that she shouldn't be able to feel either sadness, fear, or joy, immersed as she was in the Satsu no Hadou.

Sakura stretched herself out against her sister, willing the energy to flow even faster, praying that this would give back enough strength to the Aensland daughter that she could break free. As Moloch returned to his task, even Sakura began to feel faint, but stayed resolutely pressed against her sister. {I'll die before I let you kill her!!} she thought furiously at the Aensland lord, and as Morrigan began to fade, the former mortal girl sent one flashing thought to her.

~~'Neesan! Call for help!!~~

Sakura's heart sank as, instead of sounds of distress made to attract attention, Morrigan emitted a sensation of love so intense that Sakura nearly fainted, and staggered back in shock. {What did she...} the young girl wondered, then sensed another power manifest in the room.

With an unheard cheer, Sakura encouraged the recently arrived Demitri, who had come in the nick of time like the knights that legend told of *slaying* monsters. Sakura only had a moment to appreciate the irony before she realized something was wrong.

As Moloch and Demitri flew out of the Aenslands' castle, Sakura saw a *second* Moloch begin to emerge from the first... and this one had a shimmer that of all other things here, only *she* possessed. The anger and outrage she felt restored her flagging energy in an instant, and without knowing exactly how, she flew off after the pair, and her period of detached watching was over.

Moloch's spririt-form doppelganger drifted closer to the fight raging between his original, physical self and Demitri Maximoff. {Combining the Doppleganger and Spirit-form techniques was a risk, and one that required a decent fraction of the power I gained from my daughter, but it will have been worth it in just a moment,} he gloated as he drifted closer. {One strike into Maximoff's black soul, and the day will be mine.}

His hand drew back, then started forward in a plunge toward Demitri's vulnerable rear... only to come to a sudden, impossible halt. The Aensland lord was so surprised by this that it took him a moment to register that another spirit-form was interacting with his, countering his will of attack with another of defense - or in the terms of the bodies that the spirits resembled, a girl - an apparently *Human* girl, to add insult to injury - had grabbed his arm.

He altered his perceptual focus and brought his senses to bear and his defenses up - resulting in his 'form' spinning to face the girl and taking up a defensive stance. ~~Who are you?~~ he asked the other.

~~My name is Sakura Yugure, you bastard slime,~~ the other replied, ~~and I will kill you before I let you hurt my sister like that again.~~ The girl's 'voice' was flat, but *echoed* with the overtones of anger.

Deciding not to waste words, Moloch attacked her.

As she didn't think of the astral plane as a realm of metaphors, or even know that she was in it at the moment, Sakura's view of the fight was much simpler. Blows and blocks, grapples and escapes, and energy attacks all flew - but even if she and her foe were both floating or flying, battle was battle and Sakura Yugure was *very* good at battle.

She grinned as her shimmering foe glanced over at his solid twin, who was apparently getting the worst of it against Demitri. ~~Worried, O beast in human form?~~ she taunted him. ~~Cheaters never prosper!~~

He snarled in reply, and swooped back, away from both her and the battle, then aimed an arm at her that seemed to grow spines even as it lengthened, shooting out at her. Smirking in contempt, she began to dodge -
-it would have been pathetically easy-
-but a glance back showed Demitri behind her, his back to her-
-if she dodged, he'd take the hit -

With a slight nod at the scheming bastard she was fighting - {It *is* a good strategy,} she had to acknowledge - Sakura took the hit, becoming impaled multiple times as first the spike-arm hit, then all the spines shot out, impaling her again and again. Twisting, she got her head out of the way, then shrieked in pain as the spike and spines withdrew.

Drifting limply, she watched Moloch move past her again, once more focused on Demitri. His arm became the spike again, and inside Sakura something seemed to crystallize.

Once again the white-hot rage within her was banked without cooling it by ice at her center. Her senses seemed to expand, and she felt Moloch's dual frustration and worry as his two independent forms prepared to overcome Demitri.

~~I'll finish him first, then you, spirit,~~ he threatened, ~~Then go back and finish subsuming my too-wilful daughter!~~

Idly she noted a distortion near them, as if something was there, but wasn't quite substantial enough to manifest even astrally, but she ignored it as irreleveant.

Something *echoed* inside Sakura.

I won't let it happen
I have the power
I will not lose control
I must PROTECT HER!!

Although she couldn't see herself, her spirit-form literally pulled itself together, all the power that was leaking away from it rushing back in as Will overcame Entropy. Her form, in fact, became more sharply defined than it had been before.

With a speed only matched by thought, she streaked forward, her outstretched hand clapping down in a grip on the shoulder of Moloch's spirit form. His head whipped around to stare at her, but his shoulder remained immobile in her grip. Moloch's eyes widened as he realized this, and he stared horrified into her eyes, grown hot from rage and frozen from resolve. Had she been on Earth, her next statement would have been in an ice-cold whisper.

~~Shun Goku Satsu.~~

Floating beside the broken shape of Moloch's separated spirit-form, Sakura glanced at it as it leaked energy from a thousand different cracks. ~~Serves you right,~~ she chided it, watching as Demitri defeated Moloch's physical self and flew down into the castle, sensing the power as Morrigan was healed. {Thank goodness,} she thought in relief.

With a sigh, she turned back to what now remained of Moloch. ~~I suppose I should haul you down to 'Neesan and see if she can benefit from whatever power you've got left,~~ she growled at him -

-but was interrupted. ~~...no... I will...~~

~~What?~~ Sakura asked. Her only answer came in three odd words.

~~PROVA DEL SERVO!~~

Had Sakura been looking at Moloch, she would have seen his eyes widen in horrified recognition.

~~NOOOOOO!!!~~ Moloch's spirit cried out as a wave of... something... erupted towards them as if it were a wave on level ground. Sakura lunged away, her danger sense screaming, as the wave met Moloch's spirit form.

She'd been expecting it to melt him like acid or perhaps engulf him. Instead, it morphed into a hand which grabbed Moloch, slammed him back and forth a few times, ground his head into its base, then whipped him sideways, where a ghostly image that might have been a contract in some unknown language suddenly appeared. As Moloch hit it, what remained of the Aensland lord suddenly became two-dimensional and the contract became solid, at least spiritually.

As it did so, so did something else. An obvious Darkstalker, he would have resembled Morrigan's kind except for the hue of his skin and the fact that his wings were obviously *naturally* blades. The blue of his skin was that of steel.

~~Who are you?~~ Sakura asked him, keeping a wary distance.

~~The saviour of the Dark, child. The being born to immortality to make all things one. I am Jedah.~~ He broke off, laughing insanely, then stopped just as suddenly, staring at Sakura with intense, insane eyes.

{Oh hell! Jedah's the one Morri talked about, the one who beat Demitri into a torpor!!} Sakura remembered and took up a combat stance.

~~No no no, it's no more fun here,~~ Jedah giggled at her crazily. ~~Let's go where-~~

"-We can both be *real!!!* UWEE HEE HA HA HA HA!!" he cried out as Sakura snapped awake in the vacant lot and Jedah faded into existence - physical, and solid! - in front of her.

Kicking up to her feet, Sakura got into a combat stance, then staggered as her body's immobility and her depleted energy made themselves felt. {I'm in trouble!} she realized, and kept her eyes on her opponent. "How come you're here? I heard you vanished after your final battle," she asked, both trying for information and playing for time.

To her pleasant surprise, Jedah answered. "I'm immortal, child.. but as you may know, the worse you're hurt, the more power it takes to recover. Demitri was most thorough about killing me... or so he thought..." the Darkstalker answered, then lapsed into giggling. Just as Sakura was about to speak, he suddenly stopped and glared at her. "BUT! hee hee... It's so ironic. You the friend of his love, his beloved Morrigan, and he himself, gave me the power I needed. I'd been drifting through Makai for a really long time until the power from Demitri's fight - and yours, little girl, hee! - drew me there! Then it was just a matter of claiming the prize," he finished, continuing to stifle snickers as he held out a rolled-up piece of paper. A snap of his wrist unrolled it, revealing Moloch's image underneath the arcane runes... then in a quick motion, Jedah snapped the parchment up into his mouth and ate it.

As he did, Sakura fancied she heard Moloch distanly shrieking.

Swallowing, Jedah looked up at her - and Sakura stepped back as she sensed his power increase dramatically. "Hmm... not enough. I want to be stronger," the mad Darkstalker complained, still looking at her.

"So go train for a while like the rest of us," she growled back, not liking the predatory glint in his eyes. {I'm in no shape for this. Whatever that vision was, it sapped my energy just like a real fight, and if Jedah's even close to the level he was at when he fought Demitri...} She shivered.

"I want your power!!" Jedah howled, lunging at her. She hopped back, blocked, and countered by snapping a kick up under his jaw.

{I have to stick to basic moves as much as I can,} she thought as she parried a clawed hand-swipe at the wrist, then locked out Jedah's elbow and smashed her fist into it, popping the joint loose... but with a *ping* of metal, not the sick *pop* of bone. {What the... is he actually metal?} she wondered, then had to duck as he swept his other hand up at her.

"Dio Sehga!" he cried, and a buzzsaw manifested to whirl in midair between them for a second, forcing Sakura to leap away. "Illa Splinta!" he continued, swooping forward at her and proving that he could indeed fly on those bladed wings. Hardening her arms, she blocked his strike - {Does he have blades *everywhere?*} she wondered in frustration - and countered again, using the classic Shotokan crouching uppercut in lieu of the more exhausting Sho-Oh-Ken. Jedah was knocked upward briefly, and Sakura caught him coming down with her classic standing side kick (her Roundhouse), slamming him back into the sturdy fencing around the lot. He went down to one knee, his arm - which seemed to be working again - spurting purple fluid.

Sakura had time to wonder, {Have I actually hurt him..?} before he disabused her of the notion.

"FINALE ROSSO!" he howled, and the fluid shot forward to form a pool around Sakura's feet. She tensed, ready to fight off grabbing hands or waves like the one that had finished Moloch, but was caught completely by surprise as the pool beneath her seemed to change in a second from an inch deep to bottomless, and she plunged into a submerged world done in shades of purple.

As she instinctively clawed for the surface, old instincts driving her actions, she was snared by a multitude of hands, holding her under - then the fluid itself seemed to come to life around her, pummeling her and driving her breath out while Jedah floated nearby, howling with insane laughter.

A second later, the pool spat her out like a watermelon seed. As she landed from being vomited straight up, she curled into a ball and retched, coughing purple goo out of her lungs. When she had recovered enough to take note of her surroundings again, she saw Jedah hovering over her, a disappointed look on his face.

"You're so weak," he commented sadly. "It wouldn't be worth it to take you into myself now... and here I was worried you might be 'Her.' Ah well, it's nothing," he commented idly. "Now I have to go... places to visit, you know, and powers to take for my own... but when you've got more of your power back, I'll come *vi-sit...*" he singsonged as he vanished.

{Gone back to Makai,} Sakura assumed. {But what does this all mean? And who's 'Her?'} she wondered, even as she fumed about his disparaging her power. {And just try me at full strength, asshole,} she fumed, then shook her head. {Enough of this... I have to be ready when Makoto Rindou gets back here, then we can go take her aunt's village away from Shadoloo. That's enough to worry about for anyone.} Moving her bedroll and tent over a few yards, Sakura shook out the worst of the purple goo and went back to sleep.