A Midnight Scare......

UURRRGGGG!!!!

STOMP!!! STOMP!!!! STOMP!!!!!

At the dead of the night, ominous cries echoed through out the mountains. Thousands of heavy footsteps burdened the ground and glaring red eyes bore holes in them.

They were coming....

Too many of them were coming....

They completely surrounded the luxurious mansion from all directions and were now ferociously assulting its defenses ; the magical dome created by the rainbow crystal necklace that protected them for the past seven years was now on the verge of collapsing.

At first the dome stood strong and deflected the attacks as well as the ones attacking them. Seeing this, a powerful beam of dark energy soared down from the sky and hit the dome with all its might.

The dome protected those in its shelter at a price. After the collision, large cracks appeared in the dome and they began attacking those cracks. Soon the dome could no longer hold itself and broke down leaving them at their most vulnerable state.

" AAAHAHAHAHA!! "

A shrilling laughter rang in the air followed an all out assult.

They defended the mansion with everything they had because their mother was still not strong enough to fight. With that thought they gave it their all.

And even though they fought a neck to neck battle, it was all a waste. None of their powers were effective against them.

They closed in on them at a remarkable pace. There numbers were infinite and they were invincible.

Nowhere was safe anymore!!!

Air, water, land and sky.... They were everywhere.

Fear and helplessness overwhelmed them....

They were trapped with nowhere to run or hide.

When faced with a huge dark monster they involuntarily screamed for help. " Mommy! Mommy!! Help!!! "

.....

" Nitiya!! Nakash!!! Wake up!! Mommy is here, please wake up!!! " Back in the room Lia panicked seeing the two children screaming and crying in their sleep. She tried shaking them to wake them up but, it was no use. They were too absorbed in their dream to feel Lia's efforts. 

Dong!! Dong!!! Dong!!

Thankfully, when the old grandfather clock struck the midnight hour, their eyes flew open at the sound. They straight away leapt on Lia with all their might and hugged her tight. They were scared by what they saw, it was nothing like they had ever seen before.

" What happened? " Lia asked, gently patting their backs. She was feeling suffocated from how tightly they hugged but, she didn't care. " You both were crying and screaming for help in your sleep. Did you have a bad dream? "

The twins didn't say anything just nodded in silence, savoring their mother's warmth.

" Would you like to talk about it? " she asked.

" No!!! It's okay now. We're not scared anymore. " Nakash replied with a strained smile. Since Nakash spoke first, Nitiya had no choice but, to agreed with him. She understood where he was coming from and knew that she couldn't just run her mouth yet, it'll cause trouble for their mommy.

Lia was their bottom line. They would do anything if it meant they could protect her.

" Okay!! Okay fine!! We don't need to talk about it but.. " Seeing how the two children forced themselves to put a brave front before her, even though they were still trembling in fear, Lia didn't pressurised them into anything. Instead, she changed the topic. " We have to at least change our clothes. " She said with a troubled look, pointing towards the children clothes. " If we sleep in those we'll get sick. "

"...." Perplexed both kids looked down at themselves only to find that they were soaking wet in sweat and had also soaked up some of Lia's clothes as well.

" Oops, sorry Mommy.... " Nitiya apologised. " I'll get us some clean pyjamas..." Saying that she snapped her little fingers.

Immediately, their wet pyjamas were replaced with a set of clean ones and and the former was nicely put away in the laundry basket.

" All done... " she happily declared looking up at Lia with sparkling eyes. Clearly, she was hoping for a praise.

" Well done, my love.  " Lia praised the little girl with a smile and hugged both her children to sleep. Although, that was only on the surface and just enough to fool the kids. On the inside, Lia was wide wake.

' First, Saaransh's accident and now this dream...What the heck is going on here. Clearly, they don't face monster attacks like me. Or do they?? ' Lia was feeling utterly frustrated and anxious. She literally wanted to just grab that necklace and go but, she knew that impatience was not her option. She had to stay calm and think more clearly. Besides, she couldn't risk her children know about her plans, especially when they were so rigid in hiding theirs from her.

Just than the bracelet on her hand gave off a soft glow, illuminating the dark room with its golden light.

The crystal necklace reacted to its glow and began to glow as well.

When the glowing rays touched Lia and she slowly drifted off to sleep.

Meanwhile, just like Lia fooled the kids , they too fooled her by pretending to go to sleep.

In reality, they were have a full-fledged telephatic conference with Saaransh joining in from his room. Just like Nitiya and Nakash, he too had similar experience and was woke up with a start.

Saaransh : " Nakash! Nitiya! Are you guys okay? What happened?  "

Nitiya : " Nakash saw the future and I had a vision. We both saw the same thing though...."

Saaransh : " Really!! What did you see? "

Nakash : " We don't know what they were but they weren't anything like those monsters we dealt with before. "

Nitiya : " Those creatures were practically invincible. They broke down the magic dome and none of our powers were effective against them. "

Saaransh : " Why do these monsters keep attacking us? What have we done to them? "

Nitiya : " They never attacked us ; not directly atleast. "

Nakash : " Nitiya is right.. They never attacked us, they always attacked the mansion and we were the one's who end up sending them back into their holes... "

Saaransh : " Hey what do you mean by ' they always attack the mansion ' ? Did you forget what happened at the camp four days ago..."

Nakash : " Trust me Brother Saaransh, they always attack the mansion and only the mansion. As for what happened at the camping trip, that was my doing. It was only after being attacked there, I realized what they are actually after...."

Nitiya : " On the day we arrived at the camp Nakash brought along with him the rainbow crystal necklace and after being attacked he asked the necklace to return to its original spot. "

Saaransh : " So they're actually after that crystal necklace!!!! Boy, now that's news..."

Nakash : " News indeed! The poor crystal necklace is vurnarble as it is protecting us with the magic dome which gives away it's location to those monsters and when I removed it from its original spot the dome still remained active hence, we were attacked. "

Saaransh : " Wait.. I don't get this part.. "

Nitiya : " It's a lot to explain, for now just know that for the necklace mommy is the most important thing. By the way, why are you up this late? "

Saaransh : " Who me? Don't ask.... I just sensed a presence of an extremely powerful dark energy near by and I woke up.... I have a bad feeling about all this. We have to be ready, I feel something really big is coming our way. "

Nitiya : " For now, let's just go back to sleep and hope we don't accidentally trigger something else. We must warn Father and Brother about what we saw tomorow. "

Saaransh : " Don't remind me of tomorrow.... We have to go to school.... I hate Monday! "

Naskash : " Correction!!! You hate weekdays and homework. Speaking of which, did you study for the test tomorrow? "

Nitiya : " Nope.. Absolutely not!! "

Saaransh : " I hate you guys!!! "

Nitiya : " We will see how long that lasts.... Goodnight..."

Saaransh : "!!!!!"

...

Next morning, after reluctantly sending the children to school Lia threw herself into rehab while investigating the history of the past seven years.

To her and the rehab team's surprise, Lia didn't feel as inflexible as she was yesterday and her powers were steadily resurfacing themselves again.

With her powers now under her control, Lia spared no stone unturned into researching.

However, shocking facts, threating decision and life changing choices revealed themselves, entangling her into something more than just revenge.

Under the expert guidance of the rehab team, it took only fifteen days for Lia to get back on her feet. In the span of these fifteen days, Lia researched the past worth of fifty eons.

She was finally able to not only find but, also put together the pieces of her puzzle. Now all she had to do was show it to the world.

Lutfa and Carlos never actually gave the answers she needed, they only guided her the path where she would be able to find her answers. After all, once destiny cannot be spoon fed.

Nevertheless, in the span of these fifteen days, Lia wasn't the only one researching the past.

In Oriens, after a whole day's sleep Zhuang Gohan was back to himself or so people thought. But, Richard and Liang Jie understood well enough that this was not the man they left that morning.

Gohan no longer asked Richard for help regarding Lia. It was just as that light told him, it was his responsibility and he knew exactly how he should fulfill them. He began researching about the Xing family and there connection with Lia. The more he found the horrified he felt to the point that he, himself couldn't believe his own findings.

Gohan had no interest in Lia, all he wanted was his children. And his revenge against the Zing family was for the same cause.

Xing family courted their own demise and he vowed to personally deliver it to them.

Not only the Xing family, even Gohan's research led him back to many pieces of the past. The only problem was that he wasn't able to see the full picture like Lia still, he was on the same page as her.

Right now, they were oblivious travellers of two different paths walking towards the same destination who were about meet at a crossroad from where there journey would merge into one.