A/N So, later on there's a song... and I've made a little recording of it. I hope it works and I hope you'll listen to it. Adds to the atmosphere. Don't forget to vote and comment if you like the novel ;) // Avy

Vigilante fought to keep still, she fought while she wanted nothing more than to fight, but she knew better. The Sygins were in control, and there was nothing she could do about it. She wanted to cry out in frustration, but what good would it do? Nothing... She forced her breathing to slow, trying to relax, to submit; but real fear crept within her, barely controlled. When she turned her focus from her mind to the world around her she realized that it was quiet. No one spoke, no one was fighting. Confused, she looked around, and saw that all eyes were locked on Milo, and she didn't like it one bit.

He stared back, unmoving.

A decisive voice broke the silence, "We hold your friends Nyx'gaian, you would do best to cooperate."

Vigilante didn't see which one of them that uttered the words, but it didn't matter.

"What do you want?" he answered, irritation lacing his words. Vigilante didn't hear any fear in his voice, but his tense shoulders were a dead giveaway, and that didn't help her to calm down one bit.

"No one walks through this forest without paying us a visit Nyx..." the voice returned, with the last part veiled in contempt.

"We didn't walk," Milo replied, and Vigilante gasped audibly at his response. Why on earth did he have to make it worse? They were already in deep shit.

To her surprise the Sigyns started to laugh.

"I like you Nyx, but you're still coming with us. We have a party tonight you see..."

Finally Vigilante could make out who was talking, not that she looked very different from the other red heads, but still. The woman must have been one of the older ones as her hair was tinged with grey, and her face bore the mark of years passed.

"I don't know if we'll enjoy your idea of a party, but I seem to have no choice. I beg of you to spare the others, then I will come willingly," Milo replied, and his words coiled around her heart. She knew the meaning of them, he would let them use him. No!

She heard her feral scream as if from far away, and blinded by rage she fought herself free. She had nothing to fight with, but she didn't care. They couldn't have him!

-----

The piercing shriek tore at Vito's frayed nerves, throwing him out of his dazed existence. It was a shrill sound, one of desperation. He automatically turned towards it and almost wished he hadn't, it was as if the forest around him turned darker. Fear of a different kind curled in his stomach, not for himself, but for the assassin. Vigilante was clawing her way out from her captors hold. He watched with terror as she showed him a brutality he wasn't expecting, she used her nails, teeth, her knees and elbows, but they were too many. She wouldn't make it. There was no chance... She fell, slumping to the ground as a staff hit the back of her head with a thud that echoed again and again in his ears.

He watched as they dragged her up again, holding her tightly between them.

"This one seems to be one of us, don't you think girls?" the Sigyn's words had the group laughing again. Vito let out a breath, as long as they didn't continue to hit her, he thought.

Perhaps they would be okay, perhaps they would survive. It was a feeble sort of hope, but a straw to hold nonetheless. He knew what Milo had offered, and he wondered why. He could understand why he would want to spare Qumo, but himself? Suddenly it hit him why Vigilante had reacted as she had done. She must have understood as well. He found himself actually feeling sorry for her, not just for her injury, but her feelings. He knew she cared about the tall Nyx, probably more than she let on.

He glanced back towards Milo, still unfettered he looked to be made out of stone. His green eyes didn't stray from the woman who had spoken.

"Come," the Sigyn said, and the whole group started to move. As hands tugged him forward his legs gave way, not ready for walking. He felt the same hands pull him up and throw him over the saddle once more. The air left his lungs in a rush as he landed and he almost passed out again. Only fear held him awake.

"Be careful with him, will you!" he heard Vigilante call out, her voice dripping with anger. A tiny burst of relief washed over him as he realized that she hadn't been severely harmed by that strike to her head. He was yet again surprised to hear her care about him. Perhaps he had been wrong about her. Perhaps he had been too quick to judge her.

They moved swiftly through the forest, and he no longer had any sense of direction. It scared him, it scared him to the bones as fleeing would be pointless if they didn't know where to go. After what felt like half an hour, but which could have been anything between ten minutes to several hours, he heard something filtering through the sound of the forest.

Singing...

As they neared he started to make out the words, and shivered. He had read those lines, and he knew them to be fundamental in the Sigyns' faith, it was a call for their savior, everyone's savior.

When once in darkness, the Fire bright

The Water raging in endless fights

The Air forgotten, the Earth too calm.

No children carried in loving arms

-

Io, come

Come...

-

As tears are falling from ragged eyes

Our children burning, from inside out.

Our minds are crying, and torn apart.

The Fire scorching our beating hearts.

-----

Milo shivered as the song resonated within him. He felt hollow, heartbroken. He had never heard someone sing it before, and somehow their voices helped him understand the meaning of each line, striking him again and again with their deep sorrow. He had only seen their rage before, not this other side: their sadness. He couldn't help but feel compassion for their situation, but reality came back as the song ended. They wanted him to sire another soul. A child living with a smoldering fire within. Someone who was condemned to a life as a soldier, destined to an existence of violence and frustration, or a Sigyn warrior, forced to reap their seed not from love but from necessity

They would show him no mercy. They would take what they needed from him, and then they would let him go, if he still lived.

No... he wanted to cry out, he wanted to scream, to kill. He wanted to hurt everyone and no one, but he couldn't...he couldn't risk their rage to fall upon his friends. Vito wouldn't survive if they took him instead, and Vigilante, what if they killed her as punishment? He swallowed the bile that had started to reach the back of his throat and detached himself from everything, entering the void.

Their procession must have stopped, he was no longer moving. Someone took hold of his arm, pulling him out of the saddle. His reflexes were the only thing that saved him from falling in his mindless state. He saw cottages nestled among the trees, and for a second he thought he'd come to a N'aian settlement, but the feeling it emitted was different: this was not a happy place.

He was dragged away, and he knew what awaited him for nights and days to come. He hoped that the price he paid was enough to buy the others free. That was the only thing keeping him afloat, the only thought that kept him sane.

After a few paces his feet stumbled upon a wooden floor, and his steps sounded between walls, lastly he heard a door close behind him. This was it... he was trapped.

Hands removed his jacket, his shirt and finally landed on his bared skin. He couldn't keep his insides from churning in agony at the unwelcome assault, regardless of how tender those hands were. He tried to flee from his mind, from his body, but it didn't work. He was right there, living through a nightmare while still awake. Fingers traced his tattoos, Stop it! The hands shouldn't be touching those, those were his secrets, his dreams; but they didn't heed his thoughts. Somehow, he finally understood it then; they would leave no part of him untouched...and there was nothing he could do about it that didn't involve risking the lives of the others.

He heard the door open again, and his heart sank. Not another one...

"Leave us! I said take him away, not take him and have your way with him," a frail but determined voice snapped.

The hands fled his body and he shuddered in relief. He told himself to turn around, and his feet began to move, step by step. He forced his eyes to focus and took in the sight of the old woman in front of him. He had never seen anyone look so old. Scattered tufts of grey hair clung to her scalp, as if determined to never let go. Her face was wrinkled, but her eyes were sharp. For some reason he relaxed gradually with each breath.

"There, there, boy, better like that," she said in a motherly voice. This new tone took him by surprise, but he refused to trust what his instincts told him, she was just as dangerous as the others, perhaps even more dangerous.

She chuckled, as if she had read his thoughts.

"You should dress and come outside," she finished and walked out, leaving him alone. Confusion held him back, delaying his response, but as the door closed and sounded he startled and quickly found his clothes. A second later he was outside, not wanting to stay in there a moment longer.

He was met by something that stopped him in his tracks. Vito was lying on a flat stone, surrounded by Vigilante, Qumo and countless Sigyns, all holding hands and their eyes focused on the young man.

"We need your assistance too, Nyx'gaian."

He glared at the old Sigyn standing next to Qumo, angry at her words, assist her, yeah right... His eyes flitted back to the old N'aian, and was startled to see a smug expression across his face. He searched for Vigilante's eyes, and found her to be totally impossible to read. That calmed him a bit. If something was wrong, she would have told him.

He approached them with hesitant steps, unsure of what to make of this.

"Your friend will die if we do not balance the elements inside of him. Water has engulfed him and he is drowning from within."

The old woman's words meant nothing to him, he had no clue of what she was talking about, but he knew Vito was dying alright. Anyone could see that.

"Put your hands on him, we will tell you what to do, and then we will do the rest," she offered, but she still didn't make any sense. However, he was confused enough to follow her orders without questions. He placed his hands on Vito's and felt another pair of hands touch his shoulders. He recoiled from the touch, reminded of what would most surely come once this was over. They wouldn't let him go so easily...

"We will send you energy, Nyx, feel it and let it filter into him."

He shook his head, still confused, but he did what she said: he felt. At first there was nothing, he couldn't feel a thing.

"Feel deeper" he heard the woman say, and he tried. He searched his depths but there was nothing there.

"Don't think, feel." This time her voice was distant, as if he was deeper inside his mind.

He stopped trying, certain that this wouldn't work. As he did, he was filled with something, something so vast and alien that he pushed it away.

"Focus it to your hands boy." Her voice was still coming from far away, but this time he listened for real. Terrified of the immense force that filled him, he wanted it out. He became aware of his hands again, and as he did the force slipped out of him, and into the young man which he held on to.