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One Last Dream: Spectator Entry

Innocent Sin: Part 4

_______________________________________________________________

The process is almost complete.

Yes, she will be able to do what she is destined to accomplish.

Yay!  The world is gonna be saved!

Wait, something is wrong.  She should not have been in so much pain.

What do you mean?

It is exactly as I said, something has gone wrong.

What?  Are you kidding me?!

Look!  The jewel on her arm is broken!

No.  No!  No!  This wasn't supposed to happen!

She's entered the portal!  What do we do?

We can't stop what is to happen.  The wheel of Fate have already begun to turn.

I don't want the world end!

We won't!  We cannot allow that to happen!

Then we will have to do what we can. It is probably not nearly enough, but we cannot let the descendant of Serene to perish! No matter the cost.

_______________________________________________________________

What were seconds soon became minutes, minutes then became hours.  The passage of time whisked by the unconscious blind girl as she slept the pain away.  When she had started her journey to find the lighter, it had been the early morn, but now it had become late afternoon.  Hours had past from when she had entered the Ruins, far beyond the designated time the group had agreed upon.

Pain was the first thing that came to mind as she slowly awoke.  The pain had subsided for the most part, but the lingering feeling pins pricking her skin still remained between her shoulder blades.  On the bright side of immense amount of pain she had experienced, her throat had never felt better.  Almost as if she had taken a few dozen cough drops.

After she slowly picked herself off the ground, Karoline attempted to stand.  Her head was spinning with dizziness due to the immense amount of pain she had previously had to endure.  Once she had regained her bearings, she began to scan her environment.

Barren was the best way to describe the land around her.  It was flat, empty, and void of any kind of life.  The area went on for about a half-kilometer before it literally stopped.  The land simply ended, as if it were the edge of the world.  The only thing that stood out was what appeared to be the entrance to an underground cave roughly a hundred meters away.

Looking back in hopes of finding the way she came, she found nothing.  There was about a dozen meters of barren land behind her before it became an endless cliff.  She could barely make out land at the edge of her sonar range, much too far for her to jump.

"No way to go but forward.  Time to go down the rabbit hole."  Karoline said to herself as she entered the opening to the underground cave.
_______________________________________________________________

Everything felt wrong as she traversed the cave.  Sure it was dark, damp, and creepy, but something about the cave itself was off.  Almost as if it wanted to consume her.  Every fiber of her being was screaming for her to turn back, but she pressed on.

Deeper and deeper Karoline traveled down into the cave, down into the abyss.  The feeling of dread grew evermore as she went.  She herself didn't even know why she was doing something so foolish as to continue on, but a part of her kept telling her she had to accomplish something.

Soon enough, the cave tunnel expanded into a large, expansive room the size of an Olympic stadium.  Everything about it looked like a normal cave, except for the enormous wall that stood at the far end of the cave.  It stood taller than a ten story building and wide enough to fit an airplane runway.

"Investigate the wall or turn back?"  Karoline asked herself as she approached the wall.  "Well, there's no way back and curiosity did kill the cat.  On the other hand, nobody ever said anything about the fox."  She nervously chuckled at her joke as she got closer.

The blind girl pressed her hands against the wall and feel the wall for some clues.  Much like the previous wall of the temple, it was covered in many different runes and symbols, all of which were foreign to Karoline.  However, unlike the previous wall, this one had a large vertical crack across the expanse of it.  It didn't seem like the wall would last much longer.

"Strange.  What in the worlds could have caused this?  It doesn't seem like-"  She began to question before being interrupted from her thoughts by a monstrous roar from behind the wall.

"The hell?!"  She exclaimed as she was knocked back by something that had bashed the wall.

Another roar was bellowed from behind the wall as whatever the creature from behind the wall rammed the rune filled wall, causing the crack to grow with each impact.

"Sing."  Spoke a soft and gentle voice.

Karoline didn't know where the voice came from, but she really hoped it was right.  'Singing soothes the savage beast', as they say.

A song sung by the angels would be the best way to describe how Karoline sang.  It could calm storms, bring peace to the restless, and touched the soul.

The same could not be said for the beast the was imprisoned by the wall.  It wailed in agony at the girl's song.  Crying out for her to stop as it ceased damaging the wall.

Five minutes passed as Karoline finished her song, bringing about a period of eerie silence.  The creature behind the wall no longer made any noise, nor did it attempt to destroy the wall.

Something was wrong.  Very wrong.

"It shouldn't be this quiet,"  Karoline almost silently whispered to herself.  "It should be making some type of noise by this point.  What the hell is going on?"

Suddenly, a scream shook the entire cavern and knocked Karoline off her feet.  A roar hatred and pain filled the room.  A thunderous boom hit the wall once again, causing hairline fractures to splinter from the crack.  Then another came and weakened the wall even further.  Finally, the wall gave way after one more blow from the beast, freeing it from it's tomb.

Fear was what Karoline felt as she 'stared' at the creature.  It was massive to say the least, easily dwarfing giants and dragons.  Though all she could see was an outline, it was absolutely terrifying.  It's had was like that of a centipede with a mouth that threatened to consume her in one bite.  It's body was discernible, but large, and was somehow supported on it's short legs.

Before she could even react, the creature lashed out with its head in a sweeping motion and  sent her flying half way across the room.  The music lover skidded across the ground several times before coming to a stop.  The pain was immense, but the thought of dying by the creature was more important than her injury at the moment and forced herself to stand.

The monster gave out another thunderous roar giving Karoline little time to recover.  When it finished its roar it charged directly at her.

Reacting quickly, Karoline jumped and rolled to the side, barely dodging the beast as it passed by.  She readied herself for another charge until the pain on her back flared up again.  Temporary crippled by the pain, she could do little but stand and watch in terror as the creature charged once again.

Seeing as its prey was not moving, it grabbed the girl with its pincers and flung her into the cave wall.  It charged one last time at the girl.  This time it would no longer toy with its food.

As she fell from the wall, Karoline could only watch in fear as the monster went in for the kill.  She couldn't even move or fight back and the impact from the wall wasn't helping.  Whatever was messing with her body was going to get her killed in the next couple of seconds.

'Dammit, I don't wanna die!  Not here!  Not now!'  She screamed in her head as she watched her imminent doom.  Unbeknown to her, a small orb of light exited her body and float gently in front of her.  'There's too much to do and I have to get back home!  Locke and Nell need me!  Everyone here in the Dimension of Dreams needs me!  It can't end like this!'

The beast reared its head back to prepared to strike and finally kill its prey.  It lunged out with its giant mandibles to pierce the girl's flesh until a blinding flash of light emitted from the small orb, blinding the creature.

Though blinded, it still continued to lunge, piercing the girl's left shoulder instead of her head like it had intended.

An unfathomable amount of pain coursed through Karoline's shoulder as the mandible sank into her shoulder.  She couldn't decide if what she felt now was worse than what she felt before she had fallen unconscious.  The piercing was definitely a close second.

Suddenly, she found herself being lifted off the off the ground by the pierced shoulder.  The pain was immense as she felt like it was being ripped from the socket.  Unable to endure the damage to her body any longer, Karoline gave out an ear splitting scream.

Unlike the other times in the past, this scream was powerful enough to cause the room to shake.  The air rippled with the sound waves that were projected by her voice.  And unlike her other vocal abilities, this one lacked the beauty that normally accompanied her voice and was replaced by a banshee's wail.

The creature dropped the girl as it recoiled in pain.  It staggered several giant steps back as it let out a monstrous roar of pain.

The sudden fall caught Karoline completely by surprise as she fell.  Landed with an audible crack, she was fairly certain she had just broken her leg and lost her headphones upon impact.  She reached out in the direction of the sound that was still being emitted by audio-to-visual aide, only to find it was broken.  Far beyond her ability to repair it.

She really was blind now.  Helpless and unable to 'see' where she was going or where things were.  But now was not the time to worry, her life was on the line.

Adrenaline still coursed though her body and her instincts were telling her to repeat whatever caused the monster pain.  Singing was one option, but that would take too long.  Screaming on the other hand, caused more damage and took less time to pull off.  So, screaming it was.

Putting her broken headphones around her neck, Karoline let out another Banshee-like wail.  The creature's roar of agony could be heard throughout the cave as it staggered aimlessly.  Without hesitating, Karoline continued to give out bursts of her screams as she hobbled around trying to find the cave entrance.

As Karoline gave out another scream, the creature began to blindly charge around the cavern until it hit a wall.  The underground cave shook violently as the ceiling itself was beginning to give way.  Enormous boulders and sharp stalactites rained from above.

Several hit the creature upon the head and began to pile up, while many narrowly missed Karoline as she finally found the entrance.  Gave out one last scream, finally causing the entire ceiling of the giant cavern to collapse upon the creature.

Satisfied with her work, Karoline began to blindly hobbled out of the underground cave.  "Shit!  It hurts like hell!"  She cursed as the adrenaline wore off.  The damage Karoline had received during her fight with the beast had finally caught up to her.

"I really hope that was it.  I don't think I'll last another fight like that anytime soon."  She chuckled to herself as she approached the outside of the cave.

Her moment of achievement was quickly dashed away as a monstrous roar came from deep within the tunnel behind her.

Hobbling as fast as she could with a broken leg and a punctured shoulder, she reached the entrance only to be filled with the sense of dread.  There was no way back to the others from here, the very reason why she didn't go back in the first place.

Turning around to face the cave, she knew there was no way she would survive as another roar echoed from the cave below.  The wounds inflicted upon her body and fatigue were too great for her to be able to put up a proper fight.  The most she could do was weaken the beast in hopes that the next person would be able to defeat the creature.  At least she would die on her own terms this time, and this time it would be for everyone rather than just herself.

Taking a deep breath, Karoline prepared herself to sing her final song, her dying song.  She would likely lose the battle of her fading consciousness long before her voice gave out after losing so much blood from the wound in her shoulder or fatigue.  At least she wouldn't experience herself dying.

Before she could sing a note, a small orb of light suddenly exited her body and spoke with a sage-like voice, "There is no need to sacrifice yourself now.  It is not your time to die."

"Yeah, you got a ton of things to do before it's you time!"  Came a childish voice from the another orb that came out of Karoline's body.

"Who said that?  Show yourselves!"  Karoline shouted as many more orbs floated out of her body.

"I am afraid that is irrelevant at the moment."  A noble voice came from one of the orbs.

"Yeah, we gotta get you out of here before it comes to get you again."  Spoke a lax voiced orb.

"Just relax and let us do the rest."  The sagely orb said as it and the remaining orbs inhabiting her body floated out of Karoline's body.

The many orbs of light that had began to form a giant rectangular shape behind Karoline.  A violet portal suddenly began to form inside of the the shape the orbs had created, similar to the one that had brought the blind girl there.

The creature's roar could be heard once again, only closer now.  It would not be long before it be upon the blind girl.

"Time grows short and we must get you to safety.  Goodbye, my Princess.  Please forgive us for our failure to protect you."  The sagely orb mused as the portal sucked in Karoline before she could get a word out.

The portal quickly collapsed once Karoline was safely on the other side of the portal.  The orbs quickly began to fade from existence as they had used what magic they had.

"I am sorry, Queen Serene."  The sagely orbs lamented as it slowly faded away.  "We were unable to prepare or protect your descendant as you had wished.  It wasn't supposed to happen this way.  We failed..."

_______________________________________________________________

"We've searched this place high and low, and we still have yet to find hair nor hide of her."  Katten grunted in frustration as he and Scott searched the large room in the temple.

"Have to keep looking!"  Scott yelled with concern.

"I know,"  The feline-eyed man sighed as her looked at the lonely crystal that seemed out of place on the wall.  "But it's been more than fifteen hours since she disappeared last night and the fact that this glowing temple seems to be the only clue we have right now.  Thing's aren't looking too good right now."

Scott silently looked at the ground before weakly saying, "Alright."

"Come on, let's try one of the other rooms-" Katten was saying before he was interrupted by a portal opening in front of his face.  Soon after, Karoline came flying out of the portal and onto the unsuspecting smoker.

"Oof!"  Both of them yelped in pained as they collided.

"Karoline!"  Scott exclaimed at the sudden appearance of one of his new friends.

"What the-  Karoline?"  The smoker spoke with surprise at the sight of the once missing girl.

"Hey, Robo-Buddy.  Hey, Snaggletooth."  Karoline weakly murmured.

"Where have you been, Karoline?  Everyone's been worried sick about you."  Rolling  Karoline off of himself.  After he picked himself off the ground, he took a good look at the blind girl.

"Holy-  What happened to you?"  The snaggletooth man asked in horror as he quickly went to her side.

Many injuries littered Karoline's body, some worse than others.  Blood dribbled down the right side of face and mouth from being flung into the cave wall.  Her left leg was bent in an unnatural position, indicating it had broken.  Worst of all, a hole the size of a softball was on her left shoulder with blood still pouring out of the wound.

Acting quickly, Katten barked out an order as he lifted Karoline off the ground, "Scott, go get the judges and tell them to wait by the portal entrance with a stretcher and a doctor!  Karoline won't make it through the night without medical attention."

"Right!"  The cyborg shouted in confirmation as he ran out of the temple.

"Hang in there, girl.  I'm not about to lose anyone on my watch."  Katten mutter to himself as he carried her out of the temple and toward the arch.

Karoline was slowly losing the battle of life on the trip back to the Hotel.  The fatigue from fighting, her injuries, and blood loss had finally caught up with her as she continually faded in and out of consciousness.  Every part of her body wanted nothing more than for her to sleep.  To rest after everything she had been through, but she had to tell the judges of the danger to come.  They had to prepare.

Eventually they arrived at the Arch and proceeded to walk through it.  On the other side of the portal was Scott and all of the judges, each with a varying degree of worry upon their faces, even Akuma.  A stretcher was already prepared, ready to take her to the hospital.

She had to tell her message before she passed out again.  She had to warn them.

"Important.  Monster in cave,"  Karoline weakly whispered, catching the attention of the judges as Katten carefully placed her on the stretcher.

"What was that?"  Zulani asked with curiosity.

"Speak up girl!"  Akuma shouted impatiently.

"Chill, Akuma.  Let her speak."  Sharkie said to get his fellow judge to relax.

"Just ignore Mr. Grouchy, Karoline."  Yota voiced, trying to stay positive despite how grim things seemed.

"It's okay, Karoline.  Go ahead and say it.  We're all listening."  Snowtrap reassured her.

Using the last of her energy, Karoline gave her message.  "Went to temple. Teleported.  Came to a barren place.  Went down a cave.  Found a wall.  Monster broke out.  Fought it.  Barely made it back."

The judges seemed to realize something at the mention of the barren land, wall, and monster.  Shock seemed to be the most evident emotion on their faces.  The revelation was short lived as a screaming Karoline immediately came to their attention.

An unfathomable amount of pain wracked her body much like the night before, only now it was much worse.  It felt something wanted to burst out of her back.  Skin began tearing on back her as blood seeped from the wounds.  She tossed and turned, hugging her body as she screamed in agony.  Something bulged out of her back and it looked to be ready to burst through.

The sound of ripping and skin tearing could be heard as Karoline let out one final scream of pain as whatever the bulge was burst out.  It tore through her shirt and bra, leaving her back completely exposed and what was now attached to it.

A pair of ivory wings were now jutting out from between her shoulder blades.  The wings were large and majestic, probably large enough to allow her to fly.  But such beauty did not come without its price, as the wings were stained by the blood of the one they belonged to.

Karoline could only make out the faint shouting of those around as they panicked.  She felt herself moving on the stretcher.

Within moments, she finally succumbed to unconsciousness once again.

Description
One Last Dream: Spectator Entry

Innocent Sin: Part 4

_______________________________________________________________

The process is almost complete.

Yes, she will be able to do what she is destined to accomplish.

Yay!  The world is gonna be saved!

Wait, something is wrong.  She should not have been in so much pain.

What do you mean?

It is exactly as I said, something has gone wrong.

What?  Are you kidding me?!

Look!  The jewel on her arm is broken!

No.  No!  No!  This wasn't supposed to happen!

She's entered the portal!  What do we do?

We can't stop what is to happen.  The wheel of Fate have already begun to turn.

I don't want the world end!

We won't!  We cannot allow that to happen!

Then we will have to do what we can. It is probably not nearly enough, but we cannot let the descendant of Serene to perish! No matter the cost.

_______________________________________________________________

What were seconds soon became minutes, minutes then became hours.  The passage of time whisked by the unconscious blind girl as she slept the pain away.  When she had started her journey to find the lighter, it had been the early morn, but now it had become late afternoon.  Hours had past from when she had entered the Ruins, far beyond the designated time the group had agreed upon.

Pain was the first thing that came to mind as she slowly awoke.  The pain had subsided for the most part, but the lingering feeling pins pricking her skin still remained between her shoulder blades.  On the bright side of immense amount of pain she had experienced, her throat had never felt better.  Almost as if she had taken a few dozen cough drops.

After she slowly picked herself off the ground, Karoline attempted to stand.  Her head was spinning with dizziness due to the immense amount of pain she had previously had to endure.  Once she had regained her bearings, she began to scan her environment.

Barren was the best way to describe the land around her.  It was flat, empty, and void of any kind of life.  The area went on for about a half-kilometer before it literally stopped.  The land simply ended, as if it were the edge of the world.  The only thing that stood out was what appeared to be the entrance to an underground cave roughly a hundred meters away.

Looking back in hopes of finding the way she came, she found nothing.  There was about a dozen meters of barren land behind her before it became an endless cliff.  She could barely make out land at the edge of her sonar range, much too far for her to jump.

"No way to go but forward.  Time to go down the rabbit hole."  Karoline said to herself as she entered the opening to the underground cave.
_______________________________________________________________

Everything felt wrong as she traversed the cave.  Sure it was dark, damp, and creepy, but something about the cave itself was off.  Almost as if it wanted to consume her.  Every fiber of her being was screaming for her to turn back, but she pressed on.

Deeper and deeper Karoline traveled down into the cave, down into the abyss.  The feeling of dread grew evermore as she went.  She herself didn't even know why she was doing something so foolish as to continue on, but a part of her kept telling her she had to accomplish something.

Soon enough, the cave tunnel expanded into a large, expansive room the size of an Olympic stadium.  Everything about it looked like a normal cave, except for the enormous wall that stood at the far end of the cave.  It stood taller than a ten story building and wide enough to fit an airplane runway.

"Investigate the wall or turn back?"  Karoline asked herself as she approached the wall.  "Well, there's no way back and curiosity did kill the cat.  On the other hand, nobody ever said anything about the fox."  She nervously chuckled at her joke as she got closer.

The blind girl pressed her hands against the wall and feel the wall for some clues.  Much like the previous wall of the temple, it was covered in many different runes and symbols, all of which were foreign to Karoline.  However, unlike the previous wall, this one had a large vertical crack across the expanse of it.  It didn't seem like the wall would last much longer.

"Strange.  What in the worlds could have caused this?  It doesn't seem like-"  She began to question before being interrupted from her thoughts by a monstrous roar from behind the wall.

"The hell?!"  She exclaimed as she was knocked back by something that had bashed the wall.

Another roar was bellowed from behind the wall as whatever the creature from behind the wall rammed the rune filled wall, causing the crack to grow with each impact.

"Sing."  Spoke a soft and gentle voice.

Karoline didn't know where the voice came from, but she really hoped it was right.  'Singing soothes the savage beast', as they say.

A song sung by the angels would be the best way to describe how Karoline sang.  It could calm storms, bring peace to the restless, and touched the soul.

The same could not be said for the beast the was imprisoned by the wall.  It wailed in agony at the girl's song.  Crying out for her to stop as it ceased damaging the wall.

Five minutes passed as Karoline finished her song, bringing about a period of eerie silence.  The creature behind the wall no longer made any noise, nor did it attempt to destroy the wall.

Something was wrong.  Very wrong.

"It shouldn't be this quiet,"  Karoline almost silently whispered to herself.  "It should be making some type of noise by this point.  What the hell is going on?"

Suddenly, a scream shook the entire cavern and knocked Karoline off her feet.  A roar hatred and pain filled the room.  A thunderous boom hit the wall once again, causing hairline fractures to splinter from the crack.  Then another came and weakened the wall even further.  Finally, the wall gave way after one more blow from the beast, freeing it from it's tomb.

Fear was what Karoline felt as she 'stared' at the creature.  It was massive to say the least, easily dwarfing giants and dragons.  Though all she could see was an outline, it was absolutely terrifying.  It's had was like that of a centipede with a mouth that threatened to consume her in one bite.  It's body was discernible, but large, and was somehow supported on it's short legs.

Before she could even react, the creature lashed out with its head in a sweeping motion and  sent her flying half way across the room.  The music lover skidded across the ground several times before coming to a stop.  The pain was immense, but the thought of dying by the creature was more important than her injury at the moment and forced herself to stand.

The monster gave out another thunderous roar giving Karoline little time to recover.  When it finished its roar it charged directly at her.

Reacting quickly, Karoline jumped and rolled to the side, barely dodging the beast as it passed by.  She readied herself for another charge until the pain on her back flared up again.  Temporary crippled by the pain, she could do little but stand and watch in terror as the creature charged once again.

Seeing as its prey was not moving, it grabbed the girl with its pincers and flung her into the cave wall.  It charged one last time at the girl.  This time it would no longer toy with its food.

As she fell from the wall, Karoline could only watch in fear as the monster went in for the kill.  She couldn't even move or fight back and the impact from the wall wasn't helping.  Whatever was messing with her body was going to get her killed in the next couple of seconds.

'Dammit, I don't wanna die!  Not here!  Not now!'  She screamed in her head as she watched her imminent doom.  Unbeknown to her, a small orb of light exited her body and float gently in front of her.  'There's too much to do and I have to get back home!  Locke and Nell need me!  Everyone here in the Dimension of Dreams needs me!  It can't end like this!'

The beast reared its head back to prepared to strike and finally kill its prey.  It lunged out with its giant mandibles to pierce the girl's flesh until a blinding flash of light emitted from the small orb, blinding the creature.

Though blinded, it still continued to lunge, piercing the girl's left shoulder instead of her head like it had intended.

An unfathomable amount of pain coursed through Karoline's shoulder as the mandible sank into her shoulder.  She couldn't decide if what she felt now was worse than what she felt before she had fallen unconscious.  The piercing was definitely a close second.

Suddenly, she found herself being lifted off the off the ground by the pierced shoulder.  The pain was immense as she felt like it was being ripped from the socket.  Unable to endure the damage to her body any longer, Karoline gave out an ear splitting scream.

Unlike the other times in the past, this scream was powerful enough to cause the room to shake.  The air rippled with the sound waves that were projected by her voice.  And unlike her other vocal abilities, this one lacked the beauty that normally accompanied her voice and was replaced by a banshee's wail.

The creature dropped the girl as it recoiled in pain.  It staggered several giant steps back as it let out a monstrous roar of pain.

The sudden fall caught Karoline completely by surprise as she fell.  Landed with an audible crack, she was fairly certain she had just broken her leg and lost her headphones upon impact.  She reached out in the direction of the sound that was still being emitted by audio-to-visual aide, only to find it was broken.  Far beyond her ability to repair it.

She really was blind now.  Helpless and unable to 'see' where she was going or where things were.  But now was not the time to worry, her life was on the line.

Adrenaline still coursed though her body and her instincts were telling her to repeat whatever caused the monster pain.  Singing was one option, but that would take too long.  Screaming on the other hand, caused more damage and took less time to pull off.  So, screaming it was.

Putting her broken headphones around her neck, Karoline let out another Banshee-like wail.  The creature's roar of agony could be heard throughout the cave as it staggered aimlessly.  Without hesitating, Karoline continued to give out bursts of her screams as she hobbled around trying to find the cave entrance.

As Karoline gave out another scream, the creature began to blindly charge around the cavern until it hit a wall.  The underground cave shook violently as the ceiling itself was beginning to give way.  Enormous boulders and sharp stalactites rained from above.

Several hit the creature upon the head and began to pile up, while many narrowly missed Karoline as she finally found the entrance.  Gave out one last scream, finally causing the entire ceiling of the giant cavern to collapse upon the creature.

Satisfied with her work, Karoline began to blindly hobbled out of the underground cave.  "Shit!  It hurts like hell!"  She cursed as the adrenaline wore off.  The damage Karoline had received during her fight with the beast had finally caught up to her.

"I really hope that was it.  I don't think I'll last another fight like that anytime soon."  She chuckled to herself as she approached the outside of the cave.

Her moment of achievement was quickly dashed away as a monstrous roar came from deep within the tunnel behind her.

Hobbling as fast as she could with a broken leg and a punctured shoulder, she reached the entrance only to be filled with the sense of dread.  There was no way back to the others from here, the very reason why she didn't go back in the first place.

Turning around to face the cave, she knew there was no way she would survive as another roar echoed from the cave below.  The wounds inflicted upon her body and fatigue were too great for her to be able to put up a proper fight.  The most she could do was weaken the beast in hopes that the next person would be able to defeat the creature.  At least she would die on her own terms this time, and this time it would be for everyone rather than just herself.

Taking a deep breath, Karoline prepared herself to sing her final song, her dying song.  She would likely lose the battle of her fading consciousness long before her voice gave out after losing so much blood from the wound in her shoulder or fatigue.  At least she wouldn't experience herself dying.

Before she could sing a note, a small orb of light suddenly exited her body and spoke with a sage-like voice, "There is no need to sacrifice yourself now.  It is not your time to die."

"Yeah, you got a ton of things to do before it's you time!"  Came a childish voice from the another orb that came out of Karoline's body.

"Who said that?  Show yourselves!"  Karoline shouted as many more orbs floated out of her body.

"I am afraid that is irrelevant at the moment."  A noble voice came from one of the orbs.

"Yeah, we gotta get you out of here before it comes to get you again."  Spoke a lax voiced orb.

"Just relax and let us do the rest."  The sagely orb said as it and the remaining orbs inhabiting her body floated out of Karoline's body.

The many orbs of light that had began to form a giant rectangular shape behind Karoline.  A violet portal suddenly began to form inside of the the shape the orbs had created, similar to the one that had brought the blind girl there.

The creature's roar could be heard once again, only closer now.  It would not be long before it be upon the blind girl.

"Time grows short and we must get you to safety.  Goodbye, my Princess.  Please forgive us for our failure to protect you."  The sagely orb mused as the portal sucked in Karoline before she could get a word out.

The portal quickly collapsed once Karoline was safely on the other side of the portal.  The orbs quickly began to fade from existence as they had used what magic they had.

"I am sorry, Queen Serene."  The sagely orbs lamented as it slowly faded away.  "We were unable to prepare or protect your descendant as you had wished.  It wasn't supposed to happen this way.  We failed..."

_______________________________________________________________

"We've searched this place high and low, and we still have yet to find hair nor hide of her."  Katten grunted in frustration as he and Scott searched the large room in the temple.

"Have to keep looking!"  Scott yelled with concern.

"I know,"  The feline-eyed man sighed as her looked at the lonely crystal that seemed out of place on the wall.  "But it's been more than fifteen hours since she disappeared last night and the fact that this glowing temple seems to be the only clue we have right now.  Thing's aren't looking too good right now."

Scott silently looked at the ground before weakly saying, "Alright."

"Come on, let's try one of the other rooms-" Katten was saying before he was interrupted by a portal opening in front of his face.  Soon after, Karoline came flying out of the portal and onto the unsuspecting smoker.

"Oof!"  Both of them yelped in pained as they collided.

"Karoline!"  Scott exclaimed at the sudden appearance of one of his new friends.

"What the-  Karoline?"  The smoker spoke with surprise at the sight of the once missing girl.

"Hey, Robo-Buddy.  Hey, Snaggletooth."  Karoline weakly murmured.

"Where have you been, Karoline?  Everyone's been worried sick about you."  Rolling  Karoline off of himself.  After he picked himself off the ground, he took a good look at the blind girl.

"Holy-  What happened to you?"  The snaggletooth man asked in horror as he quickly went to her side.

Many injuries littered Karoline's body, some worse than others.  Blood dribbled down the right side of face and mouth from being flung into the cave wall.  Her left leg was bent in an unnatural position, indicating it had broken.  Worst of all, a hole the size of a softball was on her left shoulder with blood still pouring out of the wound.

Acting quickly, Katten barked out an order as he lifted Karoline off the ground, "Scott, go get the judges and tell them to wait by the portal entrance with a stretcher and a doctor!  Karoline won't make it through the night without medical attention."

"Right!"  The cyborg shouted in confirmation as he ran out of the temple.

"Hang in there, girl.  I'm not about to lose anyone on my watch."  Katten mutter to himself as he carried her out of the temple and toward the arch.

Karoline was slowly losing the battle of life on the trip back to the Hotel.  The fatigue from fighting, her injuries, and blood loss had finally caught up with her as she continually faded in and out of consciousness.  Every part of her body wanted nothing more than for her to sleep.  To rest after everything she had been through, but she had to tell the judges of the danger to come.  They had to prepare.

Eventually they arrived at the Arch and proceeded to walk through it.  On the other side of the portal was Scott and all of the judges, each with a varying degree of worry upon their faces, even Akuma.  A stretcher was already prepared, ready to take her to the hospital.

She had to tell her message before she passed out again.  She had to warn them.

"Important.  Monster in cave,"  Karoline weakly whispered, catching the attention of the judges as Katten carefully placed her on the stretcher.

"What was that?"  Zulani asked with curiosity.

"Speak up girl!"  Akuma shouted impatiently.

"Chill, Akuma.  Let her speak."  Sharkie said to get his fellow judge to relax.

"Just ignore Mr. Grouchy, Karoline."  Yota voiced, trying to stay positive despite how grim things seemed.

"It's okay, Karoline.  Go ahead and say it.  We're all listening."  Snowtrap reassured her.

Using the last of her energy, Karoline gave her message.  "Went to temple. Teleported.  Came to a barren place.  Went down a cave.  Found a wall.  Monster broke out.  Fought it.  Barely made it back."

The judges seemed to realize something at the mention of the barren land, wall, and monster.  Shock seemed to be the most evident emotion on their faces.  The revelation was short lived as a screaming Karoline immediately came to their attention.

An unfathomable amount of pain wracked her body much like the night before, only now it was much worse.  It felt something wanted to burst out of her back.  Skin began tearing on back her as blood seeped from the wounds.  She tossed and turned, hugging her body as she screamed in agony.  Something bulged out of her back and it looked to be ready to burst through.

The sound of ripping and skin tearing could be heard as Karoline let out one final scream of pain as whatever the bulge was burst out.  It tore through her shirt and bra, leaving her back completely exposed and what was now attached to it.

A pair of ivory wings were now jutting out from between her shoulder blades.  The wings were large and majestic, probably large enough to allow her to fly.  But such beauty did not come without its price, as the wings were stained by the blood of the one they belonged to.

Karoline could only make out the faint shouting of those around as they panicked.  She felt herself moving on the stretcher.

Within moments, she finally succumbed to unconsciousness once again.