Tara's Tall Tales

Chapter 10: The Answer

(A/N Starting from this chapter, the format of all of my stories (including the old ones like ACABS and COTN) would be changed. It may take some time to do all the editing, so I hope you guys could understand!)

'They would never know how much I've truly suffered......'

Mortis, Gene and Sandy had ended their discussion as soon as the cries sliced through the creepy silence of the Robo City. The two mystics decided to head to Brawl Town to check on Pam and the other Brawlers who were unconscious, as well as a few of the other standing Brawlers.

Mortis, however, decided to return to the graveyard.

As soon as he stepped foot into the darkest lands of the town, Mortis felt his energy surging back towards him. The marks from Darkron's earlier attack - the attack that occurred when Sandy was unconscious - started to fade away.

'Good to be bonded with the dead again,' Mortis sighed as he walked through the graveyard.

He didn't tell neither Gene nor Sandy about how much pain he was suffering after his attempt to save the two Mysterie siblings. 

After his reconnection with the world of the dead and the darkness, Mortis couldn't stand the amount of light he had to embrace when within the others' auras.

He thought that he'd be able to sacrifice himself to become Darkron's host and save Tara if he had more darkness in his soul, weakened Darkron and force him out of Tara, yet Mortis left the shadow monster in Tara's body, for the monster wouldn't leave no matter what he did. 

Darkron just wanted to kill and attack using Tara, and there was nothing Mortis could do.

This failure had caused him to suffer even more than ever, and he's suffering all this for nothing.

Dead souls rose from their graves as Mortis passed by the many tombstones. Some hissed. Some whispered. Some wailed.

'Mortis,' One of the souls whispered. 'What's happening?'

Mortis knelt by that soul's grave. 'Father,' He muttered. 'The darkness was only enough to jolt Sandy back into the real world. It was too late for Tara. Her heart was cloaked within the shadows of Darkron, her essence all corrupted. I couldn't transfer the monster to my body nor did I manage to perish it.'

The soul seemd to chuckle. 'Are you sure, though, my son?' He asked.

'The blood that she bled from the wound on her head is all that's needed to prove it true. Blood in the colours of night and void. The colour of Darkron. We've failed. I've failed.'

Mortis's father circled around the half-vampire. 'Ah, but failure is the mother of success, am I not right?'

'It's not the same,' Mortis muttered, wiping away the tears from his eyes. 'Fail to save one from the claws of the ancient shadow monster, and success would never be an option. Gene told me that himself many months ago, before the three of us came to Brawl Town. It was also many months before Darkron had woke up again.'

The old soul sighed. 'Mortis, my son,' He mumbled. 'Fight fire with fire. Have you not heard of this?'

'I'd already tried to fight her darkness with my darkness. It didn't work. It's just worsening-'

'But did I say that only darkness was needed?'

Mortis looked up from the charred ground, surprised. 'You're saying that-'

'There's one element that you're missing, Mortis,' Mortis's father spoke, his voice drifting through the air like a creepy whisper. 'The element of which caused the death of a different one shall be the element that you need to destroy the connection between Tara and Darkron. The element that shall slay Tara, only to bring her back to life in the end with a different power. A different curse. But how dangerous a curse this is, that would remain for you and Gene to uncover. That is, if you don't give up now.'