___Chapter 26___

"Can you say that again, Palidor? I don't understand." Oboe stuttered after her brother went through what he had heard.

"I always could sense that you were special, but telling the future?" Damaiou said with his arms crossed, shooting a hypocritical look Palidor's way as he said "Are you making this up for kicks?"

"I believe him! Why would my brother lie? Are you saying he's a liar, Damaiou?!?!" Oboe snapped. Palidor was more precious to her than anything in the world, and she would defend him, even against her best friend.

Damaiou shot a quick, hard stare and replied "I'm not saying he's a liar! I just can't believe what he's saying!"

The two got into a heated argument. Oboe's anger was rising to new levels, and she didn't notice when her head started to hurt. She suddenly stopped when the pain became overbearing.

"...Oboe? What's wrong?" asked Damaiou with a slight tinge of fear in his voice. His friend was crouched over, holding her head and crying. Then she collapsed.

"OBOE!" he yelled as he raced over. She was out cold.

Sanchiro and Katass heard plainly when Damaiou screamed Oboe's name. They raced out of the building they had been in and were about to start running when Palidor landed in front of them.

"Something happened to Oboe! I heard what you were saying about how Oboe might have powers to tell the future and then I told her + Damaiou and then they started fighting and got all mad at each other and Oboe grabbed her head and started crying like she was hurt and fainted!" Palidor's words came out all jumbled together, his voice nervous and skittish, but enough of his words came through to give the elders a basic idea of what had happened.

"Where is she?" Katass said, voice firm.

"Follow me!" Palidor shrieked as he jumped up and into the air.

---

When they got there, Damaiou didn't even glance up. He just continued to kneel beside her, holding her head up with his one hand, her hand in his right. The only movement coming from her tiny body was a bit of frantic shivering every few seconds.

Katass said his name firmly, but Damaiou didn't budge. Katass had to call out "DAMAIOU..." again before the boy looked up. "Come here."

Damaiou did as told. Sanchiro walked toward his daughter, and took her limp form into his arms.

"Is she gonna be ok?" Damaiou whispered, eyes very near tears.

"I'm not sure."

---

By now, the other children had arrived, and since noone was talking, they were left to assume whatever. Some of them thought she was dead. When someone, Oboe's youngest brother Ragnoroc, sad that, something inside Damaiou's head snapped.

His head snapped toward the boy, and his onyx pupils dilated. Damaiou stared at him with utter... he wasn't sure what it was, but the feeling so overwhelmed him that he couldn't think straight.

He stared at Ragnoroc, and as he screamed out "She's NOT DEAD!!!", he leapt forward and sliced a gash down the younger child's face, and blasted off in a fury of energy.

And noone could say a word.

---

The landscape was a barren place- devoid of any life at all. It was the only true desert on Nameksei, and lightning raced about it, while dark clouds blotted out the sky. A single cliff overlooked it, and upon that rock ledge Damaiou sat, staring at his claws.

He did not understand why he had done something so horrible. Something inside of him had just.. snapped, and it had broken loose.

Damaiou glanced the dried blood on his hand, and shuddered. Ragnoroc would be wearing a scar for the rest of his life, probably. And what would Oboe think of him, attacking her little brother?

{{At least it wasn't Palidor.}} he said to himself. Oboe would hate him forever if he did that. And Damaiou didn't want Oboe to hate him- she was his friend.

"Why did I do that?" he whispered into the wind, "What is this... feeling inside of me?". Only silence returned, and the roar of thunder.

Then footsteps came to his ears, and he turned to see Sanchiro saying "It is hatred, Damaiou. That feeling is hatred. We all have evil sides, but yours seems exceptionally strong."

Damaiou nearly fell off the cliff at that point. "WHAT? Evil? I'm...."

The elder cut him off before he could finish. "No. You are not evil, Damaiou. You merely have evil inside of you. It was wrong what you did to Ragnoroc, but not fully your fault."

The young Namekian lowered his head, ashamed, and was about to speak again when he saw someone behind Sanchiro. "Huh? who's that? PLEASE don't tell me it's Ragnoroc." He stood up, walked over to the other person, and saw... "Oboe! You're ok!"

She smiled shakily, her right hand clenched tightly into her father's robes as she nodded her head, saying "Y.. yeah. Kind of."

"What do you mean by that?" he questioned. Oboe cringed slightly.

"...I had... this dream. About our planet. I'm somewhere above it, you're there too. And- there's something wrong with Nameksei. I could just feel a... a darkness, sweeping over the planet. And whenever it passes over one of our people they.... die. It was horrible."

Damaiou was shocked by her words. Maybe.. maybe Palidor was telling the truth. And if he had told the truth, and that was a prophesy she had just told him about...

He looked at Sanchiro, eyes wide. The elder only nodded solemnly, his expression telling Damaiou he would explain later.

---

"So that's how it is? You mean Nameksei is going to be destroyed!?!" cried Damaiou when Sanchiro seemingly affirmed his fears.

"Damaiou, please do not be alarmed. This could happen in hundreds of thousands of years for all we know." he said, trying to calm the boy. Oboe had left to go back to Katass and the other children on her own, and these two were off someplace where they could avoid the storm and speak without interruption.

"But she said I was there too! That means that my friends and everyone should still be alive! And Oboe said only she and I were there!" Damaiou was getting progressively frantic, his words coming faster with each second.

"No. She said she knew you were there. That doesn't mean the others are not safe."

"But someone has to be left on Nameksei if she knows people are getting killed by that darkness! And what are the odds it isn't one of the other kids, or you, or Katass, or..."

"DAMAIOU! STOP IT!!"

".. Sorry sir. "

Sanchiro's eyes fell closed, and he said "You should not be apologizing. You are only a child. I am the eldest. I should know better than to yell at a child who is frightened and cannot think straight." he sighed, and looked at him.

"It's ok, sir. I understand why you acted as you did." Damaiou said, straightening his posture. Damaiou glanced back at his feet, and said "I just hope she's not angry now. Before, she was probably thinking about her dream. But now it's been a while, and when she sees what I did to her little brother...I don't want her to hate me. She's my friend. And.. I don't know what else to say. No words I know can describe this feeling."

Sanchiro smiled at what he young boy was saying, and replied "You'll understand when you're older. So will she. You should go back with the other children now. I will remain here for a while."

{{What does he mean I'll understand when I'm older? I guess I'll figure out on my own. Katass would probably say the same thing. Now I've gotta apologize to Oboe.}} Damaiou thought to himself as he blasted off to find her.

---

Oboe had not heard about Ragnoroc. But when she saw him, all thoughts of her dream were dropped. He was crying, sobbing, his hands over his torn face. Some coaxing got him to look up, and Oboe felt her heart shatter into a million pieces.

He was lucky he had not lost an eye. Five deep, hideous gashes ran down from just beside his right eye, across his face, and ending off his left cheekbone. And it was still bleeding. The bright purple streaks were only dimmed by the smears caused by his tears and little hands.

"What..." Oboe growled as she looked over the crowd- comprising of Katass, the children, and even some warriors who had heard the commotion, "SHARUKUS, did this to my brother?"

One of the warriors let a grim half-smile creep onto his face. That girl had a fire in her eyes....

Katass was less that pleased. "Oboe! You are NOT to use such language!" he yelled, but she didn't bother to look at him. She was looking at the other children.

Ifrite, Odin, Maudin, Ramuth, Palidor, Bismark, Teracotto, Tritoch, Bahumut, one of them had to know what had happened.

Palidor took a step forward, head down.

She glared at him, angry. Whoever had scarred her little brother would pay. Dearly. "Who hurt him, Palidor?!?"

He looked up, eyes wet, and stuttered/whispered "It... it was Damaiou. Damaiou attacked Ragnoroc."

The anger left her eyes, and disbelief and denial filled them. Oboe's eyes flew wide, her bold stance slackening, and her clenched hands collapsed open, her whole body going limp.

"no..." she mumbled. Her mind tried to deny it, but Palidor would never lie to her about something like this.

"No." came from her lips, louder, as she staggered back, eyes threatening to well up. A single tear rolled down her cheek. Then more came. He wouldn't lie...

"NO!!!!!!" she screamed, and lost her balance as her foot caught on a rock. She tore to the sky, her mind screaming as she flew rapidly away, as if trying to outrace the pain. In a few seconds she disappeared from sight.

Palidor couldn't bear to raise his head. He just collapsed into a sitting position, face hidden from view.

"I hope" he cried to himself, "I haven't just done something terrible."