"W-what happened? M-my head." I said groggily, "Oh good you're awake." A woman said sweetly, "Oh God, please tell me this is a nightmare." I said, "Oh, believe me, honey, this is no nightmare." The Darkness said, "Did you miss Mommy?" The Darkness said, "It's been what two-three weeks since you murdered my aunt in cold blood. Tell me why the hell I shouldn't beat the hell out of you?" I said, "Because, I'm your mommy and you love me!" The darkness said as she hugged me, "You are not my mom and, I most certainly do not love you!" I said as I pushed her away, "Oh sweetheart don't be so rough with Mommy. I'm not as young as I used to be you know." The Darkness said, "Where the hell are we?" I asked, "I have no idea honey, but don't worry mommy will get us out of here." The Darkness said, "Yeah right, you probably trapped me in here in order to try to get me to join you or something. It won't work." I said, "Ok honey you watch way too many movies and while having you on my side would be ideal it's not one of my immediate priorities." The Darkness said, I just glared at her, "Ok you don't trust me and that's fine, I get it. But if you will just hear me out for five minutes at the very least then I can guarantee that you will be able to trust me completely." The Darkness said, "Fine five minutes." I said, "Exilant! Now, how good are you at drawing?" The Darkness asked, "I can get by, why do you ask?" I asked she just smiled and her right index tinger turned into a blade of darkness that she used to cut her wrist, "I want you to use my blood to bind me." The Darkness said, "Fine." I said as I dipped my fingers into the pool of her blood, "Now draw an ankh, then above it a half-circle, underneath on the right side of the ankh draw a crescent moon, then reverse the crescent moon on the left side, and finally draw a line under the entire thing." The Darkness said as she drew the same symbols on her left arm while I did the same. "Ok, so what is this?" I asked, "This is a powerful binding spell I created about six hundred millennia ago. It's not strong enough to fully control me but it's enough to contain me." The Darkness said, "I will willingly answer any questions you have and I'll do almost anything you tell me to because I'm your mother, this seal is to make you feel better." The Darkness said, "Alright then, where's Terra?" I said, "No clue." The Darkness said as she healed her arm, "Bullshit! You know where she is and are just screwing with me!" I yelled, "No I truly don't know honey, scouts honor." The Darkness said, "Are you really her? Are you really my mother?" I asked, "Yes I am. Blake honey I would never lie to you, not after all you've been through, granted I did cause most of it. I really am sorry about Skyler and Jack." The Darkness said, "What's your endgame? What is it you want?" I asked, "I simply want to find something I lost a very long time ago." The Darkness said, "What did you lose?" I asked, "My soul." The Darkness said, "Well I've answered some of your questions, but please allow me to ask you one of my own." The darkness said, "Fine." I said, "What is your relationship with Oberon?" The Darkness asked, "She accepted me into her house whatever that means. She engraved her crest onto my soul." I said, "Smart, but sweetie you know you're so much stronger than her right?" The darkness said, "What do you mean?" I asked, "Oh sweetie she didn't tell you?" The Darkness said, "Tell me what?" I said, "Well since you're my son you can wield the powers of darkness just like I do, in fact, I could teach you how to use this power." The Darkness said, "Come on why don't you give it a try." The Darkness said as she stood up and suddenly the scenery changed from an empty white void to a park, "Now I want you to rip that tree apart." The Darkness said, "Fine I'll humor you. How do I do that?" I said, "Simple stop thinking that you and the darkness are two separate entities. You must stop thinking of yourself as entirely human and accept that half of you came from a primordial being." The Darkness said, "Now once you do this your only limit will be your imagination but be warned this power is very addictive. I should know I fell victim to it once upon a time." The Darkness said I did as she said and began thinking of myself as more than just human and before I knew what was going on the tree was engulfed in darkness before it was ripped apart, "Very good honey!" The Darkness said, "With enough practice, you'll eventually be able to change your appearance and look however you wish just like I can. It will be difficult to keep your new form for long at any given time, however, eventually, you will be able to hold the form indefinitely." The Darkness said, "T-that was, that was amazing!" I said in amazement, "I had a feeling you would like your power." The Darkness said, "You said that you could change your form, so is that not your original form?" I asked, "No it's not. I do not truly possess a form of my own to say. I had made my own outline of sorts." The Darkness said before she got very quiet until I put my hand on her shoulder, "Oh I'm sorry honey, I must have trailed off a bit. This is actually the form of my first and oldest friend, we were very close." The Darkness said, "Do you have any idea of where we could be?" I asked, "No, the last thing I remember is searching for my soul just off the coast of Japan before I passed out and woke up here." The Darkness said, "The last thing I remember is going to Saint Louis to tell Grandma and Grampa about Uncle Jack and Aunt Skyler then I woke up here." I said, "Wait, Saint Louis. You weren't visiting the Arch were you?!" The Darkness asked, "Yeah I was why?" I asked, "I turned the Arch into a seal." The Darkness said, "What's inside?" I asked, "Oh nothing too bad they're just dragons." The Darkness said, "DRAGONS!" I shouted, "Yes very annoying creatures those dragons. Always flying around breathing fire honestly honey they were a menace! But as for where we are I believe that we are inside the seal." The Darkness said, "How?" I asked, "Well, think of the seals as locked doors. The keys can open the doors but we are in the door." The Darkness said, "So it's like a revolving door then and we're stuck in between inside the prison and the outside world." I said, "Kinda killed the analogy there, but yeah. Now to get out I'm going to crack the seal leading outside." The Darkness said as she raised her hand and a wall of light and darkness appeared, "I have to be very careful not to tamper with the light portion otherwise I'll have to save my baby from dragons." The Darkness said as the dark portion began to fade, "Blake go now, I have to hold the crack open." The Darkness said, "I love you baby don't you ever forget that." The Darkness said as she kissed my forehead before I left.

"B-Blake?" Marie said as she wiped away some tears, "Hey uh where am I and where are my pants?" I asked, "Blake sweetheart y-you've been dead for the past six and a half hours, you are in the morgue." Marie said, "B-Blake?" Cleo said in shock, "BLAKE!" Cleo cried as she ran over to me and hugged me, "Blake honey I want you to know you are loved." Marie said, "What are you talking about?" I asked, "Blake the coroner told us you killed yourself he said he didn't know how you did it tho." Cleo said, "No, no I didn't commit suicide, I was inside a seal with the Darkness. Turns out she really is my mom." I said as Marie gave me some pants to put on. "BLAKE!" Oberon said angrily as she stormed into the room and slapped me, "I told you to go to Egypt and you didn't listen!" Oberon  said, "He just wanted to visit his grandparents on his father's side and tell them about what happened to his aunt and uncle." Cleo said, "I don't care! Blake, I told you to go to Egypt for a reason but you deliberately came here to arguably the second most dangerous seal in the entire world! You took a bigger risk coming here than you know." Oberon said, "The Darkness could have shown up and attacked you, she is far more dangerous and wrathful than you will ever know!" Oberon said, "Oh and how would you know! I just learned that the Darkness really is my mother so go on tell me exactly what it is I don't know!" I said, "I WAS THERE! I was there in the beginning, I know EVERYTHING about the Darkness and the woman who's she's taken the form of! And the only reason I know any of this is that they were my only family after my parents abandoned and banished me to this world. So tell me, do you still think I don't know what I'm talking about?" Oberon said.