Shara

Jeyan stopped. "I am sorry I did not think of the hidden caves earlier, Brixie, or we might have found Latika a long time ago." Brixie, to tired to say anything, just shrugged. They headed towards the caves, with barely enough energy to walk. They had been searching the hills of Japan so long, Brixie had forgotten where the hoverbug was. It did'nt matter now. All that mattered was Latika and the bracelet. She had told Jeyan everything, and he had already known about the forces of Duraman locked in the chasms of the dead.
They were now approaching what looked like a large, slightly rusty steel door. Jeyan, in his deep, rumbling voice, called out "It is the leader of the lion people, we seek rest and food", He paused, "and we also seek Latika!" At the word Latika, the door swung open. Nothing but a large black tunnel, seemingly leading to no where, greeted them on the other side."Come", said Jeyan"we have been welcomed. let us enter." Shaking, Brixie half walked, half flew, (her wings were healing as well as can be expected) into the tunnel. The door closed behind them with a loud bang, and complete darkness engulfed them. Jeyan seemed so calm in this drafty place. After walking for about 3 hours form nothingness into more nothingness. then, a single silver glow, like a ball hanging from the cave roof, came out of nowhere. Jayen stopped walking. Brixie gazed ant the silver object that was now getting steadily brighter. It was entrancing her. It grew, until it hurt to look anymore. They were in a rocky walled cave room. There was nothing but cave and the silver object hanging there and growing still brighter. Then, it illuminated what was directly below it. Brixie gasped and caught her breath at this fearful and beautiful sight.

In the meantime, poor Latika was arguing in her mind with the cyborg. Not an army of Latika's! I only want one me! please, please don't do it! if crying inside ones head is possible, Latika was on the edge of desperate tears. She had been arguing for over 3 hours now, and in this time she was able to stiffly stand up. But she was not standing on the floor of the cave, she was floating as well! " You do not understand fully yet why we need this army so badly. I am not the one tell you though", "said" the cyborg."Come with me. Latika had no choice but to do so. It was very strange to be walking on air, and it hurt badly, very badly, every time she moved. They went through a thick, slightly rusty metal door, into a black "Hallway". There was a silver light not far off, entrancing, yet it hurt to look at it. They walked into a cave room, bare except for... could it really be? "Brixie!" she yelled in her head. Brixie looked not upon her, but was gazing at something in the center of the room. Latika painfully turned her head to see what it was that held her friends attention. It was a girl. But this girl had long, curly midnight black hair mysteriously transparent like the cyborgs hair, and a youthful face. She was sitting upon something, and looked down into her lap, as if quietly contemplating something peacefully. Her dress was of soft silver, tied about the waist with a white rope. It was lovely to behold:


Her feet were bare, and her skin looked the soft, creamy tone that all females wish for. There was one thing wrong. It was as if her skin was interlaced gently with tones of hard, cold silver.
It was terribly gorgeous. "She is fifteen" the cyborg told Latika," and her name is Shara. She is the one who will clone you."
Shara lifted her head, to show deep burgundy eyes, and without moving her lips, she "said" to Latika ," move away, Kirna, I will occupy her mind." Kirna, the lady with the blue hair, closed her eyes as if concentrating, and the painful presence was gone. A new presence filled with warmth and twisted thickly with simple, peaceful love filled it's place. Not an ounce of pain was left. "This is wonderful! Shara, who are you exactly? Where did you come from? Why are you here? Are you really going to clone me? Why do you need an army? What are your powers?
Shara gave a pleasant, girlish laugh, not in Latika's mind, but out loud. It was then that Brixie noticed her."Latika! Is that you? You look so..."Latika moved closer, and Brixie screamed when she saw fully what had happened to her friend, guide, and rescuer. "Oh Latika!" She said in heart wrenching tones."I know, I know, it's a long story" Then Latika remembered that Brixie couldn't hear her thoughts. Once again, she tried to move her lips. They felt stiff and cold, but she managed to get out the words,"sorry, Brixie, its a long story." Her voice rang roughly in her own ears, and she thought to Shara"Please explain to my friend what is going on here."
Out loud, so that Brixie could hear, Shara began to speak,"Hello Brixie, your friend is alright, she has been a great help to us, and we have not yet been so kind to her."
"Who are you?" Brixie repeated Latika question.
"I am Shara, and I am on your side." Her voice was calm and mature like a grown woman's.She stood up, and walked to where Brixie and Latika were standing across from each other. Her hair fell in waves, trailing gently on the floor. Latika watched, envious of the way this girl could move so gracefully. An ear peeked out, and...Oh! "Could it be? Could it really be?"
"Yes, Latika, I am of elvish lineage."
"An elf! Like those of middle earth! How did you get here?!" cried Brixie. The curved, pointed ears had given it all away.
"My ancestors, after all were nearly gone, decided to leave me here and help the fate of the third world of mysticism turn for the better. I was put here, in the realm of man, with an untrained an crude race of beings, the cyborgs. They had the information on how to clone gnomes, but only elves had the power to do it." Turning to Latika, she said" I am sorry Kirna was so painful to share your brain with, but she was the most gentle cyborg that was available."
Latika nodded her forgiveness, eager for Shara to continue, and that she did" We raided the surrounding enemy's of these mountains, in hope of finding either the bracelet or a gnome, where my elders said they hid it. Fortunately, they found you both at the same time at there latest raid. We know that Dwank cast the spell so that he has unleashed the duraman army, but if we take the bracelet to the land beyond the sea before duramans army makes it to the third world of myscticim and destroys it, we can have my father, who is surviving there in the alnd beyond the sea, redo the spell so that the duraman army will fade into nothingness. Alas, we found the bracelet to late, and duraman's army will soon be in the third world." She turned her Burgundy gaze on Latika." Which is why we need you for an army. We have already taken a sample of your DNA and dreabalum from your bloodstream.I'm sorry we did it without your permission, I truly am, but it was an emergency situation. There will not be an army of Latika's, we have the power to change them into all different kinds of female gnomes, nearly invincible and ready to fight, trained in battle. But these gnomes have a gentleness and compassion in them, like any female would. We do not have the power to change their gender, if we had captured a male gnome we would have cloned army of male gnomes from him. You were the best we had. would you like to come see the army you have helped us build?" Latika nodded hesitantly, and Shara led them into another dark hallway. A ginormous iron door at the end swung open, and a huge cave room, about two square miles in size, dazzled their eyes.
A flurry of activity filled it with sounds of clanging metal, grinding steel, and thousands of female voices. They followed Shara down a flight of stairs into the midst of the hubbub. 200 hundred cyborgs were busily crafting war dresses, and men cyborgs floated around, training gnome girls how to sword fight. lines and regiments lined in neat formations were waiting patiently, dressed in feminine red dresses, outfitted with swords and bows and arrows, daggers and knives. Something strange was happening to the gnome girls. They grew at an alarmingly fast rate, from girls into gnome women within 15 minutes of time. It was very odd to see. They all had different faces, different eyes, different hair, different height, but they all had a similarity to Latika in some way or another. Latika lost her breath."I'm not sure if I like this or not" she mumbled through her lips.Shara filled her mind once again: "We will be ready to leave within a week. But we need your help, Latika, before we can move on in our process"...

Hopeless

.......Latika closed her eyes, but that only made the dreadful picture all the more clear. What in the world, or wherever she was, could she do now? She tried to think (thank goodness her brain seemed to be alright) of all that she had learned in those few minutes...Somehow she had been turned into a Cyborg, or something similar, she was surrounded by darkness except for the lamp, she couldn't move a muscle, or spring or something metal or...Lets not freak out quite yet, she told herself, taking a shaky breath. She felt something start to vibrate in her neck and all down her right side. Suddenly she sat up. She could move again! But for a second her brain moved way too fast, and she laid back down again.
"Ah, you are healing fast, Latika." That horrible voice again. Her neck twitched as she tried to speak again. The vibrating got stronger, and some sort of sound, maybe a metallic sounding moan, came out.
"Now now, no time for questions. In fact, I've come to give answers to what is whirling about in your head." A dream. Yes, it had to be a dream. That thought was a little comforting. A Weird dream...and creepy...and scary...
"No, this isn't a dream, too bad for you. But when you think about it, it's actually rather exciting." How did she know that? "I just do, dear." That was the creepiest thing Latika had ever imagined. No, worse. "Hardly worse." Now it was annoying. If you know what I'm thinking, keep it to yourself! she "said" miserably. "I suppose that was sort of...as you put it, "creepy", the Cyborg replied. "But, now for the explaining." "I'm prepared," Latika tried to say, but it came out more like, "Igmmarrebl mmblem."
"Good. Now, I know you're wondering what happened, and I'm going to explain everything. But first I need the bracelet." Bracelet. Oh! Now Latika remembered everything. "Good, I had hoped you would remember. Hmmm....snow troll....Brixie (Latika gulped). How can you do that? Latika wondered. "Well, It's sort of hard to explain but...well...you and I share the same brain." Latika widened her eyes and a creepy feeling washed over her. But the weird Cyborg continued only too joyfully. "You see, three gazillibillimillian years ago, our race first begun. We were weak at first, but we slowly gained power over all others except...well, the most powerful races. We have tried turning every race into Cyborgs, but we need more power. The power comes from gnomes. Surprising, but in all of you there is a tiny substance called dreabalum. For you, it helps keep you from dying by sicknesses, for us it is a drug that makes all of us invincible. My ancestors discovered it when they made the first gnome Cyborg. Unfortunately, gnomes are very hard to find, and we haven't found anymore...until now. We are hoping to clone an entire army from you."
An entire clone army? Oh, where was Brixie?

Brixie followed wearily behind Jeyan when he suddenly stopped. Was that a hidden cave ahead?.......

Cyborg

Boom! What was that noise? Boom! Their it was again. What could it be? Where was she? Who was she.. Latika, she thought. She felt cold. It was really dark. Her head was spinning. It felt like it had been pounded into a brick wall. Had it? She couldn't remember. Boom! She really should find out what that sound was, but maybe.... "I’ll take a nap first" she thought.

Brixie brushed her hair out of her face and moaned. She had been alone for days. Searching for Latika had been harder then she thought. She had no clue were the robot had taken Latika. She didn't even know if she was still in this realm.

Boom! It woke Latika up again. This time it was a little lighter. Her head still throbbed. She tired to rub her eyes but couldn’t get her arms to move. Fuzziness cleared like only a good adrenalin rush can do. She again tried to move her arms but they still wouldn’t budge. She tried to turn her head but she couldn’t. She was panicking, her mind was working fine but she couldn’t move! Latika tried to look around with her stationary vision. All she could see was a metal lamp. She could feel that she was laying at a 120 degree angle in a awkwardly comfortable chair.
"Finally you are awake!" said a raspy female voice.
"Who are you?" Latika tried to ask but couldn’t get the sound through her lips to sound anything more then a slight gasp.
"Ah, So you wish to speak, oh well, their will be time for that later" the voice said " But for now you will have to the listening while I do the talking". We found you in a robotics lab in the du’nkoff region, during one of our raids", You were well lets just say missing a few" here she paused, "Limbs"
"Limbs? What was she talking about? Is that why she couldn’t move anything?" Latika thought.
"Oh, but don’t worry, we fixed you!" said the voice now sounding quite pleased. Suddenly the woman bent over so she could see her face.
Latika gasped, or she tried to, but still couldn’t move her mouth to make a sound. The woman, or whatever she was looked down at Latika with a wolf like smile. She was average looking except for her hair which was flouting above her head like it was under water and was iridescent blue. And her eyes, which were completely deep burgundy. She clicked a button on the side of the chair and Latika’s chair sped into an upright position. She could now see the rest of the woman. She was wearing a long green dress, with a silver belt. She was very tall, and she was floating! The woman had something silvery in her hand. She held it up so Latika could see, it was a mirror. Latika would have screamed if she could, she.... her face!.... Her eyes!.......
"I hope you like it, well, you will have to I guess. Take a good look at the new you!" The woman let out an evil giggle. Set the mirror down and "floated away".

Latika couldn’t get the picture out of her head. At first glance one might not notice a difference, except for the burgundy eyes, and the silvery glint of metallic skin over one cheek and all down her neck. They had turned her into a cyborg! She had heard that in some realms the cyborgs and robots had been at war, but she had never actually seen an antigravitational cyborg.