Sera took a deep breath and jumped to where Kimi was currently equipped in what she assumed to be a djinn, 'so... She lied and has a darkness I've never even seen before,' she thought, 'but seeing this begs the question... What else can she be lying about?'

Sera took a quick look at Kimi's djinn and noticed something to her advantage, she smirked. "Looks like she didn't even think before choosing a random djinn," she deduced to herself, "either that or she only has one."

She took a defensive stance with her spear in front of her, "given that I'd rather not take that chance of her realizing her weak choice and going for another... Might as well save the surprise for the end," she said to herself. 

Kimi, meanwhile, only grew angry from Sera's previous attack and shouted out her own, "Vainel Al-Salos!"

Thanks to her magoi multiple spears of water formed and came barreling towards Sera. 'Hmm... Water God's Shooting spears...' Sera thought as she slashed them with her spear the closer they came, 'well, time for the first part of the plan.'

From the corner of her eye, she noticed one spear coming towards her leg, 'perfect...' She thought, feigning focus on the spears coming towards her arms and head. She let a small scream as that one she kept her eye on finally hit her leg. 

Kimi seemed to take pleasure in getting a hit and let out a laugh, it didn't explicitly sound like a nice one. It sounded more horrifying and sickening. Sera went down on her knees, 'looks like she has enough of her mind free to remember my weak spots, seems like the only thing she'll want to focus on...' 

She got back up and leaned her weight on the spear. Kimi's eyes landed on Sera's "injured leg" and they narrowed. Sera cursed under her breath, 'did she notice I was faking?!' She thought, 'I have to end this quickly, but how?!'

Sera took a glance at her spear and back at Kimi, who was getting ready to fire another attack. "This'll surely kill you all for good!" She yelled, "Vainel Arros!" 

She pointed her sword straight to Sera as water surrounded it. 'Water God's Spears,' Translated Sera. Her eyes narrowed at the attack and she brought her spear up for defense, "Amdusias, Hajiz Alsawt!" She yelled the moment she saw Kimi charging at her with the spear bigger than her own sword. From Sera's spear came a barrier made of sound waves to protect her.

Sera grunted at the force being put on her and felt herself begin to shake, 'okay, now it's time!' She thought. She brought up one of her hands, raised two fingers causing all the water from Kimi's attack to flow into the air and disappear into vapor. Kimi's eyes widened at Sera's retaliation causing her to fall forward, Sera sidestepped her which made Kimi fall to the floor and her sword clatter to the floor from her hand. 

Sera smirked and quickly pinned Kimi down, hands and all. "Everyone! Cover your ears!" She yelled, "Suti Sarkha 2kHz!" She slammed the butt of her spear into the ground causing sound waves to erupt, once the sound met Kimi's ears she groaned and passed out. 

"Thank you.....I'm sorry....To....have....hurt....you...and everyone....." Kimi whispered and Sera eyes widened.

The smile Kimi wore, was one of peace and truly grateful to her. 

Sera climbed off of Kimi and let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding, "finally, it's over," she whispered, her djinn equip faded away along with Kimi's. She felt her vision begin to fade and her arms give out as she felt herself fall on the floor, as her vision finally faded she thought back to what Zepar had said. 

'Overcome my darkness, huh?' She asked herself before scoffing, 'I wish... There's too much blood on my hands... I don't think I'll ever be free from these horrid memories...' She closed her eyes and allowed herself to go unconscious.

*~*~*

Once the fight was over Zepar began to clap, "bravo, bravo! An exceptional fight from the both of them," he said, "now, onto the next trial!"

Sinbad looked in horror at the two girls passed out, he got into his djinn equip and flew towards Sera. "Sera! Are you okay?" He asked, cradling her to his chest. He cursed under his breath as he noticed she was already passed out. 

Zepar brushed it off, "now, now. I'm sure they'll be fine let's go one with the next trial!" He announced. 

Sinbad gently laid Sera down, "that's enough, Zepar. She could've died thanks to your manipulation!" He yelled, pointing his sword at Zepar. 

Zepar chuckled, "you could all try to force your way out but would you really want to mess up poor Seredine's chances for her own power. Not to mention, your poor lover would've essentially fought a useless battle for nothing," he explained, watching Sinbad's cheeks brighten.

"We're not lovers!" Defended Sinbad, "and fine."

Zepar waved off Sinbad's defense, "yeah, yeah. Anyway, the next two will be our very own Sinbad and Serendine," he said causing them all to gasp, "except this time it won't be a physical fight, it'll be a fight with words!"

*~*~*

The next time Sera had opened her eyes she was somewhere she had never seen before. She rubbed her head, it felt as if someone had slammed it into concrete. She took a better look around her and watched as everything seemed to be in flames, she gasped and watched as people were being killed with swords and fire. 

She stood up and tried helping by dousing the flames, but nothing helped, it was as if she wasn't really there. That would explain why no one had seen her or even reacted to her. She had tried reaching out to someone about to killed only to faze right through them, "what's going on?!" She said to herself, running around only to find no answers.

"How could you do this?!"

Her eyes widened to hear a familiar voice, she could never place a face to the name. She quickly ran to the source of the voice only to almost fall flat on her butt when she saw who it was. The woman who had screamed had her fists engulfed in flames as if meaning to fight the man in front of her. The man in front of her was the thing that shocked her most, even if he did have black hair she was sure she knew that face anywhere.

"Sin...?" She asked herself.

Sera shook her head and tried to deny it over and over. That just couldn't be him, right? She'd have to guess there were differences like the obvious things, which were age and... Eyebrows. Still, she couldn't understand how or why this was even happening. She watched as the woman's hair grew red with what seemed to be anger or her powers. 

"Answer me!"

The woman's voice sounded as if it were on the verge of tears, she kept her hands in fists as if restraining herself from hurting him. The man in front of her simply huffed in what sounded like amusement, "dearest, don't speak to me like that," he said, walking towards her only for her to put up her fists.

"D... Don't come any closer!" She screamed desperately. 

He chuckled at her and continued coming closer while she backed away from him, "you know you can't resist me," he said softly, it almost sounded seductive, "who was the one that comforted you when your betrothed and father had left you all alone?" He asked, grabbing her wrists and slowly trailing his hands up her arms.

He pulled her hips against his causing her to gasp as he leaned his head down into her exposed neck. "Tell me dearest," he spoke in her ear, "who was the one that satisfied you when your husband had left?"

She clenched her eyes shut, "y... you did," she whispered. 

He chuckled and pressed a soft kiss to her neck causing her to instinctively wrap her arms around his neck. She bit her lip as if to keep from saying his name and tried regaining a sense of clarity but found none as she was still in his arms as if afraid to look back at the people who needed her. She felt her fists clench into his robe, she felt she was begging him not to leave her like everyone did. 

She felt the sound of flames of screams fade away and all she felt was him, right in front of her, loving her. She wanted to stay like this forever and never let go, she wanted him to protect her and love her. In other words that she didn't want to express, she wanted to depend on him and feel helpless without him. 

Sera watched as the flames from the woman's hands faded away and submitted to him. She almost felt saddened to see her fall so easily, to need someone so horribly that you wouldn't even be able to function without them. She watched as the woman's hair slowly faded from red...

To blue.

~

Sera's eyes opened again and like before, she was in a different place. Except for this time it looked like she was inside of a gem like when she visited Amdusias in person. She looked around only to see nothing at first, not even Amdusias. She was about to call out to anyone or anything, but before she could she heard someone shush her from behind. 

She fell on her butt in shock again and looked up to see the same woman she saw in that memory, just like when it ended her hair was blue, it would've trailed down to her feet had it not been for the ponytail it was in. This time she got a better look at her eyes, they were blue and had a motherly gleam as well.

She seemed relieved to see Sera awake and sighed, "we need to be quiet... Amdusias can't know I'm contacting you so soon," she explained while sitting down in front of her.

Sera was confused, "I'm sorry, but what?" She asked, "I don't understand anything that's going on! First, that weird memory and now this? Just what is going on!?"

The woman cringed at her loud voice, probably afraid that Amdusias might hear them and interfere. "All of this will be explained in due time, but I can't say my name right now," she said, the way her tone was it seemed to be as if speaking her own name might a taboo. 

Sera huffed and crossed her arms, waiting for her to explain everything that had happened. She saw Sera's looked and crossed her legs, "well... The memory you saw was obviously mine, but it was of grave importance that you remember it," she said. 

Sera rose a brow, "I don't understand... Why?" She asked, "how are you even speaking to me right now?"

The woman sighed a bit, almost not wanting to explain everything piece by piece. "That memory was when everything went wrong and I lost someone dear to power... As for how I'm speaking to you..." She cut herself off, not wanting to finish her sentence in case of looking stupid. 

"Well...?" Sera asked, raising a brow at her. 

The woman groaned as an uneasy look came over her face, "Sera... Do you know how you're able to speak to Amdusias with no problem? And why Zepar had looked at your rukh?" She asked. 

Sera's brow rose higher, the situation was becoming more and more confusing the deeper it got. "No...? I mean, isn't everyone able to speak to their djinn like that?" She asked.

The woman shook her head, "no. Djinns are not supposed to be able to contact their master once they become a vessel, all they are is magic power for their king," she explained, "they aren't really physical beings unless summoned by a Magi."

The more the woman explained the more Sera got confused, to keep from more confusion she just decided to stick with one topic. "Then why can I talk with them?" She asked. 

"It's because..." The woman stopped herself with a sigh, "it's because you're me."

There was only one thing going through Sera's head as of now. 

What?

"What?" She asked while getting to start pacing on the floor, "what does that even mean? That can't be true!"

The woman sighed as she watched her pacing, "I should've known you wouldn't be ready for this kind of information," she said.

"Well, duh!" Sera persisted, "you just told that I'm you! We don't even look alike!"

The woman huffed, "sure, sure..." She waved her off, "but what I'm trying to say is that you're my reincarnation," she explained while Sera looked at her as if to say 'keep going'. 

She stood up along with Sera, "when I died I didn't fulfill my destiny... In a way, I almost couldn't. So, I was given another chance and found someone, which was you, whose ideals were as close to mine as possible not to mention similar in personality wise as well," she said, she put a hand on Sera's shoulder, "I'm here to tell you that what happened in that memory could also happen to the one you hold dear."

Sera's eyes widened and she froze, she couldn't mean Sinbad could she? The thought of him being the one she held dear made her face erupt in a blush. The woman overlooked it and continued speaking, "draw him away from any lust for power. I want you to be the one to protect him, not the other way around."

Sera's gaze went to the floor, 'protect... Sinbad?' She thought to herself. Is she even good enough to do so? After all, he was the one who saved her from a life of servitude, he was probably even saving her again now that she's unconscious. So many questions filled her head but the biggest one was, was she even strong enough?

Tears filled her eyes and her fists clenched, "I can't," she choked out, "I'm... I'm not strong or worthy enough." She angrily wiped at her tears.

She felt a hand on her cheek, "so, get stronger. I promise that you won't be alone, but you must remember to keep him on the path of light and away from the dark," she said, "I will help you along the way but most of your strength needs to come from you."

Sera still felt as if she couldn't but from the corner of her eye, she noticed the hand begin to fade away causing the woman to gasp and curse under her breath. A slight pull caused her hand to fall from Sera's shoulder, it looked as if a wind was taking her away to the deepest part of Sera's mind. 

She tried to reach out to her, "wait! Don't go!" She yelled, "tell me your name!"

The woman smiled and whispered in Sera's ear causing her eyes to widen. Before she could say anything the woman was gone as if she were never even there, Sera continued to dwell on what had happened and what the woman had said.

"My name is Bathsheba."

~

A/N: And so, a name is revealed~! What do you think Sera will do with this information? What will she say when she finds out Zepar's power is now Serendine's? Will she and Sinbad ever act on these growing feelings? 

Find out next time! ;D