She glowered from the dark corner of her cell, only the red glow of her eyes visible to onlookers. "What is wrong with her?" a female voice implored from beyond the bars.

"Well ma'am, the truth is...we don't know."

This one, male, was her captor. He claimed to be helping her. Kiah snorted and narrowed her eyes. Helping wasn't trying to drown her in icy water, or depriving her of sleep for weeks at a time...or letting male guards roam the female section of the lab, card-keys in hand to prey upon weakened victims.

The man continued, "We do know one thing, she displays a curious form of multiple personality disorder. She seems to be assigning different emotions separate personalities. This suggests she is unable to deal with them."

"He does not know..." she thought, "doesn't know how hard it is..." "Kill them!" The Hate screamed. "We want out!" They spoke all at once, and Kiah found it harder to fight. "No, they're my parents!" They pushed back, each struggling for dominance. "They don't care about us!" All of them spoke again, many voices melding together. So far, their experiments had done nothing but increase the difficulty with which she restrained Them. It was a constant buzzing conversation that filled the back of her mind, They never bothered to shut up when she risked sleep. Her hold was slipping, she was going under...like slipping beneath the surface of a cold, black lake...

Suddenly, the Hate broke though and Kiah faltered. Unable to resist, she rose. "Release us." she rasped. The doctor, Adac, sighed exasperatedly. "Kiah, I have told you that there is only one of you, your feelings are just a part of that." Adac turned to face her, and The Hate grew stronger. "Release us, now. We will not ask again." He tutted, lifting a clipboard and scribbling some pointless note on it. Only the small bit of conscience that Hate hadn't burned away had kept her from hurting them, from rending them to shreds and banishing them forever to darkness. Eyes burning red, Hate became angrier and angrier, its power becoming more difficult to suppress. When it couldn't take it anymore, the words came instinctively.

"Doilbh ain!" Black fire erupted from the tips of its outstretched fingers; Adac let out a strangled cry that quickly turned to a scream of pain as the fire consumed him, leaving a gaping hole in the bars and a charred patch on the stone floor. Hate's parents cowered in terror as it floated toward them, its feet inches above the ground. With each word, it became more enraged, the disdain and contempt very evident in every syllable. "You have betrayed us, your own flesh and blood. For this, we will never forgive you." Hands still crackling with dark power, Hate uttered a low growl. "You will be spared, because we will show you respect you seem to have forgotten. However, betray us again, and you shall not find yourself so lucky." With that, the Hate relinquished control and Kiah fell to her knees, temporarily weakened. Running footsteps alerted her to security's arrival, and she lifted her hand and murmured, "Caomhain." A translucent black bubble formed over her that the guards spears and swords were unable to penetrate. Her energy waining, she needed an exit, soon.

"Give up! We have no place to hide!" The Fear whimpered. "No, I can't. I murdered that man and if I give up, they'll kill me too." Ignoring her parents, she looked around desperately for an escape route. "The wall...you can blast through it. The forests will shield us until we can recuperate." Gasping with the energy it took to maintain the shield, Kiah drew on the remaining rage inside her and lifted her hand, whispering, "Amail!" The stones flew apart and exploded out into the trees, Kiah bolted for the hole left behind and leapt through, sealing it back up with a wave of her hand. With a groan, she managed to drag herself into the depths of the trees and blend in with the shadows as guards ran past, beating the undergrowth with their swords and shouting curses and oaths into the empty forest in hopes of intimidating her out. "What fools, as if mere words could scare us." Kiah felt helpless, so weakened from months locked in that cell and the sudden use of her powers, They had complete control until she could recover.

"We're free! We're free we're free we're free!" The Joy wanted to jump and dance and sing there, in that dank forest, but the others tamped it down as a nearby bush exploded because of the outburst. While They constantly fought against her and each other, it was clear that They always acted in Kiah's best interests. "It's only because if I'm caught, so are They." she thought bitterly, still struggling for breath and control. "Would everyone just stop please, we need to regain our strength, can't you see she's almost unconscious?" The Cleverness rebuked the others, who were draining what remaining energy she had with their celebrations. For a few blessed hours, all there was in Kiah's mind was silence.

When she awoke, the first thing she saw was a blurred purple muzzle. "Argh!" Leaping back, Kiah brought her arms up in front of her face defensively as the purple creature bared it's fangs and snarled. "Intruder!" it cried and launched itself at Kiah. "Caomhain!" she said, and the thing bounced harmlessly off of the protective bubble. "What sorcery is this!?" Now it was hopping mad, positively squirming in rage. "My name is Kiah, and I broke out of that building over there. I don't want to hurt you, I just needed a place to sleep!" she said, dropping the shield and rising slowly. It paused in it's frantic roiling to consider her, tail flicking from left to right. "Escapee, eh? From the Black Fortress? I'll wager you were one of their experiments." Blinking, Kiah watched the little beast saunter down a narrow trail she hadn't noticed the night before. "Experiments? What experiments?" Kiah followed him down the trail, silently grateful that They still seemed to be asleep.

"Heh, imprisoned and you don't even know what for. They like to..."collect" those with interesting talents. From what you did back there, you were probably a prized possession." Still confused, Kiah turned to see the high stone walls, barred windows and turrets of her former prison. "Yep, they'll be wanting you back, that's for sure." "You mean...they'll be coming after me?" she asked, and felt The Fear awaken. It leapt to the surface so quickly, she didn't have time to restrain it. "I told you! They won't stop until they find us and dissect us or do whatever they have planned!" "I knew it, knew it was too good to last." Her voice turned forlorn as The Despair spoke. "Oh nonsense, we can fight them off!" As each emotion struggled to let it's opinion be known, Kiah fought fiercely, and clasped her head with her hands, dropping to her knees. A circular patch of earth spontaneously combusted with black fire as Kiah lost control. "Stop it!" she cried, and They shut up, all smothered to silence. Softly smoldering, the blackened ground had extended to a full yard in either direction around Kiah before she could rein Them in.

Stunned, the purple beast's jaw dropped, his eyes wide with wonder. "Wha...who...you've...got multiple personalities?" he stammered, as Kiah rose from the ground with a moan. "I guess you could call it that. They're my emotions, and They each took on separate personalities when I turned 13. That's also when my powers first showed up." Suddenly afraid of her, the creature took a couple steps back. "And they...just pop up all of a sudden, do they?" Now with a splitting headache, Kiah rubbed her forehead. "Yes, but only when I'm not fully awake, or concentrating. What is your name, so They don't keep referring to you as 'the purple thing'?" Trying to stealthily sneak into the undergrowth, the purple creature said absently, "Courir, m'name's Courir."

"Trying to run away?" Kiah asked, suddenly irritated with Courir. Stammering slightly, the rukel tried to explain that he had somewhere to be, but she wasn't listening. All she could think about was how everyone was afraid of her for no reason. Those people at the fortress, animals, ever her own parents, and she had never given them reason to. "Why don't we give them one? Make them pay for all our pain and suffering..." The Hate said malevolently. "Let me show them what we're made of, they'll wish they had never even messed with us when I'm through." it whispered as a strong lust for revenge rose in her heart. "They will pay..." Kiah hissed, Courir whimpered as he was lifted from the ground, encased in a translucent black bubble. "Show me." Her voice was dangerously mixed between Hate and Despair. "S-show you what?" "The nearest village." Kiah grinned evilly, her eyes glowing a vicious red.

"I think it's time we set an example."