It is a fact of life that if only one sets his mind to it, much can happen in seven minutes. College students can accomplish one to two pages of a term paper within those four hundred twenty seconds. Animal trainers can teach their charges new tricks. Gas station attendants can fill up one car and service many more after that. Even businessmen in conference can set down all their agendas for the day and fix otherwise nebulous issues in seven minutes.

Much can happen in seven minutes. How much more then seven days.

Tokyo was abuzz with the news items of the past week, forming the primary topic of general conversation and coffee shop talk. A melange of events had occured mostly on the night preceding the first day. A few were trivial and almost below anyone's notice, quickly dying out of gossip within the very near future. Others events were rather momentous, and some occured not only on that one night but over the remaining six days.

In the trivial category was the Tokyo University Observatory's report of a sudden brief brightening of the moon on the early morning of the first day. The observers, as well as a few stargazers around the city who had been awake before dawn, claimed that the moon's light had mysteriously flared up, getting very near the level of daylight, then the glow had died as quickly as it had come to life.

No solid explanation from the astronomical circle, except vague theories, could be formed as to the reason behind the moon's behaviour. The same event, also caused serious albeit brief disruption in worldwide satellite communications. NASA in America claimed their scanners had picked up, or thought they'd picked up, a garbled explosion from the moon. This naturally heightened UFO enthusiasts' paranoia, wondering if some ship from outer space had detonated near the moon and even crash landed on Earth.

The other talks of town fell into the momentous category, one bordering on the unsolved in police case files. Set the same night was a mysterious explosion followed by a fire in Chiyoda Ward. It ravaged a total of one fourth of the Yasukuni Jinja, the shrine dedicated to Japan's war dead. Important artifacts and mementos had remained intact in the sudden blaze, though repairs would be no easy task to accomplish. Blame was placed on a variety of reasons such as faulty wiring and acts of agression by extremist groups. While some groups claimed responsibility, they were groups whose very capability to carry out such acts were in doubt. Groups who would say they performed the deed merely for the publicity it would get their cause.

In the political realm, there was the shootout at the mansion of Sanshita Kaoru, famed member of the Diet Government's Upper Parliament. What had begun as a move to rescue Sanshita from a supposed yakuza attempt to assassinate him had turned into a discovery of the man's hidden crimes in the form of an audio taped confession. The voice recording also betrayed the location of files Sanshita had kept under wraps, which when police found shortly after, provided very damaging evidence to the official's alleged criminal activities.

At first, public outrage rose over the arrest of such an upstanding man as Sanshita Kaoru.

That was when sworn witnesses stepped forward, one by one, each with a story of his or her own to tell. They stated that in the past they had been afraid to speak out against Sanshita Kaoru due to the power he held in the Japanese government and over the yakuza. But with the evidence confronting him now with no escape, evidence not even his best lawyers could deny was authentic, they had come forward with new courage to help deliver justice to a man who had so manipulated the people who trusted in him with lies and deception. The stories were made known without mercy: how Sanshita had ruined whole families by selling the daughters into the flesh trade, how he had coddled dealers of illegal narcotics, how he had threatened the lives and reputations of those courageous souls who dared defy him, and how he utilized the yakuza to strike down those who went too far.

The people of Tokyo, needless to say, were deeply shocked and and disappointed. A man who had showed them so much promise to lead their country to a bright future was nothing more than a thief, a liar, a crusher of human life, and even a would be accomplice to murder, seeking to have two men who wanted to protect Japan's youth slain to further his own schemes. By the morning of the week's last day, Sanshita Kaoru had been sentenced to life imprisonment.

Who had forced Sanshita to confess his crimes was a mystery at first. At the basement of the mansion, investigators found the body of an Indian national in a grey jumpsuit. Two Beretta M92F handguns had been found on his person, their 9mm rounds matched the types found in the bodies of the slain yakuza in Sanshita's living room. This evidence cancelled out Sanshita's story of a man in black threatening him and a mob coming afterwards to slay him. Since no means of identifcation was on the unknown person, his picture was sent to the Indian embassy, and in turn was forwarded to New Delhi.

The Indian in question turned out to be one Lavin Chandra, a fugitive biochemical scientist fomerly attached to the Indian armed forces. He was wanted by Interpol for fatally poisoning a rival colleague who had scorned his projects, using a very lethal biotoxin Chandra had engineered himself. The conclusion reached by the Japanese authorities and their Indian counterparts was that Chandra, fleeing his pursuers, had come to Tokyo in hiding, and possibly blackmailed Sanshita with the gunpoint confession to give him safe passage. Sanshita called in his own yakuza mob to kill the Indian but he had defended himself before attempting to escape via the backdoor.

Authorities never did come up with a good explanation as to why Chandra had apparently tripped and fallen in the corridor, breaking his neck.

Sanshita had sought to have Ryuuzaki Kano and Lamont Cranston Junior murdered, the former a famous entrepreneur and the latter an American, head of Cranston Industries. In a related item in the business world, the same two men later in the week signed a joint document between their companies that would greatly increase police income around the city, making them much more resistant to yakuza bribes. In addition, Ryuuzaki and Cranston had pledged to topple gambling dens located near primary and secondary schools, greatly reducing the threat of drugs and gangs to the youth in the area. The former dens were already being converted to sports and recreational activity centers for the young, something much more worthwhile than an afternoon with cocaine. With no more Sanshita Kaoru to run to, the den owners saw no alternative. Public support ran very high among all sectors of society, save for those handful who loathed the absence of their lucrative trade.

Higher up, away from the public eye's vision, representatives of the world's military intelligence, law enforcement, and counter-trrorist agencies met in a clandestine conference. The American Central Intelligence Agency, the British MI-6, and the Russian KGB formed but a handful of the entire international meeting. Rumors in the intel circle stated that there existed a definite but concealed threat to world peace, taken from something mentioned in Sanshita Kaoru's confession in Japan. The threat, known only by the initials "B.L.", now secretly topped the lists of these organizations' hazards to world security.

Were a master detective to survey these incredible stories, he may have gained the proverbial 'hunch' that all these events had some connection to the other. Connected like vast strands in a web, with something humongous and unbelievable at the center.

That center of the web was Room 457 at the Harada Medical Center...

*

Ulira walked in, a worried expression on her face. It seemed as if Chad was going to be alright. She had already realized Jamar's fate the moment his life signs had faded. She closed her hands together and slowly walked over to Chad's bed. She looked down at the young boy, whom had been asleep for a week now. A matter of moments passed, and her eyes shed some tears. Her love had gone. They had not even had the chance to reunite with their lost biological children. But one child stayed. One child remained alive and with her. But would it not be dangerous to keep him at their home? She had not wanted to move away from the boy, but the more she stayed around him, the more danger both individuals would be placed in. Black Lotus would perhaps come after him again, knowing where he resided. They would most likely capture her to lure him into a trap. She stroked his hair, wishing that things would become easier on the two of them. Their lives, both shattered by the same group of assassins. Her anger grew towards Black Lotus by each passing second. Her eyes narrowing at the very thought of the Admiral Jamar had spoken about. How she had hoped that someday he got what he rightfully deserved. How she begged fate to deal him a hand more gruesome than death. She snapped out of her negative train of thought and glanced back down at the boy she would soon be forced to give up for adoption. Would he understand? Would he realize that this is for the greater good? For both of them? She felt a chill throughout her entire body as she closed her eyes, tears now falling freely. She broke into sobs, the sadness of yet another soon-to-be-lost child becoming too much for her. It was then, a hand rose and touched her arm. "H..Hey...Don't cry like that. If you do, you'll make me start the waterworks also." She looked over. Chad had woke up from his temporary coma. He slowly rose in a sitting position with a smile. "If you keep on, you'll run out of tears." He said smiling still. His voice was weak, but he continued to force himself to stay concious. His mother was crying, and he wouldn't have it. Ulira looked at Chad, slightly drying her tears. Chad.....I....I have to tell you something. Please do not hate me for this." She wanted to continue to tell the boy that she would be leaving him soon, but she could not bear to do such a thing. His eyes held such innocence. Such trust. How could she abandon the one child that she was able to raise at least for a few years?! Once again, she broke into sobs and tears, but the boy still smiled. "I know what you want to say. But it won't be goodbye forever. When I get older, and stronger..I'll come back and visit you. I won't let my mother go unprotected long. Besides, not only that, I promise you something a little extra." Ulira was relieved yet confused. How did he know her thoughts? How is it he knew that she was going to have to give him up? And why wasn't it bothering him? Most children would have broken into fits of agonizing pain if they would have heard their parents were abandoning them. But it was as if he saw it another way. Not abandoning, but protecting. He had understood why she had to do what she had to do. "Chad, what is it you want to promise me?"

Chad grinned. His face filled with confidence. "I promise that I'll find the children that you lost those years ago. What were their names? I need full names, so I can get down to the detective business and get your son and daughter back."

Ulira spoke the names to the boy, smiling. He had an imagination, yet something told her that he would be able to do it. Something about him...Maybe his eyes, maybe his words, maybe the life she felt coming from his very heart...told her that he would succeed. "Chad, you have matured very quickly. Not physically, but mentally. I am so very sorry that you had to lose so much so soon in your life. You are strong, so very strong, for your age. I am proud of you. More proud than I could ever have been." She said straightening his hair up a little. The boy giggled a little. "Yeah, Jamar would want that. I have to also get my friend back. He was like a brother to me. I won't fail him, you, or my father! Black Lotus, I swear to you, you'll pay!" He said clenching his fist. He then snapped his head to the side. A silhoutte was standing in the very shadows of his room. A smile continued to remain on the boy's face. "And I promise you, Kage, I think they called you, that I will not fail you. I will grow to be a peace-keeper....Just like you." He said pointing at the shadows. Ulira thought the boy was perhaps losing his mind. Perhaps too much damage from the ship. But in time she saw that he lost nothing. The Shadows were alive. Cautious, she stepped back and took a defensive martial arts stance. Chad let her know that a friend was in the vicinity, not a foe. She let down her guard and sighed. "Thank you.......Kage-sama...For assisting my husband in regaining our child. I only have to ask of you one last favor. Do you perhaps know of a couple that could take great care of him during his remaining years of childhood? Someone that would watch over him, and make sure he grows up to be the man of justice that he wishes to be? I know it's much to ask, but I have to know that my adoptive son is in a good home."

*

Chad and Ulira's eyes were riveted on the vast moving blackness that enveloped the doorway across the room. Neither of them had the faintest doubt that a living presence was near, forming a third in their company. They gazed on after they had spoken to it, fascinated by the very sight of the living yet formless sable blot. The woman and the boy could not shake the sense of unreality that clung to their senses, staring at the shadows that stared back like undying green embers and touched deep into their very souls.

Very vaguely did it remind Ulira of the summons she had received that one night a week ago. She had wondered then if she had gone just a little mad. She had dreamt Chad's voice had been crying out to her from the depths of an abyss, and a spectral unfamiliar voice from the realm beyond had accompanied it and bade her to come to this very hospital. With all haste she had left the Dead Desert and travelled to Tokyo, to this room at the Harada Medical Center, and found her boy here. Unconscious and injured, but otherwise in fair condition. She later found a certain Henry Arnaud had registered Chad here and paid for all his medical services. This Arnaud had not been present when she arrived.

Thinking back now, she knew that this living shadow Chad spoke of, the one who had aided Jamar and him, was none other than Henry Arnaud.

Answers to their words were momentarily forgotten as a crash of thunder from without the window and the abrupt plummet of Heaven's tears to Earth startled them both out of their reverie. When the rumble of thunder receded, Ulira strained her ears, swearing she had heard the last part of a faint knocking on the darkened door. "Who's there?" Ulira cautiously called out.

The voice of the nurse assigned to Chad came back on the other end. "Visitor to see you!"

No movement from the door's ebony shadows, whose verdant glow had suddenly vanished like an extinguished torch. "Show him in." she called out after awhile. If some random Black Lotus agent had managed to track them down here, he would never return alive...

The door swung open to reveal the tiny nurse, who stepped aside to make way for the incoming visitor, lights from the halls beyond spilling into the room. Before mother and son's eyes, the mammoth patch of the night, with the entrance of the light, seemed to dwindle and resolve itself into the tall vague profile of a human being. Ulira blinked once, twice, then thrice to be sure this was no illusion. The visitor spoke his thanks to the nurse in a low tone. Even from this distance, Ulira had to admit the man's voice was rich and compelling.

The voice came a little louder as footsteps indicated the man's closing of proximity. "Good evening, Miss Ulira." His features were revealed as he stepped forward to stop before her, bowing slowly. Some inches taller than herself, the visitor was a handsome jet black haired American clad in a gray business suit with a red tie. His attractive face had a peculiar yet fitting sharpness to it, giving it a hawkish semblance. It was his manner that softened his seemingly proud countenance. Kindly and dignified, he carried himself like a true gentleman.

What was most mystifying about this odd visitor was his eyes. Intriguing stormy grey eyes that, to Ulira, seemed to probe past her outer self and into her inner mind. Soul searched could not begin to describe how she felt under that fixed unchanging gaze. After a few more seconds of being silently looked at by this man, she coughed in embarassment, much to the stranger's own. "I apologize, Miss Ulira." said the man with profound sincerity. "For a moment...you reminded me of someone. I thought I had seen you before." The thought of Kano Ryuuzaki and his wife came to mind, but was lost as the boy on the bed stared up at him curiously. Cranston caught the gesture, and his response was a warm gentle smile that soothed Chad's troubled soul like cool air amidst a burning desert. "How are you feeling, Chad?" he quietly asked, moving to sit down on the chair on the other side.

A thought occured to Ulira. She for certain had seen this visitor before. In the most recent news in particular. Her eyes widened as she glanced at Chad, sitting back down by his side. "Chad, meet Mr. Lamont Cranston Junior." She could not help but notice her son's face fall slightly at the sight of this unfamiliar stranger. He had been expecting his cloaked friend perhaps?

Cranston extended a slender left hand to the boy. Chad found himself smiling shyly right back at the man, very taken in by the comforting smile on the American's lips. It was funny to him that they'd only just met, yet he already felt as if they were old friends.

That was not at all far from the truth, as the boy learned.

"I'm doing fine, thanks." whispered Chad as he grasped the man's offered slender left hand. Cranston's grip was firm and meaningful as he shook the little fingers, continuing to smile at the youth. "Did you know that we met last week?" That got several blue-eyed blinks from Chad. "We did?"

That was when Chad's fingers' encountered a smooth and glossy surface on Cranston's hand. Too smooth and solid to be human skin and slightly cold to the touch. Curiously he turned Cranston's hand over.

Upon the third finger of the American's left hand was a gem mounted on a ring, shining like a light from the land above the mortal plane. It was a girasol, or fire opal, an iridiscent jewel that sparkled with constantly shifting colors as the room's lights above touched it. Crimson to ultramarine to jade to turquiose and back again. The very sight of the jewel entranced mother and son as they gazed into the fiery stone's depths.

Chad alone recognized the bearer of this ring. For the moment he glanced up to Cranston in alarm was when a flash of lightning threw Cranston's shadow against the far wall. The same giant splotch of impenetrable darkness that had spread its coils about the doorway like a mammoth serpent.

The boy tugged on that hand and threw his arms around his neck. "It's you!" he cried out, heart rended with pure happiness. Ulira saw it too, realizing that the living shadow stood before them now in the form of a human being. She also realized who Henry Arnaud had really been. One and the same with this Lamont Cranston Junior and the Kage. She did know too that this could not be his true face, that it was merely one of several disguises he must have.

Cranston smiled as well as Chad hugged him, then suppressed a cough. "Ah, easy on the chest wounds, Chad. You're stronger than you think." Chad flushed sheepishly and pulled away, remembering where Kinomoto's slashes had found their marks. The smile persisted as the same hand that bore the ring gently laid on his head. "Know that Jamar's soul gazes down on you this very moment. He is proud that you will become the man he would have wanted you to be. A skilled warrior yet a vanguard of human life at the same time. Your determination has already won you half your battle. Your own perseverance is all you need now. With your big heart and fighting spirit, I guarantee, you -will- mature into the hero your father was. Maybe even surpass him. I know he'd want that too."

The ring seemed to sparkle with the widening of Cranston's smile. "And I'll be there to see you through, Chad. For as long as my shadow casts its darkness over souls of evil, so will it surround you as a shield against all that seek to lead you astray." Chad's eyes glistened as Cranston's hand gently brushed bangs out of his eyes. "But the rest is up to you. I know you won't fail me or your father. Neither will I fail you both. The Shadow never fails." There was no arrogance at all in that last statement, simply an iron unwavering self-confidence.

"And about your friend, the other boy named Kyle. He wanted to let you know that someday, you and he will meet again." This time, a tear trickled down Chad's eye, which he quickly brushed away. "Thank you for helping us." he said as his grasp tightened warmly around Cranston's hand. In response, the American shook his head. "It's what I do. Fighting and laughing at dark hearts is not the only thing that can make a hero. I hope you realize this." Cranston reached into his coat and withdrew a small palm size gift box. "Here is something for you to remember my promise by."

Chad took the package and cradled it in his arms, not intending to open it just yet. "I'll never forget you and your promise. Or all you've done." The American chuckled and nodded. "And it's going to be hard for me to forget all that has happened here too, not as long as I live. Rest easy, Chad..." But Chad's blue eyes had closed, a joyful smile still on his lips, still holding the package he had been given.

Lamont Cranston slowly eased the boy into a sleeping position, then stood as Ulira did the same. "Black Lotus can be likened to a phoenix. They will rise again from their ashes. And when they do, I will be there to welcome them." he whispered in assurance. He glanced once at Chad's sleeping form, then to her. "Watch over your son for the remaining time he will be with you, if your son he truly is. I feel, he is destined for something great...if not in this world, then in another." There was something cryptic about that last phrase.

"I must go. My flight leaves within this week. But you will hear from me again." Ulira's eyes glistened as she lightly embraced Cranston. "Thank you so much for everything. If there's anything I can ever do to repay you..." Cranston's head shook in the negative as he smiled and took up his hat. "There is none. Simply knowing you two will be safe, and that Chad will become a great person is my reward. Good night." He bowed deeply and with a tip of his hat, strode over to the door in exit. Ulira watched as Cranston's shadow faded from the room. His presence went with it, leaving Ulira with a warm feeling inside that made her want to swell up with joy.

Never had she been happier in her whole life, knowing the future was full of promise.

*

In a suburb in Tokyo lived a remarkable person named Kobayashi Ryo. A stoop shouldered man with whitening hair, he sat in his easy chair smoking a pipe as he graded stacks of math test papers for one of Tokyo's popular juku cram schools, where incoming high school students went to sharpen their knowledge before going to an institution of their choice. It disappointed him to see low scores on the papers. How degenerate and repulsive of knowledge Japan's youth was becoming. If not for this generation of punks...

His phone rang and he shoved the latest stack aside, picking it up. "Komban wa! Ryo speaking."

The sepulchral voice on the other end was low and rasping, and straightened him up right away. He listened intently as his chief voiced his orders. Kobayashi nodded at intervals. "Hai Kage-sama...I know some people...it can be done..." He nodded one last time. "Order received." He waited till his chief had put down the phone and his own dial tone returned, then he consulted a directory and put down a series of numbers over the next few hours.

Kobayashi went to sleep that night, content and satisfied.

*

Before Ulira and Chad had left the hospital the following morning, an envelope was delivered to them with no return address. Curiously Ulira had opened it, to reveal a single white sheet of paper, with words in blue cursive writing.

Dr. Thomas Geric, MD
112 Edo Heights Complex
Tokyo, Japan

And as Ulira watched, the words on the writing faded one by one, as if an invisible hand had wiped them clean off. She smiled as she knew precisely who had sent this message to her. This was the Kage's final blessing. In addition to the money left over from Chad's medical bills had come a sure sign of a new and loving happy home for her son to be raised in.

It was on the taxi to Chad's new home that he suddenly remembered the package his black clad friend had given him the previous night. Little fingers tore the wrapping apart, to reveal a simple red box underneath. This he opened.

And shining back at Chad came a pair of the most beautiful Chinese jade jewels he had ever seen. In fact, it was his first time to see the lustrous gems in his whole life. Together, they shone brighter than the biggest star. Ulira turned her head and smiled. "How sweet of him to give you those. He must be a man of wealthy means to afford such beautiful gems..."

Chad alone knew their symbolic meaning.

Not only was jade a Chinese talisman for luck.

But at night, when there was no other light shining in Chad's room, these pieces of jade cast their cold green light, giving birth to large shifting shadows on the walls. Yet for someone of Chad's age, he did not fear them. He smiled and reveled in them in fact.

The Shadow's eyes. The two pieces of jade alone sufficed to remind Chad of his promise. That no matter what, the cloaked avenger's eyes would always watch over him from depths unknown, ready and waiting to strike down the demons who would seek to seduce him from his path.

*

For one man, all these events had their temporary conclusion forty eight hours later. A bluish light flared to life in a sable walled and curtained room, a realm concealed deep within the bowels of the Tokyo metropolis yet easily accessible to the being it belonged to. The light shone down on a polished tabletop, upon them rested a pair of pale slender hands that moved like detached creatures of life. Upon the middle finger of the left hand flashed a mysteriously arresting gem, that gleamed in dozens of beautiful hues as the blue light touched it.

The hands lifted and left the desk momentarily. When they returned, they bore aloft a massive black bound volume. The left hand opened the book, revealing slightly dusty pages within, yellow with the passage of the decades. He kept a similar archive thousands of miles away in New York, which chronicled his myriad exploits. This book held a personal record of his actions in the Far East.

The left hand stopped moving as emerald eyes watching from the darkness beyond the light fell on an empty page. The right hand held a pen, and it began to move about the empty page, transforming keen thoughts into writing.

"Black Lotus is no more for the time being. Recruitment of new forces remains possible, their regain of control over the political and social realm does not. International security agencies have seen the malefactor as a clear and present danger to world peace, and are devoting their resources to crush them.

"Ulira is safe where she is, solitary in the Dead Desert. So is Chad, with a foster family. The other boy Kyle, if he lives, will undoubtedly finish his fall as a pawn of Black Lotus. His rising as a star in the organization can be anticipated. Let the three spirits who surrendered their lives for the cause of the light rest in peace, knowing that eyes watch and wait for their wishes to be granted."

The right hand inscribed a strange symbol at the bottom, and the left grasped the cover, as if making ready to close the book. A second passed, then the left loosened its hold and the right lifted the pen once more.

"Strange alien aura pervades both children's presence. Otherworldy origin of both boys conjectured."

The pen stopped again, slowly tapping against the page it had been writing on. The light tapping of plastic on paper was the only sound that manifested itself in that room. This written statement was merely a supposition, a theory to best explain the hidden power that this persona had felt from the two boys. It was not certain.

For once, the Shadow did not know.

The pen inscribed its final statement at the bottom of the page. "It has only begun."

The pen was kept away in a drawer under the table. Both hands lifted the massive volume out of the wide ring of lighut. The book was returning to its resting place, a library of archives of which only one pair of eyes in the world could and would ever read.

A click and the the sapphire light from above died, plunging the room into a total ebony void. A cloak swished in the darkness as a low sinister laugh that shattered the weakest hearts echoed throughout the black walled room. Shuddering whispers came to life in its trail. The giver of that black mirth had seen the irony of his ignorance. It had also divined the future.

True that the Shadow did not know.

YET.

Someday, somehow, they would all cross paths once more.

*

The Following Week

Chad embraced Ulira and the two said their final farewells. He watched as she got in a blue pickup and drove away, holding back her tears. The young boy then sighed, holding his own tears back. He opened a certain box and gazed at two jade jewels. He smiled and nodded, closing the box. He turned to the door of his new home. After a few knocks, the door creaked open, an elderly looking man gazing down at the boy. "You must be Chad. I've been expecting you, son." The man said kindly. Chad knew in an instant that this would work out for the better. He had a new home, a new life, a new start. He would make sure to make it a good one. His memories of the past would come in due time, but the memories of the present would always stay with him. Jamar, Travis, General, Kyle. Brave souls, all of them. He would fight, for each and every one of them in the future. He would fight for a better tommorrow, to make sure that the shadows of children did not bring fear, but a feeling of protection that could come from two usually scary emerald eyes. He nodded assuringly and walked in, the Doc and himself growing to be fast friends. A legacy, a legend, a life ahead.....That is the fate which lies in store for the young boy known as Chad. But what kind of legend, what kind of legacy, and what kind of life.....Would the future hold? Only time would tell.

............The Dead Desert............

The sun, hotter than ever, was beaming down over the dead desert. It had seemed as if death itself had walked through and eliminated monsters itself. The creatures, all dehydrated or near it, lay amongst one another, either dead, or beaten by other creatures and killed for food. Among the scavengers, the dead, the weary and defeated, stood a figure, gazing at the previous house of Jamar Ryuuzaki. The figure stared for moments, not taking his eyes off of the dwelling of the Desert Ghost. A dark cloak blowing wildly in the breeze that had immediatly picked up upon his arrival. His black hair flowed as if it was silk, however. His lower face was covered by this cloak, and his eyes, dark and filled with a short past of their own...Held nothing but darkness. His lips at last spoke, his voice, dark and eerie, but filled with an anger never dreamed of by any normal 6 year old child. "So that was it. The Desert Ghost. Jamar Ryuuzaki, my father, was he...? I am proud to have the name Ryuuzaki if the man who helped to bring me into this miserable world was filled with such honor and dignity. I don't understand, father....Why him? Why did you feel like such great things could come from such a weak boy? I'll never understand...But one thing is certain...I shall live up to the Ryuuzaki name. I will not fail you. That...is my oath." With that the sands kicked up furiously, the winds picking up creating a sandstorm that no creature could have normally survived. Ulira looked outside curious. The winds had never blown hardly at all, except when Jamar was around. She immediatly realized what had happened. A visitor had arrived in the form of their lost son. But what brought him here? And how could he surivive? The child was only 6 years of age! She shuddered at the feeling of darkness she got when she thought of their lost son. His name ringing through her mind. A name that Jamar had picked out, for reasons unknown. What was to become of him? What was to become of the lost boy they had hoped to raise, but couldn't? Why was it every time she thought of him, the chills ran down her spine? She placed her hands together and placed them to her chin, her voice softly speaking her first child's name. "Megor." The desert winds calmed after the name was spoken, once again, the rays of the sun blasting down upon the guilty. She closed her eyes, and hoped that Chad's promise would come to reality. That he would indeed bring her lost family together again. Hope is now all she had. Opening her mouth, a whisper of a legend that Jamar spoke of came from her lips. "Hope.....Will be the light...."

Elsewhere, a young Chad looked out the window, gazing at the stars. His words softly emitting in the forms of whispers as well. "That brightens the dark path to the future."

Sixteen years have passed since that day...And the future is now..