(Ben had escaped with Rambo trying to link up with Pan and Hiroki. I tried to make it full circle and now we are back where we started, so go on Whitewash, continue with the story.)

((Yes, I think that it has all been cleared...))

(We tried investigating you earlier, to which the response was that we couldn't figure you out or that you put on your pokescents and completely fooled us. I say, I'll let you keep fooling us and treat you like a Mudkip. Also, noone but the ninjas even saw your "completely stupid stunt." Ben was knocked out and tied up by the time you showed, and you left Hiroki and I to do so. Noone saw it.)

Pan watched as the Mudkip ran off. "Where is Sevear?" Suddenly a net fell upon him and Hiroki, tangling them up. A couple of smoke bombs were launched. In the midst of all this, Pan saw a shadowy figure launch tranq darts at them. "I think I know where he is now." Pan was hit by the darts and showed signs of drowziness almost immediately. He began tearing pages out of the book and swallowing them down whole. He ate maybe 4 pages by the time he fell unconscious. Growlithe managed to escape.

The smoke came in and a net dropped. I yelled in surprise, and Kinar ran off with Growlithe, keeping the Mudkip on her back. I had an idea of what to do, but unfortunately, I didn't have time to tell Pan. I stumbled blindly in the smoke, hit a rock, and fell. I then took out a pill that I had in my pocket, which cured the state of tranquility.
I gulped one down, and took a dart from the ground. This way...I can wake up early...I knew that those pills would come in handy.
I gulped, and stuck the needle into my arm. With that, I lost consciousness.

Kinar ran after Growlithe, and laid down when he stopped. She looked at him. Any ideas?

"Good good..." said Aseren as he inspected his haul of prisoners. Sevear, Pan, Hiroki, Rambo, but Ben is not among them. No matter. The lot of them were tied and bound with chains. They had been stripped of all weapons, utensils, and anything suspiscious. Aseren opened the Book of Tacid he had received from Pan's robes. Several pages had obviously been torn out. He informed a ninja to begin interrogationing of Pan, as he was the only one seen with the book.

Several hours later, the ninja slapped Pan Tamaran awake. "Open your eyes, meat!" He wore a black mask to keep his identity secret, which was traditional of the Black Dojo. "Well well well, the mighty Pan Tamaran has been caught with his pants down." He grabbed his hair and slammed his head onto a table which was laid between them. Pan had been chained together so that only his head could move. "Tell us your mission!"

Pan awoke to his head being smacked on the table. "Tell us your mission!" "I will if you will." Bang! Head was back on the table. "Do you know who you are dealing with?!" the masked man said again. "No, but I would if you took that mask off." Smack! 'Oh, sorry, didn't realize you were that ugly." Smack and then Pan was lifted off the table by his hair. He fell with his gut bruised from the several strikes to the chest that followed. He began coughing up blood.

"Where are the pages!? I will not ask you again." "Good, cause I-" Knee to the gut and Pan was back on the floor, squirming. "You're a funny man Pan Tamaran. There are 5 pages missing from the book. Now we know you have them. This will all end when you tell us where the pages are." "I... I... overcooked one and ate the rest." Bang! "You did no such thing! Where are they?!" "In my head, where they are staying." At this point the ninja opened a drawer of the table and began laying out silver instruments, one at a time. All the while he hummed a calming tune. Pan began to sweat. "Oh, you'll tell us, soon enough."

The others were each in their own cells. Aseren just left Hiroki's cell and made his way toward the interrogation chamber. He opened the door to hear screaming. "Could I see you a secong please." "Yes, sir."

They met in the hallway. "Did you get anything out of him?" "No sir. He won't say a word of where the pages are at."

Aseren was in deep thought for a minute or 2 before it came to him. He punched the wall and made his hand bleed. "He destroyed them! The fool read them and then destroyed the pages! Well, we will see how much he remembers. Fetch the cell mates and prepare our friends to be arriving at the gate!" With that he opened the door and walked into the room where Pan Tamaran was weezing and twitching on the table. Aseren kicked him something fierce. The table collapsed and Pan lay in a shaking heap. "You haven't won yet!" With that he slammed the door shut and stormed off to his quarters.

The prisoners were each escorted outside and they began their journey to the Gate. Aseren began reading ahead in the Book of Tacid. The rest suffered a walk of shame at the end of the row of travelers. Aseren led, the captains followed and the baldesworn and recruits hauled the prisoners in the very back. They were nearing the mountainside.

Duke? Duke? Where are you? Sevear tried to establish a mental connection between himself and his Lucario as he was being walked toward the mountain.

Ben paused a moment and found a small clearing off to the side. He gasped and dropped to one knee a hand clutched over his heart. Ben waited until the pain lessened then stood and looked for Eclipse. It was crouched in the shadow of a large tree off to the side.

"You need to be more careful, Eclipse, I am not as young as I once was. However I thank you."

He grimaced through another chest pain when the predicament crashed down on him. He was lost and had no idea the state of his squad.

A mudkip then appeared in the clearing, the very same one he could not sense life within. It motioned to him to follow and Ben set off after it hoping it would lead him back to Hiroki and the squad.

A was awakened by a ninja from the Black Dojo, who sent me with the others walking down the path to the mountains. I grimaced on the way up and looked at Aseren. I knew how to talk to him though.
There was a language that people who were sons of the ruler of the Dojo's knew. I, however, managed to sneak and learn it, many years ago. I knew that Aseren knew it well, too, as in one time we were on the same side, and I knew that us two were the only two who understood it here.
"Yhw era uoy gniod siht Neresa?! Tahw esoprup od ew evah ot uoy?!"
I yelled, getting his attention.

The Mudkip stopped at the Black Dojo. He was thinking, Arseren will be pleased I brought Ben, though it may make a small fight.

Pan finally saw it. A gate of gigantic proportions. It had 2 handles and a series of levers stationed in odd places around it. The door seemed ageless, though the area around the door seemed to have been excavated. He was thrown to the ground. This is not good.

Ben followed the mudkip towards a strange compound. He paused just at the edge of the woods trying to feel for a trap. It seemed strange, there was no foot traffic in and out and to Ben it appeared the place was empty.

Ben suspected the mudkip was leading him on however he had no choice but to follow it. Later he comfirmed the compound was indeed empty, but he did discover the emblem of the black dojo everywhere he went.

He pushed the emerging feelings of desperation away, it seemed redemption would no longer be an option. He then noticed Eclipse motioning to him and hurrying over she pointed to a large prosession of tracks moving off towards the mountain. Nodding his thanks to Eclipse they began following the tracks.

Aseren ignored Hiroki's question and replied with,"Ouy ton dluow dnatsrednu." His mind was elsewhere. He finally saw the gate. The legend may very well be true. All the more that the Imperials never touch what is inside. He commanded the guards in the back to come forward with the prisoners. 4 legions of fully trained Black Dojo ninjas made a pth for the 4 prisoners to walk through. They threw them at the feet of Aseren, who was wearing a mask. "Open the doors or I will kill one meber of your team each minute you refuse. If you still refuse after all your team is killed we will make you watch as we use your sword to kill the inhabitants of the nearest village. Now do it!" He pulled Pan up by his hair and kicked him toward the gate entrance.

Pan Tamaran walked forward and urged his companions to do the same. "To open the gate, 3 people must occupy 3 completely seperate locations. Those levers are the locations. We must each switch the lever simultaneously, or the Gate will implode itself and whatever is inside will be destroyed." This will keep them listening to me. As long as I have control of what they do, we may yet escape this.

Duke, if you can hear me I am at our destination. Go there but stay in the bushes. There are to many of them.

"Hiroki, if you don't mind my asking; what language are you and our masked buddy speaking?" he asked Hiroki.

"Aye, aye, sir," said Sevear in a sarcastic voice.

EDIT - My post was before yours had shown up, had to change its contents.

Aseren saw his chance. He ran and pulled a lever. This should make sure nobody gets to use the weapon. But nothing happened. It did not implode in on itself. He gave a dark look at Pan. He ran up to him and kicked him in the gut. "You take me a fool? You think we will do just as you say? The gate seems to indeed take the 3 levers, but if you EVER lie to me again..." At this point he ripped off a chunk of Pan's hair and then stuffed the pieces into Pan's mouth. "Now open it!" He watched as the 3 chosen approached the levers. Sevear, Hiroki, and Pan.

Sevear turned to the masked ninja who had kicked Pan in the gut and spat at him before taking his time walking to the lever.

(( ))

"I do mind you asking, actually." I said back to him, and as we were brought as guinea pigs, I looked to Aseren. "Uoy era yletelpmoc elbaronohsid, uoy ******b!" I said to him, and looked away and was directed to the nearest lever. "I t'nac eveileb taht I yllautca llef ni evol htiw enoemos ekil uoy." I muttered so thay he could hear me.

"It also appears that you two are the only ones able to speak it. Deeper connections than what lie on the surface, I think." Sevear said, stopping in his tracks.

Master, I see you.

Duke? Stay where you are. When these doors open I want you to run in after us, okay?

Yes, master.

"That, Sentinel, is not of your concern. It is a basic language, and all I have in common with him is the knowledge of the language, and that the person whom we are talking to in this language understands and speaks it. It comes from my home village. Who knows, he might have learned it there before or after me and ran away or was taken prisoner or something. Again, who would know the truth of such things?" I almost smiled, but then remembered our situation. I again looked to Aseren. "Sseltraeh reyarteb." I muttered at him.

Pan grasped his handle and watched as the others did the same. He nodded at each of them and they pulled the levers at once. The gate made the sound of a cannon shooting forth. Pan fell backwards and the the large doors began to move ever so slowly. The doors moved the earth , so that an indent formed at the base of the doors in the shape of a semi-circle. Pan gazed in awe of the architectural complexity that this gate was made of. The doors creaked and groaned as they moved. As soon as they fully opened an echo was heard of the cannon shot from before, then silence. Inside the gates revealed a cave. It was pitch black in there. The Gate of Tacid has been opened.

"Squad one! Cover that doorway!" At once, one of the squads were at the doorway. Several lit torches while others felt around on the cave wall for doors or something else. "Sir! There is a stairwell down the way!" "Hold off before descending down it!" He looked at Pan, then back at his squad. "You guys are going down with. Don't lie to us or make us trigger a trap, or you will have to face the same threats they do." He grimaced, mostly from what Hiroki had said. He turned his back to her and answered," Rouy redael si ton eht nam uoy kniht eh si." With that he marched with the prisoners and his squad towards the stairwell.

"Squad two, cover the door! The rest take recon and sentry positions!" Where is that Tom?

Pan whispered to the others,"whatever happens down there, listen to what I say and you will be okay. Do not touch anything unless I give the okay." Once he finished his sentence, he hung his head down and continued his pace. What happened once he touched the blue stone?

They came to the causeway, and sure enough, the eerie lights came into existance. Pan showed no shock to it, for he had read about these in great detail. The ninjas were in awe of the lights and surprise was written on their masked faces, whether they wanted to hide it or not. The hallway was still very dim and where the lights weren't 5 feet away from, you couldn't see the hand in front of your face. Those men must have been quite brave to deal with this.

A voice entered Pan's head. It was dark and gutteral and lacked tone. It was more along the lines of cracking sounds at different pitches. The voice was weezing but he could still make out what it said. "I see into your mind stranger from the surface. You are not worthy for the talent you seek. Turn back, or your destruction is imminent." Pan's back shivered and his hairs stood on end. It was as if he just walked through a snowbank, for it had gotten so cold so fast. So that's why the man had shivered so much down here. he wondered if his mind had played tricks on him with the voice.

As Aseren walked down the hallway, some strange lights had appeared out of nowhere. His jaw dropped. They are floating! Nothing is supporting them! The hallway was dimly lit and in the areas he didn't see light, it was almost pitch black. There were no doors in the hallway thus far.

A ninja's torch went out, he noticed. The ninja went towards the light to try to relight his torch. Aseren turned away and looked at Pan, who showed no surprise to this miracle. He turned back to the ninja, who seemed to have disappeared. He looked around for him and then shouted, "Halt! Squad one! Report! Where are all your men?" The squad leader surveyed the area around him, then replied,"Strange sir, we are missing 3 of our 12 men."

Aseren gave another look back at Pan, who still showed no change in his emotions. Aseren's eyes narrowed. He kept his eyes on Pan as he spoke. "Do not touch anything until you see these 3 touch it. Nothing is safe as far as we are concerned. Continue ahead!" The marched onward.