Balance

By BloodyChaosDragonKnight

Disclaimer: If I owned Dark Cloud do you honestly think I would bother writing fanfiction? I only own my muses.

A/N: Ruby's piece, fourth in the contemplation series. Not quite as disturbing, but still with the same theme.

Random Fic Rec: Kindly go read DarkBane's Atlamilla, it's one of the best Dark Cloud fics I've ever read.

Warnings: Not much this time, just generalness...

She had realized early on that there were two sides to everything. Good could not exist without evil. Light could not exist without darkness. If there was one thing, there must be another... It was how the universe worked.

By all logic the Dark Genie should not exist. He had no balancing factor, no equal or rival that would keep him from going to far. If this kept up he would surely destroy all that was, just as he nearly had before. When this world quaked with terror at his very existence.

She remembered those times, how her master at the time had jumped at every shadow and prayed to every god, goddess and being that would listen for the darkness to spare him. Those had been troubling times, even she had felt the tendrils of fear on her neck when she felt that presence nearby.

There were no words for the terrifying power he exuded. It felt as though death itself was standing there, it's empty skull grinning maniacally at her. Even immortals such as she herself quailed in his presence, for he had power far beyond that of a mere genie.

She had been relieved beyond anything she had ever felt before when he had been sealed away, when that terrifying presence was dimmed to where she could barely sense it when she concentrated. She had been happy or at least as happy as a genie can be. No longer was the threat of death hanging over her shoulder at every instant.

Then a great deal of time later (she had never really bothered to keep track of the passing of time) She had felt something snap and suddenly that cold, cold presence was filling the world again. She had felt cold chills run up her spine, knowing this time... This time would surely be different. The knowledge used to lock him away again had been lost.

She had always known that someday he would reawaken, just as she knew that there eventually would be another master. Humans always were petty creatures, craving one thing above all. One thing that both she and he shared. Power.

She had felt an emptiness then, a resignation to her fate as the world was wiped clean around her and she returned to the darkness of the lamp. She had waited patiently for the end of all things. For surely such a being without an equal to balance it would destroy itself and everything around it.

Then she had met him. She had known truly that nothing could exist without balance, that a force such as the Dark Genie creates a space to be filled. But she hadn't believed, not until she was staring the boy in the face.

The gem sparkling on his left hand had nothing to do with it, he held such untapped strength within him that she felt the stirrings of hope for the first time since the being's creation. He was just a child, untried and untrained with no idea of what lied within him. She knew that he had the power to restore the balance of the universe, but her heart didn't quite believe.

She knew the only way she would ever truly believe was to see it all end with her own two eyes.

TBC

Thanks to all who read and reviewed the last installments.

BloodyChaos: "Not as disturbing as the first three..."

Zach: "Not quite.

BloodyChaos: "Can you tell I have issues with humanity in general? Anyways if you liked it leave me a review and I'll try to get the nest installment up soon..."