The liquid brew had been some of the most vile stuff Luke had ever tasted but he now found himself wandering the darkened landscape alone. Raina, Naveed, Sam, and Sara were nowhere to be found and as he trudged along in his own personal darkness he failed to realize that this wasn't really happening. He brain was making him believe that he was out at night with no warmth from the sun shining down at him but yet Raina had specifically said to not go out after dark.

"Why am I out here?" Luke pondered quietly as he continued to walk onward. From what Raina and Sedna had said, Luke would just know when he had reached his destination. How in the world was he supposed to know that? He didn't even know what he was looking for! "I came to help Raina but how in the world is this supposed to help her?"

"By making you the kind of man she needs." A distinctly feminine voice said out of nowhere.

Luke froze, his sonar sweeping the landscape as he tried to find the person that had spoken. There was nothing... just bare tundra that seemed to stretch on forever.

"Keep walking. You have not yet arrived."

For a moment Luke didn't move, but then he took a step that led into another one and another one. The logical side of his brain was screaming at him for doing something so foolish but another part recognized that something was happening. He didn't know exactly what that drink had been but something in it was opening up his mind to possibilities he had never before considered.

"Keep walking." The voice trailed off into nothingness but yet a haunting echo still seemed to fill his ears. Who was that?

Time had become meaningless as Luke pressed on. It didn't matter how far he walked or how long he took but he knew that something was waiting for him. It made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end every time he thought about it but at the same time he knew that this wasn't a bad thing. Creepy... yes. Bad... no.

Finally as he crested a gentle rise Luke found what he knew he'd been looking for. A small patch of open ground surrounded by a circle of strangely shaped stones. Off to one side was a stone bench and without a though he walked over to it and sat down.

"I have to wait for something." He realized as he sat down silently, just listening to the sound of the world around him as he waited for what would happen next.

Off in the distance he could hear a wolf howl followed by the drifting sounds of a porpoise or whale breathing as it surfaced. An owl hooted seconds before the cry of a dying rabbit echoed across the land. This was a land that was alive but at the same time it was still a place of death. A delicate balance that somehow nature maintained.

Suddenly a loud screech broke through the night, shattering any stillness that might have remained. Before Luke could react a bird dropped out of the sky, landing gracefully on the other end of the bench. The sharp beak, slender body, narrow wings, and sharp talons could only fit one type of bird.

"A falcon?"

"Are you ready to learn how to face the trials an tests that will come to you in the not so distant future?"

The confused look on Luke's face couldn't have been any more obvious as he focused his sonar just a little more tightly on this particular bird.

"Who are you?"

"I am your guardian spirit sent to tell you how to handle what awaits you." The animal kreed softly in response, "Or if you prefer I'm a figment of your imagionation. A manifestation of your subconscious mind. I am nobody but at the same time I am you."

"You couldn't be any more vague if you tried." Luke said with a sigh, "So tell me, why am I here? This trip was all about Raina. Not me."

"And why is it you worry so much about the destination?" The bird answered as it spread its wing and with two strong flaps was suddenly in the air, slowly circling the man that sat below, "Life is a journey and it is the journey that is important. Not the destination."

"I'm here aren't I?" Luke responded somewhat harshly as he stood to his feet, half tempted to shake a fist at the elusive bird that soared above, "What do you want from me?"

Suddenly tucking its wings tight against its body, the bird dove straight down, falling like a stone before suddenly spreading its wings to once again settle ever so gently on the stone bench Luke had just vacated.

"I want you to take that control you so pride yourself on and use it to build yourself some confidence!" The bird replied, the shrillness of its cry only making the words come out even harsher than they might have been intended, "Raina doesn't need a man that is always afraid of how people will react and your company doesn't need a man that hides because of what he is!"

For a moment Luke focused on the bird, his expression angry before slowly the words sunk in. He could feel his muscles relaxing and his shoulder slumping as he had to admit to himself that what was being said was true. There was no use arguing with the bird when it obviously knew his very thoughts. Here he was forced to admit what he would never admit to his friends. In many ways he was a coward that was afraid of failing.

"What should I do?"

"Learn to trust yourself, your insight, and your discernment. Focus on deciding between opportunities in life and then attacking the ones you choose without any regret." The falcon replied quietly, "Swiftness, control, exactness in movement, and timing. Master those four elements and nothing can tear you down."

Luke stood in the center of the stone ring, his shirt discarded across the bench. The bird looked on from where it stalked back and forth across the stone walkway with a regal air. It was no wonder that for many years falcons had been considered the birds of kings.

"You are afraid to hurt those you love, yet by being afraid you hurt them even more." The bird lectured in the whistling kree of a voice that seemed to fit its body, "Examined your options. Make sure your decision is right, but once the decision is made NEVER back down!"

"But what if I make the wrong decision?" Luke asked with a somewhat bewildered expression on his face, "If someone shows me I'm wrong, I have to admit it."

"Then admit it and move on. Don't just beat yourself up about it!"

Suddenly out of nowhere a shadowy figure appeared on Luke's sonar. It seemed to leap right up out of the darkened ground, launching itself at the blind man in a flurry of kicks and punches. Luke's years of training kicked in and he reacted without a thought, blocking and slowly retreating as he tried to gauge his opponent.

"Who and what are you afraid of? Oliver? Fausto? Vega?" The falcon kreed, and with each name mentioned the figure that was attacking Luke seemed to morph and become the person that had just been mentioned. The shock of having to defend himself from people he cared about was enough that for a moment, Luke dropped his guard and several punches broke through to crash into his chest. "Sam? Sara? Raina?" The bird continued on without mercy, each name cutting closer to Luke's heart until finally he was unable to block the blows coming his way. How could he ever strike out at those he loved? How could he ever chance the idea that he might hit them and hurt them?

Reverting to its shadowy form, the figure spun, slamming a leg into Luke's side and sending him falling to the ground. Pushing hims back up, Luke focused his sonar on the formless attacker only to receive the shock of his life. He was no longer staring at a shadow or at the form of one of his friends or loved ones. Now, he was staring at a vision of... himself!

"You aren't afraid of those you care about, you are only afraid of hurting them which means that really you fear yourself!"

"No! NO!" Luke said forcefully, his attention never leaving the one that had attacked him.

"You're afraid of hurting them because it would hurt you! You fear the emotional pain that scarred you as a child!"

Luke fell silent, the horror evident on his face as he stared down a figure of himself while listening tot he shrill cries of his supposed 'spirit guide'. Was that really it? Was that the problem?

"You think you're strong because you overcame your problems by shoving them in a room in your head and heart that you keep locked. But all you've done is bottle up the pain making yourself more wary and more prone to explode when the right buttons are pushed!"

Suddenly Luke surged up from his prone position, throwing punches and kicked with a focused energy that almost no one alive could have ever countered but every move and blow was countered expertly by himself.

"You can never win this fight physically. You've tried that for to long. It's the reason you toured Europe, the reason you took martial arts lessons, and even the reason you became Wraith. You want to fight your emotions but you've never learned that punches and kicks can not touch the heart."

"EEEENOUGH!" Luke suddenly roared, and at the sound of his voice the figure he had been fighting seemed to explode and then dissolve into nothingness. The blind man was breathing hard as he turned back toward the bird and his expression was tight. "This is getting me nowhere!"

"Wrong! This is getting you exactly where you need to go but you fight it every step of the way. Why? Until you stop fighting yourself you will never be as strong as you can be."

"So what am I supposed to do?" Luke shouted back, his voice somewhat ragged from the emotion that was trying to flood to the forefront, "Just accept the fact that I was abandoned by my mother because she felt I wasn't worth her effort? Accept the fact that my father killed himself because I wasn't worth living for? Accept that my uncle took my company and shipped me off because I wasn't worth his time? I DON'T WANT TO ACCEPT IT!"

"Feel the pain. Be angry, but don't let that pain rule you!" The falcon shrieked back just as loudly as the blind man's voice had just been, "Your trials as a young person molded you into the man you are but you will never reach your full potential until you deal with this history and move forward!"

Slowly Luke sank to his knees and then the man that prided himself on his strength and his control broke down and began to cry.

He would never be able to say how long the tears fell. In fact he would probably never share with anyone that he had broken down during his vision quest. That was something that Raina might not even find out, but then again she just might be the only one to hear about it.

"You know you can share anything with her." The kree was softer, as Luke's tears stopped falling. Looking to his right with the sonar he had unintentionally brought in tight to his body, he found the falcon, standing next to his leg and just looking up at him. "She loves you."

"She loves the part of me that she knows... but what about the rest? How am I supposed to help her deal with her problems when I can't even face my own?" Luke asked quietly as he reached up and wiped away the moisture that clung to the skin of his face.

"Give her a chance. As long as you love her and she loves you, the two of you can deal with anything." The falcon replied, "But now the time has come for your first of many decisions. What do you do next?"

The cold breeze and frozen ground couldn't penetrate through Luke's thoughts as he remained where he was, kneeling on the cold ground while he tried to come to some sort of decision. Being afraid of how people would react was how he had gotten into this place and if he ever hoped to have a truly fulfilling relationship with Raina that would have to change.

"I need to claim what is rightfully mine and let the world know where I stand." Luke finally said after several moments, "I need to take back my company and then announce to the world that I am in charge of the company as well as being a mutant. I need to go public and have the courage to do what I should have done a long time ago."

With a kree of triumph, the falcon flapped its wings and lept into the air, soaring approximately twenty to thirty feet above Luke. "There is no more reason for you to remain here. You have done what needed to be done! Return to your mermaid!"

"How? What way do I go?" Luke asked as he rose back up to his feet, his sonar watching the bird as his wheeled back and forth above him.

"Just wake up! Wake up! Wake up!"

(OOC: Continued back in The Great White North)