//------------------------------// // Ch.25 Friend or Foe // Story: The First Star of Twilight // by Arcanum -Phantasy //------------------------------// Petal was not in a good mood. Her head felt like someone slammed a hammer into it and she felt sick to her stomach. Just moving or thinking was as pleasant an idea as swallowing a cup of molten metal. The bed she was laying in didn't help much, the soft silk doing little to ease the burning pains from the Aether in the air. When she tried to crack her eyes open, she had to snap them back shut again from the pain. She groaned, rolling onto her side as she pulled her head under the covers. Fucking Aether! Fuck it up the fucking ass! A familiar gasp and faint pulse of worry at her bedside caught her attention. Still hiding under the covers, she turned towards the girl sitting next to her, stuck out a hand, and gave her a weak, "Hey Sparky." "You're finally awake," Twilight said, grasping the hand with a relieved smile. "Thank god; I was so worried! Yesterday, you passed out and wouldn't wake up! Are you okay?! Are you hungry?! Thirsty?! Are you in any pain?! Do you ne-" "Sparky! Chill!" Petal barked, her head about to split. "My.....My head is pounding and I feel like my skin's on fire! Now is not the time to throw fifty questions at me!" Twilight flinched back, her grip on Petal's hand tightening briefly before evening out. "S-Sorry," Twilight sighed. "I.... I was worried about you. Everyone was; even Stygian and Sunny." Petal snorted at that, flinching from the small spike in pain the action triggered. "Th-Those two were worried about me? Hell must be freezing right now." Twilight giggled at that. "Is Lemon and the rest here too?" she asked. "No," Twilight sighed. "They're in the middle of training right now." "Oh," Petal frowned. "I....I guess that makes sense." An awkward silence took the room for a few seconds, before Petal nervously asked, "So....do you know about.....the sacrifice? I mean, did anyone tell you who Dagon said it was?" "Y-......Yeah," Twilight gulped, a tremble audible in her tone. Petal sighed, a frustrated frown marring her face. A moment of silence, then- "This seriously fucking sucks!" Petal barked. "Why did it have to be you? Out of all of the kids in that preppy shit-hole of a school, why the fuck did you have to be the sacrifice?" "Just my luck, I guess," Twilight bitterly chuckled. "It's funny. A few days ago, I was worried about what I was going to do with myself after high school and it turns out that I might not make it past that point." As Twilight talked, Petal could feel the dark void of hopelessness settling in her friend's heart. In response a burning rage started to explode around Petal's core. Pushing past her nausea, the Wrath threw off her blanket, sat up, and pulled Twilight towards her by the collar of her shirt. "I never want to hear that shit come out of your mouth ever again," Petal growled. "Do you hear me?" Twilight nodded, gloom still present in her features. Petal let out a growl, both from pain and the black hole she felt sucking away at her friend's heart. Muscling past both, she took a deep breath and tried to come at this from a different angle. Letting her hand fall away from Twilight's collar, she forced a smile onto her lips. "Hey. We knew that this was going to be a rough ride already, right?' Twilight nodded. "Then there's no point getting all depressed about this shit," she snorted. "We've just gotta get stronger before the contract breaks; piece of cake." "It can't be that simple," Twilight whimpered. "According to Sunny, the contract is going to void itself two weeks before the Friendship games. If that's true, then we only have a month to prepare for it! Unless we can find a way to stretch out our time table, there is no way we can get strong enough to beat him!" "We'll figure something out," Petal frowned. "I'm not gonna let him hurt you anymore. I mean it, Sparky." Twilight's lip trembled, tears flowing down her face as she aimed a red-eyed glare at her friend. "You heard what Sunny and Stygian said about Belfry! How are you going to fight that?! We barely managed to hold our own against Sunny for pete's sake, and that was only because of pure dumb luck!" Petal struggled to come up with an argument, but couldn't find a way to do so that didn't sound like false hope. She was well aware that the odds were not in her favor. As she was, taking on an Archwraith would've been the same as a human taking on a whale; Technically possible, but extremely unlikely. If she was an Archwraith herself, then she might have had a chance, but that entirely depended on what kind of unique skill Belfry had to begin with and if she had a skill that could counter it. A tense silence dominated the room, one girl struggling to find her voice while the other continued to glare. At the same time, they could feel the emotional turmoil between them with near perfect clarity. For Petal, this was mostly familiar, but for Twilight, the experience only added to her already destabilizing temper. She could feel Petal's resolve, her stubborn refusal to accept the futility of the situation. Why couldn't she just make peace with the fact that there was nothing they could do about this? "I'm going to die, Petal," Twilight growled. "You can't change that." A look of shock crossed Petal's face at that, only to be replaced by pure rage as she roared, "LIKE FUCKING HELL I CAN'T!!!" Twilight reeled back at that, the Wraith's voice shaking the whole room. A surge of Aetheric Miasma flooded the room as Petal's human form fell away, her nausea knocked away by her fury. Twilight braced herself for the yelling she knew was coming, tensing and closing her eyes out of reflex. Her heart froze when she heard wet sniffling instead. Sure enough, when she opened her eyes, she saw tears falling from Petal's own, frustration and sadness fighting for dominance on her face. "I'm not gonna let you die," she hiccuped, wiping at her face. "I don't know how, but I'm gonna get strong enough to get you through this. A girl like you doesn't deserve any of this shit. You're smart, pretty, and have a really big heart. You've got a family that loves you like crazy and now you've got a bunch of really cool friends. You should be out there happy and doing stupid human things instead of getting dragged into any of this shit!" In spite of the pessimism holding her heart, she couldn't stop a small blushing smile from gracing her face. "You've got so much left to live for Sparky," she continued, her tone turning somber. "Way more than I do anyway." "Huh?" Twilight blinked. Petal let out a mirthless chuckle. "Compared to you, I don't have much of a reason to breathe. No past. No family. Hell, I don't even know what my fucking name is! The only things I do have, are because of you." With desperation on full display, Petal grabbed Twilight's shoulders and looked pleadingly into her eyes. "I don't want to lose the only thing that really matters to me. So please, don't say you're going to die." Twilight stared back with wide eyes, both Petal's words and their bond shaking her soul. While they held each other's gaze, something clicked into place in Twilight's head. What she shared with Petal was much more than simple friendship. They were kindred spirits, similar yet different in equal measure. Was this what it was like to have a sister? That thought brought a small warmth to Twilight's heart, a shaky smile forming from it as she nodded. "I....won't die," she timidly stated. "Not good enough," Petal grimaced. "Say it like you mean it." "I...won't die," she repeated, a bit more force entering her tone. "Still not good enough," Petal spat. "I said I want you to say it like you mean it!" "I won't die," she said, her voice holding its normal strength. "Louder damn it!" Petal barked. "I won't die!" Twilight yelled. "Put your fucking heart into it damn it!" the Wraith demanded. "I WON'T DIE!!!" Twilight roared, a look of fierce determination plastered across her face. A satisfied smile graced Petal's lips at that, the Wraith giving her a nod as she finally let go her. "Damn straight," she snorted. Twilight smiled at her, a small sheepish blush coloring her cheeks. Panic quickly took its place when she suddenly remembered where they were. "Nononononononono! You need to change back! If Somnambula senses what you really are-" "FUCK!" Petal blanched, quickly dispelling her Miasma. Both girls let out relieved sighs when Petal returned to her human form, the Wraith in question flopping bonelessly onto her borrowed bed. Twilight did the same in her seat, not sure how many more emotional tailspins she could take at this point. While her friend tried to sort out her emotions, Petal took the chance to give her surroundings a proper once over. The large room was circular, with a high vaulted ceiling made of polished brass. At its center hung a massive crystal rose, the odd structure filling the room with teal light. The walls were made of the same black marble as the rest of the mansion and bare, save for the golden Neighgyptian style images that were carved into them. The furnishings were the bare essentials; a dresser, desk, wardrobe, and nightstand each taking a spot on the parameter of the room while the queen-sized bed she laid in sat in the middle. All of them were made of polished dark wood and looked old, yet well cared for as far as Petal could tell. She made a note to ask Sunny or Stygian about that the next time she saw them, the Aether in the air making her dizzy again. She let out a groan as she pulled her white silk blanket back over herself. "Are you okay?" Twilight asked. "Aether," Petal growled, curling into herself under the covers. "Right, sorry," she cringed. Silence reclaimed the room, neither girl willing or able to continue the conversation. In spite of that, her inability to sleep the previous night was starting to finally catch up with Twilight. Letting out a yawn, she staggered out of her seat and dragged herself towards Petal's bed. Said Wraith let out a confused groan when her friend crawled into place behind her outside of the covers. "The hell are you doing?" she grumbled, feeling the girl hug her. "Taking a nap," she yawned. Petal was going to press further, but stopped herself when she heard a soft snoring. Smiling ruefully, she accepted her situation and tried to get some rest. Just before she nodded off, she suddenly became aware that her condition was starting to improve. Dragging just enough energy to peek out from under the covers, she looked around for an explanation, but saw nothing that could've been responsible. A loud yawn tore past her lips, a sudden wave of exhaustion washing over her through the tether between her and Twilight. Too tired to fight it, she let herself get comfortable and nodded off, her own snoring joining Twilight's. Had either of the girls been more attentive, they would've noticed that the door to the room was slightly ajar. The purple eye peeking in through the gap was wide, its owner struggling to accept what she had just witnessed. Slowly, the spy backed away from the opening and quietly closed the door. *** Lemon knew that she was going to have to tell her friends eventually. She didn't know how she was going to tell them, but she knew that something was going to force her into it. Out of all of the "somethings" she thought would force her to tell them, "talking faery dragon" ranked pretty low on the list. She was just barely coming to terms with all of the craziness that had fallen into her life. Becoming a Gifted, Petal not being human, and the face-off against Sunny and Stygian all took a toll on her. Now she had to find a way to explain everything to her friends without blowing Petal's cover. Considering she hadn't found a way to do that with her own sister, her confidence on that matter was pretty small. She let out a sigh where she sat, cross-legged in the middle of small square room. It was empty save for the gray padded mat beneath her. Its walls, floor, and ceiling were made of the same solid black marble as the rest of the mansion. There were no entrances or exits beyond a heavy oak door and the only sources of light dimly came from the golden carvings that covered the walls. She shoved her concerns to the back of her mind, focusing on her breathing as Somnambula instructed. She needed to concentrate, but no matter how hard she tried, her mind kept creeping back to what she was going to have to do. How exactly would her friends react to her being a Gifted? Would they still treat her the same? Should she tell them that she was the one that blew up the classroom? She let out a dull groan, her posture drooping under the weight of things. "This is all, like, way too much for me," she grumbled, standing up. "I need a break." Sighing, she staggered to the door and pulled it open. She flinched back from the sudden change in lighting, but quickly adjusted as she stepped out of the training room and into one of the many black marble halls that filled the mansion. Said hall was lit by the same crystal flowers that dotted the upper walls. Doors lined the hall on each side, all of them leading to identical training rooms to the one Lemon had just walked out of. Softly closing the door behind herself, Lemon made her down the hall towards where she thought the kitchens were. As she tried to remember how to get there, her mind drifted once again towards what had happened the previous day. A small sigh crept past her lips as the memories came to her, part of her wondering if it was too late to ask for her old boring life back. *** They all sat in stunned silence, struggling to process what Dagon had just told them. This went double for Petal, the normally fiery punk looking like a marionette that just had its strings cut. None of them knew how to break the grim silence that hung over them. Fortunately for them, that particular responsibility was given to a pair that was a lot more capable. "SPARKLE IS THE SACRIFICE?!" a cultured voice cried, echoing from the corners of the room. Everyone, Petal included, flinched out of their shock and frantically looked around. Some rapid movement by the bedroom's door instantly caught everyone's attention. At the structure's left side, a shadow grew, warped, and stretched into an ebon replica of it. Seconds later, a fuming Sunny Flare and bedraggled Stygian stomped or staggered out respectively. The girls watched dumbly as Sunny fiercely made her way towards Dagon, said dragon smiling broadly in the face of her heated glare. "Ah, Sunny, right on time," he chuckled merrily. "Care for a chip? They are quite tasty." "Drop the pleasantries you blueberry gecko!" she barked, bending down to glare at his eye-level. "Do you have any idea how hard I have been trying to figure out who Belfry was targeting?!" "I am aware," he nodded, taking a bite out of his chip. "If you knew then, WHY DID YOU NOT TELL ME?!" she roared, a vein popping up on her forehead. "You were not the one that needed to know," he shrugged. Sunny reeled back at that, her anger knocked back for a second before it came back with just a thread of restraint. "I was not...THESE IDIOTS ARE THE ONES THAT NEEDED TO KNOW?!" "Who the fuck are you calling an idiot?" Petal growled, slowly rising out of her seat. Sunny took a step back from her, a bit of worry creeping into her features as she met her gaze. "M-My apologies," Sunny frowned. "As you and Lemon are aware, I am under a lot of stress right now." "No excuse to talk shit about my friends," Petal spat. "If you've got beef with the Professor over there, take it somewhere else. Otherwise, we're gonna have a problem" "U-Understood," Sunny gulped. "Good," Petal nodded, grimace still present as she retook her seat. A small peace returned to the room, earning a relieved sigh out of the lone boy in the room. Spotting him, Dagon conjured up another chair next to Lemon and beaconed him over. He had just sat down when Indigo decided to voice her thoughts. "You're a Gifted?" she barked. "As if you weren't a big enough bitch to begin with, let's give you super powers while we're at it!" "Are you sure you're name is not Verdant Zap?" Sunny coldly asked. "Because your envy is showing quite brilliantly right now." "What?" Indigo growled. "Then again," Sunny continued, a haughty smirk gracing her lips. "What more can a member of the lower ten do, but fester in envy." "You want to fight?" Indigo snapped, fists clenched tightly in her lap. "Always quick to jump to violence," Sunny sighed. "If you added that passion to your studies, you could easily increase your rank." Everyone, Lemon and Petal especially, took that in with shock. While Sunny was known for her biting comments and sharp whit, hearing anything even resembling a compliment come out of her was a rarity. To have it directed at one of the people she routinely harassed only added to the oddity of the situation. "Wait, what?" Indigo blinked. "You may be green and a jock, but you are not stupid," she huffed. "No one here is." "Yet you called us idiots," Sugar stated, her eyes boring a hole through the girl from behind her stoney expression. "I will admit to misspeaking," Sunny replied, her tone arctic as she met Sugar's eyes. "Do not push it." "You meant exactly what you said," Sugar frowned, crossing her arms. "What can I say," she bit back. "Old habits die hard." "Sunny," Stygian cut in, tone warning as he glared at his friend. "Behave." Sunny met his glare with one of her own, but held whatever retorts she had trapped behind a clenched jaw. Sugar looked like she was going to take another verbal swing at her, but a hard look from Petal killed that urge in an instant. For a long moment, Sunny and Sugar locked each other down in a heated glare, both daring the other to give the other an excuse to say something at the very least. Eventually, Sunny broke the stare-down, crossing her arms and looking away with a huff. Taking the win, Sugar let a small smile slip past her cold mask as she let herself sit more comfortably on her bed. Dagon took in the scene with a sad sigh, turning away to grab a chip as he waved a mist-seat into existence next to Stygian's. Sunny reluctantly accepted the offered seat with a huff, earning an eye-roll from Stygian as he let himself relax in his perch. Lemon did the same, sans the eye-roll, glad that some of the tension had finally bled out of the already wild situation she found herself in. "Unless there are any other ugly matters that need to be voiced, may we please move on to the dangers at hand?" Dagon huffed, taking an irate bite out of his snack. Reluctant nods answered the question, Indigo doing so while giving Sunny vexed looks from behind her back. "Good," he frowned. "For starters, does anyone here know where Twilight is at the moment?" "You do not know?" Sunny asked, a small smirk and raised brow breaking past her pout. "I know the odds of where she is right now, but it will help me plan more efficiently if I have exact data," he huffed, crossing his arms. "She said she was going to hang out with Sour today," Petal stated, raising a hand to get the spirit's attention. "Said she wanted to work things out with her and stuff." "That explains why I have not been able to get in contact with Sour this morning," Sunny confirmed with a nod. "You left her alone with that psychopath?" Sugar asked, aiming a wide-eyed frown at Petal. Before Petal could respond, Sunny furiously cut in, murder in her eyes as she cried, "Sour is not a psychopath!" Sugar met the glare with a faint one of her own, then calmly stated, "Sorry, I misspoke." Seething, Sunny furiously rammed her hand into her pocket. Stygian, Lemon, and Petal each tensed at the action, but relaxed when Sunny handed what she pulled out of it to Stygian. "Hold these for me," she growled. "I fear I may do something I will regret later if you don't." He nodded, dropping the small cylinder and ring onto the ground. HIs shadow settled beneath them and pulled them into itself before returning to its normal shape and dimensions. The abnormal phenomenon was ignored by the group in favor of the rekindling face-off between Sunny and Sugar. "I didn't know you had a boyfriend," Sugar stated, crossing her arms. "Does he know how much of a bitch you are or is he going to figure that out later?" Sunny looked like she was about to explode, but slowly seemed to cool down at the last second. A venomous smile spread across her lips as she casually asked, "Depends; does Royal Pin know how much of a slut you are or are you waiting for a special occasion to make that reveal?" Visible shock broke past Sugar's mask, only for it to be replaced by pure hate a second later. A matching scream flew past her lips as she jumped off of her bed towards the girl. Sunny's training kicked in, toxic glee decorating her face as she pulled back a hand for a punch. Before the two girls could clash, Petal and Dagon cut them off. While Petal held the abnormally animated Sugar in a tight grapple, Dagon kept Sunny confined to her seat with a sapphire aura. Both girls thrashed against their bindings, bloodlust and fury clear for everyone to see on their faces. Dagon sighed, one claw glowing with the same aura that bound Sunny while the other brought a chip to his mouth. Lemon and Indigo watched their normally stoic friend with slack jaws, both stunned by the display of burning fury while Petal struggled to keep a hold on her. "So this is the timeline I am in," Dagon grumbled. "Perfect. Just flipping perfect." "Can someone help me out here?" Petal pleaded. "I don't want to hurt her, but she isn't really giving me much of a choice here!" Indigo snapped out of her stupor, nodded, then ran to the punk girl's aid. Lemon watched the chaos unfold, not sure what to do to put out the fires flaring around her. Stygian, on the other hand, let out a dejected sigh as he pulled out his phone and started to scroll through his contacts. Taken aback by his behavior, she tapped him on the shoulder and gestured towards the madness going on before them. "Dagon and Petal has this about as under control as they can have it," he shrugged, putting his phone up to his ear. "If we want to make any progress, we should at least figure out where Twilight is." She wanted to argue, but a quick look at their friends passing verbal venom at each other cut off that urge at the pass. Not sure what she could do to fix the mess, she reluctantly settled into her seat and watched Stygian make his call. After three failed attempts, he put his phone away with a grimace before holding his hand out to Lemon. "May I barrow your phone? Sour is not answering and I do not have Twilight's number." "Okay," Lemon blinked, fishing her phone out of her pocket. "But, like, why can't I call her?' He gave the squabble in front of him a passing glance then said, "Because it looks like Sugar is about to break free and I do not think she would hesitate to plow right through me to get to Sunny." A second after he said that, Sugar managed to shake off Petal and was just about to do the same with Indigo. Lemon let out a startled cry, dropping her phone on his lap as she ran up to stop her friend. While Stygian, presumably, talked to Twilight on her phone, Lemon struggled to keep Sugar from doing something that she was going to regret. As she grappled with Sugar, she noticed Stygian move to the center of the group out of the corner of her eye. With a sigh, he placed her phone in her pocket, then said, "Scathex, take us to Lady Somnambula's dining room." A second later, an extreme sense of vertigo hit the group and everything turned black. *** Lemon sighed, massaging the bridge of her nose as she rounded a corner. "That could've gone, like, way better," she mumbled. "I mean, yeah, I know we're not all gonna be friends or anything, but I didn't think things were gonna go that bad that fast." Crossing her arms in thought, she continued to wander the mansion's halls in silence. Eventually, her thoughts started to drift away from yesterday's disaster and towards the fact that she had no idea where the heck she was. As she rounded more corners, peeked into random rooms, and stumbled into a giant ornate library, she wondered how anyone managed to not get lost in this place. An unwanted image of a skeleton wearing her clothes laying in a random room flashed through her head for the briefest of seconds. Choosing to ignore the thought with a nervous chuckle, she continued her march. The fact that she was now moving at a much faster clip and constantly on the look for a maid to guide her further was completely unrelated. At least, if anyone asked, that was what she would tell them. Assuming I find anyone, she nervously thought. Seriously, like, how do the maids know where everything is? This place is a freak'n maze! Her worry gradually grew the further she walked into the property, hoping that if she didn't find one of the home's residents, that she could at least find a way out. Eventually, that particular wish was granted when found a hallway that led to a pair of ornate glass doors. When she saw the streams of sunlight pouring in from it, she swore she heard an angelic chorus. With a relieved smile, she ran towards the doors and after giving the hinges a quick glance to see which way they swung, pushed them open. Shock decorated her face when she saw what laid beyond. When she crossed the threshold, she found herself standing in the middle of a vast redwood forest. Sunlight trickled through the canopy, cutting through the shadows just enough to let her see her surroundings. Faint chirping and light rustling announced the presence of other things living outside of her line of sight. The the smells of wild plants, grass, and damp soil filled the crisp mid-morning air, easing her frayed nerves as she stepped further into the forest. A million questions ran through her head as she looked around. The soft click of a door latching back into place shoved one question in particular to the front of her mind the second she turned her head towards its source. "W-W-Where the heck did the door go?" she stammered, a chill running down her spine. What little control she had over her panic started to thin a she examined the space she was sure the door had occupied just seconds ago. When waving her arms through the space yielded no results, she examined the three just past it. When that didn't solve her problem, she tried to see if she could sense any traces of Aether in the area. While she didn't pick up anything in the spot she was standing in, she did detect a faint aura further into the forest. Left with few options, she took a steadying breath and started heading towards it. As she made her way towards her target, she gradually started to notice that there was something about the forest that felt...off to her. The air felt unnaturally clean and the greenery was shockingly vivid. It felt almost sacred, like no impurities were allowed to exist on this land. In a lot of ways, it reminded her of how Sugar described the Fae Wilds in their Dungeon and Dragon games. Given what she knew about that place and its denizens, she was even more on alert than she was before. After all, if Wraiths, Dragons, Sprits, and Gifted were real, then who says Faeries weren't as well. I swear, if this was all just some crazy plan to get me to be some Unseelie asshole's song bird, I'm gonna knock Sour and Sunny's blocks off, she bitterly thought, ducking under a low-hanging branch. She froze, then chuckled at that thought as she resumed her trek. "I'm gonna start sounding like Petal soon," she smiled. Said smile wilted when her mind drifted towards her friend. Just how were these sudden changes in dynamics affecting the Wraith? It was one thing to tell Lemon her secret, but the rest of their friends? How would they take knowing that Petal wasn't human, let alone the fact that her kind hunted humans? All of it weighed heavy on her heart, not just for Petal, but for Twilight as well. She knew that she would side with Petal no matter what happened. The thought of having to choose between them and her old friends made her heart sink into her gut. Could she make that kind of choice? Before she could ponder on that any further, she stumbled past the tree-line into an open clearing. She flinched and put her hands over her face, the sudden shift in lighting stunning her where she stood. When her eyes finally adjusted, she was greeted by a sight that made her jaw drop. Before her, standing at the heart of a vast open field, was Sour Sweet. The girl was armed with the same bow she had when her group attacked Petal, red-tailed arrow already notched as a flurry of blue orbs flew towards her. Each of them were the size of a golfball and rocketing towards her in a dense cluster. With practiced ease, she gracefully weaved around the incoming swarm, before loosing her arrow at the swarm. Lemon's eyes widened when, at the last second, the lone arrow broke apart into a flurry of smaller wooden needles. A small handful of the orbs managed to escape, while the ones that were not so lucky burst into small specks of light. The survivors darted towards Sour, the girl in question lightly skipping backwards away from them as she conjured a new arrow onto her weapon and notched it. Sour moved with a grace that Lemon never knew the girl was capable of, seemingly dancing around the open field. At the same time, she took pot shots at her pursuers whenever the opportunity presented itself to her. The only thing that shocked her more than Sour's grace was the peaceful smile that graced her face. Until now, the only expression she had ever seen the girl sport was an irate sneer or a venomous smile. In contrast, the peace she saw on the girl's face was almost saintly. It became even more pronounced each time she took out the orbs, filling the field with a virtual fireworks display with each successful hit. When the last orb was destroyed, Sour let herself relax with a long, slow breath. Eyes closed and with a look of serenity on her face, she dispelled her bow. She lightly sighed, slowly opening her eyes as she mused over how this particular round of practice went. All thoughts on the topic ground to a sudden halt the second she spotted Lemon, her eyes widening just as much as the rocker's. They stayed like that for a few minutes, neither of them sure how or if they even should break the silence that had settled between them. Eventually, Sour managed to force up enough of a nerve to sweetly say, "Hello Lemon," then dawn her trademark scowl as she bitterly growled, "What the hell are you doing here?" "I....uh.......got lost," Lemon awkwardly chuckled. "Think you could help me find the kitchen?" Sour looked like she was going to follow her usual sweet and bitter pattern, but stopped herself at the last second. Lemon raised a brow as she took a deep breath, then in a calm echoing version of her voice said, "Sure. I was starting to get hungry anyway." *** Lemon was not unfamiliar with big eaters. Every morning, she would see her sister's hulking boyfriend wolf down three times as much food as her in one sitting before heading out for the day. Indigo would put down almost the same amount of food once a month after an especially harsh workout. As they sat in the mansion's dinning room, Sour seemed hellbent on giving both of them a run for their money. Lemon watched, a simple ham sandwich held halfway towards her mouth, as Sour tore into a loaded plate of sandwiches. Adding to the shock was the fact that these sandwiches were much more elaborate than the simple ham on white bread that Lemon was holding. Ham, tomato, avocado slices, romaine lettuce, mustard, and mayo was locked tight between two thick slices of toasted sourdough sat in two neat stacks on a plate. Some of them had chicken or steak in place of ham, but were otherwise identical as far as Lemon could tell before Sour tore into them. "Wow," Lemon gaped, her own food forgotten as she watched Sour grab her next victim . "What?" Sour asked around a mouthful of sandwich. "Nothing," Lemon nervously chuckled. "Just...uh....do you usually eat like this? I mean, it's cool if you do, I just never saw you go at it like this before." "You watch me eat?" Sour asked, tone flat. "I didn't mean it like that," she exclaimed, hands up placatingly. Sour rolled her eyes at that, swallowed, then calmly explained, "Since I'm not a real Gifted, Titania takes a heavy physical toll on me. Until I can increase my Aether reserves, it'll make up for the difference by pulling the energy directly from my body. Because of that, my body has a super fast metabolism and needs a lot of food to function." "No way," Lemon balked. "That means that if you go too far with it it'll...." Sour nodded, a bitter frown marring her face. "That's the price a normy like me is willing to pay," she smirked. "For mom and for Sunny." "Normy? Wait, don't Gifted pass on powers to their kids or something?" Lemon asked. "Yeah," Sour sighed. "But my case is a little...different." "What do you mean?" Frowning, Sour looked away from her guest, a growing irritation showing on her face. "If you don't want to tell me, its cool," Lemon smiled. "We've only just teamed up and stuff." "That's why I need to tell you this," Sour grumbled. "Maybe it'll make me look a lot less....weird to you and your friends." Lemon raised a brow at that, wondering just where Sour was going with this. "To put it simply, mom isn't....my birth mom." "Oh," Lemon flinched. Sour grimaced at that, then took a deep breath before continuing. "She died giving birth to me and my real dad disappeared way before that. On top of that, I was born prematurely, so some wires got crossed wrong in my brain." "So, that's why you're so..." "Bipolar?" Sour suggested. Lemon looked away, gnawing on her lip. Sour let out an irate snort. "Whatever. Anyway, whatever the doctors did to deliver me made it so my emotional state splits when I'm under extreme stress. If I center myself, I can fix the problem, but it makes my voice weird." "So....that's why you sound like that?" Lemon awkwardly asked. She nodded. "Lucky for me, mom was good friends with my birth mother and she was willing to adopt me. It wasn't until I started talking in complete sentences that we realized that something was wrong with me. We tried to find ways to make it work, but it didn't help out much. It got really bad when I got into Junior High." "W-What do you mean?" Sour gave her a sharp glare that made her flinch back in her seat. "My condition didn't make it easy to make friends, but it did a damn good job of making enemies. Because I couldn't keep my darker thoughts to myself, it didn't take long for half of the kids in the school to hate my guts. Mom and my lighter side tried to help me get through it all, but it was all getting to become too much for me to handle. The worst of it came from you and your friends." "What!?" Lemon balked. "Looking back, I don't really blame you girls," Sour bitterly chuckled. "Bitter Sour was a real bitch back then and you were all just reacting. Doesn't change the fact that you all pushed me over the edge that day." Lemon didn't like the way she said that. "W-What do you mean?" she gulped. With a tired sigh, Sour pulled down the collar of her shirt past her left shoulder. On that side of her neck was a jagged and aged inch-long scar. "You girl's pushed me. Sunny pulled me back. Since that day, we've done everything we can to keep ourselves away from that edge. She helped me find my center, convinced mom to let me bond with an artifact, and became my first friend. In return, I've done everything I can to keep her safe and pay her back for everything she's done for me." A solemn silence filled the room as Sour pulled up her collar, picking up her next sandwich. It was as she was bringing it up to her lips that she heard something that made her pause. It came again as she gave Lemon her full attention, the girl's body trembling in synch with a shaky sniffle. Her eyes widened when they met her guest's teary gaze, guilt filling them to the same level as her tears. "I....I'm so sorry," Lemon hickupped, furiously trying to wipe her tears away with her arm. "I...I didn't know. I just thought you were a jerk and....and....." What she was going to say next was replaced by pained mumbling, a few strained apologies making themselves known every few seconds. "I-It's okay!" Sour sputtered, floored by the girl's reaction. "L-L-Like I said, I don't really blame you girls for reacting like that back then and I'm in a much better place now. You don't need to beat yourself up over tha-." "I should've known better!" she barked. Sour flinched back from the outburst, but the shock quickly turned into concern. Right before her eyes, Lemon seemed to be having a complete mental breakdown, her vision turning distant as she repeated "I should've known better," to herself like a manic mantra. Sour jumped to her feet and ran to the girl, getting down on her knees to put herself at her level. Holding Lemon by the shoulders, she gently turned her to face her and softly said, "Lemon, you need to calm down. You didn't do anything wrong. You didn't know. You couldn't have known. I'm fine." Those last two words seemed to trigger something in Lemon, the girl's eyes coming back into the present as they locked with Sour's. Faster than she could react, Sour was pulled into a desperate hug. While she was being held, she heard Lemon softly whimper apologies to her. With tired resignation, Sour reciprocated while meeting the apologies with "It's okay". While the two girls had their moment, a cracked open door leading to the dining room slowly slid shut. *** Dagon frowned down at the chess board, millions of different calculations running through his head faster than any human could hope to process. Sitting across from him was a perfect double of him, his arms crossed with a smug grin plastered across his muzzle. The cylindrical guest room was a silent as a tomb, a morbidly fitting description, considering the Neighgyptian designs decorating the black marble walls. just when he was about to make a move, the sound of the room's door opening shattered the peace. He didn't look up when Sugar entered the room, though a smirk that matched his double's grew on his muzzle. "I see that you're back from your walk," he calmly stated, moving a pawn into position. "Did you see anything interesting?' Sugar didn't answer, passing both of him as she made her way to her bed. "I see," his double chuckled. "What do you plan to do with what you've learned?" Sugar held her silence, flopping back first onto her bed with all the grace of a dead fish. Neither of the Dagon's pressed her any further, present and slight future moving back to their game. As they did, Sugar stared blankly at the ceiling, her mind running in a million different directions.