Life Fiber Harmonize

by Crystalis McCloud

How We Got Here

The loud crack of shattering glass and other fragile items broke the silence of the night as a man screamThe loud crack of shattering glass and other fragile items broke the silence of the night as a man screamed, "Get out of here, you freeloading monsters! If I ever see your faces again, I'm calling the cops!"

The place; Sleep Easy Inn.

The one shouting; the innkeeper, Mr. Sleep Easy.

The three hurried escapees, running for their lives as vases, plates, cups, and everything else in reach was flung at them; the sirens Adagio, Aria, and Sonata.

Well, to call it running might have been a bit generous. The trio of singers were stumbling out of the front door as fast as their weakened limbs could carry them, ducking as tableware flew over their heads.

The fury of the innkeeper had been brought to bear on them after the spell they had cast on him had worn off. Unsurprisingly, he hadn't been too happy that a strange group of girls had manipulated his mind in order to get free room and board for the last week. With their amulets destroyed and their magic all but gone with them, the sirens had been too distraught upon their return to inn to realize that the spell they had placed here would have been broken too.

Unfortunately, Sleep Easy remembered all too well the humiliation the girls had put him through; free room and board, penthouse no less; a near constant demand for room service and expensive TV channels whenever they were there; and exclusive use of pool, hot tub, and sauna. Any customers that dared complain had merely been sent into an enchanted tirade with the manager that fed the girls negative energy and kept the cycle going. They had even taken all the complimentary chocolate mints that were supposed to be left on a customer's pillow. The savages.

"Ow!" Sonata yelped as a stray ladle struck the back of her head and sent her stumbling into a nearby car. The alarm was triggered, trilling an ear-piercing medley of whistles and honks.

"Sonata!" Aria gasped, shuffling over to help the girl get balanced again, turning an angry but helpless glare back on the man. She threw herself in the path of another object, this one a vase that shattered on her back as she shielded Sonata.

Fury bubbled up in Adagio, and she moved her heavy body over to grab at a rolling pin that had been thrown at them. The protests of her tired arm were nothing before the rage she felt as she yelled, "Don't you dare hurt them!" She screamed at the top of her lungs and hurled the rolling pin with all of her might. The impromptu weapon soared true, striking Sleep Easy square in the face and knocking him down with all the grace of a tipped cow.

Adagio's limbs turned to lead as the exertion hit her like a truck. She fell to her knees, just barely catching herself on her hands and wheezing for breath. She just stared at her hands for a few moments as she tried to get her strength back, and her blood went cold at what she saw; her fingertips were going white. She knew what the spread of the ghostly hue meant. Her mana was falling out of balance, and eventually there wouldn't be enough to sustain her life anymore.

Without their amulets they were worse than just helpless. It was a death sentence. The dark magic of the jewels had been the only thing sustaining their existences, and they had to constantly feed them negative energy, the body's natural mana release created from conflict. They'd had so much of it at their fingertips too. Almost as much power as they'd once wielded in Equestria over a thousand years ago. All of it was gone in an instant, and the lynchpin of their lives had been shattered in the same fell swoop.

"Curse those Rainbooms," Adagio growled, her fingernails scratching at the pavement. For the first time in what felt like centuries, she felt a wet droplet fall on the back of her hand. A tear. She couldn't remember the last time she'd cried, but she couldn't stop as still more streamed down her cheeks, and a black pit of helplessness gnawed at her chest and stomach. All three of them were going to die.

What could she do?

Aria and Sonata placed a hand on her back, and Adagio felt a second wind rush into her body. Meager as it was, she found the strength to get back to her feet, and the white on her fingers gave way to their normal yellow hue before she wiped the tears from her eyes. "You idiots, I'm the one in charge," she grumbled, catching the two of them before they could teeter over from exhaustion. "If anyone's going to die first, it's going to be me."

"Oh quit it with that leader crap," Aria puffed weakly, leaning into Adagio as the trio started to make their way down the side of the road under the starry night sky, the trill of the car alarm fading into the background. "How do you think we'd feel if you went and croaked, leaving us all alone?"

"Prolonging a dying woman's suffering, huh? You sure have a warm and fuzzy way of showing you care," Adagio quipped grimly.

"Now who's being an idiot?" Aria asked, delivering a vicious, exhausted flick to Adagio's nose. "Don't you even dare think of dying without us. We were born together, and we'll die together. Nobody is going to be left alone."

A faint sniffling turned the attention of the two towards Sonata, who had been silent up until that point, her bangs shadowing her face. The girl's shoulders shook violently, and she clung to Adagio as though she never intended to let go. "I--" she sobbed, burying her face in Adagio's shoulder, "-- I don't want to die. I'm scared, Dagi. I don't want to disappear forever."

Adagio wanted to say something to comfort her. She wanted to be able to say that everything would be alright; that she would find some way for them to survive. The words wouldn't come, though. All she could do was stroke through the sobbing girl's hair as they kept their slow pace down the sidewalk. She couldn't bring herself to even hope to be saved. Why would anyone even want to? It wasn't like they belonged in this world anyway, and they had caused nothing but trouble for everyone they came across. Plus, the Equestria they knew was nothing but a distant, painful memory now. Not a soul from there was left to miss them. Not even Starswirl.

Adagio's slow descent into the blackness of her mind was stopped as Aria suddenly slumped all of her weight into her, nearly knocking the whole trio over. "Hey, watch it!" she protested, struggling to push back against Aria's weight. "I can't carry y--"

She was cut off as Sonata's weight pressed against her from the other side, nearly causing her legs to buckle under her. She frantically looked down at their hands, seeing the color start to drain from them, and their eyes were starting to lose their life. "No. No-no-no," Adagio panicked, shaking her head. "I'm not going to let you die."

She spotted an alley just a few yards ahead and started to heave her ragdoll sisters to it, using every last ounce of strength she could muster to barely drag them into the shadows between the buildings. Laying them down on the rough pavement, she sat with their heads in her lap, stroking through their hair as she helplessly watched the whiteness spread.

It was her fault that they were like this. They had given her a bit of their energy to keep her alive, and now they were dying sooner. Besides that, she wished she had never decided that they should attack Canterlot High to steal the magic there. If they had just kept wandering and stealing energy as they went, things wouldn't be like this.

"I'm sorry. It's all my fault," she sobbed, choking back the tears that yelled in her eyes as she placed a hand on their cheeks. "Even I know it's impossible, if you two live even a little longer, maybe someone can save you. You don't deserve to die because of me."

The alleyway was bathed in a sickly red glow as Adagio tapped into the barest dregs of magic she had left in her. Without the amulets, it was more difficult than she had imagined, but her will grasped hold of that energy and drew it out, pouring it through her hands and into Aria and Sonata. As the crimson glow spread across their bodies, their fingers began to get their color back, but the same whiteness began to spread up Adagio's hands twice as fast.

In no time at all it was already working its way up her forearms, and she started to feel her mind clouding. It was getting hard to focus, and there was less and less power to grab ahold of and give. Still, she had to keep going. Every last bit she could give them was that much more time they'd have for some miracle to come along and save them.

It may have been ridiculous to hope for something like that after all that had happened, but even that sliver of hope for them was worth it. They didn't deserve to die in a place like this, surrounded by trash cans, dumpsters, and the odd stray cat. If they survived, then she had no regrets. If they didn't? Well, she could apologize all she needed to when she saw them in Hades.

"It's you..."

Adagio's head snapped to spy a familiar face glaring at them from the end of the alley. The young man had swept up, two-toned blue hair that was as unmistakable as the shield and lightning bolt on his shirt. It was Flash Sentry, one of the students of Canterlot High that they had controlled, and Sunset Shimmer's ex boyfriend. The boy's eyes darted from Adagio to the unconscious Aria and Sonata, then to the white that was spreading up her arms. His eyes went wide at the sight, and he turned a panicked glare down the street, out of Adagio's view as he yelled, "What the hell is this, Emerl? The Dazzlings are who you need help with? They have the Pale Death?"

At the questions, another boy stepped into view, this one a young man with messy dark green hair and thick aviator glasses. He wore a black coat that somehow made the otherwise dorky looking boy seem somehow sinister.

"Heh, yeah, you've got me," the boy named Emerl raised his hands apologetically. His glasses flashed ominously as his voice dropped ever so slightly to say, "You are the only one that can keep them stable long enough for me to save them. With your help, I can stop the Pale Death."

Stop the Pale Death? How could he even do that? While it had always been an unusual fact that the magical affliction even existed in this world, there was far less chance of this world being able to stop it. The amulets had been the only safeguard to exist, even in Equestria.

"Me? Why do you need me?" Flash demanded. He pointed an accusing finger at Adagio. "And why do you want to save them? They attacked our school and took control of us, making us bicker, argue, and turn on each other!"

And there it was, every reason that screamed to Adagio that they didn't deserve to be saved. The words stung more than she had expected, and what little concentration she'd maintained was shattered, the crimson glow fading from her body. She couldn't move. She could barely breath. She didn't have any strength left to give to Aria and Sonata, and the Pale Death was starting to spread to her shoulders.

Why did it hurt so bad? She'd always been like iron; the backbone of their little group. No regrets. All that mattered was surviving and taking care of each other. If that meant hurting others? So be it.

So why? Why did Flash's words hurt so much?

"I know exactly what they did," Emerl replied calmly, a decisive air coming about him as he turned to enter the alley. He cast the darkness aside suddenly with a glow of chartreuse magic in his palm. "My organization was watching over the situation carefully, and if the Rainbooms had failed, we were ready to step in."

"Organization?" Flash repeated cautiously, his eyes riveted with shock on the glow in Emerl's hand. "Who are you?"

Adagio was just as stunned, her muddled head echoing Flash's questions. What the boy was claiming was beyond belief, and yet the display of magic showed that there had to be some truth to his claims. Emerl stepped just in front of the sirens, looking down on Adagio's whitened skin for a moment before turning to look back at Flash.

"I know that the things they did can't be excused, but as the only one to ever survive the Pale Death, do you really think they deserve to die this way?" he asked.

Flash... had survived the Pale Death? How? It was impossible. Once the balance of mana in the body faltered, there was no way to restore it. The mana could be supplemented, like the amulets did, but in the end the affliction still existed. There was no cure. There shouldn't be a cure.

"Guess I shouldn't be surprised that you've done your homework, should I?" Flash grumbled irritably, his eyes turning to the ground in thought. He glanced at Adagio, meeting her eyes and seeing the emptiness inside. That once fierce gaze, filled with contempt and ambition, was now completely absent of hope or life. It was not a pleasant sight.

Letting out a sigh, Flash replied, "You're right. I'm just being spiteful because I'm upset. There's no way I would really wish this on them, but what can I do?"

"Place your hand on Adagio's shoulder, please," Emerl instructed. A tiny glimmer danced in Adagio's eyes at Flash's words, even as the Pale Death started to spread up her neck and the tips of her curly hair. They may not have been forgiveness, but they were kinder than anything she ever expected to hear. If what Emerl claimed was possible... then they could be saved.

Aria and Sonata didn't have to die.

She didn't have to die.

The feeling of unbridled joy and relief she felt was so overwhelming that she began to sob. She hunched over Aria and Sonata and stroked their hair as every last pent-up emotion inside of her burst free in a great flood. She couldn't stop the tears anymore if she wanted to, and she kept sobbing hysterically as she felt Flash's hand on her shoulder.

The instant he touched her, she felt strength flowing back into her body, and her breath caught in her throat. The feeling that traveled through her from his hand was unlike anything she’d ever experienced. She could feel his mana, but it wasn’t flowing into her. Rather, it was resonating with what few scraps remained inside of her, and somehow her own strength was starting to seep back into her body. The red glow of magic started to encompass her again, spreading down to Aria and Sonata while Flash was wrapped in a dark blue light.

“Looks like I was right,” Emerl whispered in awe.

Adagio sniffled uncontrollably as relief continued to overwhelm her. They were saved! They were being fixed!

“What’s happening?” Flash asked with concern. “This feels really strange.”

“You survived the Pale Death, Flash. It’s a magical affliction with no known cure,” the boy answered plainly. “Because you survived, the spectrum of mna in your body knows how to rebalance itself intuitively, and once it came in contact with the warped and damaged magic inside of Adagio, it began to resonate. Think of it like when you share antibodies with someone; your body is teaching hers how to restore itself while providing a support, and hers is passin it on to the other two.” He crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head. “It won’t be enough, though.”

Flash’s eyes narrowed at Emerl. “What do you mean? Didn’t you just say their bodies were learning how to fix themselves?”

Emerl nodded. “Yes, but it’s not that simple. Thanks to the readings we’ve gotten of their magic, we’ve learned that they are in fact incomplete, fragmented beings. Because of that, while their magic may be able to repair itself now, they can never reach a state of completion, and without a constant support their spectrums will fall out of balance all over again. You let go, and they start dying again.”

And just like that, hope sank down like a rock in Adagio’s stomach. No matter what they did, the’d always be broken? She’d been able to accept that for centuries, but right now, when hope had been so bright, the cruel truth hit harder than it ever had before.

Emerl removed his glasses to meet Adagio’s tearful, questioning gaze without blinking. An unwavering conviction lay behind those stony gray eyes as he said, “I can fix you. I will fix you. We have something superior to your old amulets that can allow you to live without the need to absorb negative energy.” He reached for an inside chest pocket of his coat and pulled out a small item that sparkled in the glow Flash and the sirens gave off. It was a spool of luminous red thread that seemed to shine with its own light. “Before I give it to you, though…”

“Of course there’s a catch,” Adagio muttered dryly.

A mischievous smirk appeared on Emerl’s face for the briefest of seconds at her remark, and he continue, “I need to tell you all that there is a terrible danger coming. A threat that could destroy the human race, our planet, and even spread its terror to Equestria, if it isn’t stopped.”

Adagio and Flash blinked in unison, the sheer magnitude of what he’d said not sinking in for moment. When it finally did, Adagio was the first to speak, “Destroy the world, and even Equestria? What kind of nonsense are you spouting? You expect me to believe that garbage?”

Flash looked Emerl over for a moment before agreeing, “I’m with her. That’s a lot to claim. If it’s true, then why not go to the government or something?”

Emerl shook his head, “Suffice it to say that the government is powerless to stop it. They are no more able to fight this than any magical threat from beyond the portal,” he told them, giving a pointed look to the sirens. “Besides, this has been a tightly guarded secret for centuries, and it is a danger that only my organization can face.”

“What the hell is this organization of yours?” Adagio asked, feeling a bit of her nerve come back with her strength. Concerns bubbled up in the back of her mind, but were quickly forgotten as she felt a gentle squeeze around her hands. She looked down to see Sonata and Aria’s hands wrapping over her own, their eyes starting to flit open. They both looked up to her and gave a wordless nod that she instinctively understood. They were trusting her to decide what to do.

“We are Second Skin,” Emerl explained, “A group dedicated to eradicating the threat of the parasitic lifeforms known as Life Fibers.” He swept a hand across his coat in a grand gesture as he announced, “And this is our ultimate weapon, the symbiotic Life Fiber, Kamui Senketsu.”

Now makin himself known, Senketsu’s eyes opened upon Emerl’s shoulders and he greeted the teens, “Hello.”

Three panicked screams cut through the cold night air, along with a single exclamation of “Cool!”

~*~*~*~*~*~

Adagio opened her eyes to the sterile glow of a fluorescent ceiling light. Her mind was running a mile a minute, keeping her from getting any sleep.

Had that all really happened only three weeks ago? From that night onward, their lives had changed more drastically than she could have ever imagined. She didn’t know whether to thank or blame that bastard Emerald for it either.

He was a clever one. He had to have known that once he showed her the threat of the Life Fibers, along with the power they offered, that she wouldn’t be able to refuse him. She simply wasn’t the type to accept feeling powerless, and if there was a danger to her and her sisters, then there was no way she wouldn’t try to fight it. Once she knew what was coming, she agreed to join Second Skin along with Sonata and Aria.

Not that she was particularly pleased with the situation. She hated taking orders from someone else, even if Emerald was considerate enough to not ask too much of them yet. Still, the tradeoff was close to being worth the damage to her pride. She had a rather nice cozy bedroom all to herself; something she hadn’t often had the pleasure of when wandering the world for the last several centuries. She had power; her Three Star Goku Uniform stabilizing her magic and making her body stronger than it had ever been. She had safety; no more desperately trying to gather enough negative energy to survive, and she had a stable roof over her head.

Okay, so being safe was only partly true. In due time she would have to do as she promised and fight for her life. Even then, the training and last week’s battle against Sunset Shimmer aside, she’d never been able to just… relax like this. Maybe that was why she’d started having problems sleeping. She hardly knew what to do with herself anymore, and it was starting to get on her nerves. Not having to worry about survival left her with very little to do now, especially since she didn’t feel like she needed to be constantly watching over Sonata and Aria every second. They were well taken care of here, and while she was happy for that, it left her with little to do but stew in her own thoughts.

And where else would her mind decide to wander than to the past, and all the choices she ever made. With her callin the shots, she and her sisters had ruined a lot of people’s lives over the centuries. She didn’t regret any of it. She’d done what she had to for them to survive, and she would do it all again. She did, however, now have time to think about just how horrible some of the things they’d done were, and how the people they affected must have felt. She may not have been sorry for her actions, but a pang of sympathy was starting to claw at the back of her mind, and it frustrated her all the more.

She growled in mounting irritation and pulled her pillow over her face, using a flick of her magic to flip the light switch and sink herself into the dark. The only light now came from the red glow of the numbers on her digital clock. She was tempted to smash it into little pieces and leave herself in total blackness, but begrudgingly let the appliance live. It may have been old fashioned, but she sometimes still prefered to listen to music on the radio instead of her phone. She also didn’t want to get another lecture from one of Emerald’s brothers, a man named Dirty Nickel who was in charge of finances. So what if they broke a few expensive toys when they first got here? Sonata was a clutz that should never be trusted around a toaster, and Aria could find a way to burn water just trying to make Kool Aid. PLus, that video game deserved what it got for having a cheating bitch AI.

There she went again, being all considerate and crap. The old her would have just broken the stupid clock. The old her wouldn’t have even cared how she hurt others. The old her wouldn’t be sorry for something for the first time in her life; sorry that she had killed Sunset Shimmer’s beloved phoenix.

She had already told herself countless times that it was just a stupid bird, but no matter how many times she repeated it she was no more convinced. That ‘stupid bird’ had meant a great deal to Sunset, and her screams as she held the dying animal in her arms still rang in Adagio’s ears.

She could have blamed Emerald. It was his genius plan that went off script and got the phoenix killed. She could try to justify that it was an unfortunate but unavoidable casualty of the coming war. It wouldn’t make her feel any better, though. It was her spell that had taken it’s life, and she could never take that back. It wasn’t something she could just apologize for either. Her one little apology right after the fight with Sunset was all she could muster, and it would never be enough.

This was the endless spiral of ever greater and greater irritation that Adagio found herself in. No matter what she tried to do to distract herself, these thoughts always looped back around to her eventually. There was only one remedy, temporary as it was, and she could really use the therapy.

Throwing her pillow across the room, Adagio got up in a huff and stormed towards the door. It opened with a soft, mechanical hiss as soon as she got close, and the silence she had isolated herself in was abruptly shattered with a racket of gunfire, explosions, and shouting.

“Take that, alien scum!” Sonata yelled enthusiastically at a television screen. “Feel my energy blade fury!”

“Yeah!” Aria cheered in agreement. “How about a nice hot meal of fifty caliber, hollow-point tungsten to your freaking face?!”

It was a rare moment of unity for the pair, playing a co-op game together. Of course, a round of a cart racing game could just as easily have them at each other’s throats. If she wasn’t in such a bad mood, Adagio might have found their outbursts amusing.

Aria was the first to notice the open door, and paused the game to turn around. “Uh oh, the creature from the bedroom lagoon awakens,” she commented ominously. “You done pouting in there?”

“Bite me,” Adagio groaned.

“Love you too,” Aria shot back snarkily.

“Hey, wanna play with us?” Sonata asked with a cheery grin. “We could use a third to get through this level. Come on, what do you say? You could use a shotgun to blow some brains out!”

“Mind if I try it out on myself first?” Was Adagio’s morbid reply, causing Sonata’s smile to wilt away.

“Wow, way to kill the fun,” Aria snapped back, her eyes tracking Adagio as she went into the kitchen to rummage through the fridge.

“Put the fun in camps why don’t you?” Sonata added, puffing her cheeks brattily.

“Yeah, you Fun Nazi,” Aria kept it going without missing a beat.

Adagio pulled her head out of the fridge to stare blankly at the girls, clearly anything but amused as she asked, “Really?”

Aria bumped fists with Sonata as she replied, “Hey, we’ve been waiting for days now to use that bit. It’s not our fault you’ve become even more moody and grouchy than usual.”

Adagio didn’t dignify that with a reply, at least not with anything more than a low grumble as she grabbed a slice of pizza from a half-empty box and shut the fridge. “I’m going to the training room,” she announced as she headed to the front door of their little domicile. “I need to break a few things and not be yelled at for it.”

“Fine by me,” Aria waved her off dismissively. “Go be a bummer somewhere else.”

Sonata frowned and called after her, “Want us to some along to form Serenade?”

Aria facepalmed and rolled her eyes.

Adagio stopped in the doorway as it slid open. As stormy as she was feeling, she couldn’t bring herself to be anything but happy for Sonata’s offer. Still, she shook her head and looked back to show a faint, weak smile before saying, “Thank you, but I really just want to be alone a bit longer, okay? I promise I’ll play some video games with you later.”

“I’ll hold you to that!” Sonata whooped as Adagio left, the door hissing shut behind her.

Author's Note:

This took way longer to get done than I would have liked, but here it is! Hope you all enjoyed it, and I'm going to try my best to get the next chapter out a lot sooner. Just been very busy IRL. Look forward to more!

Comments

[MrAskAPirate]

“We are Second Skin,”

... Man, it just doesn't have the same impact unless you have him say it like he's too sexy for his clothes,

[Crystalis McCloud]

7042650 I probably would have done something like that if Nudism was Emerald's thing, but at the same time, nothing can match the gleaming glory of Aikuro Mikisugi's nipples and crotch. I would be a fool to try to immitate it. Besides that, it would clash with his true ideal, symbiosis with Life Fibers. Glad you felt such strong emotion for Philomena, though. As the writer, it can be hard for me to tell if my story can pull those feelings out of my readers since I am desensitized to it from running it through my head hundreds of times.

[Scott Curl]

Silly Adagio. You should have played video games.

Video games make it all better.

[Crystalis McCloud]

7049148 Yeah, but playing Halo (what I pretty much indirectly tried to infer they were playing) only helps so much before Dagi just needs to go break things with her own two hands. Especially with the particular frustrations she's dealing with.