Purple String {EDITING}

Insanity

"Oh, Rusty..." Juniper sung, smiling as their swords clashed, metal sparking as they became nothing more than blurs to the normal eye. "Hurry up and die already." She muttered, skidding out the way of the sneaky blow from behind.

Two Rusts smiled at her.

"I'm really starting to hate that Clone Gift of yours..." She gritted her teeth, wincing as a knife bit into her back. Wind whipped around her, lifting her up out of harm's way. Blood trickled down from the small wound, but Juniper only smiled. "Though it does make things interesting..."

"Don't assume you're the only one who can fly." Flames burst out from his hands, propelling him up into the air.

"I wouldn't dream of it!"

Riley grabbed a hold of Thorn's arm. "Stay out of this." He ordered. "In terms of combat ability, they might be lower than us, but they swamp us in terms of raw power."

"And?"

"Do you want to die that much?" The Elder sighed. "Just wait for everyone else to join us."

"Half of them aren't even at the castle!"

"They should be able to see the distress flare."

"You have a distress flare?!" Red eyes stared into the grey ones sceptically.

"Juniper and that other guy seem to be improvising pretty well." Riley shrugged, watching as the shadows behind him rippled. "See?"

"What the hell is going on here?!" Elder Blythe scowled, stepping out from the shadows.

"What do you think?" Riley said, pointing up at the two currently locked in battle. "The God's Chosen have found each other again."

Juniper chose that moment to go sailing past them into the wall with a loud thud.

"He's better than I thought." She muttered, wiping away the blood trickling down from her mouth. "That's no good." She shook her head. "Why can't he just die already...?"

"Leopold's nearly here." Blythe said, turning to Juniper. "You need to wait for him."

"Now why would I want to do a thing like that?" Juniper smirked, soaring back into the sky, appearing above her opponent in an instant, sending him crumpling to the group with one good kick. "I'm having far too much fun to stop now..."

"Brat..."

"Hardly." She muttered, smiling as she landed on the ground. "Do you really think a brat could do this?"

"Brat."

"You really need to expand your vocabulary, Blythe." Juniper said, laughing as she spotted Rust climbing to his shaky feet. "Oh well. That doesn't matter now." Fire sputtered to life in her hands. "All that matters... is that you need to die, Rusty!"

Lightning crackled around him in answer. "I don't plan on dying anytime soon..."

"Die. Die. Die." She hissed, throwing punch after flaming punch at him. "Die!"

"Sorry." He smiled, slowing her fists down so he was able to dodge every single one of them.

"Don't apologise, just die already!"

"I really think we ought to reign Juniper in..." Thorn mumbled behind her. "She's gone completely wild."

"Why thank you, Thorny." She turned, her eyes alight.

"You like the wild ones, don't you, though?" Riley smirked at the red-eyed blonde. "They're way more fun..."

"This is not the time or place, Ry."

"Oh no." Juniper grinned. "Keep them coming."

"I like her." Riley laughed, yanking his mate into his side in the next second. "But don't worry, Cupcake. I love you." He murmured, his grey eyes meeting her silvery ones. "We should probably go and visit Blagmoor Castle soon, though... From the way things seem, things are becoming rather interesting there."

Juniper spun again, smiling at Riley's mate. "You might want to hold onto your skirt."

"What?!" Thorn muttered, his voice lost on the raging winds swirling around her.

"Cyclone." Blythe said. "The same as Blaze's Gift..." He continued, glancing over at the other Elder, closing his eyes when he spotted the view Riley was enjoying. "Tch."

"You're just jealous you can't do that yet." Another Elder said, peering at the scene from Blythe's shoulders, resting his elbows on Blythe's head.

Blythe simply rolled his eyes, not looking even remotely phased by the guy's sudden arrival. "Get off, Lucian."

Juniper smiled slightly, pulling her attention away from the arguing Elders and onto her opponent. "Die, Rust." She sighed, releasing the wind, watching as he went skidding backwards, cuts appearing on his shoulders and arms as he covered his face. She stepped forwards, freezing when she spotted the look on Rust's face.

"I think that should do it..."

"What are you on about?" She tilted her head. "Ready to die yet?"

"What if I was simply letting you beat me up...?" Rust smirked. "Because in order to unleash this ability, the more pain I'm in, the better it works..."

"Get back, Juniper!" Thorn yelled, but it was already too late.

Her back slammed into the wall, the wide blade of the spear embedded in the wall, blood leaking down from the wound in her chest.

A fatal wound.

Thorn swore. "Where the hell is Finar?!"

"He should be on route." Riley muttered, cursing as he spotted Juniper's crumpled form, his eyes widening when his mate removed two fingers from her neck, shaking her head. "But he won't make it in time. She's already dead."

"No..." The red-eyed blonde froze. "Black..."

Juniper's consciousness had already faded, tumbling down through the earth, her life flashing past her eyes, voices reaching her as she fell towards the unknown.

"We've already had one child that showed signs of him..." Her mother's voice reached her. "Is there any way to separate the two of you?! I don't want another child like that..."

"You mean you don't want to abandon another child on the streets..." Her father, Justin, scowled. "Well, hopefully he'll be settled with one kid... besides, Juniper looks fine. Yvain even had a look at her... He said he couldn't detect any sort of mark on her, unlike Albion's twin..."

"Albion's twin...?" Juniper blinked. "But he doesn't have a twin..." She stood up, realising she'd stopped falling. "Forget that... Where the bloody hell am I, anyway?!"

"You new here, or something?" A woman asked, staring at her curiously as everyone around them moved towards a large archway.

"Huh?"

"I'm not surprised you're confused." She sighed, running a hand through her short hair. "I was too."

"Huh?!"

"You're dead." The woman said. "We all are, here."

Another passer-by smiled. "Welcome to the Afterlife."

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ILLENIS HERE

Sorry for the lateness of this upload... and I hope you enjoyed.

Don't worry - this isn't the end.

See ya next time.

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