Wizardess Heart And The Dark Unicorn

Chapter Thirty-four

I felt like I fell for a good two minutes before I landed rather softly on the ground. Somewhere deep inside this place, I think Kayle's trying to keep me safe despite her dark magic counter side. That alone is enough to keep me going. I look up seeing Kayle kneeling beside Tsukasa as she started to bring him back. Dad, not too far off was fighting a Nurse and Azusa. Elias was tied to that tree near the forest. This must be a memory playing out.
"No Kayle!" Salazum ran from the forest in unicorn form. His eyes were worried, stressed and scared. Knowing how this night ends, I can't blame him.
Light poured through the dark night which drew my attention back to Kayle. She's glowing? Was that because her and the unicorns were melding together? It wasn't long that I noticed the thick black lines grow across her skin. Her eyes were black and her hair was as pure white as the unicorns. This is a mess, no wonder why her mind was ripped apart. The only question is, did this happen when she died, or when her memories came crashing back?
Tsukasa moved from her rather quickly, obviously very freaked out by how she looks. She wasted no time as she climbed to her feet which seemed like it was incredible painful to do. She took off towards the Nurse and even knocked Azusa away from Salazum and my father, insuring that he was out of the way long enough to be captured. She charged into the Nue without even hesitating. So this was her last stand? "Salazum now!" The mingled voices of Alickzander, Hayzel and Kayle made all the other noises around seem muted. All of them decided, with what they believed were their last moments, dying in defense of others. Salazum charged forward, even though he appeared to have second thoughts for a second. The Nue was destroyed and left the image of Salazum's horn through Kayle's chest ingrained in my head. I gasped loudly. Knowing about it and witnessing it are two different things.
Even with a horn through her torso, she look peaceful, calm and ready to leave this life behind. That felt like it was the worst part to me. She wanted to leave. No cure I the world would have saved her because she had given up long ago. Strong emotions that I tried so hard to bury, cropped up to the surface and water quickly blurred my vision, before tears jetted down my face.
She leaned forward onto Salazum's head as her body became too weak to stand. "I'm... sorry... Klaus..." Those words were barely heard, but made my heart clench painfully in my chest. It was only her voice which meant that Salazum had extracted Alickzander and Hayzel already.
"Oh Kayle..." She felt guilty because she wasn't able to say goodbye to us all? I sniffled and sharply wiped the tears off my face. I never would have let her go alone if she had came to say goodbye, she knew that.
"She wants to be important too..." I looked around the scenery at the ghostly voice that blew in. After already meeting with the dark counter part, my defenses were on high alert. "You'll never win by force... Appeal to her..."
The words were clear, but the voice itself was garbled and distorted. "Kayle, if that's really you. I'm sorry that we couldn't save you." It was something I wanted to tell her for a while, but when Hayley was walking around I ended up treating her coldly.
The image around me froze in place. So this was the moment that she died? Or was pulled out of her body? "You weren't supposed to and I don't blame anyone... Well almost everyone..." I chuckled at the playful tone she used to have. It was like having her back for a second. The "almost everyone" must have been a reference to Azusa. "I could only talk to you in memories, so I brought you here, but it's time for you to go back."
Panic shot through me as I glanced around like I'd magically see her somewhere. "Wait! Please! How can we save you?"
Another chuckled and the garbled voice answered. "She's ignores you for a reason. You have everything you need already. All you have to keep reminding yourself is that all of us here are the same woman, just fractures."
That was like a bucket of cold water. "So even you're not the real Kayle?" I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up. I knew in the mind that it was a fool's hope and yet my heart still wished for it.
"All of us are, just in pieces. Though two are keeping us broken." There was the sound of a rusty door opening, so I glanced behind me seeing that the tree beside where Elias was tied to had opened like a door. "Randolph is looking for you. Take the door and then the first door on the right once you're in the hall. Good luck."
I sighed softly once I noticed that the image of the spring began to slowly darken. Whichever side this version was, was really pushy. I moved to take the door. I can't let this place break me, otherwise I'd never be able to save her. It's so easy to think this place is real. When I walked through the door I was met with the familiar corridor that lead to Embri's office at Nightingale. Great, another memory I wished never to revisit. The door was on the wall beside a painting of the school that I never seen before. It confused me for a second until Embri's office door opened and the teenage Kayle and David walked out of it. "Do you have to be a jerk to everybody?" David asked irritably.
Right, I recall this now. It had nothing to do with the last time I was here thankfully. I looked at Kayle one last time before I headed through the door. This place was interconnected to other memories just by a door in a random spot? Weird.
Randolph was waiting here though he looked shaken and stood against the wall like he was weakened by something in my absence. What happened? "Randolph are you alright?" I called as I moved towards him.
The look on his face was one that was beyond relieved to see a friendly face. That's not really comforting. "Yes, I just..." He casted his eyes down in embarrassment. "...was informed on how terrible of a father I was again." So the evil side played with his mind while I was pulled down to learn important information?
A sickly chuckle sounded through the air as the dark magic Kayle walked in. "What? You think that after everything, that you deserve to save the day? How arrogant."
I glared her way. What does she know? Randolph was there at Nightingale. "Why are you doing this to him? Hasn't he suffered enough?"
Her black eyes stayed on Randolph's face. She's still ignoring me? How childish. "No, he hasn't and it's fun. Do you really think that she would have gotten anywhere, or been anybody if it wasn't for me?! And yet here she was planning to eliminate me! All I've ever done was protect us! I was the reason why she could cast such advanced magic, not those pathetic unicorns!" Who's the arrogant one again?
My mind thought back on what the memory version told me, "she wants to be important too". Was all of this because she wants to be recognized for her contribution as Kayle's defender? "She was strong because of the circumstances that she went through. Not because of any kind of darkness she had lingering around. To have gone through so much and remained a good woman, that was her true strength. You're just too self absorbed and narcissistic to see that!" Randolph snapped back angrily.
This won't be solved this way. The dark magic is trying to make us overly emotional to win. A low laugh drew my attention, but it sounded more like a growl. So she expected him to say that and already had a counter argument laid out. "Speaking from experience Randolph? You only decided to finally get off your butt when she's someone else's kid. When she can finally be happy and doesn't need you...or well, she never really needed you, did she?" Her black eyes now moved to meet mine. Oh goody, it's my turn huh? "And what of the knight in shining blonde hair? Do you really think you can do better?" That wasn't what I thought she'd say.
I watched her carefully as I chose my words well before expressing them. "No. You've always watched over her, even during the times when she couldn't herself. She's you and you're her, you need each other." Shock wasn't lost on her face. She was expecting another attack, not acceptance. "The Kayle I knew and love, wouldn't have ever existed if it wasn't for everything that happened..."
"Klaus, what are you doing?" Randolph asked as I moved towards her. I'm appealing to her better nature of course. Salazum told us to.
I simply held my hand up to show him that I'm not ignoring him and that it's best not to interrupt. "Bad things have always happened to you, so this side of you was necessary to create a way to cope and when good does finally happen, you're completely lost on how to react to it." I don't know if that's actually how she felt, but I believe that it was. I also think that's why she always seemed so awkward when it happened.
I moved to slowly reach out to gently touch her face, but she flinched back from me. There was true fear in her eyes... "You liar!" She shoved my hand away from her so sharply that I thought I was going to have a shooting pain through it. "You're just saying all of that because you want me gone!"
She does realize that this was me she was talking to, right? I hid the fact that she even had dark magic from the Ministry for a while. "No, that's it at all. I'm telling you the truth. I swear to you that all that I'm saying is completely true." The rage she just had was once again replaced with panic. This was the first time I've ever seen anyone with dark magic look absolutely terrified. A look which only worsened as my fingers brushed against her cheek. Her skin started to turn back to a peach color, but the black lines stayed and her eyes turned into their honey color that I knew very well.
"Klaus...? How'd you....?" She was baffled, but this must have been why the dark magic tried to keep me away. Was my Kayle trapped behind the dark magic, or was she one of the versions that kept her ripped apart. As if answering another version appeared behind her. However that version was crying noiselessly. Randolph passed to tend to her while I kept my eyes on the honey pair that looked up at me curiously. He must have figured that I had this situation covered.
"In the end, you were Kayle's safe haven after all." Randolph mentioned before out of ear shot. Was I? I don't think I was, I simply was someone who just simply always there for the most part.
"Where are we?" She whispered seeming to find it hard to speak.
She didn't appear to want to look anywhere but at me, like she was worried about what she'd see. Did she think that if she did, she'd be lost again? "It's okay..." I whispered back trying to be soothing, but I was still mildly worried about the black lines that haven't vanished yet. Her eyes suddenly closed tightly as her whole body cringed. "What's wrong?"
"I don't know. My head hurts." She answered through gritted teeth as grabbed at her head.
This isn't good. I quickly grabbed a hold of her to steady her body before it decided to try to fall out from under her. "I've got you. You're going to be okay..." Not that I was one hundred percent sure that she was really going to be, but what else could I say?
A bright puff of smoke made Kayle exclaim out in pain as I held her body to mine. I looked over towards Randolph seeing that he managed to free the crying version. She seemed to need her father's kindness, but I think it was too much for Kayle to have everything slam together at once.
Does this mean that even though we managed to get all the pieces back together, her mind is still breaking? "We're loosing her! Pull Randolph and Klaus out before we loose them too!" Salazum's voice sounded clearly in my head and within seconds Randolph vanished before my eyes. No, I'm not leaving her alone again. I knew that it was only a matter of time before they tried to pull me out too, so I closed my mind off from them. I moved my eyes down to Kayle's face as they tried to tug harder. I could feel pain growing in my head as I fought them. I don't even know how I'm managing to do this. I mean, I'm not as strong as the fairy king or a unicorn and definitely not when they're fighting against me together. Kayle fought and thrashed in my arms like she was being attacked and I kept holding onto her the best I could. "Klaus, if you keep fighting us, you'll be lost in her mind forever!"
I nodded to myself as I fell to my knees after her when hers buckled and the weight of our bodies on top of me fighting the tug became too much. "I know, but that's my choice. I'm staying."
Their magic suddenly stopped instantly and the world around us began to darken rapidly. If she could look around and see everything happening to our surroundings, I'm sure she'd be as worried as I felt. I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't terrified. I had no idea what was going to happen to us, whether or not we'd be swallowed up in the darkness too. This happened because her mind is overloading, so maybe if I join our magic I can at least give us a beautiful place to stay instead of just being together in darkness. It was worth a shot right? I gently cupped the back of her head and kept my other arm around her back to keep her from falling. I gently pressed my forehead against hers as her arms fell, one landing on my leg with her hand clenched tightly in a fist and the other was beside her but was stretched out which looked painful. I definitely need to help her clear her mind.
She always seemed to hate it when I moved this close, but either she changed her mind or it was way passed fried. I tried to tap into her magic so I could change the scenery.