My hometown is enormous. And I never thought I would call Andromeda my hometown, but that's what it is, right? Nothing about this place seemed familiar. It didn't even feel like this was my hometown. I felt like an outsider. As if this body, these memories, and these abilities didn't belong to me. But they did—every single one of them.
"I'm bored," Fay whined, her head hanging upside down on the bed.
"Dinner should be ready soon, and then we have to go to bed anyway." Arianna shrugged her shoulders, holding her hand out as fire flickered from her palm. Fay rolled her eyes as she moved herself upwards so that she was now lying on her stomach.
"Don't you find it dumb? That we go to bed so early? It's not even nine, and we must go to bed right after dinner. All we do is learn and train all day. I barely have time to actually.. be kids! Do something reckless." Fay exclaimed, wiggling her eyebrows at the last statement. Arianna knew that look all too well.
"No. Whatever you are planning.. no, I'm not doing it. And we do have free time. We always do."
"Yeah, for like an hour or so. And the weekends, yeah, but we're kids. We should be playing."
"We're not like other kids, though. We're-"
"Special. Rare. Unique. The key to a better world. I heard it all. But we can still play. We can still be..kids." Fay interrupted, making a talking movement with her hand, which Arianna frowned at. "Just this once. Do something fun with me. I promise we won't get caught."
Arianna stared at Fay. Her mind was racing with what-ifs. But she knew Fay wouldn't leave her alone until she agreed, not even while she was staring at her with so much mischief in her eyes.
"Fine. What are we doing?"
...
"No. We are not doing this. Are you crazy!? We're not allowed in there. And it's locked." Arianna hissed as they stood in front of the door with a lock. Fay ignored her sister and jangled the lock a little, not too much to make a loud noise but enough to see if it was breakable or could even come off somehow.
"Sealed and need a key." Arianna retorted, flicking her hand as fire flew out and hit the lock, but nothing happened to it. It remained the same. Fay placed her hands on her hips.
"Thanks, smartass."
"Language."
Fay stuck her hand into her nightgown pocket before pulling out a key.
"How did you get that?" Arianna questioned harshly, trying to snatch out of her sister's hand, but Fay moved her hand out of reach.
"I got it while going to the 'bathroom'." Fay made air quotes with her fingers as she spoke before unlocking the door.
Once inside, Fay ran her hand along the wall until she found the switch. Flicking it on, the twins scanned the room. It was just an office with papers stacked on top of one another.
"Oh. This is just where Mom does all her work, I'm guessing. But why does she leave it locked?" Arianna questioned as she neared the desk, picking up some papers. Nothing significant, at least to her, it wasn't—just standard work information.
Fay walked around the office, looking at the books along the shelf. Just like the papers, there was nothing significant. She maneuvered her way over to the desk with Arianna and sat down in the big chair. Her eyes landed on the locked drawer, and a grin spread across her face.
"Bingo," Fay whispered as she then tugged at it, but it didn't budge. "Can you see if there's a key anywhere?"
Arianna didn't like snooping around but knew Fay wouldn't stop until she felt satisfied. So she went around looking for a key while Fay searched the desk for one, but they both came up empty-handed.
"Okay, fine. If we can't find the key, I'll do this instead.." Fay circled her hand until she made a small portal before sticking her hand inside and grabbing a book.
Curiosity got the better of Arianna as she peeked over Fay's shoulders and read the book's contents. Well, it was a sheet of paper. Whatever was written inside left the twins shocked.
"What the hell?" Fay muttered, gripping the paper tightly.
"There's no way. No fucking way." Arianna snatched the paper out of her sister's hand, rereading.
"Burn it."
"What? No! We need to confront-"
"NOW. Everything. Everything has to fucking burn! Burn it, Arianna!" Fay was shouting now, her eyes glowing with anger as she started tearing everything apart.
Arianna couldn't do anything but to watch. She didn't want to burn everything. Despite what they saw, she tried to confront their parents. Ask them what this all meant. But as Fay continued to tear and break, there was nothing left to understand. There was nothing to confront them with, so Arianna burned. She burned everything that Fay destroyed.
Until the sound of footsteps averted their attention.
"We made too much noise. You need to get us out of here!" Arianna whispered harshly as she yanked Fay to get her attention.
"Can't you teleport us? Why do I have to do all the work?"
"I'm still learning. I can only teleport myself! Hurry."
Fay snarled before making the portal, but as they started going in, the door swung open, and their parents stood at the doorway, furious.
"What the hell did you guys do!?" The father boomed.
"It wasn't me! It was all Fay's idea. She dragged me into this." Arianna pointed at Fay, whose mouth dropped open in disbelief—throwing her under the bus like this.
"Seriously!? Mom! Dad! It was not me! Arianna wanted to do something risky and teleported us in here. I didn't get a say in this." Fay argued. Mother crossed her arms, arching an eyebrow. It was a pose she always did when she didn't believe a word that came out of their mouths. Her eyes wandered over to Arianna, and for a second, Fay was hopeful.
"Arianna hasn't learned how to teleport with other people yet. So how could she have?" Mother questioned, looking over at Fay now whose smile dropped.
"To your room. Now. You can clean this up in the morning." Father demanded.
Fay glared before stomping off to her room.
That memory was much longer than the other ones. It also seemed more important. Of course, Fay, being her, caused problems again, dragging me into it, but what did we find in that room? Everything was a blur. I couldn't see anything. Whatever it was had not only me shocked, but Fay was furious. Maybe more memories will surface, and the answer will be in one of them. But the more I come to find out about Fay and her mischiefs, the more I want to defeat her and save this place.
"Rylan? Meadow?" I called out, entering the cabin. Thanks to the memory, I had forgotten that I could teleport. I know. I'm dumb. I literally walked around Andromeda for probably an hour, trying to find where to go before realizing that I could teleport myself back to the cabin they were in.
But as I entered, there was no one inside. They couldn't have left. There's no way Fay would have let them go that easily, or did she... no. She wouldn't have. She's after me, not after them.
"Fay! I know you're watching. Or listening. Or whatever the fuck you are doing. Where are they!?" I shouted, twirling around.
"Our parents always taught us inside voices, yet here you are. Shouting." Her voice sounded like it was right behind me, but as I wiped around, she wasn't there.
"Quit calling them our parents. My parents." I hissed.
"Oh, come on. We're siblings. Twins. Blood related. You can not deny that anymore. The proof is there. And you are so.. so close. But you came all the way here." Fay finally appeared at the stairs. How did she get there? I couldn't care less. It's probably her ability to make portals. She walked down until she stopped a couple of meters away from me.
"Where are they?" I questioned, not in the mood for this. Fay sensed that and twirled her hair with her finger as she stared at me. It was like looking in a mirror. Her eyes roamed over my outfit. It consisted of a short black and green crop top matched with a long-sleeved cut-off hoodie and black leather pants paired with some boots.
"Nice outfit." She mused.
"Answer the question."
"I let them go at the same time you were leaving. They are probably on their way to the final destination where your final memory is."
"Final destination? And where is that?" I pushed.
"Seriously? Why do you guys keep asking me that like I'm going to answer it? I'm not going to make this easy for you. Figure it out your damn self." Fay scoffed. I frowned, taking a deep breath before turning away. I took a couple of steps forward before pausing. This could be my chance to attack. Fuck the memories. I could get the place where my parents are from her, destroy her, and save them. I don't have to play this game.
Focusing on the fire inside me, I turned and swung my hand toward Fay, only for a wall of ice to be in my way. The fire melted the wall, but Fay still remained standing, uninjured but with a grin.
"Trying to kill me? Bold of you."
Snarling, I lunged at Fay, sending scorching flames toward their icy adversary. Fay retaliates by summoning frigid winds and creating a formidable wall of ice to shield themselves. As the fight rages on, the place becomes a chaotic battleground of melting ice and evaporating steam. By the time we were done, there was nothing.
"I see your training has paid off. Somewhat." Fay spoke as if our fight did not phase her. As if the building we were in had not gotten burned down by my hands. She stood flawlessly, brushing off some dust off her dress. It irked me that I was the only one out of breath and with a couple of scratches. For our final battle, I will make sure she's unrecognizable.
"So you know many people died, including Sevyn?" I probed, wiping the blood off of my cheek, though I was sure I was bleeding elsewhere too, but I would deal with it later. My question must have caught Fay off guard because she looked taken back.
"You're lying. Sevyn is the strongest woman I know. She wouldn't have died that easily." Fay's tone was cold and emotionless. I shook my head, lowering my gaze to the ground.
"Even the strongest people can die, but she didn't die in vain. She died protecting. And not once when I found her did she have any regret for what she did. She was happy. Happy that she got to die outside and not in that awful cell."
Silence swept over us for a second. My eyes never left the ground as I couldn't bear to make eye contact with my twin. My twin. It's still so silly for me to say. I don't think I could ever get comfortable with the fact that I have a twin. I can get comfortable with the fact that I have powers because, I mean, who wouldn't? But knowing you have a twin? An evil twin at that. Hell no.
"Leave." Fay's voice cut through my random thoughts. I snapped my head to look at her, but there was nothing but pure ice in her gaze.
"Huh? You're seriously not angry at me for this, are you?" I questioned, furrowing my eyebrows. Fay gritted her teeth, pointing out into the forest.
"Leave I said. Go! We have a game to finish, and you're running out of time." Fay hissed. I raised my hands to show I meant no harm before turning away.
"See you soon... twin." I snapped before walking away.