*
His knocks startled her, causing her body to jump as it was torn from sleep's clutches. She was buried within her thick blankets, her body heavy and shaking, her throat burning dry, her breath stinking of vomit, and her chest cold and numb. She slightly moved her head, flinching at the soreness.
"...H-H-he...llo?" She croaked.
"Cyan, do you know where Zethan is?" Nel asked.
"...N..o." She said. "....last...I saw, h..he was with Renne.."
She heard Nel smack his lips in irritation behind the door.
"Okay, he was probably invited to that party...I'm going out to get him. Would you like any dinner, or maybe a snack?"
"...no." She said, feeling sick at the mention of food.
Cyan's eyes weighed themselves down, fatigue grasping at her just as there was a momentary silence.
"--ou okay?"
She forced herself awake again.
"..hm?"
"Are you okay?"
She stared at the wall before her, her eyes shutting.
"...I'm....really tired."
"Oh...okay. Get a good sleep. I'll go get Zethan back."
Cyan listened to the lonely house creak as he left.
The dust had begun to build up, the air becoming dank. It was as if allowing Cyan's door to open...allowing her to step out and open up her windows...it had opened the doors to her disease.
She recalled Eris and Deric. This had been their house, their family, their life. Now Deric had lost both of his daughters, one dead, the other missing.
Eris.
Was she okay? In the clutches of the Prince, wasn't she scared? Zethan said that even the ground where she stepped would be worshipped, every golden strand of hair polished---but did she prefer that to her normal high school life? Didn't she want to come back to her boyfriend, to her friends?
Cyan felt her eyes pool up again.
None of her deepest sighs could offer even a shrivel of comfort. She could only keep quiet and pretend she had nothing to do with anything. She was just cold in her bed, staring at every crack and bump of the dingy wall.
He left with Renne, didn't he?
Of course he did. He went to that party.
....the party.
She shook her head of the memory.
What's the matter rag-doll?
Cyan jumped up, falling off of her bed and scrambling away. She stumbled up to her feet, flinging the door open and running down the stairs as the Prince's laugh echoed in her mind.
She ran out of the door, tripping and skidding onto the lawn. Her voice stuck in her throat, coming out in whimpers and gasps.
She heard noise behind her, shame rising hot to her cheeks.
Great. The neighbors probably think I'm insane.
She tried to calm herself, breathing slow and covering her face.
The noise started to approach and she panicked. What exactly am I going to say scared me, she thought.
The stranger stopped behind her.
"Oh darling, you know you can't run from me."
She spun around, gasping in terror as Damion sneered down at her. He had the Prince's eyes.
She flew up onto her wobbly feet, ducking away from the Prince's lunges---but he grinned as she started to create distance between them.
Cyan's eyes shot open wide, her hand clutching the large inflamed purple bulb on her chest. Her legs buckled onto the ground, her voice disappearing.
The Prince waltzed closer, grinning at how his masterpiece cultivated itself on her body. Its veins had reached her eyes and grasped at her ankles. He'd never seen it grow this far on anybody.
"Haven't you had enough, doll?" He asked, crouching and watching the roots crawl up her cheeks. "Surely you want to rid yourself of this pain? You can." He brushed his hand against her cheek, finding himself admiring her pain tolerance. "If you would just be so kind as to open a portal...I would take this away in the blink of an eye."
He stared down at her as she writhed, her face going purple.
"Oh, you can't breathe, can you?" He snickered. "Silly me."
He raised up her shirt, holding the purple bulge.
She coughed and gasped deep---her body lurching up and turning---she vomited out blood.
"Hmm....so internal bleeding, that's what it causes." He muttered. "Is your nose bleeding too?"
She laid upon the road, almost passing out in exhaustion.
"Well? Would you make me a portal, doll?"
He met her eyes, smiling at her.
"...w...what...would you do to me?"
"Use your volt to revive Omena. That is all. After that, I will leave you be."
She stared at his veiny eyes and his perfectly shaped features. He seemed truly sincere.
He helped her stand up, taking her hand in his white-gloved hands as he smiled softly.
"Please doll, all I wish to do is to bring a wonderful beauty back into this world." He pleaded with pained eyes.
"...Omena?"
"Yes. The Princess Omena."
"....you could bring her back?" She asked with hesitation.
"With your help."
His poisonous beautiful eyes gazed at her in hope, his hands clutching hers harder. Her lips went tight.
"....what would happen to me?"
The Prince stared at her, 'Wow, he thought, I didn't think she was this selfis--
"I-If I die, Zethan would go insane, as my Signum, right?"
The Prince paused.
She blinked up at him with worried eyes.
"even if Zethan becomes happy---" A cold lump caught in her throat as she recalled Adelea, her mother's Signum. "h-his sanity would be lost."
The Prince burst into a wide grin, seeming amused by something.
"Don't worry about that. I have a solution---a method of transferring the volt core---"
"Volt core?"
"Yes, what people like you were born with--it is a method of taking the core from you, and implanting it into someone else. From what I can assume, there should be successful transplantation from you to Omena, since she is by far the superior specimen---"
Cyan's hand tensed in his. He turned up and saw that the interest he had sparked had fallen into fear.
"...take away...Avalon?"
The Prince held her hands closer.
"I'm sure you would still be able to visit---"
"I killed Omena. Why would she allow me to stay?" She said, frowning as her voice cut off.
I wouldn't have Avalon. I would never see any of them again. Not the Twelves---not Brin--not Zethan--not any of the Signums--not even Myster!
She suddenly felt as if she was falling, terror linking its hands round her ankles and dragging her back to that rainy curbside---except now she didn't even have Deric or Eris. She was standing completely alone in the dark night.
The Prince was bringing her into his arms--when she started to yell 'no' and kick at him. She clawed, bit, punched, and thrashed violently. He was dragging her back into the house---if he could get her to panic more----"she might repeat a Blue Night" he thought as he grinned.
She cried out into the cold--yelling as if she could already feel Avalon being pried away from her fingers.
---then she felt the Prince be shoved back forcefully by something that seemed as hard as a pillar of steel. Cyan stumbled forward, falling onto something short but sturdy. Her eyes shot open.
"B-Brin!?"
Brin smiled down at her.
"I'm really glad to see you again Creator."
Cyan spun back around to where the Prince had been, finding him gone.
"...w-where--"
"A portal appeared and I came and shoved him in."
"y-you did?"
"Yes, Creator, are you alright? You do seem very weak."
Cyan turned to her, still baffled.
"Where is that brute, Creator? And Nel and Amyth?"
"...Amyth is at the Twelve Headquarters...N-Nel went to go pick up Zethan from a party."
Cyan stared at Brin, finding her somehow...different.
"....B-Brin did you lose weight? Have you not been sleeping very good?" She asked, staring at the bags under Brin's eyes.
Brin's sky blue eyes met hers. They stared for a second too long.
"I...I get depressed when I'm not with you." She said almost in monotone. "Why have you not returned yet?"
"The...Prince is hunting me. He wants to take away Avalon from me!"
"....but just because you are in Avalon doesn't mean that he can get to you. How do you think we were so safe for so long over there?"
Cyan paused.
"Here, you miss Avalon, don't you?" She said, taking her hands. "Come back with me, to Zethan's Island where he can't set foot---remember how the creatures reacted when he did?--come back with me and I'll guard you. Zethan can find us there too."
Cyan's eyes started to pool in relief.
"You will?" She asked, wiping her eyes.
She blinked up at Brin, realizing that Brin was staring at her intently.
"Brin?"
Cyan took her hand, and Brin jumped away.
Cyan stumbled back in surprise, staring at Brin.
She was red in the face, her eyes wide, flooding, and alarmed.
"Brin, are you okay?" Cyan asked worriedly, stepping closer.
Brin tensed up again.
"--I'---I'm moving." She muttered as she stared down at her hands and started moving her fingers.
"Brin?"
"I'm moving!!" She suddenly yelled.
Brin then reached for her hand---to which Cyan instinctively moved away from. Brin then lunged for her--and Cyan ducked away.
Cyan started to run.
Brin stared after her, freezing in place.
She tucked her head down low in her furious shame, her hands clutching themselves into fists till her palms bled.
His hand rested upon her shoulder and she shut her eyes tight, a tear running down her cheek.
"I told you it was no use."
*
Nel weaved his way through the crowds, fuming in rage.
He shoved off anybody who recognized him, running up the stairs. He slammed open a door, finding a pair of strangers kissing.
He left, jerking the door shut and racing to the next. He rattled the knob, becoming angrier and angrier. He pounded his fist against the wood.
"ZETHAN!! ZETHAN YOU ASS---GET THE FUCK OUT OF THERE!!!"
It went silent behind the door.
After a moment Zethan peered through the crack.
"Fuck off Nel. Just because you can't go around having fun---"
Nel's hand clutched Zethan's forearm roughly, his eyes glowering up at him.
"Do you think I can't, just because I'm with Amyth?" He sneered. "Zethan---none of us can. Not you, not me, not Cyan, not Amyth nor anybody with volt in their blood. We can't risk spawning a child Zethan!!" He spat in rage.
Zethan stepped back, frowning.
"Cyan was a child of people with volt---"
"---AND DOES SHE LOOK FINE TO YOU!?" Nel turned away, tensing at the thought. "She's a glitch Zethan---a spasm, a broken, twisted cog in the machine---that's what would happen if we just kept giving birth to more and more--they would all be a generation of faulty, crooked people with no drive in life."
Zethan stared at him, feeling his chest clench defensively. Why did he feel insulted? It was all true....
"Fine," He resigned. "let me go get changed."
Nel sighed deeply, stepping to the rail of the stairs and leaning against them.
He contemplated his own relationship with Amyth. Would even they get to the point that they would want to run away and have a child---like Rine and Virg? If so, how messed-up would their kid be?
A wary clamor of voices shook the thought from his mind.
He turned his head, glancing down to where the people were starting to get louder and louder.
"What's going on?" A girl asked a guy that was racing up the stairs and grabbing at her hands.
"Dude---I didn't know there were drugs that potent here! Come--look she's like having a seizure or something!"
Jesus, Nel thought in panic, these people!
He raced down the stairs, whipping out his phone and getting both 9 and 1 down before he froze.
There stood Cyan, slumped against the wall with her knees just a breath away from buckling. She was purple in the face---her eyes swollen red, her lips dripping bloody foam, and her hands digging into her chest--tearing through her shirt.
Nel froze in fear.
He stared at the pulsating purple bulb---the one completely covering her whole torso.
Laughter filled the deafening noise, casting him into complete shock.
Cyan finally fell to the ground, her body shaking and her hands gripping her hair. It started slow and quiet---but her shrieks grew quick---wailing loud.
Nel finally got himself to move---spinning around--and finding Zethan. He was staring at Cyan with wide eyes, his body completely still.
He watched as she suddenly grew quiet again.
Everyone went silent as well--fear clinging at their throats as Cyan shifted her head up.
Her face was horribly swollen---as if her body had begun to rot from the inside. Her skin was patterned in purple veins, her eyes bulging out like they did when she was afraid, except now her black irises were edged in red. Her suffering face clutched at his heart---trapping his breath.
But then a noise escaped her lips, short, and sweet.
Zethan's eyes went wide in terror as she grinned wide.
No, he thought. No.
She shot up to her feet, gripping her hair tight in her hands, laughing loud.
"OH HOW I LONG TO CAPTURE YOUR EXPRESSION---DO YOU NOT LIKE IT? DON'T YOU MUCH PREFER HER LIKE THIS!?" She howled. "YOU CAN'T KEEP HER FROM ME! SHE'S MY PRINCESS---AND I THE PRINCE!"
She cupped her cheeks, grinning and raising her brows.
"OR PERHAPS, SHOULD I SAY---YOU CAN'T KEEP THEM FROM ME." She snickered. "...THAT IS...IF SHE DOES SURVIVE IT."
Nel's tears rushed down his cheeks---this was it.
They had lost Cyan.
Her mind was swallowed up by the Prince, her body already shriveling and collapsing before their eyes---any moment now a portal would shoot open and the whole crowd would be dragged into Ava---
"Cyan."
Nel turned to Zethan.
His face was deathly pale, his eyes wide and teary, his body tense in terror.
"Cyan, come back."
She laughed loud again.
"WHAT A JOKE! DID YOU REALLY THINK SHE COULD EVER RETURN!? YOU LEFT HER--REMEMBER?"
Zethan stepped closer, his voice crackling.
"That's an order."
The faint light radiating from Cyan's seal kept his eyes.
"COME BACK TO ME CYAN."
He stepped closer, reaching for her.
Her eyes stuck to his hand for a moment, then sneering and moving away---
"THERE'S NO POIN---" Her voice cut off.
-----I can't.
Zethan's eyes locked on her.
Her eyes were glowering cold---her face twisted in irritation---but her lips quivering, her eyes flooding. He gripped her arms, bringing her closer.
"Yes you can. Come back."
It hurts too much.
let go.
Zethan's tears ran down his chin, his face hot and flushed.
let go of me.
He tensed, gripping her hard, and holding back the pain that ached at his chest.
Her eyes slowly started to waver again, her head starting to lean back and go limp.
Then he raised his head up--shaking her violently.
"WHO FUCKING SAID YOU COULD DIE!!!??"
He watched her eyes focus on him for just a second more before they started to roll back again.
He lost his breath in desperation, panicking in his terror.
He slapped at her cheeks, repeating her name over and over again.
She started to collapse and he swept her up off the ground, spinning around and running to the nearest couch, completely blind to all.
He carefully laid her down, positioning a pillow beneath her head as his breath came out in sobs. He held her cheeks, unsure what to do. His eyes were caught by the bulge beneath her shirt, immediately tearing her shirt open and wincing at the sight.
Volt, he thought. Volt!
He pressed both of his hands against the bulge, concentrating hard as his tears streamed down his chin.
He forced more volt, more, and more into her chest, his hands burning and searing against the veiny purple skin. He felt other hands touch his, finding Nel besides him, also forcing volt into her.
It sizzled and burned at their palms, the electric current rushing up their arms and shocking them--but they kept their hands on even after it got strong enough for them to bleed and scream at the pain.
It just kept disappearing.
All of the volt that they poured into her body---it just vanished, completely drunk by the purple bulging parasite.
It wasn't enough, Zethan knew. Even with a Twelve at his side, he was never enough. Not for Cyan. Not for Omena.
*
He ran fast--his breath caught in his throat as he shoved by the Volterians. He stumbled out into the patio---flinching back and turning away from the blaringly bright sky.
Up above, the sky curled its tails round each other in a swirl of white. As white as a blank page, it swirled slow and ominously, inching closer and closer, burning at the stars.
"Myster! W-what is that!?" A friend of his yelled in panic as he clung to his elbow. "Myster!!"
"---I-It's Cyan."
*
"---YOU'LL KILL HER!!!! YOU'LL KILL HER!!! STOP IT PLEASE!!! I BEG YOU!!!" Brin cried desperately from the ground.
Her eyes flooded, her hands unable to brush the tears away. Her legs stuck to the ground just behind where the Prince stood, who was gazing up at the chaotic swirl with a smile.
"Come now, I already told you it was beyond my control the moment she broke away."
*
Zethan and Nel were on the brink of passing out, when Nel was pushed off to the side violently. Zethan's eyes shot open, meeting Virg's. He shut his eyes tightly shut, and even Zethan could feel the surge of volt he and Delete supplied. Nel took only a breath before he dived back in.
Two Twelves and two Signums, still wasn't enough.
She was becoming colder by the second, Zethan losing a chip of his mind with every surge of volt he felt dissipate.
Then a portal opened wide behind them, Myster jumping out from it and immediately setting his hands on Cyan---more people followed, crowding around her and giving what volt they could.
Two Twelves, two Signums, and Volterians.
He could barely feel it pool.
Virg yelled furiously at him as he started to waver. He shook himself and concentrated again, ignoring the burns that crawled up his neck.
But it was still disappearing.
He couldn't even see her anymore. All his blurry vision could manage to see was her purple chest, right above her still heart.
It had been still for too long.
Some of the Volterians had let go.
It was over, he thought.
Two hands brushed by his, and they caught his eye.
They were dainty, with long pale fingers and terrible scars shaped like curly roots.
Curly roots like those of Avalon.
The hands clutched firmly at his, and he jumped at the immense volt they released. It was greater than any he had ever felt.
Just as they caught Virg's eyes too, Cyan lurched upwards, her eyes shooting open.
The hands disappeared, and everyone let go.
Nel fainted upon the floor and Virg stood there, stunned for a second.
Zethan brought her up into his arms, clutching her tightly in his grasps.
Virg shook himself, turning to Myster.
"Go check on Avalon. Now." He said with a glare.
So Myster left with the Volterians.
Virg turned back to Zethan.
"Your seal---it'll take away the parasite. Hurry and remove it."
He flung Delete over his shoulders, stopping before he left.
"Zethan."
He stared at his shaking hunched over back, going silent for a moment.
"I'll admit, you're not the only one to blame." Virg said, casting a glance down at Cyan. "but you sure arrived late."
He turned back outside.
"If you prove to be the wrong Signum again, I'll kill you myself."
Zethan kept silent, bringing Cyan closer.
Virg left without another word, and Zethan laid Cyan back down, carefully pinning her legs down and holding her wrists.
He pushed his lips into hers, concentrating again.
She had no guard to defend herself anymore, so the pain came immediately.
The seal glowed vibrantly, lifting up its scorpion self and traveling all round her body.
She screamed and cried in agony while Zethan pressed his forehead against her chest, tasting his bloody lips mixed with his sour tears.
He smiled at her voice.
Even if she was yelling in pain, at least he could hear her voice.
Just as it was done, he heard footsteps approaching.
He met her shadow just as his eyes rolled back in his head.
She stood tall before him, Emin coming up besides her.
His eyes lingered on Lucianne, smirking.
She was morphed into Omena again, but this time, she blinked with deep, pitch black eyes.
"How interesting." Emin snickered, his eyes staring at Cyan and Zethan.
*