It was as if a massive burden upon my shoulders had been lifted. Following that, the evil presence of Venator and his Hunters had vanished – though Kate had a hand in making sure that what was left of the Hunters truly did disappear into ashes before Zane and grandpa had swept it away into the wind, never to be seen again.
When the sun was fully up and shining, it was then that I noticed that grandma’s hand was starting to shimmer, flashing from translucent to opaque.
“Gran, what’s happening?” I asked in confusion as the flashing started in her feet as well. “Gran!”
“Terra, you know that I can’t stay for long. I’m not supposed to be here.” She got to her feet and helped me up as I felt the dread, the longing and the panic rise within me.
“What? No, you can’t possibly –”
“Nellie!” Kate started shrieking, drawing some attention from the lounging slaves as they started to recollect themselves. Kate was gripping on her sister’s shoulder as she too started fading in and out of existence. “What’s going on?”
“Kate, please don’t cry,” Nellie pleaded, embracing her older sister tightly as Kate started to sob.
I turned back to Gran, feeling my heart feel heavy and my own tears well up in my eyes. “Gran, please don’t go.”
She smiled sadly, caressing my cheek softly. “You know that my time here was limited for so long.
“But I can’t lose you again!” I cried, feeling hot tears roll down my cheeks. I grabbed her hands but they started fading and when they did, my own fingers slipped through hers as though they weren’t really there at all. “Gran, please!”
“Terra, calm down. You know it was going to happen.”
“But I –”
“Terra.” Grandpa captured my attention as I turned to face him. He too was fading in and out, causing the tears to roll down faster in waves. “Don’t cry.”
“No,” I whispered, clutching at my aching chest at the sudden realisation. They were leaving – there was nothing left for them here. They couldn’t leave me!
“Oh Terra.” Both my grandparents enveloped me into a hug that may probably be my last with them. I clung onto them tightly, refusing to let go and cried into their shoulder. “Come on Terra, be sensible.”
“No,” I choked out as I heard Kate wailing to Nellie, begging her not to leave. “It’s not time. You can’t leave me!”
“It’s been our time long ago, darling.” Grandma kissed my cheek softly before pulling away, dragging grandpa with me as well. “Go say bye to Nellie.”
“But –”
“She’s leaving as much as we are. She’s coming with us.” She smiled at me sadly, tears glistening in her own eyes as she wrapped one arm around grandpa tightly, knuckles white. “Go on.”
Reluctantly, I wiped the tears away from my eyes and sprinted towards my best friend, pulling both she and her sister into a hug. “Nellie don’t go!”
“Terra, don’t do this too!” Her voice was wobbly but her eyes remained devoid of tears, the purple hue of them glistening slightly. “I’m already dead. There’s nothing left for me to return to here.”
“A life – with us!” Kate cried out, gripping Nellie tightly as she started fading out for longer rather than fading back in properly. “Nellie you can’t leave me here. You’re not finished!”
“Kate, this was supposed to happen to me since the beginning of time,” she said softly, pulling the two of us into a hug with her small, spindly arms. “You have to accept the fact that it’s time to let go, to start bringing Earth back to what it once was.”
“No!” I begged, pleaded and grabbed Nellie tightly but she was starting to disappear from my arms and this only made Kate as well cry out in grief. “I can’t lose you. I can’t lose any of you!”
“Terra, you have to let them go. It’s time for them to go.”
Birds were starting to chirp. I hadn’t heard birds before but somehow, deep inside of me, I knew it was those animals I’d once seen in pictures grandma had kept in secret before they were destroyed and taken along with grandma herself.
The sun was glowing brighter, bringing hope of a new dawn and day with it. Nellie stepped back, kissing both of our foreheads before joining the former Element Guardians that were flickering in and out as well.
“Grandma please!” I cried, pulling her into another hug. “Grandpa! Nellie!”
“Let go, Terra. Please. That’s all I ask of you; let go and move on. I’ll always be here for you, in your heart. That’s how everybody moves on.”
“She’s right, Terra,” Grandpa reasoned, kissing me on the forehead tenderly before prying grandma away from me. “Let go.”
“Nellie please –”
“The Crystals are going back into hiding and they’ll come to you in need. But right now, as far as I can see, earth is safe.” Nellie smiled a heartbreaking smile that really made my chest ache and my heart shatter in two.
“Nellie!” I tried this time but she gave me a stern shake of her head, stepping back further as the sunlight cast their shadows across the newly made earth. The slaves were looking on with sympathy in their eyes, a couple of them calling out in gratitude to which the former Guardians waved back to in acknowledgement. “Please. This isn’t right.”
“Come on, Terra.”
Kyle finally spoke to me, pulling me back as the Guardians and my best friend truly started to disappear, their legs slowly being eaten up by an unknown source. In mere seconds, all that was left was their upper torsos as they smiled back at us.
“Great-Aunt Rose? Uncle Felix?” I whispered, reaching for them but Kyle kept his arms firmly around my waist, tugging me back.
“Take good care of Terra!” Grandpa called out, waving to me and pointing to the one that restrained me from leaping after my grandparents, my only family I had left, before they disappeared for good. “We will be watching.”
There was nothing we could do as we watched Nellie’s purple light and each of their individual element magic glisten brightly once in their own colours before completely vanishing in the next second.
Before I knew it, they were gone.
Nothing remained of them, except for their whispered goodbyes as I begged them to come back. Tears continued to flow down my cheeks and from the corner of my eye, I spotted Kate crying and burying her face into Zane’s shoulder – Zane himself looked pretty sad too, despite that he didn’t know Nellie or the Guardians that well himself either.
“It’s going to be alright,” Kyle whispered softly, stroking my matted hair and sighed, rocking me side to side as I felt my tears drench his shoulder.
I didn’t know then – in fact, at the time, I felt as though Venator was still alive and that he’d taken those closest to my heart away from me.
The truth was, Venator was dead, the ones I loved really were gone but they hadn’t been taken; it was just their time to leave.
At least I still had Kyle, Kate and even Zane.
More hours had passed while I’d sulked away by the lake. Kyle had given me enough space but I still felt the empty hollowness in my heart, my soul. I still felt as though a part of me had been ripped away.
When Kyle finally came to ask me if he wanted to help me grow some plants, food and crops for the people, I obliged but after that, I curled back up into a ball by the lake, staring at the reflection of the moon that slowly rose into the night sky.
“At least it’s over, you know.” Kyle joined me by the edge of the water, leaning back on his hands while he slid the lower half of his legs into the cool water and sighed in bliss. “It feels better. More cheerful, you know?”
I didn’t reply. I chewed on my lower lip, wiping away a fresh wave of tears then sniffled. “I miss them already. A lot.”
“I’m going to miss Nellie too – and I bet the other Guardians were great people.”
“They were.” Silence lapsed between us before a couple questions that Kyle still had yet to answer popped into my head. “What happened? The Base was supposed to be impenetrable. You were supposed to be safe.” I inhaled sharply as the ghastly image of Kyle’s beaten form slithered into my thoughts. I shook my head as if to shake it out of my mind but it didn’t work too well.
“Kash tried to warn me right before they came,” he said quietly, playing with a ball of water between his hands leisurely. “I think it was something to do with the Crystals. Each time we found one, the Base just couldn’t handle all their magic or just got weaker. Something like that.”
I chewed on my lower lip thoughtfully. “She should have warned us.”
“Well it’s over now, we can say her name aloud without any Hunters overhearing and we’re finally safe.” He blew threw his lips and tossed a couple more strands of dark hair out of his eyes. “You know, I thought we couldn’t use our elements, since Nellie took away the Element Star and hid them again.” He gestured to the suspended stream of water that encircled the air above his dirtied palm before tossing it back into the lake with a soft splash.
“I suppose the magic belongs to us for now,” I decided with a shrug and sighed, glancing down at the water.
Kate dropped down beside me, leaning her heavy head on my shoulder. “You alright?” Her voice was hoarse and probably as tired as mine was, with all that crying.
I was about to shrug then thought otherwise, nodding slowly. “Yeah. I guess. Are you?”
She sniffled once but nodded, rubbing her hair against my shoulder. “Yep.”
“Do you guys know one of the greatest things we can do now that the Hunters are gone?” Zane piped up with a slightly amused expression on his handsome face. I hadn’t realised he was there until he spoke.
“What?” Kyle replied, trying to lighten the mood with the Air Guardian.
“Take a bath. Shower. Ever heard of that?”
Kate muttered an inaudible no while I nodded slowly. “Grandma said they were the best ways to clean yourself and your body. She said slavery abolished all those privileges for humans.”
“Well baths are pretty much just mucking around in water, scrubbing every inch of your body until you feel clean to your toes,” Kyle declared, shooting me a lopsided smile. “You should try it sometimes.”
“The Hunters did hose us down every week,” I admitted with a shrug. “But they’ve been really slack with it lately.”
“Hose us,” Kate snorted before lifting her head and stretching like a cat. “Hey . . . look.” Her long finger pointed our gazes towards the lake where several ripples were starting to break out across the still surface.
“Kyle –”
“That’s not me,” he interjected, shooting me a nervous glance. “What the –”
The ripples ceased but what remained in their place were long curved white streaks. When I squinted, I soon came to realise they spelt out two words: WELL DONE.
“Usually that would have freaked me out,” Kate admitted allowed. “But I suppose with all that’s happened, I’ve stopped seeing logic.”
I laughed, almost bitterly. “Yeah. Nothing really makes sense anymore.”
“I suppose Kash was the one that did that,” Kyle predicted with a shrug. “It seems like it’s what she would do.”
“Or it could have been Nellie,” Kate muttered quietly.
“Whoever it is, they’re watching over us,” I told her kindly. A thought suddenly occurred to me, worry creasing my features. “Kate, aren’t you pregnant?”
She lifted her head to the sky then fell back on the grass. “Yeah. But the baby was long gone before all this started. It was only a matter of time, I suppose. My tummy has gotten bigger in the past month.”
A pang of regret washed over me. “I’m so sorry –”
“It’s alright.” She kept her gaze glued to the night sky. “It was time for a fresh start anyway and it would have been born into slavery if all of this hadn’t happened.” Despite what she said, I could hear the hurt and grief in her tone, from mourning over the loss of her sister and now her unborn child. Kate had suffered so much and it was a wonder she was still sane. Maybe her hysterical fighting earlier on had relieved her of some of that stress she was holding.
I followed her example and flopped back, feeling my muscles relax immensely. The sky, the moon and the stars offered a twinkling new hope, a new dawn just as the sun did. In the distance I could hear some of the slave children playing and it made my heart warmer knowing that they’d be free from this endless slave cycle.
“It’s finally over,” Kyle said softly. Zane and Kate responded with inaudible mutters of agreement.
“Yeah. I suppose it is,” I said softly, closing my eyes. For once in my life I felt at peace. Not entirely happy or satisfied but peaceful.
It felt nice.