Twinkle's Story: Chapter 34

*Hello! My computer is finally working again. Yay!*
*I got my first manga today. Yay again! XD*
*But the feels are haunting me so much. I might've cried... (Yay for being off topic! X3)*
*The feels in this chapter, too...*
*But seriously. They have to stop haunting me!*
*Well then. On with the chapter!*
*Enjoy! ^o^*
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TWINKLE

"Fauna....." I begin. "Are you okay?"

She holds what looks like the handle of her weapon- that I still don't know what to call- in her right paw. She's holding it so tightly, it's almost as if she's holding onto it with dear life. Fauna looks so worn down; defeated.

Fauna pauses from taking shallow breaths. The golden aura that surrounds her vaporizes in the night air. When all of it is gone, Fauna stops looking down. She gracefully falls down to me- both our feet surrounded by the dead faded brown grass.

"Twinkle, you've got to know....." Fauna gets cut off by another series of coughing.

Alarmed at how weak she looks, I beg her to sit down. "Sit, sit!" Every time, however, she refuses.

She sniffs, her eyes staring in my face. "Twinkle, just stop it. Just... ugh!" She turns and shakes her head away from me, and wipes off a drop from dripping down her right cheek. At first, I think that's sweat. But as she faces me straight-on again, I realize those weren't drops of sweat at all. Eyes soaked with tears, she says, "I can't keep the truth away from you. Just as much as I do, you need to know the truth about us. The truth about....."

"The truth about what?"

Fauna hesitantly continues. "The-the truth about who we are."

As she says that, it's almost as if she's gained some form of strength. She walks in front of me, her toes touching mine. The intensity of her glowing eyes, makes me look away. I hesitantly face her again as she says, "Let me have your necklace."

"Why do you need my necklace?"

After a minute's pause, Fauna says, "I know how to activate it." As her fingers on her left paw wrap around the heart chained on my necklace, the golden aura surrounds her paw again.

Suddenly, I see the heart breaking in her paw; the fragments falling down into the dead grass. Blue-gray pieces cover the space between the feet.

"Fauna, h-how could you!" I feel even more tears coming to my eyes. I force Fauna's paw off my necklace. The last shattered heart piece is in her palm- the part of the heart where my ice covers its surface. I stare at the ground in horror, the pieces of my heart scattered on the ground. "No......"

"We are related to Mira," Fauna whispers, and lets go of my necklace. She smiles up at me.

By instinct, I look down at my necklace to see how damaged it has become. I stare mesmerized at the part of my necklace where the heart used to be. "Whoa......" I say, suddenly speechless.

Replacing the heart on my necklace are two wings. In whole, it's only the size of one of my claws. The top part of the wings are smooth lines. The more tilted up the wings are, the farther apart they are. The bottom edge of the wings are jagged; tiny triangles along the bottom wings' edges pointing downwards. The tips of the wings that are away from each other end in a triangular-shaped point. The wings are connected by this semi-circle that's attached to the bottom edges of the wings. The semi-circle is this light gray color, and the wings are this very light shade of silver and blue. The wings also have this bright light blue aura covering them. I then realize that these wings must be shaped from a source of eternal ice; the ice wings shaped from my own ice. They're a miniature version of Mira's spirit wings.

I gasp. "Fauna, it's beautiful."

"You need to stop being so weak, Twinkle. Stop trying to hide your powers."

"I...."

I get cut off by Fauna as she replies, "Yes, you were hiding your powers," and then wraps her arms- the pale golden aura surrounding them again- around me. She giggles as she lowers her arms back at her sides again. "Well, that should do it."

"Why won't you tell me," I stop mid-way through my sentence to look at my paws for a second, "Oh my Zios!"

The black worn down shirt I've been wearing ever since I was in the first hospital, has somehow evolved to form a jacket. Since it's unzipped, I see this silver shirt underneath it. The buttons of the shirt are the same color as the round edges on the material that's supposedly protecting my tail, and the shirt itself is the same color as the tail covering.

The black jacket I'm now wearing makes me feel nauseous. "Where did all this come from?" I ask, feeling my heart beat faster than before.

Fauna knows what I'm trying to say, thank Zios. "I just shaped the materials of your clothing to fit you better, to your advantage."

Still feeling slightly nauseous by the idea of a black jacket on me, I whisper, "Black jacket.... It's a black jacket."

"No, it's not made up of black flames like his is. It's simply the worn down shirt you've been wearing for who knows how long. Just in a different form. And besides, the black is a color of your unity."

"What do you mean by that?"

"You'll understand one day."

I'm still curious about the weapon that Fauna still firmly holds in her right paw, so I change the subject. "Why do you even have that?" I ask, pointing at the weapon.

Fauna simply replies, "Without it, I won't be able to protect you from the corrupted world. That is all."

"No. What is that thing? It looks like nothing I've ever seen before. Or heard about, I mean."

Fauna makes the weapon lay flat across her palm. It's slightly longer than her paw, though. She stares down at it as she says, "This is a weapon that's been forbidden to be used. Don't ask me how I got it, no matter what. Let's just say I have my ways."

I just stare at it. The silver surface, the gray handle, the metallic finish.... It doesn't even look like it should belong in Jamaa.

"It is called Heaven's Gun. Instead of being more like a dark gray, it's silver. It's main purpose is to drive the dark out of others," Fauna pauses, then continues, "To my knowledge, it's the best suited weapon to save him."

The explosion. The darkness vanishing into the air. The scene replays in my head.

"Fauna," I say looking up, "Thanks for reminding me."

She holds the "gun" in her paw again. She gives me a confused look, but before I can explain anything to her, I start walking away. In the direction of the explosion.

As I'm about to pass Fauna, she shakes her angel wings and flies ahead of me. "What in the world are you doing, Twinkle?"

Still walking forward, I mutter, "What does it look like I'm doing?"

When she realizes what I'm doing, she flies even faster and is now standing in front of me, her feet in level with my chest. "Are you insane!?"

Struggling to get past her, I growl, "Let me pass!"

"Twinkle, you can't!"

"Stop it, Fauna! I need to go......"

She holds up the gun and points it in the area between my two eyes. Shuddering, I take a step back. "Fauna....."

"He tried to kill you!"

"He wasn't doing anything of the sort."

"The black flames leaning toward you. The flames of death and destruction....."

"He wasn't going to kill me!"

"How do you know that? You don't have any idea what he's capable of now."

"He just couldn't control his actions, that's all."

I sense the frustration in Fauna's voice as she lowers the gun. "Because of Fierdan."

Getting confused myself, I ask, "W-Wait. Did you drive Fierdan away, though?"

"I believe so, but I'm not completely sure. What if Fierdan is still there, Twinkle? What if--"
I interrupt her. "You just don't want me to come to Duke's aid. I saw how severely injured you've made him."

"Gosh darn it, Twinkle! Duke is completely fine!"

"How do you know that?"

"You can't take the possible risk, Twinkle!"

"For the last time, Fauna, there is no risk!"

She takes a few deep breaths. "As long as the black flames are present, Fierdan could still be there with him. He's too dangerous!"

"I need to know if he's okay!"

"That can wait!" Suddenly, Fauna pushes me off to the side. I stumble. When I get back up, Fauna's voice shakes as she says, "D-D...."

Hearing the familiar voice all of a sudden, makes me paralyzed. I look at Fauna, her wings stiff and her whole body trembling.

"I won't let you exterminate me," after a series of deep breaths later, the haunting voice continues, "Because I'm going to exterminate you first!"

Then, something extraordinary happens. In the same direction of the haunting voice, a less menacing voice growls. "Get out!"

The other voice laughs. "I didn't know such an idiot could exist! I am you; you are me."

"I should've known," Fauna growls, raising the weapon- a gun- at the person behind me. "I didn't let you escape."

"Oh my! What are you gonna do with that, little girl? Shoot me? Haha, that's a good one!"

The less menacing voice speaks again. "Leave me alone!"

"Oh, don't be so foolish."

"I.... don't..... want..... to...... HURT HER!"

"Finally, something we can agree on."

Getting sick of all this arguing, I turn around behind me. "STOP!"

After a minute of silence, I ask, "Why you all staring at me like that?"

Duke looks at me, the purple flame beginning to disappear off the area that surrounds his left eye. He blinks a few times. In a much softer voice that can only be his own, he whispers, "Twinkle....."

Fauna lowers the gun from pointing at the area between Duke's eyes. "Don't think I'm going to honestly leave you two alone. Fierdan might've escaped your body, Duke, but I still don't trust you enough yet."

He only replies, "Twinkle, did I hurt you?"

"No, you didn't hurt her. Thanks to me."

He rubs his paw along his right side, grimacing as doing so. "That's good to hear."

"You really have to make sure he doesn't morph into you when she's here."

"Yeah, yeah. I know."

"Be more careful, you two," Fauna says as she departs back up the navy blue sky towards heaven.

Still wary of him, I take a step back.

As Duke puts on the black jacket again, he says, "What? You still scared of me?"

I sigh. "I still don't know who you are, Duke."

"What do you mean?"

"Duke, I... I don't know anything about you. You're Fierdan. You have black flames of death. Just tell me who you truly are."

"B-But I'm not that certain who I truly am myself."

"Oh my Zios, stop it! Just tell me who you are!"

His tone changes. "Don't say his name ever again."

"What?"

"Zios. He's the reason why......"

"What are you talking about?"

Duke takes a deep breath. "When Fierdan morphed into me, he told me everything. I believe I'm the only one who has been told what he said because, well, we're the same."

"Your point is....."

"Zios caused Fierdan to be so evil."

I laugh. "Don't be so stupid, Duke. You can't possibly believe what he's telling you."

"Of course I was against hurting you. That was just him controlling me. I'm against him in all ways possible. But when he told me why, everything changed."

Fierdan's past? Why would he tell Duke it so quickly?

On a completely different note, Duke says, "Come on, we have to find Dawn."

With a million jumbled thoughts in my head, I run alongside Duke. After I ask him why he's so eager to see her all of a sudden, he replies, "She might know who I am."

I shake my head, and just run.


DUKE

I can't believe I let him win so easily. I vowed that I would never let him get away with this. But I did.

But if he hadn't, I wouldn't have known about why.

I need to find Dawn again. She knows who I am. 

Well, I'm inferring that. Those few brief words.: "I know who you are. I can help you escape."

Escape.....

Why do I feel so mesmerized by that word?

I shake my head. This is way too much to take in at once.

I clear my mind of all thoughts except one.

Is Dawn also a reincarnation?

I say out loud, "Dawn was the only one who believed."

Twinkle asks, "What?"

"Fierdan and her are connected. I need to know why, that's all."

"Oh okay?"

"Let's just go," I say.

We stay silent for the rest of the way there. Wings flapping behind the both of us.