warning: there is swearing and some blood (idk if it counts as gore) so if you are sensitive to this stuff, you've been warned! also, bit of talisto
other warnings:
twins-power spiked with a dash of memory loss theories/headcanons B)
i should probably mention, that this is kinda AU as it contains a memory loss story line that happened prior to the story here (please read the fic with that in mind, that'll explain a lot of things that normally would seem sketchy)
ok, so this is more AU than canon-verse (mostly because i tend to insert a ridiculous amounts of headcanons into fics, that'd i'd be happy to see in canon)
bit of angst
bit OOC as we didn't see them in too much angst before...
It was a long forgotten fact, only alive in myths in a few kingdoms of Ephedia, why it was a big no-no to have twins undergo magical training aside from teaching them how to control and suppress their powers. The whole thing is of course close-minded and bigoted - why would twins (or triplets) having magical powers be a bad thing you might say? There had been no answer for this question in the last century aside from lores. Granted there was no need to answer this question in a long time - twins were rarity and twins having magical powers even more so. And those who had, their powers were weak or inconsequential and held no threat - neither to themselves or others. Most lived down their lives without knowing they had powers let alone any problems arising from it.
Thus, the consequences of twins having magical powers were forgotten. Unless you were of the Royal House of Xeris, unofficial hoarders of knowledge and anything historical - and just happened to save an ancient tome from the ruins of your palace when it was tore down by a ruthless dictator - and had the uncanny habit of browsing through said book when sleep eluded you. So in other words, if you just happened to be Talia, Princess of Xeris, you actually knew quite a lot about the story.
With all this in mind it was no wonder the aforementioned princess froze the moment her opponents normally olive orbs turned a bicolor of scarlet and poison green, sclera becoming nearly black. A visible shiver went through Mephisto as his sword dematerialized and he fell to one knee as confusion set about his features.
"What have you've done?" the male questioned as his hand went to his chest and his expression converted into one of immense pain. Talia simply stood frozen trying to understand what happened as she watched the teen shake in pain a visible aura of immense power starting to develope around him. In a moment he dematerialized in a swirl of red and green and Talia was left trying to get her bearings.
It took Talia a minutes until she recalled the tales about twins while she ran through the grassy expanse of the forest around Lake Agnes - she got separated from Iris and Auriana (Carissa and Lina was currently playing bodyguard to Aunt Ellen, thus unavailable) and faced Mephisto alone while the others taken a chance against Praxina and Lev. By the time she reached her friends Mephisto was already across the Arena cradling the unconscious form of his sister while Lev taken to a generous distance from the twins. She barely had time to shout out to Amaru to open the Arena as she started towards the twins as the aura grew around them an enormous circle already spinning under them.
Lightning striked out around the circle and the Xerian princess noted both with relief and trepidation that she made it into the no-effect area of the magical circle. She threw one glance back out to watch as Iris and Aurina got into a fight with Lev, who was way too smug to not have a hand in what transpired. She started towards the twins but had to stop a few feet away as red-green eyes - now a mixture of the two - shot daggers at her a feral frown setting on his face as he took in her form.
"I can help!" Talia had to force her voice to be audible over the sound of her own heart's beating but took a confident step forward while her staff dematerialized to show him she meant no danger. His eyes still glowed with distrust and his hold on Praxina increased. The blue haired princess took a sharp breath trying to think of a solution.
You see, the reason twins in the times of old had been not allowed to cultivate their magical power if they had a significant amount, was because the way this power worked. They fed and fed off of each other's power, creating a circle that meant more sustainability and a greater reserve of magic. The problem came - though it had been limited to transformed magic users - when one part of this cycle became unable to control the power flow. Namely if one of the twins got seriously injured or died when they were in the midst of using their magic resulted in the chain braking. The uninjured of the pair still consumed the injured one's power while the other was unable to feed off of the energy resulting in the accumulation of magical power in the uninjured party and usually causing the demise of the other one. And of course later on the uninjured party too, who -in the past anyway - tended to go with a spectacular BOOM.
So, in conclusion, Talia had to make sure that Praxina was alive and stayed alive, stabilize her so the cycle could restart or Mephisto would eventually get themselves killed - either by spell or his body not being able to house anymore energy. And by the way his power seemed to grow, the Arena and maybe even Lake Agnes would fall victim to it too.
She tried to think of a solution, she really did. But currently Mephisto's emotions were all over the place and that was the Voltan princess' speciality not hers - she was rubbish with feelings. Why didn't she grab Auriana when she dived head first into this? Well, next best thing then.
"Mephisto you are killing her!" So emotional manipulation -however true the statement was - was an underhanded method but at least it worked. His eyes became more focused as he searched her eyes and she tried to convey as much as she could that she meant no harm through her golden orbs.
"Why?" the sound leaving his lips was otherworldly, as if many people spoke at once, all different, and cracked on the word.
"Why?" this time it was a roar that left Talia with a shiver running down her spine.
"Do you want to lose her?" she shouted back with just as fervor. She felt a tingling on her skin - anywhere that wasn't covered with fabric - as his power reached her vicinity and her breathing became hard.
"If this continues," she wheezed out struggling to stay standing, "you'll both die!"
"Why would you care? You hate us!" he was still shouting yet his voice was broken and Talia couldn't blame him. Their master, the person they were loyal to and served for the past years, had betrayed them and probably was well aware of the consequences of getting rid of only one of the twins.
On the other hand it hurt, because they (still) didn't remember. Not about losing their memories and recuperating at Iris's, about what they've been up to during that time, how they gotten closer - dare she say even been friends. Not about how once they found the counterspell the twins didn't remember but the princesses had been left with different sized holes in their hearts with the reversal in their interactions (it took sometime to get back to their old status-quo, but they've managed). She couldn't speak on behalf of Iris and Auriana but it pained Talia way more then she was comfortable to admit that now she knew Praxina was basically a mixture of Iris and Auriana, with her constant sass and love for shopping (and boys), that they were smart and helpful and altogether way too amicable. That they were ridiculously into touching both with each other and later on with the princesses too. That Mephisto just couldn't leave her alone when she brushed him off until she warmed up to him. That she grew to like them.
"We don't hate you," it came out more broken than she intended but it seemed to be better this way as his shoulder sagged and she could finally breath again. Talia fall before the pair, gently prying Praxina away from his brother's death grip.
She knew it would be bad, but she didn't imagine it to be this bad.
There was a hole in her side, bloody and messy, that let her blood ooze out at an alarming rate. She was unconscious but still breathing, though it was ragged and uneven. Her skin turned deathly pale, her body lying limply in her brother's protective arms. Talia took a shaky breath, instructed Mephisto to lay his sister on the ground than cast a medical spell (there wasn't that much she knew) to assess what was going on in the Ephedian teen's body. The wound was deep and was caused by a sharp weapon, but there was a vindictive spell at work too keeping the wound open. (The whole thing just screamed Lev.)
She managed to cast a spell that would slow the bleeding, than one to act as a compress and lastly one that elevated the pain Praxina was experiencing, but she was not the medical expert in her group. That was Auriana's forte, as Voltans were well versed in medical magic. She was ready to convey this to Mephisto - as he had to lower the magical circle around them so her friend could come in - but by the time she looked up from Praxina's body he was already gone.
Talia whipped her head around noting that Auriana and Iris were already running to her while Lev was busy fending of Mephisto who somehow prevented him from teleporting away.
"She needs your help," she addressed the Voltan princess, "she was stabbed and there's some spell or poison that keeps her bleeding." Auriana quickly took Talia's place sending a more advanced version of her examination spell while she conjured up medical tools.
"It reached her vital organs and the spell is a poison designed to rupture the already affected vessels and tissues preventing any natural regeneration a person's magical powers would generate. It's rare but I've learnt about it, let's hope the counter spell works," the redhead muttered the last part as she switched to incantations and spells as a magical circle had glowed up under her and Praxina.
"What happened to them?" Iris questioned as she and Talia moved away enough to let Auriana work her magic.
"Long story, but in a nutshell twins' powers are codependent. It circulates between them and now with Praxina out of commission it channels from her to Mephisto, which will kill her first and him later. And with the way it'll happen, us and the general vicinity of Lake Agnes will be collateral damage," she stated.
"We need to calm down Mephisto so he'd stop sapping power from Praxina," the brunette explained.
"I think only you should go, he listened to you before." Iris stated turning back to Auriana.
"What are you speaking about? He's emotionally unstable and I'm horrible with emotions."
"I beg to differ," started Iris with a small smirk, and Talia really wanted to chid her, 'cause really not the time, but Iris continued before before she had the time, "besides, out of the two of us you are the only one who can truly relate to his situation." Her smirk turned to a sad smile but she quickly followed it up. "And I'm afraid at the moment he'll be more mad at me than I could be of help. Plus we both know he has a soft spot for you." With that she pushed Talia toward the fighting boys.
"Anyways, if we manage to stabilize Praxina that could help calm him down too, and that seems easier to accomplish, so I'll help Auriana!" With that the blonde started to their friend while Talia run to Lev and Mephisto.
"Aw, don't tell me you're mad at me because I injured your pretty little sister?" Lev smirked as he taunted Mephisto who growled in response, muttering a spell under his breath and summoning his sword and attacking the blonde while red-green crystal spears erupted from the ground. Talia arrived at the fight just as Lev made a backflip to avoid the spears, summoning his own weapon to clash with his opponents.
"Mephisto you need stop!" the blunette princess shouted as she summoned her own azure crystals to try to separate the fighting males, but with no success as Lev broke her wall and went head first against the violet haired teen.
"Now isn't it cute that even your girlfriend came to help?" he teased as he sent yellow spears flying at Talia. Before she could open her mouth to summon a shield red-green crystals rose before her easily blocking the yellow crystals shattering upon contact. Lev 'tsk'-ed at that with a frown marring his face before it changed to a smirk. The princess on the other hand let out a relieved breath. If Mephisto was ready to defend her meant she was currently considered an ally which meant she might have an easier time convincing him to stop.
With that in mind she easily slid up next to Mephisto and yelled "Crystal Offensio!" and sent a row of her crystals at Lev. He managed to duck away from most of her attack though a few still managed to scrape him. He glared at her and she leapt at him while summoning her staff than magicking the ends to turn the orbs into blades. She ducked when the blond attacked her, twirling out of his crystal's way as she counterattacked, her staff colliding with his blade as she swiped at his head. He smirked and she frowned, but his face quickly turned sour when a magical circle appeared under him. He leaped up easily but the spears going his way got him off-balance and he fell back on the floor leaving Tallia an opening that she took with fervor leaping up and sending a quick success of Crystal Demetas at him, successfully pinning him to the ground as Mephisto's crystals grew around Lev immobilizing his body. Sadly, his mouth remained free.
"You think this is enough to stop me? Or Gramorr? Bet you haven't even realized it was your dear boss that ordered me to kill your darling sister!" he taunted the twin whose eyes scrunched up in rage as a magic circle started to glow under the blond. Talia took a sharp breath, because really was this guy an idiot or what before shouting at him.
"You imbecile, this will kill you too! Or did Gramorr forget to tell you about this little information? If he dies," and she pointed to Mephisto, "we all die!" she heaved with the strength she was screaming then gasped as he turned around realising the person in question heard everything. And this wasn't the way she wanted to present the situation to him.
Talia swirled around trying to gauge his reaction but it seemed he taken no heed of it as he opened his mouth, an incantation flowing out of his lips. She was before him in a breath trying to hear the spell but froze when she recognized the words. Forget Mephisto being a walking bomb, this spell would blow them away to their home realm, hands down.
Her first reaction was to use the spell to cover his face with crystals to silence him but he anticipated her spell and grabbed her hands, dragging her body closer as his glare turned on her. Not good.
Talia was aware that her friends raised a protective spell around the Arena so whatever explosion came wouldn't effect the humans' planet and she furiously wrecked her mind for a solution to silence him, her golden orbs darting around before settling on his eyes. For a moment she thought about simply headbutting him, but she discarded the idea quickly. She knew from experience that it wouldn't work - despite popular opinion her head wasn't that hard -and the more likely outcome would be her losing consciousness not even breaking Mephisto's little monologue.
Her mind raced trying to dig up anything as he slowly gotten to the end of the incantation, and thank all that is good it's a ridiculously long spell, and she was already out of time so she just went with instinct. She could worry about everything after they survived this shit-storm.
Her gaze fell to his lips before she rose on her tiptoes, pressing her lips to his with as much strength as possible, successfully cutting off his spell long enough the he would have to restart the whole incantation if he wanted to summon it again. She tried to uphold the situation as long as possible, hopefully it would give enough time for Iris and Aurina to either finally stabilize Praxina or sedate Mephisto.
She was surprised that he wasn't trying to pull away. Talia fought the urge of her eyelids trying to close themselves and opted to gaze into his eyes instead. They were still a swirl of red and green, a mix of his power and his sister's. He blinked and when his eyes reopened the colors in his eyes separated into different orbs, his sclera lightening with every second.
When she couldn't take it anymore without oxygen she pulled back, greedily gulping down much needed air.
What she wasn't counting on was him following after her and crushing his lips into hers. Her eyes widened in surprise as his closed, one of his arms wandered up to hold her neck, caressing the unprotected skin above her bolero, his other hand gently cradling her face as his soft lips moved against hers. It left her previously captured hands free and Talia let them hover in the air for a second before finding hold on his chest, the soft white fabric wrinkling under her fingers. She stopped fighting her own instincts as her eyelids fluttered shut and she leant into his touch, but suddenly he was gone, his hand slipping from around her, leaving her craving his warmth.
Her eyes shot open and she was welcomed with the picture of Mephisto stumbling backwards, his arms flailing around and a blush creeping up his face.
"T-Talia, this isn'- I mean I-I'm so sorry I didn't- ugh!" he squeaked as he was trying to get out of her reach. Her own face heated up as she observed his reaction and as she could still feel his lips ghosting over her own. Her gaze wandered back to his lips then up to his gaze, now a warm olive color, and she felt her ears burn as she tore her eyes away.
Apparently he did the same as suddenly his stuttering turned into a frightened "Prax!" and he was on the other end of the Arena in a heartbeat.
The golden eyed princess took a fortifying breath before running to where Praxina lay, observing in silence as Auriana dissed Mephisto when he tried to take his sister into his arms.
"Don't move her," the Voltan princess hissed and Mephisto froze at the order, "and stop using your power, it only makes things worse. Talia please contribute I need to concentrate," Auriana stated and as no one dared go against her she did as was told and explained the situation to Mephisto. She tried to tell things as matter of factly as possible hoping it would leave his emotions in as little disarray as he could still handle without going out of control again. Meanwhile Iris went to take care of Lev, so he couldn't cause anymore trouble.
Mephisto digested her explanation as he watched Auriana work diligently on his sister. He managed to get permission to hold Praxina's hand while he listened to Talia and his grip tightened as she drew to the end of her story. His expression became dark and contemplating as he took in all the information.
"Sorry, he got away," Iris explained with a frown as she came back, her own rage written all over her face. She observed the twins for a moment before she heaved a sigh and crunched down next to Auriana so she could face Mephisto.
"You guys can crush at my place, Aunt Ellen misses you anyway," she stated as she leveled her gaze at the Ephedian male. At his confused expression she waved her hand in a dismissing motion, "Long story, we'll explain later. The point is, you can stay at least as long as Praxina gets better. If you want," she finished lamely, blue orbs averting from his as she decided to observe Auriana's work.
"Aren't you afraid this is a trap? That we'll take advantage of the situation?" That we'll hurt you? was his unspoken question, his voice hollow. The princesses exchanged looks before Talia spoke up.
"We're not. And the fact is, you probably need protection as we don't know if Gramorr or Lev will try anything against you," she explained.
"But-"
"No buts, she needs medical attention and I'm the only one who can provide it on this planet," Aurina stated then she started to list her instructions how to get Praxina back to Iris's home. Iris just smiled and Talia rolled her eyes with a smirk as Mephisto stood confused but followed her orders nevertheless.
He offered to teleport them back but Auriana shot him down again ("Just what don't you understand from 'don't use your power'?"), and instead Iris and Talia completed a transportation spell once they were out of the Arena.
Thankfully Aunt Ellen was out of town for the week on a Garden Expo that Lina was all to happy to accompany her to - Carissa not so much, but she went anyway -, so Iris didn't have to come up with excuses for the twins. The twins were placed into the same room they shared when their memory was jumbled - though they couldn't have known - and Auriana set up magical equipments so the spells on Praxina would work without her being there as well as keeping progress of her condition.
Mephisto stayed by his sister's side as Auriana and Talia explained it would help the reestablish the cycle if he remained near her, possibly in touch with each other.
It was Talia who brought Mephisto dinner - traitors, those two - and when he refused to eat bullied him into consuming the stew Iris cooked.
"Can you stay?" He whispered when she was leaving, his voice barely audible and it was a wonder she heard. She stood still for a few seconds, contemplating her actions before pulling up a chair next to him and taking a seat. His hands had a death grip on Praxina's and Talia looked on remembering the feeling that overtook her when she went back to her palace after Gramorr's attack and thought her sister dead. She clenched her teeth - even though she now knew Izira was alive and well , she still sometimes roused from nightmares thinking it was just a desperate fantasy her mind conjured up.
"About what-, I mean about what Iris said" he cleared his throat. At first Talia thought he was gonna mention her, uh, rather creative method of shutting him up, as his ears became scarlet but he seemed to change his mind as he rather brought up the memory loss fiasco. Oh joy.
"That's, ugh, well it would be better if we discussed this with Iris and Auriana present, I can only tell my side of the story," she trailed off uncertainly. She might prefer the other topic.
"Look, I just, I need a distraction. I can't leave her side - I don't want to - but my mind just keeps coming up with all the things that could have gone wrong, or worse rather, and I really don't want to think about it."
Talia took a deep breath, the mantra of my sister is alright, everything is alright on a continuous loop in her mind. After today she could use some distraction too, as now that all the adrenalin died down her own demons reared their heads, and while they weren't as strong as on that night or the coming months, it still hurt her more than she was comfortable with.
"What would you like to know?"
She talked about silly things like mornings and going shopping or attending concerts and magical mishaps in the house until Mephisto fell asleep still clutching Praxina's hand like a lifeline.