The Singing Spirit
YAY ^U^ After several, several months, much brooding, and a computer wipeout -_- I HAVE FINALLY WRITTEN THE SEQUEL TO 'BLACK HEART, BLACK SOUL'! :) Hope you enjoy, and remember to review!
(PS- Make sure to read the A/N at the bottom! Thanks!)
Nick leaned against the wall, arms crossed and face expressionless as he watched Leanbow lean around Vida to finish his check-up of the girl lying on the bed. His father's face was stony, though it normally held that expression now.
Two months. Two months since the invasion of Earth from the underworld. Two months since the unitement of human and creature. Two months since the ultimate defeat of the Master. And two months since the loss of Maddie.
For two whole months, Madison had lay on that bed in her coma-like state, never waking, never blinking or twitching, nothing. If he had not know any better, Nick might have thought she was dead. Sometimes he wondered if she really was and they were all fooling themselves keeping her here, constantly watching her, checking her, making sure her body was still holding on.
No. He mentally shook himself. He couldn't let himself think like that.
Vida sniffled at Madison's bedside, squeezing her sister's hand. Nick's eyes flashed to her, watching her red-rimmed eyes and quiet, slow breaths. He looked away.
The whole team had changed innevitably and irrevocably since that day. Madison's presence had seemed so tiny, so unimportant then. Now it was as if the whole world had lost its beauty without that one special person to light it all up. Nick recalled the first time he had had to leave Rootcore to find special herbs for Udonna, and he had stumbled upon the small river that ran through the middle of the forest; it had completely dried up, leaving scarce puddles and dead fish in the embedment, and all the trees within a half a mile's radius had dried up and passed away, leaves hanging limp on black branches. It was as if the forest could sense its loss, and, frankly, Nick wouldn't have been suprised if it really had.
Vida, not too unlike her sister, had fallen into a sort of sleepy, slow, coma-like state: something of a depression. Nick had never once seen her leave Rootcore; she had barely left the bedside. She was not the vibrant, energetic, hot-tempered and sharp-tongued girl she had once been. The pink streaks in her hair had long ago faded, and her plain black hair- it could only be described as blank. She cried most days, leaving her eyes seemingly forever blood-shot. She also seemed afraid to blink, as if her sister would just vanish into thin air if she diverted her gaze. Her presence seemed to fade into the background; her irrevelant fear of leaving her sister alone for more than a few minutes left her somewhat unable to help the others in their research to try and help Madison from her current state. She barely ate or slept, and when she did it was only by Chip's unwavering insistance.
Chip. It seemed like Chip had become the rock that they all seemed to be relying on. His cheeriness, his happiness, his joy all seemed to have slightly faded, replaced by a more urgent need to keep going. He was a great leader, there was no doubt about it. Every day he tried his hardest to encourage the team, riffling through book after book with Nick and Xander, creating potion after potion with Udonna, extensive magical research in other dimentions with Leanbow and Daggeron, but nothing yet had been found. And yet, even with his schedule so tight, Chip had always found a few minutes in his day, every day for the past two months, to come into Maddie's room and sit a while with her. He wouldn't say anything, and neither would anyone else who resided there at the time; he simply sat, watching her with gentle eyes, and in those moments of vunerability, if you looked closely enough, you could see the shadows in his eyes, haunting his soul and eating away at his resolve. It was always a different amount of time he sat there, from ten minutes to a couple of hours, but near the end of his time he would always sigh, then bend over and softly kiss her forehead before striding out to continue his work. He never explained why he did this, and no one ever asked.
With Xander... he wasn't even Xander anymore, like he had been replaced by a monotonous clone that was the complete opposite of their Xander. As far as Nick knew, Xander had barely passed by a mirror in the last two months, much less stopped to even glance into one; his always messy hair seemed to concur with that. His bright emerald eyes had dulled to a darker, lifeless green, not unlike the slowly dying trees outside Rootcore; they seemed to reciprocate Xander's hopeless feelings. By far, Xander seemed the most tense, the most angry and lost, as if he were standing on the edge and one touch, just one poke would put him over. He had already lost control once. In a far corner of the room was a large pile of broken glass and plastic; a month after Madison had fallen into her limbo-like coma, in a sudden moment, it was like he had lost all hope for anything, and in his anger, he had broken every single handheld mirror he possessed, screaming and crying throwing every single one down in unbridled anger before Chip had finally stopped him, taking him away to bandage his cut and bloody hands as his anger faded to be replaced by body-wracking sobs. Now, every time he needed to let out his built up emotions- fear, sadness, anger, frustration, guilt, loss- he would leave Rootcore, letting go of his emotion deep in the forest, where even distantly they could hear him screaming release. And then, every time he came back, he would bring one red rose (no matter how scarce they seemed, he somehow always managed to find one) and he would place it in a small, pale blue vase next to her bedside. Then he would mumble something that sounded heart-breakingly like an apology before leaving the room, searching for Chip to help him bandage his bruising, scarred hands.
The others seemed to be in suspended states of shock. Claire wasn't the clutsy apprentice, now sorceress, Nick reminded himself, that she was before the final battle. She did what the others asked of her without complaints or excuses; she barely spoke at all anymore in fact, doing her jobs and errands silently, as if she had forgotten how to use her voice. None of them had realised how close Madison and Claire had been behind the scenes. Jenji's ears always pointed down and his tail always dragged behind him limply when he walked. He wasn't as furvent about magic as he had used to be, and sometimes his magic didn't respond correctly, like turning Old-Fashioned Magic of the 1800's into ash by accident because he had been trying to return it to the shelf with his magic. Sometimes he refused to even exit his lamp; he spent most of his time in his lamp, brooding. Sometimes, if they listened carefully enough, they could hear light sniffling coming from the spout of the lamp. Phineas barely came around after the battle. At first, he came every day, attempting to help the Rangers on their mission, maybe reading a few books or collecting special ingredients for Udonna, but soon the half-goblin couldn't take the sad silences and tense moments anymore, starting to come less and less until he completely vanished for a full week. They heard he was now dating Leelee and had taken up a job at the Rock Porium three weeks ago; he had not been around since. Fire Heart scaled the forest every day, tail dragging like a bulldozer across the fading grass and head low, returning late every night to sleep on the ground outside Madison's window, cooing affectionately to her unresponsive form.
Udonna, Daggeron, and Leanbow were quite good at keeping their emotions in check around the , working and researching with stony faces, but it wasn't as if they never had their share of miserable moments as well. Every once in a while Daggeron might rub his eyes with one hand, squeezing the bridge of his nose as if he were holding back long awaited tears, and just the other night Nick had heard Udonna softly sobbing as he walked past her's and his father's room; he had walked on, a sick pit in his stomach.
And Nick... Nick seemed to be all of that and worse. He had lost a few pounds neglecting to eat, almost every second of his time spent with his face nearly glued to Rootcore's books or trying spell after spell after spell. He was constantly frustrated, sad, angry, confused, resentful, guilty, and he practically hated himself for feeling so darn useless. He slept even less than Vida, possibly an hour or two every night before stress and worry would wake him up in the early morning and he would return to researching; dark bags were basically etched into his face. Every sleep had the same dream, the same horrible, awful nightmare of the final battle. Watching Maddie's evil form fight them, feeling her sweet, chocolate brown eyes bore into his as she poised to kill him, listening to her scream as she attacked herself for the good of the earth, red and black liquids seeping over the pavement while the Master alternated laughing and screaming in the background, and so he worked and worked, losing himself in the distractions, desperate to escape the memories, the constant reminders of that day. Chip and the adults had asked him over and over to relax, even for a moment, and even Xander had attempted to help the Ranger leader, but they had all, exasperatedly, given up after a time, leaving him to his devices. He normally stayed close to Madison's room, glancing over at her, watching her still form, sitting next to her with his head in his hands, keeping the potential torrent from flooding out of his eyes, trying to keep his grip on what they were doing and why. They needed her. He needed her.
Without Maddie, they were just so... so... so lost. And no map to lead the way back home.
Nick snapped out of his reverie as Leanbow pulled away from Madison with a sigh, turning for the door. He met Nick's eyes and twitched his head toward the hallway; Nick nodded, and with a last glance at Madison and Vida, he stepped out, following his father a little ways from the room before halting. Leanbow turned to face his son.
"How is she?" Nick asked quietly. "Any change?"
"Nothing," Leanbow said gravely. "Her body is just as empty as it was two months ago."
Nick muttered something undistinct yet unstandably angry under his breath.
"This isn't good, Nick, not good at all," Leanbow said. "A body can't live without it's host for too long. If this goes on much longer, if we are unable to find a solution-"
"We will find a solution," Nick stated flatly, eyes cold.
"But if we cannot," Leanbow went on, "then the body will slowly start to die, and eventually she will undoubtably pass."
For a long moment there was only silence.
"We will get her back," said Nick, "no matter what it takes."
Leanbow sighed. "My son," he said, placing a hand on Nick's shoulder, "I understand your pain, your anger, your willingness to have Madison back with you, all of you," he gave Nick's shoulder a comforting squeeze, "but you have to face the facts, Nick. For two months we've been searching, every book, every spell, potion after potion- Daggeron and I even transported to the Gyrek dimension for help, over two thousand miles from this world!- and we still have found nothing. The truth is, son, we may never."
"Don't say that," said Nick coldly, almost warningly, pulling away from his father roughly. "Don't you dare say that."
Leanbow sighed again. "Nick-"
"No," said Nick. "I won't listen."
"Please, son, you must realize-"
"NO!" Nick nearly shouted, eyes narrowed, settling for a loud whisper instead, something hopefully Vida couldn't hear. "She's not going to die! I won't let it happen, and if I have to fix this myself- don't think I won't!"
"You are determined, Nick," said Leanbow in a hard voice, "but you are letting your emotions get in the way of your judgement, of the truth!"
"It's not the truth! We've beaten evil villains, spells gone wrong, even the Master of all darkness! We will not lose this, and I refuse to accept it!"
"But you have never faced the impossible, Bowen," argued Leanbow, who had returned to his son's birth name absent-mindedly, "and this very well may be impossible!"
"So you're giving up then?" Nick half-shouted, His body was shaking.
"That isn't what I said, son!" Leanbow said, his own eyes narrowed. "I am simply stating the most likely possibility! I'm accepting what may be the only option! There may be no other choice!"
"There's always another option, and there's always another choice!" Nick nearly screamed.
"I'm afraid that isn't true, Bowen, and you know it," Leanbow stated almost coldly.
"Just because you don't care about her-!" Nick nearly screamed.
"ENOUGH!" Leanbow said firmly, cutting Nick off. Anger was written plainly across his father's face, and Nick, for the first time, almost felt afraid of his father. "Not another word, Nick!"
Nick glared at his father, breathing hard. His father stared plaintively back.
"If you think I do not care about this girl, then you are highly mistaken," said Leanbow, unnervingly calm. "I am not giving up, nor am I saying this is entirely impossible, but there is a high likelihood that we may fail, Nick, whether you accept that fact or not is your decision, but do not ever dare to think that I do not care about her or the sacrifice she made." Leanbow looked away from his son, slowing his own breathing.
Nick's anger suddenly faded away, replaced by guilt and sadness. He had no idea, no idea at all, of what had compulsed him to say something like that to his own father, like he had lost control of what he was saying, thinking; there was, now, no doubt in his own mind that Leanbow would give up, and Nick didn't how he could have thought any different, even for a second. His father was a good man, Nick knew that, and he cared about what was right.
It was Maddie. His mind told himself. It was the thought of losing her. It set you off.
Now, as he thought about it, it was, honestly, their first real father-son argument, as the times Leanbow had been known as Koragg the Knight Wolf or Nick had been possessed by the Master had not been... well, quite as friendly or fatherly as this one; arguments and fights were two completely different things in Nick's mind. Nick clenched and unclenched his hands, feeling slightly uncomfortable and resentful in the stillness between he and his father.
"Dad," Nick said, looking at his father's turned back. "Dad, I-"
"UDONNA!"
Here we go. *sigh*
I'm sorry o_o
Soooooooo, yeah.
I AM SO FREAKING SORRY *facepalm, shame*
As the idiot and procrastinator and idiot and stupid and IDIOT person I am *angst*, I made you all wait eight effing months for this sequel. I'm not even going to try and defend myself. I'm just stupid.
I AM SO SORRY, YOU SHOULD ALL JUST THROW ME INTO MORDOR.
It never occured to me to split this into a chapter story (stupidity, remember) UGH. Nor did I want to, but DEAR FREAKING SAURON'S EYEBALL, I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE. So I finally sucked it up and split it up :P It was getting to be really long anyways (42 KB, beejeezus). This is probably for the best.
Now, with the way this new strategy is planned, I have the first couple of chapters planned out here (beta-ing!), and hopefully, now that I've actually gotten some advice, I CAN ACTUALLY FINISH A FREAKING STORY *twitch* (PS- if any of you have good tips on finishing stories, please PM me! I'm a mess!)
Now, here comes the warning :P As some of you may be aware, I am in school, and in a million advanced classes, and in color/winterguard, and trying to finish a million other stories because of my musey brain, and I HAVE AN UMPTEEN AMOUNT OF HOMEWORK 8| So, yes, while I will be trying much, much, MUCH harder, I will have to put aside (coughslackoffcough) this story (again -_-) every once in a while.
I hope you all forgive me for my idiocy and all that crap I just ranted about that makes me feel like an awful person. I hope you don't burn me with fire!
... I think that's it. Again, very sorry, hope you forgive me.
HOPE YOU STILL LIKE ME ENOUGH TO REVIEW!
