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Chapter Seven: Adamo

Underestimated. He supposed he was partly responsible for such an assumption. It had always been intentional on his part to play the foolish prince. Especially when it came to the members of the counsel and most especially in front of the keen eyes of Aenigma. For all they knew, he and his little band of misfits only caused mischief wherever they ventured around the city. They certainly had plenty to be reported to them through all the mishaps and destruction of public property they had received over the years. What they had perceived as an irresponsible prince had really been miscalculations of his powers. He supposes he might have given too good of a performance all this time. Or he had scared Aenigma so much that this was what he should have expected. That was all rational thinking and he was not looking to be rational right at the moment.

He can hear Des shouting as he's taking determined steps towards the army charging towards them. The army that was supposed to be his. This was not the day for him to die and if Aenigma thought to stop him from finding out some answers and seeing Stella again, he was sorely mistaken. He stands at the ready, his arms loosely at his sides.

"Get in the car," he orders to his brothers behind him as he keeps his eyes on the arm of Nihil in front of him.

"What? Why?" asks Des.

"Get in the car," reiterates Sapien.

He hears the sound of three shutting doors and he reaches into one of the pouches on his belt and puts his earpiece on.

"You're gonna do what I think you're gonna do, aren't you?" he hears Sapien say in his ear.

"Do you remember what happened the last time?" warns Vires.

"Yeah, that wasn't very good the last time," agrees Des.

He can remember what happened well, but they don't have any other option. He's managed to perfect his powers a little bit more than the last time they had tried this stunt.

"The car has airbags and you three can swim if you do not make it across," he answers.

"We're worried about you, man," says Des.

"Just remember to floor it," he says as his rune flairs blue behind him. The car zooms past him in the direction of the army and swerves into a U turn. Sapien is reeving up the engine as Noctis finally turns around and starts running towards the end of the blown bridge. He can hear the sound of gun fire but he knows they are just out of range.

Tires screech as Sapien finally releases the brakes and the car bursts forward. He has enough time to teleport where he needs to and Sapien's already accelerated the car. There's the sound of burning rubber as he turns to see the car speeding towards him. Two fingers of his right hand go up in front of his face and tilt at an angle as he kneels onto the pavement as the car reaches him. The full arsenal of his powers form a makeshift ramp just before the car can run him over and it flies over his head. The bottom portions of the tires just miss the top of his hair as the car is propelled upwards and flies over the water towards the other side.

Teleporting quickly to the other side of the bridge, he can hear Des screaming in his ear.

"We're gonna be part of the pavement!" he shouts as they're about to land but Noctis is already there and he positions his shield to mimic a descending ramp. The bottom of the fender scratches loudly as it hits the pavement and the rears bounces on impact. The car comes screeching to a stop a few feet away.

"Noct!" shout the three of them as they jump out of the car. The strong smell of burnt rubber fills his nose as they come running towards him.

"I am fine," he says brushing himself off of the bits of dust on his jacket. The four of them turn around to face the army on the other side.

"I didn't expect you to do that," says Des.

"What did you think I was going to do?"

"Kick some hide maybe?"

"Those are Nihil soldiers. They are my men. I will not use my powers to kill my own people."

"Stupid, blind traitors," hisses Vires with a shake of his head. "They don't deserve your mercy."

Mercy. He did not think that was an accurate word for what he was extending to those men. Maybe it could be viewed as such but, it was what was right. There were too many wrongs with his legacy that this was just a small portion of what he needed to do. He had no time to think about that now. There were answers that he needed and places that he needed to go.

"Come on," he says turning around. "We have answers to find."

"And Stella to see," grins Des behind him.

"Don't tease him," warns Vires.

"I'm not!" protests Des. "I think she's a good..."

"Lead?" asks Noctis turning to look at him.

"Right... lead," agrees Des with a wink. "I also want to see some more hawt Tenebrae chicks."

"Just get in the car," says Sapien to Des as he slides into the driver's seat.

"So I'm not gonna drive at all?" complains Des.

"Yup," replies Sapien simply, as he shifts the gears and takes off again. "We need to find a petrol station."

"No way! Tell me we have enough to make it! I ain't pushing!"

In the end there was no need for Des to push. They found a station before the tank was empty, just outside the outskirts of Tenebrae. The old man behind the counter frowned at the sight of the four men but merely adjusted his thick glasses and gave them their change.

"You really did plan this trip," comments Noctis as he eyes the money in Sapien's hand.

"We told you," says Des.

"How did you get the local currency?"

"We know a few people," answers Vires evasively.

"So, how are we going to find out where Stella lives?"

"We'll find her," says Vires confidently. "Or Noct will, for sure."

"Things are so different here," remarks Des as he looks around.

"They would be," remarks Sapien. "It's a different country and it's also not as technologically advanced as ours."

"They also do not have crystal energy," says Noctis. Though, he had some questions about that too.

"Hey look! There's a place to eat," points Des.

This city had a beauty that was all its own. He had to search through his brain to remember his history lessons as he looked and marveled at the things around them. He had never learned much about the outside countries and he wishes that he had. Not a fan of ignorance, he preferred to know instead of ignoring it. There was no reward for ignorance and he felt he was ignorant enough to what he was and what he could do.

The architecture around them was old. Old but no less inferior to their own. In fact, maybe it was more advanced in certain respects. Where his city was built of steel and concrete. This city was made of stone and wood. It was with more natural materials than the more man made of his. Even the windows had a unique character and shape to them. It was different but no less beautiful in its own right. It was something all its own.

They were all sitting in a square of sorts. The main square of the city, judging by the amount of foot traffic around them. Vast walls of yellow cast a golden light with the rays of the late afternoon sun. So different from the shiny, darkness that surrounded him in Nihilsomno. Pigeons walked around them lazily and even they looked different. The people around them were also very different. It was hard to describe. It was in the way they walked. It was in the way they conversed. They did not dress too differently but they did not seem as burdened. They did not seem as afraid. Their world was not as dark as his.

The cafe that Des had pointed out sat within the square gave him a home like feel and he immediately felt more comfortable is this foreign city.

"The food even tastes differently here," comments Vires.

"Still good though," says Des as he puts another spoonful in his mouth.

"Are you finished yet? We have things to do," says Vires impatiently. "I don't know how you stay so skinny when you never stop eating."

"I haven't eaten since yesterday!" complains Des. "Besides, who knows when we'll be back here. Might as well enjoy the culture, right Noct?"

"We are not here to play tourists," reminds Noctis but he's smirking a little at his friend.

"That's your last bite," says Sapien. "We don't have time to lose." He turns to Noctis and nods.

All four of them get up as Sapien pays the bill and they start walking further into the square. That, is when he feels it. An indescribable spark in his awareness. It's a pierce within his consciousness. A calling within his soul.

You are connected.

It all started to hit him unawares as Des decides in that moment to put him in a headlock and he falls forward, off guard.

"Being outside of familiar territory is nice isn't it?" asks Des.

He's never been in a headlock before and he almost doesn't know how to react when he's saved from having to hurt Des when he's abruptly released. He straightens as he watches Vires nearly choke Des in a headlock of his own.

"Don't care where are you, idiot. Don't ever forget who you are and who he is," warns Vires as Des tries patting his arm to get him to let go.

Sapien doesn't even other to look at the both of them as he's looking around their surroundings.

"I am going to have to see you guys later," says Noctis.

Are you coming? He hears her voice in his head again. Whispering in his ear when she's no where in sight.

I am coming, he thinks back.

"Noct," Sapien calls, breaking the temporary spell he's under.

He looks at him blankly for a second, blinking a couple times to comprehend what he's saying to him.

"Go," says Sapien and points his chin away from them, motioning him to go.

"Don't forget to take your ear piece off when you want privacy," reminds Des.

He smirks at them and then he starts walking where he can feel her the strongest.

You are connected, the voices repeat again.

He wonders how much of that were true and to what extent exactly. Fear keeps him from taking any guesses. Something strong within him, makes him rush forward and he becomes enveloped in the walking crowd around him. People rushed by, going about their lives and hardly giving him a passing glance. He could feel her presence even stronger as he walks and he knew he was getting warmer. Moving quickly amongst the crowd, he finds himself along a main street at the corner of a busy intersection.

It's there. Right there, across the street is where he sees her. Wearing all white with her long blonde hair swaying as she walks, he sees her and feels his breathe taken away again. She is as golden as the city she resides in. It seems irrational but he's glad that she's not wearing that wig again because he would rather see her as her natural self. Light seems to shine all around her like a beacon calling to him. She was all light while he was all darkness and he found he was craving her more and more.

She's unaware of him, as far as he can tell and he tries to remain just out of her sight. He watches as she pauses in mid step and turns in his direction, but he's already ducked behind the rushing crowds. He sees the frown upon her face as she recognizes no one but knows someone is watching her. She turns and starts walking again and he wonders if she can feel his presence as he does hers. It's something to ponder as she continues walking and he realizes that they're headed towards what looks like the Tenebraen castle.

The guards at the gate salute her as she passes them and he makes sure to keep walking as casually as possible on the other side. Calmly, he looks up to see the security cameras and the electric wiring along the walls. If what he had suspected all along was true, Stella was the princess of Tenebrae and not just some goodwill ambassador involved with peace treaties. She was royalty and there was not much you could do to hide that fact. Especially to someone who was also royalty. It made him admire her more. She was a rebel as he was. Secretly breaking into where she needed to go and to find answers she wanted. It reminded him of himself. How the stars must have aligned to get them to meet as they had that night.

For they must have been destined to meet. That much was certain.

It was not until nightfall had come and the stars were all their muted selves in a city of electric light, when he quickly propels himself over the wall and quickly ran through the courtyard towards the main residence. He is careful not to teleport because it would get him caught as he quickly and quietly went on his way. Somehow, he knew that she was not on the ground floor and his eyes went up to see above him. His eyes scanned from window to window to try and catch her silhouette. It was not until he had gone around to the other side of the main residence and was under a small balcony that he finally catches sight of her. Her presence overwhelms him for a moment and then, then he hears her voice.

"I will go out as I please," he hears her say to someone and the lack of response tells him that she's talking through a telephone. "Just give me a moment if you would? No, nobody noticed me.... that, that was an accident," she hisses. "I was not caught either. Does it really matter how I got away? I was safe. This has nothing to do with that. I wanted answers Father, not fake reports." She sighs at the response she gets. "Will you be joining us for dinner? Another late night?... We were not responsible and I am sure Prince Noctis knows.... why? I do not understand why you are so upset that I spoke... I cannot promise that I will not speak or see him again." A long pause follows as her father seems to speak at length. "Very well. We shall discuss this again, later. Good night, Father," she says as she hangs up her phone and he hears a light thump on a mattress as she throws it on her bed.

There is the sound of her soft footfalls and she's outside, just above him. She's looking out over the wall and towards the city, her city. She wraps her arms around herself as she sighs aloud. He's close enough that he can see how restless she seems. Without any warning, her eyes fly to his and startles at the sight of him. Before he can tell her not to scream, she's on her knees and her head is poking through the pillows of the balcony to get a better look at him.

"I heard your voice in my head, telling me you were coming," she whispers as if in reverence and she shakes her head as if in disbelief. "Surely you must be a dream."

"Have you dreamt of me?" he tries to make it sound cocky but it does not come out that way. It sounds as breathless as she looks. He cannot fathom the possibility that they could speak to one another within their minds.

She nods.

"Tell me about them," he says and he does not know why he wants to know.

"I dreamt of an angel on the beach and perfect waves had come," she whispers again. "His hair is flying like flowing onyx and his touch is like the power of crystals."

He wants to hear her words better so he starts to climb until he reaches just under her, gripping the column beside her face for leverage, as they look at each other closely. Their faces mere breaths apart.

"I also dreamt he was walking through the forest beside an enchanted lake. Through him were the jewels of life and the ground beneath him started to shake," she continues. "I have never seen an angel before. They do not exist within this city." There is something sparkling in her eyes and he finds he cannot describe the emotion he sees there.

"There are no angels," he agrees. "No holy choirs singing. Just me. If you would settle for a boy."

"A boy would be the next best thing to an angel," she replies and smiles radiantly as she moves her face closer to his.

He smiles in response. He just cannot help himself as he looks at her. Then he decides to play. "I am a boy in a castle with fire in his eyes and whispers in his ear. I feel like I can only look down at the world below and not be part of it."

"Above with the stars?"

He nods in response.

"Not a prince, but a boy?" she asks teasingly.

"Not a prince," he states and for him, that's true.

"I am no angel either," she admits.

"No, but at least you are a girl," he says with a smirk.

That causes her to giggle and she stands straight as he gains height on the balcony ledge and stands with her with the railing between them.

"You may be no angel but you are a star are you not? A bright star," he says.

She shakes her head sadly. "I feel like a star whose light cannot shine against the artificial lights of the city."

"Stella," he says and the way he says it, causes a shiver to run through her. "You have nightmares of the past, don't you?"

"I do," she says but also adds. "But I also dream of angels and I think they have all been you. A dark angel and avenging prince. Not just a boy."

He would have labeled them as nightmares, not as dreams. But instead he says, "You know about the Watchers. The light told you."

She nods. "That is all you came here for, isn't it?" she sounds both hurt and disappointed.

He hesitates to say what he wants to say. Though he's not sure what he wants to say exactly because there is too much going through his mind.

She shakes her head to herself and turns away from him.

"Stella," he calls to her as he jumps over the railing and onto the balcony.

"They are the Mysterium and they watch over the users of the crystals."

"The Mysterium?"

Without turning, she nods her head. She has her arms crossed in front of her.

"They are represented by the crow," he offers.

"The crow?" she asks curiously. "Is that what the symbol means?" She turns back to look at him.

He nods. "We have yet to find the significance of the numbers."

"What else to you know?"

"They are tied to the Goddess Etro."

"Why do they want to kill you?" she asks curiously.

"I do not know that either," he says shaking his head. "Have they tried to hurt you?" He finds the very idea makes him irrationally angry. That they would try to hurt someone like her was almost inexcusable.

"No," she says and he feels relieved. "They must seek to preserve the last of the dying crystals and by doing that, they must kill you."

"What happens when the crystal dies?"

"The world starts anew and the last user standing gains the prize."

"Last user standing gains a prize," he repeats to himself and he feels that sinking feeling again. He cannot be too sure but he knows, deep down, that Stella must be a user of the crystals as well. He does not know why he knows this but she must. There was no other explanation for things. If he was right, that meant that they would one day have to face off and one of them would die. The stars had definitely aligned all right. Soon they would be crashing together and either one or both would have to die. One had to survive and he knew already that he would not be able to kill the girl in front of him. He feels nothing but doom ahead of them and he's afraid for the both of them again.

"I do not know anything else."

"You hear the voices and you see the light. You can harness the crystals too, can't you?"

She looks at him hesitantly. "Does that mean you will have to kill me?" she asks. "That is why your face darkened just now, isn't it? You know..."

"I could not kill you," he says honestly, even though he knows it shows weakness. As much as he wishes he can say something else it all sounds so sappy and foolish in response. There is something in her eyes that makes him say it anyway. "With you, I no longer feel alone. The darkness that follows my every step seems to lighten when I am near you."

"I could fall in love with you," she says and she's closer to him than he realized. She reaches up to touch the side of his face as her eyes roam his features. The contact is longer than the last time and he almost jerks away from the touch. Nobody really touched him, ever. "I think I might have already started."

He shakes his head to both clear his mind from the torrent of emotions he's feeling and she can also take her hand away from his face. "It is too dangerous for us to love one another," he says in reply. He's never been in love before and he wonders if this feeling he was experiencing could be considered it.

She smiles sadly at his response and even though she had wanted him to reciprocate her declaration, she had expected his answer.

"You are dangerous," he says seriously.

"Why do you say that?" she says as her eyes flash with hurt.

"There is an aura, a halo that surrounds you and shines through you that scares me. You are like a burning candle within the darkness of my soul."

"You think I will burn you?"

You already make me burn, he wants to say but he cannot let those words slip from his mouth. He's already exposed too much. It would irrevocably bind them together. They were two stars, his dark and dying, hers bright and shining. He was surrounded by death and she seemed to radiate life. They were already headed for disaster, he could not make it anymore tragic than it already was going to be.

He shakes his head to clear his mind again. There is hurt still in her eyes and she's still waiting for him to reply. How can she be so optimistic when they were faced with such a bleak future? What good was it to make such flowery declarations and ignore the dangers of what was going to happen to them? No matter how he looked at it, one of them was not going to live through the end of this. She had to know that too.

"I was not meant for the light," he tells her and her face looks absolutely crestfallen. He wishes he could take back what he just said but it's true and nothing could make it untrue. He refuses to make an excuse for it either. It is what will stand between them, until the end. The safest way to get through this was to deny, deny anything and everything that he felt or could feel towards her. He had already said too much when he had temporarily forgotten himself earlier by asking her if she would settle for a boy and not an angel. Too caught up in the moment to realize himself and what they were. He cannot forget himself again.

"Is that all you know of the Mysterium?" he asks more briskly than is needed.

She's looked away from him and she bites her lip, even as her eyes water.

"The light has not spoken to you of the Mysterium," she states but it sounds more like a question. "Have you never wondered why that was?"

"It could have," he shrugs. "I try not to listen to it most of the time."

"You ignore it?" she gasps. It's almost as if such an act were unthinkable. "Why?"

"They say what I do not wish to hear and they remind me of things that I remember all too well."

"Like what?"

He shakes his head because he does not wish to speak of such things, even with her.

"You remain in the darkness because you choose to," she says. "You alone have the power to come out but you don't. Why don't you?" She has moved closer to him and this time he does step back from her.

The power of her questions and the power of her presence is too overwhelming and he has to bite the inside of his cheek to stop the torrent of memories that are flashing through his head.

She grabs hold of his face and makes him look down at her. Her eyes search through his and he's not sure what she sees. He's not sure he likes it either.

"Are you looking for hope?" he asks and this time he does not feel compelled to move away from her. His hand reaches up to capture one of hers with his grasp. "You can look all you like but you will not find it anywhere in there. There is no light in the depth of the darkness within me. There is no room for light."

"I refuse to believe that," she says unafraid of him.

"Would you give it to me?" he asks, lowering his face so it that it was just a breathe away from her own. "Would you be able to give me hope? To take the blackness away?" He wishes that she really could, but he knows that such a thing was impossible.

"There is something you must do first," she says. "You have to go through this journey that you are on and stay on to the end, no matter what happens."

"Will you be there?" he asks and his face almost looks childlike this close to hers.

"The night is darkest just before the sun rises in the sky. It is the twilight hour and you must get through that. Things will only get darker until the blackness looses the battle against light."

He closes his eyes and wishes he can believe that.

"One day the nightmares will cease," she reassures him and he opens his eyes to look at her. "I will chase them away if I have to."

He cannot help but laugh a little at that.

"You can deny it all you want, you know."

"Deny what?"

"That you are falling in love with me too," she says coyly.

"Why do you say that?"

"Because you crave my light as I crave your dark."

He's so staggered by her words that he does not even bother to deny them. Before he can even form any words, she pulls his face the remaining distance and presses her lips against his. Her lips are sweet against his and he's returning it before he can stop himself. Then they're gone and he leans in to press his lips against hers again, only to feel her lean away from him.

"See?" she says with a brilliant smile upon her lips. "Denying what we both know changes nothing."

He pushes her hands away from his face and he turns his back to her. "I will not deny and I will not declare but I will say this Bright Star. Whatever lies ahead of us is not just my path nor just your path but our path. We cannot escape it and we cannot fight it. We are not good and we are not bad. This is not wrong and this is not right. But it is what it was meant to be."

"Not meant to be but yet meant to fulfill our destiny," she says as she watches him turn around to look at her again, because she's felt that too but she's never been one to deny something that she felt so strongly for. He can see that in fire in her eyes. It was she that was the brave one and he was the coward.

"I accept your offer," he says.

"Offer?" she asks quizzically.

"I would greatly appreciate you showing me around your fair city, Stella."