Author's Note:
Sorry for the delay everyone! This chapter was super hard to write, I'm not entirely happy with it honestly.
Thank you for your patience!
Six years later she has a baby sister, she's thrilled, eager to share all her toys and play dress up with her new sibling but her parents say she'll have to wait till she's a little bigger.
Her name was Fay, Cyrena helped to pick it out, choosing stars to narrow down the choices her parents came across the name, which is used in poetry to describe stars, attendants of the moon in the night sky.
Cyrena dotes over her, she's worse about it than her parents and everyone finds it too adorable to make her stop, the two grow inspirable, they never argue and share as much as they can.
Their parents love them both to pieces and couldn't have asked for two better daughters.
Years pass and Cyrena just got her permit, she drove around with a parent in the car for over a month, practicing, when one night she's sent on an errand to go grab a few small ingredients from a dollar store nearby, she asks if Fay can come.
It's just the two of them in the car, Fay riding shotgun, soft brown curls bobbing in time with the music as the two girls sing at the top of their lungs, she's still small, only ten years old, whereas Cyrena is sixteen.
They never saw the truck coming, the driver passed out at the wheel, having drunk enough to kill a small horse, the vehicle swerves over the lane and heads straight for the small car, Cyrena barely has time to hit her brakes.
The headlights burn her pupils as the sound of tires screeching and Fay's screams fill her ears, her Soul aches painfully, magic flaring to life, creating a thin bubble of rainbow glass around the two girls…..but it's not enough.
The bubble was thicker on her side and shatters moments after impact, she feels searing pain then fades into the welcoming embrace of darkness, a few minutes barely passed, she remembers waking quickly, adrenaline rousing her and numbing most of the pain as her mind immediately turns to her sister.
Her baby sister, crumpled in the passenger seat, unmoving, Cyrena's Soul cracks, deep fractures that cause her more pain than her physical wounds, she barely realizes she's sobbing, crying out for her sister as she reaches out to grasp at her tiny shoulder.
She tries to heal her, tries to find her Soul and fix it…..but it's long gone, she died on impact.
And it's all her fault.
Paramedics arrive too late, Fay is gone, the driver of the truck is gone, Cyrena is a mess, magic energy crackling around her like a growing lightning storm, it strikes out at anything nearby, destroying mailboxes, sidewalks, even a power line, and in the center of the mess she sits, wailing for her sister, begging her to come back.
Eventually someone makes a call, says something weird is happening, and moments later a black SUV rolls up, like in the movies.
Cyrena doesn't even see them, the strange expressionless people who somehow avoid her magic, placing cool hands upon her they shush empty words and promises in her ears, calming her and her magic before they help her up and lead her to the waiting car…..her parents arrive a moment too late, watching in horror as their oldest daughter is whisked away….they mourned both their children that day.
She rubs a hand at her burning eyes, she tried to fight off the tears but they're always there, waiting to be released, she hardly realized that she was gripping one of the skeleton's hands, he doesn't say anything and doesn't meet her gaze but she knows he's still listening.
"The people who took me worked for the government, they know all about magic and witches and whatnot…..they couldn't touch us unless we became unstable and a threat to the public, they took my grieving as a sign I needed to be brought to their labs to study…."
His finger bones tighten around her fleshy digits, "I was there for a year I think, poked, prodded…." her throat tightens further till no words come out.
A silence stretches between them and eventually her tears slow and stop, "I'm sorry,"
Cyrena nods and manages a small smile, "You couldn't have known, some people are so good at wearing masks it becomes hard for them show anything else beneath it, and when that masks finally slips it's like an entirely different being," Her eyes meet his eye sockets and this time his finger bones grip hers tighter, a silent message passing between them.
An understanding.
(gonna try Sans pov, kinda?)
He's still in disbelief, trying to wrap his skull around everything she told him, what she said about that mask is true…..the girl he saw at the table wasn't someone he recognized…..the look in her eyes was something he's seen in himself, a heart ache so deep, pain that won't leave your mind and festers there, that nagging belief that it can happen all again.
He doesn't like that look on her.
The night passes quickly and he dozes off and on, brief nightmares try to stir but they break off into pieces and he wakes, eyes landing on her.
She doesn't sleep a wink, and he feels that it's partly because of him, the guilt gnaws at him each time he wakes up to see her sitting crisscross in the window seat, eyes turned towards the night sky that mask long gone in the quiet of the night.
She looks so much older and in the pale moonlight he can barely see a scar here or there, there's a thin one on her chin, another near her eye, her arms are bare and he can make out the ridges of longer scars marring the pale flesh.
Geez what did they do to her?
He wakes one last time before the sun rises, and it's thanks to the creepy cat, he stirs at feeling something solid on his ribcage and when his eyes open he chokes on a curse as three bright gold eyes stare at him from a black feline face, his voice invades his mind easily and he still gets the creeps from the thing.
You already know this but I don't like you, but I trust you will not speak of what Cyrena told you unless she tells them herself or asks you to tell them. She's been through a lot and there's something about you that's somewhat similar, we don't want your mask slipping do we? He swears that dumb cat is grinning at him as he hops nimbly off and makes his way back to Cyrena where he climbs up to curl around her neck.
Her eyes move away from the waning stars and towards him, he'll never get used to the colors, he blinks and she blinks back before she suddenly sticks her tongue out and pulls on her eyelid.
The mask is back on.
(back to Cyrena, yay!)
Hefting the bag out the trunk of her car she steps back in time to avoid having her toes crushed beneath the weight of the fertilizer, she wrinkles her nose as she gets a whiff of the scent and she stands on her tip toes to close the trunk.
Something wicked this way comes. Venus is very amused as a low chuckle comes from the direction of Toriel's yard, a moment later and Frisk is hanging around Cyrena's waist, a floppy sun hat nearly coming off their head as they flash the brightest of smiles up at her.
We came to help! Sans gives a tiny wave, ah so that's who Venus was talking about, she shoots the cat a dark look, "That's great Frisk! But are you sure you want to get all dirty? Gardening is messy work," she says adjusting the kid's hat as they nod excitedly, rushing off to join Bear who is digging a nice hole for one of the plants she bought.
"No Papyrus today?" Cyrena asks turning to the stocky skeleton who shrugs his shoulders, "nah he's out training with Undyne, didn't want this sack of lazy bones to tag along," she snorts and raises an eyebrow as she crosses her arms.
"Well you're still going to be put to work,"
"I'll just plant myself right here," Sans plops down on a lawn chair and grins smugly as she purses her lips and fights off a smile, amused but trying to act indifferent, "No you'll start by helping us plant an apple tree, up," She nudges his sneakered foot with her own bare one before she walks over to her two diggers.
"sure it's safe to walk around like that?" He's by her side without a sound but she feels the brief flash of magic and the hairs along the back of her neck stand on end as she exhales in slight surprise, "Dude you didn't tell me you could teleport,"
"didn't ask,"
"Can you teach me sometime?"
"sure?"
"Sweet, oh Frisk hun don't touch that those are hedge clippers they're sharp!" She snaps and the large tool floats quickly out of reach of the curious kid and quickly flies to Cyrena, landing easily in her empty hand she sighs and sets them onto her porch.
Oops sorry! Can you do more magic?
"Let's get this tree planted and I'll show you something awesome," Cyrena promises as she walks over to inspect the hole, ruffling Bear's dusty fur as the dog's tail thumps against the earth, "Ooo nice, you guys got the depth just right!" She smiles widely, pleased with their efforts as she turns to the sapling resting in it's bag beside it's new home.
She turns to Sans and gestures to the sapling, "Your turn to pitch in lazy bones," She says smiling widely, heh she'll get him to do some manual labor whether he wants to or not….her thoughts are cut short by the sight of the blue aura surrounding the sapling, no fair!
Cyrena stomps her foot as she watches the sapling float easily off the ground before being placed neatly in the hole, Frisk happily begins to pile the dirt back in without a comment, using their hands as much as possible as Cyrena narrows her eyes at the smug skeleton leaning against the porch.
"heh what? Think you could be the only lazy bones around here today?" His pupils flicker to the hedge clippers and she pouts crossing her arms, dang it he has her there, "Fair is fair I guess," She says turning to help Frisk.
Bear flops over in the dirt contently, "I love garden day," He says happily, front paws caked in mud.
And I love bath day. Venus comments watching in sheer delight as Bear's wagging tail goes still and the big canine whines, "I forgot bath day and garden day are the same day! Cyrena it's no fair!"
"It's fair when you dragged mud through the house on five different occasions, I told you that if you decide to dig you get a bath after, especially if you want inside," She points at him as Frisk grins and dusts off their hands, Done! Can we see more of your magic now please?
"Of course, here step back," Cyrena takes their dirty hand in hers and leads them back to where Sans is before letting go and walking back to the sapling, "Want an apple?"
Frisk and Sans exchange a look while Bear stands and trots over to their sides, "doesn't it take awhile for trees to grow?" Sans asks after a few beats, eyebrow raising (she still isn't sure how that works but magic is magic).
"I'm a witch, I get impatient," She says boldly as she touches a single leaf on the sapling, the touch sends a shiver through the plant and a vibrant rainbow sheen flickers over it's surface as the sound of wood creaking suddenly fills the air, leaves rustle loudly as the ground seems to groan in effort.
The sapling seems to explode, it shoots up like a weed, branches expanding as red apples spring forth out of thin air, all ripe and beautiful they gleam in the midday sun and Cyrena stands proudly in the shade, blowing on the tip of her index finger before doing jazz hands, "Ta-da, magic!"
Frisk claps and rushes forward to get an apple while Sans just stares, Wow can you do that with every plant? Cyrena nods as she passes an apple to them and takes one for herself, "My Soul is flexible, if I study a type of magic and practice enough I can get it down pretty easily," She explains watching as their eyes seem to glitter in awe.
So that was like earth magic? Can you do fire?
"Somewhat,"
Water?
"That one was easy,"
Air?
"Ok you're just listing things off of Avatar aren't you? Yes, I can,"
You can move things, can you teleport?
"No, that's really really hard to do,"
Sans can do it. What else can you do?
"I'm working on galaxy magic right now, it's very tough but I've managed to get a star or two but they die off fast," Cyrena frowns, she'll get it down eventually, her grandmother is a master of space magic.
"wait, stars? You can make stars?"
Sans is a nerd for space.
"Oh yeah, the stars are great but like I said I can only manage to keep a star alive for a few minutes,"
"I want to see,"
