Chapter 21.5: Meanwhile...
~3rd person's POV
"I'm booorrreeeddd," Carlos dragged out, the four of them lounging on the beige colored leather couches lazily.
Even James has no idea what to do.
They've about 3 more days before they actually get back to PalmWoods, and boy were they looking forward to it. Logan missed all of his books, Kendall missed the beautiful pool view, James missed making cannonball splashes into the pool, annoying everyone else around, and Carlos missed his favorite couchy.
They also had tons things they wanted to do once they get back, one of those things being trying to relax and forget about what had happened back at their old school.
~Meanwhile… Back at the Shadow Realms…~ Shadow James' POV
"Finally we're done fixing the apartment," Carlos grinned widely, the apartment looking all nice and fixed up. It took quite a while, but we did it! Although everything else outside of PalmWood's apartment area is still covered in shadow goop, at least this apartment still looks homely.
Well, as homely as a shadow-colored building could get.
"I… I wonder when everyone else will come back," Logan smiled at me, hugging me from the side.
"I love you, so much," I smiled, kissing my life-long love on the forehead.
It's true, we've been in love and together for about… 25 milleniums. Which is 25000 years, by the way.
It's weird y'know… We all grew up differently, with different parents, different life… We eventually came together at PalmWoods apartment, having to share a boring old apartment since there wasn't any space left…
The first day I met Logan, I thought he'd be a boring nerd. Kendall would be one of those annoying chick-magnet, and Carlos would have to be stuffed in a metal cage… But I was wrong.
God I fell in-love with all of them quickly, but I loved Logan the most.
Then that day happened… We were only 20 years old at the time, living together, since we're practically dating each other…
That day came. We were attacked by some weird monsters… Carlos found this odd metal box, we found the ring inside… We transformed into these armored heroes and fought the monsters…
After we defeated them, everything became crystal clear. It was as if our memories came back in the blink of an eye…
It happened before the Living Dimension was born.
Before the True Dimension was split into parts…
There lived four kings, ruling over their kingdoms with iron fists. They were loved by all, and they loved each other. Everything lived happily and peacefully, mirror how the lives of the kings were…
Everything was perfect…
Until a jealous being, hailing from outside the True Dimension, where nothing alive should come from, attacked.
Chaos came.
It destroyed the kingdoms.
The four kings would have been able to fight and defeat it, were they not reduced down to three members…
A few months before Chaos attacked, King Logan had fallen.
It was all part of Chaos' plan, to form a team of bandits, knowing full well that with a wizard as powerful as Logan Mitchell on their side, Chaos would not win no matter what…
And so, during the annual Golden Grand King's ball, the demons attacked. Kendall, Carlos and James were busy saving everyone, while Logan was holding the fort…
King Logan, the kind-hearted, albeit timid one, heard the cry of a female child coming from another room covered in flames. Wasting no time, he went to save the child… Only to find that it was a mere disguise.
"Logie! Logie!" King Kendall cried out, frantically searching for his angel… "He's… He's still inside!" One of the visors had said, the other three kings rushing into the castle, searching every room… Until they stumbled upon a room sealed with dark magic.
"Logan!" James banged on the door only to have a magic force blast him back.
"I can take you on, you demons!" Stood against him was the queen of the Twisted Shadows, the king of the Shattered Glasses, the queen of Pure Nightmares, and the Bad End king.
Logan could fight all four of them, and defeat them… If he wasn't surrounded by burning hot flames, and the roof threatening to fall on him. He had to control his powers, for his own good…
Just in the nick of time… James, Carlos and Kendall, using their combined powers, had blasted apart the sealed door.
Yes, in the nick of time to see the two queens and kings flee, but not before Logan could blast them with the last few bits of his magic, destroying all but the Twisted Shadows queen and the Shattered Glasses king, both had a few remaining pieces, which kept them alive until present time…
With no power left, Logan was surrounded by magma-hot flames, the roof threatening to fall… Which it did…
"LOGAN!" Kendall almost ran in, until rubble fell in-front of him, covering his path.
Mouthing one last 'I love you,' Logan gave a final smile of warmth, one final dimpled, pearly toothed smile, before the roof caved in…. Crushing King Logan Mitchell.
Devastated, King Kendall collapsed in pure sadness and heartbreak.
King Carlos could not stop sobbing.
King James… he did all he could to hold his remaining two friends together, though inside, he too was breaking.
All three of them lost a friend… A brother… But Kendall, he had lost his life partner.
Once the rubble was cleared, Logan's body was retrieved. Although lifeless, it was completely unharmed. No burn marks, no blood, no cuts… Kendall, Carlos and James were there, gazing at his perfection, from the moment his body was retrieved, to the moment it was buried in the Holy Hills.
Without a king to rule the Kingdom of Fairy Tales, where among the most powerful wizards were born, along with the most intelligent of peoples, the kingdom slowly fell apart.
So did the rest. The Kingdom of Dreamers, where the toughest of fighters were born, the kingdom of Shadows, where the most strongest of chargers were born, and the Elemental kingdom, where the most powerful, accurate archers, and builders were born.
None of the kings could function properly without Logan… They were far too deep in despair.
The visors, highest-priest, highest-knights, did their best to take over the king's roles, but none of them could rule the kingdom as efficiently… Everything was thrown off balance.
There was a huge open chance for Chaos to attack… To destroy happiness and everything alive…
And it did.
With one single attack, life was wiped out. Except for the three kings, who were still in deep despair.
No matter what they did, they couldn't even land a scratch, even after Chaos manifested itself in the form of a red-haired woman…
"Damn it… Damn this all to hell…" Kendall cursed, his voice hoarse, his breathing sharp.
"W-We c-can't let her win," James tried to stand, but failed.
They've been fighting for so long… They've practically ran out of both magic and power.
"I'll wipe you out in one single spell, then happiness will never, ever exist, ever again," Chaos grinned widely, preparing one final blast…
"This is it…" Carlos sighed, tears escaping his eyes.
"I'm so sorry if I've annoyed you guys so much," He cried, covering his eyes. James gently pried open his hands, placing one last love-filled kiss on his life-long partner.
"You've never annoyed us Carlos! Without you, our lives would be boring," James gave Carlos the brightest smile he could come up with. "Without Kendall, we wouldn't get anything done!" James continued, trying to brighten up their final few moments.
"Without Logie… We wouldn't have been kings," He continued, smiling, though he too was crying.
"I love you guys so much," Kendall lunged at the two, dropping his quiver and bow, engaging in a group hug. "I'm happy we could go out this way," Carlos smiled, hugging his childhood friend, and his life-long love.
"Too bad Logie's not here, he'd be crying out a pond," James joked, the other two laughing.
"Who says?" An angelic voice, one that they never thought they'd ever hear, ever again, came from behind the trio.
Standing behind them, dressed in full white robes resembling his old clothing, was Logan. Kendall always thought Logan was as perfect as an angel… Now he really is an angel.
"Logie!" The three of them jumped forth, tackling Logan onto the ground, his feathery wings softening their fall.
"God, I miss you guys," He smiled, hugging them back.
"Well, at least you'll be here to escort us to the afterlife," Carlos grinned widely. None of them minded dying… As long as Logan would be there to escort them to wherever they go after death.
"Not quite," Logan smirked, standing up with the other three.
"We'll die, but in a few millenniums from now… Life will return. We will return, without our memories…" Logan explained, holding a glowing sphere in his hand.
"I hope we meet again," Logan smiled, using his newfound magic to lift the orb into the atmosphere.
"We're definitely gonna meet again," James confidently said, standing straight up, Carlos and Kendall smiling at each other. "We won't remember anything, but that's not bad! We could make new memories," Carlos grinned, excitedly saying so.
"That's the spirit," Kendall smiled.
None of them were sad, scared or despaired.
They were happy.
They looked forward to seeing each other again…
"I can't wait to see you guys again in a few thousand years," Logan smiled, enveloping his wings around his three dearest friends.
God could not interfere with the True Dimension, as his boundaries was in the afterlife, and no more, or no less. And so, he sent Logan back, now even more powerful than ever.
In order to stop, or at least to delay Chaos' return, Logan was tasked to split the True Dimension into parts, with each dimension having Carlos, Logan, James and Kendall protecting them, each dimension balancing an aspect of the center dimension, the Living Dimension.
There will be a day when all the dimensions collide. That's the day when Chaos returns.
The day where Chaos will not be dealing with only four kings… In fact, it'll be dealing with hundreds. The day when all the kings unite, fighting against one enemy.
But for now, they had a beautiful goodbye.
The sphere Logan had sent into the atmosphere exploded, destroying everything in its path… But at the same time, creating new life. One that would bloom beautifully in separate dimensions…
Logan used his magic to nullify the pain, for himself and his three friends. As their souls were separated into several parts, each part landing in one separate dimension, they hear the pain-filled screams of Chaos as its own soul was torn into two.
The good one, and the bad one.
Though it sounds simple, it was nothing but pain. Imagine getting your balls kicked, 100 times, and the pain multiplied by 1000x times.
Or perhaps, imagine the pain of giving birth… except multiplied by 100x times.
And so, a few more hundred years later, we were born. At first, each dimension could communicate with each other. We saw how different each of us were… Well, different partner wise.
I've literally talked to the other 98 versions of myself, except for the Living Dimension, since they weren't born yet at the time…
We're all the same. The only difference is that we're in love with different peoples. As an example, here, in the shadow realm, I'm deeply in love with Logie. Even after millenniums.
In the dream dimension, Carlos is Logan's partner, while Kendall and I are each other's life-long partner…
"What'chu thinkin' about?" Logan grinned, sitting on the grass next to me, giving me that beautiful, innocent smile… One I couldn't see for a few hundred years.
When the Twisted Shadows queen returned, she took over this dimension…
Everything was wiped out, including us… Since we were careless.
But recently… The true King James returned, bringing back our rings, and slaying her, for good this time, at least I think so.
"Can't wait to meet them again," I smiled, pulling my Logan into a side-hug. "Yeah… I'm kinda nervous though… Will we really be able to defeat Chaos? I mean… We died once…" He frowned, laying on my lap afterwards.
"Heck yeah we can! We've you! We would've won if King Logan hadn't died 'saving' that child. Plus, there's gonna be like 400 of us there. Y'know, since there's 100 dimensions, each of them has one Logan, Kendall, James and Carlos…" I grinned, looking forward to actually seeing the Living Dimension.
None of us has ever seen it… We just know that we're supposed to keep it balanced.
"I'm never gonna do that again, screw that lonely child. I'm not stepping into any dangerous place alone anymore," Logan rolled his eyes, looking up into mine.
"Well… For now, we get to just enjoy time with each other," Kendall suddenly said, both he and Carlos joined us sitting on the grass, marveling at how we managed to actually fix an entire building…
Now to fix an entire world.
Can't be too hard, right? I mean, with magic, it shouldn't take too long!
~The Dream Dimension, Logan's POV~ Back after Carlos had just left, to go back to his own dimension…
"I'll miss you," I said to Carlos one last time, with a smile, watching his body slowly fade away… Until it began glowing a white glow.
"Is he… Is he supposed to stay like that?" James asked, pointing at the glowing white, albeit lifeless body.
"Um… no? I mean, technically his body is in the Living Dimension, so he's not supposed to stay here," I shrugged, stepping back as the glow became brighter.
With our rings back in our hands, feeling somewhat more powerful than ever, we stepped back, getting into our defensive position as the white light enveloped Carlos' body.
A moment of silence filled us as the light slowly died down, I could detect a small hint of life in Carlos' body…
No way. This can't actually happen… It makes no sense!
I watched as his eyes slowly fluttered open… He sat up, looking somewhat confused.
"Hey, Logiebear," He smiled warmly, revealing those pearl-like teeth and that dimpled smile.
"Carlos!" I yelled happily, jumping onto him, "Ow," He said, hugging me back as I hugged him tight, endless amounts of tears just streaming down my face, like a freaking river.
"How… How is this even possible!? You're… You were killed, in-front of all of us!" James cried, joining me in a group-hug anyways.
"I… I don't understand either… One second, everything was dark… Suddenly, I'm back here!" Carlos smiled as the three of us hugged him tight, missing him dearly.
"Don't you ever do that, ever again! We're a team Carlos, you can't just dive in like that, no matter how badly we're hurt." Kendall scolded him, tears of joy escaping from his eyes.
Someone we've literally saw dying in-front of us is back…
My boyfriend is back…
"I missed you so much Carlos…" I cried sadly as I hugged him tight, not letting go even though James and Kendall already did.
"Our house is back!" Kendall cried, grabbing James and making a mad dash back to our house.
Our house, along with everything around it was destroyed when the king of Shattered Glasses came.
Hopefully, King Carlos killed him for good…
"How long have I been gone…?" Carlos asked, tilting his head while wiping my tears with one of his thumbs.
"Uh… 5 years…" I admitted sadly, the memory of him dying coming back. I shook my head, remembering how he's back now…
"5 years huh… I guess you missed me a lot then," Carlos smiled, giving me a soft kiss, which slowly turned into a heated, passion-filled and love-filled kiss.
"Did your friend miss me too?" He asked, gently giving my South-friend a squeeze.
With a smirk, I snapped my fingers, immediately teleporting us into our rooms, with only our boxers intact. I couldn't bother locking the doors. Let James and Kendall watch Carlos fuck me senseless… They'd enjoy it.
Wouldn't be the first time they watched anyways.
"You fucking bet he does," I attacked his lips hungrily, unable to get enough of his perfect soft lips… Ones I hadn't kissed for 5 agonizing years.
"5 years and you're still so fucking sexy," he whispered, fuelling the flames in me even more.
I'm gonna show him just how much I've had to pent up in these 5 years… Oh yeah, I'm making sure he can't walk after this. About time I have revenge on him.
~The Elemental Dimension… Carlos' POV~ A few days after Kendall returned to his dimension…
"So… How do you think we use half of this?" Logan asked as we laid out everything we found in the forest.
King Kendall taught us the basics, most of these things need 'electricity', which Logan could generate, and 'electricity' could be stored in a container called batteries, which Logan could multiply.
We've also found a way to shrink 'Doggo', the name we gave to the 'night hunter', since the three of us agreed that it was adorable. At the moment, Doggo's asleep on our couch inside.
I picked up some sort of rotating blade and this weird thing with four buttons on it, labeled 1, 2, 3 and 4. It also had a long wire with a cable-head on it.
Kendall taught us that as long as something has wires in it, or even coming out of it, it's gonna need electricity to work.
"Wait, I think I see how this thing is supposed to work," Logan grinned, James and I watching him work, occasionally helping him retrieve stuff that's too far.
"Okay… try pressing the 3rd button," Logan said, holding the cable-head as he provided electricity with both hands.
I watched in awe as the half-transparent rotating blade began spinning super-fast, while encased in this round metallic cage-like thing, providing wind that immediately cooled us down…
Great! Now we're able to withstand Heat-season! I just wish this was bigger.
As I shut my eyes, enjoying the breeze provided by this super-fast spinning thing, I suddenly heard super-soft footsteps coming from the forest.
"Wait," I said, watching Logan and James jumping into defense mode.
Seems like they heard it too…
"Someone's here," Logan quickly summoned his sphere, pointing at a direction.
I thought I was imagining stuff…
When that person emerged, I couldn't believe my eyes.
Kendall Knight…
He's alive…?
"KENDALL!" I yelled happily, lunging at him, tackling us both onto the ground.
"You're back? Wait, are you our Kendall or the other Kendall? Wait, never mind. Of course you're the other Kendall." Logan quickly shook his head, his glass sphere disappearing.
"Um… Other Kendall?" Kendall asked, somewhat curious. "You're alive… I missed you so much…" I cried into his shoulder, not caring if his clothes were gonna be wet.
I know this is our Kendall, I just do.
"Wait, how?! You… You've been gone for so long we thought you died!" Logan said, his jaw dropping onto the ground.
After helping me with my bearing, with a lot of smiling and cooing, Kendall explained everything to us.
"So you mean… we can't die?" Logan asked with a tilted head. "Yep. Wait… You guys look so… different. I like it actually, you look so much more… perfect," Kendall grinned, smiling at me.
"Oh! That reminds me, you need to shave." I quickly dragged him into the house, forcing him to strip. He didn't even get to question how much of the hut has changed! We managed to get the clock working, the stove, washing machine… Everything King Kendall taught us had paid off.
Apparently, we've been living like cave-men this entire time.
"Wow… There's a lot of stuff I need to catch up on," Kendall tilted his head with a smile, Carlos and James giving us privacy.
"King Kendall also taught us some other things," I whispered coyly, running one hand down his perfect body…
God, touching him like this is giving me feelings I've never even imagined about…
"F-Fuck," He breathed out, shutting his eyes.
I haven't even started yet…
Boy will he be riding the pleasure train.
~Back at the Living Dimension, Logan's POV
"FINALLY we're back!" Carlos cried out loud, jumping off the train and running into the apartment like a mad man. "Gustavo expects you guys to go back to the studio on Thursday so… Take these 2 days and relax," Kelly smiled before driving away with the bus.
"Home sweet home," Kendall grinned, holding my left hand as we walked towards the apartment, my right hand carrying my luggage. Unlike James, who needs three luggage, I only need one, and a backpack.
"Hurry up Kendall!" Carlos yelled in excitement, practically jumping up and down in-front of our entrance door. With an eye roll, Kendall dropped his hand and fished out the apartment key, throwing it towards Carlos, who caught it with pure glee, immediately unlocking the doors and zooming inside, throwing himself onto our orange couches.
"I miss you couchy," Carlos cried, hugging his favorite orange couch.
"Looks like I have competition," James jokingly glared at the orange couches, dropping all three luggage in-front of their door. "Your competition is an inanimate object?" I asked, playing along.
"Living or not, as long as Carlos is giving it attention, it's my competition," he stated, his eyes burning with determination.
He's gotta be kidding.
"C'mon babe, we've stuff to do," James picked up the shorter boy, who squirmed while crying "I wanna lay on my couchy!" trying to get himself out of James' grip, to no avail. I gently placed down my backpack and my luggage in-front of the bedroom I shared with Kendall, smiling at him.
"We've got a lot of time… What's on the agenda today, big boss?" I asked teasingly as he neared me, gently placing his luggage on the floor afterwards.
"Dunno, I just wanna hang in here. I miss this place," He smiled, looking around our somewhat clean apartment.
Clean meaning no trash, but a lot of dust.
I let out a sigh, rubbing my finger on our glass coffee table, picking up quite a lot of dust… I'm gonna need an entire day to clean this entire room up! Not to mention the slide…
"I better start cleaning this area," I sighed, stretching a bit before assembling the vacuum cleaner. "Isn't it… A bit early? I mean… We just got home, babe." Kendall frowned as I plugged in the device.
"I have to. I don't want James and Carlos' asses to get dusty, they'd bring the dust into their bedroom afterwards," I frown, the thought of them bringing dust into their own bedroom irks me.
Speaking of… I've never actually been to their bedroom. Surely it can't be too different from our own.
"Lemme help," Kendall smiled, nearing me.
"You can help by getting our luggage in. God knows what happens when you so much as touch this thing," I frown, remembering how he tried to make toast, and end up setting both the bread and the toaster on fire.
Thank God it didn't explode!
"Fine," He huffed with a pout, dragging our luggage into our room then gently closing the door.
Great, now the cleaning work begins.
At least there's like, 9 hours left before the sun starts to set… I should be able to clean this entire place up in that time.
Still, it feels really good to be back here.