Chapter 14: Bound By Their Hearts
The trio walked up towards the strawberry liquid pool and entered through the cave tunnel towards the Milky Well they exited on the other side in another valley. There were mushrooms and sprouts everywhere.
"According to the Mr. Saturns, this place is guarded by movement plant life and a species of creatures called...Ranboobs." Erick said ignoring Moon and Sarah's snorts of laughter. "The sanctuary that is located here is apparently a spring of that pink liquid in the pool...either way, just burn everything and we'll be fine." As he spoke a mushroom walked over to them which Erick immediately shot with his laser.
Danger!
A bunch of creatures with spears made of leaves and leafy covered armor surrounded the three of them. "I'm going to assume that these are the Ranboobs." Moon said staring at the creatures. Each of them pointed a spear at the three surrounded in a circle. "Sarah we need you to take care of things."
Sarah had been awfully quiet since this morning...after what she had seen she was worried to continue down the road they were going. "I-I-I killed my parents...but...but why?" she asked herself.
"Sarah?...Sarah snap out of it!" Erick snapped. Sarah just stood there in silence. Moon could tell Erick was getting frustrated with her, he didn't want Erick to start a fight with her, so he had to think of something fast.
"Erick...I think she's feeling a bit uneasy...she told me earlier this morning that she wasn't feeling to well...maybe we should just give her a break for now." Moon said quickly.
Sarah blinked in realization. "Oh...no, no...I'm fine," she said quietly. Her PSI energy felt very weak to Moon, he wasn't sure what the deal was all of a sudden. Sarah now just seemed afraid.
"Psi...Fire β!" she said with hesitation. Very little fire erupted off her fingers. Erick looked at her with severe hint of anger. "Psi Fire β!" she said again. Once again a very small amount of fire erupted off her hands.
Moon quickly stepped in, he needed something to just take care of all the stupid leaf wearing creatures...they were going to have to do this without Sarah's help. He felt something whisper into the back of his mind. He shrugged and shouted. "Hypnosis Ω!" Instantly, all the Ranboobs surrounding them collapsed onto the ground, they had fallen asleep. Erick proceeded to shoot several of them making their leafy bodies scatter about into the wind.
When both boys turned to Sarah they noticed that she had gone pale. Her eyes were full of fear and she started to shake. What concerned them however was the fact that behind her was another Ranboob with his spear pointed at her head.
"SARAH DO SOMETHING!" Moon shouted.
Sarah just stood there...she couldn't feel anything in her...except for pain...shooting, stinging, pain. She was trying her best to fight through it, but no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't get it to stop.
"It hurts so much doesn't it...you have a way to make it stop...all you gotta do is just let me take control...the more you keep me in...the worse it gets."
"Pl-please...j-j-just stop." Sarah inwardly cried. "Wh-why are you like this?"
"It's what I'm meant for, It's what I was created for, to plunge a person into eternal darkness, you'll soon be every bit like you saw in that dream...you're parents...they die Sarah. You kill them...you'll kill them...and when you do...it's when everything will go south."
"No." Sarah sobbed. "Please, I won't kill my parents, I would never."
"But you will...they'll die, you'll suffer, everything will fall into hell...your whole life is planned out Sarah. Everything you've seen will start to happen...Moon's already learned Hypnosis omega, in due time it'll steadily grow into more. You'll see Sarah, everything is set in place...it's only a matter of time."
"PSI ROLLIN β!"
Multi colored beams of light shot past her ear knocking the Ranboob behind her out cold.
Sarah blinked, just like that, the pain had stopped. She didn't know why and she found herself very aware. Her heart was pounding and she had a lump in her throat.
"Sarah...are...are you alright?" Erick questioned. "Your powers aren't even working...and you've been awfully quiet today." Moon whacked a mushroom past both of them. "Moon I think we should get Sarah to a doctor...she doesn't look so good." Moon was quickly losing his patience.
"What good is that going to do?" Moon snapped. "The only thing that's wrong with her is her powers aren't working...what use is a doctor going to be?"
"Okay no need to get so mean about it jeez." Erick muttered. "I was merely suggesting that we tend to your girlfriend's needs. There could be some reasonable explanation for this."
Moon drew in a breath. The memory of a curly, red haired girl flashed through his mind. Her voice spoke to him.
"Moon? Why are you acting like this? You need to stop!"
He quickly shook his head. "Yeah you're right...sorry...I wasn't thinking straight."
Erick raised an eyebrow at his sudden change in behavior. "Um...okay." he said hesitantly.
Moon placed his hands on Sarah's shoulders. All she did was stand there with a blank face. "Are you sure you're okay Sarah?" Erick asked. "If you aren't feeling up to it, we can always go back to Saturn Valley." he didn't get a response, he looked at Moon, whose face had gone very pale. "Is something wrong?" Erick asked.
"Yeah...she's not thinking...literally." he said shakily. "I don't know what's wrong...but it's like she...died?"
"So what you're telling me...is that her brain, quite literally, isn't working?" Erick asked.
Sarah suddenly shook her head. "N-no...I'm not dead you guys." she said shyly. "I-I-I was just...thinking...about this dream I had last night."
"Call me crazy Sarah." Moon said. "But we don't think you're in normal condition...your PSI energy...it's almost like it doesn't even exist. It's so low...your fire was very weak and you've been well...not as upbeat as you usually are."
Erick snapped his fingers. "That's it!" he said eagerly. Moon and Sarah stared at him blankly. "I think I know how to fix her power problem...If you don't mind...could you two...express your affection to each other?"
"I'm sorry what?" Sarah asked.
"You know...Moon, do something nice for her, show her how much you like her! Do something that couples usually do to show their feelings for one another, cheer her up." The two just looked at him dumbly. Erick facepalmed. "JUST KISS HER YOU IDIOT!"
Both of them went bright red as they looked at each other. Sarah knew to herself that she needed something to make her feel better...but Erick had just made the entire scene incredibly uncomfortable...even though she loved Moon, it would be hard for him to make this situation less awkward for her.
That was of course, where she was wrong. She didn't know what had happened, but without hesitation, Moon had grabbed her wrist and pulled into a passionate kiss. Though...something felt different about this one...even though he usually initiated contact between both of them, she always found herself in control of the kiss. This time however, the kiss was more fierce and forceful, he was the one in control...it sent some sort of burst energy to her core. Then he separated from her.
"Now Moon...how does her PSI energy feel?" Erick asked after a brief moment of silence.
Moon stared at Sarah. "It...feels...better...more alive, more there...it doesn't feel non-existent." he said.
"Just as I suspected!" Erick said. "Your powers are emotionally tied to you."
"Which means what?" Moon asked.
"It means that if you are in a state of simple emotions...like sadness, embarrassment, and despair, your powers will we be weaker. Complex emotions, like love and anger, will make them powerful but also unstable. Call it a hunch, but you two may be each other's power source."
"Well that's interesting." Sarah said. "But I feel like we're forgetting something." she said.
Moon pointed to a secondary cave, "Milky Well, the sanctuary location."
The trio entered the cave only to find that it was more or less of a tunnel at the edge was an exit that led outside where they could just about see a pink geyser in the center outside.
"Well that was fairly simple." Erick said. "Nothing to-"
"Please don't finish that sentence." Moon said. "There's a monster waiting for us...it's called the Trillionage Sprout...if my memory serves correct."
A sudden flash of bright white light and in front of them stood a pile of dirt with glaring eyes and a yellow sprout on the top of its head.
"Definitely a plant." Erick said. "Sarah you focus on fire."
"Welcome, Moon...Sarah...Erick. This is the third "Your Sanctuary Location." the sprout said in cold voice. "But it's mine now! Take it from me...if you dare!"
Moon looked at the sprout...something about its eyes gave him a bad feeling.
Suddenly a bunch more Ranboobs popped out from around the cave with their leafy spears pointed at the ready. "Sarah you burn the plant, Erick you and I take care of the Ranboobs."
"Shield !" A number of walls of light sprung up in front of each of the Ranboobs."
Erick fired his laser at several, the walls of light sprung up protecting each of the creatures from their pellets. However, the shields were very weak as several of them shattered instantly. "Erick do you have anything that might be able to stop their PSI?" Moon asked as he fired off a Rollin.
"I could try that broken machine I repaired." Erick said whipping out what looked liked a radio. He pressed a button Moon felt the dark energy around each of the creatures get weaker. Their PSI energy became as low as Sarah's was earlier.
Suddenly his mind flashed. The image of Sarah's body turning into a diamond. Quickly he turned around. He quickly turned around towards the sprout. "PSI ROLLIN β!" he shouted. Multi colored beams of light enveloped the dirty sprout monster.
Out of nowhere a Ranboob struck him from behind throwing him at the pile of dirt. The sprout glared at him with its eerie eyes. Out of nowhere he felt a sharp pain near his arm. "Sarah...finish it while it's distracted!" Erick shouted.
Sarah nodded. She turned towards the sprout and shouted. "PSI THUNDER β!" Two lighting bolts struck the sprout at the same time frying the whole thing up and it moved no more. All remaining Ranboobs retreated away from them.
"Alright that was fairly simple." Erick said. "Not to much damage to any of us and-"
"Um...Erick...we have a problem." Moon said looking at his hand.
"What I don't see anything wrong with...GOOD LORD!"
Moon's hands had turned from skin to diamond. Sarah's eyes widened. "Moon...are you...okay?" she asked.
Moon glanced down, parts of his shoe were turning into diamond as well. "It's spreading...I need to get in that sanctuary...like now." he said quickly.
"ARE YOU INSANE?" Erick shouted. "You are literally turning into a human diamond...and you want to go into that stupid sancturary. We should be getting you to the Dr. Saturn back in that crazy valley!"
By now the Diamondinization had spread to the entirety of Moon's body, a bit of diamond had started to spread over his forehead now as well. "Just...get me in the sanctuary, it's healed my injuries in the past...so hopefully it can cure this." he said quickly.
Sarah and Erick pushed him into the sanctuary. In the center of the opening was a pink liquid fountain that reminded him of the pool in Saturn Valley. Just like with the first two a soothing melody began to play for the three of them. Then Moon heard his Mother's voice.
"Be a thoughtful, strong boy…"
Moon blinked and glanced down. The diamondization had vanished from his body. He was back to normal just like that. Sarah was leaning on his shoulder while Erick was looking around with interest.
"Fascinating." he said. "This place seems to exist outside of the rest of the world. It's got some sort of...mystical property to it, it restores our conditions...who knows...maybe it could revive the dead!"
"Well here's the thing." Sarah said. "Only we are destined to make these places our own...it's quite possible that only the four of us are able to get full use of this place."
Out of nowhere, Moon felt a stinging pain in his forehead. "Damn you...not now." he muttered.
"I wanna see...I wanna feel...you gotta do it eventually, even you can't take the amount of pain I'm capable of dealing."
"Anyways...it's only Noon." Erick said, glancing up at the sky. "We should probably follow that vision of yours Moon and return to Threed for the night, then tomorrow we can head to Fourside."
"Agreed...Sarah...you ready to head back?" Moon asked. Sarah nodded in response.
(Threed Later at night)
Moon awoke in the hotel room. After returning to Threed the trio were greeted as heroes. People wanted to shake their hands and thank them for all the work they had done to stop the zombies, they had visited the Zombie Relief Corps tent, had yet another encounter with the photo man, and looked at the remaining zombies now trapped in circus animal cages. Moon had even met a few kids.
"Well, I can't say today hasn't been interesting." he muttered as he watched Sarah. "I can only imagine what torture she's going through."
"You may think that you're trying to help by being cautious...but the truth is, Dark Sarah is still a young influence, she hasn't had ten years of being existent...she still doesn't understand much of anything...not like she's gonna listen to you...if you want…"
"What makes you think for a second that I'm going to believe you?"
"Not much, but you aren't prepared to deal with her craziness either...now if she had a guide on the other hand-"
"Alright, I can see where you are going with this...so I'm willing to trust you."
"Uh...wow...okay...that was easier than I expected."
"On a few conditions. Number one, you aren't to scare Sarah or even give her any hintation that you are the one in control. Secondly, I am to return to control first...I don't want her knowing about this at all. Lastly, under no circumstance is Erick, and eventually enough Dyson, allowed to see either of you, if they wake up, you both put us back got it!"
"Seems fair enough, I can see why you are thinking like this."
Moon shook his head then...his eyes flashed red. Dark Moon took a moment to become aware of his surroundings then he smiled to himself. "Perfect...now...let's take care of their separation problem." he said to himself.
Carefully and gently, he shook Sarah awake. She woke up with exhaustion...she wasn't sure why but she was too tired to be aware of anything going on. "M-Moon?" she asked sleepily.
Dark Moon grinned, "Yes Sarah?" he asked in a soft tone. Out of nowhere she started crying. "Sarah...are...are you okay?"
"N-no...I'm in pain Moon...please...I can't take her...c-could you maybe...talk to her?"
Dark Moon hesitated...then reluctantly, he kissed her on the forehead. "Of course Sarah, I'd do anything for you, you're my guardian angel."
"T-thanks Moon."
Dark Moon watched as Sarah let go and her eyes flashed red. He watched carefully as her darker side took control looked around the room…a bit confused, maybe even a little bit worried. Then she caught his eye. That's when she smiled evilly. "Damn you're clever." she said coldly. "How'd you manage to get both of us out at the same time?"
"Exhaustion and manipulation sweetheart." Dark Moon said. "Now let's get down to business, we've gotta stop these two from making it Giygas."
"Yeah, Yeah, I know, I retain some memories from you originally. We both already came up with the perfect plan." Dark Sarah said slyly. "So...shall we get started?"
"Yeah we should." Dark Moon outstretched his hands...Dark Sarah on the other hand...reached back and undid the ribbon in her hair. "Um...what the hell are you doing?"
"Well I just thought that if we were going to produce an offspring that we should do it properly."
"EXCUSE ME!" Dark Moon shouted. "You thought that we were going to make an offspring to stop them! What good would that do?"
"Um...morning sickness, hormones, evil baby, their just kids, they won't know anything...but when they do figure it out...what will they do about it?"
"Okay first off, Moon is very observant. Secondly, we are in the bodies of two thirteen year old children. Thirdly, something like this is hard to hide considering Sarah will wake up very weak and sick tomorrow, and if by some damn miracle neither of them think much about it, there's still Erick."
"Oh hells bells, what's he gonna do about it."
"Much like my host, the kid is scarily observant. Sure, he may be hesitant to try and ask them about it...but if he wakes up to them smelling funny and Sarah's sick and weak state...with his IQ as large as it is...he'll know what happened, and something like this is bound to raise red flags for him, he'd definitely ask them...then what?"
"But I wanna do this the fun way." Dark Sarah pouted.
Dark Moon sighed. He then proceeded to wrap her in an awkward hug. "You are still quite young my darling...you're having a hard time adjusting to Sarah's body. You didn't have this body when Sarah was three like I did with Moon. Because you are still a young minded influence, you haven't connected to certain emotions, we are meant to be invisible to others eyes, nobody is supposed to know that we are here...we are an evil influence but we still need to act like humans. That's why I am trying to help you, to help make this easier for you and me to be in control like we are supposed to be."
When he let go of her Dark Sarah immediately kissed him...quite forcefully. She kissed him furiously not giving him much room for relief. Then she separated.
"So what'd you want me to do about it?" She questioned. "It seems like the most optimal strategy would be to eliminate the threat of Erick...but to do that we'd-"
"I've already considered giving him a dark side...it's far too risky. Plus, it'd wouldn't be of much use. No powers, No knowledge of our existence, nothing. Sure, with a host like that, his darker side could take control easily, and without a girlfriend there's no one to force him back into control. But at the cost of splitting into thirds...I don't think so."
"Thankfully, we won't need to worry about Erick with this strategy." Dark Moon continued. "Here take my hands I'll explain after we've done it just do not, under any circumstance, let go." he said outstretching both of them once again. She eagerly grabbed his hands.
"Do you, Sarah...wish to see me as your life long partner? Your only point of relief and comfort?"
Dark Sarah nodded. "Of course I do."
"Do you accept this knowing full well that if you do, you'll be in pain whenever you two aren't together, that the two of us being separated will be a nightmare, a world of pain?"
"I do."
"Then I leave you with just one last question...from the bottom of your heart...Do you promise to never stop loving me?"
"I do!"
Red light started to appear around both of them. Right around where their hearts would be, the two beams of red light, shot out and connected in the center. A heart that was blue on the right side and purple on the left appeared in the center, the red beams still connected in the center of the heart.
"Dark Moon...my...chest...it-"
"I know it's stinging a little, just hold onto my hands...everything will be fine."
The heart then made a sound that sounded like a door being locked. Then the light vanished. The two of them were left looking at each other once again in the dark.
"So...what was that for?" Dark Sarah asked.
"That...was a boundation." Dark Moon replied. "We've just performed an ancient PSI ritual that forces our hosts to always be together, if they are ever separated, they'll receive massive pain, the more pain they're in the easier it becomes for us to take control...it's a simple spell, but it's quite unbreakable.
"Damn, so we've basically glued them together for the rest of their pathetic lives?" Dark Sarah asked as she tied her ribbon back into her hair. "Hell, it's lucky that they truly love each other, otherwise they'd be screwed."
The two settled themselves down for the night. "Well this is it for tonight, hopefully we can continue to see each other." Dark Moon said. "Goodnight sweetheart."
That's it for this chapter. Sorry for the late post...I had a few issues with this chapter and it got delayed several times. Um, so due to a family vacation there will be no new chapter in the middle of this week. But um, there is something extra I'd like to include with todays chapter. A little side story that won't be canon to my story, just something extra. Although there will be a few moments teased for a future project of mine.
While visiting the Zombie Relief Corps tent. The trio looked at the remaining zombies locked in the circus animal cages. While looking, Moon felt a bit of energy coming from somewhere. He glanced around noticing a small little area near the entrance of the tent where there was a hole. Curiously he moved over to it and all of a sudden a bunch of stuff started to flash through his mind.
He found himself in an area similar to the mindscape, only there were numbers and letters flashing everywhere. Then all started to unveil before him.
Ω
A bunch of people and animals were fighting on a platform somewhere, yellow mice, pink puffballs, penguins, elves, turtles, humans, and many more. Then the image closed into a red and black striped book.
Ω
"Sapphire?"
Moon blinked. He glanced downwards, his blue hoodie was gone, and he briefly saw a flash of black hair and the brim of a red baseball hat.
"Sapph? Are you okay?"
Moon turned around. He found himself face to face with two kids eerily similar to Paula and Jeff, there were however a few differences, The girl while she was wearing a pink dress and red ribbon, didn't seem as shy as Paula was she also wore a sash with her frying pan around it. The boy seemed relatively uptight and a bit irritated. He also had bright blue eyes instead of hazel brown.
"Um...my name's not Sapphire?"
"Oh brother he's lost it!" They boy muttered. "I told you if you stared at that tent too long that you'd probably go insane."
"You aren't Sarah...and you most certainly aren't Erick."
The girl giggled. "Who are they your friends...is Sarah your girlfriend Sapphire?"
"Um yeah actually."
The girl was taken aback. "Oh...you um...you've never mentioned them before."
"Willow he probably never mentioned them for a reason...I don't think we really need too-"
Ω
Moon suddenly found himself in a tropical area he was holding some sort of six tailed golden fox Sarah was with him as well but there was no ribbon in her hair. She was holding another creature it had s green mushroom like head and a thin white body.
"So Moon how about we start our adventure? Angel and I ready are you and Fabby?"
"Remind me again what we are doing?"
"We are traveling together through the Alola region remember. We wanna take on the trails to collect Z-crystals."
The creatures in their arms started making noises.
"Vul-vulpix."
"Ralts!"
Ω
"So Moon...what course of action do you think we should take?" Moon blinked he found himself in some grand temple. Once again, Sarah was with him. But there were a few other people as well.
An angel with black wings, a blue circular creature with bat wings and a sword, A blonde headed princess clutching a triangular object, and some sort of purple alien like creature. Oh and also Paula was with him.
Moon opened the black and red stripped book he was holding. He also noticed that he had a sword attached to his hand.
"It seems that all of the smash competitors have been captured." Moons found himself saying. "We'll have to rescue them one at a time just like with Zelda.
"So whose next?" The angel asked.
"I think our best course of action would be to go after Captain Falcon."
"The legendary F-zero racer? Excellent." Paula said.
"Meta Knight, Dark Pit, Zelda, you theee stay here. Mewtwo, contact King Dedede, let him know of our situation. As for you Paula, you're coming with Sarah and myself."
Ω
Moon found himself back in the tent. Sarah and Erick didn't seem to have noticed what had happened. "Hey you guys ready to get that hotel room?" He asked.
The two nodded "yeah let's get that room." Sarah said to him.
So just a little explanation. For those of you who don't know the tent in Threed has a corner where if you stand in a specific spot and check it multiple times all sorts of crazy stuff could happen.
I included that section as a bit of a teaser for two future projects I have planned. (One is scheduled for release at some point this summer the other is for after this seires in finished). I hope you enjoyed it.
Also, the section with Sapphire is an Easter egg to the story Bound By Our Hearts. It's another earthbound retelling that's more battle focused than mine and I recommend you check it out. It's very humorous.
Anyways I hope you've enjoyed that little section. Be sure to be on the lookout for the other series follow me if you want! As always comments are always appreciated because I hope to improve the story for all readers.