Refraction: deflection from a straight path undergone by a light ray or energy wave in passing obliquely from one medium (such as air) into another (such as glass) in which its velocity is different
A/N: ANd here it is. We're finally ready to launch Refraction, a reworking of my original story, Where the Light Enters. This story came about from my great difficulty in writing the ending to WTLE. If you followed that story, you may have thought it was abandoned, since it's been missing it's last chapters for about three years now. The truth is, I was caught in a quagmire of writers block and plot holes. Every time I tried to finish it, I realized the ending I could almost see in my head wasn't relaying, because even though I really love WTLE, it wasn't quite the story I saw in my head. The pacing was off, I'd missed some details, and the character-relationships had ended up feeling rushed.
No matter how many times I edited, I couldn't quite get it right. So on a whim, this past Nano I decided to rework the story, and Refraction was born.
The key difference in Refraction and WTLE is that while WTLE is set three years after the end of the ANIME, Refraction is set four years later. What a difference a year makes. If you are a reader of WTLE, you will see some familiar arcs, though even those will have some editing. However, where WTLE was going to be about 150k long, Refraction will be significantly longer, by about 12 cases of so according to my outline.
So again, if you read WTLE, you will know some of the basic story line, however, I think this will still be a fun read. Lots more fluff and romance and character introspection. Oh, and some chapters will have stingers at the bottom, because I can.
As always lovely readers, thanks for your patience and support.
Disclaimer: Not my sandbox, just my sandcastle.
Prologue: The Beginning of the End
"And I'd choose you; in a hundred worlds, in any version of reality, I'd find you and I'd choose you." - The Chaos of Stars
Love isn't supposed to destroy.
The full hunter's moon cast a sickly orange glow over the clearing. Harsh breathing was the only sound as the two figures struggled at the cliff's edge.
"Damn it, Naru! The ground's giving way! You have to let go!" Adrenaline and fear had made Mai's voice tight and high, but even now she could take a twisted sort of pride in the fact that it didn't shake.
Just once, she didn't want him to be her collateral damage. Lin's words from the church that night echoed in her head like a premonition.
Dirt and dust rained down onto her face, tears streaming from her eyes as her left hand scrabbled desperately for purchase.
It was useless, though, the whole side of the cliff was loose shale. Nothing but ever-shifting gravel met her questing fingers. She felt the pain in her fingertips where she'd torn off at least one fingernail trying to cling to the cliff side.
If not for the stoic (silent-stubborn-narcissistic) young man half hanging over the cliff above her, both hands wrapped desperately around her one, she'd have already fallen into the river below.
Far, far below.
But they'd been in the exact situation before, too many times to count, and the conclusion was always the same.
She'd start to fall, he'd refuse to let go, he'd go over with her, and they'd both pay for her uncanny ability to attract trouble.
But not this time, not if she had anything to say about it.
Even larger clumps of rock and dirt were falling on her now, and she knew any second the whole cliffside would go down, taking them both with it.
Love wasn't supposed to destroy. If she had learned anything in her short life, it was that.
Another, even larger clump of earth shifted loose beneath him, narrowly missing her head. He couldn't balance half over the cliff much longer before they'd both go over. She could see the sweat beading on his brow, the strain around his eyes as he tried to strengthen his grip on her hand.
They were out of time.
"Naru.." she choked out again, voice low and desperate. "It's okay." She stared into eyes she'd loved for years now. "You have to let go.."
It was an old argument, no different now than that night on that other mountain….
Silence was his only reply, face straining with the effort of trying to stave off the inevitable.
She gazed into his furious face. She knew that expression. She'd seen it years ago, in the cave of the Okoubu. She'd seen it weeks ago, when he'd stopped her attacker.
He was about to use his PK, probably to try and levitate her...
And it could only end one way.
It would kill him.
And what wouldn't she do? To be the person who saved him for once?
"Dammit Naru, I'm NOT Gene!" She screamed at him. His face went blank, his widened eyes the only clue to his shock at her words.
She'd break his heart if it saved his life.
Then the remaining cliff side gave way beneath them.
******Stinger*********
Luella Davis sat down her teacup with a distinct 'clink' as she glanced over to her husband Martin, then back at her son.
"You want to return to Japan? You mean, to study, darling?"
"I'm hoping to reopen the SPR Tokyo Office, should I have your support." He said calmly, buttering his toast.
Martin frowned. "Now that your Masters is complete, I had thought you were planning on finishing your doctorate?"
"I've already spoken with my professors. I'll continue to update them on my progress via correspondence. When the time comes to defend my thesis, I'll return temporarily." All this was said with the same casualness Noll might use to comment on the weather.
Luella raised her teacup to hide her smile.
'So it begins', she thought to herself.
She'd need to call Lin.
