Chapter 31

A slow, slow realization dawned on Gandus' face.

"You! You didn't keep your promise! Things were not fine! I had to survive by myself for all these 16 years! Where did you go?! Where were you when I needed you?! Why did you leave me all alone..." Gandus faltered and fell to her knees, a sobbing mess, as I'd become a sobbing mess at the same time.

"It wasn't my choice... Gandus, the zombies separated us and there was no way we, as children, could fight against them very well. You had just started your magic training and my magic was weak," I said as I calmed down enough to be able to speak.

"It sure was! It was then and still is now! You can't do shit against anything. All you can do is surprise other beings with your magic. You know what, it isn't even magic. This is magic!" She called a lightning strike to hit me, one, two, three times. It really hurt... but I took it like a champ.

"You're right... my magic is really weak, I can't do much of anything... all I can do is surprise and use it to light campfires... it's so frustrating!" That surprised Gandus, that I said she was right and my outburst.

"Can you even do any other magic? Mother was a wizard... you should be able to do more than your pathetic, measly little... non-magic," Gandus sneered.

"I can't. Dianite said this little bit of fire magic is all I can do..."

"Of course. Abandoning me like you did, I'm not surprised that's all you can do..."

"I did not abandon you!" I was surprised, as well as Gandus, at how commanding my voice was. I quickly recovered and gave her a look. "I did not abandon you! I said the zombies separated us and there was no way we, as children, could have done anything against them! If I could have done something against them I would have. I'd thought you'd died... then I completely forgot everything that happened, having been traumatized so badly... I'm assuming the same happened to you? You didn't remember your childhood either."

"I did forget..."

"Now we both remember... Gandus, do you remember us braiding each other's hair? Hanging out by the creek, dipping our feet in the water just to be surprised by crawdads snipping at our toes?" I chuckled at the crawdad memory. "It's so silly to think of it now. We shoulda learned the first time, but we kept doing it. Gandus, we were so close... We can be close again. Maybe not braiding each other's hair... that's little kid stuff. Honestly, we'd probably catch the crawdads now." I chuckled again at the last sentence.

"I do remember... Why would I wanna be close to you?"

"Gandus. Do you not remember me trying to help you see the better way since we first met again? I'm not the bad guy here!" I stood up and stepped to the bars, hanging onto them, but the bars melted. I blinked and let go. My hands were glowing.

"Hey, Nix, your whole body is glowing. Focus that glow to your hands and point your palms in that direction. It's just stone, it'll be fine." I gave her a skeptical look, but did as she said. I focused the glow to my hands and pointed my palms in the direction Gandus pointed. Blue fire shot out of them! Powerful fire too! I looked at Gandus in awe and disbelief. She smirked. "Seems like your powers aren't so pathetic after all. You know, fuck Dianite. He's wrong. You can do more than a little bit of fire. Nix, join me. With my Elemental powers and your insane fire, we can take over the Darkness and even the gods. We can rule the world together. We can eradicate all zombies, even."

"Gandus, no. You know I'm dating Ianite, don't you?"

"That's a new development. Really? You're dating a goddess?"

"Hey, it can happen!" I said indignantly, but also with a hint of amusement. Gandus smirked.

"Sure, Nix. Sure." I can feel Gandus' hesitance. She wants something, but I don't know what.

"Gandus, what do you want? Really want?" She gave me a slight look and crossed her arms, then looked away at the floor. I can feel the hurt surfacing again. "Do you want to be loved, to be appreciated, to not be abandoned again? Is that what Hermod did to you, did he abandon you for something else? Someone else?"

"Something. That damned boat obsession of his... he's got an uncountable amount of boat wives..."

"Damn... That's really not cool... you know, you don't deserve him anyway... Stop trying to kill him though, that's not cool either."

"But he deserves it for abandoning me, for hurting me. As do you for doing the same thing..." I reached through the melted bars.

"Gandus, give me your hands." She gave me a weird look.

"Why?"

"Just do it." The exasperation was clear in my voice. She sighed and gave me her hands, reluctantly and not very happy about it. "Gandus, please. Please repent of every bad thing you've done. Please, let me help you. I know you've got 16 years of hatred burning through your veins, plus Hermod not helping one bit... but please. I can help you. You're my sister, we've finally reunited! Shouldn't you be happy for that? We've reunited and I really want to rekindle our relationship. Let me do that, please... Also, let me out so I can hug you." She hesitated for a few minutes, before going to grab the keys and unlocked the cell door. She stood stiff as I hugged her tightly. I hugged her as tight as I could, not wanting to let her go again, never again... as the moments ticked on, she slowly brought her arms up and hugged me back, which actually really surprised me, but also made me happy. I felt warm, wetness on my shoulder. She's crying again. We sunk to the ground, just hanging onto each other.

"Please don't leave me again Nixi... please..."

"I won't Gandus, I won't... I'll be here for the rest of your time here on this Earth. You'll never lose me again." I gently rubbed her back as she cried it out. As she calmed down, she sat back and wiped her eyes on her sleeves. "Should I call Ianite to teleport us back to Adventure Island?"

"That's what you're calling it? Childish..."

"Not my choice... Tom, the zombie." Gandus shook her head.

"It should be called the Isle of Gathering."

"Oooo, I really like that. You should let him know, gently. You're pretty brash Gandus."

"Wouldn't you be after so long?"

"I actually was. Then I became softer as time went on. You're a lot more brash than I, however, as you're allied with the Darkness. Oh, speaking of, you should break your allegiance. Pledge your allegiance to one of the gods. Maybe Ianite? She did try to help you the one time. You remembered that."

"Maybe... I'll break my allegiance, but the Darkness might kill me."

"I won't let that happen. I can promise you this. I'll make a barrier over you with my fire."

"That won't do anything against powers though."

"I've done it before. Ianite can help."

"Fine, have it your way." I grinned and she rolled her eyes at me. I chuckled.

'Ianite, could you teleport me and Gandus to you. I got through to her.'

'That was fast, not even a night went by. What did you do?'

'I'll explain everything to all of you on Adventure Island.' Silence, then Ianite teleported me, then Gandus. I took Gandus' hand, which she glared at our hands, then at me, then looked away, indignant. I chuckled, yet again.

"You think this is amusing..."

"I do. Remember, I was once in your place, all huffy and indignant about stuff."

"She really was, I can attest to that," everyone in the area said. I grinned.

"See? But I turned out to be not all that bad. Right?" I grinned at the guys and Ianite. They grinned right back and agreed. I chuckled. "So, news, obviously I got through to Gandus, but here's something even more shocking. We're sisters." I felt everyone's surprise and shock at this news. I told them how I found out and I could feel their sympathy toward Gandus and I. Ianite, Sparky, Mianite, and Karl all teared up even at one part of it. I also told them how I got Gandus to turn to our side. They were impressed at that one. After I finished,

"So, ye're not gonna try 'n kill me anymore, are ye?"

"As much as I'd love to end your life, no..." I gave Gandus a look. "What? I'm telling him the truth." I sighed. She is, she's not lying, or sugarcoating it even.

"So I can relax now. Good." Gandus sneered at him, but then huffed and looked my way. I gave her a look. She sighed and relaxed her face.

"Ianite, can Gandus live with us? She can take over my old bedroom."

"Yeah, she can live with us."

"What, you keeping an eye on me?"

"No. I want us to catch up on missed time together. Plus, I need to teach you how to be more gentle with your words. Speaking of, how about you practice now. Tell Tom, the zombie, what name you thought of for this island instead of Adventure Island."

"Isle of Gathering." Short, both in sentence structure and tone of voice, but her words weren't cutting, so that's a start.

"Actually, I really like that. You got good ones Gandus!" Gandus was really surprised that she got affirmation by someone other than me.

"Thanks... I... guess."

"Nix, have you changed your patch yet?" Ianite asked.

"Crap, no. I was going to, but then the whole, 'you're my sister' thing and fighting amongst ourselves for a bit kind of took away my thought of doing that. Could we go now? We can all hang out tomorrow or something."

"Not tomorrow, a few of us are busy."

"Oh, alright. Whenever then," I smiled. They all smiled back at me and nodded. They all left and Ianite teleported, then teleported me, then Gandus. Gandus looked around in awe.

"This place... it's so nice looking."

"Isn't it though? Just don't tell anyone about this place or where it is. Ianite wants to keep other people out. Only us two can know of this place. Me, obvious reasons. You, well, you need someone, or two someones, to help you become more good than bad."

"I see, well, alright. I can keep a secret." Ianite and I gave Gandus a nod, then led her into the house. I showed Gandus her new, my old, room.

"What color bed would you like?" Ianite asked.

"Black." There was no hesitation whatsoever. Damn. Ianite made a bed appear out of thin air and set it down between the bookshelves.

"Do you mind if we decorate to your liking tomorrow?"

"It's whatever. Do what you want." Gandus laid on her bed. She sounds so much like me when I first met these guys... it's so uncanny.

"Ok, Nix, I'm heading to our room, ok?" I nodded and Ianite left. I knelt at Gandus' side and she looked at me.

"If you ever need me during the night, just communicate to me telepathically, you know how to do that, right?" She nodded. "Alright, good night Gandus. I love you little sister."

"I'm not little..."

"Fine. Sister then."

"Fine." I shook my head, smiling. I kissed her forehead and stood up. "Ew, why would you do that?" She asked, wiping her forehead with her sleeve. I giggled.

"We're sisters, we can do that."

"Well, don't... it's embarrassing..." I snorted.

"Ok, whatever you say sis. Good night."

"Night," Gandus grunted. I left her room for mine and Ianite's. I changed my patch and got into bed and snuggled Ianite after cleaning up.

"Gandus is settled in and now we can get settled in," I announced.

"Good, I'm glad she's settled." Ianite snuggled into me. I kissed the top of her head and laid my head on my pillow.

"Good night Ianite. I love you, so much."

"I love you too Nix, good night." We fell asleep, and hopefully Gandus was able to get to sleep as well.