First story bear with me.
Enjoy
Prologue
Point of View: Alexandra
The lock clicked in the door.
I glanced at my clock, just to find my wrist bare except the shackles restraining me to the dungeon walls. I guess they were just here to deliver food. Or to drag me to their commander. All I can do is wait. Just wait, in complete silence, in this place where it is too dark to see anything, where there was nothing to hear but silence, where there is only a hollowness in your heart to be felt.
Man, I was wrong.
With a thud, Shay landed beside me, unconscious. As the guards grunted and worked on him, I gazed at his broken form, a sword wound dripping blood reaching from his elbow to his wrist, a gash on his left thigh, and blood oozing out of his mouth.
My heart clenches at the sight of my brother, laying there on the ground, though I probably didn't look any better.
Then the lock clicked with an awful finality.
And the light disappeared.
An hour later Shay began to cough, and then his eyes blinked once, then twice, and he pushed himself up, leaning against the wall to support his fragile body, slowly letting eyes adjust to the dim lights.
"Where are we?" Shay whispered hoarsely.
I flinched at his words, his voice indicating his lack of water. A few hours without hearing talking, and talking already sounds strange.
"Dungeons." I answered, then leaned back onto the wall, besides Shay.
He nodded and stared at his surroundings.
Shay fell asleep after from what I can tell, 10 in the night, while I stayed up the whole night, imagining what my comrades were doing, busy rescuing themselves, or trying to break through their defences.
All the same. Doesn't make much difference.
Then the footsteps started.
The constant chitter-chatter of voices reached the dungeon, and it was not hard to tell they were guards wrestling with another prisoner. The footsteps came closer. The prisoner was obviously in a very bad form, and then the lock clicked open.
Guards flooded the room, locks clicking open, unshackling us, then we were dragged out. The bright torch light shined, nearly blinding me. For a moment I just stared out, unable to process what was happening, and we were halfway across the corridor before I was able to realize what was happening and began to struggle against their iron grips.
By the time we were at the stairs leading up to the ground, Shay had just woken up, and he stared in horror and shock at the fact that we were outside and being dragged and flanked with guards on both sides, their spear tips at his throat. The other prisoner, though, I haven't gotten a chance to take a good look at him, or so I'm assuming it was a he. The other prisoner, was still thrashing around, although both of us already stopped trying.
And so as the guards filed up floors and floors of stairs, greeting others sometimes with a nod or a bow, and after like 20 floors(I lost count at about 15, my feet kept whining), we came to a halt, and a double door at the end of the corridor opened, as if the guards posted outside were expecting us.
"Greetings, Alexandra and Shay Johnson." someone spoke out of the blue.
"Who are you?" I growled.
As I said, a form flickered back to view, at the far end of the room, a cloak draping over the figure, dual blades strapped to his(or so I'm assuming) back, and an inventory of hunting and throwing knives hung neatly on his belt, a sword sheathed on the right side. The cloak's hood concealed most of his face, and on his lips hung the slightest of smiles, while he fingered at the bowstring of the bow in his left hand.
He slowly walked over, and as he did, he pushed off his hood, and surprisingly, flowing black hair tumbled out and uncurled itself from the hood's restrains, and beautiful multi-colored eyes, blue at the rim, a galaxy black in the middle, and stars of orange burst out from around the pupils, stared back at me, and I realized she was a girl.
By the looks of her, she was even taller than me, with perfect posture and beauty, yet she seemed to be younger. Shay, completely stunned, stood there as if parilyzed. Then, the prisoner in the back was brought in front, and there stood a boy, and with a start, I realized something.
The boy was her brother.
"Why did you bring me here." he spat, refusing to make eye contact with her sister.
The girl brought a finger under his chin and gently pushed up, lifting his head upwards, forcing him to stare into her eyes. "You don't remember?"
The boy stared into her eyes and suddenly jerked his head away, then snarled, "Leave my friends alone. If you want to talk, Sapphire, we can talk later. Release these two. And I mean NOW!"
"Aww, I didn't know you had a girlfriend now. You're so adorable, Jack." Her eyes sparkled with amusement.
And realization dawned at the mention of the name. Luke had told us that his friend Jack has gathered an army. He didn't tell us that we are part of it.
And now Jack was caught.
Because of me.
And then Jack walked out.
An hour and a half later, Jack walked in again, and led us out, walking down 20 floors, and led us away into the distance.
"Jack, I think your sister's turned evil or something." I commented.
"It's not her fault. I was the one who actually hid secrets and betrayed her. And I'm sorry. You guys. Both of you. You were brainwashed, asked to join, even... forced. It's like… it's like I don't know who I am anymore. I'm the one who had caused all of this. And now," he paused, then said, "and now she had declared war."
After a bit of silence, he began again.
"You know, if you'd like to maybe have a bigger chance of surviving this war, go join her. As for me, I'm going to die, and probably so will everyone on my side. And there's nothing to do about it. She's stronger, she's nicer, she's fair. You won't be forced to stay. Better you, Luke, your friend all leave."
"No. We ARE staying. And that's that." Shay cut in.
I stayed silent some more, pondering the choices, torn between friendship to Jack who tried to save my life, and survival and safety, which my parents would like me to choose more, probably.
Finally I asked, "What about you?"
After a long pause, he answered:
"I don't know."
We walked in silence.
A few hours later he gave us one last comment to think about, just before he departed into the woods.
"I'm lost."
Point of View: Sapphire
I watched them leave, then turned my back on them and walked out of my base, pursuing them, my form flickering in and out of shadows, disappearing into thin air and flicker back again into view. I flicked my wrist and my cloak disappeared, and instead I was wearing a hoodie. I followed them, listening to their every word, and playing with my hunting knives.
At exactly 7:48, I returned to base, only to find an unexpected person trying to sneak in.
"Well, how nice of you to be visiting, Luke." I said, "especially right now, with so much going on here."
He stared back in horror, then weighed his choices, and growled, "What did you do to them?"
I shrugged and said, "just released them. If you run, you should be able to catch up in about twenty minutes. I don't know whether they weren't feeling well or if they are just naturally slowpokes. Anyways, if you are visiting, I could arrange a stay. Come on, let us get in and have a chat. I can't miss such a chance after not seeing you for so long." and walked in, leaving him with no choice but to follow.
He followed me in, and immediately an archer aimed and fired. I split the arrow in half with my knives, and caught both half, studying what arrows they had thought of to use. And I was fed up with their strange designs, like using barbed wire for the tips or a pom pom ball instead of feathers.
After looking at the wooden tip and the pom pom in the back (really, now I know why they were always missing their targets. That arrow was sooo off course.) a bit ,I threw it to the guards at the door, then walked in the main building, and walked to a guest room and led Luke in.
Luke, now a pale papery white, looked around, then looked back at me, and asked, "What do you want?"
"Still suspicious? You know that you could exit anytime you want, right?" I shrugged.
"Enter and exit anytime I want," Luke scoffed, "did you NOT see how the archers reacted? And how heavily guarded your castle is? First a moat of electric eels, then a perimeter wall, then a long walk to your castle."
"Well, all old friends of mine can drop in and exit anytime they want, really. What, suspicious about your little group?"
"Yes." he said with a glare.
I took off my mask and stared back at him, with a complete fake carelessness, while my insides turned and twirled with different emotions that demanded to be let out for the world to see.
"Well, if you care that much you'd better run, and you'll catch up to them. But next time remember to visit me, we really need to catch up on what happened after me and Jack departed." I stood up and exited the room, leaving him inside, suspicious, anxious, and alone.
I walked down the corridor, and I heard Luke ran up to me as I clicked my mask into place and pull on my cloak.
"What did you do to them. Tell me. Now." he said.
As I walked forward and he struggled to keep up with my pace, a portal appeared in front of me, and poor Luke didn't see it coming, and so he walked straight into it, along with me.
Once we were there, Jack, Shay, and Alxandra turned around in alarm, while I dusted off my cloak and Luke dropped to one knee, holding his stomach, and threw up to the side.
Once he stood up, all four of my company glared at me and I sent them a glare a thousand times worse.
"There you go, Luke. I haven't done anything to them. Now that I've sped up your speed here, can you visit and have a little chat with me later? It's awful that people always leave and such a hurry. I have no fun. At least no one lets me have fun. Especially you guys." I said, fakeing my completely innocent and annoyed look, and they bought it.
"Fine."
"Well, then, good bye." I stepped into a shadow and disappeared into thin air. I could almost feel their stares at my disappearance. Well, they're going to have to get used to my sudden appearances.
"Greetings, Commander Sapphire." my lieutenant knocked and entered my room, bowing.
"What? Just talk. I don't need formality here. What's happened." I said, impatient, my brows furrowing into a frown.
"Um, actually, all three of your prisoners escaped, and the fourth, too." she said, nervously biting her lips.
"Iris, those aren't my prisoners, they just came to visit, but if you didn't know that, it proves you were shirking from duty? As my lieutenant, I would have expected better at carrying out orders."
"Sorry." Iris whispered, barely audible.
"Now is there anything else?"
"They… they invaded our scouts' camp."
I placed a hand on her shoulder(and she shivered at the thought of nearly throwing up again) and we teleported to the scouts' camp.
The cries of agony shook the ground, as the enemy warriors fought ruthlessly but unskillfully. I stepped into battle with my knives, sidestepping a sword and skewering its owner, then parried another strike and threw my knife in an arc, slicing off a head and landed a deep wound in another warrior. I dropped my knives and they hooked onto my belt, while in one fluid movement I drew my dual blades and killed another. I did an aerial over a sword attempting to knock me to the ground, then sliced off a leg of a soldier, sending him to the ground. I flicked my knife and put on the pressure, which leaded me crashing into another soldier who I easily killed and rolled under another, holding out my blades that chopped off around five more legs of enemy soldiers. As I hopped to my feet, I heard a holler:
"RETREAT!"
The soldiers swarmed away from me, though I wasted no time and either killed or heavily wounded most of them.
As all of them left, stumbling, limping, clutching their stomachs, I glanced at their leader.
And there he was.
Jack.
Point of View: Luke
I shakily walked over to Alexander, Shay, and Jack, still feeling nauseous from teleportation. I had known Sapphire ever since she was born, and because I've known her for so long, I had known of her abilities. Jack and I have none, though, and Jack had been jealous ever since.
And I feel guilty.
I've been her brother for all these years, and I hid the fact. Jack was spreading rumours and still, I hid it from her.
And I can't believe myself.
And the biggest downfall of my life when she found out.
I wonder if I had ever known her well, and the answer really might be definitely not, seeing how unused to her presence I am.
Did it really matter how long I have known her?
Did it really matter that Jack was so jealous?
Did it ever even matter if I hadn't known Jack?
But then really, Jack was waging war with her, and I'd have to choose one or another. And I just HAVE to be with Jack. He's my brother, so I have to help! But then, Sapphire's my sister, too, isn't she?
So who do I choose?
I closed my eyes.
And darkness came.
I could feel Jack dragging me along the grass.
"Will he be okay?" I could hear Alexandra asking him.
"Yeah. He's just not used to teleporting." Jack answered.
Jack, you know I am used to teleportation, right?
But then, I couldn't hold onto what's in my stomach once I did it.
I tried to open my mouth, to speak, to tell them I'm okay, but my teeth clenched together and wouldn't let go.
Then I tried opening eyes, to clear out the darkness, but the darkness refused to release its grip.
Like, what's wrong with me?
Probably nothing.
With an extreme effort, I opened my eyes and grunted once, and that was enough to make the three stop and look at me.
I blinked away the haziness and looked at my position.
One of my arms were looped around Jack's shoulders, the other one around Shay's. My legs dragged uselessly on the ground.
"There's warriors coming from ahead!", a call from Alexandra sure woke everyone up. I stood up on my leg for a second, but the next I was down on my knees, clutching my left thigh, trying to make the scorching pain go away. I glimpsed down and a knife was deeply imbedded there, thick, red blood oozing down my leg, soaking through my shorts. I glanced in front just to see Alexander unsheath her sword, but before her sword ever left her sheath it was sliced neatly in half, the knife continuing ahead, ruining Shay's bow and his arrows too, then whizzing back to its owner, leaving Shay on the run but cornered by more soldiers. Then I caught sight of Jack, he and his warriors being surrounded by a girl in a cloak, twirling knives, flicking daggers, parring strikes with her dual blades, then left all weapons, leaving them once again sheathed, just to have her spear shoot out of the ground into her waiting hand. I saw her throw javelins, the familiar girl pressing the pressure onto the soldiers' swords, taking down three with a twist of her wrist. When she finished up with the boys, Jack, dragged by his arms, on the verge of falling into unconsciousness, had his face twisted with agony and he looked at me pleadingly, as if asking me to forgive him.
And the next sentence chilled me to my bones.
"Hello, my fellow brothers."
I looked up, just to see Sapphire looming over me, her unruly hair, now lined with the redness of blood, was shaken out of her face, revealing her slight smile, the right corner of her lips slightly lifted upwards, her multicolored eyes flickering with emotions I can't read, was staring back at me.
"How..." I faltered, and realization sank in. Jack had betrayed me and our secret just for Sapphire to release him and his friends.
"So, let me see, why do I not have my brothers at my sides, instead I have enemies accompanying me?"
"Jack..."I was beyond shock, and a single tear, just a single tear, traced its way down my cheek.
Sapphire left him there with me, with a final word that she has honored her promise, and I struggled after her, dragging my injured leg. Jack stared after me, forlorn, with Alexander looking at me, Shay refusing to see my depart, and as I struggled along under the setting sun, the sky was printed black, and night fell.
I lay down under an overhang, and soon after, sleep crashed over me like a wave, drenching me in the blackness of dreamless sleep...
"Huh..?" I sat up, groggy.
Sapphire was sitting beside me, her hands and weapons quickly and nimbly taking over what seemed like 30 warriors, Alexander, Shay, and Jack lying on the sides, all injured, glaring at her and me in hatred.
"I said, I will not let you hurt Luke." she snapped.
"Wow, and you could kill me, right?" Jack snarled.
Somehow, Sapphire found a way to land another strike on Jack, forcing him to howl in pain, which quickly shut him up.
"Hey!" Alexandra growled, then glared even more intensely at her, which I had no idea how she could glare in an even more furious way.
I shakily got up, surprised to find my thigh bandaged, and it seemed, there was a trace of magic, silver and blue and black.
At that time, Sapphire whirled her dagger, parried a strike, and instead of stepping back she threw on all her weight, which effectively cut clean through the steel blade and ended the fight.
"Now..." she was extremely annoyed, "how do you explain all of this," she said, crossing his arms and looking at Jack.
Silence…
"I'm waiting."
"N-n-nothing, Sapphire."
"Nothing?"
"Plea-"
And without waiting for him the finish, she stepped through a portal, left it open, and with a backward glance, I stepped in.
"Sapphire!" I called.
She whirled around, and surprisingly, her eyes were icy blue. "Oh, hello, dear Luke, why are you here?"
"Sorry for the distraction, but, I..." I faltered, "I want to...join your...army?"
She gave a curt nod. Soldiers filed into the room, glaring at me. "Pass the news. There is a new person switching sides. Get him uniforms. I want to see him all cleaned up, given a bunk in cabinet 13, and just so you know, Luke, rank 16th, please."
And with that the soldiers ushered me out of the room.
"Cabinet 13, but in rank 16. Replacing the last, I suppose. Now, as for uniforms, lets see, looks like a size 10 would fit pretty well..." and so they ranted on. The news passed quickly. I was supposedly the lowest ranked in the army, other than the prisoners, I guess, but the fact that Jack betrayed me bothered me all day long.
"Line up, from newest to oldest. You," he pointed at me, "up to the office. Commander wants to see you."
I walked up the line and passed through the door, the wind chilling me to my bones, the raggedly thin uniforms doing nothing at all.
Once I got up to the office, I reported my name, and the door opened. Sapphire looked at me, then welcomed me in.
Surprisingly, Jack was there, cursing about how I had left them. He immediately silenced as I walked in.
"Now," Sapphire broke in, "I want to know all about what's going on in your little squad. Jack. Explain yourself."
"Why, little traitor Luke, broke off, and we were chasing him all the way here, to tell him my decision to disown him."
"Sure." my voice flew out roughly.
"Now Luke, before you get back to your duties, which I don't care what was assigned to you now, to drag our dear little brother Jack," she paused, looking at me, "to our guest room for him: the dungeons."
Point of View: Jack
"You disgusting, slimy, slithering sorry piece of a slug!" I spat at Luke. Like always, he ignored me.
"You frog faced, feather brained Jerboa-head." I paused, racking my brain for more words to describe him, and came up with nothing else I could say. He just dragged me along by my collar.
Then the light started to dim.
I looked around at my surroundings: an endlessly long hallway with cells and corpses that they didn't haul out, torches every around 50 yards, and a minute later Luke kicked me into one of them and shackled me. I guess he was feeling generous after all, for he left his torch besides me, but at that moment I really didn't care, all I felt was an endless pit of anger, all I wanted to do was get revenge on my siblings, to get out of this place where the only flooring was a bunch of scattered hay and pebbles, and the bedrock beneath.
"Luke!" I bellowed after his quickly disappearing figure, "LET ME OUTTA HERE!" I added.
Faintly, I thought could see him shake his head, before he disappeared into the distance.
I lay down, and after a lot of waiting and dreaming of what I would do to them when I was released, I drifted into an uneasy sleep.
I pushed myself up, blinking.
Hello, Jack.
A cloaked figure stood in front of me, not unlike my sister, although he was a blinding white.
I could get you out of here, and you and your friends could join me. Together, you will be the Light's peacekeepers and battle the evil. You could. Get your revenge. You would get my blessing. You would never age. You would serve me faithfully.
"Okay." I agreed.
Little did I know, at the time, Sapphire was watching me.
Sure, Jack.
If you are the Light's Peacekeeper, then I would be the Shadow's assassin. The game has not ended yet. It has only just begun.
I stood up, enjoying how free I am. Only 156 years had passed, and by now Sapphire and Luke is most likely dead. Unless she has been granted partial immortality like me.
No I haven't died, Jack.
Group of three,
Beware of me.