AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH! I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW LONG IT'S BEEN SINCE I UPDATED! Wow, I really need to stay on top of this. Anyway, I've kept you waiting long enough. Enjoy!
Chapter 34
The Spark
Terror.
That was the only feeling running through Ren`s body the moment she turned around and came face to face with the...thing. She had never seen anything so terrifying before in her whole life, and she was terrorised on an almost daily basis by humans, yet this monster made her tormentors look like fluffy bunnies in comparison. Nothing had prepared her for this situation. She didn't know what to do. She couldn't move. She couldn't speak. She couldn't even think. She was just stood there, like a deer in the headlights. Ren was completely frozen in terror. Likewise, Toshiro and Katelyn were also frozen. But, they weren't afraid for their lives; they were afraid for Ren. Their Ren would charge head first into the fight and defeat the Feather while uttering a witty quip or two. This Ren, however, was different. This Ren was staring straight at a Feather, which she had never seen before until now. To make matters worse, they recognised this Feather. It was the Feather that resembled a frog. It was the Feather that could see them. Toshiro wanted to intervene and save Ren, he really did, but he was just a time traveller; one wrong move and everything could change for the worse and even then, everything he tried to touch just passed through him. Or he passed through them; Toshiro had no idea which it was. So, all he could do was stare at Ren as though he could force her to escape through willpower alone.
Turn around and run. Toshiro thought, even though he knew that nobody could hear him.
"..." Ren stared at the Feather, her feet glued to the spot. The Feather took a step closer to Ren while letting out a low, rumbling breath. Ren blinked, and she wrinkled her nose at the smell. The Feather sniffed at the human girl, making strands of her hair flicker towards the nostril as it sniffed at her, catching her scent.
Run away. Run away! Toshiro thought, biting his tongue to resist the overpowering urge to yell at this twelve year old girl to save herself. Fortunately, Ren slowly took a step back from the Feather, followed by another. Catching the smell of that things breath was enough to snap her out of her daze. Well, not completely. Her mind was still blank with fear, but she still had enough awareness to realise that when face to face with a creature that was the stuff of nightmares, the sane response would be to run away as fast and as far as she could. So, Ren took slow and steady steps away from the Feather, never breaking eye contact for fear of startling it, and then it would be goodbye Ren Conner. But, the Feather caught on to Ren`s escape plan quickly, and let out a loud roar that reminded Toshiro of a Hollow so much, he couldn't help the yell that escaped him.
"Get out of here, Ren! Run!" Toshiro shouted.
"!" The Feather`s roar brought Ren back to earth, and without a second thought, she span around and ran, dropping her school bag in the process, but she was too scared to notice or even care. Ren didn't know where she was going or what she was going to do about the monster. There was only one thing going through her thoughts right now.
Run away, run away, run away, run away!
The Feather let out another loud roar before leaping down the street the same way a frog would, giving chase to the girl.
"Toshiro, what do we do?" Katelyn asked, a panicked expression on her face.
"We follow them." Toshiro answered. He knew that he couldn't do anything to help a powerless and vulnerable Ren, but the Ren he knew was still alive. That had to mean something happened in this moment that prevented Ren from becoming a Feather`s dinner. This was important in finding out what happened all those years ago. There was no point in giving in to irrational panic. Ren was going to be fine.
Right?
"We should hurry before we lose them." Toshiro shook off his fears. Instead, he focused his energy on running after Ren, who turned out to be a lot faster than he thought. Katelyn was quick to follow him, not wanting to be left behind, yet fearful that she was going to eaten by a demonic frog at the same time.
"Alright, but you should know that this is bonkers!" Katelyn voiced her thoughts of this situation. Toshiro yelled something back at her that sounded like "Shut up and run!", but he was too far away for Katelyn to hear him properly.
...
"This is bonkers!" Harley exclaimed as he left the headmaster's office. A slightly younger Watson emerged from his office to follow Harley, but instead of his face bearing anger and a preparation to admonish the young teenager, there was a look of sympathy.
"I understand your frustrations, Mr Conner." He said quietly. "If the circumstances were any different, I would help you two with no hesitation. But, I am not among the head families, and I am certainly not a Thornton. I have to follow their rules and obey their orders. And so do you."
"And because of them, I had to spend my lunch break sorting your files?!" Harley yelled.
"You cannot solve all your problems by swinging your fists at anyone who threatens you or your family." Watson said sternly.
"Who gives a toss what happens to me?!"
"I do!" Watson said loudly, stunning Harley. "And so does your sister. How do you think she'll react if she knew how much trouble you were getting into because of her?"
"It's not her fault." Harley muttered.
"I know it's not. But that's not what she thinks. You know how she's like."
"Yeah, I grew up with her." Harley and Watson didn't say anything for a few moments, letting the tensions and emotions simmer down. Watson broke the silence by placing a hand on Harley's shoulder. Harley's head shot up to look Watson in the eye. Watson saw the anger, the frustration and helplessness swimming in Harley's eyes.
"I have watched you two grow since you were toddlers. Believe me when I say that I understand how you feel."
"…" Harley said nothing.
"Your father is a dear friend of mine. If I could help him, I would. But the Thornton family are too powerful for one man to rebel against them. The last thing either of us wants is to drag children into this."
"…" Again, Harley said nothing.
"Go home." Watson said gently, removing his hand from Harley's shoulder. "I will inform your teachers that you fell ill. I told Dungworth to send your sister home, too."
"Thank you, sir." Harley said quietly. He picked up a black rucksack on his back bearing a red Nike logo from outside Watson's office and slung it on his back.
"I hear that you two started painting your old t-shirts." Watson said with a friendly smile, trying to change the subject towards something more pleasant.
"Um, yeah. We have." Harley said, returning the smile, but it was clearly half-hearted, even if he was grateful for the distraction the conversation started. "Nothing too fancy. I just paint patterns and stuff. Ren keeps doing nothing but frogs." Watson chuckled after hearing this. Ever since she was little, Ren always had a fascination of things with frogs on them. She even had old baby clothes with frogs on them, and he remembered how a three year old Ren would cry whenever she couldn't wear her favourite frog winter hat even in the middle of summer. Even before she could talk, Watson knew that Ren was going to be somebody unique. It was too bad that Redwood was forcing Ren to hide who she really was.
"It's good that she has something to occupy herself."
"That's the plan. The longer we do stuff like that together, the longer Ren isn't thinking about that damn village."
"She's lucky to have a brother like you. You're growing into a fine man, Harley." Harley's ears seemed to twitch as soon as he heard his name. Watson never referred to him by name when they were at school. That just made what he said have that much more meaning.
"Ahem, well, I er…I think it's about time you head home, Mr Conner." Watson cleared his throat, placing his hands behind his back and putting up the Headteacher mask he wore every day.
"Yes, thank you, sir." With that, Harley briskly walked away from the office and towards the main corridor, but not before sharing a grateful glance to Watson. The corridors were, thankfully, empty. Not a single student was loitering in the hallways, and Harley was grateful for that. Not for the fact that there were no Redwood citizens, but for the fact that nobody could see the hopeless, sad expression on his face. His reputation here as a violent person was not enough to protect Ren; it was only enough to keep everyone away from him. And now this had to go and happen. Everybody knows about Ren's power to heal. Their fear of Redwood outweighed their fear of him, and soon, he won't be able to protect Ren just by having her by his side. Everybody is going to be afraid of Ren now, and if not, she'll be an even bigger outcast than she was before. With a growl, Harley stopped walking and punched a wall so hard that he left an imprint of a fist behind. He withdrew his fist, some small flecks of plaster and dust following it, and looked at it, brushing off any leftover dust. Not a scratch. As terrible as it was for him to think this, he was the tiniest bit grateful that everyone was paying attention to Ren. If everybody knew about his own…abilities…then the entire Conner family would be labelled freaks. His parents were having a hard enough time dealing with what Ren was going through; they didn't need Harley's unnatural strength, too. Harley chuckled darkly to himself. A girl who was bad luck and could heal. A boy who was so strong, he could break a brick in half and not get any damage. Redwood was right about one thing; they really were freaks.
RAAAAAAAAAWR!
"What the…" Harley perked out of his self-loathing after hearing that loud roaring sound. He followed his ears to the school exit and stood outside, listening. Them he heard an explosion. "Those monsters are back again." He muttered to himself. "It was close." Ignoring every rational bone in his body, Harley ran out of the school gates and followed the sound of the explosion to a dust cloud that was slowly rising above the buildings. Harley surveyed the damage. There was nobody around, and the road looked just a little bit dented. It was going to be hell to fix. He could also faintly hear some booming noises that were slowly getting further and further away. The monster was on the move. It was chasing something. Or, someone. But what? Or who?
"I should find Ren before…" Harley stopped his train of thought upon spotting a green rucksack lying on the road. He felt his heart leap into his throat. He reached a shaking hand towards it, trying to convince himself that lots of people had green rucksacks. But, when he picked it up and saw the unmistakable frog face printed on it, his fear was replaced with full-blown terror, and he could feel his older brother instincts kicking in as he realised that the monster was chasing his little sister. Ren was in danger! And it was his job to protect her from anything and everything that dared to hurt her!
"REN!" Harley took off down the street, slinging Ren`s bag onto his shoulder and following the fading boom noises of the monster that was going to rue the day it dared to mess with his family.
…
"Nya! Oof!" Ren grunted, tripping over and landing face first into the road. She sat up on her hands and knees, taking the opportunity to catch her breath. "What's happening? What is that thing?" Ren whispered to herself, her voice too shaky with fear to go any louder. Ren squeaked when she heard another roar from the monster that was chasing her. Ren stumbled back onto her feet, and immediately winced after feeling a burning pain on her leg the moment she stepped on her left foot. She looked down. There was a huge graze on her left knee surrounded by tiny little grains of dirt, and it was already staining the top of her white, knee high socks with blood. Ren knew that it would heal up in a few minutes, but that didn't mean it did anything about the pain. Grazed knees didn't just sting, they burned, and every step would make her leg feel like it was about to snap like a twig. She had got plenty of scraped knees before; she was only twelve and a klutz. Really, a childhood wouldn't be a childhood without doing that to your legs at least once or twice. But having a monster chasing you complicated things. Fortunately, it didn't sound too far away. So, Ren limped away from where she fell over towards a crowd of oblivious townsfolk going about their business. Maybe if she blended in with the crowd, the monster will give up and leave. She apologised instinctively as she brushed shoulders with them, ignoring their grunts or complaints or, occasionally, their enquiries of concern after noticing her knee. Ren heard the roar getting closer, and turned around to find the monster perched on the side of the building and surveying the square. But, for some reason, nobody was reacting to the giant frog.
Why haven't they noticed it? Ren thought. It's right there!
"…" The monster opened its mouth, and Ren saw a red ball of energy forming in it, drawing in red particles of light to make it stronger.
"Crudbuckets." Ren muttered fearfully, turning around and quickening her pace through the people, too concerned about her own safety to worry about anybody else. She broke through the crowd with a stumble, barely able to regain her footing before jogging as best as she could away from the froggy monster perched on the horizontal building. As soon as she broke through the crowd, the monster fired the red blast out of its mouth, and it made the ground behind Ren explode, sending her flying before she landed heavily on the pavement. Ren sat up, massaging her aching arm. She couldn't help but notice how the strangers in the crowd were now running away screaming at the sudden explosion that had appeared without any warning or reason. The crater was no more than a few feet deep, but the implications were clear; if Ren was a little bit slower, there would have been nothing left of her. Then again, it wasn't like many people would miss her if she suddenly-
RAAAAAAAAAWR!
"!" Ren shook her head quickly to break herself out of her self pity, jumping back onto her feet and running full sprint away from the monster. The ache in her scrapped knee was now gone, the only evidence of the wound existing in the first place being a patch of blood and some dirt.
"I heard an explosion. It came from over here!" Just as Ren was running away, Katelyn and Toshiro had arrived, with Toshiro reaching the crater first. Katelyn finally caught up, planting her hands on her knees to catch her breath. "What happened here?"
"Maybe…Maybe it was…that thing…" Katelyn said between gasps, pointing at the Feather stuck to the building. It leapt off it however, and landed in the middle of the crowd, creating another explosion of dust that miraculously didn't kill any of the fleeing humans. It didn't stay there for long, however, and hopped off down the street. The time travellers followed the path the Feather intended to take with their eyes, and in the distance, they saw a blonde haired girl running away as though her life depended on it. Wait, there was no "as though" about it; her life DID depend on her running away. After seeing the flash of dark blonde hair tied up in plaits, Toshiro knew that this was Ren. But, as soon as he recognised the girl as Ren, he saw another person run out of the crowd and follow the monster down the street. Who would be stupid enough to run towards danger without weapons or a plan? Toshiro's thought was answered when he heard the human yell out Ren's name. He recognised the voice. It was Harley. In answer to the question, a protective sibling is stupid enough to face danger head-on, damn the consequences.
"Come on." Toshiro took off after the street after the Conner siblings and the frog Feather. One advantage of being a time traveller; he could be as reckless as he wanted without worrying about getting hurt. He was ignoring that little, nagging voice at the back of his mind telling him that this Feather could cancel out his Cielvian magic and make him visible to its eyes in favour of seeing where this was heading and if Ren made it out in one piece, which he was sure she would. Probably.
"Aaaaw!" Katelyn groaned. "This is not how I expected my day to go." Katelyn grumbled to herself as she followed Toshiro.
Meanwhile, Ren had already turned into another street corner in the hopes that she could evade the monster. Thankfully, this one was devoid of any civilians. Good. It was weird that nobody seemed to notice the monster; the last thing she wanted on her mind was being responsible, no matter how indirectly, for innocents dying. She was genuinely amazed that nobody had died in that blast earlier. Still, what the heck was happening here?!
BOOM!
"Eek!" Ren squealed, hearing a building explode behind her. Ren dared to look over her shoulder as she ran. There was another blast of red light, making another building explode behind her, and Ren didn't even consider stopping to inspect the damage, continuing to run as she felt the heat of the explosion and the fire behind her as building after building exploded in the monster's attempts to kill her. She could even feel the occasional brick or plank of wood scrape across her back. But, she ignored the debris barely missing her, the aching muscles and the burning lungs in favour of getting as far away as she could. Why was it only going after her? What did it want with her? She knew one thing for certain; if she still had asthma, she would have been dead seconds ago. Or maybe sooner. Whenever she would have died, Ren being a freak has actually saved her life. This thought prompted Ren to send out a silent prayer to any deity that may or may not exist. If there was anything else that made her a freak that could save her life or at least get her out of this situation, then now was the time to show itself.
"Ah!" Ren skidded to a halt when the buildings that she was about to pass exploded. The debris and the inferno spread across the road in front of her, blocking her path with rubble and fire. Ren turned around, but found that there was at least ten times as much there, too. She was surrounded. Cornered. Trapped. The monster leapt through the flames and landed metres away from Ren, baring its fangs at the helpless school girl. Now, she was more than just trapped. She was dead.
"Over here!" Toshiro and Katelyn finally caught up with Ren, seeing the Feather through the fire and rubble. "Wait." Toshiro blocked Katelyn with his arm. "Don't forget what happened last time. We have to be careful." Toshiro reminded her. Katelyn nodded. The time travellers approached the fire surrounding the Feather, staying ducked behind some debris so that they had a good view of what was happening, but were hidden enough for the Feather`s power to not see them.
"This doesn't look good." Katelyn said in a hushed voice.
"This might get dangerous, so when I say run, you run. Got it?"
"Got it." Katelyn looked back to Ren. How in the world was she going to get out of this?
"..." Ren slowly backed away from the Feather as it crept towards her, snarling and growling like a savage beast. What was she going to do? Maybe running? No, the flames and monster blocked her way. She could try and kill the beast. But with what? Nothing here would make a good weapon. Not unless she could make it choke on a brick. But really, who ever heard of killing a monster with a rock? Maybe if she threw it in its eye...no, that's stupid. You'd have to be incredibly lucky to pull that off, and the Redwood Reaper was NOT lucky. Flight wasn't an option. Fight wasn't an option. All Ren could do was...die.
No...
Without warning, a spark went off inside her; a stubborn side of Ren made itself known. It was a determination Ren had no idea she possessed. A part of her that said "You are not going to die!" over and over again. Ren liked this feeling. It made her feel...confident. But, there was another emotion mixed in there, too. It was smaller, but it was undoubtedly there. And she recognised it. It was the same emotion she felt when she confronted Rosalie earlier today and somehow burned her. The same emotion after being called the wrong name too many times that shook Dungworth`s office and made her hands feel hot.
It was rage.
"Hey!"
"?" Everyone, including the Feather, turned to the source of that shout. No sooner had the Feather looked behind itself, a human boy leapt through the flames, brandishing a metal pole. The pole was jammed straight into the Feather`s eye as far as the boy could get it to go. The Feather shrieked in pain, and the boy landed on its head. Toshiro and Katelyn recognised the boy. It was Harley. Harley yanked the rod out of the monster's skull, jumping off the head and landing on the ground, making sure he was in front of his sister.
"Harley?" Ren said, in awe at the bravery that her big brother possessed. Sure, he'd stood up for her so many times that she stopped counting, but it was never against a demon or a monster or whatever the hell this thing was. Ren was now looking at her brother with a mixture of admiration and fear. Harley could actually die!
"Stay away from my sister!" Harley yelled, not letting something like a fear of death prevent him from protecting Ren, holding the pole in front of him as though it were a sword.
"Harley, what is that thing? Wait, forget that, why are we the only ones who can see it?" Ren asked, unsure about what questions she should be asking.
"No idea. I've seen these things for years and tried to keep you away from them." Harley answered, looking over his shoulder at Ren. A growl brought his attention back to the Feather, its eye almost completely healed and looking even hungrier for blood. "Obviously I didn't try hard enough."
"So… So what do we do now?"
"Stay behind me." Harley held an arm protectively in front of Ren, slowly backing away from the monster.
"We're surrounded. We can't escape." Ren whispered, looking over her shoulder at the fire and debris.
"Yeah, we can't." Harley agreed. "But you can."
"Eh?" Ren blinked. Without warning, Harley grabbed Ren's arm, spun around and threw Ren with all the unnatural strength he could muster. Toshiro and Katelyn watched Ren soar over their heads, landing flat on her butt outside of the ring of fire. Did Harley have super strength?! Well, they certainly didn't see that coming.
"I didn't know about this, I swear!" Katelyn said quickly, immediately sensing that Toshiro wanted to know what the hell just happened. She could tell by the way his eyes twitched as though the cogs in his brain were running past their maximum speed.
"Uuuu, my butt." Ren whined. "Wait." Ren quickly remembered what was going on and stood up back onto her feet. "Harley, what are you doing?!"
"Run!" Harley yelled.
"But, what about you?!"
"I'll be fine, just run!" But, Ren had barely heard her brother over the roar that the Feather let out. Hearing that roar made Ren feel that stubborn spark kick in again, only this time, it was telling her "Your brother will not die".
"NO!" Ren yelled, reaching out towards her brother. Suddenly, a shock wave travelled out of her hand, glittering with tiny white stars. In that moment, everything seemed to fall silent. All the time travellers and the Conner siblings could hear was a high pitched ringing that drowned out all other noises. They couldn't hear the Feather roar. They couldn't hear the loud crashing noise as the pulse slammed the monster into a building and out of sight. They couldn't hear the handful of cars become upturned and wrecked from the force of the blast. They could only see it. The shock wave was strong enough to extinguish the fires around her brother and the Feather, and Harley quickly took advantage and leapt out of the ring of destruction and back to his sister, too focused on staying alive to really focus on how his brain was saying "Holy crap, how did she do that?!" over and over again.
A telekinetic pulse. Toshiro thought, recognising the move that Ren would use, mainly on him to push him out of danger, and that time when Etheline tried to attack him after defeating Epona. But somehow, this attack appeared to be a lot stronger than the ones present day Ren would use. Then again, this was the first time Ren did it, so maybe it was inexperience that made it so uncontrolled. Ren, meanwhile, was staring at the pulses travelling out of her hand. As soon as they stopped, all noise returned, and she was hit with the sound of a car alarm, the crumbling rubble of the newly destroyed building and the roaring of the flames as they returned.
"Wh…What…" Ren stammered, staring at her hand as though it had sprouted claws. "How…" Ren looked up at Harley, as though somehow expecting him to have all the answers like older brothers usually did. "Harley, what-"
"Ask questions later." Harley interrupted sharply, knowing that that monster was going to come back, and it was going to be pissed! "We need to get away from here." But, they never got the chance, for as soon as Harley said that, the Feather bounced out of the gaping hole in the building and landed in front of the siblings, growling at them and drooling at the mouth. Yup. It was pissed. It opened its mouth wide and its long tongue lashed out at them like a whip. "Get down!" Harley pushed Ren away and jumped back just as the tongue hit the ground, breaking through the asphalt as though it were nothing. Harley rolled across the ground and stared at the Feather, trying to think of what to do. The Feather stared back, and with another growl, the Feather shot out its tongue again. Quickly, Harley grabbed a nearby metal sheet and held it up like a shield. The tongue hit the metal, and became stuck. Harley held onto it with all of his strength, and after a few seconds, he let go, and the metal sheet went flying towards the Feather and hitting it right in the face. The Feather growled in pain, raising one of its clawed, webbed hands up to rub at the new mark. Not one to waste an opportunity, Harley stood up and grabbed Ren's wrist, who was still too baffled about what happened earlier to do anything other than stare at the blank space in front of her.
What in the world is happening right now? Ren thought, not reacting as Harley dragged her to her feet. She looked at Harley's face. He was saying something with a wide-eyed, panicked expression, but she couldn't make it out. Her mind had drawn a complete blank, completely ignoring all that was happening around her. What's going on? Ren noticed how the Feather shook its head as though recovering from a dizzy spell and roared, charging towards Harley. Before either of the siblings could react, the Feather had grabbed Harley and slammed him against a wall with its beastly hand, knocking Ren over. Harley struggled and wriggled to get out its grip, punching at the fingers, but the Feather wasn't letting go anytime soon. Why is this happening? Ren stood up, staring at the Feather and her brother blankly. Harley was yelling something at her again and pointing in another direction. He must be telling her to run. But, she couldn't hear it. Is this what it was like to be shell-shocked? Are you completely deaf to your surroundings? Are you unable to do anything or even think about doing anything? But, she should be doing something. There was a monster here. A monster that was attacking her brother. Slowly, Ren turned her head to the flames that were still roaring in the street. That spark she felt before the weird pulse was back again. And this time, it was a lot stronger than just a single spark. It burned, just like those fires. She liked it. She embraced it. She embraced the rage of how her life turned out like this. The humiliation. The torment. The unending fear and paranoia. She could cope with that, but this? This monster that dared to attack her family? This was a step too far. She has had it! Ren clenched her teeth and turned to glare at the Feather. Something was going to suffer, and it wasn't going to be pretty.
"Hey!" Ren yelled. The Feather turned away from Harley, looking towards the source of the shout. "Yeah, I'm talking to you! Let my brother go, or else!" The Feather let out a rumbling growl, its grip loosening on Harley enough for him to slide onto the ground, coughing and gasping and taking in oxygen as though it were about to be snatched away from him again. The Feather slowly advanced on Ren, and while she was still holding onto that determined anger, it didn't stop her from panicking a little and realising that yelling at a monster that wanted to eat you was probably not one of her smartest ideas.
"Uh…T-That's right." Ren continued, accidentally letting a stutter escape her as she walked backwards from the monster. "I have just had a terrible day, and I don't need you making it worse!" Ren stopped her walking when she felt the heel of her shoe hit some rubble, and the heat she felt near her back told her that she was back at the circle of fire. But, she paid it no mind, and continued to glare fearlessly at the Feather as it advanced on her. "So why don't you scurry on away from here before I make you regret messing with me!" Ren yelled. The Feather didn't react, merely glaring at Ren. "Please don't eat me." Ren muttered, letting some of her fear leak through her fake confidence. Almost as if in response, the Feather roared at Ren, prompting Toshiro to take a few wary steps back, keeping an arm in front of Katelyn. But, Ren did not seem intimidated by the roar at all. Instead, her glare became even fiercer.
"ENOUGH!" Ren yelled, slamming a fist on the side of the Feather's face. To everybody's surprise, the Feather was sent flying once again, skidding on the ground. It slowly sat up, shaking the stars away from its eyes. Ren stared at her fist in surprise, amazed that it didn't hurt, or that she was that strong. But, it was only for a moment, and Ren was back to focusing on her anger at this beast.
"I've had it!" Ren yelled, stamping her foot for emphasis. "I've been putting up with a ton of rubbish all my life, and now some halitosis riddled demon is trying to eat me?!"
"…" Toshiro flinched, feeling his back getting warmer as Ren yelled. Come to think of it, his right hand was starting to feel strange. Like he could feel the heat from the fire, and the wind hitting the back of his hand. Toshiro raised it up to look at it. His eyes widened. It was still see through, but it was occasionally flickering between ghostly and solid. He didn't know why or how, but something was interfering with his Cielvian magic. With hushed instructions, Toshiro directed Katelyn behind a car so that they wouldn't be seen, and she was too drawn to what was going on to protest.
"There is only so much a person can take! If you attacked me any other day, I could handle it! But not today!" Ren's hands reached up to claw at her head in a mix of anger and frustration, and maybe it was Toshiro's imagination, but he could have sworn that the circle of fire behind Ren was getting bigger and brighter the longer Ren stayed angry. Wait. Maybe he wasn't imagining it!
Could it be…? Toshiro thought.
"Why? Just…why?" Ren said. "WHY CAN'T YOU JUST LEAVE ME ALONE?!" Ren screamed. As if on cue, the fire behind Ren exploded into an inferno, and the flames flicked towards the girl and swam around her body in a dome of fire. In seconds, the fire vanished as quickly as it came. At first glance, it would seem as though nothing had changed. But, Toshiro knew exactly why those flames were drawn to Ren. He could still remember Zena explaining how Cielvian powers worked, especially the Shackles. He looked at Ren's limbs. Sure enough, there they were. There were flaming orange rings floating around Ren's wrists and ankles blazing with a bright fire.
"The Fire Shackles…" Katelyn whispered in awe. "THAT'S how she got them!"
"Rage was their Trigger." Toshiro said to himself more than to Katelyn.
"…" Ren noticed the rings of fire floating around her wrists, and she stared at them in silent amazement. How was this possible?! It didn't make sense! First she could shoot vibrations out of her hand, then she punched a monster in the face, and now her limbs were on freaking fire! What was she, some kind of magical girl from the anime she watches?! She heard the Feather growl at her, but this growl sounded different. It wasn't threatening or angry like the previous ones. In fact, it wasn't a growl at all. It was a whimper. Looking from the fire around her arms to the beast in front of her, she could see that the frog-like monster was creeping backwards away from her. The monster was afraid of her. No, no not her.
Is he afraid of these? Ren thought, looking back at the fire floating around her limbs. What are they, anyway? Ren opened the palm of her right hand out. I wonder... She narrowed her eyes and concentrated. The fire bracelets glowed just a little bit brighter, and within a second, or maybe a little more, a fireball appeared floating in the palm of her hand.
"Mac and cheese with meatballs!" Ren exclaimed, recoiling from the fireball as though expecting it to harm her.
"Mac and what?" Toshiro said, confused at the nonsensical words Ren just used.
"Ren got in trouble for repeating a swear word her brother said, so she started saying nonsense words instead." Katelyn explained.
"Ah." Toshiro accepted the explanation easily; he did hear Ren think the word 'crudbuckets' at least once in his experience as a time traveller. Just when he thought Ren couldn't get any quirkier.
"Hmmm..." Ren glanced at the Feather. "Back!" She commanded, waving the fireball in its face. It jumped back from the fire with a flinch like a cat that had just been startled. "Get back!" Ren kept waving the fireball around and forcing the Feather back. For every step back, Ren took a step forward. "Go on, get! I'm not afraid to use this!" She threatened, even though she had no idea what she was doing or what was going on. Oh, well. She'd always been a believer in the saying "Go with the flow". Might as well put it into practice. "Don't eat my brother, or you'll be eating fire!" The Feather tried to swipe at Ren in an attempt to show it wasn't afraid. "Whoa!" Ren ducked down, avoiding the swipe. "Oh, that is it!" Ren, in a fit of anger, threw the fireball straight at the Feather's face just as it was about to roar. The fireball went straight into its mouth, the jaws closing reflexively. There was a silence as the time travellers and the siblings held their breath, waiting for what might happen next. Slowly, thick grey smoke leaked out of the corners of the Feather's jaw, and suddenly, it was shrieking in pain, letting more grey smoke erupt from its mouth. The Feather hopped up and down, left and right, off the buildings, anywhere and everywhere to distract itself from the burning pain in its mouth. The Conner siblings and the time travellers watched the Feather with their eyes, neither party sure how to respond, although Harley took this chance to get back onto his feet and dust himself off before wandering over to Ren.
"Uh…" Harley said, dumbfounded. "I don't know how I'm supposed to react to this."
You think YOU'RE confused?! Ren exclaimed mentally. You're not the one with fire around your limbs!
"Harley, what is this?" Ren asked, showing Harley the fire bracelet flickering around her right wrist.
"Your guess is as good as mine, sis." Immediately after Harley said this, the Feather stopped leaping off the buildings and landed on the ground in front of them, unmoving. After a few seconds, it started to glow a faint white, until the glow completely took over its body. Harley moved Ren back protectively, but the Feather burst into ashes that drifted off into the wind, through the sky and out of sight. Harley sighed with relief. At least now they were safe. But, as Harley looked down at his little sister's fire accessories that shone brightly around her limbs, he knew that this monster had brought a lot of new things to light.
"…" Ren raised an arm up to stare at this magical fire that felt hot, yet didn't burn her skin. What was it? Where did it come from? How does it work?
"What am I?" Ren whispered in such a quiet volume, she could almost convince herself she didn't say it.
"What do you mean?" Harley said. So she did say it out loud.
"Nothing." Ren quickly dismissed what she just said, still staring at the fire. Why wasn't it going away? No sooner had Ren thought this, the fire vanished from her wrists and ankles, leaving behind a normal, twelve year old girl. Ren almost scoffed. Normal. Yeah, that's the one thing she wasn't.
"Hey." Harley placed an arm around Ren's shoulders in an attempt to comfort her, but Ren didn't even react. "Let's go home. I've got a shirt that's dying to have a frog painted on it." Harley said with a playful smile. Ren didn't react. Harley sighed. Without another word, and without removing his arm from her shoulders, he led Ren down the road, picking up Ren's discarded bag on the way and not noticing the silver feather shaped charm on the road.
"That must be how Ren got her Fire Shackles." Katelyn said out loud, recapping the events that took place; seems like the siblings weren't the only ones who couldn't get a grip on what had just happened.
"That must be why Ren was able to use them without the need of an Activation Trigger." Toshiro theorised, almost hearing the gears turning in his mind. "She had already pulled it, leaving only the Summoning Trigger. It could be possible that Ren unlocked the Wind and Lightning Shackles before March 7th, and forgot what the Summoning Triggers were due to her amnesia."
"I understood, like, twenty five per cent of what you just said." Katelyn said flatly. "And that's just a generous estimate."
"I'll inform you of Cielvian terminology later." Toshiro had already turned the page of the diary while Katelyn was talking. The scene of a destroyed street had changed to Ren's bedroom by the time Toshiro finished his sentence. "Right now, we have a mission."
"I'll assume that's the royal we you just used, since I'm here by total accident." Katelyn reminded Toshiro.
"Whatever." Toshiro said dismissively, looking around the scene to try and get a clue as to what was happening. Ren was sat cross-legged on her bed, still dressed in her uniform, with the addition of a light pink hoodie over her school shirt, and reading a book with very avid interest. In fact, she looked so into her book that she probably wouldn't have noticed Toshiro and Katelyn appearing in her room if they weren't ghosts.
"What's this?" Katelyn noticed then that there were several books on the floor, some of them opened on certain pages. Katelyn crouched down onto the ground, trying to read some of the titles. "What's Happening to my Body? Girls Body Book? Secret Girls Business?" Katelyn looked up at Toshiro. "These are all puberty books!"
"Does Ren seriously think having Fire Shackles is related to adolescence?" Toshiro asked, baffled.
"I'd probably react the same way if I was a twelve year old girl who suddenly shot fire out of her hands."
"Humans are so confusing sometimes." Toshiro muttered to himself. His eyes caught a particular page of a book lying open on the pink carpet. "What's this page?" Toshiro leaned forward to read it.
"Um, I wouldn't read that if I were you." Katelyn warned, being far more familiar with the inner workings of the human body than this young Soul Reaper.
"Among the many changes you'll face when your body goes through puberty…" Toshiro mumbled, reading out loud. "…it is very normal once a month to oh, oh! OH!" Toshiro recoiled away from the book in horror and disgust, covering the book from his line of sight with his hands and turning his head with his eyes shut tight. "Oh, my…That can't be real!"
"It is." Katelyn nodded, folding her arms while biting the inside of her mouth to prevent herself from laughing.
"Urgh, that's the most disgusting thing I've ever seen!" Toshiro exclaimed with a shudder. "Well, maybe the second most disgusting." Toshiro corrected himself, remembering the moment he came across the ruins of Redwood.
"That's life." Katelyn said, unable to hold back her smirk any longer. Toshiro turned to look at her very seriously. "What?"
"Katelyn, do you have Altair's number? I have a memory I want to repress." Toshiro asked, completely serious.
"Pfft, yeah, sure, very funny." Katelyn snickered. Toshiro didn't change his expression. "Oh, you're serious." Katelyn instantly went from amused to sympathetic. "Look, it's not as bad as it sounds. Well, I'm sugar coating it a bit, but…Just c'mere." Katelyn beckoned Toshiro to come closer. Toshiro obeyed. "I'm assuming you know about the birds and the bees."
"Of course." Toshiro nodded. "I know enough about the subject."
"So, no." Katelyn said, much to Toshiro's annoyance. Seems like Toshiro was going to get a little lesson on the world of girls. "All you need to know is…" Katelyn leaned down and whispered in Toshiro's ear.
"Uh huh…Okay…That makes sense…Knew that already…" Toshiro muttered, listening to what Katelyn had to say. "Really?!" Toshiro recoiled away in surprise.
"Yep."
"So Rangiku…"
"Yep."
"And even Kuchiki…"
"Every month."
"Wow." Toshiro stared ahead of him, not really looking at anything as he processed this new information. "Women's bodies are more complicated than I expected."
"Tell me about it." Katelyn agreed. "With men, it's just point and shoot."
"Katelyn, that's gross!" Toshiro scolded.
"No it's not!" Katelyn said happily. "It's natural!" Toshiro glanced back at the book he recoiled from.
"No wonder Ren gets moody every now and again." Toshiro remarked.
"Eh, give her some chocolate and she'll be fine."
"And that also explains why her parents complain about chocolate going missing."
"Crudbuckets!" A book was sent flying towards the time travellers, and they were so into their conversation, they had completely forgotten why they were here. In fact, they even forgot they didn't exist, and instinctively ducked to avoid the book flying towards them. Remembering the situation, Toshiro and Katelyn stopped talking and focused on what Ren was doing. She slid off her bed and picked up another book lying on the ground, flicking through the pages.
"None of these books says anything about fire!" Ren said to herself, getting frustrated. "Oh, wait! There's a bit on hot flushes here. Is that what this is? Does this count as a hot flush?" Ren was silent for a few seconds, reading the new book. She frowned. "Uuuu, it only happens when you're middle aged." Dejected, Ren tossed the book over her shoulder and back on the carpet with the others.
"You doing okay in here, nerd?" Harley asked, coming into Ren's room at that moment.
"No." Ren sighed, falling back to sit on the carpet. "None of these books are telling me why I'm shooting fireballs and weird pulses."
"If they don't tell you why you heal quickly, they won't tell you about fireballs, either."
"I know." Ren mumbled, zipping up her hoodie and pulling the hood over her head, pulling the strings as far as they would go until only her mouth and nose were visible.
"Ren…" Harley said gently, getting down on his knees next to Ren and placing a hand on her shoulder. "We'll figure this out somehow. You're not the only one with freaky abilities, remember?" Ren nodded under her hood. "Do you want a Jaffa Cake?" Ren shook her head. "Do you want a glass of cream soda?" Ren shook her head. "Do you want to stay in Hoodieland for a while?" Ren nodded. "Okay, you can stay in Hoodieland for a while." Harley stood up and prepared to leave Ren's room, hovering when he got to the doorway. "Do you…Do you want to paint some shirts tonight?" Harley asked, looking over his shoulder at Ren, who had drawn her knees up and wrapped her arms around them, now well and truly in Hoodieland.
"No." Ren said quietly. "I don't trust myself with the crafting knife right now."
"…" Toshiro saw something similar to pain and sadness flash across Harley's face for the briefest of moments. What did Ren mean by that? And why did it cause such a reaction from Harley?
"I'll see you later, then." Harley said in a volume that was only just above a whisper, leaving Ren's room.
"Katelyn, what did Ren mean when…" Toshiro started, but interrupted himself when he looked back at Ren. She was starting to rub her wrist self-consciously. And that was when Toshiro realised exactly what Ren meant. But the tiny, irrational part of his brain was refusing to accept it. Ren would never do that to herself! She was too smart for that! Did this Ren…Did Ren really hate herself that much? "No…" Toshiro shook his head slowly. "Did she…I mean…She actually…" He stammered, looking at Katelyn, but he couldn't bring himself to finish the sentence, instead grasping his forearm in a way of saying it without actually saying it. Katelyn turned away, unable to look Toshiro in the eye.
"It's easy to hide it when you heal quickly." Was all Katelyn said, seeing things from Ren's perspective, and understanding why something like that seemed so…easy. "It doesn't leave any scars."
"Did you…"
"No, I never did." Katelyn shook her head, much to Toshiro's instant relief. "But Ren was facing the hatred of countless people for her whole life. After you hear those hurtful things being said to you for so long…"
"You start to believe them." Toshiro finished for Katelyn in a quiet voice. And he could imagine how being a magical person certainly made the "freak" insults easier to accept. Toshiro opened up Ren's diary to the page they were currently on. Through the dreadful writing, he could make out several insults and hurtful words, and all of them were directed not at Rosalie or the Thornton's or anyone in Redwood, but at Ren herself. Flicking back through the book, Toshiro couldn't believe he hadn't read the diary properly since he first got it. On almost every entry, there was at least one self-deprecating thing or insult in there. And on one date, Toshiro could have sworn that those small, dark patches looked less like ink and more like blood. Toshiro had no idea Ren's self-hatred ran so deep. Could she be feeling like this now? No, Ren is far too cheerful and upbeat for that; she would never feel this way. Would she?
"When's the next entry?" Katelyn asked, wanting to leave this sad scene as soon as possible. It was hard to believe that she could be laughing at Toshiro's unexpected naivety one minute and seeing the extent of Ren's self-hatred the next. After this question, Toshiro immediately started to blink back the inexplicable stinging in his eyes and turned the diary back to the current entry. Now was not the time for his emotions to get the better of him.
"The next two days are blank." Toshiro said, turning the pages to find that the next two dates were, indeed, blank.
"Ren wasn't in school that time." Katelyn said, remembering how she hadn't seen Ren at all until the weekend.
"Then let's go to Saturday." Toshiro turned the page of the diary to that date. "27th February." Toshiro read as the scene turned white. He checked the other dates without turning the pages completely. "It doesn't seem like this is a leap year. That means the day of the anniversary is almost a week away."
"What? Already?!" Katelyn peered at the diary. "Wow, we're still in the diary."
"Yes, we are." Toshiro confirmed, confused as to why Katelyn was talking like this.
"It feels like we've been in here for a year."
"But, Katelyn, it's only been three days."
"I know, right?!"
"Why is it so impossible for me to follow anybody's train of thought here?!" Toshiro exclaimed, the frustration of dealing with confusing humans like Ren and Steph, and now Katelyn, finally getting to him. How long before their eccentricities rub off on him?! Then again, with the amount of fun Ren seemed to have being her weird self, it might not be so bad. But, as Toshiro guiltily noted, she might not be her usual, happy self any longer now that she knew about Redwood and her role in its destruction.
"Here we are. Oooo, they're painting t-shirts!" Katelyn noticed the scene changed to the conservatory of Ren's house. The table was decorated with plain t-shirts of various colours, paints and a lot of scrap paper. Harley was just finished setting up the paper, dressed in a grey shirt with a yellow bulldozer on it and jeans. Meanwhile, Ren was sat at the table and staring vacantly ahead of her, wearing a denim skirt, a white shirt with a pink heart on it and a light pink short sleeved hoodie, complete with light blue leggings and pink and blue trainers. Her hair was still tied into two plaits, but Toshiro noticed how the tails were tied with pink and blue bows instead of plain black bands like she wore in school.
She must have skipped school after what happened with the Feather. Toshiro thought, drawing his own conclusions on Ren's absence in her diary the previous two days.
"There!" Harley clapped his hands once, smiling with pride at the setup n the table. "All set for a day of crafts!"
"You forgot the cutting board." Ren said without looking up.
"Hm?" Harley looked underneath the fabric and paper. "Oh, shoot, you're right! Stupid Harley, eh? Heheh. Duh!" Harley slapped his own forehead. Glancing at his sister, who gave no reaction to his behaviour. "Uh, I'll just get the board. Mum and Dad will be mad if we end up marking the table again." Ren said nothing. "Right." Harley felts his spirits dampen at Ren's lack of response. With significantly less cheer, Harley left the room to get the craft board, leaving Ren alone. Once she was certain she was alone, Ren reached over for the crafting knife and took off the plastic safety lid, watching how the light reflected off the blade. Then, without any warning or hesitation, she brought her left arm up and swiped the knife across her arm so quickly, she could hear the blade cut through the air. Katelyn was unable to hide the gasp at this action, and Toshiro was too alarmed to say anything. It wasn't the self harming that made him so speechless; he had already figured out earlier how Ren would engage in this behaviour. What alarmed him was how quickly and easily Re had inflicted this damage on herself. If he didn't believe that Ren would never do something like this to herself in the past, he believed it now; no first timer would do it to themselves so easily. So effortlessly. Did Ren really place such little value on her body? On herself?
"It's even faster." Ren's voice cut through the prodigy's thought process, and looking at Ren's arm, he noticed that, sure enough, the cut was already gone, mere seconds after it had been inflicted. Not even a speck of blood remained. Even though Ren's regeneration was slower thanks to accepting Dixie's offer of healing powers, it still amazed him at how quickly Ren healed.
"Found it!" Ren gasped after hearing Harley's voice, and she quickly wiped the blood off the knife with her fingers before recapping it and placing it exactly where she found it, looking as innocent as possible as Harley came back into the conservatory with the cutting board. "Now, we won't damage the table." Harley placed the board on the table after moving some t-shirts out the way.
"What are you going to make today?" Ren asked with fake cheer, wiping the blood off her fingers on the inside of her skirt pocket. Harley glanced at Ren, noticing her forced happiness.
"Eh, I was thinking of doing a truck today. Take a break from the patterns. It would be nice to have a shirt that matches this one." Harley pinched his shirt forward to show off the bulldozer.
"Sounds great." Ren said with a smile that anyone could tell was forced.
How long is Ren going to keep this up? Harley thought. Doesn't she know I can see right through her?
He can see right through me, I know it. Ren thought.
Ding-dong!
"Hm? Wonder who that is?" Harley left the room to answer the door. Ren sat quietly, trying to listen to the conversation at the front door, but it was too far away for her to recognise any words of voices.
"Ren! Some people are here for you!" Harley's voice yelled.
"Oh?" Ren stood up, curious.
Well, I know it's not someone from Redwood. Ren thought. Harley would send them packing with just a look.
"Be right there!" Ren called, leaving the conservatory and going to the front door, the invisible time travellers following her. "What the..." Ren paused when she reached the hall. Standing at the doorway were Katelyn, Tom and Nathan, wearing casual clothes instead of their uniforms. "What are you doing here?" Ren abruptly asked.
"Eh, hello to you too, twit features." Nathan said, confused at Ren's response.
"Nathan!" Tom elbowed Nathan in the ribs, giving him a scolding expression that reminded the children of a parent telling off their child. "Don't insult her like that!"
"It's fine, Tom. It's this thing we have." Ren explained. "But thanks." Ren turned her attention back to Nathan. "Seriously, why are you here, dingbat."
"Just checking you're still alive."Nathan answered with a teasing smile.
"Of course I am, why wouldn't I be?"
"For starters, you haven't left the house for days."
"And if what Harley told Nathan is true, then we want to help." Katelyn said.
"What do you mean?" Ren asked, dragging the sentence out slowly and cautiously.
"Um...Well...How do I put this?" Tom stalled, rubbing the back of his neck nervously.
"Harley told us you've got super powers." Nathan said bluntly, and he received an elbow from Katelyn for that.
"What?" Ren's eyes went wide. "I-I-I-I-I don't have powers. Who told you that? You have powers!" Ren said defensively, pointing an accusing finger at the group. "And I definitely didn't fight a monster with super powers, if that's what you're implying!" Silence.
"You fought a monster, didn't you?" Tom asked.
"Yes, I did." Ren answered, lowering her arm.
"You're terrible at lying."
"I know." Ren hung her head.
Wow, deja vu. Toshiro thought, seeing the uncanny parallel.
"I don't know what exactly happened." Ren admitted in a defeated tone. "All I know is that I felt something inside me. Like a...a spark." Ren's eyes lit up with a faint glimmer of hope at the memory, feeling a smile appear on her face. "I felt confident. Powerful. Like I could take on the world if I wanted to." Ren's face quickly fell. "But I don't know why it happened. Why can I do those things?"
"Ren..." Tom entered inside the house so that he could stand closer to Ren as she fought her internal war. "What did you do?" Ren didn't answer. "Is this why your hair grew back?"
"You know?" Ren gasped, looking up at Tom.
"I figured it out from the pictures." Tom shrugged. "Nobody's hair grows back that quickly."
"I guess." Ren mumbled.
"I already knew you were unique before this happened." Tom continued. "I had a few days to figure out what to do with what I knew." Tom glanced over at Ren's friends and brother. "We all have." To looked back at Ren, tilting her head up to look him I the face, willing her to believe every word he was saying. "And we've decided...We don't care."
"You don't?" Ren said. "But...I'm a freak."
"No, you are not." Harley said firmly. "You're special, Ren. And I'm not saying that because I'm your brother. You're special the same way I am."
"Do you heal quickly, too?" The younger version of Katelyn asked.
"Not exactly." Harley shook his head. "I'm just freakishly strong. Gimme a pole and I can bend it like a paper clip." Harley boasted.
"See?" Tom gestured at Harley and Katelyn. "You already have two people who are like you. You might be afraid of these powers, but I'm not. I think it's amazing!"
"Why?" Ren asked, confused.
"Remember the other day when I asked you what you could do that Rosalie couldn't? This is it!" Tom exclaimed with open arms, beaming. "And that spark you felt? It's called confidence. You have a talent, Ren. And think you should embrace it."
"Hey, yeah." Harley said with a smile. "I like the idea of you being a superhero. Just...lay off the spandex."
"And all superheroes need practice." Katelyn jumped down the porch steps and onto the driveway leading to Ren's house. "Come on. I know a great place."
"I don't know." Ren said, uncertain. "Just yesterday, I ended up making everything in my room float, and there were these little white stars all over the place..." Ren explained, waving her fingers as f to demonstrate.
"You're telekinetic?! That's awesome!" Nathan exclaimed, not sensing Ren's distress in the slightest. This time, Harley was the one to elbow him in the ribs. "Stop elbowing me!"
"Stop being insensitive!" Harley retorted.
"Ren..." Tom said, ignoring the bickering going on behind him. "I know this is scary, but you don't have to face it alone."
"Exactly." Katelyn said from outside. "You have friends to help you through this now."
"We're here for you." Harley backed up Ren's new friends, and he could tell that their words were finally starting to get to Ren. Her expression looked uncertain, but it also seemed hopeful at the same time.
"So what do you say we give these super powers a test drive, huh?" Nathan asked. Ren twiddled with her fingers, contemplating her decision.
"You've been given a spark, Ren. Hold onto it." Tom said seriously.
"..." Ren looked between her friends and her brother as they waited for a response. They were right. For the first time in her life, she actually felt truly confident in herself and in her own abilities. She didn't know what they were, but it must have been some kind of strange fate that made her have these powers. And darn it, she deserved at least something to make her hopeful again.
"Okay." Ren said, swallowing her nerves. She met the smiles of her friends and family with her own determined smile. "Let's do this."
And there we have it! Again, really sorry this took so long. *hits self with rolled up newspaper* Bad writer! Bad! I've just got a new job, and it's been mad settling in. Plus, I keep getting all these creativity blocks. I know what I want to happen here; it's just getting there! Anyway, I hope this lateness won't put you off following Fate and Destiny (I even put in a little fourth wall joke for you people. Who can spot it?) and that you'll leave some reviews. Next time, Ren starts to embrace her new abilities, and Toshiro notices something about his own at the same time? What could this mean? Could this be connected to what happened with their visibility earlier? How did Ren get the rest of her Shackles? What will Rosalie have in store for Ren? Find out next time, only on Fate and Destiny!