Hello my beloved readers! I'm so glad you've decided to read my story and many thanks to you all, but here's the final chapter :)
Dren's power had knocked the towel off her hair and blasted her off her feet. But before she slammed into and through the wall he nimbly caught her. She felt so frail and limp in his hands, as if she could snap in two if he didn't treasure her carefully.
And he wept even harder. This was torture. His heart ached with a pain only deep love could cause. And he crushed her body close to his, sobbing into her shoulder as he sank to his knees cradling her. Never again would she see him in the same light. Nor would she ever feel the same way as he did. The thumping of her heart was receding and his own beat a lonely tune of anguish. The tears fell freely and his chest shook with distress. His lungs heaved rapidly and he whined a frightful tune.
His one love was gone now. And he was alone.
He could hear footsteps approaching the house and he stiffly detached himself from her and dried her hair with magic before sweeping the bangs out of her pale face. The wounds on her shoulders had clotted roughly and he waved his hands. Green sparks jumped and embedded themselves onto the skin, they would numb the pain till scar tissue could form over the scab.
He laid her fondly on the bed that they'd only just mated on. It was perhaps one of the cruellest notions possible, to leave a loved one so soon after bonding physically and emotionally. "This was all for the best. I knew we wouldn't have a future together. Any future we had was ruined the moment we were born as separate species. My sweet, sweet kitty cat...we were destined to fight without love." He kissed her tenderly on the lips. And he savoured how soft her lips and plump her lips were to him. "I won't be able to touch these lips ever again..." He could hear keys being pulled out of a bag, then the lock clicking in the door.
"Oh my sweet, sweet Zoey..." He murmured and brushed away tears before stroking her hair for one last time. He knew that if he didn't leave now. He never could. He passed a streak of magic into her head before leaving...it'd be his last gift for her future.
Teleporting back to his Cyniclon base was more of a nuisance than anything, it was all so fast... His tear streaked face earned him a grin from Sardon which only added to his grief.
It was too soon...too soon to be here and face the consequences. Ah...his heart was beating sorely. A tear stained face was one thing but emotional pain from loss of a loved one, was indescribable...it was a pain that time had a slim chance of healing and magic could not fix it either.
"Did you do it?" Sardon asked him tensely and he hissed lowly as a reply. "I'll take it as a yes then. Congratulations. You've proved yourself to be a Cyniclon brother once again."
"Don't congratulate me." Dren snarled back at him.
"Very well. There is just one more question...are you ready to submit yourself to Deep Blue?" Sardon asked him with a raised eyebrow. Dren snarled his fangs at him and he moved himself over to the centre of the dimension where Tarb attached rolled up the long sleeves of his shirt.
"I'm not ready no but I'll still do it." He replied dolefully and he bit his lip as the older Cyniclon chuckled emptily. Tarb rushed around him clamping thick metal bands around his wrists. The metal bands were positive and negative nodes...even his paltry knowledge about Cyniclon tech told him that much.
"You agreed, your mission is complete, I can't see Zoey's life signature on screen anymore and you had your fun with the girl. Looks like your life is pretty much complete. What else did you want?" Sardon asked him and folded his arms as he leant against the console coolly. His unwavering eyes registered the torment on Dren's face and he gave a smirk.
"Or did you want to become human and live out your golden years with her? Have ickle babies with her? You could even get a job and provide food for the family! Little Dren Junior and Zoette!" The Cyniclon gave a chuckle and Sardon scowled at him.
"Those names suck." Dren laughed at him hollowly. And he retched for a minute before coughing out a think black, red substance that glinted ominously in the light as it dripped from his mouth and clung to his chin.
"You're an even bigger fool than what I thought. If we don't expel the tainted magic from your blood you know it could permanently damage your adult life cycle when you eventually get there. But for now this premature "forced" state is a danger to everyone, especially to yourself seeing as you let it incubate in you for so long." The metal bands on his wrist gave a few whirrs as machinery configured itself to match his DNA and stream of magic.
"You know if I wanted to, I could just break all this machinery-" And Sardon hissed at him angrily.
"Don't be such an imbecile. You know that you cannot maintain this form without shortening your own life span. And I thought it was clear enough to you that our species is short on magic weavers already, we can't afford to have one wasting his life for the sake of the emotion "love". But I'm glad you realise she won't love you back when you're an adolescence again." He snickered and Dren roared at him,
"YOU'RE WRONG! SHE LOVES ME!" And he clenched his hands into fists, feeling his claws draw blood from the palm of his hand. He was useless against them.
""Loved" should have been the correct verb to use."
"You don't know anything."
"Oh but I do..." Sardon grunted, "I know a Cyniclon cannot exist as a human, or even pretend to be a human. Do not ignore what you are. An adolescent Cyniclon, not this teenager trapped in an adult's body." Sardon droned at him. "Well, the bands look calibrated now." He said as he glanced at the console.
"Are you ready?" Tarb asked him slyly.
"It won't be pleasant." Sardon added dryly but couldn't resist a sneer as Dren stared at him with cold, unforgiving eyes.
"Bring it on."
"Your pain, my amusement." Sardon deftly pulled a small lever down on the console and Dren could feel the wrist bands heating up. The heat passed through his skin without breaking the surface and began filtering through him, the tainted magic was suckered towards the negative node on his right arm whilst his pure magic travelled unwillingly towards the positive node. Effectively separating the two strands of power. His body shook violently as he felt his ever present magic pulled away from his soul. The negative node gushed out the tainted blood through the pores of his skin till it his entire head was drenched in the sticky fluid.
His skin emitted cloudy fumes to combat the overheating of his body and his limbs jittered uncontrollably. "We could have lived together, we could have had children, I only needed to alter my DNA with magic. But now, I've submitted myself. I was weak Zoey...and I couldn't stay by your side..." He felt his knees hit the floor as they failed to uphold his weight. He felt his bones shrink and crush the excess marrow out till they decreased in size and density, and his organs pumped out the extra protein till they became their original size. His skin tightened and shed excess material whilst new cells grew rapidly to meld the new skin together and his limbs clicked back into places as his life cycle was reversed.
"It's lucky he's a magic weaver, otherwise he'd be more than unconscious right now." Tarb commented as he nudged the limp Alien with his foot. "He theoretically shouldn't still be alive...such a shame, that theories are just theories."
"It was more gruesome than I thought it'd be, all those cracking noises and shedding of organic bits. Eurgh." Sardon commented sniffly and waved his fan where all the mess Dren was lying in was whisked away to sub-space and incinerated. "All that organic material and useless magic is disgusting..."
"It's all over now though." Tarb sighed with relief, "No more "I love you Zoey! With all my heart!" Or even more sickening phrases he manages to conjure up..."
"About that..." Sardon said slyly and walked closer to Dren. "It'd be unfortunate if he were to pursue her again...who knows how that reversed transformation might have affected him. Why...he could have even lost his mind."
"Yeah...we wouldn't want that to happen!" Tarb sniggered as Sardon pointed his weapon at the Cyniclon.
"Of course not." He blasted a thin beam of energy into the Cyniclon's forehead and chuckled, "That should do it."
"Hmph...Sardon, you're not going to like this." And the small alien pointed towards the projected screen of the city, where a small pink dot was flashing every few seconds.
Sardon growled deeply, "You lying bastard!" And kicked Dren hard in the chest where a few ribs could be heard breaking with loud snap.
"Zoey! Right, sit down!" Elliot groaned as he paced in front of his desk impatiently.
"I'm already sitting down." She replied with a sigh,
"Irrelevant!" Elliot snapped at her, his eye balls bulging slightly. "Spill the story! I want to hear everything you've done with Dren from day one!" And he pointed dramatically at her with a pen in one hand and a notebook in the other.
"Erm...I've no idea what you're on about." She replied flatly, "Was it really necessary to have this thing on me?" and she tapped at the thick helmet of metal that was strapped to her head. It made a few beeping and whirring noises as she did.
"Of course. It records your brain waves and transmits them to my computer so I know that you're not lying." Elliot scoffed at her. "Now out with it! Are you a double agent for the Cyniclons?"
"No way!" Zoey laughed and Elliot took down some notes hastily,
"Then why did you date Dren!"
"Date Dren? Are you out of your mind Elliot? That's crazy! I've got Mark! No way am I going near that creepy thing!" Elliot's eyebrow twitched as he pieced the puzzle together.
"Okay...who's this?" And he pulled up two photos of the Cyniclon.
"That's Dren the weirdo, and I don't know who that is. He's really hot though..." Zoey giggled and Elliot sighed.
"That's enough for today, go back down to the cafe and send Wesley up to me."
"O-Okay..." Zoey muttered and yanked the machinery off her. "Oh...can I borrow that book on your desk?"
"Theories of the mind? Go ahead..." Elliot replied stiffly and she picked it up with a beaming smile at him. She could feel his piercing gaze following her closely. And she walked down to the cafe with an uneasy feeling, what did he mean, date Dren? And why was everyone else looking at her oddly?
"Hiya Wesley."
"Oh hello Zoey." Wesley smiled at her though it was a sympathetic smile. "Did Elliot want me?"
"Yeah, you may as well go up now, I think he's a few screws loose." She replied to him stiffly and walked rigidly out of the kitchen to where Corina was sat sipping tea.
"Everyone's looking at me real weird today." She mumbled as she sat by her friend.
"It's to be expected." She sighed and put down the tea cup. The lack of answers was really annoying her now,
"Why? What's happened?" She demanded, "Corina, you gotta tell me why everyone's acting weird!" Corina stiffened visibly and Zoey slammed her hands on the table.
"Fine. Don't say anything. I'm leaving here for today." She muttered and stomped outside the cafe, leaving the door swinging violently in her wake.
"It's not her fault." Elliot murmured besides Wesley. "Well this was all the evidence I needed, turns out Dren wasn't lying in the video."
"Urgh, it's such an annoying attitude he has...but at least he's done the right thing." Wesley groaned as he clicked on the video file on the computer. "It's been a week since we found it but still Zoey is so clueless..."
"Hello puny insects!" Dren's voice revered powerfully through the room and his grinning face appeared on screen. "In case you're wondering what this is, this is the "memory file" I stored in Zoey's head which I'm sure that arrogant blonde scientist of yours will easily locate once you scan her brain. But enough about how fabulous I am..."
And he stepped aside to reveal Zoey limp form which lay on the floor behind him. "This is a pre-recorded message but her beautiful body should be lying there right now. And her mind should be currently in the process of deletion, but don't you worry humans, its selective deletion. When she wakes up she'll have forgotten all about this Dren." And he pointed a slender finger at himself.
"And if you thought Cyniclons were just going to give up this planet then you guys can dream on, 'cause I going to wage war on your race!" And he clutched at his chest visibly and grimaced, "Just you wait. When I've reverted I'll still be strong enough to wipe you all out." And the message finished leaving the image of Dren's pained face frozen on screen.
"Well...who knows why he did that eh?" Wesley muttered and sighed,
"It was surprisingly kind of him. But Zoey can't ever know about this otherwise she'll be tempted by him and that'd be troublesome." Elliot said flatly and proceeded to wipe his computer's memory. "Get rid of everything Dren related Wesley, and double check that the other girls are still keeping their mouths shut. That's what his message was designed for."
"Designed for?"
"Yeah...he wants to forget any of this ever happened. All the pragmatics and semantics are there." Elliot said slowly,
"I feel bad for him." Wesley muttered as he picked up a thick wad of papers, "Think of how hard it must have been for him to do this."
"I doubt he could maintain that form for much longer. I did some blood samples on him before he left us and it turns out our experiment was extremely toxic to him, I'm surprised he survived for so long." Elliot groaned and looked at his desk. "Where's the disk?"
"Which one?"
"It was the one with the recording of the gorilla incidence with Zoey. It was right on my desk before." Elliot groaned and held his head in his hands, "And she went and took it along with my book... I'm going to have a coronary incidence one of these days."
"Oh ho! What's this!"
"You better give that back!" Zoey shouted at him with a fierce expression. "Otherwise I'll have no choice but to hurt you!" And she transformed, pulling out her weapon that had Dren sneering.
"And hurt me with a few bells? Don't make me laugh kitty cat!" And he trained his fixating stare on her dark eyes. He tapped the disk on his chin thoughtfully,
"Whatever could you be hiding in this disk? Secret photo's of Mark maybe?" He laughed and Zoey grew a dark shade of red. "I do deserve to know though."
"No you don't!" She squealed in reply and fired at him but he dodged it easily in midair.
"Ooh, but who was it kitty cat that interrupted my sun bathing? I was enjoying the sunshine and peace before you walked all over me!" He grinned at her as she leapt up a tree to gain altitude so that she could stand at an even height with him.
"Then don't turn invisible when sunbathing!" She snapped at him and his scrawny body shook with laughter,
"It was camouflage! You can have this back but only if you play a game." He purred to her after wiping away the tears of laughter.
"A game?" Zoey repeatedly blankly, but her curiosity was spiked and there was no going back. She leapt down to the floor seeing as he'd descended.
"That's right kitty, a game...a lovely game of whoever wins this fight gets the disk." Dren told her and began circling her, his feet barely grazing the ground. "Because you're so cute, I'll go easy on you."
"You talk too much!" She replied with exasperation, "Strawberry bell – attack!" He batted away the jet of power easily but kept his eyes fixated on the disk.
"What is this?" He hissed at her angrily. She flinched slightly as his appearance, the elongated fangs and pupils slitted in anger. "Our game's over! I asked you what the hell is this!" He snarled and slammed her into the trunk of a tree with his hand at her throat.
"I don't know!" She gasped, her hands scrabbling on his hand. He held the disk between a finger and thumb carefully, "I got it from Elliot's desk!"
"This is ridiculous." His heart was racing as his magic allowed him to read the data encrypted on the disk. "Gorillas in the zoo...why am I fighting for you?" He breathed out under his breath. And he slowly loosened his grip on her. Images, and sounds were rushing into his head now. Was he imagining it? He swore he could smell the scent of danger as he replayed the moment the gorilla roared at him.
"Why are my hands shaking?" He thought nervously feeling a build up of guilt in his stomach. "I-I'm sorry." He muttered and took a rattling breath. Zoey watched him curiously, the Cyniclon seemed to be trapped in his own little world, caged within his thoughts.
Dren felt a searing pain across his arm and saw that she had scorched streak of flesh on him whilst snatching the disk away. And he hadn't even noticed. "Ouch...you hurt me deep." He ran a tongue along the wound, feeling where the flesh had died and fluid leaked out. This wasn't the time to be contemplating when he was in danger of getting hurt.
He heard her heart rate increase..."It appears we have a history that is unknown to us." He purred to her, and she raised an eyebrow. He swallowed once and pointed at the disk she held,
"I'm sure you'll have questions for your precious Elliot after you watch that." He said and she was thrown off guard as he gave a stretch and yawned in front of her. It was such a natural action that she'd never thought Cyniclons were possible of.
"Well I'm done for the day Princess Zoey, I've got other things to be thinking about." He turned away from her and felt a shiver pass over him. "Princess" Why did he select that word in particular? "Bratty" would have been a better adjective.
"...Prince Dren." She muttered quietly,
"What did you just say?" He snapped,
"Prince Dren." And she laughed, "You know...you were actually cute as a kid." And she giggled as the Cyniclon did a double take.
"What?" His eyebrow ticked in annoyance. At first the disk's data had unsettled him but he could handle that with some careful analysis, but now this? "What on Earth is this girl on about!"
She walked closer to him and smiled warmly at him. "You know what I'm talking about." Her expression was kind and he didn't understand it...but she didn't smell of malice, and neither were his instincts warning him of danger. In fact he was feeling at ease.
The Cyniclon leant closer to her, his devilish features softened greatly as he smiled without his alien fangs. "Should I know what you're talking about?" He had to get the upper hand here and not appear as a "fish out of water" so the human saying went.
"Yeah...I can't believe you've forgotten." She laughed and blushed slightly as he leant in even closer, his expression quizzical. He held her face gently up to him with his slender fingers, and one claw traced the outline of her jaw that sent shivers down her spine. And now his other hand was on her shoulders, his fingers playing with a lock of hair. She'd never noticed how nice his eyes looked or how smooth his skin was.
"How about falling in love with me?" He asked her bluntly.
"Wha-What? No way!"She slapped his hand away but only opened herself up to attack. In which Dren dove close to her and left a ghost of a kiss on her lips. She squealed and pushed him away from her in a flurry of movement, all the time her cheeks a rich red.
"Fall in love with you? Not a chance!" She declared determinedly.
"It'll be interesting though." Dren laughed and massaged his cheek where she had unintentionally punched. He knew he was walking into dangerous waters, but still...the person in the video was unmistakably Zoey and himself. He had to know what of his memory had been wiped? It was obvious that was the case but what happened between them? The only way to find out was to retrace his steps. Starting with the Prince and Princess syndrome they'd both developed.
"So, why am I Prince Dren?" He asked her tentatively and she burst out with peals of laughter.
"I'm sorry! Hahaha! Sit down and I'll tell you." And she pulled him down so that they sat cross legged from one another.
But in the end curiosity... would kill the cat.
I hope you enjoyed reading it! Although I thought the ending was a little lame haha...