[Author's Note]: Not sure if anyone if aware, so I'll say it here too. Hello everyone! I am writing stories again! I recently ended my Fruits Basket fanfiction and I edited all of its chapters. I did the same here, correcting grammatical errors, continuity problems, etc. So some of this chapter is very similar to the original Chapter Eleven: The Burden, but I broke it into two separate chapters and added some stuff. Feel free to go back and read the revisions.

I'm also not sure if I'm going to end this one just yet. I went through Cursed Blood, True Souls pretty quickly, but I don't plan on doing that with this one. I will probably edit Spiritflame and end that story before this one since that one is so old. This one was relatively easy since my writing was better as I got older, while Spiritflame is going to be an uphill battle….

Anyway, please enjoy the story! Welcome back! And to those new, welcome to the updated story!

Chapter Twelve: The Eyes

A few days had gone by… or at least I guessed it had been that long. I had lost track of time. My of the time, I hung my head, not wanting to use more energy than necessary. At that point, my wrists were cut up from the cuffs holding me to the cables. I would lean my weight on them when I couldn't stand anymore and my hands felt numb most of the time.

I heard the door slide open and loud, slow footsteps grew closer. I didn't dare look up. Eventually I felt cold, bony fingers on my chin, lifting my head up. His red, piercing eyes bore straight into my green ones.

"Hmmph," he mused. He dropped my chin suddenly and it smacked down to my chest briefly. "You have your mother's eyes."

I looked back up staring daggers into him. "Good. Wouldn't want anything from you." I spat.

"Tsk, tsk my boy. I have a little surprise for you today…." He gestured to the door as it slid open again. Two wraiths came in and between them, they were holding a black and red Piggle by the arms. It flapped its wings vigorously in a weak attempt to flee. It whimpered as it struggled. "Does this look familiar to you?"

I squinted my eyes to be sure, but it looked just like the Piggle I started my questing with. I could tell it wasn't the same one though. I small wave of relief washed over me, but there was still a small lump in my throat.

"You're going to hurt this little one," he said as he walked over and patted it on the head. My eyes widened.

"I won't do it." I said firmly.

"I'm afraid you don't have a choice." He snapped his fingers and the cables streamed electricity into my body. I twisted in pain, clenching my teeth. When the electricity stopped, I was gasping.

"You can hurt me all you want. I'm not gonna do it."

"I figured you would refuse…." he said with a sigh. "In that case… I'll have to make you."

His eyes started glowing red, the same way they did when he tried to control me back at Sunken City. It was the same way mine had responded.

My vision blurred and my head started pounding. All I saw was red lighting the room from both of us. I started panting and moaning in agony.

Finally, the pain stopped and my eyes were still glowing.

"There we go…." Malistare sneered with a grin. "Now… I don't want you to kill it… just simply… play with it."

I couldn't speak. In my head, I was screaming to make myself stop. But I couldn't control myself anymore.

I raised my hand high over my head, still in cuffs and started shooting black streams of energy at the Piggle. It whined and squealed as I shot at it, and I couldn't help but smile at its pain.

What was wrong with me? Inside, I was cringing at what I had become. I couldn't stand to think that it was me doing it…. It was like I was watching through a screen into the world.

The Piggle was squealing again, but when it whimpered, the sound was familiar. I remembered the sound of Sir Chester nuzzling up to Nicole when she was in the coma.

Nicole….

As quickly as I had thought about her, I dropped my hand to hanging from the cuffs again. My eyes stopped glowing and I hung my head, panting. My face stung as if all the pressure of my blood had rushed to the front of my face.

Malistare clapped. My head shot up and I glared straight at him. "Very good…. This is certainly an improvement."

I didn't respond. He had finally overcome me. I looked over to the Piggle and my eyes softened. He was alive and panting, trying to get over the pain. I mouthed "I'm sorry." But the Piggle looked away from me. I hung my head in shame.

Malistare walked up to me and patted me on the shoulder. I spun my head as quick as I could and tried to bite him but he pulled back too quickly. He snapped his fingers and shocked me again for a few seconds. When it was over, I was panting again. I looked up at him.

He smiled before turning and walking out.

*A few days later…*

The door was opening again. It didn't even faze me at that point. The footsteps were smaller and quickly paced. Once they were close enough, I heard a panicked voice.

"Malorn? Malorn?! Malorn, we need to get you out of here!" A heard a faint flapping of wings near the girl, whoever she was. I still didn't look up. "Malorn, are you alright? Oh, what did he do to you?" I felt a hand under my chin lift up my head. "Open your eyes!"

My eyes opened.

My heart sank.

Her hair was pulled into a long braid behind her, and she was dressed in the black of the ninjas of MooShu. But as always, her blue eyes seemed to glisten with the comfort of love and purity.

"Nicole…." I rasped her name. "Get away from me. Get out while you can."

"No! I'm not leaving you!" She started to undo the cables, melting the cuffs with her fire magic. "This is gonna burn a little."

"You don't… you don't understand…." How could I tell her that I could become Malistare's pawn at any moment? That I had become his pawn, if only temporarily.

"There's no time!" The first cuff melted away.

"Malistare…. He can…."

"It's okay, I'll get you out of here."

"Leave me." I pleaded.

"No!" she said, shaking her head. She continued melting the cuffs.

"He can control me, Nicole!" I shouted with all of the energy left in me. She stopped melting the cuff and looked into my eyes. She searched them for something… anything but what she just heard.

"Wh… what?"

"My fiery light…" I said, putting it as gently as possible, "I love you more than anything. But if you let me go, I could kill you."

She looked down and took a shaky breath. "I'm going to save you. I'll do anything." There was no use. I'd have to let her take me. I knew she wouldn't take no for an answer. The second cuff melted off. I fell to the ground and groaned. I got on my hands and knees with Nicole helping me up. "Come on, there's not much time." She stood me up with my arm draped over her shoulder. Sir Chester flew under my other arm, holding me around his slim neck.

"YOU!" Malistare roared with a slam of the door. His eyes turned completely red, glowing again not even the outer rim of his eyes showing white. He started to charge at us, but Nicole shot out fire blasts faster than he could run. I felt myself slowly losing control, and I started panting as I tried to focus on Nicole. He dodged some and got singed by others. Nicole clasped her eyes shut, and just as his hand reached out to grab me, we teleported away in a mist of flame.

*Seconds later…*

We appeared in the main courtyard of the palace.

"Ugh…." Nicole groaned and collapsed to the floor. I rolled away from her without any energy left.

"Nicole…." I reached out for her.

All of a sudden, a burst of flames formed around her and fiery red-orange wings erupted from her back. My eyes widened as she slowly got on her hands and knees, then glided toward me with her wings. She picked me up in her arms and with Sir Chester fluttering behind, and flew quickly back to the hut.

"How did you…?"

"I got a few tips from Ambrose…." She trailed off, focusing on the hut ahead of us. "He told me that my dad used wings too. He created his own wings using magic, and passed it onto me. Technically, any wizard can have them, but it's less common with all the newly discovered magical creatures people use to get around. I find these easier though… and less hazardous to the magical creatures. They're just Orange Fairy Wings."

"He's alive?" All I could process was that she spoke to Ambrose. I cared about her dad, but I was in too much of a fog to think about that. I thought that after that one time Ambrose spoke to us, he was gone.

"Yeah…. I'll tell you more another time." She looked down at me and smiled weakly. The tears in her eyes made me realize what my absence had done to her.

The smile sparked something in me. It was there before, but fainter from being in Malistare's clutches for so long. It was finally a warm glow again.

We arrived at the hut and she flew me into the bedroom, resting me on the cot.

"Rest now." She stroked my hair.

I was so exhausted that I fought to keep my eyes open. I needed to tell her the truth. "Nicole… you can't trust me…."

She shook her head and she took off her mask. She leaned down and kissed me on the head. "I trust you with my life Malorn."

"But-"

"Shh…. Just rest. We'll figure it out." she said with a small smile.

I didn't have any more energy to fight it. I drifted off.