Chapter 3: Butterflies

Riven's lips were soft and smooth, and with a start Stella realised they were still firmly pressed her against her own. She tried to move, to sit up, but Riven only kissed her harder, lowering her back to the ground. The carpeted floor was rough beneath her; she could feel its ridged pattern pushing up into her skin as Riven's hands pushed down firmly on her stomach. She wanted him off her. She wanted to get to Flora. She didn't understand why no one was doing anything, why they'd chosen to hide instead of rushing to attack.

There came a loud, almost triumphant screech from beyond the store, and then suddenly, the ruckus outside ceased. Stella started struggling again, this time more violently, desperate to see if Flora was safe. From her position on the ground, she couldn't see the shop's entrance and the battle scene outside; there was a rack of long dresses blocking her view. And Riven was weighing down on her so she couldn't even turn her head to peek under the rack. Then again, some part of her didn't want to take a peek as an ominous foreboding began in the pit of her stomach, making it churn, leaving her wanting to close her eyes against the prickling in her skin.

Still, she continued to struggle, her knees bouncing to hit his legs, hands slapping at his shoulders. In return, Riven pushed down harder on her stomach and growled, the sound rumbling from the back of his throat into her mouth. The sensation made all the hairs on Stella's body stand up. She paused in her struggling momentarily, then started keening. Her lips vibrated against his as the sounds she made grew more urgent and higher in pitch.

Finally, with another growl, Riven removed his lips from hers. His eyelids flew open, his gaze zeroing in on her face, looking somewhere between angry and warning. Her hand rose to slap him, but before she could even tense her palm, Riven caught it between both his hands, falling completely on top of her with his hands no longer there to prop him up. Both of them tensed at the feeling of each other's body pressed so intimately with their own. Their gazes locked, and Stella saw a small glint of something other than embarrassment overshadow the fierceness in Riven's eyes for a fraction of a second before he rolled off her.

He propped himself up on his arm at her side, opposite to the dress rack concealing them from the creature. His gaze was fiercer than it had been a moment ago, as if he was angry at her for their brief yet intimate contact, or angry that he'd experience it at all.

Stella snarled, eyes vicious. "Why did you kiss me?" she demanded in a hiss.

"Because you were going to scream, and that would've alerted the creature."

"You couldn't have just covered my mouth?" But just as she said that, she realised his hands were tangled up in a shirt he had been about to put on. He'd violated her on some level by kissing her, but he'd also saved her life. If she'd screamed, she would've alerted the creature just like he said, and it would've swooped into the store, dark, beady eyes set on her, and with her weak powers, she would have stood no chance against it. And anyway, the kiss wasn't vile…Stella's eyes splayed at the thought, and she was again convinced that she had ended up in a parallel universe.

"Don't make a sound," Riven said at her right, his voice quieter than a whisper.

Stella was about to protest, about to demand that he go help Flora, when the sound of something metal scraped the ground. Clinks followed, drawing nearer to where they lay. A moment later, there was a clang and she heard wheels rolling over the floor – a garment rail. She held her breath. It was the creature. It was in the store, trying to sniff them out, and from what it felt like, it was coming directly towards them. As fear circled up her spine in icy tendrils, Stella slowly started to realise what the creature in the shop really meant. It was looking for its next victim, meaning that Flora…

Stella gasped – and immediately wished she hadn't when the shop burst into an explosion of sound. The clinking noises were suddenly more recurrent, as if the creature was rushing around, trying to seek out the source of the gasp. Its wings whipped the air as it moved. There were a series of clonks and clinks as metal garment rails and racks were pushed over and into each other. Stella resisted the urge to scream and turned to the side, clamping her eyes shut, but not before glimpsing Riven's furious and fearful expression. The clinks grew louder as the creature drew further into the store, and she waited for the dress rack that hid them to be jerked away. Instead, the rack fell on top of her and Riven, and now they lay buried under brightly coloured dresses, praying that the garments obscured the shape of their bodies.

Stella lay trembling. She could feel her fingers hitting the floor repeatedly as they quivered, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't suppress the tremor. Clutching onto Riven would help, but she didn't dare slide her hand under the dresses to grasp at him. Not only was he furious with her, there was every chance the creature would sense the movement or hear the rustle of fabric that accompanied it. She focused on steadying her pulse, but even after several shuddering deep breaths, her heart still pounded so hard it felt as if it would rip free of its confinement.

Riven's hand clenched around the hilt of his sword. It was instinctive; something that happened whenever he sensed danger or an oddity. He sensed both then as he lay quietly under the dresses in the sudden absence of sound and in the feeling of a pair of eyes set on him. He had every urge to spring up from underneath the dresses and take on the creature he felt looming over him, but he knew that if he did he'd be as good as dead. He couldn't fight in the confines of the store and yet, he couldn't stay unmoving beneath the dresses either. The creature knew he and Stella were there and it was clearly only moments away from plunging its sword into them. Riven had never felt so helpless, so panicked. He couldn't attack, or defend, or even protect. He had no shield he could throw up to block the creature's sword and no device to tell his friends he needed assistance.

He watched as a shadow slowly formed on the dresses he lay under, and his panic turned into fear when he realised that the shadow was long and thin, and unmistakeably of a sword. It grew larger as the blade made its descent towards him, and Riven lay frozen, bracing himself for the strike and the accompanying pain. But then all of a sudden, the shadow disappeared, arcing across the dress material, and there came an agonised screech, drowning out the clink of the sword landing somewhere in the store. Riven felt the floor vibrate under him as the creature staggered backwards, and once he was sure the creature was far enough away, he jumped up, quickly shaking away the dress material clinging to his arms. He pulled out his sword, seeing his opportunity to strike with the creature stumbling around the store, unarmed and in some state of paralysis. With a growl, he ran forward and tensing his arms, he sliced off the creature's left wing. The creature's agonised screech sharpened. Blood poured from its wound. Riven struck again after catching his breath, plunging his sword deep into the creature's back, where he'd severed its wing.

The creature arched backwards in pain, its remaining wing flapping uselessly. The caws it let out became quieter, dying along with its body. But, like a true bloodthirsty destroyer, it clawed at its belt of daggers in a final attempt to kill. Riven drove his sword further into the creature until the blade was swallowed up and he was sure he'd pierced its heart.

"Riven, move!" a female voice called from the shop's entrance. Turning, Riven saw Layla and Nabu standing in the doorway, both of them holding buzzing stun-guns seeming ready to release their attacks in a matter of seconds. Riven dove to the side just as orbs of pale yellow magic shot towards the creature.

On receiving the attack, the creature's screeches completely faded, its armour crackled with yellow energy and its legs gave way. Looking up from his place on the ground, Riven felt the tenseness in his body melt away: The creature was dead. He expelled a relieved breath and let Nabu help him from the ground. Tecna and Sky had emerged from the curtained stall they'd been hiding in by now and if they weren't facing the apocalypse, Riven would've made some comment about the two of them being in there together. Stella had also appeared from her hiding place. The dresses lay in a rumpled ring around her; the ends of her dishevelled hair were statically attracted to them, floating outward around Stella's head, making her look as if she were magically levitating.

She stood slowly, shakily, then bent down to pick up the black shirt Riven had meant to put on. She approached him, noticing the quickly growing stain of blood on his bandage. The slash in his waist had been strained when he'd fought; it would need redressing soon. She handed the shirt to him. Taking it, Riven turned to address the group.

"We don't have time to waste," he said. "We need to get out of here now, grab whatever we can from the weaponry store and head straight to the research facility. Those things know we're here, and I've got a funny feeling they're tracking us. The meteor at the site of our hideout was not a coincidence and the fact that those bastards seem to turn up wherever we go isn't either. They want us dead – if that wasn't painstakingly clear – and the only way to avoid that, is to leave Magix."

Layla sucked in a lungful of air, sweet from the musk of blood. "What if Tecna doesn't manage to call in rescue?" she asked. "What if we get stuck here?"

"Well," Riven said gravely, "then we're not going to survive. The creatures outnumber us greatly and we're losing our strength by the hour. Even if we managed to survive for a while, we'd be no match for them in less than, I'd say, a week. And if they don't end up being the things to kill us, exhaustion and hunger will be. We just can't survive here; there's not even the smallest possibility. We either get rescued or we die."

"Tecna," Layla said, swallowing, "you better be right about the facility's reliable connection."

Tecna looked like she was wishing the same.

"Let's go," Nabu said shortly. "There are plenty of weapons in the store down the street. Most importantly, plenty of stun-guns. Everyone needs to have at least two of them. They seem to paralyze the creatures for a short time, which is helpful for when we need to make an escape."

He turned towards the door-less entrance but Riven placed a hand on his shoulder. "We need to be careful," Riven said, glancing back at the rest of the group. "Other creatures must be on their way here, and there's no telling when they might appear. The one Flora faced came out of nowhere; we didn't even hear it fly in or hear its armour clink when it landed."

"They must be adopting stealth to take us down," Tecna said, running a frustrated hand through her hair. "It normally wouldn't be a problem, but since I can't pull up a holographic tracking map…"

Layla took Tecna's hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "We just have to keep our eyes and ears open. Keep our guards up and be ready to attack at all times. There's nothing else we can do. And who knows?" she added. "You might be able to get that map of yours at the facility. Maybe all you need is a stronger signal."

Tecna's argument that weak signal wasn't the problem faded from Stella's mind as a coldness like a slowly creeping icy chill washed over her. She could no longer hear anything but her own blood pulsing through her ears. In the midst of fear and Riven's sudden attack on the creature, Flora had completely slipped her mind. But now, the flower fairy was all Stella could think about. All she could see in her mind's eye. She imagined Flora battling the gigantic creature, unable to shout for help as she dodged strike after strike of its swinging sword and called for her vines to erupt from the ground. She tried to imagine the fear Flora had gone through, how it must have paralyzed her when she first saw the creature – and then, as though it were a late echo, she heard Flora's scream again. This time, Stella didn't miss her friend's desperateness to cling onto life in the sound or the acceptance of defeat which lay just beneath.

Flora's brutal reality hit Stella harder than any magical attack ever could in that sudden moment. She stood numbly, watching as the group spoke and tried to concentrate on survival rather than Flora's demise. But there was still a sorrowfulness on all their faces, a desire to weep in the girls' flaring nostrils, and a mixture of pain and guilt that Stella glimpsed deep within Nabu. He must have seen Flora's broken body. But he had stopped Layla from looking, because Layla's eyes were absent of the agonising shock that resided in his. Stella decided that she too wouldn't look when they walked past Flora. She would spare herself the cutting memory.

She fell into step behind the group as they walked silently out of the store, heads cast down to the ash-coated cobblestones, almost like mourners. But they weren't mourning – they couldn't afford that – they were just tired and keeping silent only to stop nearby creatures from finding them.

As they drew further down the street, Stella noticed more and more blood spattering the ground. They were getting closer to the very thing she didn't want to see. Grabbing Riven, who was the closest to her, she shut her eyes. Then she wished she could shut her nose as the stench of freshly spilled blood wafted into her throat. She felt herself beginning to gag, but then that urge disappeared with Riven placing his hand on top of hers. His touch was rough but feather light, an instant comfort; maybe because it promised his strength and protection, maybe because it distracted her so fully that she forgot all about the stench.

"Keep your eyes closed," Riven whispered. "You don't want to look now." He led her away from Flora's bloodied body, regretting having looked at it himself. The next time he slept, he knew her corpse would haunt his dreams.

They continued down the street, Stella's hand gripping his arm, his own placed reassuringly on top of it. The street was lined with broken shops: signs had fallen to the ground or clung desperately from hinges, merchandise spilled from smashed windows and busted doors, already covered in a layer of ash, when it had only been half a day since the creature's invaded. The path to the weaponry store was a maze between hunks of rubble and glass shards; Riven guided Stella carefully, making sure no part of her scraped any jagged edges. Suddenly, the street sloped downwards. Stella stumbled, her eyes still shut. Quickly removing his hand from hers, Riven placed it against her stomach, steadying her. On the other side of his hand, there was a tremendous uproar as butterflies fluttered viciously inside Stella's stomach. She stumbled again, solely because of the feel of them, and not a second later, Riven's fingers curled around her waist and the butterflies fluttered harder.

"Steady," Riven said as he pulled her out the way of a totalled hover-car.

"Sorry," Stella whispered, clutching tighter onto his arm.

Riven slowly withdrew his hand from her stomach and turned back towards the path. They'd fallen behind the group because of Stella's stumble, but he didn't quicken his pace to catch up with them; he needed to talk to Stella. Rounding the corner of a mutilated piece of furniture, he brought her to a halt and watched as she opened her eyes, expecting to see the weaponry shop in front of her. When her eyes found only the rubble strewn street, she turned to him questioningly.

He saw that her eyes were sad and that she was repressing a great pain. He'd seen pain in Tecna's and Layla's eyes too, but not pain like this. Stella's pain was profound, borne of guilt. And he, for the reason of her survival if nothing else, had to fix that.

"I know you're blaming yourself for what happened to Flora," Riven began. "But you need to – "

"Get past that so my morale doesn't fall, right?" Stella's voice was choked, bitter.

Riven seemed taken aback. "No. I was going to say you need to stop thinking it's your fault. It was Flora's choice to come looking for you, but beyond that, you didn't know that that creature was going to appear and attack her."

"It doesn't matter; she still died and she might not have if it wasn't for me."

"It's not your fault, Stella. If it's anyone's, it's all of ours because we should have all been on alert and we weren't."

Stella sniffled, trying desperately to keep from crying. With a sigh, Riven pulled out the handkerchief he'd pocketed in the store and held it out to her. "Cry," he said and then shifted his gaze.

"No," Stella choked out, fighting down a sob. "I'm not going to give you another reason to think I'm weak."

"You've just lost one of your closest friends; I'm not going to think you're weak if you cry over her."

Stella scoffed, but the sound came out like a broken sob. "Yes, you are," she said. "You think showing emotion is a sign of weakness. That's why you walk around looking indifferent, pretending that nothing bothers you."

Riven's eyes swung back to Stella, burning with a red-hot rage like she had just insulted him. "You don't know that something does bother me. And who are you to talk, when you're the one who refuses to face her emotions by prying into other people's business and distracting herself by shopping."

"I like to shop!"

"Maybe, but you can't deny that it's an outlet."

"At least it's a far better outlet than acting like an asshole all the time!" Stella cried. "You caused Musa so much grief because of your attitude, you know that? You never told her how you felt or showed her that you cared, just pushed her away. Maybe it was because you were such an ungrateful jerk that you're family abandoned you."

The rage in Riven's eyes simmered, but he just smirked, his lips turning up slowly, almost like he was proud of Stella. He stared at her for one long moment, letting her know that he could've said something worse in response. Then with a shove, he returned his handkerchief to his pocket, turned around and stalked after the rest of the group.

He was halfway down the street when he heard feet shuffling behind him. He tensed instinctively, his hand going to the sword at his waist, before he realised it was only Stella. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw her walking hurriedly after him. Her arms were crossed over her thick black jacket and he could tell that she wasn't bracing herself against the icy wind, but that she was afraid and still guilt-ridden over what had happened to Flora. Evidently, his attempt at consoling her had not only failed but had made the situation worse.

He sighed ruefully as she barged past him. Then, with a promise to amend his failed consolation, he followed her into the weaponry store.

The weaponry store was a cavern of metal. Rows and rows of swords, broad and narrow, sharp and blunt, lined the wall panels, glittering in the fading light. There were leather-sheathed daggers in one glass cabinet and glistening metal clubs in another cabinet. Axes, whips, and scythes hung from hooks in the walls, their handles encrusted with rubies, emeralds and sapphires. There were other weapons on display but Riven didn't recognize any bar the round silver shields, dented from being thrown to the ground. They made an unpleasant metallic scraping sound as he waded through them, following the rest of the group to the back of the shop, where a heavy curtain was hanging in a doorway.

"Who uses these old fashioned weapons?" Sky wondered out loud. "The creatures' metal swords are the first I've seen and used in a long time. I didn't think you could find metal weaponry in Magix."

"This is the only shop you'll find it, and the weapons are mainly used by the warrior fairies," Tecna said, pausing to run her hand along a particularly sharp sword.

"Why?" Sky glanced at her. "What's the problem with magical weaponry?"

"There is no problem; it's just that the metal is enchanted, allowing the fairies to change it into whatever element they like so it's easier to kill particular creatures." Tecna demonstrated, letting a small burst of magic change the metal blade of the sword she was touching into wood. "The wood would be useful for killing goblins, for example."

"That's incredibly interesting but these weapons aren't useful to us," Riven said impatiently. "We need magical weaponry. Nabu, where are the stun-guns?"

"They're in here." Nabu stepped towards the curtained doorway and drew the curtain aside. Glints of silver winked at the group in the darkness beyond. Stretching out his arm, Nabu lit the small room with the glow of his sceptre and stepped inside, then started passing out stun-gun after stun-gun until everyone was armed with two.

The stun-guns felt bulky and awkward in Stella's hands, and she wasn't quite sure how to use them. There were several yellow buttons on the handle, all the same size, and one larger purple button under the trigger. She turned the guns over in her hands, looking for any symbols which would tell her what the buttons were for. She couldn't see any obvious symbols, so drawing the guns closer to her face, she looked again.

Riven saw her peering down at her stun-guns and stood for a moment, simply watching her. She turned the guns over again, examining them from a different angle. Her brow was drawn low in confusion and he realised his anger towards her was quickly turning into amusement. He began approaching her and clearly she sensed it as she straightened and fixed her gaze on a faded gauntlet in the cabinet to her side. He stopped in front of her and gently took one of the guns from her hands and held it out so that she could see all the buttons.

"This button," he began, pointing to the yellow button at the base of the handle, "is to increase the speed of your attack. The next button is to increase the magnitude, and this yellow button makes the gun release the attack in successive bursts. The purple button allows you to change the intensity of the attack; the longer you hold it down, the more powerful your attack becomes." He held the gun out to her. "I won't patronise you by telling you what the trigger does."

Stella took the gun from him, glancing fleetingly from the gauntlet she'd been staring at to his eyes. They were steady, like it almost always were, and held no resentment in them like she'd expected. Releasing the gun's handle from his grip, he turned away from her and started towards Tecna, who was discussing with Sky he easiest route to the medical research facility. Stella turned towards the windows at the front of the store. The dull sunlight coming through the mass of clouds was fading quickly and it was becoming darker by the second. They would have to hurry to reach the facility or they would be caught in the night. Sky had flashlights, she knew, but using them would only make them brightly glowing targets to the creatures.

"We should hurry," Stella said, coming up behind Tecna. "It's getting dark outside and we don't want to risk using the torches."

Riven stared at her. "Stella's right. And as it is, those bastards could fire a meteor at us at any minute. We've been here for a while and they must have realised we're not moving."

"Then let's move," Sky said. His tone was a strange mix of finality and nervousness. "The route we're taking is through the downtown business district. With all the skyscrapers and buildings, we'll have more than enough cover, and I'm hoping that with all the windows, we'll be able to catch any suspicious movement."

"There's also a grocery store in the area," Tecna added, snapping her hand-held laptop shut. "I think we could all use something to eat. It's been almost a day and I don't know about anyone else, but even a slice of plain bread sounds good to me right now."

Nabu nodded. "But before we go, there's something I need to do."

Everyone stared at him with furrowed brows. He set his sceptre down and took a deep breath, turning to face Layla. In the next moment, he was down on one knee, presenting a silvery ring to his girlfriend.

"I know its lame excuse for an engagement ring," he said, glancing down at the jewel-less metal band he'd pocketed in the clothing store, "but it's all I have and I don't want to wait any longer. Layla, I can't guarantee that we'll make it out of this alive, but either way, I want to be married to you. Our wedding won't be the most beautiful ceremony Tides has ever seen; it'll be in the least destroyed house of worship we can find. You won't have a beautiful dress, we won't have any pictures and we'll both look tired and injured. But Layla, you are the love of my life and I don't know if I'll ever get another chance, so..." He raised the ring and looked straight into her tear-filled eyes. "Will you marry me?"

"Yes." Layla didn't hesitate. She jumped into his embrace, before he'd had a chance to slide the ring onto her finger. She found his lips, kissing him more passionately than ever before. He was hers now, forevermore, no matter how everything turned out. "I love you, Nabu."

"I love you too, Layla. More than anything." He looked deep into her eyes, past her gathering tears, and then finally, slid the silver band onto her ring finger.

Layla buried herself in his embrace again and he held her tightly for the longest moment.

"I hate to see this end," Riven said, causing the couple to break apart, "but we really need to leave."

Nabu let Layla go reluctantly. "Lead the way."

It was cold outside, much colder than it had been when the group had first entered the weaponry store, which bore the name Rick's weapons, Riven noticed as he walked away. It was a simple name, but he couldn't help thinking about it, wondering who Rick was, where he was. Had he made it to the refuge or was he one of the bodies lying under the rubble on the street?

Riven tried not to think about it, knowing that he couldn't afford to let his guard down. He had to be on alert, listening out for the quietest of sounds to prevent anything like what had happened to Flora from happening again. He turned left at the end of the street, leading the group down one of the older streets in Magix. Immediately the smell of disuse engulfed them.

Unlike the street the weaponry store stood on, this street was free of rubble, fires and all other wreckage. The stores here had been long abandoned, their windows and doors as dark as if there were black paper on the other side. There were narrow alleyways between each of the stores. Riven could see long shadows of drain pipes stretching out from them. There was no dripping like he remembered there being when he used to walk down this street to calm his temper. It was as if the elements were fleeing the realm just like the population had. Even the wind seemed to have vanished. But despite the winds absence, there was still a chill in the air and it was numbing the tips of his fingers.

Riven glanced behind himself at the group. They seemed to be feeling the cold too: Sky was rubbing his palms together, Tecna had switched on the infra-red light on her laptop and had tucked the device under her jumper, Nabu and Layla had zipped up their jackets and Stella was shivering, despite the thick jacket she wore.

Tecna caught Riven's gaze just as he began to turn back around. "We have a problem," she told him, quickening her steps to walk beside him.

"What is it?" Riven said. "You know, despite the fact that we're stuck here."

"It's Stella." Tecna's voice was grave, almost distraught. "I ran a scan on her while we were in the shop and…she's dying, Riven."

"What?" Riven kept his voice steady, but he felt as if he had been struck by lightning.

"What's happening is the same thing that happened to her when she went Downland with Bloom. She's used up her energy and the lack of sunlight means she can't restore it, and so her fairy essence has started being used."

The alarm on Riven's face changed to confusion. "What's fairy essence?"

"Think of it like a soul, a fairy's last reserve of energy. It starts being used when a fairy's power becomes so depleted that it can no longer sustain her life force. Once the essence is used up, the fairy–"

"I get it," Riven said, holding the bridge of his nose. "How can we save her?"

"The only way I know of is by restoring her energy," Tecna said and as she said it, she looked up at the dark sky and Riven realised that that wasn't a possibility. After all, they couldn't bring the sun out by the use of sheer will.

"There has to be another way."

Tecna looked as distressed as Riven sounded. "There might be a drug under test that slows down the rate of essence usage at the facility."

"I'll look for it when we get there," Riven decided. They walked in silence for a while, anxiety heightening, then Riven asked, "What if there isn't?"

"If there isn't," Tecna said, "then the only way to slow down the process is to keep Stella rested."

But with the creatures on their tail, Riven knew that that wasn't a possibility either.