One World: Many Souls
Chapter 50: Truth Unbound
Arial's Point of View:
Eras sighed as she stood outside my door. "How in the world did you get grounded again?"
Huffing at my brother, I turned my head away from him while I sulked at my desk, taking a much needed break from my homework. "I blame Zak! Asshole shoved me over into that project that Mom and Pristi were working on! I never wanted to break it and I even offered to help fix it! But Pristi is so mad she won't even talk to me..."
"Well... her precious garden project with mom was broken." Eras shook his head as he came to join me, sitting just a few feet away on the bed. Surrounded by orange cream colored walls, he glanced over at the mural on my wall for a moment before turning back to me. "You know you'd kill everyone in the house if anything happened to that picture Mom made for you when you were a baby. I'd do the same thing if that happened to me."
I couldn't help but sigh as Eras pointed that out. "I know..."
I couldn't help but focus on that mural Mom made for me. Back when we were both babies, and our siblings when they were born, Mom would sit before that special wall late into the evening working on that beautiful mural that was focused around the color that we were given by them, that surprisingly became our favorite color. She also tried not to make the murals nothing too boyish or girly so that no matter what, we'd love them.
For example, Eras has the green color on his wall, and Mom thought that doing a vegetable garden on the edge of a forest would be best. Eras tends to watch it every now and then, and he always was a fan of helping in the gardens. I was orange, so Mom made this really cool picture of a sunset on the ocean for me with a large creamsicle pop as the highlight in someone's hand. Her guess may have been my own. Fireworks off in the distance.
Connie and Cali had red and pink as their colors, which was a tricky one for Mom to do since that normally is considered girly. So Mom did an amazing night time garden with bright colored lights illuminating some red and pink roses while a barbeque was going on in the back with a large bonfire. One of their favorite activities was to have parties in the backyard around a large bonfire as the summers come and go.
Joker was blue, and Mom decided to do something relating to where she met Dad. She decided to do a mural of Waterfall in the underground. Its busy market street with lots of lights, blue shades in the walls and the nearby waterfall that could be seen in the distance. He would watch the painted activity with wide eyes all his little life that was basically half my age.
And then there was little Pristi, the youngest of us all. As the last born, Mom thought it would be best to do a really interesting painting for her. It was a monochromatic mural of home during a thunderstorm. Mom loved it as the bright lights of our windows were the only things that stood out differently with a warm glow while a lightning strike came down and illuminated the world in lavender and purple hues, mixed with grey and black. Pristi is always mystified by the picture and asks to stay up during storms to see it for real.
And if I lost that special piece my mother made me, I'd be heartbroken.
"I get why she's so mad... but it was an accident. I never meant it to happen."
"I know. Which is why Mom and Dad sent me up here to get you. Mom wants you to help fix their little project you were working on and then your grounding is over with. They both know it was overkill, but Pristi was just plain heartbroken." Eras chuckled through a heavy breath he let out before looking out my window. "Zak's also getting chewed out by Aunt Undyne and Aunt Alphys, so he's gonna be helping you too. Once it's fixed, you're off being grounded, but Zak is gonna be for a few days. He's gotta learn more how to carefully watch his level of strength, and especially where to use it. And in the gardens was not a cool spot."
I raised a questioning eyebrow at him as to why we weren't already moving. "Okay... so what are we waiting on then?"
"Mom and Dad's signal." Eras sighed. "It took a while to calm Pristi down, and they're gonna take her to Grams for a while in the gardens to try and calm her with the flowers and veggies. When they're far enough away, they'll message us. Plus, not teleporting. And they gotta keep that on the downlow since Pristi has been trying to do that since she got those magical abilities from Dad, so... yeah... And they don't want an arm or something of hers to show up randomly. Remember that last fiasco? And Pristi isn't just a skeleton, she's got organs and skin.
I couldn't help the shiver going down my spine if my sister was to show up with part of her body missing, maybe even bleeding...
"Yeah, no, she shouldn't be using those magical abilities any time soon."
"Mom and Dad's thoughts exactly. Especially where he did lose part of his jaw once." Eras shivered at the thought. "Least that's what he told me in confidence once the younger siblings and Mom were away."
I could see the point of Dad keeping that little bit from Mom and the younger kids. Last thing we needed was our mother freaking out or if the other siblings told exactly that to Pristi. "Yeah. And especially since Joker has magic like Dad and Uncle Papy too. He may be able to do it too if he tries hard enough."
"Yep, so for now, we're just hiding out here until we're given the all clear."
"Okay... so what do we do until then?"
Eras actually looked a little nervous about that comment. I waited for a full minute in silence "I actually figured this would be a good time to talk to you with the younger siblings gone. And Mom and Dad."
"Ooo! This ought to be interesting!" I was eagerly at attention while Eras looked nervous before me. "What kind of secret are you hiding? It's not like you to hide things from Mom and Dad."
"Yeah... about that." He carefully lifted up his scarlet eyes to look at me, and I noticed just how much emotion was convened in them. I knew what he was going to ask before he could even say it.
I waved him off. "Fine, fine. I'll trade my silence on your secret, with the exception of being able to tease you in privacy, I'll give you a secret of mine, which you have to agree to the same conditions. And I'll make sure the severity of your secret matches mine."
With a nod, Eras stood off the bed long enough to shake my hand to our agreement. I reached over to grab his hand and we both showed a serious expression as we did so. He then sat back on my bed and I turned around my chair to lean my chin against the top of its backrest.
"Okay, spill. What's the secret?"
Eras sighed one more time before he looked away to his phone for a second. "You know that new friend of mine I met a while ago, Hannah Davis, right? The half esper?"
"Oh, the purple haired girl? Yeah, she sticks to you and the guys like glue. She seems pretty chill. And it's clear she's been opening up to you more and more as this year goes on." I paused for a second as I thought about this, trying to figure out what it was that my brother was so afraid of. "So... what's the secret? Is it around her? It's not one of her secrets right?"
"Uh... yes and no."
"That's not confusing at all."
"Sorry... um... Only Pac and Zak know right now and are helping keep the secret. We're... uh... in the secret together."
"Oh shit..." I was actually trying to rack my brain to figure out what it is that he was trying to tell me. And his new little friend was in on this too? How bad was this secret? "Jesus, E, what the hell are you hiding?"
"We're... ah... d-dating..."
"...What?" I actually was too stunned to respond for a few seconds before I flew up from my chair, crashing down beside me as I punched my brother in the shoulder. "You ASSHOLE! I thought you did something horrible! What the fuck?!"
"Oww!" He hissed at my punch. "Bitch, this is a fucking secret you better not tell."
"Oh, fuck you! You scared the crap out of me! I thought you did something horrible or was going to get arrested or something!"
"I'm not going to get arrested... but... thanks for caring I guess."
"Damn you..." Ignoring the chair I knocked over, I sat over on the bed beside him. "Don't make me so worried."
"Sorry. I honestly wasn't trying to. I just... needed to tell someone before I chickened out. Hannah wants to tell her dad too, but she's nervous how he'll react after I helped them so much already. And... I'm nervous too. Her Dad isn't bad... but... he's a full human. I don't know if he merged his soul with Hannah's mother's before she left. I just..."
"You're nervous he's going to use you as a gain through Hannah with our family name." I already knew where his mind was going the second he started rambling. "Like the stories that Aunt Frisk and Uncle Azz tell us all the time of what happened when she was our age right?"
"Yeah..."
"Welp... only time will tell if your feelings are right or not. But... you gotta give it a chance too." I wasn't exactly sure what to say to my brother on that, well, other than the obvious. "You know that Mom and Dad won't hate you for that, right? And our siblings love Hannah when she comes over. Pristi is all over her."
"I know..."
"Okay, okay." I sighed before rolling my eyes at him. "I won't say anything, and now it's my turn."
Eras looked up then with a bit more emotion in his face as he raised an eyebrow and gave a soft grin. "I'm curious though as to what could be on par with what I just told you."
"Welp, I'm not going to sugar coat it, but you seriously, and I mean seriously, can't tell Mom or Dad. This probably will freak them out."
That caused my twin to really look at me with a quizzical look. "Are you going to do something dangerous?"
"Yeah." I sighed. Thinking carefully about the wording I would use to keep my brother from freaking out, I stared at him with a serious face. "I plan to sign up for the army after graduation with Lexi."
"Oh..." Eras blinked at me, surprised to hear that come from my mouth. "You're serious."
He already knew. It made it that much more serious.
"Yeah, I am." I couldn't look my twin in the eye as we spoke. "I've always wanted to help people, and while Mom won't talk about it in front of us, I know there are issues on the coast. There's a terrorist group on the rise on the outskirts of the nation. Mom's worried about it since it's close to our and Masato borders. Especially after they've been so prominent on the news lately."
I paused as I thought back to the news reports that were online. Lexi and I combed through them in our free time together in between our training with Aunt Undyne. Even our aunt was worried about it as multiple times things have taken place. Bombings, raids, certain islands off the coasts that have been taken over by said terrorists.
It was becoming so horrible as time went on. More people were dying...
"I've seen."
Eras didn't say much as he let me get out what I needed to. He was a good brother like that. Making things easier for me in times like this. Even if we weren't in the heart of all that mess, it still bothered me...
"So... yeah. At age eighteen, we're going to sign up. Lexi hasn't told her family too, especially since we're going for active guard rather than reserves."
"I'm assuming that if they do manage to find out, you would only tell them you'll be in reserves?"
"I'd like to, but knowing them, they'll find that out if they look at my records, which Mom would be all over." I wasn't sure how to respond beyond that as I thought of my mother's face. Disappointed and hurt. "I can't blame her after hearing what she and Aunt Frisk went through when we were young and when they hadn't even met Dad or any of our other family members yet... but..."
"You still want to do what you think is right. I get it." Eras I felt give a solid bump to my shoulders. "Secret is safe with me."
"Thanks Eras..."
And that was when his phone went off.
"And that's our cue to get started." Quickly my brother and I switched gears from the important conversation of what we were talking about to that of the task at hand. We didn't need anyone knowing the dire conversations we had that meant the world to us.
Especially not if it could hurt my family...
Witch's Note:
Halloween Witch: My god we actually have a full on connection! Mystic! I need help reading all the messages! They're flowing in too fast for me to-
Mystic Girl: (She jumps readily at the other monitor while multiple are beeping loudly.) I got it! I got it! Holy shit! How the fuck do you handle this all the time?!
Halloween Witch: Normally the messages aren't encoded or sent on repeat for the entire week! Ugg! (She hurries to set up a program to kill off her receiving more than one message of identical types.) Okay... this should help us thin them out... give your computer a second and see what happens...
Mystic Girl: Uh... okay... looks like the messages cut down... a lot... we're down to... five. Yeah, we got five. Chaos, Shadow, Dasansi, Shady... and Mystic Boy made his way onto the new channel...
Halloween Witch: Okay... let's use the connect established with Chaos' encryption and protection programs to keep anything from tracking her. If she got on... well... let's at least see what she's saying along with the others before we make any drastic decisions. What are you seeing?
Mystic Girl: Okay... um... looks like they're all moving again... oh shit! I'm actually seeing their signals! I can see Chaos and Dasansi are actually on the edge of the ocean to where this new base is!
Halloween Witch: Oh thank god! Okay then... I'll program the sub to grab them then. Do you have an estimated time of arrival?
Mystic Girl: It could be anywhere from between a few minutes to an hour. Seems like Chaos got out there a little bit faster than Dasansi did.
Halloween Witch: Okay... that's a couple of them down... what about the others?
Mystic Girl: Okay... well, the next issue is poor Shady. Looks like he's being followed and has a limited signal. He keeps going in and out, but I am getting a read that he's actually in the nearest town from the ocean we're hidden in. Only about a day or so from our location.
Halloween Witch: Okay, he won't make the first sub with Chaos and Dasansi, but that's okay, we can send it back up. I made sure to update the hell out of that thing to scan for our person badges on the others before even allowing entry to the sub. And if they don't have it... (Halloween makes a gesture as if to off one's self.) Then afterwords they have to provide both a scan of their retina and a sample of blood. They're not getting past us this time.
Mystic Girl: Damn right... and now comes the hard part. Shadow... oh you fucker! You want first dibs on the doctor? Okay, you're going to have to clarify before I say yes or no to that! Do we mean just him, or his research on monster and human mutation, growth, and all that BS? Or both... because I fucking-
Halloween Witch: Focus Mystic! (Pulling out a paper fan that actually wouldn't hurt the woman, but rather gather attention, Halloween smacked her over the head.) Focus!
Mystic Girl: Fine! Fine you bitch! (She grumbles but turns back to the screen.) So besides him wanting dibs on the doc if able, he wants to see about meeting up with either River or Mystic Boy if we can pinpoint a location on them to bring them back to us...
Halloween Witch: Is Shadow really that close to either of them? Can you ping their locations as well like Dasansi and Chaos?
Mystic Girl: I can try... (She types away at the computer while both women look on in anticipation and worry.) Wait! I got it! There, Shadow is... looks like he's actually in the same town that Shady is in. They're actually just on opposite sides of it. But... it looks like the pings from River and Mystic Boy are out of range... I'm getting a minor location from them, but the only bit of information I'm getting is that there's at least an entire desert between Shadow and them, and with that in mind, there's not a strong enough signal to help him.
Halloween Witch: Those odds don't sound good at all... and a desert with nothing to provide shade or shadows in general... that would be the absolute worst for Shadow to attempt to travel through to find them...
Mystic Girl: But Mystic Boy is bleeding out! And we haven't heard from River this week!
Halloween Witch: (She takes a rather massive breath and lets it out slowly. She was able to do one breath in almost twenty seconds. She was impressed with herself, but quickly put those thoughts aside for the matter at hand.) We'll provide what information to Shadow that we can, and let him make the final decision. If he decides to go... we can try to get a message out to Mystic Boy, but with how distant her signal is, and that of River's... I'm not sure if it will go through properly unless Shadow gets closer to help boost theirs.
Mystic Girl: God damnit...
Halloween Witch: (She places a hand on her best friend's shoulder.) We have to hang in there, for them. So you communicate with Shadow and update him on what we have. I'll communicate with Dasansi, Chaos, and Shady, try to bring them closer to our location. Okay?
Mystic Girl: ...Fine. (She turns back to her computer and puts out a direct signal to Shadow.)
Halloween Witch: (She sighs before she returns to signal the other three to get them toward the current secret base to gather them, and try to come up with a game plan.)
(She was pissed, and ready to fuck some shit up. Once she knew the others were safe.)
(To Chaos, Dasansi and Shady, all three have been given a signal to meet at on the edge of the ocean for a sub to take you to the bottom of the ocean. You are required to have an item or badge displaying the signal Halloween is using or the sub will explode. While this perhaps won't keep enemies at bay for long, it will buy time as the ocean floors can connect in many different ways. Do you follow the signal?)
(To Shadow, your signal is at least a desert away from that of the signals of Mystic Boy and River who are still out of reach. You are in the same town as Shady who appears to be being followed by something or someone. Who do you decide to follow and help?)
(To Mystic Boy and River... your signal is currently untraceable, there will need to be another way to increase your signal to gain sufficient help for yourself from the secret base. What will you do?)
If anyone can hear me, keep this code hidden. LIX, LXIII, LXIV, LXVI.
They must not know when we plan to counter attack…
We don't have much time… we must gather our forces and information…
A life is in the balance…
And soon… we will make the ultimate choice…
Please hang in there everyone…