September 26, 2023

I woke up to black all around me.

Suddenly, the scene surged with dark teal, and dark ominous purple.

Everything around me was airy and light, and it felt like a was floating, yet I had all the world's gravity against me.

I was still hurt, and I didn't know where I was. My leg was still broken, and I was covered in scrapes and bruises.

I was weak and tired, covered in blood and whatever soot came from the underground.

I didn't know where anyone else was, and I was scared to guess.

Then, I heard an echoey voice say, "Welcome."

I quickly crouched back in fear.

"No, no, no. Don't be afraid." The voice said, "Welcome to your deep conscious."

"My wh-wh-what?" I said shakily.

"This is where you go, when you don't have control of yourself." The voice said with a deep laugh.

I couldn't comprehend the gender or age of the person who was speaking, but I was scared to death of what was happening.

"Wh-wh-what do y-y-you m-m-mean?" I asked.

"You're doing what the Destiny stone wants you to do. You're real self is basically in the waiting room, waiting for your conscience to either come back on its own, or for someone to make it come back." the voice said.

"What do you mean Destiny stone?" I asked.

"Your dark side..." the voice said.

"My what?"

"The villain side of your Destiny." the echoed voice said.

"The what?" I said.

"I'd suggest you snap yourself out of it, before something bad happens to your friends." the voice said.

"They're not my friends!" I screamed.

"Oh really? What about that Luke guy? Maybe Isabel. Or even Parker. They're your friends. And Camden and Skye. They're your friends too." the voice said, "You want to deny it. Why?"

"Because. How am I supposed to know that anything that's happening is real? I don't know if anything I'm feeling with them is real, because a story has itself all figured out for me."I said, realizing the truth of my words as they came out.

"So, you want control of your life?" the voice said, "I can make that happen. All you have to do, is let them go."

"I don't even know if I'm real! Do you want me to let myself go?" I screamed.

"Yes. Yes. Feed me your anger. Child, your lives will never be the same if you let go. Nothing bad will happen to them in the next three years. I'll take away everything the FOF has done to you poor children. You'll live where you used to, and your father will be alive and well."

The last words stunned me.

I wanted it so bad.

But what if they were tricking me?

Did I really want to be against the FOF?

"I'll let my friends decide my fate for me. If they save me, I'll let fate decide where to go next." I said confidently.

"Oh child, you've always lied to yourself. Now you're living a fable, and lie..." the voice faded away, and left me on my own. All I had to do was wait.

I thought back to everything with the FOF.

We're those friends even real?

Did I actually care about any of them?

My mom said that I had a softspot for people. Were any of the feelings I had real? I didn't know if I really thought Isabel was kind, or that Luke was funny, or that I hated Parker. I didn't know.

I decided that I would investigate, and I could only imagine the things I was doing outside of my conscious.

________________________________

"Isabel?" Parker said, sprawled on the ground.

"Parker?" Isabel said, standing up, ignoring the scrapes and bruises on her tan skin.

She attempted to fully open her chocolatey eyes, and brushed her auburn hair behind her shoulders.

Parker sighed in relief, and Isabel ran up and hugged him.

"Woah!" Isabel said, pointing at the two charged figures that were unconscious on the ground.

"Who are they?" Parker asked, he walked over to the girl and kneeled by her.

"I think they're a part of the FOF. They just saved us." Isabel said.

Parker slowly patted the girl's back, and said, "So you're saying we might know them?"

"Yeah. But I'm not sure I know anyone with that color blonde of hair." Isabel said, looking at the girl.

"Her hair might not be blonde in real life though." Parker said, pulling the hair out of the girl's face.

"You don't need to touch her." Isabel said.

"Why? You jealous?" Parker said with a smirk, brushing his shaggy dirty blonde hair to the side.

"What?! No, you just don't need to touch her like that. If she wakes up, you might scare her." Isabel said.

"Fine, but I'd be perfectly fine if you started doing the same with that boy right over there." Parker said.

Isabel gave him a look, and sat down next to the boy and looked at him carefully.

"Huh. I don't know anyone with this color hair either." Isabel said.

"Go ahead. Stroke his back and hair." Parker said encouragingly, looking at her with his large amber eyes.

"No." Isabel said annoyed, "Let's just help get them out of here."

"Ah, sweet girl is being feisty now." Parker said crossing his arms in defiance.

Isabel looked at him with a smile and said, "Well, I just want to help them."

"Sure." Parker said annoyingly, "You know you think that boy is cute!"

Isabel smiled annoyed, and said, "Alright then, then I assume that it'd be weird if I held him. So you can carry him. I'll carry the girl."

Parker looked at her and said, "Well now, I don't see why it'd be weird if I carried the girl."

"Ah, so you don't think she's cute?" Isabel said.

"I never said that-"

"So you do? That'd explain why you want to carry her." Isabel said.

"Listen, I'd rather not argue with you, let's just hurry and find out way out of here." Parker said, lifting the girl into his arms.

"So banter is only a you and Lauren thing? Good to know." Isabel said with a sweet smile.

"Well, we should probably find our way out of here. We don't want to keep Captain waiting, and we still haven't found Lauren and Luke." Parker said, ignoring Isabel's last comment.

"Okay, how am I supposed to carry the boy, though?" Isabel asked.

"He's skinny, so he should be pretty light." Parker responded.

"But he's also tall. Can't I just carry the girl?" Isabel pleaded.

"No, that'd be gay if I carried the boy." Parker said, crossing his arms.

"If you're saying it like that, that means you like the way the girl looks, so that's why you're carrying her. Besides, we just need to get out of here, does it really matter?" Isabel retorted.

"Fine." Parker said, walking over to Isabel with the girl in his arms, "Here."

He handed her the girl, and Isabel easily held her in her own arms.

Parker lifted the boy off the ground, and held him, awkwardly his face away from his own.

"Alright. Surface, here we come!" Isabel said, beginning to walk."

____________________________

I was still unconscious, but there was an entire world of pain that existed around me.

....

"Snap out of it! Whoever you are!" Isabel screamed at me.

I wasn't aware of my own actions, and was still in my dark consciousness, awaiting the time when my mind will return to my own body.

But outside of me.

I was evil.

I spoke no words, and the only thing that changed on the outside, was that my usually green eyes, were teal. I was still in my charged form, but had more power than ever.

Isabel attempted to push me to the ground.

I twisted her wrist and she flew to the side of the white room we were in.

She fell to the ground, limp, and attempted to stand again.

"ISABEL!" Parker screamed, holding her down.

"What are you doing?" Isabel screamed.

"It's no use! I don't want you getting hurt because we were being stupid!" Parker said.

"Really? You do it all of the time!" Isabel retorted.

"It's no use arguing now, we need to get out of here!" Parker yelled.

"No! We need to save them!" Isabel yelled.

I just stood there, alongside Luke's charged form, awaiting their next attack.

Obviously we were only there to stop them, so we let them scream it out.

"And how do you suggest we do that?!" Parker yelled, attempting to hold down Isabel's squirming body.

"We use our charged forms!" Isabel yelled.

"But we'll-"

"Who cares?!" Isabel screamed, "Their lives and ours matter more than some dumb rules!"

"But-"

"No buts. Come on!" Isabel said, grabbing her necklace.

"No. I'm not letting you!" Parker said.

"Do you want to live or not?" Isabel responded.

"Yes, that's why I am going to fight." Parker said, "I can't risk you getting hurt."

"Why are you so protective?! Just let me fight with you!" Isabel yelled.

"Definitely no-"

Isabel grabbed her necklace and turned to her charged form.

"Well, I guess I don't really have a choice now do I?" Parker said, grabbing his jewelry and changing to his charged form.

They both began to sprint at Luke and I, in an attempt to knock us into our senses.

Luke and I dodged and sprinted to the side, as fast as we could.

We counterattacked, and punched and kicked.

But in the grand scheme of things, we were all extremely tired and hurt.

"YOU!" Isabel said, pinning me to the ground, "WAKE UP!"

She slammed my Destiny ring onto the concrete floor, cracking it, taking away the darkness.

She released me from the dark conscience for just a flickering moment, but then I fell back asleep.

Not because of the dark destiny, but because I was hurt and tired of everything going in my world.

______________________________

"Let these poor people go!" Parker screamed at the shadowy figure that was holding my and Luke's unconscious bodies in its strangled arms.

The shadow said nothing, but only shook their head in defiance, with a satisfied smirk.

"Nothing to say?" Parker retorted.

"Give... your.... jewels... and your.... friends... won't.... suffer..." the gravely voice said.

"Never!" Isabel screamed, "We're here to protect the real world!"

The shadow only gave them a smirk, and began to pull them to her.

"No!" Isabel yelled, "Don't! Why do you even want the jewels?!"

"Destiny..." the shadow screeched.

"You want our destinies?!" Parker yelled.

"You can't have them!" Isabel screamed.

"Why would you even want our destinies?!" Parker yelled, as he slowly was pulled closer to the shadow alongside the charged form of Isabel, "You're the bad guy! I have the destiny of a good one! And so does she!"

"The bad guys part, you shouldn't be so sure of." the shadow said, removing the hood from her head, and revealing a familiar face.

She floated to the ground and stood on the ground like a normal human.

"WHAT?!" Isabel screeched.

"Give me the jewels, and you won't suffer the consequences of your destiny. You won't have to live through the pain and lies. It's a much better world. Our friend Lauren would love to switch places with you guys and same with Luke too." she said.

"What? Lauren would never abandon us, and neither would Luke." Parker said, getting into a battle stance.

"Oh, but they would. They don't even know if their emotions are real. And neither should you." she said.

"What do you mean?" Isabel said condescendingly.

The familiar girl just stood there, not moving, casually, and said, "If your life is a fairy tale, and your destiny is decided, how do you know that this is the real you?"

"It is the real me!" Isabel yelled back.

"But is it though?" the girl said, stopping Isabel in her footsteps.

"Isabel..." Parker said.

"I-I don't know." Isabel said, "Is it really me?!"

"Yes, how are you ever supposed to be sure?" the girl said, "But, if you give me your necklace, you can be positive of it. I'll take your fabled fate away, and you can live a normal life. With real emotion and real friends."

"ISABEL!" Parker yelled to her.

But Isabel was too enchanted by the voice of the familiar girl, and was now in a trance.

Parker screamed, "ISABEL I-"

"Shut it cocky boy." the familiar voice said.

Parker was suddenly slammed against the wall with a gust of air.

"Isabel, do you want a normal life?" the girl asked.

"I don't-"

"Good." the girl said, snatching the necklace from Isabel's neck.

Isabel fell the ground, and passed out on the spot.

"What. Did. You. Do. To. HER?!" Parker yelled in anger.

"Don't worry, I'll give it back in just a minute." the girl said.

The color of Isabel's necklace changed to a dark purple, and the orange color floated through the air, and into the girl.

"Well, she'll certainly be herself alright. Her worst self." the girl said, then she pulled up the hood, and disappeared into the shadows.

"I...." Parker said to himself in disbelief, "Failed..."

The two bodies of the charged forms of Luke and I still laid on the ground.

"What...?" Luke said.

"You! You're awake!" Parker yelled, rushing over to the boy.

"What? Park- I mean, who are you?" Luke asked, making sure to keep his identity a secret.

"I'm Parker." Parker said excitedly, "Listen, can you please help me?"

"With what?" Luke asked, standing up from the ground.

"Wow you're very tall." Parker said gazing up at him.

"What do you need my help with?" Luke asked again.

"This girl, Isabel" Parker said pointing to her, "I need your help carrying her. We need to get her back to my leader, Captain."

"And are you sure you want to do that?" Luke muttered, remembering what he had done to his family a year back.

"Yes, I'm positive. He's the only one who can help." Parker said, "Oh and, who's the girl?"

"Metal Wave." Luke responded, "At least, that's what she goes by."

"And what do you go by?" Parker asked.

Luke told him his charged name, and walked over to Isabel.

"What happened?" Luke asked.

"I think she traded destinies with that girl." Parker said, kneeling by Isabel and stroking her necklace.

"You're touchy, aren't you?" Luke observed.

"Maybe." Parker responded, "But the more pressing issue here, is that Captain doesn't know the girl isn't on his side."

"It might help if you say 'the girl's real name." Luke said annoyed.

"Oh. I don't know if you'd know her." Parker said.

"I might. Just give it a chance." Luke said.

"Cassie."