14

Memories

 

During their briefing before heading to the mansion, the girls had a number of different conversations. This was one of them:

“Just so that we’re all on the same page, I believe Aurora should explain to us how exactly her abilities work,” Luna said.

“Do I need to? I’ve explained my powers to the others before, and you’re already plenty familiar.”

“It turns out, there’s still plenty I’m not aware of, so do forgive any redundancy.”

“Ah, is this what we’re doing now?”

“I believe so.”

Luna and Aurora gave uncomfortable smiles towards each other. Minor chuckles were forced out of both of them.

“Uh, what’s happening?” Chloe asked.

“They must’ve had an argument. I saw this in a romcom once,” Melody responded.

“What the hell do we do?”

“I think we just watch. We can’t disrupt the flow of love.”

“What are you talking about?”

Aurora cleared her throat.

“Sure, I can explain in detail. Of course you all know it’s telekinesis, but there are restrictions. I can only control one object at a time with the only exception being if I sliced it apart. In order to do that, I need to be in close proximity to said object. A moment of build up is required as well. In regards to humans, I can only control them if I manage to make contact with them first.”

“All those restrictions sound like a pain,” Chloe said.

“She’d be pretty OP without them to be fair,” Melody added.

“Knowing this, how exactly did that incident back then occur?” Luna asked.

“My Curse must’ve activated directly on the ground around me. The sharply cut debris likely sliced everyone there apart. They were all goners…”

Aurora stared at her hand with discontent. Recalling this memory caused something to eat at her. 

“Aurora, are you really okay with using that power? Are you not afraid of repeating what happened back then?” Luna asked.

Instead of giving a direct reply to this, Aurora approached the conversation in a different way.

“Luna, there’s one thing that I want you to promise me.”

“Wha-? Umm… what is it?”

“You placed the burden on yourself the last time I used my powers in irreversible ways. From now on, I want you to promise me that no matter what, what I do with my powers is my own responsibility. No matter what happens, you are not the one at fault.”

“This is sounding a bit like a precaution…”

“I’m asking with my whole heart if you can make this promise.”

“I’ll…I’ll try. Don’t take this as a pass to do anything reckless either.”

“I’ll do what I can!” Aurora said with a smile she’d done over and over during conversations with Luna.

***

 

The atmosphere in the living room completely changed now that Aurora entered the room and took out the drones with minimal effort. Dominic’s confidence that filled the room previously, while not destroyed, has been challenged, by a force he had yet to understand.

“Eclipse, I need you to trust me and follow my orders. Cat needs your help on the roof. Head up there immediately and provide support,” Aurora said.

The sound of thunder and rumbling from the floors above could be heard from all three of them.

“Ah. Little Miss No-Smile must be putting in work up there,” Dominic scoffed.

“And you?” Luna asked Aurora.

“Leave Dominic to me. I’ve been waiting for this for quite some time.”

Luna appeared to have understood arguing over this would only waste time while Chloe needed her help. She nodded in agreement and began running towards a broken window.

As she ran out, she yelled to Aurora, “He has a cursed ability! He can reverse time on his body and anything around him!” 

She jumped out of the window and shot her grappling hook towards the roof, causing her to start zip up and leave the scene.

“Hey! We still weren’t done here, Starlight Girl. You’re really just gonna leave me hanging!?” Dominic yelled. His voice reverted back to a more casual tone.

“Now that we’re both alone, Mr. Eterna, there’s a question I want to ask you.”

His attention turned to Aurora who stood there politely.

“I don’t know why I’d answer. Reinforcements are arriving soon, so you’ll all either be apprehended or dead when this is all over.”

Aurora completely ignored this threat. 

“Seven years ago. Me and someone dear to me were attacked by Void soldiers. Seeing as how you own that group, could I deduce that you were the one that ordered that attack?”

“Do you really need me to spell something like that out for-’

Dominic’s reply was quickly cut by an entire table colliding into him, sending him crashing into a wall. The wall showed visible cracks as the sound of the impact roared throughout the entire room. All Aurora had to do to cause this was flick her hand.

“I want to hear the answer directly from your mouth.” 

She watched as Dominic’s dislocated limbs moved themselves back into place. He winced the whole time he reversed all his injuries. 

Aurora’s smile slowly lowered itself.

“Let me ask again. Are you the one that caused that attack seven years ago?”

Dominic slowly picked himself up. 

“Getting a bit angry now, aren’t we? I guess you’re the one the Starlight girl was with when I first sent my troops to detain her. With power like that, I bet you’re one that killed them too. That haunts you, doesn’t it? Murdering people at such a young age.” 

After saying this, Dominic bolted to pick up his pistol just a few feet away and immediately fired at Aurora.

Nice try. This effort was in vain as Aurora swiftly blocked the bullet with a piece of the broken table she moved in front of her with her Curse. 

“Perhaps I am getting angry. Up until now, I haven’t had a way to vent all these feelings out. Now that the man who caused all my suffering is in front of me, I can finally release them.”

“What the hell are you implying by that-?”

Luna, forgive me. I don’t know if I’ll be able to hold back.

 

***

 

An entire bookcase launched itself straight at Dominic.

In his head he thought, she merely got lucky last time! I’ll reverse their motion as soon as they make contact with my body-!

He was never able to fully finish that thought because the bookcase the brat controlled hit him without fail. His body was pushed towards one side of the room until the force of the impact caused the wall to burst open, sending him flying into the kitchen on the other side and collapsing on the floor.

His body healed itself faster this time, but he couldn’t comprehend why Uphold was not working. At first, he thought that it was due to his delayed reaction, but he realized that it simply wasn’t working against objects the brat used. He couldn’t think of any reason why this was the case, and he ran out of time to ponder this as the brat slowly walked into the room.

“Why did you do all this? I know that you and Eclipse bear the same Curse. Why did you hurt her!?” 

The brat’s furrowed brow was clear as day to Dominc. The glow around her hands became so concentrated it looked ready to turn into flames.

Dominic needed to change the subject before he buried his own grave. 

“Weren’t you here in search of the Eterna Ruby? You shouldn’t bother wasting time with questions like that.”

A knife flew out of the drawer with the swift motion of the brat’s hand and pointed itself at Dominic.

“Sure, whatever, where’s Eterna Ruby?”

“You aren’t giving me much of a choice here. The truth to that question will be unfortunate for you.”

“Mmm, I’m afraid any attempts to disway would be pointless. Now then…” The knife flew right in front of Dominic’s face. “Where’s Eterna Ruby?”

He let out a cackle, “If little Miss Detective connected a few more dots, maybe she would’ve realized it, the Eterna Ruby is not real.”

Surprise washed over the brat’s face, “It’s what?”

Dominic noticed that the knife in front of him began to shake. He caught the knife in his hands in order to admire it. 

“I mean, we do have real rubies, but there’s no such thing as a magical gem. That’s more of a code word than anything.”

“Then, what does…?”

Dominic firmly pressed his hand against his chest, his nails digging into his clothing. 

“It refers to my own immortal body. I’ve been alive for over a century, and this gift of mine allows that. All I need to do in order to stop myself from aging is reverse time on my own body. It truly is a blessing of an ability.”

Once he finished speaking, Dominic reversed time on the knife he held. It reversed all the motions when he was holding it until it went back to floating in the air. Interestingly enough, it didn’t reverse any further beyond the point at which the brat was controlling it. Dominic deduced that this must mean whatever the brat controlled was not affected by the flow of time. 

It was as she stopped time on whatever she controls. This thought put it all together for him. This was why he couldn’t stop anything she affected. The devastation of realizing this dawned on him.

Starlight Girl, what kind of absurd power did you bless this girl with!?

He figured the brat herself was not entirely aware of this, and that would be for the better. If she knew this and was able to grab a hold of Dominic, the consequences would be his downfall. No matter what, he would not let that happen. He decided to approach taking down the brat from a new angle.

The brat was still taking in the truth of the Eterna Ruby. She must’ve wondered how the others would react knowing their dreams of achieving wealth by stealing it had been shattered. 

“Let’s be real with ourselves, that’s not why you came all this way. I doubt you even cared that much about stealing the stone in the first place,” Dominic said.

“W-what?” 

“You made it pretty obvious yourself. All you’ve talked about is the past, such as what I did to you and matters that frankly, you are not involved in.” 

The distance between the brat and Dominic became a few feet, and Dominic made sure to keep it this way. It would only be more dangerous for him if he got closer. That is, until the moment was right.

“Even if there’s no longer a stone to Ruby, my goals are still the same. You’ll give me the truth on why you hurt me and Luna back then! I won’t stop until I get the closure I’ve been looking for!”

“Finally dropping your pointless nicknames, I see. You’re not the only one looking for closure. Just like you, I’m trying to put the past to rest.”

This appeared to have struck a nerve for the brat. 

“Don’t talk like we’re the same! The thought makes me want to vomit!” 

With the clenching of her hands, a cabinet was ripped off of the wall and smashed itself into Dominic. It broke into pieces as he continued to stand in place. His control of his gift grew sharper.

“Then why have you come all this way?! Why pursue me and the history of my family?! Because the thought of putting me in my place consumes you, doesn’t it?! You want to kill a man that cannot be killed!? All for an incident years ago!”

 

***

 

Instead of responding, Aurora continued to hurl as many different objects as she could at Dominic with her telekinesis.

Keep it together, you’re not doing this for revenge! You’re doing this all for Luna! 

All these hits did not stop Dominic from running his mouth.

“Open your eyes, girl! You’re doing this all for yourself! If you really cared about the Starlight Girl, you never would’ve met her again!”

He’s wrong! I’m…. I’m not…

“You’re not some good guy who’s bringing peace to her life! You’re nothing more than a scared little kid who refuses to let go, and is selfishly getting involved with things she doesn’t understand!”

I’m not being selfish… I’m doing this for… for…!

Dominic took this opportunity to sprint straight at Aurora and place his hand on her hand.

“YOU’RE JUST AS SELFISH AND LONELY AS ME!”

These words blasted themselves into Aurora’s mind, and with his hand on her head, a reversal was beginning. Not on Aurora’s physical body, but her own memories.

Aurora recalled the aftermath of when Luna abandoned her. After waking up, she ran back to the site of the blast. Luna was nowhere to be seen, but someone was coming out of the rubble. She quickly hid behind some debris. The man who previously placed his hand on Luna stood up. 

Several pieces of the ground stabbed into him, so he placed his hand on each piece and watched them distach themselves from his body. The open wounds on his body restored themselves right after. Tapping on his earpiece, he made contact with other members of this group.

“Send in a clean up crew. Several men have been killed. The targets are two young kids. Their genders were hard to discern. Activate the trackers and see where they went. There’s a chance they plan on fleeing the city.”

Aurora did all she could to breathe quietly. Her heart was pumping out of her chest, and these few sentences felt as if they were taking an eternity to be said. She didn’t know how this man had powers like her and Luna, but looking at his cold and desolate face was enough to send shivers down her spine.

After his call, he wiped off some dirt on his uniform, and drove away in a nearby truck. He had no intention of staying behind for his fallen comrades.

Aurora took this opportunity to flee.

She didn’t say a word of what happened to her parents. When they questioned her dirty clothes, she only replied that she got like this from playing with friends. She spent the rest of the night crying in her room. She sobbed and sobbed until her voice eventually went quiet.

Rumors spread around at school as to what happened to Luna, but Aurora claimed she was clueless. She continued on with her life, and she spent her middle school life going through what can be called a transitional period.

The confidence that Luna planted in her continued to bloom even with her absence. By high school, she learned how to both make friends and please people which led to her becoming fairly popular. Every confession she received from a boy was met with a clear decline, but the occasional confession she received from a girl left her feeling conflicted. Truth be told, there was still one person she had on her mind even after a number of years.

Every now and then, she’d test if her powers still worked. They would function just fine. She waited for the day they’d disappear for good as she let the memory of Luna fade away from her mind… but that never happened.

Countless nightmares remembering what happened back then occurred with no way to quell these horrible thoughts from taking over. That is, unless she was thinking of Luna herself. Remembering the friend who blamed everything on herself. The girl who shined a light on her existence. The one who taught her how to be herself.

This relief was soon met with the guilt of what happened to Luna. Aurora didn’t know where she was or what kind of life she was living. If she was getting nightmares, she could only imagine how her friend was suffering. If there was a way she could help her, a way that she could bring Luna some peace, she would take it without hesitation.

As if fate was guiding her, an opportunity soon emerged. While doing research for an assignment near the end of high school, Aurora stumbled across an article recently posted. It showed the CEO of Eterna at his old estate. It was rare for photos of him to be posted, but seeing what he looked like caused her to jump out of her seat.

The man she saw all those years ago, that was him! The people who attacked these two kids were led by him! He was the one who did something weird to Luna’s head, he’s the one who survived via similar powers, he’s the one who wanted to hurt Luna.

But…why? Why did he want to do this? Is there a way to get him to stop? Would he ever let Luna feel free to be herself? 

Her goal soon became clear. She did as much investigating as she could, looking up many online resources for anything on those soldiers they encountered. She questioned various locals about that original incident and if they noticed anything that could relate to the void. When she gathered enough information to further conclude their ties to the Eterna Corporation and Everfall, she made it her goal to go there herself and dig up the truth. She wanted to know why she and Luna were attacked and who was to blame. 

These desires grew more and more obsessive. When she graduated from high school, she agreed to keep in touch with her friends and had their contacts, but she didn’t expect much to come of this. There were no plans to continue hanging out with them. They didn’t need any involvement in the path she was going down. This was for the better. 

She had already begun traveling to Everfall to gather more info. Eventually, she met Chloe, and when she learned about the Eterna Ruby, she saw a reason- no, an excuse to continue pursuing Eterna. In her eyes, she saw the ruby as a means of repaying those that would help her and a fitting book to her goals. 

Melody met them and joined the group as well, but when she was able to find and track down Luna, it was as if the final puzzle piece was laid right in front of her. 

Getting to be with the one she was doing this for one last time and giving her the answers she would uncover would complete this satisfaction she’s been searching for… But is Luna the one she did all this for?

The memories looped endlessly in Aurora’s mind. Over and over, she saw the same images, heard the same sound, and felt every other sense you could describe in the same way. This brought a question to her mind. 

What am I even doing?

What was actually her plan when confronting Dominic? How would she get him to stop? Well, there was really one clear answer in her mind.

Kill him. Make him feel at least half the pain he caused to Luna and Aurora. The horror of killing those people still persisted, but as time went on, it was overtaken by frustration. An anger towards how unfair their circumstances were. She knew that deep down, in order to protect Luna, she was willing to get her hands bloody… and this terrified her. 

This was the opposite of what Luna wanted. It would support Luna’s beliefs that she was a dangerous influence to others. Especially if she knew that it was Aurora’s bond with Luna that had pushed her to that point. Any chance she’d have at convincing Luna to change her mind on parting ways would be gone for good. This was something she had in her head for a while despite their initial agreement.

Killing Dominic wouldn’t be enough to bring Luna peace. This led back to the same question.

What am I even doing?

No, better yet.

What do I even want?

If this whole operation was merely a plug on the pain she still feels from seven years ago, this reversal of memories caused all of that suffering to spill out once more. But with that, there was clarity. If there was one thing Aurora wanted most within her mess of goals and memories, it was to stay by Luna’s side. To tell Luna that she didn’t care if she was cursed, or that she herself would be cursed.

I don’t just want Luna to be happy. I want her to be happy with me. How selfish can I get?

Once Aurora finally woke up, she was on her knees in front of Dominic, who had an obnoxiously wide grin. Her face felt wet from the tears strewn across her face.

“Uphold doesn’t just affect time physically, it can also reverse your mind to re-experience your memories. Did you have a fun trip?”

In retaliation, Aurora tried to force her hand onto Dominic and activate her Curse, but nothing happened. Her eyes widened as she saw the red aura around her hand flicker on and off like a light bulb.

The shock of this gave her no time to react before Dominic kicked her away. 

“There we go. You’ve had enough fun messing with powers you don’t understand.”

Aurora laid on the floor contemplating why her powers were dying out. All her energy was quickly decreasing. As if a sudden illness had taken over her body, causing her to be weak, dizzy, powerless. 

In the end, she could be nothing more than a confused and scared girl.