9

She’s Mine!

 

“I believe I’ve described the whole story at this point.” 

Both Chloe and Melody were at a loss of words once Luna finished describing her and Aurora’s entire story. 

“What the hell?! You left Aurora by herself?!” Chloe, clearly surprised at how deep of a rabbit hole Luna’s story turned out to be. “What about your parents? Do they know you’re safe?”

“I wrote them a… vague letter once, saying I was safe. That was six years ago, though. After what I’ve done and how long I’ve been gone… I don’t think I have the strength to face them. I don't want my existence to end up hurting them too.” 

“That’s not… that’s just not right…” Chloe sighed. Her frustration was all too apparent. She must’ve seen Luna’s situation as some sort of injustice, but Luna couldn’t see it that way. The fact of the matter was that if it weren’t for Luna, Aurora would’ve never been in any danger that day. She wouldn’t have spilled any blood, and she didn’t have to be hunted down by people after the “Starlight Girl.”

The one hole in all of this was how Serene didn’t develop any abilities as a result of Luna’s curse. In truth, Luna was ready to leave once Serene showed any supernatural signs, but that never occurred. Luna kept fearing each year that her time with this guardian would come to an end, but she eventually realized Serene had been unaffected by her Curse. This was a contradiction she didn’t understand, but without being able to understand it, it hardly affected how she viewed her Curse.

“Well what about me?” Chloe inquired. “All I got from your Curse was invisibility. Is that so bad?”

“I didn’t think Aurora’s telekinesis was too dangerous at first. I’ve already explained how that turned out…”

Chloe looked like she was ready to raise a counterpoint, but she relinquished. She had no decisive reasoning to back up the idea that her Curse wouldn’t evolve into something dangerous. Quite frankly, this only motivated Luna’s eventual abandonment of this group even further. These Curses, abilities, powers, whatever you want to call them, only Luna needed to bear this burden. Nobody else.

“But what about how Aurora feels?!” This out of nowhere yell came from Melody. Her face, covered in tears, looked utterly heartbroken. Luna’s story must’ve really affected her to an even greater extent than Chloe. It turned out the bright and cheerful girl could also go to the opposite extreme. “You two sounded so close. Did you consider how she felt about how you left!?”

“Of course I have! If she hated me for what I did, it would be completely justified. But that’s… it’s what it is. I can’t be selfish and risk being with her-”

“What’s wrong with being a little selfish?! Isn’t that always a part of wanting to be happy? To want something for yourself?”

This retort from Melody put Luna in a bit of a mental bind. This was the first time someone ever told her a belief like that, and with such conviction at that.

“What do you mean by-?” Before Luna could finish her question, she heard a nearby door slam open.

“Good morning everybody!” Aurora jumped out of her bedroom, her thief attire still on. She didn’t bother changing before she conked out for the night.

“It’s already the afternoon, isn’t it?” Luna said.

“Bah! Time is just a matter of perception!”

“I don’t think that’s how that works-”

“Anyways! Let’s finally go over our plans now that we’ve completed our first heist!”

Where that conversation was going earlier would never come to be. It’s not like Luna knew how to initiate another conversation such as that without sounding painfully awkward. 

The girls gathered around the table ready to discuss what to do next.

“This is the file I was able to get my hands on last night.”

In Aurora’s hands was the file labeled, “Eterna Ruby.” She opened it up to reveal multiple papers written about it. 

“I read through the whole thing last night. This ruby dates back to over a century ago. Nowhere does it state where the stone was found. Just that the Eterna family suddenly had it in their possession.”

“So its origins are still left a mystery…” Luna said.

“Throughout all that I read, that seems to be the case. Even the Eterna corporation is trying to understand what it’s capable of. There was an experiment where they extracted a red liquid from the stone and injected it into a test subject. It was suspected doing this could physically enhance a person or even give them special abilities, but nothing of note occurred during experimentation.”

“I’m gonna take a guess and say the test subject they talk about is me?” Chloe asked.

“Yes. The files say you were unsuccessful in providing any results.”

This all aligned with what Chloe had previously told them. Minus the fact that they noticed how Chloe gained enhanced strength after the fact.

“So we know that it exists, but where is it being kept?” Luna asked.

“The one in possession of the stone is Dominic Eterna. It’s also noted that he’s the only one that has properly used the stone before.” Aurora said.

This wasn’t much of a surprise to anyone by this point considering he’s the man who both controlled the Eterna Corporation and secretly The Void. He may have also been the one who ordered the attack on Luna and Aurora if he’s been controlling it for the past seven years.

“As for where it currently is… this file doesn’t say. The only thing it notes is that he always takes it with him wherever he goes.”

“That’s it?” Chloe asked. “No secret facilities? No underwater lab off the coast? No invisible ship in the sky!?”

“An underwater lab sounds cool!” Melody added.

“I know, right!?”

To Luna, these all sounded like a pain to infiltrate, but Aurora continued.

“Oh trust me, a secret lab underground would be awesome, but there’s nothing like that here. Knowing that the CEO always has it in his possession is a vital clue, though. Unfortunately, he never makes any public appearances, and Chloe hasn’t seen him in months.”

“Ever since mom died, I’ve been sent to live in my own apartment. Based on what we heard from my sister, she probably communicates with him on the regular. If I ever tried to ask her about Dominic, she’d probably become suspicious. She’s always been smart like that.”

“And you don’t want her to find out your goals, correct?” Luna asked.

“I don’t want her to worry about me when she’s already doing so much working under that ass. I want to tell her the truth once we’re both in the clear and get out of here for good. We’re lucky she couldn’t recognize me with my mask and hiding my voice.” 

“With all that said, however,” Aurora said. “Even if this file doesn’t say where it is right now, we do know where the stone was originally kept during its first few years of being known, and it’s a place we can easily investigate.”

“Really!? Is it a secret temple deep within the woods outside of the city!?” Melody asked.

How many ideas did you girls think up? Luna thought.

“The stone was being kept in the now abandoned mansion of the Eterna family. It’s been abandoned for about a century in the mountains near Everfall.” Aurora said.

“How would going to this mansion bring us any closer to stealing the stone?” 

“If the stone is always with Dominic, then we just have to track him down. Thanks to Melody, we have a device that can help us!”

“We do?” Melody confusingly asked.

“Oh yeah! Melody! You do have something for this!” Chloe added.

“I do!?”

“Did you already forget about that device you mentioned your grandfather was developing?” Chloe asked.

“Which one?”

“What do you mean which- the DNA one!” 

“Ohhhhhhh that one!”

“Yeah! That one!”

“Yeah!”

“What are you all talking about?” Luna interjected.

Aurora offered to explain, “Melody’s grandfather invented a device that could pinpoint a person’s location with only a sample of DNA.”

Luna raised an eyebrow at this.

“A device like that exists?”

“Yup! My grandfather made a bunch of cool inventions. He was the one who invented that USB device you’ve used before.”

“Who on earth is your grandfather?”

“An absolute genius!” Melody cheerfully declared.

That’s not what I meant.

“If we can find any samples of Dominic’s DNA at the abandoned mansion, we can use this device to finally track him down and steal that stone!”

“How do you know he’ll have DNA traces there?” Luna asked. 

“Some of his only public appearances have been ones where he visits the old estate for news articles and such. Even just some fingerprints could do the job. Isn’t that right, Melody?”

“Yep! Fingerprints should give some vague results. A strand of hair would be better though.”

“Alright then, that’s settled! Next heist, we’re going to check out some dusty old house, how does that sound!?”

“Whatever gets us closer towards our goal,” Luna said.

“Welp, if that’s what it takes,” Chloe responded.

“Our second heist as a four-person team!” Melody announced.

“Glad that’s all settled! We can do this heist Saturday.”

Today was Sunday, meaning it would basically be a week until their next heist. Aurora explained that this was because Melody had summer classes during the week. Despite spending her time with a bunch of girls that committed numerous crimes, she was still very attentive to her education. The girls thought they could use this time to prepare. It’s not like that mansion was going anywhere.

“Oh yeah. Something unique happened with Luna and I while on our side of the heist.” 

Chloe and Luna nodded to each other.

“Don’t freak out, but this is gonna be weird.” 

After Chloe said this, she clenched her fists together before a green aura enveloped her. Iin the next moment, she disappeared completely. 

This caused Melody and Aurora to step back in shock. After ten seconds, Chloe reappeared.

“Woah!” Melody yelled. “That’s what you were talking about earlier!”

However, her surprise could not compare to how stunned Aurora appeared. She appeared nearly horrified.

“Luna, did you Curse Chloe!?”

“This happened during our fight with Katherine. It’s hard to explain, but I guess what happened there was enough for Chloe to have her own Curse to awaken…”

 “Gotta say, this is still bizarre as hell to me. I can’t even see any part of myself when I turn invisible, but I guess this can help with stealth.”

“I have an idea!” Melody opened her palm. “Grab my hand after you go invisible!”

And so Chloe did that just.

“Wooaaahhhhh it’s like a ghost is touching me!”

Once Chloe became visible, she said, “I’ve messed around with it for a bit. Looks like anything I’m holding and wearing becomes invisible when I activate my Curse, but nothing after that.”

“So if Luna’s powers activate by getting close to someone, does that mean Chloe is now as close to Luna as Aurora?”

Melody’s question suddenly caused an awkward mood to fill the room. There was no way it was as simple as that, but the very concept created a bizarre tension to develop that Melody was utterly clueless of.

Luna was the first to say something. 

“I wouldn’t say it works quite like that. Based on cursing Chloe, I just need to connect with someone on a certain level, and that’s it.”

“That’s correct,” Aurora added as she wrapped her arms around Luna’s left arm. “Sorry, Chloe, but this girl would be too much of a handful for you.”

“What on earth does handful mean-”

“All good! I’d rather not handle all that in the first place.”

“What does that phrasing imply-”

“Great! Glad that’s settled.”

People are very exhausting…

The group meeting was officially over. Both Chloe and Melody left soon afterwards. Leaving only Luna as the only one remaining with Aurora.

“Aurora, there are some things I want to ask you.”

“Is this another one of your interrogations?”

“I didn’t interrogate you last time.”

“Oh please, I’m not saying I don't enjoy it.” 

What does that mean…? Ugh, nevermind.

“You brought a second file with you. One that you didn’t talk with the rest of us about. What was that?”

Aurora would not drop her deceptively smile. “So you noticed?”

“I clearly saw you holding more than one file as we made it back here. But beyond that, the hole in the side of the library, did you use the power I think you did?”
Aurora laughed. “Well, well, those are certainly some interesting questions. I planned on explaining that other file in a meeting before our next mission, but I have no problem answering your questions earlier… on one condition!”

Luna crossed her arms. “And that is…?”

Aurora walked back a couple of steps before cheerfully turning her head towards Luna. Her eyes now had a passionate look in them. A look filled with fondness and desire. 

Luna’s mind was practically yelling how pretty she looked, but she tried to brush aside these thoughts. There was no telling what Aurora would ask of her. This girl remained hardly recognizable from the kid she knew back then, so she needed to be ready for whatever request would be thrown at her.

“Are you free tomorrow?”

“...Huh?”