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Fault Lines
Word Count -- 880
"It's all my fault..."

The steady beeping of the machine with its flashing numbers and line of ascending and descending lights reminded her of her music box. But instead of recording the rhythm of the beat, it was recording the very life of her sister.

The song was slow, weak, fragile.

It should have been vibrant and full of life, but since the arrival of the patient yesterday, the machine that ticked off the girl's vital signs by the second seemed to be playing a dirge.

AURORA IMOGEN ST. GREY.

Or so read the sign on the door of the hospital room. She had wanted to take a black marker to the sign all day. Her twin sister never went by her first name. It was so formal. It didn't feel right to see there in printed letters like the labels her sister had placed on everything in her favorite collection.

The girl held back tears that she had been fighting since yesterday and wanted to rip the sign from its place. It didn't belong there. Her sister didn't belong there. Dying like some sad experiment kept alive just to record data. The doctors had said as much. It's like she doesn't have any life in her, they had said.

But her heart still beats.

Yesterday had been like any other morning. The twins were on their way to school. Their uniforms were neat and pressed.

"Won't it be great to wear the uniform of Crystal Academy, Imagi?" Her sister cried as she pranced along the sidewalk. "You know, at first it seemed too fancy, but it means I don't have to wear this grey sweater any more."

Imagi pushed up her large glasses on her nose. "I rather like the sweater." Her bright blue eyes carried their usual unexpressive yet slightly confused gaze.

"Of course, you would," her sister laughed. Imagi had always been rather strange ever since birth. She liked things no one else her age liked. She did things her schoolmates wouldn't. And she certainly had curious opinions for a child just turning fourteen.

Her sister didn't mind. And if you did, it was best not to bring it up around Amaryllis ArcadiaSt. Grey (*see note below). They called her Aura and, as one boy in her home room class put it, it was because she could get scary when she was defending others, especially Imagi.

"We won't need these old things nice for much longer," she smirked like she did when she was getting a wild idea. "Wanna race?"

Imagi blinked and used a pale hand to brush back her grey hair as she tried to refasten the two shiny star clips that held strands of her long hair in place so that they wouldn't fail into her face like Aura's usually did. "I don't think this is such a good idea..."

But her twin sister had already started running.

That was the first mistake. Aura was like the wild wind, but Imagi was like a glimmering stone. And she would never catch her that day.

She had always been told to watch out for Imagi. Never leave her alone. She doesn't understand, her mother would say to her sister. She can't read people like you can. One day, Imagi's naivete may become a problem, her father had warned. Watch out for your sister.

How Imagi had chanced upon the stranger no one knew and now there was no one left to tell. Her sister had been the one to find her after she had realized that something was keeping the girl from following. Aura had turned back to find a harrowing scene that defied logic. Or, at least, that is what the officer said when she would later recall the events for the police.

All she could remember now was the hand in her sister's chest and the gleaming crystal, as delicate as a butterfly, hovering in the air.

Imagi had always been the one to remember details, after all.

And it was true. Other than the strange crystal and the song it seemed to hum as it was taken from her sister's heart, the only other thing Aura could recall was the wicked look of satisfaction on the face of the woman as she discarded Imagi's limp body like a doll as the life - the light - faded from her blank eyes.

All that was left of the scene was a pack of cards, the ones the girl had so loved to collect, scattered upon the pavement. The rare holo foil card glinted harshly in the light. She had meant to look at them when she arrived at school.

Now they just looked like a badly drawn hand in a game she had never asked to play.

Aura tried desperately to hold back tears as she watched the numbers pulse with a hypnotic consistently. She said she wouldn't cry. But her sister lay lifeless. It wasn't Imagi's fault.

Why did Imagi deserve to live? After all, countless star seeds are returned to Cosmos and the Cauldron everyday. Why should this one be any different?

A blood curdling scream of anguish rang from the room assigned to Aurora Imogen St. Grey. But there was no one there to hear it.

"Because it's all my fault."

Last Year
Word Count -- 4162

Youma.

It had to be Youma.

Each and every time Alpha Leporis stooped to inspect the shimmering remains of a monster that the sisters dusted together, Beta Leporis felt her own starseed pulse in her chest. This time was no different. Beta wondered if she might not find the action beautiful under different circumstances: the heinous monster disintegrating into glittering dust. Such a paradox might have been lovely were it not for her “incident”. “Incident” because Beta only remembered impressions of that happened. “Incident” because Alpha would rather forget.

Beta touched the skin above her starseed. It felt like it had only just settled back into its place… Echos of what might have been memories rattled around her head… a lonely place that seemed light years away from home… a woman? Had there been a woman? An angel? Shadows thrown by her mind played tricks on her whenever she tried to piece them together. Instead all she had was the searing memory of sudden, unbearable pain; of the long, heavy sleep that followed; and the trudging recovery when she finally woke. Not nearly enough to really understand what happened.

Alpha watched as Beta retreated into herself. She knew the look on her sister’s face when she got lost in her memories. Her pain. Her fear. Regret stirred within Alpha as she watched her sister, Beta’s cloudy blue eyes gazing at a point that neither could see.

Life isn’t about racing, Amaryllis!

Their mother’s blind panic echoed forever in Alpha’s mind like a broken record that she would never be able to silence. A perfect soundtrack to accompany the three second clip of her sister crumpling like a paper doll forever looping in her memory. She swallowed around the lump in her throat and gently -- ever so gently, Beta was so skittish -- she called to her sister.

“Beta…”

Beta looked up with a smile, one that Alpha was forced to return despite her unease. She always mirrored her sister’s emotions, even if it pained her. And it did. If Beta noticed her sister’s discomfort, she said nothing. Instead the older senshi went on standing, hands clasped lightly in front of her, waiting for Alpha to finish. Alpha had to make this quick -- she knew how her sister hated to stay after they had dusted something. How Alpha would have liked to linger and investigate more… to discover more. Before guilt smothered it, Alpha could feel irritation nibbling at her stomach.

I can’t stand weakness.

She wouldn’t be this weak if Alpha hadn’t left her side that day...

“Our little Mauvian should be able to help us figure out what this junk is made from,” Alpha said perhaps too happily, filling the little mason jar with dust before tucking it away into subspace where it would be safe.

Beta only nodded, silent as always. It didn’t matter. Alpha talked enough for the two of them. She always did. Spoke both of their minds so that the older of the two could stand back and observe. Just as she did now. She observed her sister’s interest in youma grow into an obsession from inception to the eventual armageddon that would culminate in the end.

But that was for the end of the story. This is only the beginning.

For now, Alpha and Beta were only just getting their feet wet in Alpha’s tireless research. What were Youma really? Monsters, she knew, but beyond that, there was precious little that she knew. That anyone knew, really.

“I heard that they were shadows from the Negaverse, thrown by dark magic and given life. That’s why they’re so terrible,” one eternal told them in a hushed voice as they patrolled. “That’s also why you can’t kill them. You can’t kill a shadow, right?”

Another mentioned the relationship to Golems. “From clay to dust, right? Strawmen that the Negaverse uses to misdirect our fury.”

Still another offered, “Maybe the hollow earth theory isn’t so far off? I think the Youma were this worlds first inhabitants, and they live underground.”

Alpha had nodded seriously at each answer they were given, muttering something in agreement. Beta disagreed. She kept her thoughts to herself, squeezing her sister’s hand imperceptibly. Alpha looked back and after a lingering glance; she nodded her understanding. Of course she understood.

“They’re wrong.”

“I know.”

Words later spoken hushed and hurried in the hallway while parents slept. Aura so disliked being lied to, and Imagi could see that in her eyes. The way the blue chilled to ice while the fire of her temper burned bright just under her skin. If Imagi didn’t act quickly, the wildfire of her anger would burn right through her. And to Aura, the cool touch of her sister’s words were a balm. She leaned into the words as well as the soothing press of Imagi’s hand against her face. Anchoring one another there, in that moment, they stood-- Imagi’s hand pressed against Aura’s cheek-- reminding the elder sister that this feeling right here was the most important thing on this earth, and Aura clinging to Imagi’s wrist with both hands like she was the only thing between the younger sister and blazing destruction.

No answer given sat right with the elder sister, and that unsettled the younger deeply. If anyone would know that they were being fed correct information, it would have been Imagi. It would seem that the old adage about wanting something done right held true even here, in this magical space between reality and fantasy. In the end, neither sister truly knew, in retrospect, who first breathed life into the foolish plan that they had hatched. It had simply one day come in to being. Or, then again, perhaps it wasn’t an idea nor a plan at all, but rather an inevitability. For who knew the tools of the Negaverse better than the Negaverse itself?

“We need.” To try something else.

“I know.” and I have a plan.

“What.” Are you thinking?

“Simple.” Just follow my lead.

And how simple it was. The Negaverse's appetite for souls was as voracious as it was treacherous. More so than either sister could have ever dreamed. They ignored their instincts night after night, enduring the beatings and the muggings. The Negaverse spoke a different language than they did, and it wasn’t until a particularly ambitious young Captain stopped her attack long enough to ask why they weren’t fighting back that they learned how to speak it.

Panting, Alpha drew her older sister up, slinging Beta’s arm across her shoulder for support. While Alpha had made herself a target as best she could, Beta had taken as much as she could withstand and still more. Somewhere in Alpha’s heart the old ache of regret throbbed, taking her back to the quiet hospital room where the only other sound was her own tortured wailing and the steady chime of the heart monitor.

“We want out.”

Three simple words. It’s always the simplest of phrases that carry the most importance. “I love you.” “I do.” “I can’t do this.” “I’m leaving you.” “We lost them.” All less than five words. All capable of changing a life. Beta clung to her sister, eyelids heavy with fatigue as the younger spoke for the two of them. Later, Imagi would climb into bed with her sister and whisper, “I’m afraid.” Aura would curl around Imagi, shielding her from the world with her body and comb her fingers through her hair until the older fell asleep. And then she would lie awake until the sun rose, wondering if she was making the right choice.

The twins turned 15.

The Captain became their contact.

The Captain was most obliging. Of course she was -- she was bettering the ranks of the Negaverse, after all. Two strong young senshi looking to give themselves over to the Chaos. How could she not be nurturing and sweet?

“These are my Diamond Dogs,” she said with a flourish after many weeks of secret meetings. The twins gazed at the line of animals before them, senshi with black bodices and dead eyes. The Captain, whose name they had learned was Loctite, had trained them all personally. 'Hand-raised' was the way that she had put it.

“They eat from my hand,” she cooed, stroking the cheek of a young man who smiled with his teeth. The twins hated to wonder what made the corrupted senshi so loyal to the Captain. When they tried to talk to the senshi, they all got the same answer.

“Captain Loctite saved us. We owe her our lives and our allegiance.” They spoke with such fervor and such passion that Alpha and Beta both stepped back and drew closer.

“Is this?” A good idea?

“Probably not.”

Imagi fixed her sister with a pointed stare. What’s the point of all this if you don’t think that it’s a good idea? The other met her gaze without speaking. Her eyes spoke with conviction of her need to gather more information.

They met Captain Loctite in the spring, and months passed like this. By the time warm days of summer overtook the city, the cruelty changed sides. Senshi ambushed them as traitors while Negaverse officers came to their aid. They had been marked as Loctite’s, after all, flagged with a single diamond pendant that hung from their necks, settling at their sternums. The same collars that hung around the necks of all of her Diamond Dogs.

“They won’t ever stop, you know,” a young man who smiled with his teeth mused one evening while he was gathering energy. “They want this earth for their own. And when they have it, who knows what they’ll do. The White Moon can call us whatever they want, but we know who is really fighting for earth.” He smiled at them and the twins smiled back. He had a fuku the color of a sunset, name was Holdite, and he was nearly 17. He was, perhaps, Alpha’s favorite. Charming to a fault, easygoing, and ostensibly caring about nothing. An act, for once that air of indifference was gone, there was no stopping him. Once when they were attacked by a pair of White Moon Senshi who had heard of twin traitors, he leaped from nowhere to their aid. They hadn’t even felt him coming and his vicious beating of the other two senshi left both girls chilled to the bone despite the muggy august air. He returned to them, knuckles covered with blood they were not sure was his, and they were reminded of what he truly was. But they were thankful all the same for his rescue.

“You two look thin. Here. Eat this.” A woman who must have been out of college in a beautiful fuku of blue and green. Jusmite. She smiled and handed them wrapped treats whenever they were together. “Us pups need to help one another. That’s what packs do, you know.” Her laughter was the sound of bells and her smile was like home. She kept a soothing hand on each girl’s shoulder at all times and Beta felt herself leaning into the touch. Especially when the vicious man with a sunset uniform was around. Alpha vied for his attentions of course. But this woman soon proved to be just as dangerous as the other, albeit far more cold in her brutality. She watched as her attack withered and wasted senshi in her path, nothing but a cold smile on her face. “I had a daughter when I was 14,” she said softly. “And I will protect her from terror at all cost.” Neither twin could blame her.

The last senshi in the Pack was a young man of their age in a fuku like bruises. “Mom and dad are great, aren’t they,” he gushed as the two older senshi beamed from nearby. The woman kissed his temple warmly. The man slapped his shoulder with a booming laugh. “And I can’t wait to have siblings. Right, Gran?” Loctite, on the verge of promotion, stopped her picking of her nails and pointed her wicked little Diamond athame at the young man.

“Call me Gran again and I’ll pump your seed so full of Chaos no one will recognize you.”

The group laughed. Even Alpha and Beta.

Summer turned to fall, and the man with the sunset suku was lingering around Alpha more and more. Her eyes turned starry when he was around. His touch was heavy on her body. Beta watched as something turned over in her stomach. Touching the diamond that hung around her neck, she felt the rousing thing turn back over and go to sleep again. They needed to remain calm. Alpha was only working the young man for information, the same way Beta was working the woman.

“When the Captain said that she would pump Lefrite’s starseed full of chaos…”

“She was only joking, love. Think no more of it.”

A kiss on the temple stole Beta’s question and soothed nerves that she didn't know were frayed.

We have to save them when we can. A lingering look from Imagi to her sister over dinner.

I know. We just need more time. The answer from locked lips.

More time and more time and more time.

Alpha glittered when Holdite spoke to her and he glittered back. Beta worried about the age difference… 17 was so much older than 15 and when she warned her sister, Alpha scoffed.

“Working.” Not in love. Never in love. Working Holdite for information.

“Okay.” Beta wasn’t sure if she believed her, though Alpha believed herself.

“I’m worried about Alpha,” Beta muttered as Jusmite worked the younger senshi’s hair into delicate braids. Jusmite paused in her workings and asked, “how so, love?”

“She spends so much time with Holdite…”

“And?”

“He frightens me.”

A long silence before Jusmite finally sighed, “He frightens me too. He’s like a newborn sun. Burning too brightly and too quickly. I’m afraid that he’ll burn out and we’ll lose him.”

That wasn’t what Beta had meant.

“But,” Jusmite continued, tying off the braid that she was currently working with and moving to another section of hair, “I think Alpha is a good influence. He’s more careful with her around. Like… I don’t know, like he has something to live for now. It’s sweet. If you’re worried about him taking Alpha out with him, I wouldn’t. He’ll rise with her instead.”

Beta nodded, not wanting to correct Jusmite for fear of outing herself and her sister.

“Holdite,” Alpha asked one day, hanging from his arm as they walked, Holdite gathering his quota. He was so close to eternal, both senshi could feel it. He hummed his answer, eyes ever forward.

“What makes a youma?”

Holdite paused in his walking and glanced down at Alpha. She shone up at him, her smile nearly breaking her face in two. He smiled back and pulled her closer.

“Why the sudden interest?”

“It’s not so sudden…”

Holdite laughed and Alpha chittered back. Finally he shrugged his great shoulders, broader than any 17 year old had a right to be.

“I heard rumors that they were once us. But it was just a rumor. Loctite would know.”

They kissed for the first time that night, under a starlit sky. Alpha’s lips tingled for weeks afterwards and she would think about the feeling of his lips against hers before she fell asleep each night.

“Have you?” Forgotten why we’re here? A whispered question in bed that night after Aura had snuck in to Imagi’s room to tell her about her kiss with Holdite.

“No.” In fact I’ve got something. Imagi sat up in bed, watching her sister carefully. There was a pause, as though Aura was trying to form words before she finally said simply, “Us.” They were us. Youma used to be senshi. “Loctite.” Would know more. Imagi nodded, laying her sister down next to her and pulling her close. Though there was no trace of anxiety in Aura’s body, it was written like a book in Imagi’s every breath, step, and movement.

Winter.

“You’ve got to chill out,” Lefrite chided with a laugh from between the two sisters. “You’re going to give yourself an aneurysm before you’re thirty, Beta.” Alpha laughed alongside him, agreeing wholeheartedly.

“But she’s just nervous about our meeting with Loctite. She’s a general now, with a whole new set of responsibilities…” Beta sank back into herself as her sister joined in the chiding. She was only doing her job, Beta reminded herself. She had to keep this ruse up. Had to keep fooling everyone if she was to remain her protectorate.

“Yeah, but we’re still her Pack. We’re her first priority. Always have been, always will be. That’s why she gave us these,” Lefrite lifted the diamond pendant from his own chest, holding it between two fingers. “A reminder that we are hers and she is ours.”

A few nights after, the Diamond Dogs were all called to their usual meeting place -- a clearing in the woods that lined Destiny City’s outlying park. Winter’s chill cut through the twins like a whip.

Loctite’s own pendant shone with five diamonds. Two were new just from today. Alpha and Beta drew closer to one another.

“You have proven your loyalty to the Negaverse,” General Loctite said with a warm smile, diamond-bladed spear standing parallel to her, grasped in her gloved hand. “And today you shall have your reward for such loyalty.” Beside them, Holdite winked at Alpha. Alpha tried to smile but suddenly found it so difficult to do so. Beta squeezed her hand.

“Diamond Dogs. I present for your consideration a new pair of pups to join our pack. What say you?”

Three voices howled into the night.

Loctite smiled and nodded her approval.

“Are there any final questions, Alpha Leporis and Beta Leporis?” Alpha stepped forward.

“This may seem out of place General, but the question has been nagging me since I was awakened. And now seems like as good a time as any to ask.” She took a long, slow breath in, glanced back at her sister. Beta nodded and looked back at the General.

“What is a youma?”

There was silence, and for a long moment, Alpha and Beta wondered if they hadn’t overstepped some unknown boundary. And then General Loctite smiled.

“Why don’t I show you?”

General Loctite stepped forward and asked, “which of you volunteers for this special promotion?” Before Alpha could voice her willingness, Beta laid herself down instead.

“I do, General.”

General Loctite’s expression gave way from shock to glittering approval.

“I would never have expected you, Little Lamb.” She stroked Beta’s cheek with a hand so feather light, Beta almost didn’t feel it.

“N-no,” Alpha stammered, eyes suddenly wide in panic, “No, I volunteer. I’m giving myself. My sister has nothing to do with this question,”

“Alpha.” Beta’s voice was more firm that she believed herself capable to making it. “Alpha, let me do this for you.” The twins exchanged glances. You need to see the process. You’ll protect me. You’ll always protect me. Alpha nodded, heavy with the weight of her sister’s trust, and stepped back with tears in her eyes.

I will always protect you.

“General, I -- ” A withering look from General Loctite sent Jusmite back in line. Beta could see the lines of worry traced along her face.

“Everyone here is about to be granted precious understanding of the Negaverse,” Loctite breathed. Alpha drew back further, into the waiting arms of the man that she loved. He tucked her head under his chin and whispered with the most tenderness Alpha had ever heard in a voice, “you must watch, Bunny.” He forced her to turn around and held her chin in his great hands.

Beta’s screams split the night like a cleaver. Or were those Alpha’s screams? In the end, they were in harmony, watching in horror as General Loctite’s hand vanished into Beta’s chest.

It was just like before… a life time ago now. White-hot pain seared the nerves around her sternum, spider-webbing out and out and out, so far beyond the reaches of her body. Like the pain was stretching her further and further out.

Aura will protect me.

It couldn’t last long. They knew now what youma were. The research was over. They had succeeded. Alpha would step up and call and end to Beta’s suffering.

Pain stretched Beta’s body out impossibly long, so much so that Beta feared the sensation when she eventually snapped back to her natural form. If she ever would.

If Aura doesn’t act quickly, I shall never return to normal

“What a lovely personal youma you will make my dear,” Beta heard Loctite croon against her ear. “So loyal. So beautiful. So perfect.” The words held no meaning to her. Soon the pain gave way to pressure, like something was filling her up to the brim but refused to overflow. Beta continued to scream simply because she could do nothing else. A small vent to allow whatever was consuming her from the inside out to escape. To relieve the pressure building within her, even if minutely.

Aura… isn’t this enough? Have I not suffered enough?

Beta’s screams ripped her throat apart with it’s wicked sharp little claws. Was it even still her voice? It seemed so foreign to her. Warped and twisted… or was it her ears that were changed suddenly? Not that it mattered in the end. The panic which should have gripped her heart slipped away and with it, all sensation. After a long, terrifying moment, there was nothing but the sound of her own screaming.

Aura isn’t coming… is she?

And even in that moment, the devastation that should have ruined her failed to appear.

Locked in place though she was by arms far stronger than she, Alpha felt her sister’s pain. She felt the hand in her chest, felt the fingers clenching around her own starseed. She felt the darkness that swirled around Beta; enclosing her. With Holdite’s hand still holding her chin tightly, Alpha strained her eyes to look up, wondering whether the star from which she drew her powers could see what was happening. Through her tears, through her anguish and her fear, Alpha did something she hadn’t done since she was a child.

She prayed.

The stars are funny things. They twinkle passively, light years away from the tiny beings that emplore them. Two stars, far out in the cosmos, broke their silence tonight. Alpha felt something filling her, consuming her as the chaos filled her sister, though she felt no pain. Her voice, captured by some unseen thing, gave life to her only attack.

“Spirit Hare, Command!”

Alpha heard Holdite grunt as her attack struck him and felt him release her, and acted as though driven by the stars themselves. She stumbled forward, hand outstretched and called the name again. This time the little spirit rabbit rebounded off of General Loctite, who was too consumed with Beta’s transformation to notice the scuffle amongst her ranks. She fell backward, the little glittering jewel still held tightly in her fist. Alpha took advantage of the shock to steal her sister’s soul back and return it home.

Beta’s form, twisted and bastardized by the chaos that flooded her, gasped back to life. But Beta Leporis as her sister had known her was nowhere to be found. A strange creature with pale, twisted limbs and a face too long for a human gnashed and howled at the night sky. Alpha cried, pulling her sister close as the chaos, still unfinished with it’s task, flooded from Beta’s body. The caustic nature of raw chaos was enough to keep the Diamond Dogs and their master away, but not for long.

“Help me, Imagi,” Alpha whispered through her tears into her sister’s ear. And the celestial Beta Leporis reached a starlit hand through the chaos that clouded it’s senshi’s mind and spoke for her.

“Rice Powder, Dust!”

As the cloud of dust consumed the pack and the two lambs within, Beta wrapped twisted arms around her sister and fled, a trail of toxic chaos in her wake.

The sisters did not return home right away. How could they? Beta’s form took nearly a week to return to normal, and Alpha had to lock her up to keep her from doing any damage. The youma that she would have become fought back fiercely against remission and more than once Alpha nearly avoided serious injury while tending to Beta. When Beta finally returned to herself, the first thing she said to her sister was, “You forgot me.”

Alpha said nothing to contest.

Winter raged around them and as the snow fell and melted and vanished into spring, the sisters picked up the pieces, deciding to lay low as civilians lest the Diamond Dogs find them and finish the job.