Moonface

The Sun and the Moon

*24 years ago*

"Why is my name the moon, Abuela Eliane?" Kiki asked.

"Yeah, why am I the sun?" Sol sat next to Kiki, listening intently. Their grandmother chuckled and told them she had already told that story.

"Please, please, please, Abuela! It sounds so nice when you tell it!" Sol stood up, twirled around and flopped back into Kiki's lap, who just nodded her agreement.

"All right then," the old woman said, leaning forward. "Settle in, because this is quite a long tale.

"Once upon a time, there were two sisters, Sun and Moon. A long time ago, they were just two human girls, quite poor, but happy. In those days, there was no day or night, just never ending gray.

"The two girls lived alone, since their parents had died when they were young. They made a living growing vegetables in the garden behind the house they lived in. One day a woman collapsed outside their cottage. They had no idea who she was, and they had barely any money left, but they took her in anyway, nursing her and feeding her until she was well enough to tell them who she was. They sold some of their possessions, but it was all worth it to heal the young girl.

"She told them stories of a world with day and night. A world none of them had seen, but that had been predicted. She told them of the beauty of the day, of clear skys and meadows of flowers and lakes sparkling with light. She told them of the beauty of the night, of stars and the waves of the sea glinting and sleeping animals. The sisters fell in love with the idea of night and day, sun and moon.

"When she regained enough of her memory, the girl realised that she was the beloved daughter of the kind ruler of the land, a great enchantress. The girl returned to her mother, and told her of the kindness of the sisters, and how good friends they had become. The enchantress granted the sisters one wish, in return for saving her daughter.

"Both spoke at the same time.

" 'Put me in the sky!' They cried. 'Put me in the sky so I may light the world forever, and bring as much joy to people as your daughters stories have brought to us!'

"The enchantress, who was a loving mother, was touched by their wish. It would bring more joy to others than to yourselves, she warned. But they insisted. So the enchantress proclaimed that when they died, they would become the sun and moon in the sky, giving light and joy to all.

"She also, due to the unselfishness of the sisters wish, declared that the Sun's eldest daughter would inherit the power of the sun, and the youngest would inherit the power of the moon. These would sit in their veins, passed down through the strongest sister, until they are activated.

"And that is where you come in. For the past 3 generations the sun has been stronger, but we cannot know yet who will be next, and neither do we know how they are activated."

Sol stood up, looking tearful. "But what happened to the enchantress's daughter? Doesn't she get a happy ending?"

"Of course she does, child," Abuela Eliane waved her back down, smiling gently. "The girl was named Star, and once Sun and Moon had left to live their lives, she begged her mother to let her be with them in this beautiful world. So her mother made her the stars, scattered out everywhere. Her mother made her everything even though she would lose her child: that is the love of a mother."

☾

*23 years later*

They were all back. Kiki had left as quickly as she could, to give Rosa time with her family. She hadn't seen them in so long, and all Kiki needed was her sister.

Solana. Oh, Sola. Why did you go looking for her? She was just about to find you, but she couldn't.

The radio was on in the front of the taxi. The news presenters had started calling it 'the Blip' because it was like they had blipped through time. On second they were there, then the next it was 5 years later. Wow, that meant Sola would only be two years older than her now. That would be weird.

Age had never really been much of an issue for them, though. They had always looked past it, and been as close as twins. In some senses, they were rather stereotypical. Sola had always been the outgoing, brave one, whereas Kiki was more private; like the moon, she reflected, not created.

She had been travelling for most of a day when she finally arrived at the location Sola was searching for and saw...

A concrete box. It had obviously been turned into some kind of underground bunker in the past 5 years. That Sola would be trapped inside.

Then there was a sudden gust of wind, no, more like an energy surge and she felt-

Different. Like something had been awakened inside her, a call to arms. She was lighter, more alive than ever before.

A noise from the box made her jump back to attention. It sounded like... turning? The turning of the wheel to open the door! Shit, she had no weapons. How would she defend herself, and Sola inside there.

Two men, laughing about something, climbed into view on top of the bunker. Their smiling faces turned to horror as they saw her and grabbed the rifles slung on their backs. She dropped to her knees and turned her face towards them. God knew, she deserved it.

But the bullets never came. They were disintegrated by an invisible wall in front of her. She waved a hand through it, but it was fine. It seemed like the bullets had turned into mist, twisting and curling around in a ball of death.

Suddenly, she remembered Abuela Eliane's story of the Moon and the Sun and their children. Solana must be having the same awakening. She sent the smoke back towards the two men, almost sad to kill them. They seemed so happy. But they had talked Sola.

It was an instinct, how she knew what to do. An instinct, passed down through hundreds of years, running through her blood, and her mother's, and her grandmother's, and all the women before that.

So she set off to search for Shield, since they would be able to find her. That was what they did. They found the lost, and the special.