Fate and the Defiant Angel (COMPLETED)

Chapter 51- Drifting off

Zara felt the water around her move. She didn't open her eyes just yet as she enjoyed the warmth of the water as it slowly moved her along. Then she could feel eyes staring at her face. Actually someone standing above her. She slowly opened her eyes and saw red.

Ariel stood above her, hands on her hips and lips pursed. Her face was emotionless to the point where Zara may have mistaken it for anger. Zara stared up at Ariel for a few seconds. Slowly she raised her head from the water, feeling it trickle down her spine before disappearing. She knew where she was immediately.

"Hello," Zara said to her courteously.

"Hello," Ariel replied in a tone which conveyed how greatly she was unimpressed. "Did you pull us here?"

Zara looked around at the realm she had only been to in a dream. "I thought you did."

Ariel sighed and turned, marching her way through the water up to a familiar little boat. Zara followed, only then noticing that Ariel didn't have wings. Zara glanced at herself, realising that she was in her human body. She searched her chest, finding no wounds.

Then she remembered Cassie.

She stopped in her tracks as her breath hitching in her lungs. She could see Cassie lying on the ground. She could see her blood. She had failed. Zara hadn't protected her.

"Why have you stopped?"

Zara looked up and found Ariel paused at the door, looking at her with raised eyebrows. Zara stared at her and really understood that they were different people. They shared a soul and had shared a body, but in no shape way or form was Zara Ariel, or Ariel Zara. They had their own beliefs and feelings. Ariel had lived through so much. Ariel had been there through the creation of all. She had lived for millennia. Zara knew there was kindness and softness, but there was also so much cynicism and betrayal.

"Cassie died," Zara croaked out. "She's dead, and I swore to protect her."

Ariel's eyes stared in her Zara's, "People die." Then she turned and opened the door.

Zara followed slowly, stepping into the room/boat. They found themselves in the same room as before, but Zara noticed that it was emptier. The books had been packed away. The desk was bare. The fire sat roaring, and They sat in a soft armchair.

They were waiting for the Zara and Ariel.

"Hello," They said with a warm smile. "It is terribly odd to see the both of you standing together."

Ariel let out a little breath of air, walking over to a chair and sitting down. Zara remained standing, awkwardly not knowing what to do exactly. No one said anything for a good while. Zara herself didn't really understand what had happened. She didn't know why she was here. She didn't understand how she was standing with Ariel; someone she still couldn't fathom was real.

Zara was the first to speak. She stepped forward slowly, hands pressed together and locking eyes with the violet eyes of Them. "Why are we here?"

They stared at Zara looking slightly amused, "because you brought yourself here. You wanted to be here."

Zara shook her head. "I didn't want to come here. I don't know how to come here."

"Yes," Ariel said softly, "You do."

They leaned forward and linked Their long delicate fingers together and stared at Zara. "Two parts, equal to a whole. Both the same and both completely separate. Two different lives, the same soul."

"But, you didn't say anything," Zara blurted out. "When I came and saw you before, you knew that I was . . . two people. I mean, you said something about my memories but that was it. I don't know why you didn't tell me?"