Gacha Story (Mature Readers Only)

Choosing sides

Arya had been listening to orchestra music for a while as Chiyo explained the upsetting events of what happened to Taliana. Lexi and Yassy were Arya's best friends as well as her sisters, and she could barely believe that they'd do something like that. There was no other explanation, however, and she could not help but pity Taliana. If only there was a way for everything to be how it was before...

"The unfinished symphony," she said to Chiyo. "Very fitting for the hackt-"

Chiyo's laugh cut her off and suddenly, standing at the door, was Lexi. Chiyo immediately ran away, straight past her as she came to sit next to Arya. "How are you?" Lexi asked Arya quietly, as if trying not to infuriate her.

Arya raised an eyebrow. "You know that Chiyo told me what happened, right?"

Lexi looked down, slightly irritated. "So you hate me now."

"I never said that," she replied, but she wasn't feeling too pleased with her either. "Why can't you just be nice to Tallie?"

Lexi sighed. "She's being mean to Yassy."

"How is she being mean to Yassy?"

"She's taking all her friends away."

Arya looked indignant. "But Tallie is a friend! You didn't seem so fussed when Juliet joined our group, but Tallie -"

"She went to Crystal after Ashy rejected her."

"What do you expect?" Arya asked. "She needs a home, you know!"

"Yeah, I'm sorry."

"You should apologise to her, I think," Arya said sternly. "According to Chiyo, she's been a bit sad."

She nodded, eyes cast down onto the floor. "Fine." There was something reluctant in her voice but Arya did not ask.

***

"Hi!" Lexi said cheerfully, easily plastering on a fake smile as Taliana nervously shuffled into the room. Lexi felt a little bad that she had made this poor girl nervous, but she realised that the past could not be changed anyway. Taliana sat down on the blue chair as Lexi stood behind her. "I'm sorry..."

"Okay," was all she said, voice careful and restricted.

Lexi pretended that everything was fine. "Can I give you a new look?" She asked and Taliana nodded, despite looking uneasy.

Taking out Taliana's hair from the ponytail it was in, she pulled out a brush and began to straighten out her hair. She replaced Taliana's blue headphones with a white hat and gave her black cross earrings. "Done!" Lexi announced, overly-happy as Taliana shifted forwards in her seat.

Taliana smiled back at her, but stood up, unable to say 'thank you' as she was still slightly uncertain about whether Lexi was to be trusted. "I'm going to see Killian," she told her. "At least he doesn't hate me."

***

It took Arya almost an hour to find where Yassalie had run off to, after she had found out people did not like her for what she did to Taliana. She had also broken up with Chiyo recently and therefore was not on good terms with anyone except from Lexi (as she helped her) and Ashy (who always seemed to defend Yassalie). Sighing, Arya approached Yassy, walking across the damp floor of the underground facility she was hiding in.

She was not facing her, her black hood up and mask covering half her face. "Yassy," Arya called out, but she did not turn around, nodding to acknowledge her existence instead.

"Why did I even think you would understand anything?" Yassy asked bitterly.

Arya frowned. "What?" She asked, honestly perplexed. "You're my best friend and sister, Yassy, what are you talking about?"

"You and me cursed Ashy and Liv," she explained, "using dark powers. But you're not dark. You are light."

"I am dark," she insisted. It was all she ever knew. She got along far better with those with dark powers rather than those with light. "I'm not like Nia or Chiyo. I am dark. Dark only."

"ARYA, YOU ARE NOT GOING DARK!!!"

"I'M ALREADY DARK!!!" She yelled back. "I CAN'T DO LIGHT MAGIC!!!"

"YOU CAN!"

Irritated, Arya sighed and rolled her eyes. "Let me try, then. I'll show you that I'm only dark." Palms out, she focused, trying to pull out light energy out of her, but nothing came out, black mist pulsing at her fingertips instead. She was about to laugh, just as pink dust sparked off, followed by an eruption of bright light. It was getting bigger and bigger, expanding over her hands until she could not see, as the light had almost swallowed her up.

"See," Yassalie said bitterly, dropping down onto the floor with her legs crossed. "Why did you even come -" She started, irritated, but stopped as the light energy stopped, disappearing.

However, Arya was different. Arya felt different. She looked different. She stared down at herself, seeing her hair no longer red and pink like it was before, but pink and white, her green tip replaced by white. Her clothes, however, were the same, still pastel pink. "WHAT HAPPENED?!?!?!" She asked, shocked, hands over her mouth as her mind searched wildly. It was impossible - she could not be light... she was dark... that must mean... she was light and dark... like Nia and like Chiyo. That must have been why she could relate to them so much.

"You are light."

***

Everyone was crowding around her, having recently discovered she was able to use both light and dark magic. "What side should I join?" Arya asked, but she knew that most of them would ask her to follow their own side. "Light, dark or both?"

Jenny spoke first; "Join Chiyo's side. She's rare and powerful. She's both."

Vann Melon was sitting smugly next to Crystal. "Dark," he said, as he was dark himself and he disliked light as it was the connection with Dreamer.

"Go away," Arya snapped. "I don't care what you think."

Crystal looked insulted and gave him a pitiful look as he sighed next to her.

Lily surprisingly, did not suggest light, but followed her mother. "Both!" She said at the same time Chiyo said, "Both like me!"

"Light," said Caspian.

"I don't know..." Livia admitted. "Light preferably..."

Arya laughed. "So that I don't curse you again? It's not like Yassy would..."

Then, she noticed Yassy was not there. Gone, and she swore she saw her in the room. Who Arya could not believe was there - that Vann Melon. Every time she saw him, it infuriated her, and she was incredibly tempted to kill him, especially as he sat there, taunting.

In the end, Arya decided to embrace both sides, because light was equally as good as dark, and despite which parents she got them from, that did not define her. My powers were uniquely related to her, not Dreamer or Vann Melon. From that day onwards, she was like Nia and Chiyo, both light and dark. Her right eye black and my left eye white.

However, she never saw Yassalie again.