Twin Mystery

--Carl's Perspective--

"Sky?" I put my hand on his shoulder after his head dropped down.

"Are you stupid?! Don't shoot him! That's the Corrupt Stone! We need him!" I heard from the crowd.

Three seconds passed and his left hand lowered to his side. Please don't die… please… we need you, Sky!

To my utter shock, the wounds on his back completely repaired themselves and his right arm shot out of the wound created on his body. Even from this angle, I could tell his eye regenerated in its entirety… his whole body just reset… how did he do that?!

"He looks pissed… it's kind of scary." The people said. I walked up next to him, leaving the blanket on Dani down in the sand.

"Sky! Welcome back- His left hand planted itself into the middle of my chest and sent me flying into a tree to our left. My back hit it and I lost all air in my lungs.

I fell to the ground, panting for the air that he stole from my back. I turned my head upwards to look at him, and his irises were red, just as red as his stone now.

His sour look on top of the furrowed eyebrows caused me to even fear him. Could he hear me? Did he want to hurt me?

"You must be the Corrupt White Stone we heard about… fear not, we're not here to hurt you." A man said. Sky didn't move. The guy talking to him had no connection to Sky, but he wouldn't even turn back.

"You want to take down the White Stones… we have a common goal, sort of. You're my only help, can you help me out?" He asked him again. Sky still wouldn't move.

"Corrupt Stone, do you mind telling me your name?" Sky's stance finally, yet slightly, broke. His knees weren't bent anymore, and his mouth began to open.

"S-Sky." He muttered. The man in front nodded.

"Sky! It's nice to meet you. I'm Tavian. Say, I can help your friend out, but only if you let me get close, is that okay?" He was talking about Dani, who was starting to freeze to death.

Sky nodded and Tavian placed his hands against her throat to feel for a heartbeat. Tavian picked her up and turned towards the crowd in the forest.

"My friends! Times are a-changin'! Our lives are about to change forever… right, Sky?" Tavian asked him. Sky's irises shifted back, and his eyes rolled into the back of his head. He fell right back into Ullr and was seemingly unconscious.

"Get these people up to the Redwood base! Do NOT let that girl die! I will see to Sky's care myself, and Ellie, go get that boy over by that tree." My eyes opened wide and I crawled back into the tree.

"Carl! You're safe!" Ellie yelled out to me. She ran over to me and hugged me, while I tried to reach for my knife.

She stunted my attempt, pushing my wrist into the ground. "What's wrong with you? Did something happen?" Ellie asked me. I was angry at that question.

"Something happened?! You destroyed our base! You tried to kill some of us!" I yelled out at her. She was confused, but I attracted Tavian over.

"That's impossible… I ran here after warning Sky, what happened?" She asked again. Does she seriously not know?

"You were there… with Raven," I told them. Both Ellie and Tavian were stunted.

"Son of a bitch… Ellen." She covered her mouth after saying a weird name.

"Ellen? Who the hell is that?!" I yelled out.

"She used to be Ellie's twin sister. She changed her appearance to look like Ellie to carry out her legacy, but they're two different people. Don't worry, Ellie won't hurt you." Tavian explained. I looked up at her and she held out her hand. I took it, getting to my feet and nodding.

"I trust you, even though I shouldn't," I admitted.

She shook her head, "You're okay now. This is your new home, right Tavian? She looked back at him, and he nodded.

"Truth is… just as fate has it… we need you guys." Tavian explained.

…

More time had passed since we reunited with Ellie and met Tavian, but from what I could gather, it looks like Ellie was being serious. I don't know that Sky would be happy with the first reencounter he has with her, but I'll be there to convince him.

Apparently, Ellen had been active for quite a long time, ever since Lia and Dante were first sent, but because Dante didn't return to Orion's base until earlier today, Ellen wasn't sure of our location. That tells me Lia was spread apart from Dante by somebody… that White Stone, Talion.

Talion must've gotten in touch with her and saved her from Dante. I use the word 'save' lightly because I don't know the differences between how evil the two of them are. Lia was going to burn us alive and got Domin killed, but what if it was Dante's overreaching, tight grip against her?

There were many questions to be had. In the heat of the combat, we overlooked most of them and couldn't even think properly, but that didn't stop me now. To my understanding, those were the White Stones, people similar to Sky.

They talked like those of us without a White Stone were under them, which angered me a little bit, but it seems that they were closer to being correct than we were. The abilities they've demonstrated to me helped me realize how far out of their league we truly were.

Near the end, it became obvious that some of them were stronger than others. That one that died on Zeal's shoulder… Demos, I believe, had his head cut right through the middle with one throw of a weapon. Xian and Orion, the ones standing back the whole time, didn't truly care about Sky until he killed Demos.

They're extremely pretentious individuals, up until that moment. Talion showed up a little before that, which means he probably knew about all of the other White Stones and their presence there. It's all confusing where they came from, but they were there.

One of them sent a vibration through the water, and the other shattered all ice on the bay we were standing on. I don't know what Zeal could do, but the other one I saw was as fast as I could perceive. In fact, maybe even faster. I can't make a connection between their abilities, but that doesn't change how scary they are.

Not to mention Sky, of all people, holding back arguably three White Stones at once. I never thought much of him, but after all this time and the things I've heard him say, it's safe to say that I fully trust him with my life. Red may have slipped from our grasp, but he did not let anybody else suffer the same fate. Even while bleeding to death, missing his eye, fingers, and right arm, he stood in front of Dani from the new attackers. He didn't stop, that close to death.

I couldn't shake the fact that we're meant to die, at least in Zeal's eyes. We've never meant anything ever since we first woke up. Is that why Red and Domin dying didn't really affect anybody? It was killing me. I felt constant aching and a quick shift in my emotions depending on how long I thought about it. I could tell most felt the same but thinking about how both Red and Domin won't ever stand next to us again hurts me, deeply.

As for this new place we're located at… it's quite impressive. Located at almost the peak of the tallest trees I've seen on this Isle, we were hidden from anything on the ground just from a sheer distance. Can the eye even see this far up from the ground? Tavian led us all up here on an elevator ride that took a good three minutes. From there, Sky and Dani were both hauled off to some other location, but the rest of us were stationed in a room overlooking the rest of this wooden base. Like a penthouse, if I was being generous.