Chapter 5: In The End

I tried so hard and got so far
But in the end, it doesn’t even matter
I had to fall to lose it all
But in the end, it doesn’t even matter
~Linkin Park

Aaru’s eyelids flew open; her dazzling violet eyes stared up at the ceiling. Two blurry figures appeared and hovered over her. Voices murmured in the background, indistinct voices. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. Everything blurred by in an unclear motion. It seemed to be like something her dad called “shell shock” from the Great War of MapleStory.

Suddenly, her world shook back into focus. The sounds returned to normal in her ears and her vision suddenly cleared up. The people hovering over her returned to real time as they continued to mutter amongst themselves concernedly.

“Where- where am I?” Aaru asked in a whisper. The people above her immediately stopped chattering and all stared down upon her.
“You are in Henesys. My children have brought you to our house,” the lady directly above her said in a serious tone, “You have suffered massive shock and are running a fever of 50 degrees Fahrenheit, way above your normal body temperature. You need rest.”

Suddenly, Aaru remembered the three Rangers. She remembered how they had attacked her and her friends.
“Reptina! Latia! Where are they? Are they safe!?” Aaru suddenly shouted out. She sat bolt right up on the couch. A sudden sharp pain in her head erupted out like a volcano. Immediately, Aaru fell back on the couch, holding her throbbing head in her hands.

In a flurry of footsteps, Reptina and Latia appeared beside the couch which Aaru was laying on. Reptina firmly took Aaru’s left hand and gripped it tightly. Latia kneeled down beside her and stroked her hair out of her eyes.

“Oh Aaru, thank goodness you are alright,” Reptina started to sob, tears running down from her emerald green eyes, “We thought we had lost you.”
“Aaru my dearest,” Latia added, “What was that? We have never seen that kind of energy from you ever. It was amazing to watch, yet terrible at the same time.”
“I-I don’t know Latia,” Aaru replied confusedly, “I don’t know.”

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Aaru looked up at her parents. Her mom held her left hand and her dad held her right as they walked through Kerning City. The sky was a murky grey as rain clouds threatened the afternoon.

“Now my baby,” Aaru’s mom said, “You take good care of that wand we bought you. It cost us half of your father’s pay for a month. Treasure it Aaru, as you have never before.”
“Yes mother,” Aaru replied sweetly as she looked up at her mom with her purple eyes. Aaru’s mother swooped up her child into a warm embrace. “I love you Aaru.”

“I love you too.”

Suddenly, Aaru’s father stopped. He glanced around. They had lost their bearings and had ended up in a dead end alley.
“Well this is great,” he said with a great sigh, “Come on let’s go back.” But as soon as they turned around, they found the exit blocked by three figures. They advanced, revealing three differently colored Hinkles from within their robes.

Without warning, Aaru’s father pushed Aaru and her mother back behind a dumpster. At the same time, he ripped off his travelers cloak and revealed his Dark Ritual Staff along with his perfectly scrolled Esther Shield.

Simultaneously, the three Rangers raised their bows and shot a volley of twelve steel arrows at the Ice/Lightning Mage. Aaru watched in terror as her father teleported away and summoned a blast of lightning from the darkening clouds. The sliver of electricity soared down from the heavens and blew a chunk of the ground away. The Rangers scattered and reformed making a triangle around Aaru’s father. They raised their bows again.

Aaru’s father raised his staff along with the Rangers, and filled his hands with energy. Immediately, he released a blast of electricity at the nearest Ranger. The shock hit him full on in the chest and he stumbled backwards, his robes smoking where the impact had collided with him.

The Rangers, not to be out done, fired three arrows into the sky. Aaru’s father watched in horror as the three arrows split into hundreds of arrows right below the cloud level and made their deadly descent towards him and his wife and child.

The Rangers all smiled an identical devilish grin as they watched Aaru’s father throw himself over his wife and daughter.

Aaru’s screams melded together with her mother’s as the arrows rained down upon them. The hail of arrows struck down everything in their path. The last thing Aaru saw was her dad’s face. He mouthed something to Aaru and then gasped out in pain. Aaru blacked out.

When Aaru finally came to, the Rangers had long gone. The only evidence of a fight was the burn marks of the lightning and the numerous arrows lying all over the concrete pavement. Aaru’s father was no where to be seen. She turned her head to the right and stared into her mothers face.

She looked peaceful, as if dreaming an effortless dream. For a long time, Aaru did not know what it meant, but when it finally hit her, it hit like a freight train hitting a cat. The person, who would always love Aaru, no matter the circumstances, was gone. Her mother was dead. Tears streamed down from her purple eyes as she laid there in the dark alley, clutching her mother’s body close to hers. She wept for the love that had dissipated in one instant. She was alone now.

Aaru looked down and saw her brand new wand, now shattered and broken.

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Tears welled up in Aaru’s eyes as she saw her best friends weep over her. She placed her fingers below Reptina’s chin and raised her bowed head. She was sniffling and tears were still running down her cheeks, splashing all over her clothes.

“Thank you Reptina, for everything,” Aaru said soothingly. She looked up at Latia who was stroking her hair.
“Thank you all for all that you have done.” Aaru smiled at Latia, who tried to smile back reassuringly, but broke down into a stream of tears. As Guosim, SolarKatz, and their mother and father looked on, the three women hugged each other warmly, all dignity forgotten.

“We will be with you Aaru,” Latia said in between sobs, “We will be with you till the end.”