Twisted Returns

She first looks at me, then the boy, who nods. She turns back to me and says, "Dana... meet your new husband."

I don't have the strength to speak again after that.

What is happening? When was I married? I look at the guy again, and his name finally makes an appearance in my memories. Dean.

"He saved you," the woman says. When I look at her, a yellow flower comes to mind.

"Maybe," Dean mumbles.

"What happened was luck. It... I didn't expect it, not at all," she says. "But he made me try. It wasn't perfect, but it worked."

I want to scream at her, ask her all the questions I have. But my lips no longer belong to me.

"When you ran off, the Council wanted to surrender. They wanted to save what was left of the planet, if there was no other way. But Dean thought there was still hope. He said he know you wouldn't leave everyone like this. They gave a limit of three days before the surrender. I didn't override them; I knew it would be best." She looks down at something in her hands before continuing. "We kept a watch on the shelter. At first, people were losing hope. But Dean waited. He knew you, he said."

That's when I wonder, 'does he really?' He's looking at me, and I can see it in his eyes. He does. He knows why I did it.

"We saw you run. We weren't fast enough to do anything about it. We saw you go into the kitchen. Heard you scream, saw you fall. And at first, all we could do was watch."

They saw me suffer, They didn't do anything about it. They knew I deserved it, and so did I. But that flicker of anger still burns.

"It was torture to us too. There was nothing we could do, or the magic wouldn't be destroyed. If we healed you, it would have still lived in your body, but stolen by the attackers. If we killed you to speed up the process, it would have still existed in the killer, meaning it still could have been tapped into. We needed it to be completely gone."

So why am I still alive? That must mean the magic wasn't destroyed. The war is still going on, then. Have they brought me back just to let me die again? The thought of that brings the taste of acid to my throat, even though I haven't eaten anything in forever.

"So we waited. We saw the blood staining everything. I felt your soul fading, and we knew it was over. We were going to take your body away. But Dean saw it. You were still breathing, though I couldn't feel your soul's presence in your body. I didn't notice it before, but I could still feel your soul elsewhere. Yet I couldn't sense the magic anymore."

So I was still alive, even after that. Even though my soul was gone. But if I'm soulless, what am I now? A simple body, cursed to live like this forever?

"Dean knew what was happening before I did, I'm ashamed to say. But it had to do with the experimental spell. Even though Diana's soul had gone, Dana's remained. And though the magic was gone, Diana's soul existed in the necklace. The attackers would be powerless at that point, while the necklace was in the process of fading out."

The magic was gone, and that was the purpose. My plan worked for them, but I'm still unsure if it had worked for me. And the question still hasn't been answered; why am I still alive?

"It was then that Amber and Alina came to us with the news that the attackers were nearby. She told us what had happened. She told them of how she confessed to us the story of what had happened in prison, and now she was going to be imprisoned. She asked them, Alex specifically, to save her."

I had never thought Amber a traitor. I thought she learned her lesson all those years ago in Zemia. She worked to save me. But I guess sometimes you never know.

"They told her to meet them at the top of Capora Mountain, the very spot she landed when she first came here. They would be waiting there for her. She told them she'd get ready, and then reported the news to us. They said that they had sealed off the peak, and only one person would be allowed in."

Maybe she isn't a traitor.

"This was our chance. We knew that they were making a run for it, since the magic had stopped. But Alina could still feel the soul, though it was fading. That confirmed it, and it told us that we were running out of time."

If only they switched places with me. I had thought time was infinite. Sometimes, I still believe it.

"If anyone but Amber showed up, the would be killed on the spot, we knew it. But she couldn't do it. And no one else wanted to risk it."

I see in her eyes that she wouldn't have done it for me. She is no longer my mother and I am no longer her daughter.

"It was Dean who stepped up then. He had a plan - freeze time, and he would go then. It sounded easy, but there were still risks. If the soul still existed, then the magic should be intact. It didn't seem like it in this case, but it was still possible. And with that powerful magic, they might have been able to withstand the freeze. But he wanted to gamble on that fact. He risked it all."

I don't know what to think other than he should have let me die.

"It turned out that we were right - the magic was gone. And the necklace wasn't being particularly guarded either, it was just around Alex's neck. And he was frozen like everyone else. Dean retrieved the necklace and returned."

It sounds easy. But I feel like there's something they're not telling me. At this point, that's okay. Though I'm still wondering - why, and when was I married? Is it just something I can't remember?

"The problem was that your soul was broken, and so was your body. Half a soul lived in your body, while another half lived in the necklace. You might have been able to fix yourself, but you were unconscious."

I wasn't, but they didn't know that.

"We needed a blessing, magic powerful enough to bond the soul to body. None of us had that but Diana, and that wasn't an option at that point. Then we thought of it - marriage. Not a regular one of bodies, but soul bonding. It would be forever and infinite, but we had to take that chance. I couldn't lose you."

Ironic, isn't it? She couldn't lose me, but she wouldn't risk it going to get the necklace.

"It still might not have worked. I didn't think it would. But a rare effect happened, and it turned out better than we hoped."

If this is better, what were they hoping for? She just looks at Dean, and then me, shaking her head.

"You're lucky he's your soul mate."