CHARLOTTE WAS STANDING over a cove filled with many glittering stones. They were all brilliant in their own ambience, radiantly shining in hues of blue, purple, green, yellow, orange, red, and violet. There was something about this place that was familiar, but not familiar at the same time.

“Where am I?” She wondered kneeling down to pick up some of the stones.

Help me.

Stop it!

Who are you?

Charlotte dropped all of the stones she grabbed and stared at her hand as if it had been burned. Normally inanimate objects didn’t cry out when someone touched them.

“You who possesses great power—”

Charlotte looked up and around her to find the new voice.

“You who possess great power,”

She twirled around once then twice until her foot got caught on the slippery bedrock. Falling hard she fell on top of the stones and grimaced.

“You who possesses great power—”

Charlotte shook her head before shouting up into the air. “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

Silence greeted her ears as she waited.

“Stop them.” It was different from the voice that had rung in her ears. It was a male’s soft voice, and light of sound.

The brunette gave a confused look.

“Stop who?”

“Those who wish to change the destiny of the world.” The soft voice replied.

The girl gave a puzzled look. “I don’t understand.”

“You must stop them.”

“I got it but I don’t at the same time. What am I supposed to stop?” Charlotte huffed in annoyance. Surely this voice would point it out clearly for her.

“The Relic Stone.” The voice whispered.

The girl did a double take. Relic Stones? Her Uncle mentioned them and she suddenly remembered the inquire she suffered on the Vessel with those men. But she remembered that the Stones were nothing but a legend pirates had started long ago.

“How am I supposed to stop the Relic Stones if they’re nothing but an urban legend?”

“You must seal them before it is too late.” Then suddenly his voice was gone as soon as it had appeared.

Charlotte lifted herself up from the ground and noticed that what she slipped on wasn’t just wet bedrock but blood. Shrieking she looked down to see all the people who had died at her uncle’s estate as well as new faces from The Division as well. The ones known as Leo and Jakob were lying face down with blood gushing from varying wounds. Xavier was hanging with a noose around his neck. Damien was lying in a pool of his own blood with a discarded sword in his back.

“No… no…” She whimpered tears falling down her face. “Please no. Not Again.”

“Help me.”

She snapped her head to the side to see the familiar figure of the man that rescued her. She noticed that he was standing with a hollow look in his eyes staring at the wall. There was a strange sensation that she had thought she saw his emerald eyes dissolve into crimson orbs, like a fire slowly growing in a hearth. Charlotte could only get lost in his gaze, remembering his fiercest and coldest of expressions, and then his plain bored one, but this particular stare was one she never had she seen before. It broke her heart to see such a disheartened and disheveled stare.

“Aden?” Alarm laced her voice as she took a step forward.

“Please. Save her.” He didn’t notice that Charlotte was right beside him on that bloodied bedrock.

Charlotte reached her hand forward to the male—no boy standing there. While he was an adult he looked like a helpless child desperate for help. She wanted to bury him in her embrace and tell him everything would be okay, but even she knew that was not true.

The tears slid down her face. They fell like raindrops on a battle-charred field.

“Aden?” She questioned, unsure of whether to call out to him.

His vulnerability disappeared in that instant. He turned toward her, his hand outreached for a strand of her auburn-brunette hair. As if he played with a foreign object, he played with the strands between his fingertips. His eyes, forlorn and exhausted, recognized her in that lapse of time. As if intoxicated by his stare, she leaned toward him in a trance.

“Save who?” Charlotte asked while her voice cracked. It was the entire trance needed to break itself. The world was falling to pieces around them but the two paid no mind to the cove, stones, and blood soaked bed rock filled with corpses shattering away.

“I couldn’t protect…”

His voice was soft and subtle, making Charlotte shiver in fright.

“Aden? What do you mean?” He dropped the strand of her hair and stepped into the shattering world. He allowed himself to break while Charlotte was screaming at him not to leave her.

“Her… No, I couldn’t protect anything.” He said despite where he was falling into.

“Her? Who is she Aden?” She shouted, chasing after the dream that was ending. She felt chains link her back to the darkness as he merely stared.

“Charlotte.”

“Aden! ADEN wait!” Charlotte pulled and tugged on the chains that kept her stable, her screams rushing out of her as she tried to catch him. “Aden!”

“You who possesses great power—”

Charlotte looked desperately around her trying to escape the chains around her ankles, wrists, and body. Aden had already disappeared with the cove and stones leaving only the darkness and cold.

“You who possesses great power—” the darkness echoed in her ears.

“What?! What do you want from me?” She snapped and there was a chuckle from behind her. Abruptly she twisted around to find her little brother holding the chains around her. Behind him was Zaine, Claire and that mysterious swordsman that threw her off the cliff laughed at her attempts to get away.

“You who possess great power will die by my hand.” The mysterious coffee-brown colored eyed man replied as he raised his sword up and over her head. All Charlotte could do was scream.  The motion of the sword’s shadow swung down where she saw her throat connecting to her head.

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