Pretty Little Liar (Aruani Element Shifter AU) ✔️

Part Two: Forty One

"Mrs Black? Hey, what can you tell me about Annie's parents?"

Mrs Black looked at me sadly. Everybody had either gone to bed, or were talking quietly in the living room. I was standing by the window in my bedroom when Mrs Black came in to see if I was alright.

"It's only right that you'd want to know," she sighed, then sat on the bed, looking away from me. 

"So, I guess Annie's father, my brother, is the most important one to tell you about. Last I heard from him was two years ago, when he was in Canada. They have a large colony of shifters there, and he was their leader, like a chief. He's very powerful. Did you know our family actually descend from royalty?"

"Really?"

"Yeah. When Annie left we went searching for information on our history. We found almost all of our answers travelling among different shifter towns and meeting others. The first fire shifter was a member of the royal family, years and years ago. His powers were kept very secretive, hence there aren't many fire shifters today. So, yeah, I don't know how close, but we have royal blood." 

"Woah."

"Anyway, my brother married Annie's mum and they had Annie. When it was a girl they were disappointed, because we knew that no female had ever been a fire shifter before. Or course they tried to have more children but there were complications with Annie's birth and so they never had another child. Anyway, she was born into a time when shifters were being killed every day, thousands wiped out by the council. The world wasn't what it used to be anymore. Annie's parents left to help fight a war somewhere, and left Annie with us, assuming she's be a water shifter like her mother. Then when she was fifteen... well, she became a fire shifter. I couldn't believe it. We didn't know where her parents were, so we couldn't tell him, until we left and found them in Canada years later. By then I didn't know how strong Annie was. It was only when she became powerful enough to teleport without the council picking her up did we meet again, about two years ago."

I nodded, listening carefully. 

"What else do you want to know?"

"Is that where Annie went? She never sticks around here very long, does she go out to try and find them?"

She nodded. "Yes. For some reason, every time Annie cuts her emblem to signal a fire shifter, her father doesn't pick it up, or at least he never turns up to her. I don't know if he'd be ignoring her, and we've all tried it, we all tried signalling him. I can't bring myself to believe he's dead. He just wouldn't go down that easily." She took something from the pocket of her jacket, and handed it to me. It was a family photo of Annie's parents and her. Her father stood smiling, tall, with long blond hair and dark red eyes, her mother with curly brown hair and piercing blue eyes, holding a small sleeping baby.

"That's about as much as I can tell you. I don't know much about Annie's parents either. Alfie and I were brought up in the mountains, in a cottage with a huge forcefield around it, where we trained our shifting every day while our parents stayed hidden from the genocides happening outside. My brother always looked up to our father, who always spoke about the good days when shifters lived among humans and had their own council to represent them alongside the human council. He always dreamed that we could live like that again."

She stared at the floor while I stared at the photograph. 

"Ymir told me everything, by the way. I'm sorry this happened to you."

I just shook my head. "No. This isn't a burden. It's a special thing."

She turned and saw me looking at Annie in the photograph. 

"This is a messy war. But if anybody can defeat the council, it's her. The first female fire shifter. For the longest time I would dream about a blond-haired fire shifter saving the world, and I always thought it was my brother. But now I think I realise that it isn't my brother, but her."

My heart pounded in my chest. "Thank you."

"Go to her, Armin. You should talk to her before the battle tomorrow."

I nodded. "I want to see her."

Mrs Black stood up and smiled. "See you tomorrow."

I was left alone in my room, then took a deep breath and closed my eyes, then teleported to the forest. It was dark and quiet, but I carried on walking to the spot where I had seen that forest fire all those months ago. 

There she was with her back to me, staring at the fireplace. I moved closer, then stepped on a twig. She turned around and threw her knife towards me. I quickly wiped my hand in front of me and the air pushed it out of the way. 

She blinked at me. "It's you." 

I took that as an invitation to walk forward, so I did, picking up her knife as I stood in front of her. She didn't make any move to attack me, or surround me in flames or keep my mouth shut, Sio I spoke. "You barely told me anything last time Annie. I really just need to talk to you."

She closed her eyes and turned her attention back to the fire in front of her. "Yes?" she said to the flames, as if she was ignoring me. I was getting irritated by the fact she wasn't looking at me, so I pushed air towards the fire in front of her and it went out. She stood up and turned to face me, a blue flame in her hand. She looked bored. 

"Get it out of your system Armin. You must be furious with me."

"I'm not going to attack you," I said, dropping the knife. "I want to talk to you. I want to know what's going on."

"What's there to know, Armin? You know everything," then she turned around and re-lit the fire, but turned back to look at me again straight after. 

"Not everything. Annie, I need you to promise me something."

"What?"

"Please, when this war is over, promise me you won't just leave me again. Promise me that we'll meet again."

She was quiet for a while before she answered. "I cant promise that Armin. I'm going to find my father. I may never come back." 

"Please, Annie. You can'l leave me like last time. I can't go through that again."

"The Annie you know is gone, Armin. I'm not the same person anymore."

I shook my head, then took out the necklace from underneath my shirt. "I don't believe that," I said, then took it off, and walked towards her. She recognised it instantly, and for a moment I saw a flicker of sadness on her face. She didn't move as I put the necklace on her. When I moved back she looked at me deeply. 

"I don't want you getting hurt," she started.

"The only thing that can hurt me is never seeing you again. I don't care about who you are. You will always be my best friend, no matter what."

For a tiny second I didn't know what she was going to do next. She looked at me, lost and afraid, like she was genuinely sorry, and had missed me. But the moment passed. 

"Get down," she said, and pushed my to the ground. She was next to me, the fire was out and her hand had fallen on mine, but I couldn't focus on that as we listened to something run fast towards us from the darkness, and in an instant she jumped up to attack.