A/N: Hello again! I'm sorry this update was so long overdue. It's been over two months, gods no wonder people have such a hard time with upload schedules. Life's been crazy, and I know you're probably thinking "'This weekend,' she said. 'I'm updating it now,' she said. Well boy was she wrong."

Reader: Gee, you think? *points to story littered with cobwebs and dust*

Me: I kind of deserved that, but high school is crazy! *ducks as tomato is thrown over head* NO NOT THE VEGGIES!

Reader: *Holds a potato in hand* Promise you'll update more, otherwise this potato is going to go airborne.

Me: OK OK IM SORRY! Next time I'll update before the end of March, okay?! Take this cookie in apology! (::)(::)

Reader:..........We never speak of this again *takes it silently while I sigh in relief*

I mean, geez, two MONTHS. Anyway, I'm happy you guys like the story so far, your comments made me smile. So thanks for the support! I've decided this story will be approximately 4 chapters, based on what I've structured out so far. But it'll take longer to write the chapters since there's so few of them. Ok, onto the story! This chapter we get to see the story from Jace's POV too, so enjoy!

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Jace's POV

Jace never realized how easily shadows blended within one another. Shades of black and gray subtly blanketing everything in soft darkness, obscuring him and his friends from the frantic looks of the panicked townsfolk. Despite their makeshift invisibility, the trio was still gifted with a perfect view of everything before them, as they rounded corners, spilled through alleys, and dodged narrow clotheslines hung haphazardly. Not different from a one-sided mirror, Jace could see everything around him with ease, the roar of flames guiding the way to the battle. Minutes later, the trio finally stopped feet away from the chaos.

Squinting to see past the thick smoke from the fires, Jace was able to make out a figure hopping nimbly on rooftops, metal flashing as she ran above fire-torn buildings. One glance had confirmed his suspicions; Mira was up there, fighting the danger alone. She was quick, but as she soared across another building, Jace could see her stumble a bit while catching her footing.

'She's not going to distract that thing for long. We gotta come up with a plan, quick,' he thought, guilt piercing his thoughts. But he shoved it to the back of his mind, and focused on his surroundings.

"What the-?! Are those TWO MIRAS?!" Twitch practically yelled. Jace clamped a hand over his mouth, Cole whipping his head around frantically. 

It would be embarrassing if their mission failed because they were disrupting the neighbors (though they'd probably be more worried about the monster that just knocked down their home. A sudden catastrophe tends to do that to you). Finally satisfied that they were safe, he nodded, and Jace let go.

"Sorry, I was just shocked. But I know I'm not hallucinating. Look," Twitch gasped raggedly, pointing up the central roof. Jace immediately looked up, and for a second two identical figures stepped on the same rooftop. His breath caught, his conscience threatening to break his solid focus, before the figures rolled to the side after one of them released a shot of blue at her opponent.

"That was shaping power," Jace realized, watching as the blue light shattered through a window. "Mira hasn't got her powers back yet, so if that shaper up there isn't her..." he trailed off, still staring at the two shadows on the roof.

"Then who's fighting her?" Cole shrugged, finishing Jace's thought. "I'm just as confused as you are. And from this angle, she looks exactly like Mira," he added, confusion taking over his features.

A fireball slammed mere feet away from the boys, jolting them from their thoughts as they stumbled further into the shadows of the night. After steadying himself on a nearby wall, Jace heard Cole gasp, and turned to see his friend's eyes grow to the size of dinner plates.

"What?" Jace asked, his impatience starting to seep through. 

Mira was so close, risking her life against someone with a higher advantage, and he couldn't even do anything to help. Not yet, anyway. He knew it was stupid to run into battle without some kind of plan of action, but it still made him anxious to see Mira fighting in such a dangerous situation without backup. Cole shushed him, and the boys heard yelling from above, sharp remarks flying as quickly as the combatants threw their punches.

"You can run, but I'll get you eventually, Miracle!" The attacker yelled, as Mira continued to evade the blue light being shot her way. The bolt narrowly missed her shoulder, leaving a scorch mark on the roof tiles beneath her feet. "You are the one thing that can stop me. Your defeat shall finally set me free! The world shall bend under my command!"

"Not a chance, Carnag!" Mira cried, throwing a chunk of cement at her attacker's midsection. It passed straight through without any effect, to Jace's shock. Carnag laughed mockingly, its face turned toward the flames while doing so. Jace sucked in a breath, looking at an exact reflection of his friend, down to the last ombré streak in her hair.

"Even if it kills you?" 'Carnag' asked, a sneer contorting Mira's normally calm expression into one of dark malice. The hate distorting the princess' beauty struck Jace into reality; despite knowing that it was only a reflection of the one he loved, the cold look in the double's eyes felt wrong. That definitely wasn't the Mira he knew.

"I've created countless semblances. Shouldn't be too hard to destroy one," Mira replied, and Jace turned to the warrior mirroring the monster. Relief washed over him at the sight of the familiar fierceness flashing through her stormy greys. 

"Don't think I didn't notice you trying to throw me off guard by taking on my appearance. If anything, I'm just going to fight harder. That's pretty lame that you have to hide behind disguises to actually stand a chance of winning," she taunted, earning a glare from Carnag. With a shout of anger, it sent another lightening bolt Mira's way, and the battle continued.

"That thing is what we've been searching for?! That's Carnag?!" Twitch looked like he was going to have a heart attack when Jace turned back to his comrades, mind spinning with thoughts.

 'Can bug people have heart attacks?' Jace thought, spotting the shaking in Twitch's wings. His friend was never good with life threatening situations. Or any situation, actually, but Jace had never seen Twitch this on edge before.

CRASH! 

A clatter banged in the shadows behind them. Weapons drawn, the trio spun toward the source of the noise, poised to strike at any moment. Then Cole smiled in relief, recognizing the figure before them.

"Liam! What are you doing here? I thought you were with Declan," Cole sheathed his sword, a look of relief washing over his face as the others lowered their weapons. 

Liam grinned, his trademark mischievousness sparkling in his eyes. "Mango flew back to the Cloudwall and gave me the whole update. Clearly she wasn't exaggerating like I hoped she was," he said, surveying the devastation around him. "The old man let me come and assist any way I can. I just arrived into town when I sensed this strong force of shaping power around this area. It eventually led me here, and voíla! We meet again. But enough of that, we need a plan. I get the feeling you don't have one yet?" Liam said, seeing the boys' panicked expressions. They had all been so shocked by the revelation about Carnag, a plan had been the last thing on their minds.

"It's all good, I have an idea. But you need to listen carefully." Suddenly, they all heard a yell of pain, and whipped around to see Mira holding her leg, wincing as Carnag stood before her with a malicious smirk on its face. Mira shot past the semblance once more, yet landed more roughly than her previous jump. Liam's eyebrows shot up, watching the twin Miras battle it out on the rooftops.

"Is that her shaping power, manifested into its own semblance? Wow, I never knew power could develop its own consciousness. Declan should do a study on it....." Liam trailed off, noticing the impatient looks on the boys' faces. "After we help Mira, of course."

"We have to hurry! She won't last much longer!" Jace said frantically, as every second she was up there alone made him more anxious. Especially since her pain was his fault, simply because he wasn't strong enough to contain his hotheadedness. If anything happened to Mira- he didn't even want to think about it. "We can't lose her." 

'I can't lose her.' 

"Jace, I'm worried too. But we have to stay focused. We can't help her if we don't have a plan," Liam reasoned. His brows furrowed in concern, and for the first time Jace saw a seriousness in Liam none of them had noticed before. 

The man straightened, an air of determination settling over him. "Okay, I've got an idea. Gather close, we only have one shot at this."

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Mira's POV

"Oh, are you hurt? Tsk tsk tsk, that's too bad. This was just getting interesting." Carnag crooned mockingly, sensing my pain. 

Earlier, I had a rough landing, and my leg hit a sharp edge of the roof. Gritting my teeth, I could feel the pain work its way up to my knee, slowly creeping like vines up a trellis. But I had to keep going. As I tried my best to block out the pain, I converted all my energy into another jump.

Big mistake. I landed awfully, putting more pressure on my bruised leg. Bolts of pain forced me to fall on my knees, dropping my Sword beside me as I caught myself. In seconds, Carnag had snatched up the weapon and pointed it mere inches from my neck. Breathing hard, I turned to look at her through a curtain of hair, the glint of metal momentarily blinding me to the semblance's smirk of satisfaction.

"Oh, is the game over so quickly? How disappointing." 

I rolled my eyes. Carnag's gloating was already getting on my nerves, and it's only been two minutes. 

"Stand up, and don't try anything. I can tell you're thinking of ways to fight back, but you wouldn't be stupid enough to do that. Not when those civilians are still in danger of getting hurt if you do," it said innocently, but the darkness looming in its eyes implied the underlying threat. I reluctantly rose from my position, silently wincing at the stiffness of my left leg as the semblance forced me to limp slowly at sword point.

Upon reaching the edge of the rooftop, Carnag waved its hand to create a hovering disc of blue light. The edge of the Sword prodded my backside, causing me to stumble onto the disc. 

"Was that really necessary?" I snapped, rubbing the sore spot on my back. Carnag shrugged nonchalantly, and lightly stepped onto the disc. Immediately, the disc jerked to life, and I found myself floating above Middlebranch. The suburbs were in ruins, only for the flames to falter on the edge of the industrial part of the city.

As we were hovering past the outskirts of town, I noticed a white cut in Carnag's shoulder. It was small, a crack too minuscule to see at first glance, centimeters away from the edge of my Jumping Sword. As the blade slipped and dug into the crevice, my reflection hissed in pain, jerking its shoulder in an unnatural position that made me wince. The sudden momentum caused the disc to temporarily lose control, as I wobbled uncontrollably with the futile attempt to steady myself. Only after the disc balanced again did I release an anxious breath, glaring at Carnag's back as the semblance faced the opposite direction.

'That's got to be its weak spot. If I could aim some kind of weapon into the crevice, maybe it'll weaken Carnag enough for me to destroy it,' I thought, realizing that a dagger was pressed to my left calf inside my boot. I silently thanked whatever gods were out there that Carnag had been too busy gloating its victory to even try and search me for weapons. Now all I needed was a distraction.....

Suddenly, a hand clamped onto my shoulder, and I realized the disc had stopped on the rocky edge of a high cliff. Water gushed roughly along a ravine I hadn't noticed before, the rumble of fierce waves echoing in the dark unknown. The light from the inferno dimmed as we traveled farther away from the urban destruction, the only source of illumination coming from the blue energy pulsing from Carnag's fingertips. 

"Now, you will either agree to sever our connection willingly, or I'll have to resort to, ahem, extreme measures. So why not make it easier for the both of us? I'm positive you don't want to see all the ways I could torture you within this river alone," the semblance sneered.

"If you're considering killing me, I'd advise against it," I snapped. "Don't you remember? Killing me will mean you disintegrate; shaping power can only survive so long as it's master lives." Carnag shook its head, as though I was a pitiful child. 

"Ah, but I never planned to kill you, Miracle. This is merely a courtesy, asking for your permission. With all the power I've gained, all I need to do is drain any shaping essence from your soul into my semblance. That way, our connection would be severed, and I can easily eliminate you and your puny rebellion. You may not die, per say, but the pain will make up for it, that I promise." Chills ran down my spine at how nonchalant Carnag's voice rang in my ears. 

'As much as I hate to say it,'  I thought, 'something tells me it's not bluffing about sucking my soul into nothingness. Ugh, why couldn't I have been better at bluffing like Nori?"

Carnag examined my Sword in the blue glow, marveling the glinting blade that ran down to the worn leather hilt. Boots thumped against the dusty outcropping of rock as the semblance slowly strolled toward my direction, eyes never leaving the sword in its hand. I resisted against the impulse to take a step back, knowing I was only mere feet away from the edge of the cliff. 

A quick flash caught my eye, and I risked a subtle glance behind Carnag to see someone waving from the shadows of a low pine. A ring caught the light from a small lantern gripped in their hand, and I realized it was Twitch. His wings seemed to wave at me as Twitch held a finger to his lips. When he saw that I had seen him, he made a circular motion with his hand. 

'Keep Carnag talking,' I realized. 'He must be planning something.' I checked to make sure Carnag's back was turned, then slightly nodded. After seeing my signal, Twitch nodded and flew back into the shadows.

I shifted my eyes back to Carnag, who was starting to turn back to me. 'I hope you know what you're doing, Twitch,' I thought, before capturing Carnag's attention once more. 

"You know," I said, trying my best to sound bored. "Your plan is good, I'll admit. I suppose you're a lot more powerful than I thought you were," I sighed, acting defeated. "All this time I've been insecure about losing my powers. I just couldn't stand the thought of not doing something to stop you, to end this cat and mouse game I've gambled in for decades. But if I'm going down, at least I'll know I did the right thing to fight for those I love. For something bigger than myself."

Carnag smirked smugly, and it took all of my willpower not to smack my twin straight across the face.

"You humans and your ultimatums. Pathetic." The semblance swung the sword casually, narrowly missing my shoulder. "Trust me, your selfless act will do nothing. A new age is coming, Miracle. Shaping power will continue to rule the land, but every living thing shall be under our control. For once, I'll be free to have a choice, to be more than just your simple puppet. A shame you won't be coherent enough to see it," Carnag mused, its voice dripping with fake pity. 

My jaw set, but inside my mind was whirring with thoughts. What did it mean by 'our control'? But there was no time to ask.

"Poor Miracle, too blinded by emotion to understand reality. You had your chance to save yourself. Now you're going to see what real power is." Laughing, Carnag produced a ball of dark power from thin air. Wiry tendrils emerged from its core, sucking up the light around them.

But before the tendrils could catch me, a golden snake whipped from behind and coiled around Carnag's torso, tightening as it spun. With a yelp, the tendrils disappeared to the clatter of my sword falling on the ground. 

'Is that Jace's rope? It's never grown that long before,' I thought, watching as the semblance's body was wrapped like a present. Carnag struggled against the bonds, but the snake held tight against the bursts of energy from its prisoner's desperate hands.

I quickly drew the dagger out from my boot, holding it cautiously before me in case any danger came close. The crevice caught my eye once more, and I slowly approached my twin and its hatred filled eyes. 

"You want to talk about real power, Carnag? You see my emotion as my weakness, my fatal flaw. As though being human is a disease that makes me incapable of anything." I walked closer, dagger held at the ready. "If anything, it's my strength. I would do anything for the people I love, for what I believe in. Even if the world feels like it's closing in on me, knowing that someone out there cares for me always pushes me back to the light. And trust me when I say that I know exactly how that feels," I said, grip tightening on the handle.  

"You'll never be strong enough to fight your father, Miracle. Without your powers, you have nothing," Carnag sneered, though I could see the slight edge of fear flitting across its face. I stopped, face inches away from the semblance.

"Even if you defeat me, you'll still end up failing against his army." It still hadn't noticed my dagger poised right above the crevice, centimeters away from the mark.

"Maybe I'll fail, maybe I won't. The one thing I know for sure? I'm not doing it alone. Unlike you," I growled, bringing the blade down on the white crevice. Immediately, Carnag screamed in agony, blue light crackling against the golden rope. A burst of pain sliced my midsection, and I looked down to see my Jumping Sword digging into my side, controlled by blue power. I ripped it away from the growing wound, but the damage was already done. By then Carnag's semblance was marred with jagged cracks spreading through it, like fissures in a windowpane.

Everything from then on happened in slow motion. The rumbling of a coming eruption paled against the surprisingly steady boom of my heartbeat, thudding in my ears as the rest of the noise slowly faded away. My legs grew weak from the pain, and before I knew it I was hurtling through the air, flailing helplessly. I must have fallen over the cliff's edge without realizing it.

A soft glow slowly swirled around me, casting the world in a deep blue luminescence. The pain flowed through my body along with a mysterious energy, creating a feeling of both calming ice and gnawing fire. As Carnag's screams echoed in harmony to the white light rapidly cracking through rocky cliffs, the blue light dissipated to overwhelming darkness. The last thing I felt was a strong embrace, its warmth embedded in my mind long after the world had disappeared.

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Fireflies danced in the dark, and gradually got brighter and brighter until they scattered across my vision. Groaning, I reluctantly opened my eyes, and my eyes slowly focused until I saw a lantern and a very worried Liam hovering above my face. 

"Good, you're still alive. Had me worried there for a sec, kid." He moved back, and I realized I was on the ground. Stars twinkled merrily above us, brightening up the night sky in subtle flickers of joy. But the beauty above was momentarily obscured as I sat up.

Wreckage was everywhere, shards of stone scattered for miles, with water trickling slowly from the ruined riverbed besides us. The crunch of Liam's boots echoed in the quiet wasteland, save for the occasional clank of the lantern he used to inspect any suspicious looking debris.

"Liam? Why are you here? What happened?" I asked, my voice weak from exhaustion. I suddenly realized that the pain throughout my body had dissipated. I could move my arms and legs without any soreness, and my midsection wound was practically gone. If I hadn't known better, it seemed as though I never went into battle at all. 

Liam sighed tiredly, running a dirty hand through his hair. "I managed to shape Jace's rope to make it strong enough to restrain Carnag while you were distracting it. Then you got stabbed, this whole explosion happened and..." he gestured around us, the wreckage seeming to stand out more than ever. 

"Anyway, the boys were evacuating citizens to the other side of town. All the boulders that got loosened from the battle collided into the river, and the water put out any remaining fires in the area." He held up a slightly charred piece of metal, which turned out to be my Jumping Sword. Handing it to me, I placed it back into its wooden sheath while nodding in thanks. 

"The semblance just fell apart in this blinding flash of light. I've never seen anything like it, would've knocked me out too if I hadn't been working from the riverbank," Liam finished.

"But, if the semblance is gone, doesn't that mean....?" I couldn't even say it. The thought seemed too good to be true. Liam seemed to understand though, and he smiled a little. "Well, it would explain why you aren't in pain anymore. See for yourself, Mira." 

Slowly, I got up, and faced a clove of dead trees. The bark was burned to a char, ashes floating to the ground like snow. 

'Well, here goes nothing,' I thought, raising a hand. Exhaling, I closed my eyes, and imagined what the trees could've looked like before. Green, strong, alive. I heard cracking and rumbling, as blue light glowed softly outside my eyelids. When the light faded, I opened my eyes, and gasped.

The trees were completely different from how they had looked minutes ago. The leaves were a vibrant green, shining under the lantern's light. The blackened bark became a healthy brown armor, and white flowers protruded from every angle. It were a sign of vibrant life in the torn wasteland. Turning, I looked at a satisfied Liam, completely shocked. 

"I got my powers back," I whispered, afraid it was all a dream.

He grinned. "Welcome back, Princess Miracle."

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Make sure to comment any suggestions on what you think I would change! I wonder how Mira survived that fall from the cliff, if she was injured? Someone must have saved her........

Anyway, hopefully it won't take me as long to update chapter 3 lol. Have an amazing day you guys!