A stockpile of children was pressed against a door in the newly rebuilt Academy, the smell of wood overwhelming as they attempted to listen in to adults on the other side of the door.
Two of them were fairies, one having a green streak in his hair and the other wearing a rag-tag assortment of clothing. The rest were wizards, one blond-haired, one purple-haired, one rainbow-haired, and a couple with streaks similar to that of the first fairy, but red and blue. There was a claymore wielding wizard as well as a blind one, two male wizards that seemed to be siblings, a girl with raven-black hair, and an older girl with metal plating on her face and arms hung at the back of the group.
They could only hear bits and fragments of the conversation, but enough was obvious.
"...not going to end well...."
"...pushing our luck..."
"...she's secure?"
"...kill me..."
"...predicament about..."
"...beginning to form..."
"They said ‘Void’," Robin said, pressing his ear against the door. "And Void’s the thing that’s… you know… scars…"
His voice faded.
Raiden rubbed her arm uncomfortably, "What do you think they mean by 'beginning to form'? Like, is it going to..." She trailed off, but the discomfort in her expression said enough.
"It better not," Andrew said, appearing out of thin air and terrifying the wits out of pretty much everybody minus Robin.
Kobe was sitting near on of the walls, holding Cloud Neek.
Their attention was brought back to the events occurring at the other side of door as an unearthly screech of space and time being torn resonated throughout the Academy, followed by silence.
The children exchanged a glance, Raiden reaching out and opening the door to reveal... nothing. The Grand Hall was empty, there being nothing but the sound of footsteps - supposedly Hilda in the archives.
"OH THEY F**KING DIDN’T," Hei snarled.
Raiden blinked in surprise, "Did they really leave us... alone? After how they freaked last time-"
"No, they did not."
The children turned to see a familiar purple-robed wizard standing behind them, fiddling with a wand topped with an amethyst encased rose. Next to her stood a Storm Fae with dark purplish-gray wings, having light purple hair highlighted with a faint blue. The faerie eyed the group uncertainly but said nothing.
Silence.
Then…
"Wait, Opal, should I call her Grandma or-"
"Robin, shut."
The fae immediately eyed Hilda with an unreadable expression, the wizard looking mildly startled herself.
"Wait," Glace stared at the two with an arched eyebrow, "You're watching us? Don't you hate my dad? And who's this?"
Hilda sighed, "Yes, I'm watching you." She gestured to the fae, "This is Azure. She's my intern of sorts and since she's helping me... I suppose I have the time to do this, now don't I?" Notably, the wizard avoided the question regarding Gale.
"Aw dang it, I didn’t want a babysitter," Andrew pouted, launching himself into the air. "And besides-"
He vanished.
"-she can’t watch me if she can’t see me!"
Raiden inspected her fingernails, "Andrew, you're currently at the pillar nearest to the door, don't you dare try to go out."
He pouted, reappearing. "Come on, don’t you want to do something?"
"Well, I do, but what's the point in letting you be an idiot. Besides," the borg pointed at Azure, who blinked in surprise, "pretty sure she would've caught you if I didn't."
Kobe was throwing Cloud Neek up into the air, the Neek squeaking with happiness.
In fact, Cloud Neek was squeaking quite loud. It was sure to interrupt a conversation.
"I don’t know if she knows invisibility," the fairy said, landing on the ground.
"Well I just electro recepted to find you. You do realize how much electricity you let off, right?"
"Hmph."
Hei exhaled. "So will somebody introduce me or…?"
Hilda crossed her arms, pointing to each of the children with her wand in turn, "Hei, Rai, Glace, Raiden, Robin, Opal, Hope, Nathan, Jax, the one who tried to run away is Andrew, Kobe, and- oh, I don't believe I've met you before." The last part was directed towards Ravena, Braxten, and Zayden, who stood near Kobe and his Cloud Neek.
The younger boy waved, the girl nodded, and the eldest shot them a disgruntled look while edging away.
"You guys can handle yourselves for a bit, can't you?" Hilda started casually as Azure notable edged towards the entrance of the Archives, "Because we have work to do."
"No, they’ll all run off and-"
"Opal, you’re no fun."
"Oh shut up, Robin, I’m not wrong."
Hei spoke up between the two’s bickering. "Yep, we can handle ourselves. At least, I can."
Hilda arched an eyebrow, while Raiden and Glace shot Hei a look.
"What? I’m sure as hell not babysitting you all, that’s Opal’s job."
The two older teens muttered in unison, "Idiot...", while Rai fiddled his vision, being rather... quiet.
"Okay, can we go now? This is a lot more boring than I thought it would be," Ravena said, gaze flickering over to Kobe.
"Yes," Hilda responded exasperatedly, rushing into the Archives with Azure.
Raiden smiled slightly at seeing them leaving, cracking her knuckles, "So... any rules you plan on breaking?"
"Yeah!" Andrew said, elbowing Robin. "Right?"
The wizard didn’t respond.
"Right?"
"O-oh yeah, I guess. Sure."
"I'm going to battle a pet until it wants to be my friend!" said Kobe.
Hei immediately turned to Raiden, crossing his arms.
"So… any chance of getting us into that Void?"
"Well, I technically can but..." The borg unclipped her hairclip, "I don't know if we'll wind up where we want go."
"Better than nothing, I guess," he shrugged. Turning to the others, he called, "Anybody up to some fun in the Void?"
"Yes!" the Storm fairy said eagerly, whooping like Hei had suggested they play in a bouncy house.
Opal took a while before nodding, whereas Robin shrugged-nodded-shook his head and crossed over.
Glace grinned, "I'm in."
Aurora looked unsure, while Rai's reaction was... confusing. He kept turning his Vision over and over, squeezing it tightly ever so often. He looked as if he wanted to go... but something was holding him back.
"Then let’s go," the Shadow wizard said, turning to Raiden.
"Don't you think you'll be leaving without me."
Bladed wings and cyan eyes flashed from the roof of the Great Hall, Aria soon diving to the floor.
"I've got friends in low places. If we're really going, we've got ourselves a voidwalker chaperone... I think."
The young time traveler had obviously not thought this ahead, as she only now sent a console-directed message towards the only Voidwalker that didn't actively fantasize about killing them.
A rift opened, the sound somehow not attracting the attention of the adults. Raiden glanced at the others before running in with Aria, followed immediately by Hei and Glace, then Rai and Aurora edged in reluctantly with the others.
Opal dragged Robin along, and Andrew was nowhere to be seen, so he’d slipped in unnoticed.
The rift closed behind them with an ominous shwoop.
The group stumbled out in the terrain of the void just as it rippled once more, Aria gliding above the group.
"Ooooh I don’t like this place," the fairy said, appearing and flying about nervously. "It’s creepy."
"ANDREW. PAY. ATTENTION."
"Sorry Opal, geez."
"DO YOU WANT ME TO LECTURE-"
"No! No, no… no. Sorry. Carry on… ma’am."
The girl smiled slightly. "So any idea where they might be."
Raiden glanced up at her, "Our parents? Hard to tell, locations and times are kinda jumbled up here.... we're sorta on the edge of the universe."
"…okay why did you think this was a good idea?"
Hei put up his hands defensively. "Hey, I want my pa- Juniper and Storm back, okay? And this is how we do it."
"Hey but I can always just... hack into my dad's visor..." The borg grimaced, "I mean, it's not impossible yet with the amount of firewall on that thing... I don't know how he reached that level of paranoia, but It's going to take me a while."
The wizard shrugged. "Try, at least."
She fiddled with her hairclip, soon typing away at the the holographic screen projected.
At the back of the group, Rai shuffled uncomfortably, glancing at the surrounding nervously.
"Hey."
The fairy glanced at Opal, responding only with a nod.
"…you okay? Well, I know you’re not okay, but, you know…"
He sighed, fiddling with his Vision, but cautiously nodded again in response.
Aria landed, glancing over Raiden's shoulder.
"Hey, uh... I know you're really in with the whole 'hack-your-dad's-firewall' thing right know, but I can get our void associate to just teleport us, and you won't have to dig through the security of my quote-on-quote 'uncle'. U-unless you want to keep going with it..."
Aria muttered something quickly under her breath, along the lines of "ihonestlydontcareandiwanttofigureoutallofhispasswordsandsecuritylayersviashouldersurfingdiscreetlysothathedoesntimmediatelyfindoutaboutituntilicheckhischatlogsmoderationsimagesnotepadsdiariesetcetera".
The borg arched an eyebrow, "His passwords are in Greek, knowing them doesn't really matter unless you can figure out this." She gestured to the touch keyboard, which displayed multiple symbols instead of the standard alphabet.
Hei blinked. "…oh."
"...huh."
Aria made a mental note to nab a version of Storm's visor and learn how to rig Google Translate into the tech of her mask.
"Should I just contact the guy? I'm not you, but I feel like you aren't exactly doing this easily or with any efficiency."
"NO."
Andrew’s outburst surprised them, everybody whirling around to stare at the fairy.
"He’ll call Juniper, and then Juniper will start talking, and then she’ll lecture for hours until our butts go numb. No."
"Don't worry I-" She was immediately locked out of her hairclip, the screen darkening and displaying the text 'Nice try, but no' before the hologram dissipated. She growled in frustration and stuck the hairclip back in her hair, "Go ahead."
"So what are we doing?" Robin asked, shifting from foot to foot.
"Ask Aria," Raiden responded grouchily.
"Calling for help, I guess."
Aria punched in a hurried request to RW, who responded by teleporting the group to the CONSOLE- now somehow relocated to the Void version of the Temple of Creation. The voidwalker in question was nowhere to be seen, only visible trace in the form of a hurriedly scribbled message left at the keyboard.
"it's not safe for you to be w/ ur parents rn so just hit enter when i come back in the room
also pls dont run away
-rw"
Aria was the first to read the note, beckoning the rest of the group to read the half-legible scratch on the sticky note.
Andrew appeared, read the note, threw it on the ground, and flew in loops. "Boring."
Raiden picked up the node and read threw it, "RW? I heard my dad mention him but... is he... trustworthy?" She was evidently skeptic, especially at the 'pls dont run away' part.
"Mom- Jade talks about him. At night. Always the same few words. Then she wakes up," Opal murmured, her words barely heard.
Aria turned around, adressing the concerns about the voidwalker, who was at this point back in his office and using his omniscient abilities to view voidwalker and wizard/faen negotiation. "I learned about this a while back. Adventuring across realities. RW... he was kind of life-threatened to kill our parents that one time, but didn't exactly want to do so. Just wanted to keep existing, and if that meant killing them, so be it. Otherwise, he would have been killed in every reality. Once the adults found a solution, he stopped trying to murder them and helped try to bring back Hunter from the dead later on- Jade stopped that, of course."
The girl stiffened. "Don’t."
"I can't say anything else here. It's facts," Aria responded, face expressing some form of helplessness.
"No, don’t—Uncle Hun—whatever," she muttered, cheeks fiery red.
Aria put her hands up innocently, unsurprised face speaking volumes of rude indifference. Not like she knew any better, anyway...
Rai glanced around nervously, messing with his Vision more than usual. His every movement radiated with fear and uncertainty, his blue gaze darting to the ground whenever he made eye contact.
One memory played over and over in his thoughts, "I want your brother to come with me."
Unintentionally, he had given Jade what she wanted.
He had gone to the void.
"Rai. Rai. Rai, pay attention," the girl sighed, pushing her glasses up nervously.
The Astral Fairy glanced up at her, clenching and unclenching the gemstone in his grasp before turning it over, his anxiety obvious.
"What’s the problem? And if you say ‘nothing’ I’ll hit you over the head."
His eyes widened before he resumed gazing at the floor, saying something so softly it might have just been the wind, "...Jade."
"That’s a very vague answer," she pointed out.
He didn't say anything else, simply fidgeted, not having any more of an answer. Thing is, that was as specific as he could get.
Trauma riddled his thoughts, near all of it brought by Jade. The fairy was afraid of so many things that it was near impossible to be specific.
The fear of becoming a Voidwalker...
The fear of having to hurt someone...
The fear of his loved ones dying, even Jade in her insane state...
The fear of killing again, not being able to control that torturous desire to hurt, to kill...
Silence again.
"She wants you to kill her, doesn’t she?"
Rai had stopped fiddling with his Vision, instead twisting his tail nervously between his hands. He continued this for a few seconds before glancing at her and nodding in response, then glued his gaze to the floor.
"…would it be okay if I told you I’d be fine with that?"
He looked up in alarm.
"At least, the sick, twisted, part of me is fine with having her… you know…"
The fairy concentrated on twisting his tail at that, only stopping when he twisted it too hard, wincing.
"I know nobody else cares about her. Nobody besides Juniper, and Hilda, and my dad, and… and you, I guess."
He began to mess with his Vision again, this time looking off to the side, lip bit.
Meanwhile, Kobe was talking to Cloud Neek.
"Oh boy, Cloud Neek. Think of all the new purple pets we can catch!" he said, excitedly.
Raiden turned to stare at the boy, "That is a good example of a horrible idea."
"I could catch a purple pet if I want!"
"Those are imprints, they'll attack you and it's impossible to catch them." She informed him in a cold tone.
"My Cloud Neek can just zap em. Right, Cloud Neek?"
Kobe looked down at Cloud Neek who looked scared.
"Okay, okay. You don’t have to fight them. You can sit on my head while I go exploring!" he said.
Elsewhere, a voidwalker observes as multiple parents engage in a life-or-death situation with his former comrades.
He's had about enough of it.
Standing up, RW phased into the ground and reappeared in the room containing the console. He looked around at the adolescent mess, soon speaking.
"Hey so your parents are fighting for their lives, sorry if the wait is boring. I don't think it would go over well if you dropped in now, but I can't leave you down here without you fading into transparent nothing over the course of the next 10 minutes. The console'll send you a good bit away from the fight, so just hit enter and try not to die."
This earned him multiple blinks, "WHAT‽"s, and a cluster of neutral female teens.
"Yeah, this happens a lot- usually whenever your guardians take two steps anywhere down here they get assaulted. I'm gonna go figure out what's happening right now." RW refused to elaborate further, even albeit the many cries for clarification, and faded back into his office.
Raiden sighed in frustration before eying the gray brick of a console, "Seems like we're doing this."
Kobe tried to walk away, wanting to get on with adventuring.
The grouchy borg immediately slammed the "Enter" key, opening a purple rift and sending everyone - including a disobedient Kobe - a distance away from where Lane had just electrocuted the Sect.
"Goddamn it, why can’t I just have fun for one day?!"
"Hey, there's mom! And dad!" Jax pointed out.
"Guess what, I don’t care!" said Kobe.
"Rude," Nathan shot back.
"Does it look like I care? No, it doesn’t, so shut up!"
"Nobody cared for the attitude either," Nathan hissed.
"Shut up, or so help me, I will steal one of my Uncle’s shrink rays, shrink you with it, put you into a capsule, and play tennis with it!" Yelled Kobe.
By now, all the adults were staring at Kobe.
Cloud Neek shot a look at the adults. It was supposed to be threatening them.
A throat cleared from behind them, belonging to a very annoyed tech wizard.
"Care to explain who's idea this was?"
"Not it," Nathan chimed.
"…And then, I’ll stab you with my daggers until your whole body is covered in blood, and then I’ll chuck you into the lava of Bonfire Spire!" Continued Kobe, who had wasted a lot of breath in his colorful threats towards Nathan.
Opal and Robin were zoned out, while Andrew was nowhere to be seen… again.
"Kobe, I can always say it was your idea instead of Raide...," Nathan trailed off, realizing what he just said, feeling Raiden's murderous glare boring into him. "Oops."
"Great job, dumb@$$. You ratted someone out, while telling everyone out loud that you were gonna blame me!" Said Kobe.
"Nathan, zip it," Hope hissed.
Opal stepped in between the two. "You’re both idiots. Happy?"
Raiden nervously stepped back from the angry borg before shoving Hei forward, who immediately darted behind her.
Storm sighed aggressively and pinched the bridge of his nose, "Okay, we'll talk about this later." He snapped his fingers, a cyan rift tearing open next to them, "I need you to go in, now."
Glace seemed as if she was about to object, which was met with a hard stare, the fairy muttering something before trudging in, dragging Rai along.
The Storm Trainee angrily watched the procedure, noticing Aria trying to shrink behind Opal and Robin.
A void tendril stopped the younger time traveler from proceeding, "Honestly, I expected better from you, don't think you're getting out of anything later." The tendril faded, Aria looked at the ground nervously before dashing into the rift herself.
Cloud Neek laughed at Nathan, while Kobe continued with his long list of threats that a 12 year old definitely wouldn’t make.
Juniper only gave them a glare, all the kids cowering under her bloodshot gaze.
Then the rift closed, the woman turning back to her captive and dragging her back.
"Jade, don’t you dare."
The hybrid groaned under the gag, still attempting to squirm away.
The rift reopened at the Academy, dumping the children in the Great Hall where tapestries were torn, pillars were... territorially marked, the carpet was on fire, and nearly all the doors were scorched or charred through.
"Did my Tarragon run through here?" Wondered Kobe, forgetting that Tarragon was in his capsule.
Hope buried her face in her hands, groaning to herself. "Oh, Scarlet..."
Standing near the entrance of the Archives was a furious Hilda along with the Storm Fae from earlier, the fae disinterestedly scruffing a certain dragon.
Kobe tried to walk away with Cloud Neek again, but he couldn’t bring himself to, as he was looking at Ravena again.
"You idiots-"
Andrew appeared. "Oh hell no…"
"RUNNING OFF TO THE VOID THINKING YOU CAN CIND YOIR PARENTS RAIDEN YOU SERIOUSLY THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA OPAL I’M DISAPPOINTED JUNIPER FAVORS YOU BUT YOU’RE BEING IRRESPONSIBLE, HEI YOU SAID YOU COULD TAKE CARE OF-"
"I never said anything remotely like that but okay."
"-THEM GLACE YOU FOOL WHY DIDN’T YOU STOP THEM ANDREW YOU IMMATURE IDIOT RAI-"
She stopped herself. "Okay Rai is good."
"I don’t care, lady," said Kobe, generally disinterested.
Hilda exhaled deeply, rubbing her forehead to ward off a migraine.
Ravena, meanwhile, was highly disinterested, choosing to wander the halls while discussing something to Zayden in low voices.
Braxton, meanwhile, gasped when he saw Hilda. "I… how… I don’t… don’t know you."
It was a genuine shock to the boy to not have any memories triggered, though whether it was good or bad was still undecided.
Aria glanced around nervously, looking for an escape- then a small plan formulated in her mind.
A little bit of charge from the Storm energy surrounding its respective keystone, and she was barreling towards the door, out of sight just before any capture or word could reach her. As she soared across the Lamplight Town sky, she pondered the situation, and came to a light hover over a residential district.
Given what she'd seen of the adults' current situation as well as the little information she had on the previous void adventures of the gang, she had a vague idea of what was going on. As she understood it, "bad dark glob eating elements because it wants power and is also taking elemental form".
If she couldn't engage directly with the situation, then she'd do it in Creation.
The rift tore open to a massive chasm somewhere near the warzone, a canyon filled with broken stone and wisps of what remained of magic or mind therein. The broken glass and rippling astral energies signifying the power of the Keeper's Crest were the only ways to have identified the rather basic ruins-like structure as the academy. Blood crusted the grey brick and red roof fragments, making the young time traveler wince. Purple dots and black fog lightly veiled the debris, a herald of the abyss' claws and maw on the remains of the building.
Aria's mask formed around her face, enhancing her eyesight and zooming on every single inch of the rubble- however, she was still unable to locate the void from her current angle. Multiple other rifts were opened, to no avail. The essence had to be deeper inside.
Kobe was also wandering somewhere. This time, in search of new pets to catch, and more wizards to battle.
A girl sidled up beside him, seemingly not noticing the trainer.
A throat was cleared exceptionally loudly behind them, Zayden looking like he would like nothing more than to murder Kobe.
"Uhh… What’s up, Zayden?" Asked Kobe. "I wasn’t gonna touch her, I swear!"
He only glared, walking in between the two and making sure to separate them.
Kobe sighed, and walked away.
Meanwhile, Opal was grumbling to basically everybody about, "Did you see her she was all tied up clearly they don’t trust her how come Dad and Juniper want me to trust her I don’t trust her she’s insane I bet they’ll kill her the second she steps out of line I can’t wait to see it how come nobody ever kills her I wish she was dead she’s the worst mother ever and I hope they kill her slowly I hate her why won’t anybody kill her she’s clearly not trusted sitting around in that asylum I hope it’s torture but I bet she’s planning to kill us all any second I wish she was dead."
As the wizard finished with her ranting, Azure released the struggling dragon, watching it join a certain Fire Trainee in disinterest.
"Hey."
"Oh… hi, Ravena."
"I got away from Zayden."
Hilda glared at children before spatting out, "If you're going to be irresponsible, you're only going to have more responsibilities. Typically your parents would handle this but you're doing it. Azure?"
The Storm Fae rushed into the Archives in response, returning moments later with a crate full of files, there being enough that the thud of the crate being put down in front of them resounded through the hall.
"I want you to get every last one of these done by the time I'm back," she turned to leave, only to stop and stare at them, "Azure will be watching you."
The fae opened her mouth to protest, the first attempt at speech since the children met her, only to be interrupted by Hilda, "That's an order."
The purple-robes wizard stormed into the Archives, the door being slammed closed behind her.
Robin stared in her general direction before screaming, "SERIOUSLY?!"
Jax approached the crate of files, pulling one out. "What do we do with these?"
Opal appeared over his shoulder. "No idea."
She looked quite drained from screaming, ranting, and cursing for the last thirty or so minutes. Her normally-brushed black hair hung straggly and tangled around her face, her glasses were slipping off her nose, and she wasn’t chewing any gum.
Kobe summoned Tarragon.
"Use smokescreen!" he ordered.
Tarragon lit a crate on fire, and then, smoke started filling the room, giving him the perfect opportunity to escape with his pets and Ravena.
"WHAT THE FU-"
The hobbyist exploded into curses again.
To their surprise, Rai answered, "It's requests, suggestions, and complaints from generally the entire island's population. You're supposed to review and deal with them."
When they turned and stared at him, he looked at the ground, shuffling his feet uncomfortably.
"KOBEWHATAREYOUDOING?!" Jax practically screamed as he frantically doused the flames, still careful not to wet the files inside. The children coughed as the smoke wafted through the room.
"Escaping," Raiden answered, looking almost as annoyed as Azure when the smoke cleared.
By the time the smoke cleared, Kobe was outside of the academy with Cloud Neek and Tarragon.
"You did great, Tarragon!" he said.
Azure was glaring profoundly at the remaining children, static present in the air around her. The fae's voice cracked slightly from lack of speech as she informed them in a harsh tone, "If any of you try that again, I'm going to-" She sighed, the static dissipating, "Just don't do it again."
Jax picked up the file he was previously holding, concern flashing across his face. "Hilda wants us to deal with this?!"
Raiden peered over Jax's shoulder, eyes widening exponentially, "Um... please tell me you found this coincidentally and that this isn't normal."
Jax pulled out another, reading it. And he pulled out another. And another. And another.
"So...I have good news and bad news. Which one first?" Jax asked.
"Bad," Nathan replied.
"Good," Hope said at the same time. The two siblings looked at each other.
"Well, if we hear the bad news first, we can be uplifted by the good news," Nathan said.
Hope raised a finger then lowered it. "Fair point."
Raiden crossed her arms, "So... Jax?"
"So, bad news...we have to deal with a lot of murder threats. Good news, that lessens the amount of stuff we have to deal with," Jax sighed.
Aurora stared at him wide-eyed, gripping her bow tightly, "WHAT‽"
Opal was still cursing vividly, Robin shooting arrows into the nearby pillars.
"Wait, who exactly is getting death threats?" Hei asked. "Because I feel sorry for whoever dares send anything to my mom."
Andrew appeared, terrifying the wits out of the poor Shadow wizard, who screamed in an incredibly high pitch.
"And Kado’s used to death threats. I’d assume most of them are towards…"
He pointed at the two pairs of siblings—Glace and Rai, and Opal and Robin.
Rai glanced at Andrew, noticing he was pointing vaguely in his direction, but said nothing.
On the other hand, Glace was trying to get a glimpse of the letters, Raiden inconveniently placing another paper atop the first to keep her from reading it.
Hei quickly nabbed a few papers, handing them to Opal so she could read them aloud.
You do not deserve to win this war after what you did. We demand justice for the lives lost and pain caused.
Kill the fairies!
You ally yourselves with war criminals and murderers. How can you say you are good?
You delude yourself if you think you are better than us.
"They just had a war over this a week ago! And they want to start this up again?!" Nathan exclaimed, outraged.
"I think they’re just… angry," the girl shrugged, folding each paper into an origami shape before either flying it, crushing it, or unfolding it and ripping it into little pieces.
Meanwhile, Kobe was walking down the road, having dodged another bullet.
Zayden was walking in between him and Ravena, Braxton skipping behind them.
Kobe looked annoyed at Zayden
Why’s he always gotta be coming between us? I wasn’t gonna touch her or anything.
Zayden only kept eye contact with him, while Ravena didn’t seem to mind either way. The silence was incredibly awkward, broken only by Braxton’s mutterings.
Cloud Neek was walking next to Braxton, trying to communicate with squeaks.
The boy only attempted to grab him out of the air.
"Cloud Neek, a variant of the five types of Neek, is known for its smug aura and the way it plays tricks on wizards in the wilderness. Cloud Neek evolves into…"
The rest of his words were muttered under his breath, too quiet for anyone except him to hear.
"…Cloud Caller, which then evolves into Cloud Creator. Mine didn’t want to evolve, so I didn’t bother." said Kobe, picking up where he thought Braxton left off.
He nodded along eagerly. "Didn’t want to. I didn’t want to go there. Didn’t like it. Scary. Bad. Failure."
"What do ya mean scary… Oh…" said Kobe.
"Captain Zayden. Assignments. White room. Hungry. Weak. Weirdo. Failure."
Soon enough, Braxton was shaking, soon being comforted by a murderous Zayden.
"Kobe. What. Did. You. Do?"
Without waiting for a response, he fumbled a remote out of his pocket and sent a tiny robotic hummingbird after the trainer, which pecked at him constantly and nipped every exposed part of his body.
"I, ow, didn’t, ow, do, ow, anything!" Yelled Kobe, who was running away.
Cloud Neek tried to zap the hummingbird.
Ravena eventually intercepted. "Oh look, we’re here."
"What do you mean..?" Asked Kobe, who’s clothes were torn.
She gestured to a sad, bedraggled, and slightly sagging tent. "Home."
Kobe was silent.
Wow, I thought everybody lived in a house, like me.
Elsewhere, a time traveler dives dangerously close to infected ruin.
The wizard mistook his shock for amazement.
"I know, right? A real shelter. We’re not scampering around on the streets anymore! And there’s food to eat. Like apples and stuff. When we were on the streets, it was trash and rotting things. At least we didn’t starve to death."
Her grin was brighter than any Astral spell, the teenager quickly rushing towards the tent, a decently recovered Braxton following—leaving Kobe and Zayden alone.
"Well, at least she’s happy," said Kobe.
"Mmhm. Do you think you can make her happy, Kobe?" the boy glared, arms crossed tight.
"I’m pretty sure I could."
"And how would you do that?"
Zayden stepped forward, while Kobe stepped back—the former’s fists were clenched and eyes narrowed, the metal hummingbird he was slowly crushing setting the tone quite well.
"I-I could let her stay at my house…" replied Kobe. He was clutching a capsule containing a pet.
"And you think that’d make her happy?"
"Well, my mom makes really good chili dogs. She’d like those."
"And you think chili dogs and some spoiled brat who’s only known her for two weeks will make her happy?"
"Listen, I just realized that it’s not good that people live in tents, so I want to help Ravena. You and Braxton can even move into my house, my parents won’t mind."
Zayden stared at him with pure hatred and mild amusement, his fists clenched so hard he left red marks on his palms. All he did, though, was spit out, "You’re even more shallow than I thought," and stalk away.
When Zayden left, Kobe got angry.
"What’s his problem?! I was only trying to help, and here he is, calling me shallow! This is just like every other time I try to help someone! Nobody gives a damn, and I just end up looking like the bad guy!" He yelled.
He threw an empty capsule at a tree in anger, and it busted apart, leaving a few cracks.
Eventually, the boy decided to join them in the tent, where Ravena was talking with Zayden. She whipped her head around and quickly stopped talking when she noticed him, however, and chose instead to take a large bite of an apple to avoid any questions.
Kobe stayed quiet, his face showing anger, but Cloud Neek was squeaking to Braxton.
They were silent again, until finally Ravena spoke.
"So… Zayden tells me about an offer for a… house."
Was it his imagination, or were ridicule and disgust filling her words?
"Thanks but no thanks, I’d rather not stay with… other people… at the moment."
Kobe took a second to comprehend what Ravena said, before he spoke up.
"Uh, that’s okay…" he said, anger tinting his voice.
"No, I didn’t mean it like that, I want you to stay, but…"
Kobe simply stayed silent. He was a bit too angry to talk.
Braxton changed the subject.
"Do you want food?"
"Uh, sure." Said Kobe.
He passed over a handful of slightly rotting apples and withered dandelions. "Here you go!"
Kobe took the apples and dandelions.
Should I donate some food? Nah, Zayden wouldn’t like that… He thought.
While Kobe was thinking, it turns out that Cloud Neek had taken the rotting apples and dandelions, and eaten them.
Zayden and even Ravena stifled laughs, yet the girl passed him another apple.
"Thanks-"
Kobe was interrupted by the sound of Cloud Neek eating the apple he was given.
At that, the boy started laughing intensely, while Ravena was furiously biting the inside of her cheek.
"Cloud Neek, stop eating my apples!" Said Kobe.
Ravena finally started laughing, but not rudely like Zayden was—in fact, she was smiling at the trainer and moving a little closer to him.
"Alright, since Cloud Neek keeps stealing my apples, I’m gonna go find some birds to roast," said Kobe.
Back at the Academy, the children were either pacing across the room, or sitting down and reading more files about the same topic. So far, only one file was unrelated so far, and that was a complaint about the smell of dead fish in their area.
Hundreds of arrows covered the Great Hall, an exhausted Robin flinging himself onto the rug.
"So, any idea how we deal with this?" Jax asked, gesturing to the two large piles of files, all death threats directed towards Jade, Gale, and Alyss.
Rai reached and grabbed one of the letters, skimming through it until he reached the bottom. At that, he wordlessly got up and dashed into a corridor behind a pillar, bringing back a small wooden box.
Glace stared at him wide-eyed, "You didn't seriously-"
"What's in the box?" Nathan asked.
"Dunno. Doesn’t matter," Andrew said, flying over their heads.
"We don't exactly know," Glace answered, "Just that we're not allowed to touch it."
Rai had placed the box next to the crate, no one making a move for it at first.
The Storm Fey quickly flew down, opened it, and…
Screamed as he fell out of the air.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" he screeched, quickly getting back into the air again.
Rai and Glace exchanged a glance, Rai speaking first, "Is it really that bad?"
Glace had flown up, snatched the box from Andrew, and peeked inside, eyes widening exponentially, "Y-yes-"
She set foot next to the crate, placing the box down so quickly you would've thought it was poisonous... and in a sense it was.
Exposed for all to see were multiple vials of neatly ordered poison, some essential oils while others were made to be slipped into a food or drink. A Wingblade was placed in an indent of the wood to the far right, a spare pair of gloves neatly folded and placed atop the blade, partially obscuring it. There was also a vial of seemed to be condensed Shadow Magic, occasionally a pair of malicious yellow eyes forming from within the shadows and glaring at the children intensely - most likely what startled Andrew. On the inside of the lid of the box was a list of names, some strikethrough, some had the names of poisons next to it in loopy handwriting, and the last few names had the names of forms of death - just to name a few, drown, exsanguinate, immolation, suffocate, etc. If one were to go through all the names signed on the death threats, it would match the list exactly.
From a distance away, a book open in her lap, Azure watched in interest.
Opal stared for a good twenty seconds before muttering, "I’m going to slip some of that into Jade’s throat."
Hei, meanwhile, looked completely unsurprised. "Meh, Mom does that all the time."
Rai glared at Opal intensely at that comment.
Raiden glanced at Glace, alarmed, "Who the f**k does that belong to?"
"...our dad."
The room went silent, everyone staring at Glace and Rai, before erupting into very loud clamoring from the children.
Robin snorted. "And we wonder why they want him dead. Welcome to the my-parent-sucks-and-I-wish-they-were-dead club."
"Well, I guess I’m a reject," the Shadow trainee said, inspecting the contents of the box with… a touch of amazement. "Seriously, this is kinda impressive."
Rai shrunk behind Glace while the Ice Fairy looked mostly bewildered, neither sibling having a response for anyone.
"Okay, okay, how about we deal with something less severe first...like the fish problem? We can think about this while we're doing that," Hope suggested.
Opal studied the box for a second before ruefully snatching a poison, dropping it into her bottomless bag.
The glaring going on between Opal and Rai only intensified, Rai slamming the box close with his tail to prevent her from grabbing anything else.
"Hmph, you’d do the same if you lived with her, I promise," she responded, glancing at Robin for backup.
The boy nodded. "Yeah, no, she’s right."
Raiden sighed, "Either way, you know as well as the rest of us Rai would never do that... unless..." She trailed off, eying Rai's Vision warily.
Opal suppressed a smile. "Oh yeah, that was amazing. If only he could do it again."
The fairy looked horrified at that, muttering "N-no" as he backed away from Opal.
The girl winced. "No, sorry, I didn’t mean it like… th-that…"
However, the damage had already been done, the Astral Fairy clinging to his sister and making a move to avoid Opal entirely.
"…sorry," she finished lamely, blushing bright red but still attempting to grab another few vials from the box.
Robin stopped her. "It’s fine. Jade’ll probably die on her own anyway."
Opal shrugged.
"Well," Raiden inhaled deeply, "Let's go with Hope's suggestion. Maybe we'll figure out a way other than... murder to deal with those death threats."
"Yeah, so can we deal with that before you guys start up with death threats of your own and upsetting each other?" Nathan asked, shooting a pointed glare at Opal.
She flushed and struggled to find words, Robin quickly butting in. "You’re one to talk. You’ve got a perfect mother and a perfect father and a perfect sister and a perfect brother. So shut up about my sister."
"Robin, that was an incredibly stupid argument seeing how much those three argue," Raiden said with a sigh.
A holographic map formed before her, her hand hovering over it, "So where is the issue at?"
"Please, that’s normal, at least they don’t-"
He stopped himself, muttering, "Whatever."
Andrew broke the silence. "Between Firefly and Lamplight."
Raiden tapped Firefly Forest on the map, teleporting the group. Next to the Big Tree, where Flora was notably absent.
"So.. where’s the lake?" Hei asked, frowning.
Their question was soon answered as the wind picked up, carrying a stench of dead fish.
Nearby, Azure teleported in, annoyed that the children had left without her, and even more so annoyed at noticing the smell.
"Follow the obnoxiously rank stench," Nathan replied, gagging.
Aurora wrinkled her nose in disgust, "I think I know which lake that is."
"Fisherman’s Pond," Andrew commented. "Ironic."
"Which also happens to be the pond a certain friend of ours made a mess of," she added.
Meanwhile, Kobe was looking for some food.
"No, because it’s called fisherman’s pond… and there’s fish… and nobody gets it I’ll shut up."
"Nah, we get it," Raiden responded, pinching her nose, "it's just the stench is our main concern right now. I am so going to punch Kobe the next time I see him."
Kobe crashed through the trees, trying to find some bird eggs.
Ravena followed with significantly more grace, and then noticed everyone else.
"O-oh. Bye."
She turned and left.
"Well that's convenient," Nathan said, turning to Raiden.
"Don’t try anything!" Said Kobe, wielding a dagger.
Raiden whirled to face Kobe and kicked the dagger out of his grasp while synchronously punching him in the face, catching the dagger with her free hand.
Inspecting the bloody mess of his face, she crossed her arms in satisfaction.
The girl turned back around. "None of you touch him or I murder you all."
"Too late," Raiden responded while fiddling with her newfound dagger.
She flicked a hand, a Falling Star Smash poising itself over the cyborg’s head. "Leave us alone."
Cloud Neek jumped on Raiden’s back, and tried to shock her.
Meanwhile, Kobe had tears mixed in with his blood. "Why, you sick @$$ monster..?" He said, weakly.
The Astral Magic was redirected, and Raiden disinterestedly pried the Cloud Neek off her.
"Hey, this is his own fault y'know. I literally told him zapping a lake would end badly and it did - and guess who has to clean it up? Us, because that idiot who comes crying to you every time he faces reality doesn't know how to take responsibility for his actions."
Ravena battled back a smile. "Sounds like he could’ve used a week or so more of… discipline."
She lingered on the last word, each syllable hiding months of pain and abuse and failing.
Failure.
"I’m joking, of course. Maybe if you all learned to support him or help him he wouldn’t have turned out like this."
"Yeah, ya psycho!"
Meanwhile, Jax had broken a branch off a tree, swirling it in the water. The water rushed in a circle, beginning to form a miniature whirlpool. Once it gained a significant amount of speed for a hand-made whirlpool, Jax removed the stick, stood up, and held his hands out towards the water. The whirlpool increase in speed and size, beginning to draw in several dead fish that began to pile up at the lake's shore.
"Think my dad didn't try that?" Raiden responded, still annoyed, "Kobe still decided it was a genius idea to try to kill the Lady by himself, in the middle of a war. You saw what happened after that."
She paused again.
"Hm, maybe you just don’t know how to feel emotion, because I’m sure anybody would want to do that after going through her idea of fun."
"That was before she did that to him. And is it that obvious? Huh."
"Hmm, well he’s dumb," was her response.
"Plus, I had no idea what would happen, and you guys never gave me a break no matter how much I apologized!" Said Kobe.
The wizard gave him a pointed look that read clear as day, you’re not helping, idiot.
Meanwhile, Aurora and Hope had started scooping up the clustered groups of dead fish in nets, gagging. Scarlet, who would have normally appreciated the fish, backed away, flying into the air, and wrinkling her snout while making gagging noises of her own.
Raiden only glared, "You caused the deaths of hundreds of people, just because of your craving to be a rebel. You're pampered by your parents, given everything you want, plus sugarcoated to the point you think life is easy, and as result, you're spoiled rotten. You're lucky you weren't punished, but I bet your parents bribed ours to get you out of it."
"Zayden would love to see this."
The wizard noticed everybody working on the lake, mostly unbothered by the spell. "What is going on?"
"We’re clearing the lake of fish," Opal answered, using a makeshift net made of vines to drag them onto the shore.
Out of all of them, it was Andrew who was doing the least, as blowing the fish away was risky, smelly, slimy, and generally gross and electrocuting them was pointless.
"Ya know what? I DON’T GIVE A FLYING F*CK ANYMORE! I WAS SORRY, BUT YOU @$$HOLES WOULDN’T HEAR IT! ALL YOU WANNA SEE IS ME SUFFERING BECAUSE OF SOCIETY! YOU’RE BEATING ME UP OVER DEAD FISH!" Yelled Kobe.
"NOW GET OUT OF MY FACE BEFORE I GET MY WYVERN!"
Suddenly, hundreds of half-decayed fish were being drawn in from the other side of the lake, the sudden stench nearly knocking the kids out. Scarlet faltered in the air, trying to stay away from the fish.
Ravena gulped back a gag. "Okay, bye."
Cloud Neek gagged while Kobe tried to resist the urge to punch someone.
Jax lost concentration, the whirlpool going horribly wrong and launching all the fish into the air.
Control was snatched form Jax, the fish being caught within multiple bubbles of water made by the spray, Rai being responsible.
Meanwhile, Ravena was giving Kobe a I-am-going-to-kill-you-but-at-the-moment-you-have-something-I-want look.
Kobe just picked up Cloud Neek, and walked away.
Meanwhile, Rai was busy directing the Water Magic to help Jax as fast as he could, the water bubbles notably freezing slightly before dispersing.
A disgusting, wretched pile of fish was at the side of the lake, Scarlet looking offended at its existence.
"So what do we do with this pile?" Jax asked, sounding nasally congested due to him pinching his nose.
Rai inspected the mess, "Well, fish is supposedly good for plants so..."
The next few hours were filled with digging holes at the base of trees and dumping as many fish as possible in the ground, the holes being as deep as a grave to dampen the smell.
"Well now that that's done, any ideas to deal with the...um...death threats?" Hope asked.
"No killing," Aurora snapped almost immediately.
Andrew spoke up. "I say we ignore them. They’re meant for the adults, not us."
Opal looked torn, Hei was frowning, and Robin was strangely absent.
Raiden bit her lip, "Hilda said she wanted all of them done."
Glace glanced at Azure before whispering, "Can't we just burn the letters? I mean, she's going to find out that some of them caught fire eventually, so why not twist it to our advantage?"
"There was another letter requesting more greenery on the former battlefield," Nathan shrugged. "We could work on that."
Aurora shrugged, "That works."
The familiar holographic map appeared before Raiden, teleporting all of them - including Azure this time - to Skywatch. The borg confidently strode up to the bean-o-vator, pressing the button to open the doors.
"You coming or what?"
The group exited the Bean-o-Vator and walking towards the former battlefield. They stared at the wasteland, a few small, dried bloodstains here and there. What Jax saw was a flashback of the carnage of the war, peppered with screams of agony.
Andrew scrutinized the field, not happy exactly, looking more relieved that it was over. Opal looked downright murderous, pinching her own wrist so hard beads of blood appeared, and Hei didn’t seem to care about the gore—all he did was shrug and mutter, "Where’s Robin?"
"Didn't he follow Opal?" Aurora asked alarmedly.
The hobbyist shook her head. "Last I saw him was the Academy."
Everyone turned to stare at Raiden, who cursed, "I thought I teleported him, I swear!"
The holographic map appeared in front of her, the girl slamming the Academy on the map.
The group stared at where Raiden once was. "So...what about the greenery?" Nathan asked. The rest of the group turned to Rai.
The Earth Warden didn't respond at first, before softly muttering "oh."
A wisp of Earth Magic unsurely formed before the fairy, before he moved his hands forward and outward, dispelling the green mist and forming a faint line of elemental energy across the width of the former battlefield, gradually moving across it until it filled the clearing.
The mist lowered in elevation before mixing with the dirt, Rai closing his eyes in concentration as slowly but surely varying plants began to push their way out of the dirt, and an ash tree growing near the center of the field.
The growing grassland flowers waved in the wind, the branches of the tree extending and growing before stopping, casting just the right amount of shade on the sun-beaten area.
Jax summoned a small mist of water that spread throughout the former warzone, dampening the dried soil.
Finally, Rai recalled the Eath Magic, glancing back at the others unsurely.
Jax smiled and gave him a thumbs up.
"That's...beautiful," Hope breathed.
"It's almost like there was no war here," Nathan commented.
The fairy let out a little sigh of relief, clearly glad they liked it.
Glace meanwhile, was impatiently tapping her foot at the back of the group, beginning to dislike her lack of relevancy as of late.
Azure watched the Ice Fairy carefully, however, did not intercede in the group's affairs.
"So...anything else that needs to be done or are we working on the death threats now?" Nathan asked.
"Well, Raiden's not back yet so maybe we should check on her," Glace said with a shrug.
"Yeah, lets do that," Hope shrugged, pulling out her map and tapped on the Academy. The action was repeated throughout the group, before Hope teleported back, held on to Scarlet, and teleported away once more.
Meanwhile, a pet trainer was aimlessly walking around Lamplight Town with his Cloud Neek. He had recently gotten kicked out of his house, so he had nowhere left to go.
At the former battlefield, Azure sighed frustration before pulling out an old, worn, and slightly outdated map, teleporting to the Academy as well.
Robin was pacing around, annoyance and something more visible in each step. His fists were curled tightly, yet all he said was, "Oh good, you remembered me."
Scarlet made an empathetic growling noise.
Raiden sighed from nearby, "Robin, I honestly thought you were with Opal."
The boy didn’t respond, only glared in what was roughly Raiden’s direction before a very awkward Andrew appeared.
"Hey! So… we’re all friends now…! Whoo! O-okay not the time, bye."
He disappeared again, presumably off to mysterious endeavors.
The borg stared at where Andrew had disappeared before looking back at the blind wizard, "Look, I'm sorry okay?"
Opal sighed. "Yeah, no, he holds a grudge."
"I do not!" he snapped, turning to his sister.
She rolled her eyes. "Sure."
"Fine," Raiden snapped, "We don't need his help anyways - if he can't take an apology, then he's better off in the Archives with Hilda."
"Sorry," he grumbled.
"He doesn’t mean it, by the way," Opal supplied, quickly dodging when Robin attempted to hit her.
The borg ignored the siblings, clearly intending on pretending the two don't exist. She turned to Nathan, "Is there anything else that needs to be done?"
Nathan looked up then looked back down, listing the topics he had been reading through alongside Hope. "Purple scars in the woods, mouse problem, creepy noises from the purple scars, property damage because of the war, death threat to Jade, another death threat to Jade, more death threats to Jade, a death threat to Gale, a wish that Gale would die, the academy should have someone else running them, more Gale and Jade death threats, another complaint about the same mouse problem, a death threat to Cyro this time, complaints that the wardens are nepotistic, and more death threats."
Raiden blinked, "Uh... I guess we should deal with the purple scars in the woods and the mouse problem. Rai and Glace can handle the mice easily, right?"
"Golly gee, I wonder where the scars came from," Opal said, pushing her glasses up with a definite air of annoyance.
The rest of the group, however, had no idea what she was implying until coming to a certain realization - Jade.
The hobbyist snorted when they came to the realization. "There we go. Now come on, scars to patch up."
Raiden pulled up the holographic map, teleporting them back to Skywatch. After a quick trip down the bean-o-vator, the group headed deeper into the forest, this time in the opposing direction of the battlefield.
The scars were all too evident, some trees having been cleaved in half entirely, while some bore huge gashes filled with pulsating Void magic. Animal corpses from squirrel to just-born baby bird littered the ground as well, purple and black blood coating the slick grass. Not a single sign of life remained, all flora and fauna alike having been crushed, destroyed, or cut apart.
A never-ending laugh seemed to ring through the leaves, dipping between sob and scream and words that would reach no one, at least no one who cared.
A warpath that led only to pain.
Aurora had paled, while Rai was gripping his tail tightly. Glace and Raiden glanced about the wreckage, neither having any suggestions.
Opal looked mostly annoyed but not very surprised. "So we gonna get this done or what?"
"Mmhm," Robin nodded, obviously not fazed at all.
"Void magic did this?!" Jax asked in disbelief.
"Void magic corrupts people," Robin said. "Destroying an ecosystem? Not so hard."
Nathan poked one scar and it writhed in the ground, evidently getting more translucent by the second. "I dunno. It seems to be getting weaker each second," he commented.
"So then… Astral magic?"
Without waiting for a response, Robin vanished the scar with a small Star Strike, smiling as it dissolved.
Aurora ran her hand over some of the scars, particles of Astral Magic twirling around her hand, cleansing the wounds the void left in the earth.
Meanwhile, Kobe was walking through a grassy plain, battling any monsters that came in his way. He was doing pretty decent for himself.
In the tent nearby, a furious Ravena was getting to her feet, a blast of Astral magic knocking him and his Neek to the ground before she spoke, venom practically dripping off her every word.
"Mind telling us a story?"
Zayden smirked. "Because we’d love to hear yours."
"What're you talking about?" asked Kobe.
The girl curled her fists. "Idiot. I mean Raiden was telling me just how much you kept secret from us. From me."
"Hey-"
"Secrets are fine, you know, but… killing others? Children? You’re… sick, Kobe. Sick. So why don’t you tell us the real story?"
Her gray eyes flashed with the ferocity she’d learned to accept, a new spell being readied behind her. Zayden only watched, smirking wider than they even knew was possible.
"Okay, listen. I'm an idiot, okay? You all know that. So one day, during the war, I decided to go and fight The Lady by myself, but that blew- that failed because at some point, the army fired fireballs at us because of my mistakes. I felt really sorry about it, but nobody cared. You don't even seem to care right now. Now look at me. I've been kicked out onto the streets. Everyone turned their backs on me, like you're about to do." said Kobe, sadly. You could hear that he was sorry for the deaths in his voice.
A breath of pure anger rang through the area, Ravena practically shaking with hatred.
"I cannot—I hate—playing the victim—you don’t know real pain-"
No words could communicate her pure rage, a Supernova that seared chunks of Kobe’s hair off and baked his skin doing the job just fine.
Behind the drama, a cyan rift whirled open.
"Man, toxic gas su-"
5 seconds of silence.
"Okay, what just happened?"
Kobe just laid there, on the ground.
He didn't even tear up, or groan.
He just laid there, accepting his fate.
It was his fault, and it was too late to do anything about it.
He didn't speak, he didn't move, he just breathed.
Even Cloud Neek eventually got up, but the only move Kobe made was to stop it from zapping everyone.
A loud clapping interrupted them, Zayden laying on a rock like it was a beach chair.
"Well said, recruit Ravena, well said."
A smile found its way on her face. "It was a pleasure, Captain Zayden, truly. Now let’s get out of here."
Two brown eyes peeled guiltily out from the rock Zayden sat on, Braxton shuffling his way towards Kobe.
But all he did was glare and turn away.
Cloud Neek tried squeaking to Braxton, but after it failed, it directed its anger towards its trainer.
Cloud Neek squeaked angrily, and even zapped Kobe a few times.
Kobe didn't move. He deserved it, and he knew it.
After Cloud Neek finished zapping Kobe, it sat down, and turned away, angry and ashamed at its trainer.
Meanwhile the rest of the children had made good progress diminishing the void scars, Azure arriving to spectate.
Rai and Jax worked on replanting trees, Aurora cleansed the scars, and the rest were working on burying the fallen animals, Glace padding through the clearing as a mountain lion and carrying everything the others were reluctant to touch.
However, things were getting increasingly difficult for Aurora to cleanse, to the point she stopped.
Jax was the first to notice. "Hey, what's wrong?"
She shrugged, "I don't know. When I started I barely had to do anything, then I had to put a bit more effort in it, but now... It's... like it's fighting back or something."
Opal frowned. "Me too."
Aurora frowned and tentatively casted Falling Star Smash, the Void Magic fading slightly before writhing violently.
Nathan walked over and aggressively and repeatedly cast Falling Star Smashes on the scar until it faded, leaving a scar-shaped hole in the ground.
"Well that works," she muttered before glancing at the path of destruction they still had to fix.
Opal groaned loudly. "Oh, great…"
A very annoyed Robin kept blasting Astral magic at an especially large scar, getting more and more frustrated as it regenerates itself. Andrew was nowhere to be seen, and Hei…?
"VOID SUCKS!" the trainee screamed, using a mixture of Shadow and Astral magic to no avail.
Aurora headed over to Robin and cast Super Nova, diminishing about half the scar before it regenerated again.
"COME ON-"
"Okay, how about this. Everyone, blast it at the same time," Jax said. "Three. Two. One!" Yellow light shown through the gaps of the forest and several Falling Star Smashes and Super Novas dug into the scar, heavily diminishing it. When the spells finally faded, a gaping hole was left in the ground, no void visible within it.
"Well, that was..." Nathan trailed off as a small amount of void crept out of a grain of dirt, expanding. "Nopenopenopenope." More Super Novas drilled into the dirt, the void fading once more. The group peered into the hole, checking for anymore traces of void. Aurora pressed one hand to the side of the hole, sending Astral Magic pulsating through it. Then she drew it back with a yelp, pulling her hand to her chest.
"You okay?" Jax asked.
"Yeah, yeah I'll be fine," she said, daring to look at her hand. A purple and black mark sizzled as it faded away.
Suddenly, the ground rumbled beneath them as the colors purple and black emerged from the ground beneath the group and spread inwards from a jagged outline, turning the surface the kids were standing on into a large void scar.
Hei rolled his eyes. "Stupid Void. Hmph, Mister Shadow rip-off can go kiss my—OW!"
A tentacle had lashed out of the scar he stood by, leaving a tiny purple mark on his arm that faded.
"What happened?" Robin asked, frowning.
"Alright, everyone, back off of the purple scar," Hope said, backing away carefully. Scarlet simply flew up, orange feathers flapping in the sky, blasting any tentacles that neared her.
Rai took off almost immediately, while Glace tentatively backed off, the cat swiping at any tentacles in her way - soon regretting it and simply running. Raiden and Aurora followed Hope in her movements, neither wanting to find out what the scar was fully capable of.
Jax also followed in Aurora and Raiden's tracks while Nathan stared at the group as if they were stupid, pulling out his map and teleporting away to the base of Skywatch once more and quickly meeting the group, walking around the giant void scar.
The scars signifying the corruption the pseudo-elemental now hosted ran deep as canyons. Its pulsating black image appeared to pump a translucent black tint across what remained of the ground, spreading its disease through the clearing.
"...So, uh, should we deal with the mouse problem or the death threats next?" Nathan said, backing away from the expanding void, pulling out his map once more.
"Can we just focus on getting out of here?" Raiden snapped in response.
Nathan waved his map. "Uh, helloooo? We all have one of these!"
"I MEANT HOW YOU WERE-" She muttered something along the line of "idiot son of a bi-" before conjuring a holographic map and teleporting the group to the first location that caught her attention - Lamplight Town.
The instant the children (and a very annoyed Azure) teleported they were met by mice overrunning the streets.
Opal gawked: "Oh my f**king god why are there mice-"
Robin blinked. "What mice?"
"Look!"
"…seriously?"
"That's a lot of mice," Nathan said.
"Why are there mice-"
"What mice?"
"There are mice all over the streets."
"You coulda just told me that earlier."
"OH MY-"
Glace, who was currently still a cat, had perked at seeing the mice, eyes widening and tail twitching enthusiastically.
Rai had noticed, paling instantaneously, "GLACE, NO-"
Too late.
The blue mountain lion had already pounced on the nearest mouse, shredding it into ribbons of red pulp consisting of flesh and blood, mouse bile sloshing onto the ground, and causing every insect in the radius to flee.
Nathan gaped at the blue cat, Hope quickly averted her eyes, Scarlet looked disgusted, and Jax was releasing his breakfast in some nearby shrubbery.
Azure looked as if she was severely regretting her life choices, while Raiden stared blankly.
Rai, for a moment, had tensed up, looking as if he was about to faint - only for an orange cat to bound down the street, scruffing way too many mice, and trying to save as many as possible from his sister's killing spree.
Scarlet hovered in the air for a bit, before taking Rai's side and picking up as many mice as possible, trying to save them from the fate that Glace would hammer upon them.
Glace growled slightly at the dragon and opposing cat, but pounced on yet another mouse, that gut wrenching screech of the poor animal being heard as she tossed it into the air then batted it at the ground, breaking every bone instantly.
Scarlet, seeing that this wasn't working, simply picked up the blue mountain lion and dropped it in a nearby tree.
Glace hissed and yowled during the entire process, a low growl rumbling in the feline's throat as it struggled to find a way down.
Meanwhile, Scarlet and Rai were relocating the mice elsewhere.
By the time the blue cat located branches strong enough to support her, the two had managed to move all the mice... well, besides the stack of dead mice next to the street.
Glace padded right up to the pile, and while shooting Rai the evil eye, grabbed a mouse and proceeded to eat it - taking her time ripping out every morsel.
Rai, in turn, fainted, the orange cat near Hei's feet.
Scarlet's flight faltered, the Luma hybrid landing next to Hope.
The trainee frowned down at Rai’s terrified expression, picking up the cat and squashing him in a very tight hug.
The cat let out a startled meow at being hugged too tight before settling into the gesture, Glace rolling her eyes at the two before continuing the revolting work of diminishing the pile of dead mice.
Hope and Scarlet were in a mutual hug, both heavily disgusted at the sight of Glace consuming the pile of mauled mice.
Opal cringed but remained mostly unimpressed from the many times she’d seen Glace do this very thing. Robin, obviously, didn’t care, though was clearly preoccupied with something else.
Andrew appeared in a pile of mouse corpses, screamed shrilly, and hightailed it out of there.
Jax still had his face in the bush, heaving, but with nothing coming out.
Eventually, Glace finished her disgusting work, trudging back with red around her mouth. "So can we deal with something else now? I’m full."
Rai hurled into Hei’s arms, the trainee gagging and releasing him.
Opal shrugged. "Just wash your mouth and don’t forget Robin. Let’s go."
The Ice Fairy rolled her eyes before wiping the red liquid off her mouth, Raiden averting her gaze before teleporting the group back to the Academy.
The borg then shuffled awkwardly, "So... any ideas on how to deal with the death threats?"
Jax and Nathan shrugged, and Hope shook her head.
Someone spoke up. "Well, there's always Ga-"
"NO," approximately half of the group shouted collectively.
Opal shrugged. "…I mean it might work on Ja-"
She was shot a withering glance by a now non-cat Rai, the fairy still looking a bit queasy.
"Forget I said anything."
Meanwhile, two teenagers trudged through the woods, a tween rushing to catch up with them.
"Ravena! Slow down!"
The girl continued running, ignoring the branches scratching against her body.
"Hey—hey…"
Zayden caught up to her, hands on his knees. Between pants, he sputtered, "Why do you care—so much—he was a liar—a traitor-"
"Don’t you think I know that?" she responded, grabbing his arm and pulling him up. "I hate him just as much as you. And don’t lie, you hated him from the beginning."
"That’s not-"
"Don’t even try to lie to me, idiot."
The wizard laughed slightly. "I missed you saying that. Let Braxton catch up."
"Aw, c’mon, he can do it. Let’s set up camp."
The two sat in silence for a while, each clutching the end of a ripped and ragged tarp.
"…why’d you trust him, anyway?"
"Shut up."
"No, seriously, I want to know."
"I didn’t. But I hoped like an idiot. Hmph, maybe the Lady’s training didn’t stick like she wanted it to."
"It always sticks."
"…you’re sure?"
Zayden laughed humorlessly. "After a year? Yeah."
Just as Ravena opened her mouth to say something else, a little boy burst through the branches.
"Thanks for remembering me," Braxton grumbled.
The boy glanced at the ground. "Sorry."
"Yeah, sorry," the girl added. "Besides… it’s not our fault you couldn’t catch up."
Braxton flinched slightly, going unnoticed.
"Come on, Ravena, it’s fine," Zayden said. "Just us forever now, right?"
"…right."
On the edge of the woods, on the other side of the forest, there was a kid sitting on a stump.
"Y'know, Cloud Neek. I've been a real jerk." he said.
Cloud Neek squeaked in agreement.
"I mean, honestly. I've lost everything. I've been kicked out, I've been ostracized from society, I lost all my friends, all because I was a jerk."
Cloud Neek once again squeaked in agreement.
"I'd like to apologize, but I can't show my face anywhere again. I went too far, and by the time I realize it, it's too late."
Cloud Neek had tuned Kobe out by this point, and was munching on a berry.
"I really need to change, and I need to do it now."
The boy picked up Cloud Neek. "You're gonna help me change, right, buddy?"
Cloud Neek squeaked, which sounded like a 'maybe'.
"'Maybe' is all the affirmation I need."
Meanwhile, back in the Academy, Jax slowly raised his hand. "I've got an idea...."
"We're listening," Aurora said.
"...but it's kinda stupid and risky."
"Just say it anyway."
"Well, Hilda has this book that records every event on the island...what if we used that to prove to the island that Jade and Gale aren't all that bad?" Jax shrugged nervously.
"Oh gee, my dear mother isn’t ‘all that bad’?" Opal laughed. "Please, if we looked in the book, you’d see exactly what she does—did—while she was at home. Or maybe I could recall them all for you."
Jax looked immediately crestfallen, head dropping.
From nearby, Azure watched in interest, the conversation catching her attention for some reason.
"What about before...um...him?" Hope asked, quickly coming to Jax's side.
"Ha, even before his death, Robin and I couldn’t sleep through the screams." Her words and tone were lighthearted, but they held a bitter edge.
"Nah, she stopped screaming eventually. After he died," her brother added.
They acted like it was a simple topic, casual even, like two normal siblings discussing their normal mother, yet their body language said something entirely different.
Some scars you couldn’t see.
"She wasn't that bad," Rai muttered quietly, earning him a hard stare from the siblings. "What? It's true. She would always help me with my rock collection and find geoids, some citrine, cor cyro, slate, terrarium..."
"English, please. Or Norlia at the least," Glace said with an eye roll.
"...then Glace broke them all and made this concoction which consisted of diamond ground into fine powder, shards of amethyst, condensed shadow magic, and chalcanthite fragments - which, may I mention, are deadly..."
The Ice Fairy shrugged, "Well how else was I supposed to-"
"...and then Korathius suffered from copper poisoning for over a week, and you threw the evidence out the window plus froze the rest of my collection so you can shatter them into a million pieces-"
"Okay, and how does this prove anything?" Raiden interjected.
"Point is, Jade was nice enough to replace my collection."
"Which was what? Ten pebbles?"
"Over four thousand rocks and minerals - and there is a difference," Rai responded without a bat of an eyelash.
Opal snorted. "Oh boo hoo little Miss Insanity and War Crimes got you a bunch of rocks. Should I get the tissues or will you?"
"The sarcasm’s not necessary," Hei sighed. "Also, I swear Andrew’s gonna-
"BOO!"
The trainee screamed shrilly before muttering, "I hate you."
The fairy blew a raspberry.
"Point is," the hobbyist grumbled, "a story about rocks doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. It probably took her what, ten minutes, to regenerate it? She doesn’t care about you, she doesn’t care about anyone. Deal with it."
"That's still not true," he grumbled, "She also helped babysit me and Glace, and she helped me talk to-" He stopped himself, softly muttering, "Uncle Greenheart..."
"…that doesn’t excuse her from what she did. What she did to us. You’re blinder than me if you really think she can be… forgiven," Robin snarled, lingering on the last word like it was a unique delicacy that he’d paid for and hated.
The Astral Fairy exhaled deeply, averting the sibling's gaze, "Seems you've sunken to a level lower than hers."
He stared at him, then burst into laughter.
"I don’t care! I’ll do anything for her to die, and you should too. Besides… haven’t you killed enough people?"
Silence met his question.
Finally, in the faintest whisper, the Earth Warden responded, "It wasn't on purpose..."
"But she did it on purpose. Everything she did was intentional. Is it that hard to understand or are you just stupid?"
"If you were scared, would you do different? And I'm not stupid." Rai replied, his sapphire gaze unreadable.
"Who said I wasn’t scared?"
Robin bit the inside of his cheek in annoyance, quickly changing the subject. "And if you’re not stupid, well you’re sure acting like it."
The Earth Warden's gaze was utterly unreadable, but his opinion was clear when he turned on his heel and ran off, obviously having enough of this argument.
Robin glared at the ground, not knowing why he was angry exactly, just… was.
Hei broke the silence. "So we gonna do this thing or what?"
Raiden put her hands on her hips, "You mean, stealing the most powerful artifact on the island and risk being grounded for literal eternity, all just to find out how bad our parents could be?"
"…I guess."
"Glace?"
The Ice Fairy glanced at the borg with an eye roll, "None of you have wings, well, besides Andrew. Do you really think you can sneak in?"
The Storm fairy burst into laughter. "Absolutely!"
"Idiot, they need to get up on the rafters to go in. There's a way to get to Hilda's place from there." Glace explained with a sigh.
"I’ll do it!"
"You'll just get lost, and if you somehow don't, then you'll need to pick the paranoid amount of locks keeping that thing secure and-" A throat cleared, reminding the children of a particular adult who had most certainly overheard their scheme.
Andrew disappeared, Hei facepalmed, and Opal raised her hands in surrender, yelping, "Didn’t do it!"
Azure simply rolled her eyes and walked up to the children, robes swishing with her movement, "Don't worry, I won't tell. To be honest, I have a few questions of my own... but Hilda never lets me take a peek at that book of hers. If you want..." She paused, weighing the consequences, "I can help you."
"…fine," Hei said, grinning. "Let’s go."
The fae, in turn, held up a hand, "No. I'll go alone. Glace, that's your name, right? Do you mind showing me your spot on the rafters?"
The Ice Fairy shot the group a glance before taking off, Azure following in suit - notably having a bit of trouble keeping up with the younger faen.
In a bit, Glace set foot next to the group, Raiden shooting her a look.
"Can we really trust her?" the Shadow wizard asked, staring at the rafters where she’d taken off.
Glace shrugged, "No idea, but I mean, Hilda lets her be her intern so..."
"…and we can trust Hilda?"
"Eh, not really, no. Yet does it matter? She hasn't taken over the world yet, so..."
"Ah yes, she can kill us all in an instant. Normal grandmas bake cookies and knit. My grandma is an immortal world-watching reverse-pedophile victim."
When everybody glanced at her, Opal shrugged. "…too soon?"
Raiden stared at her intensely, "I'msorryWHAT‽"
Glace, meanwhile, facepalmed, "Too soon."
"…eheh… change the subject now."
Before anyone could bring up a new topic, there was a slight breeze as Azure set foot next to them, clutching a rather thick, worn, and old-looking book.
Her gaze was unreadable, but she held it out to the children, "If you get caught, I had nothing to do with this. Understood?"
Andrew appeared next to the faerie, who didn’t look remotely surprised.
He pouted. "Why didn’t you-"
"I noticed you and didn’t feel a need to point it out."
"…oh," the fairy said, crestfallen for a second. Then he was gone… and so was the book.
Raiden huffed with irritation, "Andrew, this only works if we can see it too, y'know?"
"So who first?" Jax asked. "Gale or Jade?"
"Jade?" Aurora suggested, glancing at Opal.
"…fine."
The girl flipped around the pages, scanning them up and down.
"Body count: several thousand. Causes: Murder, Void spells, Academy destruction. Status: Insane; alive."
She looked up. "Seriously?"
She grimaced slightly, "Is there anything good in there?"
"Why don’t you find out? I’m getting sick reading this," she spat, thrusting it into her hands.
The wizard skimmed through it, frowning as she read the pages, "Yikes..."
Opal scowled. "Of course. What did you expect?"
Raiden peeked over the Astral Wizard's shoulder, eyes widening, "Er... should we just... not look at Gale's page? I mean, if Jade's this bad... and seeing he owns... that box..."
Nathan immediately snatched the book, flipping to Gale's page and handing it back to the Astral Trainee.
"…oh my-"
"Give me that," Glace snatched the book from her grasp, reading it for herself. It only took a few good seconds before she held it away from her like it was poisonous. "Er... nevermind that plan-"
"So, answer is, what’s the plan?"
"Well... the only leaves killing-"
"NO!" Near half the group exclaimed, interrupting the Ice Fairy.
Just as Glace began to close the book, a tiny word flashed and changed.
"Huh?"
She leaned closer, examine the pages…
Status: Deceased
"Wait what the fu-"
Her words were interrupted by the others’ screams as the Academy plummeted towards the ground.
"OUTOUTOUT!" Hope screamed, pulling out her map. The rest of the group quickly fumbled for their maps in mid-air, smacking a random location and teleporting away.
Most managed to land scattered around Firefly Forest, the grass slowly beginning to shrivel and a few blades turning black and purple.
As the children in Firefly Forest made their way to the big tree, a very annoyed purple robed wizard tapped her foot impatiently, shooting death glares as soon as they showed up.
"Well? What do you have to say for yourselves?"
Glace stepped back before immediately pointing at Jax, "It was his idea!"
Andrew nodded. "Y-yeah!"
Jax shrank into his shoulders. "You said we had to finish the files, and most of them were death threats to Jade and Gale. So I thought that we could prove that there was no reason to hate them using the book..."
Her gaze remained stormy, the Keeper rubbing her forehead to ward off a migraine. "I’ll deal with that idiocy later—how did the Academy fall?"
The grass under her began to match her clothes’ coloration, everybody oblivious.
Everyone turned to Glace, who was the only one to see what was in the book before it fell.
She paled, then shuffled awkwardly, "...my dad sorta..."
"Yes?"
The fairy wordlessly shoved the book - which she had somehow managed to hold on to - into the Keeper's grasp.
The Keeper looked slightly curious as she grabbed the book, swallowing her worry down.
The only thing she’d been able to keep forever hit the ground with a soft thunk, guilt, anger, and a sick joy mingling on her face.
"Deceased," she mouthed. "We never have enough time…"
Nathan was one of the few to notice the smirk flash across Hilda's face "Were you just smiling?!"
"I—it’s—complicated. Deal with…" Her purple gaze fell on purple grass. "…th-that first."
Glace glared, scoffed, then turned to leave, "Since when did I actually obey you? I'm finding my idiot brother - no thank you Miss bias~"
Before Hilda could even retort the fairy had already teleported, the ground where she had stood slightly frozen.
Just then, Jax's wizard watch buzzed, the young trainee pulling it out.
Aurora Herolight - Shipwreck Shore
"Where are you guys?"
Jax Watermaster - Firefly Forest
Firefly Forest...and we have an answer to why the Academy fell.
Aurora Herolight - Shipwreck Shore
"Really? Why?"
Jax Watermaster - Firefly Forest
"It's...not good. Come here and we'll tell you."
Opal frowned. "So what happened?"
As questions were being exchanged, Aurora had teleported in, being followed by Rai - supposedly having heard from her that the rest of the group was in Firefly.
"Where's Robin and Hei?" Hope asked.
Aurora shrugged, "We didn't see him in Shipwreck."
Meanwhile, in Shiverchill, Glace had wound up right in front of Hei and Robin.
"Great, I ran into the wrong idiots..."
The younger wizard embarrassedly rubbed the spots where he’d been hurt, Hei rolling his eyes and saying, "So? What just happened?"
Glace sighed, "I'll explain later, looks like I'm going to have to look at Hilda's smug face again..." The Ice Fairy pulled out her map, teleported the three to Firefly, and stood sulkily at the back of the group.
"So now what?" the aforementioned wizard sighed. "Void’s having itself some fun."
She was simultaneously blinking back tears and attempting to kill her smile, settling for pinching the vein on her over and over until the spot became red.
Nathan was still shooting Hilda a burning, relentless glare.
Meanwhile, Aurora and Jax were currently hugging a sobbing Rai.
Hilda didn’t even notice, keeping her eyes glued to a page on the book.
While the children had their indifferences, similar changes were occurring at the other parts of the island. The waters of Shipwreck were becoming a frothy violet, the lava of Bonfire began to cool with a hiss, the clouds of Skywatch were becoming thunderous, and there was unusual activity up on Shiverchill.
Opal frowned. "Um… guys…?"
"What?" Raiden glanced at her, seeming mildly preoccupied.
"THE LITERAL GRASS IS TURNING BLACK, YOU F**KING IDIOT, HAVE YOUR CHILDISH ARGUMENT LATER-"
"What the-" Nathan took his glare off Hilda, standing up and backing away from the darkening grass.
Raiden awkwardly shuffled onto the remaining patch of green grass before asking, "What do you think... happened?" She looked rather worried, unusual for the borg.
"Void," Opal murmured. "That explains it…"
"Explains what?"
"Mom."
"Gee, that was really clear-"
"I’m getting to it, you idiot bot. Void’s becoming more powerful. Which explains why Mom was more on hinge recently, and all her weird… lashes… point is, we need to get to the Void to help."
"Is that really a good idea?" Raiden asked cautiously.
Aurora blinked, "Aren't you and Glace the ones who get us into trouble?"
"Well, yeah, but-"
"We have to," Robin interrupted. "We can’t just sit around here forever."
Before anyone could do anything however, the condition of the island worsened, evident by the fact the trees surrounding them were dying - black and purple leaves drifting with a light breeze, causing a form of purple mist to waft off the plant life.
Up in Skywatch, somewhat visible to the children, there was a bright cyan flash before activity started up on Harmony Island, a feeling of doom looming over the island.
History will always repeat itself.
The once lush Harmony Island sank into the purple waters near Bonfire, the resulting tsunami cooling any remaining lava of the volcano, water pooling around the base of the volcano.
A black mist turned into a fog, then a thick cloud of smoke, consuming everything it touched.
All the light around the island was snuffed out under the sheer black that only kept spreading.
From within the expanding mist, confident magenta eyes flashed, chilling the hearts of whoever dared to look.
"It is done. This is Light's Fall."