Two energetic fairies ran down the stairway, yelling "Hi Uncle Greenheart!" as they ran past the Earth Warden. He froze up briefly, still not having gotten used to the title, before smiling slightly at seeing the two play around in the currently great hall. The Academy was empty, as it was the holidays, a tech wizard helping an Ice Fairy decorate as a little girl played nearby.
Years passed, the same Earth Warden climbing the stairs, but now in the summer.
Three bundles of trouble were chasing each other in the hall as two young fairies argued. Nearby a couple of teenaged girls was being told off by a now-adult tech wizard, a Fire Warden trying to catch the other three children before a dragon decided to join in the fray. A single solitary Astral Wizard watched the mess as both her grandfather and father tried to help the others get things under control, a blind wizard seated next to her.
Even more time passed, the aged Earth Warden struggling to climb the stairs - not that he'll admit it. The children he got to know and teach dashed down the stairs laughing as they ran from an incredibly angered Ivory Fairy, white braided hair ruffled by the speed he was going at.
"This is futile and you know it! GET BACK HERE!"
The warden rolled his eyes, "Gale, you're getting old if you can't catch up with them."
The fairy turned to face him, still walking backward in the kids' direction, "OH COME ON, not you too-"
The warden laughed, the fairy glaring before turning and picking up speed, soon catching up with the children.
Unbeknownst to the fairy, Greenheart's laugh soon turned to a cough, a nearby tech wizard looking at him in concern, "Greenie, you alright?"
The Earth Warden nodded weakly, "I'm alright, just a bit tired."
Yet that was not the case.
Not long after, a funeral was held, a hybrid made Earth Warden, a grieving fairy made Earth Trainee. Too soon, way too soon, both a half-merling and firey wizard retired from their Trainee status, two shocked children taking their place, both their parents unsure what to do.
As if things couldn't get any worse, their little world was about to be flipped inside out.
In a private common room, an Ivory Fairy tiredly rubbed his eyes, a brown-haired, purple-eyed wizard standing next to him.
He solemnly gazed at the gathered Wardens, and adult Trainees, before saying, "You all remember Hilda, don't you?"
Jade rolled her eyes, “You’re joking, right?”
”Besides you.”
She snorted, “Yeah.”
Aly attempted a weak smile, but it faded, the Ice Warden clearly knowing what the Academy Keeper was going to say, "I'm sure we all do." At seeing a few uncertain glances she added, more fiercely, "RIGHT?"
That earned the fairy nods of agreement, Gale sighing.
"Well then, Hilda, do you mind?"
The purple-hatted wizard, in response, exhaled frustratedly before speaking, "I'll spare you the nonsensical professional terminology and get to the point - you all know the Wardens are the authority figures on the island, right?"
Nods of acknowledgment and a few mumbled yeses were muttered throughout the group.
"In a case that the Wardens are unable to act as authority figures, the Academy Keeper - who is normally someone who advises the Wardens, will take charge until the Wardens are able to handle things. This prevents chaos and Harmony from having to get involved. We had originally planned that after Jacob and Gale finished teaching you all about the magical aspects of being a Warden, we would teach you how to actually lead. Unfortunately, Gale and I forgot humans' lifespans are shorter than ours. I honestly thought we had more time..." She trailed off, Luce walking up to her and gripping her shoulder.
"None of us expected him to pass on, it's not your fault Hilda."
"...thank you, Luce." She took a deep breath, "As I was saying, you were supposed to take charge at that point, but with all that happened, Gale decided to continue handling things as you recovered from events, however..."
She angrily slammed a stack of papers on a table, "People have decided Gale isn't fit to make decisions regarding recent complaints - which are disgusting - and want the Wardens resuming traditional position whether or not you feel fit for the job. They also had the audacity to petition for Luce to be fired."
Somewhere beyond the veil, the soul of a deceased Ice Warden writhes in disgust.
Jade frowned, “I mean, we kind of did break the Academy on multiple occ-“
Her brother facepalmed, “Not helping.”
”Fine. I’m not used to solving problems that don’t involve beating out ‘dark elements’, so… not much the Earth Trai- I mean, Warden can do.”
Her voice cracked for a second at the mention, the room’s atmosphere dimming more.
Hilda gazed at Jade sadly before shaking her head, picking up the documents and gently putting them in her grasp, "I think you might want to read the papers."
The hybrid managed to look at them for two seconds before screaming, “BIZARRE MIX OF FAIRY AND WIZARD? MENTALLY UNSTABLE?”
Hilda winced, "I have no idea how they found out about that, but point is, they don't want fairies in charge... or people who have... a record."
Storm spoke up from the back of the group, a Zipzap perched on his shoulder, "Not sure I'm in the position to say anything but- do straight out any of us have a clean record? Besides Lucas."
“Great. Save the world, get bull***ted at in return. How are we supposed to fix this? I can’t fight-“
The door creaked open behind them, two heads popping in.
”Mom, whatcha doing? I can’t see!” A boy yelled, cloudy white eyes just visible from behind thick sunglasses.
”Robin, she’s just doing boring war meeting stuff. Booooring,” a Storm Fairy said, white tail lashing in the air.
Jade groaned, turning to the kids, “Robin, Andrew’s right, this is boring. Why don’t you two go?”
“NO!” Andrew yelled, darting into the room.
A brown-haired borg facepalmed at the doorway, "Why am I friends with these idiots again?"
"Because we live here." A blue-haired, yellowish amber-eyed fairy said in response, oblivious to the glares Storm, Aly, and Gale was sending their way.
"We're going to be in so much trouble..." A ginger-haired fairy muttered, face buried in his palms.
“Sorry, mom!” Another voice called, “God, Robin, stop disturbing her. You too, Andrew.”
The girl appeared in the doorway, tucking her streak of rainbow hair behind her ear. She promptly dragged the blind boy away, snippets of a lecture being heard.
”You’re no fun, Opal-“
”Shut up!”
”You like Hei! You like Hei!”
”DAAAAAAD!”
”Opal started it!”
”I did not!”
”ANDREW, GET THAT OFF!”
Jade heaved a sigh, watching her two children argue back and forth, “Sorry, Hilda. My kids are a lot.”
"Excuse me," muttered a tech wizard before tentacles of void restrained and dragged out all the children, him slipping out the door and closing it behind him - providing the group once again with privacy.
Arguing was able to be heard even as the door was closed before it died down and (hopefully) peace was restored.
The door opened again, the tech wizard walking back in - notably without his Zipzap, "Now, where were we?"
“Something about Jade and I being hybrids. I wonder what they say about you…” Hunter said, looking disgusted.
He paid little regard to Hunter, "If I've been able to keep what I am under wraps for the past forty years, I doubt there's anything about me in there."
"Wait did you say forty?" Chase was staring at the borg, surprise in his gaze, "But you said-"
"Trust me, you don't want to know anything about his age besides the lies he dumps to satisfy people," Aly informed him darkly.
“Okay, I’m not gonna ask, the point is… how the hell do we fix this ****?” Hunter asked.
Gale sighed, "Normally, I would handle this... mess by proposing an alternate, more reasonable solution to respective area leaders, however, seeing they want me fired as well, I doubt they'll listen to anything I suggest. So you have to find another solution, propose it, and then implement it before they carry out their... Storm, what's the word for it?"
"The vulgar four-letter word or the other four-letter word that isn't vulgar?"
"Both."
"Complete and utter bull****."
“Well, who will they listen to?” Hunter asked, visibly aggravated.
A loud whirr was faintly heard outside the door, accompanied by the heavy landings of 3 wizards.
Soon enough, the door was back open, the wizards being revealed to be the other 3 time travelers that now existed.
"Now you decide to drop by?" Storm inquired with an arched eyebrow at seeing the travelers - as for how the expression was visible, his bangs weren't covering his face for once.
“Who are these people?” Jade groaned, officially done.
"Raid, Cloud, and Aria - I've mentioned them before?"
“No, you actually haven’t, but whatever, proceed.”
"Stop talking, people," Raid responded. "I hate to be a doomsday prophet, but after being bored for a couple of days, we decided to drop into the future for a little bit."
Cloud created a couple of floating holographic terminals, dropping a video recording into Storm's visor. "That's what'll happen in a month if we don't get this situation under control."
The video recording displayed an intangible mess of furious mobs, yelling, and incursion, and the rest of the Academy staff backed into the room containing the Towers. The new, adolescent time traveler- Aria- piped up. "Yeah, you'd expect this kind of stuff to be restricted to movie plots, but here we... will be?"
“Great,” Hunter said, voice dripping with sarcasm, “Just really fantastic.”
The tech wizard blinked, "OKAY SO AFTER YOU RESTRICT ME FROM VISITING THE FUTURE-"
"Storm, calm down. Hilda, what do you propose?"
"In summary, all the Wardens are going to need to leave the Academy awhile to deal with things." She said with a sigh.
"Wait, just us Wardens?" Aly asked, concern filling her gaze.
"Yes."
"Okay, so you're telling me to leave Glace alone in the ACADEMY?"
Hilda fiddled with her rose tipped wand, "She won't be alone, Gale will-"
"Gale panicked and hid as a cat under the bed the last time I left him alone with the kids."
At that, the fairy chuckled nervously, "Did you have to bring that up-"
At that very moment, another door crashed open, revealing a half-merling and fire wizard.
"...is everyone crashing in today?" Aly said blankly.
Ignis got up, dusting himself off, "Look, Storm over there knows how to keep those idiots out of trouble, things will be fine. NOW GET YOUR A**ES OUT THE DOOR AND DEAL WITH THIS THING."
Sea sighed, "He has a point."
“I JUST BECAME A ****ING WARDEN AND-“
Hunter proceeded to slap his hand over Jade’s mouth, saying, “Yeah no we’re not leaving the kids to wreak havoc.”
The Warden removed his hand from her mouth, “My husband is amazing-“
”Are you sure-“
”YES I’M SURE HUNTER SHUT UP I STILL CAN’T BELIEVE YOU CAME TO MY WEDDING ARMED. Anyway, Korathius is amazing but he can’t handle the kids for his life.”
Sea sighed, "Look, Storm babysat all your kids before, Korathius and Gale won't be alone. If they can't handle the kids, Ignis and I are just across the hall, and Abner can help too. If all else fails, Hilda's in the archives."
“I can’t-“
Hunter sighed, “Just leave a little bit.”
“Are you INSA-“
”BYE!” The hybrid hollered, shoving a protesting Jade out the door.
They bickered even worse than the kids.
Aly sighed, before kissing Gale's cheek and darting out the door.
As the rest of the wardens left, Chase stopped next to Storm. "Good luck with Hope and Nathan. They really ignite each other's frustration," he half-joked, before leaving the room with Samantha.
As soon as the room was empty, Storm glanced at Abner, "No cheating the kids into doing the chores for us."
The Astral Trainee blinked, "I have no idea what you're talking about."
He rolled his eyes but walked out, "Come on, we better make sure the kids aren't doing anything crazy before my notifs are flooded."
Gale sighed before Hilda gestured for him to go, "You'll be fine."
“Mom, why are all the Wardens leaving?” A voice called from the doorway, a voice Hilda knew all too well.
Hilda rubbed her eyes tiredly, "They need to handle something, but they'll be back soon Juniper."
Three siblings were currently playing a game of catch in front of the entrance to the Water Tower. Hope, Nathan, and Jax.
“Where is everybody going?” Robin called, “Hey, are we doing something fun?”
Storm sighed before attempting a weak smile, "Your parents need to do something so I'm babysitting." Without even looking at the teen standing behind him, he added, "That includes you, Hei."
“Babysitting? I don’t need babysitting,” he protested, tracing a finger across his complex tattoo, “Everybody else needs babysitting.”
"You sir, are Glace, Opal, and Raiden combined. Besides, your mother would kill us all if anyone left you alone." Storm said with a sigh.
“Fiiiiine,” Hei groaned, “But how long am I staying here?”
"OPAL WANTS YOU TO STAY FORE-"
"ROBIN!" The girl shrieked, “DAAAAAD!”
The tech wizard turned to face them, put his hands on his hips, staring them down, "Robin, leave your sister alone. Opal, go play with Raiden in the Storm Tower - if you can't handle being with your brother then you two are staying apart."
They grumbled but left, an explosion being immediately heard as Robin joined Andrew.
The other time travelers exited the room, Raid and Cloud discreetly reaching into very circular cyan rifts. Not 5 minutes later the three were standing in a corner, looking more like they were in a movie theater than they were in a place of higher learning given all the popcorn.
Abner arched an eyebrow, Storm raising a finger then lowering it.
"I'll be right back-"
Robin and Andrew ran out of the Fire Tower, “Woooo! Lava and lightning are awesome!”
A stunned Korathius was standing behind them, black hair sticking in all directions, "H-how did you…”
Ignis peeked out from the Fire Tower, glaring, "KEEP YOUR SPAWN UNDER CONTROL." He went back in, the sound of a door being slammed resounding in the hall.
Meanwhile, Storm had grabbed Andrew by the ear and dragged him away, "There's a reason why I tell you to only practice that in the Storm Tower. If the lot of you don't behave your homework pass privileges WILL be revoked."
The fairy gasped, “You wouldn’t.”
“Told you that’d end badly,” Hei said smugly, leaning against the doorframe of the Shadow Tower.
“Hmph,” Andrew muttered sulkily, “Come on, Robin. Maybe Kobe can fix the gaping crater in the Fire Tower.”
”Isn’t Kobe at home-“ the wizard protested, twirling his staff in his fingers.
”Naaaaaah, he’ll help us.”
Meanwhile, a young wizard was walking up to the academy. "I have no clue how my dad was able to get up here," he said. Suddenly, the boy got out a disk and threw it on the ground. Then, a Cloaker popped out of the disk.
Andrew immediately jumped out the door, flying his way down to land next to him.
”Hey, good buddy, ’ol pal, my boy Kobe… Robin and I kinda blew a hole in the Fire Tower.”
"What? Why?" asked the boy.
“Er… can ya fix it?”
"I can try... Just leave it to Kobe!" said the boy.
Kobe held the hands of his Cloaker, and it flew him up to the academy. "I feel like my dad did this before..." he said.
Back in the Academy, a very angry Luce was dragging Hei away from the Shadow Tower. Crystals galore covered the classrooms.
Gale sighed, "Actually, I'll just fix it, you three will only forget to fireproof it. Rai, do you mind?"
The Astral Fairy fingered an orange crystal, "Granite?"
"Yes."
"Heh, beats fixing it myself," said Kobe.
He recalled his Cloaker and walked away.
Meanwhile, a bored Hei was watching rocks appear out of thin air, while he occasionally let a burst of crystals appear.
"Gee, I wish Uncle Ben gave me some snacks when he sent me here, I'm hungry..." muttered Kobe.
“When’s mom gonna be back?” Jax asked, having gotten bored with the game of catch.
Opal casually did an aerial, landing next to him, “In quite a while. Once people stop being stupid.”
Kobe summoned Dragling from his disk, and started talking to it, in full view of everybody.
Storm sighed, "Hopefully? Soon. Realistically? A long while. On the bright side- wait, where's Glace?" His question was answered as a yowling blue cat ran through the great hall, being followed in suit by an angry dragon, which was being chased by a Keeper (the pet).
"How the fu-"
"NOT IN FRONT OF THE KIDS," Abner, Gale, and Korathius yelled in unison.
“Whoa whoa whoa, Scarlet, calm down!” Hope said, approaching the teenage dragon. Scarlet paused, staring at Glace before turning to the Fire Trainee, accepting soothing rubs on the head.
A tiny dragon, a particularly smelly skunk, and a spoiled snake immediately chased after the cat, incredibly excited to play get-the-Glace.
”Chlorophyll!” Opal called, snatching the dragon out of the air.
Robin sighed, chasing after the skunk, ”Why did you name it-“
”Shut up, it's a great name.”
It wasn't long before a ticked-off larger gray cat tackled the blue one, hissing as the other animals approached.
Storm stared blankly at the scene, shaking his head, "Five minutes alone and everything goes up in flames." Realizing what he said he quickly added, "NOT LITERALLY, DON'T EVEN THINK IT."
“Jessica!” Robin snapped, “She knows I can’t see her, the little jerk.”
“Okay that’s disgusting,” Nathan commented. “Scarlet’s shedding everywhere.” Hope looked up, staring at the few orange scales lying where Scarlet was chasing Glace, then back down at Scarlet.
Korathius’ eyes lit up, “Oh, that’s natural. Unless she’s a hybrid she will just have the same orange scales, though perhaps a bit paler in coloration and harder. Dragons, specifically fire ones, shed every several months-“
He was immediately shushed by every single person in the room.
“Well they’re white now,” Hope said, gesturing to the newly revealed patch of white scales.
He gasped, “White? So she’s a hybrid… but of what? I’ll have to inspect-“
”Dad, Jessica’s getting away!” Opal called.
“OW!” Robin yelled, having been bit by Snap.
Storm looked at the mess of scales, sighing yet again, "Well she is from the past to begin with, we don't actually know what type of dragon Scarlet is-"
“She’s a hybrid of some sort, once I get Jessica under control I’ll inspect it,” Korathius called, the skunk squirming out of his arms.
Hope hugged Scarlet protectively upon hearing Korathius say the word “inspect” again.
“Oh no, I’d never hurt her. Just see what she looks-“
A spray of skunk smell caught him in the face.
"I don't think she'll let you, I'm sure as heck I wouldn't want some random human poking and investigating me." A now non-cat Gale said with a glare, subconsciously cleaning up the mess with a sweep of telekinesis.
Nathan burst out laughing after seeing Korathius get sprayed in the face. “Good luck with that,” he snickered.
Several pets stampeded through the hall, muddy footprints everywhere.
A Dreamlet, Iris, flew about, ruffling the carpet.
A Mystile, Lavender, left a trail of mud across the ground.
A Forest Neek, Acorn, left piercing squeaks about.
A Sproot, Sprout, left a flurry of leaves behind them.
Storm was about to say something before noticing the notifications at the edge of his visor, "Wattage, do you mind?"
In response, a Zipzap divebombed Nathan, bonking him on the head repetitively in an attempt to discipline the wizard, before herding all the pets back to their respective places, Ice helping the bat.
Staring at her struggling brother, Hope tried to hide a stifled laugh. “How about-OW! You shut up-HEY! Hopeless?”
The former’s smile quickly vanished. “Whatever you say, Rainbowwhisper,” she hissed, stalking off to a corner, feeding Scarlet.
Meanwhile, the tech wizard conjured a holographic UI, opened up the chat window, and revealed a disaster of messages, before glancing back at the others, "You guys want to respond to this or..."
Korathius leaned over, frowning, “What?”
From the doorway, Jade’s voice screeched, “GO BACK TO THE ASYLUM?!”
The other time travelers (sans Aria) walked over to Storm, staring at the chat- now with mild distaste in what was visible of their expressions. The winged adolescent proceeded to silently drag the now vacant buckets of popcorn away from the room for later consumption.
Jade stormed out from behind the inconspicuous column, screaming, “THOSE LITTLE B**CHES-“
“Jade…” Korathius sighed, “Not in front of the kids.”
“Oh! You’re back already? And what’s a b*tch?” Jax asked.
The animal geek shot his wife a glare.
”Eheh… I was here the whole time, reading these STUPID LETTERS-“
She crumpled one up in her fist.
”-and a b*tch is… a female dog.”
The borg ignored the quarreling children (and adults) and swiped his hand across the screen and typed something in, the messages now being filtered to a single series of messages.
_Chat Log_
LI/AF (3:00 pm)> We finished up in Skywatch, we'll be back soon if things are this easy
LS SW (4:39 pm)> Er.... Storm, you may want to see this. (Attached: File:Capture_4.mov)
JL (4:43 pm)> HOW DARE THEY DO
LS SW (4:44 pm)> Jade you're spamming-
JL (4:44 pm)> THIS TO
LI/AF (4:44 pm)> Annnnnd she's not listening
JL (4:45 pm)> I AM LISTENING
Storm shot Jade a distasteful look before opening up the video, displaying Shiverchill.
A crowd of people, all wearing masks, were screaming at a stunned yeti. Distinct words could be heard…
”GET THE FAEN OUT!”
”WIZARDS ONLY!”
“NEW WARDENS NOW!”
Signs had grotesque fairies being chased away, fairy silver touching a burnt wing, pictures of the current Wardens with huge X’s cut over them.
The video ended abruptly as someone yelled and pointed in the recorder's direction, clearly having noticed who was watching the scene.
_Chat Log_
SD (4:59 pm)> I... what did you do?
LS SW (5:00 pm)> Aly wasn't able to get things under control, so we asked the Glacier Tribe to trigger an avalanche to clear the mobs - don't worry, no one was hurt.
LI/AF (5:01 pm)> ASDFGHJKL;' THE CAVERNERS- THOSE *****es-
SD (5:02 pm)> What?
LS SW (5:03)> We'll tell you later, right now we're heading towards the Spire - tell Ignis to come.
The tech wizard exhaled deeply, "What do you guys make of all this?"
_Chat Log_
JL (5:03 PM)> THEY ****ING TOLD ME TO GO BACK TO THE ASYLUM IMA
HL (5:04 PM)> No.
Back in the Academy, Jade was screaming, “THE ASYLUM? Did any of them get TORTURED ON MULTIPLE OCCASIONS?!”
Korathius sighed, “Calm…”
The children stared at Jade and Storm in shock.
"That seems pretty bad," said Kobe.
Storm tiredly rubbed his eyes, "Abner, can you help me get the kids something to eat? It's nearly most of their bedtimes and this isn't exactly..."
"Yeah, I get it." The Astral Trainee soon herded the children into the private common room, leaving Gale, Storm, Jade, Korathius, and the Time Travelers alone.
Gale sighed, "Should I get Hilda?"
"Mhm, Ignis too." The borg responded.
“They think I’m insane!”
Korathius spoke up, “I mean, every single night, you-“
”Don’t bring that up,” Jade snapped, head buried in her hands, “I’m normal, so long as there aren’t any of those things near me.”
Gale glared at Jade but instead left to retrieve the others, returning with both Hilda and Ignis.
“Jade, I get that you’re frustrated, but please, calm down,” Hilda sighed.
She added under her breath, “God, it’s harder to control you when Hunter isn’t here…”
“But how do we fix this? Should I step down? Greenheart was a better leader… maybe I could…” Jade seemed lost in thought now, a touch of wistfulness in her gaze.
Gale bit his lip, "No one is stepping down. Jacob was chosen by the original wardens, meaning no one could question his authority in choosing you - not even us. As for Chase and the others..." He sighed, "People have the right to question them. I choose Luce without consulting any of you, and with how the original trainees left without warning... I suppose I made this mess, at least to some extent."
“Both of you, shut it!” Korathius snapped, the hybrid and fairy startling.
”Stop blaming yourselves for other people’s idiocy, because it’s stupid and annoying and you both are great and…”
He stopped when noticing the look they were giving him, “…sorry.”
Unbeknownst to the group, One of the children was still awake, pressing his ears against the door. He pushed a strand of white hair away from his eyes, listening intently.
Behind him, a loud snore came from both Robin and Andrew, the two out cold.
Opal was writing something down on a piece of paper, a Mandrake scuttling across the room while she absentmindedly fed him flower petals.
Hei sat cross-legged on the ground, clapping occasionally to bring the Mandrake over.
Hope was curled up next to Scarlet, Nathan on the other side of the room.
Rai was petting Ice in a corner. Glace doing something not too far away.
Meanwhile, Storm fiddled with a device anxiously, turning to a certain Fire Wizard, "Igni, the others wanted you to meet them at Bonfire - I'm guessing they need you to handle things there."
"My name isn't- never mind, I'll just go.." He teleported out, the borg then glancing at Gale.
"Look, Gale, this isn't your fault, and if it was, you were underfed, overworked, not to mention sleep deprived - I'd like to see someone make better decisions under those conditions before you start blaming yourself again."
Jade sighed, grumbling, "I hate fire," before pulling out her map and vanishing.
Meanwhile, Aria scrambled through the window, now open, popcorn in her arms as she took flight and landed on the roof.
Back in the common room, there was complete and utter chaos.
“Whatcha doing, Jax?”
The albino yelped and toppled backward, looking up into the sparkling yellow eyes of Andrew, “N-nothing…?”
“Jax, go to bed,” Opal called, folding up her notebook neatly and stuffing it in her rainbow backpack, “You too, Andrew.”
“What’s happening to the grown-ups?” The fairy yelled, “Let’s go!”
Rai glared at him, "Just go to sleep."
Meanwhile, when Gale didn't respond, Storm sighed, "Look, we'll talk about this in the morning. We're all tired and maybe things will be better then."
However, things got no better the following day.
Storm picked at his food, while Gale had fallen asleep at the table, having stayed up out of stress.
At the other side of the table, none of the kids spoke, being indifferent.
The winged time traveler could feel the pressure in the air as she uncomfortably shifted around.
Glace groaned, “I don’t want cereal, I want cake!”
Next to her, Rai was chewing batteries without touching his food.
Robin was stuffing his face, ignoring the looks sent his way by his sister.
Raiden was playing with her food, creating a log cabin out of sausages.
“I’m too punk for breakfast,” Hei muttered, one hand pinching the black stud on his nose.
Opal sighed, yelling, “Glace eat your cereal, Rai you have a whole plate of pancakes, Robin slow down you’re gonna choke, Raiden your food isn’t gonna eat itself, Hei you’re not too punk for breakfast sit down and eat your eggs.”
The adults gaped at her, Gale finally muttering, “She’s a better parent than me,” under his breath.
Meanwhile, Hope snuck sausages to a hungry, orange and white dragon below the table, Jax swirled his spoon in his cereal, taking a few bites periodically, and Nathan ate his pancakes as civilized as an 11-year old could possibly be.
Storm silently confiscated the batteries from Rai, mouthing, "I thought you were over this."
"I was," he whispered in response, shooting Glace a death glare.
Robin held back a laugh by shoving more eggs into his mouth, immediately being told off by Opal.
Sea, who was in the kitchen, peeked into the dining room, "So... Storm, have you heard anything about when the others will be back?"
The borg sighed and put down his fork, taking a break from mercilessly stabbing his pancakes, "They wanted Abner to meet them in Lamplight Town since he's relatively the closest thing to a government leader there."
At hearing the name of her grandfather, Aurora looked up at the Storm Trainee, having been silent the whole time.
Sea frowned, "And Ignis?"
"Mandating things in Bonfire - apparently, he blackmailed Goo-lia into letting him handle things."
Meanwhile, Kobe was passing by Shiverchill Mountains, trying to catch a new pet, when he saw a commotion. "Whoa, what's going on here?"
In Lamplight Town, the wardens had found themselves swarmed by hundreds of angry wizards yelling at them, waving hate signs at them. Aly stiffened, seeing in the crowd, a wooden statue of a fairy on fire. But it wasn't the burning figure that offset her. It was who was waving it about.
A child, no more than 2 or 3.
Immediately, a ball of water drenched the wood, putting out the flames and lightly spraying the people beneath, much to the crowd's displeasure. Hands suddenly thrust out, grabbing for the fairy and Samantha.
Abner stepped in front of the two Wardens, arms outstretched defensively, "STOP! You are all allowed to express your opinions, but this is a step too far."
Instantaneously the crowd began to yell at him, the Trainee overwhelmed.
Standing next to Lucas was Luce, the Shadow Warden biting his lip with worry, tail lashing back and forth.
Unbeknownst to him, the ginger fur was slowly turning black, every minute of stress only speeding it up.
The other wardens shifted, allowing Aly and Samantha to relocate near the center, Lane now in front of the two and behind Abner.
Lucas was the first to take notice of Luce's darkening features. "Luce? Luce, you have to calm down."
"What?" He glanced at the Astral Warden, catching sight of his tail and eyes widening alarmedly.
The new panic allowed the dormant Shadow Magic to fester, the color and magical change occurring more rapidly.
Behind him, a hybrid’s eyes widened with fear, but she held it back.
Instead, one hand gripping her brother’s, she pushed her way through the crowd, ignoring the boos and scalding comments.
There was a moment’s pause before Jade started speaking.
”I am a fairy and a wizard. As are some of you. We - faen and wizard - can live in peace, and my brother and I are living proof of that!”
Suddenly, a familiar-looking wizard with black hair and a prototypical Neon Outfit jumped down from a roof.
"People, you're acting like racists here. Fairies should be treated as equals!" he said.
The crowds exploded.
”Fairy and wizard? Savage!”
“You’re a wizard, join us!”
Jade backed away, wincing at the familiar words.
”Savage… insane… asylum…”
"This isn't cool! You guys can live with yetis and Floatlings and weird plant people, but why can't you live with fairies?!"
“We cannot live with fairies!” A voice called.
A woman stepped out from the crowd, everybody else parting to let her through - clearly, she was respected.
“I am Ariana Lightmaster, and these are the people who see the same vision as I.”
The crowd cheered, shaking signs.
”Fairies are savages… or do you not remember the amount of impact they’ve had on our history over and over? We, the people, demand to be free of this tyranny from you fairies. It looks like the Academy Keeper cannot stop himself from biasing his own kind over us.”
"They're not seriously buying that, are they?" Lane commented.
"Listen up! I never heard any bad things about fairies! You're not gonna go and start **** over nothing, got it?!" said Ansat to Ariana.
“Over nothing? Have you never opened a history book? Have you not counted the casualties in our wars, the assassinations from the Whispers of the Dark… we offer these Faen friendship, we offer them land, yet still they spit in our face.”
"I'll have you know, the Academy Keeper never spat in my face no matter how many times I've made him mad!" said Ansat. "If you and your gang of racists don't leave, I will use force. And believe me, I am not afraid to hit a girl, especially one that's as weak and cowardly as you!!"
“It’s a metaphor, little boy. And weak? Pathetic? See what these Faen advocates are like?” Ariana called, turning to the crowd, “Sexist, racist, brash, and clearly not fit as leaders.”
"First of all, I'm not sexist! I have a wife, and I respect her like she's a goddess! Two, how am I being racist? You're the racists here!"
She inclined her head, looking mildly amused, “Oh? Then what caused the Faen War? We, wizards, are the people of Prodigia… and fairies? They aren’t.”
Jade stepped up, “That doesn’t excuse you from your own issues! You said I belonged in an asylum. That I was a savage simply for existing.”
Distantly in the sky, a teenager's body and wings silhouette the sun. The eclipsing figure descends to a nearby roof, before propelling out into the air again- she has seen everything she needs to.
The mob paused, squinting at the sun, where the figure had come from
"Cool, someone else to help me slap some sense into these ***heads. Speaking of which..."
Ansat fired an Ion Cannon at Ariana.
"Leave. now."
The Ion Cannon was redirected, by someone who stepped out of the shadows of a nearby alley. Dylan. "Ansat, no point in trying to force sense into people who refuse to listen to reason. Attacking them will only make it worse."
"Yeah, I guess. It's just that pieces of **** people like these assholes right here anger me so much!" replied Ansat.
Meanwhile, Aria re-crashed into the academy, superhero landing in the middle of the Great Hall as her wings deflected the incoming stained glass shards.
Jax let out a high-pitched scream that echoed throughout the academy, jumping back from the shattered window that he was standing next to two seconds ago.
The crowd immediately exploded, Astral spells bursting everywhere.
Hunter and Jade tried to calm everyone but to no avail.
Ariana smirked and disappeared into the crowd - her work was done for now.
Back in the academy, Hope and Scarlet dashed around the corner, running towards Jax. "Jax? Are you okay?" Jax numbly nodded, still staring at Aria.
Nathan burst out in laughter from the stairs of the Great Hall. "Dude, you scream like a girl!"
Hope glared at him. "I'm right here."
Nathan rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I noticed. I'm not blind," he shot back. "Anyway who are you and why did you jumpscare Jax?" he said, pointing at Aria.
Opal appeared at the staircase, effortlessly sliding down on the banisters before landing nearly on the ground.
“What happened?”
Andrew appeared at the base of the stairs, having Fey Stepped down, “Yeah, you scream so loud! Didn’t know your voice could go that high.”
Hei trudged down the stairs, “I heard a really high-pitched scream.”
Jax looked like he wanted to disappear. "Oh come on guys, you can't honestly say that a window shattering as someone smashes through it wouldn't scare you," Hope said.
“What happened?” Robin called, tripping his way down the stairs, “I heard a crash, and a very high-pitched scream.”
Jax tried to sink into his hair.
Nathan answered this time. "Someone crashed into the window and scared Jax...wait where'd she go?" He looked walked to the broken window, glass crunching under his feet, and looked outside the window. "Well I don't see here anywhere...wait, there's something going on in Lamplight!"
"Let me see!" Jax said, eager to change the subject.
Suddenly, Kobe walked through the door. "Anyone wanna battle?" he asked.
The Beastcrafters, Andrew, and Hei rushed to the window, looking down.
Bursts of light everywhere, the occasional Shadow or Void spell being snuffed out. Angry yells, waving signs, chanting.
“FAEN OUT! WIZARDS NOW!”
”BOO FAIRIES!”
“FAEN ARE SAVAGES!”
”WE NEED NEW LEADERS!”
"Maybe later," Nathan said to Kobe, still looking out the window, everyone else crowded around him.
"Why are they so angry?" Jax asked.
Kobe looked out the window.
"Wait, is that my dad?!" he said.
"Yeah, and he's probably not there for a good reason. Neither are our parents," Hope said. Jax fidgeted uncomfortably.
Meanwhile, Aria was visibly hovering over the commotion, wings flapping, simply watching in disgust.
Ansat was trying to break up the fight, but his methods consisted of knocking people out in incredibly flashy ways.
Hope noticed her brother fidgeting. "Hey, Jax? You okay?"
Jax trembled a bit before blurting out what he heard last night regarding the wardens, the trainees, new and old, and the mob's opinion on Jade. Nathan raised an eyebrow. "So you're saying that practically the whole island hates our guts, our parents, and clearly Faen, as suggested outside?" Jax nodded. "And our parents are currently surrounded by hundreds of the people who hate them outside, and that crowd has erupted into a violent release of Astral spells outside?" Jax nodded. "Well?" A few seconds passed before realization dawned on the children.
Kobe was staring at a streak of blue, knocking out people. Then, it dawned on him.
"Now I know what Mom means when she said that Dad was impulsive..." said Kobe.
Opal frowned as she watched her mom try to make peace, though Jade was visibly getting more and more aggravated.
Robin, obviously, had no reaction, as he couldn’t see.
Andrew laughed, “Haha! Beat ‘em up!”
“Andrew, what the-“ Hei sighed, “Whatever.”
"What are we going to do?" Jax whispered.
Suddenly, a brown-haired wizard wearing goggles and an orange lab coat flew by the academy, dropped off a box of spell books, and then, to the crowd.
He took one look at the signs, and he started getting mad. "What is wrong with all of you?! Why are you so angry about this to the point that you'll burn effigies and wave around obscene signs?!" he yelled.
Rai, who was sitting up in the rafters, fingered the stone obscured crystal that was now in his lap, lip bit, "Do you think they'll be okay?"
Glace, in response, flexed her hand and inspected the row of sharpened retractable claws, "They can take care of themselves, and if not, dad'll kill whoever hurt them. You know how he is."
Raiden glanced at the Ice Fairy, "That's really not comforting, Glace."
"Do I look I care?"
"Fair point, but if my dad was out there I'll be worried too."
Opal clapped to get their attention, pointing down, “I think Uncle Hunter is going crazy…”
Below them, Hunter was yelling at the crowd, swinging his spear. He looked about five seconds away from blowing and murdering them all. Jade was nowhere to be seen… at least until she tackled a surprised Ariana.
"Yeah, get her a body bag!" yelled Ansat.
Ansat jumped up and nailed Ariana in the face with a well-timed Trick Spin.
Andrew whooped, “Awesome! I wish my dad was there…”
As if on cue, a Storm Fairy flickered into existence in the crowd and began trying to persuade the audience to no avail.
Meanwhile, Lucas was trying to calm a freaked-out Luce, the Dark Fairy's gaze more of green as it changed to purple.
The last thing they needed was to prove the crowd right.
Ben looked angry.
"Okay, number one, stop rioting! Who started all the fighting anyways?!" yelled Ben.
The crowd pointed to Ansat, who had started the whole thing because of him being impulsive.
Ben pinched the bridge of his nose. "Why am I not surprised..?" he muttered.
Jade scowled, “Ansat, what the fuUU-“
She dodged a stray Astral spell.
”-UUUck. Whatever, let’s kick butt.”
"Now you're speaking my language! Let's blast these people away!" Said Ansat.
Ansat grabbed two people by the head and bashed them into each other.
Abner looked at them, "Fighting will only make things-"
A flash of purple, everyone turning to a now black-haired, black-furred Luce. Minus the purple eyes, a spitting image of someone everyone recognized all too well - the Puppet Master.
All hell broke loose.
Hunter gasped, rushing to catch his sister as she stumbled backward.
The scars on her wrists and ankles burned as if newly carved in, whispers repeating in her head.
Foolish, Prodigy…
I’ve got a new experiment ready…
Successful, I see…
No visuals, only sounds, only the harsh bonds, the Shadows absorbing her, taking her apart, destroying her, haunting her, still haunting her, always haunting her…
Silent screams, hidden tears, quiet begs. Not a sound escaped her, her mind was trapped in itself.
Jade didn’t see what was happening, she couldn’t even see at all. Whispers turned louder, pain seared harder, fear roared inside her…
Void writhed in pleasure.
Each of her black wounds was visibly moving now, forcing her back to consciousness.
One word forced its way through her mind, destroying the memories, forcing aside the pain, finding its way in her mind permanently.
Voidwalker.
Aly tensed, the Sword of Ice forming in her grasp, "Luce, go. NOW."
The Shadow Warden stared at her, before vanishing, presumably quite literally melting into the shadows not far from the group.
Hunter swallowed, backing away, “Jade, please, don’t, you can’t…”
The words didn’t reach her.
A smile slowly found its way across her face, the Warden flicking her hand and blasting back the entire crowd.
Before Aly could even react, Jade has disarmed her, sword tight in her grip. She turned to the wisp of shadows that had once been Luce, blasting apart the darkness.
Her smile grew wider.
Suddenly, Ansat kicked the sword out of her hands. "God**** it, you'll make yourself look bad! There are still people here!" he said.
Kaminari appeared next to him, looking serious for once, “She doesn’t know what she’s doing. Nobody does.”
Two blasts of Void knocked both Ansat and Kaminari away, Jade using her newfound abilities for the first time in decades.
"Jade, you're gonna make yourself, and all the fairies look bad!" yelled Ansat.
Another blast of Void, rendering the wizard unconscious.
Void blasted the chaotic crowd apart, Jade searching intently for Luce… she was killing him this time.
Kobe was watching in horror from the window.
Meanwhile, Ben fired a bullet, which expanded into a net, trapping Jade. He picked up Ansat by the arms and flew him back to his lab.
Her sword sliced the net away. Jade’s eyes were narrowed, her smile sending shivers down everyone’s spine.
Back in the Academy, two shocked wizards watched in horror.
Robin was still sitting on the steps, virtually undisturbed.
Opal looked up at her father, hugging his arm, “What happened to mom? She’s…”
”Corrupted. I know, Opal. Just… just leave it to Hunter. He can fix it.”
Dylan barged through the crowd, tackling Jade. "Jade, calm down now."
Kobe suddenly jumped out the window, landed on the ground, and ran over to the scene.
"Nobody hurts my dad and gets away with it!" yelled Kobe. He put on a bandana and threw a disk that summoned a Dragling.
Dylan was promptly sucked into the earth, up to his neck. He almost sank into the ground before Hunter helped him out, reaching for Jade’s hand only to realize she’d disappeared.
Kobe commanded Dragling to use Volcannon on Jade, but it missed.
Dylan laid facing upward towards the sky, breathing heavily. "Well, that went terribly wrong."
"You see? Fairies are savages!" a voice in the crowd called out. the mob cheered in agreement. "And their advocates are no different!" The mob cheered in agreement once more, turning towards the wardens, swarming them, and splitting them off from each other.
Immediately, the entire crowd was knocked away, Void trapping each and every person.
Jade kept going, muttering under her breath, “You can hide, Puppet Master… but I’ll kill you.”
Ben flew back with a now fully healed Ansat.
They took one scope at the situation and had to think of a plan.
Back at the academy, the children watched in horror as each person in lamplight was enveloped in a purple dome. "That's it, I'm going there," Nathan said pulling out his map and tapping on Lamplight Town.
"Nathan, what are you thinking?! She'll just-and you're gone," Hope sighed, pulling out her map. "Scarlet, come on." The dragon bounded over to her.
"I'm coming too!" Jax declared.
"No, you stay here," Hope said, tapping Lamplight Town, teleporting there with Scarlet.
Opal grabbed Robin’s hand, explaining the whole situation to him in a nutshell.
His eyes widened, “Well, let’s go!”
Korathius nodded, shooting a nervous look down at the Void spells before grabbing his children and disappearing.
Ben and Ansat got outta there, not knowing that Kobe was also there.
Kobe recalled Dragling and left.
For a second, Luce reappeared, his eyes wide.
He immediately turned back into shadows as a ball of Void was lobbed where he once stood, the caster snarling in anger.
Scars and wounds glowed brighter now, casting Jade in a blackish-purple light.
Korathius, Opal, Robin, Hei, and Andrew appeared in the square, immediately being assailed by Void tentacles.
A desperate Hunter was trying to calm Jade, but it was quite hard to do as he was trapped under a purple bubble, unable to move.
Meanwhile, at the Academy, an Astral Wizard ran to get Gale and Storm, seeing they were the only sensible adults still in the building, the rest of the children already forming plans to get involved.
Back at Lamplight Town, Aly noticed the two children and dragon peeking out from a building, "Chase, Samantha, don't look now but-"
Hei rushed into the fray, using a mixture of Shadow and Astral magic to trap Jade. However, she blocked each of his attacks and sent the wizard hurtling into a building.
Out of nowhere, an electrical shockwave knocked the mob and Jade into unconsciousness, the purple bubble popping as an angry-looking borg was responsible. Next to him stood the rest of the children, Gale, Sea, and surprisingly enough, Hilda.
Storm's mismatched blue gaze was cold, but his tone was soft, "Is everyone alright?"
Hunter sighed, “I think Jade’s gonna freak when she wakes up, and she’ll try to kill Luce again, and she’s officially a Voidwalker now.”
Luce, who reappeared not far from Hunter, replied distastefully, "That's old news."
“Well, I can’t blame her for this one. Why would you turn into the F**KING PUPPET MASTER?” The hybrid demanded, clearly shaken up as well, “You know our experience with you is, ah… not the best.”
"I DIDN'T TURN INTO THE PUPPET MASTER," he sighed, clearly stressed, "Dark Fairies have a corrupt form that they turn into under pressure, that way we can defend ourselves easily. I was really stressed, okay?"
“And before, you were so stressed that you thought it was a brilliant idea to torture-“ he stopped himself, “Sorry. Still not over it.”
"That was Shadow, not me. How many times do I have to tell you this?"
“Sorry, sorry… anyway, how do we deal with the mobs? I bet the entire island will be at our throats for this fiasco.”
"I think first we have a bit of explaining to do," Storm answered at seeing Aurora run to Lucas, being pulled into a hug.
“Luce turned corrupted, Jade rightfully freaked, we’re in big trouble,” Korathius summarized, clutching both Opal and Robin close.
"I'm not actually- ARGH, why do I even try with you people?" Luce said crossly in response.
Opal spoke up, “Er… there’s still the matter of all these people. We should probably do something about the dozens of unconscious.”
"That's easy," Storm snapped his fingers, dozens of rifts opening and sending the mob who knows where. "They'll wake up at home."
Hunter blinked, “Wow. Okay… my sister.”
"You know the answer to that." He responded, preoccupied with dragging Hope, Jax, and Scarlet by the ear to two particular wardens.
“Well… we should get back to the Academy,” Hunter suggested, picking Jade up, “And deal with what happens once this gets out.”
Aria now could finally see the full scope of the issue, albeit staying out of the conflict to avoid further escalation. Soon enough, she was back on the roof of the academy, sitting on the ledge of the tiles.
"That would be wise," muttered Gale, giving Aly and Luce an unreadable look before sighing.
A holographic UI appeared before a particular tech wizard, the adults and children being teleported to the desolate great hall.
Normally, the fact the students were on break was relieving, but now? Things were too quiet.
Andrew immediately broke the silence, flying in loops around the ceiling, whooping.
Aria sat in silent consideration, her mask fully formed around her face. Indicators and icons pulsed and dashed around the internal display as she glanced at the world below. She considered what to do first...
before a specific leader came to mind.
"Skyrend OS, set target Ariana Lightmaster."
The winged time traveler stood up, took a deep breath, and then jumped off the roof of the Academy, the metal blades that made up the artificial appendages keeping pace with the wind.
She needed to find the source.
Meanwhile, a terrified Luce was backing away from a slowly waking Jade.
Her eyes found his, her hand went to her sword hilt…
Hunter grabbed her arm, “Jade, calm down.”
”He was- he was… him.”
”Calm down…”
”Him,” she repeated. That one word was all she needed to say.
Robin rushed to give his mother a hug, “It’s okay, mom. Luce is normal now.”
Opal followed suit, “That was crazy.”
Korathius watched, finally speaking up, “I love- HUNTER, WHAT THE F**K.”
The hybrid looked away from Korathius, having shot him a death glare.
Aly was giving Rai a hug, glancing at Storm - who was seemed preoccupied once again.
Gale sighed, "So... what now?"
“Now we try to handle the news that is sure to blow up,” Hunter said, watching Jade nervously.
Next to him, Kaminari blinked, “Is this, like… a regular occurrence for you all? Because I’m kinda freaking out right now.”
Elsewhere, Aria continued to soar, her mask guiding her every movement. After a bit, she flipped her wings up, allowing them to slow her descent as she came to perch on an inconspicuous Lamplight Town chimney. Her mask beeped affirmatively, and she silently jumped off the roof into the backyard.
"I mean, we've done crazy things in the past, but nothing like this," Chase said, stroking Scarlet's head. "A real riot this issue is." Everyone stared at him. "Right, bad time for a pun, sorry."
Kaminari nodded, “I hope tempers don’t flare!”
Shortly after, a few wizards teleported into the Great Hall, teleporting away again. Then they came back once again. More wizards popped into the academy, followed by even more until the front half of the hall was entirely blocked off by the mob.
"Kaminari, I think your wish went unanswered," Samantha said, nudging the children behind her, protectively.
"Did somebody say unanswered?!" yelled a voice.
Suddenly, two wizards crashed through a window, one of them holding a stack of money.
"Who should we give the money for the window to?" asked Ben.
"Certainly not them!" a random voice called out in the crowd.
Ariana stepped in front of the crowd, smug smile wide as ever. Despite her tiny wounds from the attack, she looked like a tyrant queen.
A video camera was set up behind her, immediately zooming in on Jade and Luce.
”These are fairies! People who attack and murder and destroy. This one-“ she gestured to Jade like she was a prop, “-knocked out dozens and even killed some in her rampage at Lamplight Town. She went insane!”
Hunter held Jade back from attacking the wizard - violence would only make things worse.
Ariana’s smug smile grew even more as she continued, “And this one was the Puppet Master!”
Shivers ran down everyone’s spine.
”Need I say more? He killed hundreds… as do the rest of his people!”
An unnoticed spark leaped off Lane's fingers, entering the camera.
Unlike the spark, the result was noticed.
The camera screen blacked out, smoke rising out of it.
The crowd gasped.
”Now a Faen advocate is vandalizing our items. This is what they are like!”
Meanwhile, Aria continued to creep through the home of who she could presume was Ariana, discreetly using her Bladewing's tips to lockpick or brute force her way through doors.
"Yo man, what did you do to the camera?" The cameraman received a shove promptly after.
Aria continued her incursion, exploring the home of Ariana. She soon came to realize that most of the walls and ceiling were subject to much racist propaganda, to her distaste.
“He destroyed it. And now we destroy this!”
Ariana immediately cast a Falling Star Smash and turned a column to rubble.
”Attack!”
Light exploded amongst the crowd, and the Academy immediately began to crumble.
"No, wait, stop!" Pillars of light were formed, replacing the broken Academy pillars, ultimately keeping the ceiling from crashing on them.
Immediately, there were more attacks, Ariana smiling and disappearing in the crowd again.
Hunter and Korathius rushed to repair the Academy, panic setting in as rock nearly crushed the children.
Jade, however, rushed after Ariana, sword elongating in her hand.
Aria's scavenge proved no results until she rounded into a side room, which literally no one should have in their bedroom unless they're storing skeletons.
Something much more interesting met her eyes.
An ornate weapon, composed of cold and noble iron, tipped with fairy silver, its entire frame spattered with dried blood. A jar of fairy dust in the corner, accompanied by a container of some rather saline-looking liquid. A dented, rotting box, filled to the brim with the remains of old history textbooks subject to burning. Aria tentatively picked up one of the books, flipping through its pages- what she saw could only be described in her old world as "GENEVA CONVENTION PLEASE."
As she discarded the book to the floor, where it kicked up dust as it landed, her gaze magnetized to the weapon.
Against her better judgment, she picked it up.
It was beautiful, and yet at the same time disgusting. Its engravements and depictions were clear as day, its ornate design obviously assisting in piercing flesh and wing. As she overturned the staff, she noticed two words carved in iron-wrought text near the grip, faded.
"FAEN'S DOOM"
Ariana turned, fearful gaze shot back at Jade, who was closing in on her.
The wizard jumped aside as a sharp emerald blade cut where she has been standing a second ago, cutting a gash in the floor.
Jade punched towards the ground, Ariana immediately drowning in rock.
The crowd swarmed Jade, pulling her away from Ariana. They pinned the thrashing hybrid to the ground, holding her firmly in place. "Kill the savage!" one voice cried out.
Jade thrashed and struggled, knocking aside a dozen wizards, but too many swarmed her.
"How about we kill you!" yelled Ansat.
Ben stopped him. "People, the fairies are equal to us!" he then pointed to Ariana. "And you, you are trying to rally the people against the fairies, and it will not work. You are acting like a queen bee in high school, getting people to blindly follow you, but later on, everyone will realize that your lies are fake, and turn against you!" he said.
Ariana scowled at Ben, “Keep telling yourself that.”
Meanwhile, the Academy kept crumbling, ceiling nearly crushing them were it not for the gang’s magic.
Hunter blasted the crowd apart, reaching for his sister.
Ben continued with his speech. "If you people are so quick to oppose fairies over old myths then you are no better than the people who mistreated pets for decades!"
One crowd member yelled out. "But Pets are useful. Fairies, on the other hand, are not!"
The crowd was completely unfocused… meaning they didn’t notice it when Jade stabbed at Ariana, blood spurting out of her arm. It would’ve hit her chest were it not for her block.
The crowd turned on her, not anticipating the spell Jade was about to cast.
Void Nova.
Ansat and Ben immediately hit the deck, not wanting to get hit again.
The entire Academy exploded, the hundreds of people falling to the ground, thousands of feet below.
The mob of wizards screamed as they fell, Astral magic cushioning the blow.
Korathius grabbed his children, creating a bubble of light around to protect them.
Hunter simply grabbed Jade and flew down, screaming… as opposed to Kaminari, who was flying down with perfect precision and speed.
Ben floated and caught Ansat so he didn't fall to his death. Ansat and Ben looked stunned. "JADE, WHAT THE F**K DID YOU DO?!" they yelled in unison.
She responded with a, “SORRY BUT THEY WERE TRYING TO- ow- KILL ME!”
"Well yeah, but we were about to defend you again!" said Ben.
Kaminari interrupted, “She was kinda insane and I think my mind’s blocked out all this chaos now!”
The sound of the nuclear explosion shook the entirety of Lamplight Town, Aria barely able to stay upright by digging her wings into the walls. The winged time traveler dashed outside, looking up at the mass of purple and black.
Once the initial blast had cleared, she could now watch the grand Academy fall to pieces, the towers and windows collapsing as they slowly sunk to the floor.
Her shock only stopped her for a second before she took off, plan only considering one factor.
A rift.
A really, really big rift.
Chase and Samantha splashed through hovering bubbles of water, slowing their descent as they hit the ground. Scarlet neared the ground, flapping her wings, Nathan and Jax holding onto her front and back talons, Hope on her back. With Hope, Nathan, and Jax were the keystones.
Ansat got really angry.
"DO YOU F**KING BASTARDS SEE WHAT YOU'VE DONE?! YOUR RACISM HAS CAUSED THE PLACE YOUR CHILDREN COME TO LEARN TO EXPLODE!" he roared.
Jade winced at the explosion, landing on the ground. Back on the ground, the mob had already begun yelling at her.
”The savage caused this!”
”Destroy her!”
”We need better leaders!”
”Get rid of the Faen!”
Suddenly, a very angry 12 year old appeared in front of the crowd. He turned to Ansat. "I'll get this one, dad!" he said.
Kobe summoned Dragling and commanded it to burn the whole crowd.
The flames bent around the crowd, the orange keystone in Hope's hands glowing. to the left of the Dragling, Chase had his hands outstretched in two directions.
"What are you doing?" asked Kobe.
Ariana stepped up, messily patched arm still flowing with red.
”Destroy the savage!”
Jade backed away, the crowd surrounding her.
Ben and Ansat landed. "Don't worry, we got your back!" said Ansat.
Aria hovered near the falling pieces of the academy, focusing all of her Storm magic prowess into creating a rift big enough to throw the rubble elsewhere.
Hunter stepped in front of his sister, fists clenched, “So much touch her too hard and I’ll skewer you.”
For once, Jade was grateful for Hunter’s protectiveness.
Because she was in no condition to fight. One phrase ran through her mind, tearing her apart.
My fault.
"Prepare for trouble!" said Ansat.
"You can make that triple!" said Ben, who was wielding a staff.
The fairies had fey stepped upon the Void Nova being cast, Raiden and Storm both falling face-first out of a rift near Chase. Abner, Hilda, Dylan, Lane, Lucas, Sea, and the rest of the kids also tumbled out, a Zipzap and Keeper landing nearby.
Yet one person was missing - Gale.
Obscured by the dark of the nearby woodland was the Ivory Fairy, gray skin tone proving to be to his advantage.
His eyes were closed and arms wrapped around him as he hugged himself, trying to rely on his usual delayed response to things to keep him from snapping.
Yet there was always a step too many.
Multiple steps too many.
Gale-
He burst.
Astral Magic visibly swirled about the fairy, as he flew a few feet off the ground, just out of reach, eyes a light gray - but the streak running through his hair wasn't, it was a shade cyan.
"STOP. IT. NOW."
It only took Aly a few seconds to realize what was going on, "He's using three elements at once-"
Storm blinked, "Can he even handle-"
His question was soon answered as a smug, not even mildly surprised, Ariana, replied to the fairy, "No."
She was instantly blasted back by Astral, Ice, and concentrated Storm Magic - Rai and Glace ducking behind their mother, the Ice Warden muttering under her breath.
"He's completely lost it."
The crowd murmured amongst themselves, pointing at Gale every now and then. "Hey, Gale...YOU'RE NOT EXACTLY HELPING OUR CASE HERE!" Lane yelled.
Opal and Robin ran up to Jade, burying their faces in her lap.
”Mom, what’s-“
”Just back away slowly. Careful.”
Even Kaminari was staying serious now, ushering Andrew out of the square.
However, a stunned Hei had no one to turn to… so all he could do was watch.
Cloud and Raid looked on from a distance before assisting Aria's efforts. The air underneath the Academy's falling pieces began to distort and warp.
Despite the comforting words of her family, there was only one phrase bouncing through Jade’s head while she watched the Academy fall, while she watched Gale’s fury, while the crowd screamed…
My fault.
"Dad, what just happened?" asked Kobe, who looked horrified.
"I-I don't know..." said Ansat.
The fairy ignored Lane, furious, "What is wrong with you? Why in Astral do you hate fey so much that you have to do this? You're attacking people and children who have nothing to do with any of this for what? And then you have the audacity to say no, you won't stop?"
Meanwhile, a tech wizard glanced at a message on his visor, rifts instantly opening to assist the three other time travelers.
"This is the third time I'll agree with Gale. Your bull**** caused the academy to explode, and you still won't see the fault in your actions?!" yelled Ansat.
Ariana sighed, “We meant no serious damage. If you recall correctly, we had only broken a few items. We were simply planning to make a statement. That is, until it destroyed the entire Academy with a dark spell.”
Jade snarled, shaking her children away, “Call me it one more time and I’ll destroy you.”
”You see? More threats, and more violence. This thing cannot be our Warden!”
Korathius spoke up, glaring at Ariana as if imagining a monster mauling her head off, “Jade isn’t a thing. And she didn’t mean to destroy the Academy, you were assaulting her! She’s perfectly worthy of being Warden, and you’re just being racist.”
Ariana shot him a glare, “We did not assault her. I have hundreds of witnesses.”
She gestured at the wizards behind her.
Gale arched an eyebrow, "So fifty-three is now a hundred?"
Ariana seemed unfazed, “There were cameras, and they capture the events in full detail.”
Almost instantly another shockwave was launched, only strong enough to jumble up any non-shock resistant technology in the circumference, Storm glaring as he recalled the electricity.
The Academy Keeper, still annoyingly flying just out of reach, did not drop his skeptic expression, "Check again."
"Lady, shut your god**** mouth!" said Ansat. He was looking down, with a visible shadow over his face.
“You won’t listen? Fine.”
She turned to the crowd, “Get the keystones.”
Jade’s eyes widened, the hybrid struggling to her feet, “No, don’t!”
Ariana turned to her, “You have no right to tell me what to do, hybrid. Get out of the way or we use force.”
Ben flew over to the keystones and stuck his staff into the ground, and created a force field.
Ansat walked over to Ariana, grabbed her by the head, and slammed it into the ground.
The crowd gasped in horror, somebody calling out, “Mommy!”
Next to the boy who called out, a man glared at Ansat, “How dare you. Destroy them!”
The mob kept attacking.
Hunter stepped in front of them, their feet sinking into the earth, “Stop! You don’t understand the power the Keystones have! You can’t take them, or you’ll disrupt the balance entirely.”
Next to him, Jade was leaning on her husband - the spell had taken too much out of her.
Ansat stood still for a second. His eyes were flashing red.
Kaminari flew up next to him, muttering to Hunter, “I’m getting the kids out. Make sure the crowd stops until I can.”
He nodded, “Thanks.”
Hope, Nathan, Jax, and Scarlet huddled together, behind Ben as they stared at the events transpiring outside as the mob got closer and closer.
Ansat looked up, looking like he was possessed by the Satsui no Hado.
Kaminari flew about, grabbing the kids and muttering, “Just get out.”
Eventually, all the children were set on the ground carefully, a good while away from the square.
“Kaminari, what’ll happen to our parents?” Opal asked.
He sighed, “I don’t know… c’mon, I’ll take you guys somewhere. It’s nearly nighttime.”
Ansat charged at the mob, preparing to brutally injure people.
As the crowd neared, Storm glanced nervously at Chase, having figured out what needed to be done and saying one thing, "I'll meet you at Skywatch."
Not long later, a rift opened near Kaminari, a tech wizard, dragon, and the rest of the children tumbling out.
Storm, being at the bottom of the pile, sighed, "Do you mind getting off me?"
"Sorry, Storm," Hope apologized, getting off, Scarlet hopping off right after. Jax got off next, followed by Nathan rolling off the pile.
The crowd neared the Keystones, preparing to break the forcefield.
Ariana was picking up the little boy, talking to the man in a low voice.
Jade was being smothered by Korathius and Hunter, all of them out of the range of the crowd’s spells.
"Wait, where'd the keystones go?" Jax asked, staring at his empty hands.
Hei gasped, “Oh god, they stole them, didn’t they?”
Rai, Glace, and Aurora got off, Raiden following suit, "Sorry dad."
The tech wizard got up, wincing, "It's fine, let's just get to the flat before those bitc- I mean, that crowd figures out where we went off too. As for the keystones, they know better not to destroy them."
Cut to Ben, who is covered in blood, having been beaten down.
The crowd had successfully breached the forcefield and had now grabbed the Keystones.
Jade stumbled and fell to the ground, blurred vision just making out the Keystones, held aloft by Ariana.
"YOU F**KING B**CH! GET OVER HERE!!" yelled Ansat. He charged at Ariana, and Extreme Sped into her back.
Meanwhile, the streak in Gale's hair turned red, a small fireball hovering just above his hand, but almost instantly the Fire Keystone began shining intensely to the point it produced actual heat, Ariana being forced to drop the elemental gems.
Immediately, the painful sensation faded, Jade, charging at Ariana, “What?”
Ansat was already holding down Ariana. "KILL HER! I DON'T CARE IF YOU KILL ME TOO!" he yelled.
At Skywatch, the group made their way to the factory, Storm using his key and the group dashing up the stairs before anything woke up.
He unlocked another door, one that was hidden from sight, opening up to a wide platform.
A messy garden was to the left, a small house being nearby, and unmistakably to the right was a Storm Titan.
Kaminari gripped his spear, only for Storm to stop him, "Don't. He's friendly."
Back at Lamplight, the Earth Warden sighed, “Ansat, calm down, I won’t kill her. I’ll just…”
A tentacle of Void knocked the wizard unconscious.
"WHICH DUMBF**K IDIOT DID THAT?!" yelled Ansat. "I SWEAR TO GOD IF THAT WAS KONG..."
An uproar sounded throughout the crowd, as they turned on Jade and Ansat once more, others charging at the wardens, and one iron stick being thrown at Gale, albeit, it missed by far.
Ice protruded from the ground, blocking them off, only for them to break it down and continue surging the wardens.
"Damn it." The Ice Warden took a step back, unsure what else to do.
Gale exhaled deeply, staring at iron poker on the ground before a wave of Astral knocked the mob to the ground.
No one was harmed... yet.
Ben finally got back up and threw a machine at the crowd. Instantly, it encased them in a bubble.
"Sorry, Ansat, but I took a page from Felix and Olivia's book," he said.
The bubble instead started rolling with the surging crowd, cracking from multiple spells and finally breaking.
Jade snarled, letting even more Void encase the mob, ignoring the screams of horror.
It was taking all she had to keep the Void under control, because of how it wanted to transform, to destroy, to kill-
Her eyes flew open as she scrambled to regain control.
Meanwhile, at the back of the gathered Wardens, two pets, a Keeper and Zipzap, took one glance at the chaos before flying off, not long after perching on the roof of the factory, on a spot that overlooked the titan and group.
A Dreamlet, Mystile, Neek, and Sproot quickly followed suit, nuzzling Opal and Robin all over.
Scarlet scratched herself, more scales falling off, more white scales underneath.
Ben threw another machine that summoned an Electric cage around the crowd.
Kaminari scowled, turning to Storm, “Are you crazy? You do realize Hunter and I kill Titans as a job, right? It’s a Titan. Like, a Titan Titan. A Titan!”
Andrew sighed, “You got the point across.”
The Trainee smiled mischievously, "Griff, come here!"
The Storm Titan immediately looked up at hearing his voice, bounding over - notably careful not to step on anything or anyone - and nuzzling Storm, which of course caused him to topple over.
"Griff, meet Kaminari. Kaminari, meet Griff."
Back in Lamplight, Jade was holding back a scream as more Void encased the crowd - she couldn’t stop it.
Part of her didn’t want to.
Samantha stared at the expanding dome of void. "So...is this a good thing or a bad thing?"
"Both," Abner and Lucas responded in unison, glancing at each other.
Ben looked down. "Why does all this have to happen because of myths?" he said.
The fairy blinked, “Oh, wow… that’s shocking!”
Jade winced, “I can’t- can’t control it.”
She looked visibly aggravated at the idea of being unable to control something, her eyes narrowed and jaw clenched.
The Void kept closing in.
"At least the crowd isn't on our behinds right now," said Ansat.
Meanwhile, the rift had finally finished up, the rubble being transported to god-knows-where.
Luce looked at the rapidly shrinking dome, "Let me try something."
He thrust out a hand, shadow magic tainting the dome until he had moderate control over it, expanding it in size and causing it to clear enough for the wardens to see an angry-looking mob.
Slowly, controlled, Astral Magic seeped into the dome changing its typing, until the whole thing was overwhelmed by Astral and fully resistant to any Falling Star Smash the crowd might throw its way.
The Earth Warden watched with a mixed expression… half relief, half regret.
"Take that!" said Ansat. "Told ya to prepare for trouble!"
Hunter sighed, clutching his sister’s shoulder as he whispered, “You can’t kill them. They’re just civilians.”
She shook his hand off, “Just civilians who caused all this and tried to kill me. Can’t I do the same-“
“You’re better than them.”
“I don’t care if I’m worse.”
The Wardens failed to notice the other half of the mob, the ones that stood right behind them, one of their staffs raised...
...the blow landed, Luce sprawling on the ground with a groan. His concentration was lost, the dome fading and the group being surged again, the Wardens being taken down one by one.
Some genius had the idea of using their staff to yank the remaining fairies out of flight, the wardens' maps being snatched or ripped to keep them from teleporting out.
They were swarmed, and there was officially no way out.
Ansat and Ben had to try to restrain the mob, but it wasn't long before they were knocked down due to being overwhelmed.
Both Hunter and Jade were pinned to the ground, the latter thrashing and kicking, Void spells being cast recklessly.
Then she felt the burn on her arm, the pain nearly making her black out.
Iron.
Somewhere in the distance, Ariana was laughing, laughing at the scorch marks on Jade’s arm.
Hunter snarled, throwing the wizard who was pinning him down to the ground, pulling the iron poker away despite the burns on his hands.
”You call us the savages? You just tortured my sister!”
”And I’d do it again,” the person hissed from behind their mask, “You fairies killed my family. My friends. Now I can do the same to you!”
Iron burned both of the hybrids again.
The screams didn’t even escape their mouths before they slipped into unconsciousness.
"That's it! My son will get you, and when he does, he'll be the one reuniting you with your folks!" yelled Ansat.
The second someone approached Aly with iron she knee kicked them in the gut, quickly twisting into a sidekick and forcing the pained wizard to the ground. She glanced at her gloved left hand and snatched the next rod of iron pointed at her with it, for once thankful that she was wearing the glove.
Meanwhile, Gale had stepped towards the limp form of Luce, a rushed barrier of Astral Magic protecting the two - which some of the mob was already trying to manipulate.
Ariana rolled her cobalt blue eyes, “Y’know, ‘Ice Warden’, you’ll be overpowered soon enough. Give in, and I won’t torture you as I did them,” she said, gesturing at the burnt and limp forms of Hunter and Jade.
Her eyes narrowed, Heart of Ice being fingered in her right hand, "What is that supposed to mean?"
“I mean surrender.”
Two blasts of Astral Magic caught the fairy in the back.
"No! Stop this!" yelled Ben.
Ariana laughed, “And you think that’ll help? You think that’ll bring Daniel back?”
”Who’s Daniel?”
”Nobody,” she snapped, closing up just as quickly as she’d opened.
"LEAVE. HER. ALONE."
The next bursts of Astral Magic were redirected, blasting their own casters in the face.
Gale glared at Ariana, "Haven't you hurt enough people already? For the sake of what?"
”Because you’ve hurt enough people! You can’t hurt anyone else ever again. Once you’re dead, that is.”
Aly's gaze was unreadable, "Who said fairies are the only ones who hurt people? There are humans who actually kidnap and declaw Fire Fairies and Ice Fairies without them having even done anything. There are humans who actually enslave fairies, where do you think fairy dust comes from? And those potions you people actually drink? Ever given thought to what's in it? And then there's this, which you're doing right now. None of us hurt you until we were provoked, even going as far as redirecting harm whenever someone acted out of rage - you, however, kept bombarding us without reason."
“That doesn’t excuse your people from what you’ve done. You are ours to control, not the other way around,” she snapped back, “Get rid of the hybrids, and take the Ice Fairy.”
The limp bodies that were Jade and Hunter were picked up as if they were pieces of furniture and tossed away, rolling across the square as blood trailed behind them.
"You asked for it." Claws raked down the wizard's face, blood welling instantly - the Ice Warden, after so long wearing it, had finally ungloved her hand.
The mob exploded, dozens of people grabbing at Aly.
Ben got up, and drove his staff into the ground near Aly, generating a forcefield around her. For now, she was protected.
Immediately, everybody turned on Ben, the wizard overwhelmed.
Back outside, both Jade and Hunter were stirring, yet unable to move or speak.
Another iron stick poked them both, the sick hiss of flesh resounding through the air.
Jade groaned weakly, while Hunter was still immobile.
There was a blue flash, and the iron sticks were nowhere to be seen.
More rays of light blasted Ben, rendering the wizard unconscious.
Aly's tail lashed, smacking whoever got too close back.
Ariana stepped back, dazed momentarily, before looking smug, "Get the Ivory."
The small barrier protecting Gale and Luce was manipulated to the point it faded.
"GALE!"
It wasn't long until the wizard took advantage of the opportunity, the Ice Fairy feeling a scalding pain and crumpling to the ground as the world went black.
Back at Skywatch, Kaminari was avoiding being licked by Griff, Storm keeping track of the time as the children played nearby.
His expression was twisted with worry as it darkened, the children being sent to bed.
It was morning, and still, none of the Wardens had shown up.
Opal bit her lip nervously, “I think something’s wrong with mom.”
”She’s probably just busy,” Korathius said, but it sounded more like he was trying to convince himself.
”I hope she’s okay…” Robin murmured.
Meanwhile, Kaminari was tossing Andrew in the air, manipulating the wind so he stayed up longer.
In the back, an alone Hei was turning his staff in his fingers, purple eyes focused on the ground.
Scarlet lay on the ground, head resting on her front talons. Hope rubbed the dragon's Koi-colored head. "Dad and mom will be back, Scarlet...I hope."
Kobe was crying, before wiping his tears and getting up. "Right, I'm gonna avenge my dad! He didn't deserve this!" he said.
"Kobe, we don't know if they're dead. They could still be okay," Hope said, attempting to calm the saddened wizard.
Aurora tugged on Storm's lab coat, speaking for the first time in a while, "Is my daddy going to be okay?" Her voice was scarcely a whisper as if she doubted it herself.
"Of course he will," the borg responded gently.
Yet fate seemed to be against him.
On the other side of the Island, the Wardens and advocates had begun to stir, waking in the dark.
They had been separated into the cells, the fairies and hybrids being tossed into one with iron bars, Chase, Dylan, Ansat, and Lane being tossed into one that was fire resistant - presumably to keep them from melting the bars with Storm or Fire Magic, while Lucas, Abner, and Samantha was tossed into one with a questionably complex lock - designed to make it difficult to pick.
Aly sat up groggily, "Where are we?"
"The cells under the coliseum, where they keep anyone who has a bounty over their head," Abner answered, turning over one of Samantha's hairpins in his hand. Clearly, they had attempted to pick the lock, only to fail.
However, they hadn’t counted for one thing.
Jade curled her fist, iron bending and creaking until she and her brother slipped out of the cell.
But before the siblings could even move, a crowd of wizards grabbed them both, Ariana’s laugh being heard in the chaos.
The wand slipped under Jade’s chin, pressed against her neck.
“Make one more move, and I’ll kill you,” a voice hisses in her ear.
Jade could feel every single heartbeat against her neck.
“I don’t care,” she whispered hoarsely, muscles tensing and twitching in anger, “I don’t care if you kill me.”
“Really?”
The wand was removed from her neck, the holder instead putting Hunter in a chokehold and pressing the wand to his neck, “Maybe you’ll care now.”
Jade’s eyes widened, “Don’t… please.”
“Back down or I’ll kill him.”
Hunter’s eyes found his sister’s, amber pupils wide in panic. He mouthed carefully, “Don’t.”
“You know my answer,” she mouthed back. Then she spoke up, carefully enunciating each word, “Let him go, and you can do whatever you want with me.”
“That’s good.”
The wizard shoved Hunter away, him stumbling into Jade’s arms.
“Gotta get the scent of hybrid off…”
Hunter had to hold Jade back, the hybrids instead being forced to raise their hands in surrender.
Ariana emerged from the crowd, a sick smile plastered across her face, “There we go. Now we’re getting along perfectly.”
The Warden snarled, trying with all her might to calm the Void thrashing in her.
The wizard calmly walked around the two, frowning as she inspected them like animals, “Why so stiff? Lighten up!”
Jade curled her fists, which only made Ariana smile wider.
She turned back to the crowd, “Go ahead, you heard her words… ‘you can do whatever you want with me.’ So… go ahead.”
The crowd charged at Jade, the hybrid raising her hands to protect herself…
But the first kick caught her in the gut, knocking her to the ground.
Hunter pushed aside a wizard, screaming, “Stop! Please…”
However, there were far too many, and he could do nothing while she watched the crowd hurt his sister.
Jade was curled up on the ground, trying to protect herself from the brutal attacks. Blood pooled around her, strange blackish instead of the normal red.
It was hard to tell who was in worse pain, Jade or Hunter.
“Please! Stop!” The hybrid cried, reaching for his sister, only to be pushed away, “Please…”
Jade felt a blunt snap in her ribs, making her cry out.
She swung her hand, Void tentacle grabbing and snatching randomly.
Ariana tutted, “Remember, no spells or your brother goes bye-bye.”
Another one struck her in the face, nose bleeding and a trickle of red leaking out of her mouth.
The hits kept coming and coming and coming…
Jade blacked out.
Later, Jade awoke to see an annoyed group of fairies.
"What?"
Luce, Gale, and Aly all held up their arms in unison, three matching bands of iron keeping them from using magic.
Aly sighed, "Seriously Jade? Before we had a chance of escaping, but now?"
Ansat was in his cell, feeling powerless. "I can't do anything about it..." he said. Ansat's eyes flashed red as he pounded on the cell, but he gave up after 5 minutes.
The hybrid only responded with a groan, several of her bones still cracked and broken. It felt like there was a fire in her ribs, piercing and harsh.
Hunter scowled, “Don’t attack her… she’ll be going insane soon enough.”
”I won’t,” Jade muttered, yet her eyes were wide with fear.
"We won't. It's not we can anyways," Luce grumbled while sitting in a corner of their cell, tail flicking annoyedly.
Ansat decided to start screaming to get the guards to open his cell. "OH GOD, THERE'S A KILLER IN MY CELL! HE'S GOING TO KILL ME!!" he yelled.
They, obviously, ignored him, knowing exactly who was in his cell and not caring if he died either way.
"HEY, I KNOW YOU'RE IGNORING ME! LEMME OUT BEFORE I WHISTLE FOR MY ARACUTE!"
The iron band on Jade’s wrist, pain burning, was far too similar to another bond, one that gave her the scars that’d never fade.
The darkness, the iron clamp, the cell bars… it was all too similar, much too similar…
She closed her eyes tight, taking deep breaths to calm herself.
Think light… think love… think-
The laughs, the mocks, the threats…
The burning bonds, the shadows closing in, the darkness…
The anger, the pain, the fear, the endless fear…
”Jade. Jade. Jade, listen to me,” her brother’s voice muttered, “You’ll be fine. I swear.”
”You broke a swear before,” she mumbled.
”You’ll be fine,” Hunter repeated, “I swear on my life.”
The words that should have been calming sent shivers down her spine.
More ignoring from the guards.
Back at Skywatch, Storm beckoned for Korathius and Kaminari to near, concern brimming in his gaze. "They've should've been here by now, something must've happened."
Korathius nodded in agreement, clearly extremely worried, “I’m going to look for Jade and the others… last time this happened, she was… y’know…”
Next to him, Kaminari frowned, “I hope nothing gets inflammatory!”
The wizard shot him a glare, “Not the time.”
”Sorry. I do hope everyone’s okay, though. We should look for them… but someone needs to take care of the kids.”
Meanwhile, Aria, still recovering from the rift, only now noticed the absence of the Wardens, her head still pulsing with her heartbeat.
"Man... they really... faded into... nothing..."
If she'd exerted any more force into that pun, she'd have been on the floor knocked out.
In Lamplight Town, after moments of the Wardens helplessly sitting around in their cells, voices, barks, cheeps, squeaks, and growls became audible.
"What the-" The owner of the voice didn't get to finish as a legion of buddies charged past the guards, led by a timberwolf being ridden by a regal-looking Pyro Peck.
Luce looked at the scene, blinking in disbelief, "I don't know whether to laugh or be relieved-"
“Be relieved, and cover your nose,” Hunter said, wincing at the smell that Jessica had begun to spray throughout the room, knocking over some guards.
A sloth chucked potatoes, a snake bit with extra fury, and various other buddies flooded the corridor, all of which belonged to the Landcrafters.
Ansat started revving up but then curled up into a ball. He started buzzing like a buzz saw and spun into the iron bars.
A glow and book worm crawled into locks, picking them. A snowy kangaroo and polar bear launched an assault, penguins, foxes, rabbits, cats, dogs, and ermines joining in. Birds flew like crazy, serving as a distraction, all while the Pyro Peck squawked commands, bats diving down and swarming, spiders dropping on people's faces, salamanders setting alight and melting the complicated lock.
All while Ariana showed up with a crowd of people, face twisted into absolute shock.
Jade sighed, “How in the name of the Ancient did the buddies get here?”
Potatoes smacked her in the face, the Warden blinking in surprise, “Grumpy, what-“
The sloth shot her a scowl as if to say, “You owe me.”
Aly tensed, "Jade, don't look now but-"
"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?"
“Oh my god… if she hurts the buddies, then she’s a real monster.”
A falcon and owl screeched and dove for Ariana's face, talons extent - only to be swat back by an elegantly made staff with a clawed end.
"That answers your question," Abner muttered while Lucas stared at the wizard in absolute horror.
Moments later, they were moved into new, more secure cells, buddies caged or tanked. Aly was cradling the two birds Ariana had hurt, the owl being recognizable as Slip and the other being Holly.
Chase drummed his fingers on the wall, "Well that was anticlim-"
"Chase, don't."
Jade sighed, watching a panda flash rainbow as it trudged through her cell.
”…that was the weirdest thing that ever happened to me.”
Suddenly, something poked against her neck, sharp and painful.
Ariana leaned towards her, clutching a staff that was pressed against Jade’s neck.
Speaking briskly and harshly, she snapped, “You and the other Faen and Faen advocates will be executed at exactly 3 o’clock tomorrow. Try to escape, and we’ll catch you.”
The hybrid glared into her eyes, “I won’t be escaping. I’ll be killing you and all your minions.”
”Bold words.”
The staff poked harder, tiny dots of red appearing on Jade’s neck. Her ribs burned, her nose and neck bled, her heartbeat quickly in fear, and she was utterly hopeless.
”It’s a shame they won’t come true.”
Back at Skywatch, Hope was examining the orange feathers that had recently sprouted on Scarlet's wings.
Ansat could hear what was happening, and for the first time ever, he was scared.
Suddenly, there was a huge hole in the wall and a wizard on the other side of it.
"Ben, how'd you get here?" asked Ansat
"Remember that Portable Hole I invented?" replied Ben.
Somewhere in Shiverchill, an Ice Fairy read a letter notifying of the events that'll occur the following day. He proceeded to tear it in half, to the shock of the two other fairy's, saying, "She made her choice. Call the others."
In Bonfire, Ignis glared a Goo-lia, who was looking up at him nervously, "WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?"
"T-t-tomorrow-"
"Never mind that, I'm not going through this again. Get the Drake Tribe here, now."
In Shipwreck, a half-merling nervously explained the situation to two groups of hostile-looking fairies.
In Firefly Forest, a tribe of normally peaceful Earth Fairies barricaded off wizards from entering, already preparing for the inevitable.
Past dense mind illusions, shadow spells, and thick forest, utter chaos broke loose. Fighting broke out amongst the three tribes housed there as they argued over a plan.
Ansat and Ben were dashing away from their cells.
As Chase, Dylan, and Lane stared blankly at where the hole once was, Luce spoke, "Did they seriously just abandon us-"
"Yeah."
Jade sighed, now free of the assault of Ariana’s iron staff, “Wow.”
Immediately, Ben and Ansat were dragged back into the cell by two guards, who slammed the door behind them, locking it.
"So how'd that work out for you two?" Lane asked sarcastically.
"Those idiots! They forgot to take my portable hole!" said Ben.
The two guards from earlier stared at Ben and Ansat as they hopped out of the other end of the hole.
A few seconds later, the duo was tossed back into the cell, the first guard crushing the machine under his foot.
Hunter spoke up, “Ahem. ‘Her majesty dip**** Ariana just said we’re to be executed tomorrow at three. What’re your plans for escape?”
”I’m not escaping,” Jade hissed, “I’m killing her.”
Aly and Gale both looked surprisingly calm, saying in unison, "We won't die."
Luce stared at them, "Are you insane?"
The Ice Fairy shrugged, "Have you met my family?"
"And do you remember the Whispers of the Dark?" Gale added soon after.
The Shadow Warden raised a finger, then lowered it. "Fair points."
Ben tried burning the bars, but unfortunately for him, the bars were fireproof.
Abner sighed, leaning against the bars. "Ben, there's no point."
"NOTHING can survive the will to stay alive! Besides, even though Ansat and I can just dodge getting executed, you guys can't get away that fast!" said Ben.
Jade sighed, “You won’t have to worry about getting away when she’s dead.”
"I'm all for killing that dog, but we should try to get out first," said Ansat.
“Well, she’s planning to let us out so she can kill us… so we just kill her,” the hybrid responded, remotely unfazed.
Elsewhere, the collective time travelers engage in a charged discussion about where and how the Wardens are.
"Hmm, I guess you've got a point. Be sure to save some for me, though."
“No,” she said bluntly, “I’m- ow -killing her.”
"But I wanna kill her too!" said Ansat.
"Tch, you guys won't even get anywhere CLOSE to killing her," one of the guards snorted.
"Oh buzz off! Like you could do any better!" yelled Ben.
Lucas sighed, "Ben, this isn't getting anyone anywhere."
Elsewhere, Rai was petting Scarlet as Nathan, Jax, and Hope were trying to make sense of the feathers.
As that happened, Storm conversed with the other adults, visor keeping him updated if Raid or the other travelers found anything.
"I really don't think we should be going out - what if whatever happened to them happens to us? We're all on their wanted list- wait, they sent something."
He frowned instantly, lip bit.
"What is it?"
"Something about an execution, there's a lot of messages."
Glace was eavesdropping on their conversation, pointed ears pricked and tail beginning to lash.
Raiden looked up at the fairy, "Something wrong?"
"I'll tell you later," she responded without even looking at the borg.
Meanwhile, Aurora joined Rai and the others, looking at Scarlet curiously, "Doesn't this remind you guys of anything?"
Simultaneously, Kaminari and Korathius gasped, the latter choking as he had gasped so hard.
“Execution?” The fairy screamed, immediately hushed by Korathius.
”The kids…”
”Sorry. But an execution? We have to help them, now.”
Scarlet scratched some more, revealing more white scales while small golden-yellow bumps began to form on her forehead.
Rai turned to look in Kaminari's direction, frowning. Glace met his gaze, visible worry in her expression - uncommon for the Ice Fairy.
Raiden, in turn, walked up to the adults, who immediately stopped talking.
Storm fiddled with his lab coat nervously, "Something wrong?"
"No, uh, I was wondering if we could all go in the factory for a while. I mean, only you have the key and Scarlet needs a place to..." She pointed at the dragon, who conveniently scratched off more scales.
"I see. Alright, you can go, if that's alright with Korathius and Kaminari." They both nodded in response, clearly eager to have some privacy.
The borg forced a smile, "Right, thanks, dad."
She ran back to the others, them soon going into the factory.
Rai fingered the crystal hanging from his belt, "So... what is it?"
"We need to talk - all of us."
Glace bit her lip, fighting back tears. "I heard the adults say something about our parents being executed... and being on a wanted list."
Hope hugged Scarlet tighter. "I'm sorry, what?" Jax had started bawling.
Nathan pulled out his Dual Blade and his map. "They're not being executed. Not if I kill the executioners first."
Opal gasped, covering her mouth with her hand, “Oh, God… we have to help them. But how?”
Robin stared at her, at least in her general direction, “We just barge in and knock some sense into those knuckleheads! I’ve been waiting to have some proper targets!”
”My dad’s right here,” Andrew said, shrugging, “Though I like Robin’s plan.”
In the back of the group, leaning on the doorframe, Hei spoke up, nervous, “Mines as well?”
”No, not you,” Glace said dismissively.
The wizard stared at the ground, going back to his usual reclusive state. Nobody paid him any mind… typical.
Aurora put a hand on Nathan's arm. She was crying but didn't let that stop her, "Nathan, wait. If they managed to capture our parents, imagine what they'll do to you."
"Aurora's right. We need a plan," Glace said while clutching the hilt of her sheathed katana.
Rai, meanwhile, had fallen completely silent, all while Raiden shifted uncomfortably.
Hope finally released Scarlet, who took a big gulp of air, shaking more scales off.
Raid pulled up the group chat while Aria and Cloud scoured any previous or following rift locations.
"You find anything, C?"
"No, not yet..."
"Guys, I need at least something like a lead."
"Calm down, dude. Just give us a second."
"Any spikes in rift creation for this timeline's future?"
"Not near Lamplight. It's somewhere else, how incredibly shocking."
"please don't tell me it's in the fish again"
"Shut up! I got something!"
"Huh?"
"Under the southwest coast of Harmony Island. I'm picking up a lot of doomed timeline resets."
"Any pathways?"
"Underneath Lamplight. There's a tunnel network or a train station or something. It's the only way in, and I've got the feeling that if we warp in we're screwed."
"Where from?"
"Underneath 817 Harbinger Lane."
"What?"
"I think it's Ariana's home, been there before."
"Okay! Raid, tell Sto-"
"Already have, small one."
Raid's frantic messaging accompanied by vague details and the address now flooded the chat.
"MY DAD ISN'T DYING TODAY!" yelled Kobe. He whistled, and his dad's cloud mount came to him.
Kobe landed at the bottom of the Bean O Vator and hopped off the cloud mount.
He started walking towards Lamplight Town.
“There goes Kobe. We have to follow him so we can kick butt!” Robin cheered.
Andrew sighed, bouncing back and forth on his feet while flickering in and out of invisibility like a strobe light.
”I can always just fly you down, but how to beat the guards?”
Opal shrugged, “Glace, Raiden, any ideas?”
Raiden looked thoughtful at seeing the scales, "Hey, people make clothing out of shed scales right?"
"Yes, but what does that have to do with-"
The borg glanced back at a certain Astral Fairy, "Hey Rai, can I borrow your vision?"
"Hm? Oh... okay." He unclipped the crystal on his belt and held it out, which instantly turned gray the minute Raiden took it.
"Great, now to find out if it reacts to any of you guys."
Rai's tail curled, showing his unspoken confusion.
Meanwhile, Storm received a message on the visor, scrolling through it before saying, "Raid's found them."
"Great, now let's-"
"No, I'll go. You two stay here with the kids."
Robin’s eyes widened, at least that’s what it looked like behind the sunglasses.
“They’re coming! Quick, let’s get out of here!”
”I can fly you,” the Storm Fairy suggested.
Opal looked skeptical, “You can’t fly all of us, besides you only Glace and Rai can fly.”
“That rhymed!” The blind wizard added unhelpfully.
”Hmm… I could call Iris, and fly us down,” Opal said, lost in thought, I’m pretty sure all of us could take them down, so long as we have a backup plan.”
”Me,” Hei called.
Everybody whirled around to face him, “What?”
”Take me. I’m great with Shadow, Astral, and Crystal Magic… plus I’m great at hiding in the darkness.”
”Fine. But we still need to get down. Raiden?”
"Got it," Raiden briefly touched her hair clip, a hologram appearing and soon a rift opening, all of the kids (and Scarlet) tumbling out just outside of Lamplight Town, obscured by the trees.
Kobe summoned a Cloud Neek.
The time travelers' discussion was cut short upon hearing the footsteps of the guards, turning to quick whispers.
"They'll find you out instantly, get out of here!" Aria urgently muttered.
Raid and Cloud attempted to voice their displeasure but were ultimately left speechless as Aria began to create a rift under their feet.
"I'll be fine, leave it to me. If I'm not home by 4 tomorrow, then I lied, but we'll be in touch."
No amount of sudden movement could give either of the other cyan wizards present enough time to react as they fell into the threads of the time-space continuum. Aria turned, her mask now forming around her face, the visor-like OS already set on target. A separate rift allowed her to equip the augmented Red Armor she'd forgotten earlier, the Energy Staff deconstructed into a sun-like emblem on her back.
The call of thunder and the sudden gray of a rainstorm gave her just enough cover to take off streaking into the sky.
From within the bushes, Raiden whispered under her breath, "pass it around and tell me if it turns teal or red," then shoved the gray crystal into Opal's grasp.
Kobe was feeding his Cloud Neek some snacks. The Cloud Neek was squeeing happily, almost blowing everyone's cover.
Robin promptly picked the Neek up and stuffed it in Opal’s backpack, where the squeaks were immediately muffled.
Kobe blinked in surprise, “What the-“
”That thing is endless.”
"Opal, did the **** thing change color or not?" Raiden hissed under her breath, clearly growing impatient.
Suddenly, the vision glowed bright blue, nearly blowing their cover.
Opal’s eyes widened, “Wh-what does that mean?”
Kobe tapped his disk, and Cloud Neek was teleported out of the bag, and next to him. "This is going to take forever, let's go." He whispered.
“I agree with Kobe,” Robin said, “Just hurry up, I think mom’s in trouble.”
"It's hydro, in other words, water elemented." Rai answered, having gotten over whatever was bothering him. "You're lucky it reacted immediately, it still hasn't done anything for Raiden or Glace, and it took my dad-"
Raiden stared at them, "Do you mind handing it to the next person?"
Opal handed it to Robin, it instantly turning gray, then being handed to Andrew, a slight flicker of purple then nothing. It was then given to Hope, it remaining gray before she held it out to Nathan.
Nathan took it, being greeted with a fiery red glow.
Kobe sighed. He snuck away when no one was looking with Cloud Neek following behind him.
Opal frowned, “Water? I thought I was Astral and Earth elemented. Does this mean I have three?”
Rai shook his head in response to Opal, "No, my dad got anemo but there's no such thing as a pure wind element so..."
Meanwhile, Raiden let out a sigh of relief before another rift opened, dropping a robe made of dragon scales in Nathan's lap. "Great, you got pyro, in other words, fire. Put that on so you don't burn yourself. I'll try to see if I can access my dad's- or he's right there."
Not far away, a rift opened, Storm tumbling out and cursing under his breath, soon dashing down an alley.
The borg counted down from three before saying, "Come on, we need to follow him," and dashing out from behind the bushes, careful to run in areas where it'll be hard for anyone to see them.
Kobe and Cloud Neek were walking down the street, getting into battles with guards, and winning.
Opal sighed, “Well what do I do with this?”
Without waiting for a response, she jumped to her feet, following Storm with agility.
Robin nearly tripped three times within the first ten seconds.
Andrew had it easy, being invisible and all… he just had to follow Storm, flying while invisible.
Hei followed them as well, barely noticeable in the darkness except for his purple eyes… shadows had blanketed him almost entirely.
Rai and Glace darted after the group, Aurora shrugging before running after them too, Jax, Nathan, and Hope following suit.
The group slowed down as Storm forced his way into a deserted house footsteps resounding before silencing entirely, no movement visible from the outside.
The group cautiously snuck in, seeing... nothing. There was no one there.
Kobe had made his way to the house that the rest of the group was at. "God*** it, I wanted to ditch these guys!" he said.
"Kobe, we can hear you, y'know," Nathan called back.
Cloud Neek facepalmed. Kobe simply shrugged and walked inside the house.
Raiden frowned, ignoring Kobe and Nathan, "That's odd..."
She walked to the center of the room a crouched near the floor, holding a hand near the floorboard.
"What are you even doing?" Glace asked skeptically.
The borg didn't answer, instead shoving the rug on the floor farther out, revealing a trapdoor. She opened it and looked up at the group, "Alright, Nathan, Hope, go in with Scarlet and light things up. Andrew and I will be behind you and help stun anyone that gets too close. If that fails, Glace can freeze them while everyone else tangles or blasts them."
Meanwhile, a tech wizard was following the rushed instructions displayed on his visor. He ran into a couple of guards but shocked them instantly, a few random corridors of cells being empty. "Where are you guys..."
Not far from the tech wizard, a brown-haired wizard sat in a chair within a room, hands bound and a smug-looking Ariana pacing about.
"Where is it?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Stop playing games and tell me where it is!"
Ansat showed Cloud Neek a photo of Ariana. "Cloud Neek, that's the lady I want you to zap!" he whispered. Cloud Neek nodded in agreement.
Ariana scoffed, “Fine. Play like that.”
The slap knocked Hilda out of her seat, her crying out as she hit the ground. All she could see was blackness, all she could feel was the stinging on her cheek.
”That was just a taste of what I can do. You don’t want to end up like your children, do you?”
Those words were worse than torture.
Hilda struggled to her feet, face anguished, “What did you do to them? Where are they?”
”I’ll tell you if you give it to me.”
"I..." She looked at the ground, "I don't have it..."
Ariana snarled, “Then either get it or tell me where it is.”
Meanwhile, the rain poured hard from above. Lightning streaked the sky increasingly often, the thunderclaps following suit. Aria continued to shoot through the air, locating where the rift she was going to use was.
"I don't know..." Hilda's purple gaze was devastated - not only did she fail the people she cared for, but she had also failed to do her job.
Ariana rolled her eyes. “Fine. Blow one last kiss to your children…”
She spun on her heel and left.
Just down the hall from the room stood Storm. He had run in and out of every row of cells on the way there, finding nothing except the occasional criminal pet. There were only a few corridors left, and the clock was ticking. It was already nighttime and only a matter of hours left.
Running towards him from the opposing direction were the children, on a similar search for the captives. Fire blazed down the hall as Nathan, Hope, and Scarlet lit the way and any corridors they found, guards being shocked, choked, or frozen into unconsciousness.
Kobe took a while, due to walking into the line of sight of every guard there was.
Back in the cells, everybody was being dragged out and forced roughly to their feet, then chained and sent off to the execution.
Ariana sighed, “Well, get on with it-“
Suddenly, she was slammed against the cell bars, hand wrapped around her neck.
“Let us out, or she gets it!” Jade hissed, squeezing just a little harder.
One guard snorted, “You’re bluffing.”
“Watch me.”
She squeezed tighter, Ariana now completely unable to breathe.
“You wouldn’t,” another guard said, but there was a note of hesitance in their voice.
Jade smiled in the darkness, cruel and ruthless, “I absolutely would… and will.”
Ariana's face turned red, all blood having rushed there. Her head lolled… she was nearly unconscious.
Hunter sat down next to her, concern flickering in his gaze. He mouthed, “Are you really going to kill her?”
Jade didn’t need to respond. She was going to kill her in cold blood.
Suddenly, a rush of memories filled her head.
“Would you really kill her?”
“Absolutely.”
“Nowhere left to hide…”
“It’ll be fun killing you.”
Ariana dropped to the ground, along with the hybrid.
“Jade!” Hunter yelled, shocked at the sudden change.
Memories, more memories… no, not memories anymore.
Fever dreams.
Nightmares.
Ghosts that’d never stop haunting her.
The bonds, burning their way through her.
The shadows, taking her apart piece by piece.
The sick laughs that resounded through the room, despite her own sobs.
The anger.
The sorrow.
The helplessness.
The fear.
The pain.
The pain.
This wasn’t a memory now. This was reality.
Iron scalded Jade, a clamp having been forced around her neck.
Silent screams ran through her head, tears fell like a waterfall inside her. Yet nothing came out.
Jade was dimly aware of Hunter’s scream of rage, her head hitting the ground, the jeers of everyone around her. Yet those were all distant, all pointless, in the face of the torturous thing clamped around her neck.
Her breath was short, her heartbeat frantic, her eyes shut tight in an attempt to block out the world.
Yet it didn’t work.
It never did.
Farther down the hall, the children's feet pounded against the ground, more corridors lit.
Ansat was beyond upset. "This ain't cool! All over fairies? That's some garbage right there! I can't wait to escape. I'll send that oppressive ***** to hell!" he muttered.
Above, Aria landed, feet meeting the hard stone. Guided by the future, she opened a rift within the stone, falling through and beneath, stopping herself before she fell all the way. Two steel wings stabbed into the cold metal roof, holding the time traveler aloft as she focused all her core strength into stopping herself from hanging obviously.
Footsteps echoed down the hall, the metal screeching attracting the rather unofficial-looking guards posted at the doorway across the hall. Aria jetted from her perch, both hands running the heads of the two unlucky people into the floor, knocking them out.
The entrance was free.
The time traveler returned to the ceiling, advancing into the dark below.
“Get up, savage!” A guard groaned, dragging Jade to her feet.
The hybrid only responded with a gasp of pain, her bones still had not healed. The iron clamp blocked out all of her physical and mental ability… she was barely able to think, let alone move.
”Don’t!” Hunter cried, panicked eyes filled with tears.
Unbeknownst to him, his expression perfectly matched his mother’s.
The sound of the echoing cries lured Aria in the guise of Skyrend ever closer, only descending to the floor to hoist a mob member or two into the wonderful realm of unconsciousness.
The pounding of the feet increased in frequency, stopping abruptly.
"Storm?"
Suddenly, an Aracute walked behind the guard. He set the guard on fire before walking away.
Ansat knew that it was his Aracute, but decided to say nothing about it.
The tech wizard spun to face the voice, eyes widening in surprise at seeing the children, "What are you doing-" He scarcely got to finish before voices filled the hall - foreign swears, angry yells, and screaming audible.
They all ran down the hall.
Kobe and Cloud Neek ran past everyone else.
Nathan rolled his eyes. "Show-off." The group dashed down halls and took several turns, even passing an Aracute along the way.
“Please, don’t hurt her, take me instead, just let her go!” Hunter screeched, voice guttural.
His eyes were glued to his sister’s half-open ones, each filled with too much emotion to decipher.
”Please…” the hybrid murmured, not even caring as iron shackles bound his wrists and ankles, “Jade! JADE!”
Hunter had descended into the realm he’d protected his sister from for so long, the realm that he’d feared for years.
Insanity.
A scream and the guard hurting Jade was knocked into the wall, a crack being heard as their head hit the ground.
”COME ON! COME ON!” He screamed, ready to kill another person.
And he did.
At least a dozen "innocents" were now lying on the ground, chests unmoving.
Aria could hear the others running on behind her as she continued to clear the path of larger threats. The steel punctures in the ceiling continued to produce as she forged onwards.
Kobe, being an idiot, thought he heard someone scream, and ran in that direction.
Robin gasped, “Is that-“
Opal finished the sentence for him, both of them terrified, “-Uncle Hunter?”
”Oh, come on, Hunter… what did I say about murder?”
Only another crack answered him.
Aly's ears perked, being followed by wincing as cuffs were clamped on, hissing under her breath just loud enough for the other wardens to hear, "Someone's in the halls. A lot of someone's."
Not far from her, Gale's tail twitched suspiciously, something being behind his back.
A backup plan, I assume?
For once you got that right.
Luce was panicked, tail fur turning black again regardless of the iron bar. He calmed slightly at hearing that Aly was right, only to panic again.
Kobe ran to his dad. "Dad! Uncle Ben!"
Ansat only frowned. "Kobe, get outta here! It's too dangerous! We're literally about to be executed!" he said.
"That's the reason I came here!" said Kobe.
While Ansat and Kobe were talking, multiple guards tried to kill Kobe, but Cloud Neek zapped them all into a coma.
Rai wasn't as quick to rush in, turning to Nathan, "Do you mind?" Once his vision was returned it glowed an orange, an odd square symbol glowing from within.
Opal screamed as she watched her uncle kill so many, her mouth frozen open in horror. Robin couldn’t gather what was going on, so all he could do was hug Opal close.
Hunter’s arms slowly lowered, but he raised them again, determined to kill anyone who so much touched his sister.
“Jade wouldn’t want this. I don’t want this. Nobody wants this, not even you. Hunter…”
The hybrid turned…
Then collapsed. The killing and rage had left him exhausted, and the iron was burning him hard - he and his sister would have similar scars soon.
Andrew’s eyes were wide, but all he could do was sink to the ground, head buried in his knees. Under his breath, he kept muttering, “Oh my god… oh my god… oh my god…”
Hei was completely unsure what to do, so all he did was watch.
Behind them all, Jade was crumpled on the ground, iron burning her neck, wrists, and ankles… the pain unbearable. One scream of complete and unearthly pain, unlike any dark element, escaped her before she was rendered unconscious.
Korathius gasped, helping Jade to her feet. Emotions could come later, all he had to do right now was tend to everybody.
The Warden groaned weakly, yet the pain she felt was less of a groan and more of an eternal, horrible, fierce, scream of utter and complete pain.
Aria threw her caution to the wind as she flew past the semi-emotional scenes in pursuit of the one who caused this.
"Everything is ***!" said Kobe. "Who gives a **** about everyone else? Battle! Battlebattlebattlebattlebattlebattle! BATTLE!" said Kobe, all panicky. He walked past his dad and tried to look for Ariana.
Aria caught sight of Lightmaster, her wings immediately scraping against Jade's cell door. With enough force or assistance, the Bladewings could tear the whole thing off.
Kobe and Cloud Neek walked behind Aria.
Opal and Robin immediately rushed away, too scared to look at the battered and half-dead body that was Jade.
"Cloud Neek, when we get to that blonde dictator, you have to use Electropunch and hit her in the gut. She'll die instantly!" said Kobe. Cloud Neek nodded in agreement.
Storm phased into reality behind her, Ariana spinning to face him.
Hunter was lying beside the limp, tortured form of Jade next to him, dark tainted blood pooling about the chained hybrid.
An unspeakable craze filled the titan hunter's gaze, even more than before, leading to even Gale taking a step back.
He rushed forward, taking advantage of the wizard's distraction with the borg to ram her into the wall by the neck, Storm scarcely phasing out of the way in time.
Ariana was struggling as the hybrid pushed her up against the wall, the wizard gripping a staff and pushing up against both her and Hunter.
Instantly, both were stabbed and the hybrid was forced to drop her, blood soaking his clothing near his chest while blood gushed from Ariana's stomach.
She was on the floor, breathing heavily, before uttering one sentence, "Kill him."
”NO!” Lucas screamed, but he couldn’t do anything.
No one could.
Instantly all the guards turned their spears toward Hunter, him managing to fend some of them off, but still being jabbed in various locations.
After a matter of heart-wrenching minutes, so much blood splashed on the ground that all Storm could do was extend his arms and hope none of the children caught the gist of it, no one being able to help the hybrid without being shoved back or beaten by the non-involved guards.
Eventually, one caught Hunter by the back of the head, him crying out as he fell to the ground next to Jade.
Jade, out of her barely existing consciousness, stared into Hunter's pained gaze, before a wicked grin beamed on Ariana's face...
...and her pointed staff plunged down, Hunter's gaze becoming lifeless.
The promise flashed through Jade's mind. “I swear on my life.”
He didn't break this promise.
Ariana paid no regard to the crimson mess, walking out the door to where the wardens will be executed, "Grab the children too."
The children had no immediate response, horrified at what they saw, some even throwing up. They snapped back into reality as the guard reaching for them received flames licking at his arm, a bitter gift from Scarlet.
Robin was tugging furiously at his sister’s arm, begging, “What’s going on? What happened?”
She couldn’t respond… she was in too much shock.
Opal was being comforted by Andrew, both of them crying and gasping in shock.
Hei stepped out from the shadows, “I-I really don’t mean to be insensitive, but they’re still trying to kill us.”
If the mask was capable, Aria would have looked shocked.
It wasn't 5 seconds before the iron door was torn off the walls and the Bladewings were at Ariana's throat.
"You."
Behind her, Jade struggled to her feet, ignoring the dead body that was once her brother.
”She’s mine.”
The hybrid leaned over, casually stabbed a guard and let him fall to the ground, grabbed the key on his belt, and freed her hands.
”God, that was annoying.”
"Usually when people share a b*tch, it's kinkier than this..." Aria pummeled Ariana into the floor with the blunt connective joint on her Bladewings, before picking her up and throwing her collar-first to the floor in front of Jade.
The chains bent and changed into a sword-like weapon, so sharp just skimming it cut her hand.
The hybrid grinned, despite the body of her brother lying behind her.
”Nice.”
Her makeshift sword stabbed at the limp wizard, Jade ignoring the burns on in her hands.
First came the puncture of the flesh, blood spurting out of her stomach and chest.
Next came the intestines, tumbling in a disgusting waterfall out of her body.
Finally, the nearly-dead Ariana sank into the ground.
”I wonder what’ll kill her first, the bleeding out, the wounds, or the suffocation,” Jade murmured, still wearing the exact same poker face.
"I F**KING HATE THIS SHOW!" yelled Kobe.
Jade, in her vengeance, neglected to notice the guards shoving the rest of the wardens and advocates out the door, some trying to catch the children while others pointed their weapons at the hybrid.
They would not back down that easily.
Stone pelted and blocked the guards while they neared the children, Rai's vision glowing brightly, while Raiden taunted the other guards, them being shocked into unconsciousness the instant they managed to grab her. Nearby Storm had powered his saber, ambushing anyone that got too near to the children.
Just outside the door, squinting because of the sudden light, were the Wardens, Abner, Dylan, Ben, and Ansat.
"Who wants to go first?" A guard said smugly, sword in hand.
"How about you?" A British-accented voice snapped back, just as a knife hit the guard in the chest.
The Ivory Fairy lifted his hands above his head and brought them down as he pulled them apart from each other, the chains snapping instantly from the tension.
Somewhere, not far, an Ice Fairy ran through the forest, a crystal golem following not too far behind. Sea and Ignis were also rushing to get to Lamplight Town, a plan being carried out.
Jade sighed, twisting her metal clamps off, completely ignoring the pain.
One snap of her fingers, and a few dozen people sunk into the ground, left to suffocate.
Her expression didn’t change at all.
Opal whimpered, running away to be comforted by Hei and Andrew.
Next to her, Robin began to cry too, frustrated as he was unable to recognize what was happening.
”It’s okay, Opal… you’ll be fine..” Andrew murmured.
Hei just patted her in the back, letting her sob into his shoulder.
Finally, the Shadow Wizard got to his feet, eyes narrowed.
Tendrils and balls of Shadow whizzed around the room, knocking away everyone who got close to them.
"Alright, alright, Ben, so you have any fancy contraptions that'll help us this time?" asked Ansat.
" No... " said Ben.
Meanwhile, Kobe was commanding Cloud Neek to shock a multitude of guards. "That PTSD-ridden lady ruined my chances for a battle, so now, I'll battle these guys! BATTLEBATTLEBATTLEBATTLEBATTLEBATTLE!" he said.
Meanwhile, the minute the guards rushed him, Gale kicked one of their spears out of their grasp, catching it with his left hand and blocking their assault. He gritted his teeth and felt the iron shaft burn his hands, but ignored it, launching his own assault.
"I am not going through this again."
He blocked every single attack with either his tail, the stolen staff, or simply grabbing their spear with his opposing hand and launching it blindly back in their direction.
Within seconds, it was a bloodbath. Within minutes, homicide.
Finally, the last guard crumpled to the ground, not a look of remorse in his gaze.
He was panting slightly, glancing at the others who were staring at him in shock.
Regardless, he walked over to them, breaking off their shackles as well regardless of his burnt, blood-coated hands.
It was at that moment the Ice Fairy arrived, stepping back at seeing the bloodshed, wondering if it was too late.
He ran over anyways.
Jade stepped back, now smiling just slightly. It faded instantly as her eyes met her brother’s, the latter’s dead and glazed over.
She turned to her children, opening her mouth to say something…
And grabbed a spear, sending it with astonishing speed towards her neck.
Kobe tried to pry the spear away. If my dad did this, then I can too!
It wasn’t Kobe who was successful in stopping Jade from committing suicide, however… it was Opal and Robin.
Both of the kids didn’t even look at her, they were huddled up, sobbing in horror, against the wall.
The hybrid sighed, removing the spear from her neck and sitting down wordlessly next to her children.
What words were there to say?
Thumping resounded throughout the hall as more guards showed up, wielding iron spears and thick rubber gloves.
"I'll get this one!" declared Ansat. He ran at the guards, and kicked them, punched them, blasted them away, drew on their faces, all in the span of 15 seconds.
They all sunk into the ground, left to drown in pure earth.
Jade didn’t even turn her head.
More guards swarmed in.
Fire, vines, electricity, stone pillars, ice, and bubbles of water occurred in the room, a fight for their lives occurring unknown.
As the children, Jade, and Storm fended for themselves, other guards spewed outside like infuriated ants.
The Wardens and company gripped fallen spears, their only defense against an army.
A single fairy ran in front of them, blue and silver clothing branding them as a faen general.
His light blue eyes were cold, sword in hand, "So it really came to this?"
Not a drop of blood touched Jade’s body - she’d found a new style of fighting.
A horde of people swallowed up in the ground.
Another few, strangled by plants.
Yet another group, exploding from the inside with a blast of light.
The iron spears that the guards held turned against them, stabbing their own faces. Jade had mastered metal - and now she could use it for murder.
The Warden turned to Hunter’s body, using telekinesis to drag it far out of the way… yet her expression didn’t change at all.
Yet inside her, something screamed and sobbed and broke down, silenced by her quiet rage. Her brother really was dead.
She’d join him soon.
"Well, ***. I have no idea what's going on, but It'll be good for my adrenaline!" said Ansat.
Not too far away, a single guard was forcing a purple-eyed wizard down the hall to be executed as well.
Bursts of magical light shone ahead, where the children, Jade, and Storm were fighting for their lives.
The guard stopped, "What the-" A koi patterned dragon tackled him, breathing fire and scorching the guard.
It looked up at the wizard, who looked relieved, "Thanks, Scarlet."
She ran over to the fray, the dragon immediately launching herself back into combat, only for horror to meet Hilda's gaze. On the ground was the desecrated body of Hunter, being trampled by guards who were fighting Jade, a craze in the hybrid's gaze. Nearby, a transparent geo shield appeared before Rai, Opal, Aurora, and Robin, defending the four as Nathan, Glace, Raiden, and Storm attacked their assaulters, blades raised.
Kobe stood next to Ansat, and they both fired off a huge Ion Cannon that knocked out all the guards that were charging at them.
“No…” she murmured, eyes glued to the body.
An array of memories flashed through Hilda’s mind as she stared into those amber eyes.
Florian’s eyes.
Hunter’s eyes.
Both of them, dead and gone.
A single tear found its way down her cheek.
Arrows whizzed through the room, Robin’s aim astonishingly good despite his blindness. At least a dozen guards fell… but he took care not to kill them.
Opal flipped in the air, landing on the fray of the battle and picking off soldiers one by one with Astral spells.
The second a spear got close to her, she ducked and dodged, grabbing it and disarming another soldier.
Outside, icy spikes had barred off the wardens, advocates, and the general from the army of guards.
The general's wings were folded formally, not a trace of worry in his gaze, "I'll give this to you simple - surrender now and nothing happens."
"And you'll do what?" A random voice cried out, "There's no one here but you."
Another voice yelled out, "Never! We're not giving in to you tyrants!"
"Are they seriously believing that?" The general muttered under his breath.
Hope spun her Luma Sun Ray Rod, jabbing at any guards who neared her and Jax, forcing them back.
"What a **** ton of idiots!" said Ansat.
Finally, the guards collapsed, plants overtaking their bodies until they were nothing but a net of thorns and vines.
Jade sighed, “Just get rid of them.”
Hilda’s jaw dropped… what had happened to her daughter?
Cloud Neek electrocuted a bunch of guards who were trying to shoot at it, knocking them into comatose.
Glace ruthlessly slashed at any guards near her, occasionally clawing one in the face or freezing them, less and less emotion showing in her gaze.
Raiden looked at the gloves the guards wore in annoyance before attacking with a lightsaber, Storm shooting her a look but doing the same.
Aurora was sobbing, Rai defending her as guards tried to take advantage of the two being seemingly defenseless.
The instant they neared, elemental energy hardened at the end of the Astral Fairy's staff and turned it into a makeshift polearm, him attacking in a style similar to Hope as a geo shield defended the crying Astral Wizard.
Outside, chaos had broken loose as Lucy let out a roar, stomping towards the guards who still refused to surrender, fairies waiting to strike hidden in the nearby bushes and trees - the general had not come unprepared.
Ben was throwing hands with the guards, knocking one guard out every second.
Back outside, the general sighed regretfully before saying one thing, "Caulshkha."
Instantly, hundreds of arrows and spells rained on the guards, Sea and Ignis running over to the wardens and advocates, a single mind illusion keeping them all hidden from sight.
"Wait, what about the kids?" Aly asked alarmedly.
Far in the distance, not too far from Cyro and his army, a wizard - no, the wizard, was bored.
”Hei’s in trouble,” she told her husband, sighing.
Winston nodded, “Yep.”
”He’ll be fine.”
”Yep.”
”We should stop that war.”
“Yep.”
An avalanche was launched, crushing a good amount of Ariana’s forces.
Inside, the children were busy fighting their way out, Hilda having taken a fallen spear and assisting. In a slow and painful process, they burst out the door and into the sunlight... only to see all-out warfare.
"Alright! More battles!" said Kobe, screwing up his priorities.
He and Cloud Neek ran towards the battlefield.
Instantly, Storm phased and grabbed Kobe, dragging him back, "You are not getting involved in this."
Hilda was biting her lip, pale as a ghost, "Please no... not again..."
Jade was the exact opposite of Hilda, looking delighted at seeing the guards being slaughtered.
The children were aghast, their childhood innocence destroyed.
Rai, Jax, Opal, and Aurora were all on the verge of sobs, while Nathan, Hope, Glace, Raiden, and Andrew forced themselves to recover, gripping their weapons in case they were caught on the wrong side.
Robin was generally confused by all the noise, Scarlet acting as a guide dragon at realizing what was going on.
It felt like an eternity before familiar voices yelled out, "Kids! Storm! Hilda! Jade!"
They turned to face the voice, spotting Abner, Samantha, Aly, and another fairy they didn't recognize.
They were all relieved, running over and welcoming the needed hugs.
As they met the others, all of them carried a look of grievance or anguish.
Lucas looked utterly destroyed while some like Aly, only sighed, unspeakable amount of regret carried in their gaze.
As the battle raged on and the sun began to set, they all knew two things: They will never be the same... and this was only the beginning of their problems.
CONTINUANDUM