I decided to write this story for NaNoWriMo, but when that failed, I turned my attention towards just posting a Wizard101 Fanfic. I really love playing this game and after playing it for almost four years as of the date that this story was posted, why not combine my two favorite hobbies and pasttimes together in a wonderful story?

This is my attempt at writing a kind of PG rated story, so I can post this story on Wizard101Central as well to get my writing out into different communities. I really had fun writing this and I hope you all have fun reading. :)

~Written for linklover88, a great friend and one of the cutest gals I've ever had the fortune to meet. Amazing writer and aspiring NaNoWriMo participant. She may not play Wizard101, but without me finding her stories, I wouldn't be publishing them here.~

~Keep reading, and keep writing.~

"Gamma, I fear the worst has yet to come to Wizard City."

Merle Ambrose peered down at what was the Wizard City Commons. He was situated high in his tower that overlooked all of Wizard City. The world was small, but it was full of robust and bustling life. Wizards from young to old dashed and scurried hurriedly about, some vendors who were heading off to their shops in the early morning, some still learning the tricks of their trade and heading off to Ravenwood. Yet there were others still who were simply mingling about before they headed off to work, and others who were taking personal days off or traveling to far and distant lands for studies unknown. The peaceful scene that played out below Ambrose's spectacles made him almost believe what he had just said was a false statement. Perhaps it was. Maybe his mind was just playing tricks on him; after all, he was getting to that point where his age was definitely a factor in a lot of things.

Gamma ruffled his feathers a bit, and said nothing. He had heard this said before, first with Malistaire and then with the return of Morganthe. So it didn't come as a surprise that Ambrose would say such a thing. He had no doubt that something big was coming next.

"I fear there is someone who holds even more power than both Malistaire and Morganthe combined. Do you believe such a thing is possible, Gamma?"

The owl took flight from his perch and landed on Ambrose's shoulder, gazing down into the Commons in wonderment. "Hoo, no, but I have been proven wrong before."

Ambrose stroked his long, white beard, brushing out the bits of hair that had tied themselves in complicated knots that were too hard to get out with a simple brushing.

"Did I ever tell you about the person whom I saw in that vision in the ball the other day? It shocked me quite a bit."

"Hoo, I don't believe you did."

"Well, it seemed like it was a very tall person of sorts, I couldn't make out any features whatsoever. But what I did see was the most cursed magic ever produced! I couldn't believe my eyes. Here was someone manipulating a magic that is foreign, even to me! They looked like they were laughing maniacally, and they clasped what looked to be the crystal ball in their hands! I was quite dumbfounded."

Gamma turned troubled eyes to Ambrose. "This sounds quite serious Headmaster."

Ambrose turned away from the window and the intensity of the sun, walking a few feet away. "It really is. The ball is never wrong. That's why I feel so concerned- and confused. This threat doesn't seem plausible…"

"Do you think it could be… her, Headmaster?"

The unnamed "her" lingered in the deepest regions of Ambrose's memories. She had been pushed out of his mind for so long that it took quite a while for Ambrose to finally stumble upon the memory. And when he did, he took a quick glance over to Gamma, who had fluttered off to land on his perch once again. He busied himself scribbling important documents into a journal for documentation.

"Gamma, do you believe that it could be her? She should be dead."

"I don't really know Headmaster. She is supposed to be. I'd expect as much from how severe her punishments were…"

Ambrose sighed deeply, breathing out heavily through his nose and causing the whiskers of his beard to blow about a bit. "Then I'll leave her out of being a possible candidate. It's not reasonable to accuse a person such as her of being able to cause so much havoc and chaos for sheer entertainment… But yet again…"

Ambrose began to look for his ball, shuffling through many stacks of books and layers of papers that littered his desk. "I have her records here somewhere. If I remember correctly, she might have gotten out of prison on good terms, but then destroyed that very same prison with that magic of hers that has yet to even be given a name…"

Ambrose heard a clack. He froze in place, hunched over his desk. Gamma's frenzied scribbling had stopped. A strange presence seemed to linger in the room, but neither Ambrose nor Gamma could truly put a finger on what it really was.

That is, until the said person in discussion appeared.

"And quite right you are, Merle. It seems that crystal ball of yours is more accurate than it seems."

A tall silhouette of a woman stood in the corner of the tower, one hand perched upon her hip, the other concealing something that resembled a sphere. Her features were near impossible to distinguish in the low light.

Ambrose summoned his staff and slowly turned over his right shoulder to face her. He squinted into the darkness, peering at her through his spectacles. "Ah, so you've decided to come straight here rather than plan some sort of attack I see…"

The woman traced her long, delicate fingernails along the sphere. "And what would make you think I would be so foolish as to wait for you to come find me once you peeked through my long forgotten records and realize I killed every last living being in that God forsaken prison?"

Gamma hooted in surprise. But Ambrose wasn't daunted. He knew what this woman was capable of. That had been years and years ago. It amazed him that she hadn't aged nearly as much as he had in that amount of time. They were near the same age, but Ambrose was becoming a frail old man, ready to relinquish his role as Headmaster. The silhouetted woman was anything but old. Her body wasn't worn away and hunched over, none of her limbs showed any sign of weakness like Ambrose's did. His arms shook slightly, even without exerting much exercise. But hers were strong and muscular, blood pumping through her veins. She stood upright with a sense of flare. Her body spoke for her: she was far from weak. And Ambrose would never be the same wizard he was when he was in his younger years. He and Gamma were outmatched.

But Ambrose didn't let it seem this way. While Gamma was trapped in his state of shock from hearing that one wizard could take down an entire prison without the help of others, Ambrose addressed her.

"You shouldn't be here. Leave this place, or suffer the consequences. Your quarrel is not with these innocent people- it is with the past, the fallen, and the broken. And they are no longer here."

He gazed at her for the longest moment, a moment that seemed to drag from seconds to minutes to hours and maybe even longer. The tension in the room continued to grow the longer they remained silent, the ticking of the nearby grandfather clock the only thing in the room keeping any sense of time. It was a showdown of the ages.

The woman slowly moved her hand away from the sphere she had been concealing and Ambrose dropped his jaw. There, right in the protective palm of this villain, was none other than the very crystal ball Ambrose himself used to predict this horrible fate. Gamma hooted in surprise, and the woman cast dagger eyes right at the owl. He quickly clacked his beak shut, and skittered away behind a curtain concealing the window.

She directed her attention back to Ambrose with a flip of her hair. "Now, why should I do that? This teasing you is just too much fun, Merle. Don't you remember? When we were young wizards together, learning all about magic…" She sighed, gazing off into the distance, seeming to lose herself in her memories. "Do you remember how happy we were to discover this strange magic? As impossible as it was to control, it was incredibly fun…"

Ambrose quickly shut his mouth. He shook his head a bit, trying to get his mind to focus once more. How was it possible that she could have gotten ahold of the ball? Nobody else was allowed into this room. Only a select few students and faculty were allowed into this room, for practical reasons. Unless…

"Who have you convinced to work under you? There isn't anybody in Wizard City who would dare hand over the keys to my tower to some stranger without being heavily persuaded."

The woman giggled, a childlike laugh that was far from seeming to fit her. "Oh Merle, you are still just as naïve as you were when we were young. Come now, you really can't think of one person who would turn against you, even on accident?"

Ambrose racked his brain for ideas, but none came. He drew a blank. He stared at the curtain where Gamma was hiding, unable to do anything. Gamma was the headmaster's best man, but in situations like this Gamma was useless. He was only a bird, and as such he didn't know how to properly use magic. It was times like these Ambrose really wished he could take advantage of having two magic wielders in the room.

The woman picked up the ball and slowly turned it around in her hands, gazing into the cool, blue depths. Nothing came up, but the swirling cloud of matter that was encased inside of the glass dome gave off a beautiful luster and shine that sparkled even in bright sunlight. The ball was beautiful, and was an incredible tool. Now the woman had it in her possession, and she could do anything she wanted with it. Ambrose didn't know what, but he knew she wanted the ball for a reason. She continued to scrutinize the ball with much interest, making sure to look at every single inch before speaking again.

"I think it's time you figured out what was really happening behind the scenes of your precious Wizard City."

And with that, the ball transformed itself into a massive swirling of black matter, spinning so fast inside of the ball that Ambrose assumed it was going to break. But it didn't. Instead, he saw the black matter materialize into something else entirely- woman and their children screaming and being attacked, seasoned wizards and PvP Warlords alike being overtaken and overthrown by an unseen army, and the Commons in a look of complete and utter disaster and chaos. Fires were igniting all over the world, the fire elves rebelling against the very wizards who protected them, the Aquilian people destroying the link between the two worlds, the inhabitants of crab alley declaring war on the above and storming Triton Avenue, taking anybody captive who didn't follow their orders. Things in Wizard City were getting insanely out of hand. There were no signs of it stopping either; the scene just continued to play on and on and on…

Ambrose said nothing. His eyes never once lingered while watching the scene within the ball play out. However, his spirits quickly were sinking. Fast. The ball was never wrong. It always told the truth. It told the truth with Malistaire, it told the truth with Morganthe… and it told about the impending doom of this very woman standing before him. So seeing Wizard City spin around into a complete mess of decay caused such shock and disbelief in Ambrose that it seemed almost impossible for him to fathom that the ball really did indeed determine Wizard City's fate.

Seeing the astounded look on Ambrose's face, the woman giggled once again, using her free hand to cover her mouth in a devious way and batted her eyes for a bit of added affect.

"Oh dear me, was this all caused by me? Oh I'm quite so sorry Merle… I never knew my playing with my magic and powers could cause so much harm to your poor… innocent… people…"

She put emphasis on the word innocent, making it drip in a venomous hatred that was masked only by the smile that alighted the woman's face. Ambrose gazed at her with a hardened stare. She was mad, she was. Insane. Crazy. What did she possibly want from him, coming here and wreaking havoc on a world she grew up in and loved so much?

His question would remain unanswered. The woman's demeanor quickly changed from that of a childlike poise and instead into a hardened woman of her years, worthy of not only respect, but of scorn. Gamma hooted a warning just as the woman slowly raised her free arm above her head, a wicked smile alight on her face. She clenched her fingers into a strange and jagged shape, and let loose some of her magic, sending sparks of pure black shooting across the room. The foreign magic caused the lights in the room to completely flicker off, all candles to extinguish. Gusts of wind burst through the room haphazardly and randomly, without anything being a catalyst. Ambrose dived underneath of his desk, right before a massive spark struck the very air where he had been. A strange hissing noise followed the crack of the spark, and a pitch black hole created a strange void space for a few moments. A few things were sucked into the hole and disappeared completely before the hole disappeared.

A black hole. A mini black hole, is what the woman had created. Ambrose gazed in complete astonishment at the air where he had just been standing. No way this woman had just created a black hole!? But it was true; the woman cackled as she let loose more sparks, creating more miniature black holes all over Ambrose's office. The entire incident was beginning to get way out of hand, and slowly he watched as all of his possessions literally became nonexistent. He had to try and stop the madness before it continued.

He gripped his staff and drew a symbol into the air, one that resembled a flame. From the sparks of the tip of his staff unleashed a great beast, the roar of a dragon almost deafening. If using magic against magic was the only way to chase this woman away, then so bet it. He was going to get rid of her, once and for all!

He didn't see where he had casted the spell, but he hoped that the distraction was enough for him to plan another move. It had worked, if only for a moment. The woman stopped sending her rays of black magic and instead focused on working up a shadowy shield that completely cocooned her body, making sure none of the flame that licked at her heels would singe any bit of her clothing or body. The flame unfortunately reached the rest of Ambrose's possessions, but they were of little value now. His first goal was to remove this disaster of a woman from his office.

The great beast that was unleashed let loose a roar and fire spewed from its mouth like a broken water faucet. There was no end to the flames, and it seemed as if the woman's shadowy cocoon had been broken through. But, as the dragon's form dissipated and the magic dispersed, Ambrose realized that the shield was only charred and barely damaged. However, it was apparent that it wouldn't hold another hit. Just as he began to draw yet another symbol into the air, the woman's hand shot up out of the cocoon and a spark struck his staff, causing it to jerk out of Ambrose's hand and fly across the room into the wall. There was no time to get it now; all Ambrose could do was wait for what was coming next.

But, to his surprise, she grabbed the crystal ball and made a run for it, diving through the flames that the dragon had caused and out the door, disappearing in a cloud of shadowy magic. As the flames from the dragon died down some, he stalked through the few charred remains he had and gazed out through the doorway into the grand hall. There was no sign of anybody, let alone the woman. She was gone, for good.

Ambrose wiped the sweat from his brow and leaned against the open doorway, slumping against it in defeat. If this was any testimony to the extent of his powers, it was a pitiful one. Gamma quickly appeared by his feet, looking up at Ambrose with much concern in his eyes. But, he said nothing. He knew Ambrose well enough to not even speak a word. Ambrose would speak in his own time.

He cast sad eyes down to the bird, and slowly reached his hand up to adjust his spectacles as they had gone askew during the short battle. A great sigh escaped between his lips as he did so, and a single tear slid down his cheek. Bittersweet memories flooded through his mind of all the times he had with that woman… great memories of growing up and planning to start a school for other aspiring wizards who wished to harness the elements of nature and use them for the betterment of the people.

But she had thought otherwise. Upon finding this strange magic, she quickly saw the negative sides of harnessing these powers. However, she had embraced them, and tempted Ambrose to take the bite of the apple and join in the fun of using it. But he had swiftly refused, and with his refusal came an offense that was impossible to fix. The two parted ways as they got older, and Ambrose's vision came into fruition. However, the woman's didn't. She quickly got into the bad side of the wizarding world, and made friends with all the wrong types of people. Rumor had it she was even holding meetings to discuss this dark magic and to try and distribute it; however, it was too powerful for any normal wizard to try and harness. Which made her very unique in the fact that she had mastered it so quickly.

She had even held discussions with Malistaire in an attempt to spread her magic. But few accepted it, and the few who did usually ended up failing miserably trying to use the magic, and ended up either harming themselves, or getting themselves killed. Ambrose didn't know why she held such a divine hatred for the people who refused her magical beliefs, but he did know one thing for certain:

She wasn't to be messed with. And she was serious about seeking revenge.

His tears began to flow freely then, and Gamma wrapped his wings around his legs in a gesture of comfort. Ambrose nodded down to the bird, the only thanks he could muster. He closed his eyes and tilted his head back to rest it against the doorway, allowing quiet sobs to escape. Gamma continued to try and comfort Ambrose, but he knew it was futile. The pain that the old headmaster was suffering was a pain that was impossible to heal. Nothing but time and forgetfulness would heal scars that were as deep as the ones left by the woman who had just attempted to destroy the very heart and soul of Merle Ambrose.

What had gone so horribly wrong?

The next chapter will hopefully be up by the end of January, along with my other story Redemption. Check it out if you are a Legend of Zelda fan! Note: It is geared more towards older audiences than this story is, so if you aren't fond of romance, then I advise you don't read it. However, if you enjoy pairings between Link and Dark, then it'll be very much worth your time!

Hope to see you all again very soon...