There is nothing wrong with being evil, is there?
"Ash! Use your burrow to dig under quick! Then zap him with your grand lightning beam! Look out! Shield!"
Ash jumped out of the way of the incoming snowager, holding up his shield just in time to block another blow. Gasping for breath, he quickly finished the faltering snowager by throwing a stone snowball at its direction, and the snowager fell heavily to the ground unconscious.
"You have beaten the snowager!
You have won this fight!" a loud speaker announced.
"Great job Ash!" Rachel ran to her shadowed gelert and patted his hair roughly, making his hair messier. Panting with his tongue hanging out, Ash just grinned at his owner.
"Let's go get a slushie," Rachel suggested.
Both of them walked out of the battledome, feeling elated after winning a fight.
At the slurpee shop, Rachel bought a Bubble Gum Slushie and an Ice Slushie, then both of them grabbed a table and sat down tiredly. Rachel was about to sip her slushie when she started coughing non-stop.
"Rachel? You ok?" Ash asked worriedly.
Rachel mumbled a reply, then she saw someone very familiar and quickly looked at Ash.
"Ash, let's get out of here," she said to her gelert, leaving her unfinished slurpee on the table.
"What? Why so fast?"
Rachel grasped her pet's shoulder and pulled him out of the shop quickly, turning the corner and making sure Ash is right behind her.
She jogged all the way to her neohome without stopping. When she reached her street, there was a sudden explosion of light and purple smoke filled the area.
"Trying to run Rachel?" a familiar voice drawled. Rachel jumped in surprise, then quickly get back her posture.
"Why are you not in your cloud, Jhudora?" Rachel asked angrily.
Jhudora looked Rachel up and down, "You've done a good job hiding yourself in this crowded city…Where's the sick gelert that you are supposed to curse, Rachel?"
Rachel stuttered, "Erm…"
"I knew you couldn't be trusted. To think you would lose your wings just for a puny neopet? How WEAK can you be?"
Rachel grew angry again, "I am NOT weak. You are the one who's weak with no heart...How could you hurt innocent neopets just like that?"
A growling sound came from beside Rachel, "Just let me take her on, Rach."
"NO, don't!" Rachel shouted out.
Jhudora smiled weakly at the both of them, "A neopet…you are right, Rachel, you are not weak. You are pathetic. I'm just glad you know where I lie in strength and power compared to your puny neopet."
Ash suddenly jumped and snapped his jaws, but she was stopped by Rachel, who grabbed his collar roughly, "Ash, DON'T!"
Jhudora ignored the gelert, and looked at Rachel in the eye, "You know you can't escape when you betray a dark faerie Rachel…you better watch out." Jhudora glanced at Ash, brought up her hand, and zapped the shadowed gelert, but Rachel ran in front of Ash, taking the zap instead.
"RACHEL!" Ash screamed.
"Pathetic," Jhudora whispered, then vanished in a cloud of smoke. Ash dropped to catch her collapsing owner. Rachel held Ash tight as a sudden painful aching filled her head, and her vision became dim. Ash looked at his paled owner worriedly, his throat tight from the tears in his eyes.
"Ash…," Rachel started, then gave a series of hysterical coughs.
"Come, let me help," Ash said, but his owner held him away, "No, I can manage." Rachel stood up slowly, then quickly walked inside her neohome, tripping a few times, but finally reaching there and into her room, locking the door behind her. Ash stared at the door, angry at the way her owner was acting, yet confused at the same time.
In her room, Rachel sat on her bed with her head in her hands. She could hardly think with all the pain in her head. She felt weak and was getting weaker each day, but she already knew what was happening to her: she was hit by the incurable curse of an unknown disease, the same disease that she put on one innocent neopet years ago.
Rachel sighed. She knew she could die with this disease, no person in Neopia can heal her, except for Jhudora herself. No way is she going back to that evil creature. She'll just have to…have to…bring Ash to another home, make sure he gets taken care of, and then leave the Neopian world forever. Rachel brought a pillow to her face and wept softly into it.
Ash paced around the house, thinking about what just happened. Why did Rachel just went inside her room like that? She was obviously sick, so she should go to the hospital, or the healing springs, or anywhere to heal herself. Ash knew how much Rachel kept to herself, but Ash felt he could not just sit there and do nothing.
He walked out of the house and headed for Faerieland, with full intention to give that dark faerie a piece of her mind.
There it was, that cloud is where Jhudora resides in.
Ash walked inside the door in Jhudora's cloud, and saw Jhudora sitting on her cloud, legs crossed and lips smiling knowingly, as if she had been waiting for him all along.
"Came to get the cure I see," Jhudora started slowly.
Ash stood there dumb struck. Why would he come for the cure here of all places? What in Neopia is Jhudora talking about? Is she playing with me?
"But you know it won't be that easy, don't you?" Jhudora continued. "Your owner have always been a dark faerie with a strong ability to control magic but her mind is weak, causing her to lose her wings…She knows betraying me was not a very wise thing for her to do…," Jhudora paused. "Your eyes…filled with so much…anger…come here young neopet."
Ash's was confused, his owner was a dark faerie? Jhudorah must have done something to her…angry once again, Ash ran towards Jhudora with the mind to tear her to pieces, but Jhudora stopped him by putting up an invisible shield around herself. "Hold on my young neopet," Jhudora laughed. "You do not know about the cure do you? Well, the cure is with Illusen. Only she has the cure to the so-called incurable disease your owner have…"
Incurable? Ash paused.
"You need to go to Illusen and get her staff, then use it to zap your owner back to health, because her staff has amazing healing powers, much more amazing than the water faerie. And you better hurry if you don't want to watch your owner die…"
"You really think I'll believe all that?" Ash shouted at her, then tried to break down the invisible shield by striking it with his strong paws.
"Yes."
"And why so?" Ash still striking the invisible wall.
"Because you will not risk loosing Rachel."
Ash stopped himself, narrowing his eyes at Jhudora. Jhudorah just smiled at him.
"You will need this," Jhudora said, and suddenly, a purple and green staff appeared in Ash's paw.
"The wand of the dark faerie…Why are you helping me?" Ash asked, half distracted by the wand in his paw.
"Because I want to save a dark faerie, just like you," said Jhudora.
Ash had little idea what that meant, but his mind was on the wand in his hands. He could feel the power of the wand, the power to do anything he wanted. He felt he could take on the world! He gripped the staff tight and wished to go to Meridell, and he soon felt himself being lifted from the ground. He looked down at Jhudora, and returned Jhudora's evil smile. Then with a flash of light he was transported out of there.
Jhudora smiled to herself as she sat on her cloud of chair. The neopet of a dark faerie always turns bad, Jhudora knew that's just the nature of dark faeries. The fake wand might be powerful, but Jhudora ensured it does not have as much power as her own staff. With dark faeries turning into goody-two-shoes, Darigan defeating Kass and Kanrik helping Hannah, evil would need all the help it can get.
Ash set himself down on the lawn behind Illusen's glade. The place was quiet. He turned around to the other side of the glade to peer inside a window. Illusen was not inside. He turned the corner to peer inside another window, but he didn't see Illusen there either. He decided it was safe enough to enter the glade to find Illusen's staff. He turned towards the door when Illusen suddenly appeared in front of him, her green wings fluttering behind her.
"What are you doing?" Illusen asked.
Ash saw Illusen looking at the staff he was holding in his hands. Is she going to take it from him? Rage filled him. "It's mine!" Ash shouted.
Ash formed a magic sphere with the wand and threw the ball of energy at Illusen. Illusen dodged out of the way.
"What!" Illusen shouted.
Ash started to conjure up another ball of energy but Illusen quickly called for her staff, which appeared in front of her and created a shield just in time to block the energy.
"Why are you striking me with energy balls?" Illusen asked heatedly.
Near the back of his mind, Ash vaguely remembered someone's voice saying, "Never strike before you get struck."
But the current shadowed gelert had totally forgotten his owner. He continued firing blasts of energy at Illusen, which Illusen deflected with her staff. Illusen tried to reason with Ash but he just cackled evilly.
Ash conjured up more energy balls, the last one finally managed to hit Illusen who fell to the ground groaning pain.
"Weak," Ash breathed, his energy drained from the attacks. "Why didn't you attack me when you had the chance? Why were you afraid to harm a little gelert? You could have destroyed me but you didn't."
Ash grabbed Illusen's Staff from the ground and left the motionless body there as he transported back to Neopia.
Ash went back to his neohome where he found Rachel in the kitchen, unconscious on the floor.
"Rachel!" Ash shouted and ran to his owner. Rachel's eyes slowly opened at the sound of her neopet's voice.
She slowly got up to a sitting position and said tiredly, "It's alright, I just fainted that's all…I didn't know it'll happen so fast…Ash, where did you get those staff?" Rachel's tired eyes were wide, staring at the two powerful staff in Ash's paws.
Ash's worried face turned angry, "Why didn't you tell me that you were a dark faerie?" Rachel gasped, how did he know?
"I went to Jhudorah…" Ash started, and he told Rachel eagerly about his short trip to Meridell, the fireworks, the power that came from the wand of the dark faerie, and the thrill in defeating the weak Illusen.
"Gosh…it was awesome," Ash continued breathlessly. "This staff Jhudorah gave me has so much strength, the power in it is almost overwhelming…and Illusen was so weak, I don't know why I never tried to defeat her before. I should have joined Jhudorah years ago! Why didn't you savour all this power? You were a dark faerie! It's such a great feeling of power I don't understand why you didn't relish all that!" Rachel's weary face turned from shock to anger to tiredness again.
"Ash…I can't believe you did all that…Illusen's staff won't do anything…Jhudorah tricked you, don't you understand?" Rachel said. Ash just stared at his owner.
Rachel continued, "I suppose I should have told you this a long time ago. I was a dark faerie and we dark faeries just love to put curses onto other neopets. I guess I did enjoy that part of my life…
"When Jhudorah approached me, I became more excited than ever to do her assignment. I was to put this incurable disease onto a harmless innocent neopet and the only cure is with Jhudorah and the neopet would have to help her with an assignment. But the assignments given by her are horrible," Rachel shook her head as she recalled the memory.
"Jhudorah forces them to trick their own friends, harm their own family, hurt others…and Jhudorah enjoyed watching all this happening…while I couldn't stand it, even though I was a dark faerie…I just couldn't put that incurable disease onto my assigned neopet…then remember that time I found you lost in the woods, where your last owner left you?" Rachels eyes filled with tears.
"That was when I decided to give up my wings and just live a normal happy life with you. But that was when I was cursed with the incurable disease…Jhudorah was angry that I couldn't do what she told me to…and this disease…it just makes me feel weaker each day, and soon I know I'll die from it, but I can't go back to Jhudorah, I just can't…oh Ash, Jhudorah is evil, don't listen to her…" Rachel begged of Ash.
Ash turned away from Rachel. He didn't want to hear any of the nonsense from the weak creature in front of him. What is wrong with her? There is nothing wrong with evil! Anyway, Ash enjoyed this feeling of superiority, it's not his fault if others get fooled by deceptions or are too weak to face up to people like him…power is everything, isn't it…
Rachel saw Ash walked away from her, the Ash that she had feed and trained and played with when just a pup…what happened to him? Then Rachel looked at the purple staff in his paws, that staff must be the thing that's confusing him. She got up and jumped to snatch the staff from Ash but he was faster. Ash swiftly turned and zapped Rachel, who fell to the ground unconscious. Then he transported himself out of there.
He landed outside Jhudorah's cloud and immediately made his way inside to find Illusen standing near the cloud door.
Illusen turned to face Ash, "Do you think you can get away that easily? I wasn't even using half my strength when I battled you."
Ash jumped back and quickly conjured up a green ball of energy with Illusen's staff, throwing it at Illusen but Illusen swiftly flew out of the way.
"Oh come on, you're trying to battle me with my own staff?" Illusen smiled.
Ash growled deeply. He promptly switched to Illusen's staff and threw a purple ball of energy at Illusen, who quickly put up a shield around herself.
"Now you're really asking for it…" Illusen murmured and from her mouth came a string of words and the green staff in Ash's paw threw out a wave of energy that burnt Ash and hitting him with such force that he was thrown out of the cloud and fell down from Faerieland half-conscious.
Rachel was up and could sense her neopet's trouble. She ran out of her neohome and into the busy street where she looked up at the clouds to find her Ash plummeting to the ground.
"Ash!" Rachel screamed, and a few faerie neopets who saw him shot up to catch Ash before he touched the ground. Everyone was watching as Rachel cried and Ash was brought to her. Rachel fell to her knees and held Ash tight, sobbing into his fur which was burnt from the battle. Ash opened his eyes and looked at his owner, his mother, his friend.
"I'm sorry," he whispered, then closed his eyes for the last time.
From the cloud, Jhudorah watched into a crystal ball. "He's weak after all," she said.
"Why Jhudorah…why…" Illusen asked from behind her, her staff back in her hands. "You think you can get away with what you're doing? Just wait Jhudorah, just wait…"
Illusen turned and flew out of the cloud. Jhudorah just looked at her retreating back and laughed.