Author's Note: Hey guys! I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get this back up, but this semester in school is awful when it comes to homework. They give me like 100 pages worth of reading every night and pretty soon the papers are going to start. *Sigh* It's going to be a long four months 'til the summer. Anyway, when we left off, the girls escaped from Fergal, made it back to Tides and were resting in a crystal cave. In this chapter, we have the final battle and then there's going to be one more chapter after that, but it's mostly going to be discussion and information as a transition to lead into the next story. I even just now added a little something extra to the battle sequence that I hadn't ever thought I'd write. Happy reading!

Chapter 10: The Power of the Crystals

Layla gasped as she saw that Nezaro was attacking her realm with everything he had, firing energy blasts at the people on the beach, attacking the mermaids, laying siege on the palace. She wanted to fly out of the cave on her own and give Nezaro a piece of her mind, but she knew that wasn't a good idea. Even if he wasn't on Fergal, where he was strongest, he was still strong enough to take her down with a flick of his hand. She flew back down to the rest of the group, a look of both fear and anger, mostly anger, on her face.

"It's Nezaro again!" she said. "He's attacking the entire realm!"

"Doesn't that guy ever give up?" asked Guinevere.

"He's a villain, what kind of villain gives up without a fight?" asked Brandon.

"Not helping, Brandon," said Stella testily.

"How do we stop him?" asked Nirvana.

"If you girls distract him, we can get the people to safety," said Sky, gesturing at himself and the rest of the heroes.

"That'll just give us something to do, Sky," said Riven. "That doesn't answer the question of actually defeating him." He shut up quickly though when he saw the angry glare Musa was giving him, which told him that comment wasn't helping things any. The rest of the guys had to admit he had a point though. They were always on the ground while the fairies were up in the air fighting all these wizards and warlocks. Swords were of no use against the magic that wizards such as Lord Darkar and the rest of the villains they'd faced possessed. And one thing all the guys hated was that they were helpless against these guys and the girls always had to find a way to defeat them on their own.

"Queen Ligea, you'd better get back to your kingdom," said Layla. "Cyrene, can you get her back there safely."

"Of course," said Cyrene. The two mermaids disappeared beneath the surface of the water after wishing them all good luck. Layla had a feeling that Queen Ligea was going to assemble the elite mermaid guard to try and help them, but she doubted it'd do much good. Nezaro was too powerful to be stopped by a group of mermaids, even they could use some magic against him. It was up to them, just as it always had been and always would be.

"Does he know where we are exactly?" asked Andrew, his gaze drifting worriedly towards Guinevere.

"I don't think so," said Layla. "I think he's just attacking the realm to try and flush us out of hiding. He knows we're here somewhere, he just doesn't want to take the time and energy to come looking for us."

"Do you think we can wait a few minutes to face him?" asked Timmy. "You girls still haven't fully recovered from the trip to Fergal."

"We don't have any time to waste," said Tecna angrily. "You can hear it up there, Timmy. Innocent people are in danger and we're the only ones who have a chance to beat him." A large blast at that point made the cave reverberate with sound; it was lucky some of the crystals didn't come loose from their positions. The place was shaking so badly that most of the girls weren't able to keep their balance and had to grab onto the guys for support. It was hard for them to keep on their feet as well. That was all it took to tell them that Nezaro would be on top of them any second and if he found them there, in their normal forms talking strategy, it'd be even worse than if they just flew up there and faced him head on.

"We don't have a choice," said Musa. "We're going to have fight whether we're at full strength or not."

"You girls can't just go up there without a plan," said Sky.

"We don't have time for a plan," said Layla. "That creep is destroying my realm! If I don't get up there and defend my people, I'll go crazy!"

"But…" Sky began to protest, but Bloom put a finger over his lips to quiet him and began speaking.

"Sky, sometimes the best thing is just to wing it and see what happens and don't try to argue with us, because it won't do any good," she said. "We'll be fine, we promise." Turning to the girls, she said, "Now let's get up there and take him down!"

The boys couldn't get another word in at all. In a second, the girls had all transformed and were flying up to the skylight, gathering their courage and what strength they'd regained, which wasn't much. They were all nervous about how little energy they all had, but they knew it'd just have to do. But all had the feeling in the pit of their stomachs that it wouldn't be enough.

When they reached the exit of the cave, the first thing they saw was Nezaro attacking the homes and people closest to the palace. The guards were trying to stop him and Layla could also see her parents rushing in to help. Her mom, having attended Alfea in her youth, knew several spells that could be used in self-defense, but it wasn't enough to defeat her foe. Nothing she tried worked.

Nezaro laughed in her face and said, "what's the matter, Your Majesty? Don't have the strength to fight me? You're the queen. Aren't you supposed to use the power of this realm to fight me?"

Queen Lyra bit her lip in frustration, hoping Nezaro couldn't sense how scared she was. The problem was that she didn't have the power of the realm anymore. One of the duties of the queen is to see that said power passes on to the heir to the throne when it's time. About a week before Ariel's wedding, she had sensed it was time for the power to pass on to Layla and had hidden it away, also knowing that someone was going to try and steal it. She had put it in a secret place, where she knew it would be safe from any evil and in a place where only Layla would be able to retrieve it.

"Don't have an answer for me?" asked Nezaro in a voice of mock hurt. "Isn't it only polite to answer a gentleman when he asks a question?"

"You're not what I'd call a gentleman, Nezaro," she replied bitterly, before raising her hand to cast a spell on him. He deflected it with a flick of his hand.

"Is that all you've got?" he asked her mockingly. "Shadow Blast!"

Queen Lyra tried to block the attack, but he was too strong for her. She fell back to the ground, the king kneeling down next to her, both unable to do anything to stop him. This was what really set Layla off.

"That is it!" yelled Layla, getting really fired up. "No one attacks my mother!"

She flew towards Nezaro, her hand raised with an energy ball beginning to form in it. She thought that because her enemy had his back turned to her, she might be able to sneak up on him. But unfortunately, the man had ears like a bat and heard her coming while she was still yards away.

"There you are Layla," he said, making her stop out of shock. With his back still turned to her, he continued, "I'm willing to cut you another deal. If you'll come back to Fergal with me, I swear I'll leave your friends and your realm alone. What do you say to that?"

"When I get through with you, not only will you leave my friends and my realm alone, but the last thing you'll want to do is try to force me down the aisle," said Layla.

"Has she always been this stubborn?" he asked himself. Then, turning towards her, he said, "Layla, haven't you had enough of this?"

"I've had enough of you!" she yelled.

"It won't last for long," said Nezaro, in what was supposed to be a pacifying voice, but being a villain, he didn't really know how to be pacifying. "One week in Fergal with me, that's all you'll have before the spell does its work. It's really not that long and besides, once you get used to Fergal, it actually is a cozy, little place to live."

"What part of 'I'm not coming with you' do you not seem to understand?" asked Layla. "I'm not going back to Fergal, I'm not going to marry you and you're not getting my powers! Has any of this managed to penetrate that thick skull of yours?"

"This is what I hate about women," said Nezaro to himself. "They only hear what they want to hear and if they don't hear it, then they manipulate it, so they do hear it. This is why I'm getting rid of her and never finding a real wife for myself."

He turned his attention back to the fact that Layla was about to attack again. She raised her hand and flung at him one of her Aquarius Current attacks. He just flicked his wrist and the ball of energy was sent flying into the water. She tried again, but he did the same thing.

"How am I supposed to defeat him?" she asked.

"Sound Blast!" yelled Musa, appearing at Layla's side. While the attack didn't weaken Nezaro in the way of power, it did hinder him physically. He was forced to cover his ears against the sound of the music, allowing for the other girls to jump in and help their friend.

"What took you guys so long?" asked Layla, who had flown ahead of the group out of the crystal cave.

"We're still recovering from that spell," said Flora, who had her arm around her stomach as though in pain, which she probably was. "You're the only one who didn't fall victim to it while in that cave, so you're the strongest and the fastest of all of us right now."

"If you're through with your little gab fest," said Nezaro, rubbing his ears and wincing a little. But he was interrupted when he saw that Bloom and Stella were raising their hands to attack.

"Dragon Blast!"

"Sun Blast!"

But as he had done before, he flicked his wrist and sent their attacks in the water.

"I thought that was pretty strong," said Stella, looking on in fear.

"But it's like Flora said, we're not at our full strength right now," said Bloom. "We have to find a way to defeat him, even though we're at a disadvantage."

The girls tried their best to fight him, but none of their attacks were strong enough to even make a dent. Flora could barely keep herself in the air, let alone use her power over nature to help them, Guinevere's diamond attacks didn't make it past a couple yards, Tecna didn't have the strength or the time to use technology to help them and even Nirvana's combination attack of Heaven's Charm and Angel's Light, which was a strong combo usually, wasn't enough to help them. And all four of them had the full power of their realms. But all lacked the strength to use it.

Musa was able to tap into a bit more of her power than her friends, but that was only because she had the ultimate power of her home as well. She still, however, couldn't use that power to its full potential. She could deafen her enemy, which gave the girls a few seconds to attack while he was distracted, but he got used to that tactic very quickly. He put a spell around himself to protect his ears from the music and to protect his eyes when Stella used her staff to try and blind him. The two of them used up most of their strength trying to weaken him so that Bloom and Layla could advance, but that wasn't working either.

Bloom had always been the most powerful fairy at Alfea and Layla wasn't far behind her in terms of strength, but since both were still recovering from the trip to Fergal, they tired more easily than they would normally. After a few more minutes of fighting, they both were breathing heavily and trying to stay airborne, but the more time that passed, the more they could feel their powers diminishing.

"We have to find cover and rest a bit," said Bloom, in between ragged breaths.

"We don't have time," said Layla, but she had to admit her friend had a point. "He'll follow us to our hiding spot and attack us there. He's not going to give us a chance to hide."

"Cover for me, you guys," said Nirvana. "I have an idea."

She flew forward a few feet and raised her hands. Nezaro couldn't help but roll his eyes.

"You're still not ready to give up?" he asked them. But he stopped when he saw that Nirvana wasn't attacking. She had crossed her arms over her heart, her hands balled up into fists were resting on her shoulders. Her eyes were closed and the look on her face was calm and serene as though she was meditating. He looked at her confusedly, wondering what she had up her sleeve now. A soft pink light began to form around her, very dull at first. After a minute or two, it started to strengthen in intensity until it was almost blinding. Nezaro, realizing too late what was happening, sent an attack at her, but it dimmed before it got anywhere close.

"What's happening to her?" asked Flora.

"She's doing something, but I'm not sure what," said Stella.

Guinevere's eyes widened as she realized. "What is she thinking?" she asked. "She's creating a blinding light. Those are very difficult and very dangerous, dangerous in that it's taxing on a fairy's strength and she could lose her powers if she builds it up too much. It'll be even more draining for her after what we've been through the last two days. But she has to be doing it to give us time to get out of here."

"What about her though?" asked Musa. "What'll happen to her if we fly for it?"

Guinevere didn't have time to answer for at that moment, Nirvana circled her arms around so that they were now stretching out on either side. She turned her palms around so that they were now facing Nezaro and two balls of pink energy formed in them. A stream of energy then shot out of them, flowing from her palms straight into Nezaro's eyes. There was nothing he could do to protect himself. A blinding light was one of few spells that there was no protection spell for.

"It burns!" he yelled, trying to cover his eyes but when he brought his hands up to shield them, the light burned his hands as well.

Nirvana then closed her palms and the energy stopped flowing from them, but there were still a few more seconds in which the stream of energy would continue to flow into Nezaro's eyes. That was their chance. The girls flew with all the strength they had left back to the cave. They flew down through the sun shaft, rejoining the boys who had spent the last few minutes wondering what the heck had been going on. The girls all flew back down to the cave floor and into their boyfriend's waiting arms. Nirvana managed to make it inside the cave before she lost what was left of her stamina. She was halfway to the ground, then her powers gave out on her. She powered down and fell the rest of the way, losing consciousness as well. Carlos caught her in his arms, but he knew from the amount of energy that was still radiating off of her, she wouldn't wake up for awhile.

"Is Nezaro going to be able to follow us, do you think?" asked Stella.

"With what Nirvana just did to his eyes, not a chance," said Musa, who was doubled over trying to get her breath back.

"What'd she do?" asked Carlos, glancing up for one second at them.

"She blinded him basically," said Guinevere. "I've heard of desperate times calling for desperate measures, but this was pushing it." Seeing the boys confused looks, she explained about the after effects of the spell. "Don't worry, she didn't lose her powers, I can tell she didn't," she said to Carlos, who had gone as pale as Nirvana was now. "But it was close. If she had put a little bit more of her power into that spell, she would've."

"How long will he be blind?" asked Layla, thinking of how much time they had before Nezaro regained his eyesight.

"Again, it depends on how much power she put into it," replied Guinevere. "The ones that only had a few seconds worth of power put in usually only blind victims for a couple hours. The stronger ones last for days, sometimes weeks. The most powerful ones are a) when the person casting the spell loses their powers and b) when the one on the receiving end goes blind permanently. There's no counter spell, the eyes have to heal on their own. And judging from how much power she did put in there, he might very well be blind forever. It's going to last a few months at the very least."

There was a moment of silence as they all processed that information.

"Look on the bright side, it'll be harder for him to find us if he can't see us," said Brandon.

"It might not be as hard as you think," said Bloom, remembering something she'd read on Earth and starting to get a little scared again. "When one goes blind, the rest of the senses, especially hearing, is twice as sharp. He might be able to hear us talking right now."

"That I can," said an angry voice from above them. Nezaro hovered down inside the cave, looking even scarier and more demented than he had before. His eyes were a pale, milky color, like his pupils and his irises had just disappeared altogether, which made the extremely angry look on his face that much more frightening. Timmy took a small step back out of shock, his feet just barely hitting the stone floor of the cave, but that was all Nezaro needed. The small sound that none of the others heard rang through their enemy's ears and he fired an energy blast straight at Timmy. He managed to jump out of the way, but it was a close call.

"Just because I can't see you, that doesn't mean I can't still fight back," he said, firing another blast at Bloom and Sky. One advantage they did have was that even though he could hear where they were moving and fire at them then, he had no way of knowing who he was attacking, so that gave the others time to prepare a sneak attack on them. Unfortunately, his hearing was so good now that he could hear the girls' wings fluttering around him and it didn't take him long to learn which wing patterns belonged to which girl. And they could all tell he was growing very tired of their game.

He turned to face Layla and said, "enough is enough." He raised his hand towards her, but then stopped, and a minute later, it became clear what had stopped him. Sunlight had poured down into the cave and beams of light were bouncing off the crystals. Even though he couldn't see it, Nezaro could feel the sunlight streaming in and he could feel the effects of what it was doing. The sun's rays were getting larger and stronger as they bounced from one crystal to another. Then they bounced off the last one and a large beam of light soared towards Layla. The beam was the color of the oceans of Tides and they could even see holographic waves reflected in it. It hit the water fairy and she rose off the floor, entranced in the beam's power. She floated up to the very center of the cave and a great ball of blue-green light formed around her, growing so strong that everyone had to shut their eyes against it, even Nezaro.

"What's happening to her?" asked Jason.

But they all knew what was happening. The Power of Tides had been hidden in the crystal cave, hidden within the crystals themselves and as the light bounced off them, it had grown stronger. When it reached its full power, it had gone towards the princess, the girl it knew it belonged to. The light dimmed and they all looked up at Layla. She was glowing, a blue-green light shimmered around her and her power had magnified by a thousand. The Power of Tides was hers at last.

Nezaro suddenly laughed out loud. "Well, after watching that little scene, so to speak, stealing your powers will be that much more entertaining," said Nezaro. He could feel the power rolling off her in volumes, which told him exactly what had just happened to her. He sent a strong attack at her, but it didn't even get close. A large shield, made of a wall of water formed around her, reducing the attack so it couldn't do any damage to anyone. He could tell it didn't work when he didn't hear her scream. Nezaro sent many other attacks at her, but they didn't do any good.

"Still think trying to mess with me is a good idea Nezaro?" asked Layla. "Tidal Wave!" Layla unleashed all her power into that one attack and it was at that moment that they all realized she'd won. Nezaro tried to block it, but the attack hit him and he hit the floor hard. Layla created several large balls of energy and fired them at him, to make sure he couldn't get up and attack her again. He fell to the ground unconscious and Layla transformed back into her normal self, landing in Jason's arms.

Author's Note: All right, so Nezaro has been defeated and everyone is safe. What did you think of Nirvana casting that spell on him? I just had to put that in there on the spur of the moment. For one thing, I needed an excuse for the girls to get back into the cave so Layla could get her full power from the crystals and Nirvana, who already had her full power, knew the best spell to get them there and was the only one able to cast it. I've said it before and I'll say it again, it pays to have that girl around. So the next chapter, as previously stated, is just going to be a lead into the next story and it's going to have a fluffy little moment between Layla and Jason. Don't worry, it won't be too fluffy because Nabu is going to make his appearance in about three stories. Stay tuned!