Thank you thank you thank you! Thanks so much for all the reviews, follows and favorites! I didn't think this story would do well, and I'm chuffed to bits that it has! It's not over, but it will be in a few chapters I'm afraid, so prepare to say your goodbyes to Faye :(
Hope you enjoy this one, it took me a while to put together!
You know that feeling of adrenaline, where you just feel limitless? That's how I felt right now, only ten times over the normal scale. With fire, water, wind and earth running freely though my body, the power of mind control strong in my brain, and my bonds growing stronger and stronger, I felt like the most powerful being in the world. As I felt the energies of the guardians mingle with my, I felt myself change further; my blood chilled as ice became a part of my system, I felt my wings become sharper than a blade, my vision sharpened so I would never miss a target, and I also felt the power of golden sand lying in wait beneath my fingertips. The emotions of everyone around me were the same, that same desire to fight driving us to a strength beyond what we were used to. It was now that I knew that I wasn't the weapon, but all of us coming together. When belief, trust, acceptance, understanding, kindness and forgiveness came as one, you were unstoppable with the willpower to win.
I had little time to appreciate the element of flight. The moment that moonlight engulfed me, I relived a memory that was more of a dream. I'd doubled over with the force of his power, ripping through my body and alighting the core of my being. Something burst with life, and I felt vines spread along my spine to the layers of my skin, breaking through with next to no pain. The moment they unfolded and became my own, I felt like I was being reborn. A new light of life soured through me, springing everything broken back into place, sealing all the hope that had slowly been on the mend. And when I looked up to see Jamie smiling a smile brighter than the sun, I knew that he, Sophie and everyone else who had entered my life was worth fighting for. So the moment I got my bearings, I took Jamie into my arms, held him close to my front, and took off into the sky. I screamed for the otherworld at the globe, lobbing it into the air and flitting through the portal, leaving the cheering children behind. The reindeer and tooth fairy knew what to do.
So after dropping Jamie safely into the high branches of a tree, here I was. Now reunited with his sister who he held close to his body, I had one worry to forget about. I dropped to the ground, watching the portals all around us opening. Jack looked at me briefly, and then took my hand in his. This spoke a thousand words, and squeezing his hand spoke a thousand more. His trust in me was strong, and it grew stronger with each passing minute. I thrived on that, glaring at Shifter, A.K.A Jazz, with a ferocity beyond my normal hostility towards him.
I'd known for a while now, the moment I saw that memory of him airborne. The loathing that was attached to every cell, the constant thoughts of humans, and of course the feeling of wings as he soared the skies. It all made sense. Jazz had wanted to be human, but you couldn't bring the dead back to life. So he flourished on the life of humans instead, as it was the closest he would ever get. To him, human energy was as addictive as flight was to me. It made his heart beat again and his blood flow, and when he was banished after the last Dark Ages, he became nothing but a mass of poisoned smoke. It also explained how he could bond with me; we had once been of the same species.
As the masses of elves, yetis, fairies, reindeer and children gathered, coming to join us from behind, I smirked. I noted on some of the exiled also joining that group; two mermaids, a group of human to animal shape shifters, very unlike Jazz, and those fairy like creatures without the wings I had seen of the day of my abduction, a female and her two children. The rebels also lined up behind Jazz, but this only pumped me up with excitement. At last, I knew why the Moon had created me. I was born for this very moment, the battle to end all battles, and I couldn't have been more excited.
"You're making a mistake, Faye." Jazz snarled, morphing into a dog and stalking towards me. Jack tightened his hold on my hand, and with my other I lifted it, palm up. Fire illuminated, turning in to a ball and barely kissing the skin of my palm.
"I've been making mistakes my whole life, but this one is probably going to be the best one I've ever made." I said, and not missing a beat, I plunged that fire ball into the dog's face. He screeched, vanishing for a moment. The second I initiated the fight, everyone screamed and cried, and the two crowds began to charge at one another. Fairy hybrids took flight at the same moment me and every other airborne spirit did. The children climbed the backs of the reindeer, who charged with their antlers facing the enemy. North, Bunnymund and the rest of our grounded group ran for the enemy, and the second Jack let go of my hand, good and bad collided.
I slammed into that of a hybrid, a cross between a bird and some kind of creature I can't name. I only caught sight of brown feathers and a face, and that face was nothing short of demonic. Leathery skin, teeth sharper than the tip of a chef's knife, and eyes wilder than a stray dog's. It snapped at me face, teeth meeting metal, and the two of us tumbled for just short of three seconds. I grabbed a leathery skinned ear, yanking its head away from me and sending fire down its throat. From the inside out, it burst into flames, as turned to ash and it soured to the ground with ear pounding screamed.
I hovered, searching for Jazz, but he was nowhere to be seen. But I saw Tooth plummeting to the ground, getting mauled by some pixie like creatures no bigger than my hands. I dived after her, shouting her name and extending my hand. With all the strength I had, I threw up upwards, and with the speed of her ascent the pixies were unable to cling on. Once free, Tooth's minions came to take over and she focussed her attention on bigger fish, but not without a look of gratitude towards me.
And then I saw him. Ahead, a gathering of smoke turned into that of an eagle, and came diving towards me. I grinned and met him in his invitation, flying at the speed of light. In a flash, the creature morphed into something else, something that threw me off; Jazz, the original Jazz. Pale skin, black shielding, and a body of a teenage boy. Of course, he didn't wear a dress, for his skin/clothing was that of a jumpsuit, the only flesh on show being his head, hands and feet. He still had the metal plating around his head and the puffy mane around his chest, and the wings were identical to mine.
"Surprise!" he bellowed, and rammed into me. He clawed at my face, then snagged my mane and slammed him feet into my stomach, winding me. I slashed at his face with the tip of my wings, making his wail as something of black blood gushed from his cheek. He released me, attacking me with his own form of energy. I released the same energy from my fingertips, blocking it. With that energy, I added ice, letting it freeze its way towards him. He yelled as it entered his body, freezing him on the inside. I could feel the intensity of the cold he felt, and the weight he suddenly gained and he plunged to the ground.
A scream. Sophie. I turned, and to my horror I saw gremlin type creatures climbing the tree they were stationed in, and the pair dropped in order to escape them. I found Jack's eyes above me, and together we dived towards the kids who meant the world to us. As the gremlins made chase, Jack grabbed Jamie and I grabbed Sophie. Side my side, we sought out the reindeer, fighting off creatures of darkness and the children kicking them away. I was amazed for a moment; with a simply touch from a child's hand, a creature turned into golden dust. My reindeer, fighting alone, saw us approached, and we placed the children onto his back.
"Keep them safe!" I bellowed at him, also to the others. "All of them!"
"Look out!" Jack hollered.
"Faye!" Jamie screamed.
"Come here!" and then I was being dragged through the sky, above the clouds, yanked by my mane. Jack tried to chase, but Jazz kicked him square in the face, knocking him out. I screamed for him as he fell, losing hold of his staff as he did. I didn't get to see his fate for the black clouds engulfed us before I could.
A force attacked my stomach and I somersaulted through the air.
"We could have been so great together." he snarled, and then kicked me under my chin. I screamed, pain racing through my head. "We could have been so powerful!" he head butted my face, and then grabbed my mane and pulled me against him, nose to nose. "We could have been perfect." he purred, and then he reached for my wings, snapping them. I screamed in agony, the pain darting into my spine. I began to fall, but something wrapped around my ankles. I hung upside down, Jazz smirking as he controlled the smoke that grasped me.
"Being bad will get you nowhere, Jazz!" I bellowed. He rattled me a little.
"And being good? Look where that's gotten you." he cackled.
"At least I have something to live for." I snapped. I snapped my fingers, lobbing a fireball into his face. I didn't miss, but he refused to let face. His skin sizzled, and his red eyes were even more aflame. I used the ice technique again, but he blocked it off by releasing me but catching me with fresh energy. I threw some of Sandy's energy into his face, but that did no more that sting him. I flopped like a dead animal, seemingly giving up. I felt his triumph, meaning his guard was down, and with a smirk I plunged myself into his mind.
In his head, I planted the image of his body on fire. I imagined the pain, defining it as being in the heat of the sun, and I pictured his screams so vividly they turned into reality. I pulled out, and sure enough he was thrashing, rattling me again as he tried to fight the fire that wasn't there. I tried to work my wings, and with painful effort I straightened them out. Flapping them with urgency, I sliced through the smoke, releasing myself. Fleeting away, I searched through my bonds.
Sandy was fighting good and strong, a whip in one hand and a sword in the other. Thanks to him, Tooth and Jack, all the airborne creatures were defeated, lying unconscious on the ground. Jack was weak but okay, taking refuge in a tree to try and refocus. North was working alongside his workers, all of which fighting and winning. Bunnymund was leading many astray, taking them underground but trapping them there in the process. He'd managed to take some out with his boomerang, too. And Jamie and Sophie? They were giving the exiled a piece of their minds along with all the other children.
I emerged from the clouds, diving still for Jazz had come out of his trance. Yet again he plunged into me, sending us both ploughing to the ground with bone breaking speed. Dust rose from our collision, and suddenly, everything stopped. His hand wound around my throat, silencing me as he straddled me. My wings ached in protest, and he began to slam me into the ground. Around us, the guardians and kids winced with our shared pain, shuddering with every cry that escaped me. They tried coming to my aid, but I bellowed to their minds; No! This is my fight, not yours!
"You have nothing!" he snarled. "No family, and if you think these buffoons care about you, then think wrong! You're an outsider, Faye, a dark entity and you always will be. No one will ever love you! You're weak if you think you can love, let alone be loved. You lost that emotion the moment you killed all those people."
"Stop it!" I choked, turning my face away.
"You never were able to face the truth. But in the end, people like you and me always get worst off. For the rest of our lives we will be punished. But it's time to punish them! We deserve revenge!" he roared, ramming me into the dirt one last time. I choked some more, trying to kick at him stomach and claw at his hand around my throat. I sizzled his flesh, but I could feel that he was immune now. He was too angry and filled with loathing to care.
"What are... you... living... for, Jazz...?" I croaked, looking him in the eyes.
"Revenge! I want to be human! The Man in the Moon took that away from me!" he bellowed.
"No... You're... living for... power..."
"Wrong."
"You want... me... my... power..." I was going dizzy, unsure of what I was saying now. Was he... draining me? I felt as if the air was being sucked out of me, pulled from my core, and I was descending into nothing. No. No! I pulled it back into my body, playing tug of war. He would not drain me! He wouldn't!
"Don't fight me!"
Then I heard a whistling. Speed. I could hear speed. Wings humming together, a number of them. Jazz heard it, too. It was a sound only we could hear, only our kind could hear.
"Get. Away. from. My. Friend!" someone shrieked in rage, and it was a voice I knew well. I broke out into a grin, and Jazz shrieked in anger when a ball of blue energy raged into him and knocking him off me. Jack and Tooth were instantly by my side, helping me to my knees. I looked up, and then I saw it.
Mia, backed up by seven others of our kind, along with Dotty and Lou. Dotty was the smallest of them all, having died when she was just fourteen as a human. She had the features of a child, with big emerald eyes that used to go with long, red flowing hair. Lou had olive toned skin and was the thinnest of them all, leaner than even myself. The other seven consisted of four males and three females, all looking placid as they looked at Jazz. Mia floated to the ground and pulled me to my feet.
"You were right." was all she said. Jazz groaned from the ground, and without a thought I encircled him in flames, blocking him from the view of everyone else. I knew now how to kill him. I knew just seconds before Mia arrived. She, along with the others and the guardians, created a barrier of protection around me, and I noticed that the exiled were closing in on us. But I shook my head at them, stepping out of their circle and facing them all.
"You don't have to fight!" I called out. "You don't have to follow his orders! Don't let him manipulate you! You're all stronger than that and you know it! Each and every one of you can have a second chance, just like I did. It's not too late. Prove you're worthy and you can be free. Prove that by ignoring his orders, and don't cross that barrier."
They all looked at one another, muttering and some snarling at what they thought was a lie. It wasn't. They could all be free. The reason they were here was because they had worked with Jazz, right from the beginning.
"You're here because of him. It's not the guardians you should be fighting, but him."
"She's right!" a female shouted, a mermaid. A red head, at that. She was one who had joined our army.
"It was all his fault!" someone else bellowed, an opposition.
Slowly, all around, they began to chant in agreement. They closed in, but not on us but Jazz. I heard him scream with agony that wasn't there, and I doubled over, feeling the same pain. All I can describe it as was being drowned. Everyone's doubt doubled up in my lungs, weighing me down and clogging up my airway. That was what he lived on. Power and worship. He wanted me to worship him because he knew of my power. He could feel it when he bonded with me, even though I couldn't. He'd wanted my power to be his own, and he wanted to be the leader of these beings. He was driven by greed and lust, and with just some simple words, I was taking it all away from him. But that wouldn't finish the job. That was my job. Whether I wanted to or not, I had to take his power.
All of it.
I sent this thought to everyone I was bonded with, telling them not to follow me. With effort, I staggered through the flames towards Jazz, picking him up from under the arms and taking flight. I just about saw Jack grasp Mia's arm, keeping her from following me. I didn't want them to see what I was about to do, because I sure as hell didn't want to do it. It was the only way, though.
Off in the distance, I gently placed his screaming form on the dirt. I pinned him there by his shoulders, my heart lodged in the lower parts of my gut. His screamed vanished into the distance and I looked straight into his eyes, entering his mind towards his soul. Closing my eyes, I let myself see the self destruction of his being, years in the making. His soul was like rust, worn away by the shadow he used as his power and making his as rough as he was. I didn't want this to last any longer than it needed to. I opened my mouth, and I began to breathe in an endless breath.
I don't know how long it took. A minute, five, maybe an hour. Somehow, I managed to store his energy in my own dark locker, a place I refused to touch. My human memories. I hated going back and reliving my past life, and it was the only place I knew I would never visit. So I poisoned those memories for good measure with this energy I didn't want. Sure, I would forever know why I was here and how I had ended up here, but to know I would never have to relieve them memories was good enough to keep me going. I was done with the past.
When I was done, I flopped to my side with exhaustion. Jazz was wheezing, trying to find some sort of energy to cling on to for life. Literally. But the only source he had left was our bond, and sure enough, even that began to break. It wasn't painful, though. It was a sense of relief, the lifting of a burden. It just... dissolved. And then, right before my eyes, Jazz made one final surprise.
He turned back into a human. A naked boy no older than I was, with shaggy brown hair and shimmering chocolate brown eyes. He had been handsome, too, with sharp features and pale skin against that warm brown. His eyes met mine, and I sighed.
"You got your wish." I whispered.
And then he vanished like a ghost, and I was engulfed by a deafening silence.
Yes, no, maybe?