Chapter 53 - Wendy's Awakening: Part V

POV: Wendy Testaburger

Times have changed.

This was the fact Wendy Testaburger had come to terms with recently. Her entire world was changing, for better or worse, even she didn't know. Never before would she have ever guessed that fate would bring her to Stark's Pond, by Craig's side, surrounded by each other's aura, preparing to fight for their lives. Inside the blue aura, Wendy could see the other side through the translucent flame texture.

Craig and Wendy sprinted towards the figure in the sky, preparing for a dangerous fight.

Craig's warm hand gripped Wendy's, and she returned the gesture. Feeling Craig's gentle, soft touch felt familiar and refreshing to Wendy. However, she almost felt as if Craig's grip was different in some way. It wasn't the same kindhearted grip he had given her in the past, it almost felt like it was deeper, but Wendy couldn't tell what emotions Craig was feeling, as he always seemed so mysterious to her. Wendy gazed over to look into Craig's deep red eyes as the wind made her hair fly backwards. Craig's malicious gaze was something that secretly had frightened her deep down. The only reason she wasn't shivering in fear at this very moment was because of her newfound power, thanks to Clyde.

"Craig, kill the monsters first!" Wendy instructed. "Then sever the chains in the ground! That's where his power comes from!" Wendy eyed the black pools at the base of the chains.

"Right!" Craig agreed. The two ran forward a few more feet before releasing their grip on each other. Both of their auras were flowing through one another, granting them extraordinary abilities.

Wendy ran towards a group of shadows, who stared at her with pure emptiness. Wendy adjusted her wrists so that the knives were pointing behind her as she sprinted towards her enemies. A light purple ring formed around both of Wendy's wrists. Wendy leaned forward and pressed her feet into the ground, leaping towards the group of shadows with incredible velocity. Wendy pulled both of the blades in front of her in a horizontal fashion. The blades emitted a soft yellow glow, the source of their power.

'All of this is thanks to Clyde...' Wendy thought before she began attacking. 'He's taught me so much...'

What felt like a week ago, Wendy could recall herself in the dark, snowy world that she had been to before. In dreams, in memories, Wendy could never forget this world.

Wendy punched the air with a sweaty hand. Her hair was wrapped in a tight ponytail as she worked her body. Sweat rolled down her face as Clyde sat on the ground nearby her, observing her progress. Wendy stopped attacking after exhaustion took over her body. She fell to her knees, placing her hands on the ground in front of her for support. Her breath was rapid and quickly turned to steam in the cold night. Wendy had been punching the air for several hours. She still couldn't see the point behind it, but it was what Clyde had instructed her to do.

"I…I can't keep going…" Wendy huffed out. "It's too much..." she continued, trying to catch her breath.

Clyde didn't change his plain expression. He sighed for a moment, then looked at Wendy with determination.

"You have to keep going, Craig is counting on you!" Clyde encouraged her.

Wendy slammed a fist into the ground out of frustration, crunching the snow underneath her and making a slight fissure on the surface of the mysterious world. Clyde seemed to look at her with a somewhat surprised expression.

"I feel like I'm getting nowhere…Clyde…" Wendy pressed against her fists to move herself backwards. Wendy leaned backwards and rested on her behind and placed her hands underneath her for support. She was frustrated, she wanted nothing more than to be helping Craig at this very moment, but she felt like no progress had really been made.

"Wendy…" Clyde started as he got up from the ground and strolled over to Wendy.

"Let me talk to you for a few minutes."

Clyde rested himself criss-cross in front of Wendy. Clyde extended his right arm towards Wendy, with his palm up towards the dark sky.

"Give me your hand." Clyde instructed.

Wendy raised her head and tilted an eyebrow in confusion.

"Don't worry, trust me." Clyde smiled.

Wendy extended her hand towards Clyde, believing him. Clyde reached out towards Wendy's hand with his other hand and enveloped hers in a warm aura. Clyde shut his eyes for a moment, concentrating his energy on his palms.

"Power of the stars, refresh this soul."

Wendy's body quickly jolted with a burst of new found energy. She felt as if she had never even began her training. Her eyes quickly widened as she registered that Clyde had rejuvenated her.

"Clyde?! What did you just do?!" Wendy asked in both surprise and confusion.

Clyde smiled at Wendy's surprise. "This is the sort of magic I can offer you when you summon me. You see, Wendy...I can specialize in what you would call 'support magic.' I'm still learning about the magic myself, but so far I can perform some simple tasks, like casting a spell to make you move faster, refresh your body, and I also have a spell that can teleport you from this world back to your normal world."

Wendy raised an eyebrow. "Couldn't you just help me defeat Craig, if you already know your own power?"

Clyde shook his head.

"I'm afraid not. I only specialize in support magic." Clyde emphasized.

"You still aren't ready to help Craig. Craig is already a few levels ahead of you. I'm afraid you wouldn't be much more than a burden at this point, you have to keep training until you achieve your power. I know it's complicated, but you have to keep moving."

Wendy sighed into the cold air.

"Hey, Clyde?"

"Hmm?" Clyde replied.

"I have a question for you. I know that you told me I should just work on finding flow with my strikes, that's why I've been punching the air for what feels like days now…but what I really wanted to ask you is, what is this power exactly? Where does it come from? And what does all of this mean? It seems like not long ago, everything was normal around South Park. But now…things have changed…You died, I broke up with Craig….Kyle left…I'm not sure where Stan, Kenny, and Eric are…I haven't seen them all summer…and I feel like everyone is in danger…"

Clyde sighed. "I'm afraid I don't know all the details myself, but I can explain to you what I know. Let me see…let's start by explaining what exactly this power is that you possess…bear with me, it might be a lot to digest…" Clyde inhaled slightly before beginning his explanation. He extended a finger to the snow and began drawing on it.

"Only certain, chosen people are gifted with power such as this." Clyde drew a stick figure in the snow with his finger before continuing.

"What is this power?" Clyde asked. "I'm sure that's one of the things you want to know…you see, at some point, we can awaken our powers by finding the right trigger to do so. That night that Craig saved you, the reason he developed those red eyes and received incredible power was because my death triggered it. At that moment, Craig felt absolutely devastated, like he was worthless. He cared a lot about you…he had something to protect, but also lost something dear to him...but the trigger, was wanting to protect those close to him, even you, Wendy."

Wendy stared at the ground guiltily for a moment.

'Craig…If I would have stayed, would I have just been in the way…could I have helped save Clyde?...' Wendy gripped her hands tightly, forming fists.

"Now let me explain to you just what exactly Craig's power is, then that might help you understand your own better. You see, each of us has a specific location where we have a special energy allocated to. Think of this as a colored aura inside of us, our source of energy. This energy, or rather this colored energy, is located in one of many places: The eyes, the heart, the brain, your feet, one or both of your arms, but we don't know exactly where this power derives from until we awaken our power in the first place. The reason I'm having you punch the air like you are, is to see if there is anything special happening to you while doing so. Perhaps swift movements of your fists could release your aura. Let me ask you something interesting…Craig has red eyes. Can you guess what that means?"

Wendy tilted her head. "Does that mean…Craig's aura supply is located within his eyes? And the reason his eyes turned red was because his aura was red? So that means...as obvious as it sounds, Craig has a red aura located behind his eyes?"

Clyde nodded. "Exactly. Now that you understand that, I can explain how these auras are used. When someone realizes where their own aura is located, they can focus on the area where their energy is stored in order to utilize the ability they've been gifted. In Craig's case, he has been gifted with an interesting one. The red color represents relentless strength, which could be a good, yet a bad thing. This gives Craig the ability to keep fighting as long as he is angered, however, that poses the risk he may make some rash decisions. Another attribute to having a red aura inside of you is that you have increased endurance. This is why Craig was able to fight for so long with incredible strength."

Wendy raised a hand.

"Hmm?" Clyde prompted.

"But…wasn't Craig surrounded by a blue aura before?" Wendy asked.

Clyde grinned. "That's where it gets kind of interesting…there are some people that have seemingly unlocked multiple aura centers in their body. Perhaps we have more than we know, but the key to unlocking the others is still a mysterious. However, it seems like Craig might actually have two auras to help him…I'm assuming that he has a small red aura somewhere behind his eyes and a bigger, red aura located somewhere in his body. But if he was enveloped in it, I'm assuming this means it's somewhere near the heart." Clyde mused.

Wendy shrugged. "So, what do the colors define?"

Clyde sighed. "It's a bit confusing, I'll try my best to explain. Every color that your body emits relates to how your personality is…For example, my aura…" Clyde took a few seconds to stand up in front of Wendy. Clyde closed his eyes and concentrated for a moment. When he focused his energy, a light blue aura surrounded his body, but most noticeably Clyde's hands were glowing a shiny white color. Clyde opened his eyes, which were now sparkling even brighter than before.

"My aura is blue, and located in my hands. This means that I specialize in what you would call 'support magic.' Your aura also reflects the nature of the abilities you were given. The blue aura symbolizes that I am the kind of person who enjoys helping others. As for the blue aura in my hands, that means that I have enough stamina to last for quite a while during a fight. I can support you for a long time, because of this blue aura. Essentially, the aura location defines what type of power you have, and the color defines the nature of it."

Wendy sighed a cold breath into the night. "I feel like I'm never going to learn where my aura is…how did you find out?"

Clyde smiled. "I had some help from a friend, and now I'm going to help you."

Clyde stepped forward and placed his hand on Wendy's head. Wendy looked up at him in surprise. Clyde grinned at her.

"Take a moment to relax, I'm refreshing your mind." Clyde explained.

Wendy stared down at the ground for a moment.

"Hey…Clyde…?" Wendy asked shyly.

"Hmm?" Clyde responded.

"There's something I wanted to talk to you about…"

Clyde paused for a moment. Wendy assumed he understood what this was about. Clyde frowned, understanding of what Wendy was implying.

"We have more important matters at the moment…I promise you though…we'll talk about things…but later."

Wendy gave a fake smile, which quickly recessed into a grin. "I understand…"

...

A few days later(at least in the dark world's time, not Earth's time) within the snowy world, Wendy awoke from her resting place on the ground. It wasn't very comfortable lying on the ground ever night, but Wendy would have to make do until her training was completed. Above her face in the sky, a few stars could be seen above her in the almost completely dark sky. However, a few stars managed to shine through.

Wendy tilted her head over to her to see Clyde sitting upwards with his hands in his lap.

'What is he doing?' Wendy wondered instantly. 'Is he meditating?'

Wendy watched Clyde in amusement for a moment. She was curious if he was sleeping, meditating, or doing something completely different. Clyde's light blue aura was released yet again, covering his entire body.

'Is he training..? Or maybe casting a spell?' Wendy thought of the multiple possibilities, but didn't want to interrupt and break Clyde's concentration.

Wendy gasped when Clyde's body suddenly jolted backwards. He swung towards the ground and it wasn't long before he was laying back on the in the snow, laying motionless.

"C-Clyde?!" Wendy shouted worriedly. She urgently moved over to him and got down onto her knees. Wendy gently lifted his head towards her lap. She tried to examine his face thoroughly, until she noticed that Clyde had blinked a few times. Wendy sighed with relief that he was conscious again.

"W-Wendy?" Clyde peered through his slitted eyes, trying to come to. Not long afterwords, his eyes suddenly expanded in size, and he sat up without Wendy's permission, rubbing his head in slight embarrassment.

"What just happened?...Are you OK?" Wendy asked reassuringly.

Clyde chuckled a bit and lightly shook his head up and down. "I was channeling my energy to talk with someone."

"Who?" Wendy asked curiously.

Clyde grinned. "An old friend." Clyde said ambiguously.

"So, Wendy, I want to try something really quick. Stand up, and hold both of your arms out straight, towards me."

Wendy raised an eyebrow. "What?"

Clyde grinned as he wobbled upwards and stood up straight.

"It's all right...trust me." Clyde held his hand out for Wendy's support.

Wendy reluctantly took his hand and stood upwards, Clyde assisted her with her balance before continuing his instruction.

"Put your legs together, and arms out straight."

Clyde took a step backwards, preparing himself.

Wendy shrugged but obliged with Clyde's instructions. She stretched her arms out towards Clyde, almost like she was going to give Clyde a hug. Clyde carefully examined Wendy's arms for a moment from his distance.

"What are you doing, exactly?" Wendy asked.

Clyde cautiously stepped forward. He gently reached out and flipped Wendy's wrists upwards. He got a closer look at her skin, examining it thoroughly.

"OK…I see…" Clyde said.

Wendy was so confused by what was happening. Unfortunately, Clyde hadn't been too straightforward with answering questions. All Wendy understood was certain people were gifted with an aura, and this aura's color defines the nature of how one uses the aura stored in a certain location.

"Alright Wendy. You can lower your arms now." Clyde said casually. "It's time."

"Time for what?" Wendy asked eagerly.

Clyde smiled. " I have some good news. It's time we make a pact so that I can serve you. This pact may just reveal to us where your aura is located. By doing what I'm about to, I'll find out if there is any aura located in one or both of your arms."

"Really? That's so cool!" Wendy sounded excited, until her thoughts caught up with her. "Wait. What do you have to do? And what's this pact all about?"

Clyde's face drew to a straight line. "Alright Wendy. This is where things get grimmer…You want to save Craig, and you have limited time to be here, and so do I. This pact is one that we would eventually make, but it would really be optional and completely up to you. If you make this pact now, we could find out what your power is, and if all goes according to plan, we could leave very soon."

Wendy nodded. "If it helps me to save Craig, I'll do it."

"Wait…" Clyde interrupted. "I haven't even told you the details of this contract. Those who have been to this world are gifted with the potential to use the spirits of this world to come to their aid. Wendy, I believe I told you that you could summon me in the real world, correct?"

Wendy nodded.

"Alright…" Clyde paused. "In order to summon me, you have to make this pact with me. The only reason that you're able to make a pact with me is because I summoned you here myself with my support magic. Because you made it here safely, I knew that you would be allowed to use me in battle whenever you find necessary. You see, when you make a pact with someone such as I, I am at your service, and will help you whenever you request my assistance with whatever kind of magic I have now or in the future. There are two trade-offs to doing this. The first…" Clyde held up one finger.

"The first condition is that whenever I use my own energy, you'll feel the effects of whatever I feel added to your current state. For example, imagine you summoned me and wanted me to heal a scratch on your body. If I use my energy from this world, since we are connected, you would feel whatever I feel added to your current state in battle. For example, if you ran for a mile and I healed you, you would feel both your own physical strain from both running AND my effort to heal you. It's an odd trade-off and a very consuming magic spell. However, with my support magic we should be able to sustain in battle, at least for a little while."

Wendy nodded. "That sounds kind of crazy… so what's this other condition?"

Clyde's eyes grew dark. Wendy almost shivered in fear at how grim Clyde really looked.

"If for some reason I was to die in your world. I'll disappear forever, and our pact will be broken. But I'm afraid that isn't the worst part of it…Worst case scenario, if both of us were to die in any order... The pact would not only be completely severed, but…you AND I would dissapear as well. Even after your death, you wouldn't come here and possibly be able to make a pact with someone ELSE. You would practically be erased from existence, as well as I. No one would know about us anymore. Peoples memories of us would be wiped from their minds. The world would change as if our names were never even uttered. All the friends we had will cease to remember anything about us. We would literally become nothing. But this only happens when two people die. So if I was to die, that would mean the bond was severed, and you could make another one. As long as you stay alive, you'll be OK."

Wendy's eyes opened wide in surprise. "Clyde…that sounds so risky…I'm not sure..."

Clyde nodded. "It is risky, that's why I want to ask you truthfully. Do you want to accept this power?"

Wendy paused for a moment and pondered over her choice. It was a big decision for her.

'If I accept, I can possibly help Craig as soon as possible…but what if I'm not strong enough…What if we all just end up dying?"

Clyde moved forward and placed his hands on Wendy's shoulders. Wendy raised her head to meet Clyde's deep, sparkling eyes. "If it was me, I would do it. Craig was my friend. I would do anything for him. I know this is a hard decision, but I encourage you to think quickly."

Wendy stopped hesitating and nodded. "I accept this pact. Do what you have to."

Clyde nodded and took a step back from Wendy.

"Close your eyes for a moment and tilt your head down, with your right arm extended."

Wendy did as Clyde ordered.

"I'm going to put my wrist next to yours. I want you to imagine a single shackle on both of our wrists, with a chain connecting us together. Imagine a flexible chain, one that's very loose. This visualizes you understand the bond between us."

Wendy used her brain to depict the image in her head.

"OK…" Wendy said.

Clyde inhaled deeply before making the most important pledge of Wendy's life.

"Underneath this starry sky, I hereby make this pact with Wendy Testaburger. I agree to represent, protect, and serve as her spirit guardian. I accept my responsibility to protect her to the best of my ability and fight for justice, helping her to purge the gathering evil. Upon this vow we are both making, we swear our loyalty to one another." Wendy felt her body quickly jolt with energy from above. She felt an incredible power surge through her arms.

A large pillar of light zoomed down from the sky, surrounding Wendy and Clyde in a pillar of light. It lasted not even a second. Wendy could sense the light behind her closed eyes, but by the time she opened them, the light had vanished.

"The pact is done, Wendy. Open your eyes, look at your wrists!" Clyde shouted urgently.

Wendy's eyes burst open and she beamed down at her arms. Where Wendy had placed her wrist next to Clyde's, a single ring composed of purplish aura was traversing its way around her wrist. It looked as if she had a mystical purple bracelet attached to her.

"That's your aura. Your aura is located in your wrists!" Clyde happily announced.

Wendy gasped. "This is…my power I'm manifesting?" Wendy looked down at her wrists, feeling not feeling threatened by strange glow.

"Yes." Clyde answered. "The purple aura means that you are skilled with using your wrists. Most specifically…you are good at throwing, as well as making quick movements with your hands. This might sound disappointing at first, but you haven't even gotten to the good part yet. You're now going to have to train on focusing your attention to the purple bracelet…once you do that, you can summon your weapons, train with them, and prepare as much as you need to until you're ready to fight."

"I'll do whatever it takes!" Wendy said determinedly.

...

For a few more days, Wendy stood in the cold and focused underneath the dark sky. It felt like she was focusing for hours upon hours. She was so drained after a few days. She had bags under her eyes from lack of sleep. She was becoming weaker faster than before; Clyde had to refresh her with his magic more frequently so she could keep training.

Finally one day, as she was concentrating, she saw light shine from behind her closed eyes. As she opened them, a wind swept up through her body. Her hair lifted from behind her into the dark sky, and her clothes glittered as her transformation was almost complete. Wendy lifted off the ground for a moment, her body twisting slightly.

A beautiful purple glow surrounded Wendy, and her clothes turned into mere particles, only to be replaced by beautiful armor, a cape, as well as her new found weapons. She slowly lowered towards the ground, the gravity lightly placed her onto the snow once more. Wendy was now ready to learn some spells from Clyde.

Over the course of the next few days, Clyde had taught Wendy some mystical spells, ones that would surely help her in the battles to come.

Wendy grinned as she watched the monsters step towards her angrily.

"I'm a whole new person now." Wendy mumbled. She gripped her dagger hilts tightly and prepared to unleash on her opponents.

A monster raised its dark hand above its head and swooped it down towards Wendy. Wendy had to contain her excitement and adrenaline, she couldn't wait to try out her newly acquired powers.

Wendy smiled as a black claw came swooping down and slammed itself towards the ground. A huge cloud of dust appeared where Wendy had once stood. Pebbles and dirt were kicked into the air, blocking the shadow from a clear view.. The shadow looked around in curiosity, trying to seek out Wendy. A light glimmered from behind the monster's head, above nearly ten other shadows. The shadow quickly turned back to see Wendy floating in the air, with a beautiful yellow light surrounding her body. She held one of her daggers high in the air with her right hand, the same as the purple bracelet, which was now glowing. A deep light seemed to shine and power the bracelet.

"Circle of light!" Wendy swooped one of her knives downwards towards the figure. Wendy flicked her other knife and the two fell simultaneously. When they were next to each other, the light exerting from the two knives bound together, covering the blades. Inside, the two knives glowed and formed into a solid piece, a double edged dagger-like weapon. The new weapon quickly zoomed back up towards Wendy's hand. She spun the knives around in her hand and tossed her weapon down towards the shadows once more. The blade made contact with the first monster. What the shadow's didn't expect was that the light spread out into a large circle of light. The light cut through all the monsters within its circumference, killing nearly five monsters total. All the monsters seemingly evaporated underneath her.

Wendy descended through the air after her attack had been launched. While falling, she examined Craig, who had just kicked a monster in the gut, sending it flying backwards and making its body turn into a shadowy essence before dissapearing.

'They can only take one hit each...Craig's got this too...He's so strong now.' Wendy watched Craig charge towards another shadow creature. Wendy touched the ground once more and lifted her head quickly.

"My blades!" Wendy raised both of her hands above her head.

"Seperate!" Wendy ordered her weapon. Once again, the light glow surrounded it, transforming the blades on the inside. When the glow faded, Wendy's original two daggers flew out, slapping into both of her hands perfectly.

"Let's go!" Wendy ran towards a group of nearly fifteen monsters. Wendy closed her eyes for a moment before engaging.

'Remember what Clyde told you...firm yet delicate...' Wendy had practiced this technique several times, but always seemed to have trouble maintaining this ability, but it would be perfect for her to execute here, on the makeshift battlefield.

"Flurry of fury!" Wendy shouted before leaning forwards and increasing her movement speed. Before Wendy dived into the pit of monsters, one of the Shadow's swung for her clumsily, but Wendy ducked aside, dodging its attack. Wendy used her wrists to quickly slice through the monsters arm. A dark clump of shadow fell off the monster, and both the shadowy limb and the monster faded.

Wendy carefully balanced on her heels, spinning through the monsters and slicing through each of the monster's bellies. She was perfectly executing her technique, in a combo of slashes and throwing her knives, only to have them returned to her. It was a fast technique, one that wasn't easy to master, but Wendy had perservered for days to at least grasp somewhat of an understanding. In fact, the technique itself could be added upon hypothetically infinitely, but Wendy had only mastered the basics.

Wendy swirled quickly and sliced through four monsters, cutting their bellies open and purging them from the Earth.

Wendy had suddenly discovered that all the monsters around had been evaporated. She turned around to see Craig punched a monster in the gut, sending it bouncing across the water before evaporating in midair.

Craig and Wendy glanced at each other, smiling. All that remained was the dark figure in the sky, floating above the water, his chains still attached to the ground. He looked on in what appeared to be fear.

"Craig!" Wendy shouted. Wendy ran towards her half of Stark's pond, where the chains in the ground were near the bank of the water.

"Slice the three chains, he can't summon any more monsters if you do that!" Wendy shouted.

Wendy ran along her side of the river, slicing the chains were her extremely sharp blades. Craig moved a little slower, he had to physically pull the chains from the ground, focusing energy on his arms to fulfill his efforts.

Wendy severed all of the chains on her side. She glanced over, noticing Craig was still having trouble pulling the second chain on his side out of the ground. Wendy sprinted around the pond and sliced the last chain free just as Craig pulled the final chain from the ground.

The chains rattled loudly, sending sound waves across Stark's Pond. The figure in the sky leaned forwards, falling towards the water. The wind blew up against him as his body slammed into the pond, sending up and enormous black splash. The black slowly faded from the water, and eventually, Craig and Wendy had both realized that the evil had been purged. It seemed they were finally victorious.

"Its….its all over now…" Craig huffed out, falling to his knees.

Wendy walked over towards Craig and crouched beside him.

"You did wonderful..."

Craig stared at the ground, trying to process everything that had just happened. Wendy stared up at the sky, waiting for the clouds to finally burst with rain.

"Craig..." Wendy hesitated before she finally spoke the words she had been dying to say. Her eyes filled with water as she watched some blood trickle down Craig's face. Wendy examined his wound.

"It's not deep, thankfully..." Wendy said in relief, still trying to keep her eyes from overflowing.

Craig looked up towards Wendy. Her face seemed to sparkle in his view.

"Wendy...Craig wobbled to stand up." Craig stumbled as he tried to stand, Wendy quickly came to his aid, hugging him from the front. Craig rested his head on Wendy's shoulder, exhausted, yet trusting Wendy to shoulder him. Craig felt a few raindrops from the sky above him. He gripped the back of Wendy's shirt with both of his hands. Thunder boomed overhead and the clouds burst with heavy rain. The raindrops began to soak Craig's clothing and tap against Wendy's shiny metal armor.

Wendy's eyes finally overflown as she more tightly embraced Craig. Her tears ran down her face and into Craig's clothing. Wendy felt her lips quiver, before she forced herself to say the words she had been dying to.

"I love you." Wendy squeezed Craig tighter. Craig's eyes slowly began to close as he was drifting into sleep. Craig put a wounded hand up to Wendy's cheek.

"I...love you too..." Craig's hand slid down Wendy's cheek, leaving a small streak of blood against her skin.

Craig shut his eyes, going to sleep.

Wendy raised her head towards the sky, holding a wounded Craig in her arms.

'I'll never let him go again...'

Wendy turned away from the pond and began carrying Craig away, ready to see to his wounds.