It's my destiny, to know your pain, of watching all I believed fade away. ~"Darkest Part" by RED
"Hello, Clarion."
She whipped around at her name. Before she had completed the turn, the remnants of her talents were already in her hands, ready to be thrown in one final act of desperation. It was as if she had predicted his arrival and had prepared.
It made no difference to him, however, and he simply waved it into non-existence as though it were nothing more than a puff of smoke or a passing cloud. The queen pixie glared firmly, but he could sense her fear. Fear for herself, for the pathetic fairies she ruled...and for the Protector.
He's not ready. He'd felt it before with the uncontrollable surges of power, but the sparrowman was still weak. Powerful, but untrained. Caring, but underestimated. Strong, but powerless. He still had hope. He still had a flicker of belief that he might be the hero, the Protector of Life.
How he was looking forward to stamping out that spark.
"Shade."
There was no emotion in the way the queen spoke his name. Just a name. Nothing more. Insignificant. Unimportant. Useless. But he would show her, he would show everyone. He was a force to be reckoned with, and if they weren't with him, they were against him.
And the former Protector was certainly not on his side.
"Where is the sparrowman, Clarion?" he sighed, sounding bored. "I know you're protecting him."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Clarion responded in the calmest, and most collected voice she could muster, but he could still sense the hesitancy behind the words.
"Don't lie to me!" Shade bellowed. He felt the power surge up inside of him and he swung an arm around. The room was illuminated in orange light...and then he released the talent and sent it careening toward the far corner of the room. A large desk and a few other random assortments burst into flames.
Clarion flinched, but said nothing.
"You may care for the boy. He may be like a son you never had," Shade went on in a dangerous whisper as the room continued to burn. "But you can't protect him from his fate. The prophecy. Surely you know he cannot be trusted with Neverland's protection."
"And you can?" Clarion blurted. "Shade, prophecy or no, Phineas is a million times better for Pixie Hollow that you would ever be!"
"No one is better than me," Shade spat, eyes flaring furiously. "Besides," he added with a cruel smile. "You hardly have the strength to stop me. He's draining your powers, is he not? That's how it works, after all. The longer he stays away from Pixie Hollow, the weaker you both become. It's only a matter of time. He'll come crawling back to save the ounce of magic that he possessed. That is his destiny. As is the fate of any tinker unfortunate to become a Protector."
"So, nothing like you at all then?" Clarion snapped angrily.
"I defended my home for as long as I could!" Shade retorted. "They betrayed me! It was their doing, not mine!"
"You had a choice!" Clarion argued. "A choice to be different than them! But you made your decision. You chose to do what you did! What happened was entirely your doing!"
Shade drew himself up to his full five-inch height. "And what happens next is yours." He'd already located the tinker. The power surges were becoming fainter, but a new talent had been activated. He knew exactly where to look.
Then, with a new direction, he quickly flew from the room, but not before setting the curtains on fire for good measure.
He was going to enjoy this.
"I don't know what happened! He just collapsed!"
"Tink! The ice is spreading! Iridessa! Try to slow it down! Tink! TINK! Hurry!"
He heard the voices all around him. They sounded distant, disconnected. He reached for them, but they were too far from his grasp. He felt pangs of fear and anger radiating from them, sharp and clear, as though they were directed squarely on him. He wanted to cringe away from them, but something prevented him from doing so. He tried to call out, to let them know that he could hear them, that he was okay, but his words evaporated almost as quickly as he thought them. Next, he attempted to move his arms and legs, or lift his head. It was as though a heavy boulder had descended upon him, pinning him to the earth.
"His pulse is getting weaker! What do we do?" Iridessa, his mind formed the name slowly, groggily. Everything was muddled, confused, disoriented. But, there, at the edge of his conscious, he began to collect certain emotions from her head. Worried, upset, startled.
"Bobble! Don't you dare die! You hear me! I'm ordering you to stay alive!" Tink. Panicking, desperate, fearful, angry. He couldn't find it in his heart to remind her that she had absolutely no authority over him.
"I'm going to go get help!" Vidia. Her mind was humming quietly, but he could sense the panic in her tone, and what was left unsaid. There was a flutter of wings as the fast-flying talent took off. So then, he realized with a twinge of relief, she wasn't injured too badly.
Hands tightly clasped his shoulders, yanking him up into a sitting position. Clank, no doubt, but even he felt distant. "Bobble! Come on, buddy! Stay with me!"
I'm trying, Clanky. I'm trying. Even so, he could feel himself weakening. His grasp on reality was slipping, the last few threads of consciousness were sliding through his fingers, and he was just faintly aware of the whiz of multiple wings overhead before he passed out...
The clearing was dark and empty. The strong odor of smoke and ash filled the air. He stood amidst the blackness, the grip of panic holding his wings and squeezing his heart.
"H-hello?" he called nervously. He felt his legs carry him forward, though his mind screamed against it. His hand brushed up against something hard and he grasped it firmly, realizing it was a tree branch. Was he in the air? Where was he? What had happened? Where were the others?
A ball of fire plummeted from the sky.
He shrieked, leaping back as the comet streaked into the earth before him. There was a momentary flash of red light, and he could see the very thing his heart had dreaded the most...
Pixie Hollow.
On fire.
Burning.
He heard screaming. Terrified, he swung around, scanning the darkened clearing desperately. He could see nothing. No one. No one was there. He was all alone. Alone in a world that was silently burning to ruin around him.
"You're the Protector!"
A voice shouted from the silence, hitting him harder than a hammer and so fast that he nearly fell in shock. He whipped around, but was met with stillness. There was no one there.
"You were supposed to save us!"
A faint glow surrounded him. Dull and fading, but definitely Pixie dust. A fairy. Someone was there. He tried to call out, but his voice was swept away in the breeze. Only...there wasn't any breeze. The air was thick and he nearly choked in the smog.
"This wasn't supposed to happen!"
Suddenly, the world morphed around him. He found himself standing in what he guessed was Tinkers Nook. But it was entirely deserted. Buildings were smashed, he saw Fairy Mary's house burned to ruins, and in the distance, the looming structure of a blackened Pixie dust tree was just visible against a red sky.
There was a flutter of movement behind him. He turned, and his heart filled with relief when he saw Tink standing there. Her arms were folded and she looked furious, but at least she was still alive. "Tink..." he stammered, taking a step toward her gratefully. "You're all right-"
She immediately moved away from him, frowning deeply.
He froze. "Tink? What-"
"You lied, Bobble!"
"What?"
"You said you were the Protector!" the blond snapped, unfolding her arms as her face began to flash scarlet. "You said you could stop Shade! You lied! He came, Bobble! He destroyed everything! "
Her words were like knives and he felt each drive further and further into his heart.
"Where were you when we needed you?"
"Where were you when the Pixie dust tree was destroyed?"
"And where were you when he killed our friends?"
His voice failed and he stumbled backward, nearly falling in his haste to escape her accusations. He opened his mouth to protest, but nothing came out, and all he could do was stare at her in disbelief.
No, no, no, this can't be happening! he screamed internally to whoever or whatever might be listening. This isn't real! They aren't dead! No! No! Please! Let this be some kind of cruel joke!
He looked toward Tink for reassurance, but the tinker was gone. He was alone once more, and he couldn't hold it back any longer. He dropped to his knees, tears pouring from his eyes. He hid his face in his hands as the cinders continued to rain down on him. What have I done? What have I done?
Exactly what you feared, a little voice in the back of his mind hissed. You became the very thing you despised.
"You were never the Protector of Life."
"This is all your fault!"
"You did this!"
"You killed them!"
The voices screamed at him, pounding their way into his brain. He tried to shut them out with his arms, but they just kept coming, gushing around him like a hurricane until he was crushed, devoured in the ocean of terror and guilt.
And then he woke up.
He sat up as though he'd been struck by lightning. The world flashed before his eyes, and he found himself sitting on a cotton-insulated bed in a dark room. Confused, and blinking away the remnants of the dream, he pushed himself up into a more convincing sitting position, trying to scan the room, but finding everything blurry when he realized his goggles were missing.
He frowned, using the bed as a balance as he shakily stood up, and almost immediately collapsed back onto the edge of the furniture with a grunt of pain.
"Oh, good. You're awake."
An unfamiliar voice spoke from behind him and he immediately spun around, letting go of the bed and nearly falling onto his face. He was just able to make out a blur of orange and the gold shimmer of dust. It was enough to know that the speaker was a fairy, and not something much more terrifying.
"Wh-where am I?" he stammered, bracing himself in case Shade was behind this and decided to show himself.
"Fairy's Haven," the voice answered. There was a shuffle of movement and the figure moved toward him, but his gaze did not follow her and he jumped nervously as she appeared at his side. "Hmmm," came the whisper near his ear. "Your friends told me your eyesight was terrible. Now I know they weren't exaggerating. Unusual for a tinker, I must confess. Well...here. You'll probably need these then."
She handed something to him, and he immediately recognized them as his goggles.
He fumbled with the straps, struggling to focus on listening to where the fairy was in the room and put his glasses on at the same time. "M-my friends," he whispered almost incoherently. "Are they...are they..." He swallowed hard, unable to comprehend anything beyond the dream.
The fairy paused at the fear in his tone and turned back to face him with a frown. She had long dark hair tied up similar to Fawn's, but darker brown eyes which shone with warmth, and cheeks dusted with freckles. Her dress set her apart as an animal-talent.
"They're just fine," she informed him. "They're waiting for you, actually. And as soon as you're strong enough, you can see them."
Bobble nodded, sinking back against the bed. "Wh-who are ya?"
She beamed. Her smile radiated like the sun. It was as if she'd waited a long time to hear him ask the question. "I'm like you," she responded mysteriously. And when he opened his mouth to question what she meant, she spread her hands, and formed a ball of water over the palm of one hand, and light over the other.
Bobble stared. "You're...you're a Protector?"
She nodded, closing her hands into fists and extinguishing the talents. "As are you. And by the condition I found you in, I can conclude that Shade already knows you exist?"
He nodded.
She sighed. "Well, that certainly complicates things." She started toward the door, gesturing for him to follow. "I don't understand what Queen Clarion was thinking, not bringing you here after your arrival. I suppose I'll have to teach you everything from the ground up. Honestly, Protectors are supposed to come here. That is literally the entire purpose of this place."
She gestured around her, and that was when Bobble realized where they were. He stared in awe at the grassy canopy of leaves overhead, and heard the bubbling of a waterfall nearby.
"This was supposed to be the training place of our guild," the fairy said, noticing the amazed look on the tinker's face. "We were never supposed to hide among the other talents. This is Fairy's Haven, the home of Neverland's Protectors, and where you should have been from the very beginning."
Bobble frowned. But if he'd come there from the start, he'd never have met his friends, and he would have been alone and deserted. Just like Shade. He gulped and hurried after her. "Sorry," he mumbled. "But who are ya? And can I see my friends, now, please?"
"Soon," she answered, taking him by the hand and leading him away from the clearing toward a patch of saplings. "And I think you've already guessed who I am, so it's needless to go down that path now."
"You're Scarab," Bobble guessed.
"Correct," she said with a smile. "I was told you were smart."
He shrugged. "Well, I am a tinker..."
"That you are. Come on, I want you to see something."
They walked among the saplings until they came to small ring of cherry trees surrounding a small bubbling creek. Bobble noticed the spark of light that passed through Scarab's hands as she reached out to brush one of the newly formed blossoms. Scarab noticed his staring and smiled. "This is the Ring of Purification," she explained. "It's...sort of where our powers are refilled. I bet you noticed how quickly you seemed to wear out when you used your magic in giant bursts." It was less of a question, more of a statement, as if she already knew the answer, but was waiting for him to confirm it.
He agreed with a nod and waited for her to explain further.
"Well, this is where we heal, and the source of our...skills. Here, let me show you." She guided him to place his hand in the water. He did so slowly, and grimaced as the liquid rushed over and around him. But it wasn't just a cold, unpleasant feeling. Sparks of what felt like electricity zapped through his nerves and coursed through his body. With a gasp, he hastily retracted his hand, and, feeling unusually stronger, he stared first at his open palm, then up to Scarab who was standing over him.
"What-what was that?"
"Your talents," Scarab answered. "You've fully recovered from your...performance...earlier. Quite flashy, I must admit. Not exactly...subtle...I might add."
"Sorry," he mumbled again, consciously aware of how often he'd been saying that recently.
"Don't worry," Scarab said with a small smile. "Every Protector uses their powers before their trained. I did. So did Shade."
Bobble shuddered. How very not reassurin'.
"You'll get the hang of it," Scarab went on. "After all, that's why you're here." She began to walk away, and he hurried after her.
"I'm sorry to keep askin'," Bobble mumbled, "but my friends..."
"Soon," Scarab repeated. "Very soon. But first, we must get you ready."
"Ready?" Bobble repeated with a frown. "Ready for what?"
Scarab didn't answer right away. Instead, she led him toward the waterfall and pressed something against the wall of stone. The rocks shifted and rotated, revealing a shelf of various objects, ranging from a porcupine quills to full length saucer targets. She picked out two of each and handed him a quill, which he took hesitantly.
"Shade has taken Pixie Hollow," Scarab revealed as she fluttered backward, spinning her quill gracefully behind her back. "Everyone has either fled, or is being forced to do his will. You ask me what we are doing here, and what I am preparing you for." She took a long breath and turned quarely to face him, and in that moment, Bobble could feel all of her fear, determination, hope, and desperation crash over him like a glacier.
"I'm preparing you for battle."
