And here we have the entirety of Act 3, mostly because I've waited way too dang long to put this out.
While there's one more chapter after this, the story more or less ends here, with the next chapter serving as an epilogue.
And don't worry, I'm not gonna put some kind of sequel hook at the end of this; this will be the final story of this universe.
... But if people wanted to write stories set in the same universe, I certainly wouldn't mind XD
I'd normally answer reviews here, but I think this chapter answers what was asked last chapter, or if not, comes close to.
Anyway, let's get this over with.
The balloon team kept floating in the skies, with the floating island of Tetherby Enterprises visible in the distance.
"Alright, I know we've been flying for a while, but we're almost there," Darcy said. "We should be able to reach the island in a few minutes."
"I just hope we're not too late," Lisa sighed. "Knowing how time works in magical girl anime, the entire conflict in that island might've been resolved already."
"Nothing's going to get resolved unless we fix the cracks," Clyde pointed out. "At best, the entire trouble with the Tetherby building should be over with."
And then, they saw something in the distance; a clash of powers that sent a shockwave that burst their balloons.
Lisa quickly reacted by grabbing Darcy and flying towards the island, while Guy Jordan sprouted wings and tendrils and grabbed the rest of the team with them.
"Man, that was close!" Darcy said, wiping some sweat off her forehead.
"Looks like we arrived just in time for the climax," Guy Jordan remarked. "The question now is, who's winning?"
Lily yelled bloody murder as she swung her mace wildly, all while Stella fought back with one of the twin swords, smirking all the while.
This continued until Stella fought back, and engaged in a stalemate with the enraged monochrome eyed girl.
"You know, when I first heard about you, I had this mental image of someone who had a willpower much stronger than her looks suggested. But I guess in the end, your mind is just as weak as everybody else."
"Shut up!"
"And when this is all over, it'll be ten years before The Twilight World tried to merge with the Earth, only to be repelled again and again."
"I said shut up!"
"Just accept it already! You're nothing more than another pawn in this chess game Harriet never finished!"
Then, Lily's eyes glowed. "I said..."
Lily swung her mace up, and although Stella kept her grip on her sword, Lily was quick to attack, yelling:
"Shut up!"
She hit Stella right in the face, hard enough to send her crashing into a wall.
Lily breathed heavily as Lisa and Darcy slowly floated down, reaching the ground just as Lily began taking a few stops towards the dust cloud.
"Lily?"
Lily turned around, ready to swing her mace, but as soon as she saw Lisa and Darcy-the former protecting the latter-she calmed down, though her eyes remained monochromatic.
"Lisa? Darcy?!" she uttered. "W-What are you doing here?!"
"We found out something very important about the Twilight Fox, and we knew we had to come here to tell you," Lisa explained. "Did we arrive too late?"
Suddenly, thunder cackled, and the sky above the island slowly shattered, eventually breaking apart to reveal The Twilight World hovering above them.
"Something tells me that's an answer, but I don't know if it's yes or no," Lily grimaced. "Anyway, what did you find out?"
"The Twilight Fox isn't a concept, but a person!" Darcy answered. "A person whose travel between The Twilight World and this world is the reason for the cracks!"
"Ohoho, that's not it at all."
The trio turned around, and saw Stella walking out of the cloud, her face facing away from the spot Lily hit.
She turned around, and flashed a sadistic grin as half of her face had been torn off by Lily's attack... revealing a metallic face underneath, with a golden glowing eye.
"Wha-Stella's a robot?!" Darcy exclaimed. "Am I imagining this?!"
"Oh no, Darcy, I assure you what you're seeing is real," Stella responded. "I, Stella Tetherby, am actually a robot."
"Okay, I thought we were in a magic-themed fiasco, when did robots enter the picture?" Lily asked.
"When was it ever said they couldn't be part of the picture?" Stella put her hands on her hips. "After all, it's thanks to science that the whole magical debacle even happened."
Lily's eyes widened while Lisa narrowed hers. "How do you know that's what happened?"
"I know a lot more than you think, Lily," Stella shrugged. "But, since we came this far, I think it's only fair that I explain everything to you. Would've loved it if Lincoln and Lisa both could've joined us, though."
Then, Lincoln hovered over to the site, and flew to the girls.
"Well, would you look at that," Stella snickered. "It seems everybody who needs to hear this is here!"
"Lincoln, how are things going over with the sisters?" Lily asked.
"They're holding their own, but the thing that came out is of another world-" Lincoln explained right before Stella's metallic face caught his attention. "Does... Stella have a robot face?"
"Not only that, she practically IS a robot, Lincoln," Lisa clarified.
Lincoln turned to Stella, and floated down as she explained:
"Yes, I'm a robot. You see, my dear creator Tetherby had found out about The Twilight World sometime after he met you. He quickly linked your family to the woman who originally discovered The Twilight World, Harriet Loud. And soon after, he made another, much more shocking discovery; every time The Twilight World tried to merge with the Earth..."
Stella pointed at the Loud trio with her sword.
"The Loud Family was always there to stop it. And it makes sense, really; one of your ancestors open the world and cause it to try merge with this reality, and so it falls upon you to fix that mistake, constantly."
"But, why?" Lily asked. "How do you know all of this? Why did Tetherby create you?"
"While he was investigating a way to harness power from The Twilight World, Tetherby created me to serve as his mouth, in a sense," Stella folded her arms. "When I wasn't hanging around Lincoln and keeping an eye on him, I was being used as Tetherby's stand-in during important business, until he found himself in a new body, forcing me to take up the mantle as the leader of Tetherby Enterprises."
"So that's why you disappeared," Lincoln lowered his eyelids. "You were ruling Tetherby's company in the shadows."
Stella nodded. "And eventually, I gave up on keeping an eye on you. Once you and Lisa decided to work with Tetherby, it wasn't long before I realized neither of you would be the Louds to deal with The Twilight World."
Stella turned to Lily, who flinched.
"Instead, you handed that responsibility to Lily."
"And so, all the experiments, Dawning Dusk, they were all part of some secret plan to harness The Twilight World?" Lisa asked.
"The idea was to use you two idiots to control the outcome of The Twilight World, and create an enemy so strong that you'd waste all your time fighting them, allowing The Twilight World to finally merge with the Earth, allowing him to stand at the top of the new world! Or something like that, I dunno, Tetherby was a business man, not a planning man."
And then some loud snoring was heard. A quick scan of the area revealed the snoring was coming from Darcy, who had fallen asleep.
"Is she sleeping? Why's she sleeping?!" Stella snapped.
"You must've been monologuing for so long, Darcy grew bored and decided to take a nap." Lisa shrugged.
"But my monologue didn't even last for five minutes! Was it really that boring!?"
"I mean, Darcy's always been an action-oriented person, and she gets bored rather quickly."
Stella gripped the sword and gritted her teeth. "Then she's gonna be ticked that she missed what's coming next!"
And then the robot girl was suddenly struck by something, sending her rolling to the ground, dropping her sword in the process while Darcy woke up.
"Uh-wha-what happened?" Darcy asked, rubbing her eyes. "What did I miss?"
Lily turned around, and saw Girl Jordan entering the fray, steam coming out of her finger gun.
"Girl Jordan!"
Then, without wasting time, Guy Jordan ran past Stella and grabbed the sword. "Thank you!"
"Hey, that's mine! Give it back!"
But before she could chase after the critter, Lincoln and Lisa stood in Stella's way, causing her to flash a furious glare.
"Darcy, catch!"
Guy Jordan threw the sword at Darcy, and she was lucky enough to catch it on the hilt rather than the blade.
"Okay, why's that thing helping us?" Lily asked as Darcy handed her the sword.
"It's Guy Jordan trapped in the body of a critter from The Twilight World."
"He's a what now?" Girl Jordan asked in disbelief.
"I know you must have a dozen questions running through your head, but there's no time!" Guy Jordan stated as he hopped onto Darcy's shoulder. "Quick! Use the swords to put an end to this once and for all!"
"Swords?" Lily repeated. "But I only got one."
Naturally, the other sword landed right nearby, straight on the pointy end. And a look up saw Leni floating nearby, flashing a thumbs up as she went to help her sisters with whatever they were doing.
"This has been one crazy day," Girl Jordan sighed as she grabbed the other sword. "But something tells me it's about to end."
"Rather suddenly and anticlimactically, but it'll end nonetheless," Lily looked up. "Now, we need to figure out how to get up to the crack."
Darcy touched Lily's shoulder, and flashed a little smile, which Lily returned as Girl Jordan looked confused at them.
Soon after, Girl Jordan and Lily got on a pair of large balloons, which floated towards the crack as Lily looked down, flashing a thumbs up at a waving Darcy.
"Okay, Girl Jordan, this is the moment of truth," Lily stated as she faced the woman. "Once we're close enough to the crack, we have to use these swords to spread it."
"Spread the crack?!" Girl Jordan exclaimed. "Lily, all that'll do is allow The Twilight World to merge with the Earth!"
"That's the plan!"
Girl Jordan raised an eyebrow, prompting Lily to explain:
"The only reason the cycle continues as it does is because my family keeps pushing The Twilight World away. We push away a piece of what was the original world back to its separate dimension: Girl Jordan, the world used to be magical until both sides were forcefully split away."
"But the keyword there is that it "was" magical. Past tense," Girl Jordan frowned. "And not only that, but people have grown used to the non-magical world. And their one experience with a magical world was the whole disaster ten years ago. If we allow The Twilight World to merge with this world, then what happened ten years ago is something they'll have to deal with, possibly forever."
Lily frowned and lowered her head. She looked down at the fight happening underneath them, then at the sky crack, which was much closer than she expected.
Finally, she looked at her sword... and she could've swore she saw Dawning Dusk in its blade, winking at her with a reassuring smile.
At last, she made her decision.
"I know the consequences, Girl Jordan. Yes, the world will never be the same. And yes, it'll take a while before everybody gets used to it."
Lily stood up and raised her sword.
"But if that's the price to pay to put an end to a cycle that's been plaguing my family for decades... then I accept it."
Girl Jordan smiled, and Lily was quick to notice.
"What?"
"You're certainly not the same little girl I met a decade ago."
Lily rolled her eyes and focused on the crack. "Just focus on the crack."
Girl Jordan shook her head and stood up, readying her sword as the duo got as close to the crack as they could.
Once there, they exchanged nods and smiles, and implanted their swords on the crack before swinging them, expanding the crack rapidly, almost alarmingly so.
The balloons popped, and the duo were grabbed by Lincoln, Lisa, and Guy Jordan.
"Thanks for the catch," Girl Jordan said.
"No problem," Lincoln replied.
"Alright, everybody better brace yourselves," Guy Jordan sighed as he looked at the expanding crack. "This is gonna get intense."
And intense it got, as lighting cackled from the crack as pieces of it fell, and the skies darkened, gaining a monochrome color before they blackened completely.
With three thundering strikes, the sky crack completely shattered, the world being surrounded by a white light as both worlds fully merged at last...
A short time passed before Lily, Girl Jordan, and everybody else woke up, with the sky now free of cracks.
"Is everybody alright?" Lily asked.
"Yeah, I think I'm fine," Girl Jordan chuckled, grabbing her head as she stood up. "I really don't think I'll return to the Aura business after this. I think I'll stick to the teaching business for now."
Lily smiled. "I like the sound of that."
Suddenly, Stella burst into view, throwing some rubble away as she scanned her surroundings... then saw the clear skies.
"What... happened?"
Stella looked back at the group, and narrowed her eyes as her robotic eye glowed red.
"Answer me! What did you do!?"
"The only thing we could do that would put a stop to the cycle once and for all," Girl Jordan stated. "We merged the worlds together."
"What!?"
"Using the power of the swords, we spread the crack all over the world and used it to give The Twilight World the perfect chance to fuse with our reality," Lily explained. "Or something like that. All I really know, is that The Twilight World and our world are now one and the same."
Stella shivered, her robotic head sparking as she gritted her metallic teeth and snapped.
"And how do you think that solves anything!? All you really did was return the world back to a more primitive state! Magical creatures, supernatural powers, things that were once the product of fantasy are now reality! It'll take years for everybody to adapt, and even if they do, nothing will be the same anymore!"
"Good." Lily stated with a smile.
"Good!?" Stella pulled her hair. "You just turned everybody's life upside down, and the only thing you got to say for it is "good!?"
"Precisely." Lily responded. "Yes, I'll admit it; life won't be the same after today. But the cycle that Great Grandma Harriet got my family stuck into has finally ended. It'll be a while before people get used to the new way of living, but they'll eventually adapt."
"And most importantly," Girl Jordan added with a smile. "Tetherby can't hide in another dimension for his crimes anymore. And even if he were to go into hiding, once they realize Tetherby Enterprises' role in the creation of the new world, he's gonna be poorer than dirt."
"You... you... you-!"
Suddenly, strings manifested from thin air and wrapped themselves around Stella, who was promptly pulled around to see their source.
It was Leni, hands extended forward, and surrounded by the rest of her family and Clyde.
"You totes need to take a break."
Lori summoned her inner demon, and the raven entity flew straight towards Stella, inserting itself into her metallic body as Stella short circuited, her robotic eye flashing lights before turning off.
"I didn't know Sebastian could do that," Leni remarked.
"I didn't either," Lori said with a smile. "I just did the first thing that came to mind."
With that done, Lincoln and Lisa approached Stella's motionless body, and took a closer look.
"So, one of the girls I had a crush on turned out to be a robot spy sent by Tetherby, because he thought I'd play a part in disrupting the cycle between the Loud family, and The Twilight World," Lincoln recapped as Lisa inspected Stella's machinery. "I don't know which is weirder; the fact that's actually a thing, or the fact it's not the weirdest truth I ever find out about one of my crushes."
"I still can't believe Ronnie Anne got lighting powers and became a superhero," Lori remarked. "She literally would've been a great help during the entire magical fiasco."
"Eh, I'm not too sure about that," Lynn shrugged. "Superheroes and magical girls never really mash well together."
"I can verify that," Lucy said wearily.
"The technology in this body is nothing short of amazing," Lisa remarked as she looked at Stella's cables. "If I had known Tetherby had access to these electronics, I would've ditched the whole magical girl plan."
"That sounds like something you'd say."
Lily, Girl Jordan, and Darcy approached the duo, followed by the rest of the group doing the same.
"So, what do we do now?" Luan asked. "I mean, Stella's been taken care of, and even if Tetherby's still out there, he should be no problem now that we got two World Auras on our side."
"Again, I'm sticking away from the Aura business," Girl Jordan sighed. "Although, I don't know about you, Lily. I mean, being an Aura and also a student sounds like a hassle."
"It might be, but if it's necessary, I'll do it."
"And you'll have my full support."
Everybody looked up and saw Dawning Dusk floating down, holding both swords in her hands.
"Dawning Dusk?" Lisa asked. "Where did you come from?"
"I was sealed by Stella using some kind of technology, and she repurposed my energy into a pair of swords," the entity explained. "At least, I think that's what she did. I'm not really sure what she actually did, but I'm free now."
Dawning Dusk turned to Lily and floated to her. "And it's all thanks to you and Girl Jordan."
Lily raised an eyebrow. "Is this the part where you willingly return to the swords and give them to me to become some sort of guardian for the new world?"
"AHAHAHAHA-no. I just came out of those prisons, I'm not going back again," Dawning Dusk looked at the swords. "No, what I'm thinking, is that I'm gonna use these swords to find Tetherby and put an end to him for good. And once I'm done with him, maybe I'll consider handing them over."
"Sounds good to me," Lincoln said. "Happy hunting."
"Thanks, uncle."
With that said, Dawning Dusk flew off into the distance, leaving everybody behind to get ready to go back home, and witness the new world.
"Lisa, why are you bringing Stella with you?" Lori asked.
Lisa, carrying the heavy robotic body of Stella, paused and faced her oldest sister. "I was thinking there's something I could do with her."
"You're not literally gonna reprogram her into becoming good, are you?"
"No, she's too advanced for that. All I wanna do is study her and see if I can figure out something from her schematics to try help improve the technology of the world."
"Just don't turn her back on. Who knows what'll happen if you do."
Lisa hummed inquisitively, and joined her sisters while being watched by Lincoln.
"Well, it's time we get going too."
Lily and Girl Jordan turned around and saw Mrs. Johnson approaching the latter, looking like she just came out of a brutal fight.
"Whoa, what happened to you, Mrs. Johnson?!" Lily asked.
"Let's just say a giant evil wolf with a pacifier is a much tougher fight than I expected, hehe," she answered. "Anyway, Jordan, it's time we get going."
"Yeah, I'm just about ready to call this a day," Girl Jordan ruffled Lily's hair. "Goodbye, Lily."
"Goodbye, Mrs. Jordan."
Girl Jordan flinched. "Stick to Girl Jordan for now, okay?"
"Sure."
And so, the duo left just as Guy Jordan, coming with Clyde, arrived.
"We should leave too," Clyde remarked. "Darcy, could you make us some balloons to float down?"
"I sure can!" she chirped. "Do you want a balloon, Lily?"
"Thanks for the offer, Darcy, but I wanna go back home with my family by my side," Lily scratched her head. "That, and I think we're a little too high for my comfort."
"I figured as much."
Lily and Darcy exchanged a fist bump, and both went their separate ways; Lily joined her sisters on the helicopter driven by Paige-who was actually glad her boss was knocked out-and Farcy created balloons for her and the remaining people.
And with that, the adventure at the flying island came to a close.