Part 8 "Final Fantasy"

 The battle raged furiously on the cliffs.  The DeWorfer Maartin Luethor and the El Fvis El Grekoe who had fought recently over religious arguments now fought side by side against the P'Orhks. A P'Orhk jumped from the scaffolding onto the El Grekoe knocking him back. El Grekoe lay helplessly flat on his back. The P'Orhk on top of him raised a jagged dagger above his head.

Maartin Luethor jumped on top of the P'Orhk, stabbing it through the back of the neck with his blade. He threw the P'Orhks body off of El Grekoe. "You don't think I'd let some P'Orhk slay you now do you."

 El Grekoe looked up at him a pained expression on his face. A dagger lay buried inside his side.

Kon lashed his boot heel on the head of a P'Orhk knocking him from the scaffolding

Cassie stood just behind him on the cliff. She held the red stone in her hand and cursed. "Damn it why won't it work."

"Forget the stone Cass. I have." Kon slashed away with his sword. "Just grab a sword and go to it."

"But the stone is such a powerful weapon."

Kon hacked away below him. "In your hands Cass a sword is a powerful weapon. You're better than Luke Skywalker with that thing."

 "Really? You think so?"

 Kon dodged out of the way of a spear thrown at him. A P'Orhk on the other side of him grabbed hold of his sword arm.

 From behind Kon, Cassie's sword cut through the P'Orhks arm. Needless to say he lost his grip and fell down toward the water below.

 Kon stood and looked at Cassie beside him. Black blood dripped from her sword blade. "Yeah I think so."

Two P'Orhks climbed the scaffolding coming at Cissie. She drew back her bowstring. "Damn I can only get one of them. The other one is going to get me."

 She loosed the bowstring. The arrow hit in the chest of the P'Orhk she had been aiming at. An arrow also struck the chest of the one she had not aimed at.

Cissie turned aside her. A handsome El Fvis faced her. "Gud Luk."

Gud Luk smiled. "Indeed it is, but as it was good timing as well."

The man in the lab coat smiled as he walked towards Slobo and Anita. The gray haze that surrounded him followed him as he walked. "You are quite right in presuming that I wish the stone. But you do not have the stone that I am seeking."

"The white stone?" Anita offered.

"That is correct. With the white stone all will be put right with the world."

Anita raised a finger in the air. "Uh pardon me for being nosey but how would you define right with the world?"

"It is when I am reunited with my beloved Rebecca and we can rule in peace over the land."

"Huh?" Anita turned to Slobo. "This isn't so bad. This guy isn't a mad wizard at all. He really seems quite reasonable."

"Yes when my wife returns to me Ray and Rebecca Stillin shall have the whole of the earth as our garden. All the living creatures that plague it now will be swept away so that my wife can enjoy her garden in peace."

Slobo glanced over at Anita. "Uh don't you mean quite unable to reason. So where's this wife of yours now?"

 The man pointed through one on the thin windows to the giant colossal salt stature of the plain woman. It faced them serenely. "There is my Rebecca."

"I will use the white stone to bring her through the portal. After thousands of years it is nearly within my grasp."

Maartin Luethor carried El Greco to the makeshift hospital they had set up. "Hurry, hurry he's got a bad gut wound."

A group of El Fvis medical attendants grabbed El Grekoe from his arms and laid him on a cot.

"What can I do? What can I do? " Maartin hovered about the El Fvis who were examining the wound.

One of the healers pulled him by the shoulder. "Get out of the way. There's nothing you can do here."

"There must be something…"

El Grekoe opened his eyes and let out a faint whisper. "You can pray for me. Pray to your gods for me."

Maartin grabbed his hand. "I will. I will pray for you."

"Now go, go and slay some P'Orhks."

Robin stood behind the line of those fighting on the cliff. He saw a group of DeWorfers struggling with some P'Orhks who had made it up over the cliff wall. Robin pointed to them and shouted to a group behind him. "Help them out. Plug that hole."

A group of DeOrrifissers, now without their purple armor, charged toward the hole with their battle-axes and war hammers raised above their heads. "For the general!" They laughed as they charged the field.

Robin raised his eyebrows. "Huh, well what do ya know? My troops love me."

Cassie thrust out her sword piercing a P'Orhk through the neck. "That's what I call my P'Orhk chop."

The P'Orhk fell backwards. Cassie wasn't able to extract her sword from its throat. She tumbled over the cliff with it.

 "Cassie." Kon yelled. He looked down terrified. Instantly dropping all the weapons in his hands, he leaped after her.

"Damn you." Cassie pushed her feet against the shoulders of the dead P'Orhk in an attempt to free her sword as she was falling. "Oh Geez, how could I forget I can't fly. I'm going to die."

 She tried to slow her decent. A pair of arms grabbed her around the waist and hoisted her up into the air. "Kon! You're flying."

Kon looked at her confused. "That's right. I'm flying."

He swooped over the plain. "I'm flying. I can fly. I can…"

Kon and Cass started to fall abruptly. "I can't fly, I can't fly."

Cass slowed their decent to the ground. "As soon as you became conscious of the fact that you were flying you couldn't fly anymore. Isn't that odd."

Ray looked out the window at his statue. "Soon Rebecca, soon we shall be together."

Anita chastised him. "Do you really think Rebecca wants to be with a maroon like you? Here my darling Rebecca, come and join me in my castle of death. You really are a geek."

Ray whipped around to face her. "You! You dare speak of my wife."

Slobo stepped in front of Anita. "Actually it's not your wife she's speaking about." Slobo pointed his thumb out the window to the giant statue. "Although she really does have a big ass on her. She's talking about you. You loser. Ya know you're an even bigger ass."

"None have had the temerity to speak to me thus. Tell me little man how is it that you are able to withstand the power of the death stone?"

"Me and death we're old friends, we get along real good. Perhaps I'll introduce you to my friend death. My old friend death can be a little awkward around certain people. So the instructions can be terribly slow and painful. But after a little while just chatting I guarantee you be begging death to be your friend too."

"Well little man I guess it's time to say hello to your friend." He thrust his hands forwards the grayness that enveloped him pushed outwards toward Slobo.

Slobo pushed out with his might. Grayness emanated from him completely enveloping him like the wizard.

"Slobo no!" Anita cried and jumped behind him. The entire room could be seen filling up with gray. "Slobo no!"

"Come boy let's see what you have."

 Slobo pushed forward with his grayness. It met the wizards in a swirling of shades.

"Slobo no! You're covering the whole room in death!" Anita shrunk into the colored part of the room remaining.

Slobo foamed at the mouth. His face was contorted in hatred. The grayness poured from him like a storm. The wizard leaned back unaffected and smiled contentedly.

Anita scrunched into the last bit of colored space. "Slobo! Stop! This is what he wants don't you see. Slobo please, please don't kill me. Don't kill me."

 Something stirred in Slobo's eyes. "Nita babe." The grayness around him dampened completely. He fell backwards unconscious.

The stone triangle that Slobo carried around his neck broke away from him and flew forward to Ray. It joined to the corner of his black stone with a resounding thud completing the square figure.

 Anita rushed over to the fallen Slobo.

 Ray stared at them with maddened eyes. "My lord, my lord, the power. The power!" He raised his hands above himself triumphantly. Where he had once been covered in gray he was now covered in the deepest haze of black. Deep was the abyss that one stared into when looking upon him.

Anita grabbed Slobo and slung him over her shoulder. She started running.

 The blackened Ray wizard made no attempt to follow. He stood transfixed reveling in his newfound power. Reams of blackness swept through him. "I am what all creatures fear."

She ran hurriedly carrying Slobo to the exit.

"Well how does it look?" Robin turned to Ariss beside him.

Ariss responded enthusiastically. "Great there are more on the scaffolding all the time. We are creating quite a logjam at the cliff. It's just a matter of time until there are enough."

Robin stared at a wounded DeWorfer being carried away on a stretcher. "I hope it isn't too much time, every second costs us."

Kon stood overlooking the cliff with a new sword in hand. "Cass, would you say that the basin of that scaffolding was buckling a bit."

Cass fought across from him "Why I do believe you're right general Kon, I do seem to notice it buckling. You know they really should have built that better."

"I agree. I bet you that faulty material was involved."

"Actually," Cass saw the scaffolding beginning to waver. "I can pretty well guarantee it."

All in one moment the bottom corner of the scaffolding gave in. The scaffolding began to lean and being full with P'Orhks once it started to lean it started to topple. The entire mass of P'Orhks as well as tons of metal scaffolding were sent falling down to the water far below.

The DeWorfers and the El Fvis let out a triumphant roar.

Cissie looked down amazed at destruction below her. Cissie turned overjoyed. "Gud Luk we won. Gud Luk?"

She looked to see Gud Luk lying on the ground, a hand held over his side, which was soaked in blood.

She knelt beside him. "Oh my god Gud Luk."

She raised his head he looked at her weakly. "Cissie…"

She opened his shirt. "It's ok. You're going to be all right."

She looked at the wound. Tears welled up in her eyes. "Oh… oh god, Gud Luk."

He looked up at her serenely. "It's ok Cissie. To all things an end must come."

"They can't end. I love you. You're my Elvin archer. Oh please…"

He gasped. "Shh… if you want I can still be your archer. I'll always be your archer Cissie. Please give… give Kuepidd my bow." His eyes rolled back into his head.

Cissie laid him back on the ground turned her head away from his body.

 She looked up to see the crowd with their hands raised in triumph.

 She buried her hands in her face and began to sob.

Anita ran from the castle with Slobo draped over her back. The blackness began to envelope the castle behind her. She heard a strange rumpling behind her. She turned again as she ran to look back at the castle. It had started to splinter breaking up into block like chunks. The castle walls began to crumple down. The blackness spread ever further outwards extending into every wall of the castle. Then the entire castle shook and completely collapsed in on itself. The blackness disappeared instantly now. Only a cloud of salt dust plumbed from the now destroyed castle.

 Anita stared back amazed. A dust cloud approached her from the collapsed castle.

Anita threw herself and Slobo to the ground as the salt dust swirled over them.

Anita spat the salt from her lips. "Yeech salty."

Slobo stirred. "Uh. Oh geez, what happened?" He opened his eyes to see the salt granulized salt before him. "Oh, I remember something like this happened to me once before when I got drunk and went to sleep it off in the winter ice salt heap."

He turned to Anita. "Although I don't remember waking up with a broad."

"Slobo you're ok and back to normal."

"Normal babe. I ain't never been normal."

"Oh I see." She raised herself up on her elbow to face him. "So what are you then extranormal, abnormal?"

"Superunnormal."

"Superunnormal huh?" She threw her arms around him. "That's good cause my hobby is the supernatural. And I think they're somehow close to each other." She leaned over and kissed him.

Ariss looked below him to the P'Orhks on the river embankment. "I don't believe it, even after this disaster the P'Orhks rally on the shore. With their single mindedness of purpose you know they will eventually attack us again. Is there nothing we can do to stop these beasts?"

Robin gazed below to the P'Orhks who were angrily putting their siege weapons, which propelled giant rocks toward the cliffs back into place. "Damn it. This battle will have been useless unless we can find some way to neutralize those P'Orhks."

" Huh what's happening?" Robin looked to the P'Orhks below. They writhed and shivered about in their crude armor.

He looked below them again but he couldn't see a single P'Orhk. Instead the terrain was littered with pig carcasses.

Cassie peered down at the mass of pigs covering the bank. "Boy somebody really went to market with all the pigs."

Laeyaa looked passively below. "It is as they are before the dark magic of the wizard transform them into the P'Orhks."

Cassie stared at the corpse of a dead pig. "You mean they started out like this. Now that's sick."

"That's it! It's over! The threat from the great wizard is no more. We have won. We have been saved thanks to the heroes of the stones."

Ariss approached Robin with a sheet in his hand. "Now before I give you these official casualty figures I just want to say that all together we had a rather impressive victory."

 "You're right Ariss. We did well. But how many people did we loose."

Ariss handed Robin the sheet with the casualty figures.

  Robin examined it. He then crumpled the paper in his hand. Robins face turned down.

Kon carried pails of water inside a large hospital tent. "Tell me again why you volunteered us for this duty Cass. I thought you said you were looking forward to some time away from blood and gore."

Cass warily redressed the DeWorfer's leg wound. "We're here to do everything we can to make sure these people don't die."

She looked at him with red-rimmed eyes. "Because I've seen more funerals in the last while then I ever want to see in my life again."

Cissie sat next to the small tree they had planted in the ground at Gud Luk's funeral.

"Why do you sit by his tree?" Kuepidd approached Cissie.

"I don't know it's the closest you El Fvis have to grave stones I guess. I don't know it's a place to remember him."

"This whole free forest is a good place to remember."

She handed him a fine long bow. "He wanted you to have this."

Kuepidd smiled and drew back its string in practice. "Wow, I'm going to go get some arrows." He ran off into the woods.

Cissie smiled as she watched Kuepidd go. Then she looked back to the freshly planted tree.

Cissie's face turned down. She knelt solemnly again by the tree.

The whole gang dined at the victory feast. Entire tables were set up assembled with and quite mixed between Deworfers, DeOrrifissers and El Fvis. The tables were stacked with various types of food.

Maartin Luethor looked to see El Grekoe slowly approach the table. He held his arm closely to his wounded side.

"El Grekoe what are you doing up and about? You should still be in bed."

"Maartin my friend, it is your gods they have done wonders for my health."

"Have they now?" Maartin smiled and pulled out a chair at the banquet table. "Then sit and partake of this feast that you may nurse yourself back to true heath."

Echo pointed Ivy out to El Evan. "So that is your queen. She is quite lovely." She then turned angrily away from El Evan.

El Evan stared at Ivy strangely. "Hmm I wonder if she is. I wonder if what we're truly seeing is a façade. And she is not my queen. She is queen of the forest, not the queen of the El Fvis people. To be the queen to the El Fvis people one must be truly beautiful."

He took Echo's hand. "As you are."

Cassie nudged Cissie, as she was playing with Kuepidd in the seat next to her. "Glad to see you're out of your gloomy mood at last."

"I am not. I am still terribly depressed."

 Kuepidd thrust an arrow in front of Cissie. "Hey Cissie see the feather I put on this arrow."

Cissie took the arrow from Kuepidd. "That's pretty good Kuepidd."

Cassie turned to her. "That little kid has like, a major crush on you Cissie."

"Don't be ridiculous Cassie. Look at the age difference between us how could he possibly be attracted to…"

Kuepidd looked up at Cissie and stared at her dreamily.

Cissie turned back to Cassie. "Really a crush on me?"

  Kon called out. "Hey Bart hand me down that bottle willya."

Bart grabbed the bottle and raised it in front of him. "Take this all of you and drink from it." He handed down the bottle.

"Uh good one Bart. The next thing you know your going to be making holy bread."

"Yeah I'm sure I saw it."  Bart rooted through one of the baskets of food. He pulled out a loaf of bread with a large air hole baked in it. He held it up in front of him for all to see.

Robin smiled at the scene before him "Well what do you know? All is right and peaceful with the world."

Cassie replied. "Yeah that's great but it isn't our world. How do we get back?"

Robin shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know until recently I haven't really had time to think about the possibility of going home. Which brings us to our next problem Ivy. What do we do about her? She's the reason why we're here in the first place."

"Not to mention Slobo and Anita. Where the heck are they?" Cass added.

A haze of smoke appeared in front of them. Slobo and Anita peered at them both of them looked disheveled and ragged.

Cass approached them concerned. "You? You guys, are you all right?"

"Hey look babe it's a buffet." Slobo grabbed a ducks leg from the table and began to munch down on it. "Ah, there's nothing like a buffet by the campfire for a slayer of evil."

Cassie dragged them over to sit at the table.

"I must have teleported a million times to get here." Anita slumped at the table exhausted.

Slobo began pounding the food back.

Kon abruptly interrupted them. "So what happened? Where's the stone?"

Slobo talked between mouthfuls "I dunno. Somewhere back there along with his ruined body."

"He is dead then, the great wizard is dead?" Aleks smiled.

"I have a feeling that man had already been dead a long while." Anita answered stoically.

"Is the stone what the wizard wished?" El Evan questioned.

"No he wanted the white stone of Eden." Anita answered bluntly.

"Heh, he truly was mad for no such stone ever existed." Ivy looked at the crowd venomously.

Anita got up and stood above Ivy seated at her spacious table.

"So there is no white stone of Eden?" She stared Ivy directly in the eyes.

Ivy turned her gaze away from Anita.

 With lightning speed Anita abruptly drew aside a leaf covering one on the bowls placed before Ivy.

 A bright light emanated from a white round stone within the bowl

 "The white stone of Eden!" El Evan gasped.

Ivy grabbed at the bowl it inadvertently spilled onto the table. The white ball rolled off of the table. By reflex Ivy's hand reached out to catch it. "No! No! I touched it! I touched it!" A white light emanated from the stone inside her hands. It reached out the envelope the Young Justice gang.

 Ivy released the stone from her hands. It fell away in the whiteness surrounding them.

They blinked as the light faded. They looked around the chemist's laboratory they were in.

"No, no, you fools you've taken it all away. It was all I ever dreamed of and you've taken it away."

"She's right we're back where we started." Cassie stared at the gang who were dressed in their full costumes as they had been when they were initially swept away

Kon swooped in the air. "I've got my powers back."

"We all do." Secret intoned.

Bart clutched his head in his hands. "Oh no, I've lost my wisdom."

Kon smiled. "Too bad. Guess you'll have to settle for your normal stupidity."

"You won't miss being smart though. You'll be none the wiser." Cass added.

"I don't have my stone anymore." Cissie clutched around her neck.

Ivy scowled at them. "Neither do I. Damn you fools, the magic teleporting white stone is forever lost on Innbee Tweenerth. I can never go back there. For 500 years I was a queen. Now that's gone forever."

 "I'll kill you all for this." Ivy came at them forcefully. Her jaw was slammed backwards by Robins fist. Ivy sank unconscious to the floor.

The others turned to him expectantly.

"Well." Robin faced them for a moment then said flatly. "Uh… thanks a lot for your help in capturing Poison Ivy."

"The Lord of the Stones" m

Appendix:

Notes on pronunciation of the names and places of Innbee Tweenerth:

The system of writing is generally believed to have originated with the El Fvis scholar El Faabet. The vowel sounds are long vowel sounds when followed directly by an E such as in the word bee or toe. The short vowel sounds are denoted by a single character such as in bet (soft e) or stretched double vowel sound such as in Aardvark. (soft a) There are 23 characters, C being replaced by K for the hard C sound as in can and S for the soft C sound as in cell, and Q being replaced by Kw and X being replaced by Ks. The Ch sound of church is replaced Tsh. G is always the hard G sound as in good, the soft G sound such as in germ being replaced by J.

.

The Red Stone of Flame. Cass (Eks Traa Speshiil)

The Yellow Stone of Light. Impulse (Eks Kaalibber)

The Black Stone of Death. Slobo (Eks Aampel)

The Blue Stone of Water. Cissie (Eks Plaa Naeshon)

The Colorless Stone of Air. Kon (Eks Ziit)

The Brown Stone of Earth. Robin, Echo (Eks Traa Ordinaaree)

The Green Stone of Healing. Secret (Eks Pensiiv)

The White Eden Stone. Anita (Eks Empt)