Between Hope and Death
By: ChocolateEclar
Disclaimer: Some characters belong to the magnificent authoress, Diana Wynne Jones. I just borrowed them for a while.
Claimer: I only own Wyn, Aidan, Kamania and Chris Aprilian, Lady Kachioin (and her village), Miss Coca, Mr. Calypso, Professor Weph, Life, Death, Apocalypse, Rhys, and Heulo (aka 'the Sun Spirit of All Knowledge.')
To Lady Artemis: ^__^ Cliffhangers are fun, except for the part were I get 'death threats.' Those just make me feel like I've done my 'job' and make you want to read more. Anyway, thanks for reviewing. Aidan and Wyn will be 'tying the knot' as well soon, so look out for that. I suspect that won't occur till the end though.
A/N: No offense to anyone, but I always get a kick when I read reviews and my characters' names have been 'crucified.' For example here's the mistakes for Kamania alone: Kamenia and Karmania. ^_- Just thought I'd share something that sometimes makes me look at a review and laugh. Now on to chapter 17!
Chapter 17: In Which the Final Battle Begins
Heulo-Rhys opened his eyes and realized he was still plastered face down onto the dark floor of the oblivion. He slowly looked up to see nothing; it was endless and he soon collapsed from pain again. He reached out mentally for the connection between him and Rhys, but it wasn't there. Nothing but the remains of it lingered and it left him with an empty feeling.
He opened his bright green eyes again and gazed at his reflection in the cool metallic ground. The eyes themselves were as lifeless as Rhys's were at the moment and the familiar golden glint behind them coming from being a Sun Spirit had diminished as well. His hair was a tousled mess and it seemed to be matted to his forehead. He prodded at it and discovered he had a gory bump on his forehead just beneath his hair that was mixing blood in his curls. 'How can I bleed without a body?' he wondered absently and with that he fell into unconsciousness once more.
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Rhys gave a groan and squeezed his turquoise quilt around his head tighter. "Leave me alone!" he cried out venomously.
Wyn took a step back at that and said in a softer more complaining voice, "Oh please, Rhys, you haven't left your bed very much for the past week! You need fresh air! It'll clean out your head…"
"I like my head just as it is! Thank you very much!!!" yelled Rhys through the covers.
"Urgh! You're lying and you know it! Without Heulo you're ready to jump off a bridge!" Wyn exclaimed.
"Shut up, Bronwyn!" Rhys roared, but it had a strained sort of sound to it this time.
"Oh, Rhys…"
"Go away!" Rhys said miserably.
Wyn sighed and left. "Its hopeless! He won't listen to a word I say!" she told Morgan downstairs who had already tried persuading Rhys to come down to no avail.
"I know. Its like his life's ended," said Morgan.
"I just can't help wondering where Heulo is…" Wyn muttered thoughtfully.
"He could be a galaxy away if Apocalypse has anything to say about it," Morgan said bitterly.
Wyn nodded. She couldn't shake the image of Heulo and Rhys being separated out of her head. 'They both froze as if they just couldn't comprehend what had occurred. Then, they were thrown apart and when I reached Rhys, it was as if he wasn't fully there anymore. He had such a stricken look on his face!' she thought with a shudder. She gazed at the stairs longingly. 'Oh, please come down!' she thought.
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But Rhys didn't come down for quite some time and when he did, it was only to go to the bathroom. He passed his siblings without a word and went in and out of the bathroom in only a minute. Wyn and Morgan remained silent themselves, but as Rhys started to walk up the stairs there was a loud quaking sound and the moving castle shook. Rhys, as he was already weakened from his ordeal, fell back down the stairs with several thumps. He moaned and slowly sat up, rubbing his back.
"What the heck was that?!" Wyn asked.
Morgan, who was helping Rhys get back to his feet, said, "Whatever it was, it was weird."
Rhys gazed at the ceiling as if he was seeing through it and said in a voice that was almost a growl, "Its her." He said 'her' in such a vile, hateful way that Wyn knew immediately who he was talking about.
"But why would Apocalypse-" she began. The room shook again, but this time it was ten times more violently.
"Apocalypse!" roared Rhys in a tone that made the hair at the base of Wyn's neck stand on end.
The Goddess herself appeared next and it was as if the moving castle dissolved away. They were in a cold gray wasteland that reminded Wyn of the field she had battled Kamania in. In fact, she realized, Kamania was there. The woman's russet colored hair was blowing in the light breeze and she gave them a dark smirk.
Apocalypse smiled herself and said, "I decided to bring her here to welcome you, Trilogy of the Last Hope."
"Or should we say 'Trilogy of the Lacking Hope?" said Kamania.
"If that was supposed to be a joke, Kammy, it was an extremely poor one," remarked Morgan frigidly as he fingered the golden ring on his hand.
"What's that?!" Kamania asked angrily.
"This, Kamania, is my wedding ring. I recently got married to the lovely Mackenzie after all," replied Morgan unemotionally.
Wyn smirked. 'Kammy's jealous…' she thought as she examined the witch's face.
"I see," said Kamania grimly.
"Stop talking and get rid of the runt," ordered Apocalypse.
Rhys snarled faintly and backed away. Kamania rushed towards him before either Morgan or Wyn could react, but all she met was an unseen barrier curtsy of Rhys himself. The boy sneered and said mockingly, "What's the matter, witchy. Why can't you touch me?"
Wyn laughed and turned to Apocalypse. Even without Heulo it seemed Rhys could take care of himself. She glared at the Deity and realized Morgan was at her side in position. "You ready?" she whispered. He nodded at her in reply and they faced Apocalypse who only gazed at them unperturbedly.
Apocalypse raised her pale hands and boomed three words: "Time to die!"
Wyn and Morgan rushed forward, side-by-side, and made contact with an invisible 'wall'-surrounding Apocalypse. It didn't send them back though because their own barrier protected them. They pushed against the force and yelled in anger as their efforts seemed to make no difference.
Meanwhile, Rhys was laughing coldly at his adversary, which wasn't improving Kamania's mood. She called upon a spell in a ringing voice and swiftly transformed into familiar screeching vulture size bird with dark violet plumage. Wyn would have recognized the form from her own final battle with Kamania and probably would have smiled at seeing the form she had beat the witch in.
Rhys smirked in a sort of 'so-that's-how-you-want-to-play way' and deftly changed into the same dark dragon he had become on his first-year graduation. He was bigger now and he flapped his wings threateningly. They both advanced forward and roared at each other.
Rhys jumped up, his wings carrying him into flight, and 'spit' an egg-sized fireball at Kamania out his mouth. Kamania tried to dodge it, but it only followed her and crashed into her back. It may have been small but it exploded on contact, throwing her into the dirt.
Rhys gave a dragon-like snort of triumph and flew higher. He looked over at the battle between his siblings and Apocalypse. Morgan was panting and Wyn was sporting a sprained wrist from all their struggling to not get pushed back. An idea struck him. He remembered how years ago Heulo had summoned a real dragon to help them. 'If only I knew how…' he thought hopefully. He closed his eyes and concentrated on finding the answer in the remains of their severed link. A bright point of light twinkled in the remnants and he gripped its invisible force mentally. An enchantment laid itself out in his mind and he readily started evoking its power. He felt the spell take hold and waited for the ring of roars signaling his new version of the spell had worked. He had modified the charm so that it didn't call one dragon, but hundreds.
Sure enough, soaring towards him, were at least a thousand dragons of various sizes and colors. One dragon, obviously the same crimson one that had helped them in the past, leaned its snout down so the detransformed Rhys could climb on. Rhys smiled and climbed on the dragon's back. He said in the rolling speech Heulo had been 'showing' him how to say, "Izgashh, feird. Rho tre aster?" or "Hello, friend. How's my accent?"
The dragon replied, "Ti cru ur-we rik, Rhys-Liff." Translated she had said, "It could use work, Rhys-Master." She had called him 'Rhys-Master' because of his connection with the Dragon Enchanter, who was said to rule all dragons. (A/N: Its sort of like how people in Japan sometimes place words behind peoples' names to show who they are to the person. Example: Kagome-chan, etc…)
"Ri gyiss ti cru," or "I guess it could," muttered Rhys dejectedly. He then gave a solemn sigh and gazed at the fight between his brother and sister and Apocalypse.
"Wyn!!! Morgan!!!" he shouted, "Remember the legends! Become what you stand for!" Wyn and Morgan looked back at him and the swarm of winged-lizards and nodded. Wyn was the first to change, skillfully turning into her powerful phoenix form. Morgan did the same, but he transformed into a silvery pegasus with huge sleek feathered-wings and a mane and tail of what looked like pure silver dust. He whinnied and glanced at his sister who was preening her shining ruby feathers, all of which had a splash of gold on their tips.
Rhys noticed that because Wyn's left wrist had been sprained, her left wing looked pretty lethargic and stayed planted at her side. He himself jumped off the dragon's back and transformed into the black dragon again in mid-air. The dragon, which he had realized was a she-dragon, said as he landed, "Cya te 'Elia,' Rhys-Liff!" or "Call me 'Elia,' Rhys-Master!"
Rhys nodded his new, great dark head at Elia and flew towards his siblings who were glaring fiercely at Apocalypse. He landed beside them feeling fidgety without the sudden comfort of the older part of himself. He stared up at Apocalypse who had changed so that she was roughly a hundred feet tall now.
Wyn gave a war-like squawk, Morgan stamped his hooves, and Rhys gave a huff and smoke puffed out of his mouth. They were the Trilogy of the Last Hope, but without the Last Hope, they would surely lose…
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A/N: Sorry it took so long to finish this chapter. I had about ¾ of it done about 2 days ago, but I didn't have time to finish it till now.
A/N 2: So the next chapter will be about more of 'The Final Battle.' After that, and a few closing chapters, I guess this story will be over. I may do a follow-up story about my strange little Dragon Enchanter extraordinaire, Rhys, though…
A/N 3: I think 'Heulo-Rhys' will have more of a role in the next chapter. Will he and Rhys finally go back to being one person though?
A/N 4: You'll just have to see what happens next! All reviews encouraged! Ta ta for now!