Epilogue
The robe she was wearing was bright green, just like her eyes. It had a hood, but she hadn't pulled it over her scarlet hair. She looked at the flowers in her hand and sighed.
She had picked the most beautiful flowers from her grandmother's garden, which was famous all over Magix. Her grandmother had sadly passed away some time ago, and she had tried to maintain the garden to honour her, but she had failed. Her grandmother had had a special touch with plants and flowers and trees, and though she had inherited some of that touch, she was still leagues away from being as talented as her grandmother had been.
She closed her eyes and sighed again, trying to calm down. The rustle of the wind and the smell of the flowers suddenly made it seem as if her grandmother was standing right next to her, and she calmed down.
She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked back, right into the bright blue eyes of her friend Dana. "Crystal, are you okay?" Crystal didn't answer, but kept looking at the fairy.
Dana had long platinum blonde hair that reached past her hips, except for the lock of chestnut brown hair that fell into her face, and fine facial features. She resembled her grandmother, the late Queen Stella so much that no-one who saw her could doubt that she was the Princess of Solaria.
Crystal looked at her other two friends as she thought of Queen Stella. Nuria, who was standing next to Dana, had lavender-coloured eyes and shoulder-length bright purple hair. But her hair and her prowess in battle were all she had gotten from her grandfather Riven, the late headmaster of Red Fountain. Her character and her powers had taken after her grandmother, Musa.
Anna, who was standing slightly behind Crystal, had auburn-coloured hair that was almost as long as Dana's and grey-blue eyes. She as the most gifted person Crystal had ever met when it came to technology, since it had been a trait of both her grandparents. Crystal vowed to herself to make sure Anna wouldn't be harmed, so that the fairy could one day take over her grandparents' multimillion company.
Dana repeated her question, and Crystal snapped out of her reverie. "I'm okay, girls. Just give me a minute first, okay?" When the three nodded, Crystal flew to the rock in the middle of the Lake and landed on it.
"All of my life, I have felt a presence near me. It was soothing, knowing that I was never alone. I feel that presence now, here. Please, show yourself to me," she whispered as she put the flowers down before her.
A weak, narrow beam of light shot up from the rock. In it, Crystal could see a tiny flame which grew and solidified until a green-haired, green-eyed boy stood before her. "Hello, Crystal," the boy said, and Crystal started.
"You…you look like my grandfather," she said and the boy smiled. "In a way, Crystal, I am your grandfather. I had taken over Faunus' body, and your grandmother and I fell in love. When I…when I chose to do this, when I sacrificed the very essence of my being to imprison Chaos, I transferred my love for her to your grandfather," Phoenix said sadly.
"You transferred much more than just your love to Gramps, didn't you?" Phoenix smiled at Crystal's question. "So, they figured it out? They discovered that I had transferred part of my power into Faunus?"
Crystal nodded. "Nana Flora found out. She suspected something when my dad was born with the same eyes and hair as Gramps, but she knew for sure when he used the powers she had seen you use."
Now it was Phoenix' turn to smile. "I had a vision of a great power being born, a power greater than the Dragon and I combined, and I realized what I had to do. And here you are, standing before me, with both the powers of the Dragon Flame and the Phoenix Fire," Phoenix said.
Immediately, Crystal had a flashback of when her grandmothers told her about her destiny. "Nana Flora told me that she knew what my destiny was even before I was conceived. She said she had realized your plan the minute my parents announced their engagement."
"The Prince of Thereia marrying the Princess of Eraklion. The news spread like wildfire then, and turned the entire magic dimension upside down," Phoenix smiled as he seemed to remember the events.
"Nana Bloom…," Crystal's voice hitched as her thoughts dwelled on her other grandmother. "Nana Bloom told me that the day would come that I would have to come here and fulfil my destiny. And that I would know when that day arrived. She…she passed on today."
A tear slid down Phoenix' face. "She was the last of them still alive. Timmy, Techna, Musa, Riven, Brandon, Stella, Sky, Faunus and Flora….they were all gone, and now Bloom has gone to join them. How did she….?"
"She was in her office, on Alfea. Headmistress Mertha of Cloud Tower said they were arranging for her to go and see a demonstration at the school for witches when Nana Bloom said she was tired and she put her head to rest on the table. And then she was just gone…," Crystal said, suppressing a sob.
"And now you've come to destroy Chaos," Phoenix said and Crystal nodded. The green-haired boy closed his eyes, and the rock they were on started emitting yellow light.
The light intensified, and suddenly Phoenix became a real phoenix. He looked at Crystal one more time, and then his flames were extinguished.
The instant that happened, the rock beneath Crystal's feet started shaking. The light vanished, and pitch-black smoke started coming out of the rock. The smoke took human shape and solidified, revealing yet another copy of Crystal's grandfather.
This one however had pitch-black hair and eyes, and Crystal could feel malice coming off of him. "So, you're here to destroy me. Why do you think you can do something no-one has been able to do so far?"
Crystal closed her eyes and focused. "Emanations of fire," she chanted, and dozens of tiny birds of fire ignited around her and Chaos. They dove towards the Origin of Evil, but just before they hit him he erected a barrier and deflected them.
"Not bad, little girl. Not bad at all," Chaos smiled. When all the emanations were gone, Chaos dropped the barrier. "But Phoenix already tried that attack decades ago, before you were even born, and it didn't work then either."
Crystal smiled. "Did he try this?" Her eyes started glowing yellow and she sent a discharge of energy through the rock towards Chaos. The energy shot out of the rock and hit Chaos full force.
The black-haired boy was shot backwards, and Crystal levitated. "And that is nothing compared to what I have in store for you, Chaos," Crystal said triumphantly. But Chaos hung still in the air and smiled.
"But I've got something in store for you too, my dear. They are called Icy, Darcy and Stormy, and they're hell-bent on keeping me in one peace. You see, their lives are linked to mine. So they have quite in interest in protecting me."
The three witches, old and withered, suddenly appeared around Chaos. But Crystal didn't even flinch, since she had expected the Trix to be there and had taken countermeasures.
As soon as they saw the Trix appear, Crystal's friend came into action and transformed. Dana exchanged her yellow robe for a golden full-body corset and a short, yellow silk shirt. Like Stella, her hair was styled in two ponytails. But she also had the lock of chestnut brown hair that fell into her face.
Nuria exchanged her purple robe for a shiny purple skirt and strapless top, her beautiful purple hair styled into a single braid, while Anna exchanged her grey robe for a shiny green skirt and tank top, her long auburn-coloured hair staying exactly as it was.
The three fairies flew up to Crystal, and waisted no time in engaging the Trix. Dana, as Stella had so often done while fighting the witches, tranformed her ring into the powerful staff that she used in battle and went after Icy.
The blue-clad witch unleashed a powerful, aimed blizzard at the young fairy but Dana summoned the power of the Sun, which had been past down from mother to daughter for centuries.
Using that power to raise a barrier, she prevented herself from becoming a statue of ice and immediately speeded towards the witch. She was thrown sidewards however by a telekinetic attack Darcy had unleashed at her, and the purple-clad witch did not relent as she tried to get the young fairy under water to drown her.
But Nuria intervened, blasting Darcy with a high-intensity ultrasonic blast and breaking her hold on Dana. Stormy came to her sister's aide by unleashing one of her tornadoes, but Anna protected Nuria from it by envelopping both of them in a static sphere.
Dana shot a ball of solar energy at the pink-clad witch and broke her concentration, which made the tornado vanish into thin air. Icy shot ball of energy at Dana, to freeze the fairy, but Dana dodged it and fired a ball of solar energy at the blue-clad witch.
Nuria hit Darcy with another ultrasonic blast while Anna trapped Stormy in a static sphere. Suddenly Crystal started emiiting a blinding light, and Dana's staff started glowing.
Anna focused all of her power and shot it at the static sphere in which Stormy was trapped, which multiplied her power tenfold, and the pink-clad witch exploded. Nuria also focused all of her power and shot four spheres of energy at Darcy, which transformed into four huge speaker boxes that surrounded the witch.
Nuria's eyes started glowing and the speaker boxes emitted high-intensity ultrasonic blasts which converged, each of the blasts increasing each other's intensity more than tenfold. The incredible strain that was put on Darcy made the purple-clad witch explode also.
Icy dodged the ball of solar energy that Dana had fired at her, but as she changed flight angle to speed towards the fairy she was hit by a huge ball of solar energy, which Dana had fired from her glowing staff, and exploded.
Crystal smiled at Chaos. "My army trumps yours," she said triomfantly. Chaos looked at her, rage written all over his face and in his eyes as he started summoning the full power of the Shadow. All the light near the Lake was expelled and increasing darkness surrounded them.
"Foolish girl! Did you really think that those three are the best I have to offer?" Chaos dissolved into pitch-black fog and took the shape of a huge winged demon before throwing himself onto Crystal and envelopping her in his darkness.
Dana, Nuria and Anna gasped as they feared that their friend might not survive the fight. But suddenly the black fog was ripped to shreds as a powerful, blinding light shone right through it.
Chaos took human form again as he fell down on the rock in the middle of the Lake, and the three fairies looked at the source of the Light that was shining still. Crystal had transformed, the skirt and top she was wearing were exactly the same as Bloom's only it was all silver. On her one hand a phoenix hung in the air, and on the other a dragon made of fire.
With flick of her wrist, Crystal send both towards Chaos and both of them flew into him. The Origin of Evil dissolved into pitch-black fog once again, but this time he was only slightly bigger than a normal person.
Crystal flew into him, and the Light stopped shining for a second as she focused it into a blast. As soon as she unleashed the blast, the fog surrounding her was torn to shreds and dissolved completely.
Out of the blue, a Dragon of fire and a Phoenix appeared. Both emitted a blinding light, which broke the spell of darkness that Chaos had summoned to draw power from. In the Dragon Crystal recognized her grandmother Bloom, and in the Phoenix she could feel Phoenix.
As the sunlight shone on the Lake again, both emitted one last cry before disappearing completely.
THE ENDAuthor's Note: Thank you to all the people who have reviewed this story. I enjoyed writing it, and I hope you've all enjoyed reading it.