An: Yes my cousins are here but I have free time right now so here the second last chapter… there will be a sequel and possibly me making this into a trilogy and from that trilogy other factions will emerge… anyway read and enjoy… and review over a thousand people have read this you think that I'd have more reviews…
And because I don't want to get sued here my disclaimer…
Disclaimer: If I owned Winx club which I don't the animation would ten times better…
Endgame. Last round. Down to the wire. Check and mate. Bottom of the Ninth. Golden Goal time. The world was watching.
But she was through letting that happen. No matter what she was feeling coming from the accused faerie child, she knew her destiny. And it was high time the girl finally learned it, and hers as well, as she clenched her own fists and began calling upon all her power again. Fire exploded around her, twisting and waving in strange, terrible shapes, heat so intense it melted the street below her.
The pillars of red and gold energy disappeared, as the huge aura around Jade briefly expanded out even more and then shrank back in around Jade.
As Darcy finished her own charge up and, with a mad shriek, flew across the air at Jade. Once again, she matched her move, zapping in towards the Lord and Master of the Inferno.
As Jade and Darcy met, their auras once again expanding, twisting around each other, each shining light trying to overwhelm the other before it exploded outward in blinding radiance.
The first blow was so loud that Bloom almost went deaf, despite the fact that she was holding her hands over her ears. The shockwave knocked the trying to get up Remy back on his rear end despite the fact that he was nearly a mile away. Several nearby still standing buildings, some weakened and some not, instantly collapsed under the force of the energy coming from the twin powers.
And that was just the first of many. Seismographs around the world read each blow as a mini-earthquake, and around the world those tapped into the flow of the powers and energies of the strange and mystic experienced everything from mild tremors to nosebleeds to pounding migraines.
It was time for the end, but that end may yet prove to extend beyond one being and encompass part of if not the entire universe.
As Jade and Darcy traded blow after blow, punches, kicks, slashes, lashes, bludgeons, impacts, and possibly even a few strikes that would need new words to be invented to describe them. Indeed, for some of the clash, the world around them seemed vague and far-flung, as if reality as they knew it was being rent to pieces around them. Neither noticed: they were locked in the classic feud, the eternal dynamic of this existence, in a state beyond anything most people would ever know. One desired to save the universe, and the other to destroy it.
And both were quite certain that their desire would win out.
Yet…
Darcy zapped away from Jade. Though her conscious mind was too addled with rage and insanity to comprehend anything but her aforementioned destiny, a tiny part of her brain had begun to nag at her about a certain detail. She and Jade kept hitting each other…but Jade didn't seem to be much affected. Indeed…it could be said he didn't seem to be affected at all. The same could not be said for her: wherever Jade had pulled this latest miracle, it had empowered her a great deal. And though she was too good at concealing pain to show the fact that her blows were affecting her…they were. They had hurt. But if that was the case, Jade should be feeling at least, and certainly more, pain then her. But her face was a mask of stoicism. She supposed she could be hiding it like she was…except she had been abused her whole life: Jade had not. The concept that she could mask pain as well as her was ludicrous. But if she wasn't hiding her pain, that meant…something she would not accept.
So, on the surface, all the tiny nagging doubt managed to influence on her was her choice to stop the war of blows and switch tactics. Which she did, as she did the aforesaid zapping away from Jade and fired off a blast of white flame at her.
Jade flew above it and fired off her own red blast. Darcy dodged in turn and tried again, this time sending off a dozen white flame blasts from her hands. Jade thrust out her hand and a red shield appeared in front of her, the fire blasts striking it and exploding, but Darcy was already on her next move, as she swirled into fire and vanished.
And as Jade lowered the shield, she reappeared…all around her. Her eight clones laughed and prepared to strike…
And Jade lanced to the right and behind her and smashed her fist into Darcy's face, knocking her away, her seven other clones vanishing in puffs of fire as Darcy found herself knocked out of her concentration. Somehow, Jade had found the real her, instantly, and…DAMN HER!
Darcy stopped and lashed out with a backhand across Jade's face. Jade whirled with the blow and slammed her heel across Darcy's own face, knocking her to the side. Yelling in rage, she extended out several fire tendrils to attack Jade with, only to find them all missing as Jade swooped it and punched her across the face again, and again once more. Darcy kicked out and knocked Jade away, and then came after her with a lashing fire sword/whip.
Her blow passed through her body, which suddenly turned all Red and then broke into vanishing trails of energy. Darcy didn't even get to blink at this new move before Jade slammed into her from the side with a kick, and then another punch, and as Darcy reeled Jade reached out, seized her by her body, not flinching in the least from the heat, and then a gigantic blast of golden power detonated on her, throwing her backwards and up into the air again. Jade flew up after her, as Darcy recovered, screamed, and flew back at Jade, slamming into her and sending them both down towards what was left of the Shiran capital.
The Shiran capital's lone stadium lay below the town, having been struck by a few fireballs but otherwise ok, as the two forces grappled and struck at each other as they streaked towards the ground. They smashed through the roof, and there was a brief second of peace before black and red power streaked out from the roof and then from the entire building as the entire structure disintegrated into a billion flying pieces of debris as a gigantic explosion of power and flame blasted from within it. Huge clouds of dust plumed out from the destruction, mammoth billows of dirt and smoke filling the streets around the now gone stadium.
Flashes of light exploded through the cloud: if anyone had been around to observe they might have seen silhouettes of females form striking each other in the light flashes. Those flashes went on for about fourteen seconds before there was a brief, sudden silence…
And then all the smoke was blown away, along with every piece of debris that weighed less then a hundred pounds, revealing Jade and Darcy, standing on the ground, their fists connected, each having struck the other at the same time, their respective arms trembling as if each was still pressing on their opposite with all their might, and indeed they were, their eyes locked together…
And Darcy flinched.
Jade's follow up punch sent her smashing through several more buildings and into the parking lot of The Shiran capital's largest mall. The building wasn't in the best shape: its sheer size ensured that at least some of the fireballs and attacks going around the city would strike it. However, it was still standing, and considering the town was abandoned there was still a fair amount of cars in the parking lot, some having been destroyed by the fireballs…and more joined those pre-destroyed vehicles as Darcy was smashed through the gathered masses of them, the two-ton machines smashed away from her like toys, causing a rain of cars to fly across the parking lot, into the sides of the mall, and into any nearby standing buildings. She finally stopped herself a few feet from actually striking the mall.
She gasped, and then found herself holding her chest. That had hurt. That had really, really hurt…what was…
Jade was coming for her. Darcy's head snapped back up as her eyes locked on her, and then she screamed and lashed out her hand in a wave. A gigantic eruption of fire blasted from the ground for nearly one hundred feet on either side of her and expanded outward, completely destroying the parking lot and any cars that had escaped Darcy before…as Jade's image was struck by the fire, flashed red, and then broke apart. Another 'ghost image'.
As the real deal streaked in from Darcy's side and punched her across the face, and even as she was in mid-reaction to the blow Jade seized her by the hair and flew forward, ramming Darcy's face into the side of the mall and dragging it across, burning a large line across roughly seventy feet of the building before she shoved forward even harder, sending Darcy melting/crashing through the wall and the two stores behind it at an angle before she flew out into the main mall walkway, and even as she tumbled back through that Jade came crashing through the wall behind her. A red energy blast exploded on her hand, and she hurled it after her, the blast flying true and striking the fire deity, an explosion erupting from the attack even as it continued to push Darcy back, blasts of energy smashing out through the stores nearby the thrashing goddess. From the view outside the mall, a line of smoke eruptions blasted from within the building and continued down its length before Darcy came smashing out the other end of the structure and flew into another building, which collapsed on her with one final blast of power.
As the remains of the shopping center came crashing down behind Jade, expensive clothes and electronics and many other products reduced to so much junk, she flew out of the hole she had made with Darcy's body. She flew a few more dozen feet and stopped, waiting, her feet floating a few inches off the ground.
The building exploded off Darcy in a storm of fiery wreckage. Jade wordlessly turned intangible and let whatever shrapnel that had flown her way go through her, and then turned solid again as Darcy reappeared, as mad as she had ever seen her.
"YOU FUCK!" She screamed, and thrust out her hands. Within a few seconds, she had formed a blue ball of fire as big as her. "DIEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
The ball flew out at Jade, melting a deep groove through the street underneath it.
Jade didn't move. She just held out his hand.
The giant blue fireball struck her palm…and stopped dead. Darcy's eyes went wide.
Streaks of red and gold crackling energy radiated out from Jade's hand, arcing over the fireball, the red power first entwining around it and then consuming it, remaking it into a crackling golden sphere.
Jade fired it back at Darcy.
She was too stunned to dodge.
The explosion shook the streets of The Shiran capital, the shockwave blasting the remains of the mall and any nearby buildings into pieces no larger then a paperback book. Another blast of black smoke and dust plumed up from the detonation, forming another mushroom cloud. Debris rained for miles around.
From the top of the cloud, several streams of fire burst and flew together, forming back into Darcy, as she gasped for air. This wasn't happening. Not again. Not at her peak, after everything she had done. She was just a stupid girl. She was fire itself. She was forever. She could not be being outdone by…
Jade was floating up to her level nearby. Blazing eyes of hate fixed on her.
"YOU BASTARD!" She screamed, as red darkening to midnight black fire formed on her own palm. "BURN!"
She fired the Soulsearer blast at Jade. The attack went at a speed that could have given Speed Force users pause.
Jade dodged it, flitting to the side, just a bit, so the blast flew past her, missing by a few inches. Her expression did not change. Darcy gaped at the dodge, and then she screamed and fired another Soulsearer blast. Jade dodged it again. Darcy's eyes literally shot off sparks.
"Stop…MOVING!" She screamed/growled, as she held out her hand, her fingers flexed, as orbs of black fire glowed at each fingertip. "YOU…WILL…BURN!"
And Darcy fired off a stream of Soulsearer blasts, at different levels, angles, and speeds. The deadly spirit harming flame onslaught didn't even raise the slightest bit of change on Jade's face, as she zipped and zapped around every single blast. Darcy fired at her for nearly fifteen seconds before she had to let off, and she didn't want to do so. She had to do so because she was…tired.
But…she couldn't GET tired any more. Not with her power! She couldn't!
Yet once again, here she was, and Jade, who had stopped moving again, didn't have a scratch on her.
"Arrrrrrrgggghhhhhhh…!" She snarled. "Why can't I hit you?"
And finally, a change, one Darcy had never expected.
Jade sneered at her.
"Go ahead."
Darcy blinked. Surely she hadn't…
"HIT ME." Jade challenged. "Take your best shot. Make it count."
Darcy stared.
And then with one final scream she reared back and fired off another lancing blast of Soulsearer, aiming right for Jade's face.
The blast struck her just below the left eye. It threw her head back, and Darcy gloried in the girls stupidity, as she waited to see bits of blackened skull and gray matter go flying…
Which never happened.
And Darcy found herself in numb shock once again as Jade turned her head back. An angry red burn now shone below her left eye, but that was the only sign that she had made her attack. An attack that should have been fatal. Instead…
"That didn't count." Jade replied.
And Darcy lost it, as she screamed and formed twin balls of Soulsearer, firing them off. They struck Jade dead on and consumed her in an explosion, even as Darcy fired off more and more of the deadly black fire, not caring about her exhaustion, not caring about the world she had to purge, only caring that this girl had to die, she had to kill her, had to, had to, HAD TO…
After several dozen smaller attacks Darcy stopped, held her hands above and before her, forming one last beach ball sized orb of Soulsearer, and hurled it into the heart of the explosion she had made. The echoing blast sounded like an erupting volcano.
Gasping for air she didn't technically need, Darcy looked upon what she had wrought. If forming just two blasts of Soulsearer drained a host to the point of uselessness, then after all that…no, it didn't matter. She still had more then enough, and besides, the bastard girl was finally…
The last of the smoke cleared…by being blown away by a brief surge in a shimmering golden aura.
Of all her previous stares, Darcy's reaction had just been shock. But this time, as Jade's aura faded back into her, revealing her none the worse for wear after all she had done…there was more then shock. There was complete and utter horror.
Jade looked upon her expression, but she betrayed no joy in it. Only grim ruthlessness.
"So…the monster who would destroy faerie kind…can't even destroy one little faerie." Jade said, raising an eyebrow.
"Wha…what…." Darcy stammered. "What…what are you made of?"
Jade's eyes flashed green before returning to the eyes of the phoenix.
"RAGE."
The blow sounded like a nuclear bomb going off, as Jade cleared the distance between herself and Darcy before she even knew what was happening and punched her across the face, so hard her features distorted out and snapped back, and then Jade slammed her fist across her face again, causing the same effect, her own face a mask of fury.
"I! AM! MADE! OF! RAGE!" Jade screamed, each word punctuated by a blow that shook the heavens, and as Jade finished her avowal she turned her final punch into a spin, twirling several times before she swung her leg out low and curved it up into a thunderous pistoning impact between Darcy's eyes.
Darcy didn't just fly back from the impact: her body was torn apart, the wind ripping her thrashing form apart until there was nothing but several writhing fire strands and vague shapes. Jade looked upon the mass, and then held her hands out to her side, forming a T, golden power igniting on her hands and going all the way up her arms, and as the strands of fire began to converge into a general shape Jade slammed her arms together and fired off a blast of golden power.
But Darcy seemed to still have enough wherewithal left to know what was going on, as her barely formed body tore apart and twisted into retreating strands of fire away from the deadly blast. Jade didn't blink; she just shifted position slightly and fired off another blast of green power. Darcy dodged that. Jade cut loose, firing dozens upon dozens of blasts after the flame goddess, but her twirling form dodged them every time. Finally, in a case of déjà vu, Jade stopped firing.
Darcy's fiery tendrils stopped running and merged, Darcy quickly reforming. Though she didn't look happy, she looked like she was in a better mood then she had been a minute ago, as she raised a hand and waved it at Jade.
"Well, you might have discovered your accursed immortality anew, but your aim certainly hasn't improved."
Jade looked at her, and then she raised her right palm. Darcy expected an attack, and was a bit surprised when none came.
Then she spoke.
"Look up."
Darcy blinked.
And then she glanced skyward.
And found a ball of red energy floating above her. Several balls, to be precise. As Darcy watched, another one moved into her line of sight.
And then her eyes widened as she realized that Jade hadn't just been firing wildly.
She jerked her head down, and found to her horror she was now surrounding by balls of floating energy and magic, on every side of her, the last few moving in around Jade as she looked at her.
Her eyes betrayed nothing.
She just clenched his fist.
And quicker then she could escape, the balls all converged on Darcy.
Despite all the carnage wrought, some of The Shiran capital was still standing.
That all changed with the detonation of Jade's greatest attack: the shockwave knocked all the remaining buildings down like they were constructed of Popsicle sticks and kindergarten glue. In one swift moment, The Shiran capital's downtown went from gutted to utter ruin, and only the fact that they were in areas where no buildings were saved the few remaining humans in the city from being crushed by the collapse. Godzilla WISHED he could have smashed a city as effectively as Jade's attack had.
Several seconds passed, as Jade lowered her hand, and then took a few deep breaths.
And then the smoke cleared, revealing Darcy. But unlike her assault on Jade mere moments before, she did not look like she had taken Jade's magical mass and shrugged it off. Indeed, her face almost seemed dazed, as she clutched her chest, or specifically, the area of her chest where the Demon artifact lay. She glared at Jade with baleful eyes, a vindictive expression that swiftly morphed into mad joy, emphasis on mad.
"Heh heh he…HA!" Darcy screamed. "Did you think that would get me? You fool! You can't kill me! I am fire, the very essence of life in its purest form! You can't stop me! NOTHING CAN!"
Jade looked at Darcy. Her eyes briefly shimmered green again.
"The reason you're still here is because I didn't put everything I could have into that strike that would be needed to destroy you." Jade said.
"You're bluffing." Darcy scoffed.
"Maybe so, but I know this. You're not a purity of anything Darcy. You're a perversion, an aberration."
"Fuck you."
"Think about it Darcy. You speak of fire bringing life, and you are right! And fire also brings destruction! But something you do not understand, something you have never understood…is that the two are linked! One cannot exist without the other! Think, Darcy! For once stop hating, and start thinking!" Jade said. "Fires that burn down forests can also release seeds that HAVE to be burned in order so they can sprout properly! A volcano may destroy an island, but its ash is rich in nutrients that will allow the life that perished by its molten rock and gases to return! The phoenix had to die so its offspring could be born! Fire brings destruction, but in the ways of nature and the world, it will also bring the rebirth from that destruction. But you…you only bring destruction, and nothing else! The only life you care to preserve is your own! The rest of life is there for you to decide on whether it lives or dies! That is not the way the world should be! Even YOU must know that!" Jade said.
Darcy cocked her head.
"And sometimes, things have to change…" She said, in a voice so low Jade could barely hear it. "Sometimes, Nature realizes that its ways no longer work. The system it created is being overwhelmed by those who would use its gifts to take more then they ever need or deserve. And this is one of those times, girl. Nature is angry, and its wrath will be felt."
"That's not nature, that's YOU!"
"NATURE, I, IT MAKES NO DIFFERENCE! WE ARE ONE AND THE SAME! OUR WILL SHALL BE DONE! THE WRONGS WILL BE MADE RIGHT!"
Jade's eyes narrowed.
"I wish it didn't have to be this way." She said. "But I guess some things can never change."
Darcy smirked.
"You don't know how right you are."
And Darcy looked down at the ground, and her eyes flashed.
The explosion was so small, and Jade was so high up, she barely saw it. Indeed, his altitude at first prevented her from making out exactly what the point of the explosion was…and then he saw two figures finish their brief tumble out onto open ground…figures that even Jade could recognize. Her heart nearly stopped.
"What great friends you have, eh?" Darcy chuckled, as she detonated a small explosion behind where Remy and Jones had been hiding to watch. Oh, she had known they were there: her senses were tapped into any and all kinds of heat, including the unique heat a body made. An infra-red scanner might not have been able to pick up the forms of the two teenagers against the flaming, ruined city, but she could. Though on the surface it looked like her first blast had been off, it wasn't. She wanted them out in the open, where Jade could see. "Even when the world is falling down around them, there they are, hanging around, if only to provide support for good ol' Jade Halva, who doesn't need it anyway because she's fucking IMMORTAL. BUT THEY'RE NOT!" Darcy said, as a blast of blue fire appeared on her hand.
"NO!" Jade screamed. And if you're wondering why Jade didn't just zip over to Darcy and knock her out of her attack before she launched it, well, she might have seemingly taken everything the fire goddess could dish out before without blinking an eye…but some looks can be deceiving. And on top of all the effort she had expended on her last attack on her…let's just say that she wasn't in the same tiptop shape she'd been in a minute before. Her teenage inexperience struck again, in the fact that she hadn't known when to conserve energy.
And that was going to cost her.
"I made a promise girl. And I ALWAYS KEEP MY PROMISES!" Darcy shrieked. "IF YOU WON'T BURN, THEY WILL!"
And Darcy launched her fireball.
And Jade took off after it, chasing after the streaking blast of doom like her life depended on it…and in a way, her life was the unimportant thing. She should have known that Darcy wasn't done, that she had a trick up her sleeve, that her utter lack of mercy was as great a power as the fire that fed her.
Remy and Jones should have run, but with the attempt to recover from how their observation of the battle had suddenly become their brief trip through the air and unpleasant landing, and then the sudden awareness that a giant ball of blue fire was heading right for them, they were frozen in the way some people become, watching their death head toward them like they were just observing a movie, and Remy even noted that it was strange, such a hot blast of fire should have reduced him to ash long before it got near enough to actually strike him, it must be Darcy's amazing manipulation abilities at work again…
And Jones, as the ball filled her vision, couldn't help but admit the turquoise flame actually looked rather pretty…
As Jade got around the ball and zipped in front of her friends literally half a second before the ball struck.
"NO!" She screamed.
The blast sent out an eruption of flame at a 45-degree angle that was nearly three hundred feet long and a hundred feet high. And while Jade managed to take the brunt of the attack, the backlash was still more then enough to sent Remy and Jones flying like rag dolls. Even as the immense agony of the blow washed over Jade, she still had enough self-awareness to see how Remy and Jones were flying, that they would be dashed to pieces by the landing, and with a brief hand gesture she managed before she was completely consumed by pain, their forms were encased in red energy, the makeshift shields taking all the bone snapping organ pulping impacts as Remy and Jones bounced across the ground and came to rest several hundred feet away. The trip had still knocked them both senseless though, but all things considered, that was truly the very least that could have happened to them.
And it was a state Jade almost envied, as the smoke cleared around her prostrating form, Jade on her hands and knees, making strange noises of pain through her teeth. The back of her outfit was completely gone, that entire frame of her body covered with hideous burns. This hadn't been like the previous attacks Jade had soaked up from Darcy: with all those Jade had been in a combat mindset, directing her powers into the proper defenses, which allowed her to stand in the face of all her assaults, including the Soulsearer barrage, and take it. But this had not been a prepared defense: this had been a panicking knee jerk reaction, and Jade had had no time to form a proper shield of any kind. And it had cost her dearly, as once again she found himself in agony and in a low energy state.
She hissed one more time and then shoved herself back up, ignoring the scream of pain in her back. She had taken everything Darcy had dished out so far, she HAD to…
And then Darcy was there, as with a scream that seemed to have more then a little laughter in its undertone, she dropped from the sky and struck Jade across the face. Jade's brief flight from the blow was interrupted via a grabbing fire tendril, which seized her and reeled her back to Darcy's crazy-happy face.
"You see Girl? It's not who or who doesn't have the greatest power, it's who you know, and better yet, what you KNOW they'll DO!" Darcy laughed.
"You're a coward." Jade spat back. Darcy's happy expression faded back into her usual rage.
"Defiant to the end. And this IS THE END!" Darcy screamed, and then she slammed Jade into the ground with her fire tendril and then hurled her through an upturned stone chunk of debris, the piece of granite shattering into bits as Jade was thrown through it. Jade rolled along the ground and tried to get up when twin fireballs blew her into the air, and even as she flew Darcy appeared on the other side of her and lashed out with a kick, slamming Jade into the ground and ripping open the tender flesh of her back as she was sent dragging along the rough stone of it. Golden fluid leaked from her wounds, as Jade came to a stop.
She lay still for a bit.
And then she turned over, shoved herself up, and as Darcy landed near her, he turned around. Though the back of her outfit had been blown to nothing, the front, despite several earlier tears, was still holding up due to Jade's one strap. For a moment, Jade had the crazy thought that she was glad she hadn't been reduced to being in her sports bra, because she didn't have much of a chest, or at least that was what all the girls in gym always said…
And then reality returned to her, as she looked at Darcy. She wondered where the power had gone, the one that she had had just moments ago…
And she didn't care. It didn't change what had to be done, power or no power, as she struck a combat pose.
"Heh." Darcy said. "You really should learn another position girl. Might make your life less painful."
Jade didn't answer.
She just briefly twisted one wrist, and then, in pure Neo fashion, she gestured towards Darcy.
Bring it.
Sparks flashed in Darcy's eyes.
And then the ground under Jade exploded, throwing her upward, even as Darcy zapped above him and smashed her down into the rock and earth, Jade barely landing before Darcy was there, kicking out and smacking Jade like a soccer ball across the ruins of The Shiran capital. Jade recovered in mid air and landed on her feet…and then Darcy was ramming a fist into her gut, knocking the wind out of him, and then lacing her hands together and swinging them up, smashing them across Jade's forehead and making her go stumbling back…
And then one of Darcy's fire tendrils surged out, formed into a point, and then rammed forward, piercing through Jade's right shoulder. Jade's scream of pain came out in a gasp, and then the tendril yanked her forward and Darcy planted several punches across her face before snapping up her leg and kicking Jade into the air, and then, the tendril still through her shoulder, brought her back down into the ground, shards of shattered stone flying up from the impact. Jade spasmed once and then stopped moving.
Darcy smirked.
And then Jade started coughing, more golden fluid leaking from her mouth, as she feebly tried to get up. Darcy shook her head in a "can you believe this guy?" expression.
"I guess it's time for the end of this dance." Darcy said, and held out her hand. Her fingers extended out, the fire flowing from perfectly manicured fingers to cruel claws. "Let's see you get up from this."
Jade's vision was blurry, darkness creeping on the edges, and all she could see was a blur of red heading for her…
Which solidified into five talons of flame, going for her chest.
Jade's left hand snapped up, grabbing for Darcy's wrist, stopping the claws an inch from her torso. Smoke rose from her palm, but she ignored that pain: there were more important things to consider at the moment. Darcy's eyes narrowed at this, but only for a moment.
"Fighting all the way down, refusing to just roll over and die. How disgustingly pixie." Darcy said.
Jade didn't listen, but her defiance didn't seem to do anything except draw out the seeming inevitable…and maybe it was inevitable. She was using everything she had, but that didn't seem to be enough to hold back Darcy. And she didn't have anything else she could use.
And maybe…that was for the best. After all, it wasn't like she'd ever backed down, had she? She'd stood and fought to the utterly bitterest end, and she didn't have anything left. Why fight when there was no point?
Why go on when there was no hope?
Why do anything…when it was just seemingly better to do the easier thing…
And Jade remembered why this all had come about.
And she realized that she wasn't doomed. She had one last option.
But it was so terrible that even the prospect of her impending death didn't spur her to use it. She couldn't. Not even after everything that had happened.
So she tried to fight on without it, tried to keep Darcy's hand from sinking into her and removing her living, beating heart, something she was sure even SHE couldn't come back from…but she was just so strong…and so angry…and there was so much pain…
She couldn't…
But she had no other options…
But if she did it, was she any better then…
If she didn't, she'd die, and who would that help?
But…
"That's a good girl." Darcy said, as Jade's resistance finally faltered a tad and her claws closed the distance, now a mere millimeter from Jade's exposed skin.
"Huh….no…" Jade hissed. Darcy looked amused.
"No?"
"No…Darcy…please…don't make me…"
Darcy had been glorying in the fact she had finally made the girl beg, until the last words, which just confused her…
"What?"
"Don't make me…I don't want to…do it…" Jade begged. "Please…stop…"
"Well well, it seems you have forgotten just who is KILLING WHO HERE!" Darcy growled, and shoved harder. The points of the fire claws pierced Jade's chest, and she screamed, but she kept fighting.
"Please…don't make me…" Jade gasped.
Battle not with monsters, lest you become a monster. And when you gaze into the abyss, be aware the abyss also gazes into you…so said Nietzsche…
"I'll make you do whatever I want. And you know damn well what that is…" Darcy said. Her claws sank in another inch. Jade screamed again.
"That's a good girl…"
"Please…"
"Just be a good girl…"
It was down to her life or her supposed morals. If she did what she could…did that make her as bad, if not worse, because she knew better…
But…if she died…
"Now…just be a good bastard and go to hell." Darcy said.
The claws sank in…
"…I'M SORRY!" Jade yelled, as she brought her right arm up, somehow doing it despite the damage to her shoulder, and clamped it on Darcy's face.
Darcy may have refused to change, and she thought that refusal had been it. But even she didn't know what had happened during the brief time that she had joined hands with Jade, seemingly for her to help her, only for her to violently reject said help, her sickness too deep to be uprooted…
But something had been done anyway, as for a brief moment, Jade had indeed been connected with Darcy. And she had begun to carry out his promise. But all she had gotten was a few brief moments to do what she had planned to do.
But that was enough to get the memories.
The memories that drove Darcy, the horrific events that had shaped her life, every single bit of pain and humiliation and misery forced on her by her mother, her sisters, her father and other scum. The images had been so horrifying to Jade that she had immediately repressed them, shoving them into a corner of her mind and concentrating on the task at hand. But they were still there. And no matter what happened, Jade had been willing to keep them…but in this situation, there was only one choice for her to survive: she did not have the strength to repel Darcy, so she had to use something else.
And as much as she loathed the fact, loathed herself for it, in the end her survival instincts won out over her moral compass, as she grabbed ahold of Darcy's face and again established a link with her.
And she fired all the memories she had taken back into her, taking years and years of atrocities and combining them into one giant horrendous sideshow that she shot right into her, forcing her to relive everything she had been used for, abused for, and worse within the space of a second.
Darcy didn't just stop shoving her claws into Jade's chest: she recoiled away like she had been struck. She stumbled back several feet from Jade before she stopped.
And in her face, Jade saw a trembling terror, a face seemingly on the verge of tears, a terrified little girl not understanding why she had to go through this, a girl who had grown up, a girl who had become such a terrible thing.
Evil spawns evil.
And if good does nothing…then all is lost.
And despite all she had done to her, as Jade looked upon Darcy's face, at eyes that wanted to shed tears but no longer could…she no longer felt any anger or righteous vengeance towards her. All she felt was pity.
"I'm so sorry Darcy." She said.
Darcy just blinked several times.
And then…
Jade had thought she had seen anger. She had thought she had seen hate. She had thought she had seen murderous vehemence. And she thought that Darcy couldn't manifest an expression with those emotions any greater then she already had towards her.
But the look that came over her face then was so unbelievably powerful Jade almost had a heart attack right then and there. In that expression, she truly saw hell.
And its fire quickly followed, as Darcy made a wordless, almost soundless noise of absolute fury and lashed out, so utterly consumed in anger that all she really did was throw a weak fireball at Jade, lacking any comprehension to do anything greater. It was still enough to send the once again standing Jade tumbling back several dozen feet, as Darcy continued to make gibberish noises, no words in any language able to express her fury.
For a little while anyway, as Jade stood up again and Darcy's eyes, clouded with her overwhelming wrath, focused and locked onto her.
"DARCY TRIX IS DEAD!" She shrieked. "SHE WAS NEVER ALIVE TO BEGIN WITH! I AM IMMORTALISDEA! I AM THE QUEEN OF ALL FIRE AND DARKNESS! I AM THE DESTINY OF THE WORLD AND THE WRATH OF THE WITCHES AND NOW, I AM ANGRY!"
Darcy floated up off the ground, and then a twenty foot around tower of fire exploded up around her, washing up over her even as it shot up into the angry black clouds, as threads of fire suddenly lit up within the clouds, covering The Shiran capital with malignant radiance, and the earth began to shake again as the fire washed around Darcy, somehow flowing around her so her own form of fire didn't become obscured or consumed by the eruption.
"And YOU, JADE HALVA, JUST LIKE HER, ARE DEAD!" Darcy screamed, as she held her hands out before her, as several dozen tendrils sprouted from her back and flowed out around her. Balls of fire began appearing at the end of the tendrils, some red, some white, some blue. And in the hands of Darcy came the black Soulsearer fire.
And Jade realized that this was it.
It was time.
"I'm sorry Immortalisdea, Darcy, whatever your name may be. What happened to you wasn't right. But neither is this. You've made your choice. Now I have to make mine." Jade said. She didn't know how much power she had left, as she brought her hands to her sides, but she vowed to use every last bit of it, as she began to concentrate, even as Darcy screamed again and her fireballs grew larger.
And all around the universe, pyrokinetics suddenly found their talents raging out of control. Katherine Grant, known as Spitfire, was sitting with her father, Ted Grant, known as Wildcat, and several of his teammates in the legendary Justice Society of America, for a quiet dinner, when she suddenly found fire spilling from her mouth, setting the table ablaze and nearly the whole room before the leader of the team, the rather goofily named but nowhere goofy at all Mr. Terrific managed to use his high tech "T-Spheres" to erect a shield around Katherine, a shield she threatened to burn through anyway, if she didn't burn through the floor first. Elsewhere, Amara, known simply as Fire, suddenly found the molten fire she commanded flaring up out of control: if she hadn't happened to be nearby a large river in which she found she had to dump her fire into, much property damage could have resulted. The world shook. The heavens burned.
And Red power appeared between Jade Halva's hands, an orb of crimson energy, a tiny light manifesting before the darkness, as Darcy continued her wordless screaming and cursing. Jade's pity had not faded, but it was once again matched by grim determination, as her own power grew. It still seemed pathetically small before Darcy's amassed rage, but Jade did not think of that: only of the all important thing, the reason that she was still standing after all this, the NEED TO DO WHAT HAD TO BE DONE.
Darcy grinned. Lucifer himself would have trouble matching what lay within that smile.
"NOW……BURN!"
And Darcy thrust her arms forward, and all the fire blasts spewed forth, the red, white, blue, and black flames all spiraling together to form one giant blast of dark fire, pure evil power let loose upon the earth.
And with her own cry, Jade thrust her own arms forward, firing off a red lance of power. With Darcy floating some distance off the ground, the two blasts flew at each other at a rough thirty-degree angle, and struck.
Power exploded outward, blowing away anything that wasn't nailed down and pretty much everything that was as well. The crimson and dark blasts shoved at each other, spraying out from the point of impact…and then Jade's began to be pushed back, almost easily. Darcy's eyes shone with madness.
"GO TO HELL!" She screamed.
Jade's blast crumbled beneath Darcy's wrath, pushed back and back to where Jade stood, still firing despite the seeming hopelessness of it all, even as her blast grew shorter and shorter…
"GO TO HELL! GO TO HELL! GO TO HELL!" Darcy screamed.
Jade's blast disappeared entirely, the only thing left a crimson glow on her hands, as the dark fire washed over her. It didn't just burn her, it also seemed to chill her, eat at her like it was a living thing. The crimson glow was the only thing keeping it from completely enveloping her, and even that was fading…
"GO TO HELL! GO TO HELL!"
Jade closed her eyes, as she felt it all coming down…
And then, she remembered.
Her friends…
Her last remaining family member…
Her father standing against all odds…
Jade's eyes opened again.
And Yusuke's expression of utter agony as Darcy forced him to harm her…
"GO TO HELL! GO TO HELL! GO TO HELL!"
And her eyes shone bright green.
"YOU FIRST!"
And Jade thrust her arms out, and her blast returned, doubled, tripled, quadrupled, overwhelming Darcy's dark fire blast like it was nothing and scattering it to the winds as Darcy suddenly found her power gone and her vision filling with gold.
"AAAAAAIIIIIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"
Darcy was consumed by the blast, her silhouette vanishing, as the gargantuan attack flew up above The Shiran capital and briefly bathed it all in gold before it punched a hole through the black clouds above the city and flew off into space.
Cracked and smoking, the Demon artifact clattered to the ground.
And then, silence.
Gasping for air, Jade lowered her arms. Her whole body felt numb, dead, almost nonexistent in its weariness, as if it was as insubstantial as Jade was when she turned intangible. Around her, tiny bits of debris began falling, even as Jade took after their example and fell to her knees. She took in several more gasping breaths, staring at the ground.
And then Jade felt it. Her eyes went as wide as saucers.
"DIE!" Darcy screamed.
And then her line of fireballs came down, a row of giant red blasts aimed along the ground at Jade, ones that Jade was far too weak to dodge, and she screamed as one struck and blew her away, the ones following completely obscuring her from sight.
"Ha….ha ha ha ha ha…" Darcy gasped from where she was floating, high up in the sky. "Close Girl. But not close enough. You may have blown off the artifact, but I don't need that. My power is my own. MINE!"
The clouds began to rumble, as Darcy held her hands before and shrieked with laughter.
"MY OWN! FOREVER! NO MATTER WHAT! I AM FIRE! AND LIFE INCARNATE! NOW AND FOREVER, I AM THE LORD AND MASTER OF THE INFERNO, DARCY…!"
The last word was a bit muted, as Darcy seemed to lose her enthusiasm in mid-bellow. She had seen something. Something very strange.
One of her hands was…flickering.
Darcy stopped her glorying and looked at her right hand.
Tongues of fire were licking from it, brief tiny spurts that momentarily marred the perfection illusion of flesh that her body had. Confused, Darcy turned her hand around, looking at the back, and then at the palm again. She focused, and the flickering flames stopped. But as soon as she stopped focusing, they started again.
"You only got one part right." Said a female voice Darcy had not expected to hear again. "The now part."
Darcy turned to look at Jones, floating in the sky nearby. The girl was a mess: her bathing suit outfit looked like all it would take was a sharp tug to completely remove it. But there she floated.
And she wasn't alone. She had one hand out, forming a dark energy platform, on which Remy stood, and he, likewise, had a light strand out which formed a platform a dozen feet away on which Flora was positioned. Darcy glanced to her other side and wasn't surprised to see Bloom floating there.
How all four of them had not only escaped death from her blast, but also the fact that The Shiran capital had been reduced to burnt ruins in her battle with Jade, Darcy didn't know. Superheroes could be worse then cockroaches: just when you think they're down and squashed, they start moving again. But that fact didn't much bother Darcy. All four looked as messed up if not more so then Jones, and had Darcy not been distracted, she would have laughed at them: what were they going to do, mount another offense? With what?
But…she had other things on her mind, as she suddenly felt something she hadn't felt in forever. A chill. In her hand. Darcy looked down at the appendage again, and found that the hand was not only flickering with fire spurts, it seemed to be dissolving, the fingers and nails briefly becoming cruder constructs of flame like they had been in her old body. Darcy stared at it, uncomprehending. What was going on?
"The inevitable. The one you ensured." Jones said, and Darcy looked up at the demon.
"…What?"
"It was a question we were baffled by long before this." Jones went on. "Where were you getting your power? How did you seem to be so much stronger then before? Even focusing your power through hosts, and this demon artifact…something didn't add up. No being can pull power out of nowhere. It had to come from something. And now, we finally know what was giving you your edge Darcy. Yourself."
"What?"
"Simple science." Remy continued.
"Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be transferred from one form to another." Bloom added.
"And that applies to everything. Including you." Flora finished.
"If a human being exerts themselves, they use resources from their body. Sugars, fats, water, and so on. But if humans want to keep exerting themselves, they have to replace what they used. If they don't, their body can't keep going. And if they somehow keep pushing themselves without replenishing their stores…then their bodies can start breaking down. Malfunctioning. In some cases, dying. But that's a human being. Spirits seem to be different. But not so much that a similar rule can't be applied to them. You've got power, Darcy. And rage can be a power multiplier. But even rage has its limits. And when that limit is surpassed, and one insist on going on…other sources of power have to be found. And if, say, you're so consumed with rage and hate that you don't even notice that fact, well, you might be able to get away with it for a while…but eventually, a price is going to have to be paid."
And Darcy suddenly felt a lurching twist within her chest, and she gasped out a breath of hot air, and then her arm once again became cold, colder, and she found she wasn't just loosing high definition of the limb, she was losing any definition at all.
"No…this can't happen!" She cursed.
"Maybe so, but you still exist, Darcy. You still have a form. And that's where you've been getting all the extra power. You've been cannibalizing your own body to feed your rage and destructive desires. And you got away with it for a while. But I'm afraid you've finally hit the edge Darcy. You've taken so much that your body is starting to break down. A process that could have been reversed, if only you'd been aware of it. But you weren't."
"NO! MY POWER…!"
"Has peaked. You've used up everything you could, and beyond that. Now…nothing's left Darcy. You are the Lord And Master of the Inferno…but not forever. I'd say you have a little under ten minutes."
Darcy's eyes blazed. No, they were lying! She couldn't be…breaking down, ceasing to exist! She had to destroy the faeries! It was her destiny! She had the power! She…
Had the equivalent of a heart attack, as she gasped and hunched over, holding her body. She could feel it. Whether it had been extraordinary timing or the loss of the demon artifact, her form was now starting to come apart from within. She looked frantically around.
"Don't bother trying to possess us." Jones said. "Even if you could get through the blocking spell, the way you enhanced your body with that ritual would burn us out in seconds. There's nothing you can do Darcy. It's over. It's time for the end. Why not make it peaceful?"
Another heart attack. Darcy gasped in pain, hunching over again.
And then…she started to laugh.
"Hah…ha ha…so be it then." Darcy said.
And she reared back and screamed, and heat exploded from her body, driving all the Renegades back from it as they gaped in shock.
"Jones! I thought you said she was out of power!" Bloom yelled.
"I said her power had hit its limit and that her body was breaking apart because she forced herself beyond it! I never said she was powerless!" Jones yelled back.
"SO BE IT!" Darcy screamed again. "IF I HAVE TO GO, I'M TAKING AS MUCH AS THIS GODFORSAKEN FUCKING WORLD AS I CAN WITH ME!"
"Oh shit, she's going to do a suicide blast!" Remy cursed. "Jones, didn't you consider this?"
"I'm psychic, dear boy. I'm not omnipotent." Jones said, as Bloom flew in to be close with her friends.
"How much can the crazy bitch muster?" Flora asked, and blinked as everyone gaped at her for her choice of words.
"If these readings are accurate, and they keep rising at the level they are…she can put enough behind one blast to blow most of the Eastern half of Shira off the map." Jones said. "Any suggestions?"
"Yeah." Remy said, as light sprang from his other arm and formed into a fancy looking sword. "Take her down! GO!"
But by now a ball of fire had appeared around Darcy, and unlike all the other times where she had manipulated the heat of such things so it would be far less then normal, it wasn't happening now. And the heat was insane, driving the Renegade back before they could get anywhere near her. Jones chanted a spell and hurled bolt after bolt of black energy at Darcy. Neither attack even seemed to be noticed.
"DAMMIT FUCK!" Remy cursed. "KEEP ATTACKING!"
And even as the Renegades resumed their futile assault, even as Darcy gathered everything she had left in her disintegrating body and prepared to unleash it all at once, none of the Renegade recalled that the cloud of fire was still spewing its wrath upon the earth, and its edge was finally starting to encroach on a large facility in the mountains, panicking men and women running around as they tried to make sense of what was happening.
Jade's eyes fluttered open, suddenly aware of a blistering heat. Well, that wasn't exactly a new experience for her, but this was different. It was too…focused…too…
The slight twitch of her body considering getting up sent a shockwave of agony through Jade, and she nearly passed out again. She coughed, and then opened her eyes as she saw what was in the sky.
She saw Darcy, in a ball of fire, and though she didn't know the details, she knew this was it.
For her. She was done. She had used up absolutely everything, plumed her utter depths, and in the end it hadn't been enough. And from the flitting figures she could see around the fireball, frantically attacking it and having no success at all, it looked like that would prove to be her doom.
Something else caught the corner of her eye. She looked to the side from where she lay on her back.
Yusuke lay there, dead, sprawled across the rock like a broken toy. She stared at him, for a bit.
Yusuke. Perhaps he'd suffered more then any of them. The fire spirit had saved that special agony for Yusuke alone. She had to remember, in some way, what Darcy had made her do. In the end, for all the suffering she had inflicted on him, at least Jade could bear it knowing she'd done everything to the best of her ability. But Yusuke…
Somehow, though a moment ago she had thought it was impossible, Jade found herself pushing up onto her feet, stumbling over to Yusuke, collapsing on his corpse.
"Yusuke… I'm sorry…" Jade said, looking down on Yusuke's face. She brushed the dirt off, and noticed how peaceful he looked. At least he would have that. He would go to whatever lay beyond not knowing pain or fear. At least, she could give him that.
Bits of the ground and earth were floating up from the insane force Darcy was summoning. It seemed even greater then the fire blast she had directed at Jade, the one she had dug so deep to counter. Was that even possible? How could she top that (especially knowing the factor of her body breaking down that Jade herself does not know)? Well, people making suicide charges can sometimes take a dozen bullets when a non-final mindset will just ensure one shot will prove fatal.
Whatever it was…she couldn't stop it. She couldn't save them, or even herself. She just…
The glimmer caught her eye.
Jade kept amazing herself, as her head turned to the latest thing to catch her gaze. What was that?
And how in the hell could she be moving, considering she had been so sure her limbs were on the verge of falling off? Jade didn't know, as she gently laid Yusuke's head down and got up, and began tottering towards the glimmer, some distance away. She did not know how she knew the way, but she did.
Though in the end, when she finally came across what she had seen, the bitter irony of it nearly made her fall into a crazy laughing fit that she would never escape as her brain flew off the skids and into the same clouds of madness that empowered Darcy, and kept her from realizing her fatal flaw until it was too late.
It was the Demon artifact. Darcy's series of blasts from the air, after she had been so certain she was gone, must have somehow blown it over in this direction without breaking it. They didn't make that kind of quality any more, Jade crazily mused, and then harsh reality reasserted itself, as Jade fell to her knees. What good could this do her? Jade now wished she had paid attention when Jones taught her ancient demon.
"You…" Jade said, as she picked up the hand-sized octagon, the rough stone warm to the touch. "What was the spell…Laptop Dingle Dingle…heh, why bother? We're all damned. And it's all my fault."
Jade stared at the Demon artifact, thinking her bleak thoughts…and then her eyes strayed to the bit that was broken off, that made the last part of the last line of the message unknown If the only problem she had in her next life was obscure ancient languages, they maybe…
And then the artifact began glowing. A soft gold. Jade blinked.
And then, gold energy flowed out from the end of the broken word, forming into a symbol. Jade didn't recognize it though…and then the other words became alit in gold and then floated off the artifact, as if written on the air itself. And then…Jade found the words shifting, reforming…
For true untranslated, look lost word…
Into English.
Jade stared at the now readable sentence.
For true power, look within.
"…What power…?" Jade asked. "I don't have any power left."
Do you believe that?
The words were strange: they partly sounded like Jade was thinking them and partly sounded like another voice entirely. In a normal state, Jade would have found this strange: here, she accepted it as simply as she would have accepted that she needed air to live.
"What else do I have? I did everything…not enough…"
What do you want?
"…I…I…" Jade said, and looked back at Yusuke. "I want to help them. None of them deserve this. I just want to help…all I ever wanted…"
Then that is all you need.
"…you must be kidding me…" Jade said. "What could…"
And then Jade felt it. It felt like warm water, running up through her arm…water that emerged as golden shimmering sparks of power, as the Demon artifact floated up from Jade's palm.
"Heh…heh heh…" Darcy laughed to herself. She might have been dying, or ceasing to exist, but the way there was sure one hell of a ride. Time for the last peak.
The fireball around Darcy began to retract.
"SHE'S PREPARING! GO! NOW! NOW!" Remy yelled.
The fireball around her completely vanished, leaving Darcy…
As Bloom flew in with a scream and punched the fire deity with all her might. Her blow would had smashed a train engine, even as it burned all the flesh off her knuckles…and all it did was drive Darcy back a bit. She didn't seem to show any more effects, as she grinned.
And then a tendril of fire smacked Remy right out of the attack and sent him flying off in another direction.
"ARGH! WHY ME!" He cursed, as Jones appeared from the shadows behind him and caught him. "TOSS ME BACK! EVERYONE…!"
And then a strange sensation washed over Remy. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but it felt like when the sun came out from behind the cloud and got rid of the shadows on the ground as it washed over you…magnified by the power of ten.
Jones eyes went as wide as saucers.
"Oh no."
Jade stared at the power coming from her hand, forming a shimmering orb around the Demon relic, marveling at it. Where was this coming from? She was so certain she was tapped out…
And it didn't matter.
What matters to you?
"I have to save them." Jade said.
What are you willing to give up?
"Everything I have and more."
Are you sure?
Jade's eyes glowed as green as the power emerging from her palm.
"Yes."
And the orb grew brighter, the power flowing from within Jade growing stronger, and stronger, concentrating around the artifact, the key…
Jade never knew just what she had found. Remy and Jones had theorized about certain things, but they had not shared what they had spoken of with her.
There was a key to the power, and it was one designed to weed out the unworthy, designed to be a test virtually no human, by instinct or by nurture, could accomplish. You could not desire power. You could not be aware of what you could be. All you could do was wish for other things, for whatever reason, but they could not be based in selfishness. You had to wish for the power without desiring to use it.
A power that Jade, in her quest to save her kingdom, her friends, her family, and the universe, had touched on, never questioning on what it was or where it came from, just acting…a power she was now fully joined with, as it obeyed her wish to do what she wanted…what had to be done.
Perhaps Jade would not survive the experience. And even if she did, she may never reach the same state needed to do what she had done now. It may be a peak she never touched again.
But she didn't care. She knew what she needed, and it responded, as the orb grew brighter, and brighter, the artifact spinning within it.
For a moment, the power was hers.
Jade Halva's.
The Pri-immortal.
And the power surge stopped.
Jade shut her eyes.
And then she opened them again, as she looked upon her desire.
And then the world went to hell.
"Ha ha ha ha…HA HA HA HA HA!" Darcy laughed. "GOODBYE EVERYONE! IT'S BEEN A BLAST! BUT NOW IT'S TIME FOR DESTINY! I'LL TURN YOU AND YOUR CITY AND EVERY FAERIE I CAN AND ABOVE ALL ELSE THAT FUCKING GIRL INTO CINDER AND ASH!"
And Darcy slammed her arms up.
And fire erupted down from her body, a massive surge of flame nearly five hundred feet around, an ultra concentrated blast that shot down towards The Shiran capital.
"OH NO!" Bloom screamed.
Remy looked at Jones.
"Now what do we do?"
Jones face was many things. Angry. Afraid. Sorrowful. But above all…grimly accepting.
"We die."
Jade saw the utterly mammoth blast start coming down, almost right at her it seemed. It filled the entire sky.
She could almost swear she heard Darcy laughing.
She looked down at her orb, so small in comparison. But no despair filled her.
"I'm sorry Darcy." She said to herself, as the fire blazed down towards her. "I'm sorry for what they did to you. I'm sorry for how much you suffered. I'm sorry I couldn't do anything else to help. I just hope…that in this…you will find the peace you craved…that you…deserve."
And Jade's head snapped up, looking at the doomsday blast, even as she threw his arm back.
"NOW…BE…GONE!"
And she hurled the orb towards the blast.
Darcy laughed and laughed: she could feel her body start to disintegrate anew, but she was certain she'd take in the rest of the show before she was all gone, and Remy anguished that the last thing he heard would be the laughter from a soul poisoned to its core…
And then Jade's orb struck the fire blast. It was like an ant attacking a dinosaur.
But the blast stopped. Dead.
Darcy's laughter cut off.
"What?"
The two attacks warred briefly, shining beams of light coming from the red and golden orb as it shoved against the massive fire blast, Jade standing on the ground, her arm still held out and locked as if she was willing the orb forward.
And then Darcy's fire blast exploded. Fire spewed outward in every horizontal direction, filling the whole sky with fire, but a fire that did not touch the ground below it.
"NO! WH-WHAT HAPPENED?" Darcy screamed. The Renegades, so certain a moment ago that they were doomed, were just as stunned, as the fire cloud spread out and burned underneath them.
As part of it briefly glowed gold, and then Jade's orb came shooting out from the flames.
Jade saw it, and then she got a taste it as it was slammed into her empathic senses: POWER.
"RUN!" She screamed, as she flew off as fast as she could with Remy. Bloom didn't need to be told twice as she too took off as fast as she could with Flora, as the orb headed straight for Darcy.
Darcy found herself staring at the golden orb, somehow seeing within it at the artifact that lay at its core…
Jade held her pose…
And Darcy, as she watched the orb fly in, somehow saw Jade's face shining from within.
"No."
And then the orb struck her.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH………!" Darcy screamed, as the power reached out, ripping deep into her form, and pulling her apart by her very atoms.
"DAMN YOU HALVA!"
And then Darcy vanished in an explosion of Gold. The light lit up the entire sky of The Shiran capital for a brief moment before the Gold turned into an outright explosion of fire, flame that expanded and expanded out, reaching down towards the ground.
Jade lowered her arm as the phoenix force traveled back into her body.
As she realized the fire was still spreading, coming down before her in a skyline spanning cloud, a cloud of fire that stopped just before her.
As the burning flames twisted into a gigantic face, a face barely recognizable, a face that let loose with an inhuman roar as Darcy bellowed her wrath…a roar that turned into a wail as the face turned up and then split apart into nothing, all features vanishing into the fire.
And strangely…a soft, contented smile came over Jade's face.
As the fire cloud washed over her and carried her away, one last destructive force striking down upon her and the Renegades, as the shockwave smashed into them like the moon was landing on them and scattered them all to the winds.
As the massive fire cloud that consumed the center of The Shiran capital expanded out even more, and then suddenly contracted, going up towards the fire spewing clouds, withdrawing into itself and into nothing…and then streams of golden light exploded out from the epicenter, thousands of them, streaming out and away from The Shiran capital (though two dipped down into the actual city), a brilliant shower of luminescence that went on for several seconds.
And then, with one final blast, the clouds were blown away in a circle and scattered to nothing, leaving only the clear night sky.
Damn it, no pulse!"
"…Jade?" Remy asked.
"Well, here we are again kid."
"I guess so."
"All right…one, two, three, four, five…" Bloom said as she began CPR: her one hand provided more then enough strength.
"…Do something! You can heal people!" Flora said to Jones.
"…I can only heal. I can't…revive her…" Jones said.
"So, you want to go now?"
"Do I have a choice?"
Bloom proceeded to the breath of life, as Flora knelt nearby, her eyes beginning to fill with tears.
"Well actually…sorta."
"What?"
"You know, you heroes make my job complicated. Everyone else has a set time, but with you, you're here, you're not, you're here, you're not, all the time! Makes it hard to nail down a set period, you know? I don't mind making repeated trips, but it's not the way things go, y' know?"
"Come on! Don't give up on me kid!" Bloom said, as she continued his efforts. She even did so when Remy grimly walked up and a light flowed out and into Jade's ear. Remy stood there for several seconds, and then his eyes closed, his face angry, harsh, and poignant.
"So, you want to go now?"
"Will it change anything?"
"Well no. Eventually it'll come time for you to go with me. But considering who you are, you get what a lot of people don't. Options."
"Who am I, a hero?"
"Among other things."
"Bloom…" Remy said, putting a hand on Bloom's shoulder. "She's brain-dead. She's gone."
"…No…Jade…" Bloom said, as her own eyes began to tear up.
"She gave up everything to save us. The noblest of all sacrifices…" Remy said, trying to sound like the sad but stoic leader who had to get everyone to carry on. But in reality, he wasn't doing very well: his voice even cracked a bit on the word sacrifices.
"You were too good for this world…" He managed to whisper, weeping. "You always were…"
"I'd rather not go now."
"You sure? Might be best to get it over with now. I don't know the details of the future. That's my brother's job."
"…I believe I'd like to stay."
"So you want to put it off?"
"Yes."
"Peachy-keen! Then I'll see you later."
"…That's it? You're not mad?"
"Mad? Why would I be angry? You'll come to me eventually Jade. It's the way things are. But I can handle it if they swing a little differently at times. Keeps me on my toes!"
"…Who are you?"
"Oh, I think you know Jade. Now fly! Fly my pretty!"
Her laughter was strangely compelling…
"Well…in the end…" Remy said, and found he didn't have a quote that could provide any comfort. "Sigh…those who run from what's important, die every day…those who die for what's important…live forever…if only in our hearts…oh kid…kid…"
And then Jade surged up, coughing violently, and nearly giving everyone a heart attack.
"…………….Jade?" Jones said.
"Billy shut up…Is it over? Can I go home?"
"…OH JADE!" Bloom almost shrieked, hugging Jade so tight she nearly killed her again via a broken neck.
"…SHE'S ALIVE?" Flora gasped. Jones looked just as shocked.
"…That's impossible. She was brain dead. Her skull was no more capable of supporting life then a toaster. How in…what the…I mean…THE HELL?" Remy said, goggling at the newly revived Faerie.
"Miracles." Jones said, "They're our stock in trade Remy. Sometimes even when all is lost."
"Yes but…I mean…oh, who cares." Remy said.
"…Darcy?" Jade asked.
"Gone. You did it Jade. You saved the day!" Bloom exclaimed.
"Though your kingdom could use some work." Flora said, her eyes still shining with tears.
"Oh…they're just…things…people are what's important…now…can I go to sleep?" Jade asked, her voice faint.
"Just make sure you come back to us again." Remy replied.
"That's why…I did…" Jade said, and then her head went limp again, but this time in the peaceful rest of slumber.
An: The conclusion is coming up next… I finally finished that chapter…