In the deepening gloom, the Princess, Count Blogg, and the King of Shadows stood on a hill, watching the defeat of the forces of Light. A little way down the hill, closer to the action, General Zombo stood, the headset built into his uniform extended, directing the action.
"That's it!" cried the Princess, "Catch thoses Sprites! We need them to work in the mine!"
The General murmured an order into the mike, and two of the Glitterbots turned and set off in pursuit of several fleeing Sprites.
Sorrell was doing his best, but his weakness in mechanical spells proved his undoing. His magic protected him from attacks by Count Blogg or the Princess, and any Slurthie or Palace Guard that came near he turned into an animal, but his spells had no effect on the Glitterbots. They finally captured him with their rope dispensers, and the Guardsmen quickly had him unable to move.
The Color Kids, freed of the Slurthies, proved harder to subdue. following Rainbow's example to Patty, they put color on the squat black creatures, instead of breaking them up with a color beam. Like salt on a slug, the color caused a Slurthie to shrivel up and fall to dust.
Even though the light in the eyes trick didn't work on the Glitterbots any more, changing the color of the protective faceplate made it harder for the robots to see and find their way around. But even then, by shooting rope in all directions, they entangled the Kids, and the Guardsmen would tie them. One of the
Glitterbots had found Stormy, and brought her back to the others. She was tied like the rest, even though she was still woozy from the hard knock on the head.
Back at the top of the hill, a Slurthie oozed out of the bushes, and waved at Blogg when the Princess wasn't looking. He saw it, and nodded. The Slurthie disappeared behind the bush.
"Excuse me, my Princess, a spy wishes to report," he said, bowing slightly.
"Don't bother me with details, Blogg," she answered, "I'm having too much fun!"
"Don't let that green one get away!" she shouted, and launched a pink beam at the Sprite. It struck, turning the hapless Sprite to crystal. The Princess laughed.
Blogg went over to the bush and slipped behind it. The Slurthie was waiting for him.
"So, what do you have for me?" he asked.
It moved aside to reveal a cannister like the one Blogg had stolen from Violet's lab a year earlier. He opened it, to reveal a baseball-sized multicolor crystal. The colors flashed, even in the gloom.
"Excellent!" he exclaimed, and put the top back on. "You are dismissed. See me after the war, and I will reward you handsomely."
"THANK YOU, COUNT," it said, and melted away.
"And if you believe that," the Count thought to himself, "I have some beachfront property inside the Color Cave to sell you."
Count Blogg picked up the cannister, and headed for the flagship. Outside the main hatch, the magic Jewel sat on its pedistal, glowing brightly. It flashed once in a while, feeding energy to the Princess for her spells.
He put the cannister down, reopened it, and mentally reviewed what the King of Shadows had told him. When the Princess had re-energized the Jewel, at the same time it was attuned to her command. By performing the same spell again, the new energy would "push out" hers, and it would be attuned to him. The King had warned him to be sure and touch the Jewel with the Color Crystal first, or he would get a nasty shock.
"This is it," he thought, "After all this time, the power of the Jewel will be mine! As a well-accomplished magician already, I will put it to good use! Maybe I'll keep the Princess around as a slave to work in the mines! It's what she deserves! The empire will be mine! I'll set in motion the timetables for conquest I worked out years ago! I'll conquer planets, and add their populations to my armies! Any who resist, I'll grind under my heel!"
He looked down at the Jewel, floating above its base. "And it all starts now."
He got the color crystal out of its cannister, and carefully touched it to the Jewel. Nothing happened. He gingerly touched the Jewel with his fingers, and again, nothing happened. Gaining confidence,
he mentally recited the spell, and concentrated, willing the energy of the color crystal into the Jewel. The end of the crystal farthest from the Jewel began to dissolve, and energy flowed. Blogg gasped,
as the Jewel suddenly 'noticed' him, but kept his place.
On top of the hill, the Princess' fun was suddenly interrupted by a strange feeling. She looked around, but saw only the triumph of her forces. The King was watching as well, and paying no attention to her. The feeling got stronger.
"What was it?" she wondered. It was so strange. It almost felt like...like when her brother Krys and that Rainbow Brite had destroyed the Jewel. She thought about it, and the more she did,
the righter it seemed. Something was wrong with the Jewel! She looked around again. Where was Blogg?
She turned and ran toward the flagship. The King turned and watched her go, amused. She would discover what was wrong, soon enough.
She arrived at the clearing, to find Blogg had nearly completed the spell.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" she shouted.
"Too late, Princess!" said Blogg, surrounded by a pink aura. The last bit of the color crystal disappeared from his fingers. "The Jewel is mine!"
"You...you TRAITOR!" she hissed, "I will destroy you for this!"
"You will do nothing, my ex-Princess! For years I have taken your abuse, and now it's my turn!"
He threw back his arms, and gathered power from the Jewel. The Princess covered her eyes from the brightness.
"No, Blogg, you don't know what you've done!" she shouted.
Blogg laughed. "How pitiful!" he said, and laughed again. He raised his hand and pointed toward her. The pink glow gathered around his fingers.
Suddenly, with a sound like fingernails on a blackboard ending with glass breaking, the Jewel was suddenly criss-crossed with fine black cracks.
Blogg and the Princess looked at it, and the cracks widened, allowing a blindingly bright pink light to escape.
Blogg wrinkled his brow. "What...?"
"No..." whispered the Princess, and turned to run.
With a loud BANG! the magic Jewel exploded, turning instantly into uncounted pieces finer than the finest dust. A bright pink magic vortex was left swirling, and it began to draw into itself. Caught in the wild magic, Blogg and the Princess were pulled into it, and disappeared, their wails of terror echoing from the hills. A second later, nothing was left of the Jewel save the fine dust, drifting away in the wind.
From a safe distance, the King of Shadows had watched as the two were destroyed, as he had intended.
"Ah, Blogg, it was your own greed and lust for power that did you in," he thought, "And now, our bargain is at an end. Besides, in the right hands, the Jewel could have been used against me. And we can't have that, can we?"
He turned back to the battle.
Rainbow worked her way across the battlefield, getting more worried by the minute. "Twink?" she called, looking around, but was unable to catch sight of the young white Sprite in all the chaos. There he was! The Sprite had his back to Rainbow, and was walking with a purposeful stride toward the King of Shadows! She ran toward them.
"Hey! You!" shouted Twink.
The King looked at the Sprite.
The gaze of the King was very intimidating, but Twink was determined to show Rainbow he had courage. He held his ground.
"Go away!" he yelled, shaking a fist, "Look at all the damage you've caused!"
"TWINK! NO!" shouted Rainbow, running faster.
The King looked surprised. "Do you think you can stop me?" he asked, "A young, tiny creature like yourself?"
"I'm going to try!" replied Twink, and strode toward the King. The King of Shadows raised his hand and pointed at Twink.
"Die, now," he said, and a blackness appeared around his fingers.
"I WON'T LET YOU DO THAT!" shouted Rainbow, stepping in front of Twink. She touched the star on the Color Belt, and it sparkled, but did nothing else.
"ENERGY DEPLETED," reported the Belt, mentally.
The King lowered his hand, the spell unsent.
"Once again we meet, Rainbow Brite, but this time it will be different," said the King. "Your helpers are captured, the Castle destroyed, the Sprites fled. Your last moments have arrived." He gestured at the destruction around them. "Look upon the end of the color and light, and despair."
She looked around. A waiting silence had fallen. The Color Kids and Sorrell sat together, surrounded by the Princess' Palace Guard, who had bound them in Glitterbot rope cinched cruelly tight.
She noted that Krys had still not been captured.
The Sprites that had been captured were huddled together, Slurthies keeping the ones not hypnotized from running away. The smoking, blackened pile of metal that was all that remained of Doris caught her attention.
The ruins of the Color Castle, the trees that were on fire, the melted remains of Glitterbots, the burning Sprite houses were all testimony to the fact the war was lost. All eyes were on the two of them, even the few remaining Glitterbots. They all knew this was the pivotal point in the war. The next few seconds would decide the fate of the rainbows of the future.
Rainbow turned back to face the King.
"Despair? NEVER!" she shouted.
"How can you fight me? Your power is gone! Die now, and take your accursed colors with you!"
"The light and color and happiness will always exist, and I will fight you to preserve them!" She stepped in front of Twink again, and threw out her arms to shield him.
And the King of Shadows laughed. The very sound of it shook the ground of Rainbowland. As he did so, the gloom gathered closer to him, until all that could be seen were his glowing eyes, filled with hatred for her and all she stood for.
He pointed, and darkness ran down his arm and across the distance separating them, and hit her squarely in the chest. Nothing seemed to happen.
She glanced down at Twink, and the look on his face froze her gaze. He was looking back up at her with loathing and contempt.
"Twink? What's wrong?" she asked.
"You are," he replied, and kicked her.
Shocked, she stepped back. Twink stuck out his tongue at her.
"Why don't you just die? You're a useless failure." He ran away.
She looked toward the Color Kids. All of them were staring at her with anger, and Sorrell's expression seemed as though he was looking at the most loathsome slime that could exist.
"YOU HAVE FAILED!" they all said in unison, "WE ABANDON YOU. YOU ARE NOT RAINBOW BRITE, YOU ARE WISP. A WISP OF SMOKE IN OUR EYES. YOU ARE WEAK AND USELESS. THE RAINBOW HAS LOST ITS POWER, AND IT'S YOUR FAULT. OUR DEATHS ARE ON YOUR HANDS." And they turned their backs on her.
Black despair filled her heart and soul, destroying hope, and even the memories of color and joy. She fell to her knees on the grass, crying. She closed her eyes and thought, "They are right, I can't fight any more. I am alone. I may as well die. He's won."
Suddenly, through her tear-filled eyes, a flash of movement.
For a moment she thought it was the King, come to finish her. But there was color in the movement. She wiped her eyes, and looked again. It was the ghost of Plock. In the gloom it was clearly visible, glowing faintly. But its expression was not one of hatred and contempt. It was tender, and filled with love, and pierced her to the heart, cutting through the despair, and the spell of lies.
Where it came from she didn't know, but in the darkest moment of her life, it gave her hope again. The ghost pointed at the King, and nodded. He smiled at her.
She decided to act on its advice. She looked, and found the King watching her, waiting for her to collapse and die. He did not seem to see the ghost, concentrating solely on her.
Abandoned, alone, the Color Belt's power gone, Rainbowland all but destroyed, she had nothing but her belief in the light and the rainbow, and her restored hope. Her anger suddenly grew, and it lent strength to her limbs. Two other things she still had. Her life, and a willingness to sacrifice it to ensure a future of color and hope and happiness for others. She stood up, and took off, running up the hill towards the King. She didn't realize it, but a white aura had blazed up around her.
"What are you..." said the King, "No...NO!" he shouted, realizing what she was going to do.
Rainbow Brite ran INTO the darkness beneath the glowing eyes.
The King of Shadows screamed, so loudly that everyone who could stopped their ears.
The King grew, gathering in the gloom, getting bigger and bigger, as he tried to be rid of the small spark of Light that had come within it. But that spark wouldn't be quenched by darkness.
Instead, it grew brighter and larger, taking on rainbow hues, and began to engulf the King.
The King screamed again, and gathered more darkness to himself. In answer, the Light grew brighter, and more colorful.
The King screamed a third time, and this time there was a horrible struggle within his body, and -something- glimpsed by all for just a moment, broke free from him, and with a wail of dispair, fled upwards and away from Rainbowland.
A profound silence fell, and the sun broke through the clouds, and the King of Shadows was gone.
Rainbow Brite was gone as well.