Chapter 18
The three wolves exploded into action, whilst the human Defenders opened fire on the cloud that had now risen, larger than ever before.
Kook turned to the wolf Shaiden, who was running off with Thorne and Crystal. "Shaiden, wait!" he called.
She turned to him. "What is it?" she asked.
He looked her in the eyes. "Be careful." he warned.
"Don't worry, I will." she replied, running off to rejoin the others.
Kook sighed. Why did I have to do it now?, he thought angrily.
He knew that, earlier on, when him and Shaiden had met for the first time since the quake, he could have told her his feelings then, but instead he just owned up about his involvement in opening the portal. If that wasn't bad enough, just now, when he had been given a second chance, all he could tell her was to be careful. If he wasn't careful, she was going to forget that his love for her even exsisted!
He was snapped out of his sad daydream by Ballista. "C'mon Kook!" she said harshly, before shooting a paintball. "We've got to try and hold this thing back!"
He grabbed his handheld Splatzooka and began to fire at the cloud.
Meanwhile, Thorne, Shaiden and Crystal were running at full speed through the forest.
"Thorne," she asked, "remind me again why we're meant to be running in the opposite direction to the conflict?"
"We need to make a diversion." he replied. "That way we can get the Entity to chase us, and, knowing him, he'll probably get in front of us, try to force us into a corner. We'll surprise him, give him a taste of his own medicine."
Shaiden nodded, even though the whole thing had gone slightly over her head.
"Well," she retorted, "your plan doesn't seem to be working all that well- he's still over with the others!"
Everything seemed to be getting a little off-track, but even so, both the siblings were surprised when Crystal stepped in.
"Guys, would you just stop it!" she said. "We're meant to be focussing on getting out of here!"
Suddenly, an all-too familar voice filled the air. "Thinking of leaving, are we?"
This time, there was no crack of thunder, but the Entity quietly arose all the same, in its cloud form.
"What the...?" Thorne started.
"My dearest Crystal," it said sympathetically, floating down to her, "my deepest apologies, but I'm afraid I simply cannot let you do that."
He glided over to Thorne and Shaiden. "For, if you go through the portal to your world, as you are, time will rip itself apart."
"What are you on about?" Thorne asked angrily.
"All this time, little wolves," he answered slyly, "you've been trapped in a whole different world. Same timeline, but with two different fabrics that make them up."
None of the three knew a decent comeback.
The Entity laughed, and said, with a mischevious glint in his red eyes, "And now, my plan has all come down to this. Get ready to run, my little wolves."
The cloud swooped over them, blasted an energy ray, and the three once again began running.
On the way, Shaiden noticed a pile of large, thick logs. She picked them up. She couldn't figure out why she'd done it, it was just a random, spur-of-the-moment thing, but something in her subconscious told her that it would be an extremely wise move.
She quickly caught up with Crystal and Thorne, who seemed to be enaged in a bizarre rodeo round-up of sorts. Shaiden rolled her eyes. "When will you two ever learn?" she asked, throwing them each a twig.
"And what are these for?" asked Thorne.
Shaiden didn't reply, and began approaching the Entity.
"Shaiden, you're making a big mistake!" he warned. "Listen to me!"
But she continued to approach the Entity. She spoke, an even, calm, and courageous tone in her voice. "You think that we're defenceless, huh? You think that turning us into wolves would make us lose all of our abilities?"
The Entity shapeshifted into his human form, and nodded. "All of you, I've taken all three of you away from the lives you've had, and loved, for so long. It was inevitable that you'd find it...hard to adjust."
"Well," said Shaiden, her eyes narrowed, "next time you try to trap us, at least think of somewhere with less resources!"
She threw a stick to Thorne and Crystal, and began using hers to full effect. "This is where being a ninja comes in handy!" she said, thrusting her stick out into the Entity.
The Entity shifted to its cloud form, swooping and swerving, dipping and diving, and spinning, shooting countless energy rays, before stopping to float above the three.
"Ah, this is so much fun!" he said, twirling around. "And even now, the two Defenders aren't doing their jobs!" He laughed, whilst Thorne and Shaiden exchanged worried glances.
The Entity continued. "But, really, it isn't you two I should be focussed on. Now I think about it, you two don't really matter."
"What do you mean?" Shaiden asked.
"Think about it." the Entity answered calmly. "All you have is a petty crown, and a kingdom, and a small one at that. Someone else has so much more..."
Thorne knew who he was on about. "No, you can't do this..." he began.
"Oh, I can." the Entity replied. "Compared to you, Crystal is queen of the world. So much money, fame... and power." He put special emphasis on the last word."
He glided over to her, and whispered in her ear, "Il mio gioiello."
"What does that mean?" he asked Thorne quietly.
"It's Itallian, for 'my jewel'." he answered.
Crystal gasped, and tried to run, but the Entity was right on her tail, quite literally.
Thorne chased after her. "DON'T YOU DARE!" he shouted.
"Thorne, what the hell are you doing?" Shaiden asked, running after him.
The Entity was firing energy blasts left right and centre. It had only mentioned wanting Crystal, but she had a feeling that it would take everyone, given the chance.
It was almost becoming too much for her. Thoughts were filling her mind. She was running and leaping, she was trying desparately to dodge blasts, falling branches, and oh so many flames. She thought it couldn't get any worse, when all of a sudden, she felt a sharp pain in her leg, and collapsed with a yelp.
Thorne stopped dead still. His ears pricked up, and he bolted towards Crystal, who was hardly moving. Shaiden had pulled through her energy blast because she was strong. Crystal had less of a chance.
Her scream must have been incredibly loud, because all the human Defenders had rushed over to see what the comotion was about.
Thorne was now at Crystal's side.
Her blue eyes had faded, and were only slightly open. Blood was pouring from her leg, and He was trying to soothe the bleeding with leaves.
"Crystal," Thorne asked quietly, "can you hear me?"
She nodded slowly. "It hurts so bad, Thorne. " she murmured.
"I know." he replied. "You can fight this, Crystal. You can fight this all away, and when you do, you'll be able to go back home. Home, to all those pretty dresses and being waited on hand and foot and sleeping in all those warm, soft four poster beds. Don't you want that?"
"No," she answered, "I don't want all of that. Having that doesn't make me any different to anyone else. I'm not the daughter of a millionaire, Thorne- I'm just an extremely lucky girl."
She bent forward and softly kissed his lips. "I love you..." she whispered through tears.
"I love you too." Thorne answered.
The others were astounded. "I guess they are in a relationship." Kook answered, trying to hide his sadness.
The moment was broken by the Entity's voice. "You two are just so annoying! Why can't you just accept that it's not always a happy ending?"
Thorne stood up, and walked towards the Entity. "I don't know what you are, but you have a weakness, one big, big weakness- you are a hater. You hate to see love, strong love, like the love between me and Crystal-"
"And me and Shaiden." said Kookaburra to himself.
"and now that that love has been realised," Thorne continued, "you can't take it. YOU CAN'T TAKE IT!"
There were crashes of thunder and lightning, and the human Defenders fired their weapons.
"No, no, please!" it called. "I used to be lonely, I used to be human, oh so, so human! Stop your fire, stop your fire!"
The Defenders continued firing, until, suddenly, there was a rumble of thunder, and the ground began to shake.
"Everyone, get down!" Thorne instructed.
There was a flash, and when everyone came back up, the Entity was gone, for good this time.
Everyone cheered. "Thorne, you did it!" Crystal said, looking into his eyes and beaming."
"No," he said, hugging her and his sister, "we did it."
Crystal bent forward to kiss him again, but before she could, an orange light enveloped all three of them.
"Human transformation is beginning, stand back." Tinkor said.
Everyone stood back, and withing seconds, the three of them had collapsed in a pile.