Chapter 33: Interlude- The Queen Awakens
At first, she couldn't hear anything. Then, as her vision blurred back to life, noise poured in her ears like a gentle wave. She looked to her right and saw one of the fairies faces beam with delight as she motioned for others to join her. 'She's awake, she's awake,' she heard the fairy call.
Pain knifing at her forehead and her arms numb with paralysis, Queen Gretchen let out a simple groan as fairies gathered around her. She craned her head to the left and tried to lean forward when what felt like hours of fatigue struck her and her head crashed against a pillow.
"Not too fast, my Queen," Pixie, a fairy taller than most with vibrant green eyes, fluttered to Gretchen's side. "You have been unconscious for some time." She looked toward the window. "Some of the fairies managed to hold the darkness off for now." She took one of the Queen's hands with an affirming grip. "My Queen, I believe we may be able to rid this planet of the darkness once and for all."
Once and for all? At bay? Confusion flashed on Queen Gretchen's face as the other fairies around her gave each other reassuring smiles. Then, shock and fear struck the Queen's face. The Crystal Shard. Ribbon!
The Queen's hands trembled. "Where is Ribbon? Did she escape?" When no one answered, she pressed on. "Is she safe? Somebody answer me!"
Pixie raised her eyebrows in mild surprise as the Queen continued.
"I couldn't forgive myself if I sent her to her demise." Queen Gretchen lowered her head and ran a hand through her hair, her breath coming in labored puffs. "Taking on our Shard by herself, I should have sent someone else. What if she's been attacked? And what if Dark Matter managed to capture the Shard?"
Pixie motioned for Emily and several other fairies to join her in a corner. "What's going on here? She just saw Ribbon not that long ago."
Emily shook her head. "I know, I know, but something's off here. Let me try." Emily turned towards the Queen. "My Queen, what's the very last thing you remember?"
Despite the pain pressing her head, the Queen put a finger to her temple and shut her eyes as she tried to remember. After a few seconds, it hit her. "Yes, Dark Matter invaded the planet, and then Ribbon came rushing toward me." She moved her hands around to add visuals to the story. "Right, that's what happened. I put the Crystal Shard in her hand and told her to be strong and have faith." Her mood changed as she realized what happened next. "And then I sent her off into the galaxy by herself. My word, the tears in her eyes." She placed a hand over her face and sighed.
Not wanting to rush the Queen, Emily nodded. "It's okay, my Queen. Take your time."
Gretchen pinched the bridge of her nose. The sight of Ribbon flying through the depths of space, alone in the middle of nowhere, made her shake. Her fingers tapped at her nose without command. No. Ribbon's stronger than that. Get it together, Gretchen. These fairies need you. She lifted her head and let her shoulders drop. "Ribbon left, then this wave of black spilled into the room. Some orb with an eye talked about a vessel for their leader, Emperor Zero-" Gretchen paused, unable to recall everything. "-Zero something. I'm not sure, but then the darkness grew closer-"
"Then?"
The Queen looked towards her subjects. "Then I woke up."
"I see." Emily turned her back to the Queen and flew to Pixie's side. She spoke in a hushed voice so the Queen wouldn't hear her. "She doesn't remember anything that's happened all this time? How is that possible?"
"Dark Matters been inside of her body all this time. Until Ribbon and those friends of hers got back, we didn't even know that the real Queen wasn't with us." Pixie peeked over her shoulder to get a glimpse at the Queen's empty expression. "If something else had possession of her body, then its possible that she may not have been able to resist it."
"Our Queen is a born leader!" Tara, another fairy with flaming orange hair, argued. "There's no way she wouldn't be strong enough to stop something from taking over her body."
"True," Emily intervened, "but remember that when the Shards light struck the Queen, there was enough darkness in her to create an entire planet."
The other fairies nodded in agreement. After an uncomfortable silence, Emily approached the Queen's bedside.
"My Queen, Ribbon is fine. Dark Matter infected your body, but the Crystal Shard removed all traces of darkness from you. I don't know how Ribbon managed to do it, but she found a group of companions that helped her recover the Shard."
The Queen nodded, taking all of the information in at once. "Did I-did I harm any of you?"
Emily turned towards the other fairies. Pixie shook her head while the others looked towards the floor.
"No, my Queen. No one here noticed that you were not yourself until the Shard extracted the darkness."
"And where is Ribbon now?"
"The darkness within your body took the form of a planet." Pixie flew to Emily's side. "Ribbon and her friends got onto some kind of flying star and went towards it."
"And?"
Pixie let her shoulders drop. "That's all we know now, my Queen. The darkness on the planet is not as widespread as it was before and some of the fairies have managed to keep it at bay while Ribbon is on Dark Star. We don't know when she will return."
"Then we have to go after her." Queen Gretchen leaned forward, pushing up her glasses.
Pixie and Emily exchanged looks while behind them, Tara noticed more and more light shining through the windows. She approached one.
"My Queen, do we have any means of getting to Dark Star? And even then, Ribbon took the Shard with her. What good would we be without our planets most powerful weapon?"
"I don't care. I don't know everything that's happened, but one things for sure: I haven't been myself and if anything happened to Ribbon because I sent her on a suicide mission, I couldn't live with that."
"So what do we do?"
"Ribbon managed to fly away from here with the Crystal Shard. Of course that means some of you could fly to this Dark Star, correct?"
"My Queen, she had the Shard protecting her. We are just normal fairies. Without that protection, we wouldn't last for long in space."
Queen Gretchen narrowed her eyes. She hated getting into these back-and-forth conversations with the fairies. "Is there no one else brave amongst you that will put everything on the line and more, just as Ribbon did? No one who is willing to follow her example, to put their people and their planet before themselves? No one who-"
"Oh my word!"
Tara's sudden outburst interrupted the argument as the others looked towards the window. Tara floated away from the window, shock written on her face. She put a hand to her chest.
"Tara, what's wrong?"
"The darkness." She looked to the window. "It's starting to vanish, just out of thin air."
"Well, that's great!" Emily elbowed Pixie and the Queen sighed with relief, but Tara didn't share their joy. Emily noticed. "Come on, Tara, this is great news! It means that Ribbon did it! We've won!" Despite this, Tara's face didn't brighten and Emily's smile faded. "Tara, what else did you see?"
Tara turned away from the window and flew on the other side of the Queen's bed. She took her hand and shut her eyes as she let her head hang.
"Dark Star just exploded."
AN: I feel this deserves an explanation. Going straight from Dark Star to the end seemed too rushed and this story doesn't spend a lot of time with the fairies, so I tried to give them the spotlight for a moment since the game doesn't give them many outside of a few cut scenes. Hope I didn't disappoint anyone expecting this to be about the aftermath of the battle on Dark Star. That being said, next up is the moment that's been approaching for a long time:
The final chapter.