Phew!!! It's been a while but I finally got my arse in gear and updated! I think there'll be three more chapters after this one, so we're almost there people! This story's been going for almost ten months now. Phew again!
As always, I really have to big up by reviewers - Spongey, Meg and Max Overdrive. Thanks for your patience while my work has temporarily taken over my fanfic-writing.
Random Quote: Hey...Look at that dust cloud. It's so...poofy! Poof! (Ty Lee, from Avatar)
Darkar couldn't believe it. Somehow, Will had escaped his grasp and was now standing right in front of him, looking a little tired from her struggle to retain her free will, but still relieved to be free.
"But how?! How did you get free?"
Will shook her head and chuckled.
"Haven't you figured it out yet? That 'Dis-Spell' that Teggy cast - it wasn't meant for you, it was meant for me! He used his own dark magic to create a ball of energy that would nullify any magic it came into contact with... and seeing as it was the magic you'd surrounded me with to keep me captive and to try and turn me into your slave... well, here I am!"
Darkar turned and glared at Taranee, who shivered slightly under the gaze of his piercing red eyes.
"And I suppose that shout to you was just a distraction."
"Nope. That shout was for me to send a telepathic signal to Will to suppress all of the Heart of Kandrakar's energy - you'd forgotten me and her had a telepathic link, didn't you? Teggy knew that if he hit Will while she was still using it, all of its power would be gone. And he couldn't risk just shouting to Will because he guessed you would just block his attack if you figured out what he was up to."
"That's right!" Will added. "Your little scheme is over Darkar - you've lost!"
"NEVER!" Darkar suddenly yelled, his body erupting into a dark flame which seemed to make the entire room tremble. "I am Darkar, Lord of Shadowhaunt, holder of the Shadowfire! I am all-powerful and I will not be stopped! I will still rule all, and I'll begin by reducing all of you to ashes... starting with YOU, Tegryn!"
Musa stared wide-eyed in fright as Darkar suddenly turned his attentions to Tegryn, who was slowly beginning to recover from his exertions. Her beloved fiancé was in mortal danger but she was powerless to help. She, along with all the fairies, were still suffering from of Darkar's energy-sapping attack combined with Shadowhaunt's draining effects. Luckily for her, the WITCH girls hadn't been so badly affected - it may have been the fact that Darkar's attack was targetted more to weakening fairies than Earth girls, or it may have been the fact that their leader and dearest friend was free from his clutches. Whatever it was, their confidence had been given a little boost, and that was more than enough.
"Oh no you don't, ugly - Earth!" Cornelia said as she pushed her hands out. The ground in front of her immediately rippled and sped out towards the dark one, gathering pace and increasing in size until he found himself being swept up by a tsumani of stone. Meanwhile, Hay Lin used her own unique skills to create a cushion of air underneath Tegryn to gently bring him back into Musa's grateful arms.
With a growl, Darkar picked himself up to be confronted by the sight of Will holding the Heart of Kandrakar out in front of her.
"You wanted this Darkar, didn't you? Well now you're gonna get it, big time - Guardians Unite!"
"Man, those words are music to my ears right now!" Irma said, joining the others as they were transformed into their Guardian states. As soon as they were ready she turned to Tegryn, whose head was once again nestled comfortably in Musa's lap.
"You did it Teggy! Now lay back and enjoy the show!" she said with a wink.
Tegryn peered at this strange young woman who was now addressing him with such familiarity.
"Who are you?" he asked wearily, hardly able to force the breath out of his mouth.
"What!? It's me - Irma!"
He scoped her body from top to toe and back again, with his forehead furrowed in puzzlement.
"No," he sighed with a shake of his head. "Irma's younger."
She and Musa looked at each other with confused looks on their faces.
"I don't understand it. Why doesn't he recognise me?"
After a few split seconds, the answer came to Musa. "Oh, of course! He's never seen you transformed before, has he?"
The two girls giggled, but their merriment was cut short by Cornelia.
"Ha-hem! Guys? Bad guy at ten o'clock!" pointing at Darkar.
Tegryn wearily lifted up his arm and looked at his poor battered wristwatch, which hung around his wrist just above his Gloomix.
"Oh good, that gives us..."
Musa quickly clapped her hand over his mouth.
"Please Teggy - no more bad jokes!" she laughed as she looked up at Irma and Cornelia. "Go for it - and give him an extra hard kicking from me, okay?"
And so the five Guardians faced off against Darkar, fanning out to surround him as he glared back at them, one at a time, with his gaze falling upon Will the last.
"So Miss Vandom, do you really think you Earth girls have something your pixie friends don't? What makes you think you can defeat me?"
At this point, Hay Lin yawned loudly.
"What makes you think blah blah blah... jeez, we heard this a million times before." she repeated, mimicking her enemy. "Can't you bad guys think of something original for a change?"
Darkar's only reply was a loud roar of frustration as he let rip with an insanely powerful blast which Hay Lin was barely able to avoid thanks to some nifty flying. She hovered, panting for breath before gasping in horror. She turned to see the blast heading straight for the stricken group of friends. Luckily for them, Nini was alert to the danger and she erected one of her trademark Harmonic Shields just in time.
"Ooopsie! Sorry guys!" Hay Lin called out apologetically.
"Enough playing around - let's finish this creep off quick!" Cornelia yelled as she slammed her palms onto the ground. A filigree of cracks began to fan out from her palms towards Darkar, snaking their way towards him and surrounding his feet. He looked down at them, bemused.
"Hmmmm... I must say I was expecting more from someone as cocky as you." he said mockingly.
Cornelia crossed her arms and huffed. "Hay Lin, shut this creep up, would you?"
"With pleasure," the Air Guardian said with one of her trademark cheeky grins. She spread her arms out by her sides, and within a few seconds she had conjured an almighty tornado which ripped up the broken ground circling the Dark Lord, enveloping him in a choking cloud of dust. Darkar tried deseprately to shield his face, but it was no use - all-powerful he may have been, but he was just as vulnerable as every other mortal being to getting a bit of dust in his eyes.
Will smiled as he raised her hands and summoned her own awesome energies - after everything that Darkar had put her through, this was going to be extra-sweet. When she was certain she had gathered enough energy - a few million Volts should do it, she reckoned - she let loose her attack. As the immense tidal wide of lightning hit the dust cloud, it became fully electrified, striking its hapless victim from every angle with painful jolts.
The Guardians looked on with hugely satisfied looks on their faces as the mini-storm continued at full pelt. Surely there was no way Darkar could fight on after taking such punishment - it might not be enough to destroy him, but at least he'd be disabled long enough for them to get out of this place... but as soon as that thought had left Will's mind, a sudden uneasy feeling overcame her.
Something was wrong.
She stared at the electrified dust cloud. Slowly and almost unnoticed, the intense crackles of energy that skipped around its outskirts faded and were replaced by a dull whitish glow which was emerging in the centre.
"Eh? What's going on?" Taranee said as the glow became brighter and fiercer.
Her question was quickly answered as they suddenly struck down by a quintet of lightning bolts that shot out of the cloud without any warning. The five girls' bodies slumped painfully to the floor, convulsing slightly as the remaining charge dissipated.
As they picked themselves up, Darkar's mocking laughter rang out through the chamber.
"You fools! Did you really think a cheap trick like that could stop me?" he bellowed as he swept away the remnants of the cloud with a waft of his hand. Will fixed him with a glare.
"There's plenty more where that came from. Ready girls?"
On her mark, the Heart suddenly gave off a brief pink glow, sending out soft beams of energy to the others. Then, with no warning whatsoever... they vanished.
At the far end of the room, Musa gave a start when she saw that curious sight.
"They disappeared! Man, don't tell me they've left us."
Bloom peered around the room. Although like the others she couldn't see them, the Dragonfire within her could sense something.
"No. They haven't vanished, they're... invisible!" (1)
"Invisible?!" Musa replied, straining her eyes trying to make out some sort of sign that they were there. She didn't have to look hard - right in the centre of the room, Darkar had suddenly been struck by a barrage of blows from out of nowhere. He tried to defend himself, flailing his arms around and firing magic blasts to try and strike one of them down, but his efforts were useless - the invisible Guardians were simply too fast for him.
"Neat!" Nini said with a grin.
"Yes... but it's not enough." Charlotte said rather glumly. "It'll take more than a shower to take him out. We've gotta help."
"She's right," Bloom added. "We can't just sit here and do nothing. They still need us."
"But what can we do?" Sky asked. "I don't think a full-on attack is going to help."
"Well, there's not much you, Riven and Jason can do here, but there is one thing me and the girls can try. It'll be risky but we have no choice."
"And what's that?"
"Converge our powers and hit him with one major blast."
"But Bloom," Musa protested, "We're all wiped here. We won't have enough strength to even tickle him!"
"I know it seems impossible, but if we all dig deep enough into our souls, I'm sure we can find a way. We've gotta trust in ourselves."
A brief silence fell over the girls as they took in this idea, trying hard to dispel any doubts or fears. Evenutally, Musa took it upon herself to break that silence.
"Okay," she said as she laid Tegryn's head softly onto the ground and stood up. "Let's give this everything we've got."
Bloom, Layla, Charlotte and Nini followed her, joining hands as they stood in a circle.
"Umm, guys?" Charlotte piped up. "Have any of you actually done this before?"
The others looked at her, and an awkward silence fell upon them.
"Ummm... not really, no." came Layla's eventual reply. "But we did do Convergance Theory in Griselda's class at the end of the last semester."
"And hey, there's a first time for everything!" Nini added, obviously trying to keep her spirits up.
"Come on now, we have to concentrate. The others need us." Bloom said grimly, closing her eyes.
The others did the same, closing their eyes and attempting to shut out the battle that was raging around them, breathing deeply almost as one as they dragged up every last morsel of energy in their tired bodies. Soon, their combined efforts were welling up into a small ball of light in the centre of the circle that shone brightly, illuminating the dank dreariness of their surroundings.
"What do you pixies think you're doing?" Darkar yelled as his attention was briefly drawn to the fairies' combined power. He drew his own power and attemped to blast them out of existance - thankfully for them, Will was alert to the danger and was able to erect a force field around Darkar just in time.
"Hey, nice job guys!" Will smiled as she realised what they were doing. "Come on, we've got to buy them time to build up enough energy."
"How about a new pair of shoes for tall dark and ugly here?" Cornelia quipped. With an elegant wave of her hand, the ground around Darkar's feet began to creep up around him until his legs were completely encased in solid stone.
"That'll do nicely! Come on!" Will said as she raced over to the fairies and, praying that their tactics would keep them safe until they could unleash their attack, lay her hands on Bloom's shoulders with the other WITCH girls following suit. The surge in power was almost instantaneous, and the ball of converged power grew larger and brighter until finally it was ready... and not a moment too soon, for at that very moment Darkar broke free from his temporary bonds. With a triumphant yell, he kicked away the remnants of his rocky cocoon and fixed the girls with a murderous stare, only to struck square in the chest by their combined attack.
At first, he was sent reeling, his feet skidding on the rough stone floor of his throne chamber as he was driven backwards, so soon enough he found a foothold and dug in, leaning into the ultra-powerful beam that was threatening to crush him. Half-angered and half-surprised that these schoolchildren could have the strength and audacity to stand up to him, he dug deep into his own power, calling upon his own vastly-increased Shadowfire to resist this onslaught. His body began to glow a deathly shade of deep red, and with a grunt he resisted with all his might. At first he struggled, but all too soon he started to gain some leverage. The pure white light from the girls' Convergance attack was slowly pushed back by the dark red of Darkar's magic - the forces of good and evil were locked together in a gigantic tussle, but there could only be one victor here.
The girls struggled to keep their attack going, their faces were pictures of tremendous strain and effort. They knew that this was a now-or-never moment - if they failed here, they were as good as dead.
"We're... we're losing it!" Layla said through gritted teeth.
"Come on, keep it going - you can do it!" Sky called to them. Like the other boys, he was going through a whole range of emotions - fear at the feet of this most deadly of enemies, frustration that despite his years of training he was little more than a bystander, and a desperate hope that their efforts would not be vain.
The girls dug in hard for last last effort, but they could feel that Darkar had the upper hand. Their magic was wilting fast against his, and a collective feeling of despair and despondancy started to wash over them.
"No... we... can't..." Musa grunted.
At that moment, Tegryn opened his eyes. Just like before, he could sense the feeling of hopelessness and he was damned if he was going to do nothing about it. Even though he was terribly injured and close to slipping into unconciousness thanks to all the blood he had lost, he was still gaining power from the darkness and evil that filled every corner of Shadowhaunt - that combined with his Gloomix gave him all the strength he needed to help. He reached out and placed his hand on the back of Irma's leg, who was standing behind Musa, and started to pour his energy into the collective attack. This sudden feeling of power was felt by everyone - this was it, this was exactly what they needed.
And sure enough, it was. This final contribution was just what they needed to tip the scales in their favour. Darkar's magic was brushed aside and he was overcome by the bright light from these brave and pwoerful youngsters. Once again he tried to stand his ground, but this time he was powerless. The beam struck him on the chest and, in a critical moment, burst straight through his body and out the other side.
Lord Darkar gave out a blood-curdling scream of anguish as the whole room was suddenly filled with a bright white light. Streams of energy gushed out of him and slammed through the roof, disappearing into the darkened skies above. Large cracks started to appear in the domed ceiling or Darkar's throne room, accompanied by an ominous low rumbling that could only mean one thing - the ceiling was about to cave in.
As large chunks of masonry fell all around them, the young heroes huddled together under the protection of Nini's Harmonic Shield, wincing whenever it was struck - even though Nini's power was boosted by Musa, they all knew they had just expended a tremendous amount of energy, which left them fearing that each blow could the one that could shatter their protective roof and crush them into the ground.
Thankfully, the quaking soon subsided. The noise and terror was replaced by an eery dust-filled silence. Not a word was said - everyone was just left there, standing, breathing hard, with just one thought running through their minds... it's over.
Their ordeal was over.
Or was it?
A deep feeling of dread coupled with a menacing chuckle from somewhere in the dusty haze in front of them soon told them it wasn't.
1. Although in the cartoons it's only Hay Lin who can become invisible, in the comics Will can make all the Guardians invisible using the Heart.