A/N: Tor and Roberta's story is continued for part of this chapter. Some of it is different from the game, just little details.

Disclaimer: I don't own Neopets the Darkest Faerie

Chapter 16

Tor took over the story for Roberta. She had told her part well and seemed to need a break. He was well aware that she had never told anyone the story, just as he hadn't, yet here she was, telling her secret to two neopets that she had never even met before. He hadn't asked her to, but she was doing it for him anyway. "Just after we met the dark clouds spread across the skies over our heads and the minions appeared. We didn't even know each other's names yet and we fought them off. You don't really kill a minion. I don't think they are really alive to begin with, just like the dark knights. They're just creatures of darkness."

"I must say I was impressed with Tor's fighting," Roberta cut in with a small smile. "We were about fifteen at the time, but he fought better than most I had had seen while growing up in the castle."

"And I had never seen magic at work in the way she was putting it to use." Tor shook his head to put himself back into the tale. "We introduced ourselves and then Roberta noticed that I had the other amulet."

"And Tor didn't have a single clue as to what I was talking about."

Tor shrugged. "Nobody ever told me that there was another and that I was to find its twin! I was only told never to take it off."

"You two done bickering like an old couple yet?" Aryanna cut in impatiently. Tor glared at her and coughed into his hand.

"Right. Well we went to Brightvale which hadn't been taken by the Darkest Faerie and told the King about everything that had happened. He predicted that within three weeks the clouds would spread over Brightvale. Two of those weeks Roberta and I did research. We were young and in way over our heads, but we were the owners of the amulets which gave us protection from the clouds. We needed as much information that we could get."

"I did most of the research," Roberta said, grinning at Tor. "He mostly got supplies and did nothing."

"Not true," Tor muttered. "I also got the highest score on the obstacle course."

Roberta rolled her eyes. "We found out that the Darkest Faerie was one of the founders of Altador, though she later destroyed it. It took the immense power from Fyora's wand to stop her. The wand was said to be in the treasure vault under the castle, and we figured that we needed to get there."

"There were several problems however," Tor said. "One, just after we left Brightvale we had our first encounter with the Assassin who had been sent by the darkest faerie to kill us. I had never faced an opponent like him and none of Roberta's spells could even hit him. But he left when some Brightvale guards came to help. Problem number two: the bridge to Meridell was out. Brendel, the man who works on the bridges, lived in Bogshot which had been consumed by the purple clouds, and also a plague. We offered to get the ingredients for the apothecary, Fautt."

"And what do you know; the assassin shows up and has the sludgies attack us. But that wasn't even the worst part. See, it turned out that the dark purple clouds were tied to various monsters that had been, more or less, resurrected. In Bogshot there was a swamp monster, a giant serpent that had terrorized the villagers years and years ago before it was defeated. We got rid of it and the clouds went away and gave the ingredients to Fautt. It took about a week, in which we returned to Brightvale and managed to stop a revolt against King Hagan by my father and a bunch of thieves."

"Soon after that the clouds went over Brightvale," Tor said sadly. "We couldn't return there with the Dark Faeries all looking for the two of us as there had been word that Spite and Malice were controlling King Hagan, so we went to Market Town, also taken by the clouds. We infiltrated he dark fortress and got rid of the Black Knight, freeing Market Town."

"That was right before I got there," Aryanna said. "I started traveling right before the clouds reached the farm. But I don't remember anything after seeing the clouds until I reached Market Town. I heard that you had been there though, and I heard stories about what happened, but I couldn't bring myself to believe most of them. Now I know better."

Tor grinned at his friend and nodded to Roberta to continue. "After Market Town we went to Werelupe Woods and broke into their lair. We split up so that we could find Illusen's charm and free her from the trance. I found the charm, but made a stupid mistake and got trapped. I was there for a while before the trap was lowered into a room, filled with werelupes and their King. And Tor was facing off against him. I couldn't do anything but watch. Completely helpless. But Tor beat him and the werelupes scattered, lost without their king."

"Afterwards we went to Illusen's glade, but there was no way to get up to the treetops, so we had no choice but to turn back. Instead we went to Cogham and found that the entire village had been captured by the Ixies and taken down into the old mines. We freed each of them one by one and found that the Ixi chief had been resurrected by the dark magic and was stronger than before. It took the both of us to beat him and when we returned to the village, the mayor gave us two cloaks called the Cloaks of Heroes. While wearing them we were able to walk unnoticed by minions and other dark creatures like the dark knights."

"Since we still didn't know of a way to get to Illusen, we came here. Everybody around had gone missing except Tor's family, who were all insane, being controlled be the darkness. They said that creatures from Shadowglen had taken everyone and dragged them off to the woods. So that's where we went. Everybody had been captured by the same Juppie Monster that Tor spoke about. After defeating it and freeing everyone, we came back here and stayed a few days. Then Hubert gave us what he named a rope gun. It has a grappling hook on the end which was our ticket to the treetops in the glade."

"The assassin was already there. Illusen was out cold and the Assassin had been waiting for us. I fought him, and I nearly beat him before he teleported away. Having her charm back, Illusen was freed from the dark magic and she gave us an orb that would penetrate the walls surrounding Meridell. We used our cloaks to get into the city, but there was no way into the castle. We couldn't stay out in the open for long or it would grow suspicious so we went into an alley where we met up with a thief I knew. I tended to buy maps from him when I lived in the castle as a squire. I did a lot of work for the shopkeepers to earn some neopoints and every time I left I would pick up a treasure map from him as an extra bit of income."

"You associate with thieves?!" Turk asked in shock.

Tor smirked at his friend. "Listen a bit and you might understand why. Roberta, you tell this part."

The sorceress nodded. "Rory took us into the basement where there were other thieves huddled around. They claimed that they could get us into the castle if we got them Market Town's treasure. Luckily, we already had it, the treasure being a gift to us for freeing them from the black knight. The thieves showed us a way into the sewers that would lead us straight to the treasure vault. I was hesitant to believe them, but they had no reason to lie, other than being a couple of spiteful thieves, so Tor and I went down the chute."

"The sewers did lead to the treasure vault eventually, but there was something waiting for us. An undead draik skeleton. And I don't mean a regular draik, I mean a draik the size of this barn who had magical properties. We found that if you hit its magical center, it would be continuously weakened each time it was hit, much like with dark knights and the Black Knight. Once we had destroyed it, Roberta took Fyora's wand and we got out of there, finding our way into the castle. Spite, Malice and Vanity were all there, and King Skarl was serving them. I was pretty much useless here, but I kept them distracted so that Roberta could beat them one by one. Once that was over King Skarl snapped out of it, took the wand and drove the clouds away."

"I called my uni Solarin and Tor and I flew to Brightvale now that the sisters were gone. The clouds were still there, but I was able to get rid of them using the wand. We went to make sure that everyone was alright, though it seemed that they barely remembered what happened. I told my uncle everything we'd been through, and he actually thought about forcing me to stay. By this time I was sixteen and told him that he couldn't force me to do anything. He gave pretty easily and Tor and I flew to Faerieland the next day."

"When we got into Fyora's palace we found 'Fyora' there, having trapped the 'Darkest Faerie'. She asked Roberta to give her the wand so that she could drive away the dark clouds, but it was a trap. Who we thought was Fyora was the Darkest Faerie and Fyora was the one who was trapped. While the Darkest Faerie was celebrating victory, Fyora got free and took her wand back. They started to fight and Fyora teleported us away, telling us to find Jerdana and that she would be able to help."

"We ended up in a place called the Hall of Heroes in what we soon found out was Altador. It was here that we discovered many things that had until then, been a puzzlement. King Altador himself came to us, revealing that he was really the old knight that had helped Tor find out who he was. He told us that we had to awaken the other founders in order to find Jerdana and stop the darkest faerie, who had destroyed the city a millennium ago. The other founders hadn't been able to stop her in time."

Tor hopped of the crate and crouched down next to it as he grabbed a stick. "Altador is set up into four districts, the Hall of Heroes in the very center of it all," he explained, drawing a sketch of Altador in the dirt. "The four districts are known as the Park District, the Bazaar District, the Arena District, and the Money district. In each of these places one of the founders had been trapped into stone, Kelland the Quick, or Kell, the beggar who gave me the amulet, Torakor, or Master Torak the Man at Arms, Fauna, or Faun the servant who help me escape the castle, and Gordos, Gord a merchant who we had met on our travels several times. There were others, such as Florin, a negg seller known as Florindil in our world. We freed all of the founders and met back in the Hall of Heroes where they used their powers to teleport Roberta and I away to free Jerdana. Are you two getting all of this?"

The acara and techno nodded slowly and Turk said, "Yeah. It's a lot to take in though."

Tor nodded. "I know. And we're toning it down a little too. So much happened and it would take days to tell it all." He jumped back onto the crate and looked at Roberta. She understood and continued their story.

"To free Jerdana we had to go through many different tasks, all of which took the both of us to complete. We finally managed to get to where she was, trapped in stone and freed her. She was the one who had given me my amulet, the old woman I saved in Faerieland. Jerdana was one of the most powerful off all the twelve heroes, alongside King Altador and the Darkest Faerie herself. We went back to the Hall of Heroes where Jerdana finally was able to free everyone from the dark clouds. We spent about a week in Altador. It is trapped forever in a slow time bubble that even Jerdana is unable to break. There heroes told us that we could stay for as long as we wanted and they could send us back to the exact time in which we left."

Roberta turned to Tor who was staring up at the ceiling, a smile on his face. "Altador is beyond anything that you can imagine. Even though it is trapped in times from long ago, it's very advanced, and everything there is top notch. It's where my Armor came from and many have said that my armor is like none they have ever seen. Where a normal knight's armor can be easily pierced with an arrow mine cannot. It does not dent. Though, over time it does grow weaker unless it is reinforced again. And the city in whole is four times the size of Meridell."

The sorceress shook her head, seeing that Tor had gone off track from the story. She kicked him in the side and he looked over at her questioningly. "Tor, you're getting off track."

Tor rubbed the back of his head and cleared his throat. "Right. So after a week we decided that it was time to return and defeat the darkest faerie. King Altador gave me his sword for luck, hoping that it would help me when the time came."

"Wait!" Turk shouted, throwing his hands into the air. "You have King Altador's sword?"

"Yeah, it's inside. Now, can I go one? Good. Well before we left Jerdana gave us an amulet that would trap the Darkest Faerie in stone once again. When Roberta and I returned to Faerieland we found that the Darkest Faerie had overpowered Fyora and had trapped her. The Darkest Faerie was planning to destroy Meridell and Faerieland completely by crashing Faerieland into Meridell, cutting off the magic supply that keeps the city floating like it does. While Faerieland was crashing to the ground Roberta and I fought the Darkest Faerie."

"I knew it was a longshot, but I had to do something fast. So the second her guard was down I threw the amulet. It landed right around her neck and she was turned to stone, cursing us the entire time. Fyora was able to free herself from the Darkest Faerie's binds. She stopped the city from crashing just in time two more seconds and everything would have been over."

"And that's our story," Tor finished, glancing at Roberta in a silent agreement that they would keep their last meeting with the founders on the edge of Fyora's gardens to themselves. He looked back to his friends and gave them a curious look at their shocked expressions. "Well?"

"That's all so… unbelievable!" Aryanna breathed. "I mean, I've known you my entire life, Tor, and I remember when we were younger and you used to claim that one day you would be a hero. And now you are one of the most well-known neopets in all of Neopia. I just never imagined that Tormund Ellis was capable of that."

"Thanks," Tor said sarcastically. "Well, now you know my story. Come back tomorrow and I'll tell you what happened with Lucy."

"Why not now?" Aryanna asked disappointedly.

"I told Old Man Boggs that I would come by and help him out today and I have to get over there soon. Actually, I should be leaving now." He slid down to the ground and they all followed him out of the barn. "Roberta are you coming or are you staying here?"

"I think I'll just stay here."

"Why don't you come over to my farm?" Aryanna suggested suddenly as they approached the farm gates. "It'll be a lot more fun there than here and I personally would like to get to know you more."

Roberta grinned. "Sure."

The group of four walked together down the farm road. There were occasional questions thrown at the two heroes and they answered them truthfully. Yes, they had been scared. Yes, they felt incredibly lucky to have survived. No, they hadn't kept in touch since the defeat of the Darkest Faerie until the attack at the one year celebration. Yes, they had come close to death more than once.

When they reached Aryanna's farm the red acara promised that she would see him the next day at the same place. Tor and Turk carried on without the acaras, not speaking until they were out of earshot.

"So… you and Roberta… are you together."

Tor's mouth dropped open at the question. "No! Just friends, Turk. Where did that come from?"

The techno shrugged. "I don't know. You two spend months together traveling all over the place with only each other as company. So you mean to tell me that not a single thing happened that entire time you were trying to stop the Darkest Faerie?"

"Nothing."

"Hm." Turk grunted. "She's very pretty."

"I am aware." He had spent months with Roberta in a tent. Yes the thought that she was pretty had come into his mind more than once. He wasn't oblivious. "She's incredibly powerful too, more so now than she was when we fought the Dark One. I feel sorry for whoever gets on her bad side."

"I'll keep that in mind."

They continued walking for a while and Tor asked, "So, how was your trip?"

Turk grinned, a faraway look in his eyes. "Amazing. I visited places I never even knew existed! There's so much out there, Tor. So many different places with different neopets. One day I'll tell you all about it."

"I can't wait to hear it. I wish I could have gone with you, but I became a squire."

"Well, it was always your dream to become a knight. It looks like we've both fulfilled our dreams. It's just too bad it all happened so soon. We're only seventeen."

Tor smiled wistfully. "Yeah. Roberta thinks that after all we've been through, there can't be much more to see. I told her she's a pessimist and that one day I would prove her wrong."

They had reached Turk's farm. His parents Bruce and Sandy were sitting out on the porch, relaxing and enjoying the fact that they no longer worked on the farm, having left it up to Turk and his younger brother Arnie who was currently chopping wood. Tor waved at them and looked back at Turk. "I'll see you tomorrow and give you the details of what's going on these days."

"Alright. See you Tor."

A/N: If you didn't notice the changes, here they are. King Hagan originally said that the dark clouds would spread to Brightvale in three days, not weeks. Since in this story Roberta and Tor had stayed in Brightvale for two weeks, they would have been there for the arrival of the clouds had it only been three days. Also, in the game Brightvale was not taken by the darkest faerie, but as in this story, Tor and Roberta had been traveling for several months, I made it so that Brightvale had been taken. So after freeing Meridell, they would have had to return to Brightvale and free the Kingdom from the clouds as well. Any changes made were necessary to fit the story.