Creation began on 07-01-23
Creation ended on 07-03-23
Unicorn: Warriors Eternal
The Unicorn becomes the Phoenix
A/N: If there's no chance for a second season, then I hope this makes whoever wanted to see more episodes in the future feel some type of hope.
"Where do we begin?" Winston, the fiancé of Emma Fairfax, the current host of the spirit of Melinda, asks the others.
"There's nowhere to begin," a voice utters out, different from what they've heard before, "for you began long ago. This isn't where you begin, but rather where you resume, pick up where you left off…until you reach your journey's conclusion."
"You," went Merlin as he turned to look behind the group, seeing a young man with a similar skin coloration as Alfie, the current host of the spirit of Seng, dressed in a strange outfit that appeared to be made out of his own body going through mutilation so extreme that it should have taken him past the threshold he had reached and killed him (A/N: Imagine his body in a similar fashion as the Hell Priest from the Hellraiser remake). "You're here. You're alive."
"Of course, I'm alive," he responds, noticing that some of them were a bit bothered by his current state. "Oh, this (he gestures to his body)? I was currently engaged in some twisted dealings with the Cenobites when I felt your struggle with the evil force that took residence in the cosmic realm. If you should ever have an encounter with a race of beings known as the Cenobites or their god, Leviathan, best to avoid trying to make any deals with them in case you have nothing to trade with them."
"Yes, I remember your own dealings with them, but how are you here?"
"I've helped you, time and again, since before you ever forged the original Order of the Unicorn…and you still haven't a clue of how I am as I am. I exist beyond mortality, one with the beyond…and everything else in between."
"Wait, you know this man?" Edred asks Merlin, pointing his sword at the stranger.
"He is called Brother Correction," Merlin introduces them to the stranger. "He is a man with a blessing and curse that goes beyond what any of us could ever comprehend. He is for whom eternity is both friend and foe, guide and goad, hope and despair."
"Is he like us, then?" Seng questions. "Does he reincarnate over time to face evil?"
"Not exactly. He belongs to an order of a different sort. He lives within the boundaries of his purpose. What some would consider an eternity of having to endure what will echo throughout existence, time and again, he considers his privilege to do. He has come to enjoy what he does and sees it with a renewed sense of insight."
"Brother Correction? I think I've heard of this person," Winston expresses in realization. "There was a story about a pair of children that were killed by a mad couple that sought to claim the wealth of their parents. The mad couple tried to pass themselves off as the parents' children, but then a stranger appeared one day and set right to the wrong they committed…and took the mad couple away, their greed and vengeance unwavering and beyond forgiveness upon being exposed. That was one of your stories, was it not?"
"Yes. I made the mad couple answer for their crimes against the family…and they're still paying for their misdeeds. Those that commit crimes against the innocent must answer in full until their souls have been purged of their treacherous desires, no matter how long it takes to wipe them clean. Neither time nor space can make a penance short for any soul of twisted deceit."
"Why are you here?" Melinda asks him.
"To tell you not of what you need to do to make right this wrong, but to inform you that once you succeed, you'll all return what was and what would've been back to their proper place and state. What once was will be once more. What currently is will be no more. The past, present and future restored…and all will be right."
"You mean, we can fix all of this?" Edred asks.
"You can…and must. I've seen the outcome…and you're bound for a greater journey in which you rise and fall and rise again, just like the beast you shall be renamed after, because while the unicorn is known to have the power to cleanse waters of pollutants and return life to the dead, the beast will not return to life if slain…but the phoenix, a beast of fire and passion…is everlasting in even the deepest of darkness. The phoenix cannot be destroyed, no matter what is done to harm it. Death can't claim it for more than a brief moment, after which it is reborn from the ashes of its previous incarnation. You shall be the Order of the Phoenix, the successor to the Order of the Unicorn…and you will prevail against your great adversary and free its hostages. All of its hostages from its possession."
"My mother," Melinda utters.
"Yes. The evil feared its defeat and tried to rig the outcome by throwing time out of order. You almost had it beat in that moment. Almost. Evil that knows it is going to lose will do anything and everything to ensure its own survival, including using someone as a source of life and shattering the foundations of time and space to give it more chances to escape from those that will pursue it across all obstacles and rejuvenate itself to fight back. Oh, and Seng? You'll need this (he tosses the reincarnated member of the original trio a rolled-up parchment). I'm sure you're familiar with it."
The parchment floated in front of Seng and unfurled to reveal a strange series of splotches and wavy patterns.
"This is the Wayward Map," he says in realization as a memory echoes in his mind of the last time he had it. "It shows where one needs to be to get to where they want to go. How did you get hold of it?"
"Merlin asked me to hold it after the last time you used it," Brother Correction explains, now holding something else in his hands that he wasn't holding before.
It was shaped like the emblem that Copernicus contained within his mechanical body. Upon closer inspection, it was revealed to the shape of an avian creature with its wings raised and spread, its tail feathers possessing three longer feathers that extended further down on the emblem. He walked over to Copernicus and had a small smile on his face.
"Even though your origins are artificial in nature, it was only a matter of time, like all else, that you would develop your own sense of soul," he utters.
"Tweet-tweet! Toot!" Copernicus responded.
"Maybe it's because of them, or even because of Merlin himself. Either way, I can't see you as just some robot. Not when you have a soul of your own. The soul of a machine or artificial creature is as rare as the soul belonging to a great beast. You're most fortunate now."
"Toot-toot! Tweet!"
"Heh-heh-heh. Exactly."
"You can understand him?" Edred asks.
"The language of souls is as comprehensible as any spoken language."
Copernicus opened up his abdomen to reveal the unicorn emblem, and Brother Correction covered it with the phoenix emblem as another ship from the future flew over them, shooting at a dragon that was flying through rifts in space.
"The Order of the Phoenix," he tells them. "Rise from the ashes of defeat and ascend towards the victory that awaits you."
He stepped back from the group and noticed some measure of relationship issues between three of them. Or rather, the four of them if he included the fact that two of them were reincarnated into the bodies of two people, one of whom was a young woman involved with the werewolf and possessed by the soul of a woman who was somewhat involved with an elf that had left his kingdom to be with her. All he could say to them…what he needed to say to them.
"When you defeat the evil," he states, "all that could've been can be in the end, including whatever it was intended for each of you."
"What does that mean?" Edred asks him.
"Exactly what it means. Defeating the evil ensures a future for all of existence, and those involved in the struggle will derive their own rewards for their efforts, whatever they may be. I'll be there when you prevail…and you will prevail. How you do so is up to you. Good luck."
And then, he disappeared from sight, like a ghost in the wind.
"He does that sometimes," Merlin explains.
"Tweet-toot!" Copernicus responds.
"So…he's aware that we'll defeat the evil," Seng questions, "but he wouldn't tell us exactly how to do so?"
"If we knew how to defeat the evil before we did so," Melinda states, "we'd probably mess up somewhere. We'll find out how to defeat it when we face it again."
Seng looks at the Wayward Map again…and it shows a place that they needed to go to.
"There's a place beyond the pyramids (he points towards the pyramids away from them) that we need to get to," he tells them.
"Then let's get going, shall we?" Winston utters.
"Yes, let's get going," Merlin agrees, and they followed Seng.
In the beginning, it was Merlin, Melinda, Edred, Seng and Copernicus, but now it was them, Emma Fairfax, Winston, Alfie, Dimitri Dynamo…and whoever else was unlikely to join them in their quest to defeat the evil force that captured Morgan and kept her as its heart to ensure it wouldn't be defeated. The only information they had to go on was that they would prevail, just not how. But one thing was for certain: They were in for one battle after another due to the evil being aware of their presence and would send as many forces as it could to weaken them, destroy them…or worse than that.
"Tweet-tweet!" Copernicus went.
Nothing truly ends…
A/N: Here's to just hoping that one day, we'll get a second season of Unicorn: Warriors Eternal. I really liked that show and want to see more of it being produced.