I promised I'd have this up soon! Not sure when the next chapter will be, though. These chapters take quite a while to write. This was actually originally one chapter with chapter three, but it became too long, so I split it in half. Enjoy, and please leave a review if you like it!

'Butterfly, are you dressed yet?'

'Totally!' Roxy called down the stairs, hopping along the hallway as she tried to pull on a pair of flats. Since when were combat boots not appropriate party wear? Probably since every pair she owned was cover in mud and dog hair.

Artù barked, bounding down the stairs after her, nosing at the slushie machine her dad was still tinkering with.

'No, boy. This is my toy.'

'Toy, or source of eternal frustration?' Roxy teased, earning an eye roll. Her dad took in her outfit, a proud smile gracing his lips.

'You look beautiful, Roxy,' he murmured, stroking down her hair. 'My baby girl…' He pressed a kiss into the top of her head, and she laughed, hugging him tight.

'Not such a baby anymore.'

'Nonsense. You can be 107 and running the world, and you'll still be my baby.' Roxy pulled back, waving as she headed for the door.

'Love you, Dad. See you when you get that thing figured out.' Her dad shot the slushie machine a filthy look, and Artu growled in solidarity.

Roxy hurried through the streets of Sunny Bay, her party dress swishing around her knees. She had to be honest, she'd never liked dresses. She liked having fabric between her legs, not air. Hence the pair of leggings under the dress.

At Iris's house, she let herself in around the back, grinning with delight at the ridiculously creative decorations. Was that a bat?

'Roxy!' Auriana burst out of the hallway, catching her in a bear hug. 'You're here! Oh, and you look beautiful!'

'Thanks!' Roxy glanced around. 'Nice job decorating. It's like a dozen parties all rolled into some kinda party Swiss roll.'

'Thanks!' Auriana chirped. 'What's a Swiss roll?'

'It's like a meringue, filled with jam and rolled up.' Auriana's eyes widened with delight.

'Oh, I have to try that!'

'I'll take you to get one tomorrow. On a separate note, where's Iris?' Roxy wanted to make sure her best friend had all the help she needed for tonight. Auriana glanced around, frowning.

'Huh. She went upstairs a while ago to write a song, but then she came down. She was on the porch, but…' Iris was decidedly not on the porch. However, what was on the porch was a pacing Amaru.

'Amaru?' Amaru turned, saw Roxy, and pelted inside, jumping up onto the back of the couch and waving his arms in a panic.

'Amaru?' Auriana asked, concerned. 'What's wrong?'

'Why is he so panicked?' Talia asked, putting down a plate of pretzels and hurrying over. 'Also, hi, Roxy.'

'Hey…' Roxy frowned, concentrating on her magic. She was the Fairy of Animals… She couldn't get exact words, but Amaru's meaning became apparent almost immediately. But…that didn't make any sense.

'What's he saying?' Talia pressed, and Roxy frowned, furrowing her brow.

'He says…he says Iris went to look for her parents. But…they're on Ephedia. Why would she go look for them?' Talia and Auriana exchanged a look, and Roxy felt a horrible sinking feeling. 'Guys…what's going on?' Talia spoke first, not quite meeting Roxy's eyes.

'She had another dream; she dreamt that her parents were here, in Sunny Bay.'

'What? But that's not possible.'

'That's what we said!' Auriana burst out. 'And we thought she listened.'

'Well apparently not,' Roxy sighed. 'We need to find her.' Talia nodded.

'These dreams are starting to make me suspicious. So she sees the future, right before having a dream that effectively lures her somewhere? That sounds very strange.' Roxy felt a shiver go down her spine.

'You think this might be the twins?' Talia nodded.

'I think it could be. You had reason to believe what happened at the party store was intentional; someone could have sent Iris that dream and made it come true, making her believe what she dreamt next.'

'That would make this a trap!' Auriana gasped. 'We gotta find her!'

'How?' Roxy demanded. 'She didn't exactly leave a note.'

'We can check her room,' Talia said. 'Whoever sent her this dream couldn't do it from a distance. There might be some evidence in her bedroom.' Auriana nodded.

'Okay, good plan.'

'While you guys Holmes it up, I'm gonna gets flats on the ground and start looking,' Roxy volunteered. 'Maybe I'll get lucky and find her. And we call her cell.' Talia nodded, immediately picking up her phone and dialling Iris's number. As everyone had expected, the call went to voicemail.

'Hi, this is Iris! Please leave a message at the beep!' The phone beeped, and Roxy grabbed it from Talia.

'Iris, it's a trap! Don't go! Please, pick up your damn phone! Call us back! I'm coming to look for you, just don't get captured by crazy crystal sorcerers!' She hung up the phone, handing it back to Talia. 'See you guys!' She turned and pelted out the door, Artu running after her, Amaru on his back like some kind of valiant knight on a very furry horse.

'This is really bad!' Talia sighed deeply as Auriana repeated that sentence for the ninth time.

'Yes, Auriana, I know.'

'We lost her!' Auriana couldn't shake the guilt eating away at her. Maybe they should have paid more attention to Iris's dream. Oh, of course they should! What kind of terrible friends were they? And now she was walking into what they were all sure was a trap! Sure, Roxy was looking for her, but who knew if she'd find her in time! They had to find some clue! Like that magical talking dog in the van on television! Her gaze fell on Iris's journal, and she wrestled with her morals for a minute. They fought valiantly, but after practicality delivered an illegal hit, they were out cold, and there was nothing to stop her sitting at Iris's desk and flicking to the newest entry.

'Dear diary, today is Aunt Ellen's birthday…' Talia's head jackrabbited upright and she dashed over.

'Auriana, you can't read that!'

'I'm looking for clues,' Auriana asserted. 'She's writing about practice, the party…' She gasped. 'Hey! This looks pretty suspicious! 'I got a gift from my number-one fan'. I mean, I don't want to be rude, but we sing at Roxy's dad's bar. We're not exactly rockstars. Since when do we have number-one fans?'

'What was the gift?' Talia asked, her previous assertion they shouldn't read the diary evaporating. Auriana skimmed the passage. Wow, Iris was going on for a while about how cool it was to have a number-one fan…she loved Iris, and she loved a good tangent, but right now she had a friend to save. Come on, Iris, wrap it up!

'A beautiful music box.' Talia searched the room immediately, searching under, over and in everything she could get her hands on like a tornado of panicked efficiency.

'Got it!' She pulled delicate ivory music box from the bookcase, holding it at arm's length. 'Oh, I'm not getting a good feeling from this.' Auriana touched the lid, feeling a shiver go down her spine. There was something weird with this box.

The lid clicked up, and a small platform adorned with three purple crystals rose up and rotated in a circle, soft lilac light spilling from the jewels as soothing music played. Auriana gasped in shock, recognising the glowing crystals at once.

'Those are dream crystals!' The jewels could create whatever dream a person desired; on Ephedia they were often used in sleep therapy, but she had a feeling these ones had been used for a far more nefarious purpose.

'Unless Praxina and Mephisto have a secret love of Lolirock, this so didn't come from a fan,' Talia snarled. 'Remind me to talk to Iris about accepting gifts from strangers that don't show themselves. Or just strangers in general.'

'If we can use Crystal Veritas on those crystals, we can see the dream Iris was sent!' Auriana exclaimed. 'We'll know where she's going!' She reached out, her fingers brushing the jewels, another shiver trembling through her body. Whoever had created this had not had good intentions. 'Crystal Veritas!' The first crystal revealed the same scene they'd all seen earlier: the party store, the shelves falling, Iris saving the little boy…wrong crystal.

'Try another,' Talia urged.

'Crystal Veritas!' This time the image revealed was far more unnerving. The king and queen of Ephedia were on the floor of a grimy building, Gramorr standing menacingly over them as they fought to stay conscious.

'Iris…' murmured the queen, staring desperately out of the image. 'Please…help us…' Talia and Auriana exchanged horrified looks at the image they were being shown.

'This is awful!' Auriana gasped, and Talia looked like she wanted to smash the music box.

'It must have been intended to convince Iris to come to her parents if she ignored the first dream,' Talia growled. 'When we take back Ephedia, remind me to put Praxina and Mephisto in the darkest, dingiest dungeon I can find.'

'Mental note made…' Auriana muttered, moving onto the last crystal. 'Crystal Veritas!' This time, the image showed Iris walking down an abandoned, run-down street, walking into a ramshackle building.

'Where is that?' Talia asked desperately. Auriana quickly pulled out her phone and started filming; she could send the footage to Roxy. Iris had said her parents were in Sunny Bay, which must mean this was somewhere in the town.

Iris walked into a room, and her parents appeared in a burst of light. Auriana's fist clenched at her side; how dare someone use Iris's desire to meet her parents to trick her?!

As the dream ended, Talia and Auriana exchanged a glance.

'We have to call Roxy, send her that footage, and get over there as fast as possible.'

Roxy ran as fast as she could through the twilit streets of Sunny Bay, calling out for Iris.

'Iris! Iris! Iris! Iris freakin' Rose, if you can hear me, answer me!' No answer came, and she sagged with disappointment.

Her phone rang, and she seized it eagerly, desperately hoping Iris had got their message, but it was Talia's face on the caller ID.

'Hello?' she said, answering the call. 'Did you find her?'

'No; but we know where she's going. Someone sent her an enchanted music box to send her these dreams.'

'Bet I can guess who.'

'Yeah. We got a recording of the dream; Iris said that her parents were here in Sunny Bay, so we're hoping you can tell us where this is.' Roxy pulled her phone from her ear, opening the video Auriana had just sent her. She frowned down at it, thinking.

'…Yeah, I know where that is. That's Ivy Row. Used to be very upmarket, but it's pretty disreputable now. We should get over there fast.'

'We're on it. We'll be there as fast as possible.' Talia hung up, and Roxy ran faster, cutting through the park. Dusk's eerie fingers had already started to brush the blue sky, tainting it a bruised purple, and so the park was quiet. So it struck Roxy as very strange that out of nowhere, Artu stopped and growled, Amaru's fur standing on end.

'Guys?' She turned her animal companions with concern. 'What's wrong?'

'Good evening.' Roxy froze at the voice. It was cool and smooth, with a British accent, and something about it made her shiver in the warm evening.

'Good evening,' she replied cautiously, turning around. The owner of the voice was a man with long red hair who looked like he'd just walked out of a goth rock concert. Not exactly the type to frequent the park. It wasn't exactly a recreational drug sort of park.

She and the man held eye contact for a minute, before she started to walk forwards.

'Well, this has been fun…I should be going.'

'I'm sorry, but I've been waiting centuries for this, so I can't let you do that.' Roxy had expected a lot of things from this guy (and most of them ended with her transforming and throwing him across the park), but that hit way outside the boundaries of expected.

'…I'm sorry?'

'The last fairy on Earth.' Another man appeared in a blur of speed, and Roxy froze. These randos knew she was a fairy? The mysterious voice's warning came flooding back, and she got the distinct feeling she'd found 'them'. Remembering the vision in her dream, she decided to use whatever upper hand she could get.

'Where are the other two?' she asked, folding her arms. The men looked caught off-guard, and she smirked.

'How'd she know that?' asked a blonde man in a Van Helsing hat, emerging from the shadows.

'Who cares?' Roxy glanced around for the source of the cockney accent, starting with surprise as a bird pushed off from a tree branch and landed on the ground as a man with a pink Mohawk. 'Maybe she's just really good at guessing.'

'I am, actually,' Roxy replied, keeping up her cool facade. 'I've never lost a game of Guess Who.'

'Impressive,' acknowledged Mohawk.

'Thanks, I like to think so.'

'Duman, don't talk to her, just get on with it,' snapped the redhead, and Mohawk (Duman, apparently) rolled his eyes.

'Lighten up, Ogron. You were talking to her.' Ogron clenched his fists, and Roxy smirked.

'Ogron, huh? I'd say it's nice to meet you, but I get the feeling it's really not.'

'You should be scared,' Ogron replied, as though slightly confused that she wasn't. Roxy shrugged.

'I should be a lot of things. Elegant, classy, less than sixty percent dog hair…we can just add scared to the list.' Ogron had apparently lost patience with this.

'Wizards of the Black Circle, open the gate!' The men - wizards, apparently - gathered around, touching their fingertips together to form a semicircle, dark energy pulsing between them as the sky darkened and a dark abyss opened above them.

'Well, it really was nice meeting you,' Ogron said with a smirk. 'A shame we couldn't talk longer; I didn't even get your name.' The hole in reality started to pull Roxy into the air, and she lost all patience with these wizards; she had a princess to save!

'Oh, I'm sorry, how rude.' She smirked right back at him. 'It's Roxy! Fairy of Animals!' She transformed in a burst of light, eliciting gasps of shock from the wizards. She didn't wait to bask, unleashing the strongest attack she could muster. 'Mystic Talons!' The blonde was knocked from the circle, crashing to the floor, several red gashes torn across his chest.

'Gantlos!' cried Duman.

'I'm fine…but how'd she do that?'

'I ask myself that every day,' Roxy replied, flying up and away from the wizards. 'Now, if you don't mind, I have a friend to save.' Apparently, they did mind. Quite a lot, as Duman leapt up, changing into a griffin and diving for her.

'Crystal Shell!' Her shield held up against his talons, but the impact of their collision sent her falling towards the ground, her wings fluttering madly to keep her airborne. Gantlos clapped his hands, and the movement sent a devastating shockwave through the air, vaporising her shield and knocking her to the ground.

As she lay groaning, Ogron approached her.

'Right…let's try this again…' Before he could go any further, Amaru ran between the two of them, his body glowing purple as his cute, cuddly little kitten body changed into a powerful pegasus, and he reared up, his hooves slamming down in front of Ogron in a threatening display of power.

'What in the…'

'That's right, goth wannabe…' Roxy muttered, getting to her feet. 'I have a freakin' pegasus.' Amaru glowered at Ogron, and the wizard backed up a little. 'Wasp Sting!' She'd been expecting the attack to have some effect, been hoping it'd actually do some decent damage, but to her horror, Ogron simply held out his hand and the magic vanished into his fingertips.

'Adorable. I hate to break it to you, but I am immune to fairy magic. I can absorb it.' Roxy felt a sinking sense of dread, but she wasn't about to let some goth weirdo intimidate her.

'Oh yeah? Absorb this!' She used her magic to levitate a park bench, hurling it at Ogron with all the strength she could muster. The redhead's eyes widened, but just before the object could make contact, he was pulled out of the way by the fast one she didn't have a name for yet.

'Ogron! Are you okay?' Ogron nodded, glowering at Roxy.

'Rrrgh! Capture her!' Roxy glanced to Amaru, tensing for the impending fight.

'Let's kick some ass.'

Guilt gnawed at Iris as she walked through the streets towards Ivy Row. She should have told someone where she was going. She should have taken Roxy's call, but she knew her friend would try and talk her out of this. And she had to do this. She did, right? They were her parents! She had to see them! To meet them! To hear their voices!

She swallowed her guilt and continued on, her boots clicking on the quiet sidewalk. When she met her parents, there was so much she could show them! She could introduce them to her aunt! Of course, she'd have to explain the whole princess thing, but she could do that…

She was jolted from her musings by a loud barking. Very familiar barking… She turned a round and gasped with surprise as Artu knocked her down, barking incessantly.

'Artu? What are you doing?!' He kept barking, and she registered he was on his own. Roxy would never let Artu run around the city on his own… 'Something's wrong, isn't it?' she gasped, and Artu jumped off her and turned, running off down the street, turning and running back to her when she didn't follow.

'Roxy's in danger!' she gasped. Artu was trying to get her help, and she had to go after him right now! She cast a quick glance towards the house from her dream, towards the possibility of parents, before shoving it from her mind and hurtling after Artu. If her parents were the kind of people she wanted to meet, they'd understand.

As she ran after Artu, she tried to think what might be wrong. Was it the twins? Had they come back? Oh god, what if they'd attacked her house? And she hadn't been there to help? She ran faster, pelting through the streets after a dog on a mission.

'Iris?' She glanced up, stopping short to see Talia and Auriana running down the street towards her.

'Girls?'

'It's a trap!' Auriana yelled. 'Don't go, it's a trap!' Auriana closed the gap between them, throwing her arms around Iris. 'I'm so sorry we didn't pay more attention to your dream! But it's a trap! The twins and dream crystals and luring and-'

'Why were you running?' Talia asked, cutting in, her voice tinged with concern.

'I- wait, did you say it's a trap?' Auriana nodded sadly.

'It was all a trick; I'm so sorry, Iris.' Iris breathed an internal sigh of relief at Artu's interruption; who knew what would have befallen her if she'd gone into that house? The relief was followed by a soul-crushing sadness that her chance to speak to her parents had been nothing but a lie. And then all other emotions fell away to be replaced with panic.

'Roxy! Artu came running up to me, and Roxy's not with him! Girls, Roxy's in danger!' Talia and Auriana exchanged a shocked, worried glance.

'Show us where,' Talia instructed Artu, and the dog took off once again, making it rather a challenge to keep up with him.

'Roxy went looking for you,' Auriana explained as they ran. 'If the twins set the trap, who's Roxy in danger from?'

'I think we're about to find out,' Talia replied. 'Look at the sky!' Iris looked up, gasping to see the twilight sky rippling with dark clouds and lightning.

'That's not normal! Not even for Florida!'

They ran into the park, and the sounds of battle reached Iris's ears. Roxy was in a fight, but with whom?

'Crystal Shell!' There was a booming sound like thunder, followed by a cry.

'Roxy!' Iris screamed, actually overtaking Artu in her panic. Her friend finally came into sight, and the scene before Iris was almost incomprehensible. Roxy and Amaru were fighting four men dressed in full goth attire who seemed to be unleashing magical attacks that Roxy and Amaru were barely avoiding.

'Roxy!' Iris shouted. All eyes swivelled to her, and she glowered at the men, her eyes burning. 'Leave her alone!'

'And who are you?' demanded the redhead, and Iris folded her arms.

'Iris! Princess of Ephedia!' As she transformed, Talia and Auriana followed suit.

'Talia! Princess of Xeris!'

'Auriana! Princess of Volta!' As Iris stood there in her magical dress, the men staring at her in utter shock, she summoned a spell.

'Crystal Colidum!' She didn't even miss a beat as the redhead was struck down by the spell, running over to Roxy, yelling to Talia and Auriana to cover her, which they promptly did.

'Iris!'

'Roxy!' Iris threw her arms around her with relief. 'What's going on? Who are these guys?'

'They call themselves the Wizards of the Black Circle,' Roxy explained. 'Redhead is Ogron, Van Helsing is Gantlos, Mohawk is Duman, and I don't have a name for the other on, so I've just been calling him Speedy. They want to capture me because, apparently, I'm the last Earth fairy.' Thankfully, Iris had got pretty used to implausible info-dumps over the past few weeks, so she took this in her stride. Kinda. She was going to need a lie-down, but right then, she could roll with that.

Talia frowned as she heard Roxy's explanation. She'd never heard of the 'Wizards of the Black Circle'. She hated not having heard of things. All the books she'd read, and their name hadn't shown up? That was very frustrating, and rather a smear on the name of Sunny Bay Community Library.

'I feel it is polite of me to warn you that this is not a fight you wish to get into,' Talia said firmly to the wizards, standing protectively in front of Iris and Roxy. The redhead - Roxy had said his name was Ogron - was helped to his feet by the one Roxy didn't have a name for, scowling at her.

'Must you involve yourselves in this?' Auriana nodded.

'When you come after our friend, we must. Ribbon of Volta!' The glowing ribbon slashed through the air, ensnaring the wrist of Gantlos just as he raised his hands. 'Uh-uh…' Auriana teased. 'I don't know what you were planning on, but I'm willing to bet I wouldn't like it.' Gantlos yanked his arm back, and Auriana used the momentum from his tug to help pull herself forwards. 'Crystempactus!' Looked like Auriana was pretty occupied.

'Duman, Anagan!' Ogron snapped. 'Get the fairy! I'll handle whatever this one is.' Behind Talia, Iris summoned her sword, her and Roxy getting ready for a fight. Talia knew they could handle themselves; Roxy had been doing pretty well on her own against all four wizards, and now the odds were even.

'What are you?' Ogron wondered aloud, looking at Talia with curiosity. 'You transform, like a fairy, but no wings…and you're not a witch…what are you?' Talia didn't come here for curious chit-chat.

'Talia, Princess of Xeris.' She didn't offer any more information, pelting forwards, ducking under his magical attack before popping up and delivering a sudden and sharp roundhouse kick to the chest, knocking the wind out of him and probably bruising a few ribs. He gasped for air, stumbling back, his eyes meeting hers, filled with a mixture of confusion, pain, anger and very, very quiet respect.

'A princess? My sincerest apologies, your highness. I didn't realise I was fighting royalty. I'd have brought out my best spells for the occasion.'

'That's really not necessary,' Talia replied, frowning at his irritating little smirk. 'I can send you to klatznick regardless.' Ogron's brow furrowed.

'What does that mean?'

'Allow me to demonstrate. Wand of Xeris!' Her wand appeared in her grasp, and she whipped it up towards his chest again, though he ducked aside, unleashing a stream of dark energy from his hands. Well, that confirmed it: he wasn't using crystal. Whoever he was, he wasn't Ephedian.

'While I'm helpfully expanding your lexicon,' she gasped, parrying his blows. 'It's your turn to answer my questions.' Ogron smirked.

'Oh, I doubt that highly, Talia, was it?'

'Talia, Princess of Xeris,' she corrected him. 'But you can just call me whatever when you're begging for mercy.'

'Well aren't you feisty?' he murmured, summoning a shield against her latest attack. 'And, pray tell, what questions do you wish to have answered?'

'Who are you?' she demanded at once. 'Crystempactus!' She slammed her attack into his shield, shattering the barrier, though he hit her with a jolt of energy, sending her stumbling away from him.

'I believe your friend already told you that, didn't she?' Ogron cocked his head curiously. 'Or are you just a bad listener?' Talia leapt forwards, intent on wiping that little smirk off his face.

'Ogron. Got it. What do you want?'

'Roxy told you that too. Do you want answers, or a recap?'

'Okay, here's a question I don't know the answer to,' Talia snapped. 'Would you prefer me to throw you across this park, or just hit you with a mountain of crystal right here? They both end in broken bones, so I'm good with either.'

'I choose option three,' Ogron replied smugly. 'I blast you across this park. What was it she called this again? Oh, yes. Wasp Sting.' Talia gasped with shock as one of Roxy's attacks flew from Ogron hands, colliding with her and sending stinging jolts searing through her body.

'You…you can absorb…'

'Magic?' Ogron finished, grinning down at her. 'Why yes, I can.'

'How interesting,' she gritted out. 'You don't mind if I test your limits, do you? Crystal Oblitero!' A barrage of crystal shards burst from her, whipping towards Ogron, who visibly paled, throwing up a shield just as the first shards sliced across his skin. Talia got to her feet as he stood against the assault, a smile gracing her lips as she seized the upper hand.

'Crystal Gelacio!' Just as the barrage ceased, crystal shot up from the ground, encasing his legs and leaving him stumbling and faltering.

'What-?'

'Hmm, looks like you can't absorb magic,' she teased. 'These crystals? These are magic. You can absorb energy. Good thing I performed my little experiment, or you might have continued to inaccurately define your powers.'

'And what a disaster that would have been,' Ogron spat, slamming his hand down into his crystal prison and shattering it with a burst of dark magic. It must have taken rather a lot of energy, as he appeared significantly less steady on his feet than before.

He lifted a hand to his cheek where a crystal shard had slashed the skin, staring down at his reddened fingers in shock.

'What?' Talia asked. 'Not used to being vulnerable? Let me help you get acclimated!' Ogron's focus quickly had to switch from the blood on his fingertips to the furious warrior princess aiming a kick at his head, a kick he barely ducked.

'Okay, you are really starting to get on my nerves!' he snapped, and now it was Talia's turn to smirk.

'Am I getting on your nerves, or is it your own weakness?' Apparently Ogron didn't appreciate being called weak, as he redoubled his efforts, forcing Talia to go on the defensive, blocking his attacks with her shields and batting his spells away with her wand.

'Hit a bit of a nerve, did I?' she gasped out. 'Whoops. Didn't mean to.' She sidestepped an attack, bringing her wand up and into his chin, making him stagger backwards in a daze. 'Not that your reaction isn't entertaining…' She frowned. She never talked this much in a fight. She kept quiet and focused. But there was just something about this man that made her want to one-up every little comment he made. And, she had to admit; despite the peril they were in, she was almost enjoying herself. Going off the snarl playing on Ogron's lips, the feeling was not exactly mutual.

'You don't know when to quit…' he spat, and she smirked.

'Oh, I know exactly when to quit. I was planning on quitting just as soon as I have you trapped in crystal. Crystal Dimitam!' She fired shards at him again, but this time he knew to dodge, aware of how sharp they were. 'Crystal Gelacio!' She folded her arms with satisfaction as Ogron's furious scowl was frozen in her shimmering blue crystal, unable to do so much as blink. 'You see, now this…this would be a good time to quit.'

Roxy had seen a lot of things in her life. The vast majority of the craziest things had been in the past few weeks. But a guy that didn't seem to stay in the same body for more than five minutes came pretty close to topping the list of craziness. Though she couldn't decide if it topped the giant mutant snumple. She'd figure that out later. Right then, she was mostly just focused on keeping aforementioned shapeshifter from getting his jaws around her, a feat easier said than done as he changed from a bear to a mouse to scurry out of Iris's traps, popping back up as a lion the girls barely avoided. And as if he wasn't unhelpful enough, Speedy was zipping around knocking them off balance every five seconds. (She still didn't know his name, and she didn't really care to ask. The blonde guy was still very much Van Helsing to her anyway.)

'Crystempactus!' Iris cried, trying yet again to land a hit on Speedy, to no avail. 'Dammit! He's too fast!'

'Why am I starting to feel like we got the worst ones?' Roxy muttered. Iris frowned.

'I'm…not sure that's true. I think that honour went to Auriana.' Roxy glanced over at where Auriana was struggling against Helsing (so she knew his name; whatever), and winced to see the wizard unleashing devastating seismic waves, easily shattering her crystals.

'Oof..' she muttered. 'Yeah, maybe Mohawk and Speedy are a bit better.'

'We have names, y'know,' Duman remarked, the comment somewhat warped as it happened to be coming from the lips of a giant anaconda attempting to get its coils around Iris.

'I know,' Roxy replied, jumping out of the way of another of Speedy's attacks. 'I just don't care. Mystic Talons!' Duman hissed and reverted to human form, cradling his bleeding arm where her attack had cut him. As he changed human again, Iris dropped roughly thirty feet, throwing her arms out to create a spell to catch herself.

'Crystal Slucia!' The pink crystal slide materialised under her, allowing her to slide towards the ground.

'Ow! Anagan, get her!' Duman snapped. Huh. Looked like she was working with four names now. She honestly preferred Speedy, if she was being frank. (When was she ever not?) Roxy watched Iris slide towards Earth, while Anagan pelted towards her. Lightbulb moment.

'Hey! Fast one!' She flew up and out of the way just as Anagan reached her. 'Come get me!' She flew backwards, timing it just right. 'Iris! Impact!'

'Crystempactus!' Iris cried, summoning the crystalline weapon just as Anagan ran across her crystal slide, her momentum giving her all the force she needed to send him flying. Looked like they had the upper hand now. They'd better not waste it.

'Iris! Keep up the heat! Take Amaru! Help me with Mohawk when you're done!' Iris gave her a thumbs up, swinging her sword as Anagan regained his bearings, the speedy wizard barely ducking in time to avoid a rather serious injury.

'Anagan!' Duman shouted, turning to aid his teammate, but Roxy wasn't having that.

'Sorry, shifty, but the whole point of divide and conquer is to divide.' Duman scowled at her, shifting into a mountain lion that was rather obviously keeping its weight off its front leg. 'And then you conquer. Wasp Sting!' Duman growled with pain as the attack hit him, leaping up and roaring. 'Crystal Shell!' She flew right at him, pouring all her power in upholding the shield, and the effort paid off, as her barrier collided with Duman as hard as one of Talia's crystals, knocking him back down.

'Look, I don't know who you people are, or what you want with me, but I would like to be perfectly clear that whatever it is, it's never gonna happen.'

'You see, if I believed that, I wouldn't be doing this,' Duman replied, dragging himself upright. 'You think I'm scared of a newbie fairy?'

'I don't know squat about you,' Roxy snapped. 'I don't know if you're scared of fairies, or the dark, or frickin' Tom Petty songs! All I know is that I don't like you randomly attacking me, so I'm gonna fight you until one or both of us is out cold on the ground.' She thought for a second. 'Or you give up. That works too.' In what was a pretty clear response, Duman launched himself towards her, his body fluidly changing into an eagle, his talons scraping across her arm. 'Okay! You're not giving up! A simple 'Nah, I'm good' woulda got the point across!'

'Yeah, but this way is more fun,' Duman remarked, dropping back into human form and blasting her with a stream of dark energy.

'Please…' she gasped out, dropping lower to avoid it. 'I've fought two crystal lunatics trying to crush me like a bug; your little lack-of-light show isn't that scary.' Duman frowned at her words.

'Crystal lunatics? Y'mean your friends? Cause I count three of them.'

'Nah; they'd have been way harder to beat. Wasp Sting!' Duman barely dodged the attack, snarling as the edge of the magic singed his hair. 'I pity the morons that fight them.' She paused, smirking. 'Oh, wait, those morons are your friends.'

'And what, I struck lucky because I'm fighting the amateur fairy?' Roxy dove for him, tackling him around the waist and knocking him to the ground.

'I wouldn't say lucky. Bumblebee Barb!' A sharp-ended golden orb appeared over her right hand, and she drove it down into Duman's arm, eliciting a cry of surprise and pain as she rolled off him, rapidly summoning the bench she'd thrown at Ogron earlier and hurling it at Duman as hard as she could manage. The wizard's eyes widened with surprise, and he threw up a hand, blasting the bench into kindling, before jumping to his feet, his right arm hanging at his side, an ugly purple swelling appearing where her magical venom was taking effect. Unfortunately, the venom only really caused pain, like a real bee sting, but it was something.

'How are you not crushed already?' Duman demanded, and Roxy shrugged.

'I'm annoying like that.'

Iris raised her sword over her head, bringing it down where Anagan had been until just seconds ago.

'Ugh, klatznick!' she snapped, making use of her home planet's expletive. 'Stay still!' In response, Anagan blasted her to the ground, and she rolled with the impact, managing to avoid any real damage. She internally wondered how many times she'd have died so far in this fight without the increased endurance her magical dress gave her, before deciding that was a thread she didn't really want to start pulling on.

Anagan ran for her again, and she thought fast, cycling through her fairly limited inventory of spells.

'Crystal Flecto!' Anagan suddenly found himself running up a pink crystal ramp, which was quickly shattered by a sharp kick from Amaru. The move should have been the end of the fight, sending Anagan falling to earth and letting Iris run to help Roxy against Duman, who, despite having been hit with one of her less pleasant attacks, was still fighting viciously, and Roxy was starting to flag. As Iris herself was learning, randomly flinging whatever you could think of wasn't the most effective battle strategy.

As though driving home the point that Anagan, wherever he'd come from, was evidently more experienced than her, he blasted a beam of energy towards the ground, the impact slowing his fall and allowing him to literally hit the ground running, his fist colliding with her stomach a second later, knocking the air from her lungs and sending her crumpling to her knees. So…I'm a magical princess…with crystal…powers…but I can still get punched in the stomach…good to know. Thankfully, she had some backup in the form of Amaru, who kicked out with his hooves as Anagan tried to get close, allowing Iris a second to catch her breath.

Noticing Roxy taking to the skies to avoid Duman's attacks, Iris dragged herself upright, scrambling onto Amaru's back in what was a very inelegant, but effective, way to get out of the range of Anagan's fists. Unfortunately, it didn't get her away from his magical blasts, but now she had a decent vantage point from which to aim. It was like shooting fish in a barrel. If it was just one fish, with super fish speed, and the barrel in question was giant and really more the size of a small lake.

'Crystal Offensio!' Missed. 'Crystal Offensio!' Missed. 'Crystal Collidum!' She summoned a wall of crystal right in front of where Anagan was running, aiming another attack just before it in the hopes he'd be forced to stop, but he pushed off the base of the wall, jumping up and over, firing a bolt of magic up at her and Amaru, colliding with Amaru and knocking her from his back.

'Crystal Slucia!' She slid to the ground, slicing an attack with her sword as she tried to regain her bearing, suddenly very, very grateful for all of Talia's intense drills.

'You're after Roxy, not me,' she breathed, panting heavily from the exertion of the fight. 'You're not with Gramorr, are you?' Anagan's brow furrowed in confusion as he ducked a swing of her sword.

'Who?'

'So no, then,' she muttered. 'Well, if you're not the twins' less annoying replacement, who are you?'

'Anagan,' he replied simply. 'Wizard of Speed.' As though demonstrating the truth behind his title, he zipped around the clearing, delivering three sharp, sudden blows, only two of which were blocked by Iris's sword, the other sending her tumbling to the ground. With Amaru still struggling to regain his bearings after being knocked from the sky, there was no one to keep Anagan at bay, and he was upon her in seconds. Spells having largely failed her thus far, she relied on her own body, kicking madly in front of her, managing to get one of her heeled ankle boots to make sudden contact with his shin, giving her enough of a distraction to jump to her feet and get her sword to his throat.

Her sense of victory was short-lived, however, as Anagan thrust his hand forward, making contact with her shoulder and sending waves of dark magic pulsing through her, eliciting a scream of panic and forcing her to drop her sword.

'You're not the target,' Anagan said calmly, watching her fight to catch her breath with what almost seemed to be a sense of pity. 'I don't want to hurt you; stay down, and I won't have to.'

'Sorry,' Iris snarled from the ground, her eyes burning with fury. 'But you're either going to have to suppress those morals, or stay away from my friend! Crystal Bullarum!' Now, she had not technically used this spell before. Or been taught it. Or had any experience with it beyond seeing the name and function in Talia's spell book and reading through how one cast it while she was waiting for Auriana to finish in the shower. So there was a pretty good chance she was going to wind up doing precisely nothing. And then possibly die. Which, she had to be honest, would be pretty bad.

But, to her delight, pink light shot from her fingers, enveloping Anagan in a crystalline orb, allowing her to finally catch the wizard off-guard.

'Ha!' she crowed, fist-pumping. 'Now you're in your own little hamster ball.' Anagan raised an eyebrow, tapping the orb with his fist, scrutinising the magic.

'This is impressive,' he acknowledged. Iris smirked with satisfaction, but her glee was quickly snuffed out as Anagan kicked the orb hard, shattering the thin crystal right along with her hopes to win this battle. 'Not in my league…' he continued, 'but impressive all the same.'

Auriana prided herself on her positivity. She'd been able to find the silver lining in a lot of the bad things that had happened to her. Gramorr taking over Ephedia? Ephedians that might normally quarrel and fight were united against a common threat! Her kingdom being conquered? Why, if that hadn't happened, she'd never have met Talia, Iris and Roxy! The twins finding Iris before she was fully trained? What better combat practice could there be? But four incredibly powerful sorcerers showing up and trying to attack Roxy with no explanation and no obvious way to defeat them? Yeah, that she was having a pretty hard time with. Especially as Gantlos, the wizard she'd taken on, possessed the rather unfortunate ability to summon devastating seismic waves. Which, y'know, wasn't great when all your attacks more or less involved summoning things that didn't get along with seismic waves. It wasn't the worst thing that had ever happened though; not even close! Okay, that was less of a silver lining and more just depressing.

'Crystarmum!' Her shield held, thank Volta, but…well, that didn't stop her from being thrown back. Into a tree. 'Owie…' she groaned, her vision swimming. 'That really hurt!' In retaliation, she used the one thing in her arsenal that shattering waves couldn't touch: her ribbon. The orange band of light slashed through the air, though Gantlos dodged rapidly, meaning the strike did little more than relieve him of his hat. And somehow, she doubted that (actually super cool!) hat was the source of all his powers. A second later, she was proven right as the ground beneath her was torn to pieces as he stomped his foot into the grass, and she had to scramble up into the tree she'd just hit.

'Who are you?' she demanded, her gaze flickering with curiosity. 'I've never seen anyone wield magic like yours before. Are you from Earth?' Gantlos ignored her questions, blasting the tree with another shockwave, sending Auriana flying.

Midair, she whipped her ribbon around his ankle, landing on the ground and yanking with all she had. The sudden shock of the movement caught Gantlos off-guard, and to her delight, he fell face first into the grass. As much as she wanted to celebrate the first decent move she'd made, she couldn't wait, so she ran forward, intending to use her ribbon to bind him (and then get her questions answered, because if she didn't find out where he was from, what he was doing, how he was doing it, and where on Earth he got that hat, she was just going to burst!)

Unfortunately, as she got close, the grass blades began to tremble like they were watching a lawnmower commercial, and she leapt back just as the earth around Gantlos was cleaved in half, the wizard himself climbing to his feet, unleashing yet another seismic wave. Most days, she'd think his attacks were getting repetitive, but, then again, those repetitive attacks were screwing her over pretty hard, so why would he mess with what worked?

'Crystal Retrosum!' Her shield came up in a heartbeat, wickedly sharp shards of amber crystal shooting from the runes all across the circle of light, beelining for Gantlos like she'd beelined for the Frutti Music Bar when Roxy had informed her they had dragon fruit. Unfortunately, this ended even worse than when Auriana had learned dragon fruits were not tiny dragons made of fruit, but rather just a spiky pink fruit.

'Crysta-Tectus!' she shouted as Gantlos clapped his hands, sending her own attack back at her. Thankfully, her shield held up against the shards, but Gantlos's next seismic wave was another story. Her trusty crystal shield shattered into a thousand fragments that had apparently lost all affinity for her, as one of them sliced its way across her thigh, while another left a gash marring her arm.

'Well, there goes my party dress…' she mourned, thinking of her minidress that so wouldn't go with bandages. 'Are you happy now?' she demanded of Gantlos, hands on hips. 'Do you know how long it took me to pick an outfit for tonight?!'

'Nobody's making you fight,' he muttered. Auriana realised it was the first time she'd heard him speak. He sure talked less than the twins.

'Yeah, well, Voltans don't quit!' she snapped, summoning her shield again and lunging. He mouthed 'Voltans?', frowning in confusion as he shattered her shield yet again. But this time, she was ready, ducking the shards and driving her knee into his solar plexus. That really, really should have taken him down, but, while she heard his breath catch, to her consternation, seconds later she found herself tumbling backwards with another shockwave, while Gantlos still stood.

'Oh, c'mon!' she yelled. 'What are you made of, Calix Vulcan Stone?!' She was starting to seriously doubt her chances here.

As she had to jump out of the way of another series of waves, she glanced over to see her friends fighting. Iris was seriously struggling against…actually, she still didn't know his name; that felt very rude of her. She should be sure to find it out. Anyway, Iris was struggling, her opponent wearing her down with attacks that seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Roxy wasn't faring much better, locked in a constant tussle with Duman, who was turning into animal after animal and leaving scratches all across Roxy's skin. However, Talia, on the other hand…

Auriana beamed with delight to see Talia fighting with exceptional precision and accuracy, parrying every blow Ogron made, and was it just her, or were the princess's lips quirking up in a tiny little smile? She knew Talia could have fun in a fight! Looked like Amaru owed her a hurleybee steak.

Gantlos followed her gaze, his eyes widening in alarm as Talia unleashed a barrage of crystal shards against Ogron, before sealing him in a shining blue crystal.

'Ogron!' Gantlos hurled a barrage of seismic waves at Auriana, throwing her into the undergrowth as he pelted across the battlefield towards Talia.

'Talia!' Auriana shouted in warning as she spat leaves out of her mouth. 'Watch out!' Talia turned just in time to get hit with a seismic wave, rolling backwards and popping back up, whipping her wand around and into Gantlos's chest, making him stagger back, but not fall.

'Crystal Oblitero!' Gantlos dealt with it the same way he'd dealt with Auriana's attack, and Talia rapidly lifted her wand, spinning it in a rapid circle to deflect the shards away from her. While she was occupied, Gantlos hit the ground beneath her with a seismic wave, sending Talia tumbling into an earthy abyss.

'Talia!' Auriana detached herself from a particularly scratchy shrub and ran to where her friend had driven her wand into the earth on either side of her, hanging on and staring worriedly down at the deep gouge in the ground.

'Hold on!' Auriana called down. 'Grab my ribbon!' She tossed down the end of her ribbon, and Talia grabbed on, allowing Auriana to yank her up, her heels digging into the ground as she pulled.

While she saved Talia, she watched Gantlos inspect the crystal around Ogron, evidently unsure whether it was safe to shatter the crystal. He raised his hand, the air at his fingertips vibrating with seismic waves, and Auriana called out, stopping him.

'I wouldn't do that without Crystal Solvenda!' Gantlos froze, glaring at her like he couldn't decide if she was warning him or just distracting him. It was a combination of both, really. She personally wouldn't break crystal with force, but he'd done a whole bunch of things she didn't know were possible, so she really had no idea what would happen.

She pulled Talia to the lip of the ravine, reaching out a hand and helping her up. Gantlos's hand edged closer to the crystal.

'Seriously, I'm trying to warn you here!' she snapped. 'Unless you think he'd be better in a million crystal shards?' Gantlos flinched, his gaze darting between her and Ogron, evidently trying to decide whether or not she was bluffing. Well, if he figured it out, she hoped he let her know, since she really had no idea herself.

Eventually, Gantlos sighed deeply.

'Duman! Anagan!' Wow, for a guy who didn't really speak, he sure was loud. His voice echoed across the battlefield, and Auriana held her breath as Duman and Anagan (hey, she knew his name now! Sweet!) glanced away from their own fights. 'We're leaving! Teleport away!' Anagan nodded, immediately vanishing in a puff of dark smoke, while Duman rolled his eyes, blasting Roxy one last time before likewise vanishing.

'Woah!' Auriana exclaimed, staring at Gantlos with excitement. 'You guys can teleport?! Awesome!'

'Crystal Oblitero!' Talia snapped, but Gantlos vanished, her shards passing through nothing but smoke as the wizard disappeared, taking Ogron with him, crystal and all.

'Ugh!' Talia snarled, kicking a clump of grass into the gorge Gantlos had torn in the grass. 'They got away! And they took any chance of knowing what they want with them.'

'Pretty sure they want me,' Roxy replied, coming into land next to them, her skin criss-crossed with scratches of varying sizes. 'Or else them trying to put me in that hole in reality was pretty damn weird.' Everyone stared at her, even Amaru as he scampered over with Iris, back to paws rather than hooves.

'Hole in reality?' Talia repeated. 'What did this hole look like?' She transformed back to her civilian form, pulling out her phone and accessing a voice memo app. 'How big was it? What incantation did they use to summon it?' She held the phone towards Roxy. 'You need to tell us everything as fast as possible, Roxy. Any detail could be helpful in figuring out who in klatznick these guys are, and how we beat them.' Roxy sighed, rubbing her temples.

'I don't know, Talia…they just showed up, then called me the last fairy on Earth, tried to trap me in a weird vortex, and then we fought! They didn't take a break to do a tell-all!' At that moment, Artu ran over from where he'd been asked to stay out of the fight, being a dog with no magical powers, jumping up and licking his human's face in a reassuring way.

'Artu, you're a furry little hero!' Auriana squealed, getting in on the puppy fun. 'You warned us Roxy was in danger!' Artu excitedly went between licking Roxy and Auriana, until Auriana felt an insistent little head butting against her leg, and glanced down to see Amaru folding his arms. She immediately scooped the irate furball into her arms, snuggling him close.

'Oh, of course you're a hero too, Amaru! Don't get jealous!'

'Now's not the time for cuddles!' Talia snapped with frustration, folding her arms. 'We don't know who these guys are, and I have a horrible feeling we're not really prepared to fight them.' Auriana raised an eyebrow, pulling away from her hug.

'But you took Ogron down pretty easily; you're the only one without a scratch on her.' Talia pinched the bridge of her nose.

'Yeah, because he had no clue what I could do. Next time he's going to know what every one of those spells does, and be prepared to counter. And as you said, you've all got scratches on you; would you call your opponents easy to fight?'

'I'd call them goddamn annoying,' Roxy muttered, grimacing down at the cuts on her arm. 'Talia's right; we don't know anything about them beyond their names.'

'And that they're not Ephedian,' Auriana chipped in.

'Mhm,' Iris agreed. 'Anagan had no idea who Gramorr was.'

'While he could have been lying, I'm inclined to agree,' Talia conceded. 'Their magic isn't Ephedian. And it feels pretty likely that they're…'

'From Earth,' Roxy finished. 'And they called me the last Earth fairy…'

'So does that mean…' Iris murmured.

'There were others!' they all chorused in surprised union.

'Ugh, shouldn't she be here by now?' Mephisto groused. 'We sent her that dream hours ago!' Praxina glanced out of the window at the darkened street outside.

'I don't get it! Did the third dream crystal activate?'

'No!' Mephisto kicked the skirting board in frustration, splintering it. While it was in fact probably just rotten, he chose to interpret the destruction as a sign of his own indomitable strength. No mere architecture could stand up to the might of Mephisto.

'You probably messed up the spell,' Praxina snapped. 'What dream did you send her?'

'The one we agreed!' Mephisto folded his arms. 'Are we sure she even wants to meet her parents?'

'Of course she does!' Praxina snarled. 'This plan was perfect! Perfect!' She likewise kicked the skirting board, eliciting a jealous little pout from Mephisto as she managed to not only splinter the board, but also crack the wall. It was probably her shoes. Girls had stronger shoes. She was clearly cheating.

'Well, who's telling Gramorr?' As soon as the words had left his mouth, Mephisto utilised a cultural phenomenon he'd learned here on Earth. 'Not it!' He could almost see the smoke coming out of his sister's ears. However, he was rather unnerved as her fury fell away, chased from her sour face by a snide little smirk.

'Okay then, Mephisto. If I'm telling Gramorr, I can just tell him you sent the wrong dream!' Mephisto's stomach dropped to his feet.

'A-actually…on second hand…I'll tell him…'

'Nope! Get ready to be penalised!' For the rest of the evening, the ramshackle house that had almost played host to what could have turned into the scene of the destruction of all hope for Ephedia echoed not with the sounds of capture or battle, but simply with the sniping of two twins whose plan had gone sideways, thanks to four men neither they nor their enemies had known existed.

'It's not the same,' Auriana mourned, staring in the mirror at her new long-sleeved party dress.

'I think it's pretty,' Iris reassured her.

'Well, yes,' Auriana acknowledged, sighing. 'But I wanted to wear another dress! And thanks to Gantlos, my bandages clash!' Talia appeared ready to make a comment, but Iris shook her head. Yes, they had bigger concerns, but she for one would love to delude herself into thinking party dresses were their biggest concern, just for tonight.

'I really didn't need to change,' Roxy piped up, fingering the blue dress Talia had lent her. 'I was fine in my other outfit.'

'Your other dress was covered in mud and grass stains,' Talia argued. Roxy shrugged.

'Yeah. It finally matched the rest of my stuff.' Iris laughed, having to acknowledge that was true. 'The great thing about getting your clothes dirty is that you never have to be scared of getting your clothes dirty.'

'Well how can anyone argue with that logic?' Auriana asked. 'That makes total sense! But then your clothes would always be dirty.'

'I don't see a problem,' Roxy replied.

Iris turned to the mirror, fixing her hair, ensuring her long blonde waves showed no signs of the fight their pink counterparts had been in only half an hour ago.

'I can't believe even with crazy goth wizards and a twin trap, we still made it back in time for the party,' she said with quiet amazement. She'd been afraid they'd be late, and that her aunt would have to run the surprise party she hadn't even asked for, but, with the help of Roxy and Amaru's wings, they'd made it back with time to spare. Thank god, because they'd needed it to get changed.

Her gaze drifted to the spot on her bookcase where the music box had rested. The deceptive item now lay on a shelf in the library, the dream crystals removed and stored in their vault. Iris had asked why they didn't just destroy them, having wanted to shatter the jewels into a thousand pieces when Talia had told her what was on the third crystal, but Talia had replied that dream crystals that hadn't yet summoned their dream could be rewritten to bring a different dream, and since you couldn't exactly buy dream crystals at Walmart, they were keeping it. It might come in handy.

Roxy followed her gaze, getting up off the bed and putting a hand on her shoulder.

'I'm so sorry, Iris.' Iris started, turning to look at Roxy in confusion.

'Roxy, getting attacked by crazy wizards isn't your fault-' Roxy shook her head.

'No, I mean…I'm sorry the dream about your parents was a trick.'

'Oh…' Iris sighed, folding her arms. 'I can't believe the twins would do something like that.'

'I still say we should have gone in there and ambushed them,' Talia said, her disapproval of their decision to avoid the twins rather than confront them still evident.

Auriana shrugged, pulling on her kitten heels.

'I know you were up for a fight, but the rest of us were bleeding and frankly, we deserve to party after that fight. The twins will come back.'

'They're annoying like that,' Roxy added, and Talia nodded in acknowledgement.

'Alright. But next time…'

'Next time we'll show those wizards just who they're messing with!' Auriana finished chirpily.

'Y'mean two warrior princesses and two teenagers with no idea what they're doing?' Roxy deadpanned, earning an eye roll from Auriana.

'In Volta, we have a saying. 'When the shield is cracking, hold firm in your belief it will stay strong.'' Roxy raised an eyebrow.

'On Earth, we call that 'denial'.'

'Sounds magical!'

'It's unhealthy.'

'Roxy, you're ruining my party mood! We have another saying: 'When you fight some wizards, dance at a surprise party.''

'You just made that up.' Auriana shrugged.

'Yeah, I totally did. So? We fought some wizards, so let's go dance at the surprise party!' She paused, frowning. 'Um, Iris? Your aunt knows about the surprise party now, right?'

'Mhm.'

'So then…who are we surprising?' The girls exchanged looks.

'Don't look at me,' Talia said. 'I still don't understand why one would plan a party someone didn't know about. What if the person in question had plans they then felt obligated to cancel?'

'You know what, it doesn't matter,' Iris said firmly, adjusting her dress, making sure nobody could see the bruises where she'd hit the ground ten million times. 'Let's go give my aunt the best birthday ever!' Just as she said that, the doorbell rang, and she bolted out of the room, sliding down the banister and rushing to the door.

'Hi, welcome to the party- Nathaniel!'

'Hey, Iris!' Nate held up a wrapped gift box. 'You got somewhere for presents?' Iris took his arm, guiding him inside.

'Totally! What'd you get her?'

'…Food processor,' he admitted. 'It's not a very exciting gift, huh?'

'No, that's a fantastic gift! Her old one broke!'

'I know! You told me!' There was the sound of someone clearing their throat, and they both turned to see Roxy, Talia and Auriana watching them from the stairs, Auriana's eyes so wide and excited that she looked like an enthusiastic owl.

'So, anyway, the um, the gifts go over there.' Iris pointed to the gift table, and Nathaniel followed her direction.

'I can't believe you two get all cutesy talking about a food processor,' Roxy teased. 'Remind me again why you aren't a thing?' Iris rolled her eyes, heading to answer the door again.

'Because…because…none of your business!' She hid a blush as her friends giggled. So she liked Nate. Didn't mean they had to get married tomorrow. Maybe she just didn't want to risk her friendship by bringing up feelings that might not be reciprocated.

After the guests had arrived and Auriana's poppy playlist had really got people moving, Iris's aunt came up to her.

'Iris, this is a wonderful party!' She enveloped her in a warm hug, and Iris knew that it had been well worth racing back across the city to see her aunt this happy. 'Thank you so much. Now I don't feel so old.'

'Old?' Iris and her aunt turned to see Roxy's dad raising an eyebrow. 'Ellen Rose, you are not old! And if you are, I'm a bit scared because you're only a year older than me, so apparently I only have one year to live it up.' Aunt Ellen laughed, linking her arm into Klaus's.

'Well, you'd better get to partying then, Klaus.'

'I'd better. Y'know, I bet Roxy would love it if I showed off the funky chicken.' Iris made that polite face you're supposed to make when parents say something totally cringe, backing up to go warn Roxy of the impending chicken dancing.

Gantlos tapped gently on the blue crystal he, Anagan and Duman had been staring at for the past hour. He wanted to just shatter it, set Ogron free, but the orange girl's words rang in his mind, keeping him hesitant. She might have been bluffing, but he'd never forgive himself if she wasn't.

'You know who'd have an answer here?' Duman piped up after a minute. Gantlos and Anagan turned to look at him expectantly. 'Ogron.' Gantlos rolled his eyes, turning back to his examination of the crystal.

'Yes, thank you, Duman, that's very helpful.' He frowned at his friend's frozen form. Was he awake? Could he see them? He wasn't responding to telepathy. But maybe the crystal intercepted magic?

'Ugh, let's just break it!' Duman groused, nudging the crystal with his foot. 'Summon some seismic waves and turn it to dust!'

'And if I shatter Ogron in the process?' Gantlos demanded. Duman shrugged.

'Superglue?' Gantlos was very rapidly losing patience here.

'Duman, seriously,' he muttered. 'You're not being helpful here.' Duman folded his arms in a huff, but didn't say any more. Gantlos knew he was sore about not beating the Earth fairy, but, frankly, they had bigger concerns.

'Okay,' he said after a minute. 'I think I got an idea, but I need to focus.' Duman and Anagan immediately stepped back, watching curiously. Gantlos took a deep breath, lifting his hand and pressing it firmly against the crystal, channelling vibrations through it. The crystalline prison trembled, before the outside began falling away as dust, the blue powder almost fairy dust-like. He narrowed his eyes, concentrating hard on keeping his vibrations limited to the outer layers of crystal, working his way in until finally, to everyone's relief, Ogron dropped to the ground, breathing hard.

'Ogron!' Gantlos was at his side in an instant, closely followed by Duman and Anagan. 'Are you okay?' There was a minute of silence while Ogron just gasped in air.

'…Damn her!' the redhead screamed, blasting the wall of the old warehouse Gantlos had found for them to hide out in while they figured this out. 'Damn her damn her damn her! How dare she! 'Good thing I performed my little experiment, or you might have continued to inaccurately describe your powers.' Ugh! Damn her!' Anagan put a hand on Ogron's arm.

'Ogron, calm down.'

'Calm down?! It was supposed to be simple!'

'I know.'

'We were supposed to win!'

'I know.'

'There weren't supposed to be crystal princesses!'

'I know.'

'Where did they even come from?!'

'I don't know.' Ogron looked set to yell some more, before groaning and clutching his chest.

'Ow… Dammit, I think she bruised some ribs.' Anagan guided Ogron to lie against the wall.

'Okay, you need to stop and calm down. Let me take a look.' Ogron scowled at nothing in particular, but didn't protest as Anagan examined his chest, frowning at the dark purple bruises feathering across his thorax.

'I'm not supposed to get hurt!' Ogron snapped furiously, glaring at his injuries. 'I'm supposed to be- ow!' Anagan frowned.

'You need to stop yelling.'

Duman snickered. 'Good luck there.' Ogron's fury, needing a target, started eyeing Duman as a prospective candidate, and the shapeshifter wisely shut up.

Ogron groaned, rubbing his temples as Anagan snapped his fingers to summon an ice pack and began icing Ogron's bruised ribs.

'How…' he muttered, almost to himself. 'How did we lose?'

'We weren't prepared,' Gantlos said simply. 'The only reason I had the upper hand was that I got lucky enough to have a power that can destroy her magic.' Ogron nodded along, a calculating furrow appearing on his brow.

'Well then, we need to get prepared. Because we've spent centuries working for this, and I will not allow some pastel princesses to ruin everything.'

And we have our favourite wizards! I have been so ridiculously excited for this chapter. Now both sides are pretty in the dark about who they're fighting, and Mephisto and Praxina don't even know they have competition for the girls' number-one enemy. If you like this story, please, please leave a review!