— 29th May 2005, Rainspell Island —

It didn't take long for the U.K. military to pinpoint the exact coordinates of where the pot landed in Rainspell Island. While the pot failed to be blown off course into the ocean as expected, Gibbons took several photos of the pot as it was falling and after he damaged it with the missile. That, alongside several local reports, allowed the MI5 to locate where the pot landed in Rainspell Island; a clearing in the centre of the island, located near a road and in the boundaries of Rainspell Island National Landscape.

With this information, the British Armed Forces were sent out to investigate and possibly attack any hostile alien life-forms. Several military vehicles and soldiers were sent towards the black pot's coordinates - 5 Challenger 2 tanks, 10 Bulldogs, 7 Puma HC2 military helicopters and countless soldiers. Most of them were stationed at the military base in the northwestern side of Rainspell Island, with a few from the mainland for support. While there were some in the British government who considered this to be an overreaction, those doubts were put to rest when the prime minister stated that the pot appeared to harbour 'alien lifeforms' that would probably bring harm to the nation. As a result, many MPs agreed with the decision to send the military to the pot, despite the lingering scepticism that lay within.

When the military forces entered the location of where the pot landed, they did so having ordered the police to close down the road near the pot's location so no one would wonder why so many military vehicles and helicopters would go to a random spot in the middle of Rainspell Island. They covered it up by cutting down several trees, ensuring that no one could go through, and blaming it on the invasive grey squirrels. While there were a few distrusting sceptics in Rainspell Island, no one did anything to stop the military, for it didn't really matter to the ordinary citizens living there. Exactly what the government wanted.

Soon, the vehicles and soldiers made it to the clearing, positioning themselves in a circle to surround the overturned pot on all sides, armed to the teeth with guns and shells. The leader of the mission, Captain Evan Simmons, came out of one of the Bulldogs and spoke in his megaphone:

"Unidentified alien specimen, we know you are hiding in this black pot. Please step out or we will open fire."

Ruby had been lying on the ground in pure misery at her situation, unable to stop the tears as she couldn't think of anything but how much of an utter failure she was, and how her mistakes were what ultimately led to this nightmare. If she had taken action to defend the pot from the silver thing rather than argue about what it was, they would've all landed together and survived. No, if she had just remembered Jack Frost went writing the invitations for the Midsummer Festival at the very beginning, none of this would've ever happened! Yet as much as she wanted to do something, she couldn't muster the strength or energy to do anything other than accepting her fate.

Then, a booming voice was heard from outside, one that reverberated through the hole of the pot and echoed from every side. The sheer volume of it caused Ruby to cover her ears in stress, her face screwed up into anguish once more.

"Unidentified alien specimen, we know you are hiding in this black pot. Please step out or we will open fire."

"Wh-what's going on?! How have the mortals found me so easily?!" Ruby thought in confusion and terror. The only time she felt this feeling before was all the way back when Jack Frost strangled her in rage over not being invited. His booming, rage-filled voice nearly made her ears bleed, and she could feel his icy breath nearly freeze her face. This voice, however, was much more stern and commanding, as if demanding something from her. And it was clear that, unlike the Ice Warlord, this voice was just an ordinary human, so what was being used to have this effect?

"I repeat: Step out and surrender or we will open fire." Ruby's thoughts were cut off by the booming voice demanding her to leave the pot. But she couldn't bear to, for her own safety was being risked here. She could instinctively tell that whoever the voice belonged to clearly wanted to harm her, especially with what they called her as, a 'specimen' when she was also a living, sentient being like them. Oh well, she was in no position to fight against them, so she stayed inside the pot out of fear of the enemies.

"No answer from the pot," Lieutenant John Price said, having stepped out of the bulldog to accompany his superior. Having been born and raised in Rainspell Island, he had known Evan ever since he joined the military, and developed a close bond with the captain as they trained. Very recently had he been promoted to first lieutenant after several successful missions and cooperations with Simmons, and now serves his military career as part of the British Armed Forces' Northwest Rainspell base; it was the only military base in Rainspell Island, but a rather important one that covered all there was needed for a military outpost in an island that size.

Evan sighed. "Dammit, dammit, dammit! That's not a good sign. Either they're hiding within or this was just a random black pot," he muttered under his breath.

"If there is something under that pot, we need to rat it out," Price then suggested. "Words aren't working, I think we should use force."

"Right. If we fire some warning shots it might work." Evan responded.

With those words, Evan clutched the L85A2 rifle on his person and aimed it near the hole on the pot. And he shot two bullets.

Ruby remained silent within the pot, desperately waiting for something to happen outside it. The sudden silence was nerve-wracking, and she was all but certain that her enemies wanted to hurt her. Eventually, it was unbearable for her to sit through that she decided to just follow their orders.

However, when she flew towards the pot, she was taken aback when two silver projectiles flew to the ground and smashed into it, sending mud and grass flying. Ruby covered her face with her arm to prevent it from flying into her eyes, but the threat posed was all too clear. Ruby saw a worm that was slowly wiggling its way inside before being torn clean in half by the could be me if I got out. They want to kill me!

With this knowledge, Ruby ended up flying back inside the darkness of the pot. She never liked darkness, but since certain death awaited her in the light, it became the most comforting thing here.

"No response," Evan concluded. "That's it. We're pushing this thing out no matter what. Open fire!"

"Roger!"

"Okay!"

"We can do that!"

With these responses, the soldiers who had gotten out pulled out their weapons and started firing at the overturned pot-at-the-end-of-the-rainbow, hoping to force whatever was inside to come out.

Within the pot, the bullets were now raining in on the pot itself, and Ruby was now huddled in the centre of the pot's ground, clutching herself in a foetal position out of pure fear. The pot was barely shaking as the bullets riddled its outer shell, clang sounds being made as each bullet attempted to penetrate it. The first few bullets actually made dents in the walls, and this startled Ruby that she had to use some of her remaining magic to make the pot bulletproof to protect herself.

It was becoming clear that she wasn't safe in here now, and that the forces out there were trying to attack her. At this point, Ruby just wanted to wake up and believe it was all a dream.

But even then, she never overslept. She always woke up earlier than her sisters-in-law to prepare their breakfasts. This couldn't be a nightmare. Everything was too real. This alien, hellish situation she and the other 6 rainbow fairies found themselves in was happening right now.

"Okay, calm down, Ruby…" Ruby then said, breathing heavily as she tried to resist the despair. "Calm down, calm down. I know this situation is horrible, and I know the others are missing, and I know there are two enemies wanting to take us away, but soon, very soon, this whole ordeal will go away, my friends will soon return, and we will all live happily ever after…"

But even that was failing. Nothing Ruby could do would prevent the human forces to stop attacking her. For the first time, Ruby felt powerless and helpless in an unfamiliar world she had never explored, having to face it alone without anyone else, not even her associates. The pot that was sent to protect her might have well become something to imprison her with how it was overturned by human forces.

Outside the pot, the soldiers saw a red wave surrounding the pot in sparkles, and soon their weapons were being rendered useless against it.

"Damn it, it's not working!" A soldier shouted in frustration.

"Yup, it's definitely magical," Evan confirmed.

"Then what do we do against this thing?! If whatever's inside it can use protection magic, then what's the point trying to push it out?" John asked. "What if it was something dangerous?"

"It wouldn't be. If we manage to hit it hard enough it will fail… wait, I've got an idea!" Evan responded, an idea flashing in his head. "We have tanks. If we can fire on the pot, it will create an opening big enough to analyse what's inside it!"

"That's… actually a good idea," Price said in surprise. "Now that's why you're captain!"

With that, Evan sent one last order. "All soldiers, stop firing. We need one tank to shoot the pot."

"Alright, then!" Was the response from one of the Challenger 2 tanks. And soon, it fired a round from its turret straight at the overturned pot.

The result was rather ordinary. The round exploded on contact, sending flaming chunks of it flying and slightly pulling the pot up before it fell down again.

But for Ruby, it was horrific. As she laid in the pot desperately waiting for it to end, she realised too late that the protection spell wasn't strong enough without her friends. And the top left corner of the pot exploded in flames, sending chunks flying out and temporarily overturning the pot. But she couldn't comprehend it because she was knocked out by the sheer force and impact of the blast. The unconsciousness might as well be what she needed, after all the suffering she's been through, this was the closest thing to the well-deserved rest she desperately wanted to have.

After the pot went back on its lid, the red wave vanished. This signalled to the military that the entity within the pot was probably neutralised by the tank blast, and that their mission was completed. However, Evan was still curious about what lay within the pot, especially since the reports on the jet stated there was something inside it.

"Okay everyone, I want every vehicle and soldier to retreat back to Northwest Rainspell except for the one me and Lieutenant Price are in," he ordered. He wanted to see what was inside the pot and make sure the general public doesn't find out about it.

As if on cue, the soldiers saluted and took off, the tanks, helicopters and vehicles driving away on the highway. Soon, only 1 Bulldog remained, containing a driver, another soldier and Simmons and Price themselves.

"Now, time to investigate this thing," Evan declared.

"Well, that's going to be easy!" John said.

The two walked up to the pot and looked into the hole the tank had made. When they did, their expressions turned from stern apathy to a mix of surprise and guilt.

The entity that was in the pot was not the monster that they feared of. It was just a tiny woman with wings, laying on the floor unconscious. She appeared to have long blonde hair braided and decorated with roses, a silky red dress that appeared to be made out of rose petals, and red ballet shoes with ribbons wrapped around her legs.

"Was that what we had to defend our island from? This small, weak fairy?" Price said, exasperated.

"I guess both of our theories were correct," Evan solemnly replied. "There was something in there. But not much that would pose a threat to the world."

"So what do we do?" John asked.

"Personally, I think we should leave her alone and let her get out. She clearly does not belong here." Evan replied. "But we can only follow orders here. I don't want to lose everything just because I disobeyed the General. We should call him what to do."

"Yeah, I think that's reasonable." John added. "We're lucky we didn't actually kill her. We still need to send him the photos to give him an opinion, though."

"Right. If it turned out that thing was a fairy, we'd have different orders."

With that, Lieutenant Price took the camera he was given and snapped a photo of the red fairy in the pot, before relaying it to Northwest Rainspell Military Base's Comms. "Well, that's done, we just need the General's orders."

Captain Simmons then took out his cellphone and called the base for requests. "General Campbell, what do you want to do with the fairy?"

Campbell's reply came from the other side of the phone. "We need to make sure she doesn't escape, and we need to make sure the people on this island won't know she exists. Judging by the photos, you gave the black pot two major openings in it. We need to seal them off to ensure she won't get out."

"That sounds easy, we can do that," Evan replied.

"Judging by the photos taken from the Air Force, there are approximately seven of these 'fairies' out there. The police have managed to capture one of them, but the other five are still in the wild, unnoticed. We're trying our best to locate and track them down to ensure no one ever knows. We do not want to know what the public would think of the existence of fairies and magic," Campbell continued. "This is for the safety of Rainspell Island."

"Don't worry, we'll make sure no one knows. This information should be kept classified from anyone," Evan responded. And with that, the call ended, and Simmons put the cellphone back inside his pocket.

"So, Simmons," John asked. "How should we cover this up?"

"There's two holes here. One on the overturned lid, and another on the bottom. The missile hole should be easy to cover, but the tank one is rather trickier, and needs more resources. We can do this, though. I know we can," Evan replied. "Let's just get to work now."

And work they did. Like Simmons said, the hole on the lid was easy to cover, filled in with rocks and stones collected in the field. And the tank hole was far more difficult to cover, since every rock they put in just fell inside. Eventually, they found a solution to just cover it with a slab of metal taped on with duct tape.

"This pot is already made of metal, this wouldn't look too out of place," John remarked. "Only thing is I bet she'd be confused by the duct tape!"

"Yeah, I think so," Evan added. "We've got no time to talk though. Our job is done here. Let's leave before she wakes up."

The two soldiers then went back in the Bulldog, and they left the clearing, driving back towards Northwest Rainspell to share the intel to their generals.