Lapis ran like she had never run before in her life. Every muscle ached as she did. Adrenaline pumped hot through her veins. Yet even with every part of her wanting to give in, to fall down, and to lose, the little energy she got from her guardian heart gave her just enough strength to carry on. Behind her she heard Nightshade laughing manically and the sound of wings flapping behind her. The laughter grew closer.
Lapis turned around a corner. The back of her hair was snagged for a brief moment before being freed. Lapis had just enough time to look behind her and see Nightshade flying in the air, her claws extended with part of Lapis’s blue hair caught in between her claws. The smile that Nightshade gave her was like that of a lion looking down upon a house cat.
Seeing how close the blow was renewed Lapis’s energy giving her a second wind worthy enough to run faster. Every muscle was a constant painful reminder that she was still alive, and that in and of itself was a great thing to know. Now that she realized that Nightshade most certainly had the speed advantage Lapis resorted to going around more corners than before. On her way down one hall she spotted a curtain rod with a thick purple curtain on it and as she passed she reached out and ripped the entire rod off its holder, this was the exact rod that kept breaking in the past and it unhooked from the wall with almost no effort. Lapis threw the curtain behind her and heard a muffled scream of anger as Nightshade collided midair with it.
Lapis ducked into a small study knowing that there were two exits and just as she got in she slammed the door behind her with as much strength as she could then jumped out of the way. Nightshade collided into the door and then through it. The woman crashed through the door, and into the table where she started moving chaotically in an attempt to get her bearings. Lapis was already on the other side of the room and through the other door before Nightshade had actually gotten up.
Lapis couldn’t lead her opponent through the castle all night long. Soon she’d run out of strength entirely and these antics were only doing their part to slow down Nightshade, but not stop her. Her only other option was to lead Nightshade back outside, and if she was lucky, lead her to Rita’s workshop where there would most certainly be weapons galore. With that plan in mind Lapis raced to the front doors.
The entire time that Lapis raced she heard Nightshade chasing after her. Getting steadily closer once more. The front doors were just in sight when Lapis realized that Noct was likely outside as well. It was too late to change her battle plan though; she had to do this now or never. She flew past the infirmary, her mind just barely noticing that Thaddeus's body was gone. Had Nightshade gotten to him?
With a leap over the stairs Lapis jumped out onto the cold wet earth. Her knees buckled beneath her as she landed. Lapis flopped forward her face hitting the earth. Nightshade’s claws once again flew right overhead where Lapis’s head was moments before. She’d dodged a bullet on that one. Lapis put her hands underneath her in an attempt to stand up, but what little strength she had faded from her bones. She collapsed into the earth. Her mouth tasted like dirt.
Nightshade flew in a half circle and brought herself back around. She landed right in front of Lapis. With a pale arm she reached down and pulled Lapis up by the hair drawing a gasp of quick pain from the exhausted girl. Nightshade licked her lips and leaned forward, her fangs showed through her wide smile. “I’ll bet that you’ve gotten all tender and juicy from that little run of yours. I can’t wait to find out.”
Lapis cringed. “After what you did to my Rita, I can’t even pretend to flirt with you.”
Nightshade’s smile grew wider still. A chocking sound came out of her for a moment before it turned into a dark and deep laughter. “You think that girl will ever like you? I could smell the way she was around you, she has no sexual attraction to you or that other little friend of yours.”
Something in Lapis’s little heart stabbed itself with a sharp dagger. “I don’t care what she thinks or feels. I love her.”
Nightshade leaned in close, close enough for her dark cherry breathe to brush against Lapis’s lips. “You know you're deluding yourself. You know for a fact that she will never, ever, ever feel the same way about you that you do her.”
Lapis cringed and tried to pull back fruitlessly. She had known for a very long time that Rita didn’t like her. In fact seeing her so happy with Saturn earlier today had been like a knife to the heart, and even though she’d pulled it out, the wound was left open and bleeping. It was true. Rita had no feelings for her, and probably never would, but that didn’t mean that she could just give up on her. Rita was her crush. One day Rita would have to care enough to at least try a relationship. That’s all she wanted, was a single chance…
Nightshade leaned in to Lapis’s neck, ready to bite down, though at this point the paralyzing poison wouldn’t change anything, Lapis had pushed herself too far anyway. Her body had entirely given up at this point. Nightshade stopped just short and whispered, “I will say this; I too understand what it feels like to be in love with someone you’ll never get, it destroyed me when I lost my Lancer… so I’ll do you a favor, I won’t kill your Rita. I’ll keep her alive for your sake, should I encounter her that is.”
Lapis could feel the tears running down her face. She wasn’t thankful for Nightshade’s promise, because she knew that Rita would destroy Nightshade this time around. It was the wound in her heart that was tearing itself larger still. Rita would never be hers.
A sharp metal tip followed by a wooden shaft ran past Lapis’s head avoiding it by a mere inch and slammed home into one of Nightshade’s leathery wings. Nightshade screamed and threw Lapis aside throwing her a few feet across the earth. That’s when Lapis saw Thaddeus, his naked body covered in black veins, his muscles bulging as the spear in his hands moved at an incredible speed tearing itself down and out of Nightshade’s wing along with flesh and blood.
Nightshade screamed and lashed out with her claws, but Thaddeus moved like water as he dodged the blow and used his spear to cut a deep slice into the back of Nightshade’s leg. The woman went down onto her hands but turned about ready to pounce once more. Thaddeus used both hands on the spear and stabbed the thing through her remaining working wing driving his spear through the wing and several inches into the earth. Nightshade screamed and thrashed but it looked like with every movement she only hurt herself more.
Thaddeus looked down at her with a dark scowl. “You will not go anywhere, and by order of the Queen and the Silver Glow Rangers you are under arrest!”
Nightshade slung a flurry of curses at him, half of which Lapis didn’t even know. He ignored her and looked down at Lapis. “Are you alright?”
Lapis couldn’t move her muscles well enough to nod but she did manage to say, “Y-yes.”
Thaddeus nodded. “Good, now that this witch is down I shall do what I was aiming to do before a truck was rudely parked inside the building.”
Lapis blinked. “What’s that?”
He smiled at her. “Sleep.”
And like that he fell backwards onto the cold earth, naked as a babe, and sound asleep.
***
“Prepare they anus for a reckoning!” Wonder screamed at the top of her little lungs.
Noct stared down at the scorch mark across his chest and emitted a deep rumbling growl sending a shiver of terror down Wonder’s spine. She hadn’t thought the blow would do anything really, but she at least expected him to pretend to be concerned. Instead he was only made angry.
Noct charged towards her, each step loud as gunshots as they landed on the ground. Wonder did the one thing she knew how to do better than anything else, she turned and ran away. There was still a limp to Noct’s movements, likely where he’d been hit by the frigging truck that he just picked up and threw, so he was not fast enough to catch up to Wonder. In fact despite having less physical training than the others she was able to outrun him easily. She quickly reached the staircase going up the castle walls and stopped only briefly when at the top. Noct had just barely reached the bottom of the stairs and was about to march up them.
Wonder had plenty of time to move to turn invisible and move into a little alcove. Sure turning invisible was a one trick pony, but it was one that worked. For several seconds she waited stilling her breath, attempting to become one with the wall, and stilling her mind. When Noct finally reached the top he looked both ways, growled, and began walking back down them again clearly having given up the chase.
Wonder squeed internally. She wouldn’t be crushed like a beer can tonight. Instead he was going to leave her alone and go focus on something else, anything else. Or someone else…
…like Lapis.
Wonder didn’t have to think about it to know what she really needed to do here. It was a good thing that impossible was her first name, otherwise she’d feel really stupid for what she was about to attempt. She was going to have to defeat this giant monster.
Wonder dropped the veil and stepped out of her little hiding place. Noct’s back was facing her as he was already back on the stairs. She growled. “Hey, fathead! Can’t catch a little girl?”
Noct glanced back over his shoulder at her, shrugged and continued down the stairs as if she didn’t even exist. “Not problem,” His voice growled back at her.
That hit her self esteem much like the truck that had hit him earlier. He had just blown her off so utterly and completely that it made her legs quiver. The fear inside her faded and a familiar old feeling of hopelessness crawled over her heart blanketing it. Every instinct of Wonder’s told her to give up in that one instance, to lie down and die because she wasn’t even good enough for the enemy to deal with. So how could she ever help her friends.
“No!” Wonder cried. She wouldn’t let depression lose this fight for her. “I’ve fought against dark monsters, conquered dungeons, and even killed a fell stalker!” Wonder went over one of the walls overlooking the courtyard and climbed up onto it so she could look down over the staircase below. “Sure it was because I had friends by my side, some of which I may never see again, but it was also because of them that I had the courage to face these things. So I will not allow you to hurt my friends!”
Wonder aimed her wand down and put forth aether into the only spell she could think of to stop Noct in his tracks. Illusions were essentially just light, smell, and sound, and all three of those things could be strong enough to harm someone in their own right. But together they created something that Wonder had only been able to give a single name. A ball of light like a miniature sun formed at the tip of her wand. Lightning collected around it. A dark brown orb floating next to that.
“Hey, Noct!” Wonder cried down.
He looked up at her and trough his mask she could feel him glaring.
She smiled. “Have you ever heard of an Orglith? It’s this monster that lives in the sewers of human cities and other places of pure and utter filth. I’ve always wondered what it would be like if one came up to the surface during the day. So here’s a taste.”
The orb flew from her wand and landed right in front of Noct. Wonder threw herself back, covering her ears with her hands, opening her mouth and trying not to breathe all the while closing her eyes. Even with her eyes closed she could see the bright white light that exploded in front of Noct. The explosive sound of thunder so close it hurt her ears followed only a micro second later. Finally the entire area was drenched in a smell so fowl that Wonder would have to shower for a week if it had been real. The smell was like that of a thousand corpses, vomiting and expelling their bowls all at the same time, while also lying in a country full of rotting food, vegetables, eggs, and everything else you never wanted to imagine.
The smell of an Orglith is something one never forgets. No such blessing exists in this world. Now Noct too would know what it was like to be dared by your friends to explore the school's sewer system.
For several seconds Wonder lay there, still and silent. When she opened her eyes, she could see, but her ears still rang a little. It was a little challenging to stand up and move but she managed to anyway and she moved over to the walkway on uneasy feet. She looked down the walk way to see Noct lying on his back, he was rubbing at his eyes and bleeding from his ears. Wonder beamed.
The headache pounding in her skull was very much worth it. She’d brought down the-
Noct looked up at her and snarled, “You Die!”
He stood up swiftly, and despite the spell he still moved well enough to start clambering up the stairs at an alarming rate. Needless to say that Wonder turned and fled across the walkway at the top of the walls. Noct was behind her, slower than before, but this time Wonder was struggling herself as well. Her motor functions still needed some time to adjust. Noct was feeling his way across the side of the walls as he half ran half limped after her.
Wonder tried to turn at the corner and hit one of the walls of the little tower. She managed to turn the collision into a bump which propelled her down the other wall section just as Noct reached it and threw a fist into the wall. The wall behind her exploded into dust and bits of stone.
Panic raced across Wonder’s mind and she ran as fast as she possibly could. Illusions didn’t work so well under stress, unlike most spells they required more thought then emotion. If her lightning spells were worth half a damn then this would be no problem, she’d just channel her fear into a powerful blast of lightning, but unfortunately she was crap at her secondary magic school. Instead she had to learn how to use illusions even in dire straits.
Something she learned early on was how to work her fear into an illusion. One that would be a nightmare to both her and her enemy. Of course this usually entailed creating a scary monster, or some deeper nightmare fuel, but neither of those seemed like they would work well here. She had enough forethought to think of one other fear that she had which could function here. The endless hallway.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Wonder put forth all her remaining energy into a spell. Every second she used to charge it was another second Noct had to catch up. She could already feel him stomping back after her once more. She knew these walls well, she’d walked across them many, many times. In fact she’d been in charge of cleaning them once or twice, in those cases she’d learned how long each one really was, where unique floor patters were from scratches and such to indicate where people usually turned at. Only a truly bored, or observant person would recognize all of these things. Wonder had the feeling Noct was neither.
She released her spell and seeing it unravel before her very eyes sent shivers down her spine. Noct seemed all too enraged to even notice anything but the target in front of him.
The end of the wall, where the turn was never seemed to get any closer as she ran, instead it seemed like the wall went on forever. She chose to ignore the crenellations on either side of her and looked at the floor. She intentionally didn’t alter the floor with her illusion because she was looking for a particular set of scuff marks. She found them a few feet ahead of her. The walls still seemed to stretch on forever but she was smarter than that. The moment her feet touched the scuff marks she leapt to her left and into the crenellation and onto what should have been empty air. She hit stone floor where the corner of the wall turned. Noct however was right behind her and charging at full speed when she did so. He didn’t stop or slow down, likely he suspected that Wonder had just become invisible once more.
What he didn’t expect was to slam through the invisible wall in front of him. His speed, weight and power enough to smash through it completely. The illusion dropped as he did, not being able to sustain itself with so many things going through it. Wonder watched as Noct went through the wall and over the edge, heading down the cliff below. His body bouncing from rock to rock until he disappeared into the darkness of the forest a couple hundred feet below her.
If that didn’t kill him, than Wonder wasn’t sure anything could.
Wonder took some time to nurse her splitting migraine before standing back up. Her arms were covered in scrapes from the last jump that stung against the cold air. She chose to ignore those as she looked down into the courtyard to see if the two soldiers were okay. She saw Thaddeus, the sick soldier stab a spear through Nightshade’s wing. Lapis was lying on the ground nearby them.
Wonder hurried her best to the nearest staircase and went down into the courtyard. She made her way to the scene just as Thaddeus collapsed. Once she was actually there she looked down at Lapis and smiled. “Lying down on the job again? Rita’s going to kill you.”
Lapis smiled up at her, but it didn’t quite touch her eyes. “Yeah…”
Wonder went to Nightshade and put the tip of her wand to the woman’s forehead. “You still like to bite young girls?”
Nightshade was snarling up at her through the pain. “I’ll bite your throat out!”
Wonder sighed. “I don’t care for back and froths right now either.” She summoned forth and sent out a nice jolt of electricity through her wand directly into Nightshade’s skull. The woman jerked and spasmed for a moment but went still soon after. Her eyes closed and her breathing shallow but still there. Wonder wasn’t going to kill her, but knocking her unconscious meant they would have yet another threat taken care of.
Wonder looked back at Lapis and froze. Mind Sliver stood behind her complete with ten of his shadowy beings. The blade of pure shadow he held in his hand was aimed right at Wonder. He was shivering, but it wasn’t from fear or cold. Wonder could feel it, he was excited.
Wonder pointed her wand right back at him. This was a fight she was going to lose, and she knew it. Still she’d fight as hard as she could because she had hope that Rita would be here soon, and that she would save everybody.
***
Once Rita and Fiona entered into the infirmary the fear that Rita had suspected only doubled as she saw both of the patients were missing. Fiona’s eyes lingered on Thaddeus's bed but besides that she seemed more resolute than ever. Fiona’s lips were in a thin line and her eyes were studying every detail around them, her body wasn’t quite tense, but seemed more coiled like a spring, ready to bounce into action at any second. This woman had a lot more discipline then Rita would have ever guessed.
Still Rita was feeling the fear boiling up inside of her bubbling just under the skin. The coin still burned hotly in her pocket begging her to grab it and make a wish on it. There were things in this world that Rita would be willing to make that wish for, and she dreaded that those exact things may have come to pass. Moving through the room Rita felt sluggish, tired, and in pain.
Out in the hallway Rita first saw pieces of metal scattering the hall, including a headlight and a bumper. At one end of the hall right up against the door leading to the great hall lay tipped over on its side, Rita’s truck. Fire ran across her body as she nearly shouted, “Whoever did this to my truck is going to be thrown off the castle walls!”
On the opposite side of the hall the door had been broken in and splinters of wood scattered the floor. Beyond that in the courtyard Rita saw the limp form of Nightshade lying on the ground with a spear sticking out of her wing. Nightshade had been injured badly, there were deep lacerations across her wings and arms. Rita couldn’t see anything else from this vantage point, though she had to admit it was much brighter than it was in the tunnels, it must have been a full moon. Rita slid her goggles back over her forehead and went towards the door. Fiona followed in complete silence.
Just outside Rita stepped onto the stairs and looked around. One side of the courtyard near her workshop lay Wonder, and Crow both of them weren’t moving. On the other side of the courtyard lay Lapis and some soldier that Rita didn’t recognize along with Thaddeus. Lapis's eyes were wide open and staring fearfully at Rita. Rita looked around some more but spotted nothing, her eyes finally rested upon Nightshade once more. A poof of black smoke and shadow appeared next to her and from it came Mind Sliver.
Rita’s hand tightened around her revolver. “You.”
He looked up with his crooked neck and offered a fanged smile. “Me.”
Through his black hair Rita could spot a silver star over his forehead indicating he was indeed a starling. The shadow blade he held in his right hand was dripping with dark crimson. He moved a little awkwardly and ten shadow beings appeared around him. “I got sick of letting this little wretch run the show. It’s my turn to take the stage, and to play a little game with you.”
Rita looked to the two groups of fallen friends and soldiers. “What do you want?”
Mind Sliver cocked his head to the side and laughed. “You can only go after one of these groups. Who will it be? Will you go after the woman who loves you and the two soldiers who defended this castle while you were busy, or will you save your best and oldest friend while also saving this old man who thought he was good enough to stop us?”
This was the exact kind of decision that Rita refused to ever make herself. Still she knew what her answer really was, she needed to go to the workshop and grab a bigger gun if she was going to defeat this guy. She flicked the switch turning her revolver from flames to light. She didn’t know if this would effect Mind Sliver himself but she didn’t care. She’d prevail this time, she had to.
Rita glanced at Fiona. “Can you get the-”
Fiona interrupted her, “I’m going for Thaddeus on the left.”
A bit surprised by the sense of power behind Fiona's words, Rita nodded. “Good, I’ll go for Wonder and the old bird.”
In that split second each one of them went off in different directions. Rita went straight for her friends to the right aimed her revolver at Mind Sliver and fired a few times. The shadows each ducked out of the way of the bullets except for one who took a blow straight to the face and vanished. Mind Sliver himself disappeared from sight. The other nine shadows went after Fiona and fear struck Rita’s heart.
Rita called out, “Use your light powers to defeat the shadows!”
It would seem that Fiona was already on it. Her hands were glowing bright and as the shadows converged on her position she struck them down one by one with cold calculating efficiency. She didn’t dodge their blows so much as she flowed around them like a moving river. It was quite impressive, so impressive in fact that Rita almost missed the appearance of smoke and shadow to her left.
Rita slid to the ground just as a black dagger swung at where her face was just moments ago. Rita pulled the trigger and watched as a bolt of light energy flew out grazing Mind Sliver's side. With a yelp of pain he jumped into the air and vanished into smoke again. Rita rolled to her feet and stood up. Her side exploded in pain with the sudden movement, but she ignored it.
Another appearance of smoke and shadow just behind her had Rita rolling forward as a furious fit of slashes landed in the air behind her. One of which grazed her left shoulder blade. It burned hot and cold at the same time. Rita rolled to her feet spun around and fired two more shots behind her blindly. Each one missed Mind Sliver widely but it got him moving once again.
Fiona had already taken down most of the shadows and was left with only two of them which were circling her carefully. She stood as still as a statue, somehow watching the one in front of her, and behind her at the same time. The shadow in front of her lunged forward, and the one behind her moved just a second after that. Fiona jumped into the air in a spinning round house kick, her foot glowing brightly. Her foot hit each shadow in the jaw knocking them onto their sides and just as she landed they vanished.
Mind Sliver appeared in the distance between the two of them, each one of his fingers was bruised. Her stuck his hands out and from his fingers ten more shadow beings appeared. There was a hiss in his voice as he shouted, “TAKE DOWN THEIR FRIENDS MY PUPPETS!”
Five shadows ran off in different directions, each group going towards their friends. Rita ran towards Wonder and Crow, firing as many rounds as she could into the group of shadows heading toward them. More and more of her shots were missing. The pain inside her was growing worse, and half of her body was now screaming in agony. Two of the six shots hit. Something flashed darkly in the air and Mind Sliver's black dagger lanced across Rita’s right hand. The revolver hit the ground and she screamed equally in rage and pain.
She tried to pick up the gun again but her fingers didn’t listen to her and refused to move. She tried to move her left arm and found it stiff and difficult to move. Her mind was racing, panicking. She looked over to Mind Sliver who stood once again by the fallen Nightshade. Why hadn’t he tried to wake her yet, clearly she would have been a great help to him, even if he didn’t seem to need it.
“Ah did you figure it out yet?” Mind Sliver asked.
Rita saw the deep cuts on Nightshade’s wings and arms. They looked like they had been cut in with a knife. Rita’s swallowed.
Mind Sliver let a twisted laugh escape his crooked lips. “That’s right! I used her blood to poison my dagger! Now you couldn’t save your friends even if you did have your gun!”
Fiona was busy fighting the other five, and she was doing an admirable job of it, yet Rita knew as soon as she was done, she’d have to deal with Mind Sliver herself. That left the five shadows, who were almost at Wonder and Crow to kill them without anything to stop them. There wasn’t anything that Rita could do at the moment.
Her left hand gripped something hot and round with all its might. Rita gasped, “The wish coin.”
It was going to do something bad to her. She knew it was going to hurt her sooner or later, but if it kept her friends alive, her family alive, then she would make any sacrifice she had to. She gripped the coin hard, put all of her effort and willpower into it and whispered to herself, “Keep my friends and family safe, and give me the power to defeat my enemy.”
The coin pulsed in her hand. The world stopped moving. The shadows were frozen. Fiona was frozen in a poster that had her squeezing one shadow by the neck with one hand and stabbing her other arm clear through another shadow's chest. Mind Sliver’s face was frozen in his manic, fanged tooth laugh. The coin melted in her hand, its golden liquid dripping onto the ground. Rita looked down at her left hand, the guardian heart was glowing golden red. Her injuries seemed to vanish and she could feel power surging through her, burning through her body.
Her revolver flew through air and into her hand, and changed, growing larger, with red glowing light pouring out the sides and tip. The weapon was warm in her hand, though it was more than that, she could feel every intricate part of the weapon, she could feel it’s surging power, she could feel it’s magical energy pouring out, and she could feel it’s will as an extension of her own. It was there for one singular purpose; to never give up.
This weapon was her own willpower, her conviction made manifest in physical form. And, it, was, powerful.
Time began to move again, slowly starting up. Rita aimed the new revolver at the group of shadows with great ease and pulled the trigger. The lines of energy running through it lit up as a blast of red flames the size of Rita’s head flew from the tip and as it traveled across the courtyard between her and the shadows she felt the energy of the fire as if it too were an extension of her body. Right as it hit the first one on the side the fireball exploded and knocked all of the shadow beings off their feet. They flew, in a tornado of pieces against the stone wall before vanishing.
Mind Sliver’s laughter had stopped short.
Rita rose to her feet. A wicked grin spread across her face and she looked over at Mind Sliver. He was somehow brighter, easier to see in the light of the moon. In fact everything was easier to see. The dark shadows seemed merely a shade darker than they would have been if it was daylight. Rita began laughing to herself. The power flowing through her was more than enough to take down Mind Sliver, with this she might even take down Nightmare herself.
Thinking of that made Rita feel like she was forgetting something. Something important.
Mind Sliver pointed a dagger at Rita. “What happened to you? What’s wrong with your eyes? Why are they glowing? Why are there red stripes in your hair? Answer me!”
Rita didn’t know her eyes were glowing, or her hair changed color, that was pretty cool. She didn’t know why either. What she did know was that Mind Sliver was going down.
Mind Sliver vanished once more into a poof of smoke and shadow. Rita didn’t have to look, she could feel the air behind her growing tense as Mind Sliver began reappearing behind her. She spun around pointed her gun at him, and just as he reappeared with his dagger already moving towards her face, she pulled the trigger.
The explosion was powerful enough to throw both of them back. Rita was thrown off the ground and landed into a backwards roll not stopping for a good six or seven feet. Once she did she looked up to see Mind Sliver who could best be described as a human torch flying up and over the wall. The flames covering him were a beautiful mixture of gold and scarlet. His scream was that of pain and terror in equal measures.
The shadows that Fiona was dealing with vanished before her eyes.
Fiona stood there in shock for a mere few seconds before she ran over to Lapis and Thaddeus. Rita pushed herself up and some of the pain came reeling back. Still hurt she ran to Wonder’s side. Wonder had little cuts all over her body, most of which had already been spreading with the black veins of the shadow poison. Wonder’s purple eyes were wide as she stared at Rita. “R-Rita? What did you do?”
Rita’s grin faded. “I got strong enough to save you…” She had worded her words carefully didn’t she? Had she not asked to have Lapis and Wonder safe from harm?
She glanced back at Fiona who was already healing Thaddeus with her light magic. Even from this distance her eyes were still strong enough to see that wherever the light of Fiona’s magic touched, Thaddeus's black veins of poison burned away, disappearing completely. Maybe it wasn’t just Rita who had changed from the coin, or perhaps Fiona had always had the power to defeat this poison inside her thanks to the Guardian Heart. Either way it didn’t matter because this meant that they’d be able to save them, save herself.
Wonder’s voice called out once more. “W-why are your eyes glowing red?”
It was about this time that Rita also saw the red markings on her arms going down to her hands, they resembled fire. Rita looked down at her and smiled. “Does it matter? You're going to be saved now, Fiona can heal the sickness.”
The markings on her hands and arms started to fade, and her revolver was shrinking back to its normal size and with the glowing light disappearing. Whatever that power was, it was temporary, but then again she had asked to defeat her enemy, singular, as in Mind Sliver. She should have added Nightmare into there.
It took a few minutes to get everyone together, but once done Fiona was quick to work on healing everyone. While she did that Rita went to work on going through the stuff in her workshop. She threw on her upgraded power gauntlets, hover boots, and holstered her two revolvers. She was not going to go down without a fight this time. She didn’t know how she knew it, but she knew there was about to be one more fight. Every muscle in her body told her to get as prepared for the fight of her life, and grabbing every weapon she could was first on the agenda.
If only that mysterious power had lasted just a little longer she told herself. Of course as she looked at her guardian heart, the red mark that indicated she was the guardian of will.
When the earth began shaking violently and the sound of stone crumbling caught her attention, she wasn't surprised. The dark green vortex spiraling up into the air casting a pale luminescence didn’t startle her neither. As Rita walked to the door and opened it she saw two forms hit the earth in front of her. One was Queen Solaria who lay bloody and unconscious from some head trauma. The other was Nightmare herself, with a pitch black scythe in her hands, she landed on her feet and looked at Rita with a far too large grin.
Rita glanced up at the castle to see a spiraling vortex coming out of the center of the castle. Nightmare must have gone through every floor of the castle with that magic attack of hers.
Nightmare purred, “Oh look what we have here, the young hero who fancies her gadgets.”
Rita looked from the castle back down to the queen, then back up at Nightmare. “Let me guess, your big sister wouldn’t let you have any more ice-cream so you're throwing a tantrum.”
Nightmare’s face twisted into a scowl of pure rage. “You insolent child. I let you off easy once already. This time I will destroy you if you get in my way.”
Rita smiled, walked over the queen pulled out her guns and aimed them at Nightmare. “Oops, I just got in your way. Whatcha going to do about it?”