"As long as you are okay," Becca said as her head drooped."Becca? Becca!" Katye screamed.
Becca"s body slumped in her grip, supported only by her hands and telekinesis. Blood was pouring out of her chests and Katye could see through through the hole on the left side of her chest.
"Channel your energy in her and get her to the healer!" a cold, charming voice echoed through Ktye"s head.
Katye nodded and placed over the hole, channeling as much energy as she could into the wound while she flew straight down. Zlo rarely spoke to her outside of her meditations, but she knew that it was "her" who had dominated the minds of the swarm to save them then later stopped Becca.
Zlo was cruel and bitter after millenniums of being in a caged state, imprisoned by the Matriarchs of the Fairy Tribe. For countless years, the only reminder of her own existence had been the soul-fire implanted in her to slowly "cleanse" the Chaos Energy from her body. Unable to die, unable to live, time lost all meaning until a new Chaos Fair was born.
Zlo had reached out to her, the moment of her awakening, but couldn"t break through at the time. It wasn"t until Katye entered her first true state of meditation that she was finally able to reach out and "meet" the new fairy. After "showing" Katye her current life and making a Soul-binding Vow to always act in her and her companion"s best interest, Katye agreed to link their souls together, freeing Zlo from her prison.
"Katye, how is Becca?" Terri asked through the intercom, the concern in her voice clear.
"Not good, I think it hit her heart! Melissa, I"ll be there in a second!" Katye franticly replied.
"Kiara, take over! I"ll meet up with you," Melissa said, breaking away from the Thunderbird she had been healing. The uninjured Thunderbird cried out and Melissa turned back around, snapping, "My comrade is injured. Your mate is out of danger and will live without any more aid!"
Without another word, she dashed up, into the air to meet up with Katye. She could see Katye pouring her mana into Becca"s body, but her heart sank as she watched the mana slowly seep back out of her body. She took Becca"s body from her and saw the wound. Eighty-five percent of her heart had been destroyed in that single attack which was more than what her ability could heal and she knew it.
"Katye... I can"t do anything, this is outside of my power," Melissa said.
"Please, you have to try! Zlo thinks there is a chance! Please just try," Katye pleaded.
"I... I can try," Melissa said.
"How is Becca?" Terri yelled.
"She is going to die unless we can pull off a miracle, now shut up and let me work!" Melissa snapped which was very unlike her.
"Becca?" Gustavo whispered as he looked down at his sister.
The Piasa Bird cried out triumphantly as it swooped down after Katye and Becca, once its berserk state fully activated. Gustavo saw this and channeled his mana into his throat as he sent a challenging roar straight at the dragon bird. It suddenly veered off to the side and zoomed straight at him, its eyes covered in a red haze. One of the winged serpents shot out at the bird, but it struck out with its tail and completely shattered the snake as its tail pierced through its head. The three remaining snakes weakened and turned transparent for a moment, but Yue scarified another one of the snakes to keep the two under Gustavo and Lesedi going.
"Watch her magic and do the same, our magic is meant for her!" Zlo"s voice echoed through Katye"s head as Melissa began channeling her magic.
This wasn"t something that she could instantly learn since Holy Magics weren"t something that had a Chaotic nature. While she tried to match Melissa"s magic, the energy just poured out of Becca"s body. The life was quickly leaving her body despite their combined efforts and by the time a new rune lit up on Katye"s back, it was too late; Becca was gone.
"No... it all my fault," Katye said as tears started falling from her eyes.
"Katye, it"s not your fault. Becca would never want you to blame yourself," Melissa responded as she moved her hand to Katye"s shoulder.
"But it is," she cried as she clutched Becca"s body.
"Katye..." Melissa sighed softly.
While Melissa and Katye tried to heal Becca, Gustavo was in a fight for his life. Lesedi tried to help out, but was quickly sent plummeting to the ocean below by a tail smack from the Piasa Bird. Terri and Ella both sent out their own attacks, but in its berserk state, the dragon bird could ignore both of their attacks.
Gustavo"s body swelled as he jumped off his winged serpent and activated his "t.i.tan" form. He was only a moment behind Lesedi after she was blown away. There was a soft pounding in his ears ever since Becca was. .h.i.t and it only grew louder as the seconds pa.s.sed until it was the only thing he could hear. Although Melissa didn"t say it through the intercom, he knew the moment when Becca truly died as something inside him broke free.
A dragon"s roar that could match Becca"s loudest erupted from Gustavo as he was engulfed in an aquturquoise color. The clarity returned to the Piasa Bird"s eyes, but even in its berserk state, it couldn"t ignore the suppressing effect radiating off of him. It couldn"t even properly flap its wings as it started to fall out of the air. Just before it hit the water below, it seemed to escape the worst of suppression effect and its wings caught the air before it franticly beat its wings, trying to flee.
The blinding aquturquoise light did not even last a minute in the sky, but nearly every set of eyes were on it. Only Katye, Kiara, and the injured Thunderbird ignored the blue-green miniature sun, even the standing Thunderbird could feel the impact of Gustavo"s power as it was forced to bow its head. When the light finally faded, Gustavo"s appearance looked almost identical to Becca"s in her second form, only the colors were different. His body was covered aqugreen dragon scales with a pair of silver horns, each with three points, and a set of large wings on his back, aqugreen as the main color and a stormy gray membrane between the joints of the wings.
The sky above him quickly turned cloudy, stealing from the hurricane around them as the clouds grew dark and heavy. When his eyes opened again, the clouds above him crackled as several bolts of aqugreen lightning crashed into his body, but it only caused his body to grow more in size. His eyes were covered in a teal light as they locked onto the fleeing Piasa Bird. He flapped his wings, causing thunder to boom throughout the sky as he vanished from his previous location to appear in the path of the creature.
It cried out in fear as it desperately tried to escape in another direction. As he had abandoned his sword and shield during his transformation, Gustavo reached out with a hand and a gray light shot out, surrounding the dragon bird before dragging it back to him. Just like when Becca lost control, Gustavo was fully at the mercy of his newly awakened dragon-half and tearing the creature apart, one piece at a time.
"Melissa… how is Becca?" Yue asked through the intercom.
"She"s… she"s dead… there was too much damage done, we couldn"t do anything…" Melissa replied quietly.
No one spoke after Melissa finished as everyone was shacked to the core, except Gustavo who wasn"t in a truly conscious state, even Kiara stopped her healing to look up where Melissa and Katye were. Terri fell to her knees as silent tears rolled down her cheeks while Ella could only stare blankly into s.p.a.ce. Sophia stumbled and collapsed onto a couch with Yue placing a hand on her shoulder to comfort her. Lesedi, who had just climbed back onto her winged serpent, looked between the battle with Gustavo and the Piasa Bird and where Melissa and Katye were still floating in the air.
"What happened to Gustavo?" Lesedi asked.
"Alice had long ago said there was a slim chance he also shared the dragon bloodline, but if he did, Becca"s own bloodline was suppressing his since the Chaos Dragon was said to be stronger than the royalty of the dragon clan. With her dying in front of his eyes, his bloodline erupted into a berserk state. The Piasa Bird is now the least of our worries because once he kills it, he will turn on anything else living around him," Yue said.
"You can"t be serious!" Lesedi said.
"I am… Melissa, I know you are in pain, we all are, but I need you to finish healing the Thunderbird, so that he can help us against Gustavo or we are all going to die," Yue said.
"I understand," Melissa replied quietly.
This wasn"t the time to mourn the loss of their friend and, despite the pain, everyone understood that fact, except maybe Katye, who was still crying over Becca"s body. Melissa patted Katye"s shoulder one more time then turned and hurried back to the injured Thunderbird.
"Lesedi, bring Katye onto the ship," Yue added.
Since she was on a snake controlled by Yue, Lesedi merely nodded as she was flown over to Katye. She was met with tiny bolts of electricity and sparks of flames when she tried to reach out to touch Katye because, not only was she not focusing on controlling her mana, her emotions were feeding into magic, making it even more unstable. Lesedi reached out again, but received even more resistance as her hand was cut with numerous thin wind blades.
"Katye! We have to get on the ship! Its only going to get more dangerous!" Lesedi pleaded.
Katye"s head snapped up as her red, tear-filled eyes locked onto Lesedi, but just as a sense of dread welled up inside of Lesedi, Katye"s eyes flashed with a violet light and she instantly changed. Although her eyes were still puffy and red, there was no longer any sorrow or pain in them and she actually smiled at Lesedi which scared the blacksmith more than her angry eyes.
"Zlo put me in charge for a little bit! Do you wanna be my friend?" "Katye" asked.
"Ye... yeah. Do you want to follow me back to the ship?" Lesedi asked.
"Sure! That"s where the others are, right? All of you are Katye"s friends, you"ll be mine too, right?" "Katye" asked happily.
"Of... of course. What is... um, your name?" Lesedi asked confused.
"I"m Dobry, Katye"s other half!"
"Okay, can... can I have her?" Lesedi asked, motioning to Becca"s body.
Her face dimmed for a moment and she shook her head as she hugged Becca"s body like it was a doll. "Both Zlo and Katye say no. I"m sorry, I can"t."
"Just get her on the ship and I"ll talk to Dobry. Tell her I am over here and she will hurry," Ella"s voice chimed in Lesedi"s ear.
"You know Ella, right? She is over on that ship and she wants to say h.e.l.lo to you," Lesedi coaxed.
"Ella? I remember her! She"s my friend! I"ll race yooooou!" Katye said as her wings fluttered then she shot off into the air.
Lesedi had a bewildered look on her face as she watched the fairy girl zoom off and rode the winged serpent back up. Everyone, except Melissa, Kiara, and Gustavo, were on the main deck by the time she landed. Terri was crying on Sophia"s shoulder, tears rolling down her lover"s cheeks, which broke the last of Lesedi defenses, causing her own tears to fall as she crossed over to the pair. Ella and Yue were standing with Katye as tried to get her to set Becca"s body down.
"Dobry, please... she isn"t a toy!" Ella said through gritted teeth.
"I know that, silly! Zlo already told me so! She also said I had to keep putting our energy into her," Katye said with a confident nod, much like a young child would do when entrusted with a task.
"Did Zlo tell you why?" Yue asked.
"Hmmm..." Katye said, taking on a thoughtful expression. "Zlo promised to always help everyone and she said that until... all of the mana we put in leaves at the same time... the dragon isn"t really dead. I hope she isn"t, I really want to play with her tail."
"She isn"t dead? Is Zlo sure?" Yue asked.
Katye went quite for a moment then said, "That"s not a nice thing to say, Zlo."
"Please, tell me what she said. It doesn"t matter if its mean, I promise I won"t be mad," Yue said gently.
"You promise?" Katye asked, waiting for a nod before she continued, "Zlo said that the dragon is dead and is not dead. She doesn"t understand it herself and if... you don"t stop pestering us, she"ll make you strip down and dance around naked."
"What?" both Ella and Yue asked, completely taken aback by the statement.
Katye giggled and answered, "Zlo can"t hurt anyone, but her vow can"t restrain her from embarra.s.sing anyone or did you forget being a chicken, Ella?"
"G.o.d... I thought it was just a weird dream at this point. That"s right, Katye said she can hypnotize people."
"I promise, one last thing. If Gustavo turns on us, can Zlo stop him without hurting him, like she did with Becca before?" Yue asked.
Katye listened for a minute then nodded, "She can, but Becca will die if we stop trying to heal her."
"I understand..." Yue said.