She dove and wrapped her arms around me as I said her name. Pain shot through my body as the spike slid deeper. It only had about a foot left to go.

‘I knew it was you, Magus! Your energy is just too recognizable!’

‘Ack! Now’s not the time for hugs. Help me get this thing out.’

‘I’ve been trying! It won’t budge!’

I grabbed it with both hands and tugged, sure enough, it was fixed in place. I felt it attempt to go deeper again, but I held it firm. Pink-backed off and hovered in the air in front of me.

‘Alright, I’m going to do this, but I’m going to need you to catch me as I fall. I don’t know if I have the strength to catch myself.’

She nodded and lowered herself in the air. I pulled the Mana from deep inside me and activated Overdrive. My body became encased in blue energy again and it surged down into the spike. I watched as the runes etched within it shifted from green to blue as the energy traveled up the shaft. I pulled and the spike moved.

With a sick crack, the two-foot spike dislodged from my stomach and what was left of the Aura crystal. I felt myself fall but then was caught by Pink in the air. She slowly flew to the ground and holding me in her arms.

It was at this point that I realized that I couldn’t feel my legs. The spike had probably severed my spine at the base. I thought it was too bad that Starlight had been killed. If she was still around, she probably could have patched me up. I looked over and was surprised to see Xipper, Doey, Starlight, and Blue standing to the side of me.

‘How long was I up there for you guys to get back from the res circle?’

Starlight bent over and started channeling rainbow energy into my body. I felt my spine shift and crack. Blue put an arm on my shoulder and sighed.

‘You’ve been up there for an hour. It was like watching a slow-motion train wreck. Even after we rushed over here, Xipper and Doey were on the ground unconscious from the massive Aura dump. It took us longer then I’d like to admit to find you up there.’

‘What is happening in the city? Wasn’t there a huge Revenant invasion?’

The girls passed glances back and forth a bit before Blue spoke again.

‘Ya, and it was bad. The South gate is gone. If the res circle wasn’t right by the other gate, it would have fallen too. We finally pushed them back, but a huge chunk of the wall is gone and we have no idea when they will come back.’

‘So all of the big shots are in the castle?’

‘Ya, and a bunch of the citizens. They are moving as many as will fit up there.’

‘Ok, then that is where we need to be. That is their next target.’

I felt the hole close in my stomach and the muscles shift underneath. I noticed that the hole in my clothes began to close up as well. With a little tug, I jumped down out of Pink’s arms and got my balance. I released Overdrive, which I had been using to limit my pain and literally hold in my life force.

‘Dang this magic is convenient. Nanites are a heck of a lot less comfortable.’

Pink snorted as the other girls looked on in confusion.

‘Ha! Remember that time in sector five when you detonated that bomb to take out the Mana generator, and got a piece of rebar through your kidney? Your dad was pissed!’

Blue looked like her brain was about to overload. The other girls did a double-take between the two of us. Doey was the first to say anything.

‘Wait, Celest, you know Sam?’

We looked at each other and spoke at the same time.

‘Sam?’ ‘Celest?’

We both started laughing uncontrollably. I bent forward and grabbed my knees, suddenly a lot more aware of the body I wore. Pink’s new body was close to six feet tall and built tough like Blue, but other than that she looked pretty much the same. I was probably as short to her now as she was to me before in my armor. She was now a battle goddess and I was a little mouse of a person. I thought about her new name for a second.

‘Celest? So you have an angel fairy or something?’

‘Ya, and Sam? Do you have a generic kid's book writing fairy?’

‘Pffft. Nah, No way I’d except powers from some knock offs like the fairies. I can’t betray Iggy like that.’

‘Mmm. Still, Sam is ten times better than your real name.’

Blue’s face kept on scrunching up more and more into a pout as we talked. As Pink mentioned my name, Blue stormed over and wrapped her arm around my shoulder.

‘Humph! It’s Samantha! And I thought of it!’

Pink raised an eyebrow as I swatted off Blue from engulfing me. She just continued to pout.

‘Knock it off, Blue. This is not a time to get jealous.’

‘Samantha? What a cute name! It goes well with your cute new little body too. You’re like a little plush toy now.’

I felt myself blush as I shrunk into the ground. Feeling insecure, I looked away and mumbled.

‘Ya, well Amoura is a much better name than Celest, in my opinion.’

The giant grin on Pink’s face was wiped off and her eyes went wide as her face changed to match her hair. I grinned and began to walk for the exit.

‘There’s my Pink.’

‘Where are you going?’

‘To get my sword. We have to get to the castle before it’s too late. We still have one last fight to fight today.’

-

The five of us stood at the base of the floating castle looking up into the air. A bunch of civilians were still being evacuated on the backs of avigators up to the castle. The lines were long and everything was still hectic. I looked over at Pink and her translucent wings, which had shrunk to the size of cupid wings on her back.

‘I don’t suppose you could fly us all up?’

‘Maybe, but it would take a while and probably use up most of my magic reserves. So don’t expect me to do anything else.’

‘Man, what I would give for a hovercraft now.’

‘You’re telling me! I still go through withdrawals, not being able to pilot. I swear that’s why my fairy picked me. Even being able to fly, it’s still not the same.’

‘That’s because you were probably a better fit with a speed demon fairy.’

She chuckled at that and I looked over to see Blue’s face still scrunched up in a pout. I sighed and started to walk towards the guards who were facilitating the evacuation.

‘Where are you going, Magus?’

‘To get us a ride. I guess I have to break one of my cardinal rules and pull rank.’

‘Rank?’

I hated pulling rank, but sometimes the need arose when it was necessary. I walked up to the guards who saw me and immediately flagged the trumpeter. After a series of toots from his trumpet that had been recently assigned to me, the guard announced my arrival.

‘Announcing the arrival of Princess Samantha Rye von Ancelot!’

All the girl’s eyes looked like they were about to fall out of their face except Doey.

‘What? Y'all didn’t know that she was tha new princess? Y’all need to keep up with tha current news. Ahm shocked you didn’t know, Marina. You’ve been with us all week.’

Blue’s eyes lit up at the thought that her new best friend was a certified princess. Pink was trying as hard as she could to hold back an incoming giggle fit. She was failing miserably as she snorted and chuckled.

‘Pfft….p…princess…pfft…Magus…pffft!’

I ignored them and turned my attention to the guards.

‘Sirs, I need to get me and these four Fairybond to the castle as soon as possible. I hate to disrupt your flow, but it is urgent.’

They saluted and didn’t ask any questions. You could tell there was some concern with removing Fairybond from the front lines, but they said nothing as they ushered us on to an avigator that was much larger than Clem’s and could hold all five of us and a driver. We took off towards the castle as Pink watched with longing eyes as the driver steered.

We reached the landing platform and I jumped down and began to run for the door. Everyone jumped with me and followed. The trumpeters struggled to identify and signal my arrival as I ran past. It wasn’t long before Rox and Clem appeared to meet me. Clem jumped and wrapped her arms around me.

‘Sam! You’re all right! What happened?!’

‘We killed the dragon thing. Where is the Prime Minister?’

‘Probably in the strategy room with our father. Why?’

‘Long story. I need you two to stay near your avigators and get ready to evacuate the castle if it comes to it. Something big is about to happen, and things might get dangerous in a bit.’

Clem opened her mouth to protest, but she met my eyes and my glare made her stifle any protest she had. They left and we made our way to the strategy room.

When I arrived, the trumpeters announced my presence. The King’s face brightened as he saw me enter, and the surprised and annoyed look on the Prime Minister’s face showed me that I had found exactly who I was looking for.

‘Samantha…what a surprise.’

‘Sam! So you managed to kill the monster! Are you all right?’

‘Sure, Things got a little bit hairy but with the Fairybond's help, we managed to kill it.’

The girls stepped through the doorway and bowed in front of the king. He beamed and clapped his hands in an excited gesture.

‘Perfect! Then you all can join us in our strategy meeting in preparing for the next attack. If you are there on the front lines with us, I’m sure we can protect the city during the next siege.’

‘Actually, Sir, we are here for a different matter. I’m going to have to ask you to leave the room while me and the girls have a little chat with the Prime Minister. Find your family and I will come to get you when this is all over.’

The King looked at me with concern and then at the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister sighed and put pressure on the bridge of his nose.

‘You cannot seriously be thinking of abandoning this meeting to leave me alone with this child?’

The King looked at me and I nodded to him. He began to put on his jacket as I talked.

‘I thought you of all people would understand that the body an other-worlder received when they are summoned is not the same as the one they had in their previous world. I know that the pink Fairybond here was pushing thirty in her past life…’

‘Hey!’

‘Needless to say, I’m nowhere near a child’s age. So let’s cut the pretense and get down to business.’

The King was about to leave the room when a sky blue shield made of hexagonal shapes blocked his path through the door. He pushed against it but it didn’t budge. He turned and drew his sword.

‘What is the meaning of this, Oswald?’

The Prime Minister walked out from behind the table and began to clap his hands and smiled at me condescendingly.

‘Congratulations, Samantha! After you narrowly escaped getting slaughtered by me in the arena, you decided the best bet you had was to confront me in front of the King with a band of those inferiors! So now I get to kill the King, and then you get to watch helplessly as I kill your friends and extract any Aura they have collected over the years, followed by a slow and painful death at my hands. Really? What was your plan?’

The other girls drew their weapons, but I nonchalantly shrugged my shoulders.

‘At this point, I’m not really all that scared of death. I did my job when I dropped the Revenant Hive Queen. I just couldn’t stand by and idly die without knowing what your end game is, though. Why create a school to train girls to fight the Revenant that you yourself have created? My curiosity is just more than I can bear.’

With a wide grin, the Prime Minister morphed into her fairy form.

‘Curious to death, you say? No wonder my sister chose you to resonate with. So you want me to monologue my evil plan to you before you die?’

‘Why not? We are going to die anyway, and just killing us isn’t very flashy, and if I know anything about you fairies, it’s that you like things flashy. So indulge me like the stereotypical villainess that you are, just for fun. Satisfy my curiosity. Then we can get to the killing and death and maiming and stuff.’

She eyed me with a bit of suspicion and then shrugged and laughed.

‘Fine! I’ll call it your last dying wish. You did do me a favor by killing the Hive Queen. I might as well tell you how the dominoes fell after that fateful day. So listen up, Ladies and Gentleman, to the last story you will ever hear…’