Ciara stood her ground, looking at the monster that had taken everything from her. They circled each other, watching each movement and sound. Ciara stood straight for a moment, stopping in front of her companions. She brought her sword up to the side of her as she gripped the hilt. Closing her eyes she took a deep breath and went for the kill in a sweeping arc. She went for his head, surprised when his sword smoothly blocked it. With quick movement after adjusting, she went for his legs for yet another block. Feeling anger searing through her, she went for his sword arm and then to his other side… all blocked. When she had gone for his left side their swords met with sparks and stopped. The two fighters stared each other down.

Pushing her sword away after the intenseness lifted slightly, he swung his sword over head as she brought hers up to meet his with minimal movement. He continued his strides as he tried to corner her with three alternating strikes to her sides, Ciara blocking them as she continued her trajectory with a spin to get him with a low sweep to his waist… but she didn’t see him coming at her as he missed her move and within a two second timing he had his sword over hers, using it to bring her blade closer to her throat.

“You will never defeat me… You have only just come into your powers whereas I have had centuries to perfect mine,” Ravi whispered into her ear, taking in a deep scent of her, “Give it up Ciara, it’s not worth the struggle.”

He could feel her panic building as her heart raced and her chest rose in quick rasps. With the scent she gave off he could tell that the one thing he used to admire about her had almost depleted… her innocence.

“What makes you think I’ll just give into you?” Ciara growled, feeling even more sickened by his near presence.

“Because if you don’t, I’ll kill them,” Ravi pointed his sword towards her friends and son in front of her. By now they had stood, a look of utter fear painted on their faces…

Ciara looked from Danny to Kylsen, a tear rolling down her face, whispering with her mind to them, I’m sorry…

“Just kill me and get it over with,” Ciara exhaled in an attempt at saving their lives.

As Kylsen’s voice filled the cathedral, Ravi whipped Ciara’s sword from her hand and brought it deep into her chest. He felt her life flickering as she held her breath to try and shield out the pain. Her hands made it to the hilt of the sword as her knees buckled. Her mouth slowly closed as she sat on her knees for a moment, two more tears making their way down her paling face. She watched as Kylsen finally managed to get untied and crawled his way to her, catching her before falling back.

“No… no… Ciara, come on love, stay with me… I love you,” Kylsen whimpered as he watched her eyes haze over and her body going limp. Kylsen looked at Danny, knowing that he had at one time years ago told him that this would happen. Kylsen had tried to avoid all of this… but Ciara had insisted on coming… but deep inside, he knew that whatever he may try to stop Ciara from dying it still would have happened.

“What have you done, Ravi? You’ve killed your sister, you bastard!” Bewin screamed in pain as she stood from Kina untying her.

“She was nothing to me but a good screw and something that stood in my way of victory,” Ravi responded with a venomous smirk as he walked over to Ciara’s lifeless body and beckoned the sword to his hand. Kylsen flinched when he saw the sword jolt from her body and shuddered. He could only run his fingers through her hair as he stared at her.

Ravi walked up to an empty and blessed pewter chalice displaying twin dragons circling the bowl, breathing flame onto the stem of the glass. With a wave of his hand, he watched the cup fill with the blood from the sword. Placing the chalice on the alter in front of him he picked up a serrated double edged silver athame. Taking a deep breath he brought the blade across his wrist and let the blood drain from him and into the chalice, letting it fill with the same amount of blood as Ciara’s wherein he lifted the chalice and spoke the chant to bring the two worlds back together.

“From this blood, make undone, bring two worlds into one,” lowering the glass back to the alter he poured the concoction into a bowl carved from moss agate crystal which had all of the premixed herbs and oils that he needed.

Bewin ran to Kina and Danny, bringing them to the floor by Ciara. They felt the rumbling as the spell began to take place… bringing Earth and Maidrood back together the way they had been from centuries passed.

“Kylsen, you have the power in you to bring her back to life. You must do this in order to save the two worlds. If we don’t, the human race is doomed!” Bewin struggled to get Kylsen back to the present. She could feel that he was blaming himself and reliving his last real conversation with her.

“I love her… I love her so much…” Kylsen cried as he brought Ciara into an embracing hug, “I just wish I could have told her that.”

Above ground, terror and chaos was filling the inhibitors of Maidrood as they began to witness several objects appearing in their world that had not been their before… The people on Earth came to a screeching halt in their cars or their movements as they watched beings materializing in their paths… buildings and structures were merging together. On the Golden Gate Bridge in California, Cars swerved as a large old to their eyes ship emerged on the wires that threatened to snap under the weight of the slowly rolling vessel that came closer to the drivers crossing the construct. All around the world, humans were beginning to witness creatures that had no hesitation in causing chaos to erupt on the lands.

Even now in the depths of the Nightling Castle, human tourists were coming into view, being the witnesses as to what was causing this creation. Some of them thought this to be nice visual effects as others backed away slowly, watching the dark red and black light rising from the alter where Ravi stood, his arms raised to the vaulted ceilings with a sinister laugh echoing off the walls. The nightlings looked at the fresh meat and fears, letting it stir their hungers to a maddening desire. Several tried to test the barrier even more now that they had a reason to really want out.

Over the loud vibrations and noises, Kylsen could hear the small shudders of the three friends around him. He looked up at them and turned to look at what they stared at with astonishing looks. It was Ciara… she raised her hand to his face and gave him a look of affection.

“Tell me now…” she whispered as she raised her lips to his and gave him the most powerful kiss that he had ever felt or even contemplated in his life. When the kiss finally broke, she looked at him and to the other three, a smile crossing her face.

“It was the Dragon’s Tear, Kylsen. You had to show that you truly loved the one you gave it to in order to have the powers work,” Bewin smiled, but wavered when she was brought back to their current situation.

“Ravi!”

Ravi slowly turned, startled by the voice he heard. He looked in horror upon the woman that he had just moments before killed. Ciara stood there like nothing had happened, but now wind whipped around her, her powers in full bloom with the anger that she now possessed. The four prisoners stood off to the sides of her… the tourists standing in the background on the balcony in awe.

“You’ll pay for what you have done!” Ciara’s voice no longer sounded like one, but of many as it bounced off of everything in the vicinity. She seemed to lean forward with her arms at her sides, palms facing him.

Ravi had never felt as much terror as he now felt. He could feel her anger and ever ounce of pain that he had ever inflicted throughout his life. He screamed as his hands flew to the sides of his face… his insides burning and screaming. The onlookers and other nightlings watched as the King of the Nightlings exploded with such a force that it knocked everyone over.

Ciara closed her eyes and willed the two worlds to go back to the way they had been. Ciara’s emotions finally leveled as she came down from her power overload when she as satisfied that her powers did what they needed to do over what seemed like an eternity, collapsing once again on the ground. The barriers that held the once nightlings were now broken. The tourists that watched the ending of a magnificent battle stood and cheered as it all disappeared from view and everything returned to normal.

“Where did you guys get those kinds of effects? They seemed to real…” one impressed tourist asked their tour guide, who only stood with her mouth open in astonishment, only shrugging her shoulders in response.

Ciara and her four companions emerged from the Castle several hours later with some of the nightlings following. The ones that hadn’t followed were trying to recuperate from having their dreams of being a nightling ripped from them. They were trying to come to the realization that now they would go back to their old lives.

When Ciara looked out at the fog, she only raised her hands slightly and watched with a smile as the fog vanished and the sunlight came shedding onto the large stone castle. Because of all of the moisture to the outer construct, it had been deteriorating. The only way to get out of there was to fly. That’s when an idea came into Bewin’s mind.

Kylsen about had a panic attack when Bewin spread her arms out to her sides and fell off of the ledge of the front steps to the castle. Ciara held Kylsen back, knowing that her mother had an idea. After a few moments, they went to look over the edge… only to nearly fall back as a large purple dragon flew up towards them… landing just on the edge of the platform to extend out it’s wings for the people to get aboard. Everyone stepped aboard except Ciara and Kylsen. Ciara winked at her mother and telling her that they would meet on the outskirts of Claychatel Mountains.

Ciara took Kylsen’s hand in hers as she lifted from the ground. The only true power that Kylsen had was that he could fly… which was a common power among his people. They held each other’s hand as they soared over the long forgotten looks of the mountains. They only smiled at each other… not wanting to spoil the moment just yet with words… even though neither knew what to say.

When they reached the rest of their party, Ciara and Kylsen landed softly on the lush green grass and walked hand in hand towards everyone. Danny broke out into a run and reached his mother with just a couple of strides to nearly knock her over with his embrace. They laughed at this, looking at each other.

“Are you alright, Danny? They didn’t do anything to hurt you, did they?” Ciara asked as she ran her fingers through his golden tendrils.

“No… it was all just a ploy to lure you to them. Ravi knew the whole time where you were, but wanted you to come willingly… or so to speak,” Danny looked at her hesitantly when he saw her shudder at that name.

“Well, he got more than he asked for, huh? By the way, did you ever find your real parents?” Kylsen interjected, remembering that his parents had been taken by the nightlings.

“I had asked about that… They said that my parents hadn’t been changed… only used for food,” Danny looked down, trying to hide his tears.

“Its okay, Danny. They’re in a better place now… proud of their boy. But I’m here and I missed you so much,” Ciara pulled him back into her arms for comfort.

Bewin and Kina joined the reunion after most of the other people had begun their travels home. They smiled at the sight of what looked to be a complete family now… but a lot of what had happened will probably haunt them for the rest of their lives… especially Ciara. Bewin could feel the still faint confusion over her daughter.

“Bewin, you still have a lot of explaining to do,” Ciara mentioned with her cheek to Danny’s head as she still held him for a moment longer.

“I know, Ciara… I only hope that in time you may call me mother… but I will wait,” Bewin clasped her hands behind her back.

“Well, here is for starters…” Ciara released Danny and went to her ‘mother’ and embraced her, eventually finishing with Kina.

Ciara looked up from the women and remembered something now that she had read on earth, realizing now that it had been a true statement… “Everything has some truth behind it… even mythical characters.”

“So, are we ready to go home?” Kylsen voiced from behind the women.

“Well, there’s something I still need to do…” Ciara grew a sly grin on her face as the wheels started turning in her mind.

Back in Duckchasm the villagers were returning to their lives again after having to rebuild some of the structures that hadn’t come back from the merge the way they were before. It had been a month since the two worlds had come together for their brief moments. With one of the keys now destroyed, that was one fear that they would never have to worry about.

Queen Jezebel sat on her thrown, her leg over one of the arm rests as she waited for the next peasant to enter and plead their case before she undoubtedly threw them into the dungeons or to their premature deaths. She looked up when she heard a commotion from across her vast white and pink décor thrown room and on the other side of the doors. She stood when the large ivory doors flew open. From the tops of the door frame a large grey storm cloud filtered in and filled the room with its menacing swirls and small thunders coming from it. When Jezebel looked back to the door, she watched as a woman stormed through the entryway, walking with pride about her. She focused on the woman trying to figure out who it was. It wasn’t until the last minute that she realized who it was.

“How dare you storm into my castle like this? I’ll throw you into the dungeons for this treachery!” the Queens voice cracked as she tried to sound clout. She only managed to trip back into her thrown as she watched Ciara fly towards her with a look to kill.

Jezebel, you will no longer treat your people with such disrespect or crudeness. You will treat them with respect and kindness and no longer will you threaten my family or me… otherwise… I will have to do something really bad…

“Li… like what?” Jezebel squealed as she sunk deeper into her chair.

I’ll make you ugly and work in the stables to shovel kalaya manure for the rest of your miserable life.

“Whatever you say! Anything!” Jezebel agreed.

When Ciara felt satisfied, she turned to leave, hovering a few feet from the ground. Ciara had made it halfway to the door when she heard the Queen snort and say to herself, “Yeah, right…” With a flick of her fingers, a lightning bolt struck two inches away from Jezebel’s feet, sending her straight into a standing position in her thrown. She looked at Ciara in astonishment as rain came down on her, centralized in a circle to surround her.

“I heard that, Jezebel,” Ciara voiced aloud as she reached the door, “Oh, the rain should stop in about twenty four hours.”

Ciara left with the largest smile on her face. She waved to the guards that had raped her as she left… pinned over a table naked. Behind them stood some of Ciara’s new friends that had been nightlings, holding prodding tools… grins on their faces.

Kylsen watched as his wife decended the castle stairs and became slightly worried about the large grin on her face, periodically looking back from where she just came. When she reached him, she stepped up and planted a soft kiss on his lips.

“What happened?” Kylsen asked curiously as he ushered her in the direction of their home.

“Let’s just say… I gave them an electrifying gift.”

A/N: I hope you all enjoyed this story. It’s one of the first that I have actually finished. Please read and review… I am open to all criticism. Please let me know if I left anything out or if something needs to be improved or changed.