Wooh! Here we are again. It's a fanfare time (of sorts) because this is the last chapter. Yes, this story has finally come to an end!
As always, there's a big thanks to those lovely sorts who reviewed the last chapter; Max Overdrive, Meg, Spongey and HinataxNarutofan. Love you guys!!!
Random Quote: I may have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a concrete elephant. (Queen Elizabeth I, from Blackadder)
At that moment, the pile of rubble that was blocking the doorway was dramatically blown apart and the remaining friends ran in, followed by a platoon of Red Fountain students with Saladin, Codatorta, Faragonda and Griffin at their head. A deathly silence immediately fell upon them as they took in the heartbreaking scene in front of them - even the stoic Miss Griffin could not fail to be moved by the sight of poor grief-stricken Musa weeping as she held Tegryn's prone body close to hers, with the others standing forlornly trying their best to comfort her. The young music fairy looked up as Faragonda walked towards her, peering at her kind features through tear-filled eyes.
"Miss Faragonda.. he's... he's..." she said, her anxiety being ratcheted up with each passing second.
Faragonda placed her hand on his forehead and closed her eyes. After a few short nerve-wracking seconds, she spoke.
"He's alive..."
Musa's breath escaped from her lungs at those two words so fast that she could hardly contain herself - she collapsed in tears, not bothering to hear the rest of the sentence.
"...but barely. We need to get him to Alfea, fast."
With a brisk wave of her hand, she opened up a portal. A group of Specialists gently lifted Tegryn onto a stretcher while Faragonda helped Musa up. As they tiredly trudged the short walk home, Codatorta turned to Saladin.
"It looks like these lads and lasses really made a mess here. Darkar'll be hopping mad when he see this."
Upon hearing this, Musa turned around. Wiping her face and smiling as hard as she could, she said "Darkar won't bother us any more - Teggy's made sure of that."
The infirmary of the Alfea School for Fairies had never been so busy. Every available seat had been taken up - as had every square inch of bed space - while the girls were given a quick check-up. Thankfully, all Ofelia had to worry about as far as they were concerned was a couple of bruises along with Bloom's broken ribs, which were healing nicely thanks to Timmy's earlier expertise with his medi-laser.
Her only cause for concern was Tegryn, who had just been laid in what was fast becoming his own personal hospital bed. Musa sat faithfully by his side, laying one hand on his chest and willing him on in his recovery whilst holding Polli with her other as the baby pixie sobbed into her bosom. Irma stood behind her, her hand on her shoulder as she looked silently on. Despite having used every ounce of her medical expertise to reset his leg, which now sat cocooned in plaster, Ofelia gave an uneasy sigh and shook her head as she measured his blood pressure.
"Dangerously low," she muttered. "He's lost so much blood."
"Will he recover?" Faragonda asked.
"Perhaps, but it'll be touch and go," the nurse replied. "What he really needs right now is a blood donation."
Musa's eyes widened when she heard this. "Well what are you waiting for? Hook me up! I'll give as much as he needs. I'll..."
Ofelia held her hand up, stopping Musa in her tracks.
"That wouldn't work Musa - the two of you wouldn't be compatible. You're a fairy; he's not. He needs..." she explained, her voice trailing off as she looked towards the five Earth girls standing at his bedside. Will immediately realised what Ofelia was about to say.
"Hey, we'll only be too happy to help, right?"
The other girls nodded, except Taranee, who looked more than a bit worried.
"That would mean needles, right?" she asked nervously. "I mean, I will do it, but I should warn you, needles and me don't exactly mix... and the less said about me and the sight of blood..."
"Don't worry!" Ofelia interrupted. "I'll just need to take a tiny scratch sample first, just to see if any of you are the correct blood type. Just hold out one finger please."
Taranee did as she was asked, fearfully screwing her eyes shut as Ofelia went about taking a single drop and placing it onto a slide before repeating the procedure with the other four girls and Tegryn. Eventually she opened her eyes, only to find she had already done it. She breathed a little sigh of relief - she hadn't felt a thing.
"Right, I'll just take these into the office for analysis. Meanwhile, we really need to get him cleaned up." she explained, motioning towards Tegryn as he lay in bed still wearing his tattered, torn, bloodied clothes. "I can't keep him in such a state."
She handed Musa a pair of scissors and a bed robe.
"Would you mind removing his clothes and dressing him in this?"
Musa nodded as Ofelia went into her office and sat down at her medical computer. Inserting the first slide, she stared intently at the screen as it spewed forth as much data as it could gather.
"No. Nothing here." she said, removing the first slide and placing a second one into the slot. A smile appeared on her face - the second set of data made for much better reading, but just as she was about to stand up, the computer beeped. Confused, she looked at the screen.
"Hmmm. That can't be right." she mused as she ordered a rescan. The computer beeped once again as it displayed an identical set of data.
"How odd. I wonder why this wasn't mentioned before... unless..."
She stood up and opened her door.
"Miss Irma? Could you come in here please?"
All eyes were immediately fixed onto the Water Guardian. She looked first at Tegryn and then at Musa.
"Don't worry. I'm sure he'll be okay. I'll help him."
Musa immediately stood up and caught her in a hug that the young teen was only too glad to reciprocate.
"Thank you Irma."
As Irma made her way into the nurse's office, Musa set to work. Starting at his left shoulder, where his clothing was particularly torn and sodden, she oh-so-carefully started to cut the fabric away, painstakingly lifting it off his body as though she was afraid she might actually damage him in some way. However, as she peeled away a large piece of his shirt, she suddenly stopped.
"Eh? What is that?" she said as she peered closer.
"Is that... a bandage?" Anyuna asked.
Sure enough, it was a bandage, reaching around his body underneath his arms and covering his chest. Musa grew more and more puzzled as she looked at it.
"Teggy didn't tell me he had an injury."
"What could it be? A burn? A scar?"
Musa shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. "Whatever it is, it has to come off." she said as she went to remove it, before being stopped by a hand placed gently onto hers.
"No..."
It was Tegryn, breathing weakly and shivering as he squinted up at her. Musa let out a little cry of delight at seeing him awake - after fearing the worst, it felt so good to see him looking at her once again before remembering her task. Once again, she went to peel away the bandage.
"Please..." Tegryn protested, his voice barely more than a pained whisper.
"What? You don't want me to remove this? But why?"
"Don't..."
"But Teggy, I have to. We need to get you cleaned up."
"Stop..."
But his feeble pleas went unheeded as Musa gently laid his hand down by his side and cut away the bandage. She tried her best to ignore Tegryn's moans, assuming them to be from where she was tentatively pulling the strapping away from the matted hairs on his chest. Ever mindful of the pain she knew he was in, she carefully cut it away until finally she was able to lift it off. It was then that she was able to see what Tegryn was hiding - it was a tattoo, showing a pair of golden Chinese dragons intertwined into a heart shape, with a pair of Chinese characters written beneath it.
"Hey, cool tattoo!" a happily reunited Mimi and Nini said in unison.
"I never knew you had a tattoo." Musa said, looking at him with a impish smile on her face. To her dismay, he looked away, almost as though he was too ashamed to look at her.
"Teggy? What's wrong?"
"I... didn't want... you... to see..." he said, trying in vain to cover it up.
"But why?" she said just as a thought rushed its way into her head. She lifted his hand and looked at it again. "Teggy... what does that writing say?"
Tegryn closed his eyes and said nothing.
"Teggy?"
"No..."
"Please Teggy. If it's hurting you so much, you have to tell me. Please."
He turned his head to see her staring back at him with a pleading puppy-dog look on her face. He sighed dejectedly as he reluctantly gave her the answer.
"Pui Yin." he mumbled. "It says... Pui Yin."
"Oh," Musa said, putting her hand to her mouth in surprise - after everything that had happened that day, she certainly wasn't expecting to hear that name. "But... why?"
Tegryn sighed once more. "It's... a custom... in... my village," he murmured.
"A village custom?"
"Oh, that is so romantic!" Amore suddenly blurted out as she took a closer look for herself. "What a beautiful custom! A sign of everlasting affection to his one true love, and right on his heart too!"
Right then, Amore suddenly stopped and gasped as she realised she'd really put her foot in it.
"Oh, but... she's no longer your true love, is she?" she said as she put her tiny hand over the offending item, as though she was trying her best to hide it from Musa.
Musa looked at her, then once again at Tegryn who could barely bring himself to look her in the eye.
"You had this done before you came here, huh? While you and her were still an item?"
Tegryn nodded. "I'm sorry. I don't know any tattoo removal spells, and I was too embarrassed to tell anyone."
"Well I'm sure I can fix this." Amore said softly. "All you have to do is think of your one true love."
Tegryn closed his eyes without saying a thing, and the part of his chest under her hands began to shine a gentle pink glow as the pixie of love worked her magic. After a few short seconds, the glow faded and she raised her hands. The tattoo's writing had changed from a pair of characters to just one.
"What does it say now?" Amore asked.
Tegryn lifted his head and peered down before slumping it back into his pillow with a smile, squeezing Musa's hand as hard as he could, which for all intents and purposes really wasn't that hard.
"Musa..."
As she planted a soft kiss on his forehead, Ofelia emerged from her office together with Irma, who looked decidedly shaken and pale.
"Hey you! I thought it was Taranee who's afraid of needles!" Cornelia quipped.
"No, not at all, she took it all very bravely indeed." Ofelia said as she set up the transfusion. "She just needs a few minutes to rest, and then you girls can be on your way home."
"What? You're leaving already?" Bloom exclaimed.
"'Fraid so. People'll be wondering where we've all got to." Will replied. "I mean, Teggy came up with a good excuse to stall our folks and we left our Astral Drops behind to hold the fort, but they're hardly 100 reliable and if we stay away another night, it's gonna look mighty suspicious. Besides, we've all got school in the morning."
"In that case, just wait there! I'll be back in a minute!" Tecna yelled as she dashed out of the room.
Of course, the girls weren't quite ready to return to Earth just yet, as they hadn't carried out that most important of tasks - signing Tegryn's cast, and so the girls took it in turns to carry out their duty. Being the leader, Will went first. As she went about her business using a pink marker pen kindly donated by Stella, Tegryn craned his neck, desperately trying to see what she had written.
Teggy
Sorry for giving you such a headache earlier, and thanks for everything.
I guess I owe you one! Or two... or three... whatever.
Anyways, take care and hope to see you soon.
Will
He laughed as he read it quietly to himself.
"Will?" he whispered.
"Yes Teggy?"
"Your handwriting's almost as bad as mine!"
A roar of laughter rang up, which was quickly halted by a loud "Shush!" from Ofelia.
"Oh Teggy, there's no way Will's writing's as bad as yours - we can read it for a start! I reckon your eyes need testing!" Stella joked, wiping the tears of laughter from her face. Will chuckled as she playfully ruffled his hair before leaning over to give him a goodbye hug.
"Thanks Teggy."
"Thank you too." came his instant reply.
"Hmm? What for?"
"Well, you kinda taught me a bit about myself. You know, finding my element and stuff."
"Oh, that - it was nothing, really. I'm just glad you're feeling a bit better."
"Yeah, me too." he said while Cornelia carried on the writing task. Her handwriting was pretty much what he expected - neat and girly.
Hey Teggy
Keep practicing your earth magic.
PLEASE, keep practicing!!
Cornelia
"Heh! Will do, Corny!" he smiled as he hugged her, followed by Taranee and Hay Lin.
"Hey Teggy, next time you're in town, I'll get my folks to rustle up something special for you!"
"Lookin' forward to it already Hay Lin." he replied.
"Oh, call me Hay-Hay. Everyone else does - well, SHE does anyway!" she said, turning round and looking over at Irma standing behind her. The Water Guardian stood there silently at first, just staring deep into Tegryn's eyes, almost as though she was trying to see something there which no-one could. Eventually, Tegryn lifted up his arms, motioning with his fingers for her to come and cuddle him.
She did this gratefully, and Tegryn did likewise, both of them embracing each other softly. As the two of them remained in this warmest of hugs, Tegryn felt Irma's body give a little shudder, and he felt a tiny little splash of water landing on his bare shoulder. He pushed her away slightly just so he could look at her face - sure enough, her big azure eyes were rapidly filling up with tears.
"Hey silly, what's the matter?"
Irma gave an embarrassed giggle as she hurriedly wiped her face, never taking her eyes off Tegryn for a split second.
"Oh man, I'm sorry. It's just that... well... I hate seeing you like this. It's so..." she said, almost cheerfully at first before quickly breaking down. Tegryn once again pulled her to him as she sobbed uncontrollably in his arms.
"Sshhh, sshhhh! Come on now Irma. I'm gonna be alright." he said softly and soothingly into her ear as he stroked the soft thick waves of hair on the back of her head in an almost fatherly fashion. "I can already feel myself getting a little bit stronger, you know, and it's thanks to you. You're a little lifesaver!"
As he hugged her, he peered down at his leg to see what she had written. It was just one word - Irma - written in big letters, far bigger than anyone else's, complete with a typically Irma-esque smiley face in the middle of the A. Saying nothing, she hugged him just that little bit tighter, as tight as she thought he could bear anyway. Despite what he said to her back in Shadowhaunt, she still felt a major portion of blame for the shocking injuries he had suffered at the hands of Icy, and so she had been ever-mindful of his physical condition. So hearing him giving her credit for helping in his recovery made her incredibly happy.
"Little lifesaver, eh?" she said eventually. "I guess that makes you my big lifesaver!"
"Guess so!" he replied.
Their little moment was ended by Cornelia, who put her arm around Irma as though she was deliberately easing her away, before thrusting a shopping bag into her unsuspecting hands - the very same bag from that rather chic boutique in Aquisates in which they'd been maxing out Stella's credit cards before their shopping trip was rudely interrupted.
"Come on Irma. Time to go."
Right at that very moment, Tecna returned to the Infirmary, carrying a box.
"Before you go, here's a little present from all of us," she announced, opening it. Inside lay five mobile phones. "There - top of the range phones from my homeworld, one for each of you."
"Thanks Tecna," Will said as she took one. "Of course, we do have cells back home, you know."
"Ah, but do any of your phones provide inter-dimensional roaming?"
"Inter-DIMENSIONAL roaming?!"
"That's right. Now you'll be able to keep in touch with us from back on Earth!" Tecna said proudly. "And what's more, Digit here has taken the liberty of programming all our numbers into them."
"Really?" Irma said excitedly as she flicked through the contacts list. Sure enough, all their names were on there - Layla, Mimi, Musa, Nini, Sky, Stella, Tecna, Tegryn... - "This is so great. Thanks Tec!"
"You'd better keep in touch now, you hear?" Bloom called as they waved the five WITCH girls through a newly-opened portal. As the gateway closed, everyone in the Infirmary breathed a happy sigh. Despite the awful start to the day, everything had turned out okay.
Musa sat herself down on the bed next to Tegryn, playfully tousling his hair while she admired his new tattoo, with Polli nestling herself on his chest as they quietly fell into a blissful sleep, both quite worn out from the day's pain and emotional drama.
"Well, all's well that ends well," Tecna mused.
"Yeah, I guess," Musa sighed happily. "At least we get to go through a whole school year without any major creepy bad guys to worry about."
Musa couldn't have been more wrong.
Far away in his castle on the world of Meridian, an enraged Prince Phobos paced up and down in his battle-damaged throne chamber while his loyal servant Cedric looked on from the shadows, more than slightly worried. His lord and master was newly-rejuvenated thanks to Darkar being forced to relinquish his ill-gotten power, and Cedric knew that he was itching to use them to devastating effect.
"Sire, if you wish I could have your armies ready for a major assault on the Guardians' homeworld. There is still no sign of their leader, and with them weakened we could..."
"SILENCE!" Phobos boomed, glaring angrily at Cedric, who quailed at this sight - the fires of vengeance were burning so brightly in the prince's eyes, they could have seared through his soul right there and then.
"I don't care about Earth, or the Guardians, or Kandrakar for that matter - they can wait!"
"But.. but Sire, what do you mean?" Cedric asked fearfully, half-expecting the prince to blast him out of the castle for even daring to disturb him in mid-rant.
"Lord Darkar and his minions. They will pay dearly for what they did to me. Right now, I only have one target - Shadowhaunt!"
And so we've come to the end of the story, and I hope you've all enjoyed it. Some of the bits in this last chapter may have seemed a little inconsequential, but don't worry - they're simply setting the stage for future storylines.
Right, that's Part 5 out of the way - now to start writing Part 6...