A Place in This World

Disclaimer: Well I've been saved by the grace of southern charm.

Dedication All my wonderful reviewers who are so very patient, you guys are great. Oh and Spy46 for being my unofficial beta reader until I get a real one.

Chapter Fifteen: This Ain't a Scene It's an Arms Race

Next afternoon at Cloud Tower

"No Aurora! You're supposed to stop and concentrate, not charge at the illusion!" Lilith scolded massaging her temples.

Isilee stood on the sidelines watching her two friends practice, shaking her head at the situation. Aurora had arrived at Cloud Tower as soon as classes had ended for everyone because she had a free study last period at Alfea and managed to sneak away had been dragged away from her computer where she'd been composing her most recent song to referee the battle and promised it'd be over in twenty minutes. That twenty minutes had been finished two hours ago, Aurora still wasn't getting the concept of how to deal with Lilith's illusions.

The frustrated blonde looked up at her friend then stood up and dusted her red wrap dress off. Aurora fluttered her wings in frustration as Lilith stalked over to her.

The cherry haired girl had suggested Aurora try to fight in her fairy form"Why do I want to stop and think when Selia's obviously going to try and attack me?" she demanded.

"Because if you pause to think about what you're going to do, you'll be more likely to defeat her." Lilith explained.

"Well, that's not my style. Couldn't I just use my scepter or something?"

"After you find out which one is Selia, now let's go through this again."

Aurora sighed loudly and stomped back to her spot, she was too angry to fly right now. She prepared for Lilith's next attack and glared dark brown daggers at her friend.

Lilith powered up as Aurora got into position causing her outfit to change from khaki cargo shorts and a plaid button down shirt over a bright blue camisole top. She was now wearing an ankle length white skirt with a slit up to her thigh and an emerald green elbow length top which ended at her waist with cut outs in the shoulders and a few inches down from her throat.

"What did you do that for?" Aurora gasped. "Not that the outfit isn't an improvement, but still why did you have to power up?"

"To level the playing field." Lilith replied. "I believe this time if you slow down and think before attacking you'll do some damage and I'd like to be able to levitate away from danger."

"If you say so, but I'm not nearly as confident as you are in my abilities."

"Whatever, just get into your stance Rora."Aurora shrugged and got into her stance as Lilith began the doppelganger spell she'd picked up in incantations. The maroon haired girl's image quickly multiplied from one into ten surrounding Aurora in a tight circle. Each doppelganger then prepared for an illusion attack aimed right at the blonde.

Aurora's eyes widened in fright and instinctively she threw up her arms. "Sun shield!" she cried causing a bright yellow light to form around her body and protect her from Lilith's first attack.

"Well at least your reflexes are working." Lilith remarked as she dodged her own attack. "But let's see what you do against this one; Nightmare Void!"

Needless to say, the name of the attack drove chills up Aurora's spine, but she threw up the shield again fending off the attack, which according to Lilith was a combination of total darkness and your worst fears. It was definitely something to be avoided in her the attack had been deflected, Aurora then tried to concentrate on which of the replicas was actually the real Lilith. First she tried to see which one looked the most solid, however Lilith was good at her illusion spells since she was a second year student and Aurora was only a first year.

Seeing that her first plan of action was a bust, the blonde began to study the circle of ten Lilith images surrounding her trying to find one thing that differed from the rest of them. For anyone else that would've been a complete waste of time because the duplicate Lilith's were wearing practically identical outfits and the same beads in their hair. However the original Lilith had a small freckle on her left ankle which couldn't be duplicated no matter how hard she tried and Aurora was a stickler for even the most minor detail thanks to her obsession with fashion.

'Ah, found her!' Aurora thought to herself with glee. 'Now for the proper attack.'

Aurora placed her palms together in front of her chest summoning an orb of light. She slowly spread her hands apart as the orb grew in size then began to spin around causing the orb to split into individual balls of light, which flew at Lilith's doppelgangers causing them to burst into flames and fade away in a cloud of smoke.

After Lilith's illusions had been taken care of, Aurora put up another sun shield to guard herself from any unforeseen attacks then pulled the sun ring from her right index finger and flung it into the air where it changed into the as Lilith was powering up for another attack , Aurora caught the scepter in both hands and aimed the tip at Lilith's nose.

"Check mate!" Aurora announced with a powered down and Isilee provided some scattered applause to the scene.

"If you can do that tomorrow, then you'll have Selia where she wants her." Isilee told Aurora as the solar fairy transformed her scepter back into an ordinary looking ring and placed it back on her right index finger.

"Yeah, where ever that is." Lilith added with a laugh.

"Oh just back in her place where she belongs." Aurora replied with a smirk. "She has to be the most obnoxious girl I've ever met."

"Maybe that's because you can't meet yourself?" Isilee suggested with a sly grin as the trio began their trek back to Cloud Tower so Aurora could catch the last shuttle to Alfea.

"Very funny Isilee, you're a real wit. But there's more to Selia and her sister than just sheer smugness. It's like they're hiding something."

"That's what Felicity keeps saying about that guy Lantis." Lilith put in. "Maybe it's something in the cafeteria food at Alfea? All you fairies are just so paranoid."

"I'm not being paranoid. I'm telling you something's suspicious about that group."

"Just because someone challenged you to a battle face off doesn't make them suspicious." Isilee reasoned.

"What about if they have books from the restricted section of Alfea's library?" Aurora countered.

"What do you mean by that?" Lilith asked.

"I mean that Selia's been somehow getting books from the restricted section and talking to her sisters about finding leads on their objects."

"What kind of objects are we talking about?"

"I don't know, but when I came back from my date with Jayden a few weeks ago to return a skirt of Minnie's the room was torn apart."

"So?" Isilee asked unconcerned. "Maybe you just didn't realize you'd made a mess."

"That's what I thought too, but Minnie share's a room with Fee and Fee has that strange necklace." Aurora replied. "It's just too many things started happening for it not to mean something."

"All it could mean is that Selia has a thing for gaudy jewelry."

"Hold on Isi, maybe there is something to that." Lilith interrupted. "Remember that book my mom sent me?"

"Yeah, it's where you found out about that Forest of Lights." Isilee replied. "I don't see what that has to do with everything else."

"Neither do I at the moment. So let's just focus on Aurora beating Selia so they can have some peace. But then we need to do some research on this stuff."

"Can I just concentrate on surviving tomorrow?" Aurora asked concerned. "I'll study whatever you want if I live."

Isilee nodded and grinned. "No problem. Now let's get you back to Alfea so you can sleep before beating Selia to a pulp."

I've got a mouth like a sailor and yours is more like a Hallmark card

Well this wasn't too bad, three months and finally an update. I'd like to thank all 92 of my reviewers. I believe that's some kind of record for one of my chapter stories.