The Last Space Aisha Part IV: The Final Battle

by aishagirl104

The day of battle draws ever closer and the girls get stronger and wiser by the minute. But Fabina knows they may look strong, but they are weak little kittens who have never known a family. We have seen the events in the build-up to battle in the last issue. Now we will take a look at the action on the side of the dark forces…

The darkened cavern entrance led along a passage. Candles in twisted wall brackets of black metal cast tiny pools of glowing light on the cold stone walls. A heavy, studded wooden door with silver knobs and black metalwork in dark symbols swung open to reveal a dark hole. If you went through this hole, you could see the same candles that had lit your way in the huge room. Steps draped in animal furs lead to a heavy carved oak throne, and the fire in the grate had gone out, so a chill constantly lingered. Fabina sat on his throne with Morticia in his arms. Their position looked as though it could give clues to their behaviour.

Fabina slurred his words and Morticia giggled maniacally as they revelled in their scheme to conquer Neopia. Morticia staggered over to her cauldron and began to mix a potion. "The plan is in progress…" she whispered, "but some of their kind must be destroyed before it will be completed…I can tell you that one if these deaths will affect their main weapon…"

"You have planned well, Morticia…your reward shall be given to you when we defeat them in battle. Send messages to our troops and ask them to be at the Space Station for sunset. We will then sail to the Mystery Island before mounting an attack on Neopia Central - they will be powerless!" Little did Morticia and Fabina know that when the sun set in Neopia, hundreds of people from across the world, from New York to Los Angeles, from London to Toronto, from Tokyo to Beijing, came to check on their NeoPets and so would take part in the battle.

The girls were very upset at having to leave Bakathi and Eevee behind in Neopia Central. "Why wouldn't you let us bring them back?" asked Emma, tearfully. "They like us, and we like them!"

"If they discovered your real identity," explained the Air Faerie, "then the whole plan would fall apart because they could tell people who you really are, and then word would get around and you could not complete the task. At the moment, though, you're just two very mysterious Aishas who only appear in Neopia Central occasionally, and that's the best way for everything to be at this time..."

The girls decided to get some sleep because they felt very tired. As they slept, the Faeries took turns to sneak in two of every magic item in Neopia to help them. And when Emma and Lucy woke up, the Dark Faerie hurried them to the escape hatch. The Water Faerie was waiting for them. Quickly, they conjured up bags and shrank every item the girls would need to fit. "What's going on?" asked Lucy. "Have the dark forces come for us?" The Fire Faerie shook her head. "No, but the final battle begins at sunset. You must get through Fabina's crones to get to Morticia, and then fight her with your spells - use your weakest first so that if she gets stronger, you have more chance of defeating her. Once you have weakened her to surrender, caused her to be in an unfit state of mind, or destroyed her, then you can get to Fabina, who will be very weak and in danger of death by then, and he can be defeated with certain magic!"

The girls leapt through the hole with their bags and a strange whooshing sound filled the air as they shot through thick layers of cloud and past every store in Neopia, to arrive just outside the soup kitchen. Crowds of angry warrior NeoPets of every colour and species were gathered in the market place, equipped with magical items that were supposed to protect them. They shouted and cheered when the Faeries appeared with Emma and Lucy…and that was when the girls saw the extent of the damage. Every store was blazing, as well as the NeoLodge, The Neopian Police Headquarters, the Tower of the Light Faerie, the Neopian Hospital, the National Neopian Bank, the Wishing Well, the Soup Kitchen and The Aisha Pack. In the far distance, they could hear the screams of terror at the Mystery Island as it flickered in the darkness, and the other Neopian stores were ablaze. Suddenly, out of the thick, choking smoke came Bakathi and Eevee. They were shouting for Emma and Lucy in a panic, fearing their sudden...

The girls ran to them and they clung to each other; Emma refused to release Bakathi and Lucy wouldn't let Eevee go. The Faeries approached the girls and drew them away from the boys. "You have to go and help your fellow NeoPets fight the battle against the evil ones now," said the Fire Faerie. "All the magic you will need to weaken Morticia and defeat Fabina is in your bags. Good luck!" And with that, the four were shoved into the crowd and into a totally different world from the one Bakathi and Eevee had shown the two girls that day.

Angry cries and shouts of pain, fear and war rang out before them. The sky reflected the ground and the water; blood-red with splashes everywhere. Many NeoPets, especially Wockys, Gelerts and Lupes, were lying halfway between life and death - they had been in the front line and so had been the first to fall. Morticia's evil laugh rang through the girl's minds and a strange, long-forgotten memory came rushing back to them - a girl Aisha's was hit with a bolt of dark magic, a young male Aisha with Morticia floating in the air before him, and the same Aisha falling to his death with Morticia's high, cold laugh ringing in his ears all came flooding back to them… With a loud roar, the line of Lennys before the girls fell in submission to darkness and they were faced by Morticia. She smiled wickedly at them. "So, you thought your puny little spells could defeat me, when I have an invincible dark army whose minds I can control separately at any time I like…you must be mad!"

"We're not interested in defeating your army, Morticia," replied Emma, "We're here to do two things; to save Neopia from you and your evil forces…"

"…and," added Lucy, pausing for dramatic effect, "to revenge what happened to our mother, father and sister."

"True, my forces killed your sister, and I drove your father mad," considered Morticia, "but if you want to avenge your mother's death, Lucy, then it is you who should be killed. If you hadn't been born, your mother would still be here. You may think I'm lying to get you to side with me. If you think that what I have told you is a lie, ask your precious Faeries!" She pointed her wand at the Faeries, who looked at the girls sorrowfully. Emma suddenly rounded on Morticia…

"That's a lie!" she said angrily, not showing the fear and doubt she felt inside. "You know that our mother could have cared for both of us. You just want Lucy to think she's responsible when really, it was you!"

"OK then." Morticia looked very relaxed, cool and casual. "Hit me with whatever you've got!"

The girls tried every single magic spell they had, and each one slightly weakened Morticia's power…but she had saved her strongest until last. She raised her wand and half-shouted, half-screamed, "Avada Kedrava!" A jet of green light shot out of the end of her wand and a whooshing noise filled the air. The light hit the Kiss on the girls' foreheads and bounced off back to Morticia, who screamed. "No!" she shrieked. "NO! Go back! Go back! The Kiss cannot help them! Kill them! KILL THEM!" The green light just shot straight to her heart and destroyed her with a whoosh and a scream, and Morticia's limp body went from black to green to white and fell several feet before hitting the ground.

The Light Faerie quickly conjured up a flash of white light, which turned Morticia into black ashes. The ashes then leapt into the sky and disappeared. "You have defeated Morticia by making her most dangerous weapon backfire, and so making her destroy herself," said the Earth Faerie wisely. "She cannot return now…she is lost forever and will never return."

All around them, NeoPets were returning to health and the way they had looked before Fabina had fired the mutant ray. Fabina himself was very weak and almost dead. The girls went to him with the Air Faerie, and he managed to whisper, "Please, don't let me die with so much evil inside me. I had given some of it to Morticia to use for her powers, but when you destroyed her, it began to eat away at my heart and mind and soul and I asked myself, "Do I really want to die so evil?" Please, girls, I'm begging you to save me! I know I destroyed your lives and had no right to, but I would just like to have some of this evil taken away from me so I can die happy and peaceful, with my mind at rest…" His eyes began to close and quickly, the Air Faerie performed the magic task. Fabina gave a gentle sigh and went to the Great Beyond, happy, peaceful and free…

There was smoke all around them and the girls began to cough. The red marks on the ground can still be seen in that area of Neopia today, and a memorial of Morticia stands to remind people of the NeoPets who lived their lives for Neopia. Suddenly, the Dark Faerie and the Water Faerie came through the fumes, each carrying an Aisha. They laid them on the ground and the girls gasped with horror…it was Bakathi and Eevee, and they were very close to death. "Can we save them?" cried Emma, falling to her knees. Lucy began to cry, and both girls hugged the brothers and each other.

"It's quite serious," said the Faerie Queen. "When Morticia died, they began to die…and they're very close to leaving us. She was going to use them to bargain with you…if you let her live, they would live - if she died, they died. I can give them some of this," she poured some drops of fireflower juice (a fireflower is a flower that grows on the Hills of the Mountain Sun in northern Neopia, but they are extremely rare now) into their mouths from a diamond flask, "and then we have to pray for them from sunset until dawn…"

It seemed a very long night. Every now and then, while the girls prayed silently, they opened their eyes to see if there was any change in them. But there wasn't any difference in either Bakathi or Eevee. Eventually, worn-out with praying, tiredness, hunger and lack of energy (the battle had been a huge drain on their resources) the girls fell asleep…

When dawn broke and the first shaft of light entered their eyes, the girls awoke instantly. In front of them, Bakathi and Eevee lay, still and silent. They both burst into tears of pain and anger, and wailed loudly. "Why must your evil powers still bring about death, Morticia, when you have destroyed yourself?" they screamed. "Why must you torment us the way you do, when you are not even here? Why must you destroy everything we have for your own greed and thirst for power? Why must you take the ones we truly and will always love deep in our hearts?"

Suddenly, Bakathi's ears twitched and Eevee's tail moved. Emma and Lucy held their breath and closed their eyes, where they could still see them both, not daring to wake up fully and open their eyes in case it had all been just a beautiful dream…

Bakathi and Eevee rose to full health and ran to the girls, who hugged them as though they would never let go again. The two couples were joyfully reunited, showing that love always triumphs over evil. The Faeries decided to tell the girls the secret they had never known the answer to. As the fresh scent of spring flowers filled the air and the petals from those flowers surrounded the happy lovers, the Faerie Queen arrived and went up to the girls. "Emma, Lucy," she said, "remember the time when you were young and you asked me about your family, and I said your real names would be hidden until Morticia died?" The girls both nodded.

"Well," and the Faerie Queen paused for dramatic effect, "Emma's real name is Adria, and Lucy is Daria. And I am happy to give permission for you to leave the Faeries and live in Neopia Central with Bakathi and Eevee!" The whole of Neopia rejoiced as the two Aisha princesses were restored to power once again.

EPILOGUE

You will all be pleased to know that, eventually, Adria and Bakathi became parents to a beautiful young girl named Saria, out of respect for her aunt, who happily married and continued the royal line. Daria and Eevee also became parents, to two sons named Fabiola and Fabina, because Fabina was a good NeoPet at heart, even though he had been poisoned by evil. And how do I know this? A lot later, I became the owner of their descendants, who all had exactly the same names as they did…

Eventually, however, the Aishas decided to bring in democracy, and the NeoPets of Neopia Central now rule each other. The community is happy and thriving, and all the other NeoPets are enjoying their lives in peace forevermore.

The End

If you enjoyed my story, e-mail me at aishagirl104@hotmail.com and tell me what you think! Maybe you'd like to see more of my work in the Neopian Times? Maybe you thought it could have been improved on? Or maybe you'd like to submit an idea for a new story to appear on this site? Don't forget to call on me!