She closed her eyes and pressed her hands onto my familiar. I watched in amazement as the liquid blood that left her wound began to float and return into the wound it had poured out of as if time was reversing itself.
The wound closed, followed with the bullet that hurt Minx pulling out and shooting right back to its target. The scream that followed drew my attention momentarily, and I watched Charles fall back down as the bullet that hit Minx was now on the other side of his chest.
"Reversed!" she cheered, and I noticed how her body began to disappear.
"You're....disappearing," I quickly acknowledged.
"Mommy calling," she stated with happiness, looking proud of what she was able to accomplish. "Minx better. Mommy's friend safe."
She reached up and to my surprise, tapped my nose three times.
"Powerful. Let the darkness be light. Bye, bye, mewr!" The last part of her statement suddenly made me realize who she was, but I couldn't even say thank you as she suddenly disappeared with a poof and left me in a shower of rainbow glitter.
Star. That's why she stayed. Did Silver know I'd need her?
I was so moved by her actions that I was overcome with emotion, and that seemed to slash through the doubt and fears that had seemed to change who I always was.
I can't keep fucking up anymore. I can't continue to be someone I'm not!
My eyes lowered to Minx and filled with hope as she opened her hollow, glowing eyes to blink and look up at me.
"Mawe?"
"Minx!" I lifted her up to hug her, and she only lasted five seconds before she was wiggling out of my hold and parting into her dual form.
"Mawe!" the pure black shadow and pure white shadow declared, and they sat in wait for my instructions. How loyal my familiar was after being hurt due to my inability to defend myself on time.
It was as if I finally realized that I wasn't completely useless in this moment. I'd merely assumed I couldn't fathom the same level of power as all those around me.
What happened to the me who didn't care about boundaries? Where's the me who didn't fear the consequences a fight would bring but was thrilled by the thought of fighting someone stronger than her?
I was beginning to realize how I'd lost myself plenty of times on this journey so far. How constant deaths and various saves from those I loved had made me feel like a weak link in the party full of powerful beings.
To be saved by someone who cared about me didn't mean I was a weak individual. It meant I was loved, cherished, and worth someone risking their life for. I could easily do the same for my Maxwells, Calvin, and even Lisette, and it didn't make any of them feel weak or useless.
I'd belittled my worth without even realizing it, and it took a familiar from another world to finally help me see through the light I'd been frightened to let free.
Charles was struggling to rise up, and I watched as beams of light were beginning to fade.
"JADE!" multiple voices called me, but before I could grasp the full images of my Trouble Four and Lisette, red walls rushed to replace the gold ones as black clouds appeared over the starry sky that I knew was not the same as the storming sky from before.
We're back in our world!
"NO!" Charles screamed, startling Minx as the two jumped right up and onto my shoulder. I forced myself to stand up, watching as Charles’s wild eyes bled to red and the pools of blood around his spot began to float upward.
"No, no, no! We can't be back. I worked for years to discover that one opening! Waited fifty years to get this final chance to go home! How can we be back?! DAMMIT!"
His scream shook the platform with so much force, multiple cracks cut through the thick ice.
"Minx! Return. I can do this," I assured my familiar. The duo leaned over to stare at me in worry, but I lifted my hands to stroke their heads.
"I can do it," I whispered. "I believe in myself now."
"Mawe!" they said in unison, and then began to fade in twinkling dust. Their energies returned to my core, which was beginning to pool with an excess of power, and I let it grow at a rapid pace as I poured any bit of fear into the grave it deserved to be in.
No more doubt. No more fucking games. It's time to show him the potential of a Hive Queen, and that starts now!
I summoned not one but two swords into my grasp, all while I watched the blood from Charles's body begin to grow and swirl around him.
"I WILL NOT PERISH!" he screamed with all his might, and his figure began to grow until he was surrounded by a dark red silhouette of charging magic.
The size difference between us didn't faze me as I closed my eyes and called to my elements.
All eight of them.
I know I've struggled with harnessing each of you, but forgive me for my doubt in our capabilities. I was lost...but I'm found, and I need to prove that I'm worthy of the sacrifices those who love me are willing to make on my behalf. We may not be able to kill Charles head-on, but let's hit him with something he can't easily forget.
I opened my eyes to see eight silhouettes before me. They were on their knees and bowing their heads like female knights ready to enter the battle. I stared at them with pride and bowed my head back in acknowledgment.
We would make this battle one that would leave Charles seeking refuge instead of attempting to finish us off completely.
My elements came surging into my swords, and they began to pulsate in power as my hair went completely white, red highlights beginning to swarm their levitating strands.
"KILL!" Shadow Jade emerged next to me, her image the opposite of me as her black strands levitated with red highlights like mine.
With her being outside of my body, I could fully appreciate my light magic rekindling within me, and I began to realize what Silver had meant all this time.
"You have capabilities that are far more unimaginable than that man surely realizes. Yet you're letting something hold you back."
She was right. I was letting myself be the enemy in achieving new heights within myself. I could acknowledge that now, and I'd allow myself to be free from the shackles I placed upon myself.
I watched something pink shoot out before me, and there was the courage card that Silver gave me. It began to spin and the energy within it shot back into Shadow Jade and me. All we could do was absorb it until we were surrounded with pink energy that shone vibrantly around us.
"DIE!" Charles was already charging at us with full force as shards of red darted towards us from multiple angles. Shadow Jade and I looked at one another with determined smiles before we dashed towards our enemy: my hands clenching the two swords while Shadow Jade held her scythe.
I pushed off the ground and spun with such speed, it created a swirling tornado in a second, while Shadow Jade sent her scythe flying towards the enemy then clapped her hands the next second and created dark, floating crystals that sought to intercept the blood shards heading our way.
The impact was grand and destructive, waves of energy blasting all around. I focused on making permanent damage and realized it was time to try and cut off both of his arms instead of one.
My sword then met its mark with his left shoulder, tripling in size and cutting through his bone before I was behind him and landing on the ground. His scream was only one of many as I raced forward before twirling right around to send slashes of fire at his back.