The Dark Magician Girl

  ~~~

  My vision becomes fuzzy as I wake up in this deep dark place. I feel power resonating around me. Swirls of black dark magic are bubbling from my body.

  My new vessel is perfect.

  As my vision becomes clearer, I see the chamber where I once was for the ritual. It feels as though it was an eternity since I was here last. My vision is completely veiled in deep red. I can sense emotion and power anywhere that I pleased. It feels as though the world itself is made up of emotion and nothing else.

  I sense fear everywhere.

  A loud cackle leaves my lips causing the large open room to rumble and shake. I look down at myself, my body is just a cloud of dark magic, electricity sparking through it. Red eye slits are opened along my arms and my forehead.

  Each eye adds that much more power and energy for me to embrace. I feel as though I can topple the world with my fingertips.

  The world is just waiting for me to take it in my hands and many vessels await me to absorb their power.

  I know where I am going to begin...

  At long last, the ultimate demon lord is born...

  It is me.

  Twelve

  I lift my deep dark claw-like left hand in front of me. Immediately after I point towards the only standing pillar in the center of the darkened room, in a blink of an eye, the pillar is surrounded by my dark magic and then it tumbles down as if I had slammed it down with my bare hands. The dark magic disappears as fast as it appeared on command just moments ago.

  I feel so much emotion flowing through me. I did not even have to think or feel to cause that pillar to move. I just move my hand and things happen before I even think about them. Is this the kind of power my mother has been feeling the entire time? Was this kind of power always waiting inside of me?

  I look around the room as my vision becomes clearer. I slowly become more used to the red-like coating everything has changed to. The reds are difficult to see but the more I look at things, I become better at distinguishing between dark red, shadow red and just plain red. I rummage through the debris and wander around, getting accustomed to my newly received abilities. I feel so much emotion flowing through me with ease.

  This must be what it feels like to finally have complete control over your emotions. Everything becomes second nature. You just think to do something instead of blocking everything out and forcing yourself to focus as much as you can to complete one task. I do not think I will ever have to worry about losing control ever again. I can feel my mother with me, guiding me. Her strength and wisdom empowers me, allowing me this much emotion and control to flow through me.

  My thoughts are broken when I hear a familiar voice from behind me across the room.

  "Star—?"

  I spin around to find what used to be the love of my life huddled in the corner. He is trapped inside the locked-up room made of metal bars similar to a jail cell.

  It is strange to think about my memories. I remember them but I also don't. It is like my emotions were wiped and not the memories themselves. I know who this mortal is, but he is now nothing to me.

  Useless.

  The only use of him now is the strength and power of the emotions he still relies on. All I see of him now is the friend of the demon child.

  My emotions now belong to the demon lord. His power will soon be absorbed into this vessel soon enough, that is his only purpose to me now.

  "Star? She is no more, mortal. I am the demon lord now. You should refer to me as such if you know what is good for you,"

  As I keep my cold stare his way, he does not blink or turn away. He seems too terrified to move while my gaze is locked on him. I look him over a time or two, then grunt with disgust and turn away.

  "Such little power stored inside of you. You must be blinded by the useless emotion of love, or something. Pathetic, mortal," I pause for a moment, looking as though I am examining the darkened billowing clouds outside of the window.

  "Or perhaps, it is because you are no magic user," I continue slowly, hovering around the room, examining the kinds of things that happen just from me getting close to them or thinking about what would happen if I thought about them crumbling under their own weight. Of course, the pieces of debris I do look at, does indeed crumble on the very thought, causing puffs of smoke to rise once the pieces of earth break apart to bits. I chuckle.

  "Excellent power..." I mumble to myself.

  I am sure the mortal in the corner can hear me though, "You will join me soon enough, mortal,"

  I wander to the other side of the room. I feel a strong presence approaching me.

  I wait for the presence to become stronger before I speak, "Welcome, father,"

  My voice comes out menacing as the words rumble through the room. I hear a grunt in protest come from behind me as my father enters the room from the darkened corner.

  As the moonlight plasters across his face, his gaze locks onto mine. The expression on his face focuses as he stares at me, as if blocking out the emotion that fills him when he sees what has become of his daughter.

  I slowly pull out the sword into view. As his eyes falls onto the sight, his emotion changes within his eyes, "You would not happen to be looking for this, would you father? That is a shame. You were not planning to sneak in here and snatch it away from me, were you?"

  I let out a soft cackle from deep in my throat. As the air grows silent, my father has dashed towards me, in an attempt to weaken me. In a blink of an eye, I have disappeared, reappeared behind him and have him thrown onto the ground at my feet. My father is fast, but is not fast enough. He jumps up and quickly swings his blade towards me, but the blade does not do a thing. I do not feel it at all.

  He glances towards Ike in the darkened corner, then says, "Ike, I will return. I am going to find Lucina,"

  At that moment, just as I am about to shove my father back onto the ground once again, I feel another presence approaching me. It is similar to how weak Ike's presence is.

  Roy. Excellent.

  My father turns around as Roy enters the room. His eyes lock onto me and his eyes widen, "Star?"

  My father gestures for him to not come any closer, "Chrom? What happened?" Roy glances around the room and notices Ike is locked away in the corner.

  He turns to face his direction, "Ike! You're alive!"

  I let out a low rumbling cackle as I watch the useless mortals and their sweet, useless, little emotional reunion. Roy then jerks his head back towards me and finds my father was already attacking me once again. When he sees this, Roy dashes towards me too. He is also fast, but I am much faster at this point.

  I begin teleporting around the room. Every time I appear, I lift my left hand and shove the closest one to me off of their feet by just the thought surfacing to my conscious. I start to have much fun messing with them, as the thought of catching Roy saddens me. I would not be able to play with him anymore once I do. But the next thought of absorbing his power excites me.

  But to do that, I must capture him and store him with the other foolish mortal.

  I turn towards Roy. I raise my hands and start to mumble some nonsense. He becomes encompassed with a veil of deep dark magic. It has electrifying energy flowing through it so Roy's face changes to what looks like he feels pain all of a sudden. He collapses on the floor at my feet.

  I hear a small grunt come from behind me, as a smile etches itself onto my blackened face.

  "Roy! No!" I hear Ike yell from across the room. Roy moans quietly at my feet and struggles to stand up. I keep my left hand raised and playfully shoves Roy back off of his feet every time he starts to stand before me. All it takes are the simple thoughts of pushing him back down. I do not move when Roy makes any noise. He just keeps being pushed back down to the ground.

  "Star... s—stop..." Roy keeps struggling to stand, like all of his muscles are too weak to hold him up anymore. I cackle as I shove Roy back off of his feet once again and keep increasing the strength of the cackle until it is vibrati
ng the air in the room.

  "Chrom... Chrom will stop you... You are a monster!" I continue cackling and then Roy slowly begins glowing a deep dark black as my dark magic surrounds him. When Roy is fully in my clutches, I just move my left hand towards where Ike is locked up and Roy disappears into thin air, then momentarily appearing next to Ike in the cell, unconscious.

  I stop cackling, "Foolish mortal, just like the rest of them,"

  My father's presence quickly becomes weaker.

  He has escaped.

  But he will bring Lucina to me.

  Thirteen

  I turn and look at the darkened cell in the corner. Ike shifts around nervously as he notices I am now staring at him as he makes himself busy. He nervously arranges Roy into a more comfortable position on the floor. I begin slowly hovering closer to the cell, admiring the work that I have done.

  Soon, these useless mortals will meet their fate. They will feed my power and make me the strongest demon lord this world has ever seen. Once I absorb enough vessels, this form will be more than complete.

  Ike must have been noticing I am slowly getting closer because he is shifting even more now in the cell, looking like he does not know what to do.

  I let out a short, shriek-like snicker, "Useless mortal, do not fear your fate," I tell him. I lift up my left claw-like hand and begin fumbling around with the small pebbles inside the cell around Ike's feet, making him move around even more than he already was, being amused by the sight.

  The room is much more shadowed now as the night becomes murky by the increasing roaming purple rain clouds hovering above the castle. The faint moonlight is shining through the windows, down onto the cell, lighting up Ike's face whenever he faces me. Roy lays motionless on the floor at Ike's feet, also lit up by the shining moonlight.

  "N—no, Star... please, I know you are in there..."

  Once again, I let out a short snicker, puffing at him, "You are correct, mortal. She can also hear you I am sure; however, she belongs to me now and soon... so will you," I make sure I emphasized the importance that his beloved Star belongs to me and soon he will join her. This little fact seems to make him flustered which is highly amusing to me.

  This thing called emotion, which is the bane of my strength and power, seems to live deep down inside the mortal's mind and can take control over them, forcing them to do things. Things they do not wish to do or things they normally could not do. This force is powerful and even more powerful inside the soul of a magic user.

  This spirit that absorbed me, the demon lord, has almost complete control over its power. Power right at the fingertips, with just a simple thought, can cause an uproar so damaging and so powerful that other souls will bow down to me. They will call me their lord and allow me to absorb them, to become a much more powerful demon. A God even, from the depths.

  I will be the ultimate Demon God. A demon fueled by emotion. The powerful emotions that are the most difficult to control, those ones hold the most power. Passion, anger, determination... these to just name a few... I feel them all around me and flowing through me. All that I have to do now is absorb these mortals and I will be that much closer to becoming a God.

  I keep approaching Ike's cell, slowly, engulfed within my thoughts. I will begin preparing the ritual, to absorb these mortals.

  Soon, I expect my father to return. He has extremely strong determination and high passion.

  I pull out my ultimate blade and it hovers by my side awaiting my command. I gaze at its might.

  He does not wield this blade... the blade with ultimate power. The blade that magic user, the demon child, used against me before I captured it and used its vessel. It held such confidence while wielding this powered up blade that there must be something to it. My mother fled from my father the first encounter she had with the presence of the blade. That means this blade... it can be powered up with dark magic... powered by emotion flowing throughout it. Dark magic, the thing that can destroy itself.

  I keep gazing upon it, then I slowly slide it back into the sheath on my side.

  This blade must be the power my mother spoke about which can defeat me, the demon lord. It shall not leave my side.

  I shake myself from my thoughts, to find myself gazing into the cell where Ike and Roy await me. I finally reach right outside the cell and stand there for a moment, watching them. I wait until Roy begins to shift, a sign he is beginning to wake up.

  When his eyes open slightly, the first thing he sees is me staring back at him. His eyes widen once again, realizing where he is and how close in proximity he is to me.

  "Glad to see you finally join us, Roy," I let out a cackle, "Soon, you both will assist me in becoming a God,"

  I lift my left hand and Roy flinches, remembering the last time he saw me do that.

  "Soon, the ritual will begin. Do not worry though, the other mortal, Lucina, she will join you too. I know how lonely you mortals get; with your strong emotions that you feel. I feel all of them at this very moment. All of them. They are surging through me as I speak,"

  As my words reverberate through the room and slowly diminish away, I cackle louder this time, then raise my other hand. Deep dark magic begins to appear around me, signaling I am beginning to prepare the ritual.

  The deep dark ball of magic begins growing in size in front of me between my hands as winds speed up, circling around me forcing dark magic to twirl around the room at high speeds. Violent wind howling sounds increase in frequency and tone steadily accumulating to a screeching ear-piercing noise.

  All of a sudden, within a second of time, I feel a strong presence burst into the room and I grunt as my ritual gets abruptly stopped by a single swipe of a blade. I tumble backwards and turn to see Lucina standing there with a look in her eye that is filled to the brim with determination, wielding that sword.

  That power. That blade. Lucina, the other daughter of Chrom. The final battle starts here.

  "Star," She locks onto my gaze, "I know you are in there. That demon, I will banish it back to where it came," Lucina raises her blade with its tip pointed directly at me and her right arm stretched outwards away from her. She stands majestically with the faint moonlight outlining her features, lighting up her blue eyes and giving a faint shadow plastered across her face. Her long blue hair is slightly waving in the wind behind her while her bangs are wrapping themselves around her face. Only her eyes and the blade give off a reflectance of moonlight, while everything else is casted in shadow.

  "Nothing attacks my friends and gets away with it," As soon as she finishes saying the last word, Lucina lunges towards me in a dancing blade technique. Expert sword slashes are being thrown at me from multiple angles. These slashes are different from the previous ones used against me. These holds so much more emotion within them.

  I wince slightly as Lucina lands a few within my cloudy mist of dark magic surrounding me. I force myself backwards away from her swings and throw my hands up towards her. I lift Lucina off of her feet and throw her backwards. She is thrown against a broken pillar, causing it to crumble even further to the ground, finishing it off. Lucina grunts then jerks her head up, locking her gaze back onto me while puffs of smoke are clouding around her.

  Before she lunges towards me again, I toss up a magic shield between us, black glistening lightning sparks are flashing through it. Once Lucina jumps to her feet after using her hands to push herself up, I throw the shield forwards towards her which pushes her back down. Lucina jumps back up once more and throws her right arm outwards, pointing the sword in that direction. The sword glistens with wetness, as the sky begins to shed tears, bombarding them at us through the many holes in the ceiling of the shattered castle.

  Lucina lunges towards me, this time using expert techniques, much quicker than she was before. She manages a single sword swipe to bash into me and my side tingles where she struck me. I wince and disappear away from her to reappear behind her. Lucina caught a glimpse of me because she spins around with her blad
e, swinging it behind her to strike me once again. I feel myself becoming slightly weakened by those strikes.

  I look towards her. With a single thought and a flick of my left claw-like hand, I have Lucina shoved backwards up into the air. While I have her busy, I hold both of my hands up in front of me, begin to chant nonsense and start powering up a dark magic ball of energy between my palms. As Lucina catches herself and spins around to face me, I begin shooting out smaller balls of energy searing through the air. All of them are heat seeking towards Lucina. She prepares herself and begins dashing around, striking the energy balls that get too close to her through her maneuvering, forcing them back and imploding once they touch something then developing into large clouds of dark black smoke. I keep them coming and Lucina keeps dashing about, trying to get closer to me

  I lift my arms up, stretch them out above my head towards the skies and increase the frequency of shooting out these dark magic energy balls. They are emerging from the large dark energy ball hovering in front of my chest which is increasing the swirling howling winds within the wrecked chamber. Lucina quickly spins around, swinging her blade, slamming into several energy balls at once. They quickly alter their course and are bounced back directly towards me. Before I can move myself, I get assaulted by several dark energy balls at once, knocking me backwards. I hear a loud clanking sound and realize my blade has fallen from my side! I frantically turn to retrieve the blade and find my father standing there wielding it, with his gaze locked onto mine.

  We stand there for a short moment, giving eye-piercing glares towards each other, neither of us wincing at the sight.

  "Evil demon, I will banish you and force you to give back my wife and my daughter," Chrom then points the blade's tip towards me, directly to my chest. As my father begins to lunge the blade towards me, I feel several strikes behind me, shoving me to the ground. I quickly force myself up and disappear from between those two blades. If I had taken a second longer, both blades would have slashed right into both sides of me. I let loose a shriek as I reappear before them both on the other side of the room.

  I feel myself becoming weaker. I must absorb more vessels to become a God and replenish my energy.

  Lucina does not waste any time. As soon as she finds where I appeared within the room, she nods towards my father and they both prepare to decrease the distance I gained from them.

  "Lucina," My father's stance changes, "Thrust the sword into the demon's back, that must be the weak point," Then my father and Lucina dashes into opposite directions arcing towards me at decently high speeds. I lift my hands outwards on both sides of me and lift up a magical shield around me once again.

  Once Lucina and my father approach me, they begin striking the shield. I enforce it and throw pulses outwards from the shield's center, attempting to push both back away from me, to give me space to attack. However, this does not work as well as it once did before and the continuous blade strikes against the magical shield are slowly weakening it with every strike. This is causing it to fade slightly and develop cracks where the blades strike it. My eyes widen as my dark magic gets overpowered and my shield shatters, creating a loud glass shattering noise.

  I grunt and begin trying to toss up another shield. Before I can succeed, Lucina expertly leaps herself towards her left, and throwing her blade with one final slash, striking me directly in the center of my back. Pain shoots up through me and spreads through my entire being.

  My vision begins to change into darker shades of red as I feel myself falling to the ground. My vision slowly becomes black as I feel as though my soul is splitting into pieces, into three pieces...

  I slowly feel my emotions flooding back into me...

  Ike... my father... my mother... Roy... Lucina...

  I feel my body begin to tingle all over as my vision stays a deep black. I keep hearing a loud screeching noise and amongst them I hear faintly my mother grunting as she sounds like she has landed next to me on the floor.

  I then hear an even louder ear-piercing shriek as my body slowly becomes less numb. I begin to feel soft water droplets landing on my legs and face. My head starts to throb once again and I feel the same as I once did when I first met Ike after falling through that time rift.

  I slowly open my eyes and see a blur of what looks like my castle in despair and is destroyed above me with piles of debris laid about.

  What... happened?

  Many shadows are being casted everywhere, including onto me. I am on my back. I raise myself up with my hand, leaning onto it to the side.

  Once my vision becomes more clear, I see next to me my mother laying there sprawled out, eyes closed and motionless. I turn to see in front of me and see what remains of the demon lord, down on its hands and knees, glaring directly at me with its deep red eye slits spread across its forehead.

  "Angelica, my love! Star, my child!" I faintly hear my father say from behind me, amongst the sounds of the rain bouncing off of the ground around me.

  Fourteen

  The demon lord spirit looks almost overwhelmed, weakly staring back at me. It looks as though it just lost a battle. I look around me and see my father and Lucina close by wielding both blades, with determined looks in their eyes.

  My father must have retrieved the blade from the demon lord!

  I slowly move my gaze down next to me to my mother's darkened face and find a smile etch itself onto my lips.

  My mother, she is safe. I can finally see her again. I am so happy...

  Her lavender hair is flowing down past her shoulders and onto her back, slightly wavy. I cannot wait to see her gorgeous profound emerald eyes look at me once again. The last time I saw them was when she was banishing me to the parallel world through that dark magic portal she summoned, holding back tears while doing so. There was so much emotion being held back that day behind those beautiful eyes of hers, like she was feeling nothing but terror and sadness. Her dark purple cape is covering her like a blanket. A slight black glow is surrounding her.

  She is healing herself.

  Before I have time to gaze upon her any longer, Lucina charges past me in a blur towards the demon lord spirit, who has gotten up and is about to attack. I jerk my head into the direction Lucina went and catch a mighty blow between her and it, in a stalemate, neither one advancing.

  I quickly focus my emotions back into my hands. My deep black magic appears into my eyes and surrounds my hands. I shoot myself upwards off of my feet into the air. I focus onto the demon lord spirit and lift my left hand, spread my fingers apart, palm facing down and point it towards the demon lord spirit.

  As I focus, the room around me begins to fade away until the only things I see are Lucina and the demon lord spirit. I concentrate my emotion through my left arm all the way to my fingertips and a dark magic energy ball begins forming at the end of my fingertips, hovering there in front of my hand. As soon as I am ready, I yell a nonsense magic spell and smaller energy balls burst out from the larger one I formed and they speed through the air arcing in several directions and patterns aiming directly at the demon lord spirit.

  Before they arrive and blast the demon in the face, I quickly lift my right hand, shoot emotion through the hand and shield Lucina from the force. The demon gets knocked back almost flying through the air and lets out an ear-piercing shriek. It wobbles on its two claw-like feet and manages to balance itself again. It finds my gaze and locks onto it, ignoring Lucina standing before it.

  However, before it can leap towards me, my father materializes right there next to the thing and delivers an expert blade slash right onto the demon's side. The demon shrieks once again and backs up slightly. At this time, I hear movement behind me and I hear my mother chanting one of those more complex spells she told me I was not ready to learn yet.

  I turn to gaze at her with a smile. She returns the smile and then releases energy balls of her own, but these were missile like, super-fast and shining brightly with dark magic energy. They blast the demon once again, knockin
g it clear through the air. The force behind my mother's energy missiles cause several wind twirls to burst through the air around us, causing my hair to flap around my face. My father dashes towards her. They exchange smiles and expressions across their faces.

  Seeing that causes the biggest smile to spread across my lips I have ever had since that day I was banished, before everything spiraled downwards.

  I turn back to face the demon lord spirit. Okay, it is time to finish this.

  My father and mother spin around to face me and the demon. We exchange expressions and my father holds up the blade.

  "Use it just like I taught you, my child," My mother says, her voice confidently and proudly resonances through the room, and she smiles at me.

  I smile then turn to face the demon lord spirit before me. I throw my left hand outwards to my left, my fingers spread out and my palm facing outwards. The sword my father is holding, my blade, obeys my command and swiftly floats from my father's hand and directly into mine. Once the sword gets close, I slip my left hand towards it and keep open my palm. The blade swiftly and confidently slides into my palm and I clasp my fingers around the hilt. As soon as my fingers grip the hilt, I shove my emotion through my arm and directly into the blade. I swing the blade from my left directly in front of me pointing the tip straight towards the demon lord spirit, right between the eyes. As soon as this movement is completed, the blade bursts into flame, powering up with my magic, flickering violently and lighting up the room brilliantly.

  I feel so much more powerful now like I have more control. I light the blade so much faster than I ever have before, with such ease this time. I feel the energy flowing through my arm, connecting my emotions directly to the sword. It glows and flickers, waiting for my commands.

  The demon glares straight back at me, preparing to lunge towards me. The demon begins to leap from where it stands but all of a sudden, I hear a sudden chant fluently spoken from my mother's lips and the demon is quickly surrounded by a dark magic shield. The demon is held still right where it stands, and it lets out a bone-chilling shriek from its darkened mouth.

  I let a smile show on my lips as I quickly spin within my cape, disappearing on the spot, leaving a cloud of swirling dark magic in my wake and then appearing directly before the demon. I fiercely glare directly into the demon's deep hollow red slit eyes across its forehead as it stares right back into mine. I lift up my left hand holding the blade skyward and the blade begins to burst into even bigger flames, changing into brighter reds and oranges. I prepare to thrust the sword downward, releasing the grip onto the hilt. The blade hovers within reach of my hand and quickly spins around where the tip is pointing directly at the demon's head.

  I spin around, move my arms in a circle stretched outwards from my body and with a single swipe of my left arm, moving in the motion of thrusting the sword down, the blade swiftly thrusts itself right into the head of the demon lord spirit. The blade erupts with sparks and flame as the demon cries out with constant shrieks as it begins to shatter into millions of dark magic pieces swirling into the air. My eyes widen and I push myself backwards away from the screeching, flashing demon before me. The room goes silent as the rest of its body busts into pieces and is thrown into the air all around us.

  "Whoa," I silently whisper to myself as I watch the dark magic particles spin around me. Suddenly, the pieces fly upwards and collect into a giant ball. I keep my eyes latched onto them as they spin around, faster and faster above me. Then the pieces burst into two streams and one flies off behind me and the other aims its path directly at me...

  A gasp escapes my lips as the next thing I see is blackness. I feel all of the particles dissolve into me. I feel my body going numb as I grunt and feel myself falling to my hands and knees. I hear my name being called from all around me, muffled and distorted while soft sounds of my mother grunting. My body completely goes numb as I hold my chest with my left hand while holding myself up with my right one.

  "It hurts!" I manage to spit out as my head begins to throb to the rhythm of my fast heartbeat.

  Slowly, the pain calms as my vision begins to clear up.

  "Star! Are you alright?" I hear from behind me. I feel a soft hand on my shoulder as I push myself onto my feet to stand. I open my eyes and turn to see my mother's beautiful deep emerald eyes gazing into mine, a smile on her face once she sees I am alright. A smile appears onto mine as I embrace her into a hug.

  "Oh mother, how much I have missed you," Then I feel two more arms surround me and I look up to see my father's bright blue eyes looking back at me.

  "Father," I mumble into my mother's shoulder.

  "Oh Star, my sweet child, how much I have missed you too," My mother softly kisses the top of my head. I feel my father do the same.

  Once my mother and father release me, they both step to the side and I see Lucina standing there, finding my gaze. At first, she is not smiling. She slowly lifts her blade and sheaths it into the holder on her side without breaking her gaze on me. Then she begins to approach me, a smile slowly fading onto her face as she gets closer and wraps me into a hug. My eyes widen and a smile flashes across my face as I embrace her.

  "Lucina..." I whisper to her and she quickly says, "You were so awesome, Star! I am so happy you are safe!"

  Wow, Lucina, she likes me now... I never thought she would ever like me... I am so glad she does.

  "You too Lucina," I pause and keep my grip in the embrace, "Thanks,"

  Lucina releases me from her embrace and smiles down at me, "Thank you so much, for saving me," I say.

  "Star!"

  I turn and my pulse races as a very familiar voice reaches my ears.

  Ike!

  My face brightens as I turn and see Ike and Roy, safe in the other side of the room.

  My friends! They are all safe!

  I rush over there with Lucina right behind me. Ike's gaze is locked onto me the entire way.

  "Ike! Roy! I am so happy to see you..." I cannot hide the smile plastered across my face as I release the lock mechanism on the door and throw it open.

  I get a short hug from Roy, "Glad to see you are safe, Star. You looked really great out there," He releases me and I return the smile, "Thanks," I push loose strands of hair out of my face behind my ear, "You too, Roy,"

  Then I turn to see Ike standing right next to me. My heart pounds harder as I reach my arms out and catch him into a warm hug. I fall into his hold and he grips me tighter, "I am so happy to see you, Ike,"

  "I thought I would never see you again, Star," He pauses. Then I feel him lightly kiss the top of my head. I feel my face burn slightly and my stomach churn as his grip on me tightens.

  I am so happy to have Ike in my life.

  I wish that hug could have lasted forever.

  Fifteen

  Ike releases me from his embrace and I hear my mother rummaging around behind me observing the state of our castle.

  "The castle really has seen better days," I turn to see my father chuckle as he hugs my mother from behind her and gives her a kiss.

  "I will go speak to Eliwood," I watch my father turn to leave the room.

  My mother finds my gaze and slowly hovers over to me. A smile finds itself onto her face as she approaches me. "You have grown so much, my child," A sassy smirk appears onto my face as I place my right hand onto my hip and pull my hood over my head to match my mother's darkened eyes.

  "Well, I feel like I did not have a choice. I had to save you mother!" My mother's mouth opens a bit as she laughs, "Still just as sassy as ever, too!"

  I throw my hand over my mouth and laugh so hard I snort softly when I breath in. I hear Ike behind me chuckle as Roy and Lucina laugh with us as well.

  "Yeah, she sure did go through a lot, Your Highness," I hear Ike behind me say to my mother, "I first met her when she fell from the sky. She has surprised me ever since,"

  I feel my face burn slightly again as I try to hide it from my mother without her seeing. My mother does see it
though as she chuckles at me once she glances over to me then back to him while listening.

  "She was so determined to find her way back home to help her father save you," My mother turns her gaze to me and smiles appear onto her face as she listens. I cannot help but smile as well while my face keeps burning.

  After a moment, my mother takes a step forward, "Yes, I saw it all, my child," My eyes widen.

  "I watched you from the beginning. You have learned how to trust. You have learned how to control your emotions very well," As my mother speaks, I stand up straighter, smiling as I gaze at her, with my hands on my hips. She places her right hand onto my left shoulder, "You are becoming fit to become a queen,"

  My eyes widen again, "Q-queen?" I feel myself stutter as I look up at her. My mother just laughs as my father enters the room behind us with Eliwood and his son Roy following him.

  "Queen Angelica! So nice to see you once again, Your Highness!" King Eliwood says happily, raising his hands up from by his sides, approaching my mother to greet her.

  Eliwood is a tall man with strikingly similarities to Roy. Like father like son, Eliwood has bushy red hair with narrow blue eyes just like Roy has while wearing similar clothing. His clothing is blue with red trim while wearing knee high boots and a long red cape that is blue on the backside. I do not know him as well since the first time I met him was when I was very young.

  He treats me like I am his own daughter though and I love him because of that. I have been to his castle many times after I met him playing with Roy when I was not playing with Myst in the forest outside the walls of my castle.

  I smile while he hugs my mother. I hear Roy from behind me surprised to see his other self over there. I turn to him and smile for a moment and turn back once Roy smiles back to me. Once Eliwood is finished hugging my mother, he turns to me and a smile even bigger appears onto his face. "Princess Star! My dear, I am glad you are safe along with your mother!"

  I smiled, "Hello, Eli!"

  Roy chuckles from behind me, "Eli, huh?"

  He approaches me, arms outstretched and embraces me with an enthusiastic hug, patting me on my back, "I heard about you Star and your friends here from your father. We have decided to help you rebuild this castle of yours before announcing our plans to the kingdoms,"

  Announcing our plans? What does Eli mean by that?

  "Plans?" I raise my eyebrow up at him and he laughs, "It is a surprise for you, my dear. Now, Chrom, my friend, let us begin. I will let my kingdom know right away,"

  My father nods his head in agreement next to my mother, "I will get my kingdom together as well, my friend,"