Once Jia and Fiona had finally broken through the hole in the ground and arrived in the chamber, Zong frowned up at Jia with annoyance clearly in his face. The chamber was dark with only Zeo crystals lighting up the place and now thanks to the new sky light Fiona had made.
"Lightning bringer, you are fast becoming a nuisance," Zong said. He was standing in front of a stone table that was surrounded but five huge stone that had weird runes etched in them The runes were now glowing red and pulsing. On the table sat fifteen Terron stones.
"And here`s what I say to that!" Jia yelled as she threw a lightning bolt at him. The Emperor and the girl dodged as they flew backwards and landed beside a huge
"I mustn`t be delayed, my General`s need to be summoned and this weapon must be complete today," Zong said as he turned to his lackey," I must succeed today. Take care of them Pandora."
"As you wish, your majesty," Pandora complied before she raised her hands. A plume of black magic struck the girls, effectively separating them. Jia landed on her feet before throwing a lightning bolt at Pandora. The woman rose up only to get hit the shoulder with a lava spear. She hissed and turned to Fiona, who summoned more spears to attack Pandora.
A black shield rose over her until Fiona stopped her attacks. However, that was when Pandora took that opportunity to release a storm of black spikes and energy blasts against the girls.
Jia quickly dove behind a pillar hid from the attack. She heard Fiona cry out and she looked across to see her friend clutching her ribs with a grimace. She could feel some kind of magic coming alive in the chamber and deduced that whatever the Emperor was trying to do. He was close to succeeding. Whatever she had to do, she had to do it now.
Jia, getting fed up with the blasted, told Fiona to close her eyes before she ran out from behind her pillow glowing silver and yellow. Pandora`s spell`s bounced back harmlessly as Jia screamed," Lightning Aura! Stormrider! Unleash the fury of the Storms!"
In a blinding light, the entire chamber exploded as Jia stopped in front of Pandora before Jia`s magic blasted her away with Zong in the process. Above ground, everyone was surprised when a huge explosion blew up the fountain and had two people flying out in two different directions. When the magic finally faded, Jia groaned as she fell to her knees with her nose bleeding. She had used too much power and her mother`s armour was partially destroyed. The breast plate was gone, revealing her tank top underneath and her helmet was gone. She must look like a wreak.
"Jia!" Fiona yelled as she ran over and slid to stop beside her.
"We can`t kill him, and Pandora, they`re unstoppable," Jia admitted with a grimace as more blood came down her nose. She wiped it away slowly.
"Jia, maybe this can help us," Rose said a she held up a glowing green tablet.
"The tablet from the museum!" Jia said gasped, her eyes wide open as she looked up at her friend.
"She must have lost it when you blasted her away, can you read it?"
Jia took it excitedly and read through it. However, as she began to read and the words started to make sense to her, her smile faded away. She then looked up at her friend who was clutching her ribs with a grimace," What? What`s wrong?'
The lightning sorceress swallowed harshly before she revealed what the tablet had told her before Fiona started to shake her head in denial.
"No! "Fiona said Jia put down the tablet and looked around the chamber. The stones were glowing and the Terron stones were now levitating above them," Jia, you can`t-"
"I need you to do it!" Jia spoke up as she moved to put a hand on her friend`s left shoulder.
Fiona continued to shake her head, "I can`t, Jia-"
"You know that you must do," Jia told her and Fiona`s lips trembled as a sinking feeling took over her stomach and she felt like she was going to be sick.
"I can`t, I won`t. I refuse! Maybe the tablet is wrong, maybe-" Fiona exclaimed.
"This is the only way to stop him," Jia insisted," The tablet is accurate."
Fiona pushed away from her friend and began to search the chamber as if another answer would just appear in front of her, "There has to be another way!"
Jia pushed herself to her feet and grabbed her friend`s shoulders, effectively stopping her in her tracks, "Listen to me! His machine will be online soon. He is the battery, take him away and there is no power source, the machine will stop."
Fiona eyes began to blur with tears as she tried to plead with her friend, "Please Jia, you can`t tell me to-"
"He cannot be killed today. I don`t have the Honor Guard with me but I can take him with me to a place where he won`t come back and I`ll keep him there," Jia pointed out.
"Jia...,"
Jia took a deep shuddering breath as if to stop herself form crying as well, "The other`s won`t do it, they aren't strong enough."
"Your family will never forgive me. Roy will never forgive me," Fiona countered.
The lightning sorceress gave her a sad smile, "Not until you explain it to them. Please Fiona, we only have one chance."
Fiona looked away as she sighed and wiped away her tears before she nodded,"Okay."
"I`ll hold him still," Jia said as she held out her hand. The dagger that was used against her mother appeared in her hand before she handed it over to Fiona, who reluctantly transfigured it into a sword. She then took her friend's hand before they flew up, out of the chamber where they narrowly missed a Psi-Leopard.
The huge cat was then blinded by a light spell sent by Gillian. Jia let go of her friend`s hand before she took off the earpiece on her ear. It had had been overloaded by magic and now it was useless. Roy would find out eventually what her plan was. And Papa, he`ll eventually find out as well why she needed the dagger back from him. She threw the ear peices away before she reached into her armor and pulled out her necklace. It was glowing a bright blue. There was a lot of negative energy all around her. It had been glowing in the morning but she didn`t see any attack so she dismissed it. How stupid of her. She brought it up to her lips and kissed the charm before putting it back. Dylan would have slapped on her the head for not paying attention to his charm.
A beam of red magic shot up into the sky as Jia ascended as well to see Zong, looking very, very mad with rage that he had been interrupted.
Jia focused on her magic into a single orb before blasting the Emperor, who summoned a red shield to cover him as he flew towards her at an alarming speed. Out of his shield came two glowing hands that reached out to grab Jia. The sorceress turned and flew away while looking over her shoulder every few seconds to send a lightning bolt against him. He shot out a red burst of magic that missed her and instead turned a vulture into stone.
"That was close," Jia muttered as she watched the vulture fall to the ground before smashing into a million little pieces.
"You cannot stop me! This is inevitable!" Zong yelled as his magic hands narrowly missed her legs. Jia flew low before turning at the last second and raising both her hands up," Stormrider, lightning vortex!"
A whirlpool of lightning and cloud formed in front of her before bolts of electricity shot out towards the Emperor. Zong bobbed and weaved until he finally noticed that Jia wasn`t behind the vortex. He suddenly shouted as a long spear struck through his shield and shattered it. He turned to glare at whoever had shot him and he was surprised to see that it was the Headmistress of Viola. She was on the railing of her office balcony, in the perfect spot to execute her attack.
And because he was distracted, it gave Jia the perfect opportunity to flew down form above and tackle him to the ground. Zong screamed as they finally landed beside the hole in the gorund with Jia wrapped around his back like a boa. When he began to levitate from the ground, Jia bit down on his neck to stop him. Zong roared with pain.
Jia reared back and yelled," Now!"
Zong`s eye`s widened as he turned in time to see Fiona come at him. Jia felt as if time was slowing down. In her mind`s eye, she saw herself with her friends laughing at the first mixer, meeting the boys, her kiss with Tristan and hugging Chase. Helping Mike and walking with Roy. She saw her Papa, her uncles and her aunts at her birthday party and finally she saw how Dylan had held her when she was crying in the forest. All those memories and all those people that she loved. Would they forgive her for what she was doing? This was a one-way sentence and there was no way she was coming back. Fiona yelled out a war cry as she rammed the sword through the Emperor`s chest and all the way through Jia as well.
Jia felt it got through her and the she sucked in a harsh breath before going still. Zong coughed out blood as Fiona pushed the sword through them.
Behind her, she was sure that she heard someone scream her name but she wasn`t sure who. Was it Dylan? Maybe it was Tristan? Or it was perhaps the Zoey? It didn`t matter anyway. There wasn't time to check. All she had time was to give one last smile at Fiona who was crying as she and Zong began to fade away.
"Thank yo…"
Fiona and everyone around her, watched with wide eyes and disbelief as Jia and the Emperor disappeared before their eyes.