In her room, Makenna Delling found herself once again holding Crusader. With her blinds still covered by the curtains, she sat on her bed with the sword in her lap. What was going on here? Why couldn't she edge herself away from Crusader? It was glued to her.

When Makenna lifted her head, her eyes caught the heart of her room, and she told herself, "I can't believe I'm doing this." And she couldn't. The Metamorphic Fairy got up from her bed and stepped into the heart. She took deep breaths and tightly clutched Crusader's hilt with both hands. From there, Makenna didn't even think. An image of Poseidon appeared in front of her, and she lunged at it. Makenna ended up practicing all the moves Ethelinda had tried to teach her on Coutarine Island. Crusader's magic though seemed a little off. It didn't escape the blade with each move like before. Makenna's room did not get destroyed. This was because she had learned how to control the magic during Ethelinda's ruthless training session. Makenna didn't know this. She actually had gotten something out of the training. Warmth flowed throughout her body as she gripped Crusader's hilt and continued to practice. Makenna didn't speak. She practiced in silence, but in her head, lots of thoughts were swirling around. One was, I don't know why I am doing this this, but this feels right somehow. The image of Poseidon remained in front of her. She hurried towards it and acted out numerous thrusts.

Just before she could act out one more thrust, her door opened, and a familiar voice echoed throughout her whole room, "Wh-What are you doing?" The voice belonged to Ash. He, Silvey, and Evelyn had finally find Makenna's room.

Her eyes widened when she saw them, "Ash!" and she quickly tossed Crusader under her bed, standing in front of it, "No-Nothing! I was just messing around!" Ash, Silvey, and Evelyn though had already seen the sword. They sauntered into the room, and Silvey headed towards Makenna. "Silvey," she softly spoke. Just seeing the fairy dog, a few of the fairy's worries faded away. That was how much she loved her. Silvey plopped down in front of her and waited for Makenna to pet her. She kneeled and scratched her behind her long, straight ears. When she looked up, her eyes landed on Ash, and she scoffed, "Why are you still here?"

"It's because you've got something of his." Evelyn explained, and she made her way towards the fairy.

"Who are you supposed to be?" Makenna asked, although a part of her lit up at the sight of another fairy sprite, "What do I have of his?"

Stopping in front of her, Evelyn bowed and elucidated, "I am Evelyn, the fairy sprite you were supposed to seek out yesterday, but you left before I could even talk to you. If it wasn't for those gnarly bees, then I may have been able to catch you before you did. In terms of Ash here, I believe you have his sword."

It was at this moment, Makenna knew, she screwed up. Ethelinda had tricked her. She told her to keep the scroll and sword only to get dragged into this mess all over again! Perhaps though, she could find a way to get herself out of it for good this time around? If she returned the stupid scroll and sword now, then maybe the magical beings would leave her alone and find somebody else to take on The Mincing. Makenna wanted no part of this. She was not the one destined to fight him and his pet. Surely there had to be another fairy out there, right?

With these thoughts swirling around in her head like an ice cream sundae, Makenna cracked a small, sneaky smile, "All right. If you insist. I will return the sword and scroll." Both Evelyn and Silvey turned on suspicious faces as she headed towards her bed. Annoyed and angry, the Metamorphic Fairy dragged Crusader and the mysterious scroll out from under her bed, including Crusader's scabbard, and prepared to return them, but something stopped her. A feeling. An instinct. Her fairy instincts were again telling her to not give up. Makenna tried her best to ignore them and narrowed her eyebrows to an angry position again. Approaching Ash, she held the mysterious scroll out to him and said, "First things first, Ash, here's the scroll." The Scottish Wizard Fairy stared confusingly at the piece of paper she held. "This is the scroll the Wizard Fairy wanted us to find." Makenna explained, "Don't you remember?" Though he didn't, Ash went ahead and took the scroll, but his memory didn't return at its touch. Everything was too confusing for him right now. It was causing his head to hurt again, and he reached for it. The headache told him he wanted to remember, but he just couldn't. It was impossible without Crusader.

        Evelyn soon landed on his shoulder, and she rested her hand on his scratched up cheek.

To Makenna, she waved her free hand and said, "The scroll is not exactly what he needs, Miss Delling. Crusader is. All you need to do is return her, and old Ash will be back. I promise." Makenna couldn't though. Crusader had once again glued herself to her hand. It was as if Crusader herself did not want to leave the Metamorphic Fairy. The girl's face changed from angry to upset, and she peered gloomily down on the sword. Silvey soon approached her right side and glanced into her face. Evelyn held out her tiny hand and gestured with it, "Come on, young'un. Let's not wait for the dolphins to grow. Ash needs Crusader."

        Makenna almost returned Crusader this round, but she stopped herself an inch away from Ash's hand.

She knew what his, Silvey's, and Evelyn's dirty trick was and yelled, "I can't!" at them, "You can't keep pulling me into a battle I can't win! I don't give a bull shark about this anymore! Yeah, I said it! Find somebody else to do your dirty work!" Aside from the annoyance, the feeling inside her was too great. No matter how hard she tried, she could not give up Crusader. It was insane! As quick as a flash, Makenna snatched up Crusader's scabbard and put it on. From there, she slipped the sword in it and shoved her way past Ash and Evelyn. She knocked Ash's glasses clean off his face when she did.

The Metamorphic Fairy sprinted out of her room, crying from fear, and stormed down the staircase that led to the kitchen.

Mr. Delling, who sat at the table again reading his newspaper, saw her and said, "Oh, hey, Makenna! Where're you off to?"

"To the crab dock!" Makenna shouted as she passed him without even meeting his eyes, "I can't stand hanging around magical beings who want to kill me!" She threw open the front door and sprinted down the staircase as fast as her legs could carry her.

        Back in her room, Evelyn and Silvey met eyes as Ash picked up his glasses and wiped them off. Smiles crept across their faces, and they nodded at each other. Silvey jogged over to where Makenna had thrown her two necklaces and picked them up in her mouth. Once she had them, she joined Ash and Evelyn, and they together piled out of the room.

As they started down the hallway, Evelyn glanced at the fairy dog and said, "She's the one, Silvey. Her destiny lies with both the human and fairy worlds. She is the next heir after Selene."

        Seabrook Island was beautiful that day. The palm trees and moss danced in the breeze, but Makenna refused to stop and admire the scenery. She just wanted to get the heck away from magical beings, magical beings that told her she was the one destined to save the human and fairy worlds. The stress was destroying her. With Crusader bouncing gently on her back, she ran on the road next to the Gator Pond and passed a bench – the same bench she sat at with Peter Nelson the year before, when she thought he loved her. Makenna had lost everything in the last couple of days – Raeven, Tracey, Ash, etc., and she wasn't going to let things get any worse! The only way to do that though, in her mind, was to avoid the battle against Poseidon. At one point while she ran, Makenna tripped on her dress and fell into the road. She scraped up her hands and one knee when she did but ignored the burning feeling and quickly got up again. As Makenna crept further and further away from the pond, a few alligators watched her from it, as well as some egrets, storks, and herons. Seabrook Island had them all. It wasn't long until a flock of seagulls and herons zoomed by her head and caused her hair to wave. Makenna picked up her pace and kept on running. She wasn't going to let these magical creeps pull her into a war she couldn't win, but that also planted another question in the girl's brain. Why did she refuse to give up Crusader if she knew she couldn't?

        Makenna ran so fast – it was no surprise she had to stop and take a breather at the end of the Gator Pond. Collapsing onto the silent road, she reached for her chest and inhaled breaths of air. This gave the two alligators, who still watched her from the pond, time to creep out of the water and slowly wobble in her direction. Strangely, these gators were much larger than the average alligator, but they weren't crocodiles. That was because they were a few of Poseidon's minions. Originally they had taken on the forms of two sharks, but Poseidon turned them into alligators so they could hide in the pond and wait for Makenna to leave her house. As they crept closer and closer to her, they growled and showed their sword-like teeth that dripped with saliva. Makenna, still trying to catch her breath, heard them and gasped. Whirling around, her eyes widened at the sight of the monster alligators.

They swished their tails back and forth and growled again. "AHH!!" the Metamorphic Fairy screeched, and she fell back on her bum, "What do you alligators want?! I do not have chicken legs! My brother's the one who has them!" Poseidon's minions ignored her and continued to creep up on the Metamorphic Fairy. She quickly leaped to her feet and turned to make a run for it, but she was forced to stop when another monster-sized alligator appeared from out of nowhere and headed towards her too! If her day could not get any worse, Makenna was now surrounded on each side by alligators! On the bright side though, she knew these were the Octopus Man's minions. They were just shapeshifters.

        Silvey, Ash, and Evelyn soon emerged from around the corner – a fair distance away from Makenna, and Ash's jaw dropped to the ground when he saw her cornered, "Makenna!"

"Makenna!" Silvey yelled after him. Both she and Ash sprinted in the direction of the fifteen-year-old fairy and Poseidon's alligator minions.

While they ran, Ash yelled, "No! Leave her alone! Makenna!" Evelyn stayed behind. She had her thinking cap on and thoughtfully scratched her pale chin.

        Makenna Delling's first instinct was to grab Crusader.

She quickly held her in front of her to threaten the gators and yelled, "Back! Stay back! Find your lunch somewhere else!" However, she ended up tripping on her dress again and fell onto her bum for the second time. When she looked up from rubbing it, one of the gator's faces was an inch away from hers! It opened its long jaw, showing off its sharp teeth, and saliva dripped onto her knees and dress. Makenna's eyes again widened, and she silently yelped. Remembering Ethelinda's training, she quickly thrusted Crusader's blade forward. Amazingly, the magic worked this time around! The familiar beam of light shot out of the sword's blade, and it threw the alligator closest to her back! Pow! The gator crashed into the Gator Pond's grass and rolled into the water. Makenna merely stared. Did she really just do that?

Ethelinda's words echoed in her brain, "Throw your personality into the fight like what you did with the Devil's Heir. The battle will shift from hard to easy very fast." Would it? Even though Makenna was facing a risk of death – of getting chewed up into tiny little pieces by the gators' teeth, she had to try.

        The Metamorphic Fairy cleared her mind and calmed herself down. Okay, she just had to be herself. She couldn't copy Ash and Tracey's fighting styles. She had her own, for she was Makenna Delling. She still held onto Crusader but lowered her a bit. Like what she did with the Heir, she closed her eyes and positioned herself in first position. Makenna started to dance, much faster this time, and it included a lot of different ballet moves. With every twirl, magic exploded from Crusader's blade and crashed into the alligators! Pow! Pow! Pow! Ash and Silvey stopped themselves from running any closer when they saw this.

Both their jaws dropped to the ground, and Silvey told herself, "She's throwing her personality into the fight, just like with the Devil's Heir!"

        Makenna couldn't help but to smile while she danced. Who knew fighting against three monster alligators could be this fun? Dancing towards the Gator Pond, it was here where she put the surfing part of her personality into the battle. With Crusader's help, Makenna picked herself up from the ground and summoned a huge wave behind her. Birds took off in flight when it lifted into the air.

Once airborne, Makenna used the sword as a surfboard. Her smile did not leave her face. She tossed Crusader on top of the wave and leaped onto her blade, ordering it to approach the alligators. As it did, she buried herself into the massive wall of water. It was clear enough for her to look out and see Poseidon's minions. Once it reached them, the wave danced around the three alligators like it was a flittering fly. It moved so fast that they lost their bearings and became dizzy. Within a matter of seconds, Makenna's wave swamped them and tossed them into the sky like they were three huge rag dolls! As they fell towards the road, the Metamorphic Fairy rode Crusader to the crest of the wave and acted out an air reverse as well as a big air. They together threw themselves out of its watery wall and landed on the road.

Makenna quickly picked up Crusader, with her feet, and tossed her into her hands again during this. When she touched the road's concrete, she changed her smile to a serious face and took deep breaths as she held the sword out to the right. Sweat fountained down her forehead and neck as she waited for a sign of movement to come from the wave's remnants.

        Poseidon's minions had been slowed down by the spell but not beaten. They dragged themselves out of the water and limped towards Makenna in a babyish formation. Right here, she did something she never thought she could do. Makenna Delling performed her very first Special Spell! She remembered the spell Ash used against the Kraken's mirage and attempted to mimic it.

Tossing Crusader to the ground, she put her feet together and stood up straight. Blue and pink magic surrounded the Metamorphic Fairy as she moved her hands up towards her head and crossed them in front of each other a few times. Lowering them, she held her arms straight out, like Ash, and a large, dark gray raincloud appeared over the alligator's heads. Makenna punched at the cloud with her scraped and bleeding fist, and right at her command, another huge lightning bolt escaped the cloud (this one was blue and pink) and exploded in front of the three alligator minions! The impact knocked them unconscious. They were thrown into the sky for the second time and crashed into the woods on the other side of the Gator Pond. When they hit the trees, there was a great blast of light. Then, just like that, the three monster alligators disappeared. They were on their way back to the Bermuda Triangle. Poseidon would not be happy when he heard Makenna beat them.

        The teenager found herself totally exhausted after the fight and Special Spell. So far, she had used up a lot of magic. She needed to limit her use of it. If she didn't, then no doubt about it she would be the next fairy facing magetical shock. Makenna flopped down on her butt in the road next to Crusader and took deep breaths. She tried to recover from the horror she had just faced, but the image of the alligator's sword-like teeth just inches away from her neck replayed itself over and over again in her head.

Now that things had calmed down a bit, Ash and Silvey were able to run towards her again. Evelyn, who was still floating in her spot, smiled and crossed her arms.

To herself, she said, "I knew she could do it. I knew Makenna could perform her very first Special Spell."

        Makenna saw Ash and Silvey running towards her and peered down on her scraped up, bleeding hands and knee. She pulled her dress down on her knee and hid her hands behind her back. Ash was the first one to reach her.

Kneeling, he clutched his own knee and asked her, "Are-Are you all-all right?"

Makenna quickly nodded and answered, "Yes! What makes you think I'm not, Ash scum?" Ash ignored her rude response and grabbed hold of her arms. He pulled her hands in front of him and examined the scraps. Makenna flinched while he did this and shakily said, "I-I fell."

"Loo-Looks that way-way, ye-yes," explained the Wizard Fairy, "The-These scraps don't look too-too bad. As-As brave as you-you are, young-young lady, tha-that does not make you invincible."

"Young lady? My name is Makenna. Why are you calling me 'young lady' all of a sudden?"

"We-Well, I feel ba-bad call-calling ya-ya by your re-real name when I bare-barely know ya."

"What are you talking about? You do know me! You saved me from the Kraken's mirage and went with me when the Wizard Fairy gave us a clue to where the scroll was!"

"I-I did?"

"Yes! Oh, Ash, what is wrong with you? Why are you stuttering so much? Does it have to do with your concussion?"

        "That's the main reason, yes," explained Evelyn, "Please don't be hard on him, Miss Delling. He's just trying to learn how to speak again."

"Speak again? Why? He was talking fine before the Devil knocked him out. How is that he all of a sudden can't speak properly?" Evelyn wanted to explain to her that Ash had just come back from the dead, but she didn't want to see Makenna's face when she did. She decided that now wasn't the best time to tell her. Right now, she had to help him regain his lost memories and train for her fight against the Octopus Man.

With these thoughts in mind, the fairy sprite shook her head and answered, "I can't tell you right now, Miss Delling."

 "What? Why?" Makenna stared at her, but Evelyn said nothing more, and it wasn't long until silence jumped between the fairy, fairy sprite, fairy dog, and Wizard Fairy. Everybody was lost in their own train of thought.