I charge at her headfirst, annoyed. I've had it with this stupid, cocky Obsidian. I ram her wing and she stops me with a claw, sending me back into the air but I land hard on my feet. I hear a crack but I ignore it.

Avery and Torch charge together, Torch blasting Nethera's long tail with fire and Avery sending the hot blob into the wall. New, stronger Obsidian takes its place and the queen sends Torch flying into me and Avery dodges, but Nethera breathes a spray of green fire onto her, burning her wings. Avery skids to the ground.

I run straight at Nethera, my trident alight in golden energy. Sliding under her, I slam right into her stomach. She stumbles back a bit and falls right on top of me. Freezing the floor, I slide out before she falls, but her massive bulk traps my tail and a sharp pain and the noise of my tailbone being crushed are signs that I won't be getting out until she designates I can.

Trying to slide away, I sit there, stuck. Nethera laughs and picks me up by my broken tail, sending waves of pain up my spine. She throws me into the wall, and Avery tries to fly up to break my fall, but she is unsuccessful. Her burned wings flap helplessly as I thud onto the steely ground. I lay there, bruised to the point where I can no longer stand, and watch helplessly as Nethera blasts Avery again. Avery jumps out of the way, and the wall singes and melts.

Avery aims a blast at Nethera, who is pushed way back into her throne.

"But of course." Dark Rainbow murmurs for the first time in the battle.

She whispers something into Torch's ear which I just make out pieces of.

"Dragons... chest... hole... weakness."

Squinting up, I see a tiny chink in Nethera's chest. How are we supposed to get up there?

Torch runs up to Nethera and blasts her, aiming for the chest, but it hits her in the right eye instead. Nethera screams in pain as she blinks to put out the fire in her eye. The eye is burned away, and she roars at all of us, "THAT'S IT. I AM DONE PLAYING WITH YOU FOOLS. I AM GOING TO HANG YOU IN THE MOST PAINFUL PLACE POSSIBLE AND TORTURE YOU UNTIL EVERY BIT OF FEAR AND PAIN IS TAKEN FROM YOUR BODY!"

A purple aura which condenses into the form of a black Canira forms above her head, much like the aura Natrina summoned when we fought her. A dark aura forces us back, a powerful, infinite force pulsing across the room, making an awful grinding sound that makes me want to claw out my ears.

"Can't fight this, hmm? Unlike Natrina, I can assure you I will not stop out of mercy."

Avery stands up for a few seconds, covering her face with her wings, but in a burst of pink energy that falls away from her, she crumples to the ground, her horn smoking.

Torch still stands, his fire streaming backwards as he struggles to stand. He breathes one powerful fireball at Nethera's heart but the aura forces it down and it only singes her claws on her right side, which she doesn't even bother to reform.

"As I told you!" She yells over the din, "You all failed in the end. Useless, stupid pawns of fate. Destiny, little ones, can never be avoided. It's a path that we all must follow. Some of us were born for glory and the others simply... fade."

Just then, Dark Rainbow stands up, her ears blowing back from the force of the shadowy energy. "Once, I thought my destiny was to defeat the Imperial Three. Yet I still stand beside them in the final battle as friends. Once, I thought that my destiny was to spend the rest of my days as the ones of this summer, sleeping under the willow tree, but you burned it down. I learned that once, my destiny was to save a pack of wolves from your Obsidians."

"Please, that was just a little revenge kill. It wasn't even a big deal." Nethera complains, unmoved by Dark Rainbow's speech.

Wolves? I remember seeing something, once. Two amber eyes of a black wolf, standing behind her one day at the tree. What on Dreamland...

"Once, I thought all these things, but in the end I chose to be here. I chose to save Torch when destiny decreed that he would die. Destiny brought us here, but it's not going to decide this battle. There are forces more powerful than destiny, Nethera."

"Like what?" she says, bored. With a flap of her giant wings, the power of the energy intensifies, but Dark Rainbow yells:

"Love! Leadership! Determination! Trust... and Hope."

Nethera's eyes widen as the red on Dark Rainbow's paws begin to glow through the almost stifling dark. "There's always a little bit of hope left, even if it seems like there's nothing left. A bit of light in every darkness... A light that we all carry on, from Verhamera herself to the little Canira who play in the streets alone."

The rest of her colors light up, and now, more prevalent then ever, I can see the black wolf behind her. A name comes to my mind, and I say it silently to myself, "Storm Runner."

That's when I realize what she's about to do. One small tear falls on the floor of the Factory, almost made invisible by the lights, but I hear her whisper, "I'm sorry... but this is my real destiny."

She leaps up into the air, surrounded by a beautiful whirlwind of colors, and pulls out the bloody shard from her throat. As blood spills out of the now open wound, Dark Rainbow says, "Form of a dragon, huh, Nethera? Dragons are known for nearly impenetrable armor... except for one place."

Nethera has no time to react as Dark Rainbow takes the shard in her mouth and dives in at blinding speed to wedge the tiny shard into Nethera's throat, the one small chink in her armor.

For a second my world is just light and color, and I hear Dark Rainbow scream as the last wisps of green fire streak through the ashes. Shards of obsidian explode everywhere and I clutch the steely ground for dear life.

When everything clears I stagger to my feet. Along the wounds from before are brand new cuts made by the flying obsidian. One shard is stuck in my tail, although not fatally deep. Torch's fire is out, but he reignites it quickly, searching for Dark Rainbow. Avery, too, has wounds but she looks the best out of all of us. Avery and I run to Torch, who is weeping over a body. I don't even recognize her at first. The rainbows are gone, leaving just a deep black Canira with blue eyes that are beginning to fog over already. Her tail is a bloody stump, her wings singed to the bone and her chest is one blanket of russet red dried blood.

"Dark Rainbow... why..."

She brushes his cheek with one paw. "You're free now. No more shadows. No more fear. No one else will ever be taken again. It was... a good way to go."

"No. I'm going to save you. Just let me... Avery?!"

Avery walks over, but Dark Rainbow shakes her head. "I'm going to go home, Torch."

"They burned the willow tree."

"I know. I mean the stars. Storm Runner is already here to take me home. I'm sorry I never got to explain, but... Natrina will know most of it. Ask her. And maybe... maybe the Ancients believe in third chances." She chuckles hoarsely, which turns into a cough.

"I... Dark Rainbow..."

"I love you, Torch."

He reaches down, and they kiss until her heartbeat stops. He pulls away, crying. "I... I love you too."

He turns to Avery and I. "You know how to wipe their data mainframe? Get rid of all of it?"

I nod. "It'll close all the portals and that's all we need."

"Do it."

I punch a simple code into a nearby computer, and then continue to hit random buttons in frustration when I can't find the shutdown. I see a tiny, glowing blue button hidden between the much larger ones, and knowing Nethera, who had ruled for so long would never set up much in defense, I press it without hesitation.

Behind Nethera's now disintegrated throne, I see a portal open. If Nethera has a portal in her throne room, of course it goes straight to the heart of Dreamland. Of course, we just need to get in before it closes and leaves us here forever. Running across the empty room, I see Nethera's crown. I pick it up, not wanting to leave it here and jump into the portal behind Avery and Torch a second before it closes.

We turn up in the middle of a city, right in front of Princess Puppy-Spot's castle. It's a huge, lopsided building which looks like it's had a million renovations over the eons. Limping up to the door with my friends to tell the princess about our defeat of the Obsidians, I twirl the crown around my paw and say, "Do you think I should keep it? I'd like to be the ruler of Space, plus I think I'd look good in this color. Kind of a rubyish-pink, no?"

They both laugh. I knock on the door, and wait a few minutes. PPS herself opens the door, looking tired as we are but still lively. A crown much like the one I have on my paw, but with a blue gem instead, rests on her head, curling under her ears."You made it after all. I'm so so so so very sorry I didn't get to meet you before you went out. I'm not allowed to interfere anymore." She sighs. "Too powerful or whatever. If I start breaking the rules, then they can too. If good is allowed to fight dirty, then the dark side just gets darker. Point being, you guys are capital-A amazing." She bows. "Hey, where's the other one? The one with the rainbow paws."

Torch looks sullen and I kick a rock across PPS's doormat.

"Oh." she says, "I... I see." The Queen (even if she'd rather just be princess under Verhamera) of Dreamland has probably seen worse than even we have. More battles, more deaths, more everything. "Come on in, and I'll take that." She grabs the diadem from me.

As I go inside, I look up at the sky. It's blue, with clouds scattered across the sky like icebergs on the open sea. Over it all, two arcs of color stand triumphantly- a double rainbow.