Hi everyone, SK here.

First if you wanna understand the chapter title, just look at chapter 20 and then back at this one.  You'll understand.  Jeez I can't believe this is the chapter that I'm going to start 2021 off with.. *cue nervous laughter*

Second, where did we leave off?  Oh yeah, Valerie just got told an unsettling truth.  Let's see what happens... BUT FIRST on Friday I saw the The Fairy's Cure (you know, this book's prequel) is ranking #1 in AMOURSHIPPING.  Like seriously how- that came from out of nowhere.  So thank you so much, that was a great way to wake up to the new year for me that's for sure :')

Anyway, be sure to (try and) enjoy this chapter.

!!! WARNINGS: Bad Language

Valerie

"I- what!?"  I sputter, trying to keep my thoughts under control.  I'm almost 500 years old!?  I have past lives!?  Does that mean I only have 500 years left to live!?

"I know this is a lot to process," begins the Queen, clearly trying to stop me from hyperventilating and overthinking this but it's too late, I'm already doing both of those things.  

"I just- how could Heliux and Layra not tell me," my words are coming out too fast, all at once.  Everything is happening so fast, too fast, so many things that have happened within the span of 48 hours that I'm supposed to be able to fucking process and be okay with, because how is one person supposed to be able to do that?  

Her Majesty is clearly trying to reason with me.  "I'm sure they were waiting for a good time to tell you, considering all that's happened to you during the past couple of days," she says calmly, trying to be reassuring. 

I recoil away from her.  "How do you know what happened?"

"Queens and Kings have the Element of Time," she tells me point-blank.  "We can see every moment up until the end."

I'm not going to question what the end is right now.  

Hearing footsteps echoing against the porcelain tiles, I turn to see Kya and Sylkie step up, clearly reading the situation.  "Let's take a break from this Time-seeing stuff for now," the latter urges.

Kya nods in agreement.  "You two should go over some of the Queen spells instead."

Despite everything, this still manages to peak my curiosity.  I glance at Her Majesty who's currently in the corner of my vision.  "Queen spells?"

The Queen perks up once again, glancing gratefully at both of the Spirit Soldiers.  I'm still here, you know.  "Those are spells that can only be performed by me- and now you," she tells me eagerly.  "Would you like to learn some?"

I find myself nodding slowly.  "Sure."

The rest of the Spirit Soldiers clear out from around the doors to the room, giving the Queen and I space to exit.  We begin to walk back down the hallway in the direction of the entrance corridor that we originally came from.

"Most Queen spells require you to utilize the Sapphire Staff for the whole of it, but since your soul is not the one connected to it, you won't be able to practice those spells," says Her Majesty, who seems to be thinking out loud as we walk.  I glance at her curiously as she continues.  "There is one spell that you can try; well, a smaller version of it of course."

"Oh?" I ask.  "What does the spell do?"

"It's called the Fae's Venom," she answers, continuing to explain the spell and its effects.  "Only humans are affected by it.  A Queen or King can use it in multiple ways; no matter how they use it, the spell's effect will always remain the same.  The user must take on a specific mindset beforehand, and those same thoughts, ideas, stress, pain... all of them get magnified in a sense and transferred to the humans you choose to affect.  It's called the Fae's Venom, but it can be used both ways... just remember that here, like attracts like.  If you are not targeting a specific group of people, positive emotions will always go to the people you love and negative emotions will always go to the people you hate-"

"But what if I-"

"Don't know a person?" Her Majesty finishes my question for me.  "If you're not affecting a specific group of people with the spell, they will get affected either way.  But no matter what, people you love or care about in some way shape or form will never get affected by the negative version of this spell, and vice versa.  Now, there are two parts of this spell; the poison, and the cure.  The poison can be done without the Sapphire Staff, you just have to say these words- erm, Star?"

"The onset of pain sparks the Venom of the Fae," Star pipes up when prompted.  When I look at her weirdly, she explains, "Alara can't say the words or else the spell activates.  Since you're also a Queen, you can't say them either unless you want to actually do the spell."  She shrugs her shoulders up and down, mumbling about stupid fairy logic.

"Thanks," says the Queen.  She turns to me.  "Any questions?"

"So, if I heard right," I begin, "I'm going to be doing this Fae's Venom spell- the positive version of it anyway.  But how am I supposed to do it if I'm in the fairy world with no..." I trail off, glancing at the Spirit Soldiers who are very much not fairies and who are very much still humans.

Brooklyn is quick to shake her head when she realizes my train of thought.  "That's not happening," she stresses.  "We're going into the human world, right Alara?"

I glance at the Queen in shock.  Surely not, right?

To my surprise, she nods just as we arrive into the entrance corridor, the one with the throne and the colourful torches.  She casts me a glance, and upon seeing my uncertain expression, adds, "Don't worry yourself too much, we'll only be going out for less than an hour, and I pro..." she trails away.  "I can tell you that we'll try our hardest to stay out of sight from any people."

"Okay..."  I won't lie, I'm not exactly certain about this, especially taking into consideration what rules the fairies have in place about going back to the human world.  But I guess if the Queen herself is allowing this to happen, it must be okay right?  After all that's happened recently, there can't be anything that bad coming out of this, right?  For Arceus's sake, I'm going to be doing the positive version of the spell!  I'm going to help someone, or someones!  Maybe I worry too much.

"Do we have to walk all the way there?" I ask the Queen.

She shakes her head.  "Only part way.  We just have to get ourselves within portal range, and then we can be in the human world in the blink of an eye.  It should take us about half an hour to reach that point."

Star sounds particularly eager.  "Come on you two, stop your blabbering, let's get going!"

"Half an hour is already too much for me," Brooklyn jokes, earning a small smile from me.  My stress lessens a bit.  Valerie, just don't overthink this like you do everything, and you'll be good.

Leaf

"I'm right here, you know."  

Red and I are cuddled together at Sacri Parc, just sitting on the grass on some blanket he brought with him.  He's sitting up, his arms around my torso and waist, while I lean my head on his shoulder.

I turn my head slightly upwards to see his face.  "You've said that a million times already."

"I didn't."

"No, you did, I counted."

I know Red must be smiling at that, but I can't.  I just feel... numb.  It's like there's anesthesia pumping through my soul and my heart.

"How about you talk and I listen," I murmur.  I honestly don't feel like talking right now.  Even being out here in this public park is a little too much.

"If that's what you want, then that's what I'll do," he returns promptly.  He pauses for a little bit, which instinctively makes me nervous.  Red always makes these little pauses when he's about to say something that could either excite me greatly or make me very upset or nervous.  "The other day, I had a very interesting meeting with the Council... and Leaf, I'll need your help.  Well, your entire club's help."

Red's apparent need temporarily pulls me out of my numbness.  "What's going on?"

"Fairies are real," he mumbles.

This just makes me think of one of the last things Valerie told us.  "Fairies are real, I spent the night with them," I vaguely remember her saying.  Valerie held the key to everything, but now she's gone... but Red might have something for us.  My best friend may be dead, but we can prove her cause true in her honour.  Something, anything we can do for her is better than nothing.  "You got real proof?" I ask him, my voice seemingly coming to life again.  Something inside me has changed, maybe it's because I can help lessen the burden of my friend's death.  

"You know how we have cameras in that forest outside of Pallet Town?" he asks.

"Yeah?"

"Well, about a day ago they caught some odd footage.  It traveled around quickly- it made it to me within hours.  Actually, here."  Red fumbles in his pocket, and pulls out his phone.  He taps on the screen a couple of times and hands it to me.  "I probably shouldn't be showing you this, but you're going to see it anyway... I should warn you, the footage is a little vi-"

"Violent?  You know I don't care about that," I scoff at him.  Well, I do, but now is an exception.  I hit play and watch with sheer shock and horror as I see two fairies- two things that are very clearly fairies- murder someone.  Wait.. I look closer...

"Holy shit, that's Valerie's dad they're killing," I say quickly.  My mind, the same one that's been dead for the past day and a half, suddenly springs to life.  "Valerie said something before she... she said that she had met her parents and they were both fairies.  Those two are probably her parents who are looking to get revenge for the shit that that guy put Valerie through-"  Another thought comes to mind, and I freeze.

"What is it?" prompts Red.

"There has to be a reason that Valerie's fairy parents came out of nowhere to kill her dad- which, thank Arceus-"

"Leaf!" exclaims Red.  "No matter what he did, he still died."

"But he deserved it."  I eye him.

He lets out a sigh.  "I suppose you're right."

"As I was saying," I huff, "Valerie's always had a logical thinking process, and she clearly got it from somewhere that wasn't her dad- so her parents must be logical as well.  Maybe they killed him because they just found out about him... but how would they do that?  If Valerie told them herself... yes, it could've happened while she was with them that night, but what if it happened after she... you know?"  I stare at Red.  "Red, what if she became a fairy?"

My boyfriend stares at me, but not with a crazy look.  That's one of the things I love about him, he never thinks I'm crazy even when I probably am.  "You mean she might be alive, and could help us?  Because Leaf, I know you like the fairies and all, but if these two are just easily killing a grown adult man, they might not be the peaceful creatures that you think them to be.  We need to learn more about them."

"She might be alive," I whisper.  "My best friend might still be alive."  I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding.

"Don't put too much on yourself," warns Red, sounding concerned.  "I don't want you to lead yourself up to failure."

"I know," I admit, because in reality these are just hunches and not actual conclusions based on facts.  "But she's my best friend.  We grew up together.  We were there for everything, it can't end like this.  It just can't, so I'm going to do everything in my power to find her."

Valerie

Stepping into the human world when I am most definitely not a human anymore is very... strange.  We're sitting on the edge of Sacri Parc, a green space I suggested to Her Majesty to travel to because it's traveled frequently by the people of Pallet Town.  The eleven of us are hiding in the bushes, out of sight from human eyes for now at least.  I have to stop my heart from pounding, this spell is making me nervous in addition to the TEN THOUSAND OTHER stressful thoughts going through my mind right now.

I also don't want to think about the fact that some of my friends could be in this park, we hung out here frequently and the fact that they could be here is messing with my head.  How am I supposed to face- but not really face- them now, especially now that I'm a fairy?  

You're overthinking this.  Stop assuming your friends are going to be here when you know they should be at school right now.

"So what should I do?"  I turn toward the Queen, the rest of the Spirit Soldiers crowded around us.  

"Well, since you're performing the positive version of this spell, do you have any person or people in mind that you would like to affect?" Her Majesty asks me.  

"There was a group of friends I had in my human life," I tell her.  "There were nine of them- well, ten of them if you count my best friend's boyfriend.  He was pretty good to all of us.  I don't want them to be suffering right now because of me, so I think I'd like to target them."  I hate the way how "target them" leaves a sour taste on my tongue.  It sounds like I'm going to assassinate them or something.  Nope, now that I'm a fairy with magic none of my friends are getting hurt or assassinated on my watch... although why would they get assassinated in the first place, they're just teenagers!  ARGH, FOCUS!

The Queen nods.  "That sounds like a good idea.  Should I explain how to activate the spell- wait, you remember the words you need to say, right?"

I nod.  The onset of pain sparks the Venom of the Fae.  "I remember."

"Good.  Remember, the emotions that you are currently feeling are the ones that will be transferred to those people.  You must also be wary of something that happens when you perform Queen's spells..."

I cock my head at her.  "What is it?"  Oh boy, another thing to worry about, 'yay'.

"It's not a big deal," she presses, probably seeing my expression.  "When you perform Queen's spells, you enter this void.  All Queen's spells are activated by a phrase- you know this one of course- and as soon as you say it you are transported to that void.  Mentally transported of course, you won't physically move an inch.  Queen's spells require one to access their inner magical abilities; that's why in this void, you meet your inner conscious.  It's very interesting, actually."

My heart begins to pound again.  "This isn't making me feel any better, Alara.  I'm nervous."

"Don't be nervous," the Queen says in what I think is a reassuring tone, but then she follows up with, "No, really, don't be nervous.  Those are negative emotions you don't want to be anywhere near the positive version of the spell- they'll taint it and turn it into the opposite of what you want."

I gulp.  No pressure, right?  "I- okay.  Do I just say the words?"  Might as well get it over with.  Maybe after we can have lunch, I am a bit hungry.

"Yes."

"Good luck!" Star exclaims, giving me a thumbs up.  The other Spirit Soldiers echo her words.

"Thanks," I tell them.  I close my eyes, whispering,

"The onset of pain sparks the Venom of the Fae."

There's a flash underneath my eyelids, and when I open them I am definitely not in the park anymore.  It's hard to explain where exactly I am, but the walls are crystalline, made of many panels.  It's almost like I'm standing on the inside of a diamond made of gold.  Well, a diamond and an opal.  There are dark swirls in the gold.

"Welcome," says a voice that sounds like a chilling breath of wind.  "Valerie."

"Who are you?" I ask.  "And where am I?"

"I'm you," it says.  "And where you are is inside yourself."

"That's definitely not vague at all," I think, then realize I did not in fact think it, but the voice said it.  I gape in shock as a white shadow forms in front of me, a white shadow that looks like me but with a smile that is far too wide.

"Your thoughts are my words," it- or she?- says, making me shiver at the strangeness.  "Now, I take it you want to spread the Fae's Venom."

"Why do you look so..."

"Evil?  Horrific?  Creepy?" the being offers.  It smiles.  "I'm a representation of your deepest thoughts and desires.  The feelings that you try to suppress recreate me into what I am.  I didn't always look like this.  In fact, I was more... colourful a few days ago.  But, thanks to all of that sickly sweet trauma, you've made me what I am now."

This is-

"so wrong.  Yes, I get it.  Now, tell me what you're doing here so we can get it done and you can leave me in peace," says the being.  The smile begins to fall flat and I don't want to bother this th-

"I'm your damn conscious, not a 'thing'," it spits out.  "Now stop narrating your damn life and tell me what you want!"

I suck in a breath.  "I want to spread the Venom of the Fae to my friends to make them feel not as sad about my departure from humanity."

"The positive version?" my conscious slurs, its voice silky smooth.  "Why?"

I eye it squarely.  "Why not?"

"Save it," it says crossly.  "I know what you want.  You want revenge against your parents for abandoning you, for hiding the truth from you, for everything they did to prevent you from living."  The shadow comes up to me, dragging its misty finger on my chin.  "You want revenge against August for rejecting your love and for bringing you into the fairy world to begin with."  Its smile grows wider.  "You want revenge against humanity for belittling you and your friends, for hurting you when you're down, for everything that is wrong with it."

It whispers in my ear.  "Think about it.  The pain, the hurt, it will feel so good to make them all feel what you feel.  Despair, distrust, hatred of each other."

I don't say anything yet.  "Valerie, I'm you and you're me.  My wants are your needs.  You need to make them suffer, you don't fucking deserve to go through all of that shit.  They expect you to just pull through and be just fine well-"

"I'm not fucking fine," I spit out.  "Everyone I know caused me all of this pain and I hate it."

The smile grows wider.  "Exactly.  Now, let's get revenge!"

"How?" I let out a breath.  I curl my hands into fists.  "The spell only targets humans, and the negative version will leave out those I love."  I don't care anymore, I couldn't care less.  I need to get rid of this pain and this is the only way how.  No one else is helping, so I'm going to do it myself.

"Red, Leaf, and the others can be spared.  It won't make a difference when the rest of humanity is victim to our power."

"Our power?"

"Valerie, you have three Elements.  Space, Spirits, and Time.  Those alone make you the most powerful fairy in the universe, and when you receive eight more Elements you will be able to do whatever you so desire.  Right now, this, this is easy.  Child's play."

I grit my teeth.  "Tell me what to do."

"Let your despair course through your veins."  The shadow steps in front of me, holding its arms out wide.  "Your hatred for the fairies that took your human life away from you.  To the whole of humanity who deserves to suffer."

"They deserve to suffer."  My hands start to burn and, as if I'd known how to do this my whole life, I form a ball of black magic between them.  It grows larger and larger as I think about all that's happened within the past few days.

The shit my friends and I went through just for being in our club.

My father's attempt to kill me.

Finding my parents, who abandoned me.

My father actually killing me.

Losing my last two years of life.

Losing my friends.

Becoming the next Queen.

My failed confession to August.

My parents hiding things from me once again.

Everything is just

T o O

m u

C

h

The ball escapes my hands, growing too wide to contain.  It expands like a shock wave outward, and I watch as it crosses through the bounds of this void into the real world.

"What will they feel?" I ask, feeling... excited.  Strangely excited.  This is so exhilarating.

The being grins.  "They will be full of hate and distrust for each other, even those they used to call close.  Their worlds will begin to looks like their personal version of hell- and!  That's not even the best part!  They, thanks to you, will all hate the fairies.  Isn't it wonderful?"  It smiles wider, wider still, and suddenly the smile is bigger than its face.  "Your dreams have come true."

I smile too, then... I stop.  My adrenaline dies down.  

Holy fuck, what have I done.

Suddenly, the crystal starts to crack and my conscious waves at me.  "Now, before you start blaming me," it says as the world falls apart, "this was, technically, your idea."

~~~~~~~~~~

I wake up to a... very, very different scene.

The Queen and her Soldiers are looking at me in pure shock.  I glance outward, because apparently the blast of my spell blew the leaves of the bushes away, giving me a clear view to the rest of the park- everyone there look like they're in pure agony.  I- shit.  I spot Red and Leaf in the distance, looking confused at everyone else.  I can't even deal with seeing Leaf because I need to deal with whatever damage I just caused.

"What did you-"  I turn back to Her Majesty, who looks almost afraid... of me.  She's afraid of me.  Me.  "What did you do?"

Before I can answer, I hear a scream and turn in its direction.  A girl is pointing at me, pointing at us, and more and more people begin to take notice.  They begin to yell, in fear and anger, and after the yelling, they run.

At us.

I look to the Queen to make a portal but she shakes her head, quickly getting to her feet as the humans draw closer.  If they get us, the world might as well end.  "No time," she says breathlessly.

"RUN!"

Leaf

I saw it first, it was like a black ripple in a pond except there's no water and it was just flying through the air.  It passed through me and Red, and although I feel nothing- and so does he, thank Arceus- I can see others crouched down in pure agony.  Their eyes are wild and they look like they got infected by some kind of virus.

I huddle closer to Red, not knowing if anyone will come attack us or not.  Red has all six of his Pokemon with him, and he readies his Pokeballs in case it comes to a fight.

Suddenly, a woman screams and I turn to where she's pointing.  I see what looks like a group of tiny people and two fa...fairies.  Holy shit.  I focus my vision, and my breath hitches when I see long, wavy brown hair.

Valerie's hair.

Valerie.

Valerie is right there.

She's alive.

They start to run, clearly trying to get away from the crowd now chasing them, but I leap to my feet and drag Red with me.  "We need to follow her!"

"Right behind you."

August

"HOW COULD YOU!?" Verity demands, slapping me for what must be at least the fifth or five millionth time.  "You broke her fucking heart, Auggs.  How could you just tell her I'm sorry and be done with it!?"

"Lay off, will you?" I scowl at her, forcing her hand away from me.  "Can you let me explain myself instead of being slapped?  I'd appreciate it."

She just growls at me and puts her hands on her hips.  I roll my eyes at her.  My sister has such an attitude...

"I told her I'm sorry, but she left before I could finish my sentence," I tell her.  "I was going to say that I was sorry for not kissing her back.  I wanted to.  I was just in shock.  I just..." I sit down on the ground, the stone a little warm from the sun.  "I don't know what to say to her."

"Well you can't just leave her like that!" Verity practically screams at me.  "You have to tell her that you love her too.  She's heartbroken right now, and-"

A noise rings in the air sounding like a thunder crack, only much louder and much more severe.  Verity and I look upwards and I spot other fairies also glancing at the giant dark shock wave that spreads out across the sky.  Verity and I look back at each other and say it in unison.

"Valerie."

Together, we race to find the Ministers, the Advisors, and our parents- luckily, we meet with them pretty quickly at the center of the Colony.

"That was the Venom of the Fae spell," Heliux explains breathlessly.  "It was too strong to be Her Majesty's doing.  It has to have been-"

"Valerie," Layra interjects.  "That magnitude of a spell, we need to make sure she, the Queen, and the Spirit Soldiers are alright.  That big of a spell would've alerted humans, and since she had to go into the human world to do it..."

"Heliux, where are they?" Mom asks the Minister, who quickly closes his eyes.  

He opens them a second later.  "They're running for sure.  But, Her Majesty was smart enough to avoid making a portal.  They're running toward the Route."

The Route.  The only physical connection from the fairy world to the human world.  The path that Legendary Pokemon use to deliver new fairies.  "We should go meet them there then," I suggest, but Dad shakes his head.

"Heliux, Layra, your Mom and I will go to the Route to check on Valerie and the Queen," he orders.  "You and the Advisors will stay here and watch over the fairies for now."

"But-"

"Understood," I say quickly, giving Verity a look before she can protest further.  I know she loves action, but she needs to know when to stick back.  "Good luck."

The four of them nod, acknowledging my statement before racing off.  As more fairies begin to crowd us, wondering what happened, I can't help but wonder something.

Magic is based off of emotion, and I know Valerie has been upset because of what I told her.

Is this my fault?

Is whatever she caused my fault?

Wow okay there was A LOT to unpack this chapter.  I'll lay it out for you:

Leaf believed that Valerie was still alive after seeing the footage of Heliux and Layra killing Val's adoptive dad.  Later, after Valerie did her thing, Leaf saw Valerie and now she and Red are chasing her down along with several others who are just doing it because the spell compels them to.

August *believe it or not* actually likes Valerie back.  He's just struggling finding a chance and a way to tell her how he really feels.

Valerie gave into her emotions and caused a disaster.  The main point of the spell is that all of humanity (sans her friends) now are aware of and hate fairies.  This probably can't be good... and once the fairies find out what she did, it probably won't also be good.

AAANNNNDDD now it is 12:30 AM because I have spent the last threeish hours editing chapters for TFC and this one (which, I've edited up to chapter 23 so far.. I've got to do the other 18 and the glossary tomorrow before school starts again) so I am going to bed.  Don't yell at me for not sleeping, I chose to do it.

Anyway, that's it for today.  Sorry for the long A/N >_<.  Catch you all next chapter... which I'm sure you're all anxious to read, given what's happened.