"You should stay behind." Morana whispered softly to Adrienne.
The blonde girl nodded, spinning one of her boomerangs in her hand.
Morana took a deep breath and walked up to where Cathedral was watching them, an eyebrow upraised.
"Cathedral, you must stop this!" Morana's voice turned from soft and gentle to a hiss, her silver daggers glinting coldly in her hands.
"What do you know about pain and loss!" Cathedral screamed, her grip on her tridant tightening, "You've never lost anything!"
The moment the words left Cathedral's mouth, Morana's eyes flickered emerald green.
"Never. Lost. Anything?" Morana asked quietly.
And at the worst moment possible, memories of the past began filling her head.
Please! Morana of the past begged, dragging her drowning lover upwards, desperately trying to break to the surface of the Ocean.
Yet the Ocean's grip on her lover didn't loosen.
You're the one who spoke, Mira.
No! Let him live! I'll serve you for the rest of Eternity, just let him go!
Morana paused, feeling the Ocean's grip loosen.
He's a mere mortal, he isn't even a threat to you! Morana pushed.
The Ocean was silent for a moment before replying. Mira, if this is what you wish for, then I will let him go.
Her tone was filled with sadness. I don't know how to put this into words, but... mortals tend to forget what others have done for them.
Just let him go! Morana begged one last time.
May you not regret it when the day comes, Mira.
The Ocean had released her lover, and as long as the goddess Eternity existed, Morana would forever be a siren.
Morana remembered how painful it had felt when he had simply forgotten her and made off with someone else.
She also remembered how the Ocean had taken pity on her and had permitted her to lead a normal life until it was time to sing.
"Fine, this is how it's going to be then," Morana murmured, her silver daggers sheening emerald green as she lifted them ever so slightly.
Cathedral noticed the movement, and so did Adrienne.
"Morana, no!" Adrienne whispered from her place behind the ferns as she clutched her boomerangs even tighter.
"Cathedral, you are not the only one who has ever known pain and loss; you are not the only one who has ever been upset; you are not the only one who wants revenge!" Morana bit her lip, continuing, "You're not the only one who isn't happy with reality, but this is how it is!"
Cathedral's lips curled into a sneer, but before she could say anything, Morana continued.
"You may be powerful, but you are no goddess, and even my mother, the Angel of Darkness, the goddess Alcina could not change the course of the world. You may be powerful, but you aren't fighting for the right thing, you are alone, while I am not."
Morana took a deep breath, and played her last card, a card she had never played before.
"You may be powerful, but I have the power of the Ocean Herself behind me. I am truly eternal, yet you are not."
"Oh yeah?" Cathedral asked, hoisting her tridant a little higher, "Then let us see whether the world truly favors you or not!"
Cathedral striked first.
She threw her tridant at Morana with a force so strong it nearly made her topple backwards.
Morana side stepped, ducking to avoid the razor sharp prongs of the cyan tridant. She lashed out with her venomous daggers, aiming for Cathedral's hands.
Cathedral snarled, letting loose a wip of energy that tried to wrap around Morana's daggers but was forced back by their poisonous aura.
Cathedral fought like she never had before.
She twirled her tridant and brought it down on Morana's head.
However, the older girl simply threw a shuriken and pushed the tridant away as though it were nothing.
Cathedral screamed in frustration, letting out all her feelings.
She fought, knowing that both Scott and Jimmy had betrayed her; she fought, knowing that the world was unfair; she fought, knowing that she wanted the world to change.
That knowledge empowered her.
It made her fight with a fierceness she never had before.
Though every single hit took so much energy it made her want to faint, she pushed on, knowing that Morana was the only thing in her path left.
Morana was fighting in a different way too.
She fought, thinking about all the people who had hurt her.
The Ocean, for giving her a poisonous voice; her mother, for wanting to destroy the world; the boy who had once been the love of her life, for betraying her; Cathedral, for turning evil; Scar, for taking Lauren away from her...
She tapped into the powers that had stayed silent since the day she left Lorrel.
She summoned the powers of the two oceans of Lorrel, the Emerrain Sea and the Nidora Ocean, the place where she was born.
She summoned the powers of her mother, which she had tried so hard to keep silent, knowing that using that power could result in the destruction of the world way easier than Cathedral's powers.
She summoned the powers of the Ocean, even though she once hated Her for ever existing.
She summoned the powers of her sisters, even though she hated them for sinking her ship and bringing her the life of sirenhood.
She summoned the powers of her true self, the power she had used that day against her mother.
And at that moment, Morana knew that Cathedral didn't stand a chance against her.
Calmly, Morana let loose five of her shurikens, each enveloped in a emerald green so bright it would have burned any mortal's gaze and left them blind.
Cathedral's tridant danced in her hand, trying to deflect every single hit from the girl who had saved her after her memories had been wiped.
With a roar of anger, Cathedral's eyes turned a pale lavender.
With one hand, she weilded her tridant, with the other, she summoned beams of energy which she used to try to blast Morana.
With each hit, Cathedral felt her energy slipping away.
But she didn't much care.
She stabbed forward with her tridant, only to be pushed back by a 70 foot tall wave.
Cathedral was momentarily struck by shock, but she recovered quickly, she snarled, blasting the wave apart and running forward, thrusting her tridant forward with such force that it left her grasp and slammed Morana backwards.
Morana glared at Cathedral, her eyes glowing a brighter emerald green as she pushed the tridant away and advanced.
"You betrayed me, Cathedral!" she snarled, her daggers dripping venom as she moved, "I helped you after you lost your memories, I helped you find yourself."
She paused, "And this is what you do in return? Create a gameshow where everyone will die? Is that all you can do?"
Cathedral screamed in rage, bringing down a wip of energy.
Morana didn't even bother to dodge, she grasped the beam of energy and yanked it out of Cathedral's grasp, something no one had ever done in the past.
Cathedral, momentarily dazed by shock, growled in frustration as she let loose her tridant, trying to pin Morana to the tree.
Morana spun her daggers in her hands, unravelling the nearly invisible threads tied to the hilt.
It was Knife Wire, the only weapon in the world that had no hilt, but also the sharpest that ever existed.
She wrapped the wire around her hands, knowing that it couldn't hurt her because she was a siren, then spun it out at Cathedral.
The wire wrapped around Cathedral's hand, making her scream in pain.
With a cry, Cathedral created another wip of magic and brought it down on Morana, making her back away.
Morana shook herself, throwing her daggers like boomerangs, pulling taught on the Knife Wire connecting the daggers to her hand.
The first dagger missed Cathedral by a fraction of an inch, the other tripped her, making her fall backwards.
Morana smirked, knowing that she had already won.
She pulled that Knife Wire taughter, swinging Cathedral into the tree.
Cathedral screamed in pain as the wire cut into her skin.
She let loose another five shurikens, pining Cathedral to the tree.
Her power erupted, her voice turning poisonous.
It was at that moment that Morana realized her mother was trying to take control of her.
With a gasp, she stopped herself, her voice turning back to normal as she spoke, "Cathedral, I'm giving you one last chance!"
Cathedral stared at her, unable to believe what had just happened.
"Morana, this isn't the last of me you will see." Cathedral sneered, "I know that you can't bring yourself to kill me."
"How do you know?" Morana asked, her voice turning icy cold.
Cathedral laughed, "I know you really well, you know?"
"Are you planning to bank on that? Because your life is on the line right now." Morana challenged, the Knife Wire arround her hand making her wince.
Cathedral fell silent for a moment.
"Well? What do you say? Everyone else is dead except for me, Adrienne, and Scott, are you not willing to let us go?"
Cathedral began to laugh, "Let you go? Morana, out of all people, you should know how stupid that is!"
"Kill me then, watch my blood flow out of my body, I dare you!"
Morana broke into a wicked smile, "I won't kill you that way, and you should know. I'll send you to the bottom of the ocean. Or maybe I should learn from my mother's foe, Adira queen of the gods, and cut your soul up? Trap each piece into a different shell?"
She laughed, "I'll be able to hear your scream in each shell, you'll forever be in pain. Is that what you want?"
Cathedral finally fell silent.
"Stop this stupid gameshow right now, go back to being Cathedral Lilian."
Out of all the things in this world Morana thought would happen, Cathedral chose to begin crying.