The Corrupted One (a Choose-Your-Own-Path Christmas RotG Fanfiction)

6.4

"I don't bargain with corruption," you say to her, and throw the ball of fire you were holding at a cluster of Nightmares behind her.

"Well, if ya're so certain...," she says, and you're quick to burn of the rainbow streams holding your brother, the Guardians, Uaithne, and Shannon, not letting the fire hurt them, before she can do anything else. It turns out that the power of fire is fairly easy to control- flight, not so much. You begin to float upwards again as everyone resumes the fight. The evil side seems to have the upper hand, however, with Órfhlaith and her spells. Still, you try to do your best to help everyone resist them- burn through rainbow strands, ice shards, and other things- when you're in control of the direction that you're going. And that only happens when you're on the ground.

"NO!" you then hear Órfhlaith scream. She takes a dull gold coin out of one of her pockets, and Pitch shouts in fury as well. She used up all of the luck power in that coin. Apparently, she is completely against using the one she's wearing around her neck. Perhaps she's trying to preserve her corruption.

At this development, your side becomes in the lead. Everyone (except your brother, who is hiding behind Jack) is able to take down a fair number of Nightmares. You catch sight of Pitch and Órfhlaith whispering to one another, and then the former calls back the Nightmares. The whole dark army retreats from inside the barrier, him and the corrupted Luck Master included.

"Dey'll be back when Órfhlaith gets anoder coin from wherever she's keeping dem," Shannon says. "Dat's da only reason dey would retreat."

"Uaithne, I know you don't want to help us," you say, "but Pitch is your enemy now, if he wasn't already. We can all help you get back your daughter, but, to do that, we need to be able to defeat her. Not kill her, but render her powerless, and not just wait around for a lucky object's power to get all used up. Doesn't Pitch get power from an evil source, anyway? I mean, no good seems to come from what he uses it for."

"He gets his power from an evil source, but not a demonic one," Uaithne tells you. "He wasn't my enemy until now. If he is trying to steal all my coins dat I made for a non-evil purpose, if he won't give up until he has dem, if he has corrupted my daughter to make her work for him, den it seems I have no choice but to fight." Smiles appear on the Guardians' and your brother's faces.

"Does that mean you're gonna help us?" Jacks asks.

"It does," Uaithne answers. But there is something else that you feel like you have to ask.

"What did Órfhlaith mean by...why does she know...why didn't you...," you try to begin, not knowing how to phrase the question. Fortunately, however, Uaithne seems to know exactly what you're trying to ask.

"Like I said before, she may be more powerful dan me," he tells you. "She might be able to sense tings dat I can't. When she turns back to normal, ya can ask her what she senses in ya."

"Okay," you say.

"How long have ya been able to float and control fire?" he then asks. "It would have been useful knowing dat before I kicked ya and da oders out."

"Only for a few minutes, as far as I know," you respond. "Why would it have been useful to know?"

"Ya may be able to un-bad-luck da coin," he says. "I didn't tink ya had any power, dough, so I tought dat ya wouldn't be able to. Wid da anti-unluckiness aura ya seem to have, ya should be able to concentrate da fire into b/n's coin and it dem normal again...lucky objects can only hold one effect at a time, so da corruption should've been taken from it when it became unlucky."

"But wouldn't it melt?" Jack asks.

"Not if she does it right," Uaithne responds. "Da key component is not da fire itself, but da power within da fire. Ya're not getting it from a demonic source, are ya?"