Wow! 2013 flew by fast! And unfortunately, so did the time since my last update. Sorry it's taken so long.

Let's see how the final installment of Nina's journey unfolds!

Disclaimer: I do not own W.I.T.C.H. or any characters affiliated with the series. They all belong to the creators of the show.

"Nina!" Elyon screamed from behind me. "No!"

But it was too late. I let the magic that had been building up inside me throw itself at Phobos, encircling him. He pounded at the walls of his prison, trying with all his might to escape the hate and pure wrath of my power. I grinned, enjoying his panic.

What was I doing?

I had risen about ten feet off the ground, and I stared down at Phobos as he cringed away from the bright, furious red swirling around him. In just seconds it would crush him, destroy him from the inside out...

Something hit my back hard. I shrieked in pain and turned around. Elyon was yards away from me in the air, her dress flowing around her body like a halo. She put the hand that had sent the blow of magic to my spine down. "Stop it, Nina! I need you to stay with me, okay?"

My lips curled away from my teeth in a snarl. How dare she order me around? Who did she think she was? I was the powerful one; I was the one with the Heart of Kandrakar!

Elyon realized I wasn't going to listen. Her face fell, then drew back up into a determined expression. "I'm sorry about this."

Just as she raised her hand to take the Heart from me, I came back to my senses. I held my arms up to shield myself. "Wait! Don't shoot!" My thoughts began to spill back into my head. My emotions bounced around until I found the right one. Scared. I was scared. Scratch that, terrified. And confused. What just happened?

Elyon kept her hand in place in front of her. "Nina?"

"Yeah, I swear, it's me! I'm okay now!" My voice took on a hysteric edge.

"How do I know you're not lying?" Her eyes were narrowed. White light glowed in her palm.

"Because I'm freaking out right now!" The Heart materialized in front of me and flashed to show I was being truthful.

Elyon nodded. "Okay. Then let's do this together!"

My pulse raced under my skin, but my mind was clear. I was going to help Elyon capture Phobos. Never kill him, but maybe just seriously injure.

Elyon brought herself next to me, and together we turned to Phobos, who was still flinching away from the circles of light around him. Elyon's hand grabbed mine, and an aura of power radiated from our entwined fingers. Neither of us had a doubt in our mind about what to do next. All at once, a giant arc of candy-cane-patterned magic was sent towards Phobos.

I remember hearing him shout in frustration. And I can still feel the rush of adrenaline that came with releasing such a powerful spell.

But then my vision began to dim. My body began to feel like a deadweight, and I could no longer brush at the Heart's magic with my own. It was as if the world was crumbling around me. Elyon had rushed forward to retrieve her unconscious brother from the chaos before it really did kill him, so I had no one to fall onto. I was high enough in the air to break something, or worse, if I fell.

Yet I did.

Wind whistled in my ears as I grew closer to the ground, ready to smash into the earth, to feel bones snapping from the force of my fall.

That didn't happen.

Instead, I closed my eyes, taking away my sight all together, and I floated on a sea of blackness, waiting for the pain of broken bones, for the fire of rocks cutting my skin.

It never came.

...

Someone was shaking her. A voice sounded frantically in her ears.

"Will!" It said. "Will, wake up!"

Will. Yes. That was her name. She remembered being called that, many times.

She felt as if she had been asleep for a long time. Her surroundings were blurry when she first opened her eyes, but they quickly righted themselves. She was in a clearing, and tall, dark trees skirted the edges. She knew this place.

The face in front of her was familiar. Ebony-colored hair was styled into small wisps of feathery strands all around the girl's head. Her eyes were hidden behind circular glasses.

"Will!" The girl said again, giving her another shake.

A name presented itself to Will: Taranee. This was her friend.

And then, everything was put into place in Will's head. She could remember who she was, what she was. She knew what had happened to her. The Horn of Hypnos.

Will shook her head, her mind finally able to function again. "Taranee!"

Taranee's terrified expression didn't leave her face. "Will, it's Nina."

"What about Nina?" Will asked. Taranee's tone was not making her feel better. "What's wrong?"

"She's..." Taranee couldn't seem to finish the sentence.

This time, it was Will who held Taranee's arms and shook her. "She's what? What happened?"

"Will!" Matt called from a few yards away. He was kneeling on the ground, and someone lay in front of him, but he was blocking Will's view of them. "I think...I think you need to come see this."

Cornelia, Hay Lin, and Irma were suddenly with Taranee at Will's side. Will inched forward, afraid of seeing the person sprawled on the earth, afraid that her fears were true. Irma put a hand on Will's back.

Then she recognized the hair fanned out across the grass: white blonde, with tints of red and the occasional strand of the color. She didn't know anyone else who had that kind of hair.

"Nina!" She rushed to Matt's side and fell to her knees. Even as she did this, her cousin didn't stir. Nina's eyes were closed, and her face was still and void of any tension.

Void of life.

Will took one of Nina's hands in her own, flinching at the coolness of Nina's skin. "Nina?"

Nina didn't move. Matt was quiet.

Realizing this, Will turned to him. "She's alive, right?"

Matt wouldn't answer. His eyes were calculating, as if he was deciding whether or not to tell her what he knew.

"Right?"

Matt's voice shook when he spoke. He held his hand out to her, palm up. In it, the Heart of Kandrakar glowed. Will could feel its sadness. "She was holding this when...when she fell."

"Why did she fall?"

Taranee put a hand on Will's shoulder. "There was a battle. Phobos had you guys on his side, and he tried to use you to take the Heart from Nina. We almost lost it. Then Elyon showed up, and things got...well, we won."

Will looked up at Taranee, not even bothering to feel relieved that Elyon was okay."So how did Nina get hurt, then?"

Taranee took a deep breath. "She had to help Elyon defeat Phobos, since Nina figured out that she could control the Heart, too. And they did..."

"...And they had been twenty feet in the air." Cornelia said, sitting down next to Will. "Nina just...passed out in midair. We tried to get her, but then Cedric got loose, and he had the Horn."

"So you let her fall to her death?!" Will almost shouted. She glanced back at her cousin's lifeless body. She could have been saved. And yet there she was, pale and still. Dead.

Matt saw how close to tears Will was, and he embraced her, running a hand through her hair as she broke down into sobs. "There has to be something we can do." He said to the other Guardians over his girlfriend's shaking shoulder.

Irma and Hay Lin exchanged looks of thoughtfulness. "Can't the Oracle help?" Irma asked. "I mean, he can see the future and he can do all of this other mystical stuff. Who says he can't bring back the dead?"

"It's worth a shot." Hay Lin said quietly.

Taranee was doubtful. "I don't think it's an easy thing to do, Irma."

Matt ignored her. "It won't hurt to try." He looked down at Will. "Would you be able to open a portal for us?"

Will nodded into his chest.

Matt kissed the top of her head. "That's my girl." He helped her up, then transformed into Shagon before picking Nina up. "Let's go, before it's too late."

And they were off.

...

I had never been afraid of the dark.

As a kid, I would be the one making scary noises to freak my friends out at sleepovers. Whenever someone was brave enough to play Bloody Mary with me in any room with mirrors, I would jump at them in the silence and scream, "I've got you!" To my childhood self, monsters under the bed were just stories that parents made up to scare us.

Yet the longer I stayed in the serene darkness of unconsciousness, the more I became afraid that I wouldn't be able to leave it. The peace became stifling. Something told me I needed light, that the tranquility of the blackness around me would swallow me if I waited too long.

Then I could hear it: a voice. I knew I had heard it before, but I couldn't match it with a face. It was gentle, and masculine. At first it was just an inaudible murmur, saying something slowly and rythmically, and then I could hear it clearly, though it was a language I couldn't understand. I felt like there was a rope tied to the source of my magic deep inside me, pulling me out of whatever place I was in. It pulled me faster and faster, and soon I could see a faint, glowing light ahead of me. The light grew brighter the closer I got.

Usually, in the movies, going into the light means you're dying. But this...this was the opposite. The light was absolutely pulsing with life, and it was then that I knew: the world of the living was calling me back.

The light enveloped me until I couldn't see anything but red. A vibrant, yet muffled, red.

My eyes were closed.

"She's back." Said the voice this time, in English.

Someone grabbed my hand gingerly, like it would break if they held it too tight. "Nina? Can you hear me?" Will's voice was like music to my ears.

My eyes fluttered open, and my cousin appeared over me, red hair and all. "Will!" I croaked, smiling faintly. It was taking me a little bit of time to control my facial muscles, so when I said Will's name, my mouth barely moved.

Will grinned back. Were those...tears on her face? She sniffed. "I'm so glad you're okay," she said as she leaned down to hug me. "We thought we lost you."

I laughed hoarsely. "Did you really think it would be that easy to get rid of me?" With every second, I was gaining better control over every muscle in my body. And though they were extremely sore when I could finally feel them, I was just glad to be in existence again.

A chuckle that came from the same person that had been murmuring before responded to my words. I turned my head to the side, staring past the violet-colored ceiling, to find the Oracle sitting by me. He gave me a genuine smile. "Though your heart had stopped beating, your soul's connection to your body was strong. It wasn't hard to bring you back."

"What about that attack that happened last time I was here?" I asked. I remembered the ground shaking and the panic of the Oracle. I hadn't gotten to find out what had caused the disturbance before Yan Lin, Blunk, and I had jumped through the portal.

Oh my gosh. Yan Lin and Blunk.

"Tibor...well, let's just say that everything is alright now." The Oracle ran a hand over his bald head. He was hiding something, but at the moment I didn't care to ask.

"And Yan Lin and Blunk? Have you heard about them?"

"So much worry." He said lightly. "I saw what happened to you three just minutes after it took place. Taranee and Hay Lin went back to help them after they brought you here. Yan Lin is still as vibrant as ever, and Blunk is...well, Blunk."

I sighed with relief and went to sit up. Will and Matt, who I realized was sitting next to her, helped me. "Mom." I looked at Will. "And Aunt Susan."

"Caleb took care of it." Will assured me. "There's a counter-tune that undoes the spell of the Horn. He said our moms are on their way back to the apartment, convinced that the exhibition is over and we just left before them. Which reminds me," she glanced at Matt, then at the Oracle. "we really should be getting back. Can she go?"

The Oracle smiled and nodded. "Take care, Nina. I have a feeling this will not be our last meeting."

I barely had time to be puzzled about his words before Will summoned a portal and I was standing, jumping through it with her and Matt.

...

"Mom!" At the sight of my mother, I almost burst into tears. I ran towards her and pulled her into an embrace she wasn't expecting.

She patted my back uncertainly. "Uh, Nina...we just saw each other twenty minutes ago."

I didn't bother to remind her that it was now five-thirty in the evening, not eleven a.m. "I know."

Will smiled crookedly at Susan, and as if they had met a mutual agreement through looks alone, Susan grinned and said, "Why don't we all go out to the Silver Dragon for a meal?"

...

"So, how does it feel to know you saved the universe?" Irma asked, elbowing me as we walked down the street.

I used my lips to bite a chunk of mint chocolate chip ice cream from the gigantic cone I was carrying. "Different but the same." I shrugged.

"What do you mean?" Hay Lin asked between licks of her strawberry cone.

I shrugged again. "I don't know. Like it's different to realize what I've done but the same because I'm going back to doing exactly what I would have done if none of this had happened."

Will laughed. "Welcome to the club."

And at that moment, I finally knew what it was like to be included in a group of friends, not just because of who my parents were or what I could do, but because of the fact that I had shown them who I really was and they had accepted it. Sure, saving the world was a nice bonus, but un the end, all that matters is that you have someone to share the victory with.

And I did.

I really did.

It's been a great run, guys! Thank you all so much for being loyal to the story even when I failed to. I hope you enjoyed it!

One last question:

If I started posting more often, would you all want a sequel? Maybe one with a little bit of romance for Nina?

As always, don't forget to rate or review, and again, thank you all for your support!