Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

*Thud* Will’s tailbone slams into the ground again.

“Owch! How long was that?!” 

“Four seconds,” says Hay Lin, flying backwards infront of the others so she can talk to them.

“Almost a new record! But you’ll never be able to beat my 6 seconds!” Says Irma

Will rubs her tailbone.

“My butt is going to be so sore tomorrow,” she says.

“Maybe you should try landing your feet? It’s what they’re for, you know,” suggests Cornelia.

Will turns her head around to face her. “Thanks, never woulda thought. Maybe you should try, *Corny*”

“Oh no, you’re not gonna start calling me that too now!” Cornelia says angrily.

They had been walking for about two hours by this point. After the first hour or so, Hay Lin had slowed to a snail's pace, which was extremely frustrating to get her to keep up, at least, it was for Will. It was obvious she wasn’t going to last another four hours. The only options were someone could carry her (which noone was willing to), or Will could transform them and Hay Lin could fly. Will was reluctant to transform them. She didn’t want to risk being seen as guardians, then who knows what would happen. But she eventually gave in. Plus, she also couldn’t deal with Cornelia’s complaining about how much pain she was in anymore. Will was in just as much pain, but sucked it up like a big girl, unlike miss whiny pants beside her. Although she too could use the relief.

Since then, her and Irma had been seeing how long they could stay in the air before falling back to the ground. Irma’s record is 6 seconds, while Will’s is 5. 

“Hey! Did you see that, Will! I just landed on my feet for the 5th time in a row! I’d say I’m on a roll, but that would be the opposite of what I’m doing,” says Irma, “Hay Lin, how long was that?”

“2 seconds”

“2 seconds?! That’s it! I’d say that was like 2.13, but I’m not the expert here”

“Hay Lin, can I ask you a question?” Asks Taranee.

“Sure!” 

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but, how come after half an hour of walking, you nearly pass out from exhaustion, but your wings aren’t tired at all? Even though your feet haven't touched the ground in over an hour. Genuine question, not trying to accuse you or anything”

Taranee shows a hint of embarrassment as she mutters the last sentence.

“Nah, don’t worry about it. But honestly, I don’t know. I guess they just don’t get tired” replies Hay Lin, shrugging her shoulders.

“My wings are tired and I haven’t even been flying!” Adds Will.

“Hey guys, does anyone else hear a river?” Asks Taranee.

“Yeah, I hear it too, lemme go see if I can find it,” Hay Lin says before dashing off.

“You know, I really hope we can drink the water from it because I am soooo thirsty,” moans Cornelia. She then proceeds to get sprayed in the face with a blast of water.

“You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting for an excuse to do that!” Says Irma.

Hay Lin zips back and says, “guys, there’s a ravine up ahead. I don’t know how we’re -I mean, you’re -I mean, we’re going to get across it”

“Can’t you just lift us across it?” suggests Will.

“I would, but the river is more of that acid stuff, and I kinda don’t wanna accidentally drop you in it. Also, I’ve already exhausted my legs today, and I really don’t wanna exhaust my arms too. I’ll go see if I can find another way across,” Hay Lin says as she bolts off again. The others walk a bit further, and soon enough, they make it to the ravine Hay Lin was referring to. It’s about 50 feet across, and the sound of rushing water can be heard from within.

Will walks up to the edge and peers down. She can’t see the bottom, only darkness. She thinks it must be unfathomably deep. As Will pokes her head over the edge, the unforgettable stingy smell of the acid hits her nose. A smell she is all too familiar with from the rain earlier.

“I wonder far down it goes,” she says

Cornelia responds, “Probably not that deep at all judging by the fact that we can hear the river"

Taranee adds, "plus, this world is basically in eternal dusk, so I’d guess that not much light reaches down there either”

The walls of the ravine are straight down. They are not jagged cliff faces, but instead eroded layers of sediment like a canyon. Several spires of sediment tower out of the darkness, they are reminiscent of rock formations seen in a desert.

Cornelia walks up beside Will and looks down into the abyss as well. Her eyes go wide and she slowly steps back. 

Just then, Hay Lin speeds back and informs them what she found.

“Good news guys! There’s a bridge about a ten minute walk upstream!”

“Uh, which way’s upstream?” Says Will, looking down into the black canyon.

“That way” says Hay Lin, pointing in the direction she came from.

“Maybe there’s a closer one, did you try seeing if there’s anything in the other direction?” suggests Cornelia.

“Don’t worry, I checked. Don’t go that way. There’s another one of those tower outpost thingies that way”

“Another one?!” Exclaims Irma, “how many of those things have we come across now? Eight? Half of them aren’t even on the map!”

“It doesn’t matter,” replies Hay Lin, “there isn’t one this way, so let’s go!”

“Hay Lin, are you sure this bridge is only ten minutes away?” Asks Cornelia, “Last time you said that your ten minute detour to avoid an outpost took thirty!”

“Trust me, I’m sure it’ll only take like 10 minutes this time!”

40 minutes later, they arrive at the bridge. It’s a rickety old rope bridge - because of course it is. 

Directly across the bridge is a small abandoned house, likely only 1-2 rooms inside. The building is half timbered with the remains of a thatched roof. The entire structure is crooked like a bedframe, and the roof has a severe sag. The roof trusses are exposed in many areas. Infront of the house is the remains of a collapsed two-wheeled horse-drawn wagon, although it probably wasn’t pulled by horses. 

Will is very suspicious of the house. In this world, literally anything could be in there. This wasn’t the first one of these houses they’d come across, but this was the closest they’d been to one. They’d decided not to approach the other ones they’d seen out of fear of who might live there, but now it’s clear that noone had lived here for a long time, just as they had suspected for the others. At least, that's what it looks like.

Cornelia walks up to the bridge.

“Seriously?!?, this is the bridge we’re supposed to cross?! There’s no way I’m crossing that thing. I know exactly what’s going to happen when we cross that. Has anyone in this world seen any movie ever!? Who even builds these things!” 

“Clearly, Cornelia, you haven't seen any movie ever either. Otherwise you would know that rope bridges are the only way to cross a ravine, and you should have not been expecting anything else. So why don’t you go first,” Irma insists.

“I’ll catch you if you fall!” Hay Lin rassures.

“It’s not gonna fall,” says Cornelia, “at least, not while anyone’s on it”

Cornelia snaps her fingers and the metal stakes holding the ropes down shoot out of the ground. The ropes snap back and uncoil from the wooden posts at either end of the bridge, then the bridge collapses into the darkness below, leaving the two pairs of posts on either side like markers as to where the bridge once stood.

“Really? Those four stakes were the only things keeping that bridge up!” Cornelia says.

“Like, they didn’t even bother to tie the ropes to the posts, they just kinda wrapped them around and let the stakes hold it in place,” Will points out.

“Good job, Corny, now how are we gonna get across!” Says Irma.

“Well I’m glad you asked,” Cornelia replies smugly. She crouches and puts her hand on the ground. It begins to tremble. Two slabs of stone begin to slide out of the chasm walls on either side and close the gap where the rope bridge previously was. The slabs meet in the middle with a deep muffled bang like a vault door shutting. Then, three pillars begin to rise out of the darkness and meet the underside of the slabs to support them.

Cornelia stands up, “now *that* is a bridge,” she says, crossing her arms. She steps onto it and begins proudly walking across her creation like a runway model. The others follow.

“Hey, does anyone else feel this thing rocking?” Says Irma.

Cornelia stops in her tracks and tenses up as she looks down at her feet. After a few moments, her tension subsides and she looks back at Irma snarling.

“Very funny,” she growls sarcastically.

When they reach the other side, Taranee asks, “why didn’t you just do that 40 minutes ago so we didn’t have to walk all the way here? Not tryna be rude or anything, it just woulda made our lives alot easier”

Cornelia stops for a moment as she appears to think. Then responds, “The rock back there was too, uh… not hard enough. It would’ve collapsed”

“You sure?” Says Irma, “looked exactly the same as the rock you used to me”

“Are you questioning my judgement?”

“Yes”

“I’m sorry, who’s the earth guardian now?”

“Clearly the one who doesn’t know the difference between igneous and sedimentary rocks”

They pass by the abandoned house

“Imma go make sure there’s nothing creepy in there that wants to kill us,” Will announces before walking up to it as the others watch.

“We’re gonna wait here just case,” says Taranee.

Will walks up to the dilapidated building. Dust and grime is caked against the side, piled up against the base of the walls like snow after a blizzard. The crooked chimney looks like it’s about to collapse. She walks up to the doorway and turns the janky rusted door handle. It’s not locked. She pushes on the door, but it doesn’t budge. She tries pushing on it a few more times, and eventually, the door pops out of its crooked frame with a sound like that of a plastic seal being removed. The door creaks open. Will walks inside. 

There’s a fireplace, a table, some cabinets, and even pots and pans still hanging from the ceiling. Inside is not as deteriorated as one would expect. The building is not being returned to nature like most abandoned buildings, simply because there is no nature to return to. Most of the deterioration seems to be caused by constant bombardment by wind and acid rain. The floor is coated with dust and grime blown in through the windows, with most of it accumulated like sand around the base of the walls and corners. The plaster is peeling off the walls. Some of the chairs around the table have collapsed due to the wood being deteriorated. Although almost everything made of wood has deteriorated, it is not rotten. Instead, acid rain pouring in through the windows and holes in the roof have caused it to deteriorate much like rot would. The curtains swaying in the wind are tattered for a similar reason.

“Hello?” Will calls. As expected, she doesn’t receive an answer. She decides to check in the cabinets for anything. There’s nothing in them but stacked dishes. The eerie thing is that everything is still in place as if there were still people living here. There’s still a pot over the fireplace and firewood stacked beside. There’s even a coat still hanging by the door. But it’s all clearly not been touched for who knows how long - maybe even longer than she’d been alive. The pot is rusty and filled with holes from acid coming in through the chimney above, and the jacket had been tattered and deteriorated much like the curtains. Will’s questions turn from whether there is anything here to why there wasn’t anymore. Why did these people leave? Were they forced out? What happened? 

Will decides to head into the other room, the only other room in the house. The first thing she notices before even getting a good look at the room is a painting on the wall. She can’t tell what it is due to a thick layer of dust coating it. She walks over to it and blows it off. It's a painting of a quaint little cottage, much like one you might find in the European countryside on Earth. Then it hits her: the painting is the same cottage she’s in right now.

The cottage in the painting is located near a creek. A little rope bridge crosses the creek, and a small path leads from it up to the cottage, which has smoke rising from the chimney. Everything about the building adds up: the windows, the roofline, the location… sorta the location. It’s hard to believe this is the same place, even the same world. But it most certainly is. The world in the painting is a completely different world from the one outside the broken window. The sky is blue with fluffy clouds, green grass and trees. The rope bridge is the same rope bridge Cornelia destroyed. Suddenly its placement makes much more sense. “But how did the creek become…oh, the acid,” Will thinks. The painting makes her feel a deep sense of wistfulness. She looks around the room. There are two beds, and between them, a collapsed baby’s crib. The sight of the crib makes her feel a deep sorrow. She goes over to it and notices something written on the end, but she can’t make it out. She wipes off the dust with her sleeve. It reads ‘Andromeda’.

Will mutters to herself, “Andromeda, wherever you are, I hope you're ok” 

She looks back at the painting. This was a home. “What happened to this world? Where are these people now?” She thinks. Before the next thought can cross her head, she hears a noise. It sounds like something rolling, and it’s rolling fast. It sounds big too. It’s getting closer.

“Uh.. Will!!” one of her friends calls.

Then it stops. She runs outside and she sees the most bizarre looking creature she’d ever seen. 

It’s unlike anything on Earth. Its overall appearance somewhat resembles a spider or a crab, but with five identical limbs arranged in a star shape. The limbs make up most of its mass. These limbs are furry muscular arms with clawed feet on the end of each. It has one big eye mounted on the top of its body, its entire ‘head’ (if you can even call it that) is shaped sort of like a motorcycle helmet, but with one giant eye instead of a visor. It has no neck. Its eye socket/head thing is mounted directly ontop of the meeting point of its limbs. It looks around, turning its eye like an owl turns its head. Then it sees the guardians and does something unexpected. It stands up on its side, revealing its mouth on its underside. It bends its legs around eachother into a pinwheel shape, then uses the legs touching the ground to push itself into a roll, thrusting itself with its legs as they touch the ground. It speeds towards them, then quickly turns to the side to stop itself as it falls over onto its feet again. 

Now that it’s close, it runs towards them in a way that resembles a crab. It's big enough for a person to stand underneath it, and about as wide as a car is long. Hay Lin and Taranee take off so it can’t get them. It goes after Cornelia, trying to claw at her. Irma tries shooting water into its giant eye, this only makes it target her instead. Will begins to charge up her fists, but then she notices there’s tons of energy in the air. A storm is brewing, it would be too risky to shoot energy blasts. She needs to find another way to knock it out so they can get away. “Maybe if I jump ontop of it I can deliver the shock directly,” she thinks. She runs towards it, and gives herself a boosted jump to try and land on it. It’s still chasing Irma, but it moves before Will can land ontop of it, causing her to land on the other side. 

The creature pins Irma under one of its claws, and tries to pull her underneath itself. But Taranee burns its leg, causing it to let go, and Irma skampers away. It tries to snatch Taranee out of the air, but fails, and once again goes after Irma, who’s running to the gorge. She stands at the edge and a glob of acid rises from below, which she throws right into the creature's eye. This also seems to have no effect. Will tries to jump on it again, this time, it notices her. It lowers itself to the ground and puts its legs into a spring position, then jumps unexpectedly high, much higher than Will. It comes down on her like a net, snatching her out of the air mid jump. She’s painfully slammed against the ground beneath it. She turns around, and finds herself staring right into the creature's mouth that opens infront of her like a fortune teller unfolding. She frantically gets up and tries to escape from under its legs, but it won’t let her, it’s very good at blocking her path by moving its legs. This must be how it traps its prey. It tries to position its mouth overtop of her, but she won’t let it.

“Stop moving!!!” It yells.

“Why are you doing this!!!” Yells Will.

“Never had talking food before. Doesn’t matter! I haven't eaten in three weeks! Now stop moving so I can…” He’s cut off by a gust of wind from Hay Lin as she tries to blow him off Will. He digs his claws into the ground, preventing him from being blown away. Cornelia places her hand on the ground and it begins to shake. Cracks spread from her hand and make their way all around the creature’s legs, causing him to lose his grip and get blown off of Will by Hay Lin. Will braces to get blown off too, but when she doesn’t, she realizes Hay Lin must be getting better and directing the wind. Taranee flies over to Will. 

“Were you talking to it?!” She says, astonished.

“Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you guys, that’s my secondary power!”

“Well can you tell it to stop trying to kill us!?!” Exclaims Irma.

Before Will can respond, she hears the sound of it rolling back towards them in wheel mode. Just as she looks in its direction, Hay Lin knocks it off balance, sending it tumbling, but it quickly gets to its feet. Taranee starts rapidly shooting fire at it. Soon, its fur catches alight and it starts frantically running around making an awful screeching noise as it burns. Stone spikes start jutting out of the ground every which way trying to impale it, each one barely missing. Will quickly realizes they’re trying to kill it.

“Guys stop!! It’s just hungry!! Irma, put it out!!” Will yells frantically.

“Can’t you see it’s hungry for us?!” Irma yells back at Will.

The creature starts rolling again, but this time, not in their direction. The flaming wheel rolls straight into the gorge, landing the river below with a splash a few seconds later. Taranee flies over to where it fell in.

“Hay Lin, c’mon, it's immune to the acid, we need to go down there and finish it off! Hurry, it’s probably heading downstream!”

“No!” exclaims Will.

“Why not?” says Cornelia.

“It’s starving!” says Will.

“It’s a vicious monster!” Adds Hay Lin.

“We don’t need to kill it. It’s gone now. Let's get a move on. A storm’s forming. I can feel the energy building up in the air. We should get out of here”

“Will’s right,” says Taranee, “it’s out of our hair now. There’s no need to keep fighting it”

“Hey, speaking of hair, what’s up with Cornelia’s over there?” Irma says.

Cornelia’s long hair is beginning to stand up like it’s in zero gravity. She notices this and starts trying to pat it down.

“That’s a really bad sign. We should probably get outta here now. That is, unless you wanna be struck by lightning,” warns Taranee. 

They all continue on their way to Meridian.

Chapter Text

After several more hours of walking, they finally see something promising. A huge towering wall fills the horizon.

“I think that’s it,” says Hay Lin, looking at the map, then pointing at the wall in the distance.

“Well what else could it be,” adds Will, “We should probably change back. It’s been risky enough walking around this place like this. We should never have transformed. And we wouldn’t’ve if it wasn’t for you two!” Will says as she snaps around with her hands on hips, giving a mean glare at Hay Lin and Cornelia.

Will pills out the Heart of Kandrakar.

“No, no, please don’t, It’s gonna hurt!” Cornelia begs her.

“It’s gonna hurt me just as much as it’s gonna hurt you. And It’s gonna hurt alot more with a sword in your skull”

Will holds the heart out infront of her.

“Now then, guardians…”

Will pauses as she braces for the pain.

“...disjoint”

The pain hits like a slap to the face. But this time, Will is prepared. She cringes as it hits, then takes a deep breath and sucks it up. Cornelia, on the other hand, collapses to the ground moaning “please change me back!!”

Irma walks up to Cornelia as she tosses herself around. Irma crosses her arms, looks down at her, and says, “drama queen”.

Cornelia then stops moaning, quickly gets to her feet, and scowls at Irma in the face. All the dirt she’d picked up off the ground poofs off her like flour, spraying Irma in the face and she begins coughing. Cornelia turns away smugly.

The girls continue walking towards the towering city walls. As they grow closer, they see something running towards them from the direction of the city. The guardians ready themselves for it to arrive.

“Should we transform?” Hay Lin asks.

“Not yet. We have no idea how many guards have eyes on us from that wall,” says Will.

As the thing coming towards them grows closer, Will realizes what it is. It’s a single guard riding some sort of ostrich-like thing. They must’ve thought that would be enough to take care of them. If only they knew.

Will comes up with a plan and relays it to the others.

“Lets run. Let him chase us somewhere they can’t see us from the wall. Then we transform and fight him”

The others agree, so they all bolt in the opposite direction.

“Over there!” Will calls as she points to an area of rugged, rocky terrain. They run into a space between two rock faces, once they are sure they are out of sight of the wall, they all stop and turn around. The ostrich thing stops right infront of them and the guard hops off. Will reaches for the heart, but pauses when the guard says, “don’t fight me, I only want to help you”

Will keeps her hand on the heart. The guard tosses his sword and helmet to the side, then raises his bulging muscular arms in the air as if he was surrendering.

“My name is Vathek. I mean you no harm. You’re from Earth, am I right?”

“How did you know that?” Asks Hay Lin.

“Your clothing makes it pretty obvious. Anyway, I know you all must be very scared and confused right now. Trust me, I can explain everything. But right now, you all have to follow me if you want to live”

Will takes her hand out of her pocket, letting go of the heart. She still doesn’t trust this guy, but decides to take his word for it. After all, if he is trying to trick them, they could just go W.I.T.C.H. on him.

Vathek gets back on his ostrich thing. They follow. They make their way through the rocky crevasses, and as they do, he starts to explain.

“This is the world of Metamoor…” he’s interrupted by Will.

“Yes, yes, yes, we all know about Metamoor, Phobos, the veil. We want to know who you are, why you’re helping us, and where you’re taking us”

He doesn’t question them and begins explaining, “I am a spy for the rebellion against Phobos. Or at least, I was. The rebellion was recently crushed, but I still remain loyal to their cause. Recently, more and more portals have been opening up, and people from Earth like you have been slipping through. Anyone outside the city walls without permission is killed on sight to prevent the smuggling of goods, so whenever I notice Earthings, I try to be one to go after them to lead you to safety.

“There are several tunnels under the wall used by the rebellion to sneak in and out of the city. That is where I am taking you”

Will and the others can’t stop staring at his big, blue, meaty, powerful muscles as he speaks. Although their faces were ugly, the guard’s bodies were a sight to behold. Usually they didn’t have time to admire them, as those same muscles were usually trying to crush them in one way or another.

But now Will could admire them in all their glory as she walked behind him. The way he sits upon his feathered steed is so sturdy and strong. The way he tugs at the rains is so powerful, yet so gentle. Every time he turns his head around to glance back at them however, Will suddenly feels less turned on by him as he shows his ugly ass face. Taranee keeps rolling her eyes at the trance-like state the others are put in by him.

Will heavily considers whether or not to tell him who they really are. But she decides to wait a little longer just in case he turns on them.

“We’re here,” says Vathek as he dismounts his ostrich thing and walks over to a large boulder. He stands on one side of it and begins to push it. It slowly rolls to the side as he grunts, revealing a passageway.

“Wow, you’re so strong,” says Hay Lin.

“I could move that,” says Cornelia.

“I’d like to see you try,” says Vathek.

“Deal,” says Cornelia.

Taranee clears her throat to send a somewhat sarcastic signal to Cornelia.

“Ugh, fine,” Cornelia grunts.

“This passage will take you to the basement of an abandoned inn. There are some more Earthings there. When you reach the end, knock on the wood and they’ll let you in”

Vathek heads back to his ostrich thing and gets some things out of his saddlebag.

“Here, you’ll need this,” he says as he hands Taranee a lantern with some sort of glowing green crystals inside. He then hands Cornelia a jar of some sort of a purple goo.

“Here, it will help with the rainburns,” he says, “Whatever you do, don’t leave that basement under any circumstances, and don’t touch the vines. I’ll come visit you when my shift is over, now hurry”

Vathek ushers them into the tunnel and pushes the boulder back into place behind them.

The girls start walking down the tunnel with the green light of the lantern to lead them. Cornelia opens the jar Vathek gave her and gives it a whiff, then gags at the smell.

“Yuugh it smells awful! Here Will, you take it, I’m not putting that on my skin”

Her voice echoes in the tunnel as she speaks.

Will takes it, she also sniffs it and makes a face. It smells awful, there’s no other way to put it. But if it’ll relieve her pain, then it’s worth a shot. She takes a dab of it out on her fingertip and rubs it on her arm. The pain subsides instantly. It feels incredible. She sticks all four fingers in and takes out a big glob. She starts rubbing it all over her body. The entire journey down the tunnel she spends rubbing the goo all over her entire body. Her arms, her legs, her back, her chest, her neck. Everywhere touched by that awful rain. The others start plugging their noses as the scent begins to radiate.

“Cornelia, you have to try this!”

“Absolutely not, you reek!”

“Trust me, it’s worth it”

“Not a chance”

“Your loss”

Soon, they reach the end of the tunnel. It ends at a stone brick wall, as opposed to the hand-dug tunnel they’d been walking through. Several bricks are missing from the wall, forming a hole big enough to crawl through if it wasn’t blocked by solid wood on the other side.

“That Vathek guy said to knock on the wood,” Taranee reminds them.

“Ooh! I’ll do it,” announces Hay Lin enthusiastically as she proceeds to do so. A few moments later, a boy, about their age, moves what they now realize is the back of a wine cabinet out of the way of the hole. They emerge, as expected, into the basement of an abandoned inn. There are no windows, the place is lit by several green lanterns like the one Taranee holds. The basement is moderately sized, filled with barrels and other storage, all covered in dust and cobwebs. A vine-like plant grows through the ceiling, although it more resembles a root. It begins at a hole through the ceiling boards, then winds its way across the ceiling and down the wall.

Will feels some kind of energy flowing through it. She also notices that the lanterns hanging near it are not glowing.

Four other people are in the basement, all dressed in Earth clothes. They all introduce themselves. The guy about their age is named Josh. Irma flirts with him (as Irma does). Cornelia tries to hide herself, saying, “please don’t look at me! I’m hideous!”

They learn he goes to a different school than them, and was walking home when he noticed the portal. After he went through, he found himself in the middle of an acid rainstorm. Thankfully, there was a stone overhang right beside him, which he quickly ran to, only receiving minor burns. There he waited for the rain to stop so he could go back through the portal, but before it did, he saw the portal close right infront of him.

“Is that you making that smell?” Josh asks Will.

“Maybe,” she says, embarrassed. She’s definitely regretting putting that cream on.

“You actually put that stuff on?! That big blue guy offered it to me too. And I said ‘absolutely not’!”

“Look at me?! Do I *look* like I kinda had it worse than you?! I’m more sizzled than a piece of bacon!! I wouldn’t even know you were out in that rain if you hadn’t told me! If you were me, I’m sure you’d’ve happily done what I did! And guess what? I feel just fine now!” Will rambles angrily.

“I’ve definitely looked and smelled better though,” she adds in a much calmer tone.

There are also two middle aged men in matching overalls in the room. They tell them their names are Preston and Leon. They say they’re maintenance workers, and were clearing a blockage in the sewer when they saw the portal. After they went through, they decided to find out where they were before heading back, but when they came back to the portal, it was gone.

The last person is a little girl, probably only around 7. She’s very scared and is curled up in a corner. She refuses to talk to anyone. All she says is that she wants to go home and that this place is scary. They don’t try to push her any further.

The girls come up with a cover story about how they got there. As they’re telling it, the sound of someone walking upstairs can be heard, and everyone’s attention shifts.

“Uh, I thought this place was abandoned,” says Hay Lin.

“It is,” says Vathek as he opens the basement door before descending the creaky staircase.

“Now I’m sure you’ve all had time to introduce yourselves. Now let's talk about how to get you all home”

Will raises her hand, “Uh, Vathek, I have a question”

“Yes?”

“How long does the smell from that stuff you gave me last?”

“About seven days”

“Seven days?!?!” Will exclaims.

“And no, it doesn’t wash off. But your burns should be completely healed by tomorrow”

“What exactly is that stuff made of?” Will asks, scared of what the answer will be.

“The primary ingredient is hycorn intestinal fluid collected from the rectum”

Will gags, “so you’re telling me I smeared alien butt goo all over my body?!” She then pouts and says, “Well this is gonna be hard to explain”

“That’s besides the point. Anyway, In order to get you guys home, we need to locate a portal. However, any portal that opens in the city is quickly surrounded by guards to stop anyone from going through. But…”

Will interrupts “I think I know of a better way, actually. Can we have a word in private?”

“I guess. In here” he says as he picks up a lantern and directs Will into a wine closet. The other girls give her mixed looks. Will enters and Vathek shuts the door behind them.

“This better not be stupid,” he says as he sits down on a crate.

“Trust me, you’ll want to hear this. But first, what do you know about the Guardians of the Veil?”

“How do you know about the guardians?”

“Just answer the question”

He pauses

“The Guardians of the Veil are supposed to protect the universe from evil. They serve Kandrakar, the keepers of magic. But they failed. Once they realized Phobos was too strong for them, they fled. And now look at what happened to this world because of it. Some remain hopeful that one day they will return and save us all. But I know the truth. It’s been 15 years. The guardians are never coming back. Kandrakar would rather board this world off and leave it to rot. We’re on our own”

Will looks at him “Do you know what this is?” She says as she holds the heart of Kandrakar hanging from the tip of her finger. Vathek’s eyes grow wide

“Where did you get that?!” he says in awe. He then turns his eyes back to Will

“No…” he says in disbelief

“It, it can’t be!”

Will nods

Vathek puts his hand on his head as he looks around in disbelief.

“But you’re so young!” he says, astonished.

“It’s complicated”

Vathek is completely dumbfounded. “And those other five girls…?”

Will nods again. Vathek takes a few more moments to process the information. Then stands up, his hulking body towering over her.

“Change of plans,” he says, “the other eathings can wait. I have a request for you and the other guardians”

Will blocks him as he tries to exit the closet.

“Wait,” she says, “You can’t tell the other Earthlings about us. We can’t have them going home and telling everyone”

“Fair enough,” he says. Will steps to the side and lets him exit. She follows after.

He announces to the room, “I would like a word with the five new girls upstairs”

They all follow him out of the basement and into the inn, and suddenly it becomes very obvious why this place is abandoned. The vine in the basement was nothing compared to upstairs. The entire place is overtaken by them. Huge vines are everywhere, growing straight through walls and ceilings like giant worms. Vathek lets the guardians pass then closes the basement door behind them. He turns around to face them then gets down one knee and says “It is an honor to be in your presence, mighty guardians”

“Now this I can get used to,” says Cornelia, smirking.

“I’m sorry, I never got your names,” he says.

Hay Lin reaches her hand out to shake, “Hay Lin” she says with a smile. Vathek shakes her hand, she shakes back much more excitedly than he seemed to have expected.

“The guardian of…?” he asks.

“Guardian of air,” Hay Lin says.

He turns to Cornelia, who proudly says, “Cornelia, guardian of earth,” as if she was a queen and he was her subject.

He turns to Taranee, who politely shakes his hand and says, “Taranee, guardian of fire”

Next he moves onto Irma, who says, “Irma, guardian of all things blue”

Vathek gives her an odd look.

When he shakes with Will, she says “Will, Guardian of Quintessence, also keeper of the heart, but you probably already figured that part out”

Vathek steps back to face them. He clears his throat and says, “guardians, I have a job for you, should you choose to accept it. As you know, the rebellion has recently been crushed. They are probably being kept in the dungeons under the palace and used as slaves in the mines. I want you to go there and free them. With you on our side, the rebellion will be strong enough to overthrow the king. Right now you need to transform and fly to the palace. The sight of you will give the people of Meridian the hope they desperately need”

“Funny thing, not all of us can exactly fly,” says Will.

“You can’t fly!? What kind of guardians are you?!”

“We only became guardians like 3 days ago,” says Taranee.

“Well this makes things interesting. Well in that case, I think it would be better if we take a different approach. You’ll pretend to be captives and I’ll take you to the mines. That way you don’t have to worry about getting inside. I’ll carry the heart and give it back to you once we’re inside”

“No way,” says Will, “I’m not trusting you with the heart. In fact, I’m still skeptical that this entire plan isn’t just a ploy to get us where you want us”

“Fair enough,” says Vathek, “you can keep the heart. I’ll be the one to search you for weapons, and I’ll just so happen to miss the heart. Now stay here, I have to go get something”

Vathek walks off. He returns shortly with some clothes. They look like some sort of dresses.

“Here, put these on. You’ll stick out like a sore thumb in those clothes”

Irma comments, “You know, sore thumbs don’t really stick out. Like, have you ever seen a sore thumb and been like ‘damn, that is one sore thumb!’ No!”

“You know, I’m not so sure about this whole plan. We’ve never attempted anything this ambitious before,” says Taranee.

“I know it can be daunting. But you are the Guardians of the Veil. This is what you do. This is how the rebellion was formed, and this is how we’ll take it back,” says Vathek.

“You know, if my grandma is anywhere, they’ve probably taken her to these mines too,” says Hay Lin.

“Well no duh we’ll do it!” Says Will, “it’s time we see what W.I.T.C.H. can really do”

“You’re not witches, you’re the Guardians of the Veil,” Vathek corrects.

“I know, it’s just what our initials spell,” Irma responds.

“But what about the other Earthlings?” Asks Taranee.

“They can wait. There’s not much you can do for them anyway. Trying to open a portal here would attract every guard within 10 blocks,” says Vathek.

Cornelia walks up to the dresses and picks one up. It’s what can only be described as a medieval peasant dress. It’s visibly dirty, with numerous stains. All the dresses look to be similar.

“Ugh, this smells like it’s never been washed,” she comments.

“It probably hasn’t,” says Vathek, “water is a scarce resource and every last drop should be conserved for drinking. It is not to be wasted on things like cleaning or bathing. Everything smells in this putrid world. Do you think I’ve always smelled like this?”

“Oh, I thought that was just ogre smell,” says Cornelia.

“What did you just call me?”

“Woah, let's not get heated here,” says Taranee.

“Don’t people get sick from all this filth?” Asks Irma.

“All the time,” replies Vathek, “there’s nothing we can do about it. It’s either risk dying of disease, or guarantee dying of thirst”

“There’s still no way I’m putting this on,” says Cornelia.

“I call the blue one!” Yelps Hay Lin. She picks it up and winces when she looks at it, but proceeds to head off to another room to change.

“You know, I’ve already slathered myself in poop, so what more could this be?” Says Will as she picks up a dress and heads off too.

“It’s intestinal fluid, not feces,” Vathek corrects.

“Same thing,” calls Will from another room.

“You know, It could be worse,” says Irma as she too heads off to change, followed by Taranee. Cornelia waits for a few moments, then gives in to the peer pressure.

“Ugh, fine,” she says.

The guardians emerge from the old inn looking just like medieval peasants. They wear sleeved dresses with dirty baggy sleeves. They all wear corsets, although, curiously, Irma is the only one who has hers done up correctly. Will looks back at the building they came out of.

It has been completely overtaken by the vines, they weave throughout it like snakes, and break out of the roof like dead wirey trees. A large vine grows up the front of the building. The inn isn’t the only building with the rooty vines growing throughout, in fact, the entire city seems to be plagued with them. They run up and down the streets like giant serpents, climbing the half-timbered buildings and burrowing their way through them like worms in an apple. The people don’t seem to pay them any mind. They just let them overtake their city and continue living as if they aren’t even there.

“What are all these vines?” Asks Will.

“And why don’t these people do anything about them?” Adds Taranee.

“These are no ordinary vines,” says Vathek, “We believe they are some sort of root. We know they suck the energy from everything they touch like a tree would from the ground. Any attempt to damage them and they will spray acid from their wounds. This acid is much stronger than that which you were exposed to. It can burn to bone in seconds. Which is why I told you not to touch them”

They round a corner, and that’s when they see it. Towering above the city is the most imposing structure one could imagine.

“That is the palace. It is where we are going. Well, under it actually. As you can tell, that is where the vines come from. What Phobos is doing with all that energy I've been trying to find out for years. But I am not of a high enough ranking to access the main palace. My guess is it has something to do with the aurora crystals. You’ll learn about those soon”

The palace is built on a giant, tall, rocky outcrop that’s more of a small pillar-like mountain. From there, it towers over the city, casting a looming presence. The architecture is like that of the most imposing gothic cathedrals, but the layout is much more sporadic like that of a castle. Much like the outposts they’d seen, the building is very dark, giving it an evil look to strike a feeling of dominance into those living in its shadow. It has many towers and spires. The building looks as if it’s too big for the rock it’s built upon, and appears to be ‘spilling’ over the edges with inverted spires that look as if they're ‘hanging’ or even ‘dripping’ from it. These spires really add to the overall feel of it.

There are vines pouring out of various different openings in the palace like wax and dribbling down the rock face before radiating into the city in all directions like veins. Above the palace is a hole in the inky black clouds, which swirl around it like the eye of a storm. Sunlight shines through, but not to the city. The warm shimmering sunlight shines like a spotlight on the palace and its black spires as it dominates the dark city below.

Will is surprised to see both humans and meridianites on the street. All the humans are very pale, as they probably hadn’t been touched by sunlight in years. Their hair, although groomed, is very oily. And, as expected, they all smell awful. For people who probably hadn’t washed in years, Will sees a surprising lack of skin infections. Then she realizes the acid rain probably has something to do with that.

Will asks Vathek about why there are humans there, and he answers: “Earth and Metamoor go back a long way. Before the veil, your people came here regularly. They helped Metamoor become what it is today. Just look at these buildings, you might recognize their construction. When the veil was made, many of your people decided to stay here permanently. That was 800 years ago”

“You know, I did find it odd that both our worlds would think of using wattle and daub timber framing exactly the same way,” says Taranee.

Vathek stops walking.

“You girls stay right here. I’m going to get some handcuffs and chains from the armory. When I come back, you won’t say a word until we’re in those mines”

Vathek walks up to Will and leans in closely. He whispers to her in an extremely stern and condescending tone: “protect that heart with your life. If any guard gets a hold of it, it’s going straight to Phobos, and if that happens, every single world, including Earth, will end up just like this one. I don’t care if it’s you or any of your friends that stand in the way. If it means keeping the heart away from Phobos, you do whatever it takes without hesitation, got it?”

Will nods, a bit offput by his aggression and implications.

“Sorry that was a bit harsh,” he says, “but you need to understand how serious this is. Now, don’t act suspicious while I'm gone. I’ll be back shortly”

Vathek disappears into the crowd.

Chapter Text

“Your majesty, we did not find anyone by the name of Averna, but we have unfortunate news: the Guardians of the Veil have returned. We were not able to capture them, but we did capture this”

Yan Lin is violently thrown to the ground infront of the guards. She feels like she almost shatters into pieces upon hitting the cold diamond checkered marble floor. For the last 15 years, she had hoped that if she were ever to set foot in this room again, someone else would be sitting on the throne infront of her. But alas, that is not the case.

The throne room is huge. It was built like a cathedral, and looks and feels exactly like one. But there are no pews, and instead of an altar, there is a large throne. The palace was built by the earthings hundreds of years ago before the time of the veil. Made using state of the art architecture of the time. It has been expanded upon many times since then, giving it the appearance it has today.

“Ah, Yan Lin. Long time no see. You look even more like a raisin than the last time I saw you,” says the voice of the king.

“What have you done to this world?” Yan Lin says, weekly, still in pain from her rusty body hitting the hard tiles.

“Look at me when I’m talking to you, hag”

“I don’t want to see your face, it sickens me”

A boot emerges from the wall of robes on the floor infront of her and latches under her chin, then pulls her head up to the sight of a face she’d hoped to never see again.

“That’s better. Now, what were you saying?”

Yan Lin pauses, staring into his soulless eyes, wondering whether or not she should say anything.

“What have you done to this world?”

“I haven’t done anything. This is all because of you. If you had just given me the heart, I would not have had to resort to these drastic measures. It’s quite sickening really. How you let all these people suffer and die just to keep your precious little heart”

Yan Lin knows Phobos isn’t trying to guilt trip her. He’d be using a different approach if that was his goal. He’s just trying to get under her skin.

“...but now that you’ve passed it on, this means I’ll have to take even more drastic measures to ensure I get what’s rightfully mine,” Phobos continues.

“I’ve told you this again and again: The Heart of Kandrakar does not and has never belonged to you, and there is no reason it ever should or could”

“I’m sorry, what was that? I seem to have misheard you,” he says as he leans forward towards her infront of his throne and pulls her chin closer to him with his boot. She doesn’t respond.

“That’s what I thought” he says, plucking the pair of chopsticks out of Yan Lin’s hair she always uses to hold her bun. Her white hair falls to the sides. Phobos sits back up in his throne again and examines the chopsticks.

“This will do quite nicely,” he says.

“Are all the guards that made it back in this room right now?” Phobos calls to the large pack of guards standing behind Yan Lin.

“Yes your majesty,” one of them says.

“Perfect,” he says as the massive doors all the way on the other end of the throne room close themselves, the loud sound reverberates throughout the huge space.

“Stand a single file infront of me,” Phobos orders the guards.

All the guards arrange themselves into a line behind Yan Lin. Phobos holds one of the chopsticks like a paper airplane, then throws it. It pierces through the skulls of each guard like a bullet. They all drop dead. Two of them manage to duck out of the way before it hits them. They begin running down the long throne room towards the closed doors. Phobos takes the other chopstick and grabs it by one end with both hands.

“Kitsposht,” he mutters as he rips the chopstick apart like it’s two stuck together. But it wasn’t. And he’s now holding two chopsticks. He holds them both in his hands and throws them simultaneously like paper airplanes. They whistle down the room and nail both guards square in the back of the head mid run. They both drop dead instantly.

Yan Lin hears all this happen, but doesn’t look.

“Why did you do that?” She asks calmly.

“I can’t have news of the new guardians leaking out now, can I? That would give the people hope. I can’t have that. Why do you think I told any guards that make it back to report directly to me?”

“You’re evil,” Yan Lin responds.

“No I’m not,” Phobos responds. He stands up and holds out his hand for Yan Lin on the ground in front of him.

“Would you like to see what I’ve been up to this last decade or so?”

“Something tells me I don’t have a choice”

“And you would be correct”

Yan Lin takes his hand and he helps her to her feet. They step over the corpses of the guards and start walking beside each other towards the huge doors. Yan Lin can feel a sword floating behind her inches from the back of her head.

“Miranda!” Phobos calls, “I have a mess that needs to be tidied”

A two legged arachnid with human-like limbs crawls out from behind the tall, giant pipe organ above the doors. She crawls across the ceiling. One would probably estimate she was only as big as a basketball due to the size of the massive vaulted ceiling she crawls across, but she’s actually about the size of a grizzly bear. Yan Lin and Phobos won’t stick around to watch, but she would start lifting the bodies one by one back up to her nest so she could eat them later.

Yan Lin looks up at the stained glass windows above them.

“I see you’ve been rewriting history again,” she comments.

“Why indeed I have. Thank you for noticing,” he says.

As they approach the huge wooden doors, they open slowly into the courtyard. This is the part of the palace that looks the most different.

Where a fountain once stood, there is now a giant pink orb. It glows so bright it’s hard to look at directly. Vines spread out in all directions along the ground, completely covering the courtyard floor as they radiate from the orb in the center. The vines hold it up like a pedestal. They grasp the orb like roots, and latch onto it like veins.

Yan Lin can feel the energy radiating off of it. She’d seen this thing on the way in, but this is the first time she’d gotten a good look at it.

“This is my finest creation,” Phobos explains, “Very few know about it. Only the highest ranking guards are allowed to see it. Since you’ve already seen it, I might as well tell you what it is. As you'd probably find out on your own anyway.

“This is what I call, the Orb of Phobos. You see, I found that when a massive amount of magical energy is stored in one place, it weakens the veil. These vines you see have been reverse engineered to take the magical energy out of anything they grow off of, and deliver it to the orb, and as the vines continue to grow, the energy in the orb gets stronger and stronger. But I ran into a problem. It turns out magical energy has a sort of lifeforce of its own, and as such, it needs to eat to stay alive. I needed some kind of magical material in large supply that I could easily feed to the orb to prevent it from weakening”

“You didn’t…” says Yan Lin.

“I did,” replies Phobos, “I ordered the aurora crystals from the crystal caverns to be mined. They are then dissolved in water and pumped up into the orb. What happens to it after that I have no idea, but it probably has something to do with the weather lately. But that has no effect on things here at the palace, so it is no problem of mine.

“Now then, let's head back inside shall we?”

They turn around and the big doors shut behind them as they begin to walk back down the length of the throne room.

“You, Yan Lin, are one of few people alive who know of the existence of Averna Escanor. I want you to tell me what happened to her after I threw her from this palace”

Yan Lin responds, “So you finally admit to it. Well, whatever happened, I’m glad I wasn’t one to see it. You rose to the throne through blood and you rule with blood”

She then mutters to herself, “We should’ve listened to Cassidy”

“I see, well, off to the mines with you then. Guards!” Says Phobos as he sits back down on his throne. Two guards walk up to her. They shackle her, then lead her out of the throne room. They follow several corridors until they enter through a door and start descending down a stone stairwell. After about 10 flights or so, the stairwell comes out of the ceiling of what was once the sacred Crystal Caverns beneath the palace, but had now been turned into an active quarry. The stone stairs become wooden stairs as the stairwell continues out of the cavern roof and down a wooden pillar of scaffolding to the cavern floor. There, Yan Lin is unshackled, handed a pickaxe, and instructed on what to do.

After several hours of smashing the sacred crystals, pushing her trembling body to its absolute limits, Yan Lin is greeted by a familiar voice. It’s a voice she hoped she wouldn’t hear, but one she is happy to nonetheless.

“Grandma!” Exclaims Hay Lin. Yan Lin feels arms wrap around her, but she can’t see them.

“I’m so happy to see you,” says Hay Lin.

“I’d say the same, but I can’t exactly see you back! Nonetheless, I’m happy you’re here”

Hay Lin chuckles. “We’re gonna get you and all the rebels outta here, I promise”

“Are you sure you can? That’s a pretty ambitious task, even for experienced guardians! I suspect Phobos is using me as bait, and you are falling right into his trap”

“It’s too late now, grandma. We’re all here, so we have to try”

Chapter Text

Will rolls her wheelbarrow up the precarious wooden ramp. After walking across more precarios scaffolding, she finds the guy Vathek pointed out to her. She parks her wheelbarrow beside him, takes the shovel out, and starts shoveling the crystal shards from the pile beneath him into the wheelbarrow.

“Are you Caleb?” She asks.

“You were part of the resistance too?” He responds.

“No, but me and my friends are gonna get you out of here. All of you”

“Forget it. You and whatever conspiracy your part of are just gonna get yourselves killed. The rebellion was a stupid idea in the first place. I can’t believe we ever thought that was gonna work. In the last 48 hours, I watched my dad, the love of my life, and everything I had to live for get slaughtered infront of me. So unless you’re the fucking Guardians of the Veil or something, leave me alone. Go get yourselves killed, I don’t care”

Will smiles. “Well I got news for you buddy, because I just so happen to be a Guardian of the Veil myself”

“Now you’re just embarrassing yourself”

Will clears her throat sarcastically as she holds out her arm towards Caleb and pulls her sleeve away from her skin to reveal the Heart of Kandrakar tucked inside. Caleb takes a quick glance, returns to what he’s doing, then does a double take and drops his pickaxe in shock.

“Wait a minute, that’s the real thing! I’ve only seen it in illustrations! I, I can’t believe this! This is a miracle!!”

He then composes himself and says, “I’m sorry, where are my manors? Mighty guardian, it’s an honor to be in your presence. How may I assist you?”

“Please, just call me Will”

Will then looks around the cavern to make sure everyone is in the right places.

“Ok, When we transform, you get all the rebels to help us. When they see us in guardian form, it’ll give them hope to keep fighting back”

“You know, this all seems almost too good to be true. I really hope you are what you make yourself out to be”

“I am, and I’ll prove it. The other guardians are in position. I’m going to take this thing down to that pool right where everyone can see me”

Will grabs the wheelbarrow by the handles.

“Hey, Will?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you. I never thought this day would come. Good luck”

Will makes her way back through the scaffolding and down the precarious ramps towards the pool in the center of the mines, nearly tipping the wheelbarrow several times. The pool is inside a pit dug out of the ground. It glows pink, and the fumes it gives off make it hard to breathe. Will rolls the wheelbarrow up to the edge, and tips it forward. But instead of dumping the crystal shards in, she tips the whole wheelbarrow over, and it splashes upsidedown in the brine.

“Why did you do that!” a guard snaps

“Oh, no reason,” says Will as she turns around. She lets the Heart of Kandrakar slip out of her sleeve like a yoyo and she catches it by the string. The guard gasps, and several other guards turn to face her.

“Guardians, unite!!” Will yells sternly so the entire mine can hear as she holds the heart high in the air. It splits into the five colored orbs and they fly around the mines to each of their respective guardians. The guards begin to run at Will, trying to catch her before she transforms. This is the moment Will realizes that she should probably take into account the time it takes to transform. She jumps backward onto the bottom of the overturned wheelbarrow behind her as the pink orb begins to whip around her. She doesn’t know whether the brine is safe to touch, but judging by the fact the guards stop at it, it probably isn’t. She begins to float into the air and is encased in a bubble of pink energy. The guards step back as they watch in awe and fear. Then the bubble pops and Will lands on the wheelbarrow with a three-point landing. She thinks she must look so cool right now.

“Everyone, attack!” Calls Caleb.

Will gives herself a boosted jump over the horde of guards and lands behind them. They turn around and start running at her. She shoots two energy blasts and hits two of them in the stomach, knocking them back into the brine. She hopes it isn’t lethal, but has no time to think about that. She looks around and notices more guards coming at her from different directions. Taranee tries to hold some back by shooting fire between Will and them, but more are coming from different directions. Then Will feels water splashing at her legs, and she realizes she’s standing in about an inch of water. She looks around to see where Irma is at, and sees her in a pretty similar situation as herself, as she frantically shoots huge amounts of water out of her hands at the oncoming guards to keep them back, but this has become a game of whack-a-mole, as they quickly get up again and start running at her again. Because of this, the entire floor of the mine is becoming flooded.

“Guys, up here!” Cornelia calls from atop of a pillar of earth. Will and Irma jump up onto it. The guards start shooting arrows at them from below, but Hay Lin deflects the arrows away. Taranee flies to the top of the pillar with the three flightless girls ontop and hovers beside them.

“You know, if we’re gonna be a team we should probably start acting like one,” she says.

Taranee was right, they did tend to default to an everyone-for-themselves approach. But what were they going to do instead?

The rebels had no weapons, and they were mostly just trying to avoid getting killed, which they seemed to be pretty skilled at.

“Hey guys, you know how my powers are like the most useless out of all of us,” says Irma as she shoots a water jet over the edge of the pillar, knocking off a guard trying to climb it.

“Not really, but ok,” says Will.

“Well I think I just thought of a use for them, watch this!” Irma sweeps both her hands to the side, and as she does, half the guards on the ground are swept off their feet by the water coating the floor. This gives Cornelia enough time to pull the ground up around some of them, trapping them. However, it seems she can only do this one at a time, only trapping a few before the rest get back up again.

“Hey Corny, why don’t you just do that thing with their armor?” Asks Will.

“Are you kidding, not after what happened last time!”

“Fair point,” Will responds, “Can’t you just trap their feet or something?”

“No, they can just pull them out, they have to be on the ground”

“Guys, did you guys hear that? Get them off their feet so Cornelia can trap them!”

Taranee starts flying around and lighting them on fire, forcing them to drop to the ground and put themselves out in the water. Irma continues using the water to knock them off their feet. Hay Lin continues deflecting arrows away from the others and the rebels. Although Taranee and Irma could get large numbers of guards on the ground in a single blow, they’d quickly get back up again. Will begins knocking out guards with energy blasts, although this isn’t nearly as effective as Irma or Taranee, once they were down, they’d stay down until Cornelia could get to them. Some of the guards try to climb up the ramps and various wooden structures to get away from the water, and some of them begin to make their way to Yan Lin, who is still on the scaffolding where she was working. Hay Lin notices this and quickly relocates her grandmother to the pillar with the others, then begins blowing down the rickety wooden scaffolding and ramps, causing the guards to fall back into the water.

Up until this point, the battle had remained pretty clean, as it should be. This was until the rebels started taking the weapons from the guards trapped in the ground. This was when things got messy. The rebels start brutally murdering the guards. Blood begins to leach into the water, and soon bodies too. It’s a literal bloodbath. Will stops and stares at the horrific scene infront of her, and so do the other guardians. The moment they stop, the guards begin to overpower the rebels, and the people they were trying to save become the ones who’s blood is being spilt.

“Well don’t just stand there!!” Yells Yan Lin.

She was right. They have to help however they can. More guards start pouring in from numerous tunnels. Cornelia starts blocking each one of them. They continue getting the guards to the ground like they were before, but whenever they do, a rebel would come over and kill them. How could they be merciful? Will has to try. It seems like the others have the same thoughts, that is until Will sees one of the guards attacking the others, then he kills one, then he gets killed himself. Will looks to Cornelia. She has resentment in her eyes.

“Why did you do that?!” yells Will.

“There’s no use in not. We have to!” says Cornelia.

“No we don’t! How could you!?!” exclaims Irma.

Cornelia takes control of two more guards. They begin to attack the others, killing one.

“Cornelia!! Stop!!” Will yells in anguish. She tries to grab at Cornelia's hands to stop her, but Yan Lin stands between them.

“Will! I know this is…”

She’s interrupted by the sound of Taranee screaming, followed by a large splash. She turns towards the source of the noise and sees a man in long robes over Taranee laying on the ground, struggling to breathe as he holds her throat.

“Phobos!” Gasps Yan Lin, “this is why you shouldn’t’ve come! With your experience, you’ll be lucky if you make it out alive!”

Phobos picks Taranee up out of the blood stained water. He pulls her towards himself, draws his sword, and holds it across her neck.

“Give me the heart or she dies!” He threatens, “Don’t think I won’t do it. I still have three others if I do”

He starts digging his sword into her flesh, and blood begins dripping down her neck. Taranee starts hyperventilating.

“No!” Irma yells as she jumps off the pillar. Yan Lin tries to stop her, but fails. Irma skates across the water towards Phobos. He puts his hand out and lets out a shockwave that can be seen as it radiates across the water. It hits Irma, knocking her legs out from underneath her and she falls forward, landing on her stomach and skidding across the water before coming to a halt right next to Phobos and Taranee. She quickly turns up to face him, but he slams his foot on her leg. She tries to pull it out.

“It’s not you either,” he says as she struggles to get her leg out. Irma then points her finger gun at Phobos, but before she can do anything, he grabs her hand, yanks her off the ground, and throws her like a frisbee all the way into the cavern wall, which she slams against in a painful looking way.

He charges up an energy ball around his hand just like Will often does, then throws it at the pillar Will, Yan Lin, and Cornelia are standing on. The entire pillar shakes violently, then starts leaning. It doesn’t take long for Will to realize it’s collapsing. Hay Lin snatches her grandma and relocates her. Another pillar rises beside the collapsing one. Will and Cornelia jump to it before Phobos shoots it too. Cornelia raises another pillar as the one they’re on also begins to collapse, but Phobos shoots it before they even land on it. By the time they do, they barely make it onto the tilting platform as it falls to the ground. It spills the two girls off into the shallow red water as it splashes to the ground.

“Which one of you is the keeper of the heart?!” Phobos says.

“I am!” Says Cornelia as she stands up.

“Let’s see then, shall we?” Phobos begins to walk closer with Taranee still in his arm, his sword still at her throat. As he approaches them, Will begins to crawl away on her back. She’s petrified. This was the second time she had felt genuinely afraid as a guardian. As he gets closer, the green rhombus gem on his headpiece begins to glow, and at the same time, a pink light begins to shine from deep inside Will’s chest, the glow throbbing with her heart. She looks at it in horror, and it begins to throb faster. She doesn’t know what it means, but it can’t be good given the context. Phobos stops and his gaze turns to Will, giving her a dreadful shot of fear.

“You,” he says, “Give it to me or she dies”

Phobos digs his sword deeper into Taranees neck, and more blood begins to ooze out of it.

“Leave her alone!!!” screams Hay Lin as she dashes at him. He points his hand in her direction and fires a shockwave that shoots her into the wall of the cavern in a painful looking way just like Irma had been. He then turns towards an axe flying at him. Will sees Cornelia’s hand is following it. Phobos points his hand at the spinning axe too, and it starts to veer in a different direction. It flies over him, then it starts to whip back around like a boomerang. Cornelia grunts as she tries to regain control, but her eyes go wide as she realizes the axe is coming right for her. She jumps to the side and splashes in the bloody water as it whizzes past her and Will, shattering some crystals behind them. Phobos turns in another direction, and Will turns to look where he is. She expects it to be Irma or Hay Lin, but it’s another girl she doesn’t recognize. She holds out her hand and fires a shockwave just like Phobos had done numerous times. He fires one in response. The two shockwaves collide and disperse out to the sides. This would be completely invisible if it wasn’t for the water. The girl then bolts off, her feet splashing in the water. None of the shockwaves hit Will, but she feels a spray of water from them. Phobos still has Taranee in his grasp. Vathek walks up to him from behind and swings his sword at him. This takes Phobos by surprise, and he raises his own sword to block it, this gives Taranee enough time to fly away, but he catches her by the foot, then pushes Vathek away with a shockwave. He then grabs Taranee’s foot with both his hands and begins tugging on it as she frantically tries to fly away. She points her hands towards him and blasts him with fire in the face. He screams in pain and lets go, and Taranee escapes. He runs to the wooden tower of stairs that goes all the way up to the ceiling. He begins to climb. Will runs up in presuit.

Chapter Text

Will chases Phobos up the stairs for a few flights, catching a glimpse of his robes every time she rounds a corner. Then he disappears and she hears a clunk, she looks behind her and sees him round the corner from the previous flight. She starts running. Phobos had jumped outside the tower to the previous landing. Now she’s the one being chased, and she begins to realize she probably never had the upper hand at all. Will sees the battle between the rebels and the soldiers continuing below as she frantically runs up the stairs. The wooden steps soon turn into stone ones as the staircase continues into the top of the cavern. After continuing up the stairs for a while longer, she bursts through a door and finds herself in a hallway with vaulted ceilings and a diamond checkered marble floor. She runs down the hallway and her feet patter on the floor, she then feels herself thrust forward down the hall.

Her cheek skids against the marble tiles as she lands, and it stings as it does from the friction. She raises her head and looks behind her where she sees Phobos. She darts back to her feet and starts running again as fast as her legs will carry her. A few seconds later, she’s hit with another shockwave that sends her flying down the hallway once again. This time, she slams into the wall at the end, then falls backwards, hitting her head on the hard floor with a sharp painful clunk that echoes through her skull. She sits up and rubs her head in pain, hoping she doesn’t have a concussion. Then she remembers she’s still in danger. She looks to her left and right. The hall to the right looks like a dead end, but the hall to the left has a double wooden door at the end. She gets back to her feet and runs towards the door. She bursts through it, and finds herself on a balcony. She tries to stop herself but she runs into the stone banister and her body is thrust into a position to lean over it. She finds herself looking down on the roofs of the city below. It has to be 20-30 stories up at least. She hears the clumping of boots on tile and turns herself around, still pressed against the railing. She sees Phobos power walking down the hall towards her, sword in hand. Will quickly looks around for any escape route. There is none. Phobos steps onto the balcony and points his sword at her throat.

“Give it to me,” he says.

“Why don’t you just kill me and take it,” she says, her voice trembling with fear.

“If it was that simple, I’d’ve killed you the first chance I got. If I were to kill you, the heart would go to someone else. But you know, I could carve it out of you while you’re still alive”

He adjusts his sword to point at her glowing chest, the light now blinking rapidly as her heart beats like a helicopter. Phobos begins to angle his sword towards her, forcing her to lean further and further back over the stone banister until eventually she falls backwards. She flips over the edge, still holding on. She slams her stomach into the edge of the balcony.

Will tries to pull herself back up, but she’s not strong enough. Phobos steps up ontop of the banister, looking down at her as her towers above her. The gem in his headpiece still glows. He moves his foot and crushes the fingers on her left hand, forcing her to let go as it bursts into pain. She grips one of the stone balusters with the still pain-stricken hand, then releases her other hand from the top rail and moves it down too before Phobos can crush it as well. She quickly regrets this as her hands begin slipping down the vertical shafts, and the vase-shape of them makes trying to get a grip seem impossible as they try to push her hands open like a wedge as they slide down under her weight. She moves her grip down to the edge of the balcony, one hand at a time. Phobos steps back down off the railing, then raises his sword with both hands above his head, aimed straight at her through the balustrades. She doesn’t know if he’s aiming at her or her hands, but she doesn’t want to find out.

Then she remembers: she has wings. She then does something she suddenly feels stupid for not having done already - she lets go.

She falls backwards, and the first thing she feels is a sense of dread that she had just killed herself. But that quickly passes. She turns onto her stomach to face the roofs speeding towards her, she enters a nosedive and begins to flap her wings as hard as she can, but they don’t seem to be doing anything. The roofs get closer and she begins to panic. She tries to move her wings in slightly different ways, anything that might work. Then it clicks. Suddenly she stops feeling a resistance on her wings that she didn’t even realize was there. They feel like they are cutting through the air rather than pushing against it. Suddenly she can flutter them faster than an eggbeater with almost no effort. Just as quickly as it came, it slips away. She feels like she hits a patch of thick, goopy air. The rooftops get closer. She tries to find the right position again. Then she strikes it. The resistance on her wings melts away again. The rooftops get closer. She tries to pull up, and it works! She’s flying! But she’s going too fast. She’s going to hit the rooftops. She tries to pull up harder, but it’s not enough. She aims for a street. She makes it in between the buildings on either side, and can’t tell if she’s going to hit the ground or not. As she approaches it, it seems like she’s going to skid across the cobblestones, but she doesn’t. She races down the street, almost hitting several people as they jump to the side, some of them spill what they’re carrying in the process. Will begins to turn back up again and she speeds up into the sky before coming to a halt as she reaches a vertical position.

Will then hears cheering. She looks at the streets and buildings around her and sees hundreds of people rushing into the streets to cheer at her sight. This makes her feel more proud than she’d ever felt. This city was the most depressing place she’d ever seen, full of people who looked like they couldn’t smile if they tried. And now they were cheering at her very presence. The gruesome things she’d seen in that cave were so brutal that she thought she would never be able to fight again. But seeing these people happy gives her strength. They need the guardians, and the guardians would not disappoint.

Will realizes she needs to find the others, but before she can, she’s nearly hit by an energy blast from above. She looks back up at the balcony of the palace high above her, and sees phobos still standing there. His hands are encased in energy. She does the same and fires back at him. It misses. They exchange shots a few times, but they all miss, they’re simply too far away. Will finds that flying is actually much easier than Taranee made it out to be. It probably has something to do with the fact that she’s such a skilled swimmer.

Will flies back up in the direction of the balcony to get a better shot, but Phobos shoots a shockwave at her. It sends her tumbling. She loses track of what direction is up and what is down. When she manages to get her bearings again, the first thing she sees is an energy blast headed straight for her face. Then darkness accompanied by the feeling of falling. Then the world stops existing.

Chapter Text

Will wakes up to the sight of the inky black Metamoorish clouds and the feeling of whatever she’s resting upon bumping beneath her.

“She’s awake!” she hears Taranee’s voice say.

Will sits up. She’s in the back of a moving wagon as it treks through the Metamoorish wasteland, walking alongside them are hundreds of meridianites and humans that look to be rebels. Some of which are riding those ostrich things. All the guardians, as well as Yan Lin, are riding in the wagon too. Her friends are still in guardian form, and so is herself. Just then, a splitting pain erupts in Will's head. She moans and grasps it, then says, “I think I have a concussion”

“That makes two of us,” says Taranee.

“Are you sure that isn’t just because you’re missing your glasses,” adds Irma.

“Wait, my glasses are gone?! Why didn’t anyone tell me!”

“I thought you knew!” Says Cornelia.

“Ok, ok, ok, what happened, where are we going, and is everyone ok?” Will says.

Taranee answers, “I felt your presence disappear, and I knew something had happened. I told Hay Lin to go find you”

Hay Lin takes over, “I flew as fast as I could. I wasn’t fast enough to catch you, but I did make an air pillow to fluffify your fall. Then we fought the bad guys and it was absolutely cosmic!”

Cornelia takes over from Hay Lin, “We managed to get all of the rebels free and got them to one of those underground tunnels. But the guards followed us. So I did a little bit of rearranging of the tunnels so they couldn’t follow”

“You did alotta bit of rearranging. I was in there trying to fight them! You were having *way* too much fun with that,” says Irma.

“Well, looks like you guys don’t need me as your leader, you seem to do just fine without me telling everyone what to do”

“No they don’t,” injects Caleb, who Will just noticed is riding the ostrich thing pulling their cart. “I was the one who led them and all the rebels. Trust me, if I wasn’t there, you guys would not have succeeded”

Cornelia moves up to the front of the cart and leans on the edge, staring at Caleb.

“Thanks again for saving my life” she says. He turns his head back and says, “And thanks again for being there to save,” he then pats the back of his ostrich thing, signaling Cornelia to climb on. She does, and grabs onto him. She leans her head forward and rests it on his shoulder. He smiles.

“Huh… how long was I out?” Asks Will.

“No more than an hour,” answers Yan Lin.

Caleb then says, “As for where we’re going, there’s an abandoned village called Helmina not far from Meridian. That’s where we’ll set up base”

“But won’t you be easy to find there?” asks Will.

“We will, but now that Phobos knows you’re on our side, he won’t dare touch us. At least, I hope he won’t,” replies Caleb.

Will sees Hay Lin sitting with her legs tucked against her chest and her arms wrapped around them. She looks sad, which is unusual for her. Yan Lin scoots over beside her “What’s the matter, dear? Is it the things you saw today?”

Hay Lin nods.

“Yeah, those images are gonna live rent free in my mind for years to come,” adds Irma.

“Same here, also the fact that I nearly died,” says Taranee as she touches the wound on the side of her neck.

Yan Lin speaks. “I am very impressed by what you all did today. Even after everything you saw, after how close you came to death, you still pushed through. And now, there is real hope for Metamoor. What you did today I only thought possible by me and the other old guardians in our prime, much less some underage, inexperienced guardians, some of whom don’t even know how to fly yet! You know, I had doubts about you all. I didn’t think you had what it takes. But after seeing what you did today, I know you are more than capable”

“And as for you, my little Hay Lin,” Yan Lin turns towards Hay Lin, “I am so very, very proud of you. I always dreaded the day that you would become guardian. I never wanted to see your pure heart tainted by spilt blood. But after seeing how you pushed through, I couldn’t be more proud of you. I know it can be hard sometimes, but just think about all those people. They were hopeless, and just the sight of you filled them with hope. Whenever things get ugly or the odds turn against you, remember those people. They believe in you, and you can’t let them down. That’s what kept me going”

The Air Guardian and the former Air Guardian hug eachother for several moments, then pull away, still holding eachother’s arms.

“I never told you how beautiful you look in your guardian form, just look at you, Hay Lin, my little Guardian of Air”

They hug eachother once again, and Yan Lin begins to cry light tears of joy.

Will speaks up confidently, “Yan Lin’s right. Those people believe in us. They *need* us, and we need to be there for them. Noone else can help them”

“You're right,” says Caleb, “we need you. You’re the reason we’re here, but not just because you five are stronger than the entire rebelion combined, but because you give us hope. I had lost mine, and my father would have been greatly disappointed in me. He always said that there’s always a way, and I can’t forget that again. And it’s all because of you. Thank you, Guardians of the Veil”

“Please, call us W.I.T.C.H,” says Will.

A female voice from beside the cart says, “Actually, you’re not witches, I’m a witch. By the way, I’m Megan. Formerly the only magic user on the resistance. And yeah, I know, you’re not actually witches, I figured as such since that’s what your initials spell. I was just using the excuse to introduce myself”

Megan talks quickly. She has medium length black hair, and appears to be of white-asian descent. The presence of different races of humans in Metamoor speaks to just how intertwined it and earth once were. Like all Metamoorish humans, Megan’s skin was extremely pale due to likely never having been exposed to the sun. And like almost all Metamoorish women, she wore a dirty dress like those the guardians had been wearing, although she also wears fingerless gloves.

“So, like, whatta you do?” Asks Irma.

Megan sighs, “Like most magic users nowadays, I do literally nothing but duplicate food all day”

“Wait a minute, aren’t you that girl who shot that shockwave thing when Phobos was… um… going to kill me?” Taranee points out

“Oh, you guys wanna know what I can do not what I *do*. Well, you see, there are lots of things I could do if I knew how. But before I joined the rebellion, there were so many things that could get me executed for knowing, so it was just too risky to learn anything. I just stuck to duplication and combination. Once I joined the rebellion, noone here could teach me anything else, because I was the only witch. But I did figure out a few things myself. Namely shockwaves and making teleorbs. I also…”

Megan is interrupted by Irma as she exclaims “wait a minute, what time is it!!”

Yan Lin checks her watch. “4:30, at least, on Earth” she says

“Wait, so we’ve been doing this guardian stuff all day!” Exclaims Hay Lin

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no, this is bad,” says Irma.

“What is it, Irma?” Asks Will.

“Well, you see, I’m kinda grounded right now, and I kinda snuck out. When I got the call that it was urgent, I snuck out while my mom was picking up my brother. I didn’t think it would take toooo long. And I completely forgot! Now who knows what they’ll think! We need to go home right now!”

“I think you made the right choice,” says Yan Lin, “urgent matters are urgent matters”

“I beg to differ,” adds Taranee.

“It doesn’t matter. Will, change us back and open the portal!” Says Irma.

“Wait, can’t you just do that whoop-de-do thing on their heads?” Says Hay Lin to Irma

“Funny story, they kinda found out and now it doesn’t work on them anymore”

“They found out about your powers!” Yan Lin exclaims.

“Not exactly,” responds Irma, “They think I learnt some sort of hypno trick”

Yan Lin looks relieved.

Irma continues “...but I still need to get home asap”

“Irma’s right,” Will says, “we should all be getting home now,” Will pulls out the Heart of Kandrakar.

“Guardians, disjoint”

Suddenly, the sound of moaning comes from Cornelia as she grips Caleb tighter.

“What’s the matter?” Caleb says to her in a worried tone.

“No! Don’t look at me! I’m hideous”

“It’s just a bit of rainburns, it’s not that bad”

Suddenly, Cornelia stops moaning, “Whatta you mean it’s not that bad? Of course it isn’t, they’re just rainburns”

Caleb chuckles and looks back at her.

“Hey, I said don’t look at me! I’m ugly!”

Caleb chuckles again, “Do you think I won’t like you just because you’re not in guardian form?”

“No, look at me! I’m atrocious! I’m wearing rags, my hair is a mess, I’m not wearing makeup, and my skin looks like I’ve been boiled alive!”

“Well that makes you no different than all the other Metamoorish girls. And even so, you’re still more beautiful than any of them”

“Aww thanks. You’re so sweet,” she says.

“Sorry to rain on your parade, but we need to get home, remember,” says Irma.

“Can’t we just stay a little longer,” says Cornelia.

“No we can’t stay longer so you can have more time with Caleb,” replies Irma.

“Before you go, we need a way to contact you guys quickly from anywhere. You never know when we might need you,” says Caleb.

“Do you think cellphone signals can cross through the veil?” Asks Hay Lin.

“Only one way to find out,” says Will, “Hey, is anyone willing to give Caleb here their cellphone?”

“Of course, anything for Caleb,” Says Cornelia. She then proceeds to feel around in her dress pockets.

“I left it in my earth clothes, didn’t I,” she says, “Also, there’s something sticky in those pockets and I don’t want to know what it is”

“Anyone else?” Asks Will.

“I also think I left mine in my earth clothes,” says Hay Lin.

“I forgot mine at home,” says Taranee.

“Mine’s broken,” says Irma, “they said it was waterproof, so I tried filling it up with water from the inside, and for some reason, it stopped working”

“Well what did you think was gonna happen!” exclaims Will.

“I dunno, that’s why I did it! Waterproof means waterproof after all”

“Well, I guess I’m the only one. So that complicates things”

“Hey, I have an idea!” Says Megan, who’s still walking beside the cart, “You know, I could just duplicate that thing”

“Would that involve me giving it to you? Because I just met you, and I don’t trust you," says Will.

“Fair enough. Trust me, I wouldn’t trust myself either. Now, typically it would be done that way, as I have to pull it in two, but it'll still work if I hold one end and you hold the other”

“Uh, ok” Will says. She then holds the phone over the edge of the cart for Megan to grab the other end. When she grabs it, she says, “Hey, this thing’s powered by quintessence! I can feel it. It’s a witch thing. And you’re the guardian of quintessence, right?”

“Yup”

“So that means that you should be able to manipulate whatever kind of signal it sends so it’ll work from pretty much everywhere. Even through the veil”

“Hey, you’re right! That would probably work!” Says Will.

“Now, let's get on with this, shall we?” Says Megan, “so what exactly did you say this thing was called again?”

“A cellphone,” answers Will.

“Hmm.. what would that be…” mutters Megan, she then thinks for a few moments, then says “noaphlless” as she yanks the phone out of Will’s hand. But, after she does, the phone is still in Will’s hand, and it’s also in Megan's hand.

“Here you go,” Megan says as she hands Will the other one. Both cellphones are exactly the same in every way, every one of her contacts, and even her snake game scores were exactly the same.

“Uh, which one’s the original?” Asks Will.

“Neither,” says Megan, “They’re both the original and also both not. It’s the same cellphone but it’s been split in two”

“Huh, ok. Well now I need to try something,” Will says as she realizes that both cellphones probably have the same number (like everything else). So she tries calling said number on one of them. They both start ringing. She answers on the same one she called from, and her voice comes out the other one.

“They seem to work,” she says. She then gives one of them to Caleb and tries to explain how to call her with it, and tries a test call to make sure he understands. Once she’s confident he does, she decides it’s time to head back home.

“Can I pleeeease stay here with Caleb? I also really don’t wanna go back to Earth looking like I’ve been microwaved”

“And what about your parents?” Says Taranee.

“It’ll be fine. Just tell them I’ll be gone for a few days. They won’t question it, trust me”

“A few days?!” Exclaims Will.

“You know tomorrow’s Halloween, right?” Says Irma.

“It is?!” Exclaims Hay Lin, “oh no, I haven't even started sewing my costume yet! But hey, no biggy!”

“Nah, I’m too old for that stuff. I’ll be fine. Oh, and don’t forget, you can still call me”

Caleb adds, “You know, Cornelia could be a real help fixing up the town and setting up defences. Plus, it would make the rebels feel alot safer having a guardian here. And I’m also still kinda confused about this thing you gave me”

“Don’t worry, I can help you with all those things,” Cornelia says.

“Well, I guess I see no reason not to,” says Will.

“I don’t like this, but if you insist,” says Taranee.

“Well guys, let’s go home,” says Will. She gets up and walks to the back of the cart with the Heart of Kandrakar in hand. She faces the rear and slashes the air, but something unexpected happens. The gash begins to shrink. This confuses Will, but she tries to make the second slash. They don’t seem to cross paths like they usually do, and the second one is considerably bigger than the first due to its shrinking, but the new one too starts shrinking as well. Will thinks Phobos must be doing something to stop them from leaving.

“Uuh, Will? You do realize the cart is moving, right?” Says Irma.

Will then realizes why the lines are shrinking and not overlapping: they’re not. They’re getting further away. Will feels really stupid. That concussion must really be getting to her.

They all hop off the back of the moving cart one by one. As Will helps Yan Lin down, she turns to Cornelia and says, “stay safe”

Chapter Text

Will, Irma, Taranee, Hay Lin, and Yan Lin step out of a portal in the woods.

“Where are we?” Asks Taranee.

“Lemme see,” says Hay Lin. She then proceeds to float up into the air.

“I don’t know where we are, but I can see downtown. It’s that way!” Will looks up and sees Hay Lin pointing off in a direction.

“Well I guess we’re going this way,” says Will as Hay Lin floats to the ground beside her. They all start walking through the woods. Thankfully, these woods are much less overgrown than the woods they trekked through before to get to that cliff.

As they begin to walk, Will asks Yan Lin a question. “Yan Lin?” She says, “When Phobos first approached me, my chest started to glow, and that gem thing on his head did too. Do you know what that was? It seemed to be how he knew I was the keeper of the heart”

Yan Lin responds, “as a matter of fact, I know exactly why that was. That gem Phobos wears on his head is the Heart of Metamoor. It is what’s known as a mystical heart, just like the Heart of Kandrakar. It gives him power over the energy of Metamoor.

”The Heart of Kandrakar is by far the most powerful of all these hearts. And when two hearts are in the presence of eachother, they begin to emit light”

“Wait, is that the source of his powers?” Will asks.

“Not exactly. It grants him some of his powers, such as his telekinesis, his ability to manipulate energy, amongst other things. Also, he can only do it while in Metamoor”

“So what if we take away this heart? Would that make him more vulnerable?”

“No. Even without the Heart of Metamoor, he is still one of the most powerful wizards alive. Taking the heart would be like taking a single tool from his toolbox. Even then, he would not give it up easily”

“Oh,” says Will.

They continue walking through the woods for several minutes through a light shower of falling leaves from the thinning brightly colored treetops. Will soon begins to get cold, and she wraps her arms around herself. She then feels her jaw beginning to jitter slightly. The cold air pierces through the linen dress with ease. She left the sweater she was wearing back in Metamoor. Yan Lin is still wearing hers, Taranee seems completely unaffected for reasons that aren't hard to guess, while Irma also seems to be getting cold.

Eventually, the four of them emerge in a neighbourhood.

“Hey, I know where we are!” Says Irma, “I live near here! Gotta go, bye!!” Irma runs off as quickly as she can in the dress.

“I have no idea where we are,” says Will.

“Neither do I,” adds Taranee.

“Let’s find a bus stop, I’ll take you back to The Silver Dragon and Hay Lin can lend you some of her clothes and sweaters. Then you both can walk home from there. And when anyone questions about your injuries, just say you had a tumble down a flight of stairs. You’ll be surprised how many things you can blame on that”

“What about my burns? Are you gonna blame that on the stairs too?” Asks Will.

“Actually, It’s hardly noticeable now. That cream really worked its magic. Speaking of which, I’ll also lend you some of my perfume to cover the smell of that awful stuff”

Will had forgotten about that. Everyone in Metamoor also smelled terrible, so they didn’t seem bothered by it. 

“Do I have to put on perfume? I hate perfume”

Yan Lin responds, “It’s either you smell like perfume or the inside of a colon, which one do you prefer?”

“I guess I’ll take the lesser of the two evils,” she says unenthusiastically.

They follow the plan. When Hay Lin goes to get clothes for Will and Taranee, she tells them not to follow her into her room because she’s ‘working on something for them’. As they wait for her to gather some clothes, Yan Lin begins to show Will and Taranee all of Hay Lin’s many, many paintings she’s made over the years that hang all around the apartment. Once Hay Lin comes out of her room, Will puts on the tight clothes and reluctantly puts on the perfume, then she says goodbye and heads out. First she goes to the bike shop to pick up her bike, then heads to Matt’s pet store to pick up Whiskers, and of course, talk to Matt.

The shop bell dingles as Will opens the door. Some of the pets greet her as she walks in. She asks them where Matt is, and an orange tabby says he’s in the back. Will knocks on the ‘employees only’ door, and Matt opens it.

“Oh, hey Will, I’ve been waiting for you, here, I’ll get Whiskers for you” 

Matt closes the door again, and after a few moments, returns. He gestures for her to come in, and she obliges. He hands her the small dormouse, who instantly skampers up ontop of her head saying, “finally! My nest is back!” Will looks up at him and clears her throat sarcastically

“Oh, hey Will,” says Whiskers.

Will notices there are more cages of animals back there. She hopes Herbert gets them from an ethical breeder. That would be the first thing she asks next time she sees him.

“I like your perfume,” says Matt, “I haven’t smelt you wearing any before. It’s definitely… unique” 

Will feels partially embarrassed by him noticing, but also complemented at the same time. She blushes.

“Funny story about that actually. So I kinda fell in the lake by the industrial park where they were dumping a bunch of nasty chemicals. I got some pretty bad burns and I also smell like I crawled out of a dumpster, and that’s why I’m wearing perfume, and that’s also probably where that ‘unique’ smell comes from… heh heh”

“Well, in case you’re feeling a little self-conscious, I honestly wouldn’t have known if you hadn’t told me”

“Thanks, that’s reassuring,” she says.

“Hey, if you fell into a bunch of chemicals, does this mean you’re gonna get superpowers?” Matt chuckles.

“Who says I don’t already have them? But hey, if I didn’t before, now I have the power to clear any room I walk into,” jokes Will.

“Well then, I think I might be immune” 

Will blushes again, and accidentally shocks Whiskers as she does.

“Hey, I’m tryna sleep here,” he says.

“You know, if you wanna hang out more, I think there might be a part time job open. You’ll have to ask my grandpa about it, but he’s currently napping. But hey, you’re better with animals than anyone I’ve ever met, so I think this would be perfect for you,” Matt says.

“Thanks, I'll consider it,” says Will. She then notices a clock behind Matt. “I should probably get going. My mom’s gonna be home from work soon, and I should probably be there”

“Alright, bye Will! Oh, one more thing, are you gonna be at the Halloween party at school tomorrow?”

Will didn’t know about this party. She finds it odd that the school is having a party on a weekend, but hey, it’s a private school, so she guesses they can do whatever they want.

“I’ll try to make it,” she says, “Bye Matt!”

Will arrives home. Her mom is still at work. She remembers what Matt told her that morning about Whiskers going into hibernation, and she has an idea. She finds some scissors and cuts a few locks out of her hair. She tries to arrange them into a nest, but there isn’t nearly enough. But if she cuts anymore, people might notice. She decides to ask her mom to get a haircut when she gets home. Not only to get it cut, but also to clean up whatever Whiskers had been doing up there this time. She doesn’t care what people think of it when he does, after all, it’s for Whiskers. But brushing it out takes forever and hurts like hell.

Before leaving, she quietly takes Whiskers off her head without waking him.

Whenever she gets a haircut, her mom always suggests that they go to the hairdresser, but Will insists that they go to the barber, saying that the hairdresser is ‘too fancy’. When they arrive, Will is first going to go for the same thing she always does. Then she realizes something: she’d been through more changes over the last week than she had in her entire life. And it was all against her will. So maybe she should make one last change before the week is over, and this time, it would be on her own Will.

She decides to cut her hair short and get a bob cut. Once it’s done, she takes a look in the mirror. She had never seen herself with hair this short, but she likes it. She asks the barber if she can keep some of the hair, and tells him exactly why. He thinks it’s cute. Her mom however seems to think it’s weird, but doesn’t say anything.

Once home again, Will finishes the nest, then carefully puts a sleeping Whiskers in it before kissing him goodnight. She hopes she gets to talk with him again before the spring, and that this isn’t goodnight for good. But part of her tells her it probably is, and that makes her kind of sad.

Will closes the lid. 

“He’s not going away,” she thinks.

“He’ll be right here, right by my bed”

Epilogue

Phobos sits on his throne. He still finds it hard to believe that the Guardians of the Veil are finally back, even though their return is long overdue. And they’re so young too. This pleases him, not only are they weaker, but also easier to manipulate. Ontop of that, this must mean Kandrakar is getting desperate, which means he poses a real threat to them, and that greatly pleases him.

He regrets not killing the new guardians when he had the chance. He could have killed the black one. He should have killed the black one. Not only would this have meant one less guardian to deal with, but it would have shown the others he wasn’t messing around. He also could have killed the keeper, the redhead. And once again, he should have. But he was too focused on getting the heart then and there that he didn’t stop to consider that he had the prime opportunity to wipe out a guardian. And now look at what happened. But, as they say on Earth, hindsight is always 20/20.

These guardians are inexperienced. He would get other chances, and next time, he would take them.

“Reythor!” He calls. 

Reythor comes running.

“Yes, your majesty”

“I have several orders for you. Firstly, tell all outposts that they are no longer required to enter portals. Secondly, search every room of every building in the city for anyone who you think may even have a possibility of being a traitor. Then have them publicly executed in the most brutal way you can think of. We need to make an example out of them. And lastly, do you have any updates on the earthlings that were found in that basement?”

Reythor responds, “The earthlings would not give any information of value, so I executed them all personally”

“All of them?” Phobos confirms.

“Of course, your majesty. Why would I lie?”

“Good. Now go carry out my orders”

“Yes, your majesty,” Reythor says before walking off.