Resurrection

Tuesday. A dreary day for Will Vandom to be walking alone. The freshly showered ground made her shoes squeak and the humidity had already flattened her hair. As she continued her lonely walk a light seemed to emerge from nowhere; it was a light she recognized immediately.

The glow of the portal's light was enough to stop Will dead in her tracks. Its familiarity captured her breath, crippling her and making it impossible to move. It had been so long since she had actually seen one she pinched herself to make sure it wasn't a dream. Nope, she thought, not a dream.

It had been years since she could remember seeing a portal, and yet here one was, right in front of her very own astonished eyes. Its radiating light reminded Will of the last portal she had seen.

It was five years ago when the then fourteen-year-old guardian last saw a portal. Then a portal was no big deal; she saw them daily. Seeing, and closing, them became routine to her and her fellow guardians. If only she had known the portal they all had seen that day would be the last.

It had started out a normal day. School had just ended and the girls, with Caleb following close behind, headed to the Silver Dragon, another daily routine to the girls. She remembered everything from that day; the after school snack they ate, their discussion about the algebra test, all the way up to them discovering the portal. The last portal.

They thought it was just a portal; a normal, everyday portal. Just as Will pulled out the Heart of Kandrakar ,like she had done do many times before, a scaly blue bird covered in slime flew from the opening in front of her. This too was nothing new. Things had flown from the portals before and the guardians had also made sure that was as far as anything had gotten; except for what flew out of their first portal: Caleb.

As Will and the girls transformed Caleb had already gotten a head start on the creature, jumping on its back and tugging at its neck. Irma threw a wave of water the creatures way, making it crash to the ground. Taranee followed in foot, sending a blazing fire ball the bird's way.

The bird was out for the count it looked like and the only step left was to send it back to where it came from.

"I'll take care of it from here," Will said, approaching the unconscious creature.

"No," Caleb protested, "I'll get it Will. After all, I'm already covered in slime," he said pointing out the slime that covered his clothes.

"I would never want to come between you and your slime," she laughed as he proceeded to pick the blue monster up and drag it to the portal. The girls watched as he stopped at the portal and threw the bird in. It wasn't as easy as he's thought it'd be.

The bird seemed to instantaneously regain consciousness and clasped onto Caleb's shirt, sending them both tumbling into the portal. The girls, stunned by the bird's sudden consciousness, began to approach the portal on a mission to retrieve Caleb. But before they got to it, the heart slipped away from Will and began floating in the air before the portal. Will ran to get it back when the portal began to close.

"What is it doing!?" Hay Lin shouted.

"Caleb's in there!" Cornelia yelled in despair, "We have to get him!"

All Will could do was watch as the heart continued to close to the portal. "I…I…I don't know what it's doing. I'm not controlling it; I can't control it."

The girls just watched helpless as the heart fully closed the portal and fell to the ground lifeless.

"Caleb!" Cornelia cried and ran to the spot where the portal had just closed. All Will could do was pick up the heart, examining it. It had never done this before. It was like it had had a life of its own. But now it wasn't even glowing its normal pink color. It was dead, exanimate.

"Will!" Cornelia screamed after sobbing over Caleb and the loss of the portal, "Why did you close the portal? You knew Caleb was in there! Did you want him to get eaten by that scaly slimy thing?"

"Cornelia, cool your jets. There's no need for accusations right now," Irma piped in.

"Yeah it was probably just an accident," Taranee added.

"And besides," Hay Lin said optimistically, "Caleb's a rebel leader. I think it'll take a little bit more than an oversized slime bird to harm him."

"She has a point," Taranee said, "he'll just find another portal and come back then."

"Ok," Cornelia calmed down, "but that still doesn't explain why Will closed the portal on him." Everyone looked at Will waiting for a reply. But Will was so enchanted by the heart she didn't even notice their stares.

"Well?" Cornelia said finally awaiting an answer.

"You guys," Will began softly, "I didn't do it. The heart it just…it got away from me. It closed the portal on its own; I had nothing to do with it. I knew we had to go get Caleb. Cornelia, you know I wouldn't trap him in there with that thing on purpose. I swear I didn't do it."

"We believe you," Hay Lin said.

"But now we have to figure out what's going on with the heart. Had it ever done anything like that on its own?" Taranee asked.

"No; well not that I can remember. It's always done whatever I've made it do," Will replied.

"Well then I guess it's best to ask Grandma," Hay Lin concluded.

"Sounds like a good idea," Irma agreed and the girls headed back for the restaurant.

Seeing Yan Lin, however, did not solve the problem. She too was dumbfounded by the heart's act and, now, sudden exanimate behavior. All the girls could do was just wait for another portal to open.

But no portal opened. They kept waiting; days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months, months to a year and soon the girls just gave up hope. There was no explanation to why there were no more portals. They just stopped appearing. The girls began researching other towns around Heatherfield trying to find out if any strange occurrences had been taking place. All they found was nothing out of the ordinary.

After six months of waiting Cornelia had already quit talking to Will. She still blamed her for the incident and when no portals ever appeared, she wouldn't have anything to do with her. This, of course, drove a rift between the girls. There was no more need for the guardians to stay together; they had nothing to protect and their powers had disappeared with the portals and lifelessness of the heart. It was almost as if none of it had ever existed at all.

There were times when Will even thought that maybe it was just an imaginary game the girls had invented for fun; everything was just made up. They weren't really superheroes, Guardians of the Veil never really existed, and neither did Caleb, Blunk, Phobos, Cedric, or Meridian. The only proof they'd ever had of its existence was now void and lifeless nestled in Will's pocket.

The girls went all through high school not being friends. After the incident they just began drifting so far apart that their friendship was unable to be saved. They didn't really know how to act around each other; none of them were really sure if anything they experienced together had even really happened. After high school Taranee, Hay Lin, Cornelia, and Irma went to college and pursued their future as if nothing had happened just five years ago. Will, on the other hand, couldn't move on.

She felt trapped in Heatherfield, drawn to something and she felt she still had a responsibility to the town. She also kept the heart with her at all times; just in case. Every time she thought about leaving it at home she changed her mind and brought it along. But she had yet to see another portal; until now.

That was what amazed her. The portals had been gone for five years so why was this one here now? After a long, drawn out pause to get over her initial shock she reached in her pocket and pulled out the heart to transform. The pink light glared from the heart as she pulled it out; the first sign of life from the heart in five years.

When she pulled it out and transformed a sense of familiarity came over her. She felt refreshed and revitalized. She thought about just closing the portal, but then what if another one never came back? The girls had waited for one to open to save Caleb and she couldn't let him down now, she had waited too long. She thought for just a second about whether or not this was a dream before she braced herself to jump. Just as she readied herself for the dive into Meridian she was struck by something coming out.

It knocked her down flat on her back. When she was able to get back on her feet to see what had hit her she was shocked at what she saw for the second time that day.

"Caleb?!"

A/N: I could say I know exactly what I'm doing with this story...but then I would be lying. I have no idea where this is headed I'm just writing whatever comes to me. I would appreciate reviews from you guys though. I'm really tired of listening to me critiquing myself.