We'll Meet Again
Crisp autumn leaves blew gently to the ground from tall, oak trees. Grass waved in the wind. The sky was grey and dull, the wind was light, but breezy, and rain was threatening to fall from large clouds.
Winter had dawned on Heatherfield, and it was an unsettling season. After the hot, baking summer, the whole city was numb to the sharp chill the weather suddenly began to bring.
Somewhere in Heatherfield Park, five figures were feeling the cold. Their pale, windswept faces frowned. Their expressions were ones of remorse, grief, and betrayal.
"Taranee! Irma! Please, you've got to understand!"
"We don't have to do anything."
"Please! I'm not going to leave here knowing that I never made peace with you two."
"Well; you're going to be here for a LONG time then!"
Cornelia, Irma and Taranee were three of the five upset girls. The other two, as you may know, were Will and Hay Lin. Together, they formed WITCH, a group of superpowered teenage girls who defended Earth and guarded Candrakar, a magical planet up in the skies. After battling an evil tyrant called Phobos in a deprived world called Meridian, the girls were left unoccupied in Earth. However, they were happy there, after all; they had been fighting for months against Phobos and his wicked minions.
All of the girls were happy - bar one.
Cornelia, while fighting in Meridian, had fallen in love. Caleb was strong, protective, caring and beautiful. As a rebel leader, he had saved Cornelia's life on multiple occasions. Cornelia, in turn, had fallen head-over-heels in love with the brunette hottie. Luckily, Caleb had fallen for her too. Together, they developed a romance that could only be described as "fairytale-like".
But, when WITCH had defeated Phobos and returned the rightful heir to the throne of Meridian (Elyon, Cornelia's best friend), Caleb told Cornelia that he was going to stay in Meridian for life. Conversely, he asked Cornelia to move to the magical planet and live with him.
Cornelia, after much deliberation, agreed.
The following weeks flew by for Cornelia. She was teleported to Candracar and had to present herself to the Oracle (an elder who managed WITCH and helped them out. He was all-powerful.) and his followers. Cornelia was granted her wish to leave WITCH and then had to break it to her elemental friends.
Clearly, it didn't go well.
Which leads us to where we are now; in Heatherfield Park, with the sorrowful WITCH, who had managed to drag themselves down to the park to bid farewell to their earth-wielder.
"I can't believe you would do this to us." Taranee muttered coldly.
Cornelia stared at the fire guardian.
"What choice do I have? Seriously - was I EVER given a proper choice? Caleb asked me to move to Meridian and live with him. Huh, it was the most biased choice ever! He was so desperate for me to come...you could see it in his eyes. He had planned everything he was gonna say... how could I say no? I love him more than you all of you love all of your boyfriends. Our relationship is more than dates with ice cream cones....we're soulmates!" she yelled.
Will looked up from the ground. As the leader of the group, she had kept a level-head from the start (or tried to anyway). Since they met at the park, Will had been the only girl not to say anything. Instead, she looked at the ground and trudged along.
"Cornelia's right."
Taranee, Irma and even Hay Lin (who had been crying the whole time and wasn't capable of saying anything as it sounded like: "ahhuhhuhhuhh") stared at Will. They been expecting Will to convince Cornelia to stay at Heatherfield, not let her go.
"I'm sorry - WHAT?!" Irma yelled. She regularly argued with Cornelia, and although she was so livid with the departing guardian for leaving them, Irma didn't want Cornelia to go simply because she would miss her.
"Cornelia's right," Will repeated, "She's lucky to have something with Caleb so strong. You've gotta follow your heart, Cornelia. And wherever it leads, even if it hopefully leads you back to us, I will always be there for you. I want you to know that I will love you forever and will never forget you."
Cornelia began to sob.
"Oh, Will," she cried, hugging her "I will miss you so much!"
"Same!" Will replied, squeezing Cornelia back.
"Best friends, right?" Cornelia whispered in the redhead's ear so the other guardians couldn't hear.
Will and Corny seperated, Will shooting Cornelia a comforting nod.
Cornelia turned to Taranee.
"Taranee...I'm sorry. I know you're devastated and angry at me for leaving...but as Will said, I'm following my heart."
Taranee's face softened, as Cornelia continued:
"You've been there for me whenever I needed you. I love you so much..."
Taranee bit her lip, all the rage in her body being replaced by grief.
"You're the cleverest, most caring person I will ever meet. Thankyou...for being here." Cornelia finished, her eyes filling up.
Taranee broke down in tears, and pulled the blonde guardian to her in a hug. They both sobbed on each other's shoulders.
"I'm - so - sorry!" Cornelia whimpered.
"You - shouldn't - be!" Taranee cried, wiping off her tears on the cuff of her black knitted cardigan.
They broke off their hug, Cornelia gently dabbing away her and Taranee's tears with her numb fingers.
Hay Lin was crying softly when Cornelia turned to her.
"Hay? Oh babe, come here." Cornelia said, hugging the air guardian sypathetically.
"You can't go!" Hay Lin blubbered into Cornelia's shoulder. The earth guardian patted her head protectively.
"I have to. I...have to." Cornelia said sadly, before turning to a more upbeat approach of the subject, " I want to! This is my future, Hay Lin. You are one of the most incredible people I've met, though. All of you are. And I miss you already. We all have different futures, however. You're gonna be a famous artist, I can just tell, Hay. You're future is so bright with or without me."
Hay Lin just cried into Cornelia's sweater.
"Please, Hay Lin. Stop crying. I'll see you guys soon, anyway. I'm sure you can come to Meridian for a sleepover!" Cornelia said happily.
Hay Lin managed to get rid of her streams of tears and even managed a small smile.
"I love you, Cornelia." she said.
"I love you too, Linny." Cornelia smiled, as the two parted from their hug.
The only guardian left was Irma.
"Irma? Irmy? Please talk to me."
There was no reply from Irma, who had her back turned to Cornelia.
"Irma. I need to go! The portal is going to close in a minute!" Cornelia yelled, pointing at the blue portal.
Irma turned and glared at Cornelia.
"Go. You don't need me to see you off." she said coldly. "See you girls at school. I'll see your astral drop too, Cornelia."
And with that, the water guardian began to walk slowly out of the park - not turning back once.
Cornelia was crying. She couldn't believe Irma would do this! She loved Irma so much...she was one of her best friends!
Will placed a hand on her shoulder, and Cornelia turned around to meet the concerned faces of her friends. She knew it was time to release her astral drop.
Cornelia closed her eyes and concentrated deeply. She felt a huge bubble inflate inside of her, but it popped suddenly as her astral drop/clone appeared next to her.
The astral drop blinked at her friends.
"I'm off home, guys. See you at school, bright and early!" Astral Cornelia said cheerfully, an exact replica of the real Cornelia.
They all watched her flounce off out of the park. Then, Taranee, Hay Lin and Will turned to Cornelia.
"I guess it's time," Cornelia whispered. She gazed at her friends, "You guys are heroes. I love you all."
"I love you too, Cornelia." Taranee said, a lump forming in her throat.
"I'll miss you!" Hay Lin croaked, waving feebly.
"You'll always be with us, Cornelia Hale." Will said sentimentally.
Cornelia took a confident step towards the portal, even though her hands were shaking. Her shoulders heaved as she took one last look at her best friends.
They were so beautiful. Will had really matured in the past year, and so had her looks. She had sleeker hair, prettier eyes, and a steely look on her face. Infact, she was quite like the older version of herself that appeared when she transformed.
Hay Lin was demure and dainty. Her hair was long and glossy, her eyes filled with tears of compassion. Her expression was of pain, but empathy.
Taranee was the same african/american beauty she had always been. Her hair was dark and cropped, her eyes big and round. She was so clever; Cornelia could Tara's brain whirring in her head as she surveyed her.
Even Irma, who was not present, was gorgeous. Light hair that was stylish and quirky. Eyes that were good-natured and pretty. A heart of quips. Irma used to be the clown of the group, but was now more of a sarcastic honey.
And so, Cornelia turned back around to face the portal - to face her destiny. She let out a deep breath, and stepped into her brave new world, with three last words to her friends:
"We'll meet again."
Blue, purple, and silver: some of the etheral colours that met Cornelia as she left Earth in the portal. The colours flurried around her in a cylindrical shape, so it was like walking inside a tube.
She stepped tentatively through the tunnel, images of Caleb rushing from her heart to her head.
Although Cornelia was gutted from her departure, she was in love with Caleb. She was so excited to be living with him!
Cornelia began to run through the rest of the portal. Running, sprinting, dancing...everything flashed past her until suddenly she reached the end and stepped into Meridian.
"Oh my god." Cornelia gasped.
She was walking through a field of flowers. Above was a clear blue sky, filled with no clouds. She could see in the distance beautiful cottages, scenic hills, and the majestic castle that belonged to Elyon, Queen of Meridian.
Meridian was so much more brighter than when Cornelia had visited (she had been fighting off Phobos; which resulted in his capture/defeat). Back then it was disgusting and dank. Now...it was beautiful!
"Cornelia."
Cornelia twisted around as she heard her name being called - by none other than Caleb!
"Caleb!" she breathed. Standing alone, in the field behind her, was Caleb. His hair was glossy and brown, his face porcelain and pale and his grin was so romantic.
The pair slowly began to walk towards each other, before Cornelia beamed and charged towards Caleb, who in turn, broke out in a sprint.
They met in the middle of the field, where Cornelia threw her arms around Caleb's neck, and Caleb wrapped his arms around her waist.
They nuzzled each other softly for what seemed like years.
"I love you, Cornelia Hale." Caleb announced, gently caressing the blonde guardian's face.
"I love you too, Caleb." Cornelia whispered, smiling up at her lover.
They embraced and Caleb suddenly wrapped his arm tighter around the Earth guardian's waist, pulling her closer to him.
"My friends...they were so upset." Cornelia murmured, placing her hand on Caleb's chest and looking up, deep into his eyes.
"Ssh." the Rebel leader replied, smiling as he tilted his head sideways and kissed Cornelia tenderly. Cornelia replied with the same amount of love and care. Suddenly, they found themselves falling onto the soft grass, their hands in each other's hair and their tongues entwining.
"You don't know how long I've been waiting for this moment." Caleb claimed, resting his head on Cornelia's shoulder as they lay on the flowery land.
"I do. Because I've been waiting too. It felt like forever...but we finally made it, didn't we? We finally found our happy ending?" Cornelia asked. Caleb stood up, and scooped Cornelia up into his arms.
"This isn't our happy ending, Cornelia. It's our happy beginning."
ILoveHeroes, 2010.