Disclaimer: I don't own W.I.T.C.H. That's why its called fanfiction. Duh.
Thank you to all who reviewed my story Hay Lin Swansong.
AN: This is the second and probably final sequel to XV-Dragons story Cornelia's jealousy and the punishment of Candracar and Hay Lins swansong. For those of you who haven't read those two stories here's an update. Cornelia has left the team in difficult circumstances, Hay Lin is dead, killed recreating the veil and Elyon has been absorbed by her brother.
Cornelia's penance
Cornelia stared hard at her opponent. Sword in hand, she called out in a mocking voice "Come on then. Is that all you got?"
The young man facing her growled and without further ado swung his sword at her in an overhead swing. Allowing him to gain momentum, without warning she brought her own sword up and parried at an angle, allowing his sword to slide effortlessly off of hers and as his momentum carried him past her, she hit him on the back of the neck with a swift karate chop. "Come on Matt, how are you going to fight a lurden or someone like Frost if you keep making basic mistakes like this. I'm sorry but you can't come with us, it's too dangerous for both you and us."
"Just let me try one more ti.." Matt began but Cornelia cut him off "Matt I know you want to impress Will and everything but Cornelia's commandos need to be the best and frankly we don't have the time to train you up to our standard. I'm sorry but I have to place the safety of my team first."
Matt briefly stared at her in disbelief. Then with a sneer of anger he got up and stormed out the doors of the dojo with the words "Fine! I'll do this on my own then, without you losers holding me back!"
"Ouch. You know that was a little bit harsh of you don't you think?" said a tall African American man said standing to her right said. "I mean" he continued "I know he was rotten and everything but you could have at least pretended he stood a chance of coming with us."
Cornelia turned to look at him. "Far better I tell him now don't you think? At least that way he won't be angry with us when we leave him behind. Anyway this isn't a broken hearts club Peter. Stupid suicidal idiots, yes, broken hearts no. Except maybe Eric. Point is he doesn't have what it takes. The others do."
"It's been almost ten years since Hay Lin and Elyon died. Are you sure this crazy plan of yours is going to work?"
"It will Peter trust me" It has to she added mentally. It just has to.
Guardian headquarters Heatherfield 12:05 hours.
Caleb fidgeted uncomfortably. He wasn't normally this nervous about talking to his girlfriend Will, but this was a special occasion, even if she didn't know it yet. "Ya know I don't think ever seen you this scared before." Irma said with a smile on her face. "I mean I didn't think you knew how to be scared. Not even when we're facing the scariest of monsters. I very much doubt she'll say no."
Caleb's head snapped round so fast that he cricked his neck. "What the!? How the!?" he spluttered uncontrollably, to which Irma laughed. "Caleb I think that almost everyone in the building knows your going to propose to Will sooner or later. You're practically telegramming it with your body language."
Caleb slumped to the ground. "It was meant to be a surprise." He groaned to which Irma giggled.
"It is for Will. She's doesn't have a clue. Or rather she thinks your going to dump her or something."
Caleb shot to his feet. "What!! How can she even think…" but Irma waved him away. "Thing is right, Will seems to think that you might be too good for her. And it scares her because she loves you like mad and she really doesn't want to lose you. So just tell her already."
"Tell me what already?" Will asked as she walked in wearing a light stripped top and shorts.
Caleb took a deep breath and got on one knee. "Will Vandom, will you do me the honour and privilege of becoming my wife?"
They reckoned they could hear Wills scream of delight in Candracar.
Taranee was in the garden with the new air guardian Hannah Smith. Although Hannah had been with the team since Hay Lins death, Taranee still thought of Hannah as the "new" guardian.
"Judging by Will's scream, I'd say Caleb finally proposed." She commented.
"Finally!" Hannah replied, still hovering "Honestly, I was beginning to wonder if he'd ever get on with it."
Taranee stared at her hovering friend who was still in her crossed legged meditation pose that allowed her to hover using meditation to create a cushion of air. "Nothing breaks you concentration does it?" she asked in a sarcastic tone, to which Hannah smiled. "Not really. I really don't want to fall down."
And with that she lowered herself to the ground. Compared to Hay Lins constantly hyperactive and constantly cheerful attitude, Hannah remained almost constantly calm. Her Apache grandma had taught her how to meditate when she was young and it allowed her to control herself so well it was almost scary. "Shall we congratulate them?" She asked with a gentle smile, to which Taranee replied as they entered the building "Sure."
Former site of Sheffield Institute gym 13:30 hours (1:30 in the afternoon)
A portal began to open. A giant spider cautiously climbed through, looked around, before hissing "All clear" to whoever was on the other side. A squad of lurdens came through after her. "Now listen up. This is a covert op. That means minimal contact with the earthlings until we have completed our goal. Understand?"
"Does that mean we shouldn't be here?" said a voice to her right in a falsely sweet tone. Miranda turned to face Cornelia Hale standing there, sword in hand, wearing military fatigues. With a scream Miranda attacked.
Jumping over the glob of webbing that came her way, Cornelia swung her sword right through Miranda's compound eyes. Then before she even had a chance to scream, Cornelia rammed her sword right into her heart. There was a moment of stunned silence from the lurdens. Then they attacked. Unfortunately for them the second attack came, this time from the sides as Eric Lyndon, Peter Cook, Lillian Hale and Christopher Lair joined the fray. Less than thirty seconds later the guardians arrived, to find the lurdens in retreat and a group of armed people wearing combat fatigues. Will's face turned into a frown as she recognised their leader. "Cornelia Hale! What are you doing here?" she screamed.
Cornelia looked at her with bitter regret filling her eyes. She raised her hands in the air and said "Will I know have every reason to hate me, but please hear me out." She paused "I'm truly sorry for attacking you and I've hated myself for a long time for driving the best friends a girl could wish for away. But I have a plan to destroy Phobos once and for all."
Will just continued to glare at her, a mixture of distrust and venom in her eyes. When she spoke there was a sharp edge in her voice. "And how do you intend to do that Corny? Drink him to death?"
Cornelia just smiled. Her problems with drink and drugs had caused her to hurt her family badly and it was another thing she bitterly regretted. "After Hay Lins death I cleaned up my act. I realised just what an unpleasant person I am. Now I seek the opportunity to do penance for my crimes."
Will just glared at her. "I don't trust you Cornelia Hale. You're coming with us."
At that moment Cornelia's foot exploded outwards and caught Will in the chest. Simultaneously the other members of Cornelia's commandos hit the other guardians, stunning them for a moment. That was all the time they needed to jump through the portal. "After them" Will screamed. The heart seemed to agree as it was pointing after them. With a brief glance at one another, the guardians jumped through. Even if they didn't understand it, they trusted Will and the heart implicitly.
On the other side of the portal Cornelia's Commandos were facing a huge army of lurdens and none other than Phobos himself, exhausted as he was from opening the portal. Eric's tomahawks flew left and right, Lillians sais darted in and out, while standing beside her Chris's nunchucha spun round. At the front of the group were Cornelia and Peter, sword and staff spinning and cutting. Even so, without the guardian's arrival they would have been overwhelmed. W.I.T.C.H started to drive the lurdens back and Cornelia's commandos took advantage of this to cut a path through to Phobos. Phobos stood up and began to draw on his absorbed sister's powers, but Cornelia grabbed his arms unexpectedly as they rose. Then he felt his power begin to drain from him. What was she doing to him?
A pair of armbands on Cornelia's arms began to glow as she began to focus on her memories of Elyon and their friendship.
Flashback
Cornelia and Elyon are five years old and standing, somewhat timidly on the school playground. They look at each other and tentatively smile. That's when they became friends.
Flashback
Cornelia and Elyon are celebrating Elyons tenth birthday party. A boy named Lewis is trying to kiss Cornelia, but she's interested in boys. Not yet anyway. He corners her and is about to kiss her when Elyon grabs her and drags her away. "You looked like you needed rescuing." Elyon giggled. "Thanks Ellie." Cornelia replies and smiles at her. "You're the best."
Flashback
Cornelia and Elyon are thirteen and Cornelia is sobbing on Elyons shoulder. "Andrew Hornby dumped me for that little minx Sarah. I swear I hate her, I hate her, I hate her!" Elyon hugs her friend and makes soothing noises. She doesn't say anything and just lets her friend lean on her and let it all out. It's then that Cornelia realises that she'll always be able to rely on Ellie. Cornelia leans over to her friends ear and whispers "you're the best friend I'll ever have"
End flashback
Phobos began convulsing violently. The battle paused as everyone turned to see what was happening. Suddenly a flash of light burst out of Phobos and fell to the ground. The light began to take shape and to everyone's surprise it became someone they saw die almost ten years ago. "Protect Ellie" Cornelia screamed, breaking the trance that had descended. In a flash the guardians and Cornelia's commandos surrounded Elyon in a protective circle. Turning to face Phobos, Cornelia smiled. "As for you, Fair exchange is no robbery, eh. Enjoy this you evil creature." And with those words there was another flash of light as Cornelia forced Phobos to absorb her.
Shuddering briefly, Phobos stood up. Foolish girl! He thought to himself. Did she really believe that would stop him from reabsorbing his sister? But as he moved forward he fell to his knees and his vision grew dim. What the…he thought to himself. He died before he realised that she'd taken poison before he absorbed her and therefore poisoned him.
Seeing Phobos die, his army fled, terrified of this supposedly unheard of guardian power.
"OK, can someone please explain what just happened?" said Irma in a shaky voice. It was Lillian who answered her. "After you lot kicked her out, she went off the rails a bit. Cutting school, drinking, drugs and finally running away. Well anyway after Hay Lins death she pulled herself together, returned to school went into rehab and began training to fight. At first she intended just to kill Phobos, her research uncovered however two armbands of forcible absorption."
"Two things. First off we knew about her going off the rails and her return to sanity. Two The armbands of forcible absorption are a myth." Taranee said angrily but Lillian held up her hand.
"My sister discovered them while on the run, but she didn't understand their significance at the time.
Anyway she discovered that you could force someone to reverse the process of absorption at the cost of being absorbed yourself. Then she discovered that she was dying of Aids. With medication she was told that she would be able to live a healthy life for maybe ten years before the virus crippled her, then killed her, slowly and painfully." She looked at Will and said "she always regretted trying to kill you and she never forgave herself. But when she discovered an opportunity to save Elyon she saw a chance to atone for her sins."
There was silence for a moment. Then Vathek came in to see for himself if the rumours were true. Then he let out a gasp of surprise as he recognised Princess Elyon. "P-P-Princess" he stuttered "how is this possible?"
Elyon smiled at him. "I'll explain later. Mobilise the royal army and tell them to not give my brothers forces a chance to attack."
"Of course your majesty" Vathek said with a bow. Elyon turned to her friends. "Cornelia will be given a full state funeral. But for now we must concentrate on preventing my brother's old allies from seizing power again. Can I count on you?" Will extended her hand. So did Lillian. "You can count on it."
AN: Here it is at long last. I know that the opening paragraphs are a bit long and I didn't really explore Hannah's character properly but I wanted to focus on Cornelia's journey rather than the guardians. I'm out of ideas on this one but I thought I'd leave the door open for more, just in case someone else did or I did. Incidentally Hannah's guardian costume is a light blue tank top and flared purple trousers. As always read and review.