AN – Welcome to Chapter Two. Thanks to those who reviewed last time, it's great to know that you guys are enjoying the story. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this chapter as the Oracle's plan is revealed, Irma gains a sidekick and there is a car chase. Don't forget to shoot me a review if you have any thoughts.
Disclaimer – I own nothing.
...
FOUR YEARS LATER
"Drive, Short Round, drive!"
The tiny girl seated in the driver's seat of Irma Lair's battered old jeep squeaked in surprise as the seventeen year-old ex-Guardian jumped in the back, an old duffel bag hanging from her shoulder. The child did not need telling twice. Despite the inability to see over the steering wheel and the difficulty she faced in reaching the pedals, the girl slammed her foot down on the accelerator and raced the car out onto the road. Irma grinned at her miniature sidekick and hopped into the front passenger seat.
"Do you have to call me 'Short Round?'" asked the girl, absentmindedly blowing a strand of her muddy brown hair out of her face, "I like 'Indiana Jones' just as much as the next kid but you've clearly seen it waaay too many times."
"You can never see 'Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom' too many times, Sidekick," laughed Irma, "and you gotta admit it, you kinda are Short Round."
Sidekick huffed in a fashion that only young children can achieve successfully.
"I always thought I was more of a 'Batgirl' sidekick than a Short Round."
"No way," argued Irma, wincing slightly as the car swerved violently to avoid a collision with another vehicle, "I can easily picture you saying; "Okie dokie Dr. Jones. Hold on to your potatoes.'"
The sudden wailing of sirens interrupted Sidekick's response and the pair groaned at the sight of flashing blue lights. Irma suddenly grinned and stared at her tiny companion expectantly.
"Say it. You know you want to."
"No."
"Go on."
"Not gonna happen."
"I'll buy you an ice cream."
"Okie dokie Dr. Jones," muttered Sidekick rather reluctantly, her foot edging towards the accelerator, "hold on to your potatoes."
"Yes!"
Sidekick's foot pressed heavily onto the gas pedal and the car rocketed forwards. The dumfounded police officers blinked in surprise at the sudden speed of their target vehicle and, after calling for back-up, gave chase.
"Oh, buggering bollocks," swore Sidekick violently as she caught sight of the approaching police car in the interior mirror.
"Don't swear," retorted Irma, raising an eyebrow at her tiny companion's use of language, "you're only six, you shouldn't be using such crass words."
"I also shouldn't be helping a crazy ex-Guardian rob a museum or be on the run from the Po-Po either."
"Please don't use the term 'Po-Po.' You're not an angsty teenaged gangster."
"Are you dissin' the way I talk?"
"Only if you keep using words like 'dissing.'"
Sidekick pouted and half-heartedly pulled a rude finger gesture in the direction of the following police officers. After a moment of awkward silence, she glanced at Irma's duffel bag.
"I'm assuming you managed to steal what you went in for?"
"'Steal' is such an ugly word," smirked Irma, "I prefer 'liberated.' And yes, yes I did."
"Can I see it?"
"Dude, we're on the run from the police and you're driving. Now's not a good time for you to be distracted."
"You're such a lame-brain."
Irma just laughed wildly, the euphoria of her success finally catching up to her. Sidekick rolled her eyes and swerved to avoid knocking over a woman pushing a pram, all the while wondering why she had decided to follow the reckless Guardian to Earth. The child had been perfectly happy working in the Royal Library of Meridian. After all, books did not persuade young children to act as a getaway drivers.
A quick look in the mirror told Sidekick that their pursuers were still firmly on their tail. She swallowed nervously and glanced at Irma. The Guardian was still chuckling away to herself and Sidekick hurriedly came to the conclusion that she would be no help if they were caught. Desperately, she began to run through all the excuses she knew for why a six-year-old would be driving a getaway vehicle after just helping rob a museum. Unsurprisingly, she had very few.
Just as the police car began to edge closer, however, a crackling, purple portal suddenly opened just in front of them. Sidekick cheered in relief and sped towards the inter-dimensional gateway leading to Kandrakar. The portal swallowed the battered jeep before shrivelling away and disappearing with a slight 'pop.' Needless to say, the police officers following the aforementioned jeep, after regaling their colleagues with the bizarre tale, would be the laughing stock of their department for many years to come.
...
"You found the last part?"
Irma nodded and smiled at the equally excited Oracle. The bald immortal beamed at her. The years had not been too harsh on his only remaining charge. The last Guardian was far taller and far less scrawny than she had been in the early days of W.I.T.C.H and her face had lost the remnants baby fat left over from childhood. She had developed into a stunning young woman. Her azure eyes, however, were duller than they once were; sadder and less trusting. The loss of her friends still weighed heavily on her soul.
"Yep. It took four years but I found it."
"Excellent. Can I see it?"
"Oooh," cried Sidekick, still seated in Irma's jeep, "can I see too?"
The Oracle had been oddly unsurprised at the car racing through his chambers and colliding into his wall. He had merely raised an eyebrow and calmly offered the intruders some tea. Irma had declined, ordered Sidekick to remain in the battered vehicle and hopped over the door.
"Well, I need you to translate," answered Irma, motioning for the chubby-faced child to toss her the duffel bag, "so I'm gonna go with 'yeah.'"
"Oh right."
The ex-Guardian nimbly caught the bag as it flew through the air and reached inside. When her hand emerged again, it was clutching a weathered stone tablet that had clearly seen far more years than she. Unfamiliar characters danced across the surface, befuddling both the Oracle and the brunette. Sidekick, on the other hand, squealed in delight.
"Yes! Ancient Avalonian! That's got to be my all time favourite ancient language! It's so much deeper and more complex than Ancient Meridian."
"You are one odd child," muttered Irma, raising an eyebrow at the girl's outburst.
"I'm a Lingua, remember? Languages are kinda my thing."
"And yet you still refer to the police as the 'Po-Po.'"
"You suck."
The Oracle chuckled and tentatively accepted the heavy slate of rock.
"It is rather stunning," he admitted, "the others were just as beautiful but I suspect that knowing we are so close to our goal makes this tablet all the more precious."
He glanced up at a sulking Sidekick.
"How long will it take you to translate it?"
"I dunno, you're kind of hogging it," pouted Sidekick. At Irma's pointed glare, the child sighed and looked back at the Oracle, "but judging from the time it took me to translate the last four, I'm guessing a couple of hours."
"Can you wait that long?" the Oracle asked Irma, placing the stone tablet gently in Sidekick's eagerly outstretched arms.
"I've been waiting for four years," commented the ex-Guardian wryly, "I think I can handle a few more hours. I'll go see Will whilst Sidekick does her thing."
"Alright."
"I'll be super quick," promised Sidekick, her eyes wide with anticipation, "I know this is important."
"Thanks, girl."
"Are you kidding? I should be thanking YOU. This is awesome!"
"Only you could get excited over some old letters, Sidekick," laughed Irma as she walked through the large doorway, "but I'll accept that 'thank you' nonetheless."
...
Four years Will Vandom had spent in suspended animation. Four long, painful, mind-numbing years. The girl in question remained unaware of this fact. Her fast-talking, wise-cracking, water-wielding friend was all too aware, however. After all, she was the one who had lived through them. The Guardian Leader's still form floated in the centre of a sparsely decorated chamber, suspended in a gentle pink glow. The Heart of Kandrakar hung from her neck and Irma stared at it longingly. It was a symbol of those good times before the incident; back when they were still W.I.T.C.H. Before the loneliness, before the uncertainty. Will's face was graced with a peaceful expression, one far more serene than Irma had ever seen when her leader was awake.
"Hey Will," she croaked, the sight of her old friend washing her with nostalgia, "I'm sorry it's been so long."
Talking to Will was a tradition that Irma had adopted a few weeks after the incident. At first she had visited every day, in an effort to sooth some of her soul-destroying loneliness, but as time went on she had become more and more absorbed in the Oracle's plan and found herself with less time to visit. It was something that she deeply regretted.
"I'd ask you how you've been, but you probably wouldn't answer."
It was a pointless, and slightly tasteless, joke and Irma cringed as soon as it had left her lips. The familiar humour, however, served its purpose and took the painful edge off of the one-sided conversation. Irma sighed and ran a hand through her auburn curls.
"A lot has happened since we last talked. When was that? Wow, nearly eight months ago. Sidekick says, wait, you remember Sidekick right? She's the kid I met in the Meridian Library last year. She's a little brat, a cute brat admittedly, but a brat nonetheless. She kinda reminds me of Christopher. Man, it's been a while since I've seen him as well. My schedule's been pretty hectic recently. I've kinda ignored my folks since...well...y'know."
Irma cleared her throat and awkwardly changed the subject. She had attempted to forget that unpleasant time by merely avoiding the issue. Both the Oracle and Yan Lin had urged her to deal with the incident in a more healthy fashion. Irma, however, had responded by cutting off all contact with her family, disappearing for months on end and throwing herself completely into the Oracle's plan. It was not a very intelligent solution and Irma knew that if the Guardians had been there to witness her destructive behaviour, their fury would be almost unbearable. But, as much as Irma wished otherwise, the Guardians were not there and a solution was a solution. Closing herself off was the only way she knew to keep herself from breaking down. Besides, if all went to plan, the deaths of her sisters would only be a temporary situation.
"I know I've been pretty vague about what I've been doing recently," admitted Irma, a sudden surge of guilt flooding through her veins, "but the Oracle made me promise not to tell. The Council wouldn't agree. Actually, you probably wouldn't either."
The brunette sighed. Four long years she had kept her secret. She knew that the secrecy was necessary and the paralysing fear of losing her friends fuelled her silence. But four years was a long time and Irma needed Will to understand. Needed her to understand that what Irma was doing was not selfish and that it was to make everything better. Because sometimes, in those fleeting moments of doubt, Irma was not really sure herself.
"All our problems can be traced back to one person," began the ex-Water Guardian slowly, "Nerissa. It's all her fault. She killed Cassidy and turned on her friends. She set up the Knights of Vengeance and arranged the attack that cost Hay Lin, Corny and Taranee their lives. She's the one who holds sole responsibility for the fact that you're floating from the ceiling like a broken puppet. She destroys everything she touches and does so with a grin firmly plastered across her face. She's a monster and sometimes, when I'm lying in bed, all I can see is her face and hear her laughter. I hate her for that. I hate that she took everything from us and can still finds ways to inflict so much pain and fear. I've got nothing left to give, Will, barring my sanity. And sometimes, I'm scared she's taken that as well."
Irma inhaled deeply, slightly shocked by her own confession.
"But I'm going to stop her, Will," she continued, a spark of defiance glittering in her azure eyes, "the Oracle and I, we have a plan. You see, there are these rocks called the Tablets of Tempus scattered all over the world. There are five of them and over the last four years, I've been tracking them down. It's quite funny really; the last one was in a museum exhibit in Heatherfield. It seems that everything seems to come back to that place. Anyway, inscribed in each tablet is an incantation and when all five incantations are recited together, a portal is opened. But it's not just any portal, Will. It's a portal that opens the gaps between time and space and theoretically, should allow me to travel back to before this whole mess started. That's right. I'm gonna do a Marty McFly on you."
If the red-headed girl had heard any of Irma's speech, she did not acknowledge the words. She remained in the frozen, serene position she had been in for the past four years. Irma gulped, her final confession dancing on the tip of her tongue.
"I'm going back to when C.H.Y.K.N were Guardians," she admitted, the words heavy in her mouth, "and I'm going to stop Nerissa before she can hurt anyone. I-I'm going to kill her, Will. I'm going to kill her before she can kill the others and if that makes me a murderer, then so be it."
Irma gulped, attempting to swallow the bile that had risen to her throat at the thought of taking another life, even one as foul as Nerissa.
"I-I'm a little bit scared," she whispered faintly, "but I can't live the rest of my life without you guys. I need you to understand that and know that I'm doing this to make everything okay again."
"Irma!"
The young voice echoed in the empty chamber and jolted the ex-Guardian from her confessions. Irma whirled around to face the source of the noise and caught sight of a beaming Sidekick hopping in the doorway.
"I've done it!" she cried with barely concealed excitement, "the last tablet, it's translated! We're ready to send you back!"
"Really?"
"Yeah! Quickly! Let's go, the Oracle's waiting!"
Sidekick did not wait for a response before racing back down the hallway. Irma followed after her but not before shooting once last glance at her slumbering leader.
"I promise, boss," she murmured, "I promise to fix this. You can count on me."
Will did not answer, not that Irma had expected her to, but the water-wielder took her silence as a yell of encouragement. With a small grin, she turned and followed her tiny partner down the corridors of Kandrakar. If Irma had stayed even a moment longer, however, she would have noticed that her one-sided conversation with Will had had an unwanted eavesdropper. The bearded figure of Tibor stepped out from behind a pillar, a worried expression hidden beneath his facial hair.
"The Council must be informed," he frowned, glancing at the floating form of the Guardian leader, "I fear that the Water Guardian has lost her mind. She must be stopped before she invokes grave consequences."
Irma's already complex mission had suddenly become far more difficult and the young woman remained completely unaware.