Disclaimer: See page one.
Will let out a groan as she heard the morning gong sound in the middle of the slave compound.
Bong!!! The gong went. Will tried to cover her ears with her pillow.
Bong!!! The gong continued, its sound unimpeded by Will's pillow. Muttering viciously under her breath about how much she hated getting up at this time of the morning.
Bong!!!
"Alright, alright, I'm getting up already!" Will snapped at the window. The gong merely continued to sound.
"Snapping at it won't make it stop you know." Will's roommate Taranee told her calmly.
"It's too early in the morning for this." Will moaned sleepily. Taranee raised an eyebrow at this.
"I-I-It's nearly eight in the morning" Taranee pointed out, slightly nervously. Will gave Taranee a pointed glare and then pulled on her clothes. Taranee did likewise on her side of their cramped room. As soon as they were dressed they stepped out into the compound.
"Morning! Exciting day isn't it? We get to discover our inner Battlebeasts! Isn't that kinda cool?" Hay Lin said as she bounced up to Will and Taranee. Will made a mental note to keep a close eye on Hay Lin. Nobody sane had any right to be so cheerful so early in the day. Especially as said person was also a slave.
"M-M-Morning guys." Irma said, yawning as she strolled into courtyard. Cornelia followed her, looking equally tired, but surprising well-done up, despite where she was. Even wearing the dull grey, sackcloth-like dress that they'd been issued with at the slave market (the idea was that it made it difficult for slaves to slip away) she still held herself with a poise and grace that would not look out of place among nobility.
"Hi guys! Busy day today! It's gonna be cool, don't you think?" Hay Lin said to Irma and Cornelia.
"Hay, in case you haven't noticed, we've been torn from our homes and families, been turned into property and are about to expose our minds to the stresses of summoning a Battlebeast and YOU think it's cool?" Irma snapped out. Hay Lin's face darkened.
"I know precisely what's happened to us. In case you'd forgotten, my family is DEAD! My grandmother's legacy has been broken and forgotten. Do not talk to me about what we've lost." Hay Lin growled and Irma backed away, hands up.
"Sorry Hay, I was out of line," she said backing off. Will made a mental note to keep her distance if at all possible from the bouncy Chinese girl. Hay Lin might be scarily cheerful, but she was even scarier angry.
"Good morning girls. Today, as some of you will have guessed, is the day we see what type of Battlebeast you summon up. Don't worry if it's not like the ones you've seen in the arena, those ones take time to master. Unlike some other team masters, I believe in steadily improving your Battlebeast. It takes time to adjust to the helmet and this way the risk of insanity is lowered by a huge margin." Serena told them calmly.
"Very comforting that." Irma whispered to them, but Serena appeared not to have heard her.
"Come forward and pick up a headset." She finished, waving her arm to a tray of headsets.
The headsets were little more than grey circlets with an eyepiece attached for the right eye. After everyone had grabbed a headset, Serena turned to face the group once more.
"Does everyone have a headset? Good. Now do we have any volunteers to go first?" Serena asked.
Well I'd better get this over and done with. Will thought to herself. No point in allowing myself to get more scared than I already am.
"I will." Will said, stepping forward at the same time as Hay Lin.
Serena raised an eyebrow and a small smile appeared on her face.
"Two at once!" she exclaimed. "Well this is an unusual turn of events." Serena paused as she looked at both Will and Hay Lin. "Hmmm. The redhead first I think."
"The names Will." Will told Serena, looking her in the eye. The next thing she knew, a hand had smacked the side of her face and Will was sent sprawling.
"Insolent slave!" growled a man standing beside Serena. He was a tall, blonde haired man with a long face and cruel blue eyes. "You do not talk back to your mistress so!"
"Back off Cedric!" Serena snapped, turning to face the man. "What are you doing here?"
"Prince Phobos wanted me to make an offer for the girl. He has a special interest in her and wants her to join my team." Cedric told Serena calmly. Serena glared at Cedric with such venom that he almost backed off.
"You forget, I know what you do to slave girls. The answer is no!" Serena replied vehemently and Will stared at Serena in awe. Lord Cedric was one of King Phobos's closest advisors and few people dared to cross him. Serena, in Will's opinion, was either very stupid or very brave.
Cedric eyed the girls in front of him and walked up to Hay Lin. Grabbing her chin, he looked her in the eye with contempt.
"You must be Yan Lin's granddaughter, if I'm not mistaken." He hissed. "Such a shame you're not my property, I'd give you the attention you deserve." He finished, leering over her. Hay Lin looked terrified, but she held eye contact with Cedric and there was a gleam of defiance in her eyes.
"Leave her alone." Serena, Irma and Cornelia growled at Cedric simultaneously. Cedric stepped back a step.
"It seems to me that your slaves lack the respect due their superiors. Perhaps I should report you. Or perhaps help you discipline them. I'm sure my particular regime would suit them well." He hissed almost sarcastically.
"Get out now, or I WILL have you thrown out." Serena snarled at Cedric. That decided it for Will. Serena was definitely in the stupid or crazy side. Cedric turned on his heel and stormed out and everyone breathed a sigh of relief and the tension in the air suddenly collapsed as everyone let out a collective sigh of relief. Well everyone except Serena, who seemed completely unruffled by Cedric's visit.
"You don't need to worry about him." She said with a chuckle. "I earned my freedom in the arena. It was just before Phobos came to the throne. Now, I'm far too popular for him to make anything other than threatening noises. Besides which, my patron is Princess Elyon. If you're lucky, you might as well. Now, on with the testing."
The collective jaws of the W.I.T.C.H girls dropped in amazement.
"Wait you were a slave? Like us?" Irma asked in disbelief. Serena glared at her and Irma suddenly backed off.
"Yes I was like you once. But Phobos hasn't granted anyone their freedom since he came to power."
"You mean... the king is the one who grants arena slaves their freedom?" Will asked nervously.
"That's right." Serena replied almost cheerfully and Will sank towards the ground.
"I'm doomed." Will pronounced miserably.
"Oh come on now, it can't be that bad. It's not like you tried to rob or kill the King now exactly." Irma said comfortingly.
Will looked up at Irma. "I'll tell you about it sometime." She said as Irma helped her to her feet.
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Cedric was in a foul mood when he returned to his compound. The nerve of that woman! Phobos would not be pleased, but even Phobos wasn't prepared to ride roughshod over the law or his sister's authority. Not yet anyway.
"I take it that things did not go well then?" Miranda asked in a sweet voice. Well, sweet for her anyway. Cedric sat down heavily and Miranda began to massage his shoulders.
"That damn woman refused to even hear my offer. Phobos will not be happy, he wants the girl broken and I was supposed to ensure it happened." He moaned softly as Miranda's massage began to take effect and his muscles relaxed.
"Then we'll merely have to push her there in the arena then won't we my love." Miranda whispered in his ear and Cedric grinned.
"Yes, that's exactly what we'll do." He said with an evil grin forming on his face and he turned to kiss Miranda firmly on the lips. "You know, for a slave you have a remarkably evil mind."
Miranda grinned and their kisses became steadily more passionate.
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Will stood at the edge of the training arena on a platform and concentrated on summoning her inner Battlebeast. The headset was supposed to access a dimension called Beest and summon up a creature that matched the person doing the summoning.
A pink sphere formed in the centre of the arena and a dragon popped. Only the size of a medium sized dog, the silvery-grey dragon with golden eyes looked around the compound with disdain, almost as if he thought it below him. (Will was given the impression that if he spoke, he'd be a lot like Cornelia.)
"Great. My Battlebeast is a snooty dragon." Will muttered to herself. Serena on the other hand looked impressed. Following Serena's eyes, she saw a symbol on the dragon's chest. The symbol was comprised of two horizontal curved lines. They looked like a couple of tadpoles, chasing each other, but instead of forming a circle, they formed an oval shape.
"Well it looks like we have a winner here." Serena said with a huge grin on her face.
"W-w-what?" Will asked, confused by what Serena was saying.
"That, my dear Will, is a quintessence symbol. Only the rarest and most powerful Battlebeasts have those on their chests. You, I think, have a great deal of potential." Serena told her. Will's eyes bulged with excitement.
"Really?" Will asked excitedly.
"Yes. But the operative word is potential. You have a lot of training to do first." Serena said calmly. "Right, you, you're up next" she said, pointing to Hay Lin.
As Will stepped off the platform, Will fell to her knees she felt a sudden rush of aggressive emotions run through her and a sensation on pain, like a thousand needles running over her skin.
"What was that?" Will asked as she got to her feet.
"That was your first post-summoning experience. They become easier to handle and far less painful, the more you become acclimatised to handling your Battlebeast." Serena told Will calmly. "Anyway, come on now, let's see what the rest of you have."
Hay Lin stepped up to the platform, slightly nervously after witnessing what happened to Will. Putting on the headset, she summoned up a sphere. Unlike Will, her sphere was purple in colour. With a slight pop, a falcon popped out and on its chest was a different symbol. This one looked like a deformed c shape.
"Air. Excellent." Serena pronounced after staring at the symbol for a few minutes. "Next please."
Cornelia strode forward confidently. She was determined to better Will's performance.
As for Hay Lin, when she stepped off the platform, she felt a rush of euphoria rush through her and she seemed to practically glow with excitement. Clearly, she didn't feel any pain. Will glared daggers at her.
Cornelia's sphere was green in colour and out popped a huge moving tree, a Gnar tree native to Heatherfield, it's branches swinging about angrily. The symbol was on the tree trunk, a circle with a dot in the middle.
"Hmmm. Earth. A tricky one to use effectively." Serena said calmly as she assessed the symbol.
Cursing under her breath, Cornelia decided to show Miss Serena that Cornelia Hale was no ordinary girl. Closing her eyes, she called up the second part of the summoning, the mechanic part. Suddenly, the tree was covered in armour and weapons. Serena was unimpressed.
"That's a good way to get yourself driven out of your mind." Serena commented calmly. Cornelia stormed off the platform, but before she could take more than a couple of steps, she collapsed as a flood of contradictory sensations hit her mind. Firstly, her head felt like all her emotions were exploding out of it, followed by a sudden loss of feelings altogether. A couple of minutes later, she regained consciousness, surrounded by the others. She sat up and a sudden burst of pain shot through her head.
"Typical Corny, always trying to be the best." Irma commented sardonically as Cornelia stood up.
"Don't call me Corny." Cornelia growled at Irma and she fixed the brunette a devastating glare.
Irma was completely unperturbed by Cornelia's reaction. Instead of shrinking away, Irma simply grinned.
"Let's see if I can do any better." She said and stepped up to the platform.
Irma's sphere was light blue in colour, but when her creature popped out, it dived into the moat so fast that it was just a blur.
"Seems to me like your creatures just a little chicken, Irmy." Cornelia taunted, but in a light-hearted voice. Serena on the other hand was staring closely at the creature in the moat as it came to the surface.
"A water beast of unusual power." Serena pronounced firmly as the creature came to the surface. Looking closer, they could see a giant squid with a symbol that looked like a deformed e or c on its body.
As Irma stepped off the platform, she felt all feeling from her legs drain away and she fell to the ground.
Finally Taranee stepped up to the platform. Her sphere was a fiery red and out popped a Sidewinder snake. On the snakes head was the symbol of a triangle.
"A fire beast." Serena commented calmly. As she stepped off the platform, Taranee felt a sudden rush of heat flow through her body.
Serena turned to face them.
"Right." She began, "Now we know what type of Battlebeasts you have, I want you to find something to wind down on. It'll help you stay sane to have something to focus on."
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Susan Vandom watched as the girls walked back to their main living quarters. Being careful not to be seen, she approached Serena.
"Hi sis." Susan whispered to Serena when she was close enough. Serena spun round so fast, her neck clicked.
"What are YOU doing here Susan?" Serena asked, rubbing the back of her neck.
"Is it a crime to want to see my big sister now?" Susan asked with mock sincerity, by way of reply.
"Yes, if you are wanted for crimes against the empire!" Serena snapped back exasperated. "I don't want to see you hang. It won't bring your missing daughter back and if she's still out there, don't you think you owe it to her to survive?"
"I need you to pass on a message to the Oracle." Susan whispered. Serena's eyes widened and Susan decided to press on. "Phobos is planning a major offensive against the Candracarian Federation. He intends to attack through the south-west mountains."
Serena swore under her breath. "Why can't your regular channels pass this on?" she asked irritably.
"Serena, all of my regular channels are too slow. Phobos intends to attack sometime within the next week. Please Serena, you know I wouldn't ask you this if I had any other choice." Susan pleaded, giving Serena her puppy-dog eye look.
"Very well then." Serena snapped back, but without any real feeling, before pulling Susan into a tight hug. "I've missed you sis." She whispered in Susan's ear.
"Me too sis. Me too." Susan whispered back.
As Serena watched Susan vanish back into the shadows, Serena closed her eyes and said a brief prayer under her breath that Susan would not get caught.
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As the girls entered the living compound, all five of them set about channelling away the mental strains of the day.
For Hay Lin it was obvious. She started to draw her Battlebeast and then set about drawing the Battlebeasts of the others.
Cornelia began to do a series of acrobatic manoeuvres. She was actually pretty good and pretty soon she had an audience of guards watching her.
Taranee grabbed a stick and started to write out mathematical problems in the sand. Where as Hay Lin had somehow kept hold of her magical sketchbook and pen (Taranee made a mental note to ask Hay Lin how), Taranee didn't have something to write on.
Irma walked into the gladiatorial baths and sunk herself into one, relaxing as she felt the water soak her.
Will was at a bit of a loss what to do. Everyone else had something to do, but not her. Walking back to her quarters, she heard a small squeak come from under her bed. Pulling the bed up (There was not enough room to pull it to aside.) she saw a dormouse trapped in a mousetrap there. The animals leg was trapped and it was squeaking in pain.
"Hush now cutie, I'll have you out soon." She whispered to the creature as she steadily knelt down to help it. The dormouse calmed down, almost as though it could sense her intentions. With a little pull on the trap, the dormouse was free. Picking the dormouse up, the animal scurried up her arm. Will took him to the kitchens, determined to get him fed.
AN: The symbols on the Battlebeasts chests are the relevant girls symbols from the cartoon/comic series.