The day at school had been very nerve wracking and the girls of W.I.T.C.H. were very anxious to get some answers. They had told Matt and Eric about what happened to them at lunch and decided that the Regents and Eric better come too. The group first went to the Silver Dragon but Yan Lin and Mira just looked like they had seen ghosts and said to immediately go to Candracar. So, they had just arrived at Candracar, the girls had gone Guardian, when altermere Will ran up to them and she seemed out of breath.
"Thank… huh… goodness… huh… you're here," said A. Will breathily.
"Catch your breath first and then tell us what's wrong," Hay Lin said with a concerned look.
"No time… must get… to Oracle!" she huffed out and then led the group to him. Everyone tried to question her but she refused to say anything until they got to the Oracle and the rest of the council. When they finally arrived they saw not only the Council of Candracar but Elyon, Caleb, Aldarn, Gargoyle, Sandpit, Raythor, Kadma, Cassidy, Blunk, Lillian, Vathek, Tynar, Julian, Drake, Ironwood, and a big rock guy. The last made the Guardians immediately fly up and get into battle formation. It was then that the Oracle spoke up.
"Be at peace Guardians, he is not a creature of the dark tainted armies. He is Golem, Heart of Aridia," said the Oracle in his ever calm manor.
"Oh, sorry," Will said looking ashamed of herself.
"Me too," added Taranee.
"Me three," said an embarrassed looking Hay Lin.
"Yeah, our bad big guy," Irma said with an apologetic grin.
"I'm sorry too," Cornelia was last to say.
"That's alright, after what happened today I would probably be jumpy to," said Golem in his rocky voice.
"I know many here have questions and I will answer them all as well as I can," Oracle said calmly," First, the Meridianites are here because Prince Phobos, Miranda, Lord Cedric, Frost, Sniffer, and Crimson were all teleported from their prison by Fenrir and he also stole the gem containing Nerissa." This caused shock among many there.
"How?" asked a shocked Taranee.
"Why?" questioned Hay Lin.
"The how is simple enough," he resumed," Fenrir has found a way to go to an alternate reality dominated by darkness but is similar to our own. This Shadow Reality is a mirror of our own except for the fact that the Shadow Reality has only one Heart and it's properties are similar yet different from any Heart that any here possess." He paused here to let what he had said sink in.
"Do you mean that crazy shimmery thing that made all of those elemental creatures?" Cornelia asked.
"Exactly earth guardian, the Shadow Reality's Heart of Candracar has the ability to raise an army of shadow tainted elementals that could potentially be limitless and that ability is separate from its regular elemental power, which I'm sorry to say, is as strong as the Hearts of ten worlds, which easily gives him the power to teleport beings."
"As to why the prisoners were taken, I believe he wishes to use them to help ease the strain of controlling the Shadow Heart," spoke the Oracle," You see, the sheer power of the Heart is too much strain for one being to handle. I also believe that by splitting the Heart's power he can also create more shadow tainted elementals."
"So who is this guy?" asked Irma.
The Oracle hesitated and had a pained look on his face, but finally started speaking. "Fenrir was once a part of the Council of Candracar, my brother in fact. 1000 years ago, when the previous Oracle had passed, I was chosen to become the new Oracle. My brother was extremely jealous at this and thought we had plotted against him to do this. I tried to tell him that we weren't plotting against him but he stormed out. We searched for him and when we did find him he wore the Mask of Fenrir."
"What is this mask?"
"You have a brother?"
"What happened?"
The Oracle held up his hand and the questions ceased. "The Mask is and evil artifact from and age of unspeakable evil… thankfully long past. The Mask can offer one great power at the cost of one's face and never being able to remove it. It also corrupts the wearer to even greater evil if at all possible."
"When he took the mask, it made him truly evil and that is when he found one of the three Shadow Orbs. These orbs act as conduits to the Shadow Reality and he planned to use it to gain more power to take his revenge on me. With the help of the Guardians of that time, he was stopped and in so doing we thought he was destroyed and that Orb was destroyed."
"How do you know that Orb was destroyed?" several people questioned.
"We found the shards of that Orb," he said resuming his story," It was then we decided to destroy the remaining Orbs. We only found one and immediately destroyed it and when we couldn't find the third we decided it was best to let it stay lost to all. Apparently, Fenrir found that one and now here we are."
Everyone was silent for a few moments. What had just been said was starting to sink in when Raythor decided to speak.
"If e's as powerful as you say, den ow do we defeat him?" Raythor asked with a questioning look. Many nodded in agreement and others repeated the question.
"We must summon together the powers of at least 10 Hearts and summon to us the armies of as many worlds as we can. That is way I have asked Ironwood and Golem to help us in this fight and they have readily agreed. We now have Five Hearts on our side and I know others that might help us and I would ask you Guardians to be our ambassadors to these worlds."
They all looked shocked and were silent until Will decided to speak and ask the question on all there minds. "Why us?"
"The other Hearts are needed to defend their own worlds and you are the Guardians of the Veil, legends on the worlds I have in mind." The girls looked at each other and did their mind link thing and decided what to do in mere seconds.
"We'll do it," was their resounding answer.
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"Where am I?!" asked a very annoyed Phobos. When he looked at his surroundings he noticed that the traitors Cedric, Frost, and Miranda were there as well as the rhino and Tracker's dog. He also noticed that they all seemed to be tied up with shadows in what to be an ancient cemetery in front of a crumbling castle. Other then that, the surrounding area was not but a dark, forbidding forest.
"Greetings Phobos," said a figure cloaked in shadows and black robes holding empty clothing and a ball and chain that looked oddly familiar," I am glad to see you are awake. Allow me to wake the others." With that, he shot black quintessence at them and they all came awake with jerks and yells as their bonds were released.
"All right, now that everyone is awake I will make my offer. You can all join me and gain the powers of the Shadow Heart to take your revenge on the Guardians of the Veil or I can devour you. That includes you Nerissa," he said shaking her jewel prison for emphasis. They looked at each other and Cedric made the first move.
"Yessss Massster," Cedric spoke as he bowed in his human form.
"I will join you my lord," said Miranda, who also bowed in her human form.
"As will I," Frost added looking uncertain.
Phobos looked at all there while the cloaked figure looked at him. "Seeing my lack of choices I believe I too will join you."
"Good, you have all agreed and yes I can hear you Nerissa. Here are your rewards!" as he said this, three lights enveloped the groups as follows; Nerissa and Miranda, Phobos and Cedric, and the last light split into to join the robes of the Tracker and Frost and Sniffer and Crimson. From their joining came horrible hybrids that reflected the evil they now represented.
"Excellent, only one more to go," Fenrir said in a whisper.
"Yes… Master," said Mutten coming out of the shadows.
