Chapter 4: Dark Guardians

Knowing Jen had a boyfriend didn't stop him from liking her. Alan still acted as if he never knew. More days of training started to bore the team. So Jen invited them to the Dream World. They met the council and he explained more of the history of Gatekeeper Guardians. They were all intrigued by each fact he said. The formal team, who were continuing restoring the Dream World, didn't get to see the new team members were though. They were off somewhere exploring. Jen tried Nick but he wasn't around so she came back to Earth and took a nap. She put the Heart safely besides her bed.

Meanwhile, in the Meridian Gate, Phobos was making a Heart of his own: the dark Meridian Heart. Since the gate was sealed by the power of the Meridian Heart from Jen's first team, he studied how the Heart was structured and made one himself using dark powers. He planned on making Jen evil to obtain the Heart of Kandrakar. He'll be invincible if he had that power. The only thing he needed now was to talk to Jen. So he went inside Jen's dream.

"Hello Jen. Remember me?" he said. The figure of Phobos was a dark spirit gas.

Jen turned around, "What are you doing here?" she figured that he would get into her dreams.

"I wanted to make a deal with you," he gladly said.

"Why would I do that?"

"Because I know how much you love your old team than your new one. You think your first team was so powerful. I can give them back to you and you will always be a team with them." He floated around Jen.

It was true. She did liked her old team much better especially since Nick was in it. They were much powerful. "Why would you help me?"

"So we can have a deal. I'll give your dream team, and you give me the Heart of Kandrakar." He smiled.

"Dream on. Besides, I'll always be with them in the Dream World."

"Then you leave me no choice." Dark gases were everywhere. She couldn't see anything in the pitch black scene. Her head started to hurt and she started to have trouble breathing. Her eye color turned from dark brown to red. She was wearing the dark Meridian Heart and her appearance changed. Her hair was out of a ponytail and was wavy; her lips were dark purple; She had an above-waist purple shirt with mesh on her stomach area; She had a leather jacket with sleeves above her elbow; Her skirt was made of leather as well and had a metal chain hanging around two belt straps; She wore mesh black tights and long leather boots; lastly, her wings changed to a bat style. Jen was evil now.

The council had heard everything and immediately ran to warn the others. The only person around was Alan. He explained what happened and told him to take the Heart away from her. Alan was shocked to hear the news. The council teleported him out the Dream World. Alan sneakily went in Jen's room. She was still asleep but was moving around her bed with her hands on her head. Alan saw the Heart on the table and snatched it. He ran outside but didn't know what to do with it since the council never told him. He turned around and saw Jen come out the door. She was in her regular clothes to disguise herself.

"Alan?" she said innocently. "I saw you running out of my room. What happened?"

He didn't know what to say. Was she evil or not? He saw a necklace on her though. "Oh, nothing. How are you feeling?"

"Uhm, okay," she saw the Heart on Alan's hand behind him. "Can I have the necklace back?"

"I'm sorry but I can't. The council told me to."

"Well, he must be crazy! Trying to steal the Heart away from me. Doesn't he remember that I'm the keeper of the Heart? Give it back now!" she yelled. Alan didn't what to do. He couldn't transform since the Heart only listens to a quintessence guardian. The council teleported Alan back to the Dream World. Jen knew where he was and used her own Heart to go there too. Phobos ordered her to make her first team evil. Once she arrived, the four were already there. She smirked when she saw Nick and walked towards him.

The council was relieved that Alan successfully grabbed the Heart. The rest of his teammates were in his office.

"So what now? We just lost our leader," asked Rishuv.

"We didn't really need a leader. I had a funny feeling that Jen was going to turn against us," Peter said.

"Correction: brainwashed," Alan replied. He knew Jen would never turn against them.

The council figured a way to get her back to normal, "You must retrieve the formal leader before Jen. Her name in Kylie. She lives where your base is. The Heart will direct you to her. She'll be your new leader temporarily."

"Hope she's nicer than Jen," Peter said.

Kylie was at home doing homework. She looked outside her window towards the sky. She wondered how the new teams were doing.