The Power of Love (Any suggestions for a better title?)
By The Senshi of Valis & CH33T4H GRL
CH33T4H: Hey all, just to let you know that we should have another chapter done by Sunday night hopefully. We are going to work on it most of today and tomorrow.
SENSHI: Since when do any of our plans seem to go well?
CH33T4H: Hey, stop being so damned negative girl, we will have it done.
FOAMY: Yeah right, tell me another one.
CH33T4H: Shut it squirrel or it's the vet for you.
FOAMY: You wouldn't dare.
CH33T4H: Try me.
FOAMY: (Laughing nervously) As if you all didn't know, these two beautiful, talented girls do not own W.i.t.c.h. or myself so any of you that think they do go have your damned head examined.
SENSHI: I think you should pick a new disclaimer mascot.
CH33T4H: (Smiling while staring in a mirror) What are you talking about, how could we get rid of someone who just tells the truth.
SENSHI: He's kind of rude though…
CH33T4H: So what, everyone is one time or another.
SENSHI: Not going to argue over this, on with the story…
Elyon smiled as she watched the little red haired girl run around the garden playing with the murmurers Phobos assigned to protect her. Phobos had told Elyon what happened when she walked in to find the little girl, Kari, at breakfast. In truth the whole thing surprised Elyon since she was beginning to actually doubt her brother lately. She had heard so many negative rumors around the city when she sneaked out to explore in disguise and they all had come to make her worried.
"Elyon, dear sister I'm afraid that I have more business to attend to today. Can you help keep an eye out on little Kari?" Phobos asked, the usual fake smile actually holding a bit of warmth in it for once.
"Of course I will." Elyon said smiling back but noticing her brother was fighting with words to say something.
"There…is one more thing I wanted to ask you to do if you don't mind." Phobos said nervously.
"If it is something I can help with I would love to." Elyon said sincerely though confused a little. She wasn't used to seeing Phobos with so little confidence.
"I wrote up some papers to make some changes to some old laws and to make some new ones. Cedric will show you where they are and where the seals are. I was hoping…well could you maybe…since the people know that you are here they may respect them more if you also sign them and take them to post them in the city today and maybe buy Kari some clothes and toys while out." Phobos said his nervousness growing by the moment.
"Of course I will, brother." Elyon said with a smile though she promised herself to take a careful look at these laws before doing anything with them.
"Thank you, dear sister." Phobos said smiling truthfully, "Cedric will escort you when you go."
Elyon wanted to refuse that but for some reason she couldn't bring herself to do it. Her brother seemed so happy this morning she just couldn't ruin it for him.
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"I can't believe you!" Susan screamed, glaring hatefully at Will. "How can you betray me like that? HOW! Get out of my house you little whore!"
"But mom…" Will sobbed, shaking her head in disbelief. This couldn't be happening, it wasn't her fault that it happened.
"Don't call me that, I have no daughter." Susan screamed, "All I see is trash."
"MOM!" Will cried, blinking away the tears as she looked around. She wasn't in the living room anymore and it was dark except for the night light giving off its soft glow.
"Will." Susan cried as she burst into the room and glomped Will tightly where she was sitting up in the bed, "What happened, are you okay?"
"It was a dream…" Will whispered in shock, crying as she looked up into her mother's eyes. There was no hint of anger or hatred, only worry and love. If she did find out though would Susan really still be this worried and loving or would she end up acting like she did in Will's dream? She wasn't sure but she was too scared too find out.
"What happened in it?" Susan asked softly, wiping the tears from Will's face. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"No." Will said softly while pulling farther away from Susan.
"Honey, it might help if you talk about it. If not me then how about that counselor." Susan said, reaching out toward Will before letting her arm drop in defeat as Will moved even farther away to avoid Susan's touch.
"I will not go to a damned counselor." Will said flatly, "I don't want to talk about it…I just…I just want to forget it ever happened."
"Will, I love you so much and I want to support you but…I really think you should talk about it." Susan said, "Maybe turn him in. It might help you sleep."
"I doubt that." Will sighed. Ever since it happened she couldn't sleep for very long without one type of nightmare or another. The only time she slept for any amount of time without nightmares was with Phil the day before at the pet shop.
"Will…I don't know what to do or who to help you if you won't let me." Susan said sadly while rubbing her eyes.
"I'll be okay mom, I promise. I…I just need to work this out on my own." Will said kissing her mom on the cheek before climbing out of the bed to get ready for breakfast and to get to the pet shop before school. Looking at her clock she noticed it was still a little early but at least that would let her get a jump start on the day.
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Caleb sat on the roof of the Silver Dragon looking out over the city thinking about everything that had been going on lately. There was something happening between the guardians and he hated how it was tearing them all up inside though in different ways.
Cornelia, though outraged at over what happened and refused to let on very much to anyone except for Caleb how worried she was, she was very worried. Caleb remembered how Cornelia had found him alone the day Will had humiliated her in front of the school by dumping breakfast over her. The first thing she did was rave and rant about how Will did it, how Cornelia was so humiliated until the blonde collapsed into his arms crying saying that there had to be something wrong with Will. Cornelia swore that Will would have never have done something like that unless something was terribly wrong but when Cornelia tried to call no one would answer at the Vandom residence.
Then there was Hay Lin who looked so devastated that night when she came home and after Will had failed to call last night Hay Lin couldn't stop crying and not even Yan Lin could comfort her. Caleb knew Yan Lin tried to call Will or Susan as well but failed to receive any responses as well. Hay Lin hasn't even touched her markers or paint for two days which really surprised Caleb as she was always painting or designing something in her spare time.
Irma, Caleb had never seen her so serious before. The day Will had abandoned them in the cafeteria Irma had been so angry at the red head but the next day she seemed to be so morose. She seemed to mope around a lot as if in deep thought. She didn't even try to smash Martin's camera when he was taking her picture a lot. She didn't even know he was around most of the time.
Then there was Taranee who acted like the world was coming to an end and hardly spoke up at all. True, Taranee was the shy type a lot of the time and kept quiet a lot but now she hardly spoke at all, even when someone talked to her. She didn't even seem interested in her photography lately which bothered Caleb for some reason.
All of this though all seemed to be centered around Will though but no one would tell him much of what was going on. No one would tell him anything about why Will was acting this way or what happened but it was driving him insane. Will had responsibilities not only as the Keeper of the Heart but as the guardians' leader and supposed friends. To Caleb it seemed she wasn't being much of either lately and he intended to find out why as he climbed down from the roof in search of Will.
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Will sighed as she left the pet shop, she was hoping that Phil would have been there but he wasn't. A part of her was sure that he would show up later but a bigger part kept telling her that he wouldn't be back at all, no one wanted to be near a piece of trash like her.
Wiping her eyes she tried to not think about it while trying to find some way to raise her spirits. Maybe she would talk to the other guardians and hopefully…Will stopped dead in her tracks as she shook her head. She had forgotten all about calling Hay Lin and now she was probably going to be mad at Will.
"Will." A familiar voice said, a hint of anger in the it. Looking behind her she found a slightly angry Caleb stalking up to her. Stopping before her he crossed his arms and glared at her, a look of confusion crossing his features momentarily before he continued. "What has gotten into you lately? Do you even care how much you are hurting your friends?"
"Friends? That's rich, Caleb." Will laughed bitterly, "Do you see any friends lining up to walk with me to school? I sure the hell don't and do you know why?"
"Will, what's wrong?" Caleb asked softly.
"Because no one gives a damn about me! The only few that does I'm losing or lost because of my screw ups!" Will said, tears starting to fall down her face. After saying it she realized it was probably true. How could Hay Lin forgive her for lying to her about calling? How could Mr. Olsen really forgive her for causing him so much trouble? Cornelia, Will didn't even really expect to ever be forgiven for what she did in a moment of anger. Her mother, how could she ever forgive her for what she did?
"That's not true Will, all of us care about you." Caleb said reaching for Will who slapped his hands away.
"Care about me? Don't make me laugh!" Will cried, "If you cared about me so much where the hell were you when he was raping me!"
"Raping?" Caleb asked in confusion, "Will, what are you talking about?"
"Don't play jokes with me, Caleb." Will cried, "I'm not in the mood!"
"I don't understand, Will." Caleb said softly, a lost look in his eyes. "Will…I don't know what that means. I don't understand a lot of your words yet but I'm really trying and I can see this is hurting you. Will, I truly want to help you if you'll let me."
Will couldn't respond to him as something began tugging at the corner of her mind, someone else seemed just as confused when she brought that up.
"I don't know what raped is but I don't see how it made you worthless." Phil said.
Why would Phil be confused by it, there was just too much of a coincidence. Did she really care if he came from Metamoor though? He could be another rebel or maybe even a refugee that doesn't want to be in the middle of a war. Or he could even be the child of a refugee like Elyon was the adopted daughter of two Metamoorian refuges. She didn't care about him being from Metamoor if he was, he was really nice and he treated her like she was a princess. She seriously doubted anyone that kind was going to be a spy for Phobos. True, she didn't know him that long but if he came back she would like to be friends with him. He was probably going to be the only one she had left if he wasn't disgusted with her or truly didn't hate her.
"Will…please talk to me." Caleb said, moving a little closer to Will before she jumped back a little away from him in surprise.
"Caleb…one of my teachers…they…" Will said, almost slapping her forehead when she realized what she said. She didn't want anyone jumping to conclusions, especially if it was the right ones. She didn't want to deal with it or him, she just wanted to forget.
"This teacher…raped you…they hurt you?" Caleb said slowly trying to piece it together and figure out what it meant.
"No…that's not what happened Will said, shaking her head in denial. "Look, one of my teachers is expecting me to stop by before school starts so I have to go."
"Will." Caleb said, trying to stop her.
"I said I have to go." Growled Will as she stormed off.
"Will…" Caleb sighed sadly as she walked away.
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"I have a great idea on how to get my revenge on two birds with one stone." Uriah sneered as he watched Will stalk away from the strange boy Cornelia always hung out with. He had overheard all of it and it made him laugh at the perfect opportunity to cause trouble for not only that bastard for failing him but also on that bitch who hit him and humiliated him in front of the entire school.
"What is it?" Kurt asked.
"It's simple, we start a rumor about Wilma sleeping with Mr. Collins for grades. Everyone knows he's going out with her mom so we just make that look like an excuse for him to see her." Uriah said.
"No." Frank said.
"What?" Uriah snarled.
"It sounded like Will was raped, Uriah. She must be hurting a lot and I can't go along with hurting her more." Frank said. "And we can't lie about something this serious on a teacher…we could get in a lot of trouble."
"Who the hell do you think you're talking to?" Uriah snarled while shoving Frank into the wall.
"I said great idea." Frank said nervously.
"That's better." Uriah said while turning to leave. "Come on, let's go."
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Ellen Knickerbocker was walking back to her office when she heard a couple of girls talking which made her stop since the bell had all ready rang. She started to go over to them to tell them to get to class when she stopped in shock at what they were talking about.
"It's true, I heard it from my sister." The first girl said.
"But Will…I don't know about it. I don't think she would do something like that with her own mother's boyfriend." The second girl said.
"She is, she's sleeping with Mr. Collins to get better grades. She seduced one night when he came to see her mom and she was still at work." The first girl said. "How else do you explain her getting a perfect score on the last two tests when she was usually lucky to get even half of the questions right?"
"Is this true?" Ellen asked in shock. One of her best teachers was sleeping with his student? This was unthinkable at her school, she never had to deal with something like this and it could hurt the reputation of the school severely which she didn't want to do but if it was true then something had to be done.
"Mrs. Knickerbocker." The girls gasped spinning around to see Mrs. Knickerbocker.
"It's all over school this morning." The first girl said.
"Get to class." Ellen said rubbing her face in agitation. As the girls took off, happy to get away without any detentions, Ellen finished her trip to her office to call Will to her office and talk to her.
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Will sat in class bored out of her mind with what the teacher was saying but was glad that Hay Lin was there next to her. The teacher was so engrossed in his lecture and writing stuff up on the board he didn't even notice the two whispering.
"I'm so sorry I forgot to call, Hay Lin." Will whispered, "So much happened last night."
"It's okay Will." Hay Lin whispered back, relief in her voice. "I…I was just so scared and worried."
"I'm okay Hay Lin, honest and I'm not mad at you. I shouldn't have gotten so upset the other day when I heard Cornelia." Will said, "I should have known it wasn't what it sounded like but something happened to me Hay Lin and…well…"
"It's okay Will, I understand. Just please don't push us away. Please don't push me away." Hay Lin whispered back.
"I won't, promise." Will whispered back.
"Will Vandom, please report to Mrs. Knickerboker's office." The loud speaker crackled the voice on it hard to make out. Will noted that they really needed to get that fixed as she gathered up her books while several students looked at her.
Sighing she turned to Hay Lin before getting up, "Come by the pet shop an hour after school. We're closing early tonight so maybe we can talk then."
Will made her way out of the class nervously while ignoring the other students looks. The trip to Mrs. Knickerboker's office didn't take long enough for Will as she slid inside the door and took a seat in front of the principle's desk across from her.
"Will, I hear some very nasty rumors this morning and I want to know the truth." Mrs. Knickerboker said while looking straight in Will's eyes making her look away. "Is it true that you seduced Mr. Collins in exchange for better grades?"
"Wh-What?" Will asked in shock. How could Mrs. Knickerboker ask her that, how dare she ask her that?
"Oh god…it is true, isn't it?" Mrs. Knickerboker asked, "How could you do something like that not only to this school and one of its best teachers but to you mother as well. I never pegged you as being a slut Will but…this…"
"Go to hell!" Will cried as she ran out of the office and pushed past the secretary who was standing outside with Mr. Collins who had a free period now.
"Will!" Mr. Collins called making Will stop and turn around to glare at him angrily.
"Are you happy now you bastard!" Will sobbed at the two startled older people in front of her. "They think…they think it was my fault! You ruined my life!"
"Will…calm down." Mr. Collins said walking closer to Will who backed away shaking in rage and fear.
"Calm down...CALM DOWN! You bastard! You raped me and told her I seduced you!" Will screamed, shuddering as she hugged herself tightly. "I hate you…all of you…"
"Will, I don't know what's going on but I'd never hurt you." Mr. Collins said softly in an attempt to calm Will down.
"Will!" Mrs. Knickerbocker gasped in shock glaring between Mr. Collins and Will. There was definitely something going on but she wasn't too sure it was what it looked like earlier.
"Get away from me you bitch!" Will screamed backing away from her.
"Will." Mr. Anderson, the substitute art teacher said calmly coming out to see what was going on.
"Don't touch me!" Will growled backing away even more before turning around to run away from them.
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"Mr. Collins, what the hell is going on?" Ellen demanded while she turned to glare at him. She was berating herself for what happened with Will, it sounded like the rumors were far from being true. What was worse was the truth seemed so much worse.
"I don't know." Mr. Collins said shaking his head in confusion but Mr. Anderson looked up as if he just realized something.
"Will came into my class the other day with a black eye and seemed she was hurt more than just from that. She refused to talk about it though but it was on the same day you had a hangover." Mr. Anderson said while cracking his knuckles.
"What does that have to do with it?" Mr. Collins asked in annoyance, "I'd never hurt Will."
"You said you got drunk and was having dreams of fighting someone…Tell me, what else did you do?" Mr. Anderson demanded.
"N-Nothing." Mr. Collins said backing away from the angered substitute.
"Lying bastard!" Mr. Anderson growled as he punched Mr. Collins hard knocking him to the ground. "You're the one who beat Will up…you raped her!"
"Mr. Anderson, that's enough. This is a matter for the police." Mrs. Knickerboker said as she walked over and pulled him back away from Mr. Collins though she wanted to let him beat Mr. Collins, her once long time friend to a pulp. If this was true though then she never wanted to see him again.