Disclaimer: Don't Own W.I.T.C.H.
Well here chapter 7, took me longer the expected to write this one but I finally got it done. Once again I would like to thank Knight for his help beta reading thing fic.
Chapter 7: Recruiting Princess Elyon
The day after the mission to try and get the other half of stone of Threbe, Will still felt a bit weak. The mission was considered a success despite not actually getting the stone. Since the mission was meant to keep Susan from being able to use the stone and she most likely would not be able to make use of a pile of dust.
Will thought back to yesterday and blushed at the memory.
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Yesterday after telatransporting out of the throne room:
Will had managed to telatransport the group back to the Infinite City as they had planned. The forces attacking the castle were supposed to remain for half an hour at most, then they were to retreat so the other rebels should be ending the attack soon, if they had not already.
"We need a healer!" Caleb yelled out, making the few people still left in the Infinite City look in their leader's direction. Most of those still left in the rebel base were healers.
The head healer, an old woman named Lucia, signaled the boy to bring the girl into one of the lager medical tents, much to Caleb's relief. Lucia was the best healer in the rebellion, so that meant the girl Caleb cared about was in the best hands possible.
"What happened?" Lucia asked as she started to check the red headed girl for injuries. Before any one could answer, another voice spoke out, "I would like to know that as well."
Caleb turned around to see Phobos and Miranda approaching their location fast. The rebel leader did not want to give a mission report right now, with Will injured and all, but knew the prince would want it. 'At least I can kill two birds with one stone, Lucia needed to know what happened so she can treat Will and I can satisfy the prince's curiosity' Caleb grumbled in his mind.
"Your highness, the mission was a partial success. The Queen seemed to by trying to alter her half of the stone of Threbe somehow and it ended up blasting Will with some kind of beam. After it stopped, nothing but a pile of green dust remained." Caleb reported. This seemed to make Phobos have mixed reaction to the news.
He was annoyed at the news of the stone's destruction, yet was pleased at the news of it no longer being of any use to his aunt. Of course, the news of his aunt modifying the stone still disturbed him, but if it failed and instead, temporally took the Keeper of the Heart out of action. The prince, despite Will's neutral opinion of who started this war, had found the Keeper tended be an annoyance at times.
"This is for the most part good news, I would have preferred to have retrieved the other half of the stone, but the main thing is that my aunt no longer has access to the stone while we still have our half. The part that worries me is what my aunt and originally intended to do and how did it caused her half to attack the Keeper of the Heart?" Phobos said, in a fake act of concern and worry.
Every one, once again bought the prince's act, but that was not surprising seeing as how the prince had twelve years of practice at it. After Caleb gave a full report to Phobos, he turned back to see Lucia finishing up her examination of Will.
The old woman looked at Caleb and gave him reassuring smile as she said, "She will be just fine. Looks like what ever it was, it did not do any physical harm despite making her go through the kind of pain you described."
This made Caleb and the rest of W.I.T.C.H. breathe a sigh of relief. Then suddenly, the Heart of Candracar started glowing and made the girls revert back to their human forms. "Okay, who ordered the unexpected costume change?" Irma joked, though she felt a bit vulnerable being in Meridian with out being in her Guardian form.
Every one rolled their eyes at the girl's joke but the noticed Will was still glowing. The light she was giving off was pink in color and she seemed calmer now. From what Phobos could tell, the Heart was probably trying to heal its Keeper or something like that.
What was actually happening was the Heart had reversed the other Guardians' transformations so it could divert more power to its Keeper so she could recover faster. The Heart knew the dangers of its owner being away from Earth too long so it needed to get Will back on her feet as soon as possible.
After about another five more minutes, the light faded away and Will opened her eyes. When she tried to sit up, Lucia pushed her back down. "Not yet my dear, I want you to rest for a few more minutes. You've been through a lot and your body has probably has had so much magic being pumped through it in the last half an hour, you need to give it at least ten minutes to adjust back to normal."
After that, Lucia shooed every one but Caleb away, saying Will only needed one visitor right now. She had chosen Caleb for two reasons: one, he (hopefully) would make sure Will stayed lying down for as long as Lucia had ordered; and two, she could tell the boy cared about the girl so she wanted to give the two a moment alone.
After every one had left, the girl being more reluctant than the Prince and Miranda, it was bit of a long silence before ether spoke a word. "You…gave all of us a bit of a scare, back in the throne room I mean," Caleb said finally ending the silence between the two.
Will just nodded her head and stayed silent, leaving Caleb to once again try and start up a conversation. "I did not know what I would have done if you had been seriously hurt, I almost went after the Queen because her stupid spell hurt you." Caleb said, then dumbly realized he had more or less, confessed his feelings for Will.
'Stupid Caleb! A girl probably wants a confession in a better location than in a medical tent when said girl is still recovering!' Caleb mentally berated him self. While he was doing that, Will was staring at him in shock.
'Did he just…confess he likes me?' As those thoughts passed through her mind, Will was also have an internal struggle. One part of her was hoping Caleb was confessing to her, but the other part was saying she was misinterpreting what Caleb was saying somehow. After all, why would Caleb be interested in her when there where a thousand other girls he could possibly choose from?
"Caleb…what a-are you s-s-saying?" Will asked, very nervous at what the response would be. Caleb knew he had to answer soon, Will deserved a straight answer, so he prepared himself to make his meaning clear.
"Will…when we first in the Queen's dungeon, I had a slight attraction to you. Overtime, that that feeling grew and well…like I said, I almost went after the Queen for what the stone did to you." Caleb explained but then saw tears well up in Will's eyes.
'Damn it, Caleb, now you made her cry! Guess she did only want us to be friends.' Caleb thought to himself bitterly. Caleb was about try and apologize, but Will spoke first. "You mean you…feel the same way?" Will managed to sniffle out, shocking Caleb.
All Caleb could do, was nod his head dumbly as he started to help Will sit up right. The two stared into each other's eyes and were slowly leaning into to kiss one another when they heard a voice squeal, "They're going to do it!"
This had them stopping the kiss instantly and were now looking over to the entrance of the medical tent to see the other girls spying on them. This made Irma smack her best friend on the back of the head and say, "Nice going, Hay Lin, you couldn't you stay quite a few more seconds!"
Hay Lin rubbed the back of her head and cringed under Irma, Taranee and Cornelia's glares. "Sorry, I just got so excited!" The Air guardian said in her defense, all the while Caleb and Will staring at the four girls, and were slowly becoming annoyed at their presence.
"What do you guys think you're doing?!" Will growled out, finally finding her voice again. Caleb did not saying anything, since Will took the words right out of his mouth, so he just glared at the four girls.
This made the rest W.I.T.C.H. look over to the new couple feeling slightly nervous. "Well…you see…" Irma started, but could not get the nerve to keep speaking.
"We knew you guys had feelings for each other but never expressed them…" Taranee added, but like Irma, lost the will to speak under Will and Caleb's gazes.
"So we decided to watch and make sure you guys hooked up, just in case Caleb chickened out again…" Cornelia said, who was under an even stronger glare than the first two girls, because of the 'chicken out' comment, said this.
"So go ahead and kiss already! Just pretend we are not even here." Hay Lin said, which got Irma, Taranee and Cornelia looking at the Air Guardian as if saying 'Are you trying to get us killed!'
This fear was especially strong when Will started reaching for the Heart, but to the four terrified girls' surprise, Caleb stopped Will and gently pushed her back down on to the cot she was laying in.
"Don't. You need to let your body recover for a few minutes, remember?" Caleb said gently, before turning to look back at the four spies with a steely gaze that once again filled the girls with fear. "Let me deal with them." Caleb said, as he drew his sword, which caused the four girls to run with Caleb in hot pursuit.
---
Will found it entertaining to watch Caleb chasing after her friends. Though she of course did not get to see most of it since she was in the medical tent, but from how Lucia described the chase and the fact that took about 15 rebels to hold and calm Caleb down, Will could not help laugh at the images her mind came up with.
What made yesterday even better was that her parents did not come home last night. That meant she still did not need to risk hiding both the fact she had friends and her Guardian duties.
There were times, she wondered what her parents' jobs were, since she never asked, out of fear of what they would do because she was not 'minding her own business'. That was what her parents said when Will asked questions, which where followed by…less then pleasant things.
Will put those thoughts aside, knowing she had a busy day ahead of her. She needed to meet up at Cedric's book shop for a special meeting with the rebel leaders, then she needed to get back by four o clock for a baby sitting job.
"Glad that's all I have to do today. If it were more cleaning jobs I would be trouble. Why doesn't this drained feeling go away? I hope this does not last long or it might slow me down on Monday." Will whispered to herself, as she headed out the door.
---
Back at the rebel base, Caleb was training so to get his mind off the jokes from yesterday. When he chased the other four members of the Guardians around the base, the rebels who where a part of the diversion attack on the palace were just getting back.
Once the rebels had realized it was the Guardians, Caleb was chasing after, they quickly came to the girls aid thinking Caleb lost his mind, seeing how he had his sword drawn and was yelling out several threats about teaching them not to spy on him ever again.
The number of wounded for the healers to tend to had increased to say the least, do to the fact that Caleb had knocked out a few of the less skilled rebels with relative ease. It was not until Drake, Aldarn, Tracker and Frost jumped in, did the rest of the rebels finally stand a chance against their very angry leader.
Tracker managed to use its green glowing ball and chain to pull Caleb's sword from his grasp, which allowed the muscle-bound Frost to try and tackle Caleb. But Caleb used Frost's own momentum against him and Caleb tossed him a good ten feet away, which would have impressed many martial arts experts on Earth, seeing as how Caleb had a lot of self-taught moves rather than formal training.
Of course, while Caleb had been tossing Frost, Aldarn and Drake came up from behind and tackled Caleb to the ground, which led to a massive dog pile on top of Caleb to keep him down.
After the rebels had managed to (more or less) restrain their leader, the girls explained what had happened much to Caleb's dismay. It was shortly after Lucia gave Will permission to leave, thus allowing the girls to get away from Caleb's wrath. Fortunately for him, it seemed Will was still angry with them as well, though probably not enough to actually do anything to her friends, but enough to put the other four on edge out of fear a Super Will beat down.
It was after the girls had left that his own men, started making wise cracks at their leader's expense and were driving him nuts. Though most of them learned their lesson fast, it was Aldarn, Drake and Frost that did most of the teasing, though Frost was a bit more aggressive with his jokes, but that was normal for the brute.
'Wonder when Will's going to arrive? She's probably not going to like the idea of being a part of the recruits for the first princess mission, but she and the other girls are the only ones who make the first contact as smooth as possible.' Caleb thought to himself, as he kept practicing his sword techniques.
After a few more minutes, Aldarn and Drake walked in, making Caleb stop his training to glare at them. "What? Here to make more wise cracks about me and Will?" Caleb said in a warning tone, but the two just grinned, shrugging off Caleb's hidden threat.
"Just here to tell you the meeting will start soon.' Aldarn said, while Drake had a hint mischief in his eyes as the blond added, "So you better get cleaned up, want to look your best for your future wife after all."
"You have five seconds." Caleb warned as he pointed to the weapon in his hand, make his threat very clear. His two friends just chuckled knowing that Caleb was just blowing steam and walked away leisurely, so to dare Caleb to go through with the threat.
Caleb just growled with annoyance and put his weapon away, knowing that just could scare his friends like he could the other rebels. He then went off in the same direction so he that was on time for the meeting and see Will.
"Hopefully Will's strength will do a better job of keeping the wise cracks in check than my fists seem to." Caleb grumbled to himself as he walked back towards the camp.
---
As Will arrived at the bookshop, she noticed the other girls were already there. So just to make sure there was no smart alick remarks about yesterday, she took out the Heart. This of course did not go unnoticed to the girls and were frantically waving their hands around, signaling they had no intention of causing trouble.
"Glad you see it my way." Will said, with a smirk on her face as Irma gave Will a mock scowl. "How about you give one of us the Heart and see how quickly you see things their way!" The Water Guardian joked, while the other nodded their head at this statement.
"Sorry, but I'm not giving this up, its just too much a good luck charm to me, as well as our source of power." Will said, in a joking manner. Deep down though, Will was actually quite serious about what she said. She was having an incredible lucky streak since she got the Heart, so Will assumed that it was the Heart that was source of all her good fortune lately.
'I have friends, my parents have not been around too much lately and I found out Caleb likes me. It has to be the Heart's doing some how. It just has to be.' Will thought happily but her thoughts where interrupted by Cedric as he approached the girls.
"Ah, you all here! You better get going; the meeting should be short but very important. I need to remain behind so to maintain the guise of this being a shop, so give Prince Phobos this note for me please." Cedric said, and handed a piece of paper to Will.
Will was tempted to read it but knew better, so she just nodded her head that she understood then held up the Heart and said, "Guardians Unite!"
After the five girls where in their older more powerful forms, they used the rift to head to the Infinite City, not knowing that Cedric was smirking evilly as they disappeared. "That's right ,little Guardians, go get your orders that will place my Lord on Meridian's Throne." Cedric said quietly as he waited for Elyon to show up.
She had called him just before he closed the shop up last night and said she was coming to discuss details about the job at the shop, saying her parents just wanted a few details before agreeing to allow her to take the position.
Cedric had arranged the 'interview' to coinside with the meeting so that the Guardians could help make the girl believe everything that he was going to tell her. After all, you can't argue that magic does not exist when you have five giant fairies in front of you, now can you?
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After the girls appeared in the meeting room, Aldarn, who was sitting next to Caleb, stood up and offered his seat to Will. "I would assume the lady wishes to sit next to the man courting her?" he said, once again poking fun at Caleb and Will's relationship. Though everyone teased Caleb about his new relationship, they were all very happy for them actually.
Everyone knew Caleb needed someone to rely on, and hoped the Keeper could provide that. The only reason everyone teased Caleb was because it was just too good to pass up, they needed a good moral booster after that last big battle and teasing the two did the job nicely.
Caleb glared at Aldarn, getting ready to make his best friend stop mocking them, but he stopped when he watched Will calmly walk over and sit down next to Caleb. Ever one was surprised Will took Aldarn's teasing so lightly, or they did until Will gently slammed her elbow into Aldarn's stomach almost knocking the air out of him.
"Thank you for giving me your seat but please don't make fun of us." Will said sweetly, but like when she used the same tone on Frost, everyone knew it was clearing warning to not mess with her.
Phobos then cleared his throat, so as to get every ones attention. "As much I find this discussion entertaining, I think we should begin this meeting as soon as possible." Phobos requested, and so everybody started satdown, while Will held up the piece of paper Cedric gave her.
"Cedric told me to give this to you." Will, said as she handed the paper over to the prince. Phobos nodded his head in thanks and read the note. After a moment he looked up and said, "Merely a message to say if we need to vote, he says he trusts my judgment. Though I think you all know why we called this meeting and will probably need to do a vote in the end."
Everyone nodded knowing why this meeting had been called despite not being actually being told what it was about. They had used their half of the Stone of Threbe after all, so that means they found the first princess and needed to decide what do with that information.
"Before we can vote on that matter, there is something I need to inform you about." Phobos said, drawing the attention of all in the room. Then Phobos held up a pouch and poured its contents onto the table, which was a familiar green powder.
"It seems we no longer have a stone either. When I tried to prepare it to find my cousin, it crumbled into dust. I am assuming that perhaps the two halves where connected so once the first half was lost the other's magic slowly faded until this happened." Phobos said, clearly not happy with the development.
After a moment of silence Phobos spoke again, "Now since have found one princess but can't find the other, it makes it important we bring my sister into our protection. That way, we can at least ensure another stalemate in this war." This really got everyone's attention.
"What do you mean by 'at least a stalemate'?" Will asked hesitantly. It was a question that all present wanted to ask, Will just beat them to it. Everyone thought the princesses were supposed to tip the scales - not even them.
Phobos gave them a grave look as he responded, 'To put it simply, my aunt right now is backed against the wall. She will most likely assume we still have access to our half of the stone and thus will be desperate now. The last thing we need is to risk the princess we do know of so for her own protection, we need to tell her about her heritage." Phobos prepared himself for what he was to say next.
"Cedric is waiting for my sister to come back to his store, that is why he is not here at this meeting right now. We want you five to act as proof that magic exists, seeing how your transformed states are less…intimidating than Cedric's. So I say put it to a vote on whether or not tell my sister about her heritage or keep her ignorant, the same vote will of course apply to my cousin as well." Phobos explained.
Everyone knew how this vote was going to go, Phobos had both the majority on his side so the vote was over quickly. After that was done, the Guardians were about to leave when Caleb came up and took Will's hand. "Good luck with the meeting, I know you would prefer to leave both of them out of this war but this needs to be done." Caleb said, trying to encourage Will that this was for the best.
Will smiled back sadly as she nodded her head in acceptance. "I guess you're right, I would still prefer that we did not have to, though." The two stared into each other's eyes until Irma shouted out, "Hey love birds! Either break it up or kiss already!"
This made the two remember where they where and jumped back from each other, both blushing slightly. "I better go, duty calls and I have to beat some sense into Irma." Will said shyly and headed over to the other Guardians, once using the rift to head back to Earth.
Caleb just stared at where Will once had been until Aldarn spoke up, "Absence makes the heart grow fonder, or so they say." This got the pointy-eared rebel another jab in the gut.
---
Elyon was entering the bookstore with Rick (Cedric) waiting patiently for her arrival. The shape shifter had been hoping the Guardians would be back before Elyon arrived, but thought that maybe their sudden arrival by using the rift, would certainly make believing the story much simpler.
"Ah Elyon, good to see you. Please come and sit down." Cedric said, as he gestured to one of the seats at the small round wooden table he was sitting at. Elyon smiled as she sat down. She seemed nervous, which Cedric knew was normal for most humans who were getting a job, and boy did Cedric have a job for her.
Before the two could start the 'job interview' a familiar flash of light happened near the back of the shop, signaling the rift had been used. 'Ah perfect timing, no need to beat around the bush just to keep the girl here' Cedric thought to himself, as he watched Elyon stare at where the light had come from.
As the young blonde stared in confusion at what happened, she heard a familiar voice yelling, "Irma, did you really have to do that? We were having a moment!"
'Is that…Will's voice? Did she do something to cause that flash of light?' Elyon thought in her mind trying make sense of what had happened. Elyon's thoughts were interrupted when she heard Irma's voice reply, "Of course, if I don't say anything at the worst possible moment, then I don't get to have any fun."
Just as that was finished being said, Elyon Brown could see them walking out from behind one of the book shelves, putting all five still fully transformed girls in plane sight of Elyon.
The girls then saw Elyon and froze on the spot, no one said anything until Cornelia managed to gasp out, "Elyon, what are you doing here?" This partially snapped Elyon out her frozen state and said, "I'm here for a job interview…why do you all look like giant Tinker Bells?"
This made Cedric nearly fall out of his chair laughing at Elyon's comment. This got everyone looking at him, though for Elyon it was in confusion, while the Guardians glared at him in annoyance since they did not find the Peter Pan reference all that funny.
"I have not had a laugh like that in some time. You must admit Guardians, it's a very accurate comparison." Cedric said, as he calmed himself down. Of course by calling the five girls Guardians made Elyon even more confused.
"Guardians?" Elyon asked as she looked back and fourth between Cedric and W.I.T.C.H. hoping someone would explain everything soon.
None of the girls knew what to say, but it seemed Cedric did. "Why don't we get your 'parents' here first your highness, before we get into answering questions, might as well get everything over with all at once." Cedric said, which made everybody look at him in shock.
"Your highness?!" Everyone said at the same time. The Guardians were shocked that one of the princesses they have been looking for was under their noses all this time. Elyon was on the other hand starting to get light headed, since she was getting plenty of questions but no answers.
Cornelia, seeing her best fiend's dilemma, came over and placed her hand on Elyon's shoulder and gave her a reassuring smile. "Don't worry I'll call you parents, you just relax and be patient with us a little longer." Cornelia said, in an attempt to help her friend clam down a bit.
It seemed to help and Elyon watched as Will transformed them back to normal and Cornelia made the call to the Browns. Cornelia did not even need to say more than the word "Meridian" and that had the Browns at the bookshop 15 minutes later.
As Alborn and Meridell entered the shop, they seemed a bit on edge. The girls could not blame them. After all, they had kept Elyon's heritage a secret all these years only to find out that despite all their efforts, the rebels found her anyway.
"So…are we going back to the rebel HQ or having this meeting here?" Irma asked, trying to break the uneasy silence that was quickly forming. It helped to a small degree but not much, as every one thought the idea was over.
"Well like Cedric said, we might as well get every thing over and done with all at once, so let head back…if that is alright with you of course Mr. & Mrs. Brown." Will suggested, looking over to the Browns to make sure if the were okay with the idea.
They looked hesitant to answer, but Elyon on the other hand was not. "Lets go. Then I want to know what's going on!" Elyon demanded, hoping someone would give her answers soon.
With that, the Browns gave a reluctant nod that they agreed as well, knowing that if Elyon was wanting answers they needed to give them to her. Cedric closed the shop and everyone headed into the back to use the rift to go see Prince Phobos.
---
Phobos and Caleb waited in the meeting room, wanting to hear how the meeting with Phobos' sister went. Of course while it was unexpected that Cedric came back with the Guardians and the Browns, it was also a welcome one. It would make recruiting Elyon that much easier with her here rather on Earth after all.
"Prince Phobos, allow me to introduce you to your sister, Elyon." Cedric said, with a grin on his face while Elyon just gasped in shock. "Okay, what is going on? Rick, first you call me your highness, then I find out my closest friends turn into fairies and now you're saying I have a brother. Will somebody please explain what's this all about!" Elyon demanded, needing to be explained to soon or she was going to have a nervous breakdown.
Phobos put on his mask of false care and concern and he gestured for everyone to sit down as he said, "Of course my dear, please sit down and ask whatever questions you have. You must have many, given the circumstances."
After about an hour and a half, Phobos, along with Caleb and the Guardians, managed to explain ever thing to the confused Elyon. Said girl was now looking very angry and was now glaring daggers at her so called parents.
"When were you going tell me? I had the right to know! I might have been able to help end this war and the people's suffering!" Elyon yelled, her eyes filled with tears. The Browns did not know how to answer the girl they had considered a daughter for all these years, but Will came to their defense.
"Elyon, what they did seemed to be no different than our original mission, to keep you and your cousin, whereever she is, out of harm's way until all this was settled. Even if you had been here, there was no guarantee you would have been able to help any." Will said, in hopes of reasoning with Elyon.
It seemed to work much to the Browns, the Guardians and Caleb's relief, though you could tell Elyon was still far from happy with her 'parents'. This was when Phobos spoke up so to try and put his plan into action.
"I think the important thing right now is, what do you wish to do with this information my dear." Phobos said in caring tone of voice, hoping to lure his sister into his web of lies. If he could then his aunt's reign as Queen would be over in a year at most. Then Phobos could finally take command of HIS kingdom.
This had Elyon thinking for a minute while everyone waited in anticipation of her decision. Eventually Elyon looked her brother in the eyes and said, "Sign me up, the woman who calls herself my aunt needs to be brought to justice."
This had a mixed reaction among those present. Phobos and Cedric were pleased because this meant they were one step closer to conquering Meridian.
For Caleb, Taranee and Cornelia, they were happy because they thought they were one step closer to saving Meridian.
The Browns along with Will, Irma and Hay Lin on the other hand, were worried that a possible threat to Meridian now had the means to destroy every hing they had hoped to protect.
'Please let this be the right path.' Will silently wished, as Phobos started saying they should celebrate this occasion.
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Okay one princess down, one to go. Will should be finding with the next chapter or two, but while your waiting read and review.