A/N: I don't own Daughters of the Moon, that's all Lynne Ewing's work.

Chapter 8: Taken

Two days passed and Ms. Cleveland finally came home, but she wasn't the same anymore. She was slow, and looked sick. Vanessa helped her mother to bed and made her something to eat and drink. When Stanton came by and saw Vanessa's mom he knew what had happened, and explained to Vanessa that her mother had her hope taken away. "You know who you have to call right?"

Vanessa nodded and went to the phone, two rings and someone answered, "Killingsworth residence, Jimena speaking."

"Jimena, it's me, Vanessa." Vanessa said slowly, afraid that the guardian mother would hang up on her as soon as she heard her name.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't hang up right now, chica." Jimena snarled and Vanessa took a deep breath. "Well?"

"My mom was attacked by a follower." A gasp on the other end of the call made Vanessa jump. "She came home today, and went on a date two days ago. Please, Jimena, help her."

"I'll be right over." Hanging up Vanessa knew that Jimena would come; she had nothing against Vanessa's mom. Also it was her job to save people from the followers; she couldn't deny one person just because the victims daughter was a little bitch. Stanton watched Vanessa hang up the phone and sit down back beside her mother.

"I'll come back when Jimena is gone." Vanessa nodded and just kept looking down at her mother. Stanton kissed the top of Vanessa's head then left the room.

~*~

It took Jimena ten minutes to drive over to Vanessa's house. She didn't bother knocking on the door, she just let herself in and headed upstairs to where Vanessa's mom's room was. What she saw there was truly a sad sight. Vanessa was laying down next to her mom, tears on her face. Her mother looked so pale, and Jimena could feel the hope leaving the woman. The tears on Vanessa's face were the only evidence that a shard of the Vanessa from when they were both goddesses remained, she could still feel sorrow.

Touching Ms. Cleveland's forehead she felt cold, and she was. Stirring Vanessa to wake up, the blonde dark goddess looked up at her once friend and smiled. "Thank you for coming."

"I'd be a bad example to the girls if I refused to save someone because I'm having a disagreement with the daughter." Vanessa stood up and Jimena bowed her head and a silvery light began to wrap around her, and when she touched Vanessa's mom, it began to cover her as well. Then slowly, Jimena began to pray to Selene in Latin and Ancient Greek.

Minutes passed into hours and finally the light faded away and Ms. Cleveland gained some of her color back, and Jimena left before she was seen. Sitting up slowly, Ms. Cleveland looked at her Daughter and smiled.

"Mom what happened?"

"Adam and I went to Olive Garden, and it was a wonderful date. On our way back he stopped at a gas station and went in to pay, and while he was inside something happened. I don't know really what happened, but an old man with long white hair came to the car and after that it went black for a while. I woke up somewhere else, Adam was gone and I was in a room with a girl with maroon hair and evil eyes, then while the girl was gone Serena showed up and said she was saving me and brought me home."

"Serena saved you…" Vanessa's mom nodded. Perhaps she was like Jimena, she had nothing against the mom, just the daughter. It made sense. Maroon hair…Cassandra maybe? "Well if I ever see her again I'll thank her, but you need to be more careful. Do you know if Adam is okay?"

"I'll call him in a little while, why don't you go and have fun. I'll be fine." Vanessa looked at her mother with pure worry, "So are you and Stanton dating now?"

"Yeah, we've always been close. I think the only reason we never got together sooner was I had Michael and he had…Serena." Vanessa's mom nodded her head in understanding. "You sure you'll be fine?"

"Of course honey, go have fun." Nodding Vanessa got up and went to her room to get dressed. For the past two days Stanton hadn't left her side, not even to hunt infindi. He had gone to his place for about half an hour and brought some clothes to change into. Heading to her closet Vanessa pulled out her black fringed purple crop top shirt with a double scoop neck and a pair of distressed blue jeans with metal studs on the pockets. Looking back at the purple shirt she shook her head and put it back, grabbing her purple Invader Zim t-shirt with Gir doing a break dance and stole one of Stanton's black hoodies. Deciding to wear her black on black converse she got dressed and headed downstairs, where Jimena waited.

The Guardian Mother looked at her friend with wide eyes. Vanessa didn't look anything like she used too, but she still looked good. Vanessa would always look good, no matter what she wore. "How's your mom?"

"Good… She says Serena saved her from someone who sounds like Cassandra." Vanessa stood in front of Jimena who sighed.

"Cassandra is the one who took Tetra from us, and now she's trying for your mother. This doesn't sound like something you should face alone Vanessa, come back to us."

"Who says I'm alone? You have no idea who I can call on to aid me, besides Stanton." Jimena looked up at Vanessa and saw the truth in her words. Stanton had told all the local Regulators to assist Vanessa if she called on them, and she also had the right to boss a majority of the Immortals around: including Yvonne, much to Yvonne's displeasure. Vanessa on the other hand, relished at the chance to make the blonde follower's life hell. Well an even worse hell.

Tetra had volunteered to stay near Vanessa's house during the night because apparently she was really quick at running around as a shadow and alerting people what was going on. She'll make a good leader some day. "Vanessa, you are acting more and more like a follower by the day, I would know because I get premonitions about you occasionally. You need to separate yourself from them before you're lost and hurt."

Vanessa looked at Jimena and knew she only meant to be nice, but she was rubbing Vanessa's last nerve the wrong way and before Vanessa knew what she was doing, she punched Jimena in the face. The Guardian Mother looked up at Vanessa with a shocked expression, "I thank you for saving my mother, but it's time for you to go Jimena. You have no room to tell me how to live my life, I am not one of the daughters you have been charged to guide and teach the ways of the daughters of the moon. I am something else now, and to be honest I like being different. If any anger shows up in my system I'm not afraid to release it on the person who's pissed me off. It's that simple Jimena, I'm not a fallen goddess, not yet anyway. I'm just a dark one, like Serena. So why don't you take your little goody two shoes self and get out of my house before I call the regulators." With that last sentence the air in the room seemed to become charged with electricity and Jimena looked scared.

"You command them now?"

"I am dating Stanton, and he made sure to tell them that if I required their help that they were to answer me. I'd hate to waste their talent on you, but I'm not afraid to Jimena. You were once my friend but when I went to Nefandus everything changed, I embraced my darker self because it allowed me to attack there, the power of Pandora works there. It enabled me to kick Adamantis' ass once and that same power will rise again when I have to fight him a second, a third, even a fourth time. Do not tempt me Jimena, I'm not a nice person anymore."

"Vanessa…"

"You've overstayed your welcome Jimena." Vanessa's voice was harsh and Jimena took a step back. Looking closely at Vanessa she noticed that the blonde goddess' eyes had turned completely black and her skin had to a darker tan, her hair even turned to a purer golden color. The tattoo from the Moon Demon began to glow with a blue light and the one Maggie had put on her to counteract the Demon's glowed with a lighter blue. Deciding that Vanessa hadn't been lying she left as fast as she could. Vanessa watched the goddess run to her car and drive away as fast as she could.

"That, Vanessa, was just sexy." Turning around Vanessa came face to face with three Regulators, she had to try really hard not to release the energy at them. Taking a deep breath the glowing dimmed, her skin returned to its natural coloring, and her eyes became blue again. Looking at the Regulators she saw how they turned themselves into gothic teenagers that looked like people Vanessa would associate herself with now. "The prince ordered us to be your personal bodyguards, he believes that you may be a target for the infindi." Vanessa nodded and grabbed her car keys.

"Then lets go, I'm heading to the beach to relax."

~*~

The three Regulators stole surfboards and the other necessary gear and went out to entertain Vanessa. Apparently after Stanton and Serena broke up Serena had reopened the portals to earth so now everyone could go back and forth again. Vanessa looked up at the Sun and fell into memories of when Catty, Serena, Jimena, Tianna, and herself would come and hang out at the beach, sometimes it would just be Catty and Vanessa on the beach and the rest of them would be out surfing with Serena's surfing junkie brother Collin. Out in the water one of the Regulator's made another wipe out and made Vanessa laugh. Since when do regulator's have fun?

"They have their own fun." A voice said to Vanessa and looking beside her she saw a transparent form solidifying into Catty. "Usually it was just the executions of the renegade servi, but there were times when you'd catch them play fighting to get stronger, physically anyway." Catty was wearing a white tank top with denim shorts and flip flops. The tattoo of the dragon was still on her arm, as was the moon amulet around her neck and the phoenix burn on her wrist. Vanessa refused to believe that Catty was actually here, then she remembered when Veto came to Jimena as a shade. "No I'm not a shade, but I still can't stay long. I can only come by occasionally. This is what happens when a daughter chooses to not keep her powers, she becomes a guardian angel for her best friend."

"I miss you."

"I know, I come to you in your dreams occasionally. I guess I should have explained in those what I was, but I didn't want to see you despair." Catty curled up in a ball watching the Regulators. "My dad is back in town, do you know anything about that?"

"Not much, just that he and the infindi are back why?"

"I wonder why he's here… Be careful Vanessa, I'll be watching you when you have no one else around. After all, that's what best friends are for." With that Catty disappeared again, but this time Vanessa knew that it wasn't a dream, because one of the Regulators was looking for where Catty had disappeared to.

"Catty…"

"Where did lady Atertra go?" The regulator asked.

"She couldn't stay; it was her time to go back to wherever she's been." Vanessa said and laughed when a wave crushed the two Regulator's that were still in the water.

"We should take you back to your home, it's getting dark."

~*~

When they got to the Cleveland residence, it was trashed. Yvonne was hiding in the closet. "What the hell happened here?" One of the Regulators demanded and Yvonne looked up at him, terror in her eyes, then she passed out. The Regulator's pupils dialated and he hit the wall, sending his hand through the wall.

"What is it?"

"She has no memory of what happened or even who she is; they erased her memory completely." Vanessa ran up to her mother's room and found it vacant, with only a note on the bed: She belongs to me now.