Chapter Nine

"What's the problem?" McGonagall asked frantic to know what happened to Pandora.

As Adam put Pandora on one of the beds, John explained the problem, "She said that Pandora needed to be up to full strength to win the battle."

"What battle?" Harry asked, but John shrugged his shoulders.

"I've been trying to figure that out with no luck whatsoever," he answered. "I'm assuming its the battle with her brother, but the way she looked at me when she said it makes me think its something bigger than that."

"If its something bigger than defeating her brother," McGonagall said with a concerned face, "we will need any help we can get."

"If we don't know what is going on then how can we defend ourselves?" Jael asked as he looked at te doorway with horror. There, in a black suit and red tie, stood Mathias with his arms crossed and his head down; immediately McGonagall, John, Harry, and Jael are on their feet ready to defend Pandora, but Pandora pushed her way through them and stood face to face with her brother.

"What do you want?" Pandora asked exhausted.

"You should've known contacting Cassandra would land you in the hospital," Mathias said chuckling under his breath, "What I am here for is to clean up Cassandra's mess."

Suddenly a light start to ignite within Pandora and a light started to glow behind her eyes, "What did you do to her?" Mathias waved his hand in the air and revealed a dungeon where Pandora watched Cassandra being whipped over and over again on her bare back. Her eyes were filled with tears as the guard continued to whip her; after ten minutes her face was unphased from the whipping. Pandora figured it was because her back was numb and she no longer feeled the pain; Pandora's hand instinctively went to her back and she winced. Her whipping occured centuries ago, but it still pained her to see Cassandra going through the exact same thing she did; the one thing she wanted to protect her friend from had happened and Pandora felt guilty.

"She leaked information," Mathias said making the dungeon disappear and Pandora's focus is diverted and anger welled up inside of her. "She had to be punished."

Pandora decided to use something against her brother, "Do you remember when we were kids and we had seen a woman in the square who had committed such a petty crime and she was being whipped?"

"I don't-"

"And then later that night dad took me into the basement and whipped me for telling him no?" Pandora asked as John covered his mouth so he wouldn't let out a gasp. "You stood there and smiled while he whipped me, but when mom whipped you I helped you. Why did you smile at me? And why didn't you smile at Cassandra when she was being whipped. I bet she pleaded with you to not whip her, but instead of your love for her saying no, you went ahead with it because you are the All Powerful Mathias who can't love. You know very well I speak the truth, I saw your eyes when you looked at her whipping three minutes ago, and they were full of pain. Like if she died any minute you would collapse and would go mad-" she moved closer to him so that she was whispering in his ear "-maybe you want to kill her so seeing her won't cause you agony. You want to see her suffer." Next thing Pandora knew was Mathias grabbing and squeezing her neck. She grabbed his hand and made choking sounds as he slammed her against the wall and leaned in to her ear to whisper something; after he let her go, he vanished and left Pandora smiling.

"Why are you smiling?" Harry asked waiting for Pandora to clear her throat to answer.

"I know how to break him."


"And we would let you near him again why?" Harry asked in the hospital wing.

"Because I know exactly how to break him," Pandora said as Harry rolled his eyes.

"You're going to use your past against him, yeah you told me," he said running his hand through his hair.

"Harry I have to tell you something," Pandora said as Harry lifted his head as if it were made of lead. "Me and Jael have been searching for a Guardian. Someone to take my place when I renounce my title, but in order to do that I need to find the Guardian."

"Ok?" Harry asked confused, "How do you find this Guardian?"

"The Box tells me who is next to receieve my powers," Pandora said swallowing hard.

"And what does this have to do with me?"

"Your daughter is the next Guardian."