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"CJ, what's going on?" Hector asked, the fear in his voice was unmistakable. He had Ryker clinging on to his side and Hunter had Angel securely tucked in his arms.

"Look," she started moving toward her family. "I know this may seem a bit scary but…"

"Oh, you're not the one they are scared of." The gruff female voice cut her off. The hooded body, the voice belonged to, prowled out of the shadows from behind them. "Oh no dear, they are afraid of me."

"Who the hell are you?!" The woman cackled, tracing a boney finger along Hector's cheek bone. "Get your hands off him!" CJ growled. Without thinking of the repercussions, CJ sprinted forward, ignoring the protests of the ones behind her.

"Silly little girl," With the flick of her wrist the woman hurled CJ into the lockers with a loud thud, rendering her unconscious. "You are powerless against me."

Tear filled screams from Angel and the boys echoed through the hallway as the Guardians and Hay-Lin rushed to her side. The woman prevent the others from doing the same.

"Who are you? And what do you want with those kids?" Hay-Lin fumed.

"These kids mean nothing to me, they're just toys in my little game." the woman scoffed. "And do not act like you forgot who I am, Air Guardian. You are the one who sent me away thinking it would rid me of these dimensions but all you did was fuel my anger."

Hay-Lin narrowed her glare at the threat. Something about her did seem familiar; something was off about the way she called Hay-Lin the Air Guardian. "Serilda?"

"Ah, so you do remember me, how touching." The sarcasm dripping from her tongue sent shivers down Hay-Lin's spine.

"How did you get out of the world we imprisoned you on?" Hay-Lin stood, blocking the girls like they did for Wes.

"Oh darling, that's a story for another time." Hay-Lin saw the smirk that formed on her mouth under the hood. "I thought it was appropriate that I made my presences known again. And now since that is done with, I'll be taking my leave."

In a blink of an eye Serilda vanished, leaving a shadowy silhouette in her wake.

The moment Angel was put down she and the boys ran to CJ, who was being held by Wes.

"CJ?" Angel placed a hand on her cheek, tears streaming down her own. "Please wake up."

Hunter looked to Hay-Lin to ask the question on everyone's mind. "Is she going to be okay?"

"She's going to be fine," Hay-Lin assured them. "She's just going to be incredible sore in the morning."

"We can't take her back to the house," Hector hooked his arms under her legs and back to be able to pick her up. "Charlotte will kill us if we come back with CJ looking like this."

Everyone peered at CJ. The girl had dirt mixed with dust and a bit of blood smeared across her face and arms from the battle with the mysterious man. And no doubt she already had bruises forming on her back from being thrown into the lockers…twice.

"We can take her to my place," Hay-Lin spoke up before looking at Wes. "You and Dawn stay here and get Khloe after the game then meet us at the Silver Dragon. Do you know where that is?" Wes nodded. "Alright, the rest of you are coming with me."

"Are you going to explain what in the world happened here?" Ryker said exploding his arms outwards.

"I will explain everything to everyone once we're all together, okay?"

"Okay." Ryker gave her a thumbs up.

*Silver Dragon*

Hay-Lin had closed the restaurant for the rest of the night, once they arrived. She had instructed Hector to put CJ on the couch that was in the back the room as she searched for the things she needed.

"What are you gonna do?" Angel asked once Hay-Lin came back with a large bowl of water, towels and a first aid kit.

"I'm just going to clean her up and see if she was any bad wounds." Hay-Lin gave the little girl an assuring smile. "Don't worry I won't hurt her."

As Hay-Lin began cleaning CJ's wounds, Angel and the boys started asking various questions on what happened tonight. Not long after Ingrid joined in, wanting to know more about where her abilities come from. Hay-Lin promised she would answer all the question given to her, to the best of her ability but she told Ingrid to wait for the others to be told about Serilda.

*Samora*

"What are you planning, Your Majesty?" The servant kept his head down while speaking with the Queen.

Serilda stood firmly, around a stone platform, that held a mirror like object. She traced a finger across the discolored surface, "I plan on ridding the infinite dimensions of those rotten guardians once and for all." With a mere thought, Serilda created an image of the five new Guardians and the previous air Guardian. They sat in a circle as the old air Guardian told them the story of how she came to be. "Yama, find Circa on earth and have her help you get the Heart."

"Ye…" Yama was cut off by Serilda ceasing him by the throat.

"And do not fail me this time!"

Once she released him he nodded swallowing the lump in his throat, then scurried away to find a portal, this time with his life hanging in the balance.

Serilda placed her hand flat on the edge of the stone. She needed the heart if she plans on getting out of this prison but something about these new Guardians is peculiar and she couldn't quite put her finger on it, yet. Zoning on the Keeper of the Heart, Serilda felt the stone give away from the force she held it with. "I'm coming for you Guardians."

*Back at the Silver Dragon; 12:47am*

"How are you feeling?" Hay-Lin asked as she offered a glass to CJ.

After almost 3 hours of trying to reassure four very impatient but loving children, CJ had woken up and was quickly bombarded with hugs. Which she happily received despite the pain.

"Sore," CJ accepted the glass, thinking it was water but upon realizing it wasn't, she split it out, luckily not on anyone. "What the hell is that?"

Hay-Lin scolded her for the language. "Something to help with the pain." She urged her student to drink it. "But you need to drink it all for it to work."

CJ groaned. She didn't want to drink the sludge but she didn't want to be in pain either. So, taking a deep breath she downed the drink, getting disgusted reactions from everyone but Hay-Lin. "Ugh that was sickening."

"But you'll be feeling better by tomorrow." Hay-Lin smiled brightly, walking back to the kitchen to put the empty glass in the sink.

Hunter and Hector sat on each side of CJ on the couch. "We know what you are." Hector said, looking down at the ground.

"Hay-Lin told us," Hunter added.

"I'm sorry I couldn't tell you, it was all just happening too fast."

"That's okay," Angel sat on CJ's lap, clinging onto her neck.

"We think it's cool," Ryker said, he jumped onto a chair striking a typical superhero pose. "You guys are like superheroes!"

"We're girls not guys," Khloe sassed to the boy, who in return stuck out his tongue.

CJ laughed, rolling her eyes.

"What about Charlotte?" Hector asked.

"Let's not tell her about this, okay?" CJ suggested to them.

"Okay!" The four said, simultaneously.

"Um…" Ingrid scratched her head. "Who's Charlotte?"

"Our foster mom," CJ answered without looking at the Guardians.

Ingrid and the rest of the Guardians made an O shape with their mouths but didn't say anything, for they didn't know what to say. Luckily Hay-Lin came back out, pulling a chair to face CJ. The ones who weren't sitting down, did the same, so now they sat in a circle.

"I'm not going to sugarcoat anything I'm about to tell you," Hay-Lin started. As she did she created a projection of the mystery man, from the Heart, still had the hood covering his face. "I don't know who the man you fought today is but I do know he works for Serilda." Next, was a beautiful mid-age woman. She had a pixie cut of pure white hair and vivid teal cat like eyes. The image then started to shift into the women standing on a hilltop with a village set aflame below. Wes instantly recognized the image; it was the same one from the pep rally. "Serilda. Serilda was, and is still, a ruthless dictator of a Queen on the dimension of Samora. She takes no mercy on anything nor anyone. All she wants, much like all villains, is power and she saw she could have endless power with the Heart."

"So, you fought her before?" Wes asked after Hay-Lin paused.

"Yes, but we didn't… couldn't win," Hay-Lin clenched and unclenched her fist, trying hard not to cry at the aching memories. "It cost us so much to just imprison her on Samora."

"And now she's free?" Dawn comfort her teacher as much as her could by placing a gently hand on a shaking one.

"No," Hay-Lin glanced up at the Guardians. "At first I thought she was but when she vanished and left behind a shadow like smoke I knew she hadn't broken free."

"Then how did she show herself?" Ingrid questioned.

"We learned it to be shadow projection. She, along with some of her underlings, have the ability to manipulate shadows, meaning they can travel through and use them as a weapon."

"Is that how the man got away so quickly?" Khloe asked.

Hay-Lin nodded. "I believe so."

"Is there anything else we should know?" Wes had her hand clasped together on her lap and her gaze trained on the ground.

"Yes," Hay-Lin waited until Wes and the Guardians had their eyes on her. "If she gets the Heart, there will be no way of stopping her."

Silence fell upon the group as the information set in. Everything changed so quickly for the five teens and now they had a life threatening menace plaguing their and many other worlds, they are meant to protect.

How were they going to prevent that from happening? Wes thought. They are not as strong or experienced as the Guardians that came before them. There was no way, if that were to happen, that they could protect Earth and the Infinite Dimensions.

Hay-Lin insisted everyone to stay at her home since it was late and everyone was too tired to make their way to their respective homes. Fortunately, she had enough room to hold 9 children and had already called their parents, informing them, the girls were getting help with school and lost track of time.

"We'll discuss more in the morning, just try and get some rest," Hay-Lin said. "We don't want you girls falling asleep on the dance floor at Homecoming, now do we?" She giggled at her students' expression with realizing Homecoming was the next day. "Oops."


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