Cornelia sat cross-legged, her chin on her hand, her elbow on her knee, with the other hand tucked in with her legs. Her pacific eyes gazed intently at the white, fragile, mystical petaled Caleb.
Her face suddenly set.
Why was she just staring, wasting time when she knew that Caleb had to be saved. Now, two options were cancelled out, more like three. She couldn't turn him back herself, she couldn't just leave him there, and she definately couldn't go hunting down the murderer.
But what if tried a different way to bring him back with her own powers...with her friends, in a different place?
But no, because Irma was all over the...
Yes, because this was, or is, the past. It was as if she completely started over again.
Cornelia stood enthusiastically. She had never been so excited by just a motive in her life.
Quickly scooping up the keys and the vase with Caleb, she rushed out to meet the cool wind and wondered who to go to.
Well, the Silver Dragon wasn't too far away...
"Cornelia, I'm sorry, but I'm not too sure it's a good idea..."
"What do you mean? It's perfectly fine," Cornelia picked up the telephone receiver. She shrieked and dropped it.
"As I was saying..." Hay Lin meekly smiled.
"Well why didn't you just say I'd get a shock when I would pick up the phone?"
Hay Lin rolled her eyes. "It's just that your brain doesn't register when it's thinking about something related to Caleb."
"So how do we get them?"
Hay Lin smirked. "Just because I'm not fully powered in my Guardian suit, doesn't mean that I don't have any tricks up my sleeve."
"Huh? You sound evil, all of a sudden..."
"Like you, you can make plants grow more by just sitting on them. I'm not Earth, I'm Air, so I can--"
"FLY!" Cornelia interrupted.
Hay Lin's face turned sober. "I wish...but I can glide across sidewalks."
"Have you ever been this hyper before, Cornelia?" Hay Lin asked.
"I don't think so..." Cornelia replied, enjoying the feeling of weightlessness, almost like when being in Guardian form. "This is like flying when we're transformed!"
Hay Lin considered. "Hmmm...no...real flying is much more entertaining."
"So where are we going?"
"Irma's."
"Oh."
"Then we'll get everyone else."
Then Cornelia blacked out.
"Is she awake?"
"Cornelia!"
"Yes or no?"
"What are we going to do?"
"Cornelia?"
"We'll wait...then get my dad if..."
"Hello?"
She forced her eyes open and silence fell.
Irma broke it. Irma hugged Cornelia. "Cornelia! You're alive!"
Cornelia sat up now. "Where's Caleb?"
"All you worry about is Caleb! He's right over there!"
Cornelia stumbled as she stood up. "You guys are supposed to help me bring him back to life. And give me energy, in case I'm running out."
"What? But you just fainted and only recovered two seconds ago!" Irma shrieked.
"Yeah, you should get some rest," Taranee agreed.
"The sooner the better though," Cornelia contradicted. "Then I can rest better."
"Are you sure you want to do this, Cornelia?" Will asked.
"But of course," Cornelia set Caleb down on the floor and sat cross-legged a foot away from him.
Any time now.
Cornelia braced herself.
"Earth! Fire! Wind! Water! Energy!" Will quickly said softly.
Transformation took place and Cornelia put out both hands at Caleb immediately. She did not want to waste time. She moved around her hands, and make a green sphere around him. Caleb began to lift.
She could see the flower change a bit. The green sphere around him widened but stopped, white lightening buzzed over the sphere. Cornelia rotated her hands around the sphere quicker, but she saw the sphere was shrinking. She waved her hands frantically, but the sphere was as small as her palms, with Caleb miniatured in it as well. She had no idea what she was doing, but it felt like her heart was doing all the work and not her brian.
But she did know that she needed help. Cornelia knew that she was losing power.
"I need energy!" Cornelia said, not even thinking,
Pink shot from her hands all of a sudden and she felt a sudden awakening jolt in her. She saw the sphere magnify, now as large as her head.
But so much power was in her control, she accidently began to make the sphere eccentric, turning it into an ovalized sphere. The sphere kept growing, spanning across her shoulders.
"Air," she whispered, not knowing she said it.
Cornelia knew she was in a trance. The real her died already of energy loss. She was surviving on others. If they weren't here, she would be unconscious again and fall to the floor. But if they went out of energy...
Cornelia pushed the thought out of her mind, knowing that there were four more, all backing her up.
A wind molded out the oval sphere and rolled it out again, so it was a perfect sphere once more.
Friction under her hands told her to say, "Water."
Instantly, liquid water gelled over and was absorbed by the sphere.
"Fire."
Strings of fire guided by her hand looped around and around the green globe with Caleb in it.
Now was the time.
"Everything."
A surge of power came to her. Cornelia spread her arms and the sphere grew with her arms. Growing...
There was that dreamy feeling once again. Cornelia saw herself on a hospital bed. A doctor was talking to her four friends, who were tearing up.
What had happened?
Cornelia's ghostly self floated to her heart rate screening. On the black screen, a green line was parallel to the bottom of the monitor.
She was...dead?
Then she saw a small bump.
No, she wasn't dead.
She was dying. But in a strange way as well.
Cornelia floated over her body. The doctor and her four faithful friends left the room.
So this is what would happen if she died.
She had always wondered about what people would think and do if she died suddenly.
Suddenly, Cornelia felt the rising urge to poke herself.
Random thought, but normal.
Cornelia lifted one hesitant finger and poked her own arm.
The dying Cornelia's eyes suddenly flew open, but didn't seem to see her.
Last time Cornelia had been in this circumstance, the other her could see her. But not this time.
Strange.
Her other self stared around and carefully peeled everything off her face, setting the machines crazy.
Cornelia watched herself stand in the hospital gown and head out of the room. Cornelia followed along with her other self.
Her other self had tripped over something and landed in front of another person.
Her other self stood and apoligized.
"You're supposed to be in there..." the doctor said. The doctor wasn't the same one as before, that was telling her friends about her death. This doctor was Hispanic and had spiky black hair. He probably wasn't even a doctor; he only wore a long black T-shirt and faded black jeans. If he didn't have a clipboard with medical information on it, Cornelia would have guessed that her other self had tripped on a stranger, an average person.
Cornelia suddenly felt like she was falling. She thrust out her hands to stop break the fall, but she found herself in another scene. She felt herself see the spiky-haired person again. Suddenly, her body was walking, and walked around the corner and opened the door, which swung inside.
She saw Caleb.
"Cornelia?" he asked.
Cornelia paniked. In this situation, she woul meet the spiky-haired dude and marry him. It would all be like that vision she had before, only it played again with herself as the future Cornelia. And herself saying, 'I'm sorry.' And then herself...closing the door on Caleb.
Cornelia's vision turned black and the butterflies streamed through her again, slashing and letting blood loose, while healing and renovating her again.
Cornelia sat cross-legged, her chin on her hand, her elbow on her knee, with the other hand tucked in with her legs. Her pacific eyes gazed intently at the white, fragile mystical petaled Caleb.
She sighed.
I hate when people have to wait on me.
Midori Fujiwara