Author's note: I don't own W.I.T.C.H. I do, however own my characters, the band title, and the plot.

The New Guardians

Chapter Eleven

Same Enemy, Different Plan – Part Two

Madeline watched Ash's back, silent. She wondered where they were going and why, but she figured if she asked that he wouldn't answer. Finally, after about ten minutes, he stopped and turned around. "What do you want?" Madeline asked, looking up at him.

Ash felt her looking at him, but he wouldn't match her gaze. He felt horrible for what he was about to do. In fact, he wanted to just run away and protect her from this. "I'm sorry…"

"For what?" Madeline was confused, he hadn't done anything. "For not kidnapping me, kicking and screaming? Because that was just horribly mean." She said her voice heavy with sarcasm.

Ash laughed dryly. "I'd figure I'd try to be nice before I ruined your opinion of me." He paused, closing your eyes. "I need to hurry." He muttered to himself, and then spoke to where Madeline could hear. "Your friends are about to start looking for you."

"Well, yeah, ninny." Madeline said. "That's not exactly hard to figure out."

At Will's and Irma's house

"Maddie?" Autumn asked, walking out the back door. "You okay? You've been out here for…" Her voice died down as she looked around the yard. "Guys!"

Will, Irma, Payden, Brianna, and Hannah soon rushed into the backyard. "What's wrong?" Will asked.

"Madeline was just out here." Autumn frowned, turning the look at everyone.

"Maybe she just decided to wander off into the forest." Irma said. It was true, they had decided when they had made the house to not have a fence around the yard. They'd rather have a small open area going straight into the forest. It was good and it let them practice.

"Why don't we be safe and check?" Hannah said softly, holding up the Heart. "Guardians unite!"

"Water!"

"Light and dark!"

"Fire!"

"Earth!"

They landed, now in their guardian forms. "Dude, that's cool!" Brianna said, looking at Hannah.

"What?" Hannah asked, looking at Brianna confused. She then looked down, and saw what she was talking about. Now her white shirt and white shoes were black. Her hair had also changed. Now streaks of white and black ran through it. "Huh, cool."

"Yes, awesome. Now, could we focus?" Autumn sounded pissed. She turned to the forest and closed her eyes, trying to focus on where Madeline went.

"Sorry…" Hannah muttered, turning and walking up to Autumn. "Where is she?"

"Sh." Autumn shushed Hannah. After a few minutes, her eyes snapped open, worry evident in them. "We have to go. Now!" With that, she flew into the forest.

Meanwhile…

Ash walked up to Madeline, causing her to stumble back into a tree. He put an arm over her shoulder and leaned in, as if to kiss her. "I really am sorry for what I'm about to do. You may not believe me, but I am protecting you." Then he leaned down farther and bit her neck.

Madeline gasped, out of shock, not pain. Vampires have a choice; they can make a bite pleasurable or painful. In Hannah's case, Valkyrie wanted her to suffer, therefore the bite was painful. Ash was trying his hardest to keep her safe-even if neither of them new why-therefore, his bite wasn't painful. In fact, Madeline almost enjoyed it. She was close to him, his body inches from hers. If he weren't a stranger who had kidnapped her friend and was now drinking her blood for what seemed to be his personal gain, she would enjoy the closeness.

After about two minutes, Ash pulled back. "That will heal fast, don't worry."

"Oh, yeah. Don't worry, that's perfect advice for you to give me in this situation." Madeline said, her voice heavy with sarcasm.

"If only you knew that I was doing you a favor." Ash muttered, almost too low for Madeline to hear it. Even though he had stopped drinking, he hadn't moved. Madeline was too aware of this fact. She studied his face, trying to ignore the fact that his lips seemed redder, his face seemed alight. She had guessed that this was because of her blood, and she was right.

Ash couldn't help studying her either. 'Never in all of my existence have I met someone so free… And someone so beautiful.' His thoughts only intensified his feelings. The space in between them was driving him crazy. Suddenly, as if he couldn't control his urges-no, his needs-he leaned in and kissed Madeline.

Madeline's breath hitched; she was shocked. She certainly hadn't been expecting that. Part of her hated the kiss. She had been hoping that he hadn't felt the connection that she had. She didn't want this confusion; she didn't want to feel as if she were betraying her friends. Most of all, she didn't want to fall for a stranger-especially this one.

Another part of her, the bigger part, rejoiced. She couldn't help but enjoy it; she couldn't help but to lean in, to trying and memorize the feeling. She put her palms against his chest, but hadn't broken of the kiss yet.

Suddenly, Ash broke the kiss off and leaned away from Madeline. Just in time, because Autumn crashed through the bushes, the other guardians right behind her.

Ash looked terrified at Madeline as she fell to the ground. Sadly for her, she was weakened from the blood loss and her lack of oxygen. Madeline matched his gaze, her gaze stunned. Without looking up as Autumn rushed him, fire in her hands, Ash disappeared.

"Damn it!" Autumn yelled clenching her fists in anger, thereby causing some sparks of fire to fall harmlessly onto the ground. Her rage had caused flames to flicker in her eyes. "He got away!"

Hannah leaned down and grabbed Madeline's arm. "Somehow I don't doubt that we'll see him again." She said, looking up at Autumn.

Payden walked over and patted Autumn's shoulder. "It's okay."

Brianna looked at Madeline over Hannah's shoulder. "You okay?"

Madeline was dazed, her thoughts elsewhere. She could still feel Ash's lips on hers, and she found herself not wanting the feeling to go away. She was snapped back into reality by Brianna's question though. "Oh, of course I am! Why wouldn't I be?"

Autumn looked at the air head who was her best friend, her face covered in confusion. "He bit you. Your neck has blood on it. We walked up and you fell to the ground. That's why you wouldn't be." Her voice was dry.

"Oh! Oh… Yeah. I'm not okay." Madeline said, shaking her head as if to prove her point. She put her hand up to her neck and sure enough, it was a little wet with her blood. "But I'll be fine."

"Yeah, I'm proof of that." Hannah pointed out, eyeing Autumn. Something was off with her, but Hannah couldn't place it.

"Well, then we should back to the house to clean up your neck." Brianna said, slightly oblivious to what was going on between her friends.

"Yeah." Payden agreed. Brianna looked up, arching her eyebrow in playful confusion.

"Is Pay-Pay agreeing with me?" Brianna joked.

"Shocker." Payden muttered, smiling.

"Actually it is." Madeline said, smiling also.

The fire in Autumn's eyes started to die out because of her friends' banter. "Come on. Let's go." Payden said to Autumn, smiling.

Autumn nodded, turning around and leaning down to Madeline. "We're going to talk later. You know why." She whispered in Madeline's ear.

Meridian

"Wow, you sure as hell took a while." Kasper remarked dryly. Ash glared at him as he walked into the small meadow that the vampires had settled into.

"What do we do now?" Valkyrie asked, looking into the blue jewel that was Nerissa's prison.

'It's simple. Give the jewel to Ash. I'll instruct him on what to do.' Nerissa's mental voice was filled with excitement. Finally, she was about to be free.

Earth. Will and Irma's backyard

Will and Irma sat in their lawn chairs, anxiously waiting. The guardians landed Brianna and Payden rather gracefully. Sadly, Hannah wasn't that well at flying and Autumn was currently holding Madeline-even though she argued that she was fine enough to fly.

"Good, you're back." Will tried to speak calmly, as if they hadn't been worried. It didn't exactly work.

"Yeah. And we're fine." Hannah said, trying to calm her mother down.

"Except for Madeline." Autumn cut in, almost glaring at Hannah for leaving that out.

"I already told you!" Madeline sighed in frustration and flew out of Autumn's grip. "I'm fine!" She landed on the ground, and then the blood loss got to her as she began to fall over.

Payden caught her. "Whatever you say." Payden said, rolling her eyes at her friend.

"What happened?" Irma asked.

"Ash told me to follow him… He said if I didn't… He'd hurt you; all of you. I didn't want that to happen." Madeline began, looking down.

"Then he bit her." Brianna said, her voice serous.

"He got away." Autumn growled, her fists clenching again. Flames showed in her eyes again and fire began to form around her hands and her arms.

Hannah glanced at Brianna. Bri caught this and nodded. She then looked at Autumn and flicked her hand towards her angered friend. Irma's drink flew out of her cup and put out the fire accumulating on Autumn's arms. "Calm down." Hannah said. Autumn looked up to glare at Brianna first, then stopped and glared at Hannah.

"Hey!" Irma said suddenly. "I was drinking that…." This she muttered, looking down.

"Hannah's right. You do need to be calm." Will looked between the fire guardian and her daughter. Her gaze settled on Autumn. "Your rage won't help you. Taranee will help you with that… Anyways, we should get Madeline to Kandrakar. They can speed up her healing process." Hannah nodded, holding up the Heart to make a portal.

Kandrakar

"What's going on?" Autumn asked, looking around the bright and open room. The other's shared her confused looks. Payden was holding up Madeline, who was very stubbornly determined to not be babied.

The Oracle spoke first, like usual. "This is the Queen of Meridian, Elyon." With that, Elyon had the floor.

"It is nice to meet you new guardians." Elyon said, smiling lightly at them. She gestured to her group. "This is my Knight, Caleb." Caleb bowed his head respectively, and glad that Elyon hadn't called him king. He didn't like the title. "His father, Juilian." Juilian also bowed his head respectively, almost as if to back up the fact that he and Caleb were related. "Sadly, we are not her to simply introduce ourselves. We bring bad news."

"There are now three vampires." Juilian said, glad that the Oracle had caught them up on the subject of the new enemies that had arisen. "They attacked me."

Will gasped, her eyes widening. Irma eyed Juilian nervously. "They didn't…"

Juilian broke their gaze, looking away in shame and regret. The Oracle chose this time to speak up. "They did. It seems as if they are going to use the air guardian's blood and energy to further achieve their goals." He looked up at them. "I fear that Nerissa is going to be free soon."

Meridian

"Finally." Nerissa spoke. She had almost forgotten all the things she was feeling; how it was to speak, what her voice sounded like, the feeling of standing in her true body, surrounded by people. She was now longer trapped. She was-"Free!" Nerissa yelled. "I am free!" She through her arms out lightning flowing out of her fingertips and striking nearby trees. The rest of the vampires looked at her, calmly.

Valkyrie walked up to her as soon as the lightning died out. "You don't look as if you've aged a day."

Nerissa smiled. "Of course. I used my powers to get my guardian body back, and my powers have kept it." She looked down; admiring the deep blue dress she was in. She even flapped her wings for a second. She looked over her shoulder at Valkyrie, making her long dark hair move. "Val, you haven't aged either." Valkyrie almost grimaced, but hid it. "It's finally the time. The time for W.I.T.C.H. to pay."

"That's not going to be easy." Ash said dryly. So far, he didn't like Nerissa.

"You say this because of the new guardians?" Nerissa asked, looking at him. When he nodded, she continued. "Well then, we'll just have to make them suffer first."

Author's note: This felt really rushed. I also felt like the ending was horrible xP

So, I have lost of stuff to say, hopefully I can remember it all! FIVE IS VERY IMPORTANT!

1) So some background characters are about to really come into their light, and finally be main characters. Which is good, cause I love writing for Austin, and I hate how little of him I've put. Now, why he is a main character is a secret ;)

2) I'm mixing up the comics and the cartoon. See, I like the way the cartoon did the plot, but I hated how Nerissa looked 'young' in the cartoon. She looked hideous. In the comics, she has the awesome darker blue dress highly simply to the god awful pink one, but way better. Anyways, the story's are kind of twisted, but don't worry about it. Hopefully it won't be confusing. For instance, you may have noticed the Oracle is still Himmerish. I love the new one(not spoiling, no names mentioned), but I can't change this story's plot because a new comic came out. But anyways, if you think I got something wrong, pm me or review about it, and I'll explain if it was a mixer between the comics and cartoons or I made a mistake. I know I made a mistake earlier in this story. I put protal, but there aren't any portals around. Oops!

3) So I've really been thinking about it, and I think this should be put to a vote, deciding on your reviews. I have the plot lined out, but I can change it slightly to add some of the canon characters, like Matt, Chris, Napoleon, so on. I wouldn't mind it, in fact I kind of want to, to show a little to what's happened to the W.I.T.C.H. girls since this is way later. I am really glad I got to show you(kind of) how Will and Irma got together. So, what do you think?

4)30 Seconds To Mars inspired me to write more so lately. Mainly the song, This Is War. Also, my friends have inspired me. THANK YOU GUYS!

5) (PLEASE READ!) I've decided to me almost mean. Almost... I have chapter twelve written already, and Thirteen is well on it's way. Now, the time I update this story now depends on YOU! Readers, YOU decide when I update! See, if I get NO reviews, I'll update it two weeks from now, on the 13th. If I get ONE review, I will upload this next Friday, the sixth of July. If I get FIVE OR MORE reviews, I will upload it THAT FREAKIN DAY! As soon as I see that I've gotten five more reviews, I will upload, that day if possible. And it should be possible, believe me. SO PLEASE! You decide my readers, decide well! These reviews can be asking me questions about the story, answering my questions, telling me how much I suck, or how much you enjoy something. If they have something to do with the story, or my really freakin long author's note, I will accept it.

6) Oh yeah! So, my friend has done fanart for this story. It is awesome, no doubt, I just haven't asked her to put it on DA, or Photobucket or something, because I'm not sure how many people will go check it out. So, if you want to see it, tell me!

I hope you've enjoyed this chapter, cause I sure did!

-Phantom