Looking up at the angry cat like woman, Will took a step back as she realized the angry look was meant for herself. Luba was angry with Will but the older woman had never been upset with Will before, did the Oracle do something to her? Why else did Luba push her away, the Oracle had punished Luba and the cat like woman blamed Will, probably hated the redhead now.
"How…How is this even possible?" The Oracle asked in shock, confusing Will as to why there was none of the usual anger in his voice he usually had when dealing with her. It didn't keep her from exploding though she knew she would be punished for it. Luba was the only person who was there for Will during some of the worst times in her life and the redhead wasn't going to let the bald bastard get away with hurting the woman.
"How dare you!" Will screamed in outrage, power radiating around her as an invisible wind whipped around her like a weak tornado though it didn't help the rest of the room as the storm started pushing them back from the violence of it.
"WILL!" Susan screamed, dropping down to the ground while pulling the other redhead with her. She wasn't sure what was going on, wasn't sure who this older redhead was though she caller Susan her mom before tackling her in a hug. Right now though that wasn't important, calming the younger redhead who started to float a few inches off the floor did.
"If you laid one finger on her cueball, if you hurt Luba I'll make you suffer!" Will cried, her tears being carried away by the gale of wind as Luba and the Oracle shielded themselves as best the could as the debris in the room started to be tossed around coming dangerously close to all of them.
"Will!" Yan Lin screamed, kneeling down next to Susan and the other redhead who was looking on in horror. "You will calm down this instant!"
"What's happening?" Susan cried out over the howling winds as they increased even more.
"I…I don't know!" Yan Lin cried out, unable to grasp what was happening as it should have been impossible.
"Will, please, your scaring me!" Susan sobbed, scared that something was seriously wrong with her daughter and it didn't look like there was anything she could do about it. She had to try though, she had lost Will for two years and she'd be damned if she was going to lose her again. Slowly she started to crawl toward the younger redhead, fighting back the intense wind and the few rocks that stuck her leaving gashes on her unprotected skin and tearing the clothes that were covering flesh.
"She hates me now…She HATES me and its YOUR fault!" Will screamed in rage pointing to the oracle as the power from the aurameres washed through her causing her to gasp in pain. She tried her best to ignore it as the power also felt good, caressing her soothingly tempting her to lash out at the man before her. To make him suffer as she has, to make him feel pain like he let happen to her despite having the ability to stop it. To destroy him for hurting her, for hurting Luba.
"What are you talking about brat?" Luba snarled, screaming over the wailing noise of the wind as if it was crying out in pain.
"Stop this, Will." Susan sobbed, finally reaching the floating girl and reaching up to take her hand. The young girl looked down at the woman holding her hand, all color drained from the redheads eyes as they were clouded with the power leaking there from the Heart, from the aurameres inside her making them appear a solid white.
Looking down in anger and hatred that the powers were only amplifying, Will saw a crying woman who had caused her years of pain. She wanted to strike out and bat the woman aside, smiling wickedly at the cuts and bruises on the woman and wanting to cause more. She wanted to make the woman scream in pain and beg for mercy just like Will had done many times.
"Will…Please…I love you, please stop this!" Susan sobbed pulling on Will's hand, the honesty in her voice and face causing Will's eyes to soften a little. "Please come back to me…Don't leave me again."
"M-Mom?" Will asked softly as the winds started to become a little calmer, her eyes starting to regain some of their color as the redhead looked down at the older woman who had granted the girl's most heartfelt wish, the woman who made Will's fondest dreams come true over the last two days.
"Yes honey, please calm down." Susan said gently reaching out and pulling the redhead down into her arms letting young girl cry her grief out into her sore shoulder while rocking the younger girl gently.
"That brat should be punished for what she did!" Luba growled angrily stomping toward the woman and daughter which didn't make much sense to the cat like woman as Susan's daughter was standing back looking on in shock with a tired looking Yan Lin.
"No, old friend, we need to figure out what is happening." The Oracle said putting his hand on the woman's shoulder stopping her advance on the shaking girl. "There is no way this young girl should have the powers of all the guardians as it felt she did…Did you not feel them?"
"Yes I felt them, she has the aurameres!" Luba snarled, flexing her fingers like claws angrily, "That should be impossible but she does! I-I smell them on her!"
"Calm down Morris, you know the aurameres are safe in their chamber." The older redhead said looking sadly at Susan and the younger redhead crying in those arms. She felt her heart drop as she feared she was losing her mother to this imposter but she couldn't deny the pain the girl was in. She couldn't blame her mother for trying to comfort the girl despite how much she herself wanted to be held by Susan instead of that girl.
"Who are you?" Yan Lin asked as she came up to the older redhead, studying her face.
"I'm Will, I…I was killed a couple years ago." Will sighed sadly, "I wanted to contact you but we couldn't spare the power after the Heart was destroyed."
"But she's Will and she has the Heart, she was fighting Cedric earlier and from what I understand kicked his scaly butt back to Meridian single handedly." Yan Lin said, reaching out to caress the older Will's cheek, this girl wouldn't be here if it wasn't Will because the Oracle would have known and she would have never been accepted to the council as an ex-guardian. When every guardian died they were given the chance to serve on the council as Halinor does now. "You are her though…Aren't you?"
"Yeah, I am but…Who is that? How could she have the Heart when I know for a fact it was destroyed?" Will sighed, running a hand through her long hair locks. She studied the girl and from what she could tell he looked like what she believed she would have looked like if she wasn't killed two years ago. When she died though she followed the Oracles suggestion to take on an older form to help her with the council as they wouldn't respect a child and her child form would only remind them constantly that she was one. She wasn't one any more though, she had paid her dues from the trauma of being brutally murdered to all the hard work she did here.
"Child, who are you?" The Oracle asked gently kneeling down on one side of Susan trying to get a look at the girl's face.
"You know who I am you bastard!" The younger redhead snarled as she tried to disappear in Susan's arms.
"Impudent whelp, don't you dare talk to the Oracle like that!" Luba snapped taking the space opposite the Oracle on the other side of Susan.
"I-I'm sorry." The girl whimpered while clinging to Susan's tattered blouse. Luba had the decency to look sheepish when Susan glared angrily at her.
"Honey, maybe you should answer their questions then we can go home." Susan said gently, stroking the girl's red hair.
"I'm Will Vandom." Will said softly, resting her head against Susan's breast as the woman cradled the girl's head as she realized the girl was exhausted and probably wouldn't last long before sleep claimed her.
"Child, may I please se the Heart?" The Oracle asked gently but the redhead shook her head no. whimpering a little.
"Brat, give me the heart!" Luba growled causing a shiver to run through Will as fear of the cat woman turning on her washed through her. Will weakly reached up her hand, palm upward as the center of her palm rippled like water before the Heart slowly began rising from it as if it was raising out of water until it was pulsating in time with her Heart before Luba reached out to take it just before the girl succumbed to the exhaustion dropping her hand.
"I-Is she okay?" The older redhead asked, worry lining her voice. She may have been unsure to what was going on or who the girl truly was but she wasn't heartless. It looked like the girl, whoever she was, had been through a lot. She was a little freaked out though by that whole Heart coming out of her hand as she was never able to do that herself. Truthfully, she didn't know if it was possible.
"She's just resting Wilhelmina." The Oracle said softly as Luba intently studied the Heart in her hands. Her eyes glazed over for several moments as she scanned the Heart comparing it with what she knew of the artifact and was shocked to find while being very close to their own it had several differences. The two most notable differences though was the message that she had made though she knew she never did create that.
The second was the fact that there was an entire set of all five aurameres residing in the Heart. That much power could kill someone if they transformed into a guardian as no one person was meant to be a channel that much power. It could potentially cause someone's heart to explode or their body to slowly be eaten away by the sheer, raw power the aurameres produced. That was what the Heart was for, well one of the reasons, it dampened the powers of each auramere to automatically match the safe levels for their guardian.
"What is it, Luba?" The Oracle asked as he noticed the shocked look on Luba's face.
"There is a message in the Heart." Luba explained, shaking her head confused as she stood up and started pacing back and forth before the group. "It's…It's from me but I never created such a thing."
"Can you access it?" The Oracle asked.
"Of course I can, its child's play to. I'm just not sure if it's a good idea, I can sense a lot of…Sadness and darkness from it." Luba sighed.
"We won't ever know if we don't try." Will said standing up herself and straightening her white robes. Susan watched her, fear in her heart that this young woman was really her daughter as she could see it in her eyes. Problem was, she was sure the girl in her arms was her daughter but it was impossible to have two daughters. One had to be an imposter but what kind of sicko would do that to her after missing her baby girl for two years?
"Please play the message, Luba." The Oracle said, getting up and moving behind the cat like woman and putting his hand on her shoulder while silently adding his support to his old friend.
"Okay, here's the message." Luba said shaking her head hoping they didn't regret this. They should have done this in private away from these interlopers but she would respect the Oracles wishes on this, on anything. She let the Heart flat up and out a little in front of her as she had activated the message hidden in the Heart. Slowly light flowed out from the Heart washing through the room. In it's wake they found themselves in the auramere's chamber though they could tell that it was actually just a hologram of it created by the power in the Heart and the wishes of the one who created it.
NOTES
Kkies, here's the first part of chappie twelve's rewrite, I hope everyone enjoyed it more than the original.
Philip Gipson: Thankies, I tried making it touching despite how hard it was for Will. I do agree with you about it being messed up but the alt reality Yan Lin was totally messed up like a lot of other people in the alt world. It was almost like a negative world though not everyone was different, and not to the point of being completely opposite of their counterparts. I agree with you completely that the parents should teach their children that as well as spending time with them. It's sad when parents can blame video games and television for things their kids do when it was those parents who spent more time complaining about them then being with their kids ensuring they aren't watching or playing anything they shouldn't be.
Saber Wolf: LOL, hope this chappie cleared it up a bit though I don't know if I did good enough job on it. It was very hard to write but hopefully it's pretty good.
