It's done, it's up… god it's finally up,

Let me just say, this had been a bitch to write. So many times I deleted a lot or then a half and then done the whole thing again it killed me which was stupid seeing as this wasn't even my best chapter.

I think it's more of an intermission page, still hopefully a good read but not as exciting as the others… gosh I do hope that hasn't put people off from reading.

Now on to the people that commented, still I can't say how much each and every one are appreciated and they always do keep me motivated to write the best I can… and this is really my best, the other stories I wrote are pants compared to this and so I'm very proud of that.

'Transformers 0' – Kadma got owned… and she didn't even know how. Bet that was a harsh pill to swallow, and as Cornelia is my overall favourite character, all of her is the best to me, but I'm glad that you like her personality; I was aiming for more comic Corny for that as I do think it would just look OOC if I took it from the cartoon… except that one part in 'F is for Facades,' there she looked a little more in-depth-ish.

And I still do have plans to write more king-fu Haylin so just watch this space… in other chapters.

'Guest' – thanks, I do try and keep it entertaining, or at least as good in the show as surprisingly it was pretty good tough talk from Shagon and so went with that train of thought—hopefully it'll get better as the chapters go on as I have no clue how to end this.

As for the school, yeah it's gotta sting just watching them so close yet closed off and aww—thanks, little blushing over here as I read how you liked my depiction of Kadma; she was tough to write and I really did have to use all my brain power to find fancy words just to give her more character, still it's always good to know that people enjoy reading as this is now my baby—actually no my cats are my babies—this is my creation—just call me Dr. Frankenstein.

'ilookhotinblack' – sorry this took a little longer to get up, I was actually in the middle of polishing it off when I got your PM, and I'm glad you like the story also, I recall reading one in which a guardian got possessed and it was over before it began and so on writing this, I wanted to make it as exciting as possible, but at the same time not make it too long so it drags out… but as if said that I don't have an ending for this, it yet remains to be seen if I can keep to that promise.

Anyway leaving it here, hope everyone enjoys.

"Don't own WITCH. And any mistakes I apologise like always.

As soon as the guardians stepped into Kadma's palace, they knew something wrong, made even more certain by the way of greeting the older woman gave them. On arriving they were escorted into the main room where the Queen and two of her closest Zamballen advisors were in talks; once she sighted the guardians she dismissed the council meeting and waited as they approached.

"Is it me or does she looked steamed?"

Irma wasn't wrong. The queen had always been prickly according to Yan-lin, barely managing to muster up the effort to even pretend to enjoy others company and more often than not, showed her displeasure by her attitude, but this time she looked really mad, standing as stiff as an iron rod, the air around her was unfriendly as they ventured with caution to where she stood.

It was silent as they stood face to face, the older woman not saying anything as she stared ahead, her eyes seemingly boring into Will who struggled with the urge to turn and run but bit down on her lip and raised her hand, waving in a bid to ease the tension.

"Err— hi,"

But to her dismay the queen seemingly ignored her gesture, still content to stare menacingly leaving the young leader unsure of what to do next. Time passed between them uncomfortably, as a poke saw the red-head looking back to the ex-guardian.

"Bad—bad meeting?" she asked, hoping to at least ease the friction obviously in the middle as finally Kadma inhaled, almost as if the conversation was going to pain her, before speaking.

"This meeting was fine— the one I had with the knights, however, left me more than a little unhappy… care to know the reason why?"

Thrown by the question Will blinked a few times, trying to process what she had asked before opening her mouth to speak with nothing coming out, but Kadma carried on, not looking like she cared if the younger girl answered or not.

"This time, all the knights came back,"

So that was why it looked like Tridart had frozen the room making it as cold as possible. Will grimaced, knowing what that meant as she looked back to the queen.

"Is everything alright—are you ok?"

Kadma smiled, but it wasn't nice, Will's eyes narrowed at the false gesture, almost as if the woman was humouring her attempts of concern before she replied.

"Everything still stands, considering…"

She trailed off, leaving them staring expectantly. From behind the leader, Irma was scowling, she had heard the way the woman spoke and if there was one thing she knew, it was sarcasm and so glared at the monarch.

"Considering?"

Once more the older woman sighed as if being forced to speak taxed her. Haylin looked to her side, slightly startled at the sound of gritting teeth to find Irma nearly searing with rage and placed her hand on her arm in a bid to calm her down.

"How it was that your friend managed to get by my defences, something I was told would be less likely if I followed your advice."

She stopped speaking, still with her frown. After the first trip to her home, she and Yan-lin had spent a while catching up, it was also then that the other former guardian had implored her to listen to the new guardians. Unsure she kept silent as the older woman spoke of how they had been figuring out how to fight the knights, forming tactics to work around their emotional hindrances; if she was being honest with herself, as she always was, she wasn't impressed with what they had come up with so far to combat Nerissa's group, it seemed their strategies were weak and the reason why they kept failing each time. It was also the reason why she was reluctant to heed her old friends instruction on trusting them, to her they just seemed far too inexperienced, especially against someone like Nerissa and given they were a guardian down she found it impossible to place her faith in group who couldn't even keep their own safe from the one they fought.

But after hearing them, how quickly both Yan-lin's granddaughter had worked out her… problem, and how the leader had pointed out the reason why, left her with some thinking to do, and so when they told her the loophole around the knights power, she decided to give them a chance.

A chance she was now sorely regretting as she stared down at them, so sure of their information they were, so confident… how foolish.

"The advice, not only didn't work—"

"Hey wait a minute!"

"Especially on her, but also gave her the chance to leave me a lovely little parting gift as folly for me trusting you in the first place!"

With that she yanked down the collar allowing them to see the vivid bruises Cornelia had left upon her neck. Will's eyes widened as she stared speechless at the ugly marks marring the tanned skin. A few seconds later Kadma pulled the collar back up covering the marks.

"So?"

Confused about what she meant, Will cocked her head slightly, "So…"

If anything that seemed to set the queen off even more, her eyes blazing with ire as she sneered at them.

"So, how was it that your advice went so egregiously wrong I was nearly choked to death—if Nerissa hadn't of arrived to call her off, I fear that is exactly what might have happened."

It took her a few seconds but eventually it dawned on her and Will's hair crackled on end as she threw her own glare at the older woman.

"Do not even think about blaming us for this!"

The rest reacted to the red-heads anger as Irma pushed her way to the front, already having been peeved before, now raging as she squared up to the queen.

"Listen here, your highness, if you got attacked then it was clearly something you did wrong. We gave you exactly what we know and its worked, sometimes ok for us, but if you weren't so—"

But Kadma wasn't having anyone shout at her, especially in her own home, own kingdom and used her staff to push the younger girl back, contempt all over her regal face.

"Oh yes, because you've been so successful before haven't you… tell me again, what was it that your friend did that almost put two of you into a coma?"

Angered beyond belief it took Haylin holding Will back and Taranee running into the middle as she stepped in between the two incensed people.

"Hold up—just everyone—take a step back, now!"

The fire guardian pushed a little on Irma's chest, forcing the other girl to take a step back as she gave her a glare for the action but Taranee then turned to Kadma who was looking as scornful as before.

"And are you really that petty you're going to blame your own action's on us…"

She stopped talking and sighed heavily, neither one spoke as she lifted her head back up and stared at the queen.

"Look, I think a few wires have been crossed, it's obvious that something went wrong, and—"she held up her hand, looking warningly at the older woman who was still silently fuming at the dismissal as the younger girl carried on.

"How about we just take a deep breath, sit down and try to work this out like reasonable people?" she asked, eyes flicking from one to the other, when it seemed that they were agreeable, or at least stopped trying to attack each other, she slowly let up the semi-defensive stance she had taken before slowly nodding.

"I think there might have been a little miscommunication going on here," she threw the older woman a warning glance who looked as if going to protest but held herself as eventually Taranee coaxed them into sitting down, watching as they moved to the table, disbelief etched on her face at having to be the voice of reason when there was a fully grown adult in the room. But then again, if that adult didn't have the attitude of a child then perhaps her being the impartial one was the best thing for all, as she followed them over.

"Alright, you said that all of them have come back this time… right?" sitting at the top she watched as Kadma nodded. Working with that she thought back to when they first visited, having confronted the knights and finding they had impersonated them, at the time she had been angry at her mother and then the queen that it didn't cross her mind, it wasn't until later when Haylin had spoken that it dawned on them that none had actually seen Cornelia.

The fact that she hadn't been with Nerissa's group left them surprised; seeing as the older woman always made sure to put her at the front of any attacks—ensuring they felt rattled— it had them wondering as to why she was absent and so had spent the rest of the visit trying to work out the reason. Focusing on the conversation, it finally hit the fire guardian as she frowned on discovering the problem.

"Alright," she finally spoke up again staring at the queen who was still looking scornful but also seemingly bored.

"I think we do have some blame to take here,"

"Taranee, what are you doing!" she shushed both Will and Irma who had moved to protest and instead kept her eyes on the queen who studied her with barely there curiosity

"Oh?"

Nodding she went on. "We were so focused on wondering why she wasn't there with them, that we forgot to tell you about her… about what makes her different from the rest of the knights."

Listening to her the others frowned. Had that been right? Irma cast a puzzled glance at Will who shrugged just as confused, as Haylin mused silently, brows creased as Kadma spoke.

"Different?"

She watched as Taranee nod slowly, before her gaze went to the others and on seeing their looks of agreement, turned back to the group's spokesperson.

"I assume by different you mean, not just because she happens to be a fellow guardian?"

Taranee nodded again grimly, as she let out a tired sigh, "Not just because of that, it's a mixture of having the Auramere and probably payback for what she did to Ember back in Meridian… but mostly it's the Auramere."

Kadma fell silent, processing everything that had been said and looked to find the younger girl staring at her,

"There's more,"

The only sign she got to continue was the arched brow as the queen waited.

"The knights feed off negative emotion... that part is true… but only for the original three."

She paused, waiting for the reprimand or rage at having been misinformed but found the older woman to still be patiently waiting. Perhaps she had learnt something when Irma and Will yelled at her and so quickly carried on.

"It took us a while to figure it out; at first when she simply stood to the side and watched it left us pretty clueless about her motives, but then she struck and it took me almost breaking my arm and Will out-cold for nearly half a day before we finally found a breakthrough. Well actually, it was Caleb who helped us the most with that."

Recalling the young boy that came with them she simply nodded but stopped upon seeing the change in expression as Taranee threw her a small smirk

"Hope you like your Mythologies, your majesty."

As Taranee delved into everything about what she had researched on the goddess of vengeance, the others, having already heard this kept silent for their friends benefit but tried hard to block out the miserable truth as it only reminded them of their previous failures. Irma especially, found it near unbearable to have sat still for so long, but pushed down every urge to simply get up and move as she let out a bored sigh.

By the end of her lesson Taranee finished and watched as the impassive countenance held by the queen throughout the entire impromptu History class, morph slowly into contemplation.

"So your friend feeds off… desire?"

That was the gist of it, and bobbed her head as Kadma fell quiet again, processing the information as beside her, Haylin leaned in close.

"You're forgetting something else."

The bespectacled girl frowned and turned to look at her; silently they gazed at each other until the younger girl uttered the word into her head and Taranee nearly cursed for forgetting. Turning she looked back to the still quiet woman, teeth now nibbling on her lower lip as she thought about how to start the next part of the conversation.

"… There's a bit more."

The queen lifted her head, eyes boring into the younger girl who resisted the urge to shudder at how unnerving they made her as the older woman looked on expectantly. What more could there possibly be, it was silent as Taranee hesitated to word her next part of the sentence, as she began slowly, her words careful and deliberate.

"It's not just desire she feeds on… but also pride."

"…Pride?"

Drawing out the word, Kadma let it roll on her tongue, slight puzzlement flashing across her face, but was gone before anyone could see it as Taranee dipped her head.

"Explain to me how that works."

Inhaling deeply, the fire guardian fell quiet as she tried to summon the words to explain the situation as best she could and opened her mouth to speak.

"Cornelia is arrogant… alright, not arrogant as such—shut it, Irma— she levelled the snorting brunette a deep scowl as the water guardian erupted into choked giggles. She held up her hands at having seen the glare and shook her head.

"I'm sorry, but saying Cornelia isn't arrogant is like saying those trees outside can't talk, Taranee, you know as well as I that Corny was the most arrogant person we know."

She went to say more but suddenly fell silent, a slightly startled look on her face and as her eyes widened, she nodded once, seemingly to whatever the other girl had said over their link. Kadma watched as the brunette then fell back in her seat, demeanour having gone from amused to placid as she waved her hand their direction.

"Never mind, carry on."

Still unsure about what had occurred, but getting the feeling that there was something she didn't know, the older woman pulled herself taller, about to say something when Taranee launched back into talking.

"Fine, she was arrogant and she held a lot of pride. Nerissa, being the manipulative and sadistic cow that she is, turned that against her; twisting it until what she fed off, was one of her own personal afflictions."

Still confused the queen waited. "Nemesis, as I explained before, went after the excessive and undeserved good luck people had, and also the hubris that came with having too much pride…" she trailed off, looking a little fearfully at the other woman in case she might have been angry again, but she still looked bored.

At least she hadn't turned back to yelling.

"Alright so what does this have to do with me?"

What she would have given for an unexpected attack right about now. At her question her voice suddenly cut off and her throat seemed to clog, staring a little wide eyed, the room was completely inaudible as she turned to the others, eyes pleading with them to help try as she didn't want to be the sole recipient of the woman's ire when she inevitably insulted her as Irma, thankfully cut in.

"As my girl here said, Corny feeds off the desires and arrogance people have and so bottom line is… she used your own overconfidence to, as you quoted, get the drop on you."

Nobody moved as she finished to absolute silence. Unable to quite believe what she had just done the brunette found herself the receiver of four incredulous stares as once again she shrugged unrepentant.

"Hey don't shoot the messenger for telling the truth,"

"And what just might that be?"

Turning to look at Kadma who had by now had zoned in on her, eyes narrow as the promise of her fury threatened to return. Not to make matters better the younger girl snorted.

"Are you serious? You're actually going to sit there and play ignorant to what is clearly—the biggest flaw you have and is in fact so large, even the people on earth can see it."

But to her furthering astonishment the queen simply held her stare, silently and flat as she arched both brows, a low whistle escaping her as they did.

"Really… wow, alright, allow me to give you the picture."

"Irma, I really don't think that's necessary—" but she waved Will's frantic protests off, seeing that nothing was going to stop her, Will sunk down in her seat, hand covering her face, shame flushing her every pore. Well they were banned.

"I'm sure being a queen and all, it's like a rule or something that people have to be nice to you, not pointing out any glaring imperfections and all round just being the best dam person you can be… but seeing as we're not your subjects I reckon its ok to say this… Kadma, babe, your arrogant."

Unsure of what was worse, the casual way she was talking or the outrageous lie but the older woman was incensed. Her eyes were trained purely on the brunette, face slack with shock but soon found its way to fury and went to speak but Irma carried on.

"So much so that not only did that haughtiness allow Cornelia it get past you the other day, giving her the chance to gift you that lovely and very creative necklace; but I'm also pretty sure that it might have kept her fed for like… a year,"

At her side Will had sunk so low in her seat she was in danger of falling off, oh why was she blessed with the heart? It could do many things but opening the ground wasn't one of them, it was that point she felt most jealous of Cornelia's control over earth right now and winced as the other girl continued, quite happily if she was hearing right.

"And yes, I know change is hard, I'm betting being here for so long, it's bound to be comfortable in that bed you've made, but if you don't want Cornelia to have that advantage were she can give you matching bracelets… I'd strongly suggest learning the 'M' word."

"Murder,"

Turning to where Will was sitting—or rather, sinking, Irma scowled at the dry remark. It wasn't funny, she was funny and that was just sad and shook her head, throwing the other girl a mocking grin.

"Modesty,"

Before looking back to the very unimpressed monarch, not at all caring that she might have just got them banished.

" If you really want to protect your people, your highness, especially from one who holds more power than you… humility is your only hope."

Everyone was silent as they stared at her, having never heard her sound so… dare they say it, wise before, it was a startling notion to behold as they were all so used to her sarcasm. But it seemed she was trying to reach the queen, far cry from the anger she showed earlier and all turned to gauge the woman's reaction.

The queen was sat still in her chair, her face blank but nowhere near the anger Will had envisioned, in fact she appeared deep in thought, the expression sent a spark of hope in the leader as she looked on. Perhaps being attacked was what she needed, to discover that she wasn't the infallible force that once stood against Phobos and lived to tell the tale, instead she was a woman who had become content within her own comfort zone and now that had been breached, had come to realize she was not the strongest power on her world anymore, and that if she wanted to defend those with the same intensity that she had done years before, she would first have to fall in order to rise once more.

A lesson that came far too late for Cornelia; and as they soon found themselves heading back home, not banished like Will thought, and with Kadma seeming far more warner then what she was had been before, the red-head felt another surge in hope as they waved her goodbye and moved back through the portal.

They might have had a long way to go to win the war, but if they had gotten through to the queen then the wait didn't matter.

They had certainly won that day.