Oh yeah! I got the chapter out in less than two weeks!

This is a major accomplishment for me.

You guys should feel special. ;)

Enjoy!

All three of us got into fighting positions, but I knew that Cornelia and Taranee were still weak from the magic surrounding us. Even I was beginning to feel nautious.

"Cedric." Taranee growled. Fire flashed in her glasses.

Dark shapes formed in the fog behind Cedric, becoming monsters. The three of us stepped back.

"Jussssst give me the Heart, and no one sssssshall be harmed." Cedric hissed, extending a hand to me.

The Heart sent out a flash so bright that everyone was blinded for a few seconds. I could feel waves of anger flowing off the jewel like water being thrown in a hurricane. A few of Cedric's minions let out surprised grunts at the sudden burst of light, then braced themselves to charge, waiting for their master's instruction.

I didn't understand. This was where we were supposed to find Elyon, not get ambushed by her brother's squad of hitmen!

Cornelia moved herself in front of me. "Forget it, lizard-boy! We would rather die than give the Heart to you!" She was shaking. I could tell it took so much energy just to lift her arms protectively between Cedric and me, and holding them there couldn't have been much easier. I hoped Cedric couldn't see how exhausted we were from the fog.

"Then die you sssshall!" Cedric motioned to his men, and they swarmed around us.

Taranee and Cornelia managed to hold off a couple of them with their powers, but they were losing energy way too quickly. I surrounded myself with weak force fields. Every time a monster reached for the Heart around my neck, I slugged him in the face. We wouldn't be able to carry on like that for much longer, though.

Just as I shoved a minion away from me, I looked up just in time to see Cedric's tail aiming for my head and ducked. The distraction had worked its magic, though, because while I had been focusing on not getting my head bashed in by Cedric, the monsters had appeared behind me and grabbed my arms. By then I was too weak to struggle, so I lay limp in their arms. "I'm sorry..." I whispered to the Heart. It gave off a small light to try and comfort me.

On either side of us, Taranee and Cornelia were being taken down by the soldiers, as well. Taranee gave one last burst of flames from her body, then she, too, fell into submission when two guards wrapped her wrists in their big, meaty hands. Cornelia was the last to give up. She had been taking on three of them at one time, but when the ones that had been fighting Taranee and me went to finish her, she also let loose a weak attack and allowed the monsters to grab her.

Cedric chuckled. "Guardianssss without their leader are nothing." He motioned to one of his men. "Take the Heart from her."

The minion grinned a huge, sadistic grin as he reached for the Heart. I bit at his hand, and he recoiled for a moment before going for it again.

Suddenly, it was as if time had stopped. The soldier's hand was terrifyingly close to the necklace, but he didn't move any more. Cedric sat in my peripheral vision, a hungry look plastered on his face. He was completely still. Taranee and Cornelia were both slumped over in their captor's hands. Tired. Powerless.

But in that second, I felt as if I could conquer an entire army of Phobos' guards. Power surged through my body, fed by the Heart. Two words bubbled up inside me, and when they reached my mouth, I let them escape.

"Guardians, unite!"

Everything began to move again. The monster that had been reaching for the Heart was thrown backwards, and Taranee and Cornelia both disappeared in the bright light of their transformations.

I smirked at Cedric as they emerged in their Guardian forms, replenished and full of energy again. My mind didn't question how I'd done it. The only emotion I could feel was a sense of rightness. "Who said they didn't have a leader?"

"Impossssssible!" Cedric hissed.

Taranee grinned and threw fire at a huge group of monsters, and they ran behind Cedric like little kids hiding behind their moms. Cornelia summoned huge, thick vines from the ground that coiled around the remaining guards, holding them in place.

"You're next, scale-brain!" Cornelia yelled as she and Taranee advanced on Cedric.

He didn't make any motion to get out of the way. Instead, before I could react, a giant, scaly hand wrapped around my waist and picked me up. I screamed.

Cedric held me in front of him. "If you attack me, I crush her!" To make his point clearer, he squeezed me, and I yelped in pain.

The Heart had disappeared from around my neck, absorbed into my own heart as it did to Will when she united the Guardians. I couldn't use a flash of light from the crystal to faze Cedric, and in my panicked state, I forgot how to summon any useful trick I had learned how to do.

Taranee and Cornelia came to a halt. "Don't hurt Nina because of us!" Taranee shouted, angry. "Let us fight our own battles!"

"You have left me no choicccccce!" Cedric replied. His fist tightened around me. I squirmed as much as I could, trying to keep feeling in my legs. My hands pounded on his knuckles.

Another cry came from my mouth, but this time, it was because there was more energy flowing through my body again. The cry turned to a roar. Cedric dropped me, stunned.

I landed on the ground hard, but adrenaline had me back up on my feet again without registering the pain. I looked up to Taranee and Cornelia. "Use everything you have. There's no way we're going to lose this!"

The two Guardians didn't question me. They charged at the humanoid, hands glowing with their respective elements. I dodged the snake tail a few times, then surveyed the rest of the clearing. I spotted the carvings of the queens' faces on the rocks, and, after glancing back at the fight to make sure I wasn't needed, I ran to them. The Heart was telling me there was something I had to do, something that would help Elyon to know we were here.

I placed a tender hand on the fresh etching of her mother's face. "Elyon, we need you." I murmured. The small spring splashed to my right, and I turned.

A flashback from my vision came back to me.

I approached the spring cautiously, still not entirely grasping when or how I had gotten to the grove in the first place. Acting on an impulse, I sat next to the water and dipped my hand in. Something about it made me feel...whole. Complete and aware of everything around me. Then the feeling faded, like a tablet dissolving in a glass of liquid.

"You felt the power of the Light of Meridian."

Cedric howled from behind me. I checked over my shoulder, seeing that Taranee had just thrown a ball of fire in his face. That was going to leave a mark in the morning.

I knelt down by the eerily still water of the spring and sumberged my fingers. The water was freezing, but I kept them there.

"Elyon, if you're there...if you can hear me, please." I said in a low voice. "Three of the Guardians are in Phobos' thrall, and so are Matt and Caleb. We need a miracle right about now. We need you. I know you don't really know me, but there has to be a reason that you spent so much energy on communicating with me." I sighed. "So please, if there's anything you can do to help us, it would be wildly appreciated."

A new sound drowned out the ones of the squabble between Taranee, Cornelia, and Cedric. My head whipped around just in time to see a green light glowing in the trees. The battle horn that I had heard before sounded again.

"Oh, sh-" My curse was cut off by Phobos appearing out of the brush, closely followed by at least thirty guards, Caleb, Matt, Will, Irma, and Hay Lin.

Cornelia and Taranee stopped fighting Cedric immediately and looked around for me. I stood so they would see me, and they landed on either side of me.

"What now?" Taranee asked as Phobos came to hover halfway between his minions and us.

"There is nowhere left for you to go, Nina." He thundered. His voice threw itself off the trees and hit my ears with all the musical pleasantness of a pair of cymbals clashing together. "Give me the Heart and surrender, or I will take it from you by force."

Cornelia grabbed my arm. "Don't do it, Nina."

I shrugged her hand off my arm and took a step forward. "You see, that would be a tempting offer." I held a hand up, pink energy forming around it. "But unfortunately, taking it from me will be a little impossible at the moment." The energy shot from my hand, and though Phobos caught it and put it out like a birthday candle, the message had gotten across.

A smirk pulled his lips up on one side. "You may be carrying the Heart, and you may be bending its powers as if they were your own, but you are not the true Keeper, nor are you any sort of leader." He gestured for Will to come to his side. "Shall we settle this in a battle of common blood?"

I took an involuntary step back. He was right. Will was the true leader of the Guardians, and the Heart's only real owner. If she were to try to take it from me, I would lose.

Taranee's face was twisted in rage. She knew what I was thinking. But still she whispered to me, "You don't have to give in. It can't end like this."

"She's right." Cornelia agreed. "We're either going to win or go down fighting. No middle ground." She gave me a grim wink.

I nodded and looked back to Phobos. "If you want it, come and get it!"

Phobos was grinning now. "Take the Heart back, Guardian." He said to Will.

She held her hand out, and, no matter how harmless that motion was to everyone else, it was terrible for me. A ripping sensation filled my chest as the Heart was forced to unbind itself from my heart. The pain blossomed throughout my entire body, leaving soreness and stiffness in its path. I may have even screamed. Phobos' gut-wrenching laugh was all I could hear, shoving any rational thought I might have had out of my head and causing me nothing but agony.

I had no idea when I had closed my eyes, but when I opened them, I could see the Heart floating a few feet away from me, attached to a string of rose-colored magic emanating from Will's body. The blank stare stayed on her face, though her skin was faintly blushed with exertion.

"No!" Cornelia and Taranee yelled at the same time. Ribbons of magic flew out of them as well, yellow for Cornelia and orange for Taranee, both gripping at the Heart. The talisman was now still, caught in the center of a fight between friends.

"Will, wake up!" Taranee shouted. "We're the good guys here!"

Will didn't even blink. Instead, Hay Lin and Irma joined her in the squabble, beams of energy grabbing at the Heart, each colored according to their element. The Heart began moving towards them again. I shook myself to my senses.

"She'sssss not going to lisssssten!" Cedric said between bouts of deep, bellowing laughter.

I concentrated hard on the source of my magic, despite the fact that it wasn't an auramere anymore due to the absence of the Heart. I pictured my ring, imagined twisting it around my finger, watching the stone turn red with energy, as red as it had that first time it had come into contact with the Heart. I felt my lips turning up in a grin as a vibrant, exhuberant, ruby-colored magic shot from my chest and connected with the Heart.

The Heart stopped for the second time, just yards away from Will. The playing field was even now.

Phobos glared at me from where he levitated over the ground. "I am not letting a puny human girl destroy my plans." And with that, he raised his hand, and the green light that scared me so much reached out of his palm and snatched the Heart. It moved again, this time accelerating.

Before I could growl in anger, another bright light encased us all in pure, blinding white. A few people shrieked, though I didn't know where they were, at this sudden bombardment of magic. I had no idea where it was coming from, but I knew it wasn't the Heart this time. It was from something...someone...

I could feel another presence besides Taranee, Cornelia, and me. At first, a wave of fear washed over me, but then I understood. The light.

The Light of Meridian.

A voice echoed around us. "You take over my home planet, you imprison me, and now you threaten my friends." The whiteness began to dissipate, leaving everyone in the clearing blinking red and purple dots out of their eyes. "As long as you stand on the grounds of my confinement, you will not hurt them!"

The voice was so familiar that there was no mistaking the owner:

Elyon.

And then she was in front of the three of us, bringing the Heart back with her own magic. When it reached her, she clutched it tightly in her fist and began to glow like a fire burned just under her skin. The guards all over the clearing were thrown backwards, knocked unconscious. This wasn't their battle. It was Phobos and Elyon's, and she wasn't going to let them fight in it.

"You have nowhere to run, brother." She declared.

Phobos sneered and backed away, pulling his sleeve over his face. He began to grow, becoming a monster twice the size of Cedric, with seven long-necked heads that waved around madly, as if there was wind blowing them from side to side. Elyon didn't hesitate; she threw a beam of energy at the beast, and it morphed into a giant spider, snapping its pincers.

I cringed in disgust.

Elyon attacked the spider with so many spells that watching them made me dizzy.

While the siblings were still in combat, Cornelia grabbed my arm, and I realized that Taranee was gone from my side. "Cedric's about fifty feet behind us. He's going to try to surprise us. Taranee's behind him, and I need to get in the air. Will you be okay down here?"

I nodded. "I'll be fine."

Cornelia gave me a thumbs-up, and it was then that I remembered the first time I met her. I had thought she was a prissy, spoiled brat who would never care about anything except the latest fashion trends. I had judged her too early. Now, I grinned at her as she acsended many feet above me. She was one of the nicest people I knew.

Cedric jumped out of the bushes, but Cornelia had been ready. She made the trees bend and twist around him, cracking as they did, but still enveloping him in wood and leaves. He roared as he struggled to free himself.

Karma's a bitch, I thought to myself and half-smiled.

"Nina!" Someone yelled. I looked up to find Elyon floating just yards away from me. I looked behind her to see that Phobos was distracted by dozens of Elyon doppelgangers, each disappearing the second he slashed at them. She opened her palm, and the Heart appeared in it. "I need you to help me finish him, once and for all."

I stretched my hand out to recieve the amulet, but then something slammed into me from behind. I was wrestled to the ground, forced onto my back with my arms pinned next to my head. I looked up into the face of my attacker.

Will stared back at me with that same vacant expression. Her grip was like steel.

"Desssstroy her!" Cedric shouted from his battle with Taranee and Cornelia.

Will cocked her head as her body began to glow pink. Her hands were now burning my wrists where they touched. I tried to twist away from her, but she held me still.

Elyon sent more doppelgangers over to distract Phobos, then yelled, "Nina! Take the Heart! Now!"

And then the Heart was flying through the air, landing perfectly in my outstretched palm, which was sprawled on the ground under Will's hands.

"I'm so sorry about this, Will." I whispered before the Heart sent a burst of energy into my cousin's face. She fell off me, stunned. I scrambled to my feet and ran to Elyon. "What do I have to do?"

She pointed to Phobos, who was now back to his original form. "I need to lock his powers away long enough for us to haul him back to the infinite city and lock him up. But that will take focus and as much magic as I can conjure." She had a faraway look in her eyes for a moment, as if pondering what she would have to do. Then she shook herself out of it. "I need you to distract him, and, if you can, to hold him still. With the Heart, that shouldn't be a problem. It'll only be for a few minutes. Do you think you can do it?"

I bit my lip. Cedric's screams were dying down behind me, as if he was finally giving up. Taranee and Irma were head-to-head, and so were Cornelia and Hay Lin. I could tell it took everything Cornelia and Taranee had not to hurt their friends, to not send spells at them that would cause as much pain as the spells they were being hit with. I hated seeing them fight. I looked back at Elyon and nodded once. "I'm ready when you are."

Elyon gave me a strong smile, and I tried to muster up enough courage to do the same. She was back in the air a second later. "I'm going to concentrate. You go ahead and distract him!"

My whole body was shaking, but I took a deep breath. There was not enough capacity in my mind to hold fear. The word itself didn't even exist to me anymore. My brain had begun to process one thing and one thing only: adrenaline. I ran at Phobos, at the man who had ruined my life, who had taken over my new friends' minds, and who could kill me at any possible moment. A battle cry came from somewhere in the clearing. It might have been me. I would never know.

Phobos turned to stare me in the eyes when I was close enough to be in front of the ghosts of Elyon. "Coming back for one last battle?" He hissed.

I flinched. He still scared me, but not as much as he had before. "The battle's over. You lose." And with that, the Heart combined itself with my magic, and I felt myself rising into the air, glowing-pulsing-with power. Phobos became encased in a translucent prison the color of a sunrise, where red and pink touch. Every emotion I had drained from my body. At first, Elyon's instructions stayed clear in my mind.

But then, her words were squished like a bug, compacted until they were nothing but a little grain of sand in the desert of my head. New words, big and bold and powerful, rang in my conscious thoughts:

Destroy. Annihilate.

Kill.

I really need to stop with the cliffhangers, huh?

Sorry, guys. I'm addicted! ;P

I'm going to work on getting chapter 15 out by next week, so until then, follow, favorite, and review!