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Driving back from Univille, Myka and Helena both looked tense enough to snap. In the back seat, Elizabeth asked tentatively, "Am I in trouble?"
Helena looked back, as her unease melted, "No darling, mommy and I are just worried about Elizabeth."
The little girl looked alarmed, "Is she sick? Is that why we're going to town? What's wrong with her? Can I see her?"
Blinking slowly, the Victorian smiled, "Which question would you like me to answer first?"
Crossing her arms, Elizabeth pouted, "This is serious mummy!"
Myka snorted with laughter. Helena glanced indignantly at her, "What?"
"I think that's the most like you she has ever sounded."
Straightening, Helena tutted, "I do not speak like that."
By this point Myka was in hysterics. She treasured the moment of normality within such chaos. In that instant there was only her family; the woman she loved more than life itself, and their daughter; whose dangerous mix of both powerful women made her a force to be reckoned with- but all the more lovable.
Elizabeth had begun to play with one of her curls, "What is wrong with Elizabeth?"
Helena reached back and stroked her black curls, "She's just not feeling herself at the moment, love. Freya is doing her best to help her."
Myka shifted uncomfortably, "Hel, could you drive? I can feel my stitches pulling."
Her wife nodded, "If course darling, are you alright."
As they pulled over, Elizabeth asked in a small voice, "Why is my little sister not being born? Did you not want her?"
Myka barely managed to stop herself slamming the brakes. Biting her lip so hard it bled, she felt Helena's hand squeeze her knee. Calmly hiding her own anguish, Helena said carefully, "No baby. Mommy and I wanted your little sister very much. But you know mommy had an accident."
She nodded, "Yes, and she had to go to hospital so the doctors could make her better."
"Well when mommy got hurt, so did your little sister." Mindful of Myka's unconsciously tightening grip, Helena proceeded tentatively, "Lizzie, you know when you touch something hot, and mommy or I takes it away and it doesn't really hurt us?"
She nodded.
"Well, that is because we are older. Mommy is all grown up and is very strong, so she could get better; but because your sister was so small in mommy's tummy, she wasn't big enough to live on her own. Because she was so small, what happened to mommy was much worse for her, and she couldn't get better."
The girl nodded solemnly, "I understand." Her eyes became distressed, "I'm sorry mommy, I made you sad."
Getting out of the, now parked, car; Myka went to Elizabeth's door. Opening it, she knelt inside, "No baby, never you." Pulling the girl into a tight embrace, she ran her fingers through the ebony curls. "You didn't make me sad, baby. I'm just upset about your sister." Pulling back slightly, she caught Helena's gaze, "You and mummy are my happiest place."
"Now is the time to act." Gunter saw his master's face twist into a cruel smile, "You know what to do."
"Can it be done, master?" He frowned, "Their security is advanced, I have no knowledge of it."
He found himself suspended in mid air, his head screamed as a pain flared in his skull, "You won't need knowledge of their security you idiot."
"Of course master! Sorry master!"
Dropping him, his master turned away, "Ensure you succeed this time Gunter."
Wincing at the lingering ache in his skull he nodded, "Your will, master."
When Elizabeth came around again, she felt like she had torn every muscle in her body. Tentatively she sat up; it was the first time in a long time she did not savour the pain she was in. Freya was flat out in the chair beside her. As if sensing she was awake, the fire guardian opened her eyes, "How are you?"
Stretching, painfully, she forced a smile, "Sore."
Sitting back, Freya nodded, "It is to be expected. It was quite an ordeal." Seeing Elizabeth's guards up, she asked, "What is wrong?"
"When Shu and you fought, you said you started the little ice age. How?"
The Fire guardian seemed suddenly uncomfortable, "Ah. I wondered if that would come up." Flexing her hands, she began carefully, "There was another guardian- well in fairness, there are likely to have been guardians before us; for example the demon I killed was a guardian. But when I said I was alone until Shu came along... I wasn't necessarily being honest."
Running a hand through her hair, Elizabeth asked, "So what? There was another guardian?" Seeing Freya wince, her eyes widened, "Really? How do I even know you're telling me the truth Freya?!"
Raising a hand in a gesture of peace, she sighed, "If you want you can check this with Adam; he knows the truth." She seemed to consider taking Elizabeth's hand a moment, before thinking better, "I need you to know the truth, because I need you to trust me."
The sincerity in her amber eyes took Elizabeth aback, "Alright then. Tell me the truth."
"About seven hundred years before Shu came along, there was another guardian created." She sighed, "His name was Perun, and he ended up becoming the guardian of lightning and weather. I did spend around four millennia alone, but it was not Shu who was the next after me."
Settling back onto her pillows she asked, "What happened to him?"
"Perun went mad. He fell head over heels in love with a human. They lost every child they conceived and because of her mortality, he was forced to watch the woman he loved decay into nothing." The guardian gritted her teeth, "He blamed us, and turned on the other guardians. He threatened to destroy humanity, if I did not open the gates and bring her back to him- but to raise the dead is not part of my power. Yes, I could have brought back his wife's soul- but she would have been no more than a hollow ghost; and when I refused, he retaliated with devastating force. The fallout of our fight caused so disturbance in the atmosphere, we knocked the balance of power in the world off kilter. I managed to limit the damage, but despite my best efforts it wasn't enough, the 'little ice age' lead, eventually to the black death sweeping through Europe." Playing with the leather bracelet on her wrist, she continued, "When guardians fight, and I mean really fight, they draw power from the their charge, the element associated and from the environment around them. The effects can be catastrophic if not controlled in some way. The fallout of the battle between Perun and I could have been much worse. Had I not reigned in the situation; massive storms, earthquakes... the effects can be unpredictable at best, but what is certain is that the death toll would have been even higher."
"Where is he now?"
Closing her eyes in a long blink, she replied evenly, "I killed him Elizabeth." She rested her head in her hands, "I was the only one strong enough to face him. Adam had barely gained the ability to control his element, he was no match for him. He swept him aside without so much as a stray thought; it was up to me to stop him."
Pinching the bridge of her nose, Elizabeth's eyes softened, "Freya I'm sorry..."
Immediately the other woman's barriers came crashing back into place, "Don't be. It needed to be done." Standing she said bluntly, "If you're alright I will be in my room."
Watching the red head leave, Elizabeth found a sinking feeling in her chest. Sighing, she got out of bed.
From the darkness she guessed the time at about eleven o'clock. Looking into the living room, her heart melted slightly. Helena was fast asleep on the sofa, Myka's head rested on her shoulder and between them, Elizabeth was curled up in Helena's lap. As she walked to the kitchen, a feeling of unease washed over her. Pausing, she saw Pete walking into the living room, his face said it all. "Vibe?"
He nodded, "Yeah, a big one; bad."
Looking at the sleeping family, she said softly, "Let them sleep, I'll get the other guardians."
"Adam and Shu aren't here."
She frowned, "What? Why?"
Shrugging, Pete was looking more and more afraid by the moment, "I don't know. They didn't leave together. Neither said where they were going."
Cursing under her breath, she went to the stairs, "I'll get Freya, we'll call them if we need backup."
But as she made her way to the stairs, Freya was already making her way down them, "There is a disturbance. We need to get to the Warehouse."
His master had told him the way to get through the Warehouse's backdoor and gain entry, but he hadn't expected it to be as easy. When he worked at the Warehouse, they had twenty agents and about ten other staff, who took it in turns to partol the Warehouse at night; even then, Elizabeth always seemed to know exactly what was going on from her perch. He shuddered at the thought of her. Tightening his fist, and pushing her from his mind, he began to search the shelves. When he reached the dark vault, he cursed. Turning to his small collection of artefacts, he picked up Joshua's trumpet and blew.
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