[A/N] I need to tell you guys that, seeing that both Will and Yan-Lin are an Oracle they share several things. And, as Will explained in an earlier chapter, Will can do things Yan-Lin can't and vice versa. But they also share memories of previous Oracles. Will has half of her predecessors while Yan-Lin has the other half. The only thing is Yan-Lin doesn't know this. She thinks she has all the memories and powers of an Oracle and that if she kills Will, she would get only stronger. Will is actually the only one who knows this…

Chapter 25

Yan-Lin grumbled annoyed. How could she have not seen this? The moment Hay-Lin disappeared with her complete army and that little girl, the new Air Guardian, Will had disappeared as well. She cursed softly as she placed her cup of tea on a bench of the Council Room. She tried to sense the God forsaken girl but Will blocked her from sensing her. Why did this girl have to be so troublesome? It had all looked so good at first. She grumbled a bit under her breath as she walked further, through the halls of her fortress. A snicker then escaped her lips as she rounded a corner. How foolish of her to think that Will could be an actual threat. The girl hadn't even had a year to practice her powers. To train her skills. She was merely a child given a gun, not knowing how to use it. She would most surely destroy herself before Yan-Lin had to raise a finger.

A shiver went over her spine and she knew a fold had opened. And she knew where. She hurried to the place, wondering if Will would try to flee. That would be rather unusual for the girl, she never knew when to call it quits. Her mood darkened when she rushed past the dog's house where Blunk used to be in. Now it was empty. She hurried her pace and she arrived at the room where Sandpit the sandcastle used to stand. Again, used to. Now the only thing Yan-Lin saw was one big empty room, with Will standing in the middle with a rather smug grin on her face. Yan-Lin noted Will's strange choice of clothing. Instead of her normal boyish clothes like pants and long sleeved shirts she wore a battle dress. The same dress Hay-Lin forced her to wear. The black silk flowed seamlessly past her skin and the only thing that had changed was that the pink dragon that once marked her as Hay-Lin's servant had disappeared. Instead the Heart of Kandrakar was printed on the right part of her chest. A golden seam graced the edges of the dress and Yan-Lin noticed that the golden seam was placed in such a way that the five elemental symbols repeated themselves. Yan-Lin shortly gazed over her own, traditional white dress. She always hated the way how Himerish clothed the people in Kandrakar and once she destroyed Will she would change the clothes. After all, she deserved more glamour.

'You didn't.' Yan-Lin said in a cold voice.

Will only raised her eyebrows playfully.

'Did what?' she asked innocently.

Yan-Lin cracked a grin.

'How cute, trying to act innocent. Let's cut that crap. Both you and I know that one of us will leave this room victorious and the other will not leave it at all.' she said.

Will's face quickly fell and the smug expression turned into a serious expression. Yan-Lin walked slowly at Will and both started to circle one another. In the distance they could hear a lot of roaring and explosions, signaling them that the battle had begun.

'Why did you save Sandpit and the Passling?' Yan-Lin asked.

Will smirked at her.

'Telling you all my secrets would be a bit unfair, don't you think?' she teased.

Yan-Lin prepared her attack, but kept trying to keep Will's attention away from their current fight. She knew that Hay-Lin had thought that she could get Will to her side. It had almost worked too, if the guy who was supposed to kill Susan hadn't fallen in love with her. But because of Hay-Lin's miscalculation, Will was a fairly well trained assassin. Trained to be silent and deadly. But as long as Yan-Lin kept her shield up, Will shouldn't be able to touch her. Especially not with that weak power level. Yan-Lin estimated that she was roughly three times stronger than Will, making her smile even more for her upcoming battle.

'So…Where is Hay-Lin?' Will asked while looking around.

Yan-Lin raised an eyebrow. Will was the one who'd sent her away. So why was she asking where Hay-Lin was?

Will seemed to get Yan-Lin's confusion.

'What? You didn't tell her that folds go through the shield?' she asked surprised.

At this Yan-Lin had to laugh. Not only at Will's stupid honesty but also to hide her mistake. How could she have forgotten to send Hay-Lin a message? It didn't matter anyway. She didn't need her granddaughter. Hay-Lin had fulfilled her usefulness, she would die after this. Now Yan-Lin could fight her own battle.

'I don't need my hotheaded granddaughter to defeat you.' she sneered.

Will merely shrugged.

'As you wish.' she said.

It was a good thing that Yan-Lin hadn't blinked, or else she would have gotten hit by something she hadn't seen. She quickly sidestepped and saw how the bolt of light purple magic missed her by inches. The bolt shot further, creating a black scorch mark on the wall behind her. Was it just a fluke or was this Will's power level? If it was the latter than the kid would die before she knew it.

Yan-Lin retaliated by using both her hands and shooting a bolt of dark purple magic at Will from one hand and a gust of wind from the other. The wind reached Will quicker than the bolt of magic, knocking her slightly back before she got the full hit of Yan-Lin's attack. An explosion ensued and a lot of smoke came from the spot where Yan-Lin's magic had touched Will. Yan-Lin smiled as she patiently waited for the smoke to disappear when she heard a sigh of relief behind her.

'Phiew. That looks painful.'

Yan-Lin turned around, her smile turning into a scowl, as she looked at the red haired girl standing four foot behind her. She didn't even have a scratch but Yan-Lin had been sure she'd attacked her. Then something else caught Yan-Lin's attention. The energy of this Will was roughly four times the power of the Will she attacked. This Will looked with a smile at Yan-Lin and Yan-Lin figured it out.

'That…That was an Astral Drop?' she asked surprised.

Creating an Astral Drop with a fourth of your power is a very difficult piece of magic. Yan-Lin had to practice the skill for two months and still they weren't as perfect as the one she just destroyed. And she wasn't even talking about the fact how Will had managed to keep her own, stronger energy hidden from Yan-Lin's Sight.

'You like?' Will asked.

Without waiting for an answer she lunged at Yan-Lin. Yan-Lin reacted too slow, due to her older body, and she felt how Will's hand nearly protruded her shield and how that hand was sparking with electricity. Some sparks even touched her and left a small burn mark on the sleeve of her arm. She turned around to see that Will had turned around as well, still having that annoying smirk on her face.

'You're pretty fast.' she commented.

Yan-Lin, despite the current situation, smirked as well.

'I hope this wasn't the best you've got. Because this will be your undoing.'

She charged a bolt of magic and threw it at Will. Will countered with the same bolt of magic and the two bolts collided. Will's bolt managed to reduce Yan-Lin's attack to nothing before it exploded, creating a shockwave that blew Will and Yan-Lin away from each other. Yan-Lin hid her shock by immediately throwing another bolt of magic. This bolt was blue and green colored. Will saw it just in time and countered with a flamethrower and a gust of wind. Again the magic collided, though this time they cancelled each other out.

'Smart move, cancelling earth and water with fire and air.' Yan-Lin admitted with a smirk. 'Too bad it won't work with this!'

She moved her arms slowly and energy started to spark around them. She traced her right arm with her left arm and the energy went to her outstretched fingers. She shot the strong bolt of energy at Will. Will was too slow and got hit right in the chest. She moaned of pain and fell down. Yan-Lin grinned until she heard Will's laugh.

'Haha. Now this is ironic.'

Will got up from the ground. She had a small scorch mark right above her right breast. Yan-Lin again charged her hands with Quintessence and Will smirked at her, she even beckoned her for shooting her again. Yan-Lin growled softly and shot the Quintessence bolts at Will. This time Will stretched her hand and caught the Quintessence. The Quintessence energy ran through her body but instead the pain that Yan-Lin had meant Yan-Lin noticed a spark of power raising from Will. Will had closed her eyes when she caught the attack but now her eyes flung open, showing Yan-Lin that her eyes weren't the same cinnamon brown eyes but two orbs of lightning. Will then did the exact same movement as Yan-Lin, only tracing her left arm with her right, and she shot a bigger bolt of Quintessence at Yan-Lin.

'Quintessence!'

Yan-Lin received the blow in seconds and shot backwards. She felt how she hit the wall behind her and she was sure that some cracks appeared on the wall. She felt sore and growled at her own stupidity. A stupidity Will was about to point out.

'Not a smart move. Using my own element against me, Oracle.' Will said softly, though it was clearly audible.

Yan-Lin let out a broken laugh. She let herself fall down and ended on her feet. The pain was slowly disappearing and she patted some dust of her clothes. The child would pay.

'The fight would end quickly if I didn't give you a handicap.' Yan-Lin lied, trying to taunt Will.

Will merely raised an eyebrow. Her eyes had returned to their normal brown, indicating that her short moment of power was over. Then, without further notice, a hurricane appeared out of nowhere, slamming Will into a wall before pulling her back in. Yan-Lin added her own magic to it, making the hurricane dark purple. The moans of pain that came from Will were almost like music to her ears. The moans of pain subdued but before Yan-Lin could it, the hurricane turned light purple. Yan-Lin's eyes widened how lightning arched from it and how several flames shot at her.

She created a stronger shield to block the elements that Will had put against her and the fireballs bounced off harmlessly. Lightning shot at her and ice quickly followed. Yan-Lin felt how her own shield started to falter but she refused to let this child win. The hurricane was still raging but Yan-Lin noticed too late that Will had managed to get behind her. She turned around the moment Will kicked her. There had to be magic that fueled her strength because Yan-Lin shot at the hurricane with full speed. The hurricane smashed her against a wall before it disappeared.

Yan-Lin coughed harshly. Her vision blurred a bit. She couldn't grasp it. How could the kid be this strong? If this continued she had to go full out on her. She crouched up and noticed how Will walked up to her. She could feel how Will grabbed her at her collar. Yan-Lin's own dark grey eyes looked into the mahogany eyes of her would be successor. Yan-Lin saw several emotions swim in the young girl's eyes like worry, sorrow, pity and anger.

'This is the end, I'm afraid.' Will said calmly.

Yan-Lin grinned. The girl had much to learn.

'Oh really?' Yan-Lin said.

Will's eyes showed a sign of concern and hesitation and that was all Yan-Lin needed. She summoned her magic and she blasted it in Will's stomach. Will hadn't had a shield up and was forced to release Yan-Lin. The blast shot her to the other side of the room, breaking a part of the wall.

Yan-Lin smirked at the broken form of the little girl. She knew Will was stronger than this and her smirk grew wider. It was time to use the thing she had been training on for so long. It was an old trick only one Oracle found out about. It was the way to enhance your powers to a level just below Zenith. An Oracle was never allowed to reach his or hers Zenith level, if he or she managed it would mean the end of not only himself or herself but also of the whole universe. That's why this trick was invented, in case the Guardians would ever turn on Kandrakar and use their Zenith to try and destroy Kandrakar. It was a memory the third Oracle had repressed but she had managed to remember it and master it.

She saw Will stir and decided that now was the moment to use it. She closed her eyes and summoned her magic. She willed it to envelop her, to fuel her, heal her. She willed the magic in Kandrakar to add to that power. She felt how it fueled her and she felt how she changed. She had grown to her old length and she could feel how her hair changed its shape. The sensation ceased and Yan-Lin crackled literally with power. She stretched her now wrinkleless hands and she ran through her now shorter hair. She saw Will's incredulous look. The girl must have been healing while Yan-Lin powered up because her wounds had disappeared. The only thing that showed that she'd been harassed were the slashes in her dress.

Yan-Lin laughed at Will, liking her now younger voice even better. The girl's face was completely in shock while she was looking at the now younger looking Yan-Lin.

'What the?' Will said shocked.

Yan-Lin laughed again and she shot a powerful bolt of air at Will. It hit Will and Will was again thrown into the wall, this time going through it. Yan-Lin walked swiftly and she was in no time in front of Will. She grabbed Will's collar and she pulled Will up with surprising strength before throwing Will through the new room. Will hit the ground hard.

Yan-Lin snickered as noticed how tears fell from Will's eyes. This time Yan-Lin shot a bolt of fire at Will. She could feel the natural shield around Will crack as the fire collided with her fragile childish body. Will moaned in pain but still managed to crawl up again. Not that Yan-Lin was surprised. She was actually liking this. She shot a jet of extreme cold water at Will and growled silently when the water shot past her. Will had more strength than she let on.

Will got up shakily and some tears streamed from her face, though her expression was completely calm.

'Are those tears of pain?' Yan-Lin taunted. 'Do you finally see you can't win?'

Will let out a short, barking laugh while whiping the tears away.

'Yes, these are tears of pain.' she admitted, making Yan-Lin smirk. 'But not of physical pain. But emotional.'

Yan-Lin looked in Will's chocolate eyes and the emotions she saw pulled her back to a moment years ago.

Flashback 7 years ago

Yan-Lin's health was steadily going backwards. She knew she was to die in two or three days. Her granddaughter only left her side to go to school. The other girls came by as many times as possible, Will being the one who visited the most of them.

She coughed again, loudly. She hated this. She was so close. Will was becoming more and more the way she liked. But if she died, her influence on Will would disappear and her plan would shatter. Then all her hard work over the years would go up in smoke. As she coughed again while thinking about some trump cards she could use to keep Will under her control a knock was heard.

'Come in.' Yan-Lin said with a rough voice.

She expected Hay-Lin to enter but she was happily surprised to see Will's red hair. Will herself quickly followed and to Yan-Lin's surprise Will was crying.

'Will?' Yan-Lin said softly.

Will shook her head and took a chair. She sat next to Yan-Lin and looked at her with her chocolate eyes swimming in tears.

'What…?' Yan-Lin started, again faking her concern. Over the years she'd become quite good in faking her feelings.

'I can feel it.'

It was a soft whisper, filled with sorrow. Yan-Lin hid her surprise. She never thought Will would or could feel life force fading.

'The others are outside. They don't know yet.' she whispered.

Yan-Lin nodded slowly, but stopped as she felt her head hurt. The girl was getting too good.

'I see.' Yan-Lin said softly. 'And you won't tell them, will you?'

Will shook her head.

'No. That's your decision. I don't want to hurt them.' she said.

Yan-Lin smirked. Will was always a good leader and the girls, even Cornelia, followed her blindly. Yan-Lin had always thought that Cornelia and Taranee would be a problem, seeing how Cornelia was fond of her leadership status and how smart Taranee was but those two followed Will even more than her granddaughter or Irma. If she could manipulate Will now enough to keep her forever, all things were set.

'Thank you, my dear.' Yan-Lin said softly.

Will smiled sadly at the older woman. She grabbed Yan-Lin's hand and squeezed it gently.

'You'll go to Kandrakar, right?' she asked hopefully.

Yan-Lin smiled. Of course she would go to Kandrakar. She had managed to elude the Oracle for so long that the old fool thought that she had always served Kandrakar loyally.

'I think I will.' she replied.

Will smiled at her. Yan-Lin pulled Will softly closer to her.

'Will. I need you to look at me.' she whispered.

With some luck her powers would help her once again. After all, she had managed to find a way to do certain things if the Heart was close. And with Will close, she could finish part two of her plan.

Will neared her and Yan-Lin could feel the Heart pulse under the girl's shirt. She secretly managed to tap in the Heart's magic flow. Will's eyes flickered temporarily, as if she noticed something. Though her eyes kept their gaze on Yan-Lin's eyes. Yan-Lin forced the magic to do her bidding. She could feel the magic flow from her eyes to Will's.

'Can you promise me, vow to me on the Heart of Kandrakar to obey me and to never question me?' Yan-Lin said softly.

She used the magic to make Will form the words in her mouth. It strained her a bit but if she managed everything would be worth it.

'I…swear…on the Heart of…' Will started.

Yan-Lin then noticed a strange glow in Will's eyes and Will's eyes hardened. She looked surprised and hurt at Yan-Lin.

'Why?' Will asked.

This was new. Will never noticed the magic, let alone fought it. How could she fight it now?

'It's important.' Yan-Lin pressed on, trying to tap more magic from the Heart.

Will pulled back, savoring the connection Yan-Lin had with the Heart. The sudden cut in the link made Yan-Lin gasp for air and Will got up. Her eyes were filled with shock, pain, sorrow, pity and hope.

'I have to go.' Will said rather harshly. 'The rest will see you now.'

With that Will left and Yan-Lin silently cursed. How did the girl stop her? How did she know? Her whole plan was foiled. How could continue now? Was all her work for nothing?

Hay-Lin's head popped out of the door, concern swimming in her grey eyes.

'Grandma, Will left in a hurry. Did anything happen?' she asked concerned.

Hello second chance.

End flashback

'Why?' Will asked.

Yan-Lin cackled.

'Poor little Will. Can't you see it? This world. This universe revolves around one thing. Power. It's all about power and taking control.' she answered with glee.

Will's eyes showed an extra emotion. Disgust.

'You did all this, infecting Nerissa, killing Cassidy, manipulating me and Hay-Lin for power?' she said in disgust.

'Pretty much, yes.' Yan-Lin replied with a shrug.

She launched another blast, this time with the element water. Will yelled in pain but Yan-Lin noticed something that irked her a bit. Again another energy spike came from Will, though it was a short one.

'You…Sacrificed so many people…Just to get to power?' Will said with difficulty.

Yan-Lin smiled. The kid seemed to finally get how this world works. She was always too 'good' for the universe. She never wanted to see the real life. Now she was confronted with it, by the one she once saw as her mentor.

'I'm glad you see it.' Yan-Lin said. 'That reliefs me from a lot of trouble. Now you can die in pieces.'

She focused her magic in her hands, making a very condensed version of her magic bolt. The magic pulsed and small power waved came from her hands, flowing through the room.

'Goodbye, child.' Yan-Lin said, victory ringing in her voice.

She shot the bolt of magic at Will's head. A great explosion ensued and Yan-Lin laughed maniacally as she waited for the smoke to clear away. The wall behind her had crumbled from the force. As the smoke started to diminish Yan-Lin knew something went wrong. She had to feel the increase in power a long time ago. A laugh came from the smoke. An insane laugh.

Yan-Lin peered through the smoke and saw a figure of a woman standing. The eyes glowed menacingly and even the mouth lit up when she laughed. The laughing stopped and suddenly the smoke moved away, as if pulled by a strong wind.

Yan-Lin couldn't believe her eyes. She didn't want to believe her eyes. Will was standing there but she looked different. Her hair was longer, her eyes were no longer brown but again two orbs of lightning, her build was stronger and lightning, fire, water and air swirled around her while bits of earth broke from the floor and swirled around her feet.

'I'm sorry. I thought you would change, but you threw my second chance away. Now you will pay!' Will's voice boomed with a power that made Yan-Lin tremble.

A shockwave blasted fro Will's body, knocking Yan-Lin against one of the few walls that were left standing in the room. Yan-Lin opened her eyes in shock and saw Will nearing her. This can't be good.

[A/N] Tada! End of this chapter! Hope you liked it! Questions? Ask away! Maybe I'll answer, maybe I don't. And tell me your thoughts! So Review!