Last time our heroes arrived on a world nearly covered by water. As luck would have it, the next Rainbow Crystal is several hundred meters beneath the surface of the world encircling ocean. While waiting for a spell that would allow several of our heroes to breath underwater to be prepared, Irma and Cornelia waged an epic Duel of Earth vs. Water, in which Cornelia won. But it wasn't a total loss for Irma; she met her spirit guide, Mermaid Knight. 'Nuff said, on with the show!

Chapter 26: Deep Indigo Dive

The first thing Irma noticed as she, Taranee, Nigel, Hassleberry, Addicus and Chazz jumped into the water, was that it was cold, a lot colder than she expected. Yet the shock of leaping into near freezing water passed within seconds as Irma realized that she was breathing normally, yet she was completely underwater. Soon the freezing sensation passed, rather, it was like Irma didn't mind the cold.

OMG!! Irma thought, I'm breathing water!! This startling and exhilarating feeling of breathing like a fish was eclipsed by the fact that Irma noticed that she had grown webbing between her fingers and toes. She spent the next few minutes seeing how fast her augmented hands and feet could allow her to swim; pretty fast in fact.

Oh Will, she thought, you'd so love this! Irma then noticed that the others in her party were also enjoying their new abilities. Taranee was especially enjoying herself.

Just then Irma felt The Heart of Candracar tug at her wrist. The pink jewel was pulling downward to the deeps. She tried to get the others attention, but all that came out of her mouth was bubbles. Apparently one cannot talk normally underwater.

"Taranee," Irma thought as loud as she could, hoping that the Fire Guardian's mental powers were still working, "Can you hear me?"

"Loud and clear," Taranee responded, "But the others can't." After the removal of The Veil, the powers of The Guardians were greatly enhanced. In addition to having her Fire powers boosted, Taranee gained the ability to communicate telepathically with her fellow Guardians. For the time being, this mind link is the only means of direct communication between Taranee and Irma.

She and Irma then got the attention of Hassleberry, Addicus, Nigel and Chazz by swimming right in front of them. Once the boys were distraction free, Irma pointed at her waterproof watch, indicating that they didn't have time to fool around. The boys nodded in understanding. She then pointed at the still tugging Heart of Candracar. Again the boys nodded in understanding. With that Irma followed the pull from The Heart into deeper water, with Taranee and the boys following her.

As they descended into the blue depths, Irma and her group saw many species of fish and other aquatic life forms that they had never seen before, but bore some resemblance to sea creatures found on Earth. There was a lobster-like animal that was only 5-inches long, with a green shell and two sets of claws. There were fish of all the colors of the rainbow, and some colors that had no name. On the sloping ocean floor grew blue sea grass.

"And you wanted to stay behind," Irma said to Taranee through the mind link, "When you could have missed out on all of this."

"I never said I wanted to stay behind," Taranee replied mentally, "I said I needed to do this so I wouldn't be afraid later on."

"That doesn't make much sense," Irma said, but a strange tapping sound interrupted her from saying anything else. The tapping noise was coming from Hassleberry as he repeatedly tapped a small waterproof penlight against his watch.

"What's he doing?" Irma asked.

"It's Morris Code," Taranee said, "That's a very good idea. Sound carries further underwater." She then tapped her own penlight against her watch, the message she sent saying 'P-L-E-A-S-E R-E-P-E-A-T.'

Hassleberry tapped again; 'H-O-W M-U-C-H F-U-R-T-H-E-R-?'

"He wants to know how much farther to the crystal," Taranee said to Irma.

"I don't know how much longer," Irma said, "But I think we're getting close." The pull from The Heart was getting stronger.

Taranee tapped Irma's response back to Hassleberry, who then acknowledged that he understood. He motioned to Addicus, Nigel and Chazz to keep going. They followed Taranee and Irma as Irma followed the increasingly insistent pull from The Heart.

Eventually the downward slope of the ocean floor leveled out into a wide, flat plane before sloping down again. The sandy bottom was dotted with random patches of rocks.

"Somewhere around here," Irma said as the group hovered above the area. The Heart was swinging in an arc, indicating that the crystal was in the vicinity. Taranee then tapped that they were on the right track, so something like that.

'N-O-W W-H-A-T-?' Chazz asked as he tapped on his watch.

'W-E L-O-O-K F-O-R T-H-E C-R-Y-S-T-A-L,' Addicus tapped, 'D-U-H-!'

'B-I-T-E M-E-!' Chazz tapped.

'N-O-T I-F I B-I-T-E Y-O-U F-I-R-S-T-!' Nigel tapped.

Eventually Taranee got the boys to calm down enough so that they could finish looking for the crystal.

"There's only two colors left," Irma said, while Taranee translated into Morris Code for the boys, "Indigo and violet, so look for anything glowing either bright or dark purple."

They began looking along the sandy floor. Even though they were several hundred meters beneath the surface, and the three white suns barely a dot of brightness above them, they could see clearly thanks to Cal's spell.

After a while Taranee checked her watch. They had made good time getting here, only twenty-five minutes to get down from the surface. But they've been looking for over an hour, and the spell would only last for four hours.

Just then there came a furious tapping from Addicus, 'I T-H-I-N-K I'-V-E F-O-U-N-D I-T-!' Everyone gathered around Addicus. He pointed at a bright indigo light emitting from a large patch of rocks. Gently he pulled the rocks apart, until he had hold of the indigo Rainbow Crystal.

'S-U-C-C-E-S-S-!' Hassleberry tapped.

'G-R-E-A-T,' Chazz tapped, his usual sour look on his face, 'C-A-N W-E G-O N-O-W-?'

'I T-H-I-N-K W-E S-H-O-U-L-D W-I-T-H-D-R-A-W W-H-I-L-E T-H-E G-E-T-T-I-N'-S G-O-O-D,' Hassleberry tapped, 'I'-V-E G-O-T A B-A-D F-E-E-L-I-N-G.'

'M-E T-O-O,' Addicus agreed.

"I just realized something," Irma said, "Where are all the fish?" Indeed the area around them was empty of aquatic animals, as if something scared them off, something other than Irma and her group.

It was then that the image of Mermaid Knight appeared before Irma, as if warning her of danger.

Just then Taranee felt something moving behind her. She quickly turned around, but there was nothing there to see except more water. Then she felt that there was something behind her again, but she saw nothing as she turned around.

"What the hell's going on!?" Taranee exclaimed.

"We're not alone," Irma said, "We need to get out of here now!"

Taranee was about to tap out to the others that they were leaving, but something stopped her from doing so. Something cold and slimy had grabbed Taranee by the leg and was pulling her down to the rocky floor. She panicked and trashed about, trying to get away from whatever had grabbed her, but the thing's grip was too strong.

Suddenly, Nigel was at her side. He forced the tentacle to let go of Taranee, for it was a tentacle that had hold of her. Hassleberry meanwhile was hacking at the long gray limb with a knife he brought with him for emergencies. He sliced off a large chunk of the tentacle, while the rest of it quickly withdrew into the ocean floor from which it came from.

'W-H-A-T T-H-E H-E-L-L W-A-S T-H-A-T-!-?-!' Chazz tapped out furiously.

'I D-O-N'-T K-N-O-W A-N-D I D-O-N'-T W-A-N-T T-O K-N-O-W-!' Hassleberry tapped in response.

'T-H-E-R-E'-S A-N E-Y-E I-N T-H-E R-O-C-K-S-!-!-!' Addicus tapped as loud as he could.

Irma looked down to se a huge pale orange eye opening up in the rocky floor. Nobody needed to tap out any message; the idea was clear: 'Run!!' or 'Swim!!' or something like that.

They barely got a few hundred yards towards the surface, when an ear-shattering roar sounded in the murky depths. They turned around to see a giant squid emerging from the seafloor. Rather, the creature was the seafloor; the rocks that adorned the sand were part of the creature's skin. Its body was over three hundred feet long, with twenty arms 80 feet long, with six whip-like tentacles 120 feet long.

'N-O W-A-Y W-E C-A-N F-I-G-H-T T-H-A-T T-H-I-N-G-!-!' Nigel tapped out.

"Irma!!" Taranee said, "I've got an idea! We need to link our powers!!"

"Why!?" Irma asked, "Oh, wait! I know where you're going!!"

With that they joined hands and focused their powers on the area around the leviathan approaching them. The water began to heat up, slowly at first, but then the temperature swiftly surpassed 100 degrees, then 150, 200, finally topping at 350, way above the boiling temperature for water.

The gargantuan beast writhed in agony as it was flash boiled. Before too long it was dead, cook in its native environment.

'W-E-L-L T-H-A-T W-A-S A C-O-M-P-L-E-T-E W-A-S-T-E O-F T-I-M-E.' Chazz tapped out.

Half an hour later they had reached the surface. As Cal promised, the spell wore off.

"Air!!" Chazz exclaimed as his gills faded back into nothing, "Sweet, pure air!!"

"Oh come on, Chazz," Addicus said, "Don't tell me that wasn't fun."

"'Fun'!?" Chazz snapped, "'Fun'!? I nearly got eaten by a f#ckng giant squid!! You call that fun!?"

"I enjoyed myself," Hassleberry said.

"Me too," Nigel said.

"You know what?" Taranee asked, "That was kind of fun."

"Now we can say that we battled a giant squid," Irma said. She then noticed that the spirit of Mermaid Knight was swimming next to her, "Thank you." Mermaid Knight smiled at Irma before vanishing.

They were about a hundred yards from the island where everyone else was anxiously waiting. After reaching dry land and the excited embraces of Hay Lin and the others, Addicus triumphantly held up the indigo crystal.

"Only one more to find," Elyon said.

"And the two that the demons have," Beck reminded her, "We still need to figure out what to do about that."

"First things first," Taranee said as she and the other underwater searchers dried off, "How are Will and Matt doing?"

"See for yourself," Cornelia said as she pointed at a shady spot on the island. There sat Nerissa, keeping a watchful eye on Will and Matt. The two of them sat facing each other, deep in some sort of meditative trance.

"What's going on?" Irma asked.

"They've been like this for about 45 minutes," Jaden said, "I'm starting to get a little worried."

"Don't be," Nerissa said as she stood up, "These two young lovers are forming a mental and emotional bond that will link their hearts together. It's complicated, but when the link is complete, they'll be closer than before. And best of all, young Matt will be able to control his power without risk of losing himself."

"That's all fine and dandy," Beck said impatiently, "But how much longer is it going to take?"

"I honestly don't know," Nerissa said, "Could be five minutes, could be five hours."

"Excellent!!" exclaimed a familiar voice, "Plenty of time for me to destroy you pathetic fools!!" There stood Salavine, alone, on the far edge of the small island.

"You're awfully brave to come here by yourself, she-demon," Dylan said accusingly, "Where's your friends?"

"I ditched my comrades," Salavine said, "While the boys are busy thinking of some idiotic plan that's sure to fail, I took the initiative and followed you here in secret. A simple glamour concealed my presence from you pathetic excuses for magic users.

"All I had to do was wait for the right opportunity, while you mortals wasted your energies in idiotic games and such. And here we are, with The Keeper of the Heart of Candracar in disposed, while several more are in no fighting condition. So if you know what's good for you, you'll give me that crystal you've recovered just now. And while you're at it, do us all a favor and hand over the others you've got."

"I don't think so!" Jaden said, "There's still plenty of us ready to kick your butt!"

"You wouldn't know what to do with my ass if you had it, boy!" Salavine said. The female demon then noticed Nerissa. "The traitor, Nerissa. Outstanding! Your death will surely put me in good favor with The Masters!"

"I may not be a Guardian any more," Nerissa said, "But I can still handle myself in a fight!"

"All in good time," Salavine said, "But fist thing's first." She set her eyes on Addicus, "Give me the crystal, boy!"

"You want it so bad, bitch!?" Addicus said as he held up the indigo crystal, "Come and get it!" With that he opened his mouth and swallowed the crystal.

"You shouldn't be so good to me, boy," Salavine said, her face twisted in a wicked smile, "You've really made my day, for now I get to rip the crystal out of you!!" The female demon's fingernails elongated into razor sharp claws, while her face became frighteningly ugly, revealing her true demonic essence.

Addicus was about to summon one of his dragons, but then he remembered that he took his Duel Disk off before he went in the water. To make matters worse, the female demon began rushing towards him. Caleb and Nigel tried blocking the demon's path, but she just threw then aside, like they were nothing more than cardboard signs.

"Addicus!!" Eric shouted as he held up a spear he summoned with his Alchemy. He threw the spear towards Addicus, whom caught it and blocked the female demon's slashing claws.

"Why are you making this so difficult?!" Salavine asked as she strained to claw Addicus' throat out, "It would be so much more pleasant for everyone if you would just submit and die!"

"Now where's the honor in that?" Addicus asked as he pushed against the female demon, forcing her back several feet. He then thrust his spear at the demon, but she dodged the deadly blade. She then tried to slash at him from the right, but he blocked her claws and tried to hit her in the head with the end of the spear, but again she dodged it.

"He's good," Eric said as he and everyone else watched the fight, "I wonder where Addicus learned to fight like that?"

"Don't look at me for answers," Syrus said.

Just then Salavine raked her claws on Addicus' s arm, forcing him to drop his spear. "You should feel lucky that I decided not to use poisoned nail polish today," Salavine taunted, "But you'll die anyway." She raised her clawed hands up to rip into Addicus.

"Oh no you don't!!" Nerissa shouted as she aimed at and blasted a large bolt of blue lightning at the female demon, knocking her away from Addicus.

"You!!" Salavine exclaimed as she picked her smoldering form up from the ground, "You'll pay for that, traitor!! Just as your former associate, Pai-Mey Matoya, suffers for her failure; you shall suffer for your treason against The God Hand!! Your suffering shall be legendary, even in hell!!"

"Suffer this!!" Elyon shouted as she blasted Salavine with twin bolts of white magic energy.

"Save some for me!" Dylan said as he blasted the demon with his own magic.

Cornelia and Hay Lin then combined their powers to make a miniature sandstorm around the female demon. Blinded and buffered by howling winds and grating sand, Salavine shrieked in rage before tripping over a palm tree log, twisting her ankle. She fell hard on her arm, which broke with a loud, sickening snap.

"I'm alright," Addicus said as Beck and Eric helped bandage his injured arm. He picked up his dropped spear, "Let's get this over with."

The sandstorm had cleared; leaving a very disoriented Salavine sprawled on the sandy ground. She tried to get up, but her twisted ankle wouldn't support her weight, so she fell to the ground again.

"So this is it," the female demon said in a disgusted tone as she noticed Addicus walking towards her, "You're going to avenge your fallen sister. So be it, strike me down with all your hatred! Only then can you save your sister from the darkness!"

"Do it, Addicus!" the voice of Nightshroud said in Addicus' mind, "She deserves to die! Kill her now!!"

His face hard with rage and hate, Addicus raised his spear, the blade gleaming in the bright sunlight, as if anticipating the plunge into the demon's twisted black heart.

But then his expression lightened, as if he realized just what he was about to do. "No," said Addicus as he lowered the spear.

"'No'?!" a shocked Salavine asked.

"'NO'!?" an outraged Nightshroud exclaimed.

"You heard me!" Addicus said to both Salavine, and to Nightshroud, "I won't do it! I won't!"

"You fool!!" Nightshroud raged, "You're condemning your sister to a cursed sleep for the rest of her life! The demon bitch must be killed!!"

Addicus ignored the dark voice in his head, "I won't become a cold blooded killer; it's not what Alexis would have wanted."

"Oh bull sht!!" Salavine snapped, "Don't try to fool me with that load of pig vomit!," she then spoke in a mocking tone, "'It's not what Alexis would have wanted.' You just don't have what it takes, boy!!"

"You're partly right," Addicus said, "I don't have what it takes to kill without mercy. I'll leave that to those who make it their business to destroy the forces of darkness."

"The only one who'll be destroyed is you!!" exclaimed Salavine. Ignoring her twisted ankle, she lunged at Addicus, her good arm stretched out, fully intent on ripping his throat out. She didn't get very far. Beck pushed Addicus out of the way, leaving Salavine wide open as Eric threw another summoned spear at her.

Salavine tried to dodge the incoming projectile, but it was too late. The spear penetrated her twisted black heart, the blade exiting the opposite side. With her life-force swiftly fading, Salavine had only enough time to say two words before her warped heart ceased beating, "Not fair."

"Wow," Hay Lin said to Eric, "You killed the bad girl."

"This takes care of many debts," Eric said as he pulled the spear from the dead demon's corpse, "I just wish it hadn't come to this."

"Don't tell me that you're sorry for that thing!" Hassleberry said.

"This 'thing' as you called it," Dylan said, "Was a human girl once; we can only guess what made her choose the path to the dark side."

"And her comrade, the armored demon," said Beck, "Who knows what he did to wind up the way he is. I respect that one for the warrior he is, that he once was. And when I kill that one, I shall pray for his once demon soul, just as I shall pray for this girl's lost soul."

"Should we burry her?" Cornelia asked.

"Apparently we don't need to," a disgusted sounding Taranee said, for the remains of Salavine were dissolving into a puddle of green goo, which quickly evaporated, leaving a green stain in the sand.

"Well that's that then," Eric said, "Only one more crystal to find."

"We can't go anywhere until Will and Matt wake up," Elyon said, for Matt and Will were still in their meditative trance.

"And we still can't go," Martin said, "Until the indigo crystal makes its way through Addicus' Alimentary Canal."

"No need to wait," Addicus said in a cheeky tone, "I palmed it so that it would look like I ate it."

"Sweet," Jaden said, "But where's the crystal?"

"I handed it to Caleb," Addicus said, "Just before the demon attacked me."

"And I handed it to Syrus," Caleb said.

"And I gave it to Cal," Syrus said.

"And I put it in my pocket," Cal said as he reached into his pocket, "Which is… not here," his fingers came out of the same hole that was a problem earlier, "I really need to fix that."

"There it is!" Hay Lin said as she spotted the indigo Rainbow Crystal near the tide line where Cal stood a few minutes ago. But before she could pick it up, another familiar figure teleported onto the beach.

"Suckers!!" Lacerta exclaimed as he snatched the crystal and disappeared through a dark Portal.

"You dirty, slimy bastard!!" Beck shouted, "I'll kill you all!!"

Elsewhere…

"You knew that Salavine would go off on her own," Zane said, "And you allowed her to get herself killed."

"Indeed," Lacerta said, "I was tired of having to deal with that wench."

"We're better off without that harlot," The Obliterator said, "One less contender for joining The God Hand."

"Too true, my armored comrade," Findo Trask said. He then shifted his malevolent gaze back and forth from The Obliterator and Lacerta, while the other demons eyed him and each other, as if guessing who would be eliminated next.

"And now we have three crystals," Cedric said as he held the indigo Rainbow Crystal up to the light, "One more to find, with just over six days to go until The God Hand can break free. Then we shall all have what we desire."

"Do you honestly believe that The God Hand will keep their word?" Zane asked, "That they'll resurrect your Miranda?"

"What do you know about Miranda!?" Cedric snapped, "Why should you care?! The God Hand shall keep their word. When they are free to wreck havoc across all of reality, they will bring back my beloved, I'll see that they do."

"I'd like to see what you'll do," Zane said, "But you're right, I shouldn't care. All I have to concern myself with is destroying Jaden and his friends."

"Indeed you should," Cedric said, "But don't get overconfident, a lot can occur in six days."

"Of that I'm sure," Zane said. Meanwhile Lacerta, Findo Trask and The Obliterator were still giving each other 'The Eye.'

Back on the island, Beck was shouting at Cal again at his lack of common sense, when Will and Matt snapped out of their fugue. "That was trippy," Will said in a slightly dazed tone.

"It sure was," Matt said. They looked at each other, then began giggling like schoolchildren.

"What's so funny?" Hay Lin asked.

"I don't know how to explain it," Will said, "It's like I can feel what he's feeling about me."

"And I can feel what she's feeling about me," Matt said.

"What did you do to them?" Taranee asked Nerissa.

"Only what I said I did," Nerissa said, "I helped them establish an emotional link between their hearts. Their new empathic abilities will help Matt maintain control over himself when he transforms into Shagon."

"Which maybe before too long," Elyon said, "The demons have the indigo crystal." She then explained to Matt and Will what happened while they were forging their new bond.

"So in short," Taranee said, "Today was kind of a successful failure. We killed one of the lead demons, but lost the crystal."

"Speaking of dead demons," Dylan said, "Wasn't the one that was killed today the one who cursed Addicus' sister?"

"That's right!" Addicus said, "That demon did put Alexis in a cursed sleep! I actually forgot about it! Will! We have to go back to Ajalon, right now!!"

"Already on it!" Will said, while Irma handed her back The Heart of Candracar. Will then used The Heart to make a Fold back to Dylan's home world. Addicus jumped through the Fold the second it opened.

"We should all go back to Ajalon," Caleb said, "We can rest there and figure out what to do next."

"What's wrong?" Elyon asked Dylan while everyone else went through the Fold, "You're still upset with what happened with your mother?"

"What my mother said about you was unforgivable," Dylan said, "She had no right to blame you for the theft of The Rainbow Crystals. I just don't know if I'm ready to face her."

"If there's one thing I've learned from living on Earth for most of my life," Elyon said, "Is that any mess, no matter how big, can always be cleaned up. You'll never know if you're ready to patch things up with your mother if you don't try."

"But what if she still blames you?" Dylan asked, "My mother can be rather nasty when something or someone irritates her."

"If that's the case," Elyon said, "Just remember this; no matter what happens, you're always welcome to stay with me in Meridian."

"You're beautiful when you're reassuring," Dylan said. With that they kissed.

"Are you two gonna stand there all day, snogging?" Beck asked as she poked her head from the other side of the Fold, "We're waiting for you both."

"You really know how to spoil the moment, Beck," Dylan said. With that he and Elyon entered the Fold to Ajalon.

The end of chapter 26. Next chapter, well, you'll have to read it to believe it. Reviews will be rewarded with cake and pie. See you next time!