by Katie Davidson (Virtue)
A/N: I'm sure this chapter will prove to be most interesting ;)
Elora, Harry, Cecil, Tsutsami, Velicity and Lizzie walked back down the tunnel path towards the cavern where Elora and Lizzie first fell, and where they saw the fairies. "Are you sure this is gonna work?" Tsutsami asked.
"Here's the clue: When I used Dreamscape to reveal the fairies, he attacked me, right?" Elora said, "So, in theory, if I do it again he'll try to kill me again."
"But we won't let him," Harry said, "And if we fight back he should show himself."
"I see," Tsutsami said with not a lot of trust in Elora's plan. "Are you sure putting yourself in danger is a good thing to do?"
Elora stopped and turned to Tsutsami, "Tsutsami. I may be putting myself on target for this monster, but it's for a good cause and I don't feel any regret for doing this. So please, stop trying to change my mind."
"Sorry." Tsutsami replied.
They neared the cavern; it was as they had left it. The boulder, which had nearly killed Elora, still lay smashed on the floor of the cavern floor. Elora walked to the center of the cavern, everyone else took place around her, except Lizzie who stood by the cave entrance. "Everyone ready?" Elora asked, looking at everyone around her.
They all nodded, then Elora held her guard in front of her face and touched Dreamscape with her other hand, it activated and starting to glow it illuminated the cavern with its pure white light. A heavy tremor shook the room but everyone stood their ground. Small pebbles started to drop from above Elora, who stood right under the large hole that let to Hogwarts. "Now everyone!"
With that, Harry, Cecil, Tsutsami, and Velicity closed their eyes. A sparkling aura surrounded each of them, all in different colours. Harry was surrounded with a yellow aura, Cecil with a maroon-red aura, Tstusami with a dark blue aura, and Velicity with a baby blue aura. Lizzie stood in awe at the lovely colours, which started to climb upwards and join together to create a dome around Elora and themselves, just as a clamity of boulders fell to their position. The dome acted as a shield and the boulders bounced right off.
Elora shouted, "Razerlorn, you'll have to do better than that!"
"Than I shall do just that," a deep voice echoed through the cavern, and a high-pitched scream shocked Elora.
"Lizzie!" Elora shouted, moving within the shielded dome to the edge... she couldn't get out. "Lower the dome..." she told her comrades. They didn't listen, she walked over to Tsutsami; "Tsutsami, break the connection. Lower the dang dome!"
Tsutsami shook her head; "This is for the best."
Elora ran over to Harry and begged him; "Harry please!"
Harry also shook his head; "You're safer in here."
Then Elora realized it... they didn't seem like themselves. She shouted out, "Gwen! Stop it, now! Let them go!"
Gwen's voice echoed through Elora's head; "I cannot let them go. Not yet."
Elora growled, "Damn you, Gwen. Release my friends or... or..." Something stopped her from saying anything more, she heard Lizzie's faded scream muffle out. Elora ran to the edge of the dome and banged against the forcefield screaming, "Lizzie!"
Then when the scream faded out totally, Elora dropped to her knees in a fit of tears and rage, and the forcefield dropped and the others looked around. Harry had realized what had happened and he ran to Elora, kneeling beside her, and held her in his arms. "I'm sorry, Elora. We'll get her back."
"It's not your fault." Elora said, lifting her head. "It's Gwen's. I'm not going to forgive her for this. That selfish witch!" She screamed, "Gwen! What in the world did you think you were doing?"
Gwen didn't reply. A long pause fell through the cavern, then Gwen, through telepathy, spoke to Elora; "If I didn't let Razerlorn take Lizzie, then he would have taken you instead."
Elora stood up, "Gwen, I hate what you're doing! Now stop it! You can't get Luno back, I thought we had already been through this!"
"We have," Gwen said, "But that doesn't mean I can't save you from death."
"And what about Lizzie," Elora growled, "We both know he's going to use her as bait to get to me. He knows who I am now, Gwen, we can't get around that." Gwen didn't reply. Elora turned to Harry, who was brushing off dirt from his cloak, and looked at the rest of her comrades, saying, "We need to rescue Lizzie."
"That's exactly what he wants you to do, Elora," Cecil said, "You know it's going to be a trap if you go."
Elora smiled, "Well I'm not going to be alone, now am I?"
"That's right!" Velicity giggled, "We're going to be there by your side. We're all gonna save Lizzie!"
Elora knelt down and hugged Velicity, "Thank you Velicity." Velicity smiled back. Elora looked up to the others, "Are you all with me?"
Tsutsami, Cecil, and Harry looked at eachother (Harry avoided eye contact with Cecil). They nodded together. "We're with you all the way, Elora," Tsutsami said, "In day and night, in death's despite..."
"We will win the fight!" Velicity shouted.
The group now walked down a narrow tunnel hand-in-hand into a region not even the fairies would go into, so it was the perfect place to find Razerlorn. "This is creepy," Velicity whined.
"It's all right," Tsutsami comforted Velicity from behind, holding her hand firmly, "We won't let anything happen to you."
"There's an opening up ahead." Harry shouted, who lead the group down the narrow tunnel, holding Elora's right hand (Cecil held her left hand behind her).
They entered the opening Harry had told them about; it was a large cave with water rippling at both ends of the cave, and two large cave doors in front of them. "Now which way do we go?" Tsutsami asked.
Elora closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Luno had told her to concentrate on sensing which way Razerlorn had dragged Lizzie, so she just did that. When her eyes opened, they shimmered from blue to brown, and she pointed to the left door saying, "Left."
"You sure, Elora?" Harry said, "I mean, isn't it better if we split up?"
Elora shook her head and said, "We're stronger as a team, Harry."
Cecil took Elora's hand and pulled her forward, he said to everyone, "Elora's right. Come on everyone." A blank expression was left on Elora's hand as she was being pulled forward by Cecil to the left cave, Harry growled in his spot as Tsutsami and Velicity followed. Then he followed behind Velicity and tried to catch up to Elora and Cecil. As soon as Elora and Cecil were past the edge of the cave door... it disappeared and where the entrance should have been, solid rock stood.
Tsutsami crashed into the wall, "Ouch," she exclaimed, rubbed her nose, and gazed up and down the wall. "What the - Argh!"
Harry ran up to the wall and pounded on it, screaming, "Elora!"
On the other side of the wall, Elora did the same, screaming, "Harry! Tsutsami! Velicity!"
Cecil pulled her away from the wall and held her still in front of himself, she shoke lightly as he said, "Elora. Pull yourself together for just a second. They'll be fine, all right? They'll take the other entrance and somewhere, sometime, we'll meet up. We have to keep moving though."
Elora looked up to Cecil, "I'll try contacting Harry first," then she held up her Guard and touched it gently chanting 'Cellus Revelis'. The moon embedded on the center of the guard revolved faster and a beam of light that shot up about 3 inches crackled, then disappeared. Elora shook her head rapidly screaming, "No. I can't get to him. One more try... I have to be able to contact him. God, please!"
Before Elora could try contacting Harry again, Cecil pulled her closer and locked lips with her... they kissed. Elora pulled away in shock, screaming, "Why did you that?"
"I... I," Cecil studdered, then his words broke as Lizzie's screams echoed through the tunnel.
Elora's head quickly turned to look down the cave, she shouted, "Lizzie!"
Lizzie's voice echoed, "Elora! Help me! Please!" With that, Elora quickly rushed down the tunnel, but Cecil who quickly grabbed her arm, stopped her. She tried to pull away.
"Elora, stop it!" Cecil shouted, "No heroic business, remember? We have to stick together. Razerlorn's not going to harm Lizzie. Remember that he's using her to get you to come to him."
Elora growled, "I have to save Lizzie! Let go of me!" Her tone started to turn soft, and she fell to her knees and cried... all the fear and anger Elora stored inside her had hit her like a brick wall, and she broke.
Cecil knelt beside her and held her in his arms, like Harry would do, to calm her; "Take it slow, Elora. If you show weakness to the enemy you'll be too great of a target and I can't afford to lose you, Elora. So please, show me that strong leader I fell in love with."
Elora stopped her blubbering and looked up to Cecil. She thought to herself 'Did Cecil just say... he loved me?'. Placing the thought aside, she wiped the tears that had streamed down her face away, and Cecil helped her stand up. "Cecil I," she tried to say, but Cecil placed a finger against her lips to stop her from saying anything more.
"I know," Cecil said softly, "Come on, considering the echoes Lizzie's scream made, she's a ways down the tunnel."
Elora nodded, "All right. Let's go."
(( Oh.. quiver.. quiver.. ^_^ This is starting to get interesting! ))
Back to Harry, Tsutsami, and Velicity. They did indeed start down the other tunnel, hoping it would lead them to Elora and Cecil, but Harry mostly wanted to find Elora. Nothing else seemed to be on his mind as he shouted, "Elora!"
Tsutsami growled and shouted to Harry, "Would you stop it! You might cause a cave-in or something. We'll find them soon."
"Elora!" Harry shouted again. He whispered to no one in particular, "I hope she's all right, and if that Cecil even touches her I'll swear I'll..."
Velicity ran up to Harry and grabbed his hand, tugging on it she shouted, "Harry. Harry. Harry!"
Harry looked down at Velicity saying, "What is it?"
"What's that noise?" Velicity asked him. Harry hadn't heard anything. He stopped to listen and soon enough he heard low moans and scraping sounds, they sounded as though they were getting louder.
A light appeared illuminating a corner just a ways in front of them, the shadows of a few figures appeared to get larger, meaning they were nearing the corner. Velicity tried to scream but Harry muffled it by placing his hand over her mouth and pulled her into the shadows against the wall of the tunnel. Tsutsami followed him and growled softly, "What the heck are those things?"
"I don't know, Tsutsami," Harry replied as the figures came around the corner. Then both Harry and Tsutsami gasped - "Zombies!"
Continued: Chapter 8 - Evil's Plan Revealed