1Hello all! I'm back with the next chapter! I've been waiting to write this one, and I hope some have been waiting to read it. This story is almost over, and I'm sad to know that. I hope that it will all end well and that everybody will be satisfied from a good story, because that's what I want. I'll keep writing after this story like with 'Through Different Worlds' and when that one is over, it's sequel, P.O.W.E.R. Thanks again sooooooo much for all the reviewers who have sent me reviews because that has been what's keeping me going with the inspiration for my story. My birthday was the day before yesterday and I thanked all of my reviewers for my stories personally with extra chocolate added to the cake and ice cream everybody got! Yay! Now, one of the moments you have been waiting for…
Chapter 23: True to Your Heart
'Stay true to your goals, stay true to your friends, but most of all, stay true to your heart.'
Will's POV
Will looked at the person in front of her without blinking or moving an inch. She just stared, with her fists glowing with energy and emotions stirring endlessly through her body. It was like looking in a mirror, except that Will didn't see her own brown eyes, red hair, and green mini skirt with her purple bell-sleeved top and flowery wings. No. The woman standing before her was wearing the same outfit but black and with no wings. Her hair was faint and straggly while her eyes were barely brown at all. Everything was cold. She smiled with a triumpth twinkle in her eyes, like she had already won. She had made the game and is just playing it to the end until she holds the final score. The Will looking back at her didn't have feelings or nobility. She just wanted more power, and to knock the real Guardians out of the picture. She was soulless…evil…
A powerful blast of magic came soaring her way. Will didn't expect it. She got hit squarely in her chest and flew backward until she hit the invisible force field that the Heart of Candracar must have been making within the distance of its glow. She slid down to a sitting position where she was still floating in the air and automatically moved her hand to add pressure to her head.
"Ow!" she cried. Her eyes moved upward above her hand and saw Evil Will walking up in front of her.
"Oh. The little Will got a headache. The perfect pain reliever is to give up. It's actually not that hard." Evil Will said to her mockingly.
"Then why don't you try it then." Will snapped back as she started shaking her head dizzily. "It would be better than fighting a lost battle."
"In case you haven't noticed, I have the Heart!"
"Well in case you haven't noticed, the Heart of Candracar is floating above us, well out of your reach." Will smart mouthed. Evil Will gathered a fistful of magic with fury and shot it at Will. Will rolled to the side instantly, sending the crackling energy soaring past her head. Will pulled herself up and closed her fists with readiness.
"Are you mad because it's not with you anymore?" Will asked as she sent her own energy blast toward Evil Will. She pulled up a force field that blocked her magic and ran towards Will.
"Well it's not with you either so I think we're in the same boat here." Will gritted her teeth with anger before Evil Will punched her in her stomach. Will doubled over and Evil Will kicked her in the head and she fell down to the floor coughing.
"So, I'm fighting a losing battle am I?" Evil Will said with a frown as she looked down at Will. "Why don't you just watch, and see who the person who wins the Heart of Candracar really is? I will be here standing over your pathetic body, I will watch the whole universe suffer at the absence of you and your friends. The famous Guardians of the Veil are run out of existence! That's how we lived! Now that's what's going to happen to you!" Will instantly shot out a blast of magic that knocked Evil Will off of her feet. Evil Will fell straight onto her back and didn't move for a few seconds. Will got to her feet. She didn't know what made her react so quickly like that. It was the way she was talking. It just made Will...angry. Will gasped quickly with surprise as Evil Will threw both of her hands in front of her and streamed out more magic toward her. Wll dodged her attack and landed on her hands and knees before pushing herself back up and doing a backflip. She landed back in a fighting stance right when Evil Will came back at her.
"Quick, but not quick enough for me." Evil Will laughed as she aimed a punch at Will's head. Will ducked and kicked her in the stomach. She stepped back and filled her hands with magic. She focused her mind on nothing but her power, although it was hard with all of the bad things that had been done to her started swimming through her mind.
Will wanted to make her pay.
Her mind started swimming in earlier memories. Cornelia was yelling at them to get out of her room. She slammed the door and left them standing there in stillness, but their hearts were racing out of their bodies.
Will scrunched her eyes together with pain and confusion.
Will was crying on her bed. She couldn't move. The Guardians would be nothing.
Evil Will took her chance at Will's moment of thought and gathered a fistful of crackling magic into her hands.
Susan tripped on the branch. Her head hit the ground while bleeding freely. An ambulance sounded in the distance.
Evil Will was urging her power to be stronger.
Elyon was sitting between the agents. She had come back for help. Will and Elyon could both feel it. Phobos was back.
Evil Will released the power in her hands. It was coming closer, ever closer.
The girls were surrounded in darkness, a nightmare that they couldn't escape.
"No!" Will screamed. Her head felt funny. Her body felt strangely unfamiliar with power swimming around in her bloodstream. She felt all of her feelings being closed in. She wanted to let them out. Everything was screaming inside of her head. Will knew that she had to connect her feelings to her powers. Her emotions no longer wanted to escape and run free. They were making her stonger, more powerful and calm. Everything that she had been through lately had made her want to run and hide. She wasn't hiding from herself, or anyone else anymore. She was the leader that she used to be.
Will waved her hands in front of her and kept her mind focusing on the energy. It evaporated before it could ever make contact with Will. Evil Will opened and closed her mouth in amazement. Will looked down at her hands and they filled up with powerful magic. She looked back at Evil Will with a frown. Her eyes filled with fear for the first time.
"I remember now." Will said so calmly that Evil Will kind of hopped back a little. Will returned to what she was saying and stared right into Evil Will's eyes. "It was you. During my first dream when we were at the park eating ice cream. You were the one that said that it all wasn't real, that it wasn't a dream, but a nightmare." Evil Will squared her shoulders and she gathered some magic in her hands also. They started walking around each other in the air. Will squinted with anger.
"You stole the Heart from me in that dream, and then you went and took it from me again. You have been haunting me, tantalizing me with your dreams, your whispering in my head." Will shot her magic out at the same time Evil Will did. The magic met in mid air and exploded and the evaporated. They started walking around again.
"You are the one who tried to convince me to give up the Heart and everything I had. You- you took my mother away from me!" Will's face started to get red. She couldn't help shaking. "My friends, everything was just to bring us to this point! I-" Will was staring right into her face when her eyes clouded over. Will couldn't see the Heart's glow anymore. Instead, there was an icy cold blue glow faintly around them. Will's eyes seemed foggy. They lost focus and she got lost in another memory. It wasn't her own though.
Will blinked her eyes and looked widely on the spot. Where was she? It looked like she was in the castle in Meridian, but different than where she was standing before. Her hairs stood on end and she shivered. I don't like this at all, she started to think. Not one bit.
"Stop where you are!" a voice called out. Will turned around with a captured feeling. She was staring straight at Elyon.
"Elyon! Where am I? Did you come here too?" Will asked. Elyon paid no attention to her though.
"Did you hear me? We are not supposed to go venturing off into the other universe! Even I wouldn't be stupid enough to try a stunt like that just for more power! There's no way you could do it anyway." Elyon called out. Will scrunched her eyes in confusion. She spun around when she heard another voice coming from behind her.
"We can do it. The other Guardians are losing their friendship, their powers that they have lost are leaking toward us."
"No way!" Will said. She was looking into the angry eyes of her evil self. Then that meant, that this was the alternate universe where the Evil Guardians had come from. She was watching what had happened to them earlier!
"It doesn't matter! Wreck havoc in this universe! Go back to Heatherfield and destroy something! I don't care! We don't have enough power to do anything otherwise, especially to go into the other universe and gain all of the power there!" Elyon yelled angrily.
"Wreak havoc in this universe? This universe is useless! Why should we be the ones with the excess power while those other good Guardians have everything? We are weak! This whole place is weak! We have been pushed aside for way too long. We are getting more power now, we are becoming more powerful than you are because of our opposites' mistakes! And you're jealous! That's why you don't want us to go!" Evil Will yelled, outraged.
"I will not be talked to this way!"
"You know what. We'll get Phobos. He would be the only one with guts enough to help us!"
"My idiot brother is good!" Elyon yelled.
"Oh, not our Phobos. The one residing in the Tower of Mists." Evil Will said with a smile.
"You couldn't, you wouldn't dare walk up in front of the Oracle's nose." Elyon told her with a dry laugh. Evil Will squared her shoulders.
"Watch me. And you can be looking forward to seeing us gain more power and cross into the other universe after taking the Guardians of the Veil's powers. We will break Phobos free, and we will get the Heart of Candracar, and the Crown of Light. Yeah, yeah we will. And then we will all rule over a universe with power while you watch over this weak joint! I am so out of here!" Evil Will stormed away and Will ran after her. Something was going on. She just decided to follow along. Evil Will burst a door open and Will saw the other four Evil Guardians crowded around a pool of water and looking in it with glee.
"Ohh! Will!" Evil Hay Lin said gleefully. "Can't you feel the power? We are more powerful than the others now! Look! The blonde one isn't speaking to them! They're-" Will blinked as a feeling of satisfaction went through the group. Evil Will smiled.
"We are ready. But first, a little message." She walked over to the pool and tipped her fingers into it. A figure started forming in the water's surface. Will looked closer into it. It was her.
"So, do we have a plan then?" Evil Cornelia asked. Evil Will nodded and took a deep breath.
"Yes. I just want to show this girl who really owns the Heart of Candracar, who really is more powerful. We just need to add a little pain and suffering and she will easily lead us to my Heart and the power to rule the universe." She stopped suddenly and looked up.
"Now, it has begun."
A swirl of colors swam past Will's eyes as the Evil Guardians started disappearing before her. Everything seemed foggy again. Will blinked. She was standing in front of Evil Will again. The blue glow started to grow stronger around them. Will could only focus on the woman in front of her. Will let the information sink in. Anger started pouring out of her.
"You have done everything!" she shouted. "It was pointless! You did all of this because you wanted more power? You wanted to really cause pain to all of us because you are greedy, cold hearted, and just wanted to have what we had?"
"Well of course you idiot!" Evil Will screamed. "Who wouldn't want to have all the power you had? I wanted it. I have it!"
"No you don't!"
"Yes I do!" Evil Will said with a glint in her eye. "You've lost your mother, the Heart, and your friends. I have lost nothing!"
"You have lost everything!" Will yelled. She didn't even realize what she was saying. It just came out. But she knew at once that it had to be true.
"Let's see what I have lost. Now, we will fight and I will get the Heart of Candracar and your powers!" Evil Will spat.
Something was stirring inside of Will. An impulse, a pounding in her heart. Something was trying to tell her something. But what? Will looked down to the ground. Her friends, they were barely moving on the floor. They were dying while she had all of this power up here. It wasn't fair. Will suddenly realized what was happening.
"The power was split between the two universes." Will quietly repeated out loud. "The reason why your universe was created was because there was too much magic in ours, it would have killed anyone with magic...that's why everyone is dying! We fought against each other and caused all of the power to be here!" Will just walked up to Evil Will. "You need to go back to your universe before everybody dies."
"I don't really care if they die." she said breezily. "I have all of the power here, and I'm not giving it up!" Will still stared at her.
"You're a monster."
"I know I am." she laughed. "Now let's get this fight over with."
Will's heart stopped. She felt sure that her friends were nearly gone. Tears started fighting their way past the surface of her eyes. She wouldn't let them. She had to do what was right.
('Be true to your Heart.')
Will stood her ground.
"I won't fight for what is mine. I won't let you stand here and drain the life out of everyone."
"What did you say?" Evil Will asked, surprised. Will could just hear the Oracle's words.
'Do what must be done.'
Will raised her hands and released her energy. Things started flashing in her eyes.
Will, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, and Hay Lin were all crowded at a table in the Silver Dragon when Yan Lin came up and pulled out the Heart of Candracar.
Will could feel her heart melt gratefully when Cornelia finally forgave her after saving Cedric's life.
Will snatched the Crown of Light away from Cedric and they worked together to remove the curse. Elyon put on the Crown and Meridian was erased of its gloom.
They had just got back from the Karmilla concert and fighting Cedric. They all wrapped their arms around their shoulders.
"Nobody will ever divide us." Irma declared.
Will felt the power leave her. She fell down to the floor. She felt weak.
Cornelia rubbed her eyes and helped keep Hay Lin to her feet. Irma sent Will a thumbs up and Taranee, a grateful smile. Will barely smiled back. Everything started to hurt again.
"Oh, you have made it so easy for me Will." Evil Will cried. She sent a powerful blast of magical energy to Will. Will stared on at the oncoming attempt at her life.
A pink glow overpowered the coldness surrounding her. The energy attack bounced off of another invisable force field surrounding Will and it hit Evil Will instead. Will took her hand away from her face and squinted at Evil Will getting up on her elbows and rubbing her eyes. She looked back at Will and her eyes and mouth opened in disbelief and anger.
"No! It can't! I won't let it!" she started to get up when Will was feeling incredibly warm.
"Will!" Hay Lin exclaimed. She started pointing above Will excitedly. Will looked up and gasped. She could see a figure that looked remarkably like Serenity. Her hair, though half was pulled back, started floating around her head and her hazel eyes were filling with light. Her long, white dress started flowing in a nonexistent, gentle breeze. She was smiling. She was also cradling the Heart of Candracar.
"Oh my gosh!" Irma said with her eyes wide open. "Isn't she dead?"
"Shut up Irma!" Cornelia told her with a punch in her shoulder. Will smiled a little more this time. They were okay. She was going to be okay.
('Be true to your heart.')
('And you, the Guardians of the Veil, will be united once more.')
Will grinned at Serenity and she nodded sweetly. The Heart of Candracar started floating down toward Will. Serenity started mouthing the words that came from the Whispers of her past, the former keepers of the Heart.
("Congragulations! You have earned the Heart of Candracar by willingly giving up your powers to save your friends.")
("Your own heart guided you, and that's what made the Heart choose you.")
"No!" Evil Will screamed. "I will not be forced back to who I was!" Serenity looked down at Evil Will who stopped dead in her tracks from snatching the Heart of Candracar from the air again.
("Guardians, you have defeated the nightmare that she has put you through.")
("Your friendship will guide you through anything, forever.")
The Heart of Candracar fell into Will's hand. Lightness was filling in her head and she smiled, for real this time. It went inside of her and she no longer felt broken. Her heart was whole and stronger than ever after the trials that she had just been through. Power, blistful magic was surging through her body in pure harmony with her soul. Will stood up and she slowly started to fall back toward the ground. Evil Will made the journey with her. It wasn't long before Will's boots lightly touched the floor.
"I can't believe you gave up your power to save us!" Taranee exclaimed as she went and gave Will a big hug. Will grinned and raised her eyebrows.
"We're best friends aren't we?" Will took to heart her friends' smiles. Especially Cornelia's. It had been a long time since she had smiled. Will took a deep breath and stepped forward. The Evil Guardians were all crowded around Evil Will who was hunched over and breathing heavily. She looked to the side and saw Elyon conjuring up some magical ropes quickly to bind her brother and Cedric.
"Do you have any idea how much you have done Phobos." Elyon sighed. She gathered up the broken fragments of her crown and tears welled up in her eyes. Will knew that they had to help, but just now wasn't the time. They had some business they needed to finish.
"So, you think you have won, don't you?" Evil Will huffed painfully. "This just means that we will have to wait a bit longer. Your powers are bound to wind down again."
"How dare you!" Cornelia yelled.
"We are friends again! And nothing is going to break us up again, right?" Taranee asked nervously. Irma looked thought ful for a moment.
"Well, unless another stupid lunatic wants to try and tear us apart again...no. It isn't possible." Irma said with her trademark grin.
"You just wait!" Evil Will cried again. "You are so easily broken! The Heart of Candracar doesn't belong to you!" Will rolled her eyes. And stepped up to her.
"Do you want to know why the Heart doesn't belong to you, Evil Will?" Will stared at the broken down figure on the floor and frowned.
"It's because you didn't have a heart in the first place." She backed up to the other four Guardians and they joined their hands and their powers together.
"Now!" Will shouted. Each of them concentrated on sending those five back to where they came from. There was only room for the Guardians of the Veil in this universe! They all reared back with absolute power and with a bind holding them together. The bind, it was their friendship. And of course, their powers united within the Heart of Candracar, and in their title. The Guardians of the Veil!
They unleashed their power and the Evil Guardians started running with fear. They didn't get far before the energy ball surrounded them. Their screams were heard as the ball started to shrink.
"Say goodbye to our Evil selves!" Irma piped cheerfully.
"No, say goodbye to the nightmare they put us through." Will corrected. The ball shrank out of existence with the last cried threats from the Evil Guardians. Will sighed. The worst was all over.
Will looked over at her friends. They rushed over with the biggest smiles she had ever seen them wear. Will laughed and grabbed them into a big embrace. She felt happy. And after what they just went through, happiness was the best gift Will could receive. She wiped tears from her eyes as Irma and Hay Lin started jumping up and down with a 'we did it' chant and Cornelia went to support Elyon. Will looked back as she felt Taranee's hand on her shoulder. Taranee nodded and Will nodded back. There was something else they had to do before everything was better again.
Wow! I hope that was good. I started to think that I couldn't pull it off. But, I can't exactly tell if I did. I hope you liked it though! Only 3 more chapters left. It's almost over and I might cry when it is. Oh well. Please send a review to tell me if I'm doing well. Remember to check my bio page often for updates and snippets of the next chapters. See ya again soon!