Disclaimer: I still don't own this stuff.

Part VIII

"Are you sure they went this way?" demanded Caleb. He was running at break neck speed through abandoned alleys, fruitlessly searching for Will and the other girls.

Behind him Blunk was panting raggedly as he tried to keep up with the human boy. "Is Blunk sure?" huffed the dirty creature with a snort. "Does Blunk eat trash?"

"You better be right about this." Caleb skidded to a halt and blew out his breath in frustration. "I'm gonna kill Will for going to Meridian without me! Does she know how dangerous that is? Phobos is back! He's not going to be merciful. He's out for revenge! Complete and total revenge!"

"Blunk tired. Can we eat now?" With a heavy sigh Blunk dropped to the ground as Caleb leaned against the brick wall.

"Why didn't she want me to go?" he moaned quietly. "She can't stop Phobos on her own…"

"No, she can't," whispered a soft voice in agreement. Caleb and Blunk looked questioningly at a nearby trash can. With bated breaths they peered over the silver can to find the last person they had ever expected to see on Earth sitting in a dejected heap of torn clothing and cardboard.

Elyon.

Meanwhile:

"Elyon?" gasped Will shaking her head, hoping that somehow the person standing before her would turn into someone—anyone else.

"In the flesh. Who were you expecting? Big, bad Phobos? He's long gone. I'm all that's left," returned Elyon in a clipped tone of voice.

"But you're supposed to be on our side," said Hay-Lin dropping her hands to her sides. It took way too much effort keeping them up. They had gone numb with all the blood rushing downwards.

"Oomph." All eyes were drawn to Irma as she slipped to the ground after struggling to support herself and Cornelia. "Sorry, didn't mean to interrupt. Keep talkin' blondie."

Elyon's eyes narrowed dangerously. "You brats have gotten on my nerves for ages now. I'm sick and tired of everyone cheering you on. What the hell did you do to deserve so much glory? I'm the one who's in charge! I had to overcome Phobos to return Meridian to its original peaceful state. All you did was rescue me!"

"And destroy Phobos, banish Cedric, exile Miranda, save your people, help rebuild the country," added Taranee ticking off each item on her fingers. "Nah, we didn't do a thing."

"Enough!" The girls winced at the shrill sound that came from Elyon's mouth.

Irma stuck a finger in her ear. "Sheesh, I think I blew an ear drum."

"No kidding," agreed Will crossing her arms in front of her chest. "She's a bit cranky isn't she?"

"Maybe it's that time of the month?" suggested Hay-Lin with a shrug of her shoulders. "What? I know you guys were all thinking the same thing."

"Drama…high school…I want my dolly," murmured Cornelia twitching on the ground, yet not fully awakening.

"Then again it could be that she has some repressed issues she hasn't dealt with yet. My guess is that we're the reason she's so pissed," stated Taranee softly.

"What is there to be pissed about at sixteen? She hasn't learned to drive yet! It's not like she can possibly have road rage!" hissed Irma pushing Cornelia off her and getting back on her feet.

"Judging by the monsters," started Hay-Lin innocently, "I'd say there might be a lot she's pissed about."

Elsewhere:

"Elyon?" repeated Caleb in shock. The petite blonde looked up mournfully.

"I've messed up," she stated softly.

"What? How?"

"I tried out a new spell...and it didn't exactly work the way I had thought it would."

Caleb crouched down in front of Elyon, wearily scratching his head. "What spell?"

"There's just so much to do in Meridian…I couldn't find time to get everything done myself, and a lot of the people were starting to think I couldn't handle my title. So I tried to duplicate myself so that I could get twice as much done, you know? But something went haywire and now there's this me and then there's another me.

"What kind of 'another me' are we talking about?"

Elyon twitched her fingers nervously. "An angry me. The me that blames Cornelia, Will, Taranee, Irma and Hay-Lin for everything that's happened to me. The me that wants…revenge."

Caleb nodded absently. "Right, so now would be a good time for you to say that you have a counter spell—or even a plan to get rid of the new me, and when that's all said and done it's time for you to learn all about delegation of duty."

"That'd be great," said Elyon slowly, "if I actually knew a counter spell or had a plan. So far I've gotten…here."

"Blunk thinks that is a good start!" crowed Blunk triumphantly. Caleb silenced him with a dark glare.

Turning back to Elyon, Caleb continued to speak, "I think you'd better get us to Meridian. Your friends are already there trying to break a different spell."

"Oh, you mean the one that put on you and Will? The Eternal Love Spell?" Elyon perked up at the thought.

"You know about that one?" asked Caleb suspiciously.

Elyon blushed sheepishly. "I had always thought there was something between you and Will…so I thought I'd help it along, only…I don't think I'm very good at spell casting. The Eternal Love Spell that I wanted was only meant to make you and Will declare how you felt about each other…not make you lust for each other. Sorry about that. But the good news is that there's a counter spell—and I actually know how to cast it correctly."

"Wait, I thought Phobos cast that spell on me and Will." Caleb frowned.

"Actually, it was more like the Evil Me pretending to be Phobos casting my spell…hmm, now that I think about it, maybe Evil Me tinkered with the spell. She might be trying to break the girls apart through jealousy. Cornelia would've fallen into that trap easily. She's not very bright when it comes to true love."

"Great, nice to know that you support your best friend in all that she does and thinks."

"Hey, you would've figured it out eventually. Besides, I already found Cornelia's other half."

"Would it by any chance be Matt?" questioned Caleb hopefully.

Elyon shook her head. "No, Matt and Irma belong together. Actually there's this really cute stable hand that Cornelia would just love to meet. Trust me, they're soul mates."

"Okay. I think we'd better get back to Meridian now. Who knows what the Evil You is doing to the girls."

"Good luck. I'm pretty evil when I have to be," replied Elyon flippantly.

"And oh so modest," muttered Caleb under his breath.

"I heard that."

"Blunk thinks Elyon has super hearing like Cornelia has super nose," announced Blunk with a laugh.

Caleb shook his head in amusement. "Anyone that can smell you doesn't need a nose."

Meridian:

"Ouch! Would you stop stepping on the back of my feet!" snapped Irma irritably. "I'm walking as fast as I can with you freak-o's surrounding me."

The girls had been rounded up like cattle with monsters all around them and forced to march towards the castle. Cedric was even hoisting Cornelia over one of his scaly shoulders. The blonde hadn't woken up once, and the girls were starting to get worried. Cedric smelled twice as bad as Blunk did. Cornelia was really out of it not to wake up and scream at the smell.

"Are we there yet?" groaned Hay-Lin. "My feet are tired."

"Like I care?" called back Elyon waspishly.

"If you gave us back our wings we could just fly," remarked Taranee.

"Yeah, all the way back to Earth you cowards."

Will made a face. "She's meaner than I gave her credit for. Does anyone else remember her being such a bitch?"

"Yeah, when she and Cornelia got into it over that pizza delivery guy once," replied Irma.

"I remember," agreed Hay-Lin with a chuckle. "In the end he chose Taranee over Elyon and Cornelia."

"Oh yeah," sighed Taranee wistfully. "He was really hot wasn't he? Man, those were the days. Now look at us, we're hanging out with overgrown apes that don't know the meaning of personal hygiene."

"Do you brats have to talk? You're giving me a headache!" Elyon gave a frustrated moan and rubbed her temples.

Will dutifully ignored her. "Remember when we went to that fantasy movie and Cornelia and Elyon thought it was about a fantasy date rather than dragons and unicorns and the like?"

"How could I forget?" laughed Irma. "Cornelia screamed so loud the fat guy next to me peed his pants! I thought she was going to have a stroke!"

Hay-Lin nodded enthusiastically. "And Elyon demanded her money back saying it was false advertisement. God, we weren't allowed back to the theater for a whole month after that. I remember because my parents had gotten a phone call from the theater manager."

"Yeah, what happened to all that stuff we used to do together?" asked Taranee quietly. "We don't do much together anymore, except practice using our powers every once in a while."

"We grew up," replied Irma sadly. "We entered high school and finally grew up."

"I miss those days," murmured Will quietly.

"Me too," added Hay-Lin. "We should start hanging out every Friday night and just have girl time. Eat pizza, watch movies all night long, go rollerblading—"

"Or ice skating!" Taranee perked up at the thought.

"You know, that sounds great," said Irma. "We totally need to catch up. I have so much to tell you guys…especially about this really hot baseball player in my math class."

Taranee grinned at Will. "Will has something big to tell us."

"Oh man. I thought we weren't gonna talk about that?" groaned Will wincing.

"Cornelia isn't even listening," pointed out Taranee with a glint in her eye.

"What's this?" demanded Irma.

"Yeah," huffed Hay-Lin, "what don't we know about Will?"

"That she's not a virgin," whispered Taranee loudly. Irma's eyes widened in surprise as Hay-Lin mouthed a big "o".

"What do you mean she's not a virgin?" shrieked Cornelia her eyes blazing as she woke up with a start. She glared down at Cedric, pounding his arm. "Put me down you great ugly baboon! Will, if Caleb's the reason you're not a virgin I'm going to kill you!"

"I think it'd be best if we hurried it along!" shouted Will to Elyon who was still leading the pack.

"What for? This is the most excitement I've had all day," remarked Elyon slyly.

"You slept with Caleb? How could you?" Before Will could explain Cornelia had already tackled her to the ground. "I hate you! I hate you!"

A/N: Another chapter done, isn't that nice? Hope you like this one. School is winding down, only two more weeks left for the semester. Enjoy!