Chapter 15
The Separation
The girls were sitting at the lunch table in the cafeteria. It was the day of Wanda's birthday, but she showed no signs of recognizing it as her birthday. Apart from her responses to everyone who knew she was Matt Olson's daughter saying happy birthday to her.
"Thank you, much appreciated." She said as one of the boys who had been known to try and ask her to the Valentine's Day dance in February left the table. "Ugh." She said once he was out of earshot.
"Aw come on, that one was actually kind of cute!" HuiLing smiled brightly.
"Yeah? In what way?" Wanda glared at HuiLing, who giggled when she could not find an answer to that question.
"Come on, Wanda, you sound like a broken record every time a boy comes up and says-" Ingrid was interrupted mid-sentence.
"Just wanted to say happy birthday, Wanda." Derek sat down at the end of the table nearest to Wanda.
Wanda let out a shriek and fell out of her chair in surprise, causing many of their classmates to laugh.
"Derek, what in the heck are you doing here? This is MY school." Cerella said.
"Hey, I transferred here. Mom and Dad managed to get me in to the same classes as you guys." He shrugged as he reached down, grabbed Wanda's arm as she reached up from the floor, and pulled her up easily back in to her chair.
She blinked in surprise at how strong Derek really was, and Tress was giggling madly behind her hand.
"If you say one word..." Wanda glared at Tress, lightning sparking in her hands.
"Oh, I'm really scared of what you're going to do..." Tress' eyes were glimmering behind her glasses.
"And by the way, thanks for the birthday wishes." Wanda looked at Derek, apparently not having heard Tress. "Probably one of the few genuine birthday wishes I've had today."
"What do you mean by that?" Stared Derek as he started on the mashed potatoes on his lunch tray.
"Take a look over there... you see them?" Ingrid pointed with her thumb at a group of boys that collaborated at a table to their left, behind her. "Those are a group of boys determined to win her favor and... shall we put it in a way that won't start a water and lightning battle, affections, every day. JUST because she's the daughter of Matt Olson, a famous guitarist in a famous band."
"Yeah... wish I had her problem." Cerella flipped her hair around.
"Oh... rich girl feeling sorry for herself because no boys are shadowing her around?" HuiLing said, patting Cerella on the head.
"You can take them." Said Wanda as she started on her favorite part of the lunch- the fresh snap peas.
"Um Wanda, are you really going to eat those?" Asked Tress.
"They're called snap peas, Tress. They won't kill you. Besides, they're my favorite in any meal." Smiled Wanda as she managed to get three on her plastic fork and eat them. The other girls looked at each other, then ended up dumping their snap peas on to her plate.
"Honestly, if you can stomach the school food, you must have bowels of steel." Cerella sighed.
"Hey, she can handle your cooking, can't she?" Smiled Ingrid, earning a glare from Cerella.
"Such harmony between you guys." Sighed Derek, eating his lunch in a bemused sort of way.
"By the way, Derek, if you're older than us, how is it you're able to be in the same class as us?" Asked HuiLing.
The others blinked at her in surprise.
"What?" She looked at them completely confused.
"Not to often you hear HuiLing ask an intelligent question that's not in a classroom." Cerella commented. "But I'd like to know that too. How is that possible? Mom and Dad didn't even say anything about this to me."
"Well... considering I was technically born on Meridian, Mom and Dad were able to get my birth papers and all that crap filed and legally documented here on Earth for me to be... I guess you would call me your evil twin brother here." Derek said thoughtfully.
"Ok, next question, WHY are you here?" Tress asked.
Derek blinked at the group.
"Well, the Queen wanted someone on Earth from Meridian at all times to keep an eye on you guys. Make sure you're not caught off guard or anything like that." He shrugged. "After all, wouldn't want the last hope of Meridian and Earth to fall in to the wrong hands."
"So no pressure, right?" Smiled Ingrid through a mouthful of salad.
"At least I'm already accustomed to some of Earth's bizarre ways. I like some of the sports here." Derek was looking around.
"Hey, DEREK!" A voice shouted, nearly causing HuiLing to tumble out of her own seat.
It was Stevie, the boy she had a mad crush on.
"Hey, what's up?" Derek waved.
"You going to try out for the basketball game?" Asked Stevie.
Stevie was a tall boy for his age, with blond hair and blue eyes. But he looked like he was full of energy and a good attitude.
"Yeah, I think I might."
"Great, see you at tryouts, hi HuiLing." Stevie waved at HuiLing, causing her face to go scarlet as she started to lift off from her chair. Luckily he had turned away from the table so he did not see Ingrid and Tress grabbing HuiLing by the shirt collar.
"Principal at twelve o'clock!" Cerella whispered.
"Hello girls, I see you've already been introduced to Cerella's brother, Derek." Smiled Principal Knickerbocker.
"Yes, ma'am." Smiled Tress, waving at her.
"Good girls, I expect you to make him feel right at home. I'm surprised I didn't get your brother right from the start, but I hope homeschooling has had a good effect on him than it did on you." The Principal patted Cerella on the head with a smile and laugh while Cerella scowled.
"And what do you mean by that?" Asked Derek curiously. Even Wanda was rather interested by that comment.
"Oh I think she's referring to the incident where Cerel' here blew up the lab room when she put salt in with the wrong beaker." Tress said shamelessly.
"Thanks for the reminder... I got detention and groundation for a month for that." Cerella pouted.
"Ah... THAT's why you were grounded and kept on staying after school last year." Derek nodded knowingly.
"Yes, well, let's just hope that you've learned your lesson and history won't be repeated." The Principal warned, her eyes flashing. "Oh, and happy birthday, Ms. Olson."
"Thanks." Mumbled Wanda as the Principal left their table at last.
Derek noticed how unenthusiastic she was about the coming day.
After school was out, Wanda bade farewell. The next day was Saturday, and she planned on locking herself in her room that day to avoid all the people from her classes on the streets. She got in to her father's car in the backseat, since her mother was with him that day. She waved goodbye to her friends as they drove away.
"So what's with that gloomy expression?" Ingrid inquired as the car drove away.
"Never mind, we've got lots of work to do before tomorrow." Said Cerella at once. "Wanda's mom and dad told me via cell phone that she was just planning on staying in her room tonight, so decorating her living room shouldn't be a problem."
"Why not just celebrate at your house?" Asked HuiLing.
"Um... problem. I'm so much like my Mom that my last party at home was so totally awesome, that she and Dad both said never again there." Replied Cerella, remembering the mess in the living room after her birthday party.
"All right... so, everyone knows what they're doing?" Ingrid said.
"Yup! I'm going home to change in to decoration appropriate clothing, then heading over to Wanda's house. And in the morning we all meet at her place and surprise her as she's coming down for breakfast." Cerella nodded as Cornelia's car came up to the drive.
"I'm going to be busy myself, so I'll talk to you guys later." Derek waved as he got in to the front seat of the car.
Wanda picked up Mimi when she came in to the house, and went to the kitchen.
"There's ice cream in the fridge for you after your dinner." Said Will, taking off her jacket.
"Thanks." Wanda went in to see what was in the oven, and it was her favorite: Lasagna with wine sauce. She put the cat down and grabbed the pan from the oven.
When she went up the stairs, she was greeted by her appliances.
"Good afternoon, Wanda," Ai said from the iHome lamp. "Would you like some relaxing jazz tonight to help you with your homework?"
"Nah, not tonight. I think I'd prefer something loud and obnoxious to bug my parents in to grounding me tomorrow." Wanda flopped face first on to her bed.
"Grounded on your birthday? No way!" Ai refused to play anything for her after that.
"Nice to have the support of your own appliances." Grumbled Wanda as she scratched Mimi's ears again.
"At least try to keep yourself busy, Wanda." Came the voice from her Wii.
"Ugh, fine." Wanda pulled herself up from her bed and turned on her game player, putting in a Mario game and sitting in the chair nearby.
"Enjoy your birthday, Guardian." Ice muttered to herself as she watched Wanda from the tree as she watched Wanda playing on the strange device for entertainment.
Wanda heard a lot of commotion downstairs the next morning when she opened her bedroom door, and Mimi took off down to the living room. She followed her cat, still in her purple nightdress not thinking that there might be company in the living room and kitchen.
"Grandma...? What's going on?" Asked Wanda, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.
"Hi, honey." Susan and Dean were at the door that Mimi was trying to claw through.
"What's up? Where's Mom?" She stared, more alert than before.
Susan winked at Dean.
"Go get yourself dressed, the kitchen isn't quite ready for you yet." She said, turning Wanda around by the shoulders and steering her back up the stairs with a pat in the middle of her back.
Wanda stared back at her grandmother with a bemused expression, before walking up the stairs and returning to her room.
"Everything almost ready?" Susan peeked her head in to the living room where Cerella was busy hanging up the last of the purple streamers.
"Yup! Just putting the last minute details up." HuiLing smiled broadly as her mother was busy with YanLin, putting all of Wanda's favorite foods on the main dining table in a buffet style.
"Hey, Will, remember your fifteenth birthday?" Cornelia's smile was broad. "Instead of purple with glittering disco lizards, yours was neon green with frogs everywhere."
"Yeah it's certainly something... like mother like daughter... it's still an amphibian after all..." Matt said offhandedly with a shrug.
"What was that, dear?" Will put emphasis on the last word of her sentence with a sharp look in her red eyes.
"Woah... did that just come out of my mouth?" Matt looked like he wasn't sorry at all even with the abashed expression on his face. "I think I'll go summon the birthday girl." He left rather quickly amid the giggles of HuiLing, Tress, Ingrid and Cerella.
Wanda was now fully dressed in a layered outfit- a lilac long sleeved shirt, with a dark purple tank top over it. She wore dark blue jeans, and tennis shoes. Her cat was sitting on the dresser top, watching her every move with those big sapphire eyes.
Mimi looked at the bedroom window suddenly, growling and hissing loudly.
"Mimi?" Wanda blinked, looking up she saw the face of a woman, cloaked and hooded, staring at her with the exact same eyes as her cat.
"Who are you?" She demanded of the woman, her voice rising over her cat's. It was lucky she already put the Heart of Kandrikor around her neck, hidden under the neckline.
Ice smiled beneath the hood of her cloak, removing it.
"Hello, dear Guardian of Meridian." She said, her voice silky as she faded through the wall of the house, appearing in the room.
Mimi got in between Wanda and Ice.
"WANDA!" Matt called out, as soon as he opened the door and saw his daughter facing the stranger. He stood between Wanda and the woman, a fierce glare of protectiveness in his eyes.
HuiLing blinked, hearing Matt shout like that.
"Say Mom, Dad, can you help YanLin and the others with the decorations?" Asked Will. "I'll take the girls and Derek upstairs to see if Wanda was trying to dismantle her lamp again."
Susan and Dean looked at each other, not sure why that simple task needed the attention of both parents plus all of her friends.
"Come on, the more the merrier down here! Still lots to do!" YanLin grinned, taking Will's hint that there might be trouble on the horizon.
"All right then." Nodded Dean. Will had always been a strange one, so no doubt Wanda was turning out to be like a combination of her parents.
"So, you going to tell us who you are? Or am I going to have to beat the answer out of you?" Matt asked, transforming in to Shegon at once, his giant black wings blocking his daughter and her cat from the woman's view.
"You may call me Ice, I am a servant of the great lord Phobos." Ice raised her hands, and the cloak fell behind her shoulders revealing the pure white clothing she wore underneath the cloak. The robes were so white that it almost dazzled Wanda. The moment that Ice revealed her true form, Wanda heard footsteps at the door again.
"Guys!" She blinked in surprise.
"Hurry, Wanda, transform now!" Will said, noting that everything around the woman who called herself Ice was in fact, turning in to her namesake.
"Right... Guardians Unite! And make it fast!" She shouted, holding out the Heart of Kandrikor.
The five girls reemerged as the Guardians.
At that moment, a sharp pain ran through Wanda's body, starting at her shoulder and moving from there in half a second.
"Not now, she grumbled to herself, grabbing the shoulder as Shegon turned around quickly and caught her before she hit the floor.
"Awe... the little Guardian has not managed to beat back my good friend Rhea's poison?" Smiled Ice.
"You're the one I saw." Derek stared at the woman.
Ice looked at Derek, and returned his smile.
"Unfortunately, I don't have time to play..." Ice directed the palm of her right hand at Shegon, who sent a ray of green light from his eyes at the ice that was shooting at him. Shards of ice went in all directions, ripping up the bed sheets, nicking the lamp, and a few other bits of electrical devices in Wanda's room.
"Hey, watch it!" Protested Ai, and the television. "I WOULD like to play my music selection for Wanda again while she's resting later, ya know?"
"Sorry." Muttered Shegon.
"Man that gets old..." Ingrid looked at the iPod.
"And fast, believe me." Nodded Will.
"This won't do at all for a battlefield." Smiled Ice. "We need some place more... spacious."
"How are we supposed to have a fair battle with one Guardian down?" Asked Tress.
Ice raised her left hand, this time forming what looked like a peace symbol with her fingers before directing her palm flat at the group.
It happened in a flash of blinding white light, and they reappeared at...
"Shell Beach?" Blinked Cerella, looking around.
"I thought this is much more suited to our way of fighting... everything we need here, after all." Ice looked at the group.
"And no one can disturb us... Not even our parents." Ingrid noted that Matt and Will were not with them now. Wanda was kneeling on the ground, holding her shoulder tightly with her left hand as she fought to gain control of the pain.
HuiLing bent down to Wanda's side and put a comforting arm around her.
"Thanks, but I'm fine." Wanda stood up once the pain was gone, which surprisingly took a short amount of time.
"Enough..." Ice raised the palm of her right hand at the Guardians, who took to the air at once seeing the pillar of ice shooting towards them half a second later.
When Wanda looked down to make sure the pillar of ice wasn't following her, however, her eyes went wide. The pillar was shooting up directly at her.
"Want to play follow the leader, huh?" She grumbled, taking a sharp right in the air.
"Why is that witch only going after Wanda?" Asked Cerella.
"It's obvious, isn't it? It's because Wanda has the Heart of Kandrikor!" Exclaimed Tress.
"Ok, Ice, you want to play it cool, don't you?" Ingrid smiled, she placed both palms of her hands together in a clap, but kept her hands together as water poured from them right at the pillar that was catching up with Wanda despite her maneuvers in the air to avoid it. "Well, how bout a dip? HuiLing, now!"
HuiLing nodded and sent the cold air at Ingrid's own pillar of water as it made contact with the pillar of ice right as it made a sharp left after Wanda.
"You think that's the only trick I have up my sleeves, Guardians?" Asked Ice with a sneer when the pillar of ice she was sending to chase after Wanda came under her enemies' control and shot back at her.
Ice brought up her second hand once Wanda had stopped trying to escape, and from the ground erupted a wall of ice.
"Not good!" Wanda reacted fast, balling her hands in to fists and sending her own wall of lightning to counter attack.
The shards snapped and cracked as they shot in every direction as a result.
"Smooth move." Cerella smiled.
"Not so smooth, look!" Tress shouted as the shards hovered in mid air around Wanda, and started to grow in to one giant pillar from the ground up. Tress flew over, and sent a wave of fire at the ice, but it had no effect after a good five minutes. Wanda was already flying higher than the others as the ice grew.
Suddenly she couldn't fly anymore, and looked down. Ice covered her feet, and it was reaching up around her legs.
"Guys, a little help!" She called out as the others flew over to try anything they could to pull her out. HuiLing grabbed Wanda's hands and yanked hard, but Wanda wouldn't budge. Cerella directed the palm of her hands at the ground, roots thick as school buses broke free from the earth, wrapping around the pillar of ice, trying to break it free with the sharp thorns. But the ice only seemed to get stronger.
"How bout a hot water bath?" Ingrid suggested, looking at Tress, who nodded. "You might want to hold your breath for this one."
The ice was now up to Wanda's waist as Ingrid and Tress sent fire mixed in with water at the pillar.
"Don't you think Phobos will love his gift from me?" Ice laughed as the pillar grew slowly to consume Wanda's body. "It's so... tasteful."
"Sorry, but you are so behind the times when it comes to gift giving." Cerella sent a rolling earthquake to send Ice falling to the ground as she noticed Derek running at the pillar from the ground, his sword raised and ready to strike just as the ice started to climb over Wanda's shoulders.
"Maybe this will help..." Derek stabbed the ice with his sword. He heard the cracking and snapping as it dug in to the pillar, but for several moments, nothing seemed to happen except for the ice starting to cover Wanda's head.
"There's nothing you can do now, boy. My ice is indestructible. It is stronger than diamonds and can re-grow itself faster than a lizard re-grows its tail." She laughed maniacally.
Wanda struggled to move, she couldn't breathe. She couldn't even close her eyes as she saw her friends trying to attack the pillar with everything they had without hurting her. She could hear Derek's sword hacking away at the ice despite what Ice said, but that was the only thing she could decipher. 'What do I do,' she wondered. 'I only have power over lightning and making electrical devices annoy the crap out of me. My heart's slowing,' she realized. Soon she really would die, without the wound on her shoulder or the poison within it giving any aid to the situation. But she was the Guardian's leader, she had to have more power than this.
HuiLing flew right up to the pillar, she could feel her friend struggling to survive long enough for them to get her out.
"Oooooh... I can't take this anymore!" She exclaimed, stomping her foot in midair.
'Wanda, you've got to hang on. We're trying to figure something out!' Tress sent to Wanda's mind using her power over telepathy.
'Take your time, guys. I'm only dying a slow, cold death here.' Retorted a very annoyed Wanda when she heard Tress' attempt at reassurance. 'Wait a minute... here! That's it...'
"WHAT?" Tress exclaimed suddenly when Wanda stopped responding.
"What's going on up there?" Derek demanded. "Why aren't you guys doing anything?"
Suddenly the answer was quite plain. Lightning started cracking around the pillar at random intervals as a red light started forming around Wanda inside the ice.
"What? NO!" Shrieked Ice when she realized that Wanda had found a way to fight back before she herself could find a way to get her to Meridian.
Soon the red light and lightning from Wanda's element made the pillar of ice glimmer with the amount of energy she was putting in to the attack.
"Disco effect, nice." Ingrid smiled.
"That's a new one." Will and Matt- who was still in his Shegon form and carrying Will while he flew- had finally reached Shell Beach, and Will stared up at her daughter, frozen in the pillar of ice but obviously fighting back.
"Anyone care to fill us in?" Matt asked as he set Will down.
"No time for that, Regent!" Ice shouted, seeing Wanda's father return to join the fight, she sent two pillars of ice at Shegon, who returned fire with his green energy blast from his eyes.
Wanda saw what was happening in dismay. 'Dad!' she thought.
There was a sudden explosion of red light and white lightning from the pillar where Wanda had been frozen moments later. The force of the explosion sent the other four gardens flying in the opposite direction, as a white light consumed them all seconds later. She felt a pair of strong hands catch as she fell and nearly hit the ground. She could not remember anything after that.
Cerella let out a screech of rage as she landed in to a lake full of mud and sea weed.
"That girl is SO lucky it's her birthday!" She said as she picked seaweed out of her hair.
"Yeah, we don't need a murder at least until tomorrow." Ingrid agreed.
"Is everyone ok?" Asked Matt, now back in his human form, and helping HuiLing from a patch of rocks.
"I'm just glad my wings helped slow my fall." HuiLing rubbed her back. "What happened?" She asked as Will stood up, her hair looking like it was plastered to her face with bits of seaweed and mud stuck in it.
"Ugh... you mean apart from us landing in a disgusting swamp land?" Tress was wiping mud off of her arms.
"It looks like Wanda made a portal... but more than one when she had that surge of power so suddenly." Will tried to explain as she wrung the water out of her hair. "We made it all right, but it looks like she and Derek are missing." She looked at the group. "But at least we can safely say she still has the Heart, otherwise you wouldn't have had your wings to break your fall... for the most part." She chuckled, seeing Cerella's plainly pissed off attitude.
"Well, as soon as we find her, if Phobos hasn't managed to kill her by then, I will. It's going to take at least a week to wash the stench off of me!" Cerella exclaimed.
"Um, Cerel', drama queen much?" Ingrid poked Cerella.
"Oh, hah hah, you can laugh being the Guardian of water has nothing on you apparently." Cerella flipped her muddy and sea weed infested hair at Ingrid, who took a face full and coughed.
"Ok, that's it!" Ingrid said, balling her right hand in to a fist and dropping a sphere of swamp water over Cerella, who let out another shriek of rage.
"Enough you guys! This is no time for a water fight or damaging each other's egos!" Said Will.
"Yeah, you can always do that at school or during summer vacation." Matt put in.
"Let's just get out of the swamp, and see if we can't locate Wanda and Derek somehow. At least he knows Meridian's landscapes, so if we're lucky and she's with him, they should find their way." Will went on after giving Matt a look that shut him up rather quickly.
"Sounds like a plan to me." Cerella huffed, standing up again at once and moving towards the nearest patch of land.
It had taken Derek a few moments to gain his bearings, but soon he knew exactly where he was. He was amazed that he'd managed to catch Wanda before that white light consumed him- and apparently Mimi. Even more amazed when he realized he was on Meridian. He wondered where the others were, but with an unconscious Guardian of Meridian in his arms, he had no choice but to find shelter and let her rest to regain her strength. He quickly found an empty cave, then laid her against the wall next to a large bowlder, hiding her from sight in case any enemies came looking for them. He watched as Mimi walked over to Wanda instead of wandering off, then climbed in to her lap and curled up in to a ball before falling asleep herself.
Derek looked at Wanda's sleeping form for a long time, trying to figure out how she managed to free herself, then transport them to Meridian in all of that confusion. He heard outside a clap of thunder, and looked outside just in time to see rain starting to pour down on the swampland.
"Great... nature just had to make it harder for me to listen for enemies." He grumbled as Mimi started with a high pitched yowl that apparently woke Wanda up.
She blinked several times as everything came in to focus.
"Hey, sleepy head." Derek couldn't help but smile down at her dazed and confused expression as she sat up, picking Mimi off her lap and cradling the cat in her arms.
"Derek? What are you... what are we doing here?" She blinked, looking up at him, standing up slowly. "And why did Mimi come too?"
Derek's smile turned in to a frown as he thought.
"I'm not sure what exactly happened, but you apparently experienced some kind of power overload, sent us here to Meridian, and now we're stuck here at least until the rain clears and we can find our way to the castle." He said as Wanda looked out at the rain that blocked everything ten feet or more beyond their cave from view.
"How in the world did I do this?" She wondered aloud as her cat gave another loud meow at her when she had stopped stroking her fur.
Derek walked up to her by the right side with a shrug.
"Not a clue." He said rather bluntly when she looked up at him, the confusion and sense of feeling so lost quite plain in her red eyes.
