Chapter Eighteen:

Corruption of the Heart

"Matt, have you seen Wanda? It's way past her normal version of late, even for her." Will asked her husband, who shook his head. "Maybe she got held up at the zoo?" She wondered out loud, then went to her cell phone and picked it up. She made sure to check that her mother and step-father were out of the room before she started talking to it. "Hey, Max. Can you help me by dialing Wanda?"

"Sure thing, Will." Replied the mechanical male voice from the phone.

"You know, I still think that's creepy whenever you start talking to electrical things like that." Matt said as the phone rang and rang until someone picked up. But it wasn't Wanda, it was the phone that she had talking back to her.

"Hey Will, you want Wanda? I haven't seen her in a while." Said the phone.

"You haven't? When was the last time she used you?" Asked Will.

"About lunch time when she gave you and her dad a call." Replied the telephone. "Oh, and I'm Chad, by the way."

"Thanks for the help Chad. What can you remember last?" Will pressed on.

"Well... All I can remember is being stuffed in to her back pack like usual after school, being bounced around like a balloon in here, then a thud and hearing a yell then another thud." Replied Chad.

Will and Matt exchanged worried glances.

"Max, I know this will be asking a lot of you, but can you dial each of Wanda's friends? At once?" Will looked back at her phone.

"No problem, I can do that blindfolded-"

HuiLing was walking down the street to her families' restaurant when she heard the jingling of her cell phone in her pocket. When she answered her phone- a small, red and gold phone with a chinese dragon on the front- she had to jerk it away from her ear at the greeting.

"HUI-LING! Finally! We've been trying to reach you for twenty minutes!" Will's voice was loud in her panic. "Listen, when was the last time you guys saw Wanda?"

"About two hours ago when we said goodbye after school, why?" Asked HuiLing as she took a loud sip from the soda bottle she carried.

"We haven't seen her at all." Replied Will. "And when I called her, she didn't answer."

"You think something's happened to her?" Asked Cerella.

"No, everyone's panicked over your lack of style today, Cerel'." Ingrid put in sarcastically. "Can we stay focussed here?"

"I'll let my mom and great grandma know what's going on and start looking at her regular haunts." HuiLing said as she opened the door. She nearly spit out the soda she barely had the chance to drink through the straw when she saw who was waiting for her inside.

HayLin and YanLin were both smiling at her.

"HuiLing? Something wrong?" Asked Tress.

"No, no. Everything's fine." HuiLing replied. "I'm just going to leave my things at the restaurant and give you guys a call if anything turns up."

"Right... Meantime, I'm going to search from topside." Matt jerked his thumb up to the ceiling as he looked at Will, before stepping out of the house. He made sure no one was watching before transforming in to Shegon, and taking to the skies.

HuiLing said quick goodbyes and stared at Stevie.

"Hey there girl, thought I'd come by and see what all the hub-bub is about this restaurant your family owns." He said walking over to her, completely oblivious to the fact that he brought her stuttering and blushing when he was near.

"Uh.. yeah, it's a great place." She smiled, then shook her head. "But I can't really talk right now, I'm super busy." She looked over at her mom and great grandmother. "Mom, I just got a call from Auntie Will, and she said Wanda's gone missing. I need to go help look for her, and since I'm her best friend I can go straight to her favorite lurking spots. I hope you don't mind?" She asked, her eyes wide and pleading with her head tilted to the side.

HayLin blinked, then sighed.

"Fine, there will just be a bigger pile of dishes waiting for you when you get back." Her Great Grandmother put in before HayLin could say anything.

"Mind if I come and help?" Asked Stevie, with a genuinely concerned expression. He really came to the restaurant because he heard HuiLing's family owned it, and hoped for the chance at seeing her.

HuiLing stared at him, then looked at the clock before letting out a rare frustrated groan.

"Fine," She said against her better judgement. "Come on, let's get going." She grabbed Stevie by the shirt collar and practically dragged him from the restaurant.

Wanda finally woke up, to find herself lying on cold, hard granite floors. She sat up slowly, rubbing her head.

"What was that?" She muttered before her eyes came in to focus, and she realized she was in a small cell, just big enough for one person to stand fully erect in but not move around too much. Apart from the bars- which were glowing an eerie green color- the cell was black and full of shadows.

"So, you're finally awake." Came a familiar hissing voice from beyond her cell doors that she did not want to hear. "Master Phobos requires an audience with you."

Cedric stood in his human form, staring down at her with painfully obvious venom in his eyes.

"You know, the giant lizard look suits your personality better, lizard boy." Snapped Wanda, sounding braver than she really felt. She reached in to her pockets for the Heart of Kandrikor, but found it wasn't there, she normally kept it in her pockets, or her back pack. It was then she realized her back pack must still be on Earth. Crap, she thought as the bars on her cell vanished from a command Cedric gave.

Cedric took her to Phobos' throne room, a gloomy Gothic themed place with rose bushes and thorns growing on the walls around the throne that Phobos sat upon. He didn't have to worry about her making a break for it, with her hands cuffed behind her back.

"I bring you the leader of the new generation of Guardians, my lord." Cedric bowed before shoving Wanda in front of Phobos' throne chair.

Wanda landed roughly on her knees as Phobos stood up to get a better look at her.

"So you're the one who's given me so much trouble..." Phobos hissed with dislike. "Tell me, where is the Heart of Kandrikar?" He asked as he took slow steps down the stairs that led up to his throne.

"I...I don't know." Replied Wanda as roses started climbing up her legs, wrapping around her and preventing her from even trying to move or get away.

"Hey guys... good news, bad news time..." HuiLing and Stevie had found her friends, as well as Derek and Wanda's parents.

"Out with it!" Tress said, a hint of rare impatience in her voice.

"Well, the good news is, we found Wanda's backpack." Stevie said as HuiLing held it up, the beaded lizards that were clipped to her bag gleaming merrily in the sunshine.

"Bad news is, she left her necklace in it." HuiLing pulled out the Heart of Kandrikar.

"Why is that bad? Family heirloom?" Asked Stevie.

"Uh... you could say that." Smiled Will at the stumped look HuiLing had when she looked back at Stevie, who blinked, looking around at everyone's stupefied expressions.

"Ok, you guys are hiding something from me... And I want to know what." Stevie said after a long, awkward silence.

"Well..." HuiLing looked over at Will, who smiled.

"It's ok, there are exceptions to the rule of telling no one." Matt pointed out. "At least once in a while." He shrugged.

Just as HuiLing was about to go in to the discussion at rapid pace explaining when a glowing, violet portal appeared in front of them, startling Stevie.

"Uh... HuiLing... what's with the glowing disc hovering in mid-air?" He asked after calming down.

Everyone turned.

"Looks like Elyon is calling us. Sorry Stevie, we've gotta go." HuiLing stared.

"Elyon? You mean that woman who Cerella's mom is always talking about?" Blinked Stevie.

"Very same, anyways, when Meridian calls, we've gotta answer... Sorry kid." Matt said, now back in to his original form after the search for his daughter proved futile earlier.

"Hey, I wanna come too!" Protested Stevie. "I want to get to know everything about HuiLing."

"Isn't he adorable?" Cerella said, making HuiLing blush scarlet.

"So long as you promise not to tell a soul, I don't see why you can't come with us to meet the Queen..." Said Will, looking at Matt who nodded in agreement.

"I managed just fine, and never told anyone. So kid, what do you say?" Matt looked down at Stevie, who nodded.

"I won't tell a soul. I can already see that no one would believe me if I did anyways. So what do we do to get in to see Elyon?" He looked at everyone.

"Walk in to the glowing disc thing, also known as a portal to another dimension." Grinned Tress. "I'll go first, and you can follow with HuiLing."

Stevie nodded as he watched Tress walk straight in to the portal.

"So... that's it? No fancy words or waving of wands?" He asked.

"We're not witches or anything." Snapped Ingrid, giving HuiLing a poke.

"Huh? Oh, right. Come on, Stevie." HuiLing said, finally coming out of her embarrassed trance, and grabbing him by the wrist, pulling him forward with a strength that surprised him.

For a moment, he thought he was going to crash in to this thing. Then he saw nothing but swirling light surrounding the two of them. Until a rip appeared in front of HuiLing, and she aimed right for it. Beyond the rip he could see a scene that reminded him of one of his fantasy stories, he had to remind himself that this wasn't a dream. He really was being led to another realm by HuiLing, who was not at all the person he had imagined before.

When they reemerged, they were in the throne room. Where Elyon sat, smiling and waiting for the group to gather.

"What's up, your Majesty?" Asked Ingrid.

"What is up is I noticed Wanda is not with you, and instead I see a boy obviously from Earth, born and bread." Elyon's smile faded a little. "The oracles sensed a disturbance, and alerted me. Where is Wanda?"

"We don't know. We've been looking all over Heatherfield for her, but still no sign." Sighed Will.

"Then perhaps it's time to start looking here on Meridian?" Elyon raised an eyebrow. "But first, while Wanda may be missing, did you at least find and make sure the Heart of Kandrikar is safe?"

"Yes, it's right here." Nodded HuiLing, pulling it out of her pocket.

"Good. Until you find Wanda, you won't be able to transform. Will, I believe it can lead the girls to Wanda, correct?" Elyon looked up at Will, who nodded.

"It found me when I was captured by Phobos for the first time." Will explained to the stumped looks on the girl's faces.

HuiLing let out a small yell of surprise when she realized that the Heart of Kandrikar was glowing a bright red.

"What?" Asked an annoyed Ingrid who had jumped when HuiLing yelled.

"I don't know about you guys, but I think this thing is going to help us find Wanda." Replied HuiLing, ignoring Ingrid's tone of voice.

"Stevie, would you mind staying here? No offense, but you're not really accustomed to fighting Phobos or anything yet, but myself, Matt and the Queen will be able to fill you in on everything here." Will looked at Stevie, who half acted like he wanted to follow HuiLing. But Stevie nodded, thinking it would be best not to jump in to anything blindly.

"Well, as they say in the commercials... Follow your nose, HuiLing... or in this case, the glowing red crystal." Smirked Ingrid.

Wanda was hanging by her wrists on the cold stone wall, her face pale and gaunt as Rhea stood in front of her. Her wrists were chained to the wall with thick, old cuffs bolted to it so that she couldn't make a break for freedom. The room was dark, lit only by candles that flickered eerily in the cold dungeons.

"Soon the poison will be taking its full effect on you, child." Said Rhea. "Feeding off of your darker energies. Your anger, your hate, your grief and sorrow. And your loneliness from your childhood. While you may not have the Heart of Kandrikar, Master Phobos can still use the darker energies from you in order to ascend to the throne of Meridian. Once he is back from retrieving his scepter, he will be able to complete your transformation." She gave an unseen sneer as Dalibor stood at the entrance to the dungeon.

"My friends will still fight Phobos... They have the Heart. They can fight even without me as their leader. You don't know how strong they are." Snapped Wanda, raising her head up to glare at Rhea, who's silver eyes narrowed.

"If you weren't such a prize to my master, you would pay for that comment, brat." Rhea growled, bringing her black gloved hand to Wanda's throat, forcing the girl to look right at her.

"Rhea, we need the girl alive for the Master's plan to work." Came Dalibor's deep voice from the entrance, and Rhea reluctantly let go of Wanda's neck.

Phobos had arrived in the artifacts room of Elyon's castle. The guards saw him, and sent out the alarm- the loud horns sounded through the castle as he made to the one artifact he needed most. The room was large with many delicate display boxes that contained old weapons, the now smashed Horn he used to enslave his subjects, and many other items of interest. When he reached the scepter in its tall, long and narrow case, a familiar voice stopped him momentarily.

"Phobos, what are you doing back you traitor?" Elyon was at the entrance of the room flanked by Will, Shegon, and a boy he didn't recognize with short black hair.

"Ah, my sister... ever the inquisitive one you are." Smiled Phobos before he raised his hand. There was a flash of lightning, the glass around the Scepter of Phobos shattered, and he grabbed it. "This should answer your question. I need it for a plan of mine that I have."

"And what plan is this, I order you to tell me!" Elyon raised her own hand, an orb of light appearing at the palm.

There was an echo of laughter.

"HA! You order me to tell you? You, who are far younger than your brother, who is the rightful ruler of Meridian?" Phobos taunted.

Elyon chose not to reply to him verbally. Instead she sent the sphere of light at him. He raised his staff and sent a wave of lightning to counter the attack. The result was both powers were shooting right at Stevie, who let out a yell and ducked just in time while Shegon flew to him, pulling him out of the way.

When they turned back, Phobos had vanished in the confusion and excitement.

Wanda felt pale, and stiff. She couldn't move now if she wanted to. Then she heard someone appear in the room, and glanced up. She couldn't recall anything about herself, her name, her past, or who she was.

It was Phobos, now carrying the Staff that she had seen in the Ancient and Important Artifacts room.

"The poison is taking full effect, Master." Rhea bowed to him as he approached. "She no longer has her memories. So even if her friends turn up now, their efforts will be futile."

"Excellent." He said as Cedric approached from behind.

"The other Guardians are coming... shall I go be the welcoming party?" He asked.

There was a pause.

"No... I have another plan." Phobos looked at Wanda, raising the tip of his staff at her face.

She blinked, looking at it. Then there was a flash of lightning that came from the tip of the stone, then engulfed her entirely. When the light faded, she had reemerged wearing an outfit resembling that of the guardians. She wore a low-cut black tank top with a single strap over her left shoulder, a pink chinese style skirt held on her waist by a violet sash with a black overlaying obi. Her boots were knee length and black, while her pink sleeves cut off below the shoulders, and at the hand were bell like and resembled pink flower petals. Her tight pants were dark green and spring green in color. The strand of hair that she usually had hanging over her right shoulder was in a single braid, tied with a violet hair tie. Her wings were larger than those of her friends, more like her mother's when she gained her second transformation.

"I am here to serve you, my master." She bowed to Phobos, who was smiling in spite of himself.

"Listen to me, my faithful Guardian... you are to go and send the intruders from this castle. Use any means necessary." Phobos ordered, and she rose at once, turning to leave the dungeons.