Chapter 29- E is for Evanescent

(Translation- Tending to vanish like a vapor)

Author's Comments: From here on out with these titles when I think it's a word some people might not understand, I'll put the definition down below. I'm kind of following the model from the TV series where the title starts in the order of the alphabet. Even if I might not necessarily say the word in the chapter, it is still highly relevant and telling for it. Enjoy!

Running down a valley was a woman, ducking between the rocks as energy blasts went after her. A battle cry from Cedric as the giant lizard pursued her. She rounded a sharp corner, and Cybelle saw a cliff dead ahead.

"Traitor!" Declared Rhea as Cybelle dodged the sharp, poisoned needles.

"No. You are traitors to yourselves for siding with Phobos." Cybelle declared, pointing her fingers at Rhea and Cedric. "I only wish I'd seen that for myself sooner."

A giant tail came crashing down near her, and she was forced to jump to the very edge of the cliff.

"What can a healer do against our mighty powers?" Hissed Cedric. He laughed as she ducked from a wild swing of his tail, then jumped again as it came crashing down on the edge of the cliff.

Cybelle realized that with Cedric's attack the ground was becoming weaker and weaker at the edge of this cliff. That gave her an idea.

"I can do many things, master Cedric. Not just heal people. And I clearly remember your failed attempt to take over the Earth and Meridian when you betrayed Phobos back then. I can't imagine the sort of sucking up you had to do to be able to get back on his good side. Or is that why you initially captured the former Guardians before? To prove you were still 'loyal' to Phobos?" She grinned. She let her words sink in for a moment. "I'm impressed Lord Phobos let you back even after that failed capture since there was a new group of Guardians who rescued their parents. You failed miserably just like in everything you've attempted. Can't do a thing without Phobos. Can you?"

"How dare you...!?" Growled Cedric, his tail swishing angrily as he clenched his fists.

"At least I can think and act for myself. Lord Phobos hasn't yet managed to take my indepence away and I can tell you, you are the most pathetic, insignificant giant worm out there. Especially to be sucking up to a guy you yourself tried to overthrow." She had a confident hand on her hips to boot, and she knew when to dodge a wild, completely pissed off swing of the tail as it came crashing down on her while Rhea tried to warn Cedric not to let Cybelle get to him.

The ground beneath her at the edge of the cliff crumbled at the last swing and echoing roar from Cedric, and she appeared to vanish into the dark abyss below. The pair waited to listen to the sound of the large boulder sized rocks crashing on the bottom, and hear the scream as the traitor fell to her doom before turning to return to their master.

"The traitor has been successfully dispatched, my Lord." Cedric bowed to Phobos once they returned.

Phobos had his Guardians, and Moonshine just behind him as Cedric and Rhea were out dealing with a certain matter of interest.

"Good. There will be no more delays in my next plan. The Crystal of Cepheus is of no use to me. Not when I get my hands on the Heart of Kandrikar. Once I have that, The Crystal of Cepheus and others like it will be but a simple trifle matter." Phobos mused, more to himself than the others present in the room.

"What would you have us do, My Lord?" Asked Leila.

*. *. *

Standing with the mages, Wanda and her friends were telling them about their adventures recently.

"Excellent." Smiled Halinor once Ingrid had finished the most recent tale. "Your skills are improving with each combative situation. Victories are becoming more assured as your magic grows."

"Indeed. You are progressing as you should." Said the Oracle with a smile.

"And here in a few days we get to go to Disney World for a week! We've been waiting for this trip for months!" Ingrid exclaimed.

"Oh yeah, it's going to be such a nice break from all the fighting and battles going on." Nodded Cerella.

"There's going to be so many rides and shops that we can go to." HuiLing looked like she was just barely managing to hold in her excitement.

The Oracle and Halinor chuckled.

"Then enjoy your sojourn. You have earned it."

*. *. *

Time went by quickly. The group managed to get what they wanted for Career Day at school that Friday, and even managed to enjoy themselves though they were exhausted by the end of the day and Wanda smelled fully of birds and other animals from the zoo. HuiLing had been busy cooking when the restaurant owner of the separate business from the Silver Dragon found out she was the Great Granddaughter of YanLin who ran the Silver Dragon. Cerella managed to not strangle any business owners in the fashion industry that she worked with thanks to her mother's connections, and to her it was a treat to see her mother working in the massive skyscraper in downtown Heatherfield. Tress came back looking rather happy despite having some fresh burns on her hands and she was still picking clay off her fingers. While Ingrid wound up helping Wanda at the zoo, she was in the aquarium rather than the birds and mammals.

They were all surprised by Derek when they saw him in the publishers zone of the boots in the gym after a long day out and about.

"What're you doing here, big brother?" Asked Cerella, grabbing his shoulder from behind and trying to see the compilation of writings he had in a binder.

"Ah, you must be Cerella." Smiled the man on the other side of the booth as Derek gave his sister an annoyed look and easily raised the binder out of her reach. "I've heard you've got your mother's talent."

Cerella glowed at the compliment. Derek rolled his eyes at her reaction. After all, their mother was a well known fashionista in Heatherfield.

"I was just finishing up talking with your brother about his future as a writer. It seems your family is full of surprising talents." Smiled the man with a wink at Derek over the sibling squabble. "I would just wait until your brother has published his works for you to be able to see, Miss. Why ruin the surprise?"

Cerella gave a classic pouty look before her friends called her over and she finally left her brother alone. Though not without a smack across the back of his head as she left.

"Sorry about that, she can be so annoying." He sighed, rubbing the spot she hit.

"Having five other siblings myself, I understand." Smiled the publisher, earning a wide-eyed look from the young man. "My parents... shall we say... were quite productive." And to that Derek was chuckling and the people in the booths on either side burst out laughing. For a moment in that corner it was like being at a convention when a bad joke was told and all professionalism lost thanks to this one comment. Even Principal Knickerbocker glanced over in that direction with raised eyebrows.

*. *. *

By the end of the day, the group was worn out.

"So, anyone got any plans for tonight?" Ingrid asked. The weather was nice enough that the group was walking home.

"I'm going to start packing. Our flight leaves in the A.M. and I need to be sure I have my beauty rest too." Cerella flipped her hair, earning another eye roll from her brother.

"Yeah, same here. I've never been on a flight that long and I want to rest up." Agreed Tress as she picked off yet some more dried clay from her hands.

"How about you, HuiLing?" Ingrid inquired.

"I probably should pack... but I do better on the sort of last minute panic mode when it comes to packing so it will probably be just before bed." HuiLing replied.

"Excellent! Then we should get together at my place for a bit and play some video games." Ingrid suddenly exclaimed.

"That sounds great! What about you Wanda?" HuiLing inclined her head at her friend.

"No can do." Derek said casually. "She and I have a date arranged for tonight." He had it all arranged with her parents already.

"Oh right! The continuing saga of Romeo and Drooliet." Giggled Ingrid as Wanda's face went scarlet.

"But after I'm probably going to be packing. I don't want to forget anything." Wanda said hastily as HuiLing was laughing at the look on her face.

The group reached the usual parting point and said their goodbyes.

Derek put his arm around Wanda and led her away, down to the restaurant area of town. He couldn't help but notice her face was still bright red. He fought hard not to grin at how adorable she looked when she was blushing as they walked down the street together.

*. *. *

Deep in the crevices of Meridian, Cybelle was walking alone. She knew this was an area that the former foe Nerissa often used as a meeting place for her Nights of Vengeance, but now it was pretty quiet and lonesome. She wondered what she should do next now that Phobos was no longer setting Cedric and Rhea on her. She'd defected from his forces, but knew her welcome by Queen Elyon would be anything but charming and caring. She heard a noise and hid, with her hand on her sword as one of Queen Elyon's guards came walking around.

She recognized the man as Caleb's father, and then there was Raithor.

"I swear I heard someone down here." Raithor commented.

A sword suddenly landed on the ground at their feet when Cybelle suddenly realized what to do for them to take her seriously. She was on both knees kneeling before them a moment later and they were blinking at her in surprise.

"You... You are one of Phobos' warriors!" Shouted Caleb's father as the guards swarmed around her.

"Against my own better judgment." Responded Cybelle.

"Are you saying you suddenly had a change of heart? If so, what changed you?" Demanded Raithor, in an obvious 'not believing her' kind of tone.

"One of the Guardians. Please, let me speak to Queen Elyon. Keep my sword if you must to ease your conscience about if I'm going to turn on you or not." Cybelle said with a bowed head.

The guards looked at each other before cuffing her hands behind her back and pulling her up.

"Very well. We will let you plead your case. After all, I myself defected from Phobos at one time to aid the Guardians." Raithor said, and he began leading the way back to the castle. "But one wrong move and you will go straight to prison. Is that fair?"

Cybelle nodded.

"Very well. Take this woman to Queen Elyon!" He called out as Caleb's father took her sword in his hands.

*. *. *

Queen Elyon was sitting in her throne, bored and drawing on a sketchpad when a knocking came on the doors to the throne room. She set the sketchpad down on the table next to the throne and became all serious and official-looking.

"Enter." She called.

Raithor came in with the defector being pulled close behind.

"Raithor, what's this?" She asked curiously.

"This woman claims to have defected from Phobos' forces. She wished to speak to you to plead her case before we had a chance to throw her in prison." Raithor bowed.

The guards pushed the woman forward. Cybelle was suddenly scared as she did her best to bow.

"Don't worry. Our Queen might be fierce and powerful, but she is also kind and fair." Caleb's father commented when he saw some very human emotions from the young woman.

"Indeed. Let's hear what you have to say for yourself, my dear." Smiled Elyon.

It was this smile that surprised Cybelle most. Of all the things she'd heard about Elyon, she'd not expected the fact that many of them just weren't true.

*. *. *

The girls were staring at Wanda. It was the Saturday before their trip, and they were all but ready. Including Wanda, who'd had her hair cut by her mother Will.

"What? I get my hair cut once or twice a year. You guys know this. And since we're going to a place where my long hair would be nothing but a burden, mom insisted it get a trim last night." Explained a slightly miffed Wanda.

"Not that it doesn't look good, but what is it with people and their hair this year? First Tress stops dying her hair black to let her natural colors show through. Now you've had your hair cut!" Cerella gave her own an imperial flip.

"I wonder how it's going to look when you've transformed..." HuiLing was blinking. It was still an odd thing to see her best friend with short-ish hair.

It was now shoulder length rather than waist length.

The group was gathered at the silver dragon for one last meal before their flight at 3 a.m. so they could be in Florida by 8 P.M. to spend Sunday getting settled in and adjusted to their new surroundings. There would be layovers, and wait times between flights. But hopefully no hiccups along the way.

"Your mother always preferred her hair short." Smiled YanLin reassuringly as she set down plates of the food they requested at their table.

Wanda gave a grateful smile- both at the food and at YanLin's words of wisdom.

"Now eat up and then get straight home. You'll need your rest to get up before the crack of dawn. It's not like you can fold yourselves to Florida." YanLin advised.

"Ugh... I'm going to look a mess... who arranges a flight at three a.m.? I won't have had my full allotted beauy rest!" Complained Cerella.

"For once, I agree with you about the morning thing. Why'd our parents have to pick such an early flight?" Ingrid asked as she picked up her chopsticks.

"To torture us?" Asked Tress as she swallowed her first few bites.

"That would explain it." Sighed Ingrid as HuiLing and Wanda chuckled.

Derek walked into the restaurant, followed by his parents who were there to see how things were going. The families were all packed for the stay, and Wanda had mentioned that she would probably be getting her hair trimmed before the trip. It still came as a surprise when he actually saw her though.

"Woah, who's the new girl?" Derek asked, deciding to make light of it since she was looking rather awkward and self conscious about the change. The look of 'are you stupid?' she gave him in response was priceless. "Just kidding!" He said quickly as he pecked her on the forehead apologetically.

"You better be." She grumbled, barely audible through a mouthful of pasta.

"Hurry up, kids. We need to get you home soon if you want to get lots of sleep." Cornelia said. "Do you have everything set up for when you're gone?"

"Yep. Mimiru said she'd keep an eye on things and call us if something happened." Nodded Wanda.

"Not to mention we have Napoleon keeping an eye out too." Cerella added.

"And Fusagu." Agreed Ingrid.

"Not to mention Stevie. He's gotten loads of extra training from Derek lately." HuiLing piped in.

"Good. You can never have too many eyes out." Caleb nodded in approval. "We've also got Blunk on standby to fold anyone to and from Meridian if necessary. We can't be too careful about leaving Heatherfield with limited defenses."

"And since someone agreed to no battle talk or anything of the sort while we're on vacation unless an emergency pops up," Cornelia said in a pointed tone. "It's a good thing we've got so many allies these days to help manage things while we're away."

Caleb looked as though he'd rather there be no restrictions in combat talk. But since he wanted Cornelia happy while they were on holiday... He gave his daughter a significant look to hurry up. She gave him a look in response that was so sharply similar to Cornelia's 'don't rush me' look that Ingrid looked weirded out again.

It was a long morning of waiting in the lines at the airport with their luggage bags. The mothers all went off to get coffee and tea for themselves, and soda or tea for the teens once they were at the Sheffield International Airport.

"We'll be arriving at eleven thirty at night, so it's a good thing Cornelia got us all first class. Can you imagine having to travel with screaming kids and trying to sleep?" Asked Ingrid.

"Seriously… This is going to be a treat!" Giggled HuiLing, bouncing on her feet with the sort of natural hyper energy that made Wanda jealous.

Wanda was still so sleepy she was practically falling asleep on her feet and frequently trying but failing to hide her yawns. She was grateful for the warm orange spice tea her mother brought her, which kept her awake all through the security checks, bag checks, and so on as they moved through the lines in the airport.

Finally by six A.M. they were on the air plane, sitting themselves in the first class compartments. Ingrid lightly bounced on her seat, it was so comfy.

"Wow, not bad!" She said. They sat three per row, and with the parent's help pitching in and Cornelia pulling a few strings they got some special treatment. The parents had the first couple of rows, while the teens shared the next few rows. Ingrid sat on the outside, HuiLing in the middle, Tress got a window seat, Cerella in the window seat behind them, Derek in the middle and Wanda in the outside isle seat.

The airplane went through the pre take off checks, the exit announcements and so on. They buckled themselves as instructed, then takeoff. Wanda was still so tired that once they were in the skies, she wound up falling asleep. Her head drifting onto Derek's shoulder, as she was completely out of it and unawares within minutes after the ascent.

Ingrid was about to say something to her, when she saw Wanda fast asleep, then giggled like a madwoman.

"Well someone's NOT an early bird." Ingrid stated, causing Derek to snort a bit.

It being first class, Matt asked an attendant for a couple of warm blankets for Wanda who didn't wake up until almost eleven in the morning. She was a bit better at hiding her dark dreams than HuiLing had been. Ever since she returned back to the team she'd had her doubts, her fears of a relapse. Her dark self flitted in and out of her dreams like a bird of prey on the hunt for a weak rodent. She'd only mentioned this to Derek on their date, and he'd so far kept his word that he wouldn't tell anyone until she was ready to bring it up herself.

Matt also had the worry of his pregnant wife Will who was now almost a month in. She wouldn't be able to do as many of the rides as she would like, but there was still plenty to see and enjoy at DisneyWorld without overtaxing herself.

Cornelia had a surprise lunch planned for everyone at noon in this particular airline. She knew everyone's favorites and made special lunch boxes for them all.

"As a special thank you for everyone pitching in, I provided some extras," She said to an excited group.

"Good thing Martin couldn't come because of work, or else I'd have to share this!" Said Ingrid as she took a sip of sparkling juice.

"Same, for once I'm glad Eric's not here to steal any of my kung pao." Grinned HayLin. Some of the fathers could go with the group this time around, but it was only because of work.

"Thank you, Ms. Cornelia!" Wanda echoed the sentiment at her Japanese style bento box, and a sparkling soda for her beverage.

For Derek, he had a select amount of Sandwiches with earl gray tea for his drink, and Cerella had a nice salad with a mix of nuts, blue cheese and her favorite dressing. HuiLing's lunch was a bed of glass noodles, broccoli, sliced bbq pork and a boiled egg. For Tress, she had a variety of spicy sandwiches and a glass of milk. Ingrid had a ramen bowl and tea for her lunch, and the parents had similar variations. Will in particular right now was fond of spicy foods.

For the afternoon activities to kill time on the flight, the kids pulled out various books or portable gaming devices with headphones. Derek had his laptop that he was writing on, Cerella had a sketchbook with a watercolor set, drawing utensils, brushes, and her own laptop for references once she got the wifi password. Ingrid had her own portable gaming console, Tress had a new book on pottery that she'd been saving for this trip, and HuiLing was busy on the internet with her online games with headphones.

Wanda was so engrossed in her video game Breath of the Wind she hardly noticed anything else for several hours. When she focussed on something, she would often get into tunnel vision mode, which was quite helpful in killing time. There was an in flight movie that the parents all watched while Cornelia was crocheting, and the parents would check from time to time on their kids as well.

Afternoon snacks came and went, then dinner was another extravagant affair. With varying amounts of foreign food brought to their flight tables. They each got to order what they wanted, and Wanda wanted a Japanese style dinner with lots of greens and meat. Derek chose a steak with potatoes that day for his dinner, Cerella wanted seafood, HuiLing had a traditional American Chinese style meal that had lots of greens as well as egg rolls and fried shrimp. Tress ate what Wanda had, and Ingrid decided on a mashed potato and turkey meal.

After dinner was particularly rowdy for the group because they were playing portable game consoles together when their systems got recharged, particularly their favorite racing game in which Wanda managed to knock Derek off the most difficult course right as he was about to win and that made Cerella laugh something fierce.

"I let you win–!" He kept trying to say despite a pouty face as the other girls were giggling like mad.

"Surrrreee…. Whatever you say. But the point still remains valid that I beat you." Wanda poked him on the shoulder.

As night fell upon the flight and attendants were making the rounds for beverages or snacks, the lights in the cabin turned on which spooked Wanda at first until HuiLing said that it WAS evening after all.

Finally the time for descent arrived. The kids were all so excited when they were told to get their seatbelts back on, put their stuff away and prepare for landing. There had been no turbulence on the ride, literally or metaphorically, plus everyone was eager to experience something new.

The arrival came with a literal bump as the plane touched down. Then after a few ear popping moments they were free to grab their bags so they could disembark. The first thing that hit them was the humidity and the heat of Florida even in the air port.

"Guh!" Heaved Ingrid.

"Seconded," Sighed Cerella in a dramatic way. After such a long flight, even she was too tired to do one of her imperial hair flips.

Everyone was too jet lagged to really take in the fact they were actually in Florida as they hopped onto one of the last busses of the day to their Disney resort hotel where the crew was waiting to greet them and show the families to their rooms. The kids were all grumbling and tired by the time they got to their individual rooms for the night. Wanda even just flopped onto her mattress without changing after pulling out her pink stuffed bunny from her bag to curl up with and fell asleep right away.

It wasn't an easy sleep though.

She was kneeling before Phobos next to Eva and her crew, swearing vengeance on those who slighted her. At one point she was fighting her own friends, laughing as each guardian fell. Down to Mimiru who'd been a temporary guardian. Then she laughed at her own parent's demise regardless of the consequences. Her mother yelled at her as her father fell, and Wanda was about to turn her lightning on Will, the sound of a baby crying in the distance…

Wanda woke with a start. It was just a nightmare brought on by jet lag, that's all that was. She looked around her hotel room. Then she realized where she was and sat upright, dashing over to the window of the resort hotel room to look out. Yes, there was palm trees, a mouse eared giant pool down below. The train station taking passengers to and from the main parks. She was really here. Quickly she went to take a bath, and change into shorts and a tshirt. When she dashed out of the room, she saw her parents were already awake.

"Hey sleepy head!" Said Matt.

So began a busy Spring Break at DisneyWorld. After her initial nightmare she became too distracted to linger on those disturbing thoughts. They enjoyed food from all around the world, the fireworks show in the evening one night, seeing the castle fireworks show, eating dinner at the fancy restaurants while lunches were more or less the street food affairs and breakfasts were in the hotels. Wanda and Matt would take turns being with Will who couldn't go on some of the more extreme rides, so she wouldn't have to be alone.

The kids had plans to spend time bonding together as well with the photo booths and group rides they could enjoy together. Derek even managed to arrange time with Wanda for a couple of 'dates' while they were at the Animal Kingdom and the food pavilion. During said dates, Cerella and the girls had their own fun with their families.

There was only a day or so where the group felt extremely jet lagged, but those were planned down days to begin with.

Lots of pictures were taken, and memories were shared. For the first time in a while the kids felt like normal teenagers. Even nearly coming to an argument about what to do next a time or two until Irma intervened, having 'had plenty of experience of negotiating with terrorists thanks to her little brother' she reminded the parents. She managed to get them to compromise, since two weeks wasn't enough time to get to everything in the parks. Disney World was a big place, after all.

There was a day or two where the rain happened so suddenly and so harshly, everyone in the packed-like-sardines crowd had to dash into the shops. Wanda saw the rain water building up on the ground in the way it only ever did in the summer in Sheffield. The girls were all excited to also be on the hunt for character autographs, and so on.

Finally the second to the last night arrived, and they were eating at one of the restaurants with the Princesses and other characters making the rounds. The girls were all gabbing about the loot they managed to find while at the park, and the fact that they could have it all be mailed to them so they wouldn't have to worry about carrying it back on the air plane. The girls each picked out a series of designer dolls, mouse ears- which they all currently sported- and new clothes to remember the trip by. Their parents had urged them not to just get all the cheap toys or dolls, and get things that would last for years to come which would remind them of the journey they shared together.

*. *. *

During the Guardians' trip abroad, Phobos had not been idle. On the contrary, he had been busy rebuilding his forces from the last battle against Elyon, hoping to bring the Guardians into a false sense of security. School would be starting again soon, so he called Leila and his own Guardians to his throne room.

He'd been furious when he learned from Cedric that one of his own had defected, sneaking away and going over to his sister's side. So in retaliation he sent his guardians on a rampage across the countryside, burning entire towns and villages to the ground, sending flash floods their way, massive damaging wind storms, or lightning storms that started raging fires in dry lands.

While his guardians were hard at work, forcing Elyon to stretch her forces thin, Phobos was busy with yet another task of feeding nightmares to the leader of the opposing team. Yet she was so busy at the moment that the nightmares had little to no effect on her. His hope was that upon returning back home, there would be a delayed effect. A sort of 'crash and burn' as it were when things finally hit.

All this had an impact at the main castle. Refugees were pouring in from the countrysides that were being ravaged by Phobos, and Elyon was busy distributing resources so everyone was comfortable and not having to deal with hunger, on top of the terror Phobos was inciting on them.

In the privacy of the throne room, Caleb's father, Raithor and Cybelle were meeting with the Queen.

"More people are coming every day. It's a good thing the Guardians will return soon. We need them to fight back against Phobos!" Cybelle was saying, having been working hard at proving her worth to Elyon and her forces. She'd been distributing blankets and food without complaint to the refugees the last several days.

"Yes, but we can't always rely on them. I've already sent the Northern forces to join the Western front by the swampland where my brother has taken up shop. They should be there within the next two days as reinforcements then we can sustain the lines until the Guardians return." Said Elyon.

"And in the meantime we're still leaving armed forces to the East and south. We can't have all of our borders unprotected. It's a good thing the last decade or so has seen an increase in population, and the people have agreed to raise up arms against invaders all on their own." Sighed Caleb's father.

"And our resources? More refugees are bound to come in soon as Phobos continues his attack." Raithor commented.

"For now our stores are fine, and holding. I have transporters bringing in grains, meats and vegetables daily to the Holding Rooms. So long as our lines are not discovered, we can hold him off. I have at least three soldiers, a healer in case of emergency, and a security officer accompanying each transport wagon as they go to and from the Castle, towns and farming villages who haven not yet been attacked." Elyon replied. "The situation is grim, but not yet hopeless. My brother is a fool if he believes the kingdom will ever truly fall to him again. So long as the people have hope, we can continue to fight." She sighed, looking around the throne room while remembering what happened to her at the hands of her own brother so many years ago.

*. *. *

It was a subdued group that returned to the airport the last day of their time in Florida. Yawning and dragging their feet like before, but happy with how the vacation had gone. The kids all felt thoroughly spoiled like practically normal teenagers after a dream vacation would be.

"It helps that they were the perfect age for the trip," HayLin was heard commenting while they waited to board the plane back to Sheffield International.

They still flew first class, and in a similar seating. When it was time to say their goodbyes to each other back at Sheffield International, getting to their cars the kids were all practically asleep on their feet. Wanda was so tired when she got home, she slept for twelve hours straight after her bath. Having weird dreams flitting between being spoiled with quality service in the hotel, or nightmares about her Dark self destroying entire villages in Meridian in a lightning storm.

She slept so hard that when six o'clock a.m. rolled around and Mimiru had to wake her up for an emergency, Mimiru had to use a typical cat trick to wake her up- jump from the headboard of the bottom of the bed onto Wanda's stomach to startle her awake.

"ACK!" Cried out Wanda. "MIMIRU!" She coughed in a daze.

"What? There's a situation that needs your attention and I tried everything short of a cold bucket of water on your face. I figured this was the lesser of two evils." Said Mimiru casually with no regrets, almost looking like a real cat.

Wanda had been so startled and scare jumped awake, she completely forgot her nightmare. So it was a mixed blessing.

Author's Comments-

Hey all, I live! I took my long hiatus for at least a couple of years but there's been a recent resurgence of interest in the story again, so I felt compelled to write a new chapter. This was fun to write, inspired by a trip to Florida my family and I took back in 2000, you know, PreCovid days. Minus first class travel, or staying in the fancy hotels. That part was made up. But I thought this was a good time for the girls (and Derek) to feel practically normal for a period of time. We all need breaks from life, and they've had a heck of a time. Another difference in the story is that there weren't any Nintendo Switch's back when my family went xD

We've all been good, staying home and not catching it. And been keeping busy in the real life household I'm living in. We have two English Cream Golden Retriever doggos we've raised the last couple of years, two crazy boi cats, and I was kept busy with… Lego sets of all things. Mainly Harry Potter Legos. I got the Diagon Alley set that I built during lockdown, and the Hogwarts castle sets from last year which I went through as well.

The reason for the title of this chapter is that peace in the world of Meridian is fading away slowly, like vapor. Or some people would call it an illusion. But with being in the alphabet title mode, Evanescence fit better for a simple but meaningful title. Next chapter title starts with F… And with the route the story is going… It will be interesting how it works out in the end. I plan on going through the entire alphabet with chapter titles. Yay thesaurus time!