Hello there! More than a year without posting but here I am! I hope you really enjoy this chapter

Nothing has changed

Cornelia's POV

Even though everything I saw was darkness I wasn't unconscious, I felt as if I was being dragged backwards and I couldn't do anything to stop it, so I just tried to keep my eyes closed hoping this would end soon. Minutes, hours even days passed (or so I thought) but finally that strange feeling went away and I could see light through my eyelids, so I slowly opened my eyes and I recognised the hospital room where I was the last time I spoke with Caleb… and there he was! But he was not alone, lying on the bed there was me.

I approached Caleb from behind to see over his shoulder, just in case I was hallucinating, but no, there I was! But I was connected to more machines than the last time I was conscious and that relieved me more than I thought possible, that meant I wasn't dead, but I still couldn't do anything to tell Caleb or the others what I had just found about Alex and Nerissa and time was running, I hoped we still had at least four days to save my baby.

"How is it going?" I heard Julian's voice from behind and I turned around to see that he has just arrived with a food bag and coffee that he left on a table, and I could see how he looked sadly at the almost same things he had just brought untouched on that same table.

"Same" said Caleb and he sounded tired, Julian put his hand over Caleb's shoulder but he didn't get any response from my husband.

"Son, you should sleep a little, go to the house, I'll stay with her and I promise to call you if anything happens"

"I'm fine"

"Caleb…"

"Don't "Caleb" me, I won't abandon her" said Caleb louder.

"You are not abandoning her, you need to be strong to go look for your son and she has not even moved in two days! Doctors said that she could stay like that fore…" Julian couldn't finish his sentence because Caleb stood up and took him by the collar, and then I could really see him, he not only looked tired, he looked absolutely broken.

"Don't even say that! Much less in front of her!" He shouted to his father and then let him go.

"Get out of here NOW" he shouted and went back to me, or my body in any case.

Julian left without a word and I walked to Caleb's side, he had taken my hand and was caressing my face, I could have sworn that I felt my cheek a little warm but maybe it was only my imagination.

"Don't listen to him, you are recovering and everything is going to be fine" he said and kissed my hand before taking again his sit by my bed.

I didn't know what to do, I was trying to take in what Julian said, I was in a coma, that was for sure, but the fact that I could never wake up was something I couldn't accept, my baby was in danger and we had little time to save him, I understood Caleb because I wouldn't leave his side either but in this moment I was not important, Alex was, and I had to find a way to tell Caleb what I knew. I kneeled beside him and put my hand over his, but he didn't move, not even an inch.

"Caleb please, listen to me, you have to find Alex, we have no time, Nerissa and an evil man have him, and they're going to kill him… Caleb! You have to listen! Please! Look at me, I'm right here, I'm going to be fine, but Alex needs you, we have no time!" I begged and pleaded, I tried to move him but he just didn't react.

Hours passed while I cried and shouted at Caleb, every minute that passed was a minute that Alex was nearer to death, If I had been like this for two days I was almost sure that the five days that sorcerer said were now three, and soon we would lose our son.

"Cornelia, please wake up, tell me something, anything, move only a little if you want, but let me know that you are listening" I heard him whispering, and believe me when I say that I tried, every time he pleaded I tried to let him know that I was there, I even tried to "Re-enter" my body, but it was impossible.

The only thing that took me out of my thoughts was a knock on the door.

"Come in" said Caleb, but it was so low I was surprised that the person outside could've heard him.

"Is she better?" said Irma, and I stood up to see all the guardians and Elyon, I was glad that they were all here.

"Nothing has changed" said Caleb while he stood up, but he didn't let go of my hand. "Have you found anything?"

"We went to Terzan, but we couldn't find anything, not even a clue, the Oracle hasn't said a word to us yet, Matt stood in Terzan as Shagon, he is patrolling just in case" said Will and all of them gathered around me. I couldn't believe all of them, even Matt, came here to help us.

They all looked sad and tired, Elyon sat at the other side of my bed and took my hand, while Hay Lin took the food bag Julian bought before and started to take all its content and put it on a tray, it was some soup and bread.

"I know is cold, but you have to eat something, Cornelia wouldn't like to see you like this" said Hay Lin while she put the tray in front of Caleb, he gave her a weird look but didn't say anything.

"You also need a shower, or you'll start smelling like Blunk" said Irma and I could see a little smile on his face, well that was something.

He began to eat his soup when a doctor entered the room.

"Good afternoon Mr. Hart" he said with a thick accent "I'm going to check on your wife's sings… have you noticed any change?" He said while he checked the machines' readings.

"Nothing, not even a blink" said Caleb while eating his soup.

"Well… she's fine but we have to wait, at least you're eating something, even if it's cold soup" said the doctor with a paternal look and left.

That made me sad, maybe this was his first meal in two days, I didn't know if he had slept but he looked like he hasn't, well he could ask Taranee to warm his soup a little bit… Taranee! If I could contact her telepathically maybe, just maybe, I could save Alex. I started calling her as loud as I could with my mind but nothing happened, I took all that I had and I screamed not only in my mind but actually screaming.

Taranee's POV

I was in Cornelia's room at the hospital with the girls and Caleb, I couldn't believe what was happening, we had spent all day searching for Alex in Terzan and we were all tired, but we didn't want to leave Caleb alone, Cornelia's mom and sister were at their house, while Julian was with Harold searching for specialists that could help Corny to wake up, I knew that Julian passed by because of the food Caleb was eating. I wish I could help him more, but I have already read everything about Terzan, about coma state and I didn't know what else to do, we accorded with the girls to take shifts to stay with Cornelia and to convince Caleb to take at least a little nap, for all we knew he hadn't slept on these two days; a doctor came but didn't say anything that could give us hope.

Elyon and Will were trying to convince Caleb to sleep a little, but he was clearly refusing, I went to help them when a terrible headache made me fall to the floor, I could feel the girls around me but I couldn't hear them, I was trying to concentrate on a voice that I was barely hearing, but that was really familiar.

"TARANEE!" I heard Cornelia screaming.

"Cornelia?" I said out loud and everyone went silent.

"Can you hear me?"

"Yes Corny, where are you? Are you okay?" I asked telepathically

"I am, but that's not important, please listen carefully, I know where Alex is, well not exactly but I know who has him"

"Taranee? Wat are you doing?" said Hay Lin with a concerned look.

I stood up with the help of the girls and I went to Caleb that was looking at me with tiredness.

"Is Cornelia" I said "She's talking to me telepathically, she says she knows who has Alex, I'm going to try to communicate with her again" while I was talking Caleb's face changed from tired to astonished, he took my hands and looked me right into the eyes.

"Ask her where she is, how she is, tell her that I need her and that I love her" he said with pleading eyes.

"Tell him I'm fine, and that I love him too, but now we need to find Alex" I heard Cornelia in my mind.

"She says she's fine and that she loves you too, but she wants us to concentrate on Alex right now" I said and I realized that she could hear us, that meant that she was here, in a ghost way or something, but she was here.

Cornelia's POV

I told Taranee everything that I knew and she told the others, I was a little bit relieved, now that they knew, Alex had a real chance to survive. I couldn't help but take Caleb's hand in mine hoping that he would feel me, but he was looking at Taranee while she told them what I said.

"How did Nerissa escape? We need to tell the Oracle, maybe with this information he'd help us this time" said Elyon and everyone agreed.

"Tell them to go right now! We don't have time!" I said while I remembered her that we had a deadline.

"We have to go right now, we don't have much time" said Taranee and all nodded.

"Then let's go" said Will and opened a portal.

I saw that Caleb took Taranee's hand and pulled her near to him

"Ask her if she needs me to stay with her, I don't want her to be alone" he said and I felt tears in my eyes.

"She can hear you Caleb, I'm sure she's here" said Taranee

"Tell him is okay, I'm going to be fine but he needs to hurry, I'm going to try to follow you but I don't know if I'd make it" I said while caressing his hand, Taranee gave my message and Caleb kneeled beside my head and gave me a peck on the forehead.

"I'm going to be back soon… with our baby, please wait for us here, try to wake up. I need you" he whispered and stood up, I walked with him to the portal but I couldn't get close to it, it was as if it was repelling me and I had to stay away, all the girls crossed leaving Caleb alone in the room, he turned around and looked at my lying body for a couple of seconds before crossing the portal.

Caleb's POV

I had just crossed the portal to Kandrakar and I just couldn't believe that Taranee was able to communicate with Cornelia, I felt relieve to know that she was safe but now that we knew about Nerissa and that other man that had my baby I really didn't have time to relax. We walked in silence until we arrived to the big room that was our usual place of reunion with the Oracle.

"This place is empty or what?" said Irma, and it was true, usually we would run into some elders or servants but this time we didn't see anybody.

"I'm queen Elyon of Meridian, I'm here with the guardians of the infinite dimensions, and we are here to speak with the Oracle" said Elyon out loud, but there was no answer.

"What do we do now?" aked Hay Lin.

"Let's go look for somebody, anybody, this place can't be empty" said Will and then she transformed the team.

"Hay Lin and Caleb go search to the north wing, Elyon and Taranee to the west one, and Irma you and I will go to the south, we will communicate telepathically and if we haven't found anybody on that search, then we'll go to the east wing" said Will and we all did as she said.

Hay Lin and I searched in silence but we couldn't find anything, I was desperate and couldn't stop thinking about what Cornelia said, I have had a difficult time accepting that Nerissa was my mother, but to think that not only she escaped but that she kidnapped my baby? I didn't know how to deal with that.

Flashback

I haven't gotten out of my room for what it felt like ages, I couldn't see my dad right now, three days have passed since that awful discovery in Mount Thanos and my thoughts were driving me insane… Nerissa was my mother, I was the product of her ambition, of her lies, she created me with a porpoise, to bring freedom to Meridian, and I did, but not because of her, I did it for my people, and I didn't do it alone, I had my friends, the other rebels and the guardians.

Speaking of the guardians, I haven't seen Cornelia on these three days, I knew that I had to apologize to her for the way I treated her the last time I saw her, but she had to understand, my father had never talked much about my mother, but the few times he did he always said that she was a good woman, that she was kind and that she loved me, nothing could be more far from reality. Nerissa was evil, cruel and mad, and she couldn't care less about me, but I had to remember myself that she deceived him too, he thought that the woman he loved was the Mage and he learned the truth almost at the same time I did.

My father came by couple of times to try to convince to get out, but I just asked him to go, I didn't want to hurt him but I had to think about many things, even though Nerissa was never a mother to me, she was present in my life as the Mage and Trill, both women that I respected and even appreciated; as the Mage she gave me her advice and support, and as Trill she always offered good information of the castle, a warm smile and when she could some food. She had been there all the time, supporting me to be the rebel leader, to get what she wanted.

Those thoughts had kept me awake these nights, I didn't want to accept that in part she was right, she helped me to become a leader, she guided me as the Mage, and I trusted her. But nothing of that would make me think of her as good, she killed her friend, deceived my father, captured Elyon, and who knows what other things, all for power, she never cared about anyone but her and that was the worst part, she only had me with a porpoise and never loved me.

A knock on the door pulled me out of my thoughts, I didn't want to talk so I tried to keep quiet hoping to be left alone, but the person outside just opened the door without invitation.

"Who do you think you a…" I started saying when I saw my girlfriend crossing the door.

"Who do you think YOU are!? You just stop talking to me and now you treat me like that?" she said while she closed the door. I studied her face for a while and she looked very tired, as if she hasn't slept these days.

"Aren't you going to say anything?" said Cornelia after a long silence.

I stood up a walked to her, she wasn't on her guardian form and was dressed in a loosely way, something really unusual of her.

"What do you want me to say?" I asked looking right into her eyes, but no touching her.

"Anything, just stop ignoring me" she said without even blinking.

"I wasn't ignoring you, I just need time"

"Time is not going to change what happened, Nerissa is your mother, so what? That doesn't mean anything"

"Doesn't mean anything? Is that really what you think? Cornelia, she is a deceiver, a murderer, a mad woman! How can that mean nothing to you?"

"Even though all that is true, that doesn't mean that you are anything like her!"

"But she made me who I am, she was the Mage! I followed her, I trusted her, and she guided me to get what she wanted. I, Caleb Hart, the rebel leader that freed Meridian, exactly as she planned, her blood runs in my veins, doesn't it matter either?" I almost shouted at her.

"Does it to you?" said she not backing up.

"I … don't know" That couldn't be more true, I didn't know how to feel about the whole truth.

"Caleb" said she as she took my hands "I can only imagine how difficult it is for you to accept what happened, but you are not culprit or responsible for anything she did, she has done terrible things and I won't say that you should like her or something, but you have to make peace with who she is and with who you are" after that she hugged me and I just hugged her back, I really needed this comfort.

"I don't know how to do that, she's a monster and I don't know if I would ever be able to accept that part of her lives in me" I said while I hugged her tighter.

"The only advice I can give you is to not close in yourself, if you need to talk I am here, so is your father, and your friends, don't keep all this inside, don't shut us out"

"I won't"

End flashback

And that was exactly what I've been doing this past two days, I didn't sleep, eat or talk to anyone more than necessary, that was not good for me or the people that I loved and loved me back, I felt a little bad and I knew that I owed all of them an apology.

"There's none on this part of the castle, let the girls know that we are going back" I said to Hay Lin as we ended our search without success.

"Yes, let's go back" said Hay Lin and we started to go to the meeting room again.

We were on our way, and we didn't hear anything, not even the wind blowing through the corridors, this was really strange, this place was always full of people.

We walked in silence until we heard a noise and we both stopped abruptly.

"Did you hear that?" I asked Hay Lin, just in case.

"Yes, let's find out" she said as she led the way.

We walked quickly but trying not to make much noise, as we advanced the noise was louder, and it transformed into voices, voices discussing.

"What are we going to do now Oracle?" "This is all your fault" "We shouldn't have left that meridianite taking care of that jewel!" were some of the phrases that the elders were saying behind the door, Hay Lin and I looked at each other, uncertain of what to do, we knew that the "meridianite" they were talking about was my father, so they already knew about Nerissa. Without thinking I opened the door and entered the room, followed by Hay Lin, everybody went silent and the Oracle turned around and gave us a sad and tired smile.

"Caleb, I was wondering when would you come" he said and started walking to us "Are the rest of the guardians here" he asked Hay Lin, she nodded "Call them, tell them to come here, I guess you are needed once more"

"So you know about Nerissa" I said to the Oracle, it was not a question.

"We do, but don't think that I had this information when you came the last time, actually we got to know this at the same time you did, when Cornelia decided to communicate with Taranee I could hear her too, and we have been discussing this ever since" he said as the elders looked at us in silence.

"Discussing? That's what you have been doing? You must've contact us immediately! Discussing won't save my baby! We have to go to Terzan and find him!" I shouted and in that moment the girls arrived.

"What's going on here?" asked Elyon.

"Queen Elyon, Guardians, be welcomed" said the Oracle "We are all gathered here to discuss the situation with Nerissa, as you know she escaped and has kidnaped her grandson, we all know what she wants him for and that she is not alone, also, that we don't have that much time to stop her" as he said all that he turned around to the elders and all heard in silence, I would lie if I said that hearing that my son was being called her grandson wasn't affecting me.

"Yes, we know all of that, but the important thing is to caught her, to stop her before is too late" said Luba while she stood up and walked to us.

"I think that the most important thing is to know how she escaped" said another elder while she looked at me suspiciously "She received help from outside, of that I am sure"

"If you are trying to imply that I or my father helped her, you are crazy! I don't know if you remember but I came here two days ago to ask for help, but you decided that my son and my wife, one of the guardians, were not important, that we should solve our problems by ourselves, but now that you know Nerissa and that man are involved suddenly you care!" I screamed at them and all were shocked "I know Nerissa is my biological mother, but I have nothing to do with her, she kidnapped my son and wants to kill him, and I am going to stop her, with or without you" I felt a hand on my shoulder and then I saw the Oracle by my side.

"We are going to help you, we'll do everything in our power to stop Nerissa, to save Alex, and I give you my word that I'd find a way to help Cornelia" he said looking at me, then he turned around and spoke to the silent elders "That's the final decision, all of us have to localize Alex, if we find him we find Nerissa, now leave and start working" said that, everybody left the room in complete silence.

And there we were, the Oracle, the guardians, Elyon and I.

"Now that we are alone I want to apologise for not helping you before, I assure you that I'll do everything in my power to help you, you have served Kandrakar in the best way possible, making big sacrifices, and the least we can do is to help you" he sighed and closed his eyes for a second and then continued "Cornelia's accident was not an accident, Nerissa provoked it, after the car crashed she took Alex and vanished, I still don't know how she escaped!"

"But we also know that that man is a sorcerer, he must be the one that helped her" said Taranee.

"I also think so, but the elders don't believe it, we have tried to track that man's energy and we can't, is like he doesn't exist… I don't think that Cornelia is lying but maybe Nerissa is deceiving her, but I don't know why" he said and I felt my blood boil, Cornelia was not stupid, she'd know if what she saw was real.

"Have you read Terzan's history? Found anything about this sorcerer?" said Irma.

"We have, and there's nothing, if he did exist everything about him was erased" said the Oracle.

"He existed, he exists! Cornelia couldn't have made up that story!" I said angrily.

"I didn't say she did, but maybe Nerissa wants her to think that, so we don't figure out her plan, maybe is a trap…" said the Oracle trying to calm me.

"We don't care if it's true or not, we are going for Alex, if you help us as you promised I am sure we would discover the truth and save our nephew" said Will and all the girls nodded.

"Have you heard anything from Matt" I asked Will.

"Yes, he hasn't seen anything, I told him to wait there until we arrive" she said.

"I have to inform my father and my friends, they'd help us to…" I couldn't finish because one of the servants entered running.

"The exact place where the baby is has been found!" he said and we all looked at each other, this was the moment we were waiting for, we didn't have time to tell my father or anyone else, we'd go to save my son, and to lock that witch again, this time for good.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go" I said while the Oracle opened a portal.

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