Here is my second favourite chapter in this whole fic! I think…let me see…There's a tiny bit more humour next chapter, but it's not my fav…although irony is my best friend…chapter 10 is good too, and it's tied with chapter 11 for being my fav, and there's only 11 chapters, so I guess that this would count as my second fav chapter…Sorry about all that! I just needed to refresh my memory…yeah, this is the chapter where the sub-plot decides to come out and play. I pride myself on my sub-plots. Okay, I'll shut up now.

Chapter 7 (Only 4 more to go!)

Isabel

As everyone is talking, I feel a very unexpected wave of nausea come over me, and slip away to find a bathroom. When I finally do, most of my breakfast goes down the toilet. The past two months have been like this, and – excuse the pun – I'm getting sick of it! After a few minutes, I come back out again, to see Arkarian sitting on a log, waiting. I quickly scramble my thoughts around, since I'm not concentrated enough to completely hide them, but I realize that they were out in the open while I was in the bathroom.

"A-Arkarian! What are you doing here?" I ask nervously. And more importantly, "Did you over-hear any of my thoughts in there?"

He shakes his head. "No, I wasn't listening. As for the first question, I saw you leave the group and wanted to make sure you're okay. Are you? Is there anything you want to talk about?"

I sit down beside him and sigh. What can I say? It's sweet that he wants to make sure everything's fine, but I know that I can't tell him the reason I left. At least, not the whole reason. "I'm just not feeling well, that's all." I stop myself before I say too much.

Arkarian places his hand on top of mine, and says, "You knew that Rochelle came back, didn't you?"

I shiver slightly and nod my head. I still feel a little sick, but that's only to be expected. "I saw her walking with Ethan in a vision last night."

He sighs. "Isabel, I can tell that you're hiding something. What's going on that you don't want me to know?"

I hesitate, unsure of what he'd say if I tell him. It would be awkward, that much is certain. So I decide to tell him one of the other things on my mind. "Well, tomorrow's my 18th birthday, and you said that my ability to stop ageing would physically start then. What should I expect?"

"I honestly don't know, but I can tell you that there should be some sort of sensation that you feel." He stops. "There's something else bothering you, isn't there?"

Oh, he's good! It's just good that there are a lot of things on my mind that I can say, and not feel like I'm lying to him. "I'm still worried about Ethan. I mean, all the Tribunal had the same feeling as me that something bad would happen, which is why they sent us all on this crazy trip in the first place. Well, now we've found him, and Rochelle, but nothing has happened yet. That can mean only one of two things: either the bad thing has yet to happen, and we're just sitting here wasting precious time, or nothing bad was ever going to happen, and we're just all getting paranoid, and-"

Arkarian's hand flies to my lips, silencing me. I notice that there are tears streaming down my cheeks. He pulls me close, and kisses me. I kiss him back, and we don't stop until Rochelle comes running up to us, panting.

"There you two are! I've been looking all over for you!" At the sight of our confused faces, she just grabs our hands and pulls, saying, "No time to explain! I just hope that everybody brought their weapons…"

I assume, from that statement, that the something bad I knew would happen is happening. Rochelle glances at me with a half grin. "You're absolutely right, Isabel."

We get to the place that was, only minutes ago, packed with people. Except now, the only people there are the other six Named, fighting off – my eyes widen as I see – none other than the Goddess of Chaos herself! Beside me, Arkarian stops dead in his tracks. He turns to Rochelle. "How did she…"

Rochelle shrugs. "Beats me. All that matters is that we take her down." She takes off her gloves that I didn't even realize she was wearing, and, surprisingly, her hands look a lot less wild and a lot more controlled than the last time I saw her a year ago.

She sees me looking and winks. "I've been getting help," she says.

Arkarian goes to help the others, but Rochelle forces me to stay behind. "You ready to do this, Isabel?" she asks.

I shiver unexpectedly. "I don't know. It'll be nice to have a bit of action, but…I don't know if I can – or rather, should – fight." When Rochelle doesn't inquire further, I know that she's read my thoughts, and knows what wrong. I turn to her. "Thanks for coming when you did," I say softly. "It saved me from having to answer any more uncomfortable questions."

She returns her focus to me. "Isabel, you're going to have to tell him sooner or later, you know that right?"

I nod. "Yeah, I know. I'm just nervous."

"And I understand that, but I'm sure that he'll accept the facts. Arkarian is a very understanding guy, and I think – Neriah agrees – that you're damn lucky to have him. Not that our guys aren't great too, but…ya know."

I smile. "Maybe you're right, Rochelle."

She scoffs and puts her hands on her hips. "Maybe?" We both burst out laughing. After we've calmed down, I sigh.

"It's not just him I'm worried about," I confide. "It's also telling everyone else that worries me."

She puts a comforting hand on my shoulder. "Well, at least you don't have to worry about telling me! And if you like, I'll tell Ethan for you."

I smile at her again. "Thanks, Rochelle. You're the best. You know, we never really got a chance to be close friends before. When you were dating my brother, I tried to be friends with you, but I understand that you didn't want anything to distract you from your goal."

She laughs. "Yeah, like that worked! I mean, it was fine at first, but then Ethan came around…"

I laugh with her.

"I can promise you one thing," she says.

"And what's that?"

"You and Arkarian will make great parents."

And the sub-plot is out! So now we know what's up with Isabel! Congrats to anybody who figured it out at the beginning of the chapter…you beat my friend. I even gave her "subtle" hints about it. Subtle as in "big huge hints that I thought gave it all away", and it still took her till the end of the chapter to figure it out! No offence, Chantelle. And I got the chance to build up more of a friendship between Isabel and Rochelle, my two fav girls in all of the Guardians of Time trilogy! Well…Chloe Campbell's alright too…you'll see why in the next story…well, I'd better get started on one of the funniest chapters of the whole fic! (and even it's not that funny)