Disclaimer: I do not own W.I.T.C.H. or any of it's characters/places.
Despite the odd occurrences that had happened on Sunday, the girls still had to go to school the next day. Hay Lin sat in the computer lab of Sheffield Institute, reading her email. She couldn't help but smile when she saw an email from Eric. Yap! She screamed in her mind as she opened the email and started reading it to herself. Hey Hay Lin, I can't wait to see you! I'll be arriving in a couple of days, just have to finish packing and getting my plane tickets in order. I just want to tell you that this will be my last trip to Heatherfield from my parents house. I was going to wait and tell you this when I got there, but I just couldn't...sorry Hay Lin but... Hay Lin couldn't read any further. Her eyes were tearing up. Was Eric going to break up with her? She didn't even want to think about it. She forced herself to continue reading the email. There was a large gap between what Eric had written there and next line though, so she had scroll down, completely overcome by nervousness as she did so. Then she saw it, the last line of the message. It caused her to scream aloud. "ERIC'S GOING TO GO TO A COLLEGE THAT'S REALLY CLOSE TO THE ONE I AM AND WANTS TO GET AN APARTMENT TOGETHER! YAP!" Her scream caused everyone in the computer lab to stare at her, but Hay Lin didn't care. She felt like she had just exploded with happiness upon reading that line and that the entire room was now covered with adorable fluffy bunnies. Eric Lyndon, the boy of her dreams, wanted to live with her. This moment would've been so perfect if the teacher hadn't heard Hay Lin's scream as well.
"I would ask you if there was something that you wanted to share with the class, miss Lin, but it seems that you already have," The teacher stated as he stood over Hay Lin's computer. "You aren't supposed to be reading your emails during class, let alone screaming to the entire class their contents. Principle's office, now," He ordered as he pointed towards the door. Hay Lin gathered her things, shut down the programs on the computer, and walked out the door. Going to the principle's office didn't even bother her today though, she wasn't even listening to Mrs. Knickerbocker chew her out for reading her emails during class. Hay Lin was too focused on hiding her enormous smile to pay attention.
"Do you understand, miss Lin?" Mrs. Knickerbocker asked. Hay Lin just nodded. She hadn't heard a word that Mrs. Knickerbocker said. "You're free to go then." Hay Lin left the office and walked outside to her friends. It was lunch period and the girls always sat together.
"Where were you, Hay?" Irma asked, with her mouth full of her sandwich.
"Principle's office. I got in trouble for reading my email during class," Hay Lin replied as she sat down and took her lunch out of her backpack.
"But EVERYONE reads their email during class. You're totally weird if you don't," Irma stated.
"I kind of screamed over what Eric said in the email though."
"Why? What did he say?" Will asked.
"He said...HE SAID HE WANTS TO GET AN APARTMENT WITH ME!" Hay Lin squealed.
"That's awesome, Hay!" Will yelled excitedly. She was the first one to agree to move in with her boyfriend and was happy that Hay Lin would be doing the same. It meant that could that they could talk to each other about it and be able to relate to some things.
"I'm happy for you Hay Lin, but could we please discuss some more serious things?" Cornelia asked with a bit of irritation. What she saw in the cruise ship was still bothering her and she was wondering if any of the other girls had seen something similar. "Something strange happened while I was on the cruise ship," Cornelia stated.
"So something strange happened to you as well?" Taranee asked.
"What do you mean as well? You mean something happened here too?" Cornelia asked. The rest of the girls nodded.
"Half the town was covered in ice, then when we went to go get Will, it was gone," Hay Lin replied.
"While I was on the cruise ship, I saw a fairy looking creature laying across the ceiling. Then she vanished as the ship crashed into an iceberg. I closed my eyes for a few seconds and when I opened them, it was as if nothing had happened," Cornelia said.
"Just like the ice...when I got there, everything looked normal," Will mumbled. "Am I the only one who hasn't seen any of this in person?" Will suddenly felt like someone was behind her. Then she heard a voice.
"I have something special in mind for you," The voice echoed through Will's mind.
"Did you guys hear that?" Will asked.
"No, what was it?" Taranee asked.
"I heard a voice, it said that it had something special in mind for me," Will replied. What is it planning? She wondered.
"I really think we should go to Kandrakar and see the Oracle now," Hay Lin said with a tone of worry in her voice. Then it suddenly occurred to Will what that creature could be planning.
"Oh no...Matt!" Will suddenly got up and ran out, leaving the rest of the girls at school. She ran as fast as she could to Matt's house. It wasn't very far away from Sheffield and at the speed that Will was going, she made it there in only a few minutes. Out of breath, she rang the doorbell frantically. "Come on, come on..." She mumbled. It felt like forever to her, but Matt finally answered the door.
"Will, what's wrong?" He asked with worry when he saw that she was completely out of breath.
"Huff...I just wanted...to see you..." Will replied.
"I know you well enough to know that's not the reason you came rushing here. Come on, come inside," He said as he took her hand and brought her inside. Will plopped down on Matt's couch, still a bit tired from her run there. Matt was just about to sit down next to her when the doorbell rang. He went to answer it and there were the four other girls.
"Jeez Will, why do you have to be so fast?" Irma whined, out of breath.
"Sorry, I just got so worried about Matt that I couldn't think of anything else," Will said as she walked to the door to see the other girls.
"Would someone mind filling me in here?" Matt asked. All of the girls welcomed themselves inside and plopped down in Matt's living room.
"Well, Will's being paranoid as usual and-" Cornelia cut Irma off.
"But she has a good reason to be paranoid. She heard a voice say that it had something special in mind for her," Cornelia said. "And it wouldn't be the first time that someone came after Matt to get to Will."
"Yeah, and we think it's connected to the whole ice thing," Hay Lin added on.
"Oh, okay, I understand now," Matt replied.
"Will, I really think we need to go to Kandrakar and find out what's going on," Taranee stated.
"But I can't just leave Matt. What if something happens?" Will asked with worry.
"I'll stay behind," Irma replied. "My butt's still sore from all that falling and I don't really feel like going back to Kandrakar," She continued.
"Thank you, Irma," Will said as she pulled the Heart of Kandrakar out from under her shirt. She had been wearing the Heart as a necklace. "Guardians unite!" She called out. The Heart responded and within moments, the girls were transformed.
"Huh? Is it just me or do we look different than we usually do when we transform?" Irma asked as she fiddled with her longer, losely curled hair. She looked the other girls over, the main difference in their transformed selves was their hair. Taranee's was no longer pulled back into a spider like look, instead it was short, just like her everyday hair. Cornelia's hair was no longer extremely long, but reached instead only to her shoulders.
"M-my hair! It's shorter!" Cornelia cried. She had gotten so used to having her hair super long in guardian form that it felt odd to have it even shorter than it was in normal form. She looked at her reflection in the window. "This...actually suits me..." She mumbled as she looked herself over.
"I look awesome!" Hay Lin yelled from inside Matt's bathroom. She was looking at herself in the full length mirror, admiring her loosely curled genie like hairstyle and new ensemble. Her clothes were now much more frilly and suited her fashion designer personality much better. As all of the other girls were admiring their hair, Will couldn't find anything different about hers.
"There's nothing different," She sighed.
"Uh, look down Will," Irma said as she looked at Will's skirt.
"My skirt..." Will mumbled. It now had a slit down the side and the waistline was now straight instead of wrapping around her belly button. However, there was now something very different from the rest of girls outfits around her waist - a belt version of her bracelet. Hay Lin then came out of the bathroom and looked at the other girls.
"Looking good!" She said with a smile.
"You don't look bad yourself, Hay Hay," Irma said with a smirk. "Well, shouldn't you get to Kandrakar?"
"Yeah," Will replied, but before opening the fold to Kandrakar, she ran to Matt and embraced him tightly. "I love you and I'm sorry," She whispered, so quietly that no one else except Matt heard her.
"You have nothing to apologize for," He whispered back. Will then pulled away and opened the fold. She didn't want to leave - Irma wasn't exactly known to be reliable after all - but she knew that she had to. Her, Taranee, Cornelia, and Hay Lin went through the fold. Irma then plopped down Matt's couch and put her feet up on the coffee table.
"Looks like you need a big strong girl's protection," She teased. "So...got any chocolate cream puffs?" She asked.
"Hey, if you can cook better than Will, then go ahead and make some," Matt replied as he pointed to the kitchen.
"Oh, I'm a wonderful cook. Comes with the territory," Irma stated smugly as she walked into the kitchen. "I just happen to have the recipe memorized." She then set out to make the cream puffs. "I can't believe that you have all of the ingredients I need!" She yelled with excitement. Matt just shrugged.
"My mom does a lot of baking for parties," He replied. He watched Irma run around the kitchen, gathering everything that she needed as if she were a squirrel.
"What're you looking at?" Irma asked as she glanced over at him.
"Nothing, I just find it funny how obsessed with food you are," Matt replied. Irma laughed at his remark. Sometimes Matt found it comforting how carefree Irma was. He watched her use everything in his kitchen as if she were a professional chef. "Where did you learn to make things like this?" He asked.
"Oh, Joel taught me a few things and chocolate cream puffs are my favorite food so..." Irma trailed off. She put the chocolate that needed to be melted down in a saucepan on the stove.
"Hey, could you hand me the phone? It's right next to you," Matt asked.
"Oh, sure," Irma replied. She brought the phone over to him and sat down at the kitchen table, watching Matt's every move. Matt pulled a phone book out from one of the cabinets and started looking through it.
"A Midgale phonebook? Who're you calling in Midgale?" Irma asked.
"Can you keep a secret?" He asked as he flipped through the pages. Why am I even asking Irma this? She's the gossip queen, of course she can't keep a secret. He thought to himself. He finally found the phone number that he was looking for.
"Sure can. I still haven't gotten around to telling Joel about the guardians," She answered.
"Okay, well...I'm planning a concert in Will's honor. That's why I've been doing so much in Midgale, it's taken a lot of planning. Especially since I've had to get invitations for everyone that she's close to..." Matt trailed off.
"So why all this work anyway? You MUST have a reason for it," Irma was intrigued. She loved secrets and her and Matt never really got to share any.
"Sorry, can't talk anymore. Have to make a phone call," He replied. He knew that Irma couldn't keep it to herself, so he figured that it would be better not to tell her just why he was planning such a huge event.
"Alright, I can take a hint. You don't want to tell me. I get it," Irma mumbled as she watched Matt dial the phone number.
"Hi, it's Matt Olsen. From Cobalt Blue. I called earlier about renting the concert hall for the Friday after next...uh-huh...yes...alright, thank you!" Matt then hung up the phone and put the phone book away.
"Well?" Irma asked, anxious to hear what they had said.
"The concert hall in Midgale has been booked for the Friday after next by Cobalt Blue for a private party," Matt replied with a smile. Everything was going according to plan. Well, everything except for the fact that Will was currently in another dimension conversing with a higher being about strange weather occurrences. But other than that, everything was perfect.
"That's great!" Irma stated happily. Then she remembered that she had left the chocolate on the stove. "Oh shoot, I'll bet it's burning by now or something!" Irma yelled as she ran to the stove, but was shocked when she saw a little dormouse on the counter licking the chocolate out of the saucepan.
"Mr. Huggles, you know you're not supposed to have chocolate," Matt said as he walked over to the counter and picked Mr. Huggles up. The little dormouse immediately found his place on Matt's shoulder, where he always liked to sit. Though a bit of an odd pet to have, Matt loved Mr. Huggles. His grandfather was a veterinarian and also owned a pet shop, so Matt had inherited his grandfather's love for animals. Mr. Huggles was especially important to Matt though, since the sweet little dormouse belonged to both him and Will and they alternated weeks taking care of him. He remembered the day that he first met Will and Mr. Huggles like it was yesterday.
"Hi, little one! Are you okay?" Will asked as she reached down to pet the little dormouse. "OUCH!" She screamed when the dormouse bit her. "You ungrateful little creature! I saved you!" Will yelled.
"Need some help?" Will heard someone ask her. She assumed it was Uriah, returning to torture the poor creature. "So you came back, huh? Thanks, but I can handle this on my own," She said angrily as she slammed her fists down on the boy's foot.
"Ow! What was that for?!" The boy screamed, grabbing his foot in pain.
"Oops! I'm sorry! I thought you were someone else!" Will suddenly realized that it wasn't Uriah and apologized profusely. "I am so sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you."
"Dormice are pretty angry animals, but you're no sheep yourself either," The boy stated with a bit of a smirk.
"Aren't you Matt? I liked you at the Halloween party. Uh, I mean, I liked your voice," Will said nervously as she stood up.
"Thank you," Matt replied.
"My name's Will."
"Is that your friend?" Matt asked, referring to the dormouse. "Look at it, it's still half asleep. Maybe this will help," He said as he pulled his sweater out of his bag and wrapped it around the dormouse. "Dormice hibernate through the winter, so they need a lot of warmth."
"Wow, you know a lot about animals."
"My grandfather has a pet shop. But I can't take this there though, it's already full," Matt said as he handed the dormouse to Will.
"Wait, I don't even know how to take care of him..."
"Don't worry, you two are made for each other! I'll see you in school. Here's my number if you have some trouble," Matt said as he wrote his phone number down on a sheet of paper. "You can call anytime you want."
Matt was then suddenly snapped back to reality by the sound of Irma washing the saucepan out in the sink. "Looks like it's a good thing that I forgot to turn the stove on..." Irma mumbled. Suddenly, she felt a cold wind blow on her.
"You're wasting your time, dear guardian. I'm not after the boy, I'm after you," Irma heard a voice from behind her say.
"Did you hear that?" Irma asked Matt as she looked behind her nervously. Although she was slightly relieved to find nothing behind her, she was still a bit frightened.
"Hear what?" Matt replied.
"N-nothing. It's nothing," Irma stuttered. I really hope the other girls find out what this thing is soon. I'm actually getting a bit scared here. Irma thought to herself.
Meanwhile, the other girls had just arrived in Kadrakar. "It's been far too long since the last time that we saw each other, girls," the Oracle stated with a smile. He had a very kind and gentle appearance to him. "I see you have obtained your new guardian clothes."
"Wait, so you gave these to us?" Hay Lin asked.
"No, I did not. As your powers grow, they start adapting to who you are more and more. You may notice when you use them that they're far easier for you to control," The Oracle replied.
"Well, I guess that explains my belt. I've been wearing that bracelet for years," Will said as fiddled with her belt.
"That is only a partial reason for your belt, Will. While all of your guardian forms are very different from how they used to be, all of them maintained the same color scheme of purple and green. Yours however, now has a golden color, signifying that it serves a special purpose. What that purpose is, however, even I don't know. No guardian has ever received such an item before upon transforming."
"As much as I'd like to know more about what's going on with our powers, we came here for a different reason, and I'd really like to discuss it. Who was that person that I saw on the cruise ship?" Cornelia asked.
"And why was half of Heatherfield covered in ice?" Hay Lin added.
"And whose voice did I hear earlier?" Will finished.
"Girls, I think it's time that I show you this. Follow me," The Oracle said as he began walking. He took the girls down the halls of Kandrakar until finally, they reached a room. "It's sealed right now, but I'll unlock it," The Oracle stated. He waved his hand over the door and the locks opened themselves. "Go on in." The girls entered the room as the Oracle told them to and were surprised by what they saw - which was nothing.
"It's an empty room," Cornelia stated as she looked around at the bare white walls.
"No...don't you hear it?" Hay Lin asked. The other girls shook their heads.
"What is it?" Taranee asked.
"Voices. Memories. There's so many of them in this room. I've never been bombarded by so many at once. Happiness. Sadness. Anger. Regret. What exactly is in here, Oracle?"
"Very perceptive, Hay Lin. Though I expected nothing less from the guardian who was gifted with the ability to hear and see the memories of others. The room itself is a time warp. Past, present, future, all of it is inside of this room. Or rather, this room is inside all of it."
"I don't understand. Why are we in here?" Cornelia asked.
"I suspected it right from the very first occurrence, when she first opened a time portal. Every time she leaves, she opens another time portal. While I do not know exactly what time she is from, I do know that she is using time travel to get here." The Oracle then entered the room himself and used his magic to reveal a time portal within the room. "This will be our method of attack, should it come to that."
"Shouldn't we find out more about her first? Like who exactly she is? I don't want to jump into a battle completely blind here," Will asked.
"You are exactly right, Will. I do not know even what time she is from yet, but I believe I can trace back her next time portal. I would like all of you to return to Earth and wait for her next appearance. I will take care of the rest, just take care of yourselves," The Oracle replied as he guided the girls back to the main room.
"Thanks for everything," Will said as she opened the fold. The rest of the girls returned to Earth, but the Oracle stopped Will as she was about to leave.
"I've thought a bit about your belt as well, Will. I have a feeling that it will protect you should you fall into danger," The Oracle stated.
"But why I am the only one who got some kind of special protection?" She asked.
"All I can say is that love opens doors that we never thought existed. You must trust in not only your own abilities, but the abilities of others as well. Remember that. Now, go," The Oracle said as he pointed to the fold. Will then returned home.
Later that night on Earth, after explaining everything to Irma, the girls were over at Will's house, setting up for the sleep overs. "Okay, so Irma, you and Hay Lin will make up one group. Taranee, you and Cornelia will make up another group," Will said.
"But what about you, Will?" Taranee asked.
"I'll be in the one-person-only group."
"We can't just leave you wide open for that creepy thing to do whatever she wants to you," Cornelia replied with a tone of worry in her voice.
"I'll be fine. Divide and conquer is probably her plan, which is all the more reason for me to be in my own group. And I have a feeling that I'm her next target. I can always teletransport out of here if need be."
"Alright, if you're sure," Taranee replied. The rest of the girls grabbed their things and left, leaving Will alone at her house.
"Okay, everything will be fine. I'll just go to bed and see what happens." Will had started talking to herself. "This place is so lonely without mom here. Wow, I can't believe that I actually want my mom. I'm such a baby," She mumbled as she went to her room and changed into her pajamas. "Okay, nothing to worry about. Just crawl under the covers and go to sleep. What's so scary about that?" Will said nervously as she tucked herself into bed. "Yeah, this is fine..." Within a few moments, Will had fallen asleep. However, what waited for her in the dream world wasn't unicorns.
"Stop it! No more! No more needles. I don't want to be an experiment anymore! Please stop! Let me go!"
"You should be grateful, you'd be dead right now if you weren't such a marvelous experiment. And don't worry, once I perfect this, I'll free you from this misery..."
"Aaah!" Will screamed as she awoke from her dream. "That place, it looked like a laboratory...where was that?" She mumbled. "I'll talk to the other girls about this tomorrow. Right now I just want to get some sleep." Will closed her eyes to go back to sleep, but jolted up from her bed when she saw the same fairy that Cornelia had seen before. She could hear faint whispers coming from all directions and echoing through her mind as she felt a chill wind blow on her. Then she saw the creature at the end of the room, as though she were a phantom. The very sight of her sent chills down Will's spine. But she vanished when Will blinked. "Okay, I really don't want to be here alone right now. I'll just teletransport." She pulled the Heart of Kandrakar out and teletransported herself to Matt's house. She then crawled under Matt's covers as quietly as she could, but still woke him up.
"Huh? Will?" Matt asked, still half asleep.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you. I just don't want to be alone and I'm too embarrassed to tell the other girls that I couldn't even handle staying the night alone after I fought so hard for it," She whispered.
"What happened that made you teletransport over here though?" He asked.
"I'll tell you in the morning. Right now, I just want to get some nightmare free sleep," Will replied.
"Alright. Promise you'll tell me?"
"Promise," Will whispered back. Although it wasn't the first time that Will had snuck into his room at night, she hadn't done so in a while. Ever since she discovered that she was a guardian, villains had made a habit out of attacking her in her dreams, so she had gotten to the point where whenever one did that, she'd teletransport to either Matt's house or one of the other guardians' houses. There were times when she even had trouble waking up from the dreams where they attacked her. Even just having Mr. Huggles with her was enough to comfort her a little, at least she knew that the little dormouse would detect evil and wake her up. "By the way, I might be in here a lot during the course of the next two weeks," She added on.
"I figured as much," Matt laughed a little before wrapping his arms around her and going back to sleep. The second that Matt had fallen asleep, Mr. Huggles crawled up next to Will and snuggled with her.
"It's always comforting to wake up to the smell of a dormouse," Will giggled quietly. Within a few moments, she was able to fall back asleep, and didn't have another nightmare rest of the night.
Note: Yes, I do realize that the ending in this chapter's a bit of an odd thing for Will do to, but I had already started on chapter 3 before thinking that I should change it, so just go with it. There's a reason for it in the next chapter and I didn't want to try and change the chapter that much. Anyway, R&R please.