Chapter Four: "Dissolution"

By: Sokai

Disclaimer: I, Sokai, do not claim ownership to the workings of W.I.T.C.H. -- I leave that honor up to Elisabetta Gnone. However, I can and DO claim to own this story and its inspired ideas FROM said series, as well as the original character, Sitara Vandom.

Note: Yay!! Gasp! I have returned, and have finally updated this story!! No more harrassment (for now, at least LoL) from you guys!! A.K.A., Inferno05. LoL Think of this as a nice X-mas present or something. LoL Enjoy!

WARNING: PLEASE READ THIS STORY AT YOUR OWN RISK, ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE EXTREMELY RELIGIOUS. WHILE I AM NOT TRYING TO BE DISRESPECTFUL OR SACRILEGIOUS, I MAY STILL END UP DOING SO FOR SOME OF YOU -- HENCE, THE WARNING, UNDERSTANDING, AND APOLOGY IN ADVANCE.

This chapter was created/written in September 2006.

"When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: 'Death is swallowed up in victory.' O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?" -- 1 Corinthians 15:54-55

What are you doing? You should turn around right now and escape with the others! screamed Wilhelmina's voice in a bit of slight panic, while at the same time that her wobbly, Jello-like legs continued to carry her down towards impending peril.

What was she doing? She'd just finished finding out that she now resided within a demon-infested world (all of which would be all too eager to munch on an arm or leg of hers -- especially within her still weak and groggy state), and yet she was now nonetheless on her way to try to be of assistance to whatever was the matter -- big or small.

It did not make any sense, especially since this was not her normal behavior.

Wilhelmina had positively washed her hands of helping others, as well as interfering and other such acts years ago. And yet, suddenly, in one shot, that mentality and resolve seemed to have evaporated. It was ironic that, it would appear as though she was regaining bits of her old compassion within a world now devoid of said emotion.

After managing to carefully maneuver around the fleeing Barinak inhabitants, Wilhelmina finally caught up to Gabriel, who was curiously collapsed onto his knees with his head bowed. As she'd gotten close enough, Wilhelmina could then understand why, as she tuned into the crying man's frazzled conversation with a grizzled, elderly man standing frail, yet sternly before him.

"Come now, Gabriel! You have no one to blame for this but yourself! It was not the first time that you'd gone on a scavenger mission above ground, and so therefore you knew of what to do and how to handle things!" scolded the antiquated male as Wilhelmina approached and stood behind Gabriel. "But you just had to 'take pity' upon some . . . harlot who could very well be diseased!"

"Excuse me? I'm standing right here, you know," interjected Wilhelmina in offense, glaring inappreciatively at the old man, before crouching behind Gabriel to help him back onto his feet.

"Well, I am very glad to see that you have arrived in time to hear my disapproval of your presence, young woman. Thanks to you, you have singlehandedly put all of our lives in danger! Pardon me, you and Gabriel!" exclaimed the whithered male fiercely, returning the piercing stare that Wilhelmina continued to deliver onto him.

Gabriel, meanwhile, continued to sob uncontrollably while the chaos of villagers fleeing for their lives also continued to ensue.

"C-Cato . . . p-please! Do not blame Will! Y-you are right! I am t-to blame!" he cried miserably, green eyes glistening with feverish tears. "But, please! I beg of you! Do not allow my daughter to be martyred for my mistakes! Just reopen the pathway so that I can get to her!"

The aged man apparently known as Cato gruffly sighed in disaffect at this.

"Out of the question! The pathway is to remain closed, regardless of whether or not there are a few unfortunate souls to remain behind in the process -- and that includes your . . . precious daughter!

She probably was not even meant to survive within this world for as long as she has, anyhow, what with her encounter with these demonic creatures once before!"

This hurtful remark caused Gabriel to inhale sharply in equally hurtful surprise before sobbing harder. Wilhelmina, on the other hand, felt that this low blow was the final straw.

And so, before Gabriel nor Cato knew what was happening, Wilhelmina moved from her spot behind Gabriel and placed herself less than four inches away from Cato. Because she was taller than he was, she drastically towered over him as she leered down upon him with disgusted anger.

"That's it! I don't care who you are, or who you think you are, old man! It's one thing to freaking rag on me for being the 'outsider' of this backwards civilization, or even Gabriel for, oh, I don't know, actually having compassion!

But you will not stand there and tell the father of a little girl, who's probably frightened out of her mind wherever she is right now, that she was 'destined' to die at the beginning stages of her life!" spat Wilhelmina ferociously, causing Cato, Gabriel, as well as the two men who were seemingly on guard duty for the large, circular stone "door" before her to gasp simultaneously in surprise.

Cato, despite his best efforts to look unaffected, nonetheless visibly cringed in fear as he began to stammer in response.

"Y-y-you --! Y-you cannot speak t-to me in s-such a manner! I-I have a right mind t-to --"

"-- To what? Kick me out of this dumb ass 'village?' Don't bother! I'm gone after this, anyway!" interrupted Wilhelmina in annoyance, her upset boiling and brown eyes alight with resentment. "But you will reopen that freaking door, or whatever it is! And, hey! How's this for even more incentive to do so: I will go in there to get Esmé, myself!"

At this, Gabriel could no longer stand idly by and say nothing.

"W-what? Will, no! This is not your cause! I cannot ask you to do this for me!" he said in alarm, wiping away a few stray tears away from his face before gently seizing both of Wilhelmina's bare arms after moving to her side.

Wilhelmina, still glaring daggers at the now frowning, yet shivering elderly man before her, replied softly to the younger man next to her,

"You didn't ask me, Gabriel. But I'm still doing it. It's only fair, after all that you have done and risked for me, even though you didn't have to. So say what you will, but I'm still going in there to get your daughter back to you."

Whoa. Did that just come out of my mouth? thought Wilhelmina in astonishment. So much for not wanting to get involved . . .

Regardless, to allow an innocent child to be sacrificed so that heartless cowards like Cato could live (despite his appearing as though he had lived several lifetimes) was something that Wilhelmina could not bring herself to allow it to occur.

Pausing a moment, Cato frowned lightly at the same time that he slowly nodded in yielding.

". . . So be it. Whether or not you find the girl and make it out of this debacle alive matters not to me. I will reopen the doorway, but will not do so again once you have entered, as the rest of us will be heading to safety in the lower levels of the village. So therefore, this means that, if you, Gabriel, want to be reunited with your daughter, you will go with this . . . woman, and find your own way back," he instructed as severely as he could, shifting his cold, beady eyes away from Wilhelmina and onto Gabriel.

Gabriel nodded slowly in understanding.

"T-thank you, Cato! I know the passageways well enough to lead Will along, anyhow," he complied, bowing his brown colored head slightly in gratitude.

Wilhelmina backed away from Cato, and watched as he didn't bother to respond to this and instead merely snapped his brittle fingers to signal to the two men behind him to move the large stone circle blockade out of the way.

Gabriel turned to Wilhelmina as Cato moved out of their way.

"Will . . . please. There is still time to back down. Please do not feel as though you owe me any sort of favors by going in there to rescue Esmé," he said softly, placing both of his hands onto the redhead's shoulders.

Wilhelmina merely shook her head at this, and gently peeled the obviously enervated man off of her.

"No, Gabriel. As unbelievably crass and annoying as he is, 'old dude' has a point. Had it not been for me, you wouldn't have been distracted, and would've remembered to cover yours and Esmé's scents, or whatever you had to do. It is my fault that the demon followed you and that Esmé's now trapped somewhere with it . . ."

Sighing sadly and in fear at the thought, Gabriel could only stare back at Wilhelmina with his emerald colored orbs that slowly began to water once more.

Seeing him so distraught and beside himself with worry over his only child's status made Wilhelmina think about her mother once more, and how if it had been Wilhelmina to be in Esmé's place, Wilhelmina's mother would most likely have moved both Heaven and Earth to get to her.

The things you realize after it's too late, thought Wilhelmina as a sharp pain filtered into her heart.

"Will? Are you all right?" she heard Gabriel ask in concern, thankfully bringing her back to the present. It still hurt far too much for Wilhelmina to reflect upon her tragic past for too long -- or at all, if she could avoid doing so (although she seemed to be prone to doing so a lot, ever since she first regained consciousness after her three year slumber).

Not wishing for the gentle-oriented man to dwell upon her feelings any further, Wilhelmina forced a smile and nodded swiftly.

"Y-yeah, Gabriel, I am. Let's just go and bring your daughter back," she replied quietly, before taking a deep breath and walked forward and into the reopened and dimly lit pathway, with Gabriel following close behind.

§.§.§

After several minutes of traveling down an intricate, winding path with Gabriel now in the lead (as Wilhelmina naturally did not know her way around the unique city), he at last abruptly stopped her and let out a sharp gasp.

Wilhelmina did not have to bother to guess why the man was suddenly so startled, as her brown eyes regrettably met with a small scene of random, bloodied up body parts that decorated the steep path before them.

"Argh . . . I-I think . . . think I'm going to be --" Gabriel managed to utter before beginning to retch violently in sickness.

. . . My sentiments exactly . . . thought Wilhelmina morosely, as she turned her lithe body both away from Gabriel (who was now hunched over, vomiting uncontrollably), as well as the horrid display. She truly did feel extremely ill, herself, feeling her body grow tense and cold.

However, nothing would come out. The setting greatly (and unfortunately) reminded Wilhelmina of her past once again . . . Of the day that she'd lost all four of her best friends and fellow Guardians of the Veil, in a similar, gruesome manner . . .

"C . . . Come on, Gabriel . . . There's nothing that we can do for them . . . but there may be still hope for Esmé . . . At least now we know that we're on the right track and getting close . . ." murmured Wilhelmina softly, helping the still woozy man back onto his feet at the same time that she secretly wished to forget all about her old life.

"Y-yes . . . You are right, Will . . . We must keep moving . . ." Gabriel weakly agreed, bashfully wiping his mouth clear of body waste. ". . . B . . . but . . . does this sight not affect you as well?"

Wilhelmina sighed heavily at this, while the two of them wearily continued on down the path, with Wilhelmina this time in the lead.

". . . I guess . . . I've just gotten . . . 'desensitized' to these sorts of things after a while . . ." she hollowly replied, keeping her eyes focused on the far distance.

Gabriel's green eyes widened in surprise at this.

"One does not normally come across such tragedies as . . . as this, Wilhelmina . . . even within an equally tragic world as ours . . . I do not mean to pry as I had said that I would not earlier, but it just makes me wonder the sort of life you had led up until now . . ."

Wilhelmina continued on walking ahead of the inquisitive man for several moments, her creamy visage wrinkling into a tight grimace before quietly responding,

". . . Same here, Gabriel . . . Same here . . ."

Several more minutes of silent walking (thankfully, as far as Wilhelmina was concerned) at last came to an end the moment there came an undeniable and horrid sound of . . . bones breaking?

Or, worse yet, being chewed upon.

Sure enough, as Wilhelmina and Gabriel rounded an upcoming corner, there, in the reasonable and thankful distance, was the culprit -- the dreaded, spike-riddled, four-legged and olive colored demon they had been bravely (or insanely) looking for.

And, more importantly, there was little Esmé, seemingly unharmed and lying unconscious just a mere feet away from the calamitous creature.

The spike-demon apparently fancied on saving Esmé last as though for dessert, as it was preoccupied with feasting upon the scattered remains of one of the unfortunate Barinak villagers. Other unrecognizable pieces of human debris surrounded the beast and its remaining prey.

Wilhelmina, as she had never seen anything so frightening in all of her adventures and misadventures as a Guardian, found herself at last feeling affected and positively paralyzed with excruciating fear at the sight.

Gabriel, whether or not he was panic-stricken, it was hard to say. For, before Wilhelmina could properly react, she felt herself being roughly knocked over as he barreled on ahead.

"Esmé! I am here! Daddy's come to save you!" he cried anxiously, as well as a bit foolhardily, causing the vicious, red eyed demon to immediately veer its attention onto him.

"Gabriel, no! Come back! You don't know what you're --" called out Wilhelmina in vain, beginning to rush after the hysterical man before deciding instead to tactfully duck behind the large boulder that was in front of her. Although she did want to help older individual, she knew that following after Gabriel would most likely be the last thing she ever did, leaving Esmé doomed to perish, anyhow.

As leader to the other Guardians of the Veil, Wilhelmina had been frequently faced with reaching different, difficult decisions as the one she was currently facing all of the time -- but that fact never made the act any easier.

Especially not this one, she thought in qualmish deploring, feeling herself begin to lightly hyperventilate as she began to hear the shrieking, helpless cries of incontestable death taking place for the kind young man who had taken mercy upon the redhead and brought her into his home.

. . . This really is all my fault . . . He should have just left me out there . . . mentally reflected Wilhelmina with strong guilt as the cries in the distance suddenly fell silent.

"No . . . I can't feel sorry for myself. I said that I would help save Esmé, and damn it, that's what I'm gonna do . . . even if there's no saving Gabriel -- or myself, for that matter . . ." she said aloud in growing determination, squeezing her honey-brown eyes shut in concentration to begin trying to summon forth the Heart of Candracar for the first time, technically, in years.

Nothing, however, happened.

"Of course! Because having the Heart to back me up in this fight would have been too easy!" groaned Wilhelmina, before reaching for the moderately sized rock that was at her side and rising to her feet.

To her surprise as well as relief, the skewered demon had its back to Wilhelmina once more, and had incredulously gone back to its previous meal. To her horror, however, lying bloodied and battered upon his torso several feet behind the monster, was Gabriel. It appeared as though he had been violently catapulted towards the wall, courtesy of the beastly foe's spiked, thick and forceful tail.

Her fear rising once more at the sight, Wilhelmina took a deep breath and carefully as well as quietly began to approach the demon. Her heart racing profusely, Wilhelmina fleetly threw the rock, not at the creature (as she knew that it would ultimately do nothing more than agitate it, before it decided to kill her next), but over it and further down the continuing path.

It was her hope that the fiend would grow suspicious, greedy and wish to seek out whatever new prey might be lurking, long enough for her to grab Esmé and run. Unfortunately for Wilhelmina, however, not only did the demon not do anything of the sort, but it promptly swung around to peer menacingly at her, as though to say,

". . . You time has just run out."

Not expecting this to happen, Wilhelmina let out a startled cry and fell backward, right when the demon alarmingly leaped into the air and lunged towards her.

. . . This is it. I'm going to die, like Gabriel, and so too will Esmé . . . And I won't ever get to see my sister again . . . she thought as she closed her eyes and awaited the end to come, counting on the devilish creature's fangs to pierce straight into her jugular . . . but nothing of the sort ever transpired.

That is, Wilhelmina did not feel any immense pain, as she resigned herself to her fate. Instead, the cardinal haired woman suddenly felt a familiar, searing sensation of the Heart of Candracar pulsating violently within her hand . . . Only, it wasn't only within her hand that she felt this, but instantly throughout her entire body, as it grew to the point of white-hot affliction.

There was something very different about it . . .

Gasping, Wilhelmina opened her eyes to see a black aura suddenly surrounding the demon, as it curiously remained suspended in midair directly over her. Moreover, Wilhelmina was even more surprised to see that her own body was glowing the same sable hue, and that a mysterious "line" was connecting the two of them . . . as though she was being drained of energy.

If that truly was the case, however, Wilhelmina did not understand why she suddenly felt herself more energized and fortified with increasing strength than she ever had since first waking up a few hours before (and why the evil ghoul began to look a bit whithered in contrast).

Flabbergasted at the continued ongoing for a few more moments, Wilhelmina quickly rolled onto her hands and knees to propel herself up onto her feet. Then, without thinking, she swiftly raced back over to the boulder she had used for concealing protection and picked it up straight over her head, curiously without any sort of trouble.

Too dazed to wonder how she was able to do such a thing, or why she bothered to try in the first place, Wilhelmina ran back over to the immobile monster and let out an angry cry as she roughly brought down the boulder straight onto its head (the only part of its body not littered with immensely sharp spikes), with greater force than humanly possible.

The otherworldly creature let out a painful shriek before the harsh sound of its skull breaking open immediately muddled it, instantly killing it. Wilhelmina jumped back in alarm and disgust as a great torrent of black tinted blood spilled forth from the carcass's head and onto the floor. Wilhelmina felt herself begin to feel a bit ill yet again as she watched the scene and regrettably felt some of the blood land onto her chest and face.

Shakily dropping the boulder onto the ground, Wilhelmina was about to furiously wipe away at her face when she suddenly felt her body grow rigid and grotesquely hot. She opened her mouth to let out a scream of pain, but nothing would come out as the black aura that continued to surround her grew stronger at the same time that the demon's lessened.

The moment only lasted for several seconds before it passed, and Wilhelmina was able to move once again and the dark aura dissipated until it was completely gone. The pain seemed to have left an imprint upon the solitary young woman, despite it too beginning to cease. Never had she felt anything so intense in all of her life, and throughout all of her previous battles -- and, quite frankly, it honestly scared the daylights out of her . . .

Feeling supremely disoriented, Wilhelmina fell heavily onto her knees, breathing heavily.

". . . W . . . What was that?" she feebly said to herself, her head bowed and causing her river of red hair to spill all around her in the process. Inhaling, Wilhelmina crawled over to Esmé's still body and lightly shook her, hoping to revive her.

"H-hey . . . Esmé . . . wake up . . . You're safe, now . . ." she breathed, lifting the little girl's body onto her legs for support. Thankfully, Wilhelmina felt as well as saw Esmé's dishwater blonde head begin to turn as she slowly woke up.

"Esmé! You're all right!" she said in relief, blindly stroking the girl's head in comfort as she turned her attention onto the child's deceased father.

. . . Too bad I can't say the same for him . . . thought the brown-eyed girl sadly, exhaling to a great extent.

Suddenly, Wilhelmina heard a sharp cough emitting from Gabriel's bloodied organic structure as she watched him too slowly stir.

"Oh, my God . . ." she whispered in surprise and disbelief, before turning her attention back onto Esmé.

". . . Uh . . . Esmé, s . . . stay here, okay? Don't move . . . " she instructed quietly, gently sliding the girl's body off of her and purposely faced her towards the wall and away from the "disaster zone" for protection.

". . . Gabriel . . . Gabriel . . . are you okay?" stupidly asked Wilhelmina in a hushed whisper so that Esmé would not be able to hear. She slowly reached out and rolled Gabriel onto his back and nearly cried out due to the sight of his almost unrecognizable, bloodied face.

". . . Oh, God . . . Gabriel . . . I'm so sorry . . . This . . . this is all my fault . . ."

Gabriel slowly and weakly raised a bruised hand up to his lips and managed to smile slightly.

". . . Don't . . . You are not to blame. I . . . I . . . owe you the world . . . for saving . . . saving . . . Esmé . . . Have you?" he asked, his voice barely above a whisper. The display, Gabriel's fatal predicament, that is, was extremely bothersome to Wilhelmina, because it was also extremely reminiscent of . . .

Shaking her head in attempts to escape from the most painful of all of her negative memories, Wilhelmina forced a smile of her own onto her dirtied face.

". . . Y-you . . . Esmé's safe, yes . . ."

". . . Good . . . Th . . . thank you . . . I wish . . . that I could see her . . . one last time . . ." said Gabriel tiredly, looking at Wilhelmina with increasingly glazed over eyes.

This declaration caused a chill to run up Wilhelmina's spine, as she shook her crimson head violently in rebuttal.

"What? You can see her right now -- or anytime, for that matter! Here, I'll bring her to --"

"-- No, Will . . . No . . . I want my daughter's memory of me to be positive, and not to see me so . . . diminished . . ." said Gabriel, abruptly coughing up blood. Wilhelmina winced at the sight, not hesitating to reach out to wipe some of it away from his mouth with the back of her hand.

". . . Gabriel . . . please. Don't talk like that -- or at all, actually. You need to save your strength. And then, when you're feeling up to it, we'll go --"

"-- Do not be so naive, Wilhelmina . . . You know as well as I that I am done for . . . At . . . least . . . I will be reunited with my beloved Gilda . . . but will be leaving our little girl in the process . . . Will . . . I must . . . ask of you a huge favor . . . a last wish . . ."

". . . What?" frowned Wilhelmina in affect, looking at him with confused worry. ". . . I . . . uh . . . all right . . ."

Gabriel sighed lightly in relief at this.

"I . . . want you to look . . . after Esmé . . . Take her with you, wherever you may go . . ."

Wilhelmina gasped in shock. Of all of the things she thought Gabriel would have asked, she did not expect him to ask her to inherit custody of his only child.

"W-what? I-I can't! I --"

"-- Please . . . The other villagers have never . . . never really cared for her, as Cato 'graciously' illustrated for you . . . And now, for this mess . . . they will never truly accept her back into the village . . . Please . . . I have a strong, good feeling about you . . . from the start . . . You possess a great . . . strength within you, that I know . . . know will keep you and my daughter safe . . . please . . ."

Biting down onto her lip in deep contemplation, Wilhelmina at last slowly nodded in relent.

". . . All right . . . All right, I'll do it . . . I'll look after Esmé . . ." she said, unsure of how she would be able to do just that, when she was still unsure of how she would be able to look out for herself.

Gabriel smiled a bit broader, gently squeezing Wilhelmina's hand in appreciation.

"Thank you . . . Gilda . . . and I are forever grateful . . ." he said weakly, before he gasped sharply, his breathing suddenly stopping thereafter.

Wilhelmina closed her eyes shut upon seeing this.

". . . God . . . Not again . . ." she whispered, her mind involuntarily traveling back to the night her life had fallen apart for what felt like the umpteenth time. Swiftly forcing herself to move on from it, Wilhelmina reopened her chocolate gems and sadly looked down upon Gabriel's corpse.

". . . Don't worry, Gabriel . . . I will try my best to keep your little girl as safe as I can . . ." she promised softly, placing his blood-stained hands onto his chest, before rising to her feet yet again.

Moving back to the awaiting Esmé, Wilhelmina was surprised that, despite having been told to wait, Esmé had actually done so. However, when Wilhelmina had gotten close enough, she saw why.

The hapless little one had fallen back asleep.

No wonder she didn't come over to us . . . Poor thing . . . she thought in sympathy.

"You're better off, I suppose . . . You've been through enough . . . Come on . . . Let's . . . get out of here . . ." said Wilhelmina, bending over to pick up the slumbering, newfound orphan and carried her out of the cavern.

-- End of Chapter Four

(A.N. There it is. Happy, now? No? Ohhhhhhhhhh, well. LoL I'm sooooooo freaking tired!! Spent a good portion of the afternoon until now, editing the crap out of it, throwing off my sleeping schedule. But I had to get it out now cuz I'm busy later this week. See the sacrifices I make you kiddies? LoL So yeah. If I missed crap, sue me. Anyway, I like this chapter, kinda. It's nice, depressing, and gory, just the way I like 'em. LoL Fairly, decent amount of words, 4,500+, a.k.a. 8 pages, the usual minimum for me for chapters I produce. I didn't want to move past this "scene" in this chapter, as the whole death and first demon fight, blah blah, was the main plot of it, etc. And yeah. I know: "Where's Sitara, damn it?" Relax. LoL Sita's lying in a gutter somewhere. I kiiiiiiid. LoL No, she's sipping on a Piña Colada in the Bahamas. LoL Seriously, though? Just have faith and patience in me, k? I'm progressing with this story at the pace – negating posting frequency LoL – I wanted to, so I'M happy, at least. And I know you also have a billion other questions of what went down, mainly the fight scene or whatever, but guess what? Stay tuned for more updates! LoL)