Regrouping

The people of the town watched, terrified, as an infinite amount of what looked like green lightning bolts shot up from within the school building. A moment later, they gathered together and spun around the building. In a flash of blinding, green light, the building was gone and in it's place was a castle surrounded in a green dome of energy.

Within the dome, the teachers were suppressing their own panic attacks as they hurried the screaming students along, deep into the castle.

"Everyone, this way. If we are to survive, we must get to the secret pathways." Miss Crystalgazer called, leading the pack into a corridor near the kitchen. Sending a shot of magic at the wall, she opened a secret door and ushered the children through. The students didn't need to be told anything else as they followed half of their teachers in and toward the bunkers known only to the staff for times of great need. The rest of the staff continued searching the castle as quickly as they could for missing students. Miss Crystalgazer however, headed back outside to the Guardians. As powerful and talented as they had proven to be, she knew that they stood no chance against Zarlak. Especially since he had drained the power of one of their own.

Back in the courtyard, pandemonium had broken loose. The portal was spewing out more and more dark creatures by the second and there were already far too many to stop.

Unable to take them on, Rai created a tornado around the group while Jake shot at it with his fire breath, allowing the wind to increase and control the flames and create a fire tornado. It had thankfully repelled every attacker coming their way, either by burning them to a crisp or blowing them back, but they were realistic and knew once Zarlak was done with his dome and focused on them, they would stand no chance.

"Namine, can you enter his mind and shut him down?" Jake asked, Rai groaning in the background at the strain on his energy reserves. Sighing sadly, Namine shook her head.

"I already tried. But this is no rookie or dimwit we're dealing with. His mind is heavily warded against intrusion and I can't even scratch the surface."

"Then we are doomed." Jake sighed, grimacing as the tornado shrunk after each scream of the creatures attempting to get through resounded throughout the area, indicating that Rai's strength was fading.

"We need to come up with something soon." Rai grunted, squeezing his eyes shut as he dropped his head. "At best, I'd say we have a couple of minutes before I collapse."

Before any of the others could respond, the entire tornado was blasted with green magic and disappeared with a puff of smoke, leaving Rai to fall to his knees. Looking up, the group glared fearfully as the supreme wizard landed before them.

"I suppose I should thank you young sorceress, for supplying the power needed to free me." He said, smiling darkly at the barely conscious Gwen. "But now, I must get rid of you and your friends. Your powers are all strong and I cannot have you interfering with my plans." Preparing his worse, he raised his charging staff up… only for a powerful, blue beam to blast it right out of his hand. "What?"

"You didn't think we'd let you destroy half of the Earth's greatest heroes, did you Zarlak?" Verne asked defiantly. Turning to his left, where the blast had come from, he found the three that had caused him so much misery glaring, their wands united and pointing right at him.

"And do you think that your pathetic, little wands, even together, have the power to stop me?" Zarlak retorted, green magic cackling like electricity on his hands. He never noticed the blur behind him.

"Fist of Tebigong!" Before Zarlak could so much as turn around, the American Dragon had ploughed the metal glove Shen Gong Wu square into his back, launching him painfully through the air with an incredibly loud scream. Noticing the dark creatures shooting his way, Jake took a deep breath and breathed fire, burning many and causing others to back away fearfully. The few that continued through found themselves being slugged and making deep holes in the ground thanks to the same metal fist that struck their master. "Thanks for the hand, but we gotta move." He cried to the wizards as they joined Namine by Gwen.

Another harpy tried to take advantage of the enemy's distraction and shot forward, claws extended. Jake turned just in time to see it coming, but before he could prepare a counterattack, a blue wall, much like Gwen's, appeared between them. Unable to pull back, the harpy screamed as she crashed into it, looking like a bird that struck a window before sliding down to the ground.

"Hurry everyone, this way." Miss Crystalgazer shouted, running to Raimundo's side and helping him to his feet. "We must get to the safe house."

Nodding, Cassie, Gus and Verne jumped onto their scoot zoomers, helped the Guardians unable to fly on and followed their headmistress inside, with Jake flying close behind them. They reached the castle entrance none to soon, closing the door just as an enraged scream echoed throughout the entire castle, followed by an explosion of green magic.

They quickly made it to the passage entrance just as the last of the students the teachers rounded up went through and followed them in, closing the entrance and making it appear that it was never there behind them.

"Everyone, stay near the adults. It is extremely easy to get lost in here and if you do, we will never find you." Miss Crystalgazer called, lighting her wand as she started down one of the five different passageways. She wasn't kidding, that was clear everyone as they made their way down the path. The hidden passage was a maze, with at least three new twists and turns appearing every ten feet. It was absolutely amazing that anyone could make their way through it, without any aid. What made it even worse, as many of the teachers pointed out, was that magic had a very limited affect in the maze, due to the many spells that made it impossible to detect anyone within and to prevent intruders from finding their way forward or back. It made even the teachers hesitant to use it. In fact, the only people who weren't looking extremely worried were Rai, who had lazily managed to discover that the serpent's tail could still phase him through the walls, Miss Crystalgazer assumed that it was because his item's magic was very different from what wizards had encountered when the building was created, and Gwen, who'd fallen asleep during the ride.

After what felt like an eternity, they finally stopped at a dead end. Many of the students gasped at the sight of and started panicking, thinking that they had taken a wrong turn somewhere and were forever lost. However, Miss Crystalgazer merely hushed them as she raised her wand and sent a shot of magic at the wall and once again, a door that you couldn't tell was there opened.

Stepping through, the entire group was amazed at the sight of them room within. It was at least the size of the school's stadium and was very well furnished. Balls of magic hung in the air, providing light and the temperature was very comfortable, unlike the cold you'd expect from an underground bunker. To top it off, their were ten doors scattered around the walls, half labelled as a girl's sign and half with a boy's, indicating that they were bathrooms.

"Make yourselves comfortable children, and don't worry. Even if the entire castle falls down, we are safe here. Not even Zarlak will be able to find us." Miss Crystalgazer called soothingly as the teachers went to comfort the more panicky students. Seeing al of the children were more or less ok and all accounted for, she turned to where Namine and Jake, backing human form, sat on the floor, next to couches that they'd rested Gwen and an exhausted Rai on. Unconsciously, she noted that Cassie, Gus and Verne were sitting very close by, the boys looking worried and Cassie looking down and ashamed.

"Are you all alright?" She asked worriedly, her eyes spending extra time on the unconscious two.

"Yes, we'll be fine. We just need some time to rest." Namine nodded, giving her a small, reassuring smile.

"Which gives us time to come up with a plan." Jake responded, scratching the back of his head. "How do we deal with this situation? And how is he so powerful? Gwen couldn't do a thing to stop him from draining her powers and she's the most powerful of us all. Not to mention that her powers have the most potential."

"It is because Zarlak spent centuries increasing his powers." Ubos answered, flying out of Cassie's bag. All of those paying attention to the conversation, minus the Guardians, gasped in surprise or panic as the living book headed towards the Guardians. "He has also been gathering magical items and beings from all around the centre of the Earth and draining their magic, giving him power beyond measure. Add that to the power he's now stolen from Lucky Girl, he is quite possibly invincible."

"Ubos, what are you doing? No one's supposed to see you!" Cassie cried, missing as she attempted to grab the floating book.

"What is this? What is going on here?" Miss Crystalgazer asked, her eyes wide behind her glasses.

"I, my lady, am the Ultimate Book of Spells, or Ubos for short. I have been guiding Cassandra, Gus and Verne since the three met in their journeys to stop Zarlak and free the stolen magic. Unfortunately, it appears that we were unable to do enough in time." Ubos told her, watching as her shock continued grow.

"You have been helping three children to the Centre of the Earth? That's incredibly dangerous. How could you put children's lives in such jeopardy?" Miss Crystalgazer demanded. "And why was I never informed of such activity?" She added, rounding on the three nervous students in question.

"Before now, no one was ever to know of their journeys and they swore not to tell a soul." Ubos answered for them, getting the headmistress's attention back to him. "And to answer your first question, I believe that these three are the prophesized power of three destined to defeat Zarlak. Together, they have immense power and the potential for supreme sorcery. But what they did not have before, and still need more of, is the experience and wisdom it requires to cultivate their powers adequately enough to face Zarlak. But you need not worry my dear, they have excelled in every journey beyond what even I expected of them. But now the time of secrets is over. We must all combined our knowledge and powers if we hope to undo what Zarlak has done."

"We're going to need more then that." Verne sighed before turning a hopeful eye to Jake and Namine. "Would the other Valour Guardians be able to help us?"

Namine shook her head. "I can't get a portal or a com signal through the dome. Even if they notice what's going on, they'll never get inside." Verne dropped his head sadly at that, all of his hopes of rescue dashed.

"But there is a way to take the stolen powers back from Zarlak." Ubos stated, getting everyone's attention. "When she's recovered, Lucky Girl can use her restored powers to pull her stolen energy from Zarlak back to her with a spell hidden in my pages, provided that Zarlak hasn't yet used it all, along with returning the magic he's stolen from every other creature and item he's obtained. Zarlak would only have his natural magic left and while that is still and extremely large amount of powerful, Lucky Girl and the other Guardians should have the strength to stand up to him. That's when the final part of the plan comes into play."

"And what would that be Ubos?" Gus asked, his ears twitching in his curiosity.

"Lucky Girl and I will combined our powers in another spell within my pages that will reactivate the seal placed on Zarlak. Provided that his minions are also in close proximity to the vortex, that will occur if the Zarlak's is gone, they will all be sucked back to the centre of the Earth too."

"But how do we get them all near the vortex?" Verne asked doubtfully. "It's unlikely that they'll be keen to go back."

"That's where everyone else comes in." Ubos responded. "You must all use your powers to herd them close to the portal. But at the same time, we'll need someone to watch Lucky Girl's back while we are casting the banishing spell."

"Is this plan likely to work?" Jake asked sceptically, frowning at the book. "It's going to take a lot to get it to be successful and there's a number of ways it could fail."

"I will admit that to be true." Ubos sighed. "But the only other way is to take Zarlak and his forces head on and that will only spell disaster. What's more, if he is allowed to stay on the surface world for to long, the dark wizards here will gather by his side and there will be no force on Earth with the slightest hope of stopping him. We will all be obliterated, and not even the combined power of your quite amazing team mates will even put a dent in his plans."

"But to perform this plan, we will need large numbers to fight. We cannot put the students in such harm." Miss Crystalgazer broke in, looking very alarmed.

"We could do it with just the teachers." Namine suggested. "I could protect Lucky Girl and Rai and Jake's combined powers can contain a good number of the dark army, at least for a short period of time. With the teachers by our side, we should be able to do this."

"And we're going to fight too." Cassie stated firmly, eliciting nods from Gus and Verne.

"Absolutely not." Miss Crystalgazer cried, whipping around to them. "I will not allow students to endanger themselves like this."

"But Miss Crystalgazer, we have to." Cassie replied defiantly. "We're the ones with the most experience fighting Zarlak, we're the ones prophesised to defeat him, and… I have to make up for my actions." At this, she lowered her head shamefully before turning to the Guardians apologetically. "I'm sorry for how I acted around you guys. I was jealous that you got the credit for your actions while I didn't and of the amount of power you all have, especially Lucky Girl. Can you forgive me?"

"It's Rai that really you need to ask that, but yeah, I forgive you." Jake replied casually, with Namine grinning as she nodded her head.

Relief filling her, she turned to the boys and Ubos. "I owe you guys an apology too, for acting like I did, especially you Verne. I'm sorry. And you were right. From what I saw of how they fight, they are pretty amazing."

"It's ok Cassie. We're all good." Verne said, both him and Gus smiling reassuringly.

"We're just glad to have you back to normal." Gus added, resting a hand on her shoulder. "Now what do you say we start planning the attack?"

"You have no chance of stopping them my lady." Ubos said amusedly as Miss Crystalgazer opened her mouth to protest. "They are righteous, self sacrificing and most of all, stubborn. I promise that one day, they will all be the people all wizards and witches look up to. But don't worry. They are powerful and talented. They will be fine."

"Very well." Miss Crystalgazer sighed in defeat, Ubos' words and the looks on the students' faces making it clear that she couldn't win the argument. Gathering the teachers, the group updated them on the plan and made sure everyone knew their part before breaking apart again and resting up. They all had to get as much rest as possible, as once Rai and Gwen awoke, the battle would begin. And if they weren't ready, the world would be screwed.