Chapter 8: Resistance

They approached No Heart's castle. Sophie couldn't stop the overwhelming feeling of dread.

What did I just get myself into? she thought to herself. She wished she had listened to the Care Bears when she had the chance to. Now she was stuck here with her enemies. She longed to be back in Care-a-lot and look for the crown at the library.

Lightning blasted all around the castle. Thunder roared. It was dark and ugly, and swarmed with shadows. They landed at the stairs and Emily dragged Sophie up them. Sophie closed her eyes the whole way up. Soon they came to the front door, and Emily marched in.

"No Heart!" she shouted.

"We're back!" Tanya said.

"And we've got you a present!" said Vera, "Sophie Summers!"

No Heart didn't reply, but the girls went to the throne room anyway. Sophie got the chills just from looking at the moody place. It was the complete opposite of Care-a-lot. And it stunk.

No Heart was sitting on the throne, tossing something dark and small up and down.

"Well. It's about time." No Heart said, "Welcome to my castle, Sophie Summers. The so called Princess of Care-a-lot."

"Which she is completely unworthy of that title." Emily said.

Sophie couldn't reply.

"Take that gag off her." No Heart ordered.

"But she'll probably say something stupid, or worse… something about caring."

"That was an order!" he slammed his other hand down on the armrest. Tanya took the gag off Sophie.

"Now, what did you come here for?" he asked, standing up.

"To tell you to leave the Care Bears alone!" she shouted.

He just laughed at her like she told a funny joke. This only made her angry, which probably was his intention.

"That will never happen. Why? Because, evil is always stronger than caring. And I will show the whole world that!"

He wants to make the whole world evil? she thought.

She didn't say anything.

"Well. If that's how you feel about this… then girls, take Sophie to the new Caring Remover Chamber you've been working on."

"You mean that I've been working on!" Shreeky yelled from the distance.

"Yes, that was what I meant." he grumbled.

They dragged Sophie to the Caring Remover Chamber. There was a scary looking table that reminded Sophie of the doctor's office, and it was next to a ridiculously large machine. Sophie then realized she was still wearing her caring necklace, and didn't know if she could hide it. It was too obvious in a place like this. She just hoped that it wouldn't break.

No Heart followed them, and Shreeky and Beastly tagged behind.

"Take that thing off her neck and destroy it."

Emily ripped the necklace off Sophie's neck. The chain broke. Sophie just hoped that the symbol wouldn't break.

Shreeky unbound Sophie's wrists, and tied her up on the table. The cold, metal clamps went around her wrists, ankles, and her stomach. Needless to say, Sophie was very uncomfortable.

"Fire up the machine." No Heart ordered.

Beastly got straight to work. The machine roared to life and sounded awful to Sophie. Meanwhile, Emily was trying to stomp on the necklace, but it wouldn't break. And each time she touched it, a little pulse of Sophie's caring power flickered out.

"Someone get me a hammer right now!" she growled.

Tanya fetched Emily a hammer. The machine was almost fired up. Beastly clicked away at the control panel furiously.

"Almost there, No Heart!" Beastly said.

"What are you going to do to me?" Sophie asked with a lump in her throat.

No Heart laughed and replied, "I'm going to take away every ounce of caring from you."

"Good luck with that." she taunted, and stuck out her tongue at him.

"You haven't even known the Care Bears for a full week! How can you care about them so much? Let alone those two sidekicks of yours! They're worthless!"

"My friends are not worthless! They care about me and I care about them!" Sophie shouted.

Now the machine was fully functional. Emily tried to smash Sophie's necklace with all her might, but the only result was that the hammer went flying.

"No Heart!" Emily screamed, "This necklace isn't breaking!"

"Try something else. Can't you see I'm busy right now?" he yelled back at her.

Emily threw it in a nearby fireplace. The necklace went into the purple flames, but nothing happened to the necklace. It didn't melt. But it did get hot. Emily pulled it out of the fire with a pair of tongs and dropped it on her hand. She screamed louder than Shreeky. Then she quickly dropped it and ran out of the room to go and find some cold water. Tanya went with her.

"Now, Beastly! Take all her caring!" No Heart said.

The clamps held Sophie's wrists so tight she was certain they were going to leave a mark. Then through the clamps, came a terrible surge of dark power. It entered Sophie and she screamed in pain.

Sophie then remembered that she had an infinite supply of caring potential. That meant that No Heart could never take away all of her caring. She just hoped that she wouldn't have to be tortured like this for an eternity.

She screamed again when another bolt of power went through her.

"No Heart!" Beastly said, "Something's wrong!"

"What did you do this time?" Shreeky yelled at him.

"N-nothing, Shreeky! It's not me!"

"You're just a big fat liar! No Heart, Beastly's messing the machine up!" Shreeky yelled.

"Then you do it." No Heart commanded.

So Shreeky took over. But after a few minutes it was clear that she was having a difficult time, too.

Sophie had no idea what was happening. Though she could see that Vera was still trying to break her caring necklace.

Shreeky turned up the dark power voltage dangerously high.

"This aughta do it!" she yelled happily.

They continued to torture her for who knows how long. Sophie was about to pass out. But she wasn't going to let them take her caring energy. But somehow, she started thinking negatively of Care-a-lot and the Care Bears. For a moment, she hated Wish Bear for not doing anything to save her. And she hated April and Nolan.

Then she felt the sharp pain in her arm. No Heart was sticking a needle in her arm, and a purple liquid was going inside her.

"What are you doing?" she wailed.

No Heart didn't answer her. Then the syringe was emptied. Sophie felt sick. Her eyes rolled back into her head. A terrible pain filled her. As she closed her eyes, she saw memories of Emily being her friend and then turning against her. She pushed her down on the side of the road, and never said sorry for it. From that day on, they were never friends again.

And then even though she was seeing all kinds of awful memories, her mom's smiling face appeared.

"I love you so much, Sophie." she had told her so many times.

Sophie screamed, and all the dark power that No Heart had put in her flew out her mouth and vanished.

She came out of her trance.

"Turn the voltage up higher." No Heart commanded, and slammed the syringe on the floor. It shattered.

Shreeky didn't question his command.

"Stop right there!" a familiar voice said.

Sophie looked up from the table and saw that Wish Bear and the Care Bears had arrived to rescue her!

"You came!" Sophie smiled.

Nolan and April rushed to Sophie, while Tenderheart and True Heart went straight for No Heart.

"No!" he yelled, "Shreeky, how did these Care Bears get in here?"

He swatted them away as if they were flies.

"Beastly is supposed to be in charage of the security around here, not me!" Shreeky wailed, struggling with the machine.

April and Nolan tried to unclamp Sophie from the table, but it was incredibly hard. April then went over to the machine and pushed Shreeky out of the way.

"Sorry, but I'm not going to let you hurt my friend any longer." she said.

Nolan and Wish Bear held Sophie's hands while chaos erupted all around them. Even though the Care Bears couldn't use their Stares at No Heart, they did to Shreeky and Beastly. True Heart and Tenderheart distracted No Heart by taunting him. Cheer Bear snatched up Sophie's necklace and made a new rainbow chain around it.

Then Funshine Bear picked up the hammer that Emily had used earlier.

"True Heart, Tenderheart, duck!" Funshine said.

"What?" True heart asked, but then saw that Funshine was going to hurl the hammer at No Heart's head, and popped down to the floor, and pulled Tenderheart with her.

No Heart turned around just in time to see the hammer flying at his face. It hit him and stars erupted around his head. He wobbled.

"The pest who threw that at me is going to regret it!" No Heart yelled.

Funshine couldn't help but giggle.

Then April turned the machine off. The clamps around Sophie's hands, ankles, and middle unclamped and Nolan and Wish Bear helped her off the table.

Sophie was sore all over, but mostly in her heart.

"Let's go!" Wish Bear said.

They rushed out the door and through the castle. But Emily, Tanya and Vera weren't going to let them escape the castle that easy.

"Where do you think you're going? You're not done with your torture yet!" Emily yelled.

They pointed their bracelets in the air, and just as they were going to slam them down, Wish Bear and Nolan used their caring power to Stare at the enemy. Both of their Stares were powerful, but for some reason, Nolan's did more damage.

Once Emily and her sidekicks were knocked over, Wish, Sophie and Nolan ran out of the castle and down the stairs.

Soon everyone else was running out of the castle, too. Thankfully there was a cloud car near by and Wish, Sophie, and Nolan hopped in. Since Wish was driving, Nolan held Sophie in his arms. She felt incredibly weak and sore.

Then April and Cheer hopped in the car at the last second. A few moments later they were flying away. As they flew, Sophie saw Tenderheart, True Heart, Funshine, Brave Heart, and Noble Heart all pile into another cloud car and fly after them.

Sophie closed her eyes and knew that when she opened them, she would arrive safely in Care-a-lot.