Recap:
No one (except Caleb) remembered Cornelia's birthday.
WITH decided to host a party on Meridian to make it up to her.
Phobos sent Nargles (creatures made of all 5 elements) to attack WITCH, Elyon, and Caleb at the party. He wants Caleb dead.
Cornelia and friends were still hugging when the doors of the ballroom burst open. They jumped apart, looking worriedly at the doors, as they heard Caleb fire an arrow from the bow slung over his shoulder.
Wow, I didn't know that he could do that! Cornelia thought idly, before realizing three things in quick succession:
An enormous army of big, ugly things was currently invading her party. Judging by the surprised looks on her friends' faces and Caleb's violent reaction, they had not been invited.
Her beautiful miniature castle was perched very precariously on the armrest of the throne. For a fleeting moment, Cornelia worried that it would break. Then she realized she had larger problems.
Will didn't have the Heart.
The party guests ran screaming through the room, trying to escape the destruction caused by the giant mutant things. Cornelia heard the frantic discussions of her friends to her right and the stream of Caleb cursing to her left.
"Open us a portal back to Heatherfield NOW," Cornelia snapped at Elyon, whirling around to face her friends. "We can go home, get the Heart, and come back. Do you think you can hold them off until then, Ellie?"
"Yes. Here," Elyon said, opening the portal. Will turned and suggested that she be the only one to return to Heatherfield.
"I'll come back quickly, and this way, you guys can help Elyon and Caleb," she explained. The other girls nodded and began to usher the guests out of the room via another door. Caleb, spotting one of the guards (who was being completely useless and just standing there, terrified) took the sword from the sheath around his waist and entered the fray. Cornelia saw, and shouted at him to be careful. He didn't hear her.
Moments later, Will came bounding into the room, with a flash of blue light. She had barely entered Meridian when the girls heard her cry and found themselves in Guardian Form. It was then that Cornelia realized she hadn't seen hide nor hair of Elyon since Will had left. Calling to Will for assistance, she searched for Elyon. A second later, the girls found her.
A huge Nargle was standing over the Queen, about to destroy her. Standing in the way of the monster was a comparatively small human male: Caleb. The Nargle raised its foot, preparing to crush them both.
"NO!" Cornelia yelled, calling on the rocky foundation of the castle to trip the giant beast. Will swooped in behind Caleb, rescuing the unconscious Queen, as Cornelia struggled against the Nargle.
Irma and Hay Lin were having just as much difficulty with the monsters they were battling. Taranee's fight was also futile. When Will returned from bringing Elyon to a safe haven, she called the girls together.
"Elyon murmured 'Nargles.' Caleb, do you know what that means?" Will asked their resident Meridian expert.
"Nargles, nargles," he repeated. "Of course! They are ancient creatures, made by the combination of all 5 elements. Only the royal family-or the Guardians- have the power to produce them-"
"The royal family? Elyon would never…" Irma interjected.
"And we certainly didn't," Taranee mentioned, while streaming fire at the wall of upcoming nargles.
"Phobos," Cornelia said, looking to Will with wide eyes.
"If they are made by mixing all the elements, can't we just call our elements back from them? Unmake them, if you know what I mean?" Hay Lin suggested.
"Worth a try," Will agreed. Soaring into the air, the girls each focused on one particular nargle at a time. Caleb kept many of the rest busy by chopping at them with his sword.
Their plan was working. The girls would call for their elements, effectively ruining the nargle. Taking away their quintessence, Will reduced the warriors to mere statues. Dehydration made them crumble, much to Irma's satisfaction. By removing the fire, Taranee took away the strength of the giants. Cornelia's earth left the gargoyles without a solid form. Finally, the air reclaimed by Hay Lin created burning mudslides where fierce monsters once stood. Flushed with a seemingly easy victory, the girls didn't notice a stray nargle approach them. He had a black piece of fabric, which he wound around Will's neck. Instantly, the Guardians fell from the air, returned to their human forms. Seconds later, they heard Caleb grunt and collapse, his sword falling from his hand. Cornelia screamed, and the nargle turned clumsily, knocking her crystal castle to ground, where it shattered into a thousand tiny pieces. She screamed again.
Up to this point, the mini-castle Guardians had been watching the scene, unable to offer any assistance. Mini-Will watched as the real Will ripped the black fabric off of her neck. The Heart was no where to be found. Mini-Taranee watched as the Fire Guardian looked about her helplessly: what could she do in human form? Mini-Irma and real Irma alike looked desperately for something to save them: the Heart, or even just a joke to lighten the mood. Mini-Hay Lin was lost deep in thought while big (biggish? slightly bigger? Hay Lin isn't exactly big, is she?) Hay Lin gazed around hopelessly. Mini-Cornelia and Mini-Elyon watched with broken hearts as the Earth Guardian alternately sobbed brokenly and screamed in rage. Then, Mini-Hay Lin called a Mini-Guardian conference.
Will and Irma, meanwhile, looked at each other, looked at Cornelia, and realized something had to be done. Cornelia was still crying, but was now, it appeared, considering fighting off the remaining nargles in her human form.
Typical, stubborn Corny Irma thought, shaking her head. Just then, the doors burst open, yet again, and wouldn't you know, but Prince Phobos came striding into the ballroom.
Great. Irma huffed silently in her head. Phobos's smirk was unmistakeable: he knew he had won. Well-mostly. He didn't have Elyon, but that was only a matter of time, once he disposed of the Guardians. His cool glance took in the scene: all five guardians, glaring at him, but with no other course of action (the lovely vicious blonde Earth Guardian was even crying!), the rebel leader crumpled, broken on the floor, and the Heart of-
"Where is the Heart?" He demanded of the nearest Nargle. The creature just looked at him dumbly. "The Heart-where is it? It was supposed to pass to you once you had the black ribbon around that girl's neck! What has happened to it? I told you it was of the utmost importance!" Phobos screeched, furious. Realizing he was making a scene, he quickly composed hiself. So he didn't have the Heart? So what? The most important thing was that the Guardians didn't have the Heart, either.
Or that's what he thought.
(I was going to be awful and leave it here, but then I realized that you all have probably forgotten about me anyways and I should satisfy those who flatter me by remembering this story and continuing to read it. So[drum roll, please on with the story!)
Suddenly, the Mini-Guardians flew into action. Four of the five buzzed around his head like annoying mosquitoes, while the fifth, Little Will, flew towards the girls.
"NOW!" shouted Little Cornelia as soon as Little Will was sitting on big Will's shoulder. The rest of the Mini-Guardians zoomed to the shoulders of their life-sized counterparts.
"Will's quintessence didn't just bring us to life…" Little Taranee began to explain.
"It brought this Heart to life as well!" Little Hay Lin finished triumphantly, excited by what had been her idea. With that, Little Will ripped the Little Heart from her neck and tied the string around real Will's pinky finger.
"You know what?" Will asked. "I'll take it! Guardians Unite!" And suddenly, the Guardians were back, with a vengeance. Cornelia threw herself at Phobos, aided by Will, while Irma, Taranee, and Hay Lin finished off the rest of the Nargles. The girls fought hard, but none so hard as Cornelia. Her birthday party had been ruined, her beautiful gift destroyed, her best friend knocked unconscious, and the unacknowledged love of her life possibly killed. To say she was absolutely furious was an understatement.
"Even I wouldn't cross Corny in this mood!" Irma yelled to Hay Lin, trying to take her friends' minds off all that had happened.
Finally, a good fifteen or twenty minutes later, the last of the Nargles had been destroyed and Phobos had been captured. Elyon had awoken and trapped her brother in a power-binding cell of her own creation. Caleb had been removed to the infirmary, with grim looks on the part of the nurses, who explained that it appeared as thought one of the Nargles had first knocked Caleb out, then beat him. He was in critical condition. Cornelia was distraught, but the girls forced her to go back home. At home and at school Cornelia was distant, unfocused, and constantly worried. Will, Irma, Taranee, and Hay Lin worried for their friend. What if Caleb didn't survive? They had never seen Cornelia act like this before…so broken.
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A few days later, Cornelia finally managed to convince her friends to take her to Meridian to check on Caleb. Not wanting to call attention to themselves, they folded into Elyon's room to borrow Meridianite clothing. Elyon wasn't there, a fact that did not go unnoticed by Cornelia and which increased her anxiety.
After dressing in the appropriate clothes, the girls snuck out of Elyon's room and down the halls. As they walked the long path to the infirmary, they couldn't help but notice the suggestions of mourning throughout the castle: black drapes here, an empty room there, the silent, grim (more so than usual) faces of the guards.
Will cast a sidelong glance at Cornelia, and what she saw broke her heart. Proud, unbreakable, fearless Cornelia was crying silently as they walked, refusing to look at the telltale signs along the walls. She was a stunning picture of desolation, perfectly beautiful even in her sorrow. Will spun the Heart ring around her little finger and hoped, not the least for her friend's sake, that all would be well when they reached the infirmary.
They entered the room, Will first, followed by Taranee and Hay Lin, then Irma. Cornelia stumbled in last, afraid of what she would find. When she looked up, she uttered a sound that frightened her friends more than anything else had that week. She sighed "No," her voice broken, soft, very un-Cornelia-like, as she crumbled to the ground at the sight of the empty bed and crying nurses.
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A/N: I'm sorry! I left you for so long! I hate myself, really I do, but I've had no inspiration for this story! I promise, as soon as I post this chapter and get ONE review for it, I will post the last chapter. I hate when authors put the review requirement in, but this is easy-just one!-and I just want to know that someone wants to know how it ends!
Thanks for waiting for me! I love you more than you could possibly know!
3 Juliette Cullen (formerly by the beach)
