12: Earth

Zambala, a world covered mostly in a large forest, the plants had purple leaves. Amongst the forests were some rocky areas, rivers, grassy meadows and stone ruins. Upon a hill overlooking what is known as the ruins of old a fold opened allowing Amy to walk out. There was a brief moment of her feeling her powers fluctuating between the strength they had in guardian form and normal form as the fold closed, then she felt it stop, the orb she wore around her neck had taken over with her link to the auramere she drew her power from. She looked around where she was. She had been to Zambala before on holiday to see the home of her alien side but this was a part of the world she diddnt recognize.

"Nice to be on my other homeworld" She smiled to herself as she looked at the view. All around below the grassy hill was the forest, there were paths cut along it where she could see the odd Zambalen walking around. There were also some old ruined buildings, like what the Aztecs had on earth poking out of the tree line at some areas. "So how am I meant to find Cornelia then. If she was hidden here what like 450 or so years ago I doubt there be anyone around who knows" She sarcsticly spoke to herself, she decided to fly off and go ask one of the locals anyway, who knows, stories could exist. She did kind of scare herself with the fact she was thinking these things through, normaly if she had a problem, she would just hit it, but this realy did require thinking through.

She flew down to the nearest Zambalen she could see, about a good 800 meters away. She kept above the trees as she approached the large tree-like creature that had a mouth and eyes on one side of it. A pair of braches made arms on it just below the face part near the top of the trunk and a pair of large roots formed legs.

"Excuse me, can I get some help?" Amy called as she lowered herself just behind it to a level that would be with the face. A pure Zambalen could easily grow to over 70 meters tall.

"Now what can an old one like me do for a young sounding voice?" It spoke in what she could think of as a happy old man's voice as it turned around slowly to look at who had spoken to it. Upon seeing Amy hovering in the air before it spoke now slightly surprised. "A guardian? And a non-human one?"

"Well I am a guardian, and half human, other half is like you, Zambalen" Amy kindly replied. "And I'm Amy."

It giggled happily before speaking again "Ahh a half-breed, well it is nice to see a child of Zambala as a guardian, something I doubt any of us would have imaged, not just one of us, but any half-breed being one." It then offered it's right branch out with the end of it open for Amy to land on and she did, sitting down with her legs tucked up to her chest, arms around them and smiled as she listened. "I am Bark Leaf. It is a honour to meet you young Amy."

"Thank you Bark Leaf" Amy replied as he carried her along the path.

"I assume you aren't here in guardian form just to say hello" Bark Leaf politely asked her. "So what brings you to this world of one of your homes?"

"I am trying to find a guardian who was buried here a really long time ago" Amy spoke back calmly, she knew time was short, but Zambalen's were increadibly relaxed so just trying to go fast wouldn't have helped. "The fold I came through was from Kandrakar, so I assume she is somewhere in this area. It is a Cornelia if that name helps."

Bark Leaf clearly went into deep thought as he tried to see if what she said was familiar. "I am sorry but it isn't something I recall." He sounded a little down because he wasn't able to give a answer she needed. "But I will tell you of a location that may be of intrest anyway if you are looking for the dead. There is a ruins just in that direction." HE stopped and turned to his right and pointed ahead. Amy uncurled herself and flew up above the trees, in the distance she could see the top of a ruin on the horizon, the sun was setting behind it. "There are stories of a spirit within it that uses the plants to keep intruders away."

'Uses the plants to keep intruders away...that could be it.' Amy thought to herself as she turned to Bark Leaf, flying down and placed her right hand down on where she had been sitting, looking to his face and smiled to him. "Thank you, I think that location will do to investigate."

"You are a gentle little sapling that will grow into something very special if you were chosen to be a guardian" He smiled back at her. "Best go before the sun is down, if you want your spirit then you will want to see your way inside the place and after dark that gets harder."

"You take care of yourself Bark Leaf" She smiled back as she then flew up and towards the building thinking to herself sadly 'If he only knew how I really am, constantly getting into fights.'

It took her most of the sunset to get to the building, it was massive, maybe 400 meters wide and deep, possibly bigger, and standing like a pyramid, going at least the same upwards. The while place was made of large blocks of what looked like sandstone. There were small gapes all over the place, eather because the place was cracked up and falling apart or it was a window. The while place had brown and green vines growing over it. She flew around the base of the structure till she found a large arched hole that clearly was meant to be the enterence.

"Here goes nothing" She muttered to herself as she landed and walked in, the sun was realy low in the sky, bairly lighting up the place.

She walked in through a short corridor that was nearly blackened out till she came into a large chamber. It was dull but from one side the last few rays of sunlight lit the chamber from a window high up, possibly near the top of the place. The rays hit a large crystal in the cealing allowing light in the chamber. Around were a few other passageways that seemed to decend below the ground level. Amy looked around seeing vines growing along the walls and on the floor. As she followed them she noticed they seemed to stop around a dark green mark that took up a third of the floor in the middle of the room. She took flight and few up to get a view, and she was amazed by what she saw. A circle with a dot in the middle, the symbol of the earth guardian, she had to be in the right place. She then flew down into the middle of the dot.

"Hello, miss Cornelia?" She called out, her voiced echoed through the place. "I was hoping we could talk."

There was no reply, she gave a sigh. 'The symbol is here so there has to at least be a clue to her location' she thought to herself as the last of the sun's light faded away.

As the room darkened from the sun setting the light of the moon started to filter in, the room now seemed to look different in the moon light, the lines all seemed to give of shadows of different species, all seemingly afraid of something. She saw these, and suddenly felt a chill in the air as there was the odd whisper of "get out" or "go back" herd. Her heart started beating faster, in the sun this place was calm and inviting, but the moon made it become something out of a horror film.

She decided to stay in the middle of the symbol. 'If the vines haven't grow into it there must be a reason' she thought to herself as she kept glancing around, it felt like something was in the room with her.

"Whoever is there show yourself" She demanded, trying to hide the nerves in her voice. She then jumped, something touched her right sholder from behind, she turned around and there was nothing there. She was breathing realy fast, her heart felt like it would break though her bark that formed her skin. "This isn't funny" she then called out, now terrified of what was lurking in the chamber.

"Leave" A eery female voice echoed through the place.

Amy jumped hearing that voice, it had silenced the other voices and was a lot clearer than the others. She took a deep breath and then called out. "I know you probably won't belive me but I was sent here by the Oracle and a miss Will from Kandrakar, I am one of the guardians, given the power of earth." She stuttered as she spoke out.

"Leave" it spoke again.

"I came to find someone called Cornelia who was buried here" She spoke out again feeling another chill run down her back, loke something just touched where she would have a spine if she had one. Because of her plant nature she diddnt have bones, her body was a mix of sold matter that would bend in certain places and liquid sacks that held her organs contained within, she had effectively stems under her bark that acted as her veins and atrilirys as she used sap rather than blood. She kept trying to calm herself as she continued to speak "A guy named Demal who she stopped over 500 years ago has returned, he created a evil copy of Will and used that copy to break into Kandrakar to steal a piece of a key she had. The Oracle and Will fear for the safety of the guardians that were part of WITCH, that he will come for the piece of key they hold."

As she finished the went quiet, Amy started to slow her breathing down to a normal rate, her heart slowly returned to normal too. There was a few more moments of silence then suddenly one of the vines that lay on the ground next to the symbol moved in the blink of an eye at Amy, quickly wrapping around her.

"I diddnt come to fight you!" Amy yelled out as she struggled against the vine, it wrapping around her tighter, she wanted to fight back, but that may show she diddnt come in peace.

She was struggling for breath as the vine had wrapped tightly around all of her body, leaving only her head exposed, it had lifter her off the floor above the middle of the symbol, 10 meters into the air. She closed her eyes as she prepaired to take what could possibly be her last breath. Then suddenly she felt her powers surge throughout her body and between her left sholder and the base of her neck a small glowing green earth symbol appeared, the vine suddenly stoped squeezing her and then gently lowered her to the ground.

She opened her eyes when she couldn't feel the squeeze, expecting to be dead, but she saw she was standing back on the floor in the middle of the symbol, the vine had returned to where it was before going for her. She was breathing fast and deep. Realizing she was still alive she slowly began to breath normally again. Once she had her breath back she looked around the room.

"You still here?" she called out hoping that that voice was still around. After a few moments of silence she sighed as then suddenly the symbol on the floor started to glow bright green, blinding her in a way she had to cover her closed eyes with her arms and hands.

"It seems you are truthful" A female voice spoke clearly.

Amy lowered her arms and opened her eyes to see standing just before her was a girl, looking the same age Will was, but slightly taller than her, wearing the same sort of robes. She had straight hair come down halfway on her back and she was compleatly cyan that could be seen though. "GHOST!" she screemed out.

"Sorry not much I can do about that when I am a spirit now" the person replied.

"Are you Cornelia?" Amy asked a little scared by seeing the ghost before her,

"Well who else could I be?" She teaseingly asked.

"Well there was the whole other spirits talking thing" Amy sheepishly replied.

"Oh that, it is just a method I use to try and keep people away from this place" Cornelia told Amy. "While it means I have to lead a lonely existence in here, and as nice as the Zambalen's are, well I am certain you can understand why this place had to be a no-go for people if I am to protect the key part I have."

"You seem pretty certain I am speaking the truth" Amy joked a little.

"Benefit of being dead, I can see the true nature of a person" Cornelia smiled to her in a friendly way. "You are a person who likes to fight, but despite this when I got the vine to attack you. You decided to let it happen with little resistance. Your powers revealed to me the rest when I was reading you."

Amy smiled a bit. "Trust me I am not always like that."

"We all have to know act for each situation" Cornelia held her right hand before her as a white light came from it and in her hand appeared a U shaped bit of gold metal. "This is what you were sent here for right? My part of the key."

"It is" Amy replied as she carefully took the part in both of her hands. "I will return it to Kandrakar." She then reached for the orb around her neck with her left hand.

"That won't work in here. When I was buried here a magical barrier that blocks folds and teleporting in and for a distance around the building was set up to make it harder for anyone to try to steal that key part" Cornelia explained seeing what Amy was going for.

"Right, then I guess I best get moving to get to a distance to open it" Amy spoke a little disappointed that she wasn't able to stay to chat to her predecessor. "You going to be ok here now?"

"You may see me again soon, I am not bond to this location as a spirit so you may see me around before I head off to be properly in the afterlife, it has been too long for me waiting to go join my family there, but the protection of the dimensions had to be the top priority. And we needed to be certain that each part was secret, hence why we didn't just give them to new people. But if Demal took 1 part then the components must be passed on to try and keep them safe" Cornelia spoke as she escorted Amy to the entrance of the building. "Now go you Amy, and give my regards to Will."

"I shall do that" Amy smiled as she took flight and flew off into the night sky, taking a quick look behind her and waved goodbye to Cornelia who faded away. The night sky was clear of clouds, the moon was shining brightly in the sky along with the stars as Amy flew across it, she kept her right hand on the orb as she made her way from the ruins that she had been in trying to get to a point she could open a fold.

After a few moment she stopped flying, she was certain something had followed her after leaving the ruins, she looked around behind her and down at the trees, not seeing anything. She could feel something was off so she went down to land on the ground.

"Whoever is there, this isn't funny, show yourself" She called out.

There was a few moments of silence before she felt something hit her in the back that knocked her down on her front hitting the grass covered for of the forest. She also lost grip on the piece of the key she had in one of her hands and it ended up being thrown by her a little distance as she fell, it ending up in some overgrowth. She slowly pushed herself up till she was on 1 knee and she looked around, the feel of that shot was familiar.

"Demal, Jessica, evil Will. I know you are there" She called out a little frustrated that once again she was hit in the back. She looked around to see where any of them were as she also tried to look for the key part she had dropped.

Within the shadows of the trees she then saw a quick flash. Placing her hands to the ground she suddenly had a stone barrier rise up before her allowed her to say crouched down behind it as she herd something hit it. She then lowered it a bit to get a view and was caught out by what she saw, a red cloaked figure before her. It stood completely covered over just by the area that the shot had come from.

"Another one" she angrily muttered as she finished lowering the barrier back into the ground and stood up. "I am not having a good time with you cloaked types so I recommend you surrender before I make you regret shooting me in the back."

It stood there not responding. She gave it a few moments more then she just got fed up, clenching her fist she focused her powers over it and some rocks came out of the ground and they wrapped around it to make a disk the size of her head over it she could use as a shield. She then took flight, going straight at the figure as she held the disk just before her. As she got close the figure brought their left hand out from under their cloak and what she saw caught Amy off guard, it looked like it was made of bark. Around the hand a black fireball formed and launched at her, but she used her shield to block it as she then had it break apart as she tackled the figure to the ground. Once she had pinned it she went for the hood and pulled it down.

"SIS!" she called out in shock, seeing under the hood was her older sister bout with red eyes. "But how?"

Suddenly her sister turned both hands on Amy and launched the lighting causing Amy to scream out in pain making her back off Janet. When the lightning stopped, Amy fell to her knees as Janet stood up, dropping her cloak away to reveal underneath she had a red version of what Jessica and the copy of Will wore along with the black boots. Janet walked over to Amy, grabbing the top of her top and picked her up off the ground, allowing Amy to stare Janet in the face when she was picked up fully. It was then she noticed something off. While she had the same emotionless face as Jessica, her eyes were like she had another inside them, but she was too upset to fully register them.

"Sister, please stop" Amy begged as Janet placed her free hand before Amy's chest before letting go with the one that she had picked her up with and launching a black fireball sending Amy back a few meters, landing on her right side and facing away from Janet who started to walk towards her, lightning jumping between both hands.

"Why? She had nothing to do with this" Amy cried to herself.

Janet stood over her younger sister about to strike her with lightning when suddenly she fell onto her knees holding her hands to her head. "Restrain the body" she spoke in a voice that wasn't Janet's, but sounded like Cornelia's.

Amy turned around seeing Janet on her knees, like something was wrong. Amy decided not to ignore the message, she placed both hands firmy on the ground with a green glow around them. A moment later roots from a couple of trees rose out of the ground and wrapped around her sisters arms, legs and hands, keeping them closed. As Amy got to her feet she looked back at her sister, her left eyes was still red but the right had become green, and her face clearly seemed to be in some sort of struggle. "What is going on?" Amy asked as she tried to work out what was going on, she was half-tempted to hit her sister for attacking her, but she knew deep down it wasn't her sister's fault.

"This one is possessed" The voice from Janet struggled to speak out. "I am trying to force it out ."

"Who is I?" Amy asked as she slowly crept closer.

"Cornelia" Jessica replied, the struggle clearly getting harder.

"What else can I do for help?" Amy was standing staring at her sisters face, wanting to do something, but wasn't sure want.

"You and your sister are part Zambalen right?" Cornelia checked "If you can use your earth powers on her Zambalen side to take control as I can only take control of her human side, and the thing that is possessing is in control of both."

"On it" Amy replied a little nervous as she then placed her hands on her sisters head and closed her eyes. There was a gentle green glow over the both of them, she felt resistance coming from Janet, but she focused on pushing it back. She could also feel Cornelia's spirit in the body along with something else. Both Amy and Cornelia put all their effort into getting rid of the original intruder in Janet's body.

After a few moment a black energy was sent flying back a couple of meters from Janet's body as Amy then fell down onto her knees exhausted from what she had been doing. Cornelia's spirit emerged from Janet's body , hovering between it and the black energy which took shape into a Dolgag.

Amy looked up seeing it standing up, clearly unsettled as to being forced out of the body. Amy then looked up at her sister who was starting to come around. She then looked back at the Dolgag which stared at her. Amy then clenched her fists as a green energy appeared over a couple of vines from her head that grew down, wrapping around her arms and hands. She then got to her feet and charged at it, giving it a punch to the face, knocking it back. She then got a couple more of her vines to glow as they shot round from behind her and wrapped around its arms and pressed them into the ground. She also got the vines on her hand to return to normal as she then waved her hands towards the Dolgag as from the ground the tree roots and grass suddenly grew longer wrapping around it, she released it from her personal vine's as it became covered in what she had made grow from teh ground.

"Not bad for a ghost I personaly think" Cornelia complemented herself as Amy walked past back before her sister, she then lowered her down from the roots holding her, taking her in her arms as she lay her on the ground.

Janet was clearly drifting on the border being conscious and unconscious. She was able to make out her sister leaning over her and smiled as she weakly spoke "Sis, what is going on?"

Amy smiled back as a tear ran from her eyes, she just hugged her sister.

"Where am I? And what are you wearing?" Janet muttered out just before she fell completely unconscious.

"Rest big sis, I will tell you everything later" Amy whispered back to her as she lay her down on the ground fully. She then stood up, Cornelia had flooded over beside her and Amy spoke "Since when could Dolgag's do that?"

"That is a new trick to me" Cornelia replied as she looked over the resting Janet. "They never did that back when we told them on, it seems Demal has learned new tricks."

Suddenly there was a loud ripping from behind them. Amy and Cornelia turned around seeing the Dolgag had escaped from its prison. It floated above where it was restrained, and before Amy or Cornelia could do anything it launched a pair of the black fireballs at them, knocking Amy back into a tree nearby and Cornelia flying through a couple.

As Amy got her bearings again from the shot that had hit her fully on her right arm which she could feel was stinging from the shot, she looked over to see the Dolgag float over where they key part had landed, it picked it up as Amy held her left hand out, causing the tree before it to swing its branches down at the Dolgag and knocked it back a bit, sadly it kept hold of the key part. As Amy got another tree to attack a fold opened next to the Dolgag and it flew through it before the new tree got to it.

"No" Amy called out in frustration as Cornelia flew back alongside her. Amy fell down to her knees "I am sorry, I failed."

"Something I learned about being a guardian" Cornelia softly spoke to her as she floated down next to her. "Saving those who need it comes first. Items come second. Besides all you lot need is to keep 1 part out of his hands to stop him, so what if he now had 2 parts, so long as 1 of your team gets back with the part from either Irma, Taranee or Hay Lin, he can't do his plan."

Amy looked up at Cornelia, gave a slight smile as she went to hug her, only for her arms to pass right though her. "Sorry forgot for a moment you are just a spirit." She then stood up and walked over to her sister. "Guess I best take her to Kandrakar where she will be safe."

"I will come along too. Despite being only a ghostly spirit I can at least help you lot a plan if needed" Cornelia told Amy as she got the orb Yan Lin gave her to open a fold back to Kandrakar. "Witch has the experience with Demal, so it be a waste not to get any help."

"It not like I can stop you coming can I?" Amy joked as she picked her sister up and carried her through the fold with Cornelia following behind her. Once they were though the fold closed.

Next Time: What lurks below?