Chapter 17

Heat Wave

Balsilide

Will backed up into the energy wall, analyzing her options. Behind her was the creature who had wrecked havoc on Balsilide for the last month and a half, and who the girls had spent equally as long trying to capture. No sooner had they succeeded then they discovered that he was the last of his species, and the Guardians would not take part in genocide.

In front of Will was Selna, the girl whose parents had been murdered by the Shadow Walker with, sadly, a little help from the Guardians. She wanted revenge, and now she had the power to get it. The Heart of Balsilide had regained its powers during the fight, and Selna had picked it up, making her the true bearer. That put the Guardians in the unenviable position of protecting the Shadow Walker from the girl.

"Selna, let me explain…" Will began.

"There's nothing to explain!" Selna responded. "Get out of my way or I will destroy all of you! With this Heart, I have the power to do so!"

Will doubted the inexperienced Selna could actually do any damage to them, but she didn't want to find out. Without practice, and with her emotions as they were, Selna could end up hurting herself more then anyone else.

"He's the last of his kind." Taranee said. "We can't let you kill off an entire species!"

But Selna wasn't listening. It was hard for the Guardians to remember, but Selna was still quite young, and had just lost her parents. She didn't care much for reason.

"Let me at him! Now!" Selna shouted, raising the Heart.

Selna attacked quickly but Will's reflexes were better. Not wanting to attack back, Will simply shielded the girls from Selna's simple blasts. Will knew she could keep this up for a while, but not forever. Even if the girls wanted to do something, all five of them were pinned down. Then with a smile, Will remembered there weren't just five of them this time.

With incredible speed, Matt soared down on Selna, knocking the girl to the ground as gently as he could, and pinning her. At all times, making sure the Heart was pointed away from him.

"Will, I'm not really sure what I'm doing here!" Matt said, struggling to keep the girl down. "Any suggestions!"

"Keep her pinned! We're getting out of here!" Will shouted back, opening up a fold.

"No!" Balken interrupted. "The Shadow Walker is a Balsilidian fugitive! We will not let you take him away!"

"Kandrakar needs him." Taranee said. "Maybe you can take him from us, but do you really want to take him from them?"

Balken hesitated. He believed fully in the strength of his team, but he doubted anyone could take on the might of Kandrakar. He gritted his teeth and gripped his sword tightly, but did nothing. Meanwhile, Will had changed the prison around the Shadow Walker into a torpedo shape, leaving no room for the Shadow Walker to move. She hurled the trapped creature through the fold, keeping it open as the Guardians and Orube went through as well.

"Matt!" Will shouted with one leg through the fold.

"Coming!" Matt replied, flying off of Selna and through the fold just before Will closed it.

Kandrakar

Elder Tibor was minding his own business, doing his part to fix up the fortress, when a fold appeared in front of him. Being all too familiar with what usually followed, he stepped aside before the Shadow Walker came shooting through the fold, sliding across the tiles of Kandrakar. Following the Shadow Walker were the Guardians, Orube, and finally Will and Matt. It was quite a surprise for Tibor, seeing the group of seven catching their breaths while at all time keeping an eye on the strange creature, but Tibor was an experienced Elder, and little unnerved him. With a sigh, he went to fetch Yan Lin.

The Guardians used the few moments they had to get themselves together. Will made sure they had not been followed by any members of the R.E.G, and made sure the Shadow Walker had not managed to escape.

"Grandma's not going to be happy about this." Hay Lin said. "Not happy at all."

"There were better options?" Will replied.

"Oh, I didn't say that. I just said she wouldn't be happy." Hay Lin said.

"Well, you've had a busy day, haven't you?" Yan Lin said, approaching the girls and not looking happy.

"Uh, hi Yan Lin." Will said, "We brought you a present."

"Too bad it is neither my size, nor my color." Yan Lin said. "I asked you to bring me back the Heart of Balsilide, and instead you bring me a murderer. Hardly a fair trade."

"Yeah, see, we know how to deal with monsters, and tyrants, and warriors, but I must have missed the part where we learned how to defeat sixteen year old girls." Cornelia said.

"But hey, I'm sure we don't need to explain any of that to you, since you were watching." Irma added.

"That's true, we were watching." Yan Lin said matter-of-factly. "And because we were watching, the Elders of Kandrakar… find it very difficult to blame you. While it would have been nice to gain control of the Heart of Balsilide, you handled the situation well, and kept your priorities straight, namely the protection of the people around you."

"And we managed to catch the Shadow Walker and make sure he wasn't harmed." Will added. "Guess Balsilide didn't want to mess with Kandrakar."

"Yes, you did an excellent job of bluffing them." Yan Lin said.

"Thank you." Will said. "Wait, what do you mean 'bluff'?"

"Kandrakar does not play God." Yan Lin said. "The Shadow Walker is a Balsilidian criminal, and theoretically they can do with him what they want. If they wanted to execute him, they would have every right to, and we could not interfere."

"So, do we have to take him back?" Hay Lin asked. "Since I'm pretty sure this counts as interfering."

"Given the unique circumstances, I believe that what the Balsilidians don't know won't hurt them." Yan Lin said with a smile. "You did the right thing bringing the Shadow Walker here. Since he is the last of his people, we will treat him as he deserves, with hopes of rehabilitation."

"Uh, I hate to bring this up, but he did kill people." Irma said. "Shouldn't he be punished a little?"

"Until we know exactly what to do with him, we will keep him in the Tower of Mists, with the rest of the prisoners." Yan Lin explained

Will glanced over at the Shadow Walker, and saw that he was clearly not happy with his position. Nevertheless, Will noticed that some of the hatred was gone from his eyes. He may have failed in his mission, but there were now those who knew of his plight and understood it, and that was something he had not had in a very long time.

"So, what now?" Irma asked. "'Cause I've got work tomorrow, and I'd like to get a few hours of sleep tonight…"

"Kandrakar will handle the Shadow Walker." Yan Lin said. "The Heart of Balsilide must remain your top priority, but we all agree that tonight there is little you can do on that front."

"Awesome." Will said. "Mom's out tonight with Dean, so Matt, you want to come on over? Might be nice to have a chance to unwind after all that's happened."

"Can we make it tomorrow?" Matt asked. "I'm not used to all this excitement like you are. I need my beauty sleep."

"Yeah, I guess." Will replied. "Hey, what are you girls doing tonight?"

"Sleeping." Answered all four girls in unison.

"I don't plan on being awake for the next twenty-four hours, so no worlds better end." Hay Lin said with a yawn.

"I'll make sure the worlds are aware of that." Yan Lin said with a smile.

She gave her granddaughter a quick hug, and watched as the Guardians headed back to Earth.

Heatherfield

For the first time in what seemed like eternity to Cornelia, it wasn't the light coming through her windows or the alarm clock on her dresser that woke her up. It was the heat. Summer had announced its arrival by beginning the first heat wave of the year, with temperatures rising throughout the week. Cornelia simply tossed the covers aside, lay back, and enjoyed the warmth. It was with an uncharacteristic groan that Cornelia heard her phone ring, and rolled over to grab it.

"Mmmmm, what do you want?" Cornelia answered groggily.

"I'm sorry, am I waking you?"

Cornelia eyes opened wide and she hastily sat up. She was expecting one of the girls, or Yan Lin at the worst, but this was a male voice on the other end, and one she knew.

"Timothy!" Cornelia said. "No, uh, not really. Anyways, it's no bother."

"I'm sorry, but it was noon, so I figured you'd be up by now." Timothy replied apologetically.

Cornelia checked her clock, surprised to find that Timothy was completely right about the time.

"Yeah, well, long night last night." Cornelia said. "Anyways, what's up?"

"I'd like to know if you wanted to go to Sava's tomorrow night." Timothy replied.

Cornelia squinted at the phone as if it was a strange object. This wasn't the first time he had made such a request, but something was different this time.

"Will the rest of the gang be there?" Cornelia asked.

"No, actually." Timothy replied. "I'd like it to just be the two of us this time."

Cornelia's shoulders slumped. Sava's was not a fun, hang-out-with-friends type of restaurant. It was fancier, classier, and as Cornelia knew, was considered to be much more romantic. It was pretty obvious that Timothy wanted to change the nature of their friendship, and it was happening much quicker than Cornelia anticipated.

"Um, I'll need some time to decide." Cornelia said quickly, searching her mind for options.

"Oh? About what?" Timothy replied, disappointment in his voice.

"Just to see if my schedule is clear." Cornelia hastily added. "I just need to check some things first. I'll let you know this afternoon, okay?"

"Well, I suppose that's alright…" Timothy said.

"Great, talk to you later." Cornelia said.

"Okay, but…"

Cornelia quickly closed the phone. There was no sense denying it. This had quickly gone from an amusing problem to a potential catastrophe. Only a month ago, she was happy and content with her love life. But now, Timothy had come, and Caleb was so different. This wasn't about silly crushes on cute guys. She had to make a serious choice about her future.

What bothered Cornelia the most was that she wasn't even sure how she wanted it to end. Before, she would have sworn by Caleb, but now? She was seriously considering Timothy's offer, and that both frightened and exited her. One way or another, Cornelia thought as she called Will, she had to make a decision, and she had to do it now. She needed to talk to Caleb.