CHAPTER FIVE
"So when do you have to go back to Connecticut?" Tapeworm asked as he and Bailey grabbed their shoes as they sat by the Manning's' front door and pulled them on. "I figured that they'd only give you so much time to come back home so often."
"Yeah, I'm already starting to have my professors become suspicious," Bailey said with a sigh as she sat down on the floor and started to unlace her shoes. "I mean, there's only so many excuses that I can give before they realize that I'm doing elemental study in my free-time." She shook her head. "And if they found out about that, they'd want to know what I had to do with the whole 'apocalypse that fell over Boston months ago." She paused in tying her shoes. "It's not even worth it at this point; sometimes I think I should just quit school."
"No way," It was Tapeworm's turn to shake his head. "If you did that, you'd be throwing away some of the best opportunities that you could ever dream of happening."
"But at the same time, they're probably going to figure out about this elementals stuff sooner than we think," Bailey insisted. "I mean, how long can they go without realizing that I'm closely related to Max's…" she trailed off, seeing Tapeworm wince. "You know." He sighed as she stood up. "Quick intuitive searches in the news can easily have even the dumbest person figure it out. And by then, it'll be too late to keep everything a secret."
"Keep what a secret?" Tapeworm insisted with a teasing smile. "We don't have powers anymore; they can't tie anything to us." He reached out and pulled Bailey to her feet. "C'mon, we have to get going or we'll be late for dinner and you know how my mom is about having dinner together."
"Well, should we leave a note for Crystal, Zack, and Cody?" Bailey asked as she allowed herself to be pulled to her feet. "I mean, so they can find us when they get back."
"Why?" Tapeworm shrugged. "Do you think that something is going to happen?"
Bailey shrugged but didn't answer.
She couldn't be sure whether or not something was going to happen. Ever since she had her dram, she wasn't sure if the ground was going to open up and create massive havoc at any minute. She hardly slept as it was; staying up late to watch the news, makings sure that there wasn't any news report that could be traced back to them. The news about their final battle with Gattaca was slowly going away, but that didn't stop a story from appearing every now and then.
Especially because they noted that Max had died from 'unexplainable causes'. It would probably take them years for the police to entirely figure out what had happened that day, but for the time being it was probably better for Max's parents that they didn't know exactly what happened. Bailey wasn't even sure that the Montgomerys or the Michaels' knew about their sons and daughters powers let alone their relationship.
But no one was going to bring it up now.
It was too painful.
"I don't know what's going to happen," Bailey admitted. "I just want to be sure that things don't completely spiral out of control at a moment's notice."
"It's elemental stuff, Bailey." Tapeworm said as he reached out and opened the front door. "Things like that happen all the time. If we could predict them, then we wouldn't have as many questions as we usually do. Not even Christian and Core know everything that goes on in the elemental world and they've been studying it for years."
"Good point." Bailey agreed as she followed him out the door and down the street, towards Tapeworm's house.
Bailey tilted her head back and looked at the sky as they walked along in silence. The sky was turning a light pink and purple with the setting sun. The leaves on the trees around them were starting to change colors; a light, chilly wind blew. It was only the fall and things were starting to change around them pretty quickly. Everyone was starting to go off and do their own thing, although the tiniest threat of a new attack kept them going back to Boston time after time.
But that didn't keep their blatant distrust of others at bay.
That didn't keep the nightmares from occurring.
That didn't keep them from having trouble talking to their classmates or those that were their age around them.
That didn't keep them from going over scenario after scenario over and over, in case their powers finally did come back. What with her dream, they were almost positive that it was going to happen soon, but under what circumstances, they weren't sure. It was probably the only good thing that the simulation machine was going to be helpful with (if they could actually get through a scenario).
"You're thinking about your dream again aren't you?" Tapeworm guessed, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "It's nothing to worry about, there's always some sort of a…warning, I guess, when something bad is going to happen."
"What if my dream was the warning?" Bailey shot back. "It's like you said before, we don't know anything about the elemental world and even though Nathan and Christian have been studying it for so long, they've never been there, so they don't know a lot about it either." She let out a sound of frustration. "Something bad could be happening there, and we don't know about it. What if you guys didn't really save the world? What if we didn't fulfill the prophecy? What if you just helped purify Gattaca or whatever it was that happened," they weren't sure if they had actually killed him or not, due to how easy it seemed that he was defeated. "What if we just temporarily aligned the balance of the two worlds?"
"Don't you think that you're getting a little too ahead of yourself with this?" Tapeworm asked as he stopped walking and peered at her silently. His face, interestingly enough, was completely blank. He didn't look curious or worried, he just looked like he was just….there…
"Maybe," Bailey conceded as she stopped as well. She let out a sigh and ran her hands through her hair. "Sorry, I'm just nervous, worried."
"About us or about Cody?" Tapeworm gave a hint of a smile. "To tell you the truth, I think that the two of you are doing just fine with the distance and everything. He's taking over your work whenever you're in school and Zack's doing fine with his community college classes. You knew that he couldn't follow you all the way out of Connecticut and leave Zack behind as well as everything that he knew in Boston."
"I did that with my family and friends." Bailey reminded Tapeworm, thinking of her home in Kettlecorn, Kansas.
"But your family thinks you're dead," Tapeworm said gently. "Because you knew that you could never go back home."
"I think I made a mistake on that part."
"Everyone makes mistakes every once in a while, we just have to live with them."
Tapeworm rubbed his arms as the wind blew again and he turned and started to walk once more. Bailey let out a sigh and followed him. The two went home in silence, but the silence as broken as soon as they got back to Tapeworm's house. As soon as the door opened, Tapeworm spotted his parents running around, seemingly frightened by something. Tapeworm raised an eyebrow, looking over at Bailey, as he closed the door behind them. He turned back to his parents, his father holding onto a large hockey-stick and his mother holding a phone in one hand and an empty pillow case in the other. She was also alternating between screaming into the phone and screaming at her husband.
"HEY!" Tapeworm bellowed, trying to get their attention. "What's going on?"
"There's a bear in the house!" Mrs. Michaels replied loudly, finally noticing her son by the front door.
"A bear?" Bailey repeated. Why would there be a bear in Boston? There aren't any bears around here. As soon as the thought went through her head, she turned to Tapeworm, who was already looking back at her, both of their mouths dropped open. "Ursa?" she whispered.
"I don't think so," Tapeworm whispered back as he shook his head. "I would have felt something." He said in reply.
"Last we saw it, it was in your room, Christopher," Mr. Michaels said, keeping his eyes towards the stairs. "We called the police, and they're on their way now." Panic flashed across Tapeworm's face and he quickly rushed towards the stairs, Bailey hot on his heels. "Hey, don't go up there!" He called after them. "It's not safe!"
"Don't worry," Bailey tossed back over her shoulder. "We know how to trap a bear!"
Tapeworm and Bailey hurried towards Tapeworm's room, but stopped short when they spotted a lumbering black and green bear in the hallway. When it noticed them, it reared up on its hind legs, becoming even more menacing than before and roared loudly, its sharp teeth protruding into the air. When it stood back on its feet, Tapeworm got a glimpse of his element symbol on the bear's stomach.
It was Ursa.
But something was wrong.
"He's being controlled by something," Tapeworm said as he felt into a fighting stance. "I can feel it, it's not the same feeling that I get whenever Ursa is around." He held an arm out in front of Bailey as the two cautiously backed up, Ursa slowly went back down on all fours and slowly stalked towards them.
"What are we going to do?" Bailey whispered.
Everything that she knew about surviving bear attacks: trying to blind them, appear bigger than the bear, don't make any sudden movements…it all went out of her head. Things were different now; Ursa had the power to control nature and she knew that things would quickly get worse if they didn't do something soon.
"If Ursa is around, maybe you can use your powers." She whispered after a second.
"You don't think that I haven't been trying," Tapeworm said back. "Whatever is controlling Ursa, I think it's keeping me from awakening my powers again. If he's around, I should be able to tap right into it." They continued to inch back towards the stairs. "I don't think our watches are working either." He added as an afterthought.
"It won't hurt to try," Bailey moved from behind Tapeworm's back and ducked into his father's office. She moved her face to her mouth and pressed the button on the side. "Zack? Cody? Anyone there? We have a problem at Tapeworm's house, Ursa is…we think something's controlling him and we think it's controlling Tapeworm's powers too, or else we think he would be able to use them. I don't know what's going on." She paused and moved the watch from her face. "Crystal? Anyone there?"
Ursa let out another roar and Mrs. Michael's voice came from downstairs. "Kids, get down from there, it's not safe!"
"We can handle it!" Bailey called back.
She heard a cry of pain and hurried out of the office to see Tapeworm on his back, holding Ursa's jaws away from his face, his arms shaking from the effort. Ursa was snarling and swiping his claws at his Master. One of his claws had managed to hit Tapeworm on the side, sending blood splattering on the wall.
"I could use some help here," he grunted, spotting her out of the corner of his eye.
"I don't think they're working!" Bailey said to him. "I don't know what to do." She closed her eyes and tried to push the sound of her beating heart out of her head. Think Bailey, think. What do you know about bear attacks that will keep them away? Think about the times that you've had to scare them off when you went hiking in the mountains…Her eyes snapped open and she turned and darted back into the office.
She started to toss things around, pushing papers off of the desk, knocking over bookshelves, opening drawers and flying through them. She didn't care about the mess, she had to look quickly or things were going to get worse. She could still hear Tapeworm struggling to keep Ursa away from him as he roared again. All of a sudden, Bailey gasped at a sudden flash of green light and Tapeworm's cry of pain. She didn't need to look to know that Ursa had just used some attack against his former Master. She had to move faster.
"Flashlight, flashlight, where are you?" She hissed under her breath.
Finally, she ripped the left hand-side drawer out of the desk and dropped it to the ground, spilling its contents everywhere. Pens, pencils, staples, and a stapler clattered to the ground amongst many papers and folders. Bailey reached down and pushed them away, grinning when she spotted a flashlight.
"Aha!" She scooped the flashlight up off of the floor and hurried out into the hallway. Ursa lifted his head and roared at her when he saw her and she quickly lifted the switch on the flashlight. But nothing happened. "What?" Bailey flipped it over and looked at the top.
There was no light.
"No, no, no, no, no." Bailey started to shake the flashlight rapidly, hoping that the light would suddenly turn on.
Ursa smacked Tapeworm on the side of the head with a heavy paw, sending him rolling to the side and started to lumber down the hallway towards the farm girl. Tapeworm rolled onto his stomach and pulled himself up.
"Bailey, watch out!" He called.
Bailey lifted her head for a brief second before smacking the side of the flashlight. When the light popped on, she turned it around and shined it into Ursa's face. Ursa's eyes widened for a second before he reached up on his hind legs, twisting his face away. It let out a whine of pain before turning and starting to beat its head against the wall. Bailey dropped the flashlight and hurried over to Tapeworm, squishing against the wall as she passed Ursa, hoping that he didn't turn around and attack her.
"Are you ok?" Bailey reached down to him and helped him to her feet, holding his weight against her.
"I'm fine," Tapeworm replied. He looked down at his torn short, blood seeping through, a little bit of his skin torn away. "It doesn't hurt." He said in surprise. Bailey looked down at the gruesome gash. "I swear it doesn't hurt." He pressed his palm firmly against the wound, as it trying to prove it.
Bailey studied his face.
It didn't screw up in pain at all, it must not have hurt.
Bailey…
Geneva's voice suddenly filled her head. But it wasn't alone. Gattaca's was there as well. Their voices were blending together.
Bailey, concentrate and you can break the hold that has Ursa.
Bailey closed her eyes. She could feel their power surge back into her arms and legs like it had done before. She felt even more powerful than she had when she was using Geneva's power. It must be the power of using light and darkness at the same time. Part of her was serene, the other part of her felt a bit of pain and despair. She could feel the two powers mesh against each other and make an even bigger power in her body.
Do it.
Bailey opened her eyes and held her hands out, palms out. Her hands started to glow a light gray color and as she held them out, little wisps of energy flowed off of her hands, twisting and twirling through the air as they headed over towards Ursa. As the two watched, the wisps of energy collected into a ball and landed on Ursa's forehead as he pulled back from the wall once more, getting ready to hit his head against it. The wisps stayed on his forehead for a second and then lifted off, up into the air, something glowing inside of it. As the wisps continued to hover in the air, whatever was glowing broke apart and crumbled into dust that fell to the carpet.
Ursa let out a little whine as he slumped onto his stomach, closing his eyes. In two quick flashes, he turned into his human form and then turned into his small form.
Tapeworm quickly glowed green before hurrying over to his guardian, picking him up into his arms. "Ursa." He whispered. "Are you ok?"
"I didn't mean it, Master Tapeworm," Ursa whispered back, his eyes opening slowly. "Something was taking me over."
"It's alright, it wasn't your fault." Tapeworm replied with a small smile.
He turned and looked at Bailey.
She looked away for a moment. "I told you so." Was all that she could say.
A/N: Ooh, something that we haven't seen before, the guardians being controlled by something. What do you think it possibly is that's behind it?