In the process of finishing off his second latte, A'k'sl was lost in his thoughts; thoughts of his deal with Nerissa, the Infinite Fortress of Kandrakar where the hated Oracle lived and, lastly, the five young girls who passes as its Guardians. Of course, the fact that the Guardians were all adolescents was the silver lining in this cloud. Had he been dealing with older Guardians, A'k'sl reasoned, then he would have had his hands full; instead they were teenagers, with teenage problems and teenage insecurities.

As for his deal with Nerissa, A'k'sl had mixed feelings; he absolutely hated the idea of having to rely on another living being, much less a former Guardian, for anything. Still, he supposed that she represented his best chance of getting to Kandrakar to exact his revenge. And, he surmised, she had assigned him a truly fun…mission was the wrong word, for that implied that she had ordered him here, but he supposed that it would do until he could think of something more fitting.

And now for the actual Guardians themselves; he knew that he would have to stop dancing around them sooner rather than later. Of course, the incident with the Water Guardian had been purely accidental; how was he supposed to know what that man in the park had on his mind? But, in the end, it had worked to his advantage, because, after visiting her house and exchanging…pleasantries with her father, A'k'sl decided that she could be exploited as a weak link. And if he knew humans as well as he thought he did, then the Fire Guardian's idiot brother would take his words to heart and question his sister about her injuries.

That left three Guardians he could still toy with; well, at least two. He had overheard the three at the restaurant talking about their leader having to visit the hospital. Judging from what he had overheard, it was unlikely that she was still there; oh well, he could just follow one of the others to their school and then follow her to her home. Of course, it sounded like she was actually destroying herself, which meant that he could just cross her off the list.

He already knew where the Air Guardian lived; purely by accident, he had seen her working in a restaurant downtown. His hearing being what it was, he discovered that she also lived above the eatery; which made his job slightly easier. At least he wouldn't have to track down two locations for the same person.

And, finally, he arrived at the Earth Guardian; the fashion model of the group. He had learned early on, however, that appearances could be deceiving; that just because she looked delicate and frail, she had the potential to be the most dangerous of them all. He sincerely hoped that the latter was the case; Nerissa had been very specific when she had told him not to kill any of them. A'k'sl raised his cup to drain the remnants of his latte when he suddenly caught a familiar scent. He lowered the cup and turned to the front window of the coffee shop; seconds later, who should walk past the window but the Guardians of Air and Earth, respectively. A'k'sl smiled…

And the universe provides…

-----

Cook household
6:30 PM

Peter was lying across one of the couches in front of the TV, his head resting in Taranee's lap. His hand was wrapped in an ice pack, and he was deep in thought. He was torn between believing his sister or, he hated to admit it, the strange man who had pretty much confessed to hurting her. After the man had utterly vanished, Peter remembered being in a kind of shock, as most people are amp to when they've just seen something that is simply not possible.

Now, Peter had managed to convince himself that his mind was playing tricks on him, or that the man was a magician or something; what he wasn't able to forget was what the man had said. Or, more specially, the bit about cracking his sister's skull, since no one outside of the family could have heard about the injury. Peter supposed that Sergeant Lair or Taranee's friend Irma or even the doctor could have mentioned it to someone, but the whole point of having friends is to be able to trust them, right? He couldn't imagine Irma's father, a police officer, diverging that kind of information freely, and he defiantly couldn't picture any self respecting doctor breaking the whole 'doctor-patient confidentiality' thing.

And so, when it came down to it, did he believe the story that his little sister told her family: that she was climbing a tree with Irma, and fell out of said tree, hitting her head on a rock? Did he believe that Irma had landed on his sister, breaking a few of Taranee's ribs and her own arm in the process? He wasn't sure if he did before, but now he was almost positive it was a lie, although it galled him to admit it. Of course, it made no sense to him as to why Taranee would lie to her family…unless (Peter's heart skipped a beat here) she was doing something dangerous, or even illegal, that she didn't want them to know about. Peter hated the idea of his baby sister keeping secrets from him, and, if what that man had said was true, it was time to confront her about it.

Peter reached down and grabbed the remote, raising it and pressing the pause button, freezing a picture of a zombie clown on the screen. Taranee glanced down at her big brother; one hand still absent mindedly stroking his hair.

"Is something wrong, Peter?"

Peter gently pushed her hand away as he sat up and swiveled his body so that he was facing her. Taranee regarded him with the same kind of bored curiosity that one would a slightly interesting TV show.

"Taranee…" he began "A man stopped by the house today."

Although Peter wasn't to know, Taranee actually knew this already. You see, when A'k'sl had used his magic to vanish, or blink, Taranee had been able to catch a quick mental resonance. The simplest explanation for this is the fact that A'k'sl's transportation had left a slight magical sympathy, and Taranee's telepathy had picked up on a trace of it. And because he had just finished his little go round with Peter, that moment had been the ones transferred to the Fire Guardian.

"And?"

"Well, I…um…I think that you and I need to talk about something."

Peter's sentence sent a shock through Taranee; because of her powers, she knew exactly what her brother was going to ask her. What came out of his mouth, however, was not what she was expecting.

"Taranee, do you trust me?"

Taranee was taken aback, but only for a second; silently, she nodded. Peter smiled and continued, his next question being the one Taranee was expecting.

"Taranee, did you honestly fall out of a tree?"

Taranee sighed; she knew that Peter had instantly doubted her story, and that what that…that man had told him was enough to make him question his own sister. The very thought of her brother even considering believing what a stranger said about her was enough to make Taranee want to cry; she had almost been close to her brother and he had always stood by her. Peter apparently could see the agony in her eyes, because he leaned over and put his arm around her shoulders.

Taranee reached up and rubbed her eyes. "I'm sorry, Peter; I know that you worry about me and that you want me to protect me, but the truth is…"

Peter moved his head closer; Taranee pretended to sniffle as she spoke in a low voice…

"The truth is…I did fall out of a tree."

And right then and there, Peter knew that he wasn't going to get anywhere by interrogating her; either she was sticking to this story or she really had fallen out of a tree. So Peter did what most every guy would do in the present situation: he gave up. Squeezing her shoulder, Peter smiled before getting to his feet.

"I believe you, little sister. I'm going to get some more ice, and we'll finish the movie, alright?"

Taranee smiled up at her big brother as he walked backwards to the kitchen, but the smile faded as soon as he stepped inside. Poor Taranee pulled her legs off the floor and hugged them to her chest. While she had faked tears before to convince Peter to drop the issue, now real tears began to fall from her eyes.

'I hate lying to you Peter, I really do, but I don't think either of us is ready for you to know the truth.'

In the kitchen, Peter opened the freezer and threw his ice pack in, grabbing the second of the pair that he kept in there for just such an occasion. As he closed the door, his eyes drifted back towards the living room, and Taranee.

'I'm sorry, little sister, but this isn't over.'

-----

Lair household
6:30 PM

Tom Lair sat in his police cruiser, which in turn sat in the driveway of his house. He had been sitting here for the better part of ten minutes; the reason, of course, was Irma. As a police officer, Tom knew just how scared and confused she was; hell, he had seen it plenty of times in rape victims, but had never thought that his own daughter would ever have to experience it. He had hoped that he could have protected her from the horrors of the real world, at least until she was older; fourteen years old was by no means old age, which made what had happened to her all the more difficult to except.

Even though upholding the law was his job and passion, part of him knew that, if he had run into the pathetic excuse for a man who had dared to hurt his little girl, he would have torn him limb from limb. But someone had beaten him to the punch; someone had already carried out what Sergeant Lair personally saw as justice. Had he been able to meet this mysterious vigilante, Tom probably would have given him the biggest medal within the police station's budget, or at least voted to give it to him.

Suddenly, it hit him; he very well could have met this person, although he didn't realize it at the time. When that…man had shown up at his door; had very casually mentioned that he had had fun with Irma last night, Tom had lost it. He had wanted the man to feel every ounce of pain that he knew Irma was experiencing, and then some. He wasn't sure if he felt that way now; after the discovery in Memorial Park that afternoon, it seemed unlikely that the man who visited him had been the one who had…done that.

And so, who had he been? Why would he say "tell you daughter I had fun" unless…suddenly it hit Tom; what if that had been the man who had, in Tom's mind, exacted justice? Had he been that close to the man who had saved his daughter's innocence and maybe her very life? Hadn't Irma said last night that the man had "pulled himself off of her"? What if he had been torn off of her and been put to justice right then and there? If so, then what had happened to his body? Tom had personally never seen a human corpse missing any of its limbs before, let alone a head.

Of course, police officers rarely work in two dimensions, and Sergeant Lair was no exception. He was already working on another scenario in his head; couldn't it be just as possible that the man who had saved his daughter was not the hero that Tom secretly considered him? Could he have been looking to murder someone, anyone, and it just so happened that Irma looked like the lesser of two potential victims? Could his daughter have turned up cold and bloody instead of violated and emotional scarred? Tom had effectively thought himself into a corner and suddenly decided that he couldn't make any decisions at the moment.

But what to think of the mysterious message found carved into the corpse's very flesh? Were his daughter's rescuer's intentions really as heroic as they appeared at first glance? Had he brutally murdered her assailant just so he could have his way with her? The thought made Tom's blood run cold; he had always been protective of Irma, it came as part of the job, but had she attracted some very unwanted attention from Heatherfield's Most Wanted? Well, he was damned if he was going to let anything happen to her.

Which brought him back to the message found on the Memorial Park corpse; was he willing to ruin what was left of his little girl's innocence by showing her the pictures that he had taken? It was true that she was wrapped up in this case, but he found that he had no intention of involving her more then she already was. Anna had already told him that Irma had barely slept a wink last night; would she be able to sleep at all if he showed her what had became of her attacker?

It seemed that this case was all a big circle, with that bloody (pun intended) message in the center of it. Tom had read the thing several times now, and it seemed to him as if it offered evidence towards his earlier suspicion: that Irma had been saved by a sadistic someone with the very same intentions for her. The first line served the purpose to draw attention to the fact that the person who had…ahem…wrote the message had, indeed, saved his daughter, but the second one, while seemingly pointing towards one explanation, was actually a dead end. And why had the word guardian been emphasized, as if it had special significance? Tom wasn't sure, but he mentally added it to his list of things to talk about with Irma.

-----

Upstairs, Irma was lost in her own thoughts; for once, she was not thinking about the events of last night. Instead, she was thinking of the promises that her parents had made to her:

'That man is never going to hurt you again, I promise you.'

'Irma, I am going to protect you. No one will ever hurt you as long as I'm alive.'

Even though it tore her up inside to admit it, she knew deep down that she had faced dangers much greater than this, and was almost guaranteed to continue to do so. Even though this was, and probably would be, the most emotionally damaging of her endeavors, it was also the only one that her father could protect her against; everything else was out of his league, either due to him not being able to know about it, or the fact that he was not in the least bit magical.

She imagined, for a second, what would happen if her father even suspected what kind of enemy Nerissa was; what lengths he would go to so he could protect his baby girl.

'Because that's the kind of daddy there is,' thought Irma, a genuine smile spreading across her face. 'the best kind.'

A/N. Here it is: chapter 6. I know it's shorter than the others, but I believe there's enough in there to keep you guys thinking until the next one comes out. And, knowing me, it'll be on Wednesday or something. So please, leave reviews and stuff. Oh, and it's fucking cold up here at CWU.

Chapter 5 review responses.

XV-Dragon – glad to hear it, as always. I'm sorry to hear that you might not be able to keep up the long reviews. If you feel you really can't do it, then feel free to stop, but know that you have/will hurt me. Sorry if you wanted Will to be in chapter 6, but next one, I promise. And when you say A'k'sl plays mind games too much for your taste, do you mean it in the "I have a bad feeling" about this way? Or the "please stop writing him like that" way?

lost prince – thank you, sir or ma'am. It's good to know that you like my Cornelia; I'll be sure to try to write her like that. If Irma seemed kinda OOC to you, then I apologize, I'm kinda of treading on unclaimed territory. I'll play around with her a bit; if you'll be good enough to give me notes, then I'll see if I can get her acting more believable, if possible. Always good to hear that my OC is interesting.

NIkly – you are welcome. Glad to know that YOU think Irma's reaction is justified, instead of a imagining it going a little differently… (I'm just giving you shit, lost prince, you kick ass) sorry if that confused you, but lost prince reviewed chapter 5 and said that (s)he pictured Irma's reaction differently, but everyone is entitled to their opinion, neh? Will and her mom…heh…will be in chapter 6. I'm relieved that you enjoyed A'k'sl at the Cooks. I was kinda afraid that I was kinda pushing it with the whole "go and mess with so and so's family" but apparently it works.

babywhale512- last but certainly not least, we have you, Liz. Most importantly, thank you for calling me on the use of points of view (1st vs 3rd) that I used. I was kinda rushing because I had a test I needed to study for, and it just kind of happened. Anyway, I have corrected it, if you feel the urge to reread chapter 5 anytime soon. I believe that I have only used 3rd person in this chapter, so that problem should be corrected. And I'm so glad you like my portrayal or Irma "breaking down" as you put it. As I've said to everyone (3 others, lol) Will and susan in chapter six.