W.I.T.C.H

Chapter 19

Rock, Hard Place

Kandrakar

The Guardians stared at Endarno, dumbstruck. Will had hundreds of questions she wanted to ask Endarno. Why do you think Elyon is a bad leader? Why do you want us to remove her from power? Are you insane? Of all of these questions, only one actually made it out of her mouth.

"What?"

"Your mission is to promptly and completely remove Queen Elyon from the Meridian throne." Endarno repeated slowly.

"But why?" Irma blurted.

"We've already gone over this, Guardian." Endarno said, slowly losing his patience. "You all agreed that a ruler as young as Elyon should not be allowed to rule at such a young age. Therefore, it is necessary that she be removed from power."

Will couldn't think of any way to respond to this. Endarno had played it perfectly. He had made sure that they agreed to his logic before telling them whom it was he was talking about.

"But Elyon's been a great leader." Hay Lin said. "Meridian's been peaceful under her rule."

"Has it?" Endarno said, with just a hint of smugness. "Since Elyon has come into power she has been captured twice, depowered and Meridian has been attacked countless times. Hardly great, and hardly peaceful. I am not the villain here, girls. I am merely doing what I think is best."

Hay Lin slumped back into her seat.

"What if we refuse?" Cornelia asked.

"Simple. You will be stripped of your powers and we will find new Guardians. Not an ideal solution, but one that has been previously suggested by other elders."

Will thought this over for a minute.

"Endarno," she began

"Oracle."

"Oracle. We are very tired, and this is not an easy decision for us. Will you allow us to think it over?"

"What? Will, you can't be…"

"Of course." Endarno said, interrupting Cornelia's protest. "As long as Elyon is out of power within the week, I don't really care when or how you do it. Just make sure it gets done."

Heatherfield

The Girls exited the fold and stepped into the basement of the silver dragon. Cornelia turned on Will.

"Will, you can't possibly think that we're actually going to do that to Elyon."

"I'm not thinking anything right now, Cornelia. None of us are going to make any decision until we get some sleep." Will said.

"But…"

"No buts, Cornelia. Please."

Cornelia sighed, but said nothing. Will was right. They hadn't slept in almost 24 hours, and Cornelia was letting her emotions get the better of her. Still, Cornelia knew her opinion wouldn't change over night. Nothing was going to make her harm her best friend.

"Everybody get some rest and we'll talk about this in the morning, alright?" Will said.

The other Guardians mumbled their agreement and sauntered off to their respective beds. Since they had been summoned to Kandrakar in the middle of the night, and because it was still night, no one should have noticed they were gone. That means they had the luxury of teletransporting to their rooms. As soon as Will got to her room, she flopped onto her bed, falling asleep in seconds.

The next day was a Saturday, which meant that Will could sleep in. She was awoken by a knock on her door.

"Are you alive in there?" Came her mother's voice from the other side.

"Mpthkppth." Will replied.

"I'll take that as a yes. If you ever decide to come out of hibernation, there's food on the table. Three hours ago, it was breakfast. Now it's lunch."

Will yawned and stretched.

"Hey Steve, what time is it?" She asked her clock.

"Good morning, Will. Or should I say good afternoon. It's 12:14."

Will smiled. It was amazing how ten hours of sleep can make someone feel better. She heard a buzzing from the other side of the room. Someone had sent her a text.

"What's it say, Ed?" She asked her phone.

"Ahem." Ed said, clearing his throat. "It's from Cornelia. It says: just woke up. when r we meetin? Really, someone should teach her both grammar and spelling."

Any happiness Will had gained from her sleep disappeared instantly. Elyon. Either they remove her from power, or they lost theirs. There was no easy choice, and no easy way out. Will arranged to meet in an hour and, after a quick breakfast/lunch, found her self in the Silver Dragon's basement surrounded by her friends.

"Alright, let's take a look at our options." Will said, sitting down.

"Fine." Cornelia said, crossing her arms. "We can either tell Kandrakar to shove it, or we can tell Kandrakar to stuff it."

"And then they take away our powers. Is that what you want?" Irma said.

Nobody said anything.

"I said, is that what you want?"

"That's a… different question." Taranee said.

"And not really important right now." Hay Lin added.

"She's right." Will said. "If they replace us, the next group won't have any problems with getting rid of Elyon. And they won't be as nice about it as we would be."

"But after all we've done for Elyon, are we really just going to desert her now?"

"This isn't an invasion, Cornelia." Hay Lin said. "This is Kandrakar after all. They're not attacking, they probably just going to give her some training. It might be good for her."

"I don't believe this!" Cornelia said, standing up. "This is Elyon we're talking about! Elyon Brown! Our friend. And you just want to abandon her? Well I don't care what you do, I'm going to defend her."

"Calm down, Cornelia. Nobody's abandoning her. We're just weighing our options."

Cornelia huffed, but sat down. All eyes turned to Will.

"We'll follow you Will, whatever you decide, right Cornelia?" Irma said.

Cornelia sighed and rolled her eyes, but still nodded reluctantly.

"Yeah, I guess. We are a team, after all."

Will thought for a minute. Once again, it was up to her to make the tough choice. Once more the weight of responsibility was on her shoulder. She had led them well so far, but how long until she made the wrong decision? And what would it cost them?

"The way I see it, there's only one thing to do." She said. "We need to go to Meridian."

Meridian

Elyon lay on her bed, staring at the celling. Beside her bed sat her adopted parents, Alborn and Miriadel. Despite the fact that this meeting was technically business, Elyon was still grateful for any time she could spend with her mom and dad. Alborn and Miriadel's mission to raise and protect Elyon had come to an end with the defeat of Phobos two years ago. Elyon, however, had insisted they stay in the castle, and they had been working as unofficial mentors ever since. Between the attacks and royal duties that had made up her life in the past two years, Elyon had not had much time for either of her parents. Any time she did spend with them, like now, soothed her in a way nothing else could.

"Alright, run it by me one more time." Elyon said, dangling her legs of the side of the bed.

Alborn sighed, but continued anyways. This was the fourth time they had gone over the events of the last few days.

"There were no injuries during the Honor Guard R.E.G. fight,"

"A miracle." Elyon interrupted.

"And Wilder and the Balsilidian government said there were no hard feelings after the battle. They did request a two week recess before talks resume, however."

"Granted." Elyon said. "I feel like I need a two month vacation after yesterday."

"It will also give us time to pick your wedding dress." Alborn said with a mischievous smile.

"My what?" Elyon said, bolting upright.

"Your wedding dress." Alborn said calmly. "It's Meridian tradition that if two different regions make a peace contract, a member of each of the royal families must be wed. The same applies if it's two different planets. Don't worry, I hear some of the Balsilide princes are quite handsome."

"What?" Elyon shouted, her eyes wide with fear.

Alborn started to laugh.

"I'm just kidding." he said, wiping a tear from his eye. "You don't have to marry anyone. But you should have seen the look on her face."

Elyon threw a pillow at her dad and flopped back onto the bed.

"Honey! Be nice to her!" Miriadel said, jabbing her husband in the ribs.

"Ah, it's alright, mom. At least it isn't true." Elyon said.

"You know, there was a time where you would have jumped at the opportunity to go out with a royal prince." Miriadel said.

"That was when I was a kid, mom. I'm a queen now. I don't have time for childish romance."

"Isn't there anyone that you…?"

"Can't we have this talk some other time, Mom. I've got a lot more important things to worry about then dating."

"Of course honey."

Miriadel stared at her adopted daughter. A lot had changed during Elyon's two years on Meridian. She had become a mature, responsible young woman, able to take control of both the battlefield and the boardroom. But at the same time, any chance Elyon had at a normal childhood was slipping through her fingers. Miriadel's thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Who is it?" Elyon said, sitting up again.

"Caleb." Came the reply. "And the girls are here too."

"Alright, send them in." Elyon said, straightening her dress.

"Actually, I think it would be best if you came out here."

Elyon shot a quick look at her parents, then headed for the door.

"Hey girls, what's going on?" Elyon said.

Right away she could tell this wasn't a social call. Not only were the Guardians standing in the long hallway leading to Elyon's room, but the entire Honor Guard stood there as well. And none of them looked happy.

"Well, tell her what you told me." Caleb said to the Guardians.

And Will did. She explained how the old Oracle, Himerish, had been kicked out of Kandrakar, and how Endrano had become the new Oracle. She told Elyon that Endarno's first mission for the Guardians was to remove her from Meridian's throne, and that if they didn't do it, they would no longer be Guardians.

"So either you remove me, or they remove you." Elyon said, after taking in this new information.

"Pretty much." Hay Lin said.

"I highly doubt Caleb would simply let you walk away with me." Elyon said.

"Oh, he's made that quite clear. Repeatedly." Irma said, glancing over at the Meridianite.

"Well, it sounds like you've a tough choice to make, girls." Elyon said.

"Actually, not that tough." Will said. She cleared her throat.

"We won't do it, Oracle!" She shouted at the ceiling. "We won't fight our friends! We make our own decisions, and it's about time Kandrakar figured that out! And if you want our powers, come and get them!"

Caleb knew that Kandrakar would respond quickly, and knew he should be preparing to protect his queen, but he couldn't help but smile.

"Never doubted for a minute." He said, putting his arm around Cornelia.

"Do you think they heard?" Raythor asked, looking up expectedly.

Suddenly, a bright purple fold appeared at the far end of the long hallway. Shortly after, another fold appeared at the other end, effectively trapping the group, allowing nowhere to escape. Out of each fold appeared two men, each one fully armored so that nothing was visible, and wielding large swords. They silently marched towards where Elyon was standing.

"I think they heard." Irma said.

"Alright, Irma, Hay Lin, you take the ones on the left. Taranee, you and I will take the ones on the right. Cornelia, you and the Honor Guard get Elyon out of here." Will said.

"Great plan Will, except for one thing."

"What's that?"

"That fact that we're humans, and not Guardians."

Will looked around. It was true. All five of the girls had reverted back into human form.

"Guardians Unite!" Will shouted, holding up the Heart, but it was no use. The Heart felt cold to the touch.

"You did say 'come and get them'." Hay Lin said. "Looks like they came and got them."

Will surveyed the situation. Kandrakar had taken away their powers, and four heavily armored soldiers were bearing down on them. Will could only think of one thing to say.

"Uh oh."