Vol. 21

Chapter 82

"Guardian Mercury, let me handle this. You take Jesse." Suggested Jovana.

"No, I'll fight with you!" Rebel Hermione.

"What are you saying?! Our priority is to protect Jesse, right?!"

"But..."

"Come on, hurry!"

"Okay! Jesse, this way!" Hermione grabbed Jesse by the arm and ran away with him.

"Eddie...No, Lord Edward! I don't really want to fight against you, but considering the situation, I'm not going easy on you!" Jovana stood her ground. Edward just smiled.

"Just what I would have wanted. But will you be able to handle me all by yourself, I wonder?" He teased her.

"I'll just have to give it my best shot! Tin Strike, Crash!" She blasted the shock at her target but Edward move slightly and shielded himself from it making her attack go all the way to the end of the alley.

"Is that it?" He laughed.

Hermione and Jesse continue to run from the enemy. Hermione took out her pendant and chant on it. "This is Guardian Mercury! I have Jesse under my protection!" Luna heard the call with her golden moon pendent that glow ever so brightly.

"That's my girl, Guardian Mercury!" Luna was ignoring the fuss between Selina and Marcella.

"Let me read it!" Shouted Selina as she took the book back.

"Just give me back the book, Selina!" Marcella demanded.

"But Eddie showed up, and Guardian Jupiter is fighting him right now!" Continued Hermione.

"Eddie showed up?!" Marcella dropped everything leaving Selina with the book.

"Will Guardian Jupiter be alright by herself?" Danica asked.

"Guardian Moon, please help us! The Silver Moon Wand is the only way we can restore Eddie!"

"SELINA!" Luna straighten her out.

"Okay...Let's go, Luna..." Selina got up and readjusted herself. She walk out of the church assuming Luna will follow. "Hurry up..." Luna got up and tagged along with a sigh.

"Wish me luck." She said to Marcella and Danica.

A skilled hand combat fight between Jovana and Lord Edward, every time she threw in her fists Edward dodge it and the same with her kicks. She gave him a big punch and instead he grabbed her hand leaving her disable. Jovana manage to break his grasp and back up away from him. She was out of breath. "What's wrong? Are you done attacking already?" He commented.

"I'm just getting started!" She got pumped all over again.

"You have quite an admirable fighting spirit. But, I cannot just keep playing this game. So, I will go on the offensive now." He began to move faster than her but she's able to dodge his attacks somehow. The thing is she walking backwards not looking where she's going. "What your step." He said as she tripped over a and fell bottom first, she got up quick though. Her back was flat against the wall of a building and has nowhere else to go. Edward got closer and return the big punch at her face. Jovana closed her eyes waiting for it. Edward stopped within a split second and a inch away from her face, all he did was smile. Jovana opened her eyes to see where the hit go, she saw Edward walking away. "As I thought, you are no match for me alone. Polish your skills more and fight me again." He advised her and disappeared.

"Damn that bastard!" She said to herself feeling humiliated.

Still running around in the downtown, Hermione was trying to figure out where to hide. "Guardian Mercury, I have a request." Hermione stopped and hear Jesse out. "Look. If we're going to run, we should go this way." He pointed to the amusement park nearby. Elsewhere, Selina was running to help out.

"It's so cold! It'll ruin my skin!" Selina complained with Luna by her side in her wolf form.

"Come on, run faster! It'll warm you up!" Luna encouraged her.

"Easy for you to say!" With that Selina slipped on black ice and fell on her bottom flat. "OUCH! That hurts!"

"Selina?!" Jovana was happy to see her when she went around looking for the jerk.

"Guardian Jupiter! I'm glad. We made it in time!" Luna cheer.

"No, you didn't! Say, Luna, Lord Edward didn't come this way, did he?" Jovana asked.

"What?" Luna was lost from there.

"Shit! Where did he go?!" Jovana looked from left to right.

At the closed amusement park were Hermione and Jesse walking around. "Jesse, why do you want to come here?" She asked.

"It was my dream to go to an amusement park with you."

"Jesse..."

"Now I have nothing to regret. Let us go in separate directions from here."

"We can't do that. We don't know when the Evil Box Clan might come back for you."

"I found the resolve to take them down with me. Please, I want you to fulfil your own mission. After all, I was never human to begin with..." Jesse got a tear on his eye. "If the sacrifice of my unworthy life could save the world..." He sat down on the park bench.

"You and I really are the same. We're always trying to avoid something." She admits.

"What?" Jesse doesn't believe her.

"My friend told me that I need to be more honest with myself." Hermione sat beside him.

"Hermione..."

"Sacrificing yourself is certainly very admirable, but if you're honest with what's in your heart, don't you feel that you want to make it through alive? Aren't you forgetting that there are people who will grieve over your death?" Jesse started to feel bad of his decision. "Let's both stop running away. Let's take on any obstacle head on, no matter what it is!" The lights on the Ferris Wheel went on.

"That sounds wonderful, Guardian Mercury." Said a familiar voice. At the very top of the ride, stood Lord Edward staring down on them.

"You're here!" Hermione was stunned. Selina, Luna and Jovana were still running around looking for Hermione. Jovana stopped and noticed the lights in the amusement park were on.

"Hey, that's..." Jovana got the other two's attention.

"Let's go and see!" Luna darted off to that direction.

"Yeah!" Selina agreed and follow. Before the got there, Edward leaped off the ride and stood tall in front of Hermione. She placed Jesse behind her.

"Eddie, I won't hesitate to beat you anymore! Prepare yourself!" Hermione threaten him.

"How promising. I was planning to wait until the Ferris wheel's lights brought the other Guardian warriors here, but you are saying that is not necessary then." He said honestly.

"Quicksilver Haze, Surround!" Hermione filled the area in thick, dense fog yet with a poisoning factor. Edward popped up in front of her scaring her wits off, he then leaped over her.

"Before I fight you, I am going to take care of my business first." Edward activated the Sunstone on Jesse. The effects of it was making his body ache. Hermione saw what was happening.

"Oh no! Jesse!" She called out.

"Hermi..." Before he could finish her name, he got sucked in by the stone. Edward stopped the stone and put it away. He then faced the Guardian with a laugh.

"Thank you for waiting."

"You're terrible!" Hermione was crush yet mad. "Eddie! No, Lord Edward of the Evil Box Clan! I won't forgive you! It's time for you to take a message from your one and only and reflect on it!" Edward took out the stone.

"If you want to get your boyfriend back, just destroy this Sunstone. But of course, that is only if you can defeat me. Come, let us fight!" Edward was ready and the same with Hermione. Edward drape his cape over himself and transform into Guardian Earth. "Out of my respect for you, I will fight you in earnest!" He teased her by waving the Sunstone around.

There is no way I can beat him at this rate, but i have no choice, i have to try. Hermione tapped her shoes, the wing design on them glow. She ran really fast, charging right at him. Edward move to the side and she continue to run. She turned quickly and "Quicksilver Haze, Surround!" She blew out the mist directly at him. Edward took out his cane and spun it like a baton against her attack.

"Is that all you can do?" As he was bus with blocking, with the fog spreading around she jumped quickly over him and took the Sunstone off his hands. "Impertinent little..." Now he got mad. Hermione set her footing on the side of him holding onto the stone.

"I'm just returning the favour! I will also fulfil my mission before I fight you! Take that!" Hermione smash the Sunstone on the concrete ground, shattering it into a million pieces. When that happen, six coloured beams shot out from the stone and each turned into the missing people. They're unconscious lying on the ground. At that time, Guardian Moon, Jupiter and Luna came in to help. "About time you guys came!"

"Guardian Mercury, you looked all steamed up!" Commented Jovana.

"Yes, and it's all thanks to you, Guardian Jupiter!"

"Oh, so you already shattered the ambition of the Evil Box Clan." Selina was impressed of Hermione's work.

"Guardian Moon, you have to restore Guardian Earth!" Hermione mentioned. Edward got furious seeing all three happy and his mission falling apart.

"I will take care of all three of you together!" He said with a gruff.

"If you're so interested on reusing like how you're doing with these innocent lives here, why don't you just try sticking with aluminium cans? Jesse and the others were leading peaceful lives. I can't forgive you for trying to use them once again! In the name of Diana, I will defeat you!"

"Tin Strike, Crash!"

"Quicksilver Haze, Surround!" There attacks combined created a restraint like holding Edward in place with the pain of being electrocuted. Selina just watched.

"Hurry, Guardian Moon!" Luna alerted her.

"I know!" she responded. Selina took out the Silver Moon Wand and did her thing. "Moonstone, Heal!" The magic showered over Edward.

"Shit!" He knows he is finished. As this was happening, his memories of him teasing Selina, dating Marcella and fighting along side with the Guardians as Guardian Earth came back. Selina was holding on to the energy of the wand.

"Just a little more, Guardian Moon! Increase the energy even more!" Said Luna. Selina did just that. Edward's head was aching and aching even more. After the magic, he was in his civilian clothes and unconscious.

"We did it! We got Eddie back!" Cheer Jovana.

"Thank goodness." Hermione started to breathe again. Selina collapsed on her knees feeling all tired and worn out. Luna walked up to her and lick her cheek.

"Good job, Guardian Moon." She praise. Around Eddie's body was a dark matter or shadow building up and then swallowed him whole. When the blackness disappeared so did Eddie. The Guardians were speechless.

"What the..." Jovana couldn't think what to say.

"It's probably..." Luna was about to say it.

"The Evil Box Clan's handiwork." But Hermione finished it for her.

"No..." Selina was about to cry.

Within the dark realms, Pandora had unconscious Eddie in a coffin like bed with dark energy pulsating all around him as she stood by and watched him closely. "So, as I feared, Lord Edward's memories of his past were still not completely erased. In that case, once more, I will transfer the Evil Box's energy into his body, and make sure he becomes a loyal servant of the Evil Box Clan this time."

The next day, Hermione and Jesse were having fun together riding the Ferris wheel at the amusement park. "Let's come here again sometime." She suggested. Jesse blushed at her request.

"Okay."

"We can't let this keep going on!" Selina complained, she and the rest of the group were standing at the bottom of the Ferris wheel waiting for their friend. "If even Hermione forgets about our precious mission, who's going to be our brains?"

"Well technically your is to be our leader, Selina." Danica responded.

"You're jealous of hose two. Right, Selina?" Mentioned Marcella.

"So are you." Selina returned the attack.

"Now, now, there's nothing wrong with this. Let's watch over them for a little while longer." Jovana stopped the fight before it even began.