CHAPTER FOUR

"Tapeworm, c'mon or we're going to be late," Bailey called, pulling her hair over one shoulder. She smoothed down the flyaway pieces that escaped the hair style. Pursing her lips, she brought down the ends of her hair towards her face, studying each strand. The old honey brown color had been changed with a dark, somewhat candy apple red. She loved the color as soon as she had seen the box in the Rite Aid and figured it was time for a change.

After everything that happened everyone needs a change, Bailey thought, lowering her head. Placing her hands on her hips she focused not he power that was inside her because of Geneva and Gattaca still being with her. She thought that after what had happened with their mother, they would have left her. And yet, two of the guardians of the Element World were still around. Don't question it Bailey, it's just going to cause problems for you later.

Tapeworm gave her a funny look as he rounded the corner from the kitchen, carrying Ursa, in his small form, in his arms. The small bear was holding onto a couple of strawberries, shoving the last few pieces into his mouth, noisily licking his paw afterwards as he did so. "You do realize that it would really only take me about ten seconds to get there while you have no choice but to walk."

"Yes," Bailey agreed. She crossed her arms, her smile turning to a smug one. "But it'd be rude if you had me walk the streets of Boston alone, you never know what can happen." The two smirked at each other. As if a robber or anyone that tired to mug them would be difficult to get away from. Reaching up a hand, she clapped Tapeworm on the shoulder, leading him towards the door. "C'mon, let's go."

"Mom, Dad, we're headed to the park," Tapeworm called as the two slid out the front door. "We'll be back later." He paused, waiting to hear his mother's shout of, "OK, have fun," to come back, before the two slid out the door. The two walked down the front steps and headed in the direction of Liberty Park.

Bailey took in the sights of the reconstruction that was going on as she went. It had only been a couple of months but a lot of the city was already starting to go back to the way it was. No one was afraid to go outside; no one was looking over their shoulder as much as often. They barely blinked at the sound of a helicopter or airplane flying by overheard. The news was always talking about the relief effort in the city as well as news coming from the nation's capital about the existence of Elementals and what it means for those that may be awakening.

It was nice to see that they were doing so much to make things better for the Elementals, but at the same time, she didn't like the constant attention. She didn't like being known as 'Bailey Pickett' as opposed to being just Bailey. It was funny, when she had gotten on the SS Tipton for the first time her dream was to be able to see the world and make friends along the way. If she knew it included having her life threatened on numerous occasions, protecting the world, and making some of the most difficult decisions she ever had to face, she probably wouldn't have agreed to do it.

They do say hindsight is 20/20, Bailey reminded herself. But what does that mean for those we had to lose along the way? They didn't expect any of that to happen, so why were we the ones that were able to survive the whole thing and others weren't? With that thought, Bailey peeked at Tapeworm, who walked beside her with a slight swag to his step, as if everything around him wasn't going on. In a way it made sense, he had probably lost more than everyone else had in the past couple of years, and yet he was still able to continue to use his smarts to help everyone and keep a smile on his face. Though there was a time there where he seemed really…dark. You have to admit that Bailey.

'From what I've seen of you humans, that doesn't mean anything more than you just being in a bad place,' Geneva reminded her, her voice swirling through Bailey's head.

And there's more that he's seen when he was, in a dreamlike state, transported to the Element World,' Gattaca agreed. Being a human…more or less, and going there. It's more jarring than you'd expect. Our worlds are similar, but they're so different.

"You're right," Bailey murmured.

"What?" Tapeworm looked over at her, shifting Ursa from his arms up to his shoulder. Bailey blushed, lowering her gaze to her feet. She ignored the waves that construction workers sent her and Tapeworm as they passed the scaffolding the men were working on. The increase of attention she still wasn't used to or even particularly liked but it was part of her life now.

"Sorry," Bailey apologized. "I guess I was speaking out loud." She shook her head before lifting it up towards the sky. The clouds hung low over the sky. "I was talking to Geneva and Gattaca…how things have changed. How the Element World is different than here." Tapeworm slowly nodded, his eyes shifting away from the teenage girl. "Do you remember anything from being there?" She pressed gently. She didn't want to make him uncomfortable or angry or depressed in any way. He had been so good with the subject before, but grief worked in mysterious ways. Who knew what was going through his head as of late.

Tapeworm reached up and scratched the back of his head, gently sucking his bottom lip into his mouth as he thought. About what, Bailey wondered. The best way to talk about it without saying everything that he had seen with his own two eyes?

"There was a door of darkness, I remember that clearly," Tapeworm said. Instinctively, he shoved his hands into his jeans pockets as he leaned forward, hunching his shoulders as he did so. It was an obvious way for him to find a comfortable position in an uncomfortable conversation. "There was also a strange voice that went along with the door to darkness and seemed to follow me around. It was haunting in a way and I never really understood why I was able to hear it. Next thing I know, I was transported to the Element World and it looked so different but felt like home. People around were so happy and they knew what they were doing. They had their own jobs that their powers dealt with. The ones that controlled fire were blacksmiths as they could easily forge things, the people that controlled water could control the weather around hem so that if it had been too long without a good rainfall they could deal with that. There were homes scattered around, a large castle in the distance, and everyone just seems so happy. It really feels like a community."

Tapeworm smiled a little. "Then I saw the nursery." He held up a finger. "And this is the part that I thought was weird, but so cool at the same time." Bailey nodded for him to continue, waiting in anticipation. "The nursery was a place that seemed like it was in a cave. The women who were pregnant and were about to give birth to their children would go and the nurses, or medicine women, or maybe they're mystics or something, would lie them down, give them some sort of concoction that would make take their mind off the pain, and the women would give birth. The baby would then be wrapped up and placed in a basinet and be watched over, just like us humans would be." He swallowed thickly. "I went there…and I say Canis."

Bailey's eyes widened.

"She was there. I know it was her, especially since we know that the guardians can reincarnate themselves if the humans die. But if the guardian dies…then they're gone forever. I looked into her bassinet and I recognized her as Canis, especially from her markings. Then I heard a specific drumming sound, like a rhythm that everyone reacted to. The women in the cave all moved towards the back wall, the babies were shifted over so they weren't in the cover of the cave and when I went outside, I saw a warrior. I think he was anyway, he had some armor on. He moved to block the entrance to the cave. The drums sounded again and everyone jumped into action. The men started to get fall into a sort of formation and that was only moments before all hell broke loose. The arboris started to attack and next thing I knew, I saw nothing but different element attacks being flung around everywhere to fend them off. I even saw Blazen's and Phantom's mother."

"Wow." It was the only thing Bailey could think of that would eloquently describe everything she felt when hearing Tapeworm's explanation. It just left so many questions. "Wait, so does that mean everyone in the Element world is an Elemental?"

"No," Tapeworm said without an ounce of hesitation. "There are normal humans there too. Just like there are normal animals." He glanced up at Ursa, who continued to hang off the side of his head, his tiny claws gently gripping his master's shorter hair. "So that's probably how it goes to the elemental down on Earth getting a guardian."

"But it still doesn't explain what makes it that there are Elementals that exist on Earth as well as those that are only in the Element world," Bailey said. "Like, what is it that dictates the worlds being two completely different things?"

"Maybe that's what the portal was," Tapeworm suggested. "When we were fighting Mother Nature. Maybe her portal was furthering the collapse of the Element World."

"Maybe it wasn't collapsing," Bailey shot back. "It might have been going back to its normal place."

Her sentence hung in the air as the two arrived at Liberty Park and turned, walking down the path. There were many possibilities that they hadn't thought of yet and coming up with more was just risking the chance for them to have more to work through .Even Christian's experiments as well as his knowledge on the Element World was something constantly being tested. That's why he had been so eager to travel through Canada and even taking a quick stop to DC to see what had changed and what was being done about the existence of Elementals.

As a scientist himself, he must be curious about everything that's going on as well, Bailey thought. Her thoughts were broken into by a loud cry of happiness moments before she spotted her friends, all scattered around, sitting underneath the largest tree in the park. The loud cry had been from Sydney as he was hurrying over to the two to greet them. Aaron was twisted to the side, pointing in their direction, possibly having heard them before they had even been spotted.

Bailey felt a small smile slide on her face as he saw all of her friends turning and waving at them as well. All of the friends she had met once everything on the SS Tipton had started. Everyone but Max. It was then that she had been struck with how much things had changed in those past few years. She had been the girl who believed in fairytales, the ones that always said 'never say never' whenever a difficult situation came upon her. She was the positive girl that would take everything that came to her and do her best with it as she wasn't one to back down from a challenge.

Unfortunately she found that optimism wasn't enough. Nothing was enough to stop the passage of time. The old, positive girl that she had been was gone, dead and gone. In her place was the girl who questioned the world and everything in it simply because she didn't know what was real and what was fake anymore. She didn't trust anyone around her, she couldn't. She could only trust her friends and even then that was hard, as they all had their own agendas when it came to the future of their powers and what it meant now that the whole world knew about them.

She could still remember standing on the rooftop of the Tipton hotel and looking right into the camera as the news copter flew by; taking in every image they could of the battle going on below. She still didn't know what to think about it. It wasn't the point of conversation and probably never would be.

"Hey!" Bailey wrapped her arms around the younger boy, giving him a tight hug before he moved onto Tapeworm and did the same. She was glad the years of this hadn't made him lose his personable personality. "Hey guys, how is everyone?" She and Tapeworm walked over to the group and sat down in the two spaces left over, in between Cody and Noah.

Bailey couldn't help but look at Cody, to see how he was, and his eyes met hers. She immediately turned away, smoothing her long skirt over her knees as she sat Indian style on the ground. Her knee bumped his and he moved it away from her. Bailey sighed.

"See, Cody, I told you," Zack said. He nudged Cody with his elbow and pointed at Bailey. "At some point everyone was going to be copying your hairstyle when you turned your hair red." He paused, glancing at Bailey once more, smiling warmly. "Though it looks a lot better on her."

"And of course that's just Zack's way of saying 'welcome back'," Noah said in his soft voice.

Bailey rolled her eyes before addressing the older blond. "We weren't the ones that left," she reminded him.

"That's right," Sydney agreed. "How's school going?"

"Fine." Bailey kept it at that. Beside her, she could feel Cody shifting in the grass, moving to sit in an Indian style position as well. But he had his chin resting in the palm of his hand. She knew how badly he had wanted to go to Yale as it was his life dream. But he had been the one to decide not to apply, he had said so himself before they had split for the summer. So why was he still taking it out on her? Or maybe he wasn't and she was just being paranoid. It wouldn't be the first time, Bailey thought. "It's fine. Kind of hard to go around with everyone knowing my name, though." She then addressed the Jacksons. "I don't know how you do it."

"You get used to it after a while," Rhuben remarked. She had her hands in her lap, running her fingers over DeathLiger's back as he laid curled up, eyes closed at the comforting touch. "Even with the people wanting nothing but your name on a sheet of paper."

"You make it sound so bad," Zack said. He stretched out his legs, resting his arms up behind his head, lacing his fingers together, resting against the tree trunk. "All the more reason to charge them for it. They're wasting your time; you should make some sort of profit off of it."

"Figures you'd see it that way," Patrick remarked with a half smile as she look over at his eldest sister. She merely lifted her left shoulder in a shrug then said, "He got me for his looks."

"I knew it!" Zack beamed.

"Yeah, I usually put high importance on physical attractiveness but I made an exception for you." She smiled wickedly at her boyfriend, who rolled his eyes, before turning her gaze to the rest of the group. "So I guess we all know why we're here. To catch up with everything after Mother Nature." She wrapped her arms around her legs. "While we were home we went back to Dad's office to see if there was anything else we could find out," she said mysteriously. She exchanged glances with her siblings. "And I think we got more than we bargained for."

"Same here," Crystal agreed. She turned behind her and picked up the computer that had been from her father, holding all of the information that he had gathered while he was still working with his late brother in law, Reed, and their friend Nathan Reeves. Or as the kids knew him, Core.

I wonder what happened to him, Bailey thought, suddenly struck with the notion that they hadn't seen him in a while.

'I wouldn't worry about him, Child,' Gattaca said.

'You have more pressing matters to deal with,' Geneva agreed.

"There was already a lot that we knew from what we've experienced and from what Dad has told me over the years," Crystal continued. She pulled open an excel spreadsheet on her computer and turned it around, pointing at a few rows and columns. "These are the names and contact information of those that were at the different symposiums and conferences we went to. Some of them are in the DC area; others are spread around the world. But they've brought a lot of insight into the things that have been going on."

"What does it mean for us now though?" Tapeworm's eyebrows furrowed together. "Has there been any progress with the way that Elementals are going to be treated?" He shrugged. "I mean, we're considered celebrities now, but what happens when the popularity goes away and they turn on us."

Cody stiffened. "You really think they would?" His voice was low, almost in a dangerous tone.

"It's been known to happen," Tapeworm replied.

"Yeah, I think that's what they call assassinations," Sydney added with a sarcastic edge to his tone. "Some of which you may be aware of such as JFK and Arch Duke Ferdinand." He held up a finger. "Wars have come out of lesser things."

"Thanks for that depressing anecdote, Little Man," Noah murmured.

Bailey giggled, holding her hand up over her mouth. She pushed her long hair over her shoulder once more, starting to dig her finger in the ground. What would be different? She thought she would be spared, in fact, if things did go south. She had no powers, she wasn't an Elemental .She just had two of the guardians of the world inside her. She couldn't control them or the power they had, she was just harboring them. It was a selfish thought, really. That she would be spared if something happened to the others. They had all worked so well together, so how did that suddenly pop into her head?

"He's got a point though," Rhuben defended him.

There was another brief moment of silence.

"Zack and I have some news," Cody said slowly. It sounded like he still didn't believe what he was about to say. Bailey had been with him long enough to know that he was anxious. Just by looking she could tell; his eyes were blinking rapidly and he was tearing handfuls of grass from the ground, tossing it aside. Apart from a long list of his many allergies and medications, Cody showed his anxiety in his face and the fluttering lashes was always the first sign of his distress. The other being that Cody was someone that cared about the environment, the ecosystem, and everything scientific about it. So she knew that he was violating a lot of his ideals, especially since he was technically killing the grass. "And it's really strange; even I can't wrap my head around it."

"Don't worry about it, mate," Patrick reassured him with a lazy wave of his hand. "I can't wrap my head around a lot of stuff either."

"And that explains so much," Noah commented.

Cody gave a half smile. He lifted his head, locking eyes with Zack, who nodded. Cody continued, "We were going down to the lobby to meet you all here…and then we saw Mr. Moseby and London."

"They finally made it back?" Crystal's eyebrows rose. Relief washed over her and her shoulders slumped as a peaceful smile slid onto her face. It was the most serene she had been in a while. "That's good news. I hadn't heard anything about the SS Tipton in a while; no matter what I searched, nothing came up."

"That's not the strange part," Zack interrupted. "Mr. Moseby and London were as crazy as they always were." He tilted his head to the side, looking concerned. His eyebrows were lowered and along with his tightened mouth, Bailey knew something was really wrong. "It was as if no time had passed since they were gone. London was complaining about Maddie being in her first year of college and Mr. Moseby was talking about how he didn't want to have to spend more years with us on the ship."

"You have to admit that London has never been the brightest bulb in the lamp," Aaron pointed out. He paused. "But compared to Patrick that's saying something."

"Hey!"

Bailey laughed along with the others. "And I've seen Mr. Moseby counting down the days of when you'd finally graduate so why is this any different?"

"You don't get it," Cody said quickly, barely letting Bailey able to finish her sentence. "It's, like, with the two of them, time hasn't passed at all. For them they just finished their first year not he boat and we've graduated from high school already." Cody tugged at the ends of his long hair. "Like time completely stopped."

"Well, I wouldn't say it's completely unfounded," Noah said. He had stretched out and was lying on his side, resting his cheek on his upraised hand. "With the Element World being, in a way, a different dimension, how does that stop anyone from knowing that there are others out there we don't know of? Maybe the SS Tipton got stuck in a time warp."

"Or maybe it's something else," Sydney said quietly.

Rhuben started to say something then stopped, her eyelids lowering, eyes rapidly moving back and forth. DeathLiger jumped out of her lap and started to growl, turning into his large form. Reihu, who had been resting up on a branch of the tree, listening, growled as well, leaping out of the tree and turning into a lion as well. The other guardians appeared, turning into their beast forms and joining DeathLiger and Reihu, all glaring in the direction behind them.

Bailey scrambled to her feet and turned in the direction that the guardians were facing, eyes moving all over the place for movement. She couldn't see anything. "What are you—"

"Look out!" Patrick shouted.

He, Noah, Zack, and Cody all sprouted wings from their backs and blasted high into the air, Rhuben whirled around and reached out, diving towards the tree. Once she reached the shadow she disappeared into the ground. Sydney summoned his staff and pushed Aaron on top of it before climbing on himself and taking off up into the air as well. Riley and Crystal jumped onto the backs of their guardians, pulling Tapeworm and Bailey on as well, and DalFang and Dricer beat their large wings down lifting the wolf and tiger up into the air.

Bailey held tightly onto DalFang's fur as they rose up to the height the boys were. A fall from that distance from the ground would be pretty nasty, Elemental or not. Below her, Bailey watched as something black rocketed into the tree they had just been lying against and blew up the tree. Holding her breath, Bailey watched as the smoke cleared then breathed a sigh of relief when Rhuben came out from the ground, unharmed. She climbed onto DeathLiger's back and was soon with them as well.

"Did you get a good look?" Zack asked her.

Rhuben shook her head. "No, but it looked like canon fire to me."

"That was no canon, Sis," Sydney contradicted her. "It was a smoke bomb."

Bailey turned back to Zack and Cody. Cody's wings gently brushed up and down as his eyes narrowed. He cocked his head to the side and stared hard in front of him. They others knew from his enhanced abilities of having a guardian that was an eagle, his eye sight was increased as well. It gave him the ability to see up to a mile ahead of him if he tried, and from where she was sitting, Bailey could see that his eyes had changed from that of a human's to that of a bird of prey. It was strange yet fascinating at the same time.

"Oh God," he breathed, eyes returning to normal. "We've got trouble. I don't know who it is exactly, but I'm sure not everyone in the world is glad to know we're here."

"What does that mean?" Riley snapped impatiently. Her hands were glowing red and Bailey could see flames started to encircle them, little licks of the fire flickered here and there, strengthening as the seconds passed.

"It means our vacation's over," Zack replied, his eyes glowing red as well. His lips slowly curled up in a menacing smile.

A/N: Marvel movies have increased my motivation for this story, though most of them do. As I said last time things really pick up and they were really fast-paced here. I bet you didn't expect them to get attacked so quickly/so early in the story, but I had to keep your attention somehow. I can't wait for the next chapter because I haven't written a fighting scene in a while.

Cheers,

-Riles