Chapter 16 is up! Enjoy!
-October 29th-
"CJ, what's going on?" Isaac asked, the fear in his voice was unmistakable.
"Look," she started moving towards him, hands reaching out towards him, thinking he was afraid of them. "I know this may seem a bit weird but…"
"Oh, you're not the one he is scared of, Darling." The rasping female voice cut her off as the hooded body, the voice belonged to, prowled out of the shadows from behind him, the girls having a clear view of her gaunt hand wrapping around the front of his throat, her nails digging in. "Oh no dear Isaac, here, is afraid of me."
"Who the hell are you?!" The woman cackled, tracing a boney finger along Isaac's cheek bone. "Get your hands off him!" CJ growled. Without thinking of the repercussions, CJ sprinted forward, disregarding the protests of the ones calling after her.
"Silly little girl." With the flick of her wrist the woman hurled CJ into the lockers with a loud thud, this time rendering her unconscious. "You are powerless against me."
The Guardians and Isaac screamed out CJ's name, their voices echoing off hallway's walls as Hay-Lin and the Guardians rushed to her side, the woman preventing Isaac from doing the same by tighten her hold on his throat.
"Who are you? And what do you want with him?" Hay-Lin fumed, crouching in front of the girls, arms stretched out to her sides in a protective manner.
"This boy means nothing to me, he's just a toy in my little game," the woman scoffed. "And do not act like you forgot who I am, Air Guardian. You are the one who sent me away thinking it would rid me of these dimensions but all you did was fuel my anger."
Hay-Lin narrowed her glare at the threat. Something about her did seem familiar; something was off about the way she called Hay-Lin the Air Guardian. "Serilda?"
"Ah, so you do remember me, how touching." The sarcasm dripping from her tongue sent shivers down Hay-Lin's spine; a feeling she long forgot.
"How did you get out of the world we imprisoned you on?" Hay-Lin stood, continuing to block the girls like they did for Wynter earlier.
"Oh darling, that's a story for another time." Hay-Lin saw the leering smile that formed on her mouth under the hood, showcase yellow teeth in the process. "I thought it was an appropriate time that I made my presences known again since my little Order all introduced themselves already. And now since that is done with, I'll be taking my leave."
In a blink of an eye Serilda vanished, leaving a shadowy silhouette in her wake.
The moment Isaac was released he ran to CJ, who was being held by Wynter.
"CJ?" Isaac placed a hand on her cheek, tears threatening to fall. "Please wake up."
Izzy looked to Hay-Lin to ask the question on everyone's mind. "Is she going to be okay?"
"She's going to be fine," Hay-Lin assured them. "She's just going to be incredible sore in the morning but we need to go, someone is bonded to come looking after all the noises that were made."
"We can't take her back to the house," Isaac hooked his arms under her legs and back to be able to pick her up. "Her dad will kill us if we come back with CJ looking like this."
Everyone peered at CJ. The girl had dirt mixed with dust and a bit of blood smeared across her face and arms from the battle with the man. And no doubt she already had bruises forming on her back from being thrown into the lockers…twice.
"We can take her to my place," Hay-Lin spoke up before looking at Wynter. "You and Dakota stay here and get Khloe after the game then meet us at the Silver Dragon. Do you know where that is?" They nodded. "Alright, the rest of you are coming with me."
"Are you going to explain what the hell happened here?" Isaac asked, shifting CJ a bit.
"I will explain everything to you once we're all together, okay?"
Isaac just nodded, trusting her words.
-Silver Dragon-
Once they arrived, Hay-Lin had closed the restaurant for the rest of the night. She had instructed Isaac to put CJ on the couch that was in her living room as she searched for the things she needed. When the other three arrived, Hay-Lin introduced them all to her husband, Eric.
"What are you gonna do?" Izzy asked once Hay-Lin and Eric came back with a large bowl of water, towels and a first aid kit.
"I'm just going to clean her up and see if she was any bad wounds." Hay-Lin gave the girl an assuring smile.
As Hay-Lin began cleaning CJ's wounds, Isaac started asking various questions on what happened tonight. Not long after Izzy joined in, wanting to know more about who the two people from tonight were. Hay-Lin promised she would answer all the questions given to her, to the best of her ability but she told Izzy to wait until CJ was awake to be told about Serilda.
-Samora-
"What are you planning, Your Majesty?" Maxar kept his head down while speaking with his sister.
Serilda stood firmly, around a stone platform, which held a mirror like liquid. She traced a finger across the discolored surface, "I plan on ridding the Infinite Dimensions of those rotten Guardians once and for all." With a mere thought, Serilda created an image of the five new Guardians and the previous Air Guardian. They sat in a circle as the old Air Guardian told them the story of how she came to be. "Maxar, find the order on Earth and have them help you get the Hearts."
"Ye…" Maxar was cut off by Serilda ceasing him by the throat, digging her nails sharply into it.
"And do not fail me this time!"
Once she released him, he nodded swallowing the lump in his throat, then scurried away to find a portal, this time with his life hanging in the balance.
Serilda placed her hand flat on the edge of the stone. She needed the Hearts of Serine and Samora if she plans on getting out of this prison but something about these new Guardians is peculiar and she couldn't quite put her finger on it, yet. Zoning on the Keeper of the Heart, Serilda felt the stone give away from the force she held it with. "I'm coming for you Guardians."
-Silver Dragon; 12:47am-
"How are you feeling?" Hay-Lin asked as she offered a glass to CJ.
After almost 3 hours of trying to reassure five very impatient children, CJ had woken up and was quickly bombarded with complaints about how stupid it was of her to rush an unknown enemy like that.
"Sore," CJ accepted the glass, thinking it was water but upon realizing it wasn't, she split it out, luckily everyone in the line of fire moved out of the way. "What the hell is that?"
Hay-Lin scolded her for her language. "Something to help with the pain." She urged her student to drink it. "But you need to drink it all for it to work."
CJ groaned. She didn't want to drink the sludge but she didn't want to be in pain even more. So, taking a deep breath she downed the drink, getting disgusted reactions from everyone but Hay-Lin. "Ugh that was gross."
"But you'll be feeling better by tomorrow." Hay-Lin smiled brightly, handing her husband the glass to take to the kitchen.
Isaac sat beside of CJ on the couch. "I know what you are," he said, looking down at the ground. "Mrs. Lin told me."
"I'm sorry I couldn't tell you; it was all just happening too fast."
"That's okay," Isaac leaned back, stretching his long legs out. "I think it's cool. You guys are like superheroes!" He threw his arms up to emphasize his statement, almost hitting his cousin in the process.
"We're girls not guys," Khloe sassed to the boy, who in return rolled his eyes and stuck out his tongue.
CJ laughed, rolling her eyes as well.
"What about your dad?" Isaac asked.
"Let's not tell him about this, okay?" CJ suggested to him.
"I think that might be for the best."
Once Eric came back out, everyone pulled up a chair, awaiting the story Hay-Lin needed to tell.
"I'm not going to sugarcoat anything I'm about to tell you," Hay-Lin started. As she did, she created a projection of the mystery man, from the Heart of Kandracar, the hood still covering his face. "This is Maxar, he is part of the Order of Shadows and the younger brother of the woman from earlier." Next, was a beautiful mid-age woman. She had a pixie cut of pure white hair and vivid teal cat like eyes. The image then started to shift into the woman standing on a hilltop with a village set aflame below. Wynter instantly recognized the image; it was the same one from her dreams. "Serilda. Serilda was, and is still, a ruthless dictator of a Queen in the dimension of Samora. She takes no mercy on anything nor anyone. All she wants, much like all villains, is power and she saw she could have endless power with the Heart of Samora and the Heart of Serine."
"So, you fought her before?" Wynter asked after Hay-Lin paused.
"Yes, but we didn't… couldn't win," Hay-Lin clenched and unclenched her fist, trying hard not to cry at the aching memories. To comfort his wife, Eric got up and stood behind her with his hands on her shoulders. "It cost us so much to just imprison her on Samora."
"And now she's free?" Dakota comforts her teacher as much as her could by placing a gently hand on a shaking one.
"No," Hay-Lin glanced up at the Guardians. "At first I thought she was but when she vanished and left behind a shadow like smoke, I knew she hadn't broken free but it's only a matter of time before she does."
"Then how did she show herself?" Izzy questioned.
"We learned it to be shadow projection. She, along with some of her underlings, have the ability to manipulate shadows, meaning they can travel through and use them as a weapon."
"Is that how the man, Maxar, got away so quickly?" Khloe asked.
Hay-Lin nodded. "I believe so."
"Is there anything else we should know?" Wynter had her hands clasped together on her lap, her gaze trained on the ground.
"Yes," Hay-Lin waited until Wynter and the Guardians had their eyes on her. "The Heart of Samora was taken from her and hidden away but only the one who hid it knows where it is but if she gets her hands on both of the Hearts, there will be no way of stopping her from breaking free of her prison and destroying everything that gets in her way and that includes all of you."
Silence fell upon the group as the information set in. Everything changed so quickly for the five teens and now they had a life-threatening menace plaguing their and many other worlds, they are meant to protect.
How were they going to prevent that from happening? Wynter thought. They are not as strong nor as experienced as the Guardians that came before them. There was no way, if that were to happen, that they could protect Earth and the Infinite Dimensions. As if reading her mind, Dakota reached over to squeeze Wynter's hand, smiling, reassuring her everything will work out.
"Do you know who hid the Heart of Samora?" CJ asked, leaning forward to rest her elbows on her knees.
Hay-Lin shook her head. "No, but I believe Cornelia or Elyon does. I will try and find out as much information I can over the weekend."
The girls thanked their teacher.
Hay-Lin insisted everyone to stay at her home since it was late and everyone was too tired to make their way to their respective homes. Fortunately, she had enough room to hold 6 children and had already called their parents, informing them, the kids were getting help with school and lost track of time.
"We'll discuss more in the morning, just try and get some rest," Hay-Lin said. "We don't want you girls falling asleep on the dance floor at Homecoming, now do we?" She giggled at her students' expression with realizing Homecoming was the next day. "Oops."
Someone else now knows about the girls!
Hoped you enjoyed the chapter! Next one will be HOMECOMING!
Any questions, comment or concerns feel free to voice them! Thank you for reading!
