Chapter Twenty-Three: The Degenerate Rose Part Three
Previously on "Against the Flow":
The New Oracle summoned the five guardians and helped them go back in time to prevent colossal tragedies that struck them all as a result of Violet Marten Knickerbocker's grand scheme and quest to get to the Heart of Earth. Violet is also of the lineage that the Heart's magic powers have always been passed along; she doesn't want to eradicate magic on Earth like all her 'like-minded', the other leaders of branches of the radical anti-magic organization "The Eye of God"; the new principal wants to obtain that vast magic power herself and be its one and only wielder.
Lillian's crimes of passion and the betrayal of her 'helpers' had her fall into a trap that she cannot escape from.
Time travel is very complex and the girls are warned that in order for things to align completely fine after their interference, they need to follow certain guidelines and only alter certain details to successfully change the present without distorting reality as they know it.
But as the five guardians follow through events that have already happened to them once in order to get to a new point and prevent the tragic outcome, Cornelia notices strange changes in the 'script' that aren't supposed to be there.
Could someone else have returned back in time with them?!
And what is going to happen after this tense battle that no one really has the upper hand in is over? Stay tuned to find out...
P.S: Remember the inversion point plot from episode six of season one, "The Labyrinth" ? Get ready to see it expanded 😊
"Chris? Chris, can I come in?"
Anna Lair sighed when her son didn't answer. He had been like that for a while now. Ever since his girlfriend had dumped him nonchalantly and that after cheating on him.
It was sad because Chris himself had just started growing. Maturing. He had found himself a place, he was paying his own rent, even focusing on his studies. He had been excited about living life as a young independent adult because he had someone to look out for and give love to.
He really loved you, Lillian, Anna thought somberly. But what did you do? You trampled all over his love and his dignity. What a ruthless girl you turned out to be.
Anna was angrier and more disappointed than she showed the world. She didn't want to badmouth anyone in front of anyone, she didn't want to point the finger like most people would because the girl that had broken her son's heart had grown up in front of her eyes. They had been together for so long; Anna had accepted her as a daughter of her own.
The betrayal on Lillian's part was very much a betrayal to Anna too, but then again, since the girl had thrown her own family under the bus for the sake of her whims and ego, could Anna really expect her to have more compassion for her family?
Apparently, something wasn't quite right with Lillian anymore. Something had changed her.
She hadn't been like that in the past, she had been a cheerful, sweet girl and now she was this cold and reserved woman. Anna had noticed changes along the way yet she hadn't spoken out. Why would she? She had never imagined this would happen. Not to them, anyway. It still seemed surreal and unfair, and the mother of two was having a hard time keeping up her good relationship with the Hales because of it.
Because a part of her could not not somewhat blame them for her son's pain.
Her son who had been suffering from heartache for months now.
"Chris?! I'm just going to bring you some food,"
But when she opened the door of his room, he wasn't there. The room was empty and the window was open.
Anna looked around herself in confusion. She would've seen her son leaving from the kitchen, so had he just jumped out through the window?
Maybe he walked out for some air. Or cigars, Anna sighed to herself and closed the door after herself, both relieved and weirded out by the fact that her son had finally decided to leave his room.
Mara Tubbs was a mess. Her hair was a mess and her small frame was drenched in sweat. She flinched at the loud crashing sound that echoed in the distance. The hideout was surrounded. Found by the guardians, and now the battles were only going to get severer and darker.
She didn't want to be here; she had done her part already and she was supposed to be free of all Eye-related crap but she couldn't just leave right now, even if she wanted to.
The man didn't let her out of his gaze.
He had dragged her with himself down the stairs and through the maze of underground corridors under the house.
"I d-don't understand, why did you kill the boy when Violet needs people to fend off the guardians while she gets the Heart power?"- Mara asked in a tiny voice, looking around herself in distress. "The Altermeeres hadn't betrayed you, they-"
"Because the two of them would have been weaker than this one alone once we're done with her."- the bald man retorted glancing at the unconscious Wixy in his arms. "Give me the pages. I will trigger the spell."
Mara hesitated but obeyed in the end, handing the said pages with her shaking limbs.
Irma was quick to wash away every soldier that came in her way. Like a typhoon, her waters circled around them and pushed them back while Hay Lin's cold winds turned every last droplet into impenetrable ice, trapping the enemy.
Even though Violet had been prepared for their attack, somehow her people were less and less, and they were no match for the five guardians of Kandrakar.
Despite their magic-insulating gear and heavy weaponry, after over a decade, the five young women were so skilled in their elemental magic that fewer things could get the better of them in a direct battle like this one.
Fewer, and inarguably, more menacing things than a bunch of wannabe knights with techno-guns.
Things that, as Will believed, would, unfortunately, oppose them indeed.
"We have to get to the stake," - the redhead said behind Taranee's ethereal white-hot shield. "We have to stop Violet,"
"You have to find Matt, Will."- Hay Lin reminded her. "Go! We will clear the way."
"Let's go, Mr. Huggles."- Will nodded towards the Earth knight who was most tightly connected to Matt. The large rodent threw a few Eye soldiers into different walls before giving the redhead an agreeing nod and prodding towards the core of the old house.
"VIOLET, I'M COMING FOR YOU!"- Cornelia's decisive yell thundered above everything and everyone.
"Cornelia..."- Lillian had heard her sister's voice from afar, even in the forlorn state she was in.
The principal had her here for over an hour by now, subjecting her to her humiliating rituals, bringing her pain and feeding off of her like a parasite while chanting old woeful incantations from her damn grimoire.
Lillian wasn't even sure how she was going to take the power. As far as she knew, hearts and heart properties couldn't be taken away by force, except in very specific situations, like when Phobos had been able to take Nerissa's seal or when Elyon and Nerissa claimed their powers back from Zorarose and Emery's newborn. (this happens in ''The Dark Descendant'')
Whatever Violet was doing, it was hard on Lillian. She was viciously tormenting her physical and energy body with dark magic as to steal everything from her... Soon, she was going to actually burn her too.
Lillian felt her last forces leaving her but her sister's voice gave her enough of a boost to hiss:
"My sister is coming."- her tired eyes emitted a faint spark again. "My sister is going to stop you. You'll never get away with stealing the power, psycho!"
Violet gave her a poisonous glare but didn't say anything. Actually, she stopped her incantations and that terrified Lillian, because it could only mean one thing - her estranged relative was going to burn her alive at the stake like their ancestor Jane Warren, whom she had spoken of. Like a witch during the Salem trials. Out of sight and mind, returning her magic to its rawest form. But that didn't happen. Not yet, at least.
Instead Violet said something that evaded the girl's hearing in her earphone.
"I'll be damned if they defeat me after everything that I've sacrificed for this moment, Scanner! Hold them off; I don't feel her here yet. She's not here. She's coming though she's not here yet! How did the darn witches manage to come so fast?"
"They're stronger than before."- the bald man replied from the other side of the line, looking beyond the walls of the hiding place they had taken inside the house. "And they're determined but rest assured they will fail at stopping you. They're looking for the man now. They're splitting up. That will be to our advantage."
Mara who didn't lose the man from her strenuous gaze felt another arrow of guilt piercing her chest. Then another, even more, invasive feeling overtook her.
"T-they're not going to kill them, are they? The girls...Irma, she',"
"I was under the impression you wanted your son's life to be spared and disunited with the Eye of God?"- Scanner interrupted her with an unpleasant smirk.
The woman blinked in trepidation:
"W-well, yes, but-
"But nothing. Mrs. Tubbs, I didn't go through all this trouble to let the five bitches who ruined my career and my life get a free pass again."- the bald man stressed darkly. "So, do tell me, was that a clear enough answer or should I elaborate?"
"Ugh, where's the stupid inversion point, the Oracle said that it has to be in the living room,"- Cornelia huffed as she kept looking for something. Something to take her to the concealed stake where her sister was being held by the enemy. A book or a chandelier, something in this room was a point of inversion that when activated could take one even to different worlds.
Inversion points are very elaborate magical spells that give one the opportunity to impalpably travel from one to the other "point of inversion" in a matter of seconds. Cedric had had one such spell cast on a book in his bookstore all these years ago when they were starting as guardians, leading directly to a maze between the worlds connected to Phobos's castle library on Meridian. Inversion points can be found by random people. The problem with these spells often is, however, going back.
Seen as to how the inversion point is usually hidden on the other side, to prevent unwanted people from finding their way back, aiming to trap them or even get rid of them in the name of protecting whatever the inversion point is meant to lead to.
But in this current case, the guardians were unable to find the initial point, to begin with, they couldn't get to the stake like the Oracle had told them to, and it was beginning to drive Cornelia even more agitated:
"Maybe it's not in the living room itself but on something or someone in the living room,"- Hay Lin exclaimed.
"Yes, but on whom? There's no one else in a radius of five miles, the only other body heats that I sense are obviously Will. Mr. Huggles and Matt, who she went to fetch,"- Taranee argued, using her heat-sensing power once again, to double check.
"You don't know that for sure, Taranee, what if they're fucking with us? This place is drenched in concealing magic anyway. Actually, the more I think I about it, the more I think that Matt isn't here at all."- Irma argued in her turn but Hay Lin shook her head, insisting:
"No, Irma, Tara's right. The Oracle said that Matt will be in the house and then when Will saw her mistakes from the past in the door, they were outside..."- it then clicked in her brain. "At the stake! That means-"
"- the inversion point must be somewhere near Matt, Violet wanted to throw us off. I mean, that's how she tricked them in the first place right?"- Taranee exclaimed.
The Air guardian nodded eagerly:
"She moved the inversion point leading to the stake to win herself time, how did we not figure it out earlier!"
"We have to go after Will and Matt immediately, if the only way to that stake is now with Matt, they might be walking into a trap again!"- Taranee decided.
Irma just frowned:
"Well, yeah, maybe if the Oracle could tell us what exactly to look out for-"
"Even he couldn't see through every possible development, Irma, you know that us going back did alter some things inevitably because we're altered our actions too."
"We have to get to Will. She's not picking up telepathic calls."- Taranee insisted. "We made a mistake, we never should've let her go alone-"
"But she's with Huggles..."
It wasn't the time for disputes though. Everyone grasped that soon enough.
And so, Taranee and Hay Lin parted from the other two after a quick parley. They would go after Will while the Water and Earth guardian looked for other ways to get to the stake while waiting out for Mr. R's attack.
Yes, thanks to the new Oracle, they knew that one of their old foes, "Mr. R." or Riddle- an elite psychic detective that was brought in to combat the Guardians; when their supernatural secret was 'exposed to the government' back in high school, was in cahoots with Violet. (Mr. Riddle is from the comics, I think third or fourth arc)
Back then, the girls 'ruined his project' by not letting themselves be caught by Jeffree Brooks' supernatural division and terminating their case with a little major memory erasing done by the old Oracle Himerish (one of the very few times he had directly used his powers for them)
It had remained unclear what happened to these people from the supernatural division after all the government had on the "Guardian" case was erased and honestly, the girls had just thought good riddance. No one ever heard or thought of them anymore because Kandrakar had taken care of the issue.
It had been a major scare getting so close to having their double lives exposed but obviously, it was not nearly as daunting as their current experiences with the Eye of God was now.
Still, obviously, Riddle somehow kept a grudge towards them and was now back with a vengeance.
"I don't like this,"- Irma muttered once she and Cornelia were alone. "Do you notice how...quiet it became? No more Eye soldiers coming at us, no more apparent obstacles, and so it's all Gucci? I think the fuck not. This has to be some good damn trap again, Corny, think about it! And why isn't Riddle launching his attack?"- the Latina huffed. She had this bad feeling ever since they went back through the time loop. "We were supposed to come back prepared and stop injustice from taking precedence but I don't feel like we're the ones with enough precedence to do that properly, you know?"
Cornelia flinched. She had second thoughts all day but she was too immersed in the spur of the moment to think in a grounded manner.
"We came back because we had no other choice, Irma. We were sidetracked the first time, we're probably not going to get away without a collision this time either but we have to fight them off. These people almost ruined our lives. For fuck's sake, they actually did! We were given a second chance. We can't waste it."- the blonde concluded seriously.
Vera Hale was greeted by the abrupt opening of the door. She was quick to smile at her daughter-in-law. She and Harold were living together again after their youngest daughter's vile antics had almost broken them apart.
Vera was a smart woman; she knew that despite all the differences she and Elizabeth had, she was very important to her son, and she had long admitted to herself that it was kinda too late to even be thinking of changing that.
In other words, she wanted them together. She had worked hard to bring them together and now she was here to test the waters.
She didn't intrude herself on them like she usually did, criticizing her daughter-in-law which was a habit of hers, or acting in a managing manner with their life.
It was easier than Vera had expected, to act like a much more doting and meek version of herself around Elizabeth and she was beginning to suspect it was because she actually was fond of her in her own way too.
Coming close to losing her had scared her.
If Elizabeth had walked out on us for good, this family wasn't going to recover, Vera often thought, even after her son and his wife had gotten to living back together in the penthouse. Lillian's actions were jarring enough; Harold and Elizabeth need each other more than ever now because that little brat is off the deep end.
"Elizabeth,"- the redhead smiled, showcasing her perfect white veneers. "Why, I apologize for coming by unannounced, I simply wanted to see you two and give you this."
Vera handed the younger woman a neatly wrapped golden frame but she didn't take it. That's when Vera noticed the covered frame-like object that she already carried. Perhaps a painting?
"Oh, no, no, darling, this is not a painting, it's a frame, I was thinking maybe doing a family photoshoot soon, with Cornelia's family too, and selecting a nice picture for this baby,"- Vera exclaimed patting the gift she carried. "It will go nicely with the living room's aesthetic, don't you think? Come now, check it out, let me help you with this,"
Vera gasped. The moment she had tried taking the painting from Elizabeth and switching it with her frame, Elizbeth finally met her eyes and pulled it back.
She looked...demented.
"Elizabeth, what's the matter with you?"- Vera exclaimed again, getting cross. "Are you alright? Why do you look like that, through me? Has something happened? Where's Harold?"
Elizabeth remained deaf to her words, she walked by her and headed towards the elevators.
"Is this about something Lillian has done again?"- the old broad didn't give up, yelling after her. "ELIZABETH!"
The gift frame fell on the floor but it didn't break.
"I must go."- Elizabeth said with that same look in her eye.
Even when her mother-in-law tried to pull her back inside the penthouse to talk about this, she snatched free and quickly fled the building, leaving Vera behind panting, annoyed and confused.
Clinton Riddle had waited for over a decade to launch his attack on the guardians of Kandrakar, the five magical then girls now women that had ruined him.
Did they really think that after all that time he wouldn't wait some more for the most felicitous opportunity?
He smirked to himself. He could hear them. Well, not entirely but he could make things of what they exchanged from his hideout in the house, thanks to his psychic powers. He knew that they hoped to prevail in the battle with them. They knew about him which shocked him at first but then he decided that it didn't matter. It didn't matter if they expected everything, they were still going to pay the price by going down. That was what mattered to him.
Of course, Violet was just a tool to him, which he had used to get to this point. She was frantic and her actions were bizarre, probably to never be crowned with success.
But Riddle's vengeance?
That was something he was looking forward to seeing realized.
Before the WITCH girls, he had been an elite psychic detective. Worked on many cases on Earth and dealt with many people with extraordinary powers, getting a generous bounty each time from top-notch money mines like the Eye of God. They, however, were too unhinged for their own good and had nearly gotten him killed in the late 80s.
That was when he had decided to join the government and more specifically the pivotal supernatural diversion under Jeffree Brooke. Things with the government were different. More structured and meaning to pass as 'moral' but at the same time corrupt and at every so often even dirtier than the Eye's paid requests to terminate certain magical users.
The supernatural division had wanted different. They had wanted to exploit all magic that comes in their way and possibly use it against big enemies in the case of another world war. Something that seemed more and more inevitable as time progressed and humans on Earth kept forgetting where they'd come from. Why not use magic to strike first too, something that big countries really like to do whenever they'd see a desirable opportunity?
But going after the guardians of Kandrakar and Kandrakar themselves? The government couldn't have known, regardless of what part they had played in all this. Given resources and power to people like Brooke sure. Going after underage girls in the hopes of making a big discovery for themselves? Quite likely as well.
Brooke's ''supernatural division'' that was self-governing for the most part could have never been ready for the truth, for all of them and those who took part in the dreadful operation "Round-Up", the last operation in their lives, had only been aware of the tip of the iceberg. Of course, none of them knew the magnitude of things. None of them knew what an impossible bite they were trying to take in their mouths.
That foolishness had been met with their inevitable downfall.
Riddle had been there when everything was erased in the Fortress of Infinity, using all his power to save a part of his mind untouched in the hassle. And still, when all his colleagues', minds and their work was erased he couldn't exactly remember everything either.
Even though they were always vague memories present somewhere in the back of his head, if it weren't for Violet Martens, Riddle would've never been able to put the pieces of the puzzle together again. Violet had dug deep. Helped him regain fragments of his distorted memories with her dark magic.
She dug him out of the grave in a way to utilize him in her own battles.
But when he regained his previous mindset and knowledge, Riddle was quick to decide for himself; he wasn't going to serve this crazed woman. He was going to serve his vengeance. Whatever it took him, he was to see Will, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia and Hay Lin pay for what they had done to him and his life and career.
A mockery and debacle. Left him for nothing. Disposed of him and so many others just to keep their secret safe.
Kandrakar wasn't the Fortress of good in Riddle's eyes alright. And even if he had never been a good guy himself, he didn't like the taste of his own medicine.
"Violet will activate the directed inversion, sucking in Cornelia whenever she's ready to. That's when you go there and take out Irma first."- the man spoke in a calm yet sinister tone. "Those witches knew about the inversion point somehow. Good thing I had her change the mechanism of it last minute. I just saw this coming from a mile away..."
Mara Tubbs, who was still in the hiding room felt her heart sinking. Irma. Irma was going to die...
She could only look at the ruthless monster that Violet and Riddle had created together and shake like a leaf, praying fervently a miracle happens and saves the five girls from this cruel trap...
"It's not a good idea to let yourself have such traitorous thoughts in the presence of someone of my proficiency in mind control, Mrs. Tubbs."- the bald man spoke icily making her jump in her place.
He turned around to face her with a strange expression on his face.
"But it doesn't matter."- he shrugged. "Hay Lin and Taranee will be attacked in the corridor minutes after Irma is decimated. Our friend here has powers beyond theirs after what we did to her."- he smiled slyly, looking at her. Their "friend" stood stoically, waiting for further instructions and a sign to carry them out. She was a perfect killing machine. "The witches will have no idea what has hit them because she's faster than them and they don't expect her. Will and the rodent will take Matt out of the house. They will be looking for Cornelia while trying to contact the others, only Violet will have dealt with Cornelia by then and the others will be done with too, killed by their very own Altermeere."- Riddle laughed manically, triumphing in his plan for revenge. "They summoned this troubled soul themselves. A part of her has died before. A part of her so emotionally charged died today too, and the Kasnoff demonic curse made sure she becomes something the world hasn't seen in millennia! A fallen angel."
Mara barely gathered enough air to answer that:
"T-that's what these pages were about. The Kasnoff curse. That's why you k-killed the boy Altermeere,"
Riddle gave her a small smile:
"Violet's idea, actually. I had other plans for the girls but this will do. Seeing how they know so much about the initial plan this seems like the only sure way to have them killed, Mrs. Tubbs, I know you don't want that but you bargained for your son's life and got it your way. Not the guardians."
"Yes, I know Violet was obsessed with the Kasnoff ideology even before the Kasnoffs sisters tried to create an army of their own demonic students to destroy the Eye and their other sure enemies over ten years ago."- Mara nodded bitterly. "We grew up together. I know Violet much better than you do, Clinton. And I know exactly why she chose you for her cooperator in this quest to get to the Heart of Earth. Because you're easy! Violet has always been so different than the other Eye leaders, she never feared magic, and she wanted to use it! To end the war between magic and non-magic, a war that never truly ended, no matter how many years pass. Violet was feared and respected and made it so big exactly because she was so different and daring but unfortunately, she got unhinged with the progress of time and turned evil. Selfish. She just wanted to get something that she believed was supposed to be hers from the start. Her end is near, Clinton, but at least she'll face it knowing she has tried hard to achieve her twisted narrative. And you? You're just a bounty hunter, elite detective my foot!"- the short woman finished him off. "You're just someone she uses to get to what she wants and even if she wins, which I highly doubt after hearing how prepared the girls are, thank goodness, do you think that she'll let you share her glories?"
Riddle didn't reply at once even though he was visibly peeved and upset by what he had just been told. Mara Tubbs was someone he deemed feeble-minded, weak, and cowardly. What the fuck gave her the audacity to speak to him like that now!?
"Are you trying to play mind games with me, Mara!? Me?!"- he barked. "Seeing these so-called girls dead is enough for me to begin with, but if you must know, I have other priorities to get to after that's done, things that I wouldn't worry about if I were you. Me and Violet will figure it all out when this is over."- Riddle hissed. "Maybe I will forgive your blunt words if you shut the fuck up at once and sit through the rest of this shit show silently. Don't even think, Mara. Because I can hear your foolish thoughts too. Be a good girl or all that you've done to free yourself and your son from the webs of the Eye of God will have been in vain."
But Mara was determined. It would all end today indeed. But she wasn't going to be a traitor and a coward anymore, especially if she was going to die, she preferred dying while trying to set things right for once, right for everyone, not just her and Martin...
"No, Clinton, as I said you're not important enough for me to play mind games with you! I'm helping her understand what kind of a heartless bastard you are so that she doesn't listen to you!"
Riddle frowned at first, not understating what exactly she meant but then his eyes fell on their creation and her changed expression. Looking at him with bloodlust...
"What do you think you're doing, do not move until I've told you to!"- he ordered, using his mental magic on her.
"But she didn't seem to hear him. Wixy looked so very angry with him, Riddle couldn't help but feel cold sweat.
"N-no, that's impossible, she shouldn't be hearing you! She's not herself anymore, she's demonic! You're our demon, you will kill the guardians!
"Wixy, you don't have to obey that man!"- Mara cried as Wixy slowly began to corner him.
"No...You beast stay back and listen to me, I made you! You can't turn against me!"- Riddle took a step back in utter shock when none of his psychic tricks seemed to do the trick.
Wixy didn't stop.
"The WITCH girls might have treated you poorly but they cared for you and your brother, while he and Violet never did! They treated you worse than Lillian herself! He killed your brother to make this awful curse work on you!"- Mara went on. "He wanted to make you a monster, stronger than the girls, when he's a bigger monster than you can ever be if you just listen to your inner voice! I know you're still there, Wixy, I know how much you and your brother wanted to have lives of your own."
"Shut up! Shut up, stupid woman,'"- Riddle roared, pulling his gun out.
Mara screamed when the bullets pieced her shoulder and she fell back.
"You shouldn't have tried this,"- the bald man whispered angrily once the situation seemed under control again.
Mara was shot on the floor, whimpering and demon Wixy had stopped, her eyes flowing into the non-existent distance.
"Bold attempt, Mara, but you didn't reach her and you know why? Because she's under our control now. She's not who she was, an Altermeere with no moral compass to begin with."
"The K-kasnoff sisters' case proved another theory, Riddle. They are never fully gone, especially not in the beginning, you can strip one of their humanity just because you've decided to chant an olden spell used by real monsters in human skin!"- Mara screamed at him, holding her bleeding shoulder.
"The Kasnoff sisters were two idiots who didn't do what it takes to make this work! And she-"- Riddle pointed at Wixy, enraged by the challenge in Mara's eyes, even now. "She was NEVER human, to begin with, not was her so-called brother who I shot to utilize her emotions and make her my puppe-"
"His name was Keed,"- Wixy suddenly averred making both Riddle and Mara jump up.
Riddle was so startled at first, he dropped the gun. He knew he had to make no sudden movements. Being as concentrated as he could to put all his mental power to keep the monster, he had created steady, he carefully established eye contact.
"I beg your pardon?"- he got a hold of himself once he felt her leveling and raised his gray brows unimpressed.
"My brother wanted to be called Keed. He had a girlfriend. A life of his own. Me and him were very much human before you did this. You killed him..."
"Yes, I did, and no, you were never human, Altermeere."- Riddle spat in her face. "You were just an upgraded Astral Drop meant to serve others. You will serve us now, as a fallen angel and you will kill the guardians when I tell you to, was that clear?! I thought so,"- he added smugly when Wixy returned to being stoical.
He then looked down at Mara, even smugger:
"Nice try. But not good enough. I guess that Wixy's humanity wasn't her biggest virtue was it now? You can't stop her from killing the guardians now, not that you ever stood a chance, Mara."
"I never even hoped to be able to stop her. All I need is to stop you from ordering her to do evil!"
And with that, Mara surprisingly pulled the trigger and shot him in the chest.
Riddle wheezed as he hit the wall, splashing blood all over it.
He had dropped that gun, startled by the sharp interference on the monster's part, and this bitch had just used it against him...
Wixy didn't even flinch as Mara stood back up, pointing the gun at the man again:
"N-no!"- he wheezed dismally. She had shot him so close to the heart, he knew he didn't have much time left. He had to make sure his vengeance is extracted before he died. "K-kill-"
He couldn't finish because Mara shot him again, this time in the face. Then again. In the throat.
Once she was certain there was no way he could utter another fatal order, the woman looked away from the gory remains of Riddle's body and focused her eyes on Wixy:
"Wixy, listen to me, he can't order you around like a puppet anymore. You don't have to do evil now. You can still have the life you always wanted, help me help the guardians defeat Violet and- "
"What life will I have from now on exactly? They took away my brother and stripped me of my humanity."- Wixy interrupted her flatly. "They destroyed me...Nothing will ever be the same again."
Mara shook her head fervently:
"No, Wixy, wait-"
But Wixy was already gone.
"CORNELIA!"
Taranee, Hay Lin, Will, Matt, and Huggles followed the distressed sounds of Irma's voice back to the living room:
"What happened?!" - Taranee demanded. "We found Matt and...wait-"
"Where's Cornelia?!"
"I don't know, we were trying to find the damn inversion point all around the fucking house and suddenly when we came back here she just...disappeared. As if something took her away!"
"And Riddle?"- Will asked.
"Never showed up. I don't fucking like any of this, it looks like we're back into the unknown!"
"Well, we did stop the tragedies we were supposed to. Maybe we are supposed to be back on our own..."- Taranee sighed. "It looks only fair like that,"
They all stared at her but had to admit there was logic in her words. They had already saved Taranee's unborn baby, Nerissa and Julian, and Matt. Those were the main reasons they were granted the opportunity to go back through the time loop, to stop these events from becoming permanent and very much a part of their reality...
"Not all tragedies... Lillian is still not safe from being, you know. Burnt at the stake and all that,"- Will remarked dryly. A part of her wanted to also remark that perhaps this wasn't such a big tragedy to be avoided after all, but she quickly rebuked herself from even thinking that.
Despite all her evil, she was Cornelia's sister and if she had wanted a fair trial and a new chance for Phobos to be somewhat reformed, then she had no right to want anything less for Lillian.
"Guys, I don't want to stress you out even more, but I think I just heard gunshots a few minutes ago..."- Hay Lin bit her lip.
"Gunshots? Riddle had a gun."- Matt exclaimed despite being exhausted. He wanted to help in some way. "Well, so did all the soldiers of the Eye you've defeated but you did take them out, so..."
"We have to get to that stake immediately. Cornelia might already be there. Maybe Violet wants to take her out while we're losing time here."
Will summoned the Heart of Kandrakar out of her own chest and let it illuminate the entire place. It gradually revealed a small twinkling dot of energy right above their heads.
"What is that?"- Irma murmured, looking up with everyone else. "The inversion point? Why does it look like that?!"
"I don't know,"- Will admitted.
"Will, can you trigger it with the Heart? It is a universal key,"- Taranee insisted.
"I'll try,"- the redhead nodded and urged the Heart once again.
Then everything went bright and the old house was once again abandoned.
Cornelia let out a furious roar and repelled all their gunshots, using her telekinesis. She trashed their weapons and pushed them around in her rage, then she summoned thick roots and huge carnivorous flowers that trapped all the mindless Eye soldiers in the painful embrace of angry nature.
Earth, her element, one of the strongest elements in so many cases didn't betray her.
She successfully used it to disarm and defuse an entire army of men that had been supposed to stop her after the directed inversion brought her here.
But her sisterly heightened senses and her natural quick reactions made Cornelia resistant to such a cheap ambush.
Her attention was on the dark dome the entire time, the dome under which Violet was hiding with her sister.
"Violet, give me back my SISTER!"- Cornelia demanded, throwing thick blocks of rock that she pulled from the ground at the dome. It flickered but it still didn't disappear.
Underneath, drenched in sweat, Violet kept chanting above Lillian's already exhausted body.
This enraged the blonde even more. If anyone was going to punish Lillian for her crimes like that it was going to be her and she was still never going to bring her this much pain, despite everything.
Cornelia roared and hit both her fists into the ground again, this time urging it to open with an even more deafening roar, right underneath the protecting dome of her enemy.
Violet screamed in shock when she fell into the pit together with Lillian and her entire stake.
Cornelia moved both women underneath the ground, then she opened a new gap out of which she made her tunnel spit them out. She then used her telekinesis again, throwing Violet roughly as far away as she could and pulling Lillian to herself.
"Nelia..."- the younger Hale whispered faintly once she felt her sister's healing touch.
"You're so not softening me up after all that you've done."- Cornelia snapped but kept healing her anyway. Whatever Violet had done to her had almost been fatal...
But Violet was neither dead, despite that tremendous throw she had just suffered, nor done with them. Cornelia knew that was because of all the dark magic her body was infused with.
Magic that protected her body from a lot of physical harm much like Xin Jing's gift did for them
Violet approached the two sisters again, flying with her stupid book by her side.
Like some tacky witch-freak from Halloween town, Cornelia thought angrily as she stood up, taking a defensive position.
"Is that all you got?"- Cornelia huffed as she repelled all of Violet's energy blasts.
"No, dear, it's just that hurting family doesn't make me all that happy."- the older woman retorted maddeningly, mocking it all once again.
Cornelia wasn't impressed:
"You know what they told me over a decade ago? That I was chosen to be the Earth guardian because of my relation to the Heart of Earth. You know, that thing you want so much, the raw power living in sync with my sister? See, it didn't sit right with me back then but now I know that I was meant to protect this power and my family from fucking greedy trolls like you! You will never take this power from us, not from my cold dead hands you will not! And you call yourself a Warren or whatever? You're not!"- the tall blonde yelled icily. "You're not our family! You're just a mistake on grandma's part that's what you are, and it shows!"
"Oh, Cornelia, snarky Cornelia,"- Violet replied with a dark smile. "Just how do you think the power of the Heart of Earth got to be held by our lineage in the first place? You know, the previous Heart of Earth, the one before Jane Warren had the then Earth guardian on her side too, exactly like you, Melinda believed that she was chosen to protect the Heart of Earth and that no one could beat her to it...until Jane Warren did of course. This is how life has been and always will be, girl, grow up and stop being so self-righteous!"
Cornelia was taken aback at first but she knew better than to let this manipulate her, whether it was true or not.
"Just how did you decide you're the one who is fit to hold the power anyway? I don't care how this stupid thing got to be held by our lineage."- she snapped. "We're not cut from the same cloth, you and I, you are a pathetic psycho that I have absolutely no intention of letting play around with my life and that of my close ones any longer! Go to fucking HELL!"
"You can't destroy me or the grimoire!"- Violet huffed after Cornelia splintered the ground beneath her making her lose her balance.
She watched annoyed as the guardian tried to tear her book apart.
"This dark magic is more sustainable than you think, I may not have the power of the Heart of Earth yet but I'm certainly not as incapable as you might have wished me to be-"
Violet screamed, interrupted by the enormous poplar tree that sprouted out of the ground at a tremendous velocity; she found herself in the crown of its leaves and then falling down from a jarring height, once the tree was tall and still.
It literally catapulted her... She fell down badly and didn't move anymore.
"Not if you break your neck first, I guess."- Cornelia noted coldly as she kicked at the still body of her estranged aunt. She didn't move or react; she just lay there with half-open eyes.
She was completely still after the fall. And what a fall she had just had. She was probably not dead, but even if she was, Cornelia couldn't care less.
This monster had inflicted mind-boggling pain on so many, including her family and she had almost had Killian hurt and his grandparents killed.
Even with all that, Lillian's wrongdoings are still not any less, Cornelia realized and sighed as she helped her still weak sister back to her feet.
"Cornelia!"
Her friends had found their way to her and were approaching fast. Matt was with them too; Cornelia gave them a weak smile as she still held Lillian who was half-conscious on her shoulder.
"Is everything alright, babe? Are you alright?"
"Yes,"- Cornelia assured. "I'm fine. We're going to do OK from now on."
Will caressed her friend's head and sighed in relief. So, finally, this was all over.
Then her eyes fell on the principal's body on the ground and after that on Lillian, who was right in front of her.
"So, I guess now we take them both to Kandrakar and leave this thing with Halinor, the Oracle, and the other elders too."- she suggested taking the floating grimoire in her hands.
Everyone nodded, including Cornelia.
As hard as it was on her, her sister had to be brought to justice at once. After all, none of this would've happened if she hadn't let her dark, forbidden obsessions consume her.
"Cornelia? W-what's going on around here?"
All blood left Cornelia Hale's face when she heard that voice behind herself.
"Mom?!"
It was impossible. It was an absolutely bizarre thought, but when she turned around she was there; Elizabeth Landon- Hale was here with them holding something that looked like...
"The painting..."- Cornelia whispered as her friends could only stare in bewilderment, too stunned to react.
Now it made sense to her. This painting, why it had almost made her slip the previous time. Its influence had somehow made their mother come here, after them. By the looks of it, she didn't even realize what was happening around her up until now.
"Cornelia, what is happening? What am I doing here? I don't..."- Elizabeth stammered but Cornelia cut her off:
"It was a part of the plan all along, wasn't it? The stupid painting, it wasn't someone who came back through the time loop with us sabotaging us, it was someone who was in the entire time!"
Elizabeth Landon could only blink in confusion:
"I don't understand, sweetheart-"
She looked confused and horrified. Terrified. She hadn't been in control of herself on the way here and now nothing even made sense.
Cornelia couldn't allow her mother to be a part of this horror too. She grabbed the painting from her and tried to pull it away.
"Cornelia, wait, I don't think that's such a good-"- Will yelled but in vain.
The grimoire flew back into Violet's hands and she laughed:
"What an idea, you had Elizabeth herself come here for the final act! That's just brilliant,"
The painting that had just fallen on the grass replied to that with a storm of blurry colors that engulfed the principal, Elizabeth, and her two daughters, and before anyone could say or do anything, they all disappeared, together with the painting itself.
A/n: happy new year 2023 from me too :) hope it's a great one for us all. I will be more active with this story, hope to come up with other interesting things for you guys too, so stay tuned for that, and do give me your feedback.
lots of love,
jimel