Fanfic: An Astral Drop in Heatherfield

[drakensis]

According to wiki-pedia a dormouse is anything from 6 to 19cm long. Will's pet is generally depicted as being on the high side of that, if not larger - perhaps to make sure it's visible in the comic. As a guide, he's about as long (without tail) as someone's forearm which would be extraordinarily large - cat-sized perhaps.

Heatherfield appears to be on a west-facing shoreline and given references to Taranee's brother being a devoted surfer, I'd guess it's somewhere in the West Country which isn't particularly urbanised. (To give an idea, roughly a quarter of England's population live in London, all the south-western counties together contain perhaps a a quarter as many in an area fifteen times as large).

I don't recall ever reading anything by Joan Aiken so I can't comment.
D for Drakensis

You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.

[RomanFanboy]

Wiki says that the population density of the region of South-West England is c 200 per Sq. km. Assuming some of their other numbers are correct, this strikes me as city high. On the tolerable end, but maybe barely so. On the other hand, this is wiki. CIA world factbook says that USA has about five times the UK's population, and about 36 times the land.

Aiken may be better known for Wolves of Willoughby Chase. This is an Alternate History in the 19th century, that I've never had the background to fully follow the political end of. Anyway, tunnel under the channel leads to massive wolf infestation in the UK. It seems to more or less have been the prototype for her 'oppressed orphans, plucky children, soft political thriller, industrial horror' sort of novel.

[deadpan29]

Here is a summary on the uncertainties surrounding Heatherfield's location, along with a conjecture linking it to another fictional location.
----------
No, I don't believe the world has gone mad.  In order for it to go mad it would need to have been sane at some point.

[drakensis]

While that is a sound argument the specific location hasn't mattered yet to my fic so I feel free to stand by my earlier statement.

200 per sq. km doesn't constitute a city scape to me - although there are certainly town and cities in the area. (For comparison, the city I live in is 1,300 per sq. km and contains 50% more people than the entire county of Cornwall)

Wolves of Willoughby Chase rings a bell vaguely.

W.I.T.C.H. - W.I.T.C.H. - W.I.T.C.H. - W.I.T.C.H. - W.I.T.C.H.

Things had not significantly improved a week later, after I had given Will my completed report to hand in to Professor Collins. With Taranee's guidance I was fairly sure if would reflect the amout of work that I had put into it.

I took a certain satisfaction in the prospect that Will would have to maintain the standard I set with it. Her eyes were certainly disbelieving as she leafed through it.

She had not protested when I went to the library after she was out of school and essentially all day during the weekend. I'm not saying I was spending all that time on the paper - that would have been pretty boring - but I did manage to flesh out a thirty page report (twice actually, since Taranee's advice required a complete rewrite) well before Professor Collins' deadline.

Of course, since I'd been at the library for pretty much every moment when she and I could have been reasonably sure of talking without any chance of Mom overhearing us, I'm sure Will thought I was avoiding her - or at least the prospect of any extended conversation about my one day of school.

I'm not sure she was wrong.

For now at least, she wasn't trying raise the matter right now. As I watched from my usual perch just inside the hatch she posed in front of the full length mirror. "Ugh, I look like an endangered species in this outfit!"

"Well the dress works... although maybe it would work better if we were a bit... well, you know." I didn't comment on the boots which she was completely right.

"Let's change again! I want to find something that will leave Matt breathless!"

The clothes vanished into swirls of pink energy and were replaced by another costume. This time her hair was up in a dramatic, spiky style and the dress... Oh heavens, the dress! Well, at least the sandals looked okay.

Apparently a girl - an older girl - had come looking for Matt at his grandfather's pet shop. Since Will was now working there part-time, something Mom was in favour of as a responsible activity, she'd agreed to take a message. Of course, ever since she had been fretting herself silly that Matt and the other girl were in a relationship.

I didn't quite get how changing her look was going to fix that - I mean, sure, Matt is certainly dreamy, but if I wanted him to get romantic with me I'd rather he got that way because of me being the way I am, not because I was pretending to be someone else. For now I'd filed that under the million and one things I didn't understand. Along with, you know, what getting romantic involved. It sounded exciting but I admit to being a little vague on the details.

There was the sound of footsteps from the hall and I pulled my head up through the hatch, preparing to quietly close. Instead of Mom though, I heard Cornelia's voice at the door.

"Excuse me, I'm looking for my friend Will. Have you seen her? I didn't know I was in the zoo."

"Quit joking," Will protested.

"Hi Cornelia!" I whispered, sticking my head out again. "How are you?"

She adjusted her hair and made a non-commital gesture. "And you?"

I point down at Will. "Keeping amused."

"Thanks a bunch." She looked over at our friend. "Wha do you think?"

"Do you really want my honest opinion?" Cornelia asked, although it was evidently displayed all across her face.

"No." Will banished the garment with a wave of her hands, revealing the sweater she was actually wearing. "I think mine is enough."

"Whatever you say." Cornelia hung her coat over the back of Will's desk chair. "Will, I need to talk to you about Elyon."

My sister perched herself on her bed and looked up at the blonde, "What about her?"

Cornelia turned away, gathering her thoughts. "Before we became Guardians of the Veil, she was different. She was my best friend for years! I don't believe she has turned into a... a monster!"

I half-closed my eyes, thinking of the girl under discussion. We'd only met once and it wasn't under the best of circumstances but... I hadn't seen a monster either. She'd been an enemy and as far as I knew, she still was. But other than that she'd not really been so very different from any of the other girls I knew.

Admittedly, she had powerful magic, but so did every other girl I knew more than in passing. It didn't seem to make a difference for them.

"I want to know why she has changed and if there is something left of the girl I knew," Cornelia continued. "But the only way I can find out is by going to Meridian and talking to her face to face."

Will gasped, brown eyes wide. She dropped her head, hiding her face from both of us. "It's a crazy idea, Cornelia. You know that."

Will had spoken, the decision was made and the conversation was done... hmm. This seems familiar somehow. Of course, Cornelia wasn't Will so she didn't explode in anger and storm out. Instead she gave my sister a hurt look an uncomfortable silence filled the room.

"Can I come over to your house tonight and meet your sister?" I asked when the silence grew too much to bear.

"I guess," the blonde agreed.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Will leant back and looked up at me. "Last time you went out you came back in tears."

"As long as you don't run off I'm sure everything will be fine," Cornelia told her with heavy sarcasm.

Will flinched. "You know, sometime you're going to have to talk to me about what happened."

"Probably." I scrambled down into the room. "But not today."

She slumped back onto her bed. "Yeah. I get that."
D for Drakensis

You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.

[RomanFanboy]

I take the attitude that canon Heatherfield is obviously in Wyoming. Interpol just happens to also be the name of the County PD, somehow. (Yes, I'm aware that counties probably don't run much to police departments.)

*Defers rambling on FBI and kidnapping in America.*

Following Wolves, she did Battersea, which introduced series mainstay Dido Twite.

Demographics a) can be political b) can have fiddly issues with measurement, and might thus be an area where wiki can't be trusted. I dunno where exactly my senses of 'this is built up' and 'this is too many people' are. My area was significantly less built up in the past.

I'm having trouble ordering some of my thoughts. These include increased wealth, and decreased cost of beef, and chicken, rural poor and wildlife, and the extent to which local choices about diet might inform a girl's cultural awareness of how much food might be on a Bullfrog. Oh well, if the dormouse really is the size of my forearm, I'm much less interested in the question of whether frogs get any bigger than that.
Edit: have recovered a little of my brains
Things had not significantly improved a week later, after I had given Will my completed report to hand in to Professor Collins. With Taranee's guidance I was fairly sure if would reflect the amout of work that I had put into it.
maybe guidance,    amount

"Well the dress works... although maybe it would work better if we were a bit... well, you know." I didn't comment on the boots which she was completely right.
I'd guess either about which  or right about

"Thanks a bunch." She looked over at our friend. "Wha do you think?"
Maybe Wha' or What 

I half-closed my eyes, thinking of the girl under discussion. We'd only met once and it wasn't under the best of circumstances but... I hadn't seen a monster either. She'd been an enemy and as far as I knew, she still was. But other than that she'd not really been so very different from any of the other girls I knew.
I'm thinking some of Column A, human evil and the extent to which all humans tend to be monsters.  Some of Column B, humans being pretty set in their ways, and not necessarily all that prone to changes in nature.  Probably little, if any, of Column C, excellent friends who are still capable of fighting each other to the death if the causes they are devoted to come into conflict.  (I kinda of think this sort of friendship might need to be built on a shared awareness of the possibility for such scenarios to work.  Cornelia does not seem to have been aware of such.  Plus, not exactly the most common form of friendship between teenage girls.)
(Question:  If Elyon was Cornelia's friend, and is also Vera, how did Vera end up 'friends' with Will.  Manipulative plan?)
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Will leant back and looked up at me. "Last time you went out you came back in tears."
I guess leant is the right word.

[drakensis]

Clearly on Wyoming's west coast. Makes about as much sense as any other explanation.

Thanks for the corrections.

Like anyone else, Elyon isn't going to fit easily into one category. She's the Sixth Ranger of this arc of the comics and has at least three changes in allegiance during the first 12 comics.

Vera was a case of Elyon getting her Jadeite on. There should be some IC explanation, but I'm not sure exactly when in the story. Possibly in this chapter.
D for Drakensis

You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.

[drakensis]

"Will's only seen Elyon's worst side," Cornelia told me as we walked through Heatherfield, huddled under her umbrella. We probably looked like an odd pair: her tall and elegant in a skirt almost brushing the snow that had fallen over the last couple of days, me shorter with a woollen hat and heavy parka.

The snow looked very pretty through a window but I hadn't expected that it would be so cold.

"I suppose you've seen even less," she admitted. "But Irma and Hay Lin knew her before all of this happened. I'm sure they'll understand."

"I want to understand. She... scared me," I admitted. "But I don't think she's evil, just... I don't know. What was she like before?"

"She was a sweet girl and a good friend." Cornelia's face was wistful. "We used to share everything - she'd come to see me ice skate and show me everything she drew..."

"Artistic then? Like Hay Lin?"

"Yes! And we'd talk about boys for hours."

"There's that much about boys to talk about?"

Cornelia laughed. "Some of them, yes. You'll learn."

"Well she's got a boy now. Cedric. Now him..." I shivered and not because of the snow.

"If we could just get her away from him..."

I put my hand over hers on the handle of the umbrella. "I don't think any of us disagree that it would be better if she came back, Cornelia. But Metamoor sounds dangerous. How often have you been there?"

"Twice?"

"And didn't someone get captured both times you were there?"

"What would you do if they'd captured Will?"

I frowned and took my hand off the umbrella. "I see what you mean. It's like that is it?"

She nodded.

Up ahead was Sheffield Institute. It seemed fitting that the Guardians of Air and Water would be out in the snow, although it wasn't for fun. They had both been persuaded to sign up for an extra-credit class taking advantage of the weather and were tramping around the campus with cameras and the supervision of one of the teachers.

I fell back as Cornelia folded her umbrella and went in to explain her proposal to the other two. Crouching by a tree I scraped some snow off with my gloved hand. It was strange. According to Will it was all frozen water - like ice but less so. Quite amazing, although she didn't think so.

"Very good idea, Corny!" Irma told the blonde girl. "If you want Cedric's thugs to attack you, this is definitely the right plan!"

"She's right," agreed Hay Lin more seriously. The lightly built girl was almost swallowed up by an immense, heavily padded blue coat.

Cornelia huffed. "Never mind. I understand you don't agree."

"Hey, I just don't want to spend Christmas vacation in a Meridian prison!" Irma said with a grin. She elbowed Hay Lin. "What about you?"

"Not really."

Cornelia whirled away abruptly, hair and coat streaming behind them as she strode away. Hay Lin couldn't see the pinched, determined look on the other girl's face but she started after her anyway only to be called back by the teacher.

"I'm sorry, but I'm not going to be taking you to meet Lillian," Cornelia told me.

I fell in behind her, stretching my legs to keep up. "Why not?"

"I'm going after Elyon."

"Alone? Right now?"

She nodded. "You'd better go home."

"No."

"You can't talk me out of this."

"I'm not going to try. But you're not going alone either."

Cornelia stopped. "It's too dangerous. You're not a Guardian."

"These would be the same dangers that the others are warning you about. The ones you're planning on taking on alone?"

"They've made their decision."

"I've made mine." I spread my hands. "You aren't the only one with questions for her, Cornelia. So either you agree to me coming with you... or I'll follow you anyway."

She sighed. "Are you sure you're not Will? You're as stubborn as she is."

"Well we are sisters. We would have some things in common."

"You've got the annoying little sister routine down well. Alright. But you're not going to like where we're going."

She was right, I admitted, twenty minutes later was we looked at the store front of the apparently closed Ye Olde Bookstore. This was not somewhere that I wanted to come back to.

"You think she's here?"

"This is where Cedric invited her to, the first time they met. If there's anywhere I can find a way too her, it'll start here."

I squinted through the window. "If there is anyone here. Or anything to find."

"Let's find out." Cornelia took the heavy brass door knob and turned it. The door opened smoothly. Perhaps no one had locked it again after the attempted invasion the week previous.

We tiptoed inside and closed the door behind us. It was dark and shady, filled with the musty scent of old leather bookbindings. Much as I remembered it.

Cornelia started as a rustling noise came from further back. "Who's there?" She advanced fearlessly and I hastened to keep up. "Whoever you are, come out now!" she called as we went into the back room. "I know you're there!"

This part of the shop must have been caught up in the attempted invasion - shelves had been knocked against each other and the floor was littered by heavy books. Cornelia picked her way across the room without hesitation only to make a startled noise as she peered around one bookcase. "You!" she exclaimed a second later.

Swirls of green magic exploded around Cornelia and I backed up as the figure of my friend was replaced by someone even taller and more elegant, delicate leafy wings emerging from between the strands of her long hair. Her warm winter clothes were replaced by a mid-riff- and shoulder-bearing top, silky lavender skirt slit to the hip and high-heeled purple boots. "Vathek!"

Taller even than Cornelia and at least three times as massive, the man facing her was bald-headed and bundled in a heavy overcoat, sturdy pants and shirt that wouldn't look out of place anywhere on the street outside. He even wore a long woollen scarf in concession to the cold. However, his pale blue skin and patches of ivory scales made it clear that he was no human, even before I saw the clawed fingers and the pointed ears. "I wasn't expecting this, finding you here," he exclaimed, raising one massive hand to indicate her.

"Get ready to fight with the powers of the Earth!"

He turned away, striding back through the shadows of the shop. "I won't fight you."

Cornelia blinked. "You won't? Hey! Wait!"

"Isn't this the guy who was leading the invasion last time?" I asked, moving forwards to join her.

She nodded. "He was..."

Together we followed after the Metamoorian. "Cornelia?"

"Yes?"

"Is that skirt glued on?"

"What!"

"Well it's got that sort of spiral bit around your belly button..."

She folded her arms across it, defensively. "...it's magic."

We found Vathek behind one of the fallen bookcases, sorting through the books that had fallen from it.  At first I thought he was just tidying up but he was checking the titles and I realised he was looking for something specific.

"I've seen what Cedric has done," he told us as we watched.

Cornelia crouched next to him. "What do you mean? Don't you work for him?"

The blue man looked sheepish. "I've had my eyes opened. My people have been suffering for a long time because of Phobos. I couldn't keep following Cedric after I understood that. I'm helping those who fight to bring joy and peace back to Meridian."

"Then what are you doing back on this side of the Veil?" I asked.

He looked up at me. "You... aren't the Keeper, are you?"

"Keeper?"

"Of the Heart of Kandrakar." Vathek lowered his head slightly and scratched the back of his neck. "Then you must be her astral drop."

"Her sister." I folded my arms. "And you're avoiding my question."

"I'm..." He paused and scooped up one of the books. "This. Caleb sent me to find this."

Cornelia swayed slightly and pressed one hand againt her forehead. "Caleb?"

"Are you alright?"

"I... I think..." Then to my relief she steadied. An uncertain Cornelia was much more worrying than Vathek.

Vathek! I turned back and saw that he had loped off to one of the still standing bookshelves. It was bare of books through and to my astonishment he lifted the heavy piece of furniture and tossed it aside.

I reappraised my judgement over which of the two was more worrying.

The bookcase had been covering a hole in the floor and the Metamoorian hopped down it, landing with his shoulders more or less level with the ground. "Goodbye, Guardian, young lady."

"Wait!" Cornelia sprang to the hole just as he ducked his head down it. "If you're going back to Meridian then take me with you!"

"Us," I reminded her as she jumped down after him.

She ignored me. "If you have changed, maybe Elyon has changed too," I heard her say as I scrambled after them. Beneath the hole was a broad, dark spiral staircase. I had had no idea that there were tunnels like this under Heatherfield. Or was this portal.

"Don't count on it," Vathek warned. He lifted a short length of wood that had rags wrapped around it and under his gaze flames sprang to life in the rags, lighting up the stair. "She has all but enslaved herself to Cedric."

Cornelia simply stared at him.

With a sigh, the man turned and gestured the direction of travel. "Well... we can hope." I hastened my steps to catch up and the three of us began to walk side by side towards the portal that would take us to the strange world of Metamoor. "Who knows? Maybe Elyon really has changed..."
D for Drakensis

You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.

[RomanFanboy]

I was thinking of pretending to be so ignorant of geography that I thought the other side of the national border was water rather than land. (Mare incognitum) Sometimes I'll grab the possibility I think most likely to make someone squirm. Or laugh at me.

Sounds almost like she has chronic backstabbing disorder.

I really should have a good, appropriate, Jadeite reference for here.

More seriously, she sounds markedly human. This sounds like a situation where she's a bit in over her head, and making long term decisions based on short term things. Like she doesn't start with enough of a center and a foundation for what she is trying to do, and hasn't really developed her foresight and long term thinking. In other words, like many other young people involved in politics.

56

You know, I really don't know how to evaluate this. I mean, they are taking risks that I probably wouldn't. But then, I am really risk averse, and probably too risk averse for this sort of work. Also, at least one of them is a magical girl, and genre convention is that those are often implicitly or explicitly really good at reading people. I tend to rate my ability at that as low.

I've just realized that x of Kandrakar kind of fits standard nomenclature for bad guy's item of evil power.

I'm kind of confused by a bit near the end. The shelf is concealing the entrance to a tunnel, right? Can't quite find the words, but when I try to integrate the mental images from the descriptions in different parts of the pieces, I get mismatches. Like 'Why don't they fall down the stairs?' 'Okay, exactly what shape and size hole are we talking about' Maybe I'll scrape together some more sense to figure out my thoughts after I sleep.

"This is where Cedric invited her to, the first time they met. If there's anywhere I can find a way too her, it'll start here."

way to her

She was right, I admitted, twenty minutes later was we looked at the store front of the apparently closed Ye Olde Bookstore. This was not somewhere that I wanted to come back to.

as we looked

I still say that the name alone sounds suspect, unless it is written with a thorn.

Cornelia swayed slightly and pressed one hand againt her forehead. "Caleb?"

Against.

She ignored me. "If you have changed, maybe Elyon has changed too," I heard her say as I scrambled after them. Beneath the hole was a broad, dark spiral staircase. I had had no idea that there were tunnels like this under Heatherfield. Or was this portal.

Or was this a portal? maybe

With a sigh, the man turned and gestured the direction of travel. "Well... we can hope." I hastened my steps to catch up and the three of us began to walk side by side towards the portal that would take us to the strange world of Metamoor. "Who knows? Maybe Elyon really has changed..."

I see what you did here. I guess the whole part of the expedition thing is also a statement of hope.

[drakensis]

Thanks for the corrections.

None of the girls are even out of their early teens (arguably our protagonist isn't even a month old) so they don't have the experience to make decisions from an adult perspective. And genre-wise that should work for them in this case: friendship is the major theme of W.I.T.C.H.
D for Drakensis

You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.

[drakensis]

My first experience of Metamoor involved water.

Lots of water. Deep water.

Neither Cornelia nor I had expected that the portal would have us emerge beneath water and Vathek hadn't suggested we should hold our breath. Was that an oversight or was he leading us into a trap the whole time.

Still, it was a learning experience. For example, I learned that I can't breathe water. Also, Cornelia's no better at swimming than I am and water has it's own ideas about where you wind up. Who knew that it moved!? Even without Irma around.

Okay, I noticed this mostly in retrospect. At the time I was mostly flailing widely and worrying about the fiery sensation in my chest.

I think I may have blacked out. I don't remember doing so, but I don't recall anything between that and being cold and wet on a stone floor, someone holding my nose and blowing into my mouth.

I'm pretty sure that Will had told me to slap anyone who kissed me, but moving my arms right now would have been way too much work. "Wurble," I managed when my lips weren't being molested.

"She's alive!"

Oh. Well that was good. I managed to open my eyes and saw an unfamiliar boy, a little older than I perhaps, moving back from me. A moment later I had a soggy blonde hugging me. It wasn't quite as good as Mom, but it wasn't anything to be upset about. "'nelia."

"Don't you start," Cornelia demanded, laughing in relief. "Irma's nicknames are bad enough." She looked up at the boy. "Caleb gave you CPR and saved your life."

"CPR? Wussat?" I mumbled. My throat still burned.

She sighed. "You'd stopped breathing. He was breathing for you until you started again."

That sounded like powerful magic to me! "That isn't like kissing, is it?"

"No!" Cornelia dragged her eyes away from gazing worshipfully up at Caleb. "It's... nothing like that."

So I don't have to slap him then," I concluded.

There was a chuckle and Vathek moved into view. "That must be a relief, Caleb." He reached down and helped Cornelia and I up to our feet, then steadied me as I checked to see if my legs were working better than my arms had been a moment ago. (They were, but not by all that much). "I lost you somewhere along the way. Fortunately Caleb saw you in the water and got the two of you out."

"But who are they?" a new voice enquired.

Looking around I realised that the chamber we were in - a tall room with beautifully painted columns that reminded me of Van Dahl's cathedral - was also occupied by a number of green-skinned creatures dressed not unlike the medieval peasants I had seen in books.

"They aren't like us, they can't stay here."

Another squinted suspiciously at Cornelia. "And she's ugly!"

"Hey!" the blonde snarled. "Have you looked in the mirror!?"

Caleb gestured for calm. "Settle down all of you." He put one arm around Cornelia's back. "I know that they can be trusted." He wasn't looking at me at all, mind you. Maybe it was just me but I got the impression that I was pretty much vanishing into the background compared to my glamorous friend. Well, that wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

My musing over whatever was going on with the two was disrupted - as were what they probably thought were covert looks at each other (I was two weeks old, not blind) - by a shout of alarm.

"We've been spotted!" one of the green-skinned people exclaimed, running into the the room. "Soldiers are outside."

"I knew it!" the suspicious one growled. He'd turned his attention away from Cornelia towards a safer target. "You must have brought them here," he accused me. Or possibly Vathek, it was hard to be sure the way his hand was wavering.

"Is this the end?" one of his companions asked nervously.

If it wasn't for one thing, my impression of these rebels would have dropped into the sewer. That thing was Caleb. The boy only raised his voice slightly but when he spoke it was with unquestionable authority. "Vathek, take one group with you. The others will come with me."

The towering blue man nodded respectfully. "Right." He looked down at me. "Can you run."

"I'd better, hadn't I?"

Instead he simply hauled me up off the ground and perched me on one shoulder. "What you'd better do is hang on."

Fortunately one of the scaly patches on his head was well placed for me to put my hand onto without incidentally poking his eye out or the like.

It wasn't until we were out of the room - part of a large, palatial complex I discovered to my surprise - that I realised that Cornelia wasn't with us. Craning my head around I could see a enormously long blonde hair next to Caleb's long overcoat near the head of the other group of rebels.

I said a word that I don't think Will knew I'd learned. I'm almost certain she'd be unhappy about my using it. I'm quite certain that Mom would be.

"Is something wrong?" asked Vathek.

"Nothing I can do anything about."

As best I could tell, we were racing to get out of the complex of buildings before the soldiers could get to all of the exits. What I couldn't tell was whether or not we were winning. From the shouting somewhere behind us I had the suspicion that not everyone was that lucky. I hoped Cornelia wasn't one of them.

Then I envisaged a bunch of guards - like Captain Von Schliese's except with scaly skin - trying to restrain a Cornelia who was fully empowered and angry to boot.

Hopefully no one with Cornelia would get caught up in the destruction.

I was just thinking that when Vathek stumbled. He wasn't the only one. The floor of the palace was shaking beneath us.

"Get out in the open!" I shouted as loudly as I could. I pulled on Vathek's head to direct him towards what looked like some sort of a park. If one or more of those buildings came down I wanted to be somewhere with plenty of room to run away from it. Well, for Vathek to run away, since if I couldn't rely on my legs when the ground was steady I certainly couldn't now.

There was a massive rumbling noise and I felt rather than saw part of the palace begin to collapse since Vathek dropped to his knees. That still left me above head height of most of the rebels and I twisted around to spot which it was.

The good news was that the building was going more or less straight down. The bad news was that it was the core of the entire palace. Dust was already rising like smoke from it. "Get down and cover your heads!" I called out and scrambled down from Vathek.

The big man didn't hesitate to drag me under the cover of his coat as the dust cloud swept across us. Given I was choking on it even through Vathek's coat, I can't imagine what it must have been like for everyone else.

As soon as the rumbling died down I started scrambling out from under my protector.

"Are you..." Vathek broke off coughing. "Are you hurt?"

I hawked up and spat dust out of my mouth. Hopefully Elyon's spell wouldn't make the dust part of me. "No but we need to get going. With all this dust the soldiers won't be able to see us."

His mismatched eyebrows... well, he didn't really have any, but that bit of his forehead moved upwards. I could tell by the scales above his right eye. "You're right. Everyone up! We've still got a way to go."
D for Drakensis

You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.

[drakensis]

The dust hid us from the guards well enough, but it also hid any landmarks. When it settled we were still far too near where the palace had been. Vathek hustled everyone into the smaller and far more humble buildings still standing until we could see if it was safe.

Judging by the blue-silver swirling that was taking place in the pit that had replaced the palace, I had my doubts. "Is that what I think it is?"

"Only if you think that it's a portal," he told me. "I've never seen one so large."

"That's... bad. I think."

He nodded slowly. "Phobos can't be allowed to use this... but a lot of my people will want to escape him through it."

I rubbed my head. "That's going to be kind of hard to hide. How many people are we talking about?" Medieval cities weren't usually larger than a few thousand people if the books I'd read were to be believed (I hoped so or my paper might bomb) and Metamoor seemed similar in a lot of ways.

Vathek shrugged. "No one has any idea how many live in Meridian and I couldn't guess how many would take the risk. Thousands upon thousands, I expect. The last mission Cedric gave me before I joined the rebels was to lead a smaller invasion. He said that Phobos believed that doing so could tear down the Veil for good."

Oh great. I could just imagine thousands of Metamoorian refugees spilling onto the streets of Heatherfield. "Then I can't let that happen."

"What gives you the right to say that!" demanded the loudmouthed lizard from earlier. "You don't know anything about our lives! Earth is rich and peaceful! We would be safe there!"

I shook my head. "You wouldn't be safe from Phobos on Earth. Have any of you ever heard of Elias Van Dahl?"

There was a confused grumbling but one of them nodded his head. "I know of him, one of the court painters that vanished after Phobos took over and started having his statues and portraits destroyed."

"He fled to Earth," I told them. "But Phobos sent Cedric after him and imprisoned him for hundreds of years. If you go through that portal then he'll send a whole army after you. And without the Veil there will be nowhere safe."

"Then what can we do!?"

"Do you mean about the portal? Or about Phobos?"

"The portal!" "Either!" "Prince Phobos!" "Both!" The rebels around the room crowded towards me, calling out answers that were really questions.

Vathek raised his hands for silence. "Wait, let her speak."

Well thanks, I thought disgustedly. Why did they think I had answers? I was just a girl who knew almost nothing and had no powers. I wasn't even from a magical world like they were.

Except that to them Earth was a magical world, I realised. One where there was peace and plenty for all. (Even I knew better than that.) A world that magical beings, like the Guardians, came from. If I was from there, why wouldn't they assume me to have some power?

"The portal has to be closed," I told them. "Let Phobos reach other worlds and there will be no hope for this one. That's the purpose of the Veil and why the Guardians must seal the portals through it."

"But why must we suffer under Phobos!?" called out one of the rebels.

I looked him in the eyes. "Isn't that why you are rebelling against him? To bring him down so that the Veil is no longer required. If all the Guardians were doing was containing him then why would Cornelia and I have come here? Portals can be sealed from Earth, but to stop Phobos for good we came here to gather information and to seek out allies: people like you!"

I was stretching the truth. Neither Cornelia nor I had such lofty goals when we came here. But in a way it was true. We both wanted to find out what was going on with Elyon. We knew Phobos had claimed she was his sister - had he taken her into his confidence? Or was this part of some grander scheme. Either way, by learning about her- talking to her - we would learn about his goals and perhaps be able to stop them.

"What can we do?" asked one of the smaller lizards.

"Trust in Caleb," Vathek told them. "Phobos is an usurper but there is a true heir, the Light of Meridian. If we can show her the truth then she can free us all from his terror. But we can't stand up to him if we're running away all the time."

The loudmouth shook his head. "You mean the princess. She's been missing forever."

"Phobos believes he has found her." All eyes turned to me. "Her name is Elyon. I don't know if she is the true heir, but she does have great power. If she is who he claims and if she can be freed from his influence then there will be hope."

Then, just as everything seemed to be getting back under control, another of the rebels scurried into the room. "Caleb's across the other side of the portal," he reported breathlessly. "The Guardian of the Veil from earlier is with him and another Earth girl, a smaller one."

Vathek blinked. "Another Guardian?"

"Let's take a look," I suggested.

W.I.T.C.H. - W.I.T.C.H. - W.I.T.C.H. - W.I.T.C.H. - W.I.T.C.H.

It wasn't one of the other Guardians.

It was Elyon.

The girl was barely visible, surrounded by scores of excited Metamoorians, all of who seemed to want to talk to her, touch her cloak... or at least be able to say they'd seen her. I was pretty sure I was okay to walk, but Vathek had insisted on carrying me and I'd have not been able to make Elyon out at all if it wasn't for the added altitude.

"You won't leave us, will you?" one old - I presumed, from the balding head - man asked her.

"I promise!" she assured him, squeezing his hand reassuringly. "But don't beg, please."

"Huh," I muttered to Vathek. "Maybe she really is a princess."

Elyon looked up and saw us looming over the crowd. Her face seemed to pale slightly at the sight.

"I don't think she likes me," I noted.

Vathek shook his head sadly. "It's probably me. The last time we met was when I deserted Cedric." He lifted me down from his shoulders. "I saw your friend Cornelia near her, will you be alright with her while I talk to Caleb?"

"I should be."

But when I worked my way through the crowd the first blonde I came across wasn't Cornelia. "Oops, sorry," I said, realising I'd burst into the little circle around Elyon. But when I tried to back up, the press of people was too much for me to be able to move away.

Elyon waved at me awkwardly and I returned the gesture.

There was a tugging at my leg and and I found a little kid - perhaps half my already unimpressive height - was responsible. Kind of cute if you don't mind scales and since at least half the people I'd ever met had them, I was just going to have to not mind wasn't I? "Are you a princess too?" the kid asked me seriously.

I giggled slightly at the idea. As far as I could tell from my scanty education, the main thing Princesses did was to get married to someone their father picked out. All things considered, I would be glad to avoid that. "Not me!"

"But you look like her!"

"We really don't." I scooped him up and held him out to Elyon. "Here, take a closer look."

Elyon, not expecting a sudden miniature lizardfolk to be thrust into her personal space froze in place and I amused myself for a second by imagining her eyes going as wide as saucers. Then she spoiled my fun by taking the kid's hand and shaking it solemnly. He squirmed and I let him down. The minute his feet touched the ground he scampered away, shouting about how he'd "touched the princess' hand!"

This, of course, left me awkwardly faced with the princess for myself. "So you're really a princess?"

"Uh-huh," she admitted, looking a bit lost. "Er, you and your sister... are getting on okay?"

"...mostly," I lied.

Elyon turned her face away. "I'm sorry."

"Sorry about what? I haven't seen you since that thing with the painting."

"..."

I crossed my arms. "Fine, keep your secret. Just tell me this: were you joking about casting that spell?"

The other girl looked shocked. "Oh, no! I promise, you'll be fine. I don't know exactly how long it'll take though, so don't experiment and have the Keeper try to take back her magic or anything like that."

"I may have been born last month, but I'm not that dumb." I'd been waiting a while to use that line.

Elyon flushed. "Sorry."

"Anyway, that spell's probably the second nicest thing anyone's ever done for me. I'll forgive you practically anything for the sake of that." I gave her a hug (partly because she looked like she needed one and partly because if I didn't play nice with the princess I wasn't sure the rebels wouldn't do something nasty) and she returned it. "So did you get to talk to Cornelia?"

"She did," Cornelia confirmed, pushing her own way through the crowd. Well I say pushing, it was more that the crowd instinctively made way for her.

"And...?"

"We're still friends."

Elyon brightened as if this solved everything. Well maybe it did for them but there were a few other issues that might need to be dealt with. You know, Cedric. Phobos. All of Metamoor. Little things like that. "Good. So... what now?"

"Give us the rebels!" roared an angry voice.

The three of us, having been focused on our conversation, all practically jumped out of our skins.

The speaker was at the head of a group that were alike in only three respects that I could see: they were armed, wearing blue uniforms and had orangy scales. "Those who side with them will suffer the consequences!"

"Can't anyone around here speak without exclaimation marks?" I whined. It had been a long day, I think I was entitled.

Caleb stepped forwards, producing a sword from somewhere inside his coat. "Bow down to your Queen!" he shouted, pointing back at Elyon.

Evidently no one could.

"Get them!" the leader shouted and his men - soldiers I guessed - ran forwards. Some of the rebels, apparently no longer afraid now that they had a princess on their side, also produced weapons and ran forwards to block them from our little group. With others - less bold rebels or simple bystanders who had been drawn to the commotion - trying to get away, the streets around the portal almost instantly reduced themselves to chaos.

"Go and find shelter," Caleb called as he took the lead.

Cornelia had her own idea and the ground began to shake as she called upon her magic. "You can't do this alone!" Suddenly I had an idea of what might have called the palace to collapse, although how that had led to a portal opening was beyond me.

Two rebels jostled me and I was swept away from my companions. No one intended to collide with me, but with the soldiers pushing into the crowd and my being below the eye line of most of the participants of what I could only call a battle, it was almost unavoidable. I did my best to find my way back to Vathek - or at least to Elyon - but when I reached the portal, one of the few places that everyone else was trying to give at least a little space, I couldn't see either of them.

I did hear something interesting though.

"I'm not gonna like, this time the Heart of Kandrakar's made the trip awfully uncomfortable."

That sounded like Irma and for once I was glad to hear her voice.

"Look on the bright side, at least we've arrived now."

And Taranee! A bolt of silvery magic streaked through the air and from the gasp of surprise they couldn't be that far away. I ran to the edge of the pit and dropped to my hands and knees, looking down at them. Sure enough four Guardians were scrambling up out of the portal. "Girls, this way!"

Hay Lin flew up into the air over the portal and then came down to hug me, with the others not so far behind - only limited by not being airborne like her. "You're okay!"

I'd barely got loose of her when Will dragged me into an even more crushing hug. "What did you think you were doing, coming here?" she demanded. "You could have been killed!"

"I was thinking that someone needed to watch Cornelia's back, since none of you would."

Will released me and looked around. "And where is she?"

I hung my head. "We got separated."

'Great job then.' Will didn't actually say the sarcastic words but we both knew that she was thinking them.

"I see her!" Hay Lin called, having taken to the air once more. She directed powerful gust of wind down into the mob, aiming at someone I couldn't see. I missed sitting on Vathek - it gave a much needed perspective.

Will looked in that direction. "Then let's reunite the Guardians. We'll keep you safe, sis'." She extended the Heart of Kandrakar and called out "Earth!" A streamer of green energy swept out from her and Cornelia burst out of the crowd, her magic almost visible as she commanded the ground to dash away the soldiers menacing her and the rebels around her.

Irma grinned at Taranee. "Let's work together!"

The two Guardians clasped hands and then unleashed their power together on one group of soldiers. "An attack today; blows the enemy away!" called out the Water Guardian as the resultant blast of steam hurled the soldiers from their feet and blanketed the area with fog.

Scattered and unable to co-ordinate their efforts, the guards disappeared amid into the far more numerous crowd of the rebels.

"That attack was almost as fierce as your rhyme!" Hay Lin declared as she swooped past. "Wow! I see Elyon!"

"What!" Most of the Guardians whirled, readying themselves to defend against an attack. Instead they - like myself - saw Elyon scrambling beneath the blades of a rebel and a soldier in order to pull the young lizardfolk from earlier out of danger.

"Is that the same girl that locked me away in tower for weeks?" exclaimed Taranee.

"What are you just standing there for?" I demanded and ran forwards in Elyon's direction, ignoring Will's shout to come back.

There were feet chasing after me but I had been moving at an angle to come in from behind the soldier and he hadn't spotted me. The rebel had and he struck fiercely as I ducked down behind the soldier's knees. The blue-uniformed swordsman tried to step back and instead tumbled over me, dropping his sword.

Without the press of combat, the rebel fighter realised who he had been about to stand on and stopped fighting to help Elyon and her charge up.

"Why you!" shouted the soldier, scrabbling for his sword.

"I wouldn't suggest you do that," Taranee told him, putting one foot onto his chest and pushing him down.

The soldier didn't hesitate to close his hand around the hilt but he released it a moment later with a cry of pain. As I stood up I realised that the metal parts of the weapon were almost glowing with heat.

"Don't you know better than to try to hold a hot iron?" the Fire Guardian chided. "Now you can't hold a weapon in that hand until it heals. Maybe you should give up on fighting for Phobos!"

With a scream the soldier turned and fled.

"Thank you," Elyon exclaimed and then she paled as she saw which of the Guardians had assisted us. "Ah, Taranee..."

"I don't have a thing to say to you," the dreadlocked girl told her coldly.

The little blonde gave me an appealing look and I shrugged. "All you did to me was give me a scare and trap me somewhere for a little while. Taranee..."

The princess seemed to cringe in on herself. "I understand."

It seemed even the fiery Taranee wasn't immune to that pathetic look though - or perhaps it was the hateful glare she got from the little kid or the questioning look from the rebel fighter. "Maybe later," she allowed reluctantly. "Right now we have other things to do."

"You're not wrong there."

Honestly though, soldiers around us were already for the most part on the run. They'd looked fearsome enough as a group but once they were scattered the greater numbers of the rebels had swarmed over them one at a time. The ones that hadn't... well, I saw that at least two of them were lying on the cobbled streets and showed no sign of moving. There were rebels down as well although most at least seemed only injured.

"I think the fight's over," Taranee told me.

I pointed at the fallen soldiers. "Is the killing over?"

She shook her head. "You really are like Will, sometimes."

"Let me help," Elyon offered. She pressed her hands together and then gestured upwards. With a sigh a tall platform - a podium, Taranee later called it - shimmered into existence in front of us, complete with stairs up to the top so that we would be able to get up and look over the packed streets.

I scrambled up the steps, Elyon and Taranee following me. From above I could see further and the same story was being played out: the few soldiers remaining were the stubborn ones who'd managed to get themselves up against a wall or some other barrier that prevented them from being overwhelmed from behind. Even they were now being hard pressed - pelted with cobblestones and by gusts of air and waves of water from Irma and Hay Lin. As I watched, Cornelia yanked down part of a wall, half-burying a soldier beneath the rubble.

"Enough!" called out Elyon from beside me.

Heads turned below, people looking up at us.

"The battle is won!" I shouted. "Let the soldiers go, to spread the word."

They hesitated but Elyon pushed aside her dull cloak, revealing the pale dress she wore beneath it. "Do as my friend says!" she ordered. "There has been enough bloodshed."

That swayed them and cheers burst out from the crowd as they backed up and opened space for the remaining soldiers to retreat. A few of the blue-clad Metamoorians stopped to help up fallen soldiers and carry them away but most simply fled for their lives.

A cheer went up from the rebels. "We defeated them!" called one.

He was joined by other glad calls: "Our first victory!" "The first of many!" "The princess gave us strength!"

"H-hold on!" Elyon stammered as everyone turned to look at her after that statement. She scrambled down from platform but before she could reach the ground, hands lifted her up and she was raised up above the crowd by her new followers and supporters. "I'm not sure if..."

"Enjoy the moment," I advised her before I turned to use the stairs myself. Then I felt Taranee's hands against my back for a moment. "What -?"

"You too," she said with a chuckle and pushed me firmly off the podium.

I almost screamed but strong hands caught me and placed me onto a familiar shoulder. "Vathek!?"

The towering warrior gave me a sheepish look. "Maybe you should take your own advice."

"What do you mean?"

"'Enjoy the moment'," he repeated my words from a moment ago. "Three cheers for Elyon, the Light of Meridian!"

Cheers rang out and I saw Elyon blushing furiously at the naked adoration she was receiving. "Please, don't cheer me," she begged. "I've done nothing to deserve it. Cheer for yourselves, or for Caleb and my friends."

That didn't noticeably dissuade them, although it did add Caleb's name and 'The Guardians' to the names being shouted admiringly.

"They're forgetting someone," rumbled Vathek.

I twisted around to look down at him. "Who?"

"You, silly," Cornelia told me. I hadn't seen her approaching us.

"It's kind of hard for them to cheer for someone with no name," I pointed out cheerfully. Given how Elyon was squirming in embarassment at being the centre of attention, I was quite happy to avoid the same fate.

Cornelia simply smiled knowingly. "Oh well we can't have that. It just so happens that I have the perfect name for you."

"What! But you can't pick my name!"

"Do you think any of us chose our names?" she asked me. "Our families gave us our names, and you've had plenty of time to think of one for yourself."

"Yes, but..."

Taranee looked down at Cornelia and I pouted as I realised that the Fire Guardian was using her telepathy to speak to the blonde. "You're right, Cornelia. That is the perfect name for her."

"What are you three talking about?" asked Will as the other Guardians converged on our position.

Cornelia pointed up at me. "Will, I'd like to introduce you to your sister."

"We have met, Cornelia."

"But you've never been introduced," she said with a smile. "Will, meet your sister: Hope Vandom."

I stared dumbfounded down at them. "Hope?"

"It's a good name," Vathek rumbled. "You do seem to bring it with you."

Will nodded decisively. "You're right." She gestured for him to put me down.

"I think I prefer it here," I said warily.

"Whoa, you don't think she means her and Vathek..." Irma murmured to Hay Lin, perhaps louder than she intended.

The smallest of the Guardians shook her head, setting her long pony-tails flicking back and forth. "I think she, Hope, might want to stay here."

Will looked down at the floor. "Please?"

Vathek must have sensed my doubts for he reached up and patted my legs with one of huge hands. "Family can be difficult, but they're usually worth it," he advised and dropped to one knee so that I was closer to the ground.

I slid down - my feet were still some way from the ground and Will stepped forward and caught me around the waist, helping me the rest of the way down. She didn't let go of me, instead pulling me close. "Hello Hope. I'm Will. I hope we can be friends as well as sisters."

"...I'm kind of still learning about friends," I admitted. "And sisters."

Will nodded sympathetically. "Me too. Maybe we can learn together?"

Naturally the fact we were having a moment to ourselves did nothing to stop the rest of the world - this world - from moving on. And it wasn't something insensitive from Irma either. It was someone even more annoying: Cedric.

"Where are you, Your Majesty?" he called out.

I have to give him credit. He was standing there in front of a victorious rebel army - a small one perhaps, but still vastly outnumbering the tiny number of escorts who were with him. It was clear he was not there for violence though. There was no evidence of his giant snakeman persona visible for he was as human in form as he had been in the bookstore and he wore a long turquoise robe not so very different in style from the dress worn by Elyon, along with a long and heavily decorated ceremonial vest and epaulets.

"What is he doing?"

"If he fights here, he loses," Taranee realised. "Elyon would never forgive him for persecuting these people."

Faced not with violence but with courtesy, the rebels lowered Elyon to the ground like chastened children.

Cedric dropped deferentially to one knee. "We've been looking for you for hours," he declared - implicitly dismissing the battle which had just been fought as unworthy of mention. "Your brother is waiting for you at the palace."

Cornelia pushed her way through the crowd to stand by Elyon, the rest of us not far behind.

"Your coronation is near, Elyon," he continued, ignoring us. "And the prince wants to celebrate the occasion properly."

Elyon straightened with sudden confidence. "Yes, I see. Let's go."

We all blinked at the sudden reversal. I'm sure at least half of us braced ourselves to suddenly face her hostility. Vathek had counselled Cornelia and I of how deeply Cedric's influence ran with Elyon.

"Are you serious!?" Cornelia exclaimed out loud.

When Elyon turned to us, however, she was smiling. She took her friend's hands. "Your destiny is on Earth and to guard the veil. Mine is here, to care for my people."

It was entirely clear from Cornelia's sidelong look at Cedric where her concerns lay. "You don't know what you're about to face," she warned.

Elyon simply stepped forwards and threw her arms around the blonde. "Everything will be alright, Cornelia. I will never forget our friendship." They clung to each other for a moment before stepping back.

"Good luck," I mouthed to Elyon, past Cornelia's shoulder. "And be careful."

That earned me a nod of acknowledgement from her before she walked, tall and proud towards Cedric. The man and his elite soldiers fell in behind her, whether by plan or simply wrong-footed I couldn't tell.

W.I.T.C.H. - W.I.T.C.H. - W.I.T.C.H. - W.I.T.C.H. - W.I.T.C.H.

Cornelia was talking to Caleb, with an eager and almost discreet audience in the form of Irma, Hay Lin and Taranee.

Will and I had other things to talk about.

"Are you coming home with us?" she asked awkwardly. "I'm sure Vathek would look after you if you stayed."

I had to admit it was tempting in some ways. Although, having made use of a Metamoorian toilet, not in others. There would be freedom here. Danger, yes. But it wasn't as if my life in Heatherfield was all that safe. "I'd miss you. And Mom."

"She'd miss you too. You're pretty much the daughter she wants, you know."

"What!?"

Will folded her arms. "You're brighter than I am. I could never have written a report like you did. You do all your chores, you're tidy..."

"I'm easily bored." I shoved my hands into my jacket pockets. "And you're the one that she loves."

My sister shook her head. "That's just because she hasn't got to know you."

"Will she ever?"

"I hope so," she told me. "When this is over. Maybe Miss Rudolph can help us get papers for you."

I wrapped my arms around myself. "She'll probably be furious with me. With us, I suppose."

"I know." Will hung her head. "But please, come back with us, give her a chance. Give me a chance. I shouldn't have gone off swimming like that, when you were at school. I was just so mad at Mom about the swimming team and Elyon tricked me."

"Elyon? What did she have to do with it?" I asked in surprise. "I thought Vera was the one who invited you out."

"There wasn't really a Vera at all - it was all Elyon in disguise. She was encouraging me just to get me away from everyone else. She even broke my phone so I didn't know you were trying to get to me. If Irma hadn't turned up at the pool, she'd have drowned me!"

I covered my mouth in shock. Drowning, the way I almost had when I came here. Had Elyon really tried to do that? "That's what she meant! She apologised earlier for something but didn't say what for."

"Well it'd have been nice if she'd apologised to me! Or to Taranee!"

"Did she get the chance?" I rubbed at my face. "Oh I don't know. She's done all this but whenever I've been around she's been mostly... well, she knocked me out and imprisoned me, but she's never seemed to actually want to hurt anyone."

Will sighed. "I suppose she might have wanted to capture me, not kill me. She'd conjured up a huge water snake. I couldn't even get loose to transform."

"I was afraid that something like that had happened - that Cedric had you locked up somewhere or... or..."

Will hugged me again. "I wish I could promise you that it was all going to be okay, but we know so little about this..."

"Well we know more now."

There was a squeal from Hay Lin that forced us to pay attention to something beyond the two of us.

"And here I was thinking Cornelia was cold and rational," Taranee gasped.

"But she's the exact opposite!" Hay Lin declared, pressing her clasped hands against one cheek as she watched Caleb give Cornelia a silvery flower. "Ah, looooove!"

"Well... he is a pretty cool guy."

"Oh?" Irma asked eagerly. "Spill the gossip! Does Cornelia have a rival?"

"Get real," I told her. "You think I'd try getting between these two? Cornelia would take my arm off and Caleb probably wouldn't even notice me. Mind you, if they weren't attached..." I paused and then nudged Will with one elbow. "...no, never mind, that'd mean leaving Matt to you. Couldn't do that to the poor boy."

She hung her head. "I think he's got a girlfriend already."

"What!?" explained Irma. "No way. I've not heard anything about that."

"She's older. Way older, with like a car and stuff."

I rolled my eyes. "All she did was ask you to give him a note for her."

"You didn't see the note!" she insisted. "They've probably been engaged for years or something like that!"

I wasn't in the mood for more drama so I changed the subject. "Here comes Cornelia."

There was something very melancholy about the way that Caleb stood alone and watched her walk away from him and towards us. I'd seen boys at school watch Cornelia walk away before, and that was when she appeared much younger and was certainly much more conservatively dressed. This was different though. It was almost painful to watch.

"Ehm... we can go now," Cornelia said hesitantly as she reached us, not meeting anyone's eyes.

"But surely we should get some more information," Taranee disagreed.

"I think you should tell us more about your friend there," added Will with a teasing note in her voice.
D for Drakensis

You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.

[drakensis]

Will was having breakfast two days after New Year's Day when her phone buzzed. Things had been going better - not perfectly, but better - since our return from Meridian. Mom's birthday hadn't gone very well since it coincided with Irma getting backstage passes for a concert that weekend. Now I like listening to Karmilla as much as the next girl (as long as the next girl is Will) but I was a bit vague on how listening to them on stage is superior to the CD player.

The usual diplomatic exchange of views between Will and Mom had taken place, ending up with Mom cancelling the planned mother-daughter trip to Roseville (which sounded really interesting, except that there was zero chance I'd be able to pretend sufficient familiarity with it) and she had also forbidden Will from going to the concert.

I will admit that I had been a little out of line telling Will that I'd rather stay home and listen to her and Mom having another argument, but she had just accused me of planning to sneak out and go with the girls in her place, something that would be entirely too risky since the passes were courtesy of Irma's dad and he might well insist on dropping me off here afterwards, which would look kind of suspicious if Mom spotted him.

And then Mom had caught me in the bathroom that morning, forcing Will to spend half the day hiding in the loft while I had an excruciating awkward lunch. Mom was still fuming when I had to cover for Will sneaking out fight off another Metamoorian invasion. Doesn't Cedric ever have a new idea? And coincidentally the invasion was at the concert.

Where was I? Oh yes, the phone.

"Cornelia?" I said, recognising the caller ID.

"Will?" she asked.

"Hope. What's up this early in the morning?" I asked, keeping my voice down. She and Will had spoken just the last night, having dinner with the other girls at Irma's.

"I can't get in touch with the others." I could hear birds from the other end of the phone - she must have been calling from the balcony of her apartment.

"Hay Lin is talking to Irma and Taranee is talking to a certain Nigel."

"And how would you know that?"

"That wasn't me, it was Will's phone!" One of Will's powers was to awaken electrical appliances to some degree of intelligence. She could talk to them and get some measure of co-operation. It made me uncomfortable to be honest, particularly since I'd started to hear them too. The other Guardians could hear them, but I'd assumed it was because they were magical whereas Mom couldn't because she wasn't. If I could hear them...

I wasn't sure what it meant. Wasn't Elyon's spell supposed to make me less magical, not more?

"I heard it through the phone line grapevine, that's all," the phone added in explanation.

"Well, did Will tell you about the Interpol agents we met at Irma's house?" asked Cornelia.

"We didn't get a chance to talk yesterday and she only just woke up. What's Interpol?"

"The international police!" Cornelia hissed. "They're investigating Elyon's disappearance and they found out that her family's paperwork was falsified!"

"Uh-oh." That didn't sound good. If nothing else it meant that getting Miss Rudolph to set up false paperwork for me might not work, but if the police were poking around then who knew what else they might find out. "What else can go wrong?"

"They've been parked outside for hours! I must have made them suspicious last night."

"What for? They can't think that you had anything to do with Elyon disappearing!"

"I don't know! But the minute I step outside I bet they'll follow me. And we're supposed to go to Elyon's house today, to close down the portal in the cellar in case they manage to find it!"

I rubbed my head. "I guess that would look pretty suspicious. Okay, I'll tell Will and we'll see if we can figure something out." There were footsteps outside and I pressed myself against the wall behind the door, wriggling behind the free-standing full-length mirror that occupied that corner of the room. "Got to go!" Stabbing the end call button I held my breath as the door opened.

Fortunately, it was only Will. "Mom's getting dressed," she said quietly after switching on her CD player to mask the sound of our conversation. "You should be clear to get some breakfast soon."

"Thanks." I held out the cell phone. "Cornelia rang. Apparently Interpol are stalking her."

"Oh great. At least they're not watching us here. If they were they might notice you here."

We exchanged glances and then I pressed myself back into the corner while Will went to the window. "Okay, I think it's safe," she allowed after a moment and then gulped. "Wait, there's a suspicious looking guy down there. He's all covered up in a coat and hat."

"Well it is pretty cold out..."

Will squeaked and backed up sharply. "He just looked right up at the window! He's got to be another of the Interpol agents!"

I felt light-headed myself. What would happen if they caught me? Would I put in one of those rooms with the bright lights that make you confess to everything? "I'm gonna hide until he's gone! Is there any food that Mom wouldn't miss?"

"Cookies and fruit, probably." Will scratched her head. "She's dropping hints I should start thinking about cleaning up a bit, so I might be able to make a few things disappear for you. Do you want anything warm to wear up there?"

"I'll probably just curl up in my sleeping bag." That was a christmas gift from Cornelia - a very warm camping sleeping bag that kept me toasty warm even on the coldest nights. All the girls had been very generous at Christmas, something that made me feel a little guilty. After all, it wasn't as if I'd been able to get any of them presents.

(I'd tried drawing pictures since I figured that at least wouldn't mean spending money that Will was already sharing with me. The results hadn't been very impressive - and I don't just mean compared to Hay Lin, I mean compared to Irma's attempts at art.)

"Will!" Mom called through the door, "Could you do a little tidying up before you go out with your friends today?"

I ducked for cover again, in case she came in. Yikes, never mind Interpol! What if she'd heard me? I might want her to know eventually, but Will and I agreed it would take a lot of careful explanation or she'd blow up on us.

"Sure thing Mom!"

"And would you might turning the music down a little bit? At least until I've left the apartment? I can't hear the news."

"Sorry!" Will looked at me with one finger pressed against her lips as she adjusted the volume on the CD player.

After moment we heard Mom's footsteps moving away.

"Whew!" we mouthed at each other in unison and Will giggled. "I'll go get the laundry basket," she decided, looking at the clothes that had been kicked into corners of the room over the last couple of days. "Maybe I can sneak some fruit in with it, to tide you over."

"That'd be nice." I picked up a couple of sweaters that had been hung over the mirror for convenience and dropped them on top of yesterday's jeans before taking cover again as she went out the door.

Once the door was closed I scrambled up on the furniture to get up to the hatch in the ceiling. It wasn't particularly tricky - but Will's desk had developed a worrying creak after the first few dozen times I stood on it to reach and moving quietly was kind of important.

I was about halfway up the rope when its tendency to turn as I climbed brought the window into my line of sight.

The window and the rather startled face looking right at me through it.

While I was climbing a rope, which meant that my nightshirt (Will had declared two sets of pyjamas to be mine but despite the source, I preferred the long T-shirts that Irma had given me for Christmas) was riding up.

Oh come on! You'd have slipped too!

"Wh-" Thump. "Ow!"

Despite my best efforts I didn't get my feet under me onto the desk which meant that I landed on the floor. Fortunately there was a rug to soften the landing and even more fortunately I did manage to get my arms up to take the brunt instead of my chin.

"Honey?" "Hope!" Two concerned parties entered the room from different directions and then saw each other.

"I didn't mean to startle you," a mortified looking Vathek (Oh thank heavens it was only him at the window, I thought) protested. "Are you -"

"Aaaah!" Mom recovered from her shock and grabbed me by the shoulders, dragging me away from him.

There was a shout of "Mom!" and Will burst into the passage, the Heart of Kandrakar already in her hand.

"Will?" Mom looked down at me, then up at Will. "And Will? What is going on!?" She was still towing me away from the bedroom and I got a first hand view of Vathek sticking his head cautiously around the doorframe, evidently mystified by what was going on.

Will's view must have not been as good - or less charitably, she may have still been thinking of Vathek as Cedric's henchman. Whatever her reason, she shouted "Guardians unite!" and pink light filled the corridor.

"Wait...!" I managed to call out before Will pushed past us in full Guardian mode. "It's just..."

"Vathek!?" Will exclaimed at the top of her voice. "What are you doing here?"

"What did you just do!?" Mom demanded of her and then looked at Vathek. "And what were you doing in my daughter's bedroom?"

Honestly I felt more sympathy for Vathek at this moment, although given it was his fault I was probably going to be bruised from wrist to elbow for the next few days, that wasn't saying much. "Uh..."

They all looked at me.

"Oops?"
D for Drakensis

You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.

[drakensis]

Will slapped her forehead and Mom turned me around firmly so she could look me in the face. "'Oops'? Wilhemina Vandom, what is going on here? Why is a large blue man in your room, and who is this!?" She pointed at Will.

I hung my head. "Um. That's Will."

Mom zeroed in on the most vital point immediately. "Will?"

She nodded guiltily.

"What in the world are you wearing? Is that padded?"

Will turned bright red and crossed her arms across her chest.

It took Will transforming back into herself, and then into a Guardian again, before Mom relaxed enough to let go of me. Mind you, her next words were: "I don't believe this." She leant against the wall. We hadn't even got to the explainations yet! So much for breaking this to her gently. Then she looked down at me with a perplexed expression. "If you're not Will then who are you?"

"...Hope."

"That's a lovely name, but do your parents know that you're sleeping over here? Because I would have appreciated knowing." She reached over and brushed my hair back from my face. "It's uncanny how much you look like Will."

"She doesn't have anywhere else," Will told her while I looked for words. "Look, can we talk about this in a minute? Vathek, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in Meridian?"

The blue-skinned giant dropped to one knee. "I bring a plea for help, Guardian. From Elyon!"

"Elyon?" asked Mom suspiciously. She darted into the kitchen and came back with a milk carton. "This girl?" she asked, pointing at the picture on the side. It was captioned: 'Elyon Brown - Missing'.

Vathek nodded solemnly. "Indeed, although I don't understand why her name is on that container."

"Because she's missing!" Mom put her hands on her hips. "Did you aliens abduct her? Her family must be frantic!"

"But her family is also in Meridian," he explained.

"It's a long story, Mom." Will looked over at me. "Another long story."

"Well you're not going anywhere until I hear those stories. Is this some sort of ungerground railroad for runaways that you've got mixed up in?"

"But...!"

"I've got a good mind to call the police right now."

I raised my hand. "May I at least get dressed? Please!"

She raised a sceptical eyebrow. "I'm not letting any of you out of my sight until I have some answers."

"Don't you have to go to work?" Will asked hopefully.

Mom's eyes narrowed. "I'll call in. Fine, the two of you can get dressed. You -" she pointed at Vathek, "- come with me. No childish games or I'll call the police right after I call work."

Vathek walked after her into the lounge with the sort of serene confidence that could only indicate he had no idea how much trouble we were all in.

Will grabbed for the nearest clothes, laundry heap or not - her attention was more on getting onto her phone to warn the others that we had been outed. Chances were that if Mom learned of the other Guardians - and it wouldn't take much now - that she'd contact their parents.

For my part I hesitated in front of the wardrobe and then pulled out a plastic carrier bag from the back. For whatever reason, I had set aside the clothes that were created with me all those weeks ago and now I dressed in them. If she forced me to leave I wouldn't be taking away anything of Will's... and the were warm and weatherproof. That might be important.

"Cornelia, there's no time," Will hissed into the phone. "You'll have to let the others know. We might..." She paused and gulped. "We might need to go to Metamoor and join Caleb's rebels until things calm down!" She had to take the phone away from her ear to protect her from the anguished squeal from the other end. "I don't like it either, but I don't see much choice!"

"You'd actually do that?" I asked as she thumbed the button to end the call. I could barely believe my ears.

Will's eyes were watering. "I hope it doesn't come to that. Come on, who knows what Mom has dragged out of Vathek by now!" She picked up Mr. Huggles - her dormouse, she'd picked a name at last - for moral reinforcement.

Mom fixed us with a suspicious look as we entered the lounge. "I think I said no games, Will. Not making yourselves up to look like each other more."

Will shoved her fists into her pockets and perched on the couch, Mr. Huggles scrambling up to cling to her shoulder. "Great. You're just looking for things to punish us for!"

"Don't speak to me like that! If you can't have an adult conversation, we can skip right to the punishments. Do you want that?"

Will scowled and lowered her head. "No," she muttered.

"M- uh, Mrs. Vandom, we're not disguising our looks. We really do look... well, identical," I explained.

Mom scowled suspiciously. "Because you're... an astral drop? Whatever that." She hesitated. "You are Hope, aren't you? You're not my daughter, are you?"

I swallowed. That brought back a hollow feeling I thought I wouldn't face again.

Will slammed her fist down on the arm of the couch. "Mom, she's my sister!"

"I think I'd have noticed giving birth a second time, or if not some time in the next thirteen years!"

"You didn't notice in the last month!" protested Will.

"This has been going on that long? Just what is this about Will!?"

"Stop it!" I shouted and buried my face in my hands. "Just stop it! Can't you not fight for once!"

Will touched my shoulder for a moment. "Vathek. What is Elyon asking for?"

"It is her parents," he explained awkwardly. "Her foster parents, who raised her here."

"I thought she blamed them for taking her away from Metamoor," I asked, not raising my head.

"I believe that she has forgiven them. She has seen how her brother imprisoned them." Vathek scowled deeply. "How he locks away anyone who thinks differently from him."

"Then why doesn't she ask Phobos to release them. Or her precious Cedric?"

The scowl slipped away. "Maybe she has. Maybe she no longer believes them as she once did. There is hope that he will not be able to deceive her any longer." He placed one hand on my head, ruffling my hair lightly at one word in his remarks. I'll leave you to guess which one. "I cannot break into the prison, Keeper of the Heart. If I could, many of my own friends would not suffer there. I have advised her to do as I do: to believe in the Guardians of the Veil."

"What!? Absolutely not!"

We all backed up at Mom's voice. "Mom!"

"You are not recruiting my little girl for some cockanamie scheme to break a couple of people out of a prison in some magical kingdom somewhere." She folded her arms. "And that's final."

"Mom!" Will bolted to her feet, the dormouse having to cling tight to avoid being flung away from her. "These people could be in real danger! You don't know what Phobos is like!"

"That's all the more reason that you shouldn't be involved!"

"I can do this!" I could practically feel the pulse in the air as the Heart of Kandracar slipped into her hand.

"No you can not!"

"Will!" I yelled as a flash of pink light engulfed us all. "Don't -" The light faded, revealing a stark windowless room with stairs leading up to a door set high in the wall. Since there wasn't a couch for me to sit on, I proceeded to fall to the floor. "Oh!"

There were an assortment of other cries of surprise and I realised that it wasn't just Will, Vathek and myself who had suddenly arrived. Or even just adding Mr. Huggles to that list.

"What happened!" exclaimed Cornelia. "Will!?"

"Wow, you just, like, teleported us all!"

Irma, dressed only in a bath towel, didn't look quite as impressed. "Yay."

"Will, are you crazy?" demanded Taranee. "What if someone saw us vanish?"

"Someone did," I grumbled. "That might not have been the best solution, Will."

"If I gave her another minute she'd have been trying to take the Heart away from me!"

"What are you talking about?"

Will looked over at Cornelia. "You didn't tell them?"

"She was still on the phone," the blonde explained, pointing at the handset that Taranee was still hanging onto.

"Getting on well with Nigel?" Irma asked slyly.

"I guess she didn't get the news either?" I asked.

"Oh, I did," she assured us. "But if this is my last chance of a decent bath, I wasn't going to miss it. I doubt they have decent plumbing in Meridian."

"What news?"

"Mom caught Vathek sneaking in to give me a message," Will explained. "Worse, she caught Hope as well."

"Oh man!" Taranee groaned. "How could this get any worse?"

Will and I exchanged looks. "Um..."
D for Drakensis

You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.

[drakensis]

"I agree we don't have much choice about going to Meridian now," Irma agreed, "But I don't trust Vathek. What if he went back to serving Cedric?" The five of them had transformed into their Guardian forms, which at least meant Irma was more comfortably dressed.

Hay Lin nodded. "Irma's right. This could be a trap. Why won't you tell us where you found the portal that you came in through?"

"I don't know the way," he protested. "Your city is so strange, I was lucky I even found one of your homes."

"It can be a bit confusing," I agreed.

"Yeah, right." Irma glanced around the group. "What do you think, Corny?"

Cornelia gestured sharply and a wall began to spring up across the basement, cutting the more mundane parts of it off from the much larger space containing the portal and - at the moment - the eight of us. "I think we're all dressed up and the portal's open. If there's any truth to what you're saying, Vathek, we have to get moving. Now."

"Just one more thing." I gave Will a quick hug and then scrambled across the still forming wall. "I'll try to explain things to Mom."

"Hope!" she called out and Cornelia shifted her wall building efforts to leave a space for me to talk to me through. "You can't stay either! She'll hand you over to the police or something!"

"I'll try to talk her out of that. But right now for all she knows you've run off and won't ever come back. It's not fair to her to leave her thinking that."

Will frowned. "Maybe she's right. She -"

"She's afraid, Will. Afraid you'll be hurt. Afraid of losing you. Okay, shouting wasn't the smartest thing she could have done, but you know she's just as hotheaded as you are."

"Who are you calling a hothead?" she snapped and then flushed.

I spread my hands. "Let's face it, I'm a little less likely to start shouting back. That might give me a slightly better chance of persuading her."

"Mom isn't easy to persuade, unless you're Collins." Will scowled as she said the name and I could hardly blame him. He'd been sitting next to Mom at the school play just before Christmas, their relationship still going strong. "Still, if you turn on the waterworks you might have a chance. SHe almost melted when you teared up earlier."

Irma nodded wisely. "You're right. Hope's adorable when she's being a cry baby. Those big sad eyes are a devestating weapon."

"Shut up!" I don't cry that often. And it's not as if I don't have reason sometimes. "Look, even if you decide to stay there until Phobos was dealt with, you're not really planning on staying there forever, are you?"

Will didn't answer that for a moment.

"Setting aside the issues of Matt and Nigel -"

Taranee wrapped her arms around herself and Will looked wistful but said nothing.

"- I have one more compelling arguement. Remember what Irma said about plumbing? Vathek, does Meridian have flush toilets?"

He frowned. "I know what a toilet is, but how would you make one flush?"

The Guardians had vaguely horrified looks on their faces. "Good point," Hay Lin squeaked.

"Just promise me you have a plan," Cornelia pleaded. "My mom isn't going to like this."

"I have a plan," I lied, and just like that an idea popped into my head. "I'm going to go to see Miss Rudolph first. She probably knows more about this than any of us do anyway." I wondered if that was how Will came up with ideas sometimes.

"Ooh! Good idea," Irma agreed quickly. "Between you crying and Miss Ruloph's cookies, Mrs Vandom will be putty in your hands."

"Irma, do you want me to tell your dad that you ran away to join the circus as a performing monkey?"
D for Drakensis

You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.

[drakensis]

Want to know how well my masterful plan got before it was derailed?

Halfway to the gate out of the Brown's garden, that's how far I'd got when an official looking car pulled up and two people jumped out. The driver was a tall blond man and his companion was a smaller woman whose face was dominated by a pair of glasses even larger than Taranee's. Both wore long blue coats and from the way that they looked at me, I was obviously not who they were expecting - or perhaps hoping - to see here.

"Miss Vandom," the man started only to be elbowed by the woman.

"Will," she greeted me carefully. "It's good to see you again."

I waved my hand casually, wondering who these people were. Not teachers, not family... I walked towards the gate - there was no point doing anything suspicious like running away right now. For one thing, they were blocking the way out and I had no idea if there was a back gate or note. Bluff?

No, I decided. Not the best idea. They obviously had some expectations of Will and I'd probably be caught out quickly.

I'd come clean to Mom, at least partially. Maybe it was better to keep things simple.

"Sorry, you have the wrong girl," I replied once I was in easier earshot. "I'm guessing you think I'm Will Vandom?"

"You're not her?"

"An identical twin perhaps?" the man said sceptically.

I adopted a put-upon face and stopped outside of easy grabbing range. "Yeah, like I've never heard that before. I wouldn't mind if we were, honestly, but Mrs. Vandom says she'd remember having had twins so I don't suppose we are. And, uh, you would be?"

"I'm agent Maria Medina, from Interpol," the woman introduced herself. "And this is my partner, Joel McTiennan."

"International police?" I gave her a wide-eyed look. "Wow. How does Will know you?"

"We met last night, at the Lairs, just to ask a few questions about Elyon's disappearance. Now, since we've introduced ourselves... are you going to do the same?"

"I'm Hope." I stepped forward guilelessly and shook hands with them both. "So do you have any idea where Elyon might be? We're all worried about her." The second part was true at least.

"If we did, we'd have found her by now," Joel declared bluntly. "So what were you doing here?"

"Seeing if she's come back." I looked down at my sneakers for a moment, thinking of a plausible reason. "We've got a kind of pact. Someone checks every day and when they're back we let Cornelia know so she can shout at Elyon for scaring us all like this."

"Cornelia does the shouting does she?" asked Maria.

I spread my hands. "Girl's got a talent."

"I bet she does. And do you know anything about all your friends going missing this morning?" Joel pushed the gate sharply open and then headed up the path with quick, long strides. His coat billowed dramatically behind him as he called: "I'll see if they're inside!"

"What?" Well it wasn't a problem if he looked around, I had faith in Cornelia's wall as a defense for the portal.

Warm fingers closed around my wrist and I looked up in surprise to see that Maria had taken hold of me. "Will, whatever you're hiding, you can tell me," she pleaded.

"Uh... haven't we talked about this before? I'm Hope, not Will."

"That's not much of a cover story." She smiled slightly. "You should at least have added a family name."

I'd have folded my arms but that would have been kind of awkward with her holding onto me. "Oh come on. Call Mrs Vandom, she's met me."

Maria gave me a level look. "And I suppose you'll stay right here while I'm using the phone?"

"Look, I'm taking it on trust you're a police officer!"

She humphed. "Alright, I'll make you a deal. I'll call her if you sit in the back seat of the car while I do."

"Deal!"

"And you tell me your family name."

...Oh crab-baskets, as Irma might politely put it.

"Well?"

"That's... kind of complicated. Will says I can use Vandom but I don't think her Mom agrees. I don't have any other family name though."

"Oh come on." Now she looked like she wanted to cross her arms in frustration.

"Look, cross my heart and hope to die," I moved my finger across my chest in a sort of X-shape. "Stick a needle in my eye, I swear if I have ever had another family name I have no idea what it is!"

"That's... not how you cross your heart," she sighed and rubbed her forehead with the heel of her free hand. "Okay, just get in the back."

I had no sooner done so than she closed the door and did something fiddly with the lock of her door that locked both of the back doors. I was torn between surprise that anyone would build that into a car, sadness that there was so little trust in her that she thought it was necessary and irritation that I'd have to get out over the front seats if it came down to it.

Maria pulled out a notebook, leafed through it and then dialled a number that I was pretty sure was our home number. Well, the Vandom home number. I wasn't sure how welcome I'd be there now. Hopefully I could at least get a few things. The sleeping bag would be nice. Van Dahl's picture of me, which was up in my little loft, would be less useful, but meant more to me.

"Mrs. Vandom? This is Maria Medina, I'm with Interpol." Maria paused, listening to the reply. "Yes, it's about your daughter Will. I met her last night at the Lairs." More listening. "Run away, I see. Well I've just run into a girl who looks very much like her, but says she's called Hope."

A moment later Maria's eyebrows climbed up past the rims of her glasses. "Certainly." She reached back, offering me the handset.

I accepted cautiously. "Hello?"

"Is... is Will with you?" Mom asked tentatively.

"I'm sorry," I offered, rather inadequately I felt. "She's very... upset. I think she'll be back."

She hesitated and then, just as I was about to ask if she wanted to speak to Maria again, she asked: "Will you come back?"

I swallowed. "May I?"

She paused. "I want some answers, Hope."

Well I suppose it would have been too much to ask for. "I'll do my best. Assuming Interpol aren't going to lock me away for something or other..." I raised my eyebrows questioningly to Maria, who gestured for me to give her back her phone.

"Hello again..." She listened for a moment. "It's not quite that straightforward, Mrs. Vandom. As far as I can tell she's a runaway -"

"Running away from what?" I muttered rebelliously as she broke off again, and not due to my words.

"That could work, but what if she runs off again? Can you keep her under supervision at all times? ... No, I'm not suggesting putting her in a cell!" She looked up at me, holding the phone away from her ear. "If we take you back to Mrs. Vandom, will you stay with her?"

I hesitated, torn between a desire to say 'Yes, of course, forever if she'll have me!' and a fear of where that could lead. Shouting at me possibly. And now that she knew I wasn't Will, she'd have no reason at all to treat me kindly. I had deceived her, after all.

Maria shook her head and put the phone back. "I don't think -"

"I'll try!" I blurted.

She gave me a thoughtful look and then shrugged slightly. "Well, we can drop her off once my partner's done checking the Brown house. I'll set up a hospital appointment as soon as possible, we need to give her a complete check-up."

"Hospital?" I'd seen hospital shows on television. It looked like any number of awful things could happen there, with doctors always having to work miracles to save people.

Maria looked as if she wanted to laugh. "Okay, I'm not sure how long it'll take us to get to you. In the next hour or so, okay?" She hung up the phone. "I'm sure a tough girl like you isn't scared of hospitals."

I folded my arms and glared. After a minute she did giggle a little. "I bet you're used to getting your way everytime that you pout like that."

I was not pouting. "So you said Joel was your partner. Did you mean work or..." I trailed off teasingly.

She laughed again. "You little minx. The first; and if it was the second too then it wouldn't be any of your business."
D for Drakensis

You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.

[drakensis]

Joel drove fast and jerkily, I found. I wasn't sure exactly why, but I was glad of the seatbelt and gladder when he pulled up outside the apartment block. The lock on the door didn't move though until Maria was out of the car and waiting for me to get out.

"Where are the Browns?" he demanded once I'd pulled the latch of the door and at last it swung open for me.

I huffed. "I don't know." I wished that I did. It had been... well, maybe forty minutes? They'd be on the other side of the portal by now, of course, but how long would it take for them to reach the prison and what would they have to do there?

"One little girls missing," he grumbled. "Or tw and one that appears out of nowhere. What are you hiding from us?"

"Joel..." Maria's voice held a warning tone.

He turned back to look out the front of the car. "If anything happens to them, it'll be your fault for not helping us."

There didn't really seem to be a good answer to that. It might even be true, although I'm rather at a loss as to what he - or the entirety of Interpol - could have done about the situation and I wasn't about to ask any revealing questions. "Then I shall hope for a good anything, Mr. McTiennan, something I don't mind you blaming me for." I closed the door before he could reply.

Maria gave me a thoughtful look and then took my hand - at least it wasn't snaring me by the wrist this time - and led me to the door. We were barely inside when Mom came down the stairs.

"I saw you get out of the car," she explained and then gave me an awkward look before turning her head towards Maria. "Do you want to come up for a coffee?"

"That'd be lovely, but I'm going to have to turn in a report on this and get everything set up. How about I call you back once I know when the hospital can give Hope a check-up. We can talk then?"

Mom nodded in agreement and then reached out and took my free hand. "Come with me, Hope."

What else could I do but trail after her? I'd never, in my admittedly short experience, seen her like this.

She didn't say anything until we were in the apartment. She let go of my hand and pointed to a chair at the kitchen table. Once I was sat down, she took the opposite chair. "So you're Hope."

I nodded meekly.

After a moment Mom sighed. "I'm not going to hurt you."

How could I tell her that she already had? "I... you wanted answers. I'm not sure where to start."

"The beginning usually works."

"Oh. Well... I wasn't there for the beginning. I think it was... Halloweve?"

"Halloween?"

I nodded. "Yes, that's it."

"How does a girl your age not know Halloween?"

"I'm..." I calculated quickly, "Forty-three days old. I think I'm doing pretty well."

"Forty-three days?" She shook her head. "This isn't making any sense."

I groaned. "Okay, never mind that for now. There was a party at school for Halloweve."

"Halloween."

"Whatever. There was some trouble at the party, something about the fireworks I think. Some of the girls..." I paused and then realised there wasn't much point to trying to hide their identities since WIll had teleported them away. "Cornelia, Taranee, Irma and Hay Lin; had noticed that odd things were going on. Irma's dress changed colour. Cornelia's room tidied itself -"

"I wouldn't mind that sort of strange thing happening to Will's room every now and then."

I giggled. "Yes, well. That night all five of them dreamed of the Heart of Kandrakar."

"What's that?"

"You might have seen Will holding it just before we left. Pink glowing crystal in a silver setting?"

"I didn't get a good look before you disappeared," she said sadly. "Where did you go? That blue man - Vathek? - his home?"

"Well, not directly. To Metamoor, anyway. I don't know if Vathek even has a home of his own. Um. The two Interpol people didn't mention the disappearing so I suppose you didn't tell them about that?"

Mom shook her head. Her long black hair was almost as impressive when tossed like that as Cornelia's longer blonde locks. I felt pronounced hair envy: maybe I could grow my hair out someday? "No. Without evidence they'd just have assumed I was hysterical or lying. I wasn't sure about the first as it was."

I rubbed my head. "So they'd not believe in magic?"

"I rather doubt it. I'm not convinced myself."

That seemed a little odd. I'd literally never known an instant where magic wasn't a real factor in my life. Granted, a factor that I understood almost nothing at all about, but undeniably real. Then again, my life wasn't exactly typical. Then a more pressing concern presented itself and I blushed as my stomach rumbled.

Mom's expression shifted slightly. "Let me guess. No breakfast?"

I laughed awkwardly. "Not really. I was going to get some fruit but..."

She sighed and pointed at the fruit bowl. "Have something to tide you over. I'm sure we've got enough in the fridge to feed you for today... or we can order out if we have to."

I took an orange from the bowl and started to peel it.

"No wonder we've been going through so much food," she added after a minute. "I thought it was Will having her friends over all the time, not that I was feeding two teenage appetites full time."

"Sorry."

"It doesn't matter particularly, I was just thinking out loud. So you said that the girls all dreamed of the Heart of Candy-car?"

"Kandrakar," I corrected her mildly. "Yes, so they tell me. And the next day, when they were at Hay Lin's her grandmother had the Heart and explained they were Guardians of the Veil. There was lots of capitalisation being thrown around I guess."

"I think I'd like to have a word with her about dragging young girls into this," Mom declared angrily.

"Ah... that's probably not going to go so well. She died before I was created."

Mom made an angry noise that suggested to me that it might be for the best that Mrs. Lin wasn't around. If nothing else, Hay Lin and Will might have gotten dragged into the shouting.

"Anyway," I said hastily. "That's when Elyon disappeared. While the other girls were with Mrs. Lin, she'd gone to see a boy she met at the Halloween party. His name's Cedric and he's from Metamoor, another world ruled by Prince Phobos. I don't know exactly what happened but by that evening he'd convinced her she was Phobos' long-lost sister and that she should help him lure her friends into a trap. That was their first real battle and they barely escaped him. If they hadn't had the Heart and been able to transform... they might have been captured or worse."

"That's what worries me." She frowned. "Go back a bit, you said you were created?"

"Yes, this was a little later. Um, you remember when you had that cold and had to take a day off work?"

She nodded and then frowned. "Will went out that evening and didn't come back for hours! Was she off in this Metamoor place?"

"Ah... no, she was... chasing me down. Um. You see Taranee had been captured a couple of days before so the day before, everyone had gone into Metamoor to rescue her. Will had come up with the idea of creating Astral Drops which are sort of... magical puppets? She created one to take Taranee's place so her family wouldn't worry about her."

"A clone?"

"A what?"

"A clone. A... perfect copy of someone."

I shoved a couple of segments of orange into my mouth to give me time to think. "I suppose so," I agreed at last. "Although we're not exactly perfect copies. Anyway, since they didn't know how long it would take to find Taranee, they created Astral Drops for the rest of them before they went. So when you found Will asleep on the couch that night..."

"It was you?" she asked accusingly. "Oh that girl! Why didn't she tell me!?"

"..."

"What?" Her eyes were flashing with anger.

"Probably..." I gulped nervously. "Because she was afraid you'd do what you did this morning?"

To my horror, Mom's face crumpled from anger to anguish. "Oh god! What have I done!?" She buried her face in her hands. "Will's afraid of me!"

I went around the table and put my arms around her shoulders. It wasn't until she stiffened that I realised that that might not be the best idea. "She's afraid that you won't want her."

"How could she think that!? Will's everything to me!"

It wouldn't have been diplomatic to point out that at least while I'd known them, they'd also had at least one blazing row each week. Instead I hugged her tighter. "I know." There were tears in my own eyes. What would be left for me if Will never returned? What if my clumsiness this morning divided her from Mom forever? How could I ever forgive myself if that happened?

She put one arm around me. "You care for her too."

"Of course I do!"

She patted me on the back. "Let me up a moment."

Opening one of the cupboards she pulled out a dark green glass bottle and filled a glass with the dark red contents. It took me a moment to realise that it looked like what Van Dahl had been drinking when I first met him. "Is that wine?"

"Yes."

"Isn't that alcoholic?" I folded my arms. "Will said I shouldn't drink anything alcoholic. It's bad for me."

"It's not for you." She lifted the glass.

"Well if it's no good for me, how is it any good for you?"

Mom put the glass down. "You're too young to drink. What was it, forty-five days?"

"Forty-three. So I'm younger and probably healthier. Either pour me a drink or you don't have any either." I was not having Will come back and find out her Mom was ill for drinking something she shouldn't.

"Are you... I'm a grown woman! You're being ridiculous!" She gave the glass a guilty look and then looked back at me.

I did my best to look stern and unbending. Which probably wasn't very good, really.

She threw up her hands. "Alright." Mom poured the contents of the glass down the sink and put the bottle away. "So Will doesn't approve of drinking? That's reassuring."

"I think it's more that she doesn't think that you do."

"I don't as a rule." Mom looked defensive. "We were talking about you, weren't we?"

I let her get away with the change of subject - better to quit while I was ahead I felt. "Yes, we were. The thing is... well, Astral Drops are supposed to have all their template's memories. Taranee's did a wonderful job of replacing her, no one suspected a thing and Will... didn't particularly like the idea of someone being able to replace her."

"So she made herself a sister instead?"

"Not exactly. Or at least not intentionally. The rest of the Astral Drops were as intended: they knew who they were supposed to be and didn't have any objection to being re-absorbed once the Guardians came back. But WIll made a mistake with me: she didn't give me any of her memories."

"But surely you must have had some idea, or how could you have fooled me that day? Or got through school?" Mom shook her head. "You took a maths test that day, and you did quite well, didn't you?"

"I had some basics. Talking, writing, riding a bike. Besides that I was lucky and... well, honestly? Why would you suspect Will had been replaced by an Astral Drop?"

"I suppose not. So how did things go from you replacing her for a day to her chasing you that night?"

I grimaced. "Well, I'm not all that keen on being reabsorbed into her. I had a taste of being alive and I wanted more. So when she got back I ran away."

Mom moved closer and cupped her hand around my neck. "Where would you have gone?"

"Well I was going to try to get to Metamoor. I'm not sure how bright an idea that was now that I've been there, but I was mostly concerned with getting away from Will. I figured she'd not be able to find me there."

"How would you have got there? Magic?"

"There are portals. One of the things the Guardians do is close them, but I didn't know that at the time, just that Will and the others had used one to get there, so I tried to do the same thing. Of course, they'd closed it when they got back." I shrugged. "Will found me while I was still trying to figure out what was going on."

"And she decided to take in another stray?" asked Mom ruefully.

I... hadn't thought of it like that before. But no, she'd called me her sister. That had to be different from her decision to keep Mr Huggles around, didn't it?

Mom pulled me closer and wrapped her other arm around my shoulders. "I have to admit that I was expecting her to be a bit older before she brought someone else into the family. And I've no idea how we're going to explain this to the police."

What?

"But there's going to be some ground rules, young lady."

She didn't mean...?

"Uh... you mean I can stay?" I asked nervously.

Mom kissed me on the forehead. "Welcome to the family, Hope. You're grounded."

I don't think I could have come up with anything to say so I hugged her back. What did being grounded matter? Being forced to spend a lot of time in the apartment? That wasn't exactly unexplored territory for me.

She ruffled my hair. "We're going to have to figure out some new sleeping arrangements though. I had a look at that little loft of yours. It's very cleverly put together, but it's not good enough for my daughter."

"It's alright."

"No, it's not," Mom insisted. "It's a pokey little hole. If Will hadn't felt she had to hide you from me, you could have had a proper bed at least. Not a pile of cushions and a sleeping bag." She produced a handkerchief from her sleeve and wiped at my face. I hadn't even realised I was crying.

"Can I..."

She took the handkerchief away and raised one eyebrow.

"Can I call you Mom?"

"I insist on it," she told me and then we both needed to use the handkerchief.
D for Drakensis

You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.

[drakensis]

For now Mom settled on Will and I sharing the double-bed from her room, so we worked together to switch the beds between bedrooms. She didn't mention for a moment the possibility that Will might not come back to share the bed with me. Nor did I. It didn't bear thinking about.

I was up in the loft, rolling up my sleeping bag, when the phone rang.

"Hold on a moment, Hope." Mom climbed down the ladder - she'd sniffed dismissively at the rope and when I protested, she'd asked archly what it was I'd fallen from this morning - and left the bedroom.

The sleeping bag wasn't particularly breakable so once it was rolled up, I dangled it out of the hatch and flipped it in the direction of the bed. It unrolled partly as it fell and bounced on the mattress. One at a time I flung the cushions I'd been sleeping on after the bag. Without them up here, there really wasn't much left: Van Dahl's drawing, a night-light Will had set up for me and three books that I'd have to take back to the library some time soon.

It all seemed much less cozy now than it had this morning.

"I did ask you to hold on a moment," Mom told me from the door. "Did you leave anything up there?"

"Just the breakables."

"Well pass those down carefully." She climbed the steps again and I passed her the night-light first.

"Is there a plug socket up there for this?"

"No," I answered, "But Will has a way with electrical appliances." I decided not to mention that Giles (the light) would also read to me sometimes when I was tired. All I had to do was hold the book under him and turn the pages when he told me to. It was sometimes comforting when I was lonely up in the loft, and it wasn't as if I had to worry about anyone but Will hearing his voice. I waited until she had both hands on the lamp before letting go and carefully removing the pins holding the drawing of me to a rafter. "Who was on the phone?"

"Matt Olsen. He was wondering why Will hadn't turned up for work at his grandfather's shop... What's this?" asked Mom when I passed her the drawing.

"It was a present," I told her shortly. "Please be careful with it."

"I will." She climbed down and rested it on the computer keyboard. "It's lovely, did Hay Lin draw this?"

I gathered up the books, ready to hand them down. "No, it was a Mr. Van Dahl."

Mom didn't reach up to take the books. "Wi- er, Hope. How did a man happen to draw a picture of you sleeping?" she asked, putting her hands on her hips.

"Well I was sleeping on his bed..." I saw her face going red and flinched. "Er... did I do something wrong?"

"And did anything else happen in that bed?"

I thought frantically. "I don't think so? What else would happen in a bed?"

Mom muttered something I didn't quite catch. "Hope, did Will ever mention anything to you about the birds and the bees?"

I gave her a blank look.

"How about boys and girls and where babies come from?"

"You mean romantic stuff? Um... does talking about Matt count?"

"I rather doubt it." She shook her head and then reached up for the books. "I think we'd better have a little chat about this young lady. There are a few things about boys - and men - that any girl your age ought to know before she gets herself into trouble."

Why did I have a feeling of impending doom?

W.I.T.C.H. - W.I.T.C.H. - W.I.T.C.H. - W.I.T.C.H. - W.I.T.C.H.

"I solemnly swear... no boy touches my unclad body... until I am at least sixteen... Is that sixteen counting from November?" I asked, realising a slight possible conflict between what I was reciting and my actual circumstances. Sixteen years from the date of my creation would be after Will's twenty-ninth birthday.

"Let's count that as your thirteenth birthday, Hope. Mind you, I wouldn't be upset if you waited a good bit more than three years, but that's all I'm insisting on."

"For the next three years, then... and either you or Will gives me a second opinon... cross my heart..." Mom stopped me and moved my hand through what was apparently the proper way of doing that. "...and hope to die."

"Good girl," she assured me and returned the banana to the fruitbowl. Seeing my horrified look, she removed it again and threw it into the bin. "That's enough about that I think. Now how about some... goodness, it's still more or less lunch time. Well, I don't know about you but I'm hungry."

Within a few minutes, the makings of some sizeable sandwiches were spread out across the table. Almost mystically my appetite had returned after vanishing about halfway through Mom's description of childbirth.

"I think we're going to have to talk about what to tell the police," Mom decided, spreading some butter over some thick slices of bread. "They will want to know where you are from and if they can't find some confirmation, I doubt they'll be too happy about me adopting you."

I drew my attention away from the important business of layering cold chicken over some cheese and ham on my own plate. "Well I don't imagine that it would be a good idea to lie to them..."

"It would be a very bad idea. The only reason I'm even considering it is that letting anyone know that Will is a Guardian of the Veil might put her in even more danger." She held up one hand. "And discussion of that part of your sister's life will have to wait until she returns."

I rubbed my hands. "Oh that's going to be fun?"

"And what do you mean by that?"

"Just that you both tend to finish 'discussions' shouting at each other."

Mom looked pained. "I know," she admitted. "But now she doesn't have to hide everything in her life from me. Maybe that will make things better."

"I hope so. Just... try to keep your temper in check? Please?"

"My temper?"

"Well you're the adult..."

She dropped her knife and gave me a look that I wasn't sure how to interpret. "You're going to take some getting used to, I can tell."

"Uh..." What was I supposed to say to that? "Maybe we should tell the police enough about the truth for them to draw their own conclusions," I suggested, going back to the previous topic of conversation. "It's perfectly true that I met Will, Irma, Cornelia and Hay Lin at Shell Cave and that I have no memory of anything before then. And Will really did bring me home from there and hid me from you for the last six weeks. If the police want to go looking for my past before that... well, let them."

She nodded and started adding honey to her bread. "That could work. There is one lead that they could follow though."

I gave her a blank look.

"Do you have any idea what a blood test of you will show? Or a DNA test?"

"I don't even know what they are... I mean... I probably have blood, but I'm not quite as... real as Will is." I didn't dwell on the differences, we'd already established that I hadn't had what Mom had delicately described as a 'monthly visitor' yet, whereas Will had started the year before. If Elyon's spell was still working and it performed as intended then I would probably get to 'enjoy' that too, sooner or later.

Mom nodded. "Mostly they'll be checking your blood for traces of disease and of drugs..."

"Drugs?"

"That's a conversation for another day, I think. The point is though, that they might well find anomalies that will suggest that you aren't... normal. And if that isn't a problem, your DNA will be copied from Will, which will show you to be my daughter and Tony's. I don't know what will happen if he gets contacted about this."

"Tony?"

"Will's father and my former husband." Mom looked sad. "I hate to say it, but I'd rather he never learned of you."

I nodded. "Well there's not much we can do about the medical tests except react to whatever they find as if we don't know it. Which will be easy because..."

"...we don't." She nodded her understanding. "It seems a little chancy."

"I seems very chancy. No offense, Mom, but if someone suggests cutting me open to try to answer any questions raised then I'm going to run away. Probably to Metamoor."

"I'm fairly sure that that only happens in the X-Files, Hope, but if they do try then I'll be with you."

The heartwarming moment was interrupted by the phone ringing again. "We're popular today. No, never mind, I've got it," I added when Mom started to get up.

The phone was just through in the living room. "Vandom Residence?"

"Will?" a man's voice asked. "It's Dean Collins."

I fought down the urge to drop the phone. He may have given me a B on the history report, but that wasn't buying me off for being mad at him giving it to me in the first place. "It's not Will."

"Susan? You're sounding..."

"Not Mom either. Do you want to talk to her?"

"Er... yes please."

"Mom! Confused guy on the phone for you!"

She gave me a look that would have been more intimidating if it wasn't the twinkle in her eye as she took the phone off me. "Hello? ... Oh, Dean!"

I was on my way back to my sandwich when she said, "Don't be silly. Hope and I were just having lunch. Why don't you come over in an hour or so. I'm sure she'd love to meet you."

"We've met," I murmured, hopefully quietly enough that the phone wouldn't pick it up.

Mom arched an eyebrow in a way that I realised meant she'd want to know all about that, and soon. Oops. Hopefully Will wouldn't get into trouble over cutting class that day. Well, too much trouble. I was still a little annoyed about her running off to go swimming, even if it was a plot by Elyon and Cedric.

"She's a friend of Will's but she's all alone in the world, Dean. I'm going to adopt her."

I didn't think that that was quite true, but I guess any talent I have for deception had to come from somewhere."

"Okay, I'll see you in an hour or so," Mom finished and put the phone down. "So when did you -"

The phone rang again. We exchanged looks and she picked it up. "Susan Vandom speaking. ... Oh, Agent Medina!"

Great. The call about the hospital check-up.

"Just let me get a pen..." Mom noted down some information. "Okay, we'll see you there." She didn't put the phone down this time, just tapping the release and then dialling another number. "I'm going to call work and let them know I'll not be in tomorrow morning either. You finish your lunch, and you can either plan what you're going to tell Agent Medina about yourself or what you're going to tell me about meeting Dean."

What a decision...

W.I.T.C.H. - W.I.T.C.H. - W.I.T.C.H. - W.I.T.C.H. - W.I.T.C.H.

Dean Collins smiled somewhat uncertainly as I opened the door. "Ah, Will! I gather you have a new sister."

I shrugged. "I'm the new sister. Will's out."

He didn't come in when I stepped back from the door, instead giving me a disbelieving look. "Really?"

"I suppose you'll see when she gets back. Are you coming in or not?"

"Oh, uh, yes." He obediently came in and I waved him towards the lounge where Mom was waiting.

She greeted him with a happy "Dean!" and for a moment I overlaid the image of Will and Matt over them - not that there seemed to be much of an actual relationship going on there, at least that I'd noticed. But somehow, if it did work out, I thought that they might be like these two. So this was romance...

Somehow I couldn't see myself in such a role, but perhaps - as Mom had implied - I was still simply too young, in heart if not body, for such a thing. I could wait.

"I see you've met Hope," she told him after they'd clasped hands for a moment.

"Yes," he agreed, still sounding uncertain.

"For the second time, she tells me."

Professor Collins blinked and turned towards me, a questioning look on my face.

"Third time, technically," I clarified. "We met twice one day - you thought I was Will, which was kind of intentional since we were hiding my existence."

"Well... I can see how I'd fall for that. The resemblence is uncanny."

"You're not the only one they fooled," Mom agreed. "Apparently I've had two daughters since November and neither felt they ought to tell me."

"We're going to be paying for that for a long time, aren't we?" I asked.

"Yes, you are. In your case, you're going to have a lot of school to catch up on."

"I've been working on that!"

"I know and I am pleased about that, but you can't educate yourself as well from books as organised teaching can. Once school starts again, you're going to be taking some placement tests, young lady."

"I'm sure Principal Knickerbocker would be delighted to arrange that," offered Professor Collins. "I assume you'd like Hope to attend Sheffield Institute with Will?"

Mom nodded. "You already have friends there, don't you, Hope?"

"Mostly Will's friends, but yes."

"Well that should work out then," Collins said confidently. "I can talk to the Principal and I'm sure that something can be set up next week once school's back in session."

Then Mom leant forwards and asked a question I'd hoped that she wouldn't think of. "So, Hope, when you met Dean twice in one day, was one of those times at school?"

...rats. I need to learn to keep my mouth shut about incriminating details. "Let's just say there was one history class where Will might have said something unfortunate to you if pressed. She really wasn't too happy that you and Mom were talking about her grades, particularly behind her back."

They exchanged glances. "Well it's not as if I don't have an interest," Mom protested.

"I'm not trying to get into that argument again," I assured her. "Just... if you're upset about my grades I'd rather hear about it before it's used as an arguement against my doing something other than studying."

Mom flushed and Dean chuckled lightly, although he cut off sharply when she turned her head in his direction. "You know your own mind, don't you?"

I shrugged.

"I promise to talk about it with you, as long as I get the chance to," Mom assured me. "Between my work and Will always running off with her friends, I don't always have that opportunity."

Once I spread my hands slightly to concede her point, she added: "I can already tell you're going to be keeping me and Will in line."

I pointed at myself and gave her the 'who, me?' look. You all know the one.

Mom laughed. "And who was it who was giving me a hard time over a glass of wine earlier? I feel for my future grandchildren."

"I am not in any hurry." I shuddered. Mom's description of giving birth to Will had been... detailed.

That got a laugh from both of them. "Nor am I, sweetheart." Mom gave me a hug. "So why don't you tell Dean about what subjects you like at school..."
D for Drakensis

You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.

[drakensis]

*Hope!*

I sat bolt upright as I heard Taranee's voice inside my head. *Taranee? You're back?*

"Hope, are you okay?" Mom asked, breaking off her conversation with Collins.

"Bathroom," I said hastily, dropping my spoon into the bowl of soup I'd been eating and running for that room. *Is everyone okay?* Her mental voice sounded fainter than I remembered it.

*We're okay. I can't talk long at this distance though. Are you okay? Miss Rudolph said she hadn't seen you!*

The news took a weight off my chest that I hadn't realised until it was gone. They were safe! *I'm with Mom and Professor Collins at home,* I explained quickly. *I'll fill you in once you're closer, but I think things are going to work out.*

*That's good. Do my parents know?* she thought worriedly.

*Not yet.* I'm not sure she heard me though. She didn't reply.

When I looked in the mirror I realised that there were tears running down my face. I wasn't sad or afraid any more, but now I was crying? "Silly," I told my reflection and used a cloth to wipe them away.

"Are you okay in there?" Mom opened the door a crack and saw my face.

'Will's safe', I mouthed quickly, before she could get the wrong idea. I mopped at my face again. "I'm sorry, everything just hit me at once."

"Oh honey, it's going to be okay." She put her arms around me.

"I know... I... I'm just crying for some reason."

Mom took the cloth and helped me dab away the tears. "It's been a bit of a strange day, hasn't it?"

I nodded jerkily.

Collins cleared his throat from outside the room. "Is there anything I could do to help?" he asked nervously.

"Put some plates over our bowls, Dean. We may be a moment or two." She waited until his footsteps told us he'd gone back to the kitchen. "He's a sweet guy," she confided. "I wish that Will could see that."

I didn't say anything.

"You don't like him either?"

Great. "I'm not getting involved in this, Mom."

"You're part of this family, you are involved."

"Mom... okay, look. The first time I met him, I'd really been excited about going to school. It wasn't something I'd been able to do: Will really didn't have to talk me into it, I was happy to. I could go out, meet our friends, have new experiences. And then, first class, history. I left that class feeling about two inches tall. I know he isn't always like that... but when I look at him I just can't forget that class."

"It was that bad?"

"It felt that way." I took her arm as she started to head towards the door. "Look, since then he's been okay and I get that no one's perfect. Don't make a big deal about it."

Mom scowled. "It is a big deal, Hope. It doesn't matter if it's you or Will, no one gets to have a go at my daughters."

"I think Vathek got off lucky then." Oops. I probably should not have said that.

"Oh really?" Mom took a seat on the toilet and gestured for me to sit down on the edge of the bath. "So what's your history with him?"

"Well, not so much personally. I met him in Metamoor after he joined the rebels there. The thing is, before that he worked for Cedric."

"This would be one of the enemies?" asked Mom. "I have to admit I have trouble seeing someone called Cedric as a problem."

"You wouldn't say that if you saw him. He's this horrible snake-man thing." I shivered. "And however bad Professor Collins was, he's a thousand times meaner. He had Elyon threaten to kill me if I didn't steal the Heart of Kandrakar for him."

"And Vathek worked for that monster?" Mom exclaimed. "How could you possibly have anything to do with him?"

"Well he stood up to him later. And he was pretty nice when I met him. I wasn't feeling so well after... uh, after coming through the portal so he carried me around on his shoulder most of the time."

"Well I suppose that that was nice of him." She still looked unhappy though. "It does leave me with a few questions though: why did the portal leave you unwell, why were you in Metamoor anyway and why is this Phobos your enemy. From what you say, Elyon is his sister..."

"Yes. And if he'd just taken her back and stayed there probably no one would have ever known. But she kept coming back, baiting the others and luring them into traps. From what we've seen, Phobos is a tyrant. We don't know for sure what he's after but with the way he keeps trying to bring down the Veil between worlds he wants to come here. And I don't think he's planning on bringing cookies and tea."

"This sounds more and more like a chidren's cartoon."

"That'd be nice."

Mom gave me a look. "How do you mean?"

"I've seen those things! No one's ever really hurt and they always end with a laugh." I hung my head. "I guess real life isn't that neat and tidy."

"Well maybe it is this time," Mom suggested. "You said that Will's okay, right? Are the others?"

I nodded. "That's what Taranee said."

"How did she tell you? Some sort of magical telephone?"

"She's a telepath - you know, speaking to me with her mind."

"A telepath!" Mom shook her head. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. So they all have powers like that? Can she tell you when they'll be back?"

I spread my hands. "We're outside her usual range, she barely got through with a quick message to me. They're going to come here though. I expect they'll check with me once they're closer to see if it's safe to come in."

"Why wouldn't it be safe?"

I nodded towards the door. "Do you want him here for the explanations?"

Mom froze for a moment. "I..."

"Imagine, for a moment, having what's likely to be a... um... emotional discussion with Will, with him in the room," I suggested. I could imagine it all too well.

She sighed. "I guess not."
D for Drakensis

You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.

[drakensis]

We found Dean in the kitchen, sitting awkwardly as if he were unsure if he was allowed to go anywhere else.

"Dean, I'm sorry, I'm not being a very good hostess today."

The teacher shook his head in denial. "Being a good hostess isn't as important as being a good mother, Susan. I understand that." He nodded to the covered bowls in front of our seats. "I'm afraid they might need to be reheated though."

"Well that's why we have a microwave." Mom took our bowls over to it. Once her hands were free again she pulled her cellphone out of her hip pocket. "Will texted me to let me know she's on her way home. I imagine she'll be a little while yet, but once she gets here I think I'm going to have to lay down the law a bit."

Professor Collins looked at her for a moment and then caught the hint. "Ah. Not the sort of conversation that would be helped by having someone she sees as an interloper around?"

"I feel rotten about this when I invited you over, but..."

"It's alright. Don't be too hard on her, Susan. After all, you have been talking about her needing to be responsible and I think it's hard to say she's taken too little responsibility by caring for Hope - more in the other direction," he finished with a nod in my direction.

I felt my cheeks colour slightly. "I can pull my own weight."

"I'm not saying you haven't," Professor Collins assured me. "I'm just pointing out that Will must have too."

The microwave dinged merrily and I - but not the two adults - heard it declare proudly: "All done!"

"Yeah, yeah," the stove grumbled. The pair of appliances seemed to have something of a rivalry.

Collins rose to his feet. "I'll see of I can talk to Mrs. Knickerbocker tonight about Hope's placement tests."

"On a Friday night?" asked Mom in surprise.

"If the last couple of years are any guide, she'll be getting an early start making sure that the school is ready for Monday morning," he advised us. "I think Sheffield Institute's more a home to her than her house is."

"I'm sorry," Mom said again to him.

"And I'm happy to help."

"Why don't you walk him downstairs, Mom?" I suggested. "I can take care of the soup."

She gave me a grateful look and once they had departed I put her bowl back in the microwave and dug into my own. I'm not saying it was the greatest soup ever made (it was from a tin, after all), but it was warm and filling, which was what I wanted right now. It also wasn't Mom's homemade soup, about which the less said the better. I might not have the widest range of experience when it came to food but I knew that Will and Taranee were competing in tales of culinary disasters by Mom and Mr Cook and that wasn't a good sign.

I'd finished the bowl and was running the tap to give it a quick soak before I put it in the dishwasher when the apartment door opened and Mom called: "Hello Hope, look who I found outside."

"Will?" I guessed. Wasn't Taranee going to give me a mental call when they were close?

"I'll give you partial credit for that."

"Hi Hope," Will grumbled as she was marched into the kitchen, along with the other four Guardians. "We got caught."

"No kidding. At least it wasn't Cedric or Frost," I pointed out. "Welcome home."

"Frost?" asked Mom. "Another of Phobos's people I take it?"

"I guess Hope explained about that," Cornelia sighed. "Yes. Nasty fellow who used to ride around on a rhinoceros-monster until Will left it locked in Van Dahl's painting.

"He was really nice once Frost wasn't on top of it," my sister reminisced.

There were a succession of eye rolls. I dreaded the possibility that Cedric one day thought to send a frog-monster after the Guardians - Will would probably be too busy cooing over it to do anything useful.

"The phone's in the lounge," Mom reminded the other girls pointedly. "Don't you have phone calls to make?"

"Yes, Mrs. Vandom," Irma, Taranee, Taranee and Hay Lin chorused, obediently. There was something odd about Irma's clothes and it took me a moment to realise that her sweater was definitely too tight for her.

"Irma, where did you get those clothes?" She hadn't had any except for her Guardian uniform, last time I'd seen her.

"I borrowed them from Elyon's wardrobe," she explained. "Why? I'll put them through the laundry before I put them back."

"Are you going to fix that seam too?" I asked her, pointing at one armpit, where the strain of containing someone noticeably more 'developed' than Elyon (or the rest of us) had evidently pulled something loose. (In fairness, I think Irma was just sturdily built as well. Elyon's kind of willowy).

"Er..."

Mom rolled her eyes. "Come with me Irma. Will's clothes won't fit you either but I guess I can lend you a T-shirt."

"So what are they making phone calls for?" I asked Will quietly once everyone else had left the kitchen.

"Mom told them they could call home and arrange to have dinner here while I explain about the Guardians or she could call their homes and explain she'd seen us run off with a shady looking guy. So why didn't you go to Miss Rudolph?"

"I was detained by the police before I even reached the street," I explained quickly. "They seemed to know you - Maria and Joel?"

"Oh, those Interpol people from yesterday! Do you think they suspect anything?"

"I'm sure they suspect something, but it's probably not the truth. Oh, they're probably going to ask some questions about how you found me down at that cave with no memories."

Will blinked. "What? They know about you!?"

"Yep. Mom's been very understanding."

"I knew she'd like you." Her face fell. "She must be furious."

"I think she's past that. Mind you, she still grounded me."

"That's so harsh!" Hay Lin exclaimed as she came back in. "How long for?"

"Pretty much until she says otherwise." I shrugged. "It's not a big deal: she's seeing about getting me into school too so I'll probably actually be getting out much more than I'm used to."

"But only to school. That's harsh," Will pointed out. "Do you think she's going to ground me too?"

We looked at each other. We both nodded.

"That's so cute!" Hay Lin declared. "Not being grounded," she added hastily, "But doing things together like that."

"I think you might want to focus on getting an exemption to your grounding for being a Guardian," I suggested hastily to Will. Who knew how long Mom would be with Irma?

Will looked surprised. "You think she'll agree to it?"

"I didn't say that it would be easy."

We were interrupted by an appalled shriek from Mom's bedroom: "No, you can't!"

The two of us were only a hair behind Hay Lin as we burst into the room. Irma - now wearing a Vance Michael Justin T-shirt that I hadn't even known that Mom had - was actually white-faced. "My dad's a cop!" she exclaimed. "He'll lock me away forever if he finds out about this."

"The fact that he's a police officer is precisely why you should have told him," Mom pointed out firmly. "Something like this should be dealt with by the police - or perhaps the army. Not young girls like you - or a single mother like me either." She made a shooing gesture. "Now, back into the lounge. Irma still has a phone call to make."

"Mom, you can't just tell everyone about this!"

"I most certainly can," she shot Will down firmly, but then raised her hand. "However, you'll get your chance to dissaude me in a few minutes. I admit I don't know everything, so I'm going to hear you all out first. But I'm warning you, you're going to have to have some pretty good reasons for me not to tell the authorities and I really can't think of anything you might say that wouldn't justify me telling your parents. What if one of you didn't come back from one of these... things that you do? Can you imagine how they would feel, never knowing what happened to their daughters?"

I'm not sure how much of that WIll actually listend to because her response was to stab an accusatory finger at the bed in Mom's room. "Is that my bed?"

"We don't have a third bed, Will, so you and Hope will be sharing for now."

"Sharing a bed!"

"No daughter of mine is sleeping in that pokey little hole."

"Okay..."

I caught Will's shoulder and pulled her out of the room. "Look at it this way," I whispered. "Now she has a single bed, she can't share it with anyone."

Will's eyes went wide. "Ew! I don't even want to think about that!"

"She gave me an extensive talking to about boys this morning." I put my hands on my hips. "I may be traumatised."

"Your Mom gave you The Talk!?" exclaimed Irma. She gave me a sympathetic hug. "Don't worry, we'll help you get over it. Hey, now that you're not a secret maybe I can set you up with Martin!"

"I wouldn't dream of spoiling your beautiful relationship," I told her sweetly.

"We're not in a relationship!"

"But you went on a date and everything."

"There was no everything! He took me to the Museum, as a friend! And only because my stupid Astral Drop agreed to it!"

"So you want to pawn him off on me?"

"Well it'd let you break into dating the easy way..."

Cornelia raised on eyebrow as we walked into the lounge. "Whatever she's trying to sell you, Hope, don't buy it."

"I wasn't planning to," I assured her. "So your parents are okay with you staying for dinner?"

She nodded. "Of course. So how did things work out here?"

"As far as anyone but Mom goes, you girls found me in that cave down on the beach and I don't remember anything before then."

"That should be easy to remember."

"Of course if she decideds to tell the police the truth, I guess that's not going to matter," I added.

"The truth? As in... all about us?" Cornelia's voice had a definite squeak to it. "But everyone would think we're freaks."

"Hey, we're like, superheroes!" protested Irma. "Are you done on the phone, Taranee?"

The other Guardian gave her weary look. "I promise, Mom, I won't be out late and you can call me here any time," she said into the phone. "Sure, I'll call you to pick me up when we're done. ... No later than eight, I promise. ... I love you too, Mom." Taranee handed the phone over to Irma. "Mom's going to kill me when she finds out about my being a Guardian."

I patted her reassuringly on the shoulder, trying to think of something to say. 'You can have my pokey little loft to hide in,' probably wouldn't have the right ring to it and besides, Mom knew about it now. Apparently a verbal response wasn't required because she leant against me and began to sniffle. I very cautiously put my arms around her shoulders and manuvered her towards the couch. Will perched on the corner so she could hug Taranee from the other side and Cornelia sat herself neatly beside me.

Mom waited until Irma had finished talking her mother into letting her stay for dinner and then waved the other to onto the other couch. "So, from what Hope tells me, your grandmother gave Will the Heart of Kandrakar and that's what gives you..." She looked lost for words for a moment. "Magic powers? And then this Phobos character started sending people after you?"

"It's not grandma's fault!" Hay Lin protested.

"Ah..." That wasn't what I'd said? Was it?

"Let them speak, Hope."

*That's not what I told her!* I thought, hoping that Taranee would be listening.

"We had powers before Mrs. Lin told us about the Guardians," Cornelia insisted quickly. "Taranee protected Irma and Will from the fireworks that went wild at the Halloween Party."

"Yeah!" Irma agreed. "And the minute Cedric had his claws into Elyon he had her help him set a trap for him. We'd never even heard of him, but he and Vathek would have captured me, Hay Lin and Will the next night if Will hadn't used the Heart to transform us!"

Mom's expression tightened. "Yes, that's more or less what Hope told me. I rather hoped that she was wrong."

She set me up!

"I'm sorry, sweetheart, but I had to be sure." She leant against the wall. "Dammit."

"Mom?" Will sounded about as shocked as I was. Mom swearing?

"So much for Plan A, which was to sling the two of you in the car and get as far away from Heatherfield as possible. And recommending to your parents," she looked at the others. "Do exactly the same, but in different directions."

"You can't!" at least three different protests arose.

"No, I can't. Because it seems fairly obvious that Phobos would keep trying to get at you so you wouldn't be any safer than you are now. And that's what matters here, girls. This magic kingdom or whatever it is got itself into a mess all by itself and that's very sad but there is no way on God's Earth that it's worth putting your lives at risk. Will's not even fourteen yet -"

There was a mumbled "Two more weeks," from my sister that everyone ignored.

"- and I don't recall any of you being much older - if any. You ought to be worrying about schoolwork and boys liking you, not something like this."

"I do worry about those things," Irma pointed out.

"You worry enough about school for both of us," Will added rather pointedly.

"Will, honestly how much of the trouble we've been having these past couple of months has been because you were doing all this on top of all this?"

"Mom, this is more important than that!"

"And other circumstances - where you weren't putting your life at risk and hiding it from me - I would be very impressed that you've taken responsibility for something important. In fact, I am impressed. But I still don't want you doing this. You're not a soldier! None of you are!"

"Elyon's my friend," pointed out Cornelia. "And she needs my help. Say you go to the government and say that they believe you... do you really think they'll care about one girl who isn't even from Earth in the first place? And incidentally? How are you going to convince them of anything without evidence? I won't give you any."

"Young lady..."

"Mom!" I spoke up quickly. Tempers were obviously getting high. "Can we have a moment?"

I don't know what she saw when she looked at me but it convinced her to nod. "Help me get some drinks then. What would you girls like?"

We took orders and withdrew into the kitchen.

"What is it, Hope?"

"Mom, I'm not sure how to put this, but..."

She opened the cupboard for glasses. "Start at the beginning?"

"It's sort of the other end. Look, if comes to the point that Will has to choose between you and the others, I don't see how it'll do anything but hurt all three of us."

The colour fled her face and one of the glasses hit the floor and shattered.

"Mom!?" Will called.

"Just a glass," I called back when Mom didn't answer.

"You think she'd leave?" Mom asked in a small voice. I wasn't sure if there should have been an 'us' or a 'me' at the end of that, but it didn't really matter in this case. Will had at least considered it earlier and while I'd decided to stay and try to work things out for her... if it became a permanent decision then I'd be going with Will.

Whether she wanted me to or not.

"I hope not. But if it comes to that, however she chooses... she will hold it against you forever."

"At least she'll be alive!"

"We don't know that either. She could be a Guardian for the rest of her life and never get so much as a scratch... or she could quit it and be hit by a car the next day. I know neither of those is the most likely but, we do know that if she has to make that choice then she'll be desperately unhappy."

"And would you?"

I looked away. "This isn't about me, Mom. It'd be her choice."

"What would you do?"

"In her shoes? Or yours?"

There was a long pause.

"I don't know, Mom. I don't want her hurt either, but it's her life. If she goes... I'll do my best to look after her."

Mom looked down at the broken glass. "I seem to be breaking everything today."

"You haven't broken anything important." There was a 'yet' that hung unspoken between us. I went to the store cupboard and found a dustpan and brush. "I'll get the glass cleaned up."

"Remember to bag the glass - we don't want it cutting through the bin-bags," Mom 'reminded' me and I got a paper bag to contain the shards against that possibility.

"Girls," I heard Mom say as she took a tray of drinks through into the lounge. "I've been looking at this from the wrong end. Why don't you just tell me about what you've been doing as Guardians. I shouldn't try to make decisions when I don't really know what's been going on."

I hid a smile as I rejoined them in the room and saw Irma giving an animated description of how she'd rescued Will from Elyon's water tentacle. (Literally animated, she was using water in her glass to show the way it had happened).

One crisis averted. Hopefully the next couple of dozen would be as 'easy'.
D for Drakensis

You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.

[drakensis]

I'll spare you the recitation of the hospital visit. If you're at least my age you've probably been through the like or in some cases (I'm thinking of you guys) you really don't want to hear about it. About the only redeeming factor was that Mom and Will were there with me, since the doctors insisted Will went through the same tests (I think they just wanted to make sure that we weren't switching places to mess with their results) and even Mom had some tests done.

And then came the moment I'd been dreading: Me, Mom and Will sitting across a table in the police station from agents Maria Medina and Joel McTiernan of Interpol.

Mom had agreed to go with the original plan of pretending I had amnesia, at least until the others' parents had been told about their being Guardians, but that meant we'd all be lying - or at least be skating very carefully around the truth - to the police. If we got caught... then I get the impression that Mom would have a really hard time adopting me.

"So, Hope." Maria gave me a disarming look. "Are you ready to tell us where you come from?"

I put my head in my hands. "Remember yesterday when you asked about my family name?"

"Yes, and I understand that you've won Mrs. Vandom over onto your side of that?" She smiled to take the sting out of that.

Mom took my hand and squeezed it slightly while Will put her hand on my shoulder briefly. "I was more meaning the bit where I told you that as far as I know, I don't have any other family name."

She nodded.

"Well, that goes for pretty much everything else. I don't remember a family or a home. Heck, when Will found me I honestly didn't even realise I looked like her until she told me."

Joel made a disgusted noise. "Amnesia? Really? You couldn't come up with a story better than the sort of rubbish they put in kid's cartoons?"

I looked over at Will. "You see? I told you we should have come up with a lie instead."

"No lying to the police, Hope," Mom told me firmly.

I shrugged. "I'm sorry, but I really don't have any memories before then. If you have some way of shaking some loose then I'd be delighted to try anything short of being cut apart for samples. Believe me, you can't possibly be as curious about the answers as I am."

"You might be surprised," grated Joel. "Anyway, if you have amnesia how do you know your own name?"

"I don't, Cornelia hung Hope on me a month back. It's better than not having one."

"We had to have something to put on your christmas presents," Will added.

Maria rolled her eyes slightly. "Let's start with what you do remember. So where did you first meet Will?"

"Shell Cave - it's on a little beach not far along the coast. I guess it's a bit of a hang-out for couples - lots of names scratched into the stone."

That got me nods. "Can you point it out on a map?"

"I guess. I haven't seen a lot of maps but I'm pretty sure I could figure it out."

"Okay. I'll get back to you on doing that. What were you there for, Will?"

"Uh, getting the grand tour." Will shrugged. "Hay Lin, Irma and Cornelia were showing me some of the local hang-outs."

"Not Taranee Cook?" asked McTiernan sharply.

That got him a shake of Will's head. "Some family thing that evening, I think."

Maria made a note. "And this would have been, which day?"

"Wednesday the twenty-first," we answered in unison. I shrugged at her look. "Pretty obvious you'd want to know so we checked a calendar."

"I suppose it is obvious. Did you check a clock as well?"

"Not at the time, no. But it was after four o'clock. The sun was setting when I got there," Will remembered. "That might pin it down better."

"How did you get there?" Joel cut in sharply.

"On my bike," Will answered immediately.

For me part I shrugged helplessly. "I don't know. I guess I could have looked for footprints on the beach but I didn't think to at the time."

He glowered at me for a moment. "And how long were you there before Ms. Vandom and her friends arrived?"

"I dunno. Long enough to look around the cave all the way to the back."

"You didn't leave it?"

"I was nerving myself up to try when they got there." They both gave me incredulous looks. "Hey, outdoors is scary when all you know is a cave."

"And then you saw someone who looked just like you?" asked Maria.

"Well, I saw four girls. Checking my reflection hadn't come up on my to-do list," I snarked back.

"I thought the girls had walked me towards a mirror, some kind of practical joke," Will extemporised. "Irma cracking a joke about me having a twin sister didn't help. Still it did seem to be the most likely explanation."

Mom blinked. "You thought...?"

Will flushed slightly. "Why do you think I was dropping hints about sisters back then?"

"I thought you were making comments about me and Dean."

My sister's eyes were probably about as wide as mine. "Ewwww! Don't even think about it!"

And now the three adults were laughing at us. Wonderful.

W.I.T.C.H. - W.I.T.C.H. - W.I.T.C.H. - W.I.T.C.H. - W.I.T.C.H.

To my surprise the results from the various tests would take a few days to be determined - it always seemed to take less time on television and the questioning by Interpol went on for what seemed like forever and a day. Surely they should have been done by then apparently not, which meant having to wait on tenterhooks for a couple of days.

Still, at least they weren't trying to lock me in a freezer yet.

This left me free for Mom's next little brainstorm. "Hello, Mr and Mrs Hale. Can I get your coats?"

"Thank you, Will," Cornelia's mother said graciously, taking off her overcoat before stooping to help her younger daughter with hers.

"Mom, this is Hope," Cornelia corrected her.

I smiled slightly and took. "How can you tell?"

The blonde paused. "It's something about the way you stand," she said thoughtfully. "I can't quite put my finger on it... anyway, this is Lillian."

The younger Hale daughter was very much a half-pint version of Cornelia and her bratty expression was probably an attempt at something like her sister's customary reserve. Or perhaps just a younger version. "Are you sure you're not Will?" she asked suspiciously. "Is this some sorta game?"

I finished hanging up the coats and ushered them through into the lounge, where Will was laying out some bowls of snacks on the coffee table. "See for yourself."

"Oh..." she said in surprise, looking back and forth between us.

"Remarkable," agreed her father. "And the two of you aren't related?"

"Not so far as we've been able to find out. The doctors are doing some tests, but who knows?"

"I wish I had a twin sister," decided Lillian.

Cornelia, Will and I looked at each other. Never going to happen, we all resolved (if probably for differing reasons). "You can borrow mine," Will offered.

I gave her a pained look.

"But only if you return her in good condition," she added, waving one finger.

"Is that a babysitter I hear being volunteered?" asked Mrs Hale with a smile in my direction.

"What is a 'babysitter'?" I asked, offering around a plate of cookies.

Lillian took three of the cookies, suggesting she might be more a proto-Irma than the next Cornelia. Her mother took two of them off her. "One at a time," she reproved the girl mildly. "Someone who keeps an eye on younger children while their parents are out. Cornelia seems to feel she has more important things to do than watch Lillian some nights."

Cornelia shrugged with apparent indifference to that chiding. "Just make sure you get paid," she advised me. "Believe me, you'll earn it."

"Sorry to keep you," Mom greeted them, stepping through from the kitchen. "The vegetables demanded my attention."

"I know how that goes," Mrs Hale agreed. "You know Cornelia of course, but this is my husband Howard and littler princess Lillian."

Lillian beamed up at Mom in a fashion calculated to make her melt with sheer cuteness. The crumbs from her first cookie only added to the effect. Clearly I had much to learn.

Her mother gave her one of the cookies she'd taken off her a moment ago. "Don't worry about spoiling her appetite," she added drily. "Nothing seems to."

"Pleased to meet you both." Mom shook hands all round. "Would you like anything to drink?" she offered and then eyeballed me. Evidently I wasn't going to live that down any time soon. I obediently didn't say anything when Mrs Hale asked for glass of wine. Mr Hale said he would be driving and requested fruit juice.

Once everyone settled down with drinks - Mom had decided to have a soda, the same as we four girls - Mr Hale leant fowards slightly. "Ms Vandom... Susan... I was sorry to learn that Cornelia helped Will to hide Hope from you."

"I understand why they did it. And they didn't just hide Hope, they also looked after her so I have to give some credit for that." Mom's eyes flicked to Lillian for a moment and then she gave Cornelia a questioning look.

Cornelia's own expression was unhappy but she nodded. "Lillian, Will and I need to show Mom and Dad something. Can you help us?"

"What are you up to?" she asked suspiciously but she climbed to her feet.

"You'll see." Cornelia stood against the wall. "Now Will's going to draw a line to show how tall I am. I want you to make sure I'm being fair - that my legs are straight and I'm not up on my tip-toes or anything like that."

The shorter blonde all but tackled her sister. "Okay, I got you."

Will made a mark and wrote a C next to it. "Okay, squirt. Now Cornelia draws a line for me."

"My name's not squirt!"

"She also answers to Little Monkey."

"Girls!" the two mothers in the room warned while Lillian assaulted Will's legs - basically unnecessary since until Cornelia neither of us was wearing an ankle-length skirt so it would be pretty clear to her parents if Will was trying to fake the results.

"What exactly are you going to show us honey?"

Cornelia waved for her father to give her a moment. "So these are the right heights for us, okay?"

He nodded.

They were looking at Cornelia but I was looking at Will. The Heart of Kandrakar was already around her neck and it started glowing as if in anticipation even before her fingers closed around it.

The light drew attention: "What is -"

"Guardians Unite."

Mrs Hale cried out in shock as pink light swept up my sister. Her husband jumped to his feet, glass of juice crashing to the carpet when Cornelia was engulfed in a blaze of green. "Cornelia!"

And then they stood before us. Not girls any more, but women and delicately be-winged women at that. "Yes daddy?"

Words failed him.

"Cornelia's a fairy!"

Lillian's expert analysis drew an offended pout to her sister's face. "I'm a Guardian of the Veil."

"Hope isn't the only secret I found out yesterday," Mom explained, rather redundantly. She gestured for me to stand next to Will for contrast. The marks on the wall might not be be necessary for comparison with the two of us: Will was now clearly larger than me... in more than one direction. Just saying.

"And what is a 'Guardian of the Veil'?" demanded Mrs Hale.

"I'm guessing that it's a long story," Mr Hale said with a forced calm. He picked up his glass and looked at Mom. "Do you have anything stronger than wine?"

"I can find you something," Mom assured him. "As long as you don't plan to drive."

He waved the idea off. "We can take a taxi."
D for Drakensis

You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.

[drakensis]

Lillian was beyond excitement and was yawning by the time we reached dessert and her parents were more or less up to date. Dissected step by step by parents, the story that the other two girls were telling was less gripping and more like some exceptionally boring lab report for school. "Are you tired?" I asked her quietly.

"No." She shook her head and yawned again.

"Yes you are," Cornelia disagreed.

"Am not!"

Mrs Hale gave them a weary look. "Don't fight girls."

"Well since you're not tired, would you like to meet Will's pet, Mr. Huggles?" I suggested quickly before it could turn into an arguement. Somehow I didn't think that that would go well.

Lillian blinked. "Is he cute?"

"I don't know," I admitted. "Why don't you tell me?"

The little girl pushed her chair back and took my hand as I guided her to Will's - to Will and I's - bedroom. "Are you really not real?"

Ouch. "You're the one holding my hand, Lili'. Do I feel real?"

"It's Lillian, not Lili'!"

"And I'm a real girl."

"Okay," she agreed with a pout.

I opened the door to our room and ushered her in.

"So many frogs!" she exclaimed. There were indeed frogs everywhere: stuffed toys, pictures, logos on bedding, clothes and all sorts of decoration. My sleeping bag (now sharing the bed with Will's duvet) was among the few things that didn't share that trend. Then Mr. Huggles popped his head up over the duvet and all the frogs ceased to matter. Lillian's eyes went wide. "He's so cute!"

"Don't scare him," I warned, catching the girl by the shoulders as she started to throw herself towards the dormouse. Her getting bitten would probably please no one. "Gently does it."

When I lifted my hands off her, Lillian approached the bed at a more sedate pace and dropped to her knees so that her face was on the same level as the rodent. "Hi, Mr. Huggles. I'm Lillian."

He squeaked back cautiously and then apparently decided to treat her the way he did Will: scrambling forwards and rubbing his furry flank against her cheek. It worked out the same way on Lillian: she giggled and rubbed at his other flank with one hand. (I'd frozen up and Will had to rescue me.)

"You'll probably be more comfortable up on the bed," I suggested after a moment and Lillian scrambled up onto the top of my sleeping bag without even looking back. Clearly I was reduced to furniture in comparison to the interest value of something small and furry. That worked out well for me so I could hardly complain. Instead I perched myself on the desk chair and opened the book Taranee had lent to me again. She and Hay Lin had agreed it was an absolute classic that I had to read but I was finding it heavy going and there were another nine hundred or so pages to go.

About fifteen minutes later I put my bookmark about ten pages further on than it had been, kicked off my shoes and padded across to pull the duvet over Lillian. This babysitting was easier than it sounded.

Eyes turned to me as I went back into the lounge, shoes in hand. "She's asleep."

Mrs Hale smiled slightly and rose. "Mind if I...?"

Mom followed her while I refilled my glass and asked if anyone else wanted some. Mr. Hale was back on soda, after his one glass of 'something stronger'.

"So you've never seen this Phobos?" he asked.

Will shook her head. "Just his work. I went into his garden once." She shuddered.

"His garden? What's so horrible there?"

"Actually it's strangely beautiful. Thousands upon thousands of black roses. But once you know that they were all people who sought to lead with him for mercy... and were transformed into a barrier around his palace..." Will wrapped her arms around herself. "You'll never look at a rose the same way again."

The dark mood broke as our mothers returned, Mrs Hale holding her phone in one hand. "That was adorable," she announced. "You have great promise as a babysitter, Hope. Can I take you home with us? We'll leave Cornelia in exchange."

"Mother!"

"Not a chance," Mom answered before I could think of a response. She put one arm around my shouldr. "Right, Will?"

"Yep." Will boxed me in from the right side. "She's ours and we're not letting her go."

Mrs Hale raised her phone and took a snapshot of us.

"I'll want a copy of that," Mom told her and got a nod. "And I think we're more or less up to speed on what the girls have been up to. The question is what now? The girls aren't too enthusiastic about telling the authorities."

...and there was the jaw of the trap closing around Cornelia. She might refuse pressure from Mom about demonstrating magic to the authorities, but what about her own parents? I wasn't sure.

"Well of course we must -"

"There would be problems with that," observed Mr. Hale.

Everyone else in the room blinked.

"Dear!"

"I can see the benefits of doing so - no offense, honey," he added to Cornelia, "But it would be bad enough if you were fighting a war as a grown woman, with professional training. On the other hand, telling the authorities about this won't necessarily make any of us any safer."

"What do you mean?" asked Mom cautiously.

He rubbed at his head. "Let's start with this: from everything that's been said, magic is both real and capable of things that at the moment our government could not reasonably protect themselves from. Which means that other governments can't protect themselves from it either, correct?"

"You can't possibly be thinking that the government - our government - would expect the girls to fight for them!? That sort of thing would belong in a bad TV series!"

"Our government? Probably not. But there are a lot of governments in the world and I imagine that several would want to have the girls working for them - or to be sure that they weren't working against them. And Elizabeth, that means that you, Lillian and I would be potential ways for unscrupulous people to try to control Cornelia."

"Oh my god," whispered Mom.

"It's not as simple a decision as it seems, is it?" he asked kindly. "And of course the other side of the question is that if this Phobos does win through, then he's going to be a very big problem if the authorities don't know about magic."

"Then we have to stop him." That was Will. "The Veil is keeping him on Meridian and as long as we can keep him from using the portals through it, he isn't a threat to the Earth."

"Caleb's resistance and Elyon should be able to take care of Phobos, particularly if we give them a little help," offered Cornelia.

Mom shook her head. "Meaning you go there again and you put yourselves at risk again?"

"We're at risk no matter what happens. At least this way we can put a stop to that."

Mrs Hale crossed her arms. "Cornelia, you seem to put a lot of faith in this Caleb. What makes you so sure that he'll succeed?"

"He's won at least one battle and I think Elyon listens to him," I offered. "The trouble is that we don't really know what Phobos plans to do, much less if he can pull it off."

"Then maybe we ought to meet him as well," suggested Mr Hale thoughtfully. "Would that be possible?"

"I..." Cornelia's cheeks were reddening.

"Oh Cornelia!" her mother exclaimed in realisation. "Don't tell me that you're involved with this young man!"

W.I.T.C.H. - W.I.T.C.H. - W.I.T.C.H. - W.I.T.C.H. - W.I.T.C.H.

It felt a little strange to walk into Sheffield Institute next to Will. Our secret wasn't secret any more.

Mom had dropped us off, collecting Taranee on the way... and arranging to have dinner with the Cooks tonight.

"I hope this goes well," the dusky-skinned girl fretted. "My mother's going to be furious."

"The Lins were okay." Will was putting a good face on it I thought. Perhaps too good a face, I didn't think that Mr Lin had been too happy about learning the secret that his mother and now his daughter had been keeping from him. Fortunately Mrs. Lin had insisted that she was proud of 'her daughter the superhero' even if she was far too young and wearing far too little.

"You don't know her like I do. I'll be lucky not be be packed off to a catholic boarding school! Or juvenile detention!"

"Oh, is the Judge's little princess getting in trouble?" The voice asking wasn't a welcome one but it was easily recognisable. "Well Nigel will be welcome back with his real friends, even if you do tag along with him."

"Shut up Uriah."

The boy, backed by his usual bookends started his usual sneer but then he got a good look at us. "What the - there's two of you?"

I gestured at Will and Taranee. "There are three of us, Uriah. Try counting on your fingers."

"Smart-ass bitch!"

"Language, Mr. Dunn!" snapped the pompadoured woman who had arrived behind him. "Now get yourself to class... unless you'd rather start the term with a detention?"

The boy made a disgusted noise. "Whatever." His two remaining cronies fell in behind him.

"Now then, which one of you is Hope Vandom?" she asked slightly more pleasently.

I raised my hand cautiously.

"I'm Principal Knickerbocker. Professor Collins told me to expect you. Getting into a quarrel on your first day isn't the best of starts here, whoever started it." She made a dismissive gesture towards the other two girls. "Off to your own classes, you two. I'll take care of your sister, Miss Vandom."

She waited until they were around a corner before moving towards the school offices. "Come with me, Miss Vandom. I imagine you've had some coaching?"

"I've been studying," I admitted nervously. For the few weeks that I had had a chance to that was true. But most of the students here had been at school for years. Was I kidding myself to think that I could do as well.

"That's good of course, but though I say so as shouldn't, there is more to school than studies. Don't take Mr. Dunn's behaviour as an example to follow or as cause to provoke trouble with him yourself."

I nodded obediently and made a mental note to check with Cornelia about what was proper behaviour in school. I had some idea of course, but it never hurt to consult an expert.

"Will!"

I turned my head slightly and saw Matt approaching around the corner. "Are you okay? Gramps was worried when you didn't..." He broke off sharply as he saw Principal Knickerbocker walking next to me. "Uh, sorry Principal, I just..."

"You were just on your way to class?" she asked with a slight emphasis on the last word.

"Uh..." he hesitated and then pulled an envelope out of his pocket and held it out to me. "Just giving Will this note on my way!" No sooner than my hand closed around it than he backed up, giving me an apologetic look.

"Um, I'm..."

But he was gone.

"I'm going to get this a lot, aren't I?"

To my suprise the middle-aged Principal chuckled. "At least until people get used to you," she agreed. "You can give your sister the note at lunch." Then she gestured at the door to one of the offices. "But first we've set up this room for you to take some written tests."

When I looked inside, a small desk like those in the classrooms had been set up with a stack of paper booklets on it. The other furniture had all been pushed back against the walls and there was a clock set up so that it was plainly visible from the desk.

"All the exam papers have the time you're supposed to spend on them written on the front page," Knickerbocker told me. "If you run out of time before finishing just move on to the next. If you finish one early then note down on the front how long it took you and you can start the next paper early or go back to have another look at anything you had trouble with - make a note on anything that you go back to about how long you put in."

"Isn't that cheating?"

She shook her head. Amazingly it didn't loosen the mass of silvery hair at all. "Not as long as you keep a record of it. Remember, this isn't about passing or failing, it's about measuring your strengths and weaknesses. Now, do you have everything you need?"

I pulled my pencil case out of the bookbag I'd brought with me. It was the only thing in it except for my packed lunch and now Matt's note for Will.

"Good." Knickerbocker pointed across the hall. "There's a washroom there that you can use if you need it. My secretary is in the next office along, if you need anything else just let her know."

I nodded to show my understanding and I was surprised when she held out her own hand. "Good luck, Miss Vandom," she said and shook my hand when took hers.

W.I.T.C.H. - W.I.T.C.H. - W.I.T.C.H. - W.I.T.C.H. - W.I.T.C.H.

"I don't know anything!" I declared with some despair, clutching at my head.

"Sounds normal to me." Irma reached over towards my lunch box and I slammed my fist down right in front of her hand to keep her from snagging my sandwich. "Well you aren't eating it."

I picked it up and took a bite. Mmm. Chicken. Then I realised she'd used my distraction to filch a cookie out of the box and crammed it into her mouth. "I hope that goes right to your waist."

"Probably a little higher," she said smugly. She was probably right too, blast her.

"I'm sure you're doing fine," Will promised me. "Remember that history paper you did for Proffessor Collins? You did great at that!"

"Yeah, but then I had a week to research the Middle Ages," I pointed out. "I don't think the Principal will let me go to the library to research answers for everything on these test papers. I'm only managing to answer maybe half the questions."

"You're not supposed to answer all of them." Taranee toyed nervously with her braid. "Some of the questions are supposed to be too hard for us, so if you could answer all of them then it'd mean you were smarter than all of us."

"Well that's not going to happen." Will mussed my hair. "You might be better at class than I am, little sis, but there's no way you're smarter than Taranee."

"Lot of good that's doing me," the other girl sighed. "Remember me when Mom locks me up."

It wasn't until I put my lunch box away in my bag that I remembered Matt's note. "Will, something for you."

She took the envelope. "What is it?"

"Matt gave it to me earlier, he thought I was you."

"Hope!"

"I didn't get the chance to explain!"

"Never mind that, what's the note say?" demanded Cornelia.

Will peeled open the envelope and extracted the note. "..."

"What?"

"M-matt..."

"Yes, we know it's from Matt," I reminded her.

"He's inviting me to the Lodelyday!"

There were high pitched squeals from the other girls at the table. "That's awesome!" "Go Will!"

"The... Lodelyday?"

Cornelia leant over. "It's the coolest restaurant in all of Heatherfield. Will's got a date! And it sounds like Matt wants to do this in style."

"That's good, I guess." Hopefully not too much style since presumably had the same expectations of restraint for Will that she had for me.

Irma reached over and nudged me. "Not jealous, are you?"

I thought about that. Was I jealous? I'd met Matt maybe two or three times. Nice guy but...

Voices were raised over by the door of the canteen - it wasn't warm enough for anyone but the hardiest to be eating outside today - and heads turned in that direction. Our heads included although Will remained rapt in the note until Hay Lin nudged her and whispered "It's Matt!"

It was indeed Matt. And Uriah.

"Well maybe she's going to need some comfortin'. Seeing as you ditched her."

Matt pushed back the brim of his hat and favoured Uriah with a bemused look. "Look, I don't know what you're talking about and I'm pretty sure you don't either..."

There was a nasty grin on Uriah's face. "Well if you were really serious about Vandom, you'd not have snuck a note to her sister, would ya?"

"Sister?"

Will grabbed my hand. "Hope?"

"Just that one, I swear," I said hastily. "And it's addressed to you, isn't it?"

She checked it. "Okay."

"I'm just feeling the trust," I grumbled.

"Sorry, it's just... everything else seems to be going crazy..."

"Just don't blame me if Mom hits the roof about him. Granted a date is a lot more normal than everything else going on right now."

"There are really two of you?" Matt's face paled slightly as he looked between us, having approached during our conversation. "But which...?"

"Uh, Matt... I can explain..."

"...that'd be nice."

I rested my chin on one hand and pointed with the other. "That's Will, I'm her sister Hope. I didn't get a chance to explain that this morning."

He frowned. "Have we met before?"

"Er... a couple of times." Truthfulness was allegedly the best policy. "And yes, I was pretending to be Will back then. So I guess I owe you an apology."

Matt sighed. "I hope there was a good reason."

"I was hiding." From Will, on one occasion, but that was beside the point. "And while Will trusts you, I barely know you. No offense."

"Alright." He looked over to Will. "Um. So, about..."

I cleared my throat. "One more thing."

"Oh?"

"If you hurt my sister, I will hurt you. Clear?"

"Hope!" Will's cheeks had gone almost as red as her hair.

Matt looked from me to Will, back to me. "Completely."

W.I.T.C.H. - W.I.T.C.H. - W.I.T.C.H. - W.I.T.C.H. - W.I.T.C.H.

"I don't believe that you said that."

"What isn't to believe?" I asked Will.

"But what if he changes his mind about our date?" she hissed nervously.

"If he changes his mind because of little old me then he clearly wasn't serious in the first place."

"What's this?" Mom asked, stepping out from the shelter of the gate between Sheffield Institute and the street.

"Mom?"

"I came by to pick you up - or did you forget that you're both grounded? Now what's this about someone changing their mind."

"Matt asked me out!" Will explained enthusiastically and then her face fell. "When I'm not grounded, that is."

Mom nodded, not without a bit of sympathy. "Well, at least you have something to look forward to. So why are you two falling out."

"I just told him to behave himself."

That remark got a laugh from Mom and she held out her hand. "High five."

"What?"

"Oh, don't kids do that anymore?"

Will groaned. "Not you too, Mom!"

"Nothing against you dating, Will - normally anyway," she qualified. "But that doesn't mean giving boys free license either. "It's just as well to let him know that you have standards: that way he'll feel obliged to live up to them."

We reached the car and Will paused. "Mom, Miss Rudolph asked us - the girls - to see her after school. I know I'm grounded, but this could be important."

"She's the teacher from Metamoor?" asked Mom suspiciously. "I've been meaning to talk to her, but we're meeting the Cooks tonight."

I coughed. "Could we talk about this in the car?" Without, for example, all the other Sheffield students who went past hearing about everything.

"Shotgun!" Will called suddenly and hopped into the front passenger seat.

"Eek!" I ducked down, hoping that whoever had the gun wasn't about to use it. I'd seen them on TV! They were scary!

Mom gave me a puzzled look and then sighed. "Not a real gun, Hope. She just means she wants to sit in the front."

"Well why didn't you just say so?" I asked Will as I climbed back to my feet. "I don't mind." Actually I'd been kind of hoping we could both sit up back so it would be easier to talk, but it wasn't a big deal.

Will shrugged apologetically. "It's kind of a thing. I didn't mean to scare you."

I climbed in and then across the back seat so that I was sitting behind Mom's seat. "Okay."

"Mom, I've got to get together with the girls and see Miss Rudolph! The last time she called us like this it was because there was an invasion force about to come through one of the portals! We can see her before dinner easily!"

Seeing a gap in the traffic, Mom pulled out. "And what if it's a trap, Will? You should keep at least a couple of you back just in case."

"Miss Rudolph's not like that! She's harmless!"

"And what if someone's forcing her to do this?" Mom shook her head. "I really want to go with you on this..."

"But you've got to go back to work, don't you?"

"I know, Will. And I don't think my boss will be happy if I keep making excuses."

"Welcome to my life."

I couldn't help but laugh at the resigned look on Will's face, but the laugh cut off when she gave me a pained look. It was more true than it was funny, after all.

"Oh honey. I guess I didn't make it easy for you, did I?" Mom turned her head slightly. "And I expect you to be more supportive, Hope."

"Sorry," I mumbled in a small voice.

"Alright, can you call your friends. You can go to see Miss. Rudolph, but I want you to call me right before you go in to see her and as soon as you are done. And two of you should stay away - at the Cook's house might be best if Taranee's one of the two." Mom looked in the mirror. "Hope, I'm not going to make you stay home while your sister doesn't have to..."

"Thanks. Do you want me to come along?" I offered to Will.

She shook her head. "I'd rather you stayed with the Cooks. Maybe you can break the ice a little. Taranee's pretty worried about how they'll take learning about her being a Guardian. You're pretty good at talking people around."

I shrugged uncertainly. People I knew, maybe, but I'd never met Taranee's family. And was I really that manipulative?
D for Drakensis

You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.

[drakensis]

"You had to hide away all through Christmas?" Taranee's older brother Peter shook his sadly. "That just ain't right!"

I shrugged. "Well there's always next Christmas. And then I get to give presents as well!" Mom had even dispensed pocket money at the start of the week and I was looking for something special to give to Will on her birthday, which was only a couple of weeks away.

"Yeah, but you should be with family."

"I was." Okay, maybe with just Will, but right then she was my only declared family.

Peter rolled his eyes. "Sis, we gotta make sure this girl gets a proper Christmas next year so that she knows what she's missing out on."

Taranee nodded her head silently and her brother frowned. "Something wrong, sis?"

To my horror, the girl actually started to sniffle. "Mom's gonna kill me."

Hay Lin, Peter and I all the same reaction and within two seconds she was being hugged from all directions. "Whatever it is, it can't be that bad," her brother assured her with complete confidence. "I mean... I think she's warming up to Nigel." He paused. "A little."

That at least got her out of the funk. "You're just trying to make me feel better."

"Is it working?"

Taranee shook her head in reply to my question and then with an appalled look on her face started giggling.

"Tickling always works," Hay Lin declared sagely, fingers still probing at Taranee's sides.

I then made one of the classic errors of strategy. Right up there with going up against a Scilian when death is on the line. "Tickling?"

Hay Lin grinned but it was Peter that started tickling my ribs. "Whaahahaahaa!" I shrieked, and moved my hands to cover that vulnerable area.

"Somebody's ticklish." He sounded terribly entertained by that notion.

"Hands to yourself, buster!" I grabbed a cushion from the couch at let him have it to the face.

"Ow!" He was laughing through. "Sorry."

"No, you're not."

"No, I'm not," Peter admitted cheerfully. He made to throw the cushion back into my face but when I tried to catch it he twisted his wrist and it thumped against my belly. "So, who wants a drink?"

We all agreed that that sounded like an idea and Hay Lin moved smoothly onto interrogating Taranee about her last date with Nigel, which seemed suitably distracting for her but didn't particularly interest me so I trailed after Peter to help him bring back the drinks.

"So do you know why she thinks Mom's going to flip her lid?" he asked quietly.

I nodded. "Well, I've never met your Mom but would you say she's a little bit protective of Taranee?"

Peter held his arms wide, palms towards each other. "Just a bit."

"Weeeeellll...." I hesitated. "We're... and I mean mostly the others - I'm helping as much as I can... we're..."

"In a band?"

"What? Uh. No."

"So what is it you're doing that Mom's going to be upset about?"

Now what was I supposed to tell him? I mean, we were going to tell him tonight, but the plan was to do that with the rest of the family.

"You girls aren't dating each other, are you?"

Blink. "Uh... I would think that us all being girls would make it obvious that we're not."

Peter flushed. "That was a joke," he said hastily. "So what's the big secret?"

"I suppose you could say that we're doing something -" I considered saying 'a little bit' and concluded it would be a lie. "- dangerous."

He paused very fractionally in pouring soda into a glass. "You mean like, roller-blading?"

I shook my head.

"Surfing?"

"No, although I'd like to try that some time." After I get some swimming lessons. One near-drowning experience was quite enough.

"It's a lot of fun," he assured me. "Uh... dressing up as Batman and Robin and fighting crime?"

"Well... you're getting closer." Whoever Batman and Robin were.

Peter laughed. "Okay, okay, I'll wait." He picked up two glasses and nodded towards the other two. "So sis," he called as he led the way back into the lounge. "What's your super-hero costume look like, Tara'?"

There was an embarrassed squeak from Taranee. "Hope!"

"He guessed."

Peter looked from her to me and then put the glasses down on the table. "Again, I was joking." He paused. "You weren't joking?"

Taranee groaned. "Thanks Hope." She closed her eyes and focused for a moment. Swirls of orange magic burst into existence around her. It wasn't quite as dramatic as Will using the Heart of Kandrakar, and I suspected it wasn't quite as potent a transformation either... but it was quite enough.

The boy - young man really, he was about the age that the transformed Taranee appeared to be - sat down heavily. "Whoa. Is that you, little sister?"

I could see why he might have doubts: the normally demure girl's appearance was now - save for the glasses - far more warlike, with six stiff dreadlocks rishing from her head and snug shorts and tank top that did nothing to hide her more mature figure. She looked hot even before she conjured up a small ball of fire to hang in mid-air. "It's still me, big brother," she said firmly.

"You look... older. How in the world...?"

She folded her arms. "May as well call it magic, for all the explanation I got."

"And you're..." he gestured towards the fireball. "Taranee, you're scared of fire."

"I was afraid of how much it drew me in." Taranee reached out and placed her hand fearlessly in the fireball, drawing an alarmed cry from Peter. When pulled her hand back it showed no mark at all.  "I don't have to be afraid any more."

"Maybe not of fire." He rubbed at his hair (which was bound into hundreds of dreadlocks and then lashed back in a ponytail) and then moved up to give her a hug. "I don't suppose that your new outfit is bulletproof is it?"

Hay Lin laughed. "Metamoor doesn't have any guns!"

"Who is Metamoor?"

Hay Lin and Taranee looked at me questioningly. "Hey, I didn't have time to tell him everything."

"Metamoor is another world," Taranee explained. "It's kind of medieval but they've got magic and there's a Veil that prevents travel between there and Earth. We're the Guardians of the Veil - our mission is to close portals that form in the Veil. So magic's more of a problem then guns."

Peter rolled his eyes. "Well that's much better... not. I suppose that you have magical costumes too?" he added, pointing at the two of us.

Hay Lin nodded happily, pony-tails bobbing. "Air!" she exclaimed and silvery magic replaced her blouse, sweater and skirt with her own W.I.T.C.H. outfit.

"Wow," he said appreciatively. "So I guess that means that if Taranee's Fire and you're Air that there's some sort of element thing going on? So what does that make you, Hope? Water?"

"I, uh, don't do that," I admitted.

"Too bad, I bet you'd have a cute costume as well."

I went red and Taranee picked up the cushion, throwing it at her brother's face. She pegged him squarely, sending him staggering. "Wow, nice throwing arm!"

"Were you flirting with Hope?" she accused. "She's too young for you!"

I'm not too young! Wait, what am I thinking!

Peter laughed and pulled lightly on one of Taranee's dreadlocks. "She's about your age isn't she? Does that mean that you're too young to be seeing Nigel? 'Cause that'd make Mom real happy."

"She's not even two months old, Peter!"

"Um, what?"

This fascinating conversation was curtailed when a car pulled into the drive. Taranee turned and looked out the window. "Dad's back early," she squeaked and reverted to her usual self. "And Mom's with him!" The ball of fire vanished.

"Why change back?" asked Peter. "I thought you were gonna explain all this?"

"Yeah, I just want to break it to them easily." She waved at Hay Lin frantically and the other girl shifted back before the front door opened.

"Peter? Taranee?"

"In here, Dad!" Peter called and a moment later the Cooks joined us in the front room.

"Hi kids," Mr Cook greeted them. He hugged Taranee and then Peter. "Nice to see you, Hay Lin. And... hmm, Will or Hope?"

"Hope," his wife told him, giving Taranee a hug of her own. "Are your family here already?"

"No... Will's seeing Miss Randolph after school and Mom's still at work."

Taranee peered up at her mother, adjusting her glasses and then touched Mrs Cook's face. "Mom, are you okay? You look kinda pale."

She kissed Taranee's forehead. "I'm a little nervous dear. Your father and I have been talking."

Hay Lin looked at me and I spread my hands slightly. "Do you want us to step outside a moment? If this is a family thing?"

The two adults exchanged looks and then Mrs. Cook shook her head. "No, actually it might be best... Particularly for you to be here Hope."

I pointed at myself. Me? Particularly? I'd only even met her once, this morning!

Mr Cook waved to the couch. "You might want to sit down," he said mildly. "This may come as a little bit of a shock."

"I sort of doubt it," Peter said, perching on the arm of the sofa and draping one arm over Taranee's shoulders supportively. "At least compared to what else I've been hearing today." Hay Lin sat next to the girl and I perched myself next to her, clasping my hands nervously.

"I... I don't know where to begin," Mrs Cook admitted after a moment's thought.

Mr. Cook put one hand on her shoulder. "Perhaps at the beginning. About... thirteen years ago, a little little before Peter's fifth birthday there was a terrible fire on the outskirts of Heatherfield. No one knows how it started and fortunately, no one was killed. One of the houses destroyed belonged to a young couple and their three-month old baby. She was upstairs in the house when the fire started and it consumed the stairs, so they couldn't get in and find her."

"The firemen arrived barely in time. Fortunately the little girl's crib was right above a support beam and the floor held together just long enough for one of them to get in and rescue her." Mr. Cook smiled slightly. "I used to volunteer to help the Fire Brigade back then and I knew him well. He told me afterwards that she was fast asleep the whole time. It was quite the miracle."

"The thing was," Mrs. Cook added, "There was something wrong with their insurance. The fire had destroyed everything the family had, there were just the three of them and the clothes that they were standing in. They'd even lost their jobs to the fire because the shop they worked at had been in the same fire." She closed her eyes. "They made what must have been the hardest decision of their lives: they couldn't support their daughter, so they gave her up for adoption."

"Whoa, wait on!" Peter exclaimed. He looked down at Taranee and I saw his arm tighten around her. "You're kidding me. You can't possibly mean what I think you do."

Taranee stared. "Peter?"

"Three months before my fifth birthday, that means the baby would have been born in March '89. The same as you, sis..."

Mrs. Cook dropped to her knees in front of Taranee and took her hands. "Taranee, the baby was you."

My friend shook her head in denial and her jaw worked for a moment as she searched for words. What emerged was a shocked tiny: "no."

"But - but there are baby photos!" Peter exclaimed. "I've seen them."

His father shook his head. "We knew that one day Taranee would be old enough to know, but until then we didn't want her to feel there was any part of her life she'd missed out on. The earliest pictures are of another little girl, Audrey, one of her friends back in Sesamo."

"You lied to me!"

"We always knew we'd tell you some day," Mr. Cook explained. "It just... needed the right moment. With Susan making arrangements to adopt Hope, this seemed... as good a time as there was ever going to be."

Taranee burst to her feet. "I... I can't..." she blurted and brushed her mother aside, rushing for the door. A second later we heard her feet on the stairs.

"Taranee!" Hay Lin ran after her while the Cooks looked torn.

"I guess I was wrong about you shocking me," Peter said after a moment. He rose to his feet. "I'm going upstairs too..."

Mrs. Cook took refuge in her husband's arms. "She hates us..."

"I don't think so..."

Their heads snapped around and I realised they'd basically forgotten I was even there. And that I was intruding on what was a private moment. Still, what could I do but continue?

"She's angry with you... that's not the same thing."

He gave me a rueful look. "I hope you're right."

"If you don't mind my saying so, Taranee seems a lot like you, Mrs Cook."

"Call me Theresa, please."

I nodded. "Theresa. I'm guessing you've been fretting all day about how Taranee would react to this."

She ducked her head. "Good guess."

"Taranee's been in about the same state since Friday. There's... a little something she's going to tell you... well, maybe not today. And she's been worrying about how you'll take it so I know what it looks like. Oddly enough there's a fire in this story too."

Theresa blinked. "Really? Don't tell me this is about the gym at Sheffield Institute burning down!"

"Well..." I checked my recollection of the others telling me about that. "No, well... I suppose that fire's part of the story but I don't think she was anywhere near it." Before she could ask more I held up my hand. "We're getting away from my point. What I'm trying to say is: can you imagine anything she could tell you that would stop you from loving her?"

"Of course not! She's my daughter!"

I spread my hands. "Exactly. Upset with you, certainly. Angry... well, understandably. Hate?" I shook my head. "I think I'll wait outside."

Before I could stand we heard footsteps on the stairs. After a moment, Hay Lin stuck her head around the door. "She let Peter in to her room. I'm..." She shrugged. "I'm sorry, I don't know what to do."

"I think we'll need to give them some time to get used to the idea," Mr. Cook said quietly. "Peter didn't know either so she has no reason to be angry with him. If anyone can help her now..."

I stated what I was beginning to recognise as one of the great truths: "Being helpless sucks."

"Succinctly put," he concurred and sighed. "I guess we still have to get ready for dinner. I guess this wasn't exactly what your mother had in mind when we set things up."

"Well not in detail..."

"Pardon?" he asked.

"Never mind, just thinking out loud." I corrected myself. "Let me give you a hand with that."
D for Drakensis

You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.