A/N: Continuing this story was a little tricky, as I had a lot of things to, plus I was busy with working on the next chapter of "Heart of a Mother", but I managed to finally get it ready for publishing. :) It might be a little uneventful and even short, but I promise that I will take this story to a more interesting stage soon.

Reviews are always appreciated!

That same night, Hay Lin's sleep was restless. Haunted by everything that had happened in their lives lately, from the Zenith incident to Irma's brother's disappearance, the young Asian girl found herself caught in the world of nightmares. Or so she thought at first. When she relaxed and stopped resisting, as she sank deeper into her sleep, she quickly realized that it was more than a nightmare. It was yet another one of her visionary dreams!

She walked through this dark open place, surrounded by fog, illuminated only by dead blue lights and the fade light of the moon, hidden behind a thick veil of clouds and mist.

Hay Lin struggled to find her way around and try to get at least some sense or orientation around here. What was this place? She had never seen it before, neither she nor any of her friends had ever visited this place or world, or whatever it was. It kind of reminded Hay Lin of the blank world they had ended up in after going Zenith and almost losing their selves and human forms, only this place was creepier and bigger.

It was definitely bigger and creepier compared to the post-Zenith place, from what the young guardian could tell by the air surrounding her, it was outdoors too. Hay Lin made a couple more unsure steps which nearly cost her her life, or her at least her dry hair. (Hay Lin realized that this was a dream, but nonetheless everything always felt so real and genuinely terrifying).
Her hips felt a low wall in front, and Hay Lin desperately tried to keep her balance- thankfully she managed and did not fall in the well. A dark, terrifyingly looking well which had suddenly appeared out of the eerie fog.

The Air guardian took a look at the dark water in the well which filled it almost entirely. She even dared to touch it with her hand. As she expected it was ice-cold. Hay Lin pulled her hand back and was just starting to wonder why the hell was she even having this freaky dream for, when the dark water stirred.

Turning, as if from a hurricane, the black water had suddenly become transparent, or rather lightly lit, by a color that was nowhere else to be found around this entire dark location. Bright yellow light shone through the well water, turning the surface into a large, round projection screen.

With curiosity, Hey Lin began to observe the images which the well showed her. Blackened houses sunken by darkness. A village surrounded by darkness and only darkness! What about its inhabitants? These strange, dead-looking creatures must be the inhabitants of this place, whatever that was. At first glance, they do looked like people, but there was more to them. Their images slowly changed underwater, without any tact. Hay Lin soon found out that each one of them that appeared on her water projector screen, had a particular shadow that twists and turns around them as if due its own energy. Like a force that emanates from within the soul...

Strong contrast to all this made the next image that appeared in the well and made the girl gasp. But that was Chris! Irma's brother, he was in one of those houses, locked up somewhere in this shady dimension. But why had they kidnapped him? He was so innocent. So it was the work of these guys. And Hay Lin cast an angry look at the dark people.

Poor Chris, he looked so scared, but there was this shady essence around him too... Hay Lin gasped again.
His second shadow, it was much more pronounced and impressive than the others. It was glowing with its own spark, with black and white light ... This energy was coming from Chris? But was it possible? Did Chris possess any unprecedented power, just like Lillian, Cornelia's sister?

The Asian girl instinctively reached to touch Chris, she wanted to comfort him, to save him...He looked so terrified... But she had forgotten that her touch somehow interacts with the well water- as her hand touched the cold liquid once again, the images under it faded and something started to circle in their place. Hay Lin furrowed her brows. Letters? The well was now giving her letters!

S...H...A...D...O...W...

Oh that makes perfect sense! Hay Lin didn't have time to think about how unoriginal that was though, the next letters were coming out in their turn.-

B...A...N...E...

"Shadow-bane?"- the air guardian repeated and memorized that in her mind. Instantly the water swirled in every direction, and from the depths of the well appeared the huge dead-gray tentacle. It seemed as if mentioning that name had angered him, this giant octopus-thing, Hay Lin realized in terror and screamed, moving back at the last moment.

It was time to wake up. It was about time! Right away!...

Eventually, when she did wake up, she was drenched in cold sweat. Hay Lin quickly turned her nightlight on and grabbed a piece of paper from a notebook which was thrown near her bed earlier that day. Shadowbane. She had to write that down. It could be the clue they had been looking for!

"Shadowbane?"- Taranee exclaimed the next day at school. "Is that a new world?"

"And who the heck has taken my brother to this new world, I'll kill them."- Irma slammed her fist on the desk a little too roughly.

"Irma, keep it down."- Will scolded her. "After the last period is over, we're all going to try to activate a fold to this world with the Heart."

"That's right, once we're there, finding Chris will be easier."- Cornelia said. "Nobody is going to deny the guardians of the infinite dimensions!"

Irma didn't say anything. Her friends were all trying to comfort her and make her feel better, but the truth was that she wasn't going to feel better before seeing her brother.

Seeing his astral drop at home every evening was driving her crazy.

At last the final bell for the day rang and the girls hurried out of their classrooms along with their classmates. Unlike the other students however, the guardians met each other in the old boiler room in the school building. By the time Caleb made it there too, Irma had already lost her patience.

"Let's go already!"- she demanded. "Let's go save my brother from Shadowbane!"

Will pulled out the Heart of Kandrakar, a mystical amulet which united the nature forces into her and her friends, and concentrated hard on that name. When the fold opened, it was not the usual light blue color, instead it was a dark, almost black shade of indigo.

The girls looked at each other and Caleb, who just nodded at them. They were ready to do this. They had to do this for Chris and Irma.

"Guardians Unite!"