Part 3

At Kandrakar.

Tridart was trying his best to hit Cornelia but Cornelia was dodging him every time. Zafyra, Shagon, Ember and Khor were looking from their platform. Cornelia started to fly fast around Tridart, hoping to confuse him. Tridart got annoyed with Cornelia and created a gigantic ice explosion, blowing Cornelia away and freezing her instantly. As Cornelia fell Tridart caught her in his hand.

'Even the prettiest flower gets brittle with the cold. Brittle and likely to snap!' he said.

Cornelia, who was trying to get out of Tridart's grip looked up at the word 'pretty'.
'You think I'm pretty?' she said flattered.

She then shook her head, snapping out of her egotrip.
'Sorry, Coldzilla! I already have a boyfriend.' she then said. 'As for ice, if it's not diamonds I'm not interested!'

With that she created a pillar of fire around her, forcing Tridart to let her go. As he was busy nursing his hand Cornelia flew up.

'Now, you feed on fear.' Cornelia said simply. 'You'll choke on this!'
She placed her hands on her head in a telepathic way. 'Eat hot confidence, icecube!'

Confidence overflew Tridart and he started to shake. It hurt him all over and he started to shrink to his normal size. His head hurt too much for him to be able to fly. He fell down and Shagon quickly went to catch him. When Shagon turned around he saw no Cornelia, but a giant ice hammer forming right behind Zafyra, Ember and Khor.

'Khor, Zafyra, Ember. Move!' he yelled at them.

Zafyra and Khor managed to dodge the ice hammer. Zafyra was carrying Khor when she noticed that Ember reacted too slow and got hit by the hammer, which also destroyed the platform. She shrugged it off and flew at Shagon.

'Zafyra, aren't you forgetting someone?' Shagon asked.

'I do?' Zafyra asked bluntly.

'Give me Khor.' Shagon said.

Zafyra sighed. She turned around and flew after Ember without giving Khor to Shagon.

'What…is…she…doing?' Tridart asked weakly.

Shagon chuckled. 'Proving a point.' he said.

In the background they could hear Cornelia say: 'I rule! And I'm not just pretty. I'm gorgeous!'

Zafyra caught Ember and slowly started to rise again. She had to chuckle about Cornelia's remark and re-grabbed Khor, who was slipping. Khor growled a little scared and Ember was moaning.

'Hey, sleeping fireworm.' Zafyra groaned. 'Wake up and use your own wings! You're way too heavy.'

Ember snapped out of her dazed state and glared at Zafyra.

'You?' she said confused and angry. 'What are you doing?'

'Saving your sorry ass.' Zafyra said annoyed. 'Now fly!'

With that she released Ember. Ember fell a couple of meters down before clapping her wings and she flew after Zafyra. Shagon shook his head at the scene and then turned around to see the Mage and Halinor coming out of Kandrakar. He saw her nod.

'Zafyra!' he called. 'Let's blow this joint!'

Zafyra flew at him and opened a fold with the ring around her finger. The Knights of Destruction flew through it and disappeared.

Cornelia landed next to the Mage and Halinor. The Mage started to praise her as she slowly walked around her.

'Success, Cornelia!' she said. 'In fact, you did so well, perhaps you should keep all five powers, permenantely.'

Cornelia smiled at the praise from the Mage but then thought about her words.
'Keep their powers?' Cornelia said. 'I couldn't! Though I was pretty amazing, wasn't I?'

'Astonishing.' the Mage said. 'Just imagine: Cornelia, sole Guardian of Kandrakar! I could make it so. Just open yourself to my power.'

'Your power?' Cornelia asked. Her eyes started to look zombie-like as she looked at the Mage.

Suddenly a fold appeared behind them. The other Guardians and Caleb came through it. They looked at the scene in front of them.

'Wow.' Taranee said, a little pissed off. 'We're interrupting something?'

'Taranee? How did you?' Cornelia started to say.

'Ignore them!' the Mage said fiercely. 'What do you need them for when you have real power?'

'I don't know.' Irma said sarcastically. 'Washing cars maybe? Or did you really think she'd do that for herself?'

'Uhmm… I'll think we go back to W.I.T.C.H.' Cornelia said. 'Being 'C' alone, isn't nearly as fun.'

'You know not what you give up!' the Mage said.

"Will" stepped forwards and eyed the Mage critically.
'You know, the Mage I remember would never try to make a Guardian keep all five powers.' she said.

'You're right!' a voice said.

Everyone looked around and saw Luba walking at them.

'Heart, please shine your light on that creature!' Luba said as she pointed at the Mage.

The Heart pointed her hand at the Mage and a light started to shine. The Mage turned into Nerissa and everyone could see that dark magic was wrapping Halinor.

'Nerissa!' Caleb said as he stormed at her.

Cornelia followed his lead but both got repelled by a lightning shield.

'Keep your precious Aurameres!' Nerissa said as she held up the Heart of Meridian. 'I have what I came for.'
She laughed and let her shield explode. When the smoke cleared up, she was gone.

Later on the group was standing in the room of the Aurameres. The Guardians all transformed.

'The Aurameres are restored.' Luba said. 'But Halinor has been enthralled. The Mage was not the Mage at all. And we cannot free the others until the Heart of Meridian, the cause of their imprisonment, is liberated.'

'Nerissa will not surprise you again!' Caleb said as he looked at the reinforcements from Meridian.

'I doubt it.' Luba said. 'She will return. She cannot take the Aurameres by force and nothing else remains. The Council of Kandrakar is broken. I'm afraid that the responsibility for stopping the sorceress lies squarely on your shoulders now, Guardians.'

'Great!' Cornelia said sarcastically. 'No pressure!'

At Mt. Thanos.

'I take it that your plan for getting the Aurameres has failed, mistress?' Zafyra asked with a bow.

Nerissa scowled at her.
'Yes, right before I could enthrall the Earth Guardian, the others showed up from Earth. But, I guess, it was not the time to take them. I got for what we came for and that's important.' she said.

'Of course.' Shagon and Zafyra said at the same time.

'Now go. I need some time to think of my next plan.' Nerissa said to them.

The two Angels of Malice bowed to Nerissa and walked away. As they walked through the cave, Ember came up to them.
'Shagon I have to thank you for saving me.' she said as she bowed for him.

'It wasn't me who saved you, Ember.' Shagon said distantly.

'Yeah, glow worm. It was me.' Zafyra sneered, giving the impression that she regretted it.

'I know, but you told her to do so.' Ember said to Shagon, not listening to Zafyra. 'I'm glad you care for me.'

With that the sound of electricity was heard and Ember got a massive bolt in her stomach.

'Don't you dare.' Zafyra said threateningly as she closed in on Ember.

Ember laughed softly and shot a fireball at Zafyra. Zafyra dodged it and shot again at Ember.

'Zafyra that's enough!' Shagon said harshly as he stepped between them.

'Thank you, sir.' Ember said, letting a small tone of victory to be heard.

'I see.' Zafyra said softly.

She turned around and went to her room. Khor followed her immediately. Shagon looked after her when he suddenly felt a hug. He looked around and saw Ember hugging him lovingly. He growled and pushed her away.

'Ember.' he said, anger clear in his voice. 'Try this again and I'll help Zafyra destroying you, understood?'

Ember turned a little pale and bowed her head.
'Yes, sir.'

'Now go away!' he ordered her.

Ember slowly turned around and walked away. Shagon shot at her and she hurried to her own room. He then walked to Zafyra's room. He opened the door and quickly dodged a bolt of lightning. He looked in the room and saw that Zafyra had glamoured herself as her host and was petting Khor. He glamoured into his host's form and slowly walked into the room.

'Zafyra?' he asked.

Zafyra looked at him, anger visible in her eyes. A sole tear ran down her face.

'What?' she asked harshly. 'Is Ember not waiting for you?'

He chuckled as he walked to her. 'You should know that Ember means nothing more to me than a servant.' he said.

Zafyra turned away from him but he gently took her chin and made her look in his eyes.

'You mean more for me than her and you'll always will.'

With that he kissed her. She relented into his kiss and the kiss deepened. Shagon deglamoured a part of him, so that he could wrap his wings around Zafyra.

Will and Matt were kissing as well. Over the time that Zafyra and Shagon were controlling their bodies they managed to see each other even if Shagon and Zafyra weren't kissing or hugging. They broke apart.

'Why are you smiling?' Matt asked as he saw Will's smile.

'Well I know I shouldn't but when Zafyra was frying Ember's butt, I was kinda cheering for her.' Will said guiltily.

Matt snickered. 'What do you think?' he then said.

'About what?' Will asked.

'About escaping this prison.' he said.

'I don't know yet.' Will replied looking a little glum. 'I'm just glad that everything went well at that Cornelia wasn't enthralled by Nerissa as well. I don't think the Guardians would survive.'

'Yeah, now Kandrakar has fallen everything will become more difficult.' Matt said.

'As long as I have you, I'll manage.' Will said as she again kissed Matt.

When they broke apart Matt smiled at Will.

'Aren't we the Narcissist?' he said before they again kissed.

At the carwash.

The girls were waiting for the punishment they were going to get. Will's mother and father and Cornelia's father, together with Mr. Collins and Mrs. Knickerbocker had noticed that the girls were gone most of the day. After giving them a lame excuse Mrs. Knickerbocker spoke up.

'As punishment you five will clean the school bus. Outside and in!' she said.

The girls looked at the bus and nearly fainted. The bus was terribly dirty. Layers and layers of dirt were covering the bus. They weren't all too happy to start.

'Ugh. You know what people do on that bus?' Taranee said horrified.

Cornelia quickly walked forward.

'Wait!' she said. 'It's my fault! I flunked and they were just covering! But I'm ready to do my own work now. Please, don't punish them because of me!'

Mr. Hale looked disappointed while Mrs. Knickerbocker spoke up.
'Then I suppose the others may go.'

Cornelia was now standing in front the bus with a bucket and a sponge. She looked dreadful at the bus when suddenly a jet of water hit the car, surprising Cornelia. Cornelia looked around and saw Taranee sponging the car while Hay-Lin was handling the hose.

'What are you doing?' she asked confused.

'Helping!' Hay-Lin said a-matter-of-factly.

'But…' Cornelia said before getting interrupted by Irma.

'Hey. We're teammates, not deserters.' she said as she handed Cornelia a sponge.

Cornelia smiled at her until she noticed that she felt something wet around her feet. She looked down and saw that she was standing barefooted in a puddle of water.

'Hey, uhmm, has anyone seen my shoes?' she asked.

There you have it folks! N is for Narcissist. For all those who don't know what it means, a narcissist is someone who loves him or herself so much that it's creepy. (Nerissa). I think that I made this chapter pretty well. It just came to me after I finished M is for Mercy. I also have to say that I kinda like the irony. Zafyra and Shagon are angels of Hate, but they still love each other (thanks to Matt and Will) and believe me, they hate it. Let me hear your thoughts and I'll tell you mine!

Oh yeah, for all those who read this and come from the Netherlands, an English felicitation:

Happy (belated) Queen's Day, And remembering the Death from WW II day! (Well the last part isn't happy but you know what I mean.)
And already a Happy Liberation Day!

And now in Dutch:

Fijne Koninginnedag! En Dodenherdenkingsdag. (Je snapt wat ik bedoel)/
En alvast een fijne Bevrijdingsdag!

TTigerz signing out.