I do not own W.I.T.C.H. only BRUJA

forgive any (and all) of my grammer issues in this and the past few chapters, they have been grammatically worse off then my previous chapters due to my absentmindedness (sp) and so on... on the other hand if you haven't noticed anything, please continue not to notice... thanks ;)

Chapter 9) An Unforseen Element

"Alexis!" Brianna stuttered as she jumped over to her, "are you alright?"

"She looks unconscious," Rachel said.

"Hurry, let's get her out of here and find Jaden and get out!" Brianna ordered. Pounding caught Ulani's attention as Brianna and Rachel lifted Alexis out of the chair. Ulani turned toward the noise, her black hair whipping around off her shoulders, the ebony feather taking flight; she saw two men pounding on a tinted glass window. One pressed something on the panel below the window. His voice sounded loud from a speaker somewhere in the room.

"Get out of there," he ordered, "put that girl down!"

"Brianna," Ulani mumbled. The two men pounded on the glass again until one of them turned to leave the room. "We have to go!" Rachel and Brianna each looped one of Alexis' arms over their shoulders and hurried from the room. Ulani held the door open while the girls hurried through. Running down the hallway, they heard the door slam to the room where the two men had seen them. Ulani glanced back and saw them running after them. The doorway loomed ahead; they would soon be at the desk. Brianna knew it would be impossible to get by without being seen by someone. The alarms suddenly blasted above them; Rachel sighed as she ran, there was no way they could get up the stairs carrying Alexis with them. The girls pushed through the doors; the woman was absent from her post. They ran through an intersection of hallways and crashed into someone running the other way.

Brianna pushed blond hair from her face and pulled on Alexis' arm to get her back up. It took her a second to realize that two more bodies were piled on top of her.

"Jaden?" she asked. She did not have much time to explain before the doors flew open and the two men rushed in.

"Jaden, take Alexis!" Brianna ordered. Jacob helped Jaden ease Alexis into her back as if she was giving her a piggyback ride. She followed Brianna down the hallway. Rachel and Brianna, freed from Alexis' weight, took to the air on their wings. Ulani followed close behind them on foot, staying just in front of Jaden. Jacob followed behind them all, deeply confused, but he kept his mouth shut; now was not the time for questions. Armed guards rushed around from the next hallway, blocking the girls from going any further.

"Stop where you are with your hands in plain sight. Put the girl down!" one of the guards recited.

"Brianna," Rachel whispered.

"Jaden," Brianna mumbled through her teeth, "you can carry Alexis, right?" Jaden nodded. Brianna smiled and snapped her fingers. The lights in the hallway went dark.

"Ulani!" Brianna ordered. The guardian of air sent a strong gust down the corridor, knocking the guards flat against the wall, clearing a path.

"Run!" Ulani called through the darkness. The girls sprinted down the larger hallway, Brianna, Rachel, and Ulani taking to the air on their wings. Jaden and Jacob ran after them, quickly falling behind. The lights flickered back to life as Jaden rounded the next corner. Glancing around as she ran, Jaden noticed Brianna, Rachel, and Ulani were gone. Behind her Jacob was out of breath. Shouts followed them down the hallway as they turned another corner.

"Jaden, in here!" Jacob called. He held open a door and they ducked inside.

"Thanks," Jaden sighed. She looked around the darkened room and sat Alexis on the spinning chair behind the desk. The walls were loaded with bookshelves above the filling cabinets. A laptop computer sat closed on the desk next to a stack of papers and a forest of picture frames showing off pictures of a happy family.

"Whose room is this?" asked Jaden as she flipped through the manila folders on the desk. She glanced up at one of the photographs. A brother and sister pair smiled back at her from a tire swing at a playground.

"This is my mom's office," Jaden explained, "I guess she left it unlocked." He shook his head, "but forget that Jaden, what going on here?" Jaden turned her back to him, glanced away from the smiling faces, and leaned over Alexis.

"I knew that you guys wanted to save your friend, but you never told me why," Jacob complained, "and how did those three suddenly appear in those outfits and look older? Jaden, please tell me what's happening." Jaden pretended to focus on Alexis' condition but Jacob grabbed her shoulders and spun her around to face him.

"Jaden!" he said forcefully, his face inches from hers, "something is happening with all of you. It's the reason that she was kidnapped, right? Jaden, I've helped you get this far, you can't leave me in the dark anymore!" Jaden averted her eyes from his and towards the pile of papers as Jacob kept a firm grip on her shoulders.

"Jaden!" he shouted. She focused on the writing, trying to think about the words on the pages instead of the fact that Jacob had a point. She saw something that truely caught her attention on the table.

"Jacob, look," Jaden said. He loosened his grip on her shoulders and she moved towards the desk, "this," she pulled the manila folder open and touched the pictures that fell out, "these are the same ones that we have…"

"What are they?" asked Jacob, "why does my mom have this?" Jaden pulled out a typed piece of paper and skimmed down the lines. It was a progress report, explaining a capsule with eight probes had been lunched on the most recent November 3. Jaden stopped reading and looked up at Jacob.

"November third," she mumbled, "wasn't that the day of the meteor shower?"

"It might have been, so what?" Jacob shrugged. He picked up each of the separate pictures of the orbs and flipped through them; there were eight photos in total. Information about each sphere was written on the back of the film. While they all appeared to be duplicates of each other, they were made of different materials, if the data was to be believed, with a new, experimental glasslike substance for a covering.

Jaden pulled out another piece of paper from the folder; it appeared to be a log sheet. On it contained the dates that each orb was deactivated. Looking at the data, Jaden noticed the days on the list were similar to the days that strange creatures they fought appeared. She read down the paper and smiled.

"Jacob, look!" Jaden exclaimed, "the 'orbs', as your mother calls them, were made to-" The door burst open allowing a group of armed guards entrance into the room. The men grabbed both Jaden and Jacob, leaving Alexis for the others. The man in charged ripped the papers out of Jaden's hand and eyed them over. He raised his eyebrow in surprise at her when he read the name of the file. Jaden stood calmly while the guards maneuvered her hands behind her back and pushed her from the room. She watched Jacob try to put up a fight and get them off of him.

"This is my mother's office!" he exclaimed, "let go of me. My dad is the mayor!" The guards paid him no attention and marched him outside into the hallway after Jaden. Alexis was carried out over a man's shoulder behind the rest of the group.

They were marched up the stairs into a plusher environment. The building had been transformed from a classified government lab, to a rich businessman office building. They were walked down a hallway and past a startled secretary who shouted after them that Mr. Brigson was in a meeting.

The guard holding the papers about the 'orbs', pushed open the door without a knock and announced their entrance. A man was seated bhind a desk, staring into space. Jaden could just imgaine Alexis' comment, 'some meeting', she would joke, 'sign me up!'.

"Mr. Brigson, we've found them, they were in Mrs. Lee's office," he explained, "the girl was in procession of this." The man behind the large oak desk took the folder from the guard.

"As I suspected," he said to no one in particular, he turned to Jaden, "now, why did the guards find this in your procession Jaden?"

"Who are you?" Jaden demanded, "and how do you know who I am?"

"You girls all ask the same questions," Mr. Brigson laughed, "and since I didn't tell Alexis, it wouldn't be fair to tell you, now would it?"

"What did you do to Alexis?" Jaden questioned. She struggled to get free of the two guards who restrained her.

"She'll be fine," the man said, "she's just sleeping." Alexis mumbled something incoherent from her position, draped over the guard's shoulder like a piece of cloth.

The desk began humming softly, one of the drawers wiggled fiercely, begging to be opened. The man removed the items in the drawer; enjoying Jaden's surprised face as he did.

"So you didn't know there more then?" he asked. Jaden's green eyes were riveted to the three spheres on the desk. Alexis' red orb sat sandwiched between a smoky grey one and an ice blue one.

"We already knew there were eight," Jacob said, his face set with determination.

"Jacob," hissed Jaden, "don't." She hoped he was just bluffing with the information they had learned in his mother's office.

"No, please," smiled Mr. Brigson, "continue Jacob. Five of the 'orbs', as your mother called them, are still out there."

"Five?" mumbled Jaden in confusion. With Alexis' orb here, she figured there should only be four left.

"Yes there are five left," Mr. Brigson growled, "and I know you know where they are!" Jaden backed into the two men holding her wrists and bit her lip. She looked to Alexis and cried out a mental plea for her to wake up and help. Focusing, Jaden fought to break through the barrier of the unnatural sleep that Alexis was currently submerged in. Jaden felt both Jacob and Mr. Brigson's eyes staring at her as she pressed her green eyes closed and fought her way into Alexis' mind. Then she felt it, a flicker of warmth in a sea of emptiness.

"Alexis!" Jaden intruded, "wake up! We have to get out of here!"

"What? Jaden?" came Alexis' voice, "where-"

"Alexis, you have to wake up now! We have to escape before they figure anything out," Jaden explained. Jaden opened her eyes; a new determination alit within them. Alexis cautiously opened her own brown ones, and she glanced around the room. Smiling to herself, she elbowed the man who had a hold of her in the jaw and slid down his back. The commotion of him hitting the floor attracted the attention of everyone in the room.

"Let Jaden and her boyfriend go," smiled Alexis, clearly enjoying herself.

"Alexis," Jaden scowled as she rolled her eyes, she mumbled through her teeth, "now is not the time." Mr. Brigson stepped out from behind his desk.

"Alexis," he smiled, "how nice of you to join us."

"Back off," Alexis growled, "now let them go." When no one made any motion to comply, Alexis threw her hand out in front of her and swung it out, sending a fan of flames at the guards. They dropped Jacob and Jaden's arms and hurried out of range of Alexis' fire. She gave Mr. Brigson a mocking smile as she grabbed the three orbs on the desk and ran after Jaden who had already pulled Jacob out of the room. She sprinted to keep up and heard the guards in the room reorganizing to get them.

"Alexis," Jaden commanded, "find where Brianna and the others are!" Jaden turned a corner and pulled on the closed door; it was locked. Pounding footsteps rang out down the carpeted hallway.

"Stand aside Jacob," Jaden said. Jacob backed away from the door he had been trying to pry open and watched as Jaden raised her hands. The door blasted backwards, free of its hinges, and bounced against the wall down the hallway. Jacob stood open mouthed at what he had just seen. Alexis had sprouted fire from her hands and now Jaden had blasted the door open without touching it with anything. The blond grabbed the stunned boy's hand and pulled him through the threshold into the hallway.

"Nice trick," Alexis complimented. The group leaped over the door and followed Alexis as she led them to where Brianna had told them to go.

After following her up another flight of stairs and down three more winding corridors, Alexis stopped them in front of a janitor's closet. She laughed as she opened the door at Brianna's predicament. The redhead was tangled up in a forest of mops, trying not to move in case someone could hear her knock over the cleaning items in the closet. As the light poured in, the girls helped to free her, and Brianna stepped into the hallway with Ulani and Rachel.

"What's the plan?" asked Rachel, sneezing from being in close quarters with half-a-dozen dusty brooms.

"We bust ourselves out of here and fly away," Alexis explained. She turned to Brianna. The guardian of quintessence got the message and pulled out the Heart. The jewel transformed both Alexis and Jaden and then glowed contently. Flapping her wings happily, Alexis rose to the ceiling and gave it a knock. Jaden crossed her arms over her chest and turned her back to Jacob, trying to ignore him. She could feel his eyes staring into her back in wonderment at what was going on. She regretted not explaining the situation to him.

"Jaden, a little help would be appreciated," Alexis smiled. Jaden nodded and lifted her hands. The ceiling above her crumbled and left a gaping hole. The support beams were all that remained after the last bit of concrete slid from the opening and onto the floor. Alexis darted through the opening, enjoying her freedom and looked around as the sentry.

"Come on," Alexis called, "before they find us!" Brianna nodded and signaled for the rest of them to go through.

"Ulani, can you carry Jacob?" asked Jaden as she took off. Ulani nodded and swooped around behind Jacob, lifting him up and into the air. The five girls flew off towards Jaden's house; Ulani carried Jacob and Alexis in procession of the three orbs. They arrived with little delay and hurried into the house. Jacob, out of curiosity, and the fact that no one had told him to go home, followed the girls inside.

Rachel and Ulani retrieved the four orbs that had been left on Jaden's bed and placed them in the pile with the three that Alexis had rescued from the lab.

"That is a disgusting color, it looks like something caught on fire in it," Brianna remarked, showing her disgust for the smoky grey colored sphere. The pile vibrated, the surfaces clinking as they moved. Expecting another loud noise, Rachel and Brianna placed their hands over their ears. The noise never came. Instead, a smooth humming sound emitted from the pile. The music swirled around the room, only Ulani seemed to notice something odd about it.

"There's one missing," she informed them over the soft humming.

"Yeah," Jaden added, "there are supposed to be eight of these things."

"Eight?" asked Rachel.

"How can you tell?" questioned Brianna.

"The highest pitch is missing. There should be eight pitches, like notes in an octave. The last one isn't here," she explained, "but I think I can hear it."

"Where?" asked Alexis, "we have to go get it."

"Take us there Ulani," Brianna said. Ulani nodded and the girls filed out of the house. Alexis gathered the seven orbs up and stuffed them into a drawstring bag from Jaden's coat closet; she carried them outside with her. Ulani, Rachel, Brianna, and Alexis all took to the sky and flew off, leaving Jaden on the ground.

"Jacob," she said, "you can go home now, we can handle this on our own."

"Jaden-" he started to say.

"No," Jaden interrupted, "you've helped enough. It's too dangerous now." With her final word in, Jaden leaped from her porch and took off, her tiny wings beating hard to keep her in the air as she thought about how clichéd her last remark had been. Jacob watched her vanish into the dark sky.

--

"So what did you find out?" asked Brianna as the girls flew behind Ulani.

"These things are called 'orbs' by the government," Jaden began, "they were supposed to be sent into space to try and discover alternative energy sources and resources. Except they were launched on the day of the meteor shower, so I think they fell back to Earth instead. They can absorb energy from almost any source, and once they touch one energy producing thing, they can't take anything from any other source, just the original. I think that might have been why they are all different colors; they took on the color of the substance they absorbed energy from."

"Wow," Rachel sighed.

"So you're telling me, the government did this?" Brianna asked. Jaden nodded her head. Brianna shrugged and continued flying.

"Here!" Ulani called as she descended towards the beach on her white wings. The four girls followed her down. The tide was out, but the sand was wet and it stuck to the girls' footwear as they made their way into the cave. Rachel hung back for a moment but followed after Alexis as she let a flame come to life in her palm. The seven glass spheres hummed softly in the bag against Alexis' wings as she moved; she let the fire keep her from crashing into anything on the ground. The cave smelled of high tide; exposed sea creatures adorned the walls and rocky floor.

Ulani led them in deeper, the humming increasing in volume until all the girls could clearly hear it. The guardian of air suddenly dropped to her knees and pressed her hands to her ears, hoping to drown out the noise.

"Ulani!" called Jaden, wrapping her arm around the girl's shoulder to try and comfort her, "are you ok?" Ulan nodded slowly, her grey eyes shut tight.

"Look!" Brianna pointed. Rachel, Alexis, and Jaden followed her finger with their eyes and saw a man in the shadows. In his hand was a small marble sized sphere. The humming turned into a piercing ringing sound, forcing the girls to react in the same way that Ulani had. The man stepped from the shadows and smiled as he watched them.

"I must thank you girls," Mr. Brigson said, "if you hadn't stolen those three orbs then the last one would have never sent out it's homing signal which allowed me to finally track it. Now, I need the ones that you have with you." The waves turned; the tide slowly began to fill back in. The water had yet to enter the cave, but it wouldn't take long for the waves to ebb inside. Mr. Brigson continued to hold the small orb out in his hand until the noise grew too loud for even him to stand in its range. He dropped the orb and slammed his palms against his ears, taking several steps backward to escape the sound. Alexis had placed the bag against the wall to try and stop the orbs from vibrating. She watched the bag tip from the excitement within the spheres and the seven spherical objects rolls free. The small black orb rolled into the shadows, followed by the seven others. Alexis dove after them, but missed and scrapped her stomach and forearms on the rocks.

An unearthly moan echoed from the shadows where the orbs had rolled. The girls uncovered their ears as the ringing subsided; the salty bay water pooled around their ankles. The shadows seemed to come alive, reaching out for them with claw like hands. The girls backed out of the cave as the hands reached to close around them. The moonlight seemed to have no effect on the shadows as the being that controlled the claws appeared, slithering out of the cave and rearing up to tower above them. The creature stood only thirty feet tall with a thick semi-transparent black body, almost seeming to be made entirely of shadows. It giant hands reached for the sky and then hung at its sides as it looked around. Stunned, the girls watched as the creature turned and faced them. Two solid red eyes burned as the creature focused them in its gaze.

"What is that?" asked Brianna.

"A physical manifestation of the energy absorbed by the orbs," Ulani mumbled.

"English please!" Alexis shouted as the creature reached out its hands to them and laughed.

"It's like all the other monsters, the energy inside the orbs gets out of control and forms a being made up of that energy force," Ulani repeated. The girls took to the sky as the creature slammed its fists into the sand where they had stood moments before.

"You can't run forever," the being grumbled.

"For the record, we're flying," Alexis smiled. She launched a fireball at the creature's body and watched as it seemed to have no effect.

"It can talk?" asked Rachel. The girls hovered in a tight group, just out of reach of the creature's grabbing arms.

"I already have pieces of your powers," the being said, its voice as deep as thunder. The creature lifted both of its shadowy arms, revealing the orbs in its body and limbs. Each orb sparkled as he mentioned their power. "Fire," the red orb flared up just above where the water came to on the creature's body. The orb sunk into the water as the monster moved deeper into the bay. "Air," the orb shimmered a story above where the previous one was located. It was slightly off center, a little more to the left then the centerline. "Earth– and Water," the two orbs light up, one in each arm where the being's shoulders should have been.

"And Quintessence," Brianna smiled. The orb she had found glittered with energy above the air one. It was located in the creature's thick neck. The monster reached out its arm, trying to snatch the girls out of the air. They fought back, hurling their elements at the shadowy creature. Barrages of fireballs hit their mark but left no indent. Streams of water and flying sand seemed to have the same effect. Lightning bolts and strong wind gusts passed through the being as if it was an illusion.

"Brianna!" Rachel called, "what do we do? Nothing is working!" The being eyed them with its crimson red eyes and smiled a mocking smile at them. As the girls conversed, Mr. Brigson pulled out a cell phone. The phone sparked with the coursing energy in the air, and Mr. Brigson dropped it. The incoming tide washed over it, sending the sparking circuitry sizzling and to an early grave. The dark being reached out and grabbed at a distracted Mr. Brigson, it wrapped a clawed hand around his small body. Brianna noticed his dilemma and pointed it out to the other girls as she blasted an energy bolt at the creature's hand. The bolt veered off course and headed towards the creature's hand where it clutched the man. The girls watched as the energy passed through the shadowy hand until it was only a foot or two from Mr. Brigson. Suddenly the lightning stopped and hit something. The creature growled and whipped its hand back and forth to try and stop the pain, throwing the man from its clutches. He skimmed across the water and back into the cave, but the girls were too busy to notice.

"Did you see what happened?" Brianna questioned them amazed.

"The lightning didn't affect this monster until it hit the area touching the object that it was holding," Jaden answered.

"That makes sense," Ulani nodded, "the whole thing can't be intangible if it's going to suspend something tangible. You have to hit the sections just around the orbs to leave a mark and free them." The girls nodded and each instantly flew towards their own spheres.

Alexis hovered just above the waves, focusing on her glittering, red orb just beneath the surface of the water. Alexis aimed and sent a fireball at the orb. The water met the fire and vanished in a puff of smoke. The brunette looked up and searched for Rachel. She was busy trying to distract the creature enough to free her own orb. Alexis frowned and decided she was on her own. She swooped forward and dove underneath the rough waves. The water still carried hints of the winter cold; as she swam she felt the water seep into her shoes and clothing. Propelling herself through the water with her wings to aid her swimming she made it to the red orb. She reached out to it until her hands found the portion of the creature that was holding onto her sphere. She placed both of her hands around the section and pretended she was not underwater. Her hands would have sprouted massive flames, but instead the water was super heated and the water around the orb turned to bubbles as it boiled. She felt the creature loosen its grip on the orb and finally release it. Alexis pulled the red sphere free of the darkness and swam to the surface before she ran out of breath.

Rachel saw the water break below her and Alexis fly free of its grip. She pulled a stream of liquid from where she emerged and blasted the creature's right shoulder with it. The water slid through the dark body, except for the part where the blue orb sparkled in the moonlight. Wiping stray water drops from her face, Rachel blasted water at the orb again, hoping to numb the section that held it in place. She stopped and noticed that a great majority of the streams of liquid she sent towards the sphere never hit. Smiling she directed a narrower jet of water in the same direction. She pushed it faster then she could have done with the larger groups. It hit the section and the creature twitched its arm, swinging its claws at her to try and swat her out of the air. Taking her chance, Rachel swooped down and snatched the orb free from the creature. The portion holding it in place had all but faded away.

Jaden swooped over Rachel, carrying with her a large pile of sand from the beach. She called the dry sand up from under her and forced it forward in the same way Rachel had implemented to free her own orb. The creature seemed to have difficulty focusing on keeping all the orbs protected at once; after a few swipes, her sand drilled through the monster's skin protecting the yellow orb and it was dropped. Jaden dove down and caught it as it fell away from the darkness.

Avoiding knocking Jaden off balance as she darted downward, Ulani blew a gust of air towards the creature. Spiraling through the air to avoid being knocked into the water by the creature's arms, Ulani pulled with her the air currents and formed a small tornado headed straight at the spot the creature's heart would have been, if it had not been simply made of darkness, the location her orb glittered at. Brianna swooped down and got between her and the monster. The redhead blasted her own orb in the being's throat; the creature twitched slightly and the guardian of quintessence's orb was freed. It fell and crashed into the orb Ulani had discovered. The two spheres shared a sickening cracking sound and flew in separate directions, seemingly in one piece; each girl dove to catch her own.

Ulani caught herself from falling too far towards the water and flapped her wings upward towards the other girls. They had all just retrieved their own orbs and were hovering in the air, watching the monster. The being shuddered and swayed back and forth. It suddenly stabilized and turned its attention towards the glowing city across the bay. As it began moving, Ulani felt a pain as she flew. The orb in her arms glowed as bright as a star in the sky. She felt her eyes begin to cloud as she flew. The other girls felt it as well and landed on the shore. Ulani knelt on the ground and put the orb in the sand. Her vision suddenly cleared and she realized what was happening.

"Put the orbs down!" she ordered. The girls slowly complied and noticed the difference.

"What's happening?" asked Rachel, she watched as her orb dimmed and returned to its blue color.

"It was like my strength was being stolen," said Alexis.

"Exactly," Ulani said, "remember what Jaden said their purpose was?"

"But they had already chosen their sources," Brianna interjected, "wouldn't they have to have chosen people to take energy from us?"

"But we are the elements," Ulani explained, "Water, Fire, Earth, Air, and Quintessence. The elements these orbs chose to absorb energy from are the same ones we embody. They can't see the difference."

"So what do we do now?" asked Jaden, "we can't hold onto them."

"Break them," suggested Rachel, "remember that red crystal that Brianna's mom had. When it was broken, the powers inside were freed. Maybe if we break these, they won't be able to absorb any more energy."

"It's worth a shot," smiled Alexis. She picked up her orb and threw it on the ground. The sand cushioned its fall and the orb escaped unscathed. "Ok, that doesn't work…"

"Try it on the sidewalk," Brianna offered. The girls threw the five spheres against the cement, but no cracks appeared. Ulani bent and examined the grey orb. A large crack was present along one part of the curved surface.

"Brianna," she called, "let me see yours." Brianna kicked her glass ball over to Ulani. The guardian of air smiled as she realized she was right. "Girls!" The four guardians turned to Ulani. Alexis' orb hit the ground and bounced away, she smiled and turned her attention over. "We need the orbs to hit each other in order to break." The girls looked at each other and then to the orbs they stood in front of. Brianna set hers in a crack on the cement to keep it from rolling away and stepped back. Rachel, Alexis, Jaden, and Ulani each picked up their orb and on Brianna's count, chucked them at the resting orb. The four flying spheres converged at the same moment and burst. Breaking glass sounded like a gunshot as the five orbs shattered. The girls threw their hands up in reaction to keep the shards from slicing at their faces. As the dust cleared, the only thing that remained was a fine crystal powder. The wind picked it up and soon all traces had vanished.

"Just three more," Brianna said, her face set with a determined smile. The girls flew over the water and began blasting the being with their elements, searching for the two remaining orbs, the smoky grey and the ice blue ones. The monster paused and shuddered, as if the girls' powers were taking a toll on its shadowy body. The darkness faded for a moment, revealing the two spheres the girls were searching for. They each worked off their own whims, blasting whichever one was closer at the moment. The monster laughed; the water in the bay rippled with the sound.

"While your elements might have been easy, you'll have more difficulty removing these," the being mocked them, "they were formed from compounds, not simply those elements." Jaden paused and fluttered back to Brianna.

"We'll need to work together," Jaden explained. She turned to look for Alexis, "Alexis! Come here!" the guardian of fire swooped over.

"What do you know about compounds," Jaden asked, "you took chemistry last year too, what is a compound?"

"Two or more elements stuck together by some chemical process," Alexis recited, "wow, I can't believe I remember that…"

"Ok, so if in each of those orbs there are at least two elements we have to figure out what they absorbed to free them. It looks like only the element that it absorbed its energy from can free it," Jaden said as she hovered. Ulani and Rachel looked to each other and then at the being.

"Ice," Ulani offered, "that's water and air, and the orb on the left side of that thing is ice blue.

"What about the other?" asked Rachel.

"Well, we have fire, earth, and electricity left," Brianna said, "what would those make?"

"Let's try fire and earth," Jaden suggested.

"All that makes is burnt earth," Alexis frowned.

"And smoke," Brianna smiled, "Ulani! Rachel! You two get the one on the left. Alexis and Jaden, get the other one."

"And you?" Alexis questioned. Brianna smiled.

"I'll be the distraction," she said. Brianna zoomed up and away from the girls, zipping around the monster's head like an annoying fly, getting its full attention. Alexis and Jaden flew towards the orb on the right while Ulani and Rachel moved to the left. Both teams began blasting their elements at the orbs, hoping to free them from the shadow creature's grasp.

Rachel sent a stream of water from the bay at the location the orb had glittered from. Waving her hand after the liquid, Ulani froze it solid and watched as the ice crashed into the orb. The being shuddered and lifted its massive arm to try and keep them from succeeding. Brianna noticed she had lost the creature's focus and darted in front of its head, sending bolts of energy at its face to reclaim its attention for herself. Jaden and Alexis had less luck in discovering the correct way to free the orb. Both earth and fire seemed to have no effect, while smoke had no ability to free anything without something solid in it. Alexis watched Ulani and Rachel work, and she thought of a way to attack with smoke as the weapon. She relayed the idea to Jaden; the blond smiled, pulled a few large clumps of sand from the shore to her, and compacted them into stone daggers with her powers. She threw them at the section of the shadow beast which held the orb. Alexis pointed at each one individually and set them all on fire, not missing a single flying dagger. The flaming stones hit their mark and the smoke worked its way down the earth pieces until it swirled around the orb. Brianna noticed each side was held in a similar stalemate and swooped down. She sent two bolts of lightning, one to the left and the second towards the right. They exploded from her hands, giving her little time to warn the girls.

"Duck!" she called. The bolts of energy exploded at their targets, ricocheting each sphere inward towards the creature's center. The girls watched as they collided and shattered. The creature roared and bellowed, the water vibrating and moving away from it as the tide finally came in. Regrouping out of range of anything that might come flying their way, the girls let out a collective sigh of relief. The creature seemed to shrink before their eyes as they watched. The water beneath it churned and rippled as the being struggled to keep its form.

"What's going on?" asked Rachel.

"It has no more energy to manifest itself in," Ulani said. A smile graced her face.

"So, we've won?" asked Alexis. The shadow seemed to implode under the moonlight, leaving nothing behind to account for the time spent that night.

"And the orb?" asked Brianna.

"Gone," Jaden said, mirroring Ulani's smile, "I hope." The five guardians flew back to the beach and landed on the cement steps that led to the tide drenched shore. Out of the corner of her eye, Alexis noticed a black vehicle parked along the road.

"So that's how he got here," she smiled. She walked over to the van, the girls following behind her, and blasted the doors open. She ignored Jaden's condescending remark and smiled as she picked up the files on the desk in the back.

"This should be fun," Alexis grinned. She threw out her hand and a flame roared to life, cradled within it.

"What are those?" asked Ulani.

"The papers on us," Alexis answered, she plucked hers out of the pile as she slid the file about the orbs to its doom, "Alexis, sophomore at Sheffield Institute. Failed sophomore year of school. Sent to The Military School of Upper Creek view for further observation on suspicious happenings and anger management. Blah, blah, blah." She crumpled the paper into a ball and dropped it into the fire. It burned away to nothing, the ash floating to the sky. The girls fed her more papers to burn, hoping to erase their records with the government and stay off their radar.

"What about that man?" asked Ulani.

"The monster grabbed him and threw him back into the cave," Jaden answered.

"But the tide's come in," Rachel said, "he's probably still in there."

"So," Alexis scowled, "serves him right."

"I'm going to get him," Rachel announced. She marched away towards the beach and strode through the water. Her boots were already soaked through; the water had no effect on slowing her down. The cave was nearly submerged; the last wave of water rolled in, a few bubbles of air escaping from the cave. Rachel took a deep breath and dove into the cold water. Swimming into the cave, she forced her eyes open and searched. The light failed to reach the back of the cave and Rachel was left to using her hands to feel around. Once inside the threshold, she surfaced to the ever dwindling cavity of air inside the air. She waved aside the water and gasped for breath. While before the cavern had terrified her, the water seemed to ease her fears. A ray of light reflected from the water and alighted upon a still figure. Rachel saw where the light landed and brought her hand to her mouth in shock. Kicking her way through the water with renewed strength, Rachel reached out and grabbed the man who had tried to stop them before. Pulling him through the water, she felt his skin had begun to go cold already. She pushed the water away from their faces as she swam out of the cave, creating a small air bubble to breathe in. She swam to the shore where the other guardians were waiting for him. Rachel placed him in the front seat of his black van as Jaden looked for a pulse; Alexis hung back with Brianna, frowning.

"He'll be ok," Jaden assured Rachel. He stirred in his seat and mumbled an incoherent word or two.

"Can we go now?" asked Alexis, "I'm soaked and cold, let's get back to your house." Brianna told flight, leading the other girls back to Jaden's. They landed on the front porch and Brianna pulled out the Heart. They were untransformed in a flash of light.

"Let's hope there are no more issues we need to resolve around here," Brianna sighed.

"Yeah," agreed Jaden.

"I'm in no mood to have the government hunt me down," smiled Alexis, "I have a clean record now. Hey! They don't have the piece of paper that says I was enrolled at that crazy school anymore! I'm free!" Jaden pushed open the door, trying not to laugh at Alexis as she did and walked inside.

"So," asked a voice from the living room, "how'd it go? I couldn't see very well through the telescope on the roof, but it looked like it went well. " Brianna snapped her fingers and the hall lights blazed to life. There was only one lamp in the living room where the voice had originated from. Alexis smiled and shook her head slowly.

"I've got to give you points for persistency," she grinned, "but I think Jaden's-"

"What did you-?" Brianna hissed, she shook her head and skipped right to the point, "if you tell anyone, about anything you saw, I will personally, electrocute you."

"Who would I relay what I saw to?" Jacob asked to no one in particular as he looked out the window. Jaden recalled him saying something similar to her before in her backyard. He stood and walked over to the where the girls were standing in a group. He looked at his hands and reached out to grab Jaden's, "the only person who I would ever tell, is standing right here, and she's a part of it." Jaden smiled shyly and closed her emerald eyes. She felt Jacob give her a delicate kiss, and she blushed bright red.

"Goodnight," he smiled, as he released her hand and walked out the doorway.

"Goodnight," Jaden replied before the door closed. She touched her lips and turned to the other girls.

"I knew it!" Alexis shouted, "I was right about it all along!"

"Shut up Alexis," Jaden smiled playfully.

-Have you reviewed this story today?-

Wow, the end- that was a long chapter… Forgive my bad chemistry sense, I wrote it and realized that water and air (kinda) already are compounds, fire is a chemical means to change something, and- earth is well, dirt... and my bad attempt to add some romance. After I added Jacob, I realized that it was the Cornelia-Caleb syndrome… same first letter names and all… :D

But Finally! Sorry for the long time in the middle when I went on a break… ;) Thanks for everything reviewers, you kept me going! Tell me what you thought of the story, I really want to know everything! Reviews are the best things to find in my inbox! Ex. (what was your favorite scene / character / arc ), thanks in advance for all those new reviews (and thanks to everyone who has already given me great reviews). My next story will be announced on my account page when I think of it