Part 3

Meanwhile outside.

Shagon hadn't managed to awaken Ember. He waited patiently for Zafyra to appear and was pleasantly surprised when he saw her appear. She was now taller than him and looked, in his eyes, stunning. Another sign that love blinds.

'Zafyra what happened?' he asked.

Zafyra looked at him. 'Some problems with my host. But now she's fueling me even more than normal.'

'You look stunning.' Shagon said.

'Don't flatter me, Shagon.' Zafyra said. 'At least not now.'

At that moment the Guardians appeared. They put Julian and Blunk down and then looked at their opponents. When they saw Zafyra they were unpleasantly surprised.

'Oh for crying out loud!' Cornelia said annoyed. 'Why is it that everytime we have to fight them, one of them seems to have gotten an upgrade?'

They flew at their opponents. Cornelia and "Will" against Shagon and Zafyra, Hay-Lin versus Khor and Irma and Taranee versus Tridart. Ember awakened shortly after the battle started and flew at the battle.

Hay-Lin easily blew Khor into the mountain.

"Will" brilliantly dodged Shagon's eyebeams and started to shock him good while Cornelia was trying to dodge the lightning empowered knives Zafyra was throwing at her. "Will" noticed that Ember was coming at them.

'Irma, douse Ember!' she ordered. She then thought of something for a little revenge on Irma's bossy behavior. 'If that's it with your vision.' she added sarcastically.

'Be careful, Heart.' Taranee sarcastically warned as she was melting Tridart's attack. 'It's her way or the highway.'

Irma looked a little annoyed while she started to focus her powers. 'What exactly is your point?'

She doused Ember fire blast and shot her towards the ground. She landed next to Halinor and was out cold, again.

'Useless.' Zafyra said coldly before shooting lightning at "Will"

"Will" dodged the lightning but didn't notice the knives that followed it. Luckily for her Hay-Lin saw them coming and blew them away before they hit their mark.

'We've got to get inside!' Cornelia said as she dodged an attack of Zafyra.

'Try and get past me, blondie!' Zafyra taunted as she threw more knives and lightning at Cornelia.

In Mt. Thanos

'I don't think we have much time, mother.' Caleb said, zombie-like.

'I think you're right.' Nerissa said.

She held out the Heart of Meridian to share it with Caleb. Caleb slowly went towards it but then quickly grabbed it out of her hand.

'Ha!' he said triumphant.

'You fool!' Nerissa said, clearly angered with her son's behavior. 'Why would you try to take what was freely offered?'

With that she teletransported the Heart of Meridian back into her hand. Caleb looked confused at what just happened and then slowly started to back away. Nerissa started to crackle with electricity and the ex-rebel leader started to feel a little scared.

Meanwhile outside

Cornelia tried to get past Zafyra, but Zafyra blocked her everytime. Cornelia was starting to get annoyed when Taranee and "Will" suddenly shot past her. They both grabbed a wing of Zafyra and were using their powers on her. "Will" tried to electrify her while Taranee tried to burn her. Cornelia looked around and saw that Hay-Lin was busy with Shagon and Irma was preoccupying Tridart.

'Go Corny! We'll keep them here!' Irma yelled at her.

Cornelia felt terribly relieved and quickly shot past Zafyra, "Will" and Taranee.

Although Zafyra wanted to stop Cornelia, she was a little preoccupied with the fire Guardian and the Heart.

'Let me go!' she roared as she enveloped herself with electricity.

Taranee and "Will" were still holding Zafyra's feathers but felt that they were weakening.

Cornelia shot towards the entrance of the cave but she got stopped by Halinor. Halinor created a fire barrier in front of the entrance in which Cornelia collided. As she recovered she started to focus her powers.

'Oh, you so don't want to get between me and my squeeze!' she threatened.

The earth started to rip and it threw Halinor away. Cornelia quickly went inside. Well that was her original plan. Khor had awakened and was now coming straight for Cornelia. Julian and Blunk appeared as well and looked at Cornelia for instructions.

'Go!' Cornelia said. 'Go! I'll catch up!'

Julian and Blunk went inside while Cornelia engaged battle with Khor.

In the cave

Caleb was launched against a wall.

'You didn't listen to a word I said!' Nerissa said to him, clearly annoyed.

'You mean the ranting about how you'll enforce for cosmic order?' Caleb replied sarcastically.

'My blood flows through your veins.' Nerissa said. 'You BELONG to me!'

'This isn't about blood.' Caleb said as he got up. 'This is about good versus evil. Guess on what side I'm on.'

'Then I will destroy you!' Nerissa yelled angrily.

'No. You won't.' a new voice said.

Nerissa looked around and saw Julian and Blunk walking towards her and Caleb.

'You won't harm our child, Nerissa.' Julian stated. 'If our love could create this magnificent son than there must have been some good in you, once.'

'Then, just this once, I will let you both go.' Nerissa said, relenting to Julian. 'But cross me again and there will be no mercy! No escape.'

'Gee mom. Most kids just get grounded.' Caleb said coldly.

Nerissa ignored Caleb's remark and teletransported away.

Back with the Guardians and the Knights of Destruction

Ember was finally back on the battle field and the girls were losing. Zafyra's power boost was really giving them a lot of trouble and now that Ember was back they couldn't go two versus one on her. That and that both "Will" and Taranee were pretty beaten up by their attempt to stop Zafyra from going after Cornelia. Zafyra noticed that Nerissa teletransported on a rock nearby and that she rose her hand. Zafyra felt a tingle of electricity coming from Nerissa and she saw that Nerissa used her magic to electrify the Guardians. The Guardians fell to the ground.

'Halinor! Knights! To my side!' Nerissa called. 'We leave here at once!'

Zafyra abandoned the battle field and flew to Nerissa. Tridart and Shagon followed her while Khor took Halinor and jumped to Nerissa. Ember, however, stayed behind.

'But the Guardians are down!' she said. 'We can destroy them all!'

Nerissa looked rather ticked off but before she could punish Ember, someone else did.

'You question your mistress' orders?' Zafyra glowered as she electrocuted Ember. 'Her visions? Disobedience will result in a total disaster. Every time.'

Nerissa smiled darkly before teletransporting away with her Knights and the two ex-Guardians.

The Guardians looked confused at each other but then noticed some movement. Caleb, Julian and Blunk came out of the cavern. Cornelia ran to Caleb and hugged him.

'Caleb!' she said relieved.

But Caleb pushed her away.

'I need to get back to Meridian.' he said gloomy. 'Now.'

'I'll go with you!' she said but he ignored her.

Cornelia looked hurt at him while Julian walked to her.

'He just needs time.' he said.

At the concert of VMJ

The girls managed to get back in time for VMJ's last encore. "Will" and Taranee were terribly sore but with a combination of bluff and glamour they managed to fake that they were alright.

Irma, who finally figured out that she was being awful, turned to the girls when VMJ left the stage.

'Guys, sorry that I went all Nerissa on you. I swear I'll make it right.' she said.

She then walked to VMJ.

'Uhm, great concert Vance! I enjoyed every bit I heard.'

'Thanks babe.' VMJ replied. 'And I appreciate all your hard work too.'

'Thanks…' Irma said dreamily.

She got called back when she heard Cornelia cough.

'Uhm I mean actually..uhh… It was a team effort!' she corrected herself. 'This is Courtney, Bess, Hay-Lin, Will, Taranee, Cornelia, Uriah and Martin. They made the show happen.'

'President of your fan club here.' Cornelia said with a smile.

'Dude, you so rock! I love you man!' Uriah said with admiration.

'Wow. It took all you guys to pull this together?' VMJ said impressed.

'Uhuh.' Irma said.

'Yeah it was a real job getting the acoustic levels to match the broadcast circuitry…' Martin started.

'And fit the feed bandwidth.' VMJ and Martin finished in choir.

Both laughed while Irma looked confused from VMJ to Martin.

'You…know this stuff?' she asked.

'Are you kidding me?' VMJ answered. 'I'm the Captain Radio Geek.'

'I'm Lieutenant Radio Geek!' Martin said happily.

VMJ walked to Martin.

'The let's talk soundboards.' he said.

'Roger that, Captain.' Martin said with a salute.

'Call me VMJ.' he said as they walked off, leaving a very confused Irma and Cornelia behind.

At the new hideout

Zafyra returned to normal when they arrived. The hatred she had felt for her host was still there, just like her host's hatred for her, but it wasn't strong enough to feed her and let her keep her new form. She was now currently bowing to Nerissa.

'You've done well, Zafyra.' Nerissa said. 'But I'll have you know that, if you betray me once more, I will show you no mercy.'

'Yes mistress.' Zafyra said. 'I nearly ran into a trap but you showed me the right way.'

'It's okay.' Nerissa said with a smile. 'Now go.'

Zafyra walked away, to her new room. A soft knock was head. She turned around and saw Shagon looking at her.

'Hello gorgeous.' he said.

'Hey Shagon.' she replied a little stiffly.

'Something wrong?' he asked as he walked up to her.

'No.' she lied. 'Just got the confirmation that my host is terrible.'

Shagon laughed.

'Yeah, mine is too.' he said, totally oblivious of what Zafyra actually meant.

He then glamoured into Matt. He looked at her and smiled.

'But, I've got you so I couldn't care less about him.'

Zafyra glamoured into Will and smiled at him.

'And I have you.' she said tenderly.

Both locked their lips and started to kiss each other with passion. Unaware of the fact that they were accepting love. Unaware of the feeling that would be their undoing one day.

Will was silently fuming. She hadn't seen Zafyra and she was glad. How could she act like she was being nice? How could she think that Zafyra had changed? Talking about naïve.

she was so lost in thoughts that she hadn't heard Matt. Matt placed his hands on her shoulder and she looked up.

'Everything okay?' he asked concerned. 'I saw you and Zafyra.'

'I'm fine.' Will replied. 'I just thought that Zafyra was different from Shagon or Khor or Ember. Turns out that she's nothing but malice.'

'Why did you think that?' Matt asked confused.

'She's created by me, Matt.' Will said. 'She has my powers, my body. Nerissa only made the transformation possible. Shagon is practically created by Nerissa, you're just the one who provides the body. I just thought…'

'That she and you were the same?' Matt said. 'You know that, that was just a trick to make them give our bodies back?'

Will sighed annoyed. 'Yeah, well that plan failed. Ready to think of a plan P?'

'Yeah, but not now. Let's enjoy our moment together now.' Matt said as he hugged Will.

Will rested her head on his chest. A sole tear ran over her cheek as she thought about Zafyra.

*I really hoped that she was more.* she thought.

At the Silver Dragon, later that evening

Caleb was retelling his story of what happened when he was with Nerissa. He returned right after the concert was finished.

'Yeah, that's right.' Caleb said. 'Zafyra tried to get me away.'

'If that's so then why did she attack us and why did it look like she got a power boost?' Cornelia said skeptical.

'She was put under some kind of spell.' Caleb said. 'I don't know exactly. I had to close my eyes to give the impression that I was asleep. But when I peeked, I saw Nerissa focusing her powers on Zafyra and she said something about obeying her.'

'This is interesting.' Yan-Lin said. 'It appears that there is something that makes Zafyra rebel against Nerissa.'

'Maybe it's my Keeper.' "Will" said hopefully. 'Rebel leader, have you seen my Keeper or her boyfriend?'

Caleb looked at the Heart. He still had some trouble with her not being the real Will and by being called by his title. He sighed and shook his head.

'No, no sign of Will or Matt.' he said gloomily. 'But I saw someone else.'

'Who?' Hay-Lin asked.

'Cassidy.' Caleb replied.

That was it folks! Tell me, bad or good? Sappy or not? First, I wanted Caleb to join his mother but that would have given me a lot of new problems and would have demanded me to turn away of the story line, which I try to follow. So that plan got denied.

Now you see Will and Zafyra doing some bonding. I really think they deserve each other, but it seems that it's just not what Nerissa wants. Still I think Will deserves an older sister, one that can tease her with boys, tell her what to wear and can cheer her up when the others can't!

I love you guys, bye!

TTigerz