i updated much faster this time, =) i was excited to get the next part up

16-Dissapearance and Search

Lillian was used to being left alone during the day on weekends. It’s not like it happened all the time. Maybe once a month, when her mom was called into a last minute work assignment. Her dad was out of town most weekends with work, and Cornelia was always out on weekends, so Lillian stayed at home with the whole apartment to herself. Her family was perfectly comfortable leaving a ten year old alone in the apartment because they had neighbours in the opposite suites that they knew and trusted to keep an eye on the place. Today, Lillian sat in the living room watching kid shows on the large flat screen TV. She had just stood up from the couch to fix herself something to eat from the kitchen. It didn’t take her long to decide on her usual peanut butter and jam sandwich.

She dipped the knife into the peanut butter when she saw him again. He had appeared in the reflection being shown on the toaster. She dropped the butter knife she was holding onto the counter out of the shock of his sudden appearance.

“Hello again, Lillian.” He said.

Lillian remembered what her sister, Cornelia, had said. “If he comes back, don’t talk to him! Tell him to go away.” And she also remembered the promise she had made to Matt, which is why she kept herself silent. She was afraid, but tried hard not to show it. If he did try anything, she had her new powers, and she also had Napoleon.

“Hello Lillian.” He repeated himself.

Lillian still did not speak a word. She continued putting her sandwich together. She could feel her heart now casually starting to beat faster.

“Why aren’t you speaking to me, Lillian?” The blonde man asked. He took a step closer to her, but jerked back when Napoleon hopped onto the counter and hissed at him. He ignored the cat after the hiss and started speaking again, “I’ve come to teach you more about your powers.”

“I promised everyone I wouldn’t talk to you anymore,” Lillian finally spoke without looking at the man.

“Y- you promised who?” He asked in his quiet voice.

“My sister and her friends.”

He shook his head and took another step towards her, causing Napoleon to hiss again, this time sounding much more fierce, “Lillian, I’ve told you, those girls have been lying to you.”

Lillian didn’t reply. She now stuck her two pieces of bread together and exited the kitchen back to the living room. The man followed.

“Lillian, I want you to come with me now. Your powers are strong enough to save Elyon. You do wish to save her now, don’t you?”

“I promised I wouldn’t talk to you.”

The anger was clear in the man’s dark eyes, but he did not lose his temper, yet. “Please. It is up to you, you are the only one who can save her.”

For the first time, Lillian turned to face him, but their eyes did not meet, “You’re lying.”

He shook his head again. His patience was running short. “Watch this, Heart of Earth, and tell me who has been lying to you.” He waved his hand through the air, and a holographic image appeared following his arm. It showed Elyon trapped, in a small dungeon. She looked lonely, scared, and upset. Lillian had always thought of Elyon as a sister more than she had thought of her as Cornelia’s friend.

“Can she see me?” Lillian asked, standing up to get a closer look at the image.

“No,” The man’s sadness sounded incredibly fake. He knelt down so that he could be eye level with Lillian. “You can free her from here, just let me take you-”

“Don’t listen to him Lillian!” Napoleon yelled. He darted between the two people and face the man, hissing insanely.

The man did not pay attention to Napoleon, “Come with me Lillian.”

“No!” Napoleon pounced from the floor onto the face of the man who was attempting to corrupt Lillian.

“Argh!” The man angrily tore Napoleon from his face and cast him aside.

“Napoleon!” Lillian shrieked. She dived for the cat who was laying on the floor, struggling to stand back up, but her foot was caught by a hand that was large enough to wrap its way around her whole ankle.

“Foolish girl!” He dragged her back towards him, but was once again stopped when Napoleon jumped back to his feet and pounced. He landed on the arm holding Lillian and bit, digging his teeth as for as he could into the skin.

“Run Lillian!” He cried in the short time he had removed his teeth.

Lillian stumbled to her feet and darted for the door. As much as it hurt, the man unlocked Napoleon’s jaw from his arm and threw the cat against the wall and out of his way. Just before Lillian reached the handle of the door to escape, the man had pulled her back, and threw her over his shoulder. She kicked and screamed for help, but no one came. Napoleon laid on the floor, unable to stand up, and watched helplessly as a light suddenly flooded the room. When he could finally open his eyes again, without being blinded by the light, he was staring at an empty room.

---

The words that someone you know and care about has gone missing would be something terrible to hear, and not knowing where they were could be something even worse. Finding out where that person is would bring a great relief or at least finalization to the people who knew them, but for the members of W.I.T.C.H., knowing where she wasn’t a relieving feeling at all.

Before they even reached Cornelia’s apartment they could see the three police cars parked in front. When they got up to the actual apartment, neighbours were flooded so tightly around the door that Cornelia had to shove her way through and clear a path for everyone else.

“Oh, Cornelia!” Mrs. Hale rushed to Cornelia and pulled her into a tight hug.

“Mom, I-”

“I’m sorry,” one of the Police officers said to the group of Cornelia’s friends standing at the door, “But this might be the appropriate time for you all to leave.”

“No,” Cornelia said. “Please don’t leave,” She said quietly.

“Cornelia needs us right now,” Will said quickly. She stepped further into the room.

The police officers did not seem to accept the decision, but did not argue.

“What happened?” Cornelia got straight to the point.

“Miss Hale,” One of the male police officers (who’s nametag read ‘Torrance’) started, “We think it’s of your best interest to stay in-”

“No,” Mrs. Hale interrupted, “I think my daughter is old enough to know,” She spoke very quietly, it was hard to make out what she was saying, “Cornelia, dear. They think that Lillian-” She broke off and couldn’t speak anymore.

Torrance finished for her. “No windows are broken, the door is placed perfectly on its hinges. Your sister must have opened the door for whoever took her.”

“What!?” Cornelia shouted, “Lillian is not that stupid! She knows not to-”

“Lillian is ten.”

“That doesn’t matter, she isn’t stupid! She wouldn’t open the door for anyone!”

“Cornelia,” Caleb was instantly at Cornelia’s side before she even had tears running down her face. He put an arm over her shoulder, and held her tight into him.

“You would be surprised at how many children can be fooled into opening the door for a stranger.” Torrance said.

“Sir, if you don’t mind my asking,” Irma was looking around the room suspiciously as she spoke, “But where is Cornelia’s cat?”

Torrance was quick to answer, “He was taken to the vet just moments before you arrived.”

“So he was here? He didn’t get taken?” Irma questioned.

“No,”

“I think we should go check how Napoleon is doing,” Matt said quickly. He grabbed Will by the hand, “You guys better come too. You know how important Napoleon is.”

Cornelia was ready to leave. She needed to know if Lillian was okay, and only Napoleon could provide them with an answer for the time being. “Cornelia, you should stay here, with your mother.” One of the other police officers suggested,

Cornelia shook her head, “Believe me, I want to, but I need to go. I’m not supposed to be here right now.”

Mrs. Hale shook her head, “Cornelia, what are you talking-” But the door slammed before she could finish, and Cornelia along with the rest of W.I.T.C.H. were gone.

---

Matt was the first to step into the vet’s office and ask where Napoleon was being kept. The receptionist checked up on her computer and gave the directions to Napoleon’s stall.

They stopped outside of the room Napoleon was being kept in. Hetherfield was fortunate to have a high class Veterinarian building. Animals would normally get their own separate room or have to share with only one other animal. Napoleon wasn’t sharing with any other pet. He was laying limp on a small pad, only big enough for the size of cat he was. The vet had clearly already been in to see him, as he had bandages wrapped around where he had been injured.

“Let’s go,” Cornelia was about to push on the door when Hay Lin stopped her from entering.

“It says only three at a time,” she said.

“So who’s waiting outside?” Irma asked.

“I’m going in,” Cornelia didn’t wait another second before shoving the door open and rushing over to Napoleon. It ended up with Caleb and Will following her inside. Cornelia wasn’t looking down at Napoleon in sympathy like she should have been; she was looking at him with anger, “If you weren’t already torn up I’d have done it myself. I told you to protect her.”

Napoleon opened his eyes partially and yawned, “I couldn’t. I couldn’t transform.”

“You couldn’t transform?! You couldn’t transform at the moment she needed you to protect her!?” Cornelia’s trembled as she spoke.

Will placed a hand on Cornelia’s shoulder, “Cornelia! Remember when Matt transformed back to himself in mid air? Maybe the same thing happened to Napoleon,” She suggested.

Cornelia didn’t argue, but she didn’t agree that Will was correct either, “What happened?”

Napoleon spoke with his head on the couch, and his mouth smushed against the cushion, so his words came out muffled, but understandable, and he told the story. The story of how the man just appeared, and how he tried his best to help Lillian, but he couldn’t. He made sure to mention that Lillian wouldn’t believe anything the man said, and that she tried to escape, she just couldn’t.

Cornelia didn’t waste time. The moment Napoleon finished with the story she turned to Will and managed to choke out the words, “We need to go to Petrakar.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” Will nodded. She looked out the small window in the door where Matt and the rest of the girls were standing. She signalled them to come inside. “We’re going on a little trip,” She pulled the heart of Kandrakar out from under her shirt and created a fold on the spot.

---

The first thing the girls did in Petrakar was transform into their guardian selves. Matt tried his best to become Shagon, but there was no result. As the girls flew above the ground, Caleb and Matt did all they could to keep up running along the ground.

“Where exactly are we going?!” Irma shouted at Cornelia who was almost ten feet ahead of the others. “Yeah, we don’t even know where Lillian is right now!” Hay Lin pointed out a very un-reassuring fact.

There was no response. Just the sounds of the wind sweeping by their forms.

“They have a point,” Will said, she slowed down her pace and eventually came to a stop, “We need to find out where she is first,”

“But I know where she is!” Cornelia argued, “She has to be in the castle! I don’t even know why we’ve wasted our time not going there before!”

Caleb, who was just beneath them looked up towards the girls, “Will’s right, we should at least come up with a plan,” He said.

Four of the guardians set themselves down on the ground, Cornelia, however, was still in the air waiting impatiently.

“If you aren’t going to come, I’ll go myself,” she said stubbornly.

“Cornelia, come down here,” Will said, not as an order, but as a request.

But Cornelia wasn’t paying attention. Instead she was looking down at something that was behind the trees. The group below heard her mumble something that sounded like, “Great. Like we really need a distraction.” Then, Cornelia swept downwards into the trees.

“Where the-” Caleb said quietly. He stopped in mid-sentence when he saw exactly what Cornelia seemed so annoyed with. He rushed through the trees until he met with Cornelia, who was on the ground and already had a conversation started with the one girl she couldn’t stand. Marianne.

“I knew you were lying to all of us,” Cornelia spat at the beautiful brunette.

“I really wasn’t lying, but after what you did to me, I figured I should get revenge.”

Matt and the rest of the guardians showed up just behind Caleb. Their faces were just as surprised as Caleb’s had been.

“Revenge?” Will questioned.

“Yes, well, I never really liked you, Cornelia, and after you made Caleb break up with me, and embarrass me,-”

“She didn’t make me do it, Marianne,” Caleb said quickly.

“Caleb, don’t be silly,” Marianne smiled, “Now, as I was saying, its true what they say, revenge is very sweet.”

“What are you…”Cornelia asked quietly, but something seemed to hit her before she could finish. She was just about to open her mouth to talk, but Marianne started first.

“I never explained my story to any of you, not even you, Caleb,” Marianne had a noticeable hatred in her voice as she spoke. As bad as most of the people before her wanted to take her down right there, they let her continue.

“This world is my home. I was born here, not Meridian,” she started, “Prince Kasson had never been anything but good to me, and one day, he saved my life. I told him that I owe him everything I have, and if he ever needed anything, I would do all I could to help. Then one day he told me that he needed me to go to Meridian, and live there. He explained that he needed me to help him get the Hearts of the Worlds, and Meridian was the place to start. I couldn’t turn the offer down when he offered me some of the power that was to be his.”

“Meeting Caleb only made things easier for me. With him, I could get closer to Elyon, and then all of you came,” She looked towards the guardians, “And I learned of the Heart of Earth. I was rewarded greatly for all of this information.”

Marianne did some odd call into the air. At first it seemed like a useless ploy or distraction, but then the group could here a thumping noise. Two Cerberus were bounding towards them in the distance. The same Cerberus that attacked the group before, only this time, they were much bigger. When they reached Marianne’s side, looking hungry, and ready to attack at any moment, Marianne halted them.

“There are me pets. I got them a few months ago when they were just babies from the Prince. As you can see, they mature faster than the regular animal.” Marianne smiled and stroked one of the Cerberus along its side.

Cornelia looked like she was ready to pounce on Marianne, “So that’s what ruined my clothes, and what tried to attack us. You sent them!”

Marianne didn’t respond, but the expression on her face said that Cornelia was right.

“I take it you intend on saving the Heart of Earth.”

“Damn right we do!” Irma said through clenched teeth.

“Well, you don’t have any hope of reaching the castle. This is as far as you are going to get.” Marianne’s lips curled into a conniving grin, and she muttered to her pets, “Kill them.”