I was back in the strange room. The smell of blood hit me and so did the sight of countless mangled bodies. I looked down to see my channeling weapon on the ground in front of me.
"Then from somewhere in the room, someone began to cheer. Roars of celebration erupted all around me, but intermixed with cries of celebration, I could also hear groans of pain
I spotted Henry walking towards me and I immediately threw myself into his arms.
"Its over, its finally over!" I cried, while he held me tightly in his arms.
I felt a tap on my shoulder, and I looked up to see Alyzzea. I released my hold on Henry and walked around him to stand before her.
She offered me a small smile, and it was a relief to see an expression other than anger on her face, even if the smile looked a little forced. "I owe you a bit of an apology. It was a little shaky at first, but you managed to pull of the ceremony flawlessly."
Just then there was the loud groaning as the metal doors on the far side of the room began to open. In poured the men in splotchy green and brown uniforms. And in their hands.. if I wasn't mistaken those were...
Henry reached for me and pulled me to his side, and in the same motion he but his fingers to his mouth and blew hard.
In a flash Nessie came bounding towards us. Just when the blue dragon reached us, the guns fired.
Alyzzea gazed at me in pure shock, before she crumbled to the ground. A hole in her forehead told the story of what had happened.
"Nessie down!" Henry shouted at the dragon, who was panicking at the loud noises surrounding her. She was jerking her long slender neck wildly around, while she tried to look at every single inch of the the room all at once. Despite that, Nessie still followed his command and all but tossed me onto her.
He didn't even give me a chance to adjust myself into a sitting position, before he cracked the whip and Nessie went airborne, headed straight for the portal.
Something knocked me off of Nessie's back before we reached it. And that was the last thing I remembered, before I skidded through the portal and landed very ungraceful on my butt on the stone floor.
I slowly climbed to my feet, while I tried to process what had just occurred. What the heck had happened back their? We had helped save their world, so why had they decided to kill all of us. And...I appeared to be back at the school.
I sat up and looked at the portal cracking in the center of the large room a short distance away from me. I stared at it expecting Henry to come flying out of it at any second.
Something had hit us when we had been close to the portal, surely Henry had made it too. But after a couple of seconds of staring at the portal with no Henry, I began to worry.
No! I couldn't let myself get too worried because there wasn't enough room in my head for that. There were so many other thoughts swirling around my brain. If I overloaded it with this my head might just exploded
So, there wasn't enough room to worry about Arnold , not that I cared a whole lot. He just still had some of my stolen powers that he had taken before we had left to save the other world. Plus, although he was creepy, he was still a valuable comrade, and he was still a kid...
"Violet!" someone gasped and I looked around and spotted Santana standing a short distance away directly behind the orange globe. Her and Lilly were both wearing hooded dark green cloaks that concealed most of their bodies, with the exception of their faces. Lilly was fast asleep in her arms, "Oh thank goodness that you're back! I thought for sure something had gotten you over there!"
"I thought that I felt you come through the portal. Can you stand?" she asked. I nodded my head and staggered to my feet."Here put this on," she said and handed me a cloak similar to the one she had on, which had seemingly materialized in her hand while I was getting up. I took it without questioning her about it. I noticed that under the cloak, she still wore the bridesmaids dress from Emily's wedding.
While I slipped on the cloak I noted that Santana looked like she had aged about ten years since I had last seen her. Her blue eyes now stared dully back at me and her long brown hair had lost its normal lushes shine, and hung dully on either side of her face. And little lines that would eventually grow into wrinkles, pulled at her face.
"What's wrong?" I asked involuntarily.
From behind me, I heard the sound of the wall opening up. I turned just in time to see Vivian or as I knew her Miss B, Henry's old teacher at the academy and my ally, walked into the room. She too looked like she had aged a couple of years too. Her face bore the same stress lines as Santana. Her blonde braid swished back and fourth across her back while she walked towards us. She looked like she had changed into a clean pair of dark brown pants, a tan shirt, and a leather brown jacked since the last time I saw her.
"Santana, things are getting out of control down there. They are now voting on a new captain and it's between Fireheart and Glider, if Glider wins then everything will go to hell. I lied and said I was coming up here to scout out the building, so once we decided the leader, so we can attack you in this castle and bring it down."
"Wait you can't attack the castle, we're still up-" I began but Miss B held up a hand and I stopped mid sentence.
"Glad to see you made it safely back, but don't interrupt me, this is important," Miss B said before she turned her attention to Santana. "The meeting is almost over now, they're currently in recess but when they return is when voting is going to start. Whoever wins, we still got to get you out of this flying death trap soon, all three you," she said and gestured to everyone standing around in a circle, "I will throw a bolder at the left side of the castle, the opposite side of the castle from you. When that happens, you get out of here," she said and abruptly turned and left, disappearing through an entrance she made after laying her hand there for just a brief second.
Things must be urgent if Miss B didn't even stop to ask about Henry and Amber. She was close with both of them. Maybe it was best that she didn't know about their status right now.
"So they are already planning to try and get rid of us already?" I said to Santana, unable to stop the disbelief and anger from creeping into my voice. "I mean," I continued, " I knew we would probably have to go into hiding if we made it back here, but just not the second we made it back. I thought things would slowly go down hill!"
Santana nodded "Me too, but it seems that there are a lot of anger at the other elements. Your un-dead army killed a lot of people that were influenced by Greta's mind altering. Those people are now allied with our troops, and there are still a lot more of them than there is of our people. The other side hate you for killing their friends and family, and hate me thanks to my association with Greta. I was unable to keep the peace after you left. I've been almost drained of all the energy Greta had store up in the globe of hers. I need to close the portals soon, or I won't be able to close them at all."
"But Henry hasn't come through the portal yet and we have to go back and get Amber's body and free Deception! Plus Arnold is still missing (not that I cared to much about that). We can't just leave them behind in the other world!"
I saw a glint of sadness in her eyes. "Amber's dead?" she asked.
I guess Emily wasn't the only person that she had become friends with during her time here without me.
"Yeah, we were on a roof that caved in and she got crushed."
Santana rubbed her eyes, that were beginning to get watery, "I guess that Arnold is now earth's problem. I'm sorry, I don't think I can do anything for Deception or retrieve Amber's remains. But as for Henry don't worry, he's still alive at least. He probably came out another portal. The portals between the two worlds are funny like that I think I know which one, take her..." she said, handing Lilly to me, "and I'll be right back, but even if I don't find him, we still have to close the portal when I return."
I watched while she created a portal a few feet away from her. She took a step towards it.
"Wait!" I called out to her and she froze, "Before you go, tell me why you erased my baby sister from my mom's mind?" I asked. I did want to know the answer to that question but, I also wanted to buy time for Henry, just in case he hadn't made it through a portal."
"I told you to make things easier. In order to ensure we closed the portals, it needs to be closed on both sides. Your dad was right to suspect that Greta would manage to get her hands on one of the Fifth Element users, and open a rift into purgatory, before we got Santana back. If if she barely had any sixth element, she could still help close it with a channeling weapon."
" Since there needs to be another fifth and sixth element users doing it. And the more powerful pair needs to be over here, and the less needs to be over here. The pair that stayed here was originally supposed to be me and your dad, but that is now you and me. The pair that needs to be over in the regular world."
"Is your sister and my sister....but are you sure? I mean how do you know all of this? Did my dad tell you before he died?"
"Yes and no, your dad gave me this book and instructed me to consult it ," from besides her, a small portal appeared. She reached her hand inside it and produced a book with a tattered green cover.
"It has everything about all the other elements in here."
"Hey I used to have a book like that in the other world, and it had all this stuff about the other elements too."
"Then you should know all this already than!"
"Well, it's been kind of a while since I read it..." I gave her a sheepish smile.
She shook her head at me and placed the book back in the miniature portal. Shortly afterwards, the small portal closed.
The image of Alyzzea collapsing with a hole in her head suddenly returned to my mind and I felt a pang of guilt. Henry and I had kind of just up and left after they had opened fire on all of us with guns, but then again, we couldn't risk being killed or captured. Well hopefully they didn't know a Necromancer could only be permanently killed unless they were either burned, eaten, sacrificing, and maybe one more method, but I forgot.
Santana spoke up again, "Look, there's no way around it. As long as these portals remain open than both worlds remain unstable, and open to collapse by a threat, I believe, you just faced."
"But..." I began, but I knew she was right. If the portal was left open, more soulless people were bound to pop up on both sides again through accidental crossings , and the next time it happened, there might not be no one there to save either world. I was all but sure that even if the cult of Fifth Element users wasn't wiped out, it would surely go into deep hiding.
"Still can't we wait a little until, at least Henry comes back?" I asked.
He couldn't be trapped over there too, I couldn't lose him and Deception in the same day. Speaking of Deception, I was anxious to be reunited with my companion. I ached for his company, I could already feel myself become panicky at the thought of losing him.
"Did you see him go thought the portal with you?" she asked.
"We went towards it together on the back of his dragon, Nessie, but the moment before we went in, we got separated."
"Well most likely he should of come out another portal. There're all over the place. I think I know a couple likely candidates though, so wait here while I go check them out. Even if I don't find him, he could be a couple days journey away. Unfortunately, we can't wait here for him, so you might have trouble reuniting with him.
Oh great, how we were supposed to find each other than? By the looks of things, no way we would be able to stay in camp for much longer, if he came out some other portal. Why didn't me and Henry invest in some good old fashion mirrors before we left, so we could communicate through them? I guess I could attempt to send him a wind whisper.
"A mirror won't help anyways, I'm not sure if you were paying attention to what Vivian was saying, but they are all currently not working. And don't quote me on this, but I'm pretty sure a wind whisper doesn't work if you don't know where the person is."
I began chanting the spell to block Santana from my thoughts in my head, and Santana frowned at me.
"Okay I'll stay out of your head, but since I can't read your mind anymore do you promise you will be ready to close the portal by the time I come back, which will be in about fifteen minutes."
She looked over her shoulder at me expectantly
I felt my heartbreaking while I said, "Yes." I was giving up my hopes of probably ever seeing Deception again. I just had to hold on to the faith that Santana was right, and Henry had managed to cross over too.
Santana nodded and stepped through the portal and she was gone.
"Please Henry, come on back!"
In the meanwhile Lilly stirred in my arms and awoke. The second she realized I was the one holding her, she opened her mouth and wailed. I began to try and sooth her, but everything that I did seemed to only make Lilly more hysterical.
I snuck a backwards glance at the portal opened to the other world behind it. It made me uncomfortable, and I made sure to move far away from it.
Than I thought of the songs my mom used to sing to me as a kid. She used to love to sing, "Here comes the Unicorn", so I gave it a go. I began to sing it, not well, but good enough that Lilly stopped fussing in my arm.
While I sang I wondered were my mom was now. I would ask Santana the second she got back where she was and how she was doing.