Chapter 9

Michael stood helplessly as he watched an unconscious Britney being dropped from a cliff. As he stood there, he thought of the image of his home being burned down. The feeling of Kiara running past him towards the cliff made him see the image of his mother falling to the ground and his father casting a spell. Protecting him. Something about that made his blood boil.

*****

The group sat in silence in the room trying to comprehend that they had seen, and the most any of them could get out was a stutter or half a sentence. Rebecca then got up and told them that they had more pressing matters at hand. The world's biggest and most notorious terrorist group was after them and their own principal was working with them. They had found their last hiding spot, so there was nothing to stop them from finding their new one. One of the people in the group was injured, and they had no idea where they are.

Kylian signs how they should set up a barrier to conceal the house in the case they're found, but they'd need to make a perimeter for the barrier. And that requires exploring and securing the area. They later decided that one group can stay behind and make dinner, or rather breakfast, while the others survey the land. Halley and Louis were excluded since she had to tend to his wounds. The survey groups were: Michael and William, Rebecca and Britney, and Kylian, Brandon, and Kiara stayed behind to cook.

***

Halley and Louis hadn't really ever been alone in the same room before, so neither of them knew how to break the silence in a way that wasn't insensitive to the other party. Louis asked why the wound was taking so long to heal, but in a not rude way. She explained that magic caused the wound, which is very different from a wound inflicted by a knife or a gun. She then asked him how he got injured in the first place.

He told her how he went to take a walk to cool himself down after his prior argument with William. He saw a bright red bird in a nearby tree and he was captivated by it, and so decided to follow it. He followed the bird for a few minutes until he accidentally stumbled upon the enemy's camp. He held his breath as he tried to slowly back away and tell everyone else, but the bird started making a lot of noise and exposed him. Louis, at first, stood firm, ready to fight, but he was soon outnumbered.

Louis's eyes turned a deep, ruby red as spheres of fire began to form around him, almost like mini suns. He threw one at a bullet that was shot at him, melting it, and threw another sphere at the campfire. The fire erupted into a giant flame, which bought Louis enough time to get a headstart. As Louis was running through the thick wood, the red bird appeared and distracted him enough for him to get shot in the arm, but the bird led him back to them afterwards.

At the end of his story, Halley was more concerned about whether Louis's giant fireball caused a forest fire, but he explained how the flames obey him. If there is something that he doesn't want burned, the flame won't burn it. Kylian then walked in to check up on them, and his timing was immaculate, because she just finished healing his arm, which was as good as new.

All three of them got called down by Kiara and Brandon to see Rebecca put up the barrier. Louis ran downstairs, but when Halley got up, she tripped on her own feet and fell over. Lucky for her, Kylian caught her before she could fall. He pulled her in close to kiss her, but Brandon walked in and interrupted them and called them a second time.

The two of them went outside and saw Rebecca in the field surrounding the house with her hands raised. The sun cast a warm orange glow on her as her eyes turned a regal, boysenberry purple and a pillar of light of the same color erupted from her hands into the twilight sky. Suddenly Britney ran over to Rebecca and got hit by a pillar of baby blue light while trying to protect her and dropped to the ground.

***

Kylian felt a bit out of place, since Kiara and Brandon were so close, almost like an outsider. Once in the kitchen, Brandon asked Kiara to conjure up ingredients and allocated the appetizers, her world-class parfaits, while he and Kylian work on the main course, pancakes, waffles, and french toast. The room was filled with the sounds of a happy Kiara gliding around and humming along to the song playing on Brandon' speaker, while cooking, of course. As Kylian was working on the waffle batter, and Brandon was waiting for the cooking oil to warm up, Brandon brought up Halley.

He explained how since his father hasn't been around to protect them for most of their lives, that they had to fill that role in for the both of them. Halley protects him, and he protects her. He checked the oil and began frying the pancakes before he asked Kylian if he was genuinely in love with her, because he wouldn't tolerate him if he was playing with her. Kylian rigorously nodded and began to tell Brandon about his own little sister.

As he spoke, Kylian's eyes were a deep, sapphire blue, to show that he was using a spell to speak. He told Brandon about his little sister, who was five years younger than him. He vowed to love and protect her from the moment she was born, but that would prove to be a difficult task. She was named Aimée because of the amount of love she was born into, but she was born weak. She didn't live to see her third birthday.

On the day she passed, Kylian swore to himself that he would do everything in his power to make sure that every daughter gets to go home and celebrate their next birthday. Brandon stayed silent for a little while before whispering, "You better treat her right.". When Kiara asked him to repeat himself, he told them to go call Halley and Louis.

After interrupting Halley and Kylian's kiss, Brandon headed outside and smiled as tears ran down his face, which he tried his best to wipe away quickly. He had always thought of himself as the protector of the group, but he didn't think he'd have to live up to that title so soon.

He began to run towards Britney, but a glare in the corner of his eye caught his attention. It was the Saviors. Rebecca never put up the barrier and so they got through, and now they were about to attack, and there was no time to stand around and wait for them.

***

When Britney was 12 years old, she went on an early morning pre-training run everyday, but on one particular day she felt extra tired, so when she stopped to rest. That's when she met Rebecca. They went to the same school, but at the time, Britney was a loner and didn't really socialise with others. The morning when they met in the woods was the first time that they truly met. The relationship that these two have isn't that can be easily described. Both knew everything about each other, but they have an inseparable bond.

It may be because of that bond, that Britney was so willing to risk her life in exchange for Rebecca's. She felt in her heart that she was someone that she would gladly die for over and over again. Rebecca felt the same way. She thought about how they were laughing and reminiscing about the past earlier, and now she was in her arms, practically lifeless. Rebecca held her as close in her arms as she could.

Suddenly, she felt her body disappear from her arms. She looked up searching for her only to see her in the arms of the one person she wouldn't mind killing, Aaron Moore. He began to levitate above the ground and soon over the steep cliff near the house, all while holding Britney in his arms. He talked about how naive the children were, and how they shouldn't mess with adults' business.

That's the thing though. Moore did the first thing in Villain 101, he underestimated the heroes.

***

As Michael and William were surveying the land, Michael spotted a bright, red bird that took his breath away. He unconsciously followed the bird, and William followed him to make sure that he stayed safe. They followed the bird to a cellar that had been sealed with magic, one that was familiar to Michaelangelo.

He reached out and touched the cellar and a hologram appeared. A hologram of Michael's father. They couldn't listen to the entire tape, because they got the signal that Britney and Rebecca were done, and they should be too. The boys went back without securing the perimeter, but trying to figure out what they just found.

*****

Luckily for the group, William remained collected during the situation and told them what to do through telepathy. Kiara responded first and dashed towards Britney, straight down the cliff. Kylian's eyes turned to his magical deep, sapphire blue and raised his arms. The water around Kiara and Britney split until she caught her, then it came rushing back. Louis's eyes turned a fiery red and a giant pillar made of magma and water shot Kiara and Britney out of the water.

While this was all happening, Brandon and Halley got Rebecca snapped out of it and got her to begin making a barrier around the enemies line. Halley summoned her swords as her eyes glowed a humming pearl white, and Brandon conjured up his bow and quiver of arrows. Both his bow and arrows were golden with engravings of flowers. Both their weapons had golden strings attached to them. They wanted to trap the Saviours, not kill them.

William's eyes also began to glow their magical, emerald green and this time, tree roots began to sprout out of the ground and built a wall between them. At the same time, Brandon began to shoot his arrows at different parts of Rebecca's still-forming barrier and with every shot, Halley would send a blade in the same direction to secure the arrow. As Kiara and Britney dropped from the last opening in the barrier, William used a tree root to grab them before they fell in the net they had formed with this method.

William dropped his wall and let the Saviours advance at them, which allowed Kiara to switch out with Halley so that she could heal Britney under Rebecca's protection, while everyone else fought the Saviours, everyone except Michaelangelo.

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