Part V

When I woke up, Hana was back in her necklace form.
"Good morning, Gwen!" she chirped, the little wolf pendant giving a wolfish grin in the mirror. I narrowed my eyes. If there were two things that bothered the crud out of me, it was people who were overly happy and people who always p.o.ed at the world.
"Good morning, Hana." I replied through gritted teeth. Why did it have to be only Thursday?
"Don't forget to put me on, shower, eat a good breakfast, g-" I cut her off.
"Hana, I've done this every day for the last couple of years, I think I'll be okay without your reminders, thank you." I gave an annoyed smile and went to take a shower.
"Err... Hana?" I asked her as I was standing in the bathroom with my clothes and towel.
"Yes, Gwen?"
"Shouldn't I take you off when I shower?"
"No, I'll be fine in the water. Thanks for your concern!" It wasn't what I had meant.
"You're welcome." I said, sighing. What I had meant was about my embarrassment at having someone look at me while I was showering. I had tried to make it subtle, but she didn't get it. I didn't want to press the issue though, so I showered with her on, blushing the whole time.
When I got to school, I wasn't the only one who was still blushing. Justine, Linda, Carmen and Kendra were blushing the hardest. The others were considerably less flushed. I had no what I looked like, but I did know I was flushed.
"Shower?" I asked everyone.
"Shower." they all said, nodding, flushing even more.
Justine began to do her homework, and Tiffany tsk tsk-ed her for not having done it the night before. Then she took out some flash cards to study. Linda absentmindedly made a couple plant sculptures with a hand while talking to Ellen, who looked like she'd been crying all night. Poor Ellen... Kendra and Carmen were sharing secret little words were each other, and I smiled to myself as I watched them out of the corner of my eye.
I just sat there by myself and listened to little bits and pieces of the others' conversations. Sometimes I felt as if I didn't fit in, and this was definitely one of them. But then Justine would usually invite me to do some great one on one trip to somewhere and we would have a blast. If not for her, I don't think I'd be a very big part. But then again, I supposed, now that we were gifted with powers, we kind of couldn't separate from each other. We had to work together.
But what about the other seven? Did they have powers? We had taken up most of the usual powers, and the only other thing I could think of was electricity or something along those lines. What could drive them to want to cause the Armageddon though? That was what puzzled me most. Why would they want to do such a thing that could harm them?
I sighed and then looked at my cell phone. It was time to go to class.
"Guys." I said quietly. "Guys." I said louder, but they didn't hear. I rolled my eyes. "GUYS!" I half-screamed at them. And then they finally heard me.
"What?" Justine snapped. She wasn't too pleased about being distracted from her homework since she really needed to get it done. I couldn't blame her.
"It's time to go to class." I said, picking up my bag. The others had this "oh..." expression on their face as they followed my example and headed off to class.
My day wasn't the most exciting, but I finally finished learning all the verb tenses in Latin and all the declensions, which was really exciting. I only wished that I could remember the all the verb tense properly. Despite the fact that there are only six verb tenses in Latin, there is the active voice and the passive voice. And of course, there are the irregular verbs that drive me crazy.
In science, we learned about global warming, which I paid a lot of attention to. If we were going to save the world from it, I'd have to learn about how it works first. I already knew a bit about how earthquakes and volcanoes were created, but global warming I didn't know quite as well.
Math was just more Algebra, and history was a test which...I hadn't studied for as much as I would have liked. Law was...alright. Not the most interesting lesson of the year, but important. And English was the start of yet another essay. I decided that I would write a draft and then write the pre-writing afterward as usual. I could never write a pre-writing before a draft. I guess it should be called a post-writing for me.
When school let out, I wove through the people in the hall and made it to the tree first. And then I waited for the others. I don't know why I wanted to get there so fast; there was just this strange force pulling me to the tree.
The others were there quickly as well. Tiffany was first, then Justine, Kendra and Ellen, Carmen, and Linda. They all seemed to feel an urge for speed. I sped up the time around us and the people were gone quickly. And then I saw seven shapes in the shadows.
"Hello, Gwen." It was Marianne. She was the first to step out of the dark. She seemed a little sad, but set on whatever she wanted to do. The six other shapes came out behind her and they stood facing us. We stood up as well and looked back at them. My group and their group had been friends, but now it was time to sever the connection.
"Hello, Marianne. It's unfortunate that we had to meet under these circumstances. And it's also too bad that we must sever our friendship because of our differences."
"Yes, Gwen, it is rather a pity. I think we would have been very good friends if it weren't for this."
Gwen, take me off! I heard Hana's voice in my head and obeyed, pulling off her and placing her gently on the ground. In a moment, she grew larger and took on her wolf shape.
Marianne had done the same, for she had a necklace with an animal on it as well. Hers was monkey, with golden fur and bright brown eyes.
"Yolanda." Hana's voice was strained and angry.
"Hana, my good old friend!" Sarcasm laced the monkey's words.
"I still don't understand why you've chosen to cause the Apocalypse. You had a choice to save the world, like me." Her words were cold and harsh. Her yellow eyes were narrowed with anger.
"If you knew, you'd join too."
"Over my dead body." Hana snarled, hackles rising. She seemed to be resisting the urge to rip Yolanda apart.
"We're just here to show you what we can do. And see what you can do as well." A short haired blonde with a cap on stepped forward. She was Bianca. A small ruby-throated humming bird fluttered beside her head.
"Are you ready for what we can do, Bianca?" Linda sounded upset, sad, and angry all at once. I couldn't blame her. I was feeling the same.
"More ready than you could imagine." Rachel said, stroking a purring cheetah next to her.
"I'll go first." Natalie said, stepping forward ahead of everyone in her group, with a small, red eyed frog on her shoulder.
She closed her eyes for a moment before a bike of earth rose from the ground. She mounted it and where she rode, a path of earth followed. The path behind her broke into pieces as she rode forward until she was high in the air. Then she suddenly shot to the ground and screeched to a halt. The bike disintegrated beneath her and then she backed up into her group.
"My turn." Queenie said, shaking her long black hair as she strode forward. A large cobra was wrapped around her head like an Egyptian crown. Her eyes met Natalie's for a moment, and I got the sense that they were more than just friends from the way that Natalie's body relaxed into mush for a second. But only a second. She pulled herself together right after.
The earth that Natalie had left began to break into smaller and smaller pieces until it was just fine grains. Was she a controller of earth as well? But then the grains rose and swirled around her like a sandstorm. Which is what it would have been if it was on a larger scale. She controlled sand. The storm slowly died away, and the sand settled back down on the ground.
"Ooo! Pick us!" It was Kimberly and Michelle. One was more excited than the other though; the other had a slightly sad expression. I guessed that sad one was Michelle. I saw Ellen close her eyes out of the corner of my eye. A shudder of a sob ran through her body, and Kendra put a gentle hand on her twin's shoulder.
Behind Kimberly was a large panther, while behind Michelle was a lion. Kimberly created clouds of darkness that seemed to suck away all the light, and Michelle created a couple illusions ghosts/people. I guessed that they were dark and light controllers, respectively.
"You ready for this?" Rachel asked, smiling. Her eyes glowed with pleasure. She stuck out a hand and a sword of crackling electricity whipped out. With a couple of fancy steps and flicks of her wrist, she created a glowing intricate design in the air that lasted for a couple seconds before fading.
"I'm next." Bianca stepped out from her position and took off a large ring of metal from her pocket. She held in gingerly in her hand before it floated into the air in a shapeless blob. And then she began to give it shapes and whip it around the air like a dancer's ribbon. Then it settled back in her hand in the ring that it was before and she slipped it into her pocket.
"Now it's me." A twinge of pain hit my chest and I tried to ignore it as I watched her step out into the center. She held up her two hands, and then clapped once. The resulting noise caused my temporary deafness and some leaves to be shaken off of the nearby trees. She smiled and then moved back into her group.
"Now it's our turn." Justine growled, stepping forward. Her body burst into flames and then there was a skateboard of flames underneath her. So she had listened to Tiffany's idea all those months ago. She whizzed through the air a couple time, performing some of her competition tricks in midair before coming back down to earth and fizzing out.
Carmen chose to go after, whipping out a large water bottle from her backpack. She opened the bottle and with a fluid motion, pulled the water out from the bottle. It swirled around her like a dancing snake, creating constantly changing designs. Then she allowed the water to go back into the bottle and let the twins go.
Kendra and Ellen held each others' hands as they showed off their powers, Kendra silently comforting Ellen. Stones and sand began to swirl around them as Kendra picked up the results of Natalie's and Queenie's work. Ellen began to say random things that were floating around in the heads of our opponents and some of them flushed when she mentioned some things that I won't put down here. The levitated items slowly floated back down and Ellen stopped talking. They smiled to each other, probably some joke between them, and Tiffany stepped forward.
Tiffany seemed a little sad as she performed her air tricks, whipping leaves into different patterns in the sky. She also managed to mess up Queenie's hair, much to Queenie's annoyance. She stopped abruptly when she was done, and the leaves slowly fluttered back down to the ground.
Linda grew a couple plants and began to use them to bear fruit, create works of art out of twining branches, and some with thorns that swayed dangerously close to the other seven. Flowers of all colors and variety bloomed and filled the air with a intoxicating fragrance and I felt my head go dizzy with pleasure from the smell.
Finally, I went. I took a moment to think about how I wanted to show them before I began. I picked up a couple stones and whipped them into the air. Then I began to slow time around the stones, making it slower with each passing moment. They watched as the stones fell slower and slower in their separate time. When the stones were about head level, I abruptly sped up time around them and they almost seemed to teleport to the ground because of the sheer speed.
I stepped back to join my group. Our group glared at theirs and they glared back. Marianne was the first to speak.
"So now you have seen our powers and we have seen ours. Impressed? We're not impressed by you." She gave a smug smirk.
"No. We're not impressed at all. In fact, we're disappointed at how pitiful your performance was." Justine snapped back.
"There'll be time for you to appreciate the sheer power of what we can do." Natalie retorted. And then walls of earth engulfed them, and they disappeared into the ground. I guessed that was Natalie's work.
"Ellen?" I turned around to see Carmen and Kendra over Ellen, who had slumped down against the tree, head in her hands. She began to cry, and all we could do was try to sooth her as she poured out her emotion through her tears. Hana and the others changed back into necklaces, and we had to help Ellen put Cam on properly, for her hands were shaking so much she could barely pick up him. Kendra decided to take Ellen home, so we all went along to try and comfort Ellen. Their parents seemed a little confused why we were all at their house, but they greeted us warmly and set out some drinks and food for us before disappearing upstairs.
"Kendra? Do they know yet?" Carmen asked, jerking her head upwards.
"No, they don't." Kendra sighed, and fiddled with her hair with one hand while patting Ellen on the back with the other.
"Know what?" Linda asked, confused. I had a general idea of what it could be. It could have been their parents not knowing about them being bi, or their parents not knowing about Ellen's relationship with Michelle.
"Their parents don't know they're bi yet." whispered Carmen softly, so they wouldn't hear from upstairs.
"Oh..." sighed Tiffany, closing her eyes.
"Do your parents know, Carmen?" It wasn't really the time to ask, but I couldn't blame Justine for asking all the same.
"Not yet." Her expression grew a little sad but she wiped it away when she turned back to Ellen to help Kendra comfort her.
"What am I gonna do?" wailed Ellen, sobbing against the table.
"Shh... It's going to be alright. We'll figure something out." Carmen said, trying her best to calm the crying girl.
"How can it be alright? I love-" she broke off. I noticed that they were careful not to mention the gender of the person or the name.
"Maybe we can change the person's opinion and get the person on our side." Kendra suggested, trying to remain optimistic.
"Do you really think so?" Ellen asked, sniffing and rubbing away tears.
"Yeah, I think so too." Carmen replied, smiling at Ellen, although her eyes betrayed that she wasn't quite convinced. There was a moment of silence as Ellen hiccuped and recovered. When she finally stopped crying, we all gave her a hug and had to leave for dinner. There wasn't quite enough room in their house for seven hungry girls. My house was probably the only house equipped to handle so many people. Carmen stayed though. I bet Kendra and Ellen's parents thought that Carmen was just a close friend. Well, technically she was. But more than a friend as well.
The rest of us went to my house, calling parents on cell phones along. Both sets of triplets were a pain during dinner, bothering us while we were trying to eat by stabbing us in ribs with their fingers. I had to lock them out of the room. Sort of. That is, if you count propping chairs against the doors as locking. But it worked.
After dinner, we had a couple hours of homework (with Justine whining the whole time until I turned on my computer and played some of her style music, much to the despair of everyone else) and then we started talking.
"I feel really bad for Ellen..." murmured Tiffany, looking at her toes as she talked.
"Yeah, what's she gonna do? Hell, what are we gonna do?" Justine said, clenching and un-clenching her hands.
"I don't know..." Linda, our planner, didn't know what to do. We were sunk. Unless someone else could come up with something.
"I guess... Try to save the world and make sure they don't get in our way while trying to convince Michelle to get on our side?" It was weak, and I knew it. We all already knew what I said; I didn't present anything new.
"Yeah, how the hell are we supposed to do that?" Justine was definitely frustrated. She was swearing more than usual.
"Well...we could start buy recycling and trying to stop global warming. Linda could grow more trees and Carmen could try to help clean the water. Justine could try to do something about the volcanoes and Gwen can slow down time to make sure we have time to do everything else we need to do. I could try to do something about the storms. Ellen can search for people who want to attack us, AKA Rachel and them. Kendra could just help around as she sees fit. Ellen can try to talk to Michelle without Kimberly interfering and maybe work something out. What do you think?" We all stared at Tiffany for a moment. She'd never really spoke up about things like this before and now that she had, she seemed to be our newest planner. What else did she have in that head of hers that we'd never heard?
"That...is a pretty good plan." I managed to say.
"Why haven't you ever spoken up like this?" Linda asked, also having picked up on what I had.
"Because I never saw the point of doing so. You always took lead, so I let you. Since you couldn't come up with anything this time, I decided to take your place. Temporarily though."
"Daaamn!" Justine said, laughing. We joined in with the laughing, though I was still worried about everything we had to deal with. I guessed the others were too. I let Tiffany log onto gmail to tell the twins and Carmen about the plan. Ellen was a little worried, but Tiffany convinced her that it would all work out in the end. Although, I don't know about how convinced everyone else was. I know I wasn't very, and I shouldn't have doubted Tiffany, but in this situation, who could help themselves?
"GWEN!!!" My head jerked up. Someone was calling me from downstairs. It was my mother.
"WHAT?" I shouted back to her.
"COME MEET JACOB AND AARON'S GIRLFRIENDS!" I sighed.
"Want to come see?" I meekly asked my friends, feeling slightly embarrassed. My mother always had me meet my brothers' girlfriends. They nodded, smiling slightly, and we clunked down the stairs.
When we got into the living room, my breath stopped dead at who my brothers had their arms around.
~*~
"You!" I said accusingly, pointing a finger at one of them. "And you!" I pointed my finger at the other.
"What the hell?!" screeched Bianca from underneath Jacob's arm. Why did it have to be Jacob?!
"What are you doing here?!" screamed Rachel, still pressed against Aaron.
"I'm their sister." I answered as cooly as I could, resisting the urge to really hurt the two girls.
"Oh, so you know each other already?" Jacob said, smiling. Gods, he was so clueless sometimes.
"Well that's great! You'll all get along well, I hope?" Aaron said, also grinning. I really wanted to smash in their heads.
Behind me, Justine, Tiffany and Linda stared at Bianca and Rachel. Justine had murder in her eyes, while Tiffany and Linda were just plain old shocked.
"We'll get along...just fine." I growled through gritted teeth.
"Then we'll leave you guys here for some quality bonding time. See ya later, Rachel! Don't worry, I'll be back." Aaron kissed her on the forehead (he KISSED her!!!! *twitch*) and dragged Jacob out.
"Dammit, why do you have to be related to him?!" shouted Bianca, stomping over to me and getting all up in my face.
"It's not my fault. It's your fault for choosing him." I tried not to smack her.
"And I had thought that I finally found a decent guy." snarled Rachel, staring me down as well.
"You're two on four; outnumbered." Tiffany pointed out.
"We could take you." Bianca said, giving an smug grin.
"No way in hell could you do that." Justine shot back, baring her teeth in a feral manner. I wondered when she'd learned how to do that for a moment, then focused back on Bianca, who was still in my face. I pushed her away.
"Don't you get in my face." I said, keeping a dangerous quiet tone in my voice. She faltered for a moment, then put on a determined expression.
"I can get in your face if I want."
"Yeah? Just try, one more time." My hands turned into fists, and my stance shifted slightly to a more guarded one.
"I will." She smiled, and then stepped forward.
One foot spun counterclockwise as I shifted my weight and slammed a fist into her stomach. I stopped spinning my foot and watched her double over in pain.
"You asked for that." I said, standing over her crumpled form. Rachel then cried out and leapt at me. Justine was in front of her before I time to react, and slammed her in the side of her face. I hoped she didn't break anything.
Rachel fell over, clutching at her cheek. I made a quick check, and was pretty sure she'd only end up with a bruise. A nasty one though.
~*~
I got in trouble, grounded for a month. My laptop was taken away. I wasn't allowed to text. And I got beat up by Jacob and Aaron while Mom wasn't looking. I ended with a lot of bruises. Mostly on my arms and stomach, so it wasn't too hard to hide the next day. They hurt whenever I moved though.
I told the others when we got to school, and we talked about what we were going to do in each household to recycle and the like. My house already had a recycling system set up in our house, so I didn't have too much stuff to do. We were already doing a lot for the environment. That was all we got to before it was time to go to school though.
Through the school day, I was pretty much sulking and when classes were over, I said goodbye to my friends and slunk home. I did homework, did some swimming, and then stared at the sky for a while on the roof. It was really boring. At around 6, I had dinner and then went back to my room. Hana chose that time to change into her animal form.
"Hana?" She turned her head to me.
"Hn? What is it, Gwen?"
"Do you have any other forms?" She was thoughtful for a moment before answering.
"Just my human form."
"Wait. You all have human forms?"
"Yes." She shifted a little on my bed, getting more comfortable.
"Why don't you use them?"
"I don't know. I just prefer my animal form over my human form."
"Can I see your human form?" She sighed.
"Sure, why not?" She jumped off the bed, landing on the ground with a gentle thump and then turned around to me. With a fluid motion, she shifted her weight to her two back legs. Her fur began to grow shorter and her body began changing to a more human shape. She grew taller and the tail and ears disappeared along with most of the fur.
When she was done changing, she had a pale silver dress that went to her ankles. It was a simple strapless dress lined with fur at the bottom and shimmered in the light. Despite her tall, slender human appearance, she could never have been thought as a normal human. Her yellow eyes and grey hair were a little out of place. And she had an air of wildness, something not human. But she was gorgeous.
"Wow." I breathed out, staring at her.
"It's not that impressive." she said, blushing slightly.
"Not that impressive? Right..." I said, rolling my eyes and smiling.
"You should see the others!" she protested, her face still flushed.
"Whatever you say..." I wasn't convinced. But then again, I really hadn't seen the others.
"Anyways, can I change back?" Her yellow eyes wide into puppy-dog eyes.
"Fine." I consented. She shrank and her fur grew back as she dropped to all fours. Then she was back as a furry wolf again.
She bounded back onto the bed, the whole frame quivering for a moment before she settled down.
~*~
The next couple weeks passed uneventfully. I ran, did homework, talked with Hana, and sat on the roof. But Hana and I began to tighten our bond during this time. She began to teach me what the previous Controllers of Time had learned during her time as the Time Guardian (which is what she was officially called). Here is a snippet of one of our conversations.
"Hana?"
"Hm?"
"Can I, er, we only speed up and slow down time?"
"Well...I mean, that's all that most can do."
"What do you mean by most?"
"Some of the past Controllers could see possible futures in their dreams on occasion."
"I had a dream where there was a huge storm while there was an earthquake and a volcano. And then there was just...nothing. I don't know how to describe it."
"Ah...the end of the world dream. There was one boy who had that dream."
"Boy?"
"You didn't think you were all girls, did you?"
"I um..." She laughed at me at that point.
"There have been six before you. You are the seventh."
"Again." I laughed a little.
"The first one was a boy, and then two girls, another boy, a girl, a boy. Three girls and three boys. Four girls now that there's you."
"Who were they?" Her eyes grew distant and sad, and I immediately regretted it. Then she shook herself internally and then come back to the present.
"The first had no name. He was an outcast and lived only for himself. I had to lead him to the others." She smiled a little. "He tried to kill me at first. I couldn't blame him. Of course, in those times, I was a spear. I called him Kiersa. It was his...word for when he was frustrated."
"What about the others in his group?"
"The others were a mix between boys and girls."
"Then why are we all girls now?"
"I...don't know. It's never happened before." I thought for a moment before asking.
"So how did..Kersa...turn out?"
"Kiersa. He..." Her eyes had become watery. "...sacrificed himself to save the others, to save the world." I quickly changed the subject.
"The second one?"
"Ah... Alexandra. She was only ten when I went to her. I was a pretty marble lying on the ground when she found me."
"When did you have to part with her?"
"I had to leave her when her job was done. As I will have to when the time comes for you as well."
"What about the third girl?"
"Anne. She was seventeen, and royalty to boot. It was hard sneaking her out of the palace to make sure the Armageddon didn't occur. I was a necklace abandoned on the ground in her room. She was...assassinated shortly after she saved the world." Her eyes had gotten watery again, so I moved onto the next Controller.
"The fourth?"
"Meng. A young boy living in the streets. He was around thirteen. I was a shiny bauble. He almost sold me." She chuckled a little. "The others were a little different from him because they were all wealthy merchant children, but they learned to get along with each other eventually."
"And the next one?"
"Elaine was...unusual. She was twenty-five, older than the previous Controllers. And all the other Controllers in her group were around ten. It was very strange. I never quite understood why that happened. She had a hard time accepting that a book could change into a wolf."
"The last one?"
"Will." Her eyes filled again, and this time tears ran down from her yellow eyes. I didn't dare ask.
"It's okay, you don't have to answer."
"No, you should know." She closed her eyes and took in a shaky breath.
"Seriously, you don't need to te-"
"Just let me say it. It was close last time. Too close. All the other members died except for him. He was the one who saved the world. But only by a hair. It's been getting harder and harder ever since Kiersa. My first time, it was just one. During Alexandra's time, it was two. For Anne, we lost three. With Meng, four were lost. And Elaine, it was five. You already know what happened with Will. I'm..." Her whole body shuddered and her voice trembled as she continued to speak. "...afraid. I don't want the end of the world to happen. None of us do except for the opposing seven."
"Oh gods..." My voice came out more shaky than I had wanted it to. I didn't want to die. I didn't want to lose any of my friends either. They were all precious to me. I loved them with all my heart.
That was the most important conversation I had during that month. It scared me. But I didn't tell my friends. I didn't want to be the one to tell them. I didn't want to bring fear into their hearts. So I pushed them to learn how to use their powers even harder during the mornings that I saw them before school. And when that one month ended, I had them fight against each other for practice. I didn't want them to hurt each other, but I felt it was better than them dying. I hoped what I was doing was right.