The Guardians - The Collapsing of the Wall (Book 3)
Chapter 4: Beyond death

“Isaac”, says Tamara for the ninth time.

He doesn’t hear her thought, for he is sitting on the chair, next to the table where Lily lies, whose body he had carried from the battlefield back to the Base. He is holding her hand tight, and he has no intention of letting it go. Brook is sitting on the floor, in Leo’s arms, with dried tears on her face, staring at nothing for some time. Addison and Alice are in some corner too, Sam and Mark the same, and Artemis bursts in the metallic room behind the library, for that was the place where Isaac took Lily’s body when he arrived at the Base.

Soon, Gloria opens the door and starts crying. They seem more like pain sounds, and she understands only now what had really happened. The others had already been through the negation stage, for they were there for some time, and Gloria was nowhere to be found. She had come here as soon as she had found out about it, and she was now walking around the room, agitated, crying loudly, and making the others burst into tears again. Brook and Tamara have no interest and strength to ask her where she had been and what she had been doing the whole time when she was missing.

“Isaac”, Tamara says one more time and touches his shoulder.

“Just leave me alone. Get out if you don’t want to be here. I’m not moving”, he says huskily.

Brook stands up and approaches the table, looking with sadness at her energy sister’s body.

“Why?” she asks touching Lily’s hand.

It’s cold, and on her belly is some dried red blood from her wound. Suddenly, Brook feels her energy sign burning her, and she lifts her blouse with a painful sound. All the eyes are on her in the next moment, and the questions won’t stop.

“What’s happening?” asks Leo.

“The sign has anything to do with Lily?” asks Gloria.

“Is it vanishing?”, continues Tamara.

“I have no idea!” shouts Brook exhausted by the pain, putting her hands around it, and staring at it, like she was waiting for something to happen.

She takes two steps back, hits the chair, and there’s a loud sound of pain coming from the table where Lily’s lying, and the Guardians turn their heads in that direction. Their shock is unimaginable when they see her squeezing her fists and opening her eyes suddenly. Isaac falls from the chair, and Lily hits the metallic table with her fist, breathing fast in her mouth and with weird sounds.

Gloria starts screaming from the bottom of her lungs, hitting the wall, Artemis covers her mouth with her palms, Isaac remains on the floor, with his cheeks covered with tears and a terrified face, and Brook had squeezed Leo’s arm, sticking her nails into his skin until the blood appeared. Alice feels her legs trembling without control, and Addison starts wondering if she is dreaming or if Lily has more lives than everyone in that room together. Sam had grabbed Mark’s arm by an instinct, and they were all staring at Lily, who was breathing fast and scared on the cold table. She leans on her hands, looking at her terrified. The last words she had heard from Dean are still fresh in her mind: “You’re dean, do you hear me? You died!” She puts the hand on her wound, making a sound of pain, and then she meets Isaac’s scared look.

“What kind of witchcraft is this?” asks Addison breaking the silence.

“God”, whispers Lily wiping her wet eyes and clearing her voice.

“Lily?” Isaac stands up and touches the table.

“I am here. I am alive”, she says dizzily.

She moves to touch him, but when she does that, his hand starts trembling under hers, so she quickly pulls it back.

“What’s happening?” asks Brook making a step forward.

Lily jumps down from the table, trips after a couple of steps and leans on the chair.

“Dean! We have to help him!” she says falling on her knees.

Isaac feels like he is about to explode from anger because of her exclamation. He understands that something evil had happened there, and he approaches her, touching her shoulders.

“Lily, that bastard tried to kill you! How can you say this?”

“No! No! He saved me!”

“What the hell are you saying there?” asks Tamara gaining some courage to speak up.

“How the hell are you alive?” asks Addison seeing that no one is asking the most important question.

“I don’t know. All that I know is that he didn’t let the Guardian shoot me, and he killed him, and then he said that I was his and he provoked me to a fight. I remember how he stabbed me, and he said the next words: You are dead, do you hear me? You died! Now I understand. He did something so they would believe that he killed me! No one needs to know that I’m alive now! He has a plan!”

“Lily… do you hear yourself?” says Brook disappointed.

Lily stands up helped by Isaac, she looks him in the eyes and sees his despair. She hugs him tight, and he feels released, even though he can’t believe just yet that the one he had been mourning all day was now hugging him.

“Healer”, says Tamara coming to Lily with it.

Her wound disappears soon, leaving behind a purple liquid that makes Alice confused.

“Lily”, she whispers.

Lily looks weird at her, but when Alice comes and touches the purple substance with her finger she feels that someone is about to understand her.

“This dust left behind by this substance seems like some kind of a poison, but it’s a little different from what I know. It’s mixed with something else and, from what I can tell, it may have slowed down your heartbeats. They checked your pulse and they felt nothing, you were not breathing, and you were extremely pale. Who did this wanted you to seem dead. There were used the right quantities to fake your death.”

“So, do you believe me now? This is why he told me that I am dead! No one will say a word! The others must not know that I am alive! Dean has a plan, but we have to help him somehow!”

“Lily, if Dean did this, he must have been planning it from the very first beginning. From his leaving to your death. I knew that my son couldn’t change overnight! You are right, you must stay here and no one needs to know that you are still alive. He did this with a purpose, and probably to protect us.”

“Leonor must have wanted you dead”, says Brook. “He chose to kill you himself so he can convince her of his loyalty. This is how I see things.”

“We can all say things, but we don’t really know for sure why Dean did this”, says Isaac skeptical.

“It’s okay”, says Lily.

“It’s okay?! Lily, you were killed under our watch! We have mourned you for hours! We thought you were dead! He did this and fooled us all if this is really true, and you say that it’s okay?!” shouts Isaac angrily.

Gloria rushes and takes Lily in her arms suddenly, starting crying and stopping Isaac’s shouting crisis.

“I am sorry”, she says among the tears. “I am so sorry! I…”

“Gloria, what is it?”

“I… need to tell you something.”

Lily understands that the situation may take a different turn, but she can’t speak because Gloria shouts for everyone to hear it.

“It’s my fault that you almost died!”

Isaac looks at her like she hit him in the face, and takes a step at her.

“What do you mean by that?” he asks.

“I… it’s my fault. They knew about the meeting from me… This is why I didn’t have the courage to join you there. I thought they will kill me! I am sorry!”

“You’re sorry?!” shouts Isaac running at her.

Lily gets between them in time and keeps him away from hurting Gloria.

“What the hell is going on? You are the traitor?” asks Addison.

The questions don’t stop, the agitation increases and Gloria starts crying even louder. Lily understands that she had made a mistake that killed a lot of Guardians, but she realizes that she didn’t do it with intention, so she stands up for Gloria, even if she is not sure that’s the right thing to do.

“Enough! Everyone out! Please! I want to have a moment with her!”

“Have you lost your mind? I am not leaving you in here with this mad person who almost got you killed!” shouts Isaac.

“I thought you said that Dean had killed me! Isaac, please! I am alive at the end of the day, and I don’t even know if I deserve this! I want to talk to Gloria and I can’t do it in those circumstances! All I am asking is ten minutes!”

Brook pulls Isaac out harshly, and soon they all walk out of that room.

“Don’t say a word about me”, Lily tells them when she remembers Dean’s words.

When the room is empty, Lily looks angrily at Gloria.

“Now explain to me what the hell happened! I couldn’t have done this in front of the others for you have been dead instantly! I hope that you have a good explanation for everyone’s death! Oh, wait. You can’t! What were you thinking? What have you done?”

“I… It happened the night when I went out for a walk.”

“So something had happened when we met.”

“It happened before that one more time. I went out in the evening, and I took the car to take a walk around. But I got pretty far, where I have met some kind of energetic little flying robot. It was surveilling the area, and I realized that I set foot inside of another Base’s territory. So I rushed to head back, but the robot was in contact with someone, controlled by someone because it hit my car and left it without energy. I had to walk back, but they caught me from behind soon.”

“Who?”

“The ones from Base O. The leader and some guards. One of them hit me and wanted to force me to tell them everything that I knew about Base R, for they had received a weird message from you.”

“And what did you tell them?”

“Nothing… and this was the problem. They carried me to their Base and put this on me!” says Gloria showing her the chip from the back of her neck.

“Damn it! And you are talking to me right now! They know everything? My cover is over!”

“No! Because they brought me back here, they instructed me to listen to everyone’s thoughts and come back with details. And this is why I left again that night, for they were controlling me! And they did the same the morning when we met!”

“And now?”

“Then something happened. After my talk with you, I was supposed to get back there, to be their spy, but my chip deactivated and I realized all the stupid things I’ve been doing, so I went to hide and I didn’t come with you… I was sure that they were going to kill me. I didn’t know what they were planning next… I should have told you something, but I was so scared, I couldn’t think. Scared of you, of them…”

“Damn it, Gloria! It wasn’t your fault that they were controlling you through that chip!”

“Lily, when I heard that Isaac has brought you in on his arms and that you were killed on the battlefield, I thought I was going crazy. I am so sorry that I went out that night… I wish I could change something.”

Gloria was telling those things among the hiccups, and she regretted deeply her lack of courage that led to the loss of so many lives. Everything was already done, and they couldn’t change anything now.

“Gloria, I understand you somehow and I will explain to the others what happened there so you won’t have problems… I know that you didn’t do it on purpose.”

“You almost died because of me…”

“It’s over now. I don’t blame you for what happened to me, but you know that you’re responsible for this situation somehow. We could have changed something if you told us…”

“I know. I’m sorry.”

“I know you are.”

But Lily feels a need to protect Gloria from the others, and she knows well that what she had done was a huge mistake. On the other hand, she knew that what she was doing now was extremely wrong, but Gloria was her friend and she couldnțt leave her like that, especially after she had been used against them.

„Do you think that they figured out that my chip is broken?”

“Well, if they haven’t seen you at the battle… what do you think?”

“Shit. I’m scared, Lily.”

Lily grabs her arm, but she feels the need for a closer bond, without knowing why. Maybe because she had just come back from the dead, or it was just the protective instinct which had activated when she saw how hopeless she was, but also sincere in her regrets. She remembers when Gloria had an innocent childish soul, untouched by the tough times and bad decisions.

Isaac bursts inside the room, followed by Tamara, who tries to stop him without success though. Brook and Alice follow them as well, and Addison is staying on the doorstep. The other three guys had left with Artemis to meet the ones from the other Bases who were about to arrive.

They had come just Tamara had asked them to, all of them and with weapons, with cars and tools, ready to make from Base R a new Unity. It seemed that the small battle which had occurred made them choose sides quickly.

“Are you going to step inside or are you going to expose me by standing there?” Lily asks Addison.

She mumbles something and steps inside, closing the door and staring at her even shocked than before.

“You can’t change neither after you die?” she asks Lily ironically.

Lily doesn’t answer her anymore, but Addison meets Isaac’s angry look, who feels like things are getting worse in his life. He can’t understand anything, falls from enthusiasm to agony, from pain to happiness, from lack of hope to hope, and now he is angry. And responsible for all of these is Lily, the person he loves the most in this world.

“Please don’t do anything stupid”, she says taking his hand. “I will explain to you what happened and we will fix the problem.”

“Aha”, grumbles Addison.

“Oh, God”, says Isaac and hugs Lily.

Why are you making me go through all these feelings? , he thinks, and Lily hears his thoughts and answers him quickly.

“I’m sorry.”

Isaac blushes, getting embarrassed because he can’t control his thoughts anymore, and he kisses her on the cheek.

“What do we do with those from the Bases who want to join us?” asks Tamara.

“You will take my place for now because you know the best what to do. I was thinking of making the Base bigger and start the New Unity. They will all move in here for now, even if we will be a little crowded. We will start and recreate the Base, and we will create the New Unity with the help of the newly arrived Magicians.”

“You mean we will build it, without you, for you are not getting out of here soon! Someone wants you dead!” says Brook.

“We will consult and see how can we make this work”, says Tamara.

“Leonor will attack us, and we should be prepared for it”, says Addison.

“You’re right”, speaks Isaac. “We have to form an army and organize well. If they will attack first, we need to be ready for it, and if we attack them, we need a good plan.”

Isaac had spoken from his heart, and he was determined to make Leonor pay for all that she had done. What no one knew though was the feeling of hatred he had for a long time for her since she had almost killed him and Lily when she was Zoltan’s partner. He didn’t forget what he and Lily had been through, and he was holding on to a revenge which was making him more bad than good.