“It’s only been a day since she left,” Jake said to his friends as they were sitting in the girls’ dorm room. He continued, “I’m going to call her and ask how she’s doing since she got back home.”

Jake walked into Emily’s old room and sat down on the bed. He pulled out his cell phone and called the Rhodes’ home.

Meanwhile, at Emily’s home, the shrill ringing of the phone echoed throughout the house. Emily’s sister, Mia, picked it up and answered it.

“Hello, who is this?” Mia asked.

“This is Jake Morales. I go to school with Emily. Is she home? Can I talk to her?”

“I don’t know where she is, but she’s not here, and I haven’t seen her.”

“She’s not there? I would’ve thought she’d be home by now. That’s weird.”

“Emily was coming home?”

“Yeah, she didn’t tell you or anyone?”

“No, she didn’t. I wonder where she is now.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll find your sister and bring her back.”

“Thanks, Jake. That means a lot to me and my mom and dad.”

“You’re welcome. I’ll call again when I find her.”

“Okay, bye.”

“Bye.”

With that, Jake ended the call and put his phone back in his pocket. He walked out of Emily’s former room and walked out the door of the dorm. Reed stood up and made to follow Jake. Grey, Finn, and Aurora all stood and followed the boys out of their dorm.

“Jake, where are you going?” Reed asked.

“I’m going to find Emily.” He replied back.

“But, I thought she went home.” Grey said.

“That was her sister that talked to me. She said she never made it home.” Jake told her.

“What!?” Finn said, practically screaming.

“She never made it home, so something must have happened to her, and I’m going to find out what.”

“We’ll come with you. You’re not looking for her alone!” Finn told him.

“Alright, suit yourselves, but I promised her sister I would bring her back safely.”

“Where do we even start to look?” Aurora asked.

“Well, we know she was going home, so we should look at possible routes she’d take that lead away from the school.” Jake said.

“Reed and I can search from the sky.” Finn offered.

Jake nodded and the five set off for the outside. They didn’t know of the figure watching them from one of the windows. Jake was running toward the front door of the school, Grey and Aurora trying to keep up with him. Once everyone was outside, Reed and Finn took off into the skies, hoping to locate Emily from above. Jake, Grey, and Aurora split up, each taking a different path leading away from the Academy, searching for any clues that would help them locate Emily.

Meanwhile, back at the castle, Emily was in her room, relaxing. She would wait for the time that Kari would come and get her, and then she’d put the plan into action. She never wanted to destroy anything as badly as she did now. She would relish the destruction she would cause, knowing she was serving her mistress. She smiled evilly and began to plot her destruction. She would bring her plan of destruction to Kari, and provided she approved, she would carry it out with glee. She felt the power rushing through her veins, her power that was unlocked when Kari helped her out. The Academy claimed they were going to help her unlock her powers, but Kari was the one who actually helped her unlock it. The Academy had to pay for what they had done to her. Everyone else was just collateral. She didn’t care about the people at the Academy, even if they were her former classmates, she just cared about the destruction of the Academy. Her brain still felt foggy and her body felt heavy, but she figured it was all of her power flowing through her veins. She snuggled into her pillows and closed her eyes, intending to take a short nap, but she was interrupted by the opening of her door. She turned to her now open door and saw Brooke standing there.

“Hey there.” Brooke said, smiling rather crazily.

“Hey yourself.” Emily said, smiling back at her.

“I never thought I’d see the day when you’d join us, but good for you. You finally know where you belong.”

“Yeah, the Academy said they’d help me unlock my powers, but Kari did that, not the Academy. Now, I want to destroy the Academy, the people are just collateral. I don’t care about anyone, I just care about the destruction of the Academy.”

“And you’ll have your destruction, Emily. Kari wants to see you right now, so I’ll take you to see her.”

“Great, let’s go.”

Emily got up out of bed and walked to her door. Brooke walked out of the doorway and Emily followed. The girls made their way to the main room, where Kari was sitting in her chair, lounging. Emily and Brooke walked in the room and knelt before Kari.

“Emily, I want you to go now and launch your attack. I think everyone will be surprised to see you and they’ll be even more surprised when they see you attacking everything and everyone. Also, won’t you bring me your former friends? I want them to suffer, and I think you should do the honors of destroying them.” Kari told her.

“As you wish, my Mistress.” Emily said, as she smiled evilly.

With that, Emily left the castle, making her way back to the Academy. She closed her eyes and focused on her clothes, her tights changing to her red thigh-highs, her boots changing to her Mary Janes, and her turtleneck changing to her red button-down. She also changed her hairstyle into that of a high ponytail, her fringe framing her face and long strands of hair hanging down, framing her jawline. Her eyes were still a dull green, but her lips were drawn up into a wicked snarl. Along with the fog in her head, she could also feel another presence, one that she wished would go away. She looked down at her chest and saw a necklace, but she didn’t think much of it. She kept walking, not really wondering how long it would take her to get back to the Academy.

Meanwhile, back at the Academy, Finn and Reed were still searching from the skies and Jake, Grey, and Aurora were still searching on the ground. As the trio was walking along the path, Grey tripped over something semi-large and semi-long. It was dark, but so was the object Grey tripped over. Jake felt around for it and picked it up, hoping to use the moonlight to illuminate it better. When the moonlight did illuminate it better, Jake was shocked. The object was Emily’s duffle bag.

What is this doing here, and where is Emily? Jake thought, his thoughts now going a mile a minute.

“Guys, I found something I think you should see!”

“What is it?” Grey asked.

“I found Emily’s duffle bag, but there’s no sign of Emily anywhere.”

“Where is she?” Aurora asked.

“I don’t know, but I intend to find her and I intend to find her now.” Jake told the ladies.

“I’ll take her bag back to our room.” Aurora said.

Grey and Jake nodded and Aurora ran off with the bag. The duo then looked around for more clues but could find none. The duffle was the only clue as to where Emily had been, but not where she was going. They began looking for clues again.

Emily continued making her way toward the Academy but stopped before she reached the school. She looked down at her necklace again, as if it reminded her of something, but she ignored it. She continued walking and soon she was at the gates of the school. She realized that the gates would be locked and she wouldn’t be able to get through, but she didn’t have a plan for how she would get past them, because she hadn’t been planning on coming back for a while. She looked around for a little bit, feeling the fog dissipate a little in the back of her mind, though it was still there, and tried to figure out a way to open the gates. She could always melt the lock, but that would be a little suspicious, so then she thought she would just wait for someone to let her in.

As she was waiting, she was unaware there was another person around her. Even with her power to detect the power signatures of others, she was unaware. That meant that the other person must have been hiding his or her power signature. Even if she were to look around for the person, she, more than likely, wouldn’t have seen them since it was rather dark out.

“Who’s there? I know someone’s out here with me, where are you and who are you?”

She heard a gasp and she didn’t know whether it was from the person realizing he or she had been caught or if the person actually recognized her or something. She got into her hand to hand fighting stance and prepared to fight off the person if need be. But, as soon as her hands went into their position, she was grabbed by her wrists. She struggled and began kicking to free herself. The person just grunted a bit and pulled her closer. She thought this was odd, that she would kick the person holding her hostage, and he or she would just pull her closer. This person obviously had to know her somehow, but she couldn’t remember how. She had just come here to destroy the place, to fulfill her mission, and yet someone here obviously wanted her to stay. Soon, her wrists were released and the arms belonging to the hands that previously encircled them were around her waist, and a head was buried between her neck and shoulder.

“Who are you?! What do you want? Let me go!”

“Emily, stop. It’s me, you’re alright now. You’re back! Everyone will be so happy to see you. While you were gone, Mr. Grayson said we could have a dance. Everyone from school will be there, and now that you’re back-”

“Stop. Things have changed now, Jake. I’m not the girl I was when I left. I’m different now and I have a mission to complete, I’m not going to let you stand in my way of fulfilling my mission for my Mistress.”

“Your Mistress…Emily, what are you talking about, your Mistress? What happened to you while you were gone?”

“Good things happened to me while I was away, so allow me to show you what I’ve learned while I was gone.”

“Emily, is someone hurting you?! Is someone making you do this? What is wrong with you?”

“Nothing is wrong with me, I feel just fine. No one’s making me do anything, except for my Mistress. She has trusted me with the destruction of Four Elements Academy and I’m more than happy to oblige her.”

“E-Emily, w-what? No! This can’t be happening, not to you. You are the strongest girl I know and you allowed yourself to let something like this happen?!”

“I learned true strength from my Mistress, so LET me show YOU! Prepare yourself, Jake. I’m no longer the weak girl you knew. I’m much stronger now, and I’ll prove it by defeating you here and now. Then, after I defeat you, I’ll complete my mission.”

“No one’s defeating me, most of all, you. I’ll bring you back to your senses, because this is not you, Emily! You are not yourself. Something happened to you, and I’m going to fix it.”

Emily heard slow clapping from somewhere behind her. She turned and saw Candace, along with Alana, Anila, and Kyla.

“Oh, Emily, didn’t you explain to him that there’s nothing wrong with you, that you don’t need to be fixed?” Candace asked her.

“I did tell him that, Candace. This is my fight. Why are you guys even here?”

“Kari wanted us to come and help out with the destruction. She figured your former friends here would stop you from completing your mission, so we’re the cavalry!”

“And we’re here to stop you!” Another voice shouted, entering the fray.

“Goodness, more people here to stop us?” Alana questioned, rhetorically.

“Emily! You’re back! Yay, I’m so glad!!” Finn ran to go hug her, but Jake stopped her.

“Stop, Finn. Emily’s not herself, so I’m going to take real good care of her and get the sense flowing again, alright? You guys focus on these guys, and like I said, I’ll take real good care of Emily.” Jake told Finn, with a goofy smile on his face.

Finn hesitated a bit before agreeing with him and went back over by Grey, Aurora, and Reed. It had been Reed who had issued the challenge speech prior to his girlfriend’s moment of excitement.

“Well, Kari’s not going to be too happy if we don’t destroy the place, so let’s take care of these guys and get on with the destruction, shall we?!” Candace told the rest of her friends.

“If that’s how you feel, then I’d be happy to take you on.” A new voice said, arriving on the battlefield.

“Who are you?” Candace asked.

“I’m a fire type, like you, and I said if you feel like causing destruction, I’d be happy to take you on.”

Finn, Grey, and Aurora were a bit wary of the newcomer, but the boys seemed alright with it and had secretly brought the other boy into their little circle.

“Don’t worry, girls, Agni’s on our side.” Reed told them.

The girls all seemed to relax a bit, but still kept up their guard around him, just until they could know for certain he was truly on their side.

“Well, Agni’s going against Candace and Jake’s taking on Emily, so I guess I’ll take on Anila.” Reed said.

“I’ll help Reed!” Finn said.

“I’ve got Kyla.” Aurora said.

“That leaves me with Alana, then.” Grey said.