Ok, so this chapter is completely unedited and horrible. So I’ll be reposting it once Talyn Gray decides to send the chapter back to me.

Chapter Eighteen

.:Twisting Time:.

Rose’s head lulled in his lap as Vince gently brushed a stray fiery red hair away from her unnaturally pale face. His thumb brushed softly over her blue-tinted lips. She was cold to the touch – like ice – but he wouldn’t let her go.

“Why?” he choked, finally allowing the tears that fell from his cerulean eyes to run freely down his cheeks. “We could have found another way. We could have found one.” But he knew why, and deep down he knew that there was no other way; he just couldn’t bring himself to admit it.

“I wish…I wish we could go back to the beginning, Rose. I wish we go back to before that link between you and Artorthius ever existed.”

He was caught off guard when the ground began to shake violently around them. He clung firmly to Rose as his eyes shut tightly. He could hear the ceiling buckling and beginning to fall, the pillars toppling over, and the marble that coated the entire temple being crushed to nothing but a powdery dust.

Then it stopped.

Slowly, one cobalt eye opened, followed by the other. He still held Rose, only they weren’t in the Lord of the Darkness’ temple any longer; they were in her room. He recognized the plush white couch on which he sat, directly across from the king-sized bed that was in the center of the room. Only one of the five lamps the room contained was lit, creating a dim environment.

“I need to know why he chose to kill those Guardians,” she began while snuggling closer to him. He tensed, not expecting any of this sudden change of atmosphere, or that she would be alive. Alive…she was alive!

“Yes, they were all grounded, but why them and not one of the other twelve?” He wanted to kiss her right then. Wanted to hold her even closer to let himself know that she was real, not some illusion, but deep inside he couldn’t bring himself to do any of those things. He wouldn’t risk messing up everything that he was given a second chance at changing.

He had been here before. He knew this conversation. He knew his response. “No, your question is why them and not you or me.”

Rose yawned softly before giving him a guilty smile. “Well, they did have something in common that puts us in the clear.”

“And what’s that?” he asked, draping an arm around her shoulders to pull her tired form closer to him, smiling brightly.

“Shawn, Jay, and Lana all had the power to freeze time.” – he could change it.

“Well, that puts me in the clear but you have the power to freeze time, too,” he added.

“Yeah, if I mirrored that power. Which I’m not going to do anytime soon.” Rose mumbled her last words while resting her head on his shoulder and shutting her emerald eyes.

“Rose?” he nearly whispered.

“Hmm?”

He had asked her to promise him not to go up against the Lord of the Darkness the last time he was here. It was those words that made her face Artorthius the first place.

Her head lifted from his shoulder. “Vince?” she questioned, waiting for him to respond.

He prayed that what he was about to say would end up saving both of their lives, not end them. “If you do decide to go up against him, I’ll go with you.”

Her eyes glistened and she rested her head back on his shoulder. “Thank you,” she mumbled into his crumpled shirt.

He just hoped he did the right thing.

He heard shuffling, and the warmth of Rose’s body safely in his arms was no longer there. As his eyes opened and adjusted to the darkness, he saw Rose, with every intent on leaving. Her hand was on the doorknob and she was about to turn it.

“Damn it, Rose! When will you learn?!” Vince yelled at her retreating form. Her eyes seemed glazed over as she turned to face him, and she winced at the sound of his voice. “Do you have a death wish or something?!”

“I don’t have a death wish!” Rose spat back; already knowing his response to her words.

“You could have fooled me,” he said in a relatively calmer voice. He hated to yell at her, hated that she feared him when he lost his temper, but he was only doing it because he loved her, because he couldn’t stand to loose her again.

“I don’t have a death wish,” she repeated in a whisper.

Vince thought about his words, choosing them carefully. She may be the strongest woman he had ever known but he had already witnessed her cry because a few hapless misgivings had spewed from his lips.

“He’s going to be going after you, too,” he began calmly yet sternly. He let his past self overtake him twice already and that was a big mistake on his part.

She shook her head but didn’t respond.

“I know where you think you’re going tonight but I can’t let you go alone. I already told you I would go with you.” She still looked at him coldly, and deep down it worried him. “Do you have any idea what would happen to me if I lost you?” he asked her; disbelief filling his voice as he noticed that she seemed unfazed by their entire discussion; even with the few subtle hints of the future Vince threw in.

She briskly walked past him but he caught her arm before she could make it to the nearly invisible door again. “Rose, let me come with you!”

She yanked back her arm and spun to face him. “No!”

She kissed him then; tenderly, completely the opposite of her current emotions. Then darkness took him like a mist, but he could still hear her earnest last words to him, however faint they were. “I will always love you, no matter what happens.”

“Vince?” He heard his name being called and he eventually opened his eyes to stare at the man who poked and prodded at him to wake: At Mac.

MAC!

He shot up from the floor and looked around frantically. “No, no, no!” His entire plan was going to hell…and he had been there.

“Vince, what’s wrong?” Mac asked with concern, standing up as well.

“How could I have let this happen? AGAIN!” he scolded himself running his hands through his hair, almost pulling some of it out.

“Vince…?” Mac was clearly questioning his sanity.

“We need to go now!”

Teleporting was taking longer than he would have liked. He knew where she was, it was just saving her that would be the difficult part. He didn’t have a real battle plan. If he did succeed in saving Rose, he wasn’t letting her go back to the Trinum. She had served them long enough.

It was all or nothing.

Life or death.

They arrived in a vacant lot in flashes of blue and green light. He could see Rose clearly in front of him not forty feet away…waiting. She was standing alone, eyes fixed ahead of her.

Soon, Artorthius would come.

Rose’s eyes stayed fixed ahead of her. She didn’t know how she knew this is where he would be, but she did. All she had to do was wait.

She hated that after Vince asked to go with her, supported her in facing the Lord of the Darkness, she left him behind. She felt it was the only thing she could do to keep him safe. He was an inexperienced Guardian. He hadn’t the strength to defeat the Lord of the Darkness, though, with each passing second, she doubted if even she had the strength.

A dark mist formed in front of her, molding itself into Human form before materializing. A man, a good head taller than her, stood before her. Clothed in black he almost blended in with the night, but his hands, his unnaturally pale hands are what made him stand out against the shroud of darkness that surrounded them.

“Guardian…” he acknowledged her in a shaky voice. He sounded far from strong, as though he had been asleep for years; and he had been.

Suddenly, his hands flew up to his temples, pressing hard against either side of his head as he let out an anguished cry. “Necromancer!”

Artorthius fell to his knees, still cradling his head, while Rose stood motionless with furrowed eyebrows. She didn’t know what to do. Why would she try to help the one who had killed her fellow Guardians?

Artorthius stopped moaning and holding his head. His penetrating crimson eyes shot open and met Rose’s electric green ones and she found she couldn’t move, couldn’t scream, couldn’t run.

Vince stood perfectly still, even as Mac began pacing beside him.

“Vince, that’s the Lord of the Darkness!” Mac exclaimed, motioning to the towering dark creature lingering in front of Rose. “We can’t just stand here while Rose faces him alone.”

Vince shook his head to disagree. “THAT’S not the Lord of the Darkness.”

Mac’s eyebrows furrowed. Of course it was the Lord of the Darkness. Wasn’t it? Who else could it be?

“He’s possessed,” Vince explained and Mac paled. “Only one has that kind of power over evil and the dead.” Then Vince turned his attention onto Mac, a coldness in him he had never witnesses before. “The Necromancer.”

If it were possible, Mac paled even more. “No one can save her.”

Vince begged to differ. “I can.”

“How?”

“Watch me.”

The Necromancer’s spirit began to leave Artorthius’ body, ready to enter Rose’s. Vince ran straight for her still form, bringing her down with him as he tackled her to the ground, breaking the trance she had been put under.

The Necromancer’s spirit floated before the three, with no body to enter in time as Artorthius regained his senses.

“Vince…” Rose, too, was clearing her mind, and Vince suddenly appearing almost out of nowhere wasn’t helping. “What are you-”

“Shhh.” His index finger covered her lips for emphasis, and she obeyed him before her attention turned over to Artorthius and the Necromancer.

Artorthius now stood with his full attention on Zeth the Necromancer whose spirit was quickly dying.

“With no body to enter, how will you survive, Necromancer?” the Lord of the Darkness asked. “You don’t have the time or the strength to reconnect with another soul.”

Zeth’s spirit, looking almost ghost-like, flickered again, as if trying to respond but failing. He continued flickering several more times as all eyes watched him until he no longer reappeared again.

Artorthius heaved a sigh of relief once the Necromancer had disappeared for good before looking down at Vince and Rose. Vince’s body was shielding Rose from him, no look of fear present on his face; only pure hate.

“Guardians,” he acknowledged with a slight bow of his head before disappearing into the night.

“It was a Necromancer all along…” Rose mumbled to herself in disbelief.

“All along,” Vince agreed while standing and then offering a hand to help her up as well.

Mac jogged over to them, a look of surprise on his face. “How did you know?” he asked Vince, who had an overly innocent expression in place.

“Know what?” he inquired, avoiding his gaze.

“Don’t play dumb,” Mac cautioned. “The Necromancer.”

Vince focused his gaze toward his feet.

“Vince…” Rose warned, stepping on the foot he was so intent on staring at.

“Ow, what?!”

“You knew about the Necromancer?” She looked a little hurt that he hadn’t told her sooner. It was that look that made him crack.

“Yes I knew. A little future knowledge,” he explained cryptically.

Rose’s eyes lit up and it looked like she was going to start jumping up and down, screaming for joy, while Mac furrowed his eyebrows again. “You used your powers?!”

He thought about it for a moment before nodding his head in confirmation.

“Wha-What was it that finally sparked your powers?” Rose asked, curiously and ecstatic at the same time.

Ecstatic, Vince was not.

He looked back down at the floor, shuffled his feet, and became too quiet for Rose not to think something was definitely wrong.

Then it hit her.

“I died, didn’t I?”

His silence gave her the answer he wouldn’t give.

“But I’m alive now, thanks to you,” she told him, lifting his face with gentle hands so she could look him in the eyes. A small smile graced his lips.

“Yeah, you’re alive now.” This time she smiled.

Mac had been silent for some time, then interjected in their conversation. “What about Artorthius?”

“We can deal with him later,” Rose said wrapping her arms around Vince’s neck.

Vince’s looked skeptical. “Deal with him later? Are you feeling alright? Or, did the Necromancer do something to you?”

“Funny.”

“So, we are just going to let him wonder around?” Mac inquired.

“For now. He wasn’t the true threat. The Necromancer was,” Rose explained.

“No more hunting for a while then?” Vince asked, wrapping his arms tightly around her middle.

“No. No more hunting for a long long time,” she agreed.

“Then there is someone I want you to meet.”

Rose cocked her head to the side in curiosity. “Who?”

“That’s a surprise,” Vince responded.

“Surprise?” She didn’t look too happy about a surprise.

“Just don’t freak out when you meet him,” Vince warned.

“Why?” she asked cautiously.

“You’ll see.”

They disappeared in a flash of bright red and blue lights; abandoning the lot, and their pasts in a single moment.

THE END

IT’S FINISHED!

::falls over::

Ha! It’s crap.

Now it’s so Vince never died, Rose never died, and Marc never became a Guardian. ::deep breath:: Why must I make things so complicated for myself? Leaves lots of room for a sequel though. Look in my profile to read about it. It’s there: Name and summary. I’ll post it sometime at the end of this month.

RESPONSE TIME!

Thank you my lovely readers for all of your fantastic reviews. They really gave me inspiration for writing this story when I almost deleted it. But I didn’t and the end has come. :)

So the BIGGEST of all time thanks to: Blayne, Chloee Phantom, Chocolate 4 You, cynically twisted smiles, dreamgazer220, eternalraven2, Flamewind Skywing, Legend, Madcow13, Powerful Phoenix, and last but certainly not least the-key-of-the-twilight

Talyn Gray: Ow…no review?My bestest best friend doesn’t give me a review?! AND no editing? You're slacking! I’m telling Amy on you! Naw just kidding. You edit everything for me and with out you this story would be complete and total crap. Thanks for everything friend. You really are the greatest.

eternalraven2 – I…um…uh… I’m sorry? I said there were 2 left…then 1…::sad look:: Now there’s none. But if you want to read the sequel you can! Very very soon.

Enchantress–In–The–Dark – Yeah, I’ve sucked in the description department lately but that was one of my better cliffhanger endings (minus the horrid detail). What did Legend say? About her dying?

Chloee Phantom – ::tear:: Do you love me now? Like I would really let her die. How could there be a sequel if there was no Rose? And thanks so much for saying the chapter was well written. I thought it was my worst chapter ever. So thanks for cheering me up. ::thumbs up::

KaronePrincess – Hey my kool reviewer. Yeah, I totally agree the ending was rushed. And yes, since everyone has actually asked for one there will be a sequel. Already planned out...mostly. So stay tuned.

Alenor – Thanks! I’m really glad you liked it.

!!!THANKS FOR THE REVIEWS!!!

::hugs::

EoSpHoRuS

▼ ADDED ENDING ▼

“Um, Rose?” the abandoned Mac called out. “Vince?!” He heaved an irritated sigh as he spun around, taking in the empty lot. “Always the same with those two.”