Veronica Johnson

Veronica in "The World According to Betti"

**Veronica Johnson** was a Guardian who was entrusted with defending the Parallax from any and all threats.

Her twin sister Betti's plan to bring order to the Parallax severely complicated her life and those of her children Katherine and Ben.

## Biography

Veronica began training to be a Guardian from a young age. She was highly skilled at martial arts and adept at using her stave to kill Welkin and Krellicks.

She took her responsibilites as a Guardian seriously and wanted to ensure that the Parallax was safe for everyone no matter what world they were from. In contrast, Betti sought to shape every world in the Parallax to her idea of perfection. Her goal was to put an end to conflict and confusion throughout the Parallax by eliminating aberrants, whom she claimed did nothing but cause trouble, using a substance which she added to water. The process was known as blandishing. Veronica was disgusted by her sister's plan and opposed it every way that she could.

After a fierce battle with Betti, Veronica ended up in the Blue World. Stefan Raddic found her cut, burned and soaking wet near the portal to the Red World and took her in. They eventually married and Veronica gave birth to Katherine on January 15, 1987. Veronica never told Stefan of her origins and they lived happily for several years.

One night, after she had put Katherine to bed, her greatest fear came true. A swarm of Welkin, capable of detecting Guardian blood, surrounded the house. While trying to draw the Welkin away from Katherine, she realised that she was pregnant with Ben and that her Guardian blood combined with that of her daughter and unborn son was attracting Welkin from all over the Parallax. In order to protect Katherine from Betti, Veronica left without explanation, taking up residence in the Red World. Stefan was devastated by his wife's disappearance and Katherine grew up bitter and resentful that her mother had abandoned her at such a young age. Veronica was equally upset at the terrible necessity of leaving her family but never forgot them for a moment. She secretly returned to the Blue World almost every day to observe Katherine growing up from a distance. Her photo album documenting Katherine's childhood was one of her most cherished possessions.

When Veronica arrived in the Red World, she met Jeremy Johnson, who took her in and gave her a home and a job at his restaurant, the Old Country Inn. They soon fell in love and got married. Ben was raised believing that Jeremy was his biological father. As with Stefan, Jeremy knew nothing of Veronica's true background. At the beginning of her relationship with Jeremy, she warned him that she might have to leave one day. They agreed that he would not ask questions if and when the time came. For the next 13 years, Veronica enjoyed a quiet, peaceful life in the Red World, embracing domesticity and running the restaurant with Jeremy. Ben believed that she was a perfectly ordinary, though strict and very well organised, mother. Whenever she needed to travel to another world, she told her family that she was at a pottery class.

On one occasion while visiting the Yellow World, Veronica was seen entering a portal by Francis Zapmeister. He was intrigued and followed her, discovering the Parallax in the process. Francis began stealing things from the Werrinups of the Blue and Red Worlds. It was these illegal activities which eventually led Ben to the Blue World, where he and Katherine met for the first time. They soon discovered that they were siblings who lived in parallel universes. Veronica was concerned for her children and tried to discourage them from travelling to other worlds. However, Ben's impulsiveness and yearning for adventure often led him to venture through the portals. The much more sensible and level-headed Katherine was typically forced to get him out of whatever trouble he had landed himself in. Over time, Veronica accepted that both of her children were ready to become Guardians and began training them in different ways. For instance, she sent Ben to the Orange World so that he could learn to think things through and Katherine to a Quarter Moon Eve party in the Green World so that she could learn to let her hair down.

Although Katherine's relationship with Veronica remained strained, she was determined to reunite her parents. By making Stefan wear a blindfold, Katherine and her best friend Melinda were able to bring him to the Red World without him realising it. While there, Stefan danced with a masked Veronica at a 1950s themed rock n' roll party organised by Ben. He seemed to realise her identity but Veronica refused to confirm it. She was very upset by the experience as she still loved Stefan and asked Katherine never to bring him back to the Red World. For his part, Stefan realised that he needed to stop living in the past and told Katherine that it was time that he started dating.

Still hiding her identity from Stefan, Veronica gradually became involved with the lives of her family in the Blue World. At one point, it appeared that Stefan's art show was doomed to failure and he would therefore be unable to repay a substantial sum of money that he owed Mrs. Dunkly. Veronica, posing as the famous New York art critic Peta Martina, said that Stefan was an undiscovered genius and all of his paintings were sold at high prices. Katherine was resentful of Veronica's interference in their lives and even went so far as to reject Veronica's present of her mother's necklace. While waiting for Veronica in her pottery room, however, Katherine discovered the photo album of her childhood and realised that her mother was always there, even though she never saw her. This revelation allowed Katherine to forgive Veronica and the two began a forge a proper mother-daughter relationship.

After 13 years together, Veronica finally revealed the truth about her origins to Jeremy when she learned that Betti was getting close. He was initially reluctant to believe her story about the Parallax but ultimately decided that he had no other choice. It was then that Jeremy confessed to Ben that he was not his biological father while Veronica told her son that his father was in fact Stefan. Ben was extremely upset and travelled to the Blue World so that he could have some time alone to think. While there, he ran into Stefan and told him that he was his son. Stefan was just as astonished as Ben and found it difficult to process.

Mundi offered the family sanctuary in Otto's old hut in the Green World. Although Katherine realised the necessity of doing so, Ben was reluctant as he was still angry that his parents had lied to him for his entire life. Having overheard his conversation with his mother, Mundi sympathised with Veronica's plight. She told Ben to stop thinking about himself and to instead consider how hard it must have been for Veronica to leave Stefan and Katherine when she found out that she was pregnant with him.

Protecting her children remained Veronica's highest priority so she travelled to the Silver World and revealed her presence to the Welkin in the hope that Betti would be distracted long enough for Ben and Katherine to escape detection. However, Veronica's plan was unsuccessful as the DNA taken by the Welkin indicated that the Guardian was male. Using her stave, Betti teleported her sister to her house on Circe Island in the Silver World.

While being held prisoner by her sister, Veronica managed to surreptiously activate the transmitter on Betti's stave. As Ben had recently discovered Otto's stave in the Green World, he, Katherine and Mundi were able to receive the transmission. Unbeknownst to Betti, Veronica sent them a coded message. She denied that she had ever had children and claimed that her pots were the centre of her universe. Jeremy pointed out that Veronica never allowed either him or Ben to move the pots. Katherine, Jeremy, Stefan and Francis tried to decipher what the position of the pots meant but their efforts were fruitless until Ben and Katherine located the lost Guardian Otto. Using the diagram of the pots created by Stefan, Otto realised that they formed a map to the Reading Room, the fount of knowledge for the entire Parallax.

After Betti sent the mother Welkin to the Silver World to kill the male Guardian, Veronica believed that Ben had been killed as Katherine had fed his clothes and his stave to it. While communicating with Betti over the stave some time later, however, Katherine was able to surreptiously communicate to her mother that Ben was still alive by claiming that he had been just as cool-headed, sensible and logical as always right to the very end. Betti was none the wiser.

Betti later transferred Veronica from Circe Island to the Purple World. While there, she asked that world's versions of Una, Due and Olive Dunkly if they had ever heard of an Irma Dawes in the hope of finding a portal. Her efforts were fruitless as Betti later told her that there was no Mrs. Dawes in the Purple World. Several days later, her children discovered the Reading Room and were able to locate her. Francis volunteered to enter the Parallax and bring her home. As Betti was guarding one portal and the Martin of the Blue World was guarding the other, it initially appeared that Veronica and Francis would not be able to escape to the Red World after all. However, Ben and Katherine had managed to enter the Purple World surreptiously through a one-way only side door. Furthermore, Otto and Spy Kid (who had switched sides) were present, albeit in disguise as clowns. The six of them, wearing clown costumes provided by Otto, managed to distract Martin and get his stave, allowing them to enter the portal to the Red World. Veronica was thrilled to see her children again and to be reunited with Jeremy. However, her elation was short-lived as she was injured by the fireball that Betti had released to destroy the Johnson house.

During Veronica's convalescence, Ben and Katherine were able to defeat Betti, whom they had tracked down to the Orange World using the Reading Room. Katherine fooled Betti into blandishing herself as, with Ben and Katherine being the only other people in the Orange World, she was the aberrant. Veronica and Otto were then able to use the Reading Room to restore everyone that Betti had blandished throughout the Parallax, including the Francis of the Silver World and his father. However, this also resulted in Betti herself being restored.

Veronica was very proud of her children for the way in which they rescued her and defeated Betti. As such, she told them that they were ready to become fully fledged Guardians.

## Appearances

* "One Big Happy Family"
* "A Rare Find"
* "The Artful Dodger"
* "Achey, Breaky Heart"
* "One Man's Rubbish"
* "Artes Veritas"
* "The Battle of Mundi's World"
* "The Big Sleep-Over"
* "The World According to Betti"
* "The Curse of the Incredibly Bad News"
* "Decoy"
* "Dad Meets Dad"
* "The Krellick War"
* "The Reluctant Guardian"
* "Seek and You Shall Find"
* "Sand Witch"
* "The Reading Room"
* "Clownin' Around"
* "It Ain't Over"

## Behind the Scenes

Like Betti, Veronica was played by Caroline Brazier.