Disclaimer: This is a new fic of mine that I got the idea for just last night. It might really be terrible, considering that I haven't put much thought at all into this, but hey -- that is what reviews are for! Anyway, I do not, under any circumstances own any of these characters other than the upstanding Lola Banks. Soooo...give this new bit of nonsense of mind a shot and tell me whatcha think! ;)

Sometimes when you watch a movie, you get the distinct impression that the "bad guy" isn't really the "bad guy" that he is made out to be, and that the REAL bad guy is actually clothed in the disguise that is the slightly bumbling sidekick. Such was my impression of Ben Wade and Charlie Prince when I had the chance to view a little film called 3:10 to Yuma.

Ben Wade, I thought to myself, was really a good man. Deep down inside, hidden underneath all of his bad guy layers, was a really nice guy who was only trying to look out for himself in the best way he knew how. He was an artist, and they are, by all accounts, sensitive souls.

But then there was the sidekick who was, perceptively, a big, ugly moron who was maybe a bit dim. Or maybe the dim part was just playacting, and he was really a very smart cookie that only chose to make his way in life by packing a gun and scaring other law-abiding citizens into simply giving him what he wanted instead of taking part in an honest days work. And I almost could have forgiven this, except he went and did the cardinal sin of movies. He SHOT and KILLED Christian Bale! The good guy -- the pure-hearted good guy of the entire film.

Well, I decided, as the color faded from the screen and the white-on-black credits began to roll, that just would not do. Charlie Prince, I thought, needed someone to help him. Someone to guide him to a better way of life. A guardian angel, so to speak. And then I decided that I would be the perfect someone to guide him to this new plateau of human understanding, if it indeed it could be reached by someone such as he.

"Charlie Prince," said I, staring at the blank movie screen, "you need someone like me. Someone that would be willing to help you through all of your troubles."

But really, when I was thinking through all of this, I never really expected any of it to actually happen. It was just a movie and some idle thoughts afterward. Nothing more, nothing less.

Me and my big mouth.

So as you can imagine, it was a little bit of a shock when I woke up in the dust-sodden deserts of Arizona after going to sleep in my own bed, curled up in my favorite pair of sweat pants and a ratty old t-shirt. I knew for a fact that I wasn't even in my home state anymore. Since when did Maryland have deserts?

"We are certainly not in Kansas anymore, Frodo." I muttered, feeling almost too calm by this change in scenery and location. After the initial shock wore off, it really wasn't so bad. "It can't take any stretch of the imagination to figure why I'm here." I said, climbing to my feet and gazing around me.

Just as I was beginning to wonder where I was supposed to go from here, a shaking a rumbling shook the ground. Seemingly from out of nowhere, a man clad in a robe of ecru linen stood before me.

I blinked. "Whoa."

"I," he began, spreading his hands dramatically, "am the Powers-That-Be."

My eyes grew wide. "You mean the one's that everyone is always talking about?"

He seemed to lose some of his starch at this comment. "One and the same." He mumbled.

Arching a brow I cocked my head and gazed at him skeptically. "How can you be the "powers" exactly if you are only one person?"

He rolled his eyes. "I am the manifestation of many, etc., etc."

"Right." I drawled. "I'm guessing that you have something to do with my being here?"

"You would assume correctly." He replied to me sagely.

"Uh-huh. So if I already knew that why are you here?" I shrugged. "I mean, it just seems kind of pointless and like a waste of your time."

"You are here on a mission, Lola Banks. You are here to be the guide and guardian of one Charlie Prince, a man who has lost his way." He laid a hand to his heart and stared heavenward.

"And your point is?" I leaned back on a patch of rather large and heavy looking dirt-colored boulders.

"You are his guardian." P. T. B. said again. "You are sent to turn him and make him good. If you do not succeed in this mission, you will not return from whence you came."

I blanched and choked on a mouthful of the dust that seemed to be perpetually blowing around this place. "Say what?"

"You will, for all intensive purposes, be dead."

"What?!"

"Well, you're technically already dead now..."

"WHAT?!"

"Er, dead." P. T. B. said regretfully. "You're a guardian, so Charlie Prince must be the only one to see you. If you were visible to everyone, it would only jeopardize your mission."

"But I'm dead? I didn't sign on for death. A fun little jaunt through time maybe, but certainly not death!" I felt like I was choking.

"Well, you're here now, and there's no going back." P. T. B. said firmly. "You must fulfill your promise to change Charlie Prince."

"Wait, wait, wait!" I held up a hand. "I never exactly promised to change Charlie, I just said that I maybe, might be able to help him along the path to righteousness."

P. T. B. leaned down to eye level with me. "Reform Charlie Prince! Or it is the end for you."

I flinched under the lash of these words as he disappeared in a blinding flash.

"Well." I said, perturbed. "You're screwed for sure now."