This fic stems from my complete and utter belief that Lorien is the most underused character EVER and no one can convince me otherwise.

This is kind of an AU where Eight's body WAS strong enough to be a vessel for Lorien, and so Lorien is not going to just sit around and let the Mogs invade if Lorien has any say in the matter. Also an AU where Sarah stays to fight with John instead of leaving to meet up with Mark.

Disclaimer: I don't own Lorien Legacies. I just own this fic which is basically: Lorien, being a bamf and both saving humanity and coming to terms with human emotions and restrictions, and some Mark James, because why the hell not?

Anyway, please enjoy and review!

Almost as soon as he has regained form, Lorien decides to do something about the whole invading-army thing. He briefly looks at the three children staring in shock at him – Adamus Sutekh, Numbers Seven and Six – before coming to the conclusion that they're not worth his time and walks out.

Quite miraculously, the bullets that greet him outside pass right through – not that he's surprised, of course, but still. Those shooting at him certainly are.

Lorien walks straight past them and raises a casual hand, as if greeting someone. The shooters all go flying backwards and he lets a satisfied smile slide onto his new face. That's quite enough of that, thank you very much.

He simply walks on, ignoring the pounding of footsteps behind him, co-ordinating this new body as though it has always been his own. He can get used to this, he thinks with something akin to contentness. It is a strong body, one with a multitude of legacies, and it helps that his power has given them all a rather big boost. He will be quite capable in this form, he is sure. That is good. With Number Eight's body, he stands a chance – a very good one – of defeating Setrakus Ra.

And won't that be a sight to see.

"Eight!" a voice calls out behind him, and Lorien turns to see the healer – Number Seven – running towards him with desperation written all over her face. "Eight, please, come back!"

She stops dead when she sees his expression, one of power and recognition – but not of friendship, or maybe even something more. No, this is the recognition that a grandfather might give to a child he had forgotten about, only to remember upon meeting them years later.

"Your friend is gone, child," he proclaims, turning away even as he says so. "He is at peace now."

Calling upon the legacies of this body, and intensifying them with his own might, Lorien teleports away, and finds himself on a road.

It is here that he is hit by Mark James' car.


"Oh my god!" a horrified-sounding voice exclaims as a muscled young man runs out to aid the person that he just ran over. "Are you alright?"

Lorien blinks a couple times, trying to clear his head, before his gaze settles on the guy kneeling awkwardly in front of him.

"Mark James," he announces, immediately making the owner of the name frown.

"How do you know my name?" he demands, suspicious of this being who appeared out of seemingly nowhere knowing something about him on sight. It's creepy, especially with the pending Mogodorian army that is soon to be arriving – or is already arrived.

Lorien doesn't bother answering – what a waste of time that would be – and instead moves his eyes (which now look like Number Eight's normal ones – he's been sure to remove all glowing) to the truck sitting just a little away, the thing that presumably hit him. It is good that it did so. It survived, proving that it is strong.

"That is your vehicle?" he asks, not bothering to wait for an answer before striding over and taking in every inch. He was right – it is sturdy, made of strong stuff, much like the body he now inhabits. It takes only several more seconds of consideration before he decides that, "it will do."

"What?" Mark James squawks, raising himself up and marching over to Lorien. The powerful being regards this man as he does so. Strange human. "It will do for what?!"

"My purposes, of course. I will be taking your car," Lorien informs matter-of-factly, wondering why it is not already obvious to this man. He walks over to the driver's seat and climbs inside the car through the still-open door. He doesn't close it, seeing as Mark James is suddenly standing in the way. He blinks in surprise. What is this human doing?

"Dude!" the guy exclaims, looking a mixture of shocked and enraged. "You can't just take my car!"

Lorien blinks again. It is getting to be quite a habit.

"Why not?"

"Because it's mine," Mark whines out, looking as though on the border of having a heart-attack. "You can't just take someone else's car. You have to get your own."

Lorien frowns, although this is a simple question, one that he an easily answer.

"I do not have my own," he states plainly, seeing as that should be obvious. "And I am attempting to stop a world-domination."

Mark falters at that statement, doing a double take at Lorien with wide, surprised eyes. It looks comically amusing, and Lorien would laugh if he did stuff like that. Instead, he settles with letting the corners of his mouth turn up a little, loosening his tight brow as he does so.

"You – you're one of those Loric guys, aren't you?" he practically shouts – pointing at him and managing to sound an equal balance of scared and excited. Lorien arches a brow, not entirely sure how to answer that question, as he is not entirely sure what Mark James means.

"I suppose so, yes," he finally relents, figuring it's the closest description to what he is. He expects this to satisfy the human's curiosity but, alas, it does not.

"Well, that's great, because I am, too!" the human exclaims, causing Lorien's other brow to raise, giving the boy a scan. He is definitely human, no doubt about it. "Well, I'm not," he hurries to amend at the other boy's look. "But I'm working with you guys, kinda. I'm helping get the word out about the Mogodorian Invasion." He says it proudly, as though expecting Lorien to suddenly herald him as some kind of hero.

Lorien will do no such thing.

"Hmm," he murmurs disinterestedly, calling on his knowledge of Earth to try and turn the car on. When he discovers the missing key, still resting in Mark James' sweaty hand, Lorien simply puts his hand on the steering wheel and channels the power of telekinesis to get the engine running.

Mark James gawps.

"You're actually doing it, aren't you?" he asks, sounding slightly dazed for no apparent reason. Lorien cocks a head. What is this human going on about? In the single conversation that they've had so far he's managed to confuse him more than millennia of watching humankind has. "You're actually stealing my car."

"Borrowing," Lorien corrects on instinct, then grimaces at how horribly human he sounds. Then he turns away, leaning back comfortably in the seat and deciding to forget all about this conversation. He needs this car to get around, and the human will be thanking him in the long run. It wouldn't do for Earth to be destroyed because one little, insignificant human couldn't handle losing their little toy.

Mark James' nose scrunches up in annoyance, but he straightens up and looks determined anyway. Lorien is already exasperated with him.

"Well then," Mark says, and Lorien wonders what confusing thing the human is going to come out with next. "You'd better take me with you."

Lorien blinks.

That… was unexpected.

However, having a human ally could help in the long run. He could get someone to do the more menial jobs for him, he could learn about the Mogodorian army through a mortal source with more experience in this world, and he could get closer to understanding the only human that has managed to surprise him for thousands of years.

"Get in," he commands, and the human grins before climbing into the passenger's seat.

Lorien ignores the part of himself that crisply informs that he just wanted some company.


"Why do you need a car, anyway?" Mark James asks almost as soon as they've set off and are driving down the road. Due to the look of intense curiosity and excitement on his face, Lorien revels that it is a wonder he even waited that long.

"I do not understand your question, child," he crisply informs, slowly becoming more adept at controlling the vehicle and able to focus less on that and more on the conversation at hand. Mark James appears to blanch, but, Lorien has to admire, he carries on regardless.

"Well," Mark says, and Lorien mentally prepares himself for the next odd thing the human will say. "You teleported here, right? I mean, literally, you just…" He makes an odd gesture with his hands, one that seems to have no reference to the current conversation. "Poof. Appeared."

Oh. That makes more sense now. But only a little. Still, Lorien can see where this little human is coming from, poor thing. He seems to think that nothing he finds unordinary can possibly exist. How wrong he is.

"I did, yes," he says shortly, taking a second to glance at Mark James before deciding that it is pointless and looking away sharply. "Your point being?"

Mark James looks even more confused than Lorien feels, and that is saying something, he decides. Human minds must be so small, it must be terribly difficult for them to actually get anything done.

"My point being," Mark James draws out slowly, as if Lorien is stupid. The god-like being wants to roll his eyes at the irony of it all. "Why can't you just… poof off to somewhere else? Like, why do you need my car to get to places?" He still sounds rather bitter about that. Lorien wants to warn him not to hold grudges against people. The Mogodorians held a grudge against the Loric, and look how that turned out.

Still, Lorien must grant that the human poses a good questions, coming from a lower life form.

"Because," he answers simply, and he supposes the answer should be rather simple, thinking about it. "I plan to go against Setrakus Ra and put an end to this ridiculous invasion of his. If I am to do that, I will need to be working at full power. I cannot afford to waste it on something which can easily be replaced by something else – for example, transport."

Mark James doesn't really seem to be paying attention to the last part. He seemed to stop at 'invasion'.

"You're really planning on fighting Setrakus Ra?" he asks, sounding impressed, and Lorien briefly wonders how Mark James knows who Setrakus Ra is before some part of his being mentions something about 'the internet' and 'hacking' and puts a stop to those questions.

At Lorien's nod, Mark's face turns into awe.

"Dude," he breathes, causing Lorien to cock an eyebrow in a frighteningly human gesture. "Awesome."

Lorien goes to correct him, runs the statement through his head and realises that it is quite adequate at summing him up, and simply nods affirmatively instead.

"Quite," is his statement, and something seems to shock Mark out of his reverie.

"Wait," he says, brain seeming to be catching up with something, and Lorien wonders just how many questions a single human can have. "Before you called me 'child'." He looks so very confused. "What was all that about?"

"I am thousands of years your senior," Lorien answers blandly, faintly wondering why this piece of information seems to shock Mark James before promptly deciding that it is not worth wondering.

"That's, um…" Mark James' voice is faint. Lorien lets the corners of his mouth quirk up with slight amusement. "That's nice." He hesitates, then, "how many thousands of years, exactly?"

"Many," Lorien answers shortly. "Overall I have lost count, though it is safe to say that I am a lot older than you."

"Oh," is the short reply, and Lorien doesn't bother answering because suddenly there is an army of Mogodorians in the way.


They're standing on the dusty road, looking very much like they're trying to be imposing and failing dismally, and normally Lorien would put up a fight but Mark James is beside him and he decides in a split second that Mark James is too valuable of an ally to die and transports both them and the car well, well away.

They appear somewhere – Lorien's not really concerned where, it looks abandoned enough – and Mark James lets out a sound suspiciously like a yelp and leaps out of the car, shock and panic written into his features. Lorien barely spares him a glance.

"Get in the car."

"Dude," Mark James says, and Lorien wonders what that word actually means because Mark James has already used it many times in many different contexts and he finds it stupid that he is getting worked up by something so simple as the definition of a word. "What just happened?"

"Get in the car," Lorien stresses, gritting his teeth and feeling so, so human. He waits for Mark to clamber back in, all wide-eyed and slack-jawed before breathing out harshly through his nose, letting the annoyance seep openly through. "There was an army of Mogodorians standing in the road. I teleported us out, and therefore used up valuable energy." He frowns, cross at this. "That was an annoyance."

"Dude," Mark James says again, and Lorien wonders just how many times the human is planning on fitting that word into their conversations. "Where did they even come from?"

"I do not know, nor do I care," Lorien replies flippantly, leaning forwards in his seat then backwards again just for something to do. He ignores Mark James' flabbergasted look and continues on regardless. "What concerns me is how much energy I have used up."

"What about where we are?" Mark James carries on, tone bordering on hysterical. Lorien frowns. Humans. Always overreacting. Lorien shakes his head.

"A mild inconvenience."

"You don't know, do you?"

"It does not matter," Lorien proclaims, on the one hand wishing that this stupid human would just shut up already and on the other hand wishing that Mark James would continue to talk and distract him from the current situation. "Our location will be discovered shortly, when I figure out a way to do so."

Mark shoots him a look which really shouldn't irk Lorien as much as it does.

"So basically, we're lost," he states blandly, and Lorien feels a surge of annoyance rising up to the surface.

"We're not lost," Lorien snaps, losing control of – hell, actually feeling proper emotions for the first time that day. "I just don't know where we are, that's all."

"Dude," Mark James retaliates with, and Lorien resists the urge to roll his eyes at the humanness he is feeling (and it is. Not. Fun). "That's kinda the definition of lost."

"Shut up!" is his simple response, and he wants to explode because even he knows how utterly lame that comeback is. "I will discover it shortly, so just-" And then he just stops and stares because for some god-unknown reason, Mark James is laughing.

"Dude," he gets out in between breaths, and what is it with that word? "Am I totally having banter with an alien?"

Lorien considers it and supposes that, yes, in a way, Mark James is, but he doesn't get a chance to respond with this before there is a hand on his arm.

Lorien stares at the hand with utter confusion and slight nervousness (not that he'd ever admit it) before Mark James notices and stops laughing, awkwardly removing it. Lorien doesn't even bother to thank him.

"So, what now?" Mark asks after several silent minutes. Lorien breathes out slowly, looks around the deserted wilderness they have somehow found themselves in, and knits his brows with something akin to worry.

"I don't know," he answers honestly.


(Amaranthine means everlasting or unending, much like Lorien. I also view Lorien as genderless, taking on whatever body that Lorien is currently inhabiting - in this case, Eight. If Lorien took the body of a female, then Lorien would be a she - however, in this case, a he.)

Hope you enjoyed, and please REVIEW!