Prologue

Khai hissed a short breath through his teeth and looked around the room in frustration. Khivar's army had taken hold of the palace, and this secret chamber would not remain secret for long. "Ayan, where are you?" he whispered worriedly, glancing at the set of double doors. He looked down at the timepiece on his wrist. Ayan should have reached the room by now.

"How much longer, General?" Tiera asked impatiently as she too looked at the double doors. "We cannot wait forever, or all will be lost."

Khai shook his head and said, "We cannot proceed until Ayan arrives with the safety device." He looked at the contraption in front of him. It held the essence of the Royal Four, the last hope for the slowly dieing planet. He had been given the impossibly difficult task of making sure the pods arrived safely on the planet the Council had chosen.

Earth. Khai shook his head in disgust. A planet of savages who had not developed far on the evolutionary chain. They were all ruled by bestial desires, they had no gifts, they possessed no advanced technology. They only used a fraction of their brain! All that wasted capacity for knowledge and learning and this was where the Council wanted to send the Royal Four of Antar?

"General, what if Ayan does not show?" Nasedo asked coldly.

Khai and Tiera turned to look at the normally taciturn man. He was standing in the shadows, his face unusually grave. His eyes shifted about the room, and settled on the doors. "Tiera is right. We cannot hold out forever."

Khai frowned. The safety device was supposed to ensure that all four pods hatched at the same time. It would also help to protect the memories currently programmed into each hybrid's brain. Without the device, there was no guarantee that the hybrids would hatch together, or that they would remember their previous lives.

And yet…if they waited to long, there was always the chance that Khivar's troops would find the chamber and destroy the pods. And then all would be truly lost.

"Let's give Ayan a little longer to get here," Khai said slowly. "If he has not arrived within a few minutes…say ten…we will proceed without the device."

Tiera nodded, but her eyes betrayed her apprehension. Too much rested on this plan. They could not afford for anything to go wrong.

Nasedo however, made no move to acknowledge that he had even heard what Khai had said. He was staring at the pods with a strange light in his eyes. Khai watched the shape-shifter silently, unable to explain or identify the growing uneasiness in his stomach. There was something about this man that he did not quite like.

"What could be holding up Ayan?" Tiera asked nervously. She began to pace, worried. She stopped for a moment to lick her dry lips and questioned Khai, "If Ayan does not show, who will take his place as guardian to the Royal Four?"

Khia frowned. Ayan was supposed to accompany the pods to earth and make sure that they were protected from the humans until the reborn Royal Four could return home. If Ayan did not show, could he risk sending the pods alone?

"It has been ten minutes," Nasedo said softly. "We cannot wait any longer."

Tiera nodded. "I agree, General. But they have no guardian. Can we send them alone to that planet?"

Khai thought about that for a moment, then opened his mouth to answer. Before he had a chance, however, there came the sound of pounding footsteps from outside the door, and the shouts of soldiers.

"We know you are in there. Come out now and surrender!"

"We are the army of Khivar. You cannot stand against us."

"Surrender and you may live!"

Khai and Tiera exchanged glances. "Can you start the spaceship without me, Tiera?" Khai questioned urgently. Tiera nodded. "Good. I will hold off the enemy while you prepare to launch the ship. I am appointing you guardian in Ayan's place. You will go with them."

"What?' Tiera cried, her eyes widening. She glanced at Nasedo. "Wouldn't it be better if Nasedo went? He is more trained in defense."

Again Khai felt the uneasiness grow in his stomach. He shook his head. "No, I am assigning you."

Outside the room, a laser was fired at the wall. The room began to shake as the stone walls rattled. There was the sound of an explosion, and another laser was fired.

Khai reached for his weapon and turned to the doors. He knew if he left the room, he would never enter it again. He would not survive the upcoming battle, but he had to do whatever it took to protect the Royal Four. He gave Tiera one last look, then closed his eyes and focused.

His entire body began to glow and then all of a sudden he faded into what appeared to be a ghost. The molecules of his body separated, allowing him to walk through the wall and out into the hallway.

In the hall, he had a brief glimpse of several soldiers standing in front of him, their lasers raised. Then he lifted his weapon and began to fire. Smoke filled the long hallway. He smelled blood and saw the dark red stains seep across the white marble floor. Something hit him in his shoulder and he felt liquid ooze onto his closes. His grey uniform turned red.

He only lasted a few moments. He hoped it was long enough. His last conscious thought was that he still did not fully trust Nasedo.

Inside the room, Nasedo and Tiera had finished installing the commands into the controls on the spaceship. Everything was ready to go, when Nasedo turned to Tiera and said, "Do you want me to go instead of you?"

Tiera looked at him, surprised. She wanted to say yes, but something held her back. She remembered the uneasy look in Khai's eyes when she had suggested the same thing. "No…" she faltered. "I'll go." She glanced back at the doors. "If you can shape-shift into one of Khivar's soldiers, you could probably make it back to the base alright. You could tell the Council what happened, that Ayan did not show." She ran a hand through her hair and said, "I wonder why he did not make it? Do you think he got captured?"

Nasedo nodded grimly. "I have no doubt of that," he answered coolly. He smiled a chilling smile at Tiera and said, "I am the one who sent Khivar's army to him."

Tiera looked up at the man in front of her and felt panic suddenly fill her. Was he a traitor? She raised her hands, ready to fight him if need by. "You traitor," she hissed. "I'll kill you, traitor. I'll…"

Nasedo laughed. "Oh, don't bother with that," he said calmly. He flicked his wrist and Tiera crashed into the wall, dead.

Nasedo walked over to the spaceship and slipped inside. He started the controls and closed his eyes, relishing in his victory. Khai and Tiera were both dead now, and unable to stop his plans. That fool of a general had suspected him, Nasedo had seen it in the man's eyes, but he had not acted on that suspicion, and it had cost the general his life.

Nasedo wondered briefly if Khai had realized any of it before he died. It was all too convenient that Ayan had not shown up, that Khivar's army had known where and when to attack the secret chamber, that Tiera and Nasedo had been left alone.

Traitor.

Nasedo shrugged off the name. He was not a traitor, not in the way Tiera had thought. He did not work for Khivar, would never work for anyone. But he had an eye out for power, and he knew he could get it through the Royal Four. Without the safety device, they would wake up not knowing anything. He would show them how to control their powers, tell them who they were and where they came from, answer their questions. He would earn their trust, and eventually they would come to rely on him completely. And then, when they did return to Antar and overthrow Khivar, the Royal Four would be puppet royalty, and he would hold the strings.

"Agent Pierce, what is it?" the FBI superior snapped. He stared at the young man in front of him. Pierce was a good agent, always on the ball, but lately he had become less reliable. He was always asking for higher ranking jobs. He did not like being at the bottom of the totem pole.

Well, get used to it, Piece. Things don't change that quickly.

"Sir, you should see the news. There have been some reports of…" Pierce didn't finish, but let the sentence hang, unsure of what to say.

"Reports of what?" The superior asked angrily. "I haven't got all day, you know."

"People thought they saw a spaceship," Pierce said, somewhat diffidently.

The superior rolled his eyes. "They always see spaceships, Pierce. It doesn't mean anything." He turned back to the papers on his desk.

"But sir, this time it may be something," Pierce protested.

The superior shrugged. Stop chasing aliens, boy. They don't exist, he thought. "Whatever you say, Agent." He continued to read over the papers, but when he realized that Pierce was still standing there, he looked up and said, "Fine, you think it is real? Go take some people and check it out."

Pierce nodded and slipped out of the room.

He hurried down the hall, excitedly. This was the chance he had been waiting for. He would find the aliens, prove they existed, and be promoted. He licked his lips in anticipation. His ambition was matched only by his greed, and today both would be satiated.

Nasedo crawled from the crashed spaceship and lay on the rocky desert ground. He did not what had gone wrong with the controls to the ship, but instead of a smooth and discreet landing he was hoping for, the ship had crashed into the ground at full speed. The force of the crash had propelled him from the ship and out into the open. Behind him, the ship crumbled until it formed a cave like enclosure around the pods and their inhabitants.

Nasedo struggled to his feet and took a few faltering steps towards the cave. Blood covered his uniform. Each step caused great waves of pain to course through his body. He placed his hands on the rock wall of the now completely closed cave and tried to tear the rock away. It would not budge.

Perhaps Khai anticipated me after all, he thought bitterly. The rock was clearly some form of safety device that the ship had enacted after the crash. He had not been aware that the ship would do that, and he had believed he knew the complete design of the ship. He was wrong.

He suddenly stopped and felt a some sixth sense warning him. He spun around to face his new foe, but he only had time to register three men dressed in black standing behind him before something hit him in the shoulder and he slipped into unconsciousness.

He would wake up twelve hours later in a completely white room.

The dark haired boy was the first to break free of the pod. He pulled himself out of the slimy gel-liquid and looked around the cave. It was dark, but the pods gave off an eerie light. He took a few unsure steps towards one side of the cave and instinctively raised a hand. The wall fell away and he blinked in the bright white light of the desert.

A sound from behind him caused him to turn around, and he saw that a girl with long blonde hair was crawling from her pod. She seemed familiar, but he couldn't quite place her. He couldn't quite place anything. He extended a hand to her, and she took it.

A third child came out of the pod. He had sandy brown hair and brooding eyes. He stared at the other two, but made no move to join them. The girl extended her free hand towards him, but he refused. The three were silent for a moment, then the first boy and the girl walked out of the cave.

The second boy looked around for a moment, then he too began to walk towards the light of the desert. He paused for a moment and stared back at the pods. The fourth pod still had the form of a girl in it, a little girl with blonde curly hair. She had not yet crawled from her pod. The boy stared at her, then turned away and stepped out into the desert.

Only a few minutes after the second boy had left, the blonde girl opened her eyes and struggled from the pod. She looked around the empty cave and shivered. She was all alone. Where had the others gone? Where they alright? Had they been hurt? She felt a strange emotion inside her, and thought for a moment before deciding it was worry.

There was nothing for her to do but leave. She walked out into the desert and looked around. In the distance she could see a car driving away. A little girl and a little boy sat in the back seat, their noses pressed up against the glass. She watched the car disappear, the turned and started walking in the other direction.

Behind her, the cave sealed shut.