AN: This is based off of the movie, but it seems like most of the timelines and plot points I referenced online came from the books - so I apologize for any inaccuracies, the 'facts' here are probably a mesh of the movie and book version . . . I don't know this world very well so please feel free to point out if I got something wrong.

And being based on the movie, anything that happened after the first book is irrelevant for the purposes of this story.

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoy!

She sat up in her bed, flicking through the pages of her history textbook. It was well past midnight, but she couldn't sleep, which was nothing new. If she wasn't going to sleep, she figured she may as well do something productive. Even if she couldn't show it off in school, she didn't care, most of the time. She just liked knowing.

A slight smile played across her face as she reached Henry VIII. She had been looking forward to reading about him.

But it was not to be.

She jerked upright, her head snapping towards the window as though pulled by some invisible cord. Five people. Headed this way.

Her heart in her mouth, she looked towards the wall separating their rooms. She doubted he was asleep, but she didn't dare make a noise to alert him. She wasn't sure if they were close enough to hear yet, but she wasn't chancing it. Keeping one eye on the window, she slipped out of bed, heading for the door.

She wanted to tell herself that it wasn't what she thought it was. She wanted to tell herself it was nothing. She wanted to tell herself that they could go on living here, a practically normal life. She wanted to tell herself that tonight was not the night she would have to face her greatest fear.

But she would have known she was lying.

The floor was cold beneath her bare feet, cold and hard. It took a conscious effort to creep quietly, when every nerve in her body, her every instinct, was screaming at her to run faster than she ever had before.

She slowly creaked open the door, daring not even to breathe for fear of making a sound, It was of the upmost importance that they stole the element of surprise. They would need every advantage they could get.

They were getting closer. They were trying very hard to be silent, and seemed to be succeeding at it. They didn't feel like Mogadorians – but then again, she couldn't know for sure, having never felt one before. But they definitely didn't feel human. She had gotten lazy, lulled into a false sense of security, thinking she was protected, buffered in the middle of the line up.

Another door – the knob was so cold it practically burned, but in a mere second it had flamed up to match her hand temperature. But now the cold had seeped through her fingers, and it felt as though into the pit of her stomach. She turned it slowly, again holding her breath, as though somehow that could stop the door from creaking.

He was already at the door as she pulled it open – hard as she'd tried, apparently she hadn't been quiet enough to go completely undetected. His eyes were two bright lights in the dark room and they held hers like an anchor.

"What is it?" He mouthed, so quietly that only a whisper fell out and drifted across the room.

"Five are coming." She whispered.

"Are you sure we should be doing this?"

"You didn't like the way we did it last time, you don't like the way we're doing it this time, what will it take to make you happy?"

"No, I'm just saying, don't you think it would be better to wait until morning?"

"No."

John sighed, rolling his head back in an attempt to ease his neck muscles. "Care to explain that?" He asked. He was a bit surprised when she actually gave an answer; Six rarely took the time to explain her reasoning. But maybe she was getting used to John.

"We can't waste any time. We don't even know for sure if this is them, and we don't want the whole world seeing us checking up on them."

"Yeah, but sneaking up on them at night isn't exactly the most friendly behavior. We want them to trust us. How do we know this way his protector isn't going to think we're Morgadorians and kill us all?"

"Her." Six corrected. John blinked. "Her protector." She repeated.

"You can't know it's going to be a girl."

"Oh it is. It has to be. We get any more testosterone around here and I'm going to go insane."

With that, Six decided that the conversation was over and crept up closer to the building.

"I can go in through the window." Tyler said, eyeing he distance.

"Just make sure you get the right one." Sam cautioned, looking at all the identical squares, every one of them pitch black.

"Sam, you stay here with Bernie." Six ordered.

"What? Why do I always have to stay behind." Sam protested.

"Because you're the only human."

"Look," Sam tried to reason. "I'm a part of this team, okay? You can't just keep on leaving me behind as soon as things start getting interesting!"

"Shh!" Six hissed at him. "Fine, go up and get yourself killed for all I care. Just don't give us away! Tyler, can you levitate him up too?"

In answer, Sam began to float several feet above the ground, slowly drifting up the side of the building a bit below Tyler. Six observed then, nodding in satisfaction. She turned to John and Patrick. "Our turn."

She stood with her back pressed against the wall, keeping one eye on Daniel and the other on the window.

"Three." She mouthed to him.

He nodded with his eyes, staring steadily at the door.

"Two." She mouthed again.

Every muscle in her body was taught, the tension coursing through every nerve.

"One."

The door suddenly didn't exist anymore. It was just gone, in a cloud of dust. Three figures entered, and she backed away, still keeping an eye on the window where two other figures had appeared. At least she was making sure they couldn't get in, yet.

She and Daniel were back to back now. The three just stood there, looking at them. They didn't look like Mogadorians. They looked normal. But most people did at first glance. And they sure didn't feel human. The one outside was pushing on the window in frustration, but even he was silent. No one made a move.

Finally, the blond boy spoke. "Are you Number Seven?"

She turned around at his voice, and looked at him for a minute. Then she lowered her hand, and the two boys outside tumbled through the window.

Daniel whipped around to face the new intruders, looking down at her in alarm.

"It's okay." She said, reaching up and lightly touching his arm. He looked back down at her, and slowly lowered the knife. "They're not Mogadorians."

She turned back to the boy who had first spoken and took a step forward. "I am Number Seven." She said firmly.

The boy nodded, his face relaxing. A look of relief passed over the girl's face. But the large man's face remained impassive.

"I am Number Four." Said the blond haired boy stepping forward.

"I am Number Six." Said the girl, taking a step forward as well.

"And I'm Number Five." Said a voice, and she turned to see the taller of the two boys had spoken.

She nodded, her eyes flicking from one to the other. One look at the tall man clearly said he was a protector, but the other boy –

"What about the human?" She asked.

"I'm Sam." The boy said quickly, raising a hand in greeting.

"He knows." Number Four said. "And he's helping us." Six rolled her eyes at this, but kept quiet.

Instead, Six moved on to the next topic of business. "We're here because we're banding together. All the Lorien, to fight the Mogadorians instead of being hunted one by one until we all die."

She didn't feel capable of doing much more than staring at her. It had just been a normal night all but a few minutes ago . . . and now a call to save the world?

"Why now?" she asked.

"Why not?" Six responded. It was a fair point.

"Isn't it more dangerous though?" She asked quietly. "Being all together? Especially with Four?" Her eyes flickered towards the boy in question. "If they find us, they could just kill us all off one by one and be done with it. It might just kill us all faster."

"It's a risk." Six said, nodding.

"But it's one we have to take." Four said.

"If we didn't, then even if they never found us," Six continued, "Then we'd still just die here eventually of old age. We have to face them at some point. I think sooner is better than later."

After a pause, Four asked "So what do you think? Will you join us?"

She looked up at Daniel. He looked back down at her. She turned to the others. "Could we have a minute?" She asked.

"Sure." Said Four, and he turned away, walking over to the other two boys and beginning a low conversation. Six and the other man followed suit.

She walked with Daniel over to the other side of the room.

"What do you think?" She asked.

"You're sure they're who they say they are?"

"Of course."

"It's dangerous." He said, folding his arms.

"Yes," She said, inclining her head slightly. "But what about what they're doing?"

"What do you think of it?"

"I think . . . it's kind of smart. It might be a good idea."

He looked at her and shifted his weight to his other foot. "What did you get from them?"

"They're Lorien. Except for the one human, that is. They seem to have good intentions, and to be trustworthy."

Daniel nodded. "You want to do it?"

"I think we'll regret if we don't."

"We might regret it if we do."

"We'll only regret it if we do and we die. And we aren't going to let that happen." Daniel nodded in concession to this argument. "We don't have much to lose. And, I think they're right. I think it's time we've done something."

Daniel nodded some more. "You're positive?" He asked.

"Absolutely."

"Then we join them."

They sat in a circle on the floor, all facing one another.

"I'm John." Number Four said to Seven and Daniel. "Do you have a name you go by, instead of Seven?"

"Ella." She replied. "And this is Daniel."

"That's who I'd like to know about." Said Six, her chin in her hand. "He's your cepan, right?"

"Yes." Daniel answered.

"How is that possible? He's way too young. You can't have been much older than us when you came here."

Ella and Daniel glanced at one another.

"It's a long story." Ella said after a moment, looking at Daniel.

"I wasn't originally her protector." Daniel spoke up. "Hers died a little more than a year ago. I was Number One's."

A ripple seemed to go through the circle as that stament registered with each person.

"You all know he died." Daniel continued stoically. "But before he did, he tried something that would make me stronger. But it didn't work. One of its effects was keeping me from aging. We only managed to reverse it about two years ago."

"You still must have been pretty young though then when you left Lorien."

"Yes." Daniel answered shortly.

Before anyone could ask another question, Ella changed the subject.

"So, are you," She asked, indicating the definite oldest member of the group, "A protector too?"

"Yes." He replied. "My name is Patrick. I am Tyler's protector."

Across the circle, Tyler nodded. "Five." He said. "But you can call me Tyler."

"Hey, I just noticed something. Now that we've found Number Seven, there are seven of us here!" Sam exclaimed.

Ella nodded politely, John rolled his eyes, and Tyler looked at him strangely.

"Sam, what has that got to do with anything?" Six snapped.

Sam looked abashed. "I dunno . . ." He said. "It was just kind of cool. I mean, who knows, it might have some kind of meaning . . ." He faded under Six's glare.

There was a short silence, which Tyler broke with "What about legacies?"

"Yeah," said John, turning to Ella. "You obviously have some – thing, with the window –"

"I can create force fields." She answered, nodding.

"Cool." Six said in approval. "Anything else?"

"I have heightened senses."

At this, Six raised an eyebrow. "We kind of all have heightened senses." She pointed out.

"Yes, but she has really heightened senses." Daniel said.

"I have exceptional hearing, smell, etc. I have telescopic and microscopic vision. I also have x-ray and night vision. And, I guess because of that, I can sense where people are, what they're doing, and can usually tell simple stuff, like if they're lying or not."

"Wow." Sam said, nodding.

Six cocked her head. "What color underwear am I wearing?" She asked critically.

Ella stared at her, unamused. "They have binky the clown on them." She replied after a moment.

Sam let out a loud snort of laughter. Six glared at him, then turned back to Ella, crinkling her nose. "I am not."

"Care to prove me wrong?" Ella asked.

"They wish." Six replied, throwing another glare at Sam.

"This one asked me the same question when he first met me." Ella said, dropping the frosty air that she had taken up with Six's inquiry and relaxing a bit, jerking her head towards Daniel.

He cast a smile towards her, not appearing to be too ashamed of the fact.

"Is there – is there any other way you could give us an example?" John asked.

Ella surveyed the circle for a moment. "None of you have showered in the past week and a half." She said. "Sam two and a half."

Sam sniffed himself self-consciously. The rest nodded. It was an entirely accurate statement.

"What about your legacies?" Ella asked.

"I control the elements." Six answered. "And invisibility."

"Telekinetic." John said. "And lumen."

"Flight. And I can breathe underwater." Tyler said.

Ella nodded. "Then which one of you made my door disappear?" She asked, eyeing them critically.

Six lifted her hand. "That would be me."

"How?"

"Earth element. Crumbled it into dirt and dust."

"Oh." Ella said nodding. She looked thoughtful. "Cool."

"I'd like to know more about you." Daniel said, turning to Sam. Ella fixed her gaze on him as well. "What are you doing with them – us?"

"Well," Sam said, shifting a bit nervously. "It started with my dad. He was really into aliens and stuff like that – extraterrestrials, UFOs, all that stuff. He called himself an anthropologist, but that was what he was really interested in, he liked studying all that stuff."

"Henri – my protector – was looking at his dad's work." John put in. "He had to have been on to something."

"But then he disappeared." Sam said. "Somewhere in Mexico. Just gone. He was looking for something."

Ella and Daniel were quiet for a moment.

"So, yeah." Sam finished awkwardly. "I know I don't have any powers or anything, but I can still help you guys out. I promise I won't slow you down, and I am definitely not Mogadorian."

Ella nodded, and so did Daniel.

"How long have you been doing – this?" Daniel asked.

"About three months." Six answered, glancing at John, who nodded. "That's when I met John."

"More like hunted me down." John said.

"Lucky I did, I saved your ass." Six retorted, and John kept quiet. "My protector had died. I decided that it was time the six of us had gotten together."

"So it was you who started it?" Daniel asked.

"Yes." Six answered promptly. "I looked for John first, since he was next in line. Found him in Ohio. We fought some Mogadorians, picked up Sam, and figured out where the rest of you were."

"How?" Daniel interrupted. "We've been really careful about covering up out trail."

"It wasn't any trail you left," John explained. "We used these rocks."

"Rocks?" Ella asked, after no one moved to explain.

"Yeah. There were these rocks, and when me and Six put them together, we just could tell where you guys were – like we could sense it."

"Can I see them?"

"Well, they kind of disintegrated . . ."

"The rocks aren't important." Six cut in impatiently. "What matters is we knew where you were, generally, and set out to find you. We left for Berlin for Five. Got him and Patrick, then flew back to D.C. to get you."

"Okay. So what's your plan now?" Ella asked.

"Find Number Eight." Six answered.

"Do you know where they are?" Daniel asked.

"Beijing."

"Looks like we've got a long trip then." Ella observed.

"We'll catch a flight in the morning." Patrick said. "Until then – may we sleep here?"

"Of course." Ella answered immediately.

"Thank you." Patrick said.

"Hey, Tyler." John said. "Could you levitate Bernie up?"

Tyler nodded, walking over to the window. But there was no need. A pigeon had alighted on the sill, hopped inside, and promptly changed back into beagle form.

Ella and Daniel stared at it.

"Uh, right." John said. "We have a chimera travelling with us too."

"Anything else we should know about?" Ella asked.

"Oh yeah, and we have a couple of Mogadorian pals hanging around outside, hope that won't be a problem." Sam said.

Daniel whipped around to face him, glaring daggers.

"Just joking . . ." Sam said quickly, backing away with his hands up. "Only a joke."

It was strange, more than a little disconcerting, to suddenly have so many people in their tiny apartment. She was so used to it just being her and Daniel, even before him it had just been her and Helena.

Ella had bullied Six into taking the bed. She hadn't needed much persuasion, it was only her pride that obligated her to put up resistance. Six, Tyler, and Patrick had gone into the bedroom, and the rest of them were sleeping in here. There was no furniture; although they had been living here for some time now, it still didn't feel permanent – and besides, why bother wasting the money on it? They would have to leave it behind when they moved on anyway. While this meant that there was plenty of space for everyone, there was very little comfort. There weren't quite enough blankets and pillows to go around, but they made do.

Daniel handed her a blanket. It felt a little strange, sleeping only few feet away from him, but what was even stranger was sleeping only a few feet more away from almost complete strangers. Right now, they both needed a familiar face nearby, both needed to be within reaching distant of an anchor in this crazy whirlwind they had been thrust into.

It would be better in the morning, once she had had a chance to get used to it.

She pushed the blanket back towards Daniel. "I already have one." She told him.

"I don't need mine." He replied, pushing it back.

"Don't be stupid, of course you do."

"I'm comfortable this way."

"You'd be more comfortable with a blanket. I don't need two."

"Just take it."

"I don't need it. You keep it."

Ella laid down and turned over to face the wall, closing her eyes and cutting off his next argument.

"I know you can't fall asleep that fast." He said. She ignored him.

He sighed. When it came to stubbornness, she won every time. A few minutes later, he laid down in an attempt to go to sleep as well. The blanket, carefully folded, lay between them, all through the night.