A/N: This FanFiction is completely movie-verse. I saw the movie, and now I'm hellbent on reading the book. And remember, criticism and reviews are always welcome! EDIT: This is only going to be a one-shot, my friends. I've decided that, if I have no idea what I'm doing with the story, then I should just leave it alone. I got a lot of good reviews on the prologue but not so much chapter one, so I figured I should leave it as a one-shot.
When I was a young boy, my father took me into the city,
To see a marching band.
He said, "Son, when you grow up, would you be,
The savior of the broken, the beaten, and the damned?"
He said, "Will you defeat them, your demons, and all the non-believers,
The plans that they have made?
Because one day I'll leave you,
A phantom to lead you in the summer-
To join the Black Parade."
-My Chemical Romance, "The Black Parade."
Never before had Katarina been so unwilling to leave her thoughts.
Six's Cepan hadn't exactly been a wise woman, but everything she'd ever said to her had helped her further her abilities and knowledge. Now, as she stood guard, watching Four, the human, and the "dog" sleep, she wasn't able to get Katarina's face out of her mind. She had the expression she'd always worn when Six had been getting too arrogant, too "I can do it myself," when it came to fighting Mogs. Six wasn't able to shake Katarina's voice from her head.
The Garde was created to stand together, not individually. That's why the Mogs are rushing to kill you now. When you're separated, it's easy to pick you off, one-by-one. You're more powerful together than you could ever be apart.
In a way, that phrase was like William Tecumseh Sherman's "War is hell." You'd never experienced it, but you'd always just accepted it as truth because it made sense to you. The only people who truly knew that war was hell were the ones who had to fight through it.
The last time any of the nine had been together was when they'd been babies, living their last days on a planet they'd never remember. They had all trained individually, so it was hard to imagine what it was like to work as a team. It was hard to imagine what it would be like fighting with someone just as powerful as you. It was hard to believe that only yesterday she had learned exactly what that was like.
When she'd burst in on Four and his girlfriend, it had been a one man show. She had taken the Mogs in that hall out by herself, just as she had always done. She had never really expected it to be any different. Then, they'd been separated when he took on the lizard monster - by himself - and she'd been blown across the room by the impact of a grenade, and she barely had the strength to stand. For the first time ever, she'd needed help.
And he'd been there. That was when Six truly understood that she couldn't do it by herself. That was when she realized that, for the first time since Aiden's death, she had someone to look after her - and for the first time ever, she had someone to look after.
And never before in Six's life had she had such a need to keep someone alive.
One's death had been nothing more than a wake-up call, keeping Aiden on high alert for the last nine years of his life, becoming like an over-protective father to her. Two's death had been a pang of anxiety. Even when Aiden had been killed shortly after her eighteenth birthday, she had readily left him behind to save her own life. Yes, she had cried and wailed, and she still missed him, but she'd still left him there. And she didn't regret it.
Then, only about a week ago, Three had been killed. To Six, his death had been nothing more than an apathetic thought: Damn.
When it came to Four, though…something was different. She'd realized that as soon as she'd seen that video on that lame "the truth is out there" website. She remembered smiling and taking off her sunglasses, desperate for a closer look of the boy writhing in the water. She still wasn't able to believe the joy that coursed through her when she first caught a glimpse of his face. It was nothing more than that - a glimpse - but it was still enough.
For the first time ever, she knew what one of the others looked like.
And she realized that she wanted - needed - to find him alive. She'd wanted the others to stay alive because, as long as they were still breathing, it was impossible for her to be killed, and there would be more of them to fight the Mogs. With Four, it went deeper than that. She'd realized that the instant she'd seen his face.
She was lucky to have been able to catch the newest YouTube sensation the second it came out. There he had been again, raising a police cruiser into the air. That time, she'd been able to get a closer look at his face, and she'd memorized every detail. Then, she'd rushed after him, determined to find him before the Mogs did.
She hadn't exactly been able to do that, but she was still able to get to him before the Mogs killed him. She'd been so happy when she'd blasted through that door and saw him with his girlfriend, still breathing.
The rest of that night was a blur. Almost getting hit with one of the Mog's grenades; getting snatched into the air by that damn flying lizard; forcing the last bit of her energy into a final burst, pulling Four out of harm's way; shielding him with her body during the explosion. She had felt so compelled to save him, to protect him and keep him alive. Just the thought of him dying was unbearable.
He must've felt the same way. Coming back for her after his "dog" had saved his life; playing Energizer Bunny; turning his back on an armed and dangerous Mog, fully knowing that it was the Mog's mission to kill him, to save her from the lizard; that deep, heartfelt apology on his face when they'd both been lying on the fake grass of the football field, prepared for death.
Six knew for a fact that she wasn't in love with Four, and vice versa. She had too much on her plate at the moment to be worrying about boys, like saving the world, defeating the Mogs, etc., etc. Besides, Four was too busy being head-over-heels for that girl, Lord forgive Six for forgetting her name. It was just…something in her screamed that she would die if Four was killed. Six would've said that it was a natural Garde connection, which it probably was to an extent, except for the fact that she still couldn't bring herself to care about One, Two, or Three.
Maybe it was because One, Two, and Three were just numbers to her. She'd never met them, didn't know what they looked like, didn't know anything about them. She just knew that they were basically her kin, and that they were dead. Four, though…Four had evolved from a number to a living, breathing young man the instant she'd seen that video. Five, Seven, Eight, and Nine were becoming realer and realer by the hour, too, now that Six knew beyond a doubt that she'd soon find them.
The nine - well, the six, she should say, were like pieces of an engine. Each were powerful, able to do things the others could only dream of, and pretty good at doing their own thing…but when it came down to it…they were all just pieces. They were meant to be together to form that powerful engine. You're more powerful together, Katarina had said, than you could ever be apart.
And now that Four and Six had been glued together to start the engine, it was time to finish it.