The Vengeance of Eight
Author's Note: Only a few days after The Fall of Five and I'm already writing - I blame the cruel cliffhanger at the end. Why Pittacus Lore, why? Nevertheless it inspired me to write a continuation which I will do my best to upkeep; I've already wrote three chapters just a bit of editing is needed. And as I'm British I should warn you some words are spelled slightly differently - colour etc.
Friendly reminder I do not own Lorien Legacies that goes to the brilliant, yet merciless Pittacus Lore.
Similar to how the Fall of Five started, this is the aftermath of both battles which the book ended on, and if you hadn't realized already, it's major spoiler time.
Chapter 1
Nine
Camping isn't as much fun as I thought it would be. The vast everglades once full of wonder and adventure now have the stony allure of death. Despite the humid Florida heat everything feels cold, deadly cold. If the Loric Elders had put some blankets or hot chocolate in our chests it would have been deeply appreciated.
"We should move on," Six says double knotting her boots, eyes darting at me then quickly at Marina her tone soothing slightly, "The Mogs won't stop looking for us, let's not make their job any easier."
It's weird hearing anybody speak, after escaping the familiar sound of Mogadorian weaponry and Six and Seven murmuring about healing no one's said a single word. We suffered in silence.
Slowly, Marina nods her chocolate eyes vacant. Clearly she's had no sleep; the dark shadows circling her eyes and her ashen skin are pure giveaways. I wouldn't be surprised if she just heaped into a ball and started snoring, but slowly but surely, she manages to get onto her feet before grabbing her chest.
It takes me a while to notice both Loric girls are looking at me, Six giving the ever so famous pissed off look while Marina stares through me as if I was nothing. I hate to admit it but I've deserved that look. Heck, I deserved to die of my wounds in the everglades, I deserved to be stabbed instead of Eight; I provoked Five not him, and yet here I am, alive. When really it should be Eight in front of them.
Only the good die young.
I grunt and get to my feet, ignoring the blurring visions, ignoring that the bile in the back of my throat is having some kind of fiesta. My only mission to grab my chest and escape this damn place.
"Nine, quit loitering," Six snaps looking as if nothing would please her more than to throw a lightning bolt at me.
Effortlessly, my chest sails into my hands, the telekinesis as natural as the movement of my arm, and I mock salute Six, "Ready to report to duty sir."
Even my mocking doesn't sound right; it should have been Eight's voice joking along with Six.
Six growls, actually growls at me, "For the love of God Nine, would it kill you to stop being so annoying. It's already ended up with one Garde dead and frankly I don't know about you but I don't want another one due to your lame remarks."
Chick's got a short fuse today.
"And where were you when Eight was stabbed?" the words fly out of my lips and Six's olive skin turns burning red.
Shit. Double shit. The legacy of turning back in time and trying to erase what I said would be real useful right now, turning into ash due to a lightning strike is not on my to do list. Although the legacy would be more useful if I could go as far back as before Eight's death, maybe being able to keep quiet.
The sky crackles and grey clouds appear in the blue horizon, smothering the sun. The humid air turns to a bitter harsh wind, "You better shut up now Nine," Six hisses through her teeth.
"Enough," Marina's voice overpowers Six's storm and both of us face the healer. It's the first time she's looked remotely alive after her near brutal murder of Five and I'm relieved there's some fighting spirit left in her, "Eight wouldn't want you two to fight like this."
As soon as Marina mentioned Eight, Six's fierce dark clouds retreated to soft white clouds and her eyes less resembled steel. She bites her lip still gazing straight at me, "Marina's right he wouldn't."
Six turns on her heel picking up the maps she could hardly navigate before the battle and spends a few seconds scanning the sheet, "If we reach the coast and keep following we can make it into Mississippi and then we can get a car. Make our way to John and the others in Chicago."
"The penthouse is screwed," I wrinkle my nose.
Six raises her eyebrows as Marina continues, "While you were… out, Five told us that Nine's penthouse was getting raided by the Mogadorians. We weren't the only ones who had a battle. It seemed they wanted Ella in particular."
Six purses her lips the disdain in her voice is obvious, "Right. The next move would for us to all communicate telepathically with Ella and ask about what they're doing and join. John wouldn't let her go easily."
"Unless they're separated. We can't even tell if the kid is dead or not," I mutter twisting my pipe back and forth.
"Eight would have been optimistic right now" Marina whispers quietly. I'm not sure if she meant for either of us to hear her but judging by Six's fallen face we both have.
"Well Eight's dead," I put bluntly and ignore the narrowing eyes. "It sucks, but we can't go reminiscing about him, Eight would want us to get up our asses and give the fight of our lives killing a few Mogs especially for him. And I'm not planning on ignore his wishes."
"It was your recklessness that got Eight killed," Six looked at me in the eyes, "Eight may want us to destroy Mogs but he probably wants you to be a lot less reckless too."
Crap, Six has got me good. I could probably take her on in hand-to-hand combat, but with harsh remarks I hate to admit it, but it is a losing battle.
"Seriously both of you.." Marina's threat trailed off, "Whatever happened at Chicago couldn't have gone too badly… We have no extra scars on our ankle which means at least John's made it out alive. And we just have to hope Ella, BK, Sarah, Sam and Malcolm are okay for now too."
Rubbing her temples Six murmurs, " I guess. Let's just go."
Four
"Ashwood estates? It's a pretty classy neighbourhood for a Mogadorian hideout," Sarah says stroking the incredibly tired, yet surviving BK in her lap.
"But who would expect an alien race attempting to obliterate earth to live in the nicest mansion complex in Washington D.C?" Adam says his fingertips lightly tapping on the car wheel.
We've made quick time thanks to Sarah driving like a speed demon and a quick changeover between drivers. Adam's pale skin and dark eyes still unnerve me but Malcolm's casualness and ease around him prevents me from protesting. I get a better feeling off Adamus than I ever did around Five. That must be a good sign, I really hope it is; recently only tragedies happen.
"You'd think the Mogs would live somewhere more evil, like Mordor," Sam mumbles placing the healing stone on his top right shoulder, wincing slightly as his bruises reduced.
"And what is Lorien, the shire?" I ask.
Sam laughs, "Something like that. Didn't know you were a Lord of the Rings fan man."
Despite the light-hearted banter, a dark cloud settles above the group with the mystery of who the scar belonged to. I don't have it in my heart to tell Sam about the nightmare Ella and I shared before the burning sensation in my ankle, I can't have him worried sick about Six being the next fallen Garde member especially when it's not confirmed. I just hope for everyone's sake it's Five.
I don't want to imagine that I've already seen the last of Marina's motherly smile, or Six's hard glare or Eight's cheeky grin which makes Marina giggle. And right now I could really do with one of Nine's really lame gross jokes.
Coming to think about it, the whole betrayal had been obvious; Five's acting skills needed serious work. His naivety was too much, him and Nine disagreed were too often to be normal, his sneering comments and his attitudes towards humans and the constant wanting to be alone. But I never wanted Five to be a bad guy which is why the signs were ignored.
I was the delegated leader and that's ended up with two split up groups, a dead Garde, another Garde which betrayed the Loric cause and a missing Ella. Not to mention that half of Chicago is swallowed in flames and the bounty of my head in now twice the size, now moving me up the most wanted list. Nice job Johnny Boy.
And even though I want Adamus to be a bad guy, rip him apart and avenge the fallen Garde, I don't. He's one of us.
I managed to tell the others about Five's real alliance, to Malcolm's and Sam's relief - his Dad wasn't a traitor after all but that meant Six was in mortal danger so his relief was short-lived. And I informed Sarah, Malcolm and Adam about the fourth scar which resulted in misty eyes and trembling lips.
My eyes keep darting to my covered ankle, it still stings slightly the raw skin throbbing at any form of movement. I place my hands on the fourth scar and I wait for the icy feeling to urge out of my fingertips, for some serious pain removal. But nothing happens, you can't heal the pain of losing someone.
I open my mouth, trying to mention Ella, yet for the eighth time today, I close it quickly. What I saw in Ella's vision, I don't fully understand it myself, and whenever I try to co-ordinate my thoughts it's difficult not to make Ella seem like a mass murderer working along with Setrakus Ra. We've already experienced one Loric traitor, I can't make it seem like another may be added to the list. Ella is too sweet, too kind and loving to even think about Six dying.
Sarah squeezes my hand reassuring me with a smile almost if she can track my train of thoughts, "At least we made it out alive and Ella's going to be fine too. "
"Only thanks to you three being whizzes with guns," I lightly elbow Sarah playfully in the arm, "Soon you're going to be a greater threat than the Garde."
"You can count on that," she smiles.
A brightly coloured bird caws as it transforms into a mouse in the back of the truck and crawls next to Bernie Kosar nuzzling its petite head against his paws. He groggily acknowledges the fellow Chimaera before dipping his beagle form back into Sarah's lap.
Somehow Adamus managed to find and gather all the functioning Chimaera together and transport them to Chicago and being able to save my butt. And I'm eternally grateful to the Mog defector and it helps the urge of not wanting to kill him.
When he recounted the story, how the animals had tested on - one making horrific sounds another with an amputated limb- bile rose to the back of my throat. It's bad enough they killed four members of the Garde, tortured Nine and Six, killing all our Cepands, but this was the last straw. I will leave no mercy for the Mogadorians.
Sarah was even more furious than I; her blue eyes resembled ice and if there was any Mogadorians in a square mile her the wrath on her face could have obliterated them right there and then. It was only then when the memories of her love for animals resurfaced; her passion for Mark's dog and how she remained with them when his house was burning, her trip to Colorado to build animal shelters and how her eyes lightened up when we walked BK together in Paradise.
The remaining Chimaera had a problem of constantly changing forms, although Adamus mentioned it becoming less frequent now they were around BK and one which particularly warmed up to Adamus – Dust, seemed in utter control.
"Are there any Mogadorian children in the base?" Sarah asks quietly tracing patterns on BK's blood stained fur.
"Not underground – that mainly consists of vatborns and older Mogadorians in the estate there are the rare few. We have a dwindling population of women and mothers. There's a high mortality rate for women during birth," Adam states.
"Did your mother ever.." Sarah trails.
"She survived both the birth of me and my little sister," Adam's tone was dead flat. His mother was obviously a sensitive topic.
"You have a little sister?" Malcolm asks for the first time looking above the laptop screen he's be scanning for the past few hours. So far there's been little news on the others.
"She doesn't like associating me as part of the family, almost as much as my father," Adam's smile is wry and bitter, "She probably has dreams of destroying me with her pet Piken."
"You have a new family now," Malcolm looks solemnly at Adam and hesitates for a second, "It wasn't that cheesy when I sounded it out in my head."
We all laugh, even Adam.
"It's a fairly dyfunctional family Adam, you have been warned," Sam grins looking out of the window, "How long have we've been driving for? My back's killing me."
"Eleven hours I make it," Sarah says looking at the modified clock on the car, telling not only times in the current location but London, Paris and Tokyo too.
Eleven hours ago a member of the Garde died, and almost BK if Adamus and Dust hadn't managed to find his mangled body. Eleven hours of driving in city lanes and turning in a trail managing to throw Mogadorians off our trails by stops in Kentucky and briefly in Tennessee.
"We're almost near Ohio," Adam clears his throat.
We all know what that means, we're only a few hours off from Paradise where Sarah's parents remain and Sam's lone mother, where Malcolm's papers are kept. Where old friends; Emily and Mark lie unaware of dangers ahead.
If Six stayed instead of going to Florida she could have grabbed Sam – they could have talked to his mother and briefly look and grab some of Malcolm's paper. I long for another look of the skeleton, to see how tall Pittacus Lore really is, but now is the time for resistance.
We need to prepare an attack for Ashwood Estates. We need to make sure we can go in undetected with a fault-proof plan and attack the Mogadorians right at the heart. Paradise is not a stop we can afford to take.
Nine
Every alligator we pass seems like a threat and it surprises me every time when it appears to not be a Mogadorian abomination. I want to rip apart every reptile I see, but that would be too obvious for the Mogs - too find us all they would have to do would be to follow the trail of alligator parts.
"I always wanted to go to Florida," Six says, "I wanted to ride Space Mountain with Katrina as I thought it was always related somehow to the Loric. Now I can't wait to leave."
"I never took you for a roller coaster chick," I grin slightly trying to imagine the grey eyed girl so innocently wanting to live the Disney dream.
"Nor did John," Six's mouth twitches, "He still wants to go there now."
"Why doesn't that surprise me coming from Johnny Boy?"
I hear a rustle at my left as Marina concentrates on the map, "If we run we could reach Naples in a few hours and if we manage to get into the city we can steal a car – escaping Florida will be much more easier."
"I'm liking the sound of that," Six picks up the steady jogging pace we've been trolling for hours. The thought of food and drink, and possibly a few city girls I could spend the limited time in Naples in is the fuel I ride on to make me increase my speed.
"Has anyone got anything from the little squirt yet?" I ask as we pass through the edge of the swamp areas passing the National Park boundaries, the surroundings a blur.
"Nothing," Marina sighs. I'm still not fully sure if she's recovered from her nightmare. The next best thing would be to communicate through our chests but now with Five I'm not sure that's possible."
"All the more reason to get to Naples as soon as possible – if there's a fight in the John Hancock center the world will sure know about it," Six says.
"They better have not ruined Sandor's suit collection, he would have murdered me if there was a speck of Mog ash on his Italian finest," I murmur.
"Didn't think you were one for fashion Nine," Six breathes her chest heaving through the strain of a mixture of running and jogging for hours.
"Someone here needs to know how to dress and since it's not you two, it has to be the badass."
"Slow down," Marina warns. We've had to do it a few times – despite avoiding busy roads and any human contact there's always the odd few, but now we're entering a city and three sweat covered teenagers may draw unwanted suspicion.
"First things first," Six sighs as her strides become less frequent, "Food and a shower."
First chapter completed! Please review I'd love to know your thoughts about how the fanfic is, the ending of the Fall of Five and any details you wish to discuss. And if there are any question you want answered, put it below but I think I have a plan to cover most of them.