I finished Fall of Five two days ago, got really upset, and decided that I was going to write a fix-it.

So, here it is. This chapter is just an introduction, but hopefully I'll get the second chapter written and posted soon.

Every story has a beginning, and every story has an ending.

But not necessarily in that order. Some stories end with a beginning, and some stories begin with an ending.

The beginnings and endings aren't even the best bits. The best bit is the middle, when anything could happen, when all the actions happens. Any good author knows this.

But, for the purpose of this story, we're going to begin with beginning, and work our way through to the ending.

This story begins like any normal one would, with the birth of our main protagonist. We could work our way from there, but that would just be pointless.

Because that beginning is boring. That beginning is, admittedly, a beginning, but it isn't the best place to begin at.

The boy's story truly begins when his planet's story ends, a start from an end.

So, logically, as this is the start where his life begins to get interesting, this would be the best place to start.

But this story has been told many times, so many times that I'm sure you all know it by now. It would be silly to start where everyone starts, because what's the point in starting somewhere that doesn't immediately hook you?

So, no, we won't start there.

We could always start where he leaves all his friends and his old life behind, where his old identity is left on a ship and he is starting afresh on a brand new world.

But then we'd have to go through him learning things that we already know, and wouldn't that get annoying quickly?

We could start partway through, when his Cepan falls in love with a woman and his life begins to fall apart, but even the best storytellers know not to start in the middle of a story. You don't start at the best bit. That would just be silly, because then you'd have to tell the start at some other point and the rest would seem rubbish (and, while it is acceptable to have the start at the end, to have the start in the middle simply wouldn't fit).

I could always tell you the story from the death of said Cepan, where the boy's life truly becomes his own, where he has no one there to help him and must decide what to do for himself.

Or I could start where he meets Devdan, who helps him hone his powers and realise what his life is truly meant for.

Or I could start where Devdan disappears and he is alone again.

Or I could start where he meets the soldiers, and his life takes a rather interesting turn and he has to pretend that he is someone that he's not.

But I'm not going to start in any of these places, because we all know the outcome. Also, none of these are really beginnings, just more…plot devices, fillers.

However, I will not start where he leaves India behind, joins the people like him for an epic fight.

Because this part of his story has already been told, and nobody wants to hear a story that simply repeats a different one.

I'm not going to start at any point past this, where someone else has already told his story. You can't start in the midst of a different tale.

Where I am going to start is the end. Because this end is also a beginning, the beginning of a story that has not yet been told.

So, actually, no, we're not going to start at the beginning. We're going to start at the end, and work our way on from there.

So. We begin at the end.

He's close to Marina. The words are on the tip of his tongue, the words he's wanted to say for so long now.

I love you.

The words die on his lips. He opens his mouth, just tell her…

But his mouth isn't moving and his heart it's getting harder to breathe and he knows that this time he can't be saved and…

And he falls to the ground, the words left unsaid.

But…wait. I shouldn't have started there. That's the very end, but it tells us nothing.

We should start just a few minutes sooner. Yes, that will be the right place to start. That will tell us more. The beginning of the end.

The end comes in the form of a sword, and an insane friend.

No, really, it does. He's fought beasts and Mogodorians and soldiers and then, boom. One of his friends, someone he trusts, decides that now they're going to mention the fact that they work for the enemy.

He has to admit, it hurts.

Honestly, he thinks as he watches Five babble on about 'The Beloved Leader' (and isn't that a joke), the elders should have made some charm thing that didn't just prevent them being killed out of order – they should have made them a charm that prevented them from killing each other.

Really, they should have thought of this. Maybe they did, with their eternal wisdom and all that.

But as there was only nine of them to resurrect an entire world, it probably never even occurred to them that one of them would even think about murdering another. So, then again, maybe they didn't think of this.

Because he never even considered it.

He fights that beast thing, taking all his anger out on it, imagining that it's Five's smug face that he's attacking. It works, fuelling his fury and letting him defeat it.

All too soon he's back in the mud and Five is in complete control of the situation.

He's fighting with Nine, the two of them using their Legacies and items from their chests to get at each other (personally he's on Nine's side, and he's pretty sure that Marina is, too).

He can't let them kill each other.

So he ends up in the middle, trying to get through to Five. It's obvious that Nine just wants to pulverize him (he can understand why), but killing Five will accomplish nothing. And, who knows, maybe one of Five's legacies is body swapping? (Though he seriously doubts it).

Five just won't listen. He thinks Five is insane. It's not a long shot.

Marina (bless her) uses her telekinesis to get rid of those damn balls, putting Five at a disadvantage. Pretty soon Five and Nine are fighting again, completely oblivious to the fact that two other Garde are there.

And then –

Then Five has a sword and –

And he's going to kill Nine and –

And –

And –

And he appears in front of the sword, the cold metal puncturing his skin and being driven straight into his heart.

Okay, so he just basically committed suicide. That wasn't how he planned on going.

The sword is gone from his chest. He looks down in a daze. Huh. There's not much blood.

Oh…wait. This is the cave painting, isn't it? So it was Five that killed him.

Instead of drawing his death, couldn't they have shown that Five was a traitor instead? That would have been helpful to know beforehand.

Actually, it would have been helpful to know all of this, this war, beforehand. It would have helped a lot. Maybe then he wouldn't be here, about to die, at the age of seventeen (it's meant to be his birthday in a couple months, he thinks with a pang. He's never going to turn eighteen. He's never going to live to adulthood).

All this thinking takes place in a couple seconds. He prepares himself for the darkness.

Wait. There's something important he has to do…something he has to say.

What does he have to say?

Oh, yes. Marina. He has to tell Marina about his feelings.

And he has approximately ten seconds in which to do it.

(He isn't stupid, he knows that he'll go soon. He just has to get those words out into the open.)

He looks up.

Five looks gutted (oh, yes, now you're sorry), Nine seems sad (Nine? Was he really that special?), Six is just waking up (why couldn't she have woken up before Five tried to kill them?) and Marina (Marina…)

He stumbles towards her slightly. He thinks his hands are outstretched, but he isn't sure. He isn't sure of anything right now, except for that he…he has to tell…

What does he have tell Marina?

He loves her.

Loves who?

So, this is what it feels like to die. A bit less pleasant than he'd hoped, but he'd hoped not to die at all.

He's close to Marina. The words are on the tip of his tongue, the words he's wanted to say for so long now.

I love you.

The words die on his lips. He opens his mouth, just tell her…

But his mouth isn't moving and his heart it's getting harder to breathe and he knows that this time he can't be saved and…

And he falls to the ground, the words left unsaid.

There. That's better.

Number Eight's life began millions of miles away on a far off world. He has had many beginnings, but his ending was on Planet Earth a couple months before his eighteenth birthday.

That's his ending. But that's also his beginning.

The Mogodorians have a mission – kill all Garde.

Considering the amount of Garde there actually are, this sounds like it should be a fairly simple task. It's easy, really – just search for leads on the whereabouts of nine extraordinary teenagers. None of them are actually that good at blending in. Each is a magnet for trouble.

Sure enough, three are found and killed. All are found, actually, but the thing is…they can only be killed in a certain order.

Of course, as soon as they meet up, this charm is broken, and each Garde is fair game. So none of them can actually make a move against the Mogodorians alone, and together they are all vulnerable. The gift that protects them also curses them.

And having scars on their ankles and special powers tends to draw attention to them, making it so much easier for them to be tracked.

The Mogodorians also know exactly what to look for, with computers and researchers and all sorts at their disposal.

All in all, this situation works for the Mogodorians quite well.

When he is on his own in the mountains, when he goes to sleep in the cave with the strange paintings (and, yes, he has chiselled off his face – he's too young to die) for the first time, he dreams of Lorien.

It's beautiful, with a bright blue sky and shining suns and glistening water. He lived by the water, a huge river that the chimera would drink from every day. It's one of the few things he remembers about his planet.

He dreams about it. He's standing facing the water, looking out at the vast amount of blue.

There's a woman there, a woman with curly hair and deep green eyes. She looks similar to him, so similar that she must be his mother.

She smiles and cocks her head at him. She's just standing there, in front of the water, smiling. Her eyes twinkle in the sunlight.

"My son," she says. She's actually speaking in Loric, but somehow he knows what words she is saying. He blinks and she's right in front of him, brushing some of his own curls from his face.

"Mother," he says against his will, as if something else is controlling him. He, too, is speaking in Loric, something he can't possibly do when he's awake.

She smiles even wider.

"You have grown so tall."

She brushes against his cheek.

"I miss you," she whispers. "I miss you so much."

He jerks awake to an empty cave, the echoes his mother stuck in his mind.

There's something that you have to understand. Loric biology is different to that of a human. It is quite a lot more advanced. It allows room for powers, Legacies, as they call them, and is more quickened when it comes to healing.

Not a lot faster, mind you. Not fast enough to heal wounds in a snap. But fast enough that it isn't possible for a member of the Loric to die from blood loss.

Slow enough so that being stabbed through the heart will kill them.

But, still, fast enough that you could say that their healing rate is significantly faster.

Lorien is alive, and a part of it lives in every member of people who were born there. It can, on occasion, if it is desperate, heal fatal wounds.

It can't, however, heal someone who's already dead.

So, even if Lorien could heal the wound in Eight's heart, his soul would still be lost.

As I have said before, not all endings necessarily mean that the story is finished.

Quite the opposite, in fact.

After the end, there is an icy cold feeling that settles all round the body.

Of course, the owner of the body isn't alive to register this, so it goes unnoticed.

The ice block surrounding the body melts away just moments later, but the icy feeling remains (again, the body is just what's been left behind, a remnant, if you wish).

"I'm sorry," is whispered, before the owner of the voice flees and leaves the body behind.

In a jungle on a small island that you probably don't even know the name of, there lies an unmoving body with a still heart.

But then…

Just…

Just a slight…

Thump.

A single heartbeat.

Thump. Thump.

A heart that has been stabbed begins to beat.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Startling green eyes shoot open.

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