Disclaimer: Still not mine sadly, but Caden and Kylie, this 'new evil guy', and Gabriella are all figures made up by my imagination.

bRaInWaVe: Yeah, it turned out alot longer than I thought, but I'm glad that you enjoyed it. :D

GinaStar: I think that you are one of my biggest fans on this. ::hugs:: Thank you for all your support, I really do appreciate it! I'm so glad you are liking it and hope you enjoy this one.

A Sibling's Destiny

Chapter 6

After the big quake from the explosion nearby, everyone in the room stood back up and all eyes were on Andros. He immediately took charge and, just like in the old days, started barking out orders to the others. "Caden, Kylie, you two stay here with your aunt Karone," he said looking pointedly at Karone, who nodded. "Zhane do you have your morpher with you?" he asked glancing at his best friend and brother-in-law.

Zhane nodded. "Yeah, I have had it with me ever since we heard rumor of all this starting up," he told him holding out his digi-morpher.

Andros turned to Ashley and asked, "Are you up for this?"

She held up her own morpher and sighed, slowly nodding once. "Let's go."

Andros, Zhane, and Ashley headed for the door. Andros stopped and turned at the last minute to look at Gabriella. "Thank you, for all that you have done. We appreciate all the guidance you have bestowed upon us...and Caden and Kylie," he told her with a smile. No matter how crazy the situation, Andros was ever the polite one and always seemed to pick up on customs and traditions easily. Even down to the way they spoke.

Gabriella smiled and bowed her head forward in acknowledgment. Andros turned and quickly rushed out the door, Zhane and Ashley close behind him.

Caden sighed as soon as the door closed. "So what now?" he asked the room as a whole.

Karone looked in his direction and answered, "Well, now we wait for your mom and dad and Zhane to do what they do best; protect the innocent."

"But if we," he pointed to himself and Kylie, "are the ones in the prophecy, then why do we have to stay here? There has got to be some way that we can help, right?" he asked throwing a questioning look at Gabriella.

She had an odd look on her face as she answered. "They are only trying to protect you. Soon they, and the both of you, will know and understand why you are the destined ones, and you will figure out what it is that will defeat this evil...only time will tell," she finished cryptically.

Karone gave her an awkward look as she approached her and asked, "Do you know what is going to happen?"

Gabriella did not lose any of her composure as she looked Karone in the eye. "I do not necessarily know all of what is going to happen or when it will happen, but some things are revealed to me as time goes by," she told her.

Karone frowned. "So, you do know something then, right?" She was getting ominously closer to Gabriella as she spoke and faint purple sparks erupted from the fingertips on her right hand in warning.

Gabriella took a deep breath, which turned into a sigh, and answered. "I do know a lot about what will happen, but I can not tell you or anyone else that would have anything to do with it," she said glancing at the siblings for a second, then, looking back, continued, "the full contents of the prophecy. If I did, it could change it's outcome. I am sorry," she told them sincerely.

Karone backed away a little and let out a soft sigh. "I figured you would say something like that. Just please, tell me that Zhane, Andros, and Ashley will be alright?"

Gabriella's neutral look turned somber as her gaze shifted from Karone to Caden and Kylie. She said nothing, but her silence said it all. Karone's eyes went wide as she turned to Caden and Kylie. "You two stay here, and I mean it! I am going to go see if they need any help." There was a note of panic mixed with seriousness in her voice that the siblings had almost never heard before and that by itself kept them in their place...until she was gone at least.

With Karone now gone, the room was eerily quiet. Both Caden and Kylie were getting extremely worried. Caden threw his sister a look when he heard her in his head. 'Caden, we have to go help them.' She was still facing the door that her aunt had gone through but her thoughts continued. 'I don't know how or what we can do, but we can not just stay here. Something bad is happening...' Her thought trailed off and she looked almost on the verge of tears when she finally turned her head to look at her brother. He knew that they would not be staying put for much longer, his worry was also mounting rapidly.

He stepped forward, toward his sister and put his arm around her comfortingly, then looked at Gabriella and asked, "Are they in trouble?" Gabriella's look had not changed since Karone's last question and she still did not say anything more. Getting very aggravated, Caden next words nearly came out as begging. "Please! Just tell us...are they in trouble?"

Gabriella's expression softened and she let out a sigh. When she looked at them she had tears in her eyes. "I am sorry," was all she said.

Kylie instantly drew in a quick breath and stood with her hand over her mouth in shock, worry written all over her face. Caden tugged on her shoulder slightly and told her telepathically, 'Come on Kylie. You were right, we have got to go help them.' At his words Kylie snapped out of it and lead the way out the door.

They rushed toward the park, Gabriella following along behind slowly, and heard more than saw a battle going on very nearby in the park. As they got closer though, the sounds of fighting started to die down and they did not hear much of anything, until...

"Andros!"

"Ashley...NO!!"

As they got closer, they saw Ashley, demorphed and being held by several metal clad beings that kind of resembled quantrons. Andros was on his knees, also demorphed, in front of a very evil-looking man and there were several metal-clad beings holding him as well. Zhane's prone form was face-down on the ground, demorphed and seemingly unconscious, a lot closer to them than Ashley and Andros.

Karone was standing behind a tree not far from them, assessing the situation. A purple energy lit her fingertips as she watched the metal things pull Ashley over to stand directly in front of their leader, right beside Andros. As the man reached out to touch Ashley's face, that was the absolute last straw for Karone. She stepped around the tree and shot a violet energy blast in the man's direction. In her haste, and in trying to miss Ashley and Andros, her blast went a little too far off to the side, missing the man completely.

Both Andros and Ashley quickly turned their heads' in her direction, and so did the man who was capturing them. His face was badly scarred and his shoulder length dark brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail. He was dressed all in black and held a sword in his right hand, which they could now see was pointed directly at Andros' chest.

Karone started to work up some energy once again to throw at the man in black but stopped when he stepped closer to Andros and grabbed him by the collar, holding his sword to his throat. "Ah, ah, ah," he told her. "You don't want to lose your brother now do you?"

Karone immediately relented, throwing an evil glare at the dark-looking man and letting her hands fall to her sides.

The man smiled and his deep voice boomed, "That is what I thought. Now, how about a little of mine?" He released Andros and turned to face Karone sheathing his sword as he did so. Karone braced herself for whatever was to come but it did no good. This guy was incredibly fast. He grabbed his side arm and fired on Karone faster than she could even blink. She threw herself out of the way but was still nicked by one of the shots to her right shoulder.

Kylie could not take it anymore. Running past her brother and the bushes that they were hiding behind, she screamed out, "No! Aunt Karone!"

Caden saw it coming before it even happened. As his sister ran out to their aunt, the evil man turned toward her. She was too worried about her aunt to realize what was happening and did not see him draw his weapon back up to fire again. Caden was frozen to the spot. He wanted to call out to his sister, to stop her, or somehow stop him from firing, but he could not bring himself to do anything for some reason.

Time seemed to slow down as the man fired his weapon. Finally, Caden closed his eyes and called out a warning as loudly as he could to Kylie telepathically, desperately hoping that she would hear him. She stopped and turned toward him. 'Kylie, get down now!' he told her. She frowned and turned to look at the man who was firing on her. Then she froze. 'KYLIE!' he yelled in his mind. He was surprised when he heard his voice yelling her name out loud as well. She still stood frozen, unchanged. The shot was going to hit her, it was too close now, and there was nothing that he could do.

Suddenly, there was a flash of light behind him, but he was too transfixed on what was going on in front of him to even turn his head to look. Seconds later, it had to have been only milliseconds in reality though, Gabriella appeared with a bright flash right in front of Kylie and fell to the ground as the blast hit her squarely in the chest. "No!" Kylie cried as she knelt down next to Gabriella.

The man turned toward Caden with an evil smirk and then turned and said something to his followers. Caden did not hear what he said, but seconds later, he rushed forward as the man disappeared...with his parents in tow.

Not knowing what to do now, he slowly walked over to Kylie, who was doing her best to hold Gabriella, tears running slowly down her face. Karone had gotten back up and was making her way over to her as well. As Caden got closer, he could hear Kylie talking softly and incoherently to the woman in her arms. It was mostly mixed questions that the woman could not answer, but Kylie was not really looking for answers she just wanted more than anything for the woman not to die. Caden could feel it, feel all of his sister's emotions all at once and tears sprung into his own eyes as he knelt down next to her.

Gabriella turned her gaze upon him and smiled sadly. "It is okay, this was my destiny. This is how I am supposed to go. Please, do not cry for me, you have so much ahead of you, so much that you will accomplish." She paused and coughed a little closing her eyes, then tried to catch her breath. Deciding that it would be easier, she reached out to the siblings telepathically. 'Caden, Kylie. Listen to me,' she told them in their minds, 'Your journey will be long and arduous, but you will have to trust in each other. You will both face many obstacles, some of them together and some apart, but together you will over come them.' She paused and opened her eyes looking at both of them, then she continued, 'I am greatly sorry that your first obstacle has come so soon, and very well might be one of the hardest, but please just remember to trust in each other. You will get through this...and conquer this...together.' With those final words, her voice faded from their minds and she slowly relaxed in Kylie's arms. Karone was sitting next to them now and reached up and gently closed Gabriella's eyes, lightly pulling them down with her fingers. "You were a protector to the end," she whispered out loud, her own emotions starting to get to her.

The three of them drew back slightly as the Protector's body started to glow. It got brighter and brighter until they could not see a thing, blinding them. Then, with a flash, the brightness was gone, and so was the great Protector, the one who had given her life to protect them, Gabriella.

Caden, Kylie, and their aunt sat in silence for a few minutes, quietly mourning their friend, their Protector. A noise from nearby broke the sad silence and the three of them looked over to see Zhane standing up and moving slowly in their direction. Karone stood and met him halfway and helped him over to where the siblings still sat.

One look at everyone's faces told Zhane that something horrible had happened after he had been knocked out by that creep that was attacking. He almost did not want to even ask what he had missed because he knew that there were three faces that were not there. Two of them he cared dearly for and the other he had only met that day but since she had been a great help in explaining things that they had all wondered about for years, he was worried for her. His eyes swept over the two children, still looking half in shock over something, and met Karone's. She knew instantly that he did not know what had transpired while he was out and summarized the details for him. "Gabriella," she said softly in answer to his unasked question. "She materialized in front of Kylie and took a shot that was not meant for her." She looked down as she finished in a voice barely above a whisper, "She didn't make it."

Zhane moved forward and pulled her into a hug. When she pulled away, he wiped her tears and asked, "Andros and Ashley?"

Karone's sad, somber look immediately turned to one of anger and frustration. "That creep took them and disappeared after he shot at Kylie." She turned slightly toward where the man had been before and Zhane saw a small spot of blood on the right shoulder of Karone's shirt. "You are hurt," he stated, reaching out to her. She turned to face him again and glanced down at her shoulder while reaching up to touch it gingerly. "The blaster fire only grazed it, I'll be fine," she assured him. He frowned at her but then relented, he knew that if she was really hurting then she would let him know.

He stepped away from her and watched as Caden helped his sister up and then turned to face him. His eyes still had some remnants of unshed tears but he seemed to be holding it together well. He let out a sigh and asked softly, "So, what do we do now?"

Everyone turned toward Caden. It seemed to be the question on everyone's minds, but also the one that no one wanted to answer. Finally, Zhane spoke up. "Well, we regroup," he said simply. "And then we go after that creep and get your parents back." He paused and then told them, "Come on, let's get back to the house and we will work on figuring all this out." They all followed his lead back toward the siblings' house.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Sorry it took me a little longer than usual to get this up, I got sick two Thursdays ago and am still hoarse from it. Sadly my being sick also swiped alot of my inspiration to keep going and now I am 10,215 words behind the daily average. I got a huge inspiration boost today (yesterday now) and got this chapter written. I'm still going to try for this even though the chances are slim, so keep rooting for me, I can use all the encouragement I can get. Official count now: 18,124.

Also, if you have any ideas or would be interested in helping me out with figuring out where this thing is going, please, please, send them my way. I am running out of ideas quickly and I have no clue where this is going next. If you have any, feel free to hit me up on hotmail. My address is in my profile and I'm almost always on. Anyway, that's enough of me rambling. I hope you liked the update! Review please!