Author's Note: Hello everyone, chapter 8 is here; since it is chapter EIGHT, it's going to be extra long – (about 4 ½ thousand words).

Previously on The Stand of Eight...

Hannu/Three POV

I honestly can't remember what happened after Ella and I broke out of the Mog base in Kenya.

Speaking of Kenya... where the hell am I?

...

"Where are we?" I ask as I rub my temples and look down at my lap. Malcolm grins slightly before replying,

"We're in Australia"

...

Ella POV

I scream. I can't move. If I do, Malcolm is a dead man...

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" the muscular Mog says, walking up to Three. This Mog is obviously the leader; he looks like a true-born Mog. He holds a sharp, slightly curved blade. It glints in the afternoon sunlight.

"Number Three... fancy seeing you here. Not so fast now? Uh?" the true-born Mog says, flipping the knife in his hand and putting up to Three's face. I flinch and struggle against the Mogs holding me back. The true-born laughs a bit and looks back to me. His eyes blaze with fury.

Malcolm is kneeling down in front of 3 vat-born soldiers – each holding a Mog blaster, aimed at Malcolm. They're going to kill him.

Three is surrounded completely by Mogadorian soldiers and has a nasty gash on his right shoulder, his whip-blade is on the floor at his side, ash and Mog blood has coated the silver blade.

The sun is slowly reducing the heat shone upon the battleground. The air seems colder and stranger. This can't happen.

"Do you remember me, Number Three?" the true-born Mog asks, returning his full attention to Three. Three stays quiet and doesn't flinch, his face full of anger, although he does grimace at the gash in his shoulder being poked at by the true-born. Three still remains strong,

"Shame. Anyway next time you should always get your vaccine, instead of playing basketball" the true-born Mog teases as he steps away from Three and heads towards Malcolm.

Three's eyes widen and he shouts at the true-born, he tries to run after him but the sound of a charged up Mogadorian blaster stops him in his tracks. Three looks furious now, his fists clenched and every visible muscle flexed. Two vat-born soldiers come and restrain him, another picking up his whip-blade and holding it cautiously away from Three.

Three struggles against the restrains. I look onto the true-born Mog, his eyes centred directly at Malcolm... Oh no.

He motions for the firing squad to put away their blasters and he pulls up his own Mogadorian pistol. He aims the pistol at Malcolm; Malcolm looks up towards Three and me. He nods.

Three is pushing against the restrains, trying to get to Malcolm, but it's no use, I can't use my Pyrosight due to the amount of Mogs surrounding us. Even if I did manage to shoot the true-born, the other Mogs would kill Malcolm within seconds.

It's over. We're about to join the casualties of this stupid war. I think of Papa, Marina, Nine, Eight, Six, Two, John and the rest. Tears form in my eyes and blur my vision.

This is the end. I think. I look to Malcolm one more time, hoping he has a plan; he just stares back and gives a faint smile, a small tear runs down his face, from behind his glasses.

Then a gunshot breaks the silence...

About 6 hours earlier...

Hannu/Three POV

"Australia?!" I blurt out, shocked as ever and very annoyed. Malcolm grins a bit at my surprised expression. Why couldn't we teleport somewhere close to a hideout?

"Yes Three. Australia... when Eight teleported everyone from Kenya, we got separated. Spread over the world in fact" Malcolm says standing back up. He walks over to the bench to my right and picks up a tablet looking object. He returns to me and holds it up in front of Ella and myself.

"The dots represent the Garde. As you can see, we are in Australia" Malcolm says, pointing to the two dots along the coast of Australia. I look to the other dots. 2 of them are in what seems to be Alaska, 3 in Iceland, 1 in California and 2 in Germany. I look confused at the map. Ella comes and sits next to me,

"So what exactly do you remember Three?" Malcolm asks, pulling up a chair in front of Ella and myself. My eyebrows scrunch in concentration – trying to remember what happened last,

"Um... I had just broken out of the Mog base with Ella" I say, motioning towards Ella who gives a small smile, Malcolm nods,

"We fought off some helicopters, I think, and then we camped in a tree..." I finish, realising that what I said sounded very lame. Malcolm nods slowly and looks towards his notebook he's brought to his lap. There's a long pause – not the cool kind of pause, the awkward type of pause.

"Hmmm, interesting... don't worry about it for now. Right now... we should probably find a way to regroup..." Malcolm says, stroking his grin a bit,

"Nine said he had another safe house in Alaska. Eight said to meet there in four weeks after we land" Malcolm continues, he gets up and pulls a backpack from the nearby closet, he starts packing the tablet and notebook inside. I look at him, wondering what he's doing, he looks back,

"Well come on then, we're not going to get to Alaska by just sitting down" he says, a slightly grin on his face, Ella giggles a bit and gets up, she walks into the other room and comes back to me, holding a chest.

"Here this is yours, it was next to you when we teleported" she says, giving me my Inheritance. I smile and take it from her. I stand up and stretch a bit before walking towards the door, following Malcolm and Ella, who are already waiting at the door.

This is going to be something.

John/Four POV

The meadows in the valleys stretch wide and far. The sun is receded from its scorching heat – even though I am immune to fire and heat, I'm not immune to the brightness of the sun.

We've been walking from about 12 hours, taking small breaks in between for Sarah's sake. I look to Sarah, her blond hair flows gently in the wind; her blue eyes making me heart flutter. She sees me looking and takes my hand.

"Hey babe" she says, leaning a bit on my shoulder as we walk at a comfortable pace through the meadow. Six is invisible in front and doesn't see us. The thought of Six brings more butterflies and my heart does a somersault. But then it brings back guilt.

The guilt of kissing her when I am with Sarah. But at that moment I kissed her... it felt right. I wanted that kiss to last forever, but I did pull away from guilt or shock.

As guilty as I feel, I want to kiss Six again. After a mental debate with myself I push aside the conflicted feelings and return to walking. But something else is still hanging over my head...

I kiss Sarah's head softly, she squeezes my hand.

"What's up?" she asks, her head slightly inclined to look at my expression. Her face is full of concern and worry. I realise that my face has morphed into a frown and sorrow look, I quickly shake it off and give a smile. She smiles back.

"Nothing... just miss you" I respond quickly – a little too quickly. She raises an eyebrow and giggles,

"John I'm right here" she says, tracing my fingers as we walk. I hear Six stop at the front,

"We'll take a break here" Six says, turning visible in front of us, she's pointing to a small clump of trees – about 3 or 4 of them. We nod and head over to the trees.

Sarah and I sit down against the tree, there's a log about 5 feet away from us, and Six takes her spot there. She takes off the backpack and opens up its contents. I can't help myself but admire the way Six flicks back her hair back in the breeze that has started to pick up. Six pulls out my chest and hands it to me; I smile and place it on my lap. We start to sit there in a very awkward silence.

Oh crap.

On top of that, the vision or dream – whatever it was, it's creeping me out. I know I'll eventually have to open up about it. But for now, I guess I should just play things cool.

Or as cool as I can, with the two girls I'm in love with.

"OK, spill" Six says to me, her eyes staring at me, studying my expression. I realise that I'm, for the second time today, frowning. I've got to hide my emotions much better next time.

"N-nothing" I stutter – that's not a good sign. Six raises an eyebrow and Sarah turns to look at me. This is going to get very interesting, I mentally tell myself to shut up and I start focusing,

"Really John? You're playing that card? When you were KO, your eyes and mouth started glowing blue light or something... I assumed it was your Precog Legacy, but this time you set yourself on fire and an unfortunate tree as well" Six finishes, looking serious but a little smirk forming. I grin and Sarah strokes my hair and looks at me concerned.

I see Six out of the corner of my eye, as I turn to Sarah, have a flash of jealously in her eyes. My heart goes over the moon – to think that Six is jealous of Sarah being with me makes my heart flutter. Shut up John! Your with Sarah, not Six... but you kissed her like you were with her! Good Lore. I'm probably going to go insane before we reunite with the Garde.

"Um... OK, I had Precog vision. I, uhh, woke up on a beach – it was afternoon, and I was the only one there. It was so peaceful. There were also these huge rocks with carvings on them – the same ones you told me that were in India. But this time they... changed. Everything after Eight's death did. And I saw a man in one of them. H-he..." I falter, Sarah looks up from tracing my fingers and Six leans in closer,

"What John?" Six asks, her eyes are full or worry and caution, Sarah takes my hand and looks to me, nodding slowly for me to go on. I take a deep breath and speak,

"The man, he was my Grandfather"

Unknown POV

I stand there still staring at the spot where Mr. Saturnus left me. Then my cell phone buzzes again, I open up the message and read,

Go to Iceland first. Make a good start there.

- R

This Rexicus Saturnus guy is very organised. I obey his message and start my way down the small hill, heading towards the main town. The sun now fully set and the night sky about to light up with the stars. Its beautiful here, the mountains.

Ella POV

Malcolm hotwired a car for us, I'm very surprised a man such as himself could do that. but I guess we need all the skills anyone has to offer.

It turns out we're about an 8 hour drive from the nearest airport. We're in a small four wheel drive, Malcolm drives – because he's the only one who can, Three sits in the back and I sit in the passenger seat. I really wanted to sit next to Three, but I didn't want to leave Malcolm in the front by himself.

We drive in silence for most of the first 5 hours – mostly sleeping and staring out the window, it's really awkward. It's a real problem with the Garde; awkward moments just seem to be attracted to us. I don't know what to say, but I can't take this awkwardness much longer, c'mon someone say something!

"I don't believe I know your Legacies Three" Malcolm says, break the awkward tension – almost as if he was reading my mind... or obeyed my mental shout. I straight up and relax a bit,

"Um, uh, yeah... well, my first Legacy was Velocityus, um, that's what my Cepan called it, its actual name is Supersonic Speed..." Three says awkwardly, I grin at him in the rear view mirror, he smiles back, which makes my chest tingle.

"Wow that is very impressive Three. I guessing it's very easy for you to break the sound barrier?" Malcolm replies, gripping the steering wheel evenly and staring straight ahead, occasionally looking in the rear view mirror at Three.

"Yes it's very easy... not to be arrogant, sir" Three says in a funny way, I giggle and Malcolm forms a wide grin. Three goes a bit shy at his embarrassment, I soon laugh and Malcolm joins in. Three is confused at this and gives a tiny grin.

"Haha, Three, Three, Three, just call me Malcolm. None of this sir, I'm not a teacher" Malcolm says still grinning, I look back in the rear view mirror and see Three nod and then shake his head, realising he's nodding to the back of a car seat. I smirk and try to suppress the grin forming.

"Anything else Three?" Malcolm asks, still interested in Three's Legacies – Malcolm probably wants to know his Legacies for future training and exercises we can make. Three sits up straighter now, a bit more confident and speaks,

"Um, yeah, my second Legacy came right before I... died" at that moment the car goes quiet, Three tilts his head down and Malcolm has a grim expression on his face. I look back at Three – I don't know why, but I feel very sad and worried for him.

A small tear slides down Three's cheek, I want to reach back and wipe it away, but I decide not to. Three needs this moment to himself.

"U-um *clears throat* it was, Super Agility" Three finishes, looking back up and smiling at Malcolm and me. Malcolm smiles and returns his eyes to the road,

"Very nice, that would go very well with your Supersonic Speed Legacy" Malcolm says, tapping the steering wheel slightly, Three nods and smiles,

"Yeah, it's a pretty good combo" he says, frowning a bit at the last word he said, I smirk again.

"Anything else?" Malcolm asks again, Three looks up from his chest he's just opened and answers,

"Yeah, um, it's called, ESP-"

"Extrasensory Perception" Malcolm says perfectly, Three nods and returns his attention back to his chest,

"It's like a sixth sense; I can... sense or like, detect things around me. It's... OK its pretty much Spidey Senses" Three says, giving up on how to describe his Legacy. I smile at the terminology he used – the same way he described it to me. Malcolm grins and pushes his glasses up and returns to the road... Wait we're driving on a beach now,

"And you Ella?" Malcolm asks, glancing towards me, I shift a bit and talk,

"Um, I have Telepathy; so I can communicate with anyone through their mind, uh, Dreymen; which is what Setrakus Ra has – so I can cancel another Garde's Legacies for a period of time. And Pyrosight. Which is pretty much lasers that shoot from my eyes" I finish quickly, feeling a bit proud from my Legacies,

"That's very cool, I'm sure Sam would love those ones" Malcolm responds, instantly turns his head to the side mirror and increasing the speed of the car. I look confused, so does Three; we turn our heads to the back of the car,

And that is when my stomach drops.

3 black vans are trailing behind us, all have tinted windows. I look to Malcolm then Three with a serious and fearful look on my face, I read Malcolm's face. Mogs.

"Ella, I think now would be a good time to demonstrate your Pyrosight" Malcolm says, trying to shake the vans off our tail. I nod and open up the sun roof; I stand and balance myself, the wind blowing hysterically on my face, my hair flicking everywhere. No one is around, the beach we're driving on is very secluded and the water is very calm – not one wave.

My vision turns red and the red laser beam shoots out...

Hannu/Three POV

Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap. Why did we have to have Mogs come in now? I lean back and grab the assorted weapons Malcolm packed in the car.

"Malcolm!" I shout, as Ella starts shooting her Pyrosight, the Mogs trying to fire back, but aren't having any luck, I give Malcolm the stolen Mog blaster – fully loaded, with some ammo and he takes it.

"I'm going to crash the car into that rock face over there" Malcolm says, pointing at the rock face becoming closer and closer to. I nod and hand him the backpack with my chest and other essentials inside it, he takes it,

"Ella!" he shouts, Ella stops firing and ducks back down before the Mogs can return gunfire , she pops her head into the little circle we've made,

"When I say shout 'now', I want you to get up and run onto the roof of the car towards the back, then jump off into the sand. Three, you use your Supersonics to get out. I'll jump out and start firing. Here, get you weapons out" Malcolm says, giving me my chest quickly.

I rest my hand on the lock and it snaps open with a muted click. I grab my whip-blade and shut it. I clip the whip-blade to my side and return the chest to Malcolm who puts it back into his backpack.

The last few moments are heartbeats to me, Malcolm looks to us and shouts 'now', instantly Ella gets up and out through the sunroof and runs across the roof of the car, she fires a few times at the Mogs with her Pyrosight and jumps. As I turn I see Malcolm jumping out of the car with the backpack in his arms. I look back to Ella who's falling towards the ground, a van about to run into her. Oh crap.

Time slows as I move, I unbuckle the seat belt and kick the door open, and I jump out with lightning speed and zoom off towards Ella.

She's almost at the ground, Malcolm has landed, the van is closing in...

Ella POV

I jump and everything happens so fast. I'm falling through the air, but the van that was behind us is about to run me over. Great. Just great. I'm about to become road kill... or beach kill.

As I'm about to get hit by the truck the sound of a speeding race car fills my ears for a second, and then I realise I'm in someone's arms, and racing along the beach towards Malcolm. I look up and Three is holding me, he gives a wink and speeds off faster towards Malcolm, we're there within seconds.

We stop and I'm overwhelmed with amazement,

"Whoa" I mutter and stare at the ground, Three laughs; I look at his face, and hug him,

"Thank you" I whisper into his ear, he hugs back, and then pulls apart, and we both look at Malcolm who has a Mog blaster in his hands. I look to Three; he unclips his whip-blade and smiles. There's a second exchanged between us then we charge at the Mogs who are piling out of their vans. Three zooms ahead and a deafening sonic boom follows his speed trail, and a bit of displaced air surrounds the arch that made the boom, but eventually floats away. I smile and continue to run faster, I light up my eyes and my vision turns red,

We're ready.

Hannu/Three POV

I zoom towards the Mogs, they pile out quite slow in my perspective – probably because I just broken the sound barrier. I'm about 20 meters away from the first one; I quickly extend my whip-blade to its full length and slide down on my side. At that moment I whip the weapon above my head in a huge arch. It decapitates 4 Mogs and slices another's throat – ash explodes around me like fireworks, but only colourless, with Mog remains and just plain disgusting... OK so not like fireworks.

All the Mogs' heads turn towards me, there's a second pause before they start firing rapidly at me, I dodge and weave in between the bullets and blaster fire.

I throw out the curved blade end of my whip-blade; it speeds into a Mog's chest, it penetrates the armoured vest the Mogs wearing and stabs through to the Mog's heart. It disintegrates before my eyes. I whip my hand outwards and the whip detaches itself from the disintegrating Mog's chest and I throw it into another Mog.

Once retracted from the piles of ash, I use my whip-blade in dagger form. I blur in between the Mog ranks, piles of ash exploding far behind me. I look to Ella and Malcolm; Ella is holding a stolen Mog blaster and shooting her Pyrosight, while Malcolm is firing a Mog blaster, covering Ella and killing any stray Mogs. I smile and go back to slicing and dicing.

I run towards a tall Mog, he's taller than the rest – I speed around the cluster of Mogs, him included, and rob them of their oxygen. They start to choke and fire hysterically everywhere. I get hit by one of the stray blaster fire, I wince but keep the tornado around the Mogs going and I draw my whip-blade in dagger form.

I start to cut down the outer Mogs, slitting their throats and stabbing through their skulls; ash explodes everywhere, getting caught in the mini tornado I've made around them – probably choking them even more. The tallest one is the only one left, I quickly stop the tornado suddenly, and a huge wave of dust, sand, dirt and ash explodes outwards behind me from the pressure of the tornado.

The tall Mog looks stunned, I quickly run to him, punch him twice in the gut, and knee him in the ribs. He grunts loudly and I run back and then run towards him again – gaining speed and momentum, this time I slice his left hand off, he howls in pain – but his cry is cut off from the dagger protruding from the side of his head.

In dust off the ash and sand from my body and get ready to run again, but this time, it's cut short from a scream.

I look to where the scream came from and my body goes numb. Everyone on the battlefield goes quiet, nobody moves. I drop my whip-blade.

Malcolm has 3 Mogadorian soldiers pointing Mog blasters towards his head; Ella is restrained and is tearing up. Mogs surround all of us – even me. The leader who has a Mog pistol in his hand laughs and stalks towards me – he's what we call a true-born.

That means he's important.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" the muscular Mog says, walking up to me. The true-born holds a sharp, slightly curved blade. I clench my fists, my eyes burn with fury.

"Number Three... fancy seeing you here. Not so fast now? Uh?" the true-born Mog says, flipping the knife in his hand and putting up to my face. I don't move a muscle, the blade moves across my skin, the cold metal not cutting me, but sending chills down my spine.

I start to feel the blood trickling down my right arm, the gash from the blaster fire is deep. The air turns an eerie cold and the true-born retracts the knife away from my face.

"Do you remember me, Number Three?" the true-born Mog asks, I don't answer but try to think of where I've seen his face. I wince at the true-born poking the gash in my shoulder, more blood trickling down my right arm. Dropping to the ground and sinking into the sand. I stand firm - even though I'm surrounded by Mogs.

"Shame. Anyway next time you should always get your vaccine, instead of playing basketball" the true-born Mog teases as he steps away from me and heads towards Malcolm, turning the knife over in his hand and clicking the Mog pistol in his hand. Oh no.

My stomach drops. Vaccine? Basketball? He's the-

"ARGH!" I shout at the Mog, attempting to run at him, but the sound of a charged Mog blaster about to fire stops me. I'm tense all round, my heart beats furiously in my chest. Two Mogs from behind me restrain me, I struggle against, but they threaten with more Mog blasters. Another Mog takes away my whip-blade that I dropped on the sandy ground.

I turn my attention towards the true-born Mog; he's in front of Malcolm. He motions for the firing squad to put away their blasters and he pulls out his own Mogadorian pistol. He aims the pistol at Malcolm; Malcolm looks up towards Ella and me. He nods.

NO MALCOLM!

I push against the restrains, trying to get to Malcolm, but it's no use. If I even try to use Legacies, Malcolm could be dead within seconds. And I'm not willing to take that risk. Ella probably knows that as well.

It's over... we lost. Two less Garde and one less human to the Loric survival...

I look to Malcolm one more time, hoping he has a plan; he just stares back and gives a faint smile, a small tear runs down his face, from behind his glasses.

I look down, I'm about to give up all hope, and just then a gunshot breaks the tension.

I look over to where the gunshot was; a figure stands in the middle of the Mog group. He's a true-born, holding a standard handgun. The gun is pointed towards the true-born who taunted me and who was about to kill Malcolm. That true-born Mog just slumps to the ground, blood seeping into the sand.

Everyone is shocked. Frozen in place. Perfect.

Before the battle erupts again, Ella confusingly looks towards the true-born Mog who saved us and says,

"Commander Saturnus?"

Author's Note: Ooooo, a tiny cliffy... so Rex joined up and fully converted to the Loric side! YAY! – or is he...

Who do you think is the true-born Mog that was about to kill Malcolm?

Who is the UNKNOWN POV?

Will John admit his feelings for Six or stay with Sarah?

Hoped you guys liked this extra long one! Sorry for the limited POV's, tell me what you thought about Hannu/Three and what John should do about Sarah and Six. (you guys probably want Sarah to die) but not just yet, tell me what you think might happen with the 3 of them there. and why is John's Grandfather on the cave carvings?

Please, please, please, please review – thanks to those guys who do!

Have a good one,

Zbogom (Croatian for goodbye)

Paragon 8