Author's Note: Hey everyone! This is chapter 35! A shout-out to The Robot Reader – Happy Birthday for today, or yesterday (time zones in Australia are weird)! Thanks to my awesome reviewers, The Robot Reader, I am number 10, MichaelTheBoss, ZazzyZ, ChildOfChaos, I'm Number Eleven and all the Guests!

To ZazzyZ – Three's mindset for not killing the General will be revealed in this chapter (I wanted to space out the mystery a bit)

The poll for the sequel is still open for those who have not voted yet – thanks for all the people who voted, please vote to those who haven't, the poll will be up for another week or so, then the title will be revealed!

Emily/Five POV

"So it begins" Ra's voice rings out across the open Kenyan plain. The old air base ground flicks up the deep orange dirt and dust; it whips against my feet.

We're here.

All of us.

It's the beginning of the end. Great cliché Em!

As usual my conscious had to ruin it all, but anyway – I feel amazing. We are ready for battle – I've never felt so certain about something in my life.

Eight stands to my left, Marina next to him, Six next to her, Nine next to Six and the humans and Chimæra on the other side of him. To my right, One, Adam and Two stand tall. One is smirking for some reason – probably excited to kick Mog butt. Ra continues,

"Honestly I didn't expect the prophecy to be me... but Lorien had great potential-"

"So you destroyed it, hunted down the rest of its kind and are still trying to kill us..." One spits out before Ra can finish. Adam stifles a laugh, Two covers hers and Eight and I face palm. The others give small grins and return their attention to Ra.

A massive army stands behind him, Piken, Krauls and other weird looking beasts stand behind him. I look further down... oh sh*t. Brutes.

Probably the remaining Subjects – we've already killed brute numbers 1, 2, 5 and 8, so I guess these are the rest. Eight and One shift uneasily next to me, we've all had bad experiences with brutes...

"Yes indeed child... you are One; the unlucky first or the one who would save the nine... very ironic isn't it?" Ra shark grins, everyone looks confused, One looks a bit pissed off now,

"What's ironic?" Nine shouts out, Six elbows him for his stupid curiosity, I giggle. Em concentrate! Nine looks at me and winks, giving his mocking grin, but this one has something else behind it.

Ra grins at Nine's comment and slowly steps to the side, another figure is behind him. I can't get a good view on him, the figure becomes a silhouette under Ra's shadow, and it steps forward.

The battlefield is quiet for a good minute. No one speaks; no one moves... just silence and shock. The figure steps into the Kenyan sunlight, the yellow hue revealing the mysterious person.

Shocked expressions go round; I hear a choking sob and cry. Everyone is frozen with disbelief and shock.

"What. The. F*ck" Nine says, resting on each word and leaving them to hang in the uneasy air. Six speaks up,

"Impossible"

Approximately one day earlier...

Marina/Seven POV

Everyone knows I don't like to fly, to be honest, I hate it.

After the shocking live streaming from Kenya, we literally dropped everything and ran to the airport. We boarded the plane after Six and Eight did a scout. Teleporting and Invisibility go well together. But there's a feeling of jealousy that comes over me whenever Six takes Eight's hand and turns them both invisible. I know I shouldn't be worrying about Six – she's like my sister for God's sake, and anyway there's a frickin war about to go down, as Nine would put it. but I just don't know.

Everyone sits in a small clump right at the back of the plane, I sit on the window side, Eight next to me, Six on his other side, Emily sits in front of us with Nine and Sarah, One, Adam and Malcolm sit behind us, and to our left sits Sam and Two. The Chimæra had shape-shifted into very small animals or insects. One of them sits in Eight's lap, it's in a lizard form, and it cocks its head every time Eight pats it. I grin at Eight and take his hand, he smiles back at me then pecks me on the cheek. I put the seat separator thingy up and lean on him, putting my head on his shoulder. He wraps his arm around me and pulls me in closer. We've been in the air for about an hour – Nine hasn't stopped flirting with Emily, she's very nice, she giggles at Nine's stupid remarks. Sarah is fast sleep on the window side in front of me, Sam and Two are chatting over some science book Two has in her hand. I smirk at the thought of Sam and Two being something together. I can see Malcolm reading a book behind us through the small crack between Eight's and my chair. I don't know if he's actually reading, maybe sleeping.

Adam and One are laughing and... holding hands?

I look to Six, she has a glum look on her face, she breaks into a grin – probably from Eight's joke. I find myself laughing as well. She soon drifts off to the side, closing her eyes and just resting.

Before I know it almost everyone around me is asleep, except for Eight. I sit up straight and turn to him. He looks at me,

"Hey" he says quietly, probably not trying to wake up Six; but Nine is probably going to be the one in the end – he's so loud.

"Hey" I say back to him, gripping his hand and bringing it up to kiss it. I rest it against my face – it's warm.

"What's up?" he asks casually, turning fully towards me. A warmness in my chest fills me.

"Nothing I'm... just glad you're back..." I say, looking down, trying to avoid his gaze. He looks at me grinning for a second, and then his expression turns to a worried and concerned look.

I feel tears rushing down my face; I haven't actually opened up to him about what happened...

Eight POV

I grin at Marina; she looks down at her seat buckle. I look at her confused and curious in why she's like this now.

"Marina? What's wrong?" I ask, I put my hand out and slowly lift her chin upwards, so that she is facing me. Tears are streaming down her face, her eyes turning slightly red from crying and her hands shaking a bit. I haven't really talked about my... passing with her yet.

"I-its n-nothing" she stutters, wiping away her tears and holding on to my hand very tightly. My eyebrows scrunch in confusion. She looks back up to me, her beautiful eyes tearing up and her brows curving with sadness.

"Marina... you can tell me anything, you know that, right?" I say, trying to get her to open up, I bring her closer and wrap one arm around her and kiss her head softly. She breathes normally and wipes away her tears with the end of her thin jumper.

"Is it about... you know, the accident..." I say, trying not to push her to breaking point, she nods a bit in my arms; I give a sympathetic smile and bury my face in her hair.

"It wasn't an accident... that stupid clone thing killed you... I almost killed him..." she says softly, shaking a bit in the last words. Marina almost killed fake Five?

"What do you mean?" I ask carefully. I've heard some parts of the story – Nine won't shut up about it; I guess it's his way of dealing with a guilty feeling. But it's no one's fault, but fake Five's and Ra's.

"I developed m-my Cryomen L-legacy after you... had... gone... I took out his right eye, and stabbed right through his left foot. I was going to finish the job but something kept me from delivering the final blow... I-it w-was you..." she says, almost breaking into tears and sobbing throughout the whole answer. I'm shocked... taken back.

I triggered her Legacy? I stopped her from doing something she would've regretted?

"Wow. I'm honoured I guess. I didn't know I meant that much to you back then" I say, probably ruining our touchy feely moment. She turns to me, very quickly and stares at me for a good 8 seconds, before she full on kisses me. It's amazing, filled with the same passion and emotion as before, after the battle. She carefully rests her hand on my cheek and neck, moving her hand along it, sending tingles up my back. I place my hands at her waist and upper back. I want to stay in this kiss forever.

We pull apart after almost a minute of kissing; we're both breathless. She looks to me and breaks into small laughter from my goofy grin. She leans in and we kiss again, before pulling back and sitting back in her seat with my arm around her, and her head leaning on me.

It's perfect here.

Three POV

It's not perfect here. It's not even unpleasant, it's just downright terrible. After running about 20 miles from the Mog base, getting chased by three helicopters, getting shot at by two of them, evading them and finally running to Lore-knows-where.

Ella and I have set up camp, it's a wide open plain, a few trees sit in the middle, scattered along the land. We picked the biggest one to camp in. We're high up in the tree, leaning on branches protruding from everywhere. It supports our weight perfectly.

Ella is practicing Telekinesis on a few broken branches that lay lifelessly on the other still live ones. She lifts them up with ease, and drops them back down. She turns her head and sees me watching her – she gives a smile. I smile back.

Ella's a nice girl, but very unfortunate...

"Hey Three?" Ella asks, still lifting the branch telekinetically. I look to her,

"Yeah, what's up?" I say, trying to make the conversation as casual as possible. Her eyebrows scrunch up in confusion before she replies,

"Um... you said that the General guy killed you?" she says carefully, I flinch a bit before nodding at her,

"Um... he was there knocked out on the ground... well in my closet, but anyway, why didn't you take revenge?" she asks, I'm a bit overwhelmed by her question, but I start to question myself about why I didn't. There's a long pause.

Why didn't I?

"I guess I might have been caught up in the moment..." I say, trying to end the conversation quickly. Ella realises this and stops asking questions.

Ella POV

I know he's lying. I can feel it – is that a Legacy?

I looked into Three's mind during the fight in my room – that sounds very weird...

Anyway, I wanted to read it so I could talk to him telepathically, but his mind was blank.

Nothing was on his mind, no thoughts, no emotion, nothing. Just blank. I'm starting to get worried about him; it's not like a normal blank mind, it was actually isolated.

Normally when I read someone's mind, there's like a setting that I'm plunged into – in Three's case, there was nothing there. I think quietly to myself for a while.

He's not talking as much as before, maybe he's just tired. Yeah, anyway he was carrying me that whole time, running through Kenya...

But an off feeling is still fresh in my mind. I want to read his mind again, but I really respect people's privacy. But I'm also very curious...

What if he's secretly working for the Mogs, or he has made a call to the Garde. Maybe met another traitor to the Mog race – the only one I've heard of is some Adamus kid. Maybe he's thinking of Lorien, memories... maybe thinking of me...

My curiosity gets the better of me. I telepathically read his mind. The tree branch I'm telekinetically lifting, goes shooting out into the sky when I finish reading.

Nothing...

Three flinches at this and opens his eyes for one more second. I almost scream... his eyes are black, fully black, no emotion or feeling shown. He looks around before drifting back to sleep. I stay there frozen with fear and worry. What's going on with Three?! Now I definitely know that he's not himself,

Something is very wrong...

Author's Note: Hey guys thanks heaps for the reviews! Happy Birthday to The Robot Reader again for yesterday or today (time zones) – you were my first ever reviewer, so thank you sooo much!

This wasn't a massive cliff-hanger, but it even left me thinking mysteriously! Hope this answered your confusion ZazzyZ or some of it. Poll is still up! Please vote!

Did you like the flash forward at the start? The next two chapters will have it explained and possibly more...

What happened to Three?

Who is the figure in the flashback that steps out from behind Ra?

Who likes Nine and Emily as a couple?

Thank you so much, please vote in the poll – and keep reviewing, tell me your thoughts on whoever and whatever!

Bye omuhle (Zulu for goodbye)

Paragon 8