First of all, I want to say I'm so sorry for not updating sooner. I had another depressive episode which landed me in the hospital, and treatment lasted for a few months. I'm back now, feeling a lot better, which is really helping. Anyways, I hope you enjoy!

CHAPTER 2: PROMISE

Timmy frowned as he saw Tecna leave with the guard, heading down the hall and out of sight. More than anything, he wished he could go with her, protect her from the world. But he knew he wasn't allowed to. He sighed, heading downstairs to the engineers' dock.
"Timmy!" a voice greeted him, and Timmy turned around. Rasputin was wearing the engineers' uniform, an orange coat. He grinned at him, waving his arms around.

"Good to see you," Timmy smiled. He remembered how the cyborg had tried to help him in his time at Zenith, when he'd been in the Resistance. The cyborg engineer grinned up at him.

"Wonder how our new prince is going to handle the cyborg problem," he said. "Well, if he's got me and Tecna in important positions, it can't be too hard."

The "Cyborg Problem", as Rasputin dubbed it, was a question all around the realm. Now that their new prince was very close with a cyborg, and Medea's secret-police were now dissolved, the question was how Cyros was going to treat cyborgs when it came to their citizenship status. Right now, the realm was in a state of uncertainty. Rasputin walked up to Timmy, grinning with his yellow teeth.

"How're things with the lady going?" he asked. "How's Anastasia?"

"Tecna?" Timmy responded. "I just saw her." He sighed. "You know, when you love someone, you really worry about" –

"Lover Boy!"

Timmy whirled around. Mara was coming down the steps, glaring at him. An expression of disgust was on her face as she stormed up to him, holding a shard of glass in her hands.

Timmy knew instantly where it was from. It was a shard of glass from the circular room, the one where Vasiliev had spent his entire life creating potions. She stormed up to him, disgust turning to fury. Timmy backed up as she held the shard under his chin.

"From the look on your face, I gather you know where this is from," she snarled. "The room you blew up. Am I right?"

"You did what?" Rasputin stared at him.

"I did it for Tecna," Timmy protested. "So that she'll never have nightmares about that place again."

"Oh, so Lover Boy can go around destroying important intelligence information, just so he can get Lover Girl to be happy?" Mara snarled. "Now we will not be able to find intelligence on Vasiliev's project!"

"Why would we ever need intelligence on Vasiliev's project?" Timmy couldn't help but feel angry. "So we can create another disease?"

"So we can stop it from ever happening again!" Mara put her face in his. "But you had to destroy it, you" –

"Timmy!" a voice called. Backing away from Mara, Timmy around as Tecna came down the steps, looking distressed. A guard was following by her. "Look at who I found!"

Timmy stared forward. A pale-skinned girl with turquoise hair was being held by the palace guard, writhing and pushing against her captor. "What's going on?" he gasped. "Why have you handcuffed a young girl?"

"This girl is the daughter of the leader of the previous regime," the guard answered. "She needs to be locked away. We just need to find the prince and secure an order for" –

"What's going on?" Cyros appeared, heading down the steps. Tecna stared pleadingly at him.

"You have to let this girl go," she said. "The guards keep saying she needs to be put away since she's Medea's daughter, but she's just a little girl. Please, let her go!"

"Medea's daughter?" Timmy saw Cyros had a confused expression on his face. "What's going on?"

"It's quite simple, Your Highness," the guard said, her eyes flashing. "Ambassador Ivanova is under the delusion that this girl won't betray us. She thinks that" –

"Ambassador Ivanova is my friend," Cyros answered hotly. "And if you value your job, you'll let the girl go. Now."

Timmy caught Tecna shoot Cyros a relieved look. The guard immediately unclipped the girl's handcuffs. Cyros walked up to her, gazing at her. "What is your name?"

"Heidi," the girl whispered, staring around in fright.

Timmy could understand the girl's fear. After all, she had been hidden away for all that time, clearly a secret from the world. He placed his hand on Heidi's shoulder.

"My name's Timothy Singh," he said kindly. "This is my girlfriend, Anastasia Ivanova." Tecna shot him a glance as he continued, "We're going to help you."

"You are?" Heidi whispered, staring into his brown eyes. Timmy straightened his glasses.

"Absolutely," he said. "No one will hurt you while you are with us. We're going to find you a good family, one who will take care of you" –

Tears pooled in the girl's eyes. "I don't want a new family. I want Mama!" She began to cry.

"I" – Timmy stared at her. It was hard to believe that the cruel, sadistic premier of the Zenithian Republic had once been this fragile girl's mother. Clearly, Medea had loved her to bits. He placed his hand on her, allowing her to cry.

"It's okay," he said. "Let it all out." He smiled down at her. "I promise no harm will come to you."

"You promise?" Heidi whispered.

"I promise," Timmy answered.

For a moment, there was silence. Then Mara had to ruin it, her sharp voice cutting through the air. "I hope we haven't forgotten about your transgression, Engineer Singh."

"Forgotten what?" Tecna stared forward.

Timmy stared up pleadingly. In all the time he'd been with Tecna, he'd neglected to tell her about the circular chamber. "Mara, not now" –

"Why?" Mara snarled. "So you can just be let scot-free after what you've done?"

"What did he do?" Cyros asked.

"Destroyed the circular chamber, that's what!" Mara snarled. "He destroyed it, so that Lover Girl would be happy. Is that correct?"

Tecna's eyes widened – to Timmy's shock, something like outrage filled them. "Is this true, Timmy?"

Timmy stared at her for a moment. Tecna's eyes narrowed, and she glared at him in fury.

"I can't believe this!" she fumed. "You destroyed important intelligence, for what reason? You really thought it would make things better?"

"Tec," Timmy gasped, noticing that Heidi was about to cry, "please, now is not the time" –

"I am sick of you trying to protect me!" Tecna exploded. "I can stand on my own two feet, you know!"

"Not now!" Timmy was beginning to feel angry. First Mara, and now his own girlfriend. "You can be mad at me later! Right now, Heidi needs to be in a calm, safe environment!"

That shut Tecna up. She let out a sigh, then glared at him. "Don't think this matter is over" –

"Incoming!" a guard ran to them in fright, her expression filled with horror. "Rebels are attacking!"

"Where?" Tecna immediately asked. The guard frowned.

"I'd say about ten minutes' away."

"Mara, get Cyros and Heidi to safety immediately," Tecna ordered. "We'll deal with the rebels!"

"But I want to" – Cyros began, but Tecna shot him a glare. He shut up, heading into the fortress with the guard.

Timmy drew his blaster as the rebels approached, shooting indiscriminately. Tecna transformed into her Enchantix, then began to attack. "Careful!" Timmy shouted. Tecna shot him a glare, then flew into the invading group.

"Data shock!" she shouted, slamming one of the rebels with her spell. A few rebels flew up to her, shouting; Tecna merely shot them down.

Timmy had to say, he was impressed. Tecna was an absolute beast in battle. He was about to say as much, when suddenly, a rebel shot at her, grabbing her by the throat. He placed a magic-reducing band around her neck.

Timmy mobilized instantly, staring in horror as Tecna struggled. No – it's happening to her again! He could barely manage his fear as the rebel glared at him. "Make one move and the cyborg is dead!"

Timmy glared at him; words could not express his fear nor fury. I'm gonna take him down… Then, suddenly, an idea came to him, and he smirked.

"Fine, then," he said boldly. "I'll let you take her." In a split second, without the rebel noticing, he tapped an emergency button he always kept on his belt, sending a message to Cyros. "But answer this question: why are you here?"

The rebel stared at him in shock; clearly, he was not expecting that. "To usurp the king, of course," he snarled.

"But why?" Timmy asked. "What's your problem with him? Can't you just let him go?"

The rebel laughed. "The boy is unfit to be king. He associates with cyborg scum such as this" – he tightened his hold on Tecna.

"Medea Alexandrova is dead!" Timmy couldn't believe what he was hearing. "In any case, don't you want a leader who's going to actually feed you and make sure you're safe?"

"He will never keep us safe," the rebel answered; without noticing, he loosened his grip on Tecna's throat. "He is a foolish boy – he should be taken to the gallows and hung!"

"I see," Timmy said calmly, careful not to flinch. "In that case, it was nice talking to you." He turned away, and added, "And you can't be good at this, for you just let yourself get distracted."

"What?" the rebel bellowed. Turning around, he let out a gasp.

Cyros was flying towards him, his staff in his hand. He shot a spell at the man's head; he fell down, injured. Tecna snatched herself out of his grasp, staring at Cyros and Timmy.

"That was great work," she gasped. Turning to Timmy, she added, "Thanks for saving me."

"What about me?" Cyros huffed playfully. Tecna laughed.

"You too," she said affectionately.

"Retreat!" the rebel commander bellowed.

Timmy stared at the rebel commander, whose face was covered with a mask. Why do I feel as if I know him? The rebels disappeared, leaving them alone.

Dinner that night was a quiet affair; despite having defeated the rebels, the atmosphere was rather somber. Heidi was seated at the table, crying her eyes out; Timmy honestly couldn't blame her. He stared at her, sympathy in his eyes.

"Timmy?" a voice called. Tecna stood in front of him, looking nervous. "Want to talk?"

"Of course," Timmy answered. The two of them walked together around the Great Hall. Tecna opened her mouth.

"I'm sorry for yelling at you earlier," she burst out. "That was uncalled for."

"That's okay," Timmy answered. "I – I wasn't innocent, either." Tecna sighed.

"I really appreciate how you want to protect me," she said, "but sometimes you overdo it. Like, when you grabbed my bags for me at the spaceport. I'm safe – you have to understand that."

"You'll never be truly safe, Tec," Timmy answered. "You're a Guardian Fairy – a target of the world. You'll always be in some kind of conflict. That just scares me, the fact that I can't protect you all the time."

"And I do want you to protect me," Tecna agreed. "I love you more than anything, Timmy. I just – I don't want you to get hurt in the process, either."

"Then how about this?" Timmy asked. "Promise me that you'll do your best to remain safe. Even if I can't be with you all the time, I'll be safer knowing that. Please, promise me." He gazed at Tecna.

He didn't want anything to happen to her. The trauma of the last year had made him utterly hypervigilant; it was going to be hard to undo that. But if Tecna could promise to keep herself safe, it would help him. Tecna smiled at him.

"Of course I promise," she said. Leaning up, she kissed him squarely on the lips. Timmy kissed her chastely back, then gazed down at her. He turned towards Heidi.

"As for you," he said, "you're a part of our family now. I promise I won't let anything happen to you." He put his arm around Heidi. Heidi gazed up at him.

"You mean it?" she whispered.

"Absolutely," Timmy declared. "We'll keep you safe." He turned towards Tecna.

"Come on," he said. "Let's go." The three of them headed to their rooms, calmness in their minds.

I don't want to write too much about my illness here, because this is a public form. If you want to PM me about it, you can do so. Just know that I'll do my best to keep updating, but that it may be hard at times.