Memories

By Dixxy

Prologue

Out of all the jobs Glenn could have been given, this was the one he didn't want. He wouldn't have minded scrubbing all of the decks on the SS Invincible. He wouldn't have minded trying to figure out how to re-take Viper Manor. Heck, he wouldn't have even minded re-stocking their consumable Element supplies.

The one thing Glenn did NOT want to do was naturally the job that Serge and the others had given him. The job that (of course) no one else wanted due to the very, very dangerous conditions under which he would be living and the terrors that would await him as he performed the task.

Glenn had to baby-sit Poshul, Pip, NeoFio, Turnip, Leah, Draggy, AND Starky on Hermit's Hideaway in the Serge's Home World (which gave Glenn the creeps since he was, well, DEAD in Serge's world). The undoubtedly youngest members of the quest. The most active, energetic, and tiring members of the quest. One of them would've been fine. But ALL of them?

Glenn was beginning to question his life expectancy.

Normally, the rest of the party left them to themselves unless they needed one of them for whatever it was they were doing next. But when Serge, Kid, and Norris had decided to check on Pip to see if he was evolving (which, he wasn't), they found them all fighting amongst each other over something that, ultimately, was lost to the waves. Not pleased with the situation, Serge and General Viper decided to start assigning off-duty members of the party to baby-sit. This time, it was Glenn's turn, and after seeing what had happened to Grobyc when he'd been left in charge, he was beginning to fear for his own well-being. The poor cyborg was still in Luccia's makeshift lab as they tried to repair him (though Glenn was beginning to question if Razzly and ZOAH were the best assistants that Luccia could come up with).

It actually hadn't started out that bad. Poshul was busying herself with a Heckran bone. NeoFio had been sitting quietly as she listened to Turnip talk about some adventure he'd "gone" on. Leah was riding Draggy. Starky had tried three times to steal the Star Fragment off of Glenn (this was rewarded with a Sonic Sword upside the helmet). Pip was walking around with a bucket on his head (he'd tried crawling into it and was now stuck in it).

Eventually, however, Draggy crashed into Turnip and scared NeoFio. Turnip, now enraged at the cave girl and the newborn dragon challenged them to a duel. When Glenn tried to break it up, he felt a tiny hand reach into his pocket and looked over in time to see Starky running off with the Star Fragment. As Glenn chased after Starky, he tripped over Poshul, who growled at Glenn and started to bark, now beginning to chase after him. Starky rammed into Pip, and un-lodged the bucket from his head (this left Pip a little dizzy).

"ENOUGH!" he shouted, getting fed up with all the cute and disruptive creatures running around him. Turnip dropped his weapon and Leah fell off Draggy, though she didn't seem to notice as she just sat on the ground staring at Glenn. NeoFio hid behind Turnip, staring at their current baby-sitter in awe. Poshul whimpered, backing away from the Dragoon. Starky cautiously walked back up to Glenn, dropped the Star Fragment at his feet, and ran to hide in the make-shift grass-house that Leah and Draggy had built. Pip was still too dizzy to realize that they had all landed themselves in HUGE trouble with someone who welded not one, but TWO Einlanzers.

"Leah think-um we in trouble," the cave girl mused.

Glenn closed his eyes. "Why can't the bunch of you just sit down and get along? My father would've strangled my brother and I if he caught us behaving like you all are. So, if you all don't want to see what a Dive and Drive looks like when the user has two legendary swords in his possession, I suggest you all sit down and be quiet."

In a sudden rush of pink, green, yellow, and blue, Glenn found all of his charges were sitting at his feet, looking up at him expectantly. Except for Pip, who was still dizzily making his way over. He eventually collapsed into Poshul, shaking his head. "My head huwts," he said. "And da wowld is spinning. Make it stop!"

Glenn smiled, pleased with himself. They were QUIET. Now, how to keep them quiet?

It was then that he noticed Leah walking up to him, looking up at him. Wondering what she wanted, Glenn bent down to her level. "Leah? Is something wrong?" he asked. Instead of asking for something (which he expected), Leah put her hand on his left cheek and traced over the old, x-shaped scar.

"Glenn hurt. Glenn hurt-um bad. What-um happen?" she asked.

Glenn quieted, placing his own hand on the scar as old memories began to drift back to him. At this point the other creatures took interest in him and were now all crowded around him, all looking at his scar in curiosity. They had all seen it before, but no one had really mentioned it before Leah asked about it. Now that she'd gotten the ball rolling, they all wanted to know what had happened.
"Wherrre did you get that scarrr?" asked Draggy.

"Did thou receive it in battle?" asked Turnip.

"Dowes it still huwt, Glennikins?" Pip inquired.

Glenn shook his head. "No, it doesn't hurt anymore, Pip. No, I didn't receive it in a battle, either, Turnip. This scar is fifteen years old- I got it when I was just a child," he said. He sighed heavily. "It's a constant reminder to me of something very bad that happened. It was an added incentive for me to join the Dragoons so I could protect the El Nido Archipelago from the invaders from Porre."

"Like Norrrrris?" asked Draggy. "He's frrrom Porrrrre."

"No, not like Norris," said Glenn. "Norris is. . . different, from the other Porre soldiers. Remember? He's on our side. He's our friend. He isn't like his peers." Unlike the rest of those power-hungry bastards, he still has something called a SOUL and a few little things called MORALS.

"Tell Leah! Tell Draggy! Tell us where-um you got-um scar!" said Leah.

"You really want to know?"

The entire group of little things nodded. It was story time! Glenn was the best baby-sitter they'd EVER had! Well, except maybe Orcha. Orcha cooked for them. And Miki and Nikki- they sang and danced for them. But he was definitely better than Grobyc. They didn't like Grobyc very much- he didn't play with them or ANYTHING.

"Will you be quiet?"

Another nod.

Now VERY pleased with himself, Glenn cleared his throat as the creatures (and Leah) all stared up at him, waiting patiently for their story time to begin. "All right. It started fifteen years ago when Porre first started to invade the kingdom of Guardia and these islands. In desperation, General Viper and King Crono agreed to meet at Viper Manor to discuss the matter before it escalated out of control. . ."