Part XII: As Different As Night & Day

It is now nightfall and the compound has grown dark. Most of the Kodiaks have retired for the night except for a few who are chosen by Lysandra to be the designated lookouts for the village. Some are on the steel balconies, watching the doors and elevators, others are on the surface above ground, watching the skies. None of these precautions are giving the three any real sense of security, so for most of the night, they just lay awake listening to the sounds of the room. As 11:00 rolls around, Dylan and Trance have both given in to their exhaustion and slip into a very deep slumber. Tyr, on the other hand, is waiting for the appearance of their so-called "guard". Personally, he is not the kind of person to take things at face value and trust is not something that any self-respecting Nietzschean would gives away willingly, especially to a faceless entity like this Jabari. He can not and will not place his life in the hand of someone he has never met and then probably would not do so after the fact. And so, he waits.

At the stroke of midnight, his Nietzscheans hearing begins to pick up the sound of footsteps in the corridor right outside the room door. They are somewhat heavy and clunky, like the sound of someone wearing heavy boots, possibly a male. He also hears some clanging, like the sound of steel weapons hitting against one another on someone's weapons belt. It's overlapping with a swishing sound, like the sound that his leather duster makes when he's in motion. All of it is happening simultaneous... the clunking, the clanging and the swishing and the closer it's comes to the door, the louder it is until suddenly, it all comes to an abrupt stop.

In the opposite direction from where the previous sounds came from, he hears more footsteps and this time, it's more of a light, clicking and clacking, like the sound from a boot with a high heel. Along with the clicking and clacking is a light, airy swishing, like from a free-flowing, non-clinging type of material, possibly a dress. He's pretty sure that this is the sound of a woman walking. He hears no additional sounds, so he deduces that this second person is probably not carrying any weapons. Just as the first collection of sounds do, the closer it get, the louder it get until it come to an abrupt stop. It's all happening right outside the door.

Suddenly, he now hears the faint sound of voices embarking on a conversation, but he can only hear one side of it. His assumptions about second set of footsteps are right, they did belong to a woman. It's Lysandra. The other one is too low to put any kind of identity to it. Could this be the allusive Jabari?

"You're orders are to guard the occupants of this room..." said Lysandra to the other individual. The person answers back to her, but Tyr can't make out what is being said. He tries to listen more carefully. "...my brother, Tyr and his companions." she answers again. The person tells her something else that Tyr can't quite make out and Lysandra answers back, "... I thought they were all dead too." Tyr is getting frustrated with the other individual and murmurs to himself, "Will you just speak a little louder!"

For another 5-10 minutes, the seemingly one-sided conversation carries on and the mysterious second person isn't about to have their identity revealed which is making Tyr more and more irritated. It was like they wanted him to die from the curiosity.

"...yes, he is the one that gave Caibre the slash on his face..." Lysandra goes on. "...don't worry, he's a very capable fighter, they both are..."

If he didn't hear the first set of footsteps, he would just think that Lysandra is having a very engaging conversation... with herself. Not that he didn't appreciate the praise that his sister was giving them, but he would like to know who she's giving it to.

"...the little purple being? I'm not sure. She doesn't look like a fighter, but she's a good medic and we'll need that..." the conversation keeps going. "No, I'm not sure what she is, but I don't think she's dangerous. He wouldn't put himself in that position if she was..." Tyr believes she's referring to whether or not he thinks Trance is a danger even though deep down, he's still not sure if she is or isn't.

"...Dylan Hunt... Yes, a human... I thought it was all a rumor too... I saw him and his fighting skills are worthy of a Nietzschean... yes, he's a High Guard Captain... actually he looks pretty good for someone who's supposedly over 300 years old..." Tyr couldn't help but smile at the joke. "...I already said that he's going to be a part of all that... I know you like working alone, but you are going to make an exception this time..." The conversation is starting to get a little heated. Apparently, the mystery person likes being a solo act. Under normal circumstances, Tyr would finds this a commendable trait, but not now while there's so much at stake. Something tells him that this individual is going to be a problem for him and Dylan.

Lysandra's voice gets calmer and lower as she is trying to come up with a compromise that will satisfy the mystery person's concerns. "...of course you're not going to be replaced. You're the fiercest solider I have. You're the best there is and we'd be lost without your expertise..." Tyr wonders if her statement is indeed a fact or just a case of reverse psychology to appease an unstable and insecure uber? Either way, a growing resentment for this Nietzschean is starting to build up inside of him. He does not relish the idea of having to answer to a conceited loose cannon nor does he like the idea being responsible for watching their back during the time of battle. He rolls his eyes, lets out a low sigh and continues listening.

After a while, Tyr is not the only one in the room that's awake. Trance wiggles around a little in her bed and opens her eyes. After rubbing them and adjusting them to the lamplight in the room, she manages to see Tyr across the room, sitting up in his bed with his head cocked to one side. She gives him a strange look.

"Tyr, what are you doing?" she whispers, trying not to startle him or wake Dylan. He gives her a quick "shhh" and continues listening. It doesn't take long for her to figure out exactly what he's doing. "You're eavesdropping?!" she says, still whispering but a little more loudly than before. He shushes her again and motions her to keep quiet. She quietly crawls out of her bed and sits on the floor next to Tyr's. "Is it that Jabari person?" Tyr just gives her a look as if to say 'not one more word out of you'. Trance just folds her arms in a disapproving huff.

He goes back to the conversation and comes in on another exchange of words between the two. It's hard to tell for sure but it almost sounds like Lysandra is crying now. Tyr is extremely annoyed at Trance for making him miss what had just been said. He leans in and listens more carefully hoping he'll find out what happened.

"...my heart almost leap out of my chest. It was like my father walked into the room. I never thought I see that face again... ever. Look at me, crying like the old fool I am, but for the first time since the clan war, I'm daring myself to hope again..." her voice breaking as she speaks. "...our salvation is in that room and I want you to guard them with your life. Understand?" Something else is said by the mysterious second person and she closes the conversation with, "Good night." He now hears the clicking and clacking of Lysandra's high heeled boots as she is walking back to her quarters. All this is followed by a slightly irritating scraping noise and a small thud. A sound made possibly by someone propping a chair against the wall outside the room door and taking a seat. After that, there is nothing but silence.

"Is it okay for me to talk now?" she whispers, still pouting at him.

"Quiet. They're still out there."

"Who... Jabari?"

"Possibly."

She sighs, not knowing what the significance of all this secrecy is for. "Tyr, that's suppose to be a good thing. I mean, he's there to guard us, isn't he?" He shakes his head, "Not while I'm awake. Go back to sleep. I'm going to stand guard." She is completely confused at this point.

"Let me get this straight... you're actually going to guard us from the guard?"

"I'm not going to put our lives in the hand of someone I've never even laid eyes on."

Trance is getting somewhat tired of the absurdity of this conversation. She gets off the floor and crawls back into bed. In her last breath as she is going back to sleep, jokingly she offers this suggestion, "If you're so worried, Tyr, why don't you just go out there and see what he's like?"

He knows Trance is only joking, but the fact is that she indeed has a valid point. He needs to see and validate this Jabari for himself. He gets out of bed, grabs his clothes, boots and gun belt and gets dressed. Quietly he walk across the room to the panel on the right of the door. He presses he large red button and the door silently slides open.

The anxiety begins to sets in as he prepares himself to round the corner. In his current field of vision, he can see a pair of heavy, clunky black boots, crossed right over left, propped on the steel railing opposite from the room. The boots are on the ends of two legs that wrapped rather tightly in black leather pants with a gun in a holster on the left leg. The more Tyr rounds the corner, the more of this person he sees.

The waistband of the leather pants has a weapons belt buckled around it full of razor sharp knives and other steel weaponry. His eyes continue to trail upward to see two hands lying across the chest with the fingers entwined, connected to two arms with bone spurs protruding from the long sleeves of a black leather duster. He follows the sleeves to the shoulders. Oddly, they are draped with large masses of thick, looping copper colored curls. His eyes continues their journey until they finally stop and stare in complete and utter amazement. Staring up at him with the biggest dark brown eyes is probably the most beautiful woman Tyr had ever seen!