I DO NOT OWN THE ANY CHARACTERS (except for Five) AND I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE PLOTS TO THE BOOKS (except for mine)
Chapter 4
Five
I feel exposed. I've never told someone my backstory, but Six, she was so easy to talk to. Maybe someday, when this war is over, when I can finally let my guard down, we might be friends. I admit that I was a little disappointed when I saw the rest of the Guarde. Stop it Five, not everyone is a hardened war criminal. They were kind of soft, at least some of them: aside from Six and Nine.
On an unrelated note, Loric boys are stupid and hopeless. I already know that two of them are taken. The boy with the copper skin and green eyes, it's obvious he likes Seven and, well she likes him too. Number Four and Six, they definitely have a history, the way that she leaned on him, and it showed that she trusted him more than the others. Hmm… I have some work to do. I have to set them up. And that leaves me with Nine… Hooray! It's not that I don't like him, he rushed at me to try and save the others, sure that was brave, but he seems kind of cocky, or he used to. I hope that defeat toned him down a couple notches.
I guess it's time to go inside.
I walk into the room. John is watching as his dog is shape shifting, oh, Chimera. Six is tapping to counter bored, but when I walk in looking probably a bit shaken she nods in understanding. Nine is sprawled out on the couch, snoring loudly. Eight and Marina are talking, maybe I won't have to help those two. Sam is half alive and is talking to his dad. Adam just lies on the floor, still unconscious, that guy can sleep. And Ella is just standing off to the side.
"Hey, you want to talk?" I ask her.
She looks up at me and gives me a tiny nod. I follow her into one of the bedrooms and sit on the bed.
"Do you ever feel useless?" She says.
"Yes, without my legacies I'm nothing, I can't fight, I can't do anything. But why? C'mon can tell me anything, Ella." I prod.
"I felt useless before and now that you came I feel it more!" she finally explodes.
"You're not useless! Don't even think for a minute that you are! Ella," I say my voice softening. "I bet that when the rest of your Legacies come in, that you are going to be the most powerful Loric. Ever!"
She smiles up at me and I know what I said was true.
"You really think so?" she asks.
"Absolutely. Hey Ella, a question. Four and Six obviously like each other. So why aren't they together?"
"Well, John had human girlfriend but he also liked Six. Six and Sarah were jealous and found every excuse to dislike each other. Then John and Sarah broke up and we dropped her off back to her home in Ohio. I don't know why they aren't together now, I guess Six is giving John some grieving space."
"Well, I'm going to try and get them together, will you help me?"
"Yes! It's about time, there both miserable without each other."
And with that she bounds off back to the living room, but I know she was not the only one in need of a pep talk. I follow her out and step in the middle of an argument.
"What's going on?" I ask.
"We're deciding if we need some more stuff or not." Nine says.
"I think we do."
"See, she agrees, it's four against three." Six shouts triumphantly.
"Fine but only if I get to with Six or Five…" Nine implies.
"NO!" Six yells.
In reply, I step towards him and throw a punch. I pull it at the last second but he still flinches.
"You know I can beat you up, besides he only person I'll go with is Six, since she's like the only one I know right now, so…" I trail off.
"Okay." Six grins.
"That is, if you guys can hold your own."
"Psshht, don't underestimate us." Then Nine looks around. "Well, me anyway."
"Hey!" John protests.
"Whatever." I say.
So, Six and I walk out the door and head to the store.
"Walk or drive?"
"Walk, its close enough."
"You seem on edge."
"Yeah, Katarina would never approve of a place like this."
"Who's Katarina?"
She grimaces. "My Cêpan."
"You never told me your story."
"So, we lived in Mexico for a while, then we saw Two's blog post, the 'Nine, now eight, are the rest of you out there?' one. We responded by saying 'We are here', not two seconds later I got a scar. Then we went on the run again. We stopped at a hotel and they caught up with us. Katarina and I managed to escape with the help of some of the villagers. What we didn't realize was that they had bugged our car. I spent years in that prison until I got my invisibility, then I escaped and lived on the run, eventually I found John and the rest you can guess."
She says his name with some anger, but more with admiration, and love.
"Oh. I won't pretend I know what you're feeling, but I'm sorry."
"Aren't we all," She says. "Five, I know I can be serious but that's because I'm thinking about my Cêpan-"
"You're wondering how I'm so serious, since I didn't have one. I don't know how to explain it. I keep seeing the day of the attack, in my dreams, but it all slows down and I can see the life draining out of each and every person, and I know, I know that I couldn't have done anything to have stopped it. And then we just ran away, I was too weak then, I can't be now."
"That wasn't your fault! It wasn't any of our faults! If we had stayed there that day then all of Lorien would be gone, at least we have a chance, its better this way."
"I know, I convinced myself it was my fault and that's what drove me, I'm just worried that if I stop now then all of it will be gone."
"Well, now that we got all of the depressing thoughts out of the way…"
I'm grateful to her for changing the topic.
"So, how old are you?" I ask.
"17. You?"
"16."
"Same age as John."
"What's going on with you two, huh?"
"I don't know what you mean."
In the moonlight I can see her blushing.
"C'mon I wasn't in the room for five minutes before I saw the tension."
"We're here."
I look and see the grocery store up ahead.
"This conversation isn't over!"
We walk in and start stocking up, then pay and leave. Six and I decide to walk through the forest, after all, 'We're scarier than anything in there' and it's a shortcut. We're about halfway home when out of the woods:
"Hi, girls." Comes the gruff voice of a Mog.