"Do you know how illegal this is? If either of us gets caught we could be in serious trouble!"
"I know the risks, believe me. I've got nothing else to lose anyway."
"But being here in Limbo not only blocks our signal from the Superiors, but I can't contact my charges as well."
The sky was…there was no sky. Only grayish clouds gave any semblance of a sky. They floated aimlessly in the air, swirling around and around in no particular direction. The ground was nothing but an endless field of lifeless dust. It sprawled out infinitely in every direction. There were no trees, no rocks, no water, no type of landscape whatsoever. This was Limbo. It was an in-between world that could be thought of as a holding area for souls that had not yet moved on to the afterlife. In this place, there was no beginning and there was no end.
Chyp, the three brothers' new Guardian, and Sam, the brothers' former Guardian, stood in the middle of nowhere. Sam pleaded with Chyp to appeal to the Superiors on her behalf. Chyp looked to be no older than sixteen years old, but was in reality much older. His status in the Guardian world was very well respected.
"Even if I could," Chyp argued, "I do not have that much sway over the Superiors. They would never listen to me."
"They have in the past," Sam countered. "You've been a Guardian longer than any of us have. If the Superiors will listen to anyone, it's you. I can't be taken away from Jimmy, not now, not since seeing the future. We have a child together!"
"The future is uncertain," Chyp said simply. "That was only a possibility. You know the rules. Guardians and witches are never to be together in that way. Think about what happened as a result of the 'child' you two have in the future. The boy came back because the Complete was vanquished. The whole thing could have been avoided if the rules had been followed in the first place."
"You haven't been around them long enough," Sam explained. "Jimmy and his brothers, they're not your everyday witches. They're the Complete. They don't do things the way most others would. They're out-the-box thinkers. They don't do things according to plan; they 'wing it.'"
"You're talking about them like you've been their Guardian for years," Chyp protested. "Until just recently, they didn't even know you were a Guardian! And even after they found out, they don't even remember it! The only memories they have of any other Guardians would be of John, and he's off the radar."
"But John is the perfect example," Sam said, smiling. "Look at him. He was a Guardian and had a relationship with a witch, and their child ended up with the rarest power known. On top of that, he's the world's first hybrid, the prophesied 'twice blessed' child. What's wrong with that?"
"True," Chyp rebutted, "but you forget the circumstances surrounding John's child's birth…"
Chyp explained to Sam the events leading up to the birth of John's child, the world's first hybrid: half witch, half Guardian. Before then it was unthinkable for Guardians and witches to be together, let alone have children. It took a long time for him to inform her of the extremely long chain of situations that had to take place for the child to be born. Sam had always heard stories of John and his mysterious child, but it was until now that she learned the whole truth. Having been a Guardian for so many years, Chyp was privy to that well-guarded information, and wanted Sam to fully understand the risks involved with wanting to be with James.
True, she had not technically been a Guardian for the brothers to their knowledge, but she had helped them many times from the shadows. Her only mistake was falling in love with James. Although she had not been a Guardian for long, she was a firm believer that things happened for a reason. Her love for James was no mistake; there was a purpose to it. She stood by that logic; it kept her focused on him. The Superiors, creators and bosses of the Guardians, banned her from the Complete and forbade her to contact James ever again. She knew that it only took what was in her to know that she was destined to be with this man, no matter what.
She and Chyp spoke back and forth for a while in Limbo, out of earshot of any of the Superiors. This was something of which she could not let go. Even though the Superiors assigned her new witches to guide, her mind always drifted back to James. Each day she hoped that what the Superiors ordered of her was a dream, but she always came back to reality. Everything that had happened was real, and she could not accept that in her heart.