"Not so loud," James groaned, shaking his head. He slowly sat up on the floor.
"I feel like I've been stabbed in the chest," Wesley mumbled as he rolled onto his stomach and covered his ears.
"What hell is going on here?" Matthew demanded, pointing to the unknown woman. "And who are you?"
"I can explain," the woman said. "I was…brought here…summoned here. By James."
"Summoned?" Matthew repeated. His mind replayed the events of the past few minutes. Was this the long lost love that James' spell mentioned? Who was she? Why did he not know who this woman was? "Who are you?"
"My name is Sam," the woman answered. "Samantha Russo. I'm…"
"Just leaving," Chyp interrupted, finishing Sam's sentence for her. "She's just leaving."
"No," Sam said defiantly. "I was brought here for a reason."
She held James in her arms and kissed him passionately. Chyp, Matthew, and Wesley all stared at the two of them. When Sam pulled away, James looked equally as confused as Chyp and his brothers. Before he could say anything, Sam stood up and disappeared in a shower of blue and white lights, waving as she left. James exhaled, not quite sure what to say.
"Okay," Wesley began, still laid on his stomach, "is anybody else weirded out here?"
"Where have you been, kid?" Matthew asked, grabbing Chyp's shirt. "I was calling for you forever and you never came. You're supposed to be our Guardian, and you can't even come around when we need you. What the hell good are you?"
"I'm sorry," Chyp answered. "I've been…away…dealing with other business. The important thing is that I'm here now, and everything is fine."
"Everything is not fine!" Matthew argued, shaking Chyp by the shirt. "We've got far bigger problems to deal with besides this. There's a demon that we still need to find and vanquish."
"Right," James said, clearing his throat. "We've gotta find this Bokor and get rid of him before he takes control of Wesley again."
"I'm so embarrassed," Wesley said, once again covering his head. He clearly remembered his actions up to this point. He was responsible for everything that had happened. The one thing he could not recall, though, was the reason for doing everything. All he knew was that he felt as if he just had to do those things, as if it was his mission. "I don't remember much, just bits and pieces. All I know is…is that I…I let Kim…"
The events from before rushed back into Wesley's mind; his girlfriend's death completely overcame him and he buried his head into the floor as he began to sniff loudly. James lowered his head, feeling badly for his brother. Matthew let go of Chyp's shirt, and walked over and knelt beside Wesley, patting him on the shoulder. Chyp stood in the same place, confused about what was happening. Having been in Limbo the entire time, he had no idea what took place while he was away. Seeing the wave of emotion running through the room, though, he thought it best to ask no questions just yet.
"Homeboy," Matthew said in as compassionate voice as he could muster, "it's not your fault. You didn't let anything happen. You can't be so hard on yourself."
"Why not?" Wesley asked, slowly sitting up. Although he had been healed by Sam, he still felt exhausted from all of the wear and tear he had endured mentally. "Isn't it my fault that Kim was killed? She died because of me, because she was with me! The demons knew that I'm the weakest; they knew that I couldn't do anything without y'all."
"That's not true," James said quite forcefully. His voice then calmed down. "You're just as strong as anybody. The problem is…well…"
"The problem," Matthew continued, finishing James' thought, "is that you don't know it. The three of us are who we are for a reason. If you were as weak as you say you are, there's no way you'd be here with us."
"Or even related to us," James added.
"You three are the Complete," Chyp announced, his arms folded. "I have studied the three of you extensively, and for a long time. Your personalities balance each other perfectly, the way they're supposed to, and therefore so do your powers and abilities. Wesley, you are weak…in certain areas, but you more than make up for it in others. You are cunning and carefree. You are smart, open-minded, and honest, yet blunt. You're not afraid to say what you feel, and you're very resourceful when you need to be. You're creative, sensitive, street-smart. You can't…"
"What good is being resourceful if people still die anyway!" Wesley shouted as tears flowed down his face. He stared at Chyp with an uneasy look.
"I'm just trying to help," Chyp said apprehensively.
"If you had been 'just trying to help,'" Wesley said, "then you would've been here a long time ago to stop any of this from happening!"
"Wes," James started, but he did not have much time to say anything more.
"No!" Wesley continued, now in a loud voice. "Things happen for a reason? What's the point of doing any of this if all that happens in the end is that people we love get killed!?"
"Love?" Matthew mouthed to James, who seemed to be stuck on being cut off by Wesley.
"You loved her?" James asked loud enough for Wesley to hear. "Is that what this is about?"
Wesley stopped as he heard the words come from someone else's mouth. Did he really confess his love for someone? He slowly wiped the cascading tears from his face with his shirt sleeve and shook his head. The word resonated inside his mind. Love. He fell back to the floor on his back, staring up at the ceiling with blank eyes.
"I guess so," Wesley sighed. He did not know what else to say.
James thought about how Wesley must be feeling and his mind suddenly shifted to the woman who had come from nowhere and kissed him back to consciousness. Who she was, he had no idea, but somehow what she said seemed to make sense to him. The more he thought about it, the more he could feel a connection to her. However, the more he felt a connection, the less he seemed to remember. It frustrated him to not be able to put the pieces of this puzzle together. He put it out of his mind and roughly pulled Wesley up to his feet.
"Okay," he told Wesley, holding him by the shoulders, "it's time for some tough brotherly love. What happened has happened. There's nothing you can do about that. What you can do is work through it and get justice for your girlfriend. So, get your ass together and help us fight…for Kim!"
Matthew and Chyp looked at each other with confused faces. They both turned back to James and Wesley, who hung there in shock. Did James' words make any sense at all to him? He thought about what his brother said to him for a while. Minutes passed by without anyone saying anything.
James had a point. It seemed pointless to dwell on the past and more pertinent to focus on the future. But could he see past those demons killing his girlfriend whom he admitted to loving? He knew it would be hard, and probably take a considerable amount of time before he could truly accept everything and move on with his life. Maybe he was strong after all. Maybe he doubted himself too much. But was it too late to change?
"I…" Wesley stammered, "I…don't know what to say…"
"Don't say anything," James said. "Just do it. Being the sensitive one is your thing, not mine. So, here's what we're gonna do. We will summon this demon, get rid of his ass, and then you can go up to your room and cry your head off all you want."
"I guess that's one way to give a pep talk," Matthew said, walking over and pulling Wesley away from James so that he stood on his own feet. He turned to Wesley. "Jimmy is…more or less…right. I can't say that I understand how you feel, losing someone you just realized you love, I mean. But as hard as it is, you can't let it keep you down. You have courage that neither Jimmy nor I could ever have. You set your mind to doing something, and you just do it. You don't think about what could go wrong. I admire that about you. We both do."
"We do?" James asked, earning a quick side eye from Matthew which quieted him.
"I've got something to tell you," Matthew said uneasily.
"Now?" James cut in. "Now is that time you're gonna choose to say this? You're out of your mind, Matt! I don't think you should…"
"The reason I haven't been around a lot lately," Matthew continued, ignoring James, "is because I've been busy dating two women…and one of them is Stephanie."