The cave turns out to actually be really useful. It was about twenty feet deep and the ceiling was impressively high. If I reached my fingers up I just barely grazed the top. What was even better was that the entrance was a hole that we'd have to crawl through. The cave was also about ten feet up off the ground, but due to some stacked stones we could climb up easily and if we climbed to the top of the cave there was another rock formation that two could easily slide back into and be able to see way above the tops of the tree. I could see everything, but few things could see me. It was pretty awesome.

"I still don't see how you found this." Six tells Nine with one hand on her hip.

"I have good eyes." Was all he said.

"What if it had wolves inside?" Six asks.

I think of everything that Nine has killed and laugh. "Wolves are the least of his problems."

"Hell yeah, if a wolf came in there I'd make a coat of it and then Marina could make up some steaks."

"I'm hungry now." John jokes.

"Yeah well, I'm cold." I hear Nine make his way to the entrance. "I need to make sure someone's keeping an eye on the Mog."

"Oh yeah." I say scratching my arm nervously. "Are you feeling any better about him?"

Nine sighs. "He hasn't f***** up or anything, but I still don't like the idea of him on the computer. It's too easy."

"Malcolm's watching him." Six says. "I had a talk with Malcolm and he told me that he was watching out for things too. He knows more about the programs anyway."

"Also." I add. "Sam told me that his father set up a web block code that makes you have to type in a password every time you want to post or send something."

"I guess that's something." Nine mutters. "I know you like to think everyone is made out of rainbow's and pure intentions Johnny, but in the real world that's not how real **** goes down.

I shake my head, but don't say anything against him. "I got it."

"He's alright." Six adds about Adam. "And…it was touching to hear him talk about One, Two and Three."

"Do you really believe he tried to save them?" Nine asks Six.

"I don't know." Six murmurs. "But if you watch him, his expressions and then listen the tone of his voice it is kind of hard to not think that he cared about them."

Nine is quiet for a moment. "I guess we'll probably never know for sure, but until there is proof I'm going to lean towards no."

I hear Six hold her breath, wanting to say something.

"What is it Six?" I ask, nudging her slightly.

"It's just. I liked having a moment to talk about the lost Garde, having everyone thinking about them at the same time."

"And?" Nine presses.

"Well… I know that Eight's death is still on everyone's minds, but no one talks about him. It's like we are all okay with him being gone and that's not healthy. We need to have some time to grieve properly as a group or something."

I swallow a lump in my throat. She's right, he has been on my mind a lot. I miss him and there is a painful lacking where he should be. It's just that as a leader I felt that I needed to stay strong for everyone else. If someone wanted to bring him up then I would happily let them talk about it, but no one has except for using him as an example as to not do something, like adding Adam to our team. Before I can say anything Nine's voice is echoing through the cave.

"Eight is dead." He says bluntly. "There is no reason to bring him up alright? We have too many things that deserve our attention right now. For one thing there is an unsupervised Mogadorian with internet access chilling with three humans, one that happens to be your girlfriend and the other your girlfriend's dad…oh yeah and Sarah."

"Ha ha." I say slowly earning a chuckle from Nine.

"Marina's there too." Six points out.

"I don't think night vision is going to do much there, sweetheart."

"Actually Nine, you didn't get to see her kick a** back there with the Mogs. If you saw what I saw you'd know that she is not force to be reckoned with."

"She has her new legacy too." I point out.

"We don't have any water to make ice daggers out of so what is she going to do, freeze them to death?"

"What's the other thing?" Six asks with an ounce of annoyance.

"The other is that we need a place we can train so that we can prepare to bring Ella home, plus there is a traitor somewhere out there with a missing eye and another for the taking. Dibs by the way."

"First come first serve." Six sniffs competitively.

"We'll see." Nine rumbles.

"Yeah." Six agrees.

Nine is quiet for a moment. I can hear him getting ready to climb through the entrance. "Anyway, if you need anything just tell BK to tell Dust to tell me ."

I hope I understood that right. "Sure thing, chimera walkie talkies."

"Sounds legit." Nine blocks the incoming moonlight as he crawls through once he's out he wiggles his hand in the entrance way. "See ya in the morning."

"Wait." Six whispers after him.

"Hm?"

"…Make sure Marina finished her share of food."

Nine doesn't move, John blinks. "Is she sick?'

I see Six's hair move as she shakes her head. "I think she's depressed."

"That's no reason to starve herself." Nine snorts. "We only eat one real meal a day why the hell is she skipping it."

"She's in pain."

"You don't know that." Nine counters. "Marina is a tough chick, this isn't her first death."

"I think it's different this time, plus Ella is gone too that can't help."

Nine groans. "No more falling in love, it just makes things worse."

I want to disagree with him. I am in love with Sarah and being with her makes me incredibly happy all the time. but, the thought of something happening to her can send me in a defensive mode really quick. Not just her though, any of my friends. I want to protect them all. It kills me a little inside every time I think that I couldn't have been there to help out in Florida or that I let Ella go even if it had saved Malcolm's life.

"Just keep an eye out for her." Six begs.

After several moments Nine pats the cave making a tiny avalanche of dirt fall. "Alright, I'll make sure she eats." He says in quiet tone.

"Thanks."

Nine is gone and Six and I sit at the top of the cave where we can see and hear everything. Far away I hear a falcon cry and I know that BK is looking out too.

"Aren't we all depressed?" I ask Six.

She breathes out and looks at the tree tops. "Are you?'

I think about how I have felt the past few days. Lot's of fear and uncertainty, random doses of sadness for Eight, but if anything I've been alert. I've felt nothing, but restless which is why I volunteered for first patrol. Part of me wanted to fall asleep to pick up on any visions that might be thrown my way, but the other part was afraid of what I might see. I have to answer Six's question so I tell her that I don't think that I'm not depressed, just restless. "Are you depressed, be honest."

Six shakes her head. "I'm not depressed, just sick and tired of everyone being brave about Eight dying. I wonder if anyone even feels for him sometimes."

"I miss him like crazy." I tell her.

"Me too, I just can't stand the silence."

"When Nine or Marina are ready to mourn openly they'll let us know. Until then if you need to talk about anything I'm right here and Sam would be more than happy to listen too."

"What if they need help getting their feelings out?" Six asks.

"I wouldn't worry too much about Nine, he's a realist if you haven't noticed. Dwelling on the past isn't his thing. He wants to win the war first and then he'll probably let his walls down."

"And Marina?" Six presses.

"I don't know." I admit, I haven't really gotten to ever see her reaction to losing her Cepan Adelina, except maybe at dinner so long ago. She seemed stable about it then. "Has she talked to you about anything?"

"No." Six says and then falls silent. Her eyes sweep through the swaying tree limbs, vacantly searching for anything at all, but then she knits her eyebrows. I can tell there is something heavy about to escape her lips. "I saw her crying though, it was the second night after Eight died so it was still new…You should have seen her John. Marina just sat there looking up at the sky and at the same time she had her hand on his scar…I don't think Marina even knew that she was crying."

Six's voice sounds thick and for the first time I think Six is crying too. I put my arm around her shoulders and she sinks a bit under the pressure. "I hate Five so much." She sniffs.

"He really screwed us over."

"Yeah." Six chokes.

I don't want to push her any further, but I feel like now is the only time I can ask. "Tell me how it really went." I whisper. "How did Five actually get a sword through Eight, when you told me in van I felt like a bunch was left unsaid."

Six wipes her face. "He had us fight these swamp creatures that he later claimed were his creation, after they were down he snuck up behind me and knocked me out. When I could open my eyes I saw Eight standing in front of Five who was crying about how something wasn't how he wanted it to be. I heard Nine say something from the bottom of a tree, sometime while I was out Five flung Nine against a tree and nearly broke him in half. But Nine wouldn't stop goading him and so Eight was knocked to the ground and it literally happened so fast. One second Eight is on the ground and the next he was reaching out for Marina, blood pouring down his body."

The way they told me it seemed that Five had walked up to Eight and stabbed him. I had no idea it was this sudden.

"He was going to kill Nine, but Eight got in the way. If it weren't for Eight who knows how the future would have turned out. It might have just been you, Five and Ella."

I think back to my vision, it was just Sam and Six who were alive then.

"Luckily nothing is set in stone, Six."

Six looks up at me. "What is it?" I ask.

"When we found Eight he showed us an ancient cave found by Lorics, there were several panels many of which predicted our deaths or just One's, Two's and Three's, but also Eight's."

"What do you mean?" A cave that predicts the future?

"It had a carving of Eight being stabbed with a sword."

"But that did happen." I point out. "In Dulce he was stabbed, but Marina saved him."

"But he still died with a sword through his heart."

I'm afraid to ask, but it rolls off my tongue anyway. "Did anyone else die in the predictions?"

"No." Six says with relief. "But neither did Setrakus Ra. All I saw was a sword put up to his throat."

"What do you think that means? And who was holding the sword?"

"I don't know who was holding the sword, and maybe it means that one of us is going to be merciful. Maybe it's the Pittacus Lore in one of us that goes soft on him."

"We don't know if Pittacus Lore was merciful, we know nothing about him, like his actual self."

"Well if he was then I am definitely not him, because there is nothing that would stop me from taking his head off." Six growls.

I like to think that I would be able to do it. Especially right now I definitely feel up to the task. But, if not killing him was the better choice then wouldn't I just let him live?

Six is quiet for a while and so am I. I would have really liked to have seen this cave, to have looked through the images and tried to interpret them. Six relaxes under my arm and I wonder if she feels better now. I understand how she has felt for the last couple of days with not wanting to open a can of worms when everyone was trying to move on and figure out what to do next. We still had a lot of work to do. Work that would never stop until Lorien was revived. Maybe it helped to know that she wasn't the only one who was holding back grief. It's also nice to have some chill time with Six. When it was just Me, Sam and Six we were really close. Maybe we could have that again. I'd have to keep it in the open where Sarah could see, I know she feels self-conscious sometimes with her lack of legacies and Loric status, but she is also really confident which is another reason of why I love her so much.

"I still think we need to do a memorial or something." Six tells me.

"When the others are ready we'll do that alright? Just let them tell us when."

"Okay." Six sighs.

"Do you feel better after talking about it some?"

"Yeah." Six breathes. "I feel like I have a massive weight off of my shoulders."

"Me too." I admit. I felt for the first time in days a bit of relief from letting out my thoughts and finally hearing what really happened in Florida. I can't help but feel a little fear at the thought of it only being Ella and I who were left to save Lorien. Maybe we could do it, but I would still prefer us all fighting together.