I know a lot of you got confused and thought that I portrayed Nine as weak. I didn't mean to. Hopefully this chapter clears things up a bit as it is in Nine's POV.

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*Nine's POV*

I feel like shit. I can't believe I let those humans do this to me, and then be even more humiliated when Six showed up and just took them all down without lifting a finger. I feel worse than shit.

After complaining about all of this to John, who is, for some reason hovering in my room, he says, "Well, you can't blame Six for being Six. Do you want her to, I don't know, die while trying to save you?"

"I don't want her saving me in the first place!" I exclaim. "I can't believe I didn't notice them behind me until they hit me on the head with a metal rod stick thing. And then I was all woozy like a second grade nerd who just got beat up for lunch money. And then I just stood there and did nothing as they crowded around me. I didn't even punch them properly! It was like some wobbly crap punch thing."

"You were, as you call it, 'woozy'," John says, sighing exasperatedly. "You had been hit in the head with a metal rod, and blood was everywhere, you expect your fighting skills to be top?"

"They shouldn't have got me in the first place. I'm Nine, dude," I say. "And Six, of all people, Six, my one and only rival, Six, comes and kicks ass and saves my ass."

John shakes his head. "Well, she kind of owes it to you. She was the reason they got you," he says.

"What?" I ask, confused.

"Well, you were obviously too immersed in your thoughts about her and that, um, heated, make out session that you weren't really focusing on your surroundings," John explains.

I stare at him.

And then I stare at him some more.

Finally, I say, "Can you tell her to come? I need to talk to her." John shrugs and exits the room. Anyway, how does he feel about this? Wasn't he the one caught in a movie-worthy love triangle?

The door creaks open as Six cautiously walks in. Her hair is pulled back in a ponytail, and she looks like she was having a deep thinking-spree just now. "You wanted to talk to me?" she asks, sitting on a chair. I sit up in my bed and face her.

"Okay, first, thanks," I say, but not without adding, "This just sounds wrong."

"It was nothing," Six says, ignoring my last comment. "It was okay, really."

"About what happened prior to the whole me-suddenly-becoming-a-weak-piece-of-crap incident," I start. "I think we should just forget about it."

"I see no reason why we shouldn't," Six agrees. "I mean, it was one kiss, and Sarah says that things like that always happen in Truth or Dare."

"I was thinking about the whole thing when the guys snuck up behind me and hit me." I touch the spot on my head where my wound used to be before John healed it. "It was distracting. I think it's for the best that we go back to the way we were. We both know that we don't get along very well, so there's absolutely no way we can actually get together." I laugh nervously. "So let's just forget about it, that way, I'll be back to my normal, good-looking, badass self, and you'll be your not-as-good-looking, not-as-badass self too."

Six stands up, walks over to me, and punches me. "Isn't that what you wanted?" she asks. "For things to go back the way they were between us?"

I grin, leaping up and tackling her, pinning her down. "Ready for a whole new level, sweetheart?" I ask.

Six smirks. "You bet," she says. "Gym first."

So we race to the gym, with me winning, and then we duel. We kick, we punch, we battle. The others all soon enough come to the gym and find us, the same Six and Nine fighting, as if we never kissed, as if I didn't go through the most cowardly thing in my life yesterday. It all seems so normal. But one thing's changed. No, Six isn't actually going easy on me to give me a confidence boost, the way she did with Sam. She'd rather die before doing that. She actually presses me forward, but the thing that's changed is that we're both really smiling right now. You can even say there was a few laughs during the thing. Something's not the same.

Six is smiling when I flip her over, and she laughs when she hits the ground, but it's the same competitiveness. It's just the smiling, not amused-smirking, not mischievous grins, but actual genuine smiles, as if we're having fun for a change, and not fighting because we despise each other.

The fight ends when I managed the overpower Six while we were wrestling. I stand up and outstretch my hand. She doesn't take it, and stands up on her own, but she's smiling like crazy. "Good fight," I say.

"You too," she says and then adds, "You're not weak, you know. You never were. You were just distracted. That's why it's for the best that we push the kiss behind us, so we can stay focused on the war."

"We're the two most badass Garde, you know," I say.

"We're exactly alike, Nine," Six replied. "We're just too busy to notice."

The others heard none of that last part, so Six casually walks over to Marina, as if she didn't just set my head on fire. Focus, Nine, focus. There's a war. No time to be thinking of a girl now.

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Eavesdropping is the rudest thing in the world, but I just can't help it. The girl is driving me insane. I have to listen. I have to. I lean in against her room's door.

"I would've been all for a relationship yesterday," I hear Six say. "As in yesterday morning, before all the other crap that went down yesterday. But you said I shouldn't date a human. Sam, make up your mind."

"I know, I know," Sam says. "I was stupid, but seeing you kiss Nine, and then act happy while you were fighting him today, it tore me apart. I'm sorry. I really want to be with you."

I can hear Six sigh. "I learned more from Nine's 'incident', if you want to put it like that, than he did," she says. "He was distracted by our kiss when the humans got him. I don't want to be distracted. I'm fighting an intergalactic war, Sam. I realized that I have no time for a boyfriend."

"What about Marina and Eight? They're together. And John and Sarah?" I hear Sam explain pleadingly.

"John and Sarah are different. They're delusional. What happens when we win? And trust me, we will. Will she go to Lorien with us? Will she stay with her family? Will she make him stay. I bet Nine would kill John if he veer said he wants to stay on Earth for Sarah. And I'd help Nine do it," Six says. "Marina and Eight are both Lorics. They're fighting the same war. I know you say you're in it too, but it's just the same. When we go back to Lorien, both of them are coming, and I bet that soon enough we'll have little Marina-Eight babies running around the planet."

"So you're saying you'd date a Loric because you'd go back to Lorien together?" Sam asks.

"Maybe," Six says. "We have the same priorities, but there's no one to actually date. You know, John and Eight are taken, and Nine is well, Nine, and I got a bad feeling about Five even though we're not really sure if he's a guy."

I back away from the door.

Nine, is well, Nine.

The walls build up all around me again. Today was the last time Six and I smiled during a fight. And after what I heard, I doubt I'll ever be distracted by her again.

No matter how much I enjoyed the kiss.

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So, so, how was it? Better than the last? Does it clear anything up?