DISCLAIMER:

I do not own Sym-Bionic Titan. If I did, it wouldn't have been cancelled due to lack of merchandise.

Hola! So, I know I left you guys on a cliffhanger at the end of the last one, but this one leaves on an even bigger cliffhanger, fufufu… (ps. Purpledragon6- yes, this chapter reveals that ;) ). Thanks for all of you coming back on a daily basis, you rock! Think I got a B on the English final *sob*. Anyway, REVIEW, enjoy, and REVIEW. Really helps the updating process. You'll never believe how this one turns out! Gonna be epic!

Chapter 3

They both stared at him.

No. Fricking. Way.

They spoke in unison, one with hope and one with disbelief. "WHAT?!"

Octus looked at them and nodded. "I know, it surprised me too, and I'm a robot." He waited for them to react, but they just stood there. "…do you want to go check it out?"

Ilana was the first to respond. "Yes! Let's go! It could be someone bearing news that the war is over!"

Lance thought of the darker possibilities, but did not say them aloud.

"Ilana, calm down a bit…" Ilana twirled to look at Lance. She tried to look annoyed, but couldn't manage it over the humongous, bright smile plastered to her face. This was exactly what he was afraid of. "Calm down? Lance, this is huge!" She couldn't contain her excitement. A Galalunian was coming!

Lance looked at her sadly. On the inside, Ilana was slightly annoyed by this. Couldn't he see? This was wonderful. Lance only gave her one warning. "Just, try not to get your hopes up too high. Things are hardly ever what they appear to be, and I don't want to see you be disappointed again." Ilana gave a small smile, and despite that someone from her home planet- their home planet, she corrected herself- was coming, for a second all she thought about was how cute he was. He's worrying about me, she realized. The thought made her smile.

"Don't worry, Lance, there won't be any reason for me to be disappointed. When has Octus' information ever been wrong?"

Lance put on a normal face, but on the inside he was worried. Ilana didn't exactly have the best luck when it came to things she was devoted to. He remembered the homecoming dance and how sad she had been when she had to fight the Mutraddi instead. As they flew above the town in the night sky, all he could think about was how he didn't want that to happen again. Another thought ran through his head. Everyone I used to know is either dead or a traitor. People from Galaluna don't affect me anymore, that's for sure.

He had no idea just how wrong he was.

Lance frowned as they landed at the location Octus had pinpointed. The robot's voice cut through the night air. "I have determined this to be the center of the radius in which the humanoid's space craft could have landed due to the angle at which the pod came out of the rift gate." No matter how much Octus might have adapted to appear human, thought Lance, his processing systems are certainly still top-notch.

Lance looked around and frowned slightly. The place brought back memories- a landing, an army, a fight.

This was the exact place they had landed just over a year ago.

He supposed it made sense, though. If the pod was sent from the palace, too, it would land in the same place. If their little visitor was from the palace. Another thought crossed his mind, deepening his frown. What if the visitor wasn't Galalunian? What if they had finally taken the palace? That would mean the King would be… Lance couldn't finish the thought.

Suddenly Octus was in his head, his…face (?) displayed on the monitor inside his armor. His voice filled his helmet: "Guys, I appear to have missed something." Lance tensed. "Yeah?"

The robot continued. "More than one thing came through the rift gate. The humanoid had company- as it turns out, the Mutraddi did send a monster. The reason I missed it was because they both came through the same opening. My analysis system interpreted both their signals as one, so the two signals only separated now because the signal is stronger. The good news is that this is definitely where they landed- so keep your eyes out."

Lance nodded, though he knew Octus couldn't see it. "Right." A thought crossed his mind and he stiffened. Ilana's sensors picked that up and she automatically defended her position: "Oh, come on, Lance. They could just be being followed. Now they need our help more than ever!" She bounded off, and Lance followed her. "Ilana, please be careful. There is more than one reason why they might have been followed by the Mutraddi- it could be an assassin."

Ilana immediately turned on him, and Lance realized he had chosen his words poorly. "Why do you always have to see the negative in things?" she demanded. "You know, the whole world isn't always out to get u-"

And she tripped. Again.

But there's a difference between tripping over some threatening shoes and tripping over a Galalunian space pod designed for a humanoid.

Lance caught her arm and pulled her back. They both just stared at the pod, until Lance came to his senses and alerted Octus. "I'll be there shortly."

Ilana finally shook it off, too. "See?!" she exclaimed. "I told you they were from Galaluna!" At this point, though, Lance wasn't as worried about Ilana being disappointed as he was about…

He frowned. "…but where's the-"

And that's when his life's course became truly irreversible.

Because that's when the earth exploded in front of them.

Naturally, Lance's protective instincts took over. He shielded Ilana from the majority of the debris, his armor absorbing the majority of the impact but still sending a jolt through him. Once the explosion was over, he looked up to see what they were facing.

He was not prepared for what he was about to see.

An aerial battle was raging over their heads. Of course, one opponent was to be expected: Mutraddi, of course: an animal (that Octus later told him was number 1,076 in his Mutraddi glossary) with a dozen wings, three large claws, eight eyes to each head (of which it had two), and… what were those? On the underside of its belly were several spikes that looked as if they could be shot out with a large amount of force. The thing, though, was that they weren't large. They were actually extremely small- the only reason that Lance could see them was that his Manus armor enhanced his vision 5,000% (it could magnify more if needed, but at the moment it wasn't necessary). The spikes sent a shiver down his spine. Small, but deadly. Lance thought he might have seen poison coated on the tip of the spikes, but before he could get a better look his eye was caught by a bright flash of color- the other dancer in the aerial ballet in the sky.

It was Galalunian armor. Or, at least he thought so.

The design was definitely Galalunian, but it seemed…"The design is updated from previous Galalunian tech", Octus confirmed, now next to Lance. The armor was a mix between Ilana's Corus armor and Lance's Manus. It had several missiles on it, but they weren't as harsh as Lance's. Another thing- it was orange, which was odd- orange wasn't a traditional Galalunian color, but things change. It seemed to lean more toward the feminine side, but even with his upgraded vision, the flash of orange was still barely visible. Its speed was extraordinary- perhaps even more so than Octus. It was helping in the battle, too- orange suit was clearly winning.

The battle seemed to go on forever. The whole time they tried to join in the fight, but they were just too fast. The whole time Lance was watching the battle, he seemed especially drawn to the orange fighter. Their fighting style, even the way they moved seemed hauntingly familiar to Lance.

And then the whole situation changed. The monster seemed to notice the others on the ground and focused in on Lance. Some part of his brain realized that Modula or one of his minions must have trained it to attack Lance, to hone in on Manus armor so that the prominent threat would be taken out, obviously not anticipating the orange suit. Some part of his brain was processing that, yes, but there was another part that realized that the monster was headed straight at him. For the first time in his life, he was petrified with fear.

A flash of orange was suddenly in his face. Even though he was behind the orange, he could somehow see everything that was happening. The orange suit jumped in front of him, and fired its missiles at the Mutraddi beast. But they weren't the only one that fired- those spikes on its stomach, coated with poison? Yeah. It fired one, too…

And the spike pierced straight through orange suit's armor.

No, no, no, this couldn't be happening.

Everything appeared as a blur after that. The monster was dead, but that didn't matter, no, that didn't matter. He transformed back to human form somehow, and Lance was filled with a tearing through his heart, an agony so deep that no physical or emotional wound he had ever sustained even neared what he felt now.

This was impossible.

Ilana watched, shocked, unable to believe what she was seeing. The suit of orange killed the monster, but was pierced through its chest. No. She had failed again- yet another one of her people had been hurt, was possibly dead, because she couldn't protect them. She was a failure.

Then she looked at Lance.

He had turned back to human form, and his face shocked her. She had never seen such deep emotion on his face as she did now. He's in so much pain, she thought. Just looking at him made her hurt, too. Lance wasn't the only one to convert back to human form, though.

Orange suit was finally revealed.

And Ilana couldn't have been more surprised. Of course, the armor had been slightly feminine, but she would never had expected this.

The orange armor transformed, taking the spike with it. All that left was a body falling into Lance's arms…

And she wasn't even fifteen.

Of course, both Ilana and Octus were shocked. Who was this girl? Where did she come from? And, most of all: what?!

Lance, however, kicked into action. He transformed back into his Manus armor and started flying home faster than either of them had ever seen him move. They quickly followed and caught up to him. They all realized in some part of their brains (processer) that they were being extremely obvious, flying through the sky like this, but their other thoughts preoccupied them the most.

They landed in the backyard, and Lance rushed into the house, taking care to hold the girl in his arms carefully. He laid her down lightly on the couch, and as they followed him in, they saw her wound- a single puncture mark through her abdomen. Ilana could only stare- it was bad.

Lance started moving around, as if lost in his thoughts, struggling to stay afloat in a sea of confusion and obvious pain. Ilana snapped out of it. If they were to help, answers were needed. She looked at him cautiously. "Lance?"

He seemed to realize her presence. He looked up at her with those onyx-black eyes, those same eyes that so many times she had found deep, dark, mysterious, and sometimes even beautiful. They were totally different now- the black had bled a deep red, and she could see that Lance was barely sane. He was in a whole world of pain that she couldn't even comprehend. Was this the face of a warrior taken away from his home, to fight for his country, only to come home and find his family dead? What was this pain? She had never known it to exist before anywhere.

His voice betrayed as much pain as his eyes, and for once, he made no effort to conceal anything. "What?"

She studied him sadly, and found she was afraid of his answer. "Who is this?"

The pain grew so intense she felt the need to look away, but she couldn't. Something in his eyes bound her to him, begging her to share his pain, not to make him face it alone. She couldn't leave, and she didn't.

His answer wasn't real to her. Was it possible?

Until she realized it: was possible. And not only was it possible- it was real, and it was happening.

"She's my little sister."

Mwahahaha! I know, major cliffhanger, and I would continue, but this one took many hours and sleep is important for finals, so…yeah. I also like orange, and it was the only color that I liked that seemed as if it wouldn't clash with the rest of Titan. Also, big thanks to A Necessary Production- my glee face was totally plastered on for the remainder of the day :D! So, yeah. Please comment, guys, it really helps the update process. To be continued…