I do not own Lorien Legacies or any of the characters.
Being of Service
Finally free. After nearly two months of playing psychopath, we're finally discharged from the military. Of course, we disappear from base before they can throw us on a plane home. A few hours later, we're back in Avila, Spain, looking for a certain alien friend of ours. After a few minutes, we go to a café and sit down around a table for breakfast while we decide how to go about finding her and avoiding anyone that wants to track us down to get us home.
"Hey if all else fails, we could always crash another chopper," Hawkeye grins.
"Yeah right," Rookie snorts. "Breaking my entire body once was bad enough. I probably wouldn't survive again."
"We're not crashing another chopper," I snort. "Though that could have the potential to have fun, depending on who we get in trouble. We'll just have to find another way to find Marina."
"Sorry to interrupt," a man at the next table speaks up, watching us while pouring himself a glass of wine. "Did you say Marina? Tell me, how is it you all know Santa Teresa's resident queen of the sea?"
"Queen of the sea?" I grin. "Well, she saved our lives. Pulled us out of a helicopter after we had the good luck to plow it into the ground." And then healed our fatal wounds, but you don't need to know that.
"Oh did she now?" the man mused, sipping his wine. "I see. I suppose, if you want to meet us with her you could go to mass."
"Mass?" I blink. "Oh, that's right. Santa Teresa is a church, right?"
"That's right," the man nods. "Also an orphanage. And every Sunday after mass, the girls living there cook for everyone who attends mass."
"Oh really?" I nod grinning. "Alright. We can wait until tomorrow to see our friend. We just need to find a hotel."
"There's a relatively cheep one down the road," the man states. "Would you like me to show you?"
"No thank you," I smile. "We can handle it."
He nods and returns to his wine. We eat our meals and pay then leave for the hotel, paying for a couple of nights in one room. A minute later, we open the door to our room and groan. One small bed. One chair.
"Well, looks like we're fighting over the bed," Hawkeye sighs.
"No," I snort. "It's yours. You need the space for your ego. We'll make it work."
Hawkeye nods and we pile our backpacks full of spare clothes, hygiene gear like toothbrushes and toothpaste, and water in the corner then Hawkeye collapses on the bed sighing happily while Rookie sits in the chair. I snort in amusement and sit against the wall beside our stuff. It's still early day but within minutes all three of us are out cold.
I step through the doors, feeling highly out of place wearing a pair of blue jeans and a dark grey Tee-shirt when everyone else is dressed in actual good clothes. Nevertheless, I follow the crowd to mass. I stand off to the side for a few minutes, then take a seat at the back. Hawkeye sits on the far left about halfway up and Rookie sits in the far right back corner. Even dressed as we are, we still manage to blend in fairly well, which is more of a habit than anything. Years of hiding from military officers and NCOs makes us generally hide no matter what still.
After a minute, two girls sit beside me and I feel the corners of my mouth tug up in a smile as I recognize one of them. She looks down, also smiling but forces herself to stop. I do the same as the man giving the sermon starts to speak. I've never been to a catholic church. It bores me fairly quickly, despite me being christian.
"Where have you been?" Marina whispers.
"Sorry," I whisper back, noticing Marina keeping a careful eye on the nuns at the front of the room. "It took a while to get them to sign the papers. I think I might have actually gone crazy having to talk to the walls for that long."
She covers her mouth, silencing a laugh. After a moment, she introduces the young girl, maybe seven, beside her as Ella.
"Pleasure to meet you Ella," I smile. "So, anything important happen while I was gone?"
I can feel Marina's mood darken a bit.
"I think one of them is here," Marina says, and it takes me a minute to realize what she's talking about.
"Mogadorian?" I ask, earning a nod.
"I don't know for sure, but I'm not going to be sticking around much longer to find out," Marina says. "I'm going to be leaving soon. Fist I need to get Adelina to open something with me."
"Open something?" I ask but decide not to press. "I'll keep an eye open. What's he look like?"
"Dark coat, mustache, creepy," Marina says, and I clamp my mouth shut on a chuckle.
I nod. After a while, the sermon finally ends, along with mass, and we make our way to the cafeteria, except for Marina, who goes to speak with a nun who I assume is Adelina. After we eat, Hawkeye, Rookie, and I leave. They're both a bit unhappy that Marina disappeared after Mass without greeting them, but they get over it relatively quickly. We're all still excited about being out of the military. We walk down the street, looking for something to do and find ourselves at the café. We go inside and order some coffee, for lack of anything else to do. About a minute later, a tall man wearing a dark coat with a mustache and a bearing that all but screams not-from-around-here sits at the table with us, staring at me.
"Well well well," I say, hand slowly trailing toward the concealed pistol I'm no longer allowed to legally carry. "Look what the cat dragged in. And here I thought I might not actually find you."
"Don't bother with the pistol," the man says, not having the Spanish accent that almost everyone else around her does. Definitely not a normal person. "I'm not here for violence, and I'm not here to hurt Marina."
"Really?" I ask. "Care to explain before I pop a cap in your ass?"
"How do you know about Mogadorians?" the man asks.
"Come again?" Hawkeye asks, thoroughly confused, since I never explained about Marina, only that she had healed us and we couldn't let anyone know.
"Marina," I say. "She says you're one."
"I'm a Cêpan," the man says. "I'm hear to try and save her before the Mogadorians find her."
"What the hell is he talking about?" Hawkeye asks.
"Where's your proof?" I ask, ignoring Hawkeye.
"If I were Mogadorian, I wouldn't be speaking with you," he says. "I'd be trying to find a way to catch her. And I'd be pale. Unhealthily so."
"Again, where's your proof?" I ask.
"Here," a small voice says behind him as Ella appears, except, she's older, maybe eleven or twelve.
"What...how..." I stare at her wide-eyed and she smiles.
"I'm Loric," Ella says. "I'm the tenth, but I didn't make it to the ship with the others so I was sent on a second with Craytan." She gestures at the man. "So far, the only legacy I have is that I can alter my age."
"And you're staying around seven to keep an eye on Marina without her knowing?" I ask.
"Exactly," Ella nods. "She needs her Chest. It contains things from our planet that were left for her by the Loric Elders. We're waiting until she can get it open, but we need to leave soon or the Mogadorians will find us."
"Why does Adelina have to open it with her?" I ask.
"It's the way the lock works," Craytan says. "The Garde and the Cêpan together have to open the lock. Once the Cêpan dies, the lock can be opened by the Garde alone, though."
"I see," I nod. "Alright. So, grab the chest, grab Adelina and let's get the fuck out of here. We'll worry about it later."
"We're going to let her open it the first time," Craytan says. "Once she does, we'll get them out."
"Alright," I nod. "I'll help keep an eye out for any Mogadorians."
"You won't be able to miss any they send at her," Craytan says. "They'll be so pale that they look sick. And they'll probably be bald with tattoos on their heads. But don't count on the bald heads."
I nod and stand, Hawkeye and Rookie doing the same.
"You should probably get back," I say, looking to Ella. "And, don't mention seeing me. She thinks you'r a Mogadorian and it'll be complicated explaining why I talked to you rather than shooting you on sight."
Ella nods and turns, leaving, and Craytan stands as well.
"I'm going to get things ready incase we need to call for help," Craytan says. "it's going to be obvious, but it will also bring in Mogadorians. A lot of them."
"Hope we don't need to then," I stated. "Alright, I'm off."
Craytan nodded and me and my team left. We spread throughout town, beginning to rove as we looked for any pale creepy guys with bald heads and tattoos. As we did, I explained in brief what Craytan and I had been talking about to the two of them. They took it surprisingly well on account of having been healed from a fatal wound.
By nightfall, there was no sign of any Mogadorians. I decided to head to Santa Teresa to make sure nothing made it through. I started around the outside and stopped about halfway. Three extremely pale men in dark trench coats were looking in through a window. I drew my pistol but thought better of it and put it away, trading it for a knife. Hopefully they weren't super fast or some bull shit.
"Hey freaks!" I call out quietly enough that no one inside would hear me. "Stalking is a crime."
They spin toward me and grin. Even in the dark, I can tell they have sharp teeth. I grimace at the thought of being bitten but the thought disappears when they all draw a dagger, the daggers all a bright white metal that seems to glow.
"Shame you found us," one of them says, his voice gruff and harsh. "Now you die."
One of them sprints forward, thankfully at about a human speed, and slashes at me. I duck under it and he slashes back the other way. I catch his elbow in my free hand, stabbing at him and he catches mine. He's got martial arts training a lot like mine. Terrific. I drop, the freak's knife passing over my head, then sweep his legs out from under him and drive my knife down into his throat. I expect blood, and I'm not disappointed. A thick black fluid sprays out of his neck for a moment before his entire body falls away as ash. I stagger backward, eyes wide, then look to the other two. They're not pleased.
Just as one of them takes a step forward, his head snaps backward and a fairly loud crack rings out as the back of his head is blasted off, instantly turning to ash, along with the rest of his body. Hawkeye. The other Mogadorian's eyes widen and he turns to run. Just as he reaches the corner, Rookie steps around it, clotheslining him before driving a knife into his head. Then, he stands and grins at me.
"Thanks for the backup," I sigh. "Let's get out of here before someone investigates the noise."
He nods and we leave in a hurry. We head back into town, heading for our hotel but stop as we meet Craytan.
"There you are," I say. "Mogadorians were at Santa Teresa. They know where she is."
"I'll call for help," Craytan nods. "What happened?"
"They were killed," I say. "Conveniently, they turned to ash when they died. Is that normal?"
"Yes," Craytan nods. "Alright. If you killed them all, it may be safe now."
"We'll keep watch still," I promise. "Go do whatever you're going to do."
He nods and leaves. Then, the two of us disperse once again into town, Hawkeye remaining where he is so he can keep an eye on Santa Teresa.
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