Chapter 3:

‘Of course everyone has to be in the living room.’ Xan thought bitterly as she reached the ground floor, seeing everyone that she was temporarily living with congregated in the same room; which she just happened to enter carrying something she hated. Never one to feel self-conscious, or at least show it, she straightened her shoulders and walked into the room with her head held high. A glare shot at the four teenagers made the curious stares immediately turn to something else they suddenly found more interesting than her. A small, satisfied smirk crossed Xan’s face as she took in the nervousness she instilled in the young Protectors. ‘Serves the little grease balls right.’ she thought as she walked up the stairs to the second floor.

As she reached the top step of the small staircase, the bundle she carried with her shifted, and thin arms reached up, wrapping around her neck. Xan stiffened and nearly dropped Sam in surprise. A content sigh stopped her from losing her grip, and instead caused her to look at the load that had somehow managed to nestle itself even closer to her. A smile was on the small girl’s face. Before she could stop it, a small smile of her own appeared on Xan’s face as well, causing an unfamiliar warm feeling to spread through her as she walked to the little blonde’s room.

As she lay the smaller woman down onto the bed, she began to wonder how someone so small looking would save Earth, when even their largest weapons couldn’t stand up to the monsters from Krya.

‘What’s it going to do? Smile at them?’ she asked herself sarcastically as she took in the soft features of the thing in front of her. No matter how hard she tried, she still couldn’t believe that this ’Sam’ was a living being. She had even seen how the thing was created! Yet, she also had trouble seeing it as some cold machine. ’It may not be human, but maybe it’s different from the other ones… maybe it won’t get the ones I love killed.’ she thought as she found herself actually hoping this girlish machine was different from the rest. After a few moments though, she shook her head. A machine was a machine and they were all able to be reprogrammed. No matter how alive it looked, it was still the same underneath; perhaps the wires were just harder to see.

’Or perhaps you’re just in denial so you can keep her away like you do everyone else.’ a familiar voice she had come to know over the past few years sounded in her mind. Xan mentally groaned as her inner voice of logic began speaking to her. She hated when that happened because then she actually had to think about her problems when she’d much rather fight them or push them away.

‘Who asked you?’ she thought as she mentally shrugged the logical voice away. She wasn’t in the mood to be reasonable and listen to her better judgement.

‘Fine. Be that way. Don’t blame me when you end up old and lonely with twenty three cats living with you.’ the voice said, obviously annoyed, before leaving Xan to sulk on her own.

‘I have got to stop having conversations with myself.’ she decided with an inaudible sigh.

‘Damn right you do!’ the voice called out to her.

‘I thought you were leaving?’ Xan questioned the voice. There was silence for a moment before the logical voice spoke again.

‘Well I thought you had changed your mind so I stuck around, just in case.’ it explained. ‘So, have you changed your mind or are you just going to continue pouting?’ it asked curiously.

‘Pout.’ Xan answered, amazed that she was still having a mental conversation with herself. When silence greeted her response to the voice’s question, she shook her head. ‘I need to get a hobby.’ she decided as she stared at the figure lying on the bed that still had a grip on her hand. It had loosened a little, allowing the circulation to return to Xan’s hand, but there was still a determined strength squeezing her hand. An errant strand of strawberry-blonde hair fell into Sam’s face and Xan found herself reaching to push it back. She stopped herself short, however, and scowled as she pulled her hand back.

‘Where did that come from?’ she wondered, now gripping the traitorous hand. She wasn’t exactly the motherly type and she hated touching, yet here she was voluntarily reaching out to move a piece of hair from the face of something she supposedly hated.

‘It probably came from the same place that compelled you to carry her up two flights of stairs.’ her logic voice answered helpfully.

‘I thought you left?’ she asked.

‘Sorry.’ was the response before silence came again. Xan sighed again and came to the discovery that she had been doing that a lot lately.

‘It must be the company.’ she thought before covering the other woman up. ’Wouldn’t want the savior of Earth catching a cold now.’ she rationalized as she stood up, wrenching her hand free of the grip Sam had on it. A small whimper escaped the smaller woman when the contact was broken but Xan paid no attention to it. She couldn’t protect it from its ’nightmares’, if that’s what they were. No one had ever protected her from nightmares, after all; not that she’d let them get close enough to try. A beeping noise coming from the watch on her wrist reminded her that a meeting with the commander was going on in the den. Glad to have an excuse to leave, Xan spared one last glance at the blonde and left the room, leaving Sam to fight the unknown demons on her own.

Troubling thoughts plagued Xan’s mind as she walked down the flight of stairs. Her mind kept circling around the little android she had just left alone in the room. That’s all she was to her, wasn’t it? An android? Right. As Xan approached the door to the den, she made the decision to go on ignoring whatever connection she felt with the little, blonde thing, no matter how much it hurt her to do so. She couldn’t afford to get hurt again.

‘How did that old saying go? ’Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.’ Yeah, I think that’s what it was.’ she thought as the door opened and she walked inside the room, leaving all traces of the blonde woman at the doorway.

“So nice of you to decide to grace us with your presence Ms. Phipolis. I guess that means we can start now?” said a voice coming from the wall as she walked into the room. Xan ignored the sarcastic remarks coming from the gray haired, portly man on the screen as she maneuvered her way around the Protectors seated on the floor so she could sit in the chair furthest away from the group. “I’ll take that as a yes.” her commander stated as he shuffled a stack of papers in his hands.

‘What a fake. We all know those are blank sheets.’ Xan thought with a roll of her eyes. She honestly couldn’t understand how this man had come to be a commander. He watched too many old police movies and tried to imitate them too often, although it was well known that the protection system from twenty five years ago was proven inadequate. Not only that, but he was out of shape and didn’t seem to have a working brain cell in that big head of his.

‘Like you have room to talk. Yours obviously don’t work either if you can’t see what is right in front of you.’ her little voice chided her, apparently back from its break.

‘I thought I got rid of you?’ she asked, mentally narrowing her eyes.

‘Nope! You just wish you did. Then you’d have a reason to be the big idiot you’re pretending to be.’ Xan raised mentally raised an eyebrow at this but let the subject go, thinking that if she just ignored the voice, it would leave her alone.

“Now then, I’m sure you’re all gathered here to hear what’s going to be happening with your charge.” the commander started off. Before he could continue, however, a pink haired gum chewer interrupted.

“Nah, we just felt like sittin’ here and havin’ a slumber party.” Moira told him sarcastically. The Commander glared at the teenager through the screen but started the briefing without any comments.

“The experiment is to be under your protection until further notice. As you have all probably been told, it is the key to Earth’s defense and it is of utmost importance that we make sure no harm comes to it.”

“And by we, you mean us.” Moira spoke up again. Xan had to suppress a chuckle at that comment.

‘She’s not so bad.’ Xan thought. Then Moira snapped her gum again. ‘Never mind…’

“Do you want me to continue or would you rather do this mission in the dark?” the commander asked, the agitation showing in his tone of voice. Moira immediately stopped chewing her gum and nodded her head. “That’s what I thought.” The teenagers chuckled quietly at Moira’s lack of a backbone until Xan shot a glare their way, shutting them up. “Now, the Kryaks will be trying to get rid of the experiment, and by any means necessary. That’s why all of you are going to be protecting it. You’re the best and we need the best.” Xan couldn’t help but feel a little pride in that statement but she squashed it down, knowing she didn’t deserve the compliment.

“And what are these four little twerps for?” Xan growled. Lawrence was about to say something, but Xan glared at him, silencing whatever indignant reply he wanted to make.

“Ah, those four… they’re the academy’s finest. Promising youngsters, if you ask me.” the commander explained.

“I’d hate to see the academy’s worst then…” the dark woman mumbled under her breath before going silent again. The commander glared at her for what seemed the tenth time before speaking again.

“You four are to train them so they can achieve their full potential. Is that clear?” he asked. Xan, Henry, and Ilarius looked at each other before nodding simultaneously. “Good. Now if that’s all…”

“Actually sir, what makes you so sure that Sam is going to be able to help us?” Henry asked. The commander had a blank look on his face, trying to figure out who this ‘Sam’ was. When he realized that Ilarius was talking about the experiment, he cleared his throat and tried to think of how to put his answer.

“Well uh… you see… there’s this prophecy --”

“What!? You’re placing the fate of the Earth in the hands of some little blonde based on words that may not even be true?!” Xan asked incredulously. “Anyone could throw words together and call it a prophecy!”

“That’s what I though, Ms. Phipolis but this one seems legitimate.” the commander told her.

“Seems legitimate? Are you trying to get us killed?!” she asked, wondering how the fate of the Earth could be decided by such incompetent people.

“Ms. Phipolis, if you would let me finish…” He stopped, to see if he would be interrupted again. Xan thought about saying something else but decided against it, figuring she’d let the commander at least defend himself. Seeing that no objection was forthcoming, the older man continued. “Normally, we wouldn’t believe in such drabble, but the odd thing about this prophecy was that half of it was in English while the other half was in Solarian. It speaks of a pact our ancestors made with theirs a millennia ago. It describes your ‘Sam’ perfectly.” he told her.

‘There’s something he isn’t telling us.’ Xan’s helpful voice chimed.

‘I know, but I don’t think I’m going to get any more out of him.’ she thought. ‘Looks like I’ll have to play Investigator sometime soon.’

“Are there any other questions I can answer?” he asked, angrily crumpling the blank sheets of paper in his hands. When silence was his answer, a small smile appeared. “Good. Now if you have any questions later on, please, hesitate to ask because I don’t feel like answering them.” he said before ending the video stream.

“Well he’s a cheerful guy…” Ace commented sarcastically before looking back at his mentors. “Can we go now?” he asked. Henry nodded while Ilarius shooed them off.

“Yes, leave the adults to discuss things.” the blonde man said.

“Hey man! We’re adults!” Lawrence objected as his friends pulled him towards the doorway.

“Yeah… real mature. No wonder why they don’t like us around them.” Alicia told him when they finally pulled him outside the room. An angry response was cut off by the closing of the door, leaving the three Guardians alone in silence.

“So… I guess we were right when we guessed that we’d be training those four.” Ilarius said, breaking the awkward silence that had settled around them. Henry nodded while Xan simply glared at him, making the blonde man uncomfortably rub the back of his neck.

“I don’t know how they can just base the fate of the world off some silly words…” the dark-haired woman grumbled before leaving Henry and Ilarius alone. The two men looked at each other, one with confusion on his face and the other with complete understanding.

“She doesn’t believe in fate. She’d rather think that we have a say in how our life turns out.” Henry explained, seeing the look on his friend’s face. In a way, the sandy haired man believed that too and was a little skeptical about this prophecy.

“Ah, I see. She doesn’t really believe in much does she?” Ilarius asked as he ran a hand through his loose, blonde curls. Henry shrugged and shook his head.

“You know how Xan is. She’s not the easiest person to get to talk about life philosophies.” Henry stated.

“Good point.” the blonde man conceded. He looked around for a moment, trying to find the words to ask what he wanted. The words apparently didn’t want to be found though and he was stuck with a million questions swimming through his head. “Well… I guess we should get out of here.” he said lamely, wishing he didn’t feel so awkward when he wanted to ask questions about Xan. “Besides, I’ve got a date later tonight since we couldn’t go out last night.” he grinned before walking out the door, Henry following behind him.