D’Angelo sighed as a click came on and a scratchy voice sounded. “Did you get the guardian?”

He winced. “No father. She escaped. There was a traveler with the group.”

‘I don’t want your excuses! I want the Guardian! Now son! Use our forces and find her!”

“Si papa.”

There was a click and D’Angelo breathed a sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose. Oh, how I wish the old man would just die already and leave me to rule in peace! The hell I’m bringing him Zen so he can be cured! Ha! It’ll be a cold day in the deadlands before I see him better and on his feet again! D’Angelo had another use for the guardian anyway. He grinned. He really liked her stubbornness. Now how was he going to capture her without the others knowing about it? He tapped his ear and waited to connect.

“Yes?”

“Shadow, you aren't busy right now, are you? I have a job for you.”

###

Cecile was reading to Mariposa who was awake and sitting on her bed. The doctors were amazed at her fast recovery and had taken away most of the machines from the room. They were confused as to her missing life expectancy but claimed that Mariposa must have somehow used her life force to destroy the disease. They wanted to keep her a few more days in case of a relapse but Cecile protested. Vasquez held on to his granddaughter on her other side. While he was not thrilled that her life expectancy had gone down, she was healed and awake again and that was what mattered to him at the moment.

He had a deal with Don Arrio to make. Cecile on the other hand wanted that girl’s head. She had her guards looking for the four teens that had managed to escape her. She hadn’t told her husband of her plans for the crystal. If she became its guardian, she could restore Mariposa’s life force and eliminate all threats to her husband’s territory. There would be no use for stupid treaties when all the world was bowing to her. She smiled and continued reading to her granddaughter. Mariposa would make a great guardian when she was older.

###

Isaias set Zen down on the park bench while he and Marco rested on the grass.

“On the run again eh Marco?”

Marco turned to him. “I couldn’t let either of you die because of some imagined slight.”

“So, you would have killed me if it were on uncle’s orders?

“No, Isaias, I wouldn’t be able to. I’d have done the same thing.”

Isaias grinned. “Say, don’t you have one of the water mirrors? We can call your brother to hurry the hell up and take us away from here. I guess we can join his crew or something for a while at least.”

Marco snorted. “You’d tear each other apart over Zen! Stephan is not the giving up type,”

Isaias leaned back. “At least he’s not a Don.”

Marco sighed and leaned against him. “That’s true. I’ll try to contact him. We run on slightly different wavelengths.”

Isaias scoffed and ran his fingers through Marco’s spikey locks. “Considering the way he flew the ship and how he held my uncle for torture? I believe his frequency is called crazy.”

Marco snorted. “Something like that. We were never able to see eye to eye on anything. Here’s goes nothing.”

Stephan, are you there?

###

Stephan had watched by the water signatures as Isaias, his brother, and Zen disappeared and appeared outside the hospital. So it wasn’t the crystal this time? Good to know.

The last thing he wanted was for more of Zen’s life force to be used. As Stephan left his place at the door soldiers ran to him, guns raised.

“Raise your hands!” they yelled.

Stephan raised his arms. A wall of water, from a faucet, breaking in the bathroom not too far ahead, lunged at the two men knocking both off their feet.

“You did say raise my hands,” he muttered quickly disarming them and racing down the fire stairwell. He skipped steps, his destroyer bouncing with him as he hit the wall and rebounded off, flipping past a floor and doing so again. Never let it be said that Parkay has gone out of style.

He hit the ground in a crouch and hid in the dark parking lot. The soldiers thought he’d either try to exit through the entrance, or he was stupid enough to try to use his elemental skills to get out leaving a trail for them to follow. He smirked and dug into his dimensional pocket for the PX model he lifted off the stupid New Artica Don. He smirked and slipped the neural cables on as the PX model transformed into a Jaguar.

“Nice!” he said slipping into the driver’s seat and pulling away and out of the parking lot with a squeal of rubber. Most people thought he was the stupid Don and gave him a pass easily. He zoomed down the street, weaving through traffic. He’d drive this to the nearest beach and…Stephan are you there?

He sighed in relief. Where are you, Marco? What happened?

Near a big lake, at a park with Isaias and a sleeping Zen. The crystal took a toll on her.

Stephan cursed. Damn! What’s the probability that the crystal used her life force to cure this girl?

The crystal used the little girl’s life force. We need backup. We need some help. Isaias can’t keep carrying Zen. We need someone else who can watch our backs while we rest a bit. Is there any way you can reach us?

Sure! I need for you to use the water mirror and let it get an inner view of the lake.

Why?

Let’s just say you and Edline aren’t the only ones who can teleport anymore.

What! Stephan don’t be a…

Mom saw a weakness so she fixed it, brother….do as I say. I’ll be there as soon as I leave the Jaguar.

….Jaguar? Why not come in that?

Cause it would attract attention being D’Angelo’s car.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

I don’t want to know… be here soon!

Stephan smirked, feeling his brother leave his head, and headed toward the beach. New Artica beaches had no palm trees only shrubbery bushes here and there and white sands made more of ice particles than sand from when it was still a frozen landscape. Mankind had defrosted the inner island the rainforest had grown in the southern tip of it, but most was still ice. Stephan picked out his water mirror to check if Marco had done what he said. He climbed out of the Jaguar and dunked the mirror into the freezing water of the shoreline. He watched as it glowed to life and showed only a wet marshy landscape native to underwater rivers and lakes.

“At least he followed my directions this time,” he muttered, draining his water mirror of the water connecting to the other and dumping it into the sea. Turning, he took the neural cables out and the Jaguar shrunk back into a palm-sized cube. He picked it up and stashed it in his DP. No reason why Marek and Val couldn’t use this joyride for parts, or whatever they wanted. He’d have to think about Kiera’s gift.

“Here goes nothing.”

Stephan stepped into the sea and winced at the cold dagger-like water. He closed his eyes and found the calm soothing ness that was his element from within him and merged with it. Outside a standbyer watched as water crawled up a kid and said kid became a construct of water. Stephan opened his eyes. They were glowing a deep blue. The water rippled and he was gone.

###

At the bottom of the lake, the water rippled twice before a humanoid figure appeared.

Stephan breathed a sigh of relief and bent down to pick the mirror from out of a water weed patch. he placed it in his other pocket and zipped that one up. He gave a leap and kicked upward, toward the surface. It took a few minutes. The lake was deep but he broke the surface, his teeth chattering. “T-that is the c-coldest water I have e-ever teleported t-through!” He tugged himself to the bank and crawled onto the green grass. He ran a glowing hand from top to bottom collecting all the water in a water sphere and throwing it back into the lake.

“Waste not,” he muttered, getting up fully dry now.

I Isaias looked up from reclining on Marco on the grass.“That’s a neat trick!”

“Hello Stephan, glad you could join us. I hope you brought some weapons, little brother, we’re short of them.”

Stephan nodded, walking up to them and unzipping his back pocket showing off the dimensional pocket to the others. “I liked these so I stole a whole crate of them before I left last time.”

Isaias grinned. “I’m not too happy with my uncle right now. For me, you can rob him blind and I wouldn’t care.”

“So I’ve heard. What happened?”

Isaias sighed and swiped his bangs from his eyes. “Zen healed the girl but the crystal chose the girl’s life force instead of Zen’s, so the bitch, Cecile, the grandmother of the girl, wants her head. The Don of New Arctica D’Angelo on the other hand just wants Zen. Of course, I’m not putting it past him to not want the crystal after seeing its power and Don Arrio is a pussy plain and simple. He can’t stand up for family. The bitch tried to have Zen, and in consequence, since I was the only one brave enough to hold her off the floor, I, die! We are now public enemy numero uno to the Dons and wanted alive or at least Zen is so they can use her. She won’t wake up either!”

Stephan unzipped another pocket and took out smelling salts. “These are from a distant planet that smelled like bad socks. If anything will wake her, it’ll be these.”

Isaias took the smelling salts and sniffed before almost fainting. He waved his hands around for air. “Oh boy...yeah...these will work. What are those!”

“Sand from Jamuk,” Stephan answered grinning.

“Nothing grows on this planet I’m guessing,” said Marco scrunching up his nose. The smell was repugnant.

“Nothing with olfactory senses anyway,” replied Stephan.

“Convenient, ”Marco sighed. “Her coma was crystal-induced; it might not work.”

Isaias turned to him. “After smelling those...well if she doesn’t wake she’s near death.”

Stephan grinned. “I agree. Smell them yourself, Marco.”

Marco shook his head. He knew his brother. “Let’s get this done. If she doesn’t wake up, Stephan can carry her for a bit. Isaias, you need a break and we need to go. Those guards are bound to start checking public parks soon.”

Isaias nodded and stood handing the smelling salts back. “You do it. I don’t want to be whacked.”

Stephan rolled his eyes and stepped forward. The first thing he noticed was that Zen was smaller than she usually was. Was she always this size or has she shrunk? He took the smelling salts and propped them under her nose. She groaned and shifted her face from them. Good sign. He brought the smelling salts under her nose again. This time he hung them right under her nose, tying the small noose around her nose and leaving it there. He snickered as she batted at the offensive smell.

“Isaias, you smell,” she grumbled. “Go take a bath.”

Stephan snickered. “Let’s see how much she likes it when I put a grain up her nose.” He opened the smelling salts, pulled one grain, and dropped it into her nose. She shot up coughing and waving her hand under her nose. “Eww! What is that smell!”

Stephan laughed and shut the smelling salts. “My job is done. You might want to snort some water so the smell isn’t so bad, Zen.”

Zen sat and groaned. “Why am I so sore? It’s as if I had a day at the training dojo against Marie Elena and her fans.”

Isaias chuckled. “I did just carry you several miles like a potato sack but I bet it’s Ishevara’s fault.”

Zen hmmed and slowly got up from the bench and stretched, before making her way to the lake and squatting over to snorkel some water. “Ugh, the smell is still there! How long does it last?”

“Several days.”

“Eww! I can’t smell anything else!”

“You’d die on Jumuk where the smell is ten times worse,” muttered Stephan.

She turned to face Stephan for the first time. He was still dressed to impress but somewhere along the way, he’d ixnayed the jacket and just wore the see-through shirt. It clashed with his combat boots as before. He wore the same cocky grin he had worn not a few hours ago.

“Didn’t we leave you right outside the door?” She took a look at her surroundings. Kids were swinging on old chain swings instead of messing units, while others fought over the big cherry slide a few feet away. Their joyful cries lit the air with sound and life. A life that was missing back in Puerto Nuevo.

“Where are we?” she asked taking in the green grass and snowed in trees. A red flower bloomed on the branches with eight red petals and a whitish interior.

“As long as my element can become a conduit for me, I can go anywhere. I’ll be teaching this to Edline when she’s older and Marco, if he wants,” said Stephan.

Marco looked shocked but nodded. “It would be mighty useful to teleport anywhere my element is and not use up so much of my abilities.”

Stephan nodded. Yeah, you can..”

“I hate to break up family time but our time just ran out. I spotted hostiles heading this way,” Isaias said walking back from his reconnaissance of the park. No one had seen him leave.

“Hostiles?” Zen asked.

“Long story short sis. We are on the Don's shit list right now since Ishevara stole a fourth of Mariposa’s life force and granny had you ordered to kill.”

“Uncle?”

“Shot at us!! The only Don that wants you alive right now is D’Angelo and it’s not for any good reasons, you know that!”

Zen gulped, clutching Ishevara to her. Ishevara sent a calming tingle down her spine. Thank you, my friend.

Another tingle.

I wish we could communicate like before.

We can if you connect your aura consistently to mine. Just a little bit of your aura though. A piece!

How are we communicating now?

A little of me still resides inside you. Every time you use me I will remain. That is why the guardian loses life force because they take our own until we are one.

Ishevara I don’t want to harm you!

You won’t but right now you will need me, Guardian, for the battle ahead. I gladly lay myself in your hands.

There was a bright glow from Ishevara that encompassed Zen for a moment and then it faded.

Isaias blinked. “Ok what the hell now! Our attackers probably saw that!”

Marco nodded, pointing his gun. “Be ready!

Stephan shrugged and unsheathed a sword. “Ishe will do whatever she wants but what was that about Zen?”

“She laid her life and power in my hands. I can use her whenever. She-she trusts me.”

Stephan almost dropped his sword. He turned to face her, eyes huge. “She did what!”

“Here they come,” Isaias yelled, as he checked his gun for a charge, and stood in front of Zen.

On the hill, several guards came running down guns at the ready. The kids at the park dashed away, screaming in fear.