While Andrew appreciated Rayne’s trademark enthusiasm and reckless sense of adventure, there were still so many red flags about this night.

This Xelan guy clearly wasn’t human, but what made his aliens any better than the ones who planned to invade? And what exactly would this training include?

They were high school students for fuck’s sake.

Andrew tried to keep the skepticism out of his voice as he asked, “You’re saying we’re going to save the world?” He gestured at the five of them.

Xelan lowered his hands. “With the right training, yes, I think you can stop the invasion at the onset.”

Kyle did not keep the skepticism out of his voice. “And we’re just supposed to trust you?”

Andrew wanted to sigh at how Rayne’s face fell. She was impulsive, so it was up to the rest of them to ask questions which would keep them all safe. Still, this had to dampen her whole ‘world savior’ mood.

When Xelan frowned at Kyle’s terseness, Tameka took the lead. “If there’s a way we can help, of course we will. But… You have to understand why we’re hesitant to trust you.”

Sagan said, “I’m not.”

The friend group turned to face her with matching expressions of disbelief. Except Rayne. She was glowing at her best friend.

At the center of attention, Sagan explained, “The way I see it we come out on top either way. Say the invasion isn’t real… At least this way, we get super fit and fast and capable of defending ourselves against weirdos like that one guy. And if the invasion actually happens, we could be heroes.”

Rayne cried in delight and threw her arms around Sagan.

Andrew considered her argument.

Fit.

Awesome.

Heroes.

He turned back to Xelan and said with a shrug, “All right. Count me in.”

Stronger than she looked, Rayne roped Andrew into the hug between the girls. When Tameka sighed, saying, “Same,” Rayne latched onto her, too.

They all looked over at Kyle, sulking with his arms folded. But Andrew knew all about Kyle’s home life. There was no way he would turn down the opportunity to learn how to kick ass.

“I’m in.”

Five-way hug commenced.

Rayne beamed at them, and among the huddle, she promised, “We won’t regret this.”

Tameka glanced over at Xelan, who was waiting for them to finish. She sounded more than curious as she said, “I want to learn more about Xelan.”

Andrew clocked the narrow-eyed glance Kyle shot his ex-girlfriend at the slight dreaminess in her voice. Yup. Teenage hormones were a go.

Sagan said, “No matter what happens, we’ll be together. Everything will work out as it always does.”

This was true. Things always worked out in the end. Even with the tiger.

Andrew smiled when they gave a final squeeze and broke apart. As he faced Xelan, he said, “All right. We still have some questions, but first, where are we meeting for this ‘training?’ Do we need a gym membership or something?”

Xelan grinned. “No. I have something else in mind.”

The next night, Andrew stood blinking at the physical education abomination built near Rayne’s backyard. In the woods bordering her neighborhood, obstacles ladened a cross-country race track, and rocks formed the circle of a sparring ring. Glow wands and lanterns provided some visibility. Under the dappled moonlight through the oak trees, it smelled of the oncoming autumn splendor and ice from the massive open cooler off to the side. Xelan had filled it to the brim with water and sports drinks.

The alien—Icarus, whatever—Xelan held his arms wide to encompass the outdoor facility. “I’ve uhm… been preparing for a while now.”

To Andrew, there was something so familiar and inviting about the man’s earnest dedication and focus. Even the haphazard lack of exposition seemed familiar.

And Rayne ate it up. “Where do we start?”

It made Tameka and Sagan smile. Kyle couldn’t suppress a smirk.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

With his hand on his hips, Xelan peered out at his creation as if considering Rayne’s question. When he clapped his hands together, the five teenagers startled. He said, “For each lap around the course—minus the vaulting walls, you’re not ready for those, yet—I’ll answer one of your questions.”

Tameka shrugged. “No problem. It can’t be more than—”

“It’s a full kilometer.” There was an amused sparkle to Xelan’s eyes as Tameka’s widened.

Sagan raised her hand, and when Xelan called on her, she said, “I have weak ankles.”

Xelan assured, “Don’t worry. I’ll run it with you to prevent any missteps. I won’t ask something of you I wouldn’t do myself.”

That was enough for Andrew. “All right, you heard him, people. Let’s get going. I have questions which need answering.” Not trying to impress anyone, he started down the course. It snaked through the underbrush and crossed over creeks. Ditches formed gaps for them to leap.

It wasn’t the hottest night in September, but as the humidity thickened among the leaves, Andrew felt it in his lungs. Sweat dripped down his back, prompting him to strip off his shirt and tuck it into the back pocket of his cargo shorts. He felt bad for the girls, who trooped along in step with their shirts on. None of the five teenagers looked eager to push themselves for a faster pace, and each of them huffed air into their lungs with great effort.

Not Xelan.

He kept lock step with their strides, but the man wasn’t breaking a sweat with his perfect runner’s form. Andrew mimicked it without being told, but as he tried to mirror the older man’s breathing, Andrew struggled. This was more activity than he’d see in a month.

And that was without the walls.

Along the course they passed obstacles of varying height and scalability. Some had pegs for grip, but the tallest one was sheer at over three meters.

Incredulous, Andrew gestured at it with his thumb. “You seriously think we’ll climb that one day?”

Xelan only answered with a grin.

By the time the finish line came into view, Andrew’s calves and quads were screaming at him. His lungs begged him to collapse and crawl the rest of the way there, but he held steady. Nothing would rob him of answers.

With hands planted on his hips, Andrew completed the kilometer run gasping for air. The girls and Kyle fared the same. Shit, after a month of this, they’d better get fit enough to save the world.

Xelan was an optimist. It was in the enthusiastic thumbs up he gave them as he said, “Good job, today, team. We’ll do it again tomorrow.”

Kyle groaned. “Seriously?”

Rayne jumped with excitement. “Really?!”

Xelan nodded. “You’ll spend your weekend nights here, and I think I’ll train with each of you individually one night every week on your home turf.”

After gathering her breath first, Tameka asked, “I gotta know. Why only at night?”

“Oh.” Xelan looked sheepish. “I burn under the radiation of your sun.”

“Cool.”

Bewildered, Andrew and the girls glanced at Kyle, who shrugged. “What?”

Xelan assured, “No. It’s a good point. You should know your enemy’s weaknesses.”

Andrew frowned at his phrasing, and Rayne asked the question on his mind. “Enemy? But you’re our guardian, right?”

Sagan plopped down on a boulder, asking, “Are the Icari our enemy?”

While Andrew perched beside her, Xelan finally gave some explanations.

“Yes. And no. Cinder is ruled by a King, who suppresses our race’s capacity to evolve in intelligence and physical ability. The Icari obey him because they are capable of nothing more.”

Tameka muttered, “That sounds awful.”

Rayne asked, “And that’s who we’re supposed to fight. This ‘Night King?’”

Xelan slumped gracefully onto a patch of grass. He sounded tired, old beyond the years on his face. “Nox. His name is Nox. And yes. It’s my hope that if you defeat him at the start of the invasion, we can prevent further casualties of those only following orders because they must.”

Something about the way Xelan kept repeating the onset or start of the invasion bothered Andrew. He asked, “What makes you so sure we can stop it before it begins?”

Kyle added, “And why was the crazy bastard from last night saying this King guy was bringing his armies to us? Why us?”

Xelan said, “I think it will make more sense if I explain why they’re invading. Cinder is dying under the explosion of a red giant kept at bay by a shield around the planet. Eight thousand years ago, the Icari invaded the Earth to escape Cinder’s inevitable demise.”

Rayne asked, “Why Earth?”

“Because human blood harbors a similar nutrient to our primary source of sustenance. We came by it from a plant on our homeworld, but since Li—our sun—exploded, we can’t grow the Vittle crop as once before, despite our best efforts to revitalize it.”

Andrew noticed Tameka kept sneaking glances at Xelan which had nothing to do with a mysterious back story and everything to do with teenage hormones. She pressed, “But what happened with the first invasion?”

A streak of moonlight fell across Xelan’s face, and Andrew could see the sorrow from here. “Your ancestors, hybrids of our two races, fought Nox back to Cinder and sealed him from returning. Sealed me here away from my people and my home.”

While a quiet settled over the clearing, Rayne left Tameka and Kyle’s side to sit on the grass with Xelan. It broke whatever melancholy had gripped him, and he smiled kindly at her.

Andrew wondered about Xelan’s life—Separated from his people, at war with his homeworld, and yet still he could smile like that at Rayne.

The warm expression faltered as the Icarus went back to answering their questions. “So, that’s how I know the invasion will start with you, because Nox is fixated on his revenge. You’ve had spies following you since birth. Before, even.”

Andrew balked. Kyle scowled. Tameka, Sagan, and Rayne exchanged worried glances.

Xelan continued, “In all transparency, we’ve had our own people watching over you. It’s no accident your family lines have remained close after all these millennia.”

This was too much. Andrew’s head was about to explode. “Look, about all that… You helped us out with that creep last night, so we have enough trust in you to join you for this jaunt in the woods. I’m speaking for myself when I say I’ll continue this training to get more kick ass, but as far as the rest, I can barely keep my head above water with school. I don’t know how I’m supposed to stop an invasion. Besides, you said Cinder was sealed, right?”

Grim. That’s how Xelan looked as he said, “Every day we get more intelligence reports about Nox’s efforts to breach the conduit which connects our worlds. Estimates say anywhere from six months to several years—”

“Six months?!” Rayne cried.

Tameka muttered, “How are we supposed to get in fighting shape in such a short amount of time?”

Sagan added, “That’s a pretty broad window.”

Kyle humphed. “Twenty bucks says it never happens.” Obviously, he wasn’t convinced by Xelan’s story.

But Andrew was.

“It looks like I’ll be seeing you every night on the weekends, and how do Thursdays sound for our one-on-one sessions?”

Because regardless of if the five teenagers accepted their fates, after meeting Xelan, their lives could never be the same.