I'll Protect You (Original Version)

Epilogue

May 17th, 2013

"Baby, you light up my world like nobody else!"
"The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed!"
"But when you smile at the ground, it ain't hard to tell!"
"You don't know-oh-oh!"
"You don't know you're beautiful!"

Alec and Zen were singing along to One Direction as they grooved (in an extremely ridiculously fashion, may I add) along to the beat, throwing confetti all over the stainless floors.

"Archer," I groaned in misery. "Please shut them up!"

"Well, the leader of today's activities is you, and the responsibility of dealing with nuisances falls to the leader. So, my lovely little sister, I'm afraid of getting those two to shut up is your problem today," Archer said with a blissful smile as he cut a piece of tape.

"Since when did I become the leader? Everyone knows that the leader should be the oldest," I pointed out.
      "I am twenty-one. I'm in my golden years," Archer grumbled defensively. "Do you see this flawless face? How dare you call me old!"

"The second qualification is responsibility," I said. "Everyone knows you're more responsible than me."

"That has got to be the most false statement I've ever heard," Flynn Darkwood scoffed as he came around the corner, bearing a box of golden and white streamers next to Elijah, who was busy craftily tying the streamers into ribbons. Elijah looked up from his artwork, nodded in agreement with Flynn, then went back to cutting and pasting.

               "That's right," Archer agreed with a big smile on his face as he descended the black ladder propped next to one of the pillars of the Cross mansion. "I'm not responsible. But Flynn here is twenty-one and clear-headed, meaning he definitely qualifies as a leader. I think you should elect him, Park."

Oh, I'm sorry. This talk about being a leader and easily-ripped streamers must be getting terribly confusing for you guys.

Here, let me explain: It's been two months since the court hearing in Cimeria.

Abigail had received a sentence of thirty years. She is currently locked up in one of the tightest cells in an XYZ compound somewhere in the world. Six received a twenty-year sentence and was too locked up in an XYZ compound.
Daniel and the other many individuals had been locked up in the general detainment center of Cimeria with a sentence of seven years.

After I had told my brother about what Abigail had revealed to me (who then went on to tell my father, who then told my grandmother, who then did everything she could to secure my safety), everything became a bit chaotic for quite some time.
              The Order of the Dragons became burdened with the priority of locating the rebel group (or groups, if they had smaller factions scattered throughout the country--or worse, the world) and gathering as much information as possible.

My father had rounded a small team of XYZ's most skilled and most trusted agents to investigate as well, and had also given them the license to arrest anyone they thought overly suspicious.
            However, despite the amount of revered agents that were currently scouring the Earth for more information, we had yet to find anything out. Abigail refused to say anymore, saying that even the cells of XYZ wouldn't be able to save her if she revealed anything else.

So, as the fruitless hunt for the enemy was taking place, I (along with everyone else under the age of twenty-one) had returned back to Paradise to finish education. My father couldn't come back, but he sent Archer with me and had reappointed Logan as my bodyguard (and if Logan wasn't here, then Alec would be in charge of bodyguard duties).

I took a look at Archer and Flynn bickering over streamers Archer had hung, and whether not it was symmetrical with the others. Elijah was ignoring them both and taping his beautifully-crafted golden and white ribbons onto the walls.
               Archer wasn't often home with me. Ever since his returned, the international public had demanded his presence. Press conferences, interviews, guest appearances, and schedules for articles were filling up his schedule constantly. It was to the point where he could only be home for a day or two before he was whisked away to Tokyo or Cairo for some important event that required him to dress up and charm everyone onstage.