I Am Number Four

Chapter Twenty-Two: The Sixth Garde

"Sarah, would you please stop and listen," John said annoyed as he caught up with her, he couldn't believe that she was being this stubborn about him rejecting her; they were in danger at this very moment.

There was no telling just where the Mogadorians were and John had a horrible feeling that Sarah was going to walk right into a trap that had been set for him and the others.

He had little doubt that they would kill Sarah on the spot just for being here with them; the Garde had already seen the dead janitor that had been left in the entrance to the school.

Sarah whirled round to snap at John, she had thought that he was different that there was a chance that there was someone out there that understood her.

However, before Sarah could say a word a blast knocked the pair of them to the ground making John groan as he pushed himself to his feet.

John cursed when he spotted two Mogadorians walking towards them from the hole that they had made in the building; this was the last thing that he needed right now.

John grabbed hold of Sarah's and pulled her to her feet ignoring her protests knowing that they had to move; he didn't stand a chance against the two armed Mogadorians that were now several feet from them.

The two quickly started to run down the corridor until they reached a set of locked double doors; John swore under his breath as he skidded to a stop just as the door was blasted open.

Shielding Sarah quickly, John glared at the smoke before he pushed her out of the way and into the doorway so that he could fight; he didn't know what was coming out of that smoke but he doubted that it would be anything good.

As the smoke cleared John was shocked to see a woman with wild blonde hair and blue eyes wearing an all-black leather outfit accompanied by Lorien weaponry; John looked at her confused before a familiar face appeared behind her.

Relief filled him realising that Avalon had brought a little more help for them; this wasn't what he had expected when she had taken off earlier on her own little mission.

"Avalon," John breathed letting go of a frozen Sarah and moving to wrap his arms around his girlfriend; he was glad that she was here and seemed to have managed to avoid any Mogadorians so far.

"John, this is Six... Six, this is Four," Avalon said introducing John to the Garde that she had found coming to their aid, she was rather relieved that Six had believed her when she had found her driving along that road on her motorbike.

The two had talked briefly and the blonde Garde had been rather surprised to hear that there was more than one Garde in Paradise right now.

She had been tracking John since he had left Florida, Six had been on her own mission to reunite the Garde ever since her own Cêpan had been murdered a couple of years ago.

"Avalon?" Sarah asked stepping out of her hiding place, she couldn't take her eyes off the friend that she had thought dead for the last couple of months; she had never thought that she would see her again.

John watched the two briefly before Six stole his attention and started to question him about what was happening and where the others were; she wanted to know just how stuck they were in this school right now.

It was possibly the worst place to defend and Six could only imagine what would happen if the police were attracted to this sort of scene; they would need to defend themselves on both fronts.

"How are you alive?" Sarah asked trying to make sense of this, there had been a funeral for her and her parents after the explosion that had killed them and yet here Avalon was very much alive.

Avalon paused for a moment wondering how she would explain this, she had never expected that she would have to explain to anyone that she wasn't truly dead that wasn't fully aware of what was happening right now.

"I wasn't home when the attack happened," Avalon said simply, she didn't have time to fully explain this to Sarah and now was not the time to talk about the past.

Carefully moving away from the girl that she had once considered her best friend, Avalon focused more on what John and Six were talking about; she didn't want to focus on Sarah's questions when they were in the middle of a fight.

Sarah frowned at how she had just been dismissed, this wasn't the Avalon that she had met and she wondered just what had truly happened to make her like this.

"We need to get to the others," Six insisted knowing that they stood a better chance if they were all together; the Mogs would pick them off too quickly if they were all separated.

They were stronger in numbers and Six had no intention of dying her today, she wanted to be more prepared before the Mogadorians raided the school in an attempt to wipe all six of them out and win this war.

"Okay, who are the other Garde and what powers do we have to work with here?" Six asked wanting to know what she had to deal with, she couldn't imagine just how they were going to hold off so many Mogadorians and their beasts on their own.

Avalon and John shared a look, this was bound to come up time and time again and both of them felt a little behind since they didn't have anything that could truly help right now.

"There's Camden, he currently has memory manipulation and invisibility, Leila has a physical shield and had the ability to heal and finally Mason, who is number Eight and he has pyro kinesis and telepathy," Avalon informed gently.

It was rather strange to even consider that they were going to have to fight for their lives and no matter how much they had trained nothing was going to prepare them for a fight like this.

Sarah slowly followed after the three Garde trying to wrap her head around what she was hearing; it almost seemed unreal and she wondered briefly if she had fallen and hit her head at some point.

John laced his fingers with Avalon's, he wasn't sure just what the future held for them but this could very well be their last day together; he couldn't help but wonder what it would have been like if Henri hadn't gone to that house.

There were so many things that John had wanted to do with Avalon and that all seemed so small when he considered the fact that they could all die today.

"We both currently only have one legacy each excluding Telekinesis," John continued wishing that there was more that he had to offer that might not only keep him alive but Avalon as well.

Six nodded taking it all in, there was quite a mixture of legacies and she truly hoped that it would be enough to make a stand here today when they had the chance.

The Mogadorians would want a win here to correct the mistake that they had made so long ago by allowing the Garde to escape Lorien when the planet was destroyed.

Avalon chewed on her lip, her eyes searching the corridor as she thought about what was happening; the building was so quiet that you wouldn't know a battle was about to begin if you stumbled in at that moment.

Reaching the end of one long corridor, the group of four were reunited with the other Garde who had been unlocking a classroom for them all to hide in and use as a base of operations for the battle.