*
James was sitting by the fire. He didn’t know whether it was still night or already day, nor did he actually care. He didn’t care about anything; all he wanted was to go home.
He used his Magic to play around with the fire, as Timothy had advised him to use a bit of his Magic to “retrain” it; he made it burn brighter and softer, making funny shapes appear within the flames. One of these shapes resembled his mother, smiling at him.
James sighed. “I miss you,” he whispered to the head in the flames. “So much. Even though sometimes I was a pain in the butt to you.” He sighed and smiled at the thought. “...But you always meant well. You never helped us out at inventing because you were afraid that one of us would get hurt, or you would mess up, and I regret yelling at you so often those times that you did help us. But... Now, I just can’t help but regret the fact that Samira and I might haven’t done enough to involve you into our projects. The situation we’re in now makes me wish I would’ve done so.”
James tore his eyes away from the fire and closed them, while sighing deeply. “I’m sorry if I don’t make it home, Mum. I’m sorry if I never see you again.”
After he’d finished talking, or actually confessing, as if he was hoping his mother would hear him somehow, James wanted to put out the fire, but as he heard footsteps behind him, he refrained from doing so.
He instinctively got on all fours and pulled out his sword, ready to attack, but then noticed who’d actually approached him.
It was Samira.
“Hey, James...” she said carefully. “What are you doing?”
James lowered his sword, but however kept holding it, and smiled at her. “Hey, Sammy,” he said.
“I... Came here to check and see if you’re okay,” Samira said. “I wanted to make sure you were okay before Thomas woke up... Are you all right?”
James nodded at her, attempting to broaden his smile. “Yes, I am, Samira.”
“You don’t look fine to me.”
“Rgh...” James didn’t want to lie to her, but he didn’t want to worry her, either. He decided it was for the better if he just changed the subject. “You know,” he said, “this night reminds me of our first night in Lunaria. Oh well – our first real night. The one in the cabin in the Twilight Forest.”
Samira smiled. “You were thinking about home again, weren’t you?”
James shrugged. Denying he was wasn’t going to neither help nor harm him, so why do so?
Samira walked closer to him and took the sword out of his hand, shoving it back into the scabbard it belonged inside of. “What you need,” she said, “is new Hope.” Samira took both James’ hands and pulled him along, moving as if she wanted to dance with him. “I remember that one night, while I was lying awake, I heard you were whispering to yourself that we were almost home. You were trying to comfort yourself enough to fall asleep... I kind of took it as if you were also speaking to me. To all of us.
And yes, James, I know it’s been a hard month and a week... but we’re getting there.”
She pulled him close, looking him in the eye. “We’re going to make it home, I promise. They’re waiting for us.”
Before James could respond, Samira threw both her arms around his neck and hugged him. Something they hadn’t really done in a long time; despite always being there for each other, James had always had the feeling that he and his sister had been growing apart for a long time.
“Come on,” Samira said. “You need to rest.”
It took her a few moments, but eventually, she’d convinced her brother to lie down and go to sleep, while she kept watch.
Samira could see James’ body slowly starting to relax and relieve all the tension as he drifted off. It was good to see the innocence return in him; the happiness he always showed at home was the same happiness he showed when he was asleep.
She hoped fiercely he wouldn’t get any bad dreams; a good night’s rest was well-deserved after all he’d been through.
For all of them.
If she had to be completely honest, getting to where they were now, getting to the Land of Void, was further than she’d ever dreamed they’d be able to get. And she knew the others were thinking the same.
They were almost there. Al they had to do now, was believe they could make it through to the Spirit Castle, and then they would. Without their faith and hope, they would be nowhere. If they couldn’t count on each other, they would be lost.
Samira looked at James again, who now was fast asleep, seemingly peaceful. Her eyes wandered off to the fire, which had now started to die out, where James had made their relatives appear earlier. Samira could understand how he felt. She felt the same about her own family, and she was highly convinced the others were thinking the exact same about their own families.
But they would only be in the Land of Void for just a few more days, perhaps a week or two, and then they’d be there. All they had to do was stay out of the Master’s clutches.
That wasn’t going to be an easy task, but if they played the game right, they had a chance at winning it. Right?
And she had better hold on to that thought as she looked into the distance and let out a startling yell to wake everyone up.
“AMBUSH!”
You are Your Own Enemy
Samira’s yelling had awoken everyone within an instant.
Sleep drowsiness didn’t seem to affect them at all; within a heartbeat, everyone was standing up with their weapons ready, all ready to fight.
Except for Thomas, perhaps; as he’d just woken up from his sleep, he wasn’t wearing his armour. He’d wanted to keep it on while sleeping, but took it off anyway when James kept nagging him he had to do so.
They stood in attack position before even knowing what they were supposed to attack.
The teenagers were soon to find out; the mysterious, dark figures moved swiftly through the night.
The figures appeared to be human; or at least their appearance was suggesting they were.
As soon as they’d appeared, they had the Bond of Light surrounded. And then, as he looked straight at one of the five figures, he figured out who he was looking at.
He was looking at himself.
“Uh- guys? I think we might have a problem!” James yelled out.
“Are you guys seeing what I’m seeing?” Antonio replied. “They’re us!”
“They’re not,” Timothy breathed. “They’re Reverse Guardians. The Master believes that you are your own worst enemy, and that fighting yourself would be impossible. Don’t let them trick you!”
“Won’t be a problem,” Antonio said. “Have you even seen their eyes? They’re the same as all that other Nightmare scum!”
“Why aren’t they attacking us?” Samira questioned. “They’re supposed to take us out! So why don’t they?”
Timothy tore his eyes off the Reverse Guardians surrounding them to answer her question. “They’re scanning you. As soon as you make a move, they’ll be able to mimic you. That’s why you can’t let them trick you, or else they’ll become invincible!”
“Well, it’s not as if just standing here like this is going to solve the problem,” Thomas said. “We’ve got to fight them!”
“Thomas, wait!” James shouted, but Thomas had already lashed out toward his doppelganger, who quickly moved away from Thomas by dissolving into the usual black smoke and reforming behind him.
Thomas’s attack seemed to have triggered the other Reversed Guardians to fight too; they attacked all four at once.
“Great thinking, Thomas!” James threw the Brit a sarcastic yell as his doppelganger threw him to the ground. “Really!”
“It’s not like you would were about to come up with something!” Thomas remarked.
“I NEEDED MORE TIME!” James yelled, this time truly angry, as he threw Reverse James off him, trying to stab him with his sword.”But no, the “knight in shining armour” had to run off on his own again!”
; “Let me tell you something-” Thomas said, but was interrupted before he could continue.
“Boys, stop it!” Samira shouted. “This is no time for arguing! That’s exactly what they want you to do!”
“No, Samira!” James snapped, still fighting his Reverse. “I am sick and tired of being treated like a child! He’s got to cut it out!”
He pushed his Reverse aside, letting his attention drive off, allowing his Reverse to dissolve and reform... to be able to attack Samira.
She quickly loaded her bow to fire arrows at the Reverse, who barely managed to dodge Samira’s perfect aim.
He extended his arm to form a foggy shape resembling an arm and a hand, and used it to pull on one of Samira’s ankles, causing her to lose balance and fall.
In a flash, Samira was lying on the ground and Reverse James was standing in front of her.
Meanwhile, James had focused on nagging Thomas by reminding that attacking the Reverses had been a bad idea, until Antonio reminded both the boys they were in battle.
While they were listening to Antonio, Thomas was knocked to the ground with high speed, and landed with his head on a hard rock. His sword ended up several meters away from him.
“Thomas! Are you all right!?” James yelled. He saw Reverse Thomas aiming for the unconscious real Thomas and wanted to defend James, but as soon as he got between the Reverse and James, the Reverse used the same fog arm move as Reverse James had used on Samira to knock James’ sword out of his hands.
With a single kick, the Reverse managed to get James on the ground. Apparently, the Reverse had now set his mind on taking James out first.
It seemed as if there was no way out at first; but then, James noticed Thomas’s sword, lying less than a meter away from him.
He rolled aside, just in time to dodge the Reverse’s sword which ended up drilling deep into the ground.
This came in handy; it gave James plenty of time to get the sword and stand up while the Reverse was still busy trying to get his sword out of the ground.
James however didn’t wait for the Reverse to get his sword out of the ground; he closed his eyes to make the blade glow with his magical abilities, and sliced Reverse Thomas in half. The Evil Spirit then dissolved and disappeared, leaving the sword behind for James to pull it out of the ground.
He quickly ran over to Thomas, who had just regained consciousness, and looked at his older step-brother with a concerned look. “When this is over, need to talk,” he said, before running off to help the others, leaving Thomas behind with the sword and a confused look on his face.
Samira looked into Reversed James’ eyes. It scared her to see James this way, even though she knew it wasn’t really him. But still... It felt as if this figure standing in front of her had her fretting for the future. James’s future.
“SAMIRA! WATCH OUT!” a voice shouted, just at the moment Reverse James lashed out at her.
But instead of hitting Samira, he hit hard metal. James had stopped his Reverse’s attack with Thomas’s sword. He had picked up his own sword along the way, which he held in the other hand. If Timothy was able to fight with two swords, then why wasn’t he?
James looked down at Samira and winked at her. “I’ve got it under control,” he said. “Go help the others. There’s still three of them left!”
He didn’t have to tell her twice. Samira got on all fours, grabbed her bow and ran off to help Antonio, Timothy, Bella and now also Thomas, who’d rejoined them, in battle.
The remaining battle was rough, yet they managed to make it through somehow. Timothy was extremely clever with his katanas and had been able to take Reverse Samira out on his own, while Antonio and Bella were fighting their Reverses together.
The only one who seemed to be having trouble was James.
It wasn’t that he wasn’t able to fight or couldn’t handle two swords; he was fairly good with both of them. It was the fact that he was getting magical corruption attacks again.
The earth started to dance in front of his face, leaving him unable to determine what was real or not. It also didn’t help that his Reverse kept taunting him; it kept dissolving and reforming in different places and multiplying itself, as if it was amused by the fact that James was weakening.
James felt his energy draining by the second; as he tried his best to see and dodge his enemy, he scanned the background for his friends. They were rushing toward him; the battle had been ended. All there was left to do was to defeat Reverse James.
And James wasn’t able to do it himself.
He let unconsciousness get the best of him; he dropped his sword, allowed his knees to buckle and fell forward in the dead remains of grass.
Although he hadn’t gone completely unconscious; he could clearly feel two pairs of hands lifting him up by his shoulders and feet to drag him somewhere safe. A little further away, he could hear sounds of a fight, but those went as quickly as they’d come.
They’d won. They’d done it.
James tried to open his eyes and look at his friends. The first face he saw was of a worried Thomas, lit by the pale green and blue glow of the stones on the brooches that held both the boys’ capes together.
“Are you all right?” Thomas asked. James gave him a small nod.
“I- I’m sorry about what I said earlier, Thomas,” he said, as he sat up.
Thomas smiled at him, and helped him to sit up when he saw that James was struggling to do so. “Hey, it’s okay,” he said. “You were the hero today. You saved my life.”
James smirked. “Yes, yes I did. That’s where friends are for, right?”
Thomas nodded. “Indeed, they are,” he said. “Plus, we are almost brothers. And we fight. Because... That’s what brothers do,” he said. “So no worries. We’ll make it through, I promise.”
Thomas looked Thomas in the eye. Indeed; they were as close as brothers. “I promise I won’t give up on you.”
“Pinkie promise,” James said, sticking up his left hand.
“Pinkie promise,” Thomas smiled, as he and James linked pinkies together.
Indeed. They would make it through together; giving up on each other didn’t sound like something they’d ever do.
Never.
Guardian: Protectors of Light Page 49
