G'day everyone!



CHAPTER 58 IS FINALLY HERE!!!

This chapter has taken so long and is in itself so enormous that I feel as though I need some kind of introduction to it; there seems to be a lot to say about it. This chapter was without a doubt the most difficult chapter to write in my entire life. It took ten months, meticulous attention to past chapters and heaps of painstaking work to haul it back from the edge of the chasm it was teetering on the brink of and finally complete it.

It is all here: the entirety of Chapter 58, which finally reveals many secrets and mysteries of Lisa the Legend. It is essentially the resolution of the second book, as well as an end to the first part of Lisa's life. There are many explanations that reference chapters of several years past - it might be helpful to take a quick glance at some of these chapters as you go along if you need to jog your memory - especially Chapters 27 (for the flashback), 38/39, 41, 42, 45, 47 and 48.

This is a long chapter, roughly the length of three of my usual sized chapters and as such I think it might end up becoming a little disjointed. Moreover, I'm sure there are more grammatical mistakes than usual: some of these I have left in on purpose, as they just feel right, others have probably been completely missed because of my rather dubious grasp on advanced grammar. Due to extreme length I've split it into three posts.

I am ultimately proud of this chapter because it finally gets the ball rolling; the story is coming into its own at last. This chapter finally allowed me to spill all the secrets, all the backstory, that I have been bursting to share for several years now. Contrary to appearances, I edited this chapter as much as possible without taking away from the atmosphere; thus, you can be sure that everything in the chapter is in some way relevant to the next chapter (which will be the closing chapter of the book) and Book Three. I debated long and hard about the title, torn between this one and another, but this really does sum the whole thing up so very well.

I really hope that, after you have finished reading this new installment, you find that it was worth the wait.

If I say any more about this chapter I'll only be stalling, trying to hold on to my precious mysteries for a few minutes longer, but I think everyone's waited long enough.

So here it is!!!

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Chapter 58 – Behind the Glass.


Joseph Sterling cast his eyes down to the shrinking mountain range below. The adrenaline had barely finished coursing through his veins, yet he had already settled into his sleek leather chair, the glass of scotch in his right hand almost empty. The chopper was too high now for him to see the civilians scurrying across the plateau on Mount Fairfax, but the activity around the little village was impossible to miss: police cars, ambulances, fire engines and television vans had all swarmed to the hamlet like bees to a daffodil.

And though this widespread attention was precisely what he had bargained for, he had scarcely been more disappointed in his entire life.

He sighed and rubbed his temples. How could he have been so mistaken? His one mistake – and bitterly it had been his own, and no one else’s – had resulted in his failure to penetrate the Sepulchre of Entei. They had, at least, succeeded in acquiring the Second Key, but without gaining access to the Sepulchre, this battle had ultimately been won by his foe; he had failed.

No, Sterling corrected himself. It was not a failure. It was a stumbling block, a setback … but one that, given time and thought, could be overcome to his advantage. It had to be.

He tore his eyes from the view below as the door of his cabin slid open with a mechanical hiss. A woman with platinum-blonde hair marched in, her hair arranged so that it covered a large part of her white face.

“ Must you always take so long to get changed?” muttered Sterling, hardly glancing at her clean black outfit.

“ I’m a woman, Joe, it’s what we do, when we’re not cooking and cleaning, you know,” Veronica sniped. She took the seat opposite him and set about lighting a cigarette.

“ Don’t start. I know you’re pissed off because of what happened in the Sepulchre.”

Veronica winced momentarily before sleekly resuming her façade. “ Just like you’re pissed off because you got the wrong kid for the Sepulchre, right, Joe?”

“ Right,” he snarled. “ Entei must have been mistaken.”

“ Or maybe he deliberately misled you,” Veronica chimed in with practiced repetition. “ Honestly, trusting a creature like that … I thought you were smart.”

“ I know what I’m doing in regards to that, don’t you worry your little head, woman,” said Sterling smoothly. “ Nice hair-do, by the way …”

The woman scowled and swept back the blonde locks that had obscured part of her face; beneath was a large, angry lump.

“ Walked into a door, did we?”

“ The Walters’ girl – she’s feisty.”

“ She’s also a fourteen year old girl, not a bloody ninja,” Sterling spat. “ In any case, what happened to you in the Sepulchre was your own bad luck, not mine. Frankly, you should be grateful I was able to get you out of there in time. Hudson and his mob had already taken the chamber for themselves, you know.”

Veronica paused, mid-drag, and then spat at him, “ Of course I know, I was there the whole time. Where were you, darling?”

Sterling felt the familiar tingle of frustration dance along his spine. “ I had important business to attend to, Veronica,” he said coolly. “ I think somehow it escaped your attention that we were last night in the company of one of our own escaped prisoners.”

She raised a heavily plucked eyebrow, clearly thrown by this information. “ Oh?”

“ Yeah. Seems Professor Oak found his way to where the action is after all.”

“ You don’t think he actually found those children … told them anything … do you?”

“ That’s what I needed to find out. I tracked him down after you took the girl down into the Sepulchre. We had already captured him in the earlier battle; he was being held in a nearby tunnel. I coaxed the truth out of him – he claimed he had already divulged everything he knew to the children.”

“ Shit.” Veronica scowled and blew an angry puff of smoke into the air. “ We still have him, right?”

“ Nah.” Sterling drained the last of the whiskey. “ After he told me everything I needed to know I killed him.” He now turned to face Veronica so as to see her reaction to this; he found it satisfying to see her drop her cigarette in her lap with utter surprise.

“ Oh, you didn’t! You did not do that!” she cried, absent-mindedly patting out the ash on her skirt. Her eyes were wide with genuine disbelief; it was a minute before she composed herself, elegantly lit another cigarette and resumed her usual obstinate tone. “ You’ve finally grown some balls then.”

“ Ostensibly,” Sterling said dryly, not even bothering himself to snipe back. “ After we had heard his story, he was only an irritation; frankly I’m glad I don’t have to worry about him anymore.”

“ Oh, today is going to be even better than I thought,” Veronica grinned. “ As if you weren’t already going to grab enough attention with the attack on the mountain, now you’ve taken out probably the smartest, most famous researcher since Charles Druos.” She paused, slowly thinking this over. “ The response is going to be even bigger, then, I mean, if that’s possible …”

“ You’re not just a pretty face, Ronnie.”

“ So how long are you going to wait before you announce everything to the media?”

“ Once we get to the base.” Sterling glanced at his shiny Italian-made watch. “ So I was thinking about, oh, a few hours?”

The second cigarette tumbled through the air to join its friend. Sterling guffawed recklessly as Veronica hastily wiped the ash from her skirt once again.

“ You cocky bastard,” she said with a smirk, reaching into her pocket for another cigarette.

*

“ They’ll announce it some time today.”

Lance Hudson didn’t look up at his close friend; he kept his head in his hands, the throbbing headache refusing to leave him despite the painkillers. A crumpled sheet of paper was spread out on his lap, a few words scribbled upon it uselessly.

“ Mate, I dunno if you’re getting it – we need to be ready to counter their declaration when it comes – as soon as it comes. To show them we’re ready.”

“ I get it, Marco, I get it!” Lance snapped through his teeth. He lifted his heavy head and surveyed his old friend and advisor, who stood, fists clenched, before him in the large, sunny ‘Cherokee’ room of the Fairfax Inn. “ I’m still working out what I need to say exactly. I never wanted to have to reveal the Guard to the world so soon. How the hell am I meant to pull something like this off?”

“ Just keep it simple, don’t mention the Legend.”

“ There’s no way to do it properly without revealing the Legend!” barked Lance testily. He put on a sardonic voice. “ ‘Hi everyone, I’m Lance Hudson. It’s got nothing to do with me really but I just thought I should go to fight against the terrorist group The Union. You know, just because they killed some people, and I’m a good guy …’ – What a load of shit, Marco!” he growled. “ And the worst thing of all is that we’re not ready for this, not at all. Hardly anyone knows who it is they’re fighting for.”

Marco didn’t unclench his fists; on the contrary, he looked more incensed. “ If you’d told them earlier, there wouldn’t be a problem.”

Lance rose so quickly that his wooden chair clattered to the ground; there were six other people seated in tub chairs about the edge of the room, all of whom looked completely taken aback.

“ Alright, Marco, if you wanna fight me, do it!” growled Lance, not even looking at his pokéballs on the desk, but baring his fists.

Marco shaped up to Lance and it could not have been more clear that one of the men was about to swing, however at that moment, several people cried out in protest, the loudest of whom was a man who left his seat to step in between the two friends.

“ That’s enough! That’s enough!” he bellowed, holding out a hand to each of them. “ Look, this is just the stress getting the better of the two of you. You’re both better men than that!” Both Lance and Marco flushed red, returning their hands to their sides, though neither ceased leering at the other. “ Lance, I know you’re overwhelmed, but Marco’s right, we need to move on with this speech – we can all help you write it. And Marco, this whole thing has been a shock for everyone. Hardly anybody knew Lance was in charge of this.”

“ No-one else is supposed to be his best mate,” spat Marco. He sized up the man standing between him and Lance. “ You already knew, didn’t you, Giles?”

“ I worked it out,” said Giles coolly. “ That’s not important now, Marco. What we’ve got to do is work together now before the Union gets the upper hand. You’ve told Lance what he needs to know, now sit down and let’s just get on with it!”

There was a murmur of assent from the others in the room. Looking as though it was the last thing he wanted to do, Marco broke eye contact with Lance and slunk back to his seat near the large bay window. Giles, too, returned to his.

“ Thanks, Giles,” said Lance stiffly, now feeling the flush of embarrassment as he realised how much composure he had just lost in front of the group. “ Alright, before I get the speech done, I wanted to hear from Nate.”

A man with salt-and-pepper hair rose obediently, his response almost regimented.

“ What’s the latest news, Nate?” asked Lance, still standing.

“ The police have co-operated so far. They’ve allowed everyone safe passage down the mountain, but only as far as the village. Every single person here is going to be thoroughly questioned, even the kids, before they let us go. No chance with the choppers, either – the army got at least three Black Hawks sent here an hour ago, equipped with M60 machine guns and twenty reserve troops. Nobody’s taking off like Sterling did this morning. They had half a dozen Alakazam driven in here a while back; my guess is they’re blocking any attempts to teleport out. We’re gonna have to comply with the police force completely.”

“ As we expected, really. What about for the future? Have you probed your contacts within the force?”

“ Yeah, nothing doing. They’re all the same – willing to help me out, willing to give me info, but none of them are going to join us. Too risky. Plus we can’t be sure what their position is going to be on us after today. The Goldrenrod Chief told me personally we would be considered a vigilante group if we went around fighting the Union ourselves rather than leaving it to the force; and while they would turn a blind eye mostly, if we do anything particularly overt they have no chance but to charge us as criminals ourselves.”

An angry murmur took up around the room; the word ‘bureaucracy’ could be heard above all others.

“ Thanks, Nate,” said Lance. “ Azura – how are our men?”

“ And women, Lance,” corrected a tall, slender, blue-haired woman, who didn’t bother to rise from her seat, but rather reclined in it lazily. “ We came out of things OK. As you all know, we sadly lost both Irwin and Adrian in the battle.” She exchanged a significant look with Lance. “ Reed, Jeremy and Keegan have all sustained very serious injuries but are currently stable, last I checked the hospital room. Roger, Christina, Kelly, Natalie, Owen and Blair are in the ward as well, with just minor injuries, along with Gideon, who has finally woken up, you’ll be happy to hear, Giles.”

Giles smiled. “ I’ll visit him later.”

“ What about the children?” asked a brown-haired woman, seated nearest Lance.

“ All the contestants from yesterday’s contest – well, all of the ones that have been found so far, are alive and well. They were tracked down by the Union last night and tied up to simplify the Union’s siege. But, save for a few who suffered cuts and bruises, they came out of the ordeal relatively unscathed, thank God. It’s always awful when innocent civilians get involved in these things.”

“ I meant Lisa – and her friend,” amended the woman.

“ They’ve been terribly injured,” said Azura without preamble. “ Young Gavin Luper, he is a close companion of Lisa Walters’ – it looks like he really copped a lot from the Union. All I saw of him was what looked like a bandaged cocoon.” The brown-haired woman pressed her hands to her mouth in horror; Giles looked dismayed. “ As for poor Lisa herself, she’s got scratches and bruises, some burns too, but worst of all, the Matron said she had received a bullet wound to her torso – someone from the Union shot her in the back!”

An audible gasp went up throughout the room; Marco muttered, “ Cowards!”

“ She’s stable, though – unconscious still, but when she wakes up she’ll be in shock. I ordered the Matron to inform us the moment she wakes up, then we can get Ryan and Maria to see her.”

“ Where are they?” asked the brown-haired woman.

“ In the ‘Pembury’ room, alone. I think they’re both in shock, and the battle wasn’t easy on them. They’ve been under a lot of stress since Lisa disappeared two weeks ago.”

“ For those of us who don’t know that story, you could fill us in,” said Nate, a little impatiently. “ I’ve heard you talking about this for a week now and I haven’t asked you once. I think it’s about time you told us.”

“ The story is just a distraction, it’s not important,” said Lance bluntly, unaware of the purpling faces of both Nate and the still-indignant Marco. “ All I’m saying is, as a result, Ryan and Maria –”

“ Lance!” cried Azura exasperatedly. “ For God’s sake, just tell them! For the sake of peace! We have enough time to bring everyone up to speed.”

Lance looked a little taken aback at being spoken to like this before he shrugged and obliged. “ Alright then. Last week, I received an urgent call from an Ecruteak contact. He told me that Entei, who we have long suspected of Union involvement, had suddenly returned to the Burned Tower. Sure that this was going to mean trouble, I called Ryan and Azura and they mobilised at once, sending their younger children to our safe house, just in case; Lisa was not at home at the time, but training at the nearby lake with Azura’s daughter, Marina. As it turned out, they arrived at the Burned Tower not a second too late: Entei had led a contingent of Union agents to the tower’s basement, where they attempted to capture Suicune and Raikou. Suicune escaped in quick time; Raikou, however, was fiercely pursued by Entei and the Union. It fled across the lake, where it encountered the two young girls, Lisa Walters and Marina Frost. Now, as we know, Marina is Raikou’s human counterpart; from her testimony yesterday, we understand that Raikou told her about their connection, and that both she and he were being pursued by Entei and the Union, after which Raikou teleported her and Lisa to apparent safety.

“ Raikou consequently managed to flee Entei’s grasp, that time, at least; and Marina found a safe place in the city to begin training her pokémon for the worst, as Raikou had instructed her to do. That evening, however, the Union made their disastrous attack.

“ You see, Ryan and Azura were still at the Burned Tower, ferreting out the remaining Union agents who were still hiding from them in the forest. Meanwhile, an unknowing Lisa returned to her house, shortly after joined by Marina. When Marina entered the house, she noticed, by pure luck, an intruder in the place, and hastened to find Lisa. It appeared that the Union had surrounded the house but, rather than attacking Lisa alone, they waited for Marina, too – two of the children for the price of one attack. What they hadn’t counted on was that the girls would work together to fight them, rather than simply come quietly.

“ According to Marina, it was young Lisa who identified the intruders and decidedly led the charge against the Union, or Team Rocket as they believed at that stage. She encouraged Marina to take her valuables with her before they tried to escape the house and flee, however, only Lisa managed to leave before the Union reappeared, discovering Marina still trapped in the house. And here, both Marina and the rest of us owe a great deal of respect to Lisa, for she was clever enough to lead a spirited offensive against the Union agents, distracting them and allowing Marina to escape the house too. Unfortunately, Lisa was quickly captured; Marina used her Mudkip to fight off some agents before she was stunned herself – and there her recollection of that night ends. When she awoke the next day, she was a prisoner of the Union, and she assumed Lisa had been taken captive also.

“ When Ryan and Azura returned, they arrived to a scene of utter destruction and chaos; ultimately concluding that both Lisa and Marina had been kidnapped. They raised the alarm and immediately fled the house for our safe house outside Ecruteak, where they have been for the past week.

“ But back to Marina: though she assumed Lisa was in the same situation as she, she soon discovered this was not the case. Over the next few days, Marina was taken across the country by the Union agents who had captured her. They had either guessed or been told the location of the Sepulchre of Raikou, possibly by Entei; in any case, it was where they were taking Marina, obviously intending to open the Sepulchre by using her. On Friday, three days ago now, they managed this, which means that, in between the day of the attack at the Walters’ house and last Friday, Entei finally tracked down and captured Raikou for the Union. With both Marina and Raikou in their possession, the Union successfully entered the Sepulchre of Raikou.

“ However, this is where luck apparently comes in. After obtaining the contents of the Sepulchre, which unfortunately the Union still possess at the moment, they sought refuge from the elements that night in a small traveller’s hut, which they had assumed to be empty; unbeknownst to them, two others had inadvertently taken shelter in the same hut mere minutes before them – namely, Lisa Walters and Gavin Luper.”

Nate looked confused. “ So, Lisa hadn’t been kidnapped by the Union, then?” he questioned. “ And as for the boy, I thought he was held captive too?”

“ So did we, until we heard from Marina on Saturday morning. Although Raikou had fully informed her of her purpose, she played dumb with the Union. On Friday night, Lisa and Gavin discovered they had stumbled on none other than their lost friend, Marina. Once again displaying truly heroic disposition, they tricked the agents and overpowered them, rescuing Marina and taking refuge that night in a nearby roadside motel. Not wanting to reveal all that Raikou had told her, as she had had precious little time to digest this information herself, Marina pretended to know nothing, instead demanding to know why she, of all people, had been kidnapped by the Union; she had noticed that Lisa had evidently crossed the organisation several times previous. To her utter disbelief, Lisa and Gavin regurgitated a story frightfully similar to hers: encounters with the Legendary dogs, though Lisa had of course encountered Suicune rather than Raikou, run-ins with danger … poor Marina’s mind was in turmoil. The same things had happened to both of the girls – what could this possibly mean?”

Lance paused, and Azura naturally filled in the next part of the story. “ Poor thing. The next morning I received a phone call from her, which shocked me, as I knew she had been kidnapped. I began sobbing the moment I heard her voice. When she asked me what was wrong, I of course had to reveal that I knew she had been kidnapped, and in turn she wondered how I could have known this. After comforting her, I told her I needed her home in Tokor at once, and she agreed. She never mentioned Lisa or Gavin, and if she had, what happened here tonight might have been partially avoided. But it’s not her fault! Marina was so confused by this stage it was a wonder she hadn’t already had a nervous breakdown. She knew nothing of our organisation, nothing really of the Union, and of the Legendaries only what Raikou told her. She really is just a child.

“ She reached Dervine harbour the next day, as I had instructed her to do, and I met her at the port. She simply collapsed into my arms and cried like a baby! Poor dear. Then she told me the full story! I think I went into shock! I had never expected such a thing to happen to my daughter. We have always been so vigilant, always so careful to protect her. Never did we expect the children to be targeted so early in the Union’s campaign. We underestimated them, gravely underestimated them, and it almost cost us both Lisa and Marina.”

There was a sombre mood in the room; most people had their heads cast down slightly out of respect for Azura’s feelings.

Lance picked up the story again. “ Yesterday morning, Azura brought Marina back to the safe house outside Ecruteak, where she relayed Marina’s tale to Ryan and Maria, who were still hiding there. From what Marina said, after the attack on the Walters’ house, Lisa had escaped and evidently found her way to Port Valeo, in Houen, where she was required for the trial of an ex-Rocket member, Lenina Johnson, whom we now understand Lisa battled against last December. There she was joined by Mr Luper, who, according to Marina, recently escaped Union imprisonment on Silver Rock Island. Incidentally, the trial was ambushed by Union agents bent on recapturing both Lisa and Gavin; once again, the two fought back with extraordinary skill, aided by fellow trainers Andrew and Jessica Hall, and members of the local Police Force. Again, Lisa Walters escaped the Union’s clutches.

“ The next day, Miss Walters ventured into the Valeo Police Station, where she reported the invasion of her house, which occurred the previous Tuesday. The attending officer there, Officer Frost – though no relation to Azura –” he added, as several pairs of eyes flicked over to the blue-haired woman. “ – expressed shock that Lisa had not reported this much earlier. Consequently, she left Lisa in the care of two other officers, but Lisa managed to slip away from them and disappeared once more.”

“ Why did she do that?” demanded Nate. “ Right when she was safe with the police, it could have saved her so much trouble!”

“ It was undeniably a reckless move,” admitted Lance. “ But as Marina told us, Lisa and Gavin thought they had bigger fish to fry. You see, they had been involved in the incident when Professor Oak disappeared last December – and they had just discovered his second appearance. Sure that the two events could not be unrelated, the duo headed for Dervine, where Oak had last been seen. It was ultimately fortunate that they took that route, as it was along the path to Dervine that Lisa noticed a plume of smoke about the forest – the aftermath of the Union’s attack on the Sepulchre of Raikou – and it was this that led them inadvertently to save Marina.”

He glanced at his wristwatch and sighed heavily. “ Long story short, this comes back to what I was trying to say about Ryan and Azura. They received mixed messages for two weeks: at first, they thought Lisa had been kidnapped by the Union. The day after Lisa and Gavin left Port Valeo, the television news was reporting their mysterious disappearance from the Police Station, which obviously contradicted this. Then, yesterday, they discovered the truth via Marina’s testimony and by contacting their eldest son, Tom, who had heard news from Lisa. Yesterday morning Lisa told her entire story to Tom, who has since passed it on to Ryan and Azura. It has been difficult for them to come to terms with their fourteen-year-old daughter’s double life – they had no idea she had been through so much. To then discover her at the mountain tonight, once more the victim of a devilish coincidence (for she had been a contestant in the Fairfax Mountain Contest), shocked them to their core. I think they are still recovering from the shock; still recoiling from the information that their daughter has been aware of the Union and the Legendaries for a long time now.”

There was a thick, pressing silence. Everyone, even those who already knew the story, seemed subdued. Then, unexpectedly, Marco said, “ What about Lisa?”

All seven others in the room looked bemused at this; Lance even seemed perturbed. “ What about her?” he answered brashly.

Marco folded his muscular arms and sat forward in his tub chair a little. “ Well, you’re saying how hard it is for her parents to discover this about her – can you imagine how hard it’s going to be when Lisa discovers her own parents are part of the Guard, an anti-Union organisation? At least Ryan and Azura knew what was eventually going to happen to their daughter – Lisa never had a clue that her parents were anything but who they said they were, did she?”

The air seemed to ring with his words for a moment, until Lance said awkwardly, “ Well, I suppose you’re right –”, but before he could get any further, Nate said from across the room, “ Whatever, Marco, it’s not like you know her.”

“ I didn’t say I did,” countered Marco brashly, not even hearing Lance’s vague admission. “ I’m just saying, it’s the truth, no-one gave any thought to her, did they?”

“ Like you care!” shot back Nate. “ You’re just trying to show up Lance in front of everyone. ”

“ At least I say what I think, I don’t crawl around the room trying to kiss his arse all day long.”

Nate was on his feet already; there was a collective intake of breath from the women in the room. “ No, you gotta play Devil’s Advocate all ****ing day, don’t ya Marco?!” he jeered, taking a step toward Marco. Being a tall, very muscular man, Nate was significantly more intimidating than Lance when it came to a fistfight.

Marco rose to the challenge, and before anyone could so much as blink, the two had begun to lay into each other, fists and curses flying through the air.

“ Stop!” bellowed Lance, clutching his head. Meanwhile Giles and another man who had remained silent throughout the meeting, Stephen, attempted to tear the two apart before they did any real damage to one another; amid much swinging of arms and spitting, the two were separated; Stephen briskly escorted Nate from the room, slamming the door behind him, while Giles pushed Marco back into his seat, where he sat and fumed, red-faced and swearing to himself.

With the chaos over, Lance rose from his seat and addressed those remaining in the room. “ It’s ten o’clock. I want everyone down in the breakfast hall at twelve. I’ll be instructing you on our next move there. Now, I’ve got a splitting headache, so I’d love it if you all left me alone, I’ll finish the declaration by myself. I spoke to the owner and he set the entire second floor aside for us, so you can rest in any of the rooms on this floor. See you all at noon.”

Everyone filed out of the room. The brown-haired woman gave Lance a quick kiss on the cheek as she passed him. The door closed a moment later; when Lance looked up, however, he saw that Marco still sat obstinately in his seat, his face deep red.

“ Marco,” he said, still at his desk at the far end of the room. “ I wanted to tell you about it, honestly. I always wanted to tell you.”

Marco glared at him. “ Twenty years. Twenty ****en years, mate.”

Lance hung his head. “ I know mate. I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.”

Marco shrugged. “ Even when you knew I was working for you …” he growled, standing up and moving for the door.

“ It would have been an unnecessary risk,” Lance defended, though there was no conviction in his voice.

“ **** off it would’ve,” spat Marco, and with that he crossed the threshold, slamming the door loudly. He had barely taken a single step away from the door when he saw a pale young woman in a nurse’s uniform standing before him in the hallway, her hands clasped together and her brow furrowed nervously. “ What?” he demanded.

The girl seemed to almost jump out of her own skin at this. Shaking a little, she squeaked, “ I w-was told to t-tell you that Miss Walters has woken up, sir.”

Marco’s scowl became a smirk. He’d show Lance what happened when people were kept in the dark …

“ Alright. Where is she?”

“ In the hospital room, j-just down on the first floor …” stammered the nurse.

“ Show me the way,” said Marco smoothly.

*

The electrical beeps and whirrs, accompanied by two soft voices issuing complicated medical jargon to one another, told Lisa that she was in some kind of hospital. She opened her eyes to find herself in a relatively large wood-panelled room – a room in the Fairfax Inn – lined with about a dozen white beds, all of them occupied by patients. Her first instinct was to sit up, but there was no such luck: her muscles simply failed to respond; indeed, her entire body, from her head to her feet and everything in between, felt as though it had recently been exposed to the business end of a steamroller. She had the simultaneous feeling of being extremely calm and unworried about anything, as if she was doped up on sedatives. Unable to do much else, she simply lay there, listening to the nearby conversation.

“ … which should stem the flow until the coagulants come into effect. By then we should have a chopper ready for transport to the Redwood Hospital, where he can be properly treated. And really, he’s the worst of the lot, so we should be alright after that’s taken care of.”

“Yes, Matron. And what about number five?”

“ Number five is … the girl?”

There was a click of a pen. “ Yes. This one.” Lisa felt a hand on the end of her mattress.

“ She’s the one with the burns?”

The second person cleared her throat. “ Mild burns to the face and forearms, scratches, smoke inhalation, particularly bad graze on the left leg, projectile wound in the upper back, bruising to the head and torso – and she’s probably suffering from serious shock.”

“ Gracious, that girl’s really been in the wars.” There was a silence. “ Hmm, that wasn’t the most appropriate choice of words, was it, Emma?”

“ Oh, well, I suppose not, really,” replied the younger woman. “ Um … number five?”

“ She’s in a bad way but she’s by no means critical; she’s stable at least. Whoever it was who patched that bullet wound up might well have saved her life, you know.”

“ Mmm.”

“ Keep her painkillers up. When she comes to, ask how sore she is, and if it’s too much for her you can up the dosage.”

“ Oh, OK.”

“ Remember, once she’s with it, you’re to notify me at once. I’ve been given orders on what to do with that girl.”

“ Yes, Matron.”

There were some loud footsteps receding on the creaky floorboards. The remaining nurse clicked her tongue, tapped her clipboard once or twice and then approached the bed nearest the door of the room that had apparently become a makeshift hospital. Lisa watched as she undressed the bandages of the man in that bed; he writhed around and moaned in agony as she repeated nervous words of assurance. After a long time, the nurse finished redressing his bandages and the commotion ceased. Aching all over, Lisa was unable to do anything but stare at the bland ceiling or, by pushing her jaw down on her chest painfully, the other side of the room.

She was staring blankly at the ceiling when there was a sudden gasp of breath very close by. Moving her neck, Lisa caught the top of a girl’s curly auburn hair; a second later, the face of a young woman in a nurse’s uniform swam more clearly into view.

“ Hi,” said Lisa simply.

“ Oh no,” said the nervous-looking girl, stepping back a little.

Lisa tried to roll onto her side to garner a better view, but once again she failed. Staring at the wooden frame of the bed beside hers, she said calmly to the nurse, “ Could you tell me what’s going on please?”

“ Oh, I’m not allowed to,” said the girl anxiously. “ I have to go get Matron now that you’ve woken up. Oh, God, how am I meant to leave twelve patients alone like that?”

“ That doesn’t sound like the most ingenious idea,” said Lisa, her voice a little thick; indeed, she was finding it a bit of a challenge to speak, like her mind had become clogged with cotton wool.

“ Well, it’s not,” agreed the girl. “ What if one of them starts to flounder?”

“ Exactly. Don’t worry about what your Matron said. You could at least tell me what’s happened …”

The girl came scurrying around the corner of the bed, eager to have an excuse not to abandon her patients. She pulled up a wooden chair and dragged it with a squeak into Lisa’s line of vision. “ I don’t really know. Matron got a phone call about two hours ago; someone said there was an emergency at Mount Fairfax. The next thing she brought me along with her to help. But, I don’t really know what to do!” the girl said, clearly struggling to not bite her nails. “ I’m still learning to be a nurse, I’m not that good.”

“ No, no, it’s OK, you’re doing a good job,” Lisa assured her in what was a very slow, laboured sentence. “ I just saw you fix that man’s dressings, you did good.”

“ Thanks,” said the girl.

“ Am I on sedatives or something?” Lisa added slowly.

“ Not sedatives, no …” said the girl. “ Strong analgesics though, they tend to knock you around a bit if you aren’t used to them. Do you need a stronger dosage?” She added, clearly recalling her instructions.

“ No, no!” Lisa said urgently, a little frightened by the mental image she had of herself drooling uselessly in her bed. “ No, I think this is just right. Now … do you know what happened last night?”

“ I can’t be sure. We were told it was some kind of terrible accident during the contest here. But Matron said the injuries we’ve seen are no accidents, most of them. And –” She lowered her voice and leaned a little toward Lisa. “ The media reporters outside are saying it was a terrorist attack. The Police mentioned a group called ‘The Union’ …”

“ Did you see any of these people?”

“ No, no, they were all gone before I got here. The Police said they only caught a few terrorists, and the rest of them all left in helicopters.” She glanced around the room. “ It’s so terrible …”

A pressing concern bubbled up in Lisa’s mind. “ Nurse, I have a friend who I think was hurt last night. Do you know if he’s OK? His name’s Gavin Luper …”

It took the girl a moment to emerge from her thoughts about the siege. She eventually flipped open a silver clipboard and ran a pen down it slowly, muttering names under her breath before she said, “ Luper, Gavin. Sixteen years old … is that right?”

“ Yes,” said Lisa breathlessly.

“ He’s in this ward, bed nine,” said the nurse, gesturing to her right. Lisa tried to crane her neck to see but it was still painfully locked; she was unable to see anything more.

Meanwhile, the nurse was struggling. “ Um – oh God –” she seemed unable to speak for a moment, “ well – he’s not good – he’s been badly injured. Some broken bones and internal bleeding, plus some awful grazes …”

“ Is he going to be alright?” pressed Lisa.

“ Oh – I hope so – I mean, I think so,” blundered the nurse. She played with her bangs nervously. “ Well, yes, he’s going to be OK. He needs more treatment and he’s still unconscious but he’s stable, he’s fine, he’s going to be alright in the end,” she said rapidly in what was evidently her most forceful voice.

Lisa had a thousand more questions she wanted to ask the girl. Before she could even get started, though, there was a creak nearby and a loud woman’s voice cried, “ Emma!”

The nurse sprang to her feet, blushing like a beetroot. “ Matron!”

Strong, purposeful footsteps strode across the makeshift ward. “ What on earth is all this? I left you with strict instructions! You were to come for me the moment this patient came to!”

“ I’m sorry, I was about to leave –”

“ I don’t want to hear it. Go check on beds seven and eight, please,” came the cross voice of the Matron. The girl named Emma gave a choked kind of sob and disappeared from view.

Now the Matron stepped into Lisa’s limited line of vision. She was a short, plump woman with a red face. Her hair was tied up neatly in a tight grey bun. She did not look a pleasant kind of person to cross.

“ Miss Walters, is it?” she asked Lisa curtly.

“ Yes,” said Lisa dumbly.

“ Right. I’ve been instructed to call some people in here when you wake up; they’ll be here in a minute. Emma, go at once to the room called ‘Cherokee’ on the second floor. Tell them Miss Walters has woken up.”

After the young nurse’s light footsteps had scurried into the distance of the Fairfax Inn, Lisa was left in silence again. The matron made a point of ignoring her completely, leaving Lisa to stew in her own anxiety at just what was about to happen – who was about to come and see her.

Loud, heavy footsteps entered the room suddenly, accompanied by the light, skittish footsteps of the young nurse, Emma. A gruff male voice said, “ I’m here.” The Matron flitted briefly through Lisa’s line of sight, clearly nervous. She and the visitor exchanged words in hushed tones, too low for Lisa to hear, then Matron’s clipped footsteps disappeared from the room along with Emma’s, and Lisa was left alone with the newcomer, whom she could still not see.

“ Lisa Walters,” came the deep voice. “ I’m Marco Trippolo.”

A complete stranger appeared in Lisa’s line of vision. He was a tall man, with a shaved head and handsome Italian features. He extended his hand to her and she shook it politely, though she could not help wondering who on earth he was, for she had secretly expected either Lance or even her parents, whose appearance she could still not explain rationally.

“ Listen up,” said Marco authoritatively. “ I’m here to tell you the truth about everything that’s happened to you. I don’t know what other people have told you but my word is fact.”

Lisa couldn’t hide the immediate contempt on her face, nor could she suppress her instinct that something was amiss. There was something dangerous, unbalanced even, in his tone.

“ Firstly, your parents are founding members of an anti-Union organisation called The Guard. The Guard exists to protect the Legend of Ecruteak, and consequently to counter every step made by the Union, who you already know about. The reason Ryan and Azura are here today is because the Guard, who I am also a member of, arrived here last night to fight the Union and stop them succeeding in their mission here.”

Irrational tears sprung instantly to Lisa’s eyes when she heard her parents’ names. She couldn’t bear to hear aloud the facts she had already ascertained in her sleep. She wiped the tears away with the corner of her sheet, sure the man would break his tirade out of respect for her feelings, but he appeared not to notice her tears, his black eyes impassive and unfocused as he pressed on with disgorging the truth; however, Lisa no longer heard him, nor did she want to. There was a ringing in her ears, her mind’s eye was transfixed on the image of her parents in the cave, fighting the Union like trained soldiers; unstoppable tears splashed onto her chest.

Meanwhile, the man named Marco was still spewing forth his lurid revelations, of which Lisa caught random phrases like ‘three guardians’ and ‘iron lock’. The man was speaking faster than ever, his face crimson; he looked almost devilish as he continued talking, his handsome features becoming animal and greedy, as though he found some bizarre pleasure in being the one to deliver this information.

His demeanour eventually frightened Lisa into action; her face still wet, she bellowed, “ ENOUGH!” at the same time as another, stronger voice cried from the doorway, “ MARCO!”

In her surprise, Lisa whipped her head around, completely forgetting how stiff her neck was. There was an audible crack as something slotted back into place; she winced but the pain quickly passed. Glad to have a full range of vision again, she focused on the figure standing stock-still over the threshold: a stocky man with a pair of sunglasses on his head was staring at Marco, an expression of utmost fury across his face.

“ What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he demanded, not moving from the doorframe.

Lisa’s eyes flew to Marco. He was more flushed than ever, like a child caught red-handed stealing. He said nothing.

The other man spoke with a deliberately muted tone, though it could not have been clearer that he wanted to shout.

“ Get the hell out of here,” he said, as low as a whisper. “ Get the hell out right now.”

Marco was out of his seat at once, streaking down the ward without another word to Lisa. He pelted past the man at the door, who made no move to manhandle him in his anger, but merely watched him disappear down the hall.

“ Are you alright, Lisa?” asked the newcomer sincerely, surveying her from afar.

She nodded, wiping her tears, utterly confused as to what had just happened.

The man took a few steps in from the door. “ Is there anyone here who heard what he told her?”

“ He told her about us, about the Guard,” came a loud woman’s voice; Lisa whirled around to see a female patient with messy blonde hair sitting up in her bed.

“ And that Ryan and Maria helped found it,” came a male voice from a bed to Lisa’s left, though she could not locate the source.

“ And he tried to tell her about the Legend –” added the woman.

“ But I don’t think she really heard him then, because she was crying, poor thing,” chimed in a young woman directly opposite Lisa’s bed. She made eye contact. “ Are you feeling a bit better now, Lisa?” she asked kindly.

Lisa managed a weary nod before she covered her face up with her sheets, screwing her eyes shut tightly.

“ Poor dear,” came the young woman’s voice again.

“ Why didn’t you stop him?” asked the man near the door testily.

“ We thought he was meant to be here!” protested the other man.

“ Yeah, we thought he really had been sent to tell her the truth,” said the loud woman. “ I’m guessing he wasn’t?”

“ Of course not!” cried the man at the door. “ Ryan and Azura were meant to do that.”

“ I WANT TO SEE MY PARENTS!” Lisa screamed.

There was instant silence. She trembled violently beneath her sheets, the tears tumbling again as voices and words rang in her ears, her mind replaying the moment she saw her parents in the cave over and over again.

“ Lisa –” said one of the strangers.

“ I want to see my parents,” she repeated more quietly, hugging herself tightly and wishing everything to be a dream.

A voice said, “ At once.” And footsteps left the room to silence.