Sega and Archie own a few of these chars, but more of them are mine. Gomans, Eboni, and Katri-na as examples.


Thicker Than Blood 4: Role Models
By Rebecky-mo


Wait a minute! My injuries were bad, but not enough to take me down permanently! If I wasn't blacking out, then why was the area getting blurry?

"What the devil?!?"

"By the Fates!!!"

Hmm, so Harlen and Eboni saw it too? At least I knew I wasn't nuts. The group began to cough slightly, and the mist crept closer to me; I recognized that smell, it could only be a gas canister!!

The gas is starting to get to me too, and I cough once before I feel a mask being slipped over my mouth and nose "Wha-? What the?" Strong arms pick me up off the ground, careful not to hurt me any more than I already am, and begins to run out of the smog.

Now we're out of the cloud, but my eyes still sting, so I can't see very well. As I hear the legionaire's still choking in the smoke,I can make out two shapes on either side of me, one in black that I can just tell is Eboni, as well as another I can't make out. Could a few of the Goman tribe members followed us here?

My thoughts are interrupted as my transportation moves a little too roughly brushing the burns to my waist so that I groan in pain.

"Don't worry Julia, you'll be fixed up soon. Just hang in there."

Julia? No one knows my full first name here, or anywhere that is. Except...Katri-na?

**********************FLASHBACK************************************
Setting: 13 years ago, the Twilight Zone

Julie-su lay on her side, curled up on her cold bed, crying softly. It was fours hours after her mom had died, and she was a mess. Floren-ca and her father had desperatly tried to comfort her to no avail. She may be young, but she understood death...she understood her mom wasn't coming back.

Voices from outside her door can just be heard.

"Commander Luger, may I see Julia?"

"Of course; I think she needs you right now."

The sliding door opens, but Julie-su doesn't bother to turn around, since she knows who it is. *Kat..* A five year-old echinda steps into the room, her sky blue fur and navy blue spiked hair slightly brightening the gloom of the steel grey room, contrasting to her orange gloves, boots and vest.

"Julie-su, c'mon...please say something."

Katri-na sat on the edge of the bed, her brown eyes deep with worry. She peered over the side to get a glimpse of her friend, only for her to turn a little more so she couldn't see her face. Julie hated people seeing her cry. Finally, the motherless child sat up and spoke. "She's gone Katri. She promised she'd never leave me...She was the only one who protected me against Lien and Kragok. She was the only one who knew how to protect me..."

Katri-na hugged her best friend tightly. She'd seen all too often how Julie-su was treated by her awful step-siblings; now she was alone and helpless. She was still young..."I'll learn to protect you. I'll never leave you alone."

The mourning echinda looked up at her friend "You mean it?"

"We're soul-sisters, right? Nothing will ever tear us apart.."

*********************************************************************

I feel us drop a few feet down as my vision finally returns to see that we were down in the gorge near the valley, perched off a small cliff a few metres from the top, as well as exactly who'd I'd suspected to see. One of the few people I'd ever gotten close to in the legion; my soul-sister. "Katri-na."

Carefully, she places me on the ground, and smiles at me, her eyes telling me more than her words could ever say; "Always gotta save your tail, don't I? Stay still, and let this guy do his thing." The other echinda is carrying a bag, and opens it to reveal medical equipment; he quickly sets to work wrapping up the burns, and it isn't long before the pain subsides.

What's going on here? Katri-na was still a member of the Dark Legion, she'd stuck with them even after I left. So why was she helping us to escape? And how did she talk the doctor into helping us?

Eboni is watching intently, ready to strike the moment either of them let on they may betray us, and almost loses her cool when Katri-na suggests she go back to the tribe without me. It isn't until I give her the okay that she leaves with the doctor, leaving Kat and myself alone.

For a second, there's an uneasy silence between us. Then the emotion erupts, and wind up hugging each other tightly as if we'd been apart for years.

"I've missed you so much."

"I've missed you too, Julia."

Finally the two of us finish our emotional reunion, and I wipe the tears from my eyes. Still, my curiousness is getting the better of me. "Kat, what are you doing here? And why is the legion here, for that matter?"

I'm guessing she realized this wasn't the time for pleasantries, because she nodded, as if understanding where I was coming from. "The Dark Legion found a massive power source down in this section of Mobius. They're mining it as we speak!!"

"What source could be that big a deal? The legion's never left the island for any reason before."

"Power stones...white ones."

"WHAT?!?" This was a majorly big deal; power stones were an incredible supply of energy on Mobius, and were used in weaponry made by the Legion. They power levels could be determined by the color, the lighter, the more powerful. Until now, yellow stones were considered the most volitile, but there were myths of white stones that were almost equal to a choas emerald! "They've found white power stones?! HERE?!"

Katri nodded, "That's why Dimitri wanted as many of us down here as he could afford, especially Kommisar, with her leadership skills. With those stones, he'd be invincible! Since I'm one of the head geographers,he sent me down to help figure out how to remove them without risk of damage, but that's not why we came..." She smiled "We came to STOP them."

"Stop them? We? What the??" Katri-na stood, and I looked at the cybernetic attachments that made up her legs from the knees down, shivering at how she wound up getting them. I stood up on my own to legs, waiting for her to answer, only to recieve a strange look from her.

"Didn't you get the letter?"

"Letter?" What let-Wait a minute!! The note! I pulled out the sheet of paper I'd found at my apartment the night I left Echindaopolis, unfolding it to see the small rose at the corner.

YOU ARE NOT ALONE. WE WILL HELP YOU STOP THE DARKNESS, IF YOU FOLLOW...

I'd looked at it many times since I began my journey, trying to figure out what those words meant. And now...

"This letter? It was you who put it there?"

"Nope, not me, but someone like me; one of the Cloaked Thorns."

"WHO?!?!?"

Katri-na pushed her hand over my mouth to silence me; I'd forgotten we were in a place where the slightest sound could attract attention from above.

"The Cloaked Thorns. It's a rebellion WITHIN the legion's base. We've been doing our best to mess up the Dark Legion's plans for awhile now, or a least slow them down."

This couldn't be true! In the entire history of the legion, there'd never been a rebellion period, let alone one right inside it forces!! Katri-na had to be lying..but no..I could tell she was anything but untruthful.

"I don't get it; what could be that influential to have begun the Dark Legion's first betrayl amongst themselves?"

"Believe it or not...you were."

"WHA-what?!?" I hissed, remembering the guards above searching. "Impossible! When did this happen?"

"Remember how you outright betrayed Kragok during the assault in Echindaopolis, before Enerjak became Dimitri again?" After a nod of my head, she continued, "Well, people saw that, and they were pretty shocked. Not only were you one of the legion's finest and most loyal soldiers, but you were a direct descendant of Dimitri!

It shocked them to see you over the next little while to see you fighting alongside the guardian of your free will; but more importantly, it got them to think. They began to wonder just how much this war was worth, and what it was about; they didn't like the answers. Thus, the Cloaked Thorns came into existence."

I looked at her wide-eyed. No way, I had to be sure this was the real deal. "Then, why haven't you helped us out in the past, if you've been around since then?"

"What makes you think we haven't? Remember how you and General Stryker were imprisoned during the Election? You should know that those cells can only be opened manually; one of our people flipped the switch before leaving. Also, the cell the guardian was in should have been airlocked before the evacuation, but one of our people 'accidentally' left it open so he could be saved."

*This is for real...* "I can't believe it. But, why haven't you stopped this dig already?"

"Not enough of us were chosen to go. We're hopelessly outnumbered; that's why we need you right now, Julie. We need you to prepare the Gomans for a battle in 24 hours."

"24 hours? So soon?"

"I know, but it has to be then or sooner!! Kommisar will know you're here within a few hours, if not by now, and she'll attack the tribe's base herself, without the Tarlens. Plus, the first shipment of power stones leave exactly 32 hours by now, to get them thewre at night on the island. If Dimitri gets them..."

"A massacre...but, I'm not a leader!"

"Julie, you are, you just don't see it like I do, or the others. I have to get back now, before I'm missed. Do you have that sky board of yours?" I nod. "Good. The Gomans need you now Julie; we all do. And I know you've never let anyone down in your life. I believe in you..."

And without another word, she used the boosters in the soles of her cybernetic feet to propel herself to the surface. After a few minutes, I peeked over the ridge held up by my board, and shot off into the sky, back towards the tribe's village. My injuries were throbbing in pain, but I ignored them, thinking of all I had learned that night...

***************
I returned to the village, and after consoling Ying and convincing Eboni I was fine, I went for a long walk, still trying to decide what to do about the situation. Finally, I came to rest in the Goman's friut orchard, sitting against one of the monstrous apple trees, closing my eyes in exhaustion.

*Just too much. The nightmares, the Goman tribe, the Legion, the Chaotix, the power stones...I can't handle all this!!*

"Does something trouble you, young one?"

I opened my eyes to see Mandarin standing in front of me; he seemed worried, but it was clear he was asking a rheatorical question.

"I know the ousiders you were talking about. Trust me, this whole things gonna end ugly, one way or another."

"And what do you intend to do?"

"I DON'T KNOW!! How should I know?! I'm not a leader, I can't strategize worth crap, I'm just a follower of others, and now everything's on my shoulders!!"

He let me finish my ranting as he stood there in silence, then "I believe that isn't what is bothering you at the moment. Perhaps it would help if you let others in."

"I can't; people get hurt if I let them in."

"Yes, but unless you do this, people will get killed."

I looked at him for a moment, trying to understand the wisdom he had aquired over his countless years of life and experience. I decided to take Eboni's advice she'd given to me the day before. To trust him.

"I come from a family ruled by power and war for over four-hundred years, putting fear and despair in everyone it reaches, including my own family...and myself."

Mandarin sat down next to me, looking at me as if he were studying my soul, everything I believed. "And you think you cannot escape this unspoken tradition?"

I looked at the apples dangling above us, then down to the ones on the ground; "Your people are farmers, Mandarin. You of all people should know the apple doesn't far fall from the tree, no matter how hard the wind blows it away."

The elderly raccoon seemed stunned for a moment at my comparison, then smiled, and picked up one of the fruit next to him, and handed it to me. It had no bruises or bad spots, a perfect apple. Then he spoke;

"You are wise young one, but you are only half right. An apple may indeed stay close to the roots, but sometimes the fruit is saved before time forces it to rot, and is used for a greater purpose." From what you have told me and Eboni of yourself, you have had many people in your life that have saved you. Perhaps you should give yourself a chance to be saved, rather than hide yourself amoung the grass."

I sighed, and looked again at the small apple. *Maybe I can haven't gone rotten yet. I have a chance to do something with myself.* I thought of all that would happen if I bowed down to Kommisar again. The Goman's would lose thier people and their homes, the Cloaked Thorns would believe thier cause is ended and give up, and the island would surely fall under Dimitri if he got those power stones; and if the island fell, Mobius would soon enough.

Was this worth letting go because I didn't THINK I was up for the job?

I stood, then turned towards the sun. It still was early morning; about 15 hours to go before the battle. I turned to Mandarin, standing himself.

"Well, we'd better get moving. There's alot of planning to do if we want to save everything we believe in..."

TO BE CONTINUED...
*****
Okay, not too much action in this one, but I'll make up for it in the next (likely FINAL) two chapters!! Almost done, Trowa!!