Chapter 6: The Resistance! Undefeatable Force!

Raidon and Pilos cut through the thick shrubbery that grew in their path. They had been wandering around on the planet for hours only to find nothing but overgrown plants everywhere. There were no signs of active life anywhere, nor was there any movement aside from the bushes rustling in the wind.

Hacking away at a dead thorny vine that hung limply in front of his face, Raidon inhaled sharply in exhaustion and glanced back at Pilos. “I certainly hope that the others are having better luck than we are,” he grumbled.

“I don’t! Why should they have it easy when we don’t?” Pilos retorted, the tone of his voice bitter.

“Aw … don’t be that way!” Raidon cried jokingly to him. He poked his friend’s shoulder and teased, “I thought that we Thymirans weren’t that way!”

Pilos crossed his arms and turned his face away from the thunder Thymiran. “Whatever.”

An annoyed sigh escaping his lips, Raidon raised his machete one more and slashed at a branch that protruded from its tree to get the dead appendage out of his way.

“You know, Terrick would be ticked off with you if he saw you chopping at vegetation like that,” Pilos informed his partner flatly.

“Well, in case you haven’t noticed, Terrick isn’t here and everything on this planet is dead,” Raidon responded with a cross scowl.

Without saying a word, Pilos stooped down and put his hand to the rocky soil, his face eased with concentration. He closed his orange eyes and released a burst of pure white energy into the ground. Instantly, all the dead plants became vibrant and slowly rose with life. Everything within a ten-foot radius of the Guardians was now brimming with life.

“… Okay, and there’s that,” Raidon muttered to himself, pushing a leafy branch aside and letting his Lightning Blade dissipate into energy.

“Like you didn’t know that I have this power?” Pilos queried slyly, a mischievous smirk tugging at his lips.

“Hey—!” Raidon started to yell at him, then a pensive expression crossed his face. “Hey, wait a minute,” he thought out loud, “you don’t have the power to bring stuff back to life. That’s Zenoi’s ability.”

“That’s true.” Pilos shrugged in agreement, but he added, “But I do have the power to purify the ground beneath us, which can then give life to plants and other things that depend on the power of the planet.”

“Well, then … in other words, you’re saying that the planet isn’t really dead … it’s just, well, not … pure,” Raidon concluded unsurely, a bit confused by Pilos’ explanation. “Uh, what are you saying, exactly?”

“… I have no clue,” Pilos responded flatly with a blank look on his face.

Raidon stared at the Guardian of Purification in disbelief, receiving nothing more than a nervous shrug and a grin in response. He sighed exasperatedly with a shake of his head and grumbled, “Forget it. Let’s just go.”

“That sounds like a good idea,” Pilos replied, stooping down to rub his sore ankle. “Still, I’ve never walked so much in my life! It’s really taking its toll on me.”

“You probably need to start working out more—hey!” Raidon shouted out in surprise and took a step back. “What the—!”

“What was that?” Pilos exclaimed nervously as he glanced around his surroundings to catch a glimpse of what had startled him.

Just that moment, the two Thymirans heard the sound of an object hitting wood and sticking onto it. Turning their heads back slowly as if fearful of what they might see, they spotted several daggers and throwing knives made out of black electrical energy embedded on a tree behind them. The lively and vibrant colors of the tree made a sharp disparity with the weapons made of dark energy, which made them look dead.

“Oh … okay, what’s going on here … I don’t like this,” Pilos spoke up in a shaky voice. “I’m not liking this game.”

“I think that somebody’s been watching us,” Raidon replied evenly with a blank expression on his face. He straightened his back and took a deep breath, then he called to any lurkers who may be nearby, “If anyone’s there, then come on out. We know you’re spying on us.”

For a moment, there was no response. But a few seconds of silence later, three figures jumped out from the bushes facing Raidon’s and Pilos’ backs. They stayed a safe distance away, but one of them said to the Guardians in a low voice, “So you have seen through our acts. Now tell us. This is our home; what are you doing here?”

“Your home? You’re serious?” Pilos repeated in disbelief. He folded his arms across his chest and looked up at his partner. “Huh! To think that we could’ve just asked one of them what was going on here!”

The Guardian of Thunder nodded detachedly but never took his eyes off the three inhabitants of Xechcha. “I see,” he said coolly, scratching his chin as he pondered deeply. “Well, then, would you mind telling us what exactly happened to your planet? I’m sure that it wasn’t always a desolate wasteland like this.”

“Hey! Don’t you dare insult Xechcha!” the female local shouted at him angrily. She huffed in indignation and snapped her head to the side, sticking her nose in the air. “And what’s it to you, hm?”

Pilos sighed and shook his head impatiently. “Look,” he began, “we’re Thymirans. Our race travels around the galaxy, protecting other planets from dark forces that seek to conquer or destroy the universe.”

“Do such forces actually exist?” the third of the natives questioned as he raised an expectant eyebrow.

“I’m afraid so, because otherwise we wouldn’t be going around to other planets,” Raidon told him with a sigh. “We’ve been told that there has been high levels of darkness on this planet recently and that all of our previous teams have been sent back to Thymira injured.”

“Oops …” The first inhabitant scratched the back of his head and laughed sheepishly. “I guess that was our faults. You see … we’ve been invaded by these weirdoes a little while ago, so we’ve been constantly on guard.”

“Ha’isha, what are you doing?” the second Xechchan hissed to him. “How do we know for sure that they’re not looking to attack us as well?”

“Come on, Ijna’ka, there is no way that one who has the power to heal and bring life could ever be evil,” Ha’isha replied, staring pointedly at Pilos. “I think that they could really help us out, don’t you, A’piatan?”

The final member of the group shrugged in response and answered, “Why not?”

Ijna’ka glowered at her male companions, annoyed that they would choose to believe complete strangers over her, and she turned to Raidon with a snarl. “You may have won this round, but I’ll be watch you.”

“Well, that’s really nice to know,” the lightning Thymiran responded awkwardly, stepping away from the menacing Xechchan and holding his hands up defensively. “Really nice.”

A’piatan rolled his eyes exasperatedly and groaned. “Ijna’ka, it’s not polite to scare our visitors. Now, we have to leave.”

“Leave? Why so soon?” Pilos queried, tilting his head to the side curiously.

“Because the rest of our group is going after your friends,” Ha’isha answered for his friend. “You two didn’t come alone, did you?”

“No,” Raidon told him. “We came with our teams.”

“Then we had better find them now,” A’piatan said. He gestured for the others to follow him and as he walked rapidly through the sylvan area, he added, “We’ve all had commands to attack whomever we see who does not belong to this planet. Your friends are surely under fire by now.”

“Oh? Isn’t that great to know?” Pilos grumbled under his breath.

“Shut up, you idiot,” Ijna’ka snapped at him.

Raidon groaned jokingly and tried to choke back a grin. When Ha’isha saw his amusement, he chuckled with a shake of his head and said, “I see that this is going to be the start of a very interesting teamwork.”

“I agree,” the Guardian replied. “Oh, by the way, I’m Raidon.”

“Nice to know you. Ha’isha is the name,” he introduced himself, extending his hand for Raidon to shake.

“All right, all right, there will be enough time for introductions later,” Ijna’ka cut into their greetings impatiently as she slapped her leader’s arm away. “So where do we start searching first?”

“Leave that to us,” Pilos replied. He closed his eyes and began concentrating on Livana’s energy signature to lock on to her location. As soon as he caught the faintest wisp of her life force, his eyes shot open and he called to his group, “Everyone hold on, because here we go! Raidon, I need your help.”

The Lightning Guardian nodded in response and put his hand on Pilos’ shoulder to lend him his energy. The purification Thymiran shut his eyes once more and focused his strength into a transportation spell. The Xechchans stared in amazement but remembered to grab onto him. The moment he had enough power to use the spell, Pilos, Raidon, and the three natives disappeared in a flash of light.

Only about a second later, they found themselves standing on solid ground that was covered with liquid. A’piatan quickly glanced down at his feet when he felt something wet splash against his legs and found that he was standing in ankle-deep water. He jumped back in surprise and shouted out. “What is this?”

“Since when do we have a lake here?” Ha’isha questioned to his fellow inhabitants.

“I’ve got one guess … but I’m pretty sure it’s correct,” Ijna’ka irritably answered as she raised her arm slowly and pointed at something in the distance.

The others followed her finger to where she was pointing. Immediately, they saw was two blurry figures running away from what looked like two elfin creatures, similar to Ha’isha and his team and also probably locals of Xechcha.

Ha’isha sighed crossly and narrowed his eyes in exasperation. “That’s Pai’kicha and Mi’jina’kan, all right.” He called to them, “Hey! Guys! Take a break and get over here!”

“Huh?” Pai’kicha swiveled her head back in the direction that Ha’isha’s voice was coming from. “Hey, what are they doing with those aliens?” she hissed to Mi’jina’kan when she saw that her three other teammates were accompanied by Raidon and Pilos.

“I don’t know, but let’s find out!” he responded just as suspiciously. The two stopped their pursuit and landed in front of the other members of their team.

Livana turned back to see how far ahead she and Kano were from their enemies, but much to her surprise she found nobody following her. “Hey,” she remarked ponderingly as she came to a halt, “why aren’t they chasing us anymore?”

“They’re not?” Kano, who had gone several extra paces ahead from her, inquired. He saw that his partner wasn’t running anymore and was completely behind him. The Guardian of Water changed direction and returned to where Livana was. “What are you looking at?”

“They’re down there,” she replied quietly, motioning to the ground where the five Xechchans stood. “And there are more of them. This doesn’t look good.”

Kano glanced down as well, but he also caught sight of his fellow Guardians, which Livana had overlooked. “Aaahhh!” he screeched. “Raidon and Pilos have been captured by those freaks! They need help! I’m coming, guys! Kano to the rescue!”

“No! You idiot!” Livana shouted at him. But it was too late, for Kano had already launched himself at the five elfins that surrounded his friends. The Holy Guardian groaned and shook her head. “He didn’t even wait to come up with a plan, that stupid idiot,” she muttered to herself.

“Do you guys hear something?” A’piatan queried to the others just then, his ears fainting catching the sound of Kano’s war cry.

“Hear what?” Pilos questioned him.

A’piatan didn’t have to answer. Before he could get even a word out, Kano came flying out of the sky and into the middle of their circle, landing flat on his face.

Raidon moved in closer to get a better look at him, but the blue hair and robes were enough confirmation for him. “Don’t worry, everyone,” he said. “It’s just my idiot teammate, Kano.”

“Yep, that’s me!” the water Thymiran piped up in agreement, pushing himself off the ground dizzily. “The Guardian of Water … and number one idiot, Kano of Aqua Bay!”

“Told you that he was stupid,” Mi’jina’kan commented to Pai’kicha with a smug grin. “Didn’t I tell you?”

Pai’kicha responded with a shrug. “Hey, he fought well enough to seem somewhat intelligent to me,” she defended herself.

“Were you two taking bets on how idiotic Kano is?” Pilos interrupted their discussion. When the two Xechchans nodded, the Purification Guardian folded his arms across his chest and told them, “Well, that wasn’t too polite. But it’s something that can’t be helped, I guess.”

“Pilos, why are you associating with our enemies?” Livana snapped at him as she jumped down from the tree. “You’re not planning on betraying us, are you?” She fixed with a suspicious glare.

“No, no! Of course not!” he cried nervously, holding his hands up in front of his body and stepping back.

“Relax, Livana, they’re not our enemies,” Raidon informed her. “Both of our teams have made a mistake, and we’ve been fighting our allies. But we don’t have time to explain everything right now. First, we need to find the rest of our teams.”

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s hurry up and find them! I’d love to hear an explanation for all this,” she growled at Mi’jina’kan and Pai’kicha, glowering at the two.

“Don’t worry, you’ll get it,” Pai’kicha snarled back at her and returned the glare.

The two females continued leering at each other until Ha’isha cleared his throat to get their attention and spoke up, “So, let’s get going now.”

“Transportation time!” Kano sang cheerfully, beckoning for everyone else to gather around him. As he and the others started to fade away from existence, the Water Guardian called out, “Next stop, Terrick and Kohana!”

The Nature and Healing Guardians, who had been busy fighting for their lives against their ridiculously powerful opponent, hadn’t expected to get a break from their battle anytime soon. And they didn’t expect that break to come in the form of four of their fellow Guardians and five Xechchans, all of who came falling out of the sky and landed on their backs.

“Did it work?” Pilos queried to the others, cracking one eye open slowly. Upon seeing that he was still alive, the Guardian of Purification jumped off Terrick’s back and started leaping around, singing, “Yes! I’m still alive! Still alive! Still alive!”

“All in a day’s work for the Guardian of Water!” Kano bragged as he motioned to their surroundings. “Take a look! I’ve done it!”

Livana, when she heard the ground under her moan in pain, looked down to see exactly what she had landed on. “Oh, yes, Kano, you’ve taken us to Terrick and Kohana,” she congratulated him sarcastically. “Take a look at what we’ve fallen on!”

“What do you mean?” Raidon and A’piatan glanced at the ground below their feet and saw the two Thymirans laying sprawled out underneath. “Oh …”

Ijna’ka slowly pulled herself to her feet and brushed the dust and dirt off her dark brown tunic. “What a rough landing.”

“I-Ijna’ka? Is that you?”

“Eh?” The female Xechchan tossed a glance behind her to see who was calling her name. She found the elfin that Kohana and Terrick had been fighting standing in the distance with a perplexed expression. “Va’sha, there you are.”

“You know them?” Va’sha asked her, pointing down at the two Thymirans that he had been fighting with only seconds earlier.

“No … but apparently, they’re the good guys,” she replied. “It was Ha’isha’s idea, not mine. His and A’piatan’s.”

“Hey, Va’sha, good to see you here!” Pai’kicha greeted him. She then turned her attention back to Kano and remarked scornfully, “I don’t think that a transportation spell is supposed to land you on the back of the person that you’re trying to find.”

“It’s not,” Kohana grumbled in response. “Kano, get off my back! Now!” The healing Thymiran pushed her teammate off with a vicious shove.

“My back … hurts … so much,” Terrick whined. But when he caught sight of Livana looming over him with her hands on her hips, he said to his leader, “Oh, hi, Livana. What’s up?”

“Your stupidity, that’s what’s up,” she answered, glaring down at her teammate with a scornful look.

“What do you mean by that?” the Guardian of Nature protested, jumping to his feet and returning the scowl. “You guys landed on us!”

“Exactly,” Kohana spoke up in agreement. She slowly pushed herself off the ground and moaned. “Aah … I’m sore all over.”

“Would any of the blame be due on my part?” Va’sha, convinced enough that the Thymirans were friendly aliens, inquired to her.

“Ha, you wish,” the healer retorted.

“Okay, guys, let’s get back on topic,” Mi’jina’kan, wanting to prevent any arguments between the two groups, called to them. “Now,” he said, turning to Raidon, “is that everyone?”

“Um, no,” the Guardian of Thunder disagreed with a shake of his head. “We’re missing our leader, Fudo, and his partner.”

“Yila’kai and Sha’ni are probably fighting them this very moment,” A’piatan whispered to Ha’isha.

The leader of the Xechchan half nodded in acknowledgement. “Wait, can’t you guys just transport us over to where your other two friends are?” he asked Pilos.

“Normally, we’d be able to,” the Thymiran responded, “but right now, I can’t sense anything. They either used too much energy during their battle, or …”

“Hey! I got it!” Terrick exclaimed triumphantly just then. “I found them! But it’s very faint. Quick, get over here before I lose them!”

The others quickly gathered around him. Livana, feeling a bit miffed that Terrick had been able to pick up an energy signature before she had, hissed to him in a low voice, “You had better be taking us to the right place.”

“Don’t get mad at me because you couldn’t find them,” Terrick whispered back to her arrogantly. “But seriously, let me concentrate. Otherwise, I might accidentally take us to another planet! And we don’t want that, do we?”

“What’s the hold-up? Get on with it!” Ijna’ka complained to him out loud.

Terrick rolled his eyes exasperatedly. “All right! All right!” Pausing for a moment to release a huff of indignation, the nature Thymiran closed his eyes and quickly transported himself and his group to the location where he had felt the weak force.

When everybody opened their eyes, the group found themselves standing in the middle of a scorched forest. A few of the already dead trees and part of the brown grass had been completely burned to their roots. Embers of flame hissed angrily as they burned themselves out. The air carried a slight but familiar scent of smoke.

“No doubt about it,” Raidon, as he observed the surroundings, muttered under his breath. “Fudo was most definitely here.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Pilos caught sight of Kano bending down to the ground. “What are you doing?” he queried to the Guardian of Water.

“You’ll see! You’ll see!” Kano sang in response. He started writing something in the dust and ash with a big grin on his face.

Pai’kicha meandered over to him and glanced over his shoulder to read what he was writing. “ ‘Kano was here, too’?” she uttered, a look of disbelief on her face. “What?”

Livana smacked him upside the head. “You idiot! Stop that!” she snarled.

“Aaahhh …” Kano whined, his hands flying to his cranium to protect it from any other oncoming attacks. “Why can’t I have a little fun?”

“I hardly think that now is the time or place for fun,” Kohana grumbled to him. “Go be stupid somewhere else.”

“Fine! I’ll do that!” he snapped and began forming the first few hand signs for a transportation spell.

“Not now!” Kohana roared at her teammate, slapping his hands down. “For once, couldn’t you put the mission above everything else?”

“Including stupidity,” Va’sha added, making his way into the discussion. “We really want to save our planet. After we do that, you can act as dumb as you want and none of us will care, okay?”

“Uhh … Va’sha, I think that some of us will care,” Mi’jina’kan told him, thumbing over his shoulder at an irate Ijna’ka.

“Guys, can we please get back to the situation at hand?” Ha’isha pleaded with his easily distracted partners. Once everybody had put their diversions aside, he turned to Raidon and said, “So, where are your friends? Are they here?”

“Well, they were,” Raidon replied, a confused expression on his face. “This is, without a doubt, Fudo’s handiwork. But where is he now?”

“Zenoi!” Terrick hollered to his teammate, cupping his hands around his mouth. “You here? If you are, then get on over here!”

At first, there was no reply. But a few seconds later, a shaky voice called back to Terrick, “Who’s screaming? Is it Terrick?”

“Yes, it is!” he yelled in response.

“Okay, hold on a minute.” The group of Thymirans and Xechchans heard a loud rustling sound coming from behind one of the few untouched trees. Then, about half a minute later, Zenoi came lumbering into sight with an unconscious Fudo draped on his shoulders.

“What happened to Fudo?” Kohana inquired to the Guardian of Life, approaching him so that she could take her leader off his hands.

“We were attacked by two … things,” Zenoi answered her question, handing the fire Thymiran’s limp body to Kohana. He directed a glance over at Terrick and saw the Xechchans standing behind him. “As a matter of fact, they looked exactly like those guys over there!” he exclaimed, pointing at them.

“No need to panic,” Livana told him calmly. “There was a little misunderstanding between our groups. They’re actually the inhabitants of this planet, and they’re friendly.”

“Friendly?” Zenoi repeated incredulously. “I’d hardly think so! You should’ve seen the way that they came out at us!”

“We were just protecting our planet,” Ha’isha defended his and his team’s actions. “You’d do the same thing if it were your homeland that was being attacked, wouldn’t you?”

“Well … yes,” the life Thymiran admitted. “But I wouldn’t attack anybody who wasn’t an enemy!” he quickly added.

“But what if you didn’t know that?” A’piatan pressed further. “Honestly, none of us knew that you guys were friendly!”

“And who’s to say that you guys are?” Ijna’ka interrogated suspiciously, a distrustful look crossing her face. “I’m still not convinced.”

“Ijna’ka …” Pai’kicha started.

“No,” she interrupted her friend, the tone of her voice sharp. “I don’t want to hear it. It’ll take a lot more than words for me to believe them. You can be sure of that.”

“Okay, that’s fine with me,” Pilos grumbled to her. “But you’re going to have to give us a little benefit of the doubt if we’re going to help you get your planet back.”

“That’s dandy and all, but right now I’m trying to heal Fudo!” Kohana snapped at the others. “Would you guys pipe down for a few seconds so I can concentrate?”

Mi’jina’kan silently waited for Kohana to let them know when it was okay to talk. When he saw the soft turquoise glow of her healing powers, the Xechchan cleared his throat nervously. “So, I wonder where Yila’kai and Sha’ni are.”

“I’ll go scout the area,” A’piatan volunteered. He jumped onto the branches of one of the non-burned trees and took off.

“I’ll help him,” Va’sha spoke up and he went after his teammate.

“All right, I’m done,” Kohana said, sitting back on her heels and releasing a deep sigh. “He should be okay now. But for the time being, don’t smack him or anything like that.”

“Just as long as he doesn’t act stupid,” Livana replied as she folded her arms across her chest.

“Ugh … ow,” Fudo moaned, rubbing the back of his head pulling himself into a sitting position. “What hit me?” He turned his head to the side and nearly cracked skulls with Kohana. “Ah! Hey, why are you here?” he queried to her.

“Apparently, you didn’t get the memo,” Raidon responded to his question as he walked over to his leader. “You and Zenoi were attacked, right?”

“Is it that obvious?” the fire Thymiran replied, pushing himself off the ground and to his feet.

“No, it’s because the rest of us were ambushed as well,” Terrick told him. The Guardian of Nature waved cheerfully to Fudo and greeted, “How’s it going?”

“…?” Fudo didn’t look any less confused.

“Allow me to explain,” a new voice spoke up just then. Everybody whirled around to the source of the voice and saw the last two Xechchans, the ones that had attacked Fudo and Zenoi.

“Yila’kai,” Ha’isha called to him. “So you’ve made it back safely?”

“Yes, and I see that the rest of you are fine,” the leader of the Xechchans responded. He turned to Fudo and Zenoi with a nod. “My apologizes for our rash behavior. We were not aware that you were not our enemy.”

“Apology accepted, we’re sorry too,” Fudo replied. Feeling a bit shaky on his feet, he leaned on Livana’s shoulder to keep himself from falling. As soon as he had steadied himself, Fudo took a closer look at Yila’kai and saw that the Xechchan’s face was marred and burned. The Guardian of Fire realized with a feeling of guilt that he was the one responsible for the disfiguration.

“Well, now that all our confusions are out of the way, I shall now explain everything to you,” Yila’kai declared to the Thymirans, not too concerned with his appearance. He paused for a moment to ensure that he had everybody’s undivided attention, then he started, “Once, we were a peaceful world. Our planet was the only one in our solar system capable of life, so there was no need for us to concern ourselves with other beings that may have existed in the universe.”

“But it’s always interesting to get to know other species!” Kano argued against his reasoning.

“Not now!” Kohana shot at him, slapping the water Thymiran upside the head and knocking him to the ground. She turned to Yila’kai and urged him, “Continue.”

“Ah, yes,” he said understandingly. “On the first day of our new year, strange forces invaded our planet and took over. We tried to fight back, but we were not prepared for anything similar to what we were put up against. Many of our people were wiped out. The ones who survived live in terror.”

“Why didn’t we ever sense any of this happening?” Pilos inquired confusedly to Zenoi, who responded with a shrug.

“Perhaps you have,” Sha’ni spoke up as she stepped forward. “After the invasion, these other beings started appearing on our planet. They didn’t look like the ones that had attacked us. But we thought that the new aliens were enemy forces as well and drove them off the planet.”

“Yeah, that was probably us,” Livana agreed. “You guys have sent every single team before us back home barely alive.”

“Look, we didn’t know!” Mi’jina’kan said to her, a slightly annoyed look finding its way onto his face. “We’re sorry, we’ve already apologized for that.”

“The point is,” Yila’kai went on loudly, raising his voice so that he would be heard, “we didn’t want to lose to our invaders, so we gathered up every able Xechchan to battle against our enemies. We’re the resistance, and we’ll stand against anyone who tries to take over our planet.”

“How do you know that they’re not the enemy?” Ijna’ka sarcastically asked her leader as she pointed at the Thymiran Guardians. “How do you know that you haven’t just given away our whole plan to the enemy?”

“Ijna’ka, we’ll give them the benefit of the doubt,” Sha’ni grumbled, annoyed by the untrusting nature of her friend. “You’re too suspicious, you know that? Lighten up a bit! What if they’re exactly what we need to free our planet?”

“Well, you two better put those thoughts on hold because we’ve got company,” Raidon reported to them, staring at the sky with an uneasy look.

Pai’kicha looked a bit unnerved as well. “It’s the invaders …”

“Quick!” Va’sha hollered to the group of Xechchans and Thymirans. He motioned to a nearby partially hidden underground cave. “Into the hideout! Now!”

He didn’t need to say it twice. The sixteen aliens had ducked into the underground fortress as fast as they could, making sure not to be seen by the enemy forces in the sky at the same time. Yila’kai, the last person in the garrison, moved a blanket of leaves in place to conceal the cave opening.

“That was close,” A’piatan whispered to his teammates, a relieved grin on his face. “I’d really hate to be a goner just when things are looking up!”

Yila’kai nodded in agreement. He reached for a bottle of herbs lying on the center table and handed it to Fudo, telling him, “These herbs shall increase your strength for a short while. Use them. It’ll increase your resistance to pain.”

“Thanks, I guess I need that,” Fudo groaned out as he cringed a bit from the lasting pain. He accepted the herbs from Yila’kai, but he placed them on the ground beside him.

Sha’ni waited for everyone to get settled down; once they had done so, she stood up and proclaimed, “Now that we know what we’re up against, it’s time to take a stand.” She paused for a second before going on, “Will we fight? Or will we keep on hiding? Will we join forces, or will we go our own ways?”

“As long as there’s darkness in the galaxy, we are going our own way,” Livana replied, rising confidently to her feet. “Count my team in on this.”

“It’s my responsibility to help, too,” Fudo agreed with her, shooting his hand into the air. “Raidon, Kohana, and I’ll do whatever it takes to vanquish these invaders from your planet. I give you my word.”

“And I graciously accept your assistance,” Yila’kai acknowledged. He folded his arms across his chest and nodded, a serious look on his face. “But now, we must heal and train. We are not ready to go against the darkness.”

Ha’isha jumped to his feet and quickly spoke up, “In that case, I’ll gather up the rest of the resistance. We’re going to need all the help we can get.”

“There are a few teams back home who could help us out,” Zenoi added. “They’d be more than happy to help.”

“This is great!” Sha’ni exclaimed, a look of triumph glowing in her eyes. “We’re going to take back what is ours! Look out, invaders! Xechcha and Thymira have officially joined forces, and we’re going to be your biggest nightmare!”