A/N: This might become part of a chapter in The Timekeeper’s Chosen. For now, it’s just a short oneshot. I’d suggest reading the Timekeeper’s Chosen before you read this, because it takes characters straight from TTC. Just in case you care. Anyway, this little thought-bubble came into my head randomly while I was drying my hair after a shower. So…Here it is.

-Well-trained Chosen are more adept, Eleventh. That means that if you focus on two or three, you should be able to do more with them. If you just watch over a bunch of armies, you’ll have brute force, not cunning. You see?- Insisted the girl across from Eleventh. He looked at her, and he saw two people. He saw Sixteenth Timekeeper, erstwhile friend; Smart, cunning planner; believer in well-trained Chosen and skill rather than brute strength. And he saw another, more simple person: a rival. A competitor. Someone who would steal—steal everything. The irrational thought popped into his head that she might steal his friends, his place in the Hall of the Timekeepers, and leave him alone—with no one. He converted his fear into anger with expert ease: he'd been doing it for years, and it had always served him well.

-But brute force can always overpower mere skill,- Eleventh said quietly. –I’ve done it before, Sixteenth.- Sixteenth glared at him, and the spark of anger grew. He looked at her, and he glared back. Back down, he thought. You can’t take my place.

Below the surface—behind the glares and calmness Eleventh showed to the world—he was afraid. He was more powerful than Sixteenth was, but he was the kind of Timekeeper who was always getting on peoples’ bad sides. The few friends he had he couldn’t risk losing, because of all the enemies he’d gained. Even deeper than the fear of having no friends and many enemies was the fear of simply having no friends. The friends among the Timekeepers he did have—Nineteenth and Seventeenth—were loyal, yes, and they were probably the best friends he could hope to have. He had always been afraid of having no one to lean back on when things went wrong, or having no one to help him when he was having trouble with his plans—or simply having a bad day. So when people spoke to them, he would watch them closely—and fear would well up within him again, because he could see his friends talking back, and he would fear that other Timekeepers would steal them away.

And so he glared Sixteenth down. Knowing full-well that she had the skill to turn every single Timekeeper against him. And at the same time, he had a burning thirst to prove her wrong—to prove himself in the eyes of his Timekeeper companions. Everyone had always been better at everything than Eleventh had. Now, now perhaps he had a chance to change that.

So he began his plan. He would eradicate those three Chosen, and he would prove himself, and then he would be able to be truly proud of something he’d done. What he didn’t know was that if he destroyed those three Chosen, he would ultimately be condemning the world.

And the sad thing was, since Eleventh’s thirst to prove himself was so strong, he would have killed them anyway.

A/N: This definitely wasn’t the best, but I thought I’d give you guys a peek into Eleventh’s mind. Deeper than just his hatred of Sixteenth, that is. R&R, and I’d be really grateful.