I stood up in front of the large man who was walking toward us. I soon noticed him as the Captain Edward Jonathan. I got an odd look on my face as he walked up to me and stopped.

“What are you doing here, I thought you would go back with your kind,” I told him and he sighed.

“I was supposed to follow you to see if you lead me back to a Stray base,” he told me honestly. I felt rage form inside me. I had let him live but it was starting to feel like he just kept coming back so I would kill him.

“Well here you have it, no Stray base, so why don’t you go back to your unit and hope that you don’t cross paths with me again,” I told him in an agitated voice and as the sun was finally shining a little brighter I could see his face a little better. He was a tall man with dark hair and he was wearing a soldier’s uniform. A black trench coat with black jeans and black t-shirt underneath and black boots, I guess whoever designed them likes black.

“They’re Strays too, aren’t they?” he asked as he looked past me to the group. I looked over at them, trying whether or not to tell him.

“No,” I finally concluded that there should only be one Stray they know about.

“Then why did you come back to them?” he asked.

“I told you before the fight didn’t I, I’m getting that kid to a hospital before he dies,” I told him annoyed a little.

“Why aren’t you on the way there now?” he asked.

“Because the others needed to rest and lets face it, they aren’t about to trust a Stray to simply take there brother when he’s saying he’s taking them to a hospital. They’re afraid I’ll kidnap him and turn him into a Stray or something,” I told him as I sat back down on my rock. “So I patched him up long enough until we can get him to a hospital and then I’ll return back to my base. Now that I’ve told you there really is a base, let me warn you. You follow me there and it isn’t going to work out for either of us. I’ll be charged with treason and you will be killed on the spot in those clothes. I presume that you would want to go home to your family?” I told him and he laugh a little.

“If I had one, sure,” he told me.

“What do you mean by that?” I asked.

“Mom died when I was twelve, dad disappeared when he didn’t want to take care of me. Soldier found me on the street and drafted me,” he explained.

“Sorry that happened to you,” I told him and he looked at me funny.

“Why would you feel sorry for a guy who tried to kill you?” he asked and I laughed a little.

“At least you remember your parents, I don’t even know who mine are,” I told him with a weak laugh and he got a sympathetic look. I started to think that the guy wasn’t so bad, just in a soldier’s uniform.

Who is this guy and why does he look like a soldier; Dawn asked in my head and brought my attention back to what was important. I looked over at her to find she was in the same position as before.

He followed me. He seems alright, but check him for me, he may be trying to just get a reward; I thought and I didn’t hear her again.

“Look, sorry about the whole shooting at you thing,” he told me out of what, for him anyway, was silence.

“Its fine, I get that a lot. I told you about my trigger happy friend didn’t I,” I told him and he just laughed. “Hey, how old are you any way,” I asked him because it seemed the farther the sun rose the younger he got.

“Nineteen,” he told me and I felt my heart stop for a second.

“You’re a Capitan at nineteen?” I asked him and it sounded bitter in my mouth because I knew exactly what he must have done to get that many promotions.

“Yeah, I used to be proud of it too but after what you said last night,” he told me and then he started to look for things to change the subject, I could tell. “Hey, why aren’t you asleep like them,” he asked and I just shook my head.

“I’m not like them, remember? Not in my genetic make up,” I told him as I tapped the side of my head.

“Oh right, it’s easy to forget,” he told me rubbing the back of his head.

“Yeah, if you actually treat us like human beings,” I told him with a slight laugh. We sat there in silence for a moment before I broke it. “So, what are you going to do now? Are you just going to sit around and wait for me to go back to my base,” I asked him and he looked up at the sky.

“I’m not sure, I could just bring you back,” he said and my face dropped.

“You’ll have big problems with that,” I told him sternly and he only laughed.

“Relax, I was kidding,” he told me and I sighed.

He’s being truthful Sane, he wants to help us and redeem himself for what he did Dawn told me and I laughed a little.

Should we give him a chance or not? I asked her.

I think that he could be helpful if he were still with the soldiers but were on our side Dawn told me and I thought about it for a second, she was right. This could work out, now to convince him to do it.

“To get promoted to captain so fast, how many Strays did you kill,” I asked him and his face went a little pale.

“Six,” he told me and I rubbed the back of my head. “But that’s why I thought that if I found you, maybe I could help,” he added willingly.

“If you want to help, you’ll keep doing your job,” I told him and he got a confused look.

“What are you talking about,” he asked.

“How long do they think you’ll be gone?” I asked him.

“Well if they think I’m tracking a Stray, at least two days,” he told me and I started to think.

“Keep making your way through your career track but don’t kill Strays, hide them. Try and keep them safe until I can get to them or something. Try and convince some of the other soldiers to help, but be careful with who you trust,” I told him and he nodded. “Now for how we keep in contact,” I thought out loud and then I felt something hit my face and I looked in my lap to find a small digital watch.

“The latest on the market, we can talk and see each other from any distance, anywhere,” he told me and I looked at it and saw something blinking. I opened the back out of it and took out the small microchip. “What are you doing?” he objected.

“Taking the GPS out, you understand right?” I told him as I dropped it on the ground.

“Oh, right,” he told me before he took his out.

“Don’t take yours out, it will be the way that I know where you are and aren’t following me,” I told him.

“Then why do you get to take yours out?” he asked me, agitated a little.

“I have an entire government population after me, you don’t,” I told him and he thought about it for a second and then nodded. With that, there was a pause. I found my gaze wondering back up to the sky when he broke the silence.

“That dog tag…it’s marked.” I looked over at him confused, and then looked down to find I had been playing with my dog tag out of habit.

“Oh…yeah, the lion,” I mumbled with a smile. “I’ve had it since I was a kid. It’s the only thing I’ve got left of my parents…a tag that marks me as a Stray.”

“I think I’d be mad at my parents if they did that,” he replied as he leaned back from where he had sat down in the field.

“I’m not…’cause they told me that they wouldn’t have meant it that way. I was always told that he always thought that Guardians were just as human as humans were. They would say that we weren’t monsters…only misunderstood. I never really noticed how much of a cliché that is until I got older,” I said as I stared down at it. I hadn’t realized it at the time, but I had actually told the whole truth. That had been exactly what G.W had told me when I was younger and asked.

“You can call me Eddie,” he piped in a few moments later.

“Huh?” I said, confused.

“My friends call me Eddie…so you can call me Eddie,” he repeated.

“Oh…well my friends call me Sane so you can call me Sane,” I told him with a smile. Eddie looked up at me like I was acting like a kid, and then laughed a little.

“Well then Sane, I’m going to head back and say the trail is cold. This is an open field of nothing after all,” he told me as he stood up and wiped some of the stuff off his pants. “And I’ll call you on these watches, ‘cause I never know when the higher ups are sneaking around. Got it, kid?” he added tapping the watch. I only smiled.

“Yeah, got it old man,” I replied with a slight wave. With that, he left, and with that, I had somehow made my first non-Stray friend. Hey, that was a feat for me.

-x-x-x-

A/N: Well, I know it’s a really weird story…but it’s all coming together! Sorry for the long wait, internet went down, writer’s block, all that stupid stuff. So! Please review, you know you want to!