"It's over. We've failed. We've failed. All this work.
It was for nothing Teiko! Nothing!" Feneon was overcome with fury, an emotion
he rarely felt as he slammed his fist into the table. "Can you believe it? There
was a leak. There was one place where they could get past them. One place. And
they found it! They found it and destroyed the kingdom, and kidnapped the king!
This is wretched. This is absolutely wretched."
"You blame yourself Fen. Why?" was Teikobou's
calm query, as if nothing had gone wrong. He saw a terrible old look in Feneon's
eyes. It saddened the mutant Lupe.
"It's my fault. I should have drilled them more
on to expect the unexpected. They got too cocky. They thought...they thought..."
The wizard found himself trembling. He was in shock. Absolutely shock. He did
not know how to react, or what to do about the situation. It was over. They
had lost. There was nothing that could be done now. His supposed "perfect soldiers"
had failed. All their hard work. In spite of everything it had all come to pieces.
"Stop it. It's not your fault. In any way. So
stop blaming yourself. There is nothing you could have done to prevent this.
Nothing. Do you hear me? Absolutely nothing!" Teiko's eyes flared as he rose
to his feet. Feneon had never seen the Lupe so emotional in his entire life.
He padded right up to Feneon and looked him in the eye. "Don't let this take
you down Fen. Promise me you will not."
"I don't know Teikobou. I just don't know."
***
Hope stood in the ruins of Meridell along with the rest of the hybrids. It
was their fault. All of it. If they had paid more attention. If they hadn't
gotten of their guard, it wouldn't have happened. The kingdom wouldn't have
been brought to ruin. A single tear slid down Hope's face as she sat down on
a piece of rubble and took a deep breath. She had to regain herself. The King
was gone. There was still something they could do. They could go after the king,
and try to return him to Meridell.
"It's my fault," Daemon said out loud. "I
was too cocky...I thought it was too easy...and it was...it really was. If only
I had opened my eyes..." His silver pawhands fiddled with a little pebble as
she swished his tail back and forth in a crestfallen manner. He didn't know
how else to express his feelings. He felt lost, and alone. As if the weight
of everything that had happened was his fault.
"No, I was too self-confident too Daemon. We
all did it. We all lost. This is our fault. Together," Star replied sadly,
his ears drooping on both sides of his head. The usual glimmer of confidence
in his eye was gone, and replaced with a dull unenthused look. Still, Hope said
nothing as she stood up and paced around the rubble.
"The villagers must have fled. They're intelligent.
I hope they all got away," Flash stated out of nowhere. He didn't seem
to want to talk about their failure. Hope couldn't blame him. What happened
was terrible. A whole kingdom destroyed. The purpose for their creation had
failed completely. He probably couldn't cope. Well, none of them could really.
"Why are you all just sitting here?" Hope hissed
suddenly, her ebony eyes flashing. "You talk about how we messed up. How it's
all our fault. How there's nothing else we can do." The other hybrids eyed Hope
in surprise, utterly confused by her sudden outburst. "Well you're wrong! There
is something we can do. The King is out there. We can still save him. If we
find him he may know how to bring Meridell back up to it's old strength. This
isn't over you guys. It isn't over at all!" She stood up, clenching her fists
in determination and glancing around at the others.
"You're cracked Hope. It's over. We've nothing
left to do but return to Feneon. He'll tell us what to do I guess. Not that
there's any reason for that anymore. Now that our existence is pretty much pointless."
Flame scowled at Hope, a smug expression on her face, as if she was superior
to Hope. As if she saw something the Shoyru hybrid hadn't. She twitched her
earstalks at Hope in an irritated fashion. Hope found it almost amusing that
still Flame fought with her even at a time like this. They had never agreed
on anything growing up. Nothing had changed.
"I'm going to see Feneon. He'll have a plan of
action. He always does. Always." Hope launched herself into the air, her wings
catching onto the wind as she pumped her wings, powerfully propelling herself
into the sky. She was a black speck in the distance in moments, and all expect
Flash shook their heads at her actions.
"She's finally gone off the deep end. She couldn't
handle the pressure," Daemon said with a roll of his eyes. Flash's eyes
narrowed angrily but he didn't say anything, he merely took flight, leaving
a bit of spark in his wake. "And he's just as mental as she is," Daemon
added after Flash was out of hearing distance.
"I saw we forget about it. Let's leave Meridell
and start our lives from scratch. Forget this ever happened," Star said
quietly, in an almost hopeful tone. He wondered if the others would go along
with it.
"The sooner the better," was Flame's quick
reply. She stood up and led the way. The three once perfect soldiers left Meridell,
the land they were supposed to protect, and never looked back.
***
"This just may work Teikobou. It just might," the world weary Feneon said
to his life long companion. He set the spell book down that he was reading and
looked at his mutant Lupe. "Thank you for giving me the push I needed Teiko.
Thank you."
"That's why I'm here Fen. That's why I'm here."
The mutant Lupe actually smiled in return, an act that was very rare indeed
coming from him.
At that moment Hope, with Flash not far behind,
came in the cabin. Their eyes were drawn, They look frazzled, and almost as
world weary as Feneon himself.
"We want to help, with whatever you've got planned,"
Flash told Feneon calmly. "We're going to do whatever it takes to undo the mistakes
we made."
"You're a good person Flash, and so are you Shadow."
Feneon smiled softly. "Where are the others though?" his voice was full of concern
and worry for the three other hybrids.
"We don't know. All we know is they're not coming
here," Hope explained to the wizard. "What about our parents? Where are
they?"
"In their cabins. I don't want them to know what
I'm planning. I'll leave them a note. So they can't whine at me in person."
Feneon chuckled slightly at this, running his hand through his now almost fully
gray hair. He was much too young to have gray hair, but the stress he‘d been
through had done it to him.
"We're going into the future," Teiko spoke
up suddenly, a grin appearing on his face. "To find somebody who can help us."
"Are you serious?" Hope asked, already knowing
the answer.
"Indeed we are m'dear. We're going into the future
to find an army to defend Meridell, once we've done that, we'll come back to
the past before the war started and prepare properly," Feneon explained,
as if it was the easiest thing in the world to do. "I only wish we'd done this
before putting you five through such trouble. But Alas, it's too late now."
"How are we going to manage this?" Flash queried,
already knowing that with Fen anything was possible.
"Simple. I'm going to make a portal with a spell
I found in one of my books," Feneon told the two hybrids calmly.
"Really, it's that easy?" Hope asked curiously.
"That easy. Now let's get going. I want to be
there and back as fast as possible. It's time that we actually did Meridell
some good."
The two hybrids nodded and followed Feneon and
Teikobou out. It was time that Meridell had real saviours.
The End | 
