Just Imagine...

Adventures of The Lone Warrior

When The Lone Warrior stepped up to Rhiannon and took her hood off to look at her face, Mica noticed it right away. The grass beneath The Lone Warrior's feet grew as she stepped on it, the stems growing past the neat way they'd been clipped and becoming almost greener than before. Tiny wildflowers sprouted there too, but it seemed like Mica was the only one to notice.
Mica was horrified when one of the soldiers who'd tried to take her and David away woke up and knocked The Lone Warrior out with a punch between the eyes, before also falling unconscious again. The Lone Warrior fell into the grass with a thud, and Mica watched as the grass there slowly began to grow too, along with more flowers. The blue crystal on her sword started to glow and shimmer in the dusky light.
"We should go." Rhiannon murmured.
"No!" Mica cried, kneeling in the grass beside The Lone Warrior, "we can't leave her! She saved me!"
"Mica, she's a stranger!" Rhiannon pointed out.
"But she knows Uncle Ianto!" Mica wailed, tears springing to her eyes. Rhiannon stared at her for a moment, then sighed.
"Alright." She said.
"Are you serious, Rhi?" Johnny demanded.
"Look, Mica's right," Rhiannon said, "whoever this person is knows Ianto, and maybe they also know his location. I don't like it either, but this is the best chance we have at finding Ianto."
The Lone Warrior's tiger was growling in distress, nuzzling her keeper's face. She stirred, groaning softly, and opened her eyes.
"You're awake!" Mica exclaimed, hugging her. The Lone Warrior let out a small laugh.
"Don't worry, little one, I'm okay." She murmured. A six-petalled purple flower emitting a pretty green light bloomed between them as The Lone Warrior sat up, and a few tiny rainbows danced in the air around them.
"Do you want to come with us?" Rhiannon asked, seeming not to notice any of it, "to London? Last I heard that's where Ianto was."
"Yes," The Lone Warrior said, nodding with a look of determination on her face, "Ianto's my..." she trailed off, tightening her grip on the hilt of her sword, then tried again, "Ianto's my friend, and maybe I haven't always let him know that I care about him, but those days are over. It's time for me to find him."
"Who are you?" David asked from behind Rhiannon's legs.
"I'm The Lone Warrior... but you can call me Sam."

The drive to London seemed shorter than usual, with no stops on the way to Mica's grandparents' house, which was a small building on the outskirts of the city.
"It should be safer here," Sam murmured, stepping out of the car with her tiger beside her, "the soldiers will be looking for children in the city first. And if they come here they'll have to deal with me."
Mica saw the tiny blue daisies growing at her feet while she said it, and watched the trail of flowers she left on her way into the house. The tiger was leaving a trail too. Why did no one else seem to notice that?
There was a lot of conversation among the adults about who Sam was after she introduced herself, they asked where she was from, how she knew Ianto, what was happening in the centre of London.
"Why do you care so much about our son?" Mica's grandfather, Arthfael Jones, asked finally, "he's a dreamer. Always had his head in the clouds as a boy. He thought he could change the world, but he never learned that nobody can."
Mica watched Sam's face slowly harden into pure anger.
"Now you listen here," she snarled, pacing forwards, towering over Arthfael, "and you listen good. Your son is a beautiful person, inside and out. The most beautiful person I've ever met, in fact. He's a hundred times better a person than you, and deserves a million times more love than you ever gave him. The poor boy spent his whole life sticking up for himself, and it's time somebody stuck up for him for once. Well, that's gonna be me. You're a bad father, Arthfael Jones, and you mark my words, if you ever try and strip Ianto's happiness away from him by telling him he can't change the world, I'm gonna swing round here to knock your rotten teeth out, because people can change the world. And I'm gonna prove it, because I'm Sam Ryder, dammit, and I can do anything! And the first thing on my list is to find your son and give him a great big hug and tell him I love him, because he deserves it. And the second thing is to destroy the 456 so well not even God will remember making it!"
With that, she swung around and stormed out of the house, her tiger following her. Mica waited until no one was looking to run out the door after her.
"Sam!" She shouted, "wait!"
Sam froze in her tracks, then turned around to look at her. Were those tears in her eyes?
"Don't leave," Mica begged, "Grampy didn't mean to make you mad."
Sam closed her eyes and let out a soft sigh, sitting down on the grass of the lawn.
"Come sit with me, little one." She murmured, and Mica did, the silky fabric of Sam's cape wrapping around her shoulders as it blew in the wind.
"How do you know Uncle Ianto?" She asked quietly.
"He's my friend," Sam replied, "actually, more than that. He's like my little brother."
They were both silent after that.
"Why are you called The Lone Warrior?" Mica asked after a moment. Sam chuckled.
"It's just something I came up with to conceal my real name." She answered.
"But why The Lone Warrior?" Mica pressed, "is it because you're... lonely?"
Sam didn't answer for a moment, just stared at the tiny flowers that had grown around her.
"Well, Mica... yeah. I am lonely."
"Why? What happened?"
"I made a mistake. A big one. I almost let something I cherish more than anything else in my life slip away. And I pray it's not too late to get it back."
"I don't think so. It's never too late, right?"
Sam smiled at Mica. This wonderful little girl reminded her so much of Ianto. She just hoped the world wouldn't do to her what it had done to him.
A couple tiny rainbows began to shimmer in the air around them. Sam noticed that had been happening a lot recently, and she didn't know what it was.
"What's your tiger's name?" Mica asked.
"Zephyr," Sam murmured, ruffling her pet's fluffy mane, "she's been my best friend since we were little."
"Can I pet her?"
"Of course. She'd love it."
As Mica stood up to run her hands through Zephyr's fur, there was a transformation throughout the entire yard. The grass grew, flowers bloomed, the broken fountain began to spout crystal blue water again, the old plants in the garden sprung back to life, more vibrant than ever before. Birds and bees and butterflies seemed to appear from nowhere but settled back in like they'd always been here. And there were more rainbows, shining away like little spirits in the air. Mica looked around in awe and even Sam was amazed at the sight. Arthfael and Glenda, Mica's Granny, emerged on the front porch to look around at the reformed yard.
"It hasn't looked like this since we first moved in," Glenda said, amazed, "how did it do that?"
"It's you, Sam, isn't it?" Mica asked, "you're magic, aren't you?"
Sam looked at the ground, and saw a single stem of forget-me-nots blooming through her open fingers. She plucked the tiny flowers from the earth and gently tucked them behind Mica's ear, cupping her face with her hand.
"I think might be." She murmured with a smile.

And so Sam set off on her journey, a trail of flowers and grass and rainbows in her and Zephyr's wake. Mica clung to Rhiannon's pant leg as she watched them go, tears streaming down her face. But she had the forget me nots Sam had given her, along with a promise to always remember her.
"A Lone Warrior keeps their promises." She'd said. And then she was gone, white hood pulled up over her short ponytail, cape billowing in the wind, one hand around the hilt of her sword and the other on Zephyr's back.
She was The Lone Warrior.
She was magical.
And she was going to change the world.