Jane and the Guardians: Sword of the Lady

Chapter 10

"What happened?" Marie asks as she regains consciousness and opens her eyes to complete darkness. She senses Albert is covering his and her energy. The only other thing she can make out is the muted sound of water rushing around them

"Shhh," Albert whispers quietly.

Disoriented in the dark and not being able to remember what happened, Marie sits quietly in the darkness waiting for Albert the next two hours. "Okay, they have stopped scanning for our presence," Albert finally says in a sigh of relief. "How do you feel? They were controlling your mind."

"Fine, I think." Not knowing what to say, Marie pauses for a moment. "Where are Jane and Donnie?"

"They left with Jack and some Guardian I don't know in a black suit."

"He's the one who almost killed Donnie and me. We need to save Jane and Donnie from him."

"I think he's the one who was controlling your mind. He also has Jane and Donnie." Troubled by the fact a Guardian is controlling the Lady's mind, Albert does not reply. Only the Lady is supposed to be able to control minds, where did this come from?

"What? Did the Lady tell you to not save her?" anxious for an answer, Marie uncharacteristically shouts at Albert, who remains silent. "No! She did not tell you that! We can't just do nothing! They have her under mind control and the bomb's blueprints. There is no stopping them." Marie pauses to wait for Albert to respond, and after another moment of silent, she continues, "Say something. What do we do now?"

He looks at her quizzically, "What do you propose we do, go to John and ask for Jane and Donnie back?"

Marie opens her mouth but does not have an answer. She thinks for a moment and says, "Isn't there anything we can do to snap her out of it?"

"Mind manipulation has always been a power exclusive to the Lady. How that Guardian learned to do it is beyond me." Albert lowers his head in dejection. "Now they have the bomb's blueprints, it would be a few simple steps for them to gather the right people and build the bomb. Everything the Lady told me to do, I have failed."

Marie speaks after another pause of silence, "So we are off script."

"Excuse me?"

In a slow deliberate pace, she talks as she thinks, "Well, until now everything was done exactly as the Lady Margaret planned. Whether there's more to her plans, we just don't know. Or maybe there was no plan at all. We are no longer following a script."

"That's one way of looking at it, but even when we think there is no plan, the Lady always has a plan," Albert replies with pious faithfulness.

Taking after Jane's youthful spirit, Marie says with enthusiasm, "Great, so we should just do what we think is best. If there is a plan, that's probably what the Lady intended. If there isn't one, what's wrong with our improvising? Either way, we are on our own to do as we see fit."

"Okay, let's say you are right. What do you propose we do? Guardians follow orders, that's what's I've always done. I'm not quite sure how we are supposed to be, what was that you said, off script."

"You leave that to me," Marie affirms with a devilish smile.

#

"My brother, you have done well," John says while he eyes the stoic Jane before him. "It seems our Lady has come quite a long way since we last met. However, she is still just a little girl." The room full of Guardians all smile in agreement and eye Jane with looks of disrespect and disappointment.