Guardians 1: Ashes

Chapter 56: A Distraction

Ross' POV

I sat down quietly in my room when I heard a thud. I looked in the hallway and saw Alex sitting on the ground. She looked exhausted.

"You're back..." I said.

She looked at me and urged me closer, so I stepped forward. She grabbed my pant's leg and teleported. All of a sudden I was back in Nero, and Shelby and Jin were waiting for me.

Shelby gave me a big hug and I smiled at her. Alex then teleported off again, when she came back, she had both Uni, and Adam. Adam almost threw up, and Uni sat down trying to stop his head from spinning.

Alex with a sigh, a yawn, and drowsy eyes teleported again. When she came back, she was on Rex's back and was out cold. I chuckled at this, but Jin seemed more concerned, and so did Shelby.

Rex ended up taking Alex to her room. Uni decided to lay down as well to stop his headache.

Jin, Shelby, Adam, and I decided to find Red's grave. He had sadly past while we were in Kalá, it was terrible news... but there were even worse problems now and we could really need the help.

Turns out, it wasn't a grave, but a vase, and not just one vase, but three.

"A vase for each kingdom." Jin spoke softly.
"Each kingdom was required to have the Ashes of the Fallen guardians so they can still defend each kingdom from evil spirits, and just to honor them."

Adam nodded agreeing to the story and I tried hard not to cry.
Shelby's face expression was grim, but their was still a sign of hope in her eyes and I tried to hold onto that.

We separated and stayed in our rooms through the rest of the day. I stayed with Adam though, I figured I could help him out, but he seemed to want to be alone.

I later thought I could help Jin, turns out he was working on some elaborate battle plan. I basically had no idea what he was doing, and he would yell at me half the time.

I noticed Shelby had been acting different, so I finally decided to ask her what happened.

"Hi Ross." She said as soon as I walked in the door.

"Tell me." I demanded and she just looked at me funny.

"Something had to have happened, your smile is back." I said with a grin.

Shelby looked at me with an eyebrow raised then said," Cory was here yesterday."

"Oh...uh... Did he like...kill someone?" I asked not really knowing how to respond.

"No!" Shelby exclaimed." Of course not he is still good, he is still on our side. He told Jerome that Ghetto poisoned Mitch, and sense then, Ghetto hasn't been seen here."

"So... he is still on our side? But-"

"He can shadow jump Ross." Shelby said interrupting me and I shut my mouth."He can come back." Shelby said with a smile.

"Then why hasn't he?" I asked.

Shelby's kind loving smile dropped and I regretted what I had said.
"I-I-I don't know..." Shelby said on the verge of tears.

"Oh no. I'm sorry, I- I didn't mean to Shelby. I'm so sorry." I said trying to comfort her.

I hugged her as she cried and decided to ask her different questions so she could get her mind off things." Why are you crying?" Was my first question.

Her crying became a whining as she concentrated on the question.

"I-I-I don't know..." Shelby said.

"Or do you not want to know?" I said with a grin.

"That makes no sense Ross!" Shelby yelled playfully. Then she stopped as she actually thought about what I had said.

"Do I not want to know?" She mumbled softly. And I nodded at her.

"I guess... I miss Cory and Nick." She said.
I raised an eyebrow at her.

"Okay fine just Cory." She said and I nodded.

"Why do you miss him?" I asked.

Shelby blushed a little." I don't know!" She said and covered her face.

"Or do you not want to know?" I said with a smirk.

Shelby shrugged in annoyance.
I looked at her and couldn't help smiling.

Adam's POV

I sat in my room quietly, still in shock. I felt as if we had no more help, no where left to go. This team was shattered, there spirit shattered. My own spirit gone, things were looking grim.

I sighed and then angrily threw my helmet at the wall which made a loud bang. I began to pace around my room. "What can we do, what can we do?" I questioned myself.

I didn't want Uni to fight, he seemed really out of it. Jin also told me about Shelby's powers failing which clearly meant things were getting worse.

We need to get our mind off of things, a distraction, a team building exercise, some sort of mission that gets them going again.
But what?

I decided to head to the HQ and call a meeting. Mitch, Jerome, Deadlox, and Barney came. Barney seemed tense and awkward.

"What is it Adam?" Mitch asked.

"We need something to do. Something to get things off there mind, some sort of mission." I said and Mitch nodded.

"Well, we do need to make supply drop offs and pick ups, we were having Alex do them, ya know teleport and stuff. But that seemed to really ware her down." Jerome said, " So if you are up for it, you guys can do it."

I nodded, "That would be great! I will split them up, where are the locations?"

"Fort N. East, and Fort N. South." Mitch said and handed me two seperate maps. I nodded and spread them on the table, and began to do draw out the route.

"There has been known Prodótis activity around this area." Deadlox pointed to an open field. "So you want to stay away from this area.

"That means you have to head through the mountains a bit." Jerome said and I nodded.

"Rex, Ross, and I will take the Mountain route into fort Fort N East. Jin, Shelby, and Uni will take the clearer Route to Fort N South." I said and Mitch nodded.

"Wait." Jerome said, "The reason we had Alex do the supplies is because we kept getting ambushed on the runs so her teleporting was the best option, so... there is really a lot of activity everywhere."

"But it should have died down by now, seeing how all the runs stopped, the Prodótis kingdom must think we finally gave up on those runs and won't expect us to go near at all." Deadlox said.

I nodded in agreement and then looked at them. They smiled and I took the maps and headed back into the sleeping area to tell the others about the plan.

I went inside the hall way and yelled, everyone came out in a hurry, Rex with a sword ready to fight.

"Nice... You're gonna need that." I said to Rex with a grin.

"What are you planning?" Rex questioned me.

"Glad you asked." I said then handed Jin a map and showed Rex my map.

"Fort N. South?" Jin questioned.

"Yup, we are going on a supply run. Jin you will be accompanied by Shelby and Uni, I will have Rex and Ross." I said with a grin.

Jin nodded and Uni and Shelby went to peek at the map he was holding.

"What are we delivering?" Uni asked nervously.

"Food, weapons, medical supplies mostly." I said and Uni nodded at me nervously.

"You look nervous for a pirate. What's wrong?" I asked jokingly.

"I'm not a- it's nothing." Uni said and glanced at the map again.

"Okay well, you will pick up the supplies at the gate, then we will go our seperate ways... if you get lost... well, deal with it."