Globe Tracers 3: Heritage of Triad

Chapter 16: Scouting

Xao:

Kyle slowly stepped away, more like staggered, wiping his nose on his arm- he was never the neatest person. I spoke up again. "With J-Star... I just got through to you... maybe I can with her too."

"Xao you don't..."

"The right words was all it took, just something you didn't realize or think about- that's how it works right?" I knew even as I said those words they didn't ring true, but maybe Kyle would agree and...

"No," Kyle said. "Xao, the right words for you were, "leave the tricksters or leave us". You think I converted you away from the tricksters with an ultimatum? You were the one who ultimately convinced yourself. You cared more about the danger of doing the wrong thing than the life the power offered you. You wanted more to not become a monster than to keep make believing you were a hero."

I nodded. "But still... Kyle I see it in her eyes, the way she talks- we beat her up, insulted her, and spat on her way of life-"

"In our defense-"

"I'm not saying we were wrong- well saying she was barely human was certainly pushing it."

"I apologized for that," Kyle pointed out.

"She's. Still. Here. She's humble enough to see she needs to grow, and she's determined to learn and grow. She even lets us train her while you keep looking down on her."

"It's not her personally I'm so upset about," Kyle said. I folded my arms. "Don't give me that. She's the last thing we need right now. We're going into a fight and we're going to have to kill. We're trying to save two people already and now you're trying to save a third."

"Whatever your reasons Kyle, Jay has more than proven she is a good person. If you and I don't try to save her from the tricksters now, it's probably not going to happen."

"We can't save her in our own power... bud. Just like you couldn't save Darius."

I nodded. "Kyle... you've been facing a loss of control- me? I've been facing a feeling of being useless. But I'm not, there are things that can be done. You might have to stick with people for a while... and who knows, maybe I gave up on Darius too fast. You and Jessica traveled with me and when the truth was revealed about what being a trickster meant, when how corrupting the power was became obvious, you stood up to me. You forced me to make a choice. You saved me. If you hadn't been there, it wouldn't have happened." I nodded to myself. "To be fair to the past, not sure I even COULD have given Darius that choice."

Kyle paused. He looked down. "Well... what is your plan for this?"

I shrugged. "Kinda been winging it."

Kyle gave a smile. "How did I figure that?" He closed his eyes. His eyes opened and he stared straight at me. "Okay, if we use your conversion from the tricksters as an example, you didn't leave just because you were afraid of corruption, that's just what brought you to the edge..." he started feeling his chin in a thinking pose.

"Are you... are you really doing this?" It was like my heart was feeling weightless for a moment- a person was going to willingly help me? I wasn't alone against the darkness for once in this horrible trip.

"You helping me or not?" Kyle said. I just blinked. "We're setting out with objectives out here and one of them is apparently saving this girl from Tarth- I don't like that guy anyway..."

"Wanna break his jaw?" I asked with a grin.

"That'd probably be a bad idea so I'll take saving Jay as a close second. You wanted friends when we met you so my ultimatum meant something, we throw something like that at J-Star it'll probably just bounce off. I mean as far as I've seen she's not with us for companionship."