To Be Like the Guardians

Part 1: The Plan, Chapter 8: Steal

Mallory listened to Fiona's steps exit the building. She had checked in on him about an hour ago to make sure he was still "sane" a little after Beth had left. Now, Fiona probably assumed that he was gone.

"Silent," the voices in his head whispered to him. As if he didn't already know.

The front double doors creaked open and thudded shut; Fiona had gone.

Mallory waited for a second, then opened his door inch by inch. He couldn't get caught. What if Fiona was secretly listening on the other side of the front doors, waiting for him to try something because of the voices? He couldn't have that.

He slipped out the door to his office and began creeping down the hall. He would have been completely alone had it not been for the voices. But they weren't speaking right now, so all was quiet.

Mallory turned a corner and finished walking to Fiona's lab. He tried to turn the knob, but it was locked. He placed his finger on the fingerprint scanner to the right of it.

"Agent M. Bennett. Access granted," the monotone feminine voice rang through the hall, almost making Mallory jump. It wasn't that he hadn't ever heard it before, but there was this silly fear that someone might be listening.

He heard a click as the door unlocked, and he was able to open it.

Inside was what looked like some sort of organized mess. There was a long white table in the middle with various tools scattered on it, and pine drawers bursting with materials and sketches lined two of the walls. On the other side of the lab were a door and more drawers, but they were shut tight. And right next to them was a glass waterless tank holding what looked like a four-armed robotic woman. It had no hair and silvery metallic skin, and it was nearly twice Mallory's height. That was probably the sentinel Fiona was working on.

But what Mallory was looking for, though, were Power-Inducers. She had to have some stashed around here somewhere.

He made his way toward the crowded drawers first, reaching to open the first one up the rest of the way to inspect its items.

"No. Not there."

Mallory froze, almost jumping. "And how would you know?"

"We know many things, like the danger. You do not know all that we are aware of."

"What are you, anyway?"

"That does not matter."

"Yes it does. Are you a kind of being who can see through drawers?"

"We are more powerful than you know." They paused. "Check the other side."

Mallory walked to the shut drawers and opened one up.

"Not there. Too high."

He closed it and opened a lower drawer.

"Not there. Try to the right."

Mallory sighed and opened the closest drawer to his side.

"Yes, there."

Mallory dug through the various papers and extra tools in the drawer and found a few Power-Inducers at the bottom. He only took two, though. That was what he needed. They wouldn't run out for a month, and by then, Matt and Haven would be back.

"Good. Now it is time for the rest of your plan. You are doing well at saving your children, Bennett."

*}{/*}{/*}{/*

Haven's heart had felt light and happy while she was awake- the wedding had gone well, and now she was married- but there was something beneath the joy, a layer of fear below.

In her first nightmare, everything was bathed in red. Not like blood, but like some sort of evil energy that beat like a heart. Everyone in the dream stared at her, watching, their eyes so wide it almost looked like they would fall from their sockets.

"These are the doomed souls," they spoke, their gaping mouths in sync.

In her second nightmare, she was trying to use her Power-Inducer to stop Mallory from killing her. However, it wouldn't work, just like in real life. She didn't know why they didn't work for her when they worked for everyone else, but they just didn't. Matt's Power-Inducer ability was that he could fix things just by looking at them, Angelia's was that she was extra strong, Duran's was that he could read and calculate numbers more quickly, and Fiona's helped her picture things, but Haven didn't have one. And as her heart pounded in her ears in the nightmare, Mallory sunk the blade of his scythe into her chest, and she woke up nearly trembling.

In her third and final nightmare, she lay in a bed of flowers. The sky was a static gray, the grass a dark green. She reached out to touch one of the colorful blooms with her fingers, but as she did so, it turned brown and withered right before her eyes.

"Oh no!" she shouted as the withering disease spread to the rest of them, and the sky began to pour. Thunder rumbled in the distance.

She awoke to Matt shaking her.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

Haven just groaned in response and told him about her nightmares, the fear.

"You're probably just worried about Mallory," he said. "I am, too, but we should relax. We can trust the others to deal with it."

"I know." She hoped the stress wouldn't ruin her honeymoon, for it brought a past fear to surface. What about the Indicator? They had left it in their office. For the past few years, it had stayed still, constantly in the center of the golden orange half. But when would it change? When would somebody die, or disappear, and what if Mallory's voices led him down a path of doom? Whisper had thought Haven's dream meant nothing, but Haven herself wasn't so sure, with Mallory's voices and such. Maybe she was safe from being doomed now, but him...?

"We just have to trust them that everything will be fine. We can call if we get really worried." Matt smiled, and a little piece of Haven's heart did as well. "I'm nervous too, but we just have to try to enjoy ourselves tomorrow."

"I know. I just wish it were easier."

*/*/*/*

Whisper shut the hefty book she had been looking through with a thud, then set it back on the bookshelf in the stone-floored room.

"Found it?" North asked, fiddling with his globe's controls a ways away. Many of the lights were flickering; something was off, and he was trying to figure out what it was. His guess was that there was only something wrong with the Globe, so he was trying to fix it.

"Yes, but it's only the address she used to have."

"Ah. I'll get her new one the first time her daughter sends me a letter, or when I find her house on Christmas Eve if it doesn't make it here. You will have to wait until then."

Whisper frowned, shaking her head. "I don't want to wait." Now that she knew her friend was alive, she wanted to see her now. Beatrice might not even remember Whisper, depending on what Bunny's uncle had done when he took her back to her time and place, and that just made Whisper more determined to find her. To set things right.

"Well, you could ask Tooth. Maybe she knows."

"Thanks for the suggestion. Could I take a couple of snowglobes?"

"Of course. I hope you find Beatrice."

"Thank you." Whisper hoped Mallory would be alright until she found her sister-in-law and Fracture. Whisper felt like he had been teetering on the edge when she left him. He hadn't exhibited any alarming behavior, but the darkness inside of him had felt stronger than before. It had been getting ready to try something.

Perhaps she should check on him before going to Tooth's palace. But no, asking Tooth about Beatrice and Fracture wouldn't take very long, and Mallory would be fine. He didn't have his Power-Inducer, and Fiona was watching out for him. Whisper knew that darkness was tricky, however. As North handed her a couple snowglobes, the gnawing worry distracted her from her goal.

Darkness took time to strike grandly, though, like Haven's cure's curse. It couldn't do something overnight that would cause great trouble, could it?