To Overthrow the Guardians

Chapter 29: Eclipse and Her Children

Eclipse stood with her children in the forest that surrounded the headquarters. She had done her best to try to learn as many of the kids' names as possible, but it had been difficult when there were so many and when there were more important matters at hand, such as coming up with a plan to overthrow the Guardians. However, Eclipse thought of them as her own children. Most of them didn't have living parents, and they needed someone to take care of them while they were so far away from home. She and Matt had discussed having children at some point but had decided against it since any kids they had would likely be in danger with their parents the CEOs of the L.E.R. and all. Eclipse hadn't been completely satisfied with that decision but had known that it would be for the best. Now, however, she got a chance to play the mother.

She pulled out the phone in the pocket of her blue L.E.R. uniform; she had yet to take it off from yesterday. She had quite a few missed calls from Matt as she hadn't answered any of his attempts to contact her since last night. However, now it was time to respond.

"Come outside," she texted him. "I'm waiting." Yes, waiting she was. She looked at the time. She probably didn't have much until the Guardians arrived, but she couldn't tell for sure. Tooth had never said when she would show up again, or even if she would bring the others with her or not. But it didn't matter who came, with Eclipse's plan and all.

She waited for Matt to come. Her idea was simple: if she and her children were corrupted like the Fearlings, couldn't they possess people like they could? She and her kids probably couldn't go inside the headquarters anymore (or at least, their appearances certainly made it seem like the darkness had taken over completely now), but they could still do it outside. They were probably all resisting the corruption, but they seemed to have normal corrupted abilities, with their not needing sleep and all. And if Matt was possessed, they could control him and make him refuse to shut down the L.E.R. His and Eclipse's opinions were all that were needed. They were in charge.

The door to the L.E.R. headquarters flew open, and Matt's beaming face appeared, wrinkled with apparent worry.

"Haven! I was about to call the police on you!" he said. The smile dropped from his face. "Haven, who are these people?"

"I'm called Eclipse now," Eclipse said. "And these are my children."

Matt's dark eyes widened. "No, Haven, you don't know what you're saying. You're corrupted. You're confused."

Eclipse shook her head. "I feel fine. I would know if I was changing, wouldn't I? There's darkness inside me, but I'm resisting it. We all are. Come here! I haven't seen you since last night!" She held her arms out wide. She needed to get Matt away from the door so that he couldn't run for help.

He took a few precarious steps in her direction, his eyes darting between her and her children with their weapons.

"They won't hurt you," Eclipse said. "I promise."

At that, Matt took a few more steps. And then a few more. Almost there. Just a little farther...

He met her embrace, and she pulled him tight into it. His body was tense, however; he wouldn't relax.

The children began to creep around him, closing off the space between him and escape. But he saw this and yanked himself from her arms, racing away into the headquarters.

"Wait!" Eclipse cried. "Come back!" But he didn't, the door staying closed. "What are we gonna do now?" she asked the children.

"He has to come out sometime," Sneak said.

"But maybe not before the Guardians come," Vivian said. "They are still too strong to possess. We will have to lure out Matt another way."

Eclipse, however, had no idea how to do that.

*/*/*/*

Whisper looked around the training room, seeing if she could spot a bulge in anyone's pockets as a feeling grew in her mind. Darkness was near, or, more specifically, Haven and the other corrupted children were near. Fiona stood near Whisper as well, watching Angelia and Duran question people.

"Once you're done with the time travel device, may I use it?" Whisper asked Fiona. "I'm hoping that it might help me find Beatrice and Fracture. I could go back in time and see where they moved to, and then I can come back to the present and find them."

Fiona nodded. "If we get it back." And if Whisper was seeing things right, Fiona's hands were shaking. Out of rage or fear?

"Don't worry. Howard's theory is most likely untrue."

"It's not that I'm worried about. I'm afraid of what Mallory will do once he gets ahold of it. Will he kill some of us in the past, and we'll just disappear?"

Whisper nodded. It was a reasonable fear, at least. "We must find it. Or perhaps you could make another one and stop whoever it was from taking the first device?"

Fiona took a deep breath. "I guess."

"Good. I have to go check on something now." Whisper needed to see if the darkness was endangering anybody.

"Whisper!"

The Prophecy Person turned around and found Matt opening the door to the training room, his chest moving up and down rapidly like a pump.

"Haven's here!" he said. "And the rest of the corrupted children! You have to go and bring them in, as many as you can! I think they've reached the point where the E.A.D.s will come after them once they're inside. They tried to kill me or something. And Haven wanted me to call her Eclipse."

"How strange..." Whisper said. "But I knew I sensed them near." She hoped that she would be able to control her ability well enough that she could at least bring in Haven, Sneak, and Vivian. She had trained a little last night, not pushing herself too hard. It had come back fairly easily, so hopefully she would be fine. It was just controlling darkness that had motives of its own that she was still having trouble with since that hadn't been something she had been able to practice. "I'm coming." "I'll be right back, Fiona," she told the woman with the braid, and then she ran off toward the front doors of the building.