Year 2051

"Dear Amon,

As the years were passing, me and Odel became more distant, and I felt I lost a big piece of me. At the same time, Master Kion took interest in training you and that put distance between us. You became cold, and we stopped having fun, breaking the rules for a little.

Looking at Nora, I could see myself. Fragile, trying to make a soldier out of her, but deep down I know, she is not gonna make it, and that frightens me the most. All I know is that I made a terrible mistake, tearing a child out of her home, obeying a legion that goes against its beliefs. I’m still lingering on the past, I feel that this isn’t what I wanna do anymore, and I could end my life today, but I can’t leave my friend unprotected, letting them break her and create a monster, just like me. I know I can’t drag you in all these. I made my decision, as I have broken the rules in the past, I will break them once more. I know the consequences of my actions but I have to do this. There’s this question that eats me from the inside; “Who am I?” I can’t let this go. I’m sorry.

Yours,
Valerie"

24 hours earlier.

Valerie is wearing a golden dress, tied on her neck. Next to her is Amon with a black tuxedo. They are in a casino, playing one of the games. Valerie has her hair tied in a low bun and she plays with one of her strands.

Amon is losing and is cursing Lucy.

(Lucy=Goddess of Luck).

Valerie grabs him by the hand and says, “Please my love, let’s go”.

She urges him to leave, but he doesn't listen to her. Instead he pushes her aside. “I feel this one, it’s our lucky chance!” he says, moving the darts in his palm.

People are laughing, but no one stops him. They wanna win. Valerie hits him in the back as a sign of annoyance.

He doesn’t react to it and instead, he throws the darts.

It seems that the whole place was put in slow motion. The darts slowly move, and are about to decide in which number they will settle. Amon knows he needed both of them to show 6 in order to win, but from seeing how things go, he has to interfere for this to happen.

Amon moves his hand close to the darts. His movements are in normal speed, but everything else is in slow mo.

‘That’s right, that’s my power’ he thinks all cocky.

The darts are now showing 6 and he removes his hand from them, bringing the time to normal.

Their opponent is Kan, a lord that is known of his obsession over cards and abusing women.

Kan looks at the darts, he rages like a wild dog, as that means that Amon has won all of his credits. Amon laughs and hugs Valerie, kissing her on the forehead.

Valerie speaks through the mind link they have saying, "We did it!".

“I’m sorry Kan, it seems that I have some luck after all!” he says just to annoy him. Kan bangs the table and says, “You can’t leave! Now, that the game is becoming more interesting!”.

Amon looks at Valerie, and she goggles at him. She is making signs of ‘no’.

“The order was to take all his credits and put a tracker on him. Both are done, lets go”, she communicates to him.

“Sorry sir, my beautiful wife is a bit tired”, tries to turn him down. Kan then comes closer to them insisting, “Now that your luck has come to you, you wanna give up?”.

“Sir, I have nothing to go on with. Lost all my money here, and if we continue, the one I just won from you will go to waste”.

Kan thinks and an idea comes to mind. “You don’t always have to bet with money. There are other things you can give” says Kan eyeing Valerie.

“Oh no, she is off the table” Amon answer immediately.

Kan knew that he wouldn’t agree and he pulls a suitcase in front of them. He opens them and what’s inside a purple gemstone.

“The Indigo..” Amon whispers in awe.

This changes things a lot and Amon now looks at her. He grabs her by the hand, urge her to accept. The inner corners of her eyebrows are slanting upwards, begging him this way silently, not to.

“One of the primary targets of the Legion is to obtain the gemstones stolen from the Kingdoms. This is a rear opportunity!”.

“Yes, but you can’t just bet my life over it!”, she sounds furious.

“I’m sorry, but as senior, I decide we go with this”.

Valerie breaks the link and looks the other way, digging her nails inside her skin.

“We agree!” he says and the game is on.

Kan starts, both throwing the darts, making their next move. Amon knows he can use that move certain times, not unlimited.

“Ha! I guess the game is over and I can have my trophy!” Kan says laughing, as he just got both 5. Valerie is tightening her grip.

“Ah! I haven’t play yet”, comments with an air of certainty.

Amon makes him move and just before the darts settle, he flips the hourglass and everything is slower. Quickly, he grabs the darts, making sure Kan won’t be looking while he does that.

Kan’s eyes are closed now, and Amon smoothly changes the darts and pulls himself away. The darts are on the table and 6 is the number.

“YES!” Amon screams, and Valerie touches her chest as a sign of relief, breathing heavily.

Amon raises his hand for a high five, but Valerie doesn’t even look at him.

“Hey, Val..”, she stops him.

“Don’t. Just get the stone and let’s go. Nora is waiting for us”.

Amon is about to grab the suitcase but Kan slams his hand on it. “You cheated!” he screams. Amon tries to deny it, “I don’t understand what you are talking about”.

“You are using a magic weapon, huh? Changing the pace of time, isn’t it?”.

He found out. Kan is known of being smart and cunning. It was all a trap and the stone was the bait. Valerie and Amon find themselves surrounded. The men point their weapons and await Kan’s orders.

“These two are Guardians hired to track me and take all my money. Make sure you don’t hurt that angel. I want her all for myself” he says and gives the order to attack.

‘Tia’ Valerie calls out her Item’s name. Elegant as ever, appears a few inches away from her back. Amon raises his hand in the air, and a big scythe appears in his hand. He slams it on the ground, and the earth shakes.

Kan’s men open fire and Amon puts his huge scythe in front of them to act as a shield. With two quick moves, Valerie appears above the sword, having her blades swirl around her and attack the opponents.

“Go for the suitcase, I’ll hold them off!” Amon shouts and she runs for the stone. Again Kan’s hand is covering it. “Not so quick sweetheart” he says and pulls a gun out of his jacket, firing at her.

She dodges fast, and attacks him. His gun isn’t a normal one, but seems to be an Item. No matter how many times he fires at her, he won’t seem to be out of bullets. All she can do in dodge and can’t come next to him, or he will blast her.

She knows she can use magic and explosions, but that could create more problems and hurt the people around. ‘I just need to slip a blade in there’.

Amon raises his scythe and swings it around, cutting everyone in its path, like a reaper.

Valerie dodges two rockets by sliding down. Then, she sends a sword and lands on the case, piercing it. A blue string appears and she grabs it and pulls the sword, getting the stone.

“Good one Val, let’s go!” Amon says waving at her. Valerie is looking back and forth. The job was to obtain the stone, but nothing more.

“Shame, it would have be nice to add you to my collection” Kan is teasing her.

As she walks to Amon’s direction, she stops.

She throws the case to Amon and runs the other way to fight Kan. She is angry, throwing her blades at him. It feels like a hungry beast is inside her, trying to crawl out. Amon tries to stop her, but that isn’t happening. Kan fires at her but she doesn’t stop, even though some bullets scratch her.

Finally she has a close shot and she takes it. The sword comes and crushes into his chest, piercing his heart.

Amon grabs her from the arm, “Let’s go now” and she follows him. People are looking and he pulls out the Guardian insignia. “Please go your way, this is Guardian business” and with that they started walking out of this mess.

“What happened?” asks Nora worried in their mind link. Valerie briefs her and that they have the stone. Then they give a rendezvous point to meet.

Valerie isn’t talking, yet Amon feels the tension. “Val” he whispers and grabs her by the hand so she will stop.

“I had it, you know that” he tries to comfort her.

“You betted my life to a monster. I don’t care if you had it or not” she answers, being resentful. He then pushes her on the wall behind them.

“An opportunity arose and I took it. The mission comes first. And it’s not like you did better. You killed him, that wasn’t part of it, what if you were to make things worse and we would lose the stone? You violated the rules by putting emotions into a mission!”.

She looks at him, her eyes are full of hatred, she wants to punch him, but at the same time she can’t.

They stay like that, she doesn’t answer, yet stare at each other. As always she keeps her thoughts.

“We suppose to take care of the innocent! Well Kan here, hurt women and young girls yet no one has put a bounty on his head! No one did anything! So, I did what was right, and protected the people, as Eden would want!”

He grabs her mouth, stopping her from continuing. “That’s blasphemy! You can’t say you do what Eden told you, for your own means! You aren’t the Lord, so don’t say these stuff!”.

Valerie is frustrated. She never saw Amon so serious and cold.

He finally let goes of her, and she answers, “Well, I guess being trained by Master Kion has made you cold-blooded. And don’t touch me again!”.

With these last words, her heart was raging, but she kept walking, keeping her calm together.

They kept silent while waiting, till a spaceship came to pick them up to take them to the portal.

Inside the spaceship Amon is showing the stone to them, while Valerie sat next to Nora, silent.

Nora hugs her as a sign of missing her.

She grabs Valerie’s hand when no one is looking.

“What happened?”.

The time was passing silently, no word was exchanged between her and Amon. Everytime he would look at her she would growl back.

She lost a Master, as Odel stopped training her. Then, Amon agreed to train her till she made it to Paladin. But then he was approached by Kion. Jealousy hit her, as she wanted something for herself.

Amon was a discipline child, not going against his Master’s wishes, not talking back or asking questions, and excellent warrior. She was mad that her friend was taken away, as she was sure Kion had him become weary at her.

Amon was distancing himself, and for that reason, he wouldn’t be a part of what was to come next.