On the other side of the portal, I almost stumbled into Raleigh, who was waiting there.
"O-oops.. Sorry," I muttered. But he wasn't paying attention. He was studying the slightly battered up Tenebris and Skyal who had followed me.
"What happened?" he asked. Then he added, "and why is Dino in hypercore? You know you turn into a war-crazed asshole when you transform, right?"
"A little respect wouldn't hurt, now would it?" Tenebris answered. "You'd better watch your tone, lazy weakling."
"Excu-"
"Enough, both of you," Skyal interrupted, "Raleigh, stand down, and Dino, revert."
And so they did.
"My apologies," Dino said.

Seeing my confused reaction to the conversation, Skyal explained.
"As a side-effect of hypercore..." I frowned at the word. At the time, I hadn't heard it before.
"Defender mode," Raleigh said simply.
Skyal nodded and continued, "Right. As a side-effect, not just the defenders' bodies, but their personalities change as well, when they transform. Normally, Dino is polite, but when he transforms, well... what he just said," he said, jerking a thumb at Raleigh.

"Back to the question," Raleigh said, "what did happen?"
He looked at all of us, and when he met my eyes, I shrugged slightly.
"I can't tell you.. I was a little busy hiding under the stairs"
"Unity strike at the mansion," Sky said finally. "My room is practically destroyed now."
Raleigh shook his head. "They get more arrogant by the day, don't they?"
"They do," Dino agreed.

"So what now? Big sleep over with miss Torch-a-Soldier-Without-Being-Decil?" Raleigh said, indicating me.
It took me a moment to realize that he actually meant me.
"Uhm, I have a name," I said.
"I know," the defender replied, grinning. "I just chose to ignore it."
I sighed, then frowned. I opened my mouth to say something, but got interrupted by Raleigh (which, by now, didn't surprise me).

"So she staying here?" (Yes, he actually said it like that.)
"For now, yes," Skyal said. "I want to train her personally."
Dino sighed. "I will be returning to my nation now. It appears my presence is no longer required."

"You sound so disappointed," I commented sarcastically.
"See ya, Mr. Darkness," Raleigh added.
"I am not.." Dino said calmly, ignoring the obvious sarcasm. "And stop calling me that, light-bulb head." He deactivated the force window he was conveniently standing next to.
"Sayonara gentlemen.. and human-lady," he added when he realized that, oh, not everyone in the room was male. Then he deadman-dived out of the window, followed by a high-pitched noise and a sonic boom.

"Why is everyone ignoring my name," I wondered out loud. Raleigh made a noise that indicated he didn't know, and I was about to comment that he should, because he was one of the people who did it, when Skyal stopped me, probably sensing another one of the arguments that Raleigh was so prone to get into.

"Stephanie, training starts tomorrow. Either get some rest or do something else for now. Raleigh, show her around, will you?" I wondered if I should mention that he didn't really give either of us a choice, but shrugged mentally. I was a bit of a quiet person.

"Sure thing, sun-prince," said Raleigh.
For some reason, that really triggered Skyal. "I told you not to call me that. Now get moving!"
"Alright, bajesus, no need to go ballistic on me... ehm, you coming, Steph?"

----------》》》》》《《《《《----------

A while later, we arrived at what would be my room. I'd been shown storage, the spacebridge nexus, the entrance (featuring a sarcastic comment about how that was the highlight of the tour), and the residential areas.

"So this is where you'll be stayin' for a while. You have practically about everything you need; Ionican equivalent of TV broadcast, the human version, computer... all over there." He pointed over to a small, seemingly empty desk made of black glass on metal plate. Then he pointed at something that looked like one of those huge printers you often see in schools. "Food's in the atomic assembler."
"Uhm, right. Thanks, Raleigh," I said, smiling politely.
"No problem. If you need me I'll either be up in command center or in my room. See ya."

----------》》》》》《《《《《----------

I quickly realized that there was an annoying lack of books. It really frustrated me, but then I realized something. I quickly checked the inside pocket of my denim jacket that I never really used and so had forgotten about, and found Diana's diary in it. I started reading.

Me and Sky often sat on the roof of the Solaris mansion. I'd play my guitar, or we'd talk for a while. Sometimes we'd train. I'd use my twin daggers that I'd gotten when I was really small. Sky would use a sword. When we were kids, we used to work with mock weapons, but when we entered our teens, we started using real weapons. We trusted each other and knew each other's moves through and through. We had been close for years. He was my best friend. My only friend, in fact. He was always there for me when I needed him and vice versa.

And so, of course, as I entered my teens, I inevitably started developing feelings for him. It was slightly weird, though. It was as if I had a crush on my brother. I concealed it for years and years, until one day

I was reading intently this when someone rang the 'doorbell.' I snapped out of my concentration and quickly hid the notebook under the pillow on my bed while I called, "come in!"
"Hello, Stephanie," Skyal said.
"Oh, hey Sky," I said, relieved.
As ever, Sky looked slightly surprised at the nickname. I had decided to ignore it since I first saw it.

"I was wondering if you could join me in close quarters combat training today," he said. "Like it or not, you are on Ionica now, and this world isn't as safe as we'd like it to be."
I nodded. "Uh.. Sure, sounds like a good plan." I stood up and kneeled by the bed, where I had stowed the few possessions I had with me. Including Diana's daggers.
"Alright, session starts in a couple of minutes," Skyal said as I tried to find the daggers. "Do you want to join me now, or take a few minutes to prepare?"
At that moment I found them. The daggers, the belt, and the gloves that kept me from getting hurt if I touched the enchanted blades.
"There we go," I muttered, and I stood up, indicating the bundle I had salvaged from the mess that even the small amount of my stuff created. "I don't have much to prepare, so I'll just come now."

Skyal nodded. "In that case, come with me."
I followed him to an elevator. He pressed a button and it went down. The elevator was surrounded in a force-field tube, looking out over the city.

I didn't really know what to say, so I didn't say anything. That is, until Skyal started something which I could only assume was an attempt at small talk.

"Say, Stephanie, do you think even the greatest and most dangerous killers should be granted a second chance? Or that they have the capacity to change in the first place?"
The question, perhaps needless to say, took me slightly by surprise. Nevertheless, I thought about it for a moment, then answered.
"Hmm... maybe. I... I guess I never really think about these things."
Skyal nodded thoughtfully. "Hmm.. Understandable, for someone of your age and position."

The elevator stopped, and we exited it into a big gym-like room, with advanced-looking walls with some sort of projectors in every corner. The doors opened just in time for us to see Raleigh being flung across the room and face-planting into the wall.
"Wow," I said softly. "Bad timing, much?"
"I'd say so, girly," said a guy with messy silver hair and eyes and a big scar on his cheek who looked to be in his twenties.
"Girly?" I muttered, soft enough that no-one could hear me.
Sky raised an eyebrow. "Could you please keep my defender and my simulators intact, Tri?" he called to him.
"Sorry boss," Tri said, "Raleigh was getting on my nerves again."
"Stephanie, meet our chief security and incredibly skilled detective, Tri," Skyal said, turning to me.
"At your service," Tri said. I smiled politely grinning, although I still wasn't over the fact that he'd addressed me as 'girly'.

Of course, we were foolish to think (Read: I was foolish to think) we could have a normal conversation with Raleigh in the room with someone who had annoyed him at any point.
"Could you please not set me flying all the time, karate-kid?"
"For the record, mister Main Character, I am older than you," Tri answered immediately.
Raleigh grunted. I switched my attention to Skyal, who sighed, shaking his head, and then looked at me. "Don't mind them."

"So, uhm... Anyway.." I absently put on my leather gloves. I had already put on my belt, and I was looking at Skyal, who had calmly moved over to a position some three meters away.
"Alright," he said. "Right now, I will merely test your abilities, so I want you to come at me with all you have."
"Uhm, okay.. I don't think I'm very good at this... I've only worked with a sword before and, well.." I drew the daggers and looked at them for a moment or two, then looked back at Skyal, grinning slightly. "These aren't exactly the same."
"We can get you a proper blade, if you want," Skyal offered. I didn't hesitate about my answer for even a second.
"No, no, I want to learn how to use these. Somehow... somehow, they feel familiar and unfamiliar, at the same time. It's hard to explain." It was as if I was holding a pen that had been in my possession for years and I had held very often, but didn't know how to write.
"Alright, in that case, let's begin."

I nodded. I backed up a few steps, and considered the situation. It was not until then that I realized I didn't know what to consider. I dug through my memories to see what I remembered from reading. First thing that popped in my mind, was see what weapons my enemy was using. Only then I realized that Skyal was unarmed. Somehow, the idea that he was standing there, unarmed, and yet completely calm, made me even more nervous than I already was. I knew that I wasn't gonna be very skilled-- I was realistic enough to realize that. I also knew that Skyal was very skillful. I had seen him fight, after all. I can't exactly explain why his calmness made me nervous. It just did.

I figured, however, that, because Skyal was not armed, I couldn't really physically get hurt. So I might as well just charge and let instinct take over from there. Easy, right?

Wrong.

Turns out that letting instinct take over is much harder than it seems when you're a starter at anything. I honestly don't know what I was thinking. I guess I wasn't thinking at all.

Either way, I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, opened my eyes and then charged. What 'instinct' made me do was basically a series of clumsy slashes and stabs that were all easily dodged by Skyal. With the last slash (or, what would be the last in that series of moves), he used the blade's downward momentum to grab my wrist, take the blade, spin me around and put the dagger to my neck.

"And you're dead," he said, which was slightly infuriating, because it had been the very first time I'd ever even used the daggers. Suddenly, I started feeling really tired. With wide-eyed realization, I started at Skyal. "T-that can't touch my skin for too long."
"I assume you have your reasoning," he said, releasing me. I could feel my energy coming back and nodded.
"It's a pretty simple reason, but one that could actually kill me easily. They're anti-mage daggers," I explained simply. Skyal frowned.
"Never heard of it, must be from somewhere off-world."
I nodded. "They used to be Diana's."
"Is that so?" he asked, twirling the blade around in his hand. When I nodded, he said, more to himself than to me, "That's why I recognized them.. they were hers." He pressed the pommel and pulled on a part of the crosspiece, after which, to my surprise, a hidden compartment in the blade opened, out of which he pulled a note and a USB and put them in his pocket.

I raised my eyebrows. "What the hell?"
"Hidden compartment. I knew about it, because I made it myself. Anyway." He twirled the blade around again, pointing the handle invitingly at me. I grabbed it, momentarily glaring suspiciously at him.

He told me to try again, and I nodded, taking a few steps backwards and repeating the process of closing my eyes for concentration. Then I charged again, prepared to do the same but thinking about what I did. However, when I reached Skyal, he simply sidestepped, making me trip and fall. I stood up carefully, muttering, "ow."

I nodded determinedly at Sky when he looked at me, telling me, "Again."

----------》》》》》《《《《《----------

The next 6 hours consisted of me attacking and Skyal defending. Every time ended in failure on my part. I improved slightly, even if I didn't realize it then. Skyal didn't give me any tips, much to my annoyance.

He had disarmed me for the so-manieth time, and was now twirling the two daggers around again. "Let's stop for today," he said. I was leaning my hands on my knees, trying to steady my breathing. After some time, I looked at him. "Sounds like a plan," I told him.
"Tomorrow we will continue, but you will get lessons in the fighting style we use around here by Tri before facing me again."
I stood up straight and nodded.
"I will also send you some... Study material for you to get used to life here on Ionica," before walking out. "Consider it your replacement for high-school." Then he turned and walked away. I might've imagined it, but I could've sworn I heard him snickering softly.

I sighed and took off my gloves. I noted idly that Skyal had taken my daggers with him. I shrugged and walked back to my room. I was too tired to care.

Finally finished, sheesh! It's a long chapter again, and there's another chapter coming that will probably be this long. I would've added that to this chapter but it would've been a bit long and I thought this would be a good point to stop it. It's well over 2000 words, mind you. It took me months, I know. I'm sorry. I think I'm gonna focus on my Ranger's Apprentice story next. It's been a while since I updated that one. I don't really know what to say other than that so uhm.. yeah, I'll stop talking now before suzy1writesforu kills me. We're gonna write a story together and she's been waiting all day. Soooo... yeah, baiii!

Xx Rissa

It was night in Astravia, and a lone figure walked into his office. He walked to his advanced computer terminal and pressed a few buttons. The doors behind him closed, and the lights went red, indicating a lock. Skyal took out Diana's daggers and placed them on the table, then fished the note out of his pocket and silently read it. After that, he put it away and plugged in the flash-drive he had recovered from the hidden compartment. He then grabbed the other dagger and stabbed the blade into a wide interface-port, after which small linings on the blade started illuminating in a circuit board-style pattern, and a program booted up. Security-like footage appeared on the screen, although it was like someone's field of vision, along with several statistics. Skyal silently and grimly watched the footage, rewinding the ending multiple times, his eyes flickering from the footage to one specific statistic, until he closed his eyes.

"I knew it." He pressed a few buttons.
A familiar voice asked through the comms, "What is it, Skyal?"
"Jack," Skyal answered, "I was right."