Falls on Deaf Ears - Book 2

Jason began to levitate as everyone looked on in surprise. They all knew he was having a massive vision, but they didn't realize how bad it was. Bel and Rand grew concerned for Jason as they slowly walked towards him. They shared a nod, as if they understood what the other was thinking. They closed their eyes at the same time, and ever so gently eased their way into Jason's mind, to the point where they could watch the visions unfold. Once it was done, after several long moments, they both opened their eyes with a gasp of shock.

"So my leaving is not a good idea yet," Rand commented, causing Bel to agree. "That won't stop me from having other ideas." He turned towards Max. "Can you call off your two guys? I want to leave that kid wandering some more, and make sure no one runs into him!"

Max was startled, "Why?! They are actively searching for survivors! That vision of Jason's couldn't have been that bad!"

Rand slowly shook his head, then forcefully pushed the vision into Max's head as he gasped with a pained, but surprised expression. As Max studied the vision, he began to sweat profusely as the events came to an end. Max felt like he had run a marathon as he looked at Rand, then Jason. He had to wonder if it was made up, but he also knew the Oracle's foresight was right on the mark and didn’t argue that. He was silently thankful that Rand sent him the vision instead of Simon. He let out a sigh as Simon began to ask questions, but Max ignored him as he mentally searched for the rest of the guardians across the globe. Once he found them, he sent a message not to approach anyone and to return to base immediately. All of them but two affirmed their actions, and Max became more persistent with his orders towards the two who had spotted a boy walking the streets by himself.

'Under NO uncertain terms; you are not permitted to approach that kid! I don't care if he looks innocent or not, I'm getting the feeling he is none other than Sid's personal pet! Now, break off the search and come back to base quickly! That is an order and I won't repeat it!' Max thought angrily towards the two young men, who simply refused to obey, but once he had their weak confirmations, Max sent out another thought to Chad to make sure everyone returned. He didn't wait for an answer as he turned towards Rand.

"It is done. Let’s hope they don't disobey my orders; otherwise I will know in an instant that they didn’t return and they will be blocked from entering here." Max replied to Rand as he nodded. Max knew that everyone understood why being disobedient would meet a punishment of sorts that best fits the crime. He was pleased to find out the two men had returned. He had been watching them for quite some time since the vision and wanted to make sure things went differently. He couldn't shake the uneasy feeling he was having about everything happening around him.

Rand turned to look at Bel, "I have an idea." He didn't wait as he concentrated for a second. Another Rand appeared directly to his left as everyone gasped in shock. "I'll send my clone to the Sarris homeworld and ask them for help. I had been intending to ask them anyway, which was my idea to do so." He paused to see the look of horror on Bel's face and quickly added, "Don't worry; if I play my cards right, they’ll only send one to help. They’re a pretty peaceful race, you know."

That did nothing to calm Bel's nerves. "I'm sure my father told me they have hated us for a long time. I don't know why, but the thought of bringing one here makes me nervous. Why do you hafta ask them? There're plenty of others out there!" Bel tried protesting but Rand simply rolled his eyes.

"For starters, they don't hate your race. Trust me on that, please. Second, they can actually help with a large transportation problem that I can't do on my own. Even you should know that by now."

Bel rolled his eyes and nodded in resignation. "Fine, do it."

"Bel, please!" Rand pleaded. "Give them a chance, it's all I ask!"

Bel sighed and hugged Rand. "Okay, they get a chance."

Rand's smile lit up for the first time since arriving and it was a marvelous sight. It was infectious too, as everyone who had been paying attention started to smile as well. Rand shook his head, then looked over towards his clone and nodded. The clone disappeared in a flash of red light as Rand quickly moved towards Jason, as did Bel. They both held out their arms as if to catch the body from falling. When they both closed their eyes in concentration, they were hoping to bring Jason out of his trance.

The Oracle's power never let anyone suddenly pull themselves from a nightmarish like vision. It was to ensure the person viewing the foresight, had to see it towards the end. It was brutal and harsh, yet accurate and just at the same time. Over the years, several times the original Oracle had tried to pull herself from such visions, and all but failed with a massive headache that lasted for weeks. Bel and Rand thoroughly understood, of what little they gathered in the short time while viewing the vision. They also discovered Jason knew this with the vast information that was once the Oracle from her experiences. Over time, Jason would get used to how things worked as an Oracle, but for now, time was not his friend.

After several moments, Jason slowly opened his eyes to see strange faces staring down at him with silly grins across their faces. He blinked a few times to clear the fuzziness as more faces appeared to be hovering over him. He groaned slowly, and moved his left arm to rub his tired eyes. As he removed his arm from his face, he began to move slightly, but also found the strangers lips to be moving yet no sound could be heard. Suddenly, his body began to float downwards into the arms of Rand and Bel.

"Are you all right?" Jason finally heard soft words being spoken to him.

"I think so," Jason sighed and blinked a few times to shake the cobwebs from his mind. "What happened?"

"What was the last thing you remember?"

Jason thought for a minute and when he finally had his answer, he bolted upright, only to slightly lose his balance as he nearly fell over, but Rand and Bel steadied him.

"Easy there..." The blue-white haired boy spoke softly, so as to not startle Jason any further.

Jason groaned as he steadied himself, trying to shake off the sleep. "It was horrible. I remember everything. I saw everything end before my eyes and it felt so real!" He began as he looked around him. He could see strange faces looking at him, none to familiar. "There was this huge blast of energy coming from some strange man standing up there with a dragon next to him. It was directed at everyone and my shield didn't hold them at all. I felt so powerless..." He struggled to think of more but nothing was forthcoming. "Beyond that...I..." He shook his head as tears began to flow freely. "What happened to me?"

Max finally spoke, "You're an Oracle now..." Max paused to allow the words to sink in before starting again, as he studied Jason's expression, "... and before you start asking more questions, you should look within yourself for the answers you seek because I don't have them all."

Jason felt very surprised at first, but he couldn't shake the feeling that he had much more knowledge than he ever had. He nodded just as his parents came running towards him, embracing him in a tight hug as they squeezed themselves between Rand and Bel.

"Mooooom, Daaaaaaad, not so tight!" Jason whined as he winced from the tight embrace, feeling slightly sore, and embarrassed at the same time, with everyone staring at him.

Both of his parents smiled with tears running down their cheeks. "We thought we’d lost you!" Joyce spoke as she wiped tears from her face with the back of her hand. She then looked at Max with a sour expression on her face, "What happened to him? What have you done to my baby?!" Joyce could sense there was a great change in Jason. She just knew, as it was a mother's intuition.

"Moooom! I'm not a baby!" Jason protested, but Joyce ignored him.

Jack tried to somewhat calm his wife, as he was slightly more understanding in the matter, but failed.

Trish had been watching the events and decided to try and calm her best friend. She slowly stood, with the help of Jerry and her younger twins, and made her way towards Joyce.

As Trish slowly placed her arm on Joyce's right shoulder, she spoke softly, "Joyce honey, come and sit with me and I will explain everything."

"No! I refuse to leave my baby!"

"Mooooooooooom! I'm no longer a baby anymore! I can take care of myself!"

Joyce didn't listen as she sharply turned her attention to Trish. "Weren't you the one who’d lost everything?! You should understand what I was going through! I... I..." She broke down in tears as Trish tried her best to comfort her, as did Jack.

Ever so slowly, Trish pulled Joyce away from Jason and guided her to sit with her in a comfortable chair off stage and next to the tent with only the candlelight illuminating the area.

Jason sighed as he closed his eyes as to search for answers. While Jack was caressing his son's back, he watched Jason for a few minutes as Rand and Bel were still holding him, and while they were patient enough, they felt they could deal with their burden a little longer.

From a distance, Jerry watched what was happening and asked his younger boys to follow him. Slowly and carefully, he regained some of his strength as he made his way towards Jason. Jack looked over his shoulder and nodded to Jerry as he tried to offer words of encouragement.

"Look, I know this can't be easy for you, finding out your only son is an Oracle now," Jerry began trying to choose his words carefully, doing his best to not upset Jack. "We can help you in the long run, but know this: he will age as slowly as my boys will and as tough as it might seem, think of it as a good thing. Providing we all survive this, he has a chance to live almost forever. As much as I wish that could happen to us, I'd be happy knowing that my boys will be well off when I pass away. I know Trish will out live me, but..."

Rand was slightly surprised the twin's father would know such a thing. He felt it was time to speak up. "That isn't quite the case, Mr. Shannon. I can sense your body is changing slowly, but you will notice it later on. That Time Void is strange, but I think you, and your wife, will have an even longer life. But you already knew that, didn’t you?" Jerry shot a glance towards Rand, and looked at his boys, then smiled weakly and nodded. Rand continued as he got his answer, "And Mr. Ross, before you protest about it, if you wish, I can grant you and your wife that wish you were just thinking about."

Before Jack could reply, Jason sniffled and slowly looked up towards everyone, before finally looking at his dad. "You’d do that?" Much to Jack's surprise, he slowly nodded at his son's indirect question to a longer life.

Max smiled at the moment, and decided to break the moment. "So, how are you feeling?"

Jason's smile changed into a frown as he tried to think of the right words. "I don't know, different somehow. I don't know if it's a good different or a bad different. I do know for sure that I think I could tolerate the powers of the Oracle, but... it scares me at the same time."

Max rolled his eyes at the complex answer while everyone else looked upon Jason with curiousness. "That's not what I meant."

"I... huh? Ohhh, that! Well... I feel a bit dizzy, but other than that, okay, I guess." Before Max could begin, Jason continued, "Where are Eric and Matt?"

Jerry shuffled with the uneasiness of the question, but Max saved him. "Jason, my name is Max; those two you speak of are safe, but here, yet not here at the same time."

Jason found himself to be very familiar with the response, but wondered how. "Can I see them?"

"Soon enough."

"I don't under..." Jason had slight flashes of vision of the previous ten minutes and then the next hour all in a second. "Oh, I see." He became very nervous asking the next question he had on his mind. "Will we survive this time? It seems some things are giving me a strange feeling of Déjà vu, but I did see all the way to the end of my vision and it ain't pretty. These two," Jason thumbed his hand towards Rand, then Bel, and continued, "have already seen it. I felt them in my head."

Rand, Bel, and Max were caught off guard as Simon moved closer. "Jason, whatever you saw couldn't have been that bad! Besides, you seem to be much better than the previous Oracle!"

Jason swiveled his head towards the unknown, but somewhat familiar voice. "Ah, you must be Simon!"

The corners of Max's mouth began to turn slightly upwards as he fought to hold back a good chuckle that was sure to happen. No one noticed yet, but he did see a few people began to catch on.

"Just what exactly is that supposed to mean? There's no way for you to have ever met me before!"

"Well..." Jason began, drawing out the "L" a little longer with an innocent look, "I do have her memories!"

Simon muttered an "Oh shit" under his breath. Max was trying harder not to break out laughing, as was everyone else within earshot, but Jason heard it, even if they were only a whisper.

Some lingering memory popped up in Jason's head as he recognized Simon interacting with the previous Oracle from that memory. "A certain memory tells me to treat you less than a brother, yet I can't understand why. But I know mom will scream if I treated you less than that."

Max, and everyone else, couldn't contain it anymore and roared with laughter, causing Simon to turn red with embarrassment.

Julian spoke up as he and his brother walked towards their dad. "He got ya dad!"

Simon simply shook his head and muttered something no one but Jason could hear, causing him to snicker some.

"Guys!" Trish called from the corner with a bemused smile on her face. She had been half listening to what was happening and half consoling her best friend. Besides her, Joyce wiped a few tears from her face, but she seemed to look much better than before. As they both stood, Trish continued, "If anyone is hungry, Joyce and I will be in the dining hall helping with the staff, because I'm quite sure some of you are very hungry."

Joyce wanted to protest, but Trish tugged her arm some as everyone nodded, but Rand spoke up, "While the rest of you are stuffing yourselves silly, I've gotta get moving." He turned towards Bel, "Look, I know you want to come, but only I can handle it."

Bel gasped, "Why, are you going where I think you are going? What if you get yourself killed from that Dragon beast we saw? What if...?"

Rand sighed, and rolled his eyes, "Relax, Bel. I'm curious if I could do something to prevent that from happening. Besides, my clone should be back with the person in question I had in mind, and the clone can relay updates, because I am going to close my mind off so no one picks up on me. Hopefully, I'll be back to help before everything gets out of hand."

"I don’t want you to! I don't like it!" Bel started, fully knowing what Rand would do. "You know that closing your mind off makes me worry! I mean, no one would be able to find you if you do that!"

"I know, which is why I think I should be the one to do this. Jason, do you feel up to standing on your own?" Jason nodded and Rand let out a light sigh as he began to lower Jason to his feet. Bel did the same as Jason steadied himself on wobbly legs. Jack was there to help his son as Rand looked into Bel's red eyes and continued, "Bel please. It's something I have to do. Do you trust me?"

Bel slowly nodded, with some tears rolling down his face. "I still don't like it! What if something happens to you? I wouldn't forgive myself for letting you do this if something does!"

Rand rolled his eyes as he leaned in to kiss Bel squarely on the lips. He slowly wiped away several tears from Bel's face. For a moment, it silenced Bel's pleadings, but Rand had other things in mind. He stealthily slipped some of his power in Bel that caused Bel to slowly fall asleep in his arms. 'Relax, Bel. I've added some of my power to your own. I know it's usually done when we join in the bonding, but you are also with child by this result. I wish it could have been under better circumstances, but to me, I felt it was the best time. Worry not my love, I WILL BE BACK.'

Bel smiled with closed eyes as he moved his left arm to caress his stomach. He quickly fell asleep as Rand caught his fall and placed him in Max's arms. Rand smiled to himself and kissed Bel on the lips before nodding to Max, and disappeared in a brilliant red-blue flash.

Trish had been watching as she was taking a small break from cooking a very large meal. She made her way towards Bel and gently placed her hand on his forehead and whispered into his ear. "That was beautiful, really. You should be proud you have someone like Rand. I know I am of my boys, in more ways than one. I think he will be back. No way would he miss this for the universe."

 

---

 

Rand appeared in the desert, in a warehouse, as he didn't want to alert his presence to the boy just yet. He quickly looked around to be sure he was safe. As he made his way towards the broken window, he slowly inched his way so he could see and not be seen. He was sure he was in the right place, and the right time, to see the boy in question, and he was not disappointed. The boy had been walking by himself, looking quite crestfallen at his failure to locate anyone, or anything, in the barren town. Rand closed his eyes and as quietly as possible, dived into the boy's mind. He was surprised to be met with no resistance. He continued searching for something that seemed out of place. For the better part of a half hour, he almost gave up, till he found something hidden in the very center of the brain. It was dark and evil, Rand didn't dare touch it as it looked like a live black sun with swirling flames.

Rand didn't know what to do. He knew he had to destroy that 'thing' somehow and he suddenly got an idea. He slowly approached it in the boy's mind till the black sun noticed him.

'Who are you?!' A voice echoed in Rand's mind as he stopped his approach.

Rand cocked his head some, 'I am the one to purge you of this child's mind!'

An echoing laughter filled Rand's head for a few minutes before it started 'talking' again, 'Impossible! Boy! You think you can handle me?! You have no idea...'

'SILENCE!' Rand shouted. 'You do not belong here!' He thrust his right hand out and closed his eyes as if he was catching a falling object from the sky and concentrated with all his might as the dark sun began screaming. Rand collapsed to his knees as he was putting everything he had into his ability to eject the darkness from the boy's mind.

As Rand opened his eyes, he had a small grin across his face, as the darkness was now floating in his hand mentally screaming various threats and profanities. Rand happily ignored it and mentally shouted, 'BE GONE!' He poured even more power, causing a white light to envelope the dark sun and disappeared in the next instant. Before Rand could collapse, he disappeared from the boy's mind and entered his own as he fell to the ground, in the warehouse, as did the boy outside. Rand's final thought was he hoped no one would find him after a while, but he also hoped his clone had enough power to not disappear.

 

---

 

Sid basked in the sexual afterglow as he thought of everything that had happened. He smiled more to himself than the various slaves caressing his body as he thought how to make Earth, truly, his own personal planet. He knew his experiments to convert some humans into mythical beasts worked like a charm. Some turned on him, but he easily dispatched them.

Sid was satisfied that he had enough; he sent a message to call for his personal pet. He turned his gaze to the slaves and ordered them to leave him. It wasn't much of an order as he mentally planted the thought in their heads. It was Sid's way of controlling the humans, by forcing his presence onto their minds to do his bidding. There were slaves of all ages and sexes, from five to sixty. Some would be destroyed when Sid was done, others were saved for later.

As the last slave left, one of Sid's commanders entered.

Sid scowled, as he wasn't expecting him. "What?"

The white haired man grimaced some; he knew Sid wouldn't be pleased with his news. "About your pet, I sent him on a mission."

Upon hearing this, Sid's anger grew in intensity as he propped himself on his elbow, exposing his nudity to the commander. "If I recall correctly, I believe I told you not to ever send him out!"

'This isn't going well.' the commander thought. "I thought it would be an excellent idea to send him out on a recon mission to see if he gets taken to the Guardian's base, hoping we could find them and destroy every last one, once and for all."

Sid was about to start yelling, but his mention of Guardians made him think twice. "Ah! Not bad. Not bad." He swung his legs around so they touched the floor and sat upright, then pointed a finger towards him and wagging it, "But mark my words, this is the only chance you have to set things right! Should this plan of yours fail, you'll find yourself joining the slaves and becoming nothing more than a large pile of shit!"

The man gulped, as he knew Sid's threats were very real. He didn't wish to be on the receiving end of it. "Y-y-yes sir!"

Sid widened his grin, "Very good. Bring me a snack, I'm hungry."

The commander quickly left the room thinking it had better not be himself being found in that position. He didn't take long since he knew Sid was very impatient when it came to his meals. He returned with a twenty something man that seemed well built. Once the man was near Sid, he struggled, but the commander held on till Sid took over his mind.

"Leave us."

The commander nodded and shut the door as Sid began to transform. Once he was away, some fifty feet from Sid's chambers, there was an echoing scream that filled the air for a few seconds before it was quiet, with loud chomping noises and a deep burp. A chill ran down his spine as he decided to quickly head back to a room that offered peace and quiet so he could concentrate on Sid's little pet.

A few moments later, when he arrived, he immediately sat and got comfortable. It didn't take him long to close his eyes and concentrate. He concentrated some more, then some more. Suddenly his eyes sprang open in fear as he immediately stood, and ran out of the plain room towards the main control room.

Once the commander arrived at the control room, he spotted an officer at the tracking station, and asked him if he was still tracking Sid's pet, but he grew fearful as he slowly shook his head no.

"Shit! Fuck!" He quickly teleported out to the area where Sid's pet was supposed to be, leaving the officer staring at a tracking station still trying to figure a way to locate the boy.

The officer didn't know he'd left as he commented, "The shadow council is on their way. They are requesting Sid's presence..." He turned his head, and suddenly found himself talking to no one. He began to sweat, as he knew Sid didn't like the Shadow Council, and left it to the Commander to deal with it, but they really needed an answer. He sighed, then relayed a response back to them.

 

---

 

Rand's clone arrived with a being that was slightly invisible with a rainbow colored thin outline of his features, the clone fell to its knees as it felt a huge power drain. Bel was startled and rushed towards him, only to notice he was beginning to fade, slowly. Bel tried concentrating hard enough to keep Rand's clone opaque, but with little success, till the being knelt to help Rand's clone at the same time. Bel didn't see this, as he had his eyes shut and he was slightly nervous as it were.

Bel felt another power joining his; he rapidly opened his eyes, and looked at the other being with curiosity and fear.

"Please, do not fear me." A youngish sounding voice could be heard, even though there was no lip movement. "I will explain later, but please..."

Bel slowly nodded as Rand's clone was beginning to return to normal. He helped Rand's clone slowly stand as the clone began to look wildly around him as if he didn't recognize anything, causing Bel to groan.

The being saw this, placed a hand on Rand's clone's head, and as best it could, spoke warmly, "The host is resting, but the clone will know more when the host awakens." The being began to glow and take shape. Bel was thoroughly surprised, since he was sure a Sarris would never reveal itself to anyone it didn't know.

Once the light faded, Bel could make out the Sarris was a boy, but a young one at that. He had short white hair, with almost glowing blue eyes, and very soft facial features that implied him to appear humanoid. His skin appeared to look slightly glossy, as if it were well oiled. The boy looked slightly pale, but nowhere close to what the humans thought to be sick. He wasn't much taller than Bel as he slowly stood and took in his surroundings. Bel helped Rand's clone to stand, as well as himself, and looked at the strange clothes the boy was wearing. The clothes looked transparent, only they weren't so. They were so white, he could have sworn he could see through them, but the clothes weren't overly revealing. That is, if it could be called clothes, but more of a robe.

"I can no longer feel my master's presence. Yet, I am still here, how?" Rand's clone spoke carefully to both Bel and the Sarris.

"You are an extension of Rand; you will remain corporeal as long as Rand is alive. If and when you can locate him, let me know."

The clone nodded, as did the Sarris, in agreement.

The Sarris turned his attention to his surroundings. He looked around and noticed the people gawking at him. He wasn't sure if it was shock or something else; but he had an idea, and with a simple thought, his overall appearance changed before everyone's eyes as they gasped. He now wore the clothes of Earth; blue jeans with a blue shirt and white shoes. It seemed to suit him nicely, to at least blend in. His skin remained the same and he grinned for the first time, showing a cute pair of dimples.

Bel was about to say something, but the Sarris beat him to it. "Hello, my name is San and I am a Sarris. Rand asked me to help him with something, and I knew it was a clone of his asking me. He wouldn't do that unless something bad was happening, and I was able to gather the details as to the current events." He paused for a minute then added, "Oh, and I speak your language quite easily as we have been here before." San turned towards Max, the man he was searching for. "I'm sure you can explain that one, Maximilian."

Max flinched at hearing his full first name and blushed somewhat. He had never used his full name, as he felt Max was much simpler. "San, thanks for coming and please call me Max. I'm surprised you even came, and I am even more surprised to find out it is you. I never even thought, one bit, of contacting you for help."

San smiled as his dimples became apparent, "I am not offended, but that is okay. I am more than happy to come with Rand's clone to assist him. For now, we cannot venture outside to search for Rand, as Sid has already unleashed his army. It seems whatever Rand did, he broke the connection between the boy and Sid, but the boy in question will never be the same. He still has the dragon within his genes, and it will take some time taming it."

Bel groaned, "How do you even know all that?" Bel asked, finding it hard to believe San would know that with a clone.

"Clones are connected to the host, in one way or another, yes?" Bel nodded, and San continued. "I was able to pluck out Rand's thoughts and what he was doing at the time. It is a specialty of mine; each one of us is different in that aspect. Some can do it better than others, and currently, I am ranked up there when it comes to doing what I do and besides, we must wait for Rand to awaken to be able to move everyone at once. I cannot do it alone; no offense Bel, even if we helped each other, your energy signature is too easy to track for some. In time, you will learn to hide that, but for now, we wait."

Bel was slightly hurt, but he understood and nodded his head.

 

---

 

Eric had been feeling very uneasy and found it even harder to concentrate on all the knowledge that was flowing through his mind. While he and Matt were unconscious, their minds remained active so their bodies would absorb everything while the change was happing. Their bodies were changing to adapt and accept the extreme power that was flowing through them.

William's image had been silently looking out for the two boys as he wondered why Eric was being distracted. William wanted to scold Eric, but he knew it wouldn't work. Instead, Matt appeared by his side and noticed his brother was distracted.

'Eric senses are finely tuned to nature and he picks up the most sensitive things. I suppose you could say he is an Empath of sorts, but I'm not sure.'

William's image nodded in agreement. 'While I think that might be the case, it could prove to be a distraction, unless he can control that. That is something he must do. Still, that little distraction is causing me to feel it as well, and I agree that it is a bad feeling. I am also feeling an unusual presence coming from this place, but I really cannot place what it is. I do know it isn't bad either, so that is a good thing.'

Matt's image nodded as he looked at Eric. 'I do have a question about these lockets slash pendants. Will they... hold us back?'

William chuckled, 'Actually, no. None of the pendants will anymore, as they are nothing more than a piece of jewelry. For you two however, they act as locating beacons when one of you, or anyone who wears them, is in trouble. They also act as a portal to another realm of your choosing. It would be very unwise to lose these. If they fall into the wrong hands, well, lets just say that the results would be very devastating.'

'That little bit, we know.' Eric appeared to be on his feet and focusing on their conversation, much to their surprise. 'The other part you aren't telling us is part of the fusion thing you were talking about.' William was about to say something to protest about it, but Eric cut him off as he began to speak through his thoughts again, 'don't worry we won't use that. The two of us really do have to face this Sid alone, but I'm still unsure about that. I mean why can’t someone else do it?'

William sighed as he looked down. 'I'll be honest, it won't be easy, and it has to be both of you, and only you. Anyone else would surely fall prey to Sid and his army. Even if it was all the guardians that went against him... well, I refuse to think of that outcome, but...' He thought for a bit as his time was nearly up. 'It is time for me to join our fallen elders in the heavens. I'll be watching, and boys, one last thing; both of you will continue to develop your strength as you sleep. Try and remember to avoid fighting at all costs for a week, and to keep everyone safe.'

Matt quickly spoke as William began to fade. 'That is impossible to do both at the same time!'

William smiled, 'No it isn't! You will find the answer! Farewell...my grandchildren!' He faded completely, leaving Eric and Matt gawking at nothingness. They shifted uncomfortably, as they exchanged soulful looks and sighed.

'Well, time to wake up and get out of here I guess?' Eric broke the eerie silence with his thoughts.

Matt shook his head. 'Not yet. We need to choose a place first. Somewhere were we can go all the time without it caving in.'

Eric grinned, 'I have an idea.' He held up his pendant and twirled it between his fingers, hoping Matt would get the idea.

Matt grinned as well, 'Not bad. How about we move things up north, and away from here, as our entrance? I'm pretty sure the great forest up north would provide a great cover!'

Just then San began to appear in their thoughts, causing Eric and Matt to yell in fright as San appeared. The twins weren't expecting that and they were extremely surprised, and startled at the same time. 'I have an idea, and I am sorry for barging in on your thoughts, but both of you are showing the beginnings of becoming visible. It is too soon! I cannot move everyone without Rand's help!'

'Who...' Eric began, but shook his head and decided against it, 'Why wait? One or both of us can help!'

'You cannot! Not yet anyway!' San protested.

'What about Jason?' Matt suggested, getting an evil glare from Eric. He simply shrugged his shoulders at Eric, and mouthed sorry, as he turned to look at San thinking over the suggestion. 'I mean Jason might be able to as he is now an Oracle and a walking shield. What about it?'

'It could work, let me go and see.' San never faded out, but he smiled as he was done. 'It can work, providing both of you exit this realm. Hopefully, by the time everyone is safe, Rand would have woken up by then.'

Eric and Matt exchanged looks and nodded. 'Okay!' they chorused as San slowly faded with a giggle.

'Wow!' Eric thoughtfully let that bit of his mind slip. 'Soooooo, cute!'

Matt rolled his eyes, 'Damn bro! You already have Jase!'

'I know, I'm allowed to look, aren't I?'

Matt rolled his eyes again as he began to fade from his brother's mind. 'See you in a bit!'

Eric nodded and remained still. He knew he had much to learn. Sighing while looking around, he closed his eyes and slowly tilted towards the ground as if he were lowering a drawbridge. As his head finally landed on a soft pillow and comfortable bed that appeared out of nowhere, he began his journey in search of the vast knowledge in his mind.