drgonwynd@aol.com (Dragonwind)


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					Nexus

					Chapter 8

	"Skye?  Your last name is Skye?" Rei asked.
	Sarah nodded, feeling a little uneasy herself about how they were taking the
 name.
"Why does it seem strange.."  Then she thought of something.  "Have any of you
 met my brother?"
	"Is his name Daniel?" Minako asked.  "Yeah."
	"One of our friends met him yesterday," Rei said.  Sarah replied almost within
 a
heartbeat, "You know Ami Mizuno?"
	The girls looked at...sorry, the girls and Mamoru looked at each other, then
 Makoto
answered, "Yeah, how did you know?"
	"She is the only one that knows we are here.  We visited yesterday because he
 used
to be her friend."
	They saw this as a perfect opportunity.  "Sarah, could you tell us about
 Daniel?
Ami didn't know anything."  "I could tell, she does know how to translate
 perfect English
though.  All I spoke was English while I was there, and she could..."
	They were interrupted by footsteps and Ami's voice, "Sorry for being late
 everybody,
but I had to finish up something."  
	"Ami!!  You arrived just in time.  Sarah here was just about to fill us in
 about
your mysterious new associate." Minako said, smiling widely.
	"Sarah?  What are you doing here?" Ami asked, finally noticing the young girl.
	"We'll tell you later, she's going to tell us about Daniel.  She may actually
 answer
a few of your questions."
	"How?  She can only speak English."
	"...and Japanese too.  I can also speak a few other languages."
	Ami was stunned.  They w ere definitely keeping her from a lot of stuff.  'Oh
 well,
can't beat them, join them.'
	"Now, as I was saying before Ami arrived, Ami could understand a lot of what I
 was
saying, even though Jacob kind of...upset her a little bit."
	"Jacob?  Who's that?" Mamoru asked.  "Jacob's our dog.  He's a Siberian Husky.
We've had him ever since I was about 4-5 years old.  Besides my brother, he's
 the only thing
I haven't had to say good-bye to.  Daniel really helped a lot with that."
	"Why would you have to say good-bye?" Makoto said.
	"When we were young, our father's work transferred him from Tokyo to the US. 
 My
father was sent by plane.  My brother, he was 10, our mother, and me were sent
 for later.
Not long after we took off, I think it was about 5 minutes, something happened
 with the fuel
tanks and the engines caught fire.  The pilots brought the plane onto the water
 in almost no
time flat.  We had the seats right next to the emergency escapes, so we were
 one of the first
ones out.  I don't remember anything else, but Daniel filled me in when I was
 older.  He said
that not long after we got out, the plane's fuel tanks exploded.  
	"When he woke up, he said that I was unconscious, and our mother was dead. 
 She'd used
the last of her strength to get us onto a floating piece of the plane.  It took
 about 2 days
for rescue helicopters to find us, I had woken up at that time, and I lived on
 a bottle of
water and some crackers from a bag that was still around our mom's waist.  He
 didn't eat
anything, and he rarely drank any, so I could have as much food and water as I
 needed.
When we were rescued, they buried our mother, and instantly put us on a boat
 for America."
	"Wait.  I don't recall hearing about you coming back to Japan," Ami stated.
	"Because officially, we were dead, and they didn't really announce it.  We
 applied for
citizenship immediately after we got to the US.  You might recall Daniel
 studying on America
a lot before we moved...well, we got citizenship, and our lives, in a sense."
	"Talk about a caring brother, he starved, while you ate, so you could still be
 alive?"
	Sarah nodded.  "And that isn't even the half of it.  About 2 months after we
 got there,
our house burned down.  Daniel got me out of there, but our dad died.  And to
 top it off, we
were adopted by some couple, who were murdered 2 weeks later.  Finally, some
 rich guy adopted
us, and died of old age 4 months ago, but Daniel was 18 already, so he
 inherited the house, all
of his money and the company."
	That struck them as odd.  They were talking to a person who probably had the
 worst
luck, and ended up being rich.
	"Hey, we haven't seen Daniel yet, do you have a picture?" Rei asked.  "Sure." 
 Sarah
took one of the bottom pictures off the small stack she still had in her hands.
  She put one
the table so everyone could see.
	Makoto noticed something that took the rest of them a little bit to notice. 
 "Hey,
why does he have those wristguards?"
	"What? Where?" Rei asked.
	"Right there, under the jacket, you can just see them," Makoto pointed out.
	"Oh, those...those are to hide his...scars," Sarah stated.  "Scars?" Rei
 asked.
	"Yeah, after our first adopted parent's murder, Daniel went downhill.  He
 tried to
kill himself at least 4 times.  Each time, he was found not long after, but he
 barely survived
each one.  Also, he was attacked once, and they slit his wrists several times. 
 Amazingly, he
still has 100% use of each hand.  Now he wears those guards to keep the scars
 out of sight."
	Now Ami was beginning to feel sorry for Daniel, now that she knew what has
 happened in
his life.  
	"Hey, Sarah!  Come on, we got to get back, you're late!" a voice rang out.
	Ami looked at the source, "Daniel?"
	"Ami?"

				* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

	Victor called a meeting of his family, at least all that could appear.  They
 were
seated in a small room that overlooked the country.  Their domain was much like
 Earth.  It
had loads of land, plenty of water, and even had civilizations, as in cities,
 countries, and
such.  There were only three continents, which each of the 3 family members
 were representing.
They had an older brother, but he was somewhere else in the universe.  
	"Alright, now that we're all here, I have something to announce.  Our older
 brother
will be returning soon.  He will be here for a very important reason, another
 crystal will be
joining someone near here."
	Victor just smiled, but Liana was clueless, "What?  What crystal?"
	Victor told her about it.  "Our older brother does not stay here because he is
 vitally
important to life.  70 years ago, he found out he was a Vanguard."
	"A what?"  "A Vanguard," Trevor added, "a special group with only 14 members
 that
basically help these universes.  Each one of them are in control of a crystal
 which we call
a Dragon Crystal.  It really has no name, but we have to make one.  Our father
 was one, and
if what we are doing is successful, then he will be one again.  A Crystal has
 been dormant for
the last 1000 years, and now a successor has been chosen by the crystal, and
 our brother is
supposed to deliver it."
	"Oh, yes, I remember that, the 14 crystals, separated into 3 groups that try
 to work
with each other, but don't always."  "Yes, something like that.  This crystal
 has been dormant
ever since Serenity died on the moon.  We don't know if it's in his group or
 not, but if it is,
it's one step closer to our goal."
	"Why is that?"
	"Well, it goes like this..."  And they proceeded to explain they're true goal.

					To be continued...


Dragonwind - Lord of Dragons
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