THRACK,” DEXIUS GASPED as he looked over his newly dyed bleached-blond hair in the mirror inside Lord Castron Lakarias’s bathroom.

  Missing his old hair color, the Blue Guardian winced at reflection as Princess Ashanna came up from behind him.

  “So... How do you like it, Dex?” the Lady-Princess curiously asked her Sworn Protector as he continued to stare at his reflection in utter shock.

  “Tis quite… DIFFERENT,” Dexius distastefully replied as he ran his left hand through his bleached locks.

  “Aye, Lord-Guardian. Tis VERY different… But isn’t that what we wish for, Dex? To ‘be’ different?”

  “Ugh… Yes, Anna.”

  Sensing the Last Guardian’s distaste, Princess Ashanna giggled, “Heh, heh… Oh, come now, Dexius. Tis a prendekumous look for you. Honestly.”

  A slight smirk then grew on Dexius’s face as he looked at both his and the Lady-Princess’s reflections.

  “I suppose so, Anna,” Dexius replied.

  The two Guardinian teens continued to look at their reflections a few milli-cycles longer, Lord Lakarias called from outside the closed bathroom door, “LORD-GUARDIAN!!!”

  “CASTRON,” Dexius gasped as his eyes immediately widened.

  Stepping away from Princess Ashanna, Dexius rushed out of the bathroom.

  The Lady-Princess followed him from behind with a look of worry painted grandly on her face.

  “CASTRON, what be the disturbance? Are you well, my Lord?” Dexius asked the old Guardinian Hermit in a ‘triggered’ tone.

  Princess Ashanna caught back up with the Blue Guardian as Castron sat on the edge of the former’s cot.

  The two Guardinian Teen Refugees looked down to see resting in Castron’s hand was the small, silver rectangular ‘Holo-Map’ device that they had used to find the former scientific explorer after crashing their escape shuttle pod in Sugar Creek the night-cycle prior.

  With a look of curious-concern on his wrinkled, bronze-skinned face, Lord Lakarias said to Dexius, “I was walking by your room when I heard your Holo-Map beeping.”

  Looking down at the Holo-Map, which was projected from the silver rectangle-shaped device, Dexius studied it closely.

  Tracking a ‘red blip’ that was falling from the sky approximately twenty miles away from their current position, Dexius and the Lady-Princess listened to the constant ‘beeping noise’ that repeatedly sounded off from the highly technological device.

  “What is it, Dex? WHAT IS WRONG???” Princess Ashanna nervously asked the Last Guardian, who continued to stare at the red blip.

  “VEXANS,” Dexius grunted as he watched the red blip crashing down a holographic model of Shimmick Recreational Forest.

  Once the red blip had made a landfall, the WHOLE CABIN shook briefly… And Dexius knew what it truly was right away; It was the crash landing of an astro-craft… A VEXAN ASTRO-CRAFT.

  “TIS BEGINS,” Dexius said coldly as he balled his hands into zilitium-hard fists.

  Walking past Castron, who still sat on the cot side, the battle-hardened soldier dug inside of his rucksack.

  With the ‘Blue G’ sigil on his Guardian Energy Shifter glowing brightly beneath his shirt, Dexius grabbed his Pulsar Auto-Rifle and Saber Hilt that rested atop a small wooden wardrobe where his rucksack was lying.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  “LIEUTENANT, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” Princess Ashanna asked sternly. “Why did you say ‘the Vexans’?”

  “Because, Ashanna, that ‘red blip’ is meant to detect VEXAN LIFE-FORMS,” Dexius sternly explained.

  “Thrack. If… If what you say be true, Dexius, then that means…”

  “THE VEXANS HAVE COME FOR THE PYRAMID OF POWER,” Castron uttered with a look of grand concern on his aged face.

  Dexius then slung his Auto-Rifle over his torso as Castron continued, “LORD-GUARDIAN, if the Vexan have truly come to Earth then they are going to scour EVERY SQUARE-INCH OF THIS WORLD looking for the Unlimited Power Source… Just as they did with Guardinas and every other world that they have invaded and destroyed before it.”

  “You… You mean that they will ‘destroy’ the Earth???” Princess Ashanna asked worrisomely.

  “If I choose to do nothing… THEN YES,” Dexius gritted as he threw on his black leather Guardsman Tac-Jacket, which had a Blue Guardian ‘G’ sigil stitched over its left shoulder.

  With all of his weapons gathered up, Dexius stormed out of the bedroom, leaving behind the frightened Lady-Princess of Guardinas and ex-Guardinian Scientific Explorer in his wake.

  “DEXIUS, WAIT!!!!” Princess Ashanna then cried out as she immediately chased after her Sworn Protector.

  Outside of Castron’s Cabin, Dexius was already crossing the front ‘yard’ area.

  As the harrowing warrior made his way towards the thick brush of the forest, Princess Ashanna had just bursted out of the Cabin front screen door in a frantic state.

  “DEXIUS, STOP! AS THE LADY-PRINCESS OF GUARDINAS, I ORDER THEE TO CEASE YOUR STRIDE, GUARDIAN!!!” Ashanna tearfully cried out as Dexius heeded to his Royal Majesty’s word.

  “Ugh… Princess, GO BACK INSIDE AND SEAL THE DOOR,” Dexius firmly ordered. “Tis safer in there than out here.”

  “NO! I shall NOT hide myself like some kind of fearful coward! I wish to go with you!”

  Jumping off the front porch, Princess Ashanna sprinted out to the Guardian Warrior and grabbed hold of him by the wrist.

  Looking down at the Lady-Princess’s right hand that was clasped ever so tightly around his left wrist, Dexius closed his eyes and sighed.

  Facing the Lady-Princess once more, Dexius caught sight of her bronze-skinned face to notice that glowing turquoise teardrops were now streaming down her cheeks from her contact-covered eyes.

  “Anna… I MUST GO,” Dexius stressed in a calm, yet stern tone as he stared directly into the Princess’s tear-filled eyes.

  “Nuh-No, Dexius… You mustn’t,” Princess Ashanna blubbered. “You do not have to go anywhere. I have already lost Lanteus, Lerrick, Mother, Father, and EVERYONE ELSE that I knew and loved to the cursed Vexans. I do not wish for you to be lost as well.”

  Princess Ashanna continued to whimper and grovel as Dexius looked upon her with a wooden-expression on his hardened face.

  “Anna… I feel your pain,” Dexius stated. “I do not wish to face the Vexans… But as a Guardian Warrior and YOUR PROTECTOR, I must. Tis my duty.”

  “But you could perish.”

  “Aye… But I have to at least TRY to stop them, Ashanna… Or else this world and the many others that lie beyond it are all doomed.”

  Releasing the grip she had on Dexius’s wrist, Princess Ashanna immediately wrapped her arms around the Blue Guardian and pulled him into her chest.

  As the Princess of Guardinas hugged the Last Guardian he hugged her back... awkwardly.

  Wanting so badly to stay behind with Ashanna and Castron, Dexius knew that he had to go… FOR IT WAS HIS DUTY.

  “I am sorry, Ashanna… BUT I MUST GO,” Dexius stated emotionlessly as he then pulled away from the heart-broken Guardinian Royal.

  Watching her Sworn Protector sprint off and vanish into the forest, Princess Ashanna crashed down to her knees and started sobbing profusely in the dirt.