Locked on Earth

-January 19, 2446-

-Earth-

--Xian's Perspective--

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?! YOU DIDN'T EVEN HELP US!" Zeal yelled out to me. He paced back and forth inside his house. His kids were asleep, but even still, they'd overhear us if he kept talking that loudly.

"Why should I help you again? You explained to me my only responsibility was to keep my system from corrupting and refusing to listen to your orders doesn't do anything like that." I told him.

Zeal pulled a knife from his kitchen's wooden block and pointed it at me from a distance.

"The system orders that I don't kill you, but it doesn't say anything about taking your eyes from you, does it?!" He asked me. Elo looked uncomfortable in the situation, trying to get between the two of us.

"You bring that knife anywhere near my face old man and I'll corrupt my system too. There's no point in trying to preserve purity if the Apocalypse is already set into motion. If you threaten my life, that gives me more of a reason, doesn't it?" I asked him.

Zeal threw the knife straight at my face. The point of the knife scraped against my cheek and sliced the skin. Blood started to drip down the side of my face as the shock finally subsided.

"You think I can't kill you if I wanted to? Know your place, you're not the First White Stone, I AM!" He yelled at me again.

"Enough is enough! We can't turn on each other! That White Stone is beyond weak. He has three fingers on his left hand and one eye, he'll be easy to eliminate from here on out, right?!" Elo yelled out to counter Zeal's volume. Zeal started to shake his head, even to my surprise.

I cut off the beginning of Zeal's sentence, "Don't try to evade the fact you just threw a knife at me because I made you angry. Some leader of a White Stone you are. I should've followed Talion on that damn Isle. I would've been in better hands." I commented.

I quickly left right after his pathetic attempt at murdering me. When I walked to the transporter, I noticed something was wrong.

"Hey… did you turn this thing off?" I asked him. Zeal came out of his door shaking his head and looking at the machine.

"Something bothered me about what you were saying about me, Xian." He said in a low tone. A veil of worrisome thoughts started to cover me.

"What kind of White Stone leader am I? Well, I'm one who won't let one of his subordinates leave to go meet with that Corrupt Stone. You'll be locked on Earth until further notice. And, in addition to that, any moves you make that go against me will get you killed by my army. Alba! Kill this man if he moves." He shouted out toward his house.

Zeal's wife turned a darkened corner of his house with another kitchen knife in her hands, pointing it at me while looking up at me with her head angled downwards.

"You got it. He won't leave," Alba said. She came closer to me as Zeal and Elo walked back toward the transporter.

"We'll get Talion and push him down to Earth, and then you and I will handle that Corrupt Stone, Elo." Zeal told him. Elo nodded and the two vanished into the transporter, which recently turned back on as Zeal walked to it.

"Miss Alba, this problem is a lot larger than you think it is right now. You should free me so I can get over to this Corrupt Stone and-" I was interrupted by her threat.

"Don't you move you damn White Stone!" She said.

Zeal's children came rushing out of the front door in curiosity as Alba held the knife closer to my throat.

"Don't make my children watch their mother become a killer. Drop your gauntlets on the ground and put your hands behind your back." She told me.

I became annoyed. She had high ground over me right now, but she was trying to make me feel guilty about defending myself, which happened to be my one weakness. I wasn't sure what kind of kinetic energy I could mess with and turn on her, but if I failed and the point of that knife pierced my throat, I wouldn't have the opportunity to do anything past that point.

"You'd rather your children be sadistic liars than tell them what's really going on?" Alba pushed the tip of the knife against my skin. I turned to her children and stared them in their eyes, knowing she wouldn't kill me.

"Your dad is a murderer, and your mom wants to be too, isn't that right, Alba? The way I see it, if you kill me, you give the Corrupt Stone more of a fighting chance, which would put your family in danger. There were originally four stones against him. Now that Demos is dead, that leaves Zeal and Elo against Talion and Sky. I'm a grey area, and if I received proper, respectful instruction, I could make it a three versus two, but here you are, with a knife poking my throat. You're unaware of what's happening, so I don't blame you, but I'd think really hard before you killed me." I threatened her.

Alba rested the knife on her hip after taking it away from my throat and turned back to the inside of her house. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't go follow Zeal because the transporter was off. But that was interesting in itself: Did he think I would overpower his wife and catch up to him? What an interesting man…

"Good afternoon, Mrs. Alba! Would you happen to know where Zeal is?" Alba shook her head at this girl's question, which caused distress.

"Oh no! Umbra said she wanted to converse with Zeal about the state of the White Stones… say, would you be able to help me, Mr. White Stone?" The girl turned to me, and I looked back at Alba before nodding. Could I sabotage this damn city...?

No, just because Alba was about to kill me, doesn't mean I should be mean to these people.

"I'll do my best. It's Xian, and you are?" Ruby offered her name to me and led me to the entrance to the city on Earth, where a girl with pitch-black hair and orange eyes stood with her arms crossed.

"You're not Zeal, but I guess you'll do Xian. I want to know the status of the White Stones: Do you know anything?" She asked me.

I looked past her into the deep forests bordering the city before answering, "Yeah. Demos, the Fourth Ranked White Stone, was killed by the Seventh; the Corrupt Stone."

Umbra sat puzzled for a second, "Corrupt Stone… aren't you guys supposed to prevent that from happening?" She asked me with an unimpressed frown.

I laughed at her, "Yeah! One of us was… but something has changed among the White Stones. Zeal is losing his grip on power against us, he locked me here while he tries to gather another Stone to lock him here as well… this Corrupt Stone has really set things off." I said. I stared at my own White Stone.

"For beings that are said to be natural-born leaders, you sure are following one White Stone over another. Are you a part of that Corrupt Stone's legion, Xian?" She asked me.

For a second, I was going to say no, but the more that I think about it, if I'm not with Zeal as his underling, would that categorize me as one of his 'underlings'?

"I guess you could say that I'm just not on Zeal's side. Right now, it's Zeal and Elo against the Corrupt Stone, the rest of us are either with the Corrupt Stone... or in a grey area. I don't know how they plan to do this though, especially not without the Nomad Stone who can kill Sky." I told her.

Umbra's eyes shot wide open, and she stood, staring at the ground for a prolonged period of time.

"There's no way… what did you say his name was?! Did you say Sky? As in Sky -"