The Train-ride down...(The Guardian)

[The Guardian]

Ariane's face showed no emotion but cold indifference, though inside all she felt was confusion. She couldn't understand what he was saying, and she couldn't sneak a peek inside his mind to see what it was he meant. It was rather infuriating, and just a bit unsettling. But she was resolved to keep her sanity.

"I felt disgusted," she repeated, "I saw a broken woman sobbing on the floor and begging for her sanity. I felt her anguish. To know that someone with abilities similar to mine could do that to a person is..." She gave a little shudder.

[Fracture]

::Fracture closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. He was reconfiguring his emotions to mimic what he had felt in Ariane. When he spoke, his voice was eerily similar to hers. However, some uncertain, dark emotion colored it.::

"Look back at your first reaction girly...that's who you really are...we try to throw out all of these illusions to show people who we aren't. You don't have to lie to me...in fact, you can't...I know that you were afraid, but you made yourself do what you had to do...was that your rule that made you do that?"

::Even as he explained it, Fracture knew that Ariane would try to convince herself that what he said was not true.::

[The Guardian]

Ariane sneered at him, though her reaction of distaste was one used to simply hide her fear. This man... this monster... He was getting too close to her inner-most thoughts. She didn't like that, and instantly put up another wall around her person. He couldn't get in where she didn't want him to.

"I'm a Guardian, through and through." She hissed at him, snapping one of her fans open angrily, "I have an instinct that most people lack, and so I follow it. My instinct screamed to protect and help that woman, and so I did. Because I saw how badly some thing had broken her."

[Fracture]

::Fracture shook his head, green hair falling messily around his face.::

"Don't bother with the second wall, I'm already in. I've felt you in places that you wouldn't be comfortable knowing you had. You've trained yourself to become a 'guardian'...whatever that means in this world. You became a guardian somewhere along the way. You had to think before acting...I'm here to get rid of that. It has no place in who you are...no room for fear in people like us. We have to be sure of everything."

::He flipped his hair out of his face, smacking his lips and pushing the man that he had been hugging away from him. He turned his eyes to Ariane once again.::

"That hesitation was what saved Pamela...and it couldn't have been any other way...but I'm here to make sure that it never happens again."

[The Guardian]

"Maybe we need to think before we act, to make sure what we're doing is right. We have to know what we're doing to be sure of it."

Ariane was trying her best to try to keep her thoughts her own. She didn't want his mental intrusion, whether it be his mind or his words that tried to get the best of her. She was always sure about what she did; her father had made sure of that. Know what you're doing, or don't do it, Lil' Ari! he had always told her.

Her father had been an amazing man, and an even better Guardian. He had (unknowningly at the time) contracted a deadly form of cancer in an effort to save his Charge. He had taught Ariane all he knew, even until his last few moments. She had no doubt his words were true.

[Fracture]

::The three men closest to Ariane and Fracture stood. They all moved to the nearest door. Two of them began to pry open the doors with all of their strength, while the other man simply stood, waiting. The same scene occured at each of the other three exits to the train.::

"Ariane...you can't save them all. They're all in more danger than Pamela was. Now...what is it that grips you? Is it fear, like the first time? Is that what's at the bottom of that heart of yours...let's find out."

::Fracture stood as the doors were opened and the roar of rushing air filled the train, instantly whipping the scene into a frenzy. The people were not conscious, but they were screaming with every bit of their hearts. Fracture spoke, his voice working towards a cresciendo.::

"This man is Cole Muir, a father of three, afraid of what his wife will think if she finds out that he touches his little neice. Hm...tsktsktsk."

::Fracture moved on to the next man.::

"Jason Henderson...lives alone...is afraid that the pretty little red-head at the corner-store will never notice him. Cheats on his taxes...claims hundreds of hours of volunteer work."

::He went on.::

"Damien Silva...on a visa from Brazil...tried to work hard for several months to support his sick son back home, but just...couldn't...hack it...life of crime...still sees the four men that he's killed when he falls asleep. Can't even remember what his little boy's face looks like. Hm...so sad, so sad..."

::Fracture moved to the last man.::

"Last, and certainly not the least! Nathan Colonel. Proud, dead-beat daddio. Kicked out of the home for cutting up his wife with a box-cutter. Goes to church every sunday and asks the lord above for forgiveness...pains over every missed birthday."

::With mock exhaustion, Fracture slumped against the far wall of the train, swaying his head to the rhythm of the yelling and the rushing train. He then locked his eyes on Ariane.::

"Who...will...you...save? What's in that heart of yours, hm?"

::All of the men stepped closer to the exits.::

[The Guardian]

Ariane watched with utter horror as Fracture set up a sort of "choice" seen before her. Four men, four choices... Every Guardian instinct in her body screaming at her to reach out and snag them all back inside, to save them and make sure no harm could ever come to them again. But her mind argued that wasn't logical. That she could only save one, two max.

Her heart ripped in two at the choices she was having to make. All of these men had made mistakes, but none of them deserved to die. No one deserved to die, save for those that dared to harm her Charge. But that was a story for a different time. Now she had to think; she had to plan.

"Don't do this!" Ariane cried over to him, "Don't let these men die! They've never harmed you. They've never done a thing against you. Don't do this to them!" But even as she spoke she grabbed out a fan, the other. Her mind was whirling; there was no way she could do this. Someone was going to die.

Tears formed in her eyes.

Reaching out with her mind, she grabbed at Nathan, trying to pull his mind free from Fracture's. At the same time, she ran, wrapping her arms around Damien. Her body was small, tiny, but it held hidden strength - strength that was displayed as she tried to pull him inside.

She sobbed against the back of the man's shirt.

"I'm scared."

[Fracture]

::Fracture never taught his lessons half-way. He kept his grip on Nathan's mind. As the Guardian saved Damien, three other men jumped to their deaths. The men closed the doors and the train became as quiet as a cemetary, slowing to a stop. The people on the train seemed drained.::

"I'm....scared....I'm scared you say. Well, Ariane...it couldn't have turned out any other way. There are no happy endings. There is no fairytale here. You'll struggle with your fear until the day that you die. You are the guardian of your own desires...keeping your own fear bottled up, and saving it for situations like these. I hope it serves you well."

[The Guardian]

Ariane felt sick.

She backed away from the man she had saved, the tears rolling down her cheeks as if they would never stop. Her stomach tossed and turn, causing feelings of nausea to develop. For a long moment, Ariane swore she was going to vomit. But she was able to fight, and ended up looking over at Fracture.

"Why?" She managed out, and looked down at her trembling hands. Tears blurred her vision. Tears of pain; tears of fear. She had failed. She had failed miserably. Only one life had been saved. Unlike her father, who had managed to keep an entire family from death, Ariane couldn't even save four men from a fellow psychic.

It was like a punch to the gut.

[Fracture]

::Fracture shook his head and moved to one of the doors. They were at the end of the line, and the people around them were falling into a peaceful sleep.::

"Because the paths that they followed led them to the same place that it ours led us. Here...now...in the end it was my rule that won. You won't benefit from this until you realize the truth. Today, paths converged, and the outcome was never uncertain. To say that this could have ended differently would be to second-say the world...and so far as I know, nobody has that power..."

::As he finished his speech his voice dripped with disdain. She wouldn't learn his lesson, and there was no use in pushing the issue further. He couldn't kill her, because, in her own way, she was a creature of profound certainty. She just hadn't found it yet. He pushed the doors open like they were nothing and slid through, leaving nothing but death and silence in his wake. The people began to stir, as if from a dream.::

[The Guardian]

Ariane's body shuddered softly, though she refused to look at Fracture anymore. He had just killed three men - three men she couldn't save - and for what? To teach her some sort of lesson? To play with her? Perhaps it was a mixture of both, her mind argued. No sane person could use such a horrible act simply to teach a lesson.

But, then again, Ariane seriously doubted that Fracture was sane.

She watched as he left her, and just stared at him for a moment. She felt someone touch her arm, heard a murmur of question, but Ariane didn't - couldn't - respond. Instead, she grabbed her messenger bag, tucking her fans away, and hugged the bag to her chest as she exitted the train.

Daddy, I'm sorry.