Kyle:

Jessica must have prayed for an hour. Watching her, she rarely spoke when she prayed so I wasn't sure exactly what she was praying for. Was she praying for forgiveness for giving up on herself? I hoped so, but I doubted it. More likely she was pleading for God to make her able to protect me and save this boy, afraid that she couldn't do it herself.

I demanded of myself to believe she was wrong, that somehow we were enough for this task, and that she was enough for me, but a part of me knew something was wrong.

(***)

Allen:

It was about 6 pm. I didn't know if they had returned yet, but I brought Kyle and Jessica some leftovers from what my wife had cooked that day. When little Jaden heard I was going to see Jessica he jumped at the chance to come with me. I'm not all that sure what he saw in her, or if he just liked that she played with him and was a total goof.

As we pulled up to the tower, I did start to wonder about my decision to bring Jaden, as he answered my question about why he liked her without even being asked. "You think we can get Jessica to blow more stuff up?" Oh yeah. Maybe it would have been better if the two actually weren't in and I could just drop the food off.

Despite some of my better judgments, I allowed the impressionable little boy to follow me into the building, guessing I couldn't just leave him in the car. As I walked into the first floor of the tower and looked around, I was rather confused to see Kyle there by himself sitting on a couch. I walked over to him.

"Where's Jessica?" I asked.

"Up in the clock," he replied, sticking a thumb in the air point up. It struck me how odd it was that that statement made sense to me.

Kyle hunched over and held his head in his hands. "Shouldn't she be with you?" I asked.

He smiled at me with a slight sneer. "It's not like I've never gone to the bathroom without her. She doesn't have to shadow me everywhere."

"Still, you're not in a bathroom."

"Observant," he said and sat back. Looking at his face as he was there, I knew something was wrong. It was Jaden who spoke up first though.

"You've been crying," he said. He got up on the couch, no small feat for someone his size, and sat next to Kyle. He put a hand on Kyle's shoulder, likely no idea how to help in the slightest but I was proud he was still trying. I sat down too, putting beside me the glass bowl of food I had with me.

"Something happen between you two?"

Kyle shook his head. "Not what you might think."

"You have an argument?"

"You know us," he said, a slight smile. "We fight all the time, but that ain't gonna come between us. She's just hurt and really... I don't know, maybe she needs some space, maybe she doesn't... things have never been like this before." He stared up at the ceiling.

"Like what?" I looked around to make sure no one was watching, worried that this might be something having to do with our secrets. No one really was even looking in our direction though.

"She's obsessed," he replied.

"Isn't that how she spends every day?"

Kyle chuckled, "More than that though. Jessica thinks that if she can't find this kid, it reflects on her ability to protect me. She's in the clock now praying like her life depends on it."

"Is that really so bad?" Kyle finally took his eye off the ceiling and looked at me inquisitively. He apparently didn't expect that response.

"She thinks she's not good enough."

"Well if you ask me, it's about time she figured that out if it's the first time it's occurred to her."

"What!?" the boy almost demanded.

"You heard me. Jessica has courage and power like I've never seen along with a beautiful heart, but she lacks any kind of wisdom or even direction."

"You said I was that direction," he said, pointing at himself and backing up a little.

"Really think you're doing a bang-up job of that?" I asked. Kyle sighed, shaking his head. "Look, it's not bad to rely on someone besides yourself."

"You wouldn't say that if you knew what she almost did. She's not okay."

"What did she do?"

"She... it's hard to explain, but she pretty much almost killed herself trying to figure out a solution to all this." I looked at him, not sure what to think of that. "Yes, I am being literal."

"Then one thing she needs right now is you," I said, getting up. "You should be by her side."

"I don't want to see her like this."

"And you think it matters so much what you want if she's really in danger like you say? And you wonder why she needs God." Kyle looked at me, seeming to back up in his seat again, folding his arms. "Get up. She needs you." I gave him the food. "We're both going up, and make no mistake, you will tell me everything that just happened."

(***)

Back up in the tower, I looked at the two children. I didn't know much of trickster gods, anything at all really, but what I was hearing now sounded like something terrible. Kyle had explained about Darius and the thought of it made me start to feel sick. Sitting on the wood floor, Jaden wandering around insight, I spoke my mind on the issue. "I'm not sure if the tricksters are something we never knew about prior to now in the societies, but I'll consult my superiors about how to deal with them. From the sounds of it... you said he swore this wasn't over right?" Jessica nodded. "This kid sounds dangerous."

"I'm sure he is," Kyle said with a nod.

"Then I'm afraid this is it. You two can't leave this tower and security forces will be increased around it. Until this young man has been found and neutralized, I cannot allow you to be put at risk-"

Kyle cut the air in front of me with his hand. He appeared to be holding back his words as he said them, but he fought them out anyway. "No." I breathed in, ready to yell at him, but he beat me to the punch. "Listen. I value your friendship and I'm glad you and your kind want to watch over us, but we cannot live inside a tower for the rest of our lives until this freak decides to show his face again."

"I-"

"I know what you think. You think we're like your son. If there's danger outside you pull him in until it passes. But he's four. I'm over one hundred years old. Jessica and I find our own trouble and we can't be pulled in until it passes."

"Your father sent you here to be protected."

"Because there's nothing dangerous on earth?" Kyle demanded. "We can establish he was wrong on that, can't we? He sent me here because what son could possibly need his father?" I paused, watching Jaden as he continued to explore the clock while we talked. "So there are two things he was wrong on. I think we can establish my father isn't exactly the purveyor of wisdom. I have respected your advice in the past... maybe not as much as I should have... but on this, I will not. We will not cower in fear. Furthermore, I don't know how we will save him, but we are young Tommy's only hope and we will not give up." Jessica looked at him, mouth ajar. "We both need to do this and he needs us." He took the girl's hand. "We will do this, but if we must, we will do it without you."

I was proud of the boy as I stood too, but I knew I couldn't stand down on this. I could not let him risk his life. I sighed. "As your protector, I can't let you go." Kyle glared. "But as your seemed surrogate father I cannot force you to abandon your honor and cower." Kyle stepped back, his eyes changing to confusion. "Therefore... by the time I got here, you two were already gone. I'm not sure where you're going, but you better figure it out as you can't come back here until the case is over."

Kyle pulled Jessica's hand and they both quickly moved into the elevator.

(***)

Kyle:

Jessica and I had run through the streets for lord only knows how long. We tried to wear smiles the whole time so no one would notice, but I'm sure someone realized we were alone, so several times we had to jump to super speed. Finally, we came to an empty alley and rested on two buildings opposite each other.

Resting on the brickwork and catching her breath Jessica was the first to speak up. "You know what you just did?"

"The right thing?" I looked up the walls around us, just to be sure- sure enough, there were no windows on our level. We were fine to rest here for a while longer.

"I have no idea." In the middle of the alley, a light flashed and smoke began to build. I quickly pulled out both my swords Jessica doing the same. Jessica's form lit up and she shouted, "On three Kyle, dodge right. One...two..."

"Oh please dear God!" came a shout from the smoke that decidedly did NOT belong to Darius. I moved to the side anyway, but Jessica refrained for a moment to watch the smoke clear. In the smoke appeared a boy the same age as Darius with the same hair color, but no freckles and much different clothes. The boy was dressed in red jeans and a brown overcoat along with a faded brown pub cap. He was huddled down on the ground with his hands over his head. "Please don't kill me." Jessica powered down.

The teenager rose to his feet. At his side, I noticed a goofy-looking red plastic sheath-like object with the handle of a sword in it. "You have a weapon?" The boy took the handle and drew an object out, me hearing the distinctive sound of plastic scrapping plastic as it came out. Before me now a blue plastic toy sword was displayed. The boy rattled it, something bouncing around inside, sounding like a few rocks and various pieces of dirt.

"Don't think I could hurt you with it if I had a running start," said the teen with a grin. He put the toy back away and offered his hand to me. I put away my blades and shook his hand hesitantly. "Name's Xao. I'm a-"

"Trickster god, we know," I interrupted.