Dora and Charles

Dora stood in her place motionless watching that hateful Edwardo as his soul left his body and died calmly. She wasn't angry about his betrayal, as she expected that.

Dealing with those outlaws was always risky, so it would be better to assume everyone was going to stab you in the back to be able to stay alive. Dora then looked away towards those small cruisers that killed Edwardo and his men as she said loudly:

"You can come down now."

In moments nothing happened, but then groups of people started to leave these cruisers one after another, to stand in front of her with respect. Dora looked towards them as over 50 people stood in front of her. She then said:

"Good work everyone, now the first step of my plan is complete, and now we can move to the second step."

Her men didn't make a sound when she looked up towards the sky. She took a deep breath before saying:

"As you all know, our mortal enemy is on the move, and he is moving strongly this time. I heard some valuable intel a couple of weeks ago, that nasty organization, the dark shadow group, is planning to do something big this time, and as their loyal enemy, we have to stop them and disturb their plans."

"May I ask, princess, why are we still at the rebels till now?"

Dora looked towards Charles, he was the recent addition to her small secret group. Before she could speak, her most trusted aide, and the longest in following her in this group, spoke first:

"Can't you keep your own thoughts for yourself, Charles? This is our leader and the one we trust the most."

Dora interfered before this small doubt turned out into a quarrel as she said:

"No problem Anna, Charles is still our youngest one here, so it's normal for him to ask many questions. Tell me, Charles, do you have any other questions other than this?"

Charles was a tall youngster with a big body, but his brain was still the brain of a 14 years child. He didn't see a lot so far in life to be wise, so he didn't feel any offense in what he was doing like others around him who felt anger towards him. He looked straight towards Dora as he said:

"I have another question, if you may, as I recall from the teaching I got from my master that our enemy was someone who goes by the name 'The immortal' not this black thing group, so why are we considering this group of people also as our mortal enemies?"

Dora smiled helplessly as this child in front of her mistook her words and added one more question. She had no much time to waste here, so she decided to reply to both questions and leave here fast.

"Let me first answer your second question first, our mortal enemy is one and no one other than him, that immortal bastard. That cold-blooded murderer took the position of the general commander of this group early this year.

Since he took that position, he started to work rapidly renovating that organization. He didn't only do that, but he also took the leadership of another group, the silver arrow group. Both groups were considered before as weak groups in the Ravner of good and evil camps.

The two groups were part of the moderate thinking direction of this struggle, they were neither extremist nor tended to violence, but after this killer led them, they changed.

A few months ago, they started to lead a movement in each camp, spreading out one rumor of the reappearance of a new generation of the light seekers and dark believers.

This criminal used the strong desire in many of both camps' strongest leaders to instigate their disapproval of this rising of a new generation that would threaten their authority, so he spread another rumor, a rumor about a way to expose these young seeds and wipe them out in the shadows."

"So, we are here to kill those sons and daughters of dawn?" Charles asked.

"No, we are here to save them."

Charles looked with disbelief towards Dora as he asked in doubt:

"How come we, the black phoenix, try to save those belonging to the Ravner of good camp?"

Anna was about to interfere and teach Charles a hard lesson, but she was stopped by one look from Dora, who then concentrated on this young man as she asked:

"Tell me, Charles, what was the most valuable lesson your master taught you? The lesson he kept repeating over and over again while stressing on its great importance?"

Charles seemed a bit lost as he tried to recall his master's teaching. He had a lot of things his master stressed upon, so he didn't know which one Dora was referring to.

"Don't you recall the supreme code of our group, Charles?"

The eyes of this youngster shone brightly as he understood the point Dora was referring to. He then said the code with veneration:

"Rain clears it all, clears the past, the loneliness, the sadness, the wounds, the pain, and the sins, but not our sins. We once lost our goal, failed our mission, and let the whole universe down.

Our ancestors failed, but we failed so we can learn, rise again from ashes, Phoenixes we are. We are the guardians, the protectors, and the last wall standing against the apocalypse."

The others repeated the same words with greater veneration and respect after Charles, who felt his body trembling slightly as Dora added:

"So, we aren't the black phoenixes, we are only the phoenixes. We added 'black' to our name so we can meddle in the evil camp, as we have a sister branch with the name of 'light phoenixes' which meddled in the good camp, but don't mistake ourselves as any part of the two, as we are neither."

Charles seemed more lost as he asked:

"If we aren't one of the two, then who are we?"

"We? We are the guardians' descendants, we are the one who stands against this dirty immortal and his long-desired apocalypse."

Charles didn't get it, but he knew there were many hidden deep facts behind his group. He decided to ask further, read more, and dig deeper when he finished this mission, so he abandoned asking about that point as he asked again:

"Then why are we interfering and saving those kids? Saving them wouldn't help our cause."

Dora felt, like the other veterans in her group, that Charles had no idea about the cause he was talking about. Despite that, she decided not to continue elaborating further, as there was no time to teach this ignorant youngster the true secrets of their group.

If not for his master, who was also her master, who recommended him strongly and advised her to accept him, she would have left him here and went to finish her mission, but she respected her master and trusted his judgment, which never failed.

"Let me describe it to you this way, our mortal enemy, the one who never did something aimlessly throughout ages, is trying to force both camps to kill their offspring.

He is spreading rumors, even took control of two groups, which is a first in his solo fight history, just to achieve this goal. Tell me, when you know all this, won't disturbing his plans seem the appropriate action here?"

Charles didn't follow Dora's words as he said in doubt and accusation:

"So, we are just moving according to your whim and ideas, not upon a concrete intel and data."

"Watch your tongue, Charles," Anna couldn't take it anymore as she screamed like this at him. Charles was a youngster who had his youth fire blazing hot inside him, so he didn't faze from her words, instead, he went on with rampage:

"What? I didn't say anything wrong; this princess of ours is leading us into a deadly fight with our small numbers to do a silly rescue mission without even knowing the reason for it! She is delusional, and I won't throw my life like this without good reason. I'm off."