A.N.

Well, hello everyone! I hope you all are doing well. It's been a long time coming, but it's finally here.

I Am Number Three: Book 2!

I'm titling this one The Spirit of Resistance, but if you guys have any better ideas for story names, I'm more than open to them! (Seriously, I had a hard time coming up with that title. Power of Six is the hardest book in the series to rewrite, since it's literally 75% exposition with Marina.)

Anyways, I want to thank everyone who encouraged me with the first book in this series, and I hope you'll all continue to support me in this book too!

Thanks again, and I hope you enjoy.

Discordant Night

I Am Number Three

Book Two: The Spirit of Resistance

Prologue

Iarius Kalae'nk stared in shock at the com-screen before him. Upon the screen lay the results of the latest Garde retrieval mission, the formal document scattered amongst spatterings of other reports. He squinted as he read over the High-Born dialect, the slight differences in language giving him a headache. Iarius resolved to ask General Sutekh for an augment, preferably to either remove the headaches or improve his eyesight; the former, if he could.

The report was written by General Sutekh's daughter, C'keli strangely enough, after the failed events of the Paradise incident. Iarius seethed. The Garde were this close, and yet not even the General's daughter could capture them. Add in the fact that her traitor brother Adamus was there, and it was understandable why everyone was on edge. Four squads of vat-born, six of kraul and a pair of piken had been lost in that battle, all due to the cowardly Loric bringing the school down around their heads. The clean-up crew had searched through every piece of rubble, only to find...

Nothing.

Nothing at all.

The clean-up crews report stated that, while they recovered the remains of the vatborn squads, there were no Loric remains to be found.

Iarius scanned the report a second time, searching for any mention of what exactly when on during that mission. He knew a few of the officers that were assigned to that mission, including one of the assault team members under Ivanick. If all was to go as planned, they would be married after the war ended. The only thing stopping them from achieving that goal was this damn war with the Loric, the cowards. Did they even know what they were doing, how many lives they were destroying by waging this damned war?

Iarius clenched his fists. Nothing, not war, not the Loric, not even Setrakus Ra himself could keep them apart. He would have his beloved, and they would be together. If only this war was over...

The bay doors opened with a whoosh, metal plates sliding back to allow Ivanick Shu-ra into the room. Iarius stood rigidly, his back ramrod straight as he saluted the senior officer.

"Stand down, Iarius," Ivanick called in flawless English. "It's just me today."

Iarius let out a breath. "Thank you, commander." He bowed slightly to the pure-born, dropping his salute and relaxing. "How was the mission?" He hoped his voice did not betray his true intentions, the underlying questions of what happened to cause their defeat.

Ivanick frowned. "The Loric got away," he growled. "Not a single one was captured." The commander slams his fist on the control panel, sending pencils and stationary flying. "And worst of all, he was there." Ivanick's voice curdles. The subject of Adamus Sutekh was a rough one; Ivanick's adopted brother turned traitor left a black mark on the annals of the Great Mogadorian History. Never before had a pure-born gone soft and turned to the enemy, and it pained Ivanick to even be mentioned in the same sentence as the traitor.

Iarius frowned. "The traitor?" he asked, feigning ignorance. "Why would he be in Paradise? I thought he was in Kenya."

Ivanick shook his head. "Was," he says slowly. "He stole a Skimmer when he helped the bastard Loric Three escape, and our spies had last seen him in Florida." The commander spits. "If only our trump card was ready," he seethes. "We could've wiped them out then and there, right before he met whatever Loric scum he's with."

This was news to Iarius; the last he'd heard, only Three was in Paradise. To hear that there were more, right under their noses... It was infuriating.

"There's more," Ivanick said grimly. "C'keli snuck aboard the cruiser, so we had no choice but to take her on the mission." He swore in High Mogadorian. "She knows the General would never approve of her antics, but she does them anyways. Then we have no choice but to obey her orders, since she's higher ranked than even myself."

Iarius sucked in a breath; this was news to him. For C'keli to be ranked higher than Ivanick, she had to have been... What did the humans call it? Whitenosing? He resolved to find out the term later. "What about the mission?"

Ivanick shook his head even harder. "She almost fucked that up too. Tried taking control of my squad, my hand-picked warriors. C'keli told me that if I didn't hand over control, she'd have me on Piken duty."

"What stopped her?"

Ivanick guffawed. "I told her that if she wanted to take control, she'd have to explain to her father why I found pictures of human celebrities under her bed!" He smiled, a rare sight. "She gave up trying to take control faster than a kraul chasing a scent."

Iarius shook his head. He didn't understand, nor did he want to. "But the mission?" he pressed.

The commander frowned once more, turning away from his subordinate. "The Loric outsmarted us," he said quietly. "Adamus came to their aid." He pauses, looking around the room as if scanning for cameras. "And if that's not bad enough," he says finally, his thunderous voice whisper quiet, "There was a third Loric."

"A third?" Iarius gasped.

Ivanick nods, ever so slightly. "Our scouts didn't see anything, but we know they were there. They had Three cornered, but somehow he escaped. Our scouts fell dead one by one, without a reason. Their vitals flatlined at the same moment a sharp snap was heard through their earpiece, but our analysts are trying to discover what it could have been." He leans forward, motioning Iarius to do the same. "The worst part is that one of our pure-born soldiers went missing."

"You mean they defected?" Iarius asks.

Ivanick shakes his head. "No," he denies. "Their vitals disappeared completely. They either flatlined or stopped working, but their body wasn't recovered.

Sweat beads on Iarius's forehead, and he fights the urge to wipe it off. "Who was it?" he asks, fearful.

Ivanick frowns. "Skyrineia Draen Cedisium."

Iarius's heart dropped. "No," he whispered. "No."

"Yes."

The pure-born soldier lets out a heart-wrenching scream. Anger, grief, love and sadness all flow into this one sound, a sob of despair that echoes through the communications hall. His love, his Sky, was gone. She was gone and never coming back, and there was nothing he could do about it.

And it was all their fault.

Iarius gripped the dagger at his hilt, the metal growing blindingly hot beneath his palm. "I swear," he spat, "in the name of Setrakus Ra and Mogadorian Expansion, I will avenge her."

He drew his dagger and in a swift move sends it careening into the com-screen. The paper thin glass shatters, the tip of the blade passing clean through the surface and impaling a report on the wall.

"I will make them pay."

A.N.

Ok, so I know the Prologue was rather short. But I promised you guys that the random Mog girls' death would be important, didn't I? And well, it is. She's the driving point behind a lot of things, actually. But that's a story for another time.

Anyways, what did you all think? Is Ivanick nearly as dumb as he seems? Will Iarius show up later in the book? Will I update faster this time around? (Actually, yes on that last one. :P ) And who are the narrators for this book?

Well, you'll see.

For now, I'm Discordant Night.

I'll see you next chapter.