Disclaimer: I do not own Shadow Raiders :( I do however own Liranné

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Chapter 2: Liranné

Liranné had been lying on the cool green grass for hours now just staring at the stars that surrounded planet Earth. It had been yet another absolutely exhausting and stressful day for her at school and she needed desperately to unwind. All of her assignments were due on the same day and she had to sit three of her seven exams on that day also. After long and stressful days such as these, Liranné found it helpful to just lie on the grass under the night sky and think of anything but reality. She would often fantasize about meeting other races of the universe and leaving this world of anger, pain and war behind her.

Liranné was in dream land for almost every second she wasn't working, visualizing the events that she so wanted to happen in her mind. Amidst her current thoughts she heard a faint ringing of the phone back inside the house. This snapped her out of her thoughts instantly and all she could do was give a murderous glare in the direction of the phone. When it didn't stop ringing, Liranné stood slowly and walked slowly back into the house to answer it. Before answering it she looked at the caller ID to see who it was. She rolled her eyes when she saw the name Paige on the screen and then, reluctantly, answered it.

"Hello?" she asked softly into the phone.

"Lira! It's Paige, how are you?" her friend greeted her with so much enthusiasm. Lira gently pushed her copper blonde hair out of her bright green eyes and off her face and forced a smile, even though she knew Paige could not see her.

"I'm absolutely exhausted Paige, school just really took it out of me today but otherwise I'm fine. How are you?" Paige had been Liranné's best friend since about a year before when her parents had died in a horrific car accident. Paige had stood by Liranné as she spoke at their funeral and she had been there whenever Liranné needed something, and for this she was ever grateful.

"I'm okay now. I was so worried when you left for home so quickly after school. I thought you must have been sick or something so I called to check up on you." Paige replied, sounding greatly relieved. Liranné made her way over to the refrigerator and took out a bottle of juice.

"Well that is very nice of you," she walked back over to the bench and poured the juice into a glass, "I just thought I'd catch the bus home today so that I didn't have to walk to far being as tired as I am."

"Oh, well I'm just glad you're not sick." Paige said cheerfully.

"Thanks Paige. Listen, I have to go now. I need a good night's sleep before another day at school tomorrow." Liranné said slowly, wanting desperately to go back to her spot on the grass outside.

"Alright then, I'll see you tomorrow Lira. Bye!"

"Bye Paige." Liranné hang up the phone and made her way back outside with her glass of juice in her hand. She sat down again in the middle of the yard and once again thought of what mysteries lay beyond her world.

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"We're entering the planet's atmosphere." Cryos stated as he, Graveheart, Pyrus and Zera made their way down to the planet's surface in Cryos' Bladewing. Zera was excited by the fact that they were discovering a new life form that was capable of who knows what. She was constantly shifting around in her seat and this was really annoying Pyrus, who had been unfortunate in being seated next to her. The two had not spoken a word since leaving the Aurora. Cryos and Graveheart, however, had been chatting away about numerous things such as the Beast planet returning, how Jade was coping as a Queen and topics like that.

"Finally," came the annoyed voice of Pyrus from behind Cryos, "Zera's constant moving around is really getting on my nerves."

"If you don't like it, MOVE!" Zera snapped. Pyrus recoiled slightly at Zera's sudden outburst.

"Zera! Do not speak to Pyrus in that manner! I thought I taught you better." Cryos scolded his daughter.

"Sorry father" Zera sighed.

Graveheart chuckled, "Don't worry Pyrus; we'll be landing in the next couple of minutes."

Cryos looked over to his friend looking rather concerned "We do not know where the best place to land is. We need to find somewhere that is not likely to be inhabited by too many people so that we don't cause a panic and we need to land in a place where we can find someone willing to listen to us."

"Well we can't know for sure where there are people who will help or even whether there are any on this entire planet. We'll just have to take a chance landing somewhere and asking the first person we find for help." Graveheart said solemnly.

After a few moments they came across a wide field just outside a small town. The only thing occupying the field was a single house.

"Here's as good a place as any" Graveheart said as they drew closer to it. He prepared the ship for landing and took it down, landing in the middle of the field. Zera was having a very hard time trying to sit still now and looked as though she was about to have a seizure. Pyrus noticed this and could only snicker.

"What?" she demanded.

"It's just funny how excited you are, were you this bad when you met the Sun people?"

Zera shook her head and stood up. As she did so she looked out the window of the craft and noticed a figure standing there. "Father, it looks like one of the creatures that live on this planet has come to greet us."

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Lying on the grass, Lira saw a strange light in the sky above her. 'A satellite?' She thought to herself as she sat up slightly to get a better look. After staring at it for what to her felt like forever, she realized that it was getting closer and closer and that it was most definitely not a satellite. As it came even closer she noticed that it was a blue colour and that it had jets on either side of it at the back. 'An alien ship?' She thought as she stood slowly and began to walk in the direction of the projected landing point. Lira picked up the pace to a run as the ship neared the ground and landed. This was absolutely amazing! She had never seen anything like this in her entire life. She was actually going to meet aliens.

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"She looks… scared" Pyrus commented as all four of them peered curiously out of the window at the tiny person standing on the ground outside the craft.

"She doesn't appear to be carrying a weapon." Cryos reported.

"I think we should go out there and say hello." Zera stated, bouncing up and down again. Graveheart gave Cryos a nod as if to say he agreed with Zera and all of them stood and made their way off the ship.

Zera made her way off the craft first, closely followed by Pyrus. They stood staring at the young girl in front of them, wondering what they should say to her and if she even spoke their language. Pyrus stared straight into the girl's emerald green eyes; a look of astonishment filled them. Obviously she had never met anyone beyond her world before. Pyrus gave her a warm smile to try and make her feel more comfortable, and shyly, she returned it. Zera was positively delighted that she would have another girl to talk to, and she didn't look too old either; possibly late teens. Maybe she wouldn't have to keep talking to that darned Prince Pyrus anymore. Cryos and Graveheart came out of the ship at that moment and walked forward to address the girl but were beaten to it by Zera.

"Hello," Zera said politely as she took a few steps toward the girl, "My name is Zera, and this is my father King Cryos, ruler of planet Ice," Cryos nodded, "Graveheart of planet Rock," Graveheart smiled, "and Prince Pyrus of planet Fire," Pyrus waved. The girl stared at Pyrus for a moment before Zera asked "what's your name?"

The girl stood still for a moment as though she had completely forgotten how to talk, but the replied softly, "Liranné, but my friends call my Lira." She smiled ever so slightly looking very shy and a little scared, "Why have you come to Earth?"

"Is that what this planet is called?" Cryos asked.

"Yes." Lira replied, almost shocked that Cryos hadn't known that.

"We've come to warn your people of a menace that has threatened our worlds, the Beast planet," Graveheart began, "It consumes planets in its path and we fear your world may be next." At this point Lira looked terrified.

"So, umm, what do you want me to do? I'm just a 17 years old girl, I can't really help you. It's the government you want to talk to." Lira said, sounding distressed.

"We tried to talk to them, they wouldn't listen" Cryos spoke up, "we were hoping to find someone who could help us get to the world engines and move this planet out of the Beast's path and offer its people a place in the alliance."

"And so what if your only 17? So am I!" Pyrus spoke up, "I'm the ruler of an entire planet and my people are doing just fine."

"Besides the fact that they live on planet Rock's battle moons" Zera giggled, earning a glare from Pyrus.

"Thanks for reminding me," he muttered.

"World engines? Battle moons? How about you come inside and we can talk about this a bit more, I'm starting to get a bit dizzy and I'd like to sit down." All of the others nodded in agreement and they all began to follow Lira back to her house.

"So are your parents here too?" Graveheart asked trying to make conversation.

"Umm, no… I've lived by myself since last year when they…" She trailed off.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-" Graveheart began before Lira raised a hand to silence him. "It's ok, really," she forced a smile.

"I know how you must feel," Pyrus spoke up, "my parents are dead too, and my Grand Vizier, the person who brought me up after they died was killed along with my planet not too long ago."

"I'm so sorry" Lira whispered. Pyrus just smiled at her again.

After Lira looked away again, Pyrus deemed it safe to stare at her again. He took in the sight of her, her pale skin, her golden hair, her brilliant green eyes and her soft voice. Zera noticed the look on Pyrus's face as he watched Lira and chuckled quietly, the young Prince had been on this planet barely five minutes and he was already crushing on this girl. Pyrus heard her subtle laugh and gave her a quizzical look.

Once they reached the house, Lira stepped inside and motioned for them all to gather in the living room. "So this is where you live?" Graveheart asked, looking around curiously.

"Yes, it's not much but its home. I inherited it from my parents as well as all of their money so I can live comfortably here until I graduate from school and get a job." Lira replied. Zera walked over to the television, "this is a strange sort of communications screen. How do you get it to work?"

Lira smiled and explained, "Its not a communications screen, it's a television, a form of entertainment on Earth. Basically it plays videos of actors pretending to be other people and being stupid for other people's amusement."

"You mean like holo-vids?" Pyrus suggested. Lira looked at him with an expression of confusion across her face and pressed the power button. Zera just stared directly at it.

"Uhh, moving on," She quickly made a conversation before she got distracted by the television, "this Beast planet, you say it consumes worlds?"

"Yes, and unfortunately your world is the next in its path unless we can move it." Cryos said as he sat down in one of the couches with Graveheart sitting down beside him.

"So," Lira said as she took the armchair while Pyrus and Zera took the other couch, "is this where the world engines come into play?"

"Yes," Graveheart replied quickly, "we have to find the Telepod which will allow us to teleport to the engines in the centre of your world. Once there we can activate them and move the planet along with our worlds to escape the Beast.

Lira sat quietly staring at the floor. This was a lot to take in all at once but she knew she had to keep it together for the sake of her planet and its people, she could freak out about it later. She took a deep breath and looked back to Cryos and Graveheart.

"Any idea where to find it?"

"We were kind of hoping you could tell us" Graveheart replied, shaking his head.

Lira bit her lip and shook her head; she looked over to Pyrus and Zera. Zera still had her eyes glued to the television screen but Pyrus was staring at her. All she could do was stare back for a moment at the being of fire. It was amazing to see these creatures from other worlds but there was something special about Pyrus, Lira didn't know what it was but she was drawn to him for some reason. She quickly snapped herself out of her trance and addressed Cryos and Graveheart again.

"Well if you're certain that the engines are there you must have checked that somehow right?"

"We did a scan of your entire planet" Cryos replied.

"Well then why can't you scan for the Telepod?" Lira asked, "I only ask because I have no idea where to find such a thing."

"Well, I can contact Tekla and ask her to try that." Graveheart said, sounding a little uplifted. He pressed a button on the comm. Device on his wrist and a new voice was heard.

"Graveheart, my friend, how goes the mission so far?"

"Pretty good at the moment Tekla, we've found someone willing to help us but we need to know if you would be able to scan the planet for the Telepod, we have no other way of finding it."

"Well I will try but I cannot make any promises. I'll send you what I find as soon as I am done."

Lira listened to the conversation for the first second or two but then zoned out again, subconsciously staring at the Prince again. She noticed he had gorgeous eyes, blue with flame-like colours in the middle. It made sense as he was a being of fire but that did not change the fact that it was amazing. It wasn't until Pyrus waved a hand in front of her face that she realized she had been staring at him.

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A/N - Ok sorry this one took so long to get up. I'm in my final term of year 12 and I'm having a lot of time off sick so you can imagine I'm stressing. Ill try to get another chapter up soon but please don't hate me for being so late. Also I know this chapter isn't the best but I just can't pick out where I went wrong, pointers are more then welcome.

Thanks for reading! *HUGZ*