Peter pulled out a chair and sat down next to me.

"NO! I don't want to go with you! I don't want to believe this is real! And I want you to go away," I screamed at him!

Peter looked taken back and... Amused?

"It's okay I knew your mother."

"Oh, that puts me at so much ease," I replied back sarcastically, "If you are supposed to be my guardian then why didn't you save my mom?"

"I was not yet a fully trained guardian and your mom was your guardian at the time, once she died I had to rush my training so I could take her place as guardian."

"So, how old are you Peter?"

"Well where I come from I would be a lot older than you but I look, and feel, Twenty-five because earth is kinda connected to my planet."

"Wow, that's kinda hard to understand."

"I know."

"I don't know how I feel about all this?"

"I know your new at this but don't worry you'll get used to it."

"What if I don't want to get used to it? What if I just want to be normal?" I said back to him.

He sighed. We sat there quietly for a while and then Peter said, "Well your customers are going to be coming soon, we should get this place cleaned up."

I looked around and saw the big mess we made. There where chairs and tables knocked over from the fight, and there was green blood everywhere. Surprisingly though, there was no leftover green goop from where my dad had disappeared into the hole.

He smiled down at me and I smiled back. He was right the customers were not going to understand what happened here. "How I'm I going to clean all this up before they start coming?" I asked.

"Well, one I'm going to help you and two I also froze time for a while," he stated with a sly smile.

"How did you do that?"

"Well every guardian is able to freeze time for a while, and if they want to have someone with them they simply think about that person while freezing time."

"Do you need like some kind of tool to freeze time or do you just use your mind? I asked him.

"I just use my mind," Peter replied, "Now come on we need to clean up."

We each started to clean up on opposite sides of the dining area; Peter moved the furniture back into place as I swept.

It took no time at all for us to have the place back to normal, not that we needed to rush with time being frozen. And soon, it was as if nothing had even happened.

Peter unfroze time with his mind, and it wasn't long before the customers began flowing in. They came and went all day without the slightest notion of what I went through that morning.

Peter kept a low profile, sitting in the corner booth and hiding his face in a book, while I worked.

Soon it was time to close up, and once all the customers had left Peter helped me with the nightly cleaning.

"Peter?"

"Hmm."

"Where did my dad go when he went into the hole?"

"Well when lagooners die they always go back to where they originally came from so there soul can be used for another lagooner."

"Oh okay. Um Peter, thank you for helping me out today."

"No problem I am your guardian, it's my job to help you."

After a brief silence, I asked, "So how does this guardian thing work? Do you even have a place to stay?

"It's complicated, and I don't actually have a place to stay." Peter started looking a little embarrassed.

"Well you could stay with me if you want, I guess. "

"That would be quite nice actually," Peter answered.

"Okay, let's get going then."

I collected my purse, locked up the café and we walked to my house.

I showed Peter straight to the guest bedroom.

"Sorry about the pink sheets, I keep this room for when my little cousin visits.

Peter smiled, " It's okay."

"Anyway, it's got a bathroom and, uh, if you need anything just let me know," I explained.

"Thank you, Katie, I really appreciate it."

After the day I had, I wasn't feeling very hungry, just exhausted. So, I went to my room and took a shower to wash off any remnants of the encounter with my father, before throwing on my pajamas and collapsing onto my bed.

I was out so fast that I don't even recall falling asleep.

I awoke with a start, someone was shaking me. I blinked the blur from my eyes to see Peter hovering over me.

"Wake up, " he whispered.

"What is it, Peter?"

"We have to go now," Peter stated.

"Why what's going on--"
"No time to explain we have to leave before it's too late," Peter interrupted.

So I got up and slipped on my robe and my slippers. Peter than grabbed me by the arm and we ran outside. We kept running and Peter started murmuring to himself. I couldn't hear what he was saying but it sounded like a spell. Then around the swirling portal opened in front of us and once we went through it felt like a gush of wind pushing us in. Once we were on the other side of the portal Peter stopped running and made a movement with his hands and the portal closed. I looked around and everything looked different, we were in a backyard and a house was in front of us.

"What's going on Peter? Why did we have to leave? What was after us? How did you make that portal? Where are we?"

"We are on my home planet, Guardtopia, but there isn't time to explain everything right now. I'll explain everything to you later, right now we need to get inside the house."

"How can we go into that house? I don't even know where we are."

"Relax, you are just in shock, we are at my place. We will be safe here."

Peter guided me into his house and I saw a lady, wearing a jogging suit, walking by with her dog but she had the head of a ladybug and her skin was red with black spots. There was also what looked like a man, but his head was that of a dog and he had big floppy ears, drinking coffee and sitting in his backyard waiting for the sun to rise.

Peter took me into the house and showed me to a room.

"You can stay here, and I will sleep in that recliner next to it."

"No Peter I can't let you do that, this is your house, I'll sleep in the recliner."

"No, it's okay to come on."

So Peter put me in the bed and tucked me in under the covers and kissed my forehead. It freaked me out but I was too tired to say anything so I decided to let it go since I am a guest in his house. Peter then turned and went to the recliner next to the bed and grabbed a cover from a drawer next to the bed, then we both went to sleep.

I woke up to the smell of bacon and eggs. I sleepily walked to the kitchen to see Peter standing there making breakfast. He was wearing different clothes from yesterday. It was a black suit with a black shirt to go with it, but he was not wearing a tie.

"Mm, that smells good."

Peter turned and smiled at me. "I thought you'd never wake up. I'm making bacon and eggs hope you're hungry."

"I sure am, do you have orange juice?"

"Yes, check the fridge." He nodded his head towards the fridge off the side of the kitchen. I opened it and grabbed the orange juice.

"You want some Peter?"

"Sure, you pour the OJ and I'll make the plates."

"Ok."

I pulled two cups out of the cabinet and put them on the table and poured the juice.

"Come on we have to build up our strength."

I stopped with the fork halfway to my mouth. "What you mean we have to build up our strength?"

Peter swallowed hard and then said, "Well your gonna need your strength for your training."

"Peter, I don't want training I wanna go home. I want to go home now! What is the name of this planet?"

"You are on my home planet, and the name is Guardtopia. It's the sixth planet from our sun's, it's not that different from earth. Gravity and oxygen wise.

"Urgh Peter, I don't belong here I need to go back to my planet." I couldn't hold back any longer and I started crying. Peter got up from his chair and came around to me and hugged me. I leaned into his arms and cried my eyes out. All the while Peter rubbed my back and whispered reassuring things in my ear, telling me that it was okay and that I would be fine.

Once I settled down a bit Peter let me go and then asked me "So are you gonna be ready to train?"

"Seriously, you expect me to be fine with this? Ugh fine, just as long as it gets me home!"

"Of course that is the main idea here. Come on let's eat so we can go."

"Okay." We finished up our food and I helped Peter clean up the kitchen.

"Okay, Peter, I have a question?"

"What is it?"

"What am I supposed to wear, I'm not going to be walking around this planet with my PJ's on!"

"Relax we can go get you some clothes, for now, you can wear one of my shirts and a long jacket so it won't be that noticeable."

"Okay, thanks."

"Not a problem."

So Peter quickly went to his room and he brought out a plain black shirt and a long jacket. I put the shirt on over my pajama shirt and put the jacket on.

"Is the clothes store far?" I asked.

"No, it's just right around the corner," Peter replied.

So we walked to the clothes store and went inside, once inside we saw a lady at the but wearing a red dress with black spots on it, but the wired thing was she was red and had black spots on her. Just like a ladybug, and it was quite unsettling.

"Excuses me, my friend here is visiting for the first time and is terribly shy, can you help me find an outfit for her?

"Hmm, " the ladybug thought, "I have the perfect thing!"

With that, the ladybug ran off to another part of the store when she returned she had the most gorgeous outfit in her hands. It was a turquoise Jean outfit, it had a silk shirt with a wool jacket and the jeans felt like they were made from the best material. Not to mention the long beautiful boots that were as black as night.

"I love the way this feels!" I exclaimed.

"We'll take that one," Peter stated. He then handed the ladybug a black card, that he took out of his pocket, that looked like a credit card and had a dragon on it.

She took the card and scanned it with a black square that lit up once she scanned it. She then handed the card back to Peter and said, " Okay come with me, sweetie and we can make sure this fits you. By the way, it also comes with a makeover.

Peter moved to go with us but the ladybug said, "You have to stay here!"

"Why?"

She rolled her eyes before she said, "Obviously because your a guy and you would be invading her girl privacy."

Peter laughed nervously and put his hands up in surrender.

"Okay, I'll just wait here."

At that moment another worker walked by, this person was a man that seemed to be human, and the ladybug stopped him and asked, "Can you watch the desk while I help this young lady here?"

The man looked at me and then back at the ladybug and then said, "Sure."

We left Peter and the worker at the desk and went to a changing room, where the ladybug handed me the outfit and I went to go change.

"So what do you think of Peter?" the ladybug asked me from outside the changing room.

"He's nice," I replied, "I only just met him yesterday.

"Well I assume that you should know that he comes from a wide stock of guardians, and he has a very long history in his family."

"Oh, he does?" I wanted to know more but I didn't want to seem too eager for the information.

"Yes, he does, but you should beware that when you're around guardians there tends to be a bit of drama and danger.

"What do you mean?" I inquired.

"Well, the guardians seem to attract a lot of people even when nobody knows they are a guardian, and sometimes that might cause danger. Though I really like a man that has drama and danger in his life."

I didn't know what to say to that and the ladybug didn't seem like she wanted to talk anymore. So I just stayed quiet until I came out of the dressing room. The ladybug wasted no time on getting started with my makeover. She pushed me into a chair and went to work. Soon she was done, and she took me over to a tall mirror so I could see my reflection.

I looked completely different. My hair's natural red color looked brighter because of the turquoise outfit, not to mention the light blue eyeliner she had used. The eyeliner made my green eyes sparkle. I couldn't wait to go show Peter.

"Peter, Peter look at my new outfit!" I exclaimed once we had gotten back to the desk.

Peter stopped talking with the worker and turned to look at me, and his eyes widened.

"Wow, Katie you look stunning!"

I blushed uncontrollably as I said, "Thank you, Peter.

Peter cleared his throat and looked away slightly as he said, "We should get going."

We both thanked the ladybug for her help and left.

Once we got outside I stated, "To training I suppose."

"Yes."

"Okay well let's go."

Peter took me to a wooded area just outside the town where there was a small clearing. Without pause, he made two swords appear and he handed me a seemingly ordinary sword, it wasn't anything special.

I took the sword from him and frowned at the blunt tip. "I don't even really know how to use this thing," I said.

"Well, what do you think the meaning of training is?" He laughed.

"Alright well teach me then."

Peter put his sword down in the grass and then came over to me. "Here I'm going to show you how to stand when you are holding a sword."

He took my hands and put them both on the sword and then he positioned me to the right pose.

"Okay let's see if some of your natural power kicked in yet."

"What do you m-yikes!" I carefully avoided a stab that he had coming straight towards me. "What the hell are you trying to do, kill me?

"No! Now no more chit chat we fight!"

With that, Peter lunged at me with his sword and I skillfully blocked it with mine. We went at it for a while but then we both got tired so we sat on the grass.

"That was fun!" I exclaimed.

"Yeah it was fun and I'm a bit surprised that your powers are growing at this fast a rate."

"What powers I don't have any powers what are you talking about?"

"You have much to learn Katie."

I was about to say something back when a black fog quickly surrounds me and soon I couldn't see anything but the black fog. I quickly stand up and look frantically for Peter but I couldn't find him anywhere. Then the fog clears just a little bit in the middle and I see a lady standing there. I move closer to her and I see that it is not just any lady. It is the ladybug!

Her eyes were closed but as I get closer she opened her eyes and I see that there was no pupil in them, it was just white.

I froze and she slowly turned to look at me. Once she saw me she started to transform into a hideous monster.

Her skin turned pitch black, her hair flowing as if gravity was nothing to it, and her white and red spot dress turned black.

I quickly readied my sword like Peter showed me and waited for her to come to me.

She lunged at me with no warning but I was ready and quickly dodged her. She came again and this time I hit her with my sword. She screamed an inhuman scream and came at me with more force, but I was ready and sliced her stomach with my sword. She kept coming at me and I was able to evade her attacks with some of my own. Soon she grew slower and weaker and finally, she fell to her knees. I wasted no time and hastily stuck my sword deep into her black heart until it came out her back.

She closed her eyes and then turned to black ash. A hand-formed from the fog and picked up all the ash, and then the fog slowly cleared.

I fell on my knees still holding the sword, and I saw Peter run to me.

"Katie are you okay?" Peter asked once he got close to me.

I fell into his arms and cried, and Peter comforted me.

"Shh, it's okay everything will be okay."

"It was the ladybug, but she looked like she was being controlled," I said in between sobs.

"I'm sorry Katie, but I don't l know what that was. I've never seen anything like that happen before.

"Oh God, I don't want to do this anymore Peter."

"It's okay you can do it. Look what just happened you just trained for like twenty minutes and you killed a whatever that was, be proud of yourself, believe in yourself. There will still be more but you can do it, and I will be there to help you along the way."