Jose swung his leg over his bike, and reached for the automatic door opener.
"That's why she needs you," Rider said fast, making Jose slow his reach to engage the door.
"How you figure?"
Rider took his time answering. He desperately wanted to keep his friend from doing the night alone on some kind of suicide mission. No Guardian could make it alone once identified as a core member of the Neteru team. The dark side would hunt him down and hold him for ransom just to draw the Neteru - knowing she could never leave her own. Jose would be vamp bait, but he also knew that Jose didn't give a rat's ass about any of that right now. The man was bleeding from a wound that he didn't have a cure for.
"You ever think, maybe, that like Shabazz always says, there's a purpose for every one of us being here?"
Jose let his breath out hard. "Save it, man."
"We all have crazies in our family, dude. There's an uncle who likes little girls, a momma who drinks too much, a cousin who would steal you blind. So one of your people got nicked, maybe became an ax murderer, or serial killer - who knows, but that ain't you, dude. You made a choice to walk away from all of that, just like I did, no matter what was in your blood." Rider pushed off of his bike and rounded Jose's, holding it by the handlebars. "So, if the universe sent you to be with us, then there's a very divine purpose in it."
Jose set his jaw hard, but at least he was no longer reaching for the escape hatch.
"Listen to me," Rider said more firmly. "You and Lopez didn't come into this equation linked to Rivera by accident." He looked at the younger Guardian hard, and wiped his hands on the back of his jeans, then hitched them up. "I know I talk a lot of shit, but this time I say it isn't some freaky coincidence, and Jose, you and I have been best buds - the noses together - long enough for you to smell one of my fish tales if I was full of crap."
The younger Guardian shrugged casually, but his line of vision was riveted to Rider's, hurt pride and hope for answers making his eyes glitter under the UV lights. Rolling the tension out of his shoulders, Rider stared at the young man, then backed away from Jose's bike, fairly certain he wouldn't bolt.
"Much as I hate to finally admit it, much less accept it - Rivera was our twelfth man. Creepy, but you, Lopez and Rivera form your own little trinity, a core within the larger group core, with, as is always the formation in battle, the Neteru in the center." He sighed. "And I'm pretty sure Father Patrick is upstairs talking a young cleric off the ledge of our compound. If it f**ked you up, what do you think it did to Lopez?"
Embarrassment gave rise to false bravado as Jose sat back on this bike seat and folded his arms, looking off in the distance and focusing on nothing. "Aw'ight, say you're right about the trinity. What's that got to do with D?"
Rider walked the perimeter of the garage as he spoke, making Jose follow him with his eyes. "Three guardians linked, the strongest of the three became her lover; one, her brother, was filled with hope; one, a priest, brought his faith," he said calmly. "Faith, hope, love - like the old priest said before. All three tactical sensors of the highest ability, one from each team - each side of the equation... The Covenant, the guardians, and the darkness itself, another ring of three... and they're all around her, connected by love - the most unbreakable bond of all... and the wider circle of the team is tapped into that. None of us is willing to break the circle... we won't leave our own, out of pure love, man. This is some big shit, Jose. Don't blow it off because your ego got hammered."
Jose was off his bike, now pacing in an agitated circle. "Oh, shit... oh shit..."
"Yeah," Rider said, "you're beginning to feel me. And maybe, just maybe, she had to take a walk on the dark side with Rivera to truly understand what she was up against so she could fight it - so he could fight it. That's why you can't punk out now, just because she accidentally made your dick get hard."
Jose stopped walking and stared at Rider, shoving his hands in his jeans pockets. "I didn't deserve that, man."
"All right, all right," Rider said, waving his hand. "I apologize. But do you see that that's what it boils down to? This is serious, and we're going into maybe the last fight of our lives... you have to have your head on straight, and cannot allow the little head to do any thinking for the big one. Got it?"
Grudgingly, Jose muttered an assent. "Still, if she's got the baddest mother on the planet protecting her... I mean, if - "
"You and Lopez are the only ones on our side who can track him!" Rider hollered, his voice bouncing off the cement walls. "You triangulated on his signal, not hers. Get your head out of your own ass, Cipointe. If Carlos gets into trouble, we might need to go find him and pull him out of wherever he is - because, by now we know, he ain't leaving Damali and she ain't leaving him. We can't always count on Marlene or Father Pat, and Damali won't be with us, so if the two of them get into some Bonnie-and-Clyde-type shit, the only available trackers are you and Lopez!"
Rider slapped the center of his forehead hard when Jose didn't even breathe. "Geez Louise, man. You and Lopez are genetically designed to locate a master under eminent threat. Don't you get it; don't you see your purpose - your team value, dude? Heaven is about to turn this bullshit upside down and has been using every move the dark side has made to possibly make the ultimate weapon of mass destruction - two Neterus, a male and female in the same freaking millennium as soul mates - lovers... of breeding age, to make more!"
"Oh, shit, this is way profound."
Rider blinked twice and Jose stood in the center of the garage floor, dazed.
"Yeah," Rider murmured. "I'm scaring myself, this makes so much sense... I have to tell Marlene. We need a weapons-room meeting, pronto."
This time, Jose shook his head, no. "Shabazz went to talk to her. Tell her in the morning."
"Yeah, but - "
" Tell her in the morning, Rider." Jose went to his bike and threw the tarp back over it. "Yeah... we should ship these overseas with us, yo. Get some dirt in our faces."
For a moment, Rider didn't move, then nodded and went to cover his bike. "If we're gonna go out in the big one, man, let's load up the side bags with some colloidal silver grenades and go find a good bar where the girls dance on the pole. Get you a tall, Aussie blonde, and me a redhead with jugs this big," Rider said, chuckling and demonstrating a heavy load with his hands.
"Your old ass ain't gonna get no redhead like that."
Rider laughed. "Fantasy, youngblood, ain't nothing wrong with it. Keeps hope alive." He extended his fist, and gave Jose a bear hug when he came over and pounded it. "It's gonna be cool, man."
Chapter Thirteen