Though I scrapped The Concept of a Heart, I want to keep Xen as a character and try to find him a role to play in my main series. ...This might be a rash move since I don't KNOW what to do with him yet, but... I want to try SOMETHING!

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Arrabalta: Eternity (Book II)
Chapter Three-
The Lonely One

The first Guardian Aerobolt talked to was Storm. He was still staring into the fountain with a strangely mystified face. He almost didn’t even notice Aerobolt until his shoulder was touched. He yelped in surprise and nearly fell into the fountain. Aerobolt caught him just in time.
“Careful Storm. I don’t think Iridescence would be so keen to see you in her fountain,” Aerobolt joked. “She might revoke your Forces.”
“Well if you did not sneak up on me like that!” Storm retorted in high spirits. “What is it?” he asked before Aerobolt could ask that himself.
“Fielra wants Eira and I to go back to Hydyraen to investigate the Shadow Vulpines. Darkness has actually reversed itself further into unbalance. And she wants me to choose two other Guardians to go with us.”
Storm nodded. “And you want me to join you?” he asked hopefully.
“Of course! If only Shade were still here; I’d ask her too. Bring back the original team, eh?” Aerobolt prompted. Shade was on reconnaissance duty in a town north of Hydyraen called Lyron. Being the closest settlement to Hydyraen may have been a disaster for them when Arcane was rising to power.
“Well who are you going to ask?” Storm prompted, looking like he had a suggestion.
“I don’t know yet. I’d ask Cloud or Iris, but they’ve only just been apprenticed,” Aerobolt said, reading Storm’s face, which fell. “I wonder if there are any Guardians up for a trip…” he continued.
“You’re Justice Savior. Who wouldn’t want to travel with you?” Storm said. “You are a hero after all!”
“I’m no hero. I just did what I had to,” Aerobolt responded plainly.
“Every hero says something like that! You know it’s true!” Storm exclaimed brightly.
Aerobolt couldn’t help but feel apprehensive. “Yeah, but…” He was going to say that when he met Iridescence after the Battle, she said it was not his time yet, that there was still much for him to do before he became immortalized as a god. ‘Getting rid of Arcane can’t be the only thing I am meant to do in life. There’s gotta be more. That can’t be the end of my purpose!’ he thought.
“But…?” Storm tilted his head.
“Nothing,” Aerobolt lied. “We need to decide who’s going to join us,” he changed the subject back.
“Okay, but please not Blaze. I am getting tired of her… um… personality…” Storm said.
“I’d get tired too if I had to be around that impatient hothead all the time,” Aerobolt agreed.
“Yeah,” Storm laughed.
“Are there any apprentices you think would like to join us? I bet many of them are just itching to get their paws into the rest of Nyethra,” Aerobolt said.
Storm thought for a moment. “Besides the brand new ones, no. Many of them are still injured from the Battle.”
“After three months?” Aerobolt was surprised.
“Yeah. Seraph ran out of supplies to treat everyone a few times, keep in mind. That and that battle was so intense.”
“Oh right, I guess that makes sense.”
Storm thought for a moment. “There is one apprentice whom I think would be a good fox to join us… He was the only one not at the Battle. And his mentor died in that Battle too so…”
Aerobolt was interested. “Really? Who?”
“Xen Aura Ghoa,” Storm said.
Aerobolt remembered he may have seen the overly shy apprentice in Castla nu Craara only once before. He barely saw him when Cloud and Iris were inaugurated. He heard that Xen had acquired a Bane of Light to his surprise.
“Because his mentor died in the fight, he is falling behind. Soon Cloud and Iris will catch up to him!” Storm continued.
“But who is his new mentor?” Aerobolt asked.
Storm shook his head. “He doesn’t have a new mentor. His Bane is Light. You know how rare that Bane is right?” he said sadly.
Aerobolt suddenly pitied Xen more. “Oh right. That makes sense… It’d be easier if mentor and apprentice didn’t need to have the same Bane…”
“Fielra is just trying to bring out as much power as we can,” Storm said quietly.
“I want to help him,” Aerobolt stated. “Where is he?”
“He might be somewhere up in Gnome Spire. His Dominant Force is Earth…” Storm answered. He trailed off. Aerobolt looked down at Storm’s green Gnome Scarf, reminding him that Earth is Storm’s Bane.
Aerobolt already started towards the Gnome Spire before Storm could react.
“Wait up! You should know that he is extremely shy,” Storm said, trying to catch up.
“Reminds me of someone,” Aerobolt said referring to himself and how shy he used to be when he was in Hydyraen. “Where in Gnome Spire is he?” he asked when he looked up at all the hallway openings there were.
Storm shook his head. “I can only assume he is close to the bottom since he is just an apprentice after all.”
Aerobolt looked up. “Well that is a start…” He sent the slab under them upwards and stopped it at the first hallway fifteen feet up. “We’ll start here?” he said. He started down the hallway. There were a few Guardians dotted around. He asked if they knew where Xen was, but was met with answers of uncertainty.
“Sorry. Looks like he is not here,” Storm concluded after another couple hours of searching.
“Any ideas?” Aerobolt prompted.
“Just one,” Storm started hesitantly. “I see him up in the ramparts a lot,” he said uncertainly.
“The ramparts? Why?” Aerobolt was surprised. No one usually goes up into the ramparts unless they were watchmen or if there was an assault on Castla nu Craara going on.
“Because it is usually quiet and no one goes up there. Xen really is not what you’d call the social type,” Storm said.
And Aerobolt realized the reason why he was surprised was the actual reason. He felt his face burn with his stupidity. Then he felt even stupider when he realized, “I have never been up there. How do you get there?”
“The top of the ramparts’ entrances are just under the Arch Guardians’ rooms in each Spire. I’d assume he’d be as far away from the Guardians as he could,” Storm replied.
“Even though winter is approaching?” Aerobolt prompted thinking about how harsh the winters could get in these mountains.
Storm shrugged. “He’d do anything to get away,” he said simply.
“Ah poor cub. He must be shier than I ever was,” Aerobolt admitted. If Xen spent most of his time up in the ramparts just to get away from everyone were to be compared with Aerobolt’s past distrust to the Shadow Vulpines while he still lived in Hydyraen, he did not want to imagine the shyness of this cub. “But why? Why is he so shy like this?”
Storm shook his head. “Remember when I used to blame everything on myself, calling myself weak and unable to contribute anything? Well take those thoughts and multiply them until you have the population of Nyethra. And put it all in Xen Aura Ghoa,” he said.
“That bad?” Aerobolt was barely astonished, despite his widening eyes. Storm nodded. “Damn…” Aerobolt said. “But why though?”
Storm shrugged as the ascended the Spire further. They stepped into a hallway that was outlined by swords, scepters, and other various weapons. Aerobolt assumed this meant to signify the entrance to the ramparts. Aerobolt saw stairs ahead as well as light pouring in. The air turned colder as they neared the outside. The stone turned ice cold under his paws, which made him shudder. Aerobolt hated when his paws were cold.
Upon reaching the outside, Aerobolt was instantly hit with an ice-cold autumn breeze that forced his fur to fluff out. They were outside, but in a sheltered within a wall that went only halfway up. There they had a beautiful view of half of Myunae nu Eira as the mountains stretched their peaks out ahead of them for miles. Aerobolt wished he could have come up here more often.
“Wow… Can I be a guard up in these ramparts someday?” he asked in awe.
“And stand still during winter? No thank you!” Storm replied.
“Wh-who’s there?” That was the sound of a quiet, young voice that Aerobolt heard to his right, around a corner. “I-I thought no one came up here… not when we weren’t in danger,” it continued. But the source of the voice did not show itself. But Aerobolt already had a pretty good idea.
“Xen?” he started calmly. “Is that you?”
Instantly the voice became higher pitched with fear. “H-how do you know my name!? Wh-who are you!?”
“I’m Aerobolt Novarra Arrabalta,” was all Aerobolt said. He hoped that if Xen knew who he was, he’d trust him.
“J-Justice Savior?!” Xen’s voice squealed in shock. “Wh-what is the great hero d-doing here!?”
“Looking for you,” Aerobolt responded. Aerobolt didn’t even note that he still disliked being called a hero.
Xen’s voice became so high pitched, it came out as a wheeze. “Me? Wh-why?”
“I want you to come with us on a journey with Storm and Eira,” Aerobolt said.
“Wh-why me…?” Xen whispered in repeat.
“There are too many reasons to list. Come with us,” Aerobolt extended his paw towards the voice. But it was not taken.
“How do I know you won’t just hurt me?” was what Xen said.
“Hurt you? Why would I hurt you…?” Aerobolt asked sadly.
“Why would anyone? They do it anyway. Making fun of my Bane of Light and always calling me weak and pathetic, pushing me around as if I were nothing more than a toy,” Xen said miserably.
Aerobolt glanced at Storm who only shrugged. “Who treats you that way…?” Aerobolt was concerned.
“Pretty much every other apprentice in the citadel,” was all Xen could say before he choked.
Aerobolt looked back at Storm, who was just watching with a concerned look on his face. “What of the Tharo siblings? As I am taking them with us into Nyethra after all,” he said.
“The Tharos?” Xen asked.
Aerobolt nodded even though he knew Xen couldn’t see him. “Yes. Say hi, Storm.”
“Hi Xen,” Storm said very friendly.
Xen did not respond.
“Xen?” both Aerobolt and Storm said.
“Where are we going?” was what he finally said next. He sounded almost defeated in Aerobolt’s head.
“H-Hydyraen,” he said cautiously.
“…Fine. Let’s go,” he conceded.
Aerobolt did not expect that. “R-really?” he was almost too astonished to speak.
“What more have I got to lose…?” was all Xen said. “When will we leave?” he sounded as if he didn’t even care anymore.
“After tomorrow…” Aerobolt said, confused.
“Then I will meet you then. But now… please… leave me in peace…” Xen said.
“O-okay,” Aerobolt wanted to ask why Xen agreed so quickly, but he decided he didn’t want to antagonize him any further. “Come on Storm,” he started to go back into the citadel. Storm didn’t follow right away. He just stared towards Xen direction. “Storm?”
Storm looked back. “Nothing,” he said and followed Aerobolt back into the citadel.
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Full series: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/5340298/
Book One: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/11187661/
Chapter One: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/15292987/
Failed Book II (If curious...): https://www.furaffinity.net/view/12848456