Star Wars: Heroes of Another Kind

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Just a heads up...no update tonight and the next few days I can't promise any. My mother is having some major surgery tomorrow, and it seems that some older(and serious) problems have also reappeared, so she's ended up in the hospital earlier than expected. Since she's actually up in Georgia, its been hell trying to get in contact with anyone and find out what's going on exactly.

I just need to pass out...apologies, as I really do want to update, but just can't get myself to write.

 

[aros]

no need to apologize....writing and reading this story hour should be fun. but there are always important times when you must put aside certain recreational pursuits to take care of that which is most dear. in this case your mom. i hope all the surgery goes well and she recovers fully and quickly. best of luck

 

[DethStryke]

Exactly what Aros said. I hope everything goes as smoothly and with as little complication as possible.

In addition, here's something to contemplate while in the waiting room: Why didn't Jyren lop off his leg above the knee with his lightsaber (or at least above the cut from the metal blade) and then reform it? It would have taken a fair amount of energy, of course, but I'm pretty sure it would have been better than limping around.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

In addition, here's something to contemplate while in the waiting room: Why didn't Jyren lop off his leg above the knee with his lightsaber (or at least above the cut from the metal blade) and then reform it? It would have taken a fair amount of energy, of course, but I'm pretty sure it would have been better than limping around.

Dramatic effect.

More seriously, it still does hurt to lop off one's leg, even if it can be reformed. Shadow would probably have done it if in the same situation(and if she had the problem with metal, of course), but there's definitely two different modes of thinking in there. Jyren isn't exactly the best when it comes to morphing and such. He could use it a whole lot more than he does, but it just doesn't cross his mind enough.

...something that always bugs Shadow. He's got tons of resources at his disposal but he still runs around like he's human.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 231: Like Minds

Getting out was definitely an intelligent priority. However, it immediately proved to be a more difficult task than either Shadow or Jyren had expected. After Jyren had gotten the bindings off of her arms and ankles, Shadow stood up. Or at least, that had been the plan. Instead, she rose to up, swayed, then fell back into the chair suddenly. Jyren did managed to catch the chair so it didn’t fall over, but before he could ask the expected question, Shadow was answering it with a suddenly tired sounding mumble.

“Haven’t eaten...”

Though she trailed off, the link filled in the rest of the information and it made sense. In the past however many hours it had been, Shadow had been fighting, morphing to heal wounds, and then was captured. From the looks of it, she’d taken a serious beating, and at the same time hadn’t had any food. For an Alraxian body, which required an extremely large amount of food, especially wen morphing, all of those combined meant Shadow wasn’t going to be very useful until she had some real rest and food.

Which left one option.

“No,” Shadow growled, forcing more strength into her voice to emphasize her point. She had picked up on Jyren’s train of thought immediately...and obviously was not happy about it. She was not useless. She could walk just fine. There was no way that he was going to—

“We don’t really have much of a choice at this point,” Jyren cut off her thoughts(which he could feel through the link), and knelt down as best he could. Of course, this didn’t agree with his leg, and he nearly fell over again.

Shadow sighed and rolled her eyes, “There’s no way you can do this with your leg hurt like that. Just guard the door and give me a moment!”

“To do what?!” Jyren grumbled over his shoulder, stepping over to the door anyway. He gave her a moment anyway. The moment, though, only lasted for about five seconds. Then, he quickly turned back to her and stepped over, “We don’t have time to just sit around.”

Without another word, and giving Shadow no chance to argue the point any farther, Jyren did the one thing she would have killed him for if it was any other place. He picked her up. Even if it had seemed like a small thing, to her it wasn’t. It was admitting to failure and having to rely on someone else for such a simple thing as walking. She could do that on her own. She didn’t need anyone’s help!

But it was too late to argue, and yelling at Jyren now would have done no good. He was in one of his stubborn and idealistic Jedi moods again. Which meant he didn’t think things through all that well, and this was immediately apparent in the second problem that came up. With Shadow’s extra weight, that was putting even more weight on his leg...and also, now, the deep cut across his shoulder from holding her up. And he nearly dropped her from the jolt of pain. Nearly.

Instead, Jyren did something that Shadow was better known for. He completely ignored the pain and fought through it. It wasn’t like he had any choices left, that he could see. When Jyren got out the door, he was relieved to not be ambushed by droids, Ket, or a combination of the two. He then made a quick decision. Heading back the same direction he’d come from would likely be a very, very stupid idea.

“Shadow, we need to get out of here and to the east. Which way do I go?”

She looked up at him with a simple glare, “Put. Me. Down.”

Alright, so she was going to argue it. Not argue, though, but simply set down the simple truth. And Jyren, of course, had to be his usual self and stop, but not actually do what she’d said. And then, after grumbling a quiet “Fine” under his breath, he did put her down...carefully...and kept an arm around her to hold her up.

Grudgingly, Shadow allowed that little thing to stay while she forced through the exhaustion in her body and lead the way. If they weren’t both expecting to be killed at any moment, it would have been a hilarious sight...both of them limping along as fast as they could. Pathetic, actually. It seemed like no matter how good the two of them thought they were, it really didn’t matter in the end...they were still stuck in a worse situation than most people in the galaxy, and even being an Alraxian didn’t help. In fact, that just made things more complicated.

Typical, really. If it wasn’t one thing, it was everything else.

But that didn’t stop them from trying, and Shadow knew her way around the building enough to get them through the maze of corridors, even though it was sickening to feel the building was dead around them. It took them two minutes to run into the third complication of the day. This one was much more of a problem than the previous two had been.

In front of them, the corridor continued in a softly turning curve around the outer section of the building. Or it should have. Instead, the ceiling was collapsed in and blocking the way through. Jyren’s first thought was that they climb up and over, but through the link, Shadow shot that down. Going up was not the right direction. They needed to go down. Quickly, both of them scanned the area. No doors. Nothing...well, no, that wasn’t true. To the right was a short outcropping that led to a large, elaborate balcony.

“We’re going to have to go back and around,” Jyren commented, not having to state that they were in no shape to climb down the wall. To his surprise, Shadow agreed and they turned to head back.

It was naive to expect they would turn around and find an empty corridor. Naive and stupid. Both of them knew how life liked to throw one thing after another at them, and yet every time the two of them seemed to ignore that. So it really was laughable that both of them were surprised to find Ket standing and blocking their retreat.

He looked exactly the same as when Jyren had encountered him...though his clothes looked to have taken a bit of a beating. Whatever fall he’d taken, however, showed no effect on him. At least he wasn’t carrying a weapon now...but Jyren knew as well as Shadow did that Ket needed no weapon. He didn’t look like he was very happy, either.

When Ket remained silent, Jyren and Shadow exchanged quick looks. [We’re going to have to.]

Jyren heard Shadow’s words echo in his mind and knew she was right, but he fought against it anyway. [You know we can’t.]

[And we’re in no shape to fight him.] Shadow again stated something neither of them needed to actually hear.

[You’re insane.] Jyren’s tone held no humour at all as he looked to her. [You do know that, right?]

Shadow grinned, and, ignoring Ket, said out loud, “Proof the like attracts like.”

Then, with a good amount of help from the Force, Shadow and Jyren turned and ran back. At the blocked corridor, they turned and headed out to the balcony instead. Ket was after them as fast as he could run, and nearly caught them before they both jumped. But instinct and better thought stopped him from following. There was no building below on this side. Instead, it was straight down to the streets below. The ability to remorph injuries didn’t make one invulnerable...something that Ket couldn’t help but wonder if Marix had forgotten somewhere along the way.

Though he didn’t dive after them, Ket immediately headed back to order all of the droids to the area to kill them. They would not get off the planet alive, and it was time to prepare for the attack on Alraxia.


((And we're back to daily updates! Hopefully. My mother's out of the hospital and doing fine. I sent the first season of the X-Files up there for her to watch while she's stuck in bed at home, so I've done my job as a good son. ))

 

[Angcuru]

((And we're back to daily updates! Hopefully. My mother's out of the hospital and doing fine. I sent the first season of the X-Files up there for her to watch while she's stuck in bed at home, so I've done my job as a good son. ))

Good to hear.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 232: Hand Off

One day, there was going to be a point when these crazy ideas would stop working. One day, they would try again and fail. One day, this kind of thing would get Jyren and Shadow killed. And, as they plummeted down the however many meters from the top level of the central building on the Capital world to the street below, Jyren couldn’t help but figure this was that day. It wasn’t like he was reaching when coming to that conclusion, either.

Usually, he at least had a back up plan to get them out of whatever insanity Shadow dove into...or vice versa if Jyren was the one charging in first. If not, it was usually plainly obvious what the necessary course of action was...or the link was a flurry of activity as the two of them ran through any idea possible to get out of whatever problem had come up.

But this time was different. They fell silently...if one could call it truly silent as the air around them roared in their ears. But there was nothing else. The link was silent and empty, and no ideas came to mind as the street below continued to rush up.

[Morph. Now!] Shadow’s voice echoed through the link with a sharpness that almost made him react without thinking about it. But, thankfully, Jyren caught himself. He didn’t know the specifics of the Alraxian vulnerability to metal...and wasn’t willing to push it, even at this vital moment with only seconds left.

[It will kill us!] he yelled back, though yelling was in no was necessary through the link.

His arguing with her was probably not a good idea. Shadow was correct in thinking that it was only wasting the valuable few seconds they had, and so snapped back. [We’ll die if you don’t!]

Again, the tone of her ‘voice’ nearly forced Jyren’s body to act without his own approval. But, again, he held control and stopped himself. They were not going to die. They weren’t. And he wasn’t going to kill himself and Shadow just because it looked like the only possible thing to do. This was not going to be that day he continued to worry about. Not after all of this. Not after everything he’d fought through to get this far.

Jyren wasn’t about to lose Shadow now.

His eyes looked down to find that there was probably about a second left until he did lose her. Almost distantly, Jyren heard Shadow ‘yell’ at him again through the link. She had barely enough energy to run in the first place to make the jump, morphing for her was definitely out of the question...as was calling upon the Force for assistance. Both would require too much energy and concentration for her at the moment.

But not for Jyren. He was tired, injured, and morphing was pretty much a death sentence for him...but he was still being pushed on by something he couldn’t put his finger on. It could have been pinned down to the Force, but somehow it felt like more than that. At this speed, the force of the landing would turn the both of them into goo, and it would likely be a short moment of extreme pain.

The instant this thought finished in Jyren’s mind, an idea had sparked. But the idea had no sparked in his conscious brain. With that, it would require him to actually get himself to make the necessary actions...and that would have taken longer than the half second they had left. So, instead, Jyren found himself reacting without realizing what he was actually doing.

In a moment, he felt the Force gather around him...no, not just him. Jyren could also feel Shadow in his ‘grip’ through the Force. And in that instant where he concentrated and focused like never before, Jyren knew exactly what he was doing. With every ounce of energy and strength Jyren could manage without passing out, he pushed outward with the Force and allowed himself to flow into it...allowed himself to simply act as an extension of the Force itself.

And he held the two of them.

Neither Shadow nor Jyren actually felt it, but when Shadow realized that she also hadn’t felt the ground, she looked down. They were both about a half meter above the hard, off-white street, and hovering motionless. She quickly looked over to Jyren, seeing his eyes were closed but feeling the Force flowing from him stronger than she’d ever felt before...not that it was surprising. Shadow knew he was capable of it, but continually held himself back.

Then his eyes opened, and his concentration was broken. Shadow let out an involuntary yelp when the Force let go of her and she dropped to the ground, though she was able to land on her feet and stay on them despite swaying slightly. Jyren, on the other hand, landed on his feet and let out a painful cry(and Shadow almost did, too, as she felt the same pain from his leg through the link) before he hit the ground face first.

And he didn’t move afterwards. Through their link, Shadow immediately noticed that his mind had gone strangely calm compared to how it usually darted from this to that and back again a thousand times over every second. He was unconscious. Shadow still felt the urgency to keep moving, and so didn’t even take the time to roll her eyes or sigh at his typically Jedi-like actions. She’d do it later, when there was time to put the full effort into the necessary sarcasm, a trait she was slowly picking up and very much enjoying.

Instead, she was back to her old methods. Pushing back the current limitations of her physical body, Shadow moved over to Jyren and picked him up. He wouldn’t complain...couldn’t, either, so it didn’t matter. With both the Force and her own strength of willpower keeping her standing straight and holding up his considerably larger body, Shadow looked down the street to the east. That was where they needed to go...and that was where Ket would send his droids.

So Shadow ran north, hopefully away from the full force of the defense that would no doubt be waiting at the eastern wall. She would turn west when around the gigantic central building so as to avoid any other major defenses, and they could make their way around from there.

Jyren had done his job. He had gotten to her, and freed her. But now it was her turn. Now it was time to prove to him that she could save his tail just the same...typical that he was unconscious and couldn’t see it. But at least she was doing it, and besides, she could make it sound worse than it was and use that to her advantage later.

Shadow had made it around the main building and was heading west by the time the telltale sounds of strong, metal feet began to echo down one of the nearby streets. They were getting louder, and that meant closer. They were also, from the sound of it, all over the west, north, and south of her. She could go east and hopefully outrun them and then break through whatever defenses there were, or she could continue west and hope to either sneak through or encounter only a small amount of them. Shadow was in no condition to fight, either way. She could run, and she could carry Jyren, but anything more was asking too much and she knew it.

Shadow ran to the west.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Sorry for the sporatic updates, but this may continue for at least another two weeks.

This week is the last week of the Summer A term, and I've also got some family in town so that's got me busy...especially since the family happens to be my 8 year old brother who I haven't seen since Christmas. I've got to torture him. I'm still going to try to get updates up, but I refuse to post less than a single page. Also, they may appear at odd times compared to when I usually update.

Next week is going to be a bit tough for a regular schedule, also. Family goes off to the beach that week and there's a lack of internet access. Not only that, but I've got a couple Finals then, and I'm also dragging some friends down here.

After that week, though, its back to normal schedule wise and should be back to a more constant update schedule for this SH.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 233: One Step at a Time

Two blocks and Shadow ran into trouble. While for most citizens of the galaxy, that would mean a problem was staring them in the face from a few feet off. But Shadow was unique among the inhabitants of the galaxy. She quite literally ran straight into the trouble, which was currently in the form of ten or so of Ket’s war droids. But ran into wasn’t completely accurate. That implied she hit a droid and then hit the ground hard. But, again, this was Shadow.

Instead, it was more accurate to describe her actions as running through trouble...through, and a little over, as she barreled around a corner to slam into a large war droid and then, just as it was hitting the ground, step onto its head and jump over the two quick slices from the weapon-arms of the other droids that flanked it. And she didn’t stop. She knew what these droids were capable of, and knew that even in a normal state of health, she couldn’t handle this many of them on her own. Especially holding Jyren draped over her shoulder and just adding more weight.

So Shadow just kept running as fast as she could make her legs move, ignoring the droids that she had quickly bolted past before turning down another, thankfully empty, street. But they weren’t stupid enough to let her run off that easily. A few seconds later, Shadow heard blaster fire behind her, and had to move in a much more random, zig-zag path down the long street to avoid being shot as the droids ran after her. She truly hoped they didn’t have any kind of communication that would bring all of the droids down on them.

There was close to half a kilometer to the edge of the city, and it wasn’t going to be a straight shot either. The Capital city was much like the central building in that it wasn’t made of straight lines and sharp corners. Instead, it was designed like the living organism it had been before Ket’s attack. Truthfully, there was no real logic to why some streets turned where they did or how some of the buildings were shaped...it was simply how the city had grown. And while Shadow appreciated this as much as any Alraxian compared to a place like Coruscant, she couldn’t help but wish for a straight run out of the city at this point.

It wasn’t just the turns and curves of the streets she ran through that caused this, but the feeling of the city itself. Dead. Literally. The attack had killed the city, and it was plainly obvious through the Force. All around her was an empty nothingness, almost like a void in the planet which was teaming with life. It was sickening to think that Ket was actually capable of such destruction. Even Shadow, who had been both trained as Ket had as a Tam’day’u and also turned into a weapon for the Galactic Empire, wasn’t able to kill like Ket had done. This simple truth was the only thing that held back the part of her that wanted to talk sense into Ket. If he could turn his back on both his people and their love of life itself, then talk was truly useless.

Her wandering thoughts were suddenly ceased by the inevitable. Rounding another corner, Shadow encountered another group of war droids. These, however, looked to be ready and waiting for her. If the way that the six of them stood in a line blocking the street didn’t give this away, the sudden barrage of blaster fire that shot out the second her foot was out from around the corner definitely did. Thanks to the Force and her own naturally quick reflexes, Shadow ducked back behind the building next to her as the blaster fire shot past and hit the walls of buildings opposite her.

And the second she had gotten out of the way and taken cover, the attacks stopped. No surprise. These droids were far too well programmed. Shadow didn’t even completely understand why. It wasn’t like there was any kind of resistance to encounter here beyond her, a handful of other Tam’day’u that were still recovering from their own situation to fight, and a small group of the Empress’ Knights that weren’t nearly well trained enough to deal with the droids. There were no actual soldiers or an army to speak of. Which meant there was still at least one more layer to dig through to find the real truth to what Ket was up to.

Quickly pushing the thoughts back for later, Shadow returned her focus to the moment. And it was a very good thing, too, as her ears swivelled around to pick up the sound of approaching metal footsteps. Reminding herself this was no time to fight, as there was still the heavy weight of Jyren unconscious and on her shoulder, Shadow retreated a few steps and looked around quickly.

Her eyes found a relatively flat looking rooftop nearby, to which she quickly jumped up to, again calling on the Force to push her exhausted body onwards more. Shadow hit the rooftop running, and only took three steps before leaping down to the street below again. Even if it was stupid, she risked a glance over her unoccupied shoulder to see that the war droids had already caught on and were turning to charge after her.

Never a break.

But Shadow didn’t stop moving. She wasn’t an idiot. And she was running as fast as she could as the droids charged after her, blaster arm’s blazing again. Thanks to the Force flowing through her limbs and keeping her from getting the both of them killed, Shadow was much faster than the war droids. And in a matter of moments, the curving and white streets and buildings gave way to the lightly forested land surrounding the city.

She didn’t turn back to see if she was still being pursued, but continued running until the tree cover grew thick and made it hard to even walk in. Finding a large tree and a patch of ground that looked at least partially comfortable, Shadow set Jyren down before collapsing next to him. She wouldn’t have left any tracks to follow. They were safe for now. Rest...recover...then move from there.

Yes, the escape had been a little too easy. Yes, the fact that the droids had probably stopped at the edge of the city was worrying. And yes, the strong feeling that something was very out of place remained. However, for now at least, Shadow felt they would be safe. Hopefully it would last long enough for her to be in good enough shape to stand up straight, because her drawing on the Force for so long had drained her in more ways than one. After resting her head on Jyren’s shoulder and b efore her thoughts became an incoherent mess of a thousand things, Shadow finally drifted off to sleep.

And sleep was still sleep...even if it was two days late.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 234: We Fight Alone...Together

Jyren’s eyes opened slowly. Considering how he remembered his last few moments of consciousness, this was not accurate. Unless death meant waking up in a lightly forested area with a somewhat heavy weight on one’s shoulder. He blinked and thought about the last part of that.

Then, carefully and for some reason unsure of what he was going to find, Jyren’s eyes turned to look down. They were immediately met by a mass of white coloured hair, with a black patch up a little higher...and one ear pointing up. Well, if this was being dead, Jyren figured things could have been much, much worse. But his body ached. All of it. And something about that just seemed to go against the very nature of death. One should not continue to hurt.

They were alive. They were alive, and there weren’t a few thousand war droids around them. In fact, there weren’t any. Jyren couldn’t even see the Capital anymore. How did they get out all this way?

“I carried you,” Shadow mumbled into his shoulder sounding annoyed and only half awake.

“...why are we not dead?” Jyren asked. It was a simple, yet somehow vital question, even if he wasn’t the best with choice of words.

Shadow shifted slightly, but didn’t move her head, making her voice still sound slightly muffled, “Because I was intelligent enough not to try and fight off a thousand of those droids?”

Jyren raised an eyebrow, well aware that she couldn’t see it, but also aware that she could catch the feeling and intent through the link anyway. His voice was as tired and exhausted as hers was when he grumbled, “You’re suggesting I would have stood and fought?”

She shrugged, which ended up not actually as a shrug, but more like elbowing him in the chest. Shadow didn’t say anything, though, and left it up to him to decide what she meant. He did actually try to find out through the link, but Shadow was one step ahead, as usual, and was blocking him as best she could. So, deciding it wasn’t worth it, Jyren decided to bring up the next vital question that came to mind.

“If you didn’t stand and fight...why are we not surrounded by war droids?”

At this, Shadow didn’t have a quick response. After a moment where she realized she hadn’t taken the time to think about that prior to passing out, Shadow shrugged again and said quietly, “I don’t know.”

Silence.

They didn’t need to say anything, as they were both thinking it. Neither of them knew. And they were just laying there against a tree(or against Jyren, in Shadow’s case) in plain sight without even a single attempt at being alert. Ears went different directions as they searched for sounds of droids marching their direction. When this revealed nothing, both of them stretched out with the Force.

Again, nothing.

There was something very wrong with that, and the both of them knew it. This city had been assaulted by war droids, Shadow had been captured, and it had obviously been a considerable effort to create the thousands of war droids necessary for the attack. And Jyren had entered the city with huge defenses, escaped pursuit only to barely get away from Ket...twice. Then, Shadow had also had to escape from the droids. But why had they stopped?

That didn’t make sense. Ket obviously wanted them both dead. He’d had multiple changes but not actually gone through with it on any of them.

“We have to go back,” Jyren said quietly, though it had actually been Shadow’s thought and not his.

She nodded, obviously agreeing with it, “Ket doesn’t care about this planet.”

“He’s going to Alraxia, isn’t he?”

Shadow paused a moment to really think about that. She sighed and nodded, “Its what I would do.”

“But why come here at all?”

This time, Shadow didn’t have to think about it, “To kill my mother. Without her, the Empire will lose its central point.”

Jyren nodded, “I’ve seen what happened...but there’s still something wrong with all of this.”

Sitting up a little, Shadow nodded into his shoulder, “The only reason I can think he has all those droids is to attack the Mrrakesh when he’s done with us.”

That probably should have mattered to Jyren. Probably. However, it hadn’t been an answer to the question he’d been thinking, so he outright asked it, “Why didn’t Ket kill you when he had you?”

Shadow sighed and shrugged again. Her voice went quiet this time, just barely above a whisper, “I don’t know.”

Again, they were silent. That was a very important unknown that neither of them had any clue on. If Jyren had known Ket better, he might...but it was something well beyond Shadow, despite how far she’d come from Faban Sunrunner’s Tam’Day’U training.

But Shadow was working back into her usual self, the short sleep having helped far more than even she had expected. And so she didn’t spend too much time trying to figure out motives. Instead, Shadow looked at the situation in front of them and said flatly, “I’m going back to deal with Ket before he leaves the planet. You get back to whatever you got here in and wait.”

Shadow actually tried to get up then. She made it a few centimeters before Jyren reached over and grabbed her arm to pull her back. Surprised, even though she probably shouldn’t have been, Shadow immediately turned to look at him and growl. But she didn’t make it to the growling before Jyren said in a stern voice, “You aren’t going alone.”

“Yes,” Shadow responded in just as strong a voice, “I am. This is my fight. This has nothing to do with you, and I can’t deal with Ket if I have to worry about you.”

“Then don’t worry about me,” Jyren growled, his ears flat and anger obvious through the link, the Force, and on his face, “We tried this your way already, remember? You needed me. I’m not letting you run off like that again. We’re in this together. We have been ever since you gave me this damned body and we always will be. I’m coming with you.”

She almost glared. Almost. Instead, she picked up on something else through the link. Something that Jyren was trying to hide from her, and was likely the real reason for his stubbornness. Something had gotten into his head since she’d left the first time. It surprised him how much her voice went from the stern, soldierly voice to an almost soft one that Jyren had only heard from here a handful of times, “What is it?”

Shadow knew she’d hit the right thing when he tried to look down at the ground. She didn’t let him, of course, reaching over and resting a hand on his face to force him to look at her. Immediately realizing that he was trapped and couldn’t get out, Jyren sighed. Then, after taking a deep breath, he said quietly, “I can’t lose you.”

That wasn’t it...he was trying to avoid the question. So, Shadow pressed harder, her voice still soft, but now with an edge to it, “That isn’t it.”

“Yes, it is...” Jyren whispered, closing his eyes and obviously telling at least a partial truth, “I can’t lose you again. Not after everything that’s happened. We’ve been through too much.”

Shadow nodded very slowly, but pressed again, “There’s something else you aren’t telling me.”

Though he was still caught, Jyren seemed to have given in finally. With a nod, he said, “I promised your mother and father I would protect you.”

It was the second time in barely five minutes that Shadow nearly glared at him. She didn’t need protecting. He should have known that! Ever since that damned night however long ago Jyren was so protective. It didn’t make sense. He should know she could take care of herself!

But those thoughts betrayed the simple truth that Shadow continually got herself in over her head, and every single time, Jyren was there to pull her out...even if he nearly got himself killed most times. Her parents were gone. She hadn’t seen it, but she could feel it. The last thing they’d told Jyren was to protect her. It was...typical of them. But something in Shadow allowed it all to pass over.

So, surprising Jyren, she nodded and pulled him to his feet with her. With a somewhat awkward hug when they were both on their feet, Shadow said somewhat uneasily, “Fine. We’ll do this together.”


((Alright, sorry for the delays on this update, but I've not been home lately. After today, I should be able to get another update up tomorrow, but after that I'm off to the beach again and won't have internet access. Updates will resume as normal next Tuesday, definitely, but possibly earlier...don't count on that, though.))