Marked for Dead (Shade, PM for entry)

Raven looked out the long row of glass windows over looking the city. He and Dusty had been dropped off ontop of the building around two hours ago and had quickly set up shop in the corner office of an abandoned floor. He had specifically told Dizzy to fly to the rooftops of several other buildings also to try and thow off any tails that may be following them. After that, Dizzy was to set down ontop of a building across the city from them. Kind of ironic that Dizzy had chosen the building that Raven's target was in to land. Raven thought better of yelling at the man, because the blunder may just buy them even more time against who was following them.

Raven knew Shade was coming after him. He knew she was going to come the second he left her office, so he had time to prepare. He had several different ways of throwing her off and, surprisingly since his mood was so foul, were all non-lethal to those in the city. He didn't know why he did it. The whole damned city seemed to revel in witch hunts. This place a a terror for people like him and his sister. They were the reason Raven never knew his family. They were the reason Shade was afraid of her Sorceress powers. And he knew exactly which one of these monsters spearheaded this fear.

Doctor Odine.

Raven lay down next to Dusty and brought the scope of the Grievance up to his eye. He scanned the entrance to the mad man's laboratory. It was he who had torn Raven away from his family. It was he who had caused Shade so much pain. The man was no better than the Sorceresses he swore to protect this city from. The fact that the city believed him so blindly and allowed him to cunduct these haneous experiments sickened Raven. The thought brought him back to Cocoon, where the citizens followed the Sanctum so blindly, they stood by as PSICOM wiped an entire city out. Raven wouldn't stand by there and watch, he wasn't about to stand by here either. If this mad man was stopped, maybe, just maybe, this city would be a safer place.

And a thought occured to him. Maybe this world was just an earlier version of the world he was taken from. Maybe if this man died, Raven would disappear and all the world would be righted. Raven would be back with his real parents, never having to go through the pains that wracked his life. Maybe Raven would be able to experience the love and adoration that Shade promised they would give. The only thing standing between him and that thought was a pound of trigger pressure and about an hour long wait.

Raven looked up from the scope to Dusty, who was himself staring down the scope of a spotter's scope. "Dusty, he can be coming out any minute now, so keep an eye on the windage. I want to know all the cross paths of wind from here to that point. Remember, our target is the guy who looks like he has a freaking target for a shirt collar. We can't have any civilian casualtiesand we can't afford to miss. If this guy gets away, a lot of inocent people are gonna die."

Dusty looked up at Raven from the scope and smirked. "Sir, no offense but save the 'We're gonna save the world with one bullet' speech for the rookies. I know why we're here. I'm just surprised you even brought the team along to help you this time."

Raven bit his tongue. Damn! they were just as good as he was when it came to snooping something out. "I needed you guys for this one. I couldn't risk losing this man or being interupted." Raven looked out across the blue skyline of the technologically advanced city. He knew she was out there, searching for him. Right now, all he had to do was wait and hope the plans to slow her down were enough. He needed time.

Shade was beyond pissed. After storming out of the office sometime later, she figured some time in the Training Center would help blow off some steam. The accusations Raven spat in her face were were like a scorching blade, and brought back words of another who dared to speak the same to her. But things were different now from when Genesis scolded her so long ago. She sliced those cursed strings the moment he made her see the truth. She took control of her own life and served to what purpose she so choosed.


But this was no longer about her own life anymore.... Now, when dealing with lives and a world that she didn't even belong in, Raven was too hot headed to realize the risks involved. This wasn't just about the two of them. This was no mere political game! Who was he to think such decisions were so damn easy in a dimension they weren't even born into yet? How dare he insinuate such ludicrous claims! As her thoughts raced faster and her boiling blood raged through her veins, Shade came to the entrance of the training Center to slam the steel doors wide open. Once inside, she set the locks to the door and and stormed to the control panel to start the training program, then tore the earcom from her ear before she turned to get started. For about an hour, Shade tore into every fiend the program dished out on her. She never paused for break, and with every passing minute, her anger lunged more fiercly being fueled by the pain Raven's words actually caused her. How dare he... how DARE he think such of me! Entertain them? Kissing ass? A damn puppet?" The last thought sent a screaming rage from her throat as her blade exploded against another fiend from the simulation program. "I'M NOBODY'S PUPPET!"


Silence was her only answer with that being the end to the simulation, leaving her to stand alone and heaving for breath. Standing alone.... against truth or allogations as she always did. And the very one who should be siding with her was now doing the exact same thing everyone else did against her through her entire life.


While trying to calm herself, the intercom broke through the silence. "Headmaster? My apologies for the interruption, but your communicator is turned off. There's a... situation the bridge felt you should be made aware of..." Turning about, Shade's tired gaze lifted up to the observation room where she saw the SeeD cadet. "What is it," she snapped a bit too harshly.


"Um, Mr. Fletcher departed via his airship, but the concern was his route. Thus far, he's taking a direct heading to Esther City, and we felt you should be informed."


That foolish son of a.... "Get me the Ragnarok ready! Through her aching limbs, Shade ran for the exit, grabbing her earcom along the way.

"Headmaster? Not the Oasis?"

"It's too slow! Get the Ragarok ready NOW!" While tearing out of the Training Center and bolting down the hall, Shade desperately tried calling Raven on his cell phone, but got no answer no matter how many times she redialed.


===============================================================
A few hours later in Esthar City....


Smooth, Raven..... real smooth..... Shade thought with a sneer curved over her lips as she watched his cursed airship move to yet another building for the third time. Naturally, she headed for the first building it perched itself on, but when seeing it lift off and head to another landing, Shade paused already with suspicion. But what other choice did she have but to follow it there as well? Yet once she reached the new destination, the Kestrel was airborn again just as she feared it would. After hissing profanity under her breath, Shade had already had enough of Raven's ninja games. If it was games he wanted, games he would get. And he was about to get a hard lesson learned as to how low Shade played when time was of the essence.


With a growl, Shade's seething glare remained on Raven's ship as it landed upon it's new destination. The more this charade played out, the more time she lost to save her hot headed brother from making a grave mistake. She wasn't stupid.... she knew why he was here. She knew and felt his hatred all too well.


"It's time to play dirty, Skittles...." Her voice snarled against the desperation tearing her nerves to shreds. The next second revealed a tiny squirrel pop it's head through Shade's hair over her shoulder. With a twitch of his little nose, a faint squeak of curiosity brushed against her ear. Tremors of excitement traveled through his multi-colored tail as he awaited her commands. "See that ship up there?" Her eyes never left it as she nodded her head in its direction. Skittles bobbed up and down on her shoulder and squeaked with acknowledgement. "You get to distract the damn thing. Go hog wild if you wish, but keep it to the sky. Understood?" If she had looked, she would have seen her little rodent devil narrow his own dark eyes and let out a rather demonic sounding purr. This was a serious game which he rarely got to play. When Shade unsheathed her sword and held it up, Skittles definitely realized just how serious his role was going to be. In that instant, Skittles leaped from her shoulder in his usual mad whilwind twirl to take the chosen form for battle. Since he had to be airborn, he had two options, and decided to start off in his Sephiroth transformation. Taking the Wolf's Bane in hand, he gave several bobs of his head along with excited chatter before shooting off into the air after Raven's airship.


Satisfied that Skittles would keep the pilot distracted from watching Shade's next course of action, she bolted off toward her next destination. She could hear Skittles off in the distance whacking the hell out of the front of the Kestrel to either scare the hell out of the pilot, or at least keep him from seeing where Shade was headed. Since she knew Raven was by far too smart hiding his tracks well to keep from being found, there was only one last option left to her to keep him from achieving his goal. Straight for lab and straight for Odine. Once within the facility, what meager security there was, she either bypassed, or had to knock out a few guards who refused to believe she was Headmaster of Balamb without form of ID. She ran the entire time, knowing there was no time to loose until she busted through the lab doors face to face with a team of 30 scientists or more, along with Odine smack dab in the middle of tables and computers and various forms of tech she was unfamiliar with. What Simon and Brix wouldn't give to get their hands on this....


"Vhat iz zah meaning of zis? You cannot juz barge in here, young lady!" Odine tried to bark at her, but one so incredibly short was difficult to take seriously. Especially dressed in that ridiculous collared uniform. Shade completely ignored him and all the cursed stares from the others in the room. She knew she ran straight into the wolf's den for this, but Raven gave her no choice. She marched straight to the wall of windows, and even though she had no idea where Raven was out there, she knew he was watching. Raven was always watching. Just as Shade stood in-between Odine and the windows, she flipped up her middle finger for Raven to see through his scope before dropping all the window blinds.

Raven watched, pleased with himself that his plan seemed to be working, as the Ragnarok followed the Kestrel from building to building. He knew she had to be furious right now with what was happening, but her tactical mind wouldn't allow her not to follow the ship to each destination.

So Raven went bck to watching the building for Odine. About three floors up, he found him. He stood in the center of a room barking orders to the other scientists, who in turn ran around the place like chickens with their heads cut off, trying to get those orders fufilled. Raven could hear the small man's voice inside his head. He was back in the man's lab again, watching as he performed those experiments on himself. A fairly attactive blonde doctor walked up to Odine and said something to him. Odine's head rolled back with laughter. Raven could hear that malicious laughter, the same laughter he had sat in Raven's face as he fell over in pain. He watched through his scope as Odine watched the doctor walk away with a hunger in his eyes. The same look Odine had given him when he told him the truth. Raven wanted nothing more than to pull the trigger right then and there.

But he couldn't. He couldn't shoot the man because there was too high of a chance of hitting the other scientists. While Raven hated the scientists for helping Odine, he knew that not all of them shared his views and he would not allow any collateral damage. So he was going to wait for the man to make a stupid mistake. Let him order all of the ones keeping him alive away and then Raven would take his life. Dusty already had everything figured, all Raven had to do was pull back on that trigger...

Raven's earcom buzzed to life with Dizzy's voice. "Uhhh... Sir? We have a slight problem. We have an unexpected guest here trying to crash the party." A what? Raven tore the scope away from the mad scientist and brought it up to the Kestrel. Flying infront of the Kestrel was a silver haired one winged angel that was smacking away furiously at the nose of the ship. Raven's brow furrowed in confusion until he saw what the angel carried in its grasp.

The Wolfsbane...

That meant that it was Shade's summons and she was probably using it as a distraction. "Dizzy, back the ship off. Do not engage the hostile. Take the ship for a spin around the city a few times, if that doesn't shake it, land somewhere out of town, but stay within radio distance." Raven dropped his rifle to once again look at the buiding. He just caught a glimpse of Shade barging through the front door when his rifle settled. He shot the scope up to look at the floor where Odine was at and waited.

What was she doing? Did his words get through to her? Was she really going to go do the job that Raven had set out to do? He waited to see her response He honestly had no clue how she was going to do it with all those people around him, but being a lot closer meant she even less of a chance of hitting one of those people. He held his breathe as she stormed out of the elevator. She went straight for him, without saying two words to the man. He seperated himself to walk towards her, yelling at her. Raven kept the cross-hairs on the man as Shade got closer, closer. She was an arms reach away from him now and she turned to face the window. "SHYYYYYYYYT!!!!" was all Raven had time to say as she brought her middle finger up and the blinds went down. He quickly aimed low and fired off a round that would strike right between her legs.

He threw the rifle down and stood up in a raging fury. Dusty looked up from the spotter's scope just in time to see Raven's eyes flash a golden hue. Dusty looked at Raven with a raised eyebrow. Raven never got this pissed about anything. He sure as hell never lost his cool when on a mission. The whole while, Raven was tearing through the place. He walked over to a wall and punched it. Once. Twice. Thrice. And the wall came crumbling down after each hit. He walked through the hole in the wall and grabbed a coference table in the room. Lifting it up by himself, he charged back into the room that dusty was at and ran straight for the window. Dusty rolled out of the way and grabbed their stuff just in time to see Raven launch the table through the window.

"DIZZY! Get the Kestrel over here NOW!" he barked into the earpiece. A moment later, the Kestrel appeared with the Angel still whacking away. Raven glared at the summons with his still golden eyes before stepping inside the ship through the broken window. If she wanted to play dirty, Raven would play dirty. He had Dizzy steer the ship for a direct course for Odine's laboratory. The ship pulled up next to the windows that Raven had been watching through. With one kick of his boot, Raven smashed through the double paned glass and stepped into the lab. He pulled up his pistol and aimed it straight at Doctor Odine, who was half-cowering behind Shade. He tore the small snowflake pendant from his vest and tossed it on the floor. A moment later, Yukon appear in a flurry of snow. The giant bear herded the other scientists into a corner as well as made sure no secuirty guards showed up. Raven kept his pistol trained on Odine and his sister as he sneered, "Still babysitting the bad guys, eh sis?"

It was only the sound of a ping!' that broke through the glass as the window blinds came flying down, but Shade's head jerked down just in time to see the bullet zip between her legs and slam straight into the side of a nearby metal desk with a resounding THUD! Her hues slowly narrowed as her lips curled into a sneer. What scientists stood nearby also heard the foreign sound, including the one marked for the initial shot. The fool! And now Odine was carrying on in a panic. His beady dark eyes shot up as Shade while he was still hunched down from examining the bullet hole. "Vat iz zis? Vat iz go-eeng on here!? Who are you? Who iz zhooting at uz?" His screeching questions grew louder by the word, scraping against Shade's already frazzled nerves like a rusty comb scraping against a sheet of slate.


Her piercing glare bore into the pathetic little man as her own words hissed fiercely through her teeth. "Silence, lab rat, if you wish to live through this! This is far from over!" Shade witnessed his eyes widen a bit before she tore her gaze away from him, but had to suffer more of his annoying voice barking orders for the scientists to begin protective procedures over whatever experiments and research they were working on at the time. For the moment, Shade walked up to one of the windows and barely moved the blind for a peek outside. She knew she still couldn't pinpoint Raven's location unless he wanted it to be known, but she was more concerned over Skittles right now. Glancing to left, she could view part of the airship until his Sephiroth form zipped madly about the air to lunge at the cockpit of the ship again. Seems he was doing just fine....


Skittles was having a blast.... after another lunge towards the window of the cockpit, he kept the pilot in his sights at all time. At one point, he clung to the top ledge of the window and proceeded to bash repeatedly against the thick pane of glass with the hilt of Shade's sword. The pilot would then lurch the ship to the side to thwart him off, but like an annoying fly, he kept coming back and doing the same thing. But when the Kestrel began to soar lower toward the ground, Skittles began to panic. Shade told him to keep it in the air! But when he realized it was to pick up Raven from some building, Skittles knew there was little more he could do. It was time to find Shade again! So with all the speed he could muster, the Sephiroth form soared off to the building she ran to. But once inside, he found himself throwing yet another tantrum. HE COULDN'T READ ANY SIGNS!! Before wasting anymore time, Skittles shot for the nearest staircase, which so happened to be the opposite one Shade previously took.


"....there you are...." Shade murmured as she watched the Kestrel slowly lower toward the side of the building and hover itself in place for a few moments, knowing full well it was retrieving Raven from his sniper location. When she saw the airship now turn and head directly for the lab, part of her expected this out of him, yet another cursed him even more for being such a blasted fool! He wasn't only placing himself in danger, but risking the truth of himself being discovered!. Shade jerked away from the window and starting barking orders at everyone in the room to clear out, but no one obeyed her orders. Instead, every single one of them froze up and all eyes directed to little clown dressed man. He was turning red in the face by this point with a pile of files in his arms. Files that looked identical to what Raven's records were kept in.... "YEW! Yew whoever yew are will be report-eed to ze aut-orities! Securit-ee iz on itz vey! Dis iz outrageous! Yew will be prosecuted to zee fullest!" Dr. Odine continued his ranting of threats, but Shade had heard enough. She slowly started to stalk him, and with each step she took, Odine began staggering back, but now muttering his feeble threats rather than shouting them. When she was upon him, Shade reached down with her gloved hand to grip into the wide circular collar and snatch him up, only to slam his little hide into a chair. "SIT! SHUT UP!"


A faint meep escaped his lips, but he cowered in silence none the less. Just then, the windows exploded and the scientists screamed while running about in a panic. Shade jerked around suddenly to face her furious brother, but stood her ground none the less with the barrel of his pistol having to get through her in order for him to achieve his goal. Seeing his eyes, Shade suddenly realized she would have to be as rational as she possibly could to keep him from growing any more enraged than he already was. But her own was growing due to the fact that Raven's foolishness now revealed his existence to the very ones she trying to hide him from! And then he did it again.... he opened his damn mouth.... Now her narrowed hues flickered like two blades against the sunlight as her seething rage bore into his own. "Perhaps if you practiced what you preach about patience all the time, you would realize just how much you royally screwed up, Raven."


Her head lowered slightly, but her fiery eyes remained locked with his, watching for every twitch, seeing his jaw clench up, watching the pace of his chest as he breathed, while waiting for his next move. Turned out, she didn't have to. Within seconds, there came a sudden blur through the laboratory doorway and across the room with a high pitched scream that even shook what window panes were still intact. Even Shade was thrown off until she realized the exploding winds throughout the room was Skittles himself who came crashing against Raven from behind to tackle against him, but no longer in his Sephiroth form. He used his real battle form as Gilgamesh to wrap all 8 solid arms around Raven's body as they rolled across the floor until the Gilgamesh copy stood up at full height which was a foot taller than Raven himself. His muscles seemed to bulge even more when squeezing around Raven to hold him still. Shade took full advantage of the distraction and slammed her arm straight through the stock of the Gryphon at her hip to unsnap the weapon and aim it directly for Raven's summons. As the prod charged up and the arrows slammed into their slots, Shade's head jerked back to glare back at her brother. "Call him off, Raven! And for once! Practice what you preach!"

Raven stood in a blind fury before his sister. He did not know what he was doing or why, only that he needed to kill the man behind her. He didn't even remember who the man was anymore, just that he really, really wanted him dead. If it wasn't for dealing with her so much, Raven probably wouldn't have even remembered that it was in fact his sister standing before him, and that was the only thing keeping him from blowing her away right then and there then finishing off the cowering whelp behind her.

He went to speak to her again, to try and make her realize her own mistake, but she cut him off. Practice what I preach? Patience? What the hell is she talking about? Raven's eyes slowly shifted back to green as he looked around with just those orbs. Everything seemed to be in a fog. He didn't quite know exactly where he was or why he was here, only that he was aiming his gun at Shade, but that didn't make sense...

Raven's hand began to waver for a second. Why would he be aiming at her? And then he saw him. Sitting behind Shade was Doctor Odine, blubbering and begging for answers. Raven's arms went straight again as he realized where he was and what he was doing. He wouldn't shoot Shade, but he would shoot Odine. Obviously she didn't want that to happen, so Raven paused. He moved the iron sights away from aiming directly at Shade's face and instead aimed at the small amount of Odine's face he could see peeking around her waist. Raven began to slowly pull back on the trigger....

But he was interrupted again, by the slamming of a nearby door off to his side. Barging through the door was an eight armed man too tall for the frame. The man burst through the frame and sent himself hurtling towards Raven. Raven, still himself, recognized him as Skittles's attack form and turned to face it. He barely had enough time to draw out the cryo-grenade and pull the pin out of it before being tackled out of the way. The eight arms wrapped around him and pinned his arms to his sides all the way down to his hands. With a grenade in one hand and a pistol in the other, Raven was rolled across the ground before being picked up off the ground. Raven tried to move his hand to drop the grenade and allow it to detonate, but he could not get it free, Skittles's form was too strong.

Seeing Shade aim her Gryphon at Yukon, Raven hung his head low. He wasn't about to get the poor bear hurt over this. No one here deserved to be hurt over this except the one man Shade was protecting. "Yukon. Go." With that, The great bear lowered his head to the ground and stalked off towards the hole in the windows where the Kestrel's open cargo bay still hung. As it stepped aboard, the ship sunk down lower with the added wait and Raven could hear Dizzy swearing from the cockpit. After a moment the ship returned to the normal level.

Raven looked up at Shade, grief and frustration in his eyes. This wasn't how he wanted it to happen. He wanted to say that how he would have never exposed himself like this, but all of the words he thought up sounded pathetic. He did what he did and now he had to face the consequences. He was not going to beg for forgiveness, that wasn't his way.

But little did Shade know, was that she had made a very grave mistake. In drawing her gryphon, she had stepped away from in front of Odine and now Raven had a clear line of sight to the man. Seeing that Raven was capitulating, Odine grinned. It was an evil grin, one that said, I won and you lost. It was the same grin Raven had seen from the man the day he found out who he really was. It was the grin of a man who was about to die.

Raven needed away from Skittles and he needed it right then. Thinking quickly, he remembered that while the mentality was that of a squirrel, the body was that of whatever form he took. Raven swung his leg up in the air and brought it crashing back around to strike Skittle's in his sensitive spot. The shock of the pain caused Skittles to release his lower two arms to grab himself where injured. Raven's hands were free! He dropped the cryo-grenade and it exploded in a cloud of mist on impact. The mist spread out in a five foot radius and attacked all magic. Raven burst through the mist with his pistol drawn and a squirrel grabbing onto his back a moment later.

Raven slid across the floor so that even if Shade had moved to get in front of Odine again, he would just slide through her legs. Stopping right next to the doctor, Raven stood and placed the pistol's barrel to Odine's temple. He reached onto his back and pulled skittles from his spot and tossed him to Shade. He grabbed Odine's stupid collar and yanked him up between them. Leaning out from behind the terrified Doctor, Raven's now golden eyes bore into Shade. "Tell me why I shouldn't paint this room with his brains right now. And please, try to make it worth my while, because boring makes my trigger finger twitch."

From the direction of the airship one could hear a high-pitched whistle that was drug out for a few seconds. Sitting on the giant bear's side were Dusty and Dizzy. Dizzy pushed the cowboy hat back further on his head and rearranged his seat while Dusty watched with uninterested eyes. Dizzy turned to Dusty and said, "Whew! Man, Shade's gonna really have to pull one out her ass to get him this time. I'm putting twenty gil on her."

Dusty gave Dizzy a look like he was crazy before looking back to the heated argument in front of them and saying, "Are you kidding me? I'll take that bet! Shade's gonna kick his ass. She always does."

Yukon became very uninterested with the fighting when those two started bickering. He rolled his head over and laid it on the floor, letting out a large sigh telling them to shut up, he was trying to sleep. The two looked back to him and shrugged, going right back to commenting on the fight.

Shade felt sick seeing the shift in his hues, but she had no choice but to buckle down and remain as calm as was mentally possible.... especially for Raven. Then she caught it. His eyes shifted again and for just a brief a moment, Shade witness him struggle. It must have hit him hard, for Raven's composure never buckled, especially under pressure, but she caught the slight tremor of his arm as he kept the gun aimed at her. But after the abrupt escapade of Skittles barging in, Shade truly thought for one brief moment that Raven had given in when his head dropped and he ordered his summons to dismiss. But when he raised his head again, Shade's chest lurched with guilt and pain at the sight of what he felt behind those eyes, but she had no choice but to stand her ground.


After glancing to see that the massive bear did indeed board the Kestrel, Shade's gaze returned to Raven only to find the rage has returned in his hues. Damnit! She should have been more on guard! Before any action could be taken, it was as if a small smoke bomb went off and Raven was suddenly free and in action. Shade fiercely waved the streams from her face to turn about abruptly and just in time to catch Skittles airborn with her free hand. But to also find Odine in Raven's grip with the pistol against the feeble man's temple. When seeing Raven's eyes shift once more, Shade's heart could only scream what she couldn't express with words. Yet her mind forced her to listen to rationality. ...just get him out of here....whatever it takes.... explanations can come later.... just save him first by getting him the hell out of here...


If Raven was expecting an explosive reaction out of her, he was sorely mistaken. Through the hammering vibrations of her heart, Shade focused on much needed calm while boring her gaze through her brother's. She wanted that momentary silence between them to sink in, so he would hear every word crystal clear and take them seriously. With an even keel monotone, Shade finally answered him. "Because he's not the one, Raven. He's not the one...." She emphasized the different words from the same sentences for him to understand what she trying to convey without giving up too much information with Odine between them listening to everything said. "We have no right to pre-judge here, Raven. You may very well be killing an innocent man for something he's never done...." Surely, with what little knowledge Raven even had with dealing with the time rifts himself, he could see that. "Now.... what you need to ask yourself is, ...is that the kind of blood you want to risk on your hands?" She swallowed hard against her own rising emotions and asked him one final thing. "Do you really want to stoop to that level and play a god as others did to you?"


She could stop him easily. Shade knew that, and surely Raven did as well. But this was his choice. This was his demon alone to face.... And Shade found herself having to have faith in another that she swore she would never do again. But she promised Raven she wouldn't fail him, so in contrast to appear threatening, Shade lowered the arm her Gryphon was strapped to and simply locked her eyes with his own and waited.

Raven held the gun tightly to Odine's head. His other hand gripped the squirmy doctor's shouder with enough force to shatter the collar bone. What Shade said to him wasn't true. It couldn't be true. This was Odine. How many of this man could there be? Especially since this one seemed to be doing the exact same thing he did in another time and place. This was Odine. He knew it was.

But why did this feel so wrong? Why did he have an itching feeling in the back of his head that kept growing more an more prominent? He knew he was right, but the words she spat at him halted him from following through with his intended plan. His eyebrow furrowed in frustration at his own inability to kill the man. He became confused with why Shade was doing this. Why didn't she want him dead? After all he did to both of them, she was just going to let him slide? The thought hurt Raven. Maybe he didn't know her at all.

Raven's grip losened on Odine's shoulder. He was trying to grasp for some order. He needed to set things right inside his head. Everything was swirling around him. Raven's eyes thinned in thought. "How... How do you know? How do you know he isn't the right one? How can you tell that he won't become the one? How can you stand before me and tell me I am wrong when deep down inside I know you have the same thoughts coursing through your mind?"

Raven gripped down again on Odine's shoulder making the poor man squeal in pain as pressure was once again brought down to his broken collar bone. Raven's golden eyes lit up with an idea. "No. You don't have to stand here and try to convince me. I know exactly how this is going to end. I know exactly how we are going to fix this." Raven swiftly pushed the doctor away from him and dropped this pistol to aim at the man's knee. He fired once and Odine fell to the ground, grasping his knee and crying in pain. Raven swooped over to stand above him and aimed he pistol in the man's face. He thought back to when he had first met Odine in the lab. If this was the same Odine, the memory should be changed. The evil man should have a limp and a cane in the memory. Raven closed his eyes in deep thought, but as hard as he tried, he could not remember Odine with a limp.

The pistol slipped out of his grasp and clanged upon the tiled flooring. Raven's jaw clenched and he stumbled backwards. He tripped over a chair and collapsed onto his butt, still in shock. The gold drained from his eyes as he sat there in a daze. He couldn't believe he was wrong.

Meanwhile, Dusty watched him with hard eyes from the airship. Without taking his eyes off the scene, he held his hand out in front of Dizzy. Dizzy swore and dropped twenty gil in Dusty's hand. Dusty stood up and walked farther back in the airship. The scene that was about to unfold deemed a bit more privacy.

All Shade could do was watch her brother's internal struggle, while suffering the very same herself. No matter how much she could ever plead with him, no matter what explanations she could give, Shade knew he was at a state of mind where Raven would never believe a word out of her mouth. And if she did stop him, he would only find his previous accusations against her to be justified, and remain deaf to whatever reasoning she tried to convey for her actions. When it seemed he was ready to listen with furious questions that only complex answers could solve, Shade parted her lips in hopes for the right words. But Odine's piercing scream shattered the moment and snapped Raven back into rage. At the site of his eyes shifting again, Shade's lungs filled with a sharp intake of breath. This couldn't be happening... not to him... not like this....


Before Shade could make a move, or even blink, Raven moved so fast that Odine was shoved to the floor and shot. For a brief moment of panic, Shade believed her brother actually followed through with his threat, but the Dr's screams filling the lab verified he was indeed still alive. When Raven lunged to stand over him with his pistol aimed for Odine's head again, Shade felt herself lurch after him, yet managed to hold herself back at the last moment. What truth she knew was about to sink into his mind and about to become a blow much worse than a bullet, but one Raven had to take in order grasp the reality of his mistake. She never expected such a reaction to follow... to see Raven simply collapse in shock and defeat.


With a heavy sigh, Shade felt defeated herself. Had she paid more attention... had there been more time to explain things to Raven, had she done things differently.... and once again, the self blame rammed through her conscience like a battering ram. She was failing him....


Seeing the calm green hues return in his eyes, Shade slowly approached him and crouched down by Raven's side. How does one begin to explain the complexities of time and dimensions in such short words, and at a time where Raven's mentality was screaming denial? She had to at least try, and most carefully so not to overwhelm his confusion as it already was. During Odine's screams and wailing of pain, Shade leaned close to Raven so only he could hear her soft spoken words. "The dimensions aren't connected, Raven.... the results of Ultimecia's time compression shredded the fibers of existence to this world into several coexisting dimensions..." Her head tilted slightly with hues as bright as steel blades. "What happens in one does not necessarily mean the same events transpire in another. Some events, yes. Some no. But with absolutely no guarentees to either one."


Odine cried out in pain once more, which finally snapped against Shade's already trying nerves. She quietly rose up to stand and carefully stepped over Raven's legs to slowly stalk over towards the wailing scientist like a prowling cougar to now tower over him with a look of disgust over her face. Her leather gloved hand reached down to snatch him by that ridiculous collar to give him one hard jerk to gain his full attention. Once he reduced himself to sniveling, Shade brought his quivering face right up to hers and sneered. "Consider this a case of mistaken identity, and I just saved your worthless ass. But take my next words into great consideration, little man...." His attempts to appear courageous behind shifting eyes and trembling limbs were putrid in her eyes. "You better stop what methods are conniving in that feeble brain of yours while you're still ahead, or I won't save your worthless hide again no matter how innocent you truly are."


With her fingers pried straight, Odine fell back to the floor with a thunk. Her words would no doubt confuse him for a long time to come, but she knew her threat rang through. She turned and abandoned him to his bleeding and returned to her brother. With a steady calm in her gaze, Shade offered him a single hand of assistance with a silent promise that she would help him through what he didn't understand if he would just.... "Trust me..."

Raven sat broken on the floor. The fact that he had almost killed an inocent man was starting to sink in further. He had almost done the exact thing he hated the rulers of his world for. He had sworn to protect the inocent no matter what and now he was breaking that promise. If he would have pulled that trigger, he would have failed everyone. He couldn't let that happen. He wouldn't fail his family nor anybody else, too much was riding on his shoulders for that to happen. He wasn't going to fail Shade.

Looking in her grey hues as she bent down to talk to him, he realized he had done just that. She seemed weary and defeated even though she had won. Just like her, even if she saved the day, she still found a way to find the bad in it. But that's what made her who she was. It was a feature that kept her driving on even if it caused her so much pain. Raven knew no matter how much he tried he would never change that about her, but he could try to lighten the load. Running off and trying to kill inocents wasn't how he was going to do that, though. As she began to speak, he made a silent promise to himself that he would never do this to her again.

But Raven began to actually listen to what Shade was saying. If what she was saying was true, then The fact that they had ended up in the same place was a miracle. It also meant that helping her get back to their home dimension like he promised was going to be just that much harder. Even with him being able to help control them and Simon working to rebuild the teleporter, it could take a while for them to find the right place. That won't stop him from trying, though, just doesn't help his lack of hope in anything.

Then Shade stood up and walked over to Doctor Odine. She began to swear and threaten him, Raven's lit up on the inside. She really was his sister. If this wasn't proof of that, then he didn't know what proof they were going to find. Still, upset though, the smile on the inside didn't reach his face at all. Instead, he just stared at Odine with a deep scowl. He still didn't like the man, even if he was inocent of the crimes commited to against Raven and Shade. I was a little smug watching her cause him such a fright.

As soon as the threats started, though, they ended and Shade was standing over Raven again. Her hand extended out to him and she spoke the sme words to him as he had told her when they had first learned of them becoming brother and sister. Two tiny words that scared the hell out of Raven. After all he had gone through, trust was the only thing sacred to him. It was huge thing to ask of him, but he knew that if he did not relinquish it now he would be alone again. He reached up with his hand and took Shade's, using her help to stand up.

Raven nodded towards the Kestrel to let Shade know that they should be going before stalking over to where Odine was still cowering on the floor. He crouched before him and stuck the barrel of his gun in the hole where the man's knee used to be and twisted it causing the Odine to wince in pain. Raven leaned in closer so that only Odine could hear what he was saying. "She's a lot nicer than I am. If I ever find out that you performed experiments on so much as a moomba, I will come back and finish the job I started." Raven stood up and stared down at the man. Odine glared up at him with a dealy look in his eyes. Raven scowled and kicked him swiftly in the head. Odine went limp and fell unconcious.

Raven turned and walked out the window and onto the Kestrel. There, most everybody Dusty and Dizzy were trying to look busy. Raven nodded to both of them to let them know he was back to normal. Dizzy was checking on a few scanners and turned to face Raven. "Boss, I know you just got back in your head and need to talk to Shade, but we got a bit of a problem. Apparently, a Mr. Simon Crowly didn't trust you and had a security team tail you. I guess their orders were to stop you from causing problems. Well, they're here and they are heading up to this floor."

Raven turned to Shade just as the door was flung open and five heavily armed soldiers came rushing in to aim their guns at them. He raised his eyebrows to her and asked, "Friends of yours?"

Some would say Shade was the calmer, more patient of the two siblings. Some would say the opposite. In truth, it all depended on the day and the mission itself. Shade's arms simply crossed as she watched Raven approach Odine and already knowing what to expect. So she neither blinked, nor flinched when she watched his boot crack against the Dr.'s head to knock him out cold. The flash of her own memories of that man came across her mind when she was a child, and how he attempted to have her kidnapped and sealed against her grandfather's wishes. That child now felt a sense of hidden satisfaction.


She awaited Raven at the window for the both of them to board the Kestrel when she heard Dizzy's warning as well. Just as the last word was spoken, Shade also turned abruptly to see the doors bashed through and the guards charging in to either freeze and aim their weapons, or the first few drop to one knee and do the same. But Shade found herself momentarily out of her usual nature to dive right in and take them out. She was mentally drained and emotionally wiped out after such a ruthless day, nor did she care if Raven was still itching for a fight. Instead, she gave the shouting troops a rather annoyed look before rolling her eyes and mumbling under breath. "Skittles?"


The squirrel was very slow to reveal his head out through her hair where he perched upon her shoulder. His pride was still sorely wounded by Raven, whom he now leered at from beneath Shade's chin. Feeling his fur, Shade knew he heard her and spoke again. "Here's your chance to redeem yourself, little one..."


Hearing this, Skittles jerked his head and narrowed his eyes at the troops. His tiny feet scampered in place with anticipation against her shoulder as he gave a few subtle squeaks in questioning. "Yes.... you can go all out. Do as you please....." Her tone was deadly serious, even though her words would be thought as playful. With a trembling of excitement rippling down his tail, Skittles' eyes narrowed before his muscles tensed and he took a maddening leap into the air. With his body engulfed within hurricane winds, he soared at the handful of soldiers who looked thoroughly perplexed by the site, until Skittles landed with a vicious twist and thwacked the first two soldiers in front of him with a thick book. Now in his Genesis form, Skittles reached out with his free hand as the previous two he just attacked went toppling backwards with bloody noses. Now, with another soldier in his grip, he jerked the body like a rag doll and swung the soldier to thwack the other two away. With all of them stunned by this point, Skittles dropped the one in his grip to fall in a heap against the floor, then proceeded to whack the hell out of all five of them with his Loveless book.


Meanwhile, Shade sighed and shook her head as Skittles screeched angrily during his assault. She finally crossed her arms and tilted her head to look at Raven before rolling her eyes. "No friends of mine, but apparently they found a friend in Skittles.... After another sound crash of another body thrown across the room, Shade glanced back to see Skittles still in his Genesis form now standing in the midst of unconscious bodies. He was looking all about, turning this way and that in one spot before jerking his head back at Raven and Shade with what appeared to be disappointment across his face. His squirrel language didn't need to be translated. Just his expression and body language was enough to realize he was thoroughly disgusted by "That's it!?"


"Common, Skittles.... I'll even let you fly all the way home on your own..." With that said, Shade looked at her brother with a raised eyebrow. "Unless there's something else you wanted to shoot or blow up?