"Yep," his smile spread across his whole face now. He'd also caught the attention of the rest of the team. They were looking at him with wide eyes. "Rosey Carnez is the leader of a rebellion to the south of the city. They've been coordinating raids on small encampments. If we can capture Rosey, the raids should die down to a point where we can relax."

My heart was thumping for some reason. A smile was plastered on my face and my eyes were wide. I felt the sudden urge to jump and dance and be happy. I was excited, more so than I'd ever been in years. But I didn't know why. I'd done a lot of stuff like this, but this was completely different. But why?

"I take it your happy to be free for a bit?" Levi asked, stepping close and resting his hand on my shoulder.

"Details," I said, looking directly at Theo. I didn't really care about Levi right now, I wanted to know more.

We shared smiles as he talked. "Rosey Carnez, for the past few months, has been working with narcotics. Our mission is to break into their facility, which, might I add, is outside the city walls, and bring Rosey back to the city. Alive."

"How many men does she have?" Mercy asked, sharp as ever.

"Somewhere between fifty and sixty, but they're not our concern. If possible, we're going to try to bypass them."

"Sounds easy enough," I said. "When do we leave?"

"Tonight. This mission can take anywhere between between two to six days. Traveling will take a whole day, on horseback."

"Is that smart?" I questioned. "If they see us coming we're in for a hell of a lot more trouble."

"We leave the horses a mile or so away from the facility," Mila cut in. I was just starting to notice this, but she was actually pretty smart. "I mean, that's, probably...the best idea."

If only she could get over this shyness. Oh well, she spoke up, so that was a start.

"Good," I stated, finally taking charge like a good leader should, "then we have a start plan. We can discuss the rest on the way."

"Come on," Theo said, "time to grab some gear."

My heart skipped a beat as we walked down a part of the center I wasn't familiar with. Weapons; beautiful, deadly, sharp, and beautiful weapons. I couldn't wait to feel dagger strapped to my arms and lags again. To feel then cut the very air. If I'd be allowed to.

We stopped at a door with two guards I didn't recognize standing outside of it. They each stood at attention, swords strapped to the right side of the waists. Both lefties, huh?

"Theodore West with squadron five," Theo said, all formal like. "Here for equipment for mission code named Rosey Carnez."

I let out a whistle. "Fancy security."

The guards eyed me. They probably knew who I was. After all, this was the oh so famous squadron five and I was the oh so beautiful Shadow.

"She's under my watch," Theo said. "I'm allowing her to enter."

They saluted. One of the guards took out a small key and opened a lock to the door. The metal door creaked as it was pulled open. I couldn't help but admire the contents.

I took slow, careful steps as I walked inside. I knew that all of them didn't trust me yet, and I wanted them too. So, I waited for permission.

When Theo stepped inside, I was exactly a step behind. The others stood around me, eyes plastered to the walls of the room, though I could feel their eyes closely examining me.

The inside of the room was lined with beautiful, spectacular weapons of all shapes and sizes. I but my lip, trying to contain my excitement.

I was a bit busy with the weapons to notice that the others were staring at me expectantly.

"What?" I asked, half expecting them to make fun of me for my obsessions.

"Give us our weapons," Mercy said, like it was the simplest thing in he world.

I blinked once, twice.

"Huh?"

Theo laughed at me, pissing me off a bit before he explained. "It's part of your job. As our leader, and the one who knows our fighting styles best, it's up to you to decide to give us weapons."

Feeling a bit of pride swelling inside me, I stepped away. Mila already had a weapon, so that left me with Mercy, Bryce, Levi, and Theo.

Leaning towards the daggers first, I grabbed Bryce's. Two decently heavy daggers, meant for power, which he specialized in. Taking the two heavy silver daggers with red leather grips, I passed them off to Bryce. Who, may I add, I still kind of hated. I mean, not enough to sabotage him and give him shit weapons, but still. Hate and all that good stuff.

Next, Mercy. She liked her weapons light and she liked them sized differently. So, the first dagger I grabbed for her was a short iron dagger with a rubbery blue grip. Next, a slightly longer iron dagger, around the same weight, with a blue rubbery grip, so they wouldn't feel awkward compared to each other.

And now for Levi. Since he was used to fighting with a blade less staff, I figured a type of spear would work best. Keeping his average strength in mind, I handed him a light double bladed spear. He seemed happy with it, so why not? I'm a bit ashamed to admit that I never learned much about spears or staffs. But, I figured, if he was used to using both sides of the staff both sides of a spear wouldn't be to different. Right?

Last but not least, Theo. He was abnormally strong and preferred swords, which gave me a huge amount of options. Smiling, I grabbed a nice claymore, a two handed sword made to crush the enemies. Then I thought. We were on a mission to capture, not kill. So, as a second thought, I grabbed a nice long sword. One handed, made for damage, but still allowed a free hand.

Giving myself a nod of approval, I used two hands to drag the weapon over to him.

He gave me that stupid smile that I wasn't sure I'd ever get used to. I kinda wanted to punch him. Kinda didn't. Wasn't really sure how to feel about this anymore.

I was about to tell the others that we were done here when I remembered something. Mila had a bow, but not arrows. Smiling about getting to you with more weapons, I took a quiver from the corner of the room I hand picked twenty heavy steel arrows. If the arrows are heavy, they won't change direction as much when they're shot, so it'll be easier to aim with.

"Alright," I said, still stupidly happy, "that's it. We're done here."

"The rest of you go ahead," Theo suddenly cut in. "Shadow and I are gonna stay here for a minute and talk."

The others gave us suspicious looks, but left anyways.

"Don't you dare make a move on her," Levi shouted from outside the door. "She's mine."

"Piss off," I yelled back, half smiling.

When they were out of earshot, I looked back at Theo.

"Don't look at me like that," he said, holding his hands up in mock surrender.

"What do you want?"

He motioned towards the weapons. "Take you pick."

I looked at him, a bit wide eyed.

"Seriously?"

He nodded, flashing that pure smile that made me wanna vomit.

Smiling, a more snake like smile, I went off and picked six daggers. Four flat yet incredibly sharp. The other two, heavy, my main weapons.

Taking some string from a different section of the room, I started tying four of them to my arms and legs.

"Do you really need that many?" He asked.

"Yep."

"How do you know so much about weapons?"

"I know a lot of stuff about a lot of things."

We waited in silence for a minute while I finished with my legs.

"I know you're dying to ask, so just go ahead and do it," Theo finally said, his tone a bit more serious than normal.

I looked at him, waiting for a second. Not really sure how to respond. So, I just asked him bluntly.

"Why do you trust me?"

"Do you remember how you said you could kill anyone with anything?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Well, we're all still alive, aren't we?"