I waved my hand, motioning for Levi to move from the last cactus to the wall. With a quick dive, he was inches away from me, nearly pressed against me. I didn't give his flirtatious move a second thought as I caught him.

Pointing up, I motioned for the other to start climbing. For Mila, I knelt on the ground, giving her my hand to step on. This process took longer than I hoped. Five minutes into the process, Bryce and Levi had managed to pull Mila up. They offered me their hands next, though Bryce was replaced with a more willing Theo.

I shook my head, remembering how long it took to pull Mila up, my hands carefully gripped the solid white stones as I scaled the wall myself. Within a matter of only three seconds, I was perched besides an admiring Mila. Motioning with my hands, I told the others to follow me. As per our earlier plan, we made our way to the big storage center in the center of the place.

When we reached the medium building that sat a foot away from the large one, and seven feet above, I made the run, jumping for the roof of the building. I hit the roof with my stomach and quickly pulled myself up.

When I turned, the others were looking at me with that you-really-expect-us-to-do-that look. I rolled my eyes and kneeled down, holding my arms open to them.

'I got you,' I mouthed to them.

With an unconvinced look, Mercy jumped first. She hit the roof the same as I did. I knew she would've been fine pulling herself up alone, but I gave her a hand always. Levi went next, though he ended up in a much worse position. His chest didn't even touch the roof. And so, he hung like an ornament, hands slipping on the stone roof. Luckily for us, this building didn't have shingles. It took both Mercy and myself to pull him up. I considered dropping him when he made a reach for me that I didn't approve of. I let him know too. My hands accidentally slipped, letting him drop a few extra inches. In the end, I did pull him up. Aren't I a great teacher?

Theo went next. I gave him a supportive thumbs up and a smile. He rolled his eyes at me and made the jump. He leapt with all his power, which turned out to be a bad idea. He greatly overshot the jump and basically flew at the waiting assistance which, in this moment, was me. the upper half of his body landed in my arms, bringing me down with a thud onto the concrete roof. Lucky bastard. However, his legs weren't so lucky. They not so gracefully collided with the wall, making me his only purchase versus falling twenty five feet to his impending broken bones. His hands tightly gripped my shoulders as he used me to pull himself up.

He gave me a nodded thanks as he joined the others behind me.

Bryce went next. He gave me an untrusting look before making the jump. he missed calculated the sot even worse that Levi. His fingers barely brushed the edge of the roof before he fell, careful not too gasp or cry out. he's lucky he had me. I made an uncomfortable dive, laying flat on my stomach as my hands tightly gripped his. Theo came from one side of me and Levi from the other, both of which helped to pull him up.

Lastly, Mila. With her bow strapped tightly onto her back, she noticeably gulped before making the jump. Lucky for her, I was already prepared for her to fall. She, however, fell further than I thought she would. I dove, terrified as I felt my body fall. Someone caught onto my ankles before I could hit the ground. I was pulled up, surprisingly, by Bryce.

I nodded him a thanks and he sincerely nodded back.

Now that our godawful jumping experience was over, I made my way to the other side of the building, keeping low. The others followed loosely behind. When I reached the end, where I knew a window was waiting, I dipped my feet down and into the building. Crawling from the window, I landed on one of the boxes, containing some kind of drug most likely. The others crawled in as I kept watch for them, Mila first this time.

They each took a second to examine the room before looking to me for further instructions. I gave them swiftly, telling the others to examine the boxes for labels, checking their sources. Again, I found the same red and blue swords, but didn't mention it or look at it, Theo was always watching. We'd found several sources, small drug making and growing plants, all too small to make anything big about at the moment. If we got the distributor, the businesses could do nothing but make.

A screeching sound from the door made me jump. I quickly motioned for the others to hide. I kept behind Mila, pushing he up, sure that she went up fast enough.

As we sat, perched in comforting shadows, I caught a glimpse of the intruders intruding on our intrusion.

"You saw what, again?" A lower female voice asked.

"I'm not sure," a higher male voice replied, "but I'm sure I saw something. When I was walking on guard around the main building, I thought I heard a sound so I went to check it out." The sounds became clearer as they came closer. I looked to Theo and Levi, where they sat on crates far from myself. They looked at me with wide eyes. Something was up. "And when I went to the source of the noise I saw something being pulled onto the roof. So I went to get you. Ah, and I'm sorry about waking you, I know you were sleeping and all but..."

"It's fine, don't worry about it."

Shadows turned to people as I realized why the others were shocked. Right in front of us, stood our target, Rosy Carnez. Shed walked right into the palm of our hands. On such an easy mission, I had no choice but to test the others. So, I motioned for the others to make the capture. Take the target captive and the others would follow.

I received an earnest nod from all of them as they made their move. Mila however, like a good archer hamster girl, stayed besides me, notching an arrow incase anything happened.

Mercy acted first, lowering herself from the highest crate and quickly coming on them from behind. Bryce followed, a few steps away. Swiftly, mimicking the movements I taught them, they attacked. Bryce took out the first guard while Mercy put Rosy in a beautiful arm lock. I watched from afar as Levi and Theo climbed down a bit more slowly. That, however was to be expected, as they weren't supposed to be swift, like dagger users.

When I rested my foot on the first bow below, more footsteps sounded from the door. Before the others could move, four archers already had arrows pointed a them. Six others held different types of blades. They were completely trapped.

Mila pulled back her arrow and I acted quickly, covering her mouth with one hand, and grabbing the cold metal bow with the other. I shook my head as I pulled her back into the shadows with me.

When I'd looked back to my trapped trainees, I'd noticed that they were already releasing the woman named Rosy Carnez who was rubbing her neck.

"Kids these days," she sighed.

My trainees were still untouched by the guards, but that quickly5 changed. They were forced to the ground, a knee placed firmly against each of their spines as ropes were tired around their wrists. The guards, in lack of better words at the moment, pulled them up straight.

Rosy examined them, and I feared what her decision would be.

"Who sent you?" She asked, voice low.

Like good soldiers, they dint look at me for advice, didn't flinch, and didn't talk. They remained silent, returning the stare of the woman.

Angered, her hand lashed out, slamming into Mercy's jaw. She yelped in pain and it took a good amount of my own self control not to slay the bitch right now.

Now she looked to Theo.

"Who sent you?"

Theo didn't reply. Idiot. At this point, their life might've been on the line. If there was ever a point to give in, it was now. He refused, giving Rosy a blank stare. This time, her hand slowly reached up and gripped his cheek. What I thought would end with a last kiss and a sad romcom goodbye, ended with a small flow of blood from his cheek.Her nails dug into his cheek, leaving what looked like claw marks to his lip.

"Fine," she said, rather uncaring. "Bring them to the chambers. We'll finish the interrogation there."

Chambers? That sounded horrible. In the old books and movies, chambers meant torture.

I didn't act now, but instead followed from a close distance as the others were taken into on of the medium buildings. In it, was six cells and a single chair outside of the cells. I completely forgot Mila was behind me in this moment of complete fear and rage. Mostly rage.

I watched as the others were pushed into a single cage. Except for Theo, who Rosy had chosen as her current personal punching bag. He was sat in the chair and, from what I could see through the small window id found, he wasn't about to be fed.

One of the guards brought a cloth up to his mouth and tied it behind his head.

At this point, I was near furious, but there were too many of them to act now, and shooting them off one by one gave them a chance to take a hostage, which would only make things worse.

Wanting a better listen as to what was going on, I motioned for Mila to stay down as I leapt to the roof of the 'chambers'.

"So," Rosy's voice sounded, "I'll ask you again. Who sent you? Ah, I realize you can't talk right now, so just nod your head if your willing, okay?"

There wasn't a sound.

"No? Fine then."

I braced myself, I braced myself for the sound, but that wasn't enough. Nothing could've prepared me for that sound. Theo's horrible muffled screaming snapped my temper. That was the end of it.

My anger at it's peak, I dove from the window, quickly taking the nearest guard as a captive as I faced the room. Ten guards, I quickly counted, and Rosy. Theo was laying on the ground, still tied to the chair. The others were watching with horrified expressions.

"So," I said, letting my bloodlust completely consume me, "who's going to die first?"

The bitch named Rosy looked at me, a small smile playing at her lips.

"And who, may I ask, are you?"

"I'm these kids teacher. And youre the one who did that to him?"

I motioned with my chin to Theo, lying in a crumpled mess on the floor. I wasn't even sure if he was conscious.

"Oh, so you recognize my work? I must be quite famous to you city folk."

"Afraid not," I replied venom in my voice. "A two bit asshat of a criminal like you's got no credit in the big city."

"Says who?" she asked, the curiosity of a teenage girl asking about her popularity in her voice.

"Me. But I suppose that doesn't mean much if you don't know my name. I'm Shadow of the Night, but they all just call me Shadow. Now, if you don't mind, I'll be taking my trainees back. While you're at it, why don't you tie yourself up as well. Or I'll kill this little guard here."

I pulled my dagger sharply against the unlucky girl's neck, proving my point.

"You don't have the guts," Rosy commented, same smile on her lips.

"Don't I?'

I slit the girls throat, letting warm blood glide down her neck as I dropped her onto the ground, dead.

Before the other guards could react, I'd already charged Rosy. The dead girl was nothing but a distraction as I shot my blade at the woman. She was quick and defended herself, but not quick enough.

Using the draw of her sword, she protected herself from the initial strike. I'd already predicted that. My strike had been with my left hand, my weak hand. And it was completely on purpose. I weakly struck and then tipped to my right. I was behind her before the sword was fully drawn. My right blade was pressed firmly against her neck.

"Now," I said, letting a cruel joy enter my voice, "why don't we try that again? You." I motioned with my chin to a man who looked t me with wide, terrified eyes. "Untie my trainees before I accidentally kill you all."

"Now now," Rosy said. My grip instinctively tightened on her arm and my dagger, pulling her closer to myself. "While I don't doubt your ability to kill, Ms. Shadow, I've seen it all over the news, you and I both know you won't do it. You clearly have orders to keep me alive. If you didn't, I wouldn't be alive right now."

"Ms. Carnez," I mimicked in the same demeaning tone, "as a fellow criminal, you should know how possessive we are. You've gone and done something taboo. You touched something that's mine and I'd have no problem ending all of your miserable lives right now. However, I see another option. An eye for an eye, right? Torture for torture, in this situation, I believe. Now, I'll say it again. You, untie all of them before I kill you all. Do I make myself clear?"

He nodded as he unlocked the cell door and then untied each of them in an agonizingly slow manner. Levi and Mercy rushed to Theo's side. He was lifted onto Levi's back. They all quickly retreated to the safety of behind me.

"Now," I said rather simply, "someone go get me four horses."

Making our way out was easy from there. We had four horses that we easily mounted. For the majority of the trip back to safety, I had Mila sit backwards behind Levi, watching the place to see if they'd attack. They didn't.

Theo, I had place in front of Bryce who I was confident could keep him up. I'd found out that he was completely unconscious, but alive. I'd gotten the other to explain that he was hit with the back of Rosy's sword, and that was it.

Rosy was placed in front of me, laid on her stomach where she couldn't do anything.

When I felt that we were a safe distance away, I allowed us to stop. I quickly knocked Rosy out with the same method she'd used. She was sent on a blanket where Bryce kept close watch of her. Mercy, Levi, and Mercy set out food while I went to where Theo had been laid a few feet away.

His eyes were partially opened, and they followed me when I moved.

"So," I said, "how long've you been awake?"

"Maybe ten minutes," he replied weakly trying to sit up.

I pushed him down, telling him to rest.

"Drink up," I said, pulling out my personal canteen.

He obeyed without arguing like Bryce or Mercy might've, though I noticed that Mercy had been oddly laid back for the past day or so.

"How do you feel?"

"How do I look."

"Like complete shit."

He laughed at me. "There's Shadow for you, never pulling punches. How'd the mission go after I...you know?"

I explained to him, in detail, what'd happened. How I'd killed the young guard and threatened to kill the rest of them.

"Sorry," I finally said, "I know I wasn't supposed to kill anyone, but..."

"Don't worry about it. If anything, I should be the one to apologize. I left you in a hard situation because of my stupid choices."

Sighing, I ruffled his hair like I would a kid. He seemed to enjoy the treatment, however.

"You were a good soldier out there. Don't worry about anything."

An hour or so later, after we'd all eaten a nice breakfast, we made way for the final part to our trip back to Lament.