Every step of the horses hooves made me cringe in pain. My nails would dig tighter into the horses mane. Behind me, Levi was keeping his chest pressed against me, taking the full of the wind. My eyes drifted every few seconds.

If I could turn around, I'm not sure if I'd be able to see the recently captured building.

To my utter disappointment, our target wasn't killed by those two arrows. One of them hit him in the shoulder while the other nicked his stomach. The least I can do is pray that someone jams their finger in the two bloody wholes. Still, that wouldn't make my day as much as hanging his body from a tree.

The horse made a jump. I gasped, biting my lip.

"Sorry," Levi said quietly into my ear.

Maybe I could add Levi and this god dammed horse to the tree. I mean, seriously. In the short time that we've been on his back, he's given one buck, jumped over at least ten rocks, and the gave off this horrid neigh every time. I mean, come on. This little son of a bitch is out to get me. And Levi, he hasn't done anything but apologize every time. I'm keeping my eye on this underweight cow.

---

A whole day. We'd only traveled for one day. I had a whole other day before I could get some medicine to numb the whole in my stomach.

I watched the others from atop the underweight cow, leaning my whole weight onto his neck. Trust me, I really was trying to make this things time with me a living hell, but he just doesn't care! I've pocked his neck, pulled his mane, debated sitting on top of his head to see if his neck would be able to support my weight. I got about halfway through before I gave into the pain and just lied down on his neck. Seriously, everything.

"Alright, we got the tents set up." Theo was standing by me and the small cow. "We set up three this time. One for the boys, one for the girls, an then one for you and whoever's watching you."

"Watching me?"

"In case anything happens during the night."

"Did we need our own tent?"

"You have a tendency of talking. A lot."

I smirked. "Point taken. So, how do you plan to get me off this mini cow?"

"He's been giving you a hard time?" He asked, smiling. "If you can get your other foot around, I can just lift you off. If not, I could just push you off."

"Jack ass! I never thought you would be the mean type."

He shrugged. "I never pegged you as the teaching type, and we all know that went okay."

Smiling, I began to move. My left leg swung over the horses neck, and only 'accidentally' kicking it once. I bit my lip, holding back a grunt. When my foot was all the wa over, falling off didn't seem that bad anymore.

"Ready?"

I nodded.

The came to my side, his right arm supporting my back while his left snaked under my knees. I could feel my weight being shifted as I was pulled completely into his support. I dropped a bit, but it didn't hurt as much as the ride here. I let myself fall into his warmth.

When we approached the tent, the flap was already pulled open. Theo ducked, then twisted us inside.

"Ooh, V.I.P." I commented, looking at the little bed made completely of blankets we took from the slave traders place. No pillows, though. Pillows are to bulky to carry around with us. Necessities and blankets for the injured only.

Smiling, he set me down in the center of the little pile. He pulled a few blankets over me, then headed towards the entrance.

"You're not on watch?" I asked, disappointment clear in my voice.

"I'm second. Mercy insisted on being first. So...good luck."

He slipped through the little flap. Little bastard. I bet Mercy was going to go after me for every time she caught me together with Theo. The little bastard slipped out before she could get here.

On cue, the little flap opened again, reveling my prosecutor.

"I thought you'd be sleeping," she said.

"Trying. Kinda hard with this kind of whole in your stomach."

"Point taken."

We sank into a comfortable silence. For the first twenty minutes, I could feel her eyes on me, even with mine closed. After that, I dozed in and out for a few hours.

"Shadow," she finally said. See, I saw it coming. "A long time ago, you asked me what my last name was. I told you it was Smith, and that's not a lie. It is Smith...Now. I was adopted. A long time ago, my last name was...Koinzel."

I felt tears building behind my eyes. The warm salty water slipped down my cheeks.

"Shadow?" I could hear the panic in her voice. "Are-are you okay? Do I need to get Theo?"

"No, I'm fine. It's just...Mercy, along time ago...we were really close friends."

She looked at me, eyes wide. "We were?"

I nodded, wiping my tears away. "Along time ago, before the incident."

"So you know about that."

"Of course I know what happened to my best friend. I...I thought you were dead for the longest time. After the incident, I...I was so scared that you were dead. Two weeks ago, I finally found out you were alive and I..."

"The night Bryce found you in the kitchen."

I nodded, glad she left out the crying part.

"Well, glad everyone knows about that."

""Shadow, can I ask you a weird question?"

"Sure, why not?"

"Are you...my...sister?"

She looked down at her hands where she was picking dirt out from under her nails. She was nervous, but that was expected.

"Sorry," I replied, "but no. As far as I know, she's dead."

"Did you know her? I mean, I'm really sorry that I don't remember you, but my sister. I don't really remember her either, but I know we were close. I just want to know about her, or if she's alive. I mean, I-I really am sorry but-"

I smiled. "It's fine. I get it. She's your sister and I'm a friend. If you want, I can tell you a little about her."

She looked me in the eyes and nodded eagerly.

"Well, she was a bit of a rebel. The whole Koinzel family was, for that matter. Your parents always taught you and Lena about the olden days. Your sister loved it, and so did you for that matter. At some points your parents would sneak in old movies for you two to watch. They, managed to buy electricity from other cities and sneak it into Lament.

"Sorry, your sister. She looked just like you, like us. People would always confuse us. She was smart, defiantly, but she always hated school. We ditched a lot, ran off into Maple and messed with people."

"What about her voice?" Mercy asked. "What was it like?"

"It was smooth, soft. She was usually excited, always had to be doing something."

"What was it like to be around her?"

"Exciting, fun. Like I said, she always had to be doing something, but hated doing it alone. She always dragged you along with her, whether you liked it or not. People said she was really nice, helpful. But...troublesome."

Mercy nodded, entranced in my words.

"She was tall for her age, well at ten. She had golden hair, and ocean blue eyes. She was beautiful."

"I wish I could remember her." Mercy finally said. "I wish that I could. It's like, all I need is remember one thing, just one, and everything's gonna come back. But I can't. It's like all my memories got shook out of my head and I can't ever get them back and-and it hurts so much. Not-not physically, but it hurts, you know? It really does."

I stretched out my arm and took ahold of her hand, which was tucked away in the little ball she was making with her body. She sniffled, then took ahold of my hand, clutching it so tight that you may think it's her missing memories.

I fell asleep like that, holding onto her hand while she cried quietly.

---

Movements woke me up. My hand was being moved back under my blankets. I looked up at Mercy who was looking down with red puffy eyes.

"Can I ask you a question?" I said, looking up at her with half lidded tired eyes.

"Of course."

"The Smith's, are they nice?"

"They've always treated me like family, and supported everything I wanted."

"Good."

She walked out. Three minutes later, a tired Theo came in.

"What the hell did you say to Mercy? I can't tell if she's happy or- Shadow?"

Tears streamed into the blankets, making a mark.

"Are you-"

"I'm fine."

Giving me his unconvinced look, he crawled in and sat besides me.

"Hey, Theo. It's cold."

"No, it's not."

"You caught me."

"What do you want?"

I lifted my arm with a bit of effort, lifting the blankets with it. "Come lay with me."

"What?" He looked baffled, shocked, happy, and scared all at the same time.

I laughed at him. "Come here." I turned over on my right left side, looking directly at him. "Please?"

He sighed, but crawled over anyways.

He carefully tucked himself into my fortress of blankets. I'd noticed that he was purposely a hairs breath away, and decided that tonight I would be selfish. I pulled myself over a bit and snuggled into his chest. His heart beat sped up, but he didn't complain. After a while, my pillow of blankets turned into his arm. His other hand snuck over my ribs and pulled me closer, then curled itself under me.

As I drifted into unconsciousness, I could feel his lips press against my forehead.

---

The next day we were up and off early. After breakfast, of course. Not going anywhere without food. Levi volunteered to take me and I was carefully moved onto the shitty mini cow horse thing.

For the whole day, we traveled, and stopped only once fore lunch. And only because I told them to, at that. Seriously, these people can survive without food. I swear it.

---

Back in Lament, I was immediately brought into the doctors...place. They brought me into a white room, an gave me some meds to numb me. It also made me a bit drowsy. After that, they checked the stitches and told me that they were good enough to keep me alive. After that, they took out the stitches and replaced them with some of their own.

I was laid in a bed and told to sleep.

How. Fun.

---

When night finally came, the nurses had left. They said they'd see me in the morning and told me to call for help.

I wouldn't be here in the morning. And, if I was, I'd probably be dead. I may have survived the attack, but I was weak. If the Kaiser wanted me out as soon as possible, he'd do it now. I wasn't guarded and fighting would be hard.

Biting my tongue to keep quiet, I forced my body to sit up. My body screamed at me, begging me to sit down. I told my body to put a sock in it.

My feet went over the side of the bed, resting on the solid ground. Taking a breath, I stood up, shaking off pins and needles.

"Here I go."

Through the door I went, out into familiar halls. The last time I actually remembered being here, I had a horrid fever. I'd trade that fever for this searing pain any day.

I took in the sights for the last time as I headed to Squadron Five's common room. I know I shouldn't have any personal possessions, but this was different. I needed this.

Grabbing hold of the cold brass doorknob, I gently swung the door open. I was welcomed by darkness accompanied by the single table, the chairs, and the sink. Taking it all in for a last second, I sped towards the girls room.

Placing my ear on the door, I determined that both Mercy and Mila were peacefully sleeping. Taking hold of the doorknob, I swung it open.

I peeked inside, before crawling in, letting the door shut behind me. Stalking to my bed, I stealthily climbed to the top bunk. Slowly, my hands reached under the cover and took hold of the paper folder. My hands gently worked the papers out from their hiding spot.

I took the folder in my hands and looked at it for a second. I debated leaving it with Mercy, but with everything that was about to happen, I was sure she'd figure it out. She's not stupid. I tucked the folder into the waist of my jeans, where I was sure it'd stay hidden.

Sliding down the ladder, I made my way out of the girls room and carefully closed the door. Turning to the common room, I discovered that I wasn't alone.

"What do you think you're doing?"

Theo and Mercy were waiting in front of the door to Squadron Five's rooms. Their arms were crossed and it was pretty obvious how mad they were at me.

"Oh, you know, just saying goodnight to my friends." The lie slid off my tongue like I believed it. It felt just like the old days. Except, instead of the satisfaction of getting new prey, I felt nothing but gnawing guilt in the pit of my stomach. Well, guilt or the literal whole in my stomach.

"Don't you mean saying goodbye?" A new voice said.

Mila was leaning out of the girls room, irritation written in her features. It was kinda adorable seeing her cheeks puff out in her version of 'anger'.

"Angel," Levi said from where Bryce and Levi were peeking out of the boys room, "did you really want to leave us?"

How the hell do I react to this?

Thinking for a minute, I decided to go with the truth. It was fine, I hated lying to them anyways.

"Fine, you got me. I was trying to leave. How'd you know?"

"It was pretty obvious," Theo said. "You've been acting weird for the past few days. Not to mention how clingy you've been."

I could feel my cheeks lighting up.

"Congrats then. So, what happens now? You send me to prison to wait for my execution time? You could catch me if you tried. I'm pretty dozy with this medicine."

"Catch you," Bryce asked, surprise in his voice. "Where's the fun in that?"

"That's right," Mercy continued. "After everything you really thought we'd turn you in to be killed?" She sounded pretty irritated. "Seriously? And I thought you were supposed to be smart."

"I'm not keeping up," I admitted.

"We're coming with you," Theo finished.

"...No you're not."

"Try to stop us," Levi said. "You can barely move on your own, not to mention the drugs in you should be wearing off soon."

"You're not coming with me."

"Yes we are," Mila demanded, confidence filling her voice.

"For the love of-Why do you even wanna come with me? I'm going back to the streets to kill and steal and...kill and stuff!"

Theo smirked at me, that damn knowing smirk. "No you're not."

"How do you know that?"

"Because, you're planning something big. You were taken away in the middle of the fighting competition to talk to someone with higher access than me, then Clover came and took you away, and then you come back in one of your moods. After that, we go on a mission with a level much higher than any other young squadron should be made to go on. Not to mention, we just happened to overlap with one of the strongest squadrons and then Clover goes missing afterwards. Is that all of it?"

"Stealing information from the Archives," Bryce filled in.

"How do you know that was me?"

Theo looked at me. "Honestly? Who would be stupid or absolutely brilliant enough to manage to break in?"

I smiled at the compliment. "You know what? That doesn't matter, you're not coming with me and that's that."

"Why not?" Mercy asked.

"Because I said so."

"That's not an answer."

"Fine, you wanna know why? Because I don't want any of you to die! If you come with me, you're just guaranteeing your own death, and I don't want that."

"You don't have a say in that."

"Yes, I do. If you die, I won't know what to do with myself."

"Shadow," Theo said, sadness filling his voice, "what about you?"

"I can die and not affect anyone. I don't have any real family. I don't have anyone who'd be even a little sad if I die."

"We would. And that's why were coming with you. Whatever hell you're walking yourself into, we're not going to let you do it alone. Before you came along, we were just a bunch of mismatched people who came together for our own reasons. Now, we're not just random people, we're not strangers. We're friends. If it weren't for you, none of this ever would have happened. You've protected us countless times, so let us protect you know."

"You sure do make one hell of a speech," I laughed. Sighing, I finally said, "Fine. You guys can some with me. But you're sorry ghost assess better not come back to haunt me!"