Shade could sense she was nearly home. The familiar marks on the trees, the familiar smells. She breathed in deep and sighed. On the home stretch, she flew as fast as her wings could allow her and landed on the roof of the house where she grew up. She shifted back and jumped off the roof, landing neatly in front of the door. Tentatively, she tapped on the door. No answer. She pushed open the door and said into the empty room. "Hello? Mum? Dad?" The room was how she had left it, but something seemed...off. The cupboards were empty. She went into the lounge to find 5 bodies strewn across the floor. They belonged to her family. Shade screamed.

Shane took his knife away from the unconscious member and made a vine grow around his head to cover his mouth once more. (Shane and Peace finally calmed down a bit). Shane heads back upstairs with Peace right behind. On the way up they see Caldwell and Ladia, but they do not respond they just head back up with heads down.Shane "sorry for our behavior" (still with heads down). They finished up there unfinished breakfast and head to there room upstairs. Ladia "I think there done, but they did get some info the gang will be attacking Fola and Doitean soon". With that she went upstairs to see how the boys were doing, she found them lying on there backs on the floor she then sat against the wall and polished her sword not willing to leave the boys alone (again).

Shade's knees buckled as she screamed, tears flooding. For the first time in a long while, she had no clue what to do. "No." She breathed. She crawled over to her brother and shook him by his shoulders, in a vain hope that he will wake up and it was all a big prank. She wanted to kill herself just so she could see them again, but she knew they wouldn't have approves and it would be a waste. She saw an owl perched outside, looking at her, she gasped. She grabbed a piece of paper and scribbled on it furiously. She reached out of the window, paper in hand, and amazingly, the owl swooped down and grabbed. "Yes. Go on, buster." Buster was the family messenger owl. They liked to do things the old fashioned way around here.

Meanwhile...

Dmitiri and Harry were lounging in their bedroom. Dmitri was throwing his knife at the wall. Suddenly, they heard a faint cooing. Dmitri's lips curved into a smile. He raced to the window and practically threw it open. The owl, Buster, flew in and dropped the paper in his hands before flying out the way it came. Dmitri unfolded it. "That was Shade's messenger owl by the way, Harry...Right. It says:
To Dmitri and Harry, family are dead, like ghost town, I am only one left...and that's it..." Harry and Dmitri looked at each other panicked. "She's the last one. Which means...SH!T!" They ran downstairs and out of the door, but just before they did they yelled upstairs. "IT'S AN AMBUSH! SHADE'S FLOWN INTO AN AMBUSH!"

Peace and Shane hear this and snap out of there mopping around. Peace (why running) "everybody move it lets go (shifts to increase speed)". Ladia "you heard him lets go". Everyone quickly leaves the building after Harry and Dmitri.

Shade had cried until no more tears came. She set about looking for what she mainly, came back for. She dashed upstairs to her former bedroom and flipped over the bed, yes bed, not mattress. Underneath it was a chest. She took an old key from around her neck and unlocked it. Inside, was a grapple hook, throwing axes, and a katana. "You hit the jackpot here Shade!" Silently, she thanked her mother for never clearing out her bedroom. She attached the various weapons to her underneath her cloak and headed back downstairs and out of the door. With one last glance at her family, she set off tk search the village for any survivors.

Around an hour later, Shade couldn't be sure, she had found nothing. It was like everyone had simply got up and left. Half eaten dinners were still on tables, un finished chess games, abandoned footballs. The list went on and on. "Hopefully, this is just a big decoy for anyone nosing in and everyone's all safe and sound somewhere else in a place no one knows about. Yeah right, as if. With my luck, the Dark Gang is hiding in the trees right now and this is all a big ambush..." She heard rustling from a tree. "Gotcha!" She threw an axe at the tree and it hit its target, making the member collapse on the ground. Shade retrieved her axe swiftly after, and just as she did, she was surrounded by Dark Gang members. "Oh...so I was right about the decoy..."

The group was moving so fast that a few days walk was completed in a few hours. Ladia "can you slow down I need to breath". Instead of responding Peace just picks up Ladia and continues running. Ladia "what are you doing?". Shane "we aren't stopping till we get to Shade".Peace just nods, after a few minutes they hear the sounds of weapons being drawn. Peace "Ladia can I put you down now?". Ladia "yes, now lets do this thing". They see Shade in a clearing surrounded. Shane "hi Shade hows the family". He says this why stabbing the member right in front of him who was paying attention only to Shade. Shane "Peace we taking prisoners today". Peace "not today". Peace hits his staff on the ground make a large rock out of the ground and side kicks it (that's a type of kick were you pivot your body and hit a single target) the rock goes flying and drills some dark gang members. Ladia "who says guys get all the fun". Ladia uses blood to make one of the gang members start attacking the others it killed a few but when the gang member started to fight back she sliced his head. With the gang fully aware that Shade wasn't there only target now, they had members everywhere. Brothers (synchronized) "let the games begin".

Shade found a log and sat on it casually while her teammates fought. "I just can't be assed today." She said, sighing. After a few minutes, the members were defeated and everyone was standing around, completely out of breath. "Have you quite finished tearing up my home?" They looked at her with a look that said. 'yeah, and what did you do to help you lazy ******?' "The reason I didn't help was..." Her eyes locked on one of the bodies by Harry. Shade went over and pulled down the back of his collar, revealing an intricately designed tattoo. She jumped back squealing, hand glued to her mouth. She practically squeaked at Dmitri. "You just killed David!" Dmitri's eyes widened as he looked down at the body. The others looked at them confused. "He was my awesome, BFF, next door neighbour." Concerned looks spread through them. Shade looked at other bodies to check for Tattoos. She stood up and turned to Dmitri. "You've just killed more or less my whole village...just one thing, my family is not here, which means their either dead or..." Shade looked at Dmitri hurt. "With Jane..." He breathed. (Jane = Dmitri's mother) "If they are with Jane, they will soon be dead...which means, i really am the last one..."

Sakura sighed and sat down next to Shade. "Look, I know it's hard to lose people like that. Especially when there are few people left that you do care about. B-but..." Sakura faltered and tried not to let her voice shake. "You need to keep going. You've signed up to our team and you can't back out now." Sakura hoped that she didn't sound too harsh, and tried out a friendly smile. She was worried about Shade, who hadn't seemed this fragile throughout their journey so far.
"And besides," added Caldwell. "We didn't mean to hurt them and in all fairness they attacked us first." Although he was trying to help, he succeeded in sounding like a total idiot... once again. Everyone just stood there solemnly, waiting for someone else to make the next move.

Shane "relax Shade you aren't the only one to lose family to the dark gang just look at Peace and I". Peace "in fact I believe we are in the same boat now (instead of crying or trying to sound serious Peace is just laughing) we all lost our town and our family to the dark gang (points at Shane and Shade)". Ladia "what are you doing that isn't going to make her feel better (she scolds at Peace)". Shane "no, it isn't we just want her to know she ain't alone". Peace "enough mopping around I want to see if anythings around here if there's this many gang members they need to be camping out in the woods around here".

((I thought Shade's family were the 5 she found? Unless those were fakes >>))

"As much as I'd like to say my apologies for what you have been through, Peace has a point, there might be more members around here, and it'd be best if we do a quick scout of the area. Abend? Tsuki?" At her call, Akari's two pets went to search the southern parts of the town and woods ((Im thinking that the town is surrounded by a forest >>)), as Akari continued.
"Shade, if you wish, you may stay back at town with Harry or Dimitri, but one of them has to follow us to scout. With my pets searching the southern area, we'll just need to organize three groups to go North, East and West. I feel it'd be better if we moved in pairs, or groups of three, so we can move faster, however, the choice of the grouping is up to the rest of you."
Arashi elbowed his friend in her ribs. What a way to comfort a girl, he thought. "In any case, I'll be with Akari... Shade, if you join us, then we'll move in fours, but if you don't... then that's alright too."
((I'll wait on Dark to continue this ><))