Kaitlin lay on her bed in her shared room, thinking. Her heart was still pounding, the adrenaline not yet completely faded from her system. They'd just stolen 20 million dollars. 20 million. In half an hour, they'd walked in, taken what they needed, and left, all with barely a hitch. She was having trouble wrapping her mind around it.

I wonder if it will be on the news…

She found herself pondering the question, a strange thrill coursing through her. It scared her slightly, this excitement she felt at the thought of crime. She'd never been a goody-two shoes, despite what the others might think. She'd stolen before, petty childish things at first, attention seeking that developed into an outlet as she got older, with no friends, an absentee father, and a gift that made her an outcast feared by anyone who knew her; the witch, with fire in her hair and ice in her eyes. It wasn't even hard, just a distraction there, a swipe here, and she was walking away with a chocolate bar, a CD, a necklace. As she got older, she'd honed her newfound skill, learned to line her bag with aluminium foil to escape the alarms, to get in and out, quick. Still. The biggest thing she'd ever risked was an Mp3 player, quite a different situation to what had just happened. She'd never felt this big a thrill doing it, either. The two were probably connected, she thought idly.

Suddenly, there was a booming knock on the door, and it opened, revealing Bri.

"Hey, come on!" she said, eyes glittering with an excitement Kaitlin recognized.

"Where are we going?" she asked, sitting up, failing to notice that she was speaking in the plural, hadn't even thought about trying to get out of whatever was going on, didn't want to.

"Out! Get ready, be downstairs in five, we're celebrating!" with the announcement finished, she left, slamming the door in her enthusiasm.

I suppose it can't be helped…

If she didn't go, they'd be suspicious, and it was only the one night, after all. She was already reaching into her bag for the black dress she'd hastily put in, and caught sight of her smile in the mirror as she did so.

Music blasted, loud enough that she could feel it in her chest, the bass vibrating in the air, fuelling the madness that was Dark Carnival. People of all types – and ages – danced and shouted and drank, and the atmosphere was electric. Kait found herself dancing with Bri and Frost, after turning and slapping Renny when he had tried – again – to feel her up. He'd backed away, hands raised, a sly grin curling on his lips, then disappeared. Jackal Mac was dancing a short distance away, and she'd get a glimpse of him now and then, dancing with a different person each time. She was surprised to see some of them were boys, but then shrugged it off. What did it matter, so long as he wasn't watching her.

Despite having limited experience in the clubbing area, she found it was easy to lose herself to the music, swinging her hips and waving her hands to the songs. She hadn't bothered to see what had happened to Gabriel, and staunchly refused to acknowledge the small, miniscule part of her that wondered if he was watching, or if he was dancing with someone else. After his attitude to her on the job, she'd ignored him, and they'd not said a word to each other since. It was a vital part of the act, Kaitlin knew, but she found herself genuinely angry at him, hurt that he didn't believe her. She chased the thought for a minute, then let it go. Just for tonight, she'd forget she was a spy. She had only been there a week, and she was already tired, tired of pretending, of walking on eggshells. So tonight, she wouldn't. She'd dance, and sing, and even drink if she wanted to, rules be damned.

It was a few weeks later, and Kaitlin was getting annoyed.

You're in danger

Let us help you

It's taking too long, the risk is too big now

Every time she spoke to Rob and the others, they came up with a reason for her to leave, to stop her impromptu mission. Why couldn't they just trust her? Here she was, surrounded by crazy psychics, Gabriel, Joyce and Mr. Zetes (who seemed to find just as many reasons to stop by the house on a nearly daily basis) and they expected like she would be able to just find the crystal immediately.

"Something wrong?" a voice interrupted her inner rant, and she looked up to see Jackal Mac leering by the doorway.

"Nothing for you to worry about," she spat, rising from the sofa she'd been lounging on and going into the kitchen. She should have known he'd follow her. He leaned on the counter and watched her open the fridge. Taking a can of diet coke, she turned and fixed him with a glare. Unfortunately, he seemed to have become immune. Not surprising, considering it was the only expression he ever got from her.

"Move." She said flatly, when he didn't budge from where he was blocking her way out. For a second, she didn't think he would; felt a spark in her stomach, from nerves or expectation, she wasn't sure. The line between fear and excitement had become blurred a short while after she'd arrived, but it no longer bothered her as much as it used to.

For a minute, they were locked in a staring match, his jackal eyes peering into her witchy ones, Kaitlin doing her best to look intimidating, height difference aside, before he stepped aside, still smiling. She brushed passed him, refusing to rush, refusing to show that he had succeeded in intimidating her. Which he hasn't, she reminded herself.

Her eyes flickered to the hidden panel as she passed it, and she promised herself next time. Truthfully, she'd been saying that a lot lately, but it wasn't like she could try and open it when there were people in the house, was it?

"What do you mean, you haven't had a chance?"

Rob was angry, which was rare enough, but he was angry at Kaitlin, which… hadn't ever happened, now she thought about it.

"Rob…" Anna murmured, but was ignored.

"You've been there for weeks, Kaitlin, and you're telling me that there hasn't been one day, one hour, where you've been alone in the house? Hell, even half an hour would be enough to get in and out!"

Kaitlin's temper flared, as it was wont to do these days. How dare he talk to her like that, like she was incompetent, like she was below him. A wild feeling started in her chest and she clenched her fists.

"Oh I'm sorry, I forgot, it must be so hard for you, sitting in a perfectly safe house all day, not having to spend every waking hour worried someone is onto you, not having to work with someone who can know your every thought and desire by touching you!" she was yelling back, unable to see for her anger, feeling it bubbling up inside her, releasing it directly at Rob, who stood, eyebrows furrowed, looking at her like… like he didn't know her. The confused puppy dog look had made her melt once, had made her think fondly of him. Now it just added fuel to the fire, sending irritation under her skin until she felt like she wanted to hit something.

"I'm sorry if you don't think I'm up for the task, if I'm not adequate enough," she forced out through gritted teeth, breathing heavily. "I'm sorry you can't be there to do it yourself, because none of you even thought about doing something like this, because we'd all still be living off other people if it weren't for me." she felt Lewis and Anna's surprise through the web, but was too focused on arguing to figure it out. "Oh wait, I'm sorry, you three still are. And you know why? You know why you can sit at home and have the biggest worry be whether I have found that damned crystal yet? Because it's me, I'm the one that's been throwing them off, in between trying to get to the stupid thing I have to stop them from finding you!"

Her blood was boiling, she was sure, she could feel it, and a brief thought made her wonder why she was getting so angry, but she brushed it off. She'd been doing her best to hinder Bri's scrying sessions without making it obvious, hiding her crystal, 'accidentally' throwing the map away, all to protect the three she thought were her friends, her family.

Bu they're not, she thought dimly. They don't care about me at all.

"That's not true, Kait!" Lewis cried, and she felt Anna's shock and denial through the web. But nothing from Rob. Rob, whom she'd loved, who she would've taken a bullet for, had thought he'd do the same.

"Whatever" she said coldly, backing away. "I'm done."

"You can't mean that Kait, please." Anna pleaded, glancing at Rob. Who stared at her, incredulous and confused and upset. A golden angel who didn't understand why other people weren't just as good as him.

"I… who are you? Who have you become?" he said softly.

She laughed, brittle and wild. "I haven't become anyone," she replied. "I've just stopped denying who I really am."

She turned on her heel, ignoring them and returning to the school. She sat down in amongst the cheerleaders, the jocks, the people who had begged her to sit with them, who had automatically made room as they saw her coming, who pestered her with "Where is that top from, it's so cute!" and "Hey Kait, you want to come for McDonald's after school's out?".

The next time she saw Bri's crystal and map, she carried on walking.

When Gabriel stopped her in the hallway, she raised an eyebrow. These days, conversations between them were frosty at best, and never telepathic, not since they had both raised their barriers so high they could barely even feel each other, never mind speak.

Kaitlin looked at him and saw him staring at her, eyes full of confusion.

"What?" she said warily. Suddenly she was being dragged into a room. His room.

"Hey – ow!, what are you doing?" she fumed, tugging at his grip on her arm. It did nothing, and he only let her go once the door was shut and locked behind them.

"What are you doing?" she asked, already feeling her anger starting to rise. It was easier and easier these days to give in to it, and sometimes it rivalled Jackal Mac and Frost for its ferocity.

He opened his mouth, then closed it, still looking at her, suspicion rising out of the confusion.

What?

They hadn't spoken like this in weeks, but Kaitlin's impatience got the better of her, and she forgot their unspoken agreement.

Gabriel blinked, and frowned.

"You're different," he said, and she rolled her eyes.

"What a thrilling deduction, Sherlock." Sarcasm dripped from her voice and she gestured sharply towards the door. "Can I go now?"

"You know what I mean, Kait." His use of her name surprised her, and she responded in kind, unsure where this was going.

"No, I don't, Gabriel."

"When was the last time you talked to the golden boy?" he asked, seemingly out of the blue, and she took a step back.

"I don't know what you're-"

"Don't play stupid, you're smarter than that, and so am I. I knew you were sneaking off at school."

He cut across her automatic reply and she took a breath, mind racing over this new information. If he had truly known, why was she still here? Why hadn't he gone straight to Mr. Z?

She voiced this thought aloud, careful to make sure she didn't admit to anything, and he shrugged, muttering under his breath something she didn't catch. When she asked for clarification, he ignored her, and she rolled her eyes again.

"Whatever. I don't know why you would think I'd talk to them" she spat the plural out with distaste, and saw Gabriel's eyes widen slightly. Unnoticeable unless you knew him, of course. Knew him like Kait did. "Thinking they were so much better than me - than us." she amended after a pause. "You were right. They're no better than those stupid peace loving weaklings. They wanted to go and live quietly, out of the way, to – to deny-" Kait wasn't sure where this was coming from, she'd started talking to convince Gabriel she was on his side, but now she felt all her anger and hurt at the others mixing up and fuelling her words, and she realised she meant every word of it "- our rightful place, to ignore our role in the world!" When she was finished she was breathing heavily, and felt slightly foolish at the speech her rant had turned into, but held her head high and met Gabriel's eyes.

It took a second, but a slow smile spread across his face, predatory and sly. "I think I take back what I said before about you." She felt a thrill, a relief at the possibility of getting past this ridiculous stalemate they'd had going, to talk again.

"Oh?" was all she said.

"Yeah," he nodded slightly, eyes sparking with something she couldn't place. "Whatever was going on, you're on the right side now." Rolling her eyes again (she was going to get a headache at this rate) she clucked her tongue and swept past him, unlocking the door and opening it with a brazenness she found she wasn't faking.

"You're only just realising this now?" she said, turning back. "Not as perceptive as you think you are, Gabe." The nickname rolled off her tongue like she'd always used it, and another spark in her stomach fired when his lips turned up slightly at its use.

"I've been with you since the beginning." And with that she left, not bothering to close the door behind her.

A bit of blue here… a streak of white there…

"Watch out. The manager is going to turn that corner in… five minutes." Kaitlin declared, feeling confident in her premonition. Since she'd joined the institute (re-joined), Joyce had been helping her focus her powers, develop them far past what she thought her limits had been, and now she could paint a picture in her mind in seconds and have a time to go with it. It brought a freedom she hadn't realised she needed, no longer wondering when?

"Right, you heard her, hurry the hell up." Gabriel spoke his order softly, but it was still an order. The others muttered various things in response, all rifling through various boxes lying scattered on a table. They stood in a room lined with similar boxes inserted into the wall, the table in the middle the only other object in the room.

"Ooh, found it!" Frost held up her prize triumphantly in the air, a small jewel the size of a grape, glittering as she held it up to the light.

"Okay, that's three out of four. Renny, hurry the fuck up, we have to go." Gabriel's voice was a harsh whisper as he glared at the smaller boy.

"Yeah Renny, thought those glasses were meant to work" Frost giggled wildly, Bri echoing her.

"I got it," Kaitlin murmured to Gabriel, and set off down the hall before he could stop her, ignoring his sharp "Kait!".

Walking briskly, she undid a few buttons of the cream blouse she was wearing, pulling the collar apart so that the tip of her black bra showed. The blouse was pretty see through anyway, but a little extra preparation never hurt.

Turning the corner, she saw the manager at the far end of the hall, exactly as she'd imagined him. Pot belly, thinning hair, harassed look on his face. Forming her face into an expression of worry she pretended to suddenly spot him, and waved. He looked confused for a moment, until she started talking.

"Oh, thank goodness I found you, are you the manager?" she asked, her voice pitched high and with a slight accent added, just for fun. He stuttered out an affirmation, his eyes dropping to her chest and red blooming up from his neck to his face.

"Good, good, I'm terribly sorry to bother you, but I've just seen a man acting very suspiciously in the vault, I think he may be a - thief," she said, whispering the last part conspiratorially. The man blinked and started past her, but she stopped him with a hand on his arm. "No, he's not there anymore, he walked out before I did, I think he must be in the lobby." She murmured, leaning in, watching as sweat beaded on his brow. He smelt of it, damp and moist, and she had to force herself not to pull a face.

"I… but I just came from the lobby," he protested weakly, trying (and failing) not to look at her chest. What a gentleman, she thought scathingly, before walking and putting herself back in front of him. "You must not have noticed him, Paul – may I call you Paul? – but I was just in there, getting my grandmothers necklace-" here she lifted the necklace that was around her neck, the small pendant dangling over her cleavage as she fabricated the lie "- and I swear to you, he was very shady, with little beady eyes, and his clothes-! Well, his clothes…" as she spoke she guided him back down the hall, heels clicking as they entered the lobby and she spun her tale of her long dead grandmother and the beady eyed thief, making sure his back was to the vault hallway.

Just as she was running out of adjectives – was 'weasely' really an adjective? – she finally saw Gabriel and the others emerge from the hallway, in separate groups.

"…and do you see him now?" the manager asked, frowning at her dubiously. Time to go.

"Now? Oh… let me see…." She scanned the crowd in the banks lobby, waiting a minute or two until they were clear of the building, then pouted, blinking her eyes at him. "No, he must have left already. You know, now I think about it, maybe he wasn't that suspicious. I have been told I have an over active imagination, and this new medication I'm on… well. Have a nice day!"

"Pig" she muttered under her breath as she walked away. Looking in the glass door's reflection as she approached, she saw the manager scowl and walk back into his office, which was just what she had wanted.

She could have sent Frost out to do her magic for all of this, but it was so much more fun to do it herself. Minus the sweaty, lecherous bank manager, of course.

Exiting the bank, she walked down the block and into the carpark where the others waited.

"Well? Did you get them?" she asked, adrenaline thrumming now the job was almost over, and was met with Renny pulling four small jewels out of his pocket. They stared at them a minute, then they were all whooping and jumping, high on the crime they'd just commited.

"Okay, okay, we need to go," she giggled, pushing at Bri to get in the car. This was the most exhilarating part of the job, in Kait's opinion. When they were nearly away, but there was still the threat there, that a policeman could come running around that corner at any moment…

Of course, Gabriel would take care of anyone trying to mess with them, but it was still dangerous.

They piled in, and Gabriel set off. In an hour they were back at the institute, met with Joyce at the front door. She relaxed from her tense stance when they showed her the prize, and she even smiled. "Well done," she said, pocketing them and retreating to her room. To do what, nobody knew, but it wasn't like they cared.

By unanimous agreement, they ended up in the kitchen, Renny and Gabriel getting a beer, the girls fixing their own drinks. Kait took a coke for herself, then rifled in the freezer until she found the vodka. Bri fiddled with the speaker on the counter, and after a moment some pop song popular at the moment came blasting out.

The impromptu pre drinks lured Jackal Mac out from wherever he was hiding, and Lydia even appeared for a moment. When Kaitlin invited her to join them, she was met with a quick shake of her head. "Suit yourself," Kait said, and leaned into Gabriel.

Since their chat in his room, Gabriel had opened up to her again, and after another chat in her room, where they had straightened things out properly, they were on good terms again. More than good, she thought as she stole the cigarette he had in his mouth, bringing it to her own lips. She'd quit in high school, but she was part of a super human gang of bank robbing teens, she figured it didn't much matter whether or not she smoked.

He absentmindedly twirled a piece of her hair round his finger, and she breathed smoke in his face, giggling when he raised an eyebrow.

"Alright, let's go!" They trailed out of the house, piling in with Joyce, who for reasons unknown, kept coming out with them, despite never seeming to enjoy herself. Kait thought she liked to keep an eye on them, Bri said she was a sad loser who had nothing better to do, and Frost didn't really care so long as she kept out her way.

They arrived at Dark Carnival, the only place they ever went – the only place worth going, in Jackal Mac's unwanted opinion, although Kait reluctantly had to agree – and were admitted entry straight away, as always, the people waiting in line complaining and shouting.

As soon as they got inside, the music deafened them, their words reduced to sign language or screaming at full volume. Except Kait and Gabriel, of course.

Want a drink? He asked her, his 'voice' velvety smooth in her head. She nodded, and he went to the bar, while she remained with Frost, Bri having already found herself a boy toy for the next hour. They danced, Kait attracting a lot of attention in her – short- red dress borrowed from Frost. She glared at anyone who stared for too long, slapped anyone who tried anything else, at least until Gabriel came back and the message was clear – he's mine.

They lost themselves to the music, and the drink, and each other, Kait and Gabe sensual together, she with her fiery red hair, he with his dark, soulless eyes. They didn't ignore the others though, Kait wasn't the type of girl to glue herself to her boyfriend the entire night; she danced with Frost and Bri, went to the bar with Jackal Mac, who was surprisingly okay once he accepted you weren't out to kill him. She had caught him looking at her, that first time in the club, a strange hunger in his eyes, but then he had disappeared, and she hadn't seen him until they went home.

They got back in the early hours, Kaitlin tumbling into bed with Gabriel with hardly a second thought, trading soft sleepy kisses until they fell asleep, Kaitlin with her head on his chest, hearing his heart thump a soothing lullaby beneath her ear.

"Guys, downstairs please, now!" Joyce's voice rang out from downstairs, and Kaitlin and Lydia traded a look.

Descending the stairs, Kaitlin was entirely unsurprised to see Mr Z. in the foyer, cane in his hand and smile on his face, as always.

As they gathered, he looked at Kaitlin in particular. She forced herself to stay still, automatically lifting her chin and setting her shoulders back. I am not afraid, she thought, and swore she saw his smile widen. A shiver rippled down her spine nonetheless.

"Hello, everyone. Tonight I have a special announcement. You have your first client." The statement was met with excited grins, Lydia shrinking back slightly, towards the stairs. Despite herself, Kaitlin felt excited, and traded a look with Gabriel, whose eyes shone with expectation. So far they'd only done jobs for Mr. Z, gathering money and supplies for the institute. Now they were really starting to do real stuff – actual jobs that people had hired them for.

"Now, this person needs a rather… dangerous, situation remedied for him, and he needs a team of trained professionals to do it." He was flattering them, talking them up, but Kaitlin felt its effect anyway.

It was time for the real fun to begin.

Feel free to leave comments/Favourites!