-Present Day-

They were starting to load their guns with ammunition, so I started to do the same. But that didn't mean that what they were doing didn't stop me from being anxious.

I turned to Lyaina slightly, and spoke to her.

"Lyaina, I'm a bit unnerved by all of this... Can you use the scope and see if you can't see anyone or anything through gaps or cracks in the walls of the building?"

She nodded, and adjusted the power of the scope accordingly. After a brief silence, she started to talk to me after a brief chuckle.

"Hey, remember last time when we were on a building like this...?"

I looked at her, and laughed a bit myself.

"Haha, yeah, I do... That was when Mattie pulled the stupid-ass move, right?"

Even though she didn't look away from the scope, I still saw a smirk playing across her lips.

"Bingo."

We laughed to ourselves, but then I started thinking back on that day. Lyaina didn't know this, mostly because I refused to tell her, but it was my fault that out hideout was blasted to smithereens that night... I didn't think of that day as the day Matt nearly got himself killed...I thought of it as the night that I betrayed my friends, my makeshift family... The night I betrayed the Wolverines.

-Time Shift-

It had been several days since the Koreans force settled themselves in Spokane... Several days since they all witnessed the death of Jed and Matt's father. Neither had been the same since then; Matt had allowed his emotions to harden, and just wouldn't open up as much anymore. Jed, on the other hand, opened up a lot.

Opened up his mouth to shout a lot, thst is.

He had gotten tougher himself, and decided it was high time that the Wolverines really learned how to fight, and they began to work hard at learning the basics, and the not-so-basic basics. Andrea and Lyaina helped too, but they weren't as rough. Eventually, after small outlet missions to garther materials, Jed decided that they were prepared for a full-scale mission to try and take out the Korean leader of their town, Lieutenant Cho.

Andrea and Lyaina were on top of a roof again, but this time, Daryl and Robert were with them. They all had sniper rifles, except for Andrea who also had a machine gun, and were carefully watching the assembly, waiting for the signal. As they waited, a small conversation was struck up.

"Guys... Do you think we'll all make it out of this okay...?"

They all looked at Robert; he had a worried expression on his face. Andrea looked at him, giving him a thumbs up with a determined smile.

"Don't worry, we'll be perfectly fine."

"Uhm..."

Lyaina grinned at him too.

"Yeah Robs, don't worry! With Jed, Dre, and MÓI working here, everything will turn out fine."

They all laughed quietly, but Robert still sighed again.

"Yeah, but... You guys are like my family, now that... My parents..."

He trailed off, and Lyaina, after a moment, put a hand on his shoulder, giving him a small, determined smile.

"Look, don't worry, alright? Just let your "elder sisters" here take care of everything. Kay?"

He laughed a bit again, and nodded.

"Yeah... Yeah, okay."

She smiled wider at him, but Andrea noticed that Daryl had grown awfully silent; she looked over at him, and he was now staring out at the assembly below; something or someone now had his undivided attention.

"Guys... Maybe... we should get off the roof and inside with Jed and Toni...?"

"W-what? B-but why; I mean, we've got a clean shot at Cho if we stay up here, don't we...?"

"Y-yeah, but... Can we just go in please?"

They were all silent for a moment as they mulled over Daryl's plea. But, it was ultimately Lyaina who, after taking into account how worried Robert looked over his best friends' suddenly dampened mood, and Andreas discomfort in general, made the desicion for everyone.

"Alright then, here's what we're gonna do: Big sis' will stay up here, and little bros will go back inside with Jed and Toni. Sound fair?"

Daryl nodded, apologizing and thanking her at the same time. Afterwards, he almost stood up right away, and he would've too, if Andrea hadn't stopped him just in the nick of time.

"Woah, woah! Low profile; don't go up in the air like a red flag, right?"

"O-oh yeah... Sorry, I forgot... Sorry."

After that, keeping it low, he rushed over to the "exit" of the roof, Robert following quickly behind him. Once she was sure that they were both gone, Lyaina sighed.

"Dre... You're gonna have to grow out of or conquer this silly fear of being near or speaking to Jed sometime, you know..."

"What? No, I have no idea what you're talking about -"

But she stopped short; looking at Lyaina, she saw no sight of tomfoolery or joking around about ner expression. So she sighed, giving up.

"Okay, fine... I... I don't know why I'm so scared of being near him, it's just... I get so nervous when I'm around him, "flight" just usually beats "fight" to a pulp in that instance... And don't even get me started on all the wrong things I could say... On top of that, I don't even feel like I can talk so easily around him unless you're there to "loosen up" the atmosphere, and it's just... just... I don't know what it just is..."

She let out an exasperated sigh, practically smacking her face into her hands, and Lyaina shook her head at her.

"Andrea... I was wrong a few days ago. It IS painful to see you like this. You... You just need to get used to being with him alone. Or a good catalyst, like anger, or sadness... Or blind happiness."

"But that's just the thing. Just the thought of being left alone with him is terrifying for me; how will I ever get used to it if I can't even force myself to stand it, even for practice? And what if I DO say something wrong in that instance...? Will he even forgive me after that...?"

"Okay. EEEE-Wrong. Stop there. See? This is your problem: you overthink things! You... You need practice!"

Now, Andrea looked back up at her disbelievingly, but Lyaina looked at her honestly and eagerly. Then, shaking her head, Andrea shot the idea down right away.

"Ly... No, not gonna happen. It'll never work."

"Come on, it'll TOTALLY work! Here, act like I'm Jed."

Now, she returned her attention to the assembly, shaking her head again.

"Lyaina, please, we have to focus..."

"*Ahem, ahem*. Hey there, Andrea. Been awhile since we last spoke, hasnt it?"

"We're gonna miss the signal if we don't pay attention..."

"In fact, there's something I've been wanting to say to you..."

"Lyaina..."

As she went on, Andrea noticed somebody running in the streets; it looked like Matt.

"Uhm, Ly..."

"Well, I guess what I'm trying to say... Is that I-"

"Lyaina, Duck yiur head!"

Matt was running back to Julie, and he was setting off the outlet bomb early. Lyaina understood, immediately ducking her head down behind the low ledge. The explosion went off not a split second after, raining some stone and pebble debris up even onto them. Soon after, everyone in the streets and the assembly were now in a panic. Lyaina cursed under her breath.

"Damn it Mattie...! What are you trying to pull!? Did he and Daryl have something planned?"

"No... I saw what Daryl saw; while you were talking to Robert, I spotted his dad sitting in with the people at the assembly."

"Oh wow, seriously? Well shit."

And now, they heard gunfire and shattering glass, which meant that the building was being fired at.

"Well, that's as good a signal as any for me! Lets go!"

Anddea nodded at Lyaina and they both got back above the low wall and started firing at the soldiers shooting at the building. They lost track of time and how many soldiers slipped past their defenses, and suddenly, there were soldiers kicking open the doors of the roof tops. Andrea looked back, and quickly switched from the rifle to the machine gun, and started firing at them while Lyaina continued to fire at those below. Once there was a break in those coming to the roof, Andrea turned to Lyaina.

"Okay, we're pretty much out of ammo. It's obvious that Jed and Co. have cleared the building already. We've gotta find a way off ourselves that isn't suicide or certain death!"

"Oh, I've got a way. Check my bag."

Andrea went over to it, and opened it. With immense surprise, she pulled out a grappling hook with a "launcher". She looked at Lyaina, shocked.

"Where the hell did you get this from!?"

Lyaina got up, taking the grappling hook launcher and ran to the side of the building where they would be under less hailfire.

"Well, a while back, when the 'rents and aunt wanted to go mountain climbing, we got this. Never did go, for reasons quite well known, but Aunty and I did keep this. Took it from the house the other day; thought it would come in handy."

She fired it into a nearby buildings' window, checking to to make sure it had hooked properly. It was, and Andrea said:

"Well, thank god for your random intuition. Now, tell me: how are we getting down?"

"Like this."

Lyaina grabbed Andrea around her waist, and before she had the chance to protest, or even react, she jumped off the building.

"OH MY GOOOOOOOOOD!"

"I KNOW, ISN'T IT AWESOME!?"

The rope was slack for a brief moment after their jump, but it caught soon enough, and they swung down from that building to the next. Just before hitting the wall, Lyaina let go of the launcher, and they landed in a dumpster. After waiting for a moment to make sure the coast was clear, Andrea got up, and glared at Lyaina.

"What, on GOD'S GREEN EARTH is WRONG with you!?"

Lyaina got up too, grabbing the launcher and tugging it on the rope a few times to loose the grapple end from the building.

"Well, you said we needed a way off that wouldn't kill us, and that was the fastest way I could think of. But don't count your luck ducks yet-"

"I wasn't-"

"-Because we've been seperated from the herd. Trying to get back to "base" now would give up our position."

As she retracted the hook back to its "container", Andrea looked around again.

"So what do you propose we should do then? Hide?"

Putting the set-up back into her bag, under a trick bottom, Lyaina shook her head.

"No, we try to blend in. At least until the next time they get back."

"WHAT!? You want us to walk out in the open!?"

Lyaina looked out of the alleyway and smirked, spotting something.

"Not the way we look now. There's a clothing store, let's go!"

They ditched the guns, hopped out of the dumpster, and sprinted across the streets to get to the store, hopefully unnoticed. Once inside, they took a moment to catch their breath. The shop owner took one up-and-down look at them.

"You... You're Wolverines, aren't you...?"

Andrea stood up, looking at her pleadingly.

"Please miss... If you can't give us clothes, just ket us lay low here for a little while..."

But she shook her head, stepping out of their way.

"Take what you need."

Andrea and Lyaina looked at each other, then back at the woman. Finally, they thanked her over and over again, went into the store, and changed out of their current outfits. Once they were done, the shop owner took their old clothes, and wished them well. They left the store, mingling in with those already on the streets.

"Okay... Let's just remain calm..."

Lyaina gave her a look, and hissed:

"No, I was TOTALLY about to start freaking out and drawing attention to ourselves!"

Andrea glared at her, and she rose her hands defensively.

"What; I just thought you really didn't have to state the obvious, is all! Anyway, I think we should split up... First for supplies; we're almost out of a couple of things back at the base. And then, to make us seem less suspicious..."

"You think so...? I mean, I had the same idea, but... Where should we meet up?"

Lyaina was silent for a moment as she thought, and finally came to a decision.

"Why not right here again? I mean, the clothing store. Either here, or the next spot that there's a commotion... Give it three hours, and if nothing happens, we'll come back here."

Andrea nodded, and at the next street corner, they went their opposite ways.******

Andrea had been walking around aimlessly, doing nothing in particular for aboutnan hour and a half when she decided it would be safe enough to take a seat somewhere and rest a bit. She came up to a small park in a lot space, and she took a seat on a bench there. As she did, she noticed someone across the street staring at her. She looked away from them, and pretended to be occupied with getting something out of her pocket. The person from across the street began to come towards the park, but Andrea didn't jump to conclusions and think he was coming towards her. Instead, she thought of what she might have to do if he was coming for her.

'Running would gather too much attention... So would attacking him... Maybe if I can knock him out without making it look like I did it...'

"Andrea?"

She jumped, startled that her name was being called. She looked up, and the person from across the street was now right in front of her.******

*Okay then, a few words. Sorry that the update was a little late :p. But anyway, here it is after so long. Sorry for the cliffhanger, but this "Time Shift" was a little long, so I had to cut it in hakf. Hope you enjoy!*