Kim sat on the log for a long time after Merrick left. She saw what Merrick why Merrick was there to begin with. The northern seas were in turmoil while the waved crashed into one another and cliffs below Kim. Watching the scene didn't help her with the thoughts of death and she wondered if her decision to be an orie was a wise one. The teenager mind she had long ago was no more and was replaced by the mind of a grown woman. But she was just now was thinking over her decision and she knew she was too eager to get a chance to save the world again. A thing in her life she had missed for many years but now, in order for her to save the world she had to be involved in a war.

War was a word Kim loathed and shield her life from because of the filth and death that surrounded the word. Kim wondered if her motto of being able to anything could apply to a war too. She knew she could sit out in the upcoming fight and even persuade Ron to stay behind, but that would be wrong of her to do. Two people she considered friends were counting on her to be there now. She would be lying to Merrick if she decided to stay behind and she never liked to lie.

The only thing Kim couldn't understand was how she could call Shego a friend. They hated one another in the past but now they actually could stand to be around one another. Kim knew Merrick had something to do with the way Shego acted now but she still can't get over the thought of the same woman who nearly killed her several times was different. They fought countless times and it became an amity between them to out do the other. A sparring match that would start and stop at everyone of their encounters. Though Kim never looked forward to the fights, the sparring match made her a better person and even proud of beating Shego in the fights because Shego was her only real challenge.

Kim finally got tired of looking at the seas and headed back to the tent where Ron was still snoozing. As she walked toward the tent, she saw the base started to come alive with ories moving about while they got ready for the jump to the north pole. While Kim climbed back into the tent, she hoped everyone would come back alive especially the love of her life that was still asleep in the tent. She wondered why it took her so long to think about him the way she thought about him now. Kim knew it had something to do with the peer pressure and besides he was her best friend. Before the night he admitted his feelings to her, she never dreamed she would think about him like she she does now. He was always a true friend and now he was true to her as her husband. Kim couldn't have asked for anyone so perfect to her and she knew if something happened to Ron, she would never look for someone to replace him because no one could replace him.

Kim laid by Ron for a long time waiting for him to wake but he kept snoozing for a couple hours. She laid there and looked at Ron most of the time and she would only look out of the opening of the tent every once and awhile. Before Ron finally woke, Kim glanced at the opening and saw Shego walking to the log Merrick and she were at earlier. Kim was curious why Shego sat down in a stance that looked like she was thinking about something.

While Kim watched Shego sitting on the log, she saw Shego shake her head some and her body move like she was crying. This sight caused Kim to come back out of the tent to go see what was the matter with Shego. She had became a friend to Kim and she was going to be there for the woman if Shego would let her. Kim walked straight to Shego while she saw the base had became more active since within the last two hours.

Kim walked to Shego with caution, even though Shego's ways have changed, she still could go into a rage if soemthing set her off. When Kim neared Shego, she stopped walking at the sight of Shego turning her head and looking back at Kim. The look on Shego's face caused Kim to turn around and start to leave Shego alone but she stopped walking when she heard Shego laughing. Kim was confused at Shego laughing because she knew Shego had been crying because of the evidence of her tear stained cheeks was enough of a hint.

Kim spun around on her heels and asked Shego, "What's so funny?"

"Oh, me crying and your not," Shego said while she waved Kim to her.

"I am on the inside and I bet we're crying for the same reason," Kim said while she walked up to Shego.

"Well, if your depressed about losing the buffoon like I am about losing Mal then we are," Shego said sadly while she turned her head to look at the raging seas again.

"Ron and me being together for a long time doesn't help matters, " Kim said in a sad voice while she stood by Shego.

She wasn't sure if Shego wanted her to sit with her. So she decided to stand and let Shego hint if she would like her to sit. Shego did by laughing at Kim standing and shook her head at Kim.

"Kimmie, I'm not the same Shego you remember. Mal changed that," Shego said with a fake smile while she looked up at Kim towering over her.

"Sorry, hard to get over you being like you are," Kim said while she finally sat down beside Shego.

"Well, Mal caused it. This was how I was before we even started dating long ago," Shego said while she still looked depressed.

"I been wondering something, why do you call him Mal for," Kim asked while she hoped she could help cheer Shego up.

"Oh, well he hated to be called Alex which caused him to call me Shego everywhere we went except at school. He knew I would have hurt him if he did. I had to think up a better pet name for him to stop him calling me Shego. Course I called him Mal so much that I pretty much forgot his real name. That's probably why I didn't pay attention to him saying his name was Merrick when he learned who he was. I wouldn't have believed who he really was if he didn't say he was Mal," Shego said sadly while she continued to look at the seas.

"Shego, everything's going to be fine," Kim said while she knew she was trying to make herself feel better too.

Shego gave a sad weak laugh and shook her head while she said, "I would have believed that if it wasn't for last night."

"Why would last night make you feel any different about today," Kim questioned while she was starting to give up making either of them feel better.

Shego let out a sad sigh and looked right at Kim while she said, "Since this is girl to girl talk. Last night was wonderful while me and Mal spent time alone. Maybe it was too wonderful because when I woke this morning I hoped the rest of our lives together would be just as wonderful until I remembered what we were to do today."

"Oh," was all Kim said when she realized Shego revealed something personal to her.

"Yeah, now I'm so sad about losing Mal, we just got close again and I might lose him again," Shego said while she made a frown and look back at the seas.

"I can't say anything to help you feel better because I'm feeling the same way about Ron," Kim while she looked down at the snow around her feet.

There was a lull of silence between the ladies for several minutes. It was the first time either of them couldn't think what to say next. Finally Shego broke the silence by sighing then she turned her look to Kim.

"Kim, I need a maid of honor, I was wondering if you like to be it," Shego said while she showed she was uneasy about asking Kim.

It took Kim a minute to answer because she was surprised at Shego's request. She didn't see the harm in being involved in the hopeful wedding. If she known she would be the maid of honor for the woman who she kicked off a building which resulted in her getting electrocuted, she would have shown a little mercy.

"Shego, I be honored," Kim said happily which caused Shego to sigh a relief.

The ladies continued to sit on the log for several more minutes talking until Merrick summoned them to him so they could meet their squads. Before the ladies left to go meet up with Merrick, they made a promise to one another to what out for the guys and even shook on it. They were friends now as well as comrades going off to a war, they would need the friendship to survive whatever happened that day. The only thing that scared Kim was Shego warning her to get herself and Ron away from her if something happened to Merrick.

Moments after Merrick summoned the ladies to him, the ladies along with Ron met up with Merrick beside the command building. Merrick was now in his all metal orie suit that was covered by the wool trenchcoat he was wearing earlier and he had nine ories with him. The ladies and Ron got three of the ories a piece, which made up their squads named Scarlet, Envy, and Rufus. Ron got excited at his squad being named Rufus and he hoped his squad would show the exos what Rufus could do. The thing that amazed Ron about his squad was one of the ories he would led was towering over the others and looked at least three times the size as any orie.

The only thing Merrick said to the couple and Shego was, "These guys got pulled out of the supporting ories, their replacements but they will do. Now everyone except Shego head to where the ories are assembling."

Everyone around Merrick looked at him when he said that then everyone except Merrick and Shego started to leave the couple. Kim and Ron were glad the two were going to talk alone, it might help their feelings to talk to one another. While Ron walked away from Shego and Merrick, he started talking to his squad and he found out the massive orie's name was Gunner. The man never explained why his name was that but he and Ron hit it off and they became buddy's while they walked away from Shego and Merrick.

After Shego and Merrick were alone, Shego asked, "What you want to talk about, Mal?"

At hearing her question, Merrick made a sad face then said, "Sorry about me leaving you alone this morning."

Shego wondered why he looked sad all of the sudden, she figure he be happy to be alone with her, which she knew he was. She had learned to read Merrick's expressions and she knew he was feeling depressed over the same thoughts she was having. Just thinking about those thoughts caused Shego to feel depressed again.

"Mal, you don't have to say your sorry about that. I understood you had to leave, actually I'm glad you weren't there when I woke. You would have seen me crying again," Shego said sadly while she continued to think about her losing Merrick

Merrick let out a sigh and said, "I wanted to stay and I bet you cried over the same thing I'm thinking about."

The thought of lost was too much for Shego because she broke down crying. The second she started crying, Merrick ran to her and held her in his arms. Shego continued to cry while she laid her head against Merrick chest. She couldn't stop crying because of the feeling of lost. She loved Merrick again, had him in her life again, and she might lose him for good.

"Mal, I'm afraid of losing you," Shego said in a quivering voice while she continued to cry.

"I know, Sheila. I'm afraid of losing you too. Sheila, nothing's going to happen to me if you continue to love me. It's no promise but I live for you now. Stop loving me and I stop living," Merrick said softly while he hugged Shego.

Shego snapped her head up at Merrick because of him saying he lived for her now. She knew he was telling the truth but that wasn't what surprised her. It was how much he loved her, he would fight death to be with her. That was a kind of love she never had before, even when she and Merrick were teenagers, he didn't love her like he did now.

Shego smiled at Merrick after she realized how much he loved her and she put a hand on Merrick face then pulled his head to her face. She smiled at him again then kissed him. Shego held the kiss for a minute and she felt the same feelings from their first kiss from long ago. She knew then that Merrick was truly the love of her life, the man she was destined to be with. Her soulmate which she never believed in when she was a teenager. The only reason they stopped kissing was because of the console on Merrick's wrist. It was making a beeping sound that caused Merrick to pull away from Shego. He smiled at her and told her it was time to go, which caused Shego to give him a sad smile.

The couple then started walking to where the others were while they held hands. Along the way, Shego let out a laugh and looked at Merrick. Merrick was puzzled by this and showed he was puzzled by the look he was showing on his face.

"Mal, I can say one thing. 17 years was worth the wait," Shego said while she looked into Merrick's eyes.

"Oh, why you say that for," Merrick questioned while he still felt confused.

"Well, let's just say it was," Shego said with a smile.

Merrick finally got what Shego was laughing about and he chuckled while he said, "It sure was."

When the assembling ories came into sight of Shego and Merrick, Merrick let go of Shego's hand and pointed to where her squad was. Shego then started to make her way to the squad while she sat her helmet on her head. It amazed her at the sight of the ories, their names were mingled together and Shego couldn't pick out a single name in the group. She looked back at Merrick while she walked to her squad and saw he was putting on his helmet too. This caused Shego laugh silently because she knew he was nervous about the speech he was going to make. Then a feeling of love came over Shego and she wanted to run to Merrick and hug him but she fought the urge because it be arkward for them to show their affection for one another in front of the mass of ories.

How did you get me to love you? Because you were different and never boring, Shego thought while she neared her squad.

While Shego got to her squad, a support orie ran up to her and handed her a wool coat, a ripper, cleats, and strange looking bands that were to go onto her hands. While Shego started to put on the coat, she looked up at Merrick and saw he was looking back at her. She had to fight back laughter because she knew she was holding up his speech. Shego rushed through putting on the rest of the gears she got, just to watch Merrick being nervous. She always liked to see him nervous.

After Shego was settled, Merrick said to the crowd, "Raise your hand if you can't hear me."

Everyone of the ories raised their hand, which got a chuckle out of Merrick and all of the ories.

"Today, my friends, we are to going to take the fight to the SOR. I'm sick and tired of waiting for them to come to us. This is going to be our last fight, we will make or break today. I'm not going to stand idly by and watch someone dictate the actions of others. Today is Christmas Eve, while people across the world are celebrating this holiday along with all the others being celebrated, we are marching off to war to insure those people can freely celebrate their holidays for hte rest of their lives. I'm not going to say we all will come back, I might not even come back. It doesn't matter we have a job to do, if it means giving up our lives to make sure the world is free so be it. Now this is a volunteer army. You all can freely choose not to be involved. No one will be punished for not wanting to come along and all who don't, step out of formation and go back to whatever you were doing," Merrick said after the laughter died down.

No one moved after he said anyone who doesn't want to be involved could leave which caused Merrick to feel proud for all the men and women before him. They were his family, his friends, people who looked up to him. Merrick said a prayer for the three people he loved that were in the rainbow of colors.

"Alright, everyone who wants to go on this endeavor, step forward," Merrick said while he felt like tearing up at the pride he felt for all these people before him.

He on most did cry at the sight of the entire mass of ories moved one step closer to him.

Merrick sighed and said, "Everyone on the boats, let's show them what we're made of! Scarlet, Envy, and rufus on me!"

After Merrick's statement, the mass of ories came alive and screamed at the top of their lungs while they ran to the transport. Merrick watched the ories board the transports until the squads he called out were to him.

"You three squads are in my platoon now, Kim, your my first sergeant in the platoon. Led if I can't, onto the boats," Merrick said to the squads then they all ran to the transports and loaded up in one of the larger cousins of the griffin that sat in the transport.

Everyone in the larger cousin felt the transport lift off after a minute and felt it start to move. The ride was bumpy at first but smoothed off after a minute. Along the way Merrick asked Leon to play Christman carols, which he did by playing "Blue Christmas" sung by "Porky Pig." When the song started to play over the com, everyone in the larger cousin started to laugh, which helped the tension. While they flew along they heard a string of Christman songs and the only thing that changed was the air temperature. The farther north they went the cold the air got.

After an hour of flying, everyone in the transport felt the craft slowed down to a stop. After a minute, they felt the larger cousin's engine crank then a slight jolt while the vehicle came out of the transport. The songs stopped playing and everyone was silent in thought. Kim and Ron only whispered a "I love you" to one another which got Merrick and Shego to whisper their code for the same saying after they heard the couple saying their affection to one another.

The silence was unnerving to everyone but there was no way for anyone to get the thought of war and death off another's mind. Snow swashing against the vehicle was heard while the turret above everyone kept rotating in every direction. Another hour passed in the unnerving silence. Finally it was broken by the com coming alive with ories saying they couldn't get up a snow dune.

Merrick stood up at hearing this and told the drivers to hit the slope at full speed if they had to, the vehicles were needed in the fight. It was no use, the ories had to abandon the vehicles and when Kim was outside of the larger cousin, she felt what Merrick was saying about they were in the tropics compared to where they were now. The blistering wind was cutting through her coat and orie suit, chilling her to the bone.

After the ories stood out in the snow for a few seconds, Merrick told every orie on the com to get into platoon formation and start ascend the slope. The ories did as ordered and the mass of ories followed Merrick up the slope while they left the warmth of the vehicles behind them. Climbing up the slope was difficult because everyone was wadding in knee deep snow. Finally the mass of ories made it to the top of the slope and started down the other side.

While the mass of ories were about off the other side of the slope, hundreds of flashes were seen all over the snow covered ice before them. In the next second, hundreds of exos appeared on the field with strange looking four legged walkers that resembled spiders with massive chainguns for arms. The walkers were being piloted by exos, who were seen in the front of the walkers. The sight of this caused the mass of ories to stop ad look on with awe and the exos returned the look while acting like they weren't going to attack.

Merrick looked at the mass of exos before him and pressed his temple then said, "James, get to me."

A moment later, James came running up to Merrick and Merrick asked him, "James, what do you think?"

"Well, the bloody buggers knew we were coming, you told them we were. We have to attack now," James said sadly while he shook his head.

"I know, but there's just too damn many," Merrick said while he finally looked at James.

"Well, let me take my platoon in first then led the rest come in," James said while he pick up a sword hilt.

"It might work, ok James see to it," Merrick said he turned his look back the exos.

Shego and the couple heard every word Merrick and James said, thanks to being ories themselves. They watched James run back to his platoon, give them a speech, then turned around and looked at the exos while his sword bathed the snow around him in a blue glow. He screamed at the top of his lungs and took off charging right at the exos with his platoon following along behing him.

After they were half way between the exos and ories, James' platoon filed off into a single line while they continued to charge the exos. Right as the charging ories came within reach of the exos, the exos lowered their guns and swords while the ories stopped charging and started walking to the exos.

Shego and the pair were shocked at the sight of James and his men shaking hands with the exos and hugging the exos. After the greeting were over, James and his ories made a line in front of the exos and they looked up at the other ories standing on the snow dune. The ladies and Ron looked at Merrick after the traitorous sight and saw he was clenching his fist while he paced in front of the ories still with him.

Merrick then said while he looked at the ories still with him, "If any of you are traitors, you better get over there with you friends before I find you and strike you down myself!"

The ories looked at Merrick for a second then all of them, except three green ones, started walking toward Merrick. Merrick tried to get them to stay with threats but they laughed at the threats and continued walking to the exos. Shego and the couple tried to get their squads to stay but they got laughed at too. After Shego and the pair gave up on trying to get any ories to stay, they ran up to Merrick and saw he was truly angry and that frighten them to the point of being speechless.

Finally Shego got the nerve up to speak and she asked, "Mal, what's going on here?"

Merrick didn't answer at first but looked back at Shego the couple after the all the ories now made a complete line in front of the exos.

Merrick sighed and said, "Well, its a betrayal."

Author's note: This is Odyssey version two, an altered version. This was the chapter I accidently deleted by updating the wrong chapter. Note to any other authors, always have a back up document if you don't do such already. It saves you from having headaches.