Chapter Nine

Allies

Reo War, remained a shield over Jade until the rumbling, cracking and shattering of the ceiling ceased; he could hear Jade and Firno cough through the dusty air as they tried to breath under all the rubble; Reo simply sat up away from Jade finding it easy to shift the ceiling that had collapsed on top of them, some of the dust got absorbed by his black matter that made him. Reo ignored Jades mutters and Firno's questions if they were all right and listened.

Silence

Reo frowned at this confused, if the Terra was under attack, then where were the screams of frightened men and women? Where was the sound of crystal laser fire?

A moment later he was answered, Reo quickly wrapped his fingers around the blade handles as Talons were heard yelling orders, struggles echoed in the hallways and the occasional yell or scream. Reo couldn't wait, something about this fight called him like a dog to an owner.

"No, Reo!" Jade pulled him back. "Please, stay here."

"Why, they're attacking us!" Reo asked surprised that she'd let them get away with this.

"The Storm Hawks aren't the type to attack someone to injury, let alone anything more. It's best to be peaceful about this...plus...their good guys, they don't deserve to be hurt." She explained; she knew the Storm Hawks didn't kill and tried not to injure any talons despite the fact they were enemies.

Reo hesitated before replacing his blades; Firno was removing chunks of roof and concrete from the door, soon helped by his older brother. Both brothers ears twitched just once before the quickly stepped back, there was a grunt from behind the door, and soon Reo acted as a blockade again to Jade and Firno as rubble launched in their direction.

The Shadow boy turned around to see the Wallop, he learnt was named Junko, was standing in the doorway, the whole team jumping into the wrecked room after him, weapons all pointing to the two boys. Firno hesitated before lifting his hands up but Reo simply crossed his and laughed.

"What's this? You guys never heard of knocking?" he asked with a raised eyebrow seemingly not phased by this at all.

"Like you can talk." Aerrow said back with a slight glare still on the defensive his blades raised ready in case either shadow tried to attack them or escape.

Jade laughed nervously at this as she looked between Reo and Aerrow; what if Reo's hatred for Aerrow hadn't vanished...

"You, shadow...thing...you're coming with us." Aerrow narrowed his eyes and pointed to Reo with one of his shining blue blades, Reo simply raised an eyebrow at this a she leant against a nearby wall.

"Oh am I? And why is that?" he asked

"We need questions answered, now." Aerrow wasn't going to play into Reo's tricks, but the Sky Knights sights caught on the bare neck of his opponent and he blinked before he frowned to himself; had the crystal from before played a part in this plot?

*

"Must you lock them up?!" Jade protested as the Shadow Brothers were sitting in a tiny cage, back to back in the tiny space; she didn't like this at all and naturally was trying to convince then to let them out.

"I only trust you out of that cage because you saved my life, I just don't trust them." Aerrow glared suspiciously at the brothers, the both of them raised the same eyebrow, looking rather creepy as they shared the same look at the same time

"Woah...dude this is officially creeping me out." Finn, the Storm Hawks marksman and pain in the butt, crouched down to Firno's eye line, gaping at the Shadow curiously.

"What are we, tourist attractions? A freak show? Get out of here you obnoxious boy." Firno growled annoyed; like Reo, his human counterpart REALLY rubbed him the wrong way; Finro snorted as he looked away as Finn sulked slightly and leaned on the window close to his friend Junko.

"Now do you agree with me about our humans being rude?" Reo asked sounding rather amused as he tilted his head to Firno's direction.

"Mine more then yours, Brother." The younger shadow responded with a chuckle, Reo grinned as the Storm Hawks looked at the Brothers as if they were mad; they were trapped in a tiny cage, being helped captive in their enemies base, and they were having a calm conversation as if nothing strange or bad had just happened to them.

"Look, let them out, they won't hurt you, Reo's not under Cyclonis' control, and how can you possibly let them answer your questions when their chests are almost against the bars." Jade huffed with a slight glare; it was obvious she was putting her foot down and was NOT going to stop protesting until her friends were set free. Aerrow hesitated for a moment, glancing from Jade back to the shadows before nodding to a dark skinned female, Piper, Reo heard her name was only minutes ago.

"Are you sure Aerrow?" Piper whispered to the red-heads ear. "She's a Talon after all, even if she did save your life, we have to be careful I mean, we don't even know what these people are." She said softly.

"Hey!" Both Brothers barked in protest at that; both of them had REALLY good hearing and heard what she said clearly even though she had tired to hide it Piper jerked back from Aerrow startled and Finn jumped about a mile in surprise. "We heard that!" They finished in union.

"Just let them out Piper." Aerrow said with a sigh; he was starting to get a damned headache form all the complaints.

*

Once they were out of the cage, Firno stretched and rubbed where his spine would be as they were freed. Reo would have found it easier to just sink into the shadow stretching over the cage to escape, but didn't want to risk having everyone be even MORE suspicious of them than the Storm Hawks already were. Once they were free, Jade stood over by the brothers with a smile. "Glad to be out?" she said with a chuckle

"Yes, thanks, Jade." Firno returned the smile, Reo just smiled softly at her, looking into Jade's eyes, really looking at them for possibly the first time...looking deeper...

"Hey, don't forget you're still our prisoner." Aerrow said, pointing to the Storm Hawk conference table, offering for them all to sit, Reo snapped out of his daydream and sat up in one of the chairs, the Storm Hawks huddled on the far side, with only Firno and Jade on either side.

There was a long silence that stretched between both factions Reo sighed before he decided he should speak first; if they were going to trust them he might as well be open and honest with them. "What do you wish to know? I'll tell you what I can, but you must understand, there may be questions we can't answer."

"Fair enough…okay lets try something easy…where did you come from?" Aerrow said, leaning his elbows on the table a she awaited a response.

"A negative Atmos, in a way, like a second copy to it. We call it the Shadow Realm. It's where all Atmosians gain their 'second beings' and power-"

"Power?" Finn interrupted, of course Finn just HAD to interrupt; Jade shed him also seemingly interested; though she knew a little about their world she didn't know much and so this information was interesting to her.

"I would have answered that in time." Reo said with a slight sigh of exasperation before he continued. "Shadows are more then just a silhouette. We're a...portal almost, you see, before the human is born, a Shadow can feel all emotions; happiness, sorrow, anger, contentment, everything. When the human comes along...almost all happiness is lost; we keep some for ourselves, but its the reason why Shadows are serious and don't like to be joked around. We also give you strength. Depending on the percentage of purity in the shadow in question."

"What percentage are you?" Aerrow asked before Reo could even close his mouth when he finished his explanation.

"100%, lucky aren't you." Reo grinned. "Firno here is 80%, he's still very, very powerful."

"Sweet!" Finn smiled.

Reo and Firno, and occasionally Jade, both underwent severe and strong interrogation; none of them minded though; they had nothing to hide and answered all the questions that were fired at them. But both Brothers had to laugh out loud at the faces of all humans when the question of age cropped up.

"You're dating someone who's fifty?!" Finn gasped at Jade who blinked wide eyes; she hadn't known Reo was that old in shadow years either.

"We're not dating!" Jade and Reo protested loudly at the exact same time, Jade blushed and looked away as Reo glanced away from her awkwardly.

"They'll get there eventually." Firno teased, his sibling then pushed him fondly.

"Yes, I'm forty eight in our years, Reo here is fifty, Shadows can live up to two hundred years in total." Firno concluded. "We can live longer with absent to our humans, put simply; we're the stronger side."

"Wait a minute, me and Finn are apart from our Shadows-uh...you guys, wouldn't that mean we wont get the strength or emotion you give to us?"

"No, as long as we're alive, so will your power. If we die, and only by the hand of another Shadow, you will live...hollow...but alive."

*

Reo and Firno shared a spare bunk, with Jade staying in Piper's room. Aerrow whispered to his team once they had left.

"So, what do you guys think?"

"They can't be all bad, and Reo had a really good reason for trying to hurt you." Junko muttered. Aerrow bit the inside of his lip in thought.

"I still think there cursed..." Stork mumbled, Finn rolled his eyes at that; this news was nothing new from the merb; he thought EVERYTHING was cursed.

"I like them, their cool. Besides, they had the chance to kill us, right?"

Aerrow blinked and paused. Finn was right, for once.

"Finn has a point, Aerrow, we shouldn't relax too much, but maybe we can give them the benefit of the doubt for now, after all they did what we asked and we know now what happened to them." Piper said softly.

Aerrow nodded at that "Alright, we'll give them one chance, but, if they blow it, then we do all we can to stop them"

"That doesn't sound like you, dude." Finn said sadly.

"I know...that Reo is rubbing off on me already...I'll keep watch on them just in case...Stork, find somewhere to rest the Condor for the night"

*

Reo sat and watched his Brother sleep soundlessly; his blood, well if he had such a thing, family; the only relative he had left in both worlds, he had to take care of him. Sure, Firno could look after himself, but Reo liked to be close to him; something about being depended on and needed made him feel pride...feel human…emotions were beginning to come back to him rapidly.

Then there was Jade...she needed him more than Firno, even if she didn't know that. He twitched a smile as he thought of her needing him for protection, for friendship...for lo-

"She's something, Brother." Firno whispered, one foggy eye open.

"What are you doing awake?" Reo replied softly as he smirked a little "And why are you bringing that up?"

"I know you're thinking of Jade." Firno grinned. "I know you all too well."

"Hmph..."

"Brother...you love her don't you."

"Of course not, I can't feel such a thing."

"You lie."

"I would never…not to my brother anyway, besides…just look at me, come on Firno...what would she see in me? I'm a monster."

"Oh trust me, she's smitten with you."

*

"I find this all so fascinating." Jade smiled from her hammock Piper had set up for her as the only girls on the ship they actually got on really well "I haven't been out of Cyclonia in about a decade, maybe more, its just so amazing to hear what you and the guys have been through." She said with a smile; she'd heard of tales of the Condor but she'd never been on the ship; shed never DREAMED shed ever be here.

"Same to you with the Shadow Boys-"

"Please, they have names...they don't like being called that. Reo doesn't at least. ...Reo is the greatest thing that has happened to me...sure he was a complete jerk at first, but under that cruel cold crust...I know...I know there's the man of my dreams in there." Jade said as he flopped back on her hammock and smiled to herself

"You speak as if you really like him…however…do you think that's wise? I mean, he's from the Shadow Realm." Piper asked with a raised eyebrow.

Jade smiled down at her with a chuckle ""But that is what makes both brothers even more special to me Piper, they're to me just like the Storm Hawks are to you. They're my family..."

"I see...where were you planning on going?" Piper asked seemingly accepting this sure the relationship Jade had with the brothers was odd to most people but she couldn't deny that the three of them were obviously as close as a family.

"Anywhere...everywhere, somewhere we belong..." Jade said softly with a smile "I'm sure…that we'll find it soon."

*

"Storm Hawks." Reo spoke as he approached them the next morning, the whole group turned from the charts they were looking at and faced him, Aerrow holding a suspicious glare. "I'd like to apologize."

Aerrow blinked at that a little taken aback; the last thing he'd ever expected from Reo War was an APOLOGY. "You'd what? Why?"

"I'm sorry…for causing all this grief, we didn't plan to get you involved and it was not part of anything personal, perhaps it was at first but that changed a long time ago; now I just wanted to leave Cyclonia with Jade and Firno, and I've been able to do that thanks to you, so…thank you, If you didn't capture us from that hell hole, we might not have ever gotten out."

"uh…wow...it was no problem...Reo." Aerrow said, kind of shocked at all this it was a little mind boggling to be honest.

Reo smiled and held out a hand; the Storm Hawks glanced at each other all wondering if this was the same boy that had almost killed Aerrow less than a month before, Jade was leaning against the wall and just watched this with a smile; this was the first step and Jade felt proud that he'd decided to make amends on his own "What, never shaken a boy's hand before. I'm not something to be feared…not anymore."

Aerrow paused for a moment before he surprisingly, took his hand and shook it; as soon as both boy's touched palms, black and white spark flew delicately from there hands. Aerrow was about to blame his Shadow when he realized Reo too was confused by this; the sparks expanded into lights and twisted into tendrils, curling around themselves, they sank back into the joined hands and the handshake was broken.

"...What was that?" Jade asked, Reo's face twitched into a smile.

"We're now allies." He gestured his hand slightly. "Bond of Trust, it' unbreakable. I knew you'd warm up to me eventually, Aerrow."

Jade blinked before she burst out laughing "I won't bet on Firno and Finn sharing the same bond!" she said with a wide grin. At this Firno and Finn both blinked glanced at each other; Firno shook his head and looked away with a snort of defiance with Finn looking annoyed. Reo chuckled with the rest of the humans; the last string was tied.

Now, there was just one last thing to clear up…then he was complete.

Jade.