Whenever you need me, Ill be there
Ill be there to protect you, with an unselfish love that respects you
Just call my name and Ill be there

Daja snarled as the rank smell filtered into the cargo hold. It smelled like feet, and dying fish...

She hated fish.

The owner of said B.O. stumbled into her prison just as the ship lurched to stop. She looked blankly up at Severin's ever sneering face and sighed into her gag. This man is the king of back stabbing, lying turds, and she had done everything humanly possible to piss him off this trip.

She crippled two guards. Officially traumatized a third, and broke the fourth-literally. The last one wasn't really intentional, but he had surprised her, and she reacted...and something broke...Beating his crew guards unconscious was only part of it though. She also ruined his symbolic robe that represented his position as an advisor. These robes are connected by a silk sash, which she spilled blood on, and tore to pieces. He was not happy about that...but it felt so damn good. The man was an obsessed freak when it came to his clothing. After she had given the bastard a black eye, left his guards half dead, and ruined his overly expansive clothes he had ordered her restraints to be tightened.

She had automatic cuffs that were linked to the restraints on her feet. Every time she moved the restraints contracted, and became tighter. So if she attempted to do anything besides breathe, or talk she would eventually kill all the circulation in her arms and legs. She liked those particular appendages though, and was going to do everything she could to keep them functioning.

Excluding watching Aerin coming back, and bringing her uncle along.

Daja had been completely shocked when she saw the picture of him back on earth.

First of all; he was green.

Second of all; he looked more carefree and loose than she had ever seen him. If he was as different as he looked...There was no freakin chance in hell that he would be up to coming home, for any reason.

Alanna would eat him alive.

Being around a pack as big as Alanna's was only possible when you were callous, constantly wary, always alert. Ready to fight or flee at anytime. You had to have an edge. Daja didn't see that edge, or even a hint of the wariness that was needed to stay alive in Gar's picture. His gaze looked abnormally cheerful...bordering on innocent even.

Frankly if the green twerp wanted to die, there were so many safer less painful ways to go then giving himself over to Alanna's twisted imagination.

She was yanked out of her thoughts as her next homicide victim had at some point gotten comfortable, and left a disturbing amount of space between the two of them. She could smell his fish intestine breathe. She forced air out of her lungs , and then simply refused to breathe through her nose till he moved.

"Alright you pitiful excuse for a dog. We've arrived at port. Will you accept my deal? It's your only chance of survival." (if you don't know what the deal is it was in the last chapter. He offered to help her if she groveled.)

Daja glowered at him, this idiot must be kidding. He expected a positive answer... while she was gagged.

He growled in his impatience.

"Well?"

He wasn't kidding. Daja rolled her eyes, and did the next best thing besides talking. She sent him an incredibly rude gesture with her middle finger, and chuckled when a big, green vein throbbed above his temple.

She was honest to god surprised. He actually thought that she would consider begging, and ass kissing to get a lame, doomed to fail deal to save her from her royal highness. He was obviously smoking something that kills brain cells.

Daja flinched as Severin gave her chains a brutal yank, and she was dragged to her feet. She was forced to bite back a whine as the restraints tightened. The metal tore into her limbs, leaving split skin, and blood. The light left her temporarily blind, as the door to the cargo hold opened, and she was herded into the hall.

It was time to face the music...

She tried not to twitch.

Gar adored his niece.

He loved Rayne, and would do anything for her, but...

"IF YOU DON'T GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE I'M GOING TO FREAKING KILL YOU!"

He skidded to a stop around the next corner before lunging after his niece. He screeched to a halt as Rayne slid behind Raven, who had been coming down the hall. The empath in question looked at the cowering Rayne than back at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Do I want to know what's going on, or can I just assume one of you did something stupid?"

Gar looked at Rayne accusingly. "She's being a brat, an incredibly brave brat, that obviously wants an abbreviated life span."

The brat in question snorted disbelievingly. "I'm NOT being a brat. All I said was you should let me link with you or Aerin so I can watch some memories and understand the situation better."

His face visibly hardened.. "Let's review shall we? So far we've explored almost all your mental capabilities, and frankly memory sharing has never been your forte. Every time you've tried something went wrong for you or the person you're tuned with,not to mention mind surfing physically and mentally drains you to the point of a complete burnout. Last time you tried it you almost went into a coma. I refuse to put you at risk like that again."

His niece's face morphed into a snarl. "Alright since you won't let me do that, why don't you do me a huge ass favor and freakin talk to me! You haven't told me anything remotely helpful since getting here."

Gar blinked as that sunk in. Oops...

"I haven't?"

"No."

"Nothing at all?"

Rayne rolled her eyes, completely irritated by now. "No, nothing..."

Gar sighed. This was rapidly becoming routine. He screws up at sometime in his ridiculously problem orientated life, and it comes back to bite him in the ass. If he didn't inform everyone about customs, rules, training, and his old life in general...undoubtedly something would go wrong, and someone would get strung up by their diaphragm on a string, while eating dead cockroaches, and digesting worms.

"Someone's cranky...and that's completely disgusting by the way."

"You're an extension of me, you're feeling this too."

"Yes well, I'm the extension of you that isn't a spineless moron that refuses to see past the damn nightmares and insecurities."

"You're right you're also the one without any concept of right and wrong."

"I don't lack a conscience. I have one that's rather clear. You on the other hand twisted your conscience into ignorance and naiveté."

Gar internally seethed as the voice melted away. He vowed to deal with his mental baggage later.

He came back to the present as a pale slender hand waved away in front of his face.

His favorite empath sent him an annoyed look. "You spaced out."

"I was thinking." Then something else caught his attention.

"Where's Rayne?"

Raven pointed down the hallway, in the direction she had come.. "She said you could come find her later after you were done daydreaming, while standing in puddles of drool. She also said to calm down, and go train in the gym. It'll help your pms-ing, and ancient muscles."

"Those are...interesting mental images...and also rude, and totally inappropriate comments...I'm twenty-six Rae. She makes it sound like I'm pushing senility all ready."

Raven brushed a lone strand of hair behind her ear."Well...lately you've been acting like an old grumpy parent though. Not to mention she's a teenager. Teenagers hate authority. Guess what you are?"

"The person that gave his nieces to a hot purple haired teammate?" He tried

Raven chuckled softly. "I'll give you points for effort, but sadly I don't like them that much."

Aerin grumbled, as she scrubbed the grime off her staff. She was bored. Extremely bored. She wanted something to do...anything...

She froze, as footsteps paused outside her door, and a familiar smell tickled her nose.

She spoke to soon.

She grudgingly, walked to the door, and punched into the code.

As soon as the last button was pressed she was already walking back to the space she had claimed to finish her awe inspiring, attention span grabbing, cleaning job.

Rayne's small frame filled the door entrance before slipping inside, and taking the nearest empty seat.

"What do you want?"

"I wanted to ask how were you were doing?"

Aerin made a noise somewhere between a snort, and laugh.

"That good huh?"

Her hands tightened around the staff till her knuckles were a ghostly white color. "I just lost everything in the span of twenty four hours...Daja was my best friend, and my mother is going to break her. My "uncle" is no where near as powerful as I was led to believe, and this whole...freakin...situation...is absolute bull shit. Don''t ask me if I'm alright."

Rayne looked she was trying hard not to grimace. "What am I suppose to ask then? How's your diet going? When you shift do you attract flees?Are you the legal drinking age on your home planet?" She was on a roll now, with no end in sight.. "Oh, I know! How bout I ask if you've ever chased your own tail, while running around in circles? Are those better questions?"

Aerin's eye twitched. "Not reall-"

"Okay, what about studying? Do you read long books with an ungodly amount of adjectives, and almost no storyline to get...um... smarter?"

"What the hell kind of random question is tha-?"

"Can you cook without actively poisoning someone?"

"Ray-"

"Barbecue?"

"Ra-"

"Grill?"

"WOULD YOU SHUT THE HELL UP RAYNE?"

The young changeling fell silent as she took in Aerin's crazed look, and the deep, calming breathes she was taking to steady herself. She looked exhausted, with bruises under her eyes from lack of sleep, no doubt from nightmares. She also sported uncombed hair, wrinkled clothes and a really bad temper.

"You look like shit."

The tired look was briefly replaced with amusement. "Thanks, you always know how to make a person feel better."

Rayne had the decency to blush. "Oh shut up. You're like the least sensitive person I know."

Aerin smirked lightly. "Guilty."

The two sat in companionable silence...till Rayne broke it. "I have a favor to ask."

The depressed moan from her taller friend made her laugh.

Gar banged on the door in hopes of getting an answer.

Nothing.

He banged harder...still no response.

"Cyborg if you don't open the door, I'm gonna break in the ventilation shafts, and come into your room uninvited."

He heard a crash, followed by a muffled curse before a very annoyed Cyborg appeared at the door.

"What do you want grass stain?"

"Name calling isn't very nice, Cy."

"Neither is whoever stunted your growth."

Gar merely stuck his tongue out in response, which earned an eye roll from the giant metal man.

"Seriously dude, what do you want?"

Gar's face did a three sixty, from the playful smirk he had been wearing previously to an expression of grave attentiveness.

"We need to talk."

Cyborg sat in a chair waiting expectantly for his friend to talk, and/or elaborate.

"Well to start, What have you guys been doing since I was gone?"

How to answer delicately? Cyborg scratched the back of his head with one metal finger. "For all six years?"

Gar nodded slowly.

"Training, beating up loser bad guys, giving loser bad guys ideas so they can be upgraded to stupid incompetent bad guys...same old same old."

Gar's eyes narrowed at him. It was suddenly rather cold in the room, and it had nothing to do with the hell freezeth over glare he was getting from his green friend...nothing at all...

"And your guys' teamwork?"

The contemplative look the grass stain had was starting to irritate to him. It didn't look natural on his face.

"What about it?"

"Has it suffered since I left? Can you all look at each other, and earnestly say you can rely on all the members of the team to have your back?"

Cyborg blinked. Was that what this discussion about? Gar wondered if he the team could still function properly? That was going to be easy to answer. They were a fuckin mess. After Beastboy left with the little girl the team basically fell apart. No more accurately, it split down the middle. It was Raven and him versus Starfire and Nightwing. Unfortunately, Nightwing's team was frequently winning. Bastard. All that aside the changeling was fishing. The question is why? Did he need the answers because he was feeling guilty, or was it because there was some other incentive.

Cyborg sighed in aggravation. "Gar since you left the word team doesn't apply. Everyone's constantly on their toes around each other. Raven is waiting for Nightwing to have one more major mess up, before she eviscerates his major organs, and makes him eat them. I personally try not to leave the garage."

"That's pretty normal actually."

The sardonic look he sent the string bean apparently meant something cause he shut up.

"Ever. I try not to ever leave the garage, unless I need to sleep, or go on a mission. I eat down here..."

Gar had the gall to laugh.

"Dude, not funny."

"It kinda is."

The changeling visibly shook himself before looking at Cyborg again. "Thanks, Cy that's what I needed to know."

"Wanna tell me why?"

"Not...really..."

Cyborg took pity on him, and decided to let it go, after seeing his torn expression.

"Get out of my room grass stain. I don't like that bird turd you eat, and the smell seems to follow you around."

The grass stain in question didn't even deem that with a response. What he did do was morph into a cat, and disappear into the ventilation system. That's not what was bad though, what was bad was when a a green gas filtered through the cracks, and Cyborg lost the ability to breathe.

"YOU NASTY TURD! YOU TURNED INTO A SKUNK IN THE VENTS!GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE AND GET RID OF THIS TOXIC SMELL. I'M GONNA KILL YOU GAR!"

After Gar killed Cyborg's ability to process odor, he drifted down the hall,and who would run into him but the undisputed king of jack asses himself.

"Hello Dickwad."

"Show some respect for your superiors Beast boy, and be grateful your evenallowedback in the tower."

Gar sent him a look riddled with contempt.

"And who would make me leave... you? Are you gonna kick my nieces out as well. Send us away to wherever your common sense walked off and died, cause apparently it was suffering from frequent neglect..."

Nightwing's expression darkened. "No, your nieces are tolerable, if not simple enough to confine and forget about. You on the other hand should take your ass down to a motel, and preferably don't come back."

"If I did that who would save Daja, and keep you from further fucking up the team? From what I can see since I've been gone all you've done is completely ruin team relations, break Starfire's ability to be independent, not to mention giving Raven and Cyborg a reason to want to completely sedate you till the day they can look down and say let go, let his minions take you away. Walk into the fire."

Nighwing's mouth was set in a thin line, and his hands periodically clenched, and unwound. Somehow Gar doubted he was thinking anything remotely nice. At last he looked at the changeling with brief distaste before continuing in monotone.

"Say what you want, but I brought the team together. It was my work, blood, and sweat that started the Titans. So now at this point in life. Act your freakin age and don't patronize me for your screw up. Your friend's gone because of you. Don't delude yourself into thinking otherwise."

With that Nightwing shoved past him, and disappeared down the hall.

Aerin sat up against a wall bleeding puddles of blood into the floor. She gave a feral snarl as her mothers calloused fingers caressed her hair, then briefly touched her forehead before disappearing from biting range.

"Well little one...this game has finally come to an end. You put all your tricks out, you fought, you mingled, you gave all your friends false hope and encouragement, and you also managed to get them all killed. It must feel pretty damn bad to have kick ass DNA, support, and determination only to lose everything in the end."

She chuckled, and further demeaned her daughter by patting her on the shoulder like they've been pals for years, completely ignoring the fact that she killed her comrades, and made her watch while she broke the one person that had always been there for her.

Aerin seethed while mentally assessing her chances of murdering her mother without the use of her hands. "That's all this is-" She gave a bitter laugh. "That's all it's ever been... a fucking game to you. You killed your brother. You killed the Titans. You tortured my friend while making me watch, then you killed her too. Now I'm left. I'm all that's left. What do you plan to do to me that you haven't already done to them?"

The damn devil herself, gave a slow sadistic smile that implied that statement was going to bite her in the ass. " Oh Aerin, I haven't even begun to play with you yet..."

Aerin gave a fierce snarl as a reached out to touch her again.

-Dream Over- (You guys thought it was real huh?)

The young changeling woke up drenched in sweat. Aerin ran a hand through her damp hair, and slowly eased out of bed, thoroughly hating sleep, and anything that led to being unconscious. She straightened out her wrinkled clothes, and grumbled animatedly about stupid dreams that effectively gave gray hairs and ulcers, and stupid people that corrupted her subconscious and forced to have stupid dreams.

Aerin sighed as she heard someone pounding at the door.

"What?"

"Open the door."

Aerin twitched, and trudged over to the door, pausing just as she arrived in front of it.

"Stop wishing I would go away and open the freakin door." Rayne was not in a good mood apparently.

The door swished open and the irritated changeling was glaring at her accusingly.

"What?"

The smaller female snarled at her, in a disturbingly feral manner. "Its 4 a.m. and the scent of your fear is irritating my nose."

Aerin blinked uncomprehendingly for all of ten seconds. "Four a.m.?"

"Uh yeah whatever the hell your doing that's terrifying enough to pollute the air. I'd appreciate you more if you stopped."

To her horror Aerin did something she never thought she'd do. "It's not exactly something I can control."

Rayne was closer to being shocked than to being horrified.. "Did you just whine?"

"No."

"Yes you did."

"No I didn't."

Rayne's smile started looking incredibly demonic. "Yeah you did."

"Prove it."

The younger changeling held up her hands complacently, while giving her friend an evil smile.

"That's what I thought."

Rayne rolled her eyes at the smug tone Aerin used, before giving her a contemplative look.

"Now what?"

"That sounded suspiciously like another whine."

"Shut up brat." Aerin folded her arms, and looked away clearly not enjoying the annoyance that was Rayne. She was slightly surprised when the silence became prolonged. The little monster was actually not talking. It was kinda scary.

"So...Any other reason for showing up randomly, besides telling me I'm stinking up your air?"

Rayne gave her another assessing look, before lithely climbing to her feet and heading for the door. When she noticed that Aerin wasn't following she stopped, and curled her hand, motioning her forward.

Aerin reluctantly complied taking a few cautious steps forward, only to jump back as Rayne took off down the hall. The older teen winced in pain, as Rayne rounded the corner. The hyper brat had kicked her in the rush to get out of the room.

Aerin took a deep breathe, decided to count to ten before going after the kid.

One dead brat.

Two dead brats.

Five dead brats.

Ten. Rayne is gonna die.

Aerin snarled and took off down the hall in pursuit of her next homicide victim.

Aerin stared incredulously at the closed door.

Without putting to much thought into it she trailed a hand through her hair, and produced a thin wire. She twisted the end and then proceeded to pick the lock. She inserted the curved end, and methodically turned the wire several times till she heard a soft and yet oh so satisfying click.

One last puny thing. She pushed the button next to the door, and was thrown roughly into the wall as giant mass of brown fluff landed on her.

"Get off you fat furball."

Rayne's muzzle made itself comfortable in the crook neck, and she stubbornly refused to move.

"Rayne get off your really freakin heavy."

The canine gave a plaintive whine, but did as she asked.

"What the hell was tha-" Aerin paused mid-sentence when Rayne brushed past her through the open door.

"Again. What the hell?" Why was she so clueless so today? Aerin was having a a crap day, full of complete and utter crap-ness.

She turned around back in the direction of her room, only to stop again, as Rayne's mental link brushed over her mind.

"Get in here you moron."

Aerin was caught between one of two options; going back and beating Rayne unconscious for calling her a moron, or being the bigger person, ignoring the jab at her intelligence, and walking away...

She turned around and walked into the room.

Aerin had decided that Rayne was immature almost immediately after they met. So upon entering any immature person's room she naturally was expecting to enter a red zone, while bracing herself against a possible attack from some kind of dangerous, exotic mold.

What she didn't expect was for the room to be incredibly clean. There were some clothes lying around, patches of fur in some places, but it was in better shape then most teenagers room's in America. She scanned the walls with which were littered with pictures of the Titans, and of Gar with some people wearing lots of purple...spandex...and purple...

She blinked, slightly disturbed...

Aerin then turned to look at the occupants that had skipped her notice. There lying in the corner with her tail wrapped tightly around her was the brown wolf that led her to this room, and next to her was a big green wolf, her uncle...no, their uncle, hers and Rayne's...He had sleek green fur, and wiry muscles that rippled under his fur as he breathed, not to mention even though his mouth was closed he had that one fang that poked out. He looked almost identical to his mother in her wolf form and that freaked her out.

"Stop gawking, and change so I can go to sleep."

Aerin stopped trying to process things and looked at Rayne who was glaring at her.

"Excuse me?"

"Did I stutter? No I don't think I did, but obviously you're not understanding, so let me make it clear. CHANGE. INTO. YOUR. FUCKIN. WOLF FORM.NOW."

The older changeling winced. Rayne's order left her mind ringing with the absolute pain from how absurdly loud she had decided to yell.

She rubbed the soreness out of her forehead with out much hope of stopping the oncoming migraine. Aerin decided that ignoring Rayne and walking all the way back to her room wouldn't be worth the effort, and with a resigned sigh started to change.

Her teeth lengthened to their true size becoming larger and more lethal than any normal wolves. Her limbs fluctuated and turned hairy. Her hands became slender paws, and her senses tingled becoming more adept as she changed. When it was over she gave her fur a shake, relishing the lack of highly uncomfortable clothes.

She stopped after a couple seconds to find Rayne half a sleep with one eye still glaring at her while the other refused to open.

Aerin padded over to the resting wolves, and gingerly stepped over Gar's sleeping form to where her brown friend was curled. The younger changeling gave her a speculative glance, and her tail brushed over her shoulder, before she laid down on her paws and seemingly passed out.

Aerin carefully lowered herself to the floor next to Rayne, and closed her eyes. She had no other nightmares that night.

Alanna slashed brutally into her opponents chests, her claws ripping skin as she completed her spin. She stopped as her opponent was thrown back, and let her balance rest on her front foot. She didn't wait for him to recover, she lunged again, and this time waited for him to swing at her before grabbing the arm he was attempting to brain her with, using his face as a foothold and flipping high into the air. As she came down she landed on the wounded part of his chest, causing him to collapse into the ground. She stomped on his neck with her booted foot.

"Do you yield?"

The man, Corva, or some other equally embarrassing, and altogether retarded name- shook his head fervently signaling he really really didn't want to fight her again.

Alanna grunted in annoyance, and with practice ease hauled him to his feet, and walked stiffly away while her medics handled him and his incessant whining. She had tried to replicate what the rogues did to her soldier. So far she came up with how they caused the wound, but the remaining issues were how were they not leaving a scent behind, and why they couldn't be tracked, which totally sucked because within the last week ten more had been found dead.

It had her floored that the only hint she had these rogues even existed was that her men were dead, and the fact that her tracker is especially good at scenting emotions, and at the place the commander was killed, he said it smelled like unbridled glee.

Which officially pissed her off. Someone out there was getting to damn happy about cutting up her warriors.

The sound of running footsteps caused her to pause, as a courier skidded to a stop in front of her.

"Lady Alanna, Severin has just come back with Daja. They just landed in the court yard with whats left of the army."

Now that was a happy thought. Alanna could now make someone else incredibly miserable.

The alpha wiped the sweat off her brow, and waved the messenger away. If nothing else she could salvage this week by starting her plans for Aerin, and for her brother. The rogues weren't the only ones who needed punishment, and he would get his.

She'd personally make sure of that.

end of chapter...hope you guys liked R and R, for questions and comments...I'll try and update soonish no promises though...