(Yeah, go have fun.

Oh, wait, you're expecting dedications?

Go crawl into a hole and die.)

Chapter Nine

Sleeping in Memories

"Oak, report."

"Yes, sir: the feline is currently traveling with a hedgehog and a bat, with the former I'm sure is someone you are familiar with."

"Yes, I realize that. I felt the recognition that shocked you when you approached them. I've been watching him with my Eye ever since his father died protecting the former AR of the Crusaders. It is my business to know everything that happens to him, including his partners and missions."

"Indeed, but there is something else."

"Oh? Would you care to enlighten me, Oak?"

"Yes, sir; while I was pinning down the Lightning Saix of the feline's in a feint attempt to kill her, I was surprised to find that the hedgehog came to her rescue and fought me off of her, although he was her only other companion in the battle. He also distracted the Dibison that started to charge her, and it only took his words to get her attention off of the scorched hulk of metal that I exterminated."

"Hmm…indeed, I did not follow you on your mission, with such…pressing matters here to attend to. I am surprised that I hadn't thought of looking through him to see his side of the battle, but I assumed that you would tell me everything."

"Which I did, sir."

"Yes, of course…"

"What shall I do now, Black Doom?"

"For now…I want you to take care of the Crusaders attacking our borders, while I deal with those two…"

"Yes, Black Doom, of course. Oh, and I remember something else I managed to get a hold of while I was in their signals, sir."

"And…?"

"It was about their companion…Rouge was her name."

"That is very useful, Oak; I remember that bat who led her own assault on our defenses at the borders. She was the one who assisted in pushing the border back for the GUN soldiers. But…why is she with the Crusaders now?"

"She isn't, sir. That is what I found. There was a link in the signals that led to another base that I found. It went straight to the Commander's link."

"Excellent! That is a tremendous discovery of yours, Oak."

"Thank you, sir."

"In fact, I do believe I'll reward you for that."

"…Really? What exactly, sir?"

"I'll allow you access to my Eye, Oak, so that you too shall be informed of what happens to the targets. Understood?"

"Yes, sir! But, how will I get the vision, sir?"

"I will send you a mental link that you will answer and receive, and you shall be able to look through the Eye at anytime you, and I, deem necessary."

"Yes, sir! It is a great honor, sir!"

"Now, get to work on those idiots that are trying to defend against the Crusaders. It is rare to find good soldiers these days, which is why I am overjoyed at your effort, Oak."

"Right away, sir. What shall I tell the soldier already in charge of that?"

"You won't need to tell him anything. I have already…taken care of him. Take that as a warning to keep up your good work, Oak."

"Yes, sir. Understood."

"…Hmph, just give them a little indulgence, and they're as loyal as a pitiful dog."

S-H-A-D-O-W-P-A-W-&-K-U-S-S-I-A

"Aww, honey, look at her! She's so adorable."

"That's right, sweetie; after all, she has your laugh."

"Ah, but she has your eyes. And most of your fur, too."

"But she has your temper, I bet you."

"Oh, stop it! I do not have a temper!"

"Don't raise your voice inside, dear."

"Sorry, honey…so, shall we go out for a stroll in the pilot's gardening area?"

"No flower in there can compare to you, my little Luna Flower."

"Oh, stop it, you flatterer! How long have you been friends with Sly again?"

"Please, he's learned all of his compliments and lines from me."

"Oh, dear…"

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, nothing, just…all of them?"

"Oh, no, not all of them – I mean the proper ones."

"Oh, okay, that's good. We wouldn't want a bad influence on our baby!"

"You know, I think the combination of my middle name and your last name for our daughter's was brilliant, my dear. You really are a bright young woman."

"Oh, but you are the smartest man I've ever met."

"Man? Smart? Honey, are you feeling okay?"

"Oh! I said smartest! If I keep laughing, I'll wake Shadowpaw!"

"Alright, alright, I'll stop. If only for the baby's sake."

"So, what'll we do?"

"What'll we do, what?"

"I mean with her!"

"What do you want? I'm sure whatever you decide will be the best for her."

"Oh, thank you, dearie…but…I don't know, is she cut out for it? The life of a pilot? I mean, she looks so frail and fragile…"

"Honey, she's our kid. I bet when she's eight-years-old, we'll have to stop her from beating up the kids at school for calling her 'ugly'."

"That would be horrible! Don't suggest such a thing!"

"Of course, the kid who called her ugly may be blind, but –"

"No, I mean about the beating up! I don't want her to be like that; I mean, she may have a temper, but I don't want her to be a bully, or a rebellious teenager, or – or –"

"Don't worry, Flower – I'm sure that, as long as we're around, she'll grow up to be a fine young lady – who can pack a punch."

"Oh, alright…but…well, what if we're not here?"

"Let's leave the 'what if's for the ones who can't leave take a step forward without doubting themselves. Let's not be afraid of what might happen, and instead focus on what we will make happen."

"Oh, honey…"

"Let's not be the ones who will be afraid of what we will face, but instead embrace it, give it a warm welcome and a pat on the back and welcome it inside for dinner. We'll be fine, Moon. Nothing's going to happen to us."

"You promise, Shane?"

"I promise."

"Oh, alright…if you say so."

"Good, now, shouldn't we feed our baby?"

"Oh! Oh, dear! Uhh, sweetie? Come on, baby, wake up…"

…

"Wake up…"

"Wake up…"

"Shadowpaw!"

Shadowpaw leapt up from the chair of the cockpit and hit her head on the ceiling that protected the pilot. She held her head and bit her lip as she hissed colorful words before looking up to see who had woken her up. Rouge stood on the platform raised to the Saix's head, her hands on her hips with her weight resting mostly on her right foot. She tapped the glass and told her, "Come out of there and get some fresh air, you must be suffocating in there!"

The feline sighed. She had retreated to the Zoid after her talk with Shadow to think, and she ended up falling asleep and having that dream again. The one where she imagined her mother and father talking to one another, with herself in her mother's arms as she rocked her tenderly back and forth. It was the same every time, and it left her confused and wondering if it was really a memory or if it was just a dream. It felt real; it was almost like she could actually feel her mother's arms around her, her soft and loving hands and words stroking her ears. But, she was too young to possibly be able to remember something like that, word-for-word, let alone understand it all. So, she waved it off as she sighed and clicked the button to let up the roof and let her out.

As she leapt out gracefully in her specialist uniform, Rouge gave an 'oh' of recollection and told her, "By the way, Kussia is waiting on your communicator for your report. Shadow and I have already done ours, so it's your turn." She then flicked the lever to lower the platform they both stood on, and walked with the feline to the living room and handed her the communicator. She sighed, taking it reluctantly, and went into her room to do it in private. She really didn't want anyone to be listening to her conversation with the Alpha Rex, since he would most likely have one of those 'personal talks' that had lots of in-depth things and blasts from the past that she really didn't even want to talk about. But, she had to give him a report, and she could only hope that he would leave it at strictly business, as much as she hated that. It was the lesser of two evils.

She sighed and clicked on the button that reminded her of the redial button on regular phones, putting it on visual as it started to ring. It only got to the third ring before it was picked up and Kussia's face appeared on the screen the floated in front of her, looking a little peeved for some reason. And that reason, she quickly figured out, was red, vulpine, and was still talking to him.

"So you see, Kussia, it really is extremely easy, especially for someone like me. Your love life will be so much more productive if you only just listened to what I –"

"Shadowpaw!" He seemed a bit glad to have been called by her, if only to stop his 'friend' from giving him 'tips', and he said her name a little too loudly as Sly's face appeared on the screen to look at her curiously. Kussia told her, "Such a surprise to have you call me, especially since everyone else gave their reports about an hour ago."

Sly added, "And also including the fact that you called him instead of waiting for him to call again, although you might ignore that until the fifth time, like you always do, and –"

"Yeah, whatever," she waved her hand wearily, used to the two's usual ways of saying that she was rebellious and stubborn. "Rouge told me that you called, and I figured that I might as well get it over with." She examined their slightly surprised faces and sighed. "Can I just tell you my report and get off?"

"Err, sure…?" The confusion in Sly's voice was enough to convince Shadowpaw to make it sweet and simple, as well as super short, and so she cleared her throat and began to explain. "Earlier today, as I'm sure the other two have already informed you of, we were approached by Kingdom pilots. We combated them for a while, but then they mysteriously retreated." She shrugged. "Other than that, I have no information for you."

"Are you sure about that?" Kussia looked at the feline with a somber frown. He could tell by the way she looked off at some wall that she didn't want to talk to him at the moment, which made him a bit uneasy and even a little suspicious. "That's not all that Shadow and Rouge gave me, Shadowpaw. They took more than a minute to explain." He didn't like the way she glanced a bit anxiously at the screen, and he sighed and commanded, "In depth, Shadowpaw."

She sighed, feeling a bit disappointed that all of her attempts to keeping it short and simple were scattered to the four winds. She looked at the two expectant faces staring at her and, after mentally declaring that her life royally sucked, opened her mouth to start explaining when –

"What're you –" She turned around just to see Shadow stop and blink at her, as if not expecting her to be actually talking to Kussia. "Oh," he muttered under his breath, looking at the curious and surprised faces of the three staring back at him, then gave an excuse for staying by conversing, "I'm surprised she even called you back."

Sly brightened up a little and said, "That's what I said!" Shadowpaw and Kussia both rolled their eyes at the same time and sighed, before the hedgehog looked at her oddly as the Alpha Rex told the red fox, "Get out, Sly."

"What? Why? You let me stay for the others! I didn't do any –"

"Just go, Sly." The grey squirrel watched as his friend pretended to pout as he walked off, and when the door closed behind him Kussia sighed and shook his head. 'I can't exactly remember why he works for me if he doesn't listen to me…' Then, he turned to the screen and cleared his throat. "Alright, now, continue on, Shadowpaw."

"Err, yeah…" She glanced at Shadow standing there with an eyebrow raised. "Um, Shadow? Get out."

"I don't have to," he crossed his arms and smirked at her, as if to say 'I'm a higher rank than you', and she scowled and glared at him threateningly. He didn't budge, however, and she looked back at the Alpha Rex and nagged him, "Kussia, get him out! I can't do a report with him in here!"

"That's Alpha Rex Rank Kussia R. Windokin," he pointed out, grinning slightly at her glower, and he scratched his chin while staring up at the ceiling. "And you don't order me around."

"Squirrelly-say-what?" She looked at him as if he had just told her to start flapping her arms and fly. "But, he – what are you – why is –" She couldn't form proper sentences, and so she finally growled and threw up her hands as a sign of defeat, scowling at the chuckle from the gray squirrel and crossing her arms while glaring at a wall. She gave a glance to the hedgehog behind her, who 'encouraged' her by saying, "Don't let my presence distract you from your duty." She scoffed and turned back to the screen, glaring at Kussia for a bit more before asking sneeringly, "Why couldn't Sly stay, then?"

"Do you really want Sly here to annoy us with his little comments?"

"True…" She sighed. "What do you want to know, O Almighty Kussia R. Windokin?"

"I could get used to that," the squirrel commented, smirking when Shadowpaw scoffed again, and he thought, 'She'll never change. Not in a million years.'

"Well," he started, knowing that if he stalled for any longer she would get pissed and refuse to give him a report, "you could explain your side of the battle, for starters."

He watched as she hesitated, which made him raise an eyebrow, and then she replied, trying to dodge the matter, "It's not much, really. I mean, there was the fighting and the taunting and all…" She nervously scratched the back of her neck and looked away from the expectant face. "It's not really anything to talk about…"

"That's not what I heard," the squirrel pushed, and added, "If you refuse to report, I can technically suspend you from piloting and force you to stay in the Hover Cargo while Shadow does all of the scouting and battling by himself."

Shadow looked up at him from examining his hands and said, "Please, do it."

The feline scoffed and rolled her eyes, then turned and sighed as she looked reluctantly at her leader. She knew she had to tell him about it, but…she felt uncomfortable with Shadow there. She didn't know why, but…she just didn't want him to listen to everything that she said. It was this creepy feeling that, whatever she did or said, he would remember, and possibly use against her. And, she had a feeling that these 'feelings' of insecurity was what Kussia was counting on. 'The conniving ways of the heroes,' she thought, and she mentally scowled before straightening up a bit and looking at the Alpha Rex with a determined, if reluctant, expression on her face. She wouldn't back down from whatever Kussia threw at her. "Where should I start?"

"Well, first tell me how the hell that Geno Saurer pinned you down, with you being own of the most slippery and difficult people I know!"

"…Right…" She hesitated slightly, then came back full force. "That tail of the Saurer's isn't exactly anything to forget about…sir…" She scowled. She hated saying that word.

"…Alright." He was satisfied that she admitted it caught her off-guard, and so he proceeded with the questioning. "So, your communication was cut off during the battle?"

The feline hesitated again, and Kussia frowned at her. 'What is with her today?' Then, she cleared her throat and answered softly, "…Sorta."

"'Sorta'?" He raised an eyebrow at her. "What's that mean?"

Before Shadowpaw could reply, Shadow answered for her. "She means that the signal was mostly blocked from the Hover Cargo, and Rouge." He seemed to ignore her glare, and she narrowed her eyes at him and hissed, "I can do my own report!" She looked absolutely livid at the hedgehog.

He scoffed and responded coolly, "Not from what I see." He smirked at the feline's anger rising, and Kussia sighed and shook his head. 'They haven't changed since they've left.' Then, he cleared his throat and commanded them, "Stop fighting; Shadow, let her do it without someone holding her hand." Just because he wasn't with them at the moment didn't mean he couldn't have his fun. She scowled at him and muttered, "Rat…"

Kussia briefly wondered who she was referring to, but he cast it aside as he verbally nudged her, "Continue."

She snapped at him, "With what?" She seemed to have forgotten what she was doing.

Kussia sighed and asked calmly, "What happened after it blocked the communications?"

She blinked and let out a soft, "Oh…" Feeling a bit stupid, she cleared her throat again to try to gather the broken pieces of her pride and started to explain again. "Well, after they were blocked, it proceeded to hack directly into the links and –"

Kussia gave a fake gasp and said with false-shock, "What?!" He tried not to laugh when Shadowpaw glared at him, and it became even harder to look innocent when she growled and pointed out, "Yes; I thought you've already heard all of this!"

Here, the Alpha Rex shrugged, knowing it would irk her even more, and said simply, "Doesn't mean you have to miss out on all of my fun reactions I had with the first report just because you were an hour late." He finally did chuckle when she let out a groan and smacked her forehead, as if wishing that it would give her some boost of intelligence to make a witty comment back, and he grinned and thought, 'I'm glad she's not here to try to kill me.'

Then, Shadow sighed and shook his head at them both, as if he thought they were the most childish bunch ever. He informed Shadowpaw with a sneer, "He did it to me, too, feline, so don't think you're getting any special treatment." In response to that, the cat turned to him and rolled her eyes with a growl, "Oh, yes, I feel so privileged…" She scoffed and crossed her arms, glaring at the both of them and hoping that they would both drop dead. 'If only I could see a shooting star right about now…'

Kussia chuckled at both of their faces. 'It's funny when they both actually talk (somewhat) civilized, especially to each other!' He sighed contently. 'My plan is already set into motion.'

The feline glared at him and snapped, "Do you want the damn report or not?" He just shrugged, making her narrow her eyes, and answered, "Go ahead, I'm not stopping you." She grumbled dark words to herself, before she cleared her throat to get his complete attention and continuing, "Well, the Geno Saurer hacked into the communications link and the Oak started to taunt me and everything, plus it screeched so my Zoid was immobilized and I couldn't crush its ugly mug, damn monster, and then…" She stopped. 'And then…'

Kussia blinked and repeated, "And then…?"

After a moment, she shook her head as if to get some image out from it, and she looked down as she frowned with contemplation. "And then…well…I don't really understand it…but, before it left the link and ran off, it told me," she then proceeded to hiss in a bad imitation of its voice, "there are other ways to break your spirit than with brute force."

It was silent for a while, to which Shadowpaw looked up to watch Kussia's face for any sign of his thoughts. He was frowning slightly at her, as if something was wrong with her, and she gulped to try to release the tension in her dry throat and asked him, "W…What does it mean, Kussia?"

The squirrel stayed solemn and grim, and he looked at her with his icy blue eyes and asked distractedly, "What happened afterwards, Shadowpaw?" It looked as if he was dreading and expecting something terrible to happen, but whether it was at the battle or in the future she wasn't sure.

"Well…" She gulped and looked down at her feet. "When they were turning to leave, the Saurer…" She hesitated. "It…"

It was silent for a while, with Shadowpaw trailing off her sentence as she kept her eyes glued to the ground, although she was watching the scene over and over again in her mind. She was frozen to the spot, trying not to think about it and yet she couldn't stop it from invading her thoughts. It was almost as if it was planted in her mind by some unknown force, making her relive the experience over and over again, taunting her with the images.

"…That'll be all, Shadowpaw." Kussia nodded, understanding softening his expression. He knew that, although her face looked as calm as could be, she seemed to be out of breath and her eyes were enough to show the pain. "I want you two to send in a written report about both you and the enemies' moves and strategies, as well as Zoids and weapons. It would do well to try to figure out how they work so that next time you meet you'll have an advantage." Before he cut the link, though, he looked at Shadowpaw and said something that was mostly directed to her, "Both of you get some rest tonight.

"You're gonna need it."