Rosebud sat next to him, looking at the guilt in his eyes. "Shasta is something wrong?" she asked.

"Yeah there is, actually quite a few things" he replied. "How'd you know?"

"You have the same look B-dawg does when he's upset -scared- about something" she explained. "So what is wrong?"

"It's just...I'm the one who freed those raptor's; they didn't choose to be here. I cant imagine having to hide your whole life, unlike us they're not needed or wanted and it's all my fault" he confessed."And all the bad things they did, and whatever they're gonna do next is on me. I kinda know how they feel,I used to think I was the only dog who had never raced before"

Rosebud paused for a moment. "But you were just a small pup, you didn't know what was going on".

"I don't remember but they do; they don't seem to think that" he sighed."They seriously want us gone"
Rosebud and her brothers knew this guilty feeling. When Selkirk Tanders and his employees kidnapped their parents they all blamed themselves.

"Raptors; no raptors; pup or not, the situation would be the same, the evil would still chase you" interrupted Talon, appearing from the shadows behind them. "The fault doesn't lie solely in you, Shasta. Did you ever wonder why I isolated myself in a mountain away from everyone?"

"I heard that one of your star pupils went rogue" said Shasta.

"I made the mistake; not you" sighed Talon. "Freedom was my greatest student but deep inside I knew he had his own desires. And a dark power manipulated him into launching his uprising that nearly succeeded if I had not trained your father to stop him".

"My father stopped Freedom?" said Shasta, alarmed.

"But what was that dark power?" asked Rosebud.

"Dark Blade...

I was out in the lowlands after the Freedom uprising ended, and I saw a strange object crash into the snow.

Talon raced through the heavy snow storm looked over the hills. His jaw dropped when he came across a dark armoured warrior. His head was covered in dark grey layers of metal that overlapped each other, except for the middle where only one of his evil red eyes was seen; the other was covered. His attire was mostly black uniform, except for his arms which looked similar to his evil face. On his arms he wore two gauntlets that each summoned two sharp blades.

He was lost, confused and needed help. I knew something didn't look right about him, but he was pleading for help, claiming he was a traveller from off-world. I kept this a secret because he didn't requested it, saying it would bring doom if I told anyone. I told him of your father; Freedom and showed him two frozen raptors that I had found in the mountains: Slasher and Deceptor. Once Blade got a message from his ally's, saying they had come to rescue him, he immediately showed his true colours. He smashed the ice, freeing the raptors who he tricked into serving him. He then located Razer and freed him from the cave, you accidentally found. It was Dark Blade who orchestrated the Freedom uprising and it was him who ordered the raptors to destroy your family, Shasta, fearing them,they deliberatly made smashed layers of the ice to make them fragile; Blade left Earth.
I lied to Razer, saying you had died with your parents when the ice smashed but now they know your alive.

"Whoa" commented Rosebud. "I think I may have also fallen into his trap, he tricked me into coming to Alaska in the first place".

"You may think everything they do is on you; but anything that happens to you...that's on me" Talon said quietly. "Which is why I'm going to teach you what I taught Freedom, so you can defeat these predators. It is in their blood to hunt and to kill others, you had nothing to do with that. Now have a good sleep, you two are the most important in the team".

Talon returned into the shadows. "Your tale may not have started happy, Shasta, but you made the rest...and the rest is the most important. You all have already done more than what is expected for dogs of your age".

Shasta's sad look began to change. "Don't worry Shasta, soon we'll all get out of here and then maybe the lowlands wont be so deserted, once we stop those predators".

"True, we have nothing to do with their killer instincts" smiled Shasta.

"Besides why would anyone want to harm someone as cute as you?"

"Huh?"

"I mean US. Why would anyone want to harm something as cute as US, that just slipped out" she quickly tried covering up her remark. "Now we'd better get some rest, we've got a big day tomorrow"

They went back to where the other Buddies were sleeping and joined them.

"Thanks Rosebud" thanked Shasta, feeling a lot better now.

Meanwhile at Adam's house, Adam had just come home (he was using crotches) "Welcome home Adam!" cried his Mum after him and his Dad returned from the hospital. "Where's Shasta?" he asked.

"Well it is pretty late i'm sure Shasta's sleeping in the shed" his Mum guessed.

"Come on it's time to get some sleep" said his Dad.

Adam went upstairs.