Long time no see. Got my driving provisional, problem with the insurance though so no driving for me yet.

Did I offend you guys in my last chapter? I got no reviews for it.

Do you not like my story anymore? Is it boring? Should I stop being so overdramatic?

~Cyber cookie for anyone who can tell me the name of the series I crossed over with this time.~

--

There's been an incident. Max blew up a ship she had to detonate it in person, we don't know if she made it out in time. We've been looking for her on the nearby planet, so far no luck but we refuse to give up hope.

Haku's journal on Max's mental heath entry 14.

Max woke to someone prodding her with what felt like a stick.

"Looks like she waking up," said a male voice. Max winced, it sounded like drums were hammering inside her head. She tried to focus enough to examine her situation. Using FA she found she was being watched by two men, most likely soldiers from the weapons they carried. Further away she could see a small camp and watching from a tree was another man. She panicked slightly when she felt most of her weapons missing and her hands were tied.

"What was I drinking last night?" she mumbled, her memory was slightly fuzzy after the explosion.

"She doesn't look old enough to be drinking," one of the soldiers whispered.

"Look at her hair colour though, that can't be natural"

"Why is the sky falling?" She asked blinking a bit. She was testing them with these words, just to see their reaction and the reaction of the man in the trees. She wanted to get at least a basic situational analysis before doing anything hasty. She propped herself up on her elbows and subtly started to work on freeing her hands.

"I think she hit her head," the other guard mused quietly. Max focused on him and frowned.

"Who are you?"

"I think we should be asking you that question," the man from the trees asked approaching them.

"Are there more of you hiding in the trees?" Max asked timidly. She observed the man as he approached, something felt weird about him. The way he held himself, the way he walked and spoke, everything. She could see hints of weapons all ready to grab at a moments notice just like her own. Well if she still had them any way.

He was an assassin. Highly trained and ready for anything. Max couldn't help but wonder how he would compare to her own skills.

"I would be tempted to fall for that act if it wasn't for the shear amount of weapons I found on you" the assassin commented. Max smiled sheepishly, she had been busted.

"What can I say, they're shiny" she shrugged, she doubted they'd buy that but she wanted them to think she was still fuzzy from what ever.

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't kill you here and now?" the assassin asked. He drew out a dagger ready.

"Oh feel free to try, just do me a favour and give me a fighting chance," Max requested, she had freed her hands a while back, but she was intrigued by the three.

"You want to fight me?" The assassin laughed.

"I was right, she hit her head," one of the soldiers said.

"You really don't know who I am, do you?" The assassin asked suddenly more serious.

"Not a clue, though as an assassin it's probably a good thing if people don't know who you are"

"Does the name Valek mean anything to you?"

"No, should it?" Max was raking her memories to see if it was from a book she had read.

"Do you live under a rock?" one of the guards asked incredulously. Max gave him a dry look. "He's the best assassin in the whole of Ixia and probably Sitia as well"

"I'm not from either so I can't really tell, can we get to the matter at hand though, and I thought I got distracted easily"

"So you want to fight for your freedom?"

"Uh. Does freedom mean you let me walk out of here or you'll untie my hands, if it's the latter I won't bother," Max said, sheepishly rubbing her wrists in turn to ease the red skin.

-

"I'm going to assume you have no intention of telling her about your meeting with Max," Kakashi asked Itachi as they walked to meet the team. It took Itachi a few seconds to realise who Kakashi was referring to.

"Never"

"I'm also going to assume you didn't tell Max about her"

"I value my life"

"She's going to maim you when she finds out"

"Only maim?"

"Max likes you too much to kill you, she would have to watch her back though," Kakashi explained. Itachi sighed, why were things so complicated? They turned a corner bringing the meeting point into view. There was an extra person waiting.

"Itachi-koi!" Itachi winced slightly, he could have sworn he had told her not to bother the team. He could tell the actual team weren't too impressed.

"Brother, I know you're supposed to be doing some light training with us for a while but did you have to invite you girlfriend?" Sasuke seethed, even the normally hyperactive Naruto didn't look too impressed. Sai looked indifferent but his eyes showed a tiny bit of amusement mixed with annoyance on the woman.

To be fair, it wasn't Itachi's fault. The council had stuck their noses in and decided that they needed Uchiha babies to mould into loyal fighters. Itachi hadn't had much of a choice. If he hadn't picked someone actually in the village at the time, they would have picked for him. He was still questioning his sanity when he had picked.

Next year it would be Sasuke's turn to get approached. At least he had Laura.

-

"I can't believe you actually beat him," the guard Max now knew as Ari murmured. Valek was unconscious on the floor between the three of them. Max had been surprised that Valek had actually put up a pretty decent fight. She had gathered that magic was a taboo in this country but where they were going it was allowed. She kept her chakra usage low key just in case it was mistaken for magic and was suppressing it as much as she could so no magic user would point it out.

"I can't believe she's still here, I would have scarpered," the other guard, Janco, murmured back.

"Look, I'm bored and have nothing to do, why not stick around for a bit? Besides, I want to make sure I didn't do any lasting harm"

"How did you come across those skills? And why? You don't seem like any assassin would be" Ari asked.

"Someone I once knew said 'you can only become truly strong when you have someone you would give your life to protect'. I had someone to protect so I did all I could to do that"

"Um, your wrists are glowing," Janco said pointing. Max looked down and saw the writing from the priestess glowing.

"I never noticed the writing there before, where did you get it" Ari asked, Max could see the suspicion in his eyes.

"Some priestess, who I may have annoyed slightly, mucked up my senses and stuff for a while," Max said, glossing over the fact more than her senses had been mucked up.

"What did you do to her?" Janco asked eagerly.

"Kind of like a family feud, she hates my family, I knew nothing of hers. She accused me of stuff, I insulted her. She gave me the writing on my wrists, I punched her a good hundred meters off a balcony. I think I got the better end of the deal," Max said, smiling at the memory. They noticed Valek stirring and Max backed away a bit, from experience if someone had been knocked out in a fight they tended to be paranoid and on a hair-trigger. In layman's terms she didn't want to be attacked.

Valek jumped into a defensive position the second he saw Max as she had expected.

"What's she still doing here?" he asked Ari and Janco. Max could see that he had instinctively gone for his weapons much as she would have in this situation.

"Don't worry, I'm only here because I'm bored, I'm not going to kill you" Max said in a way she hoped sounded reassuring. "I would have done that ages ago if I'd wanted to," she shrugged.

The four of them sat in silence for a bit, not quite sure what to do now. In her boredom Max started to sharpen her kunais.

"Where did you get a weapon like that?" Valek asked, eyeing the unusual weapons. In all of his travels due to his occupation, he had never seen that shape blade.

"Where I come from they're pretty commonplace, I could use it before I learnt to walk" Max said offhandedly. It was a lie but it served her purpose to show she could use it. She wasn't completely sure why she felt the need to inform him, maybe it was her pride showing through. She frowned a bit, confused by her own behaviour.

"We need to get moving, if you're coming with us you need to behave and do as I say" Valek ordered. Max shrugged in a sort of agreement, she would follow his orders if it suited her.

-

The trio from Atlantis finally reached the city, it was teaming with people of what seemed like every social class. They were greeted at the gate much to their surprise.

"My name is Iys Jewelrose, the fourth magician, what is your business here?" the woman's words were harsh and guarded, it was clear she was addressing Haku. The woman next to her looked at them curiously, her green eyes were a bit unnerving. Haku could sense something from them like Chakra but not quite.

"I am Haku, these are my companions Ronon and Sheppard. We're searching for someone; we got separated on the road."

"Why don't you use your magic to find her?"

"Magic" Haku asked, echoed by both his companions.

"Your magic is controlled yet you have no knowledge of it?" Iys asked frowning in confusion, an expression mirrored by the travelers. "Your two friends have no magic yet you have a quite a large amount"

"Look, we're tired, could we discuss this when we've rested" Sheppard intervened. Iys nodded in agreement.

"You'll be staying at the Keep with the other magic students. You understand it's for both your safety and the citizens. We'll continue this in the morning, Yelena here will show you around"

"Is that wise?" Haku asked, the three of them could probably overpower both women if they needed to.

"I have faith in her abilities, you shouldn't underestimate her"

-

"So Rho, what do you plan to do when we get to the Citadel?" Janco asked, to begin with be conversation had been a bit dry so this was a nice change. Ambassador Signe, the woman they were guarding, had been a bit reluctant to let Max stay but had relented at the three men's request.

"Hang around for a bit, decide where to go next, see if I can find any of my friends"

"Are they trained like you?"

"Not all of them, they can fight in their own ways. Hey, do you want to do some sparing next time we stop? I could probably show you some new moves if you want, both of you," she amended. Ari sped up to join them sheepishly.

"It feels weird being told that by such a young girl," Janco admitted as he nodded in agreement. Max took out a kunai and started a lesson on holding it without cutting himself. She planed to give him and his partner a few as a thank you for keeping her company, it wasn't like she was running low.

She could tell Valek was watching as well, he had disguised himself as an adviser to the ambassador. Janco had said that he was forbidden from entering Sitia. Max had only laughed, there were many places she was technically forbidden from, that was if you count the places she had a bounty on her head.

-

Tsunade sighed as she looked at the piece of paper in front of her, she was trying to find a loophole. The only loophole she knew of was Kami knows where. Itachi would need to find Max to get out of this order but no one had any idea. She looked over the legal jargon, trying to make sense of some of it, the words seemed to blur in front of her eyes.

She set down the paper and rubbed her eyes. Looking back down on the paper she noticed a note on top written for the world to see in Max's scrawl.

In case of emergencies (and I mean emergencies)

Underneath were some symbols Tsunade recognised as Stargate symbols, it was an address, She put the paper in a drawer so she wouldn't loose it, she would send someone first thing in the morning. First she needed sleep.

The note would stay in that drawer forgotten until needed, Max had made sure of it. The only other way it would be remembered was if she was dead.

-

"We're almost there," Ari announced as they caught their first glimpses of the city. Max extended her senses forward and almost recoiled from what she could feel, so much energy, such a big place. If Haku was there she wouldn't be able to pick him out, her sense wasn't as refined as his.

"Are you ok, you look a bit shocked?" Janco asked. Max waved it off.

"It just looks a bit big," Max lied. Had Louise or Laura been there they would have added 'that's what she said', it made her a little homesick thinking of them.

"You'll be fine"

"I always am I suppose. I'm going to leave you now. If I get searched and if they find all these weapons on me I don't want to ruin your diplomatic mission" Max explained, she figured Valek would be fine, he was used to everything here. "I might see you around," she said almost cryptically, she tossed them each a pair of kunai and another at the disguised Valek. Then she took off at a run, being careful not to go too fast until she knew she was out of sight.

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Find out about this mysterious her, what happens at the citadel and other stuff in the next chapter

Review please