Author's Note: Here's the new stage in the story! Remember that there have been several changes to the setting and the cast of characters, so heads up! And just an FYI, the majority of this chapter is explaining, at least a bit, of what is different then the previous chapters, so bear with me. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own anything from Vampire Diaries, just the story's plot, ideas, and my many OCs.

"I really can't stand this place anymore, Jewel. I can't stand to listen to these little kids cry for their parents, even when they know they're dead. I want out. I want to leave this prison. I'd rather live in the Slums then in this stupid orphanage. I don't care if I'm safe if it means I have to listen to those stupid kids. I can live just fine without them."

"Then why are you still here? Why haven't you left yet, Trevor?"

"Because I'm leaving tonight. And I came to ask you to come with me."

"What?"

"We would have more of a fighting chance to survive if we went together. Don't you want to leave this place too?"

"Yeah, I do."

"So your in?"

"On one condition."

"What?"

"You don't ever leave me, you don't ever leave a fight, you don't leave period."

My eyes fluttered open, the dream I had leaving a smile on my face. The steel plated ceiling filled my vision, the neon lights of SBS Liberty coloring the rusting metal a mess of bright colors. The random assortment of parts and add-ons were scattered around the metal floor, with a great pile of it on my best friend, Jewel's work bench. The smell of half eaten food came from the rations on the small table in front of the couch I slept on. The smell of rotting garbage, urine, and other disgusting scents wafted up from the streets below through the vent, assaulting my nose. It smelled so much like the Slums that it almost would have made me feel at home. That is, if it wasn't such a disgusting smell. Thankfully, the more bearable smell of metal, motor oil, and gunpowder soon over powered the repulsive odor. The apartment Jewel and I shared served as a safe house, head quarters, and rest stop for the two of us.

We make our money as Mercenaries, guns and hacks for hire that took anonymous compensations for our work. Most of the time we use that money for ammo, gear, or food. Most Mercenaries tend to be arrogant jerks that spend their free time terrorizing the Civilian and Soldier populations for kicks. Jewel and I tend to keep a low profile, and stick to our safe houses until our next job.

Speaking of jobs, I was still nursing my wounds from the last one. Jewel had to hack into the city's mainframe to get some information, and the intl terminal she could access was int the middle of a patrol area for some soldiers. Needless to say as to how it happened, I had to pull a bullet out of my gut, inject that God-awful healing serum to keep the wound from getting infected, then see up my own wounds because Jewel's fingers were twitchy from typing too fast. I was angry that I had to go through so much veal just to find out that the info our client wanted was something that Jewel could have found out with her Info Broker contacts.

I heard a series of footsteps and a knock on the door, then the sound of Jewel's soft, yet stern voice came through the steel door, "I'm back, Trevor. Can you open this stupid door before I kick it in?"

I hopped up from the comfortable position on the beat up couch, and made way for the door. I opened the door and was met by the sight of my best friend and Mercenary partner. She had pale blonde hair that basically looked white thanks to the harsh rays of the sun. Her grey eyes were tinted a dark red thanks to the idiot that had done the operation to implant Jewel's vision bionics. She was wearing her usual black tank top and dark-themed camouflage pants, which she tucked into her knee high combat boots. The silver cross I gave her on the night we ran away from the orphanage still hung from her neck from a silver chain, the ruby embedded in the cross making her eyes seem even more red then they already were. That ruby had made her name all the more easier to remember too. Strapped to her left bicep was a sheath of three throwing knives. I had no idea where she learned how to use them, but whoever taught her was a master at it. She also had a boot knife that she tended to use for pretty much everything, a habit she must have picked up from me. She always had at least two guns on her person. One was always a hand gun. The other could be a sub-machine gun, assault rifle, or her beloved sniper rifle, depending on the mission. She wore a size-too-large utility belt that hung off one hip so it would remain at her waist and not fall off. That belt had her mediocre hacking equipment and spare ammo. She had some extra pockets for ammo on her pants too, though. The side arm she had would always be on her right thigh, with her left having more ammo strapped to it.

With all of this gear, and a perfectly toned body to boot, Jewel was one of the most beautiful girls I knew. And the same went for the rest of SBS Liberty. So many guys tried to hit on her that I had lost count around five years ago. Jewel always teased me about protecting her from guys, even though we both knew that she could handle herself just fine. I knew that she had to deal with a lot of crap to get her job done and keep her title as the best Info Broker in SBS Liberty, tying with a girl that was the same age as her named Danielle. Danielle and Jewel were good friends that met through their work as Info Brokers, or Snitches, as the annoyed general population of the Slums called them. I had never met Danielle, since she usually didn't show her face to very many people. But if she made Jewel as happy as she always did, then I wasn't all that worried about what she looked like.

Jewel stepped past me as she stormed off to her work bench, swiping away spare parts to make enough clear space. After she was satisfied, she put down her Shove and pressed the activation button. The Shove, officially known as the P.U.S.H. (Personal Universal Storage Holographic)Device, was a hard to come by tool that had an enormous storage capacity and a hologram lens to display the stuff it stored. It was a small rectangular box that was about the same size and weight of an Old World IPhone. It would display a holographic keyboard and monitor that you would use to find the files that you wanted to pull up, then it would display those files as holograms. Jewel used the thing a whole lot more then I did thanks to her being an Info Broker and a novice Hacker.

"You're no gonna believe this, Trev'," Jewel said, a little too anxious to be considered normal, since she was never anxious to begin with, "I just got my hands on some serious dirt on the Omega Corporation."

"You're right," I chuckled, yawning as I plopped back down on the couch, "I don't believe you. No one has ever gotten anything on Omega, since their CEO bought off every single official from the Ground up."

"Well," Jewel said, typing away at the hologram keyboard of her Shove, pulling up a document and then pointing to it, "I just did."

I glanced over and my eyes widened. Thanks to my vision enhancing bionics, I could easily read the file from where I sat, and I couldn't believe my eyes, "No. Frickin'. Way. Jewel, how the heck did you score this?"

"Danielle and I hacked into Omega's Mainframe while they were in maintenance," Jewel smirked, her anxiety vanishing for a bit as she boasted, "We had to off a few grunts, but that was more of a bonus then a problem with Danielle there."

I nodded, hearing of how Jewel's friend was an amazing marksman, "So what're you going to do? Go to some Rogue band, or the Remnant?"

"Okay, Rogues don't have nearly enough credits for this level of info," Jewel said matter-of-factly, "But the rebels would."

I nodded. The American Remnant was what the Rogues that had formed a resistance movement against the Government called themselves. They were a miniature army of runaway Hackers, Assault soldiers, Snipers, and former gang members that did everything it could to slow own the Government. They were all a bunch of people that were descended from the American citizens that boarded the SBS Liberty during the Exodus. They were a bunch of ideological idiots, in Jewel's and I's opinion, wanting for the old democratic Government of the long destroyed United States of America. Of course, you would also have to be either extremely dedicated to their cause, or completely crazy, to join them in an open war against something as large and unstoppable as the Four Great Towers of SBS Liberty.

"You know what happens if one of those rebels squeals on you—us, right?" I raised an eyebrow as Jewel causally turned off her Shove and slipped it back in her back pocket, "If any one of those Corporations finds out that you got that kind of thing over them, you'll be in the Whiteout before you know it."

"I don't know if I'd have to run all the way out to the ice caps," Jewel chuckled, sitting down next to me and resting her head in my shoulder like she liked to do, "But I'd definitely would have to go live in the Badlands for a while. At least until the Heat dies down."

"Funny to talk about heat and the Badlands in the same sentence like that," I rolled my eyes, "And I doubt they would stop at all in looking for you for a long time."

"Oh shut up, Trevor," Jewel laughed, rolling her eyes, "Besides, I have you to protect me from every single little thing!"

"Back to that again are we?" I laughed too, "Well, I'm sorry I'm such a good friend. Okay, Jewel?"

She rolled her eyes, "Whatever."

"The Government will find out sooner or later, though," I said, "So we need to sell that info quick to get them off our trail."

The Government was really a front for the four corporations that controlled the five mega cities on the former North American continent. Everyone knew that the Government was just the name for the combined effort and influence of the four major cooperation that manufactured all the weapons, ammo, gear, and tech that the population used. They are a corrupt bureaucratic group that worked the population to the bone in the production of weapons. They were the select few that owned all the wealth, save for the gang leaders that took what was left for the rest of the population. The situation was so bad the the people in the Slums had given up on a currency system, instead reverting to trading for their goods or working them off. The crime rate was so high in the Slums that if you lived there, there was a hundred percent chance you had to steal for your survival. There was no birth control, no police, no murder investigations, making the Slums a breeding ground for trouble. Jewel and I had many places to hide there as well as a ton of supply caches stored throughout the area in case we were in a tight spot. Thankfully, Jewel and I made enough of a living doing jobs to rent an apartment on the Lower Levels.

The city of SBS Liberty, short for Space Battle Ship Liberty, is a metropolis built from the materials of the Space Battleship Liberty. When humanity returned from its Odyessy, the term for the five centuries that it spent among the stars in prototype space fleets, the sites the ships landed on were immediately settled on. Everyone agreed that it was a better use of materials to build cities than to keep a spaceship that no one would want to ride in ever again. So those landing sites became the sites for the cities, which were named after the ship from which the building materials came. SBS Liberty had landed in what used to be called Death Valley, and it was the largest ship that had been built. The city that became of it was likewise the largest city in Earth. It was arranged vertically into five areas.

The Balcony, the four towers of humanities most successful corporations making it up in its entirety. The Balcony was where the filthy rich men and women of those corporations. The skyscrapers that represented the corporations all had a bridge that lead to a sphere that floated in the air, which housed those most important to the businesses.

Next level down was the Upper Levels, the managers and rising stars of the entertainment industry filling it's penthouses and clubs. It was where one would find the good life to be lived, with food all over the place in old school style buffets. The thought of running a joint that fills you to your hearts content was an astonishing thought to anyone that didn't live in the Upper Levels. The penthouses, clubs, and buffets were all inter connected by a multitude of bridges, walkways, and platforms that acted as a ground level for the people that lived there. This was because the ones that live there didn't want to have to deal with the filthy ground levels where all the poor and wretched people resided.

Below the Upper Levels was were Jewel and I lived, in the Lower Levels. The Lower Levels was the equivalent to a hybrid of the Middle and Lower Class of the twenty-first century, where people with enough cash to pay a rent in an apartment could find a place above the disgusting living cesspool on the ground. This was where all the gun shops, weapon crafters, upgrade retailers, bionics implantation centers, and all other sorts of gear merchandise was sold and bought. It was convenient for Jewel and I because of our work. Being Mercenaries meant that we needed to have sufficient gear in order to do our job.

Below us is the Ground, which is obviously the ground level. The bottoms of the cites skyscrapers bite into the ground, floods of poor people trying their hardest to find their next meal in the trash flocking around them. Graffiti littered the walls as much as the smell did the air, and the trash did the ground. Below them is the Underground, where the surplus of people went when there was no more room on the Ground. Collectively, the Ground and Underground were known as the Slums.

"You do realize that there's no way that I'd let them trace is right?" Jewel smirked.

"Yeah, yeah," I rolled my eyes, watching the neon signs advertising weapons as they floated around the city with the sun rising in the yellowed sky, "How many credits are we talking here?"

"A million?" Jewel jested, "And a half? I'm not sure yet, but it'll keep us fat and happy for a long time."

"Dang, Jewel," I laughed, "That'll do more then just keep us fed."

"We got to remember that I have to split it down the middle for Danielle, since she helped me get the info."

"That's true," I sighed, "I wouldn't want to get Danielle angry at us for sure."

My Vital Wristband, a watch that displayed every type of thing you could possible need, buzzed. Since it was synced to my Comms Headset, which I had left in my ear when I went to sleep, it was now displaying that I was receiving a message. I tapped the screen, and a hologram of a closed envelope appeared. I touched the pale blue object, and it opened to reveal a texted message, "Yo, Trevor. I thought I'd give you a heads up that the Remnant's gonna be close to you two sometime tonight. I overheard a couple rebels talking at the pub on the far side of the city that they'd be moving to a safe house in that area. I know that you two don't exactly like them all that much, so I thought I'd let you know! See ya around, Fearless Leader. -Max."

"That's just perfect timing if I do say so myself," Jewel chuckled.

"Yeah, yeah, c'mon," I rolled my eyes pushing off of the couch to stand.

I went over to a hidden away locker that held all my gear. I picked out my gun belt and wrapped it around my waist. On each hip was a Five-Seven, a lightweight handgun that I had an outstanding aptitude for. I was a duelist after all, and what's a duelist without his handguns? I still had my knife tucked into my boot, the hilt parallel with my shin. I slipped a few clips of ammo into the pockets of my jacket, and in the cargo pockets of my pants. I wore a similar color combination to Jewel. All black with tiny accents of colors here and there. I tucked my pants into my boots so that they wouldn't get torn up or in the way. I slipped on my headset, my Shove, and every other gadget that I was going to need.

I turned, shutting and locking the hidden strongbox as I followed Jewel out the steel hatch-door that lead out of our apartment. Jewel made a show of walking in super slow motion to hint at my own slowness. I only rolled my eyes, shoving her forward down the corridor so she'd stop with the joke. She merely laughed and we continued on, the sound of steam escaping some of the pipes that ran the length of the walkway keeping us from walking in silence. The harsh sun was setting behind the pillars of the Four Towers. The neon, floating billboards filled the sky's and occupied much of the side of the buildings, displaying the lasted and greatest in weaponry and tech. The enormous buildings and skyscrapers, whatever part of them not adorned with lights castes in the darkest shadows, rose from the desecrated soil of Death Valley. So losers patrolled the area, shop owners yelling their sales pitches at passerbys. I gave Jewel a look of "Stay close", and walked out of the hidden alley and into the brightly lit corridors that stretched throughout the city.

"Where are they going to meet us?" I asked, taking the opportunity to scratch my nose, "The same place as the last time you dealt them info?"

"Yeah, by the pub right below the Midnight," Jewel responded, "You want me to hack the area, Mr. Paranoid? Cause I think Danielle's in the area actually, I can put her into a group chat on the comms, too."

"You just want to hang out with her again, don't you?" I rolled my eyes.

"Hey, this could be the first time you talk to her!" Jewel playfully punched my shoulder.

"Fine, fine," I said, sighing, "Put her on."

"Sweet!" Jewel smirked, double-tapping her Vital Wristband to activate it. She made a few elegant swipes at the pale blue holographic displays, tapping here that there until she came across here contacts. She scrolled down, tapping once, then another time a little later. After that, and a few more taps, I found my own Wristband buzzing with a request to join a Comm Link. I clicked 'Accept', and heard my headset activate in response. I looked down, bringing my wrist up, and saw that there were two names in the top right corner of my wristbands display were two names. One was Jewel and the other was Danielle. I heard a small shuffling sound as Jewel adjusted her headset's mic.

Our headsets were the removable models, which we put on our right ears. They had a speaker in them that would relay the audio, and they had a microphone that extended down from my ear to the corner of my mouth. Its the cheapest design. The best is an implant that had special wires that attached to your inner ear and to your vocal cords so that you could use it at anytime. They came with standard EMP safeguards, ours didn't. The only things that came standard with protection against Electro Magnetic Pulses were was an extremely good thing, since Jewel and I had hearing amps and visual enhancing bionics. Not by choice, since we were forced to have them implanted because of some crazy scientist that kidnapped both of us and experimented on us with those bionics. We only figured that out after we slipped out of the orphanage we met at. That was why Jewel's eyes were the same red almost as the ruby set in the cross that hung around her neck.

"What's up, Jewel?" I heard a beautiful sounding, even with the slight interference in the comm link, voice say, "It hasn't even been two hours."

"Hey, Danielle," Jewel said, "Remember how I said I was planning on selling our latest catch to the Remnant soon?"

"And?" Danielle prodded.

"We're about to meet up with them now," I said, sounding as calm as I felt, "But their the kind of rebels that would rather shoot first and ask later."

"So, we'd like it if you tagged along," Jewel finished.

"You two hotshots can't handle a few patriots?" Danielle seemed astonished, but in a way that I knew it was sarcasm, "I should be worried..."

"Nah," Jewel said, "I just want you to tag along. You haven't met Trevor yet, after all."

"And I think that it might stay that way, Jewel," Danielle said, "You know how my situation is right now. More people knowing my face isn't what I would call a good thing about now."

"Well, then you can just bring your gun and make sure nothing goes down the wrong way," Jewel offered.

I heard some whispering in the background of Danielle's connection, then, "It's cool with me. It's at the Midnight Pub, right? Just a bridge away from the Phaser shop?"

"That's the one," Jewel said, smiling, "Will you be on one of the building balconies across the street?"

"I might, or I may have boots on the ground," Danielle said it in a way that told me she was shrugging, "I could be right behind you and you wouldn't even know it."

The girls busted out laughing, as if an inside joke was made, while I rolled my eyes. This Danielle was exactly the type of person you's expect a Sniper/Hacker/Info Broker to be: sneaky, shady, and a smart aleck. Seemingly all knowing, and seemingly everywhere. But what I didn't expect was the sadness that came with her saying that I wouldn't get to meet her. Something in me seemed almost hurt by the thought of not meeting the owner to such a soft and beautiful voice. It sounded slightly hoarse, as if from not being used all that much, but beautiful nonetheless. This was even weirder when I noted that I had only begun to talk to the girl not even a minute ago.

"So you'll be there?" Jewel sounded uncharacteristically hopeful, since we both tended to just take the pessimistic approach.

"Count on it," Danielle said over the comm link, "Yoy just want some cover fire or a hacking job?"

"Whatever you can do will be just fine," Jewel said, a small smile touching her lips.

"I'm still getting my fifty, right?" Danielle said.

"'Course, and this earns you a favor too," Jewel responded.

"A favor from the most notorious duo in all of SBS Liberty?" Danielle sounded astonished, "Sounds like a fair trade for a favor from the second best sniper in the world."

"Awesome, Danielle," Jewel said, "We'll be there in about five ticks, can you make it?"

"I'm already there, and your boys are chilling right below me," Danielle said coolly.

"Jewel looked over her shoulder at me, then spoke, "How many?"

"About five," Danielle sounded bored, "I could take 'em all out with a SCAR round if I had any left from my last tango with the Government."

"Hey," Jewel rolled her eyes, as we approached the entrance to the alley way where Danielle's sniper was currently trained on, "It's not my fault that they had tanks!"

"But you did do a bad job at hiding the bodies," Danielle noted, "So it was you."

Jewel sighed, "I guess that means two favors for you then."

"Oh look at that," Danielle said, faking a superior tone, "I suddenly feel compelled to forgive you!"

"Oh shut up," Jewel laughed, "Alright, we're here. We're going dark, copy?"

"Roger," Danielle said, "I have eyes on. You're clear."

"Roger," Jewel said.

We turned to corner and descended the stairs into the alley. There were makeshift shops along the area selling black market merchandise that was most likely fraud. It was a reality that I had to face within the first few days of running from the orphanage with Jewel, that there was no such thing as an honest person in the Slums. Stealing and commuting crime was as natural as breathing to anyone who spent too much time down there. It was almost contagious, really. The things one has to do down there are too harsh to even recall. Cruelty didn't even begin to describe it. I was reminded of this every single time I saw that sick look in the eyes of men. The stench of delinquency was as pungent and obvious as the odor of trash, motor oil, and urine.

The rebels came into view, amidst the haze of the polluted Lower Levels, the guns that were so familiar to Jewel and I clutched as casually in their hands as a pen would be to an author. They were common Assault Rifles, one with a nice looking scope, which were the main choice for most Remnant grunts. They were the same rifles that were used by American army soldiers before the nuclear apocalypse, M4A1 rifles. They were a relatively well rounded weapon to have, but their origin was the main reason why the rebels chose to wield them.

"Hey, look who decided to show up. I can't believe we're get to be graced with the presence of the Two Demons of SBS Liberty!" Yelled their leader in a bored tone, "So what do you have for us today, Snitch?"

"That's gonna cost ya, stupid," Jewel said, making a tsking sound, "You boys know that score with Brokers. We aren't here to trouble you, just your bank accounts."

"How good is the info then?" He asked.

"It's classified as an 'S' Class doc," Jewel said casually, "On the Omega Corporation."

His eyes widened, "What!? That's impossible! No one's gotten that kind of dirt on Omega!"

"Until today." Jewel added, a smirk playing at her lips, but she regained her composure.

"I've got two Bogey's closing in on the entrance you came through, and three entering farther down the alley way to reinforce them, copy? The deal's gone south, you two, you need to exit stage left," Danielle's beautifully calm and collected voice said into my comms headset.

I looked discreetly to our left and saw a fire escape that reached at least high enough to go to window of the building, and level with the rest of the Lower Levels. Jewel, continuing on with the negotiations, scratched her right forearm twice. Our signal that she was ready for whenever I have the go ahead.

Which I have pretty much right away, "Some cover fire would be nice, Danielle."

As I said that, I broke into a sprint for the fire escape. There wasn't an access ladder that reached from the ground to the escape, but the square hole where that ladder used to be was still there. There was a dumpster right under it as well. I ran, jumped on top of that dumpster, then wall-climbed up to the fire escape by planting my foot on the wall and directing my momentum upwards. Jewel was right behind me the entire time.

The distant reports of Danielle's rifle, a sound I'll never forget, cracked through the air. With each rumbling thunder crack, it heralded the end of a thugs career as a soldier. I knew that Danielle was shooting them in the feet, making the damage painful but not life threatening. I still didn't envy them because if the kindness Danielle was showing them, since she could have easily just put the cross hairs on their skulls instead. Danielle had a reputation that was known throughout the Mercanary, Info Broker, and Rebel circles. She was like the Valkyries of Nordic mythology. She didn't just kill her enemies, she could pick and choose which she would kill and which she would let live. No one, except Jewel, knew where she had learned her skills, but they were almost unmatched in SBS Liberty. Jewel was a slightly better Info Broker, and there was a legend of a better sniper and Hacker then her, but the fact that she was as skilled as she was in all three was unprecedented. But one of the scariest things witnesses was when she engaged in hand to hand combat. She wielded a Photon Sabre, a Star Wars light saber in effect, and had the skilled to use it to deflect bullets with. To have her as an ally is like having a guardian angel, to have her as an enemy was to flirt with death.

"Man, and it looked like we could have made some money off those guys too," Jewel mumbled as we climbed two flights of the fire escape to an open window.

The apartment was like all others in the city below the Upper Levels: rundown. The metal floor and walls were worn, with lines of scars marring the walls that told a story of violence in the household. Many odds and ends were scattered about the floor and the workbench tucked in a corner, telling that the resident knew how to fix at least the smaller things. There were sidearms and rifles on the coffee table or leaning on the walls, ammo clips not far way. Jewel snatched a few that matched the SMG that she had brought with here on the mission. I didn't really notice much else about the place, other then the door. That was because I was running right for it and I was hoping that it wasn't locked. I could hear the men we were talking to give chase.

"Oh, shut up," I muttered, bursting through the metal door and turning right towards the exit out to the Lower Levels platforms, "We can just sell it to another bidder. It doesn't have to be the Remnant."

"They have the biggest pockets and the most interest, though!" She complained, running alongside me as I heard the men chasing us stumble into the apartment.

"We can just make them a deal anyway," I sighed, despite my shortness of breath theat went along with running.

"You two are adorable," Danielle's voice said, an almost sinister laugh accompanying her haunting voice.

"Shut up, Danielle!" Jewel grumbled, blushing slightly.

"Oh, I wasn't talking about you two," Danielle said, "There's a couple of grunts trying to climb up they way you guys did it, but it isn't working out for them. And by the way, the two after you only have pistols. No major arms to deal with."

"Thanks, Danielle, we owe you one," I said, Jewel and I spilling out into the platforms of the Lower Levels.

"That makes three, Trevor," Danielle chuckled, "Don't get too indebted to me. That never ends well."

Jewel and I stopped running, slipping into the crowds to blend and disappear from sight, while laughed nervously, "Noted."

Another chuckle, but an amused one sounded with her voice, "Don't worry, Trevor, any friend of Jewel's is a friend of mine. And I protect my friends, got it?"

I smiled, "Got it."

We walked through the throngs of civilians for a good hour, turning our disappearing act into a sight-seeing trip. We looked at the platforms that stretched from building to building, bridges that connected them, the be on signs that floated in the air as they displayed the latest fire arms. The abyss below the bridges was coated with smog and pollution that would have made the environmentalists of the world before us turn in their graves. You could hear the distant reports of rifles as gangs exchanged gun fire. The harsh sun sometimes made it through the acid rain clouds to highlight Info Brokers making deals and taking their payments, merchants handing over recently purchased gear, and soldiers stumbling out of a bar with a few girls that they were "arresting" for personal reason that the women didn't always willingly comply to. I felt my desire to see all soldiers die stir with every harassment that they committed. I hated them so much, I couldn't help but grit my teeth at the very thought of them. Because they were the reason...

"Hey," Jewel's soft voice shook my mind from its dark course, "You're thinking about that night again, aren't you?"

"Yeah," I sighed, shaking my head as we turned down an alley that lead away from the mainstream of the people, "Sorry."

"You know I hate it when you apologize to me," She growled, "I just wish you wouldn't get that look in your eye. It scares me."

"Why?" I asked.

"I've seen that look in vampires eyes before," Jewel shivered, "And in Danielle's eyes too. And every time I see that look, bad things have happened."

Vampires. The reason we had to flee the Earth for five hundred years, and the cause of a genocide of their own kind. The stupid bloodsuckers were endangered because the most powerful warriors of them all, ordered a faction to kill off the rest of their kind. The only thing was that the three of them, known throughout the centuries since their inception as Death's Children, actually just killed the entire race that had joined them that night. Then they turned a certain number of people into one of them and made sure that they were absolutely loyal to them before they did so. Worse then a Vampire was their elite Night Haunters. Assassin vampires trained to kill even the most formidable opponents in the city. If it weren't for their main weakness, other then sunlight, the herb of vervain, they would most likely take control of the world. But that was actually the reason that Death's Children killed them all off, so that they wouldn't kill the feeble human population. They killed their entire population because of a food shortage.

Death's Children, a trio of three cursed vampires that had the strength of at least a hundred Night Haunters for each of them. They were the most elite of the elite. They were so powerful and feared that they were slowly believed to be a myth, meant to scare people at night for fun. But of you had half a mind as far was what was fake and what was real, you would know that they were very much alive and assassinating higher men in the food chain of the four major companies of SBS Liberty as well as the ministers of the other major cities. They scared pretty much anyone in the world, aside from maybe the Originals, only because they had gotten rid of the White Oak Stake and were basically unkillable. Regardless, Death's Children were the world's worst nightmare.

They were known by the names Savage, Shadow, and Ares. Savage was an avatar of Death itself, his legendary skills fabled to have killed all who got in his way. Ares was a warrior that was both overwhelmingly strong and strategic, able to read the tide of battle as if he were watching from afar. Shadow was like Savage, the stories saying that she was basically the female version of Savage, but she was an avatar of Darkness due to her overwhelming hatred for her enemies. Then there was Ares, named after the Greek God of War, whom was able to desolate his enemies while still remaining a brilliant tactician. They were the type of beings that were whispered about around campfires or before going to sleep among friends. They terrified the population so much that people deny that they exist.

"Sorry, Jewel," I said, looking down with a sigh, "But if it's Danielle or me you're talking about, I doubt trouble can stay away from us for very long."

"It's not that though," Jewel said, shaking her head, "You both seem to be holding a grudge about something deep. I know what you hold yours for, and you know that I feel your pain. But trust me when I say that Danielle's a different story."

This peaked my interest as Jewel and I turned into an alley and found the entrance to one of our many hideouts, and I asked with a raised eyebrow, "Different how?"

"Her problem runs deeper then the caverns in the Badlands, Trev'," Jewel nearly whispered, "Once, I said something that somehow reminded her of someone, and she looked like she was planning on slaughtering half the Slums just to get some of it out. I freaked out so much that I left before she could explain.

"Did she explain, though?" I asked, closing the steel hatch door behind us and turning on the dim fluorescent light.

Jewel nodded, and seemed to shiver, "She's been through a lot, Trevor. I feel bad for her, since it's about as bad as us, but it's a kind of problem that can't be fixed by going Rogue like we did when we started taking Merc jobs. She's basically been on the run since she was born, and orphan after her brother, and her parents died within six months of each other."

"Dang," I said, speechless, "That sounds rough."

Then Danielle's beautiful voice cut through the air via my Comms headset, "It was five months actually."

"Wha-?" Jewel stuttered, "You were listening in on us?"

"I'm an Info Broker, Jewel," Danielle laughed, "It's my job to be curious. And you left the Comm link open."

I couldn't help but snicker as Jewel blushed slightly, and pulled out my boot knife. I went over to an access panel and pried it open with the knife. Jewel caught on and went over to the panel. I stepped aside and let her work her magic. Jewel had learned a thing or two about Hacking from Danielle a while back, enough that she was known as a Hacker. There were more of those then Info Brokers, but they were still relatively rare. Not very many people in the world knew how to bend the super computers of the world to their will with a few calculated keystrokes. Jewel was as talented as they come, and this was just one of the things that she had picked up on through her days with Danielle. Jewel and I had already been in tight squeezes like the one we had to deal with right now, so I didn't have to tell her what to do since she was already doing it. She was Hacking into the mainframe of the traffic network to use the cameras for our own use. She had learned to sync it to her Shove so we could watch the feed.

Once she was finished, Jewel opened five windows, each with a different camera feed, and made an upward flicking motion to the holographic windows. They rose in the direction she aimed them, and that left up with five seemingly floating screens that showed us what was happening on the outside. While I watched the cameras, Jewel went back to work, deleting any stored footage if they had our image on them from the system. I watched and sat down on a metal foldable chair, settling in for the long haul. The Remnant was well know for their persistence, so I doubted we would have a short wait. Jewel opened five more feeds, and flicked them to where they were under the previous five. Jewel looked tired, so I looked around and I found an old couch with just enough room for her. I motioned to it, and Jewel moved the screens by making a grasping motion and manipulating her arm to position them in front of the couch.

But before she sat down, she patted the cushion where she was going to lay her head. I shrugged and sat down on the cushion. As soon as I did though, Jewel laid down on the couch, placing her head in my lap. I blushed, slightly anyway, as she seemed rather comfortable. Soon enough she was asleep, her breaths even and soft. I sighed, and continued to watch the screens.

"Trevor? You there?" Danielle's voice spoke through my headset, but strangely not through Jewel's.

"Uh, yeah, what's up?" I couldn't keep myself from raising an eyebrow.

"I looked into who ratted you two out earlier," Danielle said, "And it looks like they had planned it way before the deal was supposed to go down."

"Really?" I asked.

"Yeah, the bounty was raised to double its amount last month," Danielle explained, "So the patriots made a scheme to catch Jewel, then use her as leverage to have you turn yourself in."

"And they pounced when they saw both of us," I said, finishing the thought.

"Right," Danielle said, "So you two should probably lay low for a bit. As in, don't leave that little safe house you're in right now."

"How did you-?"

"Best that you don't know," Danielle said teasingly.

I waited for a long while, probably about half a day. I pulled out my Shove, turned it on, and started going through the files on it. The hologram's pale blue light illuminated the room where the camera feeds of Jewel's Shove didn't. The files of all the men and women that Jewel and I had killed in our life times were stored on my Shove, and every chance I could, especially while waiting for whatever was chasing us to quit, I liked to look through them and remember the joy I had taken in each and every kill. I only liked to go on jobs that had some sort of negative effect on the government or the gangs of the city. I hated the gangs with all of my being, but the Government was a close second. My teeth clenched as I came across the mug shot of my first kill.

It was when Jewel and I had just gotten our hands on our first guns. A merchant, whom we did a job for, was out of credits and paid us in weapons and ammo instead. He had given us an assault rifle and two pistols. I took the pistols, and Jewel took the rifle. We were barely even old enough to be trusted with gum, and we were going on assassination missions. When I look back on it, I found the thought almost comical.

But the first thing I went for was the man who had killed my parents right in front of me when I was six. Not just killed, though, but he tortured them and slaughtered them. Then, he mutilated his body. All because they didn't pay five credits to pass one of his checkpoints on his way to work. I hated him with as much fury as the Government was corrupt. I made sure he suffered, that I was certain of. It was on that mission that I realized that I was a psycho or some thing, because I enjoyed killing that man more than anything before in my life. And I was eight years old.

"What are you doing?" Jewel mumbled in her sleep, grasping at the leather of my jacket, "We can't...we're..."

I looked up at the screens, and they showed no signs of the enemy. I looked down at my best friend. It was almost scary the difference between when she was awake and when she was asleep. When she was conscious, Jewel as the perfect partner, and a deadly fighter. She had this aura of intimidation that made her hard to approach unless you were drunk or had a death wish. Many times, though we knew because of our hearing enhancing bionics, Jewel was approached and hit on as a dare. The response was always the same.

"Hey, beautiful," The guy would say.

"What?" Jewel would ask with a scowl.

"You want to go someplace more private?"

"Let me ask you something: Has every girl that you've hit on killed so many people that she's lost count?"

Then the guy would blink in surprise, then stumble way from the "Crazy-as-HELL" look that Jewel had perfected for those situations. She would make her eyes wide, pupils mere pinpricks, and have the most mad-woman grin in the world as she chuckled evilly. And as soon as I saw that the guy would be out of ear shot, we would bust out laughing. It was normal for us.

When she was asleep, she was the personification of beauty and peacefulness. Her white hair had this habit of becoming a halo around her head when she slept, and she always made the smallest mumbling. Because of my hearing bionics, and with all the time that she and I spent with each other, I could translate those mumbles to something more understandable. I never mentioned anything about it to her, since she would blush if I did. It was her reaction when I even got remotely flirty with her, which was strangely refreshing. I was used to her being a sarcastic, stubborn Mercenary that was as tough and bipolar as they come. So to see her so relaxed and vulnerable like that, it was a side of her that I treasured.

"Wha-?" She stirred as I poked her cheek gently.

"Morning sleeping beauty," I said, smiling. Whoops, I thought as I realized how that must have sounded.

She blushed, eyes widening, "Was I asleep that long?"

I shrugged as she bolted upright, "Not really, just nine or ten hours."

"What?" Jewel's eyes widened even more, "What were you even doing for that long?"

"Kept watch," I shrugged, "You looked really comfortable anyway, so I didn't want to wake you."

"Uh...Thanks," A smaller blush this time, "So are we clear?"

"Yeah," I nodded, standing, "We need to get back to the hideout. We have to get ready for our next job."

"What is it this time?" Jewel asked.

"It's a cake walk, really," I said, smirking, "It's body guard request for a group of scientists that want to look into the mutants in the Badlands."

"That's it? What are they looking for?"

"I don't really care, to be honest, but the pay out is worth it." I said, "And I was thinking that we should have Danielle try to sell the info, so we can lay low, sound good?"

She nodded, standing, "Yeah, let's go."