Assassination of Memories
Chapter XXV – Rogues, Newborns and Halflings

Fang's POV

I had never seen Shadows so determined. Her eyes were set straight in front of her, cold and hard, a mask of emotion I now couldn't see pass on her face. She was carrying a boy I remembered to be Bryden; the Flock had just met him, the other boy named Shawn and the girl Livia after they had escaped the Organization and hadn't really seen them since. We just came to know their faces, and just barely their names. I could feel the questions radiating off of Angelo at the comment I had made, his bewilderment whirling around him in an aura almost.

Despite Shadows' injury she was at the front of the group that consisted of all of us and 88697-O2, while carrying Bryden at the same time. That is what I call one tough determined girl.

In a few strides I was beside Shadows giving her a sideways glance. If she noticed me (which I knew Shadows did) she didn't give the impression that she did, still staring ahead with narrowed eyes behind her aviators, shooting down any Eraser coming at us. That narrow look reminded me of Max, the deadly determination was quite the same too. Though I could notice things now that I hadn't seen before, Shadows was moving stiffly, though it would be difficult for anyone else to notice. Her wound had reopened and swinging herself around, running and carrying the kid was taking its toll on her.

So I came over and took Bryden out of her arms.

Shadows growled deeply momentarily, an easily comprehended protest. Anger rolled off of her in violent waves, her intention to murder in her snarl. If by now you haven't figured out that Shadows was pissed for some reason I'd reread the last couple of sentences again if I were you. But I'm not so maybe you won't. I didn't even have to give her a look; Shadows knew I was trying to take it off her strain even though she had long ago pushed herself to the limit. Nevertheless she pushed herself on even father.

I don't know what it was but a smell that hit me like a freaking wall made me instantly sick yet more energetic at the same time. Maybe it was like a high or something, I felt like I could do anything. Like save the world all by myself. Shadows wrinkled her nose, something flashing in her eyes that I knew was disgust. Or maybe just the thought of revolted intention.

We came to a door and I swear the smell got worse; I was just trying to keep down my stomach as Shadows blasted the lock and gave a high kick to the door. The air came rushing at me rooting me in place, as Shadows lunged at the bars giving the three locks a piece of her mind with the gun she had. Iggy was in a pile in the corner, cover with blood. I felt my blood boil, adrenaline rushing through my veins making me feel even sicker. I bottled it, knowing I couldn't explode now. Angelo's eyes widened as he entered, his jaw dropping to the ground. "Is that... it can't be Iggy." He breathed beside me.

I couldn't move, I couldn't speak, all I could do was try my best not to break a few of Bryden's bones under my grip.

Who did this to Iggy?

I better not find out, because they were dead once I did. No one hurt the Flock while me and Max were alive.

"You can't seriously be thinking of moving him." 88697-O2 said fiercely, "You could kill him if you do." Shawn was looking from the five year old to Shadows to Iggy and back again, like he was trying to figure out what to do. "Wait, Bryden." Angelo said turning towards me. That's right, Bryden could heal or something like that. "Kiba." Shadows said bluntly and it was like I figured out how to walk again, practically sprinting the six feet between us. Of course the instant I came up beside Shadows I realized that Bryden was unconscious. Real smooth Fang. Shadows reached up from her crouched position beside Iggy, grabbing Bryden's wrist and placing his hand on Ig's head. There was a dim white glow and a faint clicking of joints being put back in place and a hissing pop of bones fixing themselves. Not exactly the most pleasant sound to hear, it surfaced a bad memory too. "No way! He's out cold." Shawn breathed his jaw dropping. The thing is Shadows didn't know that Bryden could heal. So how had she known that Bryden could heal while he was unconscious when his own twin brother didn't know? The glow died down and the two boys held their breath, waiting. Bryden had tried to heal Eve after she was shot while they escaping but it hadn't worked. He hadn't been able to save her.

Ig stirred and Angelo looked like he was about to collapse. "Wha?" Ig said hoarsely, putting a hand on his head. Shadows put his left arm across her shoulder and wrapped her right around him heaving Iggy to his feet. The five year old assassin was standing at the door, her eyes wide, with unconscious Erasers surrounding her. "That's–... that's impossible." 88697-O2 breathed in disbelief as Shadows shot past her and we took off again.

The same thing happened to Angelo when he took Iggy away from Shadows a couple minutes later; she growled angrily yet gave him up. She was moving stiffly, trying to hide –or maybe ignore– the pain that flashed in her eyes. Damn if she wasn't careful she might pass out. "Where are all the Erasers? Wouldn't they have found us by now?" Shawn asked, just a little bit behind Angelo who had fallen slightly behind. "Wait here, I'll go up ahead and check." 88697-O2 said, no more like ordered, running ahead of us.

"Fey don't!" Shadows yelled. The girl turned just as she was turning the corner.

There was a high pitched scream and a heavy THUD.

We rounded the corner to see the one Shadows called Fey lying on the ground with a hole in her chest, her open eyes wide and lifeless. The look on her face was the most chilling, like she had seen the most horrifying thing in her life. Shadows didn't give "Fey" a glance, hunching her shoulders and kicking the speed up a notch. Right now I couldn't take pity on Bryden; the way I was holding him was awkward and made running difficult, so I flung him over my shoulder and pounded after Shadows.

There was a door at the end of the hallway and Shadows rushed at it, giving it a high kick that really made me want to whack Shadows upside the head for being so incredibly stupid. Though right now I wasn't in a position to complain, she was pissed, ready to murder and had a gun. I haven't known Shadows that long but I know that's a really bad combination.

The moment the door was out of the way Shadows started firing off that gun, like all the Erasers in the yard filled with moonlight were to blame for the dead girl down the hall. That would be all fifty-seven Erasers down in less than eight seconds, a Flock record by any standards. Shadows ran a few feet and flung herself into the air, snapping out a pair of midnight black wings. There was a flash of a girl huddled into herself, with a cat tail wrapped around her body and her cat ears folded back against her head on Shadows' left wing for a second before she beat her wings down to gain height. Despite this new surprising information about Shadows I followed her lead, shooting into the sky with Shawn on my tail. It took Angelo a little more time to get into the air though soon we were all streamlining away from Second Branch. I was still learning about Shadows, the person she was was more of a confused mess then anything. Then there was that thing about Bryden. Suddenly she just latched onto him.

However no matter how many times I said her name she wasn't listening, I needed to get her attention. Finally I lost it and called her the name she had told me not to.

"Kayala."

She stopped and spun around, fire filling her eyes behind her glasses. I stopped too, with Angelo behind me looking a little confused, Iggy slumped on his back. I know she hated that name I had squeezed out of her when she told me what mine was about, and had warned me many times if I ever used it "You might not live to see the next moon". Those were her exact words.

Shawn glanced at me then at Shadows, slowly backing off.

I gave her a look to ask what was wrong, getting angry narrowed eyes back. The gun she had was clenched in her hand, a finger stiffly poised at the trigger. Believe me when I couldn't help but feel sorry for her. Shadows' eyes looked confused... hurt. Her jaw set tightly as if she was trying to hold back a flow of bitter words or even a scream of frustration. With another second of her fiery gaze Shadows quickly turned mid-flap and shot off, quickly disappearing into the darkness. "Shadows!" Angelo cried going off after her, followed by me and a confused to all hell Shawn. Soon enough though Angelo lost track of Shadows in the darkness, I on the other hand knew exactly where she was. I took lead finding no difficulty flying with Bryden hanging precariously over my shoulder.

"Fang what the hell is going on here!" Angelo yelled over the howling wind. I tore my eyes away from the darkness Shadows disappeared into to glance at Angelo. Since I had last seen Angelo he seemed to have grown much older than he was, along with acquiring a scar that went across his right eye and eyebrow. Right now I had no time to wonder where that came from and how the hell he had kept his hair orange. Shadows was much more important.

At this rate we couldn't lose Shadows, the last thing we needed was for her to go back to the Organization. She was having her own doubts on why she left the Organization in the first place; she had told me the story. 'Don't act stupid, don't act stupid.' I thought hoping in some of the weird conditions that she would get that urge.

Angling myself down I shot into a steep dive into the trees, Angelo following after me with an annoyed cry of protest. It seemed that Angelo hated not getting answers when he knew there were some. Landing roughly on a thick branch of an oak tree I took Bryden off my shoulder leaning him against the trunk. He had regained consciousness and was lightly holding onto a branch near his head as if to stop him from falling.

"Why are we stopping we're too close to the–" Angelo's protest was cut off by a gun shot. The bullet just barely missed him, a few strands of orange hair floated towards the ground. Through the break of leaves I could see Shadows sprawled clumsily against the base of a tree, gun pointed in Angelo's direction, her bangs falling over her glasses. The fire in her eyes was as intense as ever fury readable on her face. "Ahhhhh..." Angelo made a sound as if he was trying to speak with a tight throat. It was clear Angelo knew what Shadows was capable of, the way he stayed frozen where he was to not have her shoot again told me that much. But if Angelo knew about Shadows shooting at him wasn't going to make him trust her. "Kayala–" I said under my breath. I moved my head just far enough over the bullet didn't hit me. She really didn't like that name.

"Call me that again and I won't miss." Shadows growled.

"What the hell are we doing, we can't stop so close to Second Branch! And if you keep freaking shooting at us they're gonna come straight here!" Angelo cried out in frustration. I have to admit it looked funny when his face was the only thing changing while he stayed frozen crouching on the branch, hands white knuckle tight around the bark. With a growling sigh Shadows lowered her gun. I think she was being moody because she was confused and we had left her own gun at Second Branch. The one Shadows had in her hand wasn't the elaborate black polish sheen one she usually had. "Jeez hissy fit." Owen muttered. Of course the moment things were resolved they just got worse. The smell hit me like a runaway freight train, familiar yet disgusting at the same time. It was moving quickly towards us from behind Shadows. She jumped up; whirling around to face whatever was coming at us.

"Get out of my territory."

Oh shit.

A rogue-


Shadows' POV

Werewolf.

Ironically enough he was calling something he hadn't yet marked. This wasn't his territory he was just saying that. Definitely a rogue werewolf though, they're the only werewolves that have bright red blood shot eyes. This one was just on the verge of going to psychopath-land. It looked like he hadn't had any sleep at all with dark rings under his bright eyes, his hollow face an unnatural grey brown colour and his bristle grey blond hair falling out in patches. A very, very sick rogue werewolf. Good thing I've had my rabies shots.

"Get out of my territory. You're kind aren't allowed here." He growled fiercely his eyes shooting up to the guys in the trees, locking on Iggy. "And get that thing out of here! Are you trying to attract all the leaches from this area?" I guess he knew about the experiments and by the sounds of things he didn't like them. Being what I was wasn't going to help us get calmly out of this situation. I was about to speak when the werewolf howled in rage, charging at me with a maddened glare in his eyes. I swiftly jumped out of the way.

I found he was being clumsily when he suddenly morphed and lunged at me from close range getting his teeth around my neck. Typical behaviour from a rogue, break your opponent's neck. Thing is I wasn't that stupid. I rammed my elbow hard into his rib cage, a few bones helplessly gave way. For safety sake (because having your neck in the jaws of a rogue werewolf was safe enough) I slammed my fist against one of his eyes. With a yowl the werewolf released my neck backing up a couple steps. He definitely had his experience fighting before because he barely gave me enough time to turn around before he attacked again. All I saw was a flash of molting grey-brown before he latched onto my arm tugging like a enraged Rottweiler. A jab to his bright red eye with my fingers made him let go, stumbling back as his whole left eye turned red with blood.

I finally got a shot glimpse of my attacker. He looked even worse as a wolf. He was huge to begin with, but with the least amount of meat I've ever seen on a werewolf. His fur was in falling out patches all over his hollow body. I could easily see his ribs and any other bones sticking out and his back sagged in the middle. I was surprised how well this werewolf was fighting in his condition much less living. Then again rogue werewolves will always be a mystery. I was braced for another attack when Fang jumped down from his branch, sprinting straight at the werewolf, fury all over his face. "Kiba you idiot!" I screamed just in time for the idiot to attack the werewolf. But Fang was gone; replacing him was a dark pitch black wolf with brown highlights and dark eyes with gold flecks in them. That idiot didn't understand that no newborn werewolf could take on an adult rogue werewolf.

Fang latched onto the neck of the werewolf just as the werewolf had done to me, but definitely wasn't expecting for the wolf to twist his neck around and bite Fang's neck. With a howl Fang let go but the werewolf was set on the kill. It took a hard down kick on the rogue's head to make the werewolf open his jaws wide enough for Fang to rip himself away. By now there were puddles of blood popping up all over the grass; next to none of the bloodshed was the rogue's blood. I did my best blinding the werewolf with some dirt in his face to haul Fang back growling angrily in his ear. "Idiot how could you be so careless!" I got an eager growl back. Of course the thrill of a fight was dominant in a newborns mind even if Fang knew he couldn't take this werewolf down. That's when I looked in his eyes and realized that Fang thought all werewolves were equal in power. Oh fantastic...

I roughly shoved Fang out of the way as the werewolf came at us again. Apparently I wasn't on his main course seeing as he instantly lunged at Fang, teeth tearing into Fang's back. Even on a werewolf that was going to leave a mark. Any other time I would have attacked back regularly. Any other werewolf I'd fight like usual. But when Fang's pain-filled howl hit my ears something inside just snapped. Maybe that was the downfall to being Lupesangs, the need to protect each other. I couldn't help it, the rage and confusion took over and the very bottle I longed to keep shut violently burst open.

The change was quick, the adrenaline made it so I couldn't feel any pain from all my bones breaking at once and reforming, my muscles ripping forming over my new structure. My clothes were in rags within seconds bright white fur taking their place. I dropped down on all fours, my lips pulling over long lethal canines as I growled at the werewolf with Fang in its jaws. I lunged forward, swiping my large paw the size of a man's chest with sword like claws across the werewolf's muzzle. Compared to me the werewolf was pup size and Fang, who was pretty large for a werewolf himself, like a abnormally large pup. My size panicked the werewolf enough that he took a few steps back. But rogues think they can take on anything no matter the size. He jumped, claws sticking into my side, and jaw into my back. It still hurt like hell, but he was more than in pain when I grabbed him with my own jaws that crushed his rib cage. I flung him off into a tree where he collapsed into a lifeless pile.

Fang was on his side, panting hoarsely, lying in a small puddle of his own blood. I padded over to him, my eyes narrowing at his. Fang's ears laid against his head, his eyes half closing. He knew he had acted carelessly, and he knew I was pissed at him; my bright violet eyes filled with fire was a dead giveaway. My glasses and the remains of my clothes were off near the base of the tree where I morphed; up in the trees above Orangey, Bryden and Shawn were looking at us in utter disbelief.

I guess I forgot to mention to everyone that I was a half werewolf. Except Fang because I'm the one that transformed him into one.


Holy freaking crap, after almost half a year hiatus I've FINALLY gotten another chapter of AOM up! And I completely HATED this chapter to begin with! I'm surprised I'm not typing in capitals right now too... I'm terribly sorry for the long wait, I lost the chapter when I wanted to add someone's character in and we had problems. I was trying to create alternate versions to adapt to what I was going to get but I never got the chapter back and I lost my original version in all the alternates. So I had to re-plan this whole friggin chapter from scratch. Akiko is not happy. So this crappy thing came out through the Writer's Block. DE was complaining that either he'd get a bunch more reviews or I'd post a new chapter so well, I did. DE I know that was a chapter or two ago that you asked for this but it's come late so Merry Christmas, Happy Birthday, whatever. Sorry I'm tired, sore an cold thus I am grumpy, gloomy and depressed. Thank Utada something-or-other's song Sanctuary from KH II for the chapter update because that song gave me just the right mood for this X3 Any way please don't expect a update soon (reviewers: BOOOOO) because I got ahead of myself and created alternates to the other chapters after this and I really only have bits of waaaaay future chapters planned out. Hoping to get something done within a month or two but no promises. So as always

Hang on and endure a little longer,
^^Akiko~