A ban on interactive fics? What the...? Sheesh. You go drinking for a week, and the whole world goes to Hell. Oh, well. If the unlikely happens and they actually start to delete interactive fics, rest assured that this little baby will be re-uploaded in the 'originals' section, with one or two changes.

Oh, well - on with the show. I know I said not to expect any updates until mid-September, but I got my log-in at Copenhagen U., and the truth is that I can't keep my hands away from the fic for extended periods of time. Sad, I know *sigh*. Oh, yeah - and Genesis and Exodus, the next two chapters, should hopefully be out soon, too. Well, before the end of the month, anyway.

A/N 1: You know the drill - ideas for fic and character development, questions, plotbunnies, suggestions, flames, character pictures, ficlets, corrections, additions, comments, and everything in between can be mailed to hack_heaven@usa.net.

A/N 2: T'Girl: More couples? Not telling ^^

Italics indicates thoughts/telepathy

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Chapter Fifty-Five: Judges

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"Why?"

The word, although quiet, rang through the air like a shout, piercing the silence that had been unbearable already before Ben and Aaron had woken up and found themselves trapped in the cell.

Jhonen looked up, meeting Ryan's unwavering gaze, and felt an uneasiness enter his body. He didn't want to answer, didn't want to get into the unavoidable argument with his former leader, but he also knew that he couldn't just remain silent. He'd made his choice, and already as a child, he'd learned that he should be ready to defend his choices.

And still, he didn't want to.

What am I supposed to say? Jhonen wondered quietly. 'Hey, Ryan. Sorry I betrayed all of you, and helped your nemesis kill Prue, but the Shadow Alliance gave me a better offer'?

"Don't you think you owe us an explanation?" Ryan continued, his voice unyielding, but his eyes still revealed the pain and betrayal he felt.

"You wouldn't understand," Jhonen replied defensively, and immediately realized how childish the argument sounded. "You don't know what I've been through."

Ryan arched an eyebrow.

"I don't know what you're been through?" he repeated. "I've lived on the streets, too, Jhonen. I know exactly what it feels like to be tired and lonely and hungry. And I also know how important loyalty to your friends is if you want to survive on out there. Quit lying and tell Ben and me the real reason. Don't you think you owe us, at least?" he asked harshly, but there was no reaction from the boy. "How could you do something like that? Blade is a killer - they all are. How could you even consider helping them?!"

Jhonen remained silent, unable to form a suitable reply. His thoughts and emotions made sense to himself, but once he tried to explain them in words, it came out all wrong. After listening to Ryan, he wanted to defend himself, to tell his two former teammates that he'd made the right decision, but somehow he couldn't.

"How could you even consider helping the humans?" Aaron challenged and stepped in, having seen Jhonen's uncertainty, and wanting to help his new friend. "It's the same thing - how can you defend them after all they've done to us?"

Ryan's attention snapped from Jhonen to Aaron, his mind having all but forgotten about the young mutant.

"Not all humans are evil," Ryan replied carefully, knowing that Aaron was up to something, but not quite certain what it was. "We shouldn't judge their entire race on the actions of the minority."

"The minority?" Aaron replied, a forked tongue swiping out, tasting the air. "They wouldn't be able to pull something like this off if they'd only been supported by the minority." The words were slow, calm, and deliberate, the 's'-sounds drawn out into hisses, giving the sentences a snake-like quality.

"The only reason why they've been able to get away with this, is because that minority holds the real power on this continent," Ryan argued. "It's only a matter of time before the public realizes what is happening and starts to fight against it. The human race is not evil by nature."

"Easy for you to say!" Aaron snapped. "Do you really think the humans are willing to accept someone who looks like this?" he asked, indicating his scales and sharp fangs. "The only reason why you and the rest of your team can walk safely on the streets, is because they think you're like them - the moment they realize you're a mutie, they'll start to hate you, too."

"He's right," Jhonen said, finally stepping into the argument. "You look normal, and so do Ben and I. We can all pass for humans. That's why we've never been noticed by the normals."

"You're forgetting that Suzuka has black and golden hair," Ryan pointed out. "And she's never had any problems."

"Golden hair can be explained by hair dye," Aaron replied disgusted. "You've never seen how the humans look at Hal and me - they treat us like we've have some kind of disease. You can defend them all you want, but until *you've* been at the receiving end their so-called 'tolerance', you have no idea of what you're talking about."

"And you think that breaking the law is going to help change that opinion?" Ben asked, unable to just listen impassively anymore. "You're only making things worse."

"We're not trying to change the way they see us," Aaron hissed. "We're just trying to survive."

"But you couldn't extend the same courtesy to a fellow mutant?" Ryan asked coldly, and Jhonen winced.

"What are you talking about?" Aaron demanded, looking suspiciously from Ryan and to Ben and back again. He never noticed the faint look of guilt that finally showed on Jhonen's face, but Ryan did.

"Why don't you ask your new teammate?" he suggested. "I think he'll be more that willing to tell you what happened when he ran into Deirdre and Prue downtown."

Aaron looked at Jhonen, confusion obvious on his face.

"Jhonen?"

The boy looked away, but didn't reply. Without Laetitia to justify what had happened, he felt himself lose his confidence with each passing second. It had sounded so right when she had explained it to him, but now...

Aaron's eyes locked on Ryan again, demanding an explanation, and Ryan motioned towards Jhonen.

"Your new teammate here helped Blade, Nike, and Melee kill girl name Prue. It was cold-blooded murder - they cornered her and Seraphim in an alley and slit her throat," he explained, allowing some of the pain and anger he felt to show in his eyes. "She was innocent, and there was nothing she could have done to defend herself."

Aaron's eyes widened slightly, and he looked at Jhonen again, silently asking the other to deny what happened, and say it was all a cruel lie.

"It's true," Jhonen finally admitted and looked away.

"How could you-" Aaron began, but cut himself off as he suddenly realized something. Cretes had said that Laetitia had been downtown, too, and Aaron remembered all too well how much attention the Greek mercenary had shown their latest teammate. She didn't give people that much attention unless she had an ulterior motive, and in this case that motive was so obvious that Aaron had to wonder why he hadn't thought of it before. Laetitia had always been disturbingly fond of mindgames, and someone as innocent as Jhonen would have been the perfect toy. And with Blade and Jordane to back her up...

He never had a chance, Aaron realized.

"Your team might survive, but other people pay the price," Ryan said and watched Aaron carefully. "Do you really want to live with the knowledge that the road to your freedom is paved with the bodies of the people your teammates have killed?"

"It's not like that," Aaron denied. "You think we have any control of what Blade and Nike do? They would have done the same thing even if we hadn't been there."

"So you just stand back and accept it?" Ryan demanded.

"We do what we have to do to survive, Cretes. You can't blame us for that," Aaron snapped, his almost unnaturally even patience starting to wear thin.

"Even if it means following the orders of a killer?" Ryan asked, anger and disbelief fighting for control.

Aaron hesitated for only fragments of a second, then raised his head, eyes narrowing coldly.

"If you mean a killer who saved my life and took me in from the streets...then yes. I'd follow him."

And for the first time ever, Ryan realized that Aaron just might be as dangerous as the rest of the Shadow Alliance after all.

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"You made a deal with *them*?!" Suzuka repeated angrily, making the last word sound like an insult...which it probably was, Kyle realized. He'd tried to explain the situation to Suzuka as well as he could and make her understand the danger they were in, but to no avail. As he'd feared, her hatred towards the Shadow Alliance had taken over completely, and he was pretty sure that only her headache and lack of powers kept her from trying to kill Blade.

Blade...

Kyle looked briefly at the man, partially from suspiciousness, partially out of curiosity about how he would take Suzuka's harsh words. Not surprisingly, the only reaction he showed was a small smirk as he watched the Japanese girl, clearly amused by her anger.

"How could you do something like that?!" Suzuka demanded, and Kyle sighed. She wouldn't be very open to logic when she was like this, so it would be next to impossible to talk some sense into her. 

"Suzuka..." he began, but was interrupted as Blade stepped away from the now conscious Jordane and walked closer.

"He did it because he has something called 'common sense'...which you so clearly lack," he said, the hint of an arrogant smile touching his lips as he deliberately picked the words that would infuriate Suzuka the most.

Kyle tightened his grip on Suzuka, but it was already too late - with the strength that came only with anger she tore herself lose, and got out on the cold floor, glaring angrily at Blade. A movement from Jordane's bed caught Kyle's attention, and he saw the girl getting up, a worried expression on her face.

A brief look at Suzuka and Blade revealed that they had discovered the same thing, and Blade held up his hands, causing Jordane to stop with obvious reluctance.

"Blade..." she tried, never taking her eyes off Suzuka, but Blade just shook his head.

"No."

Jordane remained unmoving for a moment, then sighed almost inaudibly and took a few steps back. Kyle had watched the entire scene carefully, and added this new development to the mental file marked 'the Shadow Alliance'. Truth be told, he had never paid much attention to Jordane - yes, she was Blade's second in command, but there were other, more dangerous members of the group. But maybe it was time to change that - Blade's order hadn't held its usual coldness, and that alone was enough to suggest that maybe Jordane was more important than they had ever suspected.

Suzuka took a step closer to Blade, and Kyle forced the thoughts aside and focused on the two persons on the floor. Blade arched an eyebrow, the arrogant gesture only serving to infuriate Suzuka even further.

For a moment Kyle considered stepping between the two, but quickly realized that it would be useless - both were better fighters than he was, and Suzuka was beyond reasoning. Instead he took a step back to get out of the way, silently hoping that things wouldn't get out of hand.

Blade watched Kyle out of the corner of his eye, then turned his attention to Suzuka again. With a deliberately slow movement, he let his eyes take in her appearance, letting his gaze linger on the newly healed cut on her cheek, a faint, pale mark still visible on her skin.

"It seems like your healer did a good job fixing you," he remarked.

Suzuka didn't reply, but clenched her fists tightly in an attempt to keep her temper in check, the knuckles turning white from the strength she used. Blade smirked, amused by the thinly veiled anger the girl showed, and continued in a deceptively casual voice.

"Tell me...how have you been? It's been a while since we last had the chance to...talk." The last word was said with a faint, confident smile, and Suzuka's eyes blazed with fury at his nonchalance.

Her pain forced aside by the adrenaline in her body, Suzuka's patience finally snapped and she charged Blade with an angry growl. The man deflected her attack in the nick of time, and Suzuka felt a cold satisfaction at the thought that she'd actually managed to take him by surprise for once.

"What's wrong, Heron? Getting old?" she taunted, but much to her dismay, Blade didn't allow the insult to get to him.

"Such harsh words...I thought you'd learned by now that experience more than outweighs youthful enthusiasm," he replied, watching her carefully. This wasn't the first time he'd tried to fight without his powers, but the sudden loss of his telepathy - and thus his ability to predict an opponent's next move - combined with the decrease in his strength still took him by surprise. It wasn't going to help Suzuka much, though - now that he'd become aware of his sudden weakness, he would also be able to compensate for it.

And the best way to do that would be to keep the element of surprise on his side.

Without warning, Blade attacked, and even though Suzuka was prepared, she was fragments of a second too slow. She ducked his first strike, then lashed out at him, but driven by blind fury she had forgotten that a second attack was far from unthinkable. She only realized her mistake as Blade spun around, sending her to the ground with a well-placed kick, and Suzuka knew that only years of training had saved her from serious injuries. She got back on her feet before Blade could attack again, and the two slowly circled each other, both determined not to underestimate their opponent again.

Kyle took a step forward, starting to worry about Suzuka, but a hand on his arm stopped him. He turned his head, and was surprised to find Jordane watching him with a serious look in her eyes.

"Don't - you can't stop them, anyway," she said quietly, her eyes leaving Kyle's for a moment to rest on Blade instead.

Kyle didn't like it one bit, but he had to admit that she was right. He wouldn't be able to talk some sense into the two fighters when they were like that; nobody would. At best they would ignore him. At worst...Kyle didn't want to think about that option.

Kyle stepped back and looked at Jordane, but she was silent, her attention focused on Blade once more.

Well...that was interesting, Kyle mused, then pushed the thought aside and turned his attention to the fight instead.

Out on the floor, Blade and Suzuka still circled each other slowly, occasionally charging, although the attacks were more tests of the other, rather than meant to cause any serious injuries. Slowly, deliberately, both watched and waited for that one moment where the other would let down their defenses and leave themselves open to attacks for a few, brief seconds.

Suzuka let her eyes flicker across the room, unconsciously checking on Kyle, and that one, brief moment was all Blade needed. He attacked immediately, and even though Suzuka saw him move, she didn't have nearly enough time. She felt herself hit the wall forcefully, followed by a sharp pain as Blade pinned her against the cold concrete of the wall, doing his best to keep her subdued. Suzuka fought her arm loose and hit him in the shoulder with as much strength as she could muster in her current situation, but Blade ignored the pain and merely tightened his grip on Suzuka, anger all too visible in his eyes.

"You keep provoking me, girl, and Sanderson dies. Do we understand each other?" Blade whispered harshly, his voice low enough so that only Suzuka would be able to hear him.

Suzuka glared hatefully at him. "What? Are you afraid to lose, so you'll threaten Kyle instead? Coward!" she hissed. 

"No. I just don't intend to let myself be slowed down by a useless sense of honor," was the cold reply. "Now what's it going to be, Twilight? Either you and Sanderson live, or you both die. The choice is yours."

"This isn't over," Suzuka growled angrily.

Not the slightest bit intimidated by her threat, Blade stroked Suzuka's cheek lightly where the scar from knife-wound was. Disgusted at the gesture, the girl turned her head away, and the man smirked coldly and took a step back.

"I'm glad we reached an agreement," his said, this time in his normal voice.

Suzuka didn't reply, but the cold fire in her eyes said all that needed to be said. She would kill Blade...or die trying.

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