Don't own Tasha and Artemis! They belong to Midnight Insanity and Unbreakable Jade!

"They're getting closer..." Marth whispered to Kirra, who nodded slowly, but didn't allow her eyes to leave the floor. Marth looked to his left, at his sister, who seemed to be in some sort of trance, and then let his eyes wander to the other six people sitting in the dank van with them. The only splash of colour was in the red stripes that marked the collar and hem of their black Senshi battle clothing. Tasha was leaning back against the wall of the van, eyes closed, hair brushed out of her face. She was either completely relaxed, or she was completely insane. Scratch that, if she wasn't nervous she was insane anyway.

Artemis was sitting forward, looking as though if she opened her mouth she'd be sick. Lita was much the same way; with her face deathly pale and her golden eyes dim with worry. Kurai didn't look as nervous as his sister, but he sat, his gaze fixed on something that they couldn't see. Mahalia sat in an apparently relaxed pose, however her eyes darted around violently, as though expecting an attack any moment. Kamali sat next to Kirra, occasionally letting himself catch a swift glance of the pink-haired woman, before his eyes once again became glassy- completely focused on the task ahead, knowing what was most likely going to come to his friends, and those he cared about. His gaze flickered to Kirra again and he grimaced.

The truck suddenly halted and Kirra's stomach gave an uncomfortable lurch as she came her senses and the realization of what was coming hit her. The back door of the truck swung open and the people inside were momentarily blinded by the sudden blast of dim sunlight that hit their faces.

There, standing directly in front of the exit of the truck, was Kirra's least favourite person in the entire world, Trent Loch. Loch was a tall, superior looking man of his late twenties to early thirties in age. He had light sandy coloured hair that was buzz-cut so as not to be an irritation and harsh, black eyes that looked rather gorilla-like to Kirra. Frankly, all he looked like from a distance was a big dumb ape that had escaped the local zoo- all he needed was the banana and the index finger up his nostril.

"Come on, hurry up and get out. This truck has to go back to get the last few Senshi at top speed," Loch said in a loud voice so the driver understood he might as well hurry up if he valued his life.

"Is my sister dead?" Kirra questioned.

"You would know better than I would," Loch replied.

"Assuming that's a no- I was just wondering, seeing only over her dead body, would you be ordering us around."

"This army needs someone with a strong will and a level head to lead them, and neither you nor your brother have both of these qualities."

"And you do?" Marth questioned.

"Better than you two know," Loch snarled. "Now do as I say." With that, he began walking forward, planning to position then for battle.

Kirra winced but followed him, and, judging by the expression on her face, was thinking of unimaginable plots of revenge to practice. Her squadron followed her, and Marth followed them.

"About time I met someone around here with a level head..." Tasha muttered. Artemis looked disgusted by the man's aggro nature and by her female companion's apparent appreciation of it.

"Where are the Holy Beings?" Loch barked at Kirra who winced as she felt his spit hit her cheek.

"They're coming. They should be here any moment now, in fact."

"Excellent. We'll be using them as fixed artillery with their long-ranged attacks."

"You're insane," Kirra stated plainly. "The bit beasts are at their best when they're dedicated to physical combat."

"When you can shoot projectiles, you can stay behind and let the bit beasts fight," Loch spat, but this time, his face broke into a grin. "But I wouldn't put it past you... and I really shouldn't. Come on, little golden kitten... show me."

Kirra simply kept her eyes locked with his, refusing to move a muscle, even to blink, determined not to let his ridiculous coaxing draw out her feline blood.

Kamali frowned. Sure, he'd heard a lot of rumours about the Kon family, the people he worked for, but he'd always assumed they were just ridiculous stories that had been heard through one too many grapevines and simply chose to ignore them. But there was one story; just one... about Rei and Mao being chosen by the Holy Beings of China to father and mother one of their fallen comrades- it was a real myth. But myths are generally fiction... it wasn't true... was it?

Loch finally backed away from Kirra and smirked.

"They will be used the way I want them to."

"Hope you're the first to die then," Kirra hissed. "But you won't be... I can smell the fear in your heart... you want the nice army to protect you while you're shitting yourself back in your tent."

"Not true."

No one said anything for a little while after that, but Loch spun around suddenly as the whole group heard a truck approaching in the distance.

"That will be the second batch... kindly excuse me while I go and brief them."

"You're excused... anything to get you away from me," Kirra hissed after him.

Kamali sighed.

"Kirra, perhaps if you didn't get so worked up over small matters..."

"Small matters? SMALL MATTERS! My family has been in control of this company from the beginning and..."

"... And as soon as your sister finds out about this guy, she'll shut him down. You shouldn't worry so much," Kamali whispered, touching Kirra lightly on the shoulder in what he hoped was a comforting way. Kirra flinched and jerked away immediately, but spun around and gave the man a grave sort of smile.

The Hiwatari twins were standing next to each other fixated on a small black dot in the distance, looking utterly terrified. Kirra noticed this and stared and the black dot too, which was gradually growing bigger. At that point, Kirra registered what it was and sprang into the air to meet it.

A black humanoid, much like the one her sister had described to her from the past, was flying to wards her at top speed, and was now screeching at the top of its high-pitched voice.

"Shit!" Kirra snarled, beginning to fly towards the creature. It noticed her, and it grinned to expose its metallic fangs. It swiped at Kirra, who dodged behind its back, and stuck her fist through the nape of its neck. It hissed, and black, oily blood spilled from the wound and onto Kirra's arm, before it disappeared completely.

"A scout!" she shouted. "They know where we are..."

'In that case, I hope the others get here quickly then,' Kirra heard Marth's voice echo through her head.

'So do I... otherwise we might as well say goodbye...'

"What do people do on honeymoons?" little Kirra quizzed her uncle-cum-babysitter whilst sitting on his lap and staring straight into his eyes, so that they were practically nose-to-nose.

"I assume they spend time with each other and talk about how much they love each other," Lee hastily explained whilst sweatdropping and knowing exactly what his sister and best friend were doing on their honeymoon.

"Haven't you ever been on a honeymoon, Uncle Lee?"

"No, I've never married someone."

"Is it because no one likes you?" Kirra questioned understandably. (AN: I do Lee! snugs him)

Lee sweatdropped at his niece's question but decided to put up with it a little bit longer.

"No, just haven't found the right person yet, I suppose."

"You mean you have to love the person a lot to make that sort of commitment?" Kirra questioned.

"Big words for an eight-year-old," Lee commented.

"That's what Daddy told me."

"Yes, well, your Mum and Dad do love each other a lot, thus proven by the fact that they spent the majority of their twenties' literally joined at the hips and granting me nieces and a nephew," Lee's voice got darker as he continued to talk.

"Oh." Kirra looked kind of confused but didn't appear to find. "They told me babies came from the stalk, not from your hips."

Lee didn't reply, instead, he seemed to be glaring darkly into the distance at something that was apparently invisible to everyone else and think horrible, vexing, brotherly thoughts.

Meanwhile, Trinity and Marth had managed to dig up a rather ancient looking bag of peanuts and were currently taking great delight in throwing them at Tyson and laughing when he caught them in his mouth.

"Aa, he's so good with the children..." Hiromi sighed wistfully. Lee gave her a strange look, and turned away, highly unwilling to get caught up in the brunette woman's daydreams.

"Uncle Lee, will you stay here after Mum and Dad come back?" Kirra questioned.

"I might for a while, but I really don't stay in any place very..." Lee was cut off by a violent choking sound, made by Tyson, who was currently gagging on one of the thrown peanuts. Hiromi walked over and gave him a swift whack between the shoulder blades and the half-digested piece of food flew across the room and left a rather obvious mark on the white wall.

Lee sighed and went to get something to wipe the disgusting THING off the wall with.

'It's like I'm babysitting five, not three. And the two that are supposed to be helping me are more trouble than the kids!'

The other Senshi were now starting to arrive in swarms which was comforting Kirra somewhat, but she couldn't help but look at some of the ones she knew slightly better than the others and thinking, 'I might never see them again...'

The bit beasts were currently lined up in front of the human soldiers and were looking rather grim, regardless of the fact that most of their faces were set into permanent scowls anyway. Dranzer had assumed his beast form and was preening himself- he obviously thought that if he wasn't going to make it, he might as well look intimidating and impressive. A few embers flew from under the great Phoenix's wings and landed on Mysticala's ear, which she quickly twitched to rid herself of the itching of the weak burn.

Next to Mysticala was it's male next-of-kin, Mysticisia, who was flicking his spotted tail in a rather impatient sort of way. Keturah growled very slightly as the spotted tail of the third mystic hit the very edge of one of her luminous scales but the smaller feline bit beast made no attempt to retaliate, but didn't seem scared to do so, even though the black dragon was at least three times his size.

Lugi was a little farther away from the three other bit beasts, next to what looked like a giant elephant beast that was struggling to return to its bit chip. A rather short looking girl of about 15 years walked over and shouted something to the holy being, which immediately quietened down.

Kirra was standing with Kamali and Kurai to each side of her, and Mahalia stood next to Kamali, grasping her blade of choice. The older woman's dark eyes were dimmed with worry and she flicked her silvery hair back over her shoulder determinedly.

Lita was next to her brother, grasping her small scimitar with pure white knuckles and whimpering very softly. Kurai was muttering something under his breath, and from what you could hear, it appeared he was revising battle tactics. Artemis had no battle tactics to revise and was looking rather frightened, but still wore a face that exuded undying determination. Tasha frowned into the distance with utter focus, grasping the hilt of the small blade she'd chosen for herself as a precaution. Marth yanked his dark red, fingerless gloves up as high as they could possibly go on his hands and clenched his fists.

The darkening horizon was looking evermore impending as a mass of black figures appeared, outlined by the sunlight- they were about a kilometre away, Kirra estimated, and they were moving at an exponential pace.

"Make sure you don't show them any mercy, like you showed me earlier today, Kamali," Kirra whispered, "Because you won't receive any in return."

The man nodded and Kirra let her gaze wander to him for a moment- he wore an expression of the utmost dedication and ferocity that she herself was impressed.

"Bit beasts! Take aim! This is only the first assault, it won't be too damaging to our ranks," Loch's voice echoed.

'There about five hundred of them... we're almost evenly matched, and they won't send any more tonight... and they're some of the weakest...' Marth thought, frowning very slightly in concentration.

"All right! 'Cala!"

"'Cisia!"

The two felines took aim, and so did Dranzer, knowing that he was supposed to follow the orders of the two neko-jin.

"Mystic Melody!" Marth and Kirra shouted in unison. The two felines took aim before letting loose the echoing and loud but rather beautiful melody at the enemy. About twenty of the front ranks dissipated, but this only encouraged the remaining ones further.

Dranzer spread its blazing wings and let out a loud and defiant call, and three orbs of fire shot from each wing. Each one of these hit, and apparently caused 'splash-damage' that spread out and killed any other that was stupid enough to be close to the attack.

"Firebolt!" Tasha commanded of her holy being, and a bright flash of fire that managed to destroy about fifteen of the creatures. The other bit beasts were now also letting loose with their attacks and killing about five of the creatures at a time, but the ones that had managed to avoid the attacks were speeding towards the human portion of the Senshi army...

A sickening crack was heard as one such one's face met with Kirra's fist, and fell over, howling in agony, before falling limp. Kirra withdrew her katana and spun it around in a sort of battle pose, all in one swift gesture, and yelled, "Now!"

Her squadron sprang forward, closely followed my Marth's and the rest of groups. One of the robots hissed at Kirra but she drove her blade through its open mouth and it simply exploded into a shower of sparks. She then sprung forward and nailed three in a row, whilst counting up for four.

Marth eyed four of the cyborgs, which were apparently trying to entrap him, and swiftly swept his sword around and decapitated the lot of them. His eyes caught Kirra's and they both held up four fingers.

"Not bad, little brother," Kirra shouted, before simply sticking her fist outward and letting one of the robots crash into her fist, and then held up five fingers.

"But you'll need to do better."

Marth scowled focused on one of the things that was currently circling Mysticisia and gave it a kick to the stomach, and it fell over and didn't get back up.

Meanwhile, Tasha found herself engulfed by the creatures. She winced and sliced at one with her katana, and it vanished, but the others kept coming. Eventually they had encircled her, and she did what any normal person would have done in that situation, and screamed.

Marth spun around and the sound of the dark-haired girl's voice, and dashed over, readying his katana...

But Loch beat him, and swung inexpertly at the creatures, which, lucky for him, seemed to be the weakest of the lot. After all, how else could have that retard killed them?

"You have to watch it out here. You don't know when they're going to gang up on you like that," he said professionally to Tasha, who took the hand he had outstretched and was pulled back onto her feet. Marth grimaced but spun back into where the thick of the attack was being focused.

Meanwhile, Kamali had managed to very professionally lose his weapon and was currently attacking the creatures physically, and looking exhausted from the extra effort this was taking. Kirra wiped a splatter of oil off her face and watched as Kamali flailed about in a rather weak attempt at an attack.

"Here, take it!" she called out, tossing her own katana to Kamali, who caught it by the hilt and stared at her, apparently surprised at her actions. Kirra smiled so Kamali smiled back and then refocused on what they were aiming to do. Kirra then took the time to grin somewhat insanely and dash forward to meet the nearest of the attackers head-on.

Dranzer twisted around violently in the air, trying to rid himself of one of the mechanical humanlike things that had managed to grab onto his long, graceful tail feathers. Kirra snorted at the site of Dranzer screeching loudly at the creature, which was smiling as it tore at the handful of smouldering plumage it had managed to grasp. Kirra dashed over and locked eyes with Dranzer, who gave her an angry golden glare. Kirra simply swung her fist at the attacker and it went down.

"Does the big parrot need a feline's help to have his own hide?"

Dranzer simply flapped its broad wings and took off to find anyone else who would dare to oppose him. Kirra grinned and dashed into the middle of the fray, desperate to show them that this was her; she was who she was, and she certainly wasn't 'only human'.

"They're beating us back!" Xan hissed, opening his eyes for the first time in the past hour.

"It's only our first assault, we'll be able to rebuild the ranks and come back at them, first light tomorrow. Those that are left alive will need replenished energy. And the five we're after for the different reasons are still out there somewhere..."

"Excellent, Master," Xan commented, "I will recall the remaining live ones of our side and bring them back to their barracks."

"Fifty-one, fifty-two, fifty-three..." Kirra counted cheerfully as she did various violent things to the few remaining of the first attackers. Suddenly, all of them froze in place, and many of the Senshi that were fighting them halted in surprise.

"What..." Marth muttered as the forty-seventh combatant he'd faced suddenly spun around and retreated at top speed, as did its comrades.

"We've beaten them!" Loch shouted, and a collective cheer rose from the already exhausted warriors. Kamali smiled and looked around for Kirra, but when he saw her his smile faded. She stared after the retreating battalion with a ferocious frown fixed on her face, and her golden eyes had darkened from concern.

"Kirra! What's wrong?" Kamali asked, dashing past many relieved looking people to reach the pink haired woman, who made no reaction to his sudden arrival.

"They don't usually do that..." she murmured.

"You've seen them before?" Kamali asked.

Kirra nodded once, so slowly it was almost robotic, and then spun around on her heel to look directly into the face of her little brother who was sending her a confused look.

"I've never seen them retreat before, Kiz."

"It must be their ulterior motive."

"What ulterior motive?" Kamali asked, obviously thoroughly confused.

"Do you ever stop asking questions?" Kirra asked, obviously a little annoyed.

"Sorry..." Kamali said meekly.

"Rations!" Loch shouted, and Kirra winced at the sound of his voice. "Rations will be served in the large tent in the middle of the camp in fifteen minutes." He then turned to a younger person who stood up so straight he grew about three inches in height.

"Go to the medics tent and get them all down here. Tell them to identify the dead but leave them out there- we can't afford to be digging around corpses."

The kid nodded and rushed off at full pace. Kirra muttered something under her breath about Loch's cradle being rocked too close to the wall, and began walking across the sodden, muddy ground and up the hill towards their camp. Marth stretched and yawned before following her, and Kamali ran to catch up.

"What about the others?" Marth questioned.

"We'll meet up with them back at base."

Someone had conveniently placed a number of television screens that showed the official injured and the official dead of the Senshi ranks in the food tent, and Marth and Kirra took a place at a table very close to one of these screens.

"Nothing like eating your cold bowl of snot while reading the names of corpses..." Kirra muttered, trying to dig a forkful of the white mushy food onto her fork, and wrinkling her nose violently as it simply seeped through the tongs.

About five new names flashed up on the 'deceased' portion of the screen and a woman sitting about three tables away from them screamed hysterically and fainted, falling backwards onto the muddy floor whilst a few people made a grab for her, to help her up.

"Looks like her husband's gone," Marth muttered sympathetically, as he read down the list of names to find those associated with the woman who had passed out.

"Shame... such a shame..." Kirra muttered in reply. Her eyes flickered up to the screen again and she dropped her fork with a resounding clang, and her mouth dropped open to form a perfect circle.

"Kiz, what's..." Marth looked up at the screen, and saw what he'd been dreading.

Injured- K. Hiwatari, L. Hiwatari...

"Oh shit!" Kirra snarled. "I'm going over to see."

Marth nodded and stood up. The last thing the two siblings heard was Loch yelling something about telling him if anyone went missing, but they both ignored it, mainly because of the horrible feeling of foreboding that had overcome them both. There was one thing about the injured column that was a little unsettling- apparently 'injured' had been classified by their parents to mean something as simple as a broken ankle or being knocked out, to having no limbs and missing all your vital organs, whilst linked up to life support.

When they reached the pure white tent (which rather reminded Kirra of her own home), they stepped through the entrance of the tent and were immediately greeted by one of the doctors, who actually looked rather suspicious of them.

"Who are you looking for?" the doctor questioned feverishly.

"Lita and Kurai Hiwatari," Marth replied.

"Then you'll be relieved to know that they aren't too bad, compared to some of the other poor souls that ended up here. They should be dead, some of 'em- it'd be more humane than living in the state they're in right now."

Kirra felt her stomach begin to un-knot and Marth gave a very slight sigh of relief. The doctor retreated into the tent and gestured for the two youngest children of Rei and Mao to follow him. Kirra ducked into the tent and Marth managed to get in with more of an incline of the head. They wandered past the mainly empty beds and tried to ignore most of the occupants, who looked rather worse for wear, with the majority of them moaning or screaming from pain.

After what seemed like forever to Kirra and Marth, they finally reached the beds of their niece and nephew.

"The boy copped a blow to the head- not serious enough to cause any damage to the brain, just enough to knock him out and give him a scar to remember it by. But the girl, however..." the doctor tried to refrain from smiling as he perused Lita's medical charts, "She appears to be suffering from severe shock."

Kirra felt as though the weight of the world had been lifted off her shoulders. "Thank you."

"No problem. The two of them will be able to return to their squadrons by about nine tonight."

"We're the leaders of their squadrons," Marth stated.

"I can see the resemblance between you four," the doctor stated back in a tone equally bored-sounding.

"Okay, we're their aunt and uncle too..."

"Everyone knows who you two are. And it's not just the fact that you're the mentors of the two Hiwatari kids or the second and third children of Kon Rei and Mao."

The silence that spread through the room after that was rather uncomfortable, so Kirra eventually decided to break it with a, "See you tonight at nine, then," and dashing off, with her brother close on her tail. The doctor's eyes followed the two people as they left and he grinned.

"No. You're famous for what you CAN be..."

Later that night, Marth sat up anxiously waiting for his young niece to be brought back to his tent. The doctor had said nine at night and it was already quarter to eleven, for God's sake! He eyed the rest of his teammates, who were asleep (AN: Or so he thinks) and launched himself up from his seated position on his rather creaky camp bed.

He grabbed his boxer shorts and white t-shirt from his rather kafuffled looking knapsack and began swiftly stripping out of his mud stained Senshi battle robes and yanking on his night-time clothes at full speed.

Tasha's blue eyes glinted in the moonlight as she watched her commander; when she'd first arrived at the Senshi barracks (merely a few hours ago) he'd seemed so arrogant but now she saw him so vulnerable he seemed rather endearing and handsome, as well as possessing the natural feline grace that could probably be traced far back into his bloodline.

He was rather well-muscled- not 'muscle-bound thug' well-muscled like Loch, but rather it was just enough to not make him look weak, and he had a nice tan that complemented his eyes.

At this point, Marth finished dressing himself (AN: My baby's growing up... sniffle) and spun around so abruptly that Tasha shut her eyes so rapidly that it didn't really look all that convincingly real. Marth frowned upon the dark-haired girl in suspicion for a moment, before dismissing what he thought he'd seen as ridicule and yanking his messy, shoulder-length black hair out of it's ponytail and finally swinging his feet up onto the camp bed and letting out a sigh.

About five minutes later, Tasha heard someone approach and she assumed it was the medics, coming to drop the Hiwatari kid off. She was right.

"Martheo Kon?"

Marth grunted and rolled over, finally looking up blurry-eyed at the medic who was carrying his niece on a stretcher bed with another medic behind him, supporting the back of the stretcher.

"We have the fourth member of your squadron. She'll be out of action for about a week for monitoring- I reckon that girl came darn near close to having a heart attack. She just wasn't ready for a battle of this calibre."

Marth nodded sleepily and gestured to Lita's bed, so the medics gently placed the sleeping girl onto the spare bed and left. Artemis rolled over in her sleep and let out a small sigh as the two men exited the tent, and Tasha could see her grasping her beyblade in the shafts of moonlight illuminating their tent.

Fifteen minutes later, Tasha could feel herself drifting off to sleep... she felt alert... tired, but alert, as she usually did. But her peace was shattered when she heard a voice whispering desperately to her squadron leader, him grunting some incomprehensible replies and eventually leaving the tent.

"Loch said we have to go find anyone who leaves the tent. I'll have to be the one to do it," she thought, swinging gracefully out of the bed and yanking her clothes on over the top of her underwear. "The stupid boy wouldn't know if his head was on fire, for all the attention he pays to his superiors..."

She finished redressing herself and wandered into the night, to find her leader.

'Something's not normal about their whole family; that's a well-known fact. I probably won't have to dig around much to get to the bottom of it, however. I need to find out why the Kon family has shrouded itself in secrecy for so long... could it be because of Marth and his sisters?

'But they do have plenty of enemies that would love to get their paws on Ray and Mariah... but I always assumed that it was just because of their fame as 'bladers... but this shows that you can never trust assumption...'

Tasha walked past the tent of Marth's sister, Kirralee, and heard his voice from inside.

"Aa, so this is where..." she murmured. And with that, she slipped into the tent.

Umm... very slightly flashback

Kirra slumped onto her uncomfortable camp bed and rolled over, trying to cut out the sound of Mahalia talking to Kamali. Kurai had long since fallen asleep, with the pure white bandage still wrapped around his head- the gash he'd sustained didn't appear to be too deep, and it wasn't bleeding at all now, so that was definitely a good sign. And Kirra felt relieved for this- he was out of action for at least a week, to watch for signs of concussion.

"Well... it's eleven pm, I reckon it's time for a little celebration," Mahalia's voice said from behind Kirra. This time Kirra rolled over, interested in what the older woman was up to.

"What's worth celebrating?" Kamali questioned.

"Surviving the first day," Mahalia answered, noticing Kirra's sudden attentiveness to what she was saying and smiling. She reached over into her black rucksack and withdrew two dark maroon coloured bottles... bottles that looked like they might hold alcohol...

"Saviour!" Kirra breathed, jumping out of bed and grabbing one of the three bottles that were now lying on the dirt floor. "You, Mahalia, are my own personal Jesus Christ."

"Don't forget it," Mahalia responded, her dark eyes dancing in amusement.

Kamali, however, looked uncertain.

"You sure we should be getting pissed, seeing that we have to get up and fight an omnipotent, inexhaustible army tomorrow?"

"Look at it this way; if you do get injured tomorrow, it'll hurt less if you have a hangover," Kirra replied, before an idea came to her... "I'll go get my brother, he's just a few tents away. Is there enough for him?"

Mahalia nodded and Kirra smiled. "I'll be back in two shakes of a lamb's tail, in that case."

Kirra stepped out of her tent and waited for her eyes to adjust to the dark. After sitting in a tent lit by a kerosene lamp, it was pretty hard to see in the dark for a while. After about thirty seconds, her eyes had adjusted and she could see almost perfectly, even in the moonless night. She crept past the few other tents until she got to where Marth and his team had set up camp, and was relieved to find that the lamp was still on in their tent too.

"Pst! Marth!" Kirra whispered hurriedly, and was a little agitated after he didn't answer. "Marth, are you asleep?"

"... I was..."

"Well... Mahalia's got us a little celebratory treat down at our tent. How about you come and celebrate surviving the first day with us?"

"Yeah... the other's are asleep... as long as they don't wake up I'll be fine."

"Good, are you coming?"

A few seconds later, Marth stepped out of the tent wearing nothing but his black boxers and white t-shirt.

"Ooh, very sexy, little brother. Trying to impress someone?"

Marth glared, but had to stop to stifle a yawn.

"Let's just go, Kiz, I'm tired..." he murmured once he'd stopped yawning.

"Of course. Wouldn't want you to be tired for 'impressing' that asshole tomorrow," Kirra whispered in reply, referring to Loch.

"He doesn't like us. Even if we killed the whole lot of those things I doubt he'd utter so much as a 'Good Work'," Marth growled, as Kirra nodded in agreement, and gestured to her brother that they should start moving.

When they got back to Kirra's tent, Mahalia and Kamali's faces both burst into grins.

"Good, you're back. You sure took your time," Mahalia commented.

"Good things come to those who wait."

"Good point," Mahalia whispered, withdrawing a corkscrew from her bag and sticking it into the top of the nearest bottle. Kirra's eyes lighted up and she licked her lips once, very slowly, like a hungry animal.

"Gimme that first one, will ya?"

Mahalia handed the bottle to Kirra, who took a long swig from the bottle, and, judging by the looks of things, done a pretty good job of almost draining it on the first go.

"Kirralee..." Kamali whispered.

"Kirra!" she snarled in reply, "How many times do I have to tell you?"

Marth's eyes widened as he sat down on his sister's unoccupied bed. She was a bitch, and no one could deny that (she herself actually seemed rather proud of the fact) but it was usually sarcasm rather than downright harshness.

Kamali fell silent, and muttered a hurried apology before averting his eyes and looking rather downhearted.

"That was rather harsh," a voice from the entrance to the tent stated. Kirra glared around to face Tasha Reeves who was standing at the entry of the tent and looking down on the small group of people with an emotion somewhere between suspicion and concern.

"Coming from you?" Kirra raised her eyebrows and gasped in mock surprise. Tasha rolled her eyes.

"You really are a bitch."

"Fuckin' A I am. And what do you happen to be doing here?" Kirra snarled at Tasha, who simply let a small smirk tug at her lips before stepping into the tent.

"Looking for him," she said, cocking her head at Marth.

"Since when were you my chaperone?" Marth questioned.

"Since Loch made the command that whenever a soldier went missing, we had to look for them before reporting it and causing a fuss."

"Yeah, well Loch, in my opinion, is a pin-dicked little son of a bitch that needs a swift kick up the arse," Mahalia said innocently.

"I think you and me are gonna get along EXCELLENTLY, Mahalia..." Kirra drawled, giggling a bit and placing the bottle to her lips again.

"Not if you die from alcohol poisoning before we get the chance," Mahalia commented.

"I'm fine!" Kirra snapped, attempting to stand up but slumping back down to the ground quickly.

"Sure you are..." Marth commented, before he gestured for the next bottle to be directed his way.

Marth ended up only having a few quick sips, due to his universal belief that all alcohol was bad (as told by his mother, whilst pouring herself another glass of wine) so he'd passed the bottle on to Tasha, who had simply gave him a look, and swiftly shoving it into Kamali's outstretched palm. The brown-haired man had finished off the bottle, and appeared rather... over-excited.

"You know, Tasha was right Kiz..." Marth muttered, before brushing a few black bangs that had fallen loose behind his ear, "You are really harsh to that guy."

"I am not. I'm not harsh to you, am I?" Kirra asked, batting her eyelashes in a seductive, severely drunken fashion.

"Of course you are," Kamali retorted, looking highly insulted, "You never stop giving me shit."

At that point, Kirra started laughing like a maniac.

"What's your problem?" Tasha questioned.

"I've never heard this guy swear before, is all," Kirra said, mirth playing with her voice.

"So?"

"It's just that he really never seemed like the type to me," Kirra commented quietly.

"Well, I am," Kamali grinned, and pulled Kirra onto his lap, causing her to shriek in surprise and clamp her arm around his neck for support. At that point, he let out a string of explicit words and Kirra snorted with laugher, whilst everyone else's eyes widened in shock.

"... I'm going. This is getting ridiculous. I'd never let anyone I was related to get drunk like that," Tasha muttered, before turning on her heel and leaving the tent. Marth rose up from the floor and stretched before waving at his sister, Kamali and Mahalia.

"I'd better be off too. She'll go through me when I get back to the tent."

"Have fun, little brother! She probably thinks you're so masculine and sexy when you're obedient like that..." Kirra smiled, waving her brother off with her spare hand. He paused momentarily at this statement, and sighed, very slightly- but not slightly enough for Kirra to miss it.

"Oh... so I'm right! You'd better watch yourself Theo, or your chastity belt will start beeping and Mum'll be down here, telling you off."

"Goodnight!" Marth snapped, a little too loudly, and he left the tent.

Mahalia crawled over to her camp bed, and muttered something about 'sleeping it off and would Kirra and Kamali be needing "protection"'.

"I've already got protection!" Kirra replied, retrieving her katana from beside her bed. Mahalia grinned at Kirra, and crawled under the sheets on her bed.

"My God, you are drunk."

She then rolled over and dimmed the kerosene lamp so that it was dark enough to sleep, but light enough for one to see what she or he was doing.

"You look nice in the dim light," Kirra giggled.

"That's because you can't see my face," Kamali replied.

"Don't be stupid, you're actually kind of attractive in an intriguing kind of way..."

"Never thought I'd here that coming from you," Kamali grinned.

"... Come to think of it, I never thought I'd hear that coming from me," Kirra retorted, looking rather confused.

Kamali laughed softly and placed his arm around Kirra's hips.

"Well, you just said it, regardless."

Their eyes locked, and Kirra breathed in once, and then exhaled, very slowly.

"... Did I?"

Kamali nodded, and used to convenient position of his arms to draw Kirra closer to him. He heeded her sharp intake of breath but she made absolutely no effort to get away.

The pair both let their eyes fall shut as their lips met, and Kirra let Kamali take control and draw her so close that their bodies pressed together and they felt each other's heartbeats vibrating against their chests. Kirra felt an emotion somewhere between shock and pure lust as she felt Kamali's tongue softly part her lips and brush against her fangs, and she eventually opened her jaw just enough to let his tongue past and start an unhurried, but passionate dance with her own.

Kirra snuggled into his warm figure and slowly ran the tips of her fingers down his cheek... his neck... his chest... his abdomen, until she reached the rim of his pants and gave a playful tug.

At this point, Kamali broke away from her and gasped for air. Kirra glanced at him in question, and he simply stared back, his eyes full of longing but he had a mature, composed look on her face that was beginning to worry her...

She began to lean in again but Kamali shook his head and sighed.

"Why not?" Kirra whispered.

"Because we're both drunk... it's not right..."

Kirra sighed, and the pair moved away from each other awkwardly, both staring in opposite directions, away from each other.

"I 'spose we should go to bed, then," Kamali said fixedly.

Kirra nodded and walked over to her bed, pushing the empty booze bottles off onto the floor, tired, and annoyed that she hadn't got what she wanted.

She heard the springs give a mighty groan as Kamali slumped onto his bed, and turn off the kerosene lamp completely.

"Goodnight, Kiz."

Kirra contemplated blasting him for calling her by her pet name, but let it pass... she'd get him next time.

"Goodnight."

Kamali and Kirra shut their eyes and attempted sleep, but didn't succeed for a long time, due to the fact that their minds were on each other. But, smile highlighted in the moonlight, was a person that had seen the whole thing. Mahalia let out a small sigh of contentment as she contemplated what she'd just witnessed between the two younger people.

'They really are rather amusing, but also rather sweet... I'm glad one of them has a sense of moral,' she thought, glancing at Kamali and smiling. 'Goodnight, kids.'