AN: Sorry I didn't post these… I was really busy with the end of school coming up. ONLY SEVEN MORE SCHOOL DAYS UNTIL FREEDOM!

Ebon had controlled Cassie for about half a month. Once he found out about her powers, he completely forgot about finding out who Static and Gear were. Why would he find out who they were and then STILL have to destroy them, when Cassie could do it for him?

Cassie looked out the dingy window of an old van. She starred out through the steadily dimming day light at her hands. 'So, this is what I am now,' thought Cassie, 'a criminal. I'm a part of Ebon's crew. Ebon…'

Having his name in her thoughts, the one place she'd thought she was safe, was not an easy thing for Cassie. It had been the one place Ebon didn't control. A one last safe haven. He controlled her, everything she did, everything she said, but now he was in her head too? Like I said, too much. She could mentally feel her hands clench and her jaw tighten. No part of her moved. Of course not though, while she hated Ebon with a passion, Ebon didn't hate himself nearly so much. No matter how much she fought she couldn't escape him.

She was vulnerable to his power. Psychologically, he was tearing her apart with his new ability to hack her mind. After all, it was what had kept her sane for these past two weeks. Every time she attacked Static, every time she hurt Gear. What would she do when Ebon decided it was time for the final step? With the knowledge of what he was going to do weighing on her shoulders, she would never make it through. Her last resort, stolen from her, her drop of hope for sanity, leeched from her life. Why wouldn't she hate Ebon?

Back with Richie and Virgil

A new villain had arrived. She was a part of Ebon's crew, she always attacked the boys with all her might, gave no mercy. She came close to killing the two once, but only Richie saw the look in her eyes. She was scared, miserable, cold, alone, and breaking down inside. Her eyes starred him down and begged for help. He couldn't understand why.

It couldn't make much sense. Why did she look so pleading to the person she was seconds from killing? Her name was Desaray. She was the most powerful Bang Baby the boys had ever seen, and probably the most afraid.

That Day:

Static threw a charge at Desaray. While her mask hid part of her face, her expression showed that she knew the two boys. She put out her hand and pointed her palm towards Static. A purple beam reached from her hand to Virgil's temple.

Virgil turned around and threw a charge at Richie. He had somewhat of Desaray's look in his eyes. He was controlled. Richie barely dodged the shot, but backpack got hit. Of course, his skates were controlled by backpack, so he was now on the ground with only a few zap caps, pitted against his best friend.

'No!' Cassie's mind screamed. She didn't want to hurt anyone, especially Gear. 'I must fight this!' With all her will power, and her love for her friends, Cassie barely managed to gain a small control over her body.

Desaray took a shaky step back, as if trying to control her leg, struggling to. Still struggling she put out her hand towards Static again. Another beam reached and changed Virgil, this one brought him to his senses. Suddenly Desaray changed herself, she still struggled and Ebon's voice came from her mouth.

"No Cassie, don't fight it. You're mine. Your powers are mine. We are one."

Desaray looked at the boys and struggled to force out the word "H-hel-help." Her eyes turned cold again and was about to attack the two boys when she was knocked out by the police.

Cassie awoke about 5 hours later to mixed murmurs and the smell of coffee that stung her raw senses. Ebon had, thankfully, left her in her body. He figured he had no use for her if she was going to be arrested.

"She's up. Do you two want to talk to her?" There was a doctor standing in the hallway with Static and Gear. It was Gear who answered.

"Yes, but just to see if she's OK. I have a feeling she had no choice in what she did. You want to stay outside Static? Nothing personal, it's just that, after what she did, you can't really say you're not against her."

Static seemed to take offense, but said nothing and followed anyways into the room where Cassie sat. She struggled to keep her head up, her breathing was slow and shallow. She looked at the boys with unfocussed eyes, she tried to move, to apologize, she couldn't fight Ebon, and it wasn't her fault. Then she noticed something, she was tied down. Hatred flared for what Ebon had made her. She was being treated like a criminal, a terrorist.

Gear stepped into the room. Static followed. "Desaray?" he asked. "You alright?"

The girl at the other end of the room still struggled to hold up her head. Both boys stopped when they noticed that her hands were clenched into fists, but when the fists loosened at the sound of a somewhat friendly voice (however afraid it had been just so long as it wasn't hostile) the two heros relaxed. "That's no-not m-my name." Her voice was shaky.

"Then what is your name? Can you tell us?" Gear was being very patient, while, in contrast, Static's own patience was fraying. Unaware of this, the girl was hesitant to answer.

"Take m-my mask. Se-see f-for your s-self." She was shaking all over now. She was hurting everywhere, the coffee was still worsening her headache, and it took next to all of her strength to stay conscious. Before he took her mask, she spoke again. "Ri-richie, it-it wasn't me. E-ebon had me under his control." She now looked toward Static. "Vir-virgil, you believe me, don't y-you?" At the sound of his name Virgil fell against the wall as if he'd been hit by something, and slid down so that he was sitting on the floor. She knew who he was. Richie tried not to look too fazed and just reached out and pulled a red version of Static's mask off of her face.

He certainly wasn't prepared for what he saw. "Cassie! You're Desaray!" Richie and Virgil were both in shock.

"N-no. Ebon was De-desaray. I was under his control. You HAVE to believe me. You HAVE t-to HELP me." Virgil had by now gotten up and walked over to Cassie. Annoyance was etched in his features.

"No Cassie, we don't 'HAVE' to do anything other than turn you in. Don't you get it? You're a criminal, and you always will be. People like you JUST DON'T CHANGE!" Even Ritchie looked somewhat afraid and shocked by his friend's outburst. Cassie was shaking, even more so than before, she seemed to be on the verge of tears.

"People like me? Virgil, maybe you don't understand. Are you going to yell at my chair because it lets me sit in it? It doesn't have a choice. I fought to gain control over myself, but I couldn't, I couldn't stop him anymore than this chair can get up and yell at me for being tied to it. Maybe-" her voice went from furried to hushed, "maybe you're the one who won't change. Maybe you're the one who doesn't 'get it.' Maybe you should listen to what people say to find out what they have to tell you, instead of trying to find out by remembering what they did, against their will."

Gear decided to shut his friend up. "OK, Cassie. You're being recorded, so you won't have to answer these questions again. We're gonna take you home now, alright?" Cassie stopped shaking and stiffened with fear. Her eyes widened. She couldn't go home now. She could never go back to her father after all those years of what he'd done to her.

What could she tell them? Not the truth, no that was out of the question. Her mom would never take her, and her father would send her to an orphanage. That wouldn't work well. Few enough people wanted a problem child, even fewer wanted one that was a Bang Baby. "I-I can't g-g-go hom-home. I can't-t ev-ever go home."

Both boys wondered the same thing, but it was Richie who voiced their question. "Why not?" Cassie began to shake again, more violently than before.

"I-I can't. I just c-can't. Please, believe me. I just can't g-go home." Cassie closed her eyes and tried to stop the flow of terrible memories, to no avail. Every hit her father gave to her flashed before her eyes, even though they were closed tightly. She could feel the blows as if they were happening at that very moment. To Static and Gear it looked as though she was having a seizure. It looked that was to the doctor they called in too.

Cassie awoke, once more, to the stinging smell of coffee. She was surprised to see that she was lying down in a soft bed, instead of in the hard wooden chair she'd been in earlier.

Moving tentatively, she shifted, expecting to feel her whole body sore from her earlier spazz attack. She waited for a flood of aches to wash over her, but it never came. She had been able to shift freely, which meant she was no longer bound. It was then that Cassie realized that she wasn't alone in the room. Some one was waiting for her to wake up.

A voice drifted from the furthest corner of the room. "Are you awake?" The voice sounded concerned. "You passed out the other day when we were about to take you back to your house, so we took you here."

"Here? You mean we're not at the police station anymore?" Cassie was confused, her head felt as though it was splitting in two, and now some one was in this room telling her that she'd been asleep for over a day and a half. Not really your regular day, now is it? She tried to focus on the boy in the room, to no avail. Her vision was stubbornly refusing to work.

"No, of course not, you're in the hospital." Their tone changed. "Why did you have that spazz attack when we said we'd take you home?"

The voice seemed very familiar to Cassie, though she couldn't quite understand where it was familiar from. Where had she heard it before?

"Who are you?" She then mentally slapped herself for that. The question was out before she realized how, not only rude, but also how stupid it was. It was obviously either Static or Gear, since he had said 'when we said we'd take you home,' but she reasoned to herself that she wanted to know which.

"It's Gear. Listen, we have to take you to court, but first you get to go home. Due to unknown reasons, you apparently can't go home. If you can't go home, where can you stay until the trial?" They way he emphasized the words 'unknown reasons,' it sounded as though he was somewhat annoyed by it.

Cassie apparently hadn't thought of this. "I…" What could she say? She decided on the truth, maybe Static and Gear could help her… "I don't know."

Gear sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. He was probably going to regret this… "Well, seeing as you already know who we are…" Damn, this was stupid, and he knew it, so why was he going to say it? " …I suppose you could stay at our headquarters, it's not really much, but," he shrugged, "it's got a couch. You could hang out there for now."

Cassie was amazed that he trusted her after everything she'd done under Ebon's control. It was then that she realized that he believed what she said. He believed what was true. She chewed the bottom of her lip. "You sure that's ok?" He didn't reply. "You didn't ask Static, did you?" She was surprised by his response. Apparently Static did know, and was okay with it… or at least he was after some professionals analyzed her body language and facial features to see if she was lying.

Cassie wondered what it would be like to stay where she would probably be hated for what she'd been forced to do, but soon decided that it would be better that staying where she might be killed. (i.e., her home) "Can you protect me from Ebon?"

"We can do our best. No promises. No one knows what will happen in the future… Except for one or two of the Bang Babies of course."

Cassie couldn't help but give a single small laugh as a smile tugged lightly at her lips. "Richie, Charles Shultz once said, 'don't worry about the world coming to an end today, it's already tomorrow in Australia.'" Suddenly she became very serious. She looked Gear's eyes as best she could through the tinted faceplate he wore as a mask, and asked, "Can I help you keep Dakota safe?"

Gear looked at her. His expression mixed a look of surprise with a nervous one. Confusion was more than hinted in his features. He didn't answer, so she repeated, "Can I help you keep Dakota safe?"

The mixed look that Gear had been giving her melted away to be replaced by a sly grin. "The first thing you will need is a name…"

AN: There it is, I know I said I'd try to improve the chapters, but I never got the time… at least I combined a couple chapters to make this one longer. I'll post again if I get four reviews!