Author: yay! 22 chapters! Such a loooooser. Thank you all for commenting. I love you all. This is short because I felt that I can't keep on pounding you with tons of action. Enjoy the brief respite, because a lot is coming next…
Shin looked across the classroom at the empty seat near the window where Ryo should have been. He ached for a moment, missing him and feeling his loss, but then was flooded with anger at his betrayal. How could this have happened? How could he have missed it? He had been living with them the entire time…they had been harboring a Dynasty warlord in their midst. But how come he didn't see? Why didn't any of them see? He had been acting like Ryo…there was no difference. Was that why he couldn't touch Ryo's armor ball? Because it was no longer the Wildfire? Because he was no longer Ryo? Maybe. Maybe not. But now they had an enemy who knew all their secrets, all the shadows in their hearts and they had no idea how he would act, who he would go after or how…no. Shin had an idea. Kage could have killed him, the Warrior could have killed them all any number of times. But he had wanted Ryo. He had wanted Ryo because of the knowledge that he had. He had converted him. But he hadn't taken over the world yet. He needed the rest of them to form the Inferno armor. He would start going after each of them next, slowly chipping away at the bonds that held them together. Shin thought that he could guess whom Kage or the Warrior would go after first, since Kage had told him. He would be careful. He would be cautious. He wouldn't trust anyone now, because he didn't want to be the next one to fall to the shadow in his soul. He didn't want to be consumed by the darkness within him, fall prey to his own doubts. As he thought and tried to make sense of the change in his life, he didn't notice that what he was trying to avoid was slowly invading his thoughts, slowly working its way into him, beginning to burrow into the depths of his being.