disclaimer: These charecters are not my own. They belong to the Fearless series. The ideas and situations are my own, though.

Please Review, if you read! It really helps to develop a better story, gramatically, and in the contents if you tell me what you did or didn't like about the story. (And i really appreciate it:)

Chap. 1

Gaia was running down the alleys of downtown New York. The shadows were the only things that she could see of the people following her; the only way that she was able to know how far they were behind her. Her heart was pounding in her chest, but not in fear; in anticipation. This was it, this was her chance to find out exactly who was after her. Maybe if she could take care of the thugs chasing her, she could stop living in a constant world of chaos, never knowing what would happen to the people that she allowed herself to love. Maybe her father would come back. Maybe she could kill Loki. Maybe she could let herself be with Sam.

Maybe.

To many maybe's to have to think of right now. I have to focus, she thought. These thugs are nothing but hired help, thinking they are chasing a frightened little girl.

They were seriously mistaken.

She stopped and mentally calculated where she was, and the advantages that she had over her attackers. Or better yet, her victims. She knew these alley's like the back of her hand; she could also play up to the fact that these people did not know what she was capable of.

She rounded the next corner, and pressed herself against the walls of one of the dingy apartments, hiding herself in the shadows of the night. She listened carefully, and heard the thudding footsteps of the men chasing her. She waited calmly, the only sound her calm breathing, and the footsteps. Closer they came, nearly there...

She punched out her hand and hit the first guy in the throat, gagging him and knocking him to ground. He tried to suck in his breath, and stared at Gaia in shock. She smirked at him, and grabbed his feet and pulled him into the shadows, dumping his now unconscious body behind a dumpster.

As the sound of the next thug reached her ears, she quickly got into place. She heard a noise at the opposite end of the ally, and as she turned her head to see what it was, her heart stopped.

"Sam." The whispered name had barely left her lips, when a thick beefy arm grabbed her from behind in a choke hold. She saw Sam come running towards her, opened her mouth to scream at him to stop, to turn and run the other way, but the man had effectively cut of her vocal chords; apparently he knew how to put someone in a choke hold; Gaia was mildly impressed.

She grabbed his arm, and was just about to toss him to the pavement in front of her when she heard a gun go off. She froze, trying to determine where it came from, and where it went. As she looked around, she raised her head, and her eyes made contact with Sam's.

She had a sick feeling in her stomach, a sick feeling that was whispering that she knew exactly where that bullet had gone, and as she watched Sam withdraw his hand from his stomach. her fears were confirmed . Blood was drenching his shirt, and streaming down his hand. He looked up at Gaia, and she could read the sorry in his eyes, his silent apology that he had somehow failed her.

"NO! SAM!" She screamed, and it felt like the words were ripped from her throat ; she was screaming as loud as she could, but no sound was coming out. Sam slowly sank to his knees, his eyes glazing over as he dropped, face first, to the pavement..

As he fell to the ground, the arm around her throat loosened, and Gaia slid down as well. As the tears streamed down her face, she heard shoes clicking on the pavement behind her as someone approached. She felt someone standing directly behind her as the clicking stopped, and heard the clothes slid over his skin as he crouched down by her ear.

"I told you that if you failed to do as I asked, I would hurt you," Loki whispered in her ear. "Now Gaia, if you had just followed the instructions as they were given to you, Sam would not have died. It is your fault that he, an innocent boy, came to this end." Loki reached out his hands to stroke Gaia's face, and she violently jerked her head away.

"Ahhh, my Gaia. Beautiful Gaia. Are you frightened of me? It is not I who killed him, it was you. To think that you had hoped for a normal life, hoped for love and a family. Gaia, you do not deserve these things, and it is foolish to think otherwise. Everyone that you hold dear, anyone that you have gotten close to, they give you their love, and this is how you repay them.

"Look at him Gaia. Look what you have done..."

"No." Gaia whispered. "No...NOOOOOO-

OOOOOO!" Gaia woke to the sound of her scream, and bolted upright in bed. He chest heaved as she tried to calm down, and familiarize herself with her surroundings. She wiped the cold sweat off her forehead and looked around. She was in her room, at George and Ella's house, and it had all been a dream. Just a dream. She threw the covers off, and got up, walked to the mirror above her dresser. She looked at her neck, and stood there a while in silence.

Her mind told her that it was all a dream, but did dream men leave marks?