"Shit do you ever get used to this heat?" a young brunette asked the man beside her. Both of them were kneeling at the base of an ornately carved, and very old, temple in the jungles of a remote South Pacific Island. She stood, dropping her dusting brush to the ground, to swat a mosquito for what seemed to be the millionth time that morning.

Her partner, a slightly older archeologist by the name of Paul, gave her a wry grin as he shook his head. Newbies fresh from the campus always had trouble adjusting to the real thing. He remembered his own transition from the University geology labs to his first assignment of a tomb in ancient Tibet. It wasn't a pretty memory, but it helped him understand just what his own overseer, Dr. Phelps, had meant when he'd told Paul "You have the sickening optimism of a sacrificial volunteer".

"Take it easy, Dana," he told her with a chuckle, he reached in his pack and pulled a canteen out, offering it to the grad student.

"I'm sorry," Dana apologized taking the canteen, shame covering her olivine features. She was one of the better students, he decided right then, if she had the common sense to know she was acting too childish for her occupation. "I–I guess I didn't expect it to be so–so–"

"Tedious?" Paul offered, smiling at her.

"Well that too," she joked before taking a drink out of the canteen. She wiped her mouth off carelessly with the back of her less than pristine hand. She didn't seem to care about it that much, as she just took the hem of her shirt to her lips as extra cleanup. Paul found himself impressed, she wasn't as prissy as he'd been thinking since she'd arrived two days ago.

"No, man, I just hoped that I would be doing something significant for the world with my work," Dana explained to him as she picked up her brush once more and began to clean off her side of the temple door.

"You got in it for fame?" he asked raising his eyebrow at the woman, not so sure he was impressed any more.

"No, nothing like that!" Dana said quickly, holding up her hands in emphasis. "I don't give a damn about my name in the papers or history books, I'd think that'd be kinda stressful. I just you know–wanna do something that'll help the rest of humanity..." Brown eyes met blue and they both started to chuckle.

"Cheesy I know, but you gotta admit it'd be nice," she chuckled, leaning against the door. "But seriously, Paul–Ah!" Dana screamed and was cut short as the spot she was lying against gave way, like a sort of button.

"Dana, get up!" Paul exclaimed grabbing his young assistant roughly by the arms and dragging her away from the doors.

"Shit!" she whispered feebly as the marble tiles beneath there feet began to quiver. Dana clung to Paul's shirt as he dragged her away from the doors. They knelt at the entrance's farthest corner, Dana still holding onto Paul for dear life as he covered her head and his own from the debris that had comm loose off the temple roof. Both shut their eyes tight, waiting for the moment to pass and praying for their lives, Dana apologizing between fearful cries. The little shake up didn't last very long, maybe a quarter of a moment, though it felt like an eternity for the two archaeologists, and when they fearfully opened their eyes, Dana and Paul found that the temple doors had opened...and their was a light coming from inside.

The two archeologists let go of one another, standing to their feet very slowly. The stared in awe at their subject for several long and pregnant moments, meanwhile, the light continuing to throb like it was coming off a distant star. Paul was the first to regain motor skills, and he crept forward, inching carefully towards the doors.

"P–Paul–I–I don't–I don't think that–we–" Dana stammered still half petrified as she watched her partner edge closer to the doors and the light, which for some reason terrified her.

"Hush!" Paul barked waving her off and making his young assistant shake all the more. Paul didn't yell at her, she may not have known him very long but in the last week she'd come to understand that he was not the yelling or angry type in the slightest. She quivered, and shrank further towards the temple's edge whilst Paul stepped directly before its doors. The light's pulse quickened.

"Amazing..." Paul breathed as he looked into the chamber, he was nearly blinded by all he saw, the brilliance before his him sending the man to his knees. The Universe, black and velvety, studded by stars, planets, and countless galaxies swirling and churning about in an almost sensual dance overpowering his mortal senses. He smiled as the dance came to an end and SHE stepped out, naked, beautiful. It was HER smile that killed him, the full beautiful blood-red lips that parted in a grin revealing all of the pain and the pleasure of destruction and death. Paul was smiling into her blacker– than–black eyes even as his heart exploded within his chest.

Dana screamed, screamed until she had no breath left, finding herself unable to do anything else, she couldn't cry, she couldn't speak, she was unable to find solace in the black of unconsciousness. Seeing Paul's corpse, falling lifelessly against the ground, blood oozing from his still upturned lips, robbed the twenty-two-year-old of the ability to do nothing but scream until her throat burned. The last thoughts that went through her head, before her own heart burst against her ribs, was that she had pretty much failed the world in terms of helping its people. In fact, it seemed, as HER laughter rang through the jungle, scaring birds and wildlife off for miles on end, that Dana had accomplished the direct antithesis of her motives.

On another continent, a young woman almost the exact same age as Dana, agreed with her, as she woke up from her nightmare, shivering with cold sweat and fear, sky-blue eyes open wide.

Interlude

Shina Gado sat up in bed, biting down hard on her tongue to keep from making any noise. The coppery taste of blood swarmed her mouth, though she relaxed in the pain and the taste. It was only a dream. She allowed herself to part her lips and take in a nice deep breath of air. The young mercenary took a moment to collect herself, still her twitching muscles and run her slender and calloused finger through her matted, sweat-soaked, hair. She let the air from her lungs.

Just a dream, she thought, and then, remembering that she wasn't exactly alone, glanced to her right, to the man laying naked beside her. Shina then looked at the bed side clock; it read a few minutes after five thirty in the am.

Good timing for a nightmare, she chuckled inwardly, before sliding her nude form from beneath the sheets of her new acquaintance's bed. She was stealthy, as if she was trying to creep after an enemy in the Brazilian Jungle or making her way from one safe point to another, as she collected her scattered clothes, and put them on. She got on her underwear, her black tank, her black cargo pants, saving her combat boots and socks for the hallway, and just shoving her bra into one of the many, many pockets she had. A quick check to confirm he wallet was in her back pocket, and she was out of the apartment. Shina smiled as she hopped down the hall, pulling her socks and boots on as she went, she was really, really, good at this one night stand shit.

Shina tried to act like her usual sarcastic self, promoting it even further within her mind by saying little biting remarks to herself even as she hailed a cab. Despite the attempts though, she found herself still somewhat shaken by the dream, a highly unusual thing for a seasoned Merc like herself. She sighed leaning back into her seat, still trying to convince herself that there was nothing unusual about her nightmare, and that she needed to stop acting like a five year old. The hair on the nape of the leopardess' neck continued to stay raised, as she felt eyes going over her back. Shina would not indulge her fears and look through the rear window, a good thing too as the eyes and face staring at her from the car behind her cab would have only brought the very violent side of her nature out. The side she tried very hard to keep under lock and key in a place like Manhattan. So Shina settled for swearing at her subconscious and deciding to go to and visit Long, the former hermit and one of her closer confidants would knock some sense into her, particularly if she could convince him to spar.

Interlude

As if he heard her thoughts the driver of the tailing car decided that the time was to leave. He fell back, just as Shina decided to give in, and looked over her shoulder. The driver smiled as he narrowly escaped her piercing baby blues. He passed a hand through his shaggy black and blue hair, wondering if he had gone mad with this fixation with Gado's child. He hoped he had not, after all, he'd promised himself that anything and everything he established for himself at this point was going to be honest and open. Still, the young man smiled as he parked his car, he loved to chase his "kitten", though he vowed that, one day, she would know everything. All between them would be up front, very soon, he promised himself. He was starting over after all.

Violet eyes closed as he continued to smile, mind flooded with pictures of her.

Interlude

"So then all parts are falling together?" a cool and arrogant voice asked Busuzima as the two of them plus another looked over the temple.

"Your lady rose, so, I guess so," the scientist said, he licked his lips with his long, grotesque tongue. He could smell the fun in the air. "What now, Xion?"

"Now we manipulate the right people to give aid to the EATEN ONE," Xion said with a rather arrogant flip of his hair. He smiled, red eyes agleam. "Just think, soon, we'll have a world built upon glorious chaos."

"And have a hand in ruling it," Busuzima chuckled in agreement. The cohorts smiled at one another.

"Shall we get to the launch pad then, my friends?" Shenlong asked. "I'm sure it will have it ready by now."

"We shall," Busuzima agreed, and they walked away from their plateau overlooking HER domain, smiling as only those who know the whole story can smile. SHE joined in.