Chapter 8: The journey: Part 3

She heard a moan to her left and her eyes shot open and she had to look. When she did she saw Tu on the ground with a hole in his head. Toro ran over and grabbed his brother and gave her a scared look. "Boss? Where are you aiming. What'd you do that for. You said you were go…" One last gun shot and Toro was in Rain's lap dead.

Rain screamed and pushed him off of her and backed up to the wall. "Now it's your turn little girl. I can't have any witnesses that I killed someone. Now die." She shut her eyes so tight she could feel them burn, but no gunshot came. Just a loud thud.

She looked up and saw that the boss was lying on the floor rubbing his head and Raven was sitting next to her staring at him. He reached over and picked up the gun that the dragon master had dropped and pointed it at him. "If you think killing her will get rid of all the witnesses, tough luck pal. Now you know how she feels when you're the one staring down the wrong end of the gun, don't you?" He said watching Rain stand up. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine." She replied slowly as she stared at Willow's frozen body. "What took you so long? Did you fall asleep?"

"Very funny." He said with a sly smirk. He walked over to the older man and stuck the gun in his mouth. "You were the one who told me to stay put, were you not?"

"Shut up Raven." She said walking up to him, she was still a little tipsy. "So what to do with him?"

"This." The old man said as he pulled the trigger of the gun while it was still in his mouth. He killed himself.

Rain shrieked when he did and turned her back to them as she wrapped her arms around herself. "Why would he do such a thing?" She finally cried out.

Raven walked in front of her and looked at her as she looked away from his face. "Are you ok Rain?" He said simply. "Do you not like death?"

"Death? Uh WILLOW!" She screamed as she jumped over the dead bodies ad ran over to Willow's stiff body. "WILLOW!" She bent forward and touched willows face. It was cold and rough. Willow had turned to stone. She was dead.

Rain sat there for a second. Tears welled up in her eyes but she refused to let them fall. "Rain?"

"Stay away Raven!" She screamed as she ran outside.

"Rain Wait! If I let you go Reese will kill me!"

Rain stopped running and let Raven catch up. "Reese won't kill you Raven. Just go check on Shadow, see if he's still alive. I'm going to that lake over there. I'm going to wash up."

"Shadow? Shadow, come to me." Shadow stalked out of the cottage and walked up to him. "See Rain, Shadow is just fine. Rain?" He saw her walking in the direction the lake and decided to follow. When he caught up to her she was standing on a rock above the lake looking down. "Rain? What are you doing?" She looked over at him than looked back at the lake and dove off of the rock. "Rain, stop!" But she had already hit water. (Does she even know how to swim?) He asked himself before he jumped in after her.

He swam around a bit until he saw her form swim past. He swam up to her and grabbed her arm. She gave him a dark look and swam back up to the top. He followed. When the both reached surface she gave him a sad look. "What do you want this time Raven?"

"What is so wrong with you? You don't let anyone get close to you. You have a cold exterior that ensures no one can get close to you. Why are you so scared?"

"Why are you so worried? Raven. I have a question."

"What is it? You want to go home?"

"That's exactly what I want. I just lost willow. The only creature that will honestly care for me and not hurt me in anyway. I just want to get away from the place where she died. Please Raven. I'm begging you."

"You do know what Reese will say."

"I don't care. I don't love or like Reese. And including, where is she? All she did was drop off Thomas. She probably got her ass in a fight."

"Most likely. If you really want to go, than go. But I'm going with you."

"Thank y… What?"

"You need me to go with you so I know that you're returned safely."

"And what zoid are you going to take to follow me?"

"That Rainos those bandits had. I have no use for the jeep. Come on. Let's dry off than leave."

They get out of the water and Rain walked up to a large boulder and laid down on her stomach. "Raven? Why are you being so nice?"

Raven came up and laid on his back next to her. "I have nothing against you" Is all he said to her before he dozed off to sleep.

Rain got up a few minutes later and walked back to the cottage. Halfway there Shadow jumped in front of her and growled. "Give me a break Shadow. I'm not running away. Now move or help me. Your choice." She stalked past him and Shadow stared at her a minute than turned around and walked up to Raven and laid down next to him. "Hey Willow." Rain said softly as she walked up to the frozen zoid. "How are you doing right now? He, I guess that's a stupid question, isn't it?" She grabbed willows tail and started to pull Willow out of the cottage so she could get her into the sunlight. "Oh Willow. I'm so sorry. It's my fault you got hurt. If I could have gotten out of their hold I could have saved you. But I wasn't strong enough." She reached forward and punched Willow's chest plate, knocking Willow over and splitting her hand open. "Why couldn't I have saved you!" She screamed as her tears finally started to stream down her face, ignoring the pain in her hand. "Why did I have to lose you? I lost Irvine, why you?"

"Rain? What are you doing here?" Raven asked walking up to her and keeling down in front of her. "Why are you crying? And, what happened to your hand?" He asked while grabbing her right hand as she quickly yanked it away. "Rain?"

"Leave me alone." She sobbed out as she fell down to the ground and hid her face in the grass.

Raven reached down and picked her up as he shook her. "Snap out of it Rain! Your never going to get anywhere in life if your this damn weak!" He ripped off a piece of his shirt and wrapped it around her hand. "Come on, I'm taking you back." Rain stood up silently and walked over to the helldiver and jumped in. "Can that ground zoid of yours keep up with a Rainos?"

She just smirked and jumped in. She started to mess with some buttons and soon a large pair of wings opened up. She turned on a pair of boosters and started to run till she was in the air. She sat there for a minute and waited for Raven to get up in the air. They shot off in the direction of the base without saying a word. When they finally reached the base Rain broke the silence. "You can go now Raven. If they see you I know they'll kill you. I'm in your debt so I won't let it happen. So go." Before he had a chance to reply Rain had already gone ahead. So he gave up and left.

When she got to the base gates she saw a crew cleaning up what looked like destroyed zoid parts. She turned her attention to the gate and put in her password in and entered base. She only got half way in before Dr. D came running out waving his arms frantically. He lost his balance and fell flat on his face. She laughed at this as she jumped down to help him up. "Rain. It's about time. How did you escape?"

"I'll explain later. Where is everyone?" She asked looking around.

"They're all in the tactics room trying to figure out the best way to save you."

"Well, don't tell them I'm here. I'm going to make it a surprise." She jumped back into her zoid and put it in stealth mode and went the rest of the way into the base. She got out and started to walk up to the tactics room. Before she opened the door she could hear everyone arguing.

"We can't do that!" She heard Karl scream. "That also might get her killed!"

"Well you haven't come up with anything better!" Irvine screamed back. "The thing I'm fearing right now is if she's already dead!"

"I doubt it." She heard Thomas say simply. "Raven may be a maverick. But with the way he looked at her, I doubt he'd kill her."

She took that as her cue to walk in. Everyone was so busy arguing that the only ones to see her was MoonBay and Fiona. "Hey guys. I think I have good news." MoonBay said happily.

"And that is?" Karl said. He started to rub his head. "Well?"

"Well it's just that…" She saw Rain frantically waving her hands trying not to get her to tell. "It's that… I think Thomas is right."

"That's it?" Karl screamed. "That's your big announcement?"

Rain padded up behind Irvine and placed a hand over his left eye. "This is no time for games Fiona!" He screamed as he whirled her around to face him. "What do you… you… Rain?" She gave a small nod as he grabbed her and pulled her into one very tight hug.

"Uh… Irvine. Dear." She coughed out. "Rain can't breathe."

He let her go in a hurry as she started to cough. "Sorry." He said sheepishly. "Rain, where were you? What happened? How did you get back?"

She sat down and went into the whole explanation of what happened with the bandits, Willow, but nothing about how Raven was acting. When she ended her story it was already ten at night. She looked up at the clock and laughed. "Guys. I'm going to go to my room, take a nice hot shower, and get a good nights sleep. Good night."