Sorry this chapter is so short, but I needed a good place to stop.

Verdana: And here It IS!

"Damn girl and her damn friends!" SIRS grumbled as he raced after them. Up ahead, he could see a light. Curious, but cautious, he moved slowly toward it.

"Does the master really think his prey is out here?" a voice wafted back to him. He recognized it as one of his underlings. Puzzled, as he had ordered no such thing, he followed them back to the cave. Using one of his secret entrances, he made his way to the main room. There, sitting in his chair, was the Shadow. He gulped inaudibly as he watched his men helping his hunter. All thoughts of the troublesome teens left his head as he wondered how he was going to get out of this one.

"That fool. He tried so hard to keep out of my reach, but alas, he damned himself. Make preparations for my departure at once. I want everything out of here except for that useless computer." SIRS chocked back a scream. They were emptying his home and tearing down the cult he had built. The he gave a sigh of relief. His one plan had not been discovered. Then, to his extreme terror, the Shadow asked,

"What does this mean, this Plan?"

"Oh, 'tis nothing m'lord. Only the hopeless efforts of our previous lord." SIRS let out a sigh of relief. He had been right to not tell his minions anything. Although this was an unnecessary complication, he figured he could stay here and still take out the plan.

In the forest

"I think we lost him." Verdana informed the others. "You can light your lanterns now." They all sighed with relief and went about setting up camp. "No. Don't set up here. They might still come after us." Viv said, ever cautious. Verdana nodded her agreement.

"I think we had better go back to the cave. SIRS will be gone by now. He never stays in a place once it's been found." With a bit of groaning and grumbling, they stuffed everything back into the bags and headed back to the cave.

Finding the cave empty upon their arrival, they proceeded to set up camp. They had a hardy dinner of beef stew and crackers. Afterwards, they all dispersed into their various tents. Except for Verdana, that is. She sat outside the cave, keeping watch and thinking about everything that had happened to her. Somehow, she felt like she wasn't part of the group anymore. --I guess Viv really did take my place.- - she thought a bit jealously. Her mid-back length, deep purple hair was braided and in a bun. As she brushed a few fly-aways from her face, she sighed.

"I suppose a dead person can't really be expected to come back. They've had to deal with it once and got over it, and I can't do that to them again." she muttered to herself. Suddenly she whirled around and caught somebody by the throat. It was Odd. She had heard him coming and thought him an intruder.

"Oh, it's just you, Odd." She released her grip and Odd sat next to her.

"Hey. I just thought you might like to see something." Verdana was quiet for a moment, then nodded. He pulled out her digital camera.

"My camera!"

"Yup. And complete with new photos," he showed her the pictures he had taken of everyone. "I thought you might come back, so I filled the memory card up with pictures of us." He turned bright red as Verdana flipped through the pictures. "It was mostly me and Jordan."

"Oh thank you!" she exclaimed as she threw her arms around him. "This is the best thing anyone could have done for me!" Odd turned even more red.

"Well, I'm glad you're back. Viv is nice, but she's not you."

"You keep the camera for now. I'll get the pictures from you when we get back to Kadic." She smiled and handed it back to him. "Viv's only human, you have to remember that. I'm not."

"You wouldn't cry your head off every time someone mentioned your home. The whole time she was at Kadic, Viv would just burst into tears at random times." Verdana smiled again and shook her head.

"She was just out of her medium. I felt that way too when I first showed up in this world. Although," she added, "I get over things faster than you people." Odd gulped a bit then said,

"I've really missed you and I felt that something was missing." he started off awkwardly.

"You know what I feel?" she asked following up. "I feel that-" Her ears perked up. "I feel like we're being watched." Verdana turned and stared very hard into the darkness.

"I mean you no harm." a voice wafted from behind the rock next to them.