How! It's been a long time! well, might as well keep gong until we're finished.

And here we go again!

Silent Offender chapter seven: The Offer by: The Four Minds.

The next morning, Irona stalked into the sitting room to find the rest of the girls already seated. "I want to know who was in my room last night," she demanded briskly. "Do we have a new student that likes to terrorize ladies trying to sleep?"

"What are you talking about?" Morgana asked calmly as she gracefully stood up to retrieve her friend a drink.

"I'm talking about a guy with maroon eyes," Pixie supplied.

"You've seen him too?" the girls all asked in shocked unison. Turning to look around the room, they all became very serious.

"I guess that dream is contagious or something. He can't be real," Shadow said with a cautious look at the window. Before anything else could be said the guys poured in.

"Uh oh, we better leave, guys. We've interrupted gossip hour,"Luke joked as the other guys laughed and took seats.

"What were you ladies talking about? You seem sort of upset," Darian said sympathetically.

Quickly, Shadow shot a warning look to the other girls and replied, "Nothing important."

"You gals have been acting strange lately. Is there something the matter?" Quinn asked looking over the group with his ever watchful eyes. They all shook their heads no, but Alex didn't look convinced. Nor did Sean.

"We're fine, love," Morgana reassured him, and received a look from him asking her to explain when they could be alone. She didn't answer the unspoken question, but let it drop with one of her own. "What did you call us here for?"

Before Quinn could answer, there was a very manly scream followed by a string of heated Cajun words. Shadow's eyes widen before she bolted out of the room.

"Wonder what she's done now?" Dodger sighed. They all turned to see a very disgruntled Gambit walk through the door followed by Rogue.

"Will ya please tell meh what's wrong?" Rogue pleaded holding him by the shoulders. "Please?" Gambit took a deep breath and held a link chain bracelet out for her to examine. "Dis is what 'as you so upset? What's so bad about a bracelet with an "AG" on it?"

"Hey, Shadow was looking for a bracelet like that a couple days ago," Irona said interrupting their conversation. Gambit went pale. "I could give it back to her for you if you'd like."

"No, chere, dis be someting Gambit's got t'do himself. Jus tell Gambit where she went." The members of the Pack pointed down the hallway Shadow had dashed through only moments before. Gambit took a deep breath as if to calm himself and headed the same direction.

"Irona, can ya please tell meh what dis is about?" Rogue asked softly.

"Near as I can tell, Gambit found her Assassin's Guild bracelet somewhere and took it as a threat against his life," Irona answered.

Rogue raised an eyebrow at that. "What makes ya say dat?" she asked.

"Because," Irona went on, "That was what guild members did if they wanted to torture a marked man. It's saying 'Hey, you're in my sights' literately."

"How do you know that, Pix?" Luke asked intrigued.

"I was in the guild with her for a short time. Then she got exiled from the guild, and we met back up here."

"Another pair," Alex whispered to Morgana who was sitting on his lap, his arms wrapped round her. The rest of the group never heard.

"So you went after her to get her back, but got caught by Sinister instead," Illya deduced.

"Actually, I was sent to kill her, but got caught by Sinister, brainwashed by him, then instructed to capture, not kill, her instead," Irona explained calmly.

"Does she know about all of this? About what you were suppose to do?" Quinn asked, slightly stunned by this new bit of information.

"Oh, yeah. I told her as soon as my memory returned," the short woman said calmly. "She said it wasn't the first time someone had been sent out to kill her."

"So you two knew each other the whole time?" Both Luke and Darian asked in the same tone, "and you never told us?" Luke finished.

"We don't like to talk about it," she admitted. Suddenly, in the hallway where Gambit and Shadow had disappeared to was filled with so many phrases in French and Cajun, and was so heated that a person could have sworn the French Revolution had started again.

"I didn't know she knew French," Dodger whispered to Luke.

"Wonder what they're saying," he replied back.

"You don't want to know," Irona informed with a wary smile.

Shadow sat in the moonlight covering the roof, too angry right now to sleep. She couldn't believe that Gambit would even think that of her. Still, she shouldn't have lost her temper and called him a sniffling, inbred thief's guild street rat. Their conversation had went down hill from then on. She and Gambit were now far from on speaking terms. In fact, Shadow hadn't talked to anybody since the ordeal. She was sure that no one would see her side of the story and there was no way she was going to renew her ties to the guild. A tear rolled down her check. Just when things were looking up, something like this had to happen. Would anyone ever understand her and let her just be who she was? she wondered to herself, her head sinking onto her knees.

Suddenly, the fine hairs on the back of her neck stood on end and Shadow knew she was being watched. She search the roof for the culprit, but to no avail. "Anyone out there?" she called meekly, surprised by the rattle in her voice. Behind her she heard a quiet chuckle. She instantly stood to face it, only there was nothing. She drew her daggers from the sheaths at her side.

"Who's out there?" She demanded, now in a fighting stance. The laughter came once again from behind her and again she turned to face it. However, as soon as she turned, two hands stole the blades from her hands in a blink of any eye. Shadow looked down to her empty hands in shock. She tried to back away, back toward her window, hoping for a quick retreat. But in the next instance she felt a cold arm grasp her around the waist and pull her into a tight grip. She tried to scream, but found her mouth already covered with the hand of her attacker. Whoever it was, they were good.

"Shh..."a deep voice whispered into her ear. "No one is here to hurt you, my little thief." The voice was very soothing and Shadow found herself calming down at once. "There now, that's better. If I let you go will you run away?" Shadow shook her head no, though she didn't plan on keeping still. The arm released her and she bolted the other direction. She made it about three steps before she ran straight into the figure again. "Now, now, where do you think you're going?" Two hands grabbed onto her wrists tightly, but not painfully, as she had expected. This time Shadow could dimly see the striking features of his face.

"Now what did I say about running?" he asked pulling her closer. All Shadow could do was gaze into his eyes the color of dried blood, and the longer she looked the more helpless she felt. He ran his free hand down her check. "My young little thief, you long to be free. These people here try to change you into something you're not. They hold you back from your full potential. They have you trapped here trying to turn you into some kind of house pet instead of the beautiful creature you truly are. Come with me, and run free like you were meant to." He leaned in closer to where his lips were almost touching hers. "What do you say?" he asked in a husky voice. "Are you ready to take off the leash?"

End chapter seven. 8, the chase, is next