Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Yu-gi-oh GX, the Yu-gi-oh franchise, or the Night World series. I only own my idea and any creative liberties.

Jaden sat by the window, but not in the way ordinary people sit.

He was kneeling in a crouch, weight resting on his left leg, right leg bent and pointing forward. It was a position that allowed for swift and unrestricted movement in any direction. His sword was beside him; he could spring and draw at a moment's notice.

The abandoned building was quiet. Axel and Adrian were outside scouting the streets. Aside from Aster, the others were out on guard duty.

Aster himself was next to him, seemingly lost in his own thoughts. Suddenly, Aster reached out and touched his sword sheath. "What's this?"

"Archenemy. It may seem weird to give a sword a name, but my sensei told me that a warrior's weapon is just as important as a part of their body. It's a part of you. It's just as vital as your arms and legs. Lose it, and you're good as dead."

He pulled the sword out of the sheath and held it up to the moonlight so Aster could see the cold metal.

Aster took a deep breath and touched the curved blade lightly. "That's amazing."

"It was handcrafted by my sensei. His family maintained the ancient tradition of sword making. He made it to be perfectly balanced in my hands."

"And you use it to kill witches?"

"Yeah."

"And you've killed a lot of them."

"Yeah." Jaden slid the sword back into its sheath.

"Got it," Aster said with a throb in his voice. He turned to stare at the street for a minute before looking back at Jaden; his voice was quiet. "How did you get involved with all of this in the first place? I mean, you know so much. How did you learn it all?"

Jaden laughed, though he didn't like talking about it. "Little bit at a time. I started out a lot like you. I saw a group of them kill my mom when I was five. After that, I tried to learn everything I could about witches, so I could fight them. I told my story at every foster home I lived at. Then, finally, I found some people who believed me. They were witch hunters. They taught me the rest."

Aster looked ashamed and disgusted. "I haven't done anything like that. I wouldn't have even known about the Shotguns if Jim hadn't called me. He saw an article about my dad in the paper and had guessed it had been a witch killing. I would never have found them on my own."

"You just didn't have enough time."

"No. I think it takes a special kind of person. Now that I know how to fight, that's what I'm gonna do." His voice sounded tight and shaky.

Jaden glanced at the boy; something was bubbling beneath the surface.

"I don't know which one of them killed my dad, so I'll just go after every witch that gets in my way until I do. I'm gonna–"

"Shh, quiet!" Jaden hissed as he put his hand over Aster's mouth.

Aster froze.

Jaden sat tensely, listening. Then, he got up like an uncoiled spring and stuck his head out the window.

He listened for another moment, then pulled his scarf up to veil his face with seasoned moves. "Grab your mask and come on."

"What is it?"

"You're going to get your wish. There's a fight downstairs. Stay behind me, and don't forget your mask."

It was the first thing any hunter learned. If you were recognized and the witch got away… well, let's just say you were living on borrowed time.

The witches would search until they found you, and they'd kill you when your guard was down.

Jaden ran lightly down the stairs and onto the street with Aster behind him. The sounds were coming from an area of total darkness beside one of the warehouses, far from the nearest streetlights.

As Jaden reached the place, he could make out the forms of Axel and Adrian; their faces were masked and their weapons in their hands. They were struggling with another form.

One other form.

'Seriously?' Jaden thought, stopping dead.

The two of them, armed with weapons and lying in ambush, couldn't handle one little witch themselves? From the racket, he'd thought they had been surprised by a whole army.

But this witch seemed to be putting up quite a fight, almost winning. He was able to shapeshift into different animals, large ones that the guys couldn't get near. Currently, he was a giant white tiger.

Axel was holding his own, having told Jaden that he was from a military family. On the other hand, Adrian had probably never seen a wild cat before.

"We've got to help them!" Aster hissed in Jaden's ear.

"Yeah," Jaden said joylessly before sighing. "Wait here, I'm going to bonk him on the head."

It wasn't quite that easy. Jaden got behind the witch without trouble, but that wasn't the problem. Archenemy, the honorable sword of a warrior, had one purpose: to deliver a clean blow capable of killing instantly. He couldn't bring himself to whack somebody unconscious with it.

It wasn't like he didn't have other weapons. He had plenty– back in his room at home. All the tools of a ninja, and some the ninja had never heard of.

He also knew some extremely dirty methods of fighting. Techniques that were not for the faint of heart.

But those were desperate measures to be used as a last resort when his own life was at stake, and the opposition was overwhelming. He simply couldn't do that to a single enemy when he had the jump on him.

The witch knocked Axel into Adrian, landing on the ground with a muffled thud. Jaden felt sorry for them, mostly Axel, but it solved his dilemma.

He grabbed a trash can lid knocked over in the struggle. Then, he circled nimbly as the witch turned, trying to face him.

At that instant, Aster threw himself into the fight, creating a distraction, and Jaden did what he said he would. He bonked the witch on the head, bringing the lid down like a hammer.

The witch cried out before he fell down, motionless.

Jaden raised the lid again, watching him. Then he lowered it, looking at Axel and Adrian. "You guys okay?"

Adrian nodded stiffly. He was trying to get his breath. "He surprised us."

Jaden didn't answer. He was very unhappy, and his feeling of being in top form tonight had evaporated entirely. This had been the most undignified fight he'd seen in a long while, and… it bothered him, the way the witch cried out as he fell.

He couldn't explain why, but it had.

Axel picked himself up. "He shouldn't have been able to surprise us. That was our fault."

Jaden glanced at him.

It was true. In this business, you were either ready all the time, expecting the unexpected at any moment, or you were dead.

"He was just good," Adrian said shortly. "Come on, let's get him out of here before somebody sees us. There's a cellar in the other building."

Jaden took hold of the witch's feet while Axel grabbed his shoulders. He wasn't very big, about his own height and compact. He also looked young, about his age.

He and Axel carried their burden down the stairs into a large, dank room that smelled of damp rot and mildew. They dropped him on the cold concrete floor, and Jaden straightened to ease his back.

"Okay. Now let's see what he looks like." Adrian said and turned his flashlight on him.

The witch was fair-skinned, and he had blue hair about Jaden's hair length, just in a different style. His eyelashes were dark against his skin. A little blood matted his hair in the back.

"I don't think he's the same one Jim and I saw last night. That one looked bigger." Adrian said.

Aster pressed forward, staring at his very first captive witch. "What difference does it make? He's one of them, right? Nobody human could turn into animals like that. He might even be the one who killed my father."

He smiled down at the unconscious boy, looking slightly psychotic. "And he's ours now. You're ours, just you wait."

Axel rubbed his shoulder from where it had hit the ground. He glanced at Jaden, and they were both thinking the same thing. They were seriously calling into question Aster's current mental state.

"I only hope he doesn't die soon," Adrian said, examining the pale face critically. "You hit him pretty hard."

"He's not going to die," Jaden said. "He'll probably wake up in a few minutes. And we'd better hope he's not one of the witches that's also a telepath."

Aster looked up sharply. "What?"

"Oh, most if not all witches have some form of telepathy," Jaden said absently. "But there's a big range in how powerful they are. Most of them can only communicate over a short distance, like within the same house. But a few are a lot stronger."

"Even if he is strong, it won't matter unless other witches are around," Adrian said.

"There may be if you and the others saw another one last night."

"Well…" Adrian hesitated, then said, "We can check outside, make sure he doesn't have any friends hiding around that warehouse."

Axel nodded, and Aster was listening intently.

Jay was going to say that from what he's seen, they couldn't find a witch in hiding to save their lives, but then he decided against it. "Good idea. You take Aster and do that. Meet up with the others; it's better in a group. I'll tie him up before he comes to. I've got bast cord."

Adrian glanced over quickly, but his hostility seemed to have faded since Jaden had knocked the witch over the head. "Okay, but let's use the handcuffs. Aster, run up and get them."

Aster did, and he and Adrian fixed the wooden stocks on the witch's wrists. Then they left with Axel.

Jaden sat on the floor. He didn't know what he was doing or why he'd sent Aster away. All he knew was that he wanted to be alone and felt… rotten.

It wasn't that he didn't have anger. At times he got so angry at the universe that it was like a little voice inside him whispering, Kill, kill, kill. Times when he wanted to strike out blindly, without caring who he hurt.

But just now, that little voice was silent, and Jaden felt sick.

To keep himself busy, he tied his feet with bast, a cord made from the inner bark of trees. It was as good for holding a witch as Adrian's ridiculous handcuffs.

When it was done, he turned the flashlight on him again.

He was good-looking. Clean features were firmly chiseled but almost delicate. A mouth that at the moment looked relatively innocent but could be entirely different when awake. A body that was lithe and flat-muscled, if not very tall.

All of which had no effect on Jaden. He's seen attractive witches before; many of them seemed really beautiful.

It didn't mean anything. It only stood as a contrast to what witches were like inside.

The tall man who had killed his mother had been handsome. He could still see his face, hear his voice.

Freaks. Scum. They weren't really people.

They were monsters.

But they could still feel pain, just like any human. He'd hurt this one when he hit him.

Jaden jumped up and started to pace the cellar.

All right. This witch deserved to die. They all did. But that didn't mean he had to wait for Adrian to come back and poke with pointy nails.

Jaden knew now why he'd sent Aster away. So he could give the witch a clean death. Maybe he didn't deserve it, but he couldn't stand around and watch Adrian kill him slowly.

He couldn't.

He stopped pacing and went to the unconscious boy.

The flashlight on the floor was still pointing at him, so he could see him clearly. He was wearing a blue hoodie, not nearly enough for the cold. Jaden unzipped the jacket, revealing the white shirt underneath.

He took out his knife and cut away the shirt, exposing his chest. Although the angled tip of Archenemy could pierce clothing, it was easier to drive it straight into witch flesh without any barrier in between.

Standing with one foot on either side of the witch's waist, he drew the heavy steel sword. He held it with both hands, one near the guard, the other near the knob on the end of the hilt. He positioned the end exactly over the witch's heart.

"Not all heroes play by the rules." He whispered, hardly aware he was saying it.

Then he took a deep breath, eyes shut.

He needed to work to focus because he'd never done anything like this before. The witches he'd killed had usually been caught in the middle of despicable acts, and they'd all been fighting at the end. He's never staked one that was lying still.

'Concentrate,' He thought. 'You need zanshin, continuing mind, awareness of everything without fixing on anything.'

He felt his feet becoming part of the cold concrete beneath them, his muscles and bones becoming extensions of the ground. The strike would carry the energy of the earth itself.

His hands brought the sword up. He was ready for the kill.

He opened his eyes to perfect his aim... And then he saw that the witch was awake.

His eyes were open, and he was looking at him.

And now we are all caught up.