[A/N: Hey everybody. Ummm... usually disclaimers apply, for I am not Terrance Zdunich or Darren Smith. Hope you enjoy the first chapter of Ignorance and Innocence as much as I enjoyed writing it. I reallly hope that I managed to keep people in character. Constructive Critcism is loved, flaming is thrown back into the fireplace where they belong. Please Read and Review and I will love you forever and be more apt to update more quickly.]

Chapter 1

"Tell me you don't live in a dumpster," Shilo was saying as they walked down another alley past a dumpster Graverobber had paused at, reaching in to grab something that she didn't see.

"No, Miss Sweet seems to think so though," the Graverobber replied. Shilo seemed livelier just with the human interaction, and that was a good thing, "She tends to come here when she wants a hit if she can't find me at the Zydrate Support Network."

He shrugged as if it were nothing. Shilo stood there staring at him as if he were absurd. Graverobber looked back at her, that Cheshire grin once again gracing his features, "It's not like I want her knowing where I actually live."

This made sense, though it wasn't really what Shilo had expected to hear from him, considering how he had acted towards her that one time she had seen her getting a hit as he called it… and all the other Zydrate addicts called it… and most likely, what just about every other addict of every other addictive substance would call it if they were in need. Their relationship had seemed a bit less than platonic then. She didn't say anything about it, but either he was still in her head or her emotions were still that plain on her face, but the grin faded from his face and he looked once again exasperated.

"You really were cooped up in that bedroom all your life. Your naïveté is showing, Kid," he stated, his voice had lost some of its good humor and game play as he watched his new ward's facial expressions. He almost expected her to look down searching for whatever he claimed was showing. But, she wasn't exactly that naïve. Though she did stare at him blankly, either an effect of her confusion, or she wasn't doing nearly as well as Graverobber had been assuming she was for the past few minutes. He would assume it was a mix of both, "I take all sorts of payment, Kid, welcome to your crash course in the real world."

"I'm drenched in the blood of my father whom I just watched get shot by the man that was starting to replace him as a father figure… and you think I need a crash course in the real world?" her voice was mocking, not something that even Graverobber, who, though he was the person that knew her best this side of the grave, still knows very, very little about the young woman, hadn't expected. He stared at her quizzically for a moment before brushing off the sentiment she was sending him, whether she realized it or not. She had indeed been through a lot in the last twenty-four hours, so lapses in judgment… in personality, were expected. She would snap out of it. Besides, she was right, in a way; though she was wrong in so many others. Her recent experiences with death did not make her learned in the ways of the world. Not in the least.

"Isn't that enough of a crash?" she asked, her eyes straying to the ground, cement that was so littered with various bits of trash and grime you couldn't see the cracked and broken ground below. Her voice had fallen just as her eyes had showing the tormented girl beneath the shroud of normalcy that Graverobber now knew she had been hiding behind.

Graverobber didn't know what to do; he wasn't used to taking care of someone that wasn't himself. And he had never had to deal with something like… this, when taking care of himself. He didn't know the first thing about comforting anyone, and didn't really know if he had it in him to do in the first place.

"Where are we going, if it isn't a dumpster?" she asked, her voice still flat and her eyes still downcast.

Graverobber, not really one to dwell on things, was getting rather tired of the low attitude, despite that Shilo hadn't allowed her shroud to fall even five minutes ago. But, it was keeping him from humorous view of the world, and he wasn't particularly keen on the idea of being kept from his humor. So, he took a deep breath and sighed it out before striding over to the downcast young woman and putting an arm once again around her shoulders.

"Cheer up, Kid, your old man wouldn't have wanted this of you over him. I know it's gonna be hard, it'll get better with time. You've gotta try to make it work though, or you'll stay a zombie forever," he said, giving her a little shake to make sure he had her attention, plastering the grin back upon his face, hoping that something more or less familiar would make her feel better. Because, honestly, how many times had she seen him without that grin. It wasn't very manner, and he was pretty sure she had only seen him serious while he was distributing Zydrate.

She looked up at him, her eyes still strangely blank, but a thin film of tears layered them threatening to fall once more. That was better than what she had been, there was an emotion there, one that she was trying to hide. Progress, that's what Graverobber was going to call it.

"He asked me to change the world," she said in a whisper, "Do you think that I could do that?"

Graverobber shrugged, "You can if you want to, gotta put your mind to it, and really want it, but I bet you could do it," he said, glancing down into those glassy brown eyes, "Do you want to change the world? Or do you just want the world to change?"

Shilo wasn't really sure what she wanted. Changing the world would mean a lot of things, and if she did it it would get done the way she wanted it to. She thought for a moment, a very long moment, pondering the newest dilemma that had wandering into her mind.

"What if the world that I want… isn't the world that everyone else wants? People are happy like this… who am I to force them to change into something they may not want or like?" she asked, sounding very wise for her age, despite her thick voice.

Graverobber's grin was wide again, reaching all the way to his eyes and causing them to twinkle mischievously, "True, very true, who are you to force change upon them? At least when Rotti started GeneCo it was necessary."

Shilo nodded, looking straight ahead in a vague way, once again thinking for a long moment. She seemed to come to a decision, which, in fact, she had, as she looked up and spoke once more, "Then I'll change my world," she said firmly, a glint of determination in her glossy eyes.

"Good job, Kid," Graverobber told her, giving her a bit of a squeeze of the shoulders, showing his appreciation for her decision before letting her go, "And, I'll help you with that. You have nowhere else to go, at least nowhere you actually want to go right now. So, you can come with me," he said, striding away, not looking back at her as he spoke. Graverobber was not one to offer any help that would affect him directly for more than a few minutes. And now he was offering this young woman a place to stay. He blew out a breath; things were going to be interesting.

Shilo followed when she noticed that the Graverobber who had saved he, who was, in fact, still saving her, wasn't just taking a few steps while he thought. He wasn't pacing, he was leaving, and she wasn't about to be left in this place, lost in the middle of the city that she only knew from her view out the window of her bedroom. No, it wasn't her bedroom anymore, but it had been. It was strange to think of it that way, and, even more than telling herself that her father had been murdered before her very eyes, it was the thought that that bedroom, where she could see the world, was no longer her home.

"My name's Shilo," she corrected him, just to get her mind off of the unpleasant matters for a few moments at least.

He didn't turn, but she heard him chuckle from ahead of her, his gait far larger than her own, enough that she had to start jogging to be able to keep up. He slowed once she caught up to him to match his pace to one that she was more comfortable keeping up with.

'How sweet,' she thought to herself in exasperation at the older man.

"Is it very far?" she asked, she didn't know about him, but she had had a very long day, and she was tired enough she felt like she could sleep the rest of her life away.

"It's far enough to be out of the way of prying eyes," he replied vaguely, continuing to walk at his fairly brisk pace. Shilo had assumed that the Graverobber would make his abode somewhere inconspicuous and out of the way, so his response wasn't really very helpful. When you're seen as a criminal to the people with big guns, you usually try to stay below the radar. She just hoped that they weren't heading to another cemetery. She didn't mind visiting them, she did it often enough, but she just didn't think that she could handle living in one.

After about another half an hour of walking through shadows and dank alleyways, they came upon a small, seemingly abandoned house. It was in disrepair, the outside all but falling apart, windows were boarded up, and she couldn't even seem to find the front door behind the collapsed porch. She looked warily over to Graverobber, almost dreading the next words to come out of his mouth.

"We're here," he said with a knowing grin.

He had said what she had feared and she cast an almost frightened glance at the house that was so obviously falling to pieces before their eyes.

"Are you sure it's safe?" she asked, eying the house, just waiting for it to cave in somewhere while she stood there and watched it.

Graverobber chuckled again, "It's safe, the main house is structurally sound. Follow me."

He took her arm by the elbow and lead her around the rear of the house where there stood another door, this one was boarded shut as well, but he walked up to it like there were no boards, as if the house didn't look like it would fall over onto him, tugging Shilo along with him for his apparent death. She tensed, not really willing to go into the house. Graverobber looked back at her with his trademark grin in place.

"Don't worry, you'll be surprised. Now, let's get inside before someone sees us," he said, pulling on one of the boards and the door swung open easily. Shilo looked around, she didn't see anyone nearby, but she was being a bit paranoid, with her decision of getting into the house or not. In the end, Graverobber didn't give her much of a choice, tugging on her arm so that she was almost pulled into the house.

Graverobber had been right, she was surprised. Inside the house was fairly clean, albeit dusty and with a feeling of disuse… but she was standing inside a condemned house. Everything seemed sound, in fact, it seemed almost lived in. She looked to Graverobber questioningly, and he grinned with a show of white teeth.

"No one is going to suspect a building that doesn't even look like you can get into it. Remember, Zydrate sells for a pretty penny, I've kept this place livable without anyone being the wiser," he said as if it were nothing.

"It's… nice, I guess," Shilo said awkwardly, causing Graverobber to chuckle again, "But, it needs to be cleaned, I guess."

"Well, I'm not really here too often… so it is messy," he said with a shrug, laughter still in his voice.

Shilo looked around the place, which was as small as the outside had made it look. It was also dark, too dark for her to really see properly, but it seemed like it was sparsely decorated, not that she had really expected him to have a lot of things going on in the house. She was just lucky that it was structurally sound and she didn't have to be afraid of the roof falling in on her while she was sleeping. Which brought another question to mind, one that made her look to the floor, which looked fairly clean despite the coating of dust and the footprints in it, and a blush crawled across her face at having to ask the question in the first place.

"Umm… wh-where will I be sleeping?" she asked, stumbling over her words slightly.

At this, Graverobber simply leaned back and laughed, a deep rumbling laugh, unlike his chuckling which was more cynical than anything else half the time. He couldn't help himself, she was just too much, too lost and confused, and uncomfortable here, as if he was going to throw her out to the streets at any moment. He knew that he wasn't about to do that, but she didn't trust him enough not to. He may have saved her from a few interesting situations, but he was still Graverobber. Not to mention, that first time in the graveyard, he hadn't really saved her… she had still been grabbed by the Repomen, and would have died if it weren't for Rotti and her own disguised father's intervention.

"I'll look into a real bed for you, for now you can have the couch," he said putting one of his large hands between her shoulder blades to lead her to the living room. He left her standing awkwardly in the doorway while he fiddled around somewhere deeper in the room. She didn't have a clue what he was doing in the darkness until there was a spark and a flicker of light and warmth coming from a fireplace. If anyone had been looking at the house, they would see a thing line of smoke curling into the sky to be lost amongst the clouds. Shilo didn't realize until the fire was lit and crackling exactly how cold she was. It must have been shock. Or something.

"Sit down, Kid," Graverobber told her, indicating the couch, it was thick and looked comfortable, though, a bit dirty, just like the rest of the house. There was a layer of dust on the couch, and she could feel it on her legs and back as she sat down and hugged herself in front of the fire.

Graverobber disappeared for a few minutes, and when she returned he placed a thick blanket around Shilo's shoulders. It wasn't something she was expecting, and the new weight made her jump and look around.

"Jumpy, Kid," Graverobber said, stating the obvious.

"Just a little," Shilo said, there was a bit of bite to her voice, a very good sign. Though she may still have been in shock from the events of the night she would recover. And, from the looks of it, she would recover fairly quickly from this trauma.

"Get some sleep, Kid, it'll do you good." Graverobber said, giving her shoulder a squeeze before walking by to sit on the recliner on the other side of the fire.

"Sounds like a good idea…" Shilo said with a yawn. She really was tired, and it was really starting to catch up to her. She slumped over onto her right side, kicked off her shoes, and curled up onto the less than pristine couch. She was asleep within five minutes, giving Graverobber ample time to think what had just happened through.

[A/N: Hope you enjoyed it. I'll hopefully start naming the chapters some time in the near future.]