Okay... so pretty good so far? This one is a little shocking twards the end... if you're good at for shadowing you can probably guess. Anyhow...

Warnings and Headsup!

1) this story does contain mention of abuse, and full out present day abuse. It got a little detailed in one of the chapters and though nothing is stated specifically, for those of you who are smart enough to know what 2+2 is... you'll be able to understand where the train of thought was going. I will mark which chapters are the bad ones... If you skip... you wont really miss anything important, just an awesome rescue attempt!

2) this gets depressing and a little dark... but it comes out cheerful and rainbow and butterflies in the end, I promise!

3) THIS IS NOT A LOVE STORY! Duke does NOT fall in love with the OC and the OC does NOT fall in love with him! Sorry if I've made it sound like it was going in a different direction.

4) its not that good at the end... but like my last story... it gets better as it goes on I promise!

5) It may seem that my OC has a few things to realize before this is all said and done... and there are... I've tried to keep it organized... but if you have trouble basically she needs to gain self-confidence, trust, and a belief that there are heroes out there who wont fail her... kinda ties in with the whole trust thing...

6) THE END NOW READ!

Ch. 6: Betrail

"What are you doing?" Duke asked as I filled my new quiver with a dozen arrows.

"I can't sit here anymore." I snarled. "Not when they need help."

"You can't put yourself at danger either." Duke said.

"Yeah, well... they're my friends and if I get captured then... I have a plan. You have to trust that I know what I'm doing, Duke."

"Kat..."

"Duke... I trusted you, now it's your turn. Don't come with me if you want, but I'm going to go after them. I'm not going to be the reason for their..." but I stopped myself. I could not think that.

"Do you know how to use that thing?" Duke asked as I shiethed my sword.

"Yes." I said.

"On guard." he said pointing his saber at me.

"We don't have..."

"I'm not concenting to letting you out until you prove to me that you can take care of yourself." he said sternly. We glared at each other.

"Fine. But you asked for it." I told him. "By the way, I'm really sorry about this, I hope this doesn't ruin our friendship or anything."

"What doesn..." but he never got to finish. I charged. He deflected fairly easily, but that's cause I didn't want to take him out just yet. I played with him for a few seconds, but then when I felt him twist his wrist in the slightlest movement, I disarmed him, flung him to the ground and jabbed the tip of my blade inches from his head. He looked up at me stunned.

"Nobody's ever disarmed me that quickly, or that neatly." he choked out, his expression, very visable to me, was one of bewilderment and horror.

"Yeah, well, first time for everything." I told him, yanking my sword out from the ground and putting it away again. "Can we go now?" I picked up his saber and returned it to him.

"I'll do you one better, you can lead this mission." he said still stunned.

"Pass." I said. "I can't lead myself out of a paper bag, just don't strap me to a bed to keep from leaving here and we'll call it quits." I said.

He nodded. "This way." We took one of the motorbikes.

"Oh, before we go I think you need one of these." he said and ran off. He came back seconds later and handed me something that looked like a wrist band. "It's a communicator." he explained. "All members of the team are required to whear them at all time." he flashed a grin at me and I smiled back. It was his way of saying that I was truly one of them now. We sped off in the dirrection of the other's signals, me holding on for dear life.

When we riched the ship, it looked like a house.

"Corney." I muttered as Duke looked for an open window.

"Why don't we just use the front door?" I asked.

"You want to get caught the moment we step in?" he asked me.

"No, but if this is just a cloaking disguise, then one of those windows could actually be a peice of wall that we wouldn't be able to get through. I'd take my chances with the door."

He looked at me and I could sense he agreed. Even if he didn't want to admit it. I shrugged. "But we can try it your way first to see what happens."

"No. Let's just use the door." he mumbled. We walked up the front steps and tried the door.

"Damn it." I murmmered. "Locked."

"Step aside rookie and let me show you how a pro does it." he said a little cockily. I steped back as he kneeled down on one knee and started working on the lock. Just then I heard the smallest click as the door swung open.

"Amazing what you can do with a toothpick, huh?" he said, puting the toothpick in his mouth and crossing his arms satisfied with himself. I tried hard not to burst out laughing. The sight was quite hystaricle.

We were able to get through the first few hallways without detection. As I walked, I suddenly remembered where I was and how to get to certain rooms. That was my skill at remembering building layouts at play. Told you had a photographic memory.

"Where would they be held?" I whispered to Duke as we crept along.

"There's some sort of holding chamber he held us in last time." he whispered back. "But I can't remember where it was."

"What was in it?"

"A platform he had us bound on, a control pannel... that's it." he said. "Unless you count the hidden puddle of white hot wires he was going to put us on to turn us into dinner."

I closed my eye and thought. I had seen a room similar to that discription right before I had managed to locate the exit. "This way." I said. But the moment we turned the corner, a band of robot droids ran at us.

"Nice." I said. "Warm up practice." I took out my staff and twirled it in my fingures. It sprang out and I took out a little more then half of the robots with it.

"Smooth." Duke shouted at me. "You're a natural kid!"

"Not to bad yourself there old man!" I shot back.

"Hey, hey! I'm only 26!" he replied irritably.

"Yeah? And I'm 18, as far as I know that's legal adult hood baby!"

"You know you're fisty under neath that layer of shyness and mistrust!"

"Thank you!"

As the last one fell I grabbed Duke's hand and flew down the hall with him. "It should be... this one!" I flung open the door and there they were, all of them. Even Phil.

"Duke!" he cried out.

"Cool it Phil, you want to alert more guards?" Wildwing whispered.

"Kat, what are you doing here?"

"Saving your tail feathers." I shot at him. "You can thank me later."

They all stared at me.

"Little spit fire, isn't she?" Duke laughed as he lowered them down and I cut them loose. They all ran over and grabbed their weapons.

"Yeah." Wildwing said looking at me through his mask. "Let's just get outa here before we celebrate."

Just then the door opened and that big bolder guy came running in.

"Siege." Wildwing muttered, turning to him.

"How did you bird brains get loose this time?" he roared.

"Hello." I said before realeasing one of my arrows. He didn't have time to dodge. It spun around him and I pulled the rope that was attached to it. He collapsed.

"Are you sure you're blind?" Nosedive asked in amazment.

"Almost blind." I corrected him. "I do have some vision left to me."

"Let's chat latter and move now!" Wildwing called out. We obeyed, darting out into the hallway. We didn't even get half way down it though when quite unexpectedly a few obsticles prevented us from moving forward. First, a pit opened up and Phil, Mallery and Nosedive went falling through the floor. In a desperate attempt to grab his little brother Wildwing fell down after them. Tanya, Grin, Duke, and I all looked at each other as the pit closed back up.

"Perfect." Duke grumbled.

"Look out!" Tanya shouted as a wall came crashing down to split the hallway in two. Duke and I jumped to one side and we were seperated from the other two.

"Yo Grin! Can you break through?" Duke called.

"Are you crazy?" I said. "That's got to be at least three inces thick!"

"Yeah, you might want to step back." Duke replied.

There came a loud crunching noise and the impression of Grin's giant hand was made into the wall, but other then that, nothing. From the other side came Grin's voice, "Pain is an illusion."

"Who in the world told you that?" I shouted at him.

"An illusion that really hurts." he finished, it sounded like his eyes were tearing up.

"Well no duh." I said. "Do NOT try that again! Let's just see if we can meet up somewhere.

"Hey Tanya!" Duke cried. "Do you have a du-hiki that can get us a map of the building?

"Not unless I was at one of the main computers." she responded. I closed my eyes again.

"Wait a minute! The hall that we're in. It's circular! We can meet up on the other side!" I shouted out.

"How do you..."

"I'll explain later!" I cut across Tanya's question hastely. The sooner we got back together, the sooner we could get the others and then get out of there. This plan however, failed misserably. The moment we started runing, Another pit opened up and Duke started falling down.

"No!" I shouted and grabbed him by the uper arm. "Wait, what am I doing?" I said to no one in particular. But by the time that entered my mind it was too late. I fell down after him. Expecting to land near him, I was shocked and pissed that I went down a different side shoot. It was dark, but I was used to it.

"Kaaaaaaaat!" I heard him scream as he fell down his shoot. But by the time I found my own voice to reply, he was already out of ear reach.

When I hit the bottom I slamed against a stone floor. "Oww." I muttered. It looks like the ducks weren't the only ones who knew how to build underground fortresses. I took out my staff again and extended it to its fullest length. Using it as a cane I moved through the dark and gloom. How was I going to get intouch with the others? Your communicator dummy. The annoying voice in my head said in an obvious tone. Oh, yeah! I almost forgot about that! I stopped and leaned against the wall, raising my communicator and calling out Wildwing's name.

"All I'm saying is that this is the worst trouble we've gott'n ourselves into and it's all her fault."

I froze. Mallery's voice was cold and cruel.

"I know." Wildwing said. "And as leader, it's my duty to protect the team. When we get out of here-"

"If we get out of here." Nosedive's voice rang out.

"We are going to get out of here." Wildwing said fermly. "And when we do, I'll tell her that she has to go back. I never thought a girl could be so much trouble."

"Yeah, well look at what they want her for." Mallery's voice echoed around me, reverberating of the stone walls. "Spy, toy. I mean, she could've been playing us all along and to think I actually spent money on her."

I ended the transmition. I couldn't hear anymore. My heart felt like it was turning into the same kind of stone that I leaned on. Tanya and Grin. The vice said. Try them. I raised my wrist again and called out Tanya's name.

"I sensed no good in her from the start." Grin's voice was much colder then I've heard it so far.

"She decieved us, that's all there is to it." Tanya said. "I didn't like her from the start either."

I ended the transmition. I refused to believe it. These guys told me, showed me, that I belonged with them. But it was all lies. You fell for it again. The voice in my head said. You believed that they wanted you. That they cared. The only reason they didn't want Dragonis to get you was because they cared about the world, not you. If he had said that all the bitters were offering was cash, they would've gone and got the christals in Nigeria before Dragonis could, leaving him to get you and earning a little bit of profit. NO! I wouldn't believe that! DUKE! Duke would help me! He would talk to the others. I raised my communicator one last time and whispered his name.

"Kat?" his voice came out sharp.

"Oh, thank goodness!" I exlcaimed. "Where are yo..."

"How could you get us into this mess?" his voice too was cold.

"W-what?"

"This is all your fault! I've got Phil with me and we're just about caught up with the others. Then we're leaving, if you know what's good for ya, GO HOME!" and he hung up.

I felt my legs give way and I collapsed on the ground. I wasn't wanted. Duke, of all of them, just made that perfectly clear. Dragonis. The voice in my head said. At least there you'll have somewhere to go. Where I'd be sold too, I didn't, at that point care. Just so long as I was off this damned planet and away from the ones who made me believe, I could ever belong. Well, it just goes to show that no matter where you were in the cosmos... the same rule applies. The one's closest to you are the ones who always end up hurting you the most. I was blinded to that truth by the childish dreams I had sworn to myself I'd never have again. And it opened me up to be stabbed by the same knife again. Only, this time, the blade hurt much worse then it had ever done before.

DUKE! How could you say that! If you hate me for making him and the others sound cold and not like themselves... please don't but keep reading! All WILL be come clear to you in the end! And as always don't forget to R&R!