Chapter 10: Brass Veneers

The girls arrived at the Goddess Pond about ten minutes before the festival started. It certainly looked fit for a picnic. The pretty scraps of fabric they had found yesterday were laid out in front of the pond, and an area of field was cleared to make room for games. Picnic baskets full of food and drinks were set up in various places, and the sky was beginning to darken just enough so that the firefly flowers held a faint glow.

After some final preparations, the young residents of the valley and Mineral Town began to creep in, one by one or pair by pair and sometimes group by group. The pond quickly filled with a little more than twenty adolescents, and Jill couldn't help but smile proudly as they marveled over the decorations and setting.

There were a few new faces, but Jill could recognize everyone from the valley as well as Trent, Ellie, Gray (who she had met once while digging up artifacts), and Popouri (who came to the valley to talk to Takakura sometimes). Everyone was dressed in their best clothing but also looked prepared to have fun running around and being, well, young.

Five minutes into the picnic, Jill felt a light tap on her shoulder. She turned around to see Karen with a stocky guy about their age dressed in a tuxedo.

"Pony, this is Rick," Karen explained. "He's my fiancée."

Rick smiled and stuck a hand out for Jill to shake. The brunette couldn't help but be a bit surprised at his appearance. He was less Karen-worthy than she imagined him to be. Not that he wasn't attractive, of course, but she had expected a big muscle-y dude you'd expect to find at a bar late at night. Rick looked more like he owned a farm. Jill couldn't help but laugh inwardly at that, because she owned a farm, too. Did she look so country-ish to others?

"Pleased to meet you, Pony," Rick said. He had a fairly deep voice for being a not-so-macho guy. "Karen's told me a lot about you. All good, of course. I hear you're running the farm in the valley now?"

Jill nodded. "Yes, I am."

"Do you like it?"

"I love it, actually. It's great growing things, and I'm looking forward to getting some chickens soon," Jill explained.

"That's great!" Rick smiled. "Chickens are the best. Not as messy as livestock or as hard to handle, and still give you a good profit if you have good quality eggs."

The conversation continued as such, and eventually Karen, Rick, and Jill took a seat next to Celia and Marlin at a picnic blanket to eat some food. The plan was to eat first and then play games afterward.

Like Rick, Marlin didn't look too shabby either. He had made the effort to put on a black shirt with a light green tie, but he was still wearing the same old grumpy expression. Jill smiled a bit when she realized that Vesta had probably forced him to come. The girl's smile widened even more when she noticed the tint of red on Celia's cheeks and, though barely noticeable in the moonlight, it was obvious what the source of her embarrassment was.

While taking a bite of a cheese sandwich she had helped Celia prepare the day before, Jill scouted the area for Muffy. She was sitting by Griffin and two people from Mineral Town that Jill didn't recognize, but she seemed to be having fun, which made Jill feel a little less bad for basically ditching her. Then again, Muffy wasn't really ditch-able, because as soon as you left her, she just found a new person to go talk to.

Everything seemed quiet and pleasant enough, and Jill gradually relaxed and let herself have a good time. Eating took at least a half hour, and then a little craziness ensued when the cookies were brought out of the picnic basket. Each boy took his turn bringing a cookie to his favorite girl. Jill didn't expect to receive any, but she did end up getting one from Griffin. According to him it was just "out of courtesy for a pretty lady like herself," and Jill was more than okay with that. She munched on the chocolate chips while she watched a slightly awkward but cute exchange between Flora and Carter. Carter had apparently burned his cookies, and Flora was making a little fuss about it, even though Jill heard that Flora wasn't the best cook herself.

She spent most of the dinner observing, throwing in a few comments to the conversation now and then. That was how she worked most of the time. Alone with one other person she could talk for hours, but at big group gatherings she preferred to listen and laugh and learn about people. She watched Karen and Rick and the way they interacted, Rick being the responsible one and always careful not to make a show of his affection, Karen always ignoring his silent requests and holding his hand and rubbing his back anyway. It was funny watching them sub consciously debate about what was publicly acceptable. Jill wondered if they even realized what they were doing.

Finally the time came for games. It was getting darker every minute, but by this time the firefly flowers were fully glowing, setting the pond ablaze in sparkles. The field turned a shade of silvery gray underneath the moon, and the air was still warm, thus creating a perfect atmosphere. Celia quietly told Jill that she had been spot on for the theme choice, and Jill only replied by smiling a bit wider and nodding.

The first game was freeze tag. Jill couldn't believe they were actually playing such a childish game, but she went along with it anyway and found herself out of breath and giggling within minutes. It was amusing, to say the least, to watch Gray run around and try to catch Trent while his hat (which, of course, he hadn't taken off even for the party) kept flying off of his head. Trent was the only one left, so whenever Gray's hat would fall off, the doctor would dash to try and unfreeze someone as quietly as possible, but Gray was always too quick and the match ended in a stalemate of sorts. Trent touched Ellie's shoulder just as Gray touched Trent, thus leaving everyone frozen.

They played another round of freeze tag, but this time Jill was stuck being "it." She had taken off her shoes in order to run, and she had to admit that running on the spongy grass made her almost giddy with delight. She felt like a kid again. It was easy to see why the people of the valley enjoyed their festivals so much.

Little did the valley people know, however, that Jill was fast, and she was smart, too, so they wouldn't be able to win. She was in the middle of a mad dash with Muffy (who was squealing like a pig running from a butcher) when Griffin called out, "Pony, where'd you learn to run like that?!"

"You learn to run when you're being attacked by a bear!" Jill yelled back, laughing. She didn't even think about the fact that that whole story was a lie. Tonight she was Pony. Tonight she fit in with her life in the valley. She wasn't Jill, who had caused so many problems, so much sorrow. She was Pony, a carefree girl who ran like the wind.

Much to her own dismay, Jill didn't win the match of freeze tag. Muffy somehow managed to tap Gray, who then proceeded to unfreeze a girl with black hair Jill didn't recognize, and after that she lost track of who got unfrozen. She ended in a heap on the ground, giggling and panting from sheer exhaustion with the others whooping in celebration around her. Still, though, she didn't feel much like she had lost anything.

Trent helped her up off of the ground, and Jill smoothed out her dress and hair a bit before asking, "So, what's the next game? Does it involve running? Because if it does, I think I'll just go take a nap in the pond or something."

Quiet chuckles went around the circle of young adults, and Muffy replied, "Well, I think we should do Poison Dart Frog."

A murmur of excitement passed around like a ripple of water, and Jill asked, "What's that?"

Poison Dart Frog ended up being a game where everyone sat in a circle (which was pretty easy for them to do, even though some were a bit dizzy either from a little too much wine or all of the previous running). Then, a frog was chosen, as well as a detective. The frog "poisoned" people by sticking their tongue out and making eye contact with someone in the circle. A poisoned person had to die very dramatically, and then the detective had to try and guess who the frog was, but they only got three chances.

To Jill it was very simple. Being in the organization she had learned to read expressions and analyze people's thought processes, so she found it easy to figure out who the frog was, and not only because she made eye contact with the person and then died. She usually figured out who it was in the circle before anyone else did.

Eventually at the beginning of a round, Jill felt one tap on her head, which signaled that she was the new detective. A chorus of "oohs" came up when she scootched her way into the middle, probably grass staining her dress a bit in the process. "Ready, new girl?" A young woman with red hair called from across the circle.

"You betcha," Jill replied, though she knew she'd probably have to mask her intelligence if she wanted to avoid suspicion. She realized with a bit of regret that she was fading back to Jill because of this game, not Pony, but she pushed it away and waited patiently for the first "death" to come.

Within the first three people that died, Jill knew it was the girl with the black hair Gray had tagged earlier during freeze tag. She was quiet, sweet, and also very pretty, thus making her an unlikely suspect. Mostly what gave it away was that she blinked a bit too frequently to be innocent, and she also never made eye contact with Jill, even though both were probably subconscious actions.

She was deciding when it would be okay for her to call the black haired girl out when she heard the same redhead ask, "So, you know who it is yet, newbie?"

Jill froze. So, you know who it is yet, newbie?

Suddenly her vision blinked out, and she was sitting in a dark room at a desk with one other person. His breath smelled like a mixture of chewing tobacco and alcohol. His shoulders were too wide for his head, and his hands too big for his arms, but that made him all the more intimidating. He could probably crush her tiny carpel bones with just a short, single squeeze.

Jill watched him intently, waiting for any sign that the man was joking or that he was going to continue talking before she realized he was serious. He wanted to know if she had figured it out yet, if she knew who the betrayer was. She knew what they did to the ones who betrayed the organization. They tracked them down, hunted them like prey, then shot them on the spot, and left them wherever to die and rot. They killed the family and the friends. They did everything. Runaways paid the ultimate price.

She knew who it was. She wasn't stupid like the other apprentices. She had a brain, and Hawk knew that. Maybe that was why he had called her in so late at night, when no one else would hear. But she wasn't sure if she could give it away, she wasn't sure if she could be the cause for the death of a man and his family who simply wanted freedom.

"Well, are you going to talk, kid, or not?" Hawk asked coldly, and Jill couldn't help but shiver when his breath reached her nostrils.

She gulped, took a deep breath, and then, with shaking hands, pointed to one of three pictures on the desk. It was a man with dark, curly brown hair and thick eyebrows. He wasn't smiling in the picture, but that didn't make Jill feel much better. "Black, sir," she whispered. "It was Jonathan Black."

A smile curled onto Hawks' lips, and then he chuckled darkly. "Good, good," he said, his voice firm and terrifying. "I like you, newbie. How'd you like to be my apprentice?"

Jill felt like she was about to faint. The memory was something she had tried to hide away in the nooks and crannies of her mind, the part where she couldn't quite reach anything. Ann had brought the images back with just a single sentence, and that terrified her. She had worked so hard to conceal her past even from herself, and yet here a single person had summoned it back up again.

She probably would have stayed frozen and silent and uncomprehending of the world around her had Muffy not said, "Pony? Are you okay?"

Then it was like time started ticking again. Jill let out a quick breath, and then laughed a bit shakily. "Yeah, sorry, guys. I was lost in thought." She pointed to the girl with the black hair, and said, "I think it's you, but I don't know your name. Sorry."

The girl smiled gently, and then said, "Mary. I'm from Mineral Town."

"Hi Mary," Jill smiled back.

"Wow," Griffin said. "I don't think I've ever seen someone figure it out that fast before. Way to go, Pony."

Jill shrugged, attempting to cover up her dark streak on white paper. She had revealed the poison dart frog too early. "Lucky guess, I suppose."

No one seemed to acknowledge the fact that Jill had lost her cool for a good ten seconds or so, and that helped her slide smoothly back into the happy buzz she had maintained before. They played a few more rounds of Poison Dart Frog before Muffy announced that they'd finish up the night with a game of Capture the Flag. Karen pulled out two bright orange pieces of cloth from a picnic basket, and the group was divided into two groups. Jill was put in a group with Mary, the shy girl she had just met, Ann, Muffy, Celia, Griffin, Gray, Carter, Rick, and a few other people she didn't know.

They ended up hiding the flag under a big rock near the spring because it was within their boundaries and the most concealed spot. Her team had the open field and the pond, which was good for running because it was very open, but bad for hiding because there weren't a lot of rocks or foliage. The other team had the huge tree and a lot of undergrowth, so exactly opposite: bad for running, good for hiding.

Jill decided to play wherever she was needed. Sometimes she lingered around the border line and tagged trespassers, other times she took a turn looking on the opposite side trying to find the flag, which they had hidden extremely well. She tried to be careful and not act like she was on a mission from the organization, but sometimes it was just too easy to pinpoint the perfect shadows to hide behind and sneak around without being seen.

Within twenty minutes the opposing team found their flag. Thankfully, Gray was fast enough to tag Popouri, who had seen it under the rock, so they were still safe for the time being, at least until someone else crossed the border.

That was when something in the air caught her eye. Just barely shifting in the breeze was the other team's flag. They had hidden it on a high branch of the biggest tree, the one about ten feet from the border. Jill had to mentally congratulate whoever thought of that. It was a brilliant strategy. By the time anyone got up to the top branch, someone would notice the flag had been found and there would be a few people waiting at the bottom of the tree for the person to come down.

"I'll just have to climb quietly, then," Jill murmured to herself.

She blocked out the excited yelps and shouts of her friends and grabbed on to a branch that was hidden in the shadows. It was sturdy enough, but she still stuck to the inside of the branch where it met the trunk for better safety. She also tested every branch with her foot before applying any weight.

Gradually, the girl made her way diagonally across the tree. No one had spotted her yet because she had chosen to stay on the inside branches, where she was hidden by the leaves. Just as her fingers brushed the flag, however, a shout came from below.

"Pony found the flag!" a male voice called.

Aw, screw you, Rock, Jill thought, looking down to see the blond guy jumping and pointing at her. She grabbed the orange fabric quickly, seizing the opportunity where everyone was still in a bit of shock, and started scaling back down the tree.

Now came the decision: show off and win the game but possibly make some people suspicious of her skills, or blow it and have her pride crushed.

It wasn't much of a choice. She was a natural born runner, a natural born winner. She knew that, even at the sake of her exposure, she'd win anyway. That was probably her biggest fault and her biggest triumph, as well as the only reason Hawk hadn't found her yet. She liked to win far too much.

Rock and Karen were already anticipating her descend at the bottom of the tree, but Jill had a different plan in mind. She found a relatively thick middle branch where they couldn't reach her, pulled herself up, and then stood slowly, attempting to balance herself on the piece of wood.

Karen was laughing, but she also looked a bit frightened when she called from about five feet below, "Pony, what are you doing?!"

"Um, I'm not sure yet!" Jill replied fairly honestly. "But no need to worry about me! I'm like a monkey, Karen!"

Jill took a few steps forward. The branch was just big enough to hold her two feet if she stood sideways, so she'd have to treat it like a tightrope. By this point there were about five people from the ground watching her. It wasn't that high up. She'd chosen a somewhat low branch, just high enough where Karen wouldn't be able to reach her when she stood.

About five seconds later, she launched.

She had done things similar to the jump before, only it used to be from building to building and a little longer distance, so this stunt was really nothing. One time she had some cops on her tail and she lost them by jumping to a different rooftop. The trick was rolling during the landing so that the landing weight went through the entire body, not just the feet. Never before had she been injured. Hopefully this time would be the same.

Once Jill saw the ground about a second or two away from her, she ducked, braced for impact, and then rolled. She felt the soft grass slip like water under her body, grateful that her dress was made of silk and didn't create much friction.

With Karen and Rock only about five feet behind, she was up and running before the breath of relief left her lungs. The border was about ten feet behind, an easy jog for someone who used to run miles daily.

It was over in a matter of moments. On the other side she was greeted with cheers and high fives from both her friends and the other people she didn't know. Muffy, the last one to congratulate her, asked, "How did you do that, Pony? That was crazy!"

Jill couldn't help but smile hugely, and she replied, "I don't really know. I just kind of balanced and then ducked and rolled. And I held on to the flag, of course." She lifted up the streak of orange fabric a little higher, and Muffy took it from her.

"That was so cool," Muffy sighed. "You're, like, an acrobat, or something!"

"I wouldn't go that far," Jill laughed. More like a past criminal who had training from the best people and facilities, but, you know, no big deal.

She engaged in many more similar conversations before the whole event ending. Most of the couples and singles stayed to help pick up the supplies, including Jill. She brushed off most of the compliments on how nice it was to have her, and also got another cookie, this time from Trent.

"Sorry I can't stay to help clean up," Trent sighed. "But Ellie and I should really get back. There will be lots of stomachaches tomorrow from so many sweets today."

"It's no problem," Jill replied. "Thanks for coming! It was tons of fun!"

"Thank you for organizing all of this," Trent said, and then he chuckled. "And what you did tonight, all of that, was very impressive. Were you a gymnast, or...?"

Jill didn't think much before she replied. "You could say that, yeah."

Trent gave her a somewhat peculiar look, and then he was smiling again. He left with Ellie shortly after, and it took Jill about ten seconds to realize she might have said something that totally gave her cover away.

Oh well, she thought. It's not like Trent is with the organization. I'd probably know by now. He isn't as suspicious as someone like Skye, or even Van.

It was around eleven o'clock by the time they had finished cleaning the spring. Muffy, Celia, Karen, Rick, and Jill were the last ones there. After a few short and tired goodbyes, Jill decided it was time to go home and sleep so she could actually get up the next morning.

They had done a good job cleaning up, Jill noted as she made her way down the path to her farm. The only evidence anything had gone on during the night was that there were a lot more shoeprints on the path than usual. It had been a great party, and Jill was in high spirits as she said a small prayer of thanks to the Goddess in her head and made her way back to her farm.

Those high spirits were ruined as soon as Jill set foot in her house.

The place was a mess. Her bed was overturned, the small number of furniture pieces she owned had been pushed aside or knocked over, and all of her clothes were strewn across the floor, dresser drawers open.

Jill's hand immediately flew to her neck. The key. It was still there. She let out a quiet breath of relief, and then began to investigate the clutter a bit more thoroughly.

Her rucksack was still under the bed just as she had left it, only now the contents were scattered on the floor. Nothing had been stolen, though, not even the journal or any of her money, and as Jill continued to investigate the bedroom and the bathroom she realized that whoever had come hadn't found what they were looking for.

Jill felt both violated and amused. Whoever had broken into her house was certainly not from the organization. It was protocol that whatever you touched, you put back. That way the owner could find less evidence that something had been taken, or if the target were something small, they wouldn't notice at all. Only an amateur thief could have been here, and the only thief in the valley Jill knew of was Skye.

Still, though, Skye didn't seem like the type to leave a mess. She crossed her arms over her chest and frowned, trying to think. Who could it be, and what were they after? The key was the obvious answer to the second question, but she was drawing a blank on the first. It couldn't have been anyone at the party, so that meant it had to be one of the older people in the valley. But who?

It was then that she noticed the cookies. There was a whole plate of them, covered in plastic wrap, just sitting on the floor near her window. Despite the mess in the rest of the room, the cookies hadn't been touched, which meant they'd either arrived after the break-in or during it.

Upon closer analysis, Jill discovered a small yellow sticky note attached to the plastic wrap.

Happy Spring Thanksgiving. Decided I wouldn't crash the party and ruin your fun, but I figured you might at least appreciate some of my fine cookies. Don't worry, I didn't poison them. Thief's honor.

-Skye

Jill smiled a bit when she saw the words "thief's honor." It was a joke in the crime world, almost like "break a leg" in theater. Thief's honor was like swearing on the Goddess, just that normal people didn't realize it, so it really only worked to say it in the crime world.

When she moved to pick up the note, she realized the cookies were still faintly warm, which meant not only had they been baked recently, but they'd been delivered very recently, too. And if they were from Skye, then he was still somewhere nearby.

Driven by her own curiosity and desire for answers (whether about the break-in or about Skye himself, she wasn't sure), Jill picked up the plate of cookies and quickly ran outside. The moon was still high in the sky, so she could see faintly. The first stop, obviously, was the spring. Skye had probably just missed the people who left the party late. If he wasn't still there, she could follow the path out of the valley, but if she couldn't find him by that time he had probably disappeared to who knows where.

Instead of walking on the path, Jill took a quicker route and quietly stepped through the forest that separated her from the spring. She made note not to step on any branches, just in case Skye was on his guard and he heard and tried to run. He had, after all, promised that if she caught him she would get answers, and so catch him she would.

Jill was disappointed when she reached the edge of the forest and looked out toward the spring to see no Skye. Instead there was just silence and firefly flowers.

She was about to break through the foliage and head down the path when suddenly, however, there was movement. He slipped out from behind the big oak tree, the one she had climbed only an hour before, and crouched down near the spring, gazing into its depths thoughtfully. She could only see his back, and was surprised to find that tonight he was only wearing a gray t-shirt and black pants. No leopard jacket.

"So you're going to leave me a plate of cookies and no one to share them with, Leopard Boy?" Jill called out quietly. "Just a little maiden to eat this whole plate by herself? That's not very courteous of you. You could have at least stayed for tea."

As Jill stepped through the trees, he shifted enough to see her, and smirked. "Sorry, Pony," he chuckled. "Though I'm impressed by your perception. I was hoping you wouldn't notice the cookies were still warm. A fighter and smart. I just find out more about you everyday, don't I?"

Jill was only a little shocked that he actually called her by name, and not "maiden" or "beautiful." First the leopard jacket, and now casual speaking? Something was different about Skye tonight. Maybe that was what compelled her to take a seat less than a foot next to him. She averted his gaze, and instead looked directly into the calm pool in front of her.

"Yes, you do find more about me," Jill said, setting the plate of cookies down between them. "And now that I've caught you, I expect you to tell me some about you."

"Fair enough," Skye replied quietly. "Ask away."

"Whatever I want?"

"To an extent."

Jill searched her mind for questions, and was surprised with herself when she decided to start out with something so irrelevant. "Why no jacket tonight?"

Skye chuckled. "Such a simple question. I would have thought you would want to know background information. But as for an answer," he glanced down at his t-shirt, and then continued, "I'm off duty tonight, you could say. I wear that jacket so I have an identity. But tonight I'm not the phantom. I'm not here to steal. I'm just me." He glanced at Jill, and smiled. "If I had known you were going to be so dressed up, though, I would have taken the time to wear a suit coat or something."

A little embarrassed, Jill looked down at her dress. Thankfully it hadn't been dirtied too much from the party, but her hair was probably a mess, and that made her slightly uncomfortable for a reason she didn't want to ponder.

"Alright," she said after a few moments. "I suppose that's a good answer. Moving on. Why cookies?"

As she waited for him to reply, she reached down for the plate, took the saran wrap off and picked up a small chocolate chip cookie, and then lifted it to her mouth to take a bite.

Skye smiled as he watched her expression after biting into the cookie. Her eyes widened, surprised at how good it tasted, and then she seemed to sink into the flavor in her mouth and relax.

Once she had swallowed the first bite, he replied, "I wasn't lying when I said I make good cookies. Even better curry, actually. Do you cook?"

"Tonight's my night for questions," Jill said, but it came out a little funny because her mouth was full. Skye smiled, and she swallowed quickly before continuing, "But if you really want to know, I'm about as good at cooking as carrots are at baseball."

"What?"

"Do carrots play baseball?"

"Not the last time I checked, no."

"There you have it, then," Jill said.

Skye let out a laugh, an actual, legitimate laugh, and then said, "You certainly are an interesting girl, Pony."

"Or so I've been told," Jill replied, and then she took another bite of cookie. They were both silent for a moment, and then the girl swallowed again, and asked, "Why did you break into my house?"

"Thief's honor," Skye began, "that wasn't me, believe it or not. I would have set the cookies on the table but it was overturned, so I just put the plate by the window, hoping you'd see it. I don't even have the first clue of who did it. I told you there were mistrustful people in this valley, Pony."

Jill narrowed her eyes in suspicion, trying to read his expression. He looked honest enough, but she couldn't trust him. Not now, not ever.

"I'm not sure whether I believe you yet," she eventually said, breaking eye contact. "I don't see why anyone in the valley would steal from me, or even think I have anything worth stealing in the first place. But anyway, if you're so convinced there's bad people here, why do you stick around?"

Skye shrugged. "It's quiet," he replied. "I've had my share of big-time crime days, just like you. I wanted to settle down...also just like you."

"And yet you still thieve," Jill said, shaking her head. "I'm not sure I understand. And I also have never had 'thieving days,' so you can throw that idea out the window."

"You and I both know you're lying."

Jill was silent. She finished the last bit of cookie, and then stared into the pond, trying to think of more questions. There was so much she wanted to ask, but she couldn't say any of it because it would blow her cover. The Organization was a top-secret crime agency, and if she asked Skye about it he would know she was associated with that world, maybe even associated with Hawk. And if he knew that they had a runaway, it would be over for her. He was a thief. She knew his kind because she was one, well, at least had been one, back when she was very young and very stupid. He would turn her in before she had time to say, "just kidding."

"Don't you think it's a bit curious," Skye suddenly said, "that we happened to meet up here? In the valley, I mean. We're very similar; you honestly just don't know it yet. Such people generally happen to find each other without much guidance. But instead of knowing each other while we were bad people, we meet now, while we're good. Well, you're good, at least. I'm not sure about myself yet. I was joking about the whole 'fate' thing all those nights ago, and the first night. I'm not a star-reader or anything. It's a semblance I use to enchant ladies such as yourself, though you don't seem very phased by it. But even though I was joking, it's almost as though we were, in fact, meant to meet, for a reason neither of us know yet."

Jill felt his gaze on her face, and she turned to look at him. They sat there staring into each other's eyes for a fair amount of time. Jill noticed it again, just as she had the second night she encountered Skye: age. His eyes were lined with age. He was too young. She was too young. They were both too young to see the things they had seen, to do the things they had done. But not only that. To actually understand the causes and the costs of what had happened. They were deep thinkers, both of them. Any other stupid apprentice could have just shook it off and enjoyed the rush of the carnage, but not Jill. She grew to understand it, to hate it without ever justifying it. Because, for some of the things they had allowed to happen, there was no justification. Maybe it was the same for Skye.

For some reason, that made hope flutter in her stomach. She immediately pushed it back down, though, because she was sure it was false.

"You're crazy," Jill murmured, shaking her head and breaking the trance.

"And you're dangerous," Skye chuckled. "Too easy to open up to."

Jill spent just a few more seconds looking at him. He had turned back to the spring, but his profile was still glowing in the moonlight. Jill had to admit that, without his leopard suit, he looked a little more attractive and less strange than he should have been. His lean but muscular arms were fully exposed, the tendons at his wrists bulging a bit because he was gripping his hands together.

"I should go," she said quietly, picking up the plate of cookies and then proceeding to stand up. "Thanks for the cookies, though. They're good."

Skye nodded. "No problem. Don't forget what I said, though. We're similar. Whatever this collision is, it's bound to happen eventually."

"Again, you're crazy," Jill said as she turned to leave.

But I can't help thinking that maybe you're right.

• • •

A/N: I apologize for the length of this chapter. There wasn't really a good stopping point until now. Nonetheless, if you review, I'll love you eternally. And everybody loves being loved for eternally lengths of eternalness. (wait, what?)