And now there are six...
Thanks for all the reviews, you guys are encouraging me to update faster! :D

(My personal song choice that best suits this chapter best would be "Poison" by Alice Cooper...particularly because of the lyrics in the first verse and chorus...)

It was almost midnight and the Shadows ship was taking its time in getting home, slowly cruising along a delicate strip of star filled sky that gradually got darker and mistier, the nearer it got to the Shadow Archipelago.

Sinedd changed the television channel again. There was nothing good on anywhere else.
He hated night-time television; at the moment, Arcadia Sports was just doing re-runs of last year's cup- with Snow Kid highlights.
Ugh...as if his head wasn't screwed up enough already.
The soft cotton of his t-shirt and boxers was felt cool against his tired muscles and were a nice release from the intense heat he had to deal with today.

They had won the Wambas, their first match of the season, but only by one point. Plus, he had to rely on that bitch to make the final goal.
"It wasn't like I couldn't have done it myself," he reminded himself. "And besides, that was only a stupid friendly. Wait until we get to the big leagues and I'll score a few goals worth recognising..."

Surprisingly Artegor hadn't said a word to him about his little gamble in mid-field. Come to think of it, Coach Nexus hadn't said a word to him about (what Callie Mystic later called) "the most controversial fouling in GF history" either.
It was her fault either way.
He was only doing what he was born to do. She was the one getting in the way of things.

Sinedd grunted and shifted his weight on the supple leather of the couch. The lounge in the centre of the Shadow's ship was dark save for the glow of the television as it flickered at the command of Sinedd's remote.
The Shadow's star-striker couldn't sleep (yet again) and this time he couldn't tell whether it was because of Fulmugus' relentless snoring in the room beside him or the fact that his nightmares just seemed to be getting worse and worse.
Sometimes his nightmares were about the cup...winning it, losing it...that part didn't matter.
What mattered was that he always dreamt his parents were in the crowd watching him.
And their faces were always expressionless. They never shouted or cheered. They just sat there, watching him.
Watching him with those sharp almond-shaped violet eyes, the ghosts of which he saw in the mirror every day.
Sometimes, he saw Harris in the crowd too.

Sinedd rolled his head back, groaning as a familiar pain started to throb in his temples.
Was that Harris he had seen at practice? The man in the purple coat with her daddy and sister?
Or was it just his mind playing tricks on him again?
Sometimes he saw Bleylock's face in a crowd too. But he knew he wasn't really there...wasn't he?

The young man raised a hand to his head, massaging his tired eyes. He had to put this behind him and be the best this time. Without paying any attention to worthless little distractions...

"Can I sit in with you?"
Speak of the devil...

He swung his head back to see Ebony standing in the doorway, clad in a black, silk robe . "Well, do you mind if I come in?"

"Do you mind if I leave?" Sinedd badly wanted to say, but restrained himself. He was too tired to go back to bed and besides, he had been here first.
"Whatever you want," he murmured. "It's a free galaxy, last time I checked."

She shot him a glare and with a bemused smile, glided around to the other side of the curved sofa.
They avoided each other's eyes and stayed fixated on the TV.

An interview with the Snow Kids was on. Sinedd resisted the urge to hurl the remote at the screen every time D'Jok's fat head appeared filled it. He still couldn't wait to meet that real fat head face to face on the pitch- so he could "accidently" hit it.
Micro-Ice leapt across the screen like the overly eager gazelle he was, burbling away to Callie about his latest achievements and triumphs. Then he got a little bit too eager next to a confetti canon.

PFFFFT!
Micro-Ice let out a cry and fell to the ground in a shower of colourful paper-pieces.

"Loser," Sinedd and Ebony both said in unison, sniggering. Then they caught each other's eyes and stopped abruptly.
The smile dropped from Sinedd's face and his eyes swivelled back to the screen
No, we are not allowed to find the same things funny.
Awkwardness reigned over the next few moments of moodless silence... and then...

"So why did you give me that shot today?" Ebony suddenly asked, looking at him out of the corner of her eye. "It was very...nice for someone like you. Too nice for someone like you actually."

"I told you already, I wanted to win," was his abrasive reply. " Besides, unlike every other soft player in the galaxy, I'm not too concerned with being nice."

"Ah, right."
More silence.

Then she spoke again. "So...you think I can shoot then?"
"Obviously," retorted Sinedd, not even bothering to look in her direction. "That would be the reason why I gave you the shot...I thought we'd been through this already, blondie."

"Ebony...and maybe there's hope for you yet. That was almost a compliment, Sinedd, my darling."
"What did we say about calling me "darling?" he growled.

"But you thought we could have done better?" she asked, ignoring his previous statement.
"What?"
"In the match. You thought we could have done better in the match?"
"Yes...we could have..."

"And I suppose it's my fault that we didn't?"
"Damn straight, it is," Sinedd said quickly. "But you'll get better...," he added, looking up at her.
"You'd better get better. You're an embarrassment to this team as it is."

Ebony muttered something incoherent (and probably over-18s worthy) under her breath and slouched back in her seat, playing with the silver chain of her necklace between her fingers.
Silence. More channel flicking.
But before it could set in properly, it was shattered again. Only this time it was Sinedd who spoke first.

"Why do you keep fiddling with that cheap little thing, anyway? Why's it so important?"

Ebony took a breath. "My mom gave it to me...I don't really see her anymore."

Sinedd shifted uncomfortably in his seat, swallowing a little. "Oh, so then, your...your mom is, well...your mom is..."

"Split from my dad? Yeah, she lives on Akillian. She was born there."
"But you weren't, right?"
"What is this? An interrogation? No, I wasn't."

"That's not such a tragedy, you know. I was stuck on that frozen wasteland with all those losers for years after...after...well, my parents died in that stupid war..."

Ebony sat up a little. "My mom wanted to take me back to Akillian with her during the first year of that war. She and my dad split when she was still pregnant with Violet. My dad wouldn't let her though. He thought my future sibling and I would have better "opportunities" living here on planet Shadow. So about a few months after Violet was born, he claimed custody of the two of us and she left...I've been growing up here in captivity ever since..."

"Oh cry me a river," Sinedd said suddenly. "That's a cute little sob-story. Be thankful you still have your parents. Me? I've had nine families. One set of foster parents more hopeless than the last."

"Wow," Ebony muttered dryly in reply. "I thought one was too many."

"I have no tie-downs though," Sinedd went on, leaning back on to the seat with one elbow and flicking his fringe back over his face. "It's good to live for yourself and have no one to care about. My only concern is being the best I know I am...and not constantly trying to impress mama or papa..."

Behind her curls, Ebony glared daggers at Sinedd and opened her mouth for another one of her infamous come-backs (the ones that normally earned her a punch), but then she stopped. She wound the necklace in a tight silver coil around her finger and then almost automatically said:
"Sinedd, I sort of had...well, I wouldn't have said anything about your...parents, if I had known about-"

"No," he cut across her. "We both know you would have. Maybe you would have been a little smarter about the way you phrased it...but you still would have said something. You're like that."

"That's totally...Sinedd, I...!"

"Save it."
He didn't need her empty pity or her pathetic little apologies. He didn't need her. He didn't need her or anyone.

Sinedd flicked the channels a few more times, not really even paying attention to what they were watching (some kind of Cyclops comedy film of sorts, to be specific). A sudden tension had started to build up in his jaw that begged to be released with some kind of aggression, but he ignored it.
Talking about his past had put another dull ache in his chest, but his body was too exhausted after the day to comply with the wishes of his mind.
There was something he was faintly curious about though. Something that had been at him for about three weeks now.

"Something's been bothering me about you, girlie," he began, absent-mindedly.
She wrinkled her nose. "What doesn't bother you about me?" she thought acidly, before saying: "And that is?"

"What's a prissy, girly, spoiled snob who could have anything she wants in the galaxy, doing playing football? You have NO experience and let's face it, you're a scrawny little bitch. What made you want to take up GF? Did things get boring at the country club or are you just a closet fan-girl?"

"My mom used to play with me...before I stopped seeing her. She used to play on an amateur team on Akillian and she used to teach me whenever she got the chance..."

Ebony's face hardened and she rolled the necklace even tighter around her finger.
"My dad thought that playing on a real team might help me contro-...might straighten me out a bit, (seeing as I'm not a genius like Vi)...so he got me a trial when he heard you lost a player."

"He paid off Artegor, you mean," thought Sinedd, almost giving a light chuckle at the idea at his esteemed mentor being bribed.
"What got you into football then?" asked Ebony, shifting forward a little and crossing her legs. "Or where you always this much of a prodigy?"

He rolled his eyes at her "dripping-with-sarcasm" voice and leaned back again to answer, eyes scanning the ceiling.
"I've been playing since I was a kid. We used to play in gangs outside Planet Akillian Cafè- I was always the toughest and most of the other kids used to be in total reverence of me...the Snow Kids gave me a start when I was got older...then Artegor found me and, well, I could reach my full potential. I was always a super-star. I just needed the chances I had earned. That's because I have real talent..."

"Yeah, whatever...that's a wonderful Cinderella story," she giggled. "Snowballs..."

Sinedd flinched and sat up straight with an indignant snarl of "Don't call me that either!"
Ebony cackled, flicking her wispy hair from her face. "Oh, I heard all about the little nickname Fulmugus gave you! And it begs the question, where exactly did that nickname come from?"

She hooted with laughter that he promptly ignored.
Sinedd made a mental note to make Fulmugus pay for that.
"The bastard's gonna have to learn to sleep with his eyes open," he thought, darkly to himself.

For a moment, only the television punctured the sheet of quietness that hung over them and the only it's flashing screen cast light upon the darkened room.
Sinedd dared himself to look over at his adversary across the room. She had become immersed in some kind of fashion show that was now on Arcadia TV and her eyes bore into the screen, unblinking.
He let his eyes roam again. "Is she even wearing anything underneath that robe?"
She crossed her legs, showing off a great deal of milky, pale flesh along her legs.

"Slut."

His eyes wandered to the parting of the material above her chest, the glint of the necklace and the line of cleavage that was just beginning to grow.
"Has it been that long?" he asked himself, frustrated. "Am I that desperate?"

He mentally slapped himself and looked away. Little did he know, the second he did, Ebony's eyes did their own little tour of the cotton that hung loosely over his smooth, snowy skin.
Then her hand was rummaging in her pocket.

"Don't even think about lighting up a cigarette in here..."
"I'm not going to."

She drew the canister from the folds of her robe, pried it open and slapped a tablet quickly into her mouth, swallowing without a word.
Sinedd raised an eyebrow. "Those aren't prescription if you have to keep pulling them out every hour...that would probably kill you. You know, if that was actual medicine you were taking."

"Gonna go ratting me out to your wonderful mentor, Coach Nexus? Huh, telltale?"
Childish, as always.

He snorted. "No. If you want to screw yourself over, that's your affair. Not mine."

Slowly, Ebony pressed the tiny cylinder back into her pocket, looking over at Sinedd with unreadable, half-lidded eyes. "I thought I'm supposed to listen to you from now on, your highness?"

"I rule the pitch...do what you want outside it."
"As long as I don't have to listen to that whiny voice of yours..."

Sinedd almost laughed at her petty insults, delighting in the frustration that suddenly appeared on her white little face...the anger in her dull, denim eyes. Then he smiled slowly and leaned forward.
"That's two you owe me, one for the necklace and one for the free kick..."

"And how exactly do you propose I pay you back?" she asked gruffly.

"I'll think of something..."

Ebony really couldn't tell whether it was the drug or her rival's voice that was making her quiver, all of a sudden.

Hmm, how is Ebony gonna pay Sinedd back? She owes something to him after all. He gave her her first drop of fame AND we can't forget he didn't throw her beloved trinket away when he had the chance....but it was never just him being nice. Now she has to repay her debt somehow and clear her mind...the question is, how is she going to do it?
And where is Harris involved in all of this? With Ebony's dad? WTF?

Hope you liked it! ^^ Comment and criticise as you see fitting.