Author's Note: Here's part...three? Yes, part three. Getting closer to the end of the now-more-than-one-shot.

Part 3

:::Outskirts of Santa Barbara:::

"Really? You made all that fuss about me driving, and we're just gonna ditch the car?" His hand flew theatrically to his temple. "I'm sensing you're an idiot."

"Don't you pretend to be psychic around me, Shawn!" Gus barked, locking the Blueberry before throwing a black tarp over it.

"We're ditching the car, stop tucking it in to bed!"

"Suck it, Shawn, it's still a company car!" Shawn snorted, rolling his eyes. He turned away from Gus to stare up at the tall, imposing trees that stood tall on the mountain slopes, casting dark shadows on the forest floor. That was their escape plan; walk through the forest to lose the Erasers, find a new car, and use that. The multiple, fake license plates made more sense, but Shawn still couldn't understand why they were ditching a perfectly good car.

He never remembered traveling being so troublesome.

Then again, he never used a car then, either. Motorcycles had always been more his style.

"There's a mountain hiking trail around here that'll bring us across the mountains." Gus said, pointing east. "Then we'll be home free."

"Yeah, until we're found again by the Erasers." Shawn mumbled to himself, just out of Gus's earshot. He slid his backpack higher onto his back, feeling like a pack mule; his backpack was easily twice as big as the one Gus was carrying, and he was positive his was the one that carried all of the heavy things.

Gus strode past him, still talking about his plan to escape California, but Shawn wasn't listening. He was staring back the way they had came, to the rooftops of buildings he could see between the tree branches further down the mountain.

"Shawn." Gus called, waiting a bit a ways further up the path. "Come on, we have to go." Shawn nodded, but froze as he moved to follow him.

He lifted his nose in the air, frowning. It wasn't that he smelled anything, but that he heard something. His eyes suddenly flew wide.

"Duck!" He yelped, throwing himself to the forest floor while simultaneously moving his arms to protect his head. Gus took only a second to follow his example. Nothing moved.

"...Shawn, were you-"

BANG!

The freshly-dead body of a Eraser fell onto the path, half of the back of its head missing.

Gus and Shawn screamed.

"God, Guster, Spencer, shut up!" Lassiter snapped as he stepped out after the fallen Eraser, followed by McNab, Juliet, and...Henry?

"Dad?" Shawn said, sounding incredulous, as he bounced to his feet. "What are you doing here? No, scratch that. What are you all doing here? And how'd you even know where we were! Gus, you said you were being stealthy!"

"I was! Like a jackal!"

"Oh please, Guster, it's not hard for the SBPD to find a blue Toyota Echo with the license plate of 5OLPT46 with two idiots inside of it." Shawn and Gus blinked.

"You followed us here while McNab picked up my dad, didn't you?" Shawn asked, lifting his hand to its usual place next to his temple in explanation. Lassiter refused to respond, but behind him, Juliet and McNab were nodding.

"As for why I'm here, why are you here? What are you doing, Shawn? And what in the the name of all that is holy is that thing?" Henry demanded, jabbing a finger at the dead Eraser.

"Uh, that would be a dead Eraser. And as for what I'm doing...um...Gus, you wanna take it from here?"

"We're, uh, going...hiking?"

Shawn smacked his forehead.

McNab swore, quite loudly. That within itself drew everybody's attention; kind, goofy McNab, tossing out f-bombs.

The Eraser was steadily shrinking, its fur shortening, its claws, muzzle, tail, and ears vanishing as its legs twisted themselves back into humanoid legs. What was once a giant bipedal wolf was now quickly becoming something much more human.

"What the hell?!" Lassiter barked, stepping away from the Eraser's body.

"Don't mind him." Shawn waved his hand in dismissal. "They do that."

Juliet stepped forward. "Shawn...where are you going?" She asked slowly in her no-nonsense tone. Shawn frowned. He didn't need his hyper-observant ability to tell that she was upset, and more than a little worried. Shawn shuffled his feet.

"Er...that...general direction?" He offered, pointing east. His finger trailed north. "Maybe...that way a bit?" To a non-extraditing country, most likely. "All in all it's kind of a toss up on where we actually end up, but that's part of the fun."

"We are not going to Mexico again." Gus warned with a pointed look, and Shawn wined.

"Twice, Gus, twice!"

"Twice is three times too many for me!"

"Shawn, you're not going anywhere." Henry said, stepping towards his son. As her walked towards Shawn, the younger man moved backwards, always keeping at least fifteen feet between them.

"Trying to control my life again, dad? Well, stop it! I'm going. I've done it before, I don't know why you're all making such a big deal about it now." Gus nodded his head rapidly.

"We all knew Shawn wouldn't be able to stick around long, anyway! He always runs from commitment."

"Gus, don't say it like that!" Shawn whined, glancing repeatedly at Juliet. He paused, his hearing picking up the subtle cracking of branches further down the mountain. He frowned. "Gus, teigo-ba itocri." Shawn suddenly said, gaining four confused looks, and one horrified one.

"Egway?" He asked.

"Kra, egway." Shawn looked to the others on the trail, muttering "Bandada..." over and over. "You four need to leave. Like, now. Gus and I have important things we need to attend to." A mechanical whirring drifted through the air, the tone one that only Shawn could hear clearly at the moment. He swore to himself. "Flyboys, Gus."

"...this day is just getting better and better, Shawn." Gus groaned. Shawn laughed, though it wasn't filled with too much mirth.

"Shawn, what are you running from now?"

"Dad, who says I'm running from anything?"

"Because you never leave Santa Barbara unless you're running from something. Even when you left years ago, you were running."

"Well, who says I'm running now?"

"Because I know you, son. Now tell me why you're running, or so help me God, I will drag to back to Santa Barbara by your teeth."

"Good luck, old man." Henry crossed his arms.

"Then I'll just keep following you until you tell me."

"You've never cared before, dad. Why start now?" Shawn demanded suddenly, venom that he hadn't meant to show leaking into his voice. Henry blinked, for a moment too stunned by Shawn's odd behavior to respond.

"I admit I made some mistakes, but you're my son. I'm not going to let you run away from a life where you've got it good enough." In frustration, Shawn threw his arms in the air.

"The Erasers are after me!" He barked, his voice loud in the silence of the forest. "They've always been after me! Ever since I was young! I was safe enough until you divorced mom-"

"Don't you turn this into another complaint about-"

"-dad, would you shut up? You asked for an explanation, and I'm giving one." Shawn took a moment to take a deep breath, and when he started talking again, he was no longer shouting. "When you divorced mom, I did...some stupid things. The Erasers found me again. That's why I ran off all those years ago. Not because of your divorce from mom, not because I hated you. Well, that might have been some of it, but not all. I ran because the Erasers had found me.

"I thought I lost them, so I came back to Santa Barbara. Apparently, I didn't." Though, really, he should have known better than to have his picture in the newspaper every week for solving a case; the Erasers knew his face, and worst of all, knew who he associated with when he was younger. Narcissism rocked.

"What do you mean they're after you?" Lassiter asked, frowning.

"I know this may come as a complete surprise to you, Lassie, but I make a lot of people mad." Lassiter snorted; that wasn't a surprise at all. "What with my amazing hair, strong features, and special talents, it's quite easy." Shawn shuffled his feet nervously. "Though, uh...it might have been all the Erasers I blew up...wouldn't you say, Gus?"

"That might have done it, Shawn." Henry choked on his own saliva.

"You blew them up?"

"Dad, get with the program. I can make bombs. We went over this already." Shawn rolled his eyes. He flinched - randomly in the eyes of those around him - as the "silent" forest began to get louder. "That's why I'm leaving. The Erasers found me." Again. He looked to Juliet. "I'm sorry, Jules." She shook her head.

"You don't have to leave, Shawn." She said, still shaking her head. "We can take care of this."

"No, we can't. But I can. Go back home. I'll back sometime, when the Erasers aren't dogging my heels anymore." He kicked at the partially-morphed body of the Eraser. "Bad doggy..." He looked back to the four. "The Erasers are coming. You need to go before-" The mechanical whirring was suddenly louder, much louder. "Flyboys! Down!" 'How many times will I have to dive for my life today?' Shawn threw himself to the forest floor for the second time as a winged wolf-man swept through the trees, its claws swiping at his head and missing by centimeters.

McNab fired at the Flyboy first, the bullet grazing the massive twenty-foot wingspan of the beast as it pulled back up and through the canopy. "What was that?!"

"Flyboy. Twice as annoying as Erasers, 'cause they're not limited to the ground." Unless he counted the time when the Erasers had wings, too, but he was pretty sure that line had been discontinued when it was discovered that winged Erasers were as clumsy in the air as an elephant in a china shop. "They're machines, too. And they travel in packs."

Shawn peered up through the tree canopy, squinting. His better-than-most eyesight spotted the plethora of dark shapes darting around the sky, looking like massive, clumsy birds. From a distance they were easily enough mistaken for being large birds, or people on hang-gliders. But Shawn knew better; these shapes were much, much more dangerous than some idiot on a hang-glider who didn't know how to land.

He was on his feet in an instant, moving up the mountain trail. "Gus, come on. See-chass." Gus nodded, moving quickly after him while keeping his eyes dutifully on the sky in search of attacking Flyboys.

Ten minutes later, Shawn sighed, hanging his head. They had made good time on the trail - at least, he hoped - but hiking up the steep path with so much weight had caused the duo to take a few breaks. God, he was out of shape. "Teigo-ba balei ise." He called over his shoulder to his partner. Gus's head shot up.

"They are?" He asked, and Shawn nodded, jerking his head backwards to gesture over his shoulder and behind them. Gus looked around, frowning at their surroundings.

They had reached the part of the trail that was curving around a cliff face, with a sheer drop-off on the left, and a continuation of the cliff on the right. The trees were thinning out by the foot on the cliff face, and soon there would be only knee-high bushes to provide cover. Their stalkers wouldn't be able to hide for much longer. Which, really, was a blessing and a curse; a blessing since they would be able to tell them to go home again without them having cover to follow them, and a curse because the Flyboys would be able to see them.

Those four really should have just left good enough alone.

Shawn, however, wasn't going to wait.

He had chased them - literally - out of the trees and bushes in just a few minutes, staring at them disapprovingly. "I sent you all home."

"There were - what did you call them? Erasers? - on the trail. We couldn't go back." McNab said quickly, stepping forward in an attempt to take charge of the small group. Lassiter shoved past him, quickly followed by Henry, and the two got into a heated glaring match. Shawn stared for a moment, and then abruptly spun on his heels. He dragged Gus a few feet away, not protesting when Juliet joined them, though he didn't speak a word of greeting.

"What do you think?" He whispered to his darker-skinned friend. "Erasers down the path, Flyboys above, and who knows what up the path."

"There's not much we can do, Shawn." Gus sighed. "...we can take them with us. Get them over the mountain, and then they can get a rental car and drive back to Santa Barbara." Shawn nodded slowly, humming quietly to himself.

"I can deal with the Erasers and Flyboys, and the added guns would be helpful..." Shawn mentally sighed; he should have swiped a gun before he left. He was a crack-shot, after all.

He spun around again, nearly running into Juliet, who he offered an uneasy smile to. "Okay!" He called out loudly, gaining the attention of the silent McNab, and the bickering Henry and Lassiter. "You all are going to follow us. We'll get you over the mountain and make sure you aren't bothered, and then you can get back to Santa Barbara."

"And why would we follow you, Spencer?" Lassiter demanded with a scowl. Shawn raised an eyebrow, gesturing around them.

The path to Santa Barbara, blocked. The air, filled with Flyboys. A drop-off to the left, and a sheer cliff-face to the right.

Lassiter growled, but didn't comment. Shawn grinned.

"You were the ones who followed us after we told you to leave." He executed an abrupt about-face, pointing dramatically up the path. "Onward! To greatness!"

He marched on, strutting theatrically up the path. Discretely, he was keeping an eye on the Flyboys wheeling about ahead, and checking out the side of the cliff next to him. What would happen if he detonated a bomb, he wondered? Take out the path, sure, that was what he wanted, but it might've also taken out the ground they were still standing on.

Sliding down a sheer drop-off to your death; didn't seem too fun.

So chucking bombs at the cliff-face was pretty much out.

Behind him, Gus was fidgeting, his face pale as he tried to dodge all the questions being thrown at him by Lassiter, Henry, and McNab. Juliet, however, was trudging on by herself, his handgun clutched in a death-grip in her hand. Lifting an eyebrow, Shawn dropped back to walk next to her.

"Our relationship is pretty much over now, isn't it?" He whispered to her, frowning. Juliet shook her head with a shrug.

"I don't know, Shawn. I feel like you've been lying to me." Shawn glanced away; of course he was lying to her, about a lot more than just the truth about his psychic abilities. "I mean, look at all of this." She gestured up to the sky. "You're fleeing the city, for crying out loud."

'More like the country.' Shawn thought, but elected to not mention that.

"How can I be in a relationship with you when you won't even tell me what's going on?" She questioned. The maybe-couple trudged on in silence for a few minutes, before Shawn broke the silence.

"They're experiments." He suddenly blurted, loud enough for all to hear. The talking going on behind him ground to a halt, and Gus sighed in relief now that he didn't have to come up with half-baked answers. "The Erasers are experiments performed on people by probably the most whacked-out people in the world. One part wolf, one part man. Well, actually, they used to be one-third man, one-third wolf, and one-third bird, too, but they stopped that particular line. They're like hunter-killers, and aren't the nicest in the world.

"The Flyboys are mechanical flying Erasers, made to be more efficient. They're not, though. Hit them in the base of the spine, shoot them with a rocket, or throw a bomb at them, and they're pretty much toast. Disable them over water and it's pretty amusing to watch the light show."

"Okay..." Henry said slowly. "...but why are they after you?"

"I already said I've made them mad on more then one occasion, both them and the people who make them."

"Who would do something like that?" Juliet suddenly barked. "Experimenting on people is so...so...wrong!" Shawn smiled lightly, hiding it from view. "I thought there were laws about this! How come the government allows that to happen?"

"They don't." Shawn replied. "At least, I don't think they don't. I don't think they even know. And there are laws against it. But change the DNA of the person while they're still inside their mother's womb, and they can claim that the person isn't really a person anymore because of the added animal DNA."

"They still have human DNA." McNab replied. Shawn shrugged.

"So do chimps, but scientists still test drugs on them."

Lassiter was staring at Shawn strangely, frowning. "Why are you acting so strange?" He suddenly demanded. "Where's the usual, stupid-ass man-child?"

"Serious-Shawn time." Shawn deadpanned. He suddenly grinned. "But if you want the stupid-ass man-child to make a return appearance, I'd gladly oblige-"

"No." Two voices said in unison, only making Shawn's grin grow wider.

"There's something I still don't get." McNab said slowly. "How did you find out about all of this?" Shawn's grin was wiped from his face. He began to stutter.

"Well, uh, you see...I, um..." He swallowed thickly. "I, uh, know someone on the inside?" He received blank stares, and a quiet face-palm from Gus. "I'm close with somebody who was in the facility that made the Erasers and Flyboys, let's just leave it at that."

"...you mean you know an, er, Eraser?" Juliet asked. "I thought they didn't like you."

"Oh, no, they hate me. It's not an Eraser. The facility experimented with more than just wolves, humans, and machines. There were cats, dogs, mice, fish, rats, birds, lizards...anything you could think of, really. A lot of the experiments failed. The most successful were the Erasers, and just six bird-children."

"So you were a friend to a bird-child, then?" Juliet questioned slowly.

"I plead the second."

"It's "I plead the fifth," Shawn."

"I've heard-"

"You have not heard it both ways, Shawn!" The blue-green-eyed man-child smiled widely, his eyes shining with mirth as he stared stupidly at Gus.

"Where's your friend now?" Henry asked. "Why not leave that friend to deal with the wolf-men?"

"You really think that's a good idea? Sicking a wolf on a bird?" Shawn shook his head. "Besides, I don't know where any of the bird-children are now, and no, that is not me admitting to knowing them." Shawn paused briefly. "That's what's been killing those people, though; an Eraser. Probably more than one, actually. People stumble onto the Erasers, people scream, Erasers kill them to stay secret. They weren't expecting a picture to be taken, though, and for the police to be warned that they were there."

Shawn abruptly hit the breaks, throwing an arm out to stop those following him. His eyes narrowed. Something wasn't right... He had walked these trails before, many times in fact, and that dip in the road had never been there.

He cocked his head, things practically lighting up in his vision, begging for his attention.

The dip in the road.

The displaced dirt.

The shallow, thin trenches in the cliff-face.

The dirt that was darker then the rest, obviously upturned.

The partially-hidden footprint.

No, not a footprint.

A paw print.

"Crap..." He whispered to himself. His eyes darted to Gus. "Teigo-ba qeit." He glanced to the confused faces of McNab, Henry, Lassiter, and Juliet. "Uh, they're here."

Juliet raised her handgun a bit higher, subtly aiming up the path. "They are?" Shawn nodded. He raised his hand, at first looking to be about to tap his temple, but he tapped a bit lower; his ear.

"I can hear them."

"What do you mean-" Lassiter began to say, incredulous, but a large explosion cut him off, nearly blowing a few of them off the cliff.

The dip in the road had, apparently, been from a small cave dug out of the cliff-face, with the ceiling beginning to cave in. Inside the small cave had been some type of explosive, and with the resulting explosion, the road had collapsed in on itself, as had the cliff-face to the right, showering the exit in rocks and dirt that effectively shut off their way up the mountain. They could scale the debris, of course, but that would take time.

Time they didn't have, for Erasers had leapt down in the explosion, both down the way they had come, and in front of the newly-constructed rock wall.

Shawn swore.

"Shawn!" Gus shouted, already digging through his backpack and pulling out a metal bat. How he had fit it in the pack was beyond Shawn. "Goveryou!"

"What?!" The brown-haired man cried. "No way in hell!"

"You have to! Allay! Utuav te arebas!" Shawn shook his head at Gus's desperate pleading.

"Neckerchu, Gus. Read my lips! Neckerchu!" Shawn barked, scrabbling in his pockets, searching for any more micro-bombs. He mentally swore; he had used them all in the police department. Huffing in annoyance, he ripped a strap right off of his backpack as he dropped it, the thick strap ended in a cluster of heavy metal rings and buckles that were meant to secure the backpack to its wearer. He swung it around a few times; it would have to do, unless Lassiter suddenly decided to lend Shawn one of his guns, which was really unlikely. "Even if I get out of here, they'll still kill you!"

"Well, you need to go!" Gus swung the bat with as much strength as his quaking arms could muster, the metal concaving the face of the nearest Eraser. He was still shaking, even as the Eraser tumbled off of the cliff and out of sight into the dust blow that remained from the explosion. He had all the right to be afraid, though; he was accustomed to staring down the barrel of a gun, yeah, but it was easy enough to talk a man with a gun down, especially when there were two detectives with guns behind him.

A wolf-man monster that could take five bullets in the chest before grunting? Not so much.

Shawn whipped the strap above his head, swinging it into the back of the head of an Eraser who had wandered too close; it didn't do much, but the strength behind the swing made it back up with a snarl.

"Shawn, I swear, get out of here!" Gus demanded. Shawn ignored him, leaping back to stand behind Lassiter as the taller man unloaded a full clip into an Eraser before it fell.

"Shoot 'em, Lassie!"

"What do you think I'm doing, Spencer?!" Lassiter snapped. Shawn grinned, ducking as he slid under the detective's outstretched arm to reach his father.

His dad had been intelligent enough to bring along a pistol, and was firing it off sparingly, pistol-whipping as many Erasers in the face as he could. Any that he didn't think he could overpower he shot in the head, or at least as close to their head as he could. Apparently, while he had thought to bring the pistol, he hadn't thought to bring too many extra clips.

"You're being unnaturally brave about all this." Shawn's father observed casually, sounding much too calm for the situation.

"Serious-Shawn time."

"So I've heard." Henry muttered, more to himself than to Shawn. "They're after you, right?" Shawn nodded, but realizing his dad couldn't see him nor pay attention to his head movements, he said:

"Yep."

"Then why haven't you taken off yet?"

"Please don't tell me you're jumping on the Gus-idea bandwagon."

"I'm not going to have my son killed by a bunch of rabid wolf-men." Shawn swung the metal-ended strap into the face of an Eraser that was about to jump on Henry's back.

"Aw, dad, you do care."

"Shut up, Shawn, and get out of here!"

"How do you expect me to do that?!" Shawn shouted, stamping his foot briefly.

"You know how!" Gus replied, right before shrieking and ducking behind a boulder to dodge a diving Flyboy.

"You know I won't!" 'And I can't.' Shawn thought, glancing around. 'Too many people, people I don't want to...' To what? To frighten? To lose? He nodded with conviction. Under no circumstances would he run off and leave everybody to die. He would stay and either win against the Erasers, or be caught or killed.

'Dark head black hair kill weapon kill-'

"Uh, everybody with dark hair, DUCK!" Shawn covered his heads with his hands as a Flyboy dove at McNab, pulling up directly after missing.

"Thanks, Shawn!" The tall, young man called, smiling. Shawn nodded, and glanced to his father, who was also coming out of his ducking position.

"Why'd you duck?"

"You said to!"

"I said people with dark hair! Look at you, it's like a cue ball up there! And you never had dark hair, you were blonde!"

"Shawn!" Shawn grinned and darted away, taking his place at Juliet's side.

"How'd you know about the- you know what, never mind. Psychic." Juliet said, quickly reloading her pistol. Shawn smiled cheekily.

"Telepathy, this time. Gleaned it right out of the Eraser's brain, right offa its noggin." He tapped at his head.

"Since when were you telepathic?"

"Uh, just since forever. C'mon, Jules, the two abilities go hand-in-hand!" He held up the strap. "Want some help from me and my awesome muscles?" He asked, "flexing" his arm.

Juliet turned her head to stare at him, pulled the trigger of her pistol, and shot an Eraser directly between the eyes as he came around a curve in the trail. She didn't blink, not the entire time, and her blank expression never changed.

"You were saying?"

"Uh, I'll just...uh...go over...there." He pointed, and jogged back to Gus's side, swinging his metal-ended strap over his head with a stereotypical Native American war-cry.

Even though they barely had any clips or useable weapons, they beat back the wave of Erasers, either killing them or knocking them off the drop-off.

Shawn was near the cliff wall on the right of the trail, leaning against it while trying to catch his breath. He didn't really need to catch his breath, but, in Shawn's mind, it made it look like he had fought hard in Juliet's mind, and therefore make him all the more "hot."

"Did we get them all?" Gus asked, dropping his dented bat that was missing the last five inches to the ground. Shawn looked to his friend, smirking.

"Looks like I didn't need to go running, huh?" Shawn asked, snickering while Gus clicked his tongue and looked away. Later, they would probably get into an argument on Shawn's stubbornness, but right now, Shawn would bask in his own mini personal triumph. He looked to Juliet. "Still rethinking our relationship?" He asked, barely containing a chuckle. She just shook her head, sighing heavily.

"Sure, we got the ground guys..." Henry began, then pointed up. "But what do we do about the flying ones?" Shawn looked up, craning his neck to stare at the eight or nine remaining, spinning about in the air.

"As long as they stay up there, we should be fine." Gus replied. "But looks like we won't be getting over the mountain this way." He nodded towards the pile of rocks and dirt. He stared pointedly at Shawn, who shrugged, and nodded towards the other four. Gus rolled his eyes with a snort, but nodded in agreement.

Lassiter stared at the two, blinking slowly. "If dumb and dumber are done having their silent conversation, I'd like to know why we can't just go back to Santa Barbara and pretend like none of this happened." All stared at him. "What? I've had a long day!"

"Because those weren't the only Erasers." Gus replied. "There are more, and there's still probably a lot more in Santa Barbara." He shook his head. "It's best if we keep going. Right, Shawn?" Silence. "Shawn?"

Gus turned to his friend, sighing with exasperation. Shawn wasn't looking at him, though. In fact, he wasn't looking at anybody; he was staring off into space, his head cocked to the side, a strange expression on his face. At first Gus thought his hyper-observant partner had found something, but his current expression wasn't that of his "clue-face."

"Shawn?" Shawn blinked, turned his attention back to Gus.

"Huh?"

"Am I right?" Shawn frowned, and didn't respond. "Shawn? What's up?"

"Something's...wrong. I just...I can't...you know what? Ignore me."

"That'll be easy." Lassiter muttered with a roll of his eyes. Shawn shot him a crazy face when the older man wasn't listening, and quickly turned back to Gus before the man could notice.

"What was going on?" Shawn asked.

"I was just telling them that we've got to keep going, and that they should go back to Santa Barbara."

"Oh, yeah. What Gus said." Shawn nodded, gesturing broadly at the black man. "You obviously just saw what'll happen if you stick with us-"

"Which is all the more reason to." Henry butted in, cutting his son off. "You wouldn't have been able to fight them all off without us, Shawn."

"It would have taken a bit longer, but yes, we would have." 'Plus, without you here, I would have been able to really kick some ass...' Shawn paused for a moment, inhaling slowly, and releasing that breath even slower. "Dad, do you trust me to crack cases?"

"That's the only thing I trust you to do, and I barely even trust you to do that." Henry responded. Shawn shrugged, paused, shrugged, and then nodded slightly.

"Sure. Okay. But you trust me to crack cases. All I'm asking is for you to trust me here."

"Shawn, you're asking a lot more of us than to just trust you." Henry pointed out, planting his feet and crossing his arms stubbornly.

"I know. But trust me. Trust is the first step, and that sounded incredibly corny!" Shawn shook his head to get back on track. "Trust me. I have to leave, and you have to stay here. Trust that I can deal with this, and that I'll come back when I'm able to."

Henry set his jaw, his piercing eyes staring at his son. For a long while, the two Spencers gazed at one another, neither one blinking, nor twitching.

Henry sighed, glancing downwards as he shuffled his feet.

"Fine."

Shawn's tense expression relaxed, and he cracked a small smile. He visible sagged.

"But!" Henry suddenly barked, making more than one of the people there jump. "You have to call every day, at least two of us here, and tell us where you are, where you're going, and if you've seen any of these psychotic human-wolf experiments." Shawn nodded rapidly for each and every condition.

'I won't be able to.' He thought, even as he smiled happily. 'They might be able to intercept the call. They'll know where I am, and where I'm going. I probably won't even be able to call anybody at all. They'll be watched.'He mentally shook his head. 'Calling is out of the question. And so is-'

"Video chatting!" Juliet suddenly said, snapping her fingers and pointing. "We can video chat, too!" Shawn smiled, nodding.

"Yeah!" 'No.' "So, Jules...you're okay with me leaving, then? It's won't hurt...us?" Juliet, for a moment, stared at him with a frown, but finally she cracked, and smiled.

"I'm royally pissed." She deadpanned, still smiling. "But if this is something you feel you have to do, then you have to do it." She pointed at him, her smile leaving. "But I was serious about the video chatting." Shawn nodded. Her turned to McNab.

"Nabby!" He cried, spreading his arms. McNab laughed, giving the shorter man a quick hug.

"Come back soon, okay Shawn? Cases are more entertaining when you're around." McNab said. Shawn nodded, his smile growing larger.

"Don't forget to feed the little-boy cat, and say "hi" to Francine for me. Oh, and tell her I'm sorry I won't be able to make it to dinner on Friday." Shawn had been looking forward to that; dinner at the McNabs' was always an interesting experience, and Shawn liked seeing the little-boy cat from years ago again. That, and Mrs. McNab was one hell of a cook.

Shawn turned to Lassiter, huffing. "Lassie." He opened his arms, wiggling his fingers. "C'mon. Bring it in."

"I would rather go swimming with a grizzly bear." Shawn dropped his arms, frowning. "But if it's any consolation Spencer, I...may...at one point in time...think about considering...slightly missing you." Shawn's face brightened, his eyes flying wide while Juliet smiled and Gus whistled.

"That was a hug, Lassie."

"No it was not."

"Yes, it was. A hug for the soul."

"It was not!" Shawn snorted, slapping a hand over his mouth to hide his laughter, though his shaking shoulders gave him away. "...I hate you, Spencer."

Shawn reached down to his pack, but suddenly shot back up. "Oh, and tell Chief Vick that I'm sorry about the moped thing...and the segway thing...and the yacht thing...and the- you know what? Tell her I'm sorry for every single instance where any type of vehicle was disassembled and then reassembled inside the police department."

"That was you?!" Lassiter demanded loudly. "It took forever to get that Chevy Avalanche off my desk!" Shawn just smiled stupidly. After five minutes of calming Lassiter down, the two groups were standing face to face, with Juliet's hand wrapped up in Lassiter's jacket to keep him from dive-tackling the younger Spencer.

"We'll be back." Gus said, exchanging his own farewells with the four lined up in front of them.

Once again, Shawn was staring off into the distance, frowning. He always trusted his instincts - they had kept him from getting killed many times before - and at that moment, his instincts were screaming at him.

He latched onto Gus's sleeve in an instant, yanking him towards him as an Eraser who had been hiding behind a boulder pounced. The Eraser flew past, screeching, missing its mark by enough feet to be laughable.

Shawn laughed as the Eraser's pounce carried it over the ledge of the drop-off. "That guy has worse aim than Gus!"

"Hey!" Gus snapped.

"Spencer..."

"Bad aim is nothing to be ashamed of, Gus."

"Spencer..."

"My aim is impeccable, Shawn. Impeccable!"

"Shawn!"

"Huh?" Shawn sounded, spinning around to face Lassiter, who was standing dangerously close to the edge. His face was ashen, and shone with a thin layer of sweat. "What's wrong, Lassie? Did the big scary wolf make you pee yourself again?" He pointed over the edge.

"O'Hara..."

Shawn's heart froze in his chest, the silence quickly filled with the whirr of Flyboys as the dove towards the five on the mountainside.

"What?!" Shawn was at Lassiter's side faster than anybody thought possible for the out-of-shape pseudo-psychic. He nearly threw himself off the side with the speed he was moving, and arrived just in time to see what looked like a very human and very feminine hand disappear in the lingering dust from the earlier explosion far down the steep mountainside.

"JULES!" Shawn made to jumped after her, but Lassiter's hand clamping down on his shoulder stopped him.

"Spencer, stop!" He barked. "She's gone!"

"LIKE HELL SHE IS!" Shawn screamed. He physically shoved Lassiter off of him, and Lassiter froze; Shawn had never been able to dislodge his grip before, ever. By the time Lassiter had recovered, Shawn was already gone.

:::Shawn's P.O.V.:::

My heart froze.

It was like a lump of ice in my chest, unable to beat.

It was worse than when my heart stopped for a moment after I had been shot.

Juliet, my Juliet, my Jules, was gone.

The - forgive me for saying something so sappy - Jewel of my Life was gone.

Missing.

Tackled off of the edge of a cliff by one of those damn Erasers.

I was at the edge of the cliff in seconds, moving faster than even Gus had seen me move, and he knows a lot of the secrets I keep to myself.

I knew I had heard something, I knew it.

There! A hand! Vanishing beneath the dust!

If I jumped now, I might be able to catch up.

And I could shield her body wit my own.

The shock from hitting the ground wouldn't travel through me and hit her, right?

...well, I could always hope.

Before I could jump, a constricting force slammed onto my shoulder, and a small shock of pain ran down my spine.

It was Lassiter. Telling me that she was gone.

That she was dead.

"LIKE HELL SHE IS!"

I knocked Lassiter back; oh, I wish I could have seen his face when I displayed a bit of my true strength.

Oh, well.

I threw myself off the edge, pinning my arms to my side to tear through the air faster.

I was falling to my certain death.

But when it concerned Juliet and maybe saving her life, anything was worth it.

Even if my life with her had to end.

Even if I had to suffer.

For her, it was worth it.

Author's Note: Part four will be short. Just a warning. Like, only two or three pages short. 'Cause I'm bitchy like that. Oh, and for the weird-ass language. I made it up. Well, most of it. Some of the words were from Maximum Ride, the Flock's secret language. As for the words that were actually in the book, I guessed on the translations, so while they might not be exact, they're a rough estimate. The other words, I just made up. I have the translations for the sentences they're used in, though, in case anybody wanted to know what Shawn and Gus were saying.

"Gus, teigo-ba itocri." - "Gus, they're coming."

"Egway?" - "Now?"

"Kra, egway." - "Yes, now."

"Bandada..." - "We have to leave..."

"Gus, come on. See-chass." - "Gus, come on. Come on."

"Teigo-ba balei ise." - "They're following us."

"Teigo-ba qeit." - They're here.

"Goveryou!" - "Get out of here!"

"You have to! Allay! Utuav te arebas!" - "You have to! Go! Up-and-away!"

"Neckerchu, Gus. Read my lips! Neckerchu!" - "No, Gus. Read my lips! No!"

In my mind, Shawn would have taught Gus how to speak the Flock language. Where did Shawn learn it, you ask? You'll just have to make your own connections at the moment, until you find out in later parts. There's only five, anyway.