Soon after he had returned to his quarters, a servant knocked on the door, "A visitor, sir."

"Who is it?"

A slim, cloaked figure poked her head around the door. "Lance."

"What do you want?" The redhead eyed her carefully. She had gall, this one, to come and expect him to listen to her after - after all she had done. Still, it would be interesting to hear what she had to say - and make sure she got what she deserved for it.

"I think you can make a good guess," Shadow replied, lips curving into a sardonic smile.

"How many more people are you going to betray?" he growled. All of a sudden, he realised how very hard it was to keep his disgust under control. What sort of person - no, rat was the appropriate word - would sell out their fellow colleagues again and again? And then crawl back to any fool who would accept her? He knew very while how he made use of this distinguishing characteristic time and again - in fact, if it hadn't been for her, he was sure he would not be standing here as one of the most powerful men of today. Now, however, her usefulness had expired, and all that remained was an irritating, dangerous residue. A residue that should be eradicated.

She did not seem to have noticed the shift in his attitude. "Most of them'll be heading to the temple - Emerald, Silver and Brawly are the ones I believe you would be interested in. Winona, Wallace and Diamond plan to get the Senate on their side. As for the generals under Brawly, Falkner and Morty, they will be attempting to take the part of the army they control from the outskirts to - well, 'ensure' that generals, like say, Roxanne or Flannery won't spoil their plans. You do know that they all hope for a quick transition of power - not that they're going to get one, of course."

"Fools," Lance muttered. Not just because of his opponent's over-idealism and bravery - or foolhardiness - in the face of imminent defeat, but also because their stupidity in trusting Shadow. One could do a deal with her, fool around perhaps, but never, ever place complete trust in her. Even him - she could betray him, out of all people, him - what would she stop at?

Her voice now purred, "There, I don't believe this idiotic rebellion can't be crushed, can it?"

Thinking back, Lance was glad he had made his move then. He had underestimated her again, underestimated her keen sense of perception, underestimated how thoroughly she could see through him. He had not picked up the very faint tremble in her voice then, nor seen her hand resting on the door knob. A minute slower and she would have escaped.

It was just fortunate for him and unfortunate for her that he had not been a second slower.

He seized her by the wrists, twisting her around and slamming her face down on the floor. It came so abruptly that all she could summon was a strangled, shocked half-cry, somewhere between a shriek and a gasp. She barely struggled.

Then, still twisting her arms behind her, Lance hauled Shadow across the room, pushing her over the basin of water on the table. Her hair hung down, sweeping the surface of the water.

"Look at you!" Lance hissed at her, shaking her fiercely, shoving her head downwards so that her chin nearly went underwater. Every single jolt of anger was now directed her - the anger that had built up ever since seeing - seeing Red, bleeding to death - and had nowhere else to go but into his heart. "Look at you! Just look!"

Shadow stared at her own reflection in numb shock. Some pallid, wide-eyed person stared back, eyes rimmed with enormous dark circles, lips dry, premature wrinkles evident, her hair straggling raggedly down. No - never - nothing, nothing like her twenty-five years. But the worst were the eyes. Eyes, hollow and dull, as if they were already overspent, yet at the corners there was the creeping insanity, seeping out slowly, everything she had been trying to hide, everything the years of working and spying had built up...

Lance continued shaking her roughly, the way a terrier might a shake a mangy rat. "Look at you," he hissed beside her ear. "Look what kind of woman you are. Despicable beyond words. A traitor. Sneak. Beast. Do you think anyone will trust you now? Do you think I would welcome you back with open arms when you came grovelling? Do you?"

Shadow swallow hard, eyes still transfixed. "If there's anything you want - "

"Only your corpse," the redhead snarled. "And I'm sure your mother would, too."

At the word the dark girl's entire body shuddered. She jerked her head up, struggling, crying, "She - it wasn't my fault!"

"Not yours? Who was the one who plotted her demise? Who was the one who destroyed the brilliant career of a brilliant politician at its brilliant peak?"

"It - it was you! All of it! Your idea - I never - never - " she gasped, writhing.

Lance sneered, "Oh, really? Who came to me with the details of her mother's every move, all the intimate snippets of her private life, any little scrap and piece that could be mangled and twisted and used against her? Who shamelessly testified against her own flesh and blood, her own surviving relative, and watched her be tried for treason and suffer a traitor's death, without an ounce of emotion? Who? Tell, me who!" With the last word, he yanked her backwards and flung her at the wall, watching her bounce off and slump at the foot of the wall.

"Come on, tell me!"

She opened her eyes reluctantly, her gaze unfocused. "It was what you wanted..." she murmured weakly.

"It was what everyone wanted. Except you. Her own daughter. You shouldn't have. You wanted - I don't what you wanted. What did you ever want?" He studied her closely.

She coughed. Closed her eyes again.

Very softly, "You."

Lance laughed. "I don't think so. You betrayed me without a second thought. You wanted, I think, the satisfaction of being wanted, being mother barely gave you that - she was too preoccupied with her own career. And when you mother completely ran out of her usefulness on that area she became unwanted. And then - I don't know, when did my usefulness run out?"

Shadow did not answer. The faint rise and fall of her bruised flank was the only indicator she was still alive.

"Of course," Lance mused out loud. "Red. Because of Red."

"Fool," she gasped, imperceptibly.

"Politics is a game you wouldn't understand," he hissed.

She opened an eye to gaze at his face. "Politics is not what I'm interested in. But tell me why."

"Why what?"

"Why Red?"

"That's a matter of power and politics."

She released a hollow laugh. "Not why you supported him," she spoke through bloodied lips. "Why you loved him."

The words surged through the redhead like a jolt from an electric chair. He grabbed her and slammed her against the wall. She barely reacted, though a small rivulet of blood began trickling from the corner of her mouth.

"That," he spat, "is none of your concern."

"Ha," she muttered feebly. "You're fool, like me. We're both fools. And I suppose he never noticed?"

Lance, in rage and frustration, flung her into a corner. She merely began giggling insanely.

"Do you never feel any sort of remorse for what you do?"

In the midst of chuckles, Shadow said, "No. No, I don't. Not anymore." The last shred of sanity was gone from eyes. "And I certainly don't regret killing Red. I don't. I don't, not at all."

"You're pathetic."

"Me? Me! Ha! Look at you. Think yourself powerful and all-mighty, don't you?" The light in Shadow's eyes was taunting, mocking, jeering, with a kind of mad indomitable quality that one could never push away. "And yet you can't even tell that silly boy you love him! No, I don't regret any of it, I don't regret pushing my knife into him, I don't regret enjoying the feeling of how his blood spurted and came out everywhere, I don't - "

"Silence!"

The bloodied woman only seemed faintly amused. "Yes, yes, I enjoyed it thoroughly. Watching him suffer. Bleeding to death. And watching you suffer. Every day, you suffer - "

"Guards! Take her away!" Lance ordered, flinging open the door. "Make sure she doesn't get away."

Shadow was still giggling madly as she was dragged off, leaving a trail of blood and ripped black cloth behind her. "You're suffering, aren't you? You don't even know yourself, how much you suffer. You're suffering, and you will suffer, as long as you live - "

Lance slammed his door shut as soon as the girl was out of his room. He sat down heavily in his chair and held his face in his hands. Damn her. Damn her! How could she know...how could she...

Oh, they were going to suffer. They were going to suffer.