Chapter Five

Brotherhood

xXx

By the time they reached their room again with Firno, the sun was high enough to leak weak blood red rays into the eyes of the trio as they entered the room without being caught. Firno looked around with awe as Jade peeked around the door one more time then closed it shut behind them sighing in relief that they were safe and no one had seen; it would have looked suspicious if anyone had seen Firno.

"What is this place? Where am I, brother? What happened before-?" Firno asked a little wide eyes still despite everything his voice was quiet soft and calm with a hint of wonder in it as he poked around the room, more than a little curious as to what everything was.

"Brother, please, I can't answer all enquires." Reo said with a slight fond smile as he watched his brother walk around. Jade watched them both curiously before she just sat on the edge of Reo's bed pondering what she had just witnessed and heard earlier, it seemed so weird and eerie and she just found it hard to take it in at first and decided not to even THINK about it and just let it all sink in slowly.

"This is Atmos…the world I mean. This actual place has been christened as Cyclonia, run by one Master Cyclonis, as for the last question, I really cannot answer it because I truthfully don't understand myself." Reo answered. Jade let the boys talk for a while, which gave her time to think about recent events; Reo's behaviour towards her had changed quite a bit; he was a little nicer now, a little kinder and warmer and he'd even defended her! She was really starting to enjoy this side of the shadow and hoped with Firno's influence he would continue to change for the better. Jade felt happy that the shadow was starting to treat her as a fellow acquaintance perhaps even a friend; after years of torture both physical and mental from the Talons, it was heaven to have Reo think her as fairly as he does now, for some reason it made her feel so warm inside.

It was then she realized the brothers had paused in their discussion and she decided that this silence couldn't linger, not when she had burning questions of her own she wanted answering. "How come shadow's have brothers?" Jade asked, cross legged and leaning forward, intrigued as both of them blinked and turned towards her now she had their attention.

"Same way humans do...I think..." Reo rubbed the back of his head almost in a nervous and unsure manner; they hadn't reached that far yet in lessons that involved the human anatomy, and Reo thought maybe he never wanted to, the way Jade got shy about it sometimes…

"Oh! So you both have parents somewhere?" Jade said with a smile as both brothers looked at each other in confusion.

"Parents?" They both said at the same time, both sounding confused as Jade blinked and leaned back on the bed

"Yes, you know…a mother and father?" Her voice choked slightly at the words, the reason for such a reaction is because that she lost her own parents long ago; they were killed in a Murk Raider attack when she had been only 4 years old, they had planned to keep her as a slave of some sort but Jade managed to wriggle away and jumped the ship; it was fortunate that she landed on a terra that was hidden breath the clouds; it wasn't so lucky that the Talons found her and took her to Cyclonia; it was no life for a little girl; for many of her childhood years she was nothing more then a rat, a pest to most talons and she wandered the hallways like a beggar dressed in whatever rags she could find and stealing scraps of food when she could, it wasn't until she was a little older and found the training arena and started to teach herself how to fight, that she finally showed the Talons who were boss and proved she was worthy to be trained as a talon, however despite proving her worth she has always been shunned by the other talons 99% of which were male and has always felt alone and trusted no one because of the abuse they inflicted, that was until Reo came along.

Despite herself she was starting to trust him, starting to open up to him even though he still had his cold, stony attitude. She didn't realize that both shadows noticed her expression and the emotion in her words however, neither responded.

They both shook their heads simultaneously, and the lilac haired teen frowned a little as she thought about this; as far as she knew shadows couldn't just create themselves, and if they don't have parents who would reproduce them...how on Atmos did they exist? It was all so strange and confusing and logically made little to no sense to her.

"So you don't have parents...but you were born? That makes little sense." Jade replied voicing her own concerns on this theory

"It makes little sense to us, as well." Firno said in agreement as Reo sat on the windowsill, looking at his brother making conversation with Jade who seemed quite happy to have Finro around. He found him at long last, unknown to anyone the urge to find his brother had been nagging him for ages, the little voice in the back of his head had been calling, to seek him out, to find him. Reo was inwardly 'relived' that the other was the same brother he always thought of since he came to Atmos.

He just couldn't think of anything to do with him...like talking to him before...like it was deja vu except he felt he knew him extremely well, as brothers would, he stopped thinking to listen at his bother and his teacher talked, all this mystery was confusing him too much, he detested that, detested not knowing everything, however, thing stuck out in this mind...

"Brother...it appears that since I came to this world I have forgotten many things…I remember that we got separated, but how?" Reo asked, sitting forward in his windowsill his arms resting on his knees as he looked at his brother. The lilac haired Talon blinked at this and it obviously perked her interest because she was looking at Firno now interestedly ready and waiting to listen to the shorter shadows story. Firno leant against the wall for a while, crossed arms and pondering as he remembered what happened himself, he took his time, but his audience were patient.

"We were young, brother, too young to understand how or why…I remember that the woods stretched over our heads, and we were playing we had wooden swords in our hands." Firno grinned as he remembered it vividly. "We always sparred every day." Firno paused to get his facts right. "You won, as always."

'Well that sounds like Reo alright' Jade thought with a smile.

"I remember …that we ran by a nearby lake...splashing around and cooling ourselves from sparring when a stranger approached, shrouded by a cloak." Jade's smile faded at this, as the fond memory seemed to turn into a nightmare. "He told us he knew us and that'd we'd be safe from someone, apologies, but I cannot remember of whom he was speaking of, either way we didn't accept his words as the truth, and tried to escape, but he was fast, strong too and he took us, as much as the tried we were not strong enough to fend him off. He placed us deep into a part of the forest we had not been before, I remember feeling scared, but you were brave, Brother, you tried to protect us both from the being that had taken us."

Firno paused once more almost seeming to be lost in thought now his eyes almost sad. Jade bit her lip and sighed as she imagined a young Reo and Firno struggling in the grips of a much older man, and felt pity, after all, the same happened to her once long ago.

"There was a screeching noise..." Firno continued slowly after a moment. "None we had ever heard before, but it hurt our ears…it almost felt like our heads would burst and we fell on the floor. The man winced but that was all... then he yelled, but not at us…he shouted...shouted..." Firno struggled to remember.

"'They're mine too'" Reo whispered. Both Jade and his brother stared at him for a while, surprised he seemed to remember this where as Firno seemed to have forgotten the spiky haired shadow nodded slowly.

"That's right..." Firno said softly. "And then the screech died out, I think the man was about to say something to us, but he had to flee…I remember…winds...strong winds, they were blowing trees out of their ground unearthing them and throwing them in the air. We clung to a rock, Brother. But the winds were too strong…and I let go. But you reached out to me and held me in your grasp. The gale was too powerful and you were forced apart from the rock also…we tumbled with the trees until there was a flash of green…then...I woke up in a ward, I never found you…until now."

Jade sat with her mouth open slightly this was so mysterious yet at the same time it was also very sad, it must have been hard for both brothers to have been apart for so long. She faced Reo as the red-and-black haired boy nodded, his mouth ajar to speak but it quickly shut as he looked at the door, his pale ears twitching ever so slightly.

"Reo? What is it?" Jade asked, knowing by now that when his ears twitched, he'd heard something of importance.

"General Dark Ace." Reo jumped out of his seat onto the windowsill

"General Dark-what?" Firno asked now looking even more confused "What's a- hey!"

"Bad guy. Can't get caught. Hide, now." Jade said as she uninterrupted him and pushed him towards the wardrobe, much to Firno's dislike.

Firno was safely hidden from sight just as the doors slide open to reveal the tall, dark haired and much older man, both Jade and Reo bowed slightly, both out of habit then respect.

"At ease" Dark Ace barked coldly, his red eyes burning, he seemed to be much angrier and more irritable than usual; despite herself Jade couldn't help but giggle slightly, knowing just what had pissed the other off.

"Heh got beaten by Aerrow again did yo-" Jade started but was suddenly silenced with a yell, not from the Dark Ace, but from Reo.

"Don't say that name!" Reo snapped out coldly as he glared at her, the lilac haired talons blinked at this taken aback for a moment before she bit her lip and turn her face away trying to hide the hurt look on her face though she failed at it, she struggled to contain herself for a good 5 second before a neutral mask was in place, though inwardly her heart ached; She thought she had really started to influence and change him...

Reo rubbed his forehead, half from irritation and half from exasperation; it seemed though, that he didn't realize that he would snap at such a thing either.

"War, in the training room, now." Dark Ace growled, obviously irritated as well from Jades comment, he gave one last snarl to Jade, out of pure irritation at her rubbing his failure in his face before he turned and left with the shadow boy.

When the two of then had finally left Firno quietly opened the wardrobe door.

"That does not sound like Brother..." He whispered surprised at Reo's outburst as much as she was.

"I know..." Jade said with a slight cough that could be a covered sniff as she raked a hand though her hair as she took a deep breath; her face was still neutral but nothing could hide the hurt in her eyes. "There's still some of his old-self in there...I guess I cant influence him that much after all" she muttered softly she turned to Finro "I hope you do a better job than me" she muttered before she retreated into her room for a moment.

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Dark Ace was suffering, badly; it was far too obvious that he would lose another battle today. The Shadow Boy was just too strong for him…hell he was probably too strong for anyone who was human, even so Dark Ace's pride was crushed every time the other wiped the floor with him and it make him even more pissed this kid was going to take over HIS mission of killing Aerrow.

"Come now, sir, must we do this?" Reo said softly, a touch of boredom in his voice; to be honest he WAS bored, No-one gave him a challenge anymore, at least now that Firno's was here with him, he could train with him, that way, sparring would be a lot more-

Reo blinked as he suddenly found himself face down on the wooden floor.

"A little distracted, are we?" Dark Ace sneered triumphantly that he'd finally got on up on the little brat that kept beating him, he smirked before a hard foot dug itself into the teen's back, just between the shoulders. It was a good thing Reo didn't have bones...for many probably would be broken, maybe even his neck despite that fact the shadow boy didn't HAVE bones…something cracked. It sounded rather like a bone splitting in half, which was odd. Reo blinked at the sound actually a little startled, before freeing himself, jumping up, and with one swift move of a fist the Dark Ace found himself slamming against the wall hard.

"Training dismissed." Reo said softly but in an almost hurried voice before running out of the hall.

The General was right, he was getting distracted, Reo frowned to himself and shool his head; Never again, there's no way that would happen again. The shadow boy sighed softly as he wandered down the dark corridors, head down hands him his pockets and hunched over, this body attitude was most unlike him and Reo felt like something was wrong...for some reason he suddenly had the urge to run to Jade and apologize?! Why? He didn't know but he thought that if he didn't, this strange feeling would hang around, so turned in the directions of the dorms and he ran the rest of the way.

What Reo didn't know, was that he was feeling sadness. What had come over him?

"Jade?" the shadow asked as he walked in the room (Through the DOOR no less, not through a shadow) to see her hand something to Firno. She swiftly turned around; hiding the objects behind her back, as did Firno, who hid his hands in his pockets, however Reo paid no attention and if he did he didn't mention it. "I'm sorry, for what I said." He said suddenly before the lilac haired girl could say anything first. Now Jade had three options: she could stand their looking gormless, grin and accept the apology or wrap her arms around him and hug him tight. She just HAD to choose the wrong one.

Reo was suddenly falling back against the wall as Jade wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged his stone cold body tight "Apology accepted."

"W- what are you doing?!" Reo gasped slightly, taken aback by this sudden contact he didn't like being touched at the best of times after all but this was…different.

"It's called a hug, silly, its perfectly safe" Jade said with a slight roll of her eyes as she stepped back just in case the shadow snapped at her again.

"Oh...right..." Reo stood upright and rubbed his neck slightly not even sure how to respond to that as he looked away almost looking embarrassed.

As Reo moved something caught Jade's eye; the emerald green crystal around his neck was dimmer then usual, she followed it with her eyes as Reo walked past her to his brother, who was sniggering a little at his expense, she had good eyes, it was hard to see but she noticed a few deep cracks in the emotion-shielding commanding crystal; Jade said nothing to either brother, instead a soft knowing smile formed on her face.

Maybe things would change after all…

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