Hey :D after another break, here it is, the next chapter, I am actually going to finish this one, and may write another, now that I have more time. Anyway, enjoy, R+R and see you for the next chapter! Which should be within the next day or two.

Cassie

I left Jake in the hall and went out to look for Rachel, I knew that Jake had sent her to check on Ax but when I found him he told me that he had not seen Rachel all day. I checked her hut, my hut, all over the encampment, but she seemed to have vanished, same as Marco. I was getting worried, Rachel was in a very sensitive state of mind, and Marco was really not the person she needed right now, although, I thought, the only person she needed now was dead, vaporized in a cloud of ash and death. No, I couldn't think like that, she needed us, me, to be strong; I must be strong, for her... And Tobias.

I headed for the main hut again, hoping to find Jake so that he could tell us what to do next, a fragile Rachel combined with Marco could produce horrible, and dangerous, results, and we couldn't have the camp falling apart before we had even laid eyes on the enemy. As I rounded Ax's hut, Marco strolled past, eyes blank, staring absent-mindedly into space, as if he was remembering something, and from the look on his face, it was most definitely a good thing. "Marco" I said, and he jumped out of his skin. "Cassie, my God, don't jump out at people like that!" He gasped.

"Sorry," I replied, although I hadn't been sneaking anywhere, "Have you seen Rachel anywhere? I've been looking for her everywhere, I can't find her. You know what she's like right now; it's dangerous for her to be alone here."

His eyes glazed for a split second, before he regained his composure and nearly succeeded in looking confused, "Rachel? Nah, not since this morning" He replied, the lie showing clearly through his voice. I looked at him, in a way that I hoped was hard. "You're lying to me." I said, "Why?" I hoped that my voice was as commanding as Rachel's would have been. He faltered for a second, and then unsteadily, as if he didn't know how I'd react to what he was about to tell me, replied "I took her out to the wood over there. She needed a break, some time away from us, and all the reminders of what she's lost. You should know that, seeing as how you are supposed to be her best friend. But no, it fell to me to look out for her." His voice was becoming angry, although I detected something else behind it, something I couldn't place, I didn't dwell on it, his words had stung me far deeper than I had thought they would, he knew very well that I had been doing everything I could to try to make Rachel better, to help her through her pain, but what do you say to someone who just watched the love of their life explode into billions of pieces and spread over several hundred miles of atmosphere? I felt tears rise, and turned my head quickly, and started to run, toward my hut. I heard Marco call behind me, "Cassie, wait, I'm sorry! I didn't mean..." But what exactly he didn't mean was lost to me, as I rounded the corner and sprinted into my hut, tears staining the wooden frame that served as a doorway as I passed.

Much later, I don't know how long, I lay on my makeshift bed, when...

"Knock, knock"

Someone was at my door. Wanting to come in. I didn't want to see them; I had failed my best friend. At the time she needed me most, I had failed her. Marco was right.

I felt the bed sink slightly as someone sat on the edge. I knew who it was already, and they were the last person I wanted to see right at that moment, but also the one person I needed to see.

"Cassie, Marco told me what happened. What he said." Jake said softly, "I know why you're in here. Alone. When you should be out there, with the others. Where you want to be."

"I can't." I said, sounding pathetic, even to me, I dreaded to think what Rachel would have thought...the old Rachel that is. "I let her down Jake, she needed me, and I let her down, I can't help her. I can;t take the pain away, I want to, I tried to, but nothing works! I'm her best friend! I know her, but I can't help her! I've failed." I said, tears running freely down my face.

"Of course you can't." Jake answered, closer to me now, "None of us can. She has lost of the closest people in her life, after only just regaining him, the pain she feels will never leave her,she will just have to learn to cope with it, to deal with it. And she will, in time, she will learn to use it, to grow from it, it's what makes us human, and keeps us strong."

I looked at him, long, and hard. I didn't know what to make of what he had said, I didn't know if I liked it, but I knew it was the truth, and I know that if anyone but him had said it, then it wouldn't have made half as much sense, because he knew, he knew what it was like to learn to live with pain, pain and suffering that would never end, he knew, he had dealt with it all through the war, and afterwards. I also knew it had consumed him, he would never be happy again unless he was waging a war, or some battle against an enemy, that was why he had accepted this "game" of the Ellimist's and Crayak so easily, he needed it, just like he needed to ram the Blade Ship. Despite all of that, I knew I loved him, and always would.

His face was inches away from mine, I could feel his breath on my face and neck, he leaned in and our lips met, for the first time in way too long. As the kiss deepened, I knew that we would have a struggle ahead, we were very different people, but I was going to try, try to save the man I loved from himself.

Drode

It was there again. That feeling. The feeling that something had backfired, but I had no idea what, what could have happened? All we had done was shoot down the ship... and all our instruments told us the brats had escaped in a pod before impact anyway. So what could have occurred to backfire?

The native was still chained, the Visser wanted him alive. I knew why, the others may not, but I knew, the Visser was, despite himself, very smart, he was keeping the native alive not only to gain information, but also so that there was an escape route, he knew that there was going to be an end to this, he knew that our side was not a guaranteed win, and he also knew that the fools on the other side valued the lives of others above all else, so, now we had a nice little hostage with which to bargain. Very clever. But, at the same time, all it ever said was that we had made a mistake, and "sealed our own fate", I could not, for the life of me, work out why. We had made a pre-emptive strike, yes, but it had been of almost no consequence, it had been spectacular to be sure but...

My musings were interrupted, again, by The One. How in the name of Crayak, he had been given this name I did not know, but he certainly had the ego to match it.

"Drode, what is this?" He said, ever so innocently. Arrogant fly, I would enjoy ending him once all this was over and Crayak was in control. "It is a one of my meditation devices, I use it channel my energies to help me understand existence." I answered, in actual fact, it was a part of the waste disposal unit of the ship I had found, and placed in his room to enrage him, but he didn't need to hear that.

"I see," he answered, "so I am sure you would like it back?"

"Yes. But somehow I think my carelessness in leaving it around will cost me dearly." I answered with a defeated sigh.

"Yes, yes it will, I shall keep this. To remind you to keep your things where they belong!" He laughed, long and hard. I made a show of trying to take it back, but he put it inside his clothing, much to my amusement, and stalked off, I suppressed a grin, this would be amusing for several days...