CHAPTER 23

RELAPSE

Shadow had slowly opened his eyes and looked around the back of the dark van. As he laid on the wall of the turned over van, he could feel blood trickling down his forehead. The shackle that was attached to his ankle had broken after the van had suddenly crashed and turned over. However, his wrists were still cuffed together. His body was so weak, he felt like he could barely move. When he had tried to move, he let out a slight groan from the body aches. He paused when he head Trevor groaning in pain as he slowly gained consciousness. His eyes widened when he saw Trevor's body laying next to Gin's unconscious body. He fixed his eyes on how close Trevor's hands were to the small black remote that was attached to Gin's holster. It was practically almost in his reach. "Trevor", Shadow called in a whisper.

The lion glanced around the small back area of the van. He saw Sierra, Gin, and Lien-Da laying practically piled on top of each other unconscious. He directed his attention to Shadow who was struggling to get up. He then had noticed him staring at the small remote control attached to Gin's belt holster. After understanding what Shadow wanted him to do, he quickly took the remote before Lien-Da had gained consciousness.

As Lien-Da slowly got to her feet, she groaned and held her throbbing forehead. "Wha-what the hell?" She looked over to Gin who was slowly waking up as well. "Gin, get up!" She watched as the white fox stood on his feet slowly.

With some blood running down the side of his head, Gin rubbed his aching head. "What happened?"

Lien-Da took her handgun out of her holster, "I don't know, but I'm going to find out." She looked down at Shadow and picked his weak body off of the floor. "Get up and start walking!"

When he felt the cold metal gun being pressed against the side of his head, he immediately started to make his way out of the van with her following behind him.

When they both made it outside of the van, they stood in the middle of the street directing their attention to another black military van that had flipped over. The van was engulfed in flames and everything that was inside of it was completely destroyed.

Lien-Da's mouth hung open in disbelief from the sight of it. "…Fuck…"

When Gin came out of the destroyed van, he walked out with Sierra and Trevor who still had their wrists zip tied together. He saw the sight of the other destroyed van as well. "What the…"

A small sigh had slipped from her, "…Looks like we lost some precious experiments."

Gin had thought not only were some of the Almas killed but also a few military soldiers who were actually working for them. "But who the fuck did this?"

Shadow, Sierra, and Trevor had wondered as well until they all saw a white female bat woman appear from behind the destroyed van.

Gin had glared at the sight of the familiar woman. "…Isn't that woman…"

Shadow's eyes lit up in the relief at the sight of the bat woman. "Rouge!"

Lien-Da pressed the gun against the side of his head harder when she saw him practically about to run over to her. Her eyes widened when she saw a pink female echidna woman jump down from a staircase on the outside of a nearby building.

The pink echidna stood next to the bat woman and dropped the rocket launcher that she was holding to the ground beside her. She turned to Rouge with a smirk, "Thanks for letting me borrow your little toy, Rouge."

A small sweat drop appeared on the side of her head. "Are you kidding? How were we supposed to know which van they were in? You could've blew them to bits! That's the last time I'm ever letting you borrow any of my explosive weapons, Julie!"

Lien-Da's mouth hung open in disbelief at the sight of the echidna woman standing across from her. "…It can't be…" The more she stared at her, the more the familiar echidna glared back at her. "…Julie-Su!"

"That's right", the pink echidna growled in a hateful tone.

Lien-Da's hands began to shake anxiously as she stared at her, "No…I'm not going back to Angel Island! Not yet!"

"…No…" Julie-Su growled, "You're not going back to Angel Island. In fact, you're never going back!"

"That's what you think, little sister!"

There was a small moment of silence while Shadow glanced back and forth at Lien-Da and Julie-Su in confusion, "What? You two are…related?"

Julie-Su never took her hateful glare off of the red echidna woman. "She's my older step sister."

"…Oh?", Shadow was practically speechless. "Small world this turned out to be."

Julie-Su began to explain a bit of Lien-Da's backstory, "Lien-Da is a wanted S ranked criminal back on Angel Island for infiltrating herself with the Dark Legion and massacring half of my village years ago!"

Shadow, Trevor, and Sierra's eyes had fell on the red echidna woman who just continued to glare over at Julie-Su.

Gin had shifted his eyes away from her. It had appeared that he was quite shocked with hearing about her true identity as well. Perhaps he didn't know himself about her real story.

Even though Shadow shouldn't have been surprised he in fact was now that he had obviously saw what kind of person Lien-Da truly was. "…Everything you told me about your past…it was all a lie…"

Sierra gave the echidna a disappointed look. "You're rotten, Lien-Da…"

Even after when everyone had looked down at her in disappointment, Lien-Da still carried a non caring look on her face.

Julie-Su turned to Rouge with worry, "This is bad…she and that fox has hostages. We can't just act recklessly."

"I know", Rouge spoke. "And it looks like it'll only be me and you. The others are out on another mission and I don't know if they'll make it here in time."

Julie-Su sighed in frustration, "It looks like we're on our own then." She once again looked back over to Lien-Da while she spoke to Rouge. "Rouge, listen to me carefully", she spoke in a low tone. "Lien-Da is emotionally unstable. Her actions are unpredictable. Meaning anyone standing next to her has their life on the line."

Rouge had then feared for Shadow's life as she looked back over to him still having a gun pressed against his head. "Shadow…"

Julie-Su shifted her eyes over to Shadow who had stood there with strange cuffs around his wrists while Lien-Da held a handgun up to the side if his head. "I don't understand", she murmured. "Why is Shadow just standing there? He can easily break free and he knows it."

Rouge studied him carefully. Judging by Shadow's expression, he seemed very weak.

He had almost looked sick even. Her eyes widened when she stared at the strange cuffs that were restraining his wrists. "The cuffs…I think they're cutting off his Chaos powers."

"No wonder he looks so weak." Julie-Su placed her hand near the gun in her holster, "That's just perfect", she spoke sarcastically.

Trevor stared at Rouge and Julie-Su and then glanced over to Shadow, "What's going on?"

Shadow softly whispered back to him. "Don't worry. They're good friends."

Sierra turned her head slowly to Shadow. Tears still swelled in her eyes when she still felt Gin having his gun pointed at her back. "Lieutenant Shadow", she called in a quiet yet frightened tone. "What's going to happen to us?"

Shadow didn't even know how the situation would play out, but he knew Trevor and Sierra looked to him for guidance and comfort. They were both still young and scared. Though he didn't know what was going to happen, he decided to stay positive to keep them both calm. "We'll be okay…I promise."

"Lien-Da! You let them go!" Julie-Su had demanded.

"Back off, Julie-Su! This doesn't involve you!" Lien-Da had shouted back.

"Typical! You'll do anything to make sure the spotlight's all on you!"

"What?" She spoke in uprising anger.

"You've always wanted everything to be about you! You were always so envious of people! Even the relationship me and mother had!"

"Mari-Su was a fool! I would never call anyone such as her my mother! You should be grateful I killed her!"

Everyone just stood there awkwardly listening to Lien-Da and Julie-Su having a spat about their past lives together. Even though the two weren't blood related, they argued like actual sisters would.

Julie-Su had gotten angrier by the moment as Lien-Da continued to argue with her. Just hearing her mention her mother's name brought tears to her eyes. Hearing her brag about how she didn't regret killing her mother fueled her with hate for her even more. "You've always been such a jealous cunt! Even now…all I see before me is an envious bitch and a coward who always runs from her feelings!"

Anger boiled up within her by each insult Julie-Su had thrown at her. "How dare you! You think I'm just playing around here? You think I'm afraid to show how I really feel? I'll show you how I'm really feeling!" She turned to Gin who had a confused look on his face and then her eyes shifted over to the frightened brown cat woman. She suddenly grabbed her and forced her to keel down on her knees while Sierra let out a frightened squeal. She had also made Shadow kneel down next to her. She pressed the gun to the back of Shadow's head.

Rouge gasped as she saw Lien-Da starting to take action.

By the way Shadow had felt the gun lightly shake from the back of his head, he could tell that she was getting nervous. He knew that she wouldn't dare kill him because she had needed to bring him to Dark alive.

When Rouge and Julie-Su saw her actions, they drew their guns from their holsters.

Shadow looked over to Rouge who had gave him a worried look back. While they looked at each other, he attempted to try to get her to read his lips.

Rouge eased her grip on her gun as she watched him try to silently talk to her with his lips. As she studied how he talked, she figured out that he was saying. He was telling her that Lien-Da wasn't going to kill him. Even though he swore that Lien-Da wasn't going to take his life, she still had thought something was going to happen.

Shadow didn't turn his head but he shifted his eyes to Lien-Da who was still trembling angrily as she held the gun to his head. "You can kill me Lien-Da, but leave Trevor and Sierra out of this." He winced slightly as she pressed the gun harder against his head.

"Silence!" She turned to Gin angrily, "Gin! Kill her!"

Tears again streamed down the cat woman's face when she heard Lien-Da's cruel order. "No…", she sobbed softly. "Please, Lieutenant Gin…" She begged, "Please God…no…"

The white fox's heart raced and his body had froze. Lien-Da had wanted him to kill his young assistant. However, something deep down inside of him had prevented him from carrying out the action. "Lien-Da, you said we weren't going to kill them…"

A sarcastic laugh escaped her as she heard Gin's comment. "…What?" She spoke in a confused tone. "You can shoot someone in the head without hesitating but this time is different?"

"…But you said we could let them go. There was no real need to kill them. They're just kids."

She couldn't believe what she was hearing. Gin had all of a sudden didn't want to carry on with their devious plan. "Gin! They saw too much! It's too late! We have no choice! So fucking kill her already!"

He bit his lip as he began to debate against himself on what he thought what he should do. He sighed heavily and slowly pointed his gun away from her. "…I can't do this…Not anymore…I won't be like Itsuki…"

"What! You don't even like her!"

"That's no reason to kill anyone…I realize that now…"

After hearing Gin's decision, a smile of relief had formed on Sierra's face. "Lieutenant Gin…"

Shadow and Trevor were also relieved by Gin's surprising decision.

Lien-Da paused for a moment and couldn't believe that Gin didn't seriously go through with it.

"We don't have to do this, Lien-Da. We can stop this…and let all of this go…all of it…" Gin had flinched slightly when he saw her walk over to him with an furious look.

"You're a spineless piece of shit, Gin!"

When she had suddenly grabbed his sword from his sheath, she used her knee and struck him in the stomach making him fall to the ground.

Before Shadow could even blink, blood was sent flying to the side of his face. He soon heard Trevor's screams echo throughout the street.

"Sierra!"

Shadow slowly looked over and saw the blade of the sword being sliced into Sierra's throat. His eyes widened in horror as he saw Lien-Da jerk the blade of the sword out of her bloody throat. He watched as her lifeless body collapse onto the pavement.

Everyone's body froze as they witnessed the disturbing event taking place.

Julie-Su stared at the blood dripping from the blade of the sword. She held up her silver gun at the red echidna who held the sword tightly in her grip. She could no longer hold in her anger and screamed, "Lien-Da!"

In The Next Chapter...

Trevor: She killed her! That bitch killed her!

Gin: I didn't know she would...

Shadow: Trevor, stop!

Julie-Su: This has to end!

Rouge: You won't get away with this!

Trevor: Stop that crazy bitch!

Lien-Da:...Ru...tan...