Outside, Slade was again trying to navigate a landscape that had been drained of all color. Slade had been training himself to use his invisibility powers, ever since he had found out what they actually were. At first, Slade had thought that there was just something wrong with his eyes. it had taken him a few hours to get used to both the fact that no one could see him, and the fact that he couldn't see colors.
But, once he had gotten over those hurdles, Slade had found that it was easier sometimes to just be invisible. It certainly made his trips to the bathroom less stressful, since there was very little chance that anyone would find him there if he was invisible. Still, Slade was unwilling to use the shower if the house didn't have that hollow, empty sound that he was getting used to listening for.
Slade had lost count by now of how many times he had been forced to wash up in the river that he had found on one of his many explorations of the land around Cassie's barn. Slade hated having to bathe in the frigid water, but it was either that or risk discovery while he was trying to shower, and Slade was not willing to endanger Cassie's life just for his own comfort.
As he neared the water-pump where the morphing cube had been hidden, Slade wondered how he was going to give this Shara the power without Ax to call on. Aximili was nowhere to be found, and Slade wasn't sure he even wanted the Andalite to be present for what he was about to do. Maybe I can give the morphing power to Shara myself.
Slade nodded, it was probably just a matter of willpower anyway, and anyone who knew him would know that Slade was up to the task. Plucking the morphing cube out of its hiding place, Slade sprinted back into the barn. Where Shara was waiting for him.
When Shara heard footfalls approaching, she almost turned invisible herself. But, with some part of her mind that she didn't even know she had before, Shara could sense that it was only Slade returning to the barn. Shara wondered for a moment just how she had known that her brother's name was Slade now, but then wrote it off as being just some more implanted knowledge.
More important was the fact that Shara could sense somehow that Slade had come to some kind of decision, one that involved her in some way. Looking at her brother's hands, Shara saw an unfamiliar cube made of some kind of sky-blue metal. Shara wondered what the cube was for, but she had a feeling that she would find out sooner than later.
Slade slowed to a walk as he came back into the main area of the barn, only to find that Shara was waiting for him. She had evidently been looking right at him even when he was still invisible. Good, at least that means that she can sense me. Slade blew out the deep breath that he had always taken when he willed himself back into visibility.
It was odd, the way Shara was looking at him, as if there was something she had expected at first and didn't anymore. As if she was disappointed that she could no longer expect whatever she had at first, but was trying to hide it. Slade looked her over again, dressed as she was in Rachel's spare clothes, Shara didn't look like anyone Slade had met in the rather short time he had been awake.
But there was still that something… some subtle and completely unreachable feeling or memory that tied him to Shara. That made him want to protect her, made him want to help her in any way that he possibly could. It was an almost completely unknown feeling for Slade, Enforcer Teknoman that he was. Enforcers were not known for their protectiveness.