[OP: "Roundtable Rival"--Lindsey Stirling. AMV by Conflict Revolution.]

"How is that possible?" Mira was stunned.

"Our blades don't just break!" Zoey cried. "They disappear, but they don't break."

Rumi looked like she'd just got hit in the gut by that.

She stumbled back and then looked at Shine askance.

Shine lowered her sword. "It was a pretty good attempt, Rumi, but, you forgot--no matter how much spiritual power you harness from other people, it's still nothing compared to God's... We're on two different paying fields."

"Wait, could...Raven and Morph do that?" Mira said.

Raven answered that by shooting Mira's Gok-do blade, and it shattered on impact as well.

Mira gasped and dropped the handle of it to the floor.

"That was terrifying," Romance said.

"But cool," Abby said.

"Raven does not play around," Scott said in the control room, though not on the speaker.

"No, she does not." Emma was amused.

"Always was a show off," Gambit said. Though he was just as much of one.

"Can I ask how you caught that with your hand?" Rumi spoke finally. "Jinu did that...once, but I thought just because he was more indestructible as a demon."

"It can't hurt me, Rumi." Shine showed her hand. It was unharmed. "Your sword works on the spiritual energy of people, with a spark of divine power in there somewhere, but you can't fully use it. You all use inspiration to power it, right? Inspiration comes from God--it's His energy, creativity, art, the things that breathe life into people's imaginations...so of course some slight hint of His power is in it, even in a diluted form, but it's not like the full force of someone who knows the source of it, and, while I could never use His full power or even a fraction of it, even the slightest breath of it is enough to wake the dead and destroy a mountain. But haven't you seen this already? I was told that Morph and Raven reversed some of Gwi-Ma's soul stealing."

"Yeah, they did," Mira confirmed. "But none of us saw it either time."

"They did that because they have authority over spiritual things as well," Shine said. "An authority you do not have, at this time. You prevent it, but you don't reverse it. That explains why the pattern curses weren't reversed by you till you fell back more on Gods' power source... Humans can prevent shame by not falling into sin and not making openings for it...but once you fall, once you make that mistake, only God can save you from it."

"I think we said that at some point," Morph said. "Because you always told us only God heals."

"I'm glad that you remembered that," Shine said. "It's an important lesson."

Rumi rubbed her forehead. "I guess that makes sense, but, when I reversed my patterns, I thought it happened because I was being honest about them."

"Yes...and repenting." Shine leaned on her sword hilt now. "You embraced truth. Truth is God's power... He is truth. When you rely on it, He can inhabit your words...especially in song. The Bible says that God inhabits the praise of His people. I mean, wasn't that the thing 'What It Sounds Like' was about? 'What Truth Sounds Like', right?"

"I...guess it was kinda about that," Rumi said.

"And you sang 'truth after all this time'?" Shine prompted. "And 'when darkness meets the light.' The key was always in that mantra of yours. The reason your voice was fading out was that you were living a lie, and that was against the hunters' whole code to begin with. Celine should have known that would happen, but she must have missed the significance of that. I suspect that the original mantra must have been a result of divine inspiration in the very beginning. They knew that truth, light, they're all connected to you... You hunters lost something about it when the Sunlight Sisters were destroyed... That always takes a toll."

She frowned.

"That was a lot," Zoey said.

"That makes sense though," Mira had to admit, "and lines up with...some of the things we've talked about this week..."

"So I used...a power I didn't know?" Rumi said. "And that's how it...? Is that...why it looked different?"

"The rainbow thing?" Shine said. "Of course...and the white. But haven't you realized the significance of this? I wasn't going to talk about this till tomorrow, but... fine, here we go."

She held up her sword again. "The original hunters' power appeared more rainbow when they first used it. Did you know that?"

"No...we weren't there," Zoey said.

"But neither were you," Rumi said. "How do you know that?"

Shine smiled. "You know I will not answer that. Trust me, I know."

"The color means something?" Mira said. "I mean, we did notice that difference with Morph and Raven. Why is their effect on the Honmoon white? Ours is blue or pink, and there was the rainbow thing. And golden is supposed to be the completed Honmoon."

"Color theory," Shine said, "Honmoon version: This is all in the Bible. Rainbows represent hope and a promise that judgement will not be passed again in the same way. God made rainbows after He once wiped out nearly everything in the world because of the sin that they couldn't escape. This was before there was such a thing as redemption... But after He did it, He decided not to do it again and gave a sign, which we still see whenever it rains and there is also sun. Light meeting the dark=rainbow."

The girls all gaped at her.

So did the guys.

"Oh, here we go," Morph said. "This is the connecting-the-dots thing I've been waiting for."

"Yes, finally," Raven sighed.

"Dang..." Mira finally said.

"Oh, there's more." Shine was loving this, you could tell. "White light is what makes all other light, you know that? Once it hits something, it reveals the color. White is the color of purity in the Bible. Spotless, white, pure. Like snow, or like cloth, or like sheep. It means righteousness. For many of us DJs, our power appears as white because it shows it is pure. We may not be pure ourselves, but God covers that for us... And what color do Raven and Morph turn the Honmoon?"

"White..." the girls all said.

"And...do they not patch up holes in it? Covering the weakness in the human souls?" Shine went on.

"Yeah..." Romance said this time.

Shine gestured like, there you go.

"Oh, dang..." Zoey echoed Mira.

"When you stopped Gwi-Ma, didn't you see white light that turned rainbow as well?" Shine said. "Went from blue to that, didn't it? After Jinu's sacrifice, didn't you embrace the truth...? The more pure it got, the more it changed. God working through your talents and abilities...strong enough to push Gwi-Ma back even when he'd already gained so much ground. There is power in truth and unfiltered vulnerability. When we admit what we are to God and to each other, it sets us free. 'For you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.'"

Morph and Raven nodded like they were putting it together.

"Can I ask then?" Jinu spoke up. "What about the gold? Is it not real?"

Shine leaned on the wall now.

"Is it real?" she repeated. "Well, it might be. I mean, you saw it. But if it is real, it is not sustainable. Gold...it's a divine color sometimes, but it stands for perfection. Only, refined perfection. You purify gold. The idea is that you purge out everything in it that is not it. Unlike the white color, which is something that was never dirty to begin with. Gold is perfection that has to be achieved. White is something that is it already. We could never be that...but we also can't purify ourselves enough to be gold. Even if one got close to it...it could never last. In 400 years, it never has happened."

"Thank you! That's what I've been saying," Raven said.

"So it's hopeless?" Rumi deflated.

Shine hit her in the head with her sword. Not hard, just enough to make her feel the sting.

"OW! Hey!" she cried.

"Did you listen to what I just said?" Shine said. "You should be glad. If the Golden Honmoon was the answer all this time, we'd have no hope. And what about all those souls still under Gwi-Ma's control? What happens to them then? Is that really a happy ending?"

This was what the girls had been worried about for a while.

"And you? You would have to maintain that kinda perfection for the rest of your lives," Shine said. "Wouldn't it fall apart once you passed on? Or after the humans whose souls make it pass on? The Golden doesn't make sense as a long term solution. I don't think it works, since humans are not perfect, but even if we were, one generation to the next, it always fades. Death is still a thing. Are we pretending that's not real?"

[All good questions that I hope the sequel addresses.]

Rumi rubbed her head. "But...if the Honmoon stays the way it is, Gwi-Ma will keep stealing other people's souls."

"We'll talk about that a little more tomorrow," Shine said. "But for now, do you have the idea straight? The Honmoon is simply a reflection of the spiritual state of your world, is it not? Where Raven and Morph interact with it, they bring divine power in its true form, through them but not of them. When you interact with it, you bring your gift to it, but you can transcend yourselves, sometimes, when you most unite with the real source of the power. And the boys have the ability to interact with it as humans. All humans do. We all have spiritual authority in us, but most rarely use theirs and never even know if they do. The world was made for man, and, while we've given it to the Evil One, we still have some echoes of our original power over it. Creativity is the most common way we show our dominion over the world. We tame it and nurture it and harm and repair it all with our creative energy. So when you use the Honmoon, you call that forth from people. It tracks."

"Okay...but it's not enough, is what you're saying." Rumi was trying to follow. "But what...else can we do?"

"There is a pretty clear answer to that, isn't there?" Shine said.

Silence.

"I think you mean we would have to do what Raven and Morph do," Jinu said. "And they said that too...but they didn't know how we could. We can't materialize the weapons, and we don't know about this authority, and I didn't really feel it."

"Jinu, you won't usually feel like you have it...and that could be a bad sign to feel like it," Shine said. "People who feel like they have authority are usually cocky. You just have it. And why are you so hung up on the weapons thing? A weapon can be anything. One teacher I listen to says that God can anoint whatever is in your hand. Whether it's a sling and some rocks, or a tent peg and hammer, or the jawbone of a donkey...what does it matter? You can kill things with almost any object anyway. The authority is what matters, not whether or not you can pull a weapon out of the ether."

"But you can," Romance said.

"This? This is just a way to make it easier to understand." Shine tilted her sword. "In my world, I didn't have this, but I still had power. You do too."

The boys all looked at each other.

"Okay...how do we use it?" Jinu finally asked.

"You try," Shine said.

Blank stares.

"Huh?" Mystery finally said.

Shine held up her sword flat over her hands now.

"You try," she repeated.

Then she handed it to Jinu, who dropped the other weapon he'd been holding because he was nervous.

It felt like getting handed a bomb...though it was very light, felt like nothing.

"Mira," Shine then said, "attack him."

"What?" Rumi said.

Mira was way too eager to oblige Shine on that one.

Her Gok-do reappeared in her hands, now fully formed.

"Wait a minute!" Jinu cried.

"Just block it, Jinu," Shine said. "Should be easy for you, if I guess right."

"If you guess right?" Jinu yelped.

Mira swung at him much faster than he had any hope of blocking.

Jinu didn't really consciously move; all he knew was he thought "block" or some version of that and wished he wasn't about to get smacked in the stomach.

His hands almost seemed to move on their own, holding the sword, and suddenly blocked the Gok-do strike.

 A little too much, in fact. Mira's blade bounced off the sword like it had a sonic recoil and sent her stumbling back till she almost tripped.

She caught herself but stared at Jinu in astonishment.

"Jinu?" Rumi was shocked.

"Whoa..." Zoey said.

Jinu stared at the sword. "How...how did I do that?"

Shine walked up to him and then circled him like he was a model and she was a designer.

"What do you think?" She glanced at the X-men. "Strong defense? Discernment, knowledge, teacher?"

"I would agree," Storm said, tapping her face thoughtfully.

"Seems right," Kurt said.

"Are you checking his stats irl?" Baby said, in a tone that sounded like it was trying to be snide but was interested against his will.

"Kinda," Shine said. "We've gone over this ourselves. Everyone has gifts. Raven and Morph mentioned that you had not learned yours yet. The girls have a slightly better idea of theirs, though they are still developing some of them... The more you know, the more you can focus on it. Anyway, what did that feel like, Jinu?"

"Like I didn't really do anything. It just kind of...happened," Jinu said.

"Very good." Shine took the sword back. "Now pick up the other weapon and do the same thing with that."

Jinu picked it up. "But it's not the same."

"There is no difference," Shine said. "You only think there is one. Hm, perhaps we should use something faster this time though. Zoey, want to try?"

"Sure, but I don't wanna hurt him," Zoey said.

"It won't hurt him," Shine said.

"I could shoot him," Raven offered.

"No!" Jinu cried. "Zoey, it's fine, just do it."

"Okay," Zoey said. She pulled out more knives. "Get ready."

"Might be better not to warn him," Shine said casually.

"I can't watch this." Romance looked away.

"Why? Nothing happened last time," Abby said.

"I don't like to see knives in people's faces," Romance said.

"Sheesh, I wouldn't throw it at that face." Zoey flicked the knife towards Jinu's torso.

Jinu didn't think anything would happen--and nothing did. He got hit right in the solar plexus, thought the knife didn't pierce him, since he was human now, but the impact still hurt like a punch.

"Aw..." he gasped.

"Oooh..." Romance winced.

"Well, that didn't work," Baby said.

"See? It's not the same," Jinu said, when he could speak again.

Shine hit him with her sword now.

"Ow!" he cried.

"You didn't believe it would work!" Shine scolded sharply. "That's why it didn't. You didn't even try. Do you think I'm blind? It's a leap of faith, Jinu. Get with it. Try again."

"Do I have to hit him again?" Zoey asked.

"Fine, I will." Shine raised her own sword. "Be ready this time."

She attacked much faster than he thought she would.

He tried to deflect it almost instinctively this time.

To his surprise, this time it was far easier, and the sword seems to move almost on its own.

Shine braced herself to keep from tripping, but it clearly took effort.

"Hmm." She lowered her sword. "My shinobi friends say that you can tell things about a person from the way they fight you. You have a strong spirit, Jinu...stronger with the Divine Spirit's help."

"I do?" Jinu was utterly baffled. "How does that make sense?"

"It kinda makes sense," Abby said. "Your soul literally defended all the Hunters at the same time when you sacrificed yourself."

"He's right." Shine nodded. "Not to mention that anyone who could retain humanity for 4 centuries under Gwi-Ma must have a strong spirit to begin with."

"But I gave in to him in the first place," Jinu said.

"You think it's only the weak who give in to shame?" Shine said. "You all still don't understand this? It is not about that. Knowing your situation, it's a matter of wearing someone down, not them being weak. You just needed something to believe in."

Jinu was stunned.

"Next." Shine waved him aside. "Romance, you look nervous. Come."

"Do I have to?" Romance whimpered.

"Oh, gosh, will you man up?" Mira was tired of his complaining.

"Mira!" Shine said in a tone that made Mira flinch.

She stepped back.

"That is not how we talk to people," Shine then said, firmly, though not meanly.

"Yeah, don't laugh at the newbie," Logan agreed.

"Indeed, he is only just starting. Some nervousness is to be expected," Storm said. "I of all people must make allowances for it. But if we believe in someone, even though they are weak, they will grow stronger, as Logan has often believed in me."

"When were you ever weak?" Zoey asked.

"I had debilitating claustrophobia for many years," Storm said. "It came from a traumatic event in my childhood. I didn't feel fit to lead because of it, but Logan never expected me to stop pushing myself to get past it. Eventually, I did."

"It wasn't me. You did it yerself," Logan said.

"Perhaps I did, but the others would have taken me out of the fight even before I chose it, but you always left it up to me. At least that gave me more confidence in my own judgment," Storm said.

[This is a reference to the X-men 90's show. I love their friendship on that one. They should have gotten together in canon.]

"Mira is right, though," Romance said. "I am often weak."

"Oh, I don't know about that." Shine tilted her head. "I see a gift of mercy in you and the ability to feel things deeply. Passion is power, you know. It must be tamed and controlled, but once you harness it, it's unstoppable. Not many men are willing to embrace being softer as a good thing, but this is not a weak trait. To stay soft to the good things in life is the hardest thing any one can do. To see beauty where others only see pain and despair...isn't that the biggest challenge we can face?"

Romance stared at her. "But...uh, I often am close to sinking into despair."

"But what stops you?" Shine said. "Is it not the beauty in the things you do see? Besides, the enemy always attacks us where we could be the most strong, if we simply overcame it. Jinu was attacked on his protective wish to be able to help people, till he no longer thought he could help anyone. Someone changed that for him."

Jinu glanced at Rumi, who flushed.

"You're no different," Shine went on to Romance. "Wherever you are weakest, that is where you are stronger as well. It's all in how it ends, not how it starts. No one is born stronger, you know. But God can turn anything into a strength. Now, you can at least try. We'll start slow."

Romance, encouraged, lifted his spear.

Shine struck at him lightly enough, and he blocked it.

"Try to counter strike," she said.

"You didn't make Jinu counter strike," Romance said.

"Did I ask you what I made Jinu do?" Shine shot back. 

Romance counter-struck, without much confidence.

Shine blocked it, but she seemed satisfied.

"Not bad," she said. "Stronger than you think. Anyone else have any thoughts?"

"He's not so slow," Storm said. "If he attacked with more assuredness, he might throw the enemy off."

"Eh, he's got potential, I guess," Logan said.

"I believe anyvone can learn, if zey believe zey can," Kurt offered.

"When do I get to help?" Kitty asked.

"Patience, Kitty," Shine said. "This part is important for you also. I expect you to learn from it as well. You'll be training the younger ones in a few years, probably."

Kitty looked important when she said that.

"She really is good with kids, huh?" Zoey commented to Rumi and Mira. "And with guys too. Romance was so blushing."

"I'm starting to think we need to reexamine our approach to training them." Rumi fingered her chin. "All that stuff she said about Jinu, too."

Mira was silent, still stinging from Shine's rebuke, though it had hardly even been one.

"Mira, she's not angry." Morph noticed her expression. "The moment's passed. Trust me, she'd let you know if she was mad. She doesn't tolerate bullying, that's all. Or hazing."

"I know," Mira said, though she didn't. "She's never talked to me like that, that's all."

"She doesn't play favorites." Raven shrugged. "This we know. She was always gentle with me until I tried to talk down anyone else. Then she flipped fast. She'll overlook anything you do until you do it to someone else who's supposed to be getting helped."

"I respect that," Morph said. "I did think the X-men allowed too much knocking of each other, really. But it all stopped after she and Wally joined us."

"They forced you to stop?" Baby said, surprised that the X-men would allow this.

"No, they never forced us," Morph said. "They had sharp words for us when anyone did it around them, but they didn't threaten people into stopping. It's just, they were right, and once they pointed it out, we saw it too. We didn't realize how mean we could be to each other sometimes. I think we were just so used to it, we didn't think of it ourselves. But then, they are almost never like that either. Just to Scott..."

"Even with him, they apologized for it," Raven said. "I suppose he doesn't really care about their words now... Even before, I don't think they bullied him. That would be targeting someone's weakest points of confidence."

"I try not to do that," Morph said. "But...I did, even in...their world. I felt bad for it later, but sometimes that instinct still asserts itself in me after all this time. Raven isn't like that, though."

Raven snorted. "If that's even true, it's one of the only vices I'm not given to."

"I vould say not often," Kurt said, which showed he was a bit more like her in his honesty at times than he probably realized.

Shine left off with Romance and paused to walk up to them.

"Did I upset you?" She saw Mira's expression.

Mira wasn't ready for her to just ask like that.

"I... No, just...I didn't think of it as a bad thing," Mira said.

"To you, maybe it's not." Shine was patient enough. "Romance is not like you though... Remember, he will take it personally. Keep that in mind. But you're not in trouble, you know. I know it was simply a throw away comment."

"Anyone ever tell you're a lot tougher when you're training?" Mira was starting to see Raven-paralells in Shine's method.

"Am I?" Shine looked at the X-men questioningly.

"Yeah," they all said, in different tones.

"But I always thought it was a good thing," Storm said. "Respect goes to the strong leaders."

"Yes, no one likes pansies," Logan said.

"Do you really not see that in yourself?" Raven asked.

"I guess sometimes I do, but I always think of it as the next rational thing," Shine reflected. "Wally tends to soften me a bit. This is what comes of not working together on this. Good thing he'll be back later. Oh well, next person?"

"Can it be me?" Abby asked.

"Are you going to take it seriously?" Shine asked.

"Of course," Abby said.

"Then sure." Shine waved him over. "Let's have a look at you."

"That's what all the girls say," Abby said.

Shine glanced at him coldly, and then she deftly knocked his feet out from under him with her sword.

Rumi choked on a laugh, since she kinda thought Abby had that coming.

Mira and Zoey were more surprised than amused.

Baby was smirking though.

"Ouch..." Jinu and Romance both winced in sympathy.

"Oh, here we go." Logan was ready.

"I admire your ability to make jokes during stressful moments." Shine looked down at Abby pointedly. "But when I just asked if you were taking it seriously, I don't appreciate the immediate backtracking. There's a time and place for that--it's not when I'm trying to teach you something. Save the quips for the fights to distract the enemy, please."

"Yes, ma'am," Abby said meekly, getting to his feet with some difficulty.

Shine paused. "Okay, I see what you all were saying now...huh. I always thought of myself as pretty chill."

"Only about some stuff," Morph said.

"He had it comin'," Logan said. 

"Logan!" Shine said.

Logan winced. "I meant that you needed to teach him respect."

"Wow, even you, huh?" Baby was too chicken to mock Logan one-on-one but felt safer when other people were around.

Logan gave him a look, and he thought twice about it.

"It takes some nerve to tell a room of older adults to stop," Romance said.

"That woman would talk like that to the king himself," Logan sniffed. "Eh, so would Speedy." He meant Wally.

"Didn't you say they worked with world leaders though?" Rumi asked Raven.

"Yes...ironically," Raven said.

"I think they work because they don't care to begin with," Morph said. "I'm like that also. Most people think that's my most irritating trait, but at least I don't feel as alone in it anymore. I just don't care about formalities."

"I do, but I would live without it if I could," Raven said.

"You never treated us like celebs," Zoey said.

"It's not like you're actually in charge of anyone." Raven wrinkled her nose a little. "Just famous. That's completely different."

"I feel disrespected," Zoey said.

"Shhh." Mira was interested to hear what Shine was going to say about Abby now.

Shine looked him over. "Well, most of your good qualities are pretty obvious ones," she said.

Abby was surprised. That word choice reminded him of his deal with Gwi-Ma, at least what of it he could remember.

But before he could get triggered, Shine went on. "Courage, compassion, the ability to encourage others. What I like to see is that you can guard both people's bodies and their hearts as well."

This was high praise.

"I think you have a wild side as well." Shine tilted her head now. "Perhaps that goes with your name...perhaps not. A word of advice, you will need to learn to restrain yourself sometimes...but don't try to tame it entirely. Our Lord is not easily controlled, and, in my opinion, it's better for a man not to be either. We must be bendable but not breakable with people."

"So he's impulsive?" Storm surmised.

"Somewhat, but that's not always a bad thing." Shine shrugged. "It's a matter of context, isn't it? That's all."

"Do you...know my past?" Abby asked.

"Only what Morph and Raven know," Shine said. "Why? Did I hit on something I shouldn't have known?"

"Uh...yeah, kind of." Abby was spooked. "Did...Emma...?"

"Not me," Emma said, over the speaker. "Though I know what you're thinking now... Wait, how is that so bad though?"

Mira laughed dryly.

"What's so funny?" Rumi said.

"Nothing, just...vindicated," Mira said.

"You know, anger is not always bad," Shine told Abby. "Letting it out at the right time is what makes you strong, not refusing to feel it. But only against the right people or things. Better if it's not at humans at all, but if it must be...have a line and don't cross it. Based on how I temper my own anger, it makes it easier in the long run to not have to second guess your actions later, if that is what you are worried about. But you're not the type who loses it for stupid reasons..."

"Mostly, it's because of us," Mystery said. "Because we're too weak."

"Well, you could exert yourselves more," Shine said. "Being strong alone can be a burden... Speaking from experience on that one... But, Abby, I think that you are not trying to be strong alone so much these days." She winked.

"Uh..." Abby looked at her and then shot an uncertain glance at Mira. "Well..."

"So want to try to fight now?" Shine cut in.

"Oh, sure," Abby said.

"Why did he look at you there?" Rumi asked Mira.

"I dunno..." Mira reddened.

"Huh, that would be cool, wouldn't it?" Zoey said. "I had no idea what she was talking about, but, if Abby's trying to be tough too much on his own...I mean, he's always trying to protect the other guys, right? Maybe it would be better if he had someone else like that to back him up...and Mira, like, you're like that too. What if you guys could just balance each other out?"

"Isn't it a problem to have the same thing?" Rumi said. "I mean, nothing against you, Mira. It's just that, isn't it sometimes bad when you're too much like someone else? Like, they can draw it out of you to where it becomes excessive?"

"Do you dislike the trait?" Mira said, a bit tightly.

Rumi decided to drop it. But she thought Mira was sure getting touchy about stuff these days.

Abby didn't do any better than the other guys at actually fighting, since he had brute force without any finesse, but Shine said he gave it the college try and it was good.

Storm said that he needed to learn to focus his energy more, but he might be good if he did that.

Logan said that he at least moved like he intended to fight, unlike the "other two bozos", so he must have had experience.

"Did we ever settle if that experience was pre-Gwi-Ma or not?" Rumi asked.

Mira didn't volunteer any hints, and she really didn't know of more than the one incident.

Mystery was the most nervous of all.

Shine talked to him like he was a kitten.

"Don't worry, you won't hurt me," she said. "I'm quite prepared. Just give it a try."

"Won't hurt her?" Baby said. "I'd think he'd be more worried she'd hurt him, after the way she knocked Abby off his feet... I enjoyed that."

"I'm glad you're warming up to her." Abby didn't bother to take offense to that.

Mira snickered at the look on Baby's face, and even Zoey smothered a laugh.

"No, but didn't Mystery get worried about causing harm to others before?" Jinu reflected. "Maybe he is more worried about screwing up than he is about getting beaten up."

"Come to think of it, he has always said more that he is worried about us getting caught by Gwi-Ma when he is weak, than he's said he doesn't want to get eaten," Romance reflected. "Though I don't think he wants to get eaten either."

"You kids have a lot of hang ups," Logan commented on this. "All of you are afraid of yer own shadows."

"Our shadows once consumed us," Jinu said flatly.

Pause.

"Mine too," Logan said, as if there was no more to say.

"Mine as well, though mine was an actual man turned monster," Storm said, with a grimace.

"My word, you people are overdramatic," Raven said.

"Coming from you, Mother?" Kurt said.

"What does that mean?" Raven asked indignantly.

"Only that you're that most melodramatic woman in the world," Logan said.

"Indeed, you are quite...tempestuous," Storm said.

"No, I'm not!" Raven was incensed. "I'm very pragmatic. Too much so at times, even. Girls, tell them. Isn't that what you complain about constantly?"

"You want me to help you here?" Mira said. "You are a drama queen." With a flat look.

"Just a little at times," Zoey said.

"You...literally pull a gun to make a point on a weekly basis..." Rumi said, like it was a stupid question. "And shapeshift into people to mock us. I mean...over the top much?"

"But that is normal for a shapeshifter," Raven said.

Morph started to chuckle.

"What are you sniggering at?" Raven turned to him furiously. "As if you are not much worse than I am."

"But I own it," Morph said. "Though, the fact that you can't tell this about yourself is one of the things I find weirdly endearing about your personality. That you think it's totally normal to act that way is what makes it funny."

"I never thought she was funny," Logan said. "More like imbalanced."

"Raven is just a bit unhinged," Zoey said. "But so are we. I get a little crazy in the fight sometimes. Guess we can't be judgy."

"I see you've found your people," Storm said to Raven. "It's good to be understood."

Raven was more mad about that than anything else she'd said but could think of no way to argue with it that would not prove they were right...so she seethed in silence.

[Which is...also kind of melodramatic, so...]