I climbed into the shower trying to piece the random pieces of the puzzle that was my life. The cold, icy water striking, as my brain struggled with the amount of material it was forced to process. Worry settled deep in my stomach when I got out and none of the others had returned my calls or my messages. 

Chill, they might be on a mission somewhere and haven't seen it yet. There is no need in working yourself over nothing... yet. 

I grabbed my intercom and dialled Sunshine anew... nothing. I tried Hawk and Skrymer and it just rolled over to voicemail. 

Come on! Answer me dammit! But no one did. I tried Dragonfly one more time hoping, crossing my fingers, but all I heard was the beeping noise and nothing else. I paced across my room and back again multiple times until Grace opened her eyes and yawned running her tiny fingers through her mess of a hair that was all tangled up on the side. She looked at me confused.

"Good morning!"

"Morning, did I wake you?" The thing about Grace was that she always told the truth, or a version of it, but never had outright lied to us or at least me.

"Yes." I sighed as I sat on the bed and she crawled in my arms resting her tiny head on my chest as she sighed contentedly. I ran my fingers through her tousled hair in an effort to soothe it.

"I am sorry I woke you, Grace." She shrugged. "Why were you here last night anyway? Was it nightmares?" She shook her head as she looked at me.

"Nah. It was thunder. A lot and a lot of thunder." Well, that explained it.

"I see. Ready to go back to sleep now?" She yawned again and settled in my arms. "I meant in your bed, there is no more thunder."

"But what if it comes back?!" She exclaimed holding me tighter. I shrugged.

"Grace what do I always tell you?" She put her finger on her mouth in an adorable gesture as she took a minute to think about it.

"That I should always brush my teeth because dentists are evil soul-sucking vampires." I almost smiled at that, almost.

"I do tell you that, don't I?" I admitted. "No, I meant the other thing I always tell you."

"Oh..." She took another minute then shook her head.

"No one will harm you... ever. Remember? I annihilate anyone dumb enough to upset you. Besides you're perfectly safe in this house, no amount of thunder will change that." She seemed unconvinced so I pressed on. "See..." I pointed out one of the windows behind us. "There is no thunder and the sky is clear." She ignored me and settled in my arms as I gave up trying to convince her and held her until she fell asleep again.

Once Grace had finally drifted off, I carried her into her room where I kept violin music playing in case she stirred again. I got back to my room to continue calling. 

Why aren't they answering!!? I cursed repeatedly as my pacing increased in speed. My phone rang and I opened the line my breath held in expectation.

"Black...?" Skrymer's uncertain voice greeted me. My heart sank, the last time Skrymer had used such a tone ... To hear that dreadful tone again it left me on the verge of a panic attack. "Black? Answer me, are you there?" More forceful that time, demanding. I steeled myself and hoped that my voice would not crack.

"What?!" My voice sounded wrong even to myself. She caught on quickly and changed her tone.

"Nothing! I was just worried something was wrong with you." There was something in the way she said that like there's more than she's letting me in on. "I just called to assure you that all of us are well and alive." An odd note in her voice as if she were lying to me, but not quite a complete lie. It was almost as if the truth of that matter was that she wasn't sure if that was the case or not: as if she herself was as confused as I was. "Look all is fine and we are alive. Okay? Fine? You can stop calling us now. Have fun and see ya soon. Later gator!" She hung up on me and I was baffled as I tried to process that. 

She wasn't lying, was she? I decided that she was just being a tad bit too odd, but there was nothing to worry about and so I threw myself on the mattress and I squinted against the bright sun. 

What now?

===

"We're back." The gang called from below a week later as Raven, Grace, and I ignored them and continued playing VR instead. "Guys?" It was Dragon's voice hesitant and off somehow.

"Gaming room!" I called as I proceeded to annihilate my opponents with Raven and Grace by my side. Dragonfly came in first his clothes and armour battered and he was leaning heavily against the wall. Dread settled deep in my bones as I instinctively rushed to his side scanning him over from top to bottom and circling around him. He giggled lightly and I spanked him on the back of the head for it.

"Ouch!" He complained. I made a face at him and dragged him to the couch. "I'm fine." He complained again, but I wasn't listening instead I circled Sunshine and Nighthawk with a scowl.

"Where the hell were you!?" I ordered whilst they stared at me as if I had lost it and I probably had.

"On a mission?" Nighthawk answered wearily. I groaned in aggravation as I started pacing around the couch where I had dragged Dragon earlier.

"Why did you get hurt anyway?! How did you get hurt? Forget that! Who hurt you?!" I cursed under my breath. "I should've come along. I shouldn't have let you go. I –" My tirade was cut off when Hawk literally carried me and threw against on the chairs as if I were some rag doll. "What was that for?!" I hissed in warning, my anger mounting.

"Calm down!" Sunshine said. I scoffed at him as I tried getting up, but Hawk had closed the distance between us and held me by the back of my shirt. I grumbled at him to let me go, but he didn't. I threatened his life and well-being and he still didn't, so instead I let out a string of profanity so foul that Raven's cheeks modelled with colour and I spotted Grace and cursed myself for the earlier stupidity.

"Calm down," I mumbled. "You know that works about as well as putting gasoline on a fire to put it out." Hawk let out a nervous laugh as he tightened his hold on me.

"Then what am I supposed to say?" Sunshine complained.

"Give me some names or faces and then I can track them down get drunk on their blood and then I might calm down." I twisted from Hawk, but he held me by the scruff of the neck this time, with both his hands. I hissed in warning.

"I can't let you do that." He mumbled sensing that he was losing the battle.

"Why not?!" I could feel my voice rising an entire octave higher than usual as Star-Skrymer gave an arched stare.

"Do you know where the hell Darling is?" I thought about that. I scoffed and shook my head.

"Probably out and about with some girl in some club, somewhere." Sunshine gave me a peeved stare. I flicked him off and it was Skrymer's turn to gape at me.

"You want to tell me that you didn't think to ask him where the hell he was going." Skrymer's voice lacked her usual outgoing and chill back persona. I sat up straighter and thought about that.

"No," I admitted. "I was too worried about Raven's condition and I figured if he was out with some girl I had no intentions of knowing any kind of details." Skrymer groaned. "Why? What did he do this time?" Sunshine didn't answer instead he put on a news feat showing a faint figure with exotic red hair getting hauled into the interrogation centre of the eleventh district. Darling. It was my turn to groan.

"That's why..." Sunshine continued cutting off the news feat. "We can't have you going somewhere. We need your strong rank to bail him out before they- Oh I don't know, kill him for treason?"

"I think you're giving him too much credit. He's probably there because he found some pretty girl on your last mission and wanted her back." Skrymer shrugged.

"But that's not what the generals will think, they'll automatically think he committed treason!" Sunshine argued as he paced. The sight of him was what I always thought a worried parent might look like upon hearing bad news concerning his children. It was one of the many reasons I respected Sunshine. He was always the parent that none of us ever had especially to Grace, but I guess that was just him. "We have to bail him out." There was a note of urgent conviction in his tone as he turned around and headed downstairs again. Hawk wearily let me go as I sprinted after Sunshine.

"Wait! Sunshine!" He looked over his shoulders as his strides slowed to a stop. "I'll go, but you have to stay. Raven and Dragon could use you and I need someone responsible to keep an eye on Grace while I'm gone." He spun around to face me a look of annoyance on his face as he took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. A gesture that told me exactly how worried he was.

"But-" He faltered. He knew it was the right thing to do, the only option he had. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, regaining his composure. "Fine. I'll send you his exact location and everything you might need to get him out, but for the love of God don't do something stupid. I am begging you. We have enough injuries as it is." He pressed his lips together contemplating the situation, calculating. "Take reinforcement and stay in touch. If something goes wrong send for back-up immediately and if –" Sunshine's voice cracked, but he forced himself to continue. "And if they think they can just kill one of us, they've got another thing coming! No one messes with one of us and gets away with it, No one. Not the assassins, not the commanders, not the generals, and not even Erebus himself." I nodded. He scanned me over. "Got your knives?" I unbuttoned my sleeveless vest-jacket to show him the two dozen strapped across my chest and back. "Blasters?" Pointed to the two across my hips and the other two pistols in my jacket. "You contractible blades functioning?" I groaned. "Black..." He hissed and I returned the favour as I flicked my wrists and out came to knives, my elbows were next and finally my boots.

"Pleased?" He gave me a peeved stare.

"No. I still want to come along." He sighed wistfully as he stared longingly to the door. "I miss the good old days, you know when I was of use as more than your nurse."

"But you are more than our nurse," Hawk argued. "You're also our babysitter!" Sunshine made a face at him as he hissed at Hawk.

"Gee thanks! Cause that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy!" He countered.

"I still don't see why they would think Darling is committing treason," Raven spoke up for the first time. "I mean he's at the eleventh district, big deal, so what?"

"It is a big deal," Sunshine explained patiently. "You see if you're caught on your home district for no specific reason or a legit excuse, they think it's because you're attached to it or whoever is there, which is a direct violation of the golden rule." Sunshine seemed as if he was reciting something, but his eyes and posture both betrayed the calm voice in which he spoke.

"That's why I'll be leaving immediately, before-" I was cut off as the door swung open and there was the last person we'd anticipated to walk in with that bizarre shade of hair. 

You worthless piece of scum. I'll kill you!