Shy-Ree

In the dead of night a small gathering of forms made their way through the secret darkened passageways of the compound. At the head of this group were two weapon bearing guards. After them came the eloquently gliding form of a woman draped in hood and billowing black cloak. After her were two more females, in their respective embraces were each nestled a contently sleeping child. Two more sets of guards brought up the rear of this group. Through the near lightless channels of the compound they strode in complete silence. The group moved ever forward with all stark solomness of a funeral possession through the underground labrynth. Eventually they came to a hangar bay. A ship was ready and waiting. The first guards halted at the base of the docking ramp and watched as the ladies and children boarded. Once they were aboard the guards too strode dutifully into the belly of the ship. Moments later the vessel blasted out of the ground and soared at a lazy angle up into the star spangled embrace of Roon's heavens. As the ship passed over the ebon expanse of ocean, Shy-Ree ordered the pilots to hover the ship over the endless shivering waters. Once the ship was still she stepped into a narrow elevator shaft that took her up through an airlock. She emerged on the top of the ship, the wind whipped her cloak wildly about her small body as she inhaled deeply so that the free air might fill her soul. There in midnight atop a hovering ship Shy-Ree drew out her lightsabers. She activated them. One Jedi saber blazed to life, it's emerald blade achingly reminding her of Trowa Barton's beautiful eyes. It seemed an eternity since she'd gazed into them. The second saber hissed to life, it's scarlet blade as brilliant as the passion and the hatred that was poured into it's creation. She smiled a bit, recalling that the only reason she forged the Sith saber was to kill the very same Trowa Barton that she now loved maniacally. Shy's eyes closed and without further reminicence crossed the blades before her chest. In a split second she flung the lightsabers out from her body and released them. The weapons spun through the near absolute dark, their whirling blades became dual disks of light as they soared away and finally disappeared over the ship's edge. Once she could no longer see them it felt as if a tremendous weight had been lifted from Shy's shoulders and a terrible darkness had left her soul. The supple curves of her chest heaved upward as she once again drew in the invigorating sea air. One of her hands slid down the front of her blouse and pulled out a chain upon which twin rings dangled. She ripped the thin chain from her neck and let the jewellery rest in the palm of her hand. Shy's teeth clenched and she swallowed down the sorrow that tried to find escape. "Perhaps in the next life..." she whispered as she stared down at what would have been she and Trowa's wedding bands. Before she could change her mind she closed here eyes tightly and tossed the rings over the edge of the ship. Her hand trembled viloently, fingers clutched tight into a fist as she fended off the overbearing temptation to call the rings back to her hand by way of the Force. Exhale. Her pained breath swirled into the seabreeze and was suffocated by the moonless night. Head bowed, eyes closed, the now emancipated Shy-Ree sank back down into the metal belly of the vessel that would carry she and her children into the future. The ship suddenly lurtched forward again and quickly shrank to nothing against the star speckled sky. When the ship was finally out of Roon's turbulent stratosphere Shy-Ree and her children ceased to exist.

In all of her lives Shy-Ree had never known that such harrowing sublimity could be found in something as simple as a kiss. And in all her deaths she had never endured a sting quite as crippling as the one that wrenched at her heart as that kiss was broken. She unchained her emotions and sank deeply into them. They overflowed and flooded outward, enveloping Trowa in the rawest and most malevolent of loves that ever could exist. As Trowa's face pulled away, the fingers of Shy's right hand came around to embrace the clawed stem that still laid in the satiny valley of her chest. Her eyes never once left Trowa's as she lifted the offering from her breast. She rolled it's velvety petals delicately across her lips. In a movement that was sudden, yet as soft as the petals of the rose in her grip, Shy was sitting, legs dangling over the bed, before Trowa. Her thighs spread slowly open as her right hand slid down his chest. She traced a fingernail down to his stomach. There, the nail dragged playfully around his navel. Shy smiled slightly as his stomach tensed under the slight attack. Her finger then continued it's agonizingly slow trek southward until it slid down into top of the pants that seductively hugged Trowa's hips. With her finger hooked into the front of Trowa, Shy-Ree reeled him in and pulled him closer with her embracing legs. Her arms too, wrapped around him. Behind Trowa, the fingers of Shy's left hand gently gripped the stem of the rose just under the bloom. Her right hand was wrapped firmly about the stem's opposite end. She smiled wickedly into Trowa's soul as she pulled the stem forward to press across his back. The thorns latched into his flesh and she raked the stem upward with a sadistic leisureliness that she knew would drive him mad. Before a sound could escape his mouth Shy's lips mashed hungrily upon his. Her tongue pried open his lips, found it's prey and swirled together with it. The thorns continued to rip up Trowa's back.. all the way to the base of his neck. With an ease that might be mistaken as practiced, Shy brought each end of the stem forward from behind Trowa. Her fingers worked deftly, as if they had minds of their own, to tighten the stem around his neck. Once it was in place she very carefully slid the cut end of the stem up under the choker that now clawed deep into Trowa's throat. Shy withdrew from the sweet scorch of their kiss. Her fingers slip up under his chin to shoved his head upward slightly. She smiled warmly at the sight of the collar of thorns that now adorned her love's neck. The rose, itself, was situated at the front of the collar. Shy leaned closer and inhaled it's heady perfume once again until a dark shimmer caught her eye. A tear shaped blot of blood trickled slowly down Trowa's chest. It's trail lead back up to a thorn that had ripped particularly deeply into his neck. Shy kissed the jewel of blood from his chest and looked up into the emerald of Trowa's eyes. She ran a finger along Trowa's collar, not entirely sure if he understood what it implied. Question shimmered within the violet pools that were Shy-Ree's own eyes as she gazed into Trowa. (( rushed and unedited, enjoy the sp errors & the such ))

Though swaddled in a cocoon of chill lethargy the very essence of the sleeping lady sensed the encroaching dark caress of his presence, It flooded over and into the pallid lamination that was her flesh. Every last molicule in her body wakened and ached to be pressed against the form that flowed ever forward toward the slumber caught Shy-Ree. A storm raged within her small frame. She wanted nothing more than to rip Trowa toward her and never let him loose from her grip again... but she would not do that. Shy-Ree stayed as silent and as still as death itself. She had previously chased him down with the sole, hell bent intention of collaring what was hers. That past, she would chase him no more. Now had come the time for he to shadow She. There came the silken kiss of a rose upon her slightly parted lips. The honey smooth sound of his voice spread over her barren body and warmed it like nothing else ever would. She breathed, deeply but delicately, as if his words were sustenance for her soul. But her breath caught as the bloom made a tender trail down her neck and mingled with the occasional bitter sweet sting of thorns softly snagging upon her skin. She maintained her corpselike facade. But within the delicate little body there raged a barely leashed passion unlike anything life had previously allowed. And then came his hands, hands that had exacted the most exquisite pain and the most excruciating pleasure time and time again. The slightest touch set loose a relentless longing through the body which struggled valiantly to hold it's still. It was a struggle lost as soon as Trowa's lips lingered upon Shy's own. He had been right. All the sleeping Shy-Ree needed was one kiss. But it was more than merely a kiss. As their mouths met and mingled something deeper and darker than passion tinged the love that passed between the two. Upon her lips it felt as if heaven and hell had fallen together and melded into a sublimely perilous toxin. The potent sensation blossomed outward from her lips to spread rapidly through her. The divine poison raged through and entwined itself into every trembling inch of her body. It filled and fed and fortified and just when she thought she would die from such venomous bliss... Trowa lips released her. After a moment that could easily have been mistaken for an eternity Shy-Ree finally gazed, with ferocious love, into the jewels that masqueraded as the windows to Trowa's soul. And as she came to understand what had just transpired, all the still lying lady could do was soak in the raveshing sight of him. In her mind she knew what had happened and it's meaning. In her heart she felt the ever resonating fire of his love. In her soul she sensed the unseverable bond that now entangled them together. But desite all these concrete assurances there was one thing left that she needed from Trowa. It was a seemingly small thing but more important to her than he might ever understand. She reached up and shyly traced a finger down his jawline. Within Shy a swirling mass of emotion abruptly stilled. It shrivelled away. She glared with stone cold seriousness into the wicked beauty of Barton's soul. "Trowa," came her whisper, "tell me what I need to hear."

She stirred. The lids of Shy's eyes fluttered open. She shuddered. Her entire body ached as if she'd spent the last couple years of her life clawing her way out and away from the rotting depths of Hell. A wretched feeling gnawed at the edges of her mind. It quivered there at the fringes of her sanity and made her question momentarily if she was beholding true reality or if she was still a loitering in the depths of the twisted realities of Trowa's mind. Shy closed her eyes again and let the unbent emptiness of actual existence press upon her body. It felt weak and vastly hollow compared to the stiffling potency of the world which she'd previously been a guest to. A deep inhalation. Her chest heaved as air was pulled into her aching body. And though her lungs filled to the point of bursting they still felt horrendously depleted. She exhaled slowly, barely letting the warmth of her breath escape. As it trickled slowly away she realized what had happened. It had happened before but to a lesser degree. A smile nearly graced the slightly parted lips of the small woman but she felt his awakening, the unmistakably divine essence of Trowa that she'd grown to hunger for. Life sloughed off of the features of Shy's face and she lay there harmlessly as if wrapped in the supple cocoon of unconciousness.

Barely keeping her rage at bay, Shy watched on as Trowa intereacted with the splintered parts of his personality. The only thing that kept her anger in check was knowing that each step brought her closer to gaining that which she wanted more than anything, for Trowa Barton to be entirely hers body, soul and mind. As he stood smiling, dagger glinting in hand, Shy felt a nearly overwhelming surge of adoration for Trowa. Her shadowing presence decended upon him and enwrapped him entirely. Her love draped around and clung to him, eventually soaked him to the soul. It would remain there for him to draw strength from should he come to need it in this upcoming confrontation.

Trowa's words were precious. Shy was about to pull his ragged form into her arms to, pull him back to where he belonged but she could not. Instead she was the one who was pulled into the universe in which Ezekiel apparently thought he was god. The specter Shy-Ree bore silent witness as Trowa made his way through Spider's playground. Here, she was omnipotent. Seeing, hearing and knowing all. Patience beyond anything she'd ever exhibited before filled Shy as Trowa's constant assurances played upon her ears like heavenly music. Spider would soon be hers. He would soon be under boot either swearing he now belonged to her... or be crushed out of existence like the accursed little spider he was.

Eyes as cold as the darkest regions of space glared down upon the battered heap of creature that was Trowa Barton. She didn't respond to him at all. Only stood there with his dagger in her scarlet drenched grip. Lightning raced across the sky. Behind it stalked a growl of thunder that might rival the growl of undiluted anger that had once steadily festered in Shy's chest. She looked down at the dagger. Her hands trembled slightly and she glanced back at Trowa. She suddenly bent closer to him, took his chin in the palm of her bloodied hand and smiled. "I want you to be mine, love. Always mine." She quickly closed the gap between their faces, her swollen lips crushed against his in a violent manner. The taste of blood and sweat was thick on his lips. The flavor of pain wafted upon his breath. And she simply relished the bursts of misery and heartache that his soul regurgitated forth into her accepting mouth. She closed her eyes and claimed it all. The world flashed and blackened around them as the sky continued to rage. Shy's hand slid up into the blood matted mess that was Trowa's hair. She thrust her fingers through the tangles and held Trowa as if she were afraid he's slip away on her again. In her other hand was cradled the dagger. She dragged it's tip up and down his shredded torso as their mouths continued to mash angrily together. When she finally pulled away Shy's lips barely left Trowa's. They breathed in the succulent warmth each other's breath for a few seconds before Shy spoke again. Her voice was low, bordering on sultry. "I know you're sorry. I forgive you Trowa." Shy kissed him again on the forhead and then pulled away to stare deep into his eyes. "But I can not forgive the others. I want them Trowa. I want them them all." Her grip tightened in Trowa's hair. "You say you are mine but you are only partially mine. I want all of you. Every last demented portion of you." Shy's eyes hardened once again as she raked the dagger's tip straight up the middle of Trowa's torso. The blade caressed up and down the side of his neck. "Give them to me Trowa. I will have all of you ... one way or another."

((I'll find Heero again)) Too near to veer from the electrical attack, Shy enwrapped herself in a cocoon of repelling Force and deflected both the electricity and the ensuing shower of sparks that exploded out from various control panels. The ship died a quick death and dove for ground. Before concentration could be redirected to slowing the ship's plummet the vessel halted in mid air. Shy jolted forward, seat restraints ripped into her chest a moment before she slumped backward again. SHe gasped for air only to inhale the stench of fried circuitry. She coughed, nauseated, and peered over top of the still sparking main instrument panel. Through tufts of spewing black smoke she could make out the form of Trowa's pet creation... the ship slammed into to the ground. She came to, slumped forward against the seats's belts. Her eyes opened to see Trowa standing before her ship. Shy's gaze pierced like daggers into Trowa's own curious stare. ”œCome on out, girl. Grovel like the slave slut you are and maybe I'll make it quick." Her eyes widened in disbelief at the words that assaulted her ears and slit her heart in more ways than she ever dreamed possible. A sneer twisted her upper lip. The dried blood cracked and flaked off of it. Her violet eyes darkened to a dull near black. She didn't move. Didn't breath. Only glared at the creature that had inspired an all consuming contempt. As Shy-Ree held his gaze the tempest sky above Trowa shifted. From the continually writhing belly of stormblack clouds six thick, brilliant blue-white lightning bolts struck the earth surrounding the man. For a split second he was encircled in a lightning bolt cage. The strands of electricity fell toward one another and suddenly twisted together until one monster lighting bolt blasted down into Trowa. The sky roared and the earth shook under the rampaging charge of raw electrical power that danced around and over and ripped through the feeble flesh and bone of it's target. She let the lightning fizzle out, unbuckled herself and leapt from the ship. She stared, with unblemished disgust, at the crumpled body of the being that dared order her to grovel. Her rage spiked again. Behind Shy the ship sunk further into the ground. A second later the front of it imploded with a monsterous metallic shriek, as if an invisible giant had bashed it in. Shy's eyes darkened even more. Her face became ragged with hatred and the collapsed part of the ship expoded outward. The flying bits of jagged metal flew in all directions only to halt and fall back toward Shy-Ree. The wind kicked up around her. Thin whips of dust spiraled at her feet and dust-devilled a few feet ahead of her. The freshly pulverized pieces of metal got caught up in the whirling vortex and fell into a tornado like formation. Guided by a mind sodden with malevolence, the tornado slithered to Trowa and sucked his limp form from the ground. Shy didn't know if he was dead. At that moment she didn't care. She was hell bent on beating him into the ground whether he was dead or alive. Trowa's body twisted and turned in the midst of the tornado to be hacked and slashed and mangled by the ragged shards of metal that whipped around him. Another, uncalled, bolt of lightning struck the tornado. A smile wrenched up the corners of Shy's lips as tiny fingers of lightning spread through her unnatural conjuration and danced from shard to whirling shard before disappating again. As her smile died the formation fell apart. Trowa's body dropped to the ground, splayed out. Shy-Ree directed a few of the larger, more deadly looking strips of metal to stab down and hack into the palms of his hands, wrists, and outer edges of his legs and arms to hold him in place should he have survived the ordeal. Shy walked to him. In the midst of the rubble she stepped gingerly through she caught a glimspe of what looked like a dagger. A powerful possesson of Barton's by the feel of it. She picked it up and looked it over. It must have been sliced free of his body during his little spin in the tornado. Shy continued on to loom overtop of Trowa. He looked like a batterd bug collection speicmen. Standing over his midsection, she squatted down, ripped Trowa's shirts open and pressed his own dagger onto his chest. She started shredding him open.

As the window shattered Shy halted each shard with a slight wrapping of the Force around the pieces. More out of habit than nesessity she waved her arm as if backhanding the rubble away. It flew out the window and rained down onto whatever was below her ship. She immediately trained her weapons on Trowa's machine and then sped after the fleeing man. Wind surged in the shieldless veiwport and whipped her plum tinged locks out of her emotionless mask of a face. Fingers of lightning jabbed down into the city. She knew they were products of Barton's manipulation and shook her head. "Show off." she muttered as she attempted to keep up with him. She fired a few shots at his retreating machine but they couldn't find thier mark. So instead she started firing at where he would be. "Gotcha." she growled as she sent a pair of missles speeding not at the thing he was in but at the buildings just ahead. Upon impact large chunks of debris rained down onto Barton's charging beast. (sucks but oh well, it's all your getting and all I've got at the moment)

Shy fell to the ground as Trowa's body disapated. The small drop roused enough pain to make her growl. The pain only fed her rage. Not even Trowa's pathetic wimpering of her name had been enough to quell the anger that Spider had kindled within her. She stabbed the stilleto into the ground and growled, "Barton." She reeled in all the strength she could muster and shoved herself up onto hands and knees. Her eyes closed as she sensed out the location of the thing she wanted cringing at her feet and pleading for death at hands. She would find Trowa and Spider and whatever the hell else resided in the man. Shy-Ree would find and either break the unwanted aspects of him... or kill them. Whichever came first. She would have her Trowa back one way or another. Through the Force she sought him. His Force presence was no where to be felt. She pulled back a bit and instead searched for some other signpost that would betray Barton's location. She then sensed a mess of sloshing emotions somewhere underground. They could only be his. Everything else in the immediate area was dead and destroyed. It had to be him. Shy stood shakily, groaning through clenched teeth as various agonies ripped through her small body. She didn't have the time or patience to seek a legit way to get underground. Shy retracted both ends of her weapon returned to the ship. The vessel still hummed contentedly in the deathly encompassing silence of the battle scarred area. The small, sleek ship looked very out of place, the only thing not broken or blackened or blasted to bits. Shy boarded, slouched into the pilot seat and steadily fed off her pain. It strengthened both her determination and her ire. With trembling fingers she combed her hair back out of her face. It was hard to believe that less than an hour before she and Trowa had shared an amazingly passionate and playful goodbye. A look of sorrow cracked through the stern, bloodied mask the woman wore. She inhaled deeply, steeled her will and initiated lift off. Within moments blackened plumes of debris sprayed out in all directions from the rising ship. Like a bird of prey, it circled, it closed in on it's quarry. The ship eventually halted and hovered just above the city towers. A barrage of lazer cannon fire erupted from the belly of the metallic beast and rained down onto the street below. A fountain of freshly blasted boulevard sprayed into the air with each bolt. Each blast deepened the mid street crater as Shy continually fired further down into the sub city conduits. She'd make her way straight through to Trowa. It was the surest route, though perhaps not the quickest. A concussion missle or two would make quick work of her excavation job but she couldn't risk unintentionally killing Barton. The rest of Shy-Ree was bloody and ragged but her eyes were brilliant with monomaniacal resolve. "Salvation is on it's way," she whispered.

Shy stood up, body aching like it hadn't in a long long time. With the back of her hand she swiped away the remnants of Trowa's bloody kiss and wiped the traces of scarlet onto her jumpsuit, eyes never once leaving the form of the man that stood before her. Her swollen lips twitched slightly as she recalled the word Trowa had emphasized. What might have been mistaken as a look of disgust crossed her face. But it wasn't disgust. It was a momentary sneer of pure anger upon realizing she was going to have to reclaim that which was stolen from her. She would take back what belonged to her no matter how long it took or how deadly the outcome. The surrounding death was employed. Shy pulled to her all of the agonized screaming presences that refused to diminish into the force. She glared into Trowa's eyes and then like a conductor overseeing an orchestra she waved her hand toward the man. Every screaming, vengeful spirit was directed straight into Trowa's eyes and ripped into his fragmented mind. Hundreds of tormented souls twisted and screeched and clawed into the mind of the one who had shown them death. It was a variation of Trowa's very first assault on Shy-Ree. Mind attack. A taste of his own medicine. Before he could react Shy force sped toward Trowa, tackled him with a solid shoulder to the chest and gripped onto him. Together they flew from the building top, soared through the air for a few feet before they began their arching descent toward the ground. Shy practically lay atop the man as they dropped through the air. Behind Trowa air particles were displaced, forced aside so that their drop met no resistence whatsoever. The pair slammed into the ground, Trowa taking the brunt of the bone shattering damage. Shy-Ree nearly blacked out. Her head slammed hard off of Trowa's chest when they hit. She lay sprawled and seemingly lifeless atop his battered body in the shallow crater created from their impact. After a few seconds she inhaled deeply, realizing that she'd quit breathing. Shy coughed harshly, blood sprayed from her mouth, a few phlegm like strings of it dangled from her lips down to Trowa's chest. She trembled violently as her right hand stretched out as if grasping for something that was not there. Moments later her weapon jerkily made it's way to her clawing fingers. She closed her eyes, activated a switch inside the weapon. A 7 inch stilleto sprang out the bottom end of the whip's hilt. She shakily raised it into the air, muscles quivering as she aimed the point of the stilleto at Trowa's chest. She inhaled again as she steadily ripped at the Force and savored the pain as fuel. "Mine." It was all she could mutter as she angrily stabbed downward.

Shy spun around to face the ground. Her palms pressed into the rubble, and she held herself there for a split second in a sharply angled handstand that seemed to defy gravity. She pushed up with all her might and sprang backward to land in a crouching, upright position. The pain in her face flared but came no where close to overwhelming her. An amused little chuckle flitted across the charred air to greet Trowa's ears. Shy stood and smiled up at the creature clinging to the wall like a scurrying cockroach. "Fore play won't save you this time... honey." She casually walked toward the man. "If it's me that needs saving, why are you the one stuck to the wall like a jittery little insect?" In a flash her latest weapon was in her hand, the whip end of it lashed around Trowa's ankle. She spun around with all the grace of a ballet dancer and used the momentum of the spin to viciously rip Trowa down and away from the building. With a flick of her wrist the whip unwound from Trowa before he landed. Shy pounced, wrapped her hand into his hair, yanked him back to the wall and slammed his head off of it in a series of several fast but skull splintering bashes. "I didn't want to save you from the big bad villain of the story." Shy grunted out as she rammed Trowa's head off the wall. "I offered you the opportunity to be saved from me." She turned his face to her, whirled the hilt of her weapon in her hand then swiped it down as hard as she could. It connected with his face in a sickening dull metallic crunch. Instantly a spray of Trowa's blood dotted Shy's jumpsuit. "But it's too late for salvation now, sweetheart." She clubbed him across the face again, backhand, and heard his nose snap as the blunt end of the weapon crushed it. She kicked him away from her and stood back to admire her handiwork, smiling knowing that the best was yet to come.

She landed hard. Bones jarred momentarily and stole attention from the jaw pain and the events that lead up to it. In a second her thoughts leapt rabidly from shock to denial to sorrow to rage. Shy felt like a fool. She had sensed the changed in Trowa's presence, had even seen it in his stride. But she'd chalked the changes up to post battle fatigue. Emotion dropped from her face. She stood and brushed herself free of the trash in which she'd landed. Her dulled gaze fell upon the eyes that did not belong to the one she'd intended to greet. Shy-Ree only stared at him for a few moments, taking her time to assess the information, the situation and the thing that stood smugly before her, the thing that was Trowa but somehow wasn't. Her head tilted curiously to the side. The scantest of smiles played upon her lips. Shy recalled when she'd been stolen from Coruscant, the first time she'd turned to stare defiantly into her abductor's emerald eyes. She had met Trowa that day. But in those following weeks she'd caught fleeting glimpses of something else. Something deeper and more dangerous lurking behind the jewel like eyes that had first entranced her. Her stomach turned in an odd way as all the pain and torment Trowa had once put her through raced to the forefront of her thoughts. Traces of this... thing... before her had been present during the most trying of those times. "Me? Pitiful?" she finally answered as she flicked a charred chunk of heaven only knew what from her shoulder. Shy flexed her jaw a bit, grinned at the dull pain that blossomed from it. "I see you've reaquainted yourself with your cheap shot Sith ways. Pathetic. Only a cowardly curr of a rat would stoop to so low of a suckershot, sweetie." She stepped free of the rubble and strolled closer to the man. "I come to collect you and this is how I'm repaid? A cheap shot to the jaw? I'd say you're the patheic one, rodent." With deeper feelings kept closely guarded, Shy-Ree stopped and held her arms out and to the sides a bit as if waiting for Trowa to enter into her embrace. However there was no love in her eyes. Only a harsh glint of semi understanding. "I'm here to rescue you, Barton." she informed him coldly.

Her ship settled into the scarred and scorched landscape that had once harbored life. Scraps of charred clothing and ashen plumes that once were living flesh swirled out from under the settling ship. The vessel eased down like some angular and hissing beast, weary and well worn. Moments later a sole and small form clad in a charcoal grey jumpsuit strode purposefully out from the belly of the still groaning metallic beast. Death hung heavy on the air, clawed relentlessly at the material that hung loosely from her small body. Hundreds of screaming voices melded together in the back of her mind and made the hair on the back of Shy-Ree's neck prickle. She shoved the nuicence feeling away as she stepped through the mess that only one creature could have left in his twisted wake. The Force was employed, arrows of it flung viciously in every direction as she sought out the one she had come for. When finally she connected with a solitary life form she ran striaght for it. Soon Trowa's slender striding shape loomed in the distance, not much more than a writhing mess of darkness and derangement in human form. But Shy did not falter in her chase. Nothing would stop her from reaching him. She rushed up behind and wrapped her arms around him, noting the chill that emenated from being in her crushing embrace. Shy didn't care. To know that he was alive and well was all that mattered. "I'm sorry I didn't come immediately." she apologised in a gush of mournful breath against his ear. "I should have never let you come alone. I should have come sooner..."

For a few seconds Shy stood in a completely thoughtless stupor. A single kiss had caught her entirely off guard and for a moment she could do nothing but be amazed by it. Moments later she shook free of her bewilderment and tried to grin. "May the Force be with you too..." she said somewhat hurridly. "Take care of yourself." She began to move toward Darex but stopped, the direness of Trowa's situation nearly took her breath away. Images and feelings invaded her mind, so strongly that her vision flicked between the reality of standing in the dining hall and the reality that Trowa was seeing and enduring. "Darex!" she nearly yelled and then calmed her voice so as not to frighten the children. She draped herself in a cloak of manufactured calm before she spoke or acted again. Her voice had taken on an unemotional cool and quiet. "Darex, Barton is in need of aid. Darla's leaving for him. I know she means well but you have to call her back. Please. There's no telling how Barton may react. He's likely to lash out at and hurt her if he's in the condition that I sense he's in." She then called the children to her and ushered them to the door. After a few moments their caretakers showed up. Shy gave each child a quick hug and kiss atop the head before they were carried off by the caretakers to parts unknown to any others but themselves and the children's parents. Shy turned back to Darex. "Call Darla back. She might be endangering herself and her passenger if she tries to help. I'lll go in her stead." Shy left straight for her ship. As she waited impatiently for it to fire up she tried to break through the wall of pain and suffering that surrounded Trowa. "I'll be there." was all she kept whispering. After what seemed like an eternity the ship was ready. Minutes later she was speeding toward her fallen Trowa.