It was a rare spot in this poorly named place they considered a 'world'. Here , there was a serenity amid the few trees that dotted the landscape. Perhaps it was because the dead were far more peaceful than she had ever known the living to be. Though barren, a few patches of green grass could be seen, but then, that was the general trend as one walked further and further away from the city of Nebula.

With her hands in her pockets, Danae weaved among the rocks and bits of wood that served as headstones, to a far corner where the fallen soldiers rested for all eternity. No, these were not those of the military that no longer cared or the fallen officers of days gone by. These, these were the warriors of the Supernatural that fought for the balance of a world that hardly turned.

Some of the graves were old, the headstones darkened with age and crumbling with the weight of time, and yet there were some that hardly had a mark of the weather against them...

Padding quietly to the farthest corner, Danae stopped at the foot of two graves, situated side by side. Though newer than the rest, the ground above them still had time to settle and grass speckled what was once a mound of dirt. With her hands held behind her back and her dark hair hiding her face, she surveyed the ground before her, and for once, her smile faded.

"It's a one way world that I'm looking at; It's a heartles state I;m in. It's a nervous time and because of that, I stay right where I've been. A hundred dreams getting carried away that won't be dreams again. When something's wrong and you've known it all along, it's easier to pretend...."

"Hello Mother, Father," Danae whispered as she slowly lowered herself to the ground, kneeling before their graves. She laid a rose on each of their plots as she bit into her bottom lip. "I miss you, both of you...Uncle Antony, he takes care of me...I guess you know about the Alliance. We have DreamWalkers walking the halls of MSI, now. And the Avatars, they're helping us too..."

She went on, telling them all about her cases and her times out with Raelin, adding the asides of how like a sister Raelin was. She spoke of Marcus, more than she had ever dared to say before. Finally, she ran out of words and silenced settled around her, her eyes cast down toward the ground.

"Someone dug a hole six long feet in the ground; I said goodbye to you and I threw my roses down. Ain't nothing left at all in the end of being proud with me riding in this car, and you flying through the clouds.

I've had some time to think about you and watch the sun sink like a stone. I've had some time to think about you on the long ride home."

Paint It Black, Missing You, November Rain, and Say Goodbye. She sighed and a tear slipped down her cheek again as she bowed her head. They were valiant, brave. Her mother, the investigator, and her father, the resourcer. And she couldn't forget her uncle, just one grave over, her mother's partner until the end. A rose for each of them, and a needle to stitch the tears in her heart.

"It feels like we're losing," Danae finally whispered to all of them, as if they had the answers now. Words she would never voice to anyone else, and hardly wanted to admit to herself. All the forces of good, and still, the evil spread farther each day. Innocents were taken, cries were heard ringing out in the night. No matter how hard she fought, someone always lost their life, their heart, their soul. Closing her eyes, she sat there, her head bowed in reverence, in reflection, in respect for the courage of the fallen as she prayed that her strength would last as theirs did.

Renegade rarely came to the cemetary, but after she'd begged Master Tristan to at least tell her the name of her mother she'd been scouring the headstones at the cemetary to see if she was there. So far she hadn't found anything, and the shadows were following her again. They whispered to her, their squeaking voices comforting her in this otherwise frightening place.

She should have worn a heavier jacket, she had been fine till she'd entered this place and now the temperature seemed to have dropped. As she headed up a particular hill she caught the last breath of a woman who was already there.

"It feels like we're losing."

"Loosing what?" she asked without thinking. "Oh! Sorry!! I mean, sorry!" she turned with a red face and started down the hill again, only to trip over a loose stone and topple over her own two feet and rolled down the rest of the hill. She landed in a heap at the bottom and the shadows convered, eager to assist her and offer comfort. She waved them away and stood to her feet, brushing herself off and shaking her head. It would have been a great exit except she had TOTALLY ruined it.

She couldn't help but reflect upon the other woman's words. "What are we loosing?" she wondered aloud. Had she not been paying attention again? Was there a war or something going on? How embarassing not to know! She looked over to her right and sighed, the name on the tombstone was not her mothers, she should keep searching.

The silence was broken as Danae jerked her head toward the sound, dark hair flying away from her face. She caught sight of a young woman, blonde and petite, and oddly familiar.

"Loosing what? Oh! Sorry!! I mean, sorry!"

Damn. She had hoped she wasn't another of those civilians who was clueless to what was going on around them, but then, they seemed to overpopulate the world, so it was entirely possible.

Standing, Danae called out to stop her, but frowned as the woman made an amazingly speedy exit. A wince formed as she watched her topple down the hill. Skittering down the same path, Danae was at the woman's side within moments, holding her hand out to help her up before seeing that she had the situation covered.

Her words were repeated as this inadvertant eavesdropper wondered just what Danae had been speaking of. "It's nothing..." she said in her most reassuring tone, shaking her head. "Just a few whispered confessions to stones that cannot hear me. Are you alright?"

"Oh yes! Quite alright, I fall all the time, Master Tristan says it's because I'm always moving too fast, he says that I need to be more deliberate with my movements," she admited with an embarassed blush. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sneak up on you! I know this is like a sacred place and stuff, I was just looking around...for my mom..." she admited. "I haven't found her so I think she's still alive!" she said with a genuine smile.

"I really want to meet her someday, I keep looking around for someone who looks like me, but I can't seem to get any biters...I thought about hireing someone to find her, but I think it would be more rewarding to find her myself!" she kept smiling. Her shadow creapt up and slithered around her shoulders. "Oh! How rude of me, this is my shadow, she says hello!" she grinned as her shadow gave a small wave. "You must be a really nice person or else she wouldn't be so nice, she hates other people normally!" she explained without missing a beat.

"I'm Renegade Cross by the way!" she introduced herself.

Danae blinked in response for a few moments, then smiled politely. Chatty and bubbly...Oh, what a combination. And somehow, it seemed endearing for this young woman.

"I really want to meet her someday, I keep looking around for someone who looks like me, but I can't seem to get any biters...I thought about hireing someone to find her, but I think it would be more rewarding to find her myself!"

She gave a nod, understanding the sentiment. "Oh, no doubt...But of course, enlisting help for such a quest can't be frowned upon either."

"Oh! How rude of me, this is my shadow, she says hello! You must be a really nice person or else she wouldn't be so nice, she hates other people normally!"

At that, Danae smiled. Well, this was certainly no civilian. Danae gave a small wave, curving her fingers toward the shadow at Renegade's feet. If anyone had seen her, they would say that Walker had finally lost her mind, but in all honesty, it wasn't that abnormal. The young lady was an avatar of some sort, no doubt.

"Ah, well, then tell your shadow I said hello right back. Very nice to meet the shadow," she began, and as this Renegade Cross introduced herself and held out her hand, Danae took it, giving it a hearty shake. "And a pleasure to meet you too, Miss Cross. I'm Danae Walker."

"Oh! You know Greer then? I met him the other day in the library!" she smiled as she shook the other woman's hand and let it fall to her side. "Oh she can hear you just find, it's just that normal people don't really understand shadows." she rambled.

"So do you come here often? Or...do you only visit once in awhile? If it's too personal you don't have to answer!" she amended. "I'm really nosy, but I guess it's something I was born with I love asking questions and stuff, Master Tristan says that I must have gotten it from my father cause my mother never ever talked so much!" she chattered away.

"Oh! You know Greer then? I met him the other day in the library!"

Danae nodded, smiling in return. In such a dismal setting, Danae was honestly relieved to have encountered such a light soul. "Yes, I know Greer quite well," she replied. Ah, Greer...That bookish, quirky, and still somehow charming librarian. He was often quiet around her, stammering over his words, but they were kindred souls, just the same.

"So do you come here often? Or...do you only visit once in awhile?"

"I come here from time to time...My parents are buried just over there," she said, motioning back behind her, where she had been kneeling when Renegade happened upon her.

At the mention of her being talkative, Danae chuckled. At least the girl knew full well what a chatterbox she was, but Danae didn't mind in the least. She spent most of her life in the quiet solitude of the hall of records and her own office, researching this or that. Sometimes, she did miss the contact with the rest of the world...Sometimes.

"Did you know your parents? Or do you visit them because you feel obligated to? If I found my mother I'd probably visit her when I could..." she shrugged. "What did your parents do?" she asked curiously as she began moving around again. "And don't worry I'm still listening I just hate standig still!" she called over her shoulder as she hopped down a few more levels and looked around.

It was better now that she had someone to talk to but it was still kinda creepy over here. "Hey you don't think that there'll be any vampires or anything around here do you? I read in a book that they like to stay in cemetarys and stuff and feed on the mourning dead," she shuddered. "I'd hate to meet one!!" she shouted as she hopped down another level and looked over at a shadow that was lifting from a nearby tombstone that was bathed in light. "Hello!" she greeted it with a smile. "How are you?" and proceeded to have a short conversation with it before it deteatched itself and surrounded her.

"Anyway, what were you saying?" she turned around and looked at Danae just to make sure that she was still around.

Danae followed behind the young woman at a slower pace, knowing it would be rude to simply let her wander away. "I knew my parents, though not well. They died when I was young...They were...Well, they were investigators," she said as she hopped down another level, stepping respectfully around a grave.

She nearly chuckled at the mention of the vampires. "No, no...They don't frequent cemeteries as much as you'd think. Hollywood theatrics and stories have made it seem that way. They actually prefer solitude, away from large groups of people, in the country. They usually reside in abandoned houses and whatnot..." she rattled off before she had given it a second though. Well, if this young woman could talk to shadows, then Danae saw no harm in educating her on the habits of the world's vampires.

She caught up to the young woman, smiling with an amused chuckle as she talked to the shadow. "So, you hear them then?" she asked, titing her head as the shadow surrounded Renegade. "That's fascinating," she said quietly, rubbing her chin as she began to wonder if there was any documentation of that in the Hall of Records.

"Oh yeah!" she muttered with some embarassment. "It's really odd, I've talked to all the other Air Avatars that can use shadows and they can only use their shadows and they can't even hear them!" she shook her head. "I asked Master Tristan and he said that it was because um...I guess my father was a Dreamwalker and because I was born before the Alliance...they had to give me up..." she suddenly grew quiet.

"I know they would have kept me if things have been different so I don't blame them or anything, but it still would have been nice to have a mother and father growing up, even if they were different!" she shrugged. "I really don't understand why people are so obsessed with things like race and all that, I'm perfectly normal...I just talk to shadows..." she shrugged.

"I don't think they were expecting it to the degree that I have though, apparently I'm not supposed to be able to talk to them and no Air Avatar that's controlled shadows can control shadows other than their own. Master Tristan says that it's because Dreamwalkers and shadows are like friends or soomething, they go together like salt and pepper. I like it though, it means I have friends in places where most people won't go, like the Uninhabited Lands..." Renegade frowned.

"Master Tristan get's so angry when I go there, but I tell him every time that I don't care, there are so many things there that people have forgotten that they need to remember!" she said loudly and passionatly.

"Oh I'm sorry! I probably shouldn't yell here should I?" she looked around a little worriedly.

From the way she spoke, Renegade was starting to sound like some sort of half-breed prodigy...And Danae meant that in the most polite way possible. A DreamWalker and an Avatar....She couldn't help but wonder who and when and if they had been included in the database that MSI had.

And finally, she caught the name. Master Tristan.

"Are you referring to Tristan Licht?" she asked, then shook her head. Of course she was. Just how many Master Air Avatars were there? "Ridiculous question," she said in some sort of apology. "But you can talk to them? I can say that in all my years, I've never heard of that. You should be thankful for that. Just another thing to separate you."

Danae made a mental note to speak with Antony about all of this, and smiled at the young woman as she did so.

"Oh I'm sorry! I probably shouldn't yell here should I?"

She gave a sight chuckle, waving the thought away. There were no tell-tale signs of paranormal activity, and in that, there was no one to defend. "Nonsense...There's no one around to hear you, right now...If there were, you would know. And besides. I think they enjoy a little excitement."

As she said it, she realized that just like the different races of their world, society had imposed far too many misconceptions on the masses.

Ren gave an embarassed smile and shrugged. "Probably..."

"But you can talk to them? I can say that in all my years, I've never heard of that. You should be thankful for that. Just another thing to separate you."

"Yeah...separate..." Renegade muttered quietly as the shadow rubbed agianst her cheek sensing her distress. She reached up and tickled it absently. "It's nice to hear their voices, to know that they're happy to see you!" she smiled wistfully. "So I suppose if I never found my mother or father, it would be enough since I have such great friends here!" she grinned.

Then she stopped for a moment remembering what else Danae had said. "I can say that in all my years, I've never heard of that."

"Really? Never??" Rnegade asked curiously, gee that was odd, she was at least hoping that one other person had had a power like this. Maybe someone older and wiser who could tell her the secret to controlling what was around her. Alot of times the other avatars got her powers mixed up. Her powers didn't work in darkness, total darkness was different from shadows. There had to be a light source in order for her to work her freakish powers.

The shadows not attatched to humans and animals obeyed her, talked to her, listened to her, protected her. Since everything cast a shadow it was easy to find help in certain situations and people tended to avoid you when you wrapped in a shadded bubble. Sighing she put her hands in her pockets. "Well it figures right? Aw well I suppose we one of a kinds have to find our own way in the world!" she shrugged nonchalantly.

"So...have you seen any ghosts?" she asked suddenly.

"It's nice to hear their voices, to know that they're happy to see you! So I suppose if I never found my mother or father, it would be enough since I have such great friends here!"

Danae offered Renegade a soft smile, holding her hands behind her back as always, as if she were afraid she would touch something forbidden. Always guarded, but seeming open to the world. "Being unique is actually a wonderful thing. And yes, friends always count for something." Danae thought to her own separation, the one resourcer who had been at MSI her entire life, the youngest lead resourcer in the history of the Mendecants...Yes, she knew about separation. If it weren't for Antony, Raelin, and the occasional Marcus and Tristan from time to time, she would be quite lost.

Clearly the young woman found her unique power as odd as Danae did, simply because of Danae's reaction. She had heard of figures that shifted their shapes upon stepping into shadows, and those that fed off of the power of shadows, but never had she seen one who could control, and even make friends with the shadows.

"So...have you seen any ghosts?"

Glad for the subject change, she gave a nod, looking around the cemetery out of habit. It was a funny thing, considering that most ghosts haunted their places of death or those that wronged them in life. Very few roamed the cemetery where their remains were buried, and those that did were confused and harmless.

"Oh, yes...Yes, of course. Hundreds upon hundreds. They're everywhere. It merely takes a certain level of skill to oust them."

"Maybe that's why it's so cold here," she muttered as she looked around. "What do you think?" she turned the shadow that was wrapped around her. It squeaked and she giggled, shaking her head the whole time. Suddenly the shadow vanished from around her and Renegade turned to see that the light above the gravestone had gone out.

"Aw dang...he's gone!" she sighed as she let her shoulders drop. "It'll be alright!" she turned to Danae to explain. "The shadow will be back tomorrow, they're all different, they're like people that way I suppose!" she chuckled. It was rather creepy now, being in near darkness in a cemetary. Renegade wasn't really one to be scared but there were certain things she didn't mess around with, dark places where people were buried was one of them.

"Would you like to go now, or do you want to go back to your parents?" she asked with a cheerful smile, though her feet were shifting nervousy beneath her.

"Maybe that's why it's so cold here. What do you think?"

Danae glanced around for a moment, chewing on her bottom lip as she surveyed the cemetery stretched out before them, then gave a slight shake of her head. "Lingering presences, perhaps...But I don't think there's really any activity right now," she said.

She looked at her companion again, noticing that look of a duck on the water. On the outside, she was calm, collected, but Danae had spent enough time studying the living and the otherworldly to know the signs of apprehension. Rocking on her heels? Renegade looked itching to get out of there.

"Would you like to go now, or do you want to go back to your parents?"

Giving a soft, almost wistful glance back toward the gravesites, she shook her head. "No...I think we were done," responded Danae quietly, then turned and flashed a smile at Renegade.

She made her way toward the gate, to the exit, side stepping a few graves here and there.

Breathing a mental sigh of releif Renegade followed Danae with a small skip, that is until the tip of her foot caught over a grave stone and she fell again. She fell rather uneventfully, just sorta turned and fell on her side, but it was where she landed that evnetually became important. With a grunt and a sigh of frustration she shuffled to her knees in order to prop herself up, eyes lifting to view a gravestone that was obviously only a few years old.

The cold she had suddenly been feeling around her seeped into her innards and froze her there, her eyes fixed upon the name on the stone. Tentativly her fingers reached out to brush the name with shaking finger tips. Miranda Holiday it said, that was...her mother's name. The dates on the stone said it all, she had died a few years ago apparently.

Of course Master Tristan couldn't have known because Miranda had vanished after dropping Renegade off at the Alcove. The only reason Tristan knew that Miranda was her mother was because they looked so alike, but her eyes...oh her eyes had come from her father, there was no doubt about that. But who her father was, she had no idea...no one knew. The only clue they had to go on was Renegade's surname: Cross, Miranda was very specific in her letter that Renegade would share her father's name.

The words under the dates made her head spin, "loving wife and mother," it said, bold as brass. Who's mother? Not her's...who then? She just decided to abandon her and then have more children and ignore the one she'd left behind? Tears were cascading down her face by now but she didn't realize it. She never really worked out how she would have felt if she ever found her mother's headstone but these were not the feelings she expected. Renegade had never felt so betrayed, hurt or confused in her life, and unlike most times when she would just talk Master Tristan's ear off she had no one to turn to for answers.

She simply sat there, staring at the gravestone, tears falling with a very conflicted look on her face. She had all but forgotten about Danae Walker.

As she heard the sound of Renegade falling to the ground, Danae turned back. Rushing over to help the girl, she knelt beside her, and finally, saw the tears rolling freely down her cheeks.

There were no saddened, vocal cries or sad, gasping breaths, but as the young woman sat so still and mournful, staring at the headstone before her, it became all too clear to Danae.

The mother that she searched for....It was what she had finally found.

Not wanting to disturb the silence, or to ask to clarify the situation, Danae sat in revered quiet, her head bowed. It hurt her, to see other in anguish and pain. The natural, nurturing instinct was to reach out, to console, but since she had hardly met Renegade, she knew it was not the proper thing to do.

Still, she could not resist as she read the words etched in the darkening marble. "Is that her?" she asked in a whisper, already knowing the answer in the back of her mind. Only that which she sought the most could halt this vibrant young woman and bring her to tears.

"Yeah," Renegade finally sniffed as she reached up and wiped her nose with her sleeve. "It doesn't matter, I thought it would but it doesn't..." she stood quickly to her feet and scrubbed at her eyes. She turned her back for a moment and rolled her shoulders. "I'm sorry...we were leaving right?" she asked with a small smile.

She didn't feel like staying here anymore, in fact she really wanted to go back to the Alcove and lock herself in her room and cry her eyes out. However, the quote on the gravestone confused and upset her because she wasn't sure what it meant, did she have brothers and sisters she didn't know about? Was she left alone because of what she was? She didn't deserve the same type of love because once again she was different? She began walking away with her head as high as she could make it, until she figured this out she wouldn't shed another tear.

She was such a liar...

"It doesn't matter, I thought it would but it doesn't..."

"I think it matters more than you care to admit," Danae said quietly, and after that, didn't mention another word about it. After all, Renegade had no reason to spill her heart of what she was feeling.

"I'm sorry...we were leaving right?"

Another slight nod came in responde. "Sure, of course. Let's go."

Walking toward the gates once again, Danae remained beside Renegade this time, just to catch her should she fall.

Renegade was glad that Danae didn't say anything after her other comment, she didn't feel like talking about it right now. Thoughts swam around in her head, flashes of her hopes and dreams shattering one by one. Maybe, if she were quite lucky she'd find her father and give him a swift kick in the arse, did he know the mother of his daughter had given her away? Or worse, did he even know she was alive? What if Miranda hadn't ever told him she was pregnant, what if she was the result of an illicit forbidden affair??

Her life just got complicated.

As they exited the graveyard Renegade took a look back and stared at the stone before she turned her back on it again. "I'm sorry, that was akward, thank you for being nice about it..." she murmured, not quite knowing what else to say.

Danae had been quite focused on weaving this way and that between the headstones when she heard Renegade's voice again.

"I'm sorry, that was akward, thank you for being nice about it..."

Glancing over at her, she gave a soft smile and with a wave of her hand, dismissed it. "Nonsense. You've nothing to apologize for," she told her, not wanting to make her feel any worse than the tears had probably already accomplished.

"So, where are you heading when you leave here?" asked Danae, hoping to at least give Renegade a momentary distraction. She looked as if she needed it.

"Back to the Alcove, I need to talk to Master Tristan." Renegade murmured. "He'll want to know that mother is...dead, he always says she was one of his best students so...yeah..." she wrung her hands together as her shadow quickly spiraled up her legs and wrapped around her shoulders and neck like a long thick snake.

"I was going to go to the library but...I don't think that's an option right now and I wanted to see if Greer was there too," she sighed shaking her head so that her blonde hair shook over her shoulders.

Holding her hands behind her back, Danae tossed her hair slightly at the wind started to blow. "I'll walk you back, if you like. The Alcove is quite a hike from here...You shouldn't make that trip alone."

Besides, the Alcove was a beautiful part of what remained of the world, situated on the very edge of the land...It was calm, serene, yet still somehow held that underlying element of tragedy. In addition to that, she might even linger long enough to see Tristan. They were beginning to come quite the pair of friends, after all.

"Alright, if you want..." Renegade finally said after a deep sigh. She would much prefer to be alone at this point, but Miss Walker was obviously concerned about her, she really shouldn't be rude.

She walked ahead of the older woman, with her hands buried deep in her pockets as she moodily stared at the concrete before her. She'd have to tell Master Tristan about her power...he knew...but she'd have to really tell him. She stayed silent for most of the way there.

"Alright, if you want..."

"It's for your own protection," Danae told her quietly as she walked a step behind the young woman.

While she didn't know the details of this discovery, dave for what Renegade had laid before her, she knew that death of any kind was certain to have a most extreme effect, whether it be that of an enemy or a friend.

In the new world of Nebula, Death was around every corner and the Reaper waiting in each dark carriage...But when it was at the heart of you, that made it all the more rare. However common a last breath had become, to one who still breathed, it was a choking of the soul.

Hands held behind her back as always, a habit drilled into her by her conservative father, Danae's eyes roamed the land ahead of them, while listening to the landscapes they left behind. It was that hour before nightfall, when all the evil began to rejoice, seeping from the shadowed cracks and crevaces to dance beneath the moonless sky.