Team Crafted: Second Generation

Tyler

"Y'know, you guys don't have to have someone constantly watching me."

I glared at Jess from the other side of the fire. The moon was high in the sky, and everyone else was asleep. It was my turn to keep an eye on her. 

"I'm not six years old and I'm on your side." She finished. 

"You're about as trustworthy as a six year old, so yes, we do need to have someone watching you."

She rolled her eyes. "Geez, getting you people to work with me here is like pulling teeth." 

"Wouldn't trust you as my dentist, either." 

"I told you, you shouldn't have told them about me. Would've made this whole deal a lot easier." 

I sighed. She had told me this about twenty times since my turn had started. ""Yes, and when I just magically started knowing exactly where to go, that wouldn't have caused any suspicion at all."

"And what was your plan if you got something from one of those Shadows you were interrogating?" 

I didn't meet her eyes, and she sighed.

"I'm just saying, it would have caused us a lot less trouble. And maybe your friend wouldn't have taken a sword to my arm." 

I glanced at her arm, where a black slash mark was visible. Shane seemed to have thought we were going to kill her right before any news got back, and while it hadn't been enough to kill her, it did cause a lot of confusion when she suddenly shrieked. 

"Yeah, sorry about that." I said. "He hasn't gotten to kill anything for a while and he kind of wants to."

"And you call me the evil one." She said. "Kid, you're friends with a psychopath in the making."

"It's kind of in his family's blood. But didn't you already know that?"

"No. Why would I? Not like I was stalking everyone here. Why would I waste my time doing that?" She asked. 

"Oh. I just assumed Darklox would give everyone as much knowledge about us as he could."

She let out a snort of laughter. "You have no idea how he works, do you? Only the higher ups get the knowledge. The Shadows who are the most powerful, the ones who are closest to him, they get the knowledge of what's happening. The rest of us are just expected to carry out orders as planned, even if we have no idea what for." 

"Wow." 

"Yeah. The only thing we know is what you look like so if we find you, we're supposed to bring you in or kill you as fast as possible. Nether, I didn't even know you were Sky's kid until this afternoon." 

"But isn't that kind of stupid?" I asked. "I mean, if no one knows anything except for looks, how do they know which of us they want and which they don't? Some of us have to be higher priority to snag than others. Like Shane. Shane's probably highest priority because he can fight really well, right?"

"Actually, no." She replied. "The rules are if we see any of you, we're supposed to bring you in immediately. No one's a priority. He seems to think if we could snag one of you, the rest will follow suit. And hey, guess he was right."

"What are you talking about?" 

"Well, he's got the girl, doesn't he?" She asked. "And you're all desperately trying to find him now in order to save her. He probably thinks it's a funny little game." 

I felt kind of sick. She had a point. He had the advantage point here, we didn't. Whatever cards he played, we didn't have a choice but to play along.