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Description
"You Are Mine"
By: Jade Lightning, a.k.a. Inuyashas-hanyougirl

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This is rated PG-13 for strong language.
This story is about Zenith, Halo, Nadir, and Grace.

Thanks for reading! ^^

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Part 1: Needing Rescue

   “State your name please.”

   A camera flashed.  She turned, adjusting the plate around her neck.

   “Can’t you read this damn board?” she hissed.

   Another flash.

   “What is your name?” he asked again.

   The board was taken from her, and she was led to a chair sitting across from the desk that this officer sat at, so she could be further interrogated.

   “Halo…Halo Ber—shaw.”

   He wrote something down on a piece of paper attached to the clipboard he held in his hands.  “Social Security number?”

   She growled softly.  “I told you, I don’t have one you filthy bastard.”

   The officer sighed, laying the clipboard and pen down on his desk as he looked at her.  “Ma’am, you might want to cooperate with me.  You’re in serious trouble.”

   Halo crossed her arms and looked away.  “Humph,” she muttered, “I have nothing to say to you.”

   Realizing he was getting nowhere, the officer sighed again.  Taking the clipboard back in his hands he continued, “So, you don’t know your SS number, you have no family, and no place to live.  I’m assuming then that you can’t make bail?”

   “…No.  I told you already that I’m homeless and have no friends or family,” she replied, her eyes blank.  Looking back to him she growled, “Now if you’re done harassing me, please take me to my stupid cell.”

   Another sigh escaped the officer.  He was used to difficult arrestees, but Halo was the most stubborn, and tragic of them yet.  Rising to his feet, he pulled the handcuffs off of their holster on his belt and began putting them on her wrists.  “You do realize you’ll have to stay here until your court date right?” he asked.

   With her hands behind her back, Halo began to feel hopeless.  A sneer on her face tried to hide her pain.  “Whatever,” she whispered, “Let’s go already.”

   The officer could sense Halo’s pain, but didn’t pursue an answer.  He walked her to an empty cell and locked her inside it.  The sound of the lock slamming shut caused Halo to flinch as she backed up to the door.  As the officer took the handcuffs off of her wrists, he asked, “What about those two figures we saw escaping the scene?  Do you know them?”

   “…No,” Halo said at last.

   He wasn’t convinced.  “Hmm, well, I’ll hold your jewelry for you up front…aren’t you married ma’am?”

   She tried desperately to hide her tears, as well as her secret.  “I said no!!” Halo cried as she turned around to face him.  “I wear that ring on my wedding finger to keep filthy pigs from looking at me, okay?!  Shut up!”

   The officer could detect her lie, but again, knowing he’d get nowhere, he left her alone.  “Whatever you say little lady.  Have a good night.”

   He walked away back to his office.  Halo was infuriated.

   “How can you say that you trash?!” she cried, gripping the bars, “Go to hell!”

   He was gone.  Rage tore through her.  She grabbed the pillow off the iron bed and threw it at the ground, screaming as she pounded it furiously.  The other inmates laughed and mocked her.

   “Ooh, look at the pretty kitty.  Did somebody steal your catnip honey?”

   “Naw, somebody probably pulled her tail, ha ha!”

   “Or threw water on her!”

   The cruel words and wicked laughter filled the air, stabbing at Halo’s heart like cold, jagged knives.  She grew tired and collapsed on the floor, tears welling up in her eyes.  She clutched the pillow to her body as she curled up on the floor.  Exhausted and frightened she whimpered, “Zenith, Nadir…please come save me.”

   She lied to the officer.  She did have family, and because she loved them, she had to deny them.  The twins managed to escape.  She would do whatever she had to in order to protect them, including the one who held the match to the ring she had taken from her.

   “Nadir…oh Zenith…please save me.”

   It was dark, cold and lonely in that cell.  The inmates continued to taunt her.  All Halo could do was close her eyes and pray for it to go away.

   “I love you both, but especially you Zenith.  Please…please help me.”

   …

   Outside of the jail, the Bertier twins, who had escaped being arrested, had come to rescue their girl.  They were angry, and were prepared to burn down the entire building, but knew they would have to do it carefully.  They made a plan as they hid in the shadows.

   “Nadir…we’ve gotta destroy the file they have on her,” Zenith said, sniffing occasionally.  He was done crying, and didn’t care what it took to save his wife.

   His younger twin hadn’t wept, but still felt pain watching his sister-in-law get arrested like a criminal.  Running his hands over his whip, he nodded and said, “Yeah, we don’t want them to be able to find her again.  Even if she gave them a fake name, they’ll still have her picture.  We have to destroy any sign of her that they have.”

   Zenith nodded.  “I don’t care if we have to burn the place down with everyone in it,” he growled, “How dare those filthy bastards arrest my girl.  They’re just lucky I’m not fond of causing bodily harm.”

   “You mean they’re lucky you don’t want to kill anybody,” Nadir suggested.

   Lowering his head, Zenith looked away, realizing one more tear needed to clear his eyes before he was ready.  In his heart he didn’t want to hurt anyone.  When they robbed that store, they did it just so they would have money to survive.  They didn’t want to hurt anyone, or take more than they needed.  Zenith didn’t want to go inside that jail and cause trouble either.

   He had no choice.  They had taken away the one thing that meant more to him than anything.  They had taken the one person who meant more to him than anyone else, save his twin brother alone.  He couldn’t be nice now.  He would rescue Halo no matter what it took.  He was her husband.  They loved each other more than life itself.  When they were wed they promised to be there for each other, even after death, vowing nothing would ever come between them.

   And Zenith was not about to go back on those vows.

   “Halo, you are my heart and soul, the reason I live,” Zenith whispered.  Looking back to Nadir, he wiped away that final tear as it rolled down his cheek.  “I’m not going to kill anyone, nor hurt anyone more than I need to, just enough to get them out of my way.  Once we’ve taken everyone down, we’ve got to destroy the video cameras, and find the tapes that they’ve recorded everything on.  We’ve also got to find Halo’s file and destroy it, and find the computers with that information on them as well.  We can’t simply destroy those computers; we have to obliterate the hard drives to ensure they can’t be recovered.  Once all that is done, we’ll rescue Halo.  We’ll run away from this town and never look back.”

   Nadir nodded, running his hands over his whip once more, making sure it was battle ready.  “Yeah, we’ll just have to run back and get…”

   “You mean me?” a voice answered, interrupting him.

   Both Zenith and Nadir jumped a little where they sat crouched behind trash cans.  Looking up and to their right, they saw a familiar face towering over them.  She gazed at them with a hardened expression.  Though it was dark, the streetlight behind her managed to illuminate her face.

   It was Grace, Nadir’s girlfriend.

   “Grace,” Nadir murmured.  Regaining his composure, he shook his head quickly before standing up and saying, “Gosh damn Grace, don’t startle us!”

   Shaking her finger at him, she replied, “Oh shut up Nadir.  Be happy I’m here at all.  I heard the sirens and when I realized what had happened, I hid out in the alleys.  I saw Halo get arrested.  You have no idea how long I’ve been looking for you two!”

   She leaned forward and kissed him, before pulling back and waiting for a reply.  The twins exchanged glances before Nadir looked back to Grace, his cheeks flushing red slightly as he rubbed the back of his head.  “Well gee Grace, I’m sorry.  We had to hide out too before coming here.  We’re waiting for them to change shifts before we go to rescue Halo.”

   Grace looked between them.  “You have a plan?” she asked.

   Zenith stood up.  “Yes,” he answered, “We’re going to destroy any shred of evidence that they have of Halo, break her out, and flee for a new town.”

   The grey and purple squirrel shook her head.  She removed the porcelain sticks that decorated her hair and let it fall loose to her shoulders.  “You guys are crazy you know that?” she asked.  The twins looked to each other and shrugged as they looked back to her.  She ran her fingers through her hair as she continued.  “You promised me we wouldn’t get into this kind of trouble Nadir.  When we said we loved each other, you promised me this wouldn’t happen.  I understand that times are tough, but whatever happened to pick pocketing people?  Why do we have to hold up stores?  Poor Halo is in serious trouble now.  If we have to steal until something else works out, we have to stick to petty theft, no matter how hard it is.”

   “I know, I know,” Zenith muttered, holding his hand to his face, feeling a painful headache coming on.  With a sigh, he looked up at Nadir and Grace and said, “This is my fault.”  His head hung low, his eyes closed as his breathing was relaxed but heavy.  Nadir and Grace gazed at him, feeling the pain emanating from him.  “I shouldn’t have let her take the fall.  I should have made Nadir run for it, and gotten Halo out of there.  I’m responsible for the three of you, and while Nadir got out alright, poor Halo…the damn bastards took her away.  I simply have to rescue her.”

   Nadir walked up to his twin, half hugging him as he said, “Aww cheer up Zenith.  Just cause you’re a few minutes older than me doesn’t mean all the blame should fall on your shoulders.  We both should have protected Halo.”

   “And I suppose it’s my fault for letting you boneheads even think to do something like this,” Grace said, walking up to them.

   With a groan, Nadir replied, “Oh cut it out Grace.  We’ve held up stores before.  How do you think we got Zenith and Halo’s wedding rings, and the Embala Ruby?”

   “Oh my God,” Zenith shouted, accompanied by a sickened gasp, “Those cops have the bracelet!  Oh dammit, what if they find out it’s the missing Embala Ruby?  They’ll lock up Halo for that too!”

   Both Grace and Nadir’s faces paled.  “Oh shit,” Nadir muttered, “You’ve got a point.”

   “Okay that’s it!  We’ve got to go ahead and free her!” Grace cried out, trying to calm them down, “However, simply breaking her out could do more harm than good.”

   Zenith looked confused.  “What do you mean?”

   Grace sighed, rolling her eyes.  “You idiot.  If you simply break out Halo, and clean them out of all their information on her, they’ll have every cop in the city out looking for her.  What you need to do is set free other inmates to distract them.  Halo was only arrested for assisting a robbery.  Some of the criminals in there are behind bars for assault, and maybe even murder.  As bad as this may be, we have no other choice but to let some of the others escape.  Maybe the cops will just forget about her,” Grace explained.

   “Whoa now, you mean we’re gonna have to set that trash free?” Nadir asked, his arms crossed, “Fuck no.  Those assholes don’t even deserve to be alive.  Halo is the only innocent one in there.”

   Grabbing Nadir by the arms, Grace shook him slightly and said, “We don’t have any choice Nadir!  Sometimes you have to make difficult choices!  I don’t like the scumbags in there either, but we have no other options!  If Halo is the only one that breaks out they’ll have a city wide manhunt on her in no time!”

   Nadir sneered, growling softly, for he realized he had no choice.  Grace released him, and he shook his head, twisting his cleat boots into the ground furiously.  “Dammit, I hate those filthy bastards,” he growled.  With a sigh, he relaxed and said, “Fine, but we’re not letting out any rapists.  I refuse to give them a get out of jail free card.”

   Grace sighed.  Zenith lowered his eyes and did the same.  “I guess we’ll look at some of the other files while were searching for Halo’s, and we can let go some of the ones that were arrested for smaller crimes.  Just as long as we release some others to take the heat off Halo,” he said at last.

   Both Nadir and Grace nodded.  Looking to them, Zenith added, “Then that’s it.  Once we take out all of the officers and guards, we’ll find Halo’s file and destroy it.  Heck, let’s just take it with us and burn it when we’re out of city limits.  Then, we have to destroy the surveillance system and the back up tapes.  The computer system needs to have any information on Halo eradicated.  Grace, since you know more about computers, I’m counting on you for that.”

   “Got ‘cha,” Grace replied, crossing her arms and grinning sadistically.

   With a nod, Zenith looked to Nadir and said, “Once she’s erased all of the information, we have to destroy the computers.  It’s not enough to simply erase the information, because I’ve heard people can recover it as long as the hard drive is intact.  We’ve got to make sure no computer chip makes it out alive.”

   Putting his whip back in his holster, Nadir chuckled wickedly as he grinned, saying, “Alright then.  I say it’s about time to hit some pressure points and rescue our girl Halo.  We’ll teach these bastards to mess with us.”

   “Alright then boys, let’s teach these idiots a lesson!” Grace cried, striking a pose.

   Zenith grabbed them both by their arms, stopping them, causing them to look back at him once more.  He looked crushed, even as he tried to remain confident.  “Listen Nadir, Grace.  If something goes wrong…please, get Halo out of there and I’ll stall them so you can escape.”

   “But Zenith!” Nadir cried.

   Shaking his head, Zenith said, “No buts Nadir.  Whether I’m a few minutes older than you or twenty years older, I’m still your older brother, and Halo is my wife.  Grace is your girlfriend, and that means I’m responsible for all of you.  This is a team effort, but if something goes wrong, I want all three of you to run, you understand?”

   “But…,” Nadir murmured.

   “Understood Zenith,” Grace said, causing Nadir to look at her.  She grinned and winked at Nadir, saying, “We’ll just have to come back and rescue Zenith later.”

   Rolling his eyes, Zenith replied, “Sheesh, you have a way of ruining everything Grace.  As if those chumps are gonna take me down.  I was just saying…if something goes wrong…”

   “We get it,” Grace said, placing her hand on his shoulder.  Looking to both twins, she replied, “Now, come on, Halo needs us.”

   “Right,” Zenith and Nadir said together.

Description
"You Are Mine"
By: Jade Lightning, a.k.a. Inuyashas-hanyougirl

-----

This is rated PG-13 for strong language.
This story is about Zenith, Halo, Nadir, and Grace.

Thanks for reading! ^^

-----

Part 1: Needing Rescue

   “State your name please.”

   A camera flashed.  She turned, adjusting the plate around her neck.

   “Can’t you read this damn board?” she hissed.

   Another flash.

   “What is your name?” he asked again.

   The board was taken from her, and she was led to a chair sitting across from the desk that this officer sat at, so she could be further interrogated.

   “Halo…Halo Ber—shaw.”

   He wrote something down on a piece of paper attached to the clipboard he held in his hands.  “Social Security number?”

   She growled softly.  “I told you, I don’t have one you filthy bastard.”

   The officer sighed, laying the clipboard and pen down on his desk as he looked at her.  “Ma’am, you might want to cooperate with me.  You’re in serious trouble.”

   Halo crossed her arms and looked away.  “Humph,” she muttered, “I have nothing to say to you.”

   Realizing he was getting nowhere, the officer sighed again.  Taking the clipboard back in his hands he continued, “So, you don’t know your SS number, you have no family, and no place to live.  I’m assuming then that you can’t make bail?”

   “…No.  I told you already that I’m homeless and have no friends or family,” she replied, her eyes blank.  Looking back to him she growled, “Now if you’re done harassing me, please take me to my stupid cell.”

   Another sigh escaped the officer.  He was used to difficult arrestees, but Halo was the most stubborn, and tragic of them yet.  Rising to his feet, he pulled the handcuffs off of their holster on his belt and began putting them on her wrists.  “You do realize you’ll have to stay here until your court date right?” he asked.

   With her hands behind her back, Halo began to feel hopeless.  A sneer on her face tried to hide her pain.  “Whatever,” she whispered, “Let’s go already.”

   The officer could sense Halo’s pain, but didn’t pursue an answer.  He walked her to an empty cell and locked her inside it.  The sound of the lock slamming shut caused Halo to flinch as she backed up to the door.  As the officer took the handcuffs off of her wrists, he asked, “What about those two figures we saw escaping the scene?  Do you know them?”

   “…No,” Halo said at last.

   He wasn’t convinced.  “Hmm, well, I’ll hold your jewelry for you up front…aren’t you married ma’am?”

   She tried desperately to hide her tears, as well as her secret.  “I said no!!” Halo cried as she turned around to face him.  “I wear that ring on my wedding finger to keep filthy pigs from looking at me, okay?!  Shut up!”

   The officer could detect her lie, but again, knowing he’d get nowhere, he left her alone.  “Whatever you say little lady.  Have a good night.”

   He walked away back to his office.  Halo was infuriated.

   “How can you say that you trash?!” she cried, gripping the bars, “Go to hell!”

   He was gone.  Rage tore through her.  She grabbed the pillow off the iron bed and threw it at the ground, screaming as she pounded it furiously.  The other inmates laughed and mocked her.

   “Ooh, look at the pretty kitty.  Did somebody steal your catnip honey?”

   “Naw, somebody probably pulled her tail, ha ha!”

   “Or threw water on her!”

   The cruel words and wicked laughter filled the air, stabbing at Halo’s heart like cold, jagged knives.  She grew tired and collapsed on the floor, tears welling up in her eyes.  She clutched the pillow to her body as she curled up on the floor.  Exhausted and frightened she whimpered, “Zenith, Nadir…please come save me.”

   She lied to the officer.  She did have family, and because she loved them, she had to deny them.  The twins managed to escape.  She would do whatever she had to in order to protect them, including the one who held the match to the ring she had taken from her.

   “Nadir…oh Zenith…please save me.”

   It was dark, cold and lonely in that cell.  The inmates continued to taunt her.  All Halo could do was close her eyes and pray for it to go away.

   “I love you both, but especially you Zenith.  Please…please help me.”

   …

   Outside of the jail, the Bertier twins, who had escaped being arrested, had come to rescue their girl.  They were angry, and were prepared to burn down the entire building, but knew they would have to do it carefully.  They made a plan as they hid in the shadows.

   “Nadir…we’ve gotta destroy the file they have on her,” Zenith said, sniffing occasionally.  He was done crying, and didn’t care what it took to save his wife.

   His younger twin hadn’t wept, but still felt pain watching his sister-in-law get arrested like a criminal.  Running his hands over his whip, he nodded and said, “Yeah, we don’t want them to be able to find her again.  Even if she gave them a fake name, they’ll still have her picture.  We have to destroy any sign of her that they have.”

   Zenith nodded.  “I don’t care if we have to burn the place down with everyone in it,” he growled, “How dare those filthy bastards arrest my girl.  They’re just lucky I’m not fond of causing bodily harm.”

   “You mean they’re lucky you don’t want to kill anybody,” Nadir suggested.

   Lowering his head, Zenith looked away, realizing one more tear needed to clear his eyes before he was ready.  In his heart he didn’t want to hurt anyone.  When they robbed that store, they did it just so they would have money to survive.  They didn’t want to hurt anyone, or take more than they needed.  Zenith didn’t want to go inside that jail and cause trouble either.

   He had no choice.  They had taken away the one thing that meant more to him than anything.  They had taken the one person who meant more to him than anyone else, save his twin brother alone.  He couldn’t be nice now.  He would rescue Halo no matter what it took.  He was her husband.  They loved each other more than life itself.  When they were wed they promised to be there for each other, even after death, vowing nothing would ever come between them.

   And Zenith was not about to go back on those vows.

   “Halo, you are my heart and soul, the reason I live,” Zenith whispered.  Looking back to Nadir, he wiped away that final tear as it rolled down his cheek.  “I’m not going to kill anyone, nor hurt anyone more than I need to, just enough to get them out of my way.  Once we’ve taken everyone down, we’ve got to destroy the video cameras, and find the tapes that they’ve recorded everything on.  We’ve also got to find Halo’s file and destroy it, and find the computers with that information on them as well.  We can’t simply destroy those computers; we have to obliterate the hard drives to ensure they can’t be recovered.  Once all that is done, we’ll rescue Halo.  We’ll run away from this town and never look back.”

   Nadir nodded, running his hands over his whip once more, making sure it was battle ready.  “Yeah, we’ll just have to run back and get…”

   “You mean me?” a voice answered, interrupting him.

   Both Zenith and Nadir jumped a little where they sat crouched behind trash cans.  Looking up and to their right, they saw a familiar face towering over them.  She gazed at them with a hardened expression.  Though it was dark, the streetlight behind her managed to illuminate her face.

   It was Grace, Nadir’s girlfriend.

   “Grace,” Nadir murmured.  Regaining his composure, he shook his head quickly before standing up and saying, “Gosh damn Grace, don’t startle us!”

   Shaking her finger at him, she replied, “Oh shut up Nadir.  Be happy I’m here at all.  I heard the sirens and when I realized what had happened, I hid out in the alleys.  I saw Halo get arrested.  You have no idea how long I’ve been looking for you two!”

   She leaned forward and kissed him, before pulling back and waiting for a reply.  The twins exchanged glances before Nadir looked back to Grace, his cheeks flushing red slightly as he rubbed the back of his head.  “Well gee Grace, I’m sorry.  We had to hide out too before coming here.  We’re waiting for them to change shifts before we go to rescue Halo.”

   Grace looked between them.  “You have a plan?” she asked.

   Zenith stood up.  “Yes,” he answered, “We’re going to destroy any shred of evidence that they have of Halo, break her out, and flee for a new town.”

   The grey and purple squirrel shook her head.  She removed the porcelain sticks that decorated her hair and let it fall loose to her shoulders.  “You guys are crazy you know that?” she asked.  The twins looked to each other and shrugged as they looked back to her.  She ran her fingers through her hair as she continued.  “You promised me we wouldn’t get into this kind of trouble Nadir.  When we said we loved each other, you promised me this wouldn’t happen.  I understand that times are tough, but whatever happened to pick pocketing people?  Why do we have to hold up stores?  Poor Halo is in serious trouble now.  If we have to steal until something else works out, we have to stick to petty theft, no matter how hard it is.”

   “I know, I know,” Zenith muttered, holding his hand to his face, feeling a painful headache coming on.  With a sigh, he looked up at Nadir and Grace and said, “This is my fault.”  His head hung low, his eyes closed as his breathing was relaxed but heavy.  Nadir and Grace gazed at him, feeling the pain emanating from him.  “I shouldn’t have let her take the fall.  I should have made Nadir run for it, and gotten Halo out of there.  I’m responsible for the three of you, and while Nadir got out alright, poor Halo…the damn bastards took her away.  I simply have to rescue her.”

   Nadir walked up to his twin, half hugging him as he said, “Aww cheer up Zenith.  Just cause you’re a few minutes older than me doesn’t mean all the blame should fall on your shoulders.  We both should have protected Halo.”

   “And I suppose it’s my fault for letting you boneheads even think to do something like this,” Grace said, walking up to them.

   With a groan, Nadir replied, “Oh cut it out Grace.  We’ve held up stores before.  How do you think we got Zenith and Halo’s wedding rings, and the Embala Ruby?”

   “Oh my God,” Zenith shouted, accompanied by a sickened gasp, “Those cops have the bracelet!  Oh dammit, what if they find out it’s the missing Embala Ruby?  They’ll lock up Halo for that too!”

   Both Grace and Nadir’s faces paled.  “Oh shit,” Nadir muttered, “You’ve got a point.”

   “Okay that’s it!  We’ve got to go ahead and free her!” Grace cried out, trying to calm them down, “However, simply breaking her out could do more harm than good.”

   Zenith looked confused.  “What do you mean?”

   Grace sighed, rolling her eyes.  “You idiot.  If you simply break out Halo, and clean them out of all their information on her, they’ll have every cop in the city out looking for her.  What you need to do is set free other inmates to distract them.  Halo was only arrested for assisting a robbery.  Some of the criminals in there are behind bars for assault, and maybe even murder.  As bad as this may be, we have no other choice but to let some of the others escape.  Maybe the cops will just forget about her,” Grace explained.

   “Whoa now, you mean we’re gonna have to set that trash free?” Nadir asked, his arms crossed, “Fuck no.  Those assholes don’t even deserve to be alive.  Halo is the only innocent one in there.”

   Grabbing Nadir by the arms, Grace shook him slightly and said, “We don’t have any choice Nadir!  Sometimes you have to make difficult choices!  I don’t like the scumbags in there either, but we have no other options!  If Halo is the only one that breaks out they’ll have a city wide manhunt on her in no time!”

   Nadir sneered, growling softly, for he realized he had no choice.  Grace released him, and he shook his head, twisting his cleat boots into the ground furiously.  “Dammit, I hate those filthy bastards,” he growled.  With a sigh, he relaxed and said, “Fine, but we’re not letting out any rapists.  I refuse to give them a get out of jail free card.”

   Grace sighed.  Zenith lowered his eyes and did the same.  “I guess we’ll look at some of the other files while were searching for Halo’s, and we can let go some of the ones that were arrested for smaller crimes.  Just as long as we release some others to take the heat off Halo,” he said at last.

   Both Nadir and Grace nodded.  Looking to them, Zenith added, “Then that’s it.  Once we take out all of the officers and guards, we’ll find Halo’s file and destroy it.  Heck, let’s just take it with us and burn it when we’re out of city limits.  Then, we have to destroy the surveillance system and the back up tapes.  The computer system needs to have any information on Halo eradicated.  Grace, since you know more about computers, I’m counting on you for that.”

   “Got ‘cha,” Grace replied, crossing her arms and grinning sadistically.

   With a nod, Zenith looked to Nadir and said, “Once she’s erased all of the information, we have to destroy the computers.  It’s not enough to simply erase the information, because I’ve heard people can recover it as long as the hard drive is intact.  We’ve got to make sure no computer chip makes it out alive.”

   Putting his whip back in his holster, Nadir chuckled wickedly as he grinned, saying, “Alright then.  I say it’s about time to hit some pressure points and rescue our girl Halo.  We’ll teach these bastards to mess with us.”

   “Alright then boys, let’s teach these idiots a lesson!” Grace cried, striking a pose.

   Zenith grabbed them both by their arms, stopping them, causing them to look back at him once more.  He looked crushed, even as he tried to remain confident.  “Listen Nadir, Grace.  If something goes wrong…please, get Halo out of there and I’ll stall them so you can escape.”

   “But Zenith!” Nadir cried.

   Shaking his head, Zenith said, “No buts Nadir.  Whether I’m a few minutes older than you or twenty years older, I’m still your older brother, and Halo is my wife.  Grace is your girlfriend, and that means I’m responsible for all of you.  This is a team effort, but if something goes wrong, I want all three of you to run, you understand?”

   “But…,” Nadir murmured.

   “Understood Zenith,” Grace said, causing Nadir to look at her.  She grinned and winked at Nadir, saying, “We’ll just have to come back and rescue Zenith later.”

   Rolling his eyes, Zenith replied, “Sheesh, you have a way of ruining everything Grace.  As if those chumps are gonna take me down.  I was just saying…if something goes wrong…”

   “We get it,” Grace said, placing her hand on his shoulder.  Looking to both twins, she replied, “Now, come on, Halo needs us.”

   “Right,” Zenith and Nadir said together.