No...no...Tommy didn't mean it...he was upset and you saved her! "I plan to get the ultimate revenge on the Beetleborgs, something I'm sure you'll be interested in," Shadowborg replied, setting Drew down on a nearby table. "We'll turn their own leader against them. They'll never be able to fight their precious Drew, and he'll rip through them like a hungry wolf." Neither she nor Andros had been heard from since, and eventually TJ and Carlos went ahead and contacted the Alliance without her. The organization took the news of the team's split in stride, and their approval gave the decision a ring of legitimacy that Cassie suspected both of them had been looking for. The Alliance had recorded their statement, but they didn't say whether it would be played during the official rebuttal of KO-35's broadcast or held until later.

Cassie and Tessa had let the boys treat them to dinner afterward, and despite the circumstances there had been something of a celebratory atmosphere. Carlos had left to call Aura as soon as they finished, but he rejoined them when Tessa suggested a movie and he accompanied them to the park for ice cream afterward. After three months offplanet the movie had been more of a novelty than anything else, but Cassie found that she had missed ice cream.

          "Why this one?" Horribelle asked, looking the unconscious boy over. "Wouldn't the girl have worked just as well?"
          Shadowborg shook his head. "No. In the first place, only Drew has the necessary darkness of spirit to make the control work. When he used Vexor's energy axis to make himself Mega Blue Beetleborg, we were connected, if only for an instant. I felt it. Pain, anger, fear, they shine like wildfire in his soul. The girl doesn't burn with a fraction of it. Besides, he gets too unpredictable when he's angry. I can easily use him to control the other two, but to use one of the others against him would be suicide."

No, he meant it....and he was right. I thought I had saved her...but...I went to the hospital after...I could feel the death on her! Skye wailed, the tone of his thought conveying the absolute belief he had in that statement.