Later, the sun had set and Kimberley was home and Billy was walking back along the dark streets, the shock of the terrible news overwhelmed him. The numbness caused by the shock of the news se had dulled his appreciation of what it actually meant. They would lose her. Not her move away, far away but attainable, she would be gone from their reach forever, like, like his mother. There was no reason why this had happened, it just had and that was the worst part of it all! Where was the enemy to confront? To defeat and destroy? What could he do? He did not know how to deal with this, his emotions were a churning formless mass of shouldn't's, couldn't's , and might have beens.... He needed some sort of release. Without even a conscious thought he shimmered into his wolf form, and ran, and ran, and ran across the night. Eventually he stopped on the cliff top his wolf-eyes glowing with pain and grieved as a wolf, by howling his grief and despair to the listening moon. Tomorrow he would look for reason and answers, and maybe there was a glimmer of hope that he might find something, but now, for once, he let emotion flow through him and out into the darkness."Wow," Jason remarked, watching the action in the center of the square intently. Four combatants, three men and one woman, were involved in some sort of complicated sparring match. The rules were unclear, but it seemed to be some sort of "last-man-standing" competition. The fighters were constantly changing alliances, two working together to take on an opponent, then just as swiftly turning on each other. The skills being shown were absolutely incredible. "But I want to know," she said with a sigh, pulling back far enough to catch his eye. "What happened today? Did you see the news?"

He gazed back at her for a long moment, until finally a rueful smile crept onto his face. "Why don't you get out the dishes," he suggested, giving her hair a last caress as he straightened up. "We will eat while you explain to me what possessed you to give your astromorpher to Kerone, and then, if it's a good explanation and you're very lucky, I will tell you what happened here."

          Suddenly some sort of referee on the sidelines called out "Swords!" The fighters raised their hands into the air, and four blades appeared in their hands in multi-colored flashes of light. As if in response to the scene before her, Jamie's body began to crackle with lightning energy. A rumble from the sky above them started people edging away from her in the crowd.