Phoenix stares blankly at me. She has no emotion in her face. I choose to stare right back. Suddenly, she smiles. I am taken off guard by the action. Her smile grows as she realizes this. Her green eyes flash with hidden laughter, and I know she’s up to no good. We’ve spent the last three days together…pretty much 24 hours a day. I’ve learned when to keep my mouth shut. And to know when she’s up to something.

I enjoy Phoenix’s company, however. She’s a good laugh, and I enjoy listening to her complain about how terrible Karmana is turning and how, when she gets the chance, she wants to put the planet out of it’s misery and blast everyone to kingdom come.

"That’s how it should have been back on Earth," she had said last night, when we were settling into the hover-vehicle for a few hours of sleep, "They should have saved the universe a lot of trouble and nuked the whole world. Or maybe they should have blown the Earth up from the inside, take everyone by surprise."

But now, sitting in this small coffee shop, somewhere East of that small town, I don’t know what she’s thinking. She’s only giving me that deadly smile. Gods, save me. I look towards the ceiling, then look back. She’s still got that damn smile on her face.

"What?" I ask, finally working up the courage. I’m still scared to find the answer out.

"Nothing." She shakes her head slightly, but continues to smile. Her eyes flash again. Now I’m starting to worry.

"I’m serious, Phoenix." I say. I almost call her Linna. I do that a lot. She hates the name. If I call her that, she’ll ignore me for a while, OR she’ll get REALLY mad and THEN ignore me. She just shakes her head. I take a sip of my hot coffee, my eyes never leaving her face. She isn’t as pale as she was when I first met her. She probably didn’t get out much before she met me.

The blonde dye is still in her hair, too. I wonder what color hair she has naturally. But it doesn’t really matter. I like how she wears it. She has a clump of bangs on each side of her face, reaching down to just above her shoulders. They frame her face well. The rest of her hair is short, about to her ears.

Phoenix folds her hands under her chin, her smile continues. Now I’m really starting to fear for my life. She opens her mouth to say something, but closes it again.

I sigh, "Out with it." For a moment, she is silent.

She leans closer to me, "How much do you think a ladder and rope costs around here?" Her smile continues.

"More than we have." I’m becoming weary now.

"Aw, c’mon. How much?"

"I don’t know. 700 credits." She looks surprised, then she laughs. The laugh dies quickly.

"Very funny. I think that’s about 650 credits too high."

"What do you want to know for." She shakes her head, "Phoenix…" I sigh her name.

She takes pity on me, "I’ve got this idea. It be really fu-"

I shake my head, cutting her off, "No more jokes. I think we hurt enough people with that paint bomb two towns ago." She looks offended.

"Then how about explaining to me WHAT we’re gonna do while we wait for all these other people we’re supposed to meet?" Her eyes scan the room over the back of the booth.

"For now, we eat breakfast." A waitress appears and puts two plates of food on the table.

Phoenix opens her mouth again. I glare at her and she picks up a fork. Digging into her food, she doesn’t speak. She’s thinking. I know. And I wonder if I should be afraid.

~~@~~

"Well," Phoenix offers as we exit the small coffee shop, "It was a nice place. Good food, too." She smiles at me as I glance at her, she is on my right side.

"No, Phoenix." I say. We’ve left the HV a few miles out of town, hidden. Phoenix frowns, pouting.

"Why NOT?" She whines, "We’d have a blast."

"And then we’d get in a hell of a lot of trouble and have to pay a massive fine. My answer is still NO. I don’t want to hear any more about it."

"But-" She gives up on trying to argue with me, "Fine." She sighs. As we pass a shop window, Phoenix freezes, "Blade…"

"What now?" I ask, turning to look back at her. She’s staring in the window.

"That would look really good on you." She still stares at the window. I move to see what she’s talking about. But before I can, she grabs my wrist and drags me into the store, "Come on. Let’s go see it." I start to reply, but she cuts me off, "We need a change in clothes. We’ve been wearing this stuff for the past three days. Come on, we’ve got enough."

I stop just inside the doorway. She walks away, leaving me to stare around. The store, although small from the outside, is massive on the inside. I quickly lose Phoenix. Five minutes later, she appears again, a saleswoman coming along behind her.

The woman is Karmanan. Full-blooded, I can tell. Her ears are pulled back and she has thin-wire-y hair. Phoenix has that smile on her lips. Gods, what’s she been up to now?

The woman measures my arms, then my waist. She takes several more measurements, pausing to write them down on a clipboard, then nods at me, then Phoenix, and disappears again.

"I’m scared to ask." I say. Phoenix rolls her eyes, grabs my arm, and pulls me along in the Karmanan’s wake. After several moments, the Karmanan woman piles some clothes into my arms. Phoenix pushes me into the men’s dressing room.

"Put them on. I want to see them." She orders. When she’s this determined, the only thing I can do is nod and obey.

I slip all the articles of clothes on before turning to the mirror to have a look. The shirt is white, with a folded collar, and a square neckline. The pants are dark, DARK, blue. There is a thin line of silver thread weaving around the bottom of the pant legs. They’re just pants. The silver pentagram necklace looks perfect on the white shirt and matches the entire outfit amazingly well.

"Are you done yet?" Phoenix calls from outside the door, "I’m ready."

I step out. I have to inhale sharply as I see her. She is wearing a pair of black capri pants and an off-white tank top. Her shirt shows off much of her lower belly. She’s wearing new sandals also.

"I was right! That looks perfect! There’s a cape too, but I didn’t know if you’d want one…" Her voice trailed off, her eyes begging.

"Let’s see it, then." I say and she bounds off too find the cape. She returns a moment later, a dark blue cape, matching the color of the pants, hung over her left arm.

"Here you go." She smiles. I pull it around my shoulders. Her eyes widen even more.

"Phoenix…" I start.

"Blade, it’s perfect."

"Yeah, until you get to the price tag." I dare to glance at the object in question from the cape. 150 credits. Merciful gods…

"Oh, come on! PLEASE?" It’s very hard to resist her when she whines.

~~@~~

Ten minutes and 550 credits later, we exit the store. One of us feeling extremely poor, the other, extremely happy.

"We’re going to need more credits." I say.

Mentally, I add, or another person.

~~`~~~~~