before?”

“Not really I didn’t know how much you knew of this place then. Now that I know that you only got into the front room it tells me we need to fast forward a little. We’re going to have to go through every day you worked there just so we can put this puzzle together.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well with each memory we might be able to add something to this place, like what’s behind the bar, what is Crocs dementions anything really, you see your mind noticed things that you might not have noticed even if just for a split second it would have recorded that information and that’s what we’re trying to gather.”

“Alright so let’s get started.” for half an hour the two boys worked together putting things together, piece by piece, and close to the end the front room was nearly completed. “Alright so that’s pretty much everything I know about this part of the building.”

“Alright, now let’s.” the bakery shook slightly as things started to turn a slight shade of red. “Alright we have to go now.”

“What? Why? We’re nearly done.”

“Yes but I can’t hold this for much longer I need to break the hold.” with that both boys found them selves back in the lair and Kit looked at Shade for only a few seconds before Shade fell over, blood was dripping from his eyes and nose.

“Shade what happened?” Kit asked, as he straightened Shade out and looked at him.

“To use the Shadow skills to much, causes damage, I need rest before we try again.” Shade said weakly, as he started to get up, only to stumble, and get caught by Kit.

“But why?” Kit asked, as he took Shade over to a nearby cot and put a blanket over him.

“Because if I try to soon, it’ll only make things worst.” Kit looked at Shade and then knelt down next to him.

“I meant why are you doing this for me?” Shade looked at Kit weakly, and smiled.

“Because,… because out of all the people in the city, I count you as a friend.” with that Shade placed a hand on Kit’s shoulder and smiled. “Besides if I let you get taken away for a crime you didn’t commit I’ll never earn my crime fighters license.” Kit looked at Shade, smiled slightly at the joke, and then watched as Shade closed his eyes. “Don’t leave the lair, Croc and his goon will be looking to keep you quite.” As Shade drifted off to sleep Kit started to walk around the lair, as his mind started to race with questions.

“What am I going to do if this doesn’t work? I’ll never be able to see my family, I’ll never be able to get my pilots license, and if the chief dies I might never get out of jail, my entire life is going down the toilet and the only one that can help me is Shade.” Kit stopped as he turned to Shade and looked at the sleeping child before him. “But that’s how it’s been hasn’t it, since he’s come into are lives things keep happening, trouble keeps coming up and it’s always Shade to the rescue, Molly get’s kidnapped you save her before me and Baloo could. I get drugged, you lead my parents to that island, and take some stupid test to get the cure for me risking your own life. You’ve shot down enemy planes helped keep me and Molly safe, Rebecca and Baloo love you and yet you keep trying to push them away, Rebecca would adopt you at the drop of a hat right now, heck she pretended to be your mother when those cops were about to arrest you on the Sea Duck, and it took me nearly a year to get to that point. It took me nearly a year what took you less then a few months to pull off, heck not even that. You fly a plane like an ace, Baloo wont even let me fly unless I promise only to keep the plane steady, first sign of the little rain and he takes the controls back. Everything I’ve ever wanted my entire life you’ve already got, or you could have it.” Kit said, as he turned his back on Shade, and started to walk away from the cot. “Your just a child and your better then me at everything.” Kit started to rack his brains and then turned to Shade’s workbench, then back at the sleeping pup. “If he can do it so can I.”

Kit walked over to the bench and started to look at all spare parts laying around. “Alright you can put this stuff together and make things, then I bet I can do the same, maybe even make better things.” As Kit sat down in a chair, and pulled it closer to the bench, his foot hit something under it. As he looked under the bench he found an old foot locker tucked away in the back. “I wonder what that is?” As Kit pulled the locker out he opened it up to find a bomber jacket given to Shade by the Night Witches, next to that was a black bladed sword, under these items where three books, one was about rare planets on the Cundarian Island the second was filled with rough sketched blue prints for devices that Kit had seen, or heard of, Shade using as the ghost. The final book was what caught Kit’s attention, as he picked it up it looked like some one had added pages to the book, and bound it in a red string. As Kit undid the string he opened up to the first page. As he started to read the first line Kit smirked slightly, he knew he shouldn’t be reading the book after the first line, but he couldn’t truly help himself, inside this book was the answers to Kit’s questions, to know just how Shade got to where he was now. Each page told him a little more, the years he spent in Panda-la, the take over of Wan-lo. The time he spent with the Night Witches, the things they taught him, and the day they parishes, he then read about the time Shade spent with professor Tino Insana and how the professor had taught him that knowledge was power.

As Kit read on he realized that Shade had lost everyone he cared about, how to keep their memories alive he kept doing what they had spent time teaching him. As Kit looked up at Shade still asleep he realized that all this time he thought Shade was lucky, when in fact between them he was the lucky one, he knew what it was like to grow up with out parents, and felt very lucky to find Baloo and Rebecca. He remembered what he felt like when he thought he had lost them to save their lives in pirate island, but at least they were alive. For Shade he had not only lost his parents, but had lost so many more people, and knowing that he would never be able to see them again made Kit realize just how much more painful it would have been if Baloo, Rebecca and Molly didn't make it off the island that faithful day. As Kit kept reading he was no longer looking for answers, at least not the ones he was trying to find before, now he was trying to find some way some how to help Shade. As he kept reading the book he didn’t even notice the time passing bye until he heard Shade yawn. Quickly Kit tucked the book into his pocket and pushed the foot locker under the bench. “Hey Shade, you rested up?” Shade walked up to Kit and smiled slightly.

“Yeah, hey what you doing over here?”

“Oh I thought saw something run under your bench.” Kit hated to lie to Shade, but at the same time he didn’t really know how he could tell Shade that he had been reading his journal.

“Oh, might have just been a roach, they get in once and a while through the sewer nothing to worry about.” After Shade and Kit ate some C rations the two sat down once more and entered into Kit’s memory, this time reaching the final day. “Alright so this is the room that the shooting took place.”

“Yeah.”

“Good, now let’s see what your mind saw but you didn’t.” with that Kit and Shade walked around the room looking at everything. “I think I found out how the lights got turned off.” Shade said, as he knelt down and pointed to a bulge in the carpet. “I’m going to assume that there is a switch here and is connected to the lights.”

“That’s a big if.”

“Right now it’s the if’s we have to hope for, now let’s fast forwards a little more at the point and time the light’s went out.” as the scene played out before them the second the light’s went out Shade ran over to a section of the room where there was very little light coming through. “Alright this is where they got out at.”

“What? But that’s just the light hitting the floor.”

“I would agree with you on that Kit, but look around the room it’s sealed off there is no light coming into this room. The only light coming through is at this point here, so there must be a passage in this area.”

“But how did the cops miss it?”

“We missed it as well when we looked before, the light is so faint that no one would have noticed it unless their eyes where adjusted to the dark like us right now, your mind was able to see this when you looked around in a panic like the chief did, but you didn’t notice it because your eyes where still trying to adjust. Now let’s take it very slowly forward and see at the point and time the gun fired.” As Kit nodded the two boys watched careful as if moving frame by frame on a film, when the flash from the gun happened it was only a split second, but it was all that was needed, the scene they saw was Croc holding a gun by a glove forcing it into Kit’s hand, while his partner fired a similar gun right next to Kit’s hand.

“I don’t get it, Lupe said the gun that was found only had my finger prints on it.”

“Which it