Daren just stood staring at the door for a minute.  He didn't move, he barely blinked.  "Aerin..." Daren said under his breath.  He'd remember.

"WHAT."  Max had come out from behind the bar, and was wandering the scene.  He looked a bit lost.

Max's voice broke Daren out of his trance.  "RIGHT."  He said out loud.  "Too bad this one was so dysfunctional, the other one was actually quite good."  He finished as he made his way over to the dead agent.

"What...my...my bar...." Max said, as he mosied, trying to take in everything. 

"SO.  The question is...why would they send novices after me?"  Daren said out loud to no one in particular.  He began rifling through the agents pockets, though he didn't really expect to find anything.  "They must have been testing the waters with disposable agents." Daren said, giving up looking for anything of value.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY BAR??" Max shouted.

Daren winced. "Uh...wellllll...." he tried to draw out as he stood, scratching the back of his head.  Daren stood, and turned around to come face to face with a very upset Cece.  Tears streamed out of her big blue eyes, and she was giving him a look that turned him to ice.

She wrapped herself around his neck, and buried her head in his shoulder.  "I though' you were dead!  I though' they shot you down! All the gunshots, all the glass! Aw gawd Daren!"  She pulled away for a second, and just looked at him.  He didn't really know what to say, so he said nothing.  There was a flash in her eyes, then she slapped him.  Daren's eyes went wide for a second, it didn't hurt, it was just uexpected...and it stung.  He looked back at her, a little stunned.  Normally, he would have pounded
whoever did it, but it was Cece...and he deserved it.  She collapsed again into broken sobs on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry Cec," he said, while holding her and petting her hair, "I didn't mean to scare you."

"Don't you DARE cry over him!"  Max said to Cece.  "Look at what he's done!" He said, gesturing to his bar.  "Those two didn't stand a chance!  You let that drag on waaaaaayyy longer then you needed to you...you..."

"MAX!"  Cece yelled, cutting him off, giving him a look that could make stone shiver. "What is WRONG with you!?  He almost DIED!"

Daren put his hands up, "Ok...let's not get carried away..."

"Oh, he did NOT almost die!" Max rebuddled.  The survivors left from the madness before, started to inch thier way out through the broken door.

"Did ya' see 'ow many times they fire' at him??"  Cece yelled back, her accent growing thicker by the second.

"Did YOU forget he has Khan?"  Max rebuddled.

"Hey guys...."  Daren tried to interject.

"Did YOU forge' he's only 'uman!!?" She fired back.

"Guys..."  Daren said.

"YOU STAY OUT OF THIS!"  They both screamed in unison, pointing thier fingers at his face.  Daren just put his hands up and stepped back.

"I barely count him as human!"  Max said back.

"What?! Oh, you're actin' ridiculous!" She said in disbelief, putting her hands no her hips.  Slowly, Daren began to work his way towards the door.

"I'm acting ridiculous?  What about you! Don't you think you're overreacting just a little?" Max asked.

Daren slinked out the door, and onto the street, even out here you could still hear them going at it.  He shoved his hands into his pockets, and began to walk down the street, heading towards Griff's Motel.  Owning a motel, Griff knew most, if not all, of the ins and outs of Blue Haven;  and if anyone was going to know anything about our blue-eyed agent friend, Griff would. 

He felt bad, leaving Max to solve the mess at the bar by himself, especially when Daren had caused it, but he needed to get information now if he was going to try and stay one step ahead of the Alias.  Besides, those two would be at it for a while before they even noticed he was gone.

"Hey there beautiful!"  The disembodied voice came from behind him somewhere.  Daren looked up from the ground, and glared at nothing in front of him.  Slowly, he looked over his shoulder menacingly, and took his hands out of his pockets, balling them into fists.  Those were fighting words... it didn't really matter who it was, they were dead anyway.  However, if it was an Alias agent, he didn't want to be cought off his guard either.  Upon fully spinning around, he realized that there was actually a 'beautiful' walking behind him, with a rather boisterous man pursuing closely behind. 

He seemed shorter then you would have originally thought, once he straightened up after completing his cat-call.  He had very long, whiteish silvery hair that was in a thick braid down his back; and even though the gun was hidden well, Daren could see it.

Being who he was, Daren couldn't help but notice the 'beautiful's' eye-catching features as well, such as her slight, and delicate, yet noticable curves.  And, how well the red, low-cut top blended with her long, straight black hair, and fair ivory skin.  In any other situation, he would have probably been doing exactly the same thing this other fellow was doing; although, he must admit, Daren probably would have been doing it a little bit better.

"Come on sweetness! I'm just trying to get a name!"  The man said, putting his arms outand shrugging his shoulders.  "You won't even give me a name?"

The woman spun around quickly to face him, and pointed a finger at his nose, stopping him dead in his tracks.  "If you want to keep you're dignity, and..." she lowered her vision down to his crotch, "other things..."  she finished, tilting her head, and narrowing her eyes, "I suggest you take a few steps back, and shut your mouth."  And with that, she turned back around and continued her sensual strut down the street.  Daren smiled, and raised his eyebrows in surprise.

That was a pretty good comeback, he was impressed.  The man must have thought so as well, because he slowed up a bit, obviously caught off guard by the hard-ass comment.  As she began to get closer, Daren noticed she had throwing stars in her belt line.  They weren't sticking out anywhere, but he could just make out the outlines through the thin fabric.

"My God girl..." the man said, "Is this what every guy has to go through to get you're name?"  he asked.  She didn't stop.  "Hey, hey wait up!  I thought we made a connection back there..." he said.

She laughed and turned to look at him.  "You bought me a drink that I sent back to you, you caught my eyes for about ten seconds and I threw a fork at your head...you call THAT a connection?"

"Gotta start somewhere."  He shrugged again.  She shok her head, and rolled her eyes; which suddenly, Daren realized were black.  Not brown, not even a dark brown.  Completely black.  As she breezed past him, he caught her arm, right above the elbow.  She whirled around and glared right into his eyes, then they widened as she realized that they were gold. 

There was an old story he had heard, he hadn't believed it because he had never seen it; but supposadly, there was a match out there to his yang eyes.  Yin eyes.  Totally dark, harboring dark powers, and able to see into your soul, twist it, contort it. 

Daren felt a chill run down his spine, and it felt like she was staring right through him; like she could see into his mind.  They stood there, standing for a moment, staring eachother down, almost frozen.  He let her arm go, and she walked away, still looking over her slender shoulders at him.  The interaction that they had, however, did not detour the man from pursuing her farther down the street.

Daren decided to follow them, they were headed in the same direction, why not?  He sauntered down the street, a little behind the guy tailing the woman, just to see how the interaction would progress.  Daren didn't sense any extreme power coming from her, but he could feel that she was dangerous.  Especially to this guy.  The white-haired bastard was going to get his ass handed to him on a platter if he kept this up.  As they continued down the dark street, he caught a glimpse of Griff's Motel, the blue lights flickering as they got closer.

"How long do you plan on following me?"  she asked, with a sigh.

"Until you give me a name."  The man said with a smart-alecky tone.  "I don't really know what you find so hard about this concept.  I asked for a name."  He said, putting his arms behind his neck, and looking into the sky.  "You could have been rid of me sooooo long ago if you had just answered the question.  I mean, really, common courtesy tells people to..." his ramble was cut short by a throwing star whizzing past his face.  He stopped and lowered his eyes to the woman. 

At that point, Daren passed them.  Griff's was too close now to be fooling around with these two...no matter how amusing it might be.  As Daren breezed past, he took a glance back at the man, he had violet eyes.

"Huh...funky."  Daren said to himself.  Never seen so many colored eyes in one place; did he miss a convention or somthing?  As he made eye contact, the man saw Daren's gold eyes, and chuckled slightly, probably thinking exactly the same thing.

The man looked away from Daren, and turned his attention back to the woman.  The man may have been undeterred by the moment that the woman and Daren had had, but the woman was not as laxidasicle about the moment Daren and the man had.

"What the hell was that?"  she asked sternly.  Putting her hand onto her belt, ready to pull the throwing stars at any moment.

"What was what?"  The man asked.

"That." She said, gesturing towards Daren.  "What the hell was that?"  She took a step back, "Are you two working together?"  She asked as she took one more step back,and pulled out another star.  

Daren raised his eyebrows, and went to say somthing, but the white-haired man beat him to it.

"Are you kidding?  He's got some crazy eye thing going if you didn't notice!"  The man said with a laugh.  "Other then that, I've never seen this man before in my life."  He walked over to Daren, and held out his hand, "Name's Cyrus."

Daren just looked at him disbelievingly.  "Daren," he answered, though he did not take the man's hand.

"Don't screw with me!!"  The woman rang out, "What?  You think I was born yesterday?  You two are totally in cahoots!"  She yelled, and Daren began to feel her power level growing.  "For your informaiton, I may look slight...but I am more dangerous than you will ever know...and I must warn you, if you try anything stupid, I might retaliate."  She pulled another star, and held the two in her fingers.  "And you do NOT want me to retaliate."

"I'm sure we don't."  Daren said, taking a cigarette out of his pocket and lighting it.  "Which is why I'm leaving."  And with that he turned to walk away, "Cyrus, nice to meet you; miss, have a nice night."

"Wait."  She said to his back.

Daren huffed, and turned back aroud to face her, she was standing in a wide stance, with her arms down at her sides.  "Can I help you?"

"Where are you going?"  She asked, staring right into him.  Daren felt another chillm and felt the power increase again.

"Griff's..." he said, pointing with the hand holding the cigarette.  "It's right there, if you don't believe me, you can watch me go."  And with that, he turned to leave.

"STOP."  She said.  And Daren spun around once again.

"Listen sweetheart, I'm really in quite a rush, and if you don't mind, I would like to get to the motel now."  At that statement, the woman raised her left hand, and Daren felt her power burst.

"I don't know alot about her, but it's my job to protect her, and her's to protect mine.  And I'm going to do just that."  With the completion of her little speech, a power-ball began to form in her palm, lighting up her features.

"Hey, hey hey hey! Hold up there!"  Daren said, suddenly getting defensive.  Her power had increased severely, very quickly and he could sense more lurking in her soul.  But this khan was different.  It was dark.  Very dark, he had never sensed anything like it.  

"Just one second lady!  I don't even know who you're talking about!  I'm going to see Griff!  Just back off, alright?"  Suddenly, a blast hit him in the chest, and he was flung backwards, making him hit the wall.  As he slid to the floor, he felt some rubble fall on his hair, she made him dent the wall? "I dented the wall? What...ow..."  As he went to get up, he realized he couldn't move.  "What the hell did you do to me??"  He yelled.

"What in the world was that??!  Cyrus shouted.  "What the hell is wrong with you??  I take it back, I don't want a name! You're effing nuts!!"

She turned away from Daren, and looked at Cyrus.  "I'm just making sure that he doesn't do anything stupid while I'm dealing with you."  And at that moment, her power exploded, and she propelled herself off the ground in a burst of khan, chucking the stars straight at Cyrus.

"Watch the stars!!" Daren shouted.  But he saw thta his warning was taken with a grain of salt, because almost as quickly as she threw the stars, Cyrus produced an energy shield with quite a force behind it.  How come Daren hadn't noticed either of their powers before?

"You just worry about yourself, there pretty boy!  You're lookin' a little stiff!"  Cyrus yelled back, above the roar of the khan.

"Again...with the pretty boy!  What is it with these people?"

The woman sneered and put herself back on the ground, the khan still a pulsing aura around her.  "So, you DO have khan." She said, sounding slightly intrigued.  "Maybe this will be more fun than I originally anticipated."

Cyrus laughed, and put down his shield.  "I DO have khan, among other things."

"Other things?"  The woman asked, becoming even more interested.  "What other things, may I ask?"

"I'll let ya' know..." Cyrus said, building up energy into his palm, and leaning back slightly to look at the sky, "...when you give me a name."  He finished, and with that, fired the energy ball directly at her.  Daren barely saw it it flew by so fast.

"I can't even follow their attacks."  He thought to himself.  God, they're quick.  They woman lept into the air, doing a backflip to avoid the blast.  It exploded behind her, knocking down a few street lamps, and whipping air and smoke down the street.

She landed with barely a thud at all, and looked at Cyrus.  "Name's Sakuya." She said with a nod.

"Oh! So NOW I get a name!" Cyrus said, looking over at Daren, who had begun a slow power-up.  The binding khan she had put on him was strong, but nothing he couldn't get out of.  "How you doin' over there Daren?"

"Worry about yourself."  Daren said, and with that, exploded his own power, dissolving the bind the woman had on him.  But then...somthing happened.  Somthing he didn't quite expect.  A blinding, white-hot light pierced his mind, accompanied by a woman's voice, though he couldn't quite make out what the voice said.  He could sense it was powerful though.  He screamed and somehow severed the connection.  It was possible that the power he used to dissolve the bind was sent up the connection on accident.

He wavered slightly, and caught himself on the wall.  "You know what?"  He said, really agitated now, "Screw this!  I don't know what you're playing at..."

"My goodness."  She said, looking at Daren.  "You're quite powerful as well.  It seems that it's my lucky day, Mara's been itching for a fight too."  She finished as she sent out a telepathic call.

"Who the hell did you just call??!"  Daren screamed just as a window on one of the upper floors of Griff's shattered, spilling glass down onto the street.

"Mara...no."  Sakuya said, and she took off down the street toward Griff's.

"Whoa! HEY!"  Cyrus yelled after her.  "We are sooooo not done here!"  And began following her towards the motel.

Daren just rolled his eyes, "Well..." He said to himself. "As long as we all seem to be going to the same place, might as well make it a party."  And sprinted after the two.