Enemies... or friends?

"How do we stop it!?" -Raina

Rusty's animated form proves to be far more resilient than anything the group has encountered thus far. Grimaulkin arrives, but even with his aide, they seem to be able to do little more than slow the suit's progress and pull off a few of the collected pieces of metal. The fight seems to be going no where when Harris and Griff Spader arrive. The group is at first worried about trying to hold Rusty's animated form and fight off Harris and Griff. However, Harris and Griff do not attack immediately and instead seem to assess the situation.

Harris offers his and Griff's assistance, but the group is reasonably wary and mistrustful of these enemies and unlikely allies. Grim and Mind tell them to get lost, but Raina sees that this battle is going no where and they are going to tire without stopping Rusty's form. Raina demands Harris's word that the two groups will part ways after this and meet again to battle another day. Harris agrees and he and Griff join the fight.

At first they continue to make little progress before a grenade from Griff blows the rusted machine apart. The machine starts to reform slowly and they focus on keeping it apart until they can find a solution. Griff and Harris start to pull out pieces of Rusty's original armor while Grim gets an idea and heads back to the base to fetch Rusty's brain. Raina and Mindstryker focus on keeping the gathered parts from reforming.

Grim returns with Rusty's brain and it is dropped back into its housing. Rusty gets control of himself once more and comes to, with seemingly no recollection of the event. After a long awkward moment, Harris proves true to his word and lets Raina and the rest go.. for now. They retreat to their safe house to regroup and recover.

The group talk and Rusty explains that his armor went rouge when he lost consciousness when Shadow tried to send him some of his power. Raina encourages them to keep trying and experimenting, but with more caution. She and Mind then state that they are going to head back to Kings Row and finish their "business" there. Rusty and Grim both question what is so important in Kings Row, and Raina tries to deflect the question with stating "business". This angers Grim who starts to storm off, stating that he didn't expect the secret keeping to continue here. Mind tells Raina that its "ok" and that "they have a right to know."

Raina calls to Grim to wait and they explain that they are going to see Jack's father who is terminally ill with cancer. This tempers Grim's anger and the three agree that there shouldn't be secrets anymore between them. Grim then heads off to join Rusty and Shadow in the medical bay while Jack and Raina head off to Kings Row.

In the Gish, they return to his father's apartment to finish the conversation that had been cut short the night before. His father gets right to the point in questioning Raina on her past and motives. However, Raina once more gives her usual evasive answers and such, but the questioning grinds to a halt when his father realizes that they're telepathically linked. Something that Mind had apparently sworn to never do again after Morgan had betrayed him. Raina bristles at the insinuation that she would turn on Mind like Morgan did. She accidentally lets slip about Mind's brainwashing, which upsets his father. As Mind explains what happened, Raina responds to Kalius on the comm to inform him about Rusty.

Through the rest of the meeting, Jack's father comes to see what Mind and Raina feel for each other and says that he's happy they have each other to look out for. He gives them his blessing and asks that Raina look after Jack. She smiles, "I will.. I'm sure he'll look out for me as well." Too which Jack readily affirms. As they leave, Raina questions Jack on his reasons for linking with her, since his father had made it clear that Jack had never intended to link with another person. Jack responds that he was likely falling for her even back then. Touched, they share a moment before heading back to the base.

Once there, they meet with Shadow who shows them his newest level of power.. a shadow hunter. This form apparently gives him far more power than before, but is limited in duration. They decide that the form will be only used as a last resort. They then part ways and Mind and Raina head to bed for a night's rest after a trying day.