(Occurs after Trading Sides)

Although he was told specifically by Cold Steel not to sneak around the mansion in order to protect him from being discovered by the other members of the X-men, Shade had to break his orders, just this once. It was too risky for him to return to the Sanctuary without first getting at least some intelligence about what was going on behind those golden doors. Therefore, Shade had to talk to a certain little redhead. She was the only other Sanctuary resident in the mansion.

It was late, very late. Young girls were not supposed to be up at this time. They needed their rest that they could grow up big and strong. Yet, there were two girls in the mansion that were up at this hour. The first girl had very pale skin, almost the same color as Shade's skin. The other was the specific redhead that he was after. Shade was glad that they were up at this time of the night. It suited his mutation perfectly. Using the cover of night, the shadow mutant could move unseen wherever he pleased. He only had to wait for the two girls to separate so he could talk to Kaitlyn alone.

The only problem was that they were always together. They rarely left each other's sides. It seemed like an impossible task to separate them. For hours, the two girls played and watched television and did all those things that little girls do. With dawn approaching, Shade thought that he might have to brave the unknown and return to the Sanctuary without any information. However, with the last few hours of night remaining, the two young mutants returned to their room. Shade thought about leaving then, but the pale mutant left a moment later, without Kaitlyn. The shadow mutant saw his chance, and he took it. Reaching out with his sixth sense, Shade grabbed hold of a shadow and 'jumped' into Kaitlyn's room.

"Kaitlyn... Shade whispered into the darkness.

Kaitlyn had just taken her shirt off when she heard someone’s voice. A man’s voice. In the room with her, just when she thought she was alone.

WHOOMPH! A gust of air flew through Kaitlyn’s room. She tripped over herself trying to pick her discarded shirt up off the floor, then used it to cover her chest as she sat up and scanned the room.

“Who was that?” She answered her own question half a second later. She couldn’t see anyone else, but she recognized the voice. “Shade? I thought you were in jail.”

The only light coming into the room came from the bathroom. If he showed up a minute later, she would have been in the shower. "You coulda knocked."

The shadow mutant had expected Kaitlyn to be surprised by his sudden appearance. Therefore, he had made sure to stand several feet away from the young girl. He knew she might very well explode him if he was within arm's reach. However, he had not expected her to be shirtless. When Shade revealed his presence, the explosive mutant sent out a shockwave that nearly knocked Shade off his feet. He gave an audible groan as the wave him. As Kaitlyn covered herself, the shadow mutant stumbled into the light from the bathroom, coughing. He turned his back to the young girl so she could dress herself.

"I was in jail." Shade said in a hoarse voice. "I...escaped. You can't keep a shadow trapped forever." He said, quickly throwing a lie together. Shade gave an audible sigh as if struggling with something in his head.

"Kaitlyn, I want to apologize. I did not mean to hit you with that knife throw. It was cold, it was in the heat of battle, I messed up. I'm just...I'm sorry."

Once Kaitlyn saw Shade was looking away, she started putting her shirt back on.

That story smelled fishy. Kaitlyn knew the kinds of facilities a mutant like Shade would go to, if the X’s actually handed him over to the police. The only way he would have gotten out of that was if the Order pulled in a favor with the people who ran the prison (prison guards were surprisingly crooked). After Kaitlyn’s discussion with Lenna, she didn’t think the Order would go out of their way to help Shade.

She could believe the part about the knife throw, though.

“…Apology accepted, I guess. But… how the hell did you break out? I mean, which prison did you go to?” It would have to have been a really crappy one.

Maybe Shade did not give Kaitlyn's deductive reasoning the credit that it was due. At least, that is what Shade thought to himself as the little pre-teen quickly saw through the gaps in his lie. He needed to come up woth something quick. The good news though was that she believed him when he apologised to her. Somehow, Kaitlyn had managed to distinguish the one truth in Shade's words. Hastily, the shadow mutant threw together a story of his escape.

"The X-men actually kept me here, below the mansion...I don't think they wanted to trust me in a real prison. The Order would just break in and save me." Shade explained, trying to bide time. He was out of ideas though and did not want to be caught in another lie. "Well...I used Cold Steel. He came to see me. He thought he could bully me into betraying the Order. The idiot!"

That sounded more like the truth. Of course the X’s would have respectable holding cells for people like Shade. At least, she had imagined they might, in the basement behind the fingerprint scanners and all that stuff she couldn’t get past.

But bullying him into betraying the Order? Using Sam Johnson? “…What’s that supposed to mean?” She eyed him suspiciously. Kaitlyn knew that Shade wanted Lenna dead, and it wasn’t such a stretch to imagine the X’s wanting the same thing. They wouldn’t need to bully him too much.

Don't you see?" Shade asked with enthusiasm. With the only the bathroom as a source of light, only half of Shade's face was visible, but it spread into a pale grin as he spoke. "Cold Steel wants me to spy on the Order for him, but in return, he has just given me the perfect cover to spy on the X-men."

The idea was simple enough. The X-men thought Shade was feeding them information from the Order; the Order thought he was feeding them information about the X-men. Shade was the puppet master in the middle. Each organization would need to rely on the shadow mutant to pass the necessary information they needed from each other, and they would have to get it from Shade. Of course, both of the parties would think that the shadow mutant was working for them. Maybe he was working for the Order, maybe he was working for the X-men, or maybe he was working for himself. Speaking of necessary information, Shade still needed some information from Kaitlyn.

"Kaitlyn, did you happen to tell anyone at the Sanctuary that I stabbed you...or had been captured?" Shade asked, almost afraid of the answer.

That… that made Shade a double agent, didn’t it? Kaitlyn had read about double agents. You can’t ever really trust a double agent with anything, because they have to keep giving useful information to each side so nobody decides to get rid of him.

But if the X-Men trusted him, did that mean he could go places in the basement? Oh, the things she would do if she could go there herself! She had a long list. And since Shade could get down there…

Now, Shade wanted information. Kaitlyn hesitated. “Uh… well…” Did she really want him to know that she told Lenna all about it? That she knew he wanted to kill Lenna and they were basically sworn enemies?

It would be really freakin’ stupid, she decided, to tell him anything other than what he just asked to hear. “I told Lenna." She tried not to sound nervous when telling him this, with mixed results.

Kaitlyn hesitated. Hesitating was not good. Hesitating was bad. It always was bad. Then she revealed that she told Lenna. Why out of all the people in the Sanctuary did it have to be Lenna? That vile Adapted should not even be at the Sanctuary, but she was turning into a giant aura of ability cancelling hell for Shade. Luckily, he had taken necessary precautions to ensure that he was not entirely defenseless. The large, serrated blade slid down his back ensured that he had at least one weapon at all times.

"Well...that's alright." Shade said gently to ensure her that everything was alright. "What all did you tell her about that?"

She shrugged. “I just told her what happened. You know: I helped you get the file, we got caught, you threw a knife at me. Anyway, uh,” She was eager to change the subject. “Does this mean you can get to the basement level?” She also seemed pretty excited about this possibility.

Kaitlyn gave Shade about three months before someone got sick of him and knocked him off. Honestly she didn’t have a problem with that. Shade wasn’t trustworthy anymore. As far as Orderlings went, she didn’t even really like him that much. At least while he was still alive, he could make himself useful and bug the place or something.

And if the Order killed him before the X-Men did, they could keep one of his fingers and an eyeball to help her fool the biometric scanners. Assuming he didn’t just teleport down there. That was another useful thing to find out before they killed him.

Shade nodded at Kaitlyn's answer. He guessed that was what he should have expected from working with a child. If something went wrong, they would run and tell the nearest adult. Shade had counted on Kaitlyn's guilt over the mission's failure to keep her quiet. Although he had to admit, a year of waiting was a long time for the guilt to build up, forcing her to tell someone. He could not fault Kaitlyn for running back to Lenna. He would have to just be more careful. Trusting Kaitlyn might not have been the best idea, especially with what Cold Steel had told him.

The redhead's next question was certainly an odd one, and she seemed so eager for Shade's answer, almost bouncing on her heels, waiting for his response. What was this little girl planning? Was she honestly thinking about sneaking down there by herself? Or was she planning on Shade taking her down there with him?

"Get into the basement level? What would I want down there?" Shade said, answering her question with a question. He decided to play stupid for the moment. Kaitlyn had a lot more time exploring the mansion and befriending the guests around here. Maybe her eagerness would cause her to reveal things about this place that Shade needed to know. The old saying could be true here: give your enemies enough rope, and they will hang themselves. And from this point on, Shade could not be certain he could tell the difference between his enemies and his friends.

“Well…” Kaitlyn spoke very slowly and clearly, as though he needed that to help him understand what she was saying. “The X-Men do important stuff down there. That’s where they plan things, it’s where they keep prisoners, and it’s where they go to get to their VTOL jet if they need to fly somewhere.” It was a stupid question, and hopefully her mock patience got that point across.

“If you wanna spy on them, you could go bug the basement. Also you could draw a map of it for the rest of us to know what it looks like.” Kaitlyn had some small, discreet listening devices stowed away in her suitcase. At one point, she thought that it would be a great idea to bug the X-Men’s bedrooms, so she could hear them talking about important stuff. This was actually a really, really bad idea that didn't work the way she thought it would, and she never wanted to talk about it with anyone else, ever. But listening to the basement should be safe!

Yes, it was a stupid question, but the little girl did not have to act like Shade was completely incompetent. However, he did learn much about everything that went on below the school. It was filled with places that Shade needed to check out while Cold Steel believed that Shade was on the X-men's side. Planning rooms, prison cells, and am actually jet were just some of things below Shade's feet. The redheaded girl had been collecting a lot of useful information while being stuck in the mansion. Obviously, he was again not recognizing the child before him as a real Order spy who had been sent here to do a real job. He was expecting Kaitlyn to be more into dolls and tea parties, not sabotage and surveillance.

"Well, I am glad that you know so much about this place." Shade said. He chose to keep his usual tone, but a slight hint of annoyance slipped in because of his anger. "I see you have been doing a lot of snooping...Yes, I can get into the lower level. Technically, I am only allowed in certain areas (OOC: do not know exactly, I have to get with CS on this), but I could probably get into any other location that I need -Shh, did you hear that?"

There was the sound of a door opening in the hallway in the quiet darkness. Instantly, Shade disappeared as he moved out of the bathroom light. He could not be caught in this room. It would destroy his already soiled reputation with Cold Steel. The ice mutant was sure to lock him back up in the bright cell. Shade would rather die than go back there. Shade froze as he listened for anything in the hall.

Morning was almost here. It wasn’t too surprising that someone would be waking up. At least one of the X-Men liked to get up early every morning to work out… and Kaitlyn really didn’t want an X-Man overhearing her scheming with a known Order member. It could also be bad if any of the students with super-hearing were awake now.

“Uh…” She held up a finger, signaling for Shade to wait. After shuffling through her mess of a room in the dark, she retrieved a pencil and a spiral notebook from her backpack, flipped to a new page, then wrote:

Make the map on the other page. Label the rooms. Bring it to me. Leave this note here.

She left that page, a blank page, and the pencil on the floor. They were all in the light, where she could see Shade take them.