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Summery: Drake is now the one in charge of the Coates thanks to powers given to him by the darkness. He is destorying Perdido Beach and getting the job done, but he is also making previous leader, Caine, his own personal pet. But the Darkness is still the brains behind of the opperations. Will Sam be able to help? DrakeXCaine DiannaXCaine AstridXSam

Chapter One: "Your Days Are Over... Caine"

Drake gasped in pain as he staggered through the long layers of grass and weed that were catching on his torn trousers and the gaps of the souls of his shoes, the bitter wind was cold and stung against his sensative skin even though it felt no different to any other say, his wounds were just making his skin more sensative than normal. He was wounded badly too, about the only thing that was not bleeding was his new snake arm. Shaking, cold, and starving, Drake forced his body to push on, he refused to give up until he had made it to the secret mine, the mine where the darkness was hiding. It gave him his new arm, it could help him now if he promised him something in return... Anything so that he did not die, not yet.

It took him a longer time than he had expected to take and for a while he was sure that he would not make it, he was sure he would trip and be unable to stand back up again, then he would die lying in the Earth to rot away. But he surprised himself by managing to stay on his feet for the whole of the walk. After ages of no food, no water and no rest, Drake found himself stepping up outside of the entrance of the mine.

Just as he expected, Pack Leader was standing and waiting on his own at the entrance of the mine, he crouched down and glared as Drake approached him but did not attack straight away. Drake waited until he was just in front of Pack Leader before he spoke to him.

"I need to see It" Drake gasped

"Bring food?" Pack Leader asked

"Next time, but I need to see it now!" Drake snarled angrily

"Food" Pack Leader demanded

"Next... Time..." Drake snarled again, taking a step forward "I promise, next time"

Pack Leader stared at him for a moment, he was showing his teeth and crouching down in a threatening manner but then he stood and turned around, leading Drake into the mine. He was so relieved but he held in his breath, if he breathed out he might collapse right where he was. Since he had nothing else to do, Drake decided that he would just distract himself from the pain while he walked by letting his mind drift back to something else, something he had been planning since he had escaped alive.

Getting revenge.

Revenge on Coates for starters, for deciding he was getting too dangerous and leaving him to die like an animal! He would go back and show them all who was boss. Caine, he was the leader that told them to do that, and he ignored Drake, like Drake was nothing! He would not kill Caine, killing would be no fun, but he would definately make him his. Dianna of course, he would lock her up, torture her, starve her, let her die slowly for all of the times she had mocked him! And all of Perdido Beach, just because they would flaunt everything they had in his face, there food, there water, there homes and families and fuel. Sam was high up, he pissed him off one too many times, and Astrid and her stupid retard of a brother for making her look like a fool. Brianna, Taylor and Dekka for sure, those bitches deserved everything they got.

Now that he thought about it, his list was endless, but he would be able to do nothing unless it helped him do it... He needed the Darkness.

Meanwhile...

With a loud yawn, Sam leaned back in his chair and replaced the leaf in his mouth, a mint leaf that everyone had plenty of, they could chew on them but swallowing them just made you feel sick, chewing gave your mouth something to do and left a plesent taste in your mouth. Though a lot of people didn't chew them often, they claimed it made the hunger even worse, which it did, but it gave Sam's mouth something to do and he still hoped it would trick his stomach into believeing it was being fed.

Opposite him, looking as beautiful as ever, was his girlfriend, Astrid. She had little Pete on her lap and was trying to get him to respond to a few cards with pictures on them, part of his therapy. It had taken her longer than she had expected but she had finally started the therapy again. Sam could not see them making much process but he chose to keep quiet, Astrid got very stressful and snappy when having to sit there for hours talking to Pete and trying to get him to respond.

Sam was now part of the council, he was glad because it meant some of the weight was lifted off of him, but he had not had any actual meetings yet so it could easily backfire on him at any moment.

However, even though some weight had been lifted, Sam was still worried about the Coates. He had seen them abandon Drake, he had watched as Drake was attacked by both animals, normals and mutants and then watched as he had just managed to escape but he did not think much of it. That boy was too badly injured to be any real trouble for them, he would be dead soon anyway. His main worry was of his brother, Caine, who was probably planning the next attack on Perdido Beach to take over or to at least kill Sam, something he had made clear that he wanted to do.

Admittedly, year Sam was a little scared, after all, who wouldn't be. OK that was a lie. He was terrified, but not because of Caine, he was more or less sure he could stand a chance against Caine, he had won last time, hadn't he. What he was scared about was three things. The first was the hunger that everyone in the town was still suffering through, it was driving people to do crazy things. The second was Zil and his crew, they were still causing trouble for all the mutants in the town, despite multiple warnings. Sam hoped the council would do something about them. And finally, the third, was the Darkness.

Lana had told him all about it, and just the idea of something that strong scared him, little Pete was strong, but he was on there side... At least Sam hoped he was. Everyone knew the Darkness was against them. And it was only a matter of time before he struck again.

Elsewhere...

Lana woke with a start and stared up at the ceiling with wide and terrified eyes, holding still. She felt Patrick's wet nose rubbing against her left hand as it hung down from the bed she was using in the hotel room. She had another nightmare, much like all the other ones she had, and it took her a few minutes before she realized she was safe despite the fact that she knew the dream off by heart. When she relaxed she reached up and began to gently pat Patrick's soft head to show him that she was OK, then she sat up and rubbed the rest of the sleep from her eyes, looking around.

The middle of the day. She had gone to sleep anyway because there was nothing else to do anymore. Smoke, drink, read, work or sleep. There was also go insane but quite a few people were fighting that option to the best of there abilities even though it was probably the easiest of the three of them. You couldn't talk to others anymore because everyone was just so snappy that it was hard to get a decent conversation, especially Lana who was slowly loosing all the friends she had made because she prefered to be alone... alone with Patrick at least.

Lana smoked because it distracted her from her hunger, and she drunk purely because she was thirsty and needed something wet to fill her mouth. It burned her throat but it felt good and it went down even better with a cigerette.

Standing, Lana walked over to the window and looked out down at Perdido Beach, she had a clear view of it after all. It looked so nice, peaceful, sweet from all the way up here, but close up actually in the town you saw the real caos that everyone was suffering through. Just the thought made Lana clench her first and drop her head down to glare at the floor. Everyone had there own ways of dealing with what was happening, and truth was, Lana was not dealing at all.

The nightmares were the same, haunting memories of the Darkness that still followed her around, even if it could not do it physically. Everyone said that when the Darkness got his hooks in you, they stayed in you forever. Unless the darkness was destoryed, but that just opened Lana's favourite questions of all.

Could you destory the darkness?

In Day Care...

Mary watched Zil and his human crew pass without taking her eyes off of him. He was dangerous even if he didn not have any powers and she was worried about the childrens saftey. But he just smirked at her and passed as coolly as ever, if he started anything now then Sam would go after him, everyone knew (or hoped) that. When he was out of sight Mary turned back to the children and smiled down at them.

"Now then, who wants to hear a story?" Mary asked, a story was the best way to keep everyone quiet

It was peaceful for once so Mary took her time reading while John took care of all the individuals that needed a quick change or wanted something else.

In Coates...

Getting rid of Drake had been both a smart and stupid move. Smart in the case that most of the people at Coates (including Dianna) were no longer in danger of being killed in there sleep because they had upset Drake one time too many, but bad because he had been a good soilder. He had not hesitaited to kill and he had followed Caine despite not wanting to, he followed and he done as told. So it had been both good and bad.

Either way, even if they regretted it, there was nothing they could do now. He was gone.

And they had more pressing matters anyway. Caine had to get everyone in Coates food, they were fine on water so far and they had plenty of light but without food all of that meant nothing! Down in Perdido Beach they were fine but here... Here they were slowly loosing themselves, people killing for a scrap of berries, others just leaving them beaten and bloody while a few were just making themselves sick on poisoness fruits and plants from the ground just in order to feel like they were eating again.

Most people had stayed with him, half of them had only stayed because they had too much blood on there hands, like Panda. Another quarter were not brave enough to try and leave Caine, like Bug. And finally the last lot were the smaller amount of people were people like Penny who had a crush on him and Dianna who was in love with him.

Caine was staring at a map, Bug had helped him make it by sneaking around Perdido Beach and writting down what was where. They made it as detailed as they could, including putting the distance between each of the buildings, what was near them, who lived where and what places were left empty. It was his best thing to look at while plotting because he could get a layout of the land.

Suddenly a cup of water was placed beside of the map, Dianna then took a seat and watched him work as he ignored the water for a long time. Finally he reached over and took a large gulp.

"Thirsty?" Dianna smirked

"No" Caine growled, he was hungry but water always distracted him, even just a little bit.

Then he stared back down at the map and scowled, there had to be a way to get them back, destory the town, or at least where they stored the food. But from what Bug had said it was heavily guarded by only the bravest of them all. Caine could easily get rid of them without even thinking too hard but the problem was that one of them might get away and then go running to Sam and the rest of the freaks at Perdido Beach, he could probably deal but he didn't want to lose anymore people, he needed them (the ones with powers anyway, in his mind the normal ones were just useless extra mouths).

"This is pointless" Caine snarled

"Oh? Is the great leader Caine actually failing for... What number of failures are we up to now?" Dianna asked sarcasticly

"Be quiet" Caine grumbled but his heart was not in it

"Why don't you just give up" Dianna mumbled but then stood and walked away from him

Caine looked up and watched her go angrily, he wished he could run after her and be with her, he loved her after all. But he had to deal with Sam and there starvation first. Once they were settled with food and no one trying to stand up to them, then he would be able to truly charm Dianna. After all, he knew she still loved him too.

Sighing he looked back down at the map and tried to concentrate, only he just ended up drifting off with his face over the town hall.

...

He was woken sharply by a loud scream and the sound of mental crunching. Caine's neck snapped up and he looked over at the door, it was still but the sounds of screams and loud erupting bangs made him freeze and listen more closely.

After only a second longer just as Caine was about to stand run over, thinking Sam had come back to fight again, the doors to the hall flew right off of there hindges. He rose his hands to fight in defence but stopped when he saw who was standing in the doorway, tentacle arm around his waist, other resting on his hip as he smirked in... Drake.

"Drake? What are you doing here?" Caine snarled and took a step around the table

"Come to be in charge of course" Drake grinned

"What are you talking about?" Caine frowned

"Your days are over... Caine" he smirked "There is a new boss and you better get down on your knees and beg me to let you live"

"Like that'll happen" Caine snarled, raising a hand and pointing his palm at Drake.

He concentrated, meaning to throw Drake into the wall as hard as he could, hopefully breaking his bones if not killing him. He did not care, how dare Drake come and start telling him what to do, and then telling him to beg him to survive even though all he really had was a stupid whip for an arm? How dare he even try?

But Drake just smirked and rose his chin up into the air proudly. And he didn't even budge an inch, he stayed where he was standing while Caine scowled and concentrated even harder to throw him across the room. After a full minute of nothing happening and Caine's teeth slowly gritting into one another he let his hand slowly drop and glared at Drake, waiting for an explanation as to why he was still on his feet.

"I have a few new tricks of my own, Caine" Drake smirked and wet his lips "You know the darkness, I went to him, and he gave me power"

"Power?" Caine blinked, now confused

"Yes, it gave me the power to resist your powers, from this day on, nothing like Sam's lights, Dianna's senses, Penny's illusions or even your power will ever work on me again" Drake began to walk forward

"The darkness can just give powers out?" Caine frowned

"I dunno, all I know is it can give a power to resist, meaning you are useless now Caine. The only thing that made you the boss of me was that I had no way to fight your abilities, now it is like you don't even have any, but I still have this" his snake arm uncoiled itself and whiped the table thearetically, breaking some of the wood before he continued stepping up to Caine.

Caine did not know what to do, he stood, frozen and lost. He was right, without his powers he could probably have an even fist fight with Drake but Drake still has his own special arm. Taking a deep breath Caine clenched his feet and took a step forward, he would not just give in like a coward, if he could avoid the arm once he might be able to get close enough to attack Drake properly, then he could very well have the advantage since he would only have one arm to defend himself until he realled his snake arm back in. But he would only have one chance.

Then... He started running towards Drake angrily... And Drake rose his arm to whip it down.