Prologue

The sun had been taken prisoner. Once warm, welcoming, and friendly she now found herself held hostage by heavy dark rain clouds. Trapped in a foggy gray cage, she dared not shine and slowly her touching orange light dissolved leaving the world below her murky and dull, like a gloomy black and white horror movie.

To add to the touch, a low fog started rolling in from the cluster of high snow covered mountains. They engulfed the ground in their dark haze making it impossible to see the muddy ground. Not a single flower thought to bud in this sunless world. Death linger in the air, tormenting any unsuspecting soul. The only redeeming quality of this hellish earth was a long forgotten castle that had lived to see much better days. Though inside a certain aged and classic dust covered beautifully decorated walls and marble floors, the outside of the small landmark had undergone some war. Weathered and unattended for centuries, the once stone walls had chipped and crumbled away, and whatever had survived the war was now covered in moss and ivy. Yes, Death had his clutches on the land. He was proud of the fact he'd run off all creation long ago, and anyone foolish enough to step foot in the premises, he'd happily chase away.

As if on cue, a slender silhouette shaped through the thick gray cloud. The strut suggested that of a female girl, and as she approached, it became clearer that Death could not claim her. The fog began retreating revealing her true form. A woman in her mid-twenties.

Compared to the castle walls she was small, barely reaching the five feet mark. Her entire frame was delicate and offered few curves, and she dressed them well with a smart-but-casual pinstriped dress-suit. To give her a couple more inches, she wore her raven black hair in a high sock bun and sleek black wedges. Her eyes were dotted black and crinkled whenever she smiled, and her skin a fake brownish-tan suggesting she had some kind of wealth behind her. Her scanned the area quickly and frowned when she found it not quite to her standards. Without hesitating, she fished into her pockets and pulled out a top-of-the line cell phone.

"Don't bother." Came a gruff deep voice. She jumped, which made the speaker chuckle. "Calm yourself, it's only me."

"Huckleberry!" The woman scoffed cramming her phone back into her pockets. She spun on her heels to face him and glared. "Took you long enough to get here."

The man called Huckleberry frowned as he eyed the woman. He was handsome and tall with bulging muscles lining his arms, torso, and legs. And unlike the woman, he decided to dress down. He wore tight fitting skinny jeans, a loose T-shirt, and a black pea coat to protect himself from the harsh environment. His skin was flawlessly dark, and his teeth contrasted it beautifully. The woman eyed him lustfully and shivered. His frown deepened.

"Christina, maybe we should wait inside for the producers. You look cold." He noted offering her his arm. She shook her head no dropping her gaze to the ground.

"I'm fine." She spat. "It's just, I haven't seen you in a while."

"Nine years." He nodded thoughtfully. "You look well."

"You're not too shabby yourself." She fired back. He smirked.

"How's your dad?"

"An egotistically asshole as always." She sneered. "And yours?"

"Still a dimwitted lug of a guy with a twisted sense of humor." He murmured. "How did we survive?"

"I ask myself that every day." Christina said exhaling slowly. A swirl of cool smoke escaped her thin lips waking her up to reality. She wrapped herself in her arms and trembled. Without missing a beat, Huckleberry peeled his coat off his back and draped it around the small woman. She blushed and pulled away. "That offer to go inside is sounding better and better." She grumbled. "Let's go."

"I forgot to ask," Huckleberry started following the woman into the ruins, "what do you go by these days?"

"Oh, right." She paused. "Tina, actually. It drives dad nuts. He was so proud of himself for making such a beautiful baby, he named me after him. Can you imagine? It's like a slap in his face whenever someone calls me Tina instead of Chris." She let out a soft chuckle, Huckleberry smiled and took the lead pulling open the grand double doors for her. They let out a high pitch screech and spit a cloud of dust in their faces. Tina gritted her teeth grinned up at Huckleberry as she entered and was instantly greeted by an overwhelming amount of darkness and an odd musky scent. She coughed. Huckleberry yanked out his phone and switched the flashlight on exposing the inside of the castle. Tina pouted out her bottom lip and dropped back to Huckleberry's side. "So what do they call you these days? Huckleberry is a bit of a mouthful. Do you prefer Huck or Berry?"

"Doesn't matter." He shrugged. "Just please refrain from calling me Chef. It's obnoxious."

"I'll call you Huck." Tina smirked cocooning herself in his jacket. "So now what?"

"Now we sit and wait." Huck breathed. "I doubt we'll get a signal way out here, so the best we can do is sit and try to keep busy."

"Great." Tina snarled. "So, Mr. Hatchet, care to catch me up on the past nine years of your life? Do you have a wife? Any kids? I didn't see a ring-"

"Oh, hold on there! Quick to the deep things as always, are we? No, no wife and no kids as far as I'm aware. What about you, Ms. McLean?"

"No." She smiled happily. Huck looked at her sideways placing his makeshift flashlight between them. "No one especially exciting in my life. I'm a twenty-five-year old college dropout living off daddy's money until my acting career takes off. This hosting job is the one shot I have at getting myself out of my father's image." She stopped herself wondering for the first time how Huck had wound up in the mad mix of things. Reading her thoughts, he laughed.

"I'm here for similar reasons." He admitted carefully. "I guess both of our fathers kind of screwed us over, didn't they?"

"Yeah." Tina laughed. "No kidding."

Author's Notes:

Hello beautiful readers! If any of you are especially gifted in art, I personally challenge you to sketch out a cover photo for this story! That said, I hope you enjoyed the prologue! In case you didn't pick up on it, Huck is Chef's son and Tina is Chris' daughter. Isn't that precious? So, why haven't they seen each other in nine years? And what are they doing alone in a creepy castle? Review! Comment! Don't let the story die!

Also, since this is a "Next Generation" story, the characters you shipped while watching the show will kind of be revealed periodically throughout the story as well as their offspring. Of course, I don't own any of the TD characters, but I did create Tina and Huck and most of (all) the other people who enter into the plot depending whether or not this story survives.

Anyways, I love you all! Thank you for your support!

Peace, Love, & Drama,

-thehugbandit