Author's note: Also, when I originally wrote this story I was very obsessed with several book series and movies (what am I saying? I still am), there will continue to be some subtle and not so subtle references throughout the rest of this fanfic, and not just through names like in chapter one. tell me in the reviews if you catch them.

*also this is back in present time again-close to two years after Hong Kong Longs*

AND BEGIN!

The council took their seats on stage, and Andam stood and faced the crowd. "Although it goes without saying, I shall remind everyone that we must be training now more than ever before. Some of you, you know who you are, have some catching up to do. If we get word of an attack on Draco Isle, you will be notified, and asked to come assist. Now-" he stopped short, taking note of a hand raised in the ninth row. "You have a question?"

The owner of the hand, a 16 year old girl with waist length golden curls and a pair of aviators, stood. "Yes, what actions will you be taking to prevent another massacre?"

The girl spoke with authority and an accusitory tone. She looked vaguely familiar. "Well, miss..." his voice trailed off, looking for a name.

"Tyler, sir." she finished for him.

"Well, Miss Tyler, I assure you, if there was anything we could do we'd be doing it. The attacks are random. And, in case you haven't noticed, we haven't been so lucky in the past."

"With all due respect, that is absolutely idiotic."

The Councilors did their best to stifle the laughs, but the audience, if they tried at all, didn't fare as well. Blood boiling, Andam replied as calmly as he could: "Oh? And who are you, to question my authority? I have not seen your face around here."

"Rose Tyler. I was a friend of Jake."

"The slayer?"

Rose cringed at the sound of a title from her past life. "Yes sir."

"Well, since my suggestions are idiotic, what do you suggest?"

"Well, first of all, the attacks have not been random" she said, as the purple haired child next to her begged her to 'please shut up'. "The...Faceless Man? He has attacked two leprechaun clans, three unicorn herds, and raided two huntsclan armories. Now, the huntsclan part, I'd assume you can figure out for yourself. As for the leprechauns, he is most likely using their gold to hire help, make weapons, and bribe people into siding with him. Unicorns are one of the most useful magical creatures, second only to dragons. Their horns can be fused with other materials, making them nearly impossible to break. Their blood is a powerful health enhancer. Their hair not only sells for large quantities on the black market, where he's probably getting most of his supplies, but is used enhances magical qualities in spells and potions. And the hide of a unicorn will go for thousands, if you know who to go to. It seems pretty obvious to me that these targets were chosen due to their versatility."

Andam did his best to ignore her air of superiority, and not to come across the same way when pointing out her error. "You only named the seven where there were dragons involved. What do you, oh wise one, make of the earlier ones?" He didn't do so well on that...

"See, I thought you might bring that up. So I looked into it. Most of those sightings were near large settlements of Sphinxes. When your enemies are dragons, hunting sphinx is the only logical thing to do." She lowered her sunglasses to the tip of her nose, the way reporters do when asking rhetorical questions.

"But how does this information change the fact that none of our kind seem to be able to face him?"

"It doesn't. But there is one thing that might. In each case, there was very little time for preparation. The enemy had the element of surprise. If, by chance, they decided to attack Draco Isle, the fight may very well be over by the time reinforcements come. I suggest you send out agents to survey the area and look out for any sign of him. Our only chance is to find out who this guy is, and attack him while he's at home."

Andam opened his mouth to object, and closed it again. She was right. A teenage girl is showing me up...

"Also," she continued. "this isn't just your fight. There are plenty of other species who are being affected by this. Even some humans. Let them help you. I suggest you expand the island's training grounds to accommodate for these other magical creatures. And perhaps you could bring some knowing humans in. Some of them may actually be of assistance to you. I'm sure I could round some up."

"Are you volunteering your services?"

"As a matter of fact, I am. I think I know where to start." she said, peering over the rim of her sunglasses.

"Are you quite finished?" Andam asked in exasperation.

"Yes, yes I am." and then she and her cocky grin sat back down.

"Well...I suppose I have nothing of value to say. You are dismissed." Andam said awkwardly, and everyone got up to leave.

Rose was chuckling to herself as Andam paced back and forth, counting down from 100. "Rose, what were you thinking?" Haley stared at her for a moment, and than burst out laughing along with her. "Okay, it was hilarious. So what did you mean 'I know where to start'? You're just about the only human I know that would be useful."

"I have a theory. You see, the huntsclan aren't at every hospital. So there are some that are missed at birth."

"But then they wouldn't have been trained at all, so it won't do much good."

"Ah, but they will. Because I found them...or some of them any way. When I was in kindergarten, there was this boy named Damian McCoy. He saw my birthmark, and got all excited because he had the same one. I ran home and told my 'uncle' that his shoulder matched my hand. That night, he took the poor kid from his bed and shipped him off to the academy. Thing is, if I hadn't found him, he never would have been taken. But if I'm right, he should have a double past as I do. So he's still around, and has eleven years of huntsclan training."

"But that's only one kid."

"Yes, but there was also the girl at summer camp, and the friend of hers she told me about, who I then proceeded to tell the Huntsmaster about. And one last one, a girl I met in the second grade. The same should hold true for them."

"Four of them? Think you can find them?"

"I'll look into it tonight" she promised.

XXX

Haley dropped Rose off outside her bedroom window. As quietly as one can open a squeaky window, she snuck in, and headed for the closet to swap out her jeans for pjs. As she was about to change, the light switch clicked, the room lit up, and she could see her parents standing in the doorway - tapping their feet, impatiently waiting for an explanation. I'm dead. Sighing loudly, her mother gestured for her to sit. "Now...I'm going to remain calm. All I want is for you-"

"TO EXPLAIN WHERE ON EARTH YOU HAVE BEEN!" her father interjected.

"now Steve-"

"SNEAKING OUT, BREAKING CURFEW - BY SIX HOURS NO LESS. WERE YOU MEETING A BOY ROSE? WHAT'S HIS NAME? I-"

"STEVE! For heavens sake! SHHHH! You wanna wake the neighborhood? The last thing I want at 4 am is a bunch of people screaming at me in Chinese!"

"Dad, I can explain!" Rose exclaimed.

"Okay, flatter me" he said. Wait, what exactly would she say? "Sorry dad, I was at a meeting for a war you know nothing about, planning how to kill a wizard who killed 7 dragons, including the boyfriend you didn't know I had." Yeah...that'll work.

"I...was at a funeral. For Jake, my-" oh wait, he doesn't know about Jake. "My friend's brother. I needed to be there for her."

"At FOUR in the MORNING?"

"Well I...forget it. Just ground me."

The head of her twin sister appeared in the doorway. "Could you guys keep it down?"

"Lily, just go back to bed. Rose, we'll talk in the morning" her mother replied, pulling her husband out the door.

Lily sat down on the bed with her. "Sorry I couldn't cover for you. I tried, but once eleven hit I ran out of excuses. Where were you anyway?"

"I already told you. I had a meeting with the committee I belong to. We had some things to discuss."

"Why didn't you just tell mom that?"

"Well...it wasn't exactly local. And I'm sure Mom's school night policy includes international travel."

"International? Where in hell did you go?" Rose, ignoring her question, went to her desk and pulled out her laptop. Peering over her shoulder, Lily saw her pull up the yellow pages and type in an area code. "Manhattan? Who do you need to talk to there?"

Rose scrolled down to "McCoy". "Shit, how many McCoys can there be?" she mumbled, scanning through the fifty hits. Limiting the search to McCoys in her old school district, the list was cut down to six. "Much better" she said, hitting print. Lily watched as she repeated the process with the name Colton. Then she pulled up a picture from their first grade summer camp and scanned through the names at the bottom until she found the two she wanted, and found their last names online as well. After printing off the last two lists, she grabbed all four papers from the printer, and ran down stairs to her dad's home office, dialing Haley's number.

"Rose? You just got back. Did you already find something?"

"Get a pencil ready. I have the names." She read each of them off, along with their phone numbers.

"Dang Rose, I thought you said there was only four!"

"There is. But I can't be sure which one is right. I need you to call each of them and find out where Damian, Alex, Jessica, and Eric are. I can't afford to call them, we don't have long distance. I'm lucky I had enough to call you."

"Okay, I'll get on this as soon as I can. Bye Rose."

"Bye Haley." Rose hung up the phone and headed up to her room to get a few hours of sleep before school.

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