His head felt like it was in a vice. A much too tight pressure all around accompanied by sharp throbs at his temples like his heart had showed up in his skull to have a showdown with his brain and there clearly wasn't enough room for both of them. John was willing to bet this was what a hangover must feel like. He hoped he never had to find out for sure.

He heard voices, too, muffled and far away. He hoped they were actually as far away as they sounded and not distant echoes from his own head. Otherwise it might be time to question his sanity. He tried to work his mind past the sharp throbs in his head to figure out what was being said.

"No, I'm sure of it, it wasn't trolls."

Trolls? What?

"Who was it, then? What did they want with John?"

With him? Who? Trolls? What would trolls want with him? Wait, trolls aren't things that are real...

"I don't know. I didn't have much time to try to figure things out. I had to act fast. I couldn't stand around and ask them their agenda, they were armed and I wasn't. Getting John out of there was my top priority."

Oh right, those guys... Wait. Where was he now? What happened? He remembered a bright flash of green...

He looked around himself. The bed sheets that covered him were decorated with the suits of playing cards, hearts, diamonds, spades, and clubs. There were random posters on the walls, nothing that John really recognized, so he moved on. Across the foot of the bed was a thick board of wood held up by cinder blocks in a makeshift table, a large, HD computer screen resting on top of it. There were things on the floor, too. But John couldn't make them out. Presumably it was the CPU, maybe a printer and other computer gadgets. Maybe there was a speaker?

Across the side of the bed was another table made out of a thick wooden board and cinder blocks. It was littered with papers and some contraptions that he couldn't name, but if he had to guess, they were probably music mixing doodads. A small window, blinds up, glass down, it was dark out, and then a shelf, and from this angle John could just make out edges of a few jars with... things floating in them. He shuddered, oh. Ew.

More posters, another table, this one looking like a proper desk, though it wasn't really used like one. It had more music doodads on it, turntables it looked like, a whole row of carefully lined vinyl records, another poster, a wall scroll, swords on the wall. This was all forming a very clear picture of who this room belonged to. John was actually pretty sure he had seen a lot of these things already when he video chatted with Dave. So this had to be his room...

He was in Dave's room... Dave lived in Texas.

"That doesn't help us, though! Are they going to come after him here?"

"I don't know, Dave. Let me go back and ask them."

Dave... And Jade...? Wait, he had seen Jade! Hadn't he...? She had appeared in a flash of lime green. Wait... that couldn't be right, could it?

"You know, your sarcasm doesn't help us."

"Neither does your panicking, so calm the fuck down!"

"Don't mind him, he's stressing out over sleeping beauty over there."

Over where? Did he mean him?

"How long has he been out now anyways?"

That sounded worried.

"Sixteen hours, thirty one minutes, twelve seconds, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, sevent-"

"That stopped being impressive five minutes after the first time you did it, lil bro."

So that was Dirk...? John was trying to make sense of what he was hearing. Though recognizing speakers didn't help make sense of what they were saying one bit.

"Why hasn't he woken up then?"

Wow, Dave sounded frustrated.

"Well, he did just go through his Change"

"Who called it, by the way? Who fucking called it?"

"Really Dave? You're doing this now?"

"Just tell me who called it, Harley."

A long, suffering sigh, "You did. Jackass," that wasn't Jade who answered, but apparently it satisfied Dave, because he let the subject drop after that.

"It's really almost a miracle that he was able to run from those guys like he did, I was pretty useless for a couple of days after my Change."

Change? What change? And why did it sound like it had a capital 'C' when they said it?

"It probably took its toll on his body and it's trying to recuperate. The news did say the 911 call put John on his roof, and I found him in the woods, blocks away, minutes after that."

News?

"Not to mention John's Change was significantly different from any of ours. Especially since he's a boy."

What change?! And what did his being a boy have anything to do with it? Dave was a boy, if he went through this change what made John's so different?

"Listen to the dog witch, your girlfriend'll wake up soon."

Wow, Dirk was a huge jerk!

"Bite me, fairy prince."

Thank you, Jade.

But he still had no idea what they were talking about. What happened to him? Why had he been almost kidnapped? How did he get to Dave's apartment? What change? And why would his 911 call be on the news? Had he really been out for over sixteen hours? How was it possible for him to be in the same vicinity as his friends when Dave lived half a country away, and Jade always claimed to hail from an uncharted island way out in the middle of the ocean? Had they put him in an airplane unconscious? And how had Jade gotten to his neighborhood in the first place?

He supposed the only way he was going to find out was if he forced himself to get up like he had been avoiding. If he hurt this badly already, he didn't want to risk further movement. Somethings just couldn't be helped, though.

"Nrgh," he'd been right. Even a failed attempt to sit up was too painful.

"John?" Jade's voice got closer, as did the sounds of loudly stomping combat boots.

"Oww," John whined and tried to curl over himself, except that was painful, too, so he stopped that attempt halfway.

"John!" Jade's voice was beside him, "Are you okay? What's wrong?"

John might have felt bad for making her worry like that under normal circumstances, right now everything hurt too much for him to care.

"Too loud," he managed to croak out.

"Oh! I'm sorry," the girl whispered this time lowering both the decibels and the pitch of her voice so that her naturally high pitched tone wouldn't grate on the poor boy's ears, either.

John sighed in relied, chancing an opening of his eyes again, "Thanks..."

His endeavor was rewarded by the sight of a smiling face, darkly tanned, offsetting jewel bright lime green eyes, framed by wide, round glasses and tumbles of long, black hair. She wore a hood designed to look like she had white dog ears at the top of her head. That was just so Jade. He wouldn't be the least but surprised if she had a matching tail stitched onto her long skirt, too.

"Ummm... What happened? How did I get here?"

Jade bit her lip, worrying it between her teeth, "How much do you remember?"

John frowned lightly, "Tell me what happened and I'll tell you if I remember it," he wasn't falling for the lying through omission trick. He'd seen enough movies to know how that trick worked.

"You heard the man," Dirk had appeared by then, leaning against the wall next to John's head. Christ! When had he even gotten there?! "It's best to learn to fight your instincts now anyways, or you'll be coddling him for the rest of your life."

"What the hell does that mean?" John gave the older boy the best incredulous look, one he quickly turned to Jade.

"You're right."

"He's right?! About what?"

Dirk quirked an eyebrow and Jade went back to biting her lip.

Everything was awkwardly quiet.

That was what Dave was greeted to when he came in with aspirin and a glass of water.

"Oh my god, Dave! You are my hero," John sighed with relief as he quickly took both from the blonde, downing one than the other respectively.

"Is that gonna-" Jade started.

"I took care of it," Dave replied before Jade even had to finish her sentence.

John blinked a few times, looking at the innocent looking, nearly empty glass of water, "Did... did you guys just drug me?"

"Considering aspirin is a drug," Dirk said, a hint of amusement in his voice.

John shot him a quick glare, instantly regretting the sudden jerk of his head to do it, "Ngh, fuck."

Dirk snorted softly in amusement.

"Wow, you have no trouble fighting your instincts, huh Dirk?" Jade said with a roll of her eyes.

"What instinct?" John asked with a touch of frustration as the older Strider just shrugged his shoulders.

"John, do you know why those guys were after you?" Dave asked, shooting a glare at his brother, or at least John assumed he did. It was hard to tell with his shades, but his lips were pursed into a thin frown, head angled towards the slightly taller blonde.

"Umm..." The short haired brunette's brows furrowed in thought. He shook his head a little after a moment's thought, already noticing that his overall pain was lessening. Wow, that aspirin worked fast. "I have no idea, but they said they'd been hired to do it. That it was just a job, nothing personal."

The other three shared significant looks.

"Do you think...?" Dave started, then trailed off.

It was still enough for his older brother to understand him, "Not their style," he said with the smallest shakes of his head.

"Who?" John asked.

"Dirk's right. That doesn't sound like them at all," Jade said, nibbling on the pad of her thumb thoughtfully.

"Like who?" John tried again.

"But who else would hire someone to kidnap John?" Dave asked

"You guys!" John huffed.

"I don't know," Dirk said, "But that wasn't how it was done last time."

"What are you talking about?" John asked with increasing frustration.

"Wait, what do you mean by 'last time'?" Dave asked at the same time.

"Are you talking about Jane?" Jade was quick to follow up.

"Jane?" John's brows furrowed in confusion.

"So English told you," Dirk answered Jade.

"Who the fuck is Jane?" now Dave was getting mad, too.

"Yeah, my brother was always pretty bad at keeping secrets. He told me I remind him of her a little," Jade said a bit sadly.

"Yeah... I can see that," Dirk nodded.

"Who the FUCK is Jane?!" Dave repeated, not one to be ignored.

"She was like the rest of us," Jade explained in placated tones, "She was like John. And trolls took her right after her seventeenth birthday."

"So you'll ignore me, but not Dave," John asked, nettled.

Dave rounded on his brother, "So you knew this would happen and you didn't even bother tell me about it? You didn't think it'd be important at all? Give your little bro a head's up on what could happen to his best friend?"

"I guess that's a yes," John groused.

"No one knew this would happen. The chances of this kid being like us, let alone like Jane, were less than one percent. All we had to go by was your gut, and let's face it, it doesn't have the best track record."

"Are you really gloating about your slightly superior ability to marathon eat hot dogs without up-chucking right now?" Dave quirked a brow over the rim of his shades, just barely holding on to his cool.

"It's never the wrong time to gloat against you, little brother. Gotta keep reminding you what's what lest you get a big head. I'm actually doing you a favor. You're welcome."

"You know trolls aren't real, right?" John sighed, knowing already he'd just be ignored.

"You have no gag reflex, congratu-fucking-lations," Dave's eye roll was only noticed by Dirk.

"Guys," Jade sighed.

"Bet it comes in handy for a cock monger like you," Dave went on scathingly, ignoring Jade.

"How come I can hear me?" John huffed, exasperated.

"Maybe I'll show your boyfriend just how handy that can be tonight," there was the barest smirk quirking Dirk's lips

"Dave has a boyfriend?" John asked, glancing around in hopes that someone would actually answer him.

Dave growled in answer. Literally growled, and maybe John was imagining it, but it looked like his hair was bristling and ruffling up like an angry cat's. He could only watch the strange transformation with wide eyes. The blond took a half step towards his brother, fingers twitching like he was fighting the urge to curl them into a fist.

"Dave...?"

Dirk's posture loosened, straightening off the wall and looking ready to attack at any moment.

"Guys, this isn't the time for your macho, sibling rivalry bullshit. Kindly shut both your fuck faces," Jade said in placating tones, stepping between the two of them.

"Hey."

"Get out of my way, Jade. I'm going to kick his ass," Dave spoke quietly, voice like a snake poised to strike.

"Guys, hey."

"No!" Jade stood her ground, glaring the shorter blond down, "you're both acting like idiotic, gay Neanderthals, and I won't stand for it. We have more important things to do right now than waste the night letting you two duke it out on the roof."

"Hey!"

"Stand aside, Harley," Dirk's voice was bone chilling, "This needs settling, and it's going to be settled."

"No, I—"

"HEEEEYYYY!" John's voice suddenly cut through the room like an explosion, underlined with a high, trembling chittering sound that made John stop short, eyes widening as he clapped his hands over his mouth. What was that?!

They were all staring at him now, though. Jade with wide eyes and the bespectacled boy was willing to bet the two blonds were giving him the exact same look behind their shades.

John swallowed hard, trying to get his heart to stop racing. He thought it was starting to work when he realized he was making a purring sound, that while sounding strained, had been soothing him. At least until he realized he was doing it, then it freaked him out all over again, the purring turning into a high pitched and ear splitting whirring sound, almost like mechanical grating together.

"Hey. John, chill bro. You're gonna pop a blood vessel or something." Dave sat himself down on the edge of the bed, trying not to wince at the ear drum bursting sound, and reaching out to touch John's shoulder. He hesitated for a moment, hand hovering, then he placed his hands on John's shoulders, firm but careful and he angled John to look at him. "Look at me. John. Look. At. Me."

It took John a near minute to focus outwardly enough to notice Dave was in front of him, not to mention that Dave was grabbing his shoulders. The loud vibrations wavered a little, and John stared at his best friend with wide, blue eyes.

"That's it, man. Focus on me. Now I'm gonna need you to do what I do. You got me?" Dave kept his voice low and soothing, his Texan accent like slow dripping honey.

John nodded, taking in fast, deep breaths.

"Right, good. Now watch me," the younger blond took a deep breath through his nose, held it for a few seconds, then released it slowly from slightly parted lips. "Just do what I'm doing."

It took three more times before John started following his direction, breathing in a long, shaky breath, then releasing it slowly. It caught in his throat and stuttered in his chest, but he kept trying. Dave rubbed his thumbs in small, soothing circles just below his clavicles and John whined, finally taking a deep, even breath. A few more tries and the whirring slowly turned into soft trills, softer and quieter until he went silent, still following Dave's breathing. His head bowed, resting on the blond's shoulder, ghosting warm breath against his throat

"That's it, just like that, deep breaths. Feeling better...?" Dave's voice was a quiet murmur in John's ear.

The boy nodded, swallowing hard and drawing away slowly, "Y-yeah... Thanks for that, I... I'm okay... I..." he took another deep breath and tried again, "What happened?"

Dave looked thoughtful for a moment, "You went through your Change last night and then strangers broke into your house, literally, and tried to kidnap you." Straight and to the point.


"And do you have any update on the location of the Thief of Rage?"

Slick hated Snowman. Hated her with a passion of a thousand burning suns. From her short, bobbed hair, down to the tips of her god damn legs that went on for miles. The insufferable cow. Bitch acted like she was a god damn queen. Which she had been... once... Whatever, details. It had been a long time ago.

"No, madam, he continues to elude us," Droog answered, all bowed head and respectful tones. God damn suck up, should just get on his knees and fit his face between his hips.

"And the boy?"

"He got away from us, too, your highness," Deuce scuffed his foot sheepishly on the floor.

"Is that so?"

Slick shivered. He didn't have to look up to know that cunt's eyes were on him, sharp and hot as daggers straight from the black smith's forge. So he kept glaring at the floor.

"Let me see if I understand this," Snowman rose fluidly from her old throne, kept not only for sentimentality, but as a token of power, a reminder to any who questioned her just to who they obeyed. Her husband was dead, all power fell to her. "I gave you a simple order, didn't I? Find Jason Egbert. Bring him to me. And you failed in that mission, the four of you against one mere human man."

Her steps were silent as she approached them despite the needled tip heels she wore, fluid, precise, deadly, an expert huntress approaching prey that knew it couldn't escape.

"You came back not only with your tails between your legs, but licking your wounds from that mission, if I recall correctly," her voice was soft as silk, deadly and poisonous.

Even Boxcars cowed at her presence, nodding his head once and keeping it down. Fucking wimp.

She stood before each of them, laying down her accusations, facing them with their failures.

"The best men my armies had to offer, a bunch of bumbling, fumbling fools who couldn't even fetch a simple human for me," she spat the words out vehemently, "I could have sent out trained monkeys to do your job and they would have turned out better results. So tell me, why do I even bother with you useless lot?" Deuce shook in his boots. Poor idiot.

"But I am nothing if not a magnanimous leader. I gave you another chance to redeem yourselves. A simple task. A pawn could have done it. Capture the Thief of Rage's son. Use him to lure him out. But you failed me in that, too. My most trusted. Is this all I can expect from you?" Her voice was soft, ice slowly rising, freezing blood in their veins. Droog could only bow his head shamefully.

"Is that about the gist of it all?" Snowman stood before Slick now, and he could feel the heat of her gaze wishing it could literally obliterate him where he stood.

"Ya forgot about the part where while we were all risking our necks out there in the human word you were sitting your fat ass on this throne, filing your claws, bitch."

The slap was just a warning, but it echoed loudly in the room, and the burning sting of open gashes felt somewhat satisfying.

"My poor, dear, mentally challenged Slick. Always forgetting just who it is you're speaking to," the former queen licked a line of bright red blood that dripped off her claws and down her fingers, relishing the coppery taste on her tongue. Slick found himself licking a small trail that reached the corner of his mouth, too, the action not missed by the former queen.

Slick was about to tell her he knew just who he was talking to, but the look Droog gave him was just enough to keep him from digging his grave any deeper tonight.

"Don't forget who it was that took your eye from you, Slick. I could take the other, too... And your arms, your legs, your tongue just to shut you up for once, anything I want. You belong to me. You all belong to me, and your sole purpose in life is to do what I say."

"Yes, your majesty," came three voices in chorus, mixed with a resentful "Yeah, yeah."

It was enough to satisfy the woman, though. She sashayed her way back to her throne, smoothing down her pencil skirt as she took her rightful seat once more, crossing one silk stocking clad leg over the other. She tugged silky black locks behind a pointed ear and regarded her 'top soldiers' again.

"I trust you not to fail me again. I cannot continue to withhold our failures from our Lord. This is too important. The payout for this job can rebuild our kingdom. Find the boy, bring him to me. This will surely lure out the Thief, and I will deal with him myself. Now get out of my sight."

"Yes, your highness." The four of them shuffled out of the room.

"Are you trying to get yourself killed?" Droog's voice was sharp and reprimanding in Slick's ear.

"Bitch won't kill me yet, she wants my cock too badly to not get a taste of it before she offs me," Slick replied with an easy shrug and a dirty smirk.

"You're a pig," Droog sighed, resigned to the fact.

"What are we gonna do now?" Deuce asked timidly as he tried to keep up pace with the rest of them. It was hard being so short. It was hard and no one understood.

"I say we don't play nambypamby, pussyfootin' games next time, and we just grab the kid by force. He'll survive a broke bone or two, yeah?" Boxcars said, cracking his knuckles.

"We'll have to find out where he was taken to first," Droog hummed thoughtfully, "And the girl... She looked familiar to me. I don't think it was any coincidence that she suddenly showed up to rescue Egbert's child. This will require some research."

"Uuuughhhh, no. Fuckin' kill me now," Slick slapped his hand over his face and pulled down, rubbing his face roughly.

"No one organizes information better than you, Spades Slick. Your contribution to our mission is greatly appreciated," Droog patted his shoulder with a light smirk. Fucking prick.


"My what?" John asked, blinking rapidly. Change. They kept mentioning that word, but he still had no idea what they meant by it.

"You don't have to hide it anymore, John," Jade said with a smile, "You really don't, because all of us are like you! No one will understand what you're going through more than us."

He gave her a blank look.

"I get the feeling that Pointdexter honestly has no clue what the fuck we're talking about," Dirk said with a small degree of amazement, looking John over with genuine surprise.

"What he said," John motioned to the older blonde, "Even if he said it like a completely insufferable douche taco.

"You're shitting me," Dave breathed out.

"I shit you not," John huffed, "What is this Change you're all talking about?"

The other three all shared looks again and John narrowed his eyes at them.

"You... really have no idea what we're talking about?" Jade asked hesitantly.

"I just said I didn't, and I don't!" John groused.

Another tri-shared look.

"Stop doing that and just tell me what you're talking about!" They were tugging at his last nerve.

"He doesn't know."

"What do we tell him?"

"What else can we tell him? The truth, obviously."

They took turns looking at one another, silently debating who would be the one who dropped this bombshell on Egbert after everything he'd been through already.

In the end, it was Jade who approached him.

"John... I want you to reach up and touch your head like this," Jade raised her own hands and rested them on top of her head, on either side of her hood's dog ears.

"... Ooookaaaay," frowning, John copied his friend and placed his hands on top of his head. He froze, eyes slowly going wide.

"Here we go again," Dirk murmured, and Dave anxiously shifted closer, looking torn between stepping between John and Jade or not.

Nestled among the wild locks of thick black hair John felt a nub on either side of his head. Small, but sharp at the point, just long enough that his hair probably didn't hide the tips of it.

Horns...

John had horns.

He never had horns before. He hadn't had horns last night, he was sure of it.

He grabbed hold of them roughly and winced, biting back a yelp of pain when he tried to pull them off hard. They didn't budge but to yank his head up and back along with them.

"John...?" Jade placed a soothing hand on the boy's shoulder, only to gasp and step back when he tried to suddenly push up to his feet.

"John, don't! You shouldn't be moving around, you just went through the Change, you're going to be weak and dizzy for a couple of days!" Jade tried to explain, tried to push John back onto the bed, but the boy was having none of it.

With a growl and a bearing a teeth that had the girl flinching, John shoved Jade back hard, sending her flying to the opposite wall.

"Jade!" Dave was quick to get to her side, helping her sit up from the heap she had fallen to.

"Holy fuck," Dirk could only watch in morbid fascination.

He hadn't thought he had used that much force, but right now John didn't care. A mirror. He had to find a mirror. Getting to his feet was hard, his everything ached, the world spun, and for a second he thought he was going to fall back onto the mattress, but he managed to stay on his feet. It didn't make walking any easier, though. It was like he had lost his center of gravity. Just like last night when he had first tried to get out of bed when he heard the sounds of attack.

But he pushed past the dizziness, past the awkward, and past the need to curl up in a ball and heave out everything in his stomach.

Dave had a full length mirror on the inside of his opened closet door. John nearly cracked his skull into it, thumbs cracking the edges of it as gripped the sides of the door. Two things stood clear at the center of the chaos of thoughts suddenly making up John Egbert's mind.

One: He wasn't wearing his glasses, but he could see everything crystal clear (when the world wasn't spinning at least).

Two: The horns (oh god, they WERE horns!) on his head were tri-colored. Like candy corn, a deep reddish orange at the base, a closer to normal orange at the center, and a yellow orange at the tips. They curved back, and the end seemed to arch back up very subtly.

Oh, and a surprise thought number three: Blood seeped down the edges of the mirror from where the cracked shards bit into his skin. It was blue.

"Kid?" Dirk was the one to approach him now. As the one with the fastest reflexes, he'd be able to dodge another bout of mangrit. Dave was helping Jade back to her feet now, watching the interaction carefully.

But John didn't hear him, looking at his thumb, where beads of blue welled up from a small wound and trailed down the length of his digit to pool into his palm.

"Hey," Dirk grabbed the panicking boy's shoulder. No amount of training to improve his reflexes could have prepared him for the sudden gale force wind that knocked into him and sent him flying back to hit the wall and crumple onto Dave's mattress.

John turned to look at him, eyes wide, glowing yellow, powerful, unseeing. A crack suddenly spider-webbed itself along the length of Dave's window accompanied by angry howls of wind. One, two, three, fracturing and multiplying until it suddenly burst out and let in tornado winds. They picked up stray selfie photographs first, then larger bits of paper laying around, tumbling clothes and shoes in sloppy circles. It's intensity only built up from there, liftng and moving heavier objects, jars of dead things falling off Dave's shelf, smashing to the ground as the wooden construct pitch forward, narrowly crushing Jade and Dave himself.

"John!" Dave called out past the loud whistling of too much wind trying to get into his room at once from the limited opening of his window. He protected his face and more vulnerable points from flying objects with his arm, dodging others.

But he wasn't heard.

John Egbert had checked out.

"JOHN!"


I struggled a lot with this chapter, the words just didn't seem to flow. I'm sorry if this chapter seems a bit forced and stilted.

But please do review. Let me know what you think so far!