God damn, people. I'm not going to acknowledge reviews where the majority is "Leo die!" This is all happening for a reason. Tone it the fuck down with your anti-Leo protests! It's fun to read because I know something ya'll don't, but do you really have to scream it to high heaven? I get it: You think Leo sucks. Caught it. Loud and clear. Move on.

Anyways, thanks to you readers who hide in shadows, you reviewers who - though I'm glad you feel comfortable enough to loudly express your opinions here - like to repeat yourselves (which is usually fun, but is making Leo yell at me to yell at you that Adam is just as guilty in this as he is; I don't like my various characters to be whining to me about their problems; he also wants me to point out that he was trying to get Adam and Bree to move on in the beginning of Hybrid. Now that he can actually bring Chase back, he's going to), and you who make up this torch-and-pitchfork-wielding mob outside my house. :3 It's nice.

Thewriterswayoflife: *Clears throat*

Rules of Summoning in the Hybrid Universe

1) All demons can be summoned. They can refuse, but it feels like being tied to four horses all running in different directions.

2) All summoning takes place in two circles: A Summoner's Circle - in which the summoner stands - and the Summoning Circle - in which the demon will arrive. Both circles are surrounded by and a part of line patterns. The more intricate and elaborate the pattern, the stronger the demon. No lines cross into the circles. At the poles of the Circles - due north, south, east, and west - lit incense is placed. At the mid-poles - northwest, northeast, southwest, and southeast - and between the two Circles are lit candles. The exact number and set up of these candles varies from demon to demon. More powerful demons require runes - an old style of writing - as an extra binding catalyst.

3) Several spoken words - including its name - single out the demon and bind it, causing it to appear in the Summoning Circle. These words and circle patterns combine with the incense and candles to weave a kind of magic netting along the edges of the Summoning Circle, effectively capturing the demon. Do not step out of the Circle until proper safety measures are in place! Doing so will cause the magic net to effectively shatter, releasing the creature. Weaker entities such as imps usually have summoning words that are only a few sentences long. The stronger the creature, the longer the summons. Some stronger afrits take five or six minutes to call, while more powerful beings - such as Joraed, Soad, and Azazel (deceased) among others very rarely summoned to this plane - could take up to twenty minutes to summon.

4) Do not fuck up. Saying one word out of place or having even the slightest wobble in the Circle lines will create holes in the net. Demons can easily escape through these, which - again - shatters the hold on them; will included. At this point, they will return to Otherworld in a matter of seconds. More than enough time to utterly destroy a summoner.

5) Remember, the summoning words bound the demon's will to the summoner's own. This means that the demon will have to obey orders. Note: Though the words did bind the demon's will to the summoner's, demons are able to interpret the orders as they want while still performing the action. Be careful! A demon whose will is bound cannot be summoned by a different person until it is released. This prevents demons from being summoned continuously, unable to complete their orders due to constant changes in location.

6) Dismissals release the demon safely back into the Otherworld.

Remember that Chase - being only half-demon - will be governed by most of these rules.

But not all...

And get on that story, woman! I wanna read it! D:

DisneyXDGirl: Yes, my plan is working! Let the hate flow through you...

gg180000: Yes. Thank you! You get it! Cocky little buggers. :3

Anyways, lets do this! Chasey?

"..."

Still speechless? Hmm...Mr. Davenport?

"Zara doesn't own Lab Rats or anything you recognize. If you don't recognize it, it's probably hers."

"Can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars? I could really use a wish right now..."

B.O.B. (featuring Hayley Williams of Paramore), "Airplanes"

"...Isn't it ironic; don't you think?...And who would've thought it figures?..."

Alanis Morissette, "Ironic"

Chapter Ten - Gone

Douglas

He stood still, poised in his Circle, his eyes locked on the center of the Summoning Circle nearby.

The Summoning Circle that remained worryingly empty as several tense seconds passed. A few more went by without incident. The scene seeming eerily familiar, Douglas ground his teeth and recited the minute - long summons again.

No ice. No wind. No anything that Chase liked to create when he arrived just for his own amusement.

Douglas shot a sideways look at Oly, who was perched on his shoulders. She frowned and scratched the back of her head, appearing confused. "He was perfectly fine when I was summoned."

"Something's obviously wrong now," Douglas pointed out. The sense of familiarity grew stronger with each passing second. It wasn't that Chase wouldn't come; he couldn't. Chase wouldn't put himself through the excruciating pain of refusing a summons twice just to mess with Douglas' head.

"Leave it to Half-Breed to get himself killed in the span of ten minutes," Oly muttered.

"He could still be alive," Douglas snapped. "Maybe someone else summoned him? You know he can't feel or respond to my summons if someone is holding his will."

"Who else knew his name, genius?"

Oly. Horrifyingly blunt, logical Oly. No one besides Donnie knew Chase's name outside of Oly and Yahn.

A sickening panic rose in his chest, causing him to remain frozen in place for what seemed like eternity. Hell, maybe time stopped.

No.

Oh, Gods, no.

This wasn't happening.

It couldn't be happening.

Chase couldn't be gone.

No cosmic power or omnipotent deity would be so cruel as to allow Chase to be cut down. He was just a kid.

More importantly, Chase was Douglas' kid.

Exactly who had he pissed off to get his whole family killed?!

Chase wasn't dead.

Douglas refused to believe it for the longest time - or was it seconds? It was hard to tell. He wanted to march up to the gates of the afterlife and demand that his son be released. He wanted to howl his grief to the heavens, to anyone who would listen, or he felt like he would explode himself!

Oly tilted her head. "Master?"

"He's gone."

In the end, his voice was barely above a whisper, but it left him feeling hollow and hopeless all the same. Voicing it had made it reality.

Chase was gone. Douglas would never see him again.

In that moment, another realization seemed to sucker punch him in the stomach: This was familiar because he had seen it before.

The night Chase had snuck into bed with him - the night Douglas had had that nightmare - was when he had lived through this very moment before.

Damn it! If he had tried just a little harder to remember his dream, then maybe he would have seen it coming and could have prevented it. He never would have left Chase and Oly in Røros. He would have arranged for both to travel with him.

Like he should have in the first place.

He wanted to strangle hindsight. And irony. The bastards never left him alone!

After a few more minutes of inaction, he finally stepped out of the Circle. With his foot, he began to erase the runes and the more elaborate lines of Chase's Circle.

"Who are you summoning?" Oly asked as, with trembling hands, Douglas began to draw new lines.

He erased a line he had made that was wavy and redrew it more carefully. "Ajiiyahn."

"I come with a warning label. It's not my fault you can't read!"

Unknown

"I hate when people see me at the supermarket and they are like, 'What are you doing here?' And I'm just like, 'Oh, you know: Hunting elephants."

Unknown

Chase

I couldn't speak for several moments. Couldn't make myself move, really. Leo and Adam were standing in the Circle across from mine, their expressions a mixture of joy and fear.

Guess my entrance scared them.

My first thought at this highly-unexpected development was thus: Douglas wouldn't be able to summon me. Whichever one had spoken the words hadn't messed up the part that held my will like a bear trap. That I was back home in the Lab registered with me secondly, but it didn't really sink in due to just how surreal the situation seemed. I could barely wrap my mind around this unexpected change of scene. I finally opened my mouth, but ended up closing it again.

When the hell did these two learn to summon? I was gone for a week.

It was Mr. Davenport who broke the silence by storming in through the tunnel. "Stupid elevator getting stuck for an hour. Adam, Leo: Did you do something to the -" His eyes landed on me, shutting him up abruptly as he froze mid-stride, which resulted in Bree - Yahn perched on her shoulders - running into Mr. Davenport's back. "Chase?"

Adam quickly threw some wires "discreetly" behind him. "We didn't do anything to the elevator," he lied poorly, looking like a deer in headlights. I forgot how flippin' great his voice was.

He needed to speak more words. Seriously.

"Master's going to kill me," Yahn groaned, encasing himself in his wings. "Did they at least do it right?"

You can escape!

Oh yeah! I was finally snapped out of my semi-dazed state as I crossed my arms. "They said 'etorriko denari' instead of 'etortzen.'" I pointed at them. "You are extremely lucky that I'm the one you got wrong. Anything else would be..." I searched for the words. "It would end in you two decorating the Lab with various body parts and internal organs," I finally finished.

Not a bad idea.

"Right; that's why I came down here!" Mr. Davenport suddenly exclaimed. "You two are grounded. Forever."

"But we brought Chase back," Leo protested, gesturing at me. "That's gotta count for something."

"Yeah; you're not grounded for two forevers," Mr. Davenport huffed.

"I warned you!" Yahn withdrew his wings. "I told you that you weren't ready! What's next: An afrit?! It will tear this place up like that museum in Rome!"

"Wait!" I cried out suddenly, stopping the protests that were about to come from Leo and Adam. "What happened in Rome?"

"Something massive just tore the place up," he explained, snapping his beak shut loudly. "Whatever it was just brushed steel and cement walls out of the way like they were nothing." He sighed. "If I didn't know better, I'd say it was a golem."

"Owen was telling me about that," Bree piped up. "Something about priceless art being ruined while the only thing stolen was some stupid wood staff in storage. Strange, right?"

"What's a golem?" Leo asked, wrinkling his nose in confusion.

"Giant clay model - usually human shaped - that was supposedly brought to life and controlled by an owner of some kind through magical means," I responded. I had started a search on everything while Bree was talking. Various bits of information ran behind my eyes. A link to footage of the attack caught my eye. "Here's a video," I said, touching my temple to project it in the air in front of me.

Whatever it was had a shroud of darkness totally surrounding it as it casually walked through the museum walls like they were nothing. It appeared to be searching for something, all right. After about thirty seconds, the video ended. As my projection vanished, Yahn shrugged. "Who knows what that was?"

"Why couldn't it be a golem?" I challenged.

"It's a lost art." Yahn crossed his arms. "I haven't seen a golem in over five hundred years. In fact, no one really knows how to create them anymore. I think there's a family in Spain that passed it down through the generations, but I don't know if there's anyone else who could create one." He was quiet for a second before jumping off of Bree's shoulders. "Master is summoning me."

"Tell Douglas everything you just told us," I said quickly as Yahn began to dissolve.

Yahn tilted his head. "Why?"

"Just do it!"

Yahn looked ready to say something else, but he was gone before he could.

Oh well. Hopefully Douglas connected some dots, too. It would be a pretty big coincidence for everything to just line up like that.

"Where did Yahn go?" Adam asked, his voice tinged with confusion.

"Back to Douglas," I explained casually.

Adam frowned. "He's coming back, right?" At everyone's silence, his face fell a bit. "Yahn's coming back. Right?" Finally, I shook my head. Adam sighed heavily, visibly upset by this turn of events.

I wasn't a guy who enjoyed hugs, but I kind of wanted to give Adam one right then.

Obviously eager for a subject change, Mr. Davenport cleared his throat. "Well, in any case, I'm glad you're home, Chase."

I sighed. "Don't get me wrong: I'm happy to see you guys, too. But we were making serious headway on Krane, and this kind of threw a wrench into things."

"Wait; you guys are hunting Krane?" Bree blurted out. "You didn't leave just for the sake of leaving?"

"No," I answered quickly. Of course, I had to amend myself. "Well, he left because you were going to have him arrested. I did because you guys wanted to 'fix' me," I explained, drawing air quotations. "I don't need 'fixing.' Besides, it's easier to hunt someone when they don't know where you are." I paused before adding, "I did say that I'd be back, didn't I? On that picture?"

You would think that I just revealed the answer of life to them by their expressions. They all nodded slowly.

"Then why did you call me back?!"

Leo suddenly looked sheepish. He shuffled his feet, looking down at the floor. "We wanted you back here."

Adam finally found his voice. "I mean, if you're hunting Krane, then you should be as safe as possible. And when you're here, I can protect you."

Mr. Davenport looked ready to add something, but I spoke before he could. "Adam: You can't protect everyone from everything. Bad things are going to happen. We're going to get hurt. Things are going to go wrong sometimes. It's just life. It's not your job to worry about it constantly."

Adam still looked upset, but it was accented with thoughtfulness now. Wow; something got through to him.

"You can't protect everyone, either, Chase."

I shot Mr. Davenport a sideways look. "I'm not trying to."

"I beg to differ," Bree piped up. "I recall someone running away from home because he was trying to protect us from himself."

I instantly protested. "That was different."

"Was it?" Her eyes locked challengingly with mine, her arms crossed across her chest. After a second, I had to look down. She was right. Total case of "practice what you preach" right there.

"I know you just got back," Mr. Davenport began after an awkward moment, "and I'm glad to see you - really, I am - but I have to ask: Where's Douglas?"

I gave a snort of laughter. "Not happening. Sorry."

"Chase, we won't do anything to hurt him-"

No shit, genius. "I'm not an idiot," I huffed. "Of course you won't hurt him. You'll have him arrested." I crossed my arms and pinned my ears. "I don't know about you, but I don't want to have to visit him in prison."

Leo sighed. "Why are you protecting that psycho? Just tell us where he is."

I gasped in shock. It felt like Oly had suddenly dug her claws into my shoulders and dragged them down my spine as I felt helplessly compelled to answer. "Not here," I hissed out between my teeth when the pain subsided because it was technically right. No wonder demons tended to resent their masters. That fucking hurt. But at least his order was extremely vague.

Leo looked horrified. "Sorry; I forgot about that will thing."

"What did you do?!" Bree was watching me like I'd drop dead or something.

"Leo gave an order. I had to do it. And it stung." I whimpered pitifully.

Hey: It was my first time feeling that. I was unprepared.

"Don't do that again," Mr. Davenport commanded instantly. Jesus; by his expression, you would think that he felt that pain, too.

"He could just escape," Adam pointed out. "Then he'd be free to do whatever. Didn't you mess up, Leo?"

I could escape, but...

"I was wondering why you hadn't gotten out yet," Leo mused.

"Because I don't know what will happen," I mumbled.

I had no idea. Would I go to the Otherworld? Or would I end up back where I was in Røros? Would I be transported to a random point on the planet, or would I even go anywhere at all? Having one foot in two realms was a confusing pain in the tail.

"Then find out," Adam insisted.

What a good idea! Adam was so smart! "Okay; just hold on."

Total silence fell over everyone as I flitted through the planes and turned a very slow, full circle in place, scrutinizing the net for that one little spot, that small chink in the armor. I finally found it above my head. It was very dull compared to the glowing barrier. With a sigh, I loosened into a puff of smoke and drifted through the hole, shrinking down to the width of a strand of yarn. I felt Leo's hold drop off immediately.

Yay, free will!

Tear their throats out with your teeth!

How about no? I thought back as I fully escaped into the open and gathered into my lovely self about ten feet from the Circle.

Moment of truth.

What would happen next? It was like a game show, only the prize was wherever I was going to end up.

Which, as it turned out, was right where I had landed.

Well, then. At least I knew now that I wouldn't go anywhere when busting out of Circles.

"That was anti-climactic," Adam complained.

I shrugged - well, tried to - when Mr. Davenport actually hugged me. Tightly. Breathing became a struggle. "Chase, I'll lock you in a capsule if you ever try to run away again," he threatened.

Love you, too, Mr. Davenport.

There was a problem, though. As nice as it was to be home again - like how one would feel after a long vacation - Douglas was still hunting Krane in Madrid. With no one but two imps. And he had probably tried to summon me before he summoned Yahn, who would undoubtedly tell him where I was. How mad would Douglas be then?

So there I was, stranded halfway across the world and unable to continue our hunt until Douglas tried to summon me again in the hopes that Leo had released my will.

What a fucking beneficial development; am I right?

So Chase is there to stay for now.

And if Leo and Adam hadn't summoned Chase, then Yahn wouldn't be returning to Douglas with potentially useful information, would he?

And poor Adam.

Anyways, feel free to review. Or don't. I'm fresh out of cares. :3

And enjoy.

*Bows and exits*