So sorry about such a long wait, I honestly didn't think that I was gonna continue this. Also, I apologize if it seems to have taken a completely different direction than where it was going, but this was my original idea and I'm sticking with it the best I can! Hope you enjoy it!

~Alika~

Ally realized two things about an hour later. Well, it might have been more than two things, but they were the main two. One, the trap was too small for a human to fit in, even one of her size, and two, she could just cut through the trap. Adamantium claws. Heck, she could just claw through the trapdoor!

But that might not be a good idea, because she didn't know what was below her. She decided to tap into her senses and listen below her. She didn't hear anything… That was odd, normally a house was moving, creaking subtly as it shifted the weight. This house was either insanely well built or this room was absolutely, completely soundproof. Neither sat well with her.

Experimentally, she raked her claws over the trapdoor, wincing as the sound of metal on metal after about an inch. What was this room built for, it was a death trap! She had barely scratch the surface and she could tell there wasn't a way in hell that she would be able to lift it if she HAD been in human form!

On to the trap, then. The trap was like a cage, going from the piano to the trapdoor and keeping anyone from getting to it… or getting out, like she wanted to do.

She clawed at the cage, relieved when it gave way with little grating on her ears. She tore out a space that she could squeeze through, scrambling out of the trap finally and away from the claustrophobic piano of death.

Speaking of which, how did the piano even get up there? Had it been built up here? She clambered up onto the stool and somehow managed to push open the lid after a few times. She stared at the ivory keys, wondering if it would actually work if she tried to play it, or had the trap taken up the innards of the instrument.

She pressed her paw to a random key, tail wagging when she heard the clear, though untuned note ring out from the old thing of beauty. She pressed another key, unknowingly opening the window but not noticing because she was too absorbed in playing. She worked to actually play out a song, an old nursery rhyme that Bets loved but Ally had forgotten the name of.

It was a good thing she was absorbed, too, because without that, she probably would have been trapped in that attic for a long, long time.

~Victor~

He stopped paying attention to the present company upon hearing a soft, out of tune note drifting through the air, coming from the house. That didn't sit right with him because all of the pianos were tuned… all but one, but it was in the attic, and no one could get into the attic, the window was too small to crawl through and the piano was over a heavy steel trapdoor!

Still, he looked up at the window, and sure enough, it was open and the music was coming straight through it. Doing a head count, he noticed one certain cub was missing. Of course. Just can't stay out of trouble. Wait a minute, how did she get through the traps in the attic? Oh, she was gonna be in so much trouble!

"Jimmy, yer cub wandered off," he growled. Logan cocked his head to the side, listening to the music as well and finding its source.

"Weren't ya just saying somethin' about the attic being a death trap?" he asked.

"Yup."

"Then why is the kid playin' the piano and gigglin' about it?"

"Ya can't get out of the attic," Victor growled, ignoring the piano. "That window'll close and the trap's too heavy for her ta lift."

"Oh, I could go get her, Mr. Creed!" Kitty said eagerly.

"Half-pint, don't ya-" Logan began to warn, but the ghost-like mutant was already gone, right through the wall. Logan pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration, muttering under his breath about teenagers and their inability to listen.

Victor growled and cuffed his younger brother for his stupidity and ordered everyone to go back inside. Might as well. Harder for ol' bucket head to find them if they weren't out in the open. The Blackbird was gonna be a problem, though.

~Alika~

Ally looked up as Kitty passed through the wall and began to sneeze horrifically, "Does anyone, like, ACHOO, ever, like, I don't know, ACHOO, clean this place? It's like, ACHOO, like, ACHOO, so dusACHOO!"

"I suppose not. You can't get in here, really, after all," Ally replied.

"Well, like, come on, let's like, ACHOO, get out of here!" Kitty suggested, picking Ally up and phasing through the floor, all the way to the first floor. Ally wiggled out of the teen's arms and to the ground, slipping slightly on the polished wood.

"KITTEN!" Creed roared, making both Kitty and Ally flinch back.

"Um, like, you're on your own," Kitty said as she raced through the wall to safety.

"ALIKA!"

"Oh, would you two stop your shouting?" Ally scoffed, glad that she had had time to restore her energy when she was in that trap so she could shift to human. She had a feeling that it would be better if she had a bigger, more maneuverable size for this.

Bets, always scared of raised, angered voices, instantly teleported to her sister upon hearing them, burying her head into her shirt and whimpering.

"Hey, Bets, it's okay. You're okay," Ally soothed, going down to her sisters height and hugging her close. "Hey, they aren't yelling at y-"

"Cub, do ya know how fuckin' dangerous that was?" Victor growled as he stormed into whatever room they were in, which looked like some old, empty, rich mansion home, dark, polished wood floors with cream colored walls. Really, it was kind of bland.

"Would you stop with the growling, you're scaring Bets," she snarled right back at him.

"Ally, no, please don't fight with them," Beta pleaded.

"Bets get out of here. Go talk with the new people, okay? Just don't listen," Ally ordered.

"But-"

"Beta, I said go," she warned. Bets whimpered but did as she was told, teleporting away in a shower of golden vanilla. "It's not like I knew that the attic was a death trap. Why do you even have that stuff up there? It makes no sense!"

"Ya don't just go wanderin' around, Kitten! Yer gonna get hurt and-"

"I heal, it's not like gettin' hurt matters!" Ally sneered, interrupting him.

"Did you just interrupt me?" her uncle snarled.

"Yes, and I will do it again. You are nothing to me. You are not pack, and I have no reason to listen to you. I don't give a damn if we're related by blood. If it weren't for the fact that Bets is in danger by that metal guy you were talking about, then I would have had her teleport us out a while ago!"

"Listen here, ALIKA," he sneered the word disdainfully, "whether ya like it or not, we are pack and yer at my house, so yer gonna follow my rules-"

"Not likely," Ally scoffed, rolling her eyes with disdain.

"Ya either drop that attitude or I make yer life a living hell," Victor threatened.

"Been there, done that, give it your best shot," she sneered right back, crossing her arms defiantly and forgetting that the other feral was twice her size, considerably older, had a short temper, and was FAST. Of course, she had also forgotten that her father had been looking for her and her arguing with her uncle had led him to be able to pinpoint exactly where they were.

"Creed, ya had better not lay a claw on her," Logan warned, catching his older brother's claw and shoving him back.

"Get outta my way, Jimmy," Creed ordered. Ally was no idiot and took this time to make her escape, dashing through the halls and out the door, down the gravel path and into the woods, just running. She didn't know where, but base instincts drove her away from the two rivalling alphas. The same instincts that insisted her sister was safer where she was. Safer than being with her.

She didn't even think as she dove into a deep river about five miles away from the Creed residence, which she had run in about five minutes. Holding her breath, she let the current take her away, resurfacing once or twice, but otherwise staying submerged. No nightmares threatened to take her, just fear and instinct to run away from the danger.

She snapped her eyes open, having little to no memory of how she had gotten to where she was now. All she knew was that she was lost, and that she was alone. Vague memories of Creed swiping at her and then just running were all that she could come up with for a timeline of the past day. How far had she run? What country was she in? Actually, she hadn't known what country she was in before, so scratch that…

Why had she run?

"Safe," her beast said within its confines, all too smug to be innocent.

"Safe? You call this safe? DON'T YOU GET THAT YOU RUIN EVERYTHING!" she screamed out loud.

A shimmery outline of a darker version of herself appeared before her eyes. Ally had long accepted that it was just a figment of her imagination, from all the test the scientists had done to her brain, but it didn't make it any better.

Like her, the apparition had black and gold hair, cut in the same way, choppy and unkempt, but unlike Ally's straight hair, the other's was curled, like it had been long ago in New Orleans. Instead of the multicolored irises that distinguished Ally even more, the shade's were pitch black and cold. Its bloodied lips curved upwards in a predatory grin that revealed stained canines that tapered to deathly daggers. Ally flinched as a clawed hand was raised and gently run across her cheek, hating the other.

"We are safe. Littermate is safe. Don't be scared," the other assured.

"This isn't safe, and I'm not scared!" Ally scoffed as though thoroughly offended by the thought. In truth, she was scared, because she had no way to get back. She didn't know where she was, after all, and she must have hidden her scent trail, there was no trace of it.

"Not now. But when it gets dark out, you always get scared. Because that is when we hunt best. So much fun-" the other cooed out.

From what Ally had researched about ferals, the feral side was never so intelligent. Never so good with words, able to think about more than base needs. No. Hers had to be different. It had to be smart and it had to be… vindictive and cruel, and just plain… scary. Yes, Ally was terrified of her feral side. The side that could appear before her and taunt and mock her with all of her insecurities.

"It is not fun to kill and to hunt," Ally spat, breaking out of her thoughts and cutting off her other side.

"Oh, you don't know that. You've never tried it," her other side reminded.

"I don't WANT to try it!" she protested back, sitting down on an outcropped rock indian style. "Oh, look at me, I'm talking to thin air," she sighed under her breath in frustration.

"Hunt."

"Go to Hell."

"Hunt!"

"Go to Hell!"

"HUNT!"

"GO THE FUCK TO HELL WHERE YOU BELONG!" Ally screamed, curling into a ball and closing her eyes, hands over her ears as though trying to block out the world.

The apparition dissolved unnoticed to her, but not before it huffed, crossed its arms and rolled its black eyes like an unruly teenager that had a parent that refused to listen to them. Ally slowly uncurled, listening to her surroundings. She couldn't keep cowering like a little kid, she had to figure out where she was. Actually, what would be better was if she could find a phone. Then she could call Jared and ask him where she was. That was probably a better plan. She COULD also call Derek, but she didn't really want to at the moment. If she called him, then she would have to go back to wherever Creed was and she didn't like that idea at all.

So she walked North, ignoring the coolness that began to creep up on her from the late summer night. It didn't bother her, she couldn't really be affected by the elements with her healing factor. She continued walking long into the night, ignoring the groaning in her stomach that seemed unsatisfied with the wild berries she had found to eat. It hungered for something much more sustaining, but Ally wasn't going to go after her mother's wishes, even though she was long dead. She would not hunt and she would not eat meat. No matter how much she wanted to.

She snarled softly to herself as she paced the edge of the water, not wanting to cross the obstacle. It was deep enough that she would have to swim, but it was also the shallowest part of the river. Just beyond it was a small cabin that had electricity going through it. She could smell its coppery scent. She just hoped that there was a way for her to contact Jared, a phone or a computer. Wow, maybe she should have listened to the techie when he told her she should be carrying a phone at all times, but she had refused because she didn't want him to be able to track her at all times.

She finally just made her way through the water, waiting to dry off a bit in the chill of the night before tracking it into the little cabin in the woods.

Now, most people would tell you that you should never even look at an old cabin in the middle of the woods, that it could be possessed or a mass murdering, psychotic, serial killer was living within, just waiting for stupid, lost travellers to fall into their evil den of death, and Ally knew that. She had actually narrowly avoided a few of those kinds of things in her travels over the summer.

The young feral was hardly fearful of whatever COULD be in the cabin. It was empty. It was just a modernized hunting cabin that was most likely connected to a generator. The owner hadn't been there in a few days and probably left the machine on by accident. It seemed to have been an inheritance or a family owned cabin, too, because it was old. Older than it had any right to be.

The cabin was made of logs that needed some tender love and care to get rid of the rot that ate away at it, there was climbing nightshade overtaking the side of it, and weeds and grass hid it from view. The roof was in fairly decent shape, no holes or anything, but Ally would bet twenty dollars that it leaked when it rained.

She blinked up as a raindrop hit her nose, as though summoned by her thoughts. She had only just gotten dry and didn't want to go through that again, so she raced into the house, slamming the cracked wooden door hard enough that it rattled on its rusted hinges. Not a moment too soon, either, because again, as though it were summoned, thunder rumbled across the sky, followed by lighting crackling and illuminating the darkness. Ally could have sworn she saw her other self standing in the shadows, though, they were definitely not noncorporeal. Noncorporeal beings didn't cast shadows.

She brushed it off as bad lighting and the fact that she was still rattled from her earlier ordeal. She spun back around to look around the interior of the cabin, which smelled of dust, dirt, and alcohol, looking no better than the outside. It did have a few electronics, though. A phone, a laptop, and fridge, all connected to the generator that was in the corner. A bed dressed in thick, warm quilts and softer, wool blankets was pushed into the corner as almost an afterthought. At the foot of it was a large chest with a heavy, rusted lock on it, indicating that it had not been opened in many, many years. Curiosity drew her to it, making her lightly run her hands over the almost ancient wooden engravings on it. She giggled as the image of a treasure chest come to mind while looking at it.

She raided through the dusty cabinets and cupboards for something she could use to break the lock, finding a shiny, relatively new and well cared for hunting knife hidden underneath the fridge. It had probably fallen and gotten kicked under there at some point. She used it to pried open the lock, the snap echoing around her was startling, but nothing to worry about. That's what she told herself, at least, though it sounded more like the sound of a bone snapping somewhere near her than breaking metal. Again, she put it off as her imagination. There shouldn't be anyone here. She could neither smell or hear anything that would indicate it!

She pushed the top of the chest open, frowning at its contents. There was a bound book that needed a key to open it, or she could just cut through the leather, some old clothes, a different book, a few dusty knives, charcoal pencils, gold colored coins, a few other knick-knacks. Nothing that seemed to be very interesting. Feeling slightly guilty for ruining the bound book, she sliced through the leather to reveal its contents. She blinked in surprise at the detailed charcoal pictures that unfolded before her eyes, telling of a soldier in World War II that had joined because his friend had been killed at Pearl Harbor and an aunt had been taken to a Concentration Camp in Germany. Auschwitz.

Ally ignored the phone and the rain and the storm as she sat on the bed, reading the words that were scribbled in between the pictures as she learned the unnamed man's first hand experience with the War. He had met Captain America! Wow! But… Ally bit her knuckles as she read about how his arm had been blown off and he had nearly died, but by some miracle, another soldier had saved his life and patched him up enough to live and he was sent home. He had come to this cabin for some peace from all the pitying looks. He had eventually met a girl and settled down to start his family, leaving this cabin to his eldest son, who would leave it to his own son, and so on and so forth.

She smiled and set the book to the side, picking up the other book that was a photo album of actual pictures that had been taken with a camera. She learned that the soldier had been diagnosed with brain cancer and he had died… a few days ago if the dates were correct. He had been buried here, at his beloved cabin that had been his father's father's father's creation. This place really was old.

She put the items back where they had come from, closing the chest and setting the knife on the pillow of the bed. Ally walked over to the phone dialing Jared's number and waiting patiently for him to pick up.

"'Ello!" the bright, cheerful voice on the other end of the line greeted.

"Jared, it's me. Where am I?" she replied.

"What, love? No 'ello, Jared, it's so nice to hear from you! I'm in a bit of a jam, could you help me out here? Just, 'Jared, it's me. Where am I?' I'm hurt, Ally!"

"Hello, Jared, it's so nice to hear from you! I'm in a bit of a jam, could you help me out here?" Ally repeated, long use to her close friend's antics.

"There it is, love! Now, let's see. Not here. Not there. DEFINITELY not THERE. Ah. That's where you are! Ally, love, guess where you are!" Jared ordered.

"In the middle of the Canadian wilderness," she answered.

"-In the middle of the Canadian… oh, well, that was disappointing," he pouted.

"Jared, would ya be so kind as to focus. Be a dear and tell me where is the closest town?" Ally asked.

"Well, no town, but there is a rather pretty mansion about sixty miles away from your current location. One moment, there are security cameras so I'm gonna find some people to scan!"

Ally huffed into the phone getting an idea as to who lived in that mansion. "Let me guess. A certain Victor Creed," she guessed.

"Damn. Derek lives HERE?" Jared demanded in shock.

"Focus, cher, do ya have satellite coverage here? Like, video?"

"I will in a moment, love. What do you need it for? Oh… So… do you happen to know two very grumpy looking neanderthals that are heading in your direction?" Jared asked, understanding the need once he quite mistakenly noticed the two.

"Big ugly's Derek's father. The other one is mine," Ally admitted.

"Oh… well. They seem…"

"Your calling them neanderthals was fairly accurate, Jare. I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't want to go back there, but I don't want to leave Bets there and apparently there is a crazy metal controlling guy after me because he wants to be immortal, so I don't want to be alone because… well… you know…" Ally trailed off, voice catching.

"Well, love, you know me and my family always has a hidey hole somewhere near you," Jared reminded.

"Yeah, I still don't understand how that works. What exactly does your family do?"

"If I've told you once, Ally, I've told you a million times, I can't tell you exactly what they do. They run a high powered security firm. That's as much as I can tell you, love!" he protested.

"It was worth a try. One of these days you'll slip up and I'll find out exactly what this 'security firm' actually does," she joked.

"Only if you went to work there, love. Anyways, if you would like, I could fly up there and pick you up. I could call Derek and bring him, too. Whole gang back together!"

"Jared, you live in London over the summer and Derek ain't gonna leave. He's a little daddy's boy from what I've seen," Alika growled unhappily.

"Oh, no he's not. He's called me about eight times in the past week complaining about it. He and his dad don't really get along. Especially after his mutation really started showing up," Jared denied.

"Well… fine. But how are you gonna come pick us up? I mean, sixty miles is gonna be nothing to them! I can stay here until tomorrow at most and then they'll be here."

"That's why you won't be staying there, love. You need to head into the city, it's about forty miles away from you to the Northwest and it has an airport. There will be a plane waiting for you, love, and it'll take you to London. I'll call once you are on the plane to go there as well. I'm sure it'll go over well with your fathers, finding out that you're both gone!"

Ally smiled at Jared's words, knowing he was always one to cause mischief and watch everything play out in his head. He had, on more than one occasion, started laughing out loud in the middle of class because of something he had done, but no one ever suspected him. Mainly because he always had other people do the dirty work. He wasn't mean about it though. He helped people, or he paid people to do it. Mob Boss was what he was called at school, though he prefered to be called System. Him and his code names.

"Alright. Will I know what plane it is when I get there?"

"Of course you will. Same plane as always."

Ally grinned. She may hate flying, but that plane pretty much nullified her fears. Silent as a mouse and built to be able to be hit by a bomb and still fly smoothly, it was the best the world had no idea it offered.

"I should see you soon, then, cher," Ally said, hearing his likewise farewell and hanging up the phone.

She knew that the best way to go would be to start moving immediately, but she really didn't like the rain. Well, it was either rain or potentially not leaving soon enough to get away from her family. She couldn't help but feel like she was going through her mother's death all over again. The running. The sorrow. The anger. The fear. Leaving Bets behind because it was safer. Safer than with her, at least.

She plucked up her courage and stepped into the cascading water the pelted at her skin. She winced and hovered next to the door, jolting into movement at the flash of lightning and crack of thunder. Right. She needed to move NOW, not when it stopped raining, because the rain would hide her scent. Well, not hide. It would wash it away. Hopefully.

She set off, not minding the silence and the isolation. She prefered it, actually. It was so much safer when she was alone, because then nothing could hurt her. She didn't have to pretend to be in control, like she knew what she was doing. She could just be her. Truth be told, she was just a scared teenager that didn't know what she was gonna do with her life, confused by the past few days' events, and just wanting to go to sleep and wake up with the past four years as just a nightmare that she could go crying to her mom to.

She took little notice as the sun began to shine and the rain pattered off, just kept up her steady six miles an hour pace. She assumed that she had been walking for about five hours by this point, which meant she was… about thirty miles away from the cabin in the woods and ten miles from the city. Then it started down pouring again, much to her dismay. Probably better because it would get rid of her scent trail that had started up again. Maybe the blood from when she had slipped while climbing up a steep hill and a rock had sliced through her cheek. It would not end well for her if they found that.

Shaking those thoughts from her mind, she returned to her walking. She still had ten miles to go, after all.

~Victor~

Okay, he would admit it, letting go of his temper was pretty stupid of a plan. Getting distracted by the instinct to put his baby brother in his place was his next mistake. Now he had a distraught, young feral on the loose, his son and brother were furious with him, and his younger niece was still screaming for her sibling.

He had stormed out of his house, following the scent trail of fear that the young feral left when she fled the grounds. He had lost hours of time in searching, meaning the rebellious cub was in great danger of being taken by Magneto. If she could be found, that is.

Logan had turned back an hour ago to make sure his other cub was alright and to try to calm her down, leaving Victor with a warning that he had better not try to attack Ally if he found her. Normally, that would have led to a fight, but they didn't have time, so he would just have to let the insult go.

He had some idea as to where she had headed off to, but he had to double check to make sure, if he was wrong, she would have time to go even further. There it was! That old cabin that had been there for decades, if not over a century. He crouched, looking at the shoed footprints. Wait a minute, when had she had time to get her shoes on? Must have done it off of muscle memory, because no feral would think twice about something as insignificant as shoes.

He entered the building, sighing upon noticing that the scent wasn't fresh. Hours had passed since she had been here. She had stayed a while, though. Rooted through the place. Used the ph… she had used the phone. SHE HAD USED THE PHONE!

Creed growled, cracking his knuckles as he tried to contain his temper. He did not have time to worry about the cub contacting someone to help her get away from what would be one of the only safe places on the planet for her! Stupid, stupid cub! Just like her father!

He went back to his hunt, following the slight depressions in the mud that had been left. She was no longer running, but rather walking. The rain let up for a bit, just in time for him to come across a bloodstained rock on a hill that was nearly a cliff. He could just imagine the slightly clumsy girl slipping and injuring herself on it.

He snarled to no one and finally caught up to a fresh scent. One that lead right into the city. Oh, there was no way his luck was that bad. First trying to find the scent on the other side of the river, then the cabin and the rain, and now a city full of mutant hating civilians? When he got his claws on her, she was getting locked in his safe room. No buts about it. Maybe then she wouldn't be able to cause trouble!

The eldest feral was getting thoroughly annoyed. She had doubled back so many times it was like she knew he was close by. That would definitely complicate things. Then she had stopped at a mall, and he lost her scent in the crowds. Finally, he picked it up by chance at… oh no, not the airport. Why of all places the airport?

He pushed the crowds, a few security guards lingering near him but never actually confronting him. Good thing, too, because he would have made them eat their own intestines if they had tried.

"Ya know, if you're gonna follow someone, ya should, I don't know, try to blend in a little bit," a young, female voice said behind him, wary and confident at the same time, somehow.

Victor spun around to glare at his niece that was glaring at him expectantly with old eyes. "Ya are gonna get yer ass ovah here an' I am draggin' ya back ta the mansion," he ordered. She raised one unimpressed eyebrow at him.

"What, in here? In the middle of all these people? That's smart. It would also tell that magnet dude right where you are. Kinda counterproductive, don't ya think?"

The great Sabretooth blinked in surprise. No, he hadn't thought of that. Okay, so maybe the cub wasn't completely stupid. She knew how to get away from someone after her. At least how to deter them.

"What about yer sister?" he demanded. She would never leave her littermate behind, for sure.

To his immense surprise, she shook her head angrily at him. "Keep her there. Keep her safe."

"What, ya can't do that yerself."

"It gets mad at her… she's barely feral, and she doesn't understand, and it gets mad at her for it… I can't… I don't want to hurt her, and I don't want it to take over," she admitted softly, hugging herself out of fear.

Creed only barely held back his sneer of disdain, his knee jerk reaction whenever someone showed fear around him. Instead, he crouched down, she was so short, it was the only way he could get eye level with her.

"It?" he asked as though oblivious.

"My feral side… the scientists changed it… It's… bad and destructive," she answered, looking behind him at the person awkwardly standing there, holding a cell phone. "Can we help ya?"

"Um, I'm so sorry, but, um, it's for you," they said, handing out the phone. "I got a call on my cell phone and some guy told me to look in my bag and there it was. He said that I needed to give it to you and tell you not to lose it."

Ally took the phone and stared as the woman scurried away. The phone began to ring.

"'Ello, love, DON'T lose the phone this time. Your plane is ready for boarding, just skedaddle on over to it. See you in a few hours. Oh, and your uncle is not invited, so tell him to leave," Jared said crisply over the line.

"Thank you, Jared," Ally thanked, hanging up the phone and holding it in her hands. "That's my cue. Unless you're gonna actually try to kidnap me in front of a mob of travellers and armed security, goodbye, Mr. Creed."

"Oh, ya can go, but I'll find ya again. I always find ya," the other feral warned, growling at her.

"Sure ya will. But ya have ta catch me when ya do," she threatened back, growling herself. Both glared at each other, waiting for the other to back down. Neither did, until the phone impatiently began to ring in an alarm that informed Ally her plane was ready and she needed to get to it.

"Until next time, Mr. Creed," Ally sneered.

"Look'n forward ta it, Kitten," he sneered right back. Ally turned and dissolved into the crowds, her scent once again being lost. Creed blinked, wondering what he had just done. How could he have let a CUB talk him down from his task? That just wasn't right. Too damn crafty, using logic and shit to reason things out. It wouldn't always get her out of a sticky situation, you had to go with your instincts when it came to that. And from the sound of it, the cub was terrified of doing that.

He raced at full speed back to his home, ready to listen to the annoying rants of his pack for his… failure? Yes, it was a failure, his failure to bring back a pack member.

He was expecting Derek to greet him on the porch, but instead saw Logan knocked out, claws extended, swamped by worried frails.

"What happened?" he snarled.

"Derek just went psycho and knocked him out and stole a car!" Jubilee explained hurriedly. She was distracting little Beta with her fireworks, but it wasn't working very well.

Just what he needed. More problems.

~Alika~

Ally rolled her eyes when the plane halted its take off preparations and Derek boarded, growling at him when he waved.

"Hey… I really didn't know that you didn't know… I didn't want to be there, Ally, I promise. C'mon, after everything we've been through, you're gonna get all mad at me for THIS?"

"No. Sit down and buckle up. We're going to London," she ordered. Derek mock imitated her, but did as she said, sitting down next to her and buckling in.

"You know, I really hate flying," he commented.

"Me, too, Dare. Me, too."