Once again, I know…long time since I last updated lol. I've no excuse, I'm just lazy :)

~The Last Ronin~

I groan as I open my eyes, the light harsh against them. Ugh…five more minutes, please. Actually, scratch that. Five more days. Why do I feel so tired?

This is so odd. I don't think I tossed and turned last night but I feel like I haven't slept at all. I'd love to chalk that up to messing around with Ash too, but we didn't do anything last night…at least, I don't think we did anything.

Reaching over to see if my girlfriend is awake, confusion fills my mind as my hand finds nothing but cold, empty ground. What the…? I sit up to look around and confirm what I already know: I'm alone.

"Ash?" I ask the emptiness anyway, unsurprised that there's no answer beyond a few birds twittering in the trees. Where is she?

Fear sings through my veins and, before I can stop it, the Source floods me; someone else – someone not my girlfriend – is here. I shoot to my feet, whirling around as I try to figure out where the attack is coming from but I can't see it. For a moment my body locks in place, sweat erupting across my skin and the hair on the back of my neck standing at attention as the fear morphs into panic. All around me the forest has gone silent; I may not have spent my life hiking and camping but even I know that that's not a good sign.

Now if only I could figure out where the danger is.

As quickly as the panic arrives though, it fades and I shake off the lingering remnants, trying to slow my racing heart. My entire body tingles with the aftereffects and the feeling that I'm being watched remains. A few minutes more pass before the birds begin chattering with one another again.

I stretch to wake up my stiffened muscles and take several deep breaths. Gradually my body calms down completely but the calm doesn't bring any insight into what the hell that was all about in the first place. Sure I have no idea where Ash is, but there's nothing here that suggest anything bad happened and that feeling of being watched is probably just me being paranoid. In all likelihood Ash just wandered off to go to the bathroom.

Yeah, that must be it; the bathroom. She'll be back soon, I'm sure of it.

x-x-x-x-x

"Did you see that?" The annoying little Hybrid asks, pointing to the computer screen with a live video feed of my girlfriend, "She wasn't aware of your absence for five minutes and she nearly lost it."

"She's alone and scared," I nearly snarl, causing the other Luxen and Hybrids in the small room to jump, "what do you expect?"

"I expect a modicum of control," the Hybrid replies, unfazed by my tone, "but she clearly doesn't have that."

I grind my teeth but remain silent. What can I say? The kid isn't wrong. Katy has no real control over herself right now – she's operating almost entirely on instinct. I saw it when Andrew touched her. I saw it when the Arum attacked us and I saw it when Ethan tried to capture her. I've seen it at night when we're together; of course, lack of control in that situation isn't exactly a bad thing either. I can't suppress the smile that pulls at my lips at that thought.

"She's a bomb waiting to go off." One of the Luxen says, obviously annoyed by my smile, "Sure your presence may be keeping her stable, but you're not diffusing her either."

"Then what's the problem? So long as she stays with me nothing will happen."

The Hybrid shakes his head, "And what happens when you can't be there? What happens when you get injured? She'll lose it and we'll have a repeat of three years ago."

"No," a Luxen says, stopping me from speaking, "we need her in control, disarmed, and the only one who can do that is the one who made her."

I laugh, "She doesn't even remember Daemon. And besides, no one has seen him in years."

"Now you don't really believe that." The kid says, grinning, "No matter what was done to her, she's still a Hybrid and a Hybrid can never forget their maker."

Again I remain silent because the kid's right about that too. She may be with me right now and she may claim not to remember Daemon but I know she does. I can't claim to understand her denial – though I'd bet anything it has to do with what happened to her when she was captured – but I'm fully aware that it is denial.

The room feels unbearably hot and small all of a sudden and I tug my shirt away from my suddenly sweaty skin, fanning myself with it. Maybe the heat has to do with all the computers running in here but I know that's not it. Fans turn overhead and I can hear the dull hum of an industrial sized air conditioner circulating the air. No, the heat I'm feeling has nothing to do with the room and everything to do with the withheld tears burning my eyes.

I shouldn't be about to cry over this. I mean, I knew I had no right to her in the first place. But that doesn't do anything to ease the pain in my chest. That remains, gnawing away at my insides.

Even so, that still doesn't change the fact that…

As if sensing my thoughts the kid shakes his head, "We brought you in to help us get Katy to join us willingly – we don't want to hurt her. But the reason we want her here is because her maker is also here."

A small gasp escapes my lips but I'm not sure if it's a product of my surprise or my breaking heart. I look around the room, trying to find a face that'll tell me the kid is joking but there isn't the slightest smile on anyone's lips.

"Daemon's here?"

x-x-x-x-x

I pace around the small fire I started – not because I was cold, but because it provided a distraction from the fact that my girlfriend is missing. Where is she? The desire to go looking for her has crossed my mind dozens of times but I've squashed it down over and over. There's nothing wrong – surely I'd know if something bad had happened…wouldn't I?

That aside though, she knows where I am and if I leave it'll be that much harder for her to find her way back to me. She will be back too, I know it; she wouldn't just leave me without a good reason. She would not.

Pausing, I take a deep breath to calm my racing heart. I slowly let it out and then repeat the exercise until I no longer feel like I'm about to have another panic attack.

"Never again," I say aloud – trying to convince myself really –, "She won't leave me like…and besides, I'm stronger now, I'm ok, I'll stay ok…"

The Source floods through me as the sound of bushes being disturbed reaches my ears and I swing around to face…

The blood drains from my face and the Source slips from me as my mother steps out of the trees. I back away from her and shake the shock off, drawing as much of the Source back into me as I can. I'm not going to let Ethan trick me a second time.

"Stay back!" I hiss when she starts to take a step forward.

"Katy?" She asks quietly, pain flitting briefly across her face.

"Ethan must think I'm a real idiot if he's trying to fool me with the same trick a second time," I snarl at the woman.

"Katy, it's really me," the woman says, her eyes tearing, "it's Mom. I've been looking for you for a long time."

She spreads her arms, as if hoping I'll run in for a hug. I shake my head – she really is stupid; couldn't she at least have come up with something different?

Several minutes pass before she drops her arms, her shoulders sagging as tears begin to fall from her eyes. A small breeze picks up, rustling the trees and blowing my hair across my face, but I don't risk the distraction to push it back. If I take my focus off her for a second I just know she'll attack.

"Sweetheart…what happened to you?" She whispers so quietly that I almost don't hear her over the crackling of the fire.

A twig snaps to my right and I whirl on the sound. Beth slowly steps into view, her hands raised before her – not like she would actually need her hands to hurt me; behind her trails Dawson, followed by Andrew and Dee. Glancing back at the Luxen pretending to be my mother I notice Matthew a few feet behind her.

"So…come to try and take me in again?" I growl at Beth, "That didn't work out so well the last time…what makes you think this'll be any different?"

"I'm sorry Katy," Beth grimaces, "I didn't know what Ethan was really planning. I would have told you if I had."

"And yet here you are, helping him again," I wave my hand at the imposter.

Beth shakes her head, "No Katy…that really is your mother."

"It's true Katy," Dee adds quietly, tears in her own eyes.

I look back at the woman they say is my mother – searching for some detail, some imperfection that would tell me that they're wrong. There's nothing though – not that I'd expected to find anything – this Luxen has gotten my mother's look perfectly.

"Just kill them all," a voice – my voice – whispers inside my head, "burn it all to the ground until no one's left to hurt us."

As darkness cloaks me I launch myself at the imposter. I'll not be taken again. Never again.

"Yes! Kill them all!" the voice shrieks gleefully and I find that I'm more than happy to oblige.