New chapter! Enjoy!

As Stevie stood in the shadows of the old trees, she wondered if she should be doing this. Shouldn't she be telling Sibuna, instead; her housemates, her best friends… her family? She was betraying them by telling their enemy what was happening. If anything, she should wait until after she told them and then tell him. At least they'd know first. She tugged on a strand of her hair and bit her lip. Her eyebrows scrunched and she tucked the strand behind her ear.

"What do you want?" Rufus sneered from the shadows.

Stevie was quick to respond, the few short minutes she had before he showed up giving her enough to think everything through, "I overheard Victor talking about the elixir. Only a few more weeks and it'll be finished."

"Excellent." He chuckled darkly; rubbing his hands together, which Stevie thought was a little cliché in this type of situation. "Anything else?"

"No, business has been slow lately." She replied.

"Fine, let me know when the elixir is finished, and then we can work on getting it." And with that, the evil blonde made his way back into the trees.

A moment of debate with the annoying voices in her head later, she carefully stepped after him. She needed to know who he was holding captive. She knew it was someone important, she just didn't know who.

"Ugh, this place is nasty." Jerome grumbled, walking around the table.

He was careful not to bump it; worried one of the flasks would fall over and explode, or do something less dangerous. Victor was creepy, but he wouldn't keep explosive chemicals underneath a house of kids.

"How can we tell what the elixir looks like?" Patricia wondered.

"Isn't it supposed to be a really gross, yellow-green color?"

"Yeah, but what shade?"

"Chartreuse, citrine, tilleul?"

Patricia blinked at him silently and he raised his hands in defense.

"What, they're real colors!"

"I know, Mara tried to get me to memorize a bunch of color names once." She rolled her green eyes.

"Same here," Jerome sighed, picking up a vial and swirling the dark liquid around before sniffing it hesitantly.

"You've got a weird girlfriend."

"So does Eddie." The blonde retorted.

"Hey!"

"You know, some people would take that as a compliment."

"Will you just focus on the task at hand?" Patricia snapped.

Jerome looked around. Eerie shadows were cast on the walls from the dim lighting above them. It was giving him an uneasy feeling. What if Rufus popped out of one of those shadows? But, Jerome shook his head. No. Rufus couldn't have gotten into the house without anyone knowing. The only way was the front or backdoors, and someone was in the common room all the time, he wouldn't be able to get in. Then it hit him. The tunnels. Rufus knew how to get into the tunnels. Would he sneak into the house like that? The man knew many of the secrets of the house because of Jerome. The teen's shimmering blue eyes flitted to the shelf behind him at the thought of Rufus entering the house that way. When it didn't open after a moment, he went back to looking over the different sizes and shapes of bottles, each filled with liquids of strange smells and colors.

"Does this smell like it could give you eternal life?" Jerome held a flask up to Patricia's nose and she stepped back with a disgusted look on her face.

"It smells like it could melt my gut." She growled.

"Well, then…" he muttered, backing away slowly.

Patricia held a vial next to him and tilted it a little, the blue liquid making its way to the opening at the top. He jumped back.

"Back off, Trixie." Holding out a flask of his own, he took a step toward.

"Keep that UTL away from me, Slimeball." She warned.

"UTL?"

"Unidentified toxic liquid."

Jerome stared at the auburn haired girl.

"Stevie got me started on the acronyms, alright?" she scoffed.

"Okay, just put it down." He ordered, referring to the bottle in her hand.

"You first."

"Together."

They slowly began to put their flasks down, watching the other's moves carefully.

"What are we doing?" Jerome scoffed at himself, setting his vial down, and Patricia did the same with a roll of her eyes.

"Yeah, what are you doing?" a voice sounded.

The two spun around and glared at the American.

"Thanks for scaring the heck out of us, Sweet." Jerome grunted, running a hand through his hair.

"You're welcome, Clarke." Eddie shot back. "Find anything?"

"No, not yet…" Patricia sighed, opening a cabinet and peering in.

"Well, hurry up, we just learned something I think you'll be interested in." the blonde squinted at a bottle and made a face.

"What?" Jerome asked.

"Sorry, you have to learn something about the elixir first."

"You sound like Rufus." Jerome muttered in disgust, turning away from him.

Eddie watched him for a moment before looking at his girlfriend. Patricia met his gaze and shook her head slightly, a silent warning, telling him not to delve further into the subject. He sighed and began searching the room as well.

Stevie waited a second before taking another chance and peeking over the wall. Rufus entered the building through the big, rusty, blue door and was then out of sight. Stevie stood up, ready to leave, when the door opened again. She ducked and then looked at the door again cautiously. Instead of Rufus, a girl ran out of the warehouse, Rufus left in a heap on the stone floor. She shut the door and ran past his car, towards the woods. Stevie left the safety of her hiding place and stepped out in front of the girl. She shrieked and fell backwards.

"Whoa, sorry, didn't mean to scare you." Stevie apologized, bending to help her up.

"Who are you?" she asked.

When Stevie saw her face, her blue eyes met the younger girl's green ones and she gasped. "You're Poppy, aren't you? Jerome's little sister?"

Poppy didn't answer; she just repeated her last question.

"I'm Stevie, Jerome's friend and housemate."

"Oh, right, he told me about you. Yeah, he's my brother. What are you doing out here?"

"Me? What are you doing out here?"

"That guy kidnapped me, said something about using me as an insurance policy."

"Oh, that was you." Stevie sighed and wrapped an arm around Poppy's shoulders. "Let's get back to the house before that psycho wakes up. Also, I think Jerome will be happy to see you. You missing must be why he's been mopping around lately. What'd you do to Rufus?"

"That's his name? I wacked him over the head with a piece of wood," Poppy shrugged.

"What a brilliant idea…" Stevie muttered.

The two trekked through the woods, keeping a fast pace, making sure to look back every few seconds and check if Rufus was following them. He didn't seem to be and Stevie was glad; she didn't feel like running.

"Did you guys find anything?" Nina asked hopefully, feeling well refreshed after the few hours of napping she had gotten.

Jerome crawled through the tunnel and pulled the door shut. "No."

"Oh, man, now we're gonna have to snoop through Victor's things." Alfie grumbled.

"And we all know how risky that is." Joy sighed.

"Well—" Nina started.

"Yo, Clarke, I found something I think you'll be happy to see!" Stevie's voice rang through the house.

She and Poppy appeared in the room a moment later.

"Poppy," Jerome pushed past his friends and pulled her into a tight hug. "Are you okay?"

Poppy nodded against her brother's chest, hugging him back.

"Stevie, where'd find her?"

"She was being held captive by you-know-who in a warehouse somewhere in the middle of the woods. I didn't rescue her; she did that on her own." The American shrugged.

"Wait, what happened?" Mara spoke up, moving to her boyfriend's side as he continued to embrace his sister.

"Poppy was kidnapped by Rufus." He replied.

"Why didn't you just tell us? We could have gotten her back." Fabian pointed out.

"He was protecting her, and Mara; Rufus threatened him." Alfie spoke up.

Jerome let go of Poppy and closed his eyes with a sigh.

"How did Rufus tell you that? Have you been in contact with him?" Eddie accused.

"Yes—"

"Jerome, you betrayed us? Again?" Amber glowered.

"Look, I had no choice—"

"You always have a choice, Jerome, and you chose to betray us and give our secrets away to Rufus Zeno. Do you realize how stupid—" Joy's snapping was cut off by Stevie.

"I've been working for Rufus, too."

"Stevie, I said, I'd handle it." Jerome whirled around to stare at her with disbelief.

"I know, but…I couldn't let you do it alone. But, look at the bright side, I got Poppy back!" the brunette chuckled nervously.

"Stevie," Nina muttered, shaking her head.

"I have been as well." Patricia spoke up shamefully.

Eddie looked at her and his jaw dropped, as well as his arm, which had been wrapped around her waist. He took a step away from her. "Patricia, why—"

"I told you both that I would handle it. I know more about Rufus than any of you do. I can do this on my own." Jerome growled.

"Mind if I cut in and ask what the heck is going on?" Poppy piped up.

"No, you may not, go wait in my room." her brother ordered.

"I was kidnapped a few days ago by the psychopath you're working for and you want me to drop it? Think again, Clarke." Poppy retorted, crossing her arms over her chest stubbornly.

"Jerome, I thought you'd changed. Why would you do this?" Mara looked up at her boyfriend with hurt eyes.

"No, Jaffray, like Alfie said, I was just protecting you and Poppy—"

"By putting them in harm's way by getting close to Rufus and Senkhara, who don't keep their promises," Joy arched an eyebrow at him.

"Eddie, you need to listen—" Patricia tried but he turned away from her, leaning on the kitchen counter, his face in his hands.

His own girlfriend betrayed Sibuna. She betrayed him—the Osirian. How could she do something like that?

"Stevie, how could you?" Nina asked in disappointment.

"Alfie, why didn't you tell me about this?" Amber muttered, hurt evident in her voice.

"Jerome, you said you had changed. I thought you did; I believed you. I thought you were passed this kind of thing. It may have been to protect Poppy and I, but we're both fine. Where is betraying your friends getting you?" Mara asked.

"Joy, what is going on?" Poppy asked in a small voice, watching the others fight and plead for forgiveness.

"Everything is falling apart." The brunette replied sadly.

"What's everyone fighting about?"

Sibuna froze and turned to look at Charlie and Mick nervously. How much had they heard?

"Who's Rufus?" Mick asked.

"Who was kidnapped?" Charlie questioned.

"Who betrayed who and for what?" Mick asked with a slight chuckle.

Sibuna gulped at once. This was not going to be easy to get out of.

Uh oh...

3 questions for you guys:

1. Can you review and tell me what you think of the story and this chapter?

2. Who's your favorite couple?

3: Should Charlie and Mick find out about everything?

If you like Teen Titans, check out my stories, and vote the poll!

Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of flesh, which wage war against your soul. -1 Peter 2:11

-Rachel