I'm SO sorry for such a delay for an update. Shit happened, then more shit, and then I had to move and then of course-more shit happened. Any who, this is fic is about to come a close (finally). The next chapter is in the works so I hope to have that out here soon for y'all as well as an epilogue though that all depends how long the next chapter is going to be so we may have three or more chapters come before that but we'll see.

Thank you, SO much, to those who have stuck around with this fic. It's meant a lot to me.

Lil announcement. Once this fic is finished I'll be moving over to AO3 permanently. I will not be cross posting this fic or any of my others unless FF decides to kick the bucket for good. Lot of my new work is going to be a lot darker and AO3 seems to be a better place for them as well as dealing with the technical difficulties FF has had in the past.

Nothing is coming down either, unless again FF crashes, so everything will still be up here for everyone.

For those interested you can find me on AO3 under Luxahheart.

Take care and till next time!

Five Months Ago:

"I don't care if you have to exhaust all your resources! Find them! I want my baby, Roman!" Anette's shrill scream echoed around the stone walls of her office, the Savages behind the one-way glass screeching along with her as their tar faces pressed against the glass.

She'd been in a state of disarray the moment she came back to the Abbey after going to Moscow to meet up with Roman in hopes his team at the government had finally found out where Ray's Village was only to come up empty handed-again.

He had only been on call with her less than thirty minutes to see how she was holding up, and in doing so that only angered her more.

Already she had thrown things about her office in the Abbey, breaking the TV monitors that hung along the wall, one being completely ripped off and now lay broken on the floor. She'd gone and knocked over her computer and keyboard from her desk where it too had broken and shattered all over the stone floor, the wires to the keyboard barely keeping it from touching the ground as they had become snagged in her chair after she had pushed that to the floor as well before she went to pacing around the front of her desk like a trapped animal in a cage.

"I'm doing what I can…" Roman sighed back over the speaker on the phone that sat upon Anette's desk.

"And that's been so helpful, hasn't it?" Anette jabbed back, the sarcasm dripping from her red painted lips.

"Why don't you just calm down for a minute." Roman suggested in his still ever calm tone with her though in doing so he'd gone and poured more fuel to her fire.

The cool air around her quivered as her heat spiked, flames igniting from the tips of her fingers and spreading upwards to her elbows. While she didn't feel the flames licking her skin, nor were her clothes being caught up in the blaze, she was well aware of the fire dancing along her body as her crimson eyes flashed dangerously brighter towards the simple machine sat on her desk.

"I AM CALM, YOU ABSOLUTE BAFFOON!" She yelled louder, making the flock of Savages on the other side of the room scatter away from the one-way glass and take flight in a flurry of tarred bodies and earsplitting screams.

"It's been months and you and your men have given me NOTHING! While the rest of the world burns you sit with your thumb up your ass!"

"You know that's not true Saisei. I'm doing what I can-for you!" Roman shot back, cutting over her tirade.

"Clearly not enough…" She grumbled back in a low growl, the flames along her arms having reached the rounds of her shoulders now where the air in the room turned boiling.

Due to the heat having climbed, the plastic phone that sat on her desk began to melt as most of her focus was on it, the paint dripping and running onto to the wooden surface as it bubbled and oozed.

She had enough with his incompetence, had enough with just about the entire operation. It'd been months since Ray and the other's had escaped her grasp and now they were too far from her reach in a place she couldn't find on any map or satellite image, she had missed her chance when they were all still in Russia.

She was a damn fool for letting them make their exit…

The only silver lining she had been able to cling to was that Black was finally and fully awake within Kai, doing her bidding for her just like she had planned while more than half of Russia burned to the ground around Him and His destructive path. At least one person knew their assignment and was sticking to it, then again she really didn't have to tell Him to do that since that was the only reason Black had ever been created to start with.

That silver lining though wasn't enough, would never be enough till her dream was fully realized and she was able to stand side-by-side with her blood family and rule over the world just like her and Kai's grandfather had envisioned for them all years ago. She was so close yet so far from that dream being made a reality.

Brooklyn was no use to her, he'd never been to Ray's Village and it wasn't like Ray was that loose lipped to spill it's exact location. Kenny was just as useless to her as Brooklyn was, nor was the location in any of the BBA's database. The only one who had any knowledge of where the Village was located was now buried deep down in a pit of darkness inside Black's awakened mind and there was no pulling Kai out of that darkness now, so even her greatest weapon was useless to her.

Unwillingly her hands had been tied behind her back and she despised the feeling, just like she always did. It was the same feeling she had when she was just a child under her grandfather's overbearing thumb, helpless and without a way out of it unless she pulled herself up on her own two feet and did something about it. Nobody had ever been there for her before, just like now she really didn't have anyone that could give her what she wanted despite the throws of people at her beck-and-call. Just like how despite having Roman there beside her when she was just a child he really had no power to help her. She was alone and always had been.

"We're done here now." She sent in a low voice towards the phone as it continued to melt away atop of her desk.

"Saisei, wait!-" Roman's voice was cut out as the phone was set ablaze by a spout of fire that had sprung from thin air with just a look from her, Roman's voice sizzling and blurring out as he tried to speak as the device was slowly eaten away by the flames until it became nothing but a puddle of melted components.

Breathing in heavily Anette turned away from her desk, the fire that had spread up to her neck and back slowly dying away as she recalled her heat into her.

Walking up to the one-way glass that looked down into the pit where her Savages were still flying about in a frenzy, she laid her forehead against the warmed glass and watched them with a pitiful look upon her features. Her long blue hair hung haphazardly around her face and shoulders, it having come undone from her earlier pacing and frantic state when she had been on call with Roman, not bothering to move the long strands from her face as she stood there watching her children slowly calm now that she was close to them.

"What am I to do my darlings?" She asked in an equally pitiful tone, pressing her left hand to the glass just under her chin.

The Savages in the pit clung to whatever space they could in the cylinder room, hanging on the stone walls like bats where all heads and hollowed eyes turned to look at her back quietly.

"Everything is lost without him… I have to have him…" She breathed out, slumping into the glass with her shoulder like she had suddenly lost all will to live.

"I was so close… What did I do wrong Dranzer? Please, tell me… What can I d-" She stopped herself when the doors to her office were opened without her consent, her head whipping around on her shoulders so fast it cracked with the force and her eyes flashed dangerously at the intruder.

A lone man stood there, already trembling in his lab coat with a stack of papers in his hands. Sweat dripped down his dark features from entering the room, the heat that had been entrapped with the doors closed washing over him like a wave and it was too late to turn around and run.

"I'm sorry for interrupting, but-" He was cut off when another geyser of fire shot up from under the floor beneath his feet, swallowing him whole as his deafening screams ricocheted around the room and out into the connecting one at his back that had everyone jumping up from their chairs and dropping whatever it was they had been doing prior.

All eyes were on the opened doors where the man's body crumbled into a pile of ash, the heat from the geyser reaching and spreading out towards them all that they took tentative steps back away from it best they could being surrounded by the rows of desks and computer chairs that had been shoved to the ground from them leaping up from them.

Silence encompassed the entirety of the Abbey once the man's screams had died along with him, only to be cut by the ominous sounds of Anette's heals clacking along the stone floors towards the connecting room towards them all.

Stopping by the pile of ash, the geyser of fire having sucked itself back down into the ground, she glanced down at it and shoved it to the side with the side of her shoe like it was nothing before locking eyes with everyone staring back at her.

Anette's head tilted, that same pitiful and almost lost look sitting in her eyes, the hair that had been in her face swaying with her but not enough to uncover it completely where the strands hung over her eyes in parts.

"Useless…" She let out in a whisper, her right arm lifting from her side like it had suddenly come back to life.

"ALL of you are useless!" She let out in a scream, her arm swiping across through the air in front of her.

Fires sprung up along the tables, some of the computers and stacks of papers going up in the small blazes as the people who were stood around let out shrills of terror and began running for the narrow hallway that led to their one and only exit.

Through the alarms blaring overhead and the sprinklers getting set off by the smoke and blazes, the cries for mercy fell on deaf ears as one by one bodies were set alight and dropped like flies around the room. Then came the echoes of gunshots and those that hadn't been caught in their own personal blaze dropped to their knees, blood splattering all over the room and across the desks and the remaining computers that hadn't been engulfed in flames as Anette fired her gun at them in quick secession while a menacing cackle escaped her.

It wasn't long before the fires died down, the smoke filling up the room as the sprinklers kept pouring out water over the top of everything and everyone, the massacre of her people now done and over with and the gun emptied out.

The water that had pooled and slowly began to flood the room with less than an inch of water began to run through the drains, taking the spilled blood and left over ash with it all the while Anette stood there with her arm down and limp at her side, the gun still held in her grasp, with a more dazed look in her eyes.

Everything, all the years of careful planning and preparation was now gone and ruined by her own hand. But least it was quiet…

As the gun fell from her hand and clacked against the ground as it hit, the sprinklers above turning off, she glanced around at the room of left over bodies that had fell where they were shot in the back. Some splayed over the tops of desks, others fallen over one another or the chairs that had been blocking their path of escape.

Reveling in the silence it was cut short at the sound of hard footsteps coming from the entry hallway- where her people had so desperately tried to reach- and another heat that was more intense than her own began to fill the room as He approached her.

Since He'd awaken He hadn't once called back His wings, pale and scarred chest from battles long fought over the years on display as He chose to go shirtless now with just black boots and tight black jeans. The war paint that Kai had adorned in his youth was now back on His cheeks, though they were reminiscent to the color of blood and instead of the two triangles on each cheek it was just one on each side.

Even His hair had changed somewhat, getting duller in color from His time living underground for the past several months as well as longer and a lot less tamer. The two different colors now almost blended in with each other as the strands laid flat over His head, the back of it all almost reaching His shoulders.

"What're you doing back here?" Anette asked as He approached through the dead bodies, the left over water under His boots splashing as He walked with heavy steps.

Coal colored eyes glanced around at all what the woman had done to her people, yet His face remained placid at it all despite how harrowing the scene actually was.

Coming to where the last table ended, the burnt out computer still steaming on top of it, He glanced back towards her in silence as their eyes locked.

Anette, after being trapped under those deep colorless eyes looked away harshly from Him.

"Don't pretend that you even understand why I had to do this." She bit out at Him, her arms slowly beginning to tremble.

Like always He didn't respond; she had never actually ever heard Him speak aloud but it was almost like she could hear Him whenever their eyes met. Like they were able to speak telepathically even if they actually couldn't since even in her own mind she never heard His voice.

"They're useless to me now. They served their purpose." She continued on despite Him just standing their silently.

"Even Roman is useless to me now…"

Her head snapped back towards Him as she heard Him stepping towards her again, her knees threatening to buckle under His silent gaze the closer He got to her yet couldn't look away even if she tried like she'd been paralyzed to the spot.

"Without him we failed, you understand that much don't you? I need that baby!" She all but cried at Him as they now stood toe-to-toe and she grabbed hold of His bare shoulders to keep herself standing.

The coal colored wings at His back ruffled at being touched, the heat He had been emitting spiking yet she barely flinched as she called her own heat to her hands to counter it; still His was and always would be more overpowering than her own.

She glanced back up at Him, their eyes connecting in hopes of possibly Him saying something to her again. The silence was beginning to become too much for her to bear, the weight of her dream almost crushing now as she felt like her back was pressed against a wall with no way out.

The silence this time that had come over them was longer than the last, her eyes darting around in their sockets as she looked Him over and felt her heart skip a beat as she could hear it in the back of her mind like she always did when they looked at one another despite the voice not being hers or even His that was speaking to her.

"You know where it is?!" She exclaimed excitedly, her fingers digging into the skin of His shoulders in her excitement.

Another silence passed over them, that voice coming back to her inside her head.

"Yes… I know they'll be waiting for us but I have you and my children, they won't be able to keep him away from us this time."

Amongst the silence, His brows furrowed and coal colored eyes narrowed down at her. At what the voice had said she pushed herself away from Him, looking displeased.

"Of course he's important. He is family after all." She said in more of a coy tone, that displeased look still sat on her face as she popped a hip and put a hand to it.

"I have done this for all of us, him included. We're all we have, all we'll ever have. The world does nothing but take. You know that as well as I do."

His eyes softened as He seemed to take in her words, taking a step back and going to turn when that voice filtered back through her head.

"Leave them, they'll rot in here on their own." She called to Him, halting His steps just as He'd been able to turn His back on her.

His feathers bristled again, the heat around Him spiking once more in His clear disagreement.

"We have other people to worry about. Failed experiments and useless beings aren't my concern any longer." She said as she approached Him, coming to stand beside Him.

"There's loose ends we need to tie up back in Moscow before we make our move on the Village." At that His head turned towards her, a slate brow raising almost in question.

"Who else would I have meant aside from my useless husband?" Anette seemed to laugh back to the voice that had come in and out of her head.

His brow lowered, understanding what He was meant to do now and without a word He began to walk back towards the hallway He'd entered from earlier.

Watching Him go till He disappeared around the corner of the wall, Anette turned back around and nearly skipped into her office and over to where the one-way glass was, putting her hands against it where tarred faces were once again pressed up against it with wide smiles stretching across their inhuman faces.

"Are you ready my darlings?" She cooed to them almost fondly, rubbing her hands along the glass.

Gurgling noises erupted inside the pit, the Savages with wings shivering as they clung to the walls with excitement.

A wide smile of her own spread across her face, taking her right hand off the glass she flipped the lid to the hidden compartment on the wall beside where the one-way glass ended and pressed the button inside.

The ground and walls shook as a deep rumbling sound began to echo from above the pit, the Savages heads all turning up in unison towards the sounds and where the roof of the pit began to slowly open up.

Skeletal and tarred wings spread out, shrill cries shaking through the one-way glass and in a blink of an eye all the Savages flew and crawled their way up the walls to the top of the pit until it was bare and empty.

At how fast they disappeared, watching with a renewed gleam in her eyes, a low and deep cackle erupted from within Anette's chest and through her throat. The sounds of it echoing about her empty office as her dream was finally about to be made a reality.

Present, Two Weeks Before Anette's Arrival:

Tiptoeing his way through the quiet and darkened house, Kain held his breath lest he give himself away to either of his fathers' fast asleep in their room just down the hall from his own, or his sister who had the same heightened sense like they did.

So far, for the past three weeks since that time in the field training with Brooklyn and Lee, he hadn't been caught sneaking out to get a bit more personal training in with Brooklyn during the nights.

Despite what his parents were saying: that he was coming along fine and their worries of him pushing himself harder, he knew deep down he wasn't nearly as ready as they all needed him to be and their short window was about to close before Anette arrived with her army of Savages with Kai by her side.

He wasn't ready. Not for any of it but most of all having to face off against the father he never knew.

His powers still burned and singed his own skin, tearing flesh away and leaving behind marks till it healed over itself but the pain remained. His body temperature was still unstable when in the moment of fighting, it stretching beyond his control and the last thing he wanted or needed was hurting someone he didn't intend to.

The other failure he had under his belt was he was unable to call forth his wings. He knew they were there as he'd always get an annoying itch around his shoulder blades but no matter how hard he tried, begged and pleaded for them to come forth they never did.

Brooklyn said it was all about timing, breathing through it and letting it happen, but their time was running out and he had to make sure he was ready for anything.

Letting out the breath he'd been holding in during his silent escape, he managed to close the front door without making a sound and the second he turned he was gone in a red flash of light back towards the training field he'd been at earlier that day.

Waiting at the top of the hill like he'd done the past several nights for the past several weeks, Brooklyn's eyes cracked open when a sudden gust of wind swept right past him, tossing his hair and clothes about, as Kain stopped just in time before their bodies collided and was left with heaving in heavy breaths back into his depleted lungs.

"You should pace yourself." Brooklyn advised, looking at him through his peripheral.

"I-I thought I did." Kain panted back with sweat trickling down his pale and flushed face from the overexertion.

Brooklyn's lips tugged a little in the corner of his mouth like he was fixing to smirk though pulled it down before it was noticed, beckoning Kain quietly to follow him down into the clearing.

Despite him obliging without a verbal word of protest, Kain's legs did their best to as his knees threatened to buckle under him with every unsteady step he took.

Just one more failure he had upon his shoulders.

Coming down from the top of the hill, Brooklyn turned to face Kain six feet apart like they always did when in training.

"Calm your breathing first." Brooklyn instructed, his stance relaxed with his hands in the pockets of his light jacket.

Kain nodded and tried, his heart still doing double time from the run clear across the Village to where he had to meet him though managed to calm his breathing down to where he wasn't panting as hard as he had been before.

"You were sloppy earlier today. You worried more about your sister being out here with us than you were focused on your enemy." Brooklyn began, not missing the way Kain flinched some at the harsh words being sent his way but knew he had to do it.

He treated him no different than all the others that came before him for their training once they'd gone through the Fusion process years ago, had treated Ray no different either.

He was crass in the way he trained them because he had to be. He broke them down because he had to do it. Nobody received any kind of special treatment from him and they knew that, accepted it even, but it was still hard to hear of their failures regardless and he knew that just as well as they did given who had overseen his training all those years ago.

Boris wasn't in the business of making failures nor allowed them and he wasn't about to be one himself.

"So tell me, how do you expect to be ready if you can't even focus on the enemy in front of you if you're worried about others?" He questioned.

"I didn't want to hurt her…" Kain explained in a quiet tone, his head dipping down some.

"I can't control it and if she got hurt because of me-" "That's not an excuse! She's going to get hurt when the real thing happens, and if you can't defeat the enemy in front of you how are you going to help her then?" Brooklyn cut over in a more demanding tone, making Kain flinch again.

"I don't…." "Exactly! You don't know what will happen when the time comes, so focus on the now and what you can do to better prepare yourself!" Brooklyn barked back over the top of him.

"This isn't a game, you've known that from the start, so why are you treating it like one?"

"I'm not!" Kain snapped back, his head lifting up and his pupils on the verge of slitting as a low growl sat in his chest.

"I know this isn't a game, I've seen the destruction out there and know it's coming for us next! If I didn't I wouldn't be out here with you trying to prepare for it!"

The corner of Brooklyn's mouth tugged up into a small smirk, enjoying and needing that fire he could see alight in Kain's eyes. It was reminiscent to that same fire he'd seen in Kai's eyes back in their youth during their final battle, the one that had engulfed him in a blazing inferno of power and rage that took away Brooklyn's glory and light in a way he had never expected.

His first real loss… Becoming a failure…

The smirk on his face grew, it nearly reaching his ear as he widened his stance and beckoned Kain to attack him with his eyes closed.

While he may have become a failure he wasn't about to let Kain become one; too much was riding on his shoulders to allow him to fail.

Taking Brooklyn's new stance as his cue to start, Kain's shoes dug into the grass and dirt beneath his feet as readied himself to attack, calling up his heat around him as he took in deep and calming breaths to hold it at the right temperature where it wouldn't expand out or burn him back.

In a flash of red light he was gone, a battle cry tearing through his throat as he launched himself in the air for a jump attack. Brooklyn's eyes shot wide open, his own pupils slit into a demonic-like fine point from the power of Zeus running through his veins and blocked the blow with his forearm as Kain came down, the heat from the other's skin burning into him but not enough to make him pull back or even flinch at.

Pushing back he knocked Kain away from him, making the other stumble backwards as he landed on his feet but managed to regain his bearings quickly in order to strike again.

With both their pupils now slit, they locked onto one another for a brief moment until Kain's body disappeared back into a blur of red light that flashed across the field at Brooklyn.

Again and again Brooklyn pushed him away, more blows being deflected and Kain's heat now engulfing the two of them as he lost control of it and the grass around them began to wilt and wither from the heat surrounding them. While each blow was well placed and thought through, it was his inability to actually push Brooklyn back from where he'd been standing from the start any that began to grate on his nerves, trying to hit in harder and becoming sloppy instead where for a final time Brooklyn shoved him back with all his might that Kain hit the ground with his back, knocking his head against it as he landed roughly in the dying grass around him.

"Sloppy…" Brooklyn growled down at him as he took a step to where Kain laid on his back.

Using his elbows to keep his upper half off the ground, Kain's face was scrunched up and teeth clenched together at Brooklyn's words more than the pain he could still feel radiating down the back of his skull and neck.

Even with him down on his ass his heat still emitted from out of him, it reaching Brooklyn yet the other continued to walk towards him till he was stopped at Kain's feet and looking down at him.

"What do you hope to accomplish with that kind of performance?" He asked though expected no answer when Kain could only glare back up at him, his breathing ragged now which only aided in him not being able to control his heat.

"Do you want to die out there? Is that it? Is that why you perform so horribly?" Brooklyn badgered, his own face contorting in his displeasure.

Kain's mouth opened but Brooklyn wasn't done just yet.

"You realize that He is not going to recognize you, that He can and will kill you without a moment's hesitation?!"

"But Kenny said-" "And what if the failsafe doesn't work?! You want to go out there, be a lamb sent to slaughter by his own father?!"

Kain's face fell, too stunned to really do more than just look up at Brooklyn and the harsher words that were now flowing out of him. The heat that had been growing out around them began to lose it's power, it slowly retracting back towards him in his stupor.

"If you can't control your powers then you're useless to us, to yourself! And if you were to die out there on that battle field then how do you think the rest of your friends and family will feel?!"

Kain's head dipped down, unable to keep looking at him while Brooklyn berated him for all the things he'd already gone and said to himself countless times. He knew all this, was trying to do better but he wasn't as strong as they wanted him to be. As strong as he wanted himself to be…

If the failsafe didn't work and his father didn't recognize him out there then it was over for them all, he knew that too, yet there wasn't anything he could really do about that if it failed. That wasn't his fault but yet somehow it felt like it would be and he didn't have a real answer to give to Brooklyn even if he hadn't really been asking him.

If it didn't work they were all screwed and all their training would really had been for nothing, everything his other two parents sacrificed in hiding away the past few months, going through their own trials and tribulations since being in the Village would have been for nothing if Anette got what she wanted and they were all caught up in her inferno.

He couldn't let that happen. Even if the entire mission wasn't riding on his shoulders, he couldn't just stand by and let those around him he knew and loved get caught in the crossfire.

He had to do better, but now he wasn't so sure if he really could.

His head dipped down more to where his chin rested on his chest, his bangs falling in his face while his fingers gripped and dug into the dead grass and soil he hadn't picked himself up from. Teeth clenched tighter to the point his jaw began to slowly ache and his shoulders started to shake, what remained of his heat slowly died away to nothing where his skin felt the cool chill of the night air around him.

"If it wasn't for you looking just like him I'd wonder if you even were Kai Hiwatari's child." Brooklyn's deadly voice and choice of words had Kain's head jerk back up, tears of frustration streaking down his face.

"What, you think he sat on his ass crying because of a little road block?" Brooklyn seemed to mock, "Think he just gave up the second the obstacles got too hard to face? He didn't defeat me by laying down weeping about it, that's for sure."

With that, Brooklyn turned his back on Kain still on the ground, once more too stunned to speak as all he could do was watch Brooklyn start to retreat away from him.

"W-wait! That's it?" He called out to him, scrambling to pick himself back up.

"I can't do more than I've already done…" Brooklyn answered without turning back, keeping his steady stride in order to go home.

"Then how is that any better than us just giving up?! Might as well just hand me over to Anette and call it a day if this is what you're going to do!" Kain yelled back at him, dirt stained fingers balled into fists at his sides.

Brooklyn paused for a moment, looking over his shoulder at the seething boy behind him and saw that fire reignited inside his eyes.

"You can't even call out your wings, how do you expect to win this if you can't do such a simple thing as that?"

"I'm trying!"

"Trying isn't good enough now, Kain! You either do or don't, there is no trying we don't have time for that!"

"So you're giving up, knowing this, because I'm struggling?!"

"No one said I was the one giving up. You gave up on yourself long before this night."

Kain stopped for a second before he threw out more heated words, knowing that the ones Brooklyn had just sent his way were true despite trying with all he could to ignore the fact that he had given up.

If he couldn't do this or that or help in any way he could then what good was he to any of them? To his parents, his sister? Himself?

Little by little through the past few weeks since their training had begun he had been slipping because the pressure was too much, his shoulders weren't strong enough to hold all that responsibility, and he had given up in a way.

"You can continue to give excuses, why you can't do this or that or why you become sloppy, but when they get here they're not going to care for excuses or give you a second chance."

"I know…"

"Then I suggest you figure it out before they get here." Brooklyn sent back to him, turning away and resuming his walk back to his home before the sun began to rise.

Kain's head dropped again, listening to the sounds of Brooklyn's shoes crunch across the dead grass as he made his way to the hilltop looking over the clearing. The cool night air gently blowing around him, tossing his hair about in his face, as he tried to rapidly 'figure it out'.

Coming up on the hilltop, not once having looked back at his pupil behind him, Brooklyn stopped just at the top of the hill where he came to stand by Ray's side who had been there the entire time yet it didn't seem Kain had taken notice of him.

"He's not ready."

"I know…"

"Then what do we do?" Brooklyn asked, looking to Ray on his right.

Ray didn't answer him, eyes locked down at his son still stood in the middle of the field with his head down.

He knew about his little training sessions with Brooklyn when he should have been sleeping, though this was the first time coming out to oversee it. He wasn't disappointed, far from it, but with what he just witnessed and how Kain had been performing the past weeks since they started his training he didn't know what they were supposed to do.

He never wanted to use his children as weapons, only training them in the event they'd need to protect themselves. He hadn't wanted to put a burden Kain or Nikita couldn't shoulder or carry, but that's exactly what they had done in aging them up sooner than nature intended and tossed them into training right after.

While that saved Kain from being taken by Anette, it didn't save the rest of them as now Brooklyn's visions weren't coming back in clearly and he wasn't sure who the victor of the final battle would be. None of them did and not knowing shook Ray down to his core.

They had two weeks left before Anette was to appear, before Black appeared, and they weren't near enough ready for them.

Silently, having made up his mind on what to do, Ray turned away from the field before Kain caught him standing there looking, Brooklyn taking the hint and following alongside him just as quietly.

The ultimate decision laid at his feet; Tala and Lee had given him that much, but deep down he knew neither of his children were going to be happy about it.

As the two continued to walk down the other side of the hill, Ray turned his head towards Brooklyn.

"I need you to do something for me."

Returning to the house right before the sun began to break over the horizon, slipping right in without being detected and able to hear his fathers and sister still fast asleep, Kain managed to crawl back into his bed for a few hours of sleep since he knew how early his parents liked to be up.

It felt like he'd just managed to close his eyes, not yet fully asleep when a heavy weight fell down on top of his chest and stomach, winding him and making his eyes pop open from the sudden ambush he wasn't expecting.

"N-Niki! The hell?!" He wheezed and coughed, unable to double over fully with her elbows and half of her upper body laying over the top of him and pinning him to the bed on his back.

"C'mon sleepy head, gonna sleep the whole day away." Nikita chuckled back, taking a minute to properly look at him in the face.

"Boy, you don't look like you got much sleep."

Kain only groaned back, wondering how much sleep he did manage to actually get but couldn't think on it long as her weight kept him pinned to the bed.

"Mind… Getting off…"

"Oh, sorry." She laughed it off, using his chest to push herself onto her feet firmly beside his bed.

"C'mon, Papa and Baba already have breakfast going." She beckoned, taking herself out of the room quickly before Kain had a chance to move.

He laid there and groaned again, sputtering out a few ragged coughs due to the air being able to shoot back down into his lungs and was finally able to curl up into himself without her over the top of him. Why she insisted on waking him up like that he'd never know, but it was completely unappreciated.

Glancing at the alarm clock from where he laid on his side, balled up on himself still, the bright red letters read off 8:10 AM and a sigh left him as he only managed two hours of sleep since getting back to the house.

Laying there, not ready to really get up and start the whole process again after the training flop he had during the night, he replayed said flop over and over in his head trying to figure out what it was he could have done differently or if he really was just a lost cause.

Sure, he and his sister had been born with their powers compared to their parents and the others around them that had been Fused, but that didn't make them masters or better at harnessing those powers any. In all reality he should have still been a one-year old running around in diapers, chewing up his fathers shoes and whatever else he could get his hands on and put in his mouth. Nikita should have still been an infant, barely six months old still instead of the teenagers they were now.

As much as he didn't want to get up to do the same thing he'd been doing the past three weeks he eventually, and reluctantly, rolled his way out of bed for a change of cleaner clothes since he'd gone back to bed in the ones he wore out to meet Brooklyn in the training field during the night.

Tossing away his dirty ones at the hamper, he quickly got dressed and ran his fingers through his bedhead before coming out of his and Nikita's room to greet the rest of his family in the kitchen.

"Mornin'." He grumbled to whoever cared to hear him as he stepped into the open living space, going straight for his usual chair around the dining table as the smells of their morning breakfast cooked on the stove.

"Morning." Tala parroted back from inside the fridge, "Make sure you two are ready to go after we eat."

"Where we going?" Nikita asked from her spot at the table with Kain.

"We have a meeting with the Elders." Ray answered from his spot at the stove, thanking Tala when he brought over the carton of eggs for him.

"Meeting?" Kain questioned, looking towards his parents with a quirked brow.

Ray only nodded, seemingly off in his own head at the moment as he'd gone and turned his back to the two at the table and focused on finishing their breakfast in a timely manner.

At not getting a real answer from Ray, Kain looked to Tala but the moment they looked at one another Tala turned away from him next which forced him to look at the last member who shrugged her shoulders in answer.

"Well whose all going to be there?" He tried to pry, yet once more got no answer from anyone in the house.

He didn't like all the silence, or the way they kept avoiding his questions. Something was going on, he could almost smell it in the air and it wasn't his fathers burnt bacon and eggs.

Accepting defeat, realizing neither of his parents were in a mood to talk to him and even Nikita, he waited patiently for the food to arrive and wolfed it down almost whole before taking himself to the bathroom to brush his teeth and hair, the door slamming shut behind him to let them know they'd gone and pissed him off by not answering him.

"Somebodies in a mood." Tala muttered under his breath.

Ray didn't say anything, glancing past Tala's head and Kain's empty chair to where he could see the bathroom door just through the opened archway to the hall.

He hadn't told Tala all he'd seen, and heard, during the night when Kain snuck out to train with Brooklyn. Nor had he told Tala exactly what it was that he was now planning after having watched their son fail and almost accept defeat over a sparring match.

The only ones who knew were Brooklyn and Lee. Brooklyn because he had to trust him in doing what it was he'd asked of him when they returned from the field, and Lee because he needed Lee to approve of the meeting that had been called in order to get his plans set in motion.

He hoped though, that even without having to tell Tala and explain his reasoning's to him that he would agree with him regardless. He didn't want or need a fight between them amongst everything else they had to deal with.

Finishing up his plate in silence, he took his and the one Kain had left behind from the table to the sink, disappearing around the corner of the hall to his and Tala's room to change and get ready for the meeting.

"Guess everyone's in a mood…" Tala muttered after Ray's hasty exit, Nikita only able to shrug her shoulders as she popped another forkful of food into her mouth.

"I don't think Kain slept good last night." She finally voiced after swallowing.

"Was he having heat flashes again?"

Nikita shook her head back at him, "I don't think so, at least none that I could feel. Just, he had dark circles under his eyes when I woke him up a bit ago."

"Did you elbow him in the chest again?" Tala asked in a knowing tone.

"Mayyyybe." Nikita sent back in a coy tone, an almost devilish smirk coming over her face though was cut short when she popped more food into her mouth.

Tala couldn't help his own smirk from forming, rolling his eyes at her.

"Did you sleep good at least?"

"Yeah, S'alright." She seemed to shrug back, talking around the food in her mouth.

"Why're we having a meeting with the council this morning though? Did something happen?" She asked quickly once she swallowed.

"I don't know, your father didn't say anything to me more about it aside from just saying we're having one when we woke up. Second he was done with that he came out here."

"Oh… Maybe it's because we only have two weeks left before she gets here?"

"I'm not sure malyshka, but I wouldn't worry about it right now." Tala tried to soothe, the last thing he needed was the entire house being in a bad mood before they had to all cram together in a small five-seater Jeep and then have the pleasure of sitting in an even stuffier room with Lee and all the old shriveled up men of Ray's Village.

"Okay…" Nikita sighed, finishing up her breakfast before hopping out of her chair and taking hers and Tala's plates to the sink to wash later.

"Do you need help?" She asked, coming back to him still sat at the table where he had laid his cane against the edge of it.

"I got it, why don't you go get ready." He suggested, taking his cane up himself and a moment before trying to stand.

Nikita gave him a worried look yet did as he said, keeping her eyes on him while he pulled himself up to stand just in case he slipped.

Once she was gone, Tala headed down the hall shortly after her though went to the left where his and Ray's room was and let himself into the room to find Ray sat on the edge of their bed with his night shirt still off and laid on the bed behind him like he had started to get undressed but stopped to sit.

Though, seeing what was in Ray's hands Tala understood why he had stopped and closed the door behind him, coming to sit on the side of the bed with him without Ray even looking up or acknowledging that Tala was even in the room with him.

"Why don't you actually put that on for once?" Tala suggested as he glanced at the gold band still nestled in the plush fabric of the black velvet box that Ray held in the palm of his hand.

"Just doesn't feel right to put it on myself." Ray answered, not taking his eyes off the gold band that his and Kai's initials were engraved in on the top of it.

Tala frowned a little yet couldn't fully argue with him about it. It had felt wrong putting his own band on his finger by himself yet at the same time he wanted, needed, to wear it in a way to remind himself that Kai was still out there and they were going to get him back one way or another.

"Okay. Kids are getting ready to leave, so whenever you're ready."

"Okay." Ray breathed out in a sigh, closing up the box again and taking it back to the dresser that sat in front of him against the wall next to the bed, burying it under his shirts in the top drawer where he had hidden it the moment he could when they arrived months ago.

"Did you take your meds?" Tala asked as he remained on the bed, having already gotten himself dressed before breakfast.

While on the outside they looked as though they were the parents to two teenagers, in all reality Ray had only given birth to Nikita barely seven months ago and was still having to take his anti-depressants for his postpartum depression. His moods had gotten better since being on the drugs but also at times he swayed like a pendulum, a violent and angry pendulum ready to take down anyone who dared breathe in his direction.

It was still a balancing act sometimes, especially if Ray missed a dose or two, and Tala was sure but not certain that aging the kids up like they had caused more of an issue than what Ray had been dealing with before. Though, he never really wanted to question it since he knew he had his own problems with the whole thing yet always came back to the same conclusion that it was better given Brooklyn's vision of Anette getting Kain had changed.

But he often wondered if it had changed for the better or not.

"Not yet, I'll take them before we leave." Ray answered, digging out a shirt from his drawer and slipping it over his head with his back to Tala.

Tala nodded to him despite Ray not looking, getting lost in his own head and questions about what the meeting could be potentially about since Ray hadn't said anything to him and looked to be on edge over it or possibly something else.

He knew by now not to try and pry, it only ended badly for the two of them whenever he had before. If and when Ray was ready to tell him than he would, he just hoped he himself wasn't going to be put in a bad mood due to whatever it was Ray was hiding from him.

Spinning back around to face Tala on the bed, Ray went to help him up only to get shooed away just like Nikita had been when trying to help him.

"I got it, I got it. Doc said I should 'walk it off' so I shall." He joked, pulling himself up from the side of the bed, using his cane to stand.

"See, gettin' better at it every day."

"But you also exhausted yourself at training yesterday, I don't want you overdoing it." Ray huffed back at him.

"Oh, look whose talking." Tala jabbed back.

"Don't start." Ray warned, a playful grin coming over his face.

Tala grinned, leaning down closer to Ray's face. "What you gonna do, spank me?" He teased through his wolfish grin. Anything to lighten the mood before they had to suffer more in the meeting.

Ray laughed, rolling his eyes before pushing on Tala's arm gently to get him moving out the door.

"You're such a hound."

Parting in the hall by the bathroom door, Ray doing what he said he would and taking his medication before they left, Tala ushered their children out the front door and to the Jeep that sat in gravel drive by the front of the house with Ray not far behind them after locking the front door behind him.

While the Jeep rattled and jarred along the dirt roadways towards the town hall, Kain managed to get in a quick cat nap before they arrived only to be slapped in the arm by his sister in a bid to wake him up.

Climbing out the back through the opened roof, they waited for their fathers as Ray went around to the passenger side to help Tala out of his seat before assisting him up the stairs to the towering doors that Tala had seen more than enough of since his stay in the Village.

Making their way through the long hallway, the kids at the lead, Brooklyn was stood outside the meeting room with his back against the wall beside the door with Max and Emily beside him.

"The others are already in waiting for you. Tyson said he's running a little late, seems Makoto had a rough night and he and Hilary didn't get much sleep." Max announced when the others got closer to him and the other two.

"What about Bryan and Spencer?" Tala asked.

"They're in there." Brooklyn answered.

"You brought what I asked you to?" Ray questioned Emily next.

"Have it all ready for you, Director." She said, tapping her laptop held at her side.

"Kenny's in there getting everything set up for us."

Ray nodded to her, it signaling the others to pull away from the wall and head into the room with everyone that were waiting for them.

Thankfully the room was large enough not only to hold the twenty or so members of the fallen BBA but the fifteen members of Lee's council as well. While the Elders had their usual spots around the long rectangular table, Lee sat at the head of it with Mariah on his left at the top corner, and the rest of the congregation was subjected to sit on cushions provided to them along the side and back walls of the room.

At the front of the room Kenny was still setting up what looked to be a projector at the end of the long table that pointed at the bare front wall, wires and cords running across the floor to the walls power supply.

After coming in behind Max, Emily ran up to the front of the room to help Kenny finish setting up, placing her laptop on the table beside the projector while the others came in and took up their own places in the room.

Kain and Nikita sat together against the left wall, behind where their fathers were sat at the table with Lee and the other Elders. Brooklyn sat beside the two, leaving an empty cushion on his left for when Tyson would arrive while Bryan and Spencer were sat across the room against the opposite wall on their own soft cushions.

Judy, being the acting Director of the BBA in the States was given a seat at the table with Ray and Lee, sitting on the opposite side of Mariah but further down the line from the top. Max, deciding to sit near his mother, took the wall Bryan and Spencer were sat against where he could look at the back of his mother's head and plopped himself down beside Eddy who had two empty cushions for Emily and Kenny waiting for them.

Gary, despite being a member of the Village was made to sit against the wall as well, on the same side Kain and Nikita sat but further down near the front wall with Crusher and Steve on either side of him with empty cushions between each of them given their individual size.

"Is this everyone then?" Lee asked once everyone was sat down aside from Emily and Kenny fixing up the projector still.

"Tyson will be here soon." Ray answered.

"Very well." Lee sighed, not wanting to spend an entire day in council himself either.

Luck would have it that they didn't need to wait long for Tyson arriving, the door nearly flying open as he made his entrance just in time as Kenny and Emily finished setting up the projector with it ready to go whenever they were given the go-ahead.

"Sorry about that." Tyson apologized as all eyes in the room, mainly the yellow and orange ones, had turned and given him a distasteful look.

Quietly he sat down on the empty cushion beside Brooklyn, crossing his legs and holding onto his ankles but it wasn't enough to keep his knee from nervously bouncing.

With everyone finally accounted for Lee cleared his throat to gain the rooms attentions, all eyes going to him.

"As you all know and are well aware of, Anette is on her way and fast. Based on Brooklyn's vision some months ago she'll be here within two weeks, and while the Reversal serum has been completed, as well as the manufacturing of the hollow bullets, we've yet to decide what to do when she does arrive.

"There isn't any way we can stop her before she gets here, nor do I think it wise to try and keep her out of the Village when her target is within it."

At that, Kain sunk a little down in on himself knowing that he was the target Lee spoke of that Anette was after. Pulling his legs up to his chest where he sat, he wrapped his arms around them and put his chin between the peaks his knees created.

"First order of business is to discuss evacuation plans and routes for our people and those who came with the BBA who are not Fused, our main priorities are the women and children and elderly." Lee continued on, looking about the room at his council when he was ready to listen to them next.

"We've been in contact with the Black Leopard tribe but have yet to receive any kind of notice if they're willing to allow refugees within their territory." An old greying man said from further down the long table on Mariah's side.

"The Black Leopard tribe is also too close to our home. While it's good for those needing to leave it's too risky to have our people go there to get away from the fighting. If the fighting were to spill out past our lands it will take them and our people regardless." An equally old and graying man from across the first cut over.

Lee sighed under his breath, knowing that they would go around in circles amongst each other just like they always did in petty arguments over whose idea was better or worse than the first and last.

They didn't have time to squabble, they all knew that, and already his patience was running thin.

He glanced over at Ray beside his sister, noticing that the other's eyes had been closed the entire time like he was trying to block out the suggestions and counter suggestions that had suddenly sprung up around the table and flew about the room.

No wonder Ray declined in taking the position of Head Elder, he almost envied him for it.

Cutting over their clucking at one another, not even sure who had said what last or what it entailed, Lee cleared his throat again where all eyes looked to him and mouths closed.

"We need our people moved, that much we know. We have measures we can put into place to make sure that the fighting doesn't spill out further into others territory and other villages through the region. I am personally opposed to sending our people to any of the major cities, we don't know if Anette and Black will attack those while they make their way here, so somewhere further south past our boarders would be more suitable to send everyone.

"We don't have the means to bus or ship or even fly anyone out of the country, not with what little time we are allotted and how many we are needing to get out."

"The Silver Back clan is our only option in the south, but it's a four week journey just to reach them." The Elder closest to Lee supplied.

"Our relations are good with the Silver Backs, but I can't foresee them being so kind if we were to send hundreds of our own and outsiders along with them without warning or even invitation." The wrinkliest Elder cut over, making the 'outsiders' in the room shift about on their cushions some.

"We'll send our reasons for coming into their land without proper invitation with our people. They rely on our crops and livestock, which is not possible to come by without our people." Lee spoke up, hoping to cut off another back and forth between the Elders.

"As for the journey, it may be longer than what we're being given but it has to do. Our people need to get to safety before Anette arrives and this is their only chance to do it now. They'll still be on the road when she arrives but at least then they're out of harms way."

He waited for a minute for an opposing opinion to be brought up but when none came he found himself sighing a breath of relief, his shoulders relaxing for the first time since having entered the room hours prior.

"Then that's settled. We'll gather up everyone as soon as we can, issue a evacuation notice to everyone within the Village to take no more than they can carry on their backs and be ready to leave by sundown tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?!" Came the opposing shrills.

"What about those that are not fit to travel, women and men in labor at the hospital or those too sickly to get up to leave on such short notice?!"

Ray's eyes opened, glancing to Lee who looked ready to rub at his tired face yet knew he couldn't do such an open thing in front of the other Elders and felt for him. He hadn't meant to put so much pressure on Lee's shoulders when they all came to hide away inside their Village with little to no warning. If it hadn't been for Lee being Head Elder they wouldn't have had anywhere to go, and while things had been rocky between them those first few months of them being in the Village together, Ray knew he owed Lee a debt that he'd never be able to repay for all he had to endure on his and the others behalf.

"We have means of transporting those who can't, our helicopters and box trucks will work in getting those who are either too sick to make the journey on foot or on their own will work." He spoke up, looking down the table at the Elders who frowned at him in return.

"Pick apart the armory vehicles, make room in them to transport patients and the elderly who are stuck in beds. As for those who are expecting- pray they don't while on the journey."

"You dare make a mockery of this situation?!" The wrinkliest Elder spat out from across the table at him, making Judy jump from where she was sat next to him yet Ray didn't flinch or even bat an eye.

"I meant no disrespect, but there isn't much we can do for those expecting soon when it's more important for them and their unborn kits to be out of here before Anette and Black arrive. It's not like we don't know how hard it was years ago before we even had running water in our homes or even electricity. It took longer than a four week journey to reach the outer clans and villages, but we made due because we had to.

"So while you want to sit here and bicker about when and where to go, you're putting your people up on a silver platter for Anette before she even gets here with your inaction's and indecision's." Ray bit back, eyes locked on the Elder that had challenged him.

Seeing all their feathers getting ruffled, especially since it was coming from Ray, Lee put a hand out to stop them before they could start laying into Ray over the top of one another.

"He's right. We have sat here on numerous occasions trying to think of when and where to send our people. Our time has run out. We have no choice but to take this course of action if we want our people to survive. So, again, we will send out the evacuation plans to our people, prepare the trucks and whatever vehicles we need in order to transport everyone out of here as safely as we can."

While there were some low grumbles of displeasure around the table nobody opened their mouths again to openly protest, Lee taking that as his cue to close that part of the meeting but immediately asking for everyone to take a moment outside to get some fresh air.

More grumbling could be heard as the Elders rose from their cushions, taking their leave while some of the BBA members filed out after them to get some air, not believing they had been stuck in the meeting already for almost two hours.

"Thank you…" Lee sighed once he and Ray and a few others were left alone in the room, propping his elbow on the top of the table and laying his head in his hand.

"It needed to be done. I don't get why they're so against keeping our people safe."

"Cus some things never change." Mariah answered, giving her brother a worrying look.

"Our people, just like our bitbeasts, are sacred to us and our home. To see them go off, even with the promise of them coming back, is scary to them despite the situation. They know, deep down, that it's for the better but feel the need to make a ruckus about it so you know that if something goes wrong, it was your fault for making that call." She explained.

"That's stupid." Kain voiced from his spot on his cushion from the wall behind Ray.

"It's politics." Bryan chimed in from across the room, "Make enough noise against it, and something goes wrong, then they can say I told you so and look blameless even though they can't be."

"Kain… Why don't you and Nikita get some air? It's going to be a while still till we're done here." Ray suggested from where he sat, not turning around to face the kids behind him.

"O-kay." Kain huffed as he hauled himself up, taking Nikita's outstretched hands and hoisting her to her feet beside him where the two filed out of the room.

Ray waited till they were gone, unable to hear them anymore in the halls and shifted to where he put both elbows on the table in front of him, lacing his fingers together with a heavy breath shooting out of him.

Those that were left in the room were people he could all trust, and most importantly Tala was still sat beside him and it was time he told him what he'd come to conclude earlier that night for the sake of their children.

"Before we start the next meeting, I need to tell you all what's fixing to happen."

At that all ears in the room were present, Bryan moving up to sit at the table with the others with Brooklyn joining them over on Tala's side that had been vacated by an Elder. Judy remained sat where she had been, Max coming to sit beside her on the vacant cushion with Emily joining him on his other side.

Having their attention now, Ray began to explain to them what he had seen that night with Kain out in the field training with Brooklyn only hours ago, how he came to the conclusion that neither kids were ready to face something as big and threatening as Anette and Black and that it wasn't their burden to bear.

The others around the table all seemed to be in agreement, nodding along to what he said while they allowed him to keep going.

"I don't want to see either of them hurt or killed because we failed them long before they were even conceived. This war wasn't supposed to be theirs to fight, it was ours and ours alone. While I had been against training them I only did so in order to better protect them, but even that-I don't think is going to be enough. Not for this…"

"So we keep them on the sidelines, just in case." Tala voiced just to confirm.

Ray nodded, though turned his attention towards him with an almost solemn look on his face.

"If we fail though…."

They held their breaths, especially Tala, for what he was fixing to say next.

"I've asked Brooklyn to make sure he gets them away from here if things go wrong. I know neither of them will agree to it if they know about it, which is why I asked them to leave, but it's better to get them away from here if things go south quickly."

Tala could only nod back, agreeing with him silently that it was for the better to get their kids away from Anette and Black if things didn't go as planned. Even if it was for just a short while that they could keep them out of her clutches then he'd take it, regardless of what might happen to him and the ill feelings he still harbored against Brooklyn for all the things he did and didn't do.

He'd never be able to forgive him, he knew that much when the bastard was returned to them months ago, but he could appreciate the fact Brooklyn was willing to protect his children in his stead if he couldn't do it on his own.

"I'm not asking you all to lay your lives down for my children, that's not it." Ray continued, turning back to everyone still sat at the table.

"I don't want to lose anyone in this, no more than we've already lost, so at any point that you feel you can't do it anymore, that you feel your life is going to be taken then get out. I'm not going to say you need to hold it out, that you have to do what you were made and trained for. It's your life, you decide if and when you need to pull out."

The others nodded back to him their understanding, the table going silent for a while till Brooklyn rose his hand in the air like he was waiting to be called on by a teacher.

"I do have a solution to our earlier travel problems."

"What is it?" Lee questioned, giving him a skeptical look while he continued to rub at his temple.

"I can open a portal that will form a direct link between here and the Silver Backs territory." Brooklyn explained, lowering his hand.

"Why the hell didn't you say something sooner then?!" Bryan yelled at him over the top of the table.

Brooklyn's shoulders went up in a shrug, "Nobody asked me."

"Thank you, that will surely make things easier." Lee sighed, wanting to rip his hair out over the entire last meeting now that they were given a much more simpler solution.

He looked to Ray one last time before the table got too quiet, "You ready then?"

"Yeah. Bring them back in."