There was a moment after Piper yelled that nothing happened and her friends just drew still, halting in place with their weapons held tightly in hand. Somewhere inside of her, there was a slight amount of morbid curiosity wondering who would win, but she definitely wasn't about to let herself find out. When her friends stilled she looked between them, hoping for anything else, avoiding meeting Medea's eyes.

Then Jason turned first, then Leo, then Lance, heads moving, fighting stances retained. They blinked at her, a certain sense of alarming hollowness behind their eyes, like there was nobody behind the fluttering eyelashes. Until the light returned and their weapons fell to their sides. They all looked lost. Lost but still alive. Piper let out a breath she didn't realise she had been holding. Medea's face turned ugly.

"What have you done?" She snarled at piper, balling her fists as her eyes turned to fire and her mouth looked about ready to start spitting out venom. She spent a moment seething and Lance took the opportunity provided to tuck the sword he had been given into his belt in a way he hoped was secure and retrieve the rifle. He shuffled backwards, sensing the obvious battle brewing and hoping distance paired with his ranged weapon would provide them an advantage.

"Attack!" Medea commanded, an angry flush creeping up her neck as she stared them down. There was no moment of delay following this yell: the effect was immediate. The creatures that were called upon began to writhe, scaled bodies shimmering, moving iridescently between warm colours and a cool, striking white. "The sun dragons," her voice was cool and calm and silky again. It sat heavy in the room as the aforementioned dragons began to slink towards them, serpentine bodies swaying as they gnashed their sharp teeth and growled so low it made the room rumble. "Kill them!"

The dragons moved forwards quickly on strong legs, diving at Leo, Jason and Piper who stood there, somewhat dumbstruck. Their weapons were drawn and ready but their preparedness for battle was more questionable. It wasn't until they all dived out of the way that Piper realised there was someone missing.

She clearly wasn't the only one to notice.

"Where did the other one go?" Medea screeched, all the silk from her voice replaced with barbed wire, "Kill him extra hard!"

Usually Leo would have been the first to pipe up with a snarky correction but he was rather too distracted running from a dragon's sharp talons before its foot landed heavily where he was only moments before. He beelined to where Piper was standing in front of the other dragon, its dark eyes staring at her as she lashed at the great beast rather uselessly with her dagger. It was beginning to rear back, as if in preparation of releasing an inferno. Leo wasn't quite ready to let his friend be turned to ash so he sprinted, hoping he could get there before the other dragon managed to get to him.

Jason was stabbing at the same dragon as Piper, attempting to pierce its hide effectively enough to cause anything more than a flesh wound. There were a few scales falling and a slight smear of blood but the damage was otherwise minimal. And Leo's dragon was gaining on him. The creature's front leg was reaching out, ready to hit him out of the way and slice him open with its pointed claws at the same time and he was stumbling as he ran, all too aware of the impending doom.

Next came the noise of one shot, then two, then three. Leo kept running and, a moment later, the dragon stopped, keeling over with little warning, blood spurting out through three small holes-two in its soft underbelly and another in the soft skin on the underside of its neck. At first Leo wondered how such small holes were causing such a monster such a problem, but then he saw the exit wounds. He didn;t have time to dwell on them. He managed to shove himself in front of Piper in time for the exhalation of fire to hit him instead. The other turned to dust.

Medea was starting to become uneasy, her assuredness fading and being replaced with frustration as she cursed. "Where is the other one? Such a beautiful boy, maybe I'll keep something of you as a trophy. Now come out come out wherever you are,"

And then a bullet casing fell to the floor with a resounding jingling sound and the room fell almost silent. Medea's eyes drifted up towards the rafters.

"Shit!" That was definitely Lance's voice but it echoed enough to leave his location a little bit ambiguous. Leo patted down the smoldering fabric of his shirt and pulled Piper to her feet as Jason followed Lance's lead and began to aim his attacks at the underbelly of the beast, stabbing somewhat awkwardly beneath the creature but finally producing a result. There was another shot that hit the dragon directly in the eye. It reared back and roared, releasing a pume of fire towards the ceiling and causing the rafters to begin to burn. Lance deftly returned the rifle to his back before swinging down from the rafters, landing lightly on his feet and not hesitating before drawing the sword from his belt.

"Nice," Leo complimented as Jason aimed a final stab straight at the beast's jugular and it began to crumble. The dragons were dead but they all kept their weapons drawn as medea began to screech.

She charged towards them, more blind fury than strategy, stumbling a little over her own feet as they dispersed but her momentum continued to carry her. Lance ran towards the cage containing the spirits that they had been following whilst Jason approached Coach hedge whose hands were wrapped firmly around the bars. The both scooped up the respective cages, shifting them to their backs in a way that caused Coach Hedge to display a distinct indignance. Under the extra weight, they were slowed considerably but still running to the best of their ability, joining their friends as they ran away from a still fuming Medea who spent a moment stilled as she tried to decide which of them to charge first. The piles of dust began to reform themselves, shapes building themselves out of the piles of aureate dust beginning with the sharp curve of the claws.

Leo, Jason, Lance, and Piper converged at the single door to the room, running through it before Medea could use their reunion to her advantage. They slammed it shut behind them, continuing to run as soon as Leo had soldered the door to its frame so it couldn't be easily opened. As soon as they were a considerable distance away he paused. A large burst of flames sprung forth from each of his hands and collided with the building, immediately consuming it in roaring flames. The only thing that was loud enough to be heard over the crackling of the licking flames that consumed the structure as if they had been starved for years was medea's tortured screams of agony. Leo turned to sprint back to rejoin his friends.

They all winced at the ear-splitting sound but none of them turned back to help her. Piper wasn't sure whether she hated that she was letting this happen or that she hated that she felt guilty about it, but she knew that she was feeling somewhat sick to her stomach. The silence left behind when the cries dissipated was worse than the cries themselves.

As soon as they were comfortably far from the smoldering remains of Medea's abode they collapsed to the floor, the cages placed before Jason or Lance could let themselves fall to the dirty floor. Coach hedge sat dejectedly in his, staring at the teenagers sprawled across the floor.

"Um, thanks for that, McLean, Valdez, Grace, Lance,"

"McClain," Lance corrected weakly, smiling softly at the fact that he could remember something,

Hedge snorted, halfway between a laugh and a bleat "McLean and McClain, huh?" It wasn't really a joke but they were all a bit dizzy and worn out from the mixture of fighting, mental exhaustion, and smoke inhalation, so the largely barren complex was filled with slightly hysterical giggling.

None of them knew quite how much time had passed, but they remained laid out on the floor, not really relaxed but not really energised enough to do much else. It wasn't even comfortable; the floor was cold and hard and hurt their backs, and the bright lights above were harsh and hurting their eyes. Piper was the first to move.

She rolled onto her stomach with a grunt, propping her chin up on her hands, elbow planted on the ground. She looked between Jason-electric blue eyes aimed absently at a flickering light a long way above them-and Lance-arm cast over his eyes, sleeve riding up his forearm, one slightly paler than the other because of the relatively recent removal of the cast.

She had a question to ask. She hesitated for a moment, just watching her two friends, both of whom were entirely unaware she was staring at them, faces taut with concern in spite of their seemingly casual positioning. It took a minute, but she decided to ask it in the end anyway.

"Do either of you remember anything new?" Her voice was soft and hopefully comforting, and seemingly well-received. She wondered, with a further sting of guilt deep within her gut, if that was all part of the charmspeak.

As if reading from a script, they both answered in unison "Nothing that makes sense," They looked between each other and chuckled for a moment before Jason rolled himself onto his side and Lance put his hands behind him to prop himself up. They both looked at her as she began to say something else.

"Well what do you remember that doesn't make sense? Maybe we can all make sense of it if we work together," She tapped Leo's leg with the tip of her toe to indicate that he should join the conversation. He complied, sitting up and crossing his legs. He pulled a little contraption from his toolbelt and started to fiddle with it.

"That's the little flying thing from the fireworks on the roof," Lance observed, pushing himself up a little more so that he was sitting more or less upright.

"It is," Leo grinned, "The one that you messed with,"

"According to what evidence?" Leo ignored him.

"You know I haven't been able to fix it,"

"Fix what?" Jason asked, injecting himself into the conversation. Leo sighed and let go of the little contraption that immediately began to fly at his face as if it had some vendetta or other against him.

"How did you do it?" Leo asked "I know I don't need to fix it but it's a matter of pride,"

"If it's a matter of pride then surely you need to do it without my help?" Lance raised his eyebrows, "Otherwise you've just admitted I managed to outsmart you."

"You're annoying,"

"You're the one letting me get to you,"

"You remembered a really odd subset of knowledge,"

"It's proven pretty useful so far,"
"Which is worrying," Piper reminded, "So what exactly do you remember?"

"Just more of this," Jason sighed, "Flashes of weird creatures, weapons, these latin names. But none of it is complete enough to mean anything,"

"And you?" She asked Lance, straightening one of her arms out to her side so that she could place it on Jason's shoulder in a way that she hoped was comforting. He seemed frustrated. She didn't blame him.

"Not this," He chuckled as he said it but it sounded so humourless and hollow it was becoming grating, "But nothing less weird. It's all weird flashes of light, weird clothes, bits and pieces of friends and places I know that I know but no faces, almost no names, no nothing. There's also the occasional flash of these metal lions, which are so strange I can't think they could be anything but a weird metaphor or something my brain created to fill a gap,"

"Why?" Leo asked plainly.

"What do you mean?" Lance cocked an eyebrow, tucking his knees up against his chest.

"Well if Festus can exist then why can't these lions? They sound pretty similar,"

"Maybe…" Lance still sounded hesitant.

"Well why can't they?" Piper asked.

"There have been weirder things," Jason added.

"Yeah. it's just," Lance let out a shaky, hissing breath from between his teeth, "If it is true then who the fuck am I?"

"Lance mcClain," Piper said.

"But who is that?"

"I don't know," She shrugged as well as she could laying as she was, "I think that's on you to figure out. But, for what it's worth, I'm pretty sure we all like who that's turning out to be,"

"Thanks,"

"And now, can that wonderful person please tell me what you did to this thing?" Leo thrust the little flying machine towards Lance who just laughed-less hollow this time.

Mark noticed very soon after meeting the group of oddly dressed strangers that the oddness ran much deeper than that. They all spoke intelligently but they missed almost all of the pop-culture and historical references he made. It was like speaking to Lance again but there was no claim of amnesia and no frustration at the hollowness in the space that was meant to be occupied by a past. They were also definitely lying. About something or other. Katie, Takashi, and Keith were all pretty good at it but Hunk made it clear they weren't telling him something. The teenage boy was endearing but something was off.

Something had always been off.

Keith was scowling at the ground throughout most of their conversations that never seemed to lead anywhere useful beyond "Maybe he's in Cuba? But I doubt it…" It was frustrating to mark, who had quickly grown attached to the boy. He couldn't imagine how it might feel for Lance's long term friends. They'd lost him for months, found hope of getting him back, and then seen that he wasn't there. They'd lost him, found him, and then lost him again.

"Do you have the names of the other kids that went missing with him?" Takashi asked, "Or any more information on what might have happened beyond them just disappearing?"

"Yes to the former, no to the latter. The other children were Jason Grace, Piper McLean, and Leo Valdez. Shortly after, Gleeson Hedge, a teacher from the same school, also disappeared under similarly mysterious circumstances,"

"Where did the kids disappear from? Was it the school?" There was a slight twinge of humour behind Takashi's words, as if there was some inside joke Mark didn't get happening.

"Not quite. School trip to the grand canyon. There was a storm, the kids got shut outside and then nobody has reported seeing them since. Some eyewitness accounts say there was a fifth teenager but no official reports have been able to assign him an identity and official accounts say he doesn't exist,"

"How odd," Katie commented under her breath.

"Odd," Mark agreed, "But it's hardly like Lance has any real known identity. There are odd things happening around this whole thing and I think the only way we can figure this out is if you're all honest with me,"

"We aren't being dishonest," Hunk insisted. He was overacting. He did that when he was lying. Mark wondered whether he lied a lot or if it was just the circumstances. He supposed it was the latter; if it was the former he'd surely be a better liar.

"So why is it that a group of his friends is contacting me rather than a family member?"

"He's gone missing before," Keith tried hesitantly. He was looking at the floor rather than Mark but it didn't seem like he was lying, just ill at ease. "We've all gone missing before. Our records are messed up, his records are messed up. Everything is odd but that doesn't have to mean suspicious,"

"And why did you go missing?" Keith seemed honest but if Mark had to test that by digging a little bit deeper he was going to keep digging until it all fell apart. Or came together. Whichever. Not only was this his job, he cared enough about Lance to want to do this right, to figure him out, to send him home. All of it.

"To save a friend," He nudged Takashi "Who went missing on a job that didn't go as well as hoped,"

Mark wasn't particularly happy with that answer but he was going to let it go. If he got too caught up on something like that he was never going to move onto anything else. "And do you know why he went missing this time?" Keith sighed and Takashi took over the conversation once again.

"We don't. We wish we did. We were hoping someone could help us with that but…"

"I think the best I can do at this moment in time is to look at the other related records to the case. There's some information I can share but if anything confidential comes up I'm not in a position where I am able to share it,"
"Could you put out their pictures like you did Lance's when you first found him?" Takashi asked hopefully, "That way if anyone does see them we can maybe try to follow where they're going,"

"I don't know how well it would work seeing as we have so little idea what happened to them, but I can probably get you in contact with that caseworker. If she thinks it's worthwhile she'll get in touch with a media outlet or two. Here's her business card,"

He handed the card over, a number and the name Diane Kahn and stood up, dusting off his trousers even though there was nothing to brush off of them, "I need to get to the bottom of all of this, and I am required to properly vet you all, but, for what it's worth at this point, I really hope you find Lance. He deserves his friends back and I'd like to speak to the kid again. If only to say bye properly. Here, take my card as well as Diane's. We need to get in contact once again so I'd really ask that you purchase a phone so that I can contact you. As soon as you have a number I can call, tell me what it is and we'll get a proper line of communication sorted out,"

He made to leave but didn't miss Keith mumbling "Great we came here to get Lance and ended up leaving with a plan to develop a line of communication,"

A/N

Hi, I'm back after literally forever. I know, I know, I'm awful, but here's something. I don't like to abandon things but sometimes I just lose motivation. I think I've gotten at least a little bit of it back and honestly, at this point I am pretty open to getting back to most of my old stories. There was a comment on this the other day from alltehgayships that made me realise that people are maybe still interested in this so that gave me a bit of motivation to write this. I can't promise this is brilliant or that nothing has changed with my writing style but it has made me realise I kind of want to get back to this properly. This chapter is definitely not very fitting with canon, but eh it's hardly like I've been the most in keeping with it in this fic's past. Also it's approaching 3am so I am really sorry if I've made any particularly troublesome typos and also my glasses steamed up everytime I tried to drink my tea so there were a few moments when I couldn't actually see my computer screen.

All the best,

We'reAllABitOdd