Peter closed his eyes as the door locked behind him, a sharp reminder that he was still a prisoner. But the light switch was on his side of the door and there were windows. The bed was off of the floor and there was plush carpeting under his bare feet. He wasn't cold, hungry, or in the dark. He wondered why the change in tactics.

He walked to the window, laughing quietly at the bars he found there. "I'm what 30 stories up? Who does she think I am? Spiderman" He looked down at the street below. He wasn't in a residential part of town. This was a high-rise office building.

How long had it been now? Six weeks? Eight weeks? It couldn't have been any longer than that. Could it? He just needed to hold it together and fake his way through this long enough to find a way out. He didn't think his sanity would withstand another day in the darkness much less another week or month. It was the only reason he'd agreed to become her pupil. He figured she knew it as well as he did, so he had to be on his best behavior, otherwise, he was certain she'd lock him away in the darkness and throw away the key.

He moved the chair over to the window and sat down. He pulled his knees up against his chest, closed his arms around them, and pretended not to hear the slithering sound of scales on stone.

March 15th

"Again., Miranda said as Peter picked himself up off of the tatami.

He took his position once more. This wasn't his first rodeo. This sort of training was a daily regimen throughout his childhood. Truth be told it felt good to be doing something, even if it meant spending time with his psychotic captor. It kept his mind off the things that slithered around him when it was quiet. He was certain that he'd lost his mind.

"It's not entirely unlike cobra form." He said,"It feels like you're going to rip my arm out of its socket with those throws."

"It is very much like cobra form. It was developed to combat it." She said "This is not a defensive art. Like the actual cobra, it is aggressive and angry." She smiled "A little like you at the moment."

"Do you blame me?" He asked. She had ripped his life out of his hands. He was no longer a cop, no longer a son, or a lover, he was nothing but an inconvenient reality. He didn't know why it mattered that he was the last of his father's line or how keeping him prisoner would doom the entirety of Shaolin and Kung Fu. He began to think she had been driven mad and was simply passing on the favor to him.

"You should be angry. Only a weak man would not be angered by a life sentence for an accident of birth."

"Or perhaps a powerful one." He could see his father managing to coast through this situation without a single angry moment. Hell, Kwai Chang Caine would still be seated in the dark, calmly making friends with the phantom snakes that were the bane of Peter's existence.

"Perhaps. From the beginning." She said indicating that he should run through the kata again. Occasionally she would tell him to hold and she would adjust his stance, then tell him to proceed.

"You learned white crane style, and it shows."

" Among others. Learned and mostly forgotten." He admitted. He looked at the floor, eyes scanning, looking for the snake that he heard, almost wishing he could see it.

" Good. It is not the right form for you. You're tall, your shoulders are broad, you have long legs, and you are built for strength and power. Which we need to start you working on. You need to not only build your strength but also condition your joints to withstand the form. "

"And this form is designed to combat Kung fu." He said.

"Lethally. Let the crane go. It does not serve you. " she nodded "Again."

After an hour of this, he was certain that if he heard the word again one more time he was going to scream. He remembered that feeling from when he had been learning Kung Fu as a boy as well.

"Now, let's see if you remember what I've taught you today." She said and advanced. When he would use the new form to its advantage she praised him. When he reverted to the kung fu he had learned as a child she would land a blow hard enough to inflict serious pain. If he did not get up off the floor fast enough she would kick his ribs. This continued until she called a halt.

Peter lay on the tatami gasping for breath. She offered her hand which he took, and allowed her to help him up.

"I think that is enough for one day. Go get cleaned up and meet me in the dining room for dinner."

He gave a respectful bow that he didn't mean, and left the room, heading for the stairs that lead to his bedroom. He scowled at Kline who insisted on following him. "You know I'm not going anywhere, right?"

"Only because you can't"

"And your point?" Peter asked, taking the stairs two at a time. He got to his 'room' as she called it. But he knew it for what it was, it was his cell. It was locked every night when he was dismissed by his jailer.

He showered quickly and got dressed. Once he had been allowed out in the light she had bought him clothing. Higher end than he could have ever afforded on a cop's salary. A complete waste on a prisoner in his opinion, but he wasn't going to complain. He supposed it was part of the recruitment ... the seduction. It was wasted on him. In the light of day, he would never consider joining forces with these people. But in the dark, where even darker things slithered and twined around his mind, he would do anything to step into the light even for a moment. So he made sure to never be in the dark again.

"Still nothing?" Paul Blaisdell asked, then thanked Lo Si for the tea that had just been set before him.

"Sometimes I sense him like... something in my peripheral vision." Caine said ,"And then he is gone."

"I think perhaps we've both been giving into wishful thinking... it's been almost two months. Surely we would have found something by now if he was still alive."

"He is alive., Caine said firmly. "Peter is alive."

"Then maybe he doesn't want to be found. I don't like to think that he'd be hiding from his own family but it's something we have to consider."

"Perhaps." he said, "If there is something he is trying to draw away from those he cares about, but it is not like Peter to hide."

"I wouldn't have thought so either. But those are our options."

"Or he is being held prisoner." Lo Si said.

"To what end?" Paul asked. "I thought so too in the beginning. But that was when he first disappeared. For the first couple of weeks, it seemed the only acceptable option. But It will have been 8 weeks on Thursday. I want nothing more in this world than to believe that one day we will have Peter home, alive and well. But I just don't think that is possible anymore"

"Do not give up." Lo Si said, "This is not Peter's destiny."

"So you're the keeper of destiny now? How do you know what his destiny is... was... I'm not even certain I believe there is any such thing as destiny." Paul finished his tea and rose to his feet. "Thank you for the tea, Lo Si." he looked to Caine "I'll stay in touch. I wish things were different."

Lo Si walked him out and returned to his parlor. "I fear we do not have much more time." He said, "The forces at work here -"

"Are battling for Peter's soul. Yes, I know." He said, his anguish evident in his voice "I fear he is losing that battle, our connection fades a little more each night."

" I do not believe that your bond has lessened. Merely that it is being dampened."

"He must feel so lost and abandoned. I should never have left."

"Do not carry the guilt of others, Kwai Chang Caine. Perhaps our mistake is to try to reach Peter during the night. It may be when his captors have the most power. We will try again at first light. But you must prepare yourself, for the battle to get through to him, and for what it is you may discover."

Peter was never comfortable having dinner with his captors like it was a dinner party. Still, if it was that or peanut butter sandwiches in the dark, most days he'd deal with the dreaded dinner party. Only most. Sometimes he thought it might be worth the dreaded peanut butter to get away from Kline for a night.

Miranda scared the hell out of him, even now. Maybe especially now that he knew what she could do. Kline didn't scare him, but he knew that the man would just as soon toss him back into his darkened cell as look at him. So Peter knew he would be looking for any excuse to get Miranda to do just that.

Miranda set a glass of bourbon in front of him "You've worked hard today. You've earned it."

"He probably needs it., Kline said sarcastically.

"That's enough." She said.

"Don't get too comfortable, Peter." He said "We were all her favorites once upon a time. If you'll excuse me, I prefer to drink alone." Kline excused himself and left the room.

"Is he actually jealous?" Peter asked after savoring the first drink of whiskey.

"He gets that way from time to time. He forgets how intense training can be, and the bonds it forges."

"I think he's hoping you'll snap my neck., Peter said. He definitely did not want to bond with Miranda. He'd rather bond with the imaginary snake.

"That won't happen."

"Because then my father would be the last and you don't want that. He wouldn't be as easy to control as I am."

"He's a priest. I'd sooner kill him as look at him."

"Please don't." Peter said "Please just leave him alone. He's gone walking around God knows where. He's not a threat to you."

"As long as he minds his own business, I shouldn't have to do anything to him."

"If they think I'm dead or in trouble someone will always keep poking."

"Fortunately for them, they have no way of knowing where to find you."

Peter nodded. "Yeah. Lucky for them." He downed the rest of the bourbon in his glass."

"I know you're hoping they will come to the rescue somehow and save you." She laughed as he blanched. "Did you really think I didn't know you were doing anything it took to get out of the dark?"

"I suppose not."

"In time you will accept your place."

"When I am well and truly brainwashed." He said, sadly "I figured that out while I was still playing with imaginary snakes in the dungeon."

Her eyes sparkled almost manically "What makes you think they were imaginary?"

"Oh god." He said, starting to hyperventilate.

It had been impossible for Caine to sleep as he waited for the first light of day. Instead, he meditated, clearing his mind and giving his body as much rest as he could. He was preparing to do battle for his son's life and his very soul.

Lo Si sat down across from his friend just as he emerged from his meditations. "Perhaps together we can reach him. His captors know to block you, but the two of us together may be able to force our way through."

Caine nodded. "Yes, perhaps so." He said. He placed a picture of Peter on the floor between them.

The two priests entered into a joined meditation, focusing on Peter.

Peter's sleep was fitful, even with the light on he could feel the snake slithering and constricting within his mind. He struggled against it, sweating profusely as he tossed and turned in his bed.

The darkness in his mind parted into twilight as his father connected with him.

"Pop?"

"Yes, my son. Where are you, Peter, tell me where you are and we will come for you."

"I don't know... You have to stay away."

"That is the one thing I cannot do." He said stepping toward the image of his son, his consciousness.

"You've managed just fine until now." Peter said "We both know that I've just been an afterthought. Just keep walking in circles or whatever it is you do when you're ignoring my existence."

"Peter, I have never ignored your existence. I love you, My Son." He frowned hearing the scrape of scales on stone. There was something familiar about it, but he could not place it.

"In the hospital... you knew." Peter said, a tinge of panic to his voice as he looked around for the snake but he could only see it in the periphery. "I don't know why I didn't see it before... but you knew. You knew that Ping Hai had separated us to protect us. There was only one way you could know that. If you had spoken to him... which you did... only now you call him Lo Si."

"Peter that isn't important right now. We can discuss that when I have brought you home."

"You knew I was alive" Peter yelled "And you hadn't bothered to look for me. I'm all over the damned news all the time so he knew I was still in Bayview. And if he fessed up about the lie then you knew. Would you have even come looking if I hadn't just shown up out of the blue?"

"Peter, Who has taken you? Do you know who has you?"

"Can't you even answer that one question?" He said "Just that one question. Would you have come looking for me?"

"There were too many dangers. It has never been about not wanting to be with you. It has never been that."

"Translation... No. You were never going to come looking, just like you never planned to tell me you were leaving." Peter shook his head. He stopped fighting the serpent. It hurt too much. "Both times I had to catch you by accident."

"Peter-" Caine began.

"How does it feel, Father? To keep asking and asking and never get an answer. I won't tell you who... but I'll tell you why. Because I'm the last. This bloodline ends with me. I don't want your help. Stay away." Would it give his father enough reason to walk away again?

"No, My Son. That I will not do. Your very soul is in danger whatever anger you feel toward me, we will face that together. I promise. Tell me where you are or who has you, please, Peter."

The torment in Peter's eyes broke his father's heart. He moved closer reaching out for his son, hoping to mingle their qi and heal the damage done to his son's mind and soul. "Take my hand." He said holding his own out to his son. For a moment he thought Peter would reach out as well, then his features hardened.

The slithering became louder and the black serpent coiled itself around Peter, who showed no fear or reluctance "Goodbye, Father." He said as the serpent pulled him into the darkness, and the connection between them was gone.

Peter woke suddenly. "I'm sorry, Pop... it's the only way." He whispered the only way to keep his father safe. He had to believe that Peter was lost. Even if it meant that, ultimately, he truly was.

Caine looked to Lo Si in horror. "I have lost my son," he said and gave in to the tears that had been just beneath the surface for weeks now.

Lo Si shook his head "So long as he lives you have not lost him. He can be rescued, redeemed."

"He refused to tell me who has taken him. But he said the reason he was taken was that he is the last. A black snake has his soul ensnared. I could see that he feared the snake, but he didn't struggle against it when it wrapped him in its coils. It was the snake that broke our contact."

"Harbingers." Lo Si said with contempt. "They will poison his mind, twist him to their will."

"I fear they already have."

"We must find him, now more than ever. If they turn Peter, all is lost."

"What have you not told me." Caine's tone was not accusatory, but it was harsher than he normally used with his old friend.

"There is a prophesy regarding your bloodline... the line of Kwai Chang."

"If possible speak plainly. I do not have the ability to translate prophesy right now." Caine said, still shaken by his encounter with Peter. "I will not waste the time trying with Peter's life and soul in danger."

"The last of the line of Kwai Chang must return to the first temple to aid the first in the line of Kwai Chang."

"Why have you not mentioned this to me before." He asked. He did not ask how this was possible. That was not important. That his friend was yet again keeping secrets from him about Peter was important.

"Peter is not ready. He has not completed his training. Until he does he cannot complete the prophecy... and the first temple will fall, and there will be no Kung Fu."

"And the harbingers will go unchecked spreading their darkness." His son was now part of that sect. Caine had no doubt that he had been brainwashed, there was no other explanation. No other reason that Peter would refuse to tell him how to help him.

"For now we must track the snakes rather than your son." Lo Si said, "They can be forced to give us information when Peter will not."