Jake stared out rather listlessly out of the separate cages the dragons had all been herded into.Most of the intimidation the Huntsclan had set upon them had died not long after Wendy and Josh had left.He figured that without the guidance of the still out of commission Huntsman,all they had really done in the last few months was plan a time to attack but after that there wasn't much to do except wait for his daugther and son to return.It hadn't been long after Jake had arrived at the island those two months ago and she had told him defensively almost immediately after she had been taken to the hospital,of her brother's actions after she had freed him and therefore Jake retained hope...maybe there was a way to break his curse.

"Not really the most cultured bunch we've ever got trapped by,are they?"He inquired Haley who was only a few feet from him,as he stifled a yawn while still keeping his bored eyes out on number's 88 and 89 who were in a rather comical argue over how they would go about properly exterminating all the dragons."It's strange,they maybe much better figthers then they've ever been and yet they're still just as big of dorks as they've always been.I mean,really.They've been at this debating for about thirty minutes now.I say just flip a coin."

"Hush it!"Haley lashed out at him suddenly,her voice shooken with rage and her face glowering at him."Just hush it,will you?"she turned back to leaning in a state of apodictic melancholy,then after a few moments of leaving Jake in stunned silence,she explained to him in a faint and trembling voice."How on earth could you have let her go through with this Jacob?Heaven forbid,she's just a child.You've always had her best interests at heart and now when I'm sure you're going to put you're foot down,you let her and Joshua go on off to who knows where to find that blackhearted demon that's her brother!You're own son."

Jake felt his passiveness die on the spot,as he got to his feet and took a few slow steps toward the bars of her cage."What's that suppose to mean?"he asked her,his voice and eyes bore aroused confusion."Are you saying that I should have done this any differently?That I made the wrong choice by not being the 'big bad' father for once?What was I suppose to do,Haley?They weren't going to let anyone but her go and if there could be any other way I would have taken it...but I didn't.It was either refuse and let everyone die or go along with their obvious request."

She still kept her eyes locked on him."I'm well aware you didn't have many options,Jake.But for goodness sakes,why didn't you at least accompany her?At least spare Spud and Trixie's son from having to go at the most,at least him!"

This only left Jake more bewildered."Haley,I wasn't about to tell their son what he could or couldn't do.I...I don't understand you."he reached up and gripped his hands on the silver,cylinder bars of his cage to try to dilute the pressure returning to his body,as he reminded her sharply."You're the one who has always told me to have more faith in you're niece and when I finally give in to letting her try to be a hero,you're the one who I thought would be the one to support my decision to let her try and now...now you're the last one I thought would criticise me on this...at least,would you mind telling me why?Tell me so I know you have a good reason."

But Haley merely shook her head,placing her index finger and thumb to her forehead as if deeply troubled."You don't get it,Jake.You just don't get it.All those times were nothing compared to this,not even the Dark Dragon in my oppion,has ever matched up to how much I hate the Huntsclan after all that horror they put you through.I-"her voice caught,as it started to thicken with emotion at re-examining the past."I suppose I always said that so that she wouldn't feel like everything was too unbearable but the truth is..."she then moved shimmery eyes on him,her voice now thriving in thankfullness as a very small but meaningful smile crossed her now softened face."The truth is I've always respected you for all that you did for yourself and Wendy.But when all this just came up again and Wendy was kidnapped...I nearly feel apart thinking I would lose her.I love her.Jake,don't you know how much she's come to me with every little thing it seems over the last thirteen years?I may have kept up as American Dragon for all these years and I may have even turned dow a chance at love once...but I only did it for you both."

Her admission surprised him greatly and brought him yet another revelation to him...it wasn't that she wanted to take on a more motherly figure as he had always prevented her from doing;since he thought it might have the effect of making Wendy forget her true mother but in actuality she had only been on the sidelines to be an involved aunt.Not like their Aunt Patty who at the most only still showed up once or twice a year,but to be there no matter what.Even if all of this had never happened,he realised now,she would have still been there as much as she had and Jake found himself pentiently coming to the conclusion he had been too stern on how much he had permitted Haley from playing a strong role in his daugther's life.With all that much to contemplate along with everything else,Jake merely smiled back at his sister and started to back away from the bars,as he felt the tension fall and the need to tell her how much he appreciated her.

"I could never repay you for how much you've been there for us,Haley.But...I just have a feeling it's all going to be okay."his smiled widened kiddingly."He may be a male version of Rose but I have to have confidence in him and Wendy.They're my kids and I am worried for them...it's just,there's nothing I can do but have faith."

She rolled her eyes but merely nodded."You're right,they'll be alright I suppose."

"Ever miss those days when we competed to be the best?"he found himself asking her lightly,stepping back and moving his hands a few times back and forth."Back then when we actually thought we had real problems to worry over?Man,the times I wanted to set on you and stuff the largest bar of soap I could-

"Jake."Haley's voice crisply intervened,he came out of his brief dazeness and saw her also stand up to her full height of 5'6,as she was now looking down near the edge of his cage."Say..."she started to say,a sort of shrewdness sparking in her voice and eyes."Is that not the rather small remote that number 89,if I recall correctly,used to set an automatic lock on all of our cages at the same time and therefore;all the cages all of us just happen to be contained in at this very moment could be unlocked just by the simple push of the small,blue button?"

He walked back over and dropped his eyes curiously down to where the grey remote control he had only briefly payed attention to was sitting only a bit outside on the shaggy green grass.For a moment,he had to take inher what she was getting at and then when he did,averted his eyes up and surveyed to make sure all the Huntsmembers were still inactively standing.Without much of a shock,he found only about of quarter of them who didn't look like they were completely shamefaced for most obviously taking on the ultimate task of possibly eliminating a great majority of important dragons without the Huntsman and exchanged a devious look with his sister as he reached out and snatched it up quickly.

"Say,Haley,"Jake began to her airliy,eyeing the device with a conspiring sort of grin crossing his face."Do you suppose if one were to push down on said button,something rather unexpected and maybe even good might happen?"

"We should let everyone get the idea and pass it on to others before we act on it,Jake."Haley told him more seriously but nodded over at Fu who had at one time been slumped down in his wrinkles on the floor but who had now perked up and was sharing in their discovery as if it were all the money in the world."Do you want to start on one side and I'll start on the other?Pass the idea around."

For only a second,Jake thought he could see Rose's self-willed and brilliant blue-eyed gaze fading off to the side of her head."Yeah,"he nodded in slow but steady agreement,as everything to Jake now seemed conquerable at last for the first time in long,soild thirteen years."I'll take the left...you take right,then we'll fight back."

Back with Cole,Wendy and Josh...

Wendy took in the next predicament she and her boyfriend had been landed in.To her,the snake had seemed fairly surmountable even before Cole had just now told her of it's dangers but now the grips of uncertainty rose again in her and she knew she had to come up with something and quick.What did she know about this thing so that she make an excuse?She hated to be decieving but it wouldn't be too long before the sun began it's descent to sink into the western horizon and she needed a convincing story so that they could at least remain there to try and talk with him.

"We were..."Josh began protractedly,glancing up at her for assistance.

"We were...coming here to fight the basilisk ourselves."She picked up immediately on his trail off and then set her cerulean eyes into Cole's still for some strange reason,impendent gaze."See,me and my best friend Josh here got assigned by our new Mythobiologist teacher to write a report and we heard certain rumors around here about them being around.So naturally,we decided to use a potion to teleport all the way here and see what info we could gather from studying up on them or in the least bit fight them.And...wow,here you just happen to be.How've you been,Cole?"

For the first time,Cole's inasupicious expression seemed to extenuate."Remember when I told you how much I hated liars?Well,naturally,I'm not impressed you're actually doing it."he told her cleverly but a moment later turned more stern when the sound of the snake shifting a bit reached their ears."Tell me what you're real reasons are for being here?You need to get out of here as soon as possible or else."

Josh crossed his arms over his chest,making it clearly evident he didn't appreciate being told what to do."Or else you're going to fight Wendy and she's going to win?"

Without warning,Cole shot him a renewed foreboding look."Or else...you will not remain very long in you're physical body."he countered frostily and turned back to look at Wendy scrutinizingly."If you've come here to try and make me come with you for whatever reason,then I hope you know you're mission is fully in vain.Now if you would be as so kind as to leave me be,I have to return to my task at hand."

Wendy had to take a deep breath to stop herself from being overcome with panic and then she told his retreating form,her tone foursquared."All the dragons are going to die if we don't come up with some sort of plan and the Huntsclan are the ones behind it,"she stood completely upright when he paused and then turned very slowly to face her again,though his face was indecipherable as she continued on with a sort of will growing within her."They overtook us by surprise on the Isle of Draco and are threatening everyone's life,including some of our family's,unless I agreed to try and find you...but the thing is,I'm not about to try to force you in that sort of situtation...they were still watching us to make sure which portal we were travelling through and everything...listen,I know you don't want to have anything to do with the Huntsclan anymore but we need to come up with an idea to stop the-"

"No."Cole cut her off curtly,now rounding about to tell her very obdutately as she somehow sensed his temper start to boil over."You stop.I've been here for almost six weeks for a reason and that reason is to test my limitations.Wendy,did you not hear what the former American Dragon said to you that one day?It's important for me to do this...I ha-must fight this basilisk.If I can't stop myself from destroying it in the midst of fighting it,then that will prove once and for all if this curse is real."he suddenly turned more sinister as he advanced in deliberate,footsure steps."I am giving you twenty seconds to turn around and leave before you force me to do something I might just regret later,Wendy.I don't want it to have to come to that."

Cole's only partially allowing this to happen.She mused warily and was about to take to the air to try and snap him out of it when to her absolute shock,a person lunged out of nowhere and tackled her brother to the doughy ground and felt like fainting in disbelief when she realised it was Josh,he was on top of Cole and panting heavily but he held him down as if he was actually enjoying the feel of taking down someone he knew could probably break his entire upper body and he would never even know it.No...No,this can't be happening.Cole...don't do it.

To her immense surprise,her brother didn't budge an inch under the weight of the thinner but still fairly strong boy."I'm sick and tired of hearing you thinking you can go around saying whatever the heck is on that twisted mind of yours..."he had now calmed his breathing but was talking loudly and brashly down at Cole,who had gone deathly mute and unmoving while still being pinned down."You might of saved her life but she's actually risked herself and didn't just decide at the very last minute to lend a helping hand.And now,when she needs you just one more time to help us out,guess what the crap you do...you treat her like you-know-what again and leave her to deal with you're forsaken problems.They're only there because of you and because you never bothered to make amends with them.You two-faced,selfish-"

Wendy felt like she was in an awful nightmare,as Cole finally started to only for a few seconds squirm under his weight,before he delivered a very swift and a very sharp slapdash to Josh's face.It was so sudden and so brutal,that Wendy found herself recoiling all the way back down and she nearly burst into tears at the now completely motionless Josh off to their side.Her determination to try and get Cole to help her out disappeared in that one instant,being replaced by something else that she wished didn't feel but did...a total and complete urge to avenge his actions for attempting something like that...even though she knew deep down he couldn't help it,she wanted Cole to pay for more then likely unceremoniously almost ending him.She bared her teeth and turned to stare at him furiously,who she was not surprised to see was standing now,in a maddeningly calm and blank way.His face was bowedall the wayto conceal himself in the shadows,as if looking at her now would be dishonorable and not worth the effort as the two stepped forward more.

"I've never judged you,"Wendy told him in a low voice,her insides burning with hot impulse and surpressed grief churning her insides."But it should have been obvious to you that you could have done that without needing to..."she was abruptly in just a matter of seconds overtaken by blinding fury and was about to make a move to scorch him when the sound of something moving meet her ear stalks and they both turned to see the basilisk raising itself up,taking a moment to shake it's head as if to remove the drowsiness from itself,it set it's sight on the two and gave a siss at them before driving itself down on them rapidly."Oh!My-my-my-gaaaAH!"

She bolted forward and snatched up an apparently only unconscious Josh from off the ground,before taking off into the air and experienced all her ill-will towards Cole leave her as she realised that that might have been the only way he could have had done to Josh without permanetely damanging him for life or even worse.So all she could do was keep up in flight with her wings flapping up and down gradually in a sort of floating rythem,watching intently as the snake hit the mud-creamed ground violently and curved his emerald,scaled bulk around as Cole bounded out of the way and made an impressive backwards ascent up the snake by means of jumping upwards on it's swaying body.It was actually entertaining to watch him,as every so often he aimed small amounts of green energy from his staff,always precisely she found,he would shoot at the very top of the snake's head near it's eyes.Then when Cole had made it to the basilisk's neck,he dug into the snake's scales and flipped backwards to it's other side before it caught him in it's thistled fangs and gave the unsuspecting creature a roundhouse kick in the lower jaw,instantly misligning it.

The basilisk blinked it's bulgy,amber eyes and jerked it's head to the side where Cole was about to fall back down to the ground and bashed into him.He felt her still watching him and wished she would just leave,no matter how much she tried to or no matter how much she insisted there was another life out there,she could never understand how much this meant to him;as no one else could.He kept this belief in him high in his mind,as he twirled his staff from side-to-side whip fast and then went at a sprint towards the snake.Easily dodging it when it tried to strike him by trying to bash him with it's tail.His heart was relentlessly hammering againist his sore chest and he felt his relatively muscled arms starting to strain from all the extra extertion he had put into working and all the hours he had stressed over the contigence of his situtation.He was weakening and had been ever since the day he had nearly killed the Huntsman.It was either him or the basilisk,fate or freedom.

I denounced my loyalty to the Huntsman,I didn't slay my sister,I trapped this damn serpent and now I'm GOING to finish him off because it's too deadly to keep around!These edgy and realistic thoughts shot through his racing mind,as he kicked up off the ground and summoning forth all the power from his staff,turned it up and piereced the basilisk through the roof of the mouth.End,cretin.Just as all the other ones I've ever defeated have.Obey my whim and end.he didn't think clearly anymore,he felt a craving to wreak havoc on anyone who crossed his path as he yanked his blue,slimy weapon from the creature's fatal wound as he landed with the creature in unison on the ground.Breath you're last breath...fulflll what I wish to happen to you.That...That's right,gone...you're good and gone.

"If you try to attack me at all."Wendy's voice warned him,bold-spirited."I'll attack you right back even though I know how much better a fighter you are then me..But I will if it's to prevent you from going on a rampage."her words became more detailed by held back consternation."I've got to save a race of dragons and you're the only one who the Huntsclan will accept in order to not attack..I won't let them get to you and I know you won't either,so why let this get to you?You...you have to make a choice right now and right here Reign.You're the only one who can choose,not some curse and especially not any other person.They only want to use you as a weapon so that they can slay all magical creatues but you're also a human being like anyone whoever lived.So choose right now...are you just some mindless ultimate weapon that can be used at the enemies's disposal or are you someone who's in control of how much power and potential you actually have?Tell me,who're you going to be from this point on?"

A/N:Well,here's the big deciding moment... will he let himself become what the Huntsman always planned on him to become...an unstoppable killing machine or will he use what goodhe has in him to listen to his sister before he goes on a slaying spree unlike any the world as ever known?Things aren't looking good...which to me is good for now.lol.Actually,you may just be surprised with his choice.

LP