2015

Bianca sat on the edge of the bunk, watching the boy in front of her attempting what one could only presume was meant to be breakdancing. As he tried to lift himself onto his hand from the floor, he collapsed unsuccessfully into a heap. A slight smile crossed Bianca's face as she observed his ridiculous manoeuvres. He bounded back to his feet, which didn't surprise Bianca in the least, and made a few hand gestures that would have looked smooth if done by a professional rapper, but came off looking abnormal with his slim, pale features. She knew the energetic seventeen year old was trying to pass off that the fall was all part of his routine, but he wasn't convincing. She shook her head at him and rolled her eyes away.

"What?" Danny asked. She looked back to him, amused. "You never know, I could be the next big thing. I can be the new Eminem or that Paul guy."

"Sure you can," she agreed lightly.

Her gaze fell to her feet and she dropped her head, watching her shoes hang motionless just above the ground as the smile faded from her face.

"Bianca, c'mon," he said, bouncing on the balls of his feet in front of her. "It's just a med check. Nothing to worry about."

She grimaced, too consumed with her own thoughts to detect whether he'd noticed. He placed his hand gently on her knee and she glanced up.

"They'll go easy on you. First time and all that. Unlike me."

He grinned which did little to comfort her. She couldn't understand how he could be so cheerful about someone poking and prodding you for fifteen minutes. He picked up her hand from the edge of the bed, curling her fingers into a fist and then meeting it with his own.

"Peaknuckle?" he suggested.

Letting go of her wrist, her hand dropped to her lap and he took a step back, lowering his own. Seeing she was in no mood to play, he walked to the opposite end of the room, feeling deep into his back pockets and pulling out a small orange container, holding it up to her and shaking it lightly.

"Tic tac?" he asked.

"I thought we weren't supposed to eat," Bianca said questioningly. Danny looked the container over thoughtfully.

"Well, it's not food. These, these are cyanide tablets, special spy stuff, bite it in half and you can kill yourself just like that." He clicked his fingers in representation of quickness. "Very handy if you were captured by the enemy."

"Then… why would I want one? Especially now."

Danny looked intently over the container in his hand then back to Bianca giving a shallow nod of his head. "Good point."

He came up and sat beside her, his hands falling into his lap. She felt the thin mattress on top of the bunk sink a little. The platform beneath them was so hard she hardly imagined it to be an ideal place to sleep on. She felt Danny lean into her a little.

"Maybe we should poison the doctor," he whispered, jokingly.

"Maybe you should put those away," Bianca returned. She didn't want them both getting into trouble.

He emptied one of the small white capsules out into the palm of his hand, shoving the container into his back pocket as he threw the tic tac into his mouth and bit down.

"Oops," he said, realising what he had done. He gagged shortly, holding his hands to his throat as he collapsed back onto the bunk. With one last gasp he lay still, and then gave a fake cough. Bianca smacked his leg and he raised his head to look at her. "That's a really heartless way to treat someone who's dying."

"You're not dying," she said, leaning over him. Danny kicked his legs out and propelled himself back into a sitting position.

"Even so, you keep being that uncaring and you'll be the perfect assassin. A true Phoenix," Danny stated.

She watched him slide off the bunk and cross the room. She noticed he was putting more weight onto his left leg than the right.

"Did you get hurt again?" she asked. Danny screwed his nose up, turning back to her.

"Old injury. Think I aggravated it hitting the floor before," he explained. She looked at him sympathetically and he turned his head aside, summoning up that cheerfulness that he had only moments ago. "C'mon, let's do something fun."

"I think we'd have to get out of here for that," Bianca said vacantly.

"Okay," Danny agreed. When Bianca looked his way she saw he had disappeared. She stared at the empty space and saw him shimmer back in. "Shimmer in, shimmer out, shimmer in, shimmer out."

Bianca watched as he shimmered in and out, all the while saying what he was doing. It was like he had the attention span of a toddler. She had to admit he looked quite funny doing it, getting sillier with each shimmer by pulling a face or striking a strange pose.

"Danny!" she warned, laughing and looking nervously towards the door to make certain no-one was going to come in and catch him. He shimmered back in, stopping and grinning at her.

"Now there's the smile I wanted to see," he said, reaching out and tapping her chin lightly with his knuckle.

"Daniel, we're ready for you," the nurse called from the doorway.

"Chin up, kiddo," he said to Bianca.

Turning he followed the nurse through the doorway, chatting in a friendly manner as if he saw her every day. The door closed behind them and Bianca found herself alone again. She sighed. Playing the waiting game was long and boring. She swung her feet a little. It killed about thirty seconds of time. She glanced up to the wall looking to see if there was a clock around, but there wasn't. She figured the idea for that would be so whoever was waiting would lose all track of time and not realise they had been waiting as long as they were.

She heard a scream come through the doorway and her drifting thoughts snapped back to reality. Her head jerked toward the direction it was coming from, staring at the door where Danny had gone through not long ago. Concerned, she slid off the bunk and began walking towards it. The door opened and the nurse brought him out, one of his arms slung around her shoulders, her other hand supporting him around the waist as she helped him towards the bunk.

"Oh my god, Danny! What happened?" Bianca cried as he was half-dragged past her. He didn't look up, instead the nurse dumped him against the bed and took Bianca's arm to lead her inside.

"Your turn now Bianca," she said.

Bianca looked worriedly over her shoulder, resisting as much as she could the pull of the nurse. She didn't want to go in there now. If there was screaming, then there was pain. And if there was pain, there was definitely someone and something to inflict it. Danny undeniably looked worse coming out than when he'd gone in.

"Have a seat, Bianca," the doctor said.

She looked at him distrustfully, folding her arms across her chest as the nurse closed the door behind them. He walked back over to his desk and Bianca quickly looked around. It didn't look any different to a normal doctor's office – the mahogany desk, the bookshelf with a selected array of titles, the blank walls that were dressed with eye charts and medical certificates. Bianca could feel the nurse right behind her and knew if she didn't sit down the woman would probably push her down. They'd have to hold her down if they planned on torturing her too.

"Why did you want me here?" she asked as she slid into the seat near his desk, watching him adjust the head on one of his utensils. He leant down in front of her until he was at eye height.

"Relax, Bianca," he said. "It's just a simple ear, nose, throat check-up. We just want to make sure you're not sick."

"I'm not sick," she protested. He smiled. It was unsettling to see him do that.

"I'm glad to hear it. But I still have to check."

He placed his fingers on either side of her chin and pulled her mouth down, depressing her tongue with the wooden stick he placed on it. Letting her go he threw the stick out and then began shining a light in her eyes, then looking in her ears.

"What did you do to Danny?" she queried.

"Nothing out of the norm. He has to visit us regularly so we can help him keep up with the rest of the coven. He'll be back in peak condition in a few days."

"But I heard him screaming," she said.

"Well I never said it wasn't painful," the doctor explained. He straightened and looked down at her. "Seems like you're fine. You can go now."

Bianca escaped from the room as quickly as she could. Finding Danny still lying on the bunk she rushed over to his side, putting her hands on the edge and looking down at him. He had his eyes closed.

"Are you okay?" she asked with concern.

"Chipper," he grumbled.

She glanced behind her, leaning in a little closer and lowering her voice. "What did they do to you?"

"Cortisone injection," Danny explained. "Hurts like hell."

Her gaze travelled down to his leg then back up to his face. He still hadn't looked at her, seemingly more focused on counting the holes in the ceiling or whatever it was that captured his attention long enough to distract himself from everything around him. Eventually he turned his head to the side to look at her. He appeared distant, and she returned his look with an expression of sympathy.

"Is it going to be painful for long?" she questioned.

"Should settle down in a couple of days," he said.

"Are you going to be able to walk?"

"If you help me, sure."

He shifted off the bed, gently lowering his leg back to the floor, wincing with every movement. Bianca took his arm and draped it over her shoulders as she helped him up, leading him back towards the doorway that led out.

"Maybe you should have just taken the cyanide," she joked. He smiled. She was glad she had brought in a little light humour to help ease his pain.

Bianca walked down the corridor with the lights shining brightly overhead. The walls were bare and grey, much like all the rooms were, much like the living room in their apartment appeared to be. Phoenix's seemed to have a fondness for blandness.

"Hey, B!" she heard a voice yell out behind her. Turning her head she saw Danny running towards her, slowing to the same pace as her as he arrived at her side.

"I see you're feeling better," Bianca said, looking him up and down.

"When was I not?" he replied cheerfully, a bounce in his step as he walked next to her. She raised an eyebrow as she looked at him incredulously. He smiled reassuringly. "I'm feeling better than ever."

"Not sure if I believe you, but I'm glad all the same," she said.

"So where are we heading?" he asked.

"I don't know," Bianca replied honestly. "I was just strolling."

"Well don't get too inquisitive, you'll get yourself in trouble," he warned. She stared at him, trying to work out whether he was serious or not. A large grin spread across his face. "Hey, wanna come visit the big guy with me?"

"Who? Yogi Bear?" she queried. Danny laughed.

"Actually, he's big enough, isn't he? Probably eats the same amount too. But I think he'd rather be known as 'The Bear' like that wrestler on the WWF."

"I liked Boo-Boo personally," Bianca said.

"He's not little enough for that," Danny said with a smirk on his face. Looking up ahead he saw there were three people standing in the corridor in front of them. "And speaking of which, there's the big bear himself."

Bianca looked up to see three people standing in front of them. Abe was in the centre, to his right a tall, beautiful blonde, and on his left stood a slightly muscular man with long brown hair and a stern expression.

"Ah, Danny, about time you got here," Abe called out. Bianca and Danny stopped in front of the trio. "I'm assembling a team to go out tonight to Pier 39. We've received word that Montlear will be in that area. Now, there's a large bounty on his head, and he's very dangerous, that's why I'm sending a group of you to annihilate him. So you can go with Katerina, Michael can look after you." Abe's steely gaze fell on Bianca. "And why don't you take Bianca with you. It'll do her good to get some field experience."

Bianca shrank back and felt Danny's steady hands fall on her shoulders. All the while she stared at Abe, at the man who had thought it was such a brilliant idea to initiate her into the coven in such a bloody and violent way all those months ago. Now he was sending her out after someone who she would be helpless against. He'd not even attempted to train her in anything, instead passing her from one person to another to make sure she was in perfect health and perfect condition for whatever battle he was planning to put her on. And today seemed to be the day, of all days, the celebration of America's independence, a day to celebrate freedom and instead he was using it to taunt her with how little freedom she really did have by illustrating the kind of power he had over her to put her into these situations.

"But… I don't even know how to fight," she said quietly. He turned his back and walked away. Annoyed at his ignorance she raised her voice to shout after him. "You haven't even trained me!"

"You should have learnt earlier. Blame your mother," he called back without turning.

Danny rubbed her shoulder twice then took a step back, unfastening a cloth bracelet from around his wrist. Again he took Bianca's shoulders and turned her to face him, lowering himself to her height as he gripped the bracelet in-between his hand and her shoulder.

"Hey, it'll be okay. I'll look out for you." He pulled back and held his bracelet out towards her. "Take this. It's my good luck charm."

"Danny, no," she said, shaking her head as she looked at it.

"Take it," he said again, more sternly, thrusting his hand towards her more earnestly. "It's helped me out of some tough situations, and maybe it can help you out to. I don't want you getting hurt out there." His lips curled up into a smile. "C'mon, take it. I can do without it. I'm a big boy, I can look after myself."

"Okay, but I give it back tomorrow," she said, pulling it gently from his hands.

"As soon as the sun rises," he said with a wink.

She lowered her eyes to her wrist as she tried to fasten it around with one hand, Danny quickly taking the ends from her and doing it himself as she turned her wrist up to face him. He pulled it tight enough so that it was secure, but loose enough for it to still have a little space between her wrist and the cloth, letting it hang loosely around the base of her palm as she lowered her hand.

"So shall we go into this with a plan, or do we prefer to freelance?" Katerina asked.

Bianca turned her head up towards the woman. She couldn't have been much older than herself, or even Danny. She had a very youthful appearance, despite her height and stylishness. She was all in black, her long blonde hair wound into a bun and fastened with a single red flower. She seemed as if she were ready to embark on the mission right now.

"It would be wiser to have a plan," Michael said. Bianca looked towards him, and then back to Katerina.

"Sorry, how rude of me. I should introduce myself. My name is Katerina Frost," she said, offering her hand to Bianca. Bianca caught sight of Danny rolling his eyes as she reached out to shake the other woman's hand. "I don't believe I've met you before. I spend most of my time frequenting between here and Europe."

"I'm Bianca," Bianca said. "Bianca Lawson."

Katerina let go of Bianca's hand, stepping back and looking the young girl over. Raising her eyebrows she glanced over to Michael.

"Well I should say it's a privilege to meet the daughter of two of our finest. Mind you what happened to…" she stopped suddenly, settling uncomfortably into silence. Her eyes on Michael, Bianca turned to look at the man but his face was expressionless.

"I really think we should leave Bianca on the sidelines," Danny spoke up. "I mean, she's got no skills, it'd be best to have you and me on the front-lines taking the barrage of attacks. Or even Michael, he's the fully skilled assassin."

"I was only given orders to supervise," Michael said coldly. "The rest is up to you."

"Yeah, let the young ones handle it," Danny scoffed. "Doesn't matter how skilful or unskilful we are."

"We'll assemble back here in an hour," Michael instructed, ignoring Danny. He turned and left, Katerina soon following him up the hallway.

"Happy birthday, Danny. Here's your next kill," Danny grumbled.

Bianca looked at him sadly, knowing exactly what he meant, feeling that dread again build up inside her that she had felt on the day of her first kill. That had been a nice birthday surprise as well, but the way Danny sounded it was more than just coincidence that they would schedule it that way, it was routine.

Pier 39 was alight with activities as hundreds of people filed in to commence the Fourth of July celebrations. Amongst the crowd four darkly dressed figures waded their way through the group until they were inside the complex.

"Don't suppose we have time to go shopping?" Danny joked. Michael gave him a stern look. "What about arcade games?"

"We have one night to do this, Danny. You must focus," Katerina hissed.

"She's right," Michael agreed. "And as far as you're concerned, it should be simple. This is an extremely crowded place, so we should blend in well. And I think it's best if we leave the heavy firepower until the fireworks. The noise will distract from anything we're doing."

Bianca watched as a few young children ran past her. Most of them were heading for the rides or, as Danny had suggested, to the arcade. They passed a number of street performers on the way in. There were a number of jugglers. One she saw had set his batons alight and was subsequently tossing them before demolishing the flames in his mouth. Lifting her head she could just make out off the coast and into the bay the shape of Alcatraz. Music began to drift along the gentle breeze as the bands started playing for the night.

"Where are we going exactly?" Bianca whispered to Danny as she followed him past more entertainers and through another thick cluster of crowd.

"Not the arcade, apparently," Danny sneered.

"Keep an eye out for anything suspicious," Michael said absently, his eyes already scanning the crowd around them.

"What, like that?" Danny questioned, pointing to a man with long grey hair levitating above the San Francisco skyline inside the Magic Carpet ride attraction without use of strings or anything similar to hold him up.

"Move, move!" Michael ordered, pushing them all towards the attraction.

They all dashed inside. Seeing the four assassins beneath him, Montlear quickly disappeared. Katerina put her hands on her hips, closing her eyes in concentration. Michael watched her steadily, waiting to see what she could come up with. Oblivious to what was going on behind them, Bianca and Danny were instead staring at the place where he had been levitating and which was now empty.

"He's on the roof," Katerina announced after a short period time, smirking at the fact that she was able to detect him so easily.

Michael was first to shimmer out, then Katerina. Danny took Bianca's arm as he started walking back to them, shimmering them both up to the roof. Bianca looked around briefly. The darkness had already taken over the skyline and night had befallen much too quickly.

"Stay here," Danny said, pushing Bianca behind a small cement alcove that emerged from the roof, more than likely the place where the large air-conditioning unit was installed to combat with the terrible summer heat they had been exposed to that year.

"Oh, how nice. Should I feel privileged I had a whole group sent after me?" Montlear queried. "Or are you just so terribly close you couldn't bear to fight apart from one another?"

Bianca glanced over to the corner and saw Michael standing in the shadows on the far side of the rooftop. Looking over to Katerina as Danny moved away from her, Bianca saw her eyes slide to the side to look at Michael, a noticeable glint shining in them as an amused smile crossed her face. Danny spread his arms wide, boldly taking a few more steps towards Montlear.

"C'mon, wise-ass. Show us some of those magic moves you've got up your sleeve," he said.

"Gladly," Montlear answered, thrusting his hand forward and allowing a cool jet of ice to blast from it. Danny dodged to the side.

"Gotta do better than that," Danny taunted.

"Do you want me to make this a fairer fight?" Montlear asked. "Shall I bring a few Neanderthals to join us?"

"Katerina," Danny sang out behind him. "A little help would be nice."

Bianca turned her attention from Danny and Montlear back to Katerina and found she wasn't even watching what was going on. She was too busy signalling to Michael and from what Bianca could read it wasn't just about what was going on in front of them. Katerina broke her gaze from Michael's, seeing Montlear begin to rise in the air. She shimmered out, reappearing behind him and grabbing the back of his jacket, yanking him back down to the ground. He lifted his arm, throwing it backwards, effectively making contact with her face. Her head swung to the side with the impact, her grip loosening enough for him to step forward and pull away from her.

"That's hardly a nice way to treat a fellow witch," Montlear said.

Danny conjured a rope, masterfully tying a knot and tossing it towards Montlear, waiting for it to settle in the air before trying to use his powers to wrap it around him. The spiral of rope fell coiled to the ground as Montlear again vanished, appearing just a metre in front of Danny. Startled, he took a step back, and then another as Montlear followed him. Panic was evident on his face as he tried to think of something he could do to stop someone advancing on him from such a close proximity. Raising his hand he managed to conjure an energy ball and tossed it forward.

"Why you're nothing but a baby," Montlear commented, inspecting Danny's face closely, waving his hand to deflect the ball he had thrown. It fell by Michael's feet but he remained motionless. "I'm getting tired of this; I doubt you had a plan. You should just leave me be."

"Not with the bounty on your head," Katerina called.

Montlear glanced over his shoulder at the tall blonde, making his way back to her, shifting his gaze to Danny once more as he backed up. Danny stepped up onto the ledge, giving himself some height leverage over the man. His gaze nervously switched from Montlear to Bianca as he saw him getting rather close to where she was. Montlear caught a glimpse of her behind the rise. Lifting his hand he slowly began to raise her in the air. Bianca kicked her legs fruitlessly, not knowing what she should do.

"I have to wonder if your interest is more with me, or with her?" Montlear questioned.

"Put her down!" Danny shouted.

"Whatever you say," Montlear responded, flicking his hand to the side. Bianca flew backwards, hitting the wall of the building hard. She grimaced at the pain that suddenly coursed along her back as she crashed to the ground. Montlear's eyes locked on Danny's and he smiled cruelly. "Any other requests?"

"So you can twist them around? I don't think so," Danny said.

"Okay," Montlear shrugged. "Well I have one. I call upon the ancient power to help me in this darkest hour, take his power take it all, and set this witch up for a fall."

Montlear's hand outstretched towards him, Danny's body jolted as a thin stream of light drained out of him and travelled to Montlear's fingertips. Danny looked backwards over the edge of the building. Lights fired in the sky as the fireworks exploded over the bay. Below them people were staring up in awe, cheering, taking no notice of the lights and sounds on top of this building where they currently were. No matter how hard Danny tried he couldn't keep his balance. His arms flailed out as he tried to right himself, but instead he tumbled backwards over the edge.

"No, Danny!" Bianca cried out, pushing herself up, ignoring the ache in her muscles as she dashed for the edge.

"Now, you," Montlear said, turning around to Katerina and strolling confidently towards her.

Bianca peered down onto the pathway below. Danny was lying motionless in an awkward position. She knew he wouldn't have survived the fall. Even if he had, she knew he would never be the same. But from the crowd that was beginning to gather below, and the steady trail of blood that was travelling in small rivulets out from under his body towards them, it was an obvious certainty that he had met his end. Bianca turned back, her hands gripping the edge. She watched as Katerina skilfully conjured an athame into her hand lowering herself and circling Montlear as if she was re-enacting Michael Jackson's 'Beat It' video.

"I don't think you did your research on me too well," Montlear said, waving his hand in a closing motion. The athame disappeared from her hand and she looked at her empty palm quickly. "You otherwise would have known that it is not that easy to get rid of me, but it is you."

Katerina didn't seem to see what had happened, but Bianca saw the athame glisten in Montlear's palm now. He grabbed her shoulder and with one short thrust had the point buried deep inside her abdomen. The blonde keeled over in surprise and Montlear pulled up and away from her body, slicing the front completely open. Blood spilled over his feet and he pushed her body aside, shaking his feet as if it was only rainwater that hit his shoes. He started walking back towards Bianca. All she wanted to do was rush at him, hit him for doing what he did, and even hurt him more if she could manage to wrestle the athame from his grasp. Montlear held his hand up and started to spray the ice stream towards her this time. Bianca felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her waist, pulling her to one side and shimmering her out of there. They reappeared at the entrance of Pier 39, a van already waiting for them by the roadside. Michael opened the back door, pushing Bianca in before leaping in himself and closing it behind them. The van moved away as he sat across from her, staring vacantly out the front window as they sped down the Embarcadero.

"What? Why are we leaving?" Bianca asked, confused.

"We had to abort. He had the upper hand," Michael explained.

"But…" She stared at his face. It was emotionless. She couldn't even remember seeing a single expression cross it since she had met him. Remembering the look Katerina had given him she decided to try a different tactic. "You left Katerina to die. Why didn't you attack him for what he did? Why did you save me and no-one else?"

Michael's gaze shifted back to her, serious and cold. "She was a lost cause. And I wasn't going to risk another life at the expense of a little revenge. We need all the recruits we can get."

He looked back out the front window, his body settling back against the edge of the van as they turned another corner. Bianca lowered her head, her fingers finding the cloth bracelet Danny had given her, turning it absently as she again saw his body splattered against the concrete at the base of the building in her mind's eye.

"We can't go back for them?" she asked softly.

"Someone will clean it up." He leaned his head towards his shoulder as if his neck was stiff. "I'll have to fill out a report when I get back. I won't tell them I got you out of there; I'll tell Abe you did it by yourself. It might give you enough credit to buy you some more time before your next mission."

Her eyes lifted to look at him and she smiled bleakly. "Thanks."

As much as she knew it was only a simple gesture and something easy for him to accomplish, the fact that he'd even thought about her enough to do that for her, even to save her from the same ill fate that had met the others as he had done so before, convinced her that there was some amount of kindness behind the indifference of the man. She didn't have Danny any more, but she knew to some degree she could trust Michael, and to have one person in that entire place she could trust was enough.