AN:100 reviews. Holy cow that's a lot! Thanks so much you guys, I so totally, totally appreciate it! Extra brownie pointsfor number 101? grins I think this chapter is more fun than the last couple, but hopefully the next few will be a ton better.


Monday brought several surprises with it. The first of which was not that Jack was on the edge of collapse after many, many hours of planning out the intricate details of exactly how she was going to turn the tables in her favor. It turned out that her little eighteen hour nap had given her quite a kick, a new relish for fighting the war she was so deeply entrenched in. Especially since she didn't couldn't get back to sleep again for well over twenty four hours.

And nearly every minute of that twenty four hours was spent on the design of her semi-evil plot.

It was a hard fought struggle to force herself out of bed when her alarm clock sounded at five AM Monday morning. But it was time. Time to put phase one of Operation Riddick Reboot into action.

Phase one consisted of finding Shella's store of what appeared to be a normal herb or spice to the untrained eye, but what turned out to be the crushed remains of the dried weed called Seka. And then, after discovering its wherabouts to be in a large container sitting next to an identical flour bin, she had to dump all of the hydrite in the house down the drain and replace it with a fresh batch with a fraction of the dose of mind control substance included. This had been Dom's suggestion. His reasoning had been that it was possible that Rick could be somewhat weaned off the stuff, and that might help when she really pulled the plug on him. She'd taken his word on that, and on the amount that would serve as a 'reduced dose'.

As far as phase one went, everything went to plan, no surprises. No one walked into the kitchen at the wrong moment to ask her what she was doing. She'd been especially nervous about this happening while she was slipping the 'full dose plus half' into Shella's refrigerated Tupperware bottles of iced tea.

That had been Jack's idea, totally and completely.

The surprises didn't come until she got to school. The very first one being that Hope Anderson was quite obviously missing from the ranks of her little blonde army. Jack had just purchased a sausage and egg biscuit from the breakfast line in the cafeteria and was looking for a place to sit down when she noticed the pack of girls frantically motioning her over, beckoning her to come sit with them.

Almost as soon as she sat down she was overwhelmed by the battery of questions coming from all of them at once. She nearly had to yell just to get them to shut up and explain their concerns to her one at a time.

Jack pointed to Roxie, the girl who'd warned her about Hope's possible treachery at the party. The decision to turn to her partially came from the fact that Jack had begun to trust her, slightly. And partially because she was the only girl not clamoring for her immediate attention. "You, tell me what the hell they're talking about," Jack ordered impatiently.

Roxie looked up at her calmly. "Hope was raped outside of the bar Saturday night, during the party. Whoever did it just left her out there after he was done and took off. From what I've heard he strangled her, but let her go before she suffocated. Depending on who you asked he either cracked a vertebra in her neck or he crushed her voice box. Either way, vocal cords still functional or not, she's not talking about who did it. She's still in the hospital now cause her lights are on, but nobody's home. Get my meaning?"

Jack nodded once, but it wasn't a truthful response, only an 'I see' type of reaction to the news. In reality, she didn't understand at all. Why the hell would they be talking to her about this?

Fortunately Roxie seemed to perceive that she wasn't understanding yet. "You were the expert behind the Viper Killer's motivation, Jack. They want you to explain to them what he did to her, and why she won't talk about it. They think you'll have all the answers to this puzzle too."

Jack raised her eyebrows slightly. That was it? They wanted to know what had happened to Hope and they turned to her for answers? What would possess them...

Keep in mind that they're innocent, Jack.

Duuuh...

A small tug began at the back of her mind at that thought. A tug she hadn't felt for years, not since she'd come to be comfortable living in Imam's home. She knew it, recognized it, and immediately thanked Allah for its timely return.

The instinct to use every opportunity that came her way, squeeze every bit of good she could get out of it. To look at every situation as a chance to get the upper hand, and if they let her, she would. Survival rule number one. This was an opportunity. These girls were begging for a leader, and all she had to do was step up.

But what would be in it for her?

She could be the leader of this pack of super-popular girls in Hope's absence, and she would gain, what?

Power. Power within the school. The power that these rich girls' parents held on the school board. Disciplinary invincibility. Considering everything she would probably be needing to do over the next few weeks, getting away with skipping class once in a while, among other things, could come in VERY handy. Especially if she didn't have to worry about tangling with the administration...

Hope didn't even realize what she was doing when she brought you in. She had no idea you'd rip her empire right out from under her the first chance you got. But you will, and it's going to be beautiful.

"She tried to scream while he was taking her," she said at last, letting her eyes slowly return to focus on her patiently waiting audience. "That's why he didn't kill her. He didn't want her dead, just to shut up...so he could use her. Hope is a girl, who always used everyone else. Whoever did it, he broke her. It was probably the first time in her life that when she demanded something, she got smacked around. God she must've been close to psychotic, but if she won't give him up, that means she probably...liked it..." It was apparent by the way her excitement increased that she was piecing together the puzzle as she spoke, talking herself through it, as well as all who were listening. At the end, at the unexpected admission that there was a possibility that Hope was partially lost in dreamland in some hospital because she'd had a mental breakdown AND because she was subconsciously protecting her attacker, Jack's voice suddenly trailed off...

That can't possibly be true, could it? She nearly died...

She was a sick girl. Maybe even sicker than you...

"But, why would she have liked it?" asked a girl named Amy. From the slight waver in her voice Jack could tell she was one of the more innocent members of the group.

Jack merely shrugged. "Some people like the abuse." She simply left it at that as she purposefully unwrapped her breakfast sandwich, hesitating momentarily before she took a nice big bite of its sausage, egg, and cheesy goodness.

Her eyes almost rolled back into her head with pleasure.

Speaking of liking the abuse. How much are you definitely enjoying that meat and cholesterol biscuit, Jack?

Mmm, meat and cholesterol...

Now if only I had a margarita to wash it down with...