Heh, realized the similarity to the need to discuss new members of the family with young children so they know what's going on and don't feel they're being replaced by the baby, although given relative ages...

Sitting in his security station, Tao quickly answered the phone when he saw the number calling. "Yes, Boss?"

Tao could hear the familiar sounds of a helicopter over the connection. "I'm on my way back from my little trip. It was very productive," Boss said, sounding pleased. Then his voice grew more serious, a little tired. "There was someone I couldn't send to Lukedonia's clinic. I found that the Union was keeping an old friend of ours at that base. A werewolf. I wanted to warn the three of you before you came home to find someone in the lab under sedation."

The Union had experimented on Boss' friend?

…and he still took the time, it still even occurred to him to worry that it might upset them to go down there and find someone in the same position they used to be in?

"A werewolf?" he said quickly, trying to sound cheerful, as though that was what mattered.

"Yes, so at the moment I have no idea what his prognosis is or how long I'll need to keep him in the lab, I'm afraid. I have very little data on that species, although I managed to steal most of the data stored at that base."

"That's okay," he said, and laughed, even knowing that Boss wasn't going to believe it was okay-okay for a second.

"No, it isn't," Boss said testily, although he didn't point out the obvious lie. "I can't believe the Union was holding Master's friend for centuries and I had no idea…" He sighed. "At least his power meant they weren't taking the risk of letting him be awake for any of it. Or so I can hope. Tao, would you mind warning the others?"

"Of course, Boss. I'll let you get back to work."

They headed down to the lab immediately after getting home.

Almost immediately. Exchanging shoes for house slippers. Takeo greeting Seira, M-21 nodding at Raizel… the three of them looking at each other before, before choosing to head down to a lab.

But there was someone down there, and even if they were with Boss, they just couldn't leave someone to get experimented on alone, right?

His – Muzaka's, he had a name, the Union hadn't taken it from him, that was good – hair was silver grey.

Tao turned away from the tube to see M-21's reaction to seeing a real werewolf.

He was just standing there, staring at the figure floating in the tube. Staring. And staring.

"Hey, earth to M-21?" Tao said when the silence stretched on. When he saw that M-21's eyes were unfocused he reached out and snapped his fingers in front of them. Still no response. "Boss?"

"Hmm?" Frankenstein stood up, turning away from the screen he'd been looking at, sitting at the opposite end of the lab from the tube. Seeing that they looked worried, he walked over towards them.

"M-21 isn't responding," Takeo reported.

Frankenstein frowned, and leaned forward, then waved a hand in front of M-21's eyes.

M-21 managed to blink at him, and then shuddered, looking alarmed and confused. Help, his eyes said, and Tao was designed to be a tactician, meant to analyze data, he kept noticing that to M-21, Takeo, even to him, a scientist was help now. Ally, backup, only a threat if they… if they… threatened Raizel, but they weren't going to do that, not anymore. Spilled something and didn't immediately clean it up? He wouldn't kill them, or even torture them a little.

It was just that Tao really didn't want to upset Frankenstein, in a way that had nothing to do with how scary he was (or maybe it had everything to do with how scary he wasn't).

Blue eyes grew slightly distant, instead of narrowing in on an interesting specimen. "Ah," Frankenstein said finally, enlightened. "It's a good thing you didn't encounter the Fifth Elder. M-21, you're feeling mentally paralyzed and mainly nonverbal. It's only temporary; don't try to fight it. Tao, a chair?"

Tao grabbed one from the picnic table with umbrella he'd brought down a second time since if Frankenstein did bring someone home from a Union lab, he wanted their lab (their?) to look a little… fun, weird, not-Union? So maybe the poor experiment subject would be just a little too busy wondering what on earth that was doing there to be as scared when they woke up.

Frankenstein gave M-21's chest a calculated push and he fell back into the chair, looking up at Frankenstein, a little grateful. Tao saw M-21's mouth trying to form words. He didn't seem scared yet, not exactly, especially since Frankenstein seemed to know what was going on, but "What's happening to M-21?" Takeo was the one to ask.

"He's a human with a werewolf heart," Frankenstein explained. "Judging from my brief look at the Union's data on Muzaka – not that I'm prepared to trust Union data – I was correct that all werewolves were chimeras. M-21 was born human, and then he had M-24 psychically attack him both for practice and to train M-21's mental defenses, so M-21's natural psychic abilities… aren't so much trained as 'awake,' and at this point, between Master, myself… he's living in a house with six active psychics."

Tao tallied that up. Four nobles, now that Rael had arrived, even if he was mostly avoiding them except for mandatory family dinners and studying with Raizel in the living room at night. Frankenstein made five, so that meant Tao, or Takeo, not both? Unless M-21 training with M-24 meant he counted?

M-21 shook his head. "Not…"

"It's not a psychic assault," Frankenstein agreed. "Werewolves aren't psychic. That's the problem. Your subconscious is suffering some…" He paused. "Confusion, because you're expecting certain things to happen and they aren't. You've seen how the unenhanced will often react to Master and the other nobles; this is something similar, but it's taking longer because nothing's happening. Bear with it, your brain will sort itself out. Try to stay calm, and sleep will make it go faster." He patted M-21 on the shoulder briefly.

Judging from M-21's grateful nod, that sounded right to him. "It's not?" The tilt of his head indicated the tube.

"It's not because he's asleep, although…" Frankenstein looked warily at Muzaka. "If having a physical barrier between the two of you is a factor…" Unhappy calculations flashed behind Frankenstein's eyes before he shook his head. "Having him awake shouldn't make any difference unless the Union has tampered with him, and at this point I haven't had the chance to look into it. It's not merely what they did, it's how Muzaka's body mutated in response to those provocations. Master… agrees with me that it's important to fully investigate and stabilize Muzaka's condition before we risk waking him up. Muzaka retained his title as Werewolf Lord by defeating all challengers. If someone that powerful goes berserk in a populated area…"

Tao paled and he tried to fix a smile on his face. Frankenstein, no, Boss was making an excuse for keeping someone trapped helpless in his lab? "What about the island?" he said, with a laugh trying to point out that the excuse was an excuse without…

He was right back to thinking he was going to get in trouble for questioning the scientists again, wasn't he. He felt ashamed for mistrusting them like that: both of them.

"That is where we'll be waking him up eventually, yes," Frankenstein told him. "I understand why the three of you aren't comfortable with keeping him in my lab indefinitely. I'm not either." He shook his head. "Master isn't telling me something, and knowing Master it's because my guess is correct, I'm afraid. Muzaka is almost certainly the one who exhausted Master enough to force him into hibernation eight hundred and twenty years ago."

"And you're letting him live?" Takeo asked, an expression of pure shock on his face. Someone that powerful who was willing to attack Raizel? Sure, he got in some kind of fight with Raskreia, but that was mostly a misunderstanding or training session or something.

No, it wasn't even that only someone evil would try to hurt Raizel and even though he'd forgiven them and let them stay here, Frankenstein… Frankenstein nearly killed Takeo when Takeo remarked that Raizel would be his next target, Tao had learned when he and Takeo compared notes afterwards. Someone who hurt Raizel enough he was still dying, and Frankenstein, Frankenstein was trying to save his life?

Except Frankenstein was shaking his head. "It isn't like that. The Muzaka that I knew was Master's friend: he would never have done that, much less given Master a reason to fight him. Not of his own free will."

Tao paled. He knew that mind control existed, had even talked with Regis about trying to use it in combat, but this wasn't getting someone to hold still for a second. "You think that someone…"

"Werewolf psychic defenses function by triggering their own neurons to self-destruct. It's possible the traitor clan leaders… they may even have managed to wipe his personality." Just like what the Union did to Tao and the others. "At this point I can only hypothesize, and guesses aren't enough, not if there's going to be any hope of saving Master's friend." He looked at the three of them. "I know that this is going to make you uncomfortable, and I'm sorry. I'd offer to move him to the island lab, but Master wants to check on him periodically."

"No," Takeo said, taking a deep breath. "It's better… if he's here, isn't it? In the house with his friend. And the three of us."

Right, right, they could… If Boss started abusing… No, Boss wasn't going to hurt a test subject, that was ridiculous. Well, not unless they asked for it, because Boss cared about what people wanted. Muzaka had already been hurt by the Union, Boss wasn't going to add to that.

…Even if Muzaka hurt Boss' master?

Was Tao really thinking that they could stop a scientist from being a scientist to a helpless test subject? Yeah, they could go to Boss' master! Or… even to Boss?

He'd… he'd really stop if they said something wasn't okay?

"You can guard him in shifts, if that would help," Boss said gently, looking at all three of them, even M-21. "In fact, I'd appreciate it, while Master is at school. I'll be setting alarms, and… well, the KSA is already doing their best with city evacuation plans. It would just worry them." To know there was another potential bomb that could go off. Not just Muzaka himself, but now the Union had one more reason to come after them. "But if he wakes, you must not even think about doing anything that could be interpreted as threatening him," he said sternly. "M-21 might be able to get away with it, when cubs are normally exempt from werewolf territorial impulses, but that is only a might, and how do you think Master's friend would feel, if he came back to himself and found out he'd killed a cub Master had taken in? And of course don't try to keep him in the lab. Hmm, if anything, perhaps I should have the KSA be ready to clear a corridor between here and where that last battle took place." It was already wrecked and people were steering clear of the dangerous wreckage, except for limited numbers of salvage crews during the day.

"Right!" Tao said, glad to have the excuse that didn't imply they didn't trust Boss. Or was just… something else to think about. He could tell the KSA to set that up on general principles. "We're his knights, so we'll protect his friend for him! If maybe having M-21 around will calm him down, do you think we should talk, like when people are in comas?"

"At this point, he can't hear us," Frankenstein said, turning to glance at the tube. "I'll be gradually bringing him out of sensory deprivation, but that's gradually. Humans can start hallucinating under similar circumstances, and I have only the Ninth Elder's data on werewolf neurology – and I'll thank you, M-21, not to give me any more data." He gave him a pointed look as he said it.

M-21 made a questioning noise up at him that was almost puppyish, and then blinked at what came out of his mouth.

"Werewolf cells are very survival-oriented. If they decided that your psychic powers being overly active was getting in the way of your ability to survive? You have cells in your body that handle psychic defense by destroying their own brain cells. Fortunately, when you were first training with M-24 your werewolf heart was weak enough that your human brain defaulted to human defenses, but that's why I don't want you to get panicked enough over this temporary confusion to trigger a threat response. I don't want you to lose any more of your original neurons when recovering those names is so important to you, especially when the area in the brain that handles psychic abilities is located so close to memory centers to download and upload data more efficiently."

As M-21's eyes widened, Frankenstein held up a hand to forestall him. "The good news is that right now, especially if you sleep, a great deal of neurons will be firing and connections forming in an area related to memory."

That didn't just get a reaction from M-21, but Tao and Takeo both leaned forward a little, hoping for M-21's sake.

"So sit down, relax, think about things that are found outside labs, and when your speech centers move back over from psychic to verbal processing let me know if anything triggered. I realize that it's very irritating to be in this condition, but you may be able to take advantage of it."

M-21 nodded, hanging on every word.

Frankenstein gave him a smile. "I'll be back down in a minute with Master's tea. Tao, Takeo," he gestured. With me.

They followed him out of the lab as the door closed behind him.

"What happened to M-21?" Takeo asked.

"It seems that werewolves have a strong imprinting instinct to keep territorial instincts from making them attack their own children or parents. That triggering on the first werewolf he's ever seen set off… not really an imprinting instinct, but something nobles observed early humans doing. M-24 being M-21's closest family may explain it..." From the slight frown Frankenstein was perfectly aware there was a higher ratio of hypothesis to data in there than he'd like.

"It seems that?" Tao asked. "So you're not sure?"

He frowned, uncertain and not happy about it, then shook his head. "I haven't personally verified it, but I doubt Master would be wrong about something that serious. Other than a few conversations with Muzaka and Gejutel, all my werewolf data came from M-21 and what I glanced at while transferring Muzaka into something travel-sized. Muzaka certainly wasn't territorial, but apparently after the nobles left the human world the werewolves began thinking of each other as family in order to work together."

Frankenstein paused, not because he'd realized that he was digressing into happy theorizing aloud when they were worried about M-21, but more like he'd remembered something very annoying. Or someone. "I stole the Ninth Elder's files and I'll be reading them over, but while my psychic abilities are certainly good, if I do say so myself, Master's are, hmm, specialized, and I thought it might be useful to have his input."

"So he told you that about werewolves?" Something about that made Tao go 'huh?'

Right, Raizel didn't like speaking badly of people. Frankenstein could talk about them potentially attacking kids… but Raizel couldn't say it, even if it was true. Even if it was important to know for M-21's sake, he'd have to do the noble thing and try to hint around it? It would have taken a lot longer than how long Frankenstein was examining M-21.

"Told, no. We were looking at M-21. I picked it up from Master's mind. In any case, Master will be coming down here, and I'd appreciate it if you spent time around M-21 until this passes. Just having you there will help keep him comfortable and avoid any complications. It's probably best if I banish myself from the lab for the duration, so Tao, if you'd mind keeping an eye on Muzaka's readings for me? Master may or may not be the first to know if he's not comfortable, but I'd still like him kept under conventional observation."

A scientist just leaving behind an interesting phenomenon and two test subjects like that, so M-21 would be alright? "Sure, Boss," Tao said, smiling.

Takeo nodded, looking appreciative and relieved, but like it was only to be expected of Boss.

As soon as the elevator door closed behind him, Tao turned to Takeo to see the sniper glaring, arms folded. "Takeo?" Tao asked, almost startled.

"If this is another M-24…"

Tao's eyes widened. He hadn't even thought of that! "And he can't tell because Muzaka's a werewolf and he doesn't want to risk frying whatever's left of his friend?"

"That isn't what was worrying you?" Takeo asked.

"If he has that kind of data, why didn't he give it to Boss?" Tao made a flaily gesture, wishing he could sketch his thoughts in the air, but he'd still have to pull them together to even know what to sketch. His brain was just giving him the jigsaw alert, that even if he didn't have the connecting bits yet some pieces were definitely lining up. "I get the feeling that, well, something weird's going on with that? And since we're talking about him?" Was it okay for him to be watching over Muzaka or whatever he was doing? Not that he would stop if he was worried about a friend, but was that all there was to it? "Then Boss changed the subject." Tao laughed, scratching the back of his head. "I'm probably just being hypersensitive, you know? Because someone who isn't one of us is in the lab and M-21's being a puppy."

"Werewolf data might just be unimportant compared to the welfare of two people in his care," Takeo told him. "Regardless, I think we should get back in there to watch M-21. The werewolves in the Union might know that this would happen to him. We can't let them do this to him a second time. We also…" Takeo glanced at the door, face tightening for a minute. "Need to get Frankenstein back in the lab, looking at that data." It felt like a betrayal of everyone the Union had taken to want a scientist to examine someone else, hand them over to be experimented on, but…

"Yeah," Tao acknowledged. He'd be better at spotting anything than they were. "And Boss likes figuring out that kind of stuff on his own." Getting data from Raizel might not be that much better than Google. "But they weren't sure if that was M-24, but they seem pretty sure that this is Muzaka."

"Or it was Muzaka," Takeo said grimly. "If the Union did to him what they did to us… For all we know, I did have a little sister, and the Union had me put a bullet through her head."

Oh. Wow. That, …yeah. That was the kind of thing Dr. Aris would do, huh? Especially after she started playing with Takeo.

"He and Boss, they're threats to the Union. Real threats. They might even be able to stop it," Tao said, no longer trying to smile, eyes narrow and serious. Wasn't it strange that even when the Union was down to three elders, it was still only something he could barely dream of? The Union was the Union – it couldn't be beaten. They couldn't win, but that was why they had to. "If the Union has any stops, they're going to pull them all out."

The Union didn't give a damn about civilian casualties, but they knew that nobles, the good nobles, did. That was why those Elders blew up part of downtown to call out Miss Seira. And North Korea was right there.

Tao really wished he didn't think of things like this. Of the Union using nuclear weapons instead of enhanced humans to force Raizel to use up all his power. But that kind of thing, boosting tactical efficiency… it was what he was designed for.

The elevator door opened and he walked through, carrying one of the books Boss had made him. Normally Raizel didn't read or study while the rest of them were up – Tao wondered what that was about… maybe trying to be available? Anyway, it was a sign he meant to be there all night, at least until it was time to get ready for school. Keeping Muzaka company and M-21, so they didn't have to risk waking up in a lab alone?

Red eyes focused on Tao, instantly seeing that he was upset, and while Tao tried to plaster on a smile, Raizel walked over and patted him on the shoulder with his free hand, like he was Frankenstein. The noble's face was still composed, and that was a relief, because being pitied meant being weak and that was dangerous.

Raizel stepped back and handed the book to Takeo, who took it with a smile.

Arms opened and Tao grabbed his chance hard.

"I'm not losing this," he swore to himself as he pulled Raizel to his chest with more strength than he should be using, his training was alerting him in the back of his mind. An unenhanced human would have had trouble breathing. Did nobles breathe? Or just to talk and smell things? Raizel didn't seem bothered and patted him on the back, which was good because Tao would have had a really hard time convincing himself to let go. "I'm not letting go. They're not taking this from me. I won't let them take this from me."

He'd made himself Raizel's Knight instead of Dr. Aris' assassin, so it was now literally his job to protect this. To keep anyone from taking it away. Nope, nope, not happening.

"Mine," he thought, and even imagining Boss clearing his throat warningly, because he'd seen Raizel first, didn't make Tao release Raizel by even a millimeter. He felt his fingers dig into the jacket, scrunch it up.

Since nobles could shapeshift, Raizel could probably be tiny. Not just Regis-sized, but tinier. Although Tao could totally carry Regis. Not that he couldn't pick up Raizel; he wasn't heavier than a human, but a tinier version would be easier to pick up and hide under his desk and was this why normal people had stuffed animals? Although that was to cling to them to feel safe, and this was Tao wanting to transform and wrap his cables around Raziel so he could drag Raizel away from danger and no one was hurting him without going through Tao.

And M-21! He'd already gotten used by the fake M-24 on Tao's watch, when intelligence and analysis was supposed to be Tao's thing!

Takeo, Takeo and Dr. Aris and how… "I need to be stronger," Tao said into Raizel's shoulder. "I really need to be stronger. I don't care if I fall apart or anything, I just can't watch any of you die."

He could feel Raizel tense, wanting to say no, no, because power wasn't good for people, it was why Raizel and Boss were alone before they met and were probably going to die fighting now, but Tao didn't want them to die and he could build his systems and work on his strategies and train but all of it might be useless if he didn't have enough strength to matter.

He could have said please, he could have begged, but he'd watched Raizel stare at Ikhan and the others when he came to rescue them from the rest of DA-5. Why did they think they had to beg him to save Tao? For anything? Didn't they know that he loved them, that of course he would do this for them?

For Tao to say 'please' would have twisted the knife, and even if that was the killing blow, the effective tactic, he already knew Raizel enough to know he couldn't fight back. It wouldn't be right to force him.

"If…" if that is your will, he could hear that Raizel was about to say.

But Tao shook his head. "No! That might hurt you, and I don't want you or any of the others to get hurt!" It might kill him. "I need a way to get stronger that doesn't sacrifice anyone but myself."

His head turned.

"There is… one way, Master," Frankenstein said, voice reluctant. He sighed, and Tao could hear him shaking his head. "I suppose we're all lucky that crazy thing is going to be in a very good mood for the foreseeable future…"

Tao's head jerked up hopefully. "But not now," Frankenstein told him, glaring at him over the tea tray. "I have a lot of data to go over, and stabilizing patients takes priority over further enhancement." Tao.

Tao might have hugged him too if it weren't for the tea tray and his will to live. He might send it flying, and messes upset Boss more when he was worried. Between a friend who got experimented on by the Union, M-21 being like this when Frankenstein wasn't actually certain of the reason why and his Master being sick, Boss had to be really worried right now.

It made Tao feel bad about springing this on him, but Boss had just walked past, shaking his head at the folly of youth. He wasn't even angry.

Well, of course Boss would understand, right? Why exactly Tao didn't want to lose any of them.