Many thanks to phoenixfire, pupgirl123, AlienGhostWizard14, AllAmericanSlurp and Arya Scarlett 14 for the reviews. Sorry for being vague on the notes; I meant that this story has grown from a one-shot idea to a three-shot story. :)

Thank you, too, to all who had favorited and followed. I hope you guys are enjoying this story, too. (Just a quick 'Welcome!' shout-out to JustLove201. Good to have you here with us. )

Onto the second.

ii. capture

Krane's enhanced senses alerts him to a movement despite it being minute. He tears his gaze away from the window, from the dark countryside landscape that stretches on for miles under the lights of the moon and the stars, and focuses on the teenaged boy slowly stirring at where he lays on the dirt. It's obvious from the child's sluggishness that the medicine he had been given hours ago still bears a weighty effect on him. He's trying to wake up, or at least blink back the haze in his eyes, but with his limbs weighing him down like anchors and his nerves, under the chemical cocktail, restraining his mental abilities like steel chains, doing so proves to be a fight on its own.

He waits patiently anyways, allowing the boy to reacquaint himself with the world and to be puzzled by the strange surroundings. He determines his increasing level of consciousness by the expression on his face. The boy's features wring more and more as he recognizes that, instead of being in that frigid, metal and technology-bound isolation room, he's now in a wide, nearly empty barn with a semblance of warmth.

It's not long until the teenager notices his presence. He almost smirks when he sees him flinch slightly. "Krane," he says, his speech still somewhat slow and slurred.

"Leo."

"You're…" Leo tries to sit up. He succeeds, but his body is still too weak that he has to lean back on the crates behind him and support himself up on them. "You… You're..."

He says nothing. He only watches him frailly increase their distance.

Leo sighs, seeing that his attempts are hopeless. "Adam, Bree and Chase didn't finish you," he says instead.

A cold smile pulls at an edge of his lips. When Leo begins looking around again, he assures him, "Don't worry. Nothing's going to happen to you. You're safe."

Leo manages a glare to direct to him. "I'm with you," he points out. "I highly doubt that."

His smile breaks into a small, grim grin.

"Where are we?"

"At a ranch in Florida," he answers.

"Yours?"

"My father used to own it when I was younger. I was supposed to inherit it, but then a businessman from out of town with a short temper and a smart mouth took it away from my family," he says.

"So we're crashing in on somebody else's place?"

"'Crashing in' suggests trespassing."

Leo frowns. "But you just said that somebody took it away from you."

"I did. I made him give it back."

"You paid him off?"

He smirks. "No."

Leo stares at him, his features wrinkling deeper as he understands what he means. "What am I doing here?" he asks.

"You seemed like you had nowhere else to go, so I took you in," he responds.

"You took me from the Academy."

He gathers a very small smile. "That isolation room was really cold."

"They had to keep it cold. If they didn't, then I would—"

"That's not what I meant."

Leo shifts uncomfortably. He looks away, bravely hoping that the man in black doesn't see the sudden sadness that struck him. "Am I here as a hostage?" he asks quietly.

He walks closer to him. "No. Like I've said, I'm not here to hurt you," he says. He gestures to the opened doors then adds, "You're free to walk out of here whenever you want, as soon as you're ready."

"What's the catch?"

"No catch. You just have to make your way back by yourself."

Leo eyes him suspiciously. "You used that Triton app device on me, didn't you?"

He laughs. "If I had thought of using it on you, then there wouldn't be any need for this conversation," he says.

The boy doesn't trust him still, but, again, he allows his actions to speak for him. "What do you want from me, then?" he asks.

"Want? Nothing. But I do have an offer to make." He takes a seat on a crate opposite of the boy before saying, "My plans still had not changed, but because my…children had been taken away from me, I'm at a disadvantage. It's come to my knowledge, though, that I may not need all of them. Like Davenport, maybe I just need three."

Leo slightly shakes his head. "Three? What do you mean?"

"I need a team of my own," he clarifies. "I already have S-1, and soon I will convince S-3 to come back to us." He looks at him. "The remaining place is reserved for you."

A weak, sardonic smirk tugs at Leo's mouth. "You want me to work for you?"

He says nothing; he's expected this.

"You really think that I would willingly go against my own family?"

"Oh. So they are your family."

"Yes, they're my family," he retorts, offended.

"When? When it's convenient?"

Despite it not showing on the teenage boy's face, it's apparent that he has landed a blow. "I did something wrong. That's why they had to do it," Leo insists, but it's apparent that he's not convinced by his own argument. "And I asked them to."

"You didn't ask them to. They told you that it's what was going to happen, and because you felt guilty over it you agreed," he says.

Another hit. "It was the right thing to do," Leo says, speaking in behalf of his family.

He only looks on, doesn't respond, and allows the kid's own doubts to degrade his resolve from the inside.

"I can't be in your team, Krane," Leo says. "I'm not a bad person."

"And yet, you were imprisoned like one."

Leo looks away.

"This will happen, whatever you decide," he says. "If you want to, you can return back to them. I will not stop you. I will even wait until you get there, until you warn them of us coming, before I make my move. But just know—" he smiles dimly, "if you leave, this time, everything you care about has no chance of survival. They will be taken out."

"What's the difference? If I do this, you're going to do the same thing to them anyways."

"If you stay and choose us, I will let you make your plea for your family," he says. "I'll let you keep them as your own prisoners, do whatever you like – given that what you'd like is reasonable, of course."

Leo ponders over it. Then, he asks, "How do you know that I'm not going to double cross you?"

He smirks faintly. "Like I said, this will happen, whatever you decide, whatever you choose to do," he says.

The boy withdraws to his own thoughts for a while so again, he waits patiently. "My mom, she has nothing to do with this," the boy says. "I don't want her to get hurt."

"Then you and S-3 need make sure she's safe before we finish what we'll start," he says.

Leo thinks about it. "How do I know you're not going to double-cross me?" he asks.

"Because even if I could while you were asleep, I didn't put you under the Triton app," he answers.

The boy doesn't say anything in response. Really, he doesn't have to. It's evident through his expressions that he's weighing the options presented to him. He seems to lean towards walking away, but Krane knows it's only because of his attachment to his family. "It was you, wasn't it? The one that gave me the sedative. It wasn't Douglas, right?" Leo asks.

He doesn't reply at first. He concludes that the kid is trying his hardest to find some redeeming factor in his family. He's trying to see if he's right in believing that he cares more about him than they had previously showed him. However, Krane is not a fool to give that to him. "Why do you still worry about them?" he asks.

Leo doesn't say anything.

"Your family has no love for you, Leo. They may have before, but they do not now," he tells him. "Not when you have nothing to offer."

"What about you? You only brought me here because you want something from me," he responds bitterly.

"I did," he says, "but unlike them, I never once tricked you into thinking that it's because I love you."

Leo glowers at him, trying to fight an already lost battle. "You have S-1 already, and if you succeed you'll have Sebastian, too," he says. "What I have, they have. What use do you have of me?"

"Your energy transference."

"Sebastian has it."

"S-3 only has the ability to absorb, but you? You can destroy," he tells him. "I need that ability with me. I need destruction."

Leo glances at his right hand then looks up when he notices someone walking in. His brows wrinkle as he watches S-1 stride towards the conglomeration of equipment in the back, glaring at him as she does so. "My mom. You guarantee she's going to be safe?" he asks. "You won't hurt her again?"

"Your prisoner, your decision," he answers.

Leo nods. "And the rest of them. Once we've subdued them, they're mine?"

He only smirks in response.

The boy takes a few more moments for the last time. Krane almost mistakes it as a signal that the boy will hold on to his misguided loyalty, but then he says, "Okay. I'll do it. I'll help you. What do you need me to do?"

He stands up from his seat with a wider, twisted smile. "S-3. I need you to recover him. Only you and S-1 will be going this time. When you come back, we'll move onto the next plan. But first," he scans him predatorily under the lights, "I need a guarantee that you won't suddenly change your mind on us."

S-1 holds up a device consisting of two microchips connected by hair-like wires. "Ancillary chip. It'll allow Mr. Krane to activate your personal version of the Triton app in case you get the bright idea to do something funny," she says. She grins superciliously. "Should hurt like crazy when it attaches to you."

Leo glares at her. He glances at the man towering at a distance, and then, although he's not particularly happy with it, he slightly turns his head to the side, gesturing for her to do what she has to do – and do it quickly.

S-1 glances conspiratorially up at Krane before proceeding towards the boy. As she positions the chips behind his right ear and his neck, she tells him quietly but firmly, "If you want to be on my good side, stay out of my way."

Leo smirks up at her. "Don't worry. At that rate, we'll be best friends," he quips.

S-1 shoots him a look before activating the device.

Leo doubles over as a tidal wave of pain hits him, his fingers tightly clawing the ground underneath his hands. He clenches his jaw after letting out a scream, and then soon settles down to deep breathing to calm his jolted nerves after everything passes. When he has composed himself together enough, he looks up at Krane, asking in silence if he is satisfied with that proof.

He smiles. He can see that the kid doesn't trust him, not completely, but now he also sees that maybe the anger and disappointment he feels due to his family's decision are greater to the point that he's recklessly chosen to do something as stupid as buying into a lie that an enemy has set in front of him. "Get some rest. I'll send you two out in the morning," he tells both of them before walking away.

It is the nature of most lies anyways, he thinks, to contain half-truths. What he has said is true, that he needs the kid to be on their side. The ability he possesses is very powerful. With the right instruction, the boy can accomplish many terrible things. He can incite fear, and fear is what he needs this time. But he also lied in saying that the boy can do something in behalf of the people he once cared about. Since this all began, they had been in line for elimination. There will not be anything or anyone that can save them, even the person that he has deceived into betraying them.

Still, he will enjoy this, every bit of it.

They are all poised to play a game where there will be no turning back – and tomorrow will just be the beginning of it.