The Hunt for Sviederbach

Disclaimer: I do not own Shake it Up

A/N:

Chapter 22 (Moment of Panic)

Upon arrival inside the house, they were overcome by a nauseating feeling. Aveline put her hand to her mouth, coughing at the odor attacking her nostrils. She quickly looked to Astor, who continued to press ahead towards the back door. "They're all elders," he began, "They wouldn't be inside here…"

"Good point." The back of the house was fenced off, so the only way in was really through the home. She couldn't believe this neighborhood had been forgotten by the city all these years! Then again, it shouldn't surprise her, there were many cities like this in the United States. She fought against the urge to collapse from the nausea and made her way out the back, taking a breath of fresh air once outside.

At the far corner of the yard were Kashlack and Squitza, tied to chairs with a gag in their mouths. Standing before them was a tall elderly man with a dangerous smirk. "You've arrived Princess Aveline," Henry spoke. "How are you?"

"Pissed." She began walking forward, stopping in the middle of the yard. Astor remained a few paces behind her, looking around the area. She felt a darker presence at work, but wasn't sure what it was, especially since Henry didn't seem all that dangerous. "What the hell is up with your grandson, he seems suspicious." Henry raised an eyebrow and lifted his shoulder. "He said something about his dad wanting all of this shit."

"Martin is just doing what our family has been trying to do for generations. Sure, his family's behind all of this, Martin wouldn't have had the guts to do this on his own. I don't think he wanted it as badly, but that isn't important. What is important is…" Aveline watched the man point his handgun towards Squitza's head. Kashlack let out a muffled, angry shout and Aveline's heart rate increased all the higher. She started to lunge, but froze in spot when Henry's dangerous glare fell into her eyes. "If you move, your grandmother goes first."

"Don't you dare hurt my Grandma!"

"Would you prefer your grandfather, then?"

"I'd prefer you put down your weapon…" Henry moved his gun away and started laughing maliciously for several seconds. After a minute, he suddenly clutched his chest, his eyes went wide and his mouth opened, shuddering as though he were gasping for air. Aveline's jaw fell and Astor winced, nature was beating her to the punch! "Mr. Lamont? Astor, I think he's having a heart attack!"

No response.

"Astor?" She watched Henry collapse to the ground, then looked back towards her brother before running over to Henry's body. Unfortunately her brother was now unconscious on the ground. Her heart stopped and her eyes quickly scanned his body for his sword, which was missing. "Astor!" She knelt beside him and put her hand to his back, shaking him. "Wake up! Come on!"

Her grandparents began screaming out, causing her to lift her gaze from Astor and towards the back doorway. Her eyes widened when she saw a sandy-haired, well built man holding onto Astor's sword. She started to growl and quickly rose to her feet, narrowing her eyes. No traps indeed. Who was this man, and why did he knock out her little brother? "So we finally meet the princess…pity, Gramps never had a good heart. Let me introduce myself, I'm Brad Lamont. You killed my mother."

"What?" Crap, Martin had another relative out here? "So Martin stationed you out here, did he? A trick?"

"No. Actually our cousin doesn't know we're out here." She raised an eyebrow and heard the ruffling of leaves to both her right and left. She looked towards her right and saw a young woman around her age with long black hair and puffy red lips curled into a deadly smirk. To her left was a man, also her age, he had shaggy blonde hair covering up his eyes. She was outnumbered! Archery didn't help in close quarters, but she would have to do her best to take them out. "These would be my other cousins, Rebecca and David. They're siblings, children of Uncle Maxwell and Aunt Heather. We're going to enjoy beating you senseless, then we're going to take our turns tearing apart your soul, and leave you for dead in this moldy home. Sound good?" Her eyes widened for a second before shifting into an angry expression.

"I don't think so." She lifted her bow and arrow, aiming towards Brad. She fired it off, striking him in his shoulder. Mentally, she cursed herself, her aim was off due to her levels of stress and shot nerves. She couldn't show any weakness, however. "You don't stand a chance." Brad stumbled back for a second, bowing his head and laughing as he reached up for the shoulder. She lowered her bow and watched him tear the arrow out of his body.

"Au Contraire, Princess. You don't stand a chance in hell." She growled and reached back for another arrow, pausing as both Rebecca and David started their slow walk towards her. She needed to get into a more open area, otherwise she really didn't stand a chance.

Show no fear, Aveline. You got this, you're not afraid of anything. By any chance, would Rocky and Dad show up like last time?

She needed to get that sword away from Brad, but how would she do this? She wasn't extremely agile, at least not in this damn dress she picked out. Next time, she'd just use the suit. She took a slight step back and moved her arrow to the bow. She stared at Brad, who was tapping the blunt side of the sword against his right leg. At a second's glance she thought she saw a bulge that disturbed her to the point she was ready to fire the arrow into it. She met Brad's venomous gaze and started to pull her arrow back. "You're toast, Lamont. I thought you had no part in the attack on my family…"

"We don't, but we do want to take our revenge out on you. I would think that's obvious. If you're going to shoot me with that arrow, go ahead." Blood was trickling down his right arm where her last arrow had pierced him. He hardly appeared fazed. "By the way, there's four of us, not three…"

"What?" She heard her grandparents' muffled screams behind her and quickly looked at the rooftop in time to see a man somersaulting off. She yelped and quickly fired an arrow at him, but missed. He landed on his feet behind her and struck her in the back with his elbow, knocking the bow out of her hands. She started to reach for her weapon. She suddenly jerked back by the man tucking his arms underneath hers. "Hey!" She growled and turned her head back over hers shoulder, freezing in panic, this was the same 'suitor' that attacked her before, but that man hadn't gone by the Lamont name! "You?!" The man smirked at her and tilted his head to the side.

"My name's Tyler Lamont. Good to meet you again. Now…you're going to give me what I wanted then, and if you're good, we might not be so rough on you." Her heart crashed against her ribs and adrenaline flushed through her blood. Her? Submit?

"Never!" She lifted her foot up and kicked back into his right leg, causing him to scream out in pain. She started to turn and attack him. She was quickly thrown against the ground, striking the gunshot wound from before, and sending a violent, stabbing pain through her body. She gripped her side and cringed, sucking in a deep breath of air. "Damn this wound!"

Tyler grabbed her hair and yanked her off the ground. She flailed her arms, trying desperately to strike him, though blinded by pain and wind. Aveline could hear her grandfather trying to call out, thrashing about in the chair he was tied to. Eventually, she opened her eyes and saw him fall over onto the ground, slamming his head against the dirt and watching with weakened eyes.

"Grandpa! Damn it…" She started to pull away to run for him, but in her momentary distraction, David and Rebecca grabbed her arms. She glared back at them, growling angrily as they slammed her back against the ground and pinned her to the ground. She kicked her feet out and exclaimed in anger, trying to free herself from them. "When I get out of this, I'm going to kill you! Every one of you!"

"Here you go, Tyler," Brad said while tossing him the sword. Aveline lifted her head and gasped out when Tyler moved the sword above her neck, holding it steady. Sweat ran down her forehead and her heart's erratic beating continued to increase. Brad chuckled evilly and bent on one knee between her legs. "Pity we were going to give you a chance and go easy on you, but I guess it's true what they say, you're no meek princess. Tough as nails. It's going to be all the merrier for us to destroy you." She spat out at him and started to lift her right leg up, only to have him grab it and slam it back to the ground with an angry roar. "Do not piss me off or I'll have Tyler cut you with your father's and brother's sword a lot sooner than I'd like."

"As opposed to what you're wanting? I'd rather die!" She wasn't going out easily either, she would fight them to the death.

Brad chuckled evilly and closed his eyes. "That opportunity will come soon enough." He snapped his fingers at Tyler and pointed towards the sword. "Cut off her dress." Her eyes widened as Tyler flashed the sword along her dress. She screamed out in anguish and arched her back as Brad reached forward and tore the dress from her. He raised his eyebrows at the suit and started rubbing his chin. "Now a suit, I see…cut resistant?"

Tyler swept the blade carefully along the suit, only to realize the inevitable, he couldn't cut it. She smirked at him as Tyler narrowed his eyes. "It can't be cut, Brad." Brad reached down and grabbed part of the suit between his fingers, trying to pull it up. "It's like it's part of her."

"There ought to be a zipper somewhere. Somehow she has to be getting out of this. Isn't that right, Princess?" His mocking tone chilled her blood, and his lethal gaze burned her. She clamped her lips shut and glared angrily at him. Her chest was rising and falling rapidly and her hair had cloaked her face. She blew her hair from her face, growling at the man.

"That was my ball dress, asshole."

"You're the one that decided to wear it. Looks better off you, I'd say."

"Fuck you."

"Ooh, such language for an esteemed princess, wouldn't you think?" The cousins laughed and Aveline turned her glare to Rebecca, shocked that a fellow woman would be a part of this. She felt Brad's fingers on her face, pulling her head towards him. His hot breath stung her cheeks and nose caught a whiff of what smelled like moldy cheese. Her stomach churned and her eyes moved to the back of her head. "I hear you've been saving yourself, at least that's what Tyler says. Maybe you have someone else in mind, and jury's out saying it's that Bransford kid. You know all the captives can see this right now? So I guess your beloved Ander gets to watch as his beautiful princess is taken from him."

"Fuck you!"

"Seriously? You're still doing that?" Tyler looked over to Brad, annoyed.

"I thought I was going to have first dibs." Aveline shot a glare his way and clenched her fist, trying to pull her arm away from David to punch Tyler in the face. "She is a fiery one, I'll say that."

"Well first we need to get this suit off her. After that, everyone is getting their fair share. After that, we'll cut her a couple times, let her watch as we kill the old folks over there, then leave her to die."

Aveline groaned and tilted her head back, fighting the frustrated tears in her eyes. She silenced the urge to scream out and fought harder to think of a way out of this. David and Rebecca were strong, she had to give them credit for that, but they couldn't hold her forever. The more she pushed her arms up, the more they pushed down, and it didn't help that Rebecca was pressing against the spot of her arm where the wolf had clawed her.

"I think the zipper's on her back," David muttered. "The only question is, how do we get it off her after that?"

"We hope she's flexible." The cousins moved her body and flipped her over suddenly, slamming her chest hard against the ground. She groaned out and let her head fall down against the dirt, resting her right cheek on the ground. She clenched her eyes shut and heard the sound of her back zipper siding off. "Would you look at that, easy as hell." He muttered about the quiver that was still attached to her back, in which case, he'd have difficulty taking it off since it was strapped diagonally around her chest.

"I swear I'm going to kill you," she protested. If she kicked Brad, Tyler might cut her with that sword. Right now, Brad was the only one that she could hit. The key was to get rid of that sword and they could do nothing at all to her. She wasn't afraid of getting hit, she could take a beating if she had to. She turned her eyes to Tyler, he was kneeling right near her face. Her tongue slid across her lips as she visualized biting into that fleshy leg of his. During her hunts with her father, her survival training taught her how to bite hard enough to actually tear flesh off with her teeth, a gross and disgusting tactic, but a helpful one nonetheless.

She felt the cold air striking her exposed upper and lower back and exclaimed angrily when Brad started sliding his hand down her spine. "Relax, Princess, I'm still struggling to get this damn suit off you."

"Hey Brad…" She put her chin on the ground and narrowed her eyes as he responded with question. "Know a tactic my father taught me whenever we went out hunting? If caught defenseless by a wild animal, it helps to bite them. I can tear the flesh right off you with my teeth in order to protect myself." She started preparing herself for the nauseating task of biting into Tyler's leg, but the sound of a bullet ringing out startled her into silence.

Blood splashed onto her face and Tyler fell beside her, his eyes wide, eyebrows arched, and mouth opened in a deafening scream. She began to shudder as her eyes moved to the hole in the side of his head. What was going on? She couldn't move to see, too stunned and far too frightened.

Another shot rang out and Rebecca fell onto her back, a bullet hole was directly in the middle of her forehead. At the sound of a third shot, Aveline flipped onto her back, ignoring David's convulsing body. She was shocked to see Martin, walking forward and firing off shots like he was some sort of western movie hero. Brad was looking back at him with a terrified expression. Martin's glare fell onto him. Aveline could see the intense fire in his eyes, freezing Brad in place.

She couldn't react, she didn't know how. Why was Martin, of all people, helping her? Why was he willingly killing off his own cousins, for that matter! "You're making me miss my westerns, Brad…"

Martin was dressed in a red and blue plaid shirt, a black leather vest, brown jeans, and what appeared to be cowboy boots. He had two empty holsters at his waist, and a bulge in his chest that could be another gun. She wanted to snicker, but was still trying to process the scene as a whole. It was Brad who spoke what she was thinking. "What's with the western getup, Marty?" Martin shoved his guns into the holsters and narrowed his eyes.

"I like to get into character when I watch my shows." Aveline slowly reached for the handle of the sword beside her, eyeing the back of Brad's head. Her hand was shaking violently and her breathing was erratic. Currently, she hated Brad more than she hated Martin, and how was she supposed to process Martin's saving her? She didn't need someone saving her! She wasn't a man-hating feminist, but she also wasn't a damsel in distress! How dare Brad put her in this situation!

"You'd kill your own cousins, Marty?"

"After everything my sick and twisted family did to me…after everything my mother and father did to me, to my brother, to all of us…Normally I'd consider this a mercy kill. You don't deserve mercy, Brad." Martin started reaching for his chest, keeping his sharp glare on Brad. "No one was allowed to be this dirty, this underhanded. I was going to let you guys have fucking peace by not involving you in this shit! You have the gall to come and try this stunt on Sviederbach's Princess?"

"You're one to talk-"

"That's different! This wasn't my plan." Martin slowly pulled a silver gun from his chest, one Aveline instantly recognized as a recently created laser gun. She stammered in her speech, questioning the use of the gun. Brad stared at it with a startled expression. "David and Rebecca, I don't know how you got them into this, but the bullets…those were mercy kills. Tyler? Yeah, I was too pissed and gave him one of those, but you?" He scoffed and shook his head. "You sly bastard, I've reserved this gun for you. This laser will set your internal organ on fire, guess which one I'm aiming for?" He shifted the gun towards Brad, narrowing his eyes. "That's right. Your brain."

"Screw you!" Brad reached for his jeans, tearing a gun from beneath, her eyes widened and her heart froze once more. She hadn't known he had a gun with him! Had she gone about her plan to try and bite Tyler, Brad could very well have shot her. Reflexively, Aveline grabbed the handle of the sword and swung it forward, piercing Brad through the back and out his stomach. Brad exclaimed and blood spilt from his lips. "Bitch!"

She stared at him, still trembling under his fiery gaze. He was glaring over his right shoulder, as though ready to kill her on the spot. Her lips quivered as his gun hand moved up and pointed in her direction. Within an instant, a bright red laser shot into Brad's head, causing him to drop the gun and fall to the ground, screaming as he clutched his head.

Martin put his gun back and closed his eyes. "Aveline, unless you want more blood on you, I'd move." She didn't hesitate to pull herself to her feet, using her sword to steady herself. When she looked back to Brad, his head was starting to bubble. Her stomach flipped and she turned away in disgust. His scream ended with an explosion. "Sorry you had to see that…"

She took a deep breath, trying to regain her composure. Her eyes moved towards Brad's body, everything above his neck was now just a large explosion of blood splatter. She put her hand to her mouth and swallowed a disgusted gag. "W-Why would you help me, Martin?"

"I didn't want my cousins hurting you the way they were planning to. It isn't right…"

"I'm not…not sure what you think 'right' qualifies as. You just killed your family, and…" She looked down to her collar and raised an eyebrow, the camera light was no longer on. "The camera-"

"I turned them off for this." Martin folded his arms over and closed his eyes. "Listen Aveline. My family sucks, all right? There's not much I can tell you about that. It was my father who wanted all of this, my entire family…I have no escape from them. I'd sooner die, but I'll confess, I didn't want to leave their soulless bodies walking around. You don't know everything. You'd like to think you do, but you do not. Yes I've abused Mala, but did I say I was a proud man for it? No. I took out the anger and aggression from my own abuse, ranging from physical to sexual abuse from my own mother, and I took my anger out on Mala because she just…took it…I'd like to get her away from them, and I've tried, but my family just won't let her go." Aveline was still stunned by his words, and watched as he walked over and pulled her grandpa's chair upright, then worked to untie the man. His expression was tense and stony, and his eyes held disdain for those he was speaking against. "I know it was wrong, and it's hard to help it. I have anger management issues, yes. And if you still want to kill me, go ahead."

"I-I can't right now Martin. I…you just saved me…I'm your damn enemy." She wasn't completely processing what he was saying, and how could she be expected to do that? Her pride was shaken just by the fact that he was there.

"One reason I shut off the cameras is because I'm confessing this to you. There are certain things the world doesn't need to know, Aveline. My cousins didn't need to do to you what my family had done to me, to my brother. I wouldn't do that sort of thing to anyone, not even my worst enemy." He gave her a knowing glance, which was a strange comfort for her. She watched as Kashlack and Squitza rose from the ropes that had them bound, then ran to her, embracing her with their arms. Squitza was kissing the top of her head several times and sobbing frantically."David didn't have to die, he was the only one not twisted...his sister, some kind of strange insane obsession, maybe she could have been helped, but the second Brad roped them in...I'm sorry Aveline..."

Martin tapped his grandfather's body with his foot and released a heavy sigh. "When I leave here, we go back to the way things were. Keep that in mind. I'm only protecting you this one time, after that…I can't do anything more. My family will already be suspicious enough. I'd be surprised they don't kill me after this." He took out his own teleporter and lifted his eyebrows. "And by the way, you're welcome. Now I need to get back to my shows…Feel free to take a long rest."

Within minutes, he was gone, and Aveline was about ready to break down and cry as all the tension and stress fell from her. Astor had woken up and was standing by her side, so she took the moment to kneel and hug him close, finally letting her own tears fall from her face. Never before had she been so thankful to see him.

It may take a while to process everything that just happened, and rest was something she'd definitely need after all this. For now, her moment of terror was over, and she just wanted to get home to those that were safe. She'd be safe then.

This was a tough chapter to write. We saw a glimpse of the cousins, more of them will be seen in Martin's side story that I'm working on. I'll fill you in on that when this story's over, but certain details must happen first. What are your thoughts on this chapter? Observations?