"What if I am a genetic freak?" Rose dropped her head into her hands, staring at the speaker phone on her desk, waiting for Jake's reply.

"Well," he mused, "then you'll be my genetic freak."

"That's sweet but not very helpful. I never thought about how blindly I listened to Master until now when I'm looking back on it. I believed him when he said it was because I was raised differently, but that's not it at all. I know that's exactly what he did to me – he changed me!"

"You don't know that for sure."

"Then where are my files, Jake? Even the lowliest Clan member has a novel written about them, but there's nothing about me. I don't want to sound egotistical here, but I was the most important Clan member as far as Master was concerned. Yet, he didn't make a single note about me! Don't you find that strange?"

"Take a breath."

"That's not an answer," Rose argued.

"Calm your prickly little self down and take a breath. I'm getting to an answer."

Rose took her breath loudly, making sure that Jake could hear it.

"Now, you may be right, your Master may have done something to you and that's the reason there's no files. On the other hand, there may be no files because the Master didn't want to leave a paper trail on you. He didn't want to anyone to be able to figure out who you were and what you could do. You were his secret weapon."

"Then why enroll me in school? That leaves a paper trail."

"Yeah, a generic high school student named Rose. Anyone is going to look at that and think 'hmm, I bet that one's in the Huntsclan'."

"They could have if they wanted to – all of my school records correspond to sightings."

"Mmm. Don't forget though, that up until last year, we all thought you were dead."

"I … forgot about that," Rose admitted. "Okay, so, I'm his secret weapon. He didn't want to leave a paper trail but that doesn't prove he didn't alter me. In fact, it makes it all the more likely. Yes, there is one Clan leader but each of the Clan branches have their own, smaller, authority. The first rule of the Clan is to not put one another in danger; doing experimentations violates that rule completely. So, if Master were going to do it, he'd have to hide it, thus no files."

"Would you stop working yourself up?" Jake asked.

"No," Rose groaned, "I won't. I'm freaked out, I'm mad at myself, I'm nervous over this Council thing –"

"They're harmless."

"And you're not helping!"

With a flourish, Rose stabbed the end call button, cutting off Jake's next words. She fell backward in her chair, trying not to feel bad over what she'd just done. But he didn't understand – she didn't understand, so how could he? She curled her knees up to her chest, bringing her arms around her shins. She tried to settle the emotions running rampant within her body.

Master had lied to her; Master had often lied to her and she knew that. But the thought that he had lied to her about her own body – the thought that there was something wrong within her – made her cringe. This was her body, but what if it was not the one she had been born into? What had he done to her (because she had decided that he had done something)? Had he rewired her brain; were her thoughts her own? And if it wasn't her brain, what had he done to her? Had he done it even before she had been born? Had he known her birth mother and altered her in the womb?

All of these questions – ones she would never have answered – made her head ache. Master was dead. She had no way to find the woman who had given birth to her, whether it was an outsider or someone within the Clan. Clan mothers never knew who their children were and if it were an outside mother then it could have been anyone.

Rose thought she knew who she was. She had been Master's little pet: strong, brilliant, and beautiful. She had watched that image of herself shatter as she realized the truth: the truth of how manipulative he was; the truth of the prophecy; and the truth of the American Dragon.

She knew that if it wasn't for Jake, if it wasn't for falling in love with him, then she would have remained the Master's little puppet for the rest of her days. She would have thought that she was independent and capable, while he controlled things from the back burner.

Falling in love with Jake had been a blessing. She could remember what she had been like before she had been with Jake, when she had been Huntsgirl completely and Rose had been merely a hobby. Back then, she would never have imagined that she could sit in a chair and be worried and frightened. Then, she had been utterly ruthless – exactly what the Huntsmaster always praised her for. If she wasn't being bloodthirsty, then she wasn't being right.

She hated who she had been then. She had loved it and embraced it when she was living it, but looking back, she had done so much wrong. She carried so much innocent blood on her hands (and some not-so innocent blood, she conceded, remembering the Clan member she had murdered in his own bed). Some of her killing had been justified, but not even half of it had a good reason except for 'Master's orders'.

She felt like a human being now, compared to then. Then, she had felt like a machine – a killing machine. She hadn't felt anything; she hadn't wanted to feel anything. Now, she had nothing but emotion filling her. It was new, it was different, and she liked this way of life much more than she had liked the old one.

She just needed to do some adjusting.

She picked up the phone and called Jake back.

"I'm sorry," she blurted.

"I get that it's hard, Rose, but I'm here to help you, not to have you get mad at me."

Rose took a deep breath, trying to find the right words to describe what was going on inside her head, knowing that there weren't any. "There have just been so many changes lately. I'm not dealing with it properly, though I don't know what properly would be. I just want to have peace and unity throughout everyone, and then I want to be able to enjoy that."

"We'll get there. With every day that passes, we only get closer, right?"

"Right …" Rose agreed. "Either way, I'm still sorry."

"It's all right. It's stressful. But the Dragon Council meeting is just around the corner, we'll get everything sorted out then."

"For better or worse," Rose added miserably.

"Until death do us part."

"That's not funny."

Jake chuckled. "What, scared of dying?"

"No," Rose retorted. She had never feared her own death. "I'm scared of you dying. Especially with that close call last year. It's not something I'll ever get over and it's just not funny."

"You're cute when you care about me."

"Then I must be adorable all the time," Rose retorted.

"You are."

As she listened to his voice, she felt the worries and the stress begin to melt away from her. They would figure things out, somehow, they always did. They had proved that. And he could bring peace to her – no matter how chaotic the world got, he would always be there to keep her grounded and remind her what she was breathing for.

"You're not too bad yourself," Rose murmured. "In fact, you're pretty damn great."

"I love you, Rose."

"I love you too, Jake."

(-.-)

"I'm antsy because I've never been on a plane before, Kyle's antsy because he's not prepared to be around that many dragons, and you're antsy because?"

"Because the Clan is being left in the hopefully capable but nonetheless inexperienced hands; because I don't know what the Council is going to say; because I still haven't found any records on me; because I'm antsy for the sake of being antsy," Rose snapped at Nicholas. She tapped her foot against the lobby of the Huntsclan, trying to release her jitters before the car arrived to take the three of them to the airport.

"That's a lot to be worried about," Kyle observed.

"I've always got a lot to be worried about," Rose swiftly pointed out. "An entire Clan, spanning over multiple countries, and trying to take on the responsibility of a magical community –"

"Stop the rant, please," Nicholas sighed. "We understand the kind of pressure you're under."

"Sorry," Rose replied. She played with the ends of her hair, staring out the glass front doors. "The car is here."

She picked up her duffel bag and headed outside, Nicholas and Kyle rushing to keep up. The trunk popped open and Rose looked down. They were only going to be gone for the weekend, but someone had brought a lot of bags – she was willing to bet that it wasn't Lao Shi, but she couldn't imagine Jake bringing so much either. She, Nicholas and Kyle spent a few long minutes rearranging the others' luggage so that their own bags would fit in.

That over with, they made their way to the doors and slipped inside of the town car. It was big enough to fit all of them comfortably – even Fu, who had been packed into a dog cage to keep up appearances for regular humans.

He saw Rose and whined before asking, "Do I look like a regular dog?"

"Until you started asking questions," Rose giggled. "Are you going to be able to keep quiet for the duration of the plane ride?"

"Maybe." Fu shrugged in the confines of the cage. "I'd prefer to sleep for the plane ride. They're not my favourite."

Rose snuggled into Jake's side, a realization coming to her. "Are you the one that packed about forty bags?"

"A dog needs his things!"

"Fu's a pack rat," Jake whispered in her ear. "He can't go anywhere without bringing everything and the kitchen sink."

"I heard that!" Fu growled. "I am not a rat."

"You are an overgrown rat," Lao Shi said matter-of-factly. "Now calm down and practice being a regular animal."

"I am anything but regular!" Fu replied with sass, but he settled down in the cage, accepting his fate.

"How long is our flight?" Nicholas asked.

"Only a few hours."

"How vague," Kyle snorted.

"Eight hours," Lao Shi amended. "We will be on the plane for eight hours."

"I don't like the sounds of that," Nicholas squeaked.

"Man up," Kyle advised. "And get an extra barf bag. If you puke on me, I will never forgive me, you hear me?"

"I'm not going to puke!" Nicholas proclaimed, before pausing and adding, "Well, I don't think I will."

"That gives me so much confidence," Kyle groaned with an eye roll.

The town car lurched to a halt in front of the airport. Nicholas let out a squeal before seeming to get a grip on himself. He flung himself out of the car first, going around to the back of the car where the trunk had already been opened. As the rest of the company filed out of the car, he was loading bags onto the sidewalk.

Rose paused, watching with a smile as Jake tugged and pulled Fu's cage out of the car.

"How much do you eat?" He complained.

"I am perfect just the way I am," Fu retaliated, his voice echoing from inside of the carrier.

"I thought dogs didn't talk," Rose exclaimed with mock-surprise, rapping her knuckles on the top of the cage.

"Don't do that," Fu whined. "It hurts my ears."

"Fu," Jake said warningly.

"Hehe," the dog chortled. "I meant, woof, woof, Rose."

"What a comedian." Jake rolled his eyes as they all filed into the airport.

Hey, guys, it's my birthday! Review, pretty please?

I don't own anything recognizable. Thanks to my beta: Gift Of The Dragons.

~TLL~