"Do you think it will hold her?" The Dark Dragon mused, eyeing the contraption the young Huntsgirl (Theron had always referred to her as such, and so, in consequence, that was what the Dark Dragon also called her) was now laced into.

It was a very dark looking set up. Theron had to be sure that she could not escape, which was much easier to do in theory. Theron knew what abilities that Huntsgirl was supposed to have, he knew what abilities he had intended to program into her, but he knew that her engineering had certainly not been done as he had originally specified, prior to her conception. If his instructions had been followed, he never would have encountered the issues that he had with the Huntsgirl. She would have been perfect, rather than uncontrollable.

No matter, she was still the best thing he'd ever created. She was still the best Clan member to ever walk this Earth. And now that she was back in his custody, Master could once again ensure that she fell under his control and stayed there. It would not be easy, and it would most certainly be painful for her, but the results would be marvelous. Theron would control the universe – become Master of all, not just his Clan – with the Huntsgirl heading the war.

He grinned wickedly at the thought of the near future, his lust for it overpowering.

"Yes," Theron finally spoke, answering his partner. "It will hold her."

It had better. It had taken many months to design a cage that would keep her. Multiple layers deep, each set of fences were designed to be an obstacle. The entire room that the Huntsgirl was concealed in was designed to work against her – it was designed to learn her fighting style and skills and fight back. The first layer, the one that physical held the Huntsgirl, was just a set of thick metal bands. There was one around each wrist, ankle, thigh, and bicep, one around her stomach area, one around her neck, and one around her head. If she ever escaped those bonds, anchoring her to the floor, she was trapped inside of a tube – made of a transparent electrical substance. On the very outside of the tube was electric wire and barbed wire (the barbed wire soaked in a sleeping draught that would infect the Huntsgirl once she scraped herself on it); the two wires were so tightly knit that the Huntsgirl would have to literally rip them apart – and would either electrocute herself on it or put herself into a light coma. If she got past that, the former Huntsmaster had placed down a floor that would capture the Huntsgirl – making it impossible for her to move her feet, let alone take a step. This was all encased by four walls, made of the strongest substance known to man. The entrance to the Huntsgirl's prison was hidden above the false ceiling – the ceiling could be slid away, revealing not only the entrance, but several torture devices that the Huntsmaster knew he would eventually have to use on his bright protégée. Along the walls, were cameras so he could watch her every moment of the day and guns, filled with the same tranquilizer that he had used to take her down outside of the airport.

"And if not," Theron added lightly, "she still has you and me to get through."

The Dark Dragon snorted. "No one could get through the two of us."

Theron set his jaw. He wanted to agree with the Dark Dragon. He wanted to be completely confident that the little girl still unconscious in her cage had no prayer of getting out of the cage, let alone slipping past the two darkest masterminds alive at the moment. Yet, he couldn't. It frustrated him to no end that the Huntsgirl could thwart him – and had thwarted him in the recent past, so recent, in fact, that it still stung, painfully sore in the Huntsmaster's violent pride.

"She will probably not stir for a few hours yet. That was a lot of tranquilizer for her body mass," Theron said, effectively changing the subject.

"What are we going to do when she wakes?"

"Absolutely nothing." Theron decided. "If she remembers how she was knocked unconscious, she knows that it was me. Chances are, however, she won't remember how she got here. I want her terrified of her surroundings and her captor. We're going to leave her alone for a few days – no food, no water, no contact."

"She's your project," the Dark Dragon murmured with a shrug. "I'm just along for the ride."

The Dark Dragon was along to be useful. Once he ran out of that quality, the Dark Dragon was going to die. But for now, he was Theron's partner, and had to be treated with the respect that the title implied.

"She'll be useful. It will take some work, but the efforts are nothing compared to the rewards that are waiting for us once she is prepared."

"That day will come soon enough – we have learned how to wait over the past eighteen months."

"Yes," Theron said, focusing on the Huntsgirl.

He wanted to go to her now. He wanted to restart her training at this very moment. But he mustn't. Leaving her alone would not only have the desired psychological and physical effects (he wanted her scared and he wanted her too weak to fight against him) but would heal the ache of his injured vanity.

So he would wait.

(-.-)

"I'm worried, okay?"

"Nicholas," Kyle huffed. "It's been like forever."

"Exactly! Where is she? Why hasn't she checked in? I can't remember the last time she went this long without contact, excluding flights!"

Kyle shook his head at Nicholas' theatrics. "Rose can take care of herself."

"Just because she can doesn't mean that something didn't happen!" Nicholas retorted. He couldn't explain the anxious feeling that was growing inside of him (despite the fact that he was, in general, an anxious person, Nicholas was feeling that apprehension to the extreme in this moment). He wished that Andrew were here; he still remembered how secure the other Clan member could make him feel when Rose had been absent. He missed his passed friend terribly in this moment, knowing that Andrew would know what to do.

Despite the fact that Kyle and Nicholas were now two of the most powerful people in the Clan, and fell right behind the Huntsmistress in hierarchy when it came to the New York branch – Nicholas felt that he wasn't quite ready to handle this situation. Yes, he had dealt with a lot as the new rules, laws, and protocols were enforced on the Clan and Rose was travelling, but he had never thought about what he would do when Rose wasn't around for him to rely on.

He had never thought about what he would do if it were just him and Kyle.

"Maybe she went to Jake's," Kyle suggested. "If they were on the flight right after us, they would have gotten back a while ago. They're probably hashing over the meeting and beating on those old crones."

Nicholas sighed. "Maybe … but I can't see them meeting about the Council without us."

"Maybe she didn't go for a meeting. They're dating, they probably just went off together to chill out."

"If she's not answering her phone, then he's not going to answer his," Nicholas said, referring to Jake.

"Uh," Kyle thought. "Call the house? Fu or Lao Shi will probably answer. We have that number, don't we?"

Nicholas dug in his pocket for his cell phone and opened his contacts. He scrolled for a minute before finding Lao Shi's number, which had definitely been programmed in by Rose. He hit the number for home and set it down on the next, putting it on speaker.

It rang twice before someone picked up.

"Hello?"

"Jake!" Nicholas exploded in surprise. "Why are you home?"

"Uh…" Jake paused. "Where else am I supposed to be?"

Nicholas looked at Kyle, who was now starting to look a little panicked. The dark eyed teen had mostly certainly believed that his Huntsmistress was safe with her boyfriend. Now, he was also starting to worry. Kyle knew that Rose had needed to clear her head, but she had been gone for a terribly long time to not check in – not even a text message to say that she was fine. She hadn't answered any of Nicholas' multiple texts and calls (something that Nicholas had agonized over and Kyle had thought were ridiculous, but now Kyle felt like the ridiculous one; what if something had happened to Rose and because he had prevented Nicholas from searching for her earlier, they had lost her?).

"When was the last time you saw Huntsmistress?" Kyle demanded. He felt an odd pull on his gut and prayed that Jake didn't say that it was on the island.

But that is, of course, exactly what Jake said. "At the Council meeting, before she stormed out." He hesitated. "Why?"

"She's gone!" Nicholas blurted.

"Gone?" Jake repeated, voice barely above a whisper. "What the fuck do you mean 'gone'?"

Kyle took over for Nicholas, feeling slightly more calm about the situation (he chalked it up to denial).

"We got off the plane. Rose said that she wanted to walk home, clear her head. It wasn't that far, and she's tough. We said we'd see her back at Headquarters soon. We haven't heard from her since. Nicholas has tried texting and calling but she hasn't answered. We haven't told anyone else because we haven't wanted to alarm the Clan but we're really worried about her."

"I wish you'd contacted me sooner," Jake said, trying to think through his worry. "But I think you made the right call on keeping this under wraps. No need to panic over nothing. Get together a small group of trusted members. Don't tell them what's happening. Just say that there's been an incident around the airport and that you need them to go check for any signs of an attack or anything they chalk up to being unusual. Tell them to expect Gramps' and I, and probably Fu as well, to be on scene. Tell them that this is a joint effort, but it is highly classified and they are on a need to know basis."

"And right now, they don't need to know," Kyle added. "Got it."

"We'll put it together now," Nicholas squeaked.

"Right." Jake drew in a breath. "We'll probably beat you there. Wings and all."

"We won't be far behind you," Kyle assured him.

"Bye," Jake said, hanging up the phone.

He bolted down from the apartment to the shop. He tried not to let panic and fear get to him. Rose wasn't gone. Rose was stalking angrily along some alley, completely oblivious to what time it was or that there was a search party leaving for her. And even if something had decided to attack the slight woman thinking that she would go down easily, Jake knew that she wouldn't. With her recently uncovered genetic engineering, Rose was as close to infallible as a human could probably get.

"What's up, kid?" Fu asked, hearing Jake come flying into the shop. He was bent over a chessboard, pondering over his next move while Gramps was patiently waiting for his turn, flipping through an ancient text to occupy his time.

"Who was on the phone?" Lao Shi asked.

"Nicholas and Kyle. Rose hasn't been seen in a couple of hours."

Fu twisted his head around. "How long is a couple of hours?"

"Since they landed," Jake reported. "They're freaked."

"We'll leave immediately."

"I told them we'd meet the Clan search party at the airport. No one knows this is about her, though."

"Obviously," Lao Shi said. "No use making trouble where it isn't warranted."

Jake transformed into his dragon alter ego alongside his grandfather and hoped that Lao Shi was right: there was no trouble to be found.

Please keep in mind that this was not betad and that I'm still in the process of acquiring one if anyone has any recommendations.

~TLL~