Rose could do nothing but focus on the white of Lao Shi's whiskers. The old man didn't look decayed in the slightest and any signs of the beatings he had received before his death had been washed away. She was extremely close to the body and she was expecting his head to turn and for an accusing finger to point in her direction. She was waiting for her plan to fail but, of course, it wouldn't.

She was in place. The Master was in place. With a little convincing via the mind-control drug Scopolamine, the entire New York Branch of the Clan was in place. Magical creatures were going to die; she was going to win; and she was going to take over the world. It was as simple as that.

Jake reached over and squeezed her hand. Rose squeezed it back, thinking that she'd never do this again. In a few minutes (for it was almost seven-thirty) the Master and the Clan would burst in and it would all be over. Never again would she hold Jake's hand; would she put a comforting arm around Haley's shoulders. She would never have another conversation with Susan again, or Trixie and Spud for that matter, because they were all going to die.

It started off with a bang and a scream.

It was a gunshot that caused the bang. It was the troll sitting next to the leprechaun that was murdered that caused the scream.

Chaos ensued.

Masked Clan members dove into the spaced, multitudes by magical creatures running for cover and being killed on their way. Uncomprehendingly, Jake transformed. There was danger here and he understood that on an instinctual level. Intellectually though, Jake couldn't understand the fact that there were masked Clan members gunning down his family members and friends, the believed dead Huntsmaster at their helm.

And then Rose pulled on her mask, leaping into the fray with her staff clenched in her hand and Jake understood. He understood that, somehow, she had been playing him all this time. His heart began to shatter as he realized that she hadn't loved him, not really. It was just as the Dragon Council had said, all those months ago. She really didn't care.

"Haley," he growled at his little sister. "Get out. Mom, carry Fu; Trixie, Spud, go."

"We can help," Trixie protested.

"Now is not the time to argue!" Jake roared. "GO!"

And because no one argued with the American Dragon, the quartet fled. Knowing that his family and friends were safe, Jake let out a spurt of fire and leapt forward. He had never killed before. He had never taken a life. His job was to serve and protect – the exact opposite of Rose's occupation.

The love of his life had no troubles murdering magical creatures. With her staff in one hand, she was formidable. Not to mention the hoard of Clan members she had accompanying her. They were all prepared for a fight: they were burdened with weapons and the drive to kill. The magical creatures that had been gathered had not been prepared for an attack whatsoever. They had no weapons and they were in mourning. Weighed down by their emotions, they were trying to recalibrate themselves to the heat of battle but, before they could reach that point, they were being slaughtered.

Jake knew what he had to do. The magical creatures could hold their own against most of the Clan members. It was Theron and Rose that was giving the Clan an unfair advantage. He had to separate the Huntsmistress and her former master from the main body of the fight. It was, likely, going to be simpler than he anticipated. The magical creatures had responded to their flight or fight instincts by choosing flight. Clan members were leaping over dead bodies in order to give chase to the fleeing creatures.

With a roar, he swept toward Rose. Predictably, she turned toward him, brandishing her staff. Jake knew that he was, by far, the biggest threat present at the funeral and, even if he wasn't, she would have gone after him anyway. Between the two of them, it was personal.

Under the guise of protecting magical creatures who were attempting to disappear from the funeral area, Jake drew Rose away from the slaughter. Again, as he predicted, the Huntsmaster was behind her. Panic set in when they did something unexpected.

Rose halted mid footstep and said something to the Master. Jake had misjudged how far away he was from her and was unable to hear the words she uttered. Fear in his heart, it was his turn to give chase as the two powerful leaders turned in the other direction, aiming for a pink dragon on the horizon.

Jake pushed his wings to drive him faster and faster but he knew that Rose, superhuman, genetically altered Rose would get there far faster than Jake ever could.

Rose would get to Haley first.

Lost in the strain of getting to his little sister, Jake had forgotten to watch for the Huntsmaster. Theron, unable to keep up with Rose, had paused and waited for the dragon to get into position. Once the American Dragon was where he needed to be, Theron fired. He knew he had caught the dragon in its soft yellow under belly with his bullet because it veered to the side, once of its clawed limbs searching for the wound. The beast, infuriatingly enough, seemed hell bent on continuing forward.

Theron broke out into a run. Dragons could fly faster than he could sprint and the Huntsgirl could, likely, outdistance anything on earth, but Theron wasn't going to leave the Huntsgirl alone. He forced his sorely out of shape body into action. Luckily, he had managed to wound the dragon enough that it was slower than it should have been.

Theron fired wildly again, aiming at the American Dragon as best he could, considering the pace he was attempting to maintain. Most of the bullets had gone to waste, missing the swiftly moving beast. However, Theron hit Jake twice more.

One punctured a wing, slowing Jake down considerably. Jake continued to flap through the pain because Rose had already gotten to Haley. His little sister was struggling in the blonde's arms and he could hear her cry his name. The second bullet that had hit him had gotten him in the tail. Jake hardly felt that wound; it was only when he had to move his tail toward the left that he felt any pain at all from it.

He couldn't overcome the pain in his wing. Though he tried to get there before Theron, he didn't.

Haley though had somehow managed to escape Rose. She had a long bleeding scratch going down the side of her face that proved how Haley had managed to regain her freedom.

Haley flew to Jake's side.

"You're bleeding!?" She exclaimed, inspecting him.

Jake, however, didn't have time for that.

"What do you think you're doing?" He hissed. "I told you to run!"

"I couldn't leave you!"

"I'm trying to –"

"What?" Haley questioned. "Kill them? Jake, we both know that you couldn't kill anyone, let alone Rose."

"At the very least I need to capture them. I can't do that if I'm worrying about you. I need you to go back to –"

But they had hovered in mid-air for too long. While Haley and Jake were talking, Rose and Theron had been plotting. Theron had come to the ambush armed with a sphinx hair net. As the two enemy dragons had chatted above them, Rose and Theron had lined themselves up with the floating duo. Rose had then taken the net and Theron, with his considerable strength, had thrown her into the upward.

Rose had the net wide open. She approached the dragons at such an angle that she was able to fully encircle Haley in the net. Haley, powerless with the sphinx hair in such proximity to her, immediately transformed back into her smaller, weaker, more vulnerable human form. The two hurtled back down to the ground. Haley hit the earth with an agonizing thud, bringing tears to her dark eyes.

Rose was caught by Master and thus didn't even suffer a bruise.

She jumped from his arms and grabbed Haley. Together, the two of them darted away from the angered Jake. They headed away from Central Park and toward the city.

Jake growled; not only did they have Haley, not only had they already killed at least a hundred magical creatures, but now they were threatening the innocent citizens of New York. He absolutely couldn't let that happen. There had been more than enough death and destruction today. Pausing briefly, he took a deep breath and let loose a roar of fire.

The fire travelled away from him, to in front of Rose and the former Huntsmaster. The wall of heat forced the two to halt. Jake darted forward, adding to length of the fire, making sure that they couldn't get past it.

Rose turned around; her eyes infuriated.

Jake touched down to the ground. Though he kept Rose in his peripheral vision, he couldn't take his eyes off Haley. She was trapped within Theron's arms, Rose in front of Theron. She wasn't letting Jake anywhere near the Master or their captive.

She moved around the side of him, making him choose whether or not to keep an eye on Haley or the Master or to follow her. His head snaked from side to side, trying to decide, but in the end he decided that he had to focus on her – the threat – as Master was further away.

Jake locked eyes with her. He had known this girl for years now, longer than either of them had realized in the beginning. He had watched her eyes turn bright with happiness and turn wide with shock. He'd kissed tears away from underneath of those eyes; he had watched them darken with lust. He'd watched the layer of frost over them fade into one of love. He thought that he knew her. He thought that he could read her. Now, looking into the stony eyes of her, Jake wondered if there had ever been a 'Rose' at all; if there had only ever been the Huntsgirl.

He knew that he had to end it quickly and that he had to end it once and for all. He knew that she was too dangerous to live. (He also knew it would kill him to have her die but better him than Haley.) With such dark thoughts on his mind, Jake thought that he would throw up.

"Rose," he whispered, voice heavy. "Rose."

It was probably idiotic of him to try to talk to her. Likely, she was too far gone to hear anything he had to say. Likely, she had never loved him at all and their relationship had all been part of some grander plan. But there was a part in him that knew he had to at least try to talk to her. Because no matter how she felt for him, he knew that he was in love with her and he couldn't lose her; not like this.

"I know that this isn't you. I don't know what happened to you but I know that it was horrible. I know you think this is right and I know you think that you have to do this, but you don't. I am not the enemy, Rose. The magical creatures are not your enemy. Theron is your enemy. He's twisted you. He's been manipulating you all along."

The fire behind him roared, casting a strange light on her face but Rose didn't move, didn't shift. She simply stared at him, her eyes blank and cold, peeking through the black fabric that covered the rest of her face. He tried not to think of the last time he had seen her in her mask: when she had been imprisoned in his basement and he had still been ignorant to whom she really was.

"I love you," he told her, his voice cracking. "And we've been through far too much for you to not fight for it. Do you remember how we met? Do you remember how destroyed I was? You put me back together, Rose. I wouldn't be anywhere I am without you. Do you remember the first time that I spoke to you? It was that night that I knew, beyond a doubt, that you were the only person I was ever going to love in my entire life. I knew that I loved you before then but it was that night that I knew that my love for you was permanent and the only thing that it was going to do was grow. It was just a short time after that I discovered that you were also the Huntsgirl and, even then, my love for you didn't lessen. I found out that you loved me as much as I loved you when I found out your true identity and you found out mine because you fought for me. You fought for us both to live and for us to be together.

"You have to remember that, Rose. You have to remember that you hold my heart and that you gave me yours. This is not you. You are the strong, beautiful girl who literally changed her entire world view and the entire world view of thousands because she knew what was right. You are brilliant and you are brave. I know you're also torn and you think that I'm the enemy. You think that I'm the one trying to manipulate you. We both know you're stronger than that. I know you can look inside of yourself and see the truth and the truth is this: in your heart will be me because in my heart is you.

"I love you, Rose."

Jake waited. Her blue eyes shifted over his shoulder, to where he knew the Master and Haley were, and then she looked back at him. He thought he saw something within her soften and he thought, for one wild moment, that she had believed him. And then panic flew into her eyes. The fingers that she had wrapped around her staff tightened. She said something but the only thing that Jake caught was "has to die".

She drew the staff back and Jake knew that she was going to hit Haley with it. His little sister was, and always would be, the main priority in his life. He had to protect her at all costs. He flung his red body forward, his claws extended. He caught Rose's soft stomach with his outstretched talons.

But he was a moment too late; her staff was already airborne.

Rose collapsed to the ground, one arm wrapping around her stomach as it become bloodied and bulging from organs attempting to force their way out through the severed skin. She looked up at Jake, eyes triumphant but with an oddly pleading look to them.

"I did it!" She cried as she faded into unconscious.

Fear in his heart, Jake spun around fully expecting to see Haley with the staff buried in her heart. That was not the scene his eyes were greeted with. Rather, it was the Huntsmaster, the staff sprouting from his forehead, who lay dead on the ground; Haley was fine, wrappedas she was in her sphinx hair net.

A scream welling in his heart, Jake scooped the dying Rose into his arms and flew off.

He had to save her.

She really did love him after all.

I don't own anything recognizable.

~TLL~