Chapter warnings: chained/bound characters

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~TLL~

There was privacy, but not much, in the back part of the shop, and Rose was aware that everyone else could probably hear every word that was about to be said. Lao Shi transformed back into a human but it didn't bring Rose much comfort. He may have had the visage of an old man but it didn't make him any less dangerous.

"I never suspected you," Lao Shi admitted, sounding ashamed of himself. "I never once questioned that you were here for the right reasons."

"Because I am here for the right reasons. Everything you've ever thought about the Huntsgirl is still true. I don't …" Rose took a moment, gritting her back teeth together. She had to lay it all out on the table. She had to. "I don't think that I can be better than that. I don't think I can ever be anything but sly and cunning and ruthless and cruel. I am what they made me and I don't know how to change it."

Lao Shi raised his eyebrows at her and waited.

"Let me be that way for you. It's been benefiting you. There's a reason that I'm always on the offensive and getting my hands dirty and hunting. I have been your weapon! I have never let you down or Haley down or Trixie or Spud or anyone else that has been on our team. Double agents have always been used in times of war! I've been out of your sight before and no magical creatures have ever died on my watch. If I was what you think I am, wouldn't I be slitting their throats when you're not looking?"

"But you do slit throats," Lao Shi said.

"I am a weapon," Rose reiterated.

"So, why not take a bigger step? Why not kill the Huntsman in his sleep?"

"Because then I'd be imprisoned or executed and there's another one just like him lined up to take his place." Rose started to pace. "I could kill one bad man. I've killed more than enough of those who were as indoctrinated as I was but didn't have the means to escape. That's worse, I think. What do foot soldiers really know? But, I don't want to kill hundreds of those who don't know how to think for themselves and I don't want to just kill one bad man. I want to force the whole institution to its knees and slit its throat. I am the weapon. I will pierce the heart of the Clan. I will kill for you and I will die for you if it helps them end. They have to end."

Rose clenched her hands into fists, feeling like she needed to hit something. She needed to get rid of what was raging inside of her because she couldn't afford to be consumed by it.

"All right," Lao Shi said. "Your first test."

Rose faced him, waiting patiently for her instructions.

"Fu Dog will get you potions, ones that will help Jake. You will get these to him and prove it to me by tomorrow."

"Yes."

"At a time of my choosing, you will come to our training grounds and show us how the Huntsclan has been trained and where their weak points are."

"Yes."

"When you return with the proof of the potions, you will also bring me any blueprints and schematics of the Huntsclan that you can get your hands on."

"Yes."

Lao Shi's expression softened unexpectedly and he gestured Rose close to him. Rose knelt down.

"This is my grandson and I cannot be objective. None of us can," Lao Shi said and Rose was surprised at the emotion in his voice. "I cannot control you and I have to trust you and take this chance but I hope you have an appreciation of what power you wield here. I beg of you, do not let us down."

"That's never been my intention," Rose promised.

"Very well."

Rose returned to the main part of the shop. "Fu Dog, he wants to see you."

Haley had become a human again and was just a little girl, cuddled in her mother's arms. Rose didn't know what to do and, so, she approached Spud first. When she had first gotten involved with the rebellion's efforts, it was Spud that had been the most welcoming to her.

"I didn't understand," Rose said, "and I'm sorry for that."

"Do we even know you?" Trixie asked. "The Huntsclan?"

Rose rubbed at her arm, her sleeve scratching against her mark.

"You know the parts of me that are important," Rose said. "I promise, I'm not going to let you down. I haven't yet, have I?"

Spud clapped his hand against his shoulder. "Tell Jake we miss him."

"Is there anything I should tell him?" Rose asked, angling herself so that her back wasn't to Susan and Haley. "I need to convince him to trust me and that I've actually spoken to you."

"Take a picture," Haley said, "like you did of him."

They shuffled together at once and Rose pulled out her phone, snapping a picture. None of them posed and none of them looked happy but it was clear that everyone was there. Jake wouldn't have the ability to check the authenticity of the phone and he, more than any one else, had reason to distrust her. She hadn't even been particularly nice to him yesterday and had probably left him more afraid that she should have.

"Tell him we're on our way," Trixie said, "and that we'll get to hang out and be kids again."

"Tell him," Haley said, "about the lullaby that Mom used to sing to us. He never would have talked about it with anyone. That'll let him know it's real."

Susan stroked Haley's hair, refusing to look up at Rose. "The English translation is 'Bright Moon' but I used to sing it in Cantonese, the way that my mother used to sing it to be. It's probably the only Cantonese that Jake ever really knew."

"Bright Moon," Rose whispered. She'd look it up, play it for Jake, if it meant that she could get near him. They all needed to trust her but it was the most important that Jake trust her. If he didn't, she would fail Lao Shi's task, and then Lao Shi would kill her. "I've got it."

Fu padded back in the room with a small bag at his side. He opened it to show Rose the three carefully coded bottles.

"Red for his scales, green for his wings, blue for him to ingest."

Rose repeated the instructions back, taking the bag into her arms. She could do that, even if meant that she would have to get near his mouth. She knew how large dragon teeth were.

"I'll come back tomorrow," Rose promised them. "Probably in the afternoon."

"We'll be here," Trixie said, her voice hard.

Spud patted Rose's arm again and she knew that she had to go. She was already playing chicken with her extra-curricular activities and Master's attention. She took back off across town, organizing the bag away so that hopefully it didn't look like she was carrying anything other than her normal array of supplies and weapons. The other Huntsclan members wouldn't question her or, even, really, look, but she knew how Master's eyes followed her. It was dangerous to bring something in but she had to. She had to be brave and strong.

She walked into the Clan like there was nothing wrong. She paused on the inside of the door, giving Master enough time to see her return and summon her but when her phone didn't go off, Rose continued into the heart of the Clan. She couldn't keep visiting Jake through the main door to the dragon's hold. The guards would get suspicious enough to rat her out or Master would start to watch her activity more closely.

It took more than enough thinking and almost all of her gymnastics training for Rose to maneuver herself into the heating system around the dragon's hold. If Master cared to look for her, he would see where her tracker had disappeared and she would come back to questions that she wouldn't have answers for. It was a problem that she would have to face later but, for now, she was shimmying into the control room of the dragon's hold, the guards on the other side of the door to Sector 1 none the wiser. With a couple of quick button taps, she set the camera to loop the last fifteen minutes of footage of the dragon so that anyone just casually breezing over the security panels wouldn't notice anything amiss. No one paid much attention to the dragon anymore since there were much bigger things going on and Rose was grateful for that.

Like yesterday, the moment that her feet hit the stairs, his eyes shot open and he began to fight. Rose had never learnt how to be a person who could comfort and nurture.

"Just to let you know, the cameras are off and no one knows I'm here," Rose said, her voice ringing loudly around the cavernous room. "So, we can speak freely."

His claws dug into the sand underneath him.

Rose reached the bottom of the stairs.

"You know me as the Huntsgirl but my name is Rose," she said, thinking that she might be less scary if he knew something about her and her name was such an easy thing to offer. "I'm here because your grandfather asked me to be."

Jake snorted and Rose watched the smoke coil out of his nose. She knew that dragons had to open their mouths to breathe fire; it was why he was muzzled so tightly. Well, that, and the teeth. There was a lot they had learnt about dragons simply by capturing Jake, and she didn't like to think about what they had done to learn they things that they knew, not now that she knew that there was more to him.

"I spoke to your mother and Haley," Rose continued, crossing the sand slowly, watching his expression. "I know Trixie and Spud."

He squinted.

"You're probably thinking that this is a ploy of some sort and who could blame you for that?" Rose approached, looking at the contraption around his jaw. "I can show you pictures and we can talk about it. Lao Shi and Fu Dog sent me with potions to help heal you. They'll be on their way as soon as we all settle on a plan. They're going to come get you out."

Rose reached her hand out to touch the muzzle and Jake jerked, fighting in the inch of space he had to actually move.

"This is a gesture of good faith, Jake," she said crossly, even though she knew that it wouldn't help to get annoyed. "I'm going to loosen the muzzle so that you can talk, at least while I'm down here, all right?"

His eyes turned into slits. Rose loosened the muzzle as much as she was able without setting off any of the sensors; it was enough that he could move his jaw and, hopefully, talk a little. It wasn't enough that he could bite her.

Rose hadn't anticipated that it was enough room for him to spit a fireball at her and Rose dived out of the way.

"Hey! Who do you think you are?" she snapped. "I'm on your side."

"You put me down here," he growled, his voice raspy.

"Not me, personally! I just said I was trying to help you!"

"Take off your mask."

Rose stripped it off her head, staring down at him the whole time.

"I have to go back to your grandfather tomorrow with proof that I've given you these potions since they're for your health. When the time comes, you've got to be able to fight your way out of here."

"I haven't moved in … how long?" Jake asked, and even though she was sure he hadn't meant to, Rose could hear his pain. "How long have I been down here?"

"Two years."

Rose ignored the tear in the corner of his eye, not wanting to start this off with embarrassing him.

"So, why are you here now?"

"Fresh, lab-grown conscious," Rose said, her tone snarky. "What does it matter?"

"You want me to trust you? It matters."

"I'm letting you talk. Isn't that enough?"

"Let me out. That'll be enough."

"I can't," Rose confessed. "Not yet. Like I said: Lao Shi is coming to get you. We just have to get all of our facts together."

"Facts," Jake scoffed. "What facts?"

"They thought you were dead. They found out – because of me – that you weren't about four hours ago. Your mother was there. She saw you like this."

Rose could tell she was upsetting him.

"The magical creatures declared war when the Huntsclan took you. I've been fighting side by side with your family. They trust me."

It was only half true but Rose would tell any lie she needed to. She was playing at a dangerous game, to become a double agent, and either side could turn on her at any time.

"You said you had pictures," Jake croaked. "Show me."

"Promise me you're not going to set me on fire again," Rose said, quirking her eyebrows at him.

"That will depend on what you have."

"Susan and Haley also wanted me to remind you of 'Bright Moon'."

That struck a nerve. Rose almost felt bad about it.

She knelt down by Jake's head and pulled out her phone, trying not to wrinkle her nose. She hoped that one of Lao Shi's potions helped Jake to smell better because, well, she knew when the last time that he'd been given a proper bath was. She tried not to think about the closeness of the dragon scales and teeth and fire. It was everything that she had been raised to hate and reject and even though she hated and rejected her upbringing more, sometimes those old prejudices snuck into her throat and threatened to strangle her. Especially since Jake was hostile. Every fiber of her being reminded her that he was an enemy. He wasn't like Haley or Lao Shi, who had welcomed her and her skills, and had never treated her like a foe. Until today. But, Jake, he knew what she was. He probably remembered the times that she had come into Sector 1 to run her own experiments on him. His favour was going to be much harder to win.

She tried not to think about it as she brought her phone up and opened the pictures. Her hands stayed steady as she showed off the few pictures that she had.

"Everyone looks so old." Jake grunted and shifted. "How do I know you took those today? How do I know you took them? How do I know they posed for you?"

"You don't," Rose said. "But I'm willing to come back with the proof that you need. Whatever you need."

"I need to know why you're doing this. You're not one of us, you're one of them."

"Because I hate them. Because they betrayed me. Because some questions are a little bit personal. I don't owe you anything."

"Then why are you here?"

"Because I owe your grandfather something. Because I like your sister. Because Trixie and Spud are my friends now too and, like it or not, we're bonded that way. We're part of something bigger and, like it or not, I'm the only one that can get to you and that can help you. Your choices are let me help you or die down here – sooner rather than later, with the way that things are going."

Smoke rolled from Jake's nostrils and Rose stood up, taking the potion vials from her pockets and laying the three of them out.

"Scales, wings, insides," Rose said, pointing to the potions. "I need to take proof to Lao Shi that you took them. Along with some other things."

"And if you don't?"

"Then he'll either kill me or hold me captive in his basement," Rose said.

"Gramps wouldn't."

"Did I mention there's a war?" Rose said. "The rules are different."

"What happens after? You know, after you take the proof back to Gramps. What's the master plan?"

"They want you back. They've been mostly running defensive for the past eight months – destroying supply chains, trying to take down warriors, weakening the Huntsclan forces around the city. The Huntsclan is too big for the magical creatures who stayed – most of them evacuated out of New York. Lao Shi can't keep going on like this. The Huntsclan will take over them sooner rather than later. They're getting too strong. So, I'll take proof and blueprints and whatever else that he needs to him and they'll storm the Clan itself. Give it all we can."

"If they fail?"

"Then the Dragon Council will have a lot of regrets," Rose said. "They won't send reinforcements."

"And what if these potions aren't actually from Fu?" Jake asked. "What if one of them kills me?"

"Then you'll never know the difference."

A shudder ran through Jake's long body.

"Fine," he said. "Do whatever you need to."

Rose set up her camera to record and then she went about her work. One potion bottle she spread over his scales, one she massaged into his wings. The other, she had to help him angle his head with his short restraints so that he could drink every drop. Rose took a step back, watching, waiting, for the effects to take place.

"It's not that fast," Jake said. "Give it a second."

"I'm not a patient person."

"Call that something we have in common."

Jake rested his head down on top of the sand and let out a long burp.

"Gross." Rose waved her hand in front of her face, the smell of sulphur overwhelming.

Jake's scales rippled and he belched again, the magic taking over him. He looked better, even in one dose of whatever was in those potions. His scales looked shinier, his wings looked like they would actually have the strength to carry his heavy body, and, most importantly, the smell of him was much better.

Transformation complete, Rose grabbed her phone and turned off the video recording. She put it into her pocket and approached Jake.

"I have to go break into the records room," Rose said, "so I'll have to tighten the straps back up."

She didn't have to know Jake at all to know how angry he was at the prospect.

"It's for your grandfather."

"You'll come back, won't you?" Jake asked and Rose could tell how hard he was trying to not beg. "You'll tell me more?"

"If I survive this, I'll be back tomorrow," Rose promised.

And she muzzled him again.