A/N: Thanks again to those who reviewed and such.

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Katnappe cried out as she collided with the hard floor. Not taking any time to rest, she rolled to her side, narrowly avoiding the claws of a large lion. She quickly got to her feet and ran to the other end of the room. Thankfully, there was a small shelf a few feet above her that she could climb onto. Chase had told her that she was allowed precisely two minutes at a time on it before the lions continued to attack her. She swiftly jumped onto it, thankful for the break, however short it was.

The past week had been the worst of her life. That rotten bastard - excuse her, she meant her master – had been putting her through rigorous training. Pfft, it seemed more like torture. On top of making her learn new fighting moves for, like, half the day, she was battling his feline warriors for the rest.

This was probably his way of mocking her. Making the cat fanatic fight for her life against cats. Or maybe he was trying to get rid of her obsession.

"Most fixations are nothing but a distraction," she remembered him saying. "Now, if it's something useful, like improving one's fighting skills – or even something like Spicer's talents with robotics – than it's worth doing."

She honestly didn't think he had any right to talk. When you got right down to it, what was he except a creepy old man who lived all alone in a big, creepy house, and had a million cats? That thought made her snort. She would have to tell somebody that one someday. And since when were he and Jack such buddy-buddies? But enough of that, she had to focus.

The bad thing about these lions was that they weren't mindless animals. They were actually people. People who had studied various battle strategies for hundreds of years. She was currently covered with more scratch marks than she had ever had in her life.

Well, Chase's methods certainly weren't ineffective. She had very little love left for all species of large jungle cats.

What was the best way out of this? Maybe she could jump on their backs. That way, the one she was standing on couldn't use its claws on her. But that wouldn't stop the others from trying... Ugh, this was so uncool! It seemed that running around in circles was the only way to not get maimed.

That strategy did work for the first two days. But Chase had quickly caught on to that, and added a new warrior each day. Now it was nearly impossible to get away from them all. It seemed that the only way to win was to inflect as much damage as she could.

She really, really, hated Chase right now.

Just as she was about to jump off the shelf, the door to the training room she was in opened. To her relief, it was only Jack who walked in, and not any more lions. He always came in when her training time was over.

She was always surprised when the lions backed off when he entered the room. She would have thought he'd make a great chew toy. Chase must have ordered them not to hurt his fanboy.

"Hey, Ashley," he greeted, having the nerve to sound casual. "Master says that we're both done for the day. Wanna hang out? I convinced Master to let me have some of my old video games. I told him it would be good for my 'hand-eye coordination'."

"What I want," she snapped "is to get out of this place! It's been over a week! Don't you think my parents are worried? And what about your parents? Won't they eventually notice their only son is missing?"

He waved his hand in a it-doesn't-matter gesture and shrugged. "Oh, my folks are always going off doing something, so I doubt they'll notice," he answered. "Besides, they're used to me running off to find Shen Gong Wu, so even if they do notice, they won't worry."

"Well, that's great for you," she grumbled.

"Oh, calm down," he sighed. "You'll get used to this whole thing soon enough. Once you just accept that you're the master's lackey, life gets a lot easier. You won't even think about your old life."

"Oh, really?" she asked, skeptical.

"Yeah!" Jack said. "He's really not that bad once you get to know him. He's actually really nice if he knows that you're loyal to him. Besides, how can you be on the Heylin side and not have this be your dream come true?"

She groaned and facepalmed. "This coming from from Chase's number one groupie," she sighed. "Of course you would only focus on how 'awesome' you think he is."

"Oh, come on!" the pale boy protested. "He's, like, the epitome of evil badass awesomeness! What, with the evil lair, and the warriors, and the armor, and the swagger-"

"You made your point, dweeb," she interrupted. How was Chase putting up with him? She would have killed him by now.

"Yeah, whatever. Do you want to play Goo Zombies 5 with me or not?" he asked impatiently.

"Yeah, I will," she conceded. "It will be nice to do something normal for a change."

They walked to Jack's room in silence. She was a bit irritated when she saw her fellow, in her opinion, captive's room. It was bigger than hers, and seemed to be better furnished. It was also closer to the kitchen, and according to Jack, Chase's room. She had no idea why, but that irked her.

And why did Jack get two servants? She only had one, a jaguar, but it seemed that it was only there to keep her in line. It would do laundry for her, but that was all. Damn, Chase was such a jerk-

She suddenly grimaced and clutched her head. A sharp stab of pain went through her skull as soon as she thought the word 'jerk'. Come to think of it, that had been happening a lot lately. Every time she thought something bad about Cha- ow!- her master, she got a major migraine. She had a sneaking suspicion that it had something to do with...whatever it was that her master did to her when he first brought her here. What was it, his version of a shock collar?

She decided to put it out of her mind for now. She would need all her concentration for the game. For what he lacked in...everything, Jack made up for in gaming skills.

"So, Ash, do you want to play as a team, or do some one-on-one?" Jack asked as he handed her a controller.

"Um...let's do some teamwork. I promise I won't abandon you this time," she said with a sly smile.

"Oh, very funny," he grumbled.

They played for about an hour. It was nice to just relax and act like regular teenagers from a bit. She was surprised to see that she and Jack actually made a good team. It was like they were born to destroy virtual goo-covered zombies.

"Do you ever think it's weird that we're playing a game designed by Kimiko's dad?" she asked as she decapitated a particularly large zombie.

"I used to," he answered as he threw a bomb into an entire undead horde. "But I got over it. Everyone plays these games."

"It's nice to see you two getting along," suddenly came Chase's smooth voice from behind them.

They both jumped and spun around to face him.

"Master," Jack greeted. "Was there something you wanted?"

"Actually, I just came to tell you it's time for dinner," the older man replied. "As you might imagine, I don't play many video games, so the sounds from that particular one worried my warriors. And since you apparently told them to stay out, they asked me to check on you."

"Oh, my bad," Jack laughed. "Guess I'll have to warn them next time."

"I suppose you shall," Chase agreed with a small grin. "Now, come."

Jack eagerly hopped up to follow the immortal, while Katnappe slagged behind a bit. Despite the punishing headaches, she couldn't bring herself to get to close to the man.

Apparently, Chase noticed this. "Is something wrong, Katnappe?" he asked with a smirk.

"No," she lied through gritted teeth.

"Are you sure? You look like you're in pain," he mocked.

Jack looked at her with something that might have been concern, but he looked away when Chase put a hand on his shoulder. She suddenly found herself wishing that it was her shoulder that Chase had put his hand on. The thought made her want to scream in frustration.

Thankfully, dinner passed without much incident. They ate quietly, which their master occasionally asking about their training, and giving advice. When she complained about how hard it was to fight the lions, she merely shrugged and told her that he would teach her more advanced fighting skills. And then the conversation turned to what kind of flowers would look best on the table, for some reason.

"I'm going to be busy tonight," Chase suddenly mention, his voice a bit too casual. "So you may do whatever you wish tonight. Meditate, wander around, play more of your game, whatever you wish. Just do try and stay out of trouble, understand?"

"Yes, Master," they replied in unison.

Chase nodded and left the room.

"What do you think he's doing?" Katnappe asked.

"If he didn't tell us, then it's none of our business," Jack replied with a shrug. "So, are you up for more zombie killing?"

"Actually, I think I'll just take a walk around," she said. "I haven't got much of a chance to look around yet."

"Oh, okay," he said. "I'll see you later."

She was a bit offended that he didn't offer to give her a tour, but, oh well. She could find her own way around.

She did have to admit, Chase did have a nice crib. She usually wasn't much for old junk, but her master's antiques looked like they were still new. And he had a surprising amount of things made out of precious metals and jewels. Heck, if she knew she could get away with it, she would totally try and rob him.

Crap, there went the migraine again.

She wandered for about two hours, oohing and ahhing over certain things in the citadel. It went without interruption, so it shocked her when a door she was walking by suddenly opened. Especially since she almost walked into it.

"What in the world?" she wondered.

"Katnappe," a familiar voice called. "I need your help."

"Wuya?" she gasped. She didn't know the witch was here!

Dear girl, please come down here," the older woman requested.

Katnappe hesitated for a moment. She had a feeling that she shouldn't go near the witch, but...the woman sounded like she was in some sort of pain. Besides, maybe Wuya could help get her out of this place. (Migraine, migraine...)

She slowly walked down the long staircase. As she did, the pain in her head steadily kept growing, but she did her best to ignore it. She was fairly positive the door had shut behind her, anyway.

"Wuya, where are you?" she called when she reached the bottom.

"Over here, girl," she heard the witch say.

After a few minutes of searching, she finally located her old partner.

"My God, Wuya, what happened to you?" she gasped. The woman looked like she'd been torn apart by some wild animal. And considering whose home they were in, that was most likely the case.

"Katnappe," Wuya whispered, her voice hoarse. "I'll make this short. You don't want to be here, and I don't want to be here. If you help me escape, I'll help you escape. I'll even find a way to make sure old dragon breath doesn't find you. What do you say?"

The moment the witch's words registered in her mind, the pain spread down to her torso. She let out a small scream and wrapped her arms around herself. Oh, how she wanted to escape, but – ah!

"What's going on here?" a familiar voice suddenly rang out.

"Jack!" she heard Wuya gasp.

"What do you think you're doing, you old hag?" Jack demanded. "Didn't you learn your lesson the last time?"

"Jack, please-"

"No way, sister!" he interrupted. "Don't you see how much pain you've caused her? I'm sick of you trying to use us. We're both loyal to Chase now. When you mess with the apprentices, you mess with the master! And I think Chase is tired of you messing with him."

"Good observation, Jack," another familiar voice said smoothly.

"Chase," Wuya whimpered.

"I knew that you would pull something like this, Wuya," the immortal sneered. "But I allowed it, since there were somethings I wanted to find out."

The pain suddenly became too much for Katnappe, and she passed out on the floor.

Chase smirked. He knew that she would be different when she woke up.

"Jack, take her back up to her room," he instructed. "I think Wuya needs to be taught another lesson."

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A/N: That turned out to be longer than I thought it would, but I'm sure you guys don't mind.

Review, please!