Today's chapter is for Hannah who reviewed just as I was going to post this! Here's hoping you all enjoy this more plot-y chapter :P

xx


"There better be a damn good explanation for this," Tesla hissed as Rose stepped away and Henry was surprised to see the vamp not lunge for Druitt's jugular.

"Much like you, I have none," the murderer growled, leaning forwards.

"How the hell did that get in here?" Will breathed, looking to Henry in askance. He simply shrugged, not entirely sure how to avoid getting caught in the carnage that would no doubt occur.

"More importantly, what is it?" Declan put in, moving forward.

"AH!" Henry cried, jumping forward to grab the other man's arm.

Declan looked at him, eyebrows rising.

"Are you sure we should just... you know... touch it?"

"As opposed to?"

"Scanning it? Checking it? Figuring out what the hell it is before weee-ahh…. Rose!" Henry whined as the woman plucked the envelope from the table, leaving the small metal tube it had arrived atop of.

Henry sighed, shaking his head. Didn't she understand how dangerous stunts like that were? What if it had been an electrical booby trap?

It wasn't Henry, calm down for heaven's sake!

He yelped, causing most of the room to look at him as he glared at Rose who merely shrugged.

Bigger fish to fry, Henry.

It seemed like the whole room was holding their breath, watching as Rose studied the paper.

"It's the same grade as the note," she mumbled, not looking up.

Her finger traced across the front.

"Same ink too. And I think the same hand."

She looked up, face carefully blank.

"And it says?" Anya drawled but Henry could sense the fear lacing her condescending tone.

"To the householder..." Rose read, lips quirking.

She quickly flipped the letter over, cracking the wax seal. From within the envelop she drew out a single piece of paper, its edges gilded. Henry could only just make out the floaty cursive across the paper before Rose's hand started shaking, her face turning an alarming shade of red.

A long line of expletives flew from her lips in a mixture of languages before the paper was tossed carelessly towards the middle of the table. It slid across the polished surface easily, coming to a stop right before Henry.

With Rose still spouting off abuse to the heavens, he reached forward and gingerly picked up the paper, still half afraid that it was going to give off some kind of toxic radiation that would have them all morphing into swamp creatures.

You are cordially invited to attend the Old City Ball.

His jaw dropped and he looked to Rose, her fury still boiling freely.

This year the ball shall dedicated to the memory of our patron, Dr. Helen Magnus. Her tireless work for our city stretches beyond rhyme or reason so we ask each attendee this year to consider bringing with them a donation to aid in the rebuilding of her home which is to be reopened as a the new Old City 'Helen Magnus' Hospital.

"What the hell..." he breathed.

"Look at the bottom of the invite," Rose spat, arms crossed as she all but trembled.

Vibrant red ink was tracked across the bottom, elegant scrawl not resembling the calligraphy that graced the rest of the page.

Dress up, children. It'll be a very grand affair and if you're good, this will be the only drop of her blood that is spilled.

Henry wretched, tossing the paper back to the middle of the table as he stumbled for a moment.

"That's... that's..."

"It defies description," Rose agreed with a snarl.

"But... How? Why?"

"Lying scum," Rose muttered, turning away just as Druitt let out a guttural snarl, releasing the invite he'd quickly grabbed.

"So she's alive then?" he growled, looking between Henry and Rose.

"No."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure!" Rose screamed back. "They're... they're playing with us is all. Or they don't know about me. But she's gone, John, she's bloody well gone! I know it. I can feel it!"

Her eyes were watering with bloodied tears again, hands balled.

"They're playing us. They're... They're..."

And finally she broke down into the sobs Henry had expected to see a long time ago.

"She's gone..." she sobbed, hiccupping as she turned away from the group and Henry started, watching as Will wrapped his arms around the young woman.

His gaze flicked to where Abby was nervously hovering, thankful that her attention was on the note now making its way around the table.

"Henry, how the hell did it get in here?" Will almost barked over the top of Rose's head but he was barely heard, Henry's attention captivated by the way Tesla was staring at the note now in his hand with abject horror, nostrils flared. Abby was peering over his shoulder too, her face slowly draining of colour as a hand flew up to cover her mouth.

"Henry!"

"Ah-oh-I, uh, I don't know," he stuttered blindly.

There was a pause and about four people at the same time mutter the same phrase.

"The power."

"The EM shield!" Henry cried. "It's one of the biggest drains on power and with the fluctuations..."

He trailed off, dashing to the computer set up in the corner, mind whizzing with possibilities. He barely heard the others trying to piece it together until Tesla's growl pierced the haze that had settled over his mind.

"It still makes no sense," the Vamp snarled. "How did it get here? Even with the fluctuations in the EM shields power, there is no reason that they'd be able to... to teleport anything to our location."

"Or out," Rose breathed, eyes widening.

"Out? What do you mean out?" Henry asked, pausing to regard her curiously.

"They took her. They took Helen. They took her."

The room fell silent, everyone making an attempt at processing what she was saying but to Henry is just... didn't work. How could she have been taken? How could they teleport? More importantly, why?

"John?" Rose asked, her tone icy.

"My understanding of this situation comes from what you've shared with me," he snarled in response.

"You can't know nothing," Tesla threw out, stepping closer to the other man with a glare that made Henry wilt from his spot in the corner.

"And what exactly do you expect me to know?" Druitt snapped. "You're assuming that the display we just saw bears resemblance to my ability based solely on the conclusions reached after no more than three seconds consideration."

"And what other conclusion would you have us draw, John?" Tesla snapped, taking another step closer so that their bodies were almost touching. "Your life has hardly been filled with good deeds, who knows who has managed to harness your gift?"

"Stop it!" Abby cried, showing more guts than Henry had ever given her credit for. "Just stop it. This isn't helping."

Tesla snarled in the direction of the young woman, nothing but disdain rolling from his slightly vampiric visage while Druitt... Well, Druitt was looking at her with something that made Henry's stomach roll. It couldn't what he thought it was, could it?

He pushed the disturbing image of those two away, instead focusing on the confused looks surrounding the table. Most of the heads seemed terrified and a little perplexed, their eyes darting between the immortals barely containing themselves. The tension in the air was thick and it had Henry on edge. Between the fear that Rose's declaration had aroused and what now looked like a fight that could turn into WWIII he didn't blame anyone in the room for slowly inching backwards.

Only Declan seemed to be keeping it together, but, then again, Henry had never seen the man actually lose it in the truest sense of the word. He was just as calm and put together as Magnus normally was. It must be the British thing.

"Abby's right," the Brit drawled. "We need to figure out what the hell is going on before we start tossing around accusations."

"If you weren't so liberal with your wine, I'd be inclined to decapitate you for that comment," Tesla muttered, stalking towards Henry.

"First things first, I want you all to go back to your sectors and chat to all your most secure contacts to see if there is anything new we should know about," Declan said, ignoring the vampire as he addressed the Heads still around the table. "Be careful though, most people still think she's gone even if the Sanctuary still exists. There's no need to get SCIU back on our tails."

"They couldn't be even if they wanted to be," Tesla through over his shoulder, shoving Henry aside as he began frantically typing. "I gave them a nasty little Praxian bug just the other day. At this point they'll be lucky if they can turn on a computer, let alone trace any movement surrounding you lot."

"Regardless, I want you all to be careful. We don't know what we're dealing with and there's no point in inviting more trouble."

With that, the Heads slowly stood, shuffling out of the room in near silence. A few sceptical looks were shared but, aside from a polite farewell, no one spoke.

When the door finally swung shut behind Mandy as she trudged away, Declan let out a heavy breath.

"You lot need to get it together," he groused with a glare. "These people are gonna depend on you just as much as they would Magnus. The last thing I need is to have you rip each other limb from limb."

"As was pointed out," Druitt drawled, "you aren't in charge Mr. Macrae. Young William is so I hardly think you are in a posi-."

"Can it, Druitt," Will almost spat. "He's right. We need to stick together on this one."

Silence fell once again and Henry found himself waiting for his friend's imminent death. When it became apparent that Will was in fact not about to be ripped apart by their resident serial killer, Henry allowed himself to breathe. It seemed Tesla had reached a similar conclusion because, while his hands hadn't stopped their furious tapping, there had been a distinct slowing in pace.

"We need to figure out what the hell is going on with the power," Rose said softly. "Because there is no way that this system should be able to... to... I mean, the damn shield is meant to be infallible!"

She bit her lip and turned from the group.

"Maybe there's a bug?" Abby suggested softly.

"No," Henry said, just a fraction slower than Tesla.

"I mean, between the two of us we'd have picked up a bug," he offered, gesturing between himself and Henry who merely gaped. "What? I can be nice..."

"They're right," Kate put in. "This has to be something bigger than a glitch in the system."

And then it was like a light came on in Henry's mind.

"Glitch," he murmured, looking to Tesla.

"Glitch. Glitch... Glitch?"

"Glitch!" they cried in unison.

"I'm going to my lab!" Henry cried, gathering up the file before him. "I'll run some tests and be back soon."

And with that he launched himself out the door, ignoring the calls from behind him to slow down and explain. Tesla could lay it out for them in layman's terms, he decided. He had to get to work. Now.

He whizzed around the corner and nearly ran into the approaching figure. The very pregnant approaching figure.

"Henry!"

"Erika!" he exclaimed, kissing her on the cheek. "Come with me."

He grabbed her hand and tugged her down the corridor as quickly as he could without having her fall on her face.

"Henry! What's going on? I just saw everyone leaving the conference room, is there a problem?"

"Yes!" he replied, realising after that he sounded just a tad too excited. "I mean, yes but I think I know what happened!"

And with that he picked up the pace again, dragging her towards the lab they shared.

"Henry!" she cried again, this time half laughing at his enthusiasm.

When they stepped through the doorway to the lab, he finally slowed, taking a deep breath.

"MagnusismissignandRosethinkg sshesdeadandwethinkthattheyt ookherandithassomethingtodow iththepowerfluctuations."

"What?"

"Magnus is missi-."

"No, I got that," Erika said, cutting him off. "I meant what are we doing talking. How can I help?"

Henry smiled. God he loved this woman.