Chapter Five is a bunch of filling.

Many much fillings.

But I have officially seen "You Posted What?!" So that's something, I guess. I kind of want that bionic army to make its move. Not because I want to see the world end, but because I want to see what everyone's going to do about it. Also, what's that government guy gonna make 'em do? Sequester the Senate until some bill that he doesn't support can't pass? I mean, what could the government make them do that they aren't doing already?

Meddling government and all that.

Anywho, random fact: While I was watching it, I was drinking a Coke with a label that read, "Share a Coke with Bree."

It was all kinds of win.

Anyways, thanks to my readers, my reviewers, and the spazzes that keep sending us cookies in hopes that we'll love them more. We won't, but we like the cookies. :3

AllAmericanSlurp: "Yes! I'm taller than Adam!"

o.O By god, his head is hitting the door frame. Does anyone have a ray gun that'll stop this madness!?

Moonlit: *Kicks Douglas* Say it.

*Rolls his eyes* "I don't encourage drunkenness. Officially. Now, unofficially –"

That's enough. Thank you.

RissA15: The leader's in the open! Quick, someone get the sniper rifle ready! Cut the head off the beast!

Gg18000: LOL

Mia-Teresa-Davenport: "…It's like this girl is asking me to light her on fire. Dude, Douglas, are you seeing this?!"

"Either light her on fire or shut up about it. Damn."

DisneyXDGirl: Oly, be nice –

"Listen here, you little shit."

UnknownForNow: Chase's various cat qualities are literally the best thing to write about with him. Instead of saying, "I'm mad," he could pin his ears and lash his tail. Maybe even growl a bit. It adds so much more body language to him, and it's just so much fun! xD

XxDavenportsxX: *Waves* Oh hello!

Okay, now who wants to do this? Hmm…Evil little voice?

"Zara doesn't own Lab Rats or anything you recognize. If you don't recognize it, it's probably hers."

"I'm not sure this is a world I belong in anymore. I'm not sure that I want to wake up."

Gayle Forman, If I Stay

"If you hear a voice within you say, 'you cannot paint,' then, by all means, paint, and that voice will be silenced."

Vincent Van Gogh

Chapter Five - Lost

Chase

It wasn't an accident. She knew exactly what she was doing.

The little voice was going to be the death of me. I pinned my ears as I poked near the tiny burn on my arm from the safety of the upstairs bathroom. Bree just forgot that her ring was silver. That was all. She wouldn't do that on purpose.

Wouldn't she?

I wondered briefly if I could make that voice hurt if I hit my head hard enough.

But thoughts were an abstract concept at best. It couldn't feel pain.

Damn.

When people want to protect themselves against demons, what do they do?

Lots of things, I began. I didn't know what I was trying to prove, but I was going to prove it, by god! Burn incense, set traps, use religious icons that don't actually work but make the person feel better, pray some, throw holy water around, wear silver….

Oh, for christ's sake! I just proved the wrong point.

And my voice was all over it. Exactly! She wants you to stay away!

That couldn't be it. You're full of shit, I responded irritably.

Yet you're looking at proof right now.

I quickly pulled down my sleeve to hide the burn. It was a bit childish – like a kid who denied stealing cookies when their shirt was covered in crumbs – but it made me feel slightly better.

After a second's pause, my voice continued. You know that I know everything that happens around you. The only difference is that I can see it more clearly. I'm not blinded by your foolish human half's illusion of "love." Try and think for a moment. You tried to get rid of me – I know this – but the ones you asked did nothing but crack jokes because they did not care. Meanwhile, your siblings are trying to protect themselves from you.

I started to grind my teeth. They aren't –

One with silver, and the other with an imp, it went on. As for the little one – Leo – how long until he tells Ysthry to protect himself from you? He could've already done so.

Leo wouldn't –

Your mother and that second father of yours – Davenport, was it? You don't even call him "dad" – where are they in all of this? It seems like they have been hiding all day, doesn't it? Perhaps to get away from you?

I hated it when the little voice made points that seemed almost true. Because they weren't true. They couldn't be.

Right?

Nah. Everyone still liked me.

Hopefully.

Maybe?

Did they? Spike did tear everything up. What would stop him from doing so again? That had to be in the back of their minds when they looked at Adam's sling. Or at me.

I locked eyes with my reflection in the mirror.

It wasn't like I didn't look like a demon. I mean, I had fangs, for crying out loud! I didn't think I could look more vicious between the teeth and torn ear.

Maybe Yahn had the right idea? Maybe I wasn't safe anymore?

Hold on a second: This was crazy. The stupid little voice was just getting to me; nothing more. No one was bothered by my demonic half. It hadn't been a problem in the short time I've actually spent at home since I first changed.

I tried to tell you, my voice said ominously, but you are obviously too stubborn to listen. No, you'll have to learn the hard way, won't you?

I growled out loud at that, pinning my ears again. Like I said earlier: You're full of shit.

I swore that I could hear the voice laughing as I turned on my heel and left the bathroom, my jaw set in aggravation. I was fine. Everyone else was fine.

Everything was fine.

We'd get through this like we did everything else. It wasn't like Spike didn't rampage before.

Now, if only we could unleash Spike on Krane somehow.

I smiled to myself, imagining the possibilities. Unfortunately, I was a little too busy imagining to watch where the hell I was going and ended up running into someone as I turned into the hallway.

More specifically, I ran into Douglas. He was just everywhere that night, wasn't he? At least Oly had abandoned her perch on his shoulder for something more entertaining.

"There you are!" He caught one of my shoulders and turned me around, gently pushing me in the direction he was headed. "You're too good at disappearing. Stop that."

"Isn't disappearing a good thing?" I shot back, tilting my head as we walked together. "I mean, you're like a freaking human vanishing act."

He grinned at that. "Smartass. Anyways, you wanted to talk about something earlier? I'm guessing it's about that voice in your head, right?"

The tip of my tail started to twitch repeatedly. "I really want that thing gone."

Douglas frowned thoughtfully. "I bet, but here's the thing: I don't know if there's a way to get rid of it. I mean, you could take medicine, but you'd be all kinds of…." He trailed off, looking for a word.

"Lethargic?" I supplied.

"There we go: Lethargic," he echoed. "It'd be hard to think as clearly."

"Yeah, let's not do that," I responded, lowering my ears. Thinking clearly was a good thing.

"Why are you only bringing this up now, anyways?" Douglas asked. "You haven't really expressed the desire to have your little voice gone before."

I shrugged as casually as I could manage. "No real reason."

Douglas caught my wing, gently tugging me to a stop in the hallway and turning me to face him. "You don't do things for no reason. What has it been saying?"

Two choices: Lie and get caught – because Douglas was like a human lie detector, since he was so good at it himself – or just sugarcoat it a bit. I didn't want to tell him outright what was going on. I mean, I didn't want to sound like a whiny little bitch. My voice says that you guys don't like me!

See how distastefully juvenile that sounded?

So I decided to go for door number two and sugarcoat it. "It's just been encouraging some ideas that aren't setting well with me. Well, more so than it usually does."

"Since Spike popped out earlier? Because you didn't seem to have this problem yesterday."

After a second, I nodded.

He finally let go of my wing and leaned against the wall, his arms crossed and his expression thoughtful. "You do know that wasn't your fault, right?"

I nodded instantly. Perhaps too quickly, actually, because he raised an eyebrow.

"Chase, it wasn't your fault," he said firmly. "No one blames you." He paused before correcting himself. "Well, Yahn does, but he's always been a bit protective."

Yahn was over 13,000 years old. He would be intelligent enough to recognize a threat. But I nodded anyways.

"And no matter what that little voice says," he went on, tapping his temple a couple of times, "we'll never blame you for it. Hell, even Adam doesn't blame you. And he's….What's the polite way of saying that someone is an idiot?"

I rolled my eyes. "He's not an idiot. He just doesn't think things through. Besides, I didn't see him stopping Yahn earlier!" I blurted out before I could stop myself. The next thing I knew, my mouth was running on autopilot. "I mean, he let Yahn drive me back without saying a word. What if he wanted it to happen? What if he's scared of me now?" I suddenly gasped, my eyes widening. "What if he hates me? I mean, I would too, if Spike had broken my arm. And then Bree had a silver ring on. I mean, what if it wasn't an accident? What if she's scared, too? Who's next? Is Tasha going to throw one of her necklaces at me if I get too close, or -"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Douglas interrupted, taking hold of my shoulders. "Take it easy. Is that what your little voice is telling you?"

Reluctantly, I nodded.

"It's full of shit," he said.

I smiled slightly. "I told it that."

"Listen to me," Douglas went on. "If you don't let it, it won't have the power to make you think or feel anything you don't want to. It's mind over matter; you have to ignore it. More than that, you have to ignore it because you know it's wrong. Aren't you a super-genius?"

I nodded again.

"Then why are you letting some stupid little voice tell you that you're wrong?"

I started lashing my tail in anger at the idea of my voice trying to outwit me. "I'm not going to."

"Damn right, you're not," Douglas supported. "Who is it to tell you what to do?"

"A little nuisance that needs to get the hell out of my way," I hissed, swept up in Douglas' enthusiastic speech.

"That's the spirit!" Douglas patted my shoulder. "Now, want to go stare at Krane staying put in Italy? Because it's boring when I stare at it by myself."

"Why not?" I answered. As Douglas let go of me and started walking again, I fell in step with him. "I wonder if – were we to poke his dot on the screen – he would feel it. Maybe he'd be all annoyed because it feels like someone's poking him, but he can't see anybody."

Douglas snorted with laughter. "Probably not. But it's fun to think about."

I nodded as we entered his room. I flicked on the light as he approached the computer and shook the mouse a bit to get the computer out of standby mode.

And, just like that, my heart sank and bile rose in my throat. Although I already knew the answer, I clung to false hope and simply had to ask for confirmation. "Douglas…that isn't blocked, is it?"

Douglas stared at the sentence on the screen that screamed about how we lost the signal, his face growing pale. "His signal isn't blocked. It's gone. He deactivated it."

"So he could be anywhere, and we have no way of tracking him?" Sue me; the shock of the situation was making me ask obvious questions.

Douglas nodded tightly.

"So…back to square one, then?"

Douglas was holding the mouse so tightly that his knuckles began to turn white. "Looks that way."

Well, that was just great. A psychopath was on the loose, and we had no way to keep tabs on him. He could have been anywhere at that point.

Maybe even in our backyard!

His location was unknowable to us. And I loathed not knowing.

"So now what?" I found myself asking.

Douglas sighed heavily. "There's only one thing we can do, really."

I nodded solemnly. First, tell everyone that Krane was now a face among millions; totally untraceable.

And then, we had to wait for him to come to us.

Talk about sitting ducks.

So, who thinks they know when Krane's going to show up?

Who thinks they know what'll happen next?

Is it you?

If it is, then okay. xD But I won't tell you. You'll just have to read.

So feel free to review. Or don't. You know I don't care.

And enjoy.

*Bows and exits*