Disclaimer: I don't own The Hills Have Eyes.

Thanks so much for the responses for the last chapter! I didn't expect it! But I'm really glad that everyone is liking this so far. I've had this chapter done for a while, and I'm just now getting around to posting it thanks to college and A&P II. Anyway, I hope that y'all like this chapter. I'd love to hear from you! Thanks for reading!

Edge
Chapter Five: Of Betrayal and Brotherhood

Papa Jupiter kicked off his boots before he entered the main house in the test village. The sand scattered for a moment before blowing away. He flipped his neck from side to side, earning several light pops for his efforts.

He looked behind him to see Pluto lumbering forward, his head low, carrying a large, random bag of spoils from the latest couple of victims. Nothing much. Motorcyclists usually traveled light. There were several bottles of water, a few bags of chips, and a melted candy bar. The humans themselves didn't look to be too healthy, either. Strung out on drugs or something. Jupiter groaned slightly when he realized that he would have to make a trip to Jeb's later that day. They were running dangerously low on food and Jeb usually ordered more than what was required to run a gas station in the middle of no where. For them, of course, during times like this.

The fact that they had somehow eaten up all of their stocked food was something that irritated Jupiter, and he aimed to talk to his family about this as soon as he could.

But, things couldn't be that simple - they never were.

"Papa!"

His mood was momentarily softened by his daughter's voice calling out to him. That slight warmth that she brought was replaced with a stab of paternal worry at the particular tone she used when addressing him.

"Yeah," he grunted, sitting his pickax up against the wall by the door. Pluto stepped through the door at that moment and walked past his father. He looked oblivious to the fact that his tiny sister was distressed as he sat the two small backpacks carried by the motorcycling couple on the table in the kitchen.

Ruby looked up at her father before reaching out with a tiny hand and grasping his own. He tensed, but let his smallest child lead him to whatever was bothering her so.

There was a moment in which he felt something dry and flaking against his fingers. He looked down to see that Ruby's hand was coated in blood.

"Ruby," he started, threateningly. "What's happened?"

Jupiter was able to get a better look at his daughter's arm, seeing the row of ragged stitches across the length of her forearm and the blood that had caked around it. He cursed. "Ruby, what the hell happened?"

"Papa," she said, tugging at his hand with even more force. He found that he had stopped, shocked at her condition. He finally was led to the living room, where his son was lying in the chair, asleep - or, rather, he hoped he was asleep.

Lizard looked like hell. Gashes and cuts, some deep, others large, adorned his body. Bruises were starting to form. His clothes were soaked in blood and were even more tattered than usual. He would have thought he was dead if not for the steady but slow rising of his chest.

Jupiter looked sharply down at Ruby, "Tell me what's happened."

Ruby let go of her father's hand and started to stroke the stitches on her forearm, wincing lightly. She looked like she just wanted to dissolve into herself, away from whatever had caused her this pain. A sudden, fierce protectiveness stole over Jupiter's body, strengthening his muscles. He vowed that there would be hell to pay for whoever did this.

Ruby uttered one name, and that very name sent a thrill of hatred through Jupiter's wiry form.

"Hades."

He hadn't realized he was baring his teeth until the growl came out of his throat. His hands had curled into claws, aching to rip and tear and kill.

"When?" It took all of his power to just say that one word.

"A-After…you and Pluto left…"

"Tell me everything." His word were clipped and clinical, detached and desperate.

She relayed it all to him in excruciating detail, her thin voice wavering during the particularly disturbing parts. Ruby wrung her hands in front of her, dreading that he would shout at her for not being stronger or for not being the one to take the fall instead of Lizard.

Instead of that, at the end of her story, Jupiter laid a surprisingly gentle hand on her shoulder.

"You did good, Ruby," he said. "Thank you."

She stared at her father, her eyes large and watery. Ruby sniffled and then nodded, a strange little motion that somehow made her seem even smaller than she was.

"Pluto," he called toward the kitchen, where the largest member of the family was moving about. "Get Goggle. Tell him to come home. Now."

Pluto peeked his massive head in the doorway, looking confused, but understanding what Jupiter was saying. He gave a slow nod and brought out the walky talky and grunted several words into it as he walked out the door.

Jupiter hadn't even realized that he was at Lizard's side until he was staring closely at the latter man's face, trying to map out every bit of damage done to the thin mutant. He looked at his face, seeing scrapes and cuts shallow enough that they didn't need stitches. He looked at his arms and a spot where his shirt was lifted from his body, seeing the neat, practiced stitches done by Ruby.

"You told Mama and Big Brain?" he asked her as she shuffled to his side, hands trembling as they pressed against Lizard's tanned forehead.

Ruby shook her head. "Didn't have time. Needed to help Lizard…"

Jupiter nodded. He would have to go tell Big Mama, Big Brain, and Cyst everything that was going on, not to mention brief Pluto and Goggle when they returned.

"We all need to stick together for a while," Jupiter stated, motioning around them. He, Ruby, Lizard, Pluto, and Goggle all lived in the largest test village house, while Cyst and Big Brain shared a residence and Big Mama, Venus, and Mercury lived together. "We can't let them take advantage of us being separated."

The house they lived in now was a two story test house that gave each of them their own room. Jupiter figured that privacy wasn't an option anymore now that Hades had openly attacked one of his clan. My son, he thought angrily.

Ruby nodded. "Yes sir."

Jupiter looked out the window and saw that Pluto had successfully retrieved Goggle in what should be considered record time. They were still rather far away from the test houses themselves, but at least they were both okay.

He paused for a moment, wondering what his next course of action should be. Jupiter looked over at Ruby, who was staring at Lizard with so much emotion in her face that Jupiter felt like he had been punched. He set his shoulders and called over to her, "Ruby, I'm going to go gather everyone else and tell them the news."

Ruby looked up at her father. He gave her one last glance before turning and heading out the door.

Jupiter breathed in the hot desert air as he shut the door behind him. There was something in the air besides the sand and the humidity that he just couldn't place. After all his years in the desert and tolerating his brother, he knew the feeling of unease in the air almost as well as the feeling of his heart in his chest.

He went and got Big Mama and the kids first. They were the closest. Venus and Mercury were happy to see him - they were happy to see anyone, really, as long as they weren't Big Brain. However, Pluto was by far their favorite. Big Mama didn't look happy leaving her television, but Jupiter was adamant. She sighed and picked up Venus and Mercury, balancing them on her hips as she made her way out of her house and toward his.

After making sure they were in the door, Jupiter went and made the longer distance to Big Brain and Cyst's house. The wind blew against his matted hair and made him wish he had brought a hat along with him. After a few minutes of walking, he was on their doorstep.

The door was ajar.

Alarm bells went off in Jupiter's head. He eased forward, and pushed the door open.

The scent of blood met his nostrils.

Immediately, he was rushing through the house, desperately trying to find the source of the smell. He couldn't fathom what he would possibly find. The smell was so thick…it couldn't have been from any kill, could it? They had the shed for that…

Jupiter turned the corner into the living room and paused in relief at what he saw.

Cyst was working diligently over a corpse, separating the shoulder from the body at the kitchen table. Big Brain was in the next room, watching something on the television. Jupiter sighed and felt like screaming at them in frustration.

Big Brain didn't even have to turn his chair to know that it was Jupiter in the room. He only said, "Crazy thing, that. Cyst found them at the bottom of some cliff. Can't believe - "

"You two are coming with me," Jupiter interrupted. "Now."

Cyst cocked his head up for a moment, looking curiously at the leader of their small clan. "What?"

"We have a problem." Jupiter went over to the television and shut it off. "Hades has struck out against us."

"Can't say I'm surprised," Big Brain wheezed. "Fine then. But you're wheeling me over there. Too difficult to do this myself."

Jupiter glared at the most difficult member of his family - other than Lizard, of course - and rolled his eyes.

After a while and a few more complaints from Big Brain, the three of them ventured outside the house and onto the sandy ground of the desert. Cyst loped close by, dragging the meat to put into the shed's freezer before moving back behind Jupiter.

They got closer to the house when they saw him.

"Damn it!" a voice shouted, hoarse and rough. "Fuck!"

"Son!" Jupiter exclaimed, rushing over to him and leaving Big Brain where he was. Cyst followed, looking concerned.

Lizard was lying in the sand, wounds open and bleeding. He was desperately trying to claw his way through the sand to get to a standing position. Growling, he started to make his way forward, gradually. Slowly. But somehow there was something defeatist in his position, something that Jupiter never associated with his son.

Jupiter crouched down beside him, grasping his bony shoulder roughly and glaring into Lizard's ice blue eyes. "What happened! Are you 'lright?"

"'m fine, Papa," he said. "Ruby…Ruby…"

There was a certain pain to his voice that made Jupiter know what Lizard's next words would be, even before they passed his mangled lips.

"They took Ruby."

End Chapter Five.