A/N: So sorry everyone... life's been so hectic!

Minho POV:

My head was throbbing... painfully throbbing. I groaned, my eyelids opening slightly... What happened?

"MMMMMmmmmMMM!" My head snapped to the side. I leaped to my feet, or, that was what I meant to do, but the restraints denied me any movement beyond getting to my knees. I lunged towards her, pulling at the leather straps that bound me to a tree in a strange clearing somewhere in the middle of the wood I had foolishly sent her into.

"MaC!"

She screamed but her words came out muffled and distorted. I couldn't understand a word she was saying, but she was scared. Her eyes were the size of the moon, and just as bright, but not with the usual happiness and wit, but with cold terror. Her arms were tied behind her back, her face marred with dirt and grime and strangely red, like she'd been hit. Her hair hung limply in her face, flying every which way as she thrashed about trying to get away though she knew it was useless.

The man dragging her eyes' met mine. With a snarl he threw her to the ground, stalking over to me with a sneer on his overly-tan face. Under his eyes were two finger-drawn red lines adding to his strangeness. The man's muscles rippled as he clenched his fists. but he had failed to tie MaC down, and he would pay the price. NO ONE pushes MaC around. There's a reason for that.

She came up behind the man, quickly and quietly, just as I knew she would. I smirked at the poor shank and just as his confident sneer left his face, she brought the branch around, knocking him up-side the head causing him to fall with a thud.

Without another look, she untied me, well technically, she cut the leather, but that's not important.

I beamed at her, there was my little fire-cracker, but she wasn't smiling. She was desperately trying to keep from crying. Her chin shook and her bottom lip quivered as she bit the inside of her cheek. "MaC?" I said, standing and holding a hand.

She didn't even look, she just collapsed, falling into my arms as she cried, tears streaming down her face as she choked back sobs. "Shhh, Shhh, It's alright, s'alright now, ain't nobody gonna hurt you. I've got ya..."I held her because there was nothing more to do. I held in her in my arms, absentmindedly brushing her hair as she let it out. Her arms around my neck as she buried her head, hiding from the cruel world we've known.

I didn't ask... partly because I didn't want to know. I was scared as to what they could have done to her. A lone girl against... how many were there? But I knew her, and she would tell me when she was ready. When she had accepted it and moved on, faced the reality and come out the victor, then she would tell me, but not before then. Not now. So I only said, "Where's Thomas?"

She looked up at me, her eyes still glassy. She brought an arm across her face, sniffing and blinking. She pulled herself together, just as I knew she would and got back to the task at hand. "We got separated during the trip...After you, um... ambushed them, they got a little jumpy, decided knocking us out was the best course of action." She would not meet my eyes and she didn't jake as usual. She was so... serious, so uptight.

"Poor shank, what'd he get us into this time"

There wasn't even the slightest hint of a smile.

"Wait!" the blonde called. "This... This is all wrong..."

The girls stared at him.

"Their tracks... something happened here..." he spoke more to himself than them as he scurried around the clearing. "Here!This mustbe MaC, she puts more weight on one foot, she was injured.. so she was leaning on... Thomas, here! And then...What happened..." He looked up at the girls, "Something happened here...It looks like... Ladies, " he said, "this is now an official resure mission. Our leaders are in trouble, captured by an unknown source, our mission-"

"Can we just go?" Maisie asked, a hand on her hip. "The longer we stand her the longer it takes to cach up and the longer MaC's with those freaks."

"And Minho" Sarah added queitly.

"And Thomas!" Brenda added rather loudly, the feeling in her words known to all.

"Alright gang, move out!" Harriet ordered.

"Girls... They're this way..."

"Oh..."

A/N: I'm sorry this one is kinda short, but Hey! Its a chapter, right?

Pleeeeeeaaaaasssseee review, please!

Pretty please?

Minho- "why would they listen to you?"

me- *glare*

MaC- "By the Creators, just leave a little note, she doesn't give a klunk what it says! she just wants to know that peple are actually reading this stupid thing... well actually its my life, but its still stupid"

Minho- "I think you just called you're life stupid..."

MaC- "Did not"

Minho- "Actually-"

MaC- *icy glare*

Minho- "I'll shut up now..."

MaC- "Yeah, That's what I thought."

me- "Anyways... Review!"

Thanx! (kudos to you if you actually read that little bit up there, i just got bored an whala, that happened...)

-CopperMax