The Duchess was quite mad, Scott realised as she held him tightly, fingers digging into his wound and making him feel sick and dizzy. As she turned she spoke fiercely, spittle flying.

'If I can't have you then no-one can…'

With a slow deliberateness she squeezed his wounded wing while letting go of the other. But Scott was too busy trying to stay conscious to register that he was half free. And the Duchess didn't leave him free for long.

Her free hand shot out and grasped his throat and Scott realised just how far gone she really was. As breathing became harder his natural instincts kicked in, but whatever that powder was she'd used to cause his unwanted transformation earlier was also preventing him from turning back into his human form.

Scott attempted to use his free wing to bat at the Duchess' face but it was futile. He thought of his brothers, convinced they were here, somewhere. Something had set the woman off for sure.

He didn't want them to find him like this. He did want them to find him like this.

With a prayer to his Mom Scott's eyes fluttered shut.

But then there was a whoosh of a door opening and two snarls he knew very well. It gave him just enough strength to hang on as a body he couldn't see but he knew instinctively who it was, collided with them.

Scott skittered across the floor but didn't regain consciousness.

Didn't see what Wayne saw first-hand.

What John and Gordon saw over the camera.

Wolf-Virgil had taken one look at the Duchess' hand clasped around his brother's throat and all thought had gone. Kayo as tigress was faster than the wolf but not this time.

With three bounding steps Virgil barrelled into the Duchess, and as he had hoped she released her hold on Scott. Before he had time to think about what he was doing Virgil's teeth were around the woman's throat.

He couldn't hear her scream over the roar of blood rushing through his ears.

She didn't scream for long.

It was John, crouched down in front of him and running his hand gently through the fur between his ears that pulled Virgil back into reality.

Dropping the now-dead Duchess with a whine, Virgil turned to see Kayo and Gordon seeing to Scott. He looked back at John, eyes wide, and then to Wayne. He must have been out of it for some time if Kayo had had time to change back and then get dressed and return.

With another whine Virgil followed John out of the room so that he could get himself cleaned up and changed.

Wayne had stood transfixed at the scene. When the wolf had knocked both woman and eagle over he'd moved forward, confident in slapping the cuffs on the criminal. But from the angle he'd entered, being behind both animals and having to wait for the gap in the door to be wide enough, he hadn't seen what she'd been doing to Scott at the time, had only been in time to see them land in a heap on the floor.

Seeing the wolf's jaws snap shut over the woman's throat, hearing the short scream turn into a gurgle and watching the Duchess fall limp had frozen Wayne to the spot.

Nothing had prepared him for this eventuality.

He'd seen John and Gordon rush in, seen tigress-Kayo and Gordon leave and then return only a few minutes later with Kayo in her human form and begin to try and treat eagle-Scott. He'd watch John fold himself down to sit beside the wolf, speaking too low for Wayne to hear and running his hand through the fur between the ears.

Worried that wolf-Virgil still had hold of the Duchess by the throat Wayne stayed where he was until someone could give him direction. He couldn't take his eyes of John and Virgil, but the increasingly worried voices of Gordon and Kayo eventually broke through.

'I don't understand. Scott should have transformed back. Something isn't right!'

'He's barely breathing! I – I don't know how to resuscitate an eagle!'

Those last words got Wayne moving. They may not know how to resus a bird, but he was pretty sure he knew a man who did. He activated his comm.

'Colonel?'

'Captain Rigby. Report.'

Relief flooded him when he was answered immediately, and he felt a twinge of guilt that he was about to ignore the Colonel's request and talk over her.

'There's no time. Is Nathan Cooper still with you? It's an emergency.'

'He is. One moment.'

Casey's hologram disappeared for what felt like ages but was in reality less than a couple of minutes and returned with the vet in tow.

'Mr Cooper – we have the eagle but it is non-responsive and barely breathing. Can we resus it?'

'Yes, it is possible. But you'll have to intubate it, you can't do rescue breathing and ideally we don't want you to do CPR. Does it have a pulse?'

Wayne looked to Gordon as the man shouted in response.

'Yes!'

'Good. Do you have anything there that can serve as a tube?'

Virgil, having just returned with John, shot off into the outer room with Wayne. One of the cupboards they'd investigated had contained all kinds of supplies, and Virgil was sure he'd seen exactly what he would need there. Ideally he would have taken them to Two, but there simply wasn't time…

Of course at that moment Two's VTOL could clearly be heard and Alan joined the conversation.

'I have brought Two in for you.'

'Alan! Thank goodness.'

Having heard Two's distinctive sound Gordon had already gently picked Scott up and everyone rushed through the building and out into the courtyard which was now full of Two. The ramp was already down and the doors to the infirmary open.

Moments later Scott was spread gently on one of the beds and Virgil had grabbed one of the tubes they had on standby for intubation if needed. Thanking his Grandma and his medic training, intubation was something he could do…even if he'd never done it on a bird before.

'Inserting the tube is going to be easier on the eagle than on a human since there is no epiglottis to get in the way. But go careful and once installed use an AMBU bag until the eagle is breathing again.'

'Thank you, Mr Cooper.'

'The pleasure is all mine. I'm only sorry I couldn't free him.'

Wayne went to cut the comm but, seeing that Cooper had gone and only the Colonel remained, he discretely moved so that she could see.

Kayo had disappeared and Gordon with her, leaving Virgil and John working on their brother. He marvelled at how well they worked together, turning away slightly only when Virgil was inserting what looked like a catheter into Scott's undamaged wing and then adding a drip.

Eventually they had done all they could and Virgil sighed, washing his hands and turning to nod to the Colonel. John nodded too and, with a nod to Virgil, who had sat down beside the bed, indicated Wayne to follow him and they made their way to the cockpit.

'Alan? Time to go.'

'FAB, Virgil. Just waiting for Gordon and Kayo.'

'We're here, Al. Get going!'

'FAB.'

Wayne felt the thrusters engage and with a roar the giant bird lifted up. It was barely off the ground when Two was engulfed by the house and grounds exploding.