A/N: I've been looking forward to this point in the story. *grins* I hope you enjoy it!
They don't make it to the Huntsclan's headquarters.
It's 42, not 32, who sends some flying contraption after them. It has to be; he's the only one with such sophisticated work. Unfortunately, Jake doesn't register the high-pitched whir of propellers for what it is before a quiet click that he's far more used to listening for has both him and Susan diving to either side. This turns out to be in vain, as 42 has more than one trick up his sleeve. Or rather, more than one drone equipped with nets.
Jake is annoyed with himself for assuming 23 was out with 32, but 42 is rarely in the field. If he's out now, it's not only because he's looking for Jake.
Granted, that's a moot point since he's now found Jake, and Jake has to deal with that.
The net is an ordinary one, not something woven with sphinx hair, but that doesn't make it easier to untangle. Jake's knife is taking too long to saw through the woven fibres, and when he spares a glance towards Susan, he sees that she's trying to pry one of the adhesive weights from cement with her fingers alone. If she has any magic tricks with her, she's not using them.
Jake is confident that a dragon's strength would break through 42's formulation, but if they don't already know about him—and he's not sure they do, given what 23 had said—then that would give them every reason to suspect.
Truthfully, he's not even sure he'd be able to use the strength he needs without transforming, and transforming would be about as subtle as dragon's breath. The Huntsclan doesn't often utilise magic directly, preferring to conduct it through a Huntstaff or magical artefact or with a potion whenever they're able, but Jake can still think of spells that would be useful, and he's always had a knack for them. Given his nature, perhaps that isn't terribly surprising.
Still, without his uniform, he doesn't have the components he'd need to use any of those spells right now, let alone the time to finish a murmured spell without being interrupted, which 42 will surely realize soon if he hasn't already.
"It's all true, isn't it, 99?" 42 asks as he approaches.
Jake watches from his peripheral, but he doesn't look up from his task of sawing through the rope. It's practically pointless—if 42 were concerned he might escape, Jake would be fighting for the knife and likely losing it in the process—but 42 hates being ignored, and he gets careless when he's angry or annoyed.
Jake intends to use every advantage he can get, however petty that requires him to be.
"I can't believe you thought we wouldn't find out," continues 42 after the awkward pause where it became increasingly clear that no one intended to answer him. "I can't believe you involved 93. I can't believe she didn't turn you in."
Jake doesn't mean to react, but he freezes at 42's words. They're confirmation that the Huntsclan knows about Rose, even if he doesn't know how much they know. 18 hadn't picked a fight with Rose on a whim; she'd waited until she'd sensed weakness. But how much? Is Jake's defiance enough to declare Rose compromised if they haven't realized she's already compromised? If she's been stripped of her rank—
"Your sheer arrogance is staggering," 42 says. "Bringing both of your careers down in one fell swoop. Not that you had much of a career. You were always very middling."
Jake snorts. He'd say the same about 42. 42's technological brilliance might be unparalleled in Jake's experience, but he has to be in a position to use that brilliance to be any use at all. In a physical fight, he's barely better than useless.
If Jake can get out of this, if he can regain the advantage and fight 42—
"I'm guessing this is the woman you've convinced yourself is your mother?"
Susan stops what she is doing and stares at 42 with steel in her eyes. "I am his mother."
"Says you and what DNA test?"
"I'm his mother," she repeats, but 42 just shrugs.
That's fine by Jake, really. If 42 doesn't believe they're related, Susan's not in as much danger.
Well.
That's not quite true.
Both 23 and 42 wouldn't know who Susan is to him if the rest of the Huntsclan didn't, so any hope he had of claiming she's someone else is gone. Not that he won't try unless he finds himself facing someone like the Huntsmaster, but still. If even one person makes the connection between Susan and the American Dragon….
Jake never woke up while being dragged from his bunk to a cell that might generously double as an interrogation room, so the Huntsclan never realized the connection while he was there, but if they've discovered it since? If they've dug into Susan's background and realized she's connected to the magical world, even if they don't yet realize she's connected to dragons?
He has to find a way to get her to stop following him.
More to the point, he has to find a way to get out of this net since sawing through the fibres isn't proving effective enough to be feasible, deck 42 right in his infamous glass jaw that will invariably have him down for the count, and then figure out how to get Susan to stop following him.
Leaving her in the net is tempting, but if their oath isn't truly broken, his magic won't let him do that.
Even if he could, he wouldn't. If 42 could simply march her to the Huntsclan once he came to, that would completely defeat the purpose of Jake trying to leave her behind in the first place.
"I don't know what you get out of this scam," 42 says. "He's not worth a trade, let alone a ransom."
"It's not a scam. He's my son. Contrary to what you've been taught, some of your members are stolen from loving families."
42 hums but doesn't comment, but if Jake remembers correctly, he hadn't exactly come from a loving family.
From what Jake knows, he's not sure how long it would've taken 42's parents to notice he wasn't even there any longer.
"It shouldn't be a crime for me to see my son," continues Susan, "when I haven't failed in my care for him—short though that time has been. Do you truly believe it merits this manhunt you're all on?"
42 frowns and looks over at Jake, who is suddenly very glad he had not, despite deep consideration, picked that moment to see if a dragon's talon could make short work of what his knife cannot. "You know the rules. Do you think it doesn't?"
"I asked you, not him," Susan says, calling 42's attention back to her, and that's when Jake realizes this is all meant to be a distraction. To keep 42's focus on her so he can do what needs to be done to escape.
Jake stops bracing the netting with his left hand and reaches it behind him instead, transforming it and working at the rope with a dragon's talons.
It doesn't slice right through, but he can feel the rope beginning to fray under his claws.
42 scoffs at Susan. "Your problem is you don't know what's really going on. You think his being with you will be better? It'll be worse. He's Marked. That means he's a target, and you don't know enough to protect him from those who want to see him dead. We do."
Jake swallows but keeps going even as Susan's face pales and she forces out, "That's what they tell you?"
"That's what's true."
"Do you think it's still true now that we've found each other? Now that I know he's my son? Or has he become a liability rather than someone who needs the protection of your people?"
Jake slips his left hand forward to grab the net again, curling fingers around it before he says, "23 as good as called me a criminal." He casts a fleeting look at Susan before facing 42 again. "Even if all of this weren't evidence enough, she knows my reception won't be a welcome one."
42's brow furrows. "Wait, you ran into 23?" He glances over his shoulder as if expecting to see her, but she doesn't appear. "And you got away from her?"
Neither Jake nor Susan says anything. They don't really need to—the answer is obvious—but 42 takes a step back from them even though they're both still trapped. On one hand, Jake enjoys 42's obvious unease, but on the other, 42 has a better view of both of them now, and it'll be harder to go back to working on the net behind him without 42 realizing Jake's secret.
"How?" asks 42, his tone caught between hard and disbelieving. "She's a better fighter than you."
"She's a better fighter than you," counters Jake. "I like to think we're evenly matched." He has no desire to tell 42 of Susan's skills, but—
42 looks at Susan. "Or was it two on one?"
"Do you think I can fight like any of you?" she asks quietly. "I have no desire to find a knife in my gut."
It's not a lie, but 42 makes the assumption Susan wants him to make, and he looks back at Jake. "What've you got on you besides that knife?"
Jake raises an eyebrow, but 42 stalks forward and grabs Jake's right wrist before he can untangle himself enough to pull away, twisting it and forcing him to drop the knife. 42 kicks it away and tries to hold both of Jake's arms with one hand, but Jake pulls his left arm free and kicks at 42 through the net. He connects, barely, but it's only enough to make 42 stumble back, not enough to wind him or properly break his grip on Jake's right arm.
Not having a better idea, Jake uses as much dragon strength as he can in this form, grabs hold of 42's arm with his left, and pulls.
42 collapses almost on top of him, but he's tangling his own limbs in the net now, and even though he's let go of Jake, Jake hasn't let go of him.
Jake's right hand curls into a fist as he slips his arm through the loose netting. He draws back, 42's eyes widening as he catches the movement, and punches with as much force as he dares.
With 42, it's enough. His head snaps to the left, and he slumps. His glasses weren't broken in the skirmish, but Jake wouldn't have felt particularly sorry for him if they had been. Jake picks them up and tosses them away for good measure. Every second 42 spends searching for them is another second they can use to get farther away.
Jake scrambles for the edge of the net and transforms both arms to those of a dragon so that he can lift the weights, break their seal with the pavement below, and wriggle out. He pulls the net over 42 instead, letting him be caught in his own trap, and then lifts one of the weights on Susan's net so she can crawl out. The moment she's free, he lets his human flesh return and grabs her hand. "This way!"
He runs for a park, hoping trees and darkness will soothe the worry that someone might have seen what he'd done, and Susan's feet hit the ground steadily beside him. He risks a dragon's ear to listen, but he can't hear anyone following them, so after a moment more, he drops Susan's hand and slows to catch his breath.
"Thank you," she says, but he shakes his head.
"I can't afford to be brought in like that. It was as much for me as for you."
"Still. Thank you."
He pulls in another lungful of air but lets it out as slowly as he can bear. "You could thank me by leaving."
"You know I can't."
More like she won't, but it was worth a try.
"The Huntsclan knows who you are now," he points out. It's not just that she's his mother; it's that he knows she's his mother and that she knows he's her son. There's more danger in that knowledge than in their familial ties alone. "You're not safe."
"Technically, I've never been safe from them. I was simply lucky they didn't discover who I was before."
Jake pulls a face. "You'll be in a worse position if they realize everything."
"And you won't be?"
He huffs and drops to sit on the grass. She joins him, and he starts picking at it without looking at her. "I'm willing to risk it. You've got your family to worry about."
"You're part of my family, too."
He throws a handful of broken blades between them before looking up. "Yeah? And what if I said I wanted to go back to the Huntsclan?" He doesn't want to admit it, but if it'll get her to leave….
Her expression doesn't change. "I trust you."
"Maybe you shouldn't."
"If I don't, how can I hope that you'll ever give me more trust than you already have?"
Jake groans. "You don't get it."
"Then please explain it to me."
Jake opens his mouth but swallows his words as a swell of magic hits him. Susan feels it, too, if the concern on her face isn't from their conversation alone. He scrambles to his feet as the feeling gets stronger. It's almost like—
There.
A shimmer of light hangs in the air barely ten feet from them, swiftly growing stronger between each heartbeat.
A portal.
Jake runs without looking to see if Susan is following because he can't imagine that she wouldn't be. He's long since learned that if you aren't in control of the portal and aren't absolutely sure who is, it's better to be safe than sorry. Still, he only makes it about twenty feet before something in the magic changes and he loses his footing in surprise.
Whatever he'd been expecting, it wasn't this feeling of intense familiarity.
It feels a little bit like the atmosphere in the shop and a little bit like his own magic, but it's so much stronger.
It…it makes him ache, somehow, with a longing he can't explain, a feeling of belonging that's just out of reach, a sense of homesickness—which is absolutely absurd, because the last thing he should be feeling right now is homesick….
Fear and concern cut through his confusion, and he finds his feet again. This will be a beacon to any of the Huntsclan in the area, at least unless this portal comes with some way of masking its own magic from those outside a certain perimeter, and Jake doesn't know if that's even possible. Masking existing magic within a set location, sure, but that still takes time. It takes planning.
Then again, desperation can make fools of anyone, and he's hardly been taught that magical creatures are the epitome of intelligence, for all that he shouldn't underestimate them. Whoever is in control of this portal now might be desperate enough to risk being caught, which would only make them more dangerous.
Still.
Jake is hardly the only one the portal maker—makers?—need to worry about.
23's out there, along with who knows who else, and she won't make the same mistake twice. Besides that, they aren't nearly far enough from 42 for comfort. He'd know how to free himself, so even if someone hasn't stopped to help him—
"We need to go!" Jake hisses at Susan as five figures emerge from the light, resolving into dragons even as Susan stops and edges uncertainly between them.
The portal disappears, but of course the dragons do not. They're large, and Jake doubts the power radiating from them is merely an aftermath of the portal's closure. These dragons must be ancient, but he's never seen them before, not even in texts. Glacial blue, sea blue, deep orange, orange and yellow, purple and red—
Do a dragon's scales hint at their power? Is the colour significant in any way? He's never asked Susan, and the Huntsclan's records are inconclusive on the subject. Not that it will help him. Sphinx hair is the most effective way to weaken a dragon, and he hasn't carried it since Rose insisted he stop making himself sick by trying. She always has some, sealed away and tucked into a pocket he won't brush by mistake, but she isn't here.
"Jake Long," one of the dragons says gravely as the magical creatures gather in a semi-circle a mere ten feet from Jake and Susan. He wonders if they think that's distance enough to protect them if he tried to attack. Maybe it is, with their magic as thick in the air as it seems to be. Dragons are elusive enough that the Huntsclan doesn't know as much about their magic as Jake would like; what he does know is that collective magic between dragons is rare but powerful, and he sincerely doubts five would risk coming here now—at a time they must surely know the city is crawling with the Huntsclan—for a mere show of strength. They are all here because they plan to do something one dragon alone cannot accomplish.
Of course, if Jake's honest with himself, that's hardly the only reason this whole thing is so disquieting.
Susan's not running for the hills, so she must recognize them, but that doesn't tell him whether she doesn't see them as a threat or whether she believes turning her back on them is the height of foolishness. And beyond that—
Jake Long.
Jake can't suppress his shiver. It feels like there's power in that name, though there shouldn't be. It's not his name, or at least not really his name, because he's always just been Jake of the Huntsclan. Even his other names—Huntsclan Agent 99, Huntsboy No. 18, or whatever his assigned number at the time—feel more real than the name the dragon calls him now.
But maybe none of that matters because he should have been Jake Long.
"Given your unique situation and the threat you pose to the magical world," continues the blue dragon with ice in his eyes and a voice as deep and cold as a crevasse, "the Dragon Council has degreed that you be officially suspended from the Dragon Order." There is a pause, and Jake sees the dragon's eyes flick to Susan. "Indefinitely."
Jake doesn't know what that means beyond the barest meaning of the words at the surface, but he doesn't like it.
He doesn't need to hear Susan's sharp intake of breath to know it won't be anything good.
This Dragon Council wouldn't have sent so many representatives if it were.
"Please, you can't," implores Susan even as the dragons reach to join their talons together. "You don't know what this means for him."
"Per the Dragon Council's laws," says the other blue dragon softly, "action must be taken to protect the magical world from active threats."
"He's not an active threat," Susan protests, even though Jake would agree that, as far as they're concerned, he very much is. "He's my son. You haven't even given him a chance to be my son."
Blue magic crackles lightning quick around the dragons' joined talons, and Jake knows he cannot outrun it. He won't demean himself by trying.
The orange and yellow dragon's gaze is piercing as it is turned from Susan to Jake. "Have you renounced the Huntsclan?"
Jake crosses his arms and glares.
"Will you?" he presses, but none of them seem surprised when Jake's only response is a scowl.
"Then we have no choice," says the sea blue dragon, and Jake fights back a shiver at the certainty in her voice.
"There is always a choice," snaps Susan. "This cannot have been all you considered."
"It was not," says the dragon the colour of iron-rich earth, "but it is what is best."
"Unless you would prefer a more permanent solution to this problem," snipes the purple dragon, and Jake decides that of all of them, she is the one he likes the least.
"This is a permanent solution," scolds the ice blue dragon, "and it is the only permanent solution we need to take."
The words must be a cue of some sort, or maybe that dragon is the one in charge of their collective effort. Either way, the magic shoots towards Jake in a streak of blue that seeks to connect him with the dragons. He jerks back on instinct, but he's already in its grasp. It surrounds him, raising him up and binding him, and then it—
It doesn't hurt as it delves into his chest, exactly, but it feels wrong.
Jake can feel it reaching inside him, grabbing hold, and pulling out a piece of himself with it. It's something that should be terribly painful—misjudged his jump and landed in a pit of iron spikes sort of painful—but the only pain he feels is its sudden, somehow still unexpected loss, a physical ache in his heart as if he's mourning.
The power retreats entirely. Jake finds himself on his hands and knees, digging his fingers into the grass to feel something tangible, something steady.
He's shaking.
"Please," begs Susan again. "Please, don't let this be forever. Let my father guard his chi. You know he wouldn't return it without good reason, and you—" Her voice breaks. "You know what the extended loss of a dragon's chi means."
Jake sits back and presses a hand to his chest, still not trusting himself to stand. He's missing something he once so desperately wanted to be rid of, but now that it's gone—
He's human now.
Entirely human.
This should be a good thing, but….
It's not.
He thinks he'd feel differently about it if he'd still wanted it gone, still wished to be human with every fibre of his being. It wouldn't be so much of a loss as an opportunity then, a chance to become everything he couldn't before with the constant need to hold his dragon nature in check. He'd celebrate. The hollow feeling wouldn't be so difficult to ignore if it meant getting everything he'd wanted.
He's not, though.
It's too late for that.
The Huntsclan still isn't safe for him. He's compromised. More to the point, Rose is compromised and the Huntsclan knows it. Now, even if he could talk to her, he couldn't protect her.
Jake blinks and reaches up to wipe at his eyes because the world has gone blurry. The orange dragon is holding a jar Jake hadn't noticed before. It pulses with the same magic as before, and Jake isn't sure if he's only imagining things or if it's truly calling to him with each heartbeat.
It's a part of him.
It was a part of him.
If he understands things correctly, these dragons intend for it to never be a part of him again.
"If the boy could be trusted with his powers," the purple dragon says, a sneer in her voice, "he would have never used them against us."
"He's a better person now than he was then," argues Susan, and Jake wonders if it's true or if she simply believes it is. "People can change. They can grow."
"While he is bound to the Huntsclan," the orange and yellow dragon says quietly, "it is too much of a risk to trust him."
"We will hear a petition from you on the matter only once the bond is broken," says the ice blue dragon. "We cannot risk the safety of the magical world, and returning his power while he is still tied to the Huntsclan would do so."
Susan turns to him. "Jake?" The question sounds strangled, broken and weighted down by her sheer desperation, but he knows what she's asking, what she wants him to do.
She's been trying to get him to renounce the Huntsclan since they talked about it in the cave. He's not sure why she thinks the dragons will return his power now if he does, since he's under no illusion that they will. Even if renouncing the Huntsclan would make the grand difference they all seem to think it will, it wouldn't stop him from betraying them to the Huntsclan anyway. He hardly needs to be bound to the Huntsclan to do that, and if his pact with Susan hadn't been broken before, it surely is now.
Besides, if he's honest with himself, he'd consider betraying these dragons and their secrets. He wouldn't need to explain that they'd stolen from him; he'd simply need to detail what he'd witnessed them doing to another magical creature. If it would save his life? If it would help Rose? She never deserved any of this. It's been his trouble from the start. If telling the Huntsclan about these dragons and their ritual would ensure his and Rose's safety, or even just her safety, he'd do it.
That wouldn't be enough, though.
He'd have to bring one of the dragons in—or turn himself in, as a dragon.
Which he can't do now because he's not a dragon.
Rose wouldn't like that anyway, since it would be a death sentence for him, but it might be enough to win her the freedom to help him. To give him a quick death, if nothing else.
If the Huntsclan found out about his nature somehow, if he's anything more than a rogue agent— Could he salvage things now that he doesn't have his powers? If they test him and he doesn't react, can he convince them they had something wrong? That he's not a dragon after all? Or will they know?
He hadn't known there was a way to remove a dragon's powers—his dragon chi, Susan had called it—but just because the information wasn't in the Huntslibrary where he and Rose could find it, it doesn't mean the elders aren't aware of it.
At the very least, they might suspect it, and if they question him to confirm that suspicion, he has little reason not to tell them if it will help Rose.
It wouldn't save necessarily him or his birth family, but nothing will save them if the Huntsclan knows what they are. He's not wholly sure the Huntsclan will draw a distinction between a dragon and a former dragon. Even if he'd been as good an agent as Rose, his value might not outweigh the threat that he'd pose as someone who might be swayed by the magical world.
In the end, Jake's silence speaks for him, and the purple dragon jeers, "See? He has no loyalty to us."
"We have given him little reason to do so," observes the sea blue dragon, and the purple one scowls in her direction.
"The matter will not be settled tonight," says the ice blue dragon, and when the others quiet, his gaze shifts to Susan. "We will meet with you whenever you come to us, but until then, we will guard the boy's dragon chi." He holds out a small vial to Susan. As with the jar, Jake hadn't noticed it until now. "I trust you know what to do with this?"
"Jake is my son," Susan says, and her voice breaks on the last word as if she's fighting back tears. "I won't lose him again."
The vial isn't withdrawn, and Jake can make out the soft glow of grass green liquid within as it's held firmly between the dragon's talons. He'd never dare attempt such a delicate task, and holding something so easily broken and easily dropped is very much that, but it's little surprise that one as familiar with their dragon form as they are with their human one hasn't his same reservations. The colour of the vial's liquid tells him little, though. Too many potions can take on that colour to give him much indication of what it might do.
"Would you prefer we administer it ourselves now?" asks the dragon. "We'd have time enough before it fully takes effect." For all that the words should sound like a threat, they're reminiscent of a reminder.
Still.
Jake can guess the vial's contents easily enough now. Between that remark, Susan's fears, and the colour….
He doesn't know how much of his memory it would take away—by the colour, it's too freshly brewed to rob him of more than a few days, and that's at most—but half a day would destroy his most damning knowledge, and even the last few minutes would protect the secret of whatever they'd done to him.
It's not unwarranted—they would hardly wish for him to freely spread their secrets—and he's more surprised that Susan is being given the choice than anything else. (He's not foolish enough to think it's his choice; it isn't, for all that it's his memories they'd be stealing away.) They trust her, arguably more than her position as the mother of the American Dragon warrants.
Her family is more important in the magical world than he'd realized.
Susan's hand closes around the vial, and it disappears into her pocket. "This won't be necessary."
The dragon inclines his head to her. "For all our sakes, I hope you are right. I also hope you will not hesitate if you are wrong."
It's more trust in her judgement than Jake would have given her, were their roles reversed, but he's hardly going to speak up about something that's in his favour.
Susan purses her lips but says nothing, even when the purple dragon eyes her with a distinct smirk.
If there's a signal that passes between the dragons, Jake doesn't see it, but for all he knows, any one of these dragons is powerful enough alone to wield the magic necessary to open a tear in reality. All Jake is certain of is that he can feel magic swelling again, and a second later it bursts into a portal that shimmers like a curtain in the air and ripples out in a wave of energy that makes Jake want to run as far from here as possible. It doesn't feel quite the same as before—less stomach-swooping nervous anticipation and more prickling hairs on the back of his neck and a pressure building in his head—but there's no mistaking what it is. No one with any amount of training in the Huntsclan would mistake this feeling of magic for anything else.
"Wait," says Susan. "Where is my father? Why didn't he come with you?"
The sea blue dragon hangs back as the others proceed through the portal. "He still searches for your daughter," she says gently. "If she is still on the Isle, she will be found."
The dragon vanishes through the portal before Susan can press for details or ask other questions, and the portal closes once the dragon is through.
Susan is still staring at the space it occupied, even once Jake climbs to his feet and taps her on the arm to get her attention.
"We need to go," he says, but she doesn't move.
"Haley isn't on the Isle," Susan says softly. Jake doesn't know what isle they're talking about, but he doubts he'll get a straight answer if he asks even if Susan does tell him the truth; truth, he's learned, doesn't necessary equate to the whole truth, and he hasn't the time to ask her all the questions he'd need to in order to have a proper idea of it. "My father wouldn't have said she was missing if she were. He would have looked before he ever sent that letter."
If Jake had a way of easily finding the American Dragon, he would have found his family long before this. He can't help Susan. "You can search for her," he says instead. "You don't have to stay with me."
Susan blows out a breath. "I need to make a phone call."
"If your husband didn't answer before, I doubt he'll answer now." It's still far easier to say the words your husband than my father. Jake is still getting used to the idea that Susan is his mother, even when she's very much trying to act like it; knowing the American Dragon is his sister and that he's got a father who has hunter blood, even if he's not a hunter himself, is something Jake hasn't really taken the time to process.
If he somehow does survive all this, maybe he can.
Susan shakes her head. "I'd like to try him again, too, but no. I need to call the Grim Reaper."
It's so far from anything Jake expected to hear that he's speaking before he's thinking. "Say what?"
"He can find any soul in mortal danger," Susan says, as if that explains anything, "and at this point, a phone call or two won't set us back. We've already been delayed enough that if we find Huntsgirl and your father, it'll be by pure luck."
Jake wants to ask why she didn't try the Grim Reaper before if all that were true but decides against it.
She might have tried him before, too.
She had left two messages, and he hadn't been listening to the tones of the different buttons as she'd dialled.
She probably had called two different numbers.
More likely than not, he's the reason she hadn't said anything before. He hadn't wanted her to stop to make one phone call; he's not sure he would've agreed to wait for her to make two, either, not when they'd been so close to finding Rose.
But they aren't close at all now, and Susan's gotten confirmation she didn't want that her father hasn't found her daughter in the meantime.
Another phone call won't make a difference.
Especially if she doesn't get an answer this time, either.
"Fine," Jake says. "You can try phoning the Grim Reaper, since apparently you've got his number memorized. But we need to go now or we'll be caught by the Huntsclan before you have a chance."
He might be intending to bring her to the Huntsclan anyway, at least if she doesn't agree to leave him first—he's hoping she will after this phone call—but that doesn't mean he can afford to be brought in by another agent. Without his uniform, he can't even pretend to be 66 and come up with some excuse to be bringing in Susan—which is deeply unfortunate, because for all that they have different colouring, 66's not even half an inch taller than him, and they have a similar build. It's not a ruse that would last long, but he doesn't need long. He just needs to get inside without too many questions.
It feels like a fool's hope, but there's a slim chance one of lesser-used base entrances won't be as heavily guarded as elsewhere. If Susan won't leave him, she can at least help him take them out. He could use the help unless there are only a couple of guards—though there might only be two, if he's lucky and the Huntsclan is distracted by more than his disappearance and whatever had happened with Rose.
Susan can help as long as he can figure out a way to warn her about all of this before it's too late for her to stop him from doing it, at least.
Susan nods, and they start off in search of a phone. By his estimation, it's less than a minute before she breaks the silence with, "How are you feeling?"
"It's been a long night." He doesn't want to tell her the loss is a tangible pain. He doesn't want to listen to her insist that the sooner he renounces the Huntsclan, the sooner he can get his dragon chi back and begin to heal. Or will it not require healing? He doesn't even know.
There's too much he doesn't know.
He's fairly confident the Dragon Council won't simply return what they've taken from him, though.
"What you said earlier," he starts before she can press him, "about a dragon not having their chi. What did you mean? Aren't you a dragon without your chi?"
"I'm not the same as you," she says. "Your powers are—were—unlocked. You've transformed. And that…."
"And that makes a difference?" he surmises when she doesn't finish. A quick glance tells him she looks troubled, like she'd rather be talking about anything else.
"You'll be fine for now," she says quietly. "You might be fine for years. But it'll get harder as time passes, and you'll feel it more than you do now."
Jake really doesn't like the sound of that. He'd assumed time would make it better, not worse. "I never wanted to be a dragon anyway," he says, but the words taste like a lie.
There's sympathy in the look Susan gives him, and he's not sure if she believes his words. "I hope that will help you. I hope you can hold on to that. But I…. I don't know of a dragon who lost their chi who was not consumed by that loss in the end."
