Damian dreamed that he was in college, and a small picture of Anya hung up on his wall, next to the recent pictures of his other friends at university. A feminine giggle tore him from his thoughts.

"Who's that girl?"

"Oh she's - she's a special friend of mine."

The woman frowned. "She's prettier than me. Are you sure you still don't have feelings for her?"

Damian hesitated, and gingerly touched the edge of the photo. "It's not like that. She went missing a few years ago, and I keep this nearby to remember her."

The woman pouted. "Why keep it around if it makes you sad?" and with movement as quick as a whip, she reached out and tore the photo. "Don't hang on to your past. She's not around any more."

Damian awoke with a start, his whole body cold with sweat. His hand shook as he touched his face, tracing the tear tracks left on his skin from during the night before. He grabbed the phone from under the pillow and checked the home screen.

1 New Message

Damian's mouth went dry when he saw the notification, and he had never clicked on a message so fast in his life, but his heart dropped when he saw who it was from.

Still nothing. U? Becky x

Of course, thought Damian bitterly. Why was it never easy?

He got dressed slowly, only half-sure that it was real life, and not that he was still in his nightmare somehow. Damian moved on automatic, as he tried to reconcile in his mind what the truth of the situation was.

Anya Forger was missing.

His chest tightened, and his feet moved automatically towards the breakfast hall. He didn't even notice when Emile and Ewen followed in step behind him, as they always did.

As they always did…

It was so unfair that the world just continued spinning, and he felt like his world had stopped. Time had completely frozen, and yet there they were, going for breakfast like it was a normal day after all.

Damian didn't speak a word as he got his breakfast tray, and Emile and Ewen didn't dare break the silence.

"What do we do?" Ewen whispered to Emile, hoping he was out of earshot. "Bossman's never acted like this before…"

Emile exhaled sharply. "I dont fucking know. I don't know what we can do - I mean, if this happened to you, how would you act?"

They watched Damian carefully when he went to sit at an empty table, and they joined him without a moment's hesitation, not wanting to leave their best friend alone for even a second.

Damian stared into his breakfast while he felt the weight of their stares on him. From the general chatter circulating around the hall, Damian guessed that the news of Anya's disappearance had not yet made its way around the school. He tried to block out the noise around him, and focus on his breakfast, but he couldn't even muster up an appetite.

Another tray joined him on the table, and Damian looked up to see the stern face of Bill Watkins.

Bill didn't say a word as he sat next to Damian, and stared at his croissant.

"So you can't eat either," Damian noted dully.

Bill nodded. "Same as you."

Damian hmphed. He wasn't so sure that he and Bill were the same, but he appreciated the gesture. Having one more person on this table made them look less pathetic.

Another tray clunked down on the other side of Bill. "Well I guess I'll join you guys too," said a haughty voice that Damian immediately recognised as Becky Blackbell.

His eyes stung with the effort of holding tears back. It was silly of him really, to want to cry when his friends were only doing what friends do. He probably would have done the same for them if there was a similar situation.

"Did you get my text?" Becky ventured warily, and swirled her tea in her cup before taking a sip.

Damian nodded mutely, before realising that she had actually expected him to say something. "Y-Yeah," he croaked. He tried to take a sip of his coffee, but it burned on his tongue. "Nothing for me either."

Becky held her face in her hands. "My poor Anya! I just hope she's safe, wherever she is,"

Damian could feel the anger rising in him, but he was powerless to stop it, and it came out of him: "But she isn't safe, is she? Otherwise she'd be here with us!" His voice cracked. "She'd be here."

She's supposed to be here, Damian groaned to himself. The school felt incomplete without her next to him. Without her beside him - where she's supposed to be, he found himself thinking.

It was too much. With horror, Damian realised that his vision blurred without his permission, and he got up from the table in one swift movement, leaving his breakfast tray behind. "Don't follow me," he barked sharply as he left, and he hoped that no one would follow behind him. He had had enough of looking weak, of feeling vulnerable around others.

The gaze of everyone in the breakfast hall pierced his back as he walked through the door. He didn't think about where his feet took him - he just walked.

He could not let himself cry, otherwise, he was afraid that he would never stop.

One foot in front of the other. Each step took him away from the dull and meaningless chatter of hundreds of students. It was a mechanical movement.

He only stopped when he reached a familiar pavement, and when Damian looked up, his breath caught in his throat.

He had walked to the bus stop.

Shit shit shit! He sucked in his teeth and shoved his hands in his pockets. How did he just get to the bus stop without realising? It was as if his body had been so used to the routine, it just carried him there without his permission. Damian looked around the familiar scene. It would be so natural for the bus to turn the corner, and for Anya to step out like she usually did, and grab his elbow.

Damian's stomach tingled when he thought of when she first took his elbow, and they had walked together like that to class. He didn't even care if it caused whispers. He just wanted to hold her again and again and again and never let go.

When the bus turned the corner, Damian's heart stopped, and he held his breath. The yellow school bus lined up with the pavement, and released the students in a rush. They passed him in a blur, until Damian stood alone, staring at the empty bus.

"Oh sorry man," said the bus driver once he had noticed Damian standing there. "She's not in today. Must be sick or something."

The doors closed, and the bus rolled away.

Hot tears slid down Damian's face.

It's real then. It's all real.

It was so embarrassing, crying on the street in his uniform. Damian hastily snatched his handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his eyes with it, but then when he pulled it away, the embroidered 'A' glinted at him under the sunlight, taunting him.

"Fuck this!" he shouted and shoved the handkerchief back into his pocket. "Fuck all of this! Shit! Shit shit shit! Bastards!"

He swore at the sky, and the walls, and the grass, and the birds, and anything he could think of until he ran out of breath. Finally, he wiped his eyes one last time and blew his nose.

A final "Shit!" burst out of him before he turned back, and made the long walk back into the school.

Damian ground his teeth in deep thought as he walked.

So, he was now eighty six per cent sure that Anya wasn't a spy, which meant that there was a chance that she was just a normal student after all. But why would she be kidnapped? Her parents weren't even important (by Eden's standards). The only person that she regularly associated with that had a reputation beyond the school was him, and Becky.

Was she kidnapped because she had been spotted hanging around 'the' Damian Desmond?

At the thought that she might have been kidnapped because of him, Damian wanted to be sick, but he forced himself to breathe through the discomfort and try to think things through. He and Anya had been on-and-off friends for years - if she was really kidnapped because of him, why now? Why not earlier, when they were still children, and no doubt much easier to kidnap?

And if she was kidnapped because of her ties with Damian, wouldn't they have contacted him by now to pay her ransom?

Damian halted in the path as he tried to make sense of it in his mind.

Was it the same guys who had kidnapped him before? Did they want revenge and try to track her down?

But didn't Mr Forger eventually try to call the police…?

He threw his head in his hands. The truth was right there, he could sense it! How could he be so close, and yet so stupidly incompetent at the same time?

An ice cold wind blew, which made him shudder, and suddenly Damian found his gaze being pulled to a lonely silhouette atop a balcony. The figure regarded Damian with a cold gaze, and turned away.

Something pricked in Damian's brain, and set his teeth on edge. He couldn't explain how, but something in his heart told him that figure knew something.

When Damian marched back into the breakfast hall with his head held high, Becky's jaw dropped. He looked so intimidating, so fearsome, that she wondered if he had always looked like that.

Damn, Anya, she thought with a touch of admiration. Is this what you see in him?

Horrified that she could actually think that Damian might look attractive, she shook the thought immediately out of her head. Besides, she thought, glancing at Bill sitting next to her. There's no need for me to think that about Damian when I have the most intimidating man in all of Berlint sitting right next me!

Becky brightened, and Bill glanced at her warily. "Darling," he whispered under his ear. "Try not to look too obvious."

That wiped the smile from her face.

He nudged her foot tenderly with his. "That's better."

She jolted when Damian slammed his hands on the table.

"We can't leave things like this!" he announced to the table, all the while mindful to keep his voice low so that eavesdroppers wouldn't hear.

Becky clicked her teeth. "And what do you suggest?"

"I'm a fucking Desmond. You're a fucking Blackbell, and you're," he nodded to Bill, "you're a fucking Watkins. Are we just going to sit here and wait for the police to fuck up their jobs? Or are we going to pool our resources and save our friend?"

The passion in Damian's voice knocked the breath from Becky's lungs. "Right!" she agreed, and stood up with Damian. "We're not just students at Eden College! We're part of the most influential families in Ostania - and if we can't save our friend then what's the point of being rich?"

"Not quite the message Blackbell, but I'll take it," Damian laughed wearily. "Meet me in the library in ten minutes."

"But don't we have-"

Becky nudged Bill's foot with hers, and he immediately shut up. Becky smiled. She wasn't about to correct Damian that they had class starting in ten minutes.

This was far too important.

All five of them sat around a table, hunched together with the shoulders meeting for fear of being overheard by the librarian, or by other students. They could not afford to be interrupted, not when Anya's life could be on the line.

"So," Damian started. "Before we start, there's something I need to tell all of you."

Becky spoke up. "You're in love with Anya and want to marry her?"

Damian's face flushed. "That's not-"

"You stole her from me earlier this year and took her on a date to see Spy Wars?" said Bill, joining in with Becky's cheeky energy.

"It wasn't a-"

Ewen spoke up. "You're getting me a new bike from when she stole mine?"

Damian sighed. "She didn't-"

Emile couldn't help it, he wanted to join in too. "Anya rescued you from kidnappers?"

Nobody dared to breathe as Damian just stared and stared at Emile. Then, he released his breath in a forced whoosh.

"Alright," he pointed at Becky. "We are not talking about that."

He turned to Bill. "I didn't steal her! She wasn't yours to begin with, and it wasn't a date!"

He rounded on Ewen. "She gave you your bike back, so don't even think about it."

And then, finally, he turned to Emile with a strain in his voice. "How did you know about that?"

Emile shrank under Damian's glare. "C'mon boss! Everybody knows!"

"What? Since when?"

And to Damian's surprise, it was Bill that spoke up next: "It was pretty obvious after they gave the Stella to Anya, and the award for bravery. Anya is brave, but it's not often she would put her own life on the line to help someone. Also, you had two black eyes and a broken nose, and a bruised rib cage. You couldn't exactly hide that, and you were out of Physical Education for weeks."

Damian sighed, annoyed. Only Bill would actually call it 'Physical Education'.

"Anya told me straight away," said Becky, matter-of-fact as ever. "But honestly, I didn't believe her until the award ceremony. I'm still not sure I believe it, to be honest."

"Yeah," said Ewen. "She used to tell so many whacky stories that we just stopped believing them, but this is a new level." He looked at Damian curiously. "Just how much of it was true though?"

"Uh," Damian looked between the stares of his friends, and sighed in resignation. This was not how he had planned the conversation to go, but whatever. "It's all true."

The others contemplated this for a moment, before Bill spoke up. "Did she do it all by herself?"

Damian shook his head. "I'll tell all of you what happened, I was planning to anyway, because I think it might help us find her. But - and I am not kidding about this - I don't want this to get out, so can we agree to keep everything we speak about here a secret?"

All the students nodded at the table, and a small weight from Damian lifted.

"Now that we've got that out of the way," he started. "I'll tell you what I think is relevant, and if you have any questions I may consider answering them."

He took another deep breath. "So we know she stole Ewen's bike - and returned it! Don't give me that look - to follow whoever took me in the van, and she managed to track it down to where I was being held. Then the kidnappers tried to film me reading out a ransom note, but that was so amateurishly bad I'm not even going to repeat the experience here. I think I was only there for about an hour or two before I saw Anya. She set off some kind of smoke bomb, and untied me, and when the smoke disappeared, there were three men unconscious on the ground.

"We tried to escape then, but another guard got in the way and stopped us, but I think Anya knew him? She said his name, and that she knew where his family lived, and he let us go." Damian briefly wondered if he should mention the gun.

"Her father met us outside, and then Mr Forger drove me to the hospital, and that's what happened," Damian ended up saying instead.

Becky gasped. "You got to meet my precious Loid-san?"

"I am going to ignore that," said Damian firmly. He hadn't forgotten Becky's mild obsession over Anya's father - if he could call it that. The thought of her papier-mache "Loid-san" from their 'animals' project twelve years ago still made him gag.

Bill brought a hand up to his chin in a thoughtful stance. "Why are you telling us all this, Desmond? How do you think this will help us find her?"

Damian steadied himself with a deep breath. He wanted to try to avoid telling them his theory as much as possible, but if there was a way to hint at it, then that might be the better track.

"Basically, what I'm trying to say is that Anya is far more capable than we think she is. I saw her take out three fully grown men in less than a minute under the cover of smoke. I know that she tracked me to that factory by herself, and she called her father for backup. She's resourceful, and tenacious, and if there's anyone who is fighting their kidnappers back at this very second, it's her."

Bill raised his eyebrows. "Do you think she was specifically targeted?"

"Yes, I do." Damian returned Bill's serious gaze with an equal level of significance in his own.

Bill lowered his gaze in thought. "I see."

Becky had hung on to their every word, but at this point she couldn't contain herself: "What do you mean? How does that help us?"

"It means that if she was targeted then it was planned. And if it was planned, then they would have left tracks," said Bill slowly, and Damian nodded.

"Plus," added Damian. "There would have been scouts doing reconnaissance, possibly trying to find out Anya's schedule, or who her teachers are, or even getting information on their classmates."

Silence fell around the table as they tried to process that meant that the scouts might have information on them.

"How do you know this, Boss?" said Ewen. "I mean no offence, but we're going on very little information here. You can't just expect us to start looking for her with no idea where we're going next."

Damian wasn't about to tell them that what he knew of reconnaissance was what he had gleaned from Spy Wars. "I know," he said heavily, trying to imbue his voice with some gravity. "But you just have to trust me on this. I know that Anya has some level of background that she hasn't shared publicly, and I believe that means that someone is trying to go after her specifically."

Becky raised her eyebrows sceptically. "Background information, like what? What do you know about Anya that I - her best friend - don't?"

Damian pulled the collar at his neck. Was he sweating?

Maybe now he had some inkling about how Anya had been feeling all these years. Keeping parts hidden, letting other parts come to light, and maintaining a delicate balance between them all. He didn't want to betray Anya's trust, but he had to give them something to let them know that they could trust him, and believe that he did have some clue on what he was talking about.

"Uh," said Damian nervously. "You guys remember the spin the bottle, truth or dare game? When Grace dared her to tell someone a secret?"

Becky rolled her eyes. "Yeah, she picked you over me! How could I forget?"

"Okay, well," said Damian, deciding to ignore Becky's faux distress. "Anya told me something that could actually get her targeted if something did ever come to light. She said it to me in absolute confidence, so I'm absolutely not breaking my promise here today with all of you, but I need you to trust me on this."

She could be targeted for absolutely anything, Damian knew. It could be because she was a friend of Damian's, or because she was a spy (still unproven), but she could have had a sketchy background before she was adopted by the Forgers. She didn't tell him about it, but Damian imagined that whatever happened in that time must have been the reason that she was being targeted now.

"We still don't have evidence that it was a kidnap, what if she just ran away?" said Emile.

"Anya wouldn't do that," said Damian confidently. "She loves school, and she loves her family more than anything. There's no chance in hell that she would be putting them through this just for fun and games. She's been taken somewhere, just like I was, only I think that these guys are professionals. My kidnappers were amateurs, which was how she was able to get to me so fast, but the people who took Anya know what they're doing. They planned it, and probably have been planning it for quite some time. And Bill is right - If they've been planning it then they have definitely left some tracks behind. All we have to do is find them."

"And then what?"

"We've got a Desmond, a Blackbell, and a Watkins around this table. There is nothing that we can't do. We have influence, even if we arent head of our respective families just yet."

"That's true," murmured Becky. "If I ask my Papa, I can get him to do almost anything!"

"See!" said Damian, and he felt hope rising in his chest. "We have resources at the tips of our fingers! So let's use them to find our friend!"

"And your future girlfriend," said Becky with a cheeky smile.

Damian flushed. "Don't you dare tell her you said that!"

"I'm not hearing a no," Becky giggled. "But fine. Let's go save our friend!"

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Can you tell I had fun with this chapter xD

Yes we are into serious storytelling territory now, but who says there cant also be some banter and silliness?