James & Others

"Hear that?" Equiss stood, perking her silken, light brown ears to the air as the rattling chug of an engine idled just outside of their Den. "Think it's... the dog catchers?" She questioned with a ring of fear, looking to her ebony cousin.

The hybrid shifted a little on his dainty paws, while his thick mantle of a ruff expanded out, "Don't know." Ankh listened intently before standing and peering over the ledge of the second-story walkway. "Take your daughters into the back room." He added after a moment, hearing the engine suddenly cut off, and doors swing open.

Equiss corralled her four daughters around her, guiding them down the walkway and into the furthest room. Meanwhile, Ankh slunk along the overlook and settled down in a bank of shadows, where his midnight pelt was all but hidden.

Rue followed after her uncle, settling down in the darkness and keeping her senses atuned on the entryway to their domain.

--------

James moved to the back of the van and swung the doors open, then reached in to haul Conan out onto the pavement. Lanny followed suite, taking hold of Nadeem and dragging out onto the ground. Sheryl remained inside with Raimi, still doing her best to calm the toddler and get his mind off of his doomed brother.

"You've got about-" James paused as he looked to his watch, "-two hours left. Anything you'd like to say?" A cruel smirk drew up the corner of his mouth, fully enjoying every minute of this. Before his trip to the river, Conan would be sporting several more bruises and cuts, if James had his way with it.

Conan

Cassidy had been forced to stay behind in her own truck, carefully looking over the burns before deciding that she had to go have them looked at, and had called James during their drive to inform him that she was going home to have them and her leg taken care of. She had no fear that James would see to it that Conan died quite painfully, which was as much as she could have done herself, and so she chose not to be present, for to have done so would have expressed an interest in his death, which she could not afford. Getting her wounds tended was just the excuse she used. She hadn't thanked Dan for saving her from Conan's deadly aim, but nor did he probably expect her to, any more than she expected James to thank her for saving Sheryl. Among gangs, things like that just weren't done, when one knew that tomorrow, you were just as likely to be saved by the on you'd saved yesterday. Instead, she made a second phone call to Johann, to tell him that she was on the way.

Listening to his brother's crying and soft murmuring of his name all the way over here from the Akatsuki's place had nearly maddened the teen with knowing that he couldn't comfort the kid. But now the coldness was back, and even as James hauled him out of the van, he could do no more than follow. He did not even scowl up in answer to James' question, which he obviously couldn't answer verbally, and couldn't even sign to answer since his hands were bound. His fingers twitched behind him in frustration, but they couldn't form words.

James & Others

"Defiant little thing, aren't you?" James snorted laughingly when no response came from Conan. Grabbing his arm, he lead the teen inside, followed shortly by Lanny, who dragged a complacent Nadeem along with. The duo were shoved to the ground, where they were met with the business end of a cocked pistol that was brandished before their faces, "In case either of you want to try your luck escaping, hopefully this will put those foolish ideas to rest." James handed the gun off to his brother, and spoke something mumbled in his ear before heading back outside to check on his girlfriend.

Lanny wrinkled his nose for a moment, noting how the place wreaked of dog. Here and there, well-ganwed on bones littered the ground, along with some bits of old hide. The young man gave his captives a warning glare before he strolled a few feet away and picked up a large skull that looked to be wolfish, and turned it about in his hands in mind interest.

Ankh shifted uneasily from his perch a floor above the three, giving throat to a low, ominous rumble that was too quiet for the humans to pick up on. "Put that down, you bastard two-leg!" He hissed venomously, though his tones were still out of their range. Of all the peices Lanny could have picked up, the man was handling Narsia's skull. Ankh positively fumed as seeing his mother's remains poked at by some ignorant two-legger, but the gun made him wary and kept him in place - for now.

Conan

Having slept in a barn most of his life, Conan almost didn't notice the smell of dog around him. He lay listlessly where he'd been thrown, staring blankly in front of himself at the altogether uninspiring scene before him, and the coldness in his eyes flooded his system once more. The Conan of the past knew hoe had to get out of the duct-tape binding, knew he had to get back to his feet and keep on fighting... but the Conan of here and now struggled to draw up the motivation. Lanny wasn't nearly as difficult a puzzle as Ben to work on, and he'd seen, for one brief, shining moment, how really fond the young man was of Raimi, right before he'd smothered it. Lanny would see to it that Raimi came to no harm... and heck, wouldn't the kid be better off? Could anything really get worse after watching your mother die, seeing your family torn apart around you, and finally knowing a strand of hope, only to have it torn away? Whatever sort of life Raimi was headed into with the Cryptic Silvers, could it really be anymore painful or terrible than the life he'd lived so far?

This was the line of morbid thoughts that enveloped his mind as he lay there, staring about him without seeing, not a move in him but for the twitch of his fingers.

James & Others

Even though the air was brisk and chilled as the last of winter's clutches were leaving the land, Nadeem had broken into a cold sweat, frantic out of his mind and thinking up scheme after pointless scheme to try and get Conan and himself out of here. But think as he might, he just couldn't come up with anything remotely succesful, not that he had the know-how or bravery to try any of them. Wild animals he could deal with - but murderous humans... that was something else. "Conan, I'm sorry." He finally muttered, when he had grown tired of trying to plan a fruitless escape attempt. Everything had been going well, until he had let himself get caught by Dan. Conan's careful plan was shot to hell, and now here they were, with Raimi still with the CS, and they less than an hour away from drowning.

James returned to the building a while later, striding across the chilled ground as he traveled through shafts of light that threw him in the sickly glow of orange and yellow lights of the street lamps that filtered in through the windows. His brisk stride brought him right up to Conan, and without so much as a pause, he delivered a heavy kick to the teen's gut, and followed it through with several more.

Lanny had since disguarded the skull, and had been pacing about the bottom floor and waiting for his brother's return. Every now and then, he would look up to see the gloomy figure of a falcon staring down at him, with such intense and unwavering eyes that a chill would creep down his spine. A few times, the black and white peregrine would take flight and disappear through a broken window, only to return to its roost a few minutes later.

"I'm possitive, Ankh. There's a female and a youngster in the van. These are the only other two humans nearby." Black Feather was saying, as he stared down at Lanny. "Wait until one is alone again."

Ankh continued to rumble in discontent, but never moved from his perch on the overlook. Rue had inched up at his side, sizing up the two humans. After Lanny had carelessly dropped Narsia's skull, causing it to fracture into two peices, Ankh had made up his mind. He'd kill all these humans, just as soon as the situation turned in his favor.

Conan

Contrary to Nadeem's furious thinking as to a way to get them out of here, Conan had given up the fight, at this point. His eyes were closed as if he thought he could wish himself away, as if he expected to open them and find that it was a dream, and he safe and warm in his own bed. Nothing was able to pierce the numbness that had enveloped him. He couldn't even build hatred against Nadeem for having gotten caught and thus forcing him to relinquish his weapon. For a moment, it seemed he hadn't even heard the young Arab's attempted reconciliation, as he lay so silent and still on the unforgiving floor... but after a moment, a small squeak left him, as if he'd tried to answer, but his lack of voice had stopped him. Only on one other occasion had he been able to muster even that much sound, but it seemed that this small ability occurred only in his hour of deepest desperation.

That thing was welling up in him again... that small worm inside of him that had never let his spirit be conquered, even after years of torment at the hands of his parents, his brothers, and anybody else who saw him as a potential target. Nothing else, not even a want to save Raimi could have awakened this in him. No, this was something altogether more primal and less honorable than a need to protect the weak, even one as strong as the teen possessed. This was the inherent, ingrained need of a living being to fight for its own continued life, and that little tiny glowing ember that had never been willing to let him give up and die now sparked briefly inside him, and gave him the strength for that one, vague sound.

Still, it seemed as though that would be all that came of this brief moment of determination, for no words followed it. Nothing even seemed to come of it at all until James came back into to the building and began assaulting him once more. Because was came out of Conan's mouth was not the silent gasping that he'd been forced to endure for so long, but a grunt, and then a light cry of pain as James pummeled the same area over and over.

James & Others

Hearing the noise, as tiny as insignificant as it might sound, Nadeem furrowed his dark brows together and looked to the red-head. But, just as soon as curiousity perked up in his mind, a bitter laugh rolled through his thoughts - what did his concern and care matter now? They'd both be dead soon enough.

At first, the fact that they were going to die hadn't fully set into his concious, allowing him to sceme up these wild thoughts of heroics and escape as if any of them were close to being executable. However, Conan's scarce bit of noise and Jame's determined stalk across the ground seemed to cement the notion in his head - they were going to be killed. Murdered. Then he heard Conan's voice sound out again, and it brought Nadeem to his feet, wobbly without the use of his arms, as he used himslef as a battering ram to dive head-first into James.

The two went tumbling to the ground, and that was the end of Nadeem's brief moment of bravery. Cursing sharply, James hefted the young man a sharp kick in the back just as Lanny was rushing over to help his brother.

"Now, go!" Ankh hissed, springing up and bolting down the walkway. Rue and Equiss were rushing behind him, while the four youngsters had been ordered to stay in the room. "Rue, Equiss, get the light-furred male! Never mind the tied-up ones; we'll get them later." He ordered, while making his way straight for James. Using the fallen Nadeem as a platform, he ran right over him and leapt for Jame's arm, sinking his fangs into the limb that held the gun.

At the same moment, Rue had clamped her steel-trap jaws around the leg of Lanny and began thrashing wildly. Equiss leaped for his gun-weilding arm. Curses, snarls, and gunshots expoded into the deepening night, echoing loudly in the old factory.

Conan

This quick sequence of things would have probably been more than most could manage, but if there was any gift Conan possessed, it was thinking on his feet. With as little thought as breathing, the boy was on his feet again, perhaps a little more sturdily that Nadeem had been, but also with a different purpose in mind. Again thanking whomever was listening for a bit of experience to feed the fight, Conan backed quickly up to an exposed piece of shattered pipe and slashed through his duct-tape bonds without a seconds thought, or even a sound as the rusty metal sliced glancingly into his left wrist, causing a tiny bit of blood to well in a lot of different places. Instead, his hands now free, he moved forward quickly and used sheer strength to haul Nadeem to his feet, drawing from his pocket a small penknife they hadn't bothered to take from him since he'd been bound, and it wasn't really what one would call a deadly weapon. This was what he used to slice the tape away from Nadeem's arms, as if to beg redemption for his consideration earlier of abandoning the man, before he gave a wordless jumble of a murmur and bolted for the door, and the van outside.

James & Others

Compared to the jarring kick from James, Ankh jumping on him wasn't nearly as painful, though it did knock the breath out of him for the second time. The curly-haired man rolled quickly to the side and scrambled hastily across the slick floor, widened eyes taking in the stunning sight before him. He flinched as a bullet ricocheted off the ground near him, leaving a small nick in the cement before it burried itself in nearby wall. The snarling and cursing droned in his ears, and, for the life of him, he couldn't think of what to do right now as he sat stunned on the ground. It wasn't until Conan hauled him up that Nadeem collected his senses again, but was just as speechless as the red hair had previously been.

He followed after Conan, heading for the van as soon as the exited the old factory. Hands trembling violently as a new surge of arehnaline coursed through him, the young man wrenched open the side door of the van.

Inside, Sheryl was talking frantically on her phone, after having heard the sudden round of gunshots in the factory. When the door opened, she screamed sharply and scrambled back against the opposite side, pinning Raimi defiantly against her and unwiling to give him up without a fight.

Conan

Conan didn't need words as he leaned past Nadeem and peered into the vehicle. The macabre setting to his face portrayed clearly the sets of thoughts screaming across his mind, among them Give me back my brother or... and A few kicks won't stop me now. These were sketched clearly across the teen's troubled face as he leaned in, prepared to do battle for his young brother. He wasn't to the point where he'd deliberately hurt Sheryl in order to get Raimi back. Not yet. He was teetering on the edge of this last of his morals, peering over the summit of the cliff that would let him fall down into the less favorable side that had found harboring in him, but he hadn't stepped foot into that chasm yet.

Even the sharp, ringing sounds of gunfire and cursing behind him couldn't have drowned out the piercing cry of joy that Raimi loosed to see his brother, alive and basically well, and back near him again. He instantly began to wriggle again, fighting her hold as energetically as he had Lanny's and straining forward to reach his hands out to Conan, who was reaching for him and ready to do anything short of murder to get him back.

James & Others

Fear and determination mingled equaly into Sheryl's own expression as she pressed up against the opposite door. "Fuck off, Rasputin! He's ours now!" She screamed out shrilly, and like with Nadeem earlier, she aimed a few decent kicks his way if he dared to reach across the seat and try to retrieve Raimi. As for the toddler, she held onto him for dear life, ignoring the obviously glee that he presented upon seeing his older brother.

At long last, a workable idea wormed into the man's frazzled and shocked mind. While Sheryl's attention was locked on Conan, Nadeem hurried around the opposite side of the van and opened the door that the young woman was currently leaning hard against. The effect was that she toppled right out of the van, with Nadeem half-catching her out of instinct, and falling to the ground as well. A stinging slap stung his face, but he endured it far better than the previous kicks, and tried his luck at prying Raimi away from her.

Conan

Her words passed completely through him like they were no more than air, and he acknowledged them as much. He blocked the kicks she sent his way across an arm made broad by blossoming genetics, and she received only a grunt for her troubles. He was just trying to pry her grasping fingers apart when she suddenly fell completely backwards, out of his clutches and into Nadeem's reflexive hold.

He barely had time to hear the smarting slap she dealt to his face before he was also on the other side of the van, prepared to help Nadeem pry her arms apart so that the older man could release Raimi from the woman's grasp. He immediately set to work about this, putting his muscles to work as he tried to force her arms to unlock from around the toddler's waist, though his hands were not tight enough on her arms to really hurt her or leave a mark, as that went against the last of the morals he was still fighting with.

And Raimi was screeching and raising a ruckus again, doing his best to help his brother and Nadeem release him, struggling against the person who had been his mother and comforter for several long months among the Zelkovis. Sheryl, James, and Lanny were good friends... but Ras-Ras was his brother, and Shay-Shay was trying to keep him from him. That would not do.

James & Others

While the sounds of fighting continued to drag on in the building behind them, Sheryl was fighting madly against her attackers, kicking and writhing about for all she was worth. In the end, she was no match for their strength, and Raimi was soon pried from her grasp. "Give him back! Give him back!>" She was screeching, in clear hysterics as she went after Conan with fists flying.

Nadeem tried to grab her around the shoulders and pull her back to afford Conan time to make a run for it. These efforts got him a few more smarting kicks to the legs as she struck back with her feet, but it also kept her from reclaiming 'her' little boy.

Conan

Conan was completely unmoved by Sheryl's screams to claim possession of Raimi once more, only clasping his brother tightly to himself and giving an unintelligible holler to Nadeem, which was his cue to run for it. Conan was already half-way down the block, Raimi clutched tightly in his arms, before he dared to look back and see if Nadeem was managing okay, or if he was going to have to go back and help the older fellow escape. Now that he had his brother safely in his possession again, some of his more honorable characteristics were reawakening in him, enough to the point that he didn't want to leave Nadeem to the mercy of the gang, if somehow he managed to get himself caught again.

James & Others

Just as soon as Conan was clear, Nadeem bolted away from Sheryl and was high-tailing it after the teen. "Run!" He blurted out reflexively, even though the command was more than a little pointless right now. Dashing across the ground as fast as he possibly could, Nadeem cleared the distance between the van and Conan in record time, ready to blindly follow the red-head.

A hysteric Sheryl was not finished just yet. She couldn't outpace the two attackers, but her bullets should could. Jarring the front door of the van open, she fished frantically around until she came across Dan's abandoned pistol and sent a few crack-shots after Conan and Nadeem. She was not thinking clearly at the time, or she wouldn't have risked shooting in the same direction that Raimi was.

Conan

If he'd been running fast before, the sound of the gun and the ricochet of concrete into the backs of his legs as the bullets buried themselves into the pavement made him kick into overdrive, just barely managing to see Nadeem catching up with him as he began instinctively to veer and duck erratically, heading as quickly as he could back to the only place that came to mind at the moment... the Woodland Farm, which had always been home.