For Whom The Bell Tolls (Season Finale)

Rome waved obnoxiously at Elenna and Georgie while Rawson continued to search for any signs of the werewolf. There were none--not that he expected wolf prints in the mud or anything like Rome seemed to--but Raws didn't say anything.

"Hey, chiquitas," Rome said, greeting them like he was a high school football jock and the cheerleading squad had just arrived, "thank you for saving me from the sausage fest. How is it we kill werewolves again?"

"Silver bullet to the heart," Elenna said automatically. "But we have to find him first."

"Yeah," Rawson said. "That's a good point. Like what Richard said, we have to find him, not it. This Caleb guy is human now, right?"

Rome looked uncomfortable. "Yeah...I guess," he muttered.

"So we shouldn't be looking for the wolf, then, should we?"

"No, I guess not..."

"So tell me about this guy, what's his M.O.?" Raws pressed.

"Jesus, Raws, how can you be so callous about this? He's a person!" Rome suddenly yelled.

"Oh, so we're just letting him go for humanitarian reasons, then?" Raws snapped bitterly. "Because, yeah, letting him kill or turn more people every month is super-responsible of us."

Georgie stepped up. "Okay, you two, calm down. Rome, Raws is right, this is what we have to do. But Rawson, that doesn't mean we stop being compassionate about this. We knew him for quite a while, it isn't going to be easy for any of us."

Behind her, Richard set his jaw with determination, and Rawson guessed at what he planned to do.

"Okay, whatever," Rawson said, stalking back to his car. "You work on the touchy-feely crap, I'll work on getting the job done. Let's try in town."

Lenna had walked away a little while they discussed the issue that the werewolf was also a human. She knew this problem too well enough.

“Those look like werewolf foot prints.” Lenna mumbled.

“Really they look like human prints to me.” Rome was crouching next to Lenna, Lenna nearly jumped out of her skin when he was suddenly beside her.

“A werewolf doesn’t look like you think they look like humans, well sort of advanced humans. So their foot prints looks like humans, but they will not wear shoes so this barefoot print is clearly a werewolf. It has claws and well it just is.” Lenna wasn’t looking at Rome she just couldn’t. “So when we killed Caleb I guess that will be it. This is the last hunt of the X-Men. Luckily you taught me how to shoot.”

“Whoa chica didn’t I tell you I need your brain?”

“So you will call me once in a blue moon.”

“Silly girl, as if I would ever let go ride off in the sunset with Georgie alone, you two would kill each other.” Rome laughed and after while even Lenna grinned.

“I’ve found a few murderers but they are even weird for us. I mean it is not even full moon, I don’t understand how he can be so stupid and kill like a werewolf while he is not transformed. He must know that hundreds of hunters will find him. I just don’t understand what made him crack he said he got attacked ten years ago how can he fall off the wagon after such a long time?” Lenna was playing with her hair, normally she liked problems to solve that where difficult but this one seemed to be impossible to find an answer.

Rome took Lenna's hands and forced her to look at him. "Look, stop that, you freak," he admonished gently. "I'm the one with freaky premonitions, remember?" he said, and messed up her hair before pulling her to his chest for a hug.

After a moment, just before it got awkward, he sighed and pulled her out to arms' length. "And I don't know what made Caleb fall off the bandwagon but I guess we should have seen it coming. It's our fault these people are dying, so it's our fault to take him down." He looked up, and Georgie and Richard nodded solemnly. Rawson didn't move, but that was about expected with Raws.

"Okay," Rome said, thoroughly uncomfortable with how lines were blurring, but taking a deep breath and setting his jaw in grim determination. "Let's go hunt us a Hunter."

((OOC: I’m trying a slightly different writing method. There shouldn’t be any noticeable difference to the finished product, but let me know if there is. Cheers.))

So, a silver bullet to the heart? Richard began to see a small flaw in his plan, namely his terrible aim. He could hit a moving target, normally, but such a precise shot… Hopefully just being hit would slow the poor bastard down long enough. Richard did wonder how, is this Caleb had been a werewolf when he used to roll with the others, just how did he manage to keep himself in check? He pushed it to one side, doubtful he’d get an opportunity to ask Caleb himself, and he didn’t think the others would be likely to have an idea.

Looking at the others it was clear that Rome and Lenna were being hit hard, and it wasn’t even crunch time yet. It would be best to keep them active for now. Try and stop them from brooding over what, unfortunately, needed to be done.

“Rawson is right, lurking about in the woods isn’t getting us anywhere. Let’s get back to town. We might find a lead there if he’s around.” Richard began striding back towards the parked cars, followed swiftly by Rawson how then overtook him. The others came behind.

As a general rule, Alex liked bars. He also liked pubs, taverns, and, the few times he’d been in them, cantinas. They were an excellent place to watch people, and to get drunk (he did that a lot, when he was off-duty). When he was hunting, he’d go hang out at bars to see if he could overhear anything worth knowin’. Dives were usually his thing, but he’d been in a few upperclass joints, and he’d liked them too. He was even enjoying this bar, despite the company and conspicuous lack of alcoholic beverage in his hand. He was drinking a coke, because Command seemed to think he’d only get himself into trouble if he drank. Pfff. As if he ever got in trouble…

“Explain to me why we couldn’t just bust in here and snatch these freaks,” a feminine voice said in his ear, and Alex looked briefly at the ceiling. Heaven help him, he was going to stake her by the time they finished this mission.

“Freaks, Natalie? You shouldn’t talk about yourself that way,” Alex said before anyone else could say anything. His earpiece shrieked in his ear briefly and he flinched.

“You remember your backup, right?” Holyfield asked, as if Alex hadn’t said anything at all, and Alex saw Natalie snort at her glass. She was drinking. She also couldn’t get drunk. Something about vampire metabolism. Or maybe it was Natalie metabolism. He wasn’t quite sure. “Last time we tried that, poor Colt here dropped his damn rifle and ended up handcuffed to a pipe in the middle of Boston winter.” This time, Natalie’s snort was more of a derisive laugh.

“Hey, I didn’t miss the guy,” Alex countered with the boredom of having said it too many times.

“You were supposed to take him down, and you shot him in the leg,” Justice commented.

“Yeah, well, I was bored with following orders from stupid people,” Alex drawled back.

“I gave you that order, Colt,” Holyfield growled dangerously, and Alex grinned. He just couldn’t help taunting the two senior agents, not when they reacted so fantastically every. single. time.

“Oh, sorry, was that you? I’d forgotten…”

“And that is why you’re on guard duty for the next month. Would you like to make it three?” Holyfield asked, and Alex shook his head, saying nothing.

“If you two are finished?” Natalie asked, finally, cutting off any further bickering. “Any idea when they might show up? I’m getting bored.” Alex looked over at her from his seat at the back of the room. She was leaning against the bar with her drink at her elbow. About three of the men standing nearby were practically leering at her. Had she been anyone else, Alex would have sauntered over and chased them off—he didn’t particularly like the look in their eyes—but Natalie could take care of herself.

On second thought, maybe he should do the guys a favor and chase them off before she decided to take one out back and drain him of every last teaspoon of blood. She had noticed one of them and was giving him one of those come-hither looks. “Uh, Command? You really want your pet bloodsucker blowing our cover with her bad habits?” Alex asked, and he saw one of Natalie’s eyebrows twitch as her glance left the guy she’d been staring at and fell on him for the briefest of moments.

“Just because you don’t know how to have a little fun…” she muttered as she turned back to her drink.

“You get to have plenty of fun once Remington and his buddies get here,” Alex grumbled back, staring morosely at his coke. He didn’t get to have any fun. He was here to make sure Natalie didn’t get her skinny vampire ass handed to her on a shiny silver platter. And he had to stay well out of the way, because they knew him—and there was every chance that the psychic would recognize him if she noticed him thinking in her general vicinity. “Which better be soon, or I’m going to take a nap,” he added.

The drive to the first bar was not long, as soon when they left the car Lenna stayed weirdly close to Georgie. This whole situation was freaking her out, not to mention that she was never good hunting werewolves in the first place.

“Silver bullet in the heart.” Lenna whispered to herself.

“I hate this Blondie. Why did Caleb has to lose it. He should have come to us and ask for help.”

Georgie squeezed Lenna’s hand. “I know but let’s see if we not can deal with him now.” Georgie was not only affected by her own feelings but also by Lenna’s.

“Hey can I have a rum coke please.” Lenna ordered at the bar showing her ID which made her be twenty-one. “Actually make it a double.” Lenna was looking around and found a table that was large enough for all of them, she was not surprised that she was the first one at the bar. Lenna was always driving fast.

When Rome and Raws pulled up to the bar, Lenna and G and even Richard were already there. They made quite a stir, the pair of brightly-painted Camaros and the compensation-bike in this size of a town. They really should be more careful, but this should be a quick, clean job--

Well, not clean. Killing former friends never was clean.

Shaking himself, Rome entered the bar first, his brother behind him, who darted immediately to the darkest corner like the creep he was. Spotting Lenna at the bar, Rome sidled up next to where she and Georgie enjoyed appletinis or something (well, G was, anyway, Lenna was probably drinking her usual rum and coke).

Rome flashed a smile at the bartender. "Highball for me, please, top shelf whisky, easy on the rocks."

"How you doing?" he nodded suggestively at his girls, but they laughed. "Oh, man, you guys can't demoralize me like this."

Georgie rolled her eyes. "Rome, you don't need our help."

Rome pulled a face and took his drink elsewhere. He had plans on taunting his curmudgeon of a brother with his drink, until he spotted her at the other end of the bar.

Hook, line, sinker, Natalie thought as Remington set his drink next to her's. "Only if you take it," she responded, glancing from the drink he'd set down to his face with another coy smile.

Rome took the seat gladly, and there was a pause of casual silence between them. Ooh, she was making him work for it, wasn't she? He liked a challenge. 'Can I buy you a drink?' wouldn't work, as she had clearly been nursing her Bloody Mary for some time. 'Come here often?' was stupid, and various 'What's a pretty girl--?' lines flitted through his head but none matched the occasion--or the girl. She didn't seem the type who appreciated casual conversation about the weather. And with a dress like that--

"My name is Rome," he decided on: she seemed a businesslike type, if not actually business, and he wouldn't insult her with his usual standbys, though "like the empire," may have slipped out.

Natalie arched her eyebrows and laughed shortly at that empire comment. "It's nice to meet you, Rome-like-the-empire. My name's Natalie," she said, offering a hand to shake before she returned to spinning the drink glass lazily in her hand. "Rome, like the empire--wasn't it named after Romulus?" she asked.

"That's what they tell me," he said. Her hand was cool to the touch, but not clammy. Smooth. "'Romulus' is a pretty stupid name, though, so I try to forget I belong to it most of the time." Rome took a swig of his drink, and smiled at her sidelong. "So, Natalie. What is it that you do?"

"I'm a phlebotomist, actually," Natalie said, remembered to laugh, because that long word usually got a confused response, and added, shaking her head as if it was a bit less glorious than it sounded, "I treat and study diseases of the blood," she added as extra explanation. "And you?" she asked, letting her voice fall just the slightest bit in volume so Remington would have to lean closer to hear her.

Rome waggled his eyebrows. "If I told you, I'd have to kill you," he said, just teasing enough to get a laugh, just serious enough that her eyes held some concern if not for her safety then his sanity. Then he laughed out loud. "No, I'm totally just messing with you. Actually I--"

Rome was not sure until afterward what had triggered the vision--tactile things sometimes did, but only rarely--and when he looked back at the place where the side of his hand brushed the surface of the bar, there was a faint ring where a foamy beer had rested before the bartender had a chance to wipe it up.

BAM! Flash!

Hitting harder than they had been in a long time, the vision tore through Rome's skill like a freight train trying to fit through a rabbit hole.

A warehouse. Caleb--

Not Caleb, the werewolf. Not Caleb--

The place was dark, big, high ceilings, big windows high up. So much space. It wasn't safe.

A silver bullet. A sniper rifle.

Rawson smiling. Job done.

"Aw, sonofabitch!" Rome groaned, clutching at his brains as he crumpled off the barstool.

With a soft curse that was echoed by three voices on the headset, Natalie stepped back from Remington, trying to figure out what had just gone wrong. She shot a glance to the corner where Alex had stood, apparently ready to jump in if the situation was about to escalate. She shook her head shortly at him and he sat back down, while she tried to look concerned while not actually getting too much closer to Remington. There was no telling what these psychic types could tell about her if she got too close when they were having one of their freak-moments.

Okay, the only good thing about his life right now was that there were two beautiful women helping him up--somewhat disappointingly, neither of them were Natalie, but were instead Georgie and Lenna.

Until his brute of a brother came up and shoved them aside, grabbing him firmly by the arm and dragging him out, leaving his highball tragically unfinished, but opening his eyes to protest only sent another stab of pain through his scalp. "What the hell was that, Rome?" Raws hissed in his ear, and suddenly it was cold as he dragged him outside.

Rome gasped. "I know where Caleb is."

Lenna looked angry at Rawson who just had pushed Rome away from Georgie and her as if they had done something wrong.

“What the hell!” Lenna followed Rome and looked at him worried. He seemed to be more out of it then he used to be.

“Can it be that your visions get stronger?” Lenna offered Rome a bottle of water ignoring Rawson.
“What did you see?”

“Lenna let him breath before you make him talk.” Georgie said calmly.

“Well we are sort of in the middle of a hunt and not have time for holding hands.” Lenna was edgy, the longer they were running around looking for clues and not finding any. “Rome I think you should stop running after sexy girls they always cause you troubles.”

Rawson was still trying to keep Lenna away from him. “God dammit Rawson you are not the only one caring about him. We didn’t bail on him like you did, so stop treating us like we are the bad guys.”

Georgie took Lenna’s hand, she felt that this hunt was pulling at nerves badly. “Brownie calm down okay.”

Lenna closed her eyes and waited for Rome to tell them what his vision was about. “You could have at least waited until I had my first drink to get your vision.”

“Do you still think those little migraines Romey is getting can help you?” Rawson snarled, trying to push himself between Rome and Lenna again. But this time Lenna ducked away and then stand close to Rome.

“Those little migraines as you call them are vision. And they always are helpful. Which you would know if you wouldn’t have bailed months ago. So shall we hear what your bother saw?” Lenna snapped sounding for once rather serious. A way Lenna has spoken to Rawson before.

“Sure tell us Romey what you saw?” Rawson was looking at Lenna, and it took all her strength not to punch him. Something was up with him and until Lenna knew what it was she was making sure that Rawson could not tell Rome enough lies to make him go with Rawson.

"Please stop fighting," Rome moaned, when what he really should have been worried about was the fact that he was in the fetal position in a parking lot in designer jeans and a new leather jacket.

This was how it all began, didn't it? With Raws and Lenna fighting like cats and dogs.

"Shut up, you two," Rome said. He wanted Georgie. At least she wasn't yelling. Hell, at this point he wouldn't mind nuzzling up to Richard, if he'd hold him. "Caleb's at a warehouse. A big one. Huge. That's all the vision said. Well, mission accomplished, that was in the vision. So apparently in some version of the future you two managed to figure out how not to kill each other long enough to bag a werewolf."

Rawson looked from where he had been glaring at Elenna to peer at Rome.

"This warehouse--were their windows?" he pressed.

Rome winced, holding the bridge of his nose. "Uh, I don't--yeah?"

"All the way around?"

"No, just on the sides--the long sides? Raws, what are you--are we sharing visions again?"

"No." Rawson stood up, hauling him to his feet even though vertical was the last place Rome wanted to be right now, and he almost hurled. "I know where this warehouse is. It's where I almost cornered the wolf last time."

"You know where we can find Cal--the wolf?" Georgie asked.

Rawson nodded, going to the trunk to load his weapon with silver. "I do. Let's go."

Lenna starred at Rawson in disbelieve while her right hand was fingering with the small crossbow that was hidden under her jacket and she was actually considering at least shooting him in the foot.

Why does he know so many details? He is the one finding footprints and other clues, knowing where warehouses are, what next he can call the wolf with his whistle? Gosh I wish he would just do what he is doing best, disappear without a trail…

Lenna felt suddenly a hand on her shoulder and it was weird but she could have sworn that from this hand an odd calmness is spreading through her. She looked up and saw Georgie and Georgie knew how she felt.

“It starts to creep me out that people around me can either read my mind or my emotions.” Lenna sounded sour as she turned around and walked to her car, Georgie’s hand was still on her shoulder as she followed Lenna. The boys would drive together in Rawson’s friggin poison green car.

“I hate him, why did he have to come back in the first place? I mean we are still helping people and not hunting them for money.” Lenna didn’t even try to say this quietly. It made Georgie grin. “And his car isn’t awesome at all it looks like a giant poisonous frog.”

“Yeah because your bright yellow car is so much less suspicious.” Georgie checked her makeup in the mirror. “Do I sense some jealousy?”

“What? No, I’m not jealous but I think it is not safe to blindly trust someone who is not so much a hunter to help but more to make money.” Lenna threw her car in gear and waited for Rawson to show her the way. “You know this is stupid, he should have told me where to go because he drives like an old man.”

Richard climbed into the bright green car, settling himself down on the back seats. He’d kept out of the altercation earlier, and left the bar quietly behind them. While uneasy about putting so much trust in Rome’s visions, and Rome’s brother whom he knew nothing about, the sooner this job was done the better. Everyone was on edge and the group was starting to fracture. If this job wasn’t over soon, Richard didn’t know if the kids would stick together afterwards.

It might even have passed that point

“So where exactly is this warehouse?” Richard asked, determined to break the silence in the car.

"Out in the middle of nowhere," Raws grumbled as Rome sat quietly clutching a bottle of water, trying to convince himself to drink it. He felt ill, or like he had the jitters (back when caffeine affected him) and a hangover all at once--it felt like that time he downed three Red Bulls, ate an entire pizza by himself, and went on the scariest roller coaster in Six Flags. He was pretty sure he didn't want to live anymore after that, and this was worse, because he had a headache.

And yet he felt...powerful. Like there was just too much everything, psychic sludge, whatever, clogging up his veins. And that was scary as shit. So on top of everything he was also about ready to piss himself.

"I think maybe I should stay in the car," he said.

Raws' head whipped around. "You all right?"

"No, Raws, I'm not all right, Jesus frakking Christ, man!" He groaned as Rawson took a turn particularly sharp. "Maybe I'll wait in the car."

"I'm not leaving you alone while there's a werewolf on the loose," Rawson said.

"Oh, right, because having me in a firefight right now would be so much safer for everyone else. Raws, I can barely see."

Rawson cursed. "I have a rifle, I need to be further back."

"I'll look after him," Richard offered.

"I don't need looking after, I just want to stay in the car," Rome grumbled. Part of him was flashing back to Return of the Jedi and 'I'm endangering the mission, I shouldn't have come,' but he felt too weird to even make a Star Wars joke.

Richard ignored him. "You'll be okay, Rome," he said, and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Thanks, man," Raws told Richard, like he wasn't even in the car, "because we're here."

"I can't believe we're related," Rome moaned, pinching the bridge of his nose.

The first ten minutes they were in the car, Lenna kept complaining about Rawson. At first, Georgie pretended not to pay attention, but it was kind of hard not to listen to Lenna’s ongoing complaints. Then, after ten minutes, Lenna fell silent for about a minute, just biting her lip, and in that one minute she apparently remembered a whole lot new things she didn’t like about Rawson, so she started all over again.

“Seriously?” Georgie turned her head to her. “Seriously?!

“What?”

“I thought you were done bickering about Rawson. You seem almost obsessed with that guy.”

“Hey, don’t make it sound like I care.”

“Um…apparently you do care, otherwise you wouldn’t have all that energy to talk about that one person.”

“I’m not obsessed with Rawson!” Lenna made a face. “Eew!”

“Okay, so it’s maybe not Rawson himself, but you’re kind of obsessed with the idea that he takes your precious puppy away from you.”

“Bullshit.” Lenna almost drove over a red light- not that she cared. “And Rome is not my puppy!”

Georgie shrugged her shoulders. “Whatever.”

“He’s not.”

“Sure. If you say so.”

Lenna mumbled something, then an awkward silence followed. Lenna turned the radio on, but the second she put her hand back on the steering wheel, Georgie changed the channel.

“Dude! My car, my music”, Lenna reminded her.

“I’m not a dude”, Georgie replied dryly. “And those 5-minute guitar solos drive me crazy. Seriously, I just want to punch someone in the face after that.”

Lenna chuckled. “Can you take it out on Rawson? That would be amazing.”

Georgie rolled her eyes and leaned back in the seat. They saw the green coming to a stop not too far away from them. “I guess we’re here.”

Lenna stopped the car and looked at Rawson who was leaning against his ugly poison green Camaro waiting for them.

“I don’t get it why does Rome just trust him, I mean yes he is his brother but there are so many black areas with where he was here.”

“Because he is his brother. He trusts him like you trusted your ghost brother and I remember very clearly where that nearly got this.”

Lenna didn’t answer and got out. “Hey Raws you wanna tell us how you know where this warehouse is? With nothing to go on but how many windows it has?” Lenna snapped.

“I told you I tracked him to this warehouse the first time and then I lost him.”

“Right. Why did we never got a postcard or you know a birthday card for Rome, I mean you must remember that his is the same as yours.”

“What do you wanna do trap me in one of your little water bubbles again? It didn’t work the first time, witch.” Rawson snarled.

“No I have a lot better methods nowadays. Wanna try me?” Lenna looked angry at Rawson, for a moment her eyes did it again they flashed and turned bright blue but just long enough that you could tell yourself that it was just the light reflecting oddly in her brown eyes.

“I thought we are here to hunt Caleb.” Georgie said calmly, she felt how angry Lenna really was and when Lenna stops thinking rational she might actually try her new tricks.

“Yeah we are but on whose account? Rome how can you be so blind this is not right, where the fuck was he all the time.” Lenna snapped looking at Rome, he still didn’t look to good.

"You guys, stop it!"

Rome had gotten his legs out of the car but he was still sitting with his head in his hands, listening to them argue. Even if Caleb was still here, there was no way he would be for long with these two going at it. Now Rome had a long history of being fought over--but it was usually by hot drunk chicks he never expected to be in the same room together--but this--

As Rome cried out, lurching to his feet, his psychic power crap--something happened with it that he didn't understand. There was a rush of power, like he was literally sending his brain waves out to the people around him, and then his head didn't hurt anymore, and now--he could hear their thoughts?

This is stupid. This whole hunt is stupid and I don't trust Raws.

I've got to protect these kids from this, it's wearing on their nerves. I'll take care of the werewolf this time.

Why do you think I stayed away, bitch?

Rome, stop. I can feel you listening in.

Rome returned to himself to Georgie staring at him. At least now his headache was gone. He smiled feebly and went to the trunk to load up his Desert Eagle with silver bullets. "Look, guys," he said, "I'm flattered and all, but being fought over by my brother and my sister-from-another-mister is kind of just gross." He chambered a round and flicked the safety off:

"Now let's go hunt us a werewolf," he said, a cocky, lopsided grin on his face. "Richard, you and G take point on the North and South sides. Raws, you go around to the East side. Lenna and me will take this entrance. I can--" his powers felt stronger now, if unwieldy, and gently he tried: Can everyone hear that?

"Ow! Jesus, Rome!" Rawson snapped. "Not so loud."

"Yeah, loud and clear, kid," Richard confirmed.

"Good, okay. I'll be our comm system. Silver bullet to the heart, so make your shots count, and everyone keep low so nobody shoots each other. Got it?"

The others nodded.

"X-Men are go."

Lenna waited until the other were gone to their sides when she walked next to Rome. “You know I could have taken a side on my own as well.”

“I know chica.” Rome didn’t need to look at her to know where she was. His new powers let him feel her thoughts as if they were his own.

“You know it is creepy that you read my mind like this. What if I think something private.” Lenna kept her eyes on the warehouse.

“You always say out loud what you think anyway so there are no secrets.” Rome grinned, checking now and then where the rest of the X-Men were.

“Not true.” Lenna sounded like a sulking child, she tried really heard not to think too much now that Rome was able to poke into her head like as if he opened a book.

“I still wonder what made him slip so badly, I mean slipping once okay but so badly that he kills every human he finds around him. That’s a bad slipping. Maybe we can… just catch him and dunno lock him away?” Lenna was thinking about Nick, how he was a good guy and how everything changed so rapidly. This wasn’t fair. “Caleb is a good guy is he not?” Lenna was scanning the dark corners trying to find Caleb a part of her was hoping to find him first even though when she had no idea what to do with him.
Not far from them Lenna heard a growling, a growling she had heard before but the last time she had heard it she went hiding in a closet.

“I hate werewolves.” Lenna mumbled.

They turn human when they get shot, most hunters don’t know that. And all of them had no idea what they did.

Richard slipped quietly through the north door, ears pricked for any sound as his eyes adjusted to the light. Not only was he hunting down the werewolf, but he had to do so before the others caught up. Well, okay not quite. Somehow he doubted there would be as much of a problem is Rawson got to Caleb first. As for the rest of the kids… A witch, a psychic and an empath. They were lucky they found each other, well, again. Alone, or amongst the rare other groups of hunters, they’d be tracked down themselves.

Or maybe luck had bugger all to do with it.

The whole situation had a feeling about it. Not this specific hunt, though it had its own share of weird problems. But the whole group situation. Chess pieces on a board maybe. And that had very troubling implications.

Then another thought popped into Richard’s head.

‘Just how much of this shit are you picking up Rome?’ Richard thought-asked hard.

Rome winced as Just how much of this shit are you picking up Rome? reverberated loudly in his skull.

"Sonofabitch! Not so damn loud!" he shot back, but he didn't know if it got anywhere.

Lenna was giving him a weird look, a small half-smile on her face, and he opened his mouth to explain, but shook his head and shrugged. And then--

"Rome," Elenna said forlornly. "I'm an orphan now."

"The hell you are, kiddo. You're an honorary Remington, now."

--Lenna's memory?

There was a wave of warmth and brightness along with it, like the sun coming up for the first time in spring, like this stupid little moment was somehow the gamechanger. Rome felt weird picking up the rush of emotion, so he looked away, trying to dislodge it, trying to focus his mind elsewhere.

He motioned to Lenna to stay back as he reached for the door. He took a deep breath and--flexed? was that the right word?--reached out with his mind to contact the others:

Georgie was in position.

Richard was already there.

Raws--

"Raws," Rome whispered.

Lenna's head snapped around to look at him. He pulled away from the door, his head aching as he strove to contact his brother.

Nothing.

"No, no, no," he whispered.

"Rome, be quiet!" she snapped.

"No, Lenna!" he hissed, panic in his voice. "I can't hear my brother anymore!"

Though there was nothing else redeeming about it, the Coke earlier had at least given Alex a jolt of caffeine, and dealing with an irate Natalie was enough to get anyone’s adrenaline pumping. Vampires were scary when they got mad. Not that he’d ever admit it. No, he’d drawled at Natalie to stop pitching a hissy fit as soon as they’d gone to the parking lot, and then climbed back into the van. Frankly, Alex wasn’t sure why Natalie was so pissed off. After all, Holyfield and Justice probably had about a million backup plans they hadn’t bothered sharing with anyone, and failing that, they’d sit down and come up with one. It would probably involve Alex shooting someone, which was a lot more surefire—haha, he made a funny—than counting on Natalie to lure someone away with nothing but her looks and stellar personality.

And it turned out there was a backup plan. Actually, there were at least five, that Alex could tell. But the exact design of any of the plans was frustratingly unclear, for reasons that Justice promptly cited as “you don’t need to know”. So either he didn’t feel like explaining, or he was afraid Alex would ask inconvenient questions, as he was prone to doing when he felt like being exceptionally obnoxious. Whatever the reason, Alex couldn’t wheedle an answer out of him for anything, and finally gave up trying, subsiding into silence in the far back seat of the van. He waited until an almost-audible sigh of relief went through the car (except Natalie, who was still pissed off).

“Okay, so wait. What exactly is the plan, here?” he piped up, and there was a sudden intake of breath, the tense cousin of that relieved sigh when everyone thought he was going to cooperate. Please. Cooperate? As if…

“The plan is for you to shut up and follow orders, or else…” Justice growled from the front seat, where he was fiddling with a GPS. It started speaking German and he threw it back on the dash, where it bounced to the floor.

“Or else what?” Alex asked.

“Or else I kill you,” Natalie snarled, and Alex just looked at her.

“Yeah, you know, not really buying that, but you can have a gold star for effort,” he retorted. Before Natalie could reach back and throttle him, the GPS unit came sailing over the two seats and hit Alex in the face. Natalie barked a laugh (yeah, that was attractive…) as Alex alternated between cussing a blue streak and holding a hand to his face.

“You could have hit my eye, you dumbshit!” he practically wailed at Justice, who whirled in his seat.

“Excuse me?” Justice asked. Uh oh. Too far. But Alex was too pissed off to think.

“You could have hit my eye, Mr. Dumbshit /Sir/!” he snapped back.

“Natalie, if he says one more word, break the arm he doesn’t use to shoot,” Justice said.

“I shoot with both arms!” Alex answered, and Natalie grinned suddenly.

“Break a foot or something, then, Natalie, I’m sure he doesn’t need those,” Justice answered. Alex shut his mouth, muttering away into silence as he retrieved the GPS from the floor and smashed away at the touch screen until it started speaking English. He handed it back up front without a word.

About a half-hour later, they arrived at a giant building in the business district. Tall windows lined the longer sides of the building, and it looked like some garage doors or sliding doors or something were set into the short sides, probably to haul big things in and out. Alex thought it looked like a giant barn. The van stopped and they all sat in silence before Holyfield stepped from the car and went to the back for weapons. Alex waited until Natalie got out and then jumped from the van as well, looking around as soon as his feet touched the ground, his practiced eye picking out where he’d hide if he had to shoot from somewhere out here.

“Not yet, Colt,” Holyfield said, nodding to the big building with the tall windows. Alex shrugged and went to the back of the car for his rifle, taking the case gently from the top of the pile of cases. He kept clear of Natalie, who was grabbing one of the guns from a smaller, heavier box. As she dug for the other box that held the ammunition for the gun, she knocked the gun box with her elbow, and it tumbled from the car.

Right onto Alex’s foot.

“Son of a bitch what was that for?” he howled, taking a step back and then limping because ow, yeah, something felt either seriously bruised or maybe broken. Looking at the box and remembering just how heavy it’d been when he’d put it in the car, he was leaning towards broken. Natalie just arched her eyebrows at him, the very picture of innocence.

“Oh, I’m sorry, was that your foot?” she asked, and sauntered off. Justice followed after her, but as he passed Alex, he said, “What did I say about speaking?” Alex just stared after them, flabbergasted, and then sucked it up and hobbled after them. If he didn’t try to run, probably the adrenaline would hold him over until he could get settled somewhere.

“Colt, you get up there and keep an eye out, I want to know the second anyone enters the area. Natalie, stay over there, be ready to assist if something goes wrong,” Justice commanded, and Natalie went over to the shadows, disappearing, while Alex climbed some rickety old metal stairs and settled himself in the rafters behind some wide, round, industrial lights. He removed the bulb from the one closest to him, just in case anyone turned them on. No need to be blinded, after all.

And then he sat and waited, and tried to ignore his foot, or toes, or whatever Natalie’s gun case had busted, like a good little sniper. When he saw headlights, he shifted.

“Hey, Command, we got somethin’,” he said very quietly.

“Good. Await my command. I’d sooner miss them and catch them another day than spook them into going completely off the grid. They’re here for something—maybe we can let them do the job for us, this time, and not waste the bullets,” Justice replied, and Alex bit off a sigh. He was tired of chasing this group. He’d just as soon round them up now, and not have to deal with them leading them on a merry chase again tomorrow, but if he screwed this up, Justice was going to let that R guy throttle him. And he’d probably let Natalie dance on his corpse after the life was choked out of him. Alex in no way relished the idea of any of this, he decided, and so settled back, hands resting loosely on the railing next to his gun as he waited to see what’d walk in the door.

Lenna looked at Rome and she wasn’t sure what to do, she was scared that he could read her thoughts and made it impossible to lie to him and at the same time she wanted to tell him ‘I told you so’. Lenna didn’t say it out loud so, more because she wished that she wasn’t right and Raws would do what he always did ditch his brother, he did it before ditch him even while they were in the middle of a hunt.

“I don’t know what to do.” Lenna mumbled. “But should we not try to get Caleb? I mean I don’t think Caleb would have attacked Raws, he knows how to protect himself.”

Lenna didn’t mean to hurt him but one of them had to think logically. “If you want you go and find Rawson and I go and find Caleb… I shot someone I know before maybe the second time is easier.” Of course Lenna didn’t want at all to kill Caleb but she would if she had to and when Rome really had to look for his brother she would let him go, even when she knew that he was gone. It was weird the moment Rome had touched her mind the first time she felt closer to him. Like back then when he told her that she was an honorary Remington.

“Just go and find Rawson I’m okay on my own and if I need you I can just call you, I don’t think you managed to get out of my head ever again.” Lenna whispered.

Rome nodded shortly, stepping back, hands shaking as fear for his brother's safety took hold of him. "Stay down, stay safe--I'll be right back--"

Because surely, he told himself, if Raws wasn't answering him, then he was in trouble, and Rome was walking into danger, not leaving Lenna in the middle of it, which helped abate the guilt a little.

Raws...Rawson! Rome extended his mind as he stepped back outside, flexing that muscle he barely knew how to work, and he sensed--another?--another presence--Caleb? Was that Caleb? The werewolf? At least it was certain that they weren't alone. And it was coming from--

He shouldn't have left Lenna.

But when Rome turned around, it was already too late:

There was Caleb--he didn't even look like Caleb anymore, with long hair and teeth and nails, yellow animal eyes--the wolf, then--standing in a sliver of moonlight, eyes locked on Lenna and mind seething with hate and hunger.

Rome fired off a shot over her head. "Lenna, get down!" he shouted, surging forward to put himself between the beast and his best friend. "Contact! Contact!" he screamed as the wolf lunged.

Lenna flinched at every shot Rome fired, she might slowly get used to guns but she still didn’t like them. Lenna starred in horror at the monster Caleb had become. For a second she froze remembering the moment she wished she could forget, but Lenna had grown and as weird as it sounded she felt Rome poking in her head and she knew that he would do everything to protect her.
 
“Feuer!” Lenna yelled and right away a large fire ball appeared and she didn’t hesitated and threw it at Cal- the wolf. But he didn’t think of being attack by the little witch with fire of being funny. He ran forward, within a few steps he had reached her and threw her through half the warehouse with just one push. Lenna landed in a pile of boxes and stuff and it sure hurt so did the bruise that was forming on her hip. “You bloody bastard. You wanted to kill me because you thought I might be a werewolf and here you are thinking you got your transformations under control. Guess what you don’t. Erde die uns traegt ergreife ihn!” Lenna first felt it and then large roots ripped open the ground under Caleb and tried to bind him down.
 
“Rome where are the other ones we are clearly over our heads here?” Lenna yelled at him.

Between feeling the almost-memory of Lenna shooting her brother in werewolf-form (he'd feel bad later about forcing his way into her brain to push that memory out) and seeing her fly back and hit the wall, Rome was overcome by the desire--need, even--to do anything to protect Elenna, and he emptied the clip to cover himself as he ran across and dove into the pile of boxes next to her.

"Yeah, yeah, I know, I know," Rome said as he tried to replace the clip. But his hands were shaking and he was reaching out with his mind to try to contact the others--couldn't they hear the gunshots and screaming?--but there were other forces out there, too, things he didn't understand, it wasn't the wolf it was--and where was Raws? "You ok-kay?" he asked her, seeing her wince as she sat up.

"Fine," she said, and, "here." Rome could hardly believe it, but she took the Desert Eagle from his hands and reloaded it for him with precise movements, pulling back the chamber to load it and handing it back to him. "Don't miss."

"I won't," Rome vowed, and he hoped he didn't telegraph that in this moment he really wanted to kiss her.

For a moment she forgot where she was that she had crashed into some wooden box and she didn’t really want to think about what was in them. Probably something you should not crush into. She looked up at Rome and wondered how much he was able to read her mind.
 
Why did his powers suddenly got so strong? Maybe he did something? Oh god what if he took any kind of drugs more than caffeine? Having fun following my personal thoughts, Rome?
 
Lenna looked over Rome’s shoulder and saw Caleb sitting weirdly like a dog waiting for a command. This was weird. “Damn it I guess my powers do not really work against him.” Lenna sighed deeply and reached under her jacket and got her small crossbow.
 
“Just for the record next time your,” Lenna bit her tongue and not call Raws a rude name, “brother shows up and tells you that he has a case for us you better kick him in the butt.  This hunt is… well it sucks, it really does. I can’t believe he ditched us… again, like he always did since I met you.”
 
Lenna didn’t look at Rome she wasn’t mad at him, well at least not really she was mad at Raws for ditching them he just did it too often in the past and as always when they really could need him. “Any chance you have a plan or at least know the other do.”

"Try not to die?" Rome offered, spinning around the box, leading with his gun to look for any signs of the wolf.

But it was eerily quiet.

"No sign of him," Rome whispered.

A beat, then, "Where are the others?" Lenna hissed.

"I--I don't--" Rome ducked back behind the boxes. "Cover for me. I'll try to--try to find--"

Try to find Raws. Who probably had a plan. He might be on the roof somewhere, getting a snipe shot. He might be hiding, or going for some secret magic maguffin weapon. That's it.

Rome closed his eyes, trying to focus, reaching out with his mind.

"Richard! Georgie! Raws! Where the hell are you guys?!"