But he should have known that he wouldn't get off so easily for their argument. He'd struck more than a few nerves with his comments about Dominic, and those snide retorts about the twins and her own reputation hadn't settled well.

Rabin dropped Nicolai to the floor in front of Dominic and Donovan's cell, and she giggled as he spoke. "If it makes ya feel any better, you sure as hell've brightened up my day, flash. Sweet dreams." Nicolai probably would have had a very biting curse if he hadn't been gagged, and she smiled broadly at his discomfort. His knees were drawn up to his chest, wrists cuffed and chained to his restrained ankles, and the writing on his chest was starkly evident against his light skin. Oh boy. Dominic was going to love this when he woke up.

He'd awakened in the Library, under the balcony in the same dark space he'd shared with Roxy, and he couldn't remember a single detail about how he'd arrived there. Someone had almost seen him when he'd vaulted out. That could have been...troublesome.

The walk back to the Quad Halls had been no better. Something was gnawing at his mind, something important that he should know, something that had happened while he'd been blacked out, but nothing he did would bring that into the light where he could see it and make sense of it. He was left with only shadowy impressions, and that unsettled him.

Asmodeus did not like being unsettled.

When he arrived in the Quad Halls, he leaned against the wall outside the Python door and contemplated whether or not he should go in now or not. He was in a strange mood, and not necessarily the right one to deal with little Katera and her bloody knife. He might go too far, and then all his effort to care for her would have been wasted.

His thoughts were interrupted when Ryan Jayde and three of his brats jogged around the corner.

Fury that had been pacing back and forth inside him like a caged animal now found an outlet, and he stood away from the wall as Ryan began to move past. How could the Jayde think he was going to let him pass without challenge? Maybe he thought Katera hadn't told him anything. Maybe he would have been right, too, if he hadn't managed to snap her out of the blank daze she'd fallen into.

It hardly mattered. What mattered was that the Jayde captain was here and within his reach. With all his trademark grace and speed, he stepped close enough to pluck Ryan away from the others as he jogged past and slam him into the wall hard enough to rock his head back while he lashed a boot out in a high kick to catch the closest one, the tall black Jayde, in the head and send him back into his companions before he turned back to the captain and glared at him. There was a cut on his cheek, identical to Katera's, and that made him even more furious.

"You handled Kitten pretty well, Jayde," he growled as he flung Ryan back towards his men. The man stumbled, but caught himself. He should have kept him on the wall, not thrown him back to his allies, but Asmodeus wasn't interested in odds. He wanted blood. One Jayde, four Jaydes, it was all the same, as long as Ryan's was in there someplace.

Bryo's voice was cut off by a swift gesture of his captain's finger. Ryan slowly lowered his hand from the back of his head, straightening to face the threat in Mode's eyes. "You. All you are is Kat's bitch, what the hell makes you think I'll have any trouble in handling you?" Davn heard the disgust drip thick from his captain's voice, and he like the others tensed his body for a fight that would be inevitable from this moment on. His mind was clicking... there was no doubt now that Katera was indeed involved in all of this. But what could she have done that could make Ryan hate her so much? Flashes of memory, and a Jayde patch in a front pocket surfaced in Davn's mind. It had to mean something...!

"Keep the slut," Ryan continued, "I already got what I wanted from her." Davn's eyes narrowed- the man was lying. "But you... shit, you're always going to remember that the bitch came to me." and here he smirked, squeezing every drop of anger that he could from the outnumbered Mode... "Either way, man- you've already lost."

The fighting techniques that the Jaydes used in the BR were just as useful, if not sensible, when it came to gravity combat. The same commands, "Flare!" and Ryan was swung up into the air by the help of his brothers, windmilling his legs to catch Mode in his face, head and chest. The man fell dazed to the ground, Ryan landing with his feet on either side of his head. In nullo, that had been a way to use a frozen soldier's body for movement and make the other army incredibly angry at the same time. The captain yelled "Chain!" before Mode could punch up at his crotch, and his brothers quickly lined up behind him. Bryo's legs pinned down Mode's arms, Davn's feet locked under his torso to keep him still, and Mika placed his heels on the man's knees, waiting for a reason to cripple him. The Jaydes linked arms and then swung their legs out from under them, sending Mode flying brutally to collide with a door at the end of the hall. That was a way to use any frozen soldier as a weapon, something like an asteroid heading straight at the enemy. Walls worked well enough.

Ryan moved to stand over Mode's supine body, his brothers flanking him close behind. A dead look overtaking his eyes, he kicked out at the man's ribs, kicked him again and again, Mika and Bryo eventually joining in. Davn watched the dazedness grow in Mode's expression, remembering another fight years ago on the Jaydes' first day of Battle School... remembering Zion. And he saw the memory clear in Ryan's eyes as well, he knew that was exactly why he was doing this. "Ryan." Davn's voice came out hoarse, urgent. The captain didn't listen, kept fervently kicking Mode on the floor. "Ryan!" Bryo and Mika stopped. This was sick. This man... they didn't even have a reson to kill him. Bryo grabbed his captain by the collar, shouting into his face, "Ryan, stop!" and shoved him up against the wall. The two brothers faced it off... Davn had little doubt that Ryan would not have stopped in killing Mode, and now his angers were turned on his soldier. Mika caught Davn's eye, begging for some suggestion of what to do.

Mode...

Supine on the floor and curling as the bruises and blood on his fair skin became evident, his shallow, husky breathing oddly loud in the hallway. Those smoky steel eyes focused briefly on her as fiery rage engulfed Kat, and her own serpentine-gold eyes narrowed, pupils slitting as she turned her head to stare at the four Jaydes gathered nearby.

Ryan. A growl rumbled deeply in her chest, wounds forgotten as Kat clenched her hands into fists and then flicked those razor-tipped fingers out with impatience. His bitches were trying to restrain him, but one moved away enough for her to see his face, those empty angry eyes as he struggled and stared at Mode on the floor near her feet.

What a mistake you've made, Jayde... Kat did not like having her toys stolen. She did not like having her toys broken. And Ryan had just violated the one rule she used to hold her delightfully vengeful spirit in check.

No one but herself hurt those she loved.

"Ryan," she spat, the name sounding loathesome and vile in her husky, silky voice as she stepped closer, feline-lithe body tensed and ready to pounce. "Come now, love..." Bryo's eyes widened at how much disgust she could put into such an endearing term. "You know better than that. Take your bitches and run, captain, because you of all people should know I do not tolerate such... disrespect. Go. And remember that when you're the last Jayde standing, I'll bury you next to the first."

Get up, you little shit. Get up. Now.

He didn't even tense his muscles until the door to the Python Quad opened, and Katera emerged. Her face was still bruised, but she looked much more awake and aware than she had yesterday, and her body had regained much of its inherent catlike poise. She took in the scene and her eyes met his. Fury like nothing he'd ever seen her display before lit her eyes and twisted her features as she looked back to the Jayde captain, lethal wrath and disgust written on her face.

His eyes closed as he tested his body for real damage. There was stabbing pain when he took deep breaths, and his midsection was clawing back and forth between nausea and the pain of bruised organs, but his limbs were intact. Pain was relative. Pain of the body was far more tolerable to Asmodeus than the thought that he might miss playing with Kat. He hadn't come through the Institute and the twitchers and the injections to lose consciousness to a little band of army brats.

He opened his eyes again, and she was talking, saying something that made them freeze and stare at her, away from him.

Now get up and break them, Nathan.

-He...didn't you hear what he said? She came to him...-

Nathan put up very little struggle before Asmodeus wrested control, and slate eyes fastened on Kat's with a glitter. She kept talking, and he drew himself slowly to a crouch, endorphins beginning to eclipse the pain. He stood. Blood trailed down the side of his chin now, and he didn't bother to wipe it away.

Mika was closest.

Asmodeus grabbed the smaller man's arm and yanked, spinning Mika towards him and slamming the heel of his hand into his face. Cartilage collapsed as he smashed his nose, grabbing the man's uniform with his other hand to keep him from falling back until he'd rammed a fist into his stomach, and then he shoved him away and into Davn. He latched onto Bryo's uniform the moment he let Mika go, yanking him back away from Ryan and dropping to launch him over his head and into the wall behind him with his booted feet, completing the roll and coming back to standing, and seven seconds since he'd regained his feet and attacked, Asmodeus drove his shoulder into Ryan's stomach, slamming him back into the wall. Air left the man's lungs in a rush, and he drove his fist into the Jayde captain's throat.

Davn was just beginning to regain his feet as Ryan fell away, gasping. Bryo was also stirring, and part of him wanted to stay to finish this now, but Katera was there, and Katera might get hurt...and Katera had some explaining to do.

He struck the door panel and wrapped tight fingers around Kat's left arm, dragging her into the Quad and away from the Jaydes...but not before he sent a murderous glance towards the dazed Ryan, the Jayde's dark eyes just beginning to clear.

Ryan's answer was to stare numbly through his soldier's gaze, oblivious to his consequential glare of contempt. It didn't pass Bryo that while Davn was tending to Mika, the man's too-honest eyes were deliberately avoiding any of his brothers' glances. He left Ryan on the wall and shouted, "Davn, tell me what the fuck that bitch meant!"

"Jayde!"

A bark from Ryan echoed authority through the hall and Bryo unwillingly conceded. The captain looked dully into the faces of his men, a growing sense of panic breaking his voice. "Davn, take Mika to the infirmary."

"First tell me what you know about Kat," said Bryo stubbornly.

"Davn, your captain gave you an order."

"NO! Davn, goddammit! I ain't lettin you go nowhere until you tell me what's gone down- and that goes the same for you!" Bryo turned, throwing a finger in Ryan's face. Ryan looked down at it indifferently, his brows raising in the face of this insubordinance. "Oh?"

"Yeah, oh." Bryo shook his head disbelievingly. "She wasn't lying. I can tell by your face, that bitch wasn't lying. She sure as hell ain't never gonna kill the ten of us; that's big talk and nothin but pure bullshit. But she said she'd killed a Jayde and you's sittin there lookin like you wanna pull a glock out on da bitch. Who was it? One of the brothas still at the Academy? I know I can't do math all dat well, but I can still count to ten, all ten of us are here. Davn, fuck, who was it? Tell me or else I'm gonna contact the Academy to have them officialize my rank as the new captain- if this man's been keeping secrets about a murdered Jayde, then he deserves to be iced back on da rock."

And so Ryan told him, gesturing Davn and Mika away to the infirmary. He told Bryo everything, watching the insane fury burn in his brother's eyes, so similar to Zion's. Then on sudden inspiration, he added just a another touch... the false divulgement that Mode had been part of Zion's murder. "She told me... they spent time together at the institution..." It blew Chicago off the wall. Bryo sped away down the corridor, and Ryan knew that he was headed towards Python. Perhaps he had been wrong, thinking that the news would bring down the brothers' unity. He pictured how Bryo would juice from the boys exactly what he needed, similar to the way he always got what he wanted from the girls... from Tony he would borrow the desire to cause pain... from Oris he would borrow the ability to hate... from Erik he would borrow the recklessness to do what Ryan should have done already. Bryo was a piece of work. Suddenly Ryan felt incredibly shortsighted... how belated he'd found out that he'd never had to handle this alone. He wanted Kat, he would still have Kat... but with his brothers' help, he realized that he didn't even have to wait. Together, they could find a way to conceal any sin they commit; together, they were valuable enough to the IF that they could get away with...

Suddenly Ryan was finding it difficult to breathe. Nothing was barring his way now. What excuse did he have left... he was going to kill his love.

He needed to get a hold of himself... he needed to be there after all his brothers had heard about Zion. He would have to be the steady; they would want to go on a rampage, they wouldn't care if anything they did was stupid, their idol had been murdered in their blind. He would have to be the new idol for them. And so he went, finding them in the Hydra Quad halls. Erik had pulled out a pole from God-knows where; he was stalking down the hall with some of the others raged up to follow when Ryan passed him and caught him into an embrace- something he had never done with any of his brothers in his life. Erik struggled, he hit him, but his brother held on stubbornly and eventually the man threw the pole to the ground and stalked into his cell. Adam picked it up and followed him into their room, setting it back into the framework of his bunk then slamming the door in the other Jaydes' faces. Ryan went around, touching foreheads, calming them all as well as he could... he sent the frighteningly expressionless Oris to the infirmary with Tony, who was bleeding from the scars on his face; apparently he was unable to wait to find something to hurt. Liex, dumbstruck, was sent with them just in case. The man's huge staggering body seemed strangely boyish as it pounded down the corridor.

Ryan turned back to the remaining Jaydes, suddenly very tired. There was a threat in Kevo's eyes saying that if Ryan tried to comfort him the way he had done the others, he would get fisted in the face. "If anything was ever sacred to you, brah... don't. I can see right fucking through you." All this in a cool, frustrating monotone... Ryan watched Kevo's departing back in concealed, injured resentment. True, perhaps his expressions of brotherly love tonight had been manipulated, perhaps they were convenient, but that didn't mean that there wasn't any truth in them. It did not mean that he wasn't embracing this relief at being able to show it for once, if never again.

"I didn't tell him what you hid it."

Ryan raised his eyes to stare at Bryo; he leaned back against the corridor wall. "Kevo just saw, he and Davn are scary like dat. I didn't tell any of them. I ain't going to."

Ryan nodded. He didn't need to ask why. Bryo would most likely be a commander one day; demanding things of others was just a natural talent that the cocky bastard had. But he was no Captain of the Jaydes.

"Bryo. Katera belongs to me, you understand that?"

He made a face. "Hell, brah, you can rape her all the damn day if you want to, I don't care-"

"No." Ryan's voice rose. "I mean she's mine. You, Tony, Erik, anyone, if any of you hurt her, your balls will be sent to the Academy in a fucking jar. That's an order, soldier."

Bryo stared at him. "Yeah, whuteva. You just sure as hell better do it. I don't care that you love her. Or if she loves you. Do it or you're gonna ice."

CASTOR.

"We forgot to pick up the Spyder," she said tersely, apprehensive irritation making her brusque. That was problematic. She couldn't keep Castor waiting, or he might suspect something, but she had to find out what this key opened, and she needed to find out now, and going to see Cas wasn't going to help.

Her mental processes were slow enough that realization took a full seven seconds to dawn. Castor. Cassius Martin probably knew this station and all the equipment in it better than most of the teachers did. He could quite conceivably know or have a way of finding out what it was the key went to. The question was whether or not it was safe to trust him.

Except that he realized that the tinkerer might just be useful to them. If, in fact, they were going to keep Wick from depressurizing the whole damn bay, then they'd need someone with some technical expertise. Someone who knew electronics well enough to set up some means of stopping her. Cas was very useful to them right now.

He glanced about momentarily. They had time. Wick had mentioned that Kat's abduction would take place after lights out. That left Gabe and Sol with more or less the whole day. They had the Parade Review that afternoon, and Gabe didn't know how long that would last, but it was still hours away. He wasn't sure why such urgency to act. But he did. And even if his instincts turned out wrong, the worst that could happen was that they would be set up far too early.

So he went with his instincts, and decided they should move quickly.

Besides, he promised.

Castor's cell was easy to find. She'd mapped it out before when they were looking for a place to run the Spyder into Mode's room. She wasn't sure why Gabe wanted Cas' help, if he didn't need help with the key, but she thought she could probably get it. Cas seemed like a good guy, and seemed like he wanted to do what he could to help Dante. The question was, would he be equally interested in trying to help Katera and Mode? Maybe not, but there were still the twins to consider. Dominic was pushy, but Donovan was nice, and they both seemed to have their hearts in the right place, even if they weren't thinking things through very well. How had they fallen in with Wick? She'd only been there a couple of weeks, at the most, and Wick had managed to find a pretty potent pair of people to fight Mode.

If she was that effective, and not just lucky, maybe there was something she was overlooking that Gabriel had seen.

Castor's cell door was in front of her. She needed to deal with Cas first, especially since Gabe thought it was important. She knew he would tell her, when there was time. Meanwhile, she had to still had to talk to Cas.

She was too shocked, too furious and too speechless with guilt to cry.

He paid no attention to her, and she didn't care, following him blindly through the hallways, so blindly that she didn't notice Bianca until the older girl stopped her at the doorway to the Wolf Quad. Oblivious, Jor kept walking, disappearing into his cell without a word. Wick tried to push past to get in, and a surprisingly strong hand wrapped around her wrist as Bianca shoved her away with enough force to make her stumble back and glare.

Angry amber eyes met her icy gaze, and Bianca stood in front of the doorway and crossed her arms as the last of the Wolves trailed in behind her, trying very hard not to catch her attention while they cast quick, interested glances at the scene. "I don't know what he did to deserve it, you stupid green, but I know you have something to do with it. Why don't you go back to your cell and think about that?" Wick bared her teeth and threw herself mindlessly at the girl before her, and one of the Wolves instantly materialized between them, shoving Wick back into the wall hard enough to jar her teeth.

Bianca didn't even blink. "You're not wanted here, veg," she said coldly. "Go back to your Quad while you can still walk it on your own."

Wick flicked her eyes between Bianca and the Wolf, a compact muscular vet who looked like he could break her arm without straining, and then turned away without a word as she realized Bianca was right. Jor didn't want her here, or he would have stopped this.

He hadn't even slowed down. Could she blame him?

When he reached the door that led into Diamondback, Gabe paused. Strained as they were, Gabe wondered how well this would be received. He'd tried to think of something that might please Sol, but he'd been working from data that applied back before these weeks of searching. It was entirely possible that, no matter how well-planned this might be, Sol could not accept without feeling that guilt.

But he had to try. He had to. Sol deserved that much.

Her excitement returned and she hugged him quickly and grabbed his hand, tugging him back down the hallway, back towards Python. They could skip breakfast today. Kat didn't eat it that often anyway. Maybe they could see her and then go to breakfast. Maybe Kat would come to breakfast with them.

The Python door guard was still waiting for the last of them to file out, and she paused and tried to look inconspicious, tugging Gabriel out of the flow of traffic and against the wall with her. Her excitement made her jumpy, and being jumpy made her aware that she had nothing immediate to do until the guard was gone, and searching for something to fill the time reminded her that Gabe didn't know yet.

She'd found him. She'd actually found him. Gabe had practically given up hope on ever so much as finding a death certificate, and Sol found him.

The guard was looking over his shoulder, into Python. Nobody had come through the door for about a minute. With a slight shrug, he moved away from the door, toward the mess.

Gabe and Sol waited until he was out of sight, and then slipped into Python. Kat's cell was easy to find -- Gabe remembered from their exploration with the spider a month and a half before. They paused outside the doorway. Sol knocked.

Gabe glanced briefly at Sol, hoping she was right. She'd wanted to find Mode so very badly; was it possible that what she'd found wasn't as difinitive as she seemed to think? Sol wasn't the type to act on flights of fancy, nor was she prone to seeing what she wanted to see. If she said she'd found him, then she had to have found something pretty damn solid.

They walked through the hallways toward the showers together, and it gave Riya time to think. Her eyes rested on the back of Thoth's head as the girl strode in front of her, and she tried to decide what was to be done about this. They would be traveling to the IF Central Command Post in under two hours, to undergo their final test within the SO AIT... and by no strange twist of fate, Thoth was to be her partner. It made Riya pleased, in an odd sort of way. There was no one else she would have could have allied with for this exam-- Gabe and Sol were, obviously, out of the question-- but even if there had been other choices, Riya was not certain she would have taken them. She knew Thoth, and Thoth knew her. They had some semblance of understanding; if you could even call it that, considering that she had revealed very little of her history to Thoth, despite the other girl's strange willingness to tell all. Sometimes Riya wanted to tell Thoth, and that disturbed her enough that she'd stop talking to her ally until the thought faded. Still.

Her eyes narrowed. Thoth was almost... almost a friend.

"You walk too slowly," she said coldly, with reproval in her tone. It was not a reprimand for Thoth, but rather, for herself. Picking up her pace, she came abreast of the girl and raised an eyebrow in derisive survey. "Move faster."

Thoth seemed irritated, and with somethign akin to consideration for the emotions of another, Riya actually smiled slightly and softened her voice. "Can't be late," she intoned, "or they'll leave to kill things without us."

"Now let's hurry. I'm tired of this place."