"Katz!" Brendon pulled away when he noticed a tall man walking up to them. "What are you doing?" When Dave turned to the man, Brendon moved behind him to hide.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Brendon kept his head low, too afraid to speak. His heart was pounding in his chest. His was sure this high arousal for this long wasn't medically healthy.

"Don't get smart with me." Dave let out an annoyed sigh.

"Calm down, Kenny. First time being sublead and you automatically assume you're my boss. You know no one takes you serious." Brendon braved a look over Dave's shoulder to see Kenny scowling.

"Watch it." Dave rolled his eyes. Kenny met Brendon's eyes. "Now, who's that?" Dave pulled Brendon beside him.

"This," he clasped his hand on Brendon's shoulder. Brendon tried hard not to make his flinch noticeable. "This is Klaus." Kenny ran his eyes down Brendon.

"And you know him how?"

"Friend from back in the day." Dave had no hesitation in his voice, but Kenny still looked skeptical. He looked up at the house Brendon had ran out from then back at Dave. Kenny went to ask more questions before Dave interrupted him. "Before you say anything, I don't have to tell you anything. My boss is Zack, not you."

"I am your lead. I think you need to remember that."

"Sublead," Dave corrected. "You're still insignificant." Kenny let out a low growl. 

"Harris!" Kenny turned around at the voice to see another man nodding his head down the road. "We gotta go." Brendon looked over to see vans coming down the street. Kenny let out a frustrated sigh and looked back at Dave.

"You gonna have to explain that," he nodded to Brendon, "to Hall." The group slowly filed away. Brendon stood shocked at everything that just happened.

"You okay?" He looked over at Dave giving him a worried look. Brendon let out a small, sarcastic laugh. "Right, stupid question. Sorry." They stood silent for a moment. "Listen, I can't say I know what you went through in there, but I wanna let you know that I don't agree with what's going on."

"Why do you do it?" Brendon asked softly.

"I was kinda forced into the 'cause' by my parents after," Dave trailed off and stared down. Brendon watched his expression slowly shift as Dave seemed to slip into a memory. Dave's intentions seemed genuine, so Brendon was probably asking the wrong question.

"Why'd you save me?" Dave looked up at Brendon with a pitiful smile.

"You remind me of someone I used to..." He let out a sigh and looked back down. "I mean this in the least offensive way possible, but I'm not like you.. Not completely at least." Brendon had an idea where Dave was going with this, but he didn't interrupt.

"There was this one guy who," he bit his lip and took a deep breath. Brendon put a cautious hand on Dave's arm for comfort. "You kinda reminded me of him and I just couldn't watch them finish what they were going to do."

"Is he still around?" Dave shook his head.

"Incident back before I was recruited. I always try to make these people feel better when they're pulled out of their homes. He'd appreciate me at least trying." Brendon nodded with his head low. "Come on. We should catch up with the others." Brendon's head shot up and his eyes grew wide.

"I can't go with them."

"Believe me, going is the best thing for you. I don't want to scare you, but you know what happened in your house. They don't hesitate too much." Brendon was frozen. "I promise that I will do everything in my power to keep you safe, but you have to trust me."

Brendon stayed silent as Dave guided him to where the others went. He was terrified, but he knew he had to just trust Dave. It was probably the best chance he had. His eyes moved to a group of people who were being herded into the back of a truck. He looked over at Dave horrified.

"What are they going to do to them?" Dave shook his head. He led Brendon to a van. Brendon took one more look at the group he assumed he would've been a part of if Dave hadn't save him. His mind filled with the people, some were crying, some bleeding, some looked petrified.

He didn't notice the sound of the door closing or the car moving. The next thing he knew was that Dave was tugging gently at his arm. Brendon looked out the window and saw they were outside a factory styled building. He climbed out of the van and kept close to Dave. He took notice that the truck with those people wasn't around.

The small crowd of men moved toward the side entrance of the building and led to a hallway that reminded Brendon of a hospital. It was cold and smelled like bleach. Brendon would glance at the door numbers as he walked by, silently wondering what was on the other side.

A scream erupted from behind one of the doors causing Brendon to jump slightly. He hadn't noticed the way his pace slowed until Dave grabbed his arm and forced him to continue forward. Brendon turned his head back to look at the door, but Dave jerked him forward. He looked over at Dave who was facing forward with his grip still tight.

"Dave."

"Just keep moving," Dave said quietly, not looking away. Brendon wanted to protest, but Dave gave him a sad side glance. He noticed the pain swimming in his savior's eyes. "Don't look back." Brendon bit his tongue and obeyed.

They went through various corridors until they ended up in a lobby. Dave pulled Brendon to a stop as everyone else moved down a few different hallways and disappeared behind doors. Brendon looked at Dave confused.

"We need to settle some things before we can go back to my room." Brendon frowned to disguise his fear. He just wanted this day to be over. "Everything will be fine. I promise." Brendon nodded because... well it's not like he had a choice.

Dave led him to a room away from the others. He knocked on the door and waited for a response.

"Come in." Dave pushed the door open and pulled Brendon in with him.

"Hey, Zack." Brendon saw a tall man with his back to him.

"Hey, Dave. How'd it go today? Anything interesting?"

"That's actually what I came here to talk to you about." Zack turned around and his eyes went to Brendon. Brendon's eyes went to the gun nestled in the man's right hand. His breathing sped up and he tried not to show his uneasiness.

"Hmm," Zack let out. Brendon only slightly relaxed when Zack released the magazine into his hand and put it on the desk. Brendon watched a bullet fall out of the chamber as Zack cleared the gun. "Friend of yours?"

"Yeah. Klaus," Dave let out smoothly. Brendon didn't understand how he could be so calm. He felt himself ease up when Zack put the gun down and took a seat.

"Your friend from back in the day?" Brendon took the time to actually look at Zack now that he wasn't focused on the gun. Zack was tall. Even without standing, Zack was a pretty big guy. He had a big beard and black glasses on. If he was the menacing leader of Dave's group, he sure fit the part.

"Yeah," Dave sounded more cheerful. He threw his arm around Brendon, causing Brendon to snap out of his inspection of Zack. The man nodded.

"Alright." He looked at Brendon, giving him a once over. "Your room I'm guessing." Dave nodded. "Job?" Brendon looked up at Dave who shrugged and moved his arm away.

"I was thinking helping Ryan out." Zack nodded, his hand came up to stroke his beard in thought. He kept his eyes on Brendon who tried not to fidget under the stare.

"Okay. Stay behind tomorrow and show him around. Introduce him to Ryan."

"Thanks, Zack. I owe ya."

"Yeah, yeah." Zack had on a small smile, which took down his intimidation level a little. "Now get out of here." Zack waved them out. Dave pulled Brendon out of Zack's room and down one of the halls the others went down earlier.

"What just happened?" Brendon asked as they stopped in front of a door. Dave sent a smile over his shoulder as he pulled it open.

"You've been granted sanctuary my friend." Dave pushed Brendon into his room. "Zack is pretty chill. He's nowhere near as intense as Kenny and manages to do his job effectively. We all respect him and follow his orders basically without question. He's a great lead."

"Lead?" Brendon gazed around the room. It was basically an apartment with only three rooms; kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom with two beds. It was small, but perfect size for a person or two.

"He's not the boss boss, but he's in charge of all of us in this division. He's really important."

"Division?" Brendon was standing in the doorway of the bathroom, looking over at Dave.

"Yeah, uh. I guess this is all a very big, complicated thing that's going on. I'll explain it to you some other day. I'm sure you had a long day." Brendon nodded.

"So," Dave said, dragging out the 'o'. Brendon watched Dave shift around uncomfortably. It the first time he saw Dave look uncertain. "I was curious, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to, but I was curious on what your name was." Brendon tilted his head in confusion.

"Thomas, the man who was supposed to get you from your house, was the one who was given your name. The rest of us don't know it." Brendon fiddled with hem of his shirt. He forgot that he hadn't given his name. Was that even a good idea?

"I understand why you're hesitant to trust me, seeing what I do for a living. Like I said, you don't have to tell me. I just thought you maybe I could call you by your real name when we're alone, so you still have that piece of yourself."

"Oh," Brendon said. That made sense. He wouldn't want to give up his old life entirely. Maybe having that one thing to hold onto will keep him still feeling like himself. He opened his mouth but shut it when there was a knock on the door.

Dave went to the door and opened it. A smaller man came in, not giving much acknowledgment to Dave or Brendon. He disappeared into the bedroom. Dave and Brendon followed, seeing the man on one of the beds. He already made himself comfortable and pulled a book from the bedside table, burying his face in it.

Dave went and sat on the bed next to the man and started taking off his shoes. Brendon was more hesitant, but eventually sat on the empty bed. He eyed the new man. Brendon noticed he was a couple inches taller before the man hurried to the room. He had light brown hair and was pretty thin. If Brendon had to guess, they were around the same age.

Brendon looked to Dave for an explanation. Dave tilted his head to the side before following Brendon's gaze to the man. His mouth opened to form an 'oh'.

"This is Ryan." The man peeked over his book. Brendon noticed the honey color of his eyes before Ryan pulled the book back to cover his face. Dave chuckled. "He's shy." Ryan managed to elbow Dave in the side from his position earning a grunt from Dave.

"He doesn't like his roommate, so he comes here when I get back," he said in a pained voice. "Though at the moment, I don't remember why I deal with him." Brendon chuckled softly. After Dave recovered, he look back to Brendon.

"So, before we were so rudely interrupted," he sent Ryan a glare. Ryan peaked over the book with a smirk on his lips. "You were going to tell me your name." Brendon shifted nervously, not wanting to expose himself to another stranger.

"Y-you already know," Brendon mumbled. "It's Klaus." He watched Ryan's widen for a moment from behind the book.

"No, seriously. You can tell me." Brendon looked over at Ryan, who went hiding again. Dave took in Brendon's nervous look and glanced at Ryan. "He won't say anything, trust me." Brendon didn't know who he could put his trust into.

"He's the only one who knows about Klaus." Brendon went to question about Zack knowing him, but Dave beat him to it. "Like really know about Klaus." Oh. Brendon chewed his bottom lip. Ryan tried to discreetly watch Brendon, but Brendon noticed his honey eyes. Could he really trust this man? Well, what can he lose at this point.

"My name's Brendon," he finally let out. Ryan gave his attention back to the book.

"Well, Brendon," Dave's voice was so calming paired with his genuine smile. "You're safe now."