Kane

As soon as Kane touched down in the capital he could feel the difference in the air; earlier he had sensed the magical force field placed to keep the Hunters from leaving the capital. The searing pain it caused when it reacted with his tattoo would have brought him to his knees if he wasn't used to it whenever he came into contact with strong magical energy. Before, meeting the Head witch of the Unitas pack had made it burn for days on end.

Once the plane came to a full stop Kane grabbed his bag, patiently waiting for when he would be escorted off the plane. Part of him had wished that he had gotten some sleep but he knew he wouldn't be able to rest until he knew that Councilman Hussein's daughters were safe. In turn, he had spent the whole three-hour plane ride strategizing and trying to figure out which possible bases they would be kept hostage in. Now was time to put those strategies to use.

There are so many bases for the Hunters in the capital and it would take forever to scour all of them, he had a few narrowed down guesses but then again they had been looking for days and they hadn't found them. Who knows how many bases they had discovered that had been dead ends. This mission would be extremely difficult or even impossible depending on his decisions at this point.

"Mr. Zaveri, the plane has touched down. Your escorts are waiting for you outside." The flight attendant bowed his head towards Kane who nodded back in return and grabbed his bag, walking down the aisle and exiting the plane to see a black car with tinted windows waiting for him. From afar he could see two people waiting for him patiently with excited grins on their faces as they waved at him from where they leaned against the car. Kane's eyes widened when he recognized the people waiting for him. Both of them were tall and willowy, their bodies extremely lean, molded for battle just like his. The girl was covered in piercings, starting from her cartilage down to her nose and tongue, her hair descended down her shoulders, framing her mahogany skin. The boy had his chin tilted up slightly, a scar leaving a jagged vertical line across his face, separating the ethereal beauty of his tawny skin into two halves that tried so hard to become whole.

"Tove? Asa? What are you guys doing here?" He jogged over to the car with a grin on his face as he reached his old friends who pulled him into a warm hug.

"We're your escorts of course," Tove smiled at him, "Director Ansari made sure that we would be the ones to take you to her."

"And that's when we knew that everything was going to hell in a handbasket. The situation is so bad that they couldn't trust the rest of us in the capital to handle it so they had to call you back for reinforcements."Asa sighed and clapped Kane on the back, making him a bit worried as Tove just smirked and took Kane's bag, shoving it in the back of the car.

"Get in, I'll explain everything on the way there. We got a lot of shit to talk about, so much has happened in the few weeks we haven't been able to contact you." Kane hopped in the backseat of the car, drumming his fingers on the backseat, impatiently waiting to hear all the events that transpired in his absence. When the car started Kane opened his mouth, wanting to ask what happened but before he could Tove started talking.

"Everything went to hell about 3 weeks ago, at first we had no fucking idea what was going on. All we knew was that it had to do with a high-ranking official and that the Hunters were responsible."

"Stirring shit up, as usual." Asa bitterly muttered under his breath, the resentment permeating his words, his gold eyes darkening with anger.

"For the first week no one would tell us what was going on, and a few of them even suspected that we had something to do with it."

Kane's eyes widened when he heard that part, incredulous of the fact that they would even suspect his friends of colluding with the hunters.

"They still don't trust you guys?"

Asa let out a snort, turning around to laugh at Kane's angry expression. "It's easy for supernatural creatures to turn and point the finger at whichever human was around. Hell, they probably would've questioned you too."

Tove rolled her eyes, giving Asa a doubtful look. "Come on now Asa, you and I both know that's not true." Asa sighed and leaned back in his seat, running a hand through his dark curls. "Yeah you're right Tove, why would they ever try to persecute their precious savior?" He grinned and Kane rolled his eyes in reply.

"Anyways, after investigating for weeks on end, they finally told us. And now you're here, and I bet they wish that they called you sooner." She cackled as Asa just bit his lips to hide a chuckle, it was clear that the situation was dire, and Asa and Tove knew that many of the authorities were hesitant to involve more humans so now as a consequence the Councilman's daughter has been missing for weeks. Kane knew that they didn't find the situation to be humorous, but simply ironic. There's no way that these supernatural beings were happy about having to bring in reinforcements, especially since that meant that Kane had to abandon his mission in the Unitas pack.

"Guys, this isn't funny. If we don't find the Councilman's daughters they're doomed." Kane sighed, leaning back in his seat to think about the possible solutions, running a hand through his silky jet-black hair. "Have they tried scouring base 34? That's a common place for the Hunters to hold prisoners." Tove gripped the steering wheel tighter, silently answering Kane's question. "What about the hidden port? That was always known for keeping hostages?"

Asa grimaced, the scar on his face turning the expression into something more painful. "They cleared it out before we could find them, all they left was the bodies of previous hostages as a warning. Kane winced, wondering how gruesome the sight must have been to make Asa look disgusted. "Fuck fuck Fuck." Kane pressed his fingers to his temples, trying to urge his mind to find the answer he so desperately needed. Asa and Tove exchanged a worried glance that Kane forced himself to ignore. They already knew how he was in situations like this, he would incessantly rake his mind and exert his body far past its limits to save the day. It's why he is considered the best, he would always push himself farther than anyone else. At this point, it's encoded into his DNA.

"Kane... you know we're going to fix this right? Don't overexert yourself, we'll do this together. Like always." Kane looked up at Tove through the front mirror, who smiled at him reassuringly. Asa grinned at him and turned around to pat his knee, trying to comfort him.

"Yeah... like always."

~~~~<>~~~~

As Kane walked through the compound he gazed up at the glass-like high ceilings, noticing how nothing had changed at all. There were various doors that shimmered, under certain protection spells that only allowed a select number of people to open them (he had access to most). It had been months since he had been in the capital, his parents were hesitant to send him to the Unitas pack until he managed to deceive them. Tove had told him that he was supposed to meet Director Ansari in her office before the actual meeting. This wasn't unusual but he couldn't help but worry, everything was putting him on edge.

Occasionally he would pass a guard protecting a specific entryway that bowed their head to him in acknowledgment, and Kane had to fight the urge to look surprised at the sight. Ever since he has been stationed in the Unitas pack he's forgotten what it felt like to be treated with respect. That would also be a topic Kane would discuss with the Director once this debacle is over with. When he passed by two guards wearing a black uniform with a small, golden symbol of a torch on the collar he knew he had reached his destination. They were the personal guards of the Director, wearing her symbol.

"Phew, it's been so long I almost thought I'd forgotten my way around here," Kane muttered, swiping his ID and placing his fingerprints on the scanner as the guards fought back a smile. The first thing he noticed as the door closed behind him were the dozens of books and maps scattered across the office, nothing has changed. Except for the distressed expression on the Director's face as she smiled at him, beckoning him closer.

"Kane, come sit down. It's nice to see you in person again. How have you been?" Kane sighed and shook his head as he sat down, remembering the mess of his life that he had left back in the Unitas Pack. "Less than stellar. Inconveniences have been popping up left and right," he answered thinking of Liam who was determined to bother him about their soulmate bond. The Director nodded, understanding his plight. "Yes, well things have not been good here either. As you already know." He nodded thinking back to the meeting when she had first told him the situation about Councilman Hussein's daughters. "Is that what you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Yes, before we have an official meeting I wanted to bring you up to speed. I can tell the leaders of the Unitas pack did not fully explain anything to you. They've always been incompetent fools." She grabbed a stack of files and slid them across the table to where Kane was sitting.

The first file held security camera photos of the last places the daughters were seen, a popular shopping district in the center of the Capital. Their guards were still with them, and Kane wondered how their security had managed to lose the girls in a matter of minutes. Part of him regrets accepting the mission to go the Unitas pack, maybe if he was here they could've been found sooner. Or maybe they never would have gone missing in the first place. When he looked at the next picture he saw that this was a snapshot of the same exact thing, the daughters walking through the district, in the same exact position as before. Except the timestamp was different.

Nothing in the image had changed.

Kane looked up to see the Director's grave expression. "So they tampered with the security footage? Has the culprit been caught yet? Do we know what happened afterward?"

"Yes, the culprit was caught and taken into custody. We questioned them but they wouldn't budge. All we know is that there is no possible way that they could have left the capital. You must have felt the force field when you entered. It's impenetrable unless you have access."

Kane shook his head, trying to clear his mind, moving on to the next file: A comprehensive list of all of the bases they have searched. It was longer than Kane had thought it'd be. But it doesn't look like they're hitting the right places. Many of them had been abandoned by the Hunters for months, if not years.

"What do you think of this, Kane?"

"You guys are not searching the right places. I know that you guys were trying to find the girls as quickly as possible but at this point, it seems like the task force is valuing quantity or quality. These bases have been long abandoned, and this is common knowledge. I gave this information over a year ago. They would never keep such high profile hostages in these places." Director Ansari sighed, massaging her temples as she pressed a hand to her desk, activating a holographic 3D map of the capital and possible headquarters of the Hunters.

"What do you think their goal for this is? We have gotten no demands for money or any other sort of request. My soldiers have been trying everything."

"That's the problem. This is not a try everything situation, and you know this. You're just trying to appease the Councilman's worries but this isn't solving anything." Kane zoomed in on a specific part of the iridescent map, sending a sympathetic glance towards the Director. He could tell she was stressed out because she had only been promoted to Director a few years ago. And she's the youngest to ever hold the position. It's one of the reasons Kane can relate to her. So much pressure at such a young age.

"Their goal was to intimidate you and the rest of the government. And it's working. The Hunters have continuously used drastic measures for seemingly small reasons lately. Kidnapping a high-profile politician's kids is the perfect way to force the Council to submit. They have every single public official in the capital running around like headless chickens." He continued glancing through the files as he tried to pinpoint the timeline of the kidnapping to the distance it would have taken to travel across the Capital.

"What do suggest I do then to placate Councilman Hussein?"

"Don't." She raised an eyebrow, slightly pleased that he had given her the answer she needed to hear.

"You already know what to do. So instead of pretending like something is getting done let's actually get this shit done." The Director's lips quirked up, amused by the lack of propriety in Kane's words.

"Good to see we're on the same page," she stood up and clapped her hands together in finality, "meeting adjourned. You have 10 minutes of freedom before you have to meet with the rest of us in the Hall of mirrors. We'll discuss further when everyone else is present. Take the files with you to the meeting. You'll need them." He nodded and stood up from the plush chair, determined to comb the files dozens of times in the 10 minutes he had. If he could just figure out

one thing he'd be able to fix everything.

"Well... time to go argue with people twice my age. Great."

End.

YEAH I KNOW IT'S BEEN 9 MONTHS.

BUT HEAR ME OUT, LIFE(COLLEGE) WAS KICKING MY ASS.

I'm gonna try to be better I promise. To anyone who is reading this: sincerely thank you.

Love,

T.J