[Retaliation – Part 2]

"My dear, if you continue crying, your tears are going to dry out." Louise comforted lightly, still holding the young girl against her chest. The front of her dress already had a wet patch and it seemed like it was only going to continue spreading with her daughter's distraught of being left behind by her elder brothers.

"What if something bad happened to my big brothers? There were bad men with guns and knives and big brother Kyvan and Kylar were injured! They cannot protect big brother Kyren if the bad men come again!" Kaylen wailed her heart out, seemingly unable to stop despite the comfort of the adults. The princess of the Household had not been exposed to too many attempts on her –or her family members' -life yet. Unfortunately, Louise sighed to know that this whole ordeal was going to be the first of many for Kaylen.

"Miss Kaylen, you don't have to worry about your big brothers. Kylar and Kyvan are strong young men; they will be able to protect Young Master Kyren and bring him home safely. They just had to do something before coming home first." Kiera stood close-by, doing her best to console the girl who had broken into tears the moment she woke up to realize that she had been brought to the safety of her home and her parents –but without her elder brothers.

Though it had been a disappointment, Louise could not say that she did not expect the actions of her son and his young butlers. She had heard a determination in Kyvan's voice through the phone –something that told her that he had only been planning to send his young mistress to safety while attempting something else. She could only hope that whatever 'something else' the three young men were planning would keep them in safety and bring them all safely home.

There were soft, polite knocks on the door and Louise called for the entrance of the visitor who turned out to be the Head Butler. Keyron was still dressed in his usual butler's uniform, but she could still clearly see the bandages peeking out from his collar and the stiff in the way he moved. The usual grace and composure of a capable butler was not present as Keyron carried a tray with a bowl full of porridge into the room, a gentle smile on his face.

"Miss Louise, I have brought dinner for Miss Kaylen." He reported subserviently, setting the meal a safe distance away.

"Keyron! Have you rescued big brothers Kyren, Kyvan and Kylar yet? Are they okay?" The little girl had turned her head to identify her visitor, and had spotted the butler through the tears, pulling away from her mother's chest immediately to turn to the approaching man.

"I'm sorry, Miss Kaylen. But I promise we are doing our best. Your big brothers are strong, powerful and capable. I'm sure they can come home safely." Keyron maintained his gentle smile at the little doll that he had rushed down to Town to pick up earlier in the day.

He had been expecting seeing the young ones again, but all he had seen was his young mistress nodding away sleepily underneath a tree beside the agreed safe spot. He knew that at least one of his sons had to have been nearby watching over their young mistress, and Keyron had spent a precious few minutes looking around –spying no one –before rushing to bring his fevered young mistress home to be nursed.

"Keyron, we have to talk." Louise's instruction was not unexpected, and he did his best to console the poor young mistress who was still leaking tears from the corner of her eyes, instructing his poor wife to coddle the young girl before excusing himself with his mistress. Louise was already halfway down the hallway towards her office by the time he closed the door to Kaylen's room behind him, and Keyron was not surprised to find his mistress sitting in her usual seat when he finally presented himself in front of her.

"Save me the attempts at secrets and lies and tell me straight. That man named Kay; do you trust him?" Miss Louise wasted no time for pleasantries –not that there was any required between the two of them anyway.

Keyron took a very short moment to think back about 'the man named Kay', wondering just how much he could tell his mistress before deciding on the safe answer.

"I trust him with my life when it comes to Young Master Kyren's safety." He answered honestly.

"Can you reach him?"

"No. It has always been him reaching me first –I have no means of contacting him of my own initiative." Keyron answered, although he avoided mentioning that he was very confident that if Miss Louise or anyone in her family were placed in any life-threatening situations while he wasn't around, 'the man named Kay' was very sure to appear somehow.

"Does he have any resource for whatever the boys are planning?"

"I don't understand what you mean, Miss Louise. What do you mean-"

"You heard Kylar through the phone as well, Keyron. There is no doubt that they have the man named Kay with them. That man somehow taught Kyren a lesson I couldn't give, and now, we put him together with your pair of capable twin sons who have the ability of fully-grown men. You told me that he was badly injured and that it was a miracle how he was still alive –so I have to assume that the boys are acting on their own now. It is easy to guess what the 15 year old boys are planning to do –the only thing I cannot confirm is what exactly they are trying to do and how much resource they have at their fingertips. That will affect how fast they return home to us." The interruption came from a businesswoman who seemed to somehow have the ability to read into other people's minds and correctly guess all of their next steps in the business world. "Now, answer my question."

"In terms of resources... I am not sure how much he can access in his current injured state, but he should be able to have the world under his feet if he truly desires it so." Keyron answered honestly, hoping and praying that his mistress would not think more of his honest answer. What he had just described was a very apt description of his twin brother –and his mistress had witnessed herself in their past exactly how much Kyrano could fit into that description.

"Even if he cannot access them, then your boys should be able to." Louise looked down at the papers that had been kept neatly at her table. "Where is Brandon?"

"I barely managed to convinced him to go to bed just a few minutes ago. He was still trying to find the boys."

The situation that there were in was a sore one for Louise Greaves-Crawford to smile, but she did it anyway. The sudden breakout of a smile in front of Keyron was so genuine that he was once more reminded that regardless of how cold and emotionless she sometimes appeared, she had inside her a heart that was full of love for her husband.

"This is a tough time for you, Keyron –dealing with a reckless Master like him while worrying over your sons."

"It is an equally tough time for you, Miss Louise. You are still managing the Household while Young Master Kyren is missing and Brandon is...well, Brandon is acting his usual self." Keyron answered honestly, replying his mistress with a same understanding smile.

"It should be ending soon." Louise nodded, then drew out a particular paper folder from the stack on her table, handing it over to her awaiting butler. "We have left them be for too long, and they crossed the line injuring you like that, threatening my son and scaring my daughter. I give you permission to deal with them."

Keyron understood his mistress's words immediately when he spied the label on the paper folder: "Hague"

"Understood." He answered, giving a respectful bow with the paper folder tucked against his chest. "Hell has no fury for a woman scorned, but there is certainly a special place down there reserved for those who have harmed your family."

"Keyron." The call of his name stalled his departure from the office, and he spun back around to find his mistress having paused in the middle of moving on to her next agenda of the day. Her blue eyes pierced through him and for a moment he wondered if she could read everything in his mind.

If she could, then she would have read and learnt everything about 'the man named Kay'. She would very certainly not be leaving this job to him, but be doing everything personally with even the slightest chance of seeing him again.

"Yes, Miss Louise?"

"If you come across the boys' doing, let them be. It is time Kyren, Kylar and Kyvan punch their names into society together."

"Yes, Miss Louise." Keyron bowed again, stepped out of the room and closed the door behind him.

Keyron waited until he was at the far end of the corridor before he let go of his sigh of relief. It was another day –another instance in which Miss Louise had stopped herself from questioning, stopped herself from thinking.

If she did...

Then there probably wasn't much of a Greaves-Crawford Household for the boys to return to.

________________________________________________________________________________

"Do you think we might have crossed the line?" Kyvan whispered quietly, eyes carefully watching the scene in front of them. "Uncle saved us all, and we repay him by making him act as our bait?"

"He insisted." Kyren answered with a shrug. "And while I was staying him, he forced me to learn to use everything I have without hesitation. So, I am."

"Boys." The stable, steady voice came from a man who knew exactly what he was doing despite the fact that he was still nursing a high fever and had been facing problems walking in a straight line just minutes ago. "Focus."

The reminder that came through the earpiece made the three of them forget their worries as Kyrano put one foot in front of the other. To the unconcerned third viewer, he simply seemed like a man who was walking a little stiffly, a little slowly. But to Kyren, he knew that he was pushing his uncle to his limits –if Kyrano was any normal man, he would probably be sent immediately to the Intensive Care Unit of hospitals. Instead, they had dragged him out of their hiding spot, made him dress up like a butler and forced him to look as normal as possible.

"We got him." Kylar spoke lowly, and Kyren turned back to the scene to find a familiar face alighting from a nearby sports car, sunglasses hiding evil eyes behind a setting sun.

"Stop." Kylar's instruction was short and easy to obey as Kyrano halted in his footsteps immediately, waiting as James Hague entered his immediate space, a pistol trained at point-blank shot.

"You. I don't care about big plans anymore; I'm at my wits end thanks to your bastard sons and that... that fucking Kyren Greaves-Crawford. I don't care anymore. If I'm going down, I will go down with whoever I can drag with me." The ex-young master of the Hague Household had clearly been thoroughly tortured over the days with the result Kyren and his butlers' hard work.

After the explosion at the warehouse that had taken away Hague's important assets, Kyren and his butlers had released the confidential details of Hague's underground dealings to the public. Hague's ex-clients, some rather nasty individuals, had certainly not been happy with the disclosure of confidential information and the poor man had received back-to-back visits from many of them who had always managed to find the man no matter how much he tried to hide. James Hague had been so desperate to survive that he had not known that ever since Kyren helped his butlers to access into Hague's servers that day in the warehouse, they had managed to track him by his cell phone –which gave them very reliable location information while Kyren busied himself contacting Hague's angry ex-clients and providing them with the exact same information.

In all, the process had made Hague a very tired and desperate man –the man had not been given the chance to catch even a few hours of sleep, and his meals had almost always been interrupted with new enemies knocking on his door. Because Kylar had also helpfully submitted the information of Hague's helpers and accomplices to the authorities, all of them had been too busy caring about their own well-being before considering trying to help the poor soul who found his life turned upside down in one day.

That had all led to today; the day that the three of them had finally decided that it was time to end all things and go home. They had tracked James Hague to the vicinity, but unfortunately it appeared as if the man had finally turned his phone off, which meant that they had no idea exactly which building in the desolate part of town the man had taken to hiding in. The only way to draw the man out back into the open had been easy; provide him with a bait worthy enough to draw out James from hiding.

The argument between the three young men had been interrupted when their uncle had finally stepped in and announced that he would be the bait. Protests had not been entertained, and they had watched with surprised silence as Kyrano somehow dragged himself up, dressed himself in a set of butler's uniform that looked strikingly similar to the Head Butler's. In fact, after the man was done, the only way the young boys could tell the difference between their uncle and the Head Butler was the fact that he was glassy-eyed in his right eye, and the fact that the uniform did not bear the coat of arms of the Greaves-Crawford household.

"Drag me down..." Kyrano articulated clearly, completely trusting his nephews to be watching his back. Kyren wasn't sure if Kyrano's lack of fear of the gun staring at him was due to the fact that he had been through too many life-threatening situations, or simply the fact that Kyrano was simply not afraid to die. "I am a nobody. Even if you killed me right now, it will not make a single difference to them. There will not even be a scratch to the Greaves-Crawford Household. They will hardly notice my absence."

"Uncle..." Kyvan muttered, reflecting the sourness that Kyren held in his heart as well. They had gone through so much together, but it was stunningly clear to them that Kyrano was never going to veer from the path he had chosen for himself more than twenty years ago. The firmness in the way his uncle had spoken had shown it all –the man fully intended to live out the rest of his life watching over his mistress, watching over them, in the shadows.

"Wait. You... you're not Keyron! You're that guy I shot back in that apartment –that body-double!" James surprisingly seemed to recognize Kyrano, although the gun did not waiver. "You ruined my chance to kill all of them!"

"That wasn't my first time ruining your plans." Kyrano answered honestly, not moving even a single inch. "If you were to have me be honest, I was responsible for bringing your family's crimes to light."

"Of course! You work for the Greaves-Crawford Household! You... you and your mistress and master and Head Butler! Every one of you bastards from that house!" The words seem to push James further towards the edge, and Kyren could not help but exchange a worried look with Kyvan. Kylar had hidden himself in another spot to get a different angle of the scene, ready with a tazer to take James down before any real harm could be done.

"Of course, Keyron assisted to execute the dirty work and Miss Louise was the one to provide the directions. But the person who brought their attention to your family and the actions of your family that had gone undetected –that person was me. And I do not belong to the Greaves-Crawford Household. I belong to Miss Louise and only Miss Louise."

"What-"

"Keep him distracted, Uncle. I'm moving closer into position." Kylar informed.

"Wait." Kyrano's sudden instruction made Kyren stiffen. "Stay back, Kylar."

There was a moment of silence, and Kyren realized that James did not even look the slightest bit surprised to find that Kyrano was not alone. He had expected this...

"I don't care who goes down with me, even if it's just an imposter like you. The C4 in the car is good enough to wipe us out." James grinned like the madman he had become, his free hand withdrawn from the pocket of his coat to show a detonator. "Come closer, Kylar."

"Shit." Kyvan cursed. "Stay here, Kyren."

"You are welcome to wipe me out, but if you bring my nephews along... you will regret your choice even in your journey to hell." Kyrano's promise was strong, and Kyren found himself stunned. The man was in no shape to be threatening anything –he could barely stand by himself –but somehow Kyren had no doubts that his mother's butler could do exactly as he promised.

"Then I will enjoy our journey together." James Hague was clearly too driven up the wall to care about anything more, and his grin widened as his thumb moved decisively towards the button.

Kyren's heart leapt to his mouth as shouts suddenly seemed to overlap.

Squeezing his eyes shut against what he assumed would be a fiery blaze of an exploding car, Kyren took a second to realize that there had been no loud boom and quickly opened them to take stock of the situation.

Kyvan was on the floor not very far away from his uncle, and Kylar was currently in a fist-to-fist battle with James Hague, the detonator dropped on the floor not very far away from the both of them.

"Uncle, you're in no shape for a fight! Take Kyren and get out of here!" Kyren heard the authoritative yell from the older Reyes twin before Kylar took a punch to the face, reeling back.

"No, you underestimate Miss Louise's butler." The calm response came, and Kyren could not stand the heroics of the Reyes family anymore. Jumping out from his hiding spot, he no longer cared about keeping hidden away as he dashed forwards, grabbing his uncle's hand before Kyrano could reach forward to be part of the brawl to make towards the detonator.

"They can deal with James." Kyren insisted, giving the hand a hard tug. The weakness of the adult man was clear in the way Kyren managed to get him to stumble, feet shuffling to regain his balance as they gained a very short distance away from the dangerous car.

"Kyvan!" A call of his butler's name distracted Kyren temporarily as he turned back to witness the fight, watching as Kylar –who had gotten hold of the detonator –tossed it lightly over to his brother. Kyren's heart rose and fell together with the detonator, a fleeting sense of relief before it was dashed when he saw Kyvan catch the detonator, then was tackled to the floor by James Hague in the next second.

"BOYS!" A loud shout distracted Kyren yet again, and he turned towards the other end of the street to see a scene that he had secretly, somewhere inside of him, been wishing to see for the longest time –the rest of his family running towards him.

"Dad! Mu-" Kyren's happy call of his parents was interrupted when he suddenly realized that he also saw Keyron running towards them alongside his parents. Keyron was there... and Kyrano was standing right beside him.

"GO TO HELL!"

The sound of a gunshot made Kyren spin around yet again, and a cry wrenched from his throat when he saw Kylar falling to the floor. James Hague stood victorious in front of the falling Kylar with the detonator in his free hand, and thumb pressed down.

"NO!"

The war cry from Kyvan was primal as the youngest member of the Reyes family threw himself over his downed brother.

The deafening boom, the blinding brightness and the shockwave threw Kyren off his feet. The blaze of heat burned and singed his face, arms and legs and he knew that he had blacked out for a quick second. It was not long, however, before he came back to his realities and felt every single inch of him protesting in pain.

Nothing felt right at all, and the ringing in his ear was loud. Black smoke had dimmed the sunlight around him and he could hardly see anything... except a man hovering above him, blood trickling from his head.

"Stand up." The first words he heard above the ringing in his ear were strong and authoritative, and despite all the dizziness and pain, Kyren found his feet beneath him. He realized that he could still feel his body, still command his muscles even if they protested against him. "Your butlers."

"No." Kyren wasn't even sure how his brain seemed to still be working at high speeds despite the shock and battering his body had taken from the force of the explosion. "Mum, Dad and Keyron are here. Go."

"I will go when I am certain that you are all-"

"No, Kyrano. Go." Kyren forced his feet to move one step in front of the other, making towards where the orange fire was blazing and eating up a car that had its roof completely battered from the force. The smoke was covering around them, but it would dissipate soon and show Kyrano's identity.

"Kyren-"

"Kyrano Reyes, butler of Louise Greaves-Crawford." Kyren spoke firmly despite how scratchy his voice was now that he had inhaled a few breaths of the smoke. His throat was dry and protesting, and his eyes smarted. But he had more important things to worry about than his own well-being at the moment. "Go."

Kyren refused to look back, but no more protests came as he forced his body to move one step at a time. He could hear, beyond the ringing and beyond the thick smoke, the sounds of his parents desperately calling his name and his butlers' name. Keyron's voice was much closer –the Head Butler had gone charging straight into the smoke to save them.

But Kyren was closer to where his butlers had been.

He walked in the direction he last remembered his butlers being, too afraid to imagine the worst, but too disorientated to think positive. The smoke made his eyes smart, and as he blinked the tears from his eyes, his feet came into contact with something soft.

"Ow... Is this what I get for saving your sorry ass?" Kyvan's soft protest was like a bucket full of cold-water relief dumped over Kyren as he crouched down low enough to make out the figure of two young men who seemed to be shielded from the burning blaze behind a tossed car.

"How is Kylar?" Kyren asked worriedly, glad when a hand touched his in a show that at least one of his butlers was alive.

"I am fine, Kyren. I apologize if I gave you a bad shock." The other voice that responded was steady as well, and Kyren could not help but fall off his feet, landing on his butt in front of the smoke-obscured figure of the brothers in relief.

"But you were shot."

"It was a blank."

"The two of you were so close to the car. How are the two of you..."

"I moved the bomb from the car further up the street while Kylar was keeping the guy distracted." Kyvan answered. "Hague... the bomb sent a piece of a car straight at his face... I don't think you should look at the scene after the smoke clears. What about Uncle?"

"I sent him away. Mum is here." Kyren made sure his voice was low now that he could hear Keyron close-by, still desperately searching for them.

"Good." Kylar's answer was short. "Let's never do this again."

Kyren ignored the pain of his burns –sure that they were minor burns – and held on tight to Kyvan's hand, barely able to see much in the heavy smoke around them. What was important was that all of them had made it out alive –somehow.

He closed his eyes and allowed the lethargy to take him.