Many things were happening when Kat stepped out of Ninovan's dilapidated shack. Gust and Lilly fighting desperately against a burnt and scarred man with skin crumbling off his face like dirt. Ninovan more beast than woman as she leapt from tree branch to tree branch, going on a direct course for their wasteland of a clearing.

And Foxy. Unconcious or dead. Kat couldn't be sure through all the bruises, cuts, and blood. A dead or unconscious Foxy being dragged through a door built into a tree. Mouse's Master, Mr. Copper. Giles. Copper. A nothing. A person soon to be dead.

The nothing looked at her with his one remaining eye. An eye soon to be stabbed. Kat threw the knife with which to stab that eye. She knew it would hit. Even with everything happening—with everything her only eye showed her—she was calm.

But the knife hit something that was not Copper's eye. In the midst of his battle with the children, the burnt and scarred man threw out an arm that deflected the knife. Deflected. Her knife struck it and bounced off it as if his arm was made out of something much harder than human flesh.

"Kat, please!" one of the children cried. "Help us!"

But Kat was already running for the man that blocked her attack. She hardly heard the children beg. She wouldn't kill this man for them. The door was already closing on Copper and her Foxy. Closing on the last remains of her restraint and mercy. If he was unconscious, she would kill as many people as she had to to get him back. If he was dead, she would not stop killing even after she recovered his body.

There would be no end to it. She would kill until someone killed her. That was all.

That was all that was going through Kat's head when she threw herself against the scarred man. He was strong, he was talented, but she was reckless. It didn't matter to her when he grabbed her arm, twisted it, and broke it. She let it happen. She twisted it more to reach her free arm into the patch of smooth skin revealed from the crumbling mask he called a face. With a rake of her jagged nails, she knew he had lost an eye and most of the meat from his cheek in one strike, because he released her even though he knew it would spell his death.

But the defense around the rest of his body was strong. Even though it appeared singed with fire and scarred from a variety of wounds, it would not give against her furious claws and bites. It was futile, and before Kat could resume her assault on his one weak point, a powerful kick into her stomach sent her off her feet. She landed on her twisted arm and reality pounded back into her skull.

Her arm was nothing but fragments and splinters. It hurt. It hurt it hurt it hurt. Her screams wouldn't make it stop hurting. Her helpless twists and writhing only made it hurt worse.

In between rapid black outs and the sharp, stabbing agony, Kat saw the man approach her. She saw Gust and Lilly step in front of her, both almost as broken and beaten as her. She heard both sides speak, but could not hear them over her own screams.

And then Ninovan landed on top of the scarred man. Various parts of his body cracked and blew apart at the same instant under her muscled and hairy form. He didn't make a noise, so Kat wasn't sure whether he was still alive or not before the witch reached down and pulled his head free from his shoulders.

"Here is your answer, Wing," a voice rang out in Kat's head, easily breaking through her own screams as Ninovan held the head of the man in her claw. She raised her long, hairy arm high above her. "Here is the result of your foolishness!"

His head was crushed like a spoiled grape when the witch clenched her fist. Blood and other matter sprayed the area around her and it was almost simultaneous to Lilly fainting and Gust puking up pure, clear liquid. He then rushed over to his fallen sister even as his writhing, wooden limb wrapped around her like a constrictor.

"Stay away!" he shouted, his voice coming in clearer as Kat's cries dulled to low moans and whimpers. He moved away as far as he could before his injuries sent him crumbling to the ground. As Ninovan's dark eyes trained on him and his sister, Gust's trembling lips and glistening eyes finally gave away to a pitiful sob.

"Puh-Please don't kill us," he stuttered out.

"Were you with him?" the witch demanded, pointing with a dripping claw to the headless corpse. Gust tried to speak, but his sobs were making it harder for him to even breathe. He could only shriek and cry louder when the monster stepped closer.

"Answer me clearly, boy. Your answer will determine whether you live or die."

"S-Stop," Kat demanded in a weak voice, almost drowned out by her own haggard breathing.

But she knew it was loud enough for the witch in that body of hers. Enough to make her stop and look right at her. She had eyes as black as a pit now. As black as hers.

"Mother! Stop!" A much louder voice cried out. One connected to an older, bearded man riding astride a dark horse that broke out from the trees and quickly stepped between the beast and the children. "These children are not with Wildwood. They are as much their prisoners as we familiars!"

"So you've said." Despite the horse's stature assisting in Tusk's normally stunted height, Ninovan still towered over the both of them as she stepped forward, allowing her to continue her glowering at Gust and Lilly. "I want to hear it from him."

"We—We're—" Gust tried to speak, but his words would not come. He couldn't get them out between his sobbing and shaking. 'Couldn't she see that?' Kat wondered as her vision continued to blur and her arm continued to ache. They were just children. They just witnessed impossible violence and death yet still she demanded more of them. She kept her gruesome form and treated them like threats.

No matter what awful things they had already been through, it wasn't right for her to treat them like this.

Couldn't she...

A wave of clarity rolled through Kat's broken body. With it, a shot of adrenaline enough to allow her to claw her way to those children. She didn't need two arms to get where she needed to go. If Foxy could do it, so could she.

"Move aside, Tusk, Stallion." Ninovan's now yellowed eyes turned their burning gaze to the two familiars who stood before her. "We will discuss your punishment later, child. Now, move."

Tusk practically leapt off and away from Stallion while the latter let out a pain-filled whiney before kicking back on its hind legs and trotting away from the monster. Kat felt pressure in her own mind to crawl as far away as she could, but it must have been because it was not directed at her specifically, as she was able to fight her way through it. With her one remaining arm, she managed to reach the children—her children.

"K-Kat," Gust said in a chocking gasp when she wrapped an arm around him. With his one remaining arm, he gripped her shoulder back in turn. It was such a cold grip, despite all that had happened.

"What's this?"

Ninovan—the monster—stood just above them now. She was so impossibly tall. Kat had to strain her neck to meet the glowering, yellow eyes.

"I won't let you hurt them," she swore.

The beast regarded her for only a moment before the eyes turned to the boy she held. "Has the fire girl perished, then? Have you now claimed control over my dear Elizabeth?"

Gust frantically shook his head, his dark eyes wide and filled with fear. Kat closed her eyes and held him even fiercer. If they had had more time, if she were not fighting for consciousness, perhaps she could have told him to lie, if only to hold on to their lives for a moment more.

"Elizabeth, darling, release the boy and step away."

Kat had been preparing to disobey, but she could not have prepared for the pain. It assaulted her brain instantly and dug its claws in deep. It was enough to make her scream again and snap her eyes open, looking for the hand that was digging its way through her skull.

But there was no hand. Ninovan still stood where she was and simply glared down at her with those awful eyes. Every second Kat resisted the hand dug in worse. She was sure it would make her pass out before long, but instead life was being forcibly pulsed through her body. Compelling her to release Gust. To run away and let her Master finish what she started.

Would it have been worse if she had no other Master? Could she have lasted even these few, pointless seconds?

Kat tried to distract herself from the pain and the compulsion with thoughts like these. But it was to a point that she could no longer even feel her own body. She was just a pulsing sore. A weeping wound. While she thought she was still clinging to Gust, she could only watch as her hand released him and her arm move away. Exposing his small, fragile body to the beast.

Gust's cold hand grabbed her arm before it could fully leave him. He couldn't speak to her, he could probably no longer form coherent words in his own head, but his wide, desperate eyes told her everything.

"Don't go."

This was just like when Foxy ran away from their cabin. Or when she ran away to hunt that owl. Both times they held her and begged her not to go. And both times she had abandoned them. What choice did she have? Both times Mr. Mallard had commanded her. He was her Master. She had to obey. She had no choice.

And who was commanding her now? The person who made her. Not the one who stripped her of everything, but the one who laid the groundwork for it all to happen. She was always meant to return to her creator. It was the closest thing they had to destiny. This connection. This compulsion.

Kat's body was given the strength to stand. It was given the peace of mind to pull itself out of the weak grasp of the sobbing child. But it could not stop something that was already breaking to break even more somewhere inside the familiar. It could not stop the tears to finally roll free from her face. That, and only that, was hers.

A deep, rumbling cry broke out through the fog in Kat's brain. Not enough to stop the compulsion, but enough to make her aware of the scene playing out before her. Of Tusk throwing himself into Ninovan, sending her into the ground, and tearing away at her flesh and hair with his bare hands.

"RUN!" he shouted at the top of his lungs. "Gust, take your sister and r—!"

He cut himself off with his own screams when Ninovan suddenly flipped him over until she was now on top, easily catching one of his arms in her mouth when he attempted to strike her.

"Do not make me do this," Ninovan's voice echoed like thunder in Kat's head, and no doubt Tusk's.

"Fuck you," Tusk growled back, his free hand already clawing for her eyes.

"So be it."

With tremendous strain and force, Ninovan tore Tusk's arm free from his body. Naturally, there were screams. There was more blood. But if the beast had thought it would stop the oldest familiar, she was mistaken. His remaining arm still found one of her eyes. It still clawed. And the resulting cries from the witch snapped Kat from the fog and the compulsion.

Instantly, she was running to the children. Maybe there would be time to mourn. Maybe time for more tears, screams, and anger. But not if they did not escape now.

Gust was already on his feet, but he could not move far with Lilly still entrapped in his wooden limb. He was weak. Wobbling on feet that could probably not feel much of anything. It was simple enough for Kat to scoop him up in her arms. And, despite the years, he had not grown very tall or put on much weight. If anything, he was lighter.

And Kat ran. Away from the screams swiftly turning into gurgles. Away from the bestial cries and howls. With a broken arm and numerous bruises and scrapes, she knew she would not have made it far if he had not decided to run up beside her.

"Hop on," Stallion's deep voice called to her. "Quick."

'Be mad at him later. Scream at him later. Cry with him later.'

Kat scrambled on and together she and Gust pulled the still unconscious Lilly into his arms. The four of them continued to run as the sounds of madness pursued them. Deeper into the woods. Deeper into darkness.

'What had been the point of it all?' Kat couldn't help but wonder as she started to lose her battle with consciousness. Lost Mouse. Lost Foxy. Everything. What had...

As the darkness of the thickening woods began to take over Kat's vision, she felt the reassuring grip of thick bark tighten around her midsection. The coldness of the boy's skin as he used all the strength in his small body to insure his sister and Kat stayed with him.

They were alive. Gust and Lilly still lived.

That, and only that, might still give her peace.

...

I awoke in the dark. Hands and feet bound. Entire body sore. Somehow, my first thought was how different the danger of these facts could have been if I was anything but a familiar. The thought itself almost made me laugh, until I remembered why I was here. The burned and scarred man. Copper. Ash.

I was a prisoner of Wildwood.

The thought was almost simultaneously coupled with numerous torches igniting in the room, revealing just how small a space this little dirt hovel was.

"Fox."

And that I wasn't sharing it alone.

Maple in all her shaved, malnourished, and burned glory shared it with me. Tied up in much the same way I was and decorated in a new dirt-stained, white dress and, oddly enough, what looked like small rods pierced through her ears.

"What's with the earrings?" for some reason, was the first thing out of my mouth.

Maple looked just as confused as she took a moment to respond. "I was about to ask you the same thing."

Oh, well, that explained the unfamiliar soreness in my earlobes. I had just assumed it was the product of nearly my entire body suffering from a near fatal beat-down.

"What are they for?" she suddenly snapped at me, acting as if I would know.

Instead of snapping right back, I decided to think on it. There wasn't really much else to do. Besides the ache coursing through my every nerve, I just realized by body had lost all its muscle and form. I was nothing more than a skeleton once again.

Well, at least it narrowed things down.

"Probably my Master's work," I answered. "I mean, my Master's mother. She's able to make bullets cancel out Knowledge stuff if they hit someone. Probably what she did to the metal in these earrings. You can't make any fire, right?"

Maple glared at me for a moment before deciding a small pile of dirt to be far more stimulating. "No."

"Yeah. If you haven't noticed, I don't have much fire left in me either. Probably why they felt comfortable leaving us alone in here."

"There's no door," Maple muttered under her breath.

"Oh." I took a cursory glance around. "Yeah, you're right."

There was silence between us, and then, "What's the matter with you? Why are you so calm?"

That was a good question. But not one I had to think about as intently as the piercings. "I guess I'm still just taking it all in. We have no Knowledge and there's no door, so what's the point of getting riled up and angry? We've both been down that path before and it usually doesn't get us anywhere."

"You, maybe," Maple said with a huff.

"Well, we're both here now."

I tried testing my strength, seeing if I could at least rise to a sitting position, but it was impossible. Whether it was the pain or the weakness I couldn't be sure, but I wouldn't be moving on my own anytime soon.

"How're you feeling?" I asked.

"What do you care?"

I tried to hold in a sigh. Of all the people to be trapped in a room with. "I mean, can you move at all? Or is the piercing sapping your strength too?"

"I can move." With a bit of effort, Maple rose up until she was sitting before letting out a groan and falling back against the dirt floor. "It just hurts. Shit."

"That's alright," I said, trying to ignore the strange sensation of hearing a curse used by that voice. "It's something."

"It isn't anything!" Maple hissed back. "Stop acting like you know what you're doing! They have us. Wildwood has me. I let them—Goddammnit!"

I winced as Maple's cry echoed surprisingly loud in the small room. "Like I said, getting angry isn't going to solve anything."

"And what is? Just shut-up. I'm tired of hearing your voice."

As if to make a point of it, Maple rolled over until her back was facing me, grunting and groaning all the way. Now safely out of her gaze, I was free to roll my eyes. I would prefer not having to listen to her either, but that wasn't going to get us anywhere.

"This is what they want—" I started.

"Shut-up."

"No, listen to me, Maple. They expect us to treat each other this way. I don't know what it is they want, but there's definitely a reason they put you and I—"

"Stop it!" Maple shouted, loud enough for me to actually stop. "I said I didn't want to hear your voice and I meant it. Don't try and act like you actually care about getting me out of here. Don't try and talk after all the—After everything you've done."

"I want to get out of here too. And I definitely can't do that alone. If you don't want to believe I want to see you free as well, you can at least understand my own desire to escape."

Silence, then. "What's the point?"

"So I can see Kat again, and everyone else—"

"You really think they survived that?" A dark eye looked at me over her slim shoulder before Maple turned away from me again. "Don't be stupid."

"We survived it."

"Because they wanted us to."

"I don't think you give them enough credit. Kat aside, I've seen Gust and Lilly in action. I know what they are capable of."

"You don't know anything about them!" Maple shouted again, keeping her back to me. "Stop acting like you do."

"Do you know that they would have wanted to be a part of that disaster back there?"

"They wouldn't have gone. I told them not to."

"Sounds to me like you're the one who doesn't know much about them."

Maple spun back towards me, fire in her eyes and ready to let out a flurry of insults and curses. Before she could, I asked her, "When was the last time Gust didn't do something stupid and reckless for his family?"

Maple didn't answer me.

"Has Lilly ever willfully abandoned her family? She and Gust are going through just as much shit as you, but they are fighting to stay together—"

"That's what I'm doing, you stupid fox!" Maple snapped back. "Everything I'm doing is for—"

"Don't lie to me, Maple," I said, my voice losing the casual tone and rising high enough to cut into her rant. "You know I was there. I heard what you said when Fawn asked you which of your brothers to take with you."

Maple bit her lip. She almost looked shocked, but then her eyes darkened. "What choice did I have?"

"You didn't hesitate. You didn't think twice about throwing Leaf back into that hell."

"He was weak!" Maple suddenly bellowed in a voice that was no longer her own. "Crippled mind and frail body. He would not serve my purposes. Only the eldest boy and the female twin. Only they have the power to see my will be done!"

I closed my mouth tight. This was bad. For a moment, I wondered how this person suddenly took over without Maple's Knowledge, but the sudden increase of heat in the room answered that for me immediately. The Lady's Knowledge was wearing off.

"You have been in our way long enough, fox," the void continued. The air appeared to shimmer around the burned girl as little fires began to ignite around her fallen form.

I desperately searched for any way out of this box. If her strength was returning, then mine had to as well. But there were still nothing but dirt walls. I was trapped in a room that would soon be a furnace.

"Who are you?" I asked, trying to keep my voice calm despite the heat pressing against my skin and the sweat dripping down my body. "What do you want?"

No answer. The void merely raised a hand in my direction, eyes black and smile wide. The little flames grew and raced towards me. All I could do was hold out my weak arms pitifully and close my eyes, bracing myself for the familiar, burning pain.

Instead, my stomach dropped as I fell through the earth. I hardly had the time to open my eyes before falling into a pair of strong arms.

"Be still," Fawn hissed into my ear as her hands gripped my body tight.

I was prepared to turn to look at her, but instead I was stuck staring at the person my eyes had opened up to. A tall, pale woman with black clothes and black hair. A woman I had thought was dead until just days ago.

She kept her face stoic as she walked past Mr. Copper who knelt on the ground and another woman I had only seen for a moment after the fight with Wolf. They watched her carefully as she approached me, but I hardly noticed either of them.

The pale woman now stood before me, and all I could do was look up at her from the bridal position Fawn held me in. She lowered her head until her dark hair covered her face, allowing only me to see the soft smile finally grace her lips.

"It is good to see you again," Lady Louise's voice echoed inside my head. "Rosetta and I have missed you dearly."

...

*Author's Note*

Seems that Foxy is going with the old, keep your friends close and your enemies closer routine. Surely after numerous successes and triumphs this new circumstance will only go well for him. But truly, who can our dear fox call friend and foe within the labyrinth of Wildwood's base? What do you guys think about this fine mess? Feel free to share your thoughts, I'd love to hear em!