A cold breeze blew through the small wooded area, allowing an ominous feeling to seep in to the two that where currently sheltered there. Ruby Lupin was huddled against her older sibling, trembling from the cold. She didn’t like it here, it was scary and it didn’t have Jamal or anyone.

Jamal.

The foxlings boyfriend was put into hiding by his ‘boys’ and when he begged Ruby to come with him she refused because she wanted to be with her sister. This was a decision she was sure she wouldn’t regret. This was just like when they where in the labs, almost exactly except there was no pain...yet. She watched her older sister, looking out at the forest hesitantly, when she reached up to touch the large claw marks on the wolf girls neck, she tensed immediately.

Emerald looked down at her sister, eyes softening and she attempted to loosen up slightly, trying to reassure Ruby that she would be okay. She knew that it would be fine as long as they where together, Emerald did not want to be separated from her younger sibling again; she needed to keep her safe this time.

The wolf girl tucked the blanket that was draped over them tightly around Ruby’s body, smiling at her reassuringly. The fox girl looked up at her sister with a small smile, trying to keep her chin up in this bleak situation they where in. Without a word both sisters started to drift into a restless sleep, attempting to rest themselves after running for two days straight.

A few hours later both girls awoke with a start hearing a crash echo through the woods. As soon as both girls got up the swat members from the mansion came through the thick underbrush of the forest. Emerald growled instantly shifting to wolf form, before lunging at the nearest member, fangs digging into his shoulder, breaking it.

And then the fight began

One by one the swat members came to tangle with the fearsome wolf girl only to fall victim to her fangs on brute strength but this didn’t mean she didn’t take her share of hits. Emerald had been slashed across the cheek with a blade and kicked and punched in various places causing purplish black bruising to form.

This was not to say that Ruby was not doing anything oh no, she was zapping a fair share of swat members. She of course also had been hit but not as hard as her older sister, however Ruby did notice that these swat members seemed to want them both alive.

Suddenly Ruby heard a high pitched bark and looked over at her older sister.

“EMMY!” She screamed, noticing her sister on the ground blood seeping from her side. The fox girl watched in horror as her sister attempted to fight back more but a foot connected with the wolf girls face causing her to fly back.

Ruby rushed over to her Emerald holding her older sisters head up, blood flowed from the older girl’s nose and her lip was busted open. There was a small bruise on the side of her temple making her vision all fuzzy there where also various bruising all over her arms and legs from the fighting. Ruby noticed the wounds were in between her ribs and it could have punctured an organ if it went any deeper.

Ruby quickly tied the blanket they where using around Emeralds wound tightly.

“Emmy…please we need to leave.”

The severely beaten wolf girl looked up at the younger girl, attempting to sit up. She let out a small growl of pain.

“I’m trying kit….you okay?” Emerald asked, but before she could get an answer from the corner of her vision saw gloved hands reaching for the small fox girl.

“Ruby look out!” She exclaimed as loud as she could but her sister would not move.

Ruby let out a cry as she was heaved into the air by a member of the swat team and a collar was latched onto her neck. When she tried to shock them she realized that these members of swat where wearing special clothes to prevent her shock attacks. That was when it all came together for Ruby; the attack with all of those men was a ruse to wear the two out until they could finally come in prepared to handle the Lupin sisters. Ruby cursed to herself for not noticing it before.

“EMMY! LET ME GO! MY SISTER IS HURT! SHE NEEDS ME! LET ME GO!” Ruby screamed, squirming about as she was put into the back of one of the pulled up trucks.

When the men reached down to grab Emerald, they where met with large fangs digging into their skin. But it wasn’t long before the actually prepared soldiers came in and grabbed Emerald’s beaten form, despite her struggles. She still injured more soldiers though, just with minor wounds, barely enough to get them away from her. She was thrown rather carelessly in a cage in the opposite truck. A collar was latched onto her and she let out a terrifying roar.

Emerald’s dark blue eyes glazed over with animal like blood lust as she rammed all sides of the cage. She had been in human form so this no doubt was making her wounds worse but her wolven brain didn’t care, she wanted to save her sister, she wanted to get out.

“RUBY! RUBY!” Emerald howled, bearing her fangs at the men as they glared at her, “You bastards better give me back my sister or I will hurt you just like I did your friends.”

Ruby looked out at the ‘battlefield and counted 23 men lay gravely injured on the ground from the Lupin sister assault, 12 with minor wounds and 7 with the blood of both girls coating their gloves.

Ruby looked at the gashes on her hands as she listened to her sister’s frantic howls. She let out a tiny whimper when another police car drove up to her truck. The fox girl scrambled into the back of the truck clutching her backpack to her chest.

“Emmy… please save me.” She begged silently, praying this wouldnt be just like the labs. She then watched as one rather burly police man come out of the cruiser, not yet seeing the other man that was soon to come out.

It had started with a phrase and a grin. The phrase: “You look like a man who needs to get wasted.” The grin: belonging to Richard Browning, a burly man in the uniform of a SWAT team member. Rupert had gone through basic training with him, back when they were both twenty-one and considerably less cynical.

Rupert just blinked at the guy over his looming pile of paperwork. He had to finish the wrap-up on all of his cases before he started supervising at the camp. Before he got to see a certain cold-hearted woman put in her place, with all of her little freakish friends. Browning didn’t back down from the look Rupert gave him. Instead, he followed up with: “Want to do the next best thing?”

And that is how Rupert came to be stepping out of a car behind Browning, and facing a rather... unexpected scene.

The first words of his mouth were completely honest: “How stupid are you two? Staying this close to the Mansion? Brilliant. Nice of you, even. If we’d have asked you to collar yourselves, would you have done it?” The words were laced with cynicism; the violence with which they left his mouth startled even Rupert.

He was glaring at the two youngest Lupin sisters without even noticing what he was doing. It wouldn’t be long until the full weight of this situation hit him. For now... the sight of the mutie girls who he’d foolishly tried to help—first by clearing Emerald’s criminal record, and then by attempting to keep them from grave harm during the Mansion raid—simply filled him with a sudden burst of misdirected frustration. He wasn’t seeing two badly abused young girls. He was seeing friends of a liar.

Had Raina told these two about him? Had they had a little sleepover in their cozy Mansion rooms, done each other’s nails, and laughed at how the zealot cop didn’t suspect a thing?

Ruby's ears flattened against her head, tail drooping between her legs. The mans harsh words hurt her ears and it made her feel as if she was dumb. She tried to shake the feeling off but it was still there, it was true they could have gotten alot farther away but this place was more secluded and everywhere else they went they where turned away.

"No, we just wanted to stay together," Ruby whined softly, tears welling up in her eyes. "Please Mr dectective let Emmy come with me in the truck...cant you get them to move her? She is afraid you will hurt me thats why she is so feral right now, please let her over here for me."

Emerald in the meantime slammed into the cage, causing quite a fuss with the guards who continuely shocked her. She growled and snarled fiercly as she was attacked from both sides. Nasty welts formed on her skin as she struggled more and more, pain running through her.

"We may need to sedate this one when we register, or keep her seperate from the other mutants." One of the cops muttered.

Ruby's keen hearing picked up on this and looked at Rupert with pleading eyes.

Tears.

Tears were not what Rupert wanted to see right now, but they were probably what he needed to see. A fourteen year old girl crying was not something he could stay angry at without a concentrated force of will. Since he didn’t know why he was angry with her... those tears made him back off as quickly as a cat from a spray bottle. He didn’t say anything in response to the fox girl’s words. He suddenly wasn’t sure he had the right to say anything to her—it was a damn uncomfortable feeling, and he didn’t know where it came from. Instead, he walked over to the other truck, and stared at Emerald. Emerald Lupin. Oceanwolf. An unwilling killer, but a killer none the less. Someone with temper even more volatile than his own. Now this was someone he could talk to.

He motioned for her guards to stop shocking her. For the moment. “Hey,” he sneered, keeping his distance from the cage, “what are you trying to do? You think beating yourself into the cage sides is going to help you?” He risked a glance back at the fox girl, feeling oddly unwilling to face her. She was just another mutie freak. A pretty damn young mutie freak, though. He turned back to the snarling wolf girl, and asked with quiet passion: “Do you think that will help your sister? If you keep acting like this, you aren’t going to see her for a very long time. Do you understand that? If you calm down... Maybe something can be arranged.” The wolf seemed to be out of her mind—if any words could bring her back, maybe those were them.

The beastly growls stoped for a brief moment, slightly human eyes staring back at Rupert. She looked at him, bending her head downwards submissvely, tail drooping between her legs. She tried to calm down as best as she could, but by her tense body it was easy to see.

The wolf girl walked over on all fours to one of the two bags that lay in the cage with her. She rummeged through it a moment and retrieved a brown stuffed rabbit with a screwdriver attached to its leg. The screwdrivers tip was bent though, it was of no use but it was still tether to the bunnies leg. There was also a worn picture of the family taped to its back, it was before the labs when the sisters where still young and normal....realtively.

She retrieved it, nosing it out of the cage. Emerald looked at Rupert and tried to speak clearly. "It's......Ruby's." She managed to get out before a growl escaped her throat.

The leader of the men the swat team that captured them walked over to her cage. "Maybe we should keep them seperate from each other, make them squirm a bit, Eh Rupert?" He commented sticking his hand ontop of the cage.

Emerald snarled, backing up, looking as if she would kill this man if she got the chance.

Rupert picked up the rabbit, turning it over in his hands—he glanced briefly at the picture—and turned it back to its right side. Then he answered the SWAT team leader—slowly, and coldly. It was only fitting. He hadn’t felt warm since the Mansion raid. “Now where’s the fun in that, Charles? We separate them, what happens? Fluffy here goes insane and beats herself to death against the walls of solitary confinement, and Sparky over there wanders around whimpering so much we all get sick of kicking her. We keep them together...” He held the doll up to show the man that lovely family photo. “...They both have something to live for, no matter what we do to them. Get it?” He grinned the slightest bit. If he was going to feel cold, then damn it, he was going to be ice.

The leader rolled his eyes at them, a small smirk across his face. "Or we could just keep the rabbit to show that we mean buisness. Besides we arent supposed to let them have any comforts."

A howl escaped Emerald's throat as she threw herself at the cage, it rolled foward causing her wounds that had somewhat healed to reopen. She glared at the male, fangs bared "Let....Ruby have.....Buster.....Back." The wolf girl choked out, infuriated. Her crimsion hair draped down in her face,cold blue eyes starting at the Leader.

Ruby heard this from the other van. "Emmy! Please dont get hurt, please I cant replace you!"

The team leader rolled his eyes again. "So you are telling me you dont want to see them squirm and suffer, I mean hell that is our jobs, to put creatures like this behind bars." As he said that his fist slammed into the wolf girls stomach causing her to gasp in pain.

"So you are telling me you don’t want to see them squirm and suffer, I mean hell that is our jobs, to put creatures like this behind bars."

Rupert smirked at the SWAT leader’s words, and did nothing more than stare at Emerald with a chilled smile as she gasped for breath. “Like Hell, that’s what I’m saying. Since when have I been on these freak’s side, Charles? You know me.” He started tossing the rabbit into the air with one hand—toss, catch. Toss, catch. “What I’m saying is this—which is more painful? Being separated, or being together, and knowing you can’t do anything to help your,” he screwed his face up, and said in a cutesy-baby-talk way: “li’l baby sister?” Toss, catch. He relaxed back to talking normally. “They’ll squirm, all right. Every time we split them apart to separate work details, every time some guard gives a tug to the foxy girl’s tail and Nibbles here can’t do anything about it, every time she,” he jerked his head at Emerald, “needs to be made an example of, and the fox has no choice but to watch.” Toss, catch. He looked at his fellow officer, and quirked an eyebrow in amusement. Toss; he caught the rabbit by its neck, and held it up with a little jarring shake. “You know what? I think you’re right about this think. How about I hold onto ‘Buster’, for safe keeping.” He grinned at the wolf girl. “Wouldn’t you just love that?”

((ooc: Idea—might be fun to have Sapphire show up at his apartment and take Buster back. lol Tell me what you think. )

Emerald let out a feral snarl slamming herself into the bars again. She snapped at Rupert, trying to get the rabbit out of his arms. "Ruby never goes to sleep without it!" The she wolf barked at him, blood running down her face.

Ruby started crying in the truck, a loud sob echoing through it. Her sister was in pain, and she knew it and the mean cop was gonna take Buster away. She curled up into a ball, hugging her legs to her chest. "I wanna go home." She whimpered

Charlie smiled at Rupert. "Yea that would be fun. I dunno though we could just give the kid the rabbit and leave it at that. We could exterminate this wild one." Suddenly he pulled out a rifle from his jacket and shoved it into the cage. The wolf girl now had a gun pressed against her forehead, its cold feel anticipating of the things to come.

Now that Ruby heard loud and clear, she uncurled her body and nearly leapt from the can, tears streaming from her face.Two men held the little fox girl by the arms as she looked at her sister over in the cage. "EMMY! EMMY! DONT HURT MY SISTER!" She cried,attempting to squirm away.

Emerald noticed her sisters tears and then looked at the barrel of the gun that was pointing at her cage. She attempted to bark to make her sister feel that it would be okay. "Ruby....dont please dont risk your life for mine!" Emerald exclaimed, sounding like a mix between wolf and human speech.

Ruby could still hear it though, she shook her head, tears still streaming. "I told Mom and Dad we would be safe. I dont want you to die for something that is my fault, you could have gotten alot farther if it wasnt for me but you didnt! You never left me alone, you always have taken care of me and it now my turn to take care of you. I dont want him to shot you Emmy....youre....youre my best friend."

Emerald's tail drooped between her legs as small tears welled in her eyes. It was a rare thing to see her cry and when it was seen it was hardly believe. "I'm your sister, we are supposed to be best friends. I love you little sister." Emerald replied, closing her eyes tightly, waiting for the pain.

((will Rupert stop the bullet?))

((ooc: I’ve been wondering where Rupert’s breaking point was. Congratulations! You just found it for me. That was a really good post, Em.))

Rupert laughed. He laughed like a man who’s just heard a really good joke at his best friend’s wedding. He laughed like he didn’t understand that what was happening was wrong—on the contrary, it was amusing beyond words. He put a hand in front of his face, doubled over slightly, and had the best laugh he’d had since college. Before he’d become a cop, years before the Sanctuary Police Massacre, and so far removed from the present time that he’d forgotten how much laughing could hurt.

He finally straightened himself up, wiping mirthful tears from the corners of his eyes with the back of the hand that held the bunny. With his other hand, he dug a coin out of his pocket. The quarter flashed coldly as he held it up between the knuckles of fingers. “That’s good, Charles. That’s good.” He said, quite heartily approving of the man’s actions. “I’ve got something better. Like I’ve been trying to say, where’s the fun in just doing something to them, and having it be done? Let’s make this fun for us, and—heh—fun for them, too. How about a game?” He turned back to the fox girl as she struggled to get to her sister. “Little girls like games, don’t they?” He waved the quarter at her. “I’ll flip this; you call it. If you win, big sister Emmy here gets to ride in the truck with you, and you get to sleep with Buster every night. You two can share a room at the camps, too—why not. If us humans win,” he gave an unconcerned shrug. “Well, I can’t be held responsible for Charles’ trigger finger, now can I?” He shared a glance with the SWAT team leader. The man certainly looked like he was willing to go along with this. Rupert looked back at Ruby. “If you lose, no rabbit, and no sister. And you’ll wake up every morning for the rest of your life knowing that her death was something you could have stopped. How’s that for a game?”

The smiling gaze which he leveled on the youngest of the Lupin sisters... was not entirely sane, not at that moment. Rupert had felt something inside of him snap. Until he felt the sweet release of its breaking, he hadn’t realized how much tension had been in him. Raina, the Lupin sisters, even the humans of NYC... None of them mattered to him just now.

It felt good not to give a damn about anyone. Really good. He flicked the quarter into the air, swiftly caught it, and flipped it over so that it rested against the back of his hand with his other hand covering it. “Call,” he ordered the fox girl, with the force of a glacier.

((ooc: ...I think Rupert just went uber-zealot on me. Woah. lol))

Ruby's eyes widened at this proposal, realizing her sisters life was now in her hands. At that moment her brain started going at a mile a minute, listing proablility minus the weight of a common quater of this day and age, with other such statistics. When she finally came up with a solution she looked at Rupert.

"Your quater has the look of one from 2007 correct? Which means it has been equally wieghted if my caculations are correct....Tails." The fox girl exclaimed.

Emerald closed her eyes tightly, silently praying she would be right.

Rupert raised an eyebrow at the girl’s question, but answered: “Yes, it’s a new one.”

“...Tails.”

Rupert uncovered the quarter. “Well,” he said slowly, drawing it out. “Looks like that’s another loss for humanity. Tails,” he confirmed, shoving the quarter into his pocket and giving the SWAT leader an almost apologetic shrug. Without looking at Ruby, he tossed the rabbit doll her way. Then he casually turned his gaze to Emerald. “Are you going to behave yourself? Can’t let you out of that cage unless you’re going to be a good dog. I’d hate to disappoint your sister, just because Fusionist forgot to give you your rabies shots.”

Ruby let out a happy cry as she caught Buster, latching onto the Bunny as if it where a life line. She nuzzled it fur gently before glancing over at Emerald who had calmed down considerably. She glanced at her sister hopefully, hoping she would submit...just this once.

Emerald looked at Rupert and nodded slowly, droping herself to the floor, sitting like a noble dog. She was then unlocked from the cage and thrown in the back of the truck with Ruby, along with thier packs.

The lupin sisters embraced, happy to be with one another again. Ruby then helped Emerald to the corner she was sitting it and began to treat her wounds with the medical supplies they had brought with them.

She poured Idonie in the wounds, causing her sister to hiss in pain loudly as Ruby's hand worked the stuff in quickly bebfore wrapping a bandage wrap around her sisters torso to cover her bleeding gash. She then put a bandage over the cuts on her face and placed a cold water bottle against her largest of bruises.

"You could be a doctor you know." Emerald commented to her younger sibling.

"I know, but from our experience with them I dont think I would feel comfortable doing that line of work." Ruby responded grimly.

"Figured." The wolf girl said, sitting up a bit with a grimace. She put her jacket tightly around herself, almost as a security blanket.

Charlie leered at both girls, a small smile creepying across his face. "You know there is talk of a private sessions center for guys like us to be in the camp. To settle out anger out on the muties. Would you go to it....do you think they would put ethier of them in it? Because I could poroably put the older one to better use." Charlie said this a little ways a way fromt he van.

Ruby heard this and clung to her sisters hand. "No.." She whimpered softly.

"You know there is talk of a private sessions center for guys like us to be in the camp. To settle out anger out on the muties. Would you go to it....do you think they would put either of them in it? Because I could probably put the older one to better use."

Rupert felt his stomach twist painfully; the corners of his mouth followed suit. Reality settled back in. “That kind of talk,” Rupert stated coldly, “is unbefitting of an officer of the law. That’s disgusting Charles.” He gestured to the Lupin sisters, with their obvious mutations. “Does going to the zoo get you off? These things aren’t human. You know it, and I know it. Anyone who knowingly has a ‘private session’ with one of these... these things is no better than they are.”

Anyone who had unknowingly done it was damn fool who would feel sick at the thought for the rest of his life. An image of Raina flashed in his mind—her beautiful hair, her smile. He felt a brief flash of warmth spread over his skin. In the next second, though, he was swallowing down bile, and the persistent chill was back.

There were murmurs of agreement over his words from some of the men, but others—Charles included—seemed less then convinced on the issue. They could do what they pleased. If they did it anywhere near Rupert, though, they were going to find out that those solitary confinement cells could hold humans every bit as well as humans. He intended to take his job as a camp supervisor seriously. More seriously than most people suspected, particularly the people who had appointed him thinking that a zealot like himself would go along with anything, as long as it left a trail of suffering mutants in its wake.

Ruby heard all of this and smiled slightly. "Mr. Rupert is gonna protect us Emmy!" Ruby exclaimed with a happy gleam in her eyes.

Emerald sighed deeply, knowing how innocent her younger sister was to the ways of the world. "Yea Ruby... I'm sure he will." She responded, trying to hide the doubt in her voice.

Ruby noticed this and her ears flattened slightly. "But Emmy he seems nice, he didnt hurt us." Ruby responded in a hopeful tone

Emerald shook her head, "But he hurt his Girlfriend." Emerald replied, she then noticed the hopeful face on Ruby's face evaporating and she thought quickly of what to say next. She then glanced at Rupert and said her next words loud enough for him to hear. "I mean I am sure he didnt do it on purpose, he never gave off the scent of being a grade A asshole so I'm sure he isn't one."

Ruby didnt really understand her sisters undertones in her voice but assumed she was right. She then sat next to Emerald, leaning against her older sibling, waiting for the car to start up. The fox girl was scared of the things that where to come in the upcomming days.