Knight of the Black Rose

by Nissa Gordon

  "She said that it was an automatic reaction," Hunter told him, and he believed her as it was normal for a female to shriek in such a manner if they were in danger, so that they would stop it and also call for aid at the same time. "Stuart's questioning her now with Domnus. The problem is, she didn't see anything except for blackness...kind of like a cloud,"

  "Maybe she was too far away, or it put up some sort of projection of itself so that others couldn't see its true form," Glen suggested as he looked back at his son sleeping. "Do they know how long he'll be like this?"

  "I'm afraid not at the moment; they're still running tests as we speak," Hunter told him. "You can stay with him as long as you like, I'll have the others come and report to you if they find anything,"

  Glen nodded as he pulled the chair next to the bed forward, before he sat down. "Thanks Adrian,"

  "Just call if you need anything," Hunter told him looking at them both one last time, before he turned and left closing the doors behind him.

  Hunter stood for a moment outside the hospital ward gathering himself, he had been relieved when he had seen that Will hadn't been drained of life and was just in a deep sleep, he wouldn't had wanted to tell his friend that he had failed him in looking after his son. He might not have children of his own, but all the children at the school were his responsibility, which meant that he would do anything for them. He collected himself as he went to meet the others, he wanted to know if Lucy had given them anything else, as he was sure that if anyone could have gotten something from her then it would have been Stuart, not because he frighten her but because she trusted him probably more than she trusted them.

  He walked along the corridor to the office at the end where he had been told they were taking her, as her friends had been taken to the next ward down the corridor to his right. He would want to talk to them as well when they're hearing returned to them tomorrow, but for now, she was their only lead. So when he saw Stuart and Domnus coming from the office already and she was no where in sight, he wasn't at all pleased, quickening his pace to join them, needing to know what had happened.

  Domnus looked up as he heard him approaching. "How's Glen doing?"

  "As well as can be excepted, considering," Hunter answered. "Where is she, Lucy...I thought that you were going to question her?"

  "We did, but she couldn't give us much more than before," Stuart told him.

  "What I don't understand is why Will," Domnus said. "He's a first year, with little knowledge of his powers. Unless that was it, they thought him an easy target,"

  Hunter shook his head, he wasn't convinced of that, not considering how many times that Will had been involved in all of this, there just had to be more going than they understood. "Is Glen working on anything important at the moment?"

  "You know I can't tell you that?" Stuart told him frowning.

  "Think about it. He's just been pulled away from his work, and probably won't be going back out there until Will wakes up," Hunter told them. "Is it serious enough that anyone would want him out of the picture enough to do this, but without directly hurting him. A second play if you, so that they won't draw attention to what they're really after?"

  Stuart looked as though he was thinking the whole thing over until he finally spoke. "Fine, I'll check Glen out. You know that I might not be able to tell you anything; but we'll do what needs to be done. And Adrian, Domnus; keep Lucy and the others safe,"

  "Of course," Domnus said respectfully, before Stuart disappeared and he turned his attention back to Hunter. "Do you really think that all of this is some sort of distraction?"

  "Honestly, at this point I haven't got a clue, but considering that what ever it is has gone after him a couple of times now, I can't think of anything else that adds up," Hunter told him. "He has to be a target of some sort."

  "The people that were attacked before Christmas, have no link to him, the Ryker family or his job," Domnus told him. "Unless they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, test subjects; we just can't connect the pieces on this one,"

  Hunter nodded, he had looked over everything as well; Stuart had told them himself that they had checked everything out several times, but so far it just all seemed random except for these attacks at the school. "I have a couple of things that I need to do, I'll check in on Glen later,"

  Domnus nodded before he walked away, wondering what he was going to do even though he had just told him that he had things to do, in truth he didn't have a clue what he was supposed to be doing. He needed a solid target to attack and defeat, this waiting around for something, wasn't his style.

  Lucy was getting annoyed with all of the questions they were asking her, she hadn't meant to reveal that she wasn't human to them, and especially not so soon either considering that they were so new to all of this and with whoever it was that had been leaking all those stories. She sat apart from them in their common room going over all of her notes about the plants that she had found and also about the rose, of what it was made up of, but she still wasn't getting anywhere; but it wasn't helping that she was so distracted by the fact that they all kept looking over at her.

  "Come on Lucy...you might as well tell us," Jasper shouted over.

  "Yeah, they heard you...humans don't sound like that," Duncan told her.

  "It doesn't matter, does it?" Troy said annoyed as he got up finally and went over to join her. "I'm annoyed that she didn't tell us, but that's fine...she saved Will. She can tell us whenever she wants,"

  Lucy looked up at him surprised, and smiled; she had been expecting him and Alex to be the most angry with her, but they seemed alright. "Thanks," It was Jess who hadn't taken the news very well, especially considering that she still won't tell her what she is.

  "So, Lu what you working on?" Alex asked as he sat down joining them.

  "It's all that stuff I was doing remember, before Loring sent it off to the scientists," Lucy told him. "They still haven't found a cure..."

  "And what, you think that you could?" Alex said sarcastically, making Lucy look at him as though she was going to attack him; he held up his hands. "Sorry, I didn't mean anything. But, seriously Lu...what can you do, what they haven't?"

  "I don't know...but I do know that I don't like just sitting around doing nothing," Lucy told him and then glared over at the others who were still watching her, as though they half expected her to change into some sort of unspeakable creature. "Look at them, and they actually expect me to tell them what I am?"

  Troy and Alex looked over their shoulder at the others, it wasn't actually everyone who was staring, Eddie and Methos didn't seem at all bothered, and neither were Holly, Helena and Selena who were working on some sort of project.

  "Question...would it be so bad to show us?" Troy asked.

  Lucy looked at him, she trusted him, but it still didn't feel right to show him her true form. "I'm sorry...but...err..."

  "It's fine...you're one of them...dad told me, that he's worked with some for years and still has completely seen them in their true forms," Troy told her. "It does explain a lot about you; like why you're so strong for a girl,"

  There was a knock at the door making everyone look up, as no one knocked before coming in, even Hunter hadn't knocked the few times that he had visited their common room. The door creaked open and Nathan stepped in nervously clutching a newspaper to his chest as he quickly scanned the room, then rushed over to Lucy dropping in the empty seat beside of her.

  "What's wrong?" Lucy asked concerned as he had never come to their dorm common room before.

  "Have you seen this?" Nathan asked as he handed her the newspaper.

  Lucy took the paper off of him, a little nervous at what she might find, as she knew that whatever it was had to be serious and there were only so many thing's going on at the school at the moment.

  Magic School Attacked

  At one of the most elite magical schools in their world, a cover has started, as a student has been attacked by an unknown person/being/creature. They h
ave even yet to identify what has attacked this student. The student in question has said to be a boy but has somehow turned into a girl with long flowing hair. His name has yet to be revealed, because the teachers at the school have enchanted the students so that they can't leak information, or even inform their parents what has been going on. It makes you really wonder just how safe our children are with these people.

  The boy in question, or perhaps girl now, as officials won't comment on his status; we are told by others that he has actually faired a lot better than several others that were actually attacked and killed over Christmas by this same unknown being. At the moment, he is in a coma.

  The boy/girl was said to have been saved by another student, a none-human student. Again with the spells and enchantments that have been placed on the student body we were unable to get a name of this student, but we do know that it was a girl and class mate of the boy/girl. She is said to appear to be human, but that doesn't matter as they can change their appearance to look like us, when in truth they could be anything at all. The other students believe she is some sort of banshee, as she shrieked to scare off the unknown being; but in doing so she in fact wounded several others who was close by and shattered windows through-out the area.

  We are still trying to get an official comment from the Magical Government and from this school itself, and again we have been unable to get the name of the school because of the spells and enchantments that they have placed not only on our children but on the invitations that were sent out to them. Many parents have tried to come forward, but as soon as they do, the invitations would disappear, turn to ash and even the ink would fade on some.

  After this latest incident, our Government is pushing through the sensor of all supernatural beings, of every age. There is even cause if they are safe to live and work along side us. Companies may even be given the right, to refuse to employ them.

  Lucy couldn't read anymore, she couldn't believe that someone would do something like this; it was going to cause a mass panic among the humans and her own kind. She felt awful because now some of it was her fault, but even if she could somehow go back and change what had happened, she would probably still do the same thing because she couldn't have let Will die like that.

  "What is it?" Troy asked taking the paper off of her.

  "The teachers are questioning everyone about this," Nathan told them. "Stuart's still here, with more officers."

  "Why do they think Will's been turned into a girl?" Troy asked scowling over the top of the paper.

  They all looked at him just as confused, and unable to answer his question.

  A white swirling light suddenly engulfed everyone in the room, and they were transported out of there and into the main hall, with the rest of their year group. The tables and most of the benches had been pushed to the sides of the room and stacked on top of each other, leaving just a handful of benches for them to sit on facing the teachers that were stood before them; Hunter, Domnus, Validus and Loring.

  Hunter stepped forward to speak. "You should all sit down, as you're going to be here a while," The students shuffled over to the benches quickly and in silence, before he carried on talking. "As you all know, someone or several people have been leaking information out about our school over the year. This has happened again, but this time is more serious, as they have put several students lives in danger. Not counting the whole of the population on Earth in danger.

  “You have all been informed that we have lived in secret all of these years among many worlds, it was for our own safety and for theirs. There are hunters who will gladly hunt you down and kill you for being different, yes we have seen in happen many times before. Some will capture you and run tests on you, so that you will never see the light of day again. This is why we have been keeping all of this a secret for so long, and until last year, when we had to come out in the open all those who attended this school and others like it, agreed to keep it secret. But it appears this year, one or more have decided not to..."

  "Its has to be one of those from a human non-magical family!" Reagan shouted out, but dozens agreed with him from all of the estates.

  "Everyone will be questioned about this, no matter what sort of family they have come from," Hunter told them as they carried on whispering. "Everyone is being questioned, as you may know something that can help us without realising that you do. But know this, the person or persons who had sold our secret, has lost their place at the school and to live amongst us. Your powers will be suspended so that you can't do any damage to yourself or to others, and you and your family will have no memory of any of this ever happening,"

  "Damn he's scary," Nathan whispered.

  "You know there are worse thing's that they could have done, but with it being a student, they're limited," Lucy told him.

  "You will be called out in the order that you were placed into your estates, a teacher will sit with you as an officer questions you," Hunter carried on. "If you refuse to answer the questions willingly, then of course you will be under suspicion that you have something to hide,"

  "Jasper Agust'hil of Cadell." Domnus called over the chatter.

  Jasper nervously stood looking around wondering what he was supposed to do as Validus stepped forward to lead him towards the doors that they had come through that first evening.

  "You will all go through one at a time, then be taken back to your dorm common room," Hunter told them.

  Lucy wondered how long this was going to take considering that they were only going to take one in at a time, and she still had her work with her considering that it had been in her lap at the time that they had transported her away; she slowly raised her hand making those around her stare.

  Hunter noticed Lucy and was a little surprised to see her hand up. "Yes, what's the matter?"

  "Actually...err...can I speak with Loring...sorry...Professor Loring?" Lucy asked standing up gathering up her work.

  Hunter looked back at Loring who shrugged, seemingly just as surprised as he was.

  "It's about that project that we were talking about," Lucy told them.

  "Oh yes, of course," Loring said brightly as he realised what she meant, and she hurried over to him. "We can sit back here,"

  He directed them up to the teachers table so that no one could listen to them, but there were plenty who were probably wondering what was going on. They sat down and Lucy laid out all of her work and went in straight away explaining what she had been doing since, and asking questions of everything that she hadn't been able to figure out herself or fully explain herself.

  They talked for well over an hour as students were called for and taken away for questioning, while Lucy had more of her own; Hunter came over to join them to find out what they were talking about, and he could still keep an eye on the others from there.

  "She's very good," Loring said impressed as Hunter sat down with them.

  "I didn't realise that you were still working on it?" Hunter asked.

  Lucy blushed slightly. "Well, I might not understand it all, but I guess that's why I kept at it...and also with everything else that I found out. But the problem is..."

  "She wants to speak to the people who we sent the work off to," Loring told him.

  "Why?" Hunter asked confused.

  Lucy had already explained it once to Loring without giving too much away, and him asking her questions, and she was kind of nervous that Hunter would probably be just as suspicion. "Well, it's what else I've found...I guess...err...I was wondering if any of this new stuff could help them..."

  Hunter didn't look convinced. "Lucy you know that your work was a great help, but these are some of the greatest minds in the galaxy. I know that sounded harsh..."

  "I think there's more to it, than sucking the life out of things," Lucy told them. "It has to be going somewhere...either into this being or whoever is controlling it. It has to be controlled by someone with something, and from what I've found; some of the ingredients are capable of controlling and su
mmoning,"

  "You know that there's restrictions in place?" Hunter had to except that she did have some good ideas, so decided to let her speak with the scientists. "You won't actually be able to talk to any of them, just perhaps send them a messages,"

  "I guess that'll do," Lucy said a little surprised that they were giving in so easily, especially considering that she had hardly told them anything; it told her that these greatest minds weren't having much luck and things were getting really serious.

  "Loring will take you...to the library," Hunter told her. "You can't tell them that you're a student...just use your middle name, Luna,"

  "That's what we used when we sent them your work," Loring told her as he stood.

  "Oh...okay..." Lucy said as she quickly gathered up her papers, then she stopped suddenly. "Won't it look odd that I'm leaving?"