Four: Present

Coolyala was out of her mind. Her body was in agony and her parents' voices were in her head, telling her different from before. If she did not listen, something beat her. She knew of several broken bones. She knew her leg and one of her arms were done for, her ribs were puncturing a lung, and her head swam from being thrown into the ground repeatedly. She wasn't sure how much time had passed, but it felt like eternity before the nori door opened. Her guards walked in and hauled her up. She screamed. They ignored her.

They carried her to a room and set her on a table, then strapped her down so she couldn't move. Someone came in, a mask over their face, and looked her over. After a few minutes, they went to a counter and began to mix something together.

She knew what was happening. Her parents-her real parents- had given it to her when she was younger and had broken something. It hurt but it did help. But she knew why this was happening now: they wanted her alive.

The masked person came back and helped her drink the concoction. It was foul and burned her throat, but soon, she felt her body healing itself. She screamed again as it did so, wishing for the agony to go away. Wishing her parents had not put this burden on her, their only youngling.

An hour of pain before she could breathe and move. The guards hauled her into another room where Milbaral waited on a plush couch, a red drink in his hand. He smiled at her as she was forced to sit across from him. "Willing to divulge the information, now?"

She looked around. There was a fireplace with a roaring fire, a long table piled high with food, and a few dogs lying on the rug, watching her. She said, "What happened to them?"

Milbaral raised a brow. "Who?"

She raised her menacing gaze to his. "You know who."

He sipped his drink. "They are locked up at the lab, awaiting our arrival."

Coolyala didn't believe him, but had no way of finding out the truth. "What is that room?"

"Something tested. Something quite useful." He set his lips in a firm line. "Tell me how to get them, Coolyala."

Glancing at the guards, she said, "He didn't tell me how."

"Liar."

She snapped her eyes to him. "How do you know? I was a stranger! Not many trust a stranger!"

Milbaral sat forward. "He told you, Yala. He told you how to get them. Now, tell me!"

Coolyala breathed in deeply, savoring his anger and the slight fear in his eyes: fear that she perhaps didn't know. "You still haven't explained what they are."

Milbaral gave a frustrated growl and lunged at her. Coolyala squealed and leapt away, towards the table of food. "Tell me!" he demanded.

The guards kept the doors out of this room blocked, but she didn't care. They wouldn't move to help Milbaral. "Why does it matter?" She asked, dancing away from his lunge. "They're mistakes! Meant to be thrown away."

"They are powerful mistakes! Ones you could never comprehend!"

She picked up a piece of goose, roasted until it was golden brown, and caught the hunger in the dogs' eyes. "You could let me try," she offered. "You told me I had potential."

Milbaral stopped lunging for her and sighed, straightening his clothes. "Fine, sit."

Coolyala waited for him to sit first, then did so herself. Biting into the goose, she waited.

Milbaral opened his mouth when a ruckus rose from the hall. Coolyala cursed under her breath, having been so close to the answers. The guards stiffened as something or someone slammed against the door. She got to her feet, backing away from the door. Milbaral put a hand to his head and sighed. A moment later, a huge man stumbled into the room, face nearly hidden in his facial hair. Coolyala smiled, but didn't jump over. The man assessed his surrounding quickly, knocked out each guard with one blow, then looked at her. "He would like me to tell you that they are as you have wished."

Her heart calmed as she relaxed. They had done it!

Milbaral was fuming. "No!" He ran from the room, not even glancing at her.

She looked at the dogs and threw the goose at them. They pounced on it. Now, she looked at the man. "You promise?"

He nodded. "Each of them, though it was difficult. But each of the Wolves hid one, going far and wide."

"And is he...?"

The man stepped forward, just once, and gave her a gentle smile. "He's fine, Butterfly."

She nodded.

More chaos from the hall. "Come with me," he suggested.

She sadly stepped back. "I can't."

"Why not?"

"Because they'll come after you and the rest. If I'm here, everyone and everything is safe."

"You know we don't care."

"Wong, it's that I care."

Wong shook his head. "He wants you home."

Home... A place she didn't have for over a year until she stumbled into him: because of Milbaral, because of the stones.

"Tell him to go as he always has, Wong. Tell him to live but never forget. Tell Lofgun, I will find him when I get out."

Wong sighed heavily as the guards began to wake. "Are you sure?" he asked, a plea in his eyes.

She walked over and grabbed something from a hidden pocket of her shirt. She put it in his hand and curled his fingers around it. "Give him this for me. He will know what it is and what it means." Tears began to flow. "I'm sorry."

Wong embraced her, but turned and hurried out of the facility. It wasn't long before the guards came to and escorted her back to her cell.

Wong had just found a hidden spot when he opened his hand to look at what she had given him. It was a pin for a lady of royal born, it didn't matter where. It was an insignia with a rose; each petal a different color, creating a swirl of rainbow. Surrounding the rose, pearl white stone that caught the light and shown with an eerie glow. There was something emblazoned on the lip of the pin, a bunch of letters and symbols that meant something.

Wong placed the pin in his pocket before setting off towards where the meeting place. It took him fifteen minutes to run, finding Lofgun there with the others of the Electric Wolves. They still mourned over the White Bulldogs, even thirteen months later.

Lofgun looked around Wong, eyes searching for the woman they had all come to care deeply for. "Where is she?" His voice was raspy, hidden emotion making it break.

Wong looked at him, eyes dull. "She wouldn't come."

Lofgun widened his eyes. "What do you mean! I told you to get her out!"

Wong crashed to his knees and pulled out the pin. Looked at it longingly. "She said she had to stay, said she would to protect us."

Lofgun roared in fury. "She was supposed to be rescued!"

Wong nodded, knowing he failed, but handed the pin to Lofgun. "She said you would know what it means."

Lofgun took the pin, looked at the rose, the inscription, and cursed. In a despairing voice, he said, "She's going to die in there, and our chance is lost."

"She wanted you to live on," Wong finally said, knowing the man wouldn't listen. "That she'd find you when she got out."

Lofgun looked at the pin again and wrapped his fingers around it. He, unlike Wong, understood it was a promise. He understood that his Butterfly had stayed not just to protect him and his Wolves, but to protect her world. Her pin, her words, her sacrificed life... It meant she was going to fight, to use her beautiful mind to outwit her enemies and destroy them.

He prayed for her. Would pray everyday until they were together again. "Come," he said to his Wolves. "We shall do our part to help Butterfly win."

"How?" Rinnowra asked softly.

Lofgun climbed the steps to his new home and said with a menacing voice, "By going to their headquarters."