Title: "In the Wake of Vultures"

Rating: T

Genre: drama

Character(s): the Dooley-Davenport household, Krane, S-1 – it depends on the chapter

Pairing(s): mentions of Donald/Tasha

Summary: 'Your family has no love for you, Leo. They may have before, but they do not now. Not when you have nothing to offer.' '…Okay. I'll do it. I'll help you. What do you need me to do?' Sequel to the alternate version of A Savage in the Wild. [[Written for AllAmericanSlurp.]]

Notes: This is a prize fic for AllAmericanSlurp who posted the 500th comment for my 'The A-Bionic Chronicles' story! I asked her for a prompt, and in a review for A Savage in the Wild she asked me for a sequel. I only committed to a one-shot, but the idea I got bred a three-shot, so…

Anyways, one of the chapters in this will have a sort of a hole in it. Explanations will come later so as not to spoil anything, but it shouldn't be that bad.

(In case you have not read A Savage in the Wild, please read it first. You will understand everything better. :) )

Congrats again, AllAmericanSlurp, and I hope you enjoy!

i. rupture

Sequence is something that Douglas easily understands. Even when he was little, patterns and order are something that came quickly to him. He had amused his parents one time, when he was seven. To keep him occupied the whole day, his father had dumped a one thousand piece puzzle on the floor in front of him and asked him to put the disaster together into that picture of a waterfall that was printed as a model on the box. Bored out of his wits that Saturday morning, he was only too happy to do it. However, instead of coming to them much later, he came to them not even an hour afterwards to tell them that he was done and was still bored.

That's why he knows that, even if his older brother always gets the accolades and the high praises for being 'smart,' he's smarter. He can look at problems, and, with the exception of a few, with his quick eyes and even quicker mind he can solve them with little effort.

But this. This is a puzzle he's not sure he can solve.

His step-nephew had vanished nearly an hour ago, just as he was arriving at the island to help his brother with a plan that he didn't clearly disclose over the phone. He came to a manic scene, with the students being rushed into a lockdown while his older brother was accessing the video feed from a desolate part of the Academy he didn't know existed. His first move was to ask what happened. His second was to ask where Chase and Leo were after he noticed the absence of both boys. However, instead of his brother answering him, the recording on the screen gave him the reply.

Krane, the man they thought they had ended once and for all, standing in front of a room after turning off a cybermask, after ending a conversation with someone he couldn't see.

They took him, his brother breathed out then in shock as he stared at the screen.

Took who?, he had asked, the thought of someone having taken Chase popping up in his mind and making him nervous. Who did he—

He must've found out about what happened.

What happened?

He's too dangerous. He can't… Krane's going to use that.

Use what? But his brother seemed to withdraw into his own thoughts. Before he could go any farther, though, he called to him, Donald! Why was Krane here? Who did he take?

Despite having been surprised by his brother, Donald answered, Leo. He took Leo.

Leo?

It was then that everything was explained to him in full detail. It brought him a small degree of comfort to find that Chase was still there in the island, only resting in his capsule due to his weak state. The story of how that came about, though, as told through his brother's and the two remaining children's accounts and the recordings of it happening, both clarified and confused the matter for him.

He understood the technicalities: the kid got pushed into a corner, forced to act in defense of himself. His bionics malfunctioned. He hurt people. However, what he couldn't comprehend was why no one helped him in the first place. He had known the kid long enough to figure that he was the type of person who could withstand teasing and even bullying for some time. For him to react that way meant that it had been going on. Did his family not notice it? Or did they just turn a blind eye in favor of these new children? He hoped not, because that would cost them a considerable amount of his respect.

He didn't understand it either, at least during those first few minutes, why the boy was isolated. The three older children had experienced having their abilities glitch before. Donald didn't treat him that way. What made the boy so different? Were they really just scared, or were they using him as a proof to prove to the students that they were important, even more important than their own family?

After mulling it over, he was inclined to assume the good from them. Maybe they really just didn't notice, and maybe what happened just terrified them.

Then, he learned the real reason why he was called there in the first place.

It offends then angers him the more he thinks about it. His brother called him there to sedate his stepson, and then decrease the energy in his abilities, like the kid is some old toy that now only annoys its owners rather than interests them and so needs a fixer to make it somewhat tolerable again, or like some shattered piece of art that needs to be glued together for the sake of convenience and for show. Like a pet that has to be put down. It doesn't help when he sees again in the recordings, after watching it for the nth time for any clues, how the kid easily trusted who he thought was him. It stings when he fills in the gaps in the conversation, too, the words 'broken' and 'home' and 'different' coming out of Krane's mouth as he responded to the boy and perhaps repeated what he said.

These leave him to question many things.

Above all, these leave him pitying the kid.

He's too immersed in his thoughts that he doesn't notice his brother coming in from behind him. "Have you tracked down his location yet?" Donald asks.

He doesn't bother to look at him and instead inputs a command on the desk. "Krane or Leo?" he asks pointedly.

His brother misses his meaning. He only stares. "They're probably going to be at the same place," he tries to answer without being sarcastic, and he does.

Yet, to him, it doesn't matter. "Leo's GPS location is off. Krane's too smart not to block it, especially if he doesn't want them to be found," he comments as he tries another approach in their search.

In his periphery, he sees his brother nod. After pausing thoughtfully, he says, "I just don't understand how Krane could have gotten past us. And how did he even know what we were going to do? That sedative was in the quarters. How did he know where to get it?"

"It's not that hard," he mutters, keeping his eyes on the screen.

Donald doesn't answer. This time, however, he picks up that something is off. Still, he ignores it. "What about Krane?" he asks as he looks on at the blank results on the desk. "Is there any way you can track down his location?"

"No."

"Okay. Okay." Donald expels a breath when he remembers something. "I don't know how I'm going to tell Tasha about this. She's going to be mad at me when she finds out Leo's missing."

"Not as mad when she finds out that you almost tranquilized him."

Donald frowns. "I wasn't going to tranquilize him," he says.

He pauses in his work. "Oh. That's right. You were going to have me do it."

"All of the students are secured in the dormitories, Mr. Davenport," Bree announces as she and Adam come into the room.

Both men, however, do not hear her. "Douglas, is there something wrong?" Donald attempts at patiently asking his brother.

He scoffs softly. "All of this is wrong," he mumbles.

Fed up by his younger brother's foul attitude, Donald replies, "You know, it seems like there's something you want to say, so why don't you just go ahead and say it?"

He glares at Donald, but he doesn't speak.

Noticing the tension running high in the room, Adam intervenes. "Uh, guys? This is probably not a good time to fight," he says.

Douglas glances at him before addressing his brother again. "Maybe it's not such a bad thing that Krane has Leo after all."

"What?"

"At least he's where he's wanted," he finishes honestly.

Bree blinks back the surprise that his words bring and looks at him with knitted brows. "Why would you say something like that?" she asks.

"Okay, clearly, something is wrong with you," Donald declares. "And I don't like what you're implying."

"You may not like it, but it's the truth."

"How are you going to tell me that I don't want my own stepson?"

"Where were those new students when Krane was here? With you. Where was Leo when Krane was here? Out there. Who your priority was is very clear to me," he says. "So you don't have to tell me. I just have to look at the proof."

"Look, Douglas, it's not like that," Adam reasons with him after the argument leaves his father and sister speechless. "Leo wasn't locked out because we didn't care about him. He was there because of the accident."

"An accident, which could have been prevented," he responds. "You and Bree are the oldest, and it was your responsibility first to look after him. You didn't even try to defend him!"

"But he hurt other kids!" Bree responds. "And he hurt Chase! How can I defend him?"

"Did he do it on purpose?"

Bree's expressions soften. "No. He…"

"…was trying to defend himself," he fills in for her. "Because no one else would stick up for him."

Though he knows his argument is frail, Adam still halfheartedly reasons, "We can't show favoritism."

"It's not favoritism, Adam," he says. "It's just loyalty."

Donald shakes his head. "Don't pretend like the good guy here, Douglas, because all of us know you're not," he says.

"Maybe so." He looks at his brother straight in the eyes then says, "But at least I'm not the one pretending like I'm a father, and at least I'm not the one acting like I'm good at it."

Donald's face furrows in anger. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"First Chase, then Leo. You ran both of them away," he says firmly. "You're setting a track here for yourself, Donny, don't you think?"

"I didn't run any of them away. Chase ended up with you because of that avalanche, and Leo ended up with Krane because of that glitch. Those happened because of accidents."

"Those happened because your own kids started thinking they're not good enough! And you didn't do anything about it," he argues. Calmly, he adds, "If anything, this just shows that you're not ready for this much responsibility."

As his younger brother quickly moves things in the desk, transferring the search he had begun in his own tablet as well as some files, Donald asks grimly, "What are you doing."

"I'm going to find Leo. Then, I'm going to tell Tasha everything that happened, and I'll show her." He closes the files on the desk then shuts down his tablet. "Then I'll convince her to pull Leo out of the Academy and get him back to Mission Creek, where I will train him instead."

Donald glowers at him. "You're not going to do that," he says.

"Oh yeah?" He smirks defiantly. "Watch me." He then walks away, leaving the three behind to look at the results of their inactions and to dread the outcome his plan would lead all of them to.